My question is how often does something like this happen...
AverageJoe disillusioned Win98 user who sees a poll with options other than windows on it. He's mad because he rebooted 5 times in the last hour. He clicks on anything other than a MS product, and then clicks "submit". Now that's sending a strong message to Bill!
How often do MCSE's blame or berate windows to their clients when something breaks? I always tell my customers who use windows "That blue screen is a feature, nothing I can do."
Simple... It would take about 25 years of continuous operation for a solar cell to make back enough money to pay for it's installation. (This includes cost of support systems like necessary power converters.) That is longer than most components operational lifetimes.
So unless you live in a remote location, it doesn't pay, not by a long shot.
This is a smart publicity stunt by Courtney Love, and it's keeping in style with the rest of her stunts. There's no way Universal could say no to all their artists who want a cut of the money, this would be a mass exodus of all the artists, terribly damaging Universal.
What I see is that Universal only asseses royalty fees twice a year (read the article). It makes sense that they don't comment on who gets what until the've worked the math out for themselves. And it would be irresponsible to promise artists money that has not been awarded to them yet. The lawsuit isn't even finished yet!
It's shameful that Courtney is screaming bloody murder because she hasn't been allocated money that Universal hasn't even had the chance to account for.
What universal did say is that she is getting what will amount to the rate for discount CD clubs. No number was given yet. This is very fair, I would consider mp3.com a "discount reseller".:-)
I honestly think that the recording industry is an illegal price fixing cartel. It does abuse it's artists. But crying that you've been shafted before even the preliminary accounting has been done is very childish.
A very good initial bargaining position though....
Okay... so "Th3Y 0wN j00 b17c3z!!!!!!" was a bit over the top! I used it to stress the immediacy of the situation. Plus I just like saying that.
If you also note, in my second last statement, I mentioned that none of the online profiling that is being done is harmful in itself. That you admit to watching pretty well the same shows I do (B5 rocks) doesn't hurt anyone.
My concern is that if you put all those little things together, you have a quite accurate biography of a person's life, right down to personal habits. The technology for getting a huge ream of personal information about anybody, anytime, is almost one mouseclick away. What if you loose your government job when they go though your purchasing habits, notice you always buy rolling paper, but never buy tobacco?
Detailed profiles of citizens is the "targeting system" of any corrupt government offical who wants to use totalitarian methods. It allows for governments to apply just a little force, in the right locations, to acheive their goals, and leave everyone else happy watching their Tivo's and using their frequent buyer cards to save money.
You say I'm being overzealous and radical, but I'm just pointing out technologies and capabilities that exist, and government methods that exist. Carnivore sucks up anything IP based, do you think the wouldn't want to tap into that big wonderful database that Tivo, my local supermarket, my bank and my CD store have compiled? From the NSA's point of view, these companies are virtually working for them for free!
I'm not saying that anyone is profiling you or me right now, but it's painfully obvious that the capability is there, and is growing every time a company puts out a new frequent buyer card, or Microsoft puts out a new product.
Do we wait until someone uses this capability before we do something? Usually thats how lawmaking works in a democracy, but in this case, I don't like it one bit.
"Just let somebody else do your thinking for you. Like Tivo. Or Microsoft. Or the Government. And then they can "protect your privacy." Sheesh."
I can just see the slashdot headlines next year...
"Judge supoenas Tivo to hand over all profiling information to the NSA on a regular basis."
Or with that Carnivore system are supoenas even necessary anymore? Frankly, any online profiling system fed through carnivore can easily just add to the database. This is multiple networking from multiple sources, and suddenly the wrong people out there know way more than you would ever want them to.
Tivo is harmless in itself, and so is any other online profiling. Aggregated and articulated by something like Carnivore or it's successor, and THEY will have total control.
Basically he doesn't think the patent is an honest one. So where it comes to the point where he has to sign "I do verily believe this document is true and accurate.", he CANNOT sign!
And if his company sues him for not signing, his lawyer in court will say "Your honor, the defendant is willing to sign any document that he believes to be true."
The judge will laugh, and award all court costs to the company.
The end.
Re:Hacker *magic* (Probably OT yet not quite funny
on
Hackers And Mysticism?
