Having simultaneously worked and lived in student halls (actually doing network support), I got quite a bit of information on this.
The wardens are required to allow inspectors into the building, but not individual rooms. There is no law that requires you to allow TV inspectors into your room, house, or whatever (indeed, this applies to anyone without a court order or warrant). I don't know whether you can do this as an individual.
Supposedly the law doesn't distinguish between owning and using a TV, but this has in fact been successfully challenged. There are forms for organisations that basically say "this TV is used as a monitor for VCR / DVD recordings, and never receives broadcast signals".
If you deny having a television, and refuse entry to inspectors, I very much doubt they'll go to the trouble of pursuing things further. As I understand it, even detector vans are a myth, and the technology doesn't actually exist (or if it does, it isn't used).
More to the point, how can natural selection occur without a selection pressure?
The fact is, there are still selection pressures, but they're social rather than physical. Virtually everyone can survive, and with modern technology is capable of reproduction, but not everyone does. What's selected depends largely on what characteristics people look for in potential mates. Note that there's a big difference between "who I'd want to have sex with" and "who I'd want to have my children", which has come about due to the prevalence of contraceptives.
Being a Slashdotter, of course, that last sentence is largely hypothetical.
I leave the rest to the sociologists - there's a lot of research on this, which I'm barely familiar with, but I don't think it's quite as bleak as it might seem.
Obviously, the receipts and so on from sending and receiving funds are legitimate, but don't tell me anything I don't know already. They also don't need me to take any action. Everything else is crap.
To be fair, there's a difference between an inability to spell, and a genuine typo, especially from someone who states outright that he never uses a spellchecker. Then again, given the number of typos in one line, maybe he should...
I'm much more concerned with people who neither know nor care how to spell and use words (there, their, they're, etc). That includes most students.
Laptops aren't necessary even if you are a computer scientist, although it may depend a bit on the university. For my first three years I only really used a laptop as a toy (I have a thing about tiny sub-notebooks that I can't touch-type on). In my fourth I used one for a couple of presentations, but that's about all. The CS department here has its own labs, which are far less crowded than the open access ones.
And now I'm still at university, and I use a computer for reading papers, writing papers, and wasting time on Slashdot. Most of my real work is done on paper. That was pretty much the case in my final undergraduate year, too.
Why should anyone be surprised that digital will outsell film, when the high-street retailers aren't stocking film cameras any more?
To be honest, I think it's inevitable that digital will take over the consumer market - and those who can't afford a digital camera will (presumably) continue to be ripped off with single-use point-and-shoot film cameras. But this statistic is partly a result of shops no longer stocking film, and thus isn't an adequate justification for ceasing to do so.
Oh, and another vote for not shopping at Dixons. I notice that they'll keep stocking film cameras in airports, for "professional photographers". I've yet to meet a professional photographer who would buy a camera from Dixons.
I believe the Earth has been considerably hotter in the past than it is now.
The planet has gone through cold periods (ice ages), and hot periods, and we're currently somewhere in the middle, possibly towards the cool side.
I very much doubt global warming or cooling will have any long-term effect on life on Earth. Whether it will affect human life is another matter, and one we should be concerned about, but life in general will keep going quite happily (assuming we don't turn the whole planet into a nuclear wasteland, in which case there'll only be cockroaches and politicians left).
Speaking as a grad student (and former undergraduate) at one of the UK's better universities, undergraduate writing skills are pathetic at best, at least in CS. This is in part due to being able to complete a four year course having written about three essays in total.
By picking an appropriate set of courses, it's also possible to graduate with no programming ability.
(As it happens, I did attend all my classes, can program, can write, and am therefore guaranteed to have made at least one spelling mistake in this post.)
30 paces seems about right. Whenever I'm on a bus, and someone else's mobile phone rings, I have this (almost) uncontrollable urge to shout "I'm on the bus!". Similarly for trains and other forms of transport.
Normally I'm a semi-intelligent human being, but for some reason I find this completely useless cliche of mobile communication quite amusing.
