No no no. Here's how you get the guaranteed Slashdot article:
Put Bitcoin miner on a Raspberry Pi (running Linux, of course), then send that up into space on a balloon in a hardened steel case, with either a Simpson's or Monty Python quote on it. Use a small explosive charge to drop the payload onto either the RIAA or MPAA headquarters. Film the whole thing from your tablet, with commentary by some nerd celebrity (Wil Wheaton? RMS?)
Finally, bribe Randall Munroe into making an XKCD strip about it.
I think that hits every/. weak point at once, for massive damage.
I've been reading Kotaku's liveblog - I normally avoid videos as well, although *normally* I make an exception for Nintendo, but I'm kind of at work right now.
That's the "price in Japan, converted to dollars". AKA not the actual price at all, but/. couldn't wait to post the article (it was up before the press conference even started!)
They actually announced it now - $300 for the console ($350 for premium).
And the prices were just announced. $300 for the base model (8GB), $350 for the premium (32GB, a console stand, controller charger and a game). So, about half what the PS3 launched at.
Not only is it expensive, but you're unlikely to buy one.
One is included with the console. The system supports a max of two, and no launch games support that. So even if you want a maxed-out system, you're not looking at $600 in controllers alone, you're looking at $150.
I will admit that if you break one of them, you're in trouble, but Nintendo does a good job of making "unbreakable" hardware - all of my Gamecube controllers still work, after all these years.
There's no way it'll hit that. Even if they round the converted currencies up, it's still only $400 for the premium version.
Current speculation is $250 for the base model, $300 for the premium, with $60 for the xbox-like "Pro" controllers and $120- $150 for the tablet-like controllers (one of which is included with the console).
A QR code is just a text string. Or binary string, even (I think - haven't tried it yet).
However, the most common use, so far, has been embedding URLs - most phone-app QR code readers automatically interpret the string as a URL and redirect you there, since that's generally what those users want. However, that's a feature of the particular scanner, not of QR codes themselves.
The original author's mistake is thinking that's a fundamental design feature of QR codes - you scan them, it takes you to a website. Which, if it were true, would indeed be a glaring security hole. Which is why nobody would do such a thing.
Precisely. Just as with most DRM, it is not unbeatable. It simply imposes a barrier that is too high for most to overcome.
And, in the process, it imposes a smaller barrier on what it considers "authorized" use. In this case, viewing the images at all requires installing a plugin, which a) takes time, b) may not be compatible with your browser/os/hardware/favorite shade of blue, c) you may not be allowed to install, and d) may confuse the less tech-savvy users, particularly the ones who actually paid attention to our "IF A SITE TELLS YOU THE ONLY WAY TO VIEW SOMETHING IS TO INSTALL SOME WEIRD PLUGIN, IT'S PROBABLY A VIRUS SO DON'T DO IT, DUMBASS!" rants.
Presumably the """only""" way to view the images at all will be with this plug-in installed, for definitions of "only" so loose I had to put sarcasm quotes around my sarcasm quotes.
And knowing Facebook's userbase, they'll probably just use the analog hole - take a photo of their screen. Hell, some of them do it already, being too stupid to operate PrtScrn or even the snipping tool.
The older GMA chips are pretty terrible - even on Windows the drivers frequently crash and burn, and the performance is abysmal. I'm not sure if the drivers have been open-sourced, but I don't think they have. They discontinued these long ago - just how old is your motherboard?
The newer "Intel HD" chips (integrated into the CPU, not the mobo chipset) are a completely different beast. Brand-new design, fully open-source drivers with significant Intel support, and surprisingly powerful (especially per-watt).
I don't know about your school, but in every one of my middle school and high school math classes, students always needed more loaner calculators than they had. (my college banned calculators from math classes, which didn't really hurt since all I took was Calc II).
If you find that students are consistently being responsible and bringing their own, I suggest donating them to another school, so they can get some use from them.
There's not really anything interesting you can do with them - they aren't powerful enough to do anything other than do simple math, or perhaps play a mediocre Wolfenstein clone on (yes, it's real - google "ti-83 doom app"). The displays are shit, the processor is pathetic, and the input mechanism is severely lacking.
