If you proofread it, the point of the program would be worthless. As well, it would make which program you used immediately clear. Armed with the same program, investigators could work backwards to recreate your text. For example, Babelfish'd text (English->German->English, etc.) can usually be reconstructed with some skillful guesses.
Hmm.. great idea.. I use NAT on my Pacbell DSL anyway... a small NT box sitting in the corner without a monitor "looking" at ads 24/7. On the other hand, that $1k penalty isn't really attractive either.
Why exactly do we need to cater for all the newbies out there?
Because they are more newbies out there than there are non-newbies, and there's more money to be made and more market share to be gained by catering to them.
And all to make the newbies feel at home?
Yes. What do car places advertise to sell? They tell you about their "no-pressure deal" and easy to use price information sheets. Of course, they advertise other stuff, but ease of use (and even ease of identification) is very important.
In general, I tend to agree that year-based versioning is inspecific and inappropriate, but there is another problem with the accepted versioning practices.
I may use Foo all the time, I may know exactly how Foo's versioning system works, but suddenly Foo tells me I need a newer version of Bar, a mysterious and complicated application I've never used outside of Foo. I stumble across a link and see Bar version 5.7.18, download and use it. Little do I know, but Bar version 5.7.18 has a critical bug that was fixed in version 7.8.3. If it had been Bar '95 and 2000 instead, I would have known instantly that Bar '95 is out of date and went searching for a newer version.
Complicated, yeah, but the moral is this: we don't all spend our days memorizing the versioning scheme of every application we use, and even if we did, it doesn't help much without a reference to what's new. The year-based system goes _a bit_ further by providing that reference automatically (the current date).
Why exactly do we need to cater for all the newbies out there?
Because they are more newbies out there than there are non-newbies, and there's more money to be made and more market share to be gained by catering to them.
And all to make the newbies feel at home?
Yes. What do car places advertise to sell? They tell you about their "no-pressure deal" and easy to use price information sheets. Of course, they advertise other stuff, but ease of use (and even ease of identification) is very important.
In general, I tend to agree that year-based versioning is inspecific and inappropriate, but there is another problem with the accepted versioning practices.
I may use Foo all the time, I may know exactly how Foo's versioning system works, but suddenly Foo tells me I need a newer version of Bar, a mysterious and complicated application I've never used outside of Foo. I stumble across a link and see Bar version 5.7.18, download and use it. Little do I know, but Bar version 5.7.18 has a critical bug that was fixed in version 7.8.3. If it had been Bar '95 and 2000 instead, I would have known instantly that Bar '95 is out of date and went searching for a newer version.
Complicated, yeah, but the moral is this: we don't all spend our days memorizing the versioning scheme of every application we use, and even if we did, it doesn't help much without a reference to what's new. The year-based system goes _a bit_ further by providing that reference automatically (the current date).
This site really bugged me. First, they decide to use IE and NS to the exclusion of EVERY OTHER BROWSER. Sigh. And god knows we need JavaScript to do everything (Hey! Why not make a it a self-installing Windows program and be done with it?). Nearly every other site manages to present their content in an appealing way without excluding the little guys.
Right now, as we speak, I'm typing this message on my BeOS computer, as my Windows computer with Opera, IE, and NS defrags itself, so, uhm, even if I downloaded both of those browsers, it wouldn't make much of a difference.
Distributed.net? Just so you can prove over and over and over again that crypto is indeed breakable? The points been made.
For me the purpose of RC5 is four-fold: 1) To show how much computing power you have at your disposal. 2) To show that how dedicated you are to RC5. 3) The odds are outrageous, but there's a slim chance you might actually figure it out. 4) Best of all, it doesn't do anything negative other than push your CPU usage up to 100%.
And then on the prime number thing... I don't get why anyone would really care about finding bigger prime numbers.. Maybe there's some mathematical/engineering application I'm not aware of, but it doesn't make much sense otherwise.
Yeah, exactly. Anyone who wants it already has it, or can get it ReallyEasily.
When I heard about Columbine, I couldn't stop thinking about what kind of kid was still playing Doom after all this time.. I thought maybe they were playing something more recent like Quake, and the reporters managed to over-generalize FPS's as Doom. Can anyone confirm that they were actually playing Doom, and if so, what version (1 or 2)?
I have to add, anyone who plays the same character for a year (as if that weren't stupid enough), then allows some jerk DM kill it off with a stupid curse needs to go and buy a pair a boots to kick the DM in the nuts.
It's more fun if you switch characters often anyway. Once you've already got the perfect character, what's the point?
Slashdot isn't journalism. It's not even news. Journalism would mean researched stories with a sense of accuracy without bias. News would mean something akin to fully fleshed out articles describing what's this and that about, explaining everything you need to know to understand the news, the whole story, perhaps with a few links at the bottom to cite sources or better explain details.
