"I think I'll drag the Vic-20 out of the garage, run some Cat5 behind it, hook it to the five old walkmen I have kicking around, stick a cartridge in the cartridge slot, and claim it's a webserver. Then I'll submit it to/. No, wait, that's utterly ridiculous and everyone would flame me for thinking anyone would believe it. Like hell..."
Umm... the fact that they claim the webserver is running off a TRS-80 is a total sidebar to the story. The original story, if you notice by the title of the posting, and most of the content, was about the Human Clock they're hosting. Try to read things a little closer next time, m'kay?
You know, when I first read this post, I thought "Wow, thanks for pointing that out, I never would have gotten it..." But, then I realized something. There are a fair number of Slashdotters who *didn't* get it! I find that remarkably unbelieveable... but, perhaps that's just my misplaced faith in the intelligence of the common man rearing it's ugly head...
Oh dear lord, some people have *no* sense of humour. This isn't a hoax. Hoaxes are, generally speaking, at least marginally believable. There is usually an attempt on the part of the hoaxers to actually convince others that what they are claiming is true. This, OTOH, is *obviously* a JOKE. I mean, come on... 4 gigs on a tape? The webserver powered on 4 "AA" batteries (double coupon day)? Heck, even tim knew it was a joke: "Something seems extremely suspicious about that server..."! OTOH, at least I can now see just how thick some Slashdotters are...
He he, and that doesn't surprise me one bit.:) You know, it's funny, though... after re-reading my post, I realized that even I have that us-vs-them mentality toward Quebec.. I was raised in Alberta, so, really, I have an us-vs-them mentality toward all of eastern Canada:), but, still, it's kind of sad. What's worse is that you guys think of us as "exactly like american"... I suppose it shouldn't be surprising, but it still makes me feel sad, that the country should be so divided...
Well, while I agree with you in general, I don't know how well that fits with the American cultural psyche. In my observation, it seems that not even Americans make fun of America, and if other people do, that's even worse. I mean, they make fun of their public figures (politicians, etc), but there's little in the way of humour about America and it's culture in general (vs the Canadian tendency to have a humour about ourselves and our stereotypes (see Air Farce)). After all, you said it yourself, even your Japanese friend has no problem saying "us dumb nipsters", but I don't know if I'd catch an American saying "we dumb Americans"...
Which is, actually, an interesting point about Canadian humour. We're constantly making fun of ourselves (well... Americans, too;). Americans, though, don't seem to have the same sense of humour about themselves and their culture (although they obviously do about their politicians... look who they elected president...;).
Heh, well, while I do agree with you about your observation (I myself am a proud Canadian currently living in the nations capital, and I've noticed a great deal of Canadian-bashing on/.), we do deserve at least a little derision, given the amount of criticism we level at our neighbours to the south. I myself have enjoyed a good bout of American-bashing (as I'm sure many others have, all over the world:), so it doesn't surprise me when I see a little turn-about on an American-based website with a majority American readership.
Granted, the tone of the comments tends to be different (Americans, when bashing Canadians, tend to be haughty, arrogant, and condescending, while Canadians are more self-riteous), but that's mostly cultural and shouldn't really be surprising. After all, many Americans (in my observation) really do think the US is the greatest nation in the world, while Canadians tend to, at least partially, identify themselves as proudly being "not-American" (again, my observation).
In the end, I just view all of this with a certain bit of humour. And, it's not exactly unique to the American-Canadian relationship... Americans have similar stereotypes about the French, British, etc, and I'm sure Canadians have similar sterotypes (eg, the Quebeque, and they're part of our country!). Besides, there are a number of excellent, informative, supportive comments, along with the Canadian bashing, so it's not all bad.
No matter how you use Pi, in order to exploit it's randomness, you'd have to randomly select an index into Pi and grab that digit (or sequence of digits, if you're looking for a larger number). But, since your initial random index has to be calculated using a regular old random number generator, you gain nothing... in fact you lose, because you have to calculate the index and then calculate the digit.
Well, it's been mentioned in other posts, but I'll repeat it here. When they are referring to "random", they mean it in a purely statistical sense, meaning that the digits are uniformly distributed between 0 and 9. So, if you were to take an infinite number of digits of Pi, each of the digits would appear an equal number of times.
Is that really the point? This is pure science for the science's sake. What's wrong with that? Besides, one day this knowledge may become useful, who knows? Perhaps, by studying the digits of pi, we'll be able to come up with theories about it's nature. Or, perhaps the pursuit of simplified equations/methods for calculating the digits of pi will lead to other mathematical revelations (just look at this situation... no one thought an equation like the one mentioned in this article was possible). There's no way to tell. I mean, think of all the things people have researched without thinking of practical applications ahead of time. Quantum mechanics, atomic theory, relativity, the myriad forms of pure mathematics such as number theory... and, I'll bet you, all along, people were saying "What's the point of all this? Who cares?" But, because of quantum mechanics, we have computers... because of number theory, we have encryption. So, please, think twice before making comments like this... you never know, one day, the theory behind the nature of Pi may drive the random number generator you use to encrypt your email.
