Re:I use good passwords, and here's how
on
Real Security?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Probably good enough for general use, but not exactly secure. First letters of words have a biased distribution, and leet speaking up a password is very commonly used method, so most decent passwords crackers have rules to deal with that.
Indeed. Many people have talked about "Just one Desktop Environment" - well, here it is.
As far as I am concerned, having just one desktop environment, just one window manager etc. is the job of the distribution, not of the developer. KDE and GNOME aren't really dividing developer effort. If the GNOME guys weren't hacking GNOME I'm not so sure they'd be busy working on KDE, and vice versa. People will work on what they want to work on.
On the other hand, a distribution can choose to limit user choice as much as they want. That's exactly what Sun has done here. Keep it simple, give them only one desktop option, only one window manager, and one application of each type. Many people have been asking for this - yet they don't seem to notice when it arrives.
I admit, Sun hasn't exactly got it all worked out here, but if you want a Joe User desktop distribution, this is a fine way to so it - just package together the collection of bits and pieces that all go together, and drop everything else.
For those of us that _want_ choice, well, there will always be plenty of distributions around offering that to us.
The outsourcing always seemed pretty simple to me. In the US market there wasn't that much real differentiation between code monkeys and software engineers. Basic programming isn't that hard, yet in the US market people demanded a fair amount of money for it. Then along came India. They have a lot of very competent basic programmers who are willing to work for a rate that's quite resonable given the fairly low/basic level of work they're doing, so naturally all those overcharging US code monkeys suddenly find their jobs being outsourced.
The catch is that outsourcing became fairly trendy, and the whole thing is still in flux. That is to say, management still doesn't really understand the difference between code monkeys and engineers. That means engineering jobs are getting shipped to code monekys at present. That's somewhat problematic, but it won't last, because the results won't stack up - eventually (this is management we're talking about, so it'll take a few years) this will dawn on the management and things will swing back closer to balance.
The fact remains that this outsourcing began because there are a lot of US code monkeys charging far too much for their shoddy work - just think of all those VBA "I'll make you a frontend app for your database for $10,000" 'hackers', and their ilk.
For all those people that complain that if you ask a question about Linux you just get elitist "RTFM loser" replies - there are 18 replies as I reply to this. 1 is a flame, but almost all the rest are quite honest reasonable answers - especially from those who bothered to check foes to see that it wasn't an obvious troll.
It seems you can get quite resonable answers easily enough.
In general I agree. The surface area of any of the pieces is not defined, which makes it rather impractical.
I would have said, however, that the interesting part is that you can compose the two balls using only _rigid_motions_ - no simple homemorphisms doing rubber stetching tricks here. That makes it a little more interesting than the usual things (like mapping [0,1] into two copies of the interval [0,1]) that just provide continuous mappings betwene points.
Hmmm, if someone made a Linux distribution that included no network or modem drivers in the _default_ install, they could probably go a while with no remote holes in the default install.
Okay, OpenBSD is nowhere near that bad, but the default install doesn't actually do that mcuh - you have to turn on _some_ services if you want to do anything, and I presume that doesn't caount as "default install"?
I understand it's possible all of mathematics could be a joke, but from what I have studied and know it would be highly unlikely for that to be true.
It does get a little hairy when you start reducing it to as basic a set of concepts as you can. You start getting hung up on certain things. The Axiom of Choice is a fine example. Almost all modern mathematics requires it to be true. It feels like it ought to be true. Then again youy can do nasty things like the Banach Tarski Paradox if you assume it true. Ouch.
Interesting. You didn't think to just go straight to the source and try www.debian.org? Their news section has a nice big article here about it.
I agree that it would be nice if #debian were populated by sensible intelligent people, but then, this is IRC. I suspect #winxp will yield equally useful advice to you, as will #beos, #macintosh, or any other IRC channel.
If Apple wasn't updating properly, or WindowsUpdate was running slow you'd check www.apple.com or www.microsoft.com before going to random Freenode IRC channels would you not?
I really shouldn't be feeding the trolls, but there were far too many replies that seemed to be taking this seriously.
Children don't really begin to understand abstracts until around 10-12 years old. Sure, they can point to a tree, but the reality of abstract doesn't really sink in until that age.
Which explains why algebra is generally very difficult to teach to children less than about that age.
