So, let's see if they want to answer the big question: Are we going to run out of oil first, or will burning it all cause runaway global warming and kill us all before we get there?
Seriously. They seem to be missing out the results of pumping all this carbon out of the ground and into the air, and those could make the whole peak oil thing completely irrelevant.
I find it ironic that the guy is arrested in front of a whole bunch of online geeks, yet nobody has managed to find the single, most pertinent bit of information: What's he been charged with?
It appears you can't access this kind of information online.
.. in the earlier article, "U.S. Game Sales Up 25% In June."
People are just playing games, they're not thinking. For that, you don't need a PC, a SlayStation will do.
Us thoughtful developers are becoming a minority as the "bread and circuses" concept is pushed by corporates - except now it's fast food, cable, and video games.
I was an RSI sufferer. As well as following all the usual doctor's advice, I did a little experimentation to come up with a comfortable trackball, and discovered that the angle - and thus height - of the trackball could easily be adjusted with large styrofoam wedges taped underneath it.
The idea (assuming a right-hander) is to raise the left-hand edge of the thumb trackball until the top of the ball is about 80mm or 3 inches above the desk. The exact height depends on the size of the user's hand, but the general idea is to have the hand as vertical as is comfortable. Experiment with duct tape until things are in the right position, then build a more sturdy and aesthetic solution to suit.
I attached the whole assemblage to a mouse pad with a gel wrist rest, which helps hold the whole thing in position and stops it all toppling over as well as making the wrist comfy.
Operation of the buttons and scroll wheel is very easy, even with the trackball tilted at this angle. Do allow enough access to the underside if our trackball design requires you to poke the ball out from underneath for cleaning!
We've used the Wiki for a while now at ECONZ http://econz.com/ and it has been very useful. All it needs is someone to take control of the formatting of the site, rather than just leaving everything totally free range. The one remaining problem is the actual editing process, which MS Word users can't seem to get their heads around.
We did find FCKEditor http://www.fckeditor.net/ but that doesn't come built-in and support is beta. Mention that to the system admins, and they'll refuse to install it. Once that gets integrated, we'll be able to get even more of the staff using it.
This is for terrorists and paedophiles, right? So how about limiting it to cases involving those offences?
FYI I left the UK *because* they drafted this law. It wasn't hard to see where the government was heading, and I wanted no part of a country that conducts itself in that manner.
Thanks. A lot of the credit goes to the members of the New Zealand Open Source Society http://nzoss.org.nz/
OK, I'm a member and I helped draft the response. This isn't about grabbing credit for ego, but about the way the response was done. It was calm, didn't call for Open Sourcing everything, and didn't demonize Microsoft. The response was a coordinated, reviewed group effort containing constrictive and well-researched cristicism presented in a non-confrontational way. Coupled with a very receptive attitude by the SSC, the combination resulted in what you can see is a very reasonable and useful document.
It's funny, but when the nanoparticles are produced by internal combustion engines - the source of the most potent non-radioactive carcinogens known - or from plasticisers used in plastic goods etc., the US government is positively glacial in its response.
Start developing a new technology that promises to completely revolutionise the manufacturing and supply industries as we know them, and POW! Suddenly there is activity to ban it because it might produce nasty chemicals if done in an inconsiderate manner.
So much for US industry.
At this rate the US will be buying its nanotechnology from Venezuela.
I guess that's the acid test isn't it? How many MB of RAM and storage am I going to need to edit a meaningful open standard document? I'll need mesh WiFi running in the background too.
Oh, I can't do this in console mode. Bugger. That means I need to haul in a GUI. Can I use a cut-down interface like direct GTK+ or am I going to have to haul in X? This gets tricky...
I hope this is a step along the way to allowing songs into the charts that are heavily downloaded and - legally - not necessarily paid for. Until that happens, the charts remain an indicator of how heavily pimped a song or artist is.
You sprinke a suspect with substance X, which your sensor can detect in minute quantities. You can then follow the trail of X using your handy-dandy biosensor, finding everywhere they went, everyone they met, all the money they handled, and their current location.
Regardless of whether something makes a profit or not, economists should be interested in how the technology will affect their market. As things stand, they almost universally dismiss any advance that does not make a profit even if it stands to make a major impact on their sector of the economy. This leads to a very distorted view of the future, to the detriment of commerce and society.
