Remember the Boston Tea Party? The colonists were under incredibly strict and unhuman laws that stripped them of their rights. What did they do? Chucked a bunch of crates of tea out into the ocean, even though it was blatantly illegal.
I believe there comes a point when citizens must take the Constitution at its face value, as it was meant to be, and take measures against senseless government totalitarianism. Now, this doesn't mean scalping copies of Microsoft stuff--people are trying to make a valid living off that--but if encryption software can only be found on underground warez sites, then that's where we'll all have to go.
We have the right to privacy, to free speech, and anonymity. Do what you can, where you can, but just don't let this slide.
Well, I may be mistaken, but I think IE automatically allocates enough resources to each window you have open. In Netscape, you choose how much you want to let it take. There's so much more that's configurable. I guess I don't tend to like programs that do everything for me.;]
Also, (I'm running a Windoze box where I am now) IE has never worked correctly on this system. If it crashed, it'd take everything down with it, and there tended to be a horrific lack of options. (I've not used MSIE5 though.) And it'd crash often.
Netscape has proven itself much more reliable, at least to me.
Well, it's a nice toy, I guess. And the emotional displays are fairly realistic, considering that it is a bunch of wiring and metal rods.
I watched one of the videos, but I as well don't see much, if any, "learning" going on, on the robot's part. If anything, the preprogrammed behavior of Kismet is training Cynthia not to wave the toys too wildly in its face.
Kismet is programmed to manipulate. If you neglect it, it's sad. If you pay it enough attention, it's happy. If you overstimulate it, it gets cranky. I had a Tamagotchi that did the same.
If the point of this is to gauge *human* responses to Kismet's algorithms, then it's doing fine, but it's a darn expensive way to be doing it.
Put your elbows out, and the tops of your hands together at the wrist. Relax your hands; let your fingers hang down. In this position, your thumbs should be facing you, and your palms facing out.
Got it? Hold that position. Still holding? Keep it up for 40 seconds.
If you have any numbness or tingling, go talk to your doctor some more.
Not only do I pound on a cheap, poorly designed keyboard for too many hours a day, I also play guitar quite heavily. By the end of a day my left wrist, in particular (from my poorly tuned power chording) can really hurt.
I bought a nice gel wristpad (It helps reduce muscle strain if you keep your wrists elevated) and bought a lefty wrist brace as well, which I wear at night. That, and I began to make sure I had my monitor high enough that I wasn't slouching to see it. All these measures seem to help.
Carbos, Computers, Geeks, and Losing 100 Lbs
on
Hacker's Diet
·
· Score: 1
Slightly off topic: Most of the geekish girls I know are a little overweight, and the geekish guys are skinny. Why is this?;]
Anyway...I'm a geek chick still in high school now, so this is pretty recent memory for me: When I was in 8th grade, I looked horrible. About 5'8", almost 245 lbs. Yuck!
Well, about that time, our family got a Gateway P5-133, which quickly became my best friend. I spent *FAR* more time playing with technology than stuffing my face (although I occasionally did both at once.) Although I was fairly inert, not doing much more than going to school, coming home, and pounding on keys, I was eating much, much less.
I began to exercise--do SOMETHING--for about 30 minutes a day. It could be just pacing about in my basement (When I got a skateboard, I lost some weight too.) By the time I was a sophomore, I was about 5'9", 175 lbs. Now, were I a guy, that wouldn't be so terribly bad, but keep in mind, I'm not.
I started to really watch my calories. 1400-1500 a day. I watched my serving sizes and didn't go for seconds.
Caffiene, though I'm not sure it's that good for you, helped quite a bit. It quells hunger and speeds metabolism. I admit, I drink 3 or 4 Diet Coke / Diet Mountain Dews / cups of coffee a day.
Now I'm nearly exactly in the middle of my weight range for my height (I'm 5'10" now, 149 lbs) slightly hyperactive, getting carpal tunnel from typing at 110wpm, run on the treadmill for at least 20min a day.
Sometimes I swim, but I've discovered it's generally much, much too cold. (There IS an advantage to being fat. You 1)float better and 2) don't get cold.)
Like I said, most of my calories come from high-sugar carbos. I eat a lot of rice, pasta, cereal. I don't eat that much meat. And I like to keep it under 1400 calories a day.
I dunno. It might not be best for everyone, but I'm losing weight and keeping it off.
I'm a proud member of the female species, and I was not too caught up in the violence to watch it. In fact, I truly enjoyed this movie.
Not because of Keanu. If you ask me, he's a fairly horrid actor (I had to turn off Jonny Mnemonic midway through--couldn't stand how badly he was slaughtering the script) but as mentioned before, this slightly clueless, one-liner techie role was actually OK for him.
