It's interesting to note there is a lot more text one way, then the other.
> perl -ne 'chomp;foreach(split(//)){if ($last=~/[$%^]/) { print; } $last=$_;}' poe.txt |./freq.pl D,T has a frequency of 8 Q has a frequency of 7 L,Y has a frequency of 6 E,F,P has a frequency of 5 K,N,R has a frequency of 4 A,C,M has a frequency of 3 J,U,W has a frequency of 2 B,G,O,S has a frequency of 1
> perl -ne 'chomp;foreach(split(//)){if ($last=~/[!,@,#]/) { print; } $last=$_;}' poe.txt |./freq.pl E has a frequency of 22 B has a frequency of 20 G,L has a frequency of 19 D,F,H,I,T has a frequency of 18 A,K,X has a frequency of 17 N,S,Y has a frequency of 16 J has a frequency of 15 M,R has a frequency of 14 C,P has a frequency of 13 O,Q,U has a frequency of 11 V has a frequency of 10 W,Z has a frequency of 7
No guarantees I interpreted them all correctly. Some letters are very hard to tell apart. Especially small-case-capital and lower-case versions of the letters C, O, S, V, W, X, Z
Refer to http://www.bokler.com/pix/eapoe_crypto_ltr_small.j pg in any possible cases of confusion Key: Rightside up paper !A = Uppercase, Fullsize A @A = Uppercase, Smallsize A #A = Lowercase A
Upside down paper $A = Lowercase, A %A = Uppercase, Fullsize A ^A = Uppercase, Smallsize A
(W,V,X,Z and others are hard [impossible?] to distinguish $W, with say ^W) Refer to http://www.bokler.com/pix/eapoe_crypto_ltr_small.j pg in any possible cases of confusion Key: Rightside up paper !A = Uppercase, Fullsize A @A = Uppercase, Smallsize A #A = Lowercase A
Upside down paper $A = Lowercase, A %A = Uppercase, Fullsize A ^A = Uppercase, Smallsize A
Since the original jpeg would give an OCR program fits, I gave it my best shot. Am currently encoding it as a two character sequence to handle each letter's orientation. (will be a sub-post). For now, here it is, letter orientations ignored.
To Edgar A. Poe, Esq. ----------- original sequence a square --------- DR LIK OGXEW PFHFYY NBUH TIA VQSMGQ XDTBJS SNB ESALNKGYQJCP TVOL HLZGUCC LTTKRF PR NDDQL VWO HJFXIKFRI GXHYMEE TA QJETBXPEE YGWPUP BV STAVA NAZ TCGDYRC DHB YFKXDGF ZCNSMETL RK ORT OFNR ZQH MFG WCVIEGXHB AML NKU AFKSO IYBJDV BEFSGFLPL SPZL CEMNSW BGERTH ANJMY SEAYHTAA YAKTXDIX WG JCP JERK OFQARL NDOTY KCR ORT DJTBGP SEB DNBLQU LPH NJNJV ALGF DIKY WVO CEPIMXAY SYJZ EIF KMK XYKSSG HTITAW QBP QTLC DEYJ RVV UQRCPME NK VFHV LDAH XMKTIAX YE VJR ADFHW XQCMKUYWEKA GS B AGOIY NMEY RPC GIOQBG NBTEMMQ NK LCOPR SVIBPLSI NZQ DGTJH YDUGF RZNK CTE YL W TX JDMNARUFQX GDHYFBRI BZNL LBTPH FW EETOYDK TIA VIRQMFTV VVEHQLP DHB NNGJ WC MTEUJYRTF JDV HPHR KYSXTCEFA GS AML LQIGMXAR WC NFUIKY PM AGGB MJG ARNWADQ CMR IRZ XRHOEL KSYWTB CFG JC YK FJEO IDBLSTP IKRZ VNKADQ CTXH QDJW QCJPPE LUDFA K ADTV B GERPEC UTA VJYI KJ EMY IW GDF ------------------------------------------------ --
A frequency counter. #!/usr/local/bin/perl @sequence=; foreach(@sequence) { chomp; foreach(split(//)) { $freq{$_}++; } } foreach (sort(keys(%freq))) { $temp=$freq{$_}; $byvalue{$temp}.= "$_,"; } foreach (reverse(sort(numeric(keys(%byvalue))))) { chop($byvalue{$_}); print "$byvalue{$_} has a frequency of $_ \n"; } sub numeric { if ($a ; for ($i=0; $i 90; print chr($j); } } print "\n"; } print "---- NEXT SHIFT ----\n"; }
Wrapping the message around a rod, then filling in the spaces with gibberish is an old technique (seem to remember a reference to roman use?). Unfortunately, it amounts to reading with a fixed interval between. This often makes the message jump out at the reader, even with large intervals. At the very least, anyone who suspects you have done this will solve the message in a very short period of time. If they didn't suspect, it might take longer to do the frequency count.
