Homestar runner's a "comic" that has really used what technology offers quite well.
I always thought of Homestar as animated shorts in the tradition of Bugs Bunny rather than "comics". Maybe a fine distinction, but that's a medium with an entirely different history, distribution, pricing model, etc.
and yet look at how many Linux machines sit naked on the internet, or act as security appliances to protect those vulnerable Microsoft products
These are two different things. My first naively installed linux machine "naked" on the internet got hacked. Setup like that is bad whether your working machine is linux or weindows. Then I put in a dedicated firewall... OpenBSD as it happens...end of problem. Ballmer was right, You should have a dedicated hardware firewall, Cisco, OpenBSD, whatever, protecting your useful machines.
They seem to be referring to software to put on existing servers. It would be hard to build a decent OpenBSD machine for under $100 US.
It was $30+OpenBSD donation for me. That was the cost government surplus PIII-450s with enough RAM and HD space for moderate use. It would be a rare university that didn't have machines like that lying around.
I did. A government surplus machine ($20 for 400Mhz with 6GB HD, $20 for two ethernet cards) plus OpenBSD (I paid the $40, free if you want). From zero knowledge, ~1 hour setup, half of that tweaking some NAT rules that were blocking a particular VPN. Not a hiccup 6 months in.
This was a huge help.
Okay, I was a bit flippant what I just said, but it is true. Excel can very quickly become more like a programming language than a content document; the extensive features are closer to the surface than in Word or PowerPoint.
So if you haven't spent time learning it, the switch should be painless. But if you have...
Many people I work with have spent a lot of time building Excel "tricks", many ugly, many clever, many useful. Starting over with a new bag of tricks to learn, which won't work if you want to show someone else, would be like learning a new language (which is fine, I've done that a dozen times), but then if no-one else is using it, and you can't import the tricks back and forth, you can't share code...
Yikes...I do a lot of work with PP presentations...so that one might be a deal-breaker. Thanks for the info.
Hell, I have the same problem between different versions of PowerPoint, or the same version installed on different machines. I've stood up in front of a crowd of 400 and had to say "and this picture, which showed up on my laptop but you can't see because it's on a different laptop..."
So I don't trust PowerPoint to get it right, anyway.
That's all you need to effectively share the song with everyone.
Theoretically, yes. But if research with internet spreads, small-world networks, etc. have taught us anything, it's that a large amount of the spreading is done by a few, central, sources.
On a PtP or BT looking, much of what is found seems to come from central repositories, not "friends."
Take out the central sources. Still share a few things with your friends. Things spread much less, become far less of an epidemic. Without the central sources I bet you'd get 1 sale for every 2-5 copies. Much less of an issue.
This is just plain old fashioned wrong. It would work if the probability of k girls was 1/k, but in reality it's the probability of k-1 girls that's 1/k, because someone who has a boy first time out stops without a girl. The off-by-one error matters even in the infinite sum.
It is easy to see how this would lead to more BOYS or GIRLS in each respective case (on average).
In fact this algorithm returns about 70% boys if odds are 50-50.
Probability is SUM(k=1..inf) (0.5^k)*(1/k), where 0.5^k is probability of sequence of k-1 girls and 1 boy and 1/k is the proportion of boys in that sequence.
One of like nine options total is to see slashdot's news items.
But for some reason it's lagged, this story isn't showing up there yet. Oh wait, they must be afraid of an infinite loop infinite loop infinite loop...
Totally, a blaster is like, so clumsy, you know, and there was this guy, omigod, he thought he looked good with a blaster at his side, and we were like, no way, that's so not elegant, you probably couldn't even shoot first...
Hm, PhD statistician using Excel? What kind of statistic models they use?
It's a great interface to use for setting up a variety of problems. Numerical integration of Bayesian posteriors using MCMC routines is most frequent (via plug-in written by locals). It's easier to use Excel to track stats of integration progression compared to R and the like. This method is much, much faster than Splus or R once you reach a certain fairly small number of iterations.
ps. I don't mind the water tower that's right next to it, or even the radio tower two streets away, I'm not much of a NIMBY, I don't mind the view. I'm not even worried about what the tower's doing to my head. But man, try being a slashdot geek in this day and age without clean access to 2.4Ghz.
Exactly. If I owned the land, I should decide what to do with it...
I live two lots (city lots) away from a tower. I have no cellphone service and no use of wireless router due to 2.4Ghz interference. Trying to use a cordless phone is like listening to a 1980s video game, altough an older 900Mhz model works ok.
I even had to return a new stove that kept turning on due to poorly shielded electronics in the cooking timer!
Conclusion: my home really needs a tinfoil hat. I own the land, so keep your tower's goddamn signals from trespassing on it.
Slashdot Mirror
When a bell tolls a death knell
Each knell's for one body
The death toll is the sum of knells
But only one's for thee.
