Depends how often you change the hardware; I'm quite used to swapping connectors around inside the machine to run different applications or sawing a bit off the power supply fan to fit a new motherboard in. Do you think a Mac would cope as well with such frequent hardware changes? (That's not a rhetorical question)
I think the 3.5" floppy is well due for replacement but I seem to have to resort to them quite often when the OS gets corrupted and can't boot into a state where it can recognise CD-ROM, Zip or network drives.
In my experience, it's the only thing on an x86-based PC which is guaranteed to work at any time on any machine, which I think is probably the only thing keeping it alive.
Otherwise, it's a fantastic idea.
I don't have a lot of knowledge about LaTeX, but how good is it at translating to a text-only format?
One of the benefits of HTML and its 'ability' to define structure rather than pixel-perfect layout is that it people who can't see that layout (for example, the blind, visually impared and Lynx users)
Do most think these people are in such a small minority that they're not important when defining a new data format for the most popular service on the Internet? (I'm genuinely interested, not just asking to expect the response 'well you should')
Yes, the Earth will correct itself, but probably by removing a large number of humans from the planet - even a small climate change could kill off billions of us. (I'm personifying here, but you get the idea)
What I think many 'green' activists are really worried about is the survival of our own species; I'm quite sure the Earth will take care of itself but there's plenty of species who have gone extinct and as you say humans are animals and so just as likely to go the same way. Granted, we could well become extinct due to a meteor impact or the next ice age but that's no reason to try doing it ourselves as well.
Also, while I agree that humans are the result of natural processes, your definition of natural makes everything in the universe natural, which means 'artifical' can't be used to describe anything. Better to keep 'artifical' to mean man-made; I've got a limited enough vocabulary as it is.
If knocking out most of the 'important' nodes will disable the Internet, then shouldn't that be 'knocking out 99% of randomly chosen nodes will probably not stop the Internet from working'?
Anyway, on to the point: Presumably this statistic is based on 99% of nodes falling completely dead (power failure, physical destruction et cetera). How many nodes would have to be malfunctioning, rather than non-functioning, to make the Internet unusable? I don't have a lot of knowledge of IP routing but I can imagine that a node that started spraying out junk traffic at its maximum rate, or forwarded incorrect DNS entries would cause a lot of problems.
From another point of view, how many nodes would a terrorist have to set to a malicious configuration if he or she wanted to bring the net to a halt?
I saw an article on the BBC's Tomorrow's World which showed someone being fitted with electrodes in the outer part of his brain which formed a matrix (of about 8x8 pixels, I think). Hooked up to a video camera, this allowed the recipient to 'see', albeit in rather low-resolution monochrome. It was an experiment rather than a recognised procedure, though. Does anyone else remember this or know anything else about it?
I use Virgin, and they're fantastic as far as I'm concerned. I don't make a lot of calls, but I know a few people who practically live on their mobiles and have changed to Virgin. AFAIK they haven't changed their pricing plan since they started and other companies have started to copy their pricing ideas. I don't know what the customer service is like, having never had to call them.
The only problem is that if you use vouchers then they're a bit more difficult to find than vouchers for other phone companies.
Absolutely. Divirging into games for a moment, IMHO it was realism that ruined Frontier and First Encounters - Elite was much better for ignoring the laws of physics in favour of conceptually simple but challenging combat.
Fictional films should be based on stories, not on documentaries - I can't imagine many people go to the cinema to learn anything these days.
Well, quite - I'm sure you could use GPS and signatures to prove that a machine was in a location at the same time, but I could be using any form of remote access tools to talk to that machine.
The idea of using a trusted third party to validate people's locations, already mentioned here, would need an international standard to be agreed and would probably need to rely on fingerprints / retina scans et cetera to work, so probably not any time soon...
I'm a bit worried that people who don't want to prove that they are in a particular region (don't want their fingerprints on file, for example) will be denied various services, such as the latest encryption software.
When I first saw Pokey I hurt bits of my brain trying to 'get' it. It didn't take too long to figure out that there just isn't any logic, rationale or meaning to most of the strips and that's one of the best things. I don't think I'll ever be able to explain why it's funny. It just is.
The artwork is visually stunning, as well. Drawing the the characters exactly the same each time must be the work of a genius:)
Apart from the differences in legal situations between countries, I'd be interested to know what the differences are in each country's media's treatment of MP3 audio, Napster et cetera. Napster almost always gets a very bad press in our newspapers, even the more enlightened ones.
I think almost all of our ISPs (dial-up or otherwise) now have clauses in their contracts forbidding you from downloading or making available material copyrighted to other people, separate from clauses which forbid you from using their service for illegal purposes, so they can pull the plug on you for downloading an MP3 file at any time they like.
