I agree there are screwups within screwups here. In fact one of the Rocketman graphics for the Sep 2001 shot (which has apparently morphed into the 2002 shot) showed the apogee as 60nm. So maybe someone converted 60nm as statute miles, came up short of 100km, and decided to increase the number, reaching the 62 figure, which was subsequently converted as nm to reach 114km? (Shades of NASA's Mars shot).
But the point, to me, was that the AC explained where the 114km came from, whether or not the article or the graphics were correct. With such confused source material, anything that clarifies the situation is at least informative...
The issue is focus. In RMS and Theo's case at least, they are so tenaciously focused on their pet issues that every other aspect of reality is secondary to that. This comes through clearly in everything they say - the sense of urgency, the frustration that not everyone shares their priorities. It's actually standard nerd behavior, but magnified to uber-nerd proportions.
The upside is that they do tend to produce useful things, or have a salutary effect on those around them. So unless you disagree with what they do, you should simply dismiss their personal peccadilloes as the price you pay for having someone devote the majority of their brainpower to a single issue, and do useful work on your (and everyone else's) behalf.
Time to take a lesson from the PHB playbook - the natural response to an email like Theo's goes something like "Yeah, yeah, Theo, nice work. Keep it up. Oh, and have it done by the end of the week, willya?"
It costs companies money to offer benefits to their employees because the companies usually pick up part of the tab. That's not what eBay is talking about doing.
All eBay will do is contract the administration out to a third-party administrator, whose costs will be covered by the premiums that the signed-up eBay customers will pay. eBay potentially gains a base of people who have a much tighter association to eBay, so they gain more loyal users who have a reason to want to continue using eBay, to keep their sales volume up so they qualify for the insurance, etc.
...
the XBox business model was set up such that MS actually loses money every time they sell a unit. They plan to make the cash back via a license fee attached to all games sold by major developers
Actually, other game consoles have used this business model to varying degrees. However, the difference today is that the consoles are much more powerful computing platforms, and therefore much more attractive for hacking. Hence the iOpener comparison.
The problem Microsoft is going to have in fighting this, is that it will now be fighting its customers directly, rather than competitors. The downsides of squashing (or acquiring) a competitor only become apparent when the U.S. Justice Department sues you. The downsides of fighting with your own customers are much more serious and direct; and the legal footing is much weaker.
Suing individual XBox owners in court isn't likely to happen, or have much effect if it does (unless the courts happen to rule against MS). Certainly, Adobe-style DMCA tactics against companies selling mod chips and the like may be possible, within the U.S. at least, but that's unlikely to act as much of a barrier against hacking.
The bottom line is that companies need to start taking the realities of this sort of thing into account. They can't just sit in their conference rooms surrounded by lawyers and wail and gnash their teeth. Their notion of intellectual property ownership and control is simply at odds with reality, and if they don't recognize that, reality will do it for them, in the form of profits and their stock price.
The greatest trick the devil pulled was
convincing the world he didn't exist
-- Verbal Kint, The Usual Suspects
This quote is an old cliche, which dates back at least to Baudelaire's 1864 short story, The Generous Gambler. The line (translated from the French) goes something like "the Devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist".
100 km (approx 62 miles) is the official definition of the beginning of space defined by the International Aeronautical Federation, as well as many other bodies, including the Internation Astronautical Federation.
The U.S. awards astronaut status to anyone who flies above 50 miles. At 50 miles, atmospheric density is one-thousandth that at sea level. You'd die instantly if you stepped outside at that altitude.
At 100km, the atmospheric density is near-vacuum, and rudders and wings on an aircraft will not work - no aerodynamic control is possible. If you step outside your vehicle, you will explosively decompress.
How is this "insightful" when I corrected that about ten hours before AC posted?
You didn't correct it, you wondered whether "nautical" was a mistake. The AC pointed out that it probably wasn't, and why not. Basically, this whole thread is pointless, and you shouldn't be whining about moderation when you screwed up.
SQL is excellent as far as it goes, but it doesn't provide a complete solution to all data processing requirements. (If you've ever written stored procedures that are just hundreds of lines long, you have an idea of what I mean).
Which means that for complex processing, there has to be an interface at some level to a more flexible programming language. The dominant programming model in business today is object-orientation - not without some good reasons - but unfortunately, there are some problematic issues in mapping between object and relational systems.
So the problem with relational systems is really simply that (a) in themselves, they are not appropriate for all data transformations and (b) they don't easily lend themselves towards integration with more flexible systems.
That said, I agree the most developers don't seem to be aware of what SQL can do. Having personally developed systems that included tens of thousands of lines of SQL, I'm pretty familiar with what it can do, but also with how restrictive and inflexible it is compared to some other approaches. One of its biggest problems is that it lacks a powerful enough reuse mechanism, and the various proprietary extensions don't do a very good job of correcting this.
The shift began before that - I remember first hearing it in the late '80s, and being incredulous and vowing never to use it. (I use it now without a second thought - there go my principles.)
