This is probably (it's untested, hence the "probably") untrue. One of the rights that is reserved for the copyright holders under Title 17 is the right to make derivative works. Modifying code would almost certainly be seen as making a derivative work, at least if the changes are more than an extremely minor patch or something, and hence a violation without the copyright holder's permission.
Uhmmm. What? You can change your copy all you want. If I go out and buy the latest Stephen King novel and change the ending to something that makes sense, I'm not violating the copyright until I start passing out revised copies.
Heck, if people couldn't alter OS code to suit their needs, what would be the point of OS? If the copyright holder had to approve the changes, that defeats the whole purpose, obviously.
But when I did that, I found I was coming up a few inches short, even though I knew certain things would fit.
Sounds like you were getting centerline dimensions for the walls. In other words, the software was taking your dimensions and assuming that they were from center of wall to center of wall. If you've done any architectural drafting, this should make total sense. But, if you want to compensate, add 4.5" to each measurement you make that is from wall to wall. It is most likely that the software is using that figure for nominal wall thickness. Here's why:
The dimensions you provide the software should be from center of wall to center of wall. Since two walls are involved in each measurement, add two half-thicknesses to your measurements.
The reason why center to center is so important, BTW, can best be illustrated by measuring each room in a house and then comparing those figures to exterior dimensions. You'd be surprised at the amount of "space" in a house that is consumed by walls.
"It is better that ten guilty escape than one innocent suffer." -- William Blackstone
Rounding people up the way the government did after 9/11 was just less public than the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII but not any less heinous. Remember folks, we actually have a history in this country of yanking the rights of fellow citizens for our own sense of security. The fact that the government is being more selective this time doesn't excuse their behavior.
No tour of the US would be complete without a stop in Las Vegas. While I hate every inch of the City in which I presently reside, it is worth seeing once. Just don't stay. Here's some worthwhile attractions:
Hoover Dam - Take the "dam tour." Red Rock Grand Canyon King Tut's Tomb @ Luxor Shark Reef @ Mandalay Bay Indoor Skydiving Freemont Street Experience - booze, drunks, hookers, gambling, and a 4-block-long light show.
As for shows, it'll all depend on when you're here, but I highly recommend the Blue Man Group (also @ Luxor) and Rita Rudner @ New York, New York.
I find the carbohydrates vs. fats arguments silly. It's all about calories. It's simple: If you take in more than you burn per day, no matter what the source, you gain weight.
Not necessarily. Here's the rationale for low-carb diets in a nutshell:
1. In order to store calories as fat, the body needs insulin to get the sugar from the blood into the cells. 2. Most carbohydrates drive up the blood-sugar level causing the release of insulin. 3. If you greatly reduce or eliminate carbs from your diet, you have a very hard time storing excess calories due to the short supply of insulin.
So,
4. If you eliminate or reduce carbs, you have a very hard time creating new fat storage.
The trick, then, is to manage to burn existing stores. On a low/no-carb diet, any excersize that triggers the burning of fat should be permanent weight loss.
You are correct in saying that you need to burn more than you consume to lose weight, but a low-carb diet gives you a net to work with. If you consume too many calories in a day, you won't lose weight, but you won't gain either (as long as the excess isn't carbs.)
This advice comes to you from someone who's managed to lose 114 lbs dieting and has kept it off. I got BIG sitting at the computer. I can tell you that there's no substitute for excersize, but the right restrictions on intake can help a lot. Any Slashdotters who want some serious advice/support from someone who's been their, just drop me an email.
Google does have a tendency to skew results towards shopping, though.
There's a potential explanation for this:
One of the key factors in Google's ranking of pages is how often the page is linked to by other pages. I guess their thinking is that people will link to the more useful pages on the 'net from their own pages more often than the non-useful pages.
One flaw in their thinking is the presence of advertising. Banner Ads, referral programs, and the like create a lot of unmerited linking to eCommerce sites.
I think MSN has them pegged on this point, though it wouldn't be hard for google to offer a search checkbox that attempts to filter out eCommerce sites from the search (like automatically appending -price, -cart, etc).
