"If standard model is verified there really isn't much more to be learned in high energy physics by bigger accelerators smaller than say half a million light-years in circumference."
As a curious layman, I have to ask what could be accomplished with an accelerator that big? That's a truly mind-boggling scale.
On these IP issues specifically, isn't it safe to assume that Microsoft has a master plan and playing chicken/bluffing like SCO did serves no long term purpose? And if that's the case, would they honestly enter the battle unarmed (i.e. patents don't have some teeth)?
Doesn't this issue strike at their very lifeblood? No matter how much distaste you feel for them (myself included), it's a serious, profitable company with lots of clever lawyers on the payroll and a penchant for solving problems with bags of money.
Comparing SCO and Microsoft, one could argue that SCO's purpose was always a focused, short-term goal. How the money got distributed/funneled is irrelevant. It was a bluff from the beginning designed to cash out for the interested parties.
But it seems obvious that Microsoft's goal is aimed at how they'll derive and expand future revenue to satisfy their shareholders (a long-term goal which the directors also benefit from). In both cases ultimately it all leads to the share price but comparing SCO to Microsoft appears to be like comparing a pink sheet to IBM.
So in summary, what arguments are there against thinking that Microsoft hasn't planned out every last move and contingency (including the ideas in your post)? Honestly, how many predicted something like the Novell agreement?
"Don't you think for a second that Microsoft is going to be trying their damned best to see that Linux on Dell machines gives people a bad taste for open source software."
True but why tickle somebody into submission when a ball peen hammer to the toes has a more immediate effect?
Microsoft to Dell: "You have our permission to sell Ubuntu machines but only as a ratio to Windows. So here's a the tiered discount schedule; make sure that no less than 100 Windows licenses get shipped for every Ubuntu machine or else you'll be paying $x more per unit."
They've done worse in the past and essentially got away with it. Why not keep using the force method? That would keep a cap on consumer Linux without waiting for the fruits of the "bad taste" to take hold.
Well, the upcoming sister-raping feature could qualify as "major".
Details: "The features are tested in the -mm tree, but be warned, it can crash your machine, eat your data (unlikely but not impossible) or rape your sister (just because it has never happened it doesn't means you're safe):"
But imho documentation isn't just formal man pages. Personally, I've finally stuck with Linux because of the community available today.
For specific things (e.g. driver issues), I've found myself increasingly using forums first then wikis, google second. It's amazing how good the distro forums have become because the community has become more tolerant to newb and intermediate users (well, Ubuntu in particular).
It seems that 90% of the time just searching the Ubuntu forums gives the answer I was looking for in the shortest amount of time. Also, it feels more like brainstorming with someone else which really helps the learning process. If the complete answer isn't there, then at least there are enough keyword clues in the posts to form a good google query and get into the heavy details. In the end there's almost always an answer available unlike the "old days" because the mass of the community has grown.
Having said all that, there are some wiki pages that are simply invaluable and quite a few of the good ones are for Ubuntu. Some authors do a great job laying out the steps and, most importantly, you definitely learn something along the way. Imho, ideally the wikis should be the end-all to good documentation. A well formed wiki should be tailored to both specific and general topics with a powerful search engine as the index.
As for switches and command usage, a couple O'Reilly books are always within reach. Sometimes it's just nice to thumb through a dead tree once in a while.
Well, the Federal Government says that they absolutely, positively are a monopolist. And they were convicted so it's a forgone conclusion whether they admit to it or not.
California settled a year or two (or three) ago. I got a nice shiny check for $78 dollars just for filling out a single form and mailing it in. Didn't require many details beyond the number of copies purchased.
So if there are any Iowans out there, warm up your pens. It's worth doing, not to mention very satisfying.
Probably none by legal definition. But based on the testimony given, it did nothing to raise the perception of the administration as anything but "scummy".
Win98's instability and lack of security made an upgrade to NT 5 much more appealing that an upgrade from WinXP to Vista.
That's a great point. Thinking back on the NT4 release, getting drivers (and applications) to work was truly a hassle because it really was new but there were actual benefits to upgrading. It was worth buying brand new Diamond Stealth cards (iirc) to get onto a true 32-bit OS. Others may have felt differently at the time but personally I didn't mind shelling out the bucks to do it.
At this stage of the game spending money to replace orphaned hardware and buy recompiled software to transition from XP->Vista is a showstopper. Solely because benefit isn't coming close to outweighing cost like it did in "the old days".
