And how many times have you heard about worms on Microsoft, the 'more secure' closed source OS?
And how many times have you heard about viruses getting through on the Linux systems I helped you set up?
Since Linux is the main system used for internet servers, you would think dangerous criminals would hit it first, right?
The reason you haven't heard of it lately is they did. Unix and Linux ironed all this stuff out 20 years ago - the last Unix worm that got famous was the Morris Worm. Huey Lewis and the News were big, there were still hair bands, and Republicans still had a reputation as being fiscally responsible.
The problem is simple - it *is* basically Darwinian evolution. Everything else that's been discovered still fundamentally agrees with his work.
Even Einstein was far more standing on the shoulders of his predecessors than Darwin was - Darwin didn't simply start a field of science, he overturned an entire doctrine in the same blow.
If Copernicus had writ out Einsteinian relativity as a cohesive whole overturning church doctrine with various predictions some of which weren't experimentally verifiable for over a century, yet stayed in line with his basic theory, that would be comparable to Darwin.
So, yeah, it is basically Darwinian Evolutionary theory, in a way that only Newtonian Physics comes close to rivaling.
Besides - the man was on a five year mission to explore the strange New World, and came back with a new theory of biology, almost completely overturning the churches stranglehold on what was 'goodthink'.
That *has* to be cool enough to get your name pinned to the damn theory for all time - {G}!
I somehow thought this was a WSJ article, known for, y'know, actually supporting the thesis with underlying facts.
Instead we get an advertisement for a WSJ editorial from L. Gordon Crovitz. Mr Crovitz doesn't seem to be a far right flunkie, but *I* don't see anything on his resume showing any particular technology skill, and really his only support is from the pew research center. A reasonable think tank, but a fairly well debunked report.
Must . . . restrain . . . fist . . . of . . . death!!!
I remember telling someone that I just fundamentally disagreed with buying a stock (in an ongoing company) that paid no dividends, on principle. It meant either I was betting they would change their behavior, or that I assumed I could find someone dumber than I was.
If neither of those are true, I might as well just burn my money. Since the latter implies the guy that sold me the stock is smarter than I am, and the former reminds me far too much of those women that date jerks thinking that they're going to change, I never much cared for either plan.
I wonder whether the guy that said that was a naive way of thinking of stocks ever found anyone dumber than he was.
Gardner is fun, and certainly defines recreational mathematics to my mind (I have built so damn many flexagons over the years!), but I'm not sure I would recommend him as a learning experience.
He tends to take (to my mind) higher mathematics and show fun applications, but not in a way that makes you actually understand the original higher mathematics. Fun, and maybe a good thing to mix into a curriculum (Get 'em hooked on Klein Bottles when their young say's I!), but not necessarily something for Extra Credit work as such?
Journey Through Genius and The Mathematical Universe both, by William Dunham
I can't recall which one it was but one of them actually explained the geometric proof of irrationals in a way I understood it (finally - I always understood the basics, but several geometry/trig teachers tried to explain the geometry used in ways that led me to believe that one of the two of us was dumber than previously supposed - {G})
Probably Journey through Genius - that is a fun book.
Has anyone noticed how very little criticism there is of the 'lowest bid' government policy, right up until the lowest bid is 'free'?
Then suddenly all the stuff they have ignored as companies took government money for software that was insecure and didn't work - that's all important!
Purely aside from the fact that Open source software has a better history of security than closed source software, the sheer fact that non of these industry mouth-pieces *cared* until it turned out the government didn't *have* to use one or another of their clients just *pisses* *me* *off*!
Nasa's Worldwind is an open source tool that has the same functionality, plus access to local plats as well. Despite the fact that I genuinely like google earth, I have found for most puposes I actually prefer Worldwind.
Currently windows only, and I have not tried it under Wine. The next version is being done in java and I presume should be cross platform.
There are labs, where they provide these kinds of animals. In lieu of convincing evidence to the contrary the reasonable assumption is the Bill Gates had a flunky call a lab, say "I'd like two dozen biting but non-infectious mosquitoes - they will be released into the open air as part of a PR stunt so it's important they be non-infectious."; and delivered said mosquitoes.
This is *less* dangerous than if he were talking about Bubonic Plague and released lab mice - the mice would chew on wiring.
I'm sure I'm ascribing an incorrect visualization to the phenomena, but my image of a magnetic pole is that of a motion in liquid - like a propeller in water - line two propeller in a row, and they will work in sync pulling water from the input to the output, put two propellors face to face, and they will 'repulse' each other, i.e. create a high pressure region.
I've always visualized the lines of force in magnets as the same thing, with electrons. Which can't really be right, because if that were the case, then a monopole would be an obvious paradox - a 'one way' line of force with an output but no input - which makes no sense whatsoever.
