Search Engine Lead: There's... err... Nothing new to report... Not even a doodle for the main page today... I... I'll go pack my things. It was really nice working here.
Shame, they could turn off instant preview (or allow disabling it without greasemonkey). Remember when google was an awesome fast light search engine?
What do the American people gain by learning that their elected and appointed politicians regularly lie to them about foreign policy?
What do the American people gain by knowing that their Secretary of State is engaging in blatantly illegal acts?
What do the American people gain by knowing that their Ambassadors are doing under-the-table favors for corporate bigwigs?
Some people already knew this, and now won't do anything aside from grumble to friends on the internet. Some people didn't know this, and now won't do anything aside from grumble to friends at cocktail parties, until the next American Idle result comes out Many people won't believe this, and will defend their beloved government even more (a bit like the Chinese)
If there were an election tomorrow, some may vote for Republican rather than Democrat. Or the other way round, but real action?
It sounds like the average American cares more about being seen blurry and naked by some security guard at the airport than government corruption, but they still don't do anything, because convenience and comfort are more important. We are a mass of apathetic being, we're allowed to eat cake, we have our bread and circuses, and we have our 42" plasma tv, SUV and McMansion.
It's a good job too, if we started to fight the government, we'd end up like Pakistan, our political masters hidden behind insane security so any bombs that do go off don't hurt anyone but ourselves. The government might eventually collapse, and the military would be seize power.
The people can't take back the country, because we have too much to lose. The "system" that government is won't let us get to a point where we have noting left, at least en-mass, because we will fight back then.
The human mind just can't really cope with large numbers. The universe is just so shockingly enormous, on the order of 10^80 atoms.
However, this is a tiny number in comparison with others. The number of possible chess games is on the order of 10^123. You'd have to encode 100000000000000000000000000000000000000 games of chess into a single atom to store every possible game.
Of course, you'd need 10^183,800 monkeys to write Hamlet on the first go.
These number all seem the same to me though, on the same order of 10^50 (number of atoms on the earth)
My taxi got stuck in traffic, windows down, next to one of these sewer-gas-venting holes in the ground for half an eternity, and I was literally ready to leap out of the cab and run to my destination to get away from it.
This is quite normal (without the sewer, which I can't say I noticed). I did the same thing on Friday. Got caught in traffic, paid the drive the 10RMB ($1.60) on the meter, walked to the next street, picked up a new taxi.
Taxis in Beijing are crazy cheap (not as much as the excellent metro though)
but couldn't tell denominations of money and other things that would make independent living very difficult
I find this a worrying thing about america. Your notes are all the same. In the UK, the larger the note, the larger the denomination, you don't need to be able to see to work out if you're handing a 5 or a 20. Same with coins.
In the US, 1s, 5s and 20s (and I assume 100s) are the same size, and same colour. You have to inspect them closely to work out if you're being ripped off in your change. A nice simple benefit to people with deteriorating eyesight would be different sizes and colours in your currency.
Commercial sites created with no forethought at all to handicapped people are to blame.
I assume the site in your sig isn't commercial, but that background doens't really help it's readability (unless you're blind, ironically). I've thought about a trip to Alaska before, but your unreadable page really turns me off the idea.
So you're saying we need another false-flag op to bring the masses back under the whips of the bourgeois elite? We can make that happen...
Didn't we just have one? British Airways suggest that maybe, perhaps, US security has gone too far with frisking 3 year old kids, when countries like Israel use real security.
A few days later, an "Al-Qaeda suspect" gives a tip to Saudi Authorities about a bomb that's apparently on a cargo plane, which is addressed to a Synagog (to make it inconspicuous) and allegedly found in the UK just in the nick of time. What a strange co-incidence.
So do terrorists generally issue bomb warnings over Twitter?
No, but in the good old days the American funded terrorists from Ireland used to phone up newspapers/samaritans/etc to warn of bombs before they blew kids to bits. They occasionally got the location right too.
I don't know about you, but I have a pile-of-shit key on my keyboard, right between the left Ctrl and Alt.