I'm not sure how much I believe that. My parents taught me algebra when I was in elementary school (I would have been about 7 or 8 at the time), and I managed fine. I don't think I'm particularly exceptional. I didn't understand all of it back then, but I understood the basic concepts, and understood the abstraction of logical puzzles involved.
Besides, a number in itself is an abstract thing. Do you not teach arithmetic until children are 12? Yes, 2 apple, plus 2 more is 4 apples - but does the same thing work for oranges? Only if you swallow the abstract concept of a number being an abstract property of all sets with 2 things in them. That's very significant abstraction in some ways. Most kids manage. They don't always get it right away, but that's no reason not to introduce it to them to give them more time to let the concept settle in their minds.
I agree - we should not expect teachers to be sysadmins. You might note that while I said it was teachers that represented the problem, I didn't blame them. I think they're doing as well as they possibly can. I think we simply aren't ready for computers in the classroom. Not yet anyway.
My point is not that teachers should know and understand the inner workings of computers, but that they should now about, and be comfortable with computers in general. That's hard for the current generation of teachers. Both my parents are teachers, and while they can manage on a computer it is not natural for them in the way that it is for people of my generation. They didn't grow up with computers, and they simply don't have the same level of natural familiarity with them.
It is simply the general broad exposure and degree of comfort with computers that teachers currently lack. That will come with younger teachers. For now though, teachers should teach with those things that they are comfortable and familiar with.
Young stundents in their mid-teens could do complex mathetmatics in their heads, and knew classical Greek and Latin fluently in some upper-scale schools in the 1800s.
Yes, true, but what percentage exactly of young people were attending those schools up to that level?
It's not about the methods, it's not about the standardized tests. It's about the learning. Schools need to be reminded of this.
I think a lot of the problem is low expectations. Students will rise to the level of expectation - if you don't expect and demand a lot of them, they won't do that much.
As to learning - ultimately school should be about learning how to learn for yourself. Or, from a nice Zen perspetive, "teaching a person to not be taught". Of course that's pretty hard to do, so mostly you just aim at making sure they're literate and numerate.
I've always been a big fan of teaching some basic philosophy and algebra in primary school. It's okay if the kids don't get it all right then - it makes it much easier later, and it starts earlier on training them how to really think for themselves.
The problem right now is the teachers. It's not that they're doing anything wrong specifically - I'm sure they're doing the best they can. But if they don't understand computers well enough (and more importantly how that integrates into the classroom) then computers will be more of a liability than a benefit.
For the most part computers in the classroom are a case of "now go use the computer" with little direction, or teachers having to rack their brains for some sort of lesson that will mean they'll use the computer somewhere in it all.
When the next generation slowly fills the teaching ranks things will change somewhat, because they will see the computer less as a tool that they need to teach children how to use, and more as just yet another part of life. Internet searches replace encyclopaedias, animated computer presentations can supplement stories etc.
That is, the computer will simply become a part of the classrom in the same way that books, and building blocks, and painting materials are now.
Only until that happens will computers in the classroom be worthwhile.
I would LOVE to go there some day, except I hear it's hard to get into the country sometimes.
Yeah, that 20 minute drive can be a real pain in the ass...
The only hard part is the flight to get there, after that it's pretty easy. The impressive part is that you can go from the beach, to snowcapped mountains, to a rainforest in a day. In fact, if you're a real masochist you can compete in the Speights Coast to Coast, a race from one side of the country, over the Southern Alps, to the other, and see some very impressive scenery on the way. Serious competeors complete the race without stopping. Normal people do the race as a 2 day event.
Nothing new there. Films will usually use locals for extras and bit parts, especially when massive amounts of people are needed. Did you think they shipped a ton of people out of Hollywood every time a film was shot elsewhere?
Sure, but they normally truck in senior people from overseas for direction, production, cinematography, senior camera techs etc. and have all the set and costume design done back home. They usually ship all the film stock back to wherever their from for post prodiuction, special effects, and editing.
All of these things were done in NZ.
As I said, the only thing not from New Zeland was pretty much the raw cash from New Line.
Stop and think for a moment. People are happily calling Weta Digital's work on par with ILM. Weta Digital is a little wee New Zealand company. That alone is a pretty significant achievement for a country as small as NZ.
