car companies used to do this all the time. they would send a 'ringer' to the review magazines. you would then get your car, put it on a dyno or take to a track and not be able to match the numbers.
I'm sure that does happen but seemingly inflated vehicle performance is often due to nothing more than expert driving. For high performance cars at least, the manufacturers very often don't allow the vehicle to be tested except by one of their own test drivers. These drivers are so attuned to the car that trivialities such as second gear or the clutch are ignored. Thereby, increasing the standing quarter time or whatever your favoured statistic is.
Of course, if the review magazine is prepared to lay down quarter of a million dollars or whatever
they could actually buy the car and get whomever they want to drive it. As it is though, we have to be content with reading performance figures that reflect Michael Schumacher's driving ability rather than ours.
I'm not excusing this behaviour incidentally as it is deliberately misleading, but so long as we're aware that it goes on there's no harm done.
It's interesting that you bring up the Hindenburg disaster as it exemplifies not only the effect such images have but how conclusions drawn from these disasters are very often completely wrong.
This short paper
discusses whether or not hydrogen, the often cited culprit for the Hindenburg disaster, is really any more dangerous than any other fuel (I am well aware the zeppilins didn't use hydrogen as fuel but in the context of the paper it is an appropriate description). This is very relevent as it blows a hole in the theory that modern airships are safer because they use helium -- they are safer of course but not for that reason.
To support the claim, the paper mentions recent work that concludes that it was the paint rather than the hydrogen that was the main incendiary.
The most recent research, carried out by Addison Bain, a retired NASA hydrogen specialist, shows that the detonation was caused by the high-volatility paint that was used to paint the outside of the balloon - akin to coating it with rocket fuel
I've yet to hear of any fallacies regarding Concorde but I suspect that when a civilian supersonic aircraft is proposed in the future, someone will cite the Concorde crash as "evidence" of it being a bad idea. Indeed, that Concorde's retirement was announced soon after the crash leads me to believe that it was the accident that prompted the decision. Surely, if the reasons are purely economic, Concorde would have dissapeared from the sky years ago.
You know, every time this buggy, insecure, over-complicated sack of crap is the source of a security hole, I make a post here to the effect that BIND is a buggy, insecure, over-complicated sack of crap and that its maintainers evidently lack either the will or the ability to fix it, and that there is more than one good alternative, including, but not limited to, djbdns.
You may or may not be correct. However, I'm left wondering why you posted your opinion in connection with this story, considering that this isn't about BIND being the "source of a security hole". This is configuration problem, pure and simple. The only criticism you could level at ISC in this instance is poor documentation and that's hardly a stoning offence.
Re:you play skittles indoors!
on
Skittlebrau
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· Score: 2, Informative
The setup fits on a tabletop.
It's not like lawn bowling since you don't use a lawn.
IIRC, you use some small "pins" and a top (the type you spin).
That's a variation of "Bar Skittles". "Skittles" is very similar to 10-pin bowling. So much so in fact, that in the UK there is an astonishing number of people who refer to 10-pin bowling as Skittles. The former being a fairly recent import.
"Microsoft users are getting fed up. They're battered by worms, viruses, security patches and increasing enterprise licensing costs. Aggravation has users talking about switching from Microsoft software to something else. We're trying to figure out how much of that talk is just talk, and how much is serious action. Do you seriously plan to dump Microsoft software?"
You might as well ask, "Wal-Mart customers are fed up, since Wal-Mart employees kick puppies and laugh at old people. Are you planning to stop shopping at Wal-Mart?"
Perhaps. However, as far as I'm aware, Wal-Mart don't actually "kick puppies" or "laugh at old people". Microsoft operating systems on the other hand, are indeed, "battered by worms, viruses, security patches and increasing enterprise licensing costs". In other words, you're presenting an illogical argument
The fact that the computer industry improperly defined kilo- as 2^10, mega- as 2^20, and giga- as 2^30 for describing memory sizes doesn't change the proper meaning of the terms.
How was it improper? Usage of kilobyte to mean 2^10 predates the SI standard by some years.