To tie this back to the automobile parallel, I'm sorry, but if you don't know what a "steering wheel," or a "shifter," or a "signal lever," "gas pedal," "brake," or any number of other controls in the car are BY NAME (and how to use them for that matter), you shouldn't be driving a car.
If only operating a computer without knowing simple things like this were as hazardous to your health.
IBM is going make sure to drag this out and make it as expensive for SCO as possible. By the time any decisions will have been rendered by a judge, it will likely be irrelevant.
Here, here.
In all likelyhood, IBM will drag it out until SCO is dead. It's the only sensible response.
If SCO wanted to save face, and perhaps live on, they'd do better to turn 180 degrees and contribute to Linux. They could actually make a market for an SCO Linux distro and port their proprietary applications to run on their Linux distro and keep licensing the apps the way they always have.
My mother went through this to collect back rent from a tennant:
After securing a judgement, ensure that they're are notified of the judgement and given a small window of time to pay. After that, engage the services of the county sheriff where they are located. Sheriff's have the authority to seize property to settle small claims judgements.
Since TiVo viewers are already paying close attention to the screen, advertisers could get their message across by displaying the product/deal their pitching as a still on part of the screen. A few seconds of seeing "This Show Sponsored by Chex Cereal" on the bottom of the screen during a fast forward would be, I think, more effective than 30 seconds of pitch wherein they rarely even mention the product until the very end anyway.
As for enforcing existing laws, remember that the point of every spam is to get money; so law enforcement simply needs to buy things from spammers and follow the cash. If any transaction could be a sting, many would stop for fear of getting caught.
Keeping people from sending spam is substantially easier than keeping people from receiving spam.
Mail coming in from outside your address space must be destined for your address space to be acceptible. Only relay messages originating within your address space. This functionality is now built into Sendmail, but I remember when it wasn't and had to add it myself.
It is possible, despite the quote re: Sendmail, to track X messages sent per IP over Y time, and begin issuing errors to the sender if the volume is higher than proscribed. You can even allow for email lists, if they're know to you, to be exempt. This is not easy to implement in Sendmail (the rules took a long while to hash out) but now that you can link external programs into sendmail's processing of messages, a child could do it.
The real issue, however, for ISPs is dealing with inbound SPAM. For that, there are no easy fixes. Much of it is no longer domestic in origin. With processors getting faster, it may be possible to implement a Bayesian filter at the ISP level, saving each individual user from the trouble. You could plant bogus addresses as spam traps in the path of spammers then assume that mail to those addresses are bad and assume messages to real accounts are good and then let the bayesian filter take over. You could also provide a mechanism to feed other messages into the bad portion of the filter (e.g., spam that slips through).
For users that are concerned about the possibility of false positives (much higher with balcklists, BTW) give them the option to opt in or out at will (defaulting to in, I'd think.)
Slashdot Mirror
This is probably (it's untested, hence the "probably") untrue. One of the rights that is reserved for the copyright holders under Title 17 is the right to make derivative works. Modifying code would almost certainly be seen as making a derivative work, at least if the changes are more than an extremely minor patch or something, and hence a violation without the copyright holder's permission.
Uhmmm. What? You can change your copy all you want. If I go out and buy the latest Stephen King novel and change the ending to something that makes sense, I'm not violating the copyright until I start passing out revised copies.
Heck, if people couldn't alter OS code to suit their needs, what would be the point of OS? If the copyright holder had to approve the changes, that defeats the whole purpose, obviously.
But when I did that, I found I was coming up a few inches short, even though I knew certain things would fit.
Sounds like you were getting centerline dimensions for the walls. In other words, the software was taking your dimensions and assuming that they were from center of wall to center of wall. If you've done any architectural drafting, this should make total sense. But, if you want to compensate, add 4.5" to each measurement you make that is from wall to wall. It is most likely that the software is using that figure for nominal wall thickness. Here's why:
Typical framing material = nominal 2x4 studs (actually 1 3/4"x3 1/2" finished)
Typical sheetrock = 1/2" thick.