At the end of it all, when you watch the opening credits for the film, you'll see "A Wingnut Films presents" - and Wingnut films is Peter Jackson's NZ film company. You'll see the very same words on the intro to "Bad Taste".
not fair. why not do a world wide release all at the same time?
Because it is a New Zealand film, and Peter wants to have the first screening in his home town? Seems pretty fair to me. I remember when this decision was made - it was at the New Zealand Two Towers Premiere with Peter making a speech to the crowd (and there was a huge crowd). He got Mark Ordesky (high level New Line exec) up on the platform with him and put him on the spot with "And the Return of the King world premiere will be here in Wellington, wont it Mark". Ordesky, faced with the possibility of pissing of the 10,000 or so gathered people sheepishly said yes. After that Jackson just used that as New Line, saying on public record, that the premiere was going to be in Wellington so New Line couldn't work their way out of it.
This is a huge thing for New Zealand. Pretty much everyone I know from Wellington (even me) was involved in making the film in one way or another. The whole country collectively got behind the production of this film - they deserve a little something in return.
As I understand the people of NZ were more than gracious to the film crew.
Yeah, but given that most of the film crew were New Zealanders that's not that surprising. A lot of people dont seem to realise, this is largely a New Zealand film. The production money is from New Line, and that's US, but the director (Jackson ), screenplay writers (Jackson, Walsh, Boyens), casting, film crew, locations, costume design, and even the special effects (Weta Workshops, and Weta Digital) etc. are all New Zealand based. Even a large number of the actors are New Zealand actors - the leads, are, of course, big names from overseas, but many of the minor roles, Haldir, Celeborn, Denethor, Eomer etc. are all New Zealanders.
And what's the easiest way to get a large army of orcs for battle scenes? Yes, that's right, they used the New Zealand Army!
New Zealand provided far more than the landscapes - these films are (except for the money) New Zealand films.
I have to say the big downside (other than price obviously) about segways was that at 6 mph you wouldn't get there any faster than walking - which meant, for practical purposes it was only suitable for lazy ass bastards who couldn't be bothered walking. It was not a revolution in means of transport.
As 35mph, on the other hand, you can actually get somewhere. Effectively that puts this in the unicycle-moped range, which starts to look interesting. As people have pointed out, crashing at 35 mph could be unpleasant. Mind you mopeds and scooters routinely run around the city at up to 35 mph without anyone being too terrified. You still want to wear a helmet though.
So it all comes back down to price again - and the question is, simply, how much is this thing going to cost, because you can always get this for about $3000.
It's interesting how the ratings work though isn't it. With video games violence is the death knell, but in film violence seems to be fine.
A wonderful example of this is American Psycho. The film had to be cut for US release else it would have recieved and NC-17 rating (which is box office death apparently) from the MPAA. What had to be cut was a not especially graphic scene of a threesome. It was in the international release, and was really not of any note. It did show a threesome though, so was obviously morally evil. Of course all the perfectly normal and morally respectable scenes of Bateman carving people up with axes, chainsaws, and a variety of other interesting implements was fine with the MPAA.
Put the same violence in a video game and you probably wouldn't be able to sell it to ayone under 25.
When I first read about this program on/., I rushed to MSFreePC and completed all but the last couple steps to file a claim. Of course, I've never even been to any states that BORDER California, let alone purchased a PC there. What's to stop anybody from doing that, and how could they ever verify the legitmacy of the claims?
Well, that's Lindows problem isn't it. They buy the right to your claim (with free stuff to you). If your claim is bullshit, well, they don't get the money for that claim from MS.
The creators are greedy for profit, their excuse of jacking up prices because of piracy is bull! If they can sell a $5 item for $500, and people will pay, why not?
The consumers likewise are greedy, afterall the best things in life are free, their excuse of stealing because of high cost is bull! If It is worth $50 and you sell it for $25, and they can get it for free with little effort and without getting in trouble with the law, they will do it guilty free!
Yes, both sides a greedy for their own gain. The principle is, however, tht there is some agreeable middle ground where supply and demand meet nicely.
Currently either side is busy pushing the extremes. The publishers keep pushing prices up, and the consumers keep balking and pirating. Someone needs to take a step back, realise this is a self perpetuating cycle, and agree to step into the middle ground. It looks like this is what is happening in China. Sony may make a loss having to sell their games a little below cost, but the people might decide it's worth spending the few dollars extra to get a proper version of the game. Eventually, hopefully a balance can then be struck.
