It forces the candidates to appeal to a broad base of states, rather than just running a national campaign that ignores regional issues. You can see this working as Bush and Gore are traveling around the country, trying to hit as many states as possible. It hurts states that are "sure things" for a specific candidate.
It reduces the influence of minor political parties by awarding all of a state's electoral votes (winner take all) to the winner in a state. This isn't in the Constitution but it is the law for selecting electors in most states. This avoids the problems of a parliamentary system, where small parties can demand concessions from a coalition government.
I've seen this problem with some of the local cable channels. The macrovision detector is falsely triggered by a noisy signal. It can also be triggered when the cable system inserts their own commercials. The problem is that the cable system (ComCast) doesn't meet even minimal standards for video distribution. Many of the channels have gross and obvious quality defects. They don't care, they don't have to, they're the cable company.
But unless you are a locksmith, slim-jims, lockpicks, etc. are illegal to buy.
I think you are wrong about that. Some distributors may refuse to sell to people other than locksmiths, but lockpicks are not illegal. Some cities and states may have more restrictive laws, and they may be considered "burglary tools" in some places.
I keep getting bad 3.5" disks in brand new boxes of blank disks. The box says the disks have a lifetime warranty, the only problem is that they don't give an address where the bad disks can be sent. The last box of disks that I opened, Sony Brand, had two disks that would not even format.
Paper tape is too flimsy. I used to store programs on mylar tape. The same form factor as paper tape but much stronger. The only problem with mylar tape is that it wears out tape punches a lot faster than paper tape.
Have you ever seen someone run a multi-pass FORTRAN compiler from paper tape? It isn't pretty:-).
Judges have some ability to strike sections from license agreements that are unfair, illegal or not in the public interest. You can't just put arbitrary things in a contract or license and expect the courts to enforce them.
The problem is that companies will knowingly put unenforceable terms in licenses and contracts for their intimidation value.
Companies should not be surprised that the cleaning crew steals things after they outsourced the work to the lowest bidder, who pays the lowest wages. The same thing applies to security guards.
Someone told me that the password was stored in the drive itself. The drive's firmware had to be supplied with a valid password before it would respond to I/O requests. This prevents someone from putting the drive in another machine and getting access to the data.
It's a bad idea. Defective parts have an annoying habit of being resold as good parts by unscrupulous vendors. That is why many manufacturers make a point of destroying defective parts, so they can't sneak back into the supply chain.
Not all companies are draconian on email/internet activity restrictions, so if you don't like that company's rules, get a job elsewhere.
I get the impression that many slashdot posters have never lived through a severe recession or depression, where jobs are scarce and getting a job elsewhere is not a practical option. They are going to be in for a shock when their employer unilaterally cuts their pay, and imposes new duties and rules. You don't like it? Quit. There are 100 people waiting in the HR office who would be happy to have your job.
One person's smut is another person's erotica is another person's art. Most people could agree that "Cum Guzzling Coeds" belongs in.xxx, but there is a lot of material that can't be so easily categorized.
The other danger is that labels can lead to censorship. There are many theaters that are unable to show a NC-17 movie, regardless of social or artistic value, due to lease restrictions.
The library in question could have easily filtered this out -- by NOT FACING THE COMPUTERS TOWARD A WALL to allow the 'net users as much privacy as they had. (Of course, they could have popped over to the photographic arts section and found a book that was probably just as thrilling.)
I think this is a lousy idea. What if the person is looking for information on HIV, human sexuality, non-Christian religions or something else that might subject them to public ridicule or ostracism?
Why not just publish a monthly list of all books checked out from the public library, including the identity of the borrowers.
If I remember correctly, in Martin Cruz Smith's book, Polar Star, there is a scene where they autopsy a body recovered from the ocean, and discover one or more hagfish inside the corpse, chowing down on the internal organs. The hagfish will enter a corpse through any available orifice and feed on the internal organs. It reminded me of the creature in the movie Alien.