As part of a team engaged in a disruptive Open Source hardware project (http://reprap.org/ I have to say that the guy is almost right. Yes, advances come from large teams, but they need a small, dense and enthusiastic core to start the ball rolling.
What is essential for a project to spread, other than being useful to the users, it the ability to replicate it on demand. With software, this is pretty easy. With hardware it is currently more difficult, but we're fixing that.
What astounds me is the inability of the commercial world and economists in particular to recognise that there are ways of creating disruptive technologies without being limited by the need to make a profit. I can see a two-teir world developing before my eyes, with the commercial sector deriding anything that is not profitable on the grounds that it'll never spread. Software is so far the only exception to this pseudo-rule, but within 2 years the same will start to apply to hardware as multi-material 3D printers become available for under $1,000.
They're not the only one with the imperial system. Let me see, there's St. Lucia (but only for the next 4 years), Antigua, The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and Dominica.
Slashdot Mirror
So, let's see if they want to answer the big question: Are we going to run out of oil first, or will burning it all cause runaway global warming and kill us all before we get there?
:v)
Seriously. They seem to be missing out the results of pumping all this carbon out of the ground and into the air, and those could make the whole peak oil thing completely irrelevant.
Vik
Doing a bloody good attempt at wiping out Cuba and Iraq though. One economically, the other militarily.
:v)
Vik
I find it ironic that the guy is arrested in front of a whole bunch of online geeks, yet nobody has managed to find the single, most pertinent bit of information: What's he been charged with?
:v)
It appears you can't access this kind of information online.
Vik
.. in the earlier article, "U.S. Game Sales Up 25% In June."
:v)
People are just playing games, they're not thinking. For that, you don't need a PC, a SlayStation will do.
Us thoughtful developers are becoming a minority as the "bread and circuses" concept is pushed by corporates - except now it's fast food, cable, and video games.
Vik
I was an RSI sufferer. As well as following all the usual doctor's advice, I did a little experimentation to come up with a comfortable trackball, and discovered that the angle - and thus height - of the trackball could easily be adjusted with large styrofoam wedges taped underneath it.
:v)
The idea (assuming a right-hander) is to raise the left-hand edge of the thumb trackball until the top of the ball is about 80mm or 3 inches above the desk. The exact height depends on the size of the user's hand, but the general idea is to have the hand as vertical as is comfortable. Experiment with duct tape until things are in the right position, then build a more sturdy and aesthetic solution to suit.
I attached the whole assemblage to a mouse pad with a gel wrist rest, which helps hold the whole thing in position and stops it all toppling over as well as making the wrist comfy.
Operation of the buttons and scroll wheel is very easy, even with the trackball tilted at this angle. Do allow enough access to the underside if our trackball design requires you to poke the ball out from underneath for cleaning!
Vik
So, now all you have to do to bring down a plane is remotely make it look like a missile. Brilliant!
:v)
Remind me never to fly through the US again. Oh, that's right, I don't these days.
Vik
The carbon nanotubes are created on the device in situ, not bought on the open market.
:v)
BTW, this year's global production of carbon nanotubes is expected to be around 100 tonnes. Probably outmassing iPod nanos.
Vik
We've used the Wiki for a while now at ECONZ http://econz.com/ and it has been very useful. All it needs is someone to take control of the formatting of the site, rather than just leaving everything totally free range. The one remaining problem is the actual editing process, which MS Word users can't seem to get their heads around.
:v)
We did find FCKEditor http://www.fckeditor.net/ but that doesn't come built-in and support is beta. Mention that to the system admins, and they'll refuse to install it. Once that gets integrated, we'll be able to get even more of the staff using it.
Vik
This is for terrorists and paedophiles, right? So how about limiting it to cases involving those offences?
:v)
FYI I left the UK *because* they drafted this law. It wasn't hard to see where the government was heading, and I wanted no part of a country that conducts itself in that manner.
Vik
There's an ODF option to LaTeX ?
