> All the vaporware Toshiba installed doesn't help either
FWIW, I'm actually using the Toshiba touchpad software on my Dell.
Dell doesn't have touchpad drivers for Win7 64bit for my model notebook PC. Plus the Toshiba version actually allow you to automatically turn off the touchpad if you plug in a USB mouse.
And I don't recall seeing that feature on Dell's touchpad drivers. Thing is the software is made by the same touchpad vendor, but somehow Toshiba gets one with lots more features.
> If you want a global time base that is simply seconds since an offset, use TAI, > since that is what it was designed for and stop fucking with UTC.
OK 1) How do I set my Windows, "Linux" or OSX computers to use TAI? 2) Are there TAI equivalents for the various timezones e.g. PST, PDT, EST etc?
If there aren't any TAI equivalents for 2) and the various timezones get "leap seconded" as well then we're back to the same problem right? After all there are lots of computer applications where getting the time, date and timezone right is important.
They could actually build a mobile (or even desktop) OS on top of Linux. The GUI bits could be 100% proprietary. And the applications (e.g. MS Office) too.
I agree with you. It's a symbolic thing to reinforce the concept that human life is somehow special.
After all banning research into those particular areas isn't a huge hindrance to _actual_ progress. Heck I'd say the current patent and "modern research" systems are a far bigger hindrance to _actual_ progress. Just look at the recent case where the Alzheimer's Disease researchers actually started sharing lots of data and making more progress ( http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/health/research/13alzheimer.html ).
So to me a bit of slowdown in those few areas just to say "human life is special" is a worthwhile sacrifice.
If we don't treat humans as special and better than "normal animals", there would be even fewer reasons for the "homo superiors"/transhumans/AIs" to do so. And the concept of keeping pets and treating them well should be encouraged;).
This special case concept does not appear "naturally". Doesn't happen with most animals. If you were the size of a mouse your pet cat would maul you or even eat you.
The show must go on. And if it goes on long enough, it might actually turn out that humans are special;).
> Which doesn't change much on the scale of civilisation; pretty much the only one that matters in the end.
Uh, the OP was responding to this:
> we're still living on a planet with finite resources. It makes sense to concern ourselves with what happens when those resources run out
So in case you don't see the connection/context yet. To people who don't live in fantasy worlds, it doesn't matter that the rest of the universe has lots of time or resources, it matters when you don't.
> The problem with markets is not that people are greedy but that they are dishonest > The power of markets comes from greed, the flaws from dishonesty.
In case you haven't noticed, a fair amount of the dishonesty comes from greed.
Q) How many free market economists does it take to change a light bulb? A) Free market economists don't change light bulbs. They keep writing papers in the dark, and wait for Adam Smith's Invisible Hand to do it.
"Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong."- Leo Buscaglia
I suggest that a strong and fit civilisation can afford to be gentle and generous to many. A weak and ailing one cannot.
Maybe if someone does something really stupid/reckless (assume someone wiser and smarter than me sets the criteria), they lose their right to vote for 4 years (it gets automatically restored after that). If they keep doing stuff like that, they keep losing their right to vote.
If that argument works why shouldn't we also let other even stupider species go extinct? There are quite a number of species we are trying to save whose extinction would have very little impact on our long term survival. Why bother then? Why not "Let them die" as you say?
Say it turns out you are stupider than I am, should I bother helping you if you are ever in trouble due to your stupidity? If we take such view on things, would the resulting civilisation itself be worth much? Would it even be considered a civilisation?
A strong and fit civilisation can afford to be gentle and generous to many. A weak and ailing one cannot.
"Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong."- Leo Buscaglia
Maybe if someone does something really stupid/reckless, they lose their right to vote for 4 years (it gets automatically restored after that). If they keep doing stuff like that, they keep losing their right to vote. Would that be an acceptable compromise? Slippery slope to an oligarchy? Lesser evil in the long term?
To me paper ballots are good enough though, and especially when there are masses of uneducated people. It is easier for them to understand how the paper ballots work and how they are secured and counted (assuming you have a good system for all that).
There is a very important requirement for voting systems that many people forget (and that includes very smart cryptographers): convincing the losers and their supporters that they lost.
If it's too "magical" a system for them to understand, they might refuse to admit defeat. And then you get stuff like riots and civil wars. There's no way to avoid that completely - there'll always be sore losers, but one must take this factor into account when evaluating all voting systems.
WoW uses mainly TCP for game stuff. And no you shouldn't prioritize all UDP packets otherwise some guy will just think it's a great idea to do P2P over UDP.
What ISPs can do is prioritize connections (whether UDP, TCP, GRE or whatever) that consist mainly of small packets, for low latency. Connections that contain a lot of large packets are treated as if they want throughput. A connection in this context would be a TCP/UDP connection or if other protocol whatever goes between a customer IP and a destination IP address.
