Like most of/.ters, I firmly believe in a strong parental supervision (when people procreate, they must take care of their offspring).
I don't need anyone to tell me how to raise children (I don't have any at the moment, but I already know that I won't be laxist)
Yet this law is not that unwelcome because:
if you are a responsible parent, you are already the one who gets to okay the games anyway, along with a close supervising of their schooling, their homework, their behaviour, their hobbies, etc. [Please, no 1984 crap here: being a parent is a full-time job]
if you are not a responsible parent, it forces you to take responsability for letting your children playing improper games. Should your kid be involved in a Columbine-like event, you will have to answer some difficult questions.
On a side note, I know of a divorced mother who closely monitors the activities of her only son. At 12, he is currently graduating from Rayman-like games to more challenging ones like Age Of Empires, Civilizations. FPS & gory games are a no-no until he's 16. Did I mention that his continued access to the PC is dependant on his having good marks at school?
Shouldn't we start to actually hold parents responsible of their kids actions?
There are a lot of sound advice in the other posts, yet...
One big way to dramatically improve the productivity is to give back the phone (or at least, mute it down).
The reason I do this is that people tend to phone whenever they have a problem or a question. Answering the phone totally breaks my concentration (I need to change focus, kickstart the vocal/hearing circuits, etc.)
If my contacts want to ask me something, they usually send me a mail. The e-mail has enormous advantages:
they must write down their question, therefore being more precise (no more "err... about this thingy you made the day before...")
when the mail pop-up on my screen, it doesn't bother me (I treat it like an error message, an assertion: I chose to handle it at once or not). I guess it is because it stays screen/keyboard related.
It only works if:
you provide an excellent alternative with fast response time (e-mail) [so they can have their answer in a timely manner]
you provide a good doc about your work (user manual and comment in code) [so they don't event have to bother you, just tell them PRTM (please rtm)]
most of your contacts are nearby in meatspace. [informal meetings are not that useless]
Because of this, I estimate I'm saving about 1 hour every day (time spent on phone + time to focus back on work). This translates for me in less stress and less overtime.
Conversely, I tend to not phone other people (a mail is usually enough).
This should have been listed as a "funny" article.
Well, isn't that about the same thing?:)
On second thought, I wonder if this circus can change the way we interpret patents as sign of serious research activities (see top patenting corporations for 2001.
It also shows that security is mostly a human problem.
On the other hand, I would like to know how crackers find security holes. For example: how was the buffer overflow in PnP XP found? Did the guy sort of fuzzed it?
What I mean is: Before trying to secure software, it would be nice to know how the bad guys (or the security researchers) find the weaknesses.
is educate the consumers about the irrelevance of MHz.
They could air an ad along the lines:
- we see two cyclists, (Intel and AMD).
- Intel is furiously pedaling while AMD just glides and overtakes him effortlessly.
THAT should drive the point that MHz is no longer relevant. However, I don't that this ad would be legal (at least in most European countries). I don't know about US though.
The European taxes are actually value-added taxes, not sales taxes, and therefore the true costs are higher, but hidden. Additionally, they cascade on each other, so that you have tax on tax.
Wrong, VAT has been designed to prevent this problem: businesses pay the VAT on goods sold, but get a refund of the VAT paid on goods purchased.
In the end, the consumer ends up paying a tax on the value added, once and only once.
As for the fact that VAT places the most disproportionate burden on the poorest segment of society, we have (at least in France) different levels of VAT:
2,6% and 5,5% on basic products (food,books mostly)
20,6% on everything else
It should be noted that VAT is the french product most copied in the world:)
...a world which we perceive through our own five senses, and for us to tamper with our perception of reality in this way can only lead to a disaster for the human race. Remember, how can you trust the system supplying you with information?
The real question is how you're so confident you can trust your own five senses? Sure the data you get is raw and uncontaminated, but before you can even think consciously and intelligibly about thoses inputs, they have already been processed and interpreted by your brain; and your brain, being a product of the social and environmental conditioning, is already warping and distorting the input in ways you are not aware of. Prejudices, instinct, favoritism, fears, etc. None of those are inherent in any input of the senses, but are deeply associated with many sights, scents, images, etc. because our brain creates these realities.
The problem is that people are already brainwashed and don't realize it. A lot of problems may vanish if we realize that we are brainwashed and held captive by our innate sense of reality, which is non-connected to the outer reality which surrounds us.
All this reminds me of AE Van Vogt with his Null-A trilogy. It was based on a theory by Alfred Korzybski (sp?) in Science and sanity.
Well, I think I'm going to reread the books, this evening. It would be better than watching news about the recent worlwide flood of love:)
"There is no defense based on the notion that a so-called patent is absurd or covers an obvious activity or business practice."
And therein, my friends, lies the rub. As much as we cry and scream and wail about the lack of fairness in the distribution of patents, there is nothing currently in place that restricts these companies from filing for patents for the most stupid of things. I knew that rock bottom had been hit when I looked at my phone bill and it read "patent pending" at the bottom. <SNIP> I mean, seriously, what did they think would happen when they began rewarding employess for the number of patents they processed? I guess one question is what will happen to the idiotic patents that have already been processed? Will there be some massive review, or will there be a long cleansing period where patents are reviewed as the time limit on them expires?
