We definitely need a watchdog organization looking out for the consumer's best interest
I'll try to keep this short. In Australia there is a body called the ACCC, I can't remember what the letters stand for for, but basically they are around to keep the big corps honest.
An example of the function of the ACCC: At my place of work (large retail company) when the GST came through, most of the bosses were shit scared of the ACCC and that attitude was reflected in our attention to detail with the GST. It really paid off, and I'd say that it was very sucsesful.
Recently I heard a few news reports that the ACCC were going to start investigating the region coding on DVDs and the artificial monoply it created. I'd love to see the guys in the ACCC take on the MPAA and give Australians the opertunity to buy multi-region players.
Has anyone heard any more about what's currently happening with this?
Actually, the HDD platters where probably very effective flywheels. Tin lids might not store the energy as well, and could be prone to slipping on the surface as the energy would be transferred to quickly.
It probably all balances out in the end though (weight vs inertia etc.)
Re:Sagan Spinning In His Grave
on
Explaining SETI
·
· Score: 1
(disclaimer, I'm athiest/agnostict) I agree!! Felt disapointed that the "Pi part" wasn't in the movie. This is the one book that I've read that really pointed out to me how powerful God is/would be.
The builder of the universe, space and time... wow:)
This is why organised religions piss me off; peace, love and joy, happy singing and dancing? bah, more like Master Engineer:)
I not sure about 3D representations of data, but I'd love to see a (simple) 2D representation of web sites, maybe a simple image map going about 3-5 links down.
Anyway, check out the brain, it might be close to what you're talking about (note: it's not open source/free software)
Timothy strikes again. (Although I've got my prefs set to filter Timothy from my main page, his stuff still shows up in the old articles list so I can rant about it. =)
I'll give you a hint...
When you click on a link in "older stuff" and you see:
Posted by timothy on 27/03/01 0:40
Stop reading and press the "Back" button on your browser.
Copied straight from the worlds first and most famous wiki (no link on purpose) Also sums up why I have recently aquired an interest in wikis:
The WikiWikiWeb works because:
Any and all information can be deleted by anyone. Wiki pages represent nothing but discussion and consensus because it's much easier to delete flames, spam and trivia than to indulge them. What remains is naturally meaningful.
Anyone can play. This sounds like a recipe for low signal - surely wiki gets hit by the unwashed masses as often as any other site. But to make any sort of impact on wiki you need to be able to generate content. So anyone can play, but only good players have any desire to keep playing.
Wiki is not wysiwyg. Contra TheDumbingDownOfProgramming, it's an intelligence test of sorts to be able to edit a wiki page. It's not rocket science, but it doesn't appeal to the TvWatchers. If it doesn't appeal, they don't participate, which leaves those of us who read and write to get on with rational discourse.
Wiki is far from real time. Folk have time to think, often days or weeks, before they follow up some wiki page. So what people write is well-considered. Wiki participants are, by nature, a pedantic, ornery, and unreasonable bunch. So there's a camaraderie here we seldom see outside of our professional contacts.
So that's it - insecure, indiscriminate, user-hostile, slow, and full of difficult, nit-picking people. Any other online community would count each of these strengths as a terrible flaw. Perhaps wiki works because the other online communities don't. --PeterMerel
Personally, I think you'd be better of not doing this calculation, because you have to pay a person to work all these things out. I'd rather have that person looking for bugs/testing the code.
The early microbee had a similar reset key, and I'm reminded of it when I hit the power off switch on my PC accidently or to soon (utering the phrase "oh, damn"), and then have to do comlicated areobatics to shut the machine down properly.
At least the microbee only reset when you released the key, but still a pain when you hit it. (not just figurativly either, finger cramps from not moving, "come on hurry up!")
My concern is that it should be the choice of the user to be anonymous in a tracking system.
Why? What have you got to hide? You must be doing something worng if you're trying to hide. Everyone else has no problems with showing thier IDs...
