Nice to know. Switzerland maintained its independence by letting fascist troops march through. When I look though my family tree, too many lines end at that war.
My wife's firm tightly controls what's running on their desktops, and appear to be blocking some of the IM ports.
Chatzy is free, allows you to be fairly anonymous, and works in javascript, you can run it as long as you're not using a really stripped down browser.
Also, I think it's really cool that the conversation text continues to be visible, well apparently forever. Unless you choose to clear it. And that includes the stuff that's said when you're not in the chat room. In other words, I can use it to leave messages for my wife.
It's be great for us, so I heartily recommend it. Of course, no one will see this post, but I thought I'd put out the good word.
Hmm, I use IMAP and haven't had any problems with M2 freezing.
Is it possible your Opera install is unstable? Are you under Windows or a *nix? I'm using linux opera 7.53.
If you're under linux, you may want to install the static binary, instead of the dynamic one. the static binary is somewhat bigger, but it's much more resistant to install/configuration problems.
M2 indexes your messages as they come in, and offers a very fast search field, which finds relevant messages as you type in your search, and looks through complete message bodies as it searches. very fast, since the messages are already indexed.
like evolution and kmail, M2 allows you to save and name searches, so you can click on your "due bills" folder to quickly see whichever current messages match the parameters you set up for that search.
M2 calls these "filters", evolution calls them "virtual folders", and i think kmail just calls them "saved searches" which is the most accurate name. actually, even mozilla/thunderbird allows you to create "views" that are based on saved search parameters.
M2 and evolution have the most flexible systems, and M2's search function is much faster than evolution's. evolution also doesn't do the search until you click "okay", while -- as i mentioned before -- M2 actually brings up the relevant messages as you enter your search terms, kind of like autocomplete in browser URL fields.
After several attempts to live solely on the console, here are the best apps I've found:
Links: a superior web browser alternative to Lynx that formats things correctly on your screen.
Mutt and Pine: Two great email clients that allow you to work much more quickly than with any graphical client.
Nano: My favorite text editor. I refuse to feel guilty that it's easy to use!
Micq: a very nice ICQ client that works much better than the various AIM console clients that are out there.
Finally, last, and well yes, basically least, Seatris: This is the best -- the best! -- of all the console tetris games. It takes me back to wasting hours in the various UC Santa Cruz computer labs.
Um, Go Banana Slugs! Go Stevenson College! I think that takes care of this year's quota of school spirit.
Well, there's a limit to how much I'm going to build up the myth of Roddenberry. After all, his insistence that there were no sane villians or informed disagreements -- Roddenberry insisted all conflict was caused by insanity or ignorance -- meant that Next Generation was pretty dull in the first two seasons.
This belief of his is also why Star Trek is chock full of evil madmen, but has few interesting large scale conflicts.
It was only as Roddenberry gave up control of the series that the show became more dramatic. Roddenberry was deeply uncomfortable with the idea of the Borg, and presumably he would have hated the way Deep Space Nine went once the Dominion War began.
I've always thought it would be great if there were a Federation Civil War. After all, the Federation appears to have an incredibly weak central government (that Prime Directive has actually been invoked to describe why the central government can't interfere with a member planet) and the Federation is spread over a large area, with only slow travel between the edges (apparently, it would take years to cross the Federation).
But because of Roddenberry's guiding principles, that'll probably never happen. "Enlightened people of the future will never fight each other."
I wrote the original "I Don't Want the Gov't Telling Me What's Spam!" message. That message has now been modded down "overrated", presumably because I argued that people have a right to send out political email.
I understand you may disagree, but to mod me down for that reason is pretty heavy handed. Obviously, the points I brought up were interesting, since it spawned a highly rated discussion.
Courts have held that the right to political free speech is expansive. You may disagree, and that's a legitimate opinion, but please don't mod me down simply because I've voiced an opinion different than yours.
I don't think there should be any government do-not-spam list.
Among other reasons, it intrudes on the right of people to advertise their political opinions, which is crucial to a democracy.
It's pretty easy to filter out spam. Bayesian filters block nearly all spam, and have the benefit of being tailored to the user's interests, not the spam definitions of the government (which will inevitably hurt those who oppose government policies).