If anything, it was the CGPM who improperly ignored common usage of kilobyte to mean 2^10 bytes.
That actually isn't a bad idea. The record companies could market the bands by supplying high quality fondling material. The music itself is just promotional material.
It's one thing having a super high quality Vorbis file of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, but it's quite another having the gatefold LP cover. IIRC, Frank Zappa suggested a similar scenario way back in the early 80s but was way beyond what the infrastucture could handle at the time.
Apologies for the use of profanity, but this subject just pisses me off (there I go again). It's just that I wish we would all get off of our collective backsides and do something about this creeping fascism. It's difficult I know, to stand up and be counted if all that's promised is imprisonment or death but quite honestly, I don't care anymore. Freedom is too precious for me to do nothing but stand and admire the swiftness with which our liberties our disappearing.
I hope to see you all at the poll booth. Perhaps it's an empty gesture but the democratic process is all we've got left.
Get real. If you break the law by speeding you deserve all you get - what about the freedoms of the rest of us - freedom not to be run over by cowboy who think their car is a toy?
Do you not think monitoring where you go and when is overkill if all they're trying to do is monitor your obedience of the speed limit?
If 34% of leechers (claim that they) spend more on CDs and it turns out to be 10% more, but 15% of leechers (admit to) paying less for CDs and it turns out that they mean they pay nothing now, then how far from Philadephia do the trains meet?
I mention this because I can't help but notice that among non-leechers, 19% say they spend more, and 10% say less, but, fuck me with a haddock, CD sales are down.
Now, you explain how this can be so.
Just a guess but perhaps there aren't as many leechers as there were during the period that the RIAA is using as a point of comparison.
Does anyone else remember on Michal Moore's "TV Nation" on Fox when he had a black guy buy a couple of white guys from their families in (I think) Georgia?
It was Mississippi. They didn't ratify the 13th ammendment until 1995, a whole 130 years after it was originally drafted.
He took them to a black politician's house and made them do yard work.
Yes, the politician in question was State Senator Hillman Frazier.
It's common for "believers" to suggest that when an implementation of their political/economic philosophy or religion ends up in disaster that it was due to it being implemented incorrectly or... that not enough of their political/economic philosophy or religion was implemented.
You make it sound as though there's something wrong with that. I'm no believer in Communism any more than I'm a believer in Capitalism but it's true to say that the Communist Manifesto was never implemented. Just because some political leaders chose to label their regimes "communist" doesn't make them so.
It's only a word after all and hardly seems worth discussing, but some people (nobody in this thread I hasten to add) like to confuse Stalinist Russia (essentially a murdurous dictatorship) with the Communist or even Socialist principles and use it as an excuse to criticise any policy that even hints at being socialist in orgin. That's just dumb IMO.
Theft and murder seems to be what humans consistently do well...for thousands of years of recorded history...regardless of the political/economic philosophy or religion under which the crimes were committed.
What I'm trying to communicate isn't about Marx and Engels. Communism was not invented to do anything good for the worker, or to form any sort of utopia; rather, it was invented as a mechanism to change the world's balance of power. As Chairman Mao once said, "Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy."
Mao might have said that but he wasn't speaking for Marx or Engels. The Communist Manifesto was clearly about the rights of the worker; that the concept of communism was bastardised by Stalin, Mao, and everyone else doesn't alter that.
The president was black in The Fifth Element, and that came out a year earlier. And that's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there have been others.
Yes, but he wasn't the President of the USA, which I assume was the grandparents point.
You're right - that is a very interesting article.
And the process he describes _almost_ maps into the Free Software development model.
The main difference I think between the examples of alternative currencies Lietaer gives and the Free Software model is that in his examples, the currency has a real and quantifiable value. The currency, as it were, in the Free Software model is definately not quantifiable, lest we continue the argument of whether emacs is worth more than vi and similar nonsense
The main point I took from the article is the evidence that micro-economies (I'm not sure if that's the right term) are real and operate in the real world. There is no reason therefore, for anyone to believe that Free Software shouldn't be as equally successful and beneficial to those who choose to participate. Moreover, that these real world examples operate in capitalist countries such as the USA and Japan finally puts to bed the arguments that the Free Software model is in some way, communist in nature.
