If Bill Gates was walking down the street handing out $400 bills (ok, 4 $100 bills), would you let him pass on by, or would you stick your hand out with the rest of us. I know what I'd do! and it ain't the moral high ground...;)
On a more on-topic note: it seems as though this whole thing got started when Microsoft "assumed" it understood the law in question. I'm sure they have enough high-paid lawyers in their organization that they could have checked it out ahead of time. They didn't. They assumed, and we all know what that means...
As I read through the article, I was hit by a flurry of mixed emotions.
One of the first things to hit me was that the author was trying to portray Dr. Hawking as an actual human being, as opposed to the "cybernetic being" his illness has forced him into. The reference to his image superimposed on a picture of Marilyn Monroe was a refreshing divergence from the usual portrayal of the man.
However, I was later offended by the author's apparent lack of patience. His comment about "a man...condemned forever to articulate his thoughts at the speed of an imbecile" made me wince. Here he is, one of a privileged few journalists with the opportunity to spend an afternoon with the greatest mind of the last 50 years, and he is focussing on the man's physical disabilities. I nearly stopped reading at that point.
I didn't, though. And later on, even though the author repeatedly referred to the duration of the pauses he "endured", I began to detect a shift in the author's attitude. For one, by the end of the article, he was focusing more and more on *what* Dr. Hawking had to say, and not the way in which it was said. The man can't help it if a computer has to vocalize his thoughts for him. Thankfully, this issue was deemphasized later on.
One the the high points of the article is that it touches on the guest appearances he has done on ST:TNG and The Simpsons. I find it interesting that he enjoys the satiric, biting wit of the Simpsons!
One point I want to make, that the author didn't, and may not even know, refers to the quote from David Schramm (yes, this is probably quite minor)... the author refers to Dr. Schramm in the present. Unfortunately, he passed away in a single-engine plane crash in December 1997.
All in all, I though the interview contained much information about his personal life that has not been addressed much in other articles. I just wish the author had not come across as a bit crass in the beginning. If I did not come from a physics background, and thus hold Dr. Hawking in the highest regard, I might not have read the article through to the end for that reason.
All this, of course, IMO. And yes, real news for nerds!
That is one more gay looking penguin in that article! Is there some reason that they can't use the official Tux logo if they are supporting Linux as they claim they are?
...it's nice to get "official" word denying the release of SW:TPM on DVD, rather than all the unfounded rumors floating around. Now, if only we could get a similar "official denial" about the whole China/Linux crap!!!
Take both names, perform a letter->number substitution (a=1, b=2, etc.) and add up the values for each name separately. In my case, E=5 + r=18 + i=9 + c=3 == 35, Wright = 85. Then, "boildown" each of these numbers to a single digit, ie. 35 -> 3+5 = 8; 85 -> 8+5=13 -> 1+3=4. Now, I have 8 as my first digit, and 4 as my last digit. Oddly enough, so does Rob Malda!
Anyway, there are 'a' and 'b' arrays of first and last names, each containing 9 entries with 9 values each. Specific names are picked by...
Your first name is found by adding your two digits and again, boiling that down to a single digit: 8+4 = 12 -> 1+2 = 3. Now, my first name is in list 3 at position 8 of one of the lists (all of his code uses null values for array entry 0). For my last name, multiply my two digits, and boildown: 8*4 = 32 -> 3+2 = 5. My last name is in list 5, position 4.
Finally, whether you get names from the a lists or b lists is determined by the parity of the product of your initial two digits (8*4 = 32 is even, use a lists... if odd, use b lists which is rarer since it requires both your original digits to be odd).
In your test, Hideysmithingtonson must just have the same associated boiled-down digit as Malda!
Eric
Re:No WuName to Normal Translator
on
Humpday Quickies
·
· Score: 1
"If they'd only GPL their script"
Never mind... already released!
Now, to find out how Rob and I are related!
Eric
Re:No WuName to Normal Translator
on
Humpday Quickies
·
· Score: 2
That's odd... my wu-name also turned out to be Grand Moff Puppeteer, and Eric Wright is in no way close to Rob Malda! If they'd only GPL their script;)
But Microsoft's Pilla said the company isn't worried about people canceling service.
``Our experience to date is that it's been a very popular program,'' Pilla said. ``We haven't seen that . . . and we don't expect to see that, basically because we think that the value that we're offering customers, as we've seen from the many sign-ups, is tremendous.''