I always thought of Homestar as animated shorts in the tradition of Bugs Bunny rather than "comics". Maybe a fine distinction, but that's a medium with an entirely different history, distribution, pricing model, etc.
<cheap shot> // TODO: INSERT ENGLISH-METRIC CONVERSION
Here's a line of the code:
</cheap shot>
You'd think it was rocket science.
The ones in the article are way cool (they start a ways down). Amazing what actual design knowledge (rather than a geek thinking it's easy) can do.
These are two different things. My first naively installed linux machine "naked" on the internet got hacked. Setup like that is bad whether your working machine is linux or weindows. Then I put in a dedicated firewall... OpenBSD as it happens...end of problem. Ballmer was right, You should have a dedicated hardware firewall, Cisco, OpenBSD, whatever, protecting your useful machines.
The Monet painter: 500 ways of finding $needle in $haystacks.
And there's a market for that. Hence, Visual Basic.
It was $30+OpenBSD donation for me. That was the cost government surplus PIII-450s with enough RAM and HD space for moderate use. It would be a rare university that didn't have machines like that lying around.
That's almost as good as "Mostly Harmless."
I did. A government surplus machine ($20 for 400Mhz with 6GB HD, $20 for two ethernet cards) plus OpenBSD (I paid the $40, free if you want). From zero knowledge, ~1 hour setup, half of that tweaking some NAT rules that were blocking a particular VPN. Not a hiccup 6 months in. This was a huge help.
Okay, I was a bit flippant what I just said, but it is true. Excel can very quickly become more like a programming language than a content document; the extensive features are closer to the surface than in Word or PowerPoint.
So if you haven't spent time learning it, the switch should be painless. But if you have...
Many people I work with have spent a lot of time building Excel "tricks", many ugly, many clever, many useful. Starting over with a new bag of tricks to learn, which won't work if you want to show someone else, would be like learning a new language (which is fine, I've done that a dozen times), but then if no-one else is using it, and you can't import the tricks back and forth, you can't share code...
Hell, I have the same problem between different versions of PowerPoint, or the same version installed on different machines. I've stood up in front of a crowd of 400 and had to say "and this picture, which showed up on my laptop but you can't see because it's on a different laptop..."
So I don't trust PowerPoint to get it right, anyway.
Then for you, OpenOffice should be fine.
As of a year ago, their spreadsheet was far inferior if you're a "power user" of Excel, although for much day-to-day use it was fine.
Theoretically, yes. But if research with internet spreads, small-world networks, etc. have taught us anything, it's that a large amount of the spreading is done by a few, central, sources.
On a PtP or BT looking, much of what is found seems to come from central repositories, not "friends."
Take out the central sources. Still share a few things with your friends. Things spread much less, become far less of an epidemic. Without the central sources I bet you'd get 1 sale for every 2-5 copies. Much less of an issue.
"VI is an elegant weapon. Not as random or clumsy as a GUI. Your WYSIWYG deceives you. Stretch out with your feelings!"
This is just plain old fashioned wrong. It would work if the probability of k girls was 1/k, but in reality it's the probability of k-1 girls that's 1/k, because someone who has a boy first time out stops without a girl. The off-by-one error matters even in the infinite sum.
Just to prove a point, I just posted the above, but I have a girl.
In fact this algorithm returns about 70% boys if odds are 50-50.
Probability is SUM(k=1..inf) (0.5^k)*(1/k), where 0.5^k is probability of sequence of k-1 girls and 1 boy and 1/k is the proportion of boys in that sequence.
One of like nine options total is to see slashdot's news items.
But for some reason it's lagged, this story isn't showing up there yet. Oh wait, they must be afraid of an infinite loop infinite loop infinite loop...
Totally, a blaster is like, so clumsy, you know, and there was this guy, omigod, he thought he looked good with a blaster at his side, and we were like, no way, that's so not elegant, you probably couldn't even shoot first...
It's a great interface to use for setting up a variety of problems. Numerical integration of Bayesian posteriors using MCMC routines is most frequent (via plug-in written by locals). It's easier to use Excel to track stats of integration progression compared to R and the like. This method is much, much faster than Splus or R once you reach a certain fairly small number of iterations.
ps. I don't mind the water tower that's right next to it, or even the radio tower two streets away, I'm not much of a NIMBY, I don't mind the view. I'm not even worried about what the tower's doing to my head. But man, try being a slashdot geek in this day and age without clean access to 2.4Ghz.
Exactly. If I owned the land, I should decide what to do with it...
I live two lots (city lots) away from a tower. I have no cellphone service and no use of wireless router due to 2.4Ghz interference. Trying to use a cordless phone is like listening to a 1980s video game, altough an older 900Mhz model works ok.
I even had to return a new stove that kept turning on due to poorly shielded electronics in the cooking timer!
Conclusion: my home really needs a tinfoil hat. I own the land, so keep your tower's goddamn signals from trespassing on it.