It's a fair point, but I've been fairly surprised by Twitter. Just to be clear, I'm not generally a fan of social networking - I don't have a Facebook or Myspace page, and frankly believe that if people can't be bothered finding my email address or blog then I don't really want to hear from them.
Twitter seems to self-censor quite well though. I follow about 50 people, mostly geek types like Marcus Chown (cosmology author) and a few work related people. I get almost zero spam in my feed, in fact the only real spam is spammer following me to try and get me to reciprocate. I do, by clicking "report spam" and hearing no more...as TFA points out, these accounts were swiftly shut down by the users who presumably did just that.
I've actually found some very interesting people with Twitter, and very little spam, and I'm as surprised by that as anyone.
Decent AI is intensive in terms of both processor cycles and programming time. Conversely, representing a character (say, in B1943) only takes a few numbers: x/y/z coordinates and velocities, polar "look" coordinates and velocities, weapons held, and whether it's been fired. All the hard stuff is done by the (other) users and creates a game that is far more varied and "realistic" than any AI I've ever played against.
For games with a strong multiplayer angle, spending a fortune on the AI for the solo game isn't economically brilliant.
The point is, you don't have to pay for the Linux kernal, so it's not a commercial product, which (in my mind at least) means it isn't an advert. You have to pay for a Mac.
That said, it's a valid story, and it's been picked by a crowdsourced editing system in many ways, so it's all our fault. You and me, plus them.
Not entirely accurate - there was a spat between the band and the local council at the Glastonbury festival a few years back because the council were concerned that Stonehenge was more associated with Spinal Tap than it was with Stonehenge. In the end (as pointed out above) it was settled on the grounds that Spinal Tap's copyright is still in force while Stonehenge's had run out years ago.
Sorry, "the other company that developed everything"? Don't quite get what you mean there. MS developed "everything" branded as MS, they had nothing to do with *nix based systems. And yes, I could roll my own version of Linux and sell it for whatever I wanted.
Closed hardware? Custom *nix systems are very often embedded in custom chips to do very specific things, it's about as closed as you get.
Limited hardware, closed *nix system: Apple.
Varied hardware, open *nix system: Linux
Varied hardware, closed non-*nix system: MS
Them's the main choices, and nobody is forcing you to go for one or the other. Me, I can't afford Apple kit and I despise using Windows purely as a user (rather than any particular ethical/moral reason), so I go with Linux.
Thing is, even if we did we wouldn't see the effects for the best part of a million years. The reactions at the heart of the sun take a long time to make their way to the surface, what with there being lots of density and that. It's going to be a long running battle, it'd probably be quicker to evolve wide spectrum shielding skin...
If they find me not-being-on-facebook a nuisance then that's their problem, and to be honest I don't really want to hear from people who object that much. I've long since given up being irritated by them not using Linux, they'll get over it in much the same way....or more likely start asking me for advice on whatever the Next Big Thing is.
Or even better, use a brazil nut. It was a favourite trick of ours in the Scouts - a single brazil nut contains enough oil (read calories/joules) to fry an egg and a couple of rashers of bacon.
Alternatively, if you find one, call in the military. Funny device with wires, attached to your car? Phone the bomb disposal guys, phone all of the buildings in the surrounding area and advise them to evacuate, call the papers....then let the FBI explain themselves.
“You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?”
Pretty much sums it up, a standard UK police caution when detaining/arresting somebody.
The UK developed an air-to-ship missile during WWII that was (and I shit you not) pigeon guided.
Pigeons were shown silhouettes of German battleships and rewarded with food whenever they pecked on them. Then pigeons were mounted in the transparent nose of a glide missile. There was a glass panel in front of them connected to actuators, so if the ship was off to the left the pigeon would peck on the glass and the missile would turn left.
Absolute genius. I don't know if it was ever used in anger, but the theory is sound.
Loving the fact that you're showing up as a "Score: 0, Insightful"!
You're absolutely right, and it's all rather sad. We're talking about data at the end of the day, and as we're all aware it can work all ways. American Airlines' website is custom designed to produce data of use to "terrorists". As is the UK government website, Slashdot, CNN and Google.
All of them intentionally produce useful data from a huge set. This data can be used for terrorism. And booking flights, reading the news or finding things incidentally.
For those who don't know the Daily Mail, they're technically a UK newspaper but are frequently closer to Stewart/Colbert satire, if unintentionally. They basically use conservative outrage to push the paper, and usually promote "the enemy" in the process. There was an unofficial competition between various alcoholic drink manufacturers a few years back to see who could get the most publicity from the Daily Mail by producing a 40% ABV drink and subtly suggesting it was worse than .