But I think you're right about the Microsoft connection - the original Microsoft/Sybase SQL Server version was released for OS/2 in 1988. So Microsoft actually succeeded in changing the global pronunciation of an acronym - now I *really* feel had!!
I can't think of a solid objection to color, other than preference-based (it's a greenback, dammit, and I say that as a resident alien:) Size, though: counting paper money of different sizes is a pain, unless you're separating them into different piles.
And maybe it's just me, but I know what money I hand to cashiers etc. If I didn't, I'm not sure color would help me. Perhaps what we're talking about here are people's different cognitive mechanisms, and by maximizing the number of different cues, money becomes friendlier for everyone, not just those that are good at recognizing and remembering digits or dead presidents.
Still, I'm more sympathetic to those who say that if you can't tell the difference, you deserve to lose it!:P
I'm not an American, I grew up with colored notes, but I've lived in the US for 11 years and haven't had any problem dealing with the banknotes. I prefer them, actually, but for subjective reasons that others have mentioned - they seem more serious than the brightly colored "monopoly" money in many other countries.
I haven't been seeing a lot of really valid arguments from non-Americans - so far, the only one I really buy is for blind or partially-sighted people. For them, I would think the color might not be the main issue - some braille and appropriate simple differentiating symbols would seem to do the trick.
I think Americans are right to say that they shouldn't change their currency simply because some outsiders have trouble with it. It should only need to be changed if it's demonstrably inferior. No-one's actually demonstrated the need for color yet - instead, they're arguing based on preference and what they're used to.
There are all sorts of confusing things about moving between countries. Language, for one thing. This is about the least important of those. I'd argue that Americans should not change their currency simply to satisfy those who want America to be more like what they're used to. What's next - please don't play baseball or American football, it confuses us???
Who's running the federal reserve? Whoever it is needs to get a clue. Next the military will be painting our fighter jets with nice, pastel colors.
I don't know if this is what you were thinking of, but in the discussion of the Joint Strike Fighter contract being awarded to Lockheed Martin, someone mentioned that the Stealth bombers were supposed to be painted sky-blue for camoflage reasons. Naturally that was nixed, so now they're a mean-looking and quite visible black.
Apparently US pilots would rather die (literally) than be mistaken for pansies...
When it comes to the money, though, I actually agree with you, and I grew up with colored different sized notes so I'm not simply biased by my upbringing. The only valid argument I've heard so far relates to the blind and partially sighted. Braille on the corners ought to take care of that, though.
I've lived in the US for 11 years, and I don't find that I have to check twice that I'm not handing over a twenty instead of a one. You're just used to certain cues and haven't got used to different ones yet.
I had much more of a problem with the fact that a dime is physically smaller than a nickel or even a penny, but is worth more. What's up with that??
C'mon, everyone knows that Canada is the 52nd state of the U.S.A., right after Puerto Rico...
It would be kind of unfair to exclude all those people clustered so close to the northern US border, just because they're a few miles on the wrong side of the border!
"The Dutch webzine Radikal". That is indeed a mistake of the slashdot guys
In their defense, the webzine is apparently hosted on a Dutch server, to escape the clutches of the German government. If it's not allowed to be published in Germany, can you still call it German?:)
Slashdot Mirror
I agree there are screwups within screwups here. In fact one of the Rocketman graphics for the Sep 2001 shot (which has apparently morphed into the 2002 shot) showed the apogee as 60nm. So maybe someone converted 60nm as statute miles, came up short of 100km, and decided to increase the number, reaching the 62 figure, which was subsequently converted as nm to reach 114km? (Shades of NASA's Mars shot).
But the point, to me, was that the AC explained where the 114km came from, whether or not the article or the graphics were correct. With such confused source material, anything that clarifies the situation is at least informative...
The upside is that they do tend to produce useful things, or have a salutary effect on those around them. So unless you disagree with what they do, you should simply dismiss their personal peccadilloes as the price you pay for having someone devote the majority of their brainpower to a single issue, and do useful work on your (and everyone else's) behalf.
Time to take a lesson from the PHB playbook - the natural response to an email like Theo's goes something like "Yeah, yeah, Theo, nice work. Keep it up. Oh, and have it done by the end of the week, willya?"
<<shudder>>
Are you sure you belong on /.?;)
Can I at least redeem OSDN cash for karma points, and break the 50 barrier at last???
All eBay will do is contract the administration out to a third-party administrator, whose costs will be covered by the premiums that the signed-up eBay customers will pay. eBay potentially gains a base of people who have a much tighter association to eBay, so they gain more loyal users who have a reason to want to continue using eBay, to keep their sales volume up so they qualify for the insurance, etc.
Have you seen The Bourne Identity yet? I'm never using my real name on anything, ever, again... :)
Great idea! Anyone??
That model has been tried before.
Actually, other game consoles have used this business model to varying degrees. However, the difference today is that the consoles are much more powerful computing platforms, and therefore much more attractive for hacking. Hence the iOpener comparison.
