I guess no one is cross checking the orbits of all satellites?
Yes, of course, they certainly ARE watching all satellites! You see, these birds cost something in the order of $100 million each, don't you think someone is being paid to take care of them?
Well, of course, if it's something between a broken satellite that never reached its intended orbit, and a satellite from a bankrupt company that never had any profit, that's different. It's not as if they were true operating satellites, is it?
I've always thought that was a silly distinction for the law to make. The words are the problem, not the medium.
Well, first, sometimes words are spoken without really thinking, writing usually means premeditation. Second, the written word normally lasts longer and reaches more people.
I think the difference between libel and slander is reasonable, and libel should be a worse offense than slander.
However, I'm not really sure that any of those should be illegal, unless some other form of violation is involved. You shouldn't slander or libel anyone to get a business advantage, for instance, but one should be absolutely free to voice or write an opinion, even if that opinion is not true.
The Kindle threatens to eliminate one of those payment streams
Excuse my ignorance, because I've never bought an audio book. Are they more expensive than printed versions? If they are, then I must say I hate the Guild for exploiting the blind. Why that discrimination?
Or perhaps audio versions cost more because it costs more to make them. Then Kindle is helping blind people, because they can buy books they couldn't afford otherwise.
If the price is the same, every lost sale in audio books means one book sold in the Kindle version, so the end result should be neutral for the authors.
Don't you think it's funny how lamenting some presumed anti-MS bias on/. will invariably get a +5 moderation?
It's a simple observable fact that there exists a very strong pro-Microsoft bias on Slashdot, otherwise you would get a (-1, Flamebait) moderation instead.
Well when the "Land of the Free" finally stops being free, you won't be able to argue that you didn't see it coming.
Free as in speech or free as in beer? The speech part seems to be less and less free each day, now the beer thing, could anybody please tell me exactly *where* do they give away this free beer?
A telescope with a bigger mirror can concentrate more light, therefore it sees fainter, more distant, objects. And the further away things are in the universe, the more red-shifted their light is. It really makes sense a space telescope being designed for infrared light, rather than visible.
Because 64 bits are an advantage only in some limited situations, and a performance killer in most cases.
When doing calculations, one of the greatest performance loss causes today is moving bytes from memory to CPU and back. With 32 bits you move twice as much data in the same time, a 100% gain for free.
Another huge performance penalty comes from power consumption and heat dissipation. To perform the same calculations, 64 bits need roughly four times as many logic gates than 32 bits. A 32 bit machine could be at least twice as fast as a 64 bit machine at the same technology level, a 6 GHz CPU, think of that.
So, if 32 bits is so good, then why everybody is going to 64 bits? Answer: marketing and monopoly. There is a rather limited need at the top level CPUs for 64 bit machines, mostly doing jobs that were formerly done by mainframes, such as handling very large databases. Intel and ATI are both competing for this top level of applications, and it would be too costly for any of them to develop specialized processors for such a limited market. The solution they found was to market "64 bits" as a real need for all users.
Unless you have need to manipulate files larger than 2 gigabytes in size, you are gaining nothing from 64 bits and losing a lot.
We don't have the right to hijack music vessels on the high seas because it would harm the corporate interests that sheltered us when we were still huddled around dark fires, marveling at shadows on the cave wall.
Shhhh, don't give them ideas! Keep saying that and how long until someone will claim the copyright on the pictures?
One with all the RAM it can handle as (core speed) cache?
Just 4 Gb of RAM, a 32-bit address, and make it as fast as you can. Forget about that 64-bit bullshit, I'm not running the Social Security database. But it must be on a single chip, or as close as it can be. Memory access times are limited by the speed of light once you get into the GHz range, a nanosecond is 300 millimeters.
To go with that, let's have some thousands of cores for number crunching. Mega cores, giga cores, you can never have enough cores for number crunching. But these cores need not have 64-bit capability, all they need to do is multiply-add operations, as quickly as possible.
The CPU industry, unfortunately, has been too long in a monopoly situation. Nvidia has done some impressive progress in getting an alternative thinking to the market, let's see what they can bring next.
In the 70's the big scare was that there was only 15 years worth of (known) oil reserves left. Hey, we didn't run out. When the price went up, that incentivised people to go out and find new sources.
It was not in the 70s and the predicted end wouldn't be in the 90s.
Perhaps this will help you understand a little about what Microsoft's afraid of.
And if you look at news from 2003or 2004, and then fast forward to 2008 you need not be too good at math to realize that Microsoft just ain't what they used to be.
So I've not deprived Adobe specifically of a Photoshop sale, but I've damaged the market (including GIMP's free) for alternatives. It's still a damaging act by me to do this.
You are contributing to improve the market, not damaging it.
When the Gimp developers notice that many people prefer to copy Photoshop illegally instead of using Gimp legally and free, they will take a closer look at what Photoshop has that Gimp lacks. They will try to add equivalent or better features to Gimp. In the end, the Gimp users, even those that never used Photoshop, will get a better product.
Of course, many free-software developers add features based on their own needs, but still there's a lot of ego among them. They like to know people prefer their products over the competition, free or commercial.
