I think you're seeing one of the stories from "the future"... Fucked up.
Re:These are the same sorts of idiots that ban bik
on
Geocaching Crackdown?
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· Score: 1
While allowing horses and stating that "mountain bikes are distructive, cause erosion and take up too much room on the trails."
You're right, the horses also cause damage and erosion and take up too much room. It isn't that mountain bikes should be allowed unconditionally, it's that horses should be banned wherever mountain bikes are banned.
It's quite true that some sections of trails, particularly on slopes, are quickly eroded by heavy, fast traffic like parades of mountain bikes and horses. The parks should be available to everyone, but it makes sense to place restrictions on what you can do in certain locations.
Don't take it personally when the forest service tells you your bike is causing erosion, just go bike somewhere else. Or you could try hoofing it like us hikers, you might see the place a little differently at a slower pace!
Jeez -- you need to learn how to think things through! The state would require the box to be installed as a condition of registering the car.
Yes I understand that, but I also believe they said that older cars didn't need to be retrofitted. This raises the question of what it means for a car to be "older," whether it matters that the car was purchased out of state, was it purchased before or after the date of inception of the law, whether it was manufactured before or after that date, what state it was manufactured in, etc.
At any rate, people will try to use the proximity of Washington to their advantage to get around this...
All this will do is destroy the car dealerships in and around Portland, since everyone will just cross the river to Vancouver to buy cars that don't have these idiotic devices on them.
In other news, freshman biology students at Cal Tech will actually use microscopes this year, introductory computer science classes at Berkeley will involve computers, and students will be given chemicals to do their chemistry lab work this fall at Harvey Mudd. Furthermore, the English department at Yale is considering making it a requirement to read a book before earning the undergraduate degree.
Why not use the money to pay off the enormous student loan debt you are about to saddle yourself with, instead of buying a cool toy you won't ever use anyway, since you'll be either out drinking, in the Real computer lab on campus, or otherwise living the standard college life, 90% of the time.
I paid off my student loans within 9 months of graduating, not because I'm making a ton of cash, but because I managed to restrain myself and save massive chunks of each paycheck. Don't start setting yourself back now. You're about to go through the poorest four years of your life. Do you really want to spend the next 20 years (!!) paying off your education?
And if you think $2K saved now is nothing, well... Heh. You'll find out soon enough how important the pennies are.
Oh, and if you do get a laptop, keep it locked up in a watertight box on top of your dresser. You will get puke in it. Or beer, or urine if you're really lucky.
This is an honest question, not intended to be sarcastic: how would you explain to a technically unsavvy judge that the fact that "int i;" appears in both codebases is not theft of IP?
Wouldn't the judge just look at the two pieces of code, and think to him/herself "Geez, that's a whole lot of unintelligible gibberish, but it's clearly the same gibberish, so it must have been stolen."
Serious question. Can someone come up with a pithy analogy that would help to explain this to those not in the know? BTW, I am a programmer...
Re:Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
on
A Good Summer Read?
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I love GEB. It's one of the few I always keep on my desk.
I might also recommend Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky. It's a collection of essays written by Minsky on different aspects of human thought, consciousness, logic, emotion, and learning. It's one of those books that you can read by flipping through it at random, and I love that.
Can either criminal charges or a civil suit really be brought against you for overturning someone's chess board in a public location? Sure you're a jerk, but what law did you break?
You probably scratched the chess board, and therefore committed vandalism. With witnesses.
I suppose the owner of the chess board could claim that you "stole" it for the brief period of time it was in your hand since you didn't have permission to be in possession of it.
You could be cited for littering by throwing an object on the ground then walking away.
You probably also caused some emotional distress, which is punishable in civil court.
Even if there were a billion trillion people on Earth, each person would still have 340 thousand trillion addresses. Assuming you have about 50 trillion cells in your body, this means you can assign nearly 7000 IPv6 addresses to each cell in your body.
If you think that's limited, you seriously need your head checked out.
You mean, it isn't good for Microsoft. MS isn't the only choice, you know. People could switch to a Mac, for example.
Methinks it's a Microsoft-is-too-huge-syndrome. Microsoft can't test its fixes on every possible configuration; therefore, problems like this will occur.
That's the beauty of standardized hardware like Apple's. They don't have a billion configurations to test.
It's the nature of the beast.
Why are you equating MS with the entire world? Consumers do have choice. The don't exercise that choice, because people like you are always telling them "Sorry, that's just how it is." Dammit, no, it does not have to be this way.
