Why would you not know what the library call does?
Same reason you don't know how much to tighten your fanbelt if you don't read the shop manual.
Microsoft WASN'T just making a library call. They were passing to the library a comparison function that DID NOT WORK, because the specific programmer involved didn't understand how the library call worked.
Sure, theoretically the library could have cached all the results from the comparison function, but it didn't. They could have cached the results IN the function itself, say by memoizing it. That would have fixed it. But if you don't know what the underlying code is likely to do because you don't actually know what a fanbelt is for you're hosed.
The HP StorageWorks P2000 G3 disk arrays have only USB and TCP/IP management. For most operating systems that support USB serial devices you can just plug it in and it'll be recognized. For Windows you have to download and install an INF file before Windows will see it.
Facts are not goals. Thought and reasoning is driven by goals. The fact that people who have different goals make different decisions based on the same facts doesn't automatically mean they're *rejecting* those facts, it may mean that they are using those facts *correctly* to determine whether they approve of a development that supports or opposes their goals.
If a newspaper printed a child in a somewhat sexually explicit manner, and came out saying, well we did not create the ad, we are not responsible for the picture used in the ad, they would get laughed at.
So you're basically saying that they should hire people to look at every video posted to YouTube before it goes out, the way Newspapers have people look at every story and ad before it gets printed?
Now we will see a new slew of software that reads through the videos to check for illegal content such as this kid being abused.
The issue is not "are there circumstances where fewer legs are better". There are circumstances where NO legs are better (whales and dolphins, for example), and there are circumstances where at least four legs are necessary (any climbing animal, where there's a need for a 'moving tripod' gait) and more would be desirable (look at all the animals, including our relatives, with prehensile tails).
It is "if there are circumstances where six or more legs would be better, why don't we see large six-legged land animals". The answer is "there's no mechanism by which they could evolve".
Evolution is not a directed process. It finds local optima, an organism can't arbitrarily jump from one local peak to another, can only (and ironically in this case) climb the hill it finds itself on. It's not that four legs are a deficiency, it's that downplaying the possibility that six may be an advantage because an algorithm that wasn't able to experiment with six legs in a particular problem space didn't develop it is likely short-sighted.
We're not talking about re-purposing limbs, we're talking about changing the number of limbs completely. There are a few examples of animals that HAVE completely lost limbs, but there are still occasional cases of vestigial limbs in snakes and whales. There's no examples or evidence in genetic or archeological history of any species derived from the earliest land animals with more than four limbs, so the evidence is overwhelming that the number of limbs was genetically set long before there were any land vertebrates... large six limbed animals have not even been (metaphorically) "tested" by evolution.
I don't think it can be a coincidence, completely outside of the mechanics of evolution, that more than 4 legs are prolific in small animals (crabs and large bugs at the largest) while most larger animals have gone for 4 or less.
The reason that large land animals all have four legs is likely nothing more than chance.
All large land animals are evolved from a common ancestor that acquired the traits allowing them to become large land animals (such as an internal skeleton) BEFORE they came onto the land. One of the traits that they brought with them onto the land was the four fins of the ancestral fish.
Crypto: 0 As-Received-By: OOB shipboard ad hoc Language-Path: Arbwyth->Trade 24->Cherguelen->Triskweline, SjK units From: Twirlip of the Mists Subject: Blighter Video thread Keywords: Hexapodia as the key insight Distribution: Threat of the Blight Approved: yes Date: 8.68 days since Fall of Relay
I haven't had a chance to see the famous video from Straumli Realm, except as an evocation. (My only gateway onto the Net is very expensive.) Is it true that humans have six legs? I wasn't sure from the evocation. If these humans have three pairs of legs, then I think there is an easy explanation for --MORE--
This is some twenty-something guy suddenly noticing things that smacked me around the head when I was that twenty-something guy when I picked up Colin Fletcher "The Man who Walked through Time" and got rid of most of my camping gear 'cos going camping with a groundsheet and a sleeping bag and NO TENT was more REAL. Back in the Reagan years.
When you're in a situation where network effects are important (eg, people playing your game makes people want to play it because they have more people to play with, or people using your office software means that your file formats are more commonly used) free-riders increase the value of your product. This is a well known and understood effect that many companies have taken advantage of. Until you're in such a dominant position that network effects effectively make your product non-optional (like you-know-who) heavy copy protection is counterproductive.
Back when Enlightenment was new it was anything but "lean", I took a look at it and went back to fvwm or wmx or whatever I was using at the time. I mean, it required 4 megabytes of RAM, and pulled in maybe a couple of dozen shared libraries! Bloat, bloat, bloat!
Slashdot Mirror
Whereas what you read in Knuth is as reliable as it gets.
Personally I prefer Horowitz and Sahni. :)
Why would you not know what the library call does?
Same reason you don't know how much to tighten your fanbelt if you don't read the shop manual.
Microsoft WASN'T just making a library call. They were passing to the library a comparison function that DID NOT WORK, because the specific programmer involved didn't understand how the library call worked.
Sure, theoretically the library could have cached all the results from the comparison function, but it didn't. They could have cached the results IN the function itself, say by memoizing it. That would have fixed it. But if you don't know what the underlying code is likely to do because you don't actually know what a fanbelt is for you're hosed.