:v)
Vik
Thanks. A lot of the credit goes to the members of the New Zealand Open Source Society http://nzoss.org.nz/
:v)
OK, I'm a member and I helped draft the response. This isn't about grabbing credit for ego, but about the way the response was done. It was calm, didn't call for Open Sourcing everything, and didn't demonize Microsoft. The response was a coordinated, reviewed group effort containing constrictive and well-researched cristicism presented in a non-confrontational way. Coupled with a very receptive attitude by the SSC, the combination resulted in what you can see is a very reasonable and useful document.
Vik
It's funny, but when the nanoparticles are produced by internal combustion engines - the source of the most potent non-radioactive carcinogens known - or from plasticisers used in plastic goods etc., the US government is positively glacial in its response.
:v)
Start developing a new technology that promises to completely revolutionise the manufacturing and supply industries as we know them, and POW! Suddenly there is activity to ban it because it might produce nasty chemicals if done in an inconsiderate manner.
So much for US industry.
At this rate the US will be buying its nanotechnology from Venezuela.
Vik
Er, there are other countries in the world besides the US.
:v)
Though to concede some of your point, it's mostly these that seem to be kicking the Microsoft habit.
Vik
Screen readers tend to read text-based consoles. Geeks can think ncurses here.
:v)
So, show me an ODF-capable editor that runs on a text-mode console.
DO NOT even think of telling me to unzip the ODF and hand-edit the XML. People with GUIs don't have to do this, why should I?
I've said it before, and I'll keep on saying it: The world needs a console-based ODF editing program.
Vik
Thanks. I'll ammend the whiteboard.
:v)
Vik
Cognito ergo scum - I think therefore I spam.
:v)
Vik
The community always was important. Some folks just forgot that or were blinded by greed.
:v)
Vik
So hey, no problem. Use an ext3 driver to write the data to a Linux partition from Windows mode.
:v)
What's that? They're all read-only? I'm sure that'll be fixed. Probably is already.
Right?
Vik
I guess that's the acid test isn't it? How many MB of RAM and storage am I going to need to edit a meaningful open standard document? I'll need mesh WiFi running in the background too.
:v)
Oh, I can't do this in console mode. Bugger. That means I need to haul in a GUI. Can I use a cut-down interface like direct GTK+ or am I going to have to haul in X? This gets tricky...
Vik
I hope this is a step along the way to allowing songs into the charts that are heavily downloaded and - legally - not necessarily paid for. Until that happens, the charts remain an indicator of how heavily pimped a song or artist is.
:v)
Vik
New Zealand's biggest ISP Xtra is about it implement port 25 blocking, so making Sendmail kinda redundant unless you use the big boy's server:
i d=204
:v)
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/blog.asp?blogid=22&post
'Course, a fair chunk of Xtra is owned by Microsoft, but that's got nothing to do with it right?
It makes people's mail easier to intercept too, if you only have to get it from centralised mail servers.
It might stop some spam, but then so would chopping the cables.
Vik
You sprinke a suspect with substance X, which your sensor can detect in minute quantities. You can then follow the trail of X using your handy-dandy biosensor, finding everywhere they went, everyone they met, all the money they handled, and their current location.
:v)
Vik
Regardless of whether something makes a profit or not, economists should be interested in how the technology will affect their market. As things stand, they almost universally dismiss any advance that does not make a profit even if it stands to make a major impact on their sector of the economy. This leads to a very distorted view of the future, to the detriment of commerce and society.
:v)
Vik
As part of a team engaged in a disruptive Open Source hardware project (http://reprap.org/ I have to say that the guy is almost right. Yes, advances come from large teams, but they need a small, dense and enthusiastic core to start the ball rolling.
:v)
What is essential for a project to spread, other than being useful to the users, it the ability to replicate it on demand. With software, this is pretty easy. With hardware it is currently more difficult, but we're fixing that.
What astounds me is the inability of the commercial world and economists in particular to recognise that there are ways of creating disruptive technologies without being limited by the need to make a profit. I can see a two-teir world developing before my eyes, with the commercial sector deriding anything that is not profitable on the grounds that it'll never spread. Software is so far the only exception to this pseudo-rule, but within 2 years the same will start to apply to hardware as multi-material 3D printers become available for under $1,000.
Vik
They're not the only one with the imperial system. Let me see, there's St. Lucia (but only for the next 4 years), Antigua, The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and Dominica.
:v)
Every little pseudo-democracy should use it.
Vik