Of course you never used a road, the aqueduc system or went to school.
I just couldn't let that one pass... People who try to justify big goverment by listing a few programs that (almost) everyone can agree are Good To Have should take a hard look at the basics of the budget (especially on the national level). Most of your money is going to other purposes, that are not nearly so justifiable.
Besides, why should I be forced (at gunpoint!) to go through such an inefficient and wasteful middleman to purchase the few services I really want? --
"Camping" on a region to monopolize a scarce item. As others have said, sounds like a weakness in the basic game design which needs more randomness (or something).
Account scams causing customer support hassles. Simple - a method is needed for someone to unambigously and irrevokably assign an account to someone else (even if both people are anonymous).
On a larger note, this should be a lesson for would-be game designers - the built-in design of the system (i.e. "natural law") should encourage/enforce the desired play modes, including activities outside the game itself. Trying to apply external rules like these after the fact will probably be an excercise in futility. --
Memes are a necessary part of thought and communication; being high-level chunks of mental software. The issue is: how constructive/destructive are they? Do they help or harm individuals and society? Even the idea that memes are to be rejected is a meme (and a rather bad one at that).
Consider by analogy our experience with certian software and vendors today - you have to ask questions like:
Does it perform a useful function, or is it merely a parasite? (desired program vs. virus)
Does it interact well with other memes, or is it exclusonary? (modular vs. monolithic)
Is it reliable, or does it fail at inopportune times? (how buggy?)
Does it help/prevent you from adding newer useful memes? (open/closed systems)
Does it make it harder/easier for distructive memes to proliferate? (secure/insecure)
Is it acessible to improvement/modification based on experience, or is it rigid and brittle? (open/closed source)
And so on. Memes are our mental tools individually and collectively and exist in extremely large numbers, more so in healthy populations. (Limited meme (mono)cultures are extremely unhealthy: like any (ecological) system, a complex web is an indicator of health).
So - heavy boost is a bad idea... What about an ion engine? Light boost = no damage, high efficiency, slow adjustment of orbits, nice and easy.
And the concept of a tranfer point for to change vehicles is valid - vehicles that are designed for takeoff, rentry and landing at 1G (with all the added equipment/mass) are simply not efficient for deep space and low-G landings. And fuel/consumables can be delivered to the transfer point with cheaper unmanned vehicles (like the Progress does for supplies for the Mir) this too is more efficient.
Actually, continuing this chain of logic says that a second station in lunar orbit would raise efficiencies even more, but we were talking about the Mir here, and the first gives the biggest win.
(Though I am not so clear about all the tradeoffs between LEO and a higher orbit. How much higher would be good? It's true that LEO has problems because of resudual drag, especally during solar maximums; but put the orbit too much higher and many launch vehicles (including the shuttle, darn!) would have trouble reaching it. Suggestions?) --
because a virus run as non-root can probably only write somewhere within the home directory tree of the user (~ or ~/bin, etc.). The su (and similar) commands alter the PATH environment variable to point to only known good (secure) system executable directories, and to specifically exclude '.' from the path. (That's why you have to say./cmd to run cmd in your current dir while you are su'ing). It guarentees that the version of 'ls' that you invoke is/bin/ls and not the possibly viral/home/luser/ls. --
Yes, like a "real-time porn blackhole list" (no pun intended). A open protocol, a one or more community sites (to support different flavors of blocking policy, maybe), a reference implementation, an active community (think - an upside down version of/., with moderation, etc.).
And, in this case, a good reason to take away the profit motive, which represents a conflict of interest for these sleazy companies. --
Objective C kicks C++'s ass. Just a few simple easy-to-learn syntax extensions over C (the syntax can be learned in a day), polymorphism is automatic (no #$%@#&! virtual keyword needed in the (possibly compiled) superclass), Class Objects, soft typing, generic Collection classes, more freedom of expression, no B&D/fighting with the compiler, no funky language-within-a-language (templates), etc. The only thing it is really missing is user-defined inheritable class (as opposed to instance) variables.