·
· Score: 1
If there was any such thing as "magic" in this day and age, it would be technology. Heck, technological geniuses are still often called "wizards" by the popular media, on front page stories.
Conciously or subconciously, I think many people who are fascinated by ideas of "magic" tend to gain a desire to master this secret power, so enroll in schools that teach them the arcane symbols of binary, calculus, solid state physics... To the unwashed masses, the educated practically become "wizards", able to do feats that common man could never do, let alone understand.
Some previous poster mentioned that electricity used to be magic to everyone. Well, to most people, it STILL IS MAGIC. It's just a magic that they've become used to, and know what to expect from. What's the difference?
We're a lot closer to our ignorant past than we would like to admit.
I could see this as a possible way of the internet "cleaving" into national groups. What I mean, is that there is no easy way for me to type in asian characters to get to a site, and if someone is used to an asian-only computer system, how do they go to Russian sites without clicking on a link or knowing an IP address?
At the risk of sounding anglo-centric, isn't this a big blow against interoperability?
"The design space is exponential - as more components are added, the permutations of parameters becomes so large that the space of possibilities becomes intractable."
With quantum computers, as I understand them, these intractable (ie very large) sets of permutations suddenly doesn't become problematic... As long as its modellable mathematically, shouldn't a quantum computer PICK THE BEST CHOICE RIGHT AWAY? If you ask me, quantum computers are a way past the evolutionary process, allowing one to go to the peak of any given evolutionary set right away.
So if we create the solution set of a buildable (with our technology) godlike intelligent computer, and plug it into a sufficiently complex quantum number cruncher, shouldn't it spit out the plans right away?
And... Should we do this???? I fear that the world of the matrix is nearer to us than some of us might realize.
Linus was obviously drinking too much of this when he decided to work for Transmeta.
The question about the Crusoe is WHY?
Power consumption an issue? NO! Code morphing just makes the thing cheaper, not much less power hungry. Either you have a lot of transistors doing one thing very quickly, or you have a few code morphing transistors doing the work of many. Either way, the code-morphing transistors have to work somewhat longer to do the same thing... The MHZ would have to be faster to achieve the same throughput. And not like Intel can't do something similar if they felt like it.
Cheaper? Well, thats good, if you're getting something of equal speed. If it's slower too, I might as well buy an old 386 chip.
Processor emulation? Code morphing allowes for multiple processor emulation, such as ARM, so they'll take some of that market. Just what kind of application can anyone here think of that needs both, so a custom CPU like an ARM is bad? The apps are too different to greatly need a CPU that can do both.
Faster? I don't think so.
Code morphing is a neat idea, but I don't think it has a definable need in the market just yet, so I can't see how it won't flop, regardless of my feelings towards this innovative tech.
Sounds like you're a watermelon... Green on the outside, red on the inside.
What if the earths mean temperature rises one degree or two, the polar caps melt, and all that cold water floods into the oceans. The cooler ocean temperatures then result in a global cooling effect 10 years down the line, everything freezes, and bam! a new ice age that lasts a hundred thousand years.
This is stuff we just don't know enough about... Since it's already started, perhaps we should keep on pumping greenhouse gasses into the air so the global cooling after the melting of the polar caps won't bring on the next ice age?
In my opinion, the ice ages are a sign that the earth is slowly dying and cooling off, and will continue to do so. (Entropy, anyone?) I'm all for re-warming the earth, so the weather is more like it was 100 million years ago, with jungles all the way up to the poles. I sure as heck wouldn't mind a tropical vacation on Greenland! Why aren't there any environmentalists pushing to restore the earth to its "natural" temperature of that age?
where there is a thousand different prefixes or suffixes you could attach to change the meaning of a word or variable? Though sometimes this gets out of hand, and causes very ugly contradictions and logical impossibilities with some words...
Its the RIAA feeding you anglicised singers! Thanks to them, the average American has probably never even heard any singers with serious accents or *gasp* singing in different languages. And we wonder why Americans are so insulated...
I've travelled Europe, and every language there has its own unique vocal ranges and unique sounds and styles that you can pick out a mile away. They usually sound dumb or odd in English, but in the context of that language, they are extremely beautiful. (Much of English vocal ranges sound strange to them.)
I mean really, should we give more power to this government we trust absolutely to always act in our best interests?
