Cell phones aren't really an innovation - they are just the progression of other parts... they are essentially just small two-way radios, and those have been around for quite some time.
I'd disagree - the "cellular" idea - that many small transmitters could handle one call, and that a call could be handed from one transmitter to another without interrupting the call was a pretty innovative idea, and implementing it took some pretty innovative engineering.
The way the original question is worded, I think the batteries would come under the heading "incremental improvements", though I don't know how big of a leap they made in terms of battery materials, etc., so maybe those are innovative. Even so, they're not nearly so big as the cell-phone idea.
NCR would have a seemingly much stronger claim against the people who make software for the Palm that can be used for financial transactions and/or inventory control. My Palm doesn't have a PIN, or a financial account access application.
So I think we can see that we need to be sensitive to other cultures before we go on screaming about censorship. What would be called censorship in the USA would be viewed as responsible government in many countries, especially in Europe, the Middle East, and Singapore/China.
The Declaration of Independence says:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...
Notice that it doesn't say "all Americans" - our heritage considers these rights universal. Australians, or Arabs, or Chinese, are just as entitled to the rights we enjoy as Americans are.
By saying that censorship may be one part of responsible government, you're saying that those people being "responsibly governed" are somehow less worthy than Americans. Or you believe that censorship in America may also be a part of "responsible government" here. Because you're in the U.S., you're free to believe either, or both, of those positions, but I'm free to say you're wrong.
Well, here we go, the government sticking their heads in where it doesn't belong. There are some things that the government just does NOT need to have its hands in and this is one of them. Why is this a US issue for one? Yes the DOD invented the internet but it is now public domain.
Why is is a US issue? Because Congress created ICANN (essentially). There are a couple of ways that TLD allocation can be handled
the US government can set up an agency.
The US government could hand it over to a UN agency.
The corporations which run most of the big nameservers could create their own agency.
In general, I prefer things being done by the private sector, but the corporate solution will likely lead to a monopoly for the benefit of the big corporations. The government and ICANN are doing things badly - name.space has shown that there is no technical limitation to many gTLDs being created, but right now, the answer is to get Congress to force ICANN to adopt a better system, then figure out a way to get the government completely out of the picture.
Basically, the california power shortage is attributable to a number of factors, NONE OF WHICH ARE ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION.
This is a LIE. There is no good reason for California to need to import electricity at all, since we have a lot of oil, gas, and hydro resources here in state, and plenty of places to put power plants. The problem is that environmental rules have made it impossible to build nuclear power plants at all since Diablo Canyon, and almost impossible to build power plants at all, because there's always some pseudo-environmental group of NIMBYs who can clog up the approval process enough to make any project uneconomic.
Meanwhile, it's a bunch of stupid liberal (but I'm being redundant) economic regulations built into something the liberals called deregulation that have caused the immediate crisis.
A ban on futures contracts in power. Probably to "prevent speculation" or some other such liberal bugbear. So, not they couldn't contract to buy from out of state.
A requirement that all independent suppliers get paid the highest price. A subsidy intended for the windfarmers, that benefits out-of-state producers.
California's environmental regulations provide much more benefit to lawyers than to the environment. Most other western states have much simpler systems, where taking a shit doesn't require permits from 5 different agencies with mutually incompatible requirements, and manage to obtain virtually the same results, except for the increase in legal fees that California has "enjoyed".
Other way around. That's what IE did to netscape.
In the beginning, IE was shit. No one used it. No one considered it really. Then they laughed at it's shortcomings. Then there was the browser war. Now, Netscape is dead as a doornail.
Actually, it's worse. According to the installation notes:
If you are installing Mozilla on a multi-user operating system such as Linux, Unix, or Windows 2000, you should install it separately in the user directory of each user who plans to use Mozilla. (Bug 42184) If you install Mozilla in a shared write-protected directory, it may not run properly. (Bugs 42184, 41057 )
This could quickly fill up a real multi-user system. Though I'm not sure how to compromise between allowing users to upgrade/add plugins/language packs/themes/etc and not allowing users to write to the directory with the binaries.
No, it's not that similar to the RIAA/Napster dispute.
However, the RIAA has gone after used record stores. In Berkeley (and Pleasant Hill), there is a long-established store, Rasputin, which sells used records. They used to operate a "record rental service", where you could "rent" a record, then return it. They'd then put the record on the used shelves, where you could buy or rent it. When records retailed for $7.99, Tower and Rasputin sold new records for $7.44, and Rasputin would rent it for $1 for 5 days, then sell it used for $6.00. Eventually (about 1982), the RIAA, or some similar organization made them stop "renting" records. So now, you have to buy the record, and sell it back. Rasputin was probably making a bit more money per record afterwards, but they did fight it as much as they could.
I'm pretty much in agreement with you, with one caveat: I don't just want this over. I want this done right.
I forgot where I read this, but more recounting won't give a more accurate result, just a different one. Ballots may be lost, ballots may be damaged, ballots may be changed. Hand counting is subject to numerous inaccuracies.
