"My Compost Bin and I" should be "My Compost Bin and Me". Proper usage of the pronoun "I" has been drilled into everyone's skull ad nauseum, so much so that people are starting to believe that it is inappropriate to use "me" in any context. "Me" is a perfectly usable pronoun! Use it!
The same thing has happened with the pronoun "myself", which utterly disgusts me. For example, people say, "You can come to John or myself with any questions you may have." That is revolting, and this is just basic grammar I'm talking about. You wouldn't try to use the . operator on a pointer, would you?
And of course there are the all spelling mistakes and uses of the wrong homonyms, typical of any Slashdot posting.
By the way, congratulations on building yourself a composter. You're only the 9 billionth person to own one. I hope your confidence doesn't crash too hard when you find it has no effect whatsoever on your sex appeal.
Sixty-four bits is still a fuck of a lot of power. I was just pointing out that I couldn't think of many uses for it. Then again, I'm not a system administrator, so I guess that might limit my perspective.:)
Aren't current desktop computers already majorly overpowered? What do average desktop users need 64 bits of unbelievable number crunching power for?
Seriously, nobody I know uses their computer to host web sites with massive traffic, or simulate nuclear reactions in real time. My friend just got a new 1.4GHz with 512 megabytes of RAM machine for university. Shocked, I asked him, why the hell did he get that much? Because he could, he said. Come on - 1.4GHZ with 512 megs for word processing?
Thirty-two bits have sufficed for everything I ever wanted to do with a computer, and as well for practically everyone I know. Who honestly needs 64 bits, and even more speed???
You have to keep in mind that planets aren't closed systems. For one thing, they don't possess a fixed amount of energy, because some is radiated out into space, and some is absorbed by the planet. Planets don't even have fixed mass as asteroids frequently enter the atmosphere and become a part of the planet. Thus, as long as there is a positive or negative flux of energy, it is probably possible for planets to exist in states not in chemical equilibrium without the presence of life.
Of course, depending on how loose your definition of life is, then lifeless planets not in chemical equilibrium might be considered alive.
-Markus
I'm really losing respect for Adobe. As a frequent user of their products, I'd become accustomed to their much-cultivated image of good people. All of their printed materials convey a feeling of good will because they teach you how to use the software so damn well, and then they pull shit like this?? It's a good thing I'm also a fan of CorelDRAW.
Now if someone would find something cool to do with other old stuff, like this crate full of 8086's (and other assorted computer shit) I have lying around. The only reason I keep them around is because whenever I'm about to throw them out I think that they might be valuable antiques one day, or that as soon as they're gone I'll think of some ingenius project to do with them.
At one time I had dreams of using them to control robots or control this remote sensing apparatus I had halfway designed before forgetting about it.
I love to see old stuff resurrected again to do something really cool.
-Markus
P.S. Does anyone have any ideas for those 8086's?:)
On the web site it says in numerous places that the Agenda uses two AAA batteries, but I couldn't find out how long it lasts with those two batteries. I don't imagine more than a few hours or a day at most?
Maybe someone who owns one of these things could satisfy my curiosity?
"Many Iowa residents have been left behind by high-speed Internet providers simply because of where they live," said Pederson. "Without high-speed Internet access, we can't expect many of those communities to survive."
This is utter and total bullshit of the purest ray serene.
How often does the Internet get touted as the latest and greatest something that nobody can live without? How much of that is true? So it is difficult for rural town businesses to have web sites. Big deal. Does the local corner store have a web site? Not nearly enough people buy things from the Internet to classify Internet commerce as a necessity, like regular off-line, physical shopping.
Rural areas are, by definition, rural. Rural to implies being away from the general population, isolation, privacy. That's what you get, and you also get the downsides, like slow net access (if any). Live with it. Nobody's going to die because their Hotmail is too slow. For crying out loud.
I used to read the threads on Forum2000 frequently and noticed numerous spelling mistakes. One I found today can be found here.