Why the hostility? Attaining a PE in any discipline requires documented proof of real world experience. Whether it gets rubber stamped by "some incompetent civil servant" doesn't matter.
For one, it shows a level of accountability when an engineer stamps a drawing. This is important when dealing with real world structures and systems that the general public's welfare depends on (i.e. life safety). Would you want it less stringent?
Whether it's worth much or not, much less exists right now in the world of software "engineering".
Interesting point. I used a unique email address for years with VMWare without a single piece of spam. After EMC bought them a few years ago, within a couple months it was getting hit with 2-3 pieces a day. Never gave it much thought beyond filtering it.
Which brings up the point, pure speculation but it would seem that valid lists are becoming more valuable. The public's general awareness to not leave their address lying around has probably hurt the scrapers to some degree. Along with the rise of sneakemail and other remailers. If a company is being bought out, nowadays it might be worth the risk to fob the mailing list and make a mortgage payment out of it.
Then again, there's probably enough supply from the address book hijackers based on the number of botted machines in existence. Just ask my three Windows-enabled neighbors; doesn't take long after I give them a (unique) address that there's stock spam showing up in my inbox.
Imo, here's something that Roomba (and others) needs to emphasize more in their marketing:
Parallel to your experience, we bought a Roomba to use on our prefinished hardwood floors. Unlike normal sanded/poly floors, there's a small groove on the edge of each board where dust collects in a hurry. Coupled with a short-haired dog running around, the small amount of vacuum works great for keeping the grooves clean while the sweeping mechanism takes care of the dog hair. After two years of use, the floors still look like they were just installed.
I always worried about using the unit on carpet due to the number of complaints about the unit's mechanics failing (because of the added stress). It's most likely unjustified at this point but haven't googled the issue in over a year. Sounds like your experience has gone well.
Oh, and it took about a week for the dog to become officially bored with it.
That will give AMD the opportunity to blow ahead as it did time and time again in the past.
That's assuming they'll have the cash and/or debt availability to do so; a large chunk went into the ATI acquisition. Their balance sheet reads worse now than any time in the past (imho) and the safety net of a private equity buyout is weak at best. Now that ATI is in the mix, it seems that competition in two segments is now at risk.
Point being that the underdog in a two horse race is always skating on thin ice. Let's hope that he doesn't hit a spot that's too thin this time.
I cancelled my 8-year old daughter's Toontown account this morning because she hadn't been playing for a while (at $9.95 a month). The cancellation went smoothly and we got to the point where they asked why we were cancelling.
I said because she's into the "penguin" site and just lost interest in Toontown. "Oh yeah, I've been hearing about the penguins quite a bit lately" was her answer. (i.e. clubpenguin mentioned in tfa)
Note that there was a lot of work put into her Toontown character. It's like WOW in that the character needs to be developed and leveled. However, my daughter and her classmates had no problem simply dumping their character and moving on en masse. The time investment is viewed differently at that age.
Before penguins, Webkinz was all the rage but it now also sits idle. It's a classic fad where there's a window of opportunity to grab the market but the finicky age demographic here makes it really brutal to keep them like WOW does. There are grownups I know that would literally cry if they lost their WOW account whereas these kids would just move on to the next thing without batting an eyelash.
On another topic, all of this was accomplished with a strict one-hour a day regimen, after homework and casual reading time, etc. Imho, the positive aspect is that they focus intently and stick to the tasks involved for an extended period of time (i.e. one sitting). The negative is that after a month of play, they don't reach an endgame where there's a complete sense of "getting the job done". But there's still a pretty good sense of accomplishment along the way (for what you could expect in this age range).
Slashdot Mirror
"If standard model is verified there really isn't much more to be learned in high energy physics by bigger accelerators smaller than say half a million light-years in circumference."
As a curious layman, I have to ask what could be accomplished with an accelerator that big? That's a truly mind-boggling scale.
Here are some devil's advocate questions.
On these IP issues specifically, isn't it safe to assume that Microsoft has a master plan and playing chicken/bluffing like SCO did serves no long term purpose? And if that's the case, would they honestly enter the battle unarmed (i.e. patents don't have some teeth)?
Doesn't this issue strike at their very lifeblood? No matter how much distaste you feel for them (myself included), it's a serious, profitable company with lots of clever lawyers on the payroll and a penchant for solving problems with bags of money.
