> I find it amazing and worrisome that an object that size can get so close to Earth and hit Jupiter without astronomers learning about it until after the fact.
Amazing... maybe. But I wouldn't waste too much energy worrying about such an event.
> To me, it is an indication that current near-earth object surveillance systems are not worth much.
Correct. The effort is at an infantile stage.
Even if we knew a year ahead of an asteroid that was on target for the Earth, there's nothing in our current technological capabilities that could be done to divert the event. Our nuclear missiles weren't designed to go beyond Earth's gravitational pull, so they wouldn't be useful. And we most likely won't have a years warning; it'd be more like weeks if even that.
Some rough estimates put the number of asteroids in our own solar system to be about a billion. We're currently tracking an extremely small percentage of them; and that task is difficult enough as the asteroids make such infrequent appearances, and they're "small". But if even a small asteroid a few miles across in size traveling 60,000 miles/hr were to strike the Earth, it would drastically overshadow your bad hair day.
SD
Reference. Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything.
At work we're currently in a heated debated whether we should adopt peer code reviews (what the boss wants) or paired programming (what us devs want).
We feel that paired programming provides all the benefits (and them some) of peer code reviews but doesn't have all the cons of peer reviews. Here's a quick run down of what we came up with.
Pros for paired programming:
* A natural knowledge backup is created (2 devs know how the new code/design works)
* More sound design decisions can be made during design/development stages (two heads are better than one).
* Complex problem solving.
* Fewer bugs. Better quality product.
* Less total overall time spent coding/maintaining.
* No new software to purchase/install/learn (I.e., peer code review software - Review Board, Crucible, etc.).
Cons for code review:
* If the design decisions are poor and need to be reworked, we don't find out till the code review.
* Code review step likely to get skipped with tight deadlines.
* Chance for egos to get bruised.
I'd appreciate anyone else's comments on this comparison.
"The idea of making Microsoft pay for the billions of dollars of damage caused by flaws in its products is certainly attractive, but where would this idea leave free software coders?"
Hey, how about a full refund of the purchase price?
I seriously don't understand the Apple fanboyism on this one (or 90% of the time in general).
I picked up a Sansa c250 for $25 last year and added a memory card $15 for a total of 6 GB. $40 total.
I put Rockbox on it (which if freaking awesome!) and the current iPod shuffle would be a seriously huge downgrade for twice the price.
Vote w/your pocketbook. Oh, and apparently Sansa actually has given their devices to the Rockbox devs in the past specifically so the Rockbox team can get Rockbox working on the Sansa devices.
> Not on the desktop, but there are large number of computer users who work on headless computers, and frankly don't want anything more than a console open with ssh.
I run X and still prefer MC; I have for years.
I've tried switching to Konqueror/Krusader/Thunar/etc., but I always go back to MC.
With MC's app bindings, there's really nothing you can't do w/it. And it's just so much faster to navigate around and get shit done.
I think your real point should've stuck to the fact that current versions of Firefox do not run on FreeBSD. The other points you make are the same fluff we've been hearing about Opera for years.
I few months back I put Firefox on the sidelines and used Opera for a good solid month. It is a nice browser on many levels (fast, clean UI, etc.), and I would probably use it all the time and be happy if it weren't for Firefox/Firebug/NoScript. I know you can block JS, etc. from running per site w/Opera, but No Script gives you a granularity that Opera just doesn't have. And Firebug is just ridiculously awesome; nothing comes close.
I've felt for a long time that it is the US government and controlled media who keep "China" as an enemy to US citizens (of which I am one).
It wasn't until I visited China a few years back and met many, many sincerely nice Chinese people on the street (weren't they supposed to hate me, I'm American?), that I could confirm that American citizens are prisoners of our government/media's agenda.
I know this is a simplistic experience, but it left a lasting impact.
This is great. Microsoft, once again, chasing a market that they failed to recognize early on. It's even sweeter that this lower end laptop market is dominated by F/OSS.
