My question is, can someone describe to me in SIMPLE terms what a Mersenne prime is?
f(x)=(2^x)-1. "f(x)" is prime. Another way of thinking about it is like this. In binary representation, all the bits are set to "1". There are a few of these for small x, but as it gets larger, the primes are few and far between. One of the issues in mathematics is figuring out if there is a "last" Mersenne prime. Is there one so big there isn't one larger of this special form? I doubt it, but nobody can prove it one way or another (yet).
I have only been laid off once. Every other time I either quit with two weeks notice, or reached the end of a fixed-length contract. I didn't see it coming, but the boss did tell me in person and did explain why -- I was a very good worker, but business wasn't doing well. The most recent hire had to go, and that was me. Of course a month or two later my boss got fired for mismanaging, cooking the books, etc. by the owner of the business, and they could afford more workers.
Anyway, I think the personal approach is best. If I ever got laid off and it wasn't my immediate supervisor, team lead, etc, telling me face to face, I'd be pissed. I can't say I'd be Mr. Milton and burn down the building, but I would definitely discourage friends from working there.
Yes, he is, but sometimes that's what it takes to get the job done. He doesn't let people walk all over him: he is self-assertive because he believes what he believes so strongly. If it weren't for him, free and open source software wouldn't exist the way it does today. I'm sure it would exist, but we'd be very far behind the power curve.
I agree. I find that wikis are more like FAQs. People collaborate to explain a topic and answer common processes, questions, and issues. However, we've all been in a bind where we have some esoteric problem that no FAQ in the universe cannot answer: by the very nature of the problem, it is not "Frequent" enough. Forums are a great place to discuss these issues. Another advantage is talking about new developments, discussing rumors about the future. E.g. a new motorcycle coming out, a new game, new software patch, etc. before it is released. In a way this is social bantering about junk that doesn't really matter in a practical way, it's just a bunch of guys talking about what they'd like to see in a product, or speculation. It doesn't belong in a wiki, but can be useful nonetheless. A beginner can read a discussion like this and gain some insight into the topic -- what do people like or dislike about a product or process? How does an experienced user think? What do they find useful?
As you said, the two will live together. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and each has its place.
I've been disillusioned to them since I read the Diablo II strategy guide and like many I had read before it seemed to be a series of common sense suggestions, and a rehashing of in-game help & manual information. More importantly, it often suggested strategies, character builds, and skill combinations that were bad. The most annoying is information which is out of date or incorrect!
I had the same impression of Diablo 2. I believe that by the time my preorder arrived, Blizzard already had the game patched including both bug fixes and skill changes. On top of this, the guide was clear in the introduction that it was based partly off information from the beta test. In order to have the guide ready at the same time as the game on launch day, including editing, proofing, printing, etc. it couldn't be up to date.
That, right there, is the key to the reason why most strategy guides suck. You can't have a printed guide ready, written while the game is being developed, and have it be accurate. On top of that, future changes will compound the issue. Look at a game like World of Warcraft -- writing a printed guide for it is like hitting a moving target. And even if you hit the target, it doesn't matter. You'll have to hit it again in a few weeks. This leads into your main point:
My recommendations:
Detailed information or strategy discussion -> Forums
Walkthrough for an unenjoyable/unsolvable puzzle -> Gamefaqs
Otherwise -> Enjoy the game unassisted
I think forums are the single greatest resource. Some of them can be very busy and difficult to read, but you know you'll get up to date information, strategies that work (or don't) and have user feedback. It isn't some author trying out a character build or strategy and thinking it works, except that it doesn't scale well. For example, a character build that works well for the first half of the game then sucks, or a strategy that only works part of the time. Forums weed this shit out. If someone posts a bad strategy, people will leave their two cents.
