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User: Jovian

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Comments · 43

  1. Re:Now what? on US Starts Attacking Afghanistan · · Score: 1
    Hmmm. From another post,


    To quote the DOD definition, terrorism is "the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to [cause] fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological... In other words, terrorism is a psychological act conducted for its impact on an audience."


    So, using violence to "send a message", as you said, is terrorism, by the definition penned by those purpetrating this current round of violence.

  2. hmmmmm on Ununoctium Discovery a Mistake · · Score: 1
    I looked at your web page, and you made the statement that "the equation for velocity along the time axis would have to be v = dt/dt which is, of course, meaningless as far as motion is concerned." (dt/dt=1, clearly), and "We know that a dimensionless number such as 1 has absolutely no meaning in as far as expressing velocity or any sort of change."

    It should be noted that all of your arguments are perfectly sound when applied to euclidean geometry as well, just so long as you include time as part of your position marker - and there's no reason that you shouldn't. I'm somewhat confused by this whole thing: what part of relativity are you complaining about?

    Another gem: "'changing time' is self-referential." Well, we change relative to time, yeah? So, using ourselves as a metric, time changes relative to us. Or, to attack this another way, you say time is static... because'changing time' is self-referential Well, if it's static, then it doesn't change over time, which, according to you, causes the same problem.

    A couple of flaws in logic, I think. Feel free to disprove these points, but I really don't see what your worries about a grand physics conspiracy are caused by. You've got to ask yourself "why would they bother?"

  3. Higgs exist? Place your bets here.... on Ununoctium Discovery a Mistake · · Score: 2
    From Physics Web:

    Tully and co-workers have combined the data from the four experiments at LEP and found evidence that the Higgs boson has a mass of 114.9 GeV c-2. 'It is a 2.6 sigma effect,' he told PhysicsWeb, 'so there's still a 6 in 1000 chance that what we are seeing are background events, rather than the Higgs.'

    The international physics community gives its golden stamp of approval for the existence of a particle is, I believe, 1 in 10 000, and the LEP at CERN would probably have been able to get that accuracy within a year or two had it not been dismantled for something even bigger.

  4. Re:This is a clear violation of the DMCA on Are The Digits of Pi Random? · · Score: 1
    Your point 4 is valid, assuming that you restrict it to sequences of finite length. (You would be hard pressed to find an infinite sequence where all of the terms past the Nth term all have the value 4 in an irrational number, if y'know what I mean. :)

    This assumption is valid since you're dealing with copyright materials which are not infinite in length. Mind you, you never know about the source code for windows XP 2005 - when the source code becomes infinitely long, it, most likely, will not be found as a subsequence of pi. Never underestimate the power of MS code bloat!

  5. Bob Cringely's solution on CAIDA Released Code-Red Worm Post Mortem · · Score: 1
    is a magical software company known as MessageLabs. He plans to have them scan all of your email before you get it, and check for virii. Sounds simple enough, ya?

    Also, from the article, MessageLabs even has an intelligent scanner that can look at an image and recognize the difference between baby pictures and Debbie doing Dallas. Now this sounds kind of suspicious. Does anyone have any actual konwledge of what they can do? This Cringley guy sounds like he's just quoting MessageLabs' press release....

  6. Re:Should have open sourced it... on Code Red Worm Spreading, Set To Flood Whitehouse · · Score: 1
    >You know that if this worm had been open sourced, that mistake would have been caught, and this would be an even better epidemic

    Ahem.

    It is now open source. Though it doesn't seem to be gpled yet, I'm most certain that the author was merely meaning to get around to it any day now.

    So what's this to you? Well, instead of merely complaining about it, you can help! I'm sure someone here can update it to check dns, and, heck, maybe even set different targets! ;]

    Hmmm. Maybe I should be posting this anonymously. What if....
    Nah. No one on /. is crazy enough to do redesign this worm to point at someone they don't like.

    Are they?