It's a very useful "meta" key. Aside from controlling my music from amarok, I have a variety of mappings set up, Meta-s shades the window I'm using, Meta-R pops up a run dialog, Meta-CapsLock pops up an rxvt terminal window, Meta-F4 runs xrandr --auto and reconfigures when I plug in an external monitor.
(Capslock itself is mapped to Escape, which I find a lot easier on the wrists on my laptop than using the real escape key -- I rebound it about 5 years ago when my escape key broke and haven't looked back)
The toddler went to the closet, opened it, grabbed an unloaded SHOTGUN, picked up the shells and LOADED IT, then proceeded to walk over to the babysitter and shoot him to death.
What a weird country. This is clearly a case that gun control would have stopped. In a country where hardly anyone owns guns, 4 year olds don't have much opportunity to shoot them
Gas canisters, poison gas and explosives. You can't do a lot with a knife, but that's a very expensive tunnel if it gets damaged (both to repair, and in the disruption caused).
So they xray your bag, but why the metal detector? They don't do that to coach passengers on eurotunnel.
Besides, if you want to damage the tunnel, you take a lorry and set it on fire, which has happened twice. You'd probably get away with it too.
I now take the ferry to England to avoid this carry on. Yeah it takes a big longer but that is the only disadvantage
From where? Ireland? France? Norway? Belgium? Holland? Denmark? New York on the QM2?
*Nobody cares how many screw drivers, nail clippers, 8p8c crimpers, LED bulbs, gas soldering irons, unusual electronic items, bottles of water I take with me and use on the ferry.
Sadly Eurostar isn't like this, they have the pointless xray machine (although I've no idea what they're looking for, as my leatherman stays in my bag)
*Fixed fair - no cancellation,change fee, come back when you like
Fare, and for the price of a single transatlantic ferry passage, you can get a fully flexible business class return.
*Good scenery along the way
I tend to find ferries have water from the boat to the horizon, aside for the hour each side of port. There's little difference to a view out of an airplane window.
Just last week I flew from Shanghai (China) to Seoul (Korea) and then to Seattle. When we got to Seoul we disembarked the plane in a secure area, went to the transfer area (still secure) and had to go through screening all over again.
Same happens in Dubai, for all flights I believe, but certainly for a transfer from London to Islamabad
A single proper security check is be sufficient. Then, you're either in a secured area or you aren't.
Do you trust security in some random airport in somewhere like Zimbabwe? Get a flight from there to Heathrow, land at Heathrow, transfer to another flight (say to Amsterdam), then on to the U.S. You're always in a "secure" area, but it's only secure at the first point of entry, and the longer you spend in the secure area the more chance of getting something you shouldn't have.
The funny thing is, having flown EL AL from Canada to Israel, and to Europe, and then back to Israel. I didn't really notice the securit
Really? You didn't notice the checkpoint before you get to the airport, the line for the first bag/mtal detector screening, the check of the passport and the questions, the island in the middle while they unpack your dirty underwear, and only then are you allowed to check in!
Checking in at JFK T7 was no different to Heathrow.
I've flown from Tel Aviv and JFK this year, Tel Aviv had a lot more blatant security. Hell, just to get into the Mall in Jerusalem required scanning and bag searches (although not as much as trying to get into the hotel in Islamabad)
I'm not saying the US reaction to 9/11 wasn't over the top, or that Israel's is over the top, but your experience is different to mine.
(P.S. More Americans died in traffic accidents in September 2001 than from terrorism)
I have to say that Adobe Flash is horrible on Linux, it uses far more CPU time and its not as smooth either.
My collegue's windows laptop took 5 minutes to load firefox today, had to switch the projector to my linux laptop for the demo. You and I may care about "CPU time", but normal people just assume the 20 minute startup while the HP crapware that came with their printer sucks every last hertz is normal.
Here in the UK, we have a saying of "clone towns" where small businesses in town centres were trashed as a result of price-cutting out-of-town hypermarkets leaving a lot of empty properties that the big chain stores and theme bars could move into - thus many town centres in the UK look identical now.
