I manually shave a bit (neck and cheeks), but I do have an electric beard trimmer. Man, if I didn't keep my beard nice and trimmed down, what a brain I could have! I'd be like RMS or Maddog!
...
...okay, I think I'll keep my beard trim, my brain a bit atrophied and keep my SO.
I'm aware that you're talking about federal court, but since most cases don't take place there, I figure I'll toss out a good word for the Public Defenders and their staff. 80% of them (just about all the ones that handle cases) are damn fine attornies making lousy pay and defending people who can't afford it. And despite their clients often being guilty as hell (I worked IT there, I can say that they were), they get an amazingly large number set free or placed in a setting (often rehab) where they have a shot at a future.
The other 20% are interns, recent law grads who are more spotty in their abilities and motivations, but still contribute.
No, because this is what is supposed to happen with both Free Software and Open Source. You check the licenses, make sure everything is compatable and works together. The FSF and OSI both work toward this goal. The FSF just said "Apache 2 is Free Software, but is incompatable with version 2 of the GPL, and will likely be compatable with version 3 of the GPL"
All these groups are working together to accomplish shared goals. Everybody has the same target in mind and are pretty tolerant of different details. There are only really two main categories, Free Software and Open Source, and they can be used on the same system together.
Compare this to how proprietary software works with page after page of EULAs, deriviative work clauses, changes of license without notice and company mergers and it's no wonder that SCO, IBM, Novell and AT&T can't even figure out who owns what for a major piece of software.
Realistically, FS/OS is a far more simple system. OSI and the FSF both publish nice and simple bulleted guidelines that allow anybody to test their license to see if it qualifies, and there are now dozens (hundreds?) of licenses that fall into either or both categories.
Agreed, however right now (and coming up on our first year anniversary), I am dating a woman who is a research scientist by day and... errr.. quite amorous at night (which is as far as I'll go about a current SO in a public forum). She's a chemistry and trek geek (she's slated to be in Trekkies II as an Orion Slave Girl).
We did the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Valentine's Day (I'm the director of the local cast, she's the projectionist), so we did Valentine's Day on Monday instead. Spent the day inside eating... ice cream. And watching Buffy:tVS. Pretty much a geek and sex day.
My point is, you can find a kinky girl with a head on her shoulders. It just takes awhile.
"Let us ADD our INCOME to our CAPITAL, as the squirrel adds to its autumn horde. Aye, there's the SUM that makes a TOTAL WEALTH. 3000 DUCATS? Is this an EXPENDITURE I see before me? Marry 'tis best 'twere TAKEN AWAY, like as the magpie taketh away the jewel of great price. But hist! Here cometh the INTEREST, and 'tis of no mean interest, i' faith! I had lief ADD a percentage of this, than clasp my fair Rosalind's spleen."
In all reality, as many people have pointed out, there is a large chunk of poetry written in various programming languages, and the inverse is true as well; many human languages are used in forms that are human "programs". Instead of being stored on harddrives, they are published in cookbooks and engineering texts.
To play the bard's tale games you needed a lot of time, make lots of notes and draw your own maps, or else you'd get hopelessly lost.
Hint: several people who are saying "these games were quite awesome" actually LIKED the fact that you had to take notes and draw maps. At one point RPGs were difficult, not fairly linear "talk to people, followed by turn based 'Fight, Magic, Item, Run' choices and then a cutscene". The same people who were playing (and writing) them had several three ring binders full of maps from their latest D&D dungeoncrawl, Traveller game, or notes on a diety system for a temple in a small town that the party visited. We like detail and having to do the work.
Here are two more specific questions for a MP3 device that I've been looking for (since the poster could just as well asked "what's the best editor", or "what religion should I believe in"):
I'm looking for a CD media player that supports playlists, shuffle and resume on start. I.e., I have a couple CD format MP3 players that shuffle the whole disk, but don't do playlists, etc. I want something that I can choose a burned playlist (for various moods), and will shuffle play that playlist, and when I turn it off, and then on again, starts playing that same playlist (not necessary to resume the same song). Bonus points if it can use a remote. Loses points if it's an indash, but I'd accept it, although I'd vastly prefer a discman style unit. But CD-Rs are the best media for cheap-end MP3 player, IMO. Hard drive units are nice, but not what I'm looking for.