Such spanning powers should only be enacted in times of war. (And I don't mean the war on drugs.) Thats the only time national security is really so threatened.
Nobody knows whether to classify it as a humor book, a religious book, or anti-religions book, or whatever. It is definately enlightening, and makes you think twice about the Bible. Here's what I found on the inside.
Ken's Guide to the Bible by Ken Smith, B.A. First Edition 1995 published by Blast Books Inc. P.O. Box 5111, Cooper Station New York, NY 10276-0051 ISBN 0-922233-17-9
"How come God rewarded Abraham and Lot with earthly riches but Jesus said that wealth is a one-way ticket to hell?-Genesis 24:34-35; Job 42:10-12; Matthew 19:24"
Taken without permission from Ken's Guide to the Bible. Damn good book. Stupid Xtians.
When I first found Slashdot, I had a look around, and wondered to myself "Why the hell do these guys have a.org domain anyways???" Seeing as commercial sites can take away *.com domains from noncommercial sites, shouldn't noncommercial groups have the right to take away *.org names from profit-making ventures?
Perhaps someone from should use slashcode to make a noncommercial slashdot site, and then sue Slashdot for their slashdot.org domain, because Slashdot is now a commercial entity? Sounds weird, but is not that what this lawsuit has made as precedent?
A very interesting can of worms stuck to the side of a slippery slope!
But according to the US Government, they're classified as a non-profit group, and are thus exempt from any kind of taxes. So if they want to keep their non-profit status, they have to keep an arms-length away from anything blatantly commercial. That was my point.
Slashdot Mirror
My question is how often does something like this happen...
AverageJoe disillusioned Win98 user who sees a poll with options other than windows on it. He's mad because he rebooted 5 times in the last hour. He clicks on anything other than a MS product, and then clicks "submit". Now that's sending a strong message to Bill!
How often do MCSE's blame or berate windows to their clients when something breaks? I always tell my customers who use windows "That blue screen is a feature, nothing I can do."
My 2 cents...
What's worse? One big high-profile disaster, or thousands of low profile disasters?
How many houses go boom from natural gas?
Compare this to how many houses catch fire from faulty wiring.
Stupid people will think the one high profile risk is far worse than the much bigger small profile risks, and will make poor choices based on that.
/end rant
Simple... It would take about 25 years of continuous operation for a solar cell to make back enough money to pay for it's installation. (This includes cost of support systems like necessary power converters.) That is longer than most components operational lifetimes.
So unless you live in a remote location, it doesn't pay, not by a long shot.
This is a smart publicity stunt by Courtney Love, and it's keeping in style with the rest of her stunts. There's no way Universal could say no to all their artists who want a cut of the money, this would be a mass exodus of all the artists, terribly damaging Universal.
:-)
What I see is that Universal only asseses royalty fees twice a year (read the article). It makes sense that they don't comment on who gets what until the've worked the math out for themselves. And it would be irresponsible to promise artists money that has not been awarded to them yet. The lawsuit isn't even finished yet!
It's shameful that Courtney is screaming bloody murder because she hasn't been allocated money that Universal hasn't even had the chance to account for.
What universal did say is that she is getting what will amount to the rate for discount CD clubs. No number was given yet. This is very fair, I would consider mp3.com a "discount reseller".
I honestly think that the recording industry is an illegal price fixing cartel. It does abuse it's artists. But crying that you've been shafted before even the preliminary accounting has been done is very childish.
A very good initial bargaining position though....
"Inventive Genius Dean Kamen Profiled"
;-)
I thought you activists were against online profiling?
Okay... so "Th3Y 0wN j00 b17c3z!!!!!!" was a bit over the top! I used it to stress the immediacy of the situation. Plus I just like saying that.
If you also note, in my second last statement, I mentioned that none of the online profiling that is being done is harmful in itself. That you admit to watching pretty well the same shows I do (B5 rocks) doesn't hurt anyone.
My concern is that if you put all those little things together, you have a quite accurate biography of a person's life, right down to personal habits. The technology for getting a huge ream of personal information about anybody, anytime, is almost one mouseclick away. What if you loose your government job when they go though your purchasing habits, notice you always buy rolling paper, but never buy tobacco?
