Knowing the Dutch, and the way this is worded, it seems to goal of this is noble.
Yes, sure, because the Dutch "nobly" smoke weed and have sex with hookers.
Face it, it doesn't matter how "noble" a government's intentions, because the bottom line is, governments don't have intentions - people do - and the people whose noble intentions may have created a particular government are not necessarily the ones still in charge. Giving excessive power to governments (or other ultimately unaccountable organizations such as corporations) is always a bad idea, and every bit of power such organizations assume should be explicitly justified at all times rather than just assumed on the basis of the government's "noble" intentions. Because such power is always prone to abuse, and it is always more likely to be abused than it is to be used for the benefit of the people.
In this particular case, it seems even more of a bad idea, since the information at stake would be easily available not just to "the government" but to any corrupt or unscrupulous individual working with the government, or to any random hacker with the time and motivation to access the data. This database is the ultimate pedo-file.
One of the mechanisms in place is that no anonymous editing is allowed.
I really wish wikipedia would do that. Your right that spoiled pages get fixed quickly but that's only because a lot of people spend a lot of time doing nothing but fixing such crap. Including editors who are watching pages because they care about the topics rather than because they like fixing vandalism. Of course it wouldn't solve all wikipedia's problems but it would definitely take a chunk out of the amount of busywork created for editors (who could better spend their time improving articles). Of course, anon editors do add some great stuff to wikipedia too, but I don't think it's too much to ask that someone fill out a simple username/password combo (iirc, wikipedia login doesn't ask you for anything else to create a new account) before editing. I am not sure - my tendency would be to err on the side of allowing anonymity, but it is not clear that anonymity is really sacrificed by enforced pseudonymity. And the benefits of disallowing anon posting seem to outweigh the disadvantages...
That's for wimps. Floating nuclear power is not for pansy-asses. You wanna know what we do when there's a meltdown? We hop on our jet-ski and ride around the disaster area with our geiger counter buzzing, posting photos to the internet, just like this biker babe. Who cares if we all die? At least we'll have floating nuclear power! Face it, if you don't build floating nuclear plants now, then Ralph Nader has already won.
Sorry - I should have explained, what we consider porn didn't exist then - sure there was Sade and a lot of stuff going back to Petronius that was pretty pornographic even by today's standards - the stuff I'm talking about would be in the 25% "fictional romances" category. But my comment was actually based on something I have read - and I'm not sure where, nor do I feel like looking for it, so feel free to discount this - about 19th century paperbacks; romance novels and softcore porn, considered dirty at the time and (in part) provoking a campaign to stamp out "vice." So, no, I didn't "just make it up," but it's nowhere near as authoritative as the passage you quote, so I stand duly corrected...
yeah the genres are complete bullshit. Click the same genre over and over and you get things that are radically different enough to be in another of the supposed genres on the list. I am not sure about the philosophical question about whether this stuff counts as "music" but it's certainly not something I would want to listen to for very long. However, if I were a composer I could see how this tool could be useful -- generate a few random measures of this stuff, repeat it a few times around certain formulas and send it to your favorite instruments via midi, and presto -- instant bland, generic, yet technically "original" music to pipe into shopping malls or whatever. It's a cool experiment in some ways and I would be interested to see what a recording artist might come up with using this as a tool to do something more creative than that. But, again, there's no way I would listen to this stuff for more than a few minutes.
I'm on a Mac, and I can't play it because my Mozilla-based browser (Camino) is recognized as IE, and because it defaults to "Sorry, go download mozilla if you want to see this." First, I am using mozilla, but I'm too lazy to find the text file I'm supposed to edit with my browser definition (it's much easier to bitch about it on slashdot you know). Second, I think this kind of thing is imperialistic whether it comes from the IE side or the mozilla side. There should at least be a "try anyway" button to click; it's not like trying it with IE will crash your machine. But it's especially frustrating when you have the tools that are allowed and it still kicks you out. Sure, I could find my textfile and change it to say Mozilla (though I thought that was what it said anyway), but I don't want to listen to computer generated music badly enough to go through the trouble.
I don't believe that is accurate -- there were some that did not work under System 7, but many that did, even some created just for System 7+. Here's a list from 2000 that mentions many that originated after 1991.
Actually there were a number of non-Office related viruses on the old MacOS. Strains of nVIR, there was a WDEF virus as I recall, and some others. I even remember a HyperTalk virus that trapped the "set" command as I recall, but I think it only messed with your HyperCard stacks. But the big news in Mac malware for the old OS was not a virus but a worm - the good old "Autostart" worm that put many desktop publishing outfits out of business for weeks and even led some of them to switch to Windows. That was a particularly nasty bug that was easily prevented - set autostart to "off" for CDs - but probably cost millions for everyone to fix.
I think Disinfectant stopped coming out after the first burst of Office macro viruses. There were too many of these and they were coming from the Windows world and I think the author (John Norstadt?) didn't want to keep up with all that junk. Up until then he did a great job of updating it for every new virus that came out, including new strains of old viruses. That was well before the autostart madness though.
Did they pay for it after getting money from the Automatic ATM Machine? After typing in their PIN Number? I know, I should RTFA the article before posting. I'll STFU up now.
I had to blink for a second; I knew slashdot has some slow news days but that takes the cake; is it now news that someone had to stop talking about Linux long enough to eat some food?
This is a ludicrous point of view. Why rebuild New York? The city will be attacked again by terrorists. New Orleans is a national treasure. The ports along the coast are vital to the US economy and will not be easily relocated. But beyond that it has been for a long time one of the world's great international cities. For cultural reasons alone it should not be abandoned. And investing in flood control is not that different from investing in earthquake and fire protection in California. Should we abandon Malibu the next time it burns?
