I infinitely prefer light mode to full slashdot. I find it so much more readable in light mode it's untrue. I'm tempted to say that if light mode disappeared it would probably mean that I'd spend less time reading slashdot. That's not a threat, I'm just stating how I feel.
I should probably point out that I have a broadband connection so speed isn't really an issue.
It means that I can tell if I'm logged in or not as well - if it's all black and green or whatever, I'm not:)
In the U.S. the media has helped entrench this culture, making it all right to blame external forces and people for everything from bad breath to... well, to EVERYTHING. It's really a shame.
Yeah, the US is typically viewed with amazement in the UK for just this reason. The whole "sue anybody for something that went wrong, because there no way it was my fault" thing is more than a bit ridiculous.
I heard recently (unverified), that the show "The Weakest Link" is being done in the US but that unlike here in the UK, all participants are being made to sign contracts/agreements stating that they won't sue the other members of the show for voting them out. Now that is stupid and shows just why these bigger cases come about.
I think that I'll agree with the other respondants to your comment and say that it's just bad programming practise. I'm not an expert, but what they've said made more sense.
Absolutely, and if you offer tangible benefits to having karma, it worsens things by far. Offering an option to turn off all banners for x points of karma - good idea; I'm sure that nobody will be a whore (fill out a few forms perhaps?) in order to reach that.
It *might* work better if you don't let people know how much karma they've got. That way, they can't boast about it even to themselves and they don't know how far they have to go to reach the next "goal", although if this was implemented I imagine we'd get a slashdot story one day: "OSDN Ad Banner Scoring System Found! (from the some-people-have-too-much-time dept.)"
e-paper is a fine idea, but I can't help but notice some flaws with it.
Firstly, is it a better solution for the environment? Paper isn't especially nasty stuff. It does decompose whereas plastic based paper wouldn't do quite so well. It also needs more materials to make (coloured oil and titanium dioxide), which may well become cheap if it's not already, but that doesn't make it a good idea.
Tied in with all this, there is the concept of upgrading. When you buy a book, you wouldn't "upgrade" because someone had brought out a newer version that was printed at a higher dpi than your current book. This may well happen with e-books made of e-paper. The potential waste is therefore increased. This will happen - it will be a thing that people compete over; "Well my book can hold 45 novels!".
My second concern is one that will probably cause a witch hunt on slashdot at some point in the future if it does happen. It's the issue of licensing. It may well happen that if we lose paper books, God forbid, it will become very difficult certain items permanently. We may have to rent books as opposed to buying them. It could also destroy libraries as we know them. Imagine, for example, being able to access every book stored at the British Library. Everybody could access the same book at once and not have to worry about overdue fines:)
I'm not completely against e-books, but I just don't think that they will be as superb as some people like to make out.
You don't necessarily have to have a low user id to appreciate how slashdot has changed. Mine is around 120000; I read slashdot for about six months before getting it though - had I have registered immediately, I would have possibly got an id 100k.
Nevertheless, I can still notice how slashdot has changed. It has become more "serious" and I tend to read a lot less than I used to. I used to read a good few articles a day. Now I maybe read one.
You'll notice that I agree with you though as this was the article that I was reading.
Would an American care to enlighten us non-us residents as to how these times compare to the usual delivery times of the USPS? Six to seven days is quite a long time and I just wondered whether that was usual for packaging in the US.
I've read many many times on slashdot, that the EULAs that many companies put on their products are "not really enforceable" and that they are just put there "to scare the user".
Is this the same here? Supposing I decided to break their licensing, do they have a leg to stand on?
Along with all these different types of transistors there have also been plenty of different types of technology that use them too. There isn't just a single universal "logic gate", but many types depending on how they were built.
For example:
TTL - "Standard" BJT logic. Appears in many forms that fairly compatible with one another.
ECL - BJT logic based on operating the BJTs in saturation, leading to big power usage. Needs negative power supply.
NMOS - MOSFET logic using just n-channel devices.
CMOS - MOSFET logic using both n and p-channel devices.
BiCMOS - design using the advantages of both BJTs and MOSFETs, ie. low static current requirements for the MOSFETs and higher drive of the BJTs.
There are, of course, other technologies other than those listed above. I'm just pointing out that it's not just that the transistors have been getting smaller (as you are too, this post would probably be better off attached to your parent)
As a slight side track, it shouldn't be forgotten that not everybody uses tiny transistors. I'm currently characterising the operation of a CMOS op-amp which uses a 2um process. One of the output stage transistors has a gate width of around 950um. Think about it, that's ~1mm.
They do have this in some places. Germany for instance. Somebody I know was working in Germany as an Au-Pair and the family she was staying with installed an extra phone line just for her. Her number was (xxxxx) xxxxxx and the house number was (xxxxx) xxxxx, both with the same area codes. She had a longer area code because she lived in a village. If you live in a city you can get shorter area codes and shorter numbers.
Second, don't kid yourself into thinking you'll pick up the language.
I couldn't agree more. It's just not going to happen. I studied last year at a german university as the third year of my degree. I'd been learning german for about five years prior to that at school and university. Whilst I was there, I took lots and lots of german language courses and spent lots of time talking german. I spent very very little time speaking english.
