It never has been legal to make copies of copyrighted works except in special circumstances. It never will be. The fact is that now the laws are being enforced more strictly (and indeed over-enforced) because the potential for abuse is so great.
I can certainly sympathize with you there. By any chance, did you take "Math for Engineers"? I was required to (thank goodness I'm done with that my first year) and I suddenly found myself horribly mediocre in a subject at which I have been the best as long as I can remember. Why? Because the prof said "here is theorem 1. We are interested in these applications.... Ok, here is theorem 2..." while the kids in the Arts and Sciences school were being taught as "now suppose you have delta and epsilon... What can we derive from this? Thus we arrive at theorem 1. Now suppose.... Thus we arrive at theorem 2." They assumed the students were bright enough to figure out "how" with knowing "why," the way math ought to be taught. Ugh. At least I can take real math now that bogus engineering math is over with.
No, actually they mean can't. It's not like saying "All the kings horses and all the king's men couldn't put humpty dumpty back together again", it's like saying "you can't destroy matter without creating energy." When a physicist says "can't," he means "can't," not "probably won't"
The problem is not the higher level stuff. The point of secondary school is to give a general-purpose education and anything in more that 3 dimensions is not really practical in an all-purpose education (not that it shouldn't be offered, but that it shouldn't be required).
That being said, however, the reason you were never very good at math is (I venture to guess) because they "taught" you to solve things by the book. You almost certainly understand the fundamental concepts of algebra better than most; you just don't associate it with math, but rather with object oriented programming and the like.
The problem with the education system is that teachers have decided that it's easier to teach everything by rote memorization rather than investigating WHY it works. I mean if you can teach a computer the same way you're teaching a kid, you're teaching the kid wrong. There are some cases where rote memorization is a good thing (e.g. multiplication tables and addition/subtraction), but only because it makes understanding real concepts easier.
On an unrelated note, I think the educational system fails the students by not challenging the smart kids. There's all kinds of effort put into getting the slower kids up to speed, so to speak, which is admittedly an admirable thing, but the smart kids are just left in with all the "normal" kids. I know it's probably more expensive to challenge the smart kids, but I think it would really bring up the interest in learning and work ethic. If a kid can easily breeze through K-12 with no effort, there's little incentive to excel when he has the opportunity in college and, moreover, he has no study skills because studying was a waste of time until he got to set his own pace in college.
Sure I guess video games are useful for combatting terrorism, but I think minimizing saber-rattling would work a little better. George W Bush: TR said "speak softly and carry a big stick" not "run around and attack countries because they're arab" or "support jerusalem because the damn palestinians are a bunch of arabs"
Come on, as "extreme" as these attacks are, it's not like they're unfounded. They hate the US because we're a bunch of saber-rattling bullies. If we simply butted out of the stupid conflicts into which we continually interpose ourselves, there wouldn't be so many people who hate the US.
I mean really, wouldn't it be much better if we had some sort of secret vigilante organization. They could have like orbital rail guns or uzi-toting children as their instruments of fear.
Golly, I wish Timothy would open a bank and base my account balance on his statistics. I'll open with one cent, put in another cent the next day, two more cents the day after, and 4 more cents the day after that. I'll just clean it out in about 40 days, invest in a large company at the beginning of that day, wait for the price to increase by one cent, sell, put back the principal into timmy's bank and close the account. I should be set for life off the profit. (let's see... $0.01 * 2^40 *.01% assuming the stock was worth $100 at the beginning of the day and $100.01 at the end of the day)
I guess it's a little unfair to make such a personal attack on a person I've never met, but hey, it's the internet and everybody's an ass.
well as I read it, neither is asymptotic (assuming you're looking for constant asymptotes) The first approaches a linear asymptote, but it's not horizontal, so you could infer linear expansion of gnu users (what is the rate of increase of computer users as a whole?). The second shows a clearly logarithmic asymptote, and for those of you who failed precalculus, logarithmic graphs increase boundlessly. The fact that it is on a logarithmic scale simply shows that it's a linear asymptote on a linear scale (imagine that).
They should just sue a fast food chain because the fast food chain forgot to tell them that coffee is "hot" and could "burn" them. It really hurts my head to see all these idiot lawsuits just out for money. Yes, the idiot user might believe that more megahertz is better, but the fact is that no computer salesman who is at all ethical and intelligent would fail to explain that megahertz is not the sole determinant of computer speed.
Well if you want to protect the data, put in a document shredder option... when the owner presses a button on his wristband, the data is deleted and shredded. If you wanted to be more secure and also protect against resale of the laptop (as a deterrant to theft), put in what you might think of as a more effective document shredder: either put in a small incendiary device (guess the airlines wouldn't like that) or get the platters spinning at a ridiculously fast pace and then release them from the hard drive case... very much ruined.