I moderated you down as an off-topic troll, but then figured that a crude song from the 1940s was probably appropriate to this forum. This comment should undo it.
I find it fairly readable when you specify a nice courier or times new roman font, and set the size to 18 or 24... Of course, that screws up some page formatting.
Amusingly, a (greatly simplified) version is our current project in our Lisp&AI class.
Anyone try a freshmeat.net search? Some of the results for a search on "symbolic math" looked promising (some nice libraries too), but I haven't tried any of them.
Well, actually it would have been more on-topic in any one of the other stories on the american political process. It would have been even *more* on-topic in that "Father of the Internet" story half a year back.
Despite your burning desire to have these questions responded, and your stated intent to allow that to influence your vote, it really isn't what this article is supposed to be about. I'd almost call it (or any other pro/con post) trolling. Anyway, why don't you e-mail your concerns directly to Gore campaign headquarters, they might actually reply. I would deem it unlikely your questions will get moderated up high enough to get to the webmaster that way.
This one does have possibilities... Unfortunately, it does promise to complicate things for the post office. Say 100 million people using the system. Everytime they move you have to add an address... Not an impossible database to keep (including multiple forwarding addresses, and multiple moves) but a depressingly complex system for no real purpose. Plus, I wouldn't count on US postal service actually managing to handle something like that. Hm. Let's say the average person moves 5 times in their life. 100 million users, 500 million e-mail addresses with a significant amount of duplication. Ouch. Also, this doesn't take care of the problem of someone with the same name moving in at that address. No, the idea of adding physical address information to e-mail is a non-problem.
I thought of that. The problem is the hassle this involves for no apparent reason. Yes, people could notify all their friends, and unsubscribe from all their lists, but what is the point? And why take the chance that they might miss someone important?
Isn't linking your e-mail address to a physical location a really, really, stupid idea? Doesn't this mean that every time you move you have to update your address? What about the person who gets yours? Do they promise not to read the mail? What about passwords? The great thing about e-mail is that so long as your account exists, you can be anywhere in the world. I even have one of my more stable addresses printed on checks instead of a phone number. The Post Office should just face up to it's obsolescence and move on. Some restructuring to specialize in efficient parcel delivery might work, but they would be competing with more trustworthy companies like UPS and FedEx there.
I've never understood why articles emphasize nanites as being safe and controllable. It seems to me nanites as self-replicating machines are just as susceptible to an evolutionary selection process as any other lifeform.
Once we create nanites, presumably they will generate more nanites to cut down on cost, correct? And these nanites will produce more, right?
In any manufacturing process, errors will creep in. Usually, the damaged articles are thrown out. This would probably happen to the majority of nanites produced. But what if one error (mutation) is lucky enough to be more effective at replication? What if it's an error in it's "off" switch? Wouldn't we have the same possibility for a nanite plague as a bacterial one? And this time, with no known enemies, and unlimited raw materials...
It's also worth noting that computer circutry is getting to the stage where it is becoming vulnerable to quantum events. This is considered a bad thing, and quite a bit of work is focused on eliminating these interactions.
