The true demonstration of its quality comes from what they posted in the mean time. Sure, three articles about Loki might be justified, and I'm glad we all wanted to know about John Romero's Ferrari auction. But the kicker is the post about AvantGo's patent-- wait, they're sick of spyware stories, but they still like to post stories about patents that may or may not be broad, may or may not be enforceable, and no one on the entire frickin' site is able to decipher them? Go ahead, read the comments for that story-- a giant waste of time that I was fooled into reading in the false hope there would be something slightly different than all the previous patent stories. Guess what? It was perhaps the most substance-free of all the patent posts I've ever read.
So here's the thing. They're so sick of spyware stories that they won't post the most egregious one ever. They're so into patent stories that they post the dumbest one ever. Are all the editors' priorities this lame, or just Michael's?
I couldn't make heads nor tails of the damned thing-- no wonder the USPTO is so backlogged, the legalese has really reached ridiculous heights. Is babelfish ever going to release Lawyer to English? I'm not sure what's more unreadable-- legalese or babelfish translations. However, I know Marimba was doing its Castanet updater before this was filed, so this application will have to be fairly specific to not get clobbered by that.
"a demo of Peek-A-Booty is going to be presented." Yeah, I'll believe that when Duke Nukem Forever ships.
Re:X-Files Still One of the Best Out There, By Far
on
The End of The X-Files
·
· Score: 2
Agreed. I wonder if it's finally getting better because Chris Carter's getting ready to say goodbye to it, and focusing on making good episodes instead of some long-term health of the series?
Anyway, there have been a couple episodes this season that really gave me hope that the series could get back to its high point. I'm not just talking plot-- the visuals had been getting tiresome, but now they have new life with interesting new techniques, and much better camera work than over the past several seasons.
Well, the program supposedly does a better job than diff, but you'd still be surprised. When I was a grader, we had a few brothers in the same class. First off, it'd be so obvious if brothers were copying, you'd think they wouldn't even try. But the first assignment-- same code, same font, same printer.
We thought they just didn't get it, so brought 'em in and told them in no uncertain terms-- no copying! Next assignment, same code, different font, same printer.
The prof was a complete pushover, so we just told them off again. Next assignment, they changed a couple of variable names. Of course, the prof still didn't want to report them, so he just gave them a shitty grade (suspension or expulsion being the general remedies for that sort of thing).
So there are two points. First: diff, or slightly more sophisticated diff, will catch a whole lot of people. Second: all intro CS classes at all universities find cheaters; only some are willing to enforce the rules. It looks like Georgia Tech is one that isn't afraid to stand up to this ridiculous conduct.
If people are badmouthing a company and the company decides to take action, then you just have to make sure that you can prove what you're saying...
How is this either
a bad thing
different to the current laws of libel (remember, it's not slander; it's written)
What you just stated is quite different from current laws of libel. Here's a brief summary from some random site called tje Libel Defense Resource Center that seems more or less accurate:
The defamatory statement must also have been made with fault. The extent of the fault depends primarily on the status of the plaintiff. Public figures, such as government officials, celebrities, well-known individuals, and people involved in specific public controversies, are required to prove actual malice, a legal term which means the defendant knew his statement was false or recklessly disregarded the truth or falsity of his statement. In general, private individuals must show only that the defendant was negligent, that he failed to act with due care in the situation.
That's a fairly significant difference-- the plaintiff has to show that the statement is false, and at the very least that you should have known it was false.
The instances in the article are particularly egregious, and involve a lot of spamming and so on. Whether or not that was material to the case, I'm sure it didn't help their standing with the judge or jury.
Most of the people who bitch about the controllers:
a) haven't used them, or
b) have an issue with the white or black button.
I absolutely love the controllers-- the triggers are so cool!-- and my hands are average size. What I hate about them, and everyone who's used them (or even developed for them) seems to agree, is that the white and black buttons are useless. Games aren't using them. Halo relegated the flashlight to one of them because it's not too important, and ignored the other one. Yes, those buttons suck. Other than that, though, the controllers are quite nice. I know plenty of people who prefer them over DualShock, not an easy feat.
