The leading cause of death on the planet today is good ol' malaria
I though the leading cause of death was starvation.
But let's say it is Malaria. It's only poor people who are dying. So it's their own fault - after all it's their own fault they are poor. So let's not bother investing money trying to cure the disease, let's spend our money developing slimming pills and viagra. And if we concentrate on curing the symptoms of the rich, not the causes, we can rake it in for years.
Death from malaria has more to do with Economics than it does to do with DDT & Environmentalists.
Think I'm being facecious? Well go lookup the case of stomach ulcers and Helicobacter pylori. Strange how the suddenly found a cure just after the patents expired on all those expensive antacids.
Stear clear of GM foods? Not much biology in your background is there? Humans have been modifying animals and plants for agricultural reasons for centuries. It was originally call breeding.
Oh I see. Right. Instead of splicing a jellyfish gene into a potato using GM techniques I could just put a potato and a jellyfish and a potato in a room together - bit of wine, some light music - and let nature take it's course?
Get real. I can see you've swallowed the GM propoganda hook, line and sinker.
But at least in human made GM we have a good idea of the very structure of the molecules and are in a much better position to do something if GM begins to cause harm
Dude, we can't even write software that is crash proof, and that's in an environment that humans invented. Yet miraculously when playing with genetics - an area we don't fully understand - somehow we'll get it right 100%.
GM is not about making organisms that better, it's about MONEY. Making goods cheaper for farmers to produce; whilst using patent law to protect your product - and therefore maintain your revenue stream. Nobody needs GM foodstuffs - we can produce enough to feed the entire world without risking it.
Ever heard of BSE? That's a disease that was caused by money - feeding cattle the bones of other dead animals BECAUSE THE PRICE OF FISHMEAL WAS GETTING TO HIGH (call me dumb but I was not actually aware that cows went fishing). Everybody though bonemeal would be fine - yet just look how wrong it all went. Ever heard of a prion? Well neither had the scientific community until BSE.
There still is no evidence that global warming really exists not to mention that it would be caused by human action.
What harm is caused by listening to the environmentalists?
And what harm is caused if all the evidence in their favour is proved correct?
In my opinion listening to the environmentalists causes no harm; but if they are right we're fucked. So whether or not I agree with them or with you - I'm going to modify my behaviour based on what they tell me. I'll buy a more efficient car, I'll steer clear of GM foods, and I'll try to avoid creating vast quantities of waste. And where I can I'll also support them in their efforts.
So you just keep driving about in your Chevy van, and make yourself feel better by calling people who care "econazis". And when the oil runs out and you're left with a rusting pile of useless metal on your drive remember to blame the government because "they should have done something".
As far as I can tell, 8 people can claim to have invented the TV. So if you ask me no one person invented TV; they all invented it. They were the pioneers.
But every time someone mentions an invention it becomes an excuse to fight a patriotic war of words. Who invented the computer? Who invented the TV? Who did this, who did that.
Well I don't care. TV was an invention whose time had come. And it took people from all over the world to make it work. So let's celebrate the work of all the pioneers of the TV, and let's celebrate what we can acheive if we work together. And let's stop belittling the efforts of all the unknown helpers by attributing inventions to the efforts of just one man.
When I was doing some part-time work crewing for a "sound reinforcment" firm, I could never remember which way round the XLR connectors went. Which can be a bit of a problem when you've just unravelled 200m of multi-core - the wrong way round. One day the chief sound-engineer grabed a cable and waved both ends in my face and calmly said:
"Remember: Males give. Females receive"
He also pointed out that the 13-amp mains worked with a different standard. Although I've never figured out why:-j
When us SysAdmin's in the office heard the firm was intending to rollout exchange there was a quiet revolt. Constant moaning and griping, with claims that Unix on the desktop as ESSENTIAL. The eventual solution was to give us all laptops. Which made us all happy.
We're even happier now it looks like the Exchange thing isn't going ahead.
Indeed, this is not the sort of thing which you should legislate against. However...
Common sense tells me that using a phone whilst driving is dangerous - so I don't do it. Yet every day I encounter some muppet who thinks it's reasonable to expect me to deal with their inability to drive correctly because they are on the phone.
So the law here is a necessity.
One would also think that common sense would be sufficient to get people to turn off their phones in public places. However, there are people who think the "no phone" messages don't apply to them; and they will quite happily use their phones in public. And of course being rude to people who ask them to stop is righteous behavour as it's their right to be an annoying t**t.
But a law that says they are in the wrong atleast give the rest of us ammo when we turn round and say "shut-the-F**k-up".