How about using the system against itself? Let's patent the business method "Patent something obvious and/or ridiculous and sue anyone who dares doing the same thing" (we'll probably need to formulate it in a little less obvious way or it'll be rejected:)
Then, we'll wait for a company like Amazon to sue someone over a ridiculous patent and sue them. Since "There is no defense based on the notion that a so-called patent is absurd or covers an obvious activity or business practice," how could Amazon defend its case?
If the defendant successfully invalidates our patent, it should be a precedent for invaliding their owns patents.
I've a hard time understanding this essay. As far as I understand, it deals with mappers and packers, where:
mappers are able to "create integrated conceptual pictures" of their knowledge
packers have disjointed bits of knowledge
In fact, the packers (are said to) tend solving problems without taking into account the context, in a purely aristotelician methodology.
The mappers have differing and numerous non-aristotelician approachs of the problems which is consistent with the essay.
I'm saying all of this because the essay reminds me of the null-A trilogy by A.E. Van Vogt. The general idea of the trilogy is said to come from the book "Science and sanity" by Alfred Korzybski (sp?) which I never have to chance to read.
Can someone confirm that I'm not completely way off?
While I'm at it, did you notice that the reworking of the sample in chapter 2 (the one with the mutex(es)) migth be a perfect example of the refactoring thing discussed several days ago?
I really hope we can wear this PC AND plug it in a dock found everywhere.
That is,
in a airplane, I would plug the PC in a slot on the seat in front of me and then work on the medium-sized (flat) screen (also mounted in the back of said seat) and the keyboard provided by the airline
in a hotel room, I would plug the PC on the desk and play with the hi-tech toys (VR helmet for example) (I guess that in a low-priced hotel, I would have to settle with a ms natural keyboard:)
when visiting my family, I would finally be able to finish Quake VIII instead of quaking from acute withdrawal symptoms.
This would be OS/Machine-independent. All we would need is a standard to prevent turning this dream in a nigthmare. The basics already exist: USB, Firewire.
But... then, we would really need true PnP OS and devices. Oh well, time to wake up!
PS: I apologize for my bad english (It isn't my mother tongue)
I agree that this patent is utterly ridiculous (yet not funny). However, we have to invalidate it by proving there is nothing new about it. I remember having read about such a system in the Heechee Saga by Frederick Pohl where:
Advanced Heechee technology had enabled Robinette Broadhead to live after death as a machine-stored personality, enjoying his life by flitting along the wires from party to party with a host of other machine-people.
Now, I'm not a US citizen, nor a lawyer. Would the claim be invalidated?
Closed mouths gain no feet. (exact)
on
Truely Flat CRTs
·
· Score: 1
Only the 17"+ have '*two*' wires, anthing smaller just has the 1.
Ouch! I forgot about this one...
However, a quick check at Sony shows that only monitors smaller that 14" have ONE wire
Here is an extract:
one or two horizontal damper wires are required. A 14-inch or smaller Sony computer monitor employs one such wire. It is located about one-third of the way from the bottom of the screen. Sony computer monitors larger than 14 inches use two horizontal damper wires. These wires are located roughly one-third of the way from the top and bottom of the screen.
Don't Trinitrons have a shadow image of a wire going across the screen because of the way they're built? Others may be able to ignore such a "feature", but it would drive me up a creek!
Yes, there are *two* wires. As everybody will tell you, one can get used to them. Personnally, I can't get use to a screen which doesn't show theses wires...
After getting a taste of numerous monitors, I have found the Trinitron monitors as the only ones I would bear. (I recently turned down a brand new 19" non-Trinitron monitor just to keep my aging 17" Sony:)
Slashdot Mirror
I don't need anyone to tell me how to raise children (I don't have any at the moment, but I already know that I won't be laxist)
Yet this law is not that unwelcome because:
On a side note, I know of a divorced mother who closely monitors the activities of her only son. At 12, he is currently graduating from Rayman-like games to more challenging ones like Age Of Empires, Civilizations. FPS & gory games are a no-no until he's 16. Did I mention that his continued access to the PC is dependant on his having good marks at school?
Shouldn't we start to actually hold parents responsible of their kids actions?
How about fitting an aibo with claws and have it scratch the furniture?
One big way to dramatically improve the productivity is to give back the phone (or at least, mute it down).
The reason I do this is that people tend to phone whenever they have a problem or a question. Answering the phone totally breaks my concentration (I need to change focus, kickstart the vocal/hearing circuits, etc.)
If my contacts want to ask me something, they usually send me a mail. The e-mail has enormous advantages:
- they must write down their question, therefore being more precise (no more "err... about this thingy you made the day before...")
- when the mail pop-up on my screen, it doesn't bother me (I treat it like an error message, an assertion: I chose to handle it at once or not). I guess it is because it stays screen/keyboard related.