There is another project, Gravity Probe B, that is planning to launch a satellite. The project is trying to measure the effect of the Earth on the space-time fabric, something different than gravity waves.
At least your spam is written in English. For some unknown reason, most of my spam is written in Chinese, sent from China and Taiwan. I can't even read Chinese. I asked someone at work to translate some of it, and most of it was ads for pr0n and pirated software. I'm tempted to put them all on my "Falun Gong Society for the Promotion of Counter-Revolutionary Activities" mailing list.
According to the law, one of the criteria for being granted an H1-B visa is where your sponsor states that the person being hired is paid the normal salary for that position.
The Republican party is VERY ANTI-environment (particularly if it means that some rich guy somewhere will be denied the ability to make MORE short-term money by cutting down trees, polluting water, wiping species off the face of the earth).
You're right. When we aren't too busy clear cutting forests and shooting cute, furry animals, we like to get together and show off our new winter coats, made exclusively from the pelts of endangered species. And after a grueling day of coupon clipping, there is nothing more relaxing than dumping toxic waste into the local water supply and throwing rocks at the poor.
If you want a "real processor", then you better be prepared to cough up "real money".
PPC chips are optimized for cost, POWER chips are optimized for performance, screw the cost.
Re:Dehumanization of War
on
Trigger Happy
·
· Score: 2
The more automated war becomes, the less that the human aspects of compassion, remorse and civility will come into play. Wars that lack compassion, regret for the lost souls, and civility towards the enemy give rise to massacres, and wars become tragedies.
Non-automated war gave us the Mongol Hordes and the Crusaders, who were not exactly noted for their kindness and sensitivity on the battlefield.
There are plenty of other examples of wars where face-to-face contact did not prevent wanton cruelty on the part of the victors.
I would think shrinking profit margins would be the biggest problem. PCs are becoming more of a commodity item.
Look at the new systems from Compaq, HP, and IBM. They are small, cheap, boxes. If it breaks, exchange it for a new box and throw it away. They are built more like a consumer appliance than a traditional computer.
Bottom of the line disk drives have more storage than most people will use.
Cheap video cards/chips have more than enough performance for anyone who isn't a Quake fanatic.
Intel has screwed up on the introduction of new and improved CPUs. I used to think about upgrading/replacing my computer when a new CPU ran 4x faster than my current CPU. It is going to be a while before there is something 4x faster than a 500 MHz Pentium III.
Slashdot Mirror
It forces the candidates to appeal to a broad base of states, rather than just running a national campaign that ignores regional issues. You can see this working as Bush and Gore are traveling around the country, trying to hit as many states as possible. It hurts states that are "sure things" for a specific candidate.
It reduces the influence of minor political parties by awarding all of a state's electoral votes (winner take all) to the winner in a state. This isn't in the Constitution but it is the law for selecting electors in most states. This avoids the problems of a parliamentary system, where small parties can demand concessions from a coalition government.
I've seen this problem with some of the local cable channels. The macrovision detector is falsely triggered by a noisy signal. It can also be triggered when the cable system inserts their own commercials. The problem is that the cable system (ComCast) doesn't meet even minimal standards for video distribution. Many of the channels have gross and obvious quality defects. They don't care, they don't have to, they're the cable company.
I think you are wrong about that. Some distributors may refuse to sell to people other than locksmiths, but lockpicks are not illegal. Some cities and states may have more restrictive laws, and they may be considered "burglary tools" in some places.
I keep getting bad 3.5" disks in brand new boxes of blank disks. The box says the disks have a lifetime warranty, the only problem is that they don't give an address where the bad disks can be sent. The last box of disks that I opened, Sony Brand, had two disks that would not even format.
Have you ever seen someone run a multi-pass FORTRAN compiler from paper tape? It isn't pretty :-).
