I'm familiar with Mr. Shannon and Information Theory was a prime focus of my graduate studies.
I'm probably not as bright as him, but his proof is frankly just wrong... It's speculative and is generally engineered around "proving" a preconceived notion using circular logic. It's crap. You could extrapolate the same logic to "disprove" such things as wind power.
It can be likened to a number of popular string theory "proofs"...
Maxwell's demon would violate the second law of thermodynamics...
Um, no. If you have a box of air at a nominal temperature of 80F and can partition it with a completely passive filter that only allows molecules warmer than 80F to travel in one direction and cooler than 80F to travel in the other direction, you've just created a temperature gradient. No violation of the second law required. No energy added nor extracted, but the box is now a little less random and the energy that was already in the box is now exploitable (piston or whatever). No free energy. This would only be sustainable while the available gasses contain molecules of different speeds (i.e. once the entire Earth is at the exact same temperature, the game stops.) So yes, "over time" it would break down (but not for a long time.)
From a universal perspective, the second law would still stand. It's just a neat (albeit impractical at this point) idea for exploiting local imbalances.
Of course, the gotcha in the game is building that completely passive molecular filter. And that's a major gotcha. Right now that technology is way beyond anything we've got. But we are starting to get better and better even at that level. I don't know if that will ever actually be practical and almost certainly not during my life time.
In any case, I was just agreeing with the parent post that we've seen batshit crazy ideas come to fruition and tossed out a "free energy" potential.
Yes - I'm familiar with the Broken Window Fallacy and I wasn't advocating "make-work" spending. But, if we're going forward with "make-work" spending any way, why not work toward something useful?
I tried to allude to our Broken Window approach here, but I was apparently too subtle:
You know who building a duck pond employs? 4 guys with heavy equipment (or 50 with shovels) and some ducks.
The only failing that I see with "free energy" by exploiting Maxwell's Demon is that it's completely unimplementable at this time. But as we keep digging in to the nano/quantum worlds, who knows? If somebody out there manages to build one, it looks sufficiently like "free energy" but without breaking the laws of thermodynamics. Not really creating energy, just extracting random energy that exists but is currently unusable.
Also, SI conversion with stimulus $$ is one of the better ideas I've heard. It creates jobs (and ones that require at least basic education instead of just the ability to pour and smooth asphalt.) Hell, we could have even have offered basic training for people that would be involved in the more trivial but labor intensive efforts.
Mass conversion to SI requires some manual labor (switching road signs, etc), a lot of public awareness stuff, and a lot of Associate-level tech folks (and probably higher-level for review). You know who building a duck pond employs? 4 guys with heavy equipment (or 50 with shovels) and some ducks.
Which is worse: * The First Poster who blows his own post away by failing to quote out of context to confuse readers into thinking he had a point or * The guy with mod points that mods said poster up and then posts as AC to clear said mod?
Doesn't matter. Ladies will appreciate that you're making an effort and the fact that you're clueless makes you harmless (i.e. approachable and not-a-threat should you approach them). As long as you don't get embarrassed and act confident and persistent while stumbling forward, it can actually work in your favor. Some nice girl may even offer to help out as long as you're not just cursing yourself and getting frustrated.
Worth a try no matter what. Better to strike out than be the ball boy stuck polishing the bat.
"Honey, does this warpship make my ass look fat?" -- Just because you aren't asking the question doesn't mean you aren't going to get the answer.
If those are at all related, I'm guessing you're single. If you're going to tell your wife that her ass looks like it's bending space-time, at least let her ask the question first. That's not the kind of thing you volunteer.
But seriously, why would I want to stand/sit with my leg in an awkward position when I could just hold "A" instead? For the same reason my Wii is also collecting dust.
Because getting off your ass to play is fun. Especially in a multiplayer party-type environment (especially with a couple of beers) - The kind of casual gaming environment the Wii targets.
I know this is slashdot and we're all supposed to jump on the "moving is hard" bandwagon, but come on. I've been playing Wii with my young kids pretty much since it came out and it certainly has yet to get old for us. It's even fun with adult friends/family over. Pumping your arms up and down to pretend to run, depending on who you're playing with, can be much more satisfying than holding down "A".