My point is if you have to willing ask to be anonymous, most people will be suspicious, and it will stand out in against others who don't care/know better. Similar to caller ID, how many people in the general public even know who to turn it off? Or for that matter are even aware that they can turn if off?
tooth == The Ogre On The Hill (I'm tall and fairly... solid, and our house was on a hill, haha... *groans*)
From ad&d (of course) circa 1990. Also for a joke, I used to write very occasional letters to my friends, writting in crayon, large letters and lots of mis-spellings (not hard for me!) and signed them "tooth". Get a puzzled phone call in a few days... "Is this from you?"
...in order to ensure the rapid tabulation of results.
Don't be fooled by the media. It's not a race. The media is about the only one to benifit from quick results. You don't win prizes because your electorate was counted quickly. Also postal ballots take about a week before the results from them become known.
This is such a freaking troll if I ever saw one...
I mean you *have* to vote or they fine you.
What's wrong with that? I have absolutly no problem with that at all! It makes people at least take an interest in who is running the country, unlike the US, where the turn out rate is pathetic
They drive Holdens and insist that they're somehow different from Fords.
Umm, that's because they are different. The same way Ford and GM are different in the US.
why state run television is a Bad Thing (tm)
The ABC is extreamly under-funded due to cut backs. It has produced some of Australias' best talent. More than I can say of "home and away" etc.(Corp. funded generic soap)
a long held "all white" immigration policy
That's long gone. Melbourne has the highest Greek population outside of athens, and Sydney is also a very multi-cultural city. I'd like to see some stats on a US city. I had heard a stat that the chinese population in NT was 7 times greater then "british" during the early 1900s'
India ushers forth from it's collective womb the entire population of Australia each year
Mass over population is a good thing now?
an un-homogenious population...
more trolling...see above
There's a lot of things that I'm not proud of, but you've missed the mark on what is important... Try reading some papers for the current issues in this country, not ones that are 20-40 years old.
Seeing as there are virtually no posts here, I'd thought that I'd chip in with my meager little post.
hmmm, the article wasn't very descriptive and fairly light weight, but hey, it's cnn. What I don't understand is how could two galaxies "merge" unless they were heading in very similar directions. As the distance between stars is so great, wouldn't most pass through and not touch anything? Of course there's gravity, which is where this seems strange -- How could the milky-way retain so much ot it's spiral structure? Wouldn't they rip each other apart and send stars left and right?
So, I'm guessing for this to happen one galaxy would be very much smaller than the other, and that they would have to been heading on very similar paths in the universe (3 dimensional thinking? gawd hadn't thought of any more).
The article stated that finding the stars still with the other galaxys' orbit. If this is posible, wouldn't they keep moving straight through? No, gravity would probably change the orbits. So I guess that they are looking for stars with non-normal orbits, but as to keeping the original orbit? I kinda doubt it. Okay, he said "similar", but still? Could merging galaxies settle down, buy a nice quite lot out in the suburbs of the universe and raise thier own little satellite universes?
Slashdot Mirror
I'll try to keep this short. In Australia there is a body called the ACCC, I can't remember what the letters stand for for, but basically they are around to keep the big corps honest.
An example of the function of the ACCC: At my place of work (large retail company) when the GST came through, most of the bosses were shit scared of the ACCC and that attitude was reflected in our attention to detail with the GST. It really paid off, and I'd say that it was very sucsesful.
Recently I heard a few news reports that the ACCC were going to start investigating the region coding on DVDs and the artificial monoply it created. I'd love to see the guys in the ACCC take on the MPAA and give Australians the opertunity to buy multi-region players.
Has anyone heard any more about what's currently happening with this?
It probably all balances out in the end though (weight vs inertia etc.)
The builder of the universe, space and time... wow :)
This is why organised religions piss me off; peace, love and joy, happy singing and dancing? bah, more like Master Engineer :)
agreed!!
Informative? Didn't anyone get the joke?
It's not racist, it's just engrish.
Anyway, check out the brain, it might be close to what you're talking about (note: it's not open source/free software)
Oh, that's not what you meant :)
I'll give you a hint...
When you click on a link in "older stuff" and you see:
Posted by timothy on 27/03/01 0:40
Stop reading and press the "Back" button on your browser.