This isn't like going to the auto parts place to get the part you need.
This is like going to the auto parts place and guessing at the part you need, without knowing what the part actually does.
Looking it up in Knuth is like looking up the part in the manual BEFORE you go to the auto parts place to get the part.
What?, are you expecting some pretty little GUI to configure your fibre channel switches or something?
That's what customers with purchase authority tend to want these days, so that's what manufacturers are providing.
The HP StorageWorks P2000 G3 disk arrays have only USB and TCP/IP management. For most operating systems that support USB serial devices you can just plug it in and it'll be recognized. For Windows you have to download and install an INF file before Windows will see it.
The reward for a DRM system is not "people don't pirate it", it's "people buy it".
If you don't like it, don't buy it.
So you want Mossad to take over antispam operations, then?
I was going to say...
Facts are not goals. Thought and reasoning is driven by goals. The fact that people who have different goals make different decisions based on the same facts doesn't automatically mean they're *rejecting* those facts, it may mean that they are using those facts *correctly* to determine whether they approve of a development that supports or opposes their goals.
Still one of the best headlines ever.
If a newspaper printed a child in a somewhat sexually explicit manner, and came out saying, well we did not create the ad, we are not responsible for the picture used in the ad, they would get laughed at.
So you're basically saying that they should hire people to look at every video posted to YouTube before it goes out, the way Newspapers have people look at every story and ad before it gets printed?
Now we will see a new slew of software that reads through the videos to check for illegal content such as this kid being abused.
Using advanced magic pixie technology, no doubt.
RTFA
Google IS dumping older versions of Firefox as well.
Obviously they meant "to embiggen".
If this is a give a fish/teach to fish case wouldn't the best thing for the Haitian people be to instruct them how to connect without ISPs?
Through Magic Fiber Pixies perhaps?
The issue is not "are there circumstances where fewer legs are better". There are circumstances where NO legs are better (whales and dolphins, for example), and there are circumstances where at least four legs are necessary (any climbing animal, where there's a need for a 'moving tripod' gait) and more would be desirable (look at all the animals, including our relatives, with prehensile tails).
It is "if there are circumstances where six or more legs would be better, why don't we see large six-legged land animals". The answer is "there's no mechanism by which they could evolve".
Evolution is not a directed process. It finds local optima, an organism can't arbitrarily jump from one local peak to another, can only (and ironically in this case) climb the hill it finds itself on. It's not that four legs are a deficiency, it's that downplaying the possibility that six may be an advantage because an algorithm that wasn't able to experiment with six legs in a particular problem space didn't develop it is likely short-sighted.
We're not talking about re-purposing limbs, we're talking about changing the number of limbs completely. There are a few examples of animals that HAVE completely lost limbs, but there are still occasional cases of vestigial limbs in snakes and whales. There's no examples or evidence in genetic or archeological history of any species derived from the earliest land animals with more than four limbs, so the evidence is overwhelming that the number of limbs was genetically set long before there were any land vertebrates... large six limbed animals have not even been (metaphorically) "tested" by evolution.
I don't think it can be a coincidence, completely outside of the mechanics of evolution, that more than 4 legs are prolific in small animals (crabs and large bugs at the largest) while most larger animals have gone for 4 or less.
The reason that large land animals all have four legs is likely nothing more than chance.
All large land animals are evolved from a common ancestor that acquired the traits allowing them to become large land animals (such as an internal skeleton) BEFORE they came onto the land. One of the traits that they brought with them onto the land was the four fins of the ancestral fish.
There is no evolutionary mechanism for mountain goats to acquire additional legs.
Crypto: 0
As-Received-By: OOB shipboard ad hoc
Language-Path: Arbwyth->Trade 24->Cherguelen->Triskweline, SjK units
From: Twirlip of the Mists
Subject: Blighter Video thread
Keywords: Hexapodia as the key insight
Distribution: Threat of the Blight
Approved: yes
Date: 8.68 days since Fall of Relay
I haven't had a chance to see the famous video from
Straumli Realm, except as an evocation. (My only
gateway onto the Net is very expensive.) Is it true
that humans have six legs? I wasn't sure from the
evocation. If these humans have three pairs of legs,
then I think there is an easy explanation for
--MORE--
What's the OS? Does it run Mobibook reader?
Nobody remembers this guy?
This is some twenty-something guy suddenly noticing things that smacked me around the head when I was that twenty-something guy when I picked up Colin Fletcher "The Man who Walked through Time" and got rid of most of my camping gear 'cos going camping with a groundsheet and a sleeping bag and NO TENT was more REAL. Back in the Reagan years.
It's still a level playing field. An empty level playing field, perhaps, but still level. :)
When you're in a situation where network effects are important (eg, people playing your game makes people want to play it because they have more people to play with, or people using your office software means that your file formats are more commonly used) free-riders increase the value of your product. This is a well known and understood effect that many companies have taken advantage of. Until you're in such a dominant position that network effects effectively make your product non-optional (like you-know-who) heavy copy protection is counterproductive.
Back when Enlightenment was new it was anything but "lean", I took a look at it and went back to fvwm or wmx or whatever I was using at the time. I mean, it required 4 megabytes of RAM, and pulled in maybe a couple of dozen shared libraries! Bloat, bloat, bloat!