Detailed profiles of citizens is the "targeting system" of any corrupt government offical who wants to use totalitarian methods. It allows for governments to apply just a little force, in the right locations, to acheive their goals, and leave everyone else happy watching their Tivo's and using their frequent buyer cards to save money.
You say I'm being overzealous and radical, but I'm just pointing out technologies and capabilities that exist, and government methods that exist. Carnivore sucks up anything IP based, do you think the wouldn't want to tap into that big wonderful database that Tivo, my local supermarket, my bank and my CD store have compiled? From the NSA's point of view, these companies are virtually working for them for free!
I'm not saying that anyone is profiling you or me right now, but it's painfully obvious that the capability is there, and is growing every time a company puts out a new frequent buyer card, or Microsoft puts out a new product.
Do we wait until someone uses this capability before we do something? Usually thats how lawmaking works in a democracy, but in this case, I don't like it one bit.
Th3Y 0wN j00 b17c3z!!!!!! (heh... I had to.)
"Just let somebody else do your thinking for you. Like Tivo. Or Microsoft. Or the Government. And then they can "protect your privacy." Sheesh."
I can just see the slashdot headlines next year...
"Judge supoenas Tivo to hand over all profiling information to the NSA on a regular basis."
Or with that Carnivore system are supoenas even necessary anymore? Frankly, any online profiling system fed through carnivore can easily just add to the database. This is multiple networking from multiple sources, and suddenly the wrong people out there know way more than you would ever want them to.
Tivo is harmless in itself, and so is any other online profiling. Aggregated and articulated by something like Carnivore or it's successor, and THEY will have total control.
Th3Y 0wN j00 b17c3z!!!!!!
What's the use for adding a compressed air intake or exhaust? I know not this TURBO! Is it a big fan for overclocking?
Basically he doesn't think the patent is an honest one. So where it comes to the point where he has to sign "I do verily believe this document is true and accurate.", he CANNOT sign!
And if his company sues him for not signing, his lawyer in court will say "Your honor, the defendant is willing to sign any document that he believes to be true."
The judge will laugh, and award all court costs to the company.
The end.
If there was any such thing as "magic" in this day and age, it would be technology. Heck, technological geniuses are still often called "wizards" by the popular media, on front page stories.
Conciously or subconciously, I think many people who are fascinated by ideas of "magic" tend to gain a desire to master this secret power, so enroll in schools that teach them the arcane symbols of binary, calculus, solid state physics... To the unwashed masses, the educated practically become "wizards", able to do feats that common man could never do, let alone understand.
Some previous poster mentioned that electricity used to be magic to everyone. Well, to most people, it STILL IS MAGIC. It's just a magic that they've become used to, and know what to expect from. What's the difference?
We're a lot closer to our ignorant past than we would like to admit.
I could see this as a possible way of the internet "cleaving" into national groups. What I mean, is that there is no easy way for me to type in asian characters to get to a site, and if someone is used to an asian-only computer system, how do they go to Russian sites without clicking on a link or knowing an IP address?
At the risk of sounding anglo-centric, isn't this a big blow against interoperability?
Thats what concerns me too...
"The design space is exponential - as more components are added, the permutations of parameters becomes so large that the space of possibilities becomes intractable."
With quantum computers, as I understand them, these intractable (ie very large) sets of permutations suddenly doesn't become problematic... As long as its modellable mathematically, shouldn't a quantum computer PICK THE BEST CHOICE RIGHT AWAY? If you ask me, quantum computers are a way past the evolutionary process, allowing one to go to the peak of any given evolutionary set right away.
So if we create the solution set of a buildable (with our technology) godlike intelligent computer, and plug it into a sufficiently complex quantum number cruncher, shouldn't it spit out the plans right away?
And... Should we do this???? I fear that the world of the matrix is nearer to us than some of us might realize.
Linus was obviously drinking too much of this when he decided to work for Transmeta.
The question about the Crusoe is WHY?
Power consumption an issue? NO! Code morphing just makes the thing cheaper, not much less power hungry. Either you have a lot of transistors doing one thing very quickly, or you have a few code morphing transistors doing the work of many. Either way, the code-morphing transistors have to work somewhat longer to do the same thing... The MHZ would have to be faster to achieve the same throughput. And not like Intel can't do something similar if they felt like it.
