The article and Slashdot's synopsis don't make note of it, but Dr. Anderson isn't claiming to have discovered something new in dividing any number other than zero by itself. The video linked in the article shows him saying that 1/0 = infinity, and -1/0 = -infinity, but 0/0 = capital phi (nullity -- we'll ignore the fact that this usually means the golden ratio in mathematics). Math isn't my area of study so I don't know why 0/0 specifically is so important... the article certainly is very much a fluff piece. Anyone feel like explaining the importance of 0/0?
Part of Diablo II is set in Hell. This is the joke. I doubt that it's a joke/reference to Apple's ad, as indeed this patch was expected before iTunes for Windows was.
It's definitely an admirable goal to have all of computing be rock-solid like this. But I think that it's somewhat illuminating that QNX is not the "system of choice" for many of the applications where you see Linux in use. It must be to some extent reliant on the ability to develop software for that environment, and based on the company behind QNX's considerable investment in making it as easy as possible to develop for QNX, it must be assumed that while QNX's architecture makes it very stable, it also makes it more costly (perhaps not in dollars per se, but in some aspect) to develop either the applications or drivers that would make QNX an operating system "for the masses."
I think that much of Windows' market strength is owed to the multitude of RAD (Rapid Application Development) options available behind it that give it such a huge software library, and Linux is beginning to share this same strength. Of course, I am no expert, and this is all wild proposition, but that's my two cents.
3. Of, representing, or carried on by the people at large
4. Fit for, adapted to, or reflecting the taste of the people at large
5. Accepted by or prevalent among the people in general
6. Suited to or within the means of ordinary people
In other words, "popular" can be synonymous with "ubiquitous". Get off of your high horse.
"Today, it is possible to build a system in which the official interactions (social, fiscal, and oral) of our elected officials can be presented to [the] world?"
I think everybody found out about the oral interactions that Clinton had a few years back.
The graders come together and divy up 9 points per free-response question -- that is, they decide what part of the question is worthy of a point. Generally, you don't lose any points for missing semicolons or parenthesis or using a period instead of a -> and that type of thing. But depending on how hard the question is (maybe it's a light one without much material) they can be pretty picky. Once the 9 points are divvied up for each question, the graders grade your test. Two graders grade your test and if they don't concur then the "head grader" for the room of graders will grade it and decide a final grade. There is no opportunity to contest your grade, but if you know you did poorly you can tell them not to score it as you leave. I felt it was pretty easy if you know the material (I took the "AB" test... there's also an easier "A" test which most colleges don't give credit for.)
- Rob
No. They don't monitor instant messages. The person who wrote the article was responsible for the TOS Names/Profiles division of AOL and even if they did monitor IMs he (she?) would have had nothing to do with it. But anyways, AOL has a thing where you can "submit" an instant message to the CAT (Community Action Team) for review if it contains a violation of the TOS, and these IMs are reviewed. If they contain a TOS violation it will (theoretically) be actioned against the offender's account. As far as I know, except for the most severe violations, you can have 3 TOS violations before they "reset" (i.e. terminate but not really:) your account.
"Microsoft Toolbar Gives Out Your URLs!!!"
CmdrTaco: I don't know about you guys, but this raises some major red flags with me.
"Google Settles Temp Worker Lawsuit"
(not posted)
Seven-Digit Dialing:
2XX through 9XX = 800 area codes
2XX-XXXX through 9XX-XXXX = 800K local numbers
800 area codes times 800K numbers = 640M
Ten-Digit Dialing (sorta):
0XX through 9XX = 1K area codes
0XX-XXXX through 9XX-XXXX = 1M local numbers
1K area codes times 1M numbers = 1 billion
This obviously dramatically increases the pool of numbers available. We would always have to dial the area code first, thus freeing up the 1 and 0 as possible number prefixes. However, it seems like a stop-gap solution. We would still only have 3.3 numbers for every person, as opposed to 2.1. And as population grows, that number will obviously shrink.
Twelve-Digit Dialing:
2XXX through 9XXX = 8K area codes
2XXX-XXXX through 9XXX-XXXX = 8M local numbers
8K area codes times 8M numbers = 64 billion
This obviously seems like the best solution. We can continue to dial 1 + area code + number for long-distance calls, dial zero for operator, and dial only one more digit for local calls (the XXXX-XXXX format might even be easier to remember.) Existing numbers and area codes could just have zeros tacked into the middle or the end. 1-312-555-1212 becomes 1-3120-5550-1212, or maybe 1-3120-5551-2120. Either way, it's not much harder. We now have 213.3 phone numbers for every U.S. citizen, and numbers are virtually no harder to remember.
Let's say I whipped up a quick internal project for my company in VB, or VC++. If I want to avoid them getting "WARNING: J00 GUNN4 B3 H4x3D" from their MS Security running in the background because my app isn't certified, it's not a bad idea to be able to submit my small.exe for their testing.
How does this fit under "Stuff that matters"? Would there be an announcement if Larry Wall had a child or any of a number of other computer celebrities? I mean, Linus is great, but come on.