I realized it would contain violence (as per the genre of technological films rated R) but one must keep in mind: They weren't people that Neo blew to shreds. They were daemons.
All this aside, I sat back, thought about ways to explain the thin sections of the plot (I don't consider them loopholes if they can be reasoned through) and enjoyed it. I thought it was a heck of a show.
I seem to remember paging through my 11th-grade precalc book and stumbling upon this one: How about Echelon Matrix? (I'm not sure if this is scary, cool, or confused offtopic mindrot from a kid who's seen the movie too many times.)
"Yes, there probably is room for a new paradigm, but it should be Human Factors people doing it, not artists..."
Well, looking at the Netomat page, I'm figuring the people who attempted to code it are wannabes of this "artist" type you speak of--psychobabblers that wear only bright purple or orange spandex and eye makeup and paint things like pink elephant dung...*shudder*
But--my offtopic $.02--not all artists are like that. I believe that anyone who uses a medium of some sort to convey something, is an artist. I draw and paint, and play several instruments, but I also find artistry in the practicality of computers, their protocols, their interactions. The human eye is drawn to some things, such as tastefully designed windowing environments, well-made webpages, and the like.
But yeah, you're right. The Netomat people are crazy.
One December day, two years ago, I had eight shots of espresso. These were fairly big shots; I'd say almost a half-cup each. It was some _good stuff._ Lemme tell you, I was buzzed to no end. My mother and I had been shopping, and it was a 1 1/2 hour drive home. When I was nearly there I hit a patch of nasty ice and gravel and rolled my car. Fortunately neither my mom nor I were hurt. Caffeine? Faulty driving of a 15-year-old? Bad road conditions?
You decide.
I dunno, but if I could get another eight shots of that stuff, I would. It'd definitely be a plus. I can _see_ this monitor refreshing.
I think it's possible that with faster, more demanding standards, more will look into SCSI...The only drawback is it's quite expensive. (duh.) Most people in the mid-range of budgeting for computers/components don't even consider SCSI because of this. (I know I didn't. I'm just a kid.) Hey, anyone out there wanna work on some cheap SCSI drives?;]
Interesting. I've been doing sums on my fingers (and for really big numbers I use my toes) for years now. They work fine, and my toes are a dang sight cuter than leeches.
Interesting. I've never seen the term 'honor' applied to operating systems before.
The term 'honor' conjures to mind a knight in the medieval times (Or maybe a Klingon, depends on your mindset..;]). He had to serve his king. He had to protect his country. All very noble concepts. Romanticized by those the concepts enchant...
...He had to kill stuff and take care of a horse too.
So, perhaps I'm off base, but unless we see the gritty details of an 'honorable' OS, (i.e. code) perhaps it's not really that honorable after all? --
The heading is 'responsibility', defined as having power, yet using it wisely and to the common good.
M$, as of yet, has not made any definite arrangments to release their source code. Somewhat like the sushi analogy--do we really WANT to know what we're eating (running) ?
Heck yes. I'm sure a GOOD sushi cook wouldn't mind if you asked what goes into your raw fish.
The way I see it, Micro$oft truly DOES have all the trappings of megalomania.
Interesting. If the brain does indeed have its own CPU, what speed does it run at? And how much cache? I've always wondered things like this. And I suppose there were always times I wished my own brain had more RAM. I think I've got about 2 meg myself.
He will be missed! In the little community I'm in very few have heard of Silverstein, but I read and reread his books as a child...even performed a few of his poetry pieces in grade school. I'm glad to know other Slashdotters appreciated his influence as well...
I read through this article, getting a little nervous as I scrolled down. Then I stopped. Heck, I'm 17, addicted to caffeine, suffering from mild carpal tunnel, and I perpetually drive 80mph. Degenerative heart disease on my dad's side, diabetes on my mom's. I'm allergic to almost everything. I'll die young, leave a pretty corpse... I shrugged, took another swig of espresso and rubbed my wrists.
Then I read the disclaimer.
...
Dang.
Thank you, Rob, for making everyone's day a little more surreal...
--RawkettPenguiN
"My Palm Pilot is named Arthur. Perhaps that's why it locks up."
Absence of absolutes causes things like this.
on
Why Kids Kill
·
· Score: 1
You have many good points, but I must disagree on a few.
Being an outcast, being a rebel, being a loner gives no one in society the right to take lives. I admit, I'm another victim of the system. A junior in high school, I'm too clumsy to be in sports, not pretty enough to be a cheerleader, not popular enough to get a date to Prom. I spend my lunch periods on the Internet in a telnet window.