I don't know ML specifically, but in functional terms quicksort can be written something like this:
qsort([]) = [] -- base case qsort(list) = -- recursive case
qsort([x in list where x < list[0]]) + list[0] + qsort([x in list where x > list[0]])
This is functional PSEUDOCODE, it doesn't correspond to any particular functional language, but it's in a functional spirit.
Re:Dang it, there goes my stomach lining...
on
I, Spammer
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This national database could store irreversible hashes of the addresses. This way it would not be possible to extract addresses from the database, while it would still be possible to check whether some address is present in it.
But what if the hash of my address collides with the hash of some other guy who doesn't want to receive spam? I would be cheated out of the opportunity to receive special targetted offers!
What does that mean exactly? The motor is more efficient, or can draw more current, or what?
Stronger magnets produce more power. Physically, a stronger magnetic field will lead to a greater voltage at the same current. But, you could cut the number of turns on the coil in half, get the same voltage as before, but twice the current. The product of voltage and current is power*, and that's what is increased by a stronger magnet. For example, say you get 20 volts, 10 amps from a 500-turn coil. You now double the magnet strength and get 40 volts, 10 amps. Now, cut the coil down to 250 turns, and you get the original 20 volts, but now 20 amps.
*Since the current is alternating, we're really talking about the dot product of voltage and current. I say this to stave off the inevitable "correction" someone will make.
but are we required to assume that because he was amazing in one field, his sentiments about life and happiness are necessarily grand Higher Truths?
Einstein was making a very specific statement about the nature of the universe. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean what he said was metaphysical nonsense.
Einstein was commenting on the weirdness of living in a world which can be precisely described by mathematics. By "comprehensibility," he means from a mathematical/logical standpoint. It really is baffling that we are able to observe the world around us, and develop rigorous mathematical and logical systems which precisely match those observations.
Einstein quite rightly found it amazing that mere human minds, through the application of inductive and deductive reasoning, can understand the physical world. Einstein himself, through simple geometric reasoning, showed that matter and energy are equivalent. The possibility of an atom bomb can be deduced through geometry! This is what Einstein found so incomprehensible.
Try writing a simple recursive Fibonacci number calculator in both C++ and Java. The Java one is faster, when using a JIT enabled JVM.
While I actually doubt this is true, I suppose that it could be true, if the JIT compiler is smart enough to figure out how to turn the recursion into iteration. Compilers already know how to identify tail recursion, and it isn't hard to imagine a JIT that can "see" that this function can be rewritten in iterative form. (g++ can't figure it out, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible). If you pitted a new JVM against an extremely old C++ compiler that can't optimize for crap, I think this could actually be true.
On the other hand, a recursive Fibonacci function spends most of its time doing function calls, so it could just be that the (old, out of date) C++ compiler is producing very inefficient function calls compared to the JIT. But I have a hard time believing that one of the latest JITs can outperform one of the latest C++ compilers.
The Z-buffer doesn't have to have the same depth as the frame buffer. Depending on the application, 8 bits per pixel in the Z-buffer is sufficient (as opposed to 24 bits per pixel in the true color frame buffer). To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what depth the Z-buffers on commodity cards commonly have. Anyone know?
Ok, I must be tired. We're trying to solve: 0.5^x=1/60000 implies x = 15.87 doubling periods. Spread this over 18 years, 18/15.87 = 1.13 years per doubling (actually, halving). So prices drop in half every 13 months, not every 22 months. Urgh..
If prices fell by 60000 times over 18 years, then we're looking for the solution of the equation: x^18 = 60000, which implies x = 1.84 years = about 22 months. So prices fall in half every 22 months (assuming it's exponential). Moore's law says transistor density doubles every 18 months. It's not that much different, although it does make a huge difference over time.
Why is water so damn important? Couldn't life be based upon a different liquid than water? A different solid than carbon?
Water is highly polar, and therefore has the ability to dissolve ions. Without ions, complex chemistry could not take place.
Water is liquid at a "reasonable" temperature, meaning water in liquid form is not hot enough to destroy most complex molecules.
The density of ice is slightly less than that of water, so ice floats on top of water. This is vital, because it allows bodies of water to form a frozen cover which protects against further freezing. This is not common among substances.
Water blocks ultraviolet light, which would otherwise destroy fragile molecules and organisms.
Water has a very high specific heat, making it ideal for carrying out chemical reactions -- exothermic reactions can dump their heat into the water, and endothermic reactions can draw their heat from the water. This allows energetic reactions to occur without raising the temperature too high.