If random events played such a significant role in the much larger size circuits of the human mind, you'd think by now we'd have evolved compensatory mechanisms. Our brains are meant to process and react to our environment, not invent new random data.
Perl returns the year as X where is X is the current year in 4 digit format -1900. Why they chose to do this I do not know, but you have to add 1900 to get the correct date. Alternatively, I guess they could subtract 100 now that we are in the 100s. 101-100 = '01 110-100 = '10 etc.
I was a little confused. It seems foams, liquids and lasers are illegal, as well as electricity. But since the robots are radio controlled, does that exclude jamming on all frequencies but your own, then killing the other bots at your leisure?
According to the Business Week review, all the links to other linux distro sites (assuming that was actually a product they were offering) are dead. Only a little under 5K in development money spent? $0 profits? There is nothing illegal to what they are doing, but they aren't offering any way for the company (or shareholders) to profit! It is a scam. And that's why people are upset.
Slashdot Mirror
It's interesting to note there is a lot more text one way, then the other.
./freq.pl
./freq.pl
> perl -ne 'chomp;foreach(split(//)){if ($last=~/[$%^]/) { print; } $last=$_;}' poe.txt |
D,T has a frequency of 8
Q has a frequency of 7
L,Y has a frequency of 6
E,F,P has a frequency of 5
K,N,R has a frequency of 4
A,C,M has a frequency of 3
J,U,W has a frequency of 2
B,G,O,S has a frequency of 1
> perl -ne 'chomp;foreach(split(//)){if ($last=~/[!,@,#]/) { print; } $last=$_;}' poe.txt |
E has a frequency of 22
B has a frequency of 20
G,L has a frequency of 19
D,F,H,I,T has a frequency of 18
A,K,X has a frequency of 17
N,S,Y has a frequency of 16
J has a frequency of 15
M,R has a frequency of 14
C,P has a frequency of 13
O,Q,U has a frequency of 11
V has a frequency of 10
W,Z has a frequency of 7
No guarantees I interpreted them all correctly. Some letters are very hard to tell apart. Especially small-case-capital and lower-case versions of the letters C, O, S, V, W, X, Z
j pg in any possible cases of confusion
- --
