My other piece of durable tech is the Samsung SCH-8500 cellular phone [samsungelectronics.com] (purchased December 2000) and I still use it. It's survived countless drops onto concrete and pavement, drops into puddles (and a toilet), being slept on, and a bad battery. I have yet to find another phone that even looks as durable yet, so I'm not replacing it anytime soon.
I've had mine since about the same time and all I can do is second what you just said - resilient little machine. Except for the battery bursting a couple months back, but that didn't hurt the phone.
> The spaces are too regular. You'd be quite hard pressed to form a coherent sentence with any character occuring every 5n character.
Dividing into groups of five characters is a classic technique for simple substitution ciphers - it prevents someone guessing that 'buubdl bu oppo' is 'attack at noon'.
> Then the next questionable aspect is the last three +++'s.
Could mean end of line, end of message, anything. Just because it's unlikely to come up at random doesn't mean that it couldn't have been put there.
Here, here's some practice for you in recognizing 'random' typing vs. ciphertext:
Sure they can. Entropy only applies in a closed system. The earth is continually receiving energy from the sun, hence the earth is not a closed system.
Besides, who's to say God and evolution cannot coexist? What if that's the method He used?
Since they became a lot more through about security checks after 9/11, the "Only ticketed passengers past security" rule was designed to lighten the load on the checkpoint personnel.
Before 9/11 - two passengers + four friends = 20 minutes. After - two passengers = 45 minutes.
Seeing the nth story on/. about computers and chess, I have to post this now:
Artist: Moxy Früvous Album: Live Noise Track: Kasparov vs. Deep Blue (Recorded live at MIT)
(Murray) Well, I... I do have a question. How many people here were voting for Deep Blue? And how many people were voting for Kasparov? Ah.....humanity has hope - still, I suppose. (Jian) How many people are like actually disappointed that the human lost. No no, disappointed I mean. Duh! No, Because like I just don't get it, you know? I mean, you know? What's the f*cking big deal, you know? It's a machine, right? I don't know. I made the point in Albany the other day which apparently lost on all the Albanians. (Murray) I didn't get it either. [laughter] (Dave) That's not all that was lost on the Albanians. (Jian) They're still behind the times. (Dave) There's a lot of foreign aid going on there. (Murray) Your point was if there's a fire, Deep Blue wouldn't run out of the room. (Jian) Exactly! (Mike) Couldn't run out of the room. (Jian) That's exactly my point. If an attractive person walks into the room, a person that would be attractive to Deep Blue, it can't do anything about it. That's my point. Kasparov can approach the person. (Murray) The attractive person. (Jian) No! Here's my point. My point is a calculator. That's my point. Right? (Murray) No, let's get back to the fire. (Jian) No, hang on. No, no, the calc...forget the fire, because apparently it's, you know, I'm talking on a different level. (Murray) I - Clearly! (Jian) Here's the thing. Here's the thing. A calculator, right, a common everyday calculator. (Murray) I'm with you. (Jian) A calculator will, you know, it...let's say, let's play the adding game, right? Who can add faster: a calculator or a woman or man? A calculator can, right? So what's the big deal? We know that there are instruments... we know that there are machines... we know that there are computers, etcetera. (Murray) Right. (Jian) that can do things that. It's just because the thing won at chess, right? I don't understand what the big deal is. (Murray) Your point is if you light a match near your calculator, it's not going to scurry away. It's all relative. (Jian) No, my point is...My point is if there's a calculator. My point is... oh alright, okay, I'll bring it back to the fire for you, because I know you're obsessed. If there's a fire in my living room, where me and my calculator are sitting, I can escape the fire. (Dave) Yeah, but if uh... (Jian) But my calculator can't. (Murray) Is there a logic course here that one of us can enroll in? [audience laughs - this is MIT... (Jian) Well, I think, I think they know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the fact that the machine is programmed to only do one thing. It can't do anything else. The fire was just one example. Pick anything, anything. (Mike) Locusts. (Murray) A flood. How about a flood? Can he escape a flood? (Dave) Buddy boy... (Jian, laughing) Kasparov can.... (Mike) A plague of frogs. [laughter] (Jian) No, say there's an, say there's an earthquake. Right. (Murray) Now, there's a good one. (Jian) There's an earthquake down the middle of the room, the chess room. Kasparov can get up and move. Deep Blue can't. (Murray) It falls into the chasm. (Jian) That's my point. (Murray) Right. (Dave) But if they built Deep Blue in a door frame then there's no room for Kasparov to stand... to fight the earthquake. Then they're doubly screwed. (Jian) See...see...they'd have to program Deep Blue to escape the fire. That's my thing. (Murray) But they can do that in a couple of years. (Mike) You know we were talking about... we were talking about disaster movies. This would be the perfect disaster movie. Just have an endless succession of these scenes where Deep Blue is just sitting there. "It's the locusts" or whatever and Kasparov is just running his little piggy legs out of the room. "I'm free again, you f*cker!"
