I had an interesting revelation the other night. You see, I'd just gotten my cell phone. I didn't buy it; my mother did, because she wanted me to have it "so she could always get in touch if she had to". I'd previously avoided owning one, but it was free (for me). I'd also thought that it was the other people who couldn't handle using one in parallel with another process.
Anyway, my girlfriend and my mother and I were all sitting around playing Monopoly when a friend called on my cell. I answered and started to chat. It was a very light conversation, no deep thinking, but I kept playing Monopoly as I talked.
Bad move.
We played two complete turns, with my opponents landing on a property owned by me EVERY TIME. Guess what? I didn't even notice. In my mind, I was playing just as well. Of course, I was seriously mistaken. I lost something like $2000 in that short time.
I took it as a serious lesson. Before, I had "kept the talking/driving to a minimum." Now I won't EVER talk while I drive. Do cell phones make people stupid? No, but it's most certainly a distraction, "hands-free" or not, and those little details that slip one's preoccupied mind are often the most important ones.
I'm not saying that arse-kissing isn't a valuable skill, it's just that arse-kissing skill is not what colleges should be looking at when they're trying to determine eligibility.
Oh, and my use of "arse" is just my way of avoiding the apparently-vulgar word "ass"; is it 'just as vulgar' "over there"? (In that case, I'm gonna have to come up with another euphamism)
I was blessed here in Tallahassee, FL, with some really great math teachers, as well as the option to take a "real" algebra course as "early" as the 7th grade. And we're not talking "algebraic concepts" here - I was required to derive the quadratic formula w/o completing the square, which is TOUGH when you're 12 or 13.:)
It disappoints me to see schools lowering their standards to raise average test scores. I'm one of the minority who believes that D should be passing, but that a C truly should be an "average" grade (just like it says on the report card). My H.S. has an average GPA of something like 3.4! That's just silly - there's nothing differentiating the truly exceptional from those who could either kiss a lot of arse or slough through it and do all the extra credit.
I also see a very disturbing trend of schools offering classes that, in essence, "teach the test", be it the SAT, ACT, or the FCAT (in FL's case). Doesn't this skew the results? I'd like to hear some others' opinions on this...:)
That's a bad analogy. A better one would be a door that comes with a lock installed. There's an implication that the lock will be secure. Yes, the criminal is still opening the door, but the manufacturer is negligent.
Spread spectrum technology is a beautiful thing. Let me explain...
So let's say I'm Plane is communicating with Base using SS methods. You want to try a "man-in-the-middle" attack. Oops! You can't tell where (in the spectrum) Plane's transmissions are. Damn - if you can't hear him, you can't intercept anything.
So what about a DoS attack? You want to jam Plane's communications. Easy enough, you just start broadcasting louder than Plane, whereever (in the spectrum) Plane's signals are.
Oops! You don't know what frequency Plane is using. No problem, you'll just listen for Plane's transmissions. Oops, again! SS allows Plane to (using various methods) broadcast at an amplitude that's below the noise level.
But you know Plane's transmitter's operating range, so you'll just "jam" across all of it! Oops! You're "in the field", and to do so requires a LOT of power. LOTS more than you've got. In fact, if Plane uses a frequency range wide enough, it becomes physically impossible to jam a "swath" wide enough.
I wouldn't worry much about "hacking" the base station, either - I mean, really... who would put their plane control system on a machine that's also used for surfing the web...
While a nifty idea, it's probably not coming Anytime Soon Now.
Launching from a carrier is a generally simply affair - engines up, hold on, up stick. Cake:-)
Landings are where the problem lies - it'd take (IMO) a WHOLE LOT of work to make a plane that could not only land, but land on a platform that is pitching, rolling, and moving, at the same time. And when your mistakes cost millions, it's not exactly like you can just say "Oops, forgot to compensate for input from gyro 3 - recompile bring out another one!"
We're talking about "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" here, not "Gran Turismo".
