This actually happened to me pretty recently. Maybe I was lucky, but almost nothing bad happened. X was partly broken, and the CUPS config file was zero'd out (No idea how this happened:/). Sudo apt-get install -f, after deleting some useless crap from the terminal fixed everything except for cups, which took me another 5 seconds to type mv./config.default./config.
People who torrent lots of media tend to enjoy being consumers of media. Many want to support artists but love the convenience P2P gives them, so they utilize it to try products and then support the artists they think deserve funds by purchasing DVDs/CDs/Games, or they simply want a physical copy as a result of wanting to collect things.
I'm not discounting that some pirates are purely leeches however. There's no reason to believe that all pirates are so generous, just that it makes pretty good sense that a majority are willing to pay for quality entertainment. Hell, I've purchased each volume of MegaTokyo religiously since picking up the first one randomly in a bookstore, regardless of the fact that the comics are all available for free online (And not illegally either).
There's a good deal of sandbox style games, but I think I know what you're getting at. The problem most people have with games like the old Final Fantasy's is that there is sometimes too much choice, since you can often wander around without finding the character you're supposed to. These days, games tend to follow a constant reward system, where the player is constantly making progress, or is given a proverbial carrot to follow. There's really no more of the "wander the F* around until you find something useful", because it doesn't play on human psychology in the same way. The short, easy reward games are more addicting and more immediately rewarding (Though certainly not necessarily better).
There's games like Oblivion and Morrowind(Though thats probably considered a classic by now), which kinda have the free-roaminess of certain classic RPGs, but in Oblivion especially, you're always given an easy, surefire way to track someone down.
However, for the most part, I think game designers have noticed the psychological reward system sells games because its so addictive. You're constantly getting positive feedback for completing challenges that are just hard enough to not be boring.
I'm not an expert in Astronomy, but in general, I don't think you can collect too much data, as long as its stored in an at least somewhat intelligible format. This way, even if professional astronomers miss something today, amateurs and/or future astronomers will have tons of data to pick apart and scavenge tomorrow.
Plus, more data should make it easier to test hypotheses with more certainty. Hopefully, the data will be made publicly available after the gatherers have had a shot or two at it.
Personally, I think a physical key would work best. For example, taking a USB-key and filling the first 512 bytes with a totally randomly generated string which you use to login. You plug it in, click on authenticate, the computer reads the information, checks it against a database, and if it matches, allows you entry.
This could be expanded upon so that a simple byte for byte copy wouldn't work. It also reduces the chances of someone guessing the password to essentially zero.
I agree with what you say, but the Protect IP act is especially stupid, because it doesn't even build a marginally better lock. Once people heard "free apps", everyone I know was jailbreaking their iPhone, a process most people would describe as at least somewhat technically inclined (This was back before the "Click to Jailbreak" GUI releases).
Anyway, Tor defeats any protection PROTECT IP could give. This act is like leaving a broken lock on a door, and then posting a sticky note on top of it telling people not to pick it.
I too, however, am very happy that this Finnish company is standing up for freedom. Once you start filtering, you open a huge can of liability worms. Not to mention, I guarentee someone would register thepiratebay.fi (or whatever Finland's domain is), which downloaded.torrent files from TPB and indexed them for Finnish users.
Make sure to do it at your own pace. As in, you should be tired but not exhausted and painfully gasping for breath(rather, keeping it rhythmic); try aiming for distance rather than speed (which comes by itself with practice). Having an MP3 player with you also helps a lot.
Seriously, I'd recommend you give it another shot (without starting with a negative mindset). I hated running until I was pressured into it, embarrassed, and started to run on my own to improve myself. You'll be amazed that after two weeks or so, you're able to run the same distance while expending much less energy.
Maybe it won't work for you, I'm not trying to suggest cross-country running is a panacea and everyone will love it, but most people get turned off and disappointed when they feel the pain and difficulty and don't stick around to reap the rewards. At the very least, it's great for your health:).
This is certainly true. Whenever I need to force my mind off something, I try to go for a long run (at least 4 to 5 miles). I don't want to sound like some kind of freak who gets a sudden high from running a few miles, but the physical exhaustion, along with the long period of continual exercise in a uniform manner borders on a kind of meditation that certainly helps shift your perspective. I recommend people who are depressed try something like this. It's much easier to feel bad for yourself when you're depressed, or just "not care", but trying something like this won't hurt, and if nothing like this works, then go see a doctor.
