I could see this working in only one way: one central organization (a for-profit company) starts the open source certification project. This company would administer the tests and write the first version of the test questions. The test is open source in that all of the test questions are public knowledge (Creative Commons license?). The way to do this is to just make a gigantic question bank, and the questions ocn a particular instance of the test are just drawn from the bank. You'd still have people who try to game the system by just learning the answers to every question in the bank, but the obvious solution to that is to just make the question bank gigantic. I've found that open source works very well for projects where lots of pieces need to be made, but they don't really have to interact very much. This might work pretty well.
There was once a substance called "duct tape". Over the years, that original great invention has migrated within the public consciousness. Today, nobody remembers what that word "duct" means or how it's spelled. Therefore, the Great Grey Tape has been rechristened after a noisy waterfowl. Go to the hardware store and look sometime. Half of it _does_ involve the word "duck".
Working that backwards: Slashdot cremates pwntcha, un-breaking captcha. Un-breaking captcha un-stops bots. Therefore, slashdot un-stops bots. I was starting to think the whole slashdot system was just an automated method of destroying the internet; now I have proof. Thanks.
Okay, I know I'm going to feel like an idiot, but
on
Defeating Captcha
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A test for humanness will not be convincing until it cuts out 70% of AOL users and 58.2% of Belgium. (58.2% of Belgian users would work, too.)
I don't get the Belgium/Belgian users reference. Did they do something wrong to not be considered humans? Are they dumber than average? Is "Belgium" just a funny word? I don't get it. Somebody (preferably one who knows the answer) please enlighten me.
The big question is: how do I get free slashdotvertising for my data recovery company. Oh wait, screw that. How do I get my own data recovery company? Eh, screw that too. I'll settle for a job.
A good point. The (/.) description is wrong in that it implies that there is some recently discovered type of vulnerability. The truth is that if you have paid any attention to cryptography stories in the last decade, this article is just rehashing old news. Besides that, it goes out of its way to tell us just how wonderful IBM is. (Hardly surprising, as it's on ibm.com)
Does this mean that Microsoft has given up on software patents in Europe? Everybody has been saying that the pro-software-patent folks in Europe (MS is the leader of the pack there) killed their bill deliberately to wait until some of the heat died off. Given that, you'd think MS would try to play down their more "evil" patents in the US so as not to scare Europeans any more than necessary.
that they have a product that was on the market before Microsoft even filed for their patent would automatically invalidate Microsoft's patent. Wouldn't it? We call it prior art, don't we?
Yes, we call that prior art. Prior art does not invalidate a patent, because patents are not issued when prior art exists. All facts to the contrary are illusory.
This just in! As a way to get into space, the space shuttle sucks! Wow, that's amazing. Do you mean that all of those glowing reviews of it I've heard for as long as I can remember (I'm 23) were bull?
Seriously though, a lot of science fiction writers have been warning us about just what is happening. If we focus on "solving all our problems on the ground first" then we'll never move into space properly. The same will happen if we're too pussyfooted to accept the occasional death due to space travel. It's already safer than any major frontier exploration in history. (I'm not saying we should waste astronauts, but that doesn't mean we should quit going into orbit for 2+ years just because a few die either.) If we don't go out and build something semi-permanent beyond Earth (the Moon or the asteroid belt, maybe Mars) pretty soon, we're going to end up screwing things up on Earth badly enough (economic collapse, ecological disaster, evil killer robots, whatever) that we can't go to space. In the long run, having groups of humans separated by a few million miles is probably the best way to keep us from killing each other all the time.
2031 U.S. citizens start spending 23 hours a day brushing their teeth due to a Microsoft software glitch. Costa Rica takes the opportunity to invade (like they've always wanted to).
Okay, whoever wrote the headline, I think you owe Microsoft an apology. This is a major breakthrough! Not only does their new magical machine check to see whether it's supposed to emphasize numbers, it also then emphasizes them:
Emphasizing may include adding a highlighting attribute to the located numerical data or adding other formatting to visually distinguish the numerical data from the remainder of the electronic document.
Now say you're sorry or you don't get any ice cream.