Cheaper? Well, thats good, if you're getting something of equal speed. If it's slower too, I might as well buy an old 386 chip.
Processor emulation? Code morphing allowes for multiple processor emulation, such as ARM, so they'll take some of that market. Just what kind of application can anyone here think of that needs both, so a custom CPU like an ARM is bad? The apps are too different to greatly need a CPU that can do both.
Faster? I don't think so.
Code morphing is a neat idea, but I don't think it has a definable need in the market just yet, so I can't see how it won't flop, regardless of my feelings towards this innovative tech.
Most people can't!
Damn you Slashdot! Damn you Slashdot!
Whoops, correction, meant to say 100 million years. Though it hasn't been steady in the last 100 years either.
And if you think the Sun's output in the last 100 years is proven to be steady, guess again.
Sounds like you're a watermelon... Green on the outside, red on the inside.
What if the earths mean temperature rises one degree or two, the polar caps melt, and all that cold water floods into the oceans. The cooler ocean temperatures then result in a global cooling effect 10 years down the line, everything freezes, and bam! a new ice age that lasts a hundred thousand years.
This is stuff we just don't know enough about... Since it's already started, perhaps we should keep on pumping greenhouse gasses into the air so the global cooling after the melting of the polar caps won't bring on the next ice age?
In my opinion, the ice ages are a sign that the earth is slowly dying and cooling off, and will continue to do so. (Entropy, anyone?) I'm all for re-warming the earth, so the weather is more like it was 100 million years ago, with jungles all the way up to the poles. I sure as heck wouldn't mind a tropical vacation on Greenland! Why aren't there any environmentalists pushing to restore the earth to its "natural" temperature of that age?
Just the other face of the coin.
where there is a thousand different prefixes or suffixes you could attach to change the meaning of a word or variable? Though sometimes this gets out of hand, and causes very ugly contradictions and logical impossibilities with some words...
Its the RIAA feeding you anglicised singers! Thanks to them, the average American has probably never even heard any singers with serious accents or *gasp* singing in different languages. And we wonder why Americans are so insulated...
I've travelled Europe, and every language there has its own unique vocal ranges and unique sounds and styles that you can pick out a mile away. They usually sound dumb or odd in English, but in the context of that language, they are extremely beautiful. (Much of English vocal ranges sound strange to them.)
Just adding perspective to this tangent.
I mean really, should we give more power to this government we trust absolutely to always act in our best interests?
Such spanning powers should only be enacted in times of war. (And I don't mean the war on drugs.) Thats the only time national security is really so threatened.
Just my thoughts.
Yes, but what happens when some small part of this mishmash system happens to be truly be mutually incompatible?
Nobody knows whether to classify it as a humor book, a religious book, or anti-religions book, or whatever. It is definately enlightening, and makes you think twice about the Bible. Here's what I found on the inside.
Ken's Guide to the Bible
by Ken Smith, B.A.
First Edition 1995
published by Blast Books Inc.
P.O. Box 5111, Cooper Station
New York, NY 10276-0051
ISBN 0-922233-17-9
Glad to help out.
"How come God rewarded Abraham and Lot with earthly riches but Jesus said that wealth is a one-way ticket to hell?-Genesis 24:34-35; Job 42:10-12; Matthew 19:24"
Taken without permission from Ken's Guide to the Bible. Damn good book. Stupid Xtians.
Exactly!!!
.org domain anyways???" Seeing as commercial sites can take away *.com domains from noncommercial sites, shouldn't noncommercial groups have the right to take away *.org names from profit-making ventures?
When I first found Slashdot, I had a look around, and wondered to myself "Why the hell do these guys have a
Perhaps someone from should use slashcode to make a noncommercial slashdot site, and then sue Slashdot for their slashdot.org domain, because Slashdot is now a commercial entity? Sounds weird, but is not that what this lawsuit has made as precedent?
A very interesting can of worms stuck to the side of a slippery slope!
Sure, why not, I agree with you.
But according to the US Government, they're classified as a non-profit group, and are thus exempt from any kind of taxes. So if they want to keep their non-profit status, they have to keep an arms-length away from anything blatantly commercial. That was my point.