The world is always going to be filled with the big, the dumb, the ditzy, the attractive who seem to rule things in the high school scene, and the outcasts, the geeks, the punks have no choice but to fight against the framework these populars set up.
But the truth is...People ARE born to kill. People ARE born to cheat. People ARE born inherent sinners.
Without absolutes, the fiber of society literally falls to shreds.
These teenagers were among the best examples of this. They were apparently fans of Marilyn Manson, and among a group of "dark people", as news reports put it. I wouldn't be surprised if they were satanists, followers of evil itself.
And when man is put into control, a black and white right and wrong vanishes into a grey miasma of confusion.
These students blurred the line of right and wrong until it didn't exist anymore. You can say these students killed because they were outcasts. You can say they killed because they were Satanists. You can say they killed because of their upbringing. Or the media. Or technology. You can speculate, and speculate, and speculate.
But the core of the issue is this: Sin.
They were not right to take lives. Man is made in God's image. No matter how much they were wronged by other humans (have you ever heard "turn the other cheek?") to kill is to desecrate God's most prized creation: the one He made in His image.
Man is inherently sinful.
And too often, mainstream Christian orthodoxy is too busy raising money with polyester televangelists or being part of the judgemental system itself, to take the time to care for the outcast, the oppressed.
This nation has many problems, and they are not helped by those who claim to follow the God who made this nation great in the first place, yet deny Him with their lives.
I pray I make a difference.
I offer my sincerest condolences to those who have lost loved ones in the shooting, and may God be with us all.
I tried linux.org and slashdot.org some time ago...InterNIC couldn't find them, and I merely deduced only I had this problem. Well, now it CAN find 'em. Good. It broke and came back to life. Kinda like most things I happen across. Guitar amps, motherboards. Maybe I'm an incarnate Slashdot effect?;]
Slashdot Mirror
Remember the Boston Tea Party? The colonists were under incredibly strict and unhuman laws that stripped them of their rights. What did they do? Chucked a bunch of crates of tea out into the ocean, even though it was blatantly illegal.
I believe there comes a point when citizens must take the Constitution at its face value, as it was meant to be, and take measures against senseless government totalitarianism.
Now, this doesn't mean scalping copies of Microsoft stuff--people are trying to make a valid living off that--but if encryption software can only be found on underground warez sites, then that's where we'll all have to go.
We have the right to privacy, to free speech, and anonymity. Do what you can, where you can, but just don't let this slide.
Well, I may be mistaken, but I think IE automatically allocates enough resources to each window you have open. In Netscape, you choose how much you want to let it take. There's so much more that's configurable. I guess I don't tend to like programs that do everything for me. ;]
Also, (I'm running a Windoze box where I am now) IE has never worked correctly on this system. If it crashed, it'd take everything down with it, and there tended to be a horrific lack of options. (I've not used MSIE5 though.) And it'd crash often.
Netscape has proven itself much more reliable, at least to me.
Well, it's a nice toy, I guess. And the emotional displays are fairly realistic, considering that it is a bunch of wiring and metal rods.
I watched one of the videos, but I as well don't see much, if any, "learning" going on, on the robot's part. If anything, the preprogrammed behavior of Kismet is training Cynthia not to wave the toys too wildly in its face.
Kismet is programmed to manipulate. If you neglect it, it's sad. If you pay it enough attention, it's happy. If you overstimulate it, it gets cranky. I had a Tamagotchi that did the same.
If the point of this is to gauge *human* responses to Kismet's algorithms, then it's doing fine, but it's a darn expensive way to be doing it.
Top X Reasons To Listen to Slashdot Radio
-1) No one gets moderated down.
1) Rob is cute.
2) They're esoteric and hard to understand, but they're a heck of a lot nicer than Dr. Laura.
3) It's geekish and anarchic, but c'mon, it's Slashdot.
4) It's either Real or MP3--you can listen to it without AM/FM interference from having your case open.
5) Hemos has a cool giggle.
6) They talk about head-mounted displays, dancing in tubs of jello, pixels the size of fists, and English liters.
7) I LIKE fractals.
Repeat to yourself, it's just a show. The idea is to relax. ;]
---
I loved that show.
Put your elbows out, and the tops of your hands together at the wrist. Relax your hands; let your fingers hang down. In this position, your thumbs should be facing you, and your palms facing out.
Got it?
Hold that position.
Still holding?
Keep it up for 40 seconds.
If you have any numbness or tingling, go talk to your doctor some more.
Not only do I pound on a cheap, poorly designed keyboard for too many hours a day, I also play guitar quite heavily. By the end of a day my left wrist, in particular (from my poorly tuned power chording) can really hurt.