I'd be using it (or something like it) more often, if I wasn't having so much fun with Perl, (and getting to skip that compile/link step in the bargin). --
First of all, fufilling our biological imperative will fill up a lot of our time for a very, very long time to come: It's expansion/exploitation/colonization of the entire Universe, to spread out genes far and wide.
But that is not the whole story anyway. The human mind and "spirit" has it's own goals that go beyond the basic needs of our biology and are not limited by them - see Laslo's hierarchy of needs... I know that I have a strong need not to be bored, for example, but it is difficult to connect this to my biological imperatives. And entities that we create will develop need of their own that are specially suited to their nature.
Actually, this idea that we have "no place to go" is the worst sort of arrogance - it's like that respected scientist that declared that there are no more big discoveries to be made, just work to polish and refine the existing body of knowledge (and this just before the discovery of Quantum Psysics) or the proposal at the last turn of the century that the US Patent Office be closed because "there are no more inventions to be made".
It's not an either-or proposition - consider the case of CRTs vs. flat-panel displays. The CRT (vacuum tube) technology has continued to improve, and remains cost-effective in all applications where cost is more important than bulk and weight (i.e. on my desktop; and probably yours). Either-or thinking is probably an artifact of the myth of "Progress" which is not the same thing as our actual experience of technological and social change.
The data-transmission and storage requirements described by Ebert (he's the fat one, BTW) are extremely damming. The other points he made (priracy dangers, operator costs, lower-res than in-home DVD, etc.) are also very strong - and the nature of the movie business is his area of expertise.
All that aside, both digital and analog technologies will continue to develop, this isn't the last we will hear of this. --
I once had a job where I worked alternately on a PC keyboard and the keyboard that came with a SparcStation 2 (whatever type that was). The re-arrangement of the shift and control keys when switching back and forth between machines drove me nuts! Even if it is not optimal, at least the PC keyboard is universal enough now that I don't need to deal with that horrid keyboard confusion any more.
Even though I looked at the "Happy Hacking Keyboard", and read the pleased testimonials, I don't think I want to deal with changing my habits now. Besides, I have at least partially "fixed" my personal keyboard at home by prying up and removing those stupid "Windows" keys from it. --
The parallels to the setup in the Otherland series was clear to me. And the whole point was to bebnefit goverment/business, not individuals.
If I wish to complete some sort of on-line transaction, then I can choose to present credentials at that time. But to be forced into displaying identification all the time is just the sort of control that is required in the flesh in totalitarian countries. --
I use mtools all the time, they're very useful. In fact, I find myself typing mdir or mcopy on my NT workstation at work (which I am forced to use); it's become second nature.:)
In general, I don't see much point of using ext2 formatted disk for floppies at all, since FAT floppies are readable by all PC's, and floppies are so slow anyway that a faster filesystem does not bring much benefit. Besides, I am usually only transporting a couple of zip files in the root directory anyway.
Raw disk might be useful if you are transporting a tar file between Linux and some other Unix OS (like a Sun) where mtools-like utilities are not available, but then you don't get the compression. Otherwise, it is only useful for very specialized purposes, like creating boot floppies. --
You are ignoring the differences between stable and unstable release tracks incorporated into almost every kind of free software in active development.
No. Linux kernel 2.2 has *12* patches. 2.2 is (supposedly) the "stable" branch. 12 patches to a stable branch in less than a year???? And this is somehow "more stable" than Windows NT which had had five in the course of five years?? Please explain, I must be missing something.
As others have responded, the number of releases is not nearly as important as what and how much things are being changed... Besides, I go with what my distro (Debian) provides - 2.0.36, which has settled down considerably - no new releases in a while. It works fine for me.
And if you see some obvious improvements to be made in some package you work with, then send in a patch.
Look, I'm a full time EE and I work upteen hours every week. If you think I have time to fart around with buggy, unreliable software like Linux and its ilk and submit my patches you are dead wrong.
Suit yourself. I'm a busy person too, so I haven't contributed much in that way either. But since you found the time to complain, I figured you must have the time to be a little more specific than a generic, unsubstantiated smear like "buggy, unreliable software like Linux and it's ilk".
If it's not source, it's not software
Keep chanting the slogans..
