We execute the most people out of all "western" countries (that's what, 12 or 13 countries?). [...] Even AI has to grudgingly admit that standards in the US are vastly superior than most of the planet.
Well, that's all right then. They'll probably be putting that up at airports and embassies: "The United States of America - vastly less evil and murderous than China, or Burma or, er... these killer zombies in this movie I saw once, or...um, the Ebola virus."
Clearly, people resist sudden change, so you have to change things slowly and gently, starting with an environment they like. If you do it slowly enough, they don't even realise they're learning.
The draft proposal would look to invoke NATO's self-defence charter, diplomatic sources and State Department officials told CNN. The proposal, put forward by NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, would call for support of Article Five of the alliance's charter, which is the basic reason for NATO's existence. It spells out the requirement that if one of NATO's members is attacked, all its allies would defend it.
One official put it this way: "A hit for one is a hit for all."
So if Dubya gets all hot in the head, the rest of the world will start building up steam. The article does go on to say that the US will have to "give it details of who had been responsible", but how much evidence they'll need we don't know. A few documents in a car pointing to Osama bin Laden, and away we go.
This cartoon on Monday seems unfortunately timely now.
StuP
Someone re-posts a huge lame list of 666 jokes, and gets modded up to +5!? In the name of sanity, will someone please knock the above posting down a bit.
Let's just hope/. doesn't headline with an article on blondes, or mothers-in-law.
lol at ESR on the kernel configuration method, CML1: I've been examining the existing kernel configuration system, and I have about concluded that the best favor we could do everybody involved with it is to take it out behind the barn and shoot it through the head.
Good to see someone's really doing something about making Linux easier to get going. Until the setup process involves sticking a CD in the machine and answering a few easy questions, getting Linux on the desktop will be too difficult for Joe Aol. So it's either a nice install process, or have it bundled with the machine.
I tend to believe that other people's opinions are basically worthless to oneself in a practical
point of view. Although it feels nice when people like you, you should live your life the way
that YOU think is right and good, and forget what anyone else is telling you to do or how
they want you to behave. If people choose to ignore you, then so what?
Aw, you're just saying that to try to impress us!
StuP
Quantum Computers can crack any crypto system that's based on the hardness of factorisation, because there exists an algorithm (due to Peter Shor) that can factorise composite numbers exponentially faster than any classical computer can do. So whereas adding a few bits to your key turns a 3 month problem into a 3 Myear problem for a *classical* computer, the quantum computer just laughs it off. Whether there are other bases for crypto that a quantum computer couldn't break (are Elliptic Curves any good?), I don't know.
However, Quantum Cryptography (properly called "Quantum Key Distribution") is another matter entirely. It doesn't rely on any computational problem being hard - it is based in the fundamentals of quantum measurement. Essentially, because of the fragile nature of quantum states, you can arrange that no eavesdropper can know your key - not even one bit of it - without disturbing it and so revealing themselves. Thus, you need never use an unsafe key again.
Not even a quantum computer can get around the fundamental limits of quantum measurement, and so QKD is provably secure against any future technological development.
...unless a whole new paradigm of physics emerges to replace Quantum Mechanics, of course!
StuP
AFAIKS, this isn't scalable, which is the key to making a real useful Quantum Computer. The amplitude of the output, a single frequency component, must surely drop away with the number of entries in the database. So if you increase the number of entries by a factor of a million, the output beam is a million times weaker, and almost undetectable.
In analysing this sort of thing, the "size" of the problem is usually taken as the logarithm of the number of entries (ie the number of bits required to label each item). Since the strength of the output beam decreases linearly with the number of entries, it falls off exponentially with problem size.
Now, it can be shown that even with a Quantum Computer, the best we can do is to speed up the search by the square root of the number of entries. So 10^6 entries takes 10^3 searches, and so on. This isn't an exponential speedup (which is impossible for Unordered Search), but I can't see that this "light interference" method could match a quantum machine.
And it certainly couldn't match the exponential speedups on Factoring, the killer app for Quantum Computing.
StuP
>> It's worth noting that intuition tells us that the sun goes around the Earth.
> Of course our intuition tells us that. Did you expect it to lead us astray or something?
There's a story about a conversation between Noble laureate Paul Dirac and someone (whose identity escapes me at present):
Dirac: "Why did ancient people assume that the Sun went around the Earth?" Reply: "Because that's what it looks like" Dirac: "So what would it look like if it were the other way around?"