You could look at it the other way. I'd prefer if everybody else had to face automatic traffic enforcement. I myself seldom speed (never intentionally), and I think I would be a lot safer if other people didn't get away with it so often. Sure, I'd rather not get a bunch of automated tickets, but that doesn't mean I don't want the system in place.
You've gotta' love anything that comes out of Darl's mouth. Get a load of some of my favorite quotes:
"Is SCO a company that is really focused on innovating products and technology or are you just hoping to win a lawsuit against IBM and then ride off into the sunset?" "Isn't SCO just all about defeating Linux?" Of course we are innovating and we absolutely want to defeat Linux, just as we want to defeat any other competitor.
And then he goes on to badmouth Linux (as opposed to other competitors) for the rest of the letter.
Is Linux really free? Of course not.
"Free" is one of the most searched words on the Web today. When you type in "Free" in Yahoo search, it brings up more than 3 billion hits. "Free" is a very powerful marketing concept. We all love free. Linux lures you in with the promise of its being "free." But before you get out of the "store," you are surprised to find out that it was anything but free. Just remember the proverb, "Free is the most expensive price."
Unfortunately for Linux, mi2g also confirmed that the Linux operating system has become somewhat of a hacker's paradise. In a study conducted only seven months ago they found that overall, the most vulnerable operating system for manual hacker attacks was Linux, accounting for 65.64% of all hacker breaches reported.
There's a cute trick, equating security with manual hacker attacks. It completely ignores the fact that most "hacking", ie unauthorized computer use, is done with automated tools ("script kiddies" in hacker parlance).
Linux will likely continue to face challenges about its development methodologies and roadmaps as long as it continues to be a loosely organized set of volunteers who develop what they want, when they want.
The results must be bad because I say the method was bad.
He goes on for pages, but it's all his usual garbage. Nothing new, of course.
I believe that what you're referring to is the fact that many developed countries have sub-replacement fertility. Most undeveloped countries still have growing populations. Assuming that all countries eventually get to the "developed" state (hardly a certainty, but I guess it's possible), at least with regards to population growth, then yes; population will eventually stabilize.
You are either for the expansion of growth of the human population off the earth and into space or you are for mass murder and restricted personal liberty to control population growth here on earth.
Correction: there is a third option. You could always be so short-sighted that you don't see the necessity to choose one of these two. I strongly suspect that almost every politician alive (any party, any country) has such a short time horizon that they'd never actually try to push either of these.
I agree with you that we need to be out there. Do you suppose a space arms race would promote or discourage it? I really can't decide. On the one hand it would litter near-earth space with debris of dead satellites and such. On the other hand, it would mean lots of countries putting money into space travel (launches at least). Of course, if it precipitates a nuclear war, we're all fscked.
I agree with you that we need to be out there. Do you suppose a space arms race would promote or discourage it? I really can't decide. On the one hand it would litter near-earth space with debris of dead satellites and such. On the other hand, it would mean lots of countries putting money into space travel (launches at least). Of course, if it precipitates a nuclear war, we're all fscked.
You know, I have been wondering if maybe all the "problems" with the shuttle are just a PR attempt. I mean, in a system as complex as the shuttle, you'll see lots of (minor) problems every launch. In the 90s, most shuttle launches barely made it onto the news. This launch, with it being the first in a few years and having a spacewalk to repair something, seems to have had a lot more coverage. I don't actually know that they exaggerated the dangers of this stuff, but it seems possible.
That being said, I think it unlikely that they'd choose to accentuate the dangers of spaceflight. That's the kind of thing that tends to get them grounded.
(Yeah, I usually contradict myself. Nothing new here.)
Slashdot Mirror
I could see this working in only one way: one central organization (a for-profit company) starts the open source certification project. This company would administer the tests and write the first version of the test questions. The test is open source in that all of the test questions are public knowledge (Creative Commons license?). The way to do this is to just make a gigantic question bank, and the questions ocn a particular instance of the test are just drawn from the bank. You'd still have people who try to game the system by just learning the answers to every question in the bank, but the obvious solution to that is to just make the question bank gigantic. I've found that open source works very well for projects where lots of pieces need to be made, but they don't really have to interact very much. This might work pretty well.