Basically, water is a very unusual substance with many favorable properties, and it's likely that life will take advantage of water, if it is present.
That's not to say that life cannot exist without water, but it certainly makes life much more plausible.
As for non-carbon-based lifeforms, people have been pondering that for decades. Carbon is interesting because it can bond with itself pretty much ad infinitum, forming complicated structures. It also combines readily with oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur, the halogens, and a host of other elements. Complex life based on some non-carbon element would have to have the ability to form long chains of atoms, branching structures, and structured which curl up into specific shapes (i.e. proteins and enzymes). A carbon-silicon combo might work.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you're seeing one of the stories from "the future"... Fucked up.
You're right, the horses also cause damage and erosion and take up too much room. It isn't that mountain bikes should be allowed unconditionally, it's that horses should be banned wherever mountain bikes are banned.
It's quite true that some sections of trails, particularly on slopes, are quickly eroded by heavy, fast traffic like parades of mountain bikes and horses. The parks should be available to everyone, but it makes sense to place restrictions on what you can do in certain locations.
Don't take it personally when the forest service tells you your bike is causing erosion, just go bike somewhere else. Or you could try hoofing it like us hikers, you might see the place a little differently at a slower pace!
Yes I understand that, but I also believe they said that older cars didn't need to be retrofitted. This raises the question of what it means for a car to be "older," whether it matters that the car was purchased out of state, was it purchased before or after the date of inception of the law, whether it was manufactured before or after that date, what state it was manufactured in, etc.
At any rate, people will try to use the proximity of Washington to their advantage to get around this...
All this will do is destroy the car dealerships in and around Portland, since everyone will just cross the river to Vancouver to buy cars that don't have these idiotic devices on them.
In other news, freshman biology students at Cal Tech will actually use microscopes this year, introductory computer science classes at Berkeley will involve computers, and students will be given chemicals to do their chemistry lab work this fall at Harvey Mudd. Furthermore, the English department at Yale is considering making it a requirement to read a book before earning the undergraduate degree.
I paid off my student loans within 9 months of graduating, not because I'm making a ton of cash, but because I managed to restrain myself and save massive chunks of each paycheck. Don't start setting yourself back now. You're about to go through the poorest four years of your life. Do you really want to spend the next 20 years (!!) paying off your education?
And if you think $2K saved now is nothing, well... Heh. You'll find out soon enough how important the pennies are.
Oh, and if you do get a laptop, keep it locked up in a watertight box on top of your dresser. You will get puke in it. Or beer, or urine if you're really lucky.
Wouldn't the judge just look at the two pieces of code, and think to him/herself "Geez, that's a whole lot of unintelligible gibberish, but it's clearly the same gibberish, so it must have been stolen."
Serious question. Can someone come up with a pithy analogy that would help to explain this to those not in the know? BTW, I am a programmer...
I might also recommend Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky. It's a collection of essays written by Minsky on different aspects of human thought, consciousness, logic, emotion, and learning. It's one of those books that you can read by flipping through it at random, and I love that.
You probably scratched the chess board, and therefore committed vandalism. With witnesses.
I suppose the owner of the chess board could claim that you "stole" it for the brief period of time it was in your hand since you didn't have permission to be in possession of it.
You could be cited for littering by throwing an object on the ground then walking away.
You probably also caused some emotional distress, which is punishable in civil court.
BTW, IANAL either...
Even if there were a billion trillion people on Earth, each person would still have 340 thousand trillion addresses. Assuming you have about 50 trillion cells in your body, this means you can assign nearly 7000 IPv6 addresses to each cell in your body.
If you think that's limited, you seriously need your head checked out.
Um, I think if you run inland, and keep running until you are 400 feet above sea level, you will avoid a 400 foot wave.
Hey, but I could be wrong.
You mean, it isn't good for Microsoft. MS isn't the only choice, you know. People could switch to a Mac, for example.
Methinks it's a Microsoft-is-too-huge-syndrome. Microsoft can't test its fixes on every possible configuration; therefore, problems like this will occur.
That's the beauty of standardized hardware like Apple's. They don't have a billion configurations to test.
It's the nature of the beast.
Why are you equating MS with the entire world? Consumers do have choice. The don't exercise that choice, because people like you are always telling them "Sorry, that's just how it is." Dammit, no, it does not have to be this way.
And about how fast do you think someone will whip up a software ARP proxy? I'm guessing oh... 12 hours?
Even better, we could use base 2520, which is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10!
