What with the rolling blackouts in Happy-Fun-Land, I wouldn't even risk storing data this way there for 13ms out of 350.
ObNote: A method of data storage the relies on continuous uninterrupted power for maintainence of storage is BAD. Yeah, the umpteen Tera-byte hard drive is still out of the hands of your average User, but if the power goes out, it doesn't necessarily wipe my drive. (That's what the magnets are for!)
Yeah, the date threw me. Also, I swear I heard about this very thing over 6 months ago. Perhaps it was just in the planning stages then, but I know I heard about this before.
I had gotten the impression that 6 months ago this was a 'done deal' and the spider-silk was already being produced from the goat's milk.
Maybe I'm stuck in a Dallas episode or something...
Kierthos
Re:Science is ignoring global warming?
on
Spidergoats
·
· Score: 1
I believe the point that was trying to be made here was that 30 years ago, the hue and cry was not over global warming, but global cooling. And many of the supposed reasons why global cooling was to be such a threat were re-used, damn near verbatim, for global warming.
Interesting how greenhouse gases can be leading to a new Ice Age in the 60's and 70's but lead to melting icecaps in the 90's....
*nod* I don't much like Windows, even though I currently use it (hey, find me a distro of Linux that will run Pirates Gold! and it's off my box so fast...), and any kind of ISP agreement that requires you to have possible the worst OS on the market is one that is doomed to kill the ISP. I mean AOL, as an ISP blows goats, but at least you can run it on something other then Windows...
Oh well... bets on how long it is before Juno renounces this policy (or if they don't, how long it is before Juno goes under)?
Jesus Christ on a crutch... AOL actually looks good compared to this!
Hey, wait a sec... if you're a Juno user in Texas, and someone shows up to turn your computer back on, if you tell them to get off your property and they don't, you can shoot them...
Also, if they enter your house (or apartment) while no one is there, you can probably hit them with illegal entry. They might be allowed access to your computer, but I'm damn sure that you have to be present at the time. Otherwise who knows what else they may have done while in your place.
*nod* That was the point I was trying to make. It's easy to look at phone records and see that Person A called Person B at a certain time. But given the relative ease of using a false name and paying cash, this is easily rendered moot. And, in most major cities (especially ones where they have lots of those nice shiny high-rise window buildings), you can get so many 'false' bounces from a tower trace that it's not worth it.
Of course, if you know the general location (say a couple block radius) then there are still ways to narrow it down. But first you have to get those couple blocks. And God help the tracers if the caller is moving at any appreciable speed.
Well, yeah, for the big-time, mansion-living "movie-style" drug lords, yeah, going the 'real' cell-phone as opposed to a paper POS is not going to change.
However, for your small-fry type of criminal, a $10 phone would be beneficial. Especially given how much easier it is to destroy the things. (Match, phoosh.) And yes, I have helped to destroy several cell-phones (mostly on purpose... we were supposed to destroy them, just not supposed to have as much fun as we did) so some models can take a surprising amount of damage and still dial out. Not surprisingly, none of them can withstand the.22 test.
Try being able to buy a mobile phone for cash, leaving very little of a paper trail as to who used it. Also, mobile phones are much harder to trace (although the cop shows always make it look easy), and the limited life-span is actually a "bonus" as when it runs out, you have no incentive to keep it. Set the sucker on fire and move on.
Now, will this happen? Who knows. The FCC might screw things up before these even get printed.
Well, I'd assume that since this is being built by German engineers, then the rail-cars will contain a Faraday cage, so none of that pesky train-lifting magnetic field will get into the car and scramble all of their lovely laptops. You'll still have any interior magnetic fields from electronics in the car, but that will be negligible compared to the field lifting the multi-tonne train.
How about replaceable pizo-electric crystals? I recall seeing them in a few toys some years ago, and it seemed that they lasted years at a time. In fact, they lasted after the toy (some super-hero figure) was broken.
Of course, that might not be possible, so another option might be Starlight-scope style for the glasses.
Well, you'd have to have some sort of control mechanism, as expecting your "super-glasses" to respond to an inherent command structure like you want them too might be a bit too far out. So, a wire linked control could be possible.