Until everyone's completely honest...
I'm holding my breath for that... [muffled grunt]... Gasp! Ah, screw it.
People lie through their teeth. They always have (isn't that the main point of inventing language?) and always will. Deal with it.
There was once a substance called "duct tape". Over the years, that original great invention has migrated within the public consciousness. Today, nobody remembers what that word "duct" means or how it's spelled. Therefore, the Great Grey Tape has been rechristened after a noisy waterfowl. Go to the hardware store and look sometime. Half of it _does_ involve the word "duck".
Working that backwards: Slashdot cremates pwntcha, un-breaking captcha. Un-breaking captcha un-stops bots. Therefore, slashdot un-stops bots. I was starting to think the whole slashdot system was just an automated method of destroying the internet; now I have proof. Thanks.
A test for humanness will not be convincing until it cuts out 70% of AOL users and 58.2% of Belgium. (58.2% of Belgian users would work, too.)
I don't get the Belgium/Belgian users reference. Did they do something wrong to not be considered humans? Are they dumber than average? Is "Belgium" just a funny word? I don't get it. Somebody (preferably one who knows the answer) please enlighten me.
The big question is: how do I get free slashdotvertising for my data recovery company.
Oh wait, screw that. How do I get my own data recovery company?
Eh, screw that too. I'll settle for a job.
Zookeeper: Animals, attack.
[He blows a silent whistle and animal exhibits come to life and break out of the glass cases. They run rampage.]
Tour Guide: Please to not feed the animals!
[An elephant picks her up and eats her.]
A good point. The (/.) description is wrong in that it implies that there is some recently discovered type of vulnerability. The truth is that if you have paid any attention to cryptography stories in the last decade, this article is just rehashing old news. Besides that, it goes out of its way to tell us just how wonderful IBM is. (Hardly surprising, as it's on ibm.com)
Slashdot readers always get the joke. Any who appear not to get the joke only prove the rule.
Does this mean that Microsoft has given up on software patents in Europe?
Everybody has been saying that the pro-software-patent folks in Europe (MS is the leader of the pack there) killed their bill deliberately to wait until some of the heat died off. Given that, you'd think MS would try to play down their more "evil" patents in the US so as not to scare Europeans any more than necessary.
that they have a product that was on the market before Microsoft even filed for their patent would automatically invalidate Microsoft's patent. Wouldn't it? We call it prior art, don't we?
Yes, we call that prior art. Prior art does not invalidate a patent, because patents are not issued when prior art exists. All facts to the contrary are illusory.
Frankly, for travel in the solar system any other form of propulsion is misguided at best and outright stupid at worst!
So does that mean that NASA is doing a good job? The Mars Climate Orbiter was only misguided (by 83 miles. No, wait, kilometers.).
This just in! As a way to get into space, the space shuttle sucks! Wow, that's amazing. Do you mean that all of those glowing reviews of it I've heard for as long as I can remember (I'm 23) were bull?
Seriously though, a lot of science fiction writers have been warning us about just what is happening. If we focus on "solving all our problems on the ground first" then we'll never move into space properly. The same will happen if we're too pussyfooted to accept the occasional death due to space travel. It's already safer than any major frontier exploration in history. (I'm not saying we should waste astronauts, but that doesn't mean we should quit going into orbit for 2+ years just because a few die either.) If we don't go out and build something semi-permanent beyond Earth (the Moon or the asteroid belt, maybe Mars) pretty soon, we're going to end up screwing things up on Earth badly enough (economic collapse, ecological disaster, evil killer robots, whatever) that we can't go to space. In the long run, having groups of humans separated by a few million miles is probably the best way to keep us from killing each other all the time.
You forgot about:
2031 U.S. citizens start spending 23 hours a day brushing their teeth due to a Microsoft software glitch. Costa Rica takes the opportunity to invade (like they've always wanted to).
Okay, whoever wrote the headline, I think you owe Microsoft an apology. This is a major breakthrough! Not only does their new magical machine check to see whether it's supposed to emphasize numbers, it also then emphasizes them:
Emphasizing may include adding a highlighting attribute to the located numerical data or adding other formatting to visually distinguish the numerical data from the remainder of the electronic document.