It only works if:- you provide an excellent alternative with fast response time (e-mail) [so they can have their answer in a timely manner]
- you provide a good doc about your work (user manual and comment in code) [so they don't event have to bother you, just tell them PRTM (please rtm)]
- most of your contacts are nearby in meatspace. [informal meetings are not that useless]
Because of this, I estimate I'm saving about 1 hour every day (time spent on phone + time to focus back on work). This translates for me in less stress and less overtime. Conversely, I tend to not phone other people (a mail is usually enough).Well, isn't that about the same thing? :)
On second thought, I wonder if this circus can change the way we interpret patents as sign of serious research activities (see top patenting corporations for 2001.
I heartily recommend the book Building Secure Software (How to Avoid Security Problems the Right Way) .
It also shows that security is mostly a human problem.
On the other hand, I would like to know how crackers find security holes. For example: how was the buffer overflow in PnP XP found? Did the guy sort of fuzzed it?
What I mean is: Before trying to secure software, it would be nice to know how the bad guys (or the security researchers) find the weaknesses.
> will probably kick it's citizens arses for so much as rot13'ing their emails
l .h tml
Sorry, we, French, are much more enlightened than that. Basically, the government lifted most of the restrictions on cryptography.
http://www.oreilly.com/~andyo/ar/crypto_reversa
is educate the consumers about the irrelevance of MHz.
They could air an ad along the lines:
- we see two cyclists, (Intel and AMD).
- Intel is furiously pedaling while AMD just glides and overtakes him effortlessly.
THAT should drive the point that MHz is no longer relevant. However, I don't that this ad would be legal (at least in most European countries). I don't know about US though.
If msft maintains it is not a monopoly, the DOJ attorney would simply have the judges go on the www.aspalliance.com site using ns or opera.
If they keep doing, they might get blacklisted...
Wrong, VAT has been designed to prevent this problem: businesses pay the VAT on goods sold, but get a refund of the VAT paid on goods purchased.
In the end, the consumer ends up paying a tax on the value added, once and only once.
As for the fact that VAT places the most disproportionate burden on the poorest segment of society, we have (at least in France) different levels of VAT:
2,6% and 5,5% on basic products (food,books mostly)
20,6% on everything else
It should be noted that VAT is the french product most copied in the world :)
All this reminds me of AE Van Vogt with his Null-A trilogy. It was based on a theory by Alfred Korzybski (sp?) in Science and sanity.
Well, I think I'm going to reread the books, this evening. It would be better than watching news about the recent worlwide flood of love :)
How about using the system against itself? :)
Let's patent the business method "Patent something obvious and/or ridiculous and sue anyone who dares doing the same thing" (we'll probably need to formulate it in a little less obvious way or it'll be rejected
Then, we'll wait for a company like Amazon to sue someone over a ridiculous patent and sue them. Since "There is no defense based on the notion that a so-called patent is absurd or covers an obvious activity or business practice," how could Amazon defend its case?
If the defendant successfully invalidates our patent, it should be a precedent for invaliding their owns patents.
Either way, we win :)
Just my 0.02 Euro
- mappers are able to "create integrated conceptual pictures" of their knowledge
- packers have disjointed bits of knowledge
In fact, the packers (are said to) tend solving problems without taking into account the context, in a purely aristotelician methodology.The mappers have differing and numerous non-aristotelician approachs of the problems which is consistent with the essay.
I'm saying all of this because the essay reminds me of the null-A trilogy by A.E. Van Vogt. The general idea of the trilogy is said to come from the book "Science and sanity" by Alfred Korzybski (sp?) which I never have to chance to read.
Can someone confirm that I'm not completely way off?
While I'm at it, did you notice that the reworking of the sample in chapter 2 (the one with the mutex(es)) migth be a perfect example of the refactoring thing discussed several days ago?
That is,
- in a airplane, I would plug the PC in a slot on the seat in front of me and then work on the medium-sized (flat) screen (also mounted in the back of said seat) and the keyboard provided by the airline
- in a hotel room, I would plug the PC on the desk and play with the hi-tech toys (VR helmet for example) (I guess that in a low-priced hotel, I would have to settle with a ms natural keyboard
:) - when visiting my family, I would finally be able to finish Quake VIII instead of quaking from acute withdrawal symptoms.
This would be OS/Machine-independent.All we would need is a standard to prevent turning this dream in a nigthmare. The basics already exist: USB, Firewire.
But... then, we would really need true PnP OS and devices.
Oh well, time to wake up!
PS: I apologize for my bad english (It isn't my mother tongue)
Only the 17"+ have '*two*' wires, anthing smaller just has the 1.
Ouch! I forgot about this one...
However, a quick check at Sony shows that only monitors smaller that 14" have ONE wire
Here is an extract:
http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/displays/faqs/
Don't Trinitrons have a shadow image of a wire going across the screen because of the way they're built? Others may be able to ignore such a "feature", but it would drive me up a creek!
Yes, there are *two* wires. As everybody will tell you, one can get used to them. Personnally, I can't get use to a screen which doesn't show theses wires...
After getting a taste of numerous monitors, I have found the Trinitron monitors as the only ones I would bear. (I recently turned down a brand new 19" non-Trinitron monitor just to keep my aging 17" Sony :)