As far as I'm aware, in the US, you are not asked. You have to ask to be an organ donor.
FYI, since DMVs are state-run bureaus, that subject is up to the state to decide. In California, you are given a Yes/No option on every Driver's License registration and renewal form.
Makers of x86 applications should have been mandated to produce a (Generic) Linux, Windows, and OSX port of all their software. That means Quicken, that means Adobe, that means, everyone else. Makers of hardware needed to be mandated to make a Windows, Linux, and OSX driver for their device.
I don't think that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.... but it's damn close.
My ISP (Comcast) consistently delivers bandwidth far in excess of what they advertise.
I can attest to this. I don't get bandwidth far in excess of the advertised speed, but I'm paying for their 16/2.5 service, and what is the speed I get when downloading games on Steam? About 1.9-2.1 MB/s. It sometimes bursts even higher than that. Unfortunately, due to the way cable communications work (being on a shared line all the way to the box on the side of your house), it's not very feasible to guarantee a speed of any sort, but for somebody to say that an ISP is completely incapable of maintaining such speeds is hogwash.
This story is posted as though it's surprising that companies would show disapproval towards their competitors products, claiming that their own are superior.
Can we please not post stories merely for the sake of finding another reason for people to bitch about Microsoft?
I'd say you're ignorant, naive, and stupid, and there's no hope of you ever understanding what I'm trying to say, so I'm just gonna give up on this one.
Your post made it seem like you were a part of the tinfoil crowd by suggesting that they do not use collected user data for their ad services. But now it seems fairly clear that you are suggesting that they do not collect data of that sort at all. But that would be completely untrue because Google tells you and me and everybody that they DO collect data. Said data has been discussed time and time again in the news--on Slashdot, no less, and for you to suggest that they DON'T collect data would mean that you are extremely ignorant or naive or stupid... so which one is it?
Just curious, has anyone ever presented any evidence that Google uses collected user data for their ad services?
I mean, you state it as if it was a fact.. it's not.
Has anyone ever presented evidence that Google does not use collected user data for their ad services? Has anyone ever presented some other reason for Google to be collecting data?
I suggest you remove your tinfoil hat. All it will do is focus the corporate and government mind waves and cause cranial injury.
Wow, people just don't get it. A few people have replied to my post saying "I can go to an internet cafe" and "Good luck with that if I do it from the library" as though I'm threatening people or something. I don't care if you go to a library. If I have one ballot, I likely have an entire box of ballots. I can identify people and use that information for whatever crazy purposes I want.
But also, as I said, it's not really a big deal if I find out who someone voted for. Does it really matter? What am I gonna do with that?
Read what he's saying. I have ballot 24664971 in my hand. I download apache.log and find the IP address of the person who accessed votecheck.net/check?ballot=24664971 and I trace that back to you. I now know who you voted for. It has nothing to do with the three-digit numbers.
Now, in my opinion, that's not a big deal, but I thought I'd explain it to you anyway.
* they advertise how customers will need to do nothing for the digital conversion. then we get boxes
God I can't believe how many people still don't understand what the digital conversion was and, frankly, how few people it affected. The government-mandated transition to digital broadcasting was for over-the-air television broadcasting only. So no, cable customers did not have to do anything for the digital conversion, period. Comcast has been, however, rolling out encryption on channel 37 (or around that) and up for their basic cable subscribers. That was not part of the government-mandated transition, nor was it something that digital cable users had to worry about whatsoever, nor was it something that required you to go out and buy something. It just required basic cable customers to get a receiver to decrypt the higher basic cable channels to make sure that people weren't stealing their TV, etc. 2 of these receivers are provided free of charge to all paying customers.
Please don't be somebody that gets mad at companies over something you know nothing about.
This is not true. That red map is the VZW 3G (EVDO and not just 1xRTT) network just as they claim. They have basically upgraded their entire network to EVDO.
I can attest to this... why else would I have had EVDO signal in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, SD when I was there on a trip a few weeks ago?
It's also known for requiring an hour or so of downtime every single day or the entire system buckles under the pressure.
So?
