This is a great example of the power of judges in our system. The first judge to encounter a new case says
"I can judge this." or "I cannot judge this."
By doing this, he essentially grants or denies himself (and subsequent judges) the authority to govern a situation, use a bit of information, or overule a law enacted by representative government.
Isn't it nice to know that the judicial system is only one third of the whole pie. God bless litigious America.
In an effort to curb spam, Microsoft shut down it's web-based email service.
"75% of this planet's spam originates on our servers" Bill Gates was quoted as saying today. "By abolishing Hotmail, and moving to a commercial email solution, our users will be able to reduce their spam intake."
The leaders of the "free" world were skeptical as to the veracity of Gates' comments.
"Another free throw-away service is going down the toilet," said John Q. Public, the CEO of ILIKEFREESTUFF.COM. "Hotmail was the last way for people to assert themselves anonymously and freely on the internet. Granted that most of the assertions that people made were spam, but it's still an assertion."
Gates was not available for comment on his comments.
The displacement of responsibility
on
P2P Meets Push
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It looks like they're providing the interface but are trying to avoid any legal repercussions by placing all legal responsibility for those items transmitted on the owner of the "channel".
Step 6 of their P2P path to success is: build trust for a channel owner's tastes over time (owners are completely responsible for what goes out on their channels)
I wonder how effective this will be when the RIAA and the other big dogs come after them.
Who gives a damn about old comics? I do. The geek culture to which I have become acustomed over my years in the IT industry has allowed me to laugh at myself, my friends, the fools I support, and everyone else I can think of.
Just today, somebody started quoting a StarWars Episode 4 (see also "A New Hope") and the next lines were quoted verbatum from one engineer to the next.
A few weeks ago I saw a License plate sporting the ubiquitous advice "RTFM". I honked and waved at the fellow geek that was driving. He, of course, flipped me off. (He must be the BOFH)
My favorite single comic strip of all time is the one where Dilbert's pointy-haired boss comes up and tells Dilbert that they need some Eunuch programmers. Dilbert tells pointy-haired boss that it's UNIX and that he already knows it. The boss then tells Dilbert that if the company nurse comes by, to tell her never mind. Hell, I still grin when I think of that one.
My favorite prototype is the Clarinet phone. What kind of idiot would blow on a clarinet to make a phone call? A bored idiot, with lots o money.
Maxwell Smart's shoe was the first mobile phone that i remember seeing. Or maybe it was the evil stepmother in Jerry Lewis' "Who's Minding the Store".
All I know is that now it's damned annoying when you've got a driver acting like he's drunk, and you get closer to get his license plate number to get his ass arrested, and you see that he's just talking on his cell phone. (I often the drunk line anyway on my cell phone:)
You can buy a Tivo Buy a VCR Buy a DVD player Buy a Gaming Console or two and then filter all of these through your receiver and/or high-er end video card, but notice that not once is the word 'free'mentioned.
And that is why Microsoft is aiming its marketing muscle in this general direction. I'minterested to see how well it does. I get to play with a Media Center box from HP here in the near future.
I'm interested to see how well the new toy from Bill works.
The logic of solving small puzzles quickly and in sequence is the best training i can think of for the world's future coders.
Snood, like tetris, is a puzzle that is impossible (or at least improbable) to beat. But trying to do the improbable is one of the most endearing traits of the human species. (Think flying, scuba diving, landing on the moon, ending the cold war, etc.)
This speed induced logic could help to sharpen the minds of young scientists, and keep the minds of bored scientists busily doing nothing for the duration of their addiction. Crap. It's a double-edged sword.
As hybrid vehicles go, the Gas/Electric hybrids like Toyota's Prius are cool. They also feel like you're driving a cardboard box.
Diesel has made much more progress in the past few years as far as an efficient fuel than gas. Try on the Turbo-charged VW Diesel Jetta for a great drive w/ superb miles to the gallon.
A marriage between these technologies is a great deal for the auto industry, the environment and everything else. The one question is $.
Will the manufacturers be able to bring the price down far enough to entice Soccer Moms everywhere that their SUV can be environmentally friendly and fuel efficient?
Governments could offer serious incentives to consumers in the area of tax credits for purchasing such vehicles. Hell, I'd buy one if the deal was sweet enough.
