A country-wide wireless network is being built in Finland. It will use Flash-OFDM technology at frequencies around 450 MHz. Here's the story in Finnish.
I also think a regular wheel mouse bears a striking similarity to a vulva. Funnily enough, I only realized it when a female geek pointed it out to me (the fact, not it). Especially this one (hover over the color choices to see the actual shape).
Re:DVORAK for real world, SysAdmin/Programming use
on
Advocating Dvorak
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· Score: 1
I have the same problem with the layout here in Finland. When I lived in Britain a few years ago, I got used to the UK layout which is almost the same as the US version, and I still use it for most of my typing.
I end up using
some acronyms, like say BRB, which I think,
are pretty common. But it turns out that I have
to explain that sometimes. So, I'd rather write
the full form the first time I use it with the
person.
By the way, in scientific texts the core concepts (CC) are usually abbreviated in brackets the first time the CC appears. Then when it's used again, the abbreviation is used. This convention also works as a hint that a certain idea will be used later many times.
I'm sure some people can twist this into an argument in favour of Windows. But my experience tells that when something breaks, in Windows you just install everything again, whereas in Linux you can fix it yourself.
For the user, it may well be faster and more convenient to install everything again, so the merit of being able to fix things is not necessarily obvious. (Though you can reinstall Linux as well.) However, I don't want people to learn that the you can always "fix" things by replacing them with new ones. If that's the way young people learn to deal with software, how do we get new developers in the future?
Of course, the idea that it's better to fix than replace is more obvious in the real world, with cars and human relations for example.
From TFA:
Frank Pohlmann dabbled in the history of Middle Eastern religions before various funding committees decided that research in the history of religious polemics was quite irrelevant to the modern world.
I wonder if that decision was made before or after 9/11...
So knowing these two things, how do you make the leap to best MIPS/Watt? Your laptop would have to be some combination of faster and longer battery life to win.
It doesn't have to be both faster and longer-lived. If the processor is has 20% more MIPS, but consumes 10% more power, then the power efficiency as MIPS/watt has increased by a factor of 1.20/1.10 = 1.0909... or 9% better.
If you use Linux, you are not just a computer user.
I've used Linux as my nigh-only OS since 1999, and I consider myself a user. So there.
That said... with Linux, the line between users and developers is very much blurred. It's one of the things I love about Linux. While I use other people's software for my work, I occasionally find I need to write a Bash/Python script or even a little C to make my work easier. And I can do this as an user, I don't have to go into a special developer mode or start some developer tools. While I'm working on the command line, I can write a script on the fly without going anywhere.
With something like Windows, there are artificial barriers to writing your own software. It's like a class division in a society. As a user, you can become a developer if you install some specialized software that most definitely doesn't come with the ordinary OS distribution. Even then you don't have access to the internals of the OS; it's reserved for the chosen ones that work for Microsoft, and I bet even there you find a class hierarchy depending on what you can access. On the contrary, open source is democracy and equality.
"Obtain without paying" is not an economic operation and short-circuits the whole system.
I think it is an economic operation, just in a different kind of economy than what we're used to.
A system where you pay for goods directly is only one kind of economy, but not the only one. If you short-circuit that system, then you have shown there is something wrong with it (an exploit/vulnerability).
Free market economy, in fact, is a system that regulates itself. Legislation is not a part of true free markets. Bittorrent is an excellent example of how the software/content market is optimizing itself.
The reason a lot of people use BitTorrent is not because it is free, but because it is easy. If the industry were to give people easy access to data, more people might purchase it.
I totally agree. This is all basic economics, supply and demand, right? I pay for things so that I can get them easier/faster/better quality than finding/making my own.
Economics is the science that attempts to optimize the distribution of goods from producers to consumers. Or at least that's how I learned it back in high school. There's a theory in economics that states, the price of something will tend to its marginal cost of production. The marginal cost of producing digital goods is essentially zero. What BT and other P2P technologies are doing is fulfilling the goals of economics.
By the way, here in Finland it is quite legal to download anything you find on the Internet. It's up to the distributor to worry about the legality of distribution. The problem with BT is, of course, that everyone who uses it is also distributing the files. It does clash with the law, but it makes economic sense which is something I value more than law.
On the topic of Naruto, I found it strange that so many torrent sites discontinued the fansubs when the series was licensed in the US. The sites operate on the Internet which AFAIK is not the same thing as the US. Fortunately for us outside the US (pun intended), a few sites remain in operation.
IMHO, in many world-scale cases it is sensible to compare the US to the EU, instead of individual countries. However, Europe is a wider area and less well defined. For example, parts of Russia and Turkey are in Europe.
I would imagine BT search looks at the contents of a torrent, for instance extracting filenames that could be matched against search terms. Of course this is possible for Google as well, but I doubt that it's being done.
The goal of the computer industry is to cut down on
periferals and simplify they way we use a computer.
No, the goal of the computer industry is to sell you things, whether they be peripherals or computers is irrelevant.
Re:Where to get a three-butten mouse with no rolle
on
Top Mice Compared
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· Score: 1
I second that!
IMHO arrow keys are fine for scrolling documents around (works particularly well when you mouse with the left hand, and the right hand handles the arrow keys). A scrollwheel adds nothing useful, it only complicates things. Epecially in unix/X where the middle button is used a lot, it's annoying that it has a different feel from the other buttons.
I think the current state of mice is due to the misconception that mousing and GUIs are universally easier and more powerful than keyboard/text interfaces. They are not, which you can see in the fact that a mouse nowadays includes an almost full keyboard (pardon the exaggeration, but that's my impression). People are too focused on using the mouse alone, which is why much of keyboard functionality has been duplicated there. Whereas I've experienced that keyb+mouse are powerful together, and I mean simultaneously so that mouse=left and keyb=right (I am right handed).