However, I don't know if the miniture camera idea is possible with just one set of lenses (one lens per eye, that is)... wouldn't you still need more then one lens or a lens and mirror arrangement to do proper magnification? I don't know a lot about optics though... If it can be accomplished with only one lens per eye, then I'd like to see it do telescopic and microscopic magnification.
IR sight might be possible, but you would need a receptor to "catch" the IR, while the software and image translation could be built into the lenses, which are simultaneously used as the screen.
Recording would be much easier, IMAO, although depending on how much memory these hypothetical lenses can hold, you'd want some sort of backup storage. Obviously, you'd also want some way to transfer the data. An attachable wire to one of the earpieces, perhaps.
No, because if you are contracted to work for M$ then you are obviously not in competition with them. However, the instant the contract is up, if you're working on anything else that M$ is also working on, they could use the same legal cheese to try and get you fired.
However, if you only worked for M$ through a contracted agreement (i.e. you work for Company A which accepted a contract from M$) then you shouldn't have been required to sign a non-compete clause anyway. A non-disclosure clause would be much more standard in that case.
Yeah, but the point of the Baen Library is that the authors who have stuff posted on there might not be the most popular ones in existence. This gets their works out to more people, and since the idea is to put the first book (or two) in a series up, you get readers more interested in the series, and they go out and buy the books.
Besides, they have to know that people will print out the text of the books. They accept it. Unlike the music idiots who can't seem to contend with the idea of duped CDs or mp3s. (You ever notice we didn't hear any screaming about duped tapes?)
Probably experimental. They wouldn't want to label it as stable unless they were dead certain, which they won't be until after they see what bugs 2.4.1 will inherently have (if from nothing else, being re-compiled).
Actually, given ReiserFS, definitely experimental.
Technically, they should have been. But at that point it was "better" for the DoJ's case to let that stand as obviously manufactured evidence, because submitting that for a perjury charge would have lengthened the trial by several months with the net result of a few fines and (doubtfully) some jail time for those involved (i.e. some exec takes the fall).
That video did more to hurt the M$ case then anything before or pretty much after it.
France: Then, Monsieur Gates, we outlaw Microscrew and go nationally to Linux! Vive la France!
Gates: But, but, but...
France: Now go away you short geeky panty-wearing sausage monkey, or we shall taunt you a second time!
Yes, but do you honestly think that M$ cares about the consumers in AU other then in terms of how much money they can make off of them?
While the set-up right now in Aussie-land sucks rocks through a wet paper straw, would it honestly be any better with M$ in the field as well? This is the company that "upgrades" their OS every couple of years, stops supporting the old versions as soon as possible to force people to buy the upgrade, would love to charge rental fees on software (and I think they are still planning on doing that), and does all kinds of other "wonderful" practices that earns them the disparaging comments here on/. (as well as many other places) that they truly deserve.
M$ has their own interests at heart (not a shock, really). That their interests happen to match that of many disgruntled Aussies means nothing. They're not doing this for you. They're doing this for themselves.
Well, I'd say that Windows is "easier" in terms of the usage curve. Most Users do not fully utilize their computers, as in they use it for e-mail, web surfing, and online shopping. These Users do not generally need to configure their system, and rarely edit the starting configuration.
Most Linux Users (well, maybe not most, but a damn sight more then Windows Users) play with their configs and do all kinds of "freaky" things to their OS's that most Windows Users do not know how to do, and do not need to know how to do.
Two of the most dangerous types of people are Windows Users who change their system profiles when they don't know what they are doing and Linux Users who don't know what they are doing.
You're saying that the manuals for Windows don't help you with Windows? Shoot, I must have wasted 15 minutes of my life reading the "useful" bits then.
Seriously though, the only manuals I read besides hardware/software installation and programming instruction manuals are game instruction manuals. Most of the games today are so over-complicated (left+A+L1 for a simple kick) that reading the manuals are a necessity.
The problem lies in the simple fact that unless you are planning on doing simple B/W publishing and standard booklet folds, it gets prohibitively expensive quickly. Even going to copy shops that give volume discounts, like Kinko's, it can run a couple hundred dollars for less then 100 manuals. Doing all the publishing at home is cheaper, but you have less options of what you can do. You also have the paper and ink costs to factor in. Depending on what kind of printer you use, one cartridge can run some serious change...