The problem Microsoft is going to have in fighting this, is that it will now be fighting its customers directly, rather than competitors. The downsides of squashing (or acquiring) a competitor only become apparent when the U.S. Justice Department sues you. The downsides of fighting with your own customers are much more serious and direct; and the legal footing is much weaker.
Suing individual XBox owners in court isn't likely to happen, or have much effect if it does (unless the courts happen to rule against MS). Certainly, Adobe-style DMCA tactics against companies selling mod chips and the like may be possible, within the U.S. at least, but that's unlikely to act as much of a barrier against hacking.
The bottom line is that companies need to start taking the realities of this sort of thing into account. They can't just sit in their conference rooms surrounded by lawyers and wail and gnash their teeth. Their notion of intellectual property ownership and control is simply at odds with reality, and if they don't recognize that, reality will do it for them, in the form of profits and their stock price.
This quote is an old cliche, which dates back at least to Baudelaire's 1864 short story, The Generous Gambler. The line (translated from the French) goes something like "the Devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist".
The U.S. awards astronaut status to anyone who flies above 50 miles. At 50 miles, atmospheric density is one-thousandth that at sea level. You'd die instantly if you stepped outside at that altitude.
At 100km, the atmospheric density is near-vacuum, and rudders and wings on an aircraft will not work - no aerodynamic control is possible. If you step outside your vehicle, you will explosively decompress.
You didn't correct it, you wondered whether "nautical" was a mistake. The AC pointed out that it probably wasn't, and why not. Basically, this whole thread is pointless, and you shouldn't be whining about moderation when you screwed up.
Which means that for complex processing, there has to be an interface at some level to a more flexible programming language. The dominant programming model in business today is object-orientation - not without some good reasons - but unfortunately, there are some problematic issues in mapping between object and relational systems.
So the problem with relational systems is really simply that (a) in themselves, they are not appropriate for all data transformations and (b) they don't easily lend themselves towards integration with more flexible systems.
That said, I agree the most developers don't seem to be aware of what SQL can do. Having personally developed systems that included tens of thousands of lines of SQL, I'm pretty familiar with what it can do, but also with how restrictive and inflexible it is compared to some other approaches. One of its biggest problems is that it lacks a powerful enough reuse mechanism, and the various proprietary extensions don't do a very good job of correcting this.
But I think you're right about the Microsoft connection - the original Microsoft/Sybase SQL Server version was released for OS/2 in 1988. So Microsoft actually succeeded in changing the global pronunciation of an acronym - now I *really* feel had!!
I used to call "real" football soccer even when I lived in "the colonies". So you're outa luck there, mate...
Not to mention Israel! :)
They fly some of their missions at night. At night, at altitude, a sky-blue color would not be significantly more visible. The reverse isn't true.
No, actually, you can't. But you can evaluate people by how illogical their arguments are.
And maybe it's just me, but I know what money I hand to cashiers etc. If I didn't, I'm not sure color would help me. Perhaps what we're talking about here are people's different cognitive mechanisms, and by maximizing the number of different cues, money becomes friendlier for everyone, not just those that are good at recognizing and remembering digits or dead presidents.
Still, I'm more sympathetic to those who say that if you can't tell the difference, you deserve to lose it! :P
I haven't been seeing a lot of really valid arguments from non-Americans - so far, the only one I really buy is for blind or partially-sighted people. For them, I would think the color might not be the main issue - some braille and appropriate simple differentiating symbols would seem to do the trick.
I think Americans are right to say that they shouldn't change their currency simply because some outsiders have trouble with it. It should only need to be changed if it's demonstrably inferior. No-one's actually demonstrated the need for color yet - instead, they're arguing based on preference and what they're used to.
There are all sorts of confusing things about moving between countries. Language, for one thing. This is about the least important of those. I'd argue that Americans should not change their currency simply to satisfy those who want America to be more like what they're used to. What's next - please don't play baseball or American football, it confuses us???
I don't know if this is what you were thinking of, but in the discussion of the Joint Strike Fighter contract being awarded to Lockheed Martin, someone mentioned that the Stealth bombers were supposed to be painted sky-blue for camoflage reasons. Naturally that was nixed, so now they're a mean-looking and quite visible black.
Apparently US pilots would rather die (literally) than be mistaken for pansies...
When it comes to the money, though, I actually agree with you, and I grew up with colored different sized notes so I'm not simply biased by my upbringing. The only valid argument I've heard so far relates to the blind and partially sighted. Braille on the corners ought to take care of that, though.
I had much more of a problem with the fact that a dime is physically smaller than a nickel or even a penny, but is worth more. What's up with that??
It would be kind of unfair to exclude all those people clustered so close to the northern US border, just because they're a few miles on the wrong side of the border!
In their defense, the webzine is apparently hosted on a Dutch server, to escape the clutches of the German government. If it's not allowed to be published in Germany, can you still call it German? :)