Don't know much about the Eye Toy stuff, but I do appreciate that there are efforts to innovate controls beyond the "Hold B to run fast" mentality of Super Mario Brothers.
Exactly how the 11th dimension would be expanded and shrunk is still unknown.
Sounds pretty similar to the way I walk - I move my feet and the Earth rotates beneath me. I'm planning on starting to fly instead, it's just maintaining altitude after lift-off. But I won't let that small detail stop me from making travel plans - I'll work that out after jumping.
Those hideous fences come at a premium too. (You know, the small branches strung together with wire.) They cost a heckuva lot more than an actual proper fence. Santa Feans have unique tastes - Everything should look old, weathered, and primitive (unless you go to those neighborhoods where everything waxes arty.) But to each their own.
Agreed entirely. I'm off-topic here, but I've got karma to burn. Anyone who declares themselves a mod-martyr is obviously fishing for mods (in nearly every case) - And OP made a valid, on-topic, insightful post (mod-martyr aside). WTF? Just make your point and move on!
[OK - There's a joke up there for those of you about to quote and flame me.]
Seriously, I was a big MS basher with regards to the browser thing back in the days when they were facing their initial anti-trust suits and I just wanted my Netscape. But now about all they can do is start bundling competitor's software (again) to make these people happy. Does Norton include AVG on their install discs? Not last time I checked...
...didn't the virus origionaly originate in the US?
No, it subsequently originated in the US. It originally originated in Mexico - And has originated there several times since. And it keeps originating all over the place - When will all of this originating end?!?
It's a fact that the hardware is less capable than the others.
He didn't say that the Wii was as capable as its peers, he said that it was as capable as the best gaming systems around several years ago when we were getting games like Unreal Tournament 2004. Don't mis-quote and then dispute - That's cheating (i.e. strawman).
Is the Wii weaker than Sony and MS's systems? Yup. But, like the other guy said, it's novel and fun. And near-zero learning curve (my 2-year-old can play it and my 4-year-old can play it pretty well). It's fun to play with friends with a wide array of genres. It's just not for serious gaming. It's a toy.
But I agree with GP - The developers are lacking. It hadn't occurred to me before his post that UR2004 could be ported to Wii. But that UR football thing might just be awesome if it was done right.
This is unconscionable. AVG has also auto-renewed my subscription perpetually ever since I installed it. I want my bandwidth back!
Seriously though, "cost of business" is exactly right. If the return outweighs the risk*most-likely-consequence, no business would act ethically. It's like insurance companies randomly denying claims knowing that some denials will go unchallenged and they'll come out ahead. The punishment should outweigh the crime.
You're deliberately mis-quoting. You posted "Any and all", but disputed "any". Yes, there are legitimate forms of p2p. There are also unethical forms of p2p. As GP said, not ALL forms are ethical.
Karma bonus foregone, 'cuz I'm just correcting a dumb-ass, not contributing anything useful.
Agreed - Printing is much cheaper than buying a hard bound version.
And, for those of you complaining about computers/Internet access, compare the cost of 1 semester's worth of books to the price of a cheap PC and a semester's worth of Internet access. You might be surprised. Heck, PC + Internet + printing/binding may still be significantly than my book costs some semesters - And you only have to buy the PC once (hopefully).
I don't think that Anonymous is responsible for this, but while we're speaking of them, I predict that a great number of prominent Swedish Scientologists will soon find themselves with creative names as soon as word gets out that you don't have to give your real name. Although Scientologists have had as much scandal in Sweden as they have in most of the world, I think they still have a population there at least proportional to many other places and are about as well-received.
"English Lit" is only half the equation. I think that for college to be a "lazy paradise" you need: "English Lit" + "Easy source of income that doesn't mind funding your slacking ass"
As an engineering major, I could run off and co-op making 5-6x minimum wage. How people put themselves through college flipping burgers is beyond me... Especially if you're in one of those demographics that's discriminated against (or completely excluded) at scholarship time. May the gods bless the people doing that with one hand while supporting a family/kids with the other.