A nightly downtime (only an hour -- big whoop) allows for minor software updates, hardware upgrades and changes, resolution of non-critical network stability issues, updates of in-game statistics (mechanics-wise, such as faction standing and such that would cause extreme load if it were updated in real time) and the ability to perform backups while databases are not being modified... thereby making them more reliable and giving CCP the ability -- if it were ever needed -- to give an exact point that systems were restored to that people can look back at, rather than some random time of day when people won't remember what they were doing at the time. Oh, the system also performs a full reboot, completely clearing all resources and also cleaning out (in-game) systems as people go to dock for the night. Can you just imagine how less laggy other MMOs would be if they all had a nightly reboot? I've played several, and -- for a very specific example -- D&D Online has several shards, and on each shard in each location there are several instances that only support a certain number of people. Even with the multi-instancing, things are still laggy as hell. There is also typically a 30-minute queue before you can login. The only time I encounter a queue in EVE is right after downtime and it's usually only 10 minutes or so.
There is nothing wrong with a nightly reboot, no matter what OS a game's servers use.
It wouldn't be so bad, but (in technical terms, at least), user interfaces are what Microsoft do well. I don't have a good word to say about MS on the whole, but aside from two or three glaring exceptions, they do seem to have a knack for making things accessible to the less technical end of the user spectrum. So when someone tells me that if they couldn't even get that part right, I have to wonder what horrors lurk elsewhere.
It's not that they did a bad job with the user interface... it's that, until Obama came along, people were just afraid of change. Let's all hope that with Obama in office, people can finally accept the change that has been brought to their computer interfaces.
By your definition then, a dead-tree edition of the King James bible would qualify as a database. It's even indexed by book/chapter/verse. Anything that has information would be a database. It's not great for rapid search and retrieval, but neither is the manual Excel search you describe above.
(and I am not bored enough to continue this discussion further)
NOW you get it. Good job! Although, how come that excel search isn't great for rapid retrieval? It sure beats typing 'SELECT email FROM customer_db WHERE id = 25'... you just CTRL+G to row 25 and copy what's in the field you want. Sounds pretty rapid to me.
But Excel (the software) does not support database functionality, e.g. queries, joins, etc. Databases are software and data, and a "real" database has auxiliary data as well (e.g. indices) to help with the "rapid search and retrieval" part.
No, Excel does not support SQL database functionality. Those are features of SQL, and are not requirements to meet the definition of "database". And no, databases are just bases of data; It would be a database "program" or "suite" or "system" that is the software and data mechanism.
Spreadsheets have no indices? Columns and rows are indices. A column dedicated to an id (much like SQL databases) can be an index. Then you just CTRL+F to find what's in the id column, or CTRL+G (or something) to go to a certain row, and find exactly what you want... just like an SQL database. You lose.
(I know this is an idiotic debate based solely upon semantics, but I am very very bored right now, so I will continue as long as you do.)
So you're saying that an XLS file isn't a database. Then I say it is a database. Then you say it is a database but it's still not a database because just rows and columns does not make it a database. Well what DOES make something a database?
According to Merriam-Webster, a database is "a usually large collection of data organized especially for rapid search and retrieval (as by a computer)." Based on that definition, how is an SQL database (which, you agree, could use a spreadsheet format for storing data) AT ALL different from a "spreadsheet"?
Are you guys sure that only the eBilling customers are the ones on that spreadsheet? Maybe I missed something in the article, but I'm willing to bet that all customers are on it.
(and spreadsheets aren't databases, you can't write SQL queries against them)
A. Just because Excel isn't an SQL database doesn't mean it's not a database.
B. Who says you can't write SQL queries against a spreadsheet? Give me 20 minutes and I can write up a simple program that will accept basic SQL input to modify an XLS file. Spreadsheets are simply tables, columns, and rows, after all... just like SQL databases.
RoHS? Nowhere in the article does it say that lead free solder is the cause. The 'yellow light' failure rate for the PS3 is less than 0.5%, no different from leaded solder.
What evidence do you have that the failure is caused directly by RoHS compliant manufacturing techniques?
This looks like your standard Straw-Man fallacy.