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Depends how often you change the hardware; I'm quite used to swapping connectors around inside the machine to run different applications or sawing a bit off the power supply fan to fit a new motherboard in. Do you think a Mac would cope as well with such frequent hardware changes? (That's not a rhetorical question)
I think the 3.5" floppy is well due for replacement but I seem to have to resort to them quite often when the OS gets corrupted and can't boot into a state where it can recognise CD-ROM, Zip or network drives.
In my experience, it's the only thing on an x86-based PC which is guaranteed to work at any time on any machine, which I think is probably the only thing keeping it alive.
Otherwise, it's a fantastic idea.
I don't have a lot of knowledge about LaTeX, but how good is it at translating to a text-only format?
One of the benefits of HTML and its 'ability' to define structure rather than pixel-perfect layout is that it people who can't see that layout (for example, the blind, visually impared and Lynx users)
Do most think these people are in such a small minority that they're not important when defining a new data format for the most popular service on the Internet? (I'm genuinely interested, not just asking to expect the response 'well you should')
Yes, the Earth will correct itself, but probably by removing a large number of humans from the planet - even a small climate change could kill off billions of us. (I'm personifying here, but you get the idea)
What I think many 'green' activists are really worried about is the survival of our own species; I'm quite sure the Earth will take care of itself but there's plenty of species who have gone extinct and as you say humans are animals and so just as likely to go the same way. Granted, we could well become extinct due to a meteor impact or the next ice age but that's no reason to try doing it ourselves as well.
Also, while I agree that humans are the result of natural processes, your definition of natural makes everything in the universe natural, which means 'artifical' can't be used to describe anything. Better to keep 'artifical' to mean man-made; I've got a limited enough vocabulary as it is.
If knocking out most of the 'important' nodes will disable the Internet, then shouldn't that be 'knocking out 99% of randomly chosen nodes will probably not stop the Internet from working'?
Anyway, on to the point: Presumably this statistic is based on 99% of nodes falling completely dead (power failure, physical destruction et cetera). How many nodes would have to be malfunctioning, rather than non-functioning, to make the Internet unusable?
I don't have a lot of knowledge of IP routing but I can imagine that a node that started spraying out junk traffic at its maximum rate, or forwarded incorrect DNS entries would cause a lot of problems.
From another point of view, how many nodes would a terrorist have to set to a malicious configuration if he or she wanted to bring the net to a halt?
I saw an article on the BBC's Tomorrow's World which showed someone being fitted with electrodes in the outer part of his brain which formed a matrix (of about 8x8 pixels, I think). Hooked up to a video camera, this allowed the recipient to 'see', albeit in rather low-resolution monochrome. It was an experiment rather than a recognised procedure, though. Does anyone else remember this or know anything else about it?
I use Virgin, and they're fantastic as far as I'm concerned. I don't make a lot of calls, but I know a few people who practically live on their mobiles and have changed to Virgin. AFAIK they haven't changed their pricing plan since they started and other companies have started to copy their pricing ideas. I don't know what the customer service is like, having never had to call them.
The only problem is that if you use vouchers then they're a bit more difficult to find than vouchers for other phone companies.
Absolutely. Divirging into games for a moment, IMHO it was realism that ruined Frontier and First Encounters - Elite was much better for ignoring the laws of physics in favour of conceptually simple but challenging combat.
Fictional films should be based on stories, not on documentaries - I can't imagine many people go to the cinema to learn anything these days.
Well, quite - I'm sure you could use GPS and signatures to prove that a machine was in a location at the same time, but I could be using any form of remote access tools to talk to that machine.
The idea of using a trusted third party to validate people's locations, already mentioned here, would need an international standard to be agreed and would probably need to rely on fingerprints / retina scans et cetera to work, so probably not any time soon...
I'm a bit worried that people who don't want to prove that they are in a particular region (don't want their fingerprints on file, for example) will be denied various services, such as the latest encryption software.
When I first saw Pokey I hurt bits of my brain trying to 'get' it. It didn't take too long to figure out that there just isn't any logic, rationale or meaning to most of the strips and that's one of the best things. I don't think I'll ever be able to explain why it's funny. It just is. :)
The artwork is visually stunning, as well. Drawing the the characters exactly the same each time must be the work of a genius
Apart from the differences in legal situations between countries, I'd be interested to know what the differences are in each country's media's treatment of MP3 audio, Napster et cetera. Napster almost always gets a very bad press in our newspapers, even the more enlightened ones. I think almost all of our ISPs (dial-up or otherwise) now have clauses in their contracts forbidding you from downloading or making available material copyrighted to other people, separate from clauses which forbid you from using their service for illegal purposes, so they can pull the plug on you for downloading an MP3 file at any time they like.