The second question is a leading edge question... I'm not sure if they exist. Are there any discman style players (like the CD/Mp3 players) that use DVD-R yet? 4.3 GB of MP3s is pretty durn perfect.
My SO is doing leading edge research on photosynthesis. She occasionally comes home with green splotches in her hair. It's really fascinating how the actual specific chemistry of photosynthesis works, harvesting energy from light.
I was going to make a smart aleck remark about "no, only Windows users will get worms", but then I checked my mail, sorted by size, and deleted the hundred or so emails between 31k and 35k, all with the same five subjects. They may not replicate on Linux, but they are a pain in the ass anyway.
Perhaps you missed the whole idea of a participatory community. The ones who talk are... well, those who talk. The ones who code are... well, the ones who code. The ones who bitch... well, that's you.
You mean like Fetchmail, which is included with almost every *nix? Or CML2, or lookout? Or the original Gnu version of 'sed'? Yeah... other than those (and about a dozen others), the man has never touched code.
Darn it, I didn't want to click on the "Read More" for this article, I meant to click on the next article down, "New Worms Feed on MyDoom Infections". Gosh, I hope those new worms don't hurt too many of those fragile open source systems.
--
Evan "About to take down a Linux system running kernel 1.2.x for about 4 or 5 years and upgrade to SuSE 9.0"
Hunh. I've been using SuSE 8.2, upgrading KDE, and I've never really had problems. I remember having problems awhile back... Yup. Just tested. KDE 3.2, the latest, using SuSE's rpms, and Radiskull and Devildoll are "kicking it" in a different tab right now. Closed the tab, no problems. Browsing around on LJ on a different tab.
Dunno. Maybe the bug report is old/accurate only for some people. I even right clicked to verify that it's Macromedia's plugin and not some open source equivelent.
What's REALLY creepy is that in that article in 1999, I posted touting the "new, soon to be released" Konqueror. At the time, I was using Windows and lamenting that XFree didn't do multiple monitors. Now I haven't touched windows for several years outside of a VNC connection to test sites on IE. Konqueror has not only been released, it's become polished... and, with Kate and Konsole, is one of my primary applications.
It's odd to look back and see that post.
Oh, and Konqueror has been working with Flash since KDE 2.0... around 1999 or so. I use it daily.
What's the matter, Harlan? Not enough money lining your pockets from your successful writing/consulting/speaking career?
No, it's just that Harlan is a freaking lunatic. I have been screamed at by the man not once, not twice, but three times in my life (so far). The guy goes into screaming fits regularly. I have also seen him lift a barstool to clock a guy at a bar inside a hotel lobby. He threw a fit because a group of us were making too much noise as he was giving an interview... by the hotel elevators. And then he tried to throw me out of the filk room when it was reserved, as I happened to be the first one there setting up for everybody. Again, another "interview", which was far more important than the use of the room by a dozen people who had reserved it on the schedual months ago.
The guy is the closest match to the cartoon definition of meglomania I've ever seen. He's a parody of a egotistical jerk. If he wins this case, I would not be surprised if he then proceeded to sue every other ISP that has a usenet server... and be cocksure he should win.
If you want a longer version of these ancedotes, I've posted about him on Slashdot before. He's an amazing guy. Good writer, but I think if I had to sit next to him in a plane, one or both of us would be stepping outside ten minutes after takeoff, likely with a firm kick to the rear.
Sounds like a very watered down and wishy-washy version of what Pournelle's been telling Congress (and anybody else who will listen) for at least a decade. You might do well to read his writings. Yeah, the same guy who did Chaos Manor for Byte, plus umpteen SF novels with Niven.
Aside from the mandatory jokes about Michael Jackson being the name of one of them, the eight member panel is fairly intriguing. Carly Fiorina, CEO of HP is on there. Several ex-DoD military types. And practical space scientists like Maria Zuber. It looks like the President's Commission was put together to really do it, rather than pay lip service and tack a couple lines onto some loyal underling's resume.
He loves the internet... as long as you log in through a authorized system:
"On the Internet, this card will confirm all the information required to gain access to a state (government) network--while also barring anyone who isn't legal age from entering an adult chat room, making the Internet safer for our children, or prevent adults from entering a children's chat room and preying on our kids...Many new computer systems are being created with card reader technology. Older computers can add this feature for very little money," Dean said.
