I haven't read it, but I read the authors LiveJournal, he's a smart guy who knows his stuff, and if I was even planning a 4 hour lan party for just half a dozen friends I'd go out and buy it on strength of his name alone.
COBOL actually has a place... What I can do in 200 lines of COBOL to run through and process business data would take 2000 in Java or C++... its absolutely insane. COBOL has some good features, its switch implementation is just incredibly cool.
The lack of local variables and the necessity to define exact sizes of all variables along with type is a pain... But on the other hand, that explicit declaration can help in data validation. A product code thats 3 letters, 3 numbers? AAA999 as your picture clause, and the system simply will not accept anything else, and you dont' have to write any validation code to enforce that. I'd still kill to get local variables however. But when I do cobol, I mark the globals pretending to be locals with a comment for what routine they go with so I know to not use them elsewhere. Would be useful to actually have them in the routine, but meh...
Perhaps some sort of twist on this system... the library sets up, say, half a dozen filtering categories, they have a fairly strict default, and to get authorized at a different level, the kid needs a parent to sign off on it. That would keep the morons who can't be bothered to watch their kids yet get pissed when their kids see something they don't like happy, and parents who are less strict can have the library give their kids a more liberal setting. That might be a better balance than a strict age based system.
Steal/borrow an older students device, they are in.
If this was integrated with a fingerprint scanner so the devices can only be activated by the owner, that might make it marginally difficult for the average kid to defeat the system. Granted, you could still get someone to activate their thing for you, but most kids don't have friends that will risk getting in trouble like that who are sufficiently older them to make a difference.
This is, however, marginally useful even as-is to keep people from accidentally stumbling on something, and it allows for tailoring for different age levels. Say a public library integrates a system like this with their filtering, an 8 year old could hang out on nickelodeons website, a teenager could research academic articles about sexuality for a school report, an adult could have the filter disabled completely. Rather than one size fits all filtering, this would be an easy way to set up different levels of filtering- maybe not easy to set up initially, but really easy in day to day use. You wouldn't even need to have any sort of user accounts or sysadmin intervention, just plug the thing in and the filtering software autodetects the age recorded on the device and adjusts its filtering level appropriately.
Laptops are built for low power, its a vital part of making the machines practical. In addition, they have a battery, so you don't need to put it on an UPS.
For a light duty server, laptops are well suited and often overlooked.
Pitch control and cue points. Add those two features, and apple will find a large market of DJs that will buy them. Hell, I'd put off upgrading my mixer if Apple added those two features. I'd have a good portable music player for the bus and whatnot, and a small device I can hook up to my mixer so I can use digital music files, stuff I rip off CD or my own productions that I can't afford to press to vinyl in my sets. And it would open up a large amount of music, especially futurepop, that is disgustingly difficult to find in any quantity on vinyl.
One thing I'd say regarding showing people your guns...
If you have kids and guns, show your kids your guns. Children are naturally curious about anything as dramatic as a gun, it makes a lot of noise and they see them on TV and movies constantly. You want to absolutely ensure that their curiosity is satisfied under strict supervision by someone you trust with their lives. If you don't have guns, you should find a gun owner that you trust to teach them a bit about them, and failing that find a gun safety course in the area to enroll your kids in. You don't want little Johnny to satisfy his curiosity when he finds a loaded gun in a kitchen cabinet at Dennis's house.
That tactic paid off for my dad when the one time he ever forgot to keep track of any of his guns, he left it in the bathroom and when I went in to pee, I saw it, and turned right around to tell him that he left his gun there. There was never any real risk, because he taught all of us kids gun safety since before we were even able to pull the trigger. We knew how dangerous they were and how to mitigate those dangers. Any time we had curiosity, as soon as he had the time he would bring us down to his gun safe, open it up and teach us a bit.
I don't currently have any guns or kids, but when I do, if I have both at the same time I'm definitely following my fathers example in how to mix the two without problems.
Re:Go for the obvious: dog, gun, gun safety course
on
Home Defense, Geek Style?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Agreed.