Use Mozilla's mail application: It has excellent spam filtering built right in. If you don't want to use Mozilla, than use Popfile or Spambayes to accomplish the exact same thing: Bayesian Filtering that will nearly eliminate your spam headache.
No one is happier than I that Yahoo is increasing my quota. I'm just about out of space, and don't want to irritate my friends by bouncing back their messages. My mom can get pretty pissed too.
How long before spam starts including multimedia files that eat up the extra allocation? Now that so many people have broadband, there's no reason to stick to smaller messages. Emails may start to include much more advanced/annoying graphics, sounds and maybe interactive ad-games.
No one is happier than I that Yahoo is increasing my quota. I'm just about out of space, and don't want to irritate my friends by bouncing back their messages. My mom can get pretty pissed too.
How long before spam starts including multimedia files that eat up the extra allocation? Now that so many people have broadband, there's no reason to stick to smaller messages. Emails may start to include much more advanced/annoying graphics, sounds and maybe interactive ad-games.
he original poster seems to be complaining about a problem that doesn't exist. I paraphrase:
"I have a speedy Linux GUI interface, using XFce, but I'm concerned that the desktop environments that others use are adding more features and/or getting slower."
The poster admits he's happy with XFce, so what's the problem here? That people can choose a desktop environment with different strengths than the poster's?
I buy the starting premise of the article: that as computer render figures get more human, viewers become harsher judges of the figures. Mario was cute, while the much more lifelike CGI Neo, in the Matrix Reloaded, was stiff and zombielike.
Since this becomes more true the better the rendering, the Slate writer concludes that computer rendered humans will always look creepy.
I suspect this is another one of those computers-will-never-be-able-to-act-human arguments. Most people want to reassure themselves that there's something inherently irreproducible about life, and humanity. This desire leads us to predict that computers won't be able to render convincing humans, beat a person at chess, or ever create art.
My guess is that a decade from now, people will look at predictions like those in the Slate article, and laugh.
I've seen paintings that look intensely lifelike, so why should such representations be beyond the capabilities of future computers?
The poster seems to be complaining about a problem that doesn't exist. I paraphrase:
"I have a speedy Linux GUI interface, using XFce, but I'm concerned that the desktop environments that others use are adding more features and/or getting slower."
The poster admits he's happy with XFce, so what's the problem here? That people can choose a desktop environment with different strengths than the poster's?
Having created build scripts in FreeBSD, Gentoo, Sourcemage, and Arch Linux, I think the most important goal is to use/develop a script language that newbies find easy to use.
If you're developing a new distro, and you're concerned about giving users a reason to move, focus on making it easy for us to add to the distro!
While it's true that it was called the Atari VCS in the early years, it was always model number 2600; so I think it's reasonable that people refer to it as the 2600.
Or just do a google search for "mozilla java flash". It's the first result.
I find it works best if you install Mozilla by downloading Mozilla from mozilla.org, or mozillazine.org. I've had less success when I've used an apt-get'd (Debian) or emerged (Gentoo) install of Mozilla. Perhaps the Java installer is sensitive to the default Mozilla directory locations.
-Adam
Google + Karma = Success?
on
Google Juice
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Seriously, I don't know how I'd ever find anything without Google. I'm one of those people who think the usefulness of Google is part of what lowered the outrageous prices of domain names. Well, that and the tanking economy, I guess.
Anyway, could Google add something like Slashdot's moderation system? Not only would sites be ranked as they currently are, but users could rate whether or not those rankings made sense.
Furthermore, users could also rate which users tended to give fair ratings. This would be a way to prevent a business from ubermodding their own web site.
I even seem to faintly remember Google bringing up the idea also. Wasn't this discussed before?
Of course, I shudder to think of the new heights karma-whoring could reach, on the new Google.;)
I have all three of these installed on my hard drive.
Sorcerer is pretty interesting, and certainly easier to use than the others, but if you have problems... good luck. The web page is spare, and the mailing lists aren't really busy enough yet to make for a good replacement.
