Unscrupulous cold call centres in Britain (which is all of them) have a procedure to deal with these psychos. Their is a button on the console to trigger an alternate script for complete psychos, where they then give the name of a competitor.
Of course, in the UK, you can opt out of junk calls on one centralised list. I'm on it, and get essentially no calls.
But then, I can only get dial-up internet access, so I don't get many calls anyway...
I have developed an AI that will make your Slashdot posts for you.
Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of those!
It just pastes big quotes from the article and throws in a few off-topic references to the DMCA.
Quotes from the article, eh? You must be new here. Welcome!
The writeups here are always 100% correct, fair and impartial (except on days ending with a 'y'), so it's never worth reading the article anyway (as if you could expect it to display).
I wanted to play about with an extended USB cable, so I could have a webcam at my door. Here's what I did:
Get a short USB cable.
Cut it in the middle.
Get some STP Cat5 cable (I used this because I had spare cable in work).
Splice the Cat5 into the middle of the USB cable (Note: If you don't have much electronics experience, it might be worth employing the help of a friend).
Bind the joints in insulating tape.
Light two black candles, and sacrafice a live chicken.
Test cable.
Of course, I only wanted a cable for a cheap USB webcam, and it was the only thing on the bus. The specification calls for much shorter cables, and that's presumably for a reason. Your mileage may, or course, vary.
I think hundreds of people making up amateur fonts is exactly what we need.
The problem with having lots of fonts is I have trouble keeping more than about 3 fonts in my memory. Specifically, I know of 'system' (fixed width), 'times new roman' (normal writing) and 'arial' (sans-serif normal).
My fonts folder has no less than 463 fonts. I don't need more fonts - I need a few select, high quality fonts.
The only way to learn rocket science is to DO rocket science.
Um... it's conventionally learned by years of study in school and university, leading to a degree in Physics, before you even approach a real rocket.
The font Times New Roman took two years to design, and considerable research into legibility and readability.
Anyway, here's my point: Designing a good font takes years of practice and experience. Hundreds of amuteurs producing mostly chaff only makes sorting out the wheat harder.
"When an i386 running Linux panics, a function in the kernel called 'panic_blink' causes the system's LEDs to blink. Andrew Rodland recently posted a creative patch to turn that steady blink into a useful message in morse code!"
It's the miracle of open source. If only Bill Gates opened the Windows source, Windows too could have morse code LEDs.
The best thing NASA could do for science would be to launch one more shuttle, duct-tape it to the ISS, and fire the engines to deorbit it -- with the point of impact being the rest of the rest of the Shuttle fleet!
They could pay a guy they met down the pub to pinch them and torch them... I don't think the insurance covers impact from falling space debris.
finding women is like fishing. That'sa ll you have to remember. Sounds silly, but it's very true if you examine it for a minute. You don't go fishing with a pole if you want shrimp, and a net won't get you many marlin.
How would dynamiteing the fish fit into this metaphor? It sounds like my sort of approach.
Would be a shame if many people wound up walking around with a second-best material inside of them.
Another way of looking at it is that Americans have health insurance that can pay out many thousands of dollars. As a result, companies that produce health equiptment can have high profit margins.
It would be a shame if a guy invented a brilliant new material that saved thousands of lives, and big drug companies took his idea and made millions from it without giving him a dime.
If he wants a reasonable royalty of something like $25 per unit (Which would, of course, come out of people's medical insurance), that seems fair to me. If he has a good product, he deserves some money for his effort.
Due to complexity, programs simply cannot be written 100% perfect the first time around.
Indeed, but is is seems unlikely that they would type your code out to check it compiles without errors, or suchlike. They want to know you can write code that functions.
automatically hacks the hacker's machine to install a keystroke logger.
Many programs make really short logs. Perhaps they mean it logs every keystroke transmitted by the hacker's terminal program - backspaces and suchlike.
It could just have been 'creatively interpreted' by marketing folks who don't understand the technology.
Why not have the billing sstem physically disconnected from the network?
If you have a web interface, it could locally store the last four digits of the person's credit card number to display.
Accounts-related data (Changes to credit card number, orders, etc.) are saved to a file, which is public-key encrypted in memory (PGP?).
At midnight every day, you copy the file to a floppy, then carry it to the accounts server. Put the disk in, decrypt, and integrate with the current data.
The accounts server (Which isn't network connected) can then be used to print packing manifests, bills etc. while the web server has 'cut down' data on order status, etc.