I'm very pro gun, but its not something to be taken lightly. Guns were designed to kill, and they are incredibly good at that. While in the right hands they can be very safe, they have a great deal of power that if you do not respect will bite you in the ass.
To expand on this, while its unlikely you will have to fire, you might. So spend time on the shooting range. Also, take some classes or read some articles about home defense with a gun. It is quite possible you will end up firing at a friendly if you are too quick to react. Or end up getting shot yourself if you are too slow to react.
A gun is a very powerful deterrent and an effective last line of defense, but it is also very risky and can lead to death of people close to you or legal charges against you for excessive force, it is not something to take lightly. Do lots of research into home defense techniques and various types of weapons to determine if a gun is an appropriate option for your situation, and if so what type of gun is best for you. And make sure to know and respect the basic rules of gun safety, and any special rules that happen to apply to the specific weapon you are using.
Oh, and don't forget, if the gun is out of arms reach have it locked up securely. The VAST majority of accidental shooting deaths I read about can be traced back to some moron leaving a loaded gun where a kid could get to it without supervision. It is ridiculously easy to secure a firearm so that kids can't use it without supervision, so go ahead and do so.
To prevent people from breaking into my car, i leave it unlocked, and make sure nothing of value is left inside. Unless you have unbreakable windows locking the doors is only going to get you a broken window if someone really wants to get in and look around
The real value of locks isn't in preventing theft, its in either slowing the perp down, or in forcing the perp to use a more noticeable method of getting in. Ideally the perp won't be willing to take the time or make the noise needed for fear of getting caught, but even if they are, having the door locked will give at least a slightly better chance that someone will notice and react in time to stop them.
If its legal where she is, and she can safely handle one, consider a gun. Its a last resort option(obviously) but when all else fails, even showing a gun can often deter someone. There are plenty of articles out there on home defense with a gun, so look it up to select a good weapon for her and to get her in the proper mindset to make the right call when she has to decide "shoot or don't shoot?". This is probably the most powerful option, but also the most dangerous if you screw it up(both to your health and legally), so do some serious research before going for it.
Getting a large, or at least loud, dog can be very useful. Something that will bark loudly and incessantly if someone tries to break in, and will fight to defend the property. Be careful here too- the line between a dog that will fight to defend their master and a dog that will fight just because can be very thin, make sure you go to a reputable breeder and trainer if you want a dog that does more than make noise. But as with a gun, the mere presence can be a deterrent. Think about it, you start crowbarring a door and all of the sudden you hear loud, aggressive barking on the other side- all surprise is gone and you might have an animal on the other side ready to kill you. Most criminals will bail at that moment, to seek out an easier and safer(for them) victim.
For alarms, don't use the default alarm tone. 9 times out of 10 if I hear it I ignore it, because its so damn common and most of the time its only going off because it was set too sensitive. Choose something out of the ordinary. Machine guns, explosions, screams, something that does not sound like a typical car alarm. It will startle the perp a bit more(being unexpected) and it will be more likely that a passerby will notice and glance over to see whats going on. Also, don't have it too sensitive, if the neighbors know your alarm will go off in a mild wind they won't do anything when it happens. Going to the previous selection, if you can get an alarm that will trigger a realistic recording of a dog barking and growling like its ready to kill, you can get the detterrent(though not the defensive) effect of a guard dog without the cost.
Cameras placed in spots a perp will see when casing the place or running an impulse attack can also be a deterrent. They don't have to be hooked up to have deterrent value, or even be real cameras- a decent looking mockup will still be a deterrent. Of course a real camera that is hooked up can gather evidence in case they fail to deter the perp.
Locks are an obvious one- while they won't stop a determined criminal, they will slow him down and require he make more noise on coming in. Any lock that is not working properly should be replaced immediately, and you might want to consider upgrading really old locks even if they are working right, they might not be as secure as newer models.
I'd bet a months GI Bill that the intelligence community knew of this no more than a couple hours after it happened(if not minutes).
IF you recall a few years ago when a North Korean minisub was caught in a South Korean fishing net, I cant' tell you exactly how much sooner we knew about it, but it was several days before civilian media ran the story.
When I wish I either still had access to intelligence reports, or never did.