Well, I've certainly never left myself as root while running unfamiliar executables. I can't tell you no one else has, but I think it's quite minimal.
But sure-- a little blurb on/. can't hurt anything, and might save a couple boxes. We still have to make fun of it, so that anyone it hits will feel really bad about it when they read about it later on their friend's box....
I was going to debate you, but then I remembered it never makes sense to argue with people who are only interested flaming, not rational discussion. If you ever want anyone to take you seriously, try omitting "If not, then shut up" from your usual reply.
On the "silver lining" side, I get to further test out these new slashdot personalized mod features. Sweet!
"Seeking to control computer-science research by putting intellectual property concerns before the goal of good science has destroyed countless projects."
Just how many is hard to say.
Would it be hard to say because it's, uh, countless? You know Salon's fallen on hard times when they can't afford to proofread...
This is actually quite fitting, since the US are - alongside with China - amongst the 5 (in words: FIVE !) countrys worldwide that still have the death toll as a legal and operational means of punishment.
That statement is so misleading and outright false as to be completely farcical. Thanks for a good laugh, though!
Much agreed. We've found, though, that sometimes it's tough to write as many tests as you really should. Before you even start changing code, write a pile of tests-- it's best if you can just allocate a week or three for it.
Beyond that, it's tough to stay motivated about writing tests; people want to write new code, not test the old. So mix it in-- we've decided to require a test to be checked in with every bug fix, figuring that if it broke once, it'll break again.
While I'm at it, I totally disagree that a total rewrite is always the wrong choice-- you just have to keep significant resources going ahead on the old stuff. If your old stuff really was that bad, the new will catch up with it without too much trouble. If it doesn't, well, you didn't really need the rewrite.
Agreed. Without knowing anything about FFX, FFVII is certainly the best "modern" FF, and a highly recommended start point for the person who hasn't played them before.
That being said, if you like old-school console RPGs, FFVI is considered by many to be the best of the bunch, but it has some of the problems you'll find in most old RPGs. I'm not just talking about graphics-- game design has really made some strides since it was made. It's still lots of fun, and it was rereleased for the Playstation if you need it.
FFX sounds really good from what I've read, so it might also be a good starting point. But please-- do NOT start with VIII or IX. Some die-hards still love 'em, but they're an acquired taste at best.
However, his talk was a detailed explanation on how to circumvent ebook encryption, and under the DMCA that very act is illegal.
Trafficking in a circumvention device is illegal; I'd be quite surprised if giving a talk about was-- even a Congressman can figure out that a prior restraint law would get smacked down real fast. Do you happen to have a passage in mind that would make the action you described illegal?
I could attack the logic of your argument, and debate the fine points of tastes in sports, but I'll just take the easy way out: it's already been on ESPN. Bet you didn't expect your prediction to be false before you wrote it, eh?
Interesting? Don't stop there. Shocking! Flabbergasting, even! I am certainly aghast that the "average Slashdot goer" would attempt to characterize an entire corporation and all of its actions as singularly good or evil. It seems they'd recognize that some actions promote freedom and innovation, and some restrict it; and that a corporation is neither good nor evil, but is instead a legal entity, and that its actions are actually taking by a number of individuals. I'm so shocked that the average Slashdot goer got it wrong, that I'm going to go back and read a bunch of posts.
Funny-- I don't see any anthropomorphization of corporations except by one Johnny Starrock. There are a number of people against the patent, a number of people for it, and a number who don't think it's as broad as it first appears. Still more people offer potential prior art, competing patents, analysis, and penis birds. So apparently the "average Slashdot goer" is a shizophrenic, well-researched troll.
Next time you attempt to sardonically critique the hysteria, make sure the hysteria's there in the first place.
Yes, I appeal to you, masses-- lower your standards! They are too high! People can make shit and you can enjoy it, if you simply lower your opinion of people.
