If force powers are an inherited genetic trait (high levels of "midichloreans" or whateverthefuck in your blood means "the force runs strong" in your family), then why didn't the evil Palpatine make his clone army out of a Sith lord, such as Darth Maul, instead of some average Joe Loser.
Granted, he was a Joe Loser who could fight well enough during that rainstorm scene to make Obi-Wan look like a sissy girl, but still... wouldn't an army of Sith Lords be better than a couple million Jango Fetts who can't even shoot straight?
Microsoft, for all its faults, is still a desirable company for most techies to work at. They pay well, their name looks very good on a resume, and they have a history of having a rather geek-friendly corporate culture.
No, they can't talk their employees into working past sunset all weekend long like in the 90s... but then again, no company has been able to do that since the.com bubble burst and techies finally realized that looking after yourself and your family is far more important than living up to the dreams of your CEO.
Microsoft's shitty security has been a result of a short-sighted lack of emphasis, not capacity. Now that they are making it a priority, I have no doubt that Longhorn will be a relatively secure OS.
Whenever it arrives, that is. Meanwhile... fuck it, I'm using OS X.
Actually, Congress can revisit any part of the PATRIOT Act, whether it has a sunset clause or not. Don't let your Congressman weasel out of looking at it on the grounds that it's not one of the sections which doesn't expire next year.
Uh. No. Viruses is the English word for more than one type of virus... EXCEPT in the slang jargon of computer geeks like us, who find "virii" more amusing to say.
Neither is correct in latin, but we are not latin speakers, are we?
The pural of Index can be either indexes or indices. Both are correct, as Merriam-Webster and dictionary.com will both confirm.
Ditto for matrix. Both common matrices and matrixes are valid. If you thought otherwise, then you are the one who has it wrong.
I really think we should all start to reject the diagonal as a way of measuring TV sets and monitors.
I don't know how many people I've seen who see an ad for a "40 inch widescreen" and say "wow, that must be HUGE," when in fact it's about the same height their old 32" 4:3 TV set, and most US TV broadcasts will be just about exactly the same size on it.
Diagonal measurment has always been an obfuscating tactic by TV and monitor makers, even before widescreen systems started showing up. I think "width x height" should always be given, so you can know exactly what you are buying without having to figure out square roots in your head.
Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style
Slashdot is a forum which many mistakenly believe to be a place where formal style is demanded.
The truth is that it is made up entirely of off-the-cuff rants, with bad spelling, intentionally mis-used plurals (boxen, virii, etc.), occastional '1337 5p33k, piss-poor conversational writing, and many other colorful abuses of the English Language.
Formal grammar is not even welcome, let alone called for.
We are very casual around here, irregardless of how you think it should be.
I suspect that this clause is largely the result of late-90s fears of "cyber-terrorism" being a major potential type terror threat.
(Remember Richard Clarke? While working for Clinton and briefly for Bush, he held the position that a cyber attack was actually a lot more likely than a conventional one.)
Seeing as no such attacks have ever materialized, I think that 212 is another section which ought to be revisited.
A lot of arguments about the PATRIOT Act (which I do think desperately needs radical revision) are very light on facts.
A good example is the article here. "One hearing disclosed police invoked the Patriot Act 108 times in a 22-month period" would be a much more useful piece of information if we got a chance to see whether the cases in question did, in fact, involve terrorism.
I mean, if nearly all 108 of them regarded rifling through the files of nut-jobs planning on poisoning the NYC water supply or shutting down nuclear plant cooling systems in California, I would take that as compelling evidence that something very much like the PATRIOT Act (with a little tweaking to improve safeguards of personal rights) is probably a Good Thing to have in place.
On the other hand, if many of the cases were simply run-of-the-mill crime suspects, and law enforcement officers used PATRIOT clauses as a work-around to unconstitutionally search their premises, I would say it's time to riot in the streets.
tHere wAs always supposed to be oNly Six... He said "nine" back in the eighties, because the technOlogy To make only six Films dId not Really exiSt at The time.
now the series is completed the way he originally intended.