You can be quite sure that there are people right now working on adding features to free software motivated by competition from commercial software, even if they get no pay for increasing their market share.
In my case it's difficult to estimate, but it has never been above a few percent and I'm 52 years old. When I was young, we mostly listened to the radio, recorded a few songs on tape, and not very often bought a record.
These days, the radio is mostly shit, a consequence of a monopoly owning the radio stations, but we have the internet to get music without paying directly for it.
I see a lot of FUD thrown up on how artists don't get compensated but it sounds kind of hollow coming from a group of people that's been stealing music anyway.
Not stealing, I've never stolen anybody's music, I have higher moral standards than some people who sell music.
Where was all the concern about "artist compensation" before enforcement started getting serious?
That "enforcement getting serious" is just the media industry bosses realizing they fucked up, but not admitting it. They had a business model based on getting a very small return per item where the production of each item had a very small cost. When they tried to raise the return per item the market said "NO". That's how capitalism works.
Why should we feel compelled to obey unjust laws? Gandhi and King would like to have a word with you
Gandhi was fighting against laws made in England that were imposed on people in India. King was fighting for a people whose ancestors were forcefully taken from their land to be enslaved in another continent. Against which laws is Phelps fighting?
The idea that laws must be obeyed is farcical
The alternative to obeying laws is the law of the jungle, the strongest will prevail.
To surrender your judgment to that of the lawmaker is to be sooner or later crushed by the bootheels of the tyrant
Only if the lawmaker is a tyrant. You should use the ballot box before using the ammo box.
Suffice to say that the founders of this country had greater sense.
From what I read, these "objects" are nothing but a fancy new name for files. For instance, if you are writing a program in Python you don't save a file, you pickle an object. Oh, wait, that's exactly what Python is able to do right now, in any OS that implements Python! Doh....
FTFA:
does it mean that not all the possible programming languages will be supported? A: Yes. Say goodbye to C and Assembler. On the other side, everything is in Java or C# now, or even in some even more dynamic language, such as Javascript or even PHP. All these languages will be supported.
Think of that: you cannot program in C, but you can write programs in PHP or Javascript. How cute! I suppose it supports Logo, right?
if you look it seems like every single country has different standards, and the laxer they are the lower the mortality rate is
What you are saying is that Iceland (3.25), Hong Kong (2.93), Japan (2.80), Sweden (2.75), and Singapore (2.30) have laxer standards for accounting infant mortality than Angola (182.31), Sierra Leone (156.48), Afghanistan (154.67), Liberia (143.89), and Niger (115.42)?
Liking doritos or going skiing do not cause sterility. To determine whether something is a disease or not one can try to think of what would happen if everybody had that same condition. If everybody had the condition of homosexuality, humankind would have become extinct by now, so it is a disease, mortal to the species although it may not seem to cause too much harm to the individual.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, of course, they certainly ARE watching all satellites! You see, these birds cost something in the order of $100 million each, don't you think someone is being paid to take care of them?
Well, of course, if it's something between a broken satellite that never reached its intended orbit, and a satellite from a bankrupt company that never had any profit, that's different. It's not as if they were true operating satellites, is it?
Well, first, sometimes words are spoken without really thinking, writing usually means premeditation. Second, the written word normally lasts longer and reaches more people.
I think the difference between libel and slander is reasonable, and libel should be a worse offense than slander.
However, I'm not really sure that any of those should be illegal, unless some other form of violation is involved. You shouldn't slander or libel anyone to get a business advantage, for instance, but one should be absolutely free to voice or write an opinion, even if that opinion is not true.
Excuse my ignorance, because I've never bought an audio book. Are they more expensive than printed versions? If they are, then I must say I hate the Guild for exploiting the blind. Why that discrimination?
Or perhaps audio versions cost more because it costs more to make them. Then Kindle is helping blind people, because they can buy books they couldn't afford otherwise.
If the price is the same, every lost sale in audio books means one book sold in the Kindle version, so the end result should be neutral for the authors.
Don't you think it's funny how lamenting some presumed anti-MS bias on /. will invariably get a +5 moderation?
It's a simple observable fact that there exists a very strong pro-Microsoft bias on Slashdot, otherwise you would get a (-1, Flamebait) moderation instead.
Free as in speech or free as in beer? The speech part seems to be less and less free each day, now the beer thing, could anybody please tell me exactly *where* do they give away this free beer?
Melissa... Melissa... Cyber security... Now, where exactly did I hear that name?
Do you get paid just to sit at your desk and post to Slashdot?
Or have you already worked your two hours today?
That's correct, but the more distant objects are moving away faster than the nearest ones.
A telescope with a bigger mirror can concentrate more light, therefore it sees fainter, more distant, objects. And the further away things are in the universe, the more red-shifted their light is. It really makes sense a space telescope being designed for infrared light, rather than visible.
I'm a Neanderthal, you insensitive clod!
And you can google for some who didn't get by Y2k...
Because 64 bits are an advantage only in some limited situations, and a performance killer in most cases.