As far as I can tell, Gentoo is made by Debian types who wanted to be able to use the BSD ports system to download and compile all their software. Perhaps they prefer the GPL to the BSD license. Anyway, like Debian, Gentoo has a "Social Contract". Functionally, you can do the same things that are possible in Sorcerer, although the commands are slighly more complicated, and less friendly to newbies.
Finally, there's FreeBSD, which has many more programs in its software collection than either Sorcerer or Gentoo. Frankly, unless people are really against the BSD license, think the Linux kernel is much better, or need to play some game that's tailored for Linux, I would recommend going with FreeBSD. Not only does FreeBSD have many programs, but it has many more port maintainers to track whether the system is working.
That said, I'm going to Sorcerer and Gentoo on my hard drive, and will periodically check to see if their software collections have become competitive. If either had ports for as many programs as FreeBSD, this would be a much harder decision.
What is Tinfoil Hat linux ? It started as a secure, single floppy, bootable Linux distribution for storing PGP keys and then encrypting, signing and wiping files. At some point it became an exercise in over-engineering. Tinfoil hat is useful if: You're using a computer that could have a keystroke logger installed. http://www.keyghost.com is an example of a tiny & cheap hardware logger. You need to use your personal GPG keys at work, school or a web hosting facility where you don't trust or own the equipment. If you maintain a PGP Certificate Authority or signing key and have to have a safe place to use the CA key. If you simply don't want to risk putting a PGP key on a hard drive where someone else might have access to it. The Illuminati are watching your computer, and you need to use morse code to blink out your PGP messages on the numlock key. Tinfoil hat linux files readme.txt, also on the floppy image The source code for files on the floppy The tinfoilhat linux floppy image plus disk signature file Transfer this image to disk using rawrite (on windows) , dd on unix (dd if=tinfoil.img of=/dev/floppy ), or Diskcopy on a MAC. FAQ Q: Why doesn't the floppy I got at codecon match the signature above? A: because I screwed up & wrote a nvram.md5 file to the floppy I then used as a master. I had to remove that file from every floppy. The result is that the MD5sum of the codecon floppies should be: 3608290765de7d5283a1a22813677a56 Q: How do I undo that horrible screen in paranoid mode? A: Type "contrast" at the command prompt, or play with ctheme. Q: Is this really a 1.0 stable release? A: Think of this as a linux kernel 1.0 . Yes, it's stable to the best of my ability, and has been tested, but not for very long or by many people. Q: What sort of hardware is required to run tinfoil hat? A: Any 386DX or faster IBM compatible with more than 8 megs of RAM. Pretty much any PC made in the last 8 years will work fine. Q: where do I send complaints, bugs & feature requests? A: anonymous AT nameless DOT cultists.net Q: What is the license for this distribution? A: The scripts, documentation, and the distribution as a collection are released under a modified BSD license. Obviously, other people's software in this distribution retain their original licenses.
In Hollywood, Wearing Glasses=Smart and Sensitive
on
Trouble at Stargate SG-1
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I was amused that the Salon article makes such a big deal about women liking Michael Shanks's character (the archeologist) because of his intelligence and sensitivity.
Really, this is just an example of the old stick-glasses-on-a-really-good-looking-guy routine, and then tell the audience that the guy is unpopular/sensitive/etc. When Michelle Pfeiffer plays dowdy characters, they stick glasses on her too, and the audience is supposed to believe that no one in the movie notices how beautiful she is.
So, Salon spends pages concocting a complicated explanation for why women find an attractive man attractive. Nice.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice to know. Switzerland maintained its independence by letting fascist troops march through. When I look though my family tree, too many lines end at that war.
Thank you Switzerland.
I was under the impression that it was semi-canon that it was the Yorktown that was renamed to USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A.
C -1701-A%29
Semi-canon, because it was never said in the show or movies, but Roddenberry suggested it.
Here's the story from the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_%28NC
Adam
That's chatzy.com
My wife's firm tightly controls what's running on their desktops, and appear to be blocking some of the IM ports.
Chatzy is free, allows you to be fairly anonymous, and works in javascript, you can run it as long as you're not using a really stripped down browser.
