As an example of this idea, a friend of a friend in College, went to Greece on vacation. She was a history major, and had taken (ancient) Greek as a language course. So, she was the designated "translator". Her group decided they wanted to rent a sailboat, and go out on the bay. When she inquired about it, she got some strange looks, and the vendor switched to English to ask why she wanted to rent an steamship / oceanliner.
So, all languages change, it may just take a few hundred (or thousand) years.
From what I've been told by my Jewish friends, around passover (March?), in large Jewish areas, Coke sells it's original formula (cane sugar). It has something to do with the fact that corn syrup can't be made kosher, and cane sugar can. Since this time of the year requires many people to be kosher, they could only drink "kosher coke"... So CCE sells the cane sugar formula.
[conspiracy hat] The whole "New Coke" fiasco was a plot by Coca-cola Enterprises to change over to the cheaper "corn syrup" formula, rather than the older "cane sugar" formula. They created something godawful, called it "new coke", and released it, knowing perfectly well there would be a major outcry and they could "change back" (to the corn syrup formula), and gain a major PR point ("the people have spoken, and we listen to the wishes of the people").
[/conspiracy hat]
Not that this is necessarily what happened, but it certainly is plausible.
Agreed, if you have a wreck going 60 in a 30, you deserve to have your rates raised. However, if I have a wreck doing that, should your rates go up? The way things are structured now, they do.
Basically, there's a "base rate" for your age group / car, and a modifier for you personally. If enough people in your age group have wrecks (which there are actuarial tables that give good predictions of how many there will be in a year)or if the manufacturer raises the costs for fixing your type of car, the "base rate" will go up. Did your driving experience have anything to do with it? No. But, someone elses did.
So yes, I think it would be a good thing, if only so the insurance co's could adjust the rates of only those unsafe drivers. But personally, I'd prefer it if insurance co's would automatically adjust your payments down when "incidents" fell off your record (I think it's 5 yrs, but I've heard 3 and 7 as well).
But, as usual, I may be talking out my arse here... Of course, the fact that I work for an insurance company shouldn't bias that opinion at all.
I go to a store, and buy a $1200 item, with a year to pay, no interest. Comes out to $100 a month, no problem. 2 months later, I go in to my local store, purchase $50 worth of something. My $100 check that month, rather than going toward the outstanding 1000, pays off the 50 I just spent first (which has the 25% interest rate), then whatever's left goes to the 1000 balance (0% interest).
Sometimes, you can make this work for you. Recently, I received a CC offer (the "checks" various CC companies like to send cardholders to encourage you to carry a larger balance) with a 4% forever rate on transfers. Needless to say, I maxxed that card out quickly (and paid off a few others). Now, anything that I pay on that card, goes to the new balances, not the 4% balance... and it will until I pay off the new charges.
So, sometimes it's a good deal. Sometimes, it just sucks. Personally, I'm looking forward to being out of debt, and not having any credit cards....
Consolidate patches: That's what service packs are. It would be nice if they'd bundle them a bit faster (possibly with alphas after them... so this is XP SP 1c... ). I think the reason they don't do this is they don't want to appear unstable - releasing a new service pack every month ("Windows can't be stable, they've released 15 service packs already...").
Patch-level CD's - Already doable. You can take the i386 directory from the main install CD, and extract the SP / Patches into that same directory, and burn it onto a CD (I believe this is called "slipstream"ing the service pack). So why does MS need to do this, if you can do it? I know here at work it's done every time a new Service Pack comes out for an OS. So, it's not necessarily the absolutely most current, but it's reasonably close.
As for the increasing # of patches, some patches require other patches to be installed. WindowsUpdate checks prerequisites, then installs prerequisites & reboots. After the reboot, it will show that you can install the second parts.
However, what if your recipient is going to be using publicly accessible (non-safe) terminals, which won't have your decrypt software on it?
How better to conceal it than to obfuscate it in the message? That way those who know will see the "hidden" message, and other people won't (given a reasonably complex cipher).
Don't over water the daisys, but remember to trim the marigolds.
"Ok, we gave him the vaccine 2 weeks ago... let's expose him to the virus and see what happens...."