We've discovered that our vote counting processes aren't exact, when it came down to a very close result. We need some improvements in the mechanics of vote-counting, but we also need significant improvements in election security. Right now, in most jurisdictions, it's very easy to vote multiple times. How many of you who voted were asked to produce an ID?
This program was encrypted by using the bit string operators to XOR the
program itself with a string of 0x01 characters. The program starts of
by evaluating the encoded program against a string of 0x01 characters to
restore itself, and then evaluates the resulting string to start the
program. The program itself looks like this once unencoded:
I'm not a programmer, but that seems to be cheating. Too many of the entries rely on self-extracting or self-decrypting code. Perhaps the contest judges should have separate categories for obfuscated programs which aren't self-modifying, or at least aren't compressed or encrypted.
The force required to strike the keys on a manual typewriter forces adjustments to the way you hold your hands, which effectively minimize RSI, which is why carpal tunnel and other keyboard-related RSI is relatively new. Maybe the computer-makers in Brazil (the movie, not the country) had the right idea, though those screens can't be good for your eyes.
The article talks about the really hairy math required for certain types of image-recognition, and says that makes it pretty unlikely that there will be a really useful porn filter any time soon. However, the product doesn't even begin to go that route - it makes some relatively intelligent guesses as to what constitutes pornography, and what doesn't. One can forsee a more accurate product which makes more and better guesses, using not-so-hairy math. There will never be a perfectly accurate product, but there may be one which pretty good without the really nasty math that an algorithmic approach would require.
The article hinted at using neural networks to develop such algorithms and says that it would require a really large set of images for good training. How many slashdotters could provide that large training set?
Check out Geniebusters.org for a well reasoned critique of the idea that nanotechnology will produce some sort of effortless cornucopia of wealth. From the article:
A lot of people read
Engines of Creation and think: there has got to be something wrong with this. But they can't put their finger on it. They always assume that if nanotechnology is possible at all, then everything in Engines of Creation follows, and so they think they have to show that it is impossible to build machines out of atoms. These nanocritics lose the argument every time, because in fact it is possible to make machines out of atoms.
The problem lies elsewhere. I take a different approach. I acknowledge the obvious fact that nanotechnology will exist. It is already well underway. It seems like almost every issue of Nature has an article about nanotechnology (in a general sense). However, the fact that nanotechnology will exist does not imply that little robots will supply all our needs for free. In other words, Nanosystems may be true, but this implies nothing about Engines of Creation.
This article ought to be required reading for anyone writing about nanotechnology.
Re:Getting JAVA + SSL to work in Mozilla (Windows)
on
Netscape 6.0 Released
·
· Score: 2
Thank You!!!! I have the Sun Java2 JRE 1.3 for Opera 4, and M18 just wouldn't start. Sat there for 15 minutes before I ctrl-alt-deleted it. I installed the latest build, copied the npjava dlls, and it works fine!
Re:Problems with the system
on
eLection '04
·
· Score: 2
2) As well, because the mail-delivered passwords are the only identifying feature, they could be bought, sold, traded, etc. Maybe not by me, but what if you are low-income, no HMO, little daughter is sick, etc. How much is the going price for a vote?
Only a few dollars at best, because otherwise it would be too difficult to steal elections. In Oakland, the local Democratic machine (the old one, not Jerry Brown's) promised voters a chicken dinner, and delivered a coupon for a $4 premade dinner at Safeway.
The most interesting thing about the Sun article was the link to "A great thrashing of.NET", where Joel Spolsky says that there is no there there. He says:
I couldn't find one single idea that could actually be implemented in a software product in that entire white paper.
.NET is proof that the marketroids have taken over Microsoft.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd disagree - the "cellular" idea - that many small transmitters could handle one call, and that a call could be handed from one transmitter to another without interrupting the call was a pretty innovative idea, and implementing it took some pretty innovative engineering.
The way the original question is worded, I think the batteries would come under the heading "incremental improvements", though I don't know how big of a leap they made in terms of battery materials, etc., so maybe those are innovative. Even so, they're not nearly so big as the cell-phone idea.
NCR would have a seemingly much stronger claim against the people who make software for the Palm that can be used for financial transactions and/or inventory control. My Palm doesn't have a PIN, or a financial account access application.
Opera. It's adware, and closed source, so the purists won't go there. But it WORKS.
The Declaration of Independence says:
Notice that it doesn't say "all Americans" - our heritage considers these rights universal. Australians, or Arabs, or Chinese, are just as entitled to the rights we enjoy as Americans are.By saying that censorship may be one part of responsible government, you're saying that those people being "responsibly governed" are somehow less worthy than Americans. Or you believe that censorship in America may also be a part of "responsible government" here. Because you're in the U.S., you're free to believe either, or both, of those positions, but I'm free to say you're wrong.
mod this guy up as infomative, unless someone else has a link to the history of what he's talking about.