While you have been nitpicking everyone for their supposed "lack of facts", I just thought I'd point out that Maine has 4 electoral college votes, and 3 are expected to go to Gore while 1 may or may not go to Bush.
Well, first of all there's no "home" button within the client software. So... there is no "home page" other than the Welcome screen in AOL, if that's what CNet meant. Secondly, AOL 6.0 does NOT prohibit the user from changing their Internet Explorer or Netscape homepage. So, CNet missed the boat on this story. Maybe they were looking at a pre-release version which didn't have the normal functionality built in yet. Or maybe they were just being journalists.
Most laptops stolen at home would just be pawned - not likely to have their information stolen - but if a laptop is stolen at work, whoever stole it at least KNOWS there is work-related information on it, and at worst was looking for the work-related information.
Actually, they also block sites that schools don't want for their students; for example, you can't get to the "Download AOL Instant Messenger Now!" page.
Even though I think that this lawsuit is frivolous (due to the fact that web site owners are being forced to pay money upfront for linkinf to a product), your logic is severely flawed.
"Samba" is a common noun (generally lower-case first letter), not proper (person's name, street name, location, etc.) It is a latin dance.
So, let's bring up some other copyrighted common nouns. In the US - Oracle (database software), American Airlines, Sprite (the soda), etc... You think I wouldn't get sued if I introduced a new soda called Sprite or a new database administration tool called Oracle? Of course I would, because they are in the same industry. However, if I were to introduce a database administration tool called Sprite and a soda called Oracle, odds are I would escape any legislation.
SAMBA (banking) and Samba (open-source) are both, technically, in the same industry. The average German (or American) has probably never heard of either company. My take on it is this - US copyright/trademark law requires the name similarities to cause confusion, whereas German law does not. These things happen when software gets shipped to countries other than its' origin. We'll have to deal with it.
While I once again want to say, this sounds like an incredibly stupid lawsuit, you should probably not make assumptions based on invalid theories. I also HIGHLY doubt that Germans will stop using a specific bank because they use SAMBA, and therefore banks will not stop using SAMBA. Where are the negative effects for SAMBA? Nowhere to be seen.
Slashdot Mirror
Correction: capital phi is flux (physics), lowercase phi is the golden ratio. Among other things. Oops...
The article and Slashdot's synopsis don't make note of it, but Dr. Anderson isn't claiming to have discovered something new in dividing any number other than zero by itself. The video linked in the article shows him saying that 1/0 = infinity, and -1/0 = -infinity, but 0/0 = capital phi (nullity -- we'll ignore the fact that this usually means the golden ratio in mathematics). Math isn't my area of study so I don't know why 0/0 specifically is so important... the article certainly is very much a fluff piece. Anyone feel like explaining the importance of 0/0?
Part of Diablo II is set in Hell. This is the joke. I doubt that it's a joke/reference to Apple's ad, as indeed this patch was expected before iTunes for Windows was.
It's definitely an admirable goal to have all of computing be rock-solid like this. But I think that it's somewhat illuminating that QNX is not the "system of choice" for many of the applications where you see Linux in use. It must be to some extent reliant on the ability to develop software for that environment, and based on the company behind QNX's considerable investment in making it as easy as possible to develop for QNX, it must be assumed that while QNX's architecture makes it very stable, it also makes it more costly (perhaps not in dollars per se, but in some aspect) to develop either the applications or drivers that would make QNX an operating system "for the masses."
I think that much of Windows' market strength is owed to the multitude of RAD (Rapid Application Development) options available behind it that give it such a huge software library, and Linux is beginning to share this same strength. Of course, I am no expert, and this is all wild proposition, but that's my two cents.
adj.
3. Of, representing, or carried on by the people at large
4. Fit for, adapted to, or reflecting the taste of the people at large
5. Accepted by or prevalent among the people in general
6. Suited to or within the means of ordinary people
In other words, "popular" can be synonymous with "ubiquitous". Get off of your high horse.
"Today, it is possible to build a system in which the official interactions (social, fiscal, and oral) of our elected officials can be presented to [the] world?" I think everybody found out about the oral interactions that Clinton had a few years back.
http://www.majcher.com/nytview.html?url=2002/06/18 / cience/space/18ARRA.html&submit
- Rob
self-aggrandizing
brilliant
- Rob
Registration-free link: http://www.majcher.com/nytview.html?url=2002/06/15 / echnology/15NET.html&submit
The graders come together and divy up 9 points per free-response question -- that is, they decide what part of the question is worthy of a point. Generally, you don't lose any points for missing semicolons or parenthesis or using a period instead of a -> and that type of thing. But depending on how hard the question is (maybe it's a light one without much material) they can be pretty picky. Once the 9 points are divvied up for each question, the graders grade your test. Two graders grade your test and if they don't concur then the "head grader" for the room of graders will grade it and decide a final grade. There is no opportunity to contest your grade, but if you know you did poorly you can tell them not to score it as you leave. I felt it was pretty easy if you know the material (I took the "AB" test... there's also an easier "A" test which most colleges don't give credit for.) - Rob
There's no official site to download it. Search your choice of Google or Gnutella.
