If you've got the space for it, I second this wonderful idea!
Apart from the sheer size of something like this, technically it's fairly easy... push a button at each hub to light up what path to go through. It could be wired really simply, with just parallel buttons for each route. It might require a bit more thought than a 3-year-old would put into it, but I think older kids would get it without much problem.
If there's enough space and budget, you could even use stairs or inclines to go up to a satellite relay, or down to an undersea cable.
32% of netbook buyers have at least seen the name Linux, and probably are even being exposed to the fact that it's an alternative to Windows. That's far more than the desktop market.
Where did you think the federal government gets the money to pay for this?
My personal opinion is that we ought to stretch our military money a bit more... maybe one less new aircraft carrier, or a dozen fewer missiles... and use that money for better things. The federal government only has the money we (as taxpayers) give it, and it's very limited.
I like the plotter idea... it'd take a fair bit of work, but it should be feasible to isolate the circuit used to supply ink, and use it to operate a very slow feed for a bit of mechanical pencil lead.
...But it has to look pretty, or the folks with access to the bank account will never buy it! It also needs animated sliding panels, customizable positions for all controls, and must fit the graphical style of Windows 7, so the office staff don't get confused. When the programmers are done with those important goals, then they can work on the petty stuff like speed and usability.
Let's not forget, it also absolutely MUST interface with the mainframe they kept records on in the 80's, just in case they need that information (but there's no budget for migration), and according to the boss's nephew who "knows computers", the next big thing will be X, whatever that is, so the system must use X, to do whatever it is that X does.
If an attacker were able to access the voting location enough to install an unnoticeable antenna, I'd be more concerned with small cameras. Even a large antenna in a nearby building would require somebody watching to see who was using which voting machine, in order to pose any real threat.
Trends can be pulled out from anonymized data fairly easily, and with a surprising degree of accuracy. From TFA:
Academic researchers have shown that anonymized data can be correlated with other data to identify people.
With the sheer amount of data contained in a DNA sample, even a partial sample would be enough to compromise an individual's identity. With enough information, practically any other piece of information can be obtained.
So their plan is to illustrate how annoying and ridiculous their schemes are, then try and get their point across? I really don't think this will work that well.
After a while, the squeaky wheel just gets replaced.
When I took my first archery training, there was a whole section regarding addressing such problems. On occasion, I've had to improvise. On multiple occasions, I've duct-taped bows to forearm casts. From others, I've heard stories of shooters with missing thumbs, wheelchairs, one arm, and even a shooter whose only mobility was his jaw. There is absolutely no reason why anyone not in a coma cannot use a firearm. The Manville police appear to be idiots.
My first thought on reading the article is that it's a great (and probably working) detection tool, for finding people who are carrying bombs. Not the bombs themselves, mind you, but just the people carrying them. The "detector" acts as a trigger to provide yet another moment for the carrier to appear nervous, and hopefully be noticed by someone else.
Ignoring naysayers for now, and assuming this plant is the benefit the article claims: What about me? Does Toyota plan to release these plants for sale at my local garden store? Can I get a nice slow-growing lawn that I don't have to mow? Can I get some extra-cold flower gardens?
I have basically quit using Facebook, because it got too annoying to spend thirty seconds daily clicking all the buttons to reject the little mini-games. I'm not impressed that they want to duplicate this idiocy.
I think it's not so much that the "legal product" aspect is low priority, but as mentioned above, simply pushed too far back. There is a fair amount work involved in preparing source code for public release. It has to be retrieved from wherever it's stored (which may be distributed), cleaned of any sensitive information, separated from what isn't going to be released (data files, compilation scripts, etc.), packaged, and finally placed in a public location. I simply doubt that with all the pressure involved in a project like this, that process was a high priority. The fact is that 90% or more of the target market doesn't care about the source, but they would care about having the release date pushed back.
I'm assuming good faith, but personally, I'm not concerned that it took so long to release the source code. Most likely, the developers were under a deadline to have the phone in working order, and had to postpone lower-priority tasks to meet that deadline. These lower-priority tasks were probably such trivial things as comments, changed names, formatting, and all those other bits that get neglected under heavy pressure.
I'm no lawyer, but reading the text appears to do several things:
1.a) Make fake accounts illegal. It's now a criminal offense to create an account using someone else's name, and use that to harass someone. The problem I see with this is simple ignorance. "I didn't know X was a real person" becomes an issue.
1.b) Make referring to someone else illegal. If I quote someone (and I were in Texas), I would need their authorization, if the quotation could be considered harmful.
1.f) Nothing at all. "The term does not include an electronic mail program or a message board program." Depending on how savvy the legal system is, it could be determined that all website messaging systems fall under the category of "message board programs". If not, then the exclusion pushes harassment to other media, such as instant messages, chat rooms, IRC, etc.