Hell, I only got a degree so I could put off working another six years (what? change majors a few times, and you too can turn a four-year stint in lazy paradise into six years).
Wow - Your college experience was a helluva lot different than mine. When I was in school, I was working my ass off to cover tuition, books, rent, food, etc. And earning an engineering degree besides. I was in school for 6 years too, but only because I wanted a Master's, I managed to graduate High School as a college Sophomore, and I had to bail out of school a couple of times to take internships/co-ops that paid more than I could make locally.
Lazy paradise? I remember a foggy sleep-deprived existence that involved short naps between busting ass. What's your trick?
The other "vile forms of pornography" belong at the end. Pretty much everything else listed that was being hosted by this company was illegal. Just being a pervert into violent/bestial/incestuous porn is (usually) OK (probably especially in CA, although I haven't researched CA weird-porn law). Hosting it is typically OK too, depending on where/how/to-whom you allow access.
So yeah, I'd say that stuff is properly segregated as an after-thought. Still, I'll bet that "child porn" would be the only thing necessary on a warrant application get it approved even if it made up only a tiny fraction of their illicit hosting.
I'm also puzzled as to why EldavoJohn mentioned the USAF...
Nuke them from orbit - It's the only way to be sure.
Also, since this involves illegal trade, I could see involving the FTC at some level. But kiddie porn? FBI. Botnet control? FBI/CIA/maybe FCC. Illegal pharmacy? FDA/FTC/FBI(?).
This should certainly be an inter-agency operation, but for some reason they have a very poor record of playing nicely with each other...
Slashdot Mirror
I'm familiar with Mr. Shannon and Information Theory was a prime focus of my graduate studies.
I'm probably not as bright as him, but his proof is frankly just wrong... It's speculative and is generally engineered around "proving" a preconceived notion using circular logic. It's crap. You could extrapolate the same logic to "disprove" such things as wind power.
It can be likened to a number of popular string theory "proofs"...
Maxwell's demon would violate the second law of thermodynamics...
Um, no. If you have a box of air at a nominal temperature of 80F and can partition it with a completely passive filter that only allows molecules warmer than 80F to travel in one direction and cooler than 80F to travel in the other direction, you've just created a temperature gradient. No violation of the second law required. No energy added nor extracted, but the box is now a little less random and the energy that was already in the box is now exploitable (piston or whatever). No free energy. This would only be sustainable while the available gasses contain molecules of different speeds (i.e. once the entire Earth is at the exact same temperature, the game stops.) So yes, "over time" it would break down (but not for a long time.)
From a universal perspective, the second law would still stand. It's just a neat (albeit impractical at this point) idea for exploiting local imbalances.
Of course, the gotcha in the game is building that completely passive molecular filter. And that's a major gotcha. Right now that technology is way beyond anything we've got. But we are starting to get better and better even at that level. I don't know if that will ever actually be practical and almost certainly not during my life time.
In any case, I was just agreeing with the parent post that we've seen batshit crazy ideas come to fruition and tossed out a "free energy" potential.
Yes - I'm familiar with the Broken Window Fallacy and I wasn't advocating "make-work" spending. But, if we're going forward with "make-work" spending any way, why not work toward something useful?
I tried to allude to our Broken Window approach here, but I was apparently too subtle:
You know who building a duck pond employs? 4 guys with heavy equipment (or 50 with shovels) and some ducks.
That's a valid point.
The only failing that I see with "free energy" by exploiting Maxwell's Demon is that it's completely unimplementable at this time. But as we keep digging in to the nano/quantum worlds, who knows? If somebody out there manages to build one, it looks sufficiently like "free energy" but without breaking the laws of thermodynamics. Not really creating energy, just extracting random energy that exists but is currently unusable.
Wonderful +1 Welcome to the real world
Also, SI conversion with stimulus $$ is one of the better ideas I've heard. It creates jobs (and ones that require at least basic education instead of just the ability to pour and smooth asphalt.) Hell, we could have even have offered basic training for people that would be involved in the more trivial but labor intensive efforts.