Also, I think it's really cool that the conversation text continues to be visible, well apparently forever. Unless you choose to clear it. And that includes the stuff that's said when you're not in the chat room. In other words, I can use it to leave messages for my wife.
It's be great for us, so I heartily recommend it. Of course, no one will see this post, but I thought I'd put out the good word.
Hmm, I use IMAP and haven't had any problems with M2 freezing.
Is it possible your Opera install is unstable? Are you under Windows or a *nix? I'm using linux opera 7.53.
If you're under linux, you may want to install the static binary, instead of the dynamic one. the static binary is somewhat bigger, but it's much more resistant to install/configuration problems.
M2 indexes your messages as they come in, and offers a very fast search field, which finds relevant messages as you type in your search, and looks through complete message bodies as it searches. very fast, since the messages are already indexed.
like evolution and kmail, M2 allows you to save and name searches, so you can click on your "due bills" folder to quickly see whichever current messages match the parameters you set up for that search.
M2 calls these "filters", evolution calls them "virtual folders", and i think kmail just calls them "saved searches" which is the most accurate name. actually, even mozilla/thunderbird allows you to create "views" that are based on saved search parameters.
M2 and evolution have the most flexible systems, and M2's search function is much faster than evolution's. evolution also doesn't do the search until you click "okay", while -- as i mentioned before -- M2 actually brings up the relevant messages as you enter your search terms, kind of like autocomplete in browser URL fields.
After several attempts to live solely on the console, here are the best apps I've found:
Links: a superior web browser alternative to Lynx that formats things correctly on your screen.
Mutt and Pine: Two great email clients that allow you to work much more quickly than with any graphical client.
Nano: My favorite text editor. I refuse to feel guilty that it's easy to use!
Micq: a very nice ICQ client that works much better than the various AIM console clients that are out there.
Finally, last, and well yes, basically least, Seatris: This is the best -- the best! -- of all the console tetris games. It takes me back to wasting hours in the various UC Santa Cruz computer labs.
Um, Go Banana Slugs! Go Stevenson College! I think that takes care of this year's quota of school spirit.
Well, there's a limit to how much I'm going to build up the myth of Roddenberry. After all, his insistence that there were no sane villians or informed disagreements -- Roddenberry insisted all conflict was caused by insanity or ignorance -- meant that Next Generation was pretty dull in the first two seasons.
This belief of his is also why Star Trek is chock full of evil madmen, but has few interesting large scale conflicts.
It was only as Roddenberry gave up control of the series that the show became more dramatic. Roddenberry was deeply uncomfortable with the idea of the Borg, and presumably he would have hated the way Deep Space Nine went once the Dominion War began.
I've always thought it would be great if there were a Federation Civil War. After all, the Federation appears to have an incredibly weak central government (that Prime Directive has actually been invoked to describe why the central government can't interfere with a member planet) and the Federation is spread over a large area, with only slow travel between the edges (apparently, it would take years to cross the Federation).
But because of Roddenberry's guiding principles, that'll probably never happen. "Enlightened people of the future will never fight each other."
Yawn.
I wrote the original "I Don't Want the Gov't Telling Me What's Spam!" message. That message has now been modded down "overrated", presumably because I argued that people have a right to send out political email.
I understand you may disagree, but to mod me down for that reason is pretty heavy handed. Obviously, the points I brought up were interesting, since it spawned a highly rated discussion.
Courts have held that the right to political free speech is expansive. You may disagree, and that's a legitimate opinion, but please don't mod me down simply because I've voiced an opinion different than yours.
I don't think there should be any government do-not-spam list.
Among other reasons, it intrudes on the right of people to advertise their political opinions, which is crucial to a democracy.
It's pretty easy to filter out spam. Bayesian filters block nearly all spam, and have the benefit of being tailored to the user's interests, not the spam definitions of the government (which will inevitably hurt those who oppose government policies).
Use Mozilla's mail application: It has excellent spam filtering built right in. If you don't want to use Mozilla, than use Popfile or Spambayes to accomplish the exact same thing: Bayesian Filtering that will nearly eliminate your spam headache.