To me (and again, I'm not a lawyer) it seems this law was written in a quick response to a widely-publicized event, but that little exception for message boards could, depending on a test in court, potentially make the law useless.
Regarding the first amendment issues, the only thing I see is the requirement of authorization for a reference. As I read it, that subsection's supposed to prevent revealing someone else's identity, but I'd wager it could be abused easily to prevent whistleblowing. If you're trying to make public a company's practices, you can't mention any names without being very careful. If it appears the named person "authorized" the leak at all, you're committing a crime.
I don't see anything particularly wrong with that card. Let's go through it in order:
1) The chip itself: If you're going to be standing on stage, potentially wandering aroung with a little piece of metal in your hand that represents your company's future and is literally worth millions to your competitors, are you REALLY going to show off the real thing? No. You use something that looks close just to indicate size, approximate appearance, and other basic details so the idiots in the crowd know what they're looking at.
2) The number 7: I'm not sure what exactly is implied by the author here, but going along with displaying basic information, it's sensible to alter the display chip with a hand-drawn logo, for the benefit of observers.
3) Blocked vent: From the look of the rest of the card, is seems that the cooling air needs to come from somewhere. My guess is that some comes from inside the case, and some comes through that "blocked" vent. See, a long time ago, humans discovered that when you run a fluid through something with tiny holes, big things (like dust) are kept out, giving you a nice clean fluid. Filters are good things.
4) Screws: Personally, I use those screws all the time in my computer. They're great for mounting disk drives, PCI cards, case components, and generally anywhere else you need a small machine screw. Screws don't always fit perfectly in a final product, let alone in a prototype.
5) DVI bolts: Yep. All my DVI ports have them.
6) Stacking two single-slot cards together to show the end plate doesn't need screws: Single-slot end plates are most likely held on with screws through flanges bent over the card itself. How exactly would that be easier on a double-slot card than just punching a hole and running some machine screws through, especially considering that there's no indication of what's actually behind those screws? My personal hypothesis is that the screws go into a plastic wall that divides the card,
7) Soldering of DVI port: Personally, I think it'd be easier to just solder a DVI port in than clip off all the little wires from the port so it would physically fit where it is. This entire claim is based around apparently a single photograph. Judging from that same photograph, there's also no contacts on the edge connectors, and only a smudge written on that sticker in the middle.
8) Half-covered SLI connector: SLI is an edge connector. From the same photograph, it appear's there space there to make contact with an edge and cover the contacts with a thin connector. That should work, right?
9) Power connectors: Assuming that it's absolutely impossible to use wires to connect anything over a distance of one inch, the 8-pin connector appears to just rotate its pins by 90 degrees, probably to accommodate the other stuff that appears on the board in the immediate vicinity. I'm not an expert, but according to this, that extra connector appears to provide just more power, so would it not be possible to connect it in the port, rather than on the board?
10) Glue: Since when is glue not an acceptable means of attaching parts? I personally have used glue many times, in many ways, for the purpose of holding things in place. On a board destined for display, it seems like an even more practical solution.
11) Board being cut off: This one almost seems legitimate,except for the fact that I have a few boards lying around here with traces (and a few components) right on the edge of the board. Yes, it looks a little crude. In fact, it almost looks like a prototype made for display, possibly even by just cutting off test circuitry from the board.
12) Exaggerated marketing: I'm really not concerned that the spokesman said "This is Fermi" if it isn't. The point is that it's a close approximation, and the card's actual functionality isn't an issue. If they had used a real prototype that happened to burn up during testing, it would be hailed as evidence that "the car
There's the CPU, plus the energy cost to produce it, the environmental waste of disposing the old unit, the fuel to ship it, the labor to install it... Somebody pays for all of it, even if it isn't put on the 'new hardware' budget.
Also, I'm not suggesting paying for more programmers, or even demanding much more from existing programmers. All I suggest is that companies ought to push programmers to produce slightly-better programs, especially when they're going to be deployed in a data center environment.
Given current circumstances, it should be pretty easy for companies to hire the best and most well-educated programmers out there, and cheaply. A fresh-out-of-college computer science degree holder ought to be able to tell the difference between a basic O(n) algorithm and an O(n^6) one. Hire better programmers in the first place, and you can reduce or eliminate the expense of needing new hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
Proprietary software is not the problem. Proprietary software whose functionality requires a given service to be infallible is the problem.
...his identity must have been stolen!
If you've got the space for it, I second this wonderful idea!