It is in a comment the Einstein persona makes:
"My point is that you do not fully understand the notion of time, and it is no wonder that your mind, set to analyze everything into indivisible untis, cannot conceive of time as a geometric notion, just another dimension of the space-time manifold.
The 'Einstein SOMAD' incorrectly spells the words 'units' as 'untis'. There are more spelling errors if you care to take the time to look for them.
This leads me to question the fact that the Forum2000 is really a front end to an artificial intelligence computer. I have this creeping suspicion that human beings really type the answers to people's questions. The only real 'artificial intelligence' is the Cube. Have you noticed how when you ask a question, the Cube has a meaningless answer right away, whereas the other personas take hours or days to reply? It may be true that the Matrix needs that much time to come up with replies, but if it makes spelling mistakes (which a computer program at the level that the Forum2000 is purported to be should not make) AND takes forever to generate replies, in my mind can only mean that human beings come up with the answers.
Possibly the reason the Forum2000 got shut down is because everyone started running out of ideas for funny conversations between the SOMADs, or that the people running it are graduating from university and will not have time to keep it up? The oldest questions in the Hall of Fame are around 1200 days old, which is roughly four years, the time needed to complete university.
There are other issues, such as the fact that the SOMADs can change the font attributes of the text of their replies, and on rare occasions generate images to prove their points. But maybe they know HTML.
Of course, you could argue that the spelling mistakes are intentionally programmed into the Forum2000.
Isn't is possible that the NSA is using the media to spread a false rumour about a crashed system to lure hackers into attempting attacks on other NSA systems?
They might be hoping that hackers will think that because one system went down, the rest are weakened as a result, and it should be easy for them to be taken down.
While a bunch of hackers are trying to attack a computer system that is really fully operational, the NSA is monitoring the types of attacks that are being mounted, and where they are originating from. This way they get useful data to make their computers even more secure, and as a bonus, they also get leads on a few more elite hackers. (That's assuming that only the elite would get far enough as to attacking an NSA computer:)
-Markus
Rainy days and automatic weapons always get me down.
I know this is slightly off-topic, but while the discussion is about encryption, I though I'd ask:
There were a few lines in that article talking about the U.S. relaxing the rules about exporting strong encryption software; this reminded me of a thought I had a while ago:
Netscape Navigator is available freely from the web, and so are other software packages which contain strong encryption software. They do have a warning before you download that if you live outside of North America, you aren't allowed to download it. But that's just like the warnings on porn sites, isn't it? "Click the enter button only if you're 18 or older, otherwise you're violating a bunch of laws." How do they prevent you from downloading the software, check what domain you're downloading from and if it's foreign, then the server doesn't let you have it?
Or is the law barring export of strong encryption pretty much useless and the message on the webpage is just there to cover Netscape's ass?
I'm just curious. Also, forgive me if someone has already asked this, or a flame war has already been fought over this.:)
-Markus
Rainy days and automatic weapons always get me down.
This is probably the best parody of anything I've ever seen. Man talk about funny I was laughing out loud most of the time and the rest of the time I could barely keep it in.
Slashdot Mirror
To be a nitpicky prick:
"My Compost Bin and I" should be "My Compost Bin and Me". Proper usage of the pronoun "I" has been drilled into everyone's skull ad nauseum, so much so that people are starting to believe that it is inappropriate to use "me" in any context. "Me" is a perfectly usable pronoun! Use it!
The same thing has happened with the pronoun "myself", which utterly disgusts me. For example, people say, "You can come to John or myself with any questions you may have." That is revolting, and this is just basic grammar I'm talking about. You wouldn't try to use the . operator on a pointer, would you?
And of course there are the all spelling mistakes and uses of the wrong homonyms, typical of any Slashdot posting.
By the way, congratulations on building yourself a composter. You're only the 9 billionth person to own one. I hope your confidence doesn't crash too hard when you find it has no effect whatsoever on your sex appeal.