The dimensions you provide the software should be from center of wall to center of wall. Since two walls are involved in each measurement, add two half-thicknesses to your measurements.
The reason why center to center is so important, BTW, can best be illustrated by measuring each room in a house and then comparing those figures to exterior dimensions. You'd be surprised at the amount of "space" in a house that is consumed by walls.
Rounding people up the way the government did after 9/11 was just less public than the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII but not any less heinous. Remember folks, we actually have a history in this country of yanking the rights of fellow citizens for our own sense of security. The fact that the government is being more selective this time doesn't excuse their behavior.
And everyone named "Scott" now owes SCO $99 for embedded use of their name.
There's a bunch of companies they can go after:
ciSCO, nabiSCO, and teSCO just to name a few.
No tour of the US would be complete without a stop in Las Vegas. While I hate every inch of the City in which I presently reside, it is worth seeing once. Just don't stay. Here's some worthwhile attractions:
Hoover Dam - Take the "dam tour."
Red Rock
Grand Canyon
King Tut's Tomb @ Luxor
Shark Reef @ Mandalay Bay
Indoor Skydiving
Freemont Street Experience - booze, drunks, hookers, gambling, and a 4-block-long light show.
As for shows, it'll all depend on when you're here, but I highly recommend the Blue Man Group (also @ Luxor) and Rita Rudner @ New York, New York.
I find the carbohydrates vs. fats arguments silly. It's all about calories. It's simple: If you take in more than you burn per day, no matter what the source, you gain weight.
Not necessarily. Here's the rationale for low-carb diets in a nutshell:
1. In order to store calories as fat, the body needs insulin to get the sugar from the blood into the cells.
2. Most carbohydrates drive up the blood-sugar level causing the release of insulin.
3. If you greatly reduce or eliminate carbs from your diet, you have a very hard time storing excess calories due to the short supply of insulin.
So,
4. If you eliminate or reduce carbs, you have a very hard time creating new fat storage.
The trick, then, is to manage to burn existing stores. On a low/no-carb diet, any excersize that triggers the burning of fat should be permanent weight loss.
You are correct in saying that you need to burn more than you consume to lose weight, but a low-carb diet gives you a net to work with. If you consume too many calories in a day, you won't lose weight, but you won't gain either (as long as the excess isn't carbs.)
This advice comes to you from someone who's managed to lose 114 lbs dieting and has kept it off. I got BIG sitting at the computer. I can tell you that there's no substitute for excersize, but the right restrictions on intake can help a lot. Any Slashdotters who want some serious advice/support from someone who's been their, just drop me an email.
Google does have a tendency to skew results towards shopping, though.
There's a potential explanation for this:
One of the key factors in Google's ranking of pages is how often the page is linked to by other pages. I guess their thinking is that people will link to the more useful pages on the 'net from their own pages more often than the non-useful pages.
One flaw in their thinking is the presence of advertising. Banner Ads, referral programs, and the like create a lot of unmerited linking to eCommerce sites.
I think MSN has them pegged on this point, though it wouldn't be hard for google to offer a search checkbox that attempts to filter out eCommerce sites from the search (like automatically appending -price, -cart, etc).
To tie this back to the automobile parallel, I'm sorry, but if you don't know what a "steering wheel," or a "shifter," or a "signal lever," "gas pedal," "brake," or any number of other controls in the car are BY NAME (and how to use them for that matter), you shouldn't be driving a car.
If only operating a computer without knowing simple things like this were as hazardous to your health.
IBM is going make sure to drag this out and make it as expensive for SCO as possible. By the time any decisions will have been rendered by a judge, it will likely be irrelevant.
Here, here.
In all likelyhood, IBM will drag it out until SCO is dead. It's the only sensible response.
If SCO wanted to save face, and perhaps live on, they'd do better to turn 180 degrees and contribute to Linux. They could actually make a market for an SCO Linux distro and port their proprietary applications to run on their Linux distro and keep licensing the apps the way they always have.