Apart from the sheer size of something like this, technically it's fairly easy... push a button at each hub to light up what path to go through. It could be wired really simply, with just parallel buttons for each route. It might require a bit more thought than a 3-year-old would put into it, but I think older kids would get it without much problem.
If there's enough space and budget, you could even use stairs or inclines to go up to a satellite relay, or down to an undersea cable.
32% of netbook buyers have at least seen the name Linux, and probably are even being exposed to the fact that it's an alternative to Windows. That's far more than the desktop market.
I agree in spirit, but I just have to point out:
Where did you think the federal government gets the money to pay for this?
My personal opinion is that we ought to stretch our military money a bit more... maybe one less new aircraft carrier, or a dozen fewer missiles... and use that money for better things. The federal government only has the money we (as taxpayers) give it, and it's very limited.
I like the plotter idea... it'd take a fair bit of work, but it should be feasible to isolate the circuit used to supply ink, and use it to operate a very slow feed for a bit of mechanical pencil lead.
...But it has to look pretty, or the folks with access to the bank account will never buy it! It also needs animated sliding panels, customizable positions for all controls, and must fit the graphical style of Windows 7, so the office staff don't get confused. When the programmers are done with those important goals, then they can work on the petty stuff like speed and usability.
Let's not forget, it also absolutely MUST interface with the mainframe they kept records on in the 80's, just in case they need that information (but there's no budget for migration), and according to the boss's nephew who "knows computers", the next big thing will be X, whatever that is, so the system must use X, to do whatever it is that X does.
If an attacker were able to access the voting location enough to install an unnoticeable antenna, I'd be more concerned with small cameras. Even a large antenna in a nearby building would require somebody watching to see who was using which voting machine, in order to pose any real threat.
Trends can be pulled out from anonymized data fairly easily, and with a surprising degree of accuracy. From TFA:
Academic researchers have shown that anonymized data can be correlated with other data to identify people.
With the sheer amount of data contained in a DNA sample, even a partial sample would be enough to compromise an individual's identity. With enough information, practically any other piece of information can be obtained.
So their plan is to illustrate how annoying and ridiculous their schemes are, then try and get their point across? I really don't think this will work that well.
After a while, the squeaky wheel just gets replaced.
When I took my first archery training, there was a whole section regarding addressing such problems. On occasion, I've had to improvise. On multiple occasions, I've duct-taped bows to forearm casts. From others, I've heard stories of shooters with missing thumbs, wheelchairs, one arm, and even a shooter whose only mobility was his jaw. There is absolutely no reason why anyone not in a coma cannot use a firearm. The Manville police appear to be idiots.
The moment I saw that, my first thought was "Gee, I wonder which platforms will lag behind in new features and testing."
...And nothing of value was gained?
According to another article, a lot of them are from plugins.
My first thought on reading the article is that it's a great (and probably working) detection tool, for finding people who are carrying bombs. Not the bombs themselves, mind you, but just the people carrying them. The "detector" acts as a trigger to provide yet another moment for the carrier to appear nervous, and hopefully be noticed by someone else.
Ignoring naysayers for now, and assuming this plant is the benefit the article claims: What about me?
Does Toyota plan to release these plants for sale at my local garden store?
Can I get a nice slow-growing lawn that I don't have to mow?
Can I get some extra-cold flower gardens?
I'm not so concerned about privacy, but I agree:
I have basically quit using Facebook, because it got too annoying to spend thirty seconds daily clicking all the buttons to reject the little mini-games. I'm not impressed that they want to duplicate this idiocy.
I think it's not so much that the "legal product" aspect is low priority, but as mentioned above, simply pushed too far back. There is a fair amount work involved in preparing source code for public release. It has to be retrieved from wherever it's stored (which may be distributed), cleaned of any sensitive information, separated from what isn't going to be released (data files, compilation scripts, etc.), packaged, and finally placed in a public location. I simply doubt that with all the pressure involved in a project like this, that process was a high priority. The fact is that 90% or more of the target market doesn't care about the source, but they would care about having the release date pushed back.
I'm assuming good faith, but personally, I'm not concerned that it took so long to release the source code. Most likely, the developers were under a deadline to have the phone in working order, and had to postpone lower-priority tasks to meet that deadline. These lower-priority tasks were probably such trivial things as comments, changed names, formatting, and all those other bits that get neglected under heavy pressure.
It doesn't matter. All messages posted here are actually sent to a "message board program" so they're exempt from the law.
I'm no lawyer, but reading the text appears to do several things:
1.a) Make fake accounts illegal. It's now a criminal offense to create an account using someone else's name, and use that to harass someone. The problem I see with this is simple ignorance. "I didn't know X was a real person" becomes an issue.
1.b) Make referring to someone else illegal. If I quote someone (and I were in Texas), I would need their authorization, if the quotation could be considered harmful.