Granted, this wouldn't be the most high-tech solution possible, but it would make remote access (at least over the internet) impossible.
Unfortunately, creating a long distance (i.e. inter-state or inter-country) connection takes resources.
If you use a communications satellite, you have to spend billions buying, launching and maintaining a communications satellite.
If you lay a decent fiber-optic cable backbone, you can need hundreds of miles of trenches dug, hundreds of miles of multi-strand fibre cabling laid, and then hundreds of miles of trenches filled in. You also probably have to pay the land owners / government / whatever.
On top of that, a backbone needs expensive high-bandwidth routers. A single one could easily set you back US$100,000.
A quote I heard a while back epitomises the situation: "Information may want to be free, but fiber optic cable wants to be one million US dollars per mile."
56kbpsDial-up ISPs can cover costs charging about $10 per month. Broadband capped at 512kbps has ten times the throughput, but it don't cost $100 per month. Last I heard, it was nearer to $40. Where do you think the difference comes from?
If they're trying to be profitable, why do they offer all of this junk?
Because it's locally hosted.
Connecting your youse to the cable modem exchange thingy is easy; they already own the cables, and just have to put data through them. This costs them essentially nothing.
The cost is the connection from the exchange to the internet. They pay for it by usage, and hence want you to use it as little as possible.
If they get a reuters newsfeed and some other junk for a home page, they can put it on a server at the exchange, without having to use the expensive internet connection. This saves them money.
Of course, this relies on people using thier portal site. I know I don't use my ISP's portal. But the majority of users probably do use the home page.
Why not just hire some 31337 geeks, preferably young teenagers who want to show off their skillz without caring about what happens, to shut down the e-mail and telephone systems in your favorite target country.
Because it wouldn't really do anything other than annoying people. Every so often, I'll dial up my ISP and they won't answer. I'll wait a few hours, try again, and things will have cleared themselves up. There are no deaths. There is no permanant damage that will take months to clear up. There are no massive fires, or explosions. It's just a little bit annoying for the country involved.
I don't seee why people are always going on about 'cyber-terrorism'. A physical attack on a major data center would be far more damaging, and would be much harder to rectify.
You know, if you're not careful you're going to end up dead from a distinct lack of having a life.
Y'know, it seems odd to hear someone saying "get a life" in the context of "watch star wars movies, anime, and read comic books. Also, play computer games (specially multi-player games)"
What they could consider is lots of warnings away from the center site, but if you start digging towards it, disregarding the warnings, you could drop dead before digging in far enough.
This would need to be some sort of long-life, non-contagious biological agent - like Anthrax, but longer lasting.
Any digging effort would be quickly abandoned if all the people who got within 500m of the site were dead within days. If the nature of the site was ever forgotten, and people tried to dig down to it again, they die, the site is closed off, and people remember not to come back for a few decades. Sure, some people would die, but it beats having our radioactive fuel rods on dsplay in schools and museums.
Of course, it would be difficult to come up with a bioagent that would last more than about 50 years. And I wouldn't be that comfortable with the US government commisioning research into long-life, highly lethal poisions...
There's two other problems that you need to consider then:
Buy yourself a small tupperware container. Put your electronics in. Drill a hole for any cables to come out of, and seal it up with silicone sealent, from any good hardware store. Put silicone sealent around the top of the tupperware box, and place it on.
Allow the sealent so set and voilia, one long-life sealed container.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey,
Unscrupulous cold call centres in Britain (which is all of them) have a procedure to deal with these psychos. Their is a button on the console to trigger an alternate script for complete psychos, where they then give the name of a competitor.
Of course, in the UK, you can opt out of junk calls on one centralised list. I'm on it, and get essentially no calls.
But then, I can only get dial-up internet access, so I don't get many calls anyway...
Michael
Hey,
I have developed an AI that will make your Slashdot posts for you.
Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of those!
It just pastes big quotes from the article and throws in a few off-topic references to the DMCA.
Quotes from the article, eh? You must be new here. Welcome!
The writeups here are always 100% correct, fair and impartial (except on days ending with a 'y'), so it's never worth reading the article anyway (as if you could expect it to display).
-Michael
Take a moment to read that sig before moving on, please.
-Michael
Hey,
Mocha P4 is a PC that is so flexible, efficient, compact and portable technically knocks down all existing desk top PCs.
Gee whiz. Lots of adjectives. It must be good! How does the size of a computer make it more 'efficient' anyway?
I don't think it's exactly flexible either.