After all that time I would in no way say that I am fluent. I could get by nicely enough and express all I wanted to say in long conversations, but it was no where fluent. For fluency, you're talking two to three years in close contact with the native speakers, whilst taking lessons - some of my friends who had been there longer confirmed this. If you don't take lessons and just try and pick it up, which is possible, it'll take a lot longer to get anywhere and you'll get to a certain point and get stuck on interesting grammatic topics that aren't obvious at all. Similar to not being able to say "I would have liked to do that" and such things.
Start learning now, the more grasp of the language you have before you go the better you'll do.
What happens when Cali slides into the ocean after a 9.99 quake?
It's a good point, but as for an event that may well take out an awful lot of the US, try a Mega Tsunami.
In the Canary Islands, there is an island called La Palma. From one of the sites that I'll link to:
"Dr Simon Day, of Benfield Greig Hazard research Centre, UCL, says the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma is unstable and could collapse during a major eruption. This might send half a trillion tonnes of rock crashing into the sea at once."
Scary stuff. They theorise that the wave would have an initial height of 650 metres (2,130 feet) but that when it reached the US, it would only have enough strength to reach 12 miles inland and cause lots of damage to the east coast. It would only take about 6 hours to cross the atlantic.
For all of you who are comparing Gopher and HTML by saying that Gopher is better because it doesn't have all of the unnecessary eye candy - how many of you are viewing Slashdot in light mode?
The REAL problem with moving from IPv4 to IPv6 is it will let even MORE stupid people get on the net.
Ah yes, that'll be those newbies that have been waiting until IPv6 was out then?
Something like:
Newbie 1: IPv6 is being used everywhere! We can get on the net now!
Newbie 2: Cool! But what does a mouse do?
Will IPv6 actually cause any more people to get connected to the net? I doubt it. Ok, so it might make it possible for them to be connected, but that's a different thing.
I don't see why newbies should be any worse, just because IPv6 is being used.
Slashdot Mirror
RTFA next time, troll!
This happens so much that it suprises me that the "slashdot effect" actually exists sometimes.
Ah well,
oojah
--
I infinitely prefer light mode to full slashdot. I find it so much more readable in light mode it's untrue. I'm tempted to say that if light mode disappeared it would probably mean that I'd spend less time reading slashdot. That's not a threat, I'm just stating how I feel.
:)
I should probably point out that I have a broadband connection so speed isn't really an issue.
It means that I can tell if I'm logged in or not as well - if it's all black and green or whatever, I'm not
oojah
--
Guess I should watch TV more :)
--
That's an awful lot of damage. Could somebody more in touch with these things tell me how figures for damages such as these are cooked up?
Cheers,
oojah
--
In the U.S. the media has helped entrench this culture, making it all right to blame external forces and people for everything from bad breath to ... well, to EVERYTHING. It's really a shame.
Yeah, the US is typically viewed with amazement in the UK for just this reason. The whole "sue anybody for something that went wrong, because there no way it was my fault" thing is more than a bit ridiculous.
I heard recently (unverified), that the show "The Weakest Link" is being done in the US but that unlike here in the UK, all participants are being made to sign contracts/agreements stating that they won't sue the other members of the show for voting them out. Now that is stupid and shows just why these bigger cases come about.
Cheers, oojah
--
http://www.trust.com/products/frame-product.htm?ar tnr=11933
--
+1 Funny ?
:)
Never mind, maybe it's a bit too far from most slashdot readers' sphere of knowledge.
I appreciated it though
oojah
I think that I'll agree with the other respondants to your comment and say that it's just bad programming practise. I'm not an expert, but what they've said made more sense.
TurboC on Win98SE gives 9=9.
oojah
Absolutely, and if you offer tangible benefits to having karma, it worsens things by far. Offering an option to turn off all banners for x points of karma - good idea; I'm sure that nobody will be a whore (fill out a few forms perhaps?) in order to reach that.
It *might* work better if you don't let people know how much karma they've got. That way, they can't boast about it even to themselves and they don't know how far they have to go to reach the next "goal", although if this was implemented I imagine we'd get a slashdot story one day: "OSDN Ad Banner Scoring System Found! (from the some-people-have-too-much-time dept.)"
oojah
So what are you saying? Our parents should be able to patent our cells? :)
oojah
e-paper is a fine idea, but I can't help but notice some flaws with it.
:)
Firstly, is it a better solution for the environment? Paper isn't especially nasty stuff. It does decompose whereas plastic based paper wouldn't do quite so well. It also needs more materials to make (coloured oil and titanium dioxide), which may well become cheap if it's not already, but that doesn't make it a good idea.
Tied in with all this, there is the concept of upgrading. When you buy a book, you wouldn't "upgrade" because someone had brought out a newer version that was printed at a higher dpi than your current book. This may well happen with e-books made of e-paper. The potential waste is therefore increased. This will happen - it will be a thing that people compete over; "Well my book can hold 45 novels!".