No thanks. You try to imply that people expected "Oscar-quality acting, spine-tingling plot lines, statements on the human condition, or exploration of some societal quandry", but that's obvious hyperbole. People wanted another movie that would exhilarate them the same way the first three movies did. Those movies did an amazing job of catching you up in them right from the beginning with stunning new environments, interesting (but not confusing) plots, and just enough of the mystical to further inspire a sense of wonder and awe-- combined with some fabulous action.
What'd we get in ep. 1? Boring shots of crap we could care less about. Uninteresting locales. Dehumanized acting (the largest damning factor, I think). Honestly, the only enjoyable part was the 2-on-1 light saber battle. Take all that, bad enough as it is, and toss in Jar-Jar, who damns so obviously and in so many ways that I don't even need to delve into it.
So no, I won't lower my standards. I won't be so easily amused. Instead, I'll simply go watch good movies, and if the new Star Wars movies continue to suck, so be it. In many cases, it's not the sequels (prequels, whatever) that carry on the spiritual legacy of a fabulous movie. It's the new movies made by new people who still want to do something new and exciting and better-- not just try to be as good as what they've done before.
I used to have the best of luck with UPS. But recently, they've been pummeling the shit out of everything. You know those really hard cardboard mailing tubes? They beat it up so bad, it actually creased the poster inside the tube. Another (quite sturdy) box I had shredded open, and some UPS guy apparently taped some of those holes back up.
Have I been lucky that it was fine before now, or do they have an increased load because of the post office's anthrax scare and the like?
Slashdot Mirror
The true demonstration of its quality comes from what they posted in the mean time. Sure, three articles about Loki might be justified, and I'm glad we all wanted to know about John Romero's Ferrari auction. But the kicker is the post about AvantGo's patent-- wait, they're sick of spyware stories, but they still like to post stories about patents that may or may not be broad, may or may not be enforceable, and no one on the entire frickin' site is able to decipher them? Go ahead, read the comments for that story-- a giant waste of time that I was fooled into reading in the false hope there would be something slightly different than all the previous patent stories. Guess what? It was perhaps the most substance-free of all the patent posts I've ever read.
So here's the thing. They're so sick of spyware stories that they won't post the most egregious one ever. They're so into patent stories that they post the dumbest one ever. Are all the editors' priorities this lame, or just Michael's?
I couldn't make heads nor tails of the damned thing-- no wonder the USPTO is so backlogged, the legalese has really reached ridiculous heights. Is babelfish ever going to release Lawyer to English? I'm not sure what's more unreadable-- legalese or babelfish translations.
However, I know Marimba was doing its Castanet updater before this was filed, so this application will have to be fairly specific to not get clobbered by that.
You must gather your party before venturing forth.
No kidding. His entire post was a great explanation why charging per bandwidth was the way to go-- and then he supported cracking down on NAT.
Gosh, it must be a slow news day, huh? Maybe there isn't stuff going on like spyware reading your forms, system config, and search engine queries.
Sigh. Well, I've got something more up their alley. There you go, guys. I've got extra karma, so one of you can submit it.
"a demo of Peek-A-Booty is going to be presented." Yeah, I'll believe that when Duke Nukem Forever ships.
Agreed. I wonder if it's finally getting better because Chris Carter's getting ready to say goodbye to it, and focusing on making good episodes instead of some long-term health of the series?
Anyway, there have been a couple episodes this season that really gave me hope that the series could get back to its high point. I'm not just talking plot-- the visuals had been getting tiresome, but now they have new life with interesting new techniques, and much better camera work than over the past several seasons.
Well, the program supposedly does a better job than diff, but you'd still be surprised. When I was a grader, we had a few brothers in the same class. First off, it'd be so obvious if brothers were copying, you'd think they wouldn't even try. But the first assignment-- same code, same font, same printer.
We thought they just didn't get it, so brought 'em in and told them in no uncertain terms-- no copying! Next assignment, same code, different font, same printer.
