One idea I had a few weeks ago was to use colors to differentiate between comments that a user has "seen" before and new comments.
For instance, if I read a story when it breaks and there are 15 comments, then I revisit it a few hours later and there are 30 (I read at 3), it would be nice to have the comments that I've already seen with a different color, to differentiate them.
It could be a greyed-out background, or just the heading being in red or something.
And I know this would add more data to be stored, but it could be as simple as recording the date/timestamp of the first time I read it, and then any comments before that are marked "read" (the only issue would be a comment that was below my threshhold, which then got moderated up, would be marked as "read" even though I hadn't actually seen it).
This could also be something "for subscribers only" to help sell subscriptions.
Re:Earth - another ringed planet
on
The Space Elevator
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
My vision is of "Earth as a porcupine."
Once the first is complete, second and third and more will be much cheaper to produce. We could have a Space Elevator in every city.
As for debris, once we have nanotechnology we'll easily be able to both identify (and collect) particles of the smallest size that could damage ships; and also we'd be able to harden the ships to withstand greater damage (they would even be self-healing, so if a rock would punch a hole through it, the ship would just create a temporary "tunnel" through itself for the rock and avoid a collision completely).
This is slightly OT, but as I was driving halfway across the country last night I was thinking about a way to automatically determine where there were dead spots.
Seems it wouldn't be too hard to put a GPS device in the cellphone, and to have it contantly recording the signal level every, say, 5 seconds. If it has clean signal, it can send the data immediately; and if it's in a dead spot, it can cache the data for (some time -- a day at most? Depends on how much it takes to store it), and then send it up when it has signal again.
This way, the cellular carrier will have detailed maps of where they need new towers.
I'm sure they have some way of determining where to put a new tower, but this seemed like a good solution -- if people aren't going to a specific area, then it won't get data from there, and they won't need to waste putting a cell tower up near there.
I bought TaxCut a few weeks before the story broke. Lucky I guess.
I use Quicken 2000 for my finances (haven't upgraded because it does the job). Glad I didn't go with Intuit now that the dirt is out, as I dual-boot and don't want my boot sector messed up.
Hey, isn't virus protection software supposed to prevent applications from changing system areas like the boot sector? I run AVG which is free, but I'm not going to go out and buy TurboTax just to test my theory.
Nice, thanks for the flashback. I sold Cutco knives for a couple months back in college. Made back what I paid to enter and a bit more but delivering pizzas was better pay (and steadier).
I still have my knives, and they still work great decades later (man I'm old).
Listen, just because there are unhappy crack whores doesn't mean that there aren't well-adjusted people who can enjoy themselves using a substance. That substance could be one of the most addictive substances known to man, like caffeine, tobacco, or alcohol; or a lesser addicting substance, like pot, cocaine, or crack.
There exists a subset of the population who will murder people with knives. Should we thus outlaw knives? Your argument is specious.
Here's the definition of victim. You may want to study it. A victim is someone who was wronged. Both parties to a drug deal are not wronged -- they both have desires and both parties' desires are met: the dealer receives cash or other consideration, and the purchaser receives their drug of choice. Again, this could be alcohol, tobacco or caffeine if it makes it easier for you to understand.
The problem, I will state again, with outlawing victimless behaviors is that it encourages people to report, sometimes falsely, others' behavior. Great for getting revenge on someone, just call the cops and give an anonymous tip saying they're a drug dealer. Of course, we've always had "crimes" that we could use that way, going all the way back to Salem and the Witch Trials. At least today you can prove you're not a drug dealer.
I will ignore your personal attack. I feel sorry for you.
I don't want people to know that I just posted that my neighbor is a drug dealer to help get him run out of the complex, especially my well armed neighbor.
I think that's one of the things wrong with current society -- the ability to anonymously "tip".
I Googled on "know your accuser" and came up with the following, which states:
What Are My Rights?
The most basic (and the most important) rights common to citizens and aliens alike are the following:
- To freely practice one's own religion (or no religion).
- To speak one's own opinions to anyone (as long as one does not suggest committing a crime).
[...] - To face one's accusers in court if tried.
The problem is we have draconian laws for activities that are not morally wrong. Selling drugs is exchanging goods (for which there is a demand) for payment. Prostitution is exchanging a service (for which there is a demand) for payment. Laws should only prevent activities which have a victim, like murder, rape, or theft.