Or maybe what would be even cooler is to have it so that if you touch it the wrong way, all these really cool spikes and razor blades bust out of the case, shredding the hands of the thief like Blade's sword from the movie.
Now now! You're just not being fair! Windows has done wayyyy too many good things to let ONE LITTLE ISSUE like this ruin their reputation. I mean there's never been a security problem with Windows before... Why is that? because Microsoft is good for business! The "unstoppable Windows NT" never crashes, and to prove it, Have you ever seen what the MS developers call a "blue screen"? No! of course you haven't, because it never crashed. Get this: All the new versions have this "blue screen" built in as well, but I don't know anybody who has ever seen one. Why? because it just can't crash. But laying that aside, I think it's unfair to accuse Windows of being insecure... after all, Outlook is secure and it uses SSL, right? I know all you people like to bash Microsoft, but the fact is that you're just jealous because Microsoft products are so good that nobody feels the need to compete. (except for Steve Jobs, but he's a fanatic that likes inferior hardware... c'mon, one mouse button?)
I guess you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out a new way to put ads where people will notice them.... oh wait, I guess he is a rocket scientist... never mind then.
I think we should base national security on film. That way, we could completely ignore a massive army of highly trained death-uzi ninjas and keep our eyes out for an oafish austrian. Let's be serious: If a criminal wanted the maps of any business, he could get it. You see, criminals who bother to think about what they're doing aren't thieves because they would realize they can make more money through fraud than through outright theft.
Besides, the knowledge of blueprints is highly overrated. (It's impossible to stealthily crawl through a ventilation duct. Not only are they almost invariably too small, but they are also sheet metal and only connected to the ceiling by screws. If you didn't cause the vent to crash to the floor, killing you, you'd make a whole bunch of noise, making somebody notice you.)
Impressive! This thing is amazing. If they can get this sort of thing to work in the eye, imagine what they could do in the future, implanting electrodes in other parts of the brain. Even if they never hooked it up to a big ol' machine and had the subject control stuff with his mind, the implications for research are staggering. I mean even Sun Tzu agrees: "Know thy enemy, but above all, know thyself."
Good stuff. If I were independently wealthy, I'd give these researchers blank checks and tell him to go nuts.
Slashdot Mirror
It never has been legal to make copies of copyrighted works except in special circumstances. It never will be. The fact is that now the laws are being enforced more strictly (and indeed over-enforced) because the potential for abuse is so great.
I can certainly sympathize with you there. By any chance, did you take "Math for Engineers"? I was required to (thank goodness I'm done with that my first year) and I suddenly found myself horribly mediocre in a subject at which I have been the best as long as I can remember. Why? Because the prof said "here is theorem 1. We are interested in these applications.... Ok, here is theorem 2..." while the kids in the Arts and Sciences school were being taught as "now suppose you have delta and epsilon... What can we derive from this? Thus we arrive at theorem 1. Now suppose.... Thus we arrive at theorem 2." They assumed the students were bright enough to figure out "how" with knowing "why," the way math ought to be taught. Ugh. At least I can take real math now that bogus engineering math is over with.
No, actually they mean can't. It's not like saying "All the kings horses and all the king's men couldn't put humpty dumpty back together again", it's like saying "you can't destroy matter without creating energy." When a physicist says "can't," he means "can't," not "probably won't"
The problem is not the higher level stuff. The point of secondary school is to give a general-purpose education and anything in more that 3 dimensions is not really practical in an all-purpose education (not that it shouldn't be offered, but that it shouldn't be required).
That being said, however, the reason you were never very good at math is (I venture to guess) because they "taught" you to solve things by the book. You almost certainly understand the fundamental concepts of algebra better than most; you just don't associate it with math, but rather with object oriented programming and the like.
The problem with the education system is that teachers have decided that it's easier to teach everything by rote memorization rather than investigating WHY it works. I mean if you can teach a computer the same way you're teaching a kid, you're teaching the kid wrong. There are some cases where rote memorization is a good thing (e.g. multiplication tables and addition/subtraction), but only because it makes understanding real concepts easier.
On an unrelated note, I think the educational system fails the students by not challenging the smart kids. There's all kinds of effort put into getting the slower kids up to speed, so to speak, which is admittedly an admirable thing, but the smart kids are just left in with all the "normal" kids. I know it's probably more expensive to challenge the smart kids, but I think it would really bring up the interest in learning and work ethic. If a kid can easily breeze through K-12 with no effort, there's little incentive to excel when he has the opportunity in college and, moreover, he has no study skills because studying was a waste of time until he got to set his own pace in college.
Sure I guess video games are useful for combatting terrorism, but I think minimizing saber-rattling would work a little better. George W Bush: TR said "speak softly and carry a big stick" not "run around and attack countries because they're arab" or "support jerusalem because the damn palestinians are a bunch of arabs"
Come on, as "extreme" as these attacks are, it's not like they're unfounded. They hate the US because we're a bunch of saber-rattling bullies. If we simply butted out of the stupid conflicts into which we continually interpose ourselves, there wouldn't be so many people who hate the US.
so can i put it to "african swallow" speed and have the recession end when I get out of college?