But Slashdot isn't either of these. Sure,/.-specific things like Ask Slashdot or an interview now and then comes close, if properly done. However, the majority of the stories posted are nothing but a link to real, fully fleshed out article. And that's what people come here for./. picks up the stories that would most likely interest its viewers, and promotes those out of the general roar of the internet.
Yeah, the comment system, blah blah blah, Slashdot community, blah blah blah. Slashdot is links, that's what it's good for. If want something more, by all means, start a site with some journalistic undertones./. is for something totally different though.
What about the software program? Is it just a basics thing?
I've got an old IBM keyboard that lets you switch keys really easily (with a second layer of plastic with the inscription), but it's got a funky phone jack connector, so it's sitting in the corner with a Dvorak layout. (ps, on an offtopic offtopic, anyone got a way I can connect that to a normal computer?)
The keyboard I have now (and most of the keyboards I've ever had) won't let the keys come out, and most of the unnessecarily "enhanced" (yes, slightly larger shift and enter keys are WAY more important than having a full sized backspace) keyboards seem to be the same way..
I was drooling at the "DvortyBoard" and I was wondering if anyone had tried it.
It'd be nice to be able to look on the keyboard when I need it, and the keyboard doesn't have an altogether horrible layout (Windows keys and weird space button can be overlooked for a Dvorak keyboard). The site also mentions a Dvorak tutoring program, which is surprising because I wasn't aware that there was such a program.
Anyone care to shed some light on the keyboard, the software, and whether or not it's worth $50?
(same reply to the other guy who posted basically the same thing)
Personally I think that the reason you're able to learn faster is because of your genes and how you were raised, and that you get your job in a highly skilled industry because you can learn so fast. Skilled programmers are, on average, smarter than workers at the all night chicken shack, but if you hire a chicken shack watchman as an engineer, he's not going to get any smarter.
The idea isn't that an engineer is smarter than a chicken shack watchman, it's that an engineer who spent the last 20 years being an engineer isn't going to be any better at learning new skills than if he had spent that last 20 years being a chicken shack watchman.
If you ask a skilled programmer with years of experience to do open heart surgery, chances are he won't do any better than your average construction worker. Vice versa, ask a heart surgeon to spit out some code.
One becomes 'smarter' because of experience. As you work with something all the time, it becomes second nature, and enabling you to learn more complex things based on that. But if you're to learn something completely new and unrelated to what you've been working at for so long, it'd be just as hard as if you'd been digging ditches all your life.
Slashdot Mirror
If you proofread it, the point of the program would be worthless. As well, it would make which program you used immediately clear. Armed with the same program, investigators could work backwards to recreate your text. For example, Babelfish'd text (English->German->English, etc.) can usually be reconstructed with some skillful guesses.
--
Hmm.. great idea.. I use NAT on my Pacbell DSL anyway... a small NT box sitting in the corner without a monitor "looking" at ads 24/7. On the other hand, that $1k penalty isn't really attractive either.
Too many Foo's and Bar's... The corrected text:
Why exactly do we need to cater for all the newbies out there?
Because they are more newbies out there than there are non-newbies, and there's more money to be made and more market share to be gained by catering to them.
And all to make the newbies feel at home?
Yes. What do car places advertise to sell? They tell you about their "no-pressure deal" and easy to use price information sheets. Of course, they advertise other stuff, but ease of use (and even ease of identification) is very important.
In general, I tend to agree that year-based versioning is inspecific and inappropriate, but there is another problem with the accepted versioning practices.
I may use Foo all the time, I may know exactly how Foo's versioning system works, but suddenly Foo tells me I need a newer version of Bar, a mysterious and complicated application I've never used outside of Foo. I stumble across a link and see Bar version 5.7.18, download and use it. Little do I know, but Bar version 5.7.18 has a critical bug that was fixed in version 7.8.3. If it had been Bar '95 and 2000 instead, I would have known instantly that Bar '95 is out of date and went searching for a newer version.
Complicated, yeah, but the moral is this: we don't all spend our days memorizing the versioning scheme of every application we use, and even if we did, it doesn't help much without a reference to what's new. The year-based system goes _a bit_ further by providing that reference automatically (the current date).
Why exactly do we need to cater for all the newbies out there?
Because they are more newbies out there than there are non-newbies, and there's more money to be made and more market share to be gained by catering to them.
And all to make the newbies feel at home?
Yes. What do car places advertise to sell? They tell you about their "no-pressure deal" and easy to use price information sheets. Of course, they advertise other stuff, but ease of use (and even ease of identification) is very important.
In general, I tend to agree that year-based versioning is inspecific and inappropriate, but there is another problem with the accepted versioning practices.
I may use Foo all the time, I may know exactly how Foo's versioning system works, but suddenly Foo tells me I need a newer version of Bar, a mysterious and complicated application I've never used outside of Foo. I stumble across a link and see Bar version 5.7.18, download and use it. Little do I know, but Bar version 5.7.18 has a critical bug that was fixed in version 7.8.3. If it had been Bar '95 and 2000 instead, I would have known instantly that Bar '95 is out of date and went searching for a newer version.