I've often wondered a little about the demand for ultra high powerd crypto for e-commerce. It's all good in theory, but when people happily send their credit card number to any random website claiming to seel stuff that does an SSL connection, just what is the point?
I seem to recall a quote about armoured cars being used to deliver a package from someone living under a bridge to someone living in a cardboard box.
And can someone explain to me again why some people still persist with giving their credit card numbers over the phone "because its more secure"?
Until the ideas actually sink in at a deep cultural level, we will continue to have all manner of stupid and contradictory actions from people who don't have the time to understand how all of this works. Hopefully it'll happen soon, right?
Invisible Records does a nice deal of 5 CDs for $20, with prices per CD dropping away as you buy more. It goes up to 40 CDs for $100 - which is a pretty good per CD price.
They do have quite a number of good (though alternative) bands signed, so why not at least check them out. I'm sure the RIAA would hate you for it - but isn't that part of the point?
This is why in addition to mathematician we have experimental physicists who whack the mathematician on the snout, take their formulations, and subject the equations to a rigorous dose of reality.
Interestingly it goes the other way too sometimes. The physicists posit a nice theory, then some mathematician comes along and says "sorry, the math just doesn't work that way - it ought to really go like this...". The physicists say "but that's just bloody stupid, reality wouldn't work that way", then go away and test it and find that, oddly enough, it does.
Also note that his formula reuses symbols ("C" is both competitive factor, and complexity), and he parenthesizes items for no apparently good reason when the operators are commutative.
I think you'll find that is associative not commutative. And lets' be honest, you have drop and awful lot of structure before you can drop associativity. Sure, non-sommutative groups and rings are common (though not for marketing types I guess), but I believe even semi-groups (about as algebraically structurless as you can go before you get just a set) have associativity.
Slashdot Mirror
Probably good enough for general use, but not exactly secure. First letters of words have a biased distribution, and leet speaking up a password is very commonly used method, so most decent passwords crackers have rules to deal with that.
Jedidiah.
Indeed. Many people have talked about "Just one Desktop Environment" - well, here it is.
As far as I am concerned, having just one desktop environment, just one window manager etc. is the job of the distribution, not of the developer. KDE and GNOME aren't really dividing developer effort. If the GNOME guys weren't hacking GNOME I'm not so sure they'd be busy working on KDE, and vice versa. People will work on what they want to work on.
On the other hand, a distribution can choose to limit user choice as much as they want. That's exactly what Sun has done here. Keep it simple, give them only one desktop option, only one window manager, and one application of each type. Many people have been asking for this - yet they don't seem to notice when it arrives.
I admit, Sun hasn't exactly got it all worked out here, but if you want a Joe User desktop distribution, this is a fine way to so it - just package together the collection of bits and pieces that all go together, and drop everything else.
For those of us that _want_ choice, well, there will always be plenty of distributions around offering that to us.
Jedidiah.
The outsourcing always seemed pretty simple to me. In the US market there wasn't that much real differentiation between code monkeys and software engineers. Basic programming isn't that hard, yet in the US market people demanded a fair amount of money for it. Then along came India. They have a lot of very competent basic programmers who are willing to work for a rate that's quite resonable given the fairly low/basic level of work they're doing, so naturally all those overcharging US code monkeys suddenly find their jobs being outsourced.
The catch is that outsourcing became fairly trendy, and the whole thing is still in flux. That is to say, management still doesn't really understand the difference between code monkeys and engineers. That means engineering jobs are getting shipped to code monekys at present. That's somewhat problematic, but it won't last, because the results won't stack up - eventually (this is management we're talking about, so it'll take a few years) this will dawn on the management and things will swing back closer to balance.
The fact remains that this outsourcing began because there are a lot of US code monkeys charging far too much for their shoddy work - just think of all those VBA "I'll make you a frontend app for your database for $10,000" 'hackers', and their ilk.
Jedidiah.
For all those people that complain that if you ask a question about Linux you just get elitist "RTFM loser" replies - there are 18 replies as I reply to this. 1 is a flame, but almost all the rest are quite honest reasonable answers - especially from those who bothered to check foes to see that it wasn't an obvious troll.
It seems you can get quite resonable answers easily enough.