This is most likely because anyone who has little enough knowledge of computer hardware to buy a prepackaged system at Best Buy, etc. is the same type of person who also lacks the experience to know a good ISP when they see one!
Here is a link to the yahoo search I did to find messages posted about the LinuxOne IPO. It seems like a good many people out there know/claim that this is a farce, but posts from people with actual facts to back up these claims are needed. If you have posted information here, please post similar messages here and other relevant sites!
Yup, that's it. Higher bandwidth, reserved for the people who developed the internet in the first place, in the pre-"public" days.
There are good reasons to have a segment of the internet (or whatever the fsck you want to call a bunch of machines connected by fiber optics with the purpose of sharing data) reserved for academia. One, it was the academics that developed it to begin with. Two, do you have any idea the amount of data people in academia need to transfer? Probably not... I do.
When I was working on my PhD, I was performing large, 3D simulations on one of the Cray's at the NCSC. The data files for those simulations totaled 4.5 GB per simulation. For completeness, I had to run several of these simulations. Can you imagine how long it would have taken to download all that data on the same lines that all the "commercial users" use? Weeks or months. Even with I-2 access, it took me a couple of hours to download data from each of these simulations.
Now, before you start whining about preferential treatment of academics, ask yourself this question: Does (pick your {least?} favorite average user) *need* to download GBs of pr0n and mp3s? Does the academic's job depend on being able to access GBs of scientific data? My answers are No! and Yes! in that order...
Sure it does, except for the no-refund part. If NSI thought that the TM case would have been upheld, they would *then* have a right to deny the use of a particular name. I am in no way advocating their business practices, especially in this particular case. There are a slew of ways they could have handled it better. They didn't. Maybe Etoy will sue... maybe not. They may not have any money left by now.
As someone else has already said (in this post, even) this has nothing to do with US jurisdiction. The courts didn't force the closure of www.etoy.com. eToys called up NSI, complained, and NSI brought down the site. They have every right, since they are the ones who registered www.etoy.com, but it is a horrible, tacky, spineless, etc. thing to do. NSI != USA
etoy.com *was* registered before etoys.com, but the original basis of the lawsuit is that eToys bought the (since invalidated) TM from a company that registered said TM in 1990. In eToys' twisted reality, this was reason enough to pursue these actions. Thankfully, the courts are beginning to see just how silly this case is... so far.
God, I hate playing devil's advocate...ick!
BTW, the judge's reason for invalidation of the TM is just great: adding e to the front of a common word is not grounds for a TM. I hope this sets a good precedent to thwart all the other evil-minded companies out there!
A similar thing happened to me at work this morning. The room I'm in has cubicles around the perimeter, and a few in the center of the room. At once, all of the computers around the perimeter shut off. The one's in the center of the room, the lights, and most everything else was unaffected. Someone managed to trip the circuit breaker with a portable space heater!!
I bet Amazon is right behind them dropping their suit against B&N.
I doubt it. The eToys vs. Etoy lawsuit was (IMO) an on-line seller upset that the stupid portion of their clientele would be confused when they stupidly typed www.etoy.com rather than www.etoys.com. They pressed the matter based on a pre-existing TM (recently invalidated... WOO HOO!) that they bought from another company, and tried to shut down a small (foreign) website that had nothing to do with their business. In other words, the suit was based on the fact that the two had similar names. That's all.
The Amazon vs. BN suit deals with two similar retailers (bn.com, AFAIK, is a separate business from the brick and mortar chain Barnes & Noble) using nearly identical technologies. Amazon got a stupid patent for a blatently obvious procedure, and they want to establish an "on-line monopoly" to quash competetion (sound familiar?).
To be prez of the USA, you have to be over 35, born in USA, and lived in USA for a certain amount of time (I think it's 14 years, but that may be the speed..er caffeine... talking). Leaves out a good many hackers and general/. populace (myself included).
Actually, I just checked, and 14 is correct. I'm amazed. Some of my 9th grade civics is still there after all these years!
what is sensible about tax dollars being spent on health care; things have worked fine in the US with no public health care for a great length of time.
Maybe things have worked fine for you, but what about people working in minimum-wage jobs with no company-sponsored health plan? They surely can't afford medical insurance on that whopping $5.25/hr they make. Remember, someone has to cook and fill your order at McDonalds (for instance, not implying you eat specifically at McDonalds).