It's like a game of Counter-Strike where everyone agrees to knife only. Then some anonymous asshole starts shooting. (Cough)Lawsuits, Royalties, Blah... (Cough)
Then everyone gets pissed and starts shooting, and soon, there is no knife fight.
My brainy friend Uhh_Duh has posted a blog on the problems with open source here.
Principles of Un-enforceable Rules
on
You Can't Link Here
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
An unenforceable rule is almost always a stupid rule.
The fact of the matter is that it's impossible to hold any but the largest of businesses to such a silly policy. If they really don't want people to link to their stuff, don't put it where the public can get to it.
So here is how digital cameras currently "see" light. (Color being different frequencies of light waves): The light comes in through the lens. The light is filtered through the charged coupled device (CCD). This is where photons are translated to pixels. (Terry Pratchett readers will call this the painting demon.) This is also where all of the non-lens work is done. (White Balance, Compression, Color Interpretation, Sharpness, Saturation) The resulting data is written to an image file with all sorts of fun Exif information (image tag info.) and Voila! A new image is born.
All of this research is going in at the CCD level. I am interested to see how well it compares to the trained photographer's eye's interpretation of color.
In addition to the speed of Gravity being measured and defined, the infamous Slashdot Effect has also been measured and defined.
Researchers at Cal Tech measured the speed at which a server went down when linked from a slashdot post as, "Damn near the speed of light."
When asked for clarification on that speed. The researcher said, "We've observed it in 10 replies or less. That's shorter than a New York Minute for Gosh sakes."
Life is like a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. I think... Perhaps it's the other way around. Who knows.
This sounds like fun. Live the ancient days of guilding. Be one of the chosen to be apprenticed in the new guild of game production.
So will Anne McAffrey make a new novel based on a lowly apprentice who beats the odds and becomes everyone's hero? (Apologies. I just finished the Harper of Pern trilogy)
That is if you are a Russian living in or visiting the US. There is an instant distrust extended to foreigners living in a strange land. But the US has no monopoly on bigotry. I've been on the receiving end of that deal in Russia.
I'm a Republican who loves Russia. I lived in Russia for two years after high school and graduated with a degree in Russian.
As far as this case goes, it's going to be a difficult one for both the prosecutors and the defenders. In order for the prosecution to win, they'll have to prove that Igor Serebryany was trying to steal secrets for his, or someone else's profit.
It seems that the Corporations would have had a better case by going after the law firm that breached a contractual relationship of trust. Bringing the feds in was not the best move. Igor will not finish his education here, even if he wins the case, and that is the really sucky part of this whole deal.
So the Matrix will be Reloaded, then overthrown in a Revolution.
Meanwhile, LOTR will continue to the overthrow of Mordor and the restoration of Gondor.
The war between Mutants and non-Mutants will begin in X-Men 2.
Anakin must become Darth Vader in Episode 3.
Harry Potter will get another installment in there somewhere.
Mad Max will ride again.
James Bond...
And Oh, yeah, did you hear that Dumb and Dumber is getting a prequel?
I myself LOVE sequels, if they don't suck. I just hope that they put all of the Matrix Movies and all of the LOTR movies in the IMAX theater after it's all said and done so that the die-hards can see the films the way they were meant to be seen.
We all got to see a model of Pioneer 10 in the 80's:
The probe wasn't so long-lasting in its first and only movie role, Star Trek V: the Final Frontier. A trigger-happy Klingon named Captain Klaa blasted Pioneer 10 to smithereens for target practice. Of course that was just a model of the spacecraft.
This person's writing style is descriptive and consise. Far too good for a "normal" user.
This says to me: Someone is being paid to write good reviews for any product out there. A mini-Marketing agent if you will.
It's somewhat reminiscent of the Microsoft PR agent who "switched from Mac to Windows", or it's like the "grassroots pro-Microsoft" campaign that Bill sponsored in the opening days of the Anti-Trust court proceedings.
Trying to appear unsolicited and innocent, but in reality, it's just someone's job.
Does the thought of being burned like yesteryear's garbage after you die curl your toes?
With the new Tornadoom swirly treatment you can be pulverized into ashes without the messy, smoking, hellish addition of flame.