Jedidiah.
In general I agree. The surface area of any of the pieces is not defined, which makes it rather impractical.
I would have said, however, that the interesting part is that you can compose the two balls using only _rigid_motions_ - no simple homemorphisms doing rubber stetching tricks here. That makes it a little more interesting than the usual things (like mapping [0,1] into two copies of the interval [0,1]) that just provide continuous mappings betwene points.
Jedidiah
Hmmm, if someone made a Linux distribution that included no network or modem drivers in the _default_ install, they could probably go a while with no remote holes in the default install.
Okay, OpenBSD is nowhere near that bad, but the default install doesn't actually do that mcuh - you have to turn on _some_ services if you want to do anything, and I presume that doesn't caount as "default install"?
Jedidiah
I understand it's possible all of mathematics could be a joke, but from what I have studied and know it would be highly unlikely for that to be true.
It does get a little hairy when you start reducing it to as basic a set of concepts as you can. You start getting hung up on certain things. The Axiom of Choice is a fine example. Almost all modern mathematics requires it to be true. It feels like it ought to be true. Then again youy can do nasty things like the Banach Tarski Paradox if you assume it true. Ouch.
Jedidiah
Interesting. You didn't think to just go straight to the source and try www.debian.org? Their news section has a nice big article here about it.
I agree that it would be nice if #debian were populated by sensible intelligent people, but then, this is IRC. I suspect #winxp will yield equally useful advice to you, as will #beos, #macintosh, or any other IRC channel.
If Apple wasn't updating properly, or WindowsUpdate was running slow you'd check www.apple.com or www.microsoft.com before going to random Freenode IRC channels would you not?
I really shouldn't be feeding the trolls, but there were far too many replies that seemed to be taking this seriously.
Jedidiah.
Yeah, it's kind of embarassing actually. Mostly I was just trying for a little shameless self promotion of my home country.
Jedidiah.
Children don't really begin to understand abstracts until around 10-12 years old. Sure, they can point to a tree, but the reality of abstract doesn't really sink in until that age.
Which explains why algebra is generally very difficult to teach to children less than about that age.
I'm not sure how much I believe that. My parents taught me algebra when I was in elementary school (I would have been about 7 or 8 at the time), and I managed fine. I don't think I'm particularly exceptional. I didn't understand all of it back then, but I understood the basic concepts, and understood the abstraction of logical puzzles involved.
Besides, a number in itself is an abstract thing. Do you not teach arithmetic until children are 12? Yes, 2 apple, plus 2 more is 4 apples - but does the same thing work for oranges? Only if you swallow the abstract concept of a number being an abstract property of all sets with 2 things in them. That's very significant abstraction in some ways. Most kids manage. They don't always get it right away, but that's no reason not to introduce it to them to give them more time to let the concept settle in their minds.
Jedidiah
I agree - we should not expect teachers to be sysadmins. You might note that while I said it was teachers that represented the problem, I didn't blame them. I think they're doing as well as they possibly can. I think we simply aren't ready for computers in the classroom. Not yet anyway.
My point is not that teachers should know and understand the inner workings of computers, but that they should now about, and be comfortable with computers in general. That's hard for the current generation of teachers. Both my parents are teachers, and while they can manage on a computer it is not natural for them in the way that it is for people of my generation. They didn't grow up with computers, and they simply don't have the same level of natural familiarity with them.
It is simply the general broad exposure and degree of comfort with computers that teachers currently lack. That will come with younger teachers. For now though, teachers should teach with those things that they are comfortable and familiar with.
Does that make more sense?
Jedidiah
Young stundents in their mid-teens could do complex mathetmatics in their heads, and knew classical Greek and Latin fluently in some upper-scale schools in the 1800s.
Yes, true, but what percentage exactly of young people were attending those schools up to that level?
It's not about the methods, it's not about the standardized tests. It's about the learning. Schools need to be reminded of this.
I think a lot of the problem is low expectations. Students will rise to the level of expectation - if you don't expect and demand a lot of them, they won't do that much.
As to learning - ultimately school should be about learning how to learn for yourself. Or, from a nice Zen perspetive, "teaching a person to not be taught". Of course that's pretty hard to do, so mostly you just aim at making sure they're literate and numerate.