If I lost my well-paying job with great benefits, and, for some reason, couldn't land another one immediately, I'd like to know that I could get medical help if I needed it, without mortgaging the rest of my life away to the hospital. (Wow, that's an extremely convoluted sentence!)
Try thinking about someone other than yourself every once in a while...
My cubicle-mate is on blood pressure medication. He has to take this stuff every day and has been taking it for years. If he can just get it delivered to his house every month a few days before he runs out of medicine, that makes a lot of sense for him, doesn't it?
Yeah, ok, that makes sense... sure. I never said I didn't agree with people getting meds online. My point is that this legislation merely puts the online med retailers on level ground with all the Eckard's, CVSs, Wal-Mart's, etc. out there. Of course, it is government regulation, so a great many people will fuss about it for that reason alone.
Now, I'm sure all the states'-righters out there will have problems with this, but in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with this legislation. I don't have widespread knowledge of the workings of other states, but here in NC, it is illegal to purchase perscription drugs without a perscription from a licensed medical practitioner (for the most part, read doctor).
As stated, the purpose of this legislation is to force online medicine retailers to obtain a valid prescription before selling the drug to the customer. This is the way all drug stores (as opposed to e-drug-stores [this e- crap gets ridiculous sometimes:) ]) work. If they violate this practice, and get caught, they are in deep doo.
In my opinion, this legislation simply requires that online sellers play by the same rules. On the other hand, I'm not sure how they plan to verify a patient's prescription. Do you have to mail them a copy of the paper-prescription? What happens if it is lost in the mail? Do you allow scanned/faxed copies? How do you prevent forgery in those cases?
Personally, if I get a prescription for medicine, I assume my doctor wants me on it as soon as possible. I'm not going to wait for a prescription to get to the retailer in Outer Mongolia (or wherever;->), wait for verification (if that indeed is part of the procedure), wait for Bubba to go to the warehouse, search for the medicine (you don't expect them to pay licensed/trained pharmicists do you?) and ship it to you. I'll pay a few extra bucks to get it filled in the store in about 15 minutes.
In short, I think this is a good idea, but as is the case with all good ideas, it need a good implementation plan for it to be universally accepted.
Slashdot Mirror
If Bill Gates was walking down the street handing out $400 bills (ok, 4 $100 bills), would you let him pass on by, or would you stick your hand out with the rest of us. I know what I'd do! and it ain't the moral high ground... ;)
On a more on-topic note: it seems as though this whole thing got started when Microsoft "assumed" it understood the law in question. I'm sure they have enough high-paid lawyers in their organization that they could have checked it out ahead of time. They didn't. They assumed, and we all know what that means...
Eric
As I read through the article, I was hit by a flurry of mixed emotions.
One of the first things to hit me was that the author was trying to portray Dr. Hawking as an actual human being, as opposed to the "cybernetic being" his illness has forced him into. The reference to his image superimposed on a picture of Marilyn Monroe was a refreshing divergence from the usual portrayal of the man.
However, I was later offended by the author's apparent lack of patience. His comment about "a man...condemned forever to articulate his thoughts at the speed of an imbecile" made me wince. Here he is, one of a privileged few journalists with the opportunity to spend an afternoon with the greatest mind of the last 50 years, and he is focussing on the man's physical disabilities. I nearly stopped reading at that point.
I didn't, though. And later on, even though the author repeatedly referred to the duration of the pauses he "endured", I began to detect a shift in the author's attitude. For one, by the end of the article, he was focusing more and more on *what* Dr. Hawking had to say, and not the way in which it was said. The man can't help it if a computer has to vocalize his thoughts for him. Thankfully, this issue was deemphasized later on.
One the the high points of the article is that it touches on the guest appearances he has done on ST:TNG and The Simpsons. I find it interesting that he enjoys the satiric, biting wit of the Simpsons!
One point I want to make, that the author didn't, and may not even know, refers to the quote from David Schramm (yes, this is probably quite minor)... the author refers to Dr. Schramm in the present. Unfortunately, he passed away in a single-engine plane crash in December 1997.
All in all, I though the interview contained much information about his personal life that has not been addressed much in other articles. I just wish the author had not come across as a bit crass in the beginning. If I did not come from a physics background, and thus hold Dr. Hawking in the highest regard, I might not have read the article through to the end for that reason.