Sixty-four bits is still a fuck of a lot of power. I was just pointing out that I couldn't think of many uses for it. Then again, I'm not a system administrator, so I guess that might limit my perspective. :)
Aren't current desktop computers already majorly overpowered? What do average desktop users need 64 bits of unbelievable number crunching power for?
Seriously, nobody I know uses their computer to host web sites with massive traffic, or simulate nuclear reactions in real time. My friend just got a new 1.4GHz with 512 megabytes of RAM machine for university. Shocked, I asked him, why the hell did he get that much? Because he could, he said. Come on - 1.4GHZ with 512 megs for word processing?
Thirty-two bits have sufficed for everything I ever wanted to do with a computer, and as well for practically everyone I know. Who honestly needs 64 bits, and even more speed???
You have to keep in mind that planets aren't closed systems. For one thing, they don't possess a fixed amount of energy, because some is radiated out into space, and some is absorbed by the planet. Planets don't even have fixed mass as asteroids frequently enter the atmosphere and become a part of the planet. Thus, as long as there is a positive or negative flux of energy, it is probably possible for planets to exist in states not in chemical equilibrium without the presence of life. Of course, depending on how loose your definition of life is, then lifeless planets not in chemical equilibrium might be considered alive. -Markus
"That explains the milk in the coconuts."
I'm really losing respect for Adobe. As a frequent user of their products, I'd become accustomed to their much-cultivated image of good people. All of their printed materials convey a feeling of good will because they teach you how to use the software so damn well, and then they pull shit like this?? It's a good thing I'm also a fan of CorelDRAW.
"That explains the milk in the coconuts."
Now if someone would find something cool to do with other old stuff, like this crate full of 8086's (and other assorted computer shit) I have lying around. The only reason I keep them around is because whenever I'm about to throw them out I think that they might be valuable antiques one day, or that as soon as they're gone I'll think of some ingenius project to do with them.
:)
At one time I had dreams of using them to control robots or control this remote sensing apparatus I had halfway designed before forgetting about it.
I love to see old stuff resurrected again to do something really cool.
-Markus
P.S. Does anyone have any ideas for those 8086's?
"That explains the milk in the coconuts."
On the web site it says in numerous places that the Agenda uses two AAA batteries, but I couldn't find out how long it lasts with those two batteries. I don't imagine more than a few hours or a day at most?
Maybe someone who owns one of these things could satisfy my curiosity?
Thanks,
-Markus
"That explains the milk in the coconuts."
I quote from the article:
"Many Iowa residents have been left behind by high-speed Internet providers simply because of where they live," said Pederson. "Without high-speed Internet access, we can't expect many of those communities to survive."
This is utter and total bullshit of the purest ray serene.
How often does the Internet get touted as the latest and greatest something that nobody can live without? How much of that is true? So it is difficult for rural town businesses to have web sites. Big deal. Does the local corner store have a web site? Not nearly enough people buy things from the Internet to classify Internet commerce as a necessity, like regular off-line, physical shopping.
Rural areas are, by definition, rural. Rural to implies being away from the general population, isolation, privacy. That's what you get, and you also get the downsides, like slow net access (if any). Live with it. Nobody's going to die because their Hotmail is too slow. For crying out loud.
--Markus
BlackholeTV - TV that Swallows
So IBM is cheating on Microsoft.
Someone should write a soap opera.
BlackholeTV - TV that Swallows
I used to read the threads on Forum2000 frequently and noticed numerous spelling mistakes. One I found today can be found here.
It is in a comment the Einstein persona makes:
"My point is that you do not fully understand the notion of time, and it is no wonder that your mind, set to analyze everything into indivisible untis, cannot conceive of time as a geometric notion, just another dimension of the space-time manifold.
The 'Einstein SOMAD' incorrectly spells the words 'units' as 'untis'. There are more spelling errors if you care to take the time to look for them.
