Now the casino's have the right not to let you play for what ever reason they decide, but they can't arrest you for counting cards, they can only kick you out and ask you not to come back.
Hmm. I had been under the impression that card counting was illegal ever since I saw Rain Man. Shouldn't get my legal info from movies.
Anyway, I did some research, and strictly speaking you're right. There's no law against card counting, only the casino's right to bar known counters from its tables. However, a counter can get into legal trouble. If you try to sneak into a casino that's barred (which might be a casino you've never actually played at!) you can be arrested for trespassing. Even worse, they can refuse to give you your winnings!
That's absurd. Next you'll be telling us that we can raise our/. karma by writing posts that people actually enjoy reading! PUTTING CRAP ON THE INTERNET IS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT!!!
Google ranks by popularity, and defines popularity as being linked from other popular sites. So if you can get the right sites to link to you, your ranking will improve. Which is actually quite fair -- it's a validation of your site by people whose judgment is objectively established.
I've heard accusations that Google can be "fixed" by creating lots of phony sites that link to your site. Scientology sites are famous for that. I'm sceptical -- thousands of links from sites nobody visits have less impact than one link from a site everybody visits.
I'm not going to flame the product -- in fact, I just bought one. All in all, a good product. Uses cheap, rechargable Ni-MH batteries. Very good sound quality. Uses its own download program, instead of plugging into some flaky "jukebox" software. But.
Why is this news? Using an analog input to circumvent copy protection is hardly ground-breaking technology. Making an MP3 player that emulates an audio cassette isn't at all new. Nor is it a particularly good idea. It sounds cool -- an MP3 player that you can operate with the controls of your car cassette player. But it doesn't work all that well in practice. Auto cassette players vary a lot in the way their controls work, and you usually can't use all the features of the MP3 player. Plus you have to do without that handy LCD readout.
All in all, I'd much rather have a conventional MP3 player with a pseudo-cassette adapter. I only bought the Digessette because it had other good features that outweighted the silliness of the basic concept.
Unfotunately (to the best of my knowledge) you can't get the hardware without IRIX. So why not just stick with that?
I'm tempted to answer "Because that's not cool!" I mean, this is a site where people argue the merits of running Linux on X-Boxes and Dreamcasts!
But seriously, you're confusing Cost of Software with Cost of Ownership. An OS can be free to download, or free with the hardware, but that doesn't mean it's free period. If that were so, companies like Red Hat and SuSE would not exist, and the customer service arm of SGI wouldn't be the only part of the company that turns a profit. If you're going to run platform X, you're going to need access to somebody with expertise in platform X, be they an internal admin, an outside contractor, or the X-corp customer service organization. Few of these work for free.
For example, suppose your company has a bunch of x86s running NetBSD. You'd have to have access to some kind of NetBSD expertise, if only one particular employee who shares his knowledge with the rest of the NetBSD user community and gets help in return. But that doesn't mean you're equipped to run IRIX, at least for anything non-trivial. So if you have some SGI hardware you just can't do without, and nobody in house can make sense of XVM commands, or cluster nodes, or any of those other IRIX-specific thingees, you have a couple choices. One is to spend the bucks necessary to get the necessary IRIX expertise. The other is to find a way to run IRIX apps under an OS you're already expert on.
I think you've pointed out a big overlooked issue with handwriting recognition. People are very different, and I suspect HW engines make assumptions that only work with some people. It's not a case of good handwriting versus bad. It's more to do with the poorly-understood differences between the way different people are wired, and use their hands. What neuropsychologists call the "neuromuscular melody".
Though two things should be mentioned: early-model Newtons (which is apparently what you encountered) did a better job of recognizing an individual's handwriting if they took the time to "train" it to recognize your individual quirks. And later models did a pretty good job even without training. If they'd waited to perfect the handwriting technology the machine might have done better. Then again, there were other issues -- the ill considered form factor and the gawdawful desktop synchronization being the two biggest.
Another individuality issue. Graffiti is good, but I never did come to terms with it -- I just don't think that way. Finally switched to Fitaly Stamp, which turns the Palm entry area into a keyboard with a proprietary layout. Not for everybody -- some might prefer qwerty or dvorak (though I think Fitaly's layout is very logical for its intended purpose). Others probably get along fine with Graffiti. And still others just don't get the whole PDA thing, and are honestly better off with a Daytimer. It's a matter of what works for you.
Beware of The Blob, it creeps And leaps and glides and slides Across the floor Right through the door And all around the wall A splotch, a blotch Be careful of The Blob
I just hope they take better care of Gibson's collection than UCSC took of the stuff Heinlen donated to them. Last time I looked, they still had his pre-Campbell Astoundings in the open stacks!