1.f) Nothing at all. "The term does not include an electronic mail program or a message board program." Depending on how savvy the legal system is, it could be determined that all website messaging systems fall under the category of "message board programs". If not, then the exclusion pushes harassment to other media, such as instant messages, chat rooms, IRC, etc.
To me (and again, I'm not a lawyer) it seems this law was written in a quick response to a widely-publicized event, but that little exception for message boards could, depending on a test in court, potentially make the law useless.
Regarding the first amendment issues, the only thing I see is the requirement of authorization for a reference. As I read it, that subsection's supposed to prevent revealing someone else's identity, but I'd wager it could be abused easily to prevent whistleblowing. If you're trying to make public a company's practices, you can't mention any names without being very careful. If it appears the named person "authorized" the leak at all, you're committing a crime.
I don't see anything particularly wrong with that card. Let's go through it in order:
1) The chip itself: If you're going to be standing on stage, potentially wandering aroung with a little piece of metal in your hand that represents your company's future and is literally worth millions to your competitors, are you REALLY going to show off the real thing? No. You use something that looks close just to indicate size, approximate appearance, and other basic details so the idiots in the crowd know what they're looking at.
2) The number 7: I'm not sure what exactly is implied by the author here, but going along with displaying basic information, it's sensible to alter the display chip with a hand-drawn logo, for the benefit of observers.
3) Blocked vent: From the look of the rest of the card, is seems that the cooling air needs to come from somewhere. My guess is that some comes from inside the case, and some comes through that "blocked" vent. See, a long time ago, humans discovered that when you run a fluid through something with tiny holes, big things (like dust) are kept out, giving you a nice clean fluid. Filters are good things.
4) Screws: Personally, I use those screws all the time in my computer. They're great for mounting disk drives, PCI cards, case components, and generally anywhere else you need a small machine screw. Screws don't always fit perfectly in a final product, let alone in a prototype.
5) DVI bolts: Yep. All my DVI ports have them.
6) Stacking two single-slot cards together to show the end plate doesn't need screws: Single-slot end plates are most likely held on with screws through flanges bent over the card itself. How exactly would that be easier on a double-slot card than just punching a hole and running some machine screws through, especially considering that there's no indication of what's actually behind those screws? My personal hypothesis is that the screws go into a plastic wall that divides the card,
7) Soldering of DVI port: Personally, I think it'd be easier to just solder a DVI port in than clip off all the little wires from the port so it would physically fit where it is. This entire claim is based around apparently a single photograph. Judging from that same photograph, there's also no contacts on the edge connectors, and only a smudge written on that sticker in the middle.
8) Half-covered SLI connector: SLI is an edge connector. From the same photograph, it appear's there space there to make contact with an edge and cover the contacts with a thin connector. That should work, right?
9) Power connectors: Assuming that it's absolutely impossible to use wires to connect anything over a distance of one inch, the 8-pin connector appears to just rotate its pins by 90 degrees, probably to accommodate the other stuff that appears on the board in the immediate vicinity. I'm not an expert, but according to this, that extra connector appears to provide just more power, so would it not be possible to connect it in the port, rather than on the board?
10) Glue: Since when is glue not an acceptable means of attaching parts? I personally have used glue many times, in many ways, for the purpose of holding things in place. On a board destined for display, it seems like an even more practical solution.
11) Board being cut off: This one almost seems legitimate,except for the fact that I have a few boards lying around here with traces (and a few components) right on the edge of the board. Yes, it looks a little crude. In fact, it almost looks like a prototype made for display, possibly even by just cutting off test circuitry from the board.
12) Exaggerated marketing: I'm really not concerned that the spokesman said "This is Fermi" if it isn't. The point is that it's a close approximation, and the card's actual functionality isn't an issue. If they had used a real prototype that happened to burn up during testing, it would be hailed as evidence that "the car
Yes, it does. It's generally referred to as 'backup'.
Gee, I wonder where they got this idea from...
There's the CPU, plus the energy cost to produce it, the environmental waste of disposing the old unit, the fuel to ship it, the labor to install it... Somebody pays for all of it, even if it isn't put on the 'new hardware' budget.
Also, I'm not suggesting paying for more programmers, or even demanding much more from existing programmers. All I suggest is that companies ought to push programmers to produce slightly-better programs, especially when they're going to be deployed in a data center environment.
Given current circumstances, it should be pretty easy for companies to hire the best and most well-educated programmers out there, and cheaply. A fresh-out-of-college computer science degree holder ought to be able to tell the difference between a basic O(n) algorithm and an O(n^6) one. Hire better programmers in the first place, and you can reduce or eliminate the expense of needing new hardware.