How come you can CTRL+F in just about any/. thread and find some mention of the Straw Man Argument? It wouldn't be so bad if peoples' claims were actually true -- that a SMA was being used against them -- but usually, people cite SMA when they are just angry that they've been bested in an e-debate.
Ever since the PS3 came out, Sony fanboys have been pointing out the fact that PS3s weren't getting these fatal errors all the time like the 360 was. The RRoD is a very widely known problem that the 360 used to have. Now the XBOX fanboys are using the PS3's YLoD as ammo against the Sony fanboys (in the console war that has been irrelevant for 2 years, mind you) saying "HEY LOOK YOURS IS JUST AS BAD AS OURS NEENER NEENER NEENER".
GP has some sense in him, and he decided to come to Slashdot to try and spread that sense to others by saying that it's NEITHER manufacturer's fault. It is an issue with the RoHS-compliant lead-free solder. It is not nearly as reliable as the wash-your-hands-after-you-touch-that-stuff-lest-your-testicles-shrivel-up-and-start-making-stupid-semen solder of the good ol' days. But then the parent comes in and accuses GP of providing a SMA. The definition (per Wikipedia) of a Straw Man Argument is as follows: "A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To 'attack a straw man' is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by substituting a superficially similar proposition (the 'sraw man'), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position." How can saying that this issue is neither party's fault, and that it is a problem with the materials that both parties use be considered a Straw Man Argument?
Reading the previous comments you've posted here, I'm having a hard time deciding whether you're a troll, an unfortunately misinformed individual, or a complete and total dumbass. Can you please tell me which?
Who in the hell is actually going to do the scanning?
Google has been scanning books into their system for several years using automated scanning mechanisms. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I can tell you that it is definitely not intern-powered.
..... did you honestly think that people are sitting at their desk running books through flatbed scanners one page at a time?
Slashdot Mirror
As far as I'm aware, in the US, you are not asked. You have to ask to be an organ donor.
FYI, since DMVs are state-run bureaus, that subject is up to the state to decide. In California, you are given a Yes/No option on every Driver's License registration and renewal form.
Makers of x86 applications should have been mandated to produce a (Generic) Linux, Windows, and OSX port of all their software. That means Quicken, that means Adobe, that means, everyone else. Makers of hardware needed to be mandated to make a Windows, Linux, and OSX driver for their device.
I don't think that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.... but it's damn close.
My ISP (Comcast) consistently delivers bandwidth far in excess of what they advertise.
I can attest to this. I don't get bandwidth far in excess of the advertised speed, but I'm paying for their 16/2.5 service, and what is the speed I get when downloading games on Steam? About 1.9-2.1 MB/s. It sometimes bursts even higher than that. Unfortunately, due to the way cable communications work (being on a shared line all the way to the box on the side of your house), it's not very feasible to guarantee a speed of any sort, but for somebody to say that an ISP is completely incapable of maintaining such speeds is hogwash.
You must be new here.
I guess so.
This story is posted as though it's surprising that companies would show disapproval towards their competitors products, claiming that their own are superior.
Can we please not post stories merely for the sake of finding another reason for people to bitch about Microsoft?
I'd say you're ignorant, naive, and stupid, and there's no hope of you ever understanding what I'm trying to say, so I'm just gonna give up on this one.
wait wait wait wait wait
Your post made it seem like you were a part of the tinfoil crowd by suggesting that they do not use collected user data for their ad services. But now it seems fairly clear that you are suggesting that they do not collect data of that sort at all. But that would be completely untrue because Google tells you and me and everybody that they DO collect data. Said data has been discussed time and time again in the news--on Slashdot, no less, and for you to suggest that they DON'T collect data would mean that you are extremely ignorant or naive or stupid... so which one is it?
Just curious, has anyone ever presented any evidence that Google uses collected user data for their ad services?
I mean, you state it as if it was a fact.. it's not.
Has anyone ever presented evidence that Google does not use collected user data for their ad services? Has anyone ever presented some other reason for Google to be collecting data?
I suggest you remove your tinfoil hat. All it will do is focus the corporate and government mind waves and cause cranial injury.