I've heard of multiple examples of this sort of thing. Who actually invented the Telephone, Television or the Computer? No matter what you believe someone will be able to present credible evidence that you are wrong.
So, given that it looks like knowlege leads to discoveries, not people, how do we justify allowing people to say "I invented this, so you can't make use of my invention without paying me a huge amount of cash"?
There are some very good examples of people who had an idea and refused to use it to get rich (the guy who came up with the idea for VisiCalc springs to mind).
I doubt we could ever convince the law makers to alter copyright and patent laws. But maybe this could form a defence against DCMA type legislation - blame it on the memes?
Honestly, what's the big deal? We all know about it already.
Indeed WE all know about it. I've got a mate who's just as passionate about LOTR as I am. Both he and I agree that the November release is the one to have.
But my mate's wife has ordered him a copy of the August DVD and he'll be getting it as a birthday suprise. She doesn't know about the three seperate releases, she just sees the DVD is to be launched, knows her husband is a LOTR fan, so thinks she's doing something nice.
IMHO I think the release schedule is going to annoy people more than it's going to generate money. However, I think the main effect is going to be hype. Let's face it the advertising for FOTR was 90% self generating hype. So why should we expect the next two films to be any different.
I was going to commit mass murder, taunt cute little kittens with an open tin of tuna buy not let them have any, run around naked in public, and park on double yellow lines.
But I did none of that. So does this make me a saint? I hope not.
Microsoft decided not to use a totally OTT piece of legislation. They do not deserve kudos, but they don't deserve to be mocked (any more than usual).
If anyone deserves kudos it's the EFF for encouraging huge marketing machines like Microsoft to do the moral thing.
Errm I didn't. Took me a couple of goes to work it out. I'm dyslexic you see. Took me years to workout the differance between "their" and "there". And now I have it you would not believe how difficult it can be when people mix them up.
Not the best film of all time, but one of the greats. The shots of the desert simply take my breath away. And I've only ever seen it on TV.
And on IMAX?
Well, I'd probably wet my pants;)
It may just be my imagination, but...
on
Shattering Windows
·
· Score: 2
Does this particular problem suggest that Windows was not designed as a true multi-user network server OS. All apps can be accessed via a single desktop regardless of who the user is? WTF?
I started to worry about this when the Microsoft support site suggested a valid fix to get MS-Money to work was to give the user full administrator access.
Now it looks like they've built the whole API with this mindset.
If something is wrong don't do it. Take cracking or DoS attacks. Totally wrong. Lock them up and throw away the key.
But you start to legislate that it's okay for some users (I don't care how much money Hollywood has, they are still users just like you and me) to crack and DoS others then you make it grey. So the next time you catch a cracker you've got a much harder job dealing with him. And the next time it's harder still. And fairly soon cracking just becomes one of those things you live with.
At least the Aussies are doing their hardest to keep it black and white.
But I don't think it makes much differance. The US Government doesn't seem to give a toss about what the rest of the world thinks. As long as those campaign contributions keep pouring in nothing else matters. (Don't you just love democracy.)
I've found portupgrade so easy I use it once a day on my DevBox. Only takes 5mins unless something big needs upgrading. In doing this I've managed to fix several vunerabilities before I've even known they existed.
The only thing that stops me doing a build world more often than once a month is that mergemaster takes a little concentration.
1) It's development method is too formalised, it discourages people from just throwing a patch at things and becoming involved
I've always thought of this as a good thing. The core team makes decisions about the direction of the OS and I've always been happy to accept them and just get on with it. Whereas the last time I installed Linux I got side-tracked with a discussion on the relative merits of the umpteen filesystems Linux supports.
2) BSD users are to the Unix world like how Mac users are towards Window users "Use my superior OS you inferior idiot"
Amusingly I've always found it's Linux are most rabid about OS (and distro) superiority. So this must be a matter of perspective.
3) They're obsessed with the opposition, they mention Linux, constantly
I'm not aware that I'm constantly talking about Linux. Yes I will refer to Linux when I describe BSD to someone who doesn't know what unix is. But Linux is seen as "the" free unix not "a" free unix, so one has to make the distinction as people think you're talking about "BSD Linux". Anyhow, what's wrong with talking about Linux? Linux is not as conservative as BSD. So Linux heads out in different direction on a whim. The Linux crowd will learn stuff which the BSD crowd can look at, evaluate, and (if it's worthwhile) mimic. Should the Linux crowd feel the need to not talk about BSD that they are missing out on a choice opportinity to pick up some free R&D.
4) The logo is aweful and unsuitable. "Oh boss, I'm just going to install this software with a devil on it.."