Now, I'd hope that this isn't exactly how it would happen -- at least, not at first (IANA MicroBiologist). First they should pull blood / tissue samples, and expose those to the virus. But still, it has a bit of an omenous [sp?] ring to it, not to mention as fast as some viruses mutate, are you really sure it couldn't cause illness?
It's a good idea, and I look forward to testing it out.... in about 20 years.
Yes, in a group of 25-30 people, odds are that 2 of them will have the same birthday. However, odds are still 1 in 365 that it will be June 3rd. (or whatever _your_ birthday is...).
Point being, they are looking for a specific hash, not just 2 that happen to come out the same. (Look, Sven, we've found 3 that match "fd8ddaf41fd482a6aa1a492915a3e788"... but none that match "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef". Hm. We should keep looking.)
On caller ID, most telemarketers (and some businesses) show up as "out of area". Don't answer those, let 'em go to Answering machine / voicemail. If they leave a message (and you care), answer, if not, don't.
Remember, the phone is a convenience. It's there for your convienence, not necessarily for the other person's needs.
As a friend of mine's father said (about why he wasn't happy they were getting a phone) - "People call when it's convenient for them".
Of course, having worked telephone support for a software company, I can sit there and watch the phone ring, and not feel any need to answer it. But I'm just weird like that.
Alternately, you can listen to the entire telemarketer's proposal, act interested, and when they ask to transfer you to the "business manager" to complete the sale, say you're not interested, and hang up. It's rather rude to the telemarketer, but think of how many people you saved having to listen to their spiel...
The sample texts are not supposed to be perfect. They provide a set of basic info for the system to get its initial parameters for the language. After reading a few versions of the same translation (by different authors), the system has populated a database of "x=y" type data (chicken = egg). It can flag duplicates (chicken = egg, ova = egg), especially for the ones that are very dissimilar, and have a human look at the flagged table & make a decision. Or perhaps it takes the duplicates & ranks them (there were 4 nouns that = egg, and 1 adjective. probably it's a noun), and generates a "most likely" solution, which it applies in new translations.
Or maybe there's a small tibetian monk inside who has spent eons learning all possible languages, and the whole thing is a sham.
Not only is it a bad idea, it's very illegal. Here in VA (USA) it's a felony to throw anything at an occupied vehicle. Typically it's dropped down to a lesser charge, but if you get a DA who really wants to fsck you over, you get a felony conviction for throwing water balloons (snowballs, eggs, etc) at cars...
Personally I was always in favor of mounting paintball guns behind the grill / under the bumpers & shooting at other cars when they did something moronic. Ideally, target them at license plates (since it's against the law to "obstruct the view" of the licence plate, maybe they'd get pulled over & off the streets). But, while my wife was working for the DA's office, I learned all kinds of fun laws they can use.
Meaning: A single symbolic penny. Example: I refuse to pay even one red cent for the work until you complete the whole job. Origin: The "Red" refers to both the color of a penny (one cent) and the image that used to be on the penny, an American Indian head. Redskin is a slang term used for American Indians. Before today's Lincoln penny was the Indian Head penny.
The Indian Head penny was first issued in 1859 and looks just like that as issued in 1908 (before the Lincoln Cent). The only difference was that those from 1859-1864 were of a different copper-nickel alloy while 1864 started the common bronze, which was used until 1982. (You didn't know it changed then, did you?)
The copper-nickel alloy has a reddish tint, which turns redder with time and skin oil.
Before the Indian Head penny was the "Buzzard Cent", as the One Cent coins in 1856-1858 were called. The flying eagle on the coin was damned as an ugly bird and it wasn't popular.
However, it was the first "small cent" using about the same size as our penny today. In the half century before this, One Cent coins were about the size of today's Half Dollar! (of course they were also worth something then)
WHEN an accountant named Chris Moneymaker won $2.5 million in the World Series of Poker last May, the chatter in the poker world wasn't focused on his skillful bluffing, his tremendous luck or even the aptness of his surname. Everyone wanted to know how a man who had never before sat down at a tournament table could clean out so many skilled professionals.