Refer to http://www.bokler.com/pix/eapoe_crypto_ltr_small.
Key:
Rightside up paper
!A = Uppercase, Fullsize A
@A = Uppercase, Smallsize A
#A = Lowercase A
Upside down paper
$A = Lowercase, A
%A = Uppercase, Fullsize A
^A = Uppercase, Smallsize A
To Edgar A. Poe, Esq.
----------- original sequence a square ---------
!D@R %L#I$K !O!G!X!E!W !P%F%H!F#Y$Y @N%B!U!H %T!I!A !V!Q%S!M%G^Q
@X@D!T#B#J#S !S!N!B @E@S%A!L%N!K$G!Y%Q %J!C!P @T%V#O#L !H^L!Z@G@U$C%C
@L^T$T%K$R#F ^P%R @N%D@D^Q!L $V^W!O #H#J@F%X%I^K%F%R$I #G^Y@H$Y^M@E$E !T#A
!Q@J%E@T!B!X!P#E!E #Y!G$W#D!U%P %B%V %S%T!A%V$A #N^A%Z @T@C%G!D!Y!R%C
@D@H@B %Y!F!K@X@D@G#F !Z$C!N@S@M@E^T@L %R$K %O^R$T ^O$F^N$R #Z%Q#H !M#F@G
#W$C!V#I#E@G!X@H!B %A$M!L ^N^K^U !A@F@K^S!O #I#Y@B%J!D!V #B^E^F#f#S#G%F%L%P^L
!S@P%Z#L !C!E%M^N!S!W #B!G#E@R^T#H #A!N#J#M^Y @S$E%A$Y$H%T$A$A %Y#A#K$T!X!D!I#X
$W$G %J!C%P @J%E$R!K #O!F%Q!A%R%L @N%D!O!T@Y $K#C#R %O^R$T ^D@J@T!B%G!P
!S!E!B @D%N@B!L%Q#U !L#P@H @N$J#N@J$V #A@L$G^F #D#I@K#Y %W%V#O #C!E#P$I$M%X$A$Y
@S^Y!J%Z #E!I#F @K!M$K @X@Y!K!S%S@G !H^T#I#T%A!W @Q%B!P #Q!T^L^C @D^E@Y#J @R@V@V
!U^Q$R#C^P#M#E #N#K !V!F%H%V #L!D#A#H !X%M%K!T!I@A@X !Y#E $V$J$R #A^D!F$H!W
!X%Q%C^M@K!U^Y^W^E^K$A $G@S @B !A%G!O#I%Y $N$M#E#Y #R#P#C !G%I%O!Q%B#G
%N!B%T!E#M!M@Q #N#K !L#C#O^P^R !S$V!I@B%P^L%S!I !N%Z^Q ^D#G@T#J$H $Y^D@U@G#F
!R!Z#N!K !C^T$E ^Y@L %W$T!X !J@D@M@N%A$R!U%F!Q#X %G!D@H$Y^F!B@R@I
#B#Z%N!L !L@B@T%P#H @F!W #E@E!T#O!Y#D$K %T!I!A !V@I%R^Q!M!F@T@V
@V%V%E@H^Q^L!P ^D@H@B @N!N@G^J %W$C ^M^T$E%U#J%Y#R^T#F %J%D%V $H#P#H$R
@K#Y!S!X#T%C^E%F$A $G@S %A$M!L @L!Q!I#G#M#X^A@R %W$C ^N$F!U#I!K$Y ^P%M
!A%G!G#B !M$J@G @A!R%N$W#A%D!Q @C@M#R $I@R#Z #X$R@H%O!E#L $K!S^Y!W#T@B
!C!F^G ^J^C #Y^K #F#J#E#O %I%D%B^L%S^T!P $I^R#Z !V^U#K%A^D^Q %C%T!X#H
#Q#D!J%W @Q@C%J@P%P$E #L#U#D^F!A !K ^A^D@T%V ^B #G^E@R^P!E^C @U#T$A $V$J@Y!I
!K@J #E#M#Y $I$W %G^D^F
-----------------------------------------------
(W,V,X,Z and others are hard [impossible?] to distinguish $W, with say ^W)j pg in any possible cases of confusion
- --
Refer to http://www.bokler.com/pix/eapoe_crypto_ltr_small.
Key:
Rightside up paper
!A = Uppercase, Fullsize A
@A = Uppercase, Smallsize A
#A = Lowercase A
Upside down paper
$A = Lowercase, A
%A = Uppercase, Fullsize A
^A = Uppercase, Smallsize A
To Edgar A. Poe, Esq.