If Intelligent Design is correct, and scientific method rejects it (because it can't be tested), then clearly scientific method cannot support everything that is correct, and science cannot explain everything.
Proving ID to the satisfaction of scientists without using scientific method is left as an exercise to the reader.
Of course, a massive and totally unscientific generalisation of Godel's incompleteness theorem would suggest that science can't explain everything anyway, so even if ID is true, it doesn't tell us much that we don't already know (except that all of us unbelievers are going to Hell).
I suspect the sports games fired all the designers years ago, and probably the programmers as well, and just keep a couple of artists on staff to update the textures.
Unfortunately, ad hominem is seldom used this way in the real world. Once an argument has been proposed, an ad hominem attack is not a valid rebuttal, especially from someone who holds an opposing view (and therefore has an interest in discrediting the speaker).
Furthermore, while someone may be biased, that doesn't automatically invalidate his arguments. I know you didn't claim this, but that's how it's used in politics. It can be particularly devastating against minority views, where there may not be any less biased sources, even if the arguments are sound.
At least one of those (X-Change) is a port of a Japanese hentai game. I think Water Closet is as well. Not that I've played them, but I find the SA hentai reviews most amusing.
Sick and perverted they may be, but they're games nonetheless. The others are probably vaguely interactive photo galleries.
In any case, the AO rating is generally given to rather specialist porn. I don't have much interest in GTA, but hardcore porn it is not.
Did any of these people ever play Serpent Isle (which featured consensual sex between 48 pixel high sprites)?
The m5xx series was basically an updated Palm V. No wireless, but there was an optional Bluetooth card.
The Tungsten range are a major step backwards, in my opinion - the build quality isn't as good, and I have an irrational hatred of moving parts on PDAs.
I still use Palm over Pocket PC, though (I have both, and the latter just sits in a drawer gathering dust).
If you bothered to read the article, you would be aware that there are different forms of vitamin D, and that most pills contain a different form than that produced by sunbathing (and also not very much of it).
It also noted that excessive vitamin D from pills can lead to a build-up of calcium in the body (not a good thing), which is not an issue with sunbathing.
Vitamin pills shouldn't be necessary at all - if you need them, then there's something wrong with your diet and/or lifestyle.
Anime Factory issued cease and desist letters to a number of BitTorrent sites a few months ago. To the best of my knowledge, all those who don't distribute licensed works complied immediately, and no lawsuit was ever filed. I don't think any other Japanese companies have done this.
While the Japanese are perfectly entitled to crack down on distribution, they tend not to enforce it so long as it doesn't encroach on their market (i.e. Japan). This has changed somewhat with digisubs, which are available worldwide - hence Anime Factory's action.
I believe there are some technical requirements regarding evidence held on computers: it must come directly from the original drive, and not from a mirrored copy. Whether this holds in the UK, US, or just my imagination is anyone's guess.
Stupid, yes, but that's (possibly) the law. There's certainly no reason why they couldn't seize just the drive, except that the police probably don't have the technical skills to remove it.
I would expect higher survival rates from fresh water. Salt water is likely to be cold enough for the body to start to freeze, causing massive tissue damage.
It's always been quite natural to me that Lego is the company, and they make bricks. Lego bricks sounds fine; Legos doesn't, unless there's more than one company.
The plural form Legos appears to be an American thing, though. I'm sure I'm incorrectly capitalising the company name, anyway.
That looks great. I read through "What is Lego Serious Play", and it completely failed to answer the question. Presumably you have to go on an (expensive) course to find out.
As you say, definitely for businesses with too much time and money.
Slashdot Mirror
Having simultaneously worked and lived in student halls (actually doing network support), I got quite a bit of information on this.
The wardens are required to allow inspectors into the building, but not individual rooms. There is no law that requires you to allow TV inspectors into your room, house, or whatever (indeed, this applies to anyone without a court order or warrant). I don't know whether you can do this as an individual.