Remember the first time a bully flushed your head in the mens room in Jr. High? Well now you can go out in full geek colors. The Tornadoom is like a permanent swirly that lasts forever. Make your shame of the past an eternal badge of honor.
Reduce the cost of burial to your family. For only $12/hr in electrical costs, you can be ground into dry powder. You can then be used to fertalize the garden, be a pet-food additive, or achieve any one of several higher self-fulfilling goals.
When you go to your funeral director to plan for that ever-coming day of doom, ask for Tornadoom!
This project made a lot of sense back in the days of exploding.com revenues.
The goal was to connect Silicon Valley to Redmond Washington, and to allow better access to Asia via their undersea fiber.
But this quote tells me that it will not soon be used:
If they need the remaining 95 percent of the fiber in the future, companies will have to spend tens of billions of dollars more to make it usable by placing lasers and amplifiers on the route.
The returns on an investment like this would have to be pretty damn high to make anyone pursue it. And right now, the returns are almost all negative.
NEWSFLASH: Microsoft extends Windows vulnerability to Linux! Redm0nd, WA
Micro$oft executives today announced that they, too, would be jumping onto the Linux bandwagon by producing server-side software such as IIS and SQL Server for Linux.
They added that all vulnerabilities that are inherent in Windows architecture will be available to crackers in the Linux environment.
"We wouldn't want our Asian and Russian 'Security Engineers' to become bored." said an anonymous Microsoft Executive.
Upon hearing that microsoft tools would be ported to Linux, the open source community (who all still use Microsoft tools of one form or another) had mixed feelings.
Juan, an MCSE-turned-Linux-Guru, felt initial joy at being able to use IIS, then experienced the 'OH SHIT' effect of realizing the whole vulnerability factor. On the subject, Juan said, "crap".
Slashdot Mirror
This is a great example of the power of judges in our system. The first judge to encounter a new case says
"I can judge this." or "I cannot judge this."
By doing this, he essentially grants or denies himself (and subsequent judges) the authority to govern a situation, use a bit of information, or overule a law enacted by representative government.
Isn't it nice to know that the judicial system is only one third of the whole pie. God bless litigious America.
Newsflash:
In an effort to curb spam, Microsoft shut down it's web-based email service.
"75% of this planet's spam originates on our servers" Bill Gates was quoted as saying today. "By abolishing Hotmail, and moving to a commercial email solution, our users will be able to reduce their spam intake."
The leaders of the "free" world were skeptical as to the veracity of Gates' comments.
"Another free throw-away service is going down the toilet," said John Q. Public, the CEO of ILIKEFREESTUFF.COM. "Hotmail was the last way for people to assert themselves anonymously and freely on the internet. Granted that most of the assertions that people made were spam, but it's still an assertion."
Gates was not available for comment on his comments.
It looks like they're providing the interface but are trying to avoid any legal repercussions by placing all legal responsibility for those items transmitted on the owner of the "channel".
Step 6 of their P2P path to success is: build trust for a channel owner's tastes over time (owners are completely responsible for what goes out on their channels)
I wonder how effective this will be when the RIAA and the other big dogs come after them.
"What the Fsck do you think you are doing!?"
HA! HA!
Who gives a damn about old comics? I do. The geek culture to which I have become acustomed over my years in the IT industry has allowed me to laugh at myself, my friends, the fools I support, and everyone else I can think of.
Just today, somebody started quoting a StarWars Episode 4 (see also "A New Hope") and the next lines were quoted verbatum from one engineer to the next.
A few weeks ago I saw a License plate sporting the ubiquitous advice "RTFM". I honked and waved at the fellow geek that was driving. He, of course, flipped me off. (He must be the BOFH)
My favorite single comic strip of all time is the one where Dilbert's pointy-haired boss comes up and tells Dilbert that they need some Eunuch programmers. Dilbert tells pointy-haired boss that it's UNIX and that he already knows it. The boss then tells Dilbert that if the company nurse comes by, to tell her never mind. Hell, I still grin when I think of that one.
Well, back to the LAN party...
My favorite prototype is the Clarinet phone. What kind of idiot would blow on a clarinet to make a phone call? A bored idiot, with lots o money.