Comparing SCO and Microsoft, one could argue that SCO's purpose was always a focused, short-term goal. How the money got distributed/funneled is irrelevant. It was a bluff from the beginning designed to cash out for the interested parties.
But it seems obvious that Microsoft's goal is aimed at how they'll derive and expand future revenue to satisfy their shareholders (a long-term goal which the directors also benefit from). In both cases ultimately it all leads to the share price but comparing SCO to Microsoft appears to be like comparing a pink sheet to IBM.
So in summary, what arguments are there against thinking that Microsoft hasn't planned out every last move and contingency (including the ideas in your post)? Honestly, how many predicted something like the Novell agreement?
"Don't you think for a second that Microsoft is going to be trying their damned best to see that Linux on Dell machines gives people a bad taste for open source software."
True but why tickle somebody into submission when a ball peen hammer to the toes has a more immediate effect?
Microsoft to Dell: "You have our permission to sell Ubuntu machines but only as a ratio to Windows. So here's a the tiered discount schedule; make sure that no less than 100 Windows licenses get shipped for every Ubuntu machine or else you'll be paying $x more per unit."
They've done worse in the past and essentially got away with it. Why not keep using the force method? That would keep a cap on consumer Linux without waiting for the fruits of the "bad taste" to take hold.
Well, the upcoming sister-raping feature could qualify as "major".
Details:
"The features are tested in the -mm tree, but be warned, it can crash your machine, eat your data (unlikely but not impossible) or rape your sister (just because it has never happened it doesn't means you're safe):"
But imho documentation isn't just formal man pages. Personally, I've finally stuck with Linux because of the community available today.
For specific things (e.g. driver issues), I've found myself increasingly using forums first then wikis, google second. It's amazing how good the distro forums have become because the community has become more tolerant to newb and intermediate users (well, Ubuntu in particular).
It seems that 90% of the time just searching the Ubuntu forums gives the answer I was looking for in the shortest amount of time. Also, it feels more like brainstorming with someone else which really helps the learning process. If the complete answer isn't there, then at least there are enough keyword clues in the posts to form a good google query and get into the heavy details. In the end there's almost always an answer available unlike the "old days" because the mass of the community has grown.
Having said all that, there are some wiki pages that are simply invaluable and quite a few of the good ones are for Ubuntu. Some authors do a great job laying out the steps and, most importantly, you definitely learn something along the way. Imho, ideally the wikis should be the end-all to good documentation. A well formed wiki should be tailored to both specific and general topics with a powerful search engine as the index.
As for switches and command usage, a couple O'Reilly books are always within reach. Sometimes it's just nice to thumb through a dead tree once in a while.
There's an interesting thesis that correlates with this issue. If I may quote DeToqueville, "...the divisions which once severed mankind
Whoa...you get laid every night?
Well, the Federal Government says that they absolutely, positively are a monopolist. And they were convicted so it's a forgone conclusion whether they admit to it or not.
California settled a year or two (or three) ago. I got a nice shiny check for $78 dollars just for filling out a single form and mailing it in. Didn't require many details beyond the number of copies purchased.
So if there are any Iowans out there, warm up your pens. It's worth doing, not to mention very satisfying.
Perhaps we need a "think more" button next to the "preview" button.
What and ruin slashdot? Heathen.
Where's the corruption in this?
Probably none by legal definition. But based on the testimony given, it did nothing to raise the perception of the administration as anything but "scummy".
Win98's instability and lack of security made an upgrade to NT 5 much more appealing that an upgrade from WinXP to Vista.
That's a great point. Thinking back on the NT4 release, getting drivers (and applications) to work was truly a hassle because it really was new but there were actual benefits to upgrading. It was worth buying brand new Diamond Stealth cards (iirc) to get onto a true 32-bit OS. Others may have felt differently at the time but personally I didn't mind shelling out the bucks to do it.
At this stage of the game spending money to replace orphaned hardware and buy recompiled software to transition from XP->Vista is a showstopper. Solely because benefit isn't coming close to outweighing cost like it did in "the old days".
400 mi/hr = 400 * (5280/3600) ft/sec = 586 ft/sec = 0.11 mi/sec
Since they're not listed in your post, I guess we can assume that Microsoft is below that 0.8% cutoff point.
Knowing the RIAA constituents, your comment should be modded "+1 Yeah, they'd probably try that".
Not only that but they innovated the idea before Edison ever did !!.