Although quality is pretty good still. Also, anytime you have an DAC->ADC then there are quantization errors and the copy is not quite as good. My 2 cents..
But the point of making MP3 copies isn't usually for pure quality. If that were the case, your average joe would be encoding at 256 kbps rather than 128, or using some other, higher quality format. No, the point of the MP3 format is a) ease of use, ie, there's tonnes (CDN;) of support (rippers, encoders, playerers) and b) it's *convenient*. And I can't stress that last point enough. The primary reason people are ripping their CDs and toting around MP3s is pure convenience. As such, your average bloke isn't going to care that there are quantization errors during the DA-AD conversion phase, especially when many more errors are introduced in the MP3 conversion process. What he/she cares about is that he can get decent, but not necessarily bit-accurate, portable audio.
Just OOC, were you installing the Java VM as root? AFAIK, Mozilla needs write permissions to the stuff in/usr/local/mozilla before you can install anything.
Is this true? I thought Linus started from scratch with Linux. True, he had Minix as his development environment, but I don't think Linux is a derivative work of Minix.
While I don't entirely disagree with you, there is one particular issue. Imagine company X takes GPLd application Y, swipes a bunch of the code and builds a shared library out of it, and then uses said shared library in a commercial product to provide core functionality. This company then refuses to release the code to the commercial product (although they will release the shared library). Do we want this to be allowable? Under the RMS interpretation, this isn't possible... under yours, it is.
Bah, this is already happening, and it's *bad*, as it forces nations to abandon their own policies and bow to external forces. Example: Canada, US, and Mexico entered into a FTA (Free Trade Agreement). In order to fulfill the terms of the agreement, Canada was forced to change it's patent system to extend the patent period to 17 years, in order to line up with the US system. In fact, there's currently a bill in the Canadian parliament to extend it to 20 years, as per the GATT requirement mentioned in comment #41 under this same article. The result of a global PTO will simply be that the office policies will be determined by the will of those with the most economic clout. See WTO.
I'm curious, why would releasing the code in the PD make the author more likely to get litigated? All you need to do is put a disclaimer file in with your code stating you're not responsible, etc, etc (much like what you see in the GPL, Artistic License, BSD, etc, etc). Or, if you're just interesting in releasing your code freely, use a particularly free license (like Artistic) which has this caveat embedded in the licensing agreement.
Instead, you enter the "key" which represents the pattern of the time coded signal and your receiver will then be able to decode the transmission being sent. That, or I don't know what I'm talking about.;)
I had a friend who worked in the global product support division for a certain product within Nortel. These people were in much the same position as you, in that they had to carry a pager, and had to be able to respond to the page and be at work within a certan time period (1 hour, IIRC). Anyway, the way it worked there is that the employees were responsible for claiming how many pager shifts they worked. Then, they would be given a certain amount of additional salary for the shifts worked. If there was an actual page, however, then the employee was responsible for recording the number of hours worked on the issue, etc, etc, and they were paid accordingly. This way, the employees are properly compensated for the time carrying the pager *and* the work actually done should an issue arise.
I totally agree. Slashdot posts stories with the author's opinion thrown in. However, an opinion is one thing... warping the facts, implying something that's not true... that's entirely another. The comment (and the title of the story) implies that Windows was the reason for the crash... however, not even NASA knows why the crash occured. Now, if we'd had a confirmation that, yes, Windows caused the problem, and then we had a little MS bashing comment in the story, well, so be it. Or if the title of the story was "Severe server crash on ISS", and the comment was something like "I wonder if Windows had anything to do with it...", that'd be fine, too. But this isn't the case... the author tried to imply causation when there is no proof of it. That's irresponsible.
Now, I've been around Slashdot for a long time, as well... like you, before the Andover buy-out. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to be objective. The author fscked up here. I'm not saying/. should praise M$... frankly, M$ has absolutely NOTHING to do with it. I simply think that Slashdot should try to report *true*, *accurate* stories. Is that so much to ask? A little journalistic integrity (I know, I know... naive...:)
Just an addendum... according to the article at The Register (posted elsewhere), the fault was possibly due to the actual IBM Thinkpads used... so the implication that it's Windows is even related to this problem is probably wrong.