While the Las Vegas hype machine focused on the rags-to-riches tale of a man who parlayed a $40 entrance fee into a huge pot, many poker players recognized that the amateur's success signaled the arrival of a new age in the game. Mr. Moneymaker may never have been in the same room as other players in a tournament of Texas Hold'em poker, but he had played extensively online, where the game is faster but the money is just as real. He was as much a rookie as Ichiro Suzuki, who joined the Seattle Mariners after nine years in the Japanese major leagues.
The online poker saloons that nurtured Mr. Moneymaker, 27, are just the beginning. Many players hone their craft with simulation software that allows them to test strategies by playing out thousands or even millions of hands. Some researchers are building software opponents that use sophisticated concepts from economics and artificial intelligence to seek out the best strategy, then use the knowledge to beat human players. The experience of playing thousands of games in roadhouses and casinos is being eclipsed by a cyborg-like intelligence produced by humans weaned on machine play.
The changes in the nature of the game are both subtle and striking. The advantages of some well-understood strategies are being tuned, and others are being abandoned. Some online enthusiasts, for instance, are even suggesting that the value of any information gleaned from watching the opponent's body for telltale tics or gestures is overrated. These so-called tells are too easily manipulated. More information comes in the pattern of bets, raises and calls. The money, they say, talks.
The biggest factor propelling change may be the speed of technology. Players do not wait while someone shuffles and deals. Chips do not need to be counted or watched. Computers handle the accounting, often finishing hands in as little as 30 seconds.
Steve Badger, the editor of the Web site playwinningpoker.com and winner of the 1999 World Series in a game called Omaha Hi-Lo, says that online poker halls are appealing because of their convenience.
"You could play them every day," he said. "You're able to play two games at the same time. Or you can sit and read or vacuum or do any infinite number of things while waiting for the next hand."
The online halls also offer substantially better rates. Most casinos pay for the lights and the dealer by subtracting either a fixed amount or a percentage from the pot. This levy, known as the rake, is often about $3 to $5 a hand in physical casinos, but about $1 or less online.
The rake depends on the stakes, which can be lower than those at physical casinos. Some online tables have minimum bets as low as 25 cents, an amount that makes learning the game cheaper. The speed of the game, however, ends up raising the amount at risk because 60 to 100 hands can be played in an hour. Higher minimum bets of $5, $10 or more are also common at tables with the better players.
Gautam Rao, a well-known Canadian player, said he stopped going to casinos in 2000, not long after his daughter was born, "because of the smoke and distance.''
"I told my wife I had to find a way to play online," he said. Now, he is able to play every night between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. while his daughter sleeps in the next room.
"The rake is much less," he said. "The number of hands is much more. There are never any misdeals. There are never any issues related to tipping. The average cost of winning a pot is so much less. It's so much more efficient."
The speed of play lets players work through the thousands of apprentice hands faste
At least, it shouldn't be pure Hydrogen gas. It might be a gaseous Hydrocarbon (Methane? would that make it a large planetary fart?), and still be Hydrogen dense.
Of course, IANAP either, nor am I an astronomer / planetologist, so take this as you will.
As a frequent lurker at the forums at ProCooling, I was wondering if you'd had Joe's blessing before hosing his boxes.
As an aside, I thought it rather curious that you were plugging it here, after writing it & posting it there. But then again, I'm just jealous of your setup.:)
Slashdot Mirror
As an example of this idea, a friend of a friend in College, went to Greece on vacation. She was a history major, and had taken (ancient) Greek as a language course. So, she was the designated "translator". Her group decided they wanted to rent a sailboat, and go out on the bay. When she inquired about it, she got some strange looks, and the vendor switched to English to ask why she wanted to rent an steamship / oceanliner.
So, all languages change, it may just take a few hundred (or thousand) years.
From what I've been told by my Jewish friends, around passover (March?), in large Jewish areas, Coke sells it's original formula (cane sugar). It has something to do with the fact that corn syrup can't be made kosher, and cane sugar can. Since this time of the year requires many people to be kosher, they could only drink "kosher coke"... So CCE sells the cane sugar formula.