[sorry if this sucks to read - the lameness filter wouldn't let me post it with a blank line between speakers]
> Hell, breakthroughs could revolutionize the chewing gum industry, too-- imagine flavors like "Filet Mignon" or "Boston Cream Pie" or "Bacon Cheeseburger"
But it always goes wrong when they get to the dessert. Always.
Truth is, unless someone finds a reliable way to profit from open source, it resolves to nothing more than a whole lot of geeks doing what interests them. Good for them, bad for anyone who's dependent on software.
So unless profit can be got from it, it's worthless? The great thing about "a whole lot of geeks doing what interests them" is this: programmers working for Microsoft write tools for other people to use. Geeks writing their own tools... well, are writing tools for themselves (tautology alert!) and thus are likely to make the tools simple, powerful, and robust - because they'll use them themselves.
One senior officer at the Pentagon was being buried in paperwork. No matter how much he did, there always seems to be more. And, what made it worse, on his way to the coffee machine every day, he would pass the desk of another officer, a lieutenant, and that man's desk was always clear of papers.
Finally, one day, he could stand it no longer. He called the lieutenant in under the premise of doing an efficiency study: "... and I've noticed that your desk is always clear of papers. How do you do it?"
The younger man swallowed. Looked nervous. Finally he said, "Can this be off the record, sir?"
"I can assure you, if you don't want your name attached to it..."
"All right, then, sir. You see, I figure in a place this size, there has to be at least one Commander Smith. All the stupid timewasting stuff that comes by, I simply write 'I don't have the authority - fwd to Cmdr Smith.'"
The older man paused. Thought. Nodded. Finally he said, "I suppose that would work. And now, you young pup, put up your dukes for I am about to kill you. I am Commander Smith!"
Judge: Hmm. "Hercules Rockefeller". "Rembrandt Q. Einstein".
"Handsome B. Wonderful". Huh, I'm going to give you the only
name you spelt correctly. From this day forward, your name
shall be...
[cut to a shot of Lisa, reading from a sheet of paper on the
Simpsons' couch] Lisa: "Max Power"?
So, if 13,475,000 people claim their chunk of the settlement, you get your $5 check. When Mr. 13,475,001 rolls along, the record companies/conspiracy theory/ will set up a not-for-profit shelter so they can hand the money right back to themselves/conspiracy theory/
And then it got submitted to/., so it's almost sure to go over 13,475,000 people. The conspiracy theory continues.
(this should have been from the-tragedy-of-the-commons-strikes-again department)
Under Linux/UNIX, you can do both, linking the files (soft or hard) across directories. Under MSWin*, you can also do something similar, but not as flexible, using shortcuts.
How do you think I'm doing it now? Needs to be manually set up and takes forever, though.
Because you have to think the same way every time you want to access it - class first, then type of file (homework, source, notes), for example.
Under an attribute based database, you can say either "I want homework for ASM" or "I want ASM homework." On a strict hierarchy, you must decide on one and only one of those to always use.
In the Real World*, there's one way to a particular piece of information - file cabinet x (say, 1998 customers), drawer y (say, small business), folder z (Mom & Pop Inc); in computer storage, we should not be constrained this way. We have taken the bad of the metaphor along with the good.
(*: Real World is a trademark of MTV Networks. All Rights Reserved)
> Sorry, I stopped reading about the time you said "Use MS".
Heh, that's about my reaction. I do not want my copy of Microsoft Notemanager (whatever) to stop starting over the summer (or right before finals!) and inform me I need to pay M$ another $100 for the new version or never see my old notes again.
That's ransom, even blackmail, and I'm not going to put myself in a situation where I'm vulnerable to it.
I'd prefer an open source solution where even if the format changes, the former format will still be available (or at least will be translatable).
My problem has always been, for example, for class note-taking, do I set up:
college
class 1
homework
schedule
notes
class 2
assignments
schedule
notes (etc)
or
college
homework
class 1
class 2
schedule
class 1
class 2
notes
class 1
class 2 (etc)
And I've often thought about this ability. Perhaps add some autodetection capabilities... give files automatic attributes such as "English"/"Spanish"/"Romanji" or "C"/"C++"/"Perl"...?
Slashdot Mirror
And MUNI, that's still a dollar, right?
I've had mine since about the same time and all I can do is second what you just said - resilient little machine. Except for the battery bursting a couple months back, but that didn't hurt the phone.