I don't have access to current reports, meaning I can't satisfy my curiosity about this days or weeks before the rest of you can, but having had access to reports in the past I can't throw in my two cents really without worry of inadvertantly saying something that can land me in prison.
"Based on the available evidence (rather than hearsay) it most likely that the round was over a decade old. "
My personal opinion, what I would have reported to my CO if I was still an Intelligence Analyst(which I was for several years in the Marines), would have been that said shell was most likely battlefield debris left over from the Iran-Iraq war or the Gulf War I. There probably are quite a few chemical and biological weapons that Iraq simply lost during the Iran-Iraq war that are still waiting for someone to randomly run across. Interesting to note, the reports shortly after it said that it was set up to optimize explosive damage, and even if it was a brand new munition, the gas would have done very little damage because of how it was set up. That shows whoever set it up thought it was an HE round.
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous 41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton 70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding 83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King 84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 88. Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford 96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Adittionally, part of what the Nazis did was censorship of books and such... So Nazi comparisons are sufficiently on topic that I would call any Godwins Law issues irrelevant.
Sure it lists the books. But it would be much more useful if each book title was linked to a short article explaining some of the reasons that book is being challenged.
Incidentally, there are a few books there I somewhat agree with not being in public schools... Madonna "Sex" and that other book "New Joy of Gay Sex" don't really have much of a place in a school library. Public community libraries, well, that I don't see a problem with having any book...
But, give them some credit. Libraries do not have unlimited funds or shelf space. They can't just throw a book into their collection just because it was released. And some books are in such high demand that they need multiple copies, further reducing space and funds. This is the main reason I don't find the list very useful without explanation- how are we to know if the book is being censored, or the demand isn't high enough to justify the resources needed to stock the book?
That said, if a sizable portion of the community wants Harry Potter, or Sex to be in the library, and they refuse on some moral grounds or whatnot, that is wrong.
It would also be useful to see in the explanatory notes I'd like to see, whether it was the libraries themselves denying the book, or someone above their heads that says "You will not stock this book no matter what".
Another side note, several of those books I borrowed from the school library to read for fun, and several others(Go Ask Alice, Lord of the Flies, and others) were required reading.
Read the Art of War. Sun Tzu made clear many times that war is the option of last resort, and when it is resorted to, to get the job done as quickly as possible and with the absolute minimum amount of destruction that will accomplish the mission.
ACtually, Boy Scouts were created by a military officer to adapt some actual military practices to something appropriate to raising boys into good men.
Read up on the history of when it got started, it was all after Lord Baden-Powell's book on military scouting became popular with teenage boys that he took it and adapted it to be more appropriate to that audience. The origin of the Boy Scouts is absolutely from the military.
Actually, he eventually was allowed to carry it once the issue got raised high enough in the chain of command for someone to know what they were looking at.
True, live fire exercises are still needed, but with the games, they will get the basic tactics down, and live fire can focus on doing it without shooting your buddies.
If the games were to replace traditional field exercises and live fire exercises, that would be dramatically bad. But as a supplement, they have the potential to improve military traing a great deal, and save a ton of money in the process- money that can be used to fund end strength improvements, better weapons, more training, more aircraft, more spare parts for existing aircraft, or even funneled to non-defense programs.
I'm certainly in favor of something with the potential to improve the effectiveness of our military while saving money at the same time. The better our military is, the faster it will win wars- meaning less death and destruction on both sides, making it much easier to secure a more stable peace post-war. The cheaper it is, well, it should be obvious why thats a good thing.
The point of the games is to teach tactics and teamwork. They aren't attempting to simulate the full reality of military life(haven't heard of any head cleaning games), but the can and do give a good exercise in basic tactics and teamwork in a system that the trainees can get into easily, and at far lower cost than a traditional exercise. That leaves the rest of the training budget to go to preparing for the rough realities of combat, rather than spending thousands just to teach them when to drop and have a firefight with an ambush party and when to just charge headlong into them.