Source.
Scary... the man is looking to displace Bush, and he's more Orwellian in thought. Read the article.
All I use my iPaq for is to keep notes, manage my schedual, look up contact information and read the occasional eBook. Plus a game of solitare now and then. I have listened to mp3s on long drives, but I am using the built in memory, so there's not that much room.
I use Opie on Familiar Linux. Before this I used a Palm IIIc. Perfectly fine for my use, basically typical PDA stuff.
Just because you *can* do more doesn't mean you *have* to. Linux makes for a perfectly good underlying OS for a PDA. Opie is an excellent environment for a palmtop.
I do a little database stuff with some PyQt based apps. I tossed 'em together in a GUI, tested it on my laptop, and transferred them over. Nice and easy. And easy database apps are likely the biggest missing thing from a typical PDA setup.
Ah... I think this is the thread where I mentioned that I had ceased thinking about the problem in specific (the post) because there was just not enough information, and was thinking about the issue in general.
Too much labeling is a problem too - if everything is labeled as harmful to a group, that group can't make informed decisions. The "may contain traces of peanuts" always makes me wonder if there's a legitimate reason. Plus the warnings that you will die within 30 seconds if you ever look in the general direction of a gas station (okay, they are a little less overblown) in California.
If every video game is labeled about this, then you can't sort out the ones that legitimately do cause a problem. That's the same problem.
Again, the best solution (IMNSHO) would be to have a third party website that rates games (and movies, etc) with their potential to cause problems.
The guy from the Enterprise Mission is a regular on Coast to Coast AM (aka 'Art Bell's show'). He's great fun to listen to... a real, genuine kook. He's been raising money to go to Washington to show pictures to congresscritters and convince them that there's life on Mars and there's a government conspiracy against it. He thinks that the Spirit and Opportunity were reprogrammed by MiBs right as they landed - that's why they had to reupload... to insert filtering software to hide the artifacts the probe accidently landed in the middle of.
I'm not a big fan of George Noory, but Art's been hosting on weekends again. Yay.
I just took a pen off my desk and released it. It accelerated towards the gravitational center of the earth.
That's my point. Not that math would be different (I disagree with that idea). I was just pointing out that the person I was replying to that there could be fundimental differences in conceptual models. They said "your planet orbiting the sun" is going to mean the same thing no matter who you were talking to. Even the concept of a "planet" and "sun" are not concrete or even necessarily shared.
As for your pen, there is no "down" once you're off a deep gravity well. A society that has lived thousands of generations in deep space may have zero concept of there being a 'down' the way you and I perceive it. They can intellectually be explained the idea that it's a direction towards the center of the nearest large body of matter, but they may shrug it off as just as abstract and pointless as the direction towards Mecca or the patterns of the constellations in the sky - a superstitious cultural quirk of ours.
The pen draws the Earth to it as well... a culture that is used to dealing with gravity drawing large ships together and other cases where gravity tends to work on more evenly sized objects will see that. Sure, in this case the mass of the pen is negligable, but the concept of "falling" "down" is the product of living on a planet. Objects do not "fall" "down" - they mutually attract each other to a central point.
(And to repeat, I'm not making the case that math is different, just the model).
The problem being, you can't define 'this pattern/freq of flashes will trigger an attack.'
There's quite a large body of medical literature that says you are wrong. There's a pretty predictable and narrow range of strobe that will trigger seizures in sensitive individuals.
I'm not trying to play word games, I'm simply stating that when you're sensitive to a certain subset of flashing lights, and you're dealing with a medium that is nothing but various patterns of flashing lights,
...which, in the case of most television and video games, does not fit the criteria to trigger seizures...
you probably should be able to figure out that that pattern might just occur.
...and if the game *is* one of the few that falls within the criteria of slow, high contrast flashing, yeah, it would be a nice thing to label it as such. Not mandatory... just nice.
This being a fiction, here's a total rationalization worthy of a Trekkie:
Yes, but the universe itself is finite; has a value. The 216 character name of God could be the key constant in a function of the universe as a whole (possibly in relation to e i pi, etc). c, Planck's constant and other key physical constants of the universe could be tied to that one number... which may be tied to the abstract math biggies that you were referring to.