Disabilities? Try turning a doorknob when your hands are full, for example, when carrying a box. Trust me, I moved three times so far this year. It's a pain in the ass. Door handles make this much easier. Just push down to turn, then walk forward. Works great. Also, handles are better than knobs if you're drunk.
think that as we have also lost much of our sense of community in the US and the UK this kind of social pressure won't really have as much hold here.
I think it's more that Americans are lazy. I know from experience. Unless someone was top turd on my shit list, I wouldn't care enough to get off my lazy ass and give them a hard time.
That and we have almost 300,000,000 people in the U.S. scattered over a 3,000 mile stretch of land. South Korea is a bit smaller. There aren't as many places there to run and hide as in the U.S.
I don't know about GTA, but every iteration of Unreal Tournament that I have played has had parental controls over the blood and guts. I don't know its ESRB rating but let's just assume it's rated for 17 year olds because of the violence and gore. If you can reduce this in the game (and lock it down with a password the way UT does) then it would probably pass as acceptible for a 14 year old according to ESRB criteria. My point is that we, as parents, must evaluate the games for ourselves using the ESRB ratings as a guide.
I was once staying in a hotel and got a strange urge to look on top of the air conditioning duct running through the closet and found a 20 year old porno mag. So there *is* hidden treasure out there.
Depending on when exactly you found this 20 year old porno, I'm thinking of women from the 1980s or 1970s. I wouldn't call women from either era "hidden treasure." Come on, think of the hairdos!
This is the spammer's parents' house. If you read the article, you would know that the spammer drove an old beater car and never owned property. He was a millionaire on paper, not by lifestyle. Punishing his parents for his crime is wrong and illegal.
But it's all of little interest to actual astronomers, who need terms quite a bit more precise than "planet".
I was always taught the simple method: Stars are big and on fire. Planets orbit stars. Moons orbit planets. Small balls of rock with tails that zip around are comets. Broken, jagged peices of rock are asteroids. Those definitions have worked well for me my entire life, especially given that I am not an astronomer.
Any major browser besides IE offers bookmark import right at the installation, and as an option inside the browser program as well.
Even IE offers this functionality. I just started it up and imported my Firefox shortcuts, no problem. Of course the only thing I use IE for is the MSDN Library since it uses ActiveX, and the non-ActiveX (Firefox-compatible) version sucks.
I was able to get my girlfriend to switch to Firefox and to start drinking Guinness (and she now drinks it more than me). Anything is possible.
I think you and I need to have a talk. My wife won't drink beer, let alone Guinness. Also, she hates it when I go configuring shit on her computer. "But it works! Why are you making me use a different browser?" Sigh. How did you accomplish that feat?
Even if it does nothing for their marketshare, I would love to see IE7 be standards-compliant. Whether we like it or not, IE is bundled with windows and a lot of people end up using it by default. It hopefully would go a long way to getting websites to follow actual standards, not just MS standards.
Besides that, I think security is a good point. Since it is bundled with Windows and historically is a huge, gaping security hole, hopefully IE7 will cut down on the amount of malware. You may not be able to stop people from clicking "ok" to install crap, but at least worms won't infect it. Less malware and fewer botnets = good for the Internet. This is assuming, of course, that IE7/Vista really is more secure and standards-compliant. A man can dream, can't he? A man can dream...
But how many individual things does each toon have that aren't soulbound? Most of the best items in the game get soulbound to the player. So, the chop-shop thought doesn't work. Unless you are talking about a guild bank type player.
Guild bank aside, I have a ton of stuff on my account. I have tons of high level tradeskill junk like arcanite, mooncloth, stacks of thorium bars, essences, enchanting shards and dusts. I have some rare and epic items not souldbound just sitting in the bank. I have a few hundred gold (from selling junk like that arcanite and mooncloth). And I'm not even all that rich compared to most people on my server. Still, I'm sure I could liquidate most of my junk, sell the gold, then sell my level 60s. I'm sure I'd make at least a few hundred dollars, more than I spent on my subscription.
Seriously, if you really wanted to, you can hit 60 in WoW in a few weeks without killing yourself.