Obviously either I'm just smarter than Paul Dirac, or there's something obvious about magnetism I just don't get - and even I am not egotistical to pretend that I have those listed in order of likelihood -{G}.
Can we simply make it a goal to get every useful site onto Thai/Chinese/Russian blocklists?
Seriously - I want to just take it all the way and make blocking the internet do them verifiably more harm than good. I want there to be no useful science, technology, nothing of use they can get off the internet anymore, unless they give up and allow for free transfer of information.
(Slashdot of course should be allowed through - I said useful sites - {G})
PBS has been running half hour programs going into just what is needed for at least six months.
For myself - what I've seen is a lot of people that flat out say they don't care and they're not going to let the government 'force' them to change a darn thing. I don't think it's true, (Some of these people can't amuse themselves on a rainy day as it is).
I've just moved my sister over to Ubuntu after she got infected with this POS mess - We've been trying to clean her Windows partition for a week and a half now, and the damn thing seems to be just about unkillable.
The interesting thing is - I set up her PC, and at this point we have no idea how the damn thing got in. She *did* have automatic updates turned on, antivirus, doesn't own a USB key, spybot, ad aware, the whole nine yards, even unto having a secure password.
And at this point, it looks as if the windows partition will need reformatted and re-done from the ground up.
Whatever it used, it sure wasn't something patched in October of '08.
The Unemployment and GNP figures from 1933 to 1937 beg to differ with the retcon of history you repeated verbatim from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.
Paul Krugman kindly posted the actual data for those of us living in the reality based community - we lost a year when FDR foolishly listened to conservatives and thereby dropped the ball, but we were digging ourselves out at the same rate during WW II as from 1933 to 1937.
I'd like to publicly thank Paul Krugman for advising me of the of the upcoming financial meltdown with detailed info of what was going to go wrong, in what order, and what to watch out for. Some of the things I might well have caught, y'know, without reading his column (I can't see going for an ARM when the Fed has bottomed out interest rates no matter *what* Paul Krugman wrote.). But having it all mapped out has kept my head a lot further above water than it might have been otherwise.
Don't people that listen to Fox notice that, y'know, the stuff they say is going to happen . . . never does?
Personally, I'm hoping for a power struggle between deeply flawed but strong personalities, culminating in the use of millions of bio-engineered gorgeous female ninja assassins wearing spandex.
That happen to have a fetish for linux geeks. One per guy please.
Can we make arrangements for this please? Give me this one thing and I'll never ask for anything again.
I'd say "I mean it this time", but since God didn't give me the last 17 things I asked for this way, I really feel the law of averages should break my way soon.
Probably everyone smarter than myself knew this already, but I didn't figure out till I stumbled across a site (Not antennaweb, but darned if I can find how I stumbled across it now) that not only gave locations and power, but cross-referenced actual broadcast frequency versus the 'virtual' channel numbers - virtually all of which were actually in the UHF spectrum (or, in one case, will be after Feb 17th).
Which obviously explained much about why my attempts to get better reception were actually making things worse - knowing what was actually going on I went back to the old 1980's corner yagi, corrected a few things, and, with one exception (VHF Channel 8, broadcasting it's HD signal on Channel 9), I'm getting excellent reception across the board.
Of course, we pretty much only watch PBS, but hey, I get lots of it - {G}.
As someone that currently does tech support, on the two occasions in the last few years that that happened, one was resolved by explaining, "Sir, if you yell or use foul language again, I will hang up. Then I will call my supervisor and explain why so he can pull the call for when you call back to complain about my hanging up."
The other, was *not* resolved when I said that. So I hung up and called my supervisor and explained why.
Most people just want to get help and not feel stupid when it's done. Because people hate feeling stupid when it's done. Heck, my IQ is sufficiently high that there's a limit on the size of the room before it's no longer possible for me to be the dumbest person in it (I won't claim it's a *small* room - {G}), and *I* hate feeling stupid when it's done.
If you can do that, you can generally resolve the issue and have them feel good about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Mmm Hmm.
And how many times have you heard about worms on Microsoft, the 'more secure' closed source OS?
And how many times have you heard about viruses getting through on the Linux systems I helped you set up?
Since Linux is the main system used for internet servers, you would think dangerous criminals would hit it first, right?
The reason you haven't heard of it lately is they did. Unix and Linux ironed all this stuff out 20 years ago - the last Unix worm that got famous was the Morris Worm. Huey Lewis and the News were big, there were still hair bands, and Republicans still had a reputation as being fiscally responsible.
Pug
Oh have *you* not been to the Flat Earth Society Forums lately.
It was amusing for a period of time, then painful, to see that much bad logic thrown around.