Maxwell Smart's shoe was the first mobile phone that i remember seeing. Or maybe it was the evil stepmother in Jerry Lewis' "Who's Minding the Store".
All I know is that now it's damned annoying when you've got a driver acting like he's drunk, and you get closer to get his license plate number to get his ass arrested, and you see that he's just talking on his cell phone. (I often the drunk line anyway on my cell phone:)
You can buy a Tivo
Buy a VCR
Buy a DVD player
Buy a Gaming Console or two
and then filter all of these through your receiver and/or high-er end video card, but notice that not once is the word 'free'mentioned.
And that is why Microsoft is aiming its marketing muscle in this general direction. I'minterested to see how well it does. I get to play with a Media Center box from HP here in the near future.
I'm interested to see how well the new toy from Bill works.
The logic of solving small puzzles quickly and in sequence is the best training i can think of for the world's future coders.
Snood, like tetris, is a puzzle that is impossible (or at least improbable) to beat. But trying to do the improbable is one of the most endearing traits of the human species. (Think flying, scuba diving, landing on the moon, ending the cold war, etc.)
This speed induced logic could help to sharpen the minds of young scientists, and keep the minds of bored scientists busily doing nothing for the duration of their addiction. Crap. It's a double-edged sword.
God bless Snood.
Speaking of anonymous assholes...
As hybrid vehicles go, the Gas/Electric hybrids like Toyota's Prius are cool. They also feel like you're driving a cardboard box.
Diesel has made much more progress in the past few years as far as an efficient fuel than gas. Try on the Turbo-charged VW Diesel Jetta for a great drive w/ superb miles to the gallon.
A marriage between these technologies is a great deal for the auto industry, the environment and everything else. The one question is $.
Will the manufacturers be able to bring the price down far enough to entice Soccer Moms everywhere that their SUV can be environmentally friendly and fuel efficient?
Governments could offer serious incentives to consumers in the area of tax credits for purchasing such vehicles. Hell, I'd buy one if the deal was sweet enough.
Then everyone gets pissed and starts shooting, and soon, there is no knife fight.
My brainy friend Uhh_Duh has posted a blog on the problems with open source here.
More Stupid rules/laws can be found here.
The fact of the matter is that it's impossible to hold any but the largest of businesses to such a silly policy. If they really don't want people to link to their stuff, don't put it where the public can get to it.
It's that simple.
So here is how digital cameras currently "see" light. (Color being different frequencies of light waves):
The light comes in through the lens.
The light is filtered through the charged coupled device (CCD).
This is where photons are translated to pixels. (Terry Pratchett readers will call this the painting demon.) This is also where all of the non-lens work is done. (White Balance, Compression, Color Interpretation, Sharpness, Saturation)
The resulting data is written to an image file with all sorts of fun Exif information (image tag info.) and
Voila! A new image is born.
All of this research is going in at the CCD level. I am interested to see how well it compares to the trained photographer's eye's interpretation of color.
Art=!Elephant Shit.
In addition to the speed of Gravity being measured and defined, the infamous Slashdot Effect has also been measured and defined.
Researchers at Cal Tech measured the speed at which a server went down when linked from a slashdot post as, "Damn near the speed of light."
When asked for clarification on that speed. The researcher said, "We've observed it in 10 replies or less. That's shorter than a New York Minute for Gosh sakes."
Wow.
Life is like a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. I think... Perhaps it's the other way around. Who knows.
This sounds like fun. Live the ancient days of guilding. Be one of the chosen to be apprenticed in the new guild of game production.
So will Anne McAffrey make a new novel based on a lowly apprentice who beats the odds and becomes everyone's hero? (Apologies. I just finished the Harper of Pern trilogy)
Those who hate windows use Linux.
Those who love Unix use BSD.
That is if you are a Russian living in or visiting the US. There is an instant distrust extended to foreigners living in a strange land. But the US has no monopoly on bigotry. I've been on the receiving end of that deal in Russia.
I'm a Republican who loves Russia. I lived in Russia for two years after high school and graduated with a degree in Russian.
As far as this case goes, it's going to be a difficult one for both the prosecutors and the defenders. In order for the prosecution to win, they'll have to prove that Igor Serebryany was trying to steal secrets for his, or someone else's profit.