Looking at my characters' play time it doesn't look like much, but in order to keep my job and family, it would take a little longer. Maybe two months. Then again I choose to have some semblance of a life outside the game, even if not much of one.
I always hoped this idea would die a horrible death. First, because SDTV offers horrible resolution and the image is so blurry it's useless as a PC. Second, the interface sucks, and even with a wireless keyboard, it just doesn't work for most people in the living room. Even with a HDTV and wireless devices, it's more of a niche role.
I think the console game systems fill this niche, but not in the "living room PC" sense of the word. We have devices that offer living room gaming, DVRs, but not a "computer on the TV." Thank God! Every effort so far has sucked, not just because of its own merits (e.g. WebTV) but because the two ideas just don't mesh well. Maybe they will later on, but it's nothing I'll hold my breath for.
Well I can't get more detailed information, but on Episode 25: Brown Note of MythBusters they dissected this myth. I may be a computer scientist, not a physicist, but they sure answered this myth well enough for me: busted. Adam felt discomfort, but no bowel movements, pain, or other serious issues. Just didn't feel normal. He was surrounded by woofers and able to function normally.
Use 2 directional low frequency drivers pointed at his house that would cause him to have a bowel movement.
That is bullshit. Mythbusters busted that one a while ago, and unlike some of their attempts, I think they did a fairly thorough job with it. Adam did feel very uncomfortable at times, but nothing approaching pain or a bowel movement.
The rest of your post is great, however. Finding tones that interfere with each other in a range that is clealy audible to anyone with hearing, even old people who can't hear up around 20 KHz, is a great idea. It won't cause any damage, and probably won't escalate the situation.
I have one too and I love it. It warms up quickly, prints fast, and always produces excellent results. I had a minor problem setting it up on the network, however. Make sure you have DHCP enabled on your network. I use static IP with a nonstandard gateway IP address and workgroup name. The printer couldn't communicate until I changed this. Then I couldn't log in to the printer to set it up, because Brother thoughtfully failed to include the default password. Thankfully, Google came through and I found the password in seconds.
Anyway, aside from a half hour of frustration when I got it out of the box, this has been a faithful printer, outstanding in every way possible. Toner isn't too bad, between $40 and $80 depending on where you shop and whether you get the extended life cartridge (costs more, but less expensive from a toner per dollar perspective). I consider myself a low toner user, between my wife and I we go through a ream of paper in about two months on average. I've had the printer for around a year and am I think a quarter of the way through the cartridge. Compared to inkjet or low-end laser printers, this thing performs far better and has already saved us money.
You may joke about case modders, but I think modding is exactly what Windows itself needs. I don't want Luna, Aero, or whatever else Microsoft throws at me. What I want is a UI that is open enough to create my own themes. Gnome and KDE both allow this, and offer rich theming environments not only to change colors, border sizes, and other basic stuff, but to move buttons around or even create new ones. With Microsoft you can't do that without a specific software package. I forget what it is called, but the company that makes it has a special deal with Microsoft that gives them access to low-level shell functionality to enable custom themes.
Yet I still love the "Windows Classic" theme, even more so than most X themes. It is clean, simple, and gets the job done efficiently without getting in my way. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the best or perfect theme, but it's very well done.
Here is the class I assume the parent is referencing: Formatter class.
Essentially what happens is you don't have C-style varargs, the JRE silently creates an array for you when you pass the arguments. This doesn't waste "gobs of heap space" like the parent says, it uses the same amount as it would using the stack. Remember, these are objects, and Java never passes objects by value -- always by refence. So each argument wastes one machine word (usually 32 bits). Whoop de fucking doo. And, since it uses references, the only allocation/deallocation is the temporary array. And in 1.5 if not previous versions, this is very very fast. With a JIT compiler you'll hardly notice it. I do agree that the decision to make the class "final" is shitty, but honestly, I don't see how subclassing it would be a huge advantage. It would be like subclassing the java.lang.String class. Sure, you could add some nifty stuff, but it's not a big deal.