And anyway, tires *do* wear in GT3 (and GT2, for that matter), they're just "infinitely replaceable". Car damage would be nice, as it would discourage people from doing the "let the wall do the turning" 'trick'.
1) Ask for refund of $50 + tax. 2) Be denied. 3) Say, "I'd like to return my [PS2|Xbox], it doesn't work with my TV." 4) Recieve money 5) Turn right around and re-buy a PS2 at discounted cost, making sure refund-denier observes said activity. 6) Cease purchasing from location.
Re:Arms race leading to a pitched battle
on
Spyware Fights Back
·
· Score: 1
"Dueling license agreements? Dueling subroutines in realtime! Your 'puter running separate sets of concurrent processes launched by the two programs, in a life-and-death struggle for total domination of your hard drive! Winner gets your bandwidth."
...but that's just it. These schools districts have signed contracts that state that Microsoft can audit them and the schools can pay for it if even one machine is out of compliance, or they can audit themselves (but then they have to provide "proof"), or they can just pay a flat per-machine ta- er, "fee" to M$, which would amount to ~$500,000.
No, they don't. They may call it either breach of contract or, yes, theft. There is a huge difference.
It would be copyright infringment IFF I reproduced the work without right to do so. If I agree to pay for a work after 30 days, and fail to do so, it may be considered theft, and it may be considered breach of contract (or the like, depending on the strength of the "clickthrough" license agreement). Fact is, there's not much precedent for this, since with the exception of spyware, it's next-to-impossible for an author to tell who's doing this.
I work for a research lab at FSU (that's Florida State Univ) that does work with the FL Dept. of Transportation.
The name of our research lab? The "Information Processing and Transmission Engineering Laboratory". Or the IPTEL. Or the I-P-and-TEL.
How about our DOT branch office? Well, it used to be the Signals and Traffic Engineering Research Lab. Or the STERL, pronounced "sturl". We all called it the "sterile". They've since dropped the S, so it's the TERL.
Just my little bit.
Brandon (NewWazoo) Proud member or STERL, IPandTEL.
Okay, so MS doesn't want to directly compete with all of these other corporations (NBC, etc). So they offer them lucrative contracts (or "incentives") to disallow release of their IP (movies, show episode collections, etc) in any format other than MS's.
E.g. Disney: Disney wants to make a movie. MS steps up and offers to supply all their software needs and give them a custom development team, all for the paltry condition that Disney not release their movies in any format other that WMV.
Dude, do you know what "leveraging a monopoly" means? It means that they use thier ubiquity (monopoly) in other markets to place undue pressure on existing markets, in order to have their new products made the standard.
Face the facts: Microsoft has enough money to outright BUY a movie production house, several directors, and a DVD manufacturer. One big blockbuster of a movie (the "killer app" phomenon), and Microsoft formats suddenly exist on every new DVD player sold. Some kickback (in the form of "reduced-cost licensing") to the non-MS DVD makers to start dropping support for non-MS formats, and guess what? New DVD producers will begin to only make movies in the MS format.
I own three cars. Two are Mazda RX-7s (of the 86 and 87 vintage, specifically). They BOTH have rotary engines. Mazda has sucessfully been employing rotaries since the early 60's, with the R-100 and Eunos Cosmo. I've torn down and rebuilt rotaries. The rotary is the heart and soul of one of the best sports cars in the world: the (you guessed it) Mazda RX-7. This car (with the aid of two turbochargers) gets 276 hp from 1.3 litres and still gets >25 mpg on the highway.
Mazda has been building H2-based rotaries for *years*. They put them in Miatas. IIRC, you can buy one in Japan. The problem is that their power is proportional to how much H2 they have "in the tank", which makes them annoying (to say the least) to drive around town when you're low. The neato thing about rotaries is that the combustion area is seperate from the injection/intake area, which helps to prevent "intake precombustion" since the H2 is kept away from the engine's "hot spot" until you want it to combust, anyway.
All of this is *really* old-hat, but it's so esoteric that I guess I can't fault the editors and slashdotters tooooo badly. But *geez*...