No one is happier than I that Yahoo is increasing my quota. I'm just about out of space, and don't want to irritate my friends by bouncing back their messages. My mom can get pretty pissed too.
How long before spam starts including multimedia files that eat up the extra allocation? Now that so many people have broadband, there's no reason to stick to smaller messages. Emails may start to include much more advanced/annoying graphics, sounds and maybe interactive ad-games.
No one is happier than I that Yahoo is increasing my quota. I'm just about out of space, and don't want to irritate my friends by bouncing back their messages. My mom can get pretty pissed too.
How long before spam starts including multimedia files that eat up the extra allocation? Now that so many people have broadband, there's no reason to stick to smaller messages. Emails may start to include much more advanced/annoying graphics, sounds and maybe interactive ad-games.
Honestly, payola is one of those things that's going to happen, like drinking and college kids smoking pot.
I'd rather the corruption be out in the open than live under the false belief that, gasp, good music might be favored by DJs.
Finally, it'd put an end to all the pollyannish stories lamenting that the purity of Big Corporate Music has been betrayed.
Honestly, payola is one of those things that's going to happen, like drinking and college kids smoking pot.
I'd rather the corruption be out in the open than live under the false belief that, gasp, good music might be favored by DJs.
Finally, it'd put an end to all the pollyannish stories crying that the purity of Big Corporate Music has been betrayed.
he original poster seems to be complaining about a problem that doesn't exist. I paraphrase:
"I have a speedy Linux GUI interface, using XFce, but I'm concerned that the desktop environments that others use are adding more features and/or getting slower."
The poster admits he's happy with XFce, so what's the problem here? That people can choose a desktop environment with different strengths than the poster's?
I read the article, and came away unconvinced.
I buy the starting premise of the article: that as computer render figures get more human, viewers become harsher judges of the figures. Mario was cute, while the much more lifelike CGI Neo, in the Matrix Reloaded, was stiff and zombielike.
Since this becomes more true the better the rendering, the Slate writer concludes that computer rendered humans will always look creepy.
I suspect this is another one of those computers-will-never-be-able-to-act-human arguments. Most people want to reassure themselves that there's something inherently irreproducible about life, and humanity. This desire leads us to predict that computers won't be able to render convincing humans, beat a person at chess, or ever create art.
My guess is that a decade from now, people will look at predictions like those in the Slate article, and laugh.
I've seen paintings that look intensely lifelike, so why should such representations be beyond the capabilities of future computers?
The poster seems to be complaining about a problem that doesn't exist. I paraphrase:
"I have a speedy Linux GUI interface, using XFce, but I'm concerned that the desktop environments that others use are adding more features and/or getting slower."
The poster admits he's happy with XFce, so what's the problem here? That people can choose a desktop environment with different strengths than the poster's?
Having created build scripts in FreeBSD, Gentoo, Sourcemage, and Arch Linux, I think the most important goal is to use/develop a script language that newbies find easy to use.
If you're developing a new distro, and you're concerned about giving users a reason to move, focus on making it easy for us to add to the distro!
Yeah, if you would, please add me to this referral list. Thanks so much.
amany@ucsd.edu
Adam
While it's true that it was called the Atari VCS in the early years, it was always model number 2600; so I think it's reasonable that people refer to it as the 2600.
Adam
I knew we should have gone with cold fusion!
Java and Flash are both automatically installed from this web site. It's as easy as installing a Mozilla theme (and uses the same process).
"Flash and Java installer for Mozilla"
http:// mazinger.technisys.com.ar/pruebas-nick/mozilla/
Or just do a google search for "mozilla java flash". It's the first result.
I find it works best if you install Mozilla by downloading Mozilla from mozilla.org, or mozillazine.org. I've had less success when I've used an apt-get'd (Debian) or emerged (Gentoo) install of Mozilla. Perhaps the Java installer is sensitive to the default Mozilla directory locations.
-Adam
Seriously, I don't know how I'd ever find anything without Google. I'm one of those people who think the usefulness of Google is part of what lowered the outrageous prices of domain names. Well, that and the tanking economy, I guess.