----------- original sequence a square ---------
!D@R %L#I$K !O!G!X!E!W !P%F%H!F#Y$Y @N%B!U!H %T!I!A !V!Q%S!M%G^Q
@X@D!T#B#J#S !S!N!B @E@S%A!L%N!K$G!Y%Q %J!C!P @T%V#O#L !H^L!Z@G@U$C%C
@L^T$T%K$R#F ^P%R @N%D@D^Q!L $V^W!O #H#J@F%X%I^K%F%R$I #G^Y@H$Y^M@E$E !T#A
!Q@J%E@T!B!X!P#E!E #Y!G$W#D!U%P %B%V %S%T!A%V$A #N^A%Z @T@C%G!D!Y!R%C
@D@H@B %Y!F!K@X@D@G#F !Z$C!N@S@M@E^T@L %R$K %O^R$T ^O$F^N$R #Z%Q#H !M#F@G
#W$C!V#I#E@G!X@H!B %A$M!L ^N^K^U !A@F@K^S!O #I#Y@B%J!D!V #B^E^F#f#S#G%F%L%P^L
!S@P%Z#L !C!E%M^N!S!W #B!G#E@R^T#H #A!N#J#M^Y @S$E%A$Y$H%T$A$A %Y#A#K$T!X!D!I#X
$W$G %J!C%P @J%E$R!K #O!F%Q!A%R%L @N%D!O!T@Y $K#C#R %O^R$T ^D@J@T!B%G!P
!S!E!B @D%N@B!L%Q#U !L#P@H @N$J#N@J$V #A@L$G^F #D#I@K#Y %W%V#O #C!E#P$I$M%X$A$Y
@S^Y!J%Z #E!I#F @K!M$K @X@Y!K!S%S@G !H^T#I#T%A!W @Q%B!P #Q!T^L^C @D^E@Y#J @R@V@V
!U^Q$R#C^P#M#E #N#K !V!F%H%V #L!D#A#H !X%M%K!T!I@A@X !Y#E $V$J$R #A^D!F$H!W
!X%Q%C^M@K!U^Y^W^E^K$A $G@S @B !A%G!O#I%Y $N$M#E#Y #R#P#C !G%I%O!Q%B#G
%N!B%T!E#M!M@Q #N#K !L#C#O^P^R !S$V!I@B%P^L%S!I !N%Z^Q ^D#G@T#J$H $Y^D@U@G#F
!R!Z#N!K !C^T$E ^Y@L %W$T!X !J@D@M@N%A$R!U%F!Q#X %G!D@H$Y^F!B@R@I
#B#Z%N!L !L@B@T%P#H @F!W #E@E!T#O!Y#D$K %T!I!A !V@I%R^Q!M!F@T@V
@V%V%E@H^Q^L!P ^D@H@B @N!N@G^J %W$C ^M^T$E%U#J%Y#R^T#F %J%D%V $H#P#H$R
@K#Y!S!X#T%C^E%F$A $G@S %A$M!L @L!Q!I#G#M#X^A@R %W$C ^N$F!U#I!K$Y ^P%M
!A%G!G#B !M$J@G @A!R%N$W#A%D!Q @C@M#R $I@R#Z #X$R@H%O!E#L $K!S^Y!W#T@B
!C!F^G ^J^C #Y^K #F#J#E#O %I%D%B^L%S^T!P $I^R#Z !V^U#K%A^D^Q %C%T!X#H
#Q#D!J%W @Q@C%J@P%P$E #L#U#D^F!A !K ^A^D@T%V ^B #G^E@R^P!E^C @U#T$A $V$J@Y!I
!K@J #E#M#Y $I$W %G^D^F
-----------------------------------------------
ok. Trying in HTML (please tell me it supports Greater then, less then signs...
.= "$_,";
/a-z/A-Z/; /)
Frequency counter.
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
@sequence=<STDIN>;
foreach(@sequence)
{
chomp;
foreach(split(//))
{
$freq{$_}++;
}
}
foreach (sort(keys(%freq)))
{
$temp=$freq{$_};
$byvalue{$temp}
}
foreach (reverse(sort(numeric(keys(%byvalue)))))
{
chop($byvalue{$_});
print "$byvalue{$_} has a frequency of $_ \n";
}
sub numeric
{
if ($a < $b)
{
-1
}
elsif ($a == $b)
{
0
}
else
{
1
}
}
Shifter.
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
@sequence=<STDIN>;
for ($i=0; $i < 26; $i++)
{
foreach (@sequence)
{
chomp;
@string=split(//);
foreach(@string)
{
tr
if (/
{
print;
}
else
{
$j=ord();
$j+=$i;
$j-=26 if $j > 90;
print chr($j);
}
}
print "\n";
}
print "---- NEXT SHIFT ----\n";
}
Since the original jpeg would give an OCR program fits, I gave it my best shot. Am currently encoding it as a two character sequence to handle each letter's orientation. (will be a sub-post).
- --
.= "$_,";
For now, here it is, letter orientations ignored.