> a 4 line 40 char dot matrix display up where the rear view mirror should be
What state does your friend live in? IIRC, removing the rear view mirror is illegal in many states.
Impressive.
Beg to differ.
> The spaces are too regular. You'd be quite hard pressed to form a coherent sentence with any character occuring every 5n character.
Dividing into groups of five characters is a classic technique for simple substitution ciphers - it prevents someone guessing that 'buubdl bu oppo' is 'attack at noon'.
> Then the next questionable aspect is the last three +++'s.
Could mean end of line, end of message, anything. Just because it's unlikely to come up at random doesn't mean that it couldn't have been put there.
Here, here's some practice for you in recognizing 'random' typing vs. ciphertext:
* wked ik sir ewjsk ao e dkso slo rjdic s akkdo
* narfs lrcqy athba qabnk opnuu irbpw enfui xlrip pesji ilouh +++
One of these means something. The other... doesn't.
> Entropy and evolution can never co-exist.
Sure they can. Entropy only applies in a closed system. The earth is continually receiving energy from the sun, hence the earth is not a closed system.
Besides, who's to say God and evolution cannot coexist? What if that's the method He used?
> One geek, one gun.
He's counting on IDKFA.
that's Alt-PrtScr for "grab current window".
"Life on the Internet is living in SYN."
Still does in Mozilla.
That's not the point of those requirements.
Since they became a lot more through about security checks after 9/11, the "Only ticketed passengers past security" rule was designed to lighten the load on the checkpoint personnel.
Before 9/11 - two passengers + four friends = 20 minutes. After - two passengers = 45 minutes.
Seeing the nth story on /. about computers and chess, I have to post this now:
Artist: Moxy Früvous
Album: Live Noise
Track: Kasparov vs. Deep Blue (Recorded live at MIT)
(Murray) Well, I... I do have a question. How many people here were voting for Deep Blue? And how many people were voting for Kasparov? Ah.....humanity has hope - still, I suppose.
(Jian) How many people are like actually disappointed that the human lost. No no, disappointed I mean. Duh! No, Because like I just don't get it, you know? I mean, you know? What's the f*cking big deal, you know? It's a machine, right? I don't know. I made the point in Albany the other day which apparently lost on all the Albanians.
(Murray) I didn't get it either. [laughter]
(Dave) That's not all that was lost on the Albanians.
(Jian) They're still behind the times.
(Dave) There's a lot of foreign aid going on there.
(Murray) Your point was if there's a fire, Deep Blue wouldn't run out of the room.
(Jian) Exactly!
(Mike) Couldn't run out of the room.
(Jian) That's exactly my point. If an attractive person walks into the room, a person that would be attractive to Deep Blue, it can't do anything about it. That's my point. Kasparov can approach the person.
(Murray) The attractive person.
(Jian) No! Here's my point. My point is a calculator. That's my point. Right?
(Murray) No, let's get back to the fire.
(Jian) No, hang on. No, no, the calc...forget the fire, because apparently it's, you know, I'm talking on a different level.
(Murray) I - Clearly!
(Jian) Here's the thing. Here's the thing. A calculator, right, a common everyday calculator.
(Murray) I'm with you.
(Jian) A calculator will, you know, it...let's say, let's play the adding game, right? Who can add faster: a calculator or a woman or man? A calculator can, right? So what's the big deal? We know that there are instruments... we know that there are machines... we know that there are computers, etcetera.
(Murray) Right.
(Jian) that can do things that. It's just because the thing won at chess, right? I don't understand what the big deal is.
(Murray) Your point is if you light a match near your calculator, it's not going to scurry away. It's all relative.
(Jian) No, my point is...My point is if there's a calculator. My point is... oh alright, okay, I'll bring it back to the fire for you, because I know you're obsessed. If there's a fire in my living room, where me and my calculator are sitting, I can escape the fire.
(Dave) Yeah, but if uh...
(Jian) But my calculator can't.
(Murray) Is there a logic course here that one of us can enroll in? [audience laughs - this is MIT...
(Jian) Well, I think, I think they know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the fact that the machine is programmed to only do one thing. It can't do anything else. The fire was just one example. Pick anything, anything.
(Mike) Locusts.
(Murray) A flood. How about a flood? Can he escape a flood?
(Dave) Buddy boy...
(Jian, laughing) Kasparov can....
(Mike) A plague of frogs. [laughter]
(Jian) No, say there's an, say there's an earthquake. Right.
(Murray) Now, there's a good one.
(Jian) There's an earthquake down the middle of the room, the chess room. Kasparov can get up and move. Deep Blue can't.