Towns are dead, their main customers are the unemployed and old people, noone else has the time.
I got back from Holiday last week on Wednesday, about 8PM. Tesco was the only store open, so I went in and did a small shop, fruit, feg, meat, drink, bottle of wine, paper, etc. The local small shop may have had a limited selection of some of these products, but it shuts at 8.
I was out and home by 20:30. None of these small shops were open, that's why I don't shop there, price doesn't come into it.
Of course you could say I could go on Saturday -- I usually work Monday to Friday, however that's where the convenience comes in. I could either drive to tesco (in town), park for free, walk around with a trolley, buy everything in one go, drive home, or I could drive into town, pay to park, walk around some shops, get full bags, back to the car, replace bags, back to the shops, and walk around more shops, etc.
As it happens, I live walking distance from town and Tesco, but for small shops, the town is shut when I need them, so I use tesco. For large shops, I'm driving anyway, so I use asda, 15 minutes away. Tesco is the only one that loses out on price, the small shops lose out because they aren't open.
The only time I'll shop somewhere else is at the garage, which is open after 4PM on Sunday, stupid religious laws. If I'm lucky they'll have some milk and bread, but that's about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Search Engine Lead: There's... err... Nothing new to report... Not even a doodle for the main page today... I... I'll go pack my things. It was really nice working here.
Shame, they could turn off instant preview (or allow disabling it without greasemonkey). Remember when google was an awesome fast light search engine?
The same argument applies to anyone in the western world. We all have jobs, mortgages and credit cards, we don't want to rock the boat.
What do the American people gain by learning that their elected and appointed politicians regularly lie to them about foreign policy?
What do the American people gain by knowing that their Secretary of State is engaging in blatantly illegal acts?
What do the American people gain by knowing that their Ambassadors are doing under-the-table favors for corporate bigwigs?
Some people already knew this, and now won't do anything aside from grumble to friends on the internet.
Some people didn't know this, and now won't do anything aside from grumble to friends at cocktail parties, until the next American Idle result comes out
Many people won't believe this, and will defend their beloved government even more (a bit like the Chinese)
If there were an election tomorrow, some may vote for Republican rather than Democrat. Or the other way round, but real action?
It sounds like the average American cares more about being seen blurry and naked by some security guard at the airport than government corruption, but they still don't do anything, because convenience and comfort are more important. We are a mass of apathetic being, we're allowed to eat cake, we have our bread and circuses, and we have our 42" plasma tv, SUV and McMansion.
It's a good job too, if we started to fight the government, we'd end up like Pakistan, our political masters hidden behind insane security so any bombs that do go off don't hurt anyone but ourselves. The government might eventually collapse, and the military would be seize power.
The people can't take back the country, because we have too much to lose. The "system" that government is won't let us get to a point where we have noting left, at least en-mass, because we will fight back then.
The human mind just can't really cope with large numbers. The universe is just so shockingly enormous, on the order of 10^80 atoms.
However, this is a tiny number in comparison with others. The number of possible chess games is on the order of 10^123. You'd have to encode 100000000000000000000000000000000000000 games of chess into a single atom to store every possible game.
Of course, you'd need 10^183,800 monkeys to write Hamlet on the first go.
These number all seem the same to me though, on the same order of 10^50 (number of atoms on the earth)
I'm not saying he is innocent - I don't think we have enough information to decide in either direction,
In which case he's innocent, you haven't proven him guilty.
My taxi got stuck in traffic, windows down, next to one of these sewer-gas-venting holes in the ground for half an eternity, and I was literally ready to leap out of the cab and run to my destination to get away from it.
This is quite normal (without the sewer, which I can't say I noticed). I did the same thing on Friday. Got caught in traffic, paid the drive the 10RMB ($1.60) on the meter, walked to the next street, picked up a new taxi.