To Edgar A. Poe, Esq.
----------- original sequence a square ---------
DR LIK OGXEW PFHFYY NBUH TIA VQSMGQ
XDTBJS SNB ESALNKGYQJCP TVOL HLZGUCC
LTTKRF PR NDDQL VWO HJFXIKFRI GXHYMEE TA
QJETBXPEE YGWPUP BV STAVA NAZ TCGDYRC
DHB YFKXDGF ZCNSMETL RK ORT OFNR ZQH MFG
WCVIEGXHB AML NKU AFKSO IYBJDV BEFSGFLPL
SPZL CEMNSW BGERTH ANJMY SEAYHTAA YAKTXDIX
WG JCP JERK OFQARL NDOTY KCR ORT DJTBGP
SEB DNBLQU LPH NJNJV ALGF DIKY WVO CEPIMXAY
SYJZ EIF KMK XYKSSG HTITAW QBP QTLC DEYJ RVV
UQRCPME NK VFHV LDAH XMKTIAX YE VJR ADFHW
XQCMKUYWEKA GS B AGOIY NMEY RPC GIOQBG
NBTEMMQ NK LCOPR SVIBPLSI NZQ DGTJH YDUGF
RZNK CTE YL W TX JDMNARUFQX GDHYFBRI
BZNL LBTPH FW EETOYDK TIA VIRQMFTV
VVEHQLP DHB NNGJ WC MTEUJYRTF JDV HPHR
KYSXTCEFA GS AML LQIGMXAR WC NFUIKY PM
AGGB MJG ARNWADQ CMR IRZ XRHOEL KSYWTB
CFG JC YK FJEO IDBLSTP IKRZ VNKADQ CTXH
QDJW QCJPPE LUDFA K ADTV B GERPEC UTA VJYI
KJ EMY IW GDF
-----------------------------------------------
A frequency counter.
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
@sequence=;
foreach(@sequence)
{
chomp;
foreach(split(//))
{
$freq{$_}++;
}
}
foreach (sort(keys(%freq)))
{
$temp=$freq{$_};
$byvalue{$temp}
}
foreach (reverse(sort(numeric(keys(%byvalue)))))
{
chop($byvalue{$_});
print "$byvalue{$_} has a frequency of $_ \n";
}
sub numeric
{
if ($a ;
for ($i=0; $i 90;
print chr($j);
}
}
print "\n";
}
print "---- NEXT SHIFT ----\n";
}
Wrapping the message around a rod, then filling in the spaces with gibberish is an old technique (seem to remember a reference to roman use?).
Unfortunately, it amounts to reading with a fixed interval between. This often makes the message jump out at the reader, even with large intervals.
At the very least, anyone who suspects you have done this will solve the message in a very short period of time.
If they didn't suspect, it might take longer to do the frequency count.
I moderated you down as an off-topic troll, but then figured that a crude song from the 1940s was probably appropriate to this forum.
This comment should undo it.
I find it fairly readable when you specify a nice courier or times new roman font, and set the size to 18 or 24...
Of course, that screws up some page formatting.
You used the non-standard marquee tag?
Amusingly, a (greatly simplified) version is our current project in our Lisp&AI class.
Anyone try a freshmeat.net search? Some of the results for a search on "symbolic math" looked promising (some nice libraries too), but I haven't tried any of them.
Well, actually it would have been more on-topic in any one of the other stories on the american political process.
It would have been even *more* on-topic in that "Father of the Internet" story half a year back.
Despite your burning desire to have these questions responded, and your stated intent to allow that to influence your vote, it really isn't what this article is supposed to be about.
I'd almost call it (or any other pro/con post) trolling.
Anyway, why don't you e-mail your concerns directly to Gore campaign headquarters, they might actually reply. I would deem it unlikely your questions will get moderated up high enough to get to the webmaster that way.