My second concern is one that will probably cause a witch hunt on slashdot at some point in the future if it does happen. It's the issue of licensing. It may well happen that if we lose paper books, God forbid, it will become very difficult certain items permanently. We may have to rent books as opposed to buying them. It could also destroy libraries as we know them. Imagine, for example, being able to access every book stored at the British Library. Everybody could access the same book at once and not have to worry about overdue fines
I'm not completely against e-books, but I just don't think that they will be as superb as some people like to make out.
oojah
Having read a good few responses to this article, I have come to the conclusion that I often do when reading slashdot.
A little ignorance goes a long way.
Come on people, don't post just for the sake of it.
oojah
You don't necessarily have to have a low user id to appreciate how slashdot has changed. Mine is around 120000; I read slashdot for about six months before getting it though - had I have registered immediately, I would have possibly got an id 100k.
Nevertheless, I can still notice how slashdot has changed. It has become more "serious" and I tend to read a lot less than I used to. I used to read a good few articles a day. Now I maybe read one.
You'll notice that I agree with you though as this was the article that I was reading.
oojah
Would an American care to enlighten us non-us residents as to how these times compare to the usual delivery times of the USPS? Six to seven days is quite a long time and I just wondered whether that was usual for packaging in the US.
oojah
I've read many many times on slashdot, that the EULAs that many companies put on their products are "not really enforceable" and that they are just put there "to scare the user".
Is this the same here? Supposing I decided to break their licensing, do they have a leg to stand on?
oojah
For example:
There are, of course, other technologies other than those listed above. I'm just pointing out that it's not just that the transistors have been getting smaller (as you are too, this post would probably be better off attached to your parent)
As a slight side track, it shouldn't be forgotten that not everybody uses tiny transistors. I'm currently characterising the operation of a CMOS op-amp which uses a 2um process. One of the output stage transistors has a gate width of around 950um. Think about it, that's ~1mm.
oojah
They do have this in some places. Germany for instance. Somebody I know was working in Germany as an Au-Pair and the family she was staying with installed an extra phone line just for her. Her number was (xxxxx) xxxxxx and the house number was (xxxxx) xxxxx, both with the same area codes. She had a longer area code because she lived in a village. If you live in a city you can get shorter area codes and shorter numbers.
oojah
My desktop has currently got 384MB in it. That's just because I've got a 128MB dimm that is for my mum and I'll give her the next time I'm at theirs.
Windows reports having just 43% (166MB) free at the moment.
oojah
Firstly: Not Everyone is connected. I would divide your estimate by a quarter.
:)
So that's 15300 / 0.25 = 61200 Terabytes. Eeek!
Sorry, couldn't resist it
oojah
If Britain has such a great history of Freedom, then why did my ancestors have to sail across the atlantic 500 years ago looking for freedom?
One man's medicine is another man's poison.
Second, don't kid yourself into thinking you'll pick up the language.
I couldn't agree more. It's just not going to happen. I studied last year at a german university as the third year of my degree. I'd been learning german for about five years prior to that at school and university. Whilst I was there, I took lots and lots of german language courses and spent lots of time talking german. I spent very very little time speaking english.
After all that time I would in no way say that I am fluent. I could get by nicely enough and express all I wanted to say in long conversations, but it was no where fluent. For fluency, you're talking two to three years in close contact with the native speakers, whilst taking lessons - some of my friends who had been there longer confirmed this. If you don't take lessons and just try and pick it up, which is possible, it'll take a lot longer to get anywhere and you'll get to a certain point and get stuck on interesting grammatic topics that aren't obvious at all. Similar to not being able to say "I would have liked to do that" and such things.
Start learning now, the more grasp of the language you have before you go the better you'll do.
oojah
It's a good point, but as for an event that may well take out an awful lot of the US, try a Mega Tsunami.
In the Canary Islands, there is an island called La Palma. From one of the sites that I'll link to:
Scary stuff. They theorise that the wave would have an initial height of 650 metres (2,130 feet) but that when it reached the US, it would only have enough strength to reach 12 miles inland and cause lots of damage to the east coast. It would only take about 6 hours to cross the atlantic.
The BBC did a really interesting programme on it.
Some links:
BBC TV listing blurb
A map showing La Palma
"Mega-Tsunami" Site
BBC news coverage
I'm sure that searching for "mega tsunami" will bring up lots more links.
oojah
I read with nested at level 2.
This is perfect for me, but I can imagine that at -1 it might get a bit hectic.
Cheers,
oojah
For all of you who are comparing Gopher and HTML by saying that Gopher is better because it doesn't have all of the unnecessary eye candy - how many of you are viewing Slashdot in light mode?
Just wondered.
oojah
The REAL problem with moving from IPv4 to IPv6 is it will let even MORE stupid people get on the net.
Ah yes, that'll be those newbies that have been waiting until IPv6 was out then?
Something like:
Newbie 1: IPv6 is being used everywhere! We can get on the net now!
Newbie 2: Cool! But what does a mouse do?
Will IPv6 actually cause any more people to get connected to the net? I doubt it. Ok, so it might make it possible for them to be connected, but that's a different thing.
I don't see why newbies should be any worse, just because IPv6 is being used.
oojah