(You see? It's a joke! You can't bend the product.)
-Michael
I wanted to play about with an extended USB cable, so I could have a webcam at my door. Here's what I did:
Of course, I only wanted a cable for a cheap USB webcam, and it was the only thing on the bus. The specification calls for much shorter cables, and that's presumably for a reason. Your mileage may, or course, vary.
I've had success though. Good luck.
Michael
Hey,
I think hundreds of people making up amateur fonts is exactly what we need.
The problem with having lots of fonts is I have trouble keeping more than about 3 fonts in my memory. Specifically, I know of 'system' (fixed width), 'times new roman' (normal writing) and 'arial' (sans-serif normal).
My fonts folder has no less than 463 fonts. I don't need more fonts - I need a few select, high quality fonts.
The only way to learn rocket science is to DO rocket science.
Um... it's conventionally learned by years of study in school and university, leading to a degree in Physics, before you even approach a real rocket.
The font Times New Roman took two years to design, and considerable research into legibility and readability.
Anyway, here's my point: Designing a good font takes years of practice and experience. Hundreds of amuteurs producing mostly chaff only makes sorting out the wheat harder.
Just my $0.02,
Michael
Hey,
:P )
40x - ? (haven't upgraded my drive yet
I graphed your data with a power-type line of best fit. The relationship is approximately:
[Time] = 66.569 * [X Speed]^-0.8206
Upgrading from 32x to 40x would allow you to burn a CD in approximately 0.6 minutes less.
Upgrading from 32x to 48x could offer a benefit as big as 1 minute per CD.
To be honest, I don't think it's worth the bother.
Michael
"When an i386 running Linux panics, a function in the kernel called 'panic_blink' causes the system's LEDs to blink. Andrew Rodland recently posted a creative patch to turn that steady blink into a useful message in morse code!"
It's the miracle of open source. If only Bill Gates opened the Windows source, Windows too could have morse code LEDs.
Go Linux!
Michael
Hey,
The best thing NASA could do for science would be to launch one more shuttle, duct-tape it to the ISS, and fire the engines to deorbit it -- with the point of impact being the rest of the rest of the Shuttle fleet!
They could pay a guy they met down the pub to pinch them and torch them... I don't think the insurance covers impact from falling space debris.
Good idea, though.
Michael
Hey,
finding women is like fishing. That'sa ll you have to remember. Sounds silly, but it's very true if you examine it for a minute. You don't go fishing with a pole if you want shrimp, and a net won't get you many marlin.
How would dynamiteing the fish fit into this metaphor? It sounds like my sort of approach.
Michael
Hey,
Minichino, who bought his Arc-Wave in 1999, also likes the touch-sensitive button that turns on the light panel and blade.
Yeah, they are the best type.
(You see? It's funny!)
Michael
Hey,
Would be a shame if many people wound up walking around with a second-best material inside of them.
Another way of looking at it is that Americans have health insurance that can pay out many thousands of dollars. As a result, companies that produce health equiptment can have high profit margins.
It would be a shame if a guy invented a brilliant new material that saved thousands of lives, and big drug companies took his idea and made millions from it without giving him a dime.
If he wants a reasonable royalty of something like $25 per unit (Which would, of course, come out of people's medical insurance), that seems fair to me. If he has a good product, he deserves some money for his effort.
Just my $0.02
Michael
Hey,
Due to complexity, programs simply cannot be written 100% perfect the first time around.
Indeed, but is is seems unlikely that they would type your code out to check it compiles without errors, or suchlike. They want to know you can write code that functions.
Michael
Hey,
automatically hacks the hacker's machine to install a keystroke logger.
Many programs make really short logs. Perhaps they mean it logs every keystroke transmitted by the hacker's terminal program - backspaces and suchlike.
It could just have been 'creatively interpreted' by marketing folks who don't understand the technology.
Michael
Why not have the billing sstem physically disconnected from the network?
If you have a web interface, it could locally store the last four digits of the person's credit card number to display.
Accounts-related data (Changes to credit card number, orders, etc.) are saved to a file, which is public-key encrypted in memory (PGP?).
At midnight every day, you copy the file to a floppy, then carry it to the accounts server. Put the disk in, decrypt, and integrate with the current data.
The accounts server (Which isn't network connected) can then be used to print packing manifests, bills etc. while the web server has 'cut down' data on order status, etc.
Granted, this wouldn't be the most high-tech solution possible, but it would make remote access (at least over the internet) impossible.