Of course, they could be lying to me...
[conspiracy hat]
The whole "New Coke" fiasco was a plot by Coca-cola Enterprises to change over to the cheaper "corn syrup" formula, rather than the older "cane sugar" formula. They created something godawful, called it "new coke", and released it, knowing perfectly well there would be a major outcry and they could "change back" (to the corn syrup formula), and gain a major PR point ("the people have spoken, and we listen to the wishes of the people").
[/conspiracy hat]
Not that this is necessarily what happened, but it certainly is plausible.
Agreed, if you have a wreck going 60 in a 30, you deserve to have your rates raised. However, if I have a wreck doing that, should your rates go up? The way things are structured now, they do.
Basically, there's a "base rate" for your age group / car, and a modifier for you personally. If enough people in your age group have wrecks (which there are actuarial tables that give good predictions of how many there will be in a year)or if the manufacturer raises the costs for fixing your type of car, the "base rate" will go up. Did your driving experience have anything to do with it? No. But, someone elses did.
So yes, I think it would be a good thing, if only so the insurance co's could adjust the rates of only those unsafe drivers. But personally, I'd prefer it if insurance co's would automatically adjust your payments down when "incidents" fell off your record (I think it's 5 yrs, but I've heard 3 and 7 as well).
But, as usual, I may be talking out my arse here... Of course, the fact that I work for an insurance company shouldn't bias that opinion at all.
Credit card companies do that regardless.
And of course, it's in "your best interest"...
I go to a store, and buy a $1200 item, with a year to pay, no interest. Comes out to $100 a month, no problem. 2 months later, I go in to my local store, purchase $50 worth of something. My $100 check that month, rather than going toward the outstanding 1000, pays off the 50 I just spent first (which has the 25% interest rate), then whatever's left goes to the 1000 balance (0% interest).
Sometimes, you can make this work for you. Recently, I received a CC offer (the "checks" various CC companies like to send cardholders to encourage you to carry a larger balance) with a 4% forever rate on transfers. Needless to say, I maxxed that card out quickly (and paid off a few others). Now, anything that I pay on that card, goes to the new balances, not the 4% balance... and it will until I pay off the new charges.
So, sometimes it's a good deal. Sometimes, it just sucks. Personally, I'm looking forward to being out of debt, and not having any credit cards....
Consolidate patches: That's what service packs are. It would be nice if they'd bundle them a bit faster (possibly with alphas after them... so this is XP SP 1c... ). I think the reason they don't do this is they don't want to appear unstable - releasing a new service pack every month ("Windows can't be stable, they've released 15 service packs already...").
Patch-level CD's - Already doable. You can take the i386 directory from the main install CD, and extract the SP / Patches into that same directory, and burn it onto a CD (I believe this is called "slipstream"ing the service pack). So why does MS need to do this, if you can do it? I know here at work it's done every time a new Service Pack comes out for an OS. So, it's not necessarily the absolutely most current, but it's reasonably close.
As for the increasing # of patches, some patches require other patches to be installed. WindowsUpdate checks prerequisites, then installs prerequisites & reboots. After the reboot, it will show that you can install the second parts.
Yes.
However, what if your recipient is going to be using publicly accessible (non-safe) terminals, which won't have your decrypt software on it?
How better to conceal it than to obfuscate it in the message? That way those who know will see the "hidden" message, and other people won't (given a reasonably complex cipher).
Don't over water the daisys, but remember to trim the marigolds.
My concern would be the testing phase.
"Ok, we gave him the vaccine 2 weeks ago... let's expose him to the virus and see what happens...."
Now, I'd hope that this isn't exactly how it would happen -- at least, not at first (IANA MicroBiologist). First they should pull blood / tissue samples, and expose those to the virus. But still, it has a bit of an omenous [sp?] ring to it, not to mention as fast as some viruses mutate, are you really sure it couldn't cause illness?
It's a good idea, and I look forward to testing it out.... in about 20 years.
"Rue the day... who talks like that?"
-- Real Genius.
Being from Mississippi myself, and having attended several of their institutions, I definately have to agree with you that they are "half-fast"...