I borrowed that "slogan" from NASA, who apparently insist on source to help ensure reliability. I thought it would make a pretty good signature. I still think so. --
I have a largish collection of Electronic/Alternative Ambient pieces downloaded from MP3.com by Kelvin L. Smith, Tom Aragon, Earthwyrm, etc. Mostly no words to distract. --
You are ignoring the differences between stable and unstable release tracks incorporated into almost every kind of free software in active development.
And if you see some obvious improvements to be made in some package you work with, then send in a patch. --
It's too easy to reload the page to check to see if the point score of the moderated comment has changed.
In fact, the whole moderation thing in general has proven annoying to me for two reasons:
I don't get moderation points often, and I seem to get them at extremely inconvient times - precisely when I don't have the time to carefully read and moderate threads that I am not interested enough in to personally post to. And by the time that I do have time - my points are gone, taken back by the system. I think that moderation points should hang around for a time in porportion to how often they are allocated; or even better, old unused points are lost only when new points are allocated.
The temptation to try and post something that will garner moderation points is a demeaning head trip. I try not to post crap, but I'll be dammed if I'll suck up the the faceless moderators. I say what I mean, and I mean what I say.
Nevertheless, the problem of Trolls and DOS attacks is serious. I am just not sure that the current moderation approach is working, and Rob seems to be getting deeper and deeper into a over-managed tarpit. But most any other solution would require identifing all posters in one way or another (to prevent DOS and to allow alternate unassigned global moderation or ranking schemes to work) - defeating the intent of AC posting...
Note that I always browse at -1. Every time I have tried to browse at 0 or +1 I always get curious about the 'N comments below your threshold' and click on the link anyway. But the moderation score provides a little extra to the flavor of Slashdot browsing. --
Slashdot Mirror
Besides, why should I be forced (at gunpoint!) to go through such an inefficient and wasteful middleman to purchase the few services I really want?
--
--
As others have said, sounds like a weakness in the basic game design which needs more randomness (or something).
Simple - a method is needed for someone to unambigously and irrevokably assign an account to someone else (even if both people are anonymous).
On a larger note, this should be a lesson for would-be game designers - the built-in design of the system (i.e. "natural law") should encourage/enforce the desired play modes, including activities outside the game itself. Trying to apply external rules like these after the fact will probably be an excercise in futility.
--
On the other hand, there are many who claim that "reality" is an illusion (maya). Dreams / simulations / The Matrix :)
--
Consider by analogy our experience with certian software and vendors today - you have to ask questions like:
- Does it perform a useful function, or is it merely a parasite? (desired program vs. virus)
- Does it interact well with other memes, or is it exclusonary? (modular vs. monolithic)
- Is it reliable, or does it fail at inopportune times? (how buggy?)
- Does it help/prevent you from adding newer useful memes? (open/closed systems)
- Does it make it harder/easier for distructive memes to proliferate? (secure/insecure)
- Is it acessible to improvement/modification based on experience, or is it rigid and brittle? (open/closed source)
And so on. Memes are our mental tools individually and collectively and exist in extremely large numbers, more so in healthy populations. (Limited meme (mono)cultures are extremely unhealthy: like any (ecological) system, a complex web is an indicator of health).Enough with these meta-meme anologies... :)
--
His name is Hagbard Celine, and he also also happens to own a golden submarine ...
--
So - heavy boost is a bad idea... What about an ion engine? Light boost = no damage, high efficiency, slow adjustment of orbits, nice and easy.
And the concept of a tranfer point for to change vehicles is valid - vehicles that are designed for takeoff, rentry and landing at 1G (with all the added equipment/mass) are simply not efficient for deep space and low-G landings. And fuel/consumables can be delivered to the transfer point with cheaper unmanned vehicles (like the Progress does for supplies for the Mir) this too is more efficient.
Actually, continuing this chain of logic says that a second station in lunar orbit would raise efficiencies even more, but we were talking about the Mir here, and the first gives the biggest win.
(Though I am not so clear about all the tradeoffs between LEO and a higher orbit. How much higher would be good? It's true that LEO has problems because of resudual drag, especally during solar maximums; but put the orbit too much higher and many launch vehicles (including the shuttle, darn!) would have trouble reaching it. Suggestions?)