Why is is a US issue? Because Congress created ICANN (essentially). There are a couple of ways that TLD allocation can be handled
In general, I prefer things being done by the private sector, but the corporate solution will likely lead to a monopoly for the benefit of the big corporations. The government and ICANN are doing things badly - name.space has shown that there is no technical limitation to many gTLDs being created, but right now, the answer is to get Congress to force ICANN to adopt a better system, then figure out a way to get the government completely out of the picture.
This is a LIE. There is no good reason for California to need to import electricity at all, since we have a lot of oil, gas, and hydro resources here in state, and plenty of places to put power plants. The problem is that environmental rules have made it impossible to build nuclear power plants at all since Diablo Canyon, and almost impossible to build power plants at all, because there's always some pseudo-environmental group of NIMBYs who can clog up the approval process enough to make any project uneconomic.
Meanwhile, it's a bunch of stupid liberal (but I'm being redundant) economic regulations built into something the liberals called deregulation that have caused the immediate crisis.
California's environmental regulations provide much more benefit to lawyers than to the environment. Most other western states have much simpler systems, where taking a shit doesn't require permits from 5 different agencies with mutually incompatible requirements, and manage to obtain virtually the same results, except for the increase in legal fees that California has "enjoyed".
In the beginning, IE was shit. No one used it. No one considered it really. Then they laughed at it's shortcomings. Then there was the browser war. Now, Netscape is dead as a doornail.
oops. That's what I meant.
Which won't be until RMS finishes rewriting the kernel in LISP, and figures out a way to convert the GIMP into an EMACS mode.
yes, but that's what Netscape did to IE.
It's not that awful, and at least it doesn't look like every other big car out there. Though it does look like Dodge's attempt at a VW Beetle.
However, the RIAA has gone after used record stores. In Berkeley (and Pleasant Hill), there is a long-established store, Rasputin, which sells used records. They used to operate a "record rental service", where you could "rent" a record, then return it. They'd then put the record on the used shelves, where you could buy or rent it. When records retailed for $7.99, Tower and Rasputin sold new records for $7.44, and Rasputin would rent it for $1 for 5 days, then sell it used for $6.00. Eventually (about 1982), the RIAA, or some similar organization made them stop "renting" records. So now, you have to buy the record, and sell it back. Rasputin was probably making a bit more money per record afterwards, but they did fight it as much as they could.
I forgot where I read this, but more recounting won't give a more accurate result, just a different one. Ballots may be lost, ballots may be damaged, ballots may be changed. Hand counting is subject to numerous inaccuracies.
We've discovered that our vote counting processes aren't exact, when it came down to a very close result. We need some improvements in the mechanics of vote-counting, but we also need significant improvements in election security. Right now, in most jurisdictions, it's very easy to vote multiple times. How many of you who voted were asked to produce an ID?
Gore supporters are complaining that many of their votes haven't been counted, but don't mention many of the military absentee ballots which were disqualified, nor the Seminole County absentees that Gore supporters are trying to disqualify, though no fraud is alleged.
We have a result that's within the margin of error. For the good of the country, it should be closed here.
Squant
netscape-i686-pc-linux-gnu-sea.tar.gz 29.06 MB 09.11.2000 13:03:00
29 Megs!!! What's the other 20 MB for? Mozilla is only a 9MB download.
I'm not a programmer, but that seems to be cheating. Too many of the entries rely on self-extracting or self-decrypting code. Perhaps the contest judges should have separate categories for obfuscated programs which aren't self-modifying, or at least aren't compressed or encrypted.
The force required to strike the keys on a manual typewriter forces adjustments to the way you hold your hands, which effectively minimize RSI, which is why carpal tunnel and other keyboard-related RSI is relatively new. Maybe the computer-makers in Brazil (the movie, not the country) had the right idea, though those screens can't be good for your eyes.
The article talks about the really hairy math required for certain types of image-recognition, and says that makes it pretty unlikely that there will be a really useful porn filter any time soon. However, the product doesn't even begin to go that route - it makes some relatively intelligent guesses as to what constitutes pornography, and what doesn't. One can forsee a more accurate product which makes more and better guesses, using not-so-hairy math. There will never be a perfectly accurate product, but there may be one which pretty good without the really nasty math that an algorithmic approach would require. The article hinted at using neural networks to develop such algorithms and says that it would require a really large set of images for good training. How many slashdotters could provide that large training set?
This article ought to be required reading for anyone writing about nanotechnology.
Thank You!!!! I have the Sun Java2 JRE 1.3 for Opera 4, and M18 just wouldn't start. Sat there for 15 minutes before I ctrl-alt-deleted it. I installed the latest build, copied the npjava dlls, and it works fine!
Only a few dollars at best, because otherwise it would be too difficult to steal elections. In Oakland, the local Democratic machine (the old one, not Jerry Brown's) promised voters a chicken dinner, and delivered a coupon for a $4 premade dinner at Safeway.
.NET is proof that the marketroids have taken over Microsoft.
about 23:15 PST, the counties with fewer votes counted (less than 85%) seemed to be going for Bush. By 23:25, CNN had called it for Bush.
Proposition 34 limits the amount that an individual can spend on campaigning. If you're not allowed to spend money on it, you're not free to do it.