;)
Anyway, could Google add something like Slashdot's moderation system? Not only would sites be ranked as they currently are, but users could rate whether or not those rankings made sense.
Furthermore, users could also rate which users tended to give fair ratings. This would be a way to prevent a business from ubermodding their own web site.
I even seem to faintly remember Google bringing up the idea also. Wasn't this discussed before?
Of course, I shudder to think of the new heights karma-whoring could reach, on the new Google.
Adam
I have all three of these installed on my hard drive.
Sorcerer is pretty interesting, and certainly easier to use than the others, but if you have problems... good luck. The web page is spare, and the mailing lists aren't really busy enough yet to make for a good replacement.
As far as I can tell, Gentoo is made by Debian types who wanted to be able to use the BSD ports system to download and compile all their software. Perhaps they prefer the GPL to the BSD license. Anyway, like Debian, Gentoo has a "Social Contract". Functionally, you can do the same things that are possible in Sorcerer, although the commands are slighly more complicated, and less friendly to newbies.
Finally, there's FreeBSD, which has many more programs in its software collection than either Sorcerer or Gentoo. Frankly, unless people are really against the BSD license, think the Linux kernel is much better, or need to play some game that's tailored for Linux, I would recommend going with FreeBSD. Not only does FreeBSD have many programs, but it has many more port maintainers to track whether the system is working.
That said, I'm going to Sorcerer and Gentoo on my hard drive, and will periodically check to see if their software collections have become competitive. If either had ports for as many programs as FreeBSD, this would be a much harder decision.
What is Tinfoil Hat linux ?
It started as a secure, single floppy, bootable Linux distribution for storing PGP keys and then encrypting, signing and wiping files. At some point it became an exercise in over-engineering.
Tinfoil hat is useful if:
You're using a computer that could have a keystroke logger installed. http://www.keyghost.com is an example of a tiny & cheap hardware logger.
You need to use your personal GPG keys at work, school or a web hosting facility where you don't trust or own the equipment.
If you maintain a PGP Certificate Authority or signing key and have to have a safe place to use the CA key.
If you simply don't want to risk putting a PGP key on a hard drive where someone else might have access to it.
The Illuminati are watching your computer, and you need to use morse code to blink out your PGP messages on the numlock key.
Tinfoil hat linux files
readme.txt, also on the floppy image
The source code for files on the floppy
The tinfoilhat linux floppy image plus disk signature file Transfer this image to disk using rawrite (on windows) , dd on unix (dd if=tinfoil.img of=/dev/floppy ), or Diskcopy on a MAC.
FAQ
Q: Why doesn't the floppy I got at codecon match the signature above?
A: because I screwed up & wrote a nvram.md5 file to the floppy I then used as a master. I had to remove that file from every floppy. The result is that the MD5sum of the codecon floppies should be: 3608290765de7d5283a1a22813677a56
Q: How do I undo that horrible screen in paranoid mode?
A: Type "contrast" at the command prompt, or play with ctheme.
Q: Is this really a 1.0 stable release?
A: Think of this as a linux kernel 1.0 . Yes, it's stable to the best of my ability, and has been tested, but not for very long or by many people.
Q: What sort of hardware is required to run tinfoil hat?
A: Any 386DX or faster IBM compatible with more than 8 megs of RAM. Pretty much any PC made in the last 8 years will work fine.
Q: where do I send complaints, bugs & feature requests?
A: anonymous AT nameless DOT cultists.net
Q: What is the license for this distribution?
A: The scripts, documentation, and the distribution as a collection are released under a modified BSD license. Obviously, other people's software in this distribution retain their original licenses.
I was amused that the Salon article makes such a big deal about women liking Michael Shanks's character (the archeologist) because of his intelligence and sensitivity.
Really, this is just an example of the old stick-glasses-on-a-really-good-looking-guy routine, and then tell the audience that the guy is unpopular/sensitive/etc. When Michelle Pfeiffer plays dowdy characters, they stick glasses on her too, and the audience is supposed to believe that no one in the movie notices how beautiful she is.
So, Salon spends pages concocting a complicated explanation for why women find an attractive man attractive. Nice.