I realise that my reasoning is pretty flimsy but I don't know enough about economics to be able to make the appropriate logical connections. Perhaps I should email Bernard Lietaer and ask him how he would fit Free Software (and indeed Open Source) into the complementary currency discussion.
So we have a quasi-Capitalist process - with no capital, per sae - in the service of a quasi-Communist ideal. This is, I think, something new and scary, and this fear colours everything coming out of SCO.
This isn't directly related to software, free or otherwise, but from what you've said I think you may find it interesting. In particular, Lietaer's thoughts about complementary currencies
is particularly relevant to the topic of free software.
Sometimes three. The very brightest stars get given a proper name and are either Greek, Roman or even Arabic in origin. Naturally, very, very few stars get given a proper name.
The letter-number system you're talking about is the Bayer System (named after German astronomer, Johann Bayer) and works much as you described. To continue your example, Betelgeuse has the Bayer designation, Alpha Orionis (being the brightest star in the constellation Orion).
The other main system is known as Flamsteed Numbering (named for English Astronomer, John Flamsteed) and works by listing the stars in each constellation by order of right ascension. Betelgeuse is therefore also known as 58 Orionis.
There are other numbering systems but they are only used for non-naked-eye-visible stars.
I sound like SCO because Clinton didn't stop the deregulation process. You are aware of how stupid that sounds I hope.
Here's a clue: I was correcting your fact not making excuses or defending anyone.
Areshole.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure that does happen but seemingly inflated vehicle performance is often due to nothing more than expert driving. For high performance cars at least, the manufacturers very often don't allow the vehicle to be tested except by one of their own test drivers. These drivers are so attuned to the car that trivialities such as second gear or the clutch are ignored. Thereby, increasing the standing quarter time or whatever your favoured statistic is.
Of course, if the review magazine is prepared to lay down quarter of a million dollars or whatever they could actually buy the car and get whomever they want to drive it. As it is though, we have to be content with reading performance figures that reflect Michael Schumacher's driving ability rather than ours.
I'm not excusing this behaviour incidentally as it is deliberately misleading, but so long as we're aware that it goes on there's no harm done.
Isn't that Nyquist's Theorum rather than Shannon's?
You're knowledge of history is limited. Here's a pretty good article on the circumstances of Hussein's rise to power.
For full comic effect your reply should read: "you shouldn't use a preposition to end a sentence with".
This short paper discusses whether or not hydrogen, the often cited culprit for the Hindenburg disaster, is really any more dangerous than any other fuel (I am well aware the zeppilins didn't use hydrogen as fuel but in the context of the paper it is an appropriate description). This is very relevent as it blows a hole in the theory that modern airships are safer because they use helium -- they are safer of course but not for that reason.
To support the claim, the paper mentions recent work that concludes that it was the paint rather than the hydrogen that was the main incendiary.
I've yet to hear of any fallacies regarding Concorde but I suspect that when a civilian supersonic aircraft is proposed in the future, someone will cite the Concorde crash as "evidence" of it being a bad idea. Indeed, that Concorde's retirement was announced soon after the crash leads me to believe that it was the accident that prompted the decision. Surely, if the reasons are purely economic, Concorde would have dissapeared from the sky years ago.
You may or may not be correct. However, I'm left wondering why you posted your opinion in connection with this story, considering that this isn't about BIND being the "source of a security hole". This is configuration problem, pure and simple. The only criticism you could level at ISC in this instance is poor documentation and that's hardly a stoning offence.
That's a variation of "Bar Skittles". "Skittles" is very similar to 10-pin bowling. So much so in fact, that in the UK there is an astonishing number of people who refer to 10-pin bowling as Skittles. The former being a fairly recent import.
For further enlightenment, click here.
Mine in is in suspended animation until science has reached the point of advancement where it can be resuscitated.
And the server would be where exactly?
Didn't it have 48k of RAM and a 16k ROM?
How was it improper? Usage of kilobyte to mean 2^10 predates the SI standard by some years. If anything, it was the CGPM who improperly ignored common usage of kilobyte to mean 2^10 bytes.