Now say you're sorry or you don't get any ice cream.
You could look at it the other way. I'd prefer if everybody else had to face automatic traffic enforcement. I myself seldom speed (never intentionally), and I think I would be a lot safer if other people didn't get away with it so often. Sure, I'd rather not get a bunch of automated tickets, but that doesn't mean I don't want the system in place.
Ya' know, I used to make those with butter and brown sugar. They're good.
Folks, this doesn't go into effect until 2007. Keep your pants on.
You've gotta' love anything that comes out of Darl's mouth. Get a load of some of my favorite quotes:
"Is SCO a company that is really focused on innovating products and technology or are you just hoping to win a lawsuit against IBM and then ride off into the sunset?" "Isn't SCO just all about defeating Linux?" Of course we are innovating and we absolutely want to defeat Linux, just as we want to defeat any other competitor.
And then he goes on to badmouth Linux (as opposed to other competitors) for the rest of the letter.
Is Linux really free? Of course not.
"Free" is one of the most searched words on the Web today. When you type in "Free" in Yahoo search, it brings up more than 3 billion hits. "Free" is a very powerful marketing concept. We all love free. Linux lures you in with the promise of its being "free." But before you get out of the "store," you are surprised to find out that it was anything but free. Just remember the proverb, "Free is the most expensive price."
A classic straw man argument.
Unfortunately for Linux, mi2g also confirmed that the Linux operating system has become somewhat of a hacker's paradise. In a study conducted only seven months ago they found that overall, the most vulnerable operating system for manual hacker attacks was Linux, accounting for 65.64% of all hacker breaches reported.
There's a cute trick, equating security with manual hacker attacks. It completely ignores the fact that most "hacking", ie unauthorized computer use, is done with automated tools ("script kiddies" in hacker parlance).
Linux will likely continue to face challenges about its development methodologies and roadmaps as long as it continues to be a loosely organized set of volunteers who develop what they want, when they want.
The results must be bad because I say the method was bad.
He goes on for pages, but it's all his usual garbage. Nothing new, of course.
I didn't mean outside the nuclear club. I meant within the club: US, China, Japan probably (in response to China), maybe Europe.
That doesn't mean I think it's a good idea, of course.
I believe that what you're referring to is the fact that many developed countries have sub-replacement fertility. Most undeveloped countries still have growing populations. Assuming that all countries eventually get to the "developed" state (hardly a certainty, but I guess it's possible), at least with regards to population growth, then yes; population will eventually stabilize.
You are either for the expansion of growth of the human population off the earth and into space or you are for mass murder and restricted personal liberty to control population growth here on earth.
Correction: there is a third option. You could always be so short-sighted that you don't see the necessity to choose one of these two. I strongly suspect that almost every politician alive (any party, any country) has such a short time horizon that they'd never actually try to push either of these.
I agree with you that we need to be out there. Do you suppose a space arms race would promote or discourage it? I really can't decide. On the one hand it would litter near-earth space with debris of dead satellites and such. On the other hand, it would mean lots of countries putting money into space travel (launches at least). Of course, if it precipitates a nuclear war, we're all fscked.
I agree with you that we need to be out there. Do you suppose a space arms race would promote or discourage it? I really can't decide. On the one hand it would litter near-earth space with debris of dead satellites and such. On the other hand, it would mean lots of countries putting money into space travel (launches at least). Of course, if it precipitates a nuclear war, we're all fscked.
You know, I have been wondering if maybe all the "problems" with the shuttle are just a PR attempt. I mean, in a system as complex as the shuttle, you'll see lots of (minor) problems every launch. In the 90s, most shuttle launches barely made it onto the news. This launch, with it being the first in a few years and having a spacewalk to repair something, seems to have had a lot more coverage. I don't actually know that they exaggerated the dangers of this stuff, but it seems possible.
That being said, I think it unlikely that they'd choose to accentuate the dangers of spaceflight. That's the kind of thing that tends to get them grounded.
(Yeah, I usually contradict myself. Nothing new here.)