Drug dealers are only armed because we have laws against dealing drugs. Your local alcohol dealers aren't armed these days, are they? (Well, I'd imagine they are to prevent robberies but they don't go shooting each other over turf -- any more; they did back when alcohol was illegal.)
This is turning into a rant, but the main problem is we create laws that turn a victimless activity into a felony, and then we have to set up anonymous tip lines in order to prevent (legitimate, imho) payback. It turns the world into a police state. (PATRIOT goes a lot farther though...)
Back on topic: I think this is a great development and if Intel successfully puts wireless capabilities in every chip they sell I think we'll see a huge increase in community-based, free services. Internet link, even telephone and cable could be "free" (although there are issues with paying for the content, especially if ads are stripped).
Back in 1983 my parents bought me an IBM PC but the high school had Apple ][s. So we got a QuadLink board so I could bring work (and games) home. Worked like a charm but a bit tough to install -- it was an octopus, with wires running everywhere.
I still have it but I have no idea whether it would actually work in modern PCs.
be warned unless you want to find and report bugs.
And if you do want to report bugs, they have BugZilla set up to make it really easy.
Sometimes it's difficult to determine which package things go in when reporting, but the developers have been very nice and helpful in moving my bugs around to the proper places. And as another comment mentioned, the turn-around time is quick.
Just download K++2.0.3 or a gntuella client and you can get all the TV shows you want.
Thanks for the info. I've only used BitTorrent a few times (last Sunday my ReplayTV didn't record the 300th Simpsons for some reason, so I was able to get it from the Internet and was happy with BitTorrent even though multiple instances blue-screen my Windows 2000 box).
I didn't realize it had these problems. I've never used IRC or Usenet to get binaries. And as far as special formats, the shows I've gotten from BitTorrent have been in.mpg or.avi format, I didn't need to do any conversion.
From what I've read there are upload-restricted clients available but I haven't investigated them. I will look into K++ though. Thanks! (Here's a link -- K++ is KaZaA Lite.)
If RMS became the tree letters people associate with taking control away from users and into the hands of the bic corportaions houw would that affect the credibility of free software champion RMS?
If Microsoft can sue Lindows for being one letter off, I'm sure RMS can sue Microsoft for being exactly the same.
Of course, MS has $40 billion to keep appealing so RMS won't ever win.
Cut and paste can be disable for "secure" documents/emails. The window showing "secure" documents could just be excluded from screenshots. Considering that Microsoft controls the OS, office software, and has influence on hardware manufacturers, they can implement any level of "features".
Not if the OS is being run in a VM, on VMware, Plex86, or Bochs.
Security by obscurity will always lose. (It'll put up a lot of battles on the way though!)
Can I FTP the second season of west wing yet? No? Okay then
You can get many TV shows you might have missed by using BitTorrent.
This site has a list of links to various sites which contain TV shows available through BitTorrent.
A West Wing episode is available here (The West Wing - s04e16 - California 47th [ftv].mpg.torrent) (but you need to have installed BitTorrent prior to clicking on that link).
I don't follow West Wing so I don't know whether that's from second season, and your comment is accurate -- that's the only one available from that site. One other is The.West.Wing.S04E14.Inauguration.Day.Part.I.
I read some more of your stuff and I just wanted to thank you. The 4-part story about gambling was very eye-opening. I've been to Vegas a couple times on trade shows, and blew some money but never got into professionally counting. A few friends could, and consistently made money, but I never followed closely. Was a great read!
As for prophecies of doom, I completely agree: without the prophecy, it might come to pass. With the warning we can prepare against it. As a college kid I hated Luddites but now I am thankful that there are people who, without knowing or understanding what they're doing, are actually helping to guide technology's progress better.
Tell them that and it'll probably send them into fits.;-)
I just finished this, and I really enjoyed it. Some of the comments said things like "there's a reason material goes through the publishing process, everything published for free is crap" but if that's a rule then this is surely an exception.
The first chapter was a bit tough to get through, but after that it flowed very well. I especially liked the dialogue when the Prime Intellect was initially flexing its muscles, saving Caroline, and scaring the miliary types.