"Disclaimer: The publisher has not verified any of this material. So if you use this and something goes wrong, it's not our fault because we are lazy and slack."
Disclaimers cannot actually keep you from being sued. In some cases, they can be used against you.
Sad to say, but it's the packaging that is the most important if you want to grab people's attention. It's not the contents, rather the pretty box/cover.
Having said that, there are cheap ways to print books. Kinko's is one of them. They have a sliding scale of prices depending on how much work you have done at a time. You have to do quite a bit in black&white before it kicks in, but depending on how much printing you're doing....
Also, while we're talking about books and Kinko's, I know they're going to be adding (not at the local stores yet, damnit) "true binding" which from the fliers looks like typical softcover binding.
Also, you have to realize that as a publisher, especially of reference manuals of any kind, much less computer/OS reference manuals, you have to verify the information contained within. It's one thing to publish fiction. It's another to publish material that is intended to be used by Joe New-to-Linux.
I'm not saying that people would send you bad information to be published on purpose, but that is always a possibility. You also have to be concerned with inadvertant typos and the like. Because, right when it falls down to it, it doesn't matter if the writer retains all rights to the published material... the publisher can be sued too.
Sorry to be so down on you about this, but them's the facts (well, the opinions, but you get the point).
Bionic: having normal biological capability or performance enhanced by or performed by electronic or electromechanical devices
(courtesy of Merriam Webster)
Therefore, although Warwick, by definition, qualifies as a cyborg, people who wear glasses do not. Nor do people who have hip replacements, as there is no electromechanical part. Pacemakers, however, do qualify.
Slashdot Mirror
What with the rolling blackouts in Happy-Fun-Land, I wouldn't even risk storing data this way there for 13ms out of 350.
ObNote: A method of data storage the relies on continuous uninterrupted power for maintainence of storage is BAD. Yeah, the umpteen Tera-byte hard drive is still out of the hands of your average User, but if the power goes out, it doesn't necessarily wipe my drive. (That's what the magnets are for!)
Kierthos
Yeah, the date threw me. Also, I swear I heard about this very thing over 6 months ago. Perhaps it was just in the planning stages then, but I know I heard about this before.
I had gotten the impression that 6 months ago this was a 'done deal' and the spider-silk was already being produced from the goat's milk.
Maybe I'm stuck in a Dallas episode or something...
Kierthos
I believe the point that was trying to be made here was that 30 years ago, the hue and cry was not over global warming, but global cooling. And many of the supposed reasons why global cooling was to be such a threat were re-used, damn near verbatim, for global warming.
Interesting how greenhouse gases can be leading to a new Ice Age in the 60's and 70's but lead to melting icecaps in the 90's....
Kierthos
*nod* I don't much like Windows, even though I currently use it (hey, find me a distro of Linux that will run Pirates Gold! and it's off my box so fast...), and any kind of ISP agreement that requires you to have possible the worst OS on the market is one that is doomed to kill the ISP. I mean AOL, as an ISP blows goats, but at least you can run it on something other then Windows...
Oh well... bets on how long it is before Juno renounces this policy (or if they don't, how long it is before Juno goes under)?
Kierthos
Jesus Christ on a crutch... AOL actually looks good compared to this!
Hey, wait a sec... if you're a Juno user in Texas, and someone shows up to turn your computer back on, if you tell them to get off your property and they don't, you can shoot them...
Also, if they enter your house (or apartment) while no one is there, you can probably hit them with illegal entry. They might be allowed access to your computer, but I'm damn sure that you have to be present at the time. Otherwise who knows what else they may have done while in your place.
Kierthos
*nod* That was the point I was trying to make. It's easy to look at phone records and see that Person A called Person B at a certain time. But given the relative ease of using a false name and paying cash, this is easily rendered moot. And, in most major cities (especially ones where they have lots of those nice shiny high-rise window buildings), you can get so many 'false' bounces from a tower trace that it's not worth it.