Slashdot Mirror
So, this Irish musician walks past a bar.
A: Turdulence.
A country-wide wireless network is being built in Finland. It will use Flash-OFDM technology at frequencies around 450 MHz. Here's the story in Finnish.
"Is" in Finnish is "on". So that is what Linus meant after all ;)
(But to nitpick, Linus's mother tongue is Swedish, the other official language of Finland.)
I also think a regular wheel mouse bears a striking similarity to a vulva. Funnily enough, I only realized it when a female geek pointed it out to me (the fact, not it). Especially this one (hover over the color choices to see the actual shape).
I have the same problem with the layout here in Finland. When I lived in Britain a few years ago, I got used to the UK layout which is almost the same as the US version, and I still use it for most of my typing.
(No offense to Eastern European complex analysts.)
By the way, in scientific texts the core concepts (CC) are usually abbreviated in brackets the first time the CC appears. Then when it's used again, the abbreviation is used. This convention also works as a hint that a certain idea will be used later many times.
Debian will upgrade to the new and shiny 2.0 version of the Linux kernel.
For the user, it may well be faster and more convenient to install everything again, so the merit of being able to fix things is not necessarily obvious. (Though you can reinstall Linux as well.) However, I don't want people to learn that the you can always "fix" things by replacing them with new ones. If that's the way young people learn to deal with software, how do we get new developers in the future?
Of course, the idea that it's better to fix than replace is more obvious in the real world, with cars and human relations for example.
I wonder if that decision was made before or after 9/11...
It doesn't have to be both faster and longer-lived. If the processor is has 20% more MIPS, but consumes 10% more power, then the power efficiency as MIPS/watt has increased by a factor of 1.20/1.10 = 1.0909... or 9% better.
If there's a clitoris nearby, surely you can find something better to do than a first person "shooter" ;)
I've used Linux as my nigh-only OS since 1999, and I consider myself a user. So there.
That said... with Linux, the line between users and developers is very much blurred. It's one of the things I love about Linux. While I use other people's software for my work, I occasionally find I need to write a Bash/Python script or even a little C to make my work easier. And I can do this as an user, I don't have to go into a special developer mode or start some developer tools. While I'm working on the command line, I can write a script on the fly without going anywhere.
With something like Windows, there are artificial barriers to writing your own software. It's like a class division in a society. As a user, you can become a developer if you install some specialized software that most definitely doesn't come with the ordinary OS distribution. Even then you don't have access to the internals of the OS; it's reserved for the chosen ones that work for Microsoft, and I bet even there you find a class hierarchy depending on what you can access. On the contrary, open source is democracy and equality.
And I thought 25 terabytes was a lot. But 25 million megabytes sounds so much more.
I think it is an economic operation, just in a different kind of economy than what we're used to. A system where you pay for goods directly is only one kind of economy, but not the only one. If you short-circuit that system, then you have shown there is something wrong with it (an exploit/vulnerability).
Free market economy, in fact, is a system that regulates itself. Legislation is not a part of true free markets. Bittorrent is an excellent example of how the software/content market is optimizing itself.
I totally agree. This is all basic economics, supply and demand, right? I pay for things so that I can get them easier/faster/better quality than finding/making my own.
Economics is the science that attempts to optimize the distribution of goods from producers to consumers. Or at least that's how I learned it back in high school. There's a theory in economics that states, the price of something will tend to its marginal cost of production. The marginal cost of producing digital goods is essentially zero. What BT and other P2P technologies are doing is fulfilling the goals of economics.
By the way, here in Finland it is quite legal to download anything you find on the Internet. It's up to the distributor to worry about the legality of distribution. The problem with BT is, of course, that everyone who uses it is also distributing the files. It does clash with the law, but it makes economic sense which is something I value more than law.
On the topic of Naruto, I found it strange that so many torrent sites discontinued the fansubs when the series was licensed in the US. The sites operate on the Internet which AFAIK is not the same thing as the US. Fortunately for us outside the US (pun intended), a few sites remain in operation.
IMHO, in many world-scale cases it is sensible to compare the US to the EU, instead of individual countries. However, Europe is a wider area and less well defined. For example, parts of Russia and Turkey are in Europe.
The time unit was not specified. Perhaps the grandparent meant 100 mbit/ns, which works out to 100 Mbit/s ;)
Carbon monoxide?
Yes, but does Google analyze the contents of a torrent? For example, the filenames listed would be nice to search against.
I would imagine BT search looks at the contents of a torrent, for instance extracting filenames that could be matched against search terms. Of course this is possible for Google as well, but I doubt that it's being done.
Finnish gadget manufacturer adopts Finnish OS. What took them so long?
No, the goal of the computer industry is to sell you things, whether they be peripherals or computers is irrelevant.
IMHO arrow keys are fine for scrolling documents around (works particularly well when you mouse with the left hand, and the right hand handles the arrow keys). A scrollwheel adds nothing useful, it only complicates things. Epecially in unix/X where the middle button is used a lot, it's annoying that it has a different feel from the other buttons.
I think the current state of mice is due to the misconception that mousing and GUIs are universally easier and more powerful than keyboard/text interfaces. They are not, which you can see in the fact that a mouse nowadays includes an almost full keyboard (pardon the exaggeration, but that's my impression). People are too focused on using the mouse alone, which is why much of keyboard functionality has been duplicated there. Whereas I've experienced that keyb+mouse are powerful together, and I mean simultaneously so that mouse=left and keyb=right (I am right handed).