I've always been a big fan of teaching some basic philosophy and algebra in primary school. It's okay if the kids don't get it all right then - it makes it much easier later, and it starts earlier on training them how to really think for themselves.
Jedidiah
The problem right now is the teachers. It's not that they're doing anything wrong specifically - I'm sure they're doing the best they can. But if they don't understand computers well enough (and more importantly how that integrates into the classroom) then computers will be more of a liability than a benefit.
For the most part computers in the classroom are a case of "now go use the computer" with little direction, or teachers having to rack their brains for some sort of lesson that will mean they'll use the computer somewhere in it all.
When the next generation slowly fills the teaching ranks things will change somewhat, because they will see the computer less as a tool that they need to teach children how to use, and more as just yet another part of life. Internet searches replace encyclopaedias, animated computer presentations can supplement stories etc.
That is, the computer will simply become a part of the classrom in the same way that books, and building blocks, and painting materials are now.
Only until that happens will computers in the classroom be worthwhile.
I would LOVE to go there some day, except I hear it's hard to get into the country sometimes.
Yeah, that 20 minute drive can be a real pain in the ass...
The only hard part is the flight to get there, after that it's pretty easy. The impressive part is that you can go from the beach, to snowcapped mountains, to a rainforest in a day. In fact, if you're a real masochist you can compete in the Speights Coast to Coast, a race from one side of the country, over the Southern Alps, to the other, and see some very impressive scenery on the way. Serious competeors complete the race without stopping. Normal people do the race as a 2 day event.
Jedidiah.
Nothing new there. Films will usually use locals for extras and bit parts, especially when massive amounts of people are needed. Did you think they shipped a ton of people out of Hollywood every time a film was shot elsewhere?
Sure, but they normally truck in senior people from overseas for direction, production, cinematography, senior camera techs etc. and have all the set and costume design done back home. They usually ship all the film stock back to wherever their from for post prodiuction, special effects, and editing.
All of these things were done in NZ.
As I said, the only thing not from New Zeland was pretty much the raw cash from New Line.
Stop and think for a moment. People are happily calling Weta Digital's work on par with ILM. Weta Digital is a little wee New Zealand company. That alone is a pretty significant achievement for a country as small as NZ.
At the end of it all, when you watch the opening credits for the film, you'll see "A Wingnut Films presents" - and Wingnut films is Peter Jackson's NZ film company. You'll see the very same words on the intro to "Bad Taste".
Jedidiah
not fair. why not do a world wide release all at the same time?
Because it is a New Zealand film, and Peter wants to have the first screening in his home town? Seems pretty fair to me. I remember when this decision was made - it was at the New Zealand Two Towers Premiere with Peter making a speech to the crowd (and there was a huge crowd). He got Mark Ordesky (high level New Line exec) up on the platform with him and put him on the spot with "And the Return of the King world premiere will be here in Wellington, wont it Mark". Ordesky, faced with the possibility of pissing of the 10,000 or so gathered people sheepishly said yes. After that Jackson just used that as New Line, saying on public record, that the premiere was going to be in Wellington so New Line couldn't work their way out of it.
This is a huge thing for New Zealand. Pretty much everyone I know from Wellington (even me) was involved in making the film in one way or another. The whole country collectively got behind the production of this film - they deserve a little something in return.
Jedidiah.
As I understand the people of NZ were more than gracious to the film crew.
Yeah, but given that most of the film crew were New Zealanders that's not that surprising. A lot of people dont seem to realise, this is largely a New Zealand film. The production money is from New Line, and that's US, but the director (Jackson
), screenplay writers (Jackson, Walsh, Boyens), casting, film crew, locations, costume design, and even the special effects (Weta Workshops, and Weta Digital) etc. are all New Zealand based. Even a large number of the actors are New Zealand actors - the leads, are, of course, big names from overseas, but many of the minor roles, Haldir, Celeborn, Denethor, Eomer etc. are all New Zealanders.
And what's the easiest way to get a large army of orcs for battle scenes? Yes, that's right, they used the New Zealand Army!
New Zealand provided far more than the landscapes - these films are (except for the money) New Zealand films.
Jedidiah.
I have to say the big downside (other than price obviously) about segways was that at 6 mph you wouldn't get there any faster than walking - which meant, for practical purposes it was only suitable for lazy ass bastards who couldn't be bothered walking. It was not a revolution in means of transport.