Of course, if you know the general location (say a couple block radius) then there are still ways to narrow it down. But first you have to get those couple blocks. And God help the tracers if the caller is moving at any appreciable speed.
Kierthos
Well, yeah, for the big-time, mansion-living "movie-style" drug lords, yeah, going the 'real' cell-phone as opposed to a paper POS is not going to change.
.22 test.
However, for your small-fry type of criminal, a $10 phone would be beneficial. Especially given how much easier it is to destroy the things. (Match, phoosh.) And yes, I have helped to destroy several cell-phones (mostly on purpose... we were supposed to destroy them, just not supposed to have as much fun as we did) so some models can take a surprising amount of damage and still dial out. Not surprisingly, none of them can withstand the
Kierthos
Try being able to buy a mobile phone for cash, leaving very little of a paper trail as to who used it. Also, mobile phones are much harder to trace (although the cop shows always make it look easy), and the limited life-span is actually a "bonus" as when it runs out, you have no incentive to keep it. Set the sucker on fire and move on.
Now, will this happen? Who knows. The FCC might screw things up before these even get printed.
Kierthos
Well, I'd assume that since this is being built by German engineers, then the rail-cars will contain a Faraday cage, so none of that pesky train-lifting magnetic field will get into the car and scramble all of their lovely laptops. You'll still have any interior magnetic fields from electronics in the car, but that will be negligible compared to the field lifting the multi-tonne train.
Kierthos
How about replaceable pizo-electric crystals? I recall seeing them in a few toys some years ago, and it seemed that they lasted years at a time. In fact, they lasted after the toy (some super-hero figure) was broken.
Of course, that might not be possible, so another option might be Starlight-scope style for the glasses.
Kierthos
Well, you'd have to have some sort of control mechanism, as expecting your "super-glasses" to respond to an inherent command structure like you want them too might be a bit too far out. So, a wire linked control could be possible.
However, I don't know if the miniture camera idea is possible with just one set of lenses (one lens per eye, that is)... wouldn't you still need more then one lens or a lens and mirror arrangement to do proper magnification? I don't know a lot about optics though... If it can be accomplished with only one lens per eye, then I'd like to see it do telescopic and microscopic magnification.
IR sight might be possible, but you would need a receptor to "catch" the IR, while the software and image translation could be built into the lenses, which are simultaneously used as the screen.
Recording would be much easier, IMAO, although depending on how much memory these hypothetical lenses can hold, you'd want some sort of backup storage. Obviously, you'd also want some way to transfer the data. An attachable wire to one of the earpieces, perhaps.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
No, because if you are contracted to work for M$ then you are obviously not in competition with them. However, the instant the contract is up, if you're working on anything else that M$ is also working on, they could use the same legal cheese to try and get you fired.
However, if you only worked for M$ through a contracted agreement (i.e. you work for Company A which accepted a contract from M$) then you shouldn't have been required to sign a non-compete clause anyway. A non-disclosure clause would be much more standard in that case.
Kierthos (IANAL)
Yeah, but the point of the Baen Library is that the authors who have stuff posted on there might not be the most popular ones in existence. This gets their works out to more people, and since the idea is to put the first book (or two) in a series up, you get readers more interested in the series, and they go out and buy the books.
Besides, they have to know that people will print out the text of the books. They accept it. Unlike the music idiots who can't seem to contend with the idea of duped CDs or mp3s. (You ever notice we didn't hear any screaming about duped tapes?)
Kierthos
Probably experimental. They wouldn't want to label it as stable unless they were dead certain, which they won't be until after they see what bugs 2.4.1 will inherently have (if from nothing else, being re-compiled).
Actually, given ReiserFS, definitely experimental.
Kierthos
Technically, they should have been. But at that point it was "better" for the DoJ's case to let that stand as obviously manufactured evidence, because submitting that for a perjury charge would have lengthened the trial by several months with the net result of a few fines and (doubtfully) some jail time for those involved (i.e. some exec takes the fall).
That video did more to hurt the M$ case then anything before or pretty much after it.
Kierthos
And in response:
France: Then, Monsieur Gates, we outlaw Microscrew and go nationally to Linux! Vive la France!