The lil' beastie is not awful, he's cute. And classifying the OS based on the mascot? I could say Linux is unsuitable because the mascot is of a bird that can't even fly. But I'd be barking mad if I ever expected somone to believe me.
5) Linux isn't as bad as they try to say it is. If you want quality, get a quality distribution like Slackware and not a hashed together commercial distro.
You see. In a discussion on BSD you're talking distro superiority. Using BSD over Linux is exactly the same sort of decision as using Slackware over RedHat. It Unix, it's free, who cares?
I first read the Narnia books when I was about 10. They have to be the first books I ever read that I still read today.
When I first expressed an interest in the Narnia books I was told that The Magician's Nephew was the first. But as my Grandparent's copy had dissapeared I was given The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe first, and The Magician's Nephew second (when my constant moaning forced the purchase of a replacement copy). I then read the remainder in chronological order.
Some 20 years later I've just discovered the order I've always thought was correct was wrong. On reflection I'm sure that reading The Magician's Nephew second taught me something valuable about literature. When I discovered that there was a "correct" order I just knew I had to read them in that order.
A quick google lead to this link. Which indicates that there are actually 3 orders, the chronological order, the published order, and the written order. There is also some evidence presented that Lewis expressed a mild preference for the chronological order
So I suppose the "correct" order is the one you believe in. So I think I'm going to go back to thinking as The Magician's Nephew as the "second" book. And then I'll follow the written order.
Okay, so everybody has pointed out that a 64k bitrate is useless for their needs. Some claim 128K is the best, others 192K. Personally I prefer a variable bitrate - indeed OGG encodes VBR by default.
But is their some fundamental reason why nobody else insists on VBR?
Slashdot Mirror
The leading cause of death on the planet today is good ol' malaria
I though the leading cause of death was starvation.
But let's say it is Malaria. It's only poor people who are dying. So it's their own fault - after all it's their own fault they are poor. So let's not bother investing money trying to cure the disease, let's spend our money developing slimming pills and viagra. And if we concentrate on curing the symptoms of the rich, not the causes, we can rake it in for years.
Death from malaria has more to do with Economics than it does to do with DDT & Environmentalists.
Think I'm being facecious? Well go lookup the case of stomach ulcers and Helicobacter pylori. Strange how the suddenly found a cure just after the patents expired on all those expensive antacids.
Stear clear of GM foods? Not much biology in your background is there? Humans have been modifying animals and plants for agricultural reasons for centuries. It was originally call breeding.
Oh I see. Right. Instead of splicing a jellyfish gene into a potato using GM techniques I could just put a potato and a jellyfish and a potato in a room together - bit of wine, some light music - and let nature take it's course?
Get real. I can see you've swallowed the GM propoganda hook, line and sinker.
But at least in human made GM we have a good idea of the very structure of the molecules and are in a much better position to do something if GM begins to cause harm
Dude, we can't even write software that is crash proof, and that's in an environment that humans invented. Yet miraculously when playing with genetics - an area we don't fully understand - somehow we'll get it right 100%.
GM is not about making organisms that better, it's about MONEY. Making goods cheaper for farmers to produce; whilst using patent law to protect your product - and therefore maintain your revenue stream. Nobody needs GM foodstuffs - we can produce enough to feed the entire world without risking it.
Ever heard of BSE? That's a disease that was caused by money - feeding cattle the bones of other dead animals BECAUSE THE PRICE OF FISHMEAL WAS GETTING TO HIGH (call me dumb but I was not actually aware that cows went fishing). Everybody though bonemeal would be fine - yet just look how wrong it all went. Ever heard of a prion? Well neither had the scientific community until BSE.
There still is no evidence that global warming really exists not to mention that it would be caused by human action.
What harm is caused by listening to the environmentalists?
And what harm is caused if all the evidence in their favour is proved correct?
In my opinion listening to the environmentalists causes no harm; but if they are right we're fucked. So whether or not I agree with them or with you - I'm going to modify my behaviour based on what they tell me. I'll buy a more efficient car, I'll steer clear of GM foods, and I'll try to avoid creating vast quantities of waste. And where I can I'll also support them in their efforts.
So you just keep driving about in your Chevy van, and make yourself feel better by calling people who care "econazis". And when the oil runs out and you're left with a rusting pile of useless metal on your drive remember to blame the government because "they should have done something".
As far as I can tell, 8 people can claim to have invented the TV. So if you ask me no one person invented TV; they all invented it. They were the pioneers.
But every time someone mentions an invention it becomes an excuse to fight a patriotic war of words. Who invented the computer? Who invented the TV? Who did this, who did that.