(Murray) It falls into the chasm.
(Jian) That's my point.
(Murray) Right.
(Dave) But if they built Deep Blue in a door frame then there's no room for Kasparov to stand... to fight the earthquake. Then they're doubly screwed.
(Jian) See...see...they'd have to program Deep Blue to escape the fire. That's my thing.
(Murray) But they can do that in a couple of years.
(Mike) You know we were talking about... we were talking about disaster movies. This would be the perfect disaster movie. Just have an endless succession of these scenes where Deep Blue is just sitting there. "It's the locusts" or whatever and Kasparov is just running his little piggy legs out of the room. "I'm free again, you f*cker!"
[sorry if this sucks to read - the lameness filter wouldn't let me post it with a blank line between speakers]
Bah. Humbug.
> Hell, breakthroughs could revolutionize the chewing gum industry, too-- imagine flavors like "Filet Mignon" or "Boston Cream Pie" or "Bacon Cheeseburger"
But it always goes wrong when they get to the dessert. Always.
So unless profit can be got from it, it's worthless? The great thing about "a whole lot of geeks doing what interests them" is this: programmers working for Microsoft write tools for other people to use. Geeks writing their own tools... well, are writing tools for themselves (tautology alert!) and thus are likely to make the tools simple, powerful, and robust - because they'll use them themselves.
Yes, but it's also under "Sciences and Math". I think anything that needs 3d rendering (which Celestia does) gets categorized under "3D games".
All this reminds me of a story.
One senior officer at the Pentagon was being buried in paperwork. No matter how much he did, there always seems to be more. And, what made it worse, on his way to the coffee machine every day, he would pass the desk of another officer, a lieutenant, and that man's desk was always clear of papers.
Finally, one day, he could stand it no longer. He called the lieutenant in under the premise of doing an efficiency study: "... and I've noticed that your desk is always clear of papers. How do you do it?"
The younger man swallowed. Looked nervous. Finally he said, "Can this be off the record, sir?"
"I can assure you, if you don't want your name attached to it..."
"All right, then, sir. You see, I figure in a place this size, there has to be at least one Commander Smith. All the stupid timewasting stuff that comes by, I simply write 'I don't have the authority - fwd to Cmdr Smith.'"
The older man paused. Thought. Nodded. Finally he said, "I suppose that would work. And now, you young pup, put up your dukes for I am about to kill you. I am Commander Smith!"
Judge: Hmm. "Hercules Rockefeller". "Rembrandt Q. Einstein".
"Handsome B. Wonderful". Huh, I'm going to give you the only
name you spelt correctly. From this day forward, your name
shall be
[cut to a shot of Lisa, reading from a sheet of paper on the
Simpsons' couch]
Lisa: "Max Power"?
Source: http://www.snpp.com/episodes/AABF09. Hope that helped.
And then it got submitted to
(this should have been from the-tragedy-of-the-commons-strikes-again department)
Under Linux/UNIX, you can do both, linking the files (soft or hard) across directories.
Under MSWin*, you can also do something similar, but not as flexible, using shortcuts.
How do you think I'm doing it now? Needs to be manually set up and takes forever, though.
Because you have to think the same way every time you want to access it - class first, then type of file (homework, source, notes), for example.
Under an attribute based database, you can say either "I want homework for ASM" or "I want ASM homework." On a strict hierarchy, you must decide on one and only one of those to always use.
In the Real World*, there's one way to a particular piece of information - file cabinet x (say, 1998 customers), drawer y (say, small business), folder z (Mom & Pop Inc); in computer storage, we should not be constrained this way. We have taken the bad of the metaphor along with the good.
(*: Real World is a trademark of MTV Networks. All Rights Reserved)
> Sorry, I stopped reading about the time you said "Use MS".
Heh, that's about my reaction. I do not want my copy of Microsoft Notemanager (whatever) to stop starting over the summer (or right before finals!) and inform me I need to pay M$ another $100 for the new version or never see my old notes again.
That's ransom, even blackmail, and I'm not going to put myself in a situation where I'm vulnerable to it.
I'd prefer an open source solution where even if the format changes, the former format will still be available (or at least will be translatable).
My problem has always been, for example, for class note-taking, do I set up:
college
class 1
homework
schedule
notes
class 2
assignments
schedule
notes
(etc)
or
college
homework
class 1
class 2
schedule
class 1
class 2
notes
class 1
class 2
(etc)
And I've often thought about this ability. Perhaps add some autodetection capabilities... give files automatic attributes such as "English"/"Spanish"/"Romanji" or "C"/"C++"/"Perl"...?
Who's more foolish, the fool or the fool who flames him?