Gates: But, but, but...
France: Now go away you short geeky panty-wearing sausage monkey, or we shall taunt you a second time!
Kierthos
Yes, but do you honestly think that M$ cares about the consumers in AU other then in terms of how much money they can make off of them?
/. (as well as many other places) that they truly deserve.
While the set-up right now in Aussie-land sucks rocks through a wet paper straw, would it honestly be any better with M$ in the field as well? This is the company that "upgrades" their OS every couple of years, stops supporting the old versions as soon as possible to force people to buy the upgrade, would love to charge rental fees on software (and I think they are still planning on doing that), and does all kinds of other "wonderful" practices that earns them the disparaging comments here on
M$ has their own interests at heart (not a shock, really). That their interests happen to match that of many disgruntled Aussies means nothing. They're not doing this for you. They're doing this for themselves.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
Microsoft is complaining about someone else's restrictive policies? Man, that's definitely the pot calling the kettle black...
Kierthos
Pledge of Allegiance:
I pledge allegiance, to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands....
Kierthos
Well, I'd say that Windows is "easier" in terms of the usage curve. Most Users do not fully utilize their computers, as in they use it for e-mail, web surfing, and online shopping. These Users do not generally need to configure their system, and rarely edit the starting configuration.
Most Linux Users (well, maybe not most, but a damn sight more then Windows Users) play with their configs and do all kinds of "freaky" things to their OS's that most Windows Users do not know how to do, and do not need to know how to do.
Two of the most dangerous types of people are Windows Users who change their system profiles when they don't know what they are doing and Linux Users who don't know what they are doing.
Just my 2 shekels.
Kierthos
You're saying that the manuals for Windows don't help you with Windows? Shoot, I must have wasted 15 minutes of my life reading the "useful" bits then.
Seriously though, the only manuals I read besides hardware/software installation and programming instruction manuals are game instruction manuals. Most of the games today are so over-complicated (left+A+L1 for a simple kick) that reading the manuals are a necessity.
The problem lies in the simple fact that unless you are planning on doing simple B/W publishing and standard booklet folds, it gets prohibitively expensive quickly. Even going to copy shops that give volume discounts, like Kinko's, it can run a couple hundred dollars for less then 100 manuals. Doing all the publishing at home is cheaper, but you have less options of what you can do. You also have the paper and ink costs to factor in. Depending on what kind of printer you use, one cartridge can run some serious change...
Kierthos
Maybe, but would you buy a book that said:
"Disclaimer: The publisher has not verified any of this material. So if you use this and something goes wrong, it's not our fault because we are lazy and slack."
Disclaimers cannot actually keep you from being sued. In some cases, they can be used against you.
Kierthos
Sad to say, but it's the packaging that is the most important if you want to grab people's attention. It's not the contents, rather the pretty box/cover.
Having said that, there are cheap ways to print books. Kinko's is one of them. They have a sliding scale of prices depending on how much work you have done at a time. You have to do quite a bit in black&white before it kicks in, but depending on how much printing you're doing....
Also, while we're talking about books and Kinko's, I know they're going to be adding (not at the local stores yet, damnit) "true binding" which from the fliers looks like typical softcover binding.
Kierthos
Also, you have to realize that as a publisher, especially of reference manuals of any kind, much less computer/OS reference manuals, you have to verify the information contained within. It's one thing to publish fiction. It's another to publish material that is intended to be used by Joe New-to-Linux.
I'm not saying that people would send you bad information to be published on purpose, but that is always a possibility. You also have to be concerned with inadvertant typos and the like. Because, right when it falls down to it, it doesn't matter if the writer retains all rights to the published material... the publisher can be sued too.
Sorry to be so down on you about this, but them's the facts (well, the opinions, but you get the point).
Kierthos
Definitions:
Cyborg: a bionic human being
Bionic: having normal biological capability or performance enhanced by or performed by electronic or electromechanical devices
(courtesy of Merriam Webster)
Therefore, although Warwick, by definition, qualifies as a cyborg, people who wear glasses do not. Nor do people who have hip replacements, as there is no electromechanical part. Pacemakers, however, do qualify.
Kierthos