That's actually a very interesting idea - how would you do it, set yourself up as a consultant and sell your advice on your other job to yourself at a fee equal to 100% of your own wages? How do you get around being taxed twice?
Forget the web design, the copy is the real problem. Have you actually read it? It's like Dilbert's pointy haired boss on coke. This is dreadful pre-computer, let alone post internet. I refuse to believe it's actually a real site, more like a front set up by a 4chan member to drive traffic at an advert based IP for a few hours. Simples.
More to the point, they're releasing the code and having it criticised by an enormous community. Of course we'll find faults, because the Diaspora team aren't perfect. Thing is, large commercial houses aren't perfect either, and they still roll imperfect software into a incomprehensible binary and release it to a public who will use it because it costs money, and is therefore perfect. See, for example, the fucktards at Facebook.
The Diaspora fucktards, on the other hand, are releasing the code to criticism. The code has now been criticised. Anyone running it has been warned. The next version will sink or swim depending on current criticism. This is a good thing.
(Please note, I'm only referring to the Diaspora bods as fucktards because they deserve to start at Facebook's level if we're going to compare things)
I've write "Linux system software products" for fun and provide "related services". Meaning I write little scripts and stuff and some of my friends try them out, and sometimes they ask me about them.
"I just wish that I could have paid less for the laptop without the Windows tax."
You often can - some retailers, big and small, have discounted systems when a customer requested it without an OS - anywhere between $20 and $100 from anecdotes. I got £25 (about $40) off a netbook recently. It still came with Windows sadly, but they gave me a little discount purely for having the cheek to ask, and a pro-linux attitude in the shop - they had a stack of Ubuntu live discs on the counter. Shy children don't get any sweeties;)
Slashdot Mirror
So would this have anything to do with the two multinational (Scotland, N.Ireland, Eire, England) broadband outages in the last week?
It's a fair point, but I've been fairly surprised by Twitter. Just to be clear, I'm not generally a fan of social networking - I don't have a Facebook or Myspace page, and frankly believe that if people can't be bothered finding my email address or blog then I don't really want to hear from them.
Twitter seems to self-censor quite well though. I follow about 50 people, mostly geek types like Marcus Chown (cosmology author) and a few work related people. I get almost zero spam in my feed, in fact the only real spam is spammer following me to try and get me to reciprocate. I do, by clicking "report spam" and hearing no more...as TFA points out, these accounts were swiftly shut down by the users who presumably did just that.
I've actually found some very interesting people with Twitter, and very little spam, and I'm as surprised by that as anyone.
Exactly.
Decent AI is intensive in terms of both processor cycles and programming time. Conversely, representing a character (say, in B1943) only takes a few numbers: x/y/z coordinates and velocities, polar "look" coordinates and velocities, weapons held, and whether it's been fired. All the hard stuff is done by the (other) users and creates a game that is far more varied and "realistic" than any AI I've ever played against.
For games with a strong multiplayer angle, spending a fortune on the AI for the solo game isn't economically brilliant.
The point is, you don't have to pay for the Linux kernal, so it's not a commercial product, which (in my mind at least) means it isn't an advert. You have to pay for a Mac.
That said, it's a valid story, and it's been picked by a crowdsourced editing system in many ways, so it's all our fault. You and me, plus them.
Not entirely accurate - there was a spat between the band and the local council at the Glastonbury festival a few years back because the council were concerned that Stonehenge was more associated with Spinal Tap than it was with Stonehenge. In the end (as pointed out above) it was settled on the grounds that Spinal Tap's copyright is still in force while Stonehenge's had run out years ago.
Sorry, "the other company that developed everything"? Don't quite get what you mean there. MS developed "everything" branded as MS, they had nothing to do with *nix based systems. And yes, I could roll my own version of Linux and sell it for whatever I wanted.
Closed hardware? Custom *nix systems are very often embedded in custom chips to do very specific things, it's about as closed as you get.
Limited hardware, closed *nix system: Apple.
Varied hardware, open *nix system: Linux
Varied hardware, closed non-*nix system: MS
Them's the main choices, and nobody is forcing you to go for one or the other. Me, I can't afford Apple kit and I despise using Windows purely as a user (rather than any particular ethical/moral reason), so I go with Linux.
Thing is, even if we did we wouldn't see the effects for the best part of a million years. The reactions at the heart of the sun take a long time to make their way to the surface, what with there being lots of density and that. It's going to be a long running battle, it'd probably be quicker to evolve wide spectrum shielding skin...