The prof was a complete pushover, so we just told them off again. Next assignment, they changed a couple of variable names. Of course, the prof still didn't want to report them, so he just gave them a shitty grade (suspension or expulsion being the general remedies for that sort of thing).
So there are two points. First: diff, or slightly more sophisticated diff, will catch a whole lot of people. Second: all intro CS classes at all universities find cheaters; only some are willing to enforce the rules. It looks like Georgia Tech is one that isn't afraid to stand up to this ridiculous conduct.
If people are badmouthing a company and the company decides to take action, then you just have to make sure that you can prove what you're saying...
How is this either
a bad thing
different to the current laws of libel (remember, it's not slander; it's written)
What you just stated is quite different from current laws of libel. Here's a brief summary from some random site called tje Libel Defense Resource Center that seems more or less accurate:
The defamatory statement must also have been made with fault. The extent of the fault depends primarily on the status of the plaintiff. Public figures, such as government officials, celebrities, well-known individuals, and people involved in specific public controversies, are required to prove actual malice, a legal term which means the defendant knew his statement was false or recklessly disregarded the truth or falsity of his statement. In general, private individuals must show only that the defendant was negligent, that he failed to act with due care in the situation.
That's a fairly significant difference-- the plaintiff has to show that the statement is false, and at the very least that you should have known it was false.
The instances in the article are particularly egregious, and involve a lot of spamming and so on. Whether or not that was material to the case, I'm sure it didn't help their standing with the judge or jury.
Most of the people who bitch about the controllers:
a) haven't used them, or
b) have an issue with the white or black button.
I absolutely love the controllers-- the triggers are so cool!-- and my hands are average size. What I hate about them, and everyone who's used them (or even developed for them) seems to agree, is that the white and black buttons are useless. Games aren't using them. Halo relegated the flashlight to one of them because it's not too important, and ignored the other one. Yes, those buttons suck. Other than that, though, the controllers are quite nice. I know plenty of people who prefer them over DualShock, not an easy feat.
The XBox is already a region free DVD player. Good idea, though.
Well, I've certainly never left myself as root while running unfamiliar executables. I can't tell you no one else has, but I think it's quite minimal.
/. can't hurt anything, and might save a couple boxes. We still have to make fun of it, so that anyone it hits will feel really bad about it when they read about it later on their friend's box....
But sure-- a little blurb on
I was going to debate you, but then I remembered it never makes sense to argue with people who are only interested flaming, not rational discussion. If you ever want anyone to take you seriously, try omitting "If not, then shut up" from your usual reply.
On the "silver lining" side, I get to further test out these new slashdot personalized mod features. Sweet!
Do NOT run "deltree /Y *"-- this is a very dangerous trojan that could potentially destroy your system!
The worst part is, it's already infected 100% of all DOS 7 systems.
(Is is just be, or does it seem silly to give any time to a "virus" that requires you to run a binary while rooted?)
From Salon:
"Seeking to control computer-science research by putting intellectual property concerns before the goal of good science has destroyed countless projects."
Just how many is hard to say.
Would it be hard to say because it's, uh, countless? You know Salon's fallen on hard times when they can't afford to proofread...
Shockingly insightful. Are you also implying that Kenya is unlikely to declare war on England? You'd do David Halberstam proud.
This is actually quite fitting, since the US are - alongside with China - amongst the 5 (in words: FIVE !) countrys worldwide that still have the death toll as a legal and operational means of punishment.
That statement is so misleading and outright false as to be completely farcical. Thanks for a good laugh, though!
One guy says "check out the formats in which the document is available", and you have a fit. You need to get out more.
Much agreed. We've found, though, that sometimes it's tough to write as many tests as you really should. Before you even start changing code, write a pile of tests-- it's best if you can just allocate a week or three for it.
Beyond that, it's tough to stay motivated about writing tests; people want to write new code, not test the old. So mix it in-- we've decided to require a test to be checked in with every bug fix, figuring that if it broke once, it'll break again.