Guilty as charged... Except I wasn't really refuting your argument this time, just making an observation about the way you tend to organize your thoughts.
By the way, I've noticed that you use the metaphor of a "triad" a LOT when supporting (pardon the pun) your arguments.
What is this need to group things in threes? Is it a military thing? Music? Numerology?
The metaphor is deeply flawed in two ways:
1. Gravity only matters when you are dealing with real physical objects. (Duh.)
2. It limits your thinking, because in some situations four or five types of reinforcement will be vastly superior. If you are visualizing a tripod stand, you may end up concluding that three factors are enough even when they are woefully inadequate. In other situations, three might be excessive and redundant, but your visualization might make you reluctant to let go of a support system you don't actually need out of pure superstition.
The iPod Photo didn't really rock my world, because I'm not much of a shutterbug...... but the ability to watch downloaded Doctor Who episodes in the ice-fishing house or while waiting in line at the DMV sounds pretty sweet to me.
It's not often that I disagree with the Almighty Jobs, but I think that the only thing really preventing video on hand-held MP3 players was that the technology was not quite ready to do it right just yet.
IMHO, we are rapidly approaching the point where introducing an "iPod Movie" will be nearly as trivial as the extra $50 or so to create the iPod Photo was.
Well, one would hope that the standard of entering a military base is slightly higher than what is required to buy a twelve-pack of 3.2 Miller from the gas station with a VISA "check card."
For most mundane uses, some flunky with an eyeball scanner ought to be adequate, and would certainly be a step up from looking at a driver's license, which has always been and easy layer of security to get around with forged or stolen cards.
Instead of perpetually arguing against what I am not proposing, how about addressing my actual point:
For purposes of confirming the identity of a person standing in front of you, a biometric solution (such as retina scanning) is vastly superior to using some kind of card with a picture on it.
And where do you get this "lunkhead armed to the teeth" notion from? Are there a lot of cases in your country of violent thugs bullying clerks into accepting fake ID cards? Because in most of the world that never happens. If you are willing to threaten physical violence, then straight-up robbery is a lot simpler.
My bank never asks me for ID. The tellers know my face and call me by name.
If I did belong to a larger bank where I was less likely to be recognized, I would want them to be extremely attentive to the possibility of identity theft. Even the "extreme" of asking for a fingerprint before allowing a large withdrawl would be more than reasonable in my book.
(a) How many liquor stores do you know that do retinal scans? References, please...
None yet. I'm saying it would be a good idea. Reading comprehension is not your greatest strength, is it?
(b) Your average liquor-store counter-jockey is just like any other lowly paid retail worker - they don't care about their job, which is why most of them still don't bother checking ID for under-age drinkers (in Europe/Australia at least).
In America, they get fired if they don't do their jobs properly. In fact, some liquer stores lock out the register until a driver's license number is keyed into it. Retina scanning would just be a more convenient and accurate means to the same end.
Federal speed limit mandates from the 70s through the 90s were imposed on states the same way.
It's BS, but it's now a well-established end-run for tricky constitutional issues like this. That's what you get when you let the Federal government hold all the money.
This is exactly why, were a libertarian nut like me ever put in charge, the every federal department of $GOOD_THING would be wiped off the books, and their budgets returned to the states, where they belong.
Slashdot Mirror
"House" is far and away the most brilliant show on TV right now, and it's on FOX.
Therefore it's doomed, because FOX seems to drop every good show which is not a cartoon.
Oh well, the first (and only) season DVD set will go nicely on the shelf next to the "Jeeves and Wooster" disks.
If you really want to be a killjoy, ask this:
If force powers are an inherited genetic trait (high levels of "midichloreans" or whateverthefuck in your blood means "the force runs strong" in your family), then why didn't the evil Palpatine make his clone army out of a Sith lord, such as Darth Maul, instead of some average Joe Loser.
Granted, he was a Joe Loser who could fight well enough during that rainstorm scene to make Obi-Wan look like a sissy girl, but still... wouldn't an army of Sith Lords be better than a couple million Jango Fetts who can't even shoot straight?
