It's helpful for everyone but Jammie Thomas-Rasset. Seriously, when you get a case brought upon you by the RIAA, you'd rather win and get on with your life rather than have to pay those bastards $1.9 million in installments until you die.
Is the debt passed to her estate when she dies? I wouldn't want to "inherit" that...
But if you're doing large-transaction I/O (my environmental modeling does lots of transactions for a 9000-cell-by-6000-cell modeling grid, at 200MB per transaction, you also want a large striped disk array.
You might get a kick out of this: 24 SSDs in RAID - and at about 3:40 they do something you just don't want to do with mechanical drives...:)
Myth: "When SSDs fail, you can still read off the data."
Fact: Mostly true. SSDs *can* still fail unrecoverably, just like any other piece of solid state electronics.
Myth: "SSDs are much faster than HDDs."
Fact: Mostly true. Many SSDs still optimise severely for sequential read and write, at the cost of random write going down the toilet. This is changing rapidly, in part due to folks like Anand publicising the emperor's lack of clothes.
While I find Avast itself (Home/Pro) very nice, and reccommend it, my experience early this year with its central management tool was that it was very powerful but a severe pain in the backside to install and administer. Probably fantastic for hardcore sysadmins, but like wrestling with a greased tiger for this little grasshopper. It seriously needs some wizard-fu.
The idea is to use it on crowds of people at sports events, etc
The problem isn't the sporting event, it's the "etc." These things are expensive. They're not going to sit there just for Superbowl Sunday or whatever. They'll be used for as much surveillance as they can get away with. Whether it's a good idea or not. Think 'mission creep'.
Viewing from 500 feet and at a high angle, with a field of view wide enough to take in the whole crowd, they're not going to be able to identify individuals.
Yet. Optics is an advancing field. Combine "yet" with "mission creep"... get the picture?
We should greet others firmly, while revealing little of our own cultures and history. Be respectful, and allow visitors to see a strictly controlled show.
Unless they're coming via Stargate instead of Starship, this strikes me as the right idea but the wrong way around: from high orbit I can see just about everything, go just about anywhere. And were you planning on shutting down every independant communications facility on the planet?
What we'd actually need strictly controlled is *our* knowledge of the alien presence, cultures and history, until we as a species - or at least those of us who run the show - got a firm handle on no longer being alone, let alone top dog, in the universe. We have enough xenophobes already.
(which, incidentally, is why I'd seriously like to see a giant alien starship casually park itself over the Pacific and very publicly do nothing else at all, however much of a fantasy that might actually be)
Because a traitor (vernacular) is not necessarily a traitor (Constitutionally). Or would you have all copyright infringers hung by the neck until dead for their acts of piracy?
However, a blog, posted at the critical time during a crisis can have the potential to swing events in a disastrous way.
Blog / newspaper editorial / talk show / politician's speech / comment overheard in an elevator. Anything can swing events, and as much for good as ill. History is littered with such events - indeed, you might say it is composed of them.
Or to put it another way, your right to a deterministic timeline ends at my nose. Or keyboard.:)
A cheap, simple, auditable, reliable, touchscreen, e-voting system is an attainable goal. The only reason such a thing is not already in use is because somebody in the loop likes it that way.
If the sole use of an account in two years is to post an ad hominem objection sans any supporting evidence, then unless the account was owned by some beloved friend whose absence and health I was concerned for, I totally wouldn't worry about it.
Back on point: Yes, rebar rusts. Water penetrates the concrete, reaching the iron/steel bars inside, which rust. It doesn't help that modern concrete tends to have a relatively high water content. The rusting causes expansion which cracks the (already failing) concrete around it. End result: building collapse.
Pyramids do have larger foundations; they need them as they lack the reinforcing materials used in skyscrapers. It will be interesting to see what megastructures humanity builds using 21st century materials.
What I want to know is the worst-case scenario. Say ALL of the world's ice melts. How high does the sea level rise? Has anyone done the definitive study? Links?
Yes, let's look at that. Let's look at the state of Europe in 1944. Bugger all industrial base left, and what was still around was making weapons. Lots of hungry and desperate people.
Now imagine that instead of weapons, they were making transformers, and instead of the vast manufacturing capacity of the United States being still intact and able to re-supply Europe, the US was in the same boat. Now multiply those hungry, desperate people tenfold.
Slashdot Mirror
A truly "global, universal internet" is something we haven't reached yet. Not even close.
Sadly, in Australia it is illegal to DIY so much as a broken light socket connected to nothing at all, let alone build a grid-tied solar power system.
It's helpful for everyone but Jammie Thomas-Rasset. Seriously, when you get a case brought upon you by the RIAA, you'd rather win and get on with your life rather than have to pay those bastards $1.9 million in installments until you die.
Is the debt passed to her estate when she dies? I wouldn't want to "inherit" that...
But if you're doing large-transaction I/O (my environmental modeling does lots of transactions for a 9000-cell-by-6000-cell modeling grid, at 200MB per transaction, you also want a large striped disk array.
You might get a kick out of this: 24 SSDs in RAID - and at about 3:40 they do something you just don't want to do with mechanical drives... :)
Myth: "When SSDs fail, you can still read off the data."
Fact: Mostly true. SSDs *can* still fail unrecoverably, just like any other piece of solid state electronics.
Myth: "SSDs are much faster than HDDs."
Fact: Mostly true. Many SSDs still optimise severely for sequential read and write, at the cost of random write going down the toilet. This is changing rapidly, in part due to folks like Anand publicising the emperor's lack of clothes.