That actually isn't a bad idea. The record companies could market the bands by supplying high quality fondling material. The music itself is just promotional material.
It's one thing having a super high quality Vorbis file of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, but it's quite another having the gatefold LP cover. IIRC, Frank Zappa suggested a similar scenario way back in the early 80s but was way beyond what the infrastucture could handle at the time.
After five minutes reflection:
Apologies for the use of profanity, but this subject just pisses me off (there I go again). It's just that I wish we would all get off of our collective backsides and do something about this creeping fascism. It's difficult I know, to stand up and be counted if all that's promised is imprisonment or death but quite honestly, I don't care anymore. Freedom is too precious for me to do nothing but stand and admire the swiftness with which our liberties our disappearing.
I hope to see you all at the poll booth. Perhaps it's an empty gesture but the democratic process is all we've got left.
The left? You're fucking joking. To the right would be more like it.
Do you not think monitoring where you go and when is overkill if all they're trying to do is monitor your obedience of the speed limit?
Just a guess but perhaps there aren't as many leechers as there were during the period that the RIAA is using as a point of comparison.
It was Mississippi. They didn't ratify the 13th ammendment until 1995, a whole 130 years after it was originally drafted.
Yes, the politician in question was State Senator Hillman Frazier.
You make it sound as though there's something wrong with that. I'm no believer in Communism any more than I'm a believer in Capitalism but it's true to say that the Communist Manifesto was never implemented. Just because some political leaders chose to label their regimes "communist" doesn't make them so.
It's only a word after all and hardly seems worth discussing, but some people (nobody in this thread I hasten to add) like to confuse Stalinist Russia (essentially a murdurous dictatorship) with the Communist or even Socialist principles and use it as an excuse to criticise any policy that even hints at being socialist in orgin. That's just dumb IMO.
That seems to be true.
Mao might have said that but he wasn't speaking for Marx or Engels. The Communist Manifesto was clearly about the rights of the worker; that the concept of communism was bastardised by Stalin, Mao, and everyone else doesn't alter that.
I agree with the rest of your post though.
Yes, but he wasn't the President of the USA, which I assume was the grandparents point.
The main difference I think between the examples of alternative currencies Lietaer gives and the Free Software model is that in his examples, the currency has a real and quantifiable value. The currency, as it were, in the Free Software model is definately not quantifiable, lest we continue the argument of whether emacs is worth more than vi and similar nonsense
The main point I took from the article is the evidence that micro-economies (I'm not sure if that's the right term) are real and operate in the real world. There is no reason therefore, for anyone to believe that Free Software shouldn't be as equally successful and beneficial to those who choose to participate. Moreover, that these real world examples operate in capitalist countries such as the USA and Japan finally puts to bed the arguments that the Free Software model is in some way, communist in nature.
I realise that my reasoning is pretty flimsy but I don't know enough about economics to be able to make the appropriate logical connections. Perhaps I should email Bernard Lietaer and ask him how he would fit Free Software (and indeed Open Source) into the complementary currency discussion.
This isn't directly related to software, free or otherwise, but from what you've said I think you may find it interesting. In particular, Lietaer's thoughts about complementary currencies is particularly relevant to the topic of free software.
Sometimes three. The very brightest stars get given a proper name and are either Greek, Roman or even Arabic in origin. Naturally, very, very few stars get given a proper name.
The letter-number system you're talking about is the Bayer System (named after German astronomer, Johann Bayer) and works much as you described. To continue your example, Betelgeuse has the Bayer designation, Alpha Orionis (being the brightest star in the constellation Orion).
The other main system is known as Flamsteed Numbering (named for English Astronomer, John Flamsteed) and works by listing the stars in each constellation by order of right ascension. Betelgeuse is therefore also known as 58 Orionis.
There are other numbering systems but they are only used for non-naked-eye-visible stars.
I sound like SCO because Clinton didn't stop the deregulation process. You are aware of how stupid that sounds I hope. Here's a clue: I was correcting your fact not making excuses or defending anyone. Areshole.