Microsoft, for all its faults, is still a desirable company for most techies to work at. They pay well, their name looks very good on a resume, and they have a history of having a rather geek-friendly corporate culture.
.com bubble burst and techies finally realized that looking after yourself and your family is far more important than living up to the dreams of your CEO.
No, they can't talk their employees into working past sunset all weekend long like in the 90s... but then again, no company has been able to do that since the
Microsoft's shitty security has been a result of a short-sighted lack of emphasis, not capacity. Now that they are making it a priority, I have no doubt that Longhorn will be a relatively secure OS.
Whenever it arrives, that is. Meanwhile... fuck it, I'm using OS X.
Actually, Congress can revisit any part of the PATRIOT Act, whether it has a sunset clause or not. Don't let your Congressman weasel out of looking at it on the grounds that it's not one of the sections which doesn't expire next year.
Uh. No. Viruses is the English word for more than one type of virus... EXCEPT in the slang jargon of computer geeks like us, who find "virii" more amusing to say.
Neither is correct in latin, but we are not latin speakers, are we?
The pural of Index can be either indexes or indices. Both are correct, as Merriam-Webster and dictionary.com will both confirm.
Ditto for matrix. Both common matrices and matrixes are valid. If you thought otherwise, then you are the one who has it wrong.
EBG13 vf fvzcyr gb pnyphyngr gbb, ohg vg'f fgvyy n sbez bs boshfpngvba.
I rest my case.
I really think we should all start to reject the diagonal as a way of measuring TV sets and monitors.
I don't know how many people I've seen who see an ad for a "40 inch widescreen" and say "wow, that must be HUGE," when in fact it's about the same height their old 32" 4:3 TV set, and most US TV broadcasts will be just about exactly the same size on it.
Diagonal measurment has always been an obfuscating tactic by TV and monitor makers, even before widescreen systems started showing up. I think "width x height" should always be given, so you can know exactly what you are buying without having to figure out square roots in your head.
Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style
Slashdot is a forum which many mistakenly believe to be a place where formal style is demanded.
The truth is that it is made up entirely of off-the-cuff rants, with bad spelling, intentionally mis-used plurals (boxen, virii, etc.), occastional '1337 5p33k, piss-poor conversational writing, and many other colorful abuses of the English Language.
Formal grammar is not even welcome, let alone called for.
We are very casual around here, irregardless of how you think it should be.
I suspect that this clause is largely the result of late-90s fears of "cyber-terrorism" being a major potential type terror threat.
(Remember Richard Clarke? While working for Clinton and briefly for Bush, he held the position that a cyber attack was actually a lot more likely than a conventional one.)
Seeing as no such attacks have ever materialized, I think that 212 is another section which ought to be revisited.
A lot of arguments about the PATRIOT Act (which I do think desperately needs radical revision) are very light on facts.
A good example is the article here. "One hearing disclosed police invoked the Patriot Act 108 times in a 22-month period" would be a much more useful piece of information if we got a chance to see whether the cases in question did, in fact, involve terrorism.
I mean, if nearly all 108 of them regarded rifling through the files of nut-jobs planning on poisoning the NYC water supply or shutting down nuclear plant cooling systems in California, I would take that as compelling evidence that something very much like the PATRIOT Act (with a little tweaking to improve safeguards of personal rights) is probably a Good Thing to have in place.
On the other hand, if many of the cases were simply run-of-the-mill crime suspects, and law enforcement officers used PATRIOT clauses as a work-around to unconstitutionally search their premises, I would say it's time to riot in the streets.
Han never shot the Tauntaun. It froze to death, and then Han sliced the fresh corpse open with Luke's lightsaber to create a warm, gooey sleeping bag.
Otherwise, a great article.
Star Wars 1.5 (What Made the lead character a jerk for Star Wars 2).
The Young Anakin Skywalker Chronicles?
Terrific. Now, where the hell did I leave my noose? It might come in handy soon.
Troll? Idiot moderators...
:)
No need to fret for my sake, AC. If I got a chuckle out of a couple people I'm happy. I've got Karma to burn.