Judges have some ability to strike sections from license agreements that are unfair, illegal or not in the public interest. You can't just put arbitrary things in a contract or license and expect the courts to enforce them.
The problem is that companies will knowingly put unenforceable terms in licenses and contracts for their intimidation value.
Companies should not be surprised that the cleaning crew steals things after they outsourced the work to the lowest bidder, who pays the lowest wages. The same thing applies to security guards.
Someone told me that the password was stored in the drive itself. The drive's firmware had to be supplied with a valid password before it would respond to I/O requests. This prevents someone from putting the drive in another machine and getting access to the data.
It's a bad idea. Defective parts have an annoying habit of being resold as good parts by unscrupulous vendors. That is why many manufacturers make a point of destroying defective parts, so they can't sneak back into the supply chain.
I get the impression that many slashdot posters have never lived through a severe recession or depression, where jobs are scarce and getting a job elsewhere is not a practical option. They are going to be in for a shock when their employer unilaterally cuts their pay, and imposes new duties and rules. You don't like it? Quit. There are 100 people waiting in the HR office who would be happy to have your job.
The other danger is that labels can lead to censorship. There are many theaters that are unable to show a NC-17 movie, regardless of social or artistic value, due to lease restrictions.
I think this is a lousy idea. What if the person is looking for information on HIV, human sexuality, non-Christian religions or something else that might subject them to public ridicule or ostracism?
Why not just publish a monthly list of all books checked out from the public library, including the identity of the borrowers.
Maybe it is because teenagers and poor people are getting pregnant at a higher rate than the people who can afford to take care of their children.
If I remember correctly, in Martin Cruz Smith's book, Polar Star, there is a scene where they autopsy a body recovered from the ocean, and discover one or more hagfish inside the corpse, chowing down on the internal organs. The hagfish will enter a corpse through any available orifice and feed on the internal organs. It reminded me of the creature in the movie Alien.
There is another project, Gravity Probe B, that is planning to launch a satellite. The project is trying to measure the effect of the Earth on the space-time fabric, something different than gravity waves.
At least your spam is written in English. For some unknown reason, most of my spam is written in Chinese, sent from China and Taiwan. I can't even read Chinese. I asked someone at work to translate some of it, and most of it was ads for pr0n and pirated software. I'm tempted to put them all on my "Falun Gong Society for the Promotion of Counter-Revolutionary Activities" mailing list.
I hereby state that the Moon is made of cheese.
That was easy.
You're right. When we aren't too busy clear cutting forests and shooting cute, furry animals, we like to get together and show off our new winter coats, made exclusively from the pelts of endangered species. And after a grueling day of coupon clipping, there is nothing more relaxing than dumping toxic waste into the local water supply and throwing rocks at the poor.
PPC chips are optimized for cost, POWER chips are optimized for performance, screw the cost.
Non-automated war gave us the Mongol Hordes and the Crusaders, who were not exactly noted for their kindness and sensitivity on the battlefield.
There are plenty of other examples of wars where face-to-face contact did not prevent wanton cruelty on the part of the victors.
http://www.deja.nsa.gov
In other news, Reggie Canute, member of the European Parliament, obtained an injunction from a German court, enjoining the tide from coming in.
Look at the new systems from Compaq, HP, and IBM. They are small, cheap, boxes. If it breaks, exchange it for a new box and throw it away. They are built more like a consumer appliance than a traditional computer.
Bottom of the line disk drives have more storage than most people will use.
Cheap video cards/chips have more than enough performance for anyone who isn't a Quake fanatic.
Intel has screwed up on the introduction of new and improved CPUs. I used to think about upgrading/replacing my computer when a new CPU ran 4x faster than my current CPU. It is going to be a while before there is something 4x faster than a 500 MHz Pentium III.
I thought DVD Audio had been put on hold while they worked on an "improved" copy protection scheme.
If you put the output of the DAC through a 20 kHz low pass filter, the odd-order harmonics are removed and you have sine waves again.