Just my $0.02
Michael
Hey,
bandwidth is expensive. It shouldn't be!
Unfortunately, creating a long distance (i.e. inter-state or inter-country) connection takes resources.
If you use a communications satellite, you have to spend billions buying, launching and maintaining a communications satellite.
If you lay a decent fiber-optic cable backbone, you can need hundreds of miles of trenches dug, hundreds of miles of multi-strand fibre cabling laid, and then hundreds of miles of trenches filled in. You also probably have to pay the land owners / government / whatever.
On top of that, a backbone needs expensive high-bandwidth routers. A single one could easily set you back US$100,000.
A quote I heard a while back epitomises the situation: "Information may want to be free, but fiber optic cable wants to be one million US dollars per mile."
56kbpsDial-up ISPs can cover costs charging about $10 per month. Broadband capped at 512kbps has ten times the throughput, but it don't cost $100 per month. Last I heard, it was nearer to $40. Where do you think the difference comes from?
Michael
Hey,
If they're trying to be profitable, why do they offer all of this junk?
Because it's locally hosted.
Connecting your youse to the cable modem exchange thingy is easy; they already own the cables, and just have to put data through them. This costs them essentially nothing.
The cost is the connection from the exchange to the internet. They pay for it by usage, and hence want you to use it as little as possible.
If they get a reuters newsfeed and some other junk for a home page, they can put it on a server at the exchange, without having to use the expensive internet connection. This saves them money.
Of course, this relies on people using thier portal site. I know I don't use my ISP's portal. But the majority of users probably do use the home page.
Michael
Hey,
Why not just hire some 31337 geeks, preferably young teenagers who want to show off their skillz without caring about what happens, to shut down the e-mail and telephone systems in your favorite target country.
Because it wouldn't really do anything other than annoying people. Every so often, I'll dial up my ISP and they won't answer. I'll wait a few hours, try again, and things will have cleared themselves up. There are no deaths. There is no permanant damage that will take months to clear up. There are no massive fires, or explosions. It's just a little bit annoying for the country involved.
I don't seee why people are always going on about 'cyber-terrorism'. A physical attack on a major data center would be far more damaging, and would be much harder to rectify.
Michael
Four lines?! I don't know where this Wolfram guy was trained, but I can declare the constant 42 in a single line.
Dude, it won't compile if it doesn't have a 'main' routine, thus:
You could trim it down, but you want to keep it readable.
-M
Hey,
You know, if you're not careful you're going to end up dead from a distinct lack of having a life.
Y'know, it seems odd to hear someone saying "get a life" in the context of "watch star wars movies, anime, and read comic books. Also, play computer games (specially multi-player games)"
-M
What they could consider is lots of warnings away from the center site, but if you start digging towards it, disregarding the warnings, you could drop dead before digging in far enough.
This would need to be some sort of long-life, non-contagious biological agent - like Anthrax, but longer lasting.
Any digging effort would be quickly abandoned if all the people who got within 500m of the site were dead within days. If the nature of the site was ever forgotten, and people tried to dig down to it again, they die, the site is closed off, and people remember not to come back for a few decades. Sure, some people would die, but it beats having our radioactive fuel rods on dsplay in schools and museums.
Of course, it would be difficult to come up with a bioagent that would last more than about 50 years. And I wouldn't be that comfortable with the US government commisioning research into long-life, highly lethal poisions...
Michael
Hey,
record and view all commercials (from the kitchen if necessary)
I don't know about you, but my PVR (Non-ReplayTV, non-US) has a one-way connection to my TV. I can watch adverts without even putting the TV on.
Perhaps someone could reverse-engineer the protocol, so you could use your PC modem to distribute false statistics...
-Michael
Hey,
There's two other problems that you need to consider then:
Buy yourself a small tupperware container. Put your electronics in. Drill a hole for any cables to come out of, and seal it up with silicone sealent, from any good hardware store. Put silicone sealent around the top of the tupperware box, and place it on.
Allow the sealent so set and voilia, one long-life sealed container.
Michael
Hey,
Well, assuming there was global warming (which there hasn't been at least in the last 23 years), the best you could do is try to draw a correlation.
Mind you, a correllation is not proof, not by a longshot.
Absolutely not. I personally favour the Global Co-incidence theory.
And I'm sure all right-thinking armchair scientists would agree with me
Michael
Hey,
Suggestion to Intel for a REAL trademark:
"Intelliside"
How about 'Intellicide'?
You see? It's a joke.
Michael