Again, it's rationalization, don't hold me to this theory.:)
--
Evan "My SO named her mice e, i and pi... which led to massive confusion when she IM'ed a friend 'I think i might be pregnant'"
Slashdot Mirror
--
Evan
The other 20% are interns, recent law grads who are more spotty in their abilities and motivations, but still contribute.
Good people, working for the legal system.
--
Evan
All these groups are working together to accomplish shared goals. Everybody has the same target in mind and are pretty tolerant of different details. There are only really two main categories, Free Software and Open Source, and they can be used on the same system together.
Compare this to how proprietary software works with page after page of EULAs, deriviative work clauses, changes of license without notice and company mergers and it's no wonder that SCO, IBM, Novell and AT&T can't even figure out who owns what for a major piece of software.
Realistically, FS/OS is a far more simple system. OSI and the FSF both publish nice and simple bulleted guidelines that allow anybody to test their license to see if it qualifies, and there are now dozens (hundreds?) of licenses that fall into either or both categories.
--
Evan
We did the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Valentine's Day (I'm the director of the local cast, she's the projectionist), so we did Valentine's Day on Monday instead. Spent the day inside eating... ice cream. And watching Buffy:tVS. Pretty much a geek and sex day.
My point is, you can find a kinky girl with a head on her shoulders. It just takes awhile.
--
Evan "Damn, life is good right now"
"Let us ADD our INCOME to our CAPITAL, as the squirrel adds to its autumn horde. Aye, there's the SUM that makes a TOTAL WEALTH. 3000 DUCATS? Is this an EXPENDITURE I see before me? Marry 'tis best 'twere TAKEN AWAY, like as the magpie taketh away the jewel of great price. But hist! Here cometh the INTEREST, and 'tis of no mean interest, i' faith! I had lief ADD a percentage of this, than clasp my fair Rosalind's spleen."
In all reality, as many people have pointed out, there is a large chunk of poetry written in various programming languages, and the inverse is true as well; many human languages are used in forms that are human "programs". Instead of being stored on harddrives, they are published in cookbooks and engineering texts.
--
Evan
Hint: several people who are saying "these games were quite awesome" actually LIKED the fact that you had to take notes and draw maps. At one point RPGs were difficult, not fairly linear "talk to people, followed by turn based 'Fight, Magic, Item, Run' choices and then a cutscene". The same people who were playing (and writing) them had several three ring binders full of maps from their latest D&D dungeoncrawl, Traveller game, or notes on a diety system for a temple in a small town that the party visited. We like detail and having to do the work.
--
Evan
I'm looking for a CD media player that supports playlists, shuffle and resume on start. I.e., I have a couple CD format MP3 players that shuffle the whole disk, but don't do playlists, etc. I want something that I can choose a burned playlist (for various moods), and will shuffle play that playlist, and when I turn it off, and then on again, starts playing that same playlist (not necessary to resume the same song). Bonus points if it can use a remote. Loses points if it's an indash, but I'd accept it, although I'd vastly prefer a discman style unit. But CD-Rs are the best media for cheap-end MP3 player, IMO. Hard drive units are nice, but not what I'm looking for.
The second question is a leading edge question... I'm not sure if they exist. Are there any discman style players (like the CD/Mp3 players) that use DVD-R yet? 4.3 GB of MP3s is pretty durn perfect.
--
Evan
My SO is doing leading edge research on photosynthesis. She occasionally comes home with green splotches in her hair. It's really fascinating how the actual specific chemistry of photosynthesis works, harvesting energy from light.
--
Evan
--
Evan
--
Evan "Plenty of the latter"
--
Evan
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Evan "About to take down a Linux system running kernel 1.2.x for about 4 or 5 years and upgrade to SuSE 9.0"
Dunno. Maybe the bug report is old/accurate only for some people. I even right clicked to verify that it's Macromedia's plugin and not some open source equivelent.
--
Evan
It's odd to look back and see that post.
Oh, and Konqueror has been working with Flash since KDE 2.0... around 1999 or so. I use it daily.
--
Evan
No, it's just that Harlan is a freaking lunatic. I have been screamed at by the man not once, not twice, but three times in my life (so far). The guy goes into screaming fits regularly. I have also seen him lift a barstool to clock a guy at a bar inside a hotel lobby. He threw a fit because a group of us were making too much noise as he was giving an interview... by the hotel elevators. And then he tried to throw me out of the filk room when it was reserved, as I happened to be the first one there setting up for everybody. Again, another "interview", which was far more important than the use of the room by a dozen people who had reserved it on the schedual months ago.