All this, of course, IMO. And yes, real news for nerds!
Eric
That is one more gay looking penguin in that article! Is there some reason that they can't use the official Tux logo if they are supporting Linux as they claim they are?
Eric
...it's nice to get "official" word denying the release of SW:TPM on DVD, rather than all the unfounded rumors floating around. Now, if only we could get a similar "official denial" about the whole China/Linux crap!!!
Eric
If Hemos mentions nano-anything, drink!
Eric
Take both names, perform a letter->number substitution (a=1, b=2, etc.) and add up the values for each name separately. In my case, E=5 + r=18 + i=9 + c=3 == 35, Wright = 85. Then, "boildown" each of these numbers to a single digit, ie. 35 -> 3+5 = 8; 85 -> 8+5=13 -> 1+3=4. Now, I have 8 as my first digit, and 4 as my last digit. Oddly enough, so does Rob Malda!
Anyway, there are 'a' and 'b' arrays of first and last names, each containing 9 entries with 9 values each. Specific names are picked by...
Your first name is found by adding your two digits and again, boiling that down to a single digit: 8+4 = 12 -> 1+2 = 3. Now, my first name is in list 3 at position 8 of one of the lists (all of his code uses null values for array entry 0). For my last name, multiply my two digits, and boildown: 8*4 = 32 -> 3+2 = 5. My last name is in list 5, position 4.
Finally, whether you get names from the a lists or b lists is determined by the parity of the product of your initial two digits (8*4 = 32 is even, use a lists... if odd, use b lists which is rarer since it requires both your original digits to be odd).
In your test, Hideysmithingtonson must just have the same associated boiled-down digit as Malda!
Eric
"If they'd only GPL their script"
Never mind... already released!
Now, to find out how Rob and I are related!
Eric
That's odd... my wu-name also turned out to be Grand Moff Puppeteer, and Eric Wright is in no way close to Rob Malda! If they'd only GPL their script ;)
Eric
``Our experience to date is that it's been a very popular program,'' Pilla said. ``We haven't seen that . . . and we don't expect to see that, basically because we think that the value that we're offering customers, as we've seen from the many sign-ups, is tremendous.''
This is most likely because anyone who has little enough knowledge of computer hardware to buy a prepackaged system at Best Buy, etc. is the same type of person who also lacks the experience to know a good ISP when they see one!
Eric
Eric
Yup, that's it. Higher bandwidth, reserved for the people who developed the internet in the first place, in the pre-"public" days.
There are good reasons to have a segment of the internet (or whatever the fsck you want to call a bunch of machines connected by fiber optics with the purpose of sharing data) reserved for academia. One, it was the academics that developed it to begin with. Two, do you have any idea the amount of data people in academia need to transfer? Probably not... I do.
When I was working on my PhD, I was performing large, 3D simulations on one of the Cray's at the NCSC. The data files for those simulations totaled 4.5 GB per simulation. For completeness, I had to run several of these simulations. Can you imagine how long it would have taken to download all that data on the same lines that all the "commercial users" use? Weeks or months. Even with I-2 access, it took me a couple of hours to download data from each of these simulations.
Now, before you start whining about preferential treatment of academics, ask yourself this question: Does (pick your {least?} favorite average user) *need* to download GBs of pr0n and mp3s? Does the academic's job depend on being able to access GBs of scientific data? My answers are No! and Yes! in that order...
My $1.47
Eric
Sure it does, except for the no-refund part. If NSI thought that the TM case would have been upheld, they would *then* have a right to deny the use of a particular name. I am in no way advocating their business practices, especially in this particular case. There are a slew of ways they could have handled it better. They didn't. Maybe Etoy will sue... maybe not. They may not have any money left by now.
Eric
As someone else has already said (in this post, even) this has nothing to do with US jurisdiction. The courts didn't force the closure of www.etoy.com. eToys called up NSI, complained, and NSI brought down the site. They have every right, since they are the ones who registered www.etoy.com, but it is a horrible, tacky, spineless, etc. thing to do. NSI != USA
etoy.com *was* registered before etoys.com, but the original basis of the lawsuit is that eToys bought the (since invalidated) TM from a company that registered said TM in 1990. In eToys' twisted reality, this was reason enough to pursue these actions. Thankfully, the courts are beginning to see just how silly this case is... so far.