Why the hostility? Attaining a PE in any discipline requires documented proof of real world experience. Whether it gets rubber stamped by "some incompetent civil servant" doesn't matter.
For one, it shows a level of accountability when an engineer stamps a drawing. This is important when dealing with real world structures and systems that the general public's welfare depends on (i.e. life safety). Would you want it less stringent?
Whether it's worth much or not, much less exists right now in the world of software "engineering".
Interesting point. I used a unique email address for years with VMWare without a single piece of spam. After EMC bought them a few years ago, within a couple months it was getting hit with 2-3 pieces a day. Never gave it much thought beyond filtering it.
Which brings up the point, pure speculation but it would seem that valid lists are becoming more valuable. The public's general awareness to not leave their address lying around has probably hurt the scrapers to some degree. Along with the rise of sneakemail and other remailers. If a company is being bought out, nowadays it might be worth the risk to fob the mailing list and make a mortgage payment out of it.
Then again, there's probably enough supply from the address book hijackers based on the number of botted machines in existence. Just ask my three Windows-enabled neighbors; doesn't take long after I give them a (unique) address that there's stock spam showing up in my inbox.
Imo, here's something that Roomba (and others) needs to emphasize more in their marketing:
Parallel to your experience, we bought a Roomba to use on our prefinished hardwood floors. Unlike normal sanded/poly floors, there's a small groove on the edge of each board where dust collects in a hurry. Coupled with a short-haired dog running around, the small amount of vacuum works great for keeping the grooves clean while the sweeping mechanism takes care of the dog hair. After two years of use, the floors still look like they were just installed.
I always worried about using the unit on carpet due to the number of complaints about the unit's mechanics failing (because of the added stress). It's most likely unjustified at this point but haven't googled the issue in over a year. Sounds like your experience has gone well.
Oh, and it took about a week for the dog to become officially bored with it.
That will give AMD the opportunity to blow ahead as it did time and time again in the past.
That's assuming they'll have the cash and/or debt availability to do so; a large chunk went into the ATI acquisition. Their balance sheet reads worse now than any time in the past (imho) and the safety net of a private equity buyout is weak at best. Now that ATI is in the mix, it seems that competition in two segments is now at risk.
Point being that the underdog in a two horse race is always skating on thin ice. Let's hope that he doesn't hit a spot that's too thin this time.
I cancelled my 8-year old daughter's Toontown account this morning because she hadn't been playing for a while (at $9.95 a month). The cancellation went smoothly and we got to the point where they asked why we were cancelling.
I said because she's into the "penguin" site and just lost interest in Toontown. "Oh yeah, I've been hearing about the penguins quite a bit lately" was her answer. (i.e. clubpenguin mentioned in tfa)
Note that there was a lot of work put into her Toontown character. It's like WOW in that the character needs to be developed and leveled. However, my daughter and her classmates had no problem simply dumping their character and moving on en masse. The time investment is viewed differently at that age.
Before penguins, Webkinz was all the rage but it now also sits idle. It's a classic fad where there's a window of opportunity to grab the market but the finicky age demographic here makes it really brutal to keep them like WOW does. There are grownups I know that would literally cry if they lost their WOW account whereas these kids would just move on to the next thing without batting an eyelash.
On another topic, all of this was accomplished with a strict one-hour a day regimen, after homework and casual reading time, etc. Imho, the positive aspect is that they focus intently and stick to the tasks involved for an extended period of time (i.e. one sitting). The negative is that after a month of play, they don't reach an endgame where there's a complete sense of "getting the job done". But there's still a pretty good sense of accomplishment along the way (for what you could expect in this age range).
Fwiw, you can optimize that further by using Opera and the "/." address bar shortcut to eliminate keystrokes.
My "-2ND P5OT LOoSERs!" posts regularly beat out the rookie -1 fristpsotters with this trick.
With your fit so tight
My bloody knuckles curse you
Die molex die die
or a toaster that needs C statements to process bread?
Wouldn't be so bad, just use a bakefile.
Vista WGA:
1. Cancel
2. Allow
3. Ultimate Power
Agreed, especially because on Slashdot you can ask a legal question and get advice from non-lawyers.
Try doing that with Askville!
Shouldn't we care more about saving the earth than about the huge hit we're going to take to our standard of living?
Obviously if we don't invest in doing the first, the second will be much worse off in the future.
Sorry, in real life sometimes things aren't as warm and fuzzy as mom's basement.