Natural disasters happen. Urban civilization is always a balance between the needs of humans and the conditions of the environment. There is nothing "stupid" about considering ways to rebuild a city that will be more flood-resistant. New Orleans was an incredible city for centuries prior to the flood; there is no reason it shouldn't be again.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, sure, because the Dutch "nobly" smoke weed and have sex with hookers.
Face it, it doesn't matter how "noble" a government's intentions, because the bottom line is, governments don't have intentions - people do - and the people whose noble intentions may have created a particular government are not necessarily the ones still in charge. Giving excessive power to governments (or other ultimately unaccountable organizations such as corporations) is always a bad idea, and every bit of power such organizations assume should be explicitly justified at all times rather than just assumed on the basis of the government's "noble" intentions. Because such power is always prone to abuse, and it is always more likely to be abused than it is to be used for the benefit of the people.
In this particular case, it seems even more of a bad idea, since the information at stake would be easily available not just to "the government" but to any corrupt or unscrupulous individual working with the government, or to any random hacker with the time and motivation to access the data. This database is the ultimate pedo-file.
How the hell is this thing supposed to fetch me a beer?
You should be asking what's the next little thing.
The first order of business will be designing a talking paperclip for google.
I really wish wikipedia would do that. Your right that spoiled pages get fixed quickly but that's only because a lot of people spend a lot of time doing nothing but fixing such crap. Including editors who are watching pages because they care about the topics rather than because they like fixing vandalism. Of course it wouldn't solve all wikipedia's problems but it would definitely take a chunk out of the amount of busywork created for editors (who could better spend their time improving articles). Of course, anon editors do add some great stuff to wikipedia too, but I don't think it's too much to ask that someone fill out a simple username/password combo (iirc, wikipedia login doesn't ask you for anything else to create a new account) before editing. I am not sure - my tendency would be to err on the side of allowing anonymity, but it is not clear that anonymity is really sacrificed by enforced pseudonymity. And the benefits of disallowing anon posting seem to outweigh the disadvantages...
I guess you learned how to spell "teats" in home schooling since someone with your attitude obviously would not use public education.
That's for wimps. Floating nuclear power is not for pansy-asses. You wanna know what we do when there's a meltdown? We hop on our jet-ski and ride around the disaster area with our geiger counter buzzing, posting photos to the internet, just like this biker babe. Who cares if we all die? At least we'll have floating nuclear power! Face it, if you don't build floating nuclear plants now, then Ralph Nader has already won.
Whatever it is, we want pictures.
I believe there's still a job opening at the Mirage in Vegas for someone who can do this right.
Sorry - I should have explained, what we consider porn didn't exist then - sure there was Sade and a lot of stuff going back to Petronius that was pretty pornographic even by today's standards - the stuff I'm talking about would be in the 25% "fictional romances" category. But my comment was actually based on something I have read - and I'm not sure where, nor do I feel like looking for it, so feel free to discount this - about 19th century paperbacks; romance novels and softcore porn, considered dirty at the time and (in part) provoking a campaign to stamp out "vice." So, no, I didn't "just make it up," but it's nowhere near as authoritative as the passage you quote, so I stand duly corrected...
yeah the genres are complete bullshit. Click the same genre over and over and you get things that are radically different enough to be in another of the supposed genres on the list. I am not sure about the philosophical question about whether this stuff counts as "music" but it's certainly not something I would want to listen to for very long. However, if I were a composer I could see how this tool could be useful -- generate a few random measures of this stuff, repeat it a few times around certain formulas and send it to your favorite instruments via midi, and presto -- instant bland, generic, yet technically "original" music to pipe into shopping malls or whatever. It's a cool experiment in some ways and I would be interested to see what a recording artist might come up with using this as a tool to do something more creative than that. But, again, there's no way I would listen to this stuff for more than a few minutes.
Too late - I went to Moes, now I'm too drunk to run safari. Hell, I don't even remember which website I'm supposed to be looking at.
That's it; I'm going to Moe's!
I don't believe that is accurate -- there were some that did not work under System 7, but many that did, even some created just for System 7+. Here's a list from 2000 that mentions many that originated after 1991.
I think Disinfectant stopped coming out after the first burst of Office macro viruses. There were too many of these and they were coming from the Windows world and I think the author (John Norstadt?) didn't want to keep up with all that junk. Up until then he did a great job of updating it for every new virus that came out, including new strains of old viruses. That was well before the autostart madness though.
when will Apple finally come out with a mouse that is usable by left handed midgets? Preferably one that matches my hair.
You can do that just by being from Brazil.
Yes but then the dupe will be posted, so this will start all over again.
It's called "warmth".
It's much snappier! I thought everyone knew that.
Did they pay for it after getting money from the Automatic ATM Machine? After typing in their PIN Number? I know, I should RTFA the article before posting. I'll STFU up now.
I had to blink for a second; I knew slashdot has some slow news days but that takes the cake; is it now news that someone had to stop talking about Linux long enough to eat some food?
Cool; I got here when I googled slashdot.
Is there anything that lets one experience this wonderful program on OS X?
Natural disasters happen. Urban civilization is always a balance between the needs of humans and the conditions of the environment. There is nothing "stupid" about considering ways to rebuild a city that will be more flood-resistant. New Orleans was an incredible city for centuries prior to the flood; there is no reason it shouldn't be again.