It seems that the Corporations would have had a better case by going after the law firm that breached a contractual relationship of trust. Bringing the feds in was not the best move. Igor will not finish his education here, even if he wins the case, and that is the really sucky part of this whole deal.
So the Matrix will be Reloaded, then overthrown in a Revolution.
Meanwhile, LOTR will continue to the overthrow of Mordor and the restoration of Gondor.
The war between Mutants and non-Mutants will begin in X-Men 2.
Anakin must become Darth Vader in Episode 3.
Harry Potter will get another installment in there somewhere.
Mad Max will ride again.
James Bond...
And Oh, yeah, did you hear that Dumb and Dumber is getting a prequel?
I myself LOVE sequels, if they don't suck. I just hope that they put all of the Matrix Movies and all of the LOTR movies in the IMAX theater after it's all said and done so that the die-hards can see the films the way they were meant to be seen.
We all got to see a model of Pioneer 10 in the 80's:
The probe wasn't so long-lasting in its first and only movie role, Star Trek V: the Final Frontier. A trigger-happy Klingon named Captain Klaa blasted Pioneer 10 to smithereens for target practice. Of course that was just a model of the spacecraft.
No Khan intended.
Could you please suggest a speed reading course that would allow me to read an 800 page book as fast as the /. book reviewers do?
Here's one way:A AAA!!!
G GGGGGHHH H!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
In honor of Charlie Brown, we'll put the silent (but deadly) -RGH on the end of the AAA's:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR
Maybe he'll emulate Emperor Kusko from "The Emperor's New Groove": BOOOOOOOOO-YAAAAAA-HAAAAA-HAAAAA!
Pick 'yer Poison.
This person's writing style is descriptive and consise. Far too good for a "normal" user.
This says to me: Someone is being paid to write good reviews for any product out there. A mini-Marketing agent if you will.
It's somewhat reminiscent of the Microsoft PR agent who "switched from Mac to Windows", or it's like the "grassroots pro-Microsoft" campaign that Bill sponsored in the opening days of the Anti-Trust court proceedings.
Trying to appear unsolicited and innocent, but in reality, it's just someone's job.
Money is the root of *most* work.
Business Idea for the Tornado-in-a-can guy:
Does the thought of being burned like yesteryear's garbage after you die curl your toes?
With the new Tornadoom swirly treatment you can be pulverized into ashes without the messy, smoking, hellish addition of flame.
Remember the first time a bully flushed your head in the mens room in Jr. High? Well now you can go out in full geek colors. The Tornadoom is like a permanent swirly that lasts forever. Make your shame of the past an eternal badge of honor.
Reduce the cost of burial to your family. For only $12/hr in electrical costs, you can be ground into dry powder. You can then be used to fertalize the garden, be a pet-food additive, or achieve any one of several higher self-fulfilling goals.
When you go to your funeral director to plan for that ever-coming day of doom, ask for Tornadoom!
The goal was to connect Silicon Valley to Redmond Washington, and to allow better access to Asia via their undersea fiber.
But this quote tells me that it will not soon be used:
If they need the remaining 95 percent of the fiber in the future, companies will have to spend tens of billions of dollars more to make it usable by placing lasers and amplifiers on the route.
The returns on an investment like this would have to be pretty damn high to make anyone pursue it. And right now, the returns are almost all negative.
I can't wait to see IIS running on LINUX:
NEWSFLASH: Microsoft extends Windows vulnerability to Linux!
Redm0nd, WA
Micro$oft executives today announced that they, too, would be jumping onto the Linux bandwagon by producing server-side software such as IIS and SQL Server for Linux.
They added that all vulnerabilities that are inherent in Windows architecture will be available to crackers in the Linux environment.
"We wouldn't want our Asian and Russian 'Security Engineers' to become bored." said an anonymous Microsoft Executive.
Upon hearing that microsoft tools would be ported to Linux, the open source community (who all still use Microsoft tools of one form or another) had mixed feelings.
Juan, an MCSE-turned-Linux-Guru, felt initial joy at being able to use IIS, then experienced the 'OH SHIT' effect of realizing the whole vulnerability factor. On the subject, Juan said, "crap".