Complicated, yeah, but the moral is this: we don't all spend our days memorizing the versioning scheme of every application we use, and even if we did, it doesn't help much without a reference to what's new. The year-based system goes _a bit_ further by providing that reference automatically (the current date).
This site really bugged me. First, they decide to use IE and NS to the exclusion of EVERY OTHER BROWSER. Sigh. And god knows we need JavaScript to do everything (Hey! Why not make a it a self-installing Windows program and be done with it?). Nearly every other site manages to present their content in an appealing way without excluding the little guys.
Right now, as we speak, I'm typing this message on my BeOS computer, as my Windows computer with Opera, IE, and NS defrags itself, so, uhm, even if I downloaded both of those browsers, it wouldn't make much of a difference.
Bleh.
Distributed.net? Just so you can prove over and over and over again that crypto is indeed breakable? The points been made.
For me the purpose of RC5 is four-fold:
1) To show how much computing power you have at your disposal.
2) To show that how dedicated you are to RC5.
3) The odds are outrageous, but there's a slim chance you might actually figure it out.
4) Best of all, it doesn't do anything negative other than push your CPU usage up to 100%.
And then on the prime number thing... I don't get why anyone would really care about finding bigger prime numbers.. Maybe there's some mathematical/engineering application I'm not aware of, but it doesn't make much sense otherwise.
Yeah, exactly. Anyone who wants it already has it, or can get it ReallyEasily.
When I heard about Columbine, I couldn't stop thinking about what kind of kid was still playing Doom after all this time.. I thought maybe they were playing something more recent like Quake, and the reporters managed to over-generalize FPS's as Doom. Can anyone confirm that they were actually playing Doom, and if so, what version (1 or 2)?
I have to add, anyone who plays the same character for a year (as if that weren't stupid enough), then allows some jerk DM kill it off with a stupid curse needs to go and buy a pair a boots to kick the DM in the nuts.
It's more fun if you switch characters often anyway. Once you've already got the perfect character, what's the point?
3 hours reading a periodic table? Wouldn't you have memorized it by now?
Slashdot isn't journalism. It's not even news. Journalism would mean researched stories with a sense of accuracy without bias. News would mean something akin to fully fleshed out articles describing what's this and that about, explaining everything you need to know to understand the news, the whole story, perhaps with a few links at the bottom to cite sources or better explain details.
/.-specific things like Ask Slashdot or an interview now and then comes close, if properly done. However, the majority of the stories posted are nothing but a link to real, fully fleshed out article. And that's what people come here for. /. picks up the stories that would most likely interest its viewers, and promotes those out of the general roar of the internet.
/. is for something totally different though.
But Slashdot isn't either of these. Sure,
Yeah, the comment system, blah blah blah, Slashdot community, blah blah blah. Slashdot is links, that's what it's good for. If want something more, by all means, start a site with some journalistic undertones.
What about the software program? Is it just a basics thing?
I've got an old IBM keyboard that lets you switch keys really easily (with a second layer of plastic with the inscription), but it's got a funky phone jack connector, so it's sitting in the corner with a Dvorak layout. (ps, on an offtopic offtopic, anyone got a way I can connect that to a normal computer?)
The keyboard I have now (and most of the keyboards I've ever had) won't let the keys come out, and most of the unnessecarily "enhanced" (yes, slightly larger shift and enter keys are WAY more important than having a full sized backspace) keyboards seem to be the same way..
I was drooling at the "DvortyBoard" and I was wondering if anyone had tried it.
It'd be nice to be able to look on the keyboard when I need it, and the keyboard doesn't have an altogether horrible layout (Windows keys and weird space button can be overlooked for a Dvorak keyboard). The site also mentions a Dvorak tutoring program, which is surprising because I wasn't aware that there was such a program.
Anyone care to shed some light on the keyboard, the software, and whether or not it's worth $50?
It should be moderated up for being so funny. ;)
If you don't get it, try to remember your not-so current events. Or just get an encyclopedia.
(same reply to the other guy who posted basically the same thing)
Personally I think that the reason you're able to learn faster is because of your genes and how you were raised, and that you get your job in a highly skilled industry because you can learn so fast. Skilled programmers are, on average, smarter than workers at the all night chicken shack, but if you hire a chicken shack watchman as an engineer, he's not going to get any smarter.
The idea isn't that an engineer is smarter than a chicken shack watchman, it's that an engineer who spent the last 20 years being an engineer isn't going to be any better at learning new skills than if he had spent that last 20 years being a chicken shack watchman.
If you ask a skilled programmer with years of experience to do open heart surgery, chances are he won't do any better than your average construction worker. Vice versa, ask a heart surgeon to spit out some code.
One becomes 'smarter' because of experience. As you work with something all the time, it becomes second nature, and enabling you to learn more complex things based on that. But if you're to learn something completely new and unrelated to what you've been working at for so long, it'd be just as hard as if you'd been digging ditches all your life.