When doing calculations, one of the greatest performance loss causes today is moving bytes from memory to CPU and back. With 32 bits you move twice as much data in the same time, a 100% gain for free.
Another huge performance penalty comes from power consumption and heat dissipation. To perform the same calculations, 64 bits need roughly four times as many logic gates than 32 bits. A 32 bit machine could be at least twice as fast as a 64 bit machine at the same technology level, a 6 GHz CPU, think of that.
So, if 32 bits is so good, then why everybody is going to 64 bits? Answer: marketing and monopoly. There is a rather limited need at the top level CPUs for 64 bit machines, mostly doing jobs that were formerly done by mainframes, such as handling very large databases. Intel and ATI are both competing for this top level of applications, and it would be too costly for any of them to develop specialized processors for such a limited market. The solution they found was to market "64 bits" as a real need for all users.
Unless you have need to manipulate files larger than 2 gigabytes in size, you are gaining nothing from 64 bits and losing a lot.
So, in your mind if I think an 18 wheeler is too big then a bike must be enough?
Do you think in our calculations it's as important to distinguish between 2147483648 and 2147483649 as between 5 and 6?
Dumbass!
Shhhh, don't give them ideas! Keep saying that and how long until someone will claim the copyright on the pictures?
Just 4 Gb of RAM, a 32-bit address, and make it as fast as you can. Forget about that 64-bit bullshit, I'm not running the Social Security database. But it must be on a single chip, or as close as it can be. Memory access times are limited by the speed of light once you get into the GHz range, a nanosecond is 300 millimeters.
To go with that, let's have some thousands of cores for number crunching. Mega cores, giga cores, you can never have enough cores for number crunching. But these cores need not have 64-bit capability, all they need to do is multiply-add operations, as quickly as possible.
The CPU industry, unfortunately, has been too long in a monopoly situation. Nvidia has done some impressive progress in getting an alternative thinking to the market, let's see what they can bring next.
It was not in the 70s and the predicted end wouldn't be in the 90s.
The future oil production was *very* accurately predicted by M. King Hubbert, in the 1950s. Compare this graph plotted in 2004 with this one, which was created in 1956.
Considering all the variations both in consumption and in production, such accuracy in a prediction of 50 years in the future is truly remarkable.
Perhaps this will help you understand a little about what Microsoft's afraid of.
And if you look at news from 2003 or 2004, and then fast forward to 2008 you need not be too good at math to realize that Microsoft just ain't what they used to be.
Ah, nothing like learning from experience! Make everything a crime. Let's use some tried and tested methods.
You are contributing to improve the market, not damaging it.
When the Gimp developers notice that many people prefer to copy Photoshop illegally instead of using Gimp legally and free, they will take a closer look at what Photoshop has that Gimp lacks. They will try to add equivalent or better features to Gimp. In the end, the Gimp users, even those that never used Photoshop, will get a better product.
Of course, many free-software developers add features based on their own needs, but still there's a lot of ego among them. They like to know people prefer their products over the competition, free or commercial.
You can be quite sure that there are people right now working on adding features to free software motivated by competition from commercial software, even if they get no pay for increasing their market share.
In my case it's difficult to estimate, but it has never been above a few percent and I'm 52 years old. When I was young, we mostly listened to the radio, recorded a few songs on tape, and not very often bought a record.
These days, the radio is mostly shit, a consequence of a monopoly owning the radio stations, but we have the internet to get music without paying directly for it.
Not stealing, I've never stolen anybody's music, I have higher moral standards than some people who sell music.
That "enforcement getting serious" is just the media industry bosses realizing they fucked up, but not admitting it. They had a business model based on getting a very small return per item where the production of each item had a very small cost. When they tried to raise the return per item the market said "NO". That's how capitalism works.
Gandhi was fighting against laws made in England that were imposed on people in India. King was fighting for a people whose ancestors were forcefully taken from their land to be enslaved in another continent. Against which laws is Phelps fighting?
The alternative to obeying laws is the law of the jungle, the strongest will prevail.
Only if the lawmaker is a tyrant. You should use the ballot box before using the ammo box.
Yes, they had great sense
I don't think we will be quite ready for such an advanced OS until the 26th century
From what I read, these "objects" are nothing but a fancy new name for files. For instance, if you are writing a program in Python you don't save a file, you pickle an object. Oh, wait, that's exactly what Python is able to do right now, in any OS that implements Python! Doh....
FTFA:
Think of that: you cannot program in C, but you can write programs in PHP or Javascript. How cute! I suppose it supports Logo, right?
What you are saying is that Iceland (3.25), Hong Kong (2.93), Japan (2.80), Sweden (2.75), and Singapore (2.30) have laxer standards for accounting infant mortality than Angola (182.31), Sierra Leone (156.48), Afghanistan (154.67), Liberia (143.89), and Niger (115.42)?
Liking doritos or going skiing do not cause sterility. To determine whether something is a disease or not one can try to think of what would happen if everybody had that same condition. If everybody had the condition of homosexuality, humankind would have become extinct by now, so it is a disease, mortal to the species although it may not seem to cause too much harm to the individual.