Tho I still think that math guy was on crack or somethin... pie r round... not square...
Personally, I'd be more concerned about what's causing the steaks to "unthaw"....
The birthday thing is not entirely accurate here.
Yes, in a group of 25-30 people, odds are that 2 of them will have the same birthday. However, odds are still 1 in 365 that it will be June 3rd. (or whatever _your_ birthday is...).
Point being, they are looking for a specific hash, not just 2 that happen to come out the same. (Look, Sven, we've found 3 that match "fd8ddaf41fd482a6aa1a492915a3e788"... but none that match "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef". Hm. We should keep looking.)
So next Easter I should expect to see lots more of these?
Thanks Easter Bunny....
Um, it was a farcical joke dude. Not necessarily a good one, but still.
If it was any warmer around here, I'd die of frostbite...
Simple method, works for me:
On caller ID, most telemarketers (and some businesses) show up as "out of area". Don't answer those, let 'em go to Answering machine / voicemail. If they leave a message (and you care), answer, if not, don't.
Remember, the phone is a convenience. It's there for your convienence, not necessarily for the other person's needs.
As a friend of mine's father said (about why he wasn't happy they were getting a phone) - "People call when it's convenient for them".
Of course, having worked telephone support for a software company, I can sit there and watch the phone ring, and not feel any need to answer it. But I'm just weird like that.
Alternately, you can listen to the entire telemarketer's proposal, act interested, and when they ask to transfer you to the "business manager" to complete the sale, say you're not interested, and hang up. It's rather rude to the telemarketer, but think of how many people you saved having to listen to their spiel...
From my understanding of the article:
The sample texts are not supposed to be perfect. They provide a set of basic info for the system to get its initial parameters for the language. After reading a few versions of the same translation (by different authors), the system has populated a database of "x=y" type data (chicken = egg). It can flag duplicates (chicken = egg, ova = egg), especially for the ones that are very dissimilar, and have a human look at the flagged table & make a decision. Or perhaps it takes the duplicates & ranks them (there were 4 nouns that = egg, and 1 adjective. probably it's a noun), and generates a "most likely" solution, which it applies in new translations.
Or maybe there's a small tibetian monk inside who has spent eons learning all possible languages, and the whole thing is a sham.
Not only is it a bad idea, it's very illegal. Here in VA (USA) it's a felony to throw anything at an occupied vehicle. Typically it's dropped down to a lesser charge, but if you get a DA who really wants to fsck you over, you get a felony conviction for throwing water balloons (snowballs, eggs, etc) at cars...
Personally I was always in favor of mounting paintball guns behind the grill / under the bumpers & shooting at other cars when they did something moronic. Ideally, target them at license plates (since it's against the law to "obstruct the view" of the licence plate, maybe they'd get pulled over & off the streets). But, while my wife was working for the DA's office, I learned all kinds of fun laws they can use.
According to the "Origin of Phrases" page:
One red cent
Meaning: A single symbolic penny.
Example: I refuse to pay even one red cent for the work until you complete the whole job.
Origin: The "Red" refers to both the color of a penny (one cent) and the image that used to be on the penny, an American Indian head. Redskin is a slang term used for American Indians.
Before today's Lincoln penny was the Indian Head penny.
The Indian Head penny was first issued in 1859 and looks just like that as issued in 1908 (before the Lincoln Cent). The only difference was that those from 1859-1864 were of a different copper-nickel alloy while 1864 started the common bronze, which was used until 1982. (You didn't know it changed then, did you?)
The copper-nickel alloy has a reddish tint, which turns redder with time and skin oil.
Before the Indian Head penny was the "Buzzard Cent", as the One Cent coins in 1856-1858 were called. The flying eagle on the coin was damned as an ugly bird and it wasn't popular.
However, it was the first "small cent" using about the same size as our penny today. In the half century before this, One Cent coins were about the size of today's Half Dollar! (of course they were also worth something then)
Oops. Meant to hit the "post anon" box, but clicked Submit instead.
Any karma whoring here is unintentional.