It's good to know that there's an xpi for netscape that allows you to block popup ads. Mozilla does it out of the box though..
I mean really, wouldn't it be much better if we had some sort of secret vigilante organization. They could have like orbital rail guns or uzi-toting children as their instruments of fear.
In all seriousness, though, it's certainly better than putting your theater in a faraday cage.
so you want an lcd screen for your gaming experience? I sure hope you only play games that run in the native resolution...
so will this let me invent the HAL 9000? Is this a good thing?
Golly, I wish Timothy would open a bank and base my account balance on his statistics. I'll open with one cent, put in another cent the next day, two more cents the day after, and 4 more cents the day after that. I'll just clean it out in about 40 days, invest in a large company at the beginning of that day, wait for the price to increase by one cent, sell, put back the principal into timmy's bank and close the account. I should be set for life off the profit. (let's see... $0.01 * 2^40 * .01% assuming the stock was worth $100 at the beginning of the day and $100.01 at the end of the day)
I guess it's a little unfair to make such a personal attack on a person I've never met, but hey, it's the internet and everybody's an ass.
well as I read it, neither is asymptotic (assuming you're looking for constant asymptotes) The first approaches a linear asymptote, but it's not horizontal, so you could infer linear expansion of gnu users (what is the rate of increase of computer users as a whole?). The second shows a clearly logarithmic asymptote, and for those of you who failed precalculus, logarithmic graphs increase boundlessly. The fact that it is on a logarithmic scale simply shows that it's a linear asymptote on a linear scale (imagine that).
They should just sue a fast food chain because the fast food chain forgot to tell them that coffee is "hot" and could "burn" them. It really hurts my head to see all these idiot lawsuits just out for money. Yes, the idiot user might believe that more megahertz is better, but the fact is that no computer salesman who is at all ethical and intelligent would fail to explain that megahertz is not the sole determinant of computer speed.
Well if you want to protect the data, put in a document shredder option... when the owner presses a button on his wristband, the data is deleted and shredded. If you wanted to be more secure and also protect against resale of the laptop (as a deterrant to theft), put in what you might think of as a more effective document shredder: either put in a small incendiary device (guess the airlines wouldn't like that) or get the platters spinning at a ridiculously fast pace and then release them from the hard drive case... very much ruined.
Or maybe what would be even cooler is to have it so that if you touch it the wrong way, all these really cool spikes and razor blades bust out of the case, shredding the hands of the thief like Blade's sword from the movie.
Now now! You're just not being fair! Windows has done wayyyy too many good things to let ONE LITTLE ISSUE like this ruin their reputation. I mean there's never been a security problem with Windows before... Why is that? because Microsoft is good for business! The "unstoppable Windows NT" never crashes, and to prove it, Have you ever seen what the MS developers call a "blue screen"? No! of course you haven't, because it never crashed. Get this: All the new versions have this "blue screen" built in as well, but I don't know anybody who has ever seen one. Why? because it just can't crash. But laying that aside, I think it's unfair to accuse Windows of being insecure... after all, Outlook is secure and it uses SSL, right? I know all you people like to bash Microsoft, but the fact is that you're just jealous because Microsoft products are so good that nobody feels the need to compete. (except for Steve Jobs, but he's a fanatic that likes inferior hardware... c'mon, one mouse button?)
I guess you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out a new way to put ads where people will notice them. ... oh wait, I guess he is a rocket scientist... never mind then.
Oops. Guess I'll just open mouth, insert foot.
Wow, not a single paranoid reference to the T-1000. You know they're going to turn on us and hunt us down.
Yes, I'm kidding
I don't own a railgun.
Besides, the knowledge of blueprints is highly overrated. (It's impossible to stealthily crawl through a ventilation duct. Not only are they almost invariably too small, but they are also sheet metal and only connected to the ceiling by screws. If you didn't cause the vent to crash to the floor, killing you, you'd make a whole bunch of noise, making somebody notice you.)
I'm going to patent being incompetent and then sue the patent office for infringement.
I want this to be put to good use, namely as a FPS with the actual city. It would obviously be too big for 8 players, so maybe 200. Call it a MMOFPS?
Impressive! This thing is amazing. If they can get this sort of thing to work in the eye, imagine what they could do in the future, implanting electrodes in other parts of the brain. Even if they never hooked it up to a big ol' machine and had the subject control stuff with his mind, the implications for research are staggering. I mean even Sun Tzu agrees: "Know thy enemy, but above all, know thyself."
Good stuff. If I were independently wealthy, I'd give these researchers blank checks and tell him to go nuts.
Errr, postal code is federal law...
it could have been Roberta Williams
Nice thought, but she's not a programmer.