Pug
The problem is simple - it *is* basically Darwinian evolution. Everything else that's been discovered still fundamentally agrees with his work.
Even Einstein was far more standing on the shoulders of his predecessors than Darwin was - Darwin didn't simply start a field of science, he overturned an entire doctrine in the same blow.
If Copernicus had writ out Einsteinian relativity as a cohesive whole overturning church doctrine with various predictions some of which weren't experimentally verifiable for over a century, yet stayed in line with his basic theory, that would be comparable to Darwin.
So, yeah, it is basically Darwinian Evolutionary theory, in a way that only Newtonian Physics comes close to rivaling.
Besides - the man was on a five year mission to explore the strange New World, and came back with a new theory of biology, almost completely overturning the churches stranglehold on what was 'goodthink'.
That *has* to be cool enough to get your name pinned to the damn theory for all time - {G}!
Pug
I somehow thought this was a WSJ article, known for, y'know, actually supporting the thesis with underlying facts.
Instead we get an advertisement for a WSJ editorial from L. Gordon Crovitz. Mr Crovitz doesn't seem to be a far right flunkie, but *I* don't see anything on his resume showing any particular technology skill, and really his only support is from the pew research center. A reasonable think tank, but a fairly well debunked report.
Must . . . restrain . . . fist . . . of . . . death!!!
Pug
I remember telling someone that I just fundamentally disagreed with buying a stock (in an ongoing company) that paid no dividends, on principle. It meant either I was betting they would change their behavior, or that I assumed I could find someone dumber than I was.
If neither of those are true, I might as well just burn my money. Since the latter implies the guy that sold me the stock is smarter than I am, and the former reminds me far too much of those women that date jerks thinking that they're going to change, I never much cared for either plan.
I wonder whether the guy that said that was a naive way of thinking of stocks ever found anyone dumber than he was.
Just a thought - Pug.
Or at least, if the economy *doesn't* turn around by 2010, that the shitstorm will be so bad at that point they don't care.
Pug
Not just academics - ick.
Pug
Gardner is fun, and certainly defines recreational mathematics to my mind (I have built so damn many flexagons over the years!), but I'm not sure I would recommend him as a learning experience.
He tends to take (to my mind) higher mathematics and show fun applications, but not in a way that makes you actually understand the original higher mathematics. Fun, and maybe a good thing to mix into a curriculum (Get 'em hooked on Klein Bottles when their young say's I!), but not necessarily something for Extra Credit work as such?
Pug
Journey Through Genius and The Mathematical Universe both, by William Dunham
I can't recall which one it was but one of them actually explained the geometric proof of irrationals in a way I understood it (finally - I always understood the basics, but several geometry/trig teachers tried to explain the geometry used in ways that led me to believe that one of the two of us was dumber than previously supposed - {G})
Probably Journey through Genius - that is a fun book.
Pug
Has anyone noticed how very little criticism there is of the 'lowest bid' government policy, right up until the lowest bid is 'free'?
Then suddenly all the stuff they have ignored as companies took government money for software that was insecure and didn't work - that's all important!
Purely aside from the fact that Open source software has a better history of security than closed source software, the sheer fact that non of these industry mouth-pieces *cared* until it turned out the government didn't *have* to use one or another of their clients just *pisses* *me* *off*!
Pug
Nasa's Worldwind is an open source tool that has the same functionality, plus access to local plats as well. Despite the fact that I genuinely like google earth, I have found for most puposes I actually prefer Worldwind.
Currently windows only, and I have not tried it under Wine. The next version is being done in java and I presume should be cross platform.
Pug
That is the wussiest excuse for a counterargument ever posted on Slashdot.
Pug
Good lord guys.
There are labs, where they provide these kinds of animals. In lieu of convincing evidence to the contrary the reasonable assumption is the Bill Gates had a flunky call a lab, say "I'd like two dozen biting but non-infectious mosquitoes - they will be released into the open air as part of a PR stunt so it's important they be non-infectious."; and delivered said mosquitoes.
This is *less* dangerous than if he were talking about Bubonic Plague and released lab mice - the mice would chew on wiring.
Get a grip.
Pug
I'm sure I'm ascribing an incorrect visualization to the phenomena, but my image of a magnetic pole is that of a motion in liquid - like a propeller in water - line two propeller in a row, and they will work in sync pulling water from the input to the output, put two propellors face to face, and they will 'repulse' each other, i.e. create a high pressure region.
I've always visualized the lines of force in magnets as the same thing, with electrons. Which can't really be right, because if that were the case, then a monopole would be an obvious paradox - a 'one way' line of force with an output but no input - which makes no sense whatsoever.