I'm no fan of Windows... frankly, I use Linux whenever I get the chance. And it's great that Slashdot is evangelical about my favorite OS. But that's no excuse for bad reporting. There's *nothing* in the CNN article (or any of the others, for that matter) implying that Windows is the reason for the server crash. Implying that it is related (with the little tagline "NASA is using Windows for most of their computing functions"... why add this, except to add sensationalism to the article?), is just bad, bad form. If any other publication did this, I'm sure people here would be complaining about poor journalism, bias, etc, etc, et al, ad nauseum. Frankly, I think that little line should be removed, and the post should be allowed to stand on it's own. Please, don't put these little editorial comments into the stories. There's no need. All it does is damage Slashdot's (already shakey) credibility.
Slashdot Mirror
Umm... the fact that they claim the webserver is running off a TRS-80 is a total sidebar to the story. The original story, if you notice by the title of the posting, and most of the content, was about the Human Clock they're hosting. Try to read things a little closer next time, m'kay?
You know, when I first read this post, I thought "Wow, thanks for pointing that out, I never would have gotten it..." But, then I realized something. There are a fair number of Slashdotters who *didn't* get it! I find that remarkably unbelieveable... but, perhaps that's just my misplaced faith in the intelligence of the common man rearing it's ugly head...
Oh dear lord, some people have *no* sense of humour. This isn't a hoax. Hoaxes are, generally speaking, at least marginally believable. There is usually an attempt on the part of the hoaxers to actually convince others that what they are claiming is true. This, OTOH, is *obviously* a JOKE. I mean, come on... 4 gigs on a tape? The webserver powered on 4 "AA" batteries (double coupon day)? Heck, even tim knew it was a joke: "Something seems extremely suspicious about that server..."! OTOH, at least I can now see just how thick some Slashdotters are...
2.5 > 2 - True
2.5 >= 3 - False
Hmm... so... whaddaya think?
BTW, yes, I am nitpicking here, but this was too funny not to respond to. :)
He he, and that doesn't surprise me one bit. :) You know, it's funny, though... after re-reading my post, I realized that even I have that us-vs-them mentality toward Quebec.. I was raised in Alberta, so, really, I have an us-vs-them mentality toward all of eastern Canada :), but, still, it's kind of sad. What's worse is that you guys think of us as "exactly like american"... I suppose it shouldn't be surprising, but it still makes me feel sad, that the country should be so divided...
Well, while I agree with you in general, I don't know how well that fits with the American cultural psyche. In my observation, it seems that not even Americans make fun of America, and if other people do, that's even worse. I mean, they make fun of their public figures (politicians, etc), but there's little in the way of humour about America and it's culture in general (vs the Canadian tendency to have a humour about ourselves and our stereotypes (see Air Farce)). After all, you said it yourself, even your Japanese friend has no problem saying "us dumb nipsters", but I don't know if I'd catch an American saying "we dumb Americans"...
Which is, actually, an interesting point about Canadian humour. We're constantly making fun of ourselves (well... Americans, too ;). Americans, though, don't seem to have the same sense of humour about themselves and their culture (although they obviously do about their politicians... look who they elected president... ;).
Granted, the tone of the comments tends to be different (Americans, when bashing Canadians, tend to be haughty, arrogant, and condescending, while Canadians are more self-riteous), but that's mostly cultural and shouldn't really be surprising. After all, many Americans (in my observation) really do think the US is the greatest nation in the world, while Canadians tend to, at least partially, identify themselves as proudly being "not-American" (again, my observation).
In the end, I just view all of this with a certain bit of humour. And, it's not exactly unique to the American-Canadian relationship... Americans have similar stereotypes about the French, British, etc, and I'm sure Canadians have similar sterotypes (eg, the Quebeque, and they're part of our country!). Besides, there are a number of excellent, informative, supportive comments, along with the Canadian bashing, so it's not all bad.
No matter how you use Pi, in order to exploit it's randomness, you'd have to randomly select an index into Pi and grab that digit (or sequence of digits, if you're looking for a larger number). But, since your initial random index has to be calculated using a regular old random number generator, you gain nothing... in fact you lose, because you have to calculate the index and then calculate the digit.
Well, it's been mentioned in other posts, but I'll repeat it here. When they are referring to "random", they mean it in a purely statistical sense, meaning that the digits are uniformly distributed between 0 and 9. So, if you were to take an infinite number of digits of Pi, each of the digits would appear an equal number of times.
Is that really the point? This is pure science for the science's sake. What's wrong with that? Besides, one day this knowledge may become useful, who knows? Perhaps, by studying the digits of pi, we'll be able to come up with theories about it's nature. Or, perhaps the pursuit of simplified equations/methods for calculating the digits of pi will lead to other mathematical revelations (just look at this situation... no one thought an equation like the one mentioned in this article was possible). There's no way to tell. I mean, think of all the things people have researched without thinking of practical applications ahead of time. Quantum mechanics, atomic theory, relativity, the myriad forms of pure mathematics such as number theory... and, I'll bet you, all along, people were saying "What's the point of all this? Who cares?" But, because of quantum mechanics, we have computers... because of number theory, we have encryption. So, please, think twice before making comments like this... you never know, one day, the theory behind the nature of Pi may drive the random number generator you use to encrypt your email.
Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, here, but solar a sail works because it is being bombarded by *photons*, not protons...
But the point of making MP3 copies isn't usually for pure quality. If that were the case, your average joe would be encoding at 256 kbps rather than 128, or using some other, higher quality format. No, the point of the MP3 format is a) ease of use, ie, there's tonnes (CDN ;) of support (rippers, encoders, playerers) and b) it's *convenient*. And I can't stress that last point enough. The primary reason people are ripping their CDs and toting around MP3s is pure convenience. As such, your average bloke isn't going to care that there are quantization errors during the DA-AD conversion phase, especially when many more errors are introduced in the MP3 conversion process. What he/she cares about is that he can get decent, but not necessarily bit-accurate, portable audio.
Actually, AFAIK, GCC 3.0 compiles the kernel just fine...
Just OOC, were you installing the Java VM as root? AFAIK, Mozilla needs write permissions to the stuff in /usr/local/mozilla before you can install anything.
Ummm... google is one of those canned search engines. Check again, in Preferences->Navigator->Internet Search.
Is this true? I thought Linus started from scratch with Linux. True, he had Minix as his development environment, but I don't think Linux is a derivative work of Minix.
While I don't entirely disagree with you, there is one particular issue. Imagine company X takes GPLd application Y, swipes a bunch of the code and builds a shared library out of it, and then uses said shared library in a commercial product to provide core functionality. This company then refuses to release the code to the commercial product (although they will release the shared library). Do we want this to be allowable? Under the RMS interpretation, this isn't possible... under yours, it is.
Bah, this is already happening, and it's *bad*, as it forces nations to abandon their own policies and bow to external forces. Example: Canada, US, and Mexico entered into a FTA (Free Trade Agreement). In order to fulfill the terms of the agreement, Canada was forced to change it's patent system to extend the patent period to 17 years, in order to line up with the US system. In fact, there's currently a bill in the Canadian parliament to extend it to 20 years, as per the GATT requirement mentioned in comment #41 under this same article. The result of a global PTO will simply be that the office policies will be determined by the will of those with the most economic clout. See WTO.
I'm curious, why would releasing the code in the PD make the author more likely to get litigated? All you need to do is put a disclaimer file in with your code stating you're not responsible, etc, etc (much like what you see in the GPL, Artistic License, BSD, etc, etc). Or, if you're just interesting in releasing your code freely, use a particularly free license (like Artistic) which has this caveat embedded in the licensing agreement.
Instead, you enter the "key" which represents the pattern of the time coded signal and your receiver will then be able to decode the transmission being sent. That, or I don't know what I'm talking about. ;)
I had a friend who worked in the global product support division for a certain product within Nortel. These people were in much the same position as you, in that they had to carry a pager, and had to be able to respond to the page and be at work within a certan time period (1 hour, IIRC). Anyway, the way it worked there is that the employees were responsible for claiming how many pager shifts they worked. Then, they would be given a certain amount of additional salary for the shifts worked. If there was an actual page, however, then the employee was responsible for recording the number of hours worked on the issue, etc, etc, and they were paid accordingly. This way, the employees are properly compensated for the time carrying the pager *and* the work actually done should an issue arise.
Now, I've been around Slashdot for a long time, as well... like you, before the Andover buy-out. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to be objective. The author fscked up here. I'm not saying /. should praise M$... frankly, M$ has absolutely NOTHING to do with it. I simply think that Slashdot should try to report *true*, *accurate* stories. Is that so much to ask? A little journalistic integrity (I know, I know... naive... :)
Just an addendum... according to the article at The Register (posted elsewhere), the fault was possibly due to the actual IBM Thinkpads used... so the implication that it's Windows is even related to this problem is probably wrong.
I'm no fan of Windows... frankly, I use Linux whenever I get the chance. And it's great that Slashdot is evangelical about my favorite OS. But that's no excuse for bad reporting. There's *nothing* in the CNN article (or any of the others, for that matter) implying that Windows is the reason for the server crash. Implying that it is related (with the little tagline "NASA is using Windows for most of their computing functions"... why add this, except to add sensationalism to the article?), is just bad, bad form. If any other publication did this, I'm sure people here would be complaining about poor journalism, bias, etc, etc, et al, ad nauseum. Frankly, I think that little line should be removed, and the post should be allowed to stand on it's own. Please, don't put these little editorial comments into the stories. There's no need. All it does is damage Slashdot's (already shakey) credibility.