Wow, people just don't get it. A few people have replied to my post saying "I can go to an internet cafe" and "Good luck with that if I do it from the library" as though I'm threatening people or something. I don't care if you go to a library. If I have one ballot, I likely have an entire box of ballots. I can identify people and use that information for whatever crazy purposes I want.
But also, as I said, it's not really a big deal if I find out who someone voted for. Does it really matter? What am I gonna do with that?
But the whole system wouldn't work at all if there was not a linkage between your three letters and the Candidate's name SOMEWHERE.
Incorrect. Those letters have nothing to do with your vote selection, they're just an integrity check.
Again, read the paper.
Read what he's saying. I have ballot 24664971 in my hand. I download apache.log and find the IP address of the person who accessed votecheck.net/check?ballot=24664971 and I trace that back to you. I now know who you voted for. It has nothing to do with the three-digit numbers.
Now, in my opinion, that's not a big deal, but I thought I'd explain it to you anyway.
* they advertise how customers will need to do nothing for the digital conversion. then we get boxes
God I can't believe how many people still don't understand what the digital conversion was and, frankly, how few people it affected. The government-mandated transition to digital broadcasting was for over-the-air television broadcasting only. So no, cable customers did not have to do anything for the digital conversion, period. Comcast has been, however, rolling out encryption on channel 37 (or around that) and up for their basic cable subscribers. That was not part of the government-mandated transition, nor was it something that digital cable users had to worry about whatsoever, nor was it something that required you to go out and buy something. It just required basic cable customers to get a receiver to decrypt the higher basic cable channels to make sure that people weren't stealing their TV, etc. 2 of these receivers are provided free of charge to all paying customers.
Please don't be somebody that gets mad at companies over something you know nothing about.
This is not true. That red map is the VZW 3G (EVDO and not just 1xRTT) network just as they claim. They have basically upgraded their entire network to EVDO.
I can attest to this... why else would I have had EVDO signal in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, SD when I was there on a trip a few weeks ago?
It's also known for requiring an hour or so of downtime every single day or the entire system buckles under the pressure.
So?
A nightly downtime (only an hour -- big whoop) allows for minor software updates, hardware upgrades and changes, resolution of non-critical network stability issues, updates of in-game statistics (mechanics-wise, such as faction standing and such that would cause extreme load if it were updated in real time) and the ability to perform backups while databases are not being modified... thereby making them more reliable and giving CCP the ability -- if it were ever needed -- to give an exact point that systems were restored to that people can look back at, rather than some random time of day when people won't remember what they were doing at the time. Oh, the system also performs a full reboot, completely clearing all resources and also cleaning out (in-game) systems as people go to dock for the night. Can you just imagine how less laggy other MMOs would be if they all had a nightly reboot? I've played several, and -- for a very specific example -- D&D Online has several shards, and on each shard in each location there are several instances that only support a certain number of people. Even with the multi-instancing, things are still laggy as hell. There is also typically a 30-minute queue before you can login. The only time I encounter a queue in EVE is right after downtime and it's usually only 10 minutes or so.
There is nothing wrong with a nightly reboot, no matter what OS a game's servers use.
You see the fundamental concept of the Orwellian idea is to have one instance impose on your privacy
But that's too expensive, so the British government has chosen the next best thing.
It wouldn't be so bad, but (in technical terms, at least), user interfaces are what Microsoft do well. I don't have a good word to say about MS on the whole, but aside from two or three glaring exceptions, they do seem to have a knack for making things accessible to the less technical end of the user spectrum. So when someone tells me that if they couldn't even get that part right, I have to wonder what horrors lurk elsewhere.
It's not that they did a bad job with the user interface... it's that, until Obama came along, people were just afraid of change. Let's all hope that with Obama in office, people can finally accept the change that has been brought to their computer interfaces.
By your definition then, a dead-tree edition of the King James bible would qualify as a database. It's even indexed by book/chapter/verse. Anything that has information would be a database. It's not great for rapid search and retrieval, but neither is the manual Excel search you describe above.
(and I am not bored enough to continue this discussion further)
NOW you get it. Good job! Although, how come that excel search isn't great for rapid retrieval? It sure beats typing 'SELECT email FROM customer_db WHERE id = 25'... you just CTRL+G to row 25 and copy what's in the field you want. Sounds pretty rapid to me.