Taxis in Beijing are crazy cheap (not as much as the excellent metro though)
but couldn't tell denominations of money and other things that would make independent living very difficult
I find this a worrying thing about america. Your notes are all the same. In the UK, the larger the note, the larger the denomination, you don't need to be able to see to work out if you're handing a 5 or a 20. Same with coins.
In the US, 1s, 5s and 20s (and I assume 100s) are the same size, and same colour. You have to inspect them closely to work out if you're being ripped off in your change. A nice simple benefit to people with deteriorating eyesight would be different sizes and colours in your currency.
Commercial sites created with no forethought at all to handicapped people are to blame.
I assume the site in your sig isn't commercial, but that background doens't really help it's readability (unless you're blind, ironically). I've thought about a trip to Alaska before, but your unreadable page really turns me off the idea.
So you're saying we need another false-flag op to bring the masses back under the whips of the bourgeois elite? We can make that happen...
Didn't we just have one? British Airways suggest that maybe, perhaps, US security has gone too far with frisking 3 year old kids, when countries like Israel use real security.
A few days later, an "Al-Qaeda suspect" gives a tip to Saudi Authorities about a bomb that's apparently on a cargo plane, which is addressed to a Synagog (to make it inconspicuous) and allegedly found in the UK just in the nick of time. What a strange co-incidence.
I had a phone call once (at work, at an organisation that does receive these sort of things) from someone who gave me a codeword, but that was it.
So do terrorists generally issue bomb warnings over Twitter?
No, but in the good old days the American funded terrorists from Ireland used to phone up newspapers/samaritans/etc to warn of bombs before they blew kids to bits. They occasionally got the location right too.
We know that this sort of thing would NEVER fly in America, not in spirit nor in the letter of the law. We've got the First Amendment for that.
Sure, you can threaten to kill thousands or ordinary folk, as long as it's not a threat against some politician, which would be covered under section 871 of US code title 18: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00000871----000-.html
For example, Adam Albrett, who pleaded insanity to get away with it:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Fairfax-man-accused-of-threatening-Obama-pleads-insanity-1008023-100164259.html
I'm not saying UK law isn't stupid, but the US isn't as great as you might think.
God bless the second amendment
I don't know about you, but I have a pile-of-shit key on my keyboard, right between the left Ctrl and Alt.
It's a very useful "meta" key. Aside from controlling my music from amarok, I have a variety of mappings set up, Meta-s shades the window I'm using, Meta-R pops up a run dialog, Meta-CapsLock pops up an rxvt terminal window, Meta-F4 runs xrandr --auto and reconfigures when I plug in an external monitor.
(Capslock itself is mapped to Escape, which I find a lot easier on the wrists on my laptop than using the real escape key -- I rebound it about 5 years ago when my escape key broke and haven't looked back)
The toddler went to the closet, opened it, grabbed an unloaded SHOTGUN, picked up the shells and LOADED IT, then proceeded to walk over to the babysitter and shoot him to death.
What a weird country. This is clearly a case that gun control would have stopped. In a country where hardly anyone owns guns, 4 year olds don't have much opportunity to shoot them
Gas canisters, poison gas and explosives. You can't do a lot with a knife, but that's a very expensive tunnel if it gets damaged (both to repair, and in the disruption caused).
So they xray your bag, but why the metal detector? They don't do that to coach passengers on eurotunnel.
Besides, if you want to damage the tunnel, you take a lorry and set it on fire, which has happened twice. You'd probably get away with it too.
easily be mistaken for northern Muslim
I don't know where to begin with what's wrong with that statement.
milky white complexion and carrying drugs.
Most of TLV isn't concerned with drugs, it's not a major problem for Israel, and should get picked up by customs.
I now take the ferry to England to avoid this carry on. Yeah it takes a big longer but that is the only disadvantage
From where? Ireland? France? Norway? Belgium? Holland? Denmark? New York on the QM2?
*Nobody cares how many screw drivers, nail clippers, 8p8c crimpers, LED bulbs, gas soldering irons, unusual electronic items, bottles of water I take with me and use on the ferry.