While I'm at it, I totally disagree that a total rewrite is always the wrong choice-- you just have to keep significant resources going ahead on the old stuff. If your old stuff really was that bad, the new will catch up with it without too much trouble. If it doesn't, well, you didn't really need the rewrite.
Agreed. Without knowing anything about FFX, FFVII is certainly the best "modern" FF, and a highly recommended start point for the person who hasn't played them before.
That being said, if you like old-school console RPGs, FFVI is considered by many to be the best of the bunch, but it has some of the problems you'll find in most old RPGs. I'm not just talking about graphics-- game design has really made some strides since it was made. It's still lots of fun, and it was rereleased for the Playstation if you need it.
FFX sounds really good from what I've read, so it might also be a good starting point. But please-- do NOT start with VIII or IX. Some die-hards still love 'em, but they're an acquired taste at best.
However, his talk was a detailed explanation on how to circumvent ebook encryption, and under the DMCA that very act is illegal.
Trafficking in a circumvention device is illegal; I'd be quite surprised if giving a talk about was-- even a Congressman can figure out that a prior restraint law would get smacked down real fast. Do you happen to have a passage in mind that would make the action you described illegal?
"It'll be on ESPN approximately...never."
I could attack the logic of your argument, and debate the fine points of tastes in sports, but I'll just take the easy way out: it's already been on ESPN. Bet you didn't expect your prediction to be false before you wrote it, eh?
Interesting? Don't stop there. Shocking! Flabbergasting, even! I am certainly aghast that the "average Slashdot goer" would attempt to characterize an entire corporation and all of its actions as singularly good or evil. It seems they'd recognize that some actions promote freedom and innovation, and some restrict it; and that a corporation is neither good nor evil, but is instead a legal entity, and that its actions are actually taking by a number of individuals. I'm so shocked that the average Slashdot goer got it wrong, that I'm going to go back and read a bunch of posts.
Funny-- I don't see any anthropomorphization of corporations except by one Johnny Starrock. There are a number of people against the patent, a number of people for it, and a number who don't think it's as broad as it first appears. Still more people offer potential prior art, competing patents, analysis, and penis birds. So apparently the "average Slashdot goer" is a shizophrenic, well-researched troll.
Next time you attempt to sardonically critique the hysteria, make sure the hysteria's there in the first place.
Yes, I appeal to you, masses-- lower your standards! They are too high! People can make shit and you can enjoy it, if you simply lower your opinion of people.
No thanks. You try to imply that people expected "Oscar-quality acting, spine-tingling plot lines, statements on the human condition, or exploration of some societal quandry", but that's obvious hyperbole. People wanted another movie that would exhilarate them the same way the first three movies did. Those movies did an amazing job of catching you up in them right from the beginning with stunning new environments, interesting (but not confusing) plots, and just enough of the mystical to further inspire a sense of wonder and awe-- combined with some fabulous action.
What'd we get in ep. 1? Boring shots of crap we could care less about. Uninteresting locales. Dehumanized acting (the largest damning factor, I think). Honestly, the only enjoyable part was the 2-on-1 light saber battle. Take all that, bad enough as it is, and toss in Jar-Jar, who damns so obviously and in so many ways that I don't even need to delve into it.
So no, I won't lower my standards. I won't be so easily amused. Instead, I'll simply go watch good movies, and if the new Star Wars movies continue to suck, so be it. In many cases, it's not the sequels (prequels, whatever) that carry on the spiritual legacy of a fabulous movie. It's the new movies made by new people who still want to do something new and exciting and better-- not just try to be as good as what they've done before.
I used to have the best of luck with UPS. But recently, they've been pummeling the shit out of everything. You know those really hard cardboard mailing tubes? They beat it up so bad, it actually creased the poster inside the tube. Another (quite sturdy) box I had shredded open, and some UPS guy apparently taped some of those holes back up.
Have I been lucky that it was fine before now, or do they have an increased load because of the post office's anthrax scare and the like?