--
No, on my distro (Debian 2.1) the su command alters PATH even when not run with the '-'. (I checked it out before I wrote the post above.)
--
because a virus run as non-root can probably only write somewhere within the home directory tree of the user (~ or ~/bin, etc.). The su (and similar) commands alter the PATH environment variable to point to only known good (secure) system executable directories, and to specifically exclude '.' from the path. (That's why you have to say ./cmd to run cmd in your current dir while you are su'ing). It guarentees that the version of 'ls' that you invoke is /bin/ls and not the possibly viral /home/luser/ls.
--
And, in this case, a good reason to take away the profit motive, which represents a conflict of interest for these sleazy companies.
--
I'd be using it (or something like it) more often, if I wasn't having so much fun with Perl, (and getting to skip that compile/link step in the bargin).
--
--
It's expansion/exploitation/colonization of the entire Universe, to spread out genes far and wide.
But that is not the whole story anyway. The human mind and "spirit" has it's own goals that go beyond the basic needs of our biology and are not limited by them - see Laslo's hierarchy of needs... I know that I have a strong need not to be bored, for example, but it is difficult to connect this to my biological imperatives. And entities that we create will develop need of their own that are specially suited to their nature.
Actually, this idea that we have "no place to go" is the worst sort of arrogance - it's like that respected scientist that declared that there are no more big discoveries to be made, just work to polish and refine the existing body of knowledge (and this just before the discovery of Quantum Psysics) or the proposal at the last turn of the century that the US Patent Office be closed because "there are no more inventions to be made".
Poppycock!
--
Yes, "resist and it persists"...
--
Absolutely right. It is one point in a sliding scale of tradeoffs.
--
Actually, the Maginot Line can be accounted for as leftover WWI stupidity.
--
The data-transmission and storage requirements described by Ebert (he's the fat one, BTW) are extremely damming. The other points he made (priracy dangers, operator costs, lower-res than in-home DVD, etc.) are also very strong - and the nature of the movie business is his area of expertise.
All that aside, both digital and analog technologies will continue to develop, this isn't the last we will hear of this.
--
Even though I looked at the "Happy Hacking Keyboard", and read the pleased testimonials, I don't think I want to deal with changing my habits now. Besides, I have at least partially "fixed" my personal keyboard at home by prying up and removing those stupid "Windows" keys from it.
--
If I wish to complete some sort of on-line transaction, then I can choose to present credentials at that time. But to be forced into displaying identification all the time is just the sort of control that is required in the flesh in totalitarian countries.
--
In general, I don't see much point of using ext2 formatted disk for floppies at all, since FAT floppies are readable by all PC's, and floppies are so slow anyway that a faster filesystem does not bring much benefit. Besides, I am usually only transporting a couple of zip files in the root directory anyway.
Raw disk might be useful if you are transporting a tar file between Linux and some other Unix OS (like a Sun) where mtools-like utilities are not available, but then you don't get the compression. Otherwise, it is only useful for very specialized purposes, like creating boot floppies.
--
--
I have a largish collection of Electronic/Alternative Ambient pieces downloaded from MP3.com by Kelvin L. Smith, Tom Aragon, Earthwyrm, etc. Mostly no words to distract.
--
And if you see some obvious improvements to be made in some package you work with, then send in a patch.
--
In fact, the whole moderation thing in general has proven annoying to me for two reasons:
Nevertheless, the problem of Trolls and DOS attacks is serious. I am just not sure that the current moderation approach is working, and Rob seems to be getting deeper and deeper into a over-managed tarpit. But most any other solution would require identifing all posters in one way or another (to prevent DOS and to allow alternate unassigned global moderation or ranking schemes to work) - defeating the intent of AC posting...
Note that I always browse at -1. Every time I have tried to browse at 0 or +1 I always get curious about the 'N comments below your threshold' and click on the link anyway. But the moderation score provides a little extra to the flavor of Slashdot browsing.
--
Never mind, I found it at http://www.sulaco.org/mp3/.
Also, there are some excellent links from that page, including http://www.mp3tech.org/.
--