Supposedly the law doesn't distinguish between owning and using a TV, but this has in fact been successfully challenged. There are forms for organisations that basically say "this TV is used as a monitor for VCR / DVD recordings, and never receives broadcast signals".
If you deny having a television, and refuse entry to inspectors, I very much doubt they'll go to the trouble of pursuing things further. As I understand it, even detector vans are a myth, and the technology doesn't actually exist (or if it does, it isn't used).
More to the point, how can natural selection occur without a selection pressure?
The fact is, there are still selection pressures, but they're social rather than physical. Virtually everyone can survive, and with modern technology is capable of reproduction, but not everyone does. What's selected depends largely on what characteristics people look for in potential mates. Note that there's a big difference between "who I'd want to have sex with" and "who I'd want to have my children", which has come about due to the prevalence of contraceptives.
Being a Slashdotter, of course, that last sentence is largely hypothetical.
I leave the rest to the sociologists - there's a lot of research on this, which I'm barely familiar with, but I don't think it's quite as bleak as it might seem.
I've done quite well with the following policy:
1. If it says it's from Paypal, it's a scam.
Obviously, the receipts and so on from sending and receiving funds are legitimate, but don't tell me anything I don't know already. They also don't need me to take any action. Everything else is crap.
Indeed, several numbers of months ago...
If someone spends half their life playing computer games, there's a 50% chance they'll die playing computer games.
There's also a good chance they'll be unhealthy, not get enough exercise, and generally be at a high risk of heart problems.
I'm actually surprised this doesn't happen more often, given the number of game addicts out there.
To be fair, there's a difference between an inability to spell, and a genuine typo, especially from someone who states outright that he never uses a spellchecker. Then again, given the number of typos in one line, maybe he should...
I'm much more concerned with people who neither know nor care how to spell and use words (there, their, they're, etc). That includes most students.
Laptops aren't necessary even if you are a computer scientist, although it may depend a bit on the university. For my first three years I only really used a laptop as a toy (I have a thing about tiny sub-notebooks that I can't touch-type on). In my fourth I used one for a couple of presentations, but that's about all. The CS department here has its own labs, which are far less crowded than the open access ones.
And now I'm still at university, and I use a computer for reading papers, writing papers, and wasting time on Slashdot. Most of my real work is done on paper. That was pretty much the case in my final undergraduate year, too.
Why should anyone be surprised that digital will outsell film, when the high-street retailers aren't stocking film cameras any more?
To be honest, I think it's inevitable that digital will take over the consumer market - and those who can't afford a digital camera will (presumably) continue to be ripped off with single-use point-and-shoot film cameras. But this statistic is partly a result of shops no longer stocking film, and thus isn't an adequate justification for ceasing to do so.
Oh, and another vote for not shopping at Dixons. I notice that they'll keep stocking film cameras in airports, for "professional photographers". I've yet to meet a professional photographer who would buy a camera from Dixons.
I believe the Earth has been considerably hotter in the past than it is now.
The planet has gone through cold periods (ice ages), and hot periods, and we're currently somewhere in the middle, possibly towards the cool side.
I very much doubt global warming or cooling will have any long-term effect on life on Earth. Whether it will affect human life is another matter, and one we should be concerned about, but life in general will keep going quite happily (assuming we don't turn the whole planet into a nuclear wasteland, in which case there'll only be cockroaches and politicians left).
Speaking as a grad student (and former undergraduate) at one of the UK's better universities, undergraduate writing skills are pathetic at best, at least in CS. This is in part due to being able to complete a four year course having written about three essays in total.
By picking an appropriate set of courses, it's also possible to graduate with no programming ability.
(As it happens, I did attend all my classes, can program, can write, and am therefore guaranteed to have made at least one spelling mistake in this post.)
How about:
copy con file.svgWorked in the DOS days, no idea if it still does.
30 paces seems about right. Whenever I'm on a bus, and someone else's mobile phone rings, I have this (almost) uncontrollable urge to shout "I'm on the bus!". Similarly for trains and other forms of transport.