A big problem that results from this over-prescription is the fact that people will believe the way the drug makes them feel is "normal". These drugs are definitely strong enough to be felt and isolated as a cause, and so the uninformed patient will assume that the doctor found something wrong with me, and this pill is fixing it. This creates more demand for the product, which is great for the companies, but with the wide range of effects these drugs can have on different people and personality types, I doubt it's good for the population as a whole.
I'm not someone who is against drugs, since the drugs here really aren't the problem. Doctor's who take part in this are certainly part of the problem, as are uninformed patients who place 100% trust into (usually) a complete stranger.
Unfortunately, I don't see a viable way to get rid of either problem.
$140 isn't all that much, plus its open-source. I've been wondering if these e-book readers are any good, and this seems like a pretty good deal, not to mention the Google books integration. If it turns out that its hacker friendly, I'm definitely getting one.
Wind power is already pretty good depending on the environment. A local ski-resort around here (BerkShire East), already runs entirely on power generated from a single windmill they put up. Not only do they manage to run the entire place on it, they make enough to sell to the local electric company. Not only are they saving money by getting rid of what I'm sure is a huge electric bill, they're making extra money they otherwise wouldn't have. So, in some situations, these alternate forms of energy are already economically feasible.
I second this. Ubuntu is a great place to start if you've already made a decision about using Linux. However, if you're unsure, Mint is the best choice. It's pretty, relatively small, and comes with all the drivers/plugins you'll need to avoid the first kiss of dependency hell you might otherwise encounter. If you want to ease someone into Linux, I'd say Mint is the best choice.
I've never had a problem opening/editing/saving Microsoft formats with OpenOffice (Though, technically I use LibreOffice now). However, Office 2007 and up handles.odt files very well. I never bother to do a conversion anymore, and just let MS Office handle it if I need to use the files on a Windows computer that isn't running OpenOffice. My papers tend to be limited to Academic stuff, reports, essays, and occasionally some mathematics-related stuff. So maybe I've never run into trouble because I don't use some of the fancy features, but that being said, I fit the bill as a typical student user, and don't really see a major hindrance or lack of features with Libre/Open Office.
I saw a prototype of these at MIT a few months back, and your point stands 100%. Really cool, but kinda impractical. My guess is that their client base is going to be limited to geeks with money, probably big money.
Well... whenever an original link is posted, it tends to get slashdotted. My guess is that if an original link is supplied, the editors sometimes seek out an article from a mainstream source as to try to avoid the slashdotting effect.
I dunno, it seems pretty accurate in the context of a website. You're essentially stopping anyone from viewing it (at least in theory) therefore killing the site's ability to perform its intended function. Its true that the comparison is a bit sensationalist, but in the context of a website, its pretty accurate at the same time.
I agree. If the current "ebook" format doesn't allow for scribbling on top of it, it's just laziness. I can't imagine it would be too difficult to implement something like layers in GIMP or photoshop, and just leave the top one open to editing. Then again, most ebooks cover the entirety of the screen, so you may have to zoom out to have enough room to write anything.
I always thought digitalizing my schoolwork would make me more productive, since I spend tons of time on my laptop anyway, it removes the necessity to lug around large bags filled with books, and it seems like it could be made cheaper.
However, I doubt I could focus on schoolwork when a million more exciting and enticing uses for the machine are available. I already have a class where I have to complete homework over the Internet, and its certainly not any easier than on paper. If anything, I'm just more tempted to open a new tab and read the latest slashdot post. Maybe its just a transitional thing.
My other concern is that it'd be wasting perfectly good technology. These devices will have to be locked down so that students don't goof around on their tablets rather than stick with the program. However, you're basically taking a perfectly good computer, capable of performing multiple functions, and limiting it to just one. I'm sure someone, somewhere, will root these things, but thats besides the point.
I think a better approach would be to simply let the students decide on an individual level whether or not they want paper books. If they want to go digital, they should be allowed to, and I believe within a few years we'll be left with a decent dataset which can more effectively gage how digital books effect learning, if at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Time to join and do nothing productive til the 14th.
This actually happened to me pretty recently. Maybe I was lucky, but almost nothing bad happened. X was partly broken, and the CUPS config file was zero'd out (No idea how this happened :/). Sudo apt-get install -f, after deleting some useless crap from the terminal fixed everything except for cups, which took me another 5 seconds to type mv ./config.default ./config.
