No, but with smoking bans going up all over the place, this would be one way for tobacco growers to hang on to profits. Next thing you know, there will be nicotine energy/health drinks, nicotine in your smoothies...
Kind of reminds me of how the big breweries survived during Prohibition... canned malt extract as a sweetener... malted milk, anyone?
I didn't care so much about the money, but the implication that I was cheating somehow. I am an honest person, and I was really offended that Google just cut me off and told me that I had invalid clicks and was therefore cut off forever.
It really made me feel a lot less warm and fuzzy about Google. I'm even moving away from Gmail as a result. If they don't want my business, that's fine, but don't expect my support, either, after basically calling me a cheat and a liar with no grounds.
With all the scary stuff in the news about how Myspace is going to steal your children, I wouldn't be surprised if chipping children became "highly suggested" for safety's sake... And once it's common, FastPass type convenience of having a chip will make this more palatable, even desirable by many.
Mandatory though? I'm not sure it would get to that stage. It just might get to be really inconvenient not to be chipped, if everyone else is.
DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET FROM 12:01 AM GMT ON FEB. 29 TO 12:01 AM GMT, MARCH 1 !!
*** *** Attention ***
It's that time again!
As many of you know, each leap year the Internet must be shut down for 24 hours in order to allow us to clean it. The cleaning process, which eliminates dead email and inactive ftp, www and gopher sites, allows for a better-working and faster Internet.
This year, the cleaning process will take place from 12:01 a.m. GMT on Feb. 29 until 12:01 a.m. GMT on March 1. During that 24-hour period, five powerful Internet-crawling robots situated around the world will search the Internet and delete any data that they find.
In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you do the following:
1. Disconnect all terminals and local area networks from their Internet connections.
2. Shut down all Internet servers, or disconnect them from the Internet.
3. Disconnect all disks and hardrives from any connections to the Internet.
4. Refrain from connecting any computer to the Internet in any way.
We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet users, and we apologize. However, we are certain that any inconveniences will be more than made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of the Internet, once it has been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam. We thank you for your cooperation.
Kim Dereksen Interconnected Network Maintenance staff Main branch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sysops and others: Since the last Internet cleaning, the number of Internet users has grown dramatically. Please assist us in alerting the public of the upcoming Internet cleaning by posting this message where your users will be able to read it. Please pass this message on to other sysops and Internet users as well. Thank you.
Try NASCRAG, they are a big group of independent DMs who spend all year crafting a tournament-style adventure together, then put on the best roleplaying show for as many players as they can get to register or grab out of the halls to play.
They're not the only independents, either. WOTC does not run all of the games at Gen Con... far from it.
Bravo, very well said. I personally am an Agnostic, and while I don't buy Creationism, I think Intelligent Design has merits worth discussing as a philosophy, though not as a science.
If someone asks me what I think, I usually say that while I think we evolved much as science says, but that the laws of the universe were "written" in such a way as to allow intelligent life to arise. I say this mainly because of the amazing unlikeliness that we're even here to have this debate if it was all a purely random process.
Actually, that's what puzzles me about general relativity.
If speeds are *always* relative, then there should be no speed-of-light limit. Consider two objects moving towards each other, each at 0.6 c relative to a "stationary" third object, such as a rogue asteroid. But relative to each other, each is exceeding the speed of light!
I realize I am missing something. Could someone geek out on physics and explain how there can be a "speed limit" if all velocities are relative?
How do I know if I want to read the story if I don't know what it's about? Frankly I agree that blithely posting acronyms, assuming everyone knows what they mean, isn't very good form.
A good rule of thumb is to spell out an acronym once beforehand.
I don't want to have to read an article just to see if unknown acronym XYZ is interesting to me. It's one of my pet peeves about/.
Yeah I had a hard time with I Will Fear No Evil... not because of the transsexual concepts he dealt with, but because of the stupid internal monologue conversations he had and the pointlessness of the external plots as well. It took many tries before I was able to read it all the way through.
I grew up on Heinlein, he was my favorite author from preteens through college.