As 35mph, on the other hand, you can actually get somewhere. Effectively that puts this in the unicycle-moped range, which starts to look interesting. As people have pointed out, crashing at 35 mph could be unpleasant. Mind you mopeds and scooters routinely run around the city at up to 35 mph without anyone being too terrified. You still want to wear a helmet though.
So it all comes back down to price again - and the question is, simply, how much is this thing going to cost, because you can always get this for about $3000.
Jedidiah.
It's interesting how the ratings work though isn't it. With video games violence is the death knell, but in film violence seems to be fine.
A wonderful example of this is American Psycho. The film had to be cut for US release else it would have recieved and NC-17 rating (which is box office death apparently) from the MPAA. What had to be cut was a not especially graphic scene of a threesome. It was in the international release, and was really not of any note. It did show a threesome though, so was obviously morally evil. Of course all the perfectly normal and morally respectable scenes of Bateman carving people up with axes, chainsaws, and a variety of other interesting implements was fine with the MPAA.
Put the same violence in a video game and you probably wouldn't be able to sell it to ayone under 25.
Jedidiah
When I first read about this program on /., I rushed to MSFreePC and completed all but the last couple steps to file a claim. Of course, I've never even been to any states that BORDER California, let alone purchased a PC there. What's to stop anybody from doing that, and how could they ever verify the legitmacy of the claims?
Well, that's Lindows problem isn't it. They buy the right to your claim (with free stuff to you). If your claim is bullshit, well, they don't get the money for that claim from MS.
I don't see the problem here.
Jedidiah.
The creators are greedy for profit, their excuse of jacking up prices because of piracy is bull! If they can sell a $5 item for $500, and people will pay, why not?
The consumers likewise are greedy, afterall the best things in life are free, their excuse of stealing because of high cost is bull! If It is worth $50 and you sell it for $25, and they can get it for free with little effort and without getting in trouble with the law, they will do it guilty free!
Yes, both sides a greedy for their own gain. The principle is, however, tht there is some agreeable middle ground where supply and demand meet nicely.
Currently either side is busy pushing the extremes. The publishers keep pushing prices up, and the consumers keep balking and pirating. Someone needs to take a step back, realise this is a self perpetuating cycle, and agree to step into the middle ground. It looks like this is what is happening in China. Sony may make a loss having to sell their games a little below cost, but the people might decide it's worth spending the few dollars extra to get a proper version of the game. Eventually, hopefully a balance can then be struck.
Jedidiah
I've often wondered a little about the demand for ultra high powerd crypto for e-commerce. It's all good in theory, but when people happily send their credit card number to any random website claiming to seel stuff that does an SSL connection, just what is the point?
I seem to recall a quote about armoured cars being used to deliver a package from someone living under a bridge to someone living in a cardboard box.
And can someone explain to me again why some people still persist with giving their credit card numbers over the phone "because its more secure"?
Until the ideas actually sink in at a deep cultural level, we will continue to have all manner of stupid and contradictory actions from people who don't have the time to understand how all of this works. Hopefully it'll happen soon, right?
Jedidiah
Invisible Records does a nice deal of 5 CDs for $20, with prices per CD dropping away as you buy more. It goes up to 40 CDs for $100 - which is a pretty good per CD price.
They do have quite a number of good (though alternative) bands signed, so why not at least check them out. I'm sure the RIAA would hate you for it - but isn't that part of the point?
Jedidiah
This is why in addition to mathematician we have experimental physicists who whack the mathematician on the snout, take their formulations, and subject the equations to a rigorous dose of reality.
Interestingly it goes the other way too sometimes. The physicists posit a nice theory, then some mathematician comes along and says "sorry, the math just doesn't work that way - it ought to really go like this...". The physicists say "but that's just bloody stupid, reality wouldn't work that way", then go away and test it and find that, oddly enough, it does.
Jedidiah
Also note that his formula reuses symbols ("C" is both competitive factor, and complexity), and he parenthesizes items for no apparently good reason when the operators are commutative.
I think you'll find that is associative not commutative. And lets' be honest, you have drop and awful lot of structure before you can drop associativity. Sure, non-sommutative groups and rings are common (though not for marketing types I guess), but I believe even semi-groups (about as algebraically structurless as you can go before you get just a set) have associativity.
Jedidiah