  7. imperial-metric and NASA on Space Stations That Suck · · Score: 1
    >Some American-made gadgets wouldn't fit Russian plugs

    Well, this might have to do with the fact that there are two standard bolt sizes up there - the metric one which just about everybody uses, and the imperial one from the US.

    You think that NASA could just, y'know, go metric, for all the trouble it's caused them.

  8. Did they even play video games? on Gaming Companies Being Sued Over Columbine · · Score: 1
    Seriously - I can't find any reference in the article to what games the two actually played, or what music they listened to. Does anybody actually know?

    I mean, it's become fashionable as of late, but they can't be shooting from the hip that badly, can they?

  9. Russian space engineers rock on Mir: Rest in Pieces · · Score: 1
    The USSR (now Russian) space program was just kick-ass. I mean, they took the first pictures of the dark side of the moon using an auto-developer and a scanner. Check it out at the apod Digital cameras didn't work too well back then.

    I believe that the last mig fighters were made out of steel, and ran with some transistor tubes. And they worked better than whatever NATO had to put out.

    Then again, maybe I'm just a fan this kind of engineering approach. At any rate, I'm going to have to organize a wake or something for mir1. I'm kind of a fan.

  10. Well, it's official... on "The Sims" To Have Its Own TV Series? · · Score: 1
    Slashdot doesn't even want women to read the site anymore.

    How do you get off putting that kind of stuff in the headline for crying out loud? Seriously; if we want women (particularly inteligent ones) to read this site and participate in the community (slashdot or the tech world - take you pick) then you should try and see things from another perspective before you post such stuff.

  11. How about Laissez-Faire monopoly? on Correlations Between Video Games And Academic Achievement? · · Score: 1
    This is just a silly name for a game that my pals and I came up with.

    The only rule is that if you're caught, you have to pay whatever you took back, and put an equivalent amount of money into the free parking. As you can imagine, it makes for a riveting game, and should be quite applicable to a large-scale business model. :)

    Oh, and speaking of games and marks, I really should be studying for the exam that I have in, oh, 50 mintues. Oy me.

  12. Re:Slashdot Team on Junkyard Wars Needs A Few Good Contestants · · Score: 1
    I once saw a team of British nuclear technicians compete, and, well, they made a brilliant device that completely fell apart in the first 5 seconds of the match.

    I would be kind of worried what our uber-geek devices would do when set out into the real world. :)

  13. Re:Enough Already! on Up, Up, Down, Down: Part Three · · Score: 2
    Amen to that. I'm very curious to see what sources he used to get these figures (ie, what evidence does he have that "gamers are often independent, strategic-thinkers and problem solvers" more so than the rest of the population).

    Does anyone else think that it's high time that /. got an actual journalist on staff? Just because you can hack the slashdot code doesn't mean that you should be editting articles. Or adding your own bit of bias to every banner headline.

  14. Re:By Jove!! on Jupiter As From Cassini · · Score: 2

    No, but they have proved that there is metallic hydrogen there, which I think is much cooler anyways. You can find the article over at Scientific American. I'm not sure when the result was published, but it is within a year and a half. Very neat quantum effects start happening with hydrogen when you get hydrogen under a couple of kilo-atmospheres.

  15. Re:National Historical Site? Are you mad? on Lunar Landing Historical Site? · · Score: 1

    The moon really isn't part of the US. Shouldn't this sort of thing be handled by the UN? They could make it a UN world heritage site, and you wouldn't have to worry about people fighting over the moon.

  16. From the article... on Sandia's Distributed Anti-Cracking Bot · · Score: 1
    Talk to My Agent In time the agents may graduate from patrol to control. Intelligent agents would be ideal for the control of interplanetary robot swarm missions while at the same time protecting them from long distance hackers or practical jokers. Closer to home micro-satellite swarms or perhaps even remote-controlled jet fighters could be computer-coordinated with agent assistance.