- Rob
It's "Star Wars Episode I.I - The Phantom Edit". In other words, the first revision to "Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace". - Rob
No. They don't monitor instant messages. The person who wrote the article was responsible for the TOS Names/Profiles division of AOL and even if they did monitor IMs he (she?) would have had nothing to do with it. But anyways, AOL has a thing where you can "submit" an instant message to the CAT (Community Action Team) for review if it contains a violation of the TOS, and these IMs are reviewed. If they contain a TOS violation it will (theoretically) be actioned against the offender's account. As far as I know, except for the most severe violations, you can have 3 TOS violations before they "reset" (i.e. terminate but not really :) your account.
What he meant was that Sting does not own a trademark on the word "Sting".
"Microsoft Toolbar Gives Out Your URLs!!!" CmdrTaco: I don't know about you guys, but this raises some major red flags with me. "Google Settles Temp Worker Lawsuit" (not posted)
Seven-Digit Dialing:
2XX through 9XX = 800 area codes
2XX-XXXX through 9XX-XXXX = 800K local numbers
800 area codes times 800K numbers = 640M
Ten-Digit Dialing (sorta):
0XX through 9XX = 1K area codes
0XX-XXXX through 9XX-XXXX = 1M local numbers
1K area codes times 1M numbers = 1 billion
This obviously dramatically increases the pool of numbers available. We would always have to dial the area code first, thus freeing up the 1 and 0 as possible number prefixes. However, it seems like a stop-gap solution. We would still only have 3.3 numbers for every person, as opposed to 2.1. And as population grows, that number will obviously shrink.
Twelve-Digit Dialing:
2XXX through 9XXX = 8K area codes
2XXX-XXXX through 9XXX-XXXX = 8M local numbers
8K area codes times 8M numbers = 64 billion
This obviously seems like the best solution. We can continue to dial 1 + area code + number for long-distance calls, dial zero for operator, and dial only one more digit for local calls (the XXXX-XXXX format might even be easier to remember.) Existing numbers and area codes could just have zeros tacked into the middle or the end. 1-312-555-1212 becomes 1-3120-5550-1212, or maybe 1-3120-5551-2120. Either way, it's not much harder. We now have 213.3 phone numbers for every U.S. citizen, and numbers are virtually no harder to remember.
Let's say I whipped up a quick internal project for my company in VB, or VC++. If I want to avoid them getting "WARNING: J00 GUNN4 B3 H4x3D" from their MS Security running in the background because my app isn't certified, it's not a bad idea to be able to submit my small .exe for their testing.
How does this fit under "Stuff that matters"? Would there be an announcement if Larry Wall had a child or any of a number of other computer celebrities? I mean, Linus is great, but come on.
While you have been nitpicking everyone for their supposed "lack of facts", I just thought I'd point out that Maine has 4 electoral college votes, and 3 are expected to go to Gore while 1 may or may not go to Bush.
That story's about a different press release (not necessarily unrelated, but different) that happened a few weeks (months?) ago, as far as I know.
Well, first of all there's no "home" button within the client software. So... there is no "home page" other than the Welcome screen in AOL, if that's what CNet meant. Secondly, AOL 6.0 does NOT prohibit the user from changing their Internet Explorer or Netscape homepage. So, CNet missed the boat on this story. Maybe they were looking at a pre-release version which didn't have the normal functionality built in yet. Or maybe they were just being journalists.
Most laptops stolen at home would just be pawned - not likely to have their information stolen - but if a laptop is stolen at work, whoever stole it at least KNOWS there is work-related information on it, and at worst was looking for the work-related information.
So if this guy's software is "unoptimal for running on a unix-type system" he should re-write his company's project, to give a victory to *nix?
Actually, they also block sites that schools don't want for their students; for example, you can't get to the "Download AOL Instant Messenger Now!" page.
"Samba" is a common noun (generally lower-case first letter), not proper (person's name, street name, location, etc.) It is a latin dance.
So, let's bring up some other copyrighted common nouns. In the US - Oracle (database software), American Airlines, Sprite (the soda), etc... You think I wouldn't get sued if I introduced a new soda called Sprite or a new database administration tool called Oracle? Of course I would, because they are in the same industry. However, if I were to introduce a database administration tool called Sprite and a soda called Oracle, odds are I would escape any legislation.
SAMBA (banking) and Samba (open-source) are both, technically, in the same industry. The average German (or American) has probably never heard of either company. My take on it is this - US copyright/trademark law requires the name similarities to cause confusion, whereas German law does not. These things happen when software gets shipped to countries other than its' origin. We'll have to deal with it.
While I once again want to say, this sounds like an incredibly stupid lawsuit, you should probably not make assumptions based on invalid theories. I also HIGHLY doubt that Germans will stop using a specific bank because they use SAMBA, and therefore banks will not stop using SAMBA. Where are the negative effects for SAMBA? Nowhere to be seen.