For example, small packet connections get 256 kbps rates at a higher priority (allowing for short bursts of higher speeds), and the large packet connections get higher Mbps rates but at a lower priority.
Most people don't care if their 1 megabyte webpage or multimegabyte downloads have some packets that get delayed a few hundred milliseconds (or even seconds) as long as the stuff still comes in fast overall.
Whereas gamers don't normally care about getting 10Mbps downloads, they want low latency. Packets that get delayed a few hundred milliseconds (or more) = lose/team-wipe and even if you don't lose/wipe it's usually a bad game experience.
At my previous workplace we did expensive hotel internet (yeah we're evil but hey free hotel internet tends to be crappier, guess why:) ), and the system I helped build was able to give each guest a fair share of the bandwidth so that even if one guest has a slammer-like infection the other guests (and our operations team) can still have decent connections (if only a few guests were using the system they could get higher than the guaranteed minimum). Doing stuff I mentioned would take a bit more work (categorizing small and big streams and shaping them differently), but wouldn't be impossible.
Not like there's going to be lots of fancy safeguards to try to prevent you from faking the GPS coordinates - which can come from a device in your control.
I think it was obvious to many from the start that it could be gamed, but most of those same people aren't interested in gaming it.
To me if you do not have free will, you are something that can be destroyed with no special considerations if you do not meet the specifications.
Currently we still give the "we humans are special" treatment to brain dead or profoundly retarded humans, but if too many people keep saying it's not their fault because something else made them do it, it's going to be even harder to convince the Future Transhumans/AIs that "normal people" still deserve special treatment.
> For example, imagine you're walking on the street with your friend/boss/old fashined grandmother. > Would you want a billboard to switch to an ad for Miyuki-chan in Wonderland due to your past purchase of the Chobits manga?
Doubt that particular scenario would be a problem. Given that the ad would be "Safe for Public", Grandma might even think the ad is for her e.g. trying to get her to buy some cartoon for her grandchildren...
Old fashioned grandma might even make a comment comparing the ad artwork with the good old "Walt Disney" stuff.
> Because everyone chooses a language based on raw execution speed, amirite?
Of course not. That's why I'm not using Javascript for most of my stuff.
> you're comparing the fastest implementation of one language to the not-fastest implementations of others.
So which are the fastest implementations of python or ruby? Seriously.
If they're only half-complete they aren't going to be very useful either- after all most people wouldn't bother with fast javascript that doesn't work on half of the webpages out there.
Basically if there are better and faster python/ruby/perl implementations out there, I might start using them instead of the mainstream implementations.
> employers who do google searches on potential employees will quickly realize that all their candidates have tainted backgrounds.
When the next generation become CEOs and bosses, I'm sure a fair proportion of them would have a "Cyber Past" too. There'll be public pics/videos of them drunk and dancing in some silly outfit, or maybe even in nothing. Heck these might even be taken when they are CEOs and at company parties too:).
I think they wouldn't mind hiring people like themselves, or might actually prefer hiring someone "fun" rather than someone they think might be boring or worse so sensitive/uptight that they might start suing the company, bosses, etc.
So unless you've done something really insanely stupid and dangerous, I doubt that's going to stop you from getting a job.
But it's not going to help if you're the one feeling embarrassed or ashamed about the stuff you did, in which case the name changes might help a bit.
I've seen people peeing in public and their friends making video recordings of them. When all your friends have cameras (phones etc), if you do something silly/strange/funny there's a high chance it would be recorded, uploaded to youtube, downloaded by someone and reuploaded with editing, effects, music and other hilarity.
Slashdot Mirror
> All the vaporware Toshiba installed doesn't help either
FWIW, I'm actually using the Toshiba touchpad software on my Dell.
Dell doesn't have touchpad drivers for Win7 64bit for my model notebook PC. Plus the Toshiba version actually allow you to automatically turn off the touchpad if you plug in a USB mouse.
And I don't recall seeing that feature on Dell's touchpad drivers. Thing is the software is made by the same touchpad vendor, but somehow Toshiba gets one with lots more features.
Y'know I've always wondered if Arnold Schwarzenegger gets a vocal trainer just to maintain his accent (he's been in the US for so long right?).
After all, I'm sure it's just not the same if he had a West Coast accent. Or worse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kayFrIR-Qfw :)
I didn't find Windows 98 to really be much of an improvement over Win 95.
:).
In fact if I recall correctly, Windows 98 had a bug where if you pressed winkey at the wrong moment during boot up, stuff wouldn't work properly...
Windows 95 didn't have this problem.
I noticed this because I was (am) an impatient person that wants to launch stuff on boot up ASAP
> If you want a global time base that is simply seconds since an offset, use TAI,
> since that is what it was designed for and stop fucking with UTC.