Most people erroneously think the HWR in Newton OS was bad (thanks to The Simpsons!).
No, it was thanks to the thousands of Newton early adopters (including me) who experienced this problem. Not only was the handwriting recognition itself problematic, but the features that were supposed to work around the problem were very badly designed. (The code that added new words to the recognition dictionary, for example, didn't understand that punctuation wasn't part of a word!) They did fix these problems in later versions, but by then the product had no hope of being widely accepted.
Who is it at Technology Review that keeps churning out these historically-illiterate might-have-been stories? Last time it was somebody arguing that we could have had cell phones in the 1930s if it hadn't been for the KGB, or something equally absurd.
I don't mean the usual Nevada/New Mexico stories. I mean experimental aircraft that aren't all the weird, but look unfamiliar enough to make suggestible people think of spaceships.
It's probably not the best example, but the Avrocar comes to mind. It's tantalizing, because it was an actual flying saucer that was being developed just when the flying saucer stories started to become commonplace. The funny thing is that, although the project was secret, it wasn't to hide it from the Soviets. Avro was more concerned about other aircraft companies with deeper pockets, that could have leapfrogged their development effort if they'd gotten wind of it.
Here's a copy on Artchive. This site claims 25,000 hits a day, so they should be relatively Slashdot-Effect-resistent. Don't forget the tip jar!
And the Torino Scale Helps Us to ...?
on
What, Me Worry?
·
· Score: 2
Great, a handy-dandy scale for precisely classifyiing a threat we are totally unprepared for. Hey, that's useful.
So what's the motivation? A bureaucratic need to assign numbers to things? Somebody had a chance to get some grant money? Somebody's seen War Games too many times?
I'll buy one when it has a real keyboard.
Ever try sending a message on a keypad? MAJOR pain in the ass. You can use chat-shorthand to send message to friends, but replying to business email? Where is the spll chker?
That kind of cell phone already exists. But there's no free lunch here -- such a phone will not slip into a normal pants pocket!
In countries where SMS is popular, many people can type quite fast using a phone keypad. It's just a matter of practice.
If you OWN something, it's YOURS. Not only do you NOT have the right to take away people's freedom, but you also have no right to even KNOW what people do with their property.
So if I own some chemical fertilizer and some diesel fuel, nobody can prevent me from making a bomb? And if they can't dictate "what I do with my property" obviously they can't tell me what (or who) I can blow up with it!
So you're basically saying, "exercising intelligent caution is more important than blindly obeying the rules". I don't actually disagree with that. Problem is, most drivers don't do either. A lot of drivers think that they're driving within safe limits, but are actually just fooling themselves. One indication of this self-delusion is the anger with which they greet the slightest suggestion that they're doing anything wrong.
I've often had the same thought. But not only would people misuse it, but it'd be too distracting, for both parties. Too dangerous.
Once I was waiting at a light, and this black kid pulling out of a gas station made a complicated Jive gesture in my direction. Total Greek to me, but it was clear from context what he wanted: to pull in front of me while he still had an opening in traffic. I gave him a less elegant wave to indicate that I understood him, and our interaction ended amicably. Most thought provoking -- but teaching all us suburban types hand-Jive is probably not a practical solution.
Shipping one-button mice is not much of a safeguard -- half the Mac people I know use aftermarket mice. The real safeguard is the Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines. Alas, Apple itself no longer seems interested in enforcing these guidelines, even for their own products. I've never used OS X, but I've heard complaints that it violates the MHIG right and left.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyway, I did some research, and strictly speaking you're right. There's no law against card counting, only the casino's right to bar known counters from its tables. However, a counter can get into legal trouble. If you try to sneak into a casino that's barred (which might be a casino you've never actually played at!) you can be arrested for trespassing. Even worse, they can refuse to give you your winnings!
That's absurd. Next you'll be telling us that we can raise our /. karma by writing posts that people actually enjoy reading! PUTTING CRAP ON THE INTERNET IS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT!!!
I've heard accusations that Google can be "fixed" by creating lots of phony sites that link to your site. Scientology sites are famous for that. I'm sceptical -- thousands of links from sites nobody visits have less impact than one link from a site everybody visits.
It's a cool idea, but the mouse is extremely sensitive to small motions. Unless you have really good fine control of your hands, save your money.
Why is this news? Using an analog input to circumvent copy protection is hardly ground-breaking technology. Making an MP3 player that emulates an audio cassette isn't at all new. Nor is it a particularly good idea. It sounds cool -- an MP3 player that you can operate with the controls of your car cassette player. But it doesn't work all that well in practice. Auto cassette players vary a lot in the way their controls work, and you usually can't use all the features of the MP3 player. Plus you have to do without that handy LCD readout.