People who torrent lots of media tend to enjoy being consumers of media. Many want to support artists but love the convenience P2P gives them, so they utilize it to try products and then support the artists they think deserve funds by purchasing DVDs/CDs/Games, or they simply want a physical copy as a result of wanting to collect things.
I'm not discounting that some pirates are purely leeches however. There's no reason to believe that all pirates are so generous, just that it makes pretty good sense that a majority are willing to pay for quality entertainment. Hell, I've purchased each volume of MegaTokyo religiously since picking up the first one randomly in a bookstore, regardless of the fact that the comics are all available for free online (And not illegally either).
There's a good deal of sandbox style games, but I think I know what you're getting at. The problem most people have with games like the old Final Fantasy's is that there is sometimes too much choice, since you can often wander around without finding the character you're supposed to. These days, games tend to follow a constant reward system, where the player is constantly making progress, or is given a proverbial carrot to follow. There's really no more of the "wander the F* around until you find something useful", because it doesn't play on human psychology in the same way. The short, easy reward
games are more addicting and more immediately rewarding (Though certainly not necessarily better).
There's games like Oblivion and Morrowind(Though thats probably considered a classic by now), which kinda have the free-roaminess of certain classic RPGs, but in Oblivion especially, you're always given an easy, surefire way to track someone down.
However, for the most part, I think game designers have noticed the psychological reward system sells games because its so addictive. You're constantly getting positive feedback for completing challenges that are just hard enough to not be boring.
I'm not an expert in Astronomy, but in general, I don't think you can collect too much data, as long as its stored in an at least somewhat intelligible format. This way, even if professional astronomers miss something today, amateurs and/or future astronomers will have tons of data to pick apart and scavenge tomorrow.
Plus, more data should make it easier to test hypotheses with more certainty. Hopefully, the data will be made publicly available after the gatherers have had a shot or two at it.
Personally, I think a physical key would work best. For example, taking a USB-key and filling the first 512 bytes with a totally randomly generated string which you use to login. You plug it in, click on authenticate, the computer reads the information, checks it against a database, and if it matches, allows you entry.
This could be expanded upon so that a simple byte for byte copy wouldn't work. It also reduces the chances of someone guessing the password to essentially zero.
What about nethack? You gotta love nethack...
I agree with what you say, but the Protect IP act is especially stupid, because it doesn't even build a marginally better lock. Once people heard "free apps", everyone I know was jailbreaking their iPhone, a process most people would describe as at least somewhat technically inclined (This was back before the "Click to Jailbreak" GUI releases).
Anyway, Tor defeats any protection PROTECT IP could give. This act is like leaving a broken lock on a door, and then posting a sticky note on top of it telling people not to pick it.
I too, however, am very happy that this Finnish company is standing up for freedom. Once you start filtering, you open a huge can of liability worms. Not to mention, I guarentee someone would register thepiratebay.fi (or whatever Finland's domain is), which downloaded .torrent files from TPB and indexed them for Finnish users.
Cool themes and emulators. At least, that's why most people I know bothered jailbreaking. Especially the cool themes bit.
We're not gonna stop doing it, but we'll now allow you to bitch about it.
Exactly. Otherwise, its like Best-Buy demanding you pay for a TV without giving you a TV.
Make sure to do it at your own pace. As in, you should be tired but not exhausted and painfully gasping for breath(rather, keeping it rhythmic); try aiming for distance rather than speed (which comes by itself with practice). Having an MP3 player with you also helps a lot.
Seriously, I'd recommend you give it another shot (without starting with a negative mindset). I hated running until I was pressured into it, embarrassed, and started to run on my own to improve myself. You'll be amazed that after two weeks or so, you're able to run the same distance while expending much less energy.
Maybe it won't work for you, I'm not trying to suggest cross-country running is a panacea and everyone will love it, but most people get turned off and disappointed when they feel the pain and difficulty and don't stick around to reap the rewards. :).
At the very least, it's great for your health
This is certainly true. Whenever I need to force my mind off something, I try to go for a long run (at least 4 to 5 miles). I don't want to sound like some kind of freak who gets a sudden high from running a few miles, but the physical exhaustion, along with the long period of continual exercise in a uniform manner borders on a kind of meditation that certainly helps shift your perspective. I recommend people who are depressed try something like this. It's much easier to feel bad for yourself when you're depressed, or just "not care", but trying something like this won't hurt, and if nothing like this works, then go see a doctor.