But my least favorite Heinlein novel wasn't I Will Fear No Evil. It was that awful Farnham's Freehold. Yeah it started out good with some nice survivalist credoes and fallout shelter ideas, but what happened after the Bomb hit was just stupid, grotesque, and disturbing. Did they really have to castrate the son? What was up with that?
As much of a fan of using older hardware as I am, I have to agree with the original poster here. If you're comparing the performance of different filesystems, you don't want the hardware to be the limiting factor or you don't learn anything.
Sure, if the design of the filesystem has way too much overhead, then that's going to show up more with older systems, since more hardware speed can compensate for bad design (look at Microsoft!), but if you have an old hard disk whose read/write speed caps early, then the filesystems compared won't differentiate much.
In my opinion, probably the tests are best done on a variety of systems. One of Linux's main strengths and selling points is that it is ubiquitous and can take advantage of "legacy" hardware.
Reuters/Yahoo is reporting that Coca-Cola has unveiled an 'intelligent' billboard in London's Piccadilly Circus -- at 99 feet wide, the world's biggest -- that supposedly will respond to weather, movement, and SMS text messages. The billboard itself is 52 square meters of LED display.
99 feet wide, 52 square meters??? What, does jhkoh work for NASA?
Actually, too much panic too often can be desensitizing, as we've seen with the Orange Alerts we've had since 9/11. If the media cries wolf too often about anything, we tend to tune it out eventually.
You would think it'd be pretty easy to make some kind of plastic bag that would act like a thin sleeve for the phones, like disposable gloves and whatnot.
It could just be thin cellophane in the shape of a tube sock, maybe even with a zip lock on one end. Even a flip-open phone could be put in flipped open, then shut (plastic would fold over inside it).
That way, you could dispose of the bag and not worry about getting a special phone or banning them in hospitals altogether.
I used to *love* Sony, then my Sony DVD player crapped out less than two years after I bought it due to a design flaw. Sony knows about it, but is doing nothing about it, despite (or more likely because) a large number of customer complaints.
I bought a Panasonic to replace it and am happy now.
Any other brands that actually stand behind their product out there?
I've had a DirecTV system since 1997. Now I feel *dirty* for owning one and sending my subscription money to corporate weasels. I got away from cable in the first place for the Geek Chic of having a dish on my house, and because I generally hate the cable companies.
Then again, maybe Dish will do something similar soon?
Yeah I thought the same thing, though this goes a step further and sends compressed copies of the resulting pages back you, not just an index of the sites.
What I wonder is why the *client* needs any software? Why not just make an email addy that people send queries to (like you did with "archie") and get the results back in whatever mailer you've got already?
So when do y'all think the.sex TLD will come out? Or would that make sex sites too easy to censor? Or is that a good thing for the pr0n business, being easy to block by parental units, avoiding costly court cases?
sex.com would be such a moot issue if there was a.sex top level domain, in my opinion.
I'd say the efficiency he speaks of would only work if everyone making the transaction was a computer.
But hey, isn't that the case if you use a bank card or credit card for transactions instead of cash?
It's just decimal places, not metal circles that way.
I was about to say I mostly use plastic for transactions, but I know it can't be true because I just took a gallon jug full of change (accumulated over three years) to be changed in ($335.17) the other day, so I must use currency for something.
Slashdot Mirror
You say MP3s are super low quality? Kids these days don't know what they're missing?
If true, that should boost the value of actual CDs, music on DVDs, and *especially* live performances.
Business model: give away the MP3s. Sell lots of CDs cheap. Sell DVD music and concert tickets for a premium, the real fans will pay for it.
Or you could go on suing everyone to stay afloat.
Just a thought anyway.
No, but with smoking bans going up all over the place, this would be one way for tobacco growers to hang on to profits. Next thing you know, there will be nicotine energy/health drinks, nicotine in your smoothies...
Kind of reminds me of how the big breweries survived during Prohibition... canned malt extract as a sweetener... malted milk, anyone?