Mass conversion to SI requires some manual labor (switching road signs, etc), a lot of public awareness stuff, and a lot of Associate-level tech folks (and probably higher-level for review). You know who building a duck pond employs? 4 guys with heavy equipment (or 50 with shovels) and some ducks.
Which is worse:
* The First Poster who blows his own post away by failing to quote out of context to confuse readers into thinking he had a point
or
* The guy with mod points that mods said poster up and then posts as AC to clear said mod?
Signed,
The Second Dumbass
Doesn't matter. Ladies will appreciate that you're making an effort and the fact that you're clueless makes you harmless (i.e. approachable and not-a-threat should you approach them). As long as you don't get embarrassed and act confident and persistent while stumbling forward, it can actually work in your favor. Some nice girl may even offer to help out as long as you're not just cursing yourself and getting frustrated.
Worth a try no matter what. Better to strike out than be the ball boy stuck polishing the bat.
"Honey, does this warpship make my ass look fat?"
--
Just because you aren't asking the question doesn't mean you aren't going to get the answer.
If those are at all related, I'm guessing you're single. If you're going to tell your wife that her ass looks like it's bending space-time, at least let her ask the question first. That's not the kind of thing you volunteer.
But seriously, why would I want to stand/sit with my leg in an awkward position when I could just hold "A" instead? For the same reason my Wii is also collecting dust.
Because getting off your ass to play is fun. Especially in a multiplayer party-type environment (especially with a couple of beers) - The kind of casual gaming environment the Wii targets.
I know this is slashdot and we're all supposed to jump on the "moving is hard" bandwagon, but come on. I've been playing Wii with my young kids pretty much since it came out and it certainly has yet to get old for us. It's even fun with adult friends/family over. Pumping your arms up and down to pretend to run, depending on who you're playing with, can be much more satisfying than holding down "A".
Don't know much about the Eye Toy stuff, but I do appreciate that there are efforts to innovate controls beyond the "Hold B to run fast" mentality of Super Mario Brothers.
Yeah - Here's the kicker, found on Page 2 of TFA:
Exactly how the 11th dimension would be expanded and shrunk is still unknown.
Sounds pretty similar to the way I walk - I move my feet and the Earth rotates beneath me. I'm planning on starting to fly instead, it's just maintaining altitude after lift-off. But I won't let that small detail stop me from making travel plans - I'll work that out after jumping.
Those hideous fences come at a premium too. (You know, the small branches strung together with wire.) They cost a heckuva lot more than an actual proper fence. Santa Feans have unique tastes - Everything should look old, weathered, and primitive (unless you go to those neighborhoods where everything waxes arty.) But to each their own.
No Weeds isn't on Showtime - It's on TPB. I'm a loyal follower, I should know.
Actually I always thought it was an HBO series. I thought Showtime was just for Penn & Teller's Bullshit. Now I know.
Agreed entirely. I'm off-topic here, but I've got karma to burn. Anyone who declares themselves a mod-martyr is obviously fishing for mods (in nearly every case) - And OP made a valid, on-topic, insightful post (mod-martyr aside). WTF? Just make your point and move on!
[OK - There's a joke up there for those of you about to quote and flame me.]
Seriously, I was a big MS basher with regards to the browser thing back in the days when they were facing their initial anti-trust suits and I just wanted my Netscape. But now about all they can do is start bundling competitor's software (again) to make these people happy. Does Norton include AVG on their install discs? Not last time I checked...
...didn't the virus origionaly originate in the US?
No, it subsequently originated in the US. It originally originated in Mexico - And has originated there several times since. And it keeps originating all over the place - When will all of this originating end?!?
It's a fact that the hardware is less capable than the others.
He didn't say that the Wii was as capable as its peers, he said that it was as capable as the best gaming systems around several years ago when we were getting games like Unreal Tournament 2004. Don't mis-quote and then dispute - That's cheating (i.e. strawman).