On paper, it creates money. However, it triggers inflation, which decreases the value of all money proportionate to how much is created in excess of true economic growth. In effect, it only transfers monetery value to whoever is doing the printing - the effect is the same as a tax.
And in any case, I can hardly call that "ordinary economic activity".
The Broken Window Fallacy is that destroying property *creates* economic movement, by forcing money to be spent. This is generally not true - the money would likely have been spent anyways, although it can be shown that, in some cases, "broken windows" do cause overall economic growth.
However, it neither creates nor destroys money - it only changes where it is going. Thus it maintains my thermodynamic metaphor.
There's a joke among the infantry: "MREs are three lies in one acronym", as they are not really "meals", they aren't really "ready-to-eat", nor are they strictly-speaking "edible".
If you have some free time and a *very* strong stomach, look around for some stories of the gastrointestinal distress living off MREs can cause.
Space programs may require a lot of high-tech work, but all high-tech work requires low-tech work. Ie. someone's got to dig the ditch to run the cables, someone's got to build the giant silos and buildings, someone's got to run the steel mill.
Money is like energy - it is not created or destroyed, simply transferred (at least, for ordinary economic activity - there are exceptions). Their space program is funding things on Earth, not shooting barrels of money into space.
Now, maybe it's not the most efficient way to create jobs for the poor, in the short-term, but think long-term. You cannot deny that the space program is a good thing in the long run. So when you look at it that way, it isn't a bad idea to spend some money "inefficiently" now, in order to improve things in the long run.
Slashdot Mirror
Or use, say, a gun, or a crossbow, or perhaps even a well-thrown rock, to destroy it from beyond its range of vision.
No no no. Here's how you get the guaranteed Slashdot article:
Put Bitcoin miner on a Raspberry Pi (running Linux, of course), then send that up into space on a balloon in a hardened steel case, with either a Simpson's or Monty Python quote on it. Use a small explosive charge to drop the payload onto either the RIAA or MPAA headquarters. Film the whole thing from your tablet, with commentary by some nerd celebrity (Wil Wheaton? RMS?)
Finally, bribe Randall Munroe into making an XKCD strip about it.
I think that hits every /. weak point at once, for massive damage.
I've been reading Kotaku's liveblog - I normally avoid videos as well, although *normally* I make an exception for Nintendo, but I'm kind of at work right now.
Guess what? You're wrong!
Release date in Japan: December 8
Release date in US: November 18
See, timothy? This is why you wait until *after* the press conference to post the article.
That's the "price in Japan, converted to dollars". AKA not the actual price at all, but /. couldn't wait to post the article (it was up before the press conference even started!)
They actually announced it now - $300 for the console ($350 for premium).
And the prices were just announced. $300 for the base model (8GB), $350 for the premium (32GB, a console stand, controller charger and a game). So, about half what the PS3 launched at.
Not only is it expensive, but you're unlikely to buy one.
One is included with the console. The system supports a max of two, and no launch games support that. So even if you want a maxed-out system, you're not looking at $600 in controllers alone, you're looking at $150.
I will admit that if you break one of them, you're in trouble, but Nintendo does a good job of making "unbreakable" hardware - all of my Gamecube controllers still work, after all these years.
There's no way it'll hit that. Even if they round the converted currencies up, it's still only $400 for the premium version.
Current speculation is $250 for the base model, $300 for the premium, with $60 for the xbox-like "Pro" controllers and $120- $150 for the tablet-like controllers (one of which is included with the console).
Modded +5, Doubleplusfunny
A QR code is just a text string. Or binary string, even (I think - haven't tried it yet).
However, the most common use, so far, has been embedding URLs - most phone-app QR code readers automatically interpret the string as a URL and redirect you there, since that's generally what those users want. However, that's a feature of the particular scanner, not of QR codes themselves.
The original author's mistake is thinking that's a fundamental design feature of QR codes - you scan them, it takes you to a website. Which, if it were true, would indeed be a glaring security hole. Which is why nobody would do such a thing.