I just found out that Dirac was born in the house next door to me a few months ago.
StuP
The FBI knowing your underwear size is a GOOD thing. It means that when they handcuff you, they can use custom-made handcuffs that'll be more comfortable for you. Same goes for straitjackets - the taylor-made ones are FAR superiour to the Off-The-Shelf variety.
It's an interesting lifestyle choice that considers handcuffs and straitjackets to be underwear, but hey, I'm not judging anyone.:)
"If you tell me all your secrets, I promise not to blackmail you."
StuP
Knowing Adam's inability to meet deadlines (if you'll pardon the word), it seems such an irony that he finally did something early.
For those attending his funeral, be prepared for a long wait, as he is expected to be late.
So long, and Thanks.
StuP "The thing I love most about deadlines is the wonderful WHOOSHing sound they make as they go past" - DNA
IANAA (I Am Not An American), but what terrible consequences would arise if the 25 Florida electors split their block of votes evenly between the two candidates? Since it looks like we won't be seeing a clear-cut winner in the state for a long time (if ever), doesn't it make sense to look for a way around the problem? Of course, the GOP team would wail and scream, since this would (I think) give Gore the majority of EC votes.
AFAIK, there's no law set in stone that says the electors have to all vote the same way, just a tradition. Other states have split votes, don't they? Of course, changing the EC's procedure part-way through the process isn't the most "clean and fair-looking" solution, but how bad could it be (unless you're a Republican, I guess)? Better than shotgunning the count and turning the orange state into a banana republic.
"8 million, two hu.. What? Damn. One, two..."
StuP
"The takeover of the home genomics market takes another step today with the announcement of MSGene2018. Predictions are that the package will include Ensemble, the home PCR kit previewed here and a number of retro-virii brought back from the Gates Memorial Biological Research Centre in Antarctica. Critics accuse the company of 'mind-boggling negligence' and 'indifference to human life', pointing to the concerns raised over compatibility problems between the base-level human genome and new proprietary introductions such as IntelliGen, and Luminescence.
MS Spokesman Bill Gates 3.1 declined to comment publicly until the current raft of sterility cases reach the Supreme Court."
And just imagine TestTube, the Lab assistant: "It looks like you're making a baby. Need any help?" StuP
Slashdot Mirror
Surely you mean "November 2000"?
I'm surprised the kids haven't figured out that they can still tell each other to 'gfuckj off'.
He must have been using a top-secret technique known only to an elite few around here, and even then only by a mysterious acronym: RTFA.
Now don't tell anyone, or we'll have to kill you.
Be warned, the link in the Anonymous parent comment is not to anything you'll forget soon. It's biology, but not at all nano. Uck!
Why do you care? What's your personal interest?
An explanation of your personal interest would do much to define just why we should listen to you and not the parent post?
Rinse, repeat...
Then you walk over to the scanner (with your ballot inside a cardboard sleeve to keep people from seeing it) and feed it through yourself.
Eww! Takes a couple of days to get a result out, then? I sure hope the guys doing the hand-count are provided with gloves or something.
StuP
In further news, that kid who swiped your lunch money wasn't really collecting a "Lunch Tax".
StuP
Well, that's all right then. They'll probably be putting that up at airports and embassies:
"The United States of America - vastly less evil and murderous than China, or Burma or, er... these killer zombies in this movie I saw once, or...um, the Ebola virus."
By God, it makes you damn proud, doesn't it?
StuP
Clearly, people resist sudden change, so you have to change things slowly and gently, starting with an environment they like. If you do it slowly enough, they don't even realise they're learning.
StuP
The draft proposal would look to invoke NATO's self-defence charter, diplomatic sources and State Department officials told CNN. The proposal, put forward by NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, would call for support of Article Five of the alliance's charter, which is the basic reason for NATO's existence. It spells out the requirement that if one of NATO's members is attacked, all its allies would defend it.
One official put it this way: "A hit for one is a hit for all."
So if Dubya gets all hot in the head, the rest of the world will start building up steam. The article does go on to say that the US will have to "give it details of who had been responsible", but how much evidence they'll need we don't know. A few documents in a car pointing to Osama bin Laden, and away we go.
This cartoon on Monday seems unfortunately timely now.