The only thing I didn't like about it is that it's coming from a Terminator-type position of fearing technology, the classic luddite response to change. But that doesn't take away from the story; it adds to it. Just as we need to discuss gray goo and other potential abuses of nanotechnology, now before we start rapidly developing nanotech, the same holds true for thoughts about the Singularity. We need to explore possible failure modes in order to create a mode that's as failure-free as possible.
I've had these little bastards sneak up on me before with their deceptively cute little eyes and sharp little growing incisors
True story (according to my mom, I was too young to remember): my brother is 1.5 years younger than me. I could walk before him, so I would take his toys and walk away and start playing with them. He would crawl up behind me and bite me on the back.
Quote about sharing, which in retrospect is quite relevant -- the Baby Bells need to share their monopoly with other providers if they want to be able to compete.
For those who don't know: Murdoch owns News Corp. and everything named 'Fox' (well, maybe a few exceptions).
My favorite was in Simpsons "Missionary: Impossible" where they had the PBS-like telethon at the end:
Man: [walks in front of a dais, at which are seated characters from other "Fox" series, along with Rupert Murdoch] Sure, Fox makes a fortune from advertising but it's still not enough.
Slashdot Mirror
For instance, if I read a story when it breaks and there are 15 comments, then I revisit it a few hours later and there are 30 (I read at 3), it would be nice to have the comments that I've already seen with a different color, to differentiate them.
It could be a greyed-out background, or just the heading being in red or something.
And I know this would add more data to be stored, but it could be as simple as recording the date/timestamp of the first time I read it, and then any comments before that are marked "read" (the only issue would be a comment that was below my threshhold, which then got moderated up, would be marked as "read" even though I hadn't actually seen it).
This could also be something "for subscribers only" to help sell subscriptions.
Once the first is complete, second and third and more will be much cheaper to produce. We could have a Space Elevator in every city.
As for debris, once we have nanotechnology we'll easily be able to both identify (and collect) particles of the smallest size that could damage ships; and also we'd be able to harden the ships to withstand greater damage (they would even be self-healing, so if a rock would punch a hole through it, the ship would just create a temporary "tunnel" through itself for the rock and avoid a collision completely).
Seems it wouldn't be too hard to put a GPS device in the cellphone, and to have it contantly recording the signal level every, say, 5 seconds. If it has clean signal, it can send the data immediately; and if it's in a dead spot, it can cache the data for (some time -- a day at most? Depends on how much it takes to store it), and then send it up when it has signal again.
This way, the cellular carrier will have detailed maps of where they need new towers.
I'm sure they have some way of determining where to put a new tower, but this seemed like a good solution -- if people aren't going to a specific area, then it won't get data from there, and they won't need to waste putting a cell tower up near there.
(The joke works better in person, with gestures. Oh well.)
Don't run with scissors.
I use Quicken 2000 for my finances (haven't upgraded because it does the job). Glad I didn't go with Intuit now that the dirt is out, as I dual-boot and don't want my boot sector messed up.
Hey, isn't virus protection software supposed to prevent applications from changing system areas like the boot sector? I run AVG which is free, but I'm not going to go out and buy TurboTax just to test my theory.
I still have my knives, and they still work great decades later (man I'm old).
There exists a subset of the population who will murder people with knives. Should we thus outlaw knives? Your argument is specious.
Here's the definition of victim . You may want to study it. A victim is someone who was wronged. Both parties to a drug deal are not wronged -- they both have desires and both parties' desires are met: the dealer receives cash or other consideration, and the purchaser receives their drug of choice. Again, this could be alcohol, tobacco or caffeine if it makes it easier for you to understand.
The problem, I will state again, with outlawing victimless behaviors is that it encourages people to report, sometimes falsely, others' behavior. Great for getting revenge on someone, just call the cops and give an anonymous tip saying they're a drug dealer. Of course, we've always had "crimes" that we could use that way, going all the way back to Salem and the Witch Trials. At least today you can prove you're not a drug dealer.
I will ignore your personal attack. I feel sorry for you.
I think that's one of the things wrong with current society -- the ability to anonymously "tip".
I Googled on "know your accuser" and came up with the following , which states:
The problem is we have draconian laws for activities that are not morally wrong. Selling drugs is exchanging goods (for which there is a demand) for payment. Prostitution is exchanging a service (for which there is a demand) for payment. Laws should only prevent activities which have a victim, like murder, rape, or theft.