I agree they cannot teach everything about combat, but video games are well suited to teaching tactics and teamwork.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 243BVY/qid=1096512783/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl 14/103-8075853-4244637?v=glance&s=books&n=5078 46
I haven't read it, but I read the authors LiveJournal, he's a smart guy who knows his stuff, and if I was even planning a 4 hour lan party for just half a dozen friends I'd go out and buy it on strength of his name alone.
COBOL actually has a place... What I can do in 200 lines of COBOL to run through and process business data would take 2000 in Java or C++... its absolutely insane. COBOL has some good features, its switch implementation is just incredibly cool.
The lack of local variables and the necessity to define exact sizes of all variables along with type is a pain... But on the other hand, that explicit declaration can help in data validation. A product code thats 3 letters, 3 numbers? AAA999 as your picture clause, and the system simply will not accept anything else, and you dont' have to write any validation code to enforce that. I'd still kill to get local variables however. But when I do cobol, I mark the globals pretending to be locals with a comment for what routine they go with so I know to not use them elsewhere. Would be useful to actually have them in the routine, but meh...
Perhaps some sort of twist on this system... the library sets up, say, half a dozen filtering categories, they have a fairly strict default, and to get authorized at a different level, the kid needs a parent to sign off on it. That would keep the morons who can't be bothered to watch their kids yet get pissed when their kids see something they don't like happy, and parents who are less strict can have the library give their kids a more liberal setting. That might be a better balance than a strict age based system.
Steal/borrow an older students device, they are in.
If this was integrated with a fingerprint scanner so the devices can only be activated by the owner, that might make it marginally difficult for the average kid to defeat the system. Granted, you could still get someone to activate their thing for you, but most kids don't have friends that will risk getting in trouble like that who are sufficiently older them to make a difference.
This is, however, marginally useful even as-is to keep people from accidentally stumbling on something, and it allows for tailoring for different age levels. Say a public library integrates a system like this with their filtering, an 8 year old could hang out on nickelodeons website, a teenager could research academic articles about sexuality for a school report, an adult could have the filter disabled completely. Rather than one size fits all filtering, this would be an easy way to set up different levels of filtering- maybe not easy to set up initially, but really easy in day to day use. You wouldn't even need to have any sort of user accounts or sysadmin intervention, just plug the thing in and the filtering software autodetects the age recorded on the device and adjusts its filtering level appropriately.
Laptops are built for low power, its a vital part of making the machines practical. In addition, they have a battery, so you don't need to put it on an UPS.
For a light duty server, laptops are well suited and often overlooked.
What can't it do?
Pitch control and cue points. Add those two features, and apple will find a large market of DJs that will buy them. Hell, I'd put off upgrading my mixer if Apple added those two features. I'd have a good portable music player for the bus and whatnot, and a small device I can hook up to my mixer so I can use digital music files, stuff I rip off CD or my own productions that I can't afford to press to vinyl in my sets. And it would open up a large amount of music, especially futurepop, that is disgustingly difficult to find in any quantity on vinyl.
and I'll buy one.
One thing I'd say regarding showing people your guns...
If you have kids and guns, show your kids your guns. Children are naturally curious about anything as dramatic as a gun, it makes a lot of noise and they see them on TV and movies constantly. You want to absolutely ensure that their curiosity is satisfied under strict supervision by someone you trust with their lives. If you don't have guns, you should find a gun owner that you trust to teach them a bit about them, and failing that find a gun safety course in the area to enroll your kids in. You don't want little Johnny to satisfy his curiosity when he finds a loaded gun in a kitchen cabinet at Dennis's house.
That tactic paid off for my dad when the one time he ever forgot to keep track of any of his guns, he left it in the bathroom and when I went in to pee, I saw it, and turned right around to tell him that he left his gun there. There was never any real risk, because he taught all of us kids gun safety since before we were even able to pull the trigger. We knew how dangerous they were and how to mitigate those dangers. Any time we had curiosity, as soon as he had the time he would bring us down to his gun safe, open it up and teach us a bit.
I don't currently have any guns or kids, but when I do, if I have both at the same time I'm definitely following my fathers example in how to mix the two without problems.
Agreed.
I'm very pro gun, but its not something to be taken lightly. Guns were designed to kill, and they are incredibly good at that. While in the right hands they can be very safe, they have a great deal of power that if you do not respect will bite you in the ass.
To expand on this, while its unlikely you will have to fire, you might. So spend time on the shooting range. Also, take some classes or read some articles about home defense with a gun. It is quite possible you will end up firing at a friendly if you are too quick to react. Or end up getting shot yourself if you are too slow to react.
A gun is a very powerful deterrent and an effective last line of defense, but it is also very risky and can lead to death of people close to you or legal charges against you for excessive force, it is not something to take lightly. Do lots of research into home defense techniques and various types of weapons to determine if a gun is an appropriate option for your situation, and if so what type of gun is best for you. And make sure to know and respect the basic rules of gun safety, and any special rules that happen to apply to the specific weapon you are using.
Oh, and don't forget, if the gun is out of arms reach have it locked up securely. The VAST majority of accidental shooting deaths I read about can be traced back to some moron leaving a loaded gun where a kid could get to it without supervision. It is ridiculously easy to secure a firearm so that kids can't use it without supervision, so go ahead and do so.
To prevent people from breaking into my car, i leave it unlocked, and make sure nothing of value is left inside. Unless you have unbreakable windows locking the doors is only going to get you a broken window if someone really wants to get in and look around
The real value of locks isn't in preventing theft, its in either slowing the perp down, or in forcing the perp to use a more noticeable method of getting in. Ideally the perp won't be willing to take the time or make the noise needed for fear of getting caught, but even if they are, having the door locked will give at least a slightly better chance that someone will notice and react in time to stop them.
If its legal where she is, and she can safely handle one, consider a gun. Its a last resort option(obviously) but when all else fails, even showing a gun can often deter someone. There are plenty of articles out there on home defense with a gun, so look it up to select a good weapon for her and to get her in the proper mindset to make the right call when she has to decide "shoot or don't shoot?". This is probably the most powerful option, but also the most dangerous if you screw it up(both to your health and legally), so do some serious research before going for it.
Getting a large, or at least loud, dog can be very useful. Something that will bark loudly and incessantly if someone tries to break in, and will fight to defend the property. Be careful here too- the line between a dog that will fight to defend their master and a dog that will fight just because can be very thin, make sure you go to a reputable breeder and trainer if you want a dog that does more than make noise. But as with a gun, the mere presence can be a deterrent. Think about it, you start crowbarring a door and all of the sudden you hear loud, aggressive barking on the other side- all surprise is gone and you might have an animal on the other side ready to kill you. Most criminals will bail at that moment, to seek out an easier and safer(for them) victim.
For alarms, don't use the default alarm tone. 9 times out of 10 if I hear it I ignore it, because its so damn common and most of the time its only going off because it was set too sensitive. Choose something out of the ordinary. Machine guns, explosions, screams, something that does not sound like a typical car alarm. It will startle the perp a bit more(being unexpected) and it will be more likely that a passerby will notice and glance over to see whats going on. Also, don't have it too sensitive, if the neighbors know your alarm will go off in a mild wind they won't do anything when it happens. Going to the previous selection, if you can get an alarm that will trigger a realistic recording of a dog barking and growling like its ready to kill, you can get the detterrent(though not the defensive) effect of a guard dog without the cost.
Cameras placed in spots a perp will see when casing the place or running an impulse attack can also be a deterrent. They don't have to be hooked up to have deterrent value, or even be real cameras- a decent looking mockup will still be a deterrent. Of course a real camera that is hooked up can gather evidence in case they fail to deter the perp.
Locks are an obvious one- while they won't stop a determined criminal, they will slow him down and require he make more noise on coming in. Any lock that is not working properly should be replaced immediately, and you might want to consider upgrading really old locks even if they are working right, they might not be as secure as newer models.
I'd bet a months GI Bill that the intelligence community knew of this no more than a couple hours after it happened(if not minutes).
IF you recall a few years ago when a North Korean minisub was caught in a South Korean fishing net, I cant' tell you exactly how much sooner we knew about it, but it was several days before civilian media ran the story.
When I wish I either still had access to intelligence reports, or never did.