    This sounds like a really clever idea. Until they started talking about remote-controlled jet fighters. No one can be taken seriously after they start talking about remote-controlled jet fighters being piloted by autonomous swarms of autonomous programs. :)

  17. Re:Volcano's sustain life on Io Has Geysers, Lakes And Snow · · Score: 1

    I stand corrected. Cool.

  18. Re:Volcano's sustain life on Io Has Geysers, Lakes And Snow · · Score: 2
    ok, IANAG (I am not a geologist), but isn't the core of the earth hot simply because the surface is the only heat sink for the planet, and thus cooled faster? As far as I can recall, earth used to be really hot (a notion which has been repeated in some other posts), and it cooled. The core, being insulated, cooled slowly, while the surface hardened and became nice and temperate.

    I don't think that radioactivity has any part to play in the matter. Besides, wouldn't that amount of radioactivity (enough to melt iron) be life-threatening? And I've never heard anything about the radioactive hazards of lava spills. I don't think that your theory holds up.

  19. Sing it, brother on Gun Sales Halted By FBI Computer Glitch · · Score: 1

    or sister, or whatever you wish to be called. 8D

  20. Re:Bingo. The reason DC etc. aren't safe is that.. on Gun Sales Halted By FBI Computer Glitch · · Score: 1

    No all anti-gun people are also anti-drug. Check your assumptions before you start accusing people.

  21. Re:Bingo. The reason DC etc. aren't safe is that.. on Gun Sales Halted By FBI Computer Glitch · · Score: 1

    It _could_ be that there are a lot of guns floating around from legal gun sales which are later stolen, or whatever, producing a thriving black market. Now, the question is, if guns weren't produced in the us, do you really think that there would be a huge underworld gun-manufacturing cartel? Even to the point of hiring some of the world's top mechanical engineers to produce guns that won't blow up in your face?

  22. communism != fascism on Showdown With The Pinkertons · · Score: 1
    although it can be practiced like it. Remember, communism is supposed to be a classless system, and, well, Stalin didn't really practice that, now did he. Sorry if this looks ot, but it is a direct reaction to Katz's article.

    So before you start grouping nazism, fascism, apartheid and communism all together, look at the philosophies surrounding each. Communists have no particular reason to get children to anonymously turn in social deviants, but then again, communism isn't often practiced around here.

    Coincidentally, the Globe and Mail had a page 3 story today on why 80% of the world's population (or at least their leaders) really don't like capitalism, so it appears that their are two sides. (Can you guess the demographics of that 80%? If so, you win a free meal !

  23. Re:Easy to protest! on Geek Profiling: The Next W.A.V.E. · · Score: 1

    Yes! Please, moderate this up. Also, report the Pinkerton Corporation! I just did, and it was lots of fun.

  24. REPORT THE PINKERTON CORPORATION! on Slashdot Meets The Pinkerton Corp. · · Score: 1

    This wave program has as it's goal to rid Amerika of dangerous and harmful influences to the people of Amerika, right? Can anyone name a bigger threat than the Pinkerton corporation itself? 8D Report Pinkerton corp. to Pinkerton corp! This is what they want, and, yes, they're right, people should know about this! Take back our schools! THEY ARE YOURS AND MINE!! They're for students: all fo them, not just the ones we like, and not just the ones that the "experts on humanity" of psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and private corporations think should be there.

  25. I HAVE THE SOLUTION!! on Geek Profiling: The Next W.A.V.E. · · Score: 1
    This wave program has as it's goal to rid Amerika of dangerous and harmful influences to the people of Amerika, right?

    Can anyone name a bigger threat than the Pinkerton corporation itself? 8D

    Report Pinkerton corp. to Pinkerton corp! This is what they want, and, yes, they're right, people should know about this!

    Take back our schools! THEY ARE YOURS AND MINE!! They're for students: all fo them, not just the ones we like, and not just the ones that the "experts on humanity" of psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and private corporations think should be there.