Chris
Actually, it reminded me more of e e cummings' work.
http://xkcd.com/c137.html
"Mac" is an abbreviation of Macintosh, not an acronym like PC is for Personal Computer.
MAC however, is an acronym for Media Access Control, as in MAC address in networking.
Sorry... pet peeve there.
Atari Flashback 2 2W
I didn't care so much about the money, but the implication that I was cheating somehow. I am an honest person, and I was really offended that Google just cut me off and told me that I had invalid clicks and was therefore cut off forever.
It really made me feel a lot less warm and fuzzy about Google. I'm even moving away from Gmail as a result. If they don't want my business, that's fine, but don't expect my support, either, after basically calling me a cheat and a liar with no grounds.
Chris
With all the scary stuff in the news about how Myspace is going to steal your children, I wouldn't be surprised if chipping children became "highly suggested" for safety's sake... And once it's common, FastPass type convenience of having a chip will make this more palatable, even desirable by many.
Mandatory though? I'm not sure it would get to that stage. It just might get to be really inconvenient not to be chipped, if everyone else is.
Chris
http://www.april-fools.us/internet-cleaning.htm
Original Message - 1996
DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET FROM 12:01 AM GMT ON FEB. 29 TO 12:01 AM GMT, MARCH 1 !!
*** *** Attention ***
It's that time again!
As many of you know, each leap year the Internet must be shut down for 24 hours in order to allow us to clean it. The cleaning process, which
eliminates dead email and inactive ftp, www and gopher sites, allows for a better-working and faster Internet.
This year, the cleaning process will take place from 12:01 a.m. GMT on
Feb. 29 until 12:01 a.m. GMT on March 1. During that 24-hour period, five powerful Internet-crawling robots situated around the world will search the Internet and delete any data that they find.
In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you do the following:
1. Disconnect all terminals and local area networks from their Internet
connections.
2. Shut down all Internet servers, or disconnect them from the Internet.
3. Disconnect all disks and hardrives from any connections to the Internet.
4. Refrain from connecting any computer to the Internet in any way.
We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet
users, and we apologize. However, we are certain that any
inconveniences will be more than made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of the Internet, once it has been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam. We thank you for your cooperation.
Kim Dereksen
Interconnected Network Maintenance staff
Main branch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sysops and others: Since the last Internet cleaning, the number of
Internet users has grown dramatically. Please assist us in alerting
the public of the upcoming Internet cleaning by posting this message
where your users will be able to read it. Please pass this message on to
other sysops and Internet users as well. Thank you.
This is the funniest post I've seen in days. SOMEONE MOD THIS ONE UP!!!!
Still snickering about "8 too much?"....
Chris
Try NASCRAG, they are a big group of independent DMs who spend all year crafting a tournament-style adventure together, then put on the best roleplaying show for as many players as they can get to register or grab out of the halls to play.
They're not the only independents, either. WOTC does not run all of the games at Gen Con... far from it.
Chris
Bravo, very well said. I personally am an Agnostic, and while I don't buy Creationism, I think Intelligent Design has merits worth discussing as a philosophy, though not as a science.
If someone asks me what I think, I usually say that while I think we evolved much as science says, but that the laws of the universe were "written" in such a way as to allow intelligent life to arise. I say this mainly because of the amazing unlikeliness that we're even here to have this debate if it was all a purely random process.
http://www.frequencycenter.com/
a ck science.htm
These are being sold by MLM flunkies all over the place, and are known to be useless. See a good discussion of this at:
http://p2.hostingprod.com/@worldwidescam.com/qu
Wow, I really hope this wasn't a paid ad, or Slashdot has sunk to a new low.
Chris
Actually, that's what puzzles me about general relativity.
If speeds are *always* relative, then there should be no speed-of-light limit. Consider two objects moving towards each other, each at 0.6 c relative to a "stationary" third object, such as a rogue asteroid. But relative to each other, each is exceeding the speed of light!
I realize I am missing something. Could someone geek out on physics and explain how there can be a "speed limit" if all velocities are relative?