TheNewWazoo
98 Camry V6
86 RX-7 GXL
87 RX-7 base parts car
Yes, it was pretty sick that the OJ crap went on for sooooo long. But keep this in mind - at the time, it was the most interesting "news" item happening.
...and the fact that it was the most interesting really shows us how good we've got it. When we can afford to ignore what goes on in our Congress; when we can afford to ignore what's heppening elsewhere in the world, we've GOT IT GOOD. I can't speak for anyone else, but this event has really opened my eyes about how other people around the world have to live with Terrorism *every day*. And that little bit of extra vision really makes me glad that I do in fact live the U.S. of A.
As an aside, my girlfriend asked me last night whether I would prefer to live here or in Panama (which I visited and fell in love with). Before the attack, I would have said "Panama" in a moment. Now, I'm not so sure. Like I said, I'm starting to realize just how good I've got it.
Slashdot Mirror
I had an interesting revelation the other night. You see, I'd just gotten my cell phone. I didn't buy it; my mother did, because she wanted me to have it "so she could always get in touch if she had to". I'd previously avoided owning one, but it was free (for me). I'd also thought that it was the other people who couldn't handle using one in parallel with another process.
Anyway, my girlfriend and my mother and I were all sitting around playing Monopoly when a friend called on my cell. I answered and started to chat. It was a very light conversation, no deep thinking, but I kept playing Monopoly as I talked.
Bad move.
We played two complete turns, with my opponents landing on a property owned by me EVERY TIME. Guess what? I didn't even notice. In my mind, I was playing just as well. Of course, I was seriously mistaken. I lost something like $2000 in that short time.
I took it as a serious lesson. Before, I had "kept the talking/driving to a minimum." Now I won't EVER talk while I drive. Do cell phones make people stupid? No, but it's most certainly a distraction, "hands-free" or not, and those little details that slip one's preoccupied mind are often the most important ones.
Brandon
I'm not saying that arse-kissing isn't a valuable skill, it's just that arse-kissing skill is not what colleges should be looking at when they're trying to determine eligibility.
Oh, and my use of "arse" is just my way of avoiding the apparently-vulgar word "ass"; is it 'just as vulgar' "over there"? (In that case, I'm gonna have to come up with another euphamism)
Brandon
I was blessed here in Tallahassee, FL, with some really great math teachers, as well as the option to take a "real" algebra course as "early" as the 7th grade. And we're not talking "algebraic concepts" here - I was required to derive the quadratic formula w/o completing the square, which is TOUGH when you're 12 or 13.
It disappoints me to see schools lowering their standards to raise average test scores. I'm one of the minority who believes that D should be passing, but that a C truly should be an "average" grade (just like it says on the report card). My H.S. has an average GPA of something like 3.4! That's just silly - there's nothing differentiating the truly exceptional from those who could either kiss a lot of arse or slough through it and do all the extra credit.
I also see a very disturbing trend of schools offering classes that, in essence, "teach the test", be it the SAT, ACT, or the FCAT (in FL's case). Doesn't this skew the results? I'd like to hear some others' opinions on this...
Just my $0.02 worth of incoherent rambling...
Brandon
That's a bad analogy. A better one would be a door that comes with a lock installed. There's an implication that the lock will be secure. Yes, the criminal is still opening the door, but the manufacturer is negligent.
Brandon
This is the US Govt's first step toward true uber-government and world domination...
1) Take over ICANN
2) ???
3) Profit!
The New Wazoo
Spread spectrum technology is a beautiful thing. Let me explain...
So let's say I'm Plane is communicating with Base using SS methods. You want to try a "man-in-the-middle" attack. Oops! You can't tell where (in the spectrum) Plane's transmissions are. Damn - if you can't hear him, you can't intercept anything.
So what about a DoS attack? You want to jam Plane's communications. Easy enough, you just start broadcasting louder than Plane, whereever (in the spectrum) Plane's signals are.