The WikiWikiWeb works because:
So that's it - insecure, indiscriminate, user-hostile, slow, and full of difficult, nit-picking people. Any other online community would count each of these strengths as a terrible flaw. Perhaps wiki works because the other online communities don't. --PeterMerel
Personally, I think you'd be better of not doing this calculation, because you have to pay a person to work all these things out. I'd rather have that person looking for bugs/testing the code.
At least the microbee only reset when you released the key, but still a pain when you hit it. (not just figurativly either, finger cramps from not moving, "come on hurry up!")
Someone once told me that you don't ask for permission to install Linux, you ask for forgiveness.
I was being sarcastic
Why? What have you got to hide? You must be doing something worng if you're trying to hide. Everyone else has no problems with showing thier IDs...
My point is if you have to willing ask to be anonymous, most people will be suspicious, and it will stand out in against others who don't care/know better. Similar to caller ID, how many people in the general public even know who to turn it off? Or for that matter are even aware that they can turn if off?
fishy gives "Fett" for fat, and "fat lightning" gives "fetter Blitz"
tooth == The Ogre On The Hill (I'm tall and fairly... solid, and our house was on a hill, haha... *groans*)
From ad&d (of course) circa 1990. Also for a joke, I used to write very occasional letters to my friends, writting in crayon, large letters and lots of mis-spellings (not hard for me!) and signed them "tooth". Get a puzzled phone call in a few days... "Is this from you?"
Yes, simple things do amuse simple minds.
Easy, 42. Can I have some cheese now? *squeak* ;)
Don't be fooled by the media. It's not a race. The media is about the only one to benifit from quick results. You don't win prizes because your electorate was counted quickly. Also postal ballots take about a week before the results from them become known.
I mean you *have* to vote or they fine you.
What's wrong with that? I have absolutly no problem with that at all! It makes people at least take an interest in who is running the country, unlike the US, where the turn out rate is pathetic
They drive Holdens and insist that they're somehow different from Fords.
Umm, that's because they are different. The same way Ford and GM are different in the US.
why state run television is a Bad Thing (tm)
The ABC is extreamly under-funded due to cut backs. It has produced some of Australias' best talent. More than I can say of "home and away" etc.(Corp. funded generic soap)
a long held "all white" immigration policy
That's long gone. Melbourne has the highest Greek population outside of athens, and Sydney is also a very multi-cultural city. I'd like to see some stats on a US city. I had heard a stat that the chinese population in NT was 7 times greater then "british" during the early 1900s'
India ushers forth from it's collective womb the entire population of Australia each year
Mass over population is a good thing now?
an un-homogenious population...
more trolling...see above
There's a lot of things that I'm not proud of, but you've missed the mark on what is important... Try reading some papers for the current issues in this country, not ones that are 20-40 years old.
Probably one of the most thought out posts in this thread! If I had some mod points... :)
Looks like the story has been changed now.
Another link along the "roll your own" line: http://cajun.sourceforge.net/
hehe :) When I read this article I fired up the "galaxy" screen saver in X and watched them rip each other apart. Not very realistic, but still fun :)
hmmm, the article wasn't very descriptive and fairly light weight, but hey, it's cnn. What I don't understand is how could two galaxies "merge" unless they were heading in very similar directions. As the distance between stars is so great, wouldn't most pass through and not touch anything? Of course there's gravity, which is where this seems strange -- How could the milky-way retain so much ot it's spiral structure? Wouldn't they rip each other apart and send stars left and right?
So, I'm guessing for this to happen one galaxy would be very much smaller than the other, and that they would have to been heading on very similar paths in the universe (3 dimensional thinking? gawd hadn't thought of any more).
The article stated that finding the stars still with the other galaxys' orbit. If this is posible, wouldn't they keep moving straight through? No, gravity would probably change the orbits. So I guess that they are looking for stars with non-normal orbits, but as to keeping the original orbit? I kinda doubt it. Okay, he said "similar", but still? Could merging galaxies settle down, buy a nice quite lot out in the suburbs of the universe and raise thier own little satellite universes?
-- tooth, trying to post something on topic :)