For those who don't want to subscribe:
WHEN an accountant named Chris Moneymaker won $2.5 million in the World Series of Poker last May, the chatter in the poker world wasn't focused on his skillful bluffing, his tremendous luck or even the aptness of his surname. Everyone wanted to know how a man who had never before sat down at a tournament table could clean out so many skilled professionals.
While the Las Vegas hype machine focused on the rags-to-riches tale of a man who parlayed a $40 entrance fee into a huge pot, many poker players recognized that the amateur's success signaled the arrival of a new age in the game. Mr. Moneymaker may never have been in the same room as other players in a tournament of Texas Hold'em poker, but he had played extensively online, where the game is faster but the money is just as real. He was as much a rookie as Ichiro Suzuki, who joined the Seattle Mariners after nine years in the Japanese major leagues.
The online poker saloons that nurtured Mr. Moneymaker, 27, are just the beginning. Many players hone their craft with simulation software that allows them to test strategies by playing out thousands or even millions of hands. Some researchers are building software opponents that use sophisticated concepts from economics and artificial intelligence to seek out the best strategy, then use the knowledge to beat human players. The experience of playing thousands of games in roadhouses and casinos is being eclipsed by a cyborg-like intelligence produced by humans weaned on machine play.
The changes in the nature of the game are both subtle and striking. The advantages of some well-understood strategies are being tuned, and others are being abandoned. Some online enthusiasts, for instance, are even suggesting that the value of any information gleaned from watching the opponent's body for telltale tics or gestures is overrated. These so-called tells are too easily manipulated. More information comes in the pattern of bets, raises and calls. The money, they say, talks.
The biggest factor propelling change may be the speed of technology. Players do not wait while someone shuffles and deals. Chips do not need to be counted or watched. Computers handle the accounting, often finishing hands in as little as 30 seconds.
Steve Badger, the editor of the Web site playwinningpoker.com and winner of the 1999 World Series in a game called Omaha Hi-Lo, says that online poker halls are appealing because of their convenience.
"You could play them every day," he said. "You're able to play two games at the same time. Or you can sit and read or vacuum or do any infinite number of things while waiting for the next hand."
The online halls also offer substantially better rates. Most casinos pay for the lights and the dealer by subtracting either a fixed amount or a percentage from the pot. This levy, known as the rake, is often about $3 to $5 a hand in physical casinos, but about $1 or less online.
The rake depends on the stakes, which can be lower than those at physical casinos. Some online tables have minimum bets as low as 25 cents, an amount that makes learning the game cheaper. The speed of the game, however, ends up raising the amount at risk because 60 to 100 hands can be played in an hour. Higher minimum bets of $5, $10 or more are also common at tables with the better players.
Gautam Rao, a well-known Canadian player, said he stopped going to casinos in 2000, not long after his daughter was born, "because of the smoke and distance.''
"I told my wife I had to find a way to play online," he said. Now, he is able to play every night between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. while his daughter sleeps in the next room.
"The rake is much less," he said. "The number of hands is much more. There are never any misdeals. There are never any issues related to tipping. The average cost of winning a pot is so much less. It's so much more efficient."
The speed of play lets players work through the thousands of apprentice hands faste
But are we still pre-post-post-post-Modernism? Or did I miss it?
At least, it shouldn't be pure Hydrogen gas. It might be a gaseous Hydrocarbon (Methane? would that make it a large planetary fart?), and still be Hydrogen dense.
Of course, IANAP either, nor am I an astronomer / planetologist, so take this as you will.
As a nonrenuable resource, isn't this always true?
Something along the lines of "You're older than you've ever been... And now, you're even older."
Or perhaps, "Soon your live will be at an end... And now, it's even sooner."
Ahh, the brilliance of They Might Be Giants...
So, what you're suggesting is to allow /require the gov't agency responsible for bad traffic to handle the traffic to the HOV auction site?
/.'d.
Hate to see that traffic jam, especially after it gets
As a frequent lurker at the forums at ProCooling, I was wondering if you'd had Joe's blessing before hosing his boxes.
:)
As an aside, I thought it rather curious that you were plugging it here, after writing it & posting it there. But then again, I'm just jealous of your setup.