Sadly Eurostar isn't like this, they have the pointless xray machine (although I've no idea what they're looking for, as my leatherman stays in my bag)
*Fixed fair - no cancellation,change fee, come back when you like
Fare, and for the price of a single transatlantic ferry passage, you can get a fully flexible business class return.
*Good scenery along the way
I tend to find ferries have water from the boat to the horizon, aside for the hour each side of port. There's little difference to a view out of an airplane window.
Teal'c is now a security checker in an airport?
Just put him on the check-in desk, any terrorist would run a mile from one glance
Only thing you're going to get from me taking of my shoes is a biological weapon going off.
Sometimes, when I take my shoes off, it's like a biological weapon going off
Just last week I flew from Shanghai (China) to Seoul (Korea) and then to Seattle. When we got to Seoul we disembarked the plane in a secure area, went to the transfer area (still secure) and had to go through screening all over again.
Same happens in Dubai, for all flights I believe, but certainly for a transfer from London to Islamabad
A single proper security check is be sufficient. Then, you're either in a secured area or you aren't.
Do you trust security in some random airport in somewhere like Zimbabwe? Get a flight from there to Heathrow, land at Heathrow, transfer to another flight (say to Amsterdam), then on to the U.S. You're always in a "secure" area, but it's only secure at the first point of entry, and the longer you spend in the secure area the more chance of getting something you shouldn't have.
The funny thing is, having flown EL AL from Canada to Israel, and to Europe, and then back to Israel. I didn't really notice the securit
Really? You didn't notice the checkpoint before you get to the airport, the line for the first bag/mtal detector screening, the check of the passport and the questions, the island in the middle while they unpack your dirty underwear, and only then are you allowed to check in!
Checking in at JFK T7 was no different to Heathrow.
I've flown from Tel Aviv and JFK this year, Tel Aviv had a lot more blatant security. Hell, just to get into the Mall in Jerusalem required scanning and bag searches (although not as much as trying to get into the hotel in Islamabad)
I'm not saying the US reaction to 9/11 wasn't over the top, or that Israel's is over the top, but your experience is different to mine.
(P.S. More Americans died in traffic accidents in September 2001 than from terrorism)
Nice tautology there: "Anything that will let you do something not allowed is not allowed". How does one argue against that kind of thinking?
A crowbar will allow you to break into a car. You can still buy one at the local hardware store
I have to say that Adobe Flash is horrible on Linux, it uses far more CPU time and its not as smooth either.
My collegue's windows laptop took 5 minutes to load firefox today, had to switch the projector to my linux laptop for the demo. You and I may care about "CPU time", but normal people just assume the 20 minute startup while the HP crapware that came with their printer sucks every last hertz is normal.
Here in the UK, we have a saying of "clone towns" where small businesses in town centres were trashed as a result of price-cutting out-of-town hypermarkets leaving a lot of empty properties that the big chain stores and theme bars could move into - thus many town centres in the UK look identical now.
Towns are dead, their main customers are the unemployed and old people, noone else has the time.
I got back from Holiday last week on Wednesday, about 8PM. Tesco was the only store open, so I went in and did a small shop, fruit, feg, meat, drink, bottle of wine, paper, etc. The local small shop may have had a limited selection of some of these products, but it shuts at 8.
I was out and home by 20:30. None of these small shops were open, that's why I don't shop there, price doesn't come into it.
Of course you could say I could go on Saturday -- I usually work Monday to Friday, however that's where the convenience comes in. I could either drive to tesco (in town), park for free, walk around with a trolley, buy everything in one go, drive home, or I could drive into town, pay to park, walk around some shops, get full bags, back to the car, replace bags, back to the shops, and walk around more shops, etc.
As it happens, I live walking distance from town and Tesco, but for small shops, the town is shut when I need them, so I use tesco. For large shops, I'm driving anyway, so I use asda, 15 minutes away. Tesco is the only one that loses out on price, the small shops lose out because they aren't open.
The only time I'll shop somewhere else is at the garage, which is open after 4PM on Sunday, stupid religious laws. If I'm lucky they'll have some milk and bread, but that's about it.