Oops! You don't know what frequency Plane is using. No problem, you'll just listen for Plane's transmissions. Oops, again! SS allows Plane to (using various methods) broadcast at an amplitude that's below the noise level.
But you know Plane's transmitter's operating range, so you'll just "jam" across all of it! Oops! You're "in the field", and to do so requires a LOT of power. LOTS more than you've got. In fact, if Plane uses a frequency range wide enough, it becomes physically impossible to jam a "swath" wide enough.
I wouldn't worry much about "hacking" the base station, either - I mean, really... who would put their plane control system on a machine that's also used for surfing the web...
Brandon
While a nifty idea, it's probably not coming Anytime Soon Now.
Launching from a carrier is a generally simply affair - engines up, hold on, up stick. Cake
Landings are where the problem lies - it'd take (IMO) a WHOLE LOT of work to make a plane that could not only land, but land on a platform that is pitching, rolling, and moving, at the same time. And when your mistakes cost millions, it's not exactly like you can just say "Oops, forgot to compensate for input from gyro 3 - recompile bring out another one!"
Someday, though, I'm sure. Someday.
Brandon
IIRC, they were having problems with the physics and rendering, specifically wrt turns - cars lean out, while bikes lean in.
I agree, though - they would have kicked A$$!
Brandon
Uh, hello?
We're talking about "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" here, not "Gran Turismo".
And anyway, tires *do* wear in GT3 (and GT2, for that matter), they're just "infinitely replaceable". Car damage would be nice, as it would discourage people from doing the "let the wall do the turning" 'trick'.
(uh, sorry for the OT
Brandon
They all do! (grin)
1) Ask for refund of $50 + tax.
2) Be denied.
3) Say, "I'd like to return my [PS2|Xbox], it doesn't work with my TV."
4) Recieve money
5) Turn right around and re-buy a PS2 at discounted cost, making sure refund-denier observes said activity.
6) Cease purchasing from location.
Simple!
Brandon
Unless of course they start charging for IE
Uh, they do. It's called Windows.
Brandon
"Dueling license agreements? Dueling subroutines in realtime! Your 'puter running separate sets of concurrent processes launched by the two programs, in a life-and-death struggle for total domination of your hard drive! Winner gets your bandwidth."
:-p
Oh my God! It's a race condition!
Brandon
"Would Terminator II be as good of a movie without the first one?"
:-)
Uh, Yup.
I'm 19, and TII was the first R-rated movie I ever saw. I've never seen Terminator, and don't think I ever will... but I LOVE Terminator II.
So yes.
Brandon
...but that's just it. These schools districts have signed contracts that state that Microsoft can audit them and the schools can pay for it if even one machine is out of compliance, or they can audit themselves (but then they have to provide "proof"), or they can just pay a flat per-machine ta- er, "fee" to M$, which would amount to ~$500,000.
Redhat? Are you listening?
Brandon
No, they don't. They may call it either breach of contract or, yes, theft. There is a huge difference.
It would be copyright infringment IFF I reproduced the work without right to do so. If I agree to pay for a work after 30 days, and fail to do so, it may be considered theft, and it may be considered breach of contract (or the like, depending on the strength of the "clickthrough" license agreement). Fact is, there's not much precedent for this, since with the exception of spyware, it's next-to-impossible for an author to tell who's doing this.
Brandon
(TheNewWazoo)
I work for a research lab at FSU (that's Florida State Univ) that does work with the FL Dept. of Transportation.
The name of our research lab? The "Information Processing and Transmission Engineering Laboratory". Or the IPTEL. Or the I-P-and-TEL.
How about our DOT branch office? Well, it used to be the Signals and Traffic Engineering Research Lab. Or the STERL, pronounced "sturl". We all called it the "sterile". They've since dropped the S, so it's the TERL.
Just my little bit.
Brandon
(NewWazoo)
Proud member or STERL, IPandTEL.
Actaully, Snatch has just this ability. It's a tad intrusive, since an orange diamond appears on-screen during deleted scenes, but it's nifty anyway.