StuP
Let's just hope
StuP
I've been examining the existing kernel configuration system, and I have about concluded that the best favor we could do everybody involved with it is to take it out behind the barn and shoot it through the head.
Good to see someone's really doing something about making Linux easier to get going. Until the setup process involves sticking a CD in the machine and answering a few easy questions, getting Linux on the desktop will be too difficult for Joe Aol. So it's either a nice install process, or have it bundled with the machine.
Which is easier to achieve?
StuP
Any suggestions?
StuP
I tend to believe that other people's opinions are basically worthless to oneself in a practical point of view. Although it feels nice when people like you, you should live your life the way that YOU think is right and good, and forget what anyone else is telling you to do or how they want you to behave. If people choose to ignore you, then so what? Aw, you're just saying that to try to impress us!
StuP
However, Quantum Cryptography (properly called "Quantum Key Distribution") is another matter entirely. It doesn't rely on any computational problem being hard - it is based in the fundamentals of quantum measurement. Essentially, because of the fragile nature of quantum states, you can arrange that no eavesdropper can know your key - not even one bit of it - without disturbing it and so revealing themselves. Thus, you need never use an unsafe key again.
Not even a quantum computer can get around the fundamental limits of quantum measurement, and so QKD is provably secure against any future technological development.
StuP
In analysing this sort of thing, the "size" of the problem is usually taken as the logarithm of the number of entries (ie the number of bits required to label each item). Since the strength of the output beam decreases linearly with the number of entries, it falls off exponentially with problem size.
Now, it can be shown that even with a Quantum Computer, the best we can do is to speed up the search by the square root of the number of entries. So 10^6 entries takes 10^3 searches, and so on. This isn't an exponential speedup (which is impossible for Unordered Search), but I can't see that this "light interference" method could match a quantum machine.
And it certainly couldn't match the exponential speedups on Factoring, the killer app for Quantum Computing.
StuP
> Of course our intuition tells us that. Did you expect it to lead us astray or something?
There's a story about a conversation between Noble laureate Paul Dirac and someone
(whose identity escapes me at present):
Dirac: "Why did ancient people assume that the Sun went around the Earth?"
Reply: "Because that's what it looks like"
Dirac: "So what would it look like if it were the other way around?"
I just found out that Dirac was born in the house next door to me a few months ago.
StuP
It's an interesting lifestyle choice that considers handcuffs and straitjackets to be underwear, but hey, I'm not judging anyone. :)
"If you tell me all your secrets, I promise not to blackmail you."
StuP
but the call to get rid of it is sitting at +5:Insightful!
Of course, by the time the "mod this down" post has gone, this will be up at +5. And so on, ad infinitum.
StuP
Knowing Adam's inability to meet deadlines (if you'll pardon the word), it seems such an irony that he finally did something early. For those attending his funeral, be prepared for a long wait, as he is expected to be late.
So long, and Thanks.
StuP
"The thing I love most about deadlines is the wonderful WHOOSHing sound they make as they go past" - DNA
IANAA (I Am Not An American), but what terrible consequences would arise if the 25 Florida electors split their block of votes evenly between the two candidates? Since it looks like we won't be seeing a clear-cut winner in the state for a long time (if ever), doesn't it make sense to look for a way around the problem? Of course, the GOP team would wail and scream, since this would (I think) give Gore the majority of EC votes.
AFAIK, there's no law set in stone that says the electors have to all vote the same way, just a tradition. Other states have split votes, don't they? Of course, changing the EC's procedure part-way through the process isn't the most "clean and fair-looking" solution, but how bad could it be (unless you're a Republican, I guess)? Better than shotgunning the count and turning the orange state into a banana republic.
"8 million, two hu.. What? Damn. One, two..."
StuP
"The takeover of the home genomics market takes another step today with the announcement of MSGene2018. Predictions are that the package will include Ensemble, the home PCR kit previewed here and a number of retro-virii brought back from the Gates Memorial Biological Research Centre in Antarctica. Critics accuse the company of 'mind-boggling negligence' and 'indifference to human life', pointing to the concerns raised over compatibility problems between the base-level human genome and new proprietary introductions such as IntelliGen, and Luminescence.
MS Spokesman Bill Gates 3.1 declined to comment publicly until the current raft of sterility cases reach the Supreme Court."
And just imagine TestTube, the Lab assistant: "It looks like you're making a baby. Need any help?"
StuP