Well I don't care. TV was an invention whose time had come. And it took people from all over the world to make it work. So let's celebrate the work of all the pioneers of the TV, and let's celebrate what we can acheive if we work together. And let's stop belittling the efforts of all the unknown helpers by attributing inventions to the efforts of just one man.
Can anyone think of a crappier design than SCART??!
Tailing into the mains, wedging with matchsticks?
the term "male" and "female" connectors
:-j
When I was doing some part-time work crewing for a "sound reinforcment" firm, I could never remember which way round the XLR connectors went. Which can be a bit of a problem when you've just unravelled 200m of multi-core - the wrong way round. One day the chief sound-engineer grabed a cable and waved both ends in my face and calmly said:
"Remember: Males give. Females receive"
He also pointed out that the 13-amp mains worked with a different standard. Although I've never figured out why
One remote to rule them all, One remote to find them,
One remote to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Hell, I'd be satisfied with the one remote to find 'em.
When us SysAdmin's in the office heard the firm was intending to rollout exchange there was a quiet revolt. Constant moaning and griping, with claims that Unix on the desktop as ESSENTIAL. The eventual solution was to give us all laptops. Which made us all happy.
We're even happier now it looks like the Exchange thing isn't going ahead.
This isn't exactly something that should be a law
Indeed, this is not the sort of thing which you should legislate against. However...
Common sense tells me that using a phone whilst driving is dangerous - so I don't do it. Yet every day I encounter some muppet who thinks it's reasonable to expect me to deal with their inability to drive correctly because they are on the phone.
So the law here is a necessity.
One would also think that common sense would be sufficient to get people to turn off their phones in public places. However, there are people who think the "no phone" messages don't apply to them; and they will quite happily use their phones in public. And of course being rude to people who ask them to stop is righteous behavour as it's their right to be an annoying t**t.
But a law that says they are in the wrong atleast give the rest of us ammo when we turn round and say "shut-the-F**k-up".
I've heard of multiple examples of this sort of thing. Who actually invented the Telephone, Television or the Computer? No matter what you believe someone will be able to present credible evidence that you are wrong.
So, given that it looks like knowlege leads to discoveries, not people, how do we justify allowing people to say "I invented this, so you can't make use of my invention without paying me a huge amount of cash"?
There are some very good examples of people who had an idea and refused to use it to get rich (the guy who came up with the idea for VisiCalc springs to mind).
I doubt we could ever convince the law makers to alter copyright and patent laws. But maybe this could form a defence against DCMA type legislation - blame it on the memes?
Honestly, what's the big deal? We all know about it already.
Indeed WE all know about it. I've got a mate who's just as passionate about LOTR as I am. Both he and I agree that the November release is the one to have.
But my mate's wife has ordered him a copy of the August DVD and he'll be getting it as a birthday suprise. She doesn't know about the three seperate releases, she just sees the DVD is to be launched, knows her husband is a LOTR fan, so thinks she's doing something nice.
IMHO I think the release schedule is going to annoy people more than it's going to generate money. However, I think the main effect is going to be hype. Let's face it the advertising for FOTR was 90% self generating hype. So why should we expect the next two films to be any different.
I did nothing today too.
I was going to commit mass murder, taunt cute little kittens with an open tin of tuna buy not let them have any, run around naked in public, and park on double yellow lines.
But I did none of that. So does this make me a saint? I hope not.
Microsoft decided not to use a totally OTT piece of legislation. They do not deserve kudos, but they don't deserve to be mocked (any more than usual).
If anyone deserves kudos it's the EFF for encouraging huge marketing machines like Microsoft to do the moral thing.
It seems Einstein was an Aussie too.
Hmm, I wonder how this is going to make my beer taste?
You know what he meant
Errm I didn't. Took me a couple of goes to work it out. I'm dyslexic you see. Took me years to workout the differance between "their" and "there". And now I have it you would not believe how difficult it can be when people mix them up.
It just has to be David Lean's
;)
Lawrence or Arabia
Not the best film of all time, but one of the greats. The shots of the desert simply take my breath away. And I've only ever seen it on TV.
And on IMAX?
Well, I'd probably wet my pants
Does this particular problem suggest that Windows was not designed as a true multi-user network server OS. All apps can be accessed via a single desktop regardless of who the user is? WTF?
I started to worry about this when the Microsoft support site suggested a valid fix to get MS-Money to work was to give the user full administrator access.
Now it looks like they've built the whole API with this mindset.
Things are right, wrong, or grey.
If something is wrong don't do it. Take cracking or DoS attacks. Totally wrong. Lock them up and throw away the key.