I don't know ML specifically, but in functional terms quicksort can be written something like this:
qsort([]) = [] -- base case
qsort(list) = -- recursive case
qsort([x in list where x < list[0]]) + list[0] + qsort([x in list where x > list[0]])
This is functional PSEUDOCODE, it doesn't correspond to any particular functional language, but it's in a functional spirit.
But what if the hash of my address collides with the hash of some other guy who doesn't want to receive spam? I would be cheated out of the opportunity to receive special targetted offers!
Stronger magnets produce more power. Physically, a stronger magnetic field will lead to a greater voltage at the same current. But, you could cut the number of turns on the coil in half, get the same voltage as before, but twice the current. The product of voltage and current is power*, and that's what is increased by a stronger magnet. For example, say you get 20 volts, 10 amps from a 500-turn coil. You now double the magnet strength and get 40 volts, 10 amps. Now, cut the coil down to 250 turns, and you get the original 20 volts, but now 20 amps.
*Since the current is alternating, we're really talking about the dot product of voltage and current. I say this to stave off the inevitable "correction" someone will make.
Einstein was making a very specific statement about the nature of the universe. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean what he said was metaphysical nonsense.
Einstein was commenting on the weirdness of living in a world which can be precisely described by mathematics. By "comprehensibility," he means from a mathematical/logical standpoint. It really is baffling that we are able to observe the world around us, and develop rigorous mathematical and logical systems which precisely match those observations.
Einstein quite rightly found it amazing that mere human minds, through the application of inductive and deductive reasoning, can understand the physical world. Einstein himself, through simple geometric reasoning, showed that matter and energy are equivalent. The possibility of an atom bomb can be deduced through geometry! This is what Einstein found so incomprehensible.
While I actually doubt this is true, I suppose that it could be true, if the JIT compiler is smart enough to figure out how to turn the recursion into iteration. Compilers already know how to identify tail recursion, and it isn't hard to imagine a JIT that can "see" that this function can be rewritten in iterative form. (g++ can't figure it out, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible). If you pitted a new JVM against an extremely old C++ compiler that can't optimize for crap, I think this could actually be true.
On the other hand, a recursive Fibonacci function spends most of its time doing function calls, so it could just be that the (old, out of date) C++ compiler is producing very inefficient function calls compared to the JIT. But I have a hard time believing that one of the latest JITs can outperform one of the latest C++ compilers.
Windows still supports PIF files?!
We just heard from on high (ahem, hello Mr. Minsky) that this whole exercise is pointless and stupid!
The Z-buffer doesn't have to have the same depth as the frame buffer. Depending on the application, 8 bits per pixel in the Z-buffer is sufficient (as opposed to 24 bits per pixel in the true color frame buffer). To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what depth the Z-buffers on commodity cards commonly have. Anyone know?
Ok, I must be tired. We're trying to solve: 0.5^x=1/60000 implies x = 15.87 doubling periods. Spread this over 18 years, 18/15.87 = 1.13 years per doubling (actually, halving). So prices drop in half every 13 months, not every 22 months. Urgh..
If prices fell by 60000 times over 18 years, then we're looking for the solution of the equation: x^18 = 60000, which implies x = 1.84 years = about 22 months. So prices fall in half every 22 months (assuming it's exponential). Moore's law says transistor density doubles every 18 months. It's not that much different, although it does make a huge difference over time.
- Water is highly polar, and therefore has the ability to dissolve ions. Without ions, complex chemistry could not take place.
- Water is liquid at a "reasonable" temperature, meaning water in liquid form is not hot enough to destroy most complex molecules.
- The density of ice is slightly less than that of water, so ice floats on top of water. This is vital, because it allows bodies of water to form a frozen cover which protects against further freezing. This is not common among substances.
- Water blocks ultraviolet light, which would otherwise destroy fragile molecules and organisms.
- Water has a very high specific heat, making it ideal for carrying out chemical reactions -- exothermic reactions can dump their heat into the water, and endothermic reactions can draw their heat from the water. This allows energetic reactions to occur without raising the temperature too high.
Basically, water is a very unusual substance with many favorable properties, and it's likely that life will take advantage of water, if it is present.That's not to say that life cannot exist without water, but it certainly makes life much more plausible.
As for non-carbon-based lifeforms, people have been pondering that for decades. Carbon is interesting because it can bond with itself pretty much ad infinitum, forming complicated structures. It also combines readily with oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur, the halogens, and a host of other elements. Complex life based on some non-carbon element would have to have the ability to form long chains of atoms, branching structures, and structured which curl up into specific shapes (i.e. proteins and enzymes). A carbon-silicon combo might work.