OK
1) How do I set my Windows, "Linux" or OSX computers to use TAI?
2) Are there TAI equivalents for the various timezones e.g. PST, PDT, EST etc?
If there aren't any TAI equivalents for 2) and the various timezones get "leap seconded" as well then we're back to the same problem right? After all there are lots of computer applications where getting the time, date and timezone right is important.
Maybe in the future that won't be a problem if most people watch TV on demand or use stuff like PVRs.
> Here, I fixed it for ya. No self-respecting coder would use a library like that.
Why? Are there bad bugs or security exploits in that library?
They could actually build a mobile (or even desktop) OS on top of Linux. The GUI bits could be 100% proprietary. And the applications (e.g. MS Office) too.
Apple has done something like it with Darwin/OSX.
Microsoft don't need to at the moment though.
I agree with you. It's a symbolic thing to reinforce the concept that human life is somehow special.
After all banning research into those particular areas isn't a huge hindrance to _actual_ progress. Heck I'd say the current patent and "modern research" systems are a far bigger hindrance to _actual_ progress. Just look at the recent case where the Alzheimer's Disease researchers actually started sharing lots of data and making more progress ( http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/health/research/13alzheimer.html ).
So to me a bit of slowdown in those few areas just to say "human life is special" is a worthwhile sacrifice.
If we don't treat humans as special and better than "normal animals", there would be even fewer reasons for the "homo superiors"/transhumans/AIs" to do so. And the concept of keeping pets and treating them well should be encouraged ;).
This special case concept does not appear "naturally". Doesn't happen with most animals. If you were the size of a mouse your pet cat would maul you or even eat you.
The show must go on. And if it goes on long enough, it might actually turn out that humans are special ;).
> Which doesn't change much on the scale of civilisation; pretty much the only one that matters in the end.
Uh, the OP was responding to this:
> we're still living on a planet with finite resources. It makes sense to concern ourselves with what happens when those resources run out
So in case you don't see the connection/context yet. To people who don't live in fantasy worlds, it doesn't matter that the rest of the universe has lots of time or resources, it matters when you don't.
Hmm, maybe you are one of those AIs with rather long lifespans: http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/08/23/1346228/Look-For-AI-Not-Aliens
> The problem with markets is not that people are greedy but that they are dishonest
> The power of markets comes from greed, the flaws from dishonesty.
In case you haven't noticed, a fair amount of the dishonesty comes from greed.
Q) How many free market economists does it take to change a light bulb?
A) Free market economists don't change light bulbs. They keep writing papers in the dark, and wait for Adam Smith's Invisible Hand to do it.
Most people die after a while. If you're lucky, you will too.
Eternity is a very long time to be alive and imperfect.
"Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong."- Leo Buscaglia
I suggest that a strong and fit civilisation can afford to be gentle and generous to many. A weak and ailing one cannot.
Maybe if someone does something really stupid/reckless (assume someone wiser and smarter than me sets the criteria), they lose their right to vote for 4 years (it gets automatically restored after that). If they keep doing stuff like that, they keep losing their right to vote.
Would that be more or less evil in the long term?
If that argument works why shouldn't we also let other even stupider species go extinct? There are quite a number of species we are trying to save whose extinction would have very little impact on our long term survival. Why bother then? Why not "Let them die" as you say?
Say it turns out you are stupider than I am, should I bother helping you if you are ever in trouble due to your stupidity? If we take such view on things, would the resulting civilisation itself be worth much? Would it even be considered a civilisation?
A strong and fit civilisation can afford to be gentle and generous to many. A weak and ailing one cannot.
"Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong."- Leo Buscaglia
Maybe if someone does something really stupid/reckless, they lose their right to vote for 4 years (it gets automatically restored after that). If they keep doing stuff like that, they keep losing their right to vote. Would that be an acceptable compromise? Slippery slope to an oligarchy? Lesser evil in the long term?
> Yes, I think government should require people not to have to foot the bill for others' stupidity.
If you're in a democratic country with large numbers of stupid voters, you're going to have to pay for voter stupidity.
> Allowing secret ballots (No one except you knows who you voted for) and ballots that can't be cheated on is nigh impossible
Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ZDnShu5V99s
So it is possible.
To me paper ballots are good enough though, and especially when there are masses of uneducated people. It is easier for them to understand how the paper ballots work and how they are secured and counted (assuming you have a good system for all that).
There is a very important requirement for voting systems that many people forget (and that includes very smart cryptographers): convincing the losers and their supporters that they lost.
If it's too "magical" a system for them to understand, they might refuse to admit defeat. And then you get stuff like riots and civil wars. There's no way to avoid that completely - there'll always be sore losers, but one must take this factor into account when evaluating all voting systems.