But you start to legislate that it's okay for some users (I don't care how much money Hollywood has, they are still users just like you and me) to crack and DoS others then you make it grey. So the next time you catch a cracker you've got a much harder job dealing with him. And the next time it's harder still. And fairly soon cracking just becomes one of those things you live with.
At least the Aussies are doing their hardest to keep it black and white.
But I don't think it makes much differance. The US Government doesn't seem to give a toss about what the rest of the world thinks. As long as those campaign contributions keep pouring in nothing else matters. (Don't you just love democracy.)
But didn't Michael Ansara play Kang in both the TOS (without ridges) and DS9 (with ridges)? So the two races idea is a non-starter
The differance was always explained to me as cosmetic surgery as Klingon honour stated "Never show your enemy your true face".
But my opinion is....
Why the hell should we care?
TOS was great. NG was great. DS9 had it's high points. Voyager was mostly pants. Enterprise is fantastic.
The fact that cross show continuity takes second place to the story is a good thing. So why a good deal of ST fandom insist upon it I have no idea.
I only hope the "Temporal Cold War" plot in Enterprise changes the "future" so ST is not held back by the constraints of what's gone before.
I've found portupgrade so easy I use it once a day on my DevBox. Only takes 5mins unless something big needs upgrading. In doing this I've managed to fix several vunerabilities before I've even known they existed.
The only thing that stops me doing a build world more often than once a month is that mergemaster takes a little concentration.
I've always thought of this as a good thing. The core team makes decisions about the direction of the OS and I've always been happy to accept them and just get on with it. Whereas the last time I installed Linux I got side-tracked with a discussion on the relative merits of the umpteen filesystems Linux supports.
2) BSD users are to the Unix world like how Mac users are towards Window users "Use my superior OS you inferior idiot"
Amusingly I've always found it's Linux are most rabid about OS (and distro) superiority. So this must be a matter of perspective.3) They're obsessed with the opposition, they mention Linux, constantly
I'm not aware that I'm constantly talking about Linux. Yes I will refer to Linux when I describe BSD to someone who doesn't know what unix is. But Linux is seen as "the" free unix not "a" free unix, so one has to make the distinction as people think you're talking about "BSD Linux". Anyhow, what's wrong with talking about Linux? Linux is not as conservative as BSD. So Linux heads out in different direction on a whim. The Linux crowd will learn stuff which the BSD crowd can look at, evaluate, and (if it's worthwhile) mimic. Should the Linux crowd feel the need to not talk about BSD that they are missing out on a choice opportinity to pick up some free R&D.4) The logo is aweful and unsuitable. "Oh boss, I'm just going to install this software with a devil on it.."
The lil' beastie is not awful, he's cute. And classifying the OS based on the mascot? I could say Linux is unsuitable because the mascot is of a bird that can't even fly. But I'd be barking mad if I ever expected somone to believe me.
5) Linux isn't as bad as they try to say it is. If you want quality, get a quality distribution like Slackware and not a hashed together commercial distro.
You see. In a discussion on BSD you're talking distro superiority. Using BSD over Linux is exactly the same sort of decision as using Slackware over RedHat. It Unix, it's free, who cares?I first read the Narnia books when I was about 10. They have to be the first books I ever read that I still read today.
When I first expressed an interest in the Narnia books I was told that The Magician's Nephew was the first. But as my Grandparent's copy had dissapeared I was given The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe first, and The Magician's Nephew second (when my constant moaning forced the purchase of a replacement copy). I then read the remainder in chronological order.
Some 20 years later I've just discovered the order I've always thought was correct was wrong. On reflection I'm sure that reading The Magician's Nephew second taught me something valuable about literature. When I discovered that there was a "correct" order I just knew I had to read them in that order.
A quick google lead to this link. Which indicates that there are actually 3 orders, the chronological order, the published order, and the written order. There is also some evidence presented that Lewis expressed a mild preference for the chronological order
So I suppose the "correct" order is the one you believe in. So I think I'm going to go back to thinking as The Magician's Nephew as the "second" book. And then I'll follow the written order.
But is their some fundamental reason why nobody else insists on VBR?
Why do people always feel the need to not translate?
Because they post when they are in serious hack mode and make the assumption that others will understand without explinations.
Mea Culpa ;-)
My thanks for the compliment. Nevermind, perhaps some kind hearted soul will take pity and mod me backup.
And to the person who marked me troll:
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? : Who shall watch the watchmen?
In other words, who is checking this software actually works, what it actually does, and that it's not missed some glaring security issue.
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?