God, I hate playing devil's advocate...ick!
BTW, the judge's reason for invalidation of the TM is just great: adding e to the front of a common word is not grounds for a TM. I hope this sets a good precedent to thwart all the other evil-minded companies out there!
Eric
Now how did that get in this thread? Of course, this is offtopic here!
Eric (who obviously needs more caffeine)
A whole spate of web-archaeology articles, right at the end of the 1900s...
Eric
Linus or Linux?
Eric
Ob Stupid Comment:
;-)
I wonder what a beowulf cluster of these things... oh, wait... never mind
A similar thing happened to me at work this morning. The room I'm in has cubicles around the perimeter, and a few in the center of the room. At once, all of the computers around the perimeter shut off. The one's in the center of the room, the lights, and most everything else was unaffected. Someone managed to trip the circuit breaker with a portable space heater!!
Eric
I doubt it. The eToys vs. Etoy lawsuit was (IMO) an on-line seller upset that the stupid portion of their clientele would be confused when they stupidly typed www.etoy.com rather than www.etoys.com. They pressed the matter based on a pre-existing TM (recently invalidated... WOO HOO!) that they bought from another company, and tried to shut down a small (foreign) website that had nothing to do with their business. In other words, the suit was based on the fact that the two had similar names. That's all.
The Amazon vs. BN suit deals with two similar retailers (bn.com, AFAIK, is a separate business from the brick and mortar chain Barnes & Noble) using nearly identical technologies. Amazon got a stupid patent for a blatently obvious procedure, and they want to establish an "on-line monopoly" to quash competetion (sound familiar?).
Eric
To be prez of the USA, you have to be over 35, born in USA, and lived in USA for a certain amount of time (I think it's 14 years, but that may be the speed..er caffeine... talking). Leaves out a good many hackers and general /. populace (myself included).
Actually, I just checked, and 14 is correct. I'm amazed. Some of my 9th grade civics is still there after all these years!
Eric
Gore is all about the internet, since he invented it during his days as a physicist.
Eric
Maybe things have worked fine for you, but what about people working in minimum-wage jobs with no company-sponsored health plan? They surely can't afford medical insurance on that whopping $5.25/hr they make. Remember, someone has to cook and fill your order at McDonalds (for instance, not implying you eat specifically at McDonalds).
If I lost my well-paying job with great benefits, and, for some reason, couldn't land another one immediately, I'd like to know that I could get medical help if I needed it, without mortgaging the rest of my life away to the hospital. (Wow, that's an extremely convoluted sentence!)
Try thinking about someone other than yourself every once in a while...
Eric
Yeah, ok, that makes sense... sure. I never said I didn't agree with people getting meds online. My point is that this legislation merely puts the online med retailers on level ground with all the Eckard's, CVSs, Wal-Mart's, etc. out there. Of course, it is government regulation, so a great many people will fuss about it for that reason alone.
Eric
Now, I'm sure all the states'-righters out there will have problems with this, but in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with this legislation. I don't have widespread knowledge of the workings of other states, but here in NC, it is illegal to purchase perscription drugs without a perscription from a licensed medical practitioner (for the most part, read doctor).
;->), wait for verification (if that indeed is part of the procedure), wait for Bubba to go to the warehouse, search for the medicine (you don't expect them to pay licensed/trained pharmicists do you?) and ship it to you. I'll pay a few extra bucks to get it filled in the store in about 15 minutes.
As stated, the purpose of this legislation is to force online medicine retailers to obtain a valid prescription before selling the drug to the customer. This is the way all drug stores (as opposed to e-drug-stores [this e- crap gets ridiculous sometimes:) ]) work. If they violate this practice, and get caught, they are in deep doo.
In my opinion, this legislation simply requires that online sellers play by the same rules. On the other hand, I'm not sure how they plan to verify a patient's prescription. Do you have to mail them a copy of the paper-prescription? What happens if it is lost in the mail? Do you allow scanned/faxed copies? How do you prevent forgery in those cases?
Personally, if I get a prescription for medicine, I assume my doctor wants me on it as soon as possible. I'm not going to wait for a prescription to get to the retailer in Outer Mongolia (or wherever
In short, I think this is a good idea, but as is the case with all good ideas, it need a good implementation plan for it to be universally accepted.
Eric
Could someone run this through the "Swedish Chef translator"? Maybe this should be a babelfish option!
Eric