My mother went through this to collect back rent from a tennant:
After securing a judgement, ensure that they're are notified of the judgement and given a small window of time to pay. After that, engage the services of the county sheriff where they are located. Sheriff's have the authority to seize property to settle small claims judgements.
The estimates range from 13 million to 113 million people downloading music.
I'd heard it estimated differently:
In regards to P2P sharing of copyrighted materials "There are more unindicted felons in the US than voted for Bush in the last election."
Clearly, copyright law needs to catch up with technology.
It's decompressing the file that's hard.
You can compress all your files down to a single bit using this patented two step process:
1. Discard all zeros.
2. Use one to represent any length sequence of ones.
This is as reliable a compression scheme as most backups to tape I've ever seen, and you can fit a huge number of files onto a single floppy.
That's like landing a space shuttle in the LA river, or something.
Limiting my list to ones I like so much, in contrast to most people, that I own copies:
About A Boy
The Big Lebowski
Falling Down
Heathers
Human Traffic
Kelly's Heroes
Office Space
The Opposite of Sex
The Prophecy
Ronin
Sliding Doors
Nearly all of these require an explanation every time I have company.
Since TiVo viewers are already paying close attention to the screen, advertisers could get their message across by displaying the product/deal their pitching as a still on part of the screen. A few seconds of seeing "This Show Sponsored by Chex Cereal" on the bottom of the screen during a fast forward would be, I think, more effective than 30 seconds of pitch wherein they rarely even mention the product until the very end anyway.
--
This post sponsored by Caffeine.
You bastards! I spent a lifetime worth of slowdowns just reading the bloody post. ;)
I once wrote a group task and schedule tracker which we called Basic Daily Schedule Manager. It really whipped our office into shape.
As for enforcing existing laws, remember that the point of every spam is to get money; so law enforcement simply needs to buy things from spammers and follow the cash. If any transaction could be a sting, many would stop for fear of getting caught.
Keeping people from sending spam is substantially easier than keeping people from receiving spam.
Mail coming in from outside your address space must be destined for your address space to be acceptible. Only relay messages originating within your address space. This functionality is now built into Sendmail, but I remember when it wasn't and had to add it myself.
It is possible, despite the quote re: Sendmail, to track X messages sent per IP over Y time, and begin issuing errors to the sender if the volume is higher than proscribed. You can even allow for email lists, if they're know to you, to be exempt. This is not easy to implement in Sendmail (the rules took a long while to hash out) but now that you can link external programs into sendmail's processing of messages, a child could do it.
The real issue, however, for ISPs is dealing with inbound SPAM. For that, there are no easy fixes. Much of it is no longer domestic in origin. With processors getting faster, it may be possible to implement a Bayesian filter at the ISP level, saving each individual user from the trouble. You could plant bogus addresses as spam traps in the path of spammers then assume that mail to those addresses are bad and assume messages to real accounts are good and then let the bayesian filter take over. You could also provide a mechanism to feed other messages into the bad portion of the filter (e.g., spam that slips through).
For users that are concerned about the possibility of false positives (much higher with balcklists, BTW) give them the option to opt in or out at will (defaulting to in, I'd think.)
Digital 4-track recorders do exist. Glad I could help.
Did I miss something on the news? Did the 9/11 hijackers spend a lot of time reading?
I guess since they cannot censor books they dislike out of existence, they'll just persecute people who read them. Nice end-run.
If Muhammed Atta drank double-mocha latte's at Starbucks on a daily basis, and I order the same thing, does that make me a terrorist?
and find out how the NSA/CIA hack boxes.
Give each honeypot an IP of 127.0.0.1. All the co01 wArEz is there. Crackers will flock to them.
You mean... somebody at google used to work for the dreaded NSA?!?!!
This might be news if they still work for the NSA. But who really gives a damn if they've stopped.
For those with BRAVO, Inside the Actor's Studio will be having the cast of the Simpsons on this Sunday, February 9th at 8 pm (7 central)
For those planning on watching the Simpsons at 8pm Sunday, Bravo will be re-running it at midnight.