As a person who earns his living off of J2EE, I know its strengths and weaknesses. I am not a fanboy, however. I am more than willing to give Java hell when it deserves it. I think string handling in general is not as well-organized or easy to use as it could be, but it is certainly capable. I rarely use sprintf() style string formatting anyway, even in C++. I find it much easier to use iostreams, which are typesafe and almost as fast as sprintf(). In Java I just use string concatenation, and the formatting classes when I need it. It isn't perfect, but it works well enough and sure isn't slow.
Slashdot Mirror
f(x)=(2^x)-1. "f(x)" is prime. Another way of thinking about it is like this. In binary representation, all the bits are set to "1". There are a few of these for small x, but as it gets larger, the primes are few and far between. One of the issues in mathematics is figuring out if there is a "last" Mersenne prime. Is there one so big there isn't one larger of this special form? I doubt it, but nobody can prove it one way or another (yet).
I have only been laid off once. Every other time I either quit with two weeks notice, or reached the end of a fixed-length contract. I didn't see it coming, but the boss did tell me in person and did explain why -- I was a very good worker, but business wasn't doing well. The most recent hire had to go, and that was me. Of course a month or two later my boss got fired for mismanaging, cooking the books, etc. by the owner of the business, and they could afford more workers.
Anyway, I think the personal approach is best. If I ever got laid off and it wasn't my immediate supervisor, team lead, etc, telling me face to face, I'd be pissed. I can't say I'd be Mr. Milton and burn down the building, but I would definitely discourage friends from working there.
Yes, he is, but sometimes that's what it takes to get the job done. He doesn't let people walk all over him: he is self-assertive because he believes what he believes so strongly. If it weren't for him, free and open source software wouldn't exist the way it does today. I'm sure it would exist, but we'd be very far behind the power curve.
Scientology.
Oh wait, you said religion, not cult.
I agree. I find that wikis are more like FAQs. People collaborate to explain a topic and answer common processes, questions, and issues. However, we've all been in a bind where we have some esoteric problem that no FAQ in the universe cannot answer: by the very nature of the problem, it is not "Frequent" enough. Forums are a great place to discuss these issues. Another advantage is talking about new developments, discussing rumors about the future. E.g. a new motorcycle coming out, a new game, new software patch, etc. before it is released. In a way this is social bantering about junk that doesn't really matter in a practical way, it's just a bunch of guys talking about what they'd like to see in a product, or speculation. It doesn't belong in a wiki, but can be useful nonetheless. A beginner can read a discussion like this and gain some insight into the topic -- what do people like or dislike about a product or process? How does an experienced user think? What do they find useful?
As you said, the two will live together. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and each has its place.
I had the same impression of Diablo 2. I believe that by the time my preorder arrived, Blizzard already had the game patched including both bug fixes and skill changes. On top of this, the guide was clear in the introduction that it was based partly off information from the beta test. In order to have the guide ready at the same time as the game on launch day, including editing, proofing, printing, etc. it couldn't be up to date.
That, right there, is the key to the reason why most strategy guides suck. You can't have a printed guide ready, written while the game is being developed, and have it be accurate. On top of that, future changes will compound the issue. Look at a game like World of Warcraft -- writing a printed guide for it is like hitting a moving target. And even if you hit the target, it doesn't matter. You'll have to hit it again in a few weeks. This leads into your main point:
I think forums are the single greatest resource. Some of them can be very busy and difficult to read, but you know you'll get up to date information, strategies that work (or don't) and have user feedback. It isn't some author trying out a character build or strategy and thinking it works, except that it doesn't scale well. For example, a character build that works well for the first half of the game then sucks, or a strategy that only works part of the time. Forums weed this shit out. If someone posts a bad strategy, people will leave their two cents.