Is the Wii weaker than Sony and MS's systems? Yup. But, like the other guy said, it's novel and fun. And near-zero learning curve (my 2-year-old can play it and my 4-year-old can play it pretty well). It's fun to play with friends with a wide array of genres. It's just not for serious gaming. It's a toy.
But I agree with GP - The developers are lacking. It hadn't occurred to me before his post that UR2004 could be ported to Wii. But that UR football thing might just be awesome if it was done right.
This is unconscionable. AVG has also auto-renewed my subscription perpetually ever since I installed it. I want my bandwidth back!
Seriously though, "cost of business" is exactly right. If the return outweighs the risk*most-likely-consequence, no business would act ethically. It's like insurance companies randomly denying claims knowing that some denials will go unchallenged and they'll come out ahead. The punishment should outweigh the crime.
Welcome to cricket...
You're deliberately mis-quoting. You posted "Any and all", but disputed "any". Yes, there are legitimate forms of p2p. There are also unethical forms of p2p. As GP said, not ALL forms are ethical.
Karma bonus foregone, 'cuz I'm just correcting a dumb-ass, not contributing anything useful.
Agreed - Printing is much cheaper than buying a hard bound version.
And, for those of you complaining about computers/Internet access, compare the cost of 1 semester's worth of books to the price of a cheap PC and a semester's worth of Internet access. You might be surprised. Heck, PC + Internet + printing/binding may still be significantly than my book costs some semesters - And you only have to buy the PC once (hopefully).
...who ever changed his name is anonymous.
I don't think that Anonymous is responsible for this, but while we're speaking of them, I predict that a great number of prominent Swedish Scientologists will soon find themselves with creative names as soon as word gets out that you don't have to give your real name. Although Scientologists have had as much scandal in Sweden as they have in most of the world, I think they still have a population there at least proportional to many other places and are about as well-received.
"English Lit" is only half the equation. I think that for college to be a "lazy paradise" you need:
"English Lit" + "Easy source of income that doesn't mind funding your slacking ass"
As an engineering major, I could run off and co-op making 5-6x minimum wage. How people put themselves through college flipping burgers is beyond me... Especially if you're in one of those demographics that's discriminated against (or completely excluded) at scholarship time. May the gods bless the people doing that with one hand while supporting a family/kids with the other.
Hell, I only got a degree so I could put off working another six years (what? change majors a few times, and you too can turn a four-year stint in lazy paradise into six years).
Wow - Your college experience was a helluva lot different than mine. When I was in school, I was working my ass off to cover tuition, books, rent, food, etc. And earning an engineering degree besides. I was in school for 6 years too, but only because I wanted a Master's, I managed to graduate High School as a college Sophomore, and I had to bail out of school a couple of times to take internships/co-ops that paid more than I could make locally.
Lazy paradise? I remember a foggy sleep-deprived existence that involved short naps between busting ass. What's your trick?
On the rare occasion that a pirated DVD winds up in my house, the smell is very distinctive pretty quickly.
Mainly because it spins once as fast as it can be ripped and then stinks of burned plastic when it comes out of the microwave.
That dog would have no problem finding my house.
The other "vile forms of pornography" belong at the end. Pretty much everything else listed that was being hosted by this company was illegal. Just being a pervert into violent/bestial/incestuous porn is (usually) OK (probably especially in CA, although I haven't researched CA weird-porn law). Hosting it is typically OK too, depending on where/how/to-whom you allow access.
So yeah, I'd say that stuff is properly segregated as an after-thought. Still, I'll bet that "child porn" would be the only thing necessary on a warrant application get it approved even if it made up only a tiny fraction of their illicit hosting.
I'm also puzzled as to why EldavoJohn mentioned the USAF...
Nuke them from orbit - It's the only way to be sure.
Also, since this involves illegal trade, I could see involving the FTC at some level. But kiddie porn? FBI. Botnet control? FBI/CIA/maybe FCC. Illegal pharmacy? FDA/FTC/FBI(?).
This should certainly be an inter-agency operation, but for some reason they have a very poor record of playing nicely with each other...