Brandon
$_ = s/Game Boy/Nintendo/;
Hmmm... let's think for a minute:
Perhaps you lost your (precious) moderation points because you POSTED A REPLY TO THIS STORY???
... or maybe, just maybe you lost your moderation points because people don't care to hear your WHINING and your post was COMPLETELY off-topic.
Yeah, and I bet the CIA's plotting against you, too - evidenced by the fact that you got pulled over for doing 70 in a 55, right?
*grumblelosergrumble*
TheNewWazoo
Well, IMO the leveraging claim still stands.
Okay, so MS doesn't want to directly compete with all of these other corporations (NBC, etc). So they offer them lucrative contracts (or "incentives") to disallow release of their IP (movies, show episode collections, etc) in any format other than MS's.
E.g. Disney: Disney wants to make a movie. MS steps up and offers to supply all their software needs and give them a custom development team, all for the paltry condition that Disney not release their movies in any format other that WMV.
QED, MS has sucessfully leveraged their monopoly.
TheNewWazoo
Dude, do you know what "leveraging a monopoly" means? It means that they use thier ubiquity (monopoly) in other markets to place undue pressure on existing markets, in order to have their new products made the standard.
Face the facts: Microsoft has enough money to outright BUY a movie production house, several directors, and a DVD manufacturer. One big blockbuster of a movie (the "killer app" phomenon), and Microsoft formats suddenly exist on every new DVD player sold. Some kickback (in the form of "reduced-cost licensing") to the non-MS DVD makers to start dropping support for non-MS formats, and guess what? New DVD producers will begin to only make movies in the MS format.
2 + 2 = 4.
TheNewWazoo
domc said:
Screw the Hobbit. I want a movie version of the Silmarillion!
Heh. I can just see it now: "Hundreds die at movie preview, cause uncertain".
Followed shortly by "Tedium declared weapon of mass destruction by UN"
Brandon
Oh, well, since they did it in the past, it must be alright then, yes?
I guess the phrase "learning from one's mistakes" means nothing to you.
Brandon
Dude, are you on crack?
I own three cars. Two are Mazda RX-7s (of the 86 and 87 vintage, specifically). They BOTH have rotary engines. Mazda has sucessfully been employing rotaries since the early 60's, with the R-100 and Eunos Cosmo. I've torn down and rebuilt rotaries. The rotary is the heart and soul of one of the best sports cars in the world: the (you guessed it) Mazda RX-7. This car (with the aid of two turbochargers) gets 276 hp from 1.3 litres and still gets >25 mpg on the highway.
Mazda has been building H2-based rotaries for *years*. They put them in Miatas. IIRC, you can buy one in Japan. The problem is that their power is proportional to how much H2 they have "in the tank", which makes them annoying (to say the least) to drive around town when you're low. The neato thing about rotaries is that the combustion area is seperate from the injection/intake area, which helps to prevent "intake precombustion" since the H2 is kept away from the engine's "hot spot" until you want it to combust, anyway.
All of this is *really* old-hat, but it's so esoteric that I guess I can't fault the editors and slashdotters tooooo badly. But *geez*...
TheNewWazoo
98 Camry V6
86 RX-7 GXL
87 RX-7 base parts car
Yes, it was pretty sick that the OJ crap went on for sooooo long. But keep this in mind - at the time, it was the most interesting "news" item happening.
...and the fact that it was the most interesting really shows us how good we've got it. When we can afford to ignore what goes on in our Congress; when we can afford to ignore what's heppening elsewhere in the world, we've GOT IT GOOD. I can't speak for anyone else, but this event has really opened my eyes about how other people around the world have to live with Terrorism *every day*. And that little bit of extra vision really makes me glad that I do in fact live the U.S. of A.
As an aside, my girlfriend asked me last night whether I would prefer to live here or in Panama (which I visited and fell in love with). Before the attack, I would have said "Panama" in a moment. Now, I'm not so sure. Like I said, I'm starting to realize just how good I've got it.
Don't Tread on Me.
Brandon
(TheNewWazoo)