This reply, for example, is way Off Topic.
tHere wAs always supposed to be oNly Six... He said "nine" back in the eighties, because the technOlogy To make only six Films dId not Really exiSt at The time.
now the series is completed the way he originally intended.
Guilty as charged... Except I wasn't really refuting your argument this time, just making an observation about the way you tend to organize your thoughts.
(Shit, it's like I know you or something!)
What about the video for All the Things She Said by t.A.T.u.
Two girls.
Good-looking.
In their late teens.
Dressed in short-skirted school uniforms.
Kissing.
Each other.
In the rain.
That, my friend is ART!
There might have been a song playing in the background, I don't really remember.
By the way, I've noticed that you use the metaphor of a "triad" a LOT when supporting (pardon the pun) your arguments.
What is this need to group things in threes? Is it a military thing? Music? Numerology?
The metaphor is deeply flawed in two ways:
1. Gravity only matters when you are dealing with real physical objects. (Duh.)
2. It limits your thinking, because in some situations four or five types of reinforcement will be vastly superior. If you are visualizing a tripod stand, you may end up concluding that three factors are enough even when they are woefully inadequate. In other situations, three might be excessive and redundant, but your visualization might make you reluctant to let go of a support system you don't actually need out of pure superstition.
I don't want a swiss army knife
... but the ability to watch downloaded Doctor Who episodes in the ice-fishing house or while waiting in line at the DMV sounds pretty sweet to me.
I dunno.
The iPod Photo didn't really rock my world, because I'm not much of a shutterbug...
It's not often that I disagree with the Almighty Jobs, but I think that the only thing really preventing video on hand-held MP3 players was that the technology was not quite ready to do it right just yet.
IMHO, we are rapidly approaching the point where introducing an "iPod Movie" will be nearly as trivial as the extra $50 or so to create the iPod Photo was.
Well, one would hope that the standard of entering a military base is slightly higher than what is required to buy a twelve-pack of 3.2 Miller from the gas station with a VISA "check card."
For most mundane uses, some flunky with an eyeball scanner ought to be adequate, and would certainly be a step up from looking at a driver's license, which has always been and easy layer of security to get around with forged or stolen cards.
"Slippery slope" arguments are fallicious. If that's the best you got, I'm done discussing it with you. Have a nice day.
Instead of perpetually arguing against what I am not proposing, how about addressing my actual point:
For purposes of confirming the identity of a person standing in front of you, a biometric solution (such as retina scanning) is vastly superior to using some kind of card with a picture on it.
And where do you get this "lunkhead armed to the teeth" notion from? Are there a lot of cases in your country of violent thugs bullying clerks into accepting fake ID cards? Because in most of the world that never happens. If you are willing to threaten physical violence, then straight-up robbery is a lot simpler.
Sure. But who's going to be around to see it?
The person scanning you, for starters.
My bank never asks me for ID. The tellers know my face and call me by name.
If I did belong to a larger bank where I was less likely to be recognized, I would want them to be extremely attentive to the possibility of identity theft. Even the "extreme" of asking for a fingerprint before allowing a large withdrawl would be more than reasonable in my book.
(a) How many liquor stores do you know that do retinal scans? References, please...
None yet. I'm saying it would be a good idea. Reading comprehension is not your greatest strength, is it?
(b) Your average liquor-store counter-jockey is just like any other lowly paid retail worker - they don't care about their job, which is why most of them still don't bother checking ID for under-age drinkers (in Europe/Australia at least).
In America, they get fired if they don't do their jobs properly. In fact, some liquer stores lock out the register until a driver's license number is keyed into it. Retina scanning would just be a more convenient and accurate means to the same end.
Federal speed limit mandates from the 70s through the 90s were imposed on states the same way.
It's BS, but it's now a well-established end-run for tricky constitutional issues like this. That's what you get when you let the Federal government hold all the money.
This is exactly why, were a libertarian nut like me ever put in charge, the every federal department of $GOOD_THING would be wiped off the books, and their budgets returned to the states, where they belong.