The guy is the closest match to the cartoon definition of meglomania I've ever seen. He's a parody of a egotistical jerk. If he wins this case, I would not be surprised if he then proceeded to sue every other ISP that has a usenet server... and be cocksure he should win.
If you want a longer version of these ancedotes, I've posted about him on Slashdot before. He's an amazing guy. Good writer, but I think if I had to sit next to him in a plane, one or both of us would be stepping outside ten minutes after takeoff, likely with a firm kick to the rear.
--
Evan
--
Evan
--
Evan
"On the Internet, this card will confirm all the information required to gain access to a state (government) network--while also barring anyone who isn't legal age from entering an adult chat room, making the Internet safer for our children, or prevent adults from entering a children's chat room and preying on our kids...Many new computer systems are being created with card reader technology. Older computers can add this feature for very little money," Dean said.
Source. Scary... the man is looking to displace Bush, and he's more Orwellian in thought. Read the article.
--
Evan
I use Opie on Familiar Linux. Before this I used a Palm IIIc. Perfectly fine for my use, basically typical PDA stuff.
Just because you *can* do more doesn't mean you *have* to. Linux makes for a perfectly good underlying OS for a PDA. Opie is an excellent environment for a palmtop.
I do a little database stuff with some PyQt based apps. I tossed 'em together in a GUI, tested it on my laptop, and transferred them over. Nice and easy. And easy database apps are likely the biggest missing thing from a typical PDA setup.
--
Evan
Too much labeling is a problem too - if everything is labeled as harmful to a group, that group can't make informed decisions. The "may contain traces of peanuts" always makes me wonder if there's a legitimate reason. Plus the warnings that you will die within 30 seconds if you ever look in the general direction of a gas station (okay, they are a little less overblown) in California.
If every video game is labeled about this, then you can't sort out the ones that legitimately do cause a problem. That's the same problem.
Again, the best solution (IMNSHO) would be to have a third party website that rates games (and movies, etc) with their potential to cause problems.
--
Evan
So what's the problem, then?
--
Evan
I'm not a big fan of George Noory, but Art's been hosting on weekends again. Yay.
--
Evan
That's my point. Not that math would be different (I disagree with that idea). I was just pointing out that the person I was replying to that there could be fundimental differences in conceptual models. They said "your planet orbiting the sun" is going to mean the same thing no matter who you were talking to. Even the concept of a "planet" and "sun" are not concrete or even necessarily shared.
As for your pen, there is no "down" once you're off a deep gravity well. A society that has lived thousands of generations in deep space may have zero concept of there being a 'down' the way you and I perceive it. They can intellectually be explained the idea that it's a direction towards the center of the nearest large body of matter, but they may shrug it off as just as abstract and pointless as the direction towards Mecca or the patterns of the constellations in the sky - a superstitious cultural quirk of ours.
The pen draws the Earth to it as well... a culture that is used to dealing with gravity drawing large ships together and other cases where gravity tends to work on more evenly sized objects will see that. Sure, in this case the mass of the pen is negligable, but the concept of "falling" "down" is the product of living on a planet. Objects do not "fall" "down" - they mutually attract each other to a central point.
(And to repeat, I'm not making the case that math is different, just the model).
--
Evan
There's quite a large body of medical literature that says you are wrong. There's a pretty predictable and narrow range of strobe that will trigger seizures in sensitive individuals.
I'm not trying to play word games, I'm simply stating that when you're sensitive to a certain subset of flashing lights, and you're dealing with a medium that is nothing but various patterns of flashing lights,
you probably should be able to figure out that that pattern might just occur.
--
Evan
Yes, but the universe itself is finite; has a value. The 216 character name of God could be the key constant in a function of the universe as a whole (possibly in relation to e i pi, etc). c, Planck's constant and other key physical constants of the universe could be tied to that one number... which may be tied to the abstract math biggies that you were referring to.
Again, it's rationalization, don't hold me to this theory. :)
--
Evan "My SO named her mice e, i and pi... which led to massive confusion when she IM'ed a friend 'I think i might be pregnant'"