Obviously either I'm just smarter than Paul Dirac, or there's something obvious about magnetism I just don't get - and even I am not egotistical to pretend that I have those listed in order of likelihood -{G}.
Pug
Can we simply make it a goal to get every useful site onto Thai/Chinese/Russian blocklists?
Seriously - I want to just take it all the way and make blocking the internet do them verifiably more harm than good. I want there to be no useful science, technology, nothing of use they can get off the internet anymore, unless they give up and allow for free transfer of information.
(Slashdot of course should be allowed through - I said useful sites - {G})
Pug
PBS has been running half hour programs going into just what is needed for at least six months.
For myself - what I've seen is a lot of people that flat out say they don't care and they're not going to let the government 'force' them to change a darn thing. I don't think it's true, (Some of these people can't amuse themselves on a rainy day as it is).
But I'm out of sympathy for them.
Just to put this in context, let us remember that Peter King has repeatedly defended warrantless wiretapping.
So his priorities are obvious - he's all for making sure the police know when they're being watched, and ensuring you don't.
Mmmm - I love the smell of Republican hypocrisy in the morning - Smells Like Victory!
Or Turdblossoms, one of those two.
Pug
I've just moved my sister over to Ubuntu after she got infected with this POS mess - We've been trying to clean her Windows partition for a week and a half now, and the damn thing seems to be just about unkillable.
The interesting thing is - I set up her PC, and at this point we have no idea how the damn thing got in. She *did* have automatic updates turned on, antivirus, doesn't own a USB key, spybot, ad aware, the whole nine yards, even unto having a secure password.
And at this point, it looks as if the windows partition will need reformatted and re-done from the ground up.
Whatever it used, it sure wasn't something patched in October of '08.
Pug
After a Virus got by Firefox and about four security programs, my sister is going on Ubuntu next weekend.
Pug
The Unemployment and GNP figures from 1933 to 1937 beg to differ with the retcon of history you repeated verbatim from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.
Paul Krugman kindly posted the actual data for those of us living in the reality based community - we lost a year when FDR foolishly listened to conservatives and thereby dropped the ball, but we were digging ourselves out at the same rate during WW II as from 1933 to 1937.
I'd like to publicly thank Paul Krugman for advising me of the of the upcoming financial meltdown with detailed info of what was going to go wrong, in what order, and what to watch out for. Some of the things I might well have caught, y'know, without reading his column (I can't see going for an ARM when the Fed has bottomed out interest rates no matter *what* Paul Krugman wrote.). But having it all mapped out has kept my head a lot further above water than it might have been otherwise.
Don't people that listen to Fox notice that, y'know, the stuff they say is going to happen . . . never does?
Pug
Personally, I'm hoping for a power struggle between deeply flawed but strong personalities, culminating in the use of millions of bio-engineered gorgeous female ninja assassins wearing spandex.
That happen to have a fetish for linux geeks. One per guy please.
Can we make arrangements for this please? Give me this one thing and I'll never ask for anything again.
I'd say "I mean it this time", but since God didn't give me the last 17 things I asked for this way, I really feel the law of averages should break my way soon.
Pug
Interesting (Okay, just plain odd)that they went to the trouble of polling their readers, but said they disagreed with every prediction.
Either their readers don't know what they're talking about, or they don't - {G}.
Pug
Probably everyone smarter than myself knew this already, but I didn't figure out till I stumbled across a site (Not antennaweb, but darned if I can find how I stumbled across it now) that not only gave locations and power, but cross-referenced actual broadcast frequency versus the 'virtual' channel numbers - virtually all of which were actually in the UHF spectrum (or, in one case, will be after Feb 17th).
Which obviously explained much about why my attempts to get better reception were actually making things worse - knowing what was actually going on I went back to the old 1980's corner yagi, corrected a few things, and, with one exception (VHF Channel 8, broadcasting it's HD signal on Channel 9), I'm getting excellent reception across the board.
Of course, we pretty much only watch PBS, but hey, I get lots of it - {G}.
Pug
As someone that currently does tech support, on the two occasions in the last few years that that happened, one was resolved by explaining, "Sir, if you yell or use foul language again, I will hang up. Then I will call my supervisor and explain why so he can pull the call for when you call back to complain about my hanging up."
The other, was *not* resolved when I said that. So I hung up and called my supervisor and explained why.
Most people just want to get help and not feel stupid when it's done. Because people hate feeling stupid when it's done. Heck, my IQ is sufficiently high that there's a limit on the size of the room before it's no longer possible for me to be the dumbest person in it (I won't claim it's a *small* room - {G}), and *I* hate feeling stupid when it's done.
If you can do that, you can generally resolve the issue and have them feel good about it.
Pug
And I should believe an electrician from a state replete with lousy and incompetent electricians why exactly - {G}
Pug