Despite the rising excitement over SSDs, some of it has been tempered by performance degradation issues.
Who cares how they perform. All they have to do is sit there and scare away enemy fleets.
Um...You're thinking of SSNs.
That sound you just heard was a Super Star Destroyer wooshing over your head...
While I find Avast itself (Home/Pro) very nice, and reccommend it, my experience early this year with its central management tool was that it was very powerful but a severe pain in the backside to install and administer. Probably fantastic for hardcore sysadmins, but like wrestling with a greased tiger for this little grasshopper. It seriously needs some wizard-fu.
The idea is to use it on crowds of people at sports events, etc
The problem isn't the sporting event, it's the "etc." These things are expensive. They're not going to sit there just for Superbowl Sunday or whatever. They'll be used for as much surveillance as they can get away with. Whether it's a good idea or not. Think 'mission creep'.
Viewing from 500 feet and at a high angle, with a field of view wide enough to take in the whole crowd, they're not going to be able to identify individuals.
Yet. Optics is an advancing field. Combine "yet" with "mission creep"... get the picture?
We should greet others firmly, while revealing little of our own cultures and history. Be respectful, and allow visitors to see a strictly controlled show.
Unless they're coming via Stargate instead of Starship, this strikes me as the right idea but the wrong way around: from high orbit I can see just about everything, go just about anywhere. And were you planning on shutting down every independant communications facility on the planet?
What we'd actually need strictly controlled is *our* knowledge of the alien presence, cultures and history, until we as a species - or at least those of us who run the show - got a firm handle on no longer being alone, let alone top dog, in the universe. We have enough xenophobes already.
(which, incidentally, is why I'd seriously like to see a giant alien starship casually park itself over the Pacific and very publicly do nothing else at all, however much of a fantasy that might actually be)
If 90% of America is indeed that stupid, I don't think you're likely to see them finding the will to change to a runoff-voting system any time soon.
It's sadly funny. All those "checks and balances" everywhere else, and they forget about the voting system. Oops.
Heh. I didn't want to exclude the multinationals. Of course, some places, it's hard to tell the difference.
Whats with all the governments jumping on the censorship bandwagon?
Four facts:
(A) The majority of voters are not yet aware of the freedoms offered by an unfettered internet. Most still think a digital watch is pretty neat.
(B) The next generation, however, will grow up surrounded by the internet. They will think grandpa's digital watch is a primitive relic.
(C) It is easier for a politician to enact a law than it is for a voter to repeal it.
(D) There are organisations of great power and wealth whose dominance depends on maintaining resource scarcity and distribution control.
Three steps:
(1) Realise the internet represents a threat to your continued dominance.
(2) Buy laws that hobble and fetter it. Sue those whose laws you can't buy. Keep the public diverted.
(3) Profit, at the expense of everyone else.
Because a traitor (vernacular) is not necessarily a traitor (Constitutionally). Or would you have all copyright infringers hung by the neck until dead for their acts of piracy?
In that [the US] system, any vote for anyone other than the top two candidates does not impact the election.
Until the third candidate gets enough votes to become one of the top two.
However, a blog, posted at the critical time during a crisis can have the potential to swing events in a disastrous way.
Blog / newspaper editorial / talk show / politician's speech / comment overheard in an elevator. Anything can swing events, and as much for good as ill. History is littered with such events - indeed, you might say it is composed of them.
Or to put it another way, your right to a deterministic timeline ends at my nose. Or keyboard. :)
A cheap, simple, auditable, reliable, touchscreen, e-voting system is an attainable goal. The only reason such a thing is not already in use is because somebody in the loop likes it that way.
If the sole use of an account in two years is to post an ad hominem objection sans any supporting evidence, then unless the account was owned by some beloved friend whose absence and health I was concerned for, I totally wouldn't worry about it.
Back on point: Yes, rebar rusts. Water penetrates the concrete, reaching the iron/steel bars inside, which rust. It doesn't help that modern concrete tends to have a relatively high water content. The rusting causes expansion which cracks the (already failing) concrete around it. End result: building collapse.
Pyramids do have larger foundations; they need them as they lack the reinforcing materials used in skyscrapers. It will be interesting to see what megastructures humanity builds using 21st century materials.
I think New York wouldn't be flat, but that it'd be pretty darn close. Lots of low mounds (hillocks?) covered in forest where 'scrapers used to be.
What I want to know is the worst-case scenario. Say ALL of the world's ice melts. How high does the sea level rise? Has anyone done the definitive study? Links?
Look at it this way... Have all your lightbulbs over the years burned out in EXACTLY the same way? Lot less random factors there...
Well, actually...
If you don't believe me look at world war II
Yes, let's look at that. Let's look at the state of Europe in 1944. Bugger all industrial base left, and what was still around was making weapons. Lots of hungry and desperate people.
Now imagine that instead of weapons, they were making transformers, and instead of the vast manufacturing capacity of the United States being still intact and able to re-supply Europe, the US was in the same boat. Now multiply those hungry, desperate people tenfold.
Still think the outlook looks rosy?
I'm guessing the court's decision was too narrow or left a loophole, because all the computers I've seen in Australia have fixed-region DVD drives.
Actually some of us don't mind "down under" - if the context's polite.
I suspect the "or something" in the GP post was meant to be a sarcasm tag. Or something.
I just loaded up the wikileaks page and I hope I didn't make a mistake I'm going to regret. [...] Don't go randomly clicking!!
This is the kind of page you don't want to visit with a prefetching browser....