Precisely. Just as with most DRM, it is not unbeatable. It simply imposes a barrier that is too high for most to overcome.
And, in the process, it imposes a smaller barrier on what it considers "authorized" use. In this case, viewing the images at all requires installing a plugin, which a) takes time, b) may not be compatible with your browser/os/hardware/favorite shade of blue, c) you may not be allowed to install, and d) may confuse the less tech-savvy users, particularly the ones who actually paid attention to our "IF A SITE TELLS YOU THE ONLY WAY TO VIEW SOMETHING IS TO INSTALL SOME WEIRD PLUGIN, IT'S PROBABLY A VIRUS SO DON'T DO IT, DUMBASS!" rants.
Presumably the """only""" way to view the images at all will be with this plug-in installed, for definitions of "only" so loose I had to put sarcasm quotes around my sarcasm quotes.
And knowing Facebook's userbase, they'll probably just use the analog hole - take a photo of their screen. Hell, some of them do it already, being too stupid to operate PrtScrn or even the snipping tool.
The older GMA chips are pretty terrible - even on Windows the drivers frequently crash and burn, and the performance is abysmal. I'm not sure if the drivers have been open-sourced, but I don't think they have. They discontinued these long ago - just how old is your motherboard?
The newer "Intel HD" chips (integrated into the CPU, not the mobo chipset) are a completely different beast. Brand-new design, fully open-source drivers with significant Intel support, and surprisingly powerful (especially per-watt).
I prefer the one that ends with an animal version of Batman.
*ducks*
... I see what you did there.
Now just to give it a 3d-printed gun, so it can go get revenge on the poacher who shot it.
Those weren't mistakes.
but we told them so. WE TOLD THEM. They did not listen. And now? Vindication.
Or rather, it would be a solution of Greece in EU.
Although I have to wonder about how well the EU works as a solvent... they don't seem particularly solvent to me...
STOP GIVING THEM IDEAS!
I don't know about your school, but in every one of my middle school and high school math classes, students always needed more loaner calculators than they had. (my college banned calculators from math classes, which didn't really hurt since all I took was Calc II).
If you find that students are consistently being responsible and bringing their own, I suggest donating them to another school, so they can get some use from them.
There's not really anything interesting you can do with them - they aren't powerful enough to do anything other than do simple math, or perhaps play a mediocre Wolfenstein clone on (yes, it's real - google "ti-83 doom app"). The displays are shit, the processor is pathetic, and the input mechanism is severely lacking.
On paper, it creates money. However, it triggers inflation, which decreases the value of all money proportionate to how much is created in excess of true economic growth. In effect, it only transfers monetery value to whoever is doing the printing - the effect is the same as a tax.
And in any case, I can hardly call that "ordinary economic activity".
That actually supports my argument.
The Broken Window Fallacy is that destroying property *creates* economic movement, by forcing money to be spent. This is generally not true - the money would likely have been spent anyways, although it can be shown that, in some cases, "broken windows" do cause overall economic growth.
However, it neither creates nor destroys money - it only changes where it is going. Thus it maintains my thermodynamic metaphor.
There's a joke among the infantry: "MREs are three lies in one acronym", as they are not really "meals", they aren't really "ready-to-eat", nor are they strictly-speaking "edible".
If you have some free time and a *very* strong stomach, look around for some stories of the gastrointestinal distress living off MREs can cause.
Space programs may require a lot of high-tech work, but all high-tech work requires low-tech work. Ie. someone's got to dig the ditch to run the cables, someone's got to build the giant silos and buildings, someone's got to run the steel mill.
Money is like energy - it is not created or destroyed, simply transferred (at least, for ordinary economic activity - there are exceptions). Their space program is funding things on Earth, not shooting barrels of money into space.
Now, maybe it's not the most efficient way to create jobs for the poor, in the short-term, but think long-term. You cannot deny that the space program is a good thing in the long run. So when you look at it that way, it isn't a bad idea to spend some money "inefficiently" now, in order to improve things in the long run.