This leads me to question the fact that the Forum2000 is really a front end to an artificial intelligence computer. I have this creeping suspicion that human beings really type the answers to people's questions. The only real 'artificial intelligence' is the Cube. Have you noticed how when you ask a question, the Cube has a meaningless answer right away, whereas the other personas take hours or days to reply? It may be true that the Matrix needs that much time to come up with replies, but if it makes spelling mistakes (which a computer program at the level that the Forum2000 is purported to be should not make) AND takes forever to generate replies, in my mind can only mean that human beings come up with the answers.
Possibly the reason the Forum2000 got shut down is because everyone started running out of ideas for funny conversations between the SOMADs, or that the people running it are graduating from university and will not have time to keep it up? The oldest questions in the Hall of Fame are around 1200 days old, which is roughly four years, the time needed to complete university.
There are other issues, such as the fact that the SOMADs can change the font attributes of the text of their replies, and on rare occasions generate images to prove their points. But maybe they know HTML.
Of course, you could argue that the spelling mistakes are intentionally programmed into the Forum2000.
What do you think?
--Markus
BlackholeTV - TV that Swallows
Hi,
:) but hey.
This may be a little offtopic, but I program a little bit but never in C++ (yet) therefore the meaning of the word 'enums' is strange to me.
I was wondering if someone could give me a quick rundown on enums, why they are important and why they are something to be excited about in C#.
I personally don't see the need for yet... another... programming... language...
--Markus
BlackholeTV - TV that Swallows
Who's the fool?
:)
Have you ever even looked a piano keyboard in your life, smarty pants?
C-sharp is enharmonic to D-flat. B-flat is the same as A-sharp, and E-sharp is enharmonic to F.
Get your theory straight next time, Mr. Beethoven.
--Markus
BlackholeTV - TV that Swallows
If the signal travels faster than light, wouldn't it get received before it was sent??
Maybe this was addressed in the patent write up but I wasn't able to read it, presumably because of the Slashdot effect.
-Markus
Rainy days and automatic weapons always get me down.
It was pretty clear he was persona non grata.
Silly question indeed, but what does persona no grata mean?
-Markus
Rainy days and automatic weapons always get me down.
Isn't is possible that the NSA is using the media to spread a false rumour about a crashed system to lure hackers into attempting attacks on other NSA systems?
They might be hoping that hackers will think that because one system went down, the rest are weakened as a result, and it should be easy for them to be taken down.
While a bunch of hackers are trying to attack a computer system that is really fully operational, the NSA is monitoring the types of attacks that are being mounted, and where they are originating from. This way they get useful data to make their computers even more secure, and as a bonus, they also get leads on a few more elite hackers. (That's assuming that only the elite would get far enough as to attacking an NSA computer
-Markus
Rainy days and automatic weapons always get me down.
I know this is slightly off-topic, but while the discussion is about encryption, I though I'd ask:
:)
There were a few lines in that article talking about the U.S. relaxing the rules about exporting strong encryption software; this reminded me of a thought I had a while ago:
Netscape Navigator is available freely from the web, and so are other software packages which contain strong encryption software. They do have a warning before you download that if you live outside of North America, you aren't allowed to download it. But that's just like the warnings on porn sites, isn't it? "Click the enter button only if you're 18 or older, otherwise you're violating a bunch of laws." How do they prevent you from downloading the software, check what domain you're downloading from and if it's foreign, then the server doesn't let you have it?
Or is the law barring export of strong encryption pretty much useless and the message on the webpage is just there to cover Netscape's ass?
I'm just curious. Also, forgive me if someone has already asked this, or a flame war has already been fought over this.
-Markus
Rainy days and automatic weapons always get me down.
This is probably the best parody of anything I've ever seen. Man talk about funny I was laughing out loud most of the time and the rest of the time I could barely keep it in.