A big problem that results from this over-prescription is the fact that people will believe the way the drug makes them feel is "normal". These drugs are definitely strong enough to be felt and isolated as a cause, and so the uninformed patient will assume that the doctor found something wrong with me, and this pill is fixing it. This creates more demand for the product, which is great for the companies, but with the wide range of effects these drugs can have on different people and personality types, I doubt it's good for the population as a whole.
I'm not someone who is against drugs, since the drugs here really aren't the problem. Doctor's who take part in this are certainly part of the problem, as are uninformed patients who place 100% trust into (usually) a complete stranger.
Unfortunately, I don't see a viable way to get rid of either problem.
Will be the year of the Hurd Desktop. 'Nuff said.
I'd imagine 95% of the slashdot crowd could very easily get by the Great Firewall. At least one person in that 95% must be living in China.
$140 isn't all that much, plus its open-source. I've been wondering if these e-book readers are any good, and this seems like a pretty good deal, not to mention the Google books integration. If it turns out that its hacker friendly, I'm definitely getting one.
Wind power is already pretty good depending on the environment. A local ski-resort around here (BerkShire East), already runs entirely on power generated from a single windmill they put up. Not only do they manage to run the entire place on it, they make enough to sell to the local electric company. Not only are they saving money by getting rid of what I'm sure is a huge electric bill, they're making extra money they otherwise wouldn't have. So, in some situations, these alternate forms of energy are already economically feasible.
I second this. Ubuntu is a great place to start if you've already made a decision about using Linux. However, if you're unsure, Mint is the best choice. It's pretty, relatively small, and comes with all the drivers/plugins you'll need to avoid the first kiss of dependency hell you might otherwise encounter. If you want to ease someone into Linux, I'd say Mint is the best choice.
I've never had a problem opening/editing/saving Microsoft formats with OpenOffice (Though, technically I use LibreOffice now). However, Office 2007 and up handles .odt files very well. I never bother to do a conversion anymore, and just let MS Office handle it if I need to use the files on a Windows computer that isn't running OpenOffice. My papers tend to be limited to Academic stuff, reports, essays, and occasionally some mathematics-related stuff. So maybe I've never run into trouble because I don't use some of the fancy features, but that being said, I fit the bill as a typical student user, and don't really see a major hindrance or lack of features with Libre/Open Office.
I saw a prototype of these at MIT a few months back, and your point stands 100%. Really cool, but kinda impractical. My guess is that their client base is going to be limited to geeks with money, probably big money.
Well... whenever an original link is posted, it tends to get slashdotted. My guess is that if an original link is supplied, the editors sometimes seek out an article from a mainstream source as to try to avoid the slashdotting effect.
I dunno, it seems pretty accurate in the context of a website. You're essentially stopping anyone from viewing it (at least in theory) therefore killing the site's ability to perform its intended function. Its true that the comparison is a bit sensationalist, but in the context of a website, its pretty accurate at the same time.
I agree. If the current "ebook" format doesn't allow for scribbling on top of it, it's just laziness. I can't imagine it would be too difficult to implement something like layers in GIMP or photoshop, and just leave the top one open to editing. Then again, most ebooks cover the entirety of the screen, so you may have to zoom out to have enough room to write anything.
I always thought digitalizing my schoolwork would make me more productive, since I spend tons of time on my laptop anyway, it removes the necessity to lug around large bags filled with books, and it seems like it could be made cheaper.
However, I doubt I could focus on schoolwork when a million more exciting and enticing uses for the machine are available. I already have a class where I have to complete homework over the Internet, and its certainly not any easier than on paper. If anything, I'm just more tempted to open a new tab and read the latest slashdot post. Maybe its just a transitional thing.
My other concern is that it'd be wasting perfectly good technology. These devices will have to be locked down so that students don't goof around on their tablets rather than stick with the program. However, you're basically taking a perfectly good computer, capable of performing multiple functions, and limiting it to just one. I'm sure someone, somewhere, will root these things, but thats besides the point.
I think a better approach would be to simply let the students decide on an individual level whether or not they want paper books. If they want to go digital, they should be allowed to, and I believe within a few years we'll be left with a decent dataset which can more effectively gage how digital books effect learning, if at all.