I bought a nice gel wristpad (It helps reduce muscle strain if you keep your wrists elevated) and bought a lefty wrist brace as well, which I wear at night. That, and I began to make sure I had my monitor high enough that I wasn't slouching to see it. All these measures seem to help.
Slightly off topic: Most of the geekish girls I know are a little overweight, and the geekish guys are skinny. Why is this? ;]
Anyway...I'm a geek chick still in high school now, so this is pretty recent memory for me: When I was in 8th grade, I looked horrible. About 5'8", almost 245 lbs. Yuck!
Well, about that time, our family got a Gateway P5-133, which quickly became my best friend. I spent *FAR* more time playing with technology than stuffing my face (although I occasionally did both at once.) Although I was fairly inert, not doing much more than going to school, coming home, and pounding on keys, I was eating much, much less.
I began to exercise--do SOMETHING--for about 30 minutes a day. It could be just pacing about in my basement (When I got a skateboard, I lost some weight too.) By the time I was a sophomore, I was about 5'9", 175 lbs. Now, were I a guy, that wouldn't be so terribly bad, but keep in mind, I'm not.
I started to really watch my calories. 1400-1500 a day. I watched my serving sizes and didn't go for seconds.
Caffiene, though I'm not sure it's that good for you, helped quite a bit. It quells hunger and speeds metabolism. I admit, I drink 3 or 4 Diet Coke / Diet Mountain Dews / cups of coffee a day.
Now I'm nearly exactly in the middle of my weight range for my height (I'm 5'10" now, 149 lbs) slightly hyperactive, getting carpal tunnel from typing at 110wpm, run on the treadmill for at least 20min a day.
Sometimes I swim, but I've discovered it's generally much, much too cold. (There IS an advantage to being fat. You 1)float better and 2) don't get cold.)
Like I said, most of my calories come from high-sugar carbos. I eat a lot of rice, pasta, cereal. I don't eat that much meat. And I like to keep it under 1400 calories a day.
I dunno. It might not be best for everyone, but I'm losing weight and keeping it off.
I'm a proud member of the female species, and I was not too caught up in the violence to watch it. In fact, I truly enjoyed this movie.
Not because of Keanu. If you ask me, he's a fairly horrid actor (I had to turn off Jonny Mnemonic midway through--couldn't stand how badly he was slaughtering the script) but as mentioned before, this slightly clueless, one-liner techie role was actually OK for him.
I realized it would contain violence (as per the genre of technological films rated R) but one must keep in mind: They weren't people that Neo blew to shreds. They were daemons.
All this aside, I sat back, thought about ways to explain the thin sections of the plot (I don't consider them loopholes if they can be reasoned through) and enjoyed it. I thought it was a heck of a show.
I seem to remember paging through my 11th-grade precalc book and stumbling upon this one:
How about Echelon Matrix?
(I'm not sure if this is scary, cool, or confused offtopic mindrot from a kid who's seen the movie too many times.)
Better than Dot Matrix, anyhow.
"Yes, there probably is room for a new paradigm, but it should be Human Factors people doing it, not artists..."
Well, looking at the Netomat page, I'm figuring the people who attempted to code it are wannabes of this "artist" type you speak of--psychobabblers that wear only bright purple or orange spandex and eye makeup and paint things like pink elephant dung...*shudder*
But--my offtopic $.02--not all artists are like that. I believe that anyone who uses a medium of some sort to convey something, is an artist. I draw and paint, and play several instruments, but I also find artistry in the practicality of computers, their protocols, their interactions. The human eye is drawn to some things, such as tastefully designed windowing environments, well-made webpages, and the like.
But yeah, you're right. The Netomat people are crazy.
One December day, two years ago, I had eight shots of espresso. These were fairly big shots; I'd say almost a half-cup each. It was some _good stuff._
Lemme tell you, I was buzzed to no end. My mother and I had been shopping, and it was a 1 1/2 hour drive home.
When I was nearly there I hit a patch of nasty ice and gravel and rolled my car. Fortunately neither my mom nor I were hurt.
Caffeine?
Faulty driving of a 15-year-old?
Bad road conditions?
You decide.
I dunno, but if I could get another eight shots of that stuff, I would. It'd definitely be a plus. I can _see_ this monitor refreshing.
I think it's possible that with faster, more demanding standards, more will look into SCSI...The only drawback is it's quite expensive. (duh.) Most people in the mid-range of budgeting for computers/components don't even consider SCSI because of this. (I know I didn't. I'm just a kid.) Hey, anyone out there wanna work on some cheap SCSI drives? ;]
Interesting.