Disabilities? Try turning a doorknob when your hands are full, for example, when carrying a box. Trust me, I moved three times so far this year. It's a pain in the ass. Door handles make this much easier. Just push down to turn, then walk forward. Works great. Also, handles are better than knobs if you're drunk.
I think it's more that Americans are lazy. I know from experience. Unless someone was top turd on my shit list, I wouldn't care enough to get off my lazy ass and give them a hard time.
That and we have almost 300,000,000 people in the U.S. scattered over a 3,000 mile stretch of land. South Korea is a bit smaller. There aren't as many places there to run and hide as in the U.S.
I don't know about GTA, but every iteration of Unreal Tournament that I have played has had parental controls over the blood and guts. I don't know its ESRB rating but let's just assume it's rated for 17 year olds because of the violence and gore. If you can reduce this in the game (and lock it down with a password the way UT does) then it would probably pass as acceptible for a 14 year old according to ESRB criteria. My point is that we, as parents, must evaluate the games for ourselves using the ESRB ratings as a guide.
Depending on when exactly you found this 20 year old porno, I'm thinking of women from the 1980s or 1970s. I wouldn't call women from either era "hidden treasure." Come on, think of the hairdos!
This is the spammer's parents' house. If you read the article, you would know that the spammer drove an old beater car and never owned property. He was a millionaire on paper, not by lifestyle. Punishing his parents for his crime is wrong and illegal.
I was always taught the simple method: Stars are big and on fire. Planets orbit stars. Moons orbit planets. Small balls of rock with tails that zip around are comets. Broken, jagged peices of rock are asteroids. Those definitions have worked well for me my entire life, especially given that I am not an astronomer.
Even IE offers this functionality. I just started it up and imported my Firefox shortcuts, no problem. Of course the only thing I use IE for is the MSDN Library since it uses ActiveX, and the non-ActiveX (Firefox-compatible) version sucks.
I think you and I need to have a talk. My wife won't drink beer, let alone Guinness. Also, she hates it when I go configuring shit on her computer. "But it works! Why are you making me use a different browser?" Sigh. How did you accomplish that feat?
Besides that, I think security is a good point. Since it is bundled with Windows and historically is a huge, gaping security hole, hopefully IE7 will cut down on the amount of malware. You may not be able to stop people from clicking "ok" to install crap, but at least worms won't infect it. Less malware and fewer botnets = good for the Internet. This is assuming, of course, that IE7/Vista really is more secure and standards-compliant. A man can dream, can't he? A man can dream...
Guild bank aside, I have a ton of stuff on my account. I have tons of high level tradeskill junk like arcanite, mooncloth, stacks of thorium bars, essences, enchanting shards and dusts. I have some rare and epic items not souldbound just sitting in the bank. I have a few hundred gold (from selling junk like that arcanite and mooncloth). And I'm not even all that rich compared to most people on my server. Still, I'm sure I could liquidate most of my junk, sell the gold, then sell my level 60s. I'm sure I'd make at least a few hundred dollars, more than I spent on my subscription.
Looking at my characters' play time it doesn't look like much, but in order to keep my job and family, it would take a little longer. Maybe two months. Then again I choose to have some semblance of a life outside the game, even if not much of one.
Then you must infiltrate Slashdot! Become an editor. Hell, if Jon Katz can do it, anyone can!
I don't raid but I have had to think twice a few times... but honey, we're almost to Drak! Can't you wait just another five minutes???
Five minutes later: but honey, we're almost to Drak! Can't you wait just another five minutes???
I always hoped this idea would die a horrible death. First, because SDTV offers horrible resolution and the image is so blurry it's useless as a PC. Second, the interface sucks, and even with a wireless keyboard, it just doesn't work for most people in the living room. Even with a HDTV and wireless devices, it's more of a niche role.