If they find me not-being-on-facebook a nuisance then that's their problem, and to be honest I don't really want to hear from people who object that much. I've long since given up being irritated by them not using Linux, they'll get over it in much the same way....or more likely start asking me for advice on whatever the Next Big Thing is.
Or even better, use a brazil nut. It was a favourite trick of ours in the Scouts - a single brazil nut contains enough oil (read calories/joules) to fry an egg and a couple of rashers of bacon.
Alternatively, if you find one, call in the military. Funny device with wires, attached to your car? Phone the bomb disposal guys, phone all of the buildings in the surrounding area and advise them to evacuate, call the papers....then let the FBI explain themselves.
Apparently Canon have just lost the entire town of Scunthorpe, UK.
Nice, but a real pity...I was really enjoying it up until:
...through the services of a world renowned channeler, the author has communicated with an ethereal group of entities known as the Transcendors... "
“You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?”
Pretty much sums it up, a standard UK police caution when detaining/arresting somebody.
However, if the initial account was set up in breach of an ISP or mail provider's terms and conditions then it's not really a valid account anyway?
Yup, my bad. I'm guessing I just presumed it was up there with most British war inventions ;)
Bit less than that my friend!
The UK developed an air-to-ship missile during WWII that was (and I shit you not) pigeon guided.
Pigeons were shown silhouettes of German battleships and rewarded with food whenever they pecked on them. Then pigeons were mounted in the transparent nose of a glide missile. There was a glass panel in front of them connected to actuators, so if the ship was off to the left the pigeon would peck on the glass and the missile would turn left.
Absolute genius. I don't know if it was ever used in anger, but the theory is sound.
Bah, my bad. Last line should have read "worse than [insert illegal drug of choice]". Must choose brackets better next time.
Loving the fact that you're showing up as a "Score: 0, Insightful"!
You're absolutely right, and it's all rather sad. We're talking about data at the end of the day, and as we're all aware it can work all ways. American Airlines' website is custom designed to produce data of use to "terrorists". As is the UK government website, Slashdot, CNN and Google.
All of them intentionally produce useful data from a huge set. This data can be used for terrorism. And booking flights, reading the news or finding things incidentally.
For those who don't know the Daily Mail, they're technically a UK newspaper but are frequently closer to Stewart/Colbert satire, if unintentionally. They basically use conservative outrage to push the paper, and usually promote "the enemy" in the process. There was an unofficial competition between various alcoholic drink manufacturers a few years back to see who could get the most publicity from the Daily Mail by producing a 40% ABV drink and subtly suggesting it was worse than .
That's actually a very interesting idea - how would you do it, set yourself up as a consultant and sell your advice on your other job to yourself at a fee equal to 100% of your own wages? How do you get around being taxed twice?
I will program my hardware however the hell I like. If you plan on getting in my way I simply won't buy your hardware.
Love, G
And a double positive makes a negative? Yeah, right.
Forget the web design, the copy is the real problem. Have you actually read it? It's like Dilbert's pointy haired boss on coke. This is dreadful pre-computer, let alone post internet. I refuse to believe it's actually a real site, more like a front set up by a 4chan member to drive traffic at an advert based IP for a few hours. Simples.
More to the point, they're releasing the code and having it criticised by an enormous community. Of course we'll find faults, because the Diaspora team aren't perfect. Thing is, large commercial houses aren't perfect either, and they still roll imperfect software into a incomprehensible binary and release it to a public who will use it because it costs money, and is therefore perfect. See, for example, the fucktards at Facebook.
The Diaspora fucktards, on the other hand, are releasing the code to criticism. The code has now been criticised. Anyone running it has been warned. The next version will sink or swim depending on current criticism. This is a good thing.
(Please note, I'm only referring to the Diaspora bods as fucktards because they deserve to start at Facebook's level if we're going to compare things)
I've write "Linux system software products" for fun and provide "related services". Meaning I write little scripts and stuff and some of my friends try them out, and sometimes they ask me about them.
Doesn't mean I own linux.
"I just wish that I could have paid less for the laptop without the Windows tax."
;)
You often can - some retailers, big and small, have discounted systems when a customer requested it without an OS - anywhere between $20 and $100 from anecdotes. I got £25 (about $40) off a netbook recently. It still came with Windows sadly, but they gave me a little discount purely for having the cheek to ask, and a pro-linux attitude in the shop - they had a stack of Ubuntu live discs on the counter. Shy children don't get any sweeties