Did you miss the special request that questions be related to using the Internet as a political tool in general, and not pro/con Gore?
so I checked...
perl -e '@a=;foreach(@a){foreach(split(/,/,$_)){print chr(oct);}}'
Hm. A self-replicating program. Well, at least the rest isn't obfuscated.
A tank filled with a substance with the same density as you?
Wear an oxygen mask, and you'd be floating.
You think you'd feel it? Its more likely that a continuous, even, skin temperature sensation over all your body would be tuned out as noise.
Hm. Make the substance conductive, and you could electrically stimulate any part of your body...
This one does have possibilities...
Unfortunately, it does promise to complicate things for the post office. Say 100 million people using the system. Everytime they move you have to add an address...
Not an impossible database to keep (including multiple forwarding addresses, and multiple moves) but a depressingly complex system for no real purpose.
Plus, I wouldn't count on US postal service actually managing to handle something like that.
Hm. Let's say the average person moves 5 times in their life.
100 million users, 500 million e-mail addresses with a significant amount of duplication.
Ouch.
Also, this doesn't take care of the problem of someone with the same name moving in at that address.
No, the idea of adding physical address information to e-mail is a non-problem.
I thought of that. The problem is the hassle this involves for no apparent reason.
Yes, people could notify all their friends, and unsubscribe from all their lists, but what is the point? And why take the chance that they might miss someone important?
Isn't linking your e-mail address to a physical location a really, really, stupid idea?
Doesn't this mean that every time you move you have to update your address? What about the person who gets yours? Do they promise not to read the mail? What about passwords?
The great thing about e-mail is that so long as your account exists, you can be anywhere in the world. I even have one of my more stable addresses printed on checks instead of a phone number.
The Post Office should just face up to it's obsolescence and move on. Some restructuring to specialize in efficient parcel delivery might work, but they would be competing with more trustworthy companies like UPS and FedEx there.
I've never understood why articles emphasize nanites as being safe and controllable. It seems to me nanites as self-replicating machines are just as susceptible to an evolutionary selection process as any other lifeform.
Once we create nanites, presumably they will generate more nanites to cut down on cost, correct? And these nanites will produce more, right?
In any manufacturing process, errors will creep in. Usually, the damaged articles are thrown out. This would probably happen to the majority of nanites produced. But what if one error (mutation) is lucky enough to be more effective at replication? What if it's an error in it's "off" switch? Wouldn't we have the same possibility for a nanite plague as a bacterial one? And this time, with no known enemies, and unlimited raw materials...
It's also worth noting that computer circutry is getting to the stage where it is becoming vulnerable to quantum events. This is considered a bad thing, and quite a bit of work is focused on eliminating these interactions.
If random events played such a significant role in the much larger size circuits of the human mind, you'd think by now we'd have evolved compensatory mechanisms. Our brains are meant to process and react to our environment, not invent new random data.
From the article.
"largest robot competition in terms of both the number of contestants and the size of the combatants themselves."
FIRST robots just don't get as massive.
A couple of battle bot demos actually show them lifting or moving around their 210 pound owner.
This isn't to punish the users, this is to force @home get its act together. If deja started allowing too much spam, they might get it too...
Perl returns the year as X where is X is the current year in 4 digit format -1900. Why they chose to do this I do not know, but you have to add 1900 to get the correct date.
Alternatively, I guess they could subtract 100 now that we are in the 100s.
101-100 = '01
110-100 = '10
etc.
Checked battlebots.com Apparently they consider RF jamming to fall under the category of electricity as a weapon...
http://www.battlebots.com/rules.html#11.2
I was a little confused. It seems foams, liquids and lasers are illegal, as well as electricity. But since the robots are radio controlled, does that exclude jamming on all frequencies but your own, then killing the other bots at your leisure?
According to the Business Week review, all the links to other linux distro sites (assuming that was actually a product they were offering) are dead. Only a little under 5K in development money spent? $0 profits? There is nothing illegal to what they are doing, but they aren't offering any way for the company (or shareholders) to profit! It is a scam. And that's why people are upset.