But Excel (the software) does not support database functionality, e.g. queries, joins, etc. Databases are software and data, and a "real" database has auxiliary data as well (e.g. indices) to help with the "rapid search and retrieval" part.
No, Excel does not support SQL database functionality. Those are features of SQL, and are not requirements to meet the definition of "database". And no, databases are just bases of data; It would be a database "program" or "suite" or "system" that is the software and data mechanism.
Spreadsheets have no indices? Columns and rows are indices. A column dedicated to an id (much like SQL databases) can be an index. Then you just CTRL+F to find what's in the id column, or CTRL+G (or something) to go to a certain row, and find exactly what you want... just like an SQL database. You lose.
(I know this is an idiotic debate based solely upon semantics, but I am very very bored right now, so I will continue as long as you do.)
So you're saying that an XLS file isn't a database. Then I say it is a database. Then you say it is a database but it's still not a database because just rows and columns does not make it a database. Well what DOES make something a database?
According to Merriam-Webster, a database is "a usually large collection of data organized especially for rapid search and retrieval (as by a computer)." Based on that definition, how is an SQL database (which, you agree, could use a spreadsheet format for storing data) AT ALL different from a "spreadsheet"?
Are you guys sure that only the eBilling customers are the ones on that spreadsheet? Maybe I missed something in the article, but I'm willing to bet that all customers are on it.
(and spreadsheets aren't databases, you can't write SQL queries against them)
A. Just because Excel isn't an SQL database doesn't mean it's not a database.
B. Who says you can't write SQL queries against a spreadsheet? Give me 20 minutes and I can write up a simple program that will accept basic SQL input to modify an XLS file. Spreadsheets are simply tables, columns, and rows, after all... just like SQL databases.
I'm glad that Slashdot now has a chief economist with such well-considered and comprehensive solutions to the world's problems?
Thank you, sir. I wear my title with pride.
Washington has no income tax.. That is the point..
Well maybe they should get one.
RoHS? Nowhere in the article does it say that lead free solder is the cause. The 'yellow light' failure rate for the PS3 is less than 0.5%, no different from leaded solder.
What evidence do you have that the failure is caused directly by RoHS compliant manufacturing techniques?
This looks like your standard Straw-Man fallacy.
How come you can CTRL+F in just about any /. thread and find some mention of the Straw Man Argument? It wouldn't be so bad if peoples' claims were actually true -- that a SMA was being used against them -- but usually, people cite SMA when they are just angry that they've been bested in an e-debate.
Ever since the PS3 came out, Sony fanboys have been pointing out the fact that PS3s weren't getting these fatal errors all the time like the 360 was. The RRoD is a very widely known problem that the 360 used to have. Now the XBOX fanboys are using the PS3's YLoD as ammo against the Sony fanboys (in the console war that has been irrelevant for 2 years, mind you) saying "HEY LOOK YOURS IS JUST AS BAD AS OURS NEENER NEENER NEENER".
GP has some sense in him, and he decided to come to Slashdot to try and spread that sense to others by saying that it's NEITHER manufacturer's fault. It is an issue with the RoHS-compliant lead-free solder. It is not nearly as reliable as the wash-your-hands-after-you-touch-that-stuff-lest-your-testicles-shrivel-up-and-start-making-stupid-semen solder of the good ol' days. But then the parent comes in and accuses GP of providing a SMA. The definition (per Wikipedia) of a Straw Man Argument is as follows: "A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To 'attack a straw man' is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by substituting a superficially similar proposition (the 'sraw man'), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position." How can saying that this issue is neither party's fault, and that it is a problem with the materials that both parties use be considered a Straw Man Argument?
Reading the previous comments you've posted here, I'm having a hard time deciding whether you're a troll, an unfortunately misinformed individual, or a complete and total dumbass. Can you please tell me which?
Who in the hell is actually going to do the scanning?
Google has been scanning books into their system for several years using automated scanning mechanisms. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I can tell you that it is definitely not intern-powered.
..... did you honestly think that people are sitting at their desk running books through flatbed scanners one page at a time?