I don't have access to current reports, meaning I can't satisfy my curiosity about this days or weeks before the rest of you can, but having had access to reports in the past I can't throw in my two cents really without worry of inadvertantly saying something that can land me in prison.
"Based on the available evidence (rather than hearsay) it most likely that the round was over a decade old. "
My personal opinion, what I would have reported to my CO if I was still an Intelligence Analyst(which I was for several years in the Marines), would have been that said shell was most likely battlefield debris left over from the Iran-Iraq war or the Gulf War I. There probably are quite a few chemical and biological weapons that Iraq simply lost during the Iran-Iraq war that are still waiting for someone to randomly run across. Interesting to note, the reports shortly after it said that it was set up to optimize explosive damage, and even if it was a brand new munition, the gas would have done very little damage because of how it was set up. That shows whoever set it up thought it was an HE round.
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
88. Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Adittionally, part of what the Nazis did was censorship of books and such... So Nazi comparisons are sufficiently on topic that I would call any Godwins Law issues irrelevant.
CS Lewis specifically built christian themes and beliefs into his books. My PASTOR had me read it for my confirmation class.
Sure it lists the books. But it would be much more useful if each book title was linked to a short article explaining some of the reasons that book is being challenged.
Incidentally, there are a few books there I somewhat agree with not being in public schools... Madonna "Sex" and that other book "New Joy of Gay Sex" don't really have much of a place in a school library. Public community libraries, well, that I don't see a problem with having any book...
But, give them some credit. Libraries do not have unlimited funds or shelf space. They can't just throw a book into their collection just because it was released. And some books are in such high demand that they need multiple copies, further reducing space and funds. This is the main reason I don't find the list very useful without explanation- how are we to know if the book is being censored, or the demand isn't high enough to justify the resources needed to stock the book?
That said, if a sizable portion of the community wants Harry Potter, or Sex to be in the library, and they refuse on some moral grounds or whatnot, that is wrong.
It would also be useful to see in the explanatory notes I'd like to see, whether it was the libraries themselves denying the book, or someone above their heads that says "You will not stock this book no matter what".
Another side note, several of those books I borrowed from the school library to read for fun, and several others(Go Ask Alice, Lord of the Flies, and others) were required reading.
Read the Art of War. Sun Tzu made clear many times that war is the option of last resort, and when it is resorted to, to get the job done as quickly as possible and with the absolute minimum amount of destruction that will accomplish the mission.
ACtually, Boy Scouts were created by a military officer to adapt some actual military practices to something appropriate to raising boys into good men.
Read up on the history of when it got started, it was all after Lord Baden-Powell's book on military scouting became popular with teenage boys that he took it and adapted it to be more appropriate to that audience. The origin of the Boy Scouts is absolutely from the military.
Actually, he eventually was allowed to carry it once the issue got raised high enough in the chain of command for someone to know what they were looking at.
True, live fire exercises are still needed, but with the games, they will get the basic tactics down, and live fire can focus on doing it without shooting your buddies.
If the games were to replace traditional field exercises and live fire exercises, that would be dramatically bad. But as a supplement, they have the potential to improve military traing a great deal, and save a ton of money in the process- money that can be used to fund end strength improvements, better weapons, more training, more aircraft, more spare parts for existing aircraft, or even funneled to non-defense programs.
I'm certainly in favor of something with the potential to improve the effectiveness of our military while saving money at the same time. The better our military is, the faster it will win wars- meaning less death and destruction on both sides, making it much easier to secure a more stable peace post-war. The cheaper it is, well, it should be obvious why thats a good thing.
It was used, I played with it at the US Army booth at the 1993 Boy Scout National Jamboree.
The point of the games is to teach tactics and teamwork. They aren't attempting to simulate the full reality of military life(haven't heard of any head cleaning games), but the can and do give a good exercise in basic tactics and teamwork in a system that the trainees can get into easily, and at far lower cost than a traditional exercise. That leaves the rest of the training budget to go to preparing for the rough realities of combat, rather than spending thousands just to teach them when to drop and have a firefight with an ambush party and when to just charge headlong into them.
I agree they cannot teach everything about combat, but video games are well suited to teaching tactics and teamwork.