Normally I'm a semi-intelligent human being, but for some reason I find this completely useless cliche of mobile communication quite amusing.
Cellphone radiation made me blind
...you insensitive clod
While being aborted after birth is, of course, illegal.
Not that I wouldn't make exceptions in some cases.
If Intelligent Design is correct, and scientific method rejects it (because it can't be tested), then clearly scientific method cannot support everything that is correct, and science cannot explain everything.
Proving ID to the satisfaction of scientists without using scientific method is left as an exercise to the reader.
Of course, a massive and totally unscientific generalisation of Godel's incompleteness theorem would suggest that science can't explain everything anyway, so even if ID is true, it doesn't tell us much that we don't already know (except that all of us unbelievers are going to Hell).
Managers != designers
I suspect the sports games fired all the designers years ago, and probably the programmers as well, and just keep a couple of artists on staff to update the textures.
(Not a sports game player)
Unfortunately, ad hominem is seldom used this way in the real world. Once an argument has been proposed, an ad hominem attack is not a valid rebuttal, especially from someone who holds an opposing view (and therefore has an interest in discrediting the speaker).
Furthermore, while someone may be biased, that doesn't automatically invalidate his arguments. I know you didn't claim this, but that's how it's used in politics. It can be particularly devastating against minority views, where there may not be any less biased sources, even if the arguments are sound.
At least one of those (X-Change) is a port of a Japanese hentai game. I think Water Closet is as well. Not that I've played them, but I find the SA hentai reviews most amusing.
Sick and perverted they may be, but they're games nonetheless. The others are probably vaguely interactive photo galleries.
In any case, the AO rating is generally given to rather specialist porn. I don't have much interest in GTA, but hardcore porn it is not.
Did any of these people ever play Serpent Isle (which featured consensual sex between 48 pixel high sprites)?
The m5xx series was basically an updated Palm V. No wireless, but there was an optional Bluetooth card.
The Tungsten range are a major step backwards, in my opinion - the build quality isn't as good, and I have an irrational hatred of moving parts on PDAs.
I still use Palm over Pocket PC, though (I have both, and the latter just sits in a drawer gathering dust).
If you bothered to read the article, you would be aware that there are different forms of vitamin D, and that most pills contain a different form than that produced by sunbathing (and also not very much of it).
It also noted that excessive vitamin D from pills can lead to a build-up of calcium in the body (not a good thing), which is not an issue with sunbathing.
Vitamin pills shouldn't be necessary at all - if you need them, then there's something wrong with your diet and/or lifestyle.
Anime Factory issued cease and desist letters to a number of BitTorrent sites a few months ago. To the best of my knowledge, all those who don't distribute licensed works complied immediately, and no lawsuit was ever filed. I don't think any other Japanese companies have done this.
While the Japanese are perfectly entitled to crack down on distribution, they tend not to enforce it so long as it doesn't encroach on their market (i.e. Japan). This has changed somewhat with digisubs, which are available worldwide - hence Anime Factory's action.
I believe there are some technical requirements regarding evidence held on computers: it must come directly from the original drive, and not from a mirrored copy. Whether this holds in the UK, US, or just my imagination is anyone's guess.
Stupid, yes, but that's (possibly) the law. There's certainly no reason why they couldn't seize just the drive, except that the police probably don't have the technical skills to remove it.
I would expect higher survival rates from fresh water. Salt water is likely to be cold enough for the body to start to freeze, causing massive tissue damage.
Not a doctor, of course.
It's always been quite natural to me that Lego is the company, and they make bricks. Lego bricks sounds fine; Legos doesn't, unless there's more than one company.
The plural form Legos appears to be an American thing, though. I'm sure I'm incorrectly capitalising the company name, anyway.
That looks great. I read through "What is Lego Serious Play", and it completely failed to answer the question. Presumably you have to go on an (expensive) course to find out.
As you say, definitely for businesses with too much time and money.