I honestly don't know how easy this would be to implement, but how about we start using a new meta tag on our web sites that contains a (dynamically generated) hash of the HTTP content for each page being sent (probably easier said than done). The client browser would then check against the hash with the content it received and notify the user in some fashion if the two hashes differ.
I know this would increase the resources needed for each and every page sent/received, but maybe (client side anyway) you could create a white list of sites that you want to verify that you are indeed viewing the unadulterated page (I.e., bank webpages, etc.).
Awesome. Thanks for passing on the link for that speech. That gave me a fresh, new impression of that man and brought out a lot of thoughts that had been lurking in my sub conscious for years and years.
> 'Serious BDSM' is what I do sometimes, but it has nothing to do with being a sociopath!
Serious BDSM, huh?
From our friends at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadism_and_masochism): "In certain extreme cases, sadism and masochism can include fantasies, sexual urges or behaviour that cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, to the point that they can be considered part of a mental disorder."
Slashdot Mirror
> I find it amazing and worrisome that an object that size can get so close to Earth and hit Jupiter without astronomers learning about it until after the fact.
Amazing... maybe. But I wouldn't waste too much energy worrying about such an event.
> To me, it is an indication that current near-earth object surveillance systems are not worth much.
Correct. The effort is at an infantile stage.
Even if we knew a year ahead of an asteroid that was on target for the Earth, there's nothing in our current technological capabilities that could be done to divert the event. Our nuclear missiles weren't designed to go beyond Earth's gravitational pull, so they wouldn't be useful. And we most likely won't have a years warning; it'd be more like weeks if even that.
Some rough estimates put the number of asteroids in our own solar system to be about a billion. We're currently tracking an extremely small percentage of them; and that task is difficult enough as the asteroids make such infrequent appearances, and they're "small". But if even a small asteroid a few miles across in size traveling 60,000 miles/hr were to strike the Earth, it would drastically overshadow your bad hair day.
SD
Reference.
Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything.
> 13' RGB monitor
Oof... they sure made monitors big back then.
At work we're currently in a heated debated whether we should adopt peer code reviews (what the boss wants) or paired programming (what us devs want).
We feel that paired programming provides all the benefits (and them some) of peer code reviews but doesn't have all the cons of peer reviews. Here's a quick run down of what we came up with.
Pros for paired programming:
* A natural knowledge backup is created (2 devs know how the new code/design works)
* More sound design decisions can be made during design/development stages (two heads are better than one).
* Complex problem solving.
* Fewer bugs. Better quality product.
* Less total overall time spent coding/maintaining.
* No new software to purchase/install/learn (I.e., peer code review software - Review Board, Crucible, etc.).
Cons for code review:
* If the design decisions are poor and need to be reworked, we don't find out till the code review.
* Code review step likely to get skipped with tight deadlines.
* Chance for egos to get bruised.
I'd appreciate anyone else's comments on this comparison.
Thanks!
SD
> Now if John Lasseter leaves, then we might be able to talk about Pixar going downhill.
You spelled Brad Bird wrong.
"The idea of making Microsoft pay for the billions of dollars of damage caused by flaws in its products is certainly attractive, but where would this idea leave free software coders?"
Hey, how about a full refund of the purchase price?
sd
> Why can't they change the cover, change the image on that page, and MOVE ON!
Actually, just the moving on bit would be sufficient.
sd
I've used dvdbackup for a few years to make 1:1 copies of my DVDs (menus and all).
Something like this works (adjust the '-i/dev/scd1' part point to your DVD)
dvdbackup -v -M -i/dev/scd1 -o/"`pwd`"
> 1. Learn how to say "I'm not sure"
> 2. Learn how to ask somebody for help.
> 3. Learn how to ask "do you have anything I can help with".
Isn't the order more like 3-1-2 for a college graduate? ;)
My sentiments exactly.
I seriously don't understand the Apple fanboyism on this one (or 90% of the time in general).
I picked up a Sansa c250 for $25 last year and added a memory card $15 for a total of 6 GB. $40 total.
I put Rockbox on it (which if freaking awesome!) and the current iPod shuffle would be a seriously huge downgrade for twice the price.
Vote w/your pocketbook. Oh, and apparently Sansa actually has given their devices to the Rockbox devs in the past specifically so the Rockbox team can get Rockbox working on the Sansa devices.
SD
> > I checked the top 10 (you can check the rest), and they *ALL* have JavaScript.
> Not when I visit them with firefox, they don't.
> I have NoScript installed. So those sites load really fast in firefox.
They still have JavaScript whether you choose to render it or not. I think you missed the point of the parent.
SD
> Not on the desktop, but there are large number of computer users who work on headless computers, and frankly don't want anything more than a console open with ssh.
I run X and still prefer MC; I have for years.
I've tried switching to Konqueror/Krusader/Thunar/etc., but I always go back to MC.
With MC's app bindings, there's really nothing you can't do w/it. And it's just so much faster to navigate around and get shit done.
Good luck MC devs!
I think your real point should've stuck to the fact that current versions of Firefox do not run on FreeBSD. The other points you make are the same fluff we've been hearing about Opera for years.
I few months back I put Firefox on the sidelines and used Opera for a good solid month. It is a nice browser on many levels (fast, clean UI, etc.), and I would probably use it all the time and be happy if it weren't for Firefox/Firebug/NoScript. I know you can block JS, etc. from running per site w/Opera, but No Script gives you a granularity that Opera just doesn't have. And Firebug is just ridiculously awesome; nothing comes close.
Just my two quid.
SD
Agreed (except on Linkin Park ;)
All I use anymore is: lame -V 0 ...which equates to the highest VBR quality setting.
I tried to wave the OGG flag for a couple years and threw in the towel. *Everything* plays MP3.
SD
Which VI plugin for Eclipse are you talking about?
I haven't found a decent open source one. I'm hopeful that one exists.
SD
> Sure, I chose hardware that I knew was supported by Ubuntu
Second that.
Buy hardware that is supported by the OS. The parent obviously didn't get that far. It'll take him a good, hard earned $10-15 to make the leap.
*trying to think of a good car parts analogy... nope*
SD
Can anyone recommend any other online auction houses (I.e., one that you've actually used it to but/sell an item)?
Thanks,
SD
Running a Linux what again?
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/nin-jabs-at-pc-blue-screen-of-death-part-of-concert
Hit 'em. Hit 'em hard, boys and girls.
Thanks for your insight.
I've felt for a long time that it is the US government and controlled media who keep "China" as an enemy to US citizens (of which I am one).
It wasn't until I visited China a few years back and met many, many sincerely nice Chinese people on the street (weren't they supposed to hate me, I'm American?), that I could confirm that American citizens are prisoners of our government/media's agenda.
I know this is a simplistic experience, but it left a lasting impact.
Thanks,
SD
This is great. Microsoft, once again, chasing a market that they failed to recognize early on. It's even sweeter that this lower end laptop market is dominated by F/OSS.
SD
I honestly don't know how easy this would be to implement, but how about we start using a new meta tag on our web sites that contains a (dynamically generated) hash of the HTTP content for each page being sent (probably easier said than done). The client browser would then check against the hash with the content it received and notify the user in some fashion if the two hashes differ.
I know this would increase the resources needed for each and every page sent/received, but maybe (client side anyway) you could create a white list of sites that you want to verify that you are indeed viewing the unadulterated page (I.e., bank webpages, etc.).
SD
Sorry, this is a little off topic, but has anyone already received the $40 coupon and purchased a converter?
I'd be curious to hear your impressions of the converter you purchased (incl. price).
Thanks,
SD
Awesome. Thanks for passing on the link for that speech. That gave me a fresh, new impression of that man and brought out a lot of thoughts that had been lurking in my sub conscious for years and years.
Thanks.
SD
Dude, you forgot to mask out your IP address in one of your screens.
SD
> 'Serious BDSM' is what I do sometimes, but it has nothing to do with being a sociopath!
Serious BDSM, huh?
From our friends at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadism_and_masochism):
"In certain extreme cases, sadism and masochism can include fantasies, sexual urges or behaviour that cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, to the point that they can be considered part of a mental disorder."
Serious enough for you?
SD