WoW uses mainly TCP for game stuff. And no you shouldn't prioritize all UDP packets otherwise some guy will just think it's a great idea to do P2P over UDP.
:) ), and the system I helped build was able to give each guest a fair share of the bandwidth so that even if one guest has a slammer-like infection the other guests (and our operations team) can still have decent connections (if only a few guests were using the system they could get higher than the guaranteed minimum). Doing stuff I mentioned would take a bit more work (categorizing small and big streams and shaping them differently), but wouldn't be impossible.
What ISPs can do is prioritize connections (whether UDP, TCP, GRE or whatever) that consist mainly of small packets, for low latency. Connections that contain a lot of large packets are treated as if they want throughput. A connection in this context would be a TCP/UDP connection or if other protocol whatever goes between a customer IP and a destination IP address.
For example, small packet connections get 256 kbps rates at a higher priority (allowing for short bursts of higher speeds), and the large packet connections get higher Mbps rates but at a lower priority.
Most people don't care if their 1 megabyte webpage or multimegabyte downloads have some packets that get delayed a few hundred milliseconds (or even seconds) as long as the stuff still comes in fast overall.
Whereas gamers don't normally care about getting 10Mbps downloads, they want low latency. Packets that get delayed a few hundred milliseconds (or more) = lose/team-wipe and even if you don't lose/wipe it's usually a bad game experience.
At my previous workplace we did expensive hotel internet (yeah we're evil but hey free hotel internet tends to be crappier, guess why
> "Everyone knows how to read a book" isn't quite accurate. Everyone knows how to read,
Knowing how to read isn't the same as being able to read a book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ
Not like there's going to be lots of fancy safeguards to try to prevent you from faking the GPS coordinates - which can come from a device in your control.
I think it was obvious to many from the start that it could be gamed, but most of those same people aren't interested in gaming it.
To me if you do not have free will, you are something that can be destroyed with no special considerations if you do not meet the specifications.
Currently we still give the "we humans are special" treatment to brain dead or profoundly retarded humans, but if too many people keep saying it's not their fault because something else made them do it, it's going to be even harder to convince the Future Transhumans/AIs that "normal people" still deserve special treatment.
> For example, imagine you're walking on the street with your friend/boss/old fashined grandmother.
> Would you want a billboard to switch to an ad for Miyuki-chan in Wonderland due to your past purchase of the Chobits manga?
Doubt that particular scenario would be a problem. Given that the ad would be "Safe for Public", Grandma might even think the ad is for her e.g. trying to get her to buy some cartoon for her grandchildren...
Old fashioned grandma might even make a comment comparing the ad artwork with the good old "Walt Disney" stuff.
> Because everyone chooses a language based on raw execution speed, amirite?
Of course not. That's why I'm not using Javascript for most of my stuff.
> you're comparing the fastest implementation of one language to the not-fastest implementations of others.
So which are the fastest implementations of python or ruby? Seriously.
If they're only half-complete they aren't going to be very useful either- after all most people wouldn't bother with fast javascript that doesn't work on half of the webpages out there.
Basically if there are better and faster python/ruby/perl implementations out there, I might start using them instead of the mainstream implementations.
So in summary they haven't been getting similar improvements in speed.
After all, Javascript is now faster (except for pi and reverse-complement).
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=v8&lang2=yarv
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=v8&lang2=python3
> employers who do google searches on potential employees will quickly realize that all their candidates have tainted backgrounds.
When the next generation become CEOs and bosses, I'm sure a fair proportion of them would have a "Cyber Past" too. There'll be public pics/videos of them drunk and dancing in some silly outfit, or maybe even in nothing. Heck these might even be taken when they are CEOs and at company parties too :).
I think they wouldn't mind hiring people like themselves, or might actually prefer hiring someone "fun" rather than someone they think might be boring or worse so sensitive/uptight that they might start suing the company, bosses, etc.
So unless you've done something really insanely stupid and dangerous, I doubt that's going to stop you from getting a job.
But it's not going to help if you're the one feeling embarrassed or ashamed about the stuff you did, in which case the name changes might help a bit.
I've seen people peeing in public and their friends making video recordings of them. When all your friends have cameras (phones etc), if you do something silly/strange/funny there's a high chance it would be recorded, uploaded to youtube, downloaded by someone and reuploaded with editing, effects, music and other hilarity.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-y8Sd3l96c to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_40rM_L0s
> There was a moderate earthquake while the scantily clad women were trying to prove that immodest dress didn't cause earthquakes.
Links please :).
BTW, seems that killing and eating animals can cause women to become scantily clad: http://blog.peta.org/archives/nude/
If your employer is that crap I think you'd also worry that they'd blame you for stuff that goes wrong.
;).
So might be good if you can prove you don't have any access anymore.
Lastly, copying is not stealing