I've been doing sums on my fingers (and for really big numbers I use my toes) for years now.
They work fine, and my toes are a dang sight cuter than leeches.
Just my $0.02.
--
Interesting. I've never seen the term 'honor' applied to operating systems before.
The term 'honor' conjures to mind a knight in the medieval times (Or maybe a Klingon, depends on your mindset..;]). He had to serve his king. He had to protect his country. All very noble concepts. Romanticized by those the concepts enchant...
...He had to kill stuff and take care of a horse too.
So, perhaps I'm off base, but unless we see the gritty details of an 'honorable' OS, (i.e. code) perhaps it's not really that honorable after all?
--
The heading is 'responsibility', defined as having power, yet using it wisely and to the common good.
M$, as of yet, has not made any definite arrangments to release their source code. Somewhat like the sushi analogy--do we really WANT to know what we're eating (running) ?
Heck yes.
I'm sure a GOOD sushi cook wouldn't mind if you asked what goes into your raw fish.
The way I see it, Micro$oft truly DOES have all the trappings of megalomania.
I dunno. I still see the Klingon.
--
Pitr from User Friendly, right?
Maybe not, but I thought this post was funny, actually.
--
Interesting. If the brain does indeed have its own CPU, what speed does it run at?
And how much cache?
I've always wondered things like this.
And I suppose there were always times I wished my own brain had more RAM. I think I've got about 2 meg myself.
And that's on good days.
He will be missed! In the little community I'm in very few have heard of Silverstein, but I read and reread his books as a child...even performed a few of his poetry pieces in grade school. I'm glad to know other Slashdotters appreciated his influence as well...
I read through this article, getting a little nervous as I scrolled down. Then I stopped. Heck, I'm 17, addicted to caffeine, suffering from mild carpal tunnel, and I perpetually drive 80mph. Degenerative heart disease on my dad's side, diabetes on my mom's. I'm allergic to almost everything. I'll die young, leave a pretty corpse...
I shrugged, took another swig of espresso and rubbed my wrists.
Then I read the disclaimer.
...
Dang.
Thank you, Rob, for making everyone's day a little more surreal...
--RawkettPenguiN
"My Palm Pilot is named Arthur. Perhaps that's why it locks up."
You have many good points, but I must disagree on a few.
Being an outcast, being a rebel, being a loner gives no one in society the right to take lives. I admit, I'm another victim of the system. A junior in high school, I'm too clumsy to be in sports, not pretty enough to be a cheerleader, not popular enough to get a date to Prom. I spend my lunch periods on the Internet in a telnet window.
The world is always going to be filled with the big, the dumb, the ditzy, the attractive who seem to rule things in the high school scene, and the outcasts, the geeks, the punks have no choice but to fight against the framework these populars set up.
But the truth is...People ARE born to kill. People ARE born to cheat. People ARE born inherent sinners.
Without absolutes, the fiber of society literally falls to shreds.
These teenagers were among the best examples of this. They were apparently fans of Marilyn Manson, and among a group of "dark people", as news reports put it. I wouldn't be surprised if they were satanists, followers of evil itself.
And when man is put into control, a black and white right and wrong vanishes into a grey miasma of confusion.
These students blurred the line of right and wrong until it didn't exist anymore. You can say these students killed because they were outcasts. You can say they killed because they were Satanists. You can say they killed because of their upbringing. Or the media. Or technology. You can speculate, and speculate, and speculate.
But the core of the issue is this: Sin.
They were not right to take lives. Man is made in God's image. No matter how much they were wronged by other humans (have you ever heard "turn the other cheek?") to kill is to desecrate God's most prized creation: the one He made in His image.
Man is inherently sinful.
And too often, mainstream Christian orthodoxy is too busy raising money with polyester televangelists or being part of the judgemental system itself, to take the time to care for the outcast, the oppressed.
This nation has many problems, and they are not helped by those who claim to follow the God who made this nation great in the first place, yet deny Him with their lives.
I pray I make a difference.
I offer my sincerest condolences to those who have lost loved ones in the shooting, and may God be with us all.
--RawkettPenguin
Nuff said.
Anyone here feel the pain of looking at their Palm Pro and seeing how OLD it is?
"My Palm Pilot is named Arthur. Maybe that's why it locks up."
I tried linux.org and slashdot.org some time ago...InterNIC couldn't find them, and I merely deduced only I had this problem. ;]
Well, now it CAN find 'em. Good.
It broke and came back to life.
Kinda like most things I happen across. Guitar amps, motherboards. Maybe I'm an incarnate Slashdot effect?