I think the console game systems fill this niche, but not in the "living room PC" sense of the word. We have devices that offer living room gaming, DVRs, but not a "computer on the TV." Thank God! Every effort so far has sucked, not just because of its own merits (e.g. WebTV) but because the two ideas just don't mesh well. Maybe they will later on, but it's nothing I'll hold my breath for.
Well I can't get more detailed information, but on Episode 25: Brown Note of MythBusters they dissected this myth. I may be a computer scientist, not a physicist, but they sure answered this myth well enough for me: busted. Adam felt discomfort, but no bowel movements, pain, or other serious issues. Just didn't feel normal. He was surrounded by woofers and able to function normally.
No, according to that map, it's more of a cylinder. The east and west edges meet, but I pity the fool who tries to visit either pole.
That is bullshit. Mythbusters busted that one a while ago, and unlike some of their attempts, I think they did a fairly thorough job with it. Adam did feel very uncomfortable at times, but nothing approaching pain or a bowel movement.
The rest of your post is great, however. Finding tones that interfere with each other in a range that is clealy audible to anyone with hearing, even old people who can't hear up around 20 KHz, is a great idea. It won't cause any damage, and probably won't escalate the situation.
I have one too and I love it. It warms up quickly, prints fast, and always produces excellent results. I had a minor problem setting it up on the network, however. Make sure you have DHCP enabled on your network. I use static IP with a nonstandard gateway IP address and workgroup name. The printer couldn't communicate until I changed this. Then I couldn't log in to the printer to set it up, because Brother thoughtfully failed to include the default password. Thankfully, Google came through and I found the password in seconds.
Anyway, aside from a half hour of frustration when I got it out of the box, this has been a faithful printer, outstanding in every way possible. Toner isn't too bad, between $40 and $80 depending on where you shop and whether you get the extended life cartridge (costs more, but less expensive from a toner per dollar perspective). I consider myself a low toner user, between my wife and I we go through a ream of paper in about two months on average. I've had the printer for around a year and am I think a quarter of the way through the cartridge. Compared to inkjet or low-end laser printers, this thing performs far better and has already saved us money.
You may joke about case modders, but I think modding is exactly what Windows itself needs. I don't want Luna, Aero, or whatever else Microsoft throws at me. What I want is a UI that is open enough to create my own themes. Gnome and KDE both allow this, and offer rich theming environments not only to change colors, border sizes, and other basic stuff, but to move buttons around or even create new ones. With Microsoft you can't do that without a specific software package. I forget what it is called, but the company that makes it has a special deal with Microsoft that gives them access to low-level shell functionality to enable custom themes.
Yet I still love the "Windows Classic" theme, even more so than most X themes. It is clean, simple, and gets the job done efficiently without getting in my way. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the best or perfect theme, but it's very well done.
Here is the class I assume the parent is referencing: Formatter class.
Essentially what happens is you don't have C-style varargs, the JRE silently creates an array for you when you pass the arguments. This doesn't waste "gobs of heap space" like the parent says, it uses the same amount as it would using the stack. Remember, these are objects, and Java never passes objects by value -- always by refence. So each argument wastes one machine word (usually 32 bits). Whoop de fucking doo. And, since it uses references, the only allocation/deallocation is the temporary array. And in 1.5 if not previous versions, this is very very fast. With a JIT compiler you'll hardly notice it. I do agree that the decision to make the class "final" is shitty, but honestly, I don't see how subclassing it would be a huge advantage. It would be like subclassing the java.lang.String class. Sure, you could add some nifty stuff, but it's not a big deal.
As a person who earns his living off of J2EE, I know its strengths and weaknesses. I am not a fanboy, however. I am more than willing to give Java hell when it deserves it. I think string handling in general is not as well-organized or easy to use as it could be, but it is certainly capable. I rarely use sprintf() style string formatting anyway, even in C++. I find it much easier to use iostreams, which are typesafe and almost as fast as sprintf(). In Java I just use string concatenation, and the formatting classes when I need it. It isn't perfect, but it works well enough and sure isn't slow.