All in all, I'd much rather have a conventional MP3 player with a pseudo-cassette adapter. I only bought the Digessette because it had other good features that outweighted the silliness of the basic concept.
But seriously, you're confusing Cost of Software with Cost of Ownership. An OS can be free to download, or free with the hardware, but that doesn't mean it's free period. If that were so, companies like Red Hat and SuSE would not exist, and the customer service arm of SGI wouldn't be the only part of the company that turns a profit. If you're going to run platform X, you're going to need access to somebody with expertise in platform X, be they an internal admin, an outside contractor, or the X-corp customer service organization. Few of these work for free.
For example, suppose your company has a bunch of x86s running NetBSD. You'd have to have access to some kind of NetBSD expertise, if only one particular employee who shares his knowledge with the rest of the NetBSD user community and gets help in return. But that doesn't mean you're equipped to run IRIX, at least for anything non-trivial. So if you have some SGI hardware you just can't do without, and nobody in house can make sense of XVM commands, or cluster nodes, or any of those other IRIX-specific thingees, you have a couple choices. One is to spend the bucks necessary to get the necessary IRIX expertise. The other is to find a way to run IRIX apps under an OS you're already expert on.
No? Then STFU.
Though two things should be mentioned: early-model Newtons (which is apparently what you encountered) did a better job of recognizing an individual's handwriting if they took the time to "train" it to recognize your individual quirks. And later models did a pretty good job even without training. If they'd waited to perfect the handwriting technology the machine might have done better. Then again, there were other issues -- the ill considered form factor and the gawdawful desktop synchronization being the two biggest.
Another individuality issue. Graffiti is good, but I never did come to terms with it -- I just don't think that way. Finally switched to Fitaly Stamp, which turns the Palm entry area into a keyboard with a proprietary layout. Not for everybody -- some might prefer qwerty or dvorak (though I think Fitaly's layout is very logical for its intended purpose). Others probably get along fine with Graffiti. And still others just don't get the whole PDA thing, and are honestly better off with a Daytimer. It's a matter of what works for you.
Beware of The Blob, it creeps
And leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor
Right through the door
And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch
Be careful of The Blob
Words and music by Burt Bacharach.
I just hope they take better care of Gibson's collection than UCSC took of the stuff Heinlen donated to them. Last time I looked, they still had his pre-Campbell Astoundings in the open stacks!
Pudge, if you're going to turn into a flame warrior, then you should resign as an editor. The two roles are mutually exclusive.
Who is it at Technology Review that keeps churning out these historically-illiterate might-have-been stories? Last time it was somebody arguing that we could have had cell phones in the 1930s if it hadn't been for the KGB, or something equally absurd.
It's probably not the best example, but the Avrocar comes to mind. It's tantalizing, because it was an actual flying saucer that was being developed just when the flying saucer stories started to become commonplace. The funny thing is that, although the project was secret, it wasn't to hide it from the Soviets. Avro was more concerned about other aircraft companies with deeper pockets, that could have leapfrogged their development effort if they'd gotten wind of it.
I've often wondered how many flying saucer stories started out with somebody spotting an experimental aircraft test.
Here's a copy on Artchive. This site claims 25,000 hits a day, so they should be relatively Slashdot-Effect-resistent. Don't forget the tip jar!
So what's the motivation? A bureaucratic need to assign numbers to things? Somebody had a chance to get some grant money? Somebody's seen War Games too many times?
In countries where SMS is popular, many people can type quite fast using a phone keypad. It's just a matter of practice.
So you're basically saying, "exercising intelligent caution is more important than blindly obeying the rules". I don't actually disagree with that. Problem is, most drivers don't do either. A lot of drivers think that they're driving within safe limits, but are actually just fooling themselves. One indication of this self-delusion is the anger with which they greet the slightest suggestion that they're doing anything wrong.
I'm supposed to be more offended by "moron" than by "idiot"? I guess I'm pretty dumb, 'cause that goes right by me!
Once I was waiting at a light, and this black kid pulling out of a gas station made a complicated Jive gesture in my direction. Total Greek to me, but it was clear from context what he wanted: to pull in front of me while he still had an opening in traffic. I gave him a less elegant wave to indicate that I understood him, and our interaction ended amicably. Most thought provoking -- but teaching all us suburban types hand-Jive is probably not a practical solution.
Shipping one-button mice is not much of a safeguard -- half the Mac people I know use aftermarket mice. The real safeguard is the Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines. Alas, Apple itself no longer seems interested in enforcing these guidelines, even for their own products. I've never used OS X, but I've heard complaints that it violates the MHIG right and left.