Thanks,
Chris
How do I know if I want to read the story if I don't know what it's about? Frankly I agree that blithely posting acronyms, assuming everyone knows what they mean, isn't very good form.
/.
A good rule of thumb is to spell out an acronym once beforehand.
I don't want to have to read an article just to see if unknown acronym XYZ is interesting to me. It's one of my pet peeves about
Yeah I had a hard time with I Will Fear No Evil... not because of the transsexual concepts he dealt with, but because of the stupid internal monologue conversations he had and the pointlessness of the external plots as well. It took many tries before I was able to read it all the way through.
I grew up on Heinlein, he was my favorite author from preteens through college.
But my least favorite Heinlein novel wasn't I Will Fear No Evil. It was that awful Farnham's Freehold. Yeah it started out good with some nice survivalist credoes and fallout shelter ideas, but what happened after the Bomb hit was just stupid, grotesque, and disturbing. Did they really have to castrate the son? What was up with that?
As much of a fan of using older hardware as I am, I have to agree with the original poster here. If you're comparing the performance of different filesystems, you don't want the hardware to be the limiting factor or you don't learn anything.
Sure, if the design of the filesystem has way too much overhead, then that's going to show up more with older systems, since more hardware speed can compensate for bad design (look at Microsoft!), but if you have an old hard disk whose read/write speed caps early, then the filesystems compared won't differentiate much.
In my opinion, probably the tests are best done on a variety of systems. One of Linux's main strengths and selling points is that it is ubiquitous and can take advantage of "legacy" hardware.
Chris
Reuters/Yahoo is reporting that Coca-Cola has unveiled an 'intelligent' billboard in London's Piccadilly Circus -- at 99 feet wide, the world's biggest -- that supposedly will respond to weather, movement, and SMS text messages. The billboard itself is 52 square meters of LED display.
99 feet wide, 52 square meters??? What, does jhkoh work for NASA?
Ow ow ow ow!
Actually, too much panic too often can be desensitizing, as we've seen with the Orange Alerts we've had since 9/11. If the media cries wolf too often about anything, we tend to tune it out eventually.
You would think it'd be pretty easy to make some kind of plastic bag that would act like a thin sleeve for the phones, like disposable gloves and whatnot.
It could just be thin cellophane in the shape of a tube sock, maybe even with a zip lock on one end. Even a flip-open phone could be put in flipped open, then shut (plastic would fold over inside it).
That way, you could dispose of the bag and not worry about getting a special phone or banning them in hospitals altogether.
Chris
I used to *love* Sony, then my Sony DVD player crapped out less than two years after I bought it due to a design flaw. Sony knows about it, but is doing nothing about it, despite (or more likely because) a large number of customer complaints.
I bought a Panasonic to replace it and am happy now.
Any other brands that actually stand behind their product out there?
Chris
I've had a DirecTV system since 1997. Now I feel *dirty* for owning one and sending my subscription money to corporate weasels. I got away from cable in the first place for the Geek Chic of having a dish on my house, and because I generally hate the cable companies.
Then again, maybe Dish will do something similar soon?
Ick.
Chris
Yeah I thought the same thing, though this goes a step further and sends compressed copies of the resulting pages back you, not just an index of the sites.
What I wonder is why the *client* needs any software? Why not just make an email addy that people send queries to (like you did with "archie") and get the results back in whatever mailer you've got already?
Chris
So when do y'all think the .sex TLD will come out? Or would that make sex sites too easy to censor? Or is that a good thing for the pr0n business, being easy to block by parental units, avoiding costly court cases?
.sex top level domain, in my opinion.
sex.com would be such a moot issue if there was a
Chris
I'd say the efficiency he speaks of would only work if everyone making the transaction was a computer.
But hey, isn't that the case if you use a bank card or credit card for transactions instead of cash?
It's just decimal places, not metal circles that way.
I was about to say I mostly use plastic for transactions, but I know it can't be true because I just took a gallon jug full of change (accumulated over three years) to be changed in ($335.17) the other day, so I must use currency for something.
Chris