Drug dealers are only armed because we have laws against dealing drugs. Your local alcohol dealers aren't armed these days, are they? (Well, I'd imagine they are to prevent robberies but they don't go shooting each other over turf -- any more; they did back when alcohol was illegal.)
This is turning into a rant, but the main problem is we create laws that turn a victimless activity into a felony, and then we have to set up anonymous tip lines in order to prevent (legitimate, imho) payback. It turns the world into a police state. (PATRIOT goes a lot farther though...)
Back on topic: I think this is a great development and if Intel successfully puts wireless capabilities in every chip they sell I think we'll see a huge increase in community-based, free services. Internet link, even telephone and cable could be "free" (although there are issues with paying for the content, especially if ads are stripped).
I still have it but I have no idea whether it would actually work in modern PCs.
Check out the problem with music .
Check out the problem with music .
And if you do want to report bugs, they have BugZilla set up to make it really easy.
Sometimes it's difficult to determine which package things go in when reporting, but the developers have been very nice and helpful in moving my bugs around to the proper places. And as another comment mentioned, the turn-around time is quick.
Thanks for the info. I've only used BitTorrent a few times (last Sunday my ReplayTV didn't record the 300th Simpsons for some reason, so I was able to get it from the Internet and was happy with BitTorrent even though multiple instances blue-screen my Windows 2000 box).
I didn't realize it had these problems. I've never used IRC or Usenet to get binaries. And as far as special formats, the shows I've gotten from BitTorrent have been in .mpg or .avi format, I didn't need to do any conversion.
From what I've read there are upload-restricted clients available but I haven't investigated them. I will look into K++ though. Thanks! (Here's a link -- K++ is KaZaA Lite.)
If Microsoft can sue Lindows for being one letter off, I'm sure RMS can sue Microsoft for being exactly the same.
Of course, MS has $40 billion to keep appealing so RMS won't ever win.
Not if the OS is being run in a VM, on VMware, Plex86, or Bochs.
Security by obscurity will always lose. (It'll put up a lot of battles on the way though!)
You can get many TV shows you might have missed by using BitTorrent .
This site has a list of links to various sites which contain TV shows available through BitTorrent.
A West Wing episode is available here (The West Wing - s04e16 - California 47th [ftv].mpg.torrent) (but you need to have installed BitTorrent prior to clicking on that link).
I don't follow West Wing so I don't know whether that's from second season, and your comment is accurate -- that's the only one available from that site. One other is The.West.Wing.S04E14.Inauguration.Day.Part.I .
Enjoy!
I read some more of your stuff and I just wanted to thank you. The 4-part story about gambling was very eye-opening. I've been to Vegas a couple times on trade shows, and blew some money but never got into professionally counting. A few friends could, and consistently made money, but I never followed closely. Was a great read!
As for prophecies of doom, I completely agree: without the prophecy, it might come to pass. With the warning we can prepare against it. As a college kid I hated Luddites but now I am thankful that there are people who, without knowing or understanding what they're doing, are actually helping to guide technology's progress better.
Tell them that and it'll probably send them into fits. ;-)
Yeah, you might get fosterized and not make it to college but you'll have a lot more self-esteem.
The first chapter was a bit tough to get through, but after that it flowed very well. I especially liked the dialogue when the Prime Intellect was initially flexing its muscles, saving Caroline, and scaring the miliary types.
The only thing I didn't like about it is that it's coming from a Terminator-type position of fearing technology, the classic luddite response to change. But that doesn't take away from the story; it adds to it. Just as we need to discuss gray goo and other potential abuses of nanotechnology, now before we start rapidly developing nanotech, the same holds true for thoughts about the Singularity. We need to explore possible failure modes in order to create a mode that's as failure-free as possible.
ObPython: "I'm 37! I'm not old!"
You wanna squirm, read the short story "On the Uses of Torture" by (surprisingly) Piers Anthony, in the book Anthonology .
True story (according to my mom, I was too young to remember): my brother is 1.5 years younger than me. I could walk before him, so I would take his toys and walk away and start playing with them. He would crawl up behind me and bite me on the back.
Quote about sharing, which in retrospect is quite relevant -- the Baby Bells need to share their monopoly with other providers if they want to be able to compete.
Today's fortune is rather apt: Are you ever going to do the dishes? Or will you change your major to biology?
My favorite was in Simpsons "Missionary: Impossible" where they had the PBS-like telethon at the end: