My drivers license already does this. I present it to a cashier, he looks at the display face (i.e., the "front") and confirms that a.) I resemble the person pictured and that b.) my birthday is before a predetermined date. What you're proposing is some thousands of dollars worth of equipment to replace a six-second process.
(Oh, by the way, anti-forgery measures are already in effect -- in Texas at least, clerks can run the mag stripe on the back of a DL through a a card reader and confirm that the birthday associated with that DL number matches the one on the card.)
Supremely illogical idea of yours. Good luck next time.
As an (occasional) professional journalist, I think you underestimate the ethical fortitude of the vast majority of working journalists. I can assure you that if such a directive did come down from the corporate ownership, CNN would meet with resignations en masse. I have very little doubt that their news division would be decimated and its quality would quickly fall to the level of, say, Fox News.
In essence, CNN would no longer be an important (or trustworthy) source of news should such a situation come to pass. Think of it as a system of checks on corporate mouthpieces posing as news organizations.
(And I'm not so naive as to believe corporate pressure is never applied -- certainly, I've seen it happen. But it's minimized remarkably well.)
strom, you're a dirty old man. and it was a good one nonetheless. however, I think your post could have been improved had you inserted a fake "Read the rest of this comment..." link to the nefarious site of your choice. But that's just my uninformed opinion.
tim, you've always struck me as a little weird, but I have to say that you really seem to enjoy your job. it's nice one slashdot editor still reads the comments.
and michael doesn't count, since as far as I can tell, he only reads them to either mod down or personally attack people who disagree with them.
This post is filled with logical fallacies. To wit...
How exactly, or what makes you so sure, are the next owners of the Iridium network going to be able to increase data throughput? I doubt a cut-rate satphone venture is going to be able to afford to launch a second-generation constellation.
Even if your pirate broadcast scheme were technically feasible, I think the pirates are probably a lot safer now in their unmarked van. My $200 GPS receiver is accurate to some 30 feet. Let's be conservative and say that the FCC can only narrow down the broadcast to a 60-foot circle. Well, gee, guess what, know who's broadcasting? The guy with the cell phone, mic, and two cd decks strapped to his back. Even in NYC -- hell, even in New Dehli -- it wouldn't be so hard to find that jackass.
I'm impressed that you managed to get modded up, but yours is one of the number posts I've read lately.
Huh, never mind, I originally thought your UID was in the mid-40k's. Guess that means IHBT. Good one.
I had a Game Gear. I would probably get a couple hours of play time out of six AA batteries, which also means that yes, it had a TV tuner, but it was the most god-awfully inefficient portable TV ever. As far as the use of cartridges goes, I'd like you to suggest another media that would work at a $100 price point.
Frankly, I couldn't agree more. And I think the moderator who wastes his points on taking down this reply to an AC post is even more of a detriment to this community than I am.
I think you've forgotten that ESR's windfall was entirely dependent on the shares of VA Linux stock he had been given. As we all know, LNUX is next to worthless. If ESR had sold his shares at the peak of valuation, then he might be in a position to donate some money, but according to insider trading reports for LNUX, he has not yet done so. At this point, his best bet is to hope the stock makes a modest recovery, perhaps to the neighborhood of 20...
Let's consider this, though. Platform-independent or not, it's not terribly simple to extract a tar/gz archive on a Windows machine - easy enough, but not quite like a Zip (much less a self-extracting EXE). A conservative estimate is that 90% of computer users use Windows and, presumably, nearly 100% of Microsoft's customers. Why, exactly, would Microsoft want to slightly inconvenience 100% of their customers so a few Linux geek can be accomodated?
(anyone know what the Chinese version of astronaut/cosmonaut would be?)
Taikonaut. Not sure what the exact translation is, though.
Re:they already have that, sort of
on
DVDs On DAT?
·
· Score: 1
from a cursory glance around the internet, DLT's seem to be capable of storing up to 70 gigs, compressed. when you consider 10 movies on a single tape, the economics begin to make a bit (but not much) more sense.
Timothy, I'm sure you're a great guy and everything, but I swear... sometimes you write the most opaque intros. I understand that that's part of your schtick and all, but please don't undervalue the importance of a clear, precise presentation in some cases. I know this is a fairly off-topic nitpick, but it's a point I felt deserves to be made. Spend a little more time in the submission queue, a little less time with the thesaurus, maybe?
Please don't even consider this criticism. I mean no offense whatsoever, it's just my point of view... Please don't take this the wrong way, like michael is wont to do (at least in my personal experience) when constructive advice is offered.
If you want a truly excellent example of an online cartoon -- especially one that takes full advantage of its medium -- check out Leisure Town. Technically brilliant, it's also hilarious and pretty much a work of art.
I warn you though, it can take a while to really get into it. But stick with it, check out some of the older ones, and you won't be sorry.
-tcf
Full Disclosure: I have the same first name and nearly the same set of initials as the author of Leisure Town, but I can only wish I was capable of such brilliance;-)
Amazing. Certainly, I'm aware of who Raymond is, but I had never paid much attention to him. What a sad, bitter man. Any esteem I ever held for him (not much, to be sure) is now firmly in negative territory.
No, tim, these are not the big leagues. I would call, oh, IBM announcing a writeoff of a failed venture a beanball. Rambus was/is a beanball for Intel. MS Bob was a beanball for Microsoft. These would be isolated incidents for otherwise successful (profitable) companies. I'd say VA Linux has had nothing but beanballs even since that record-breaking IPO.
Look at this story for the definition of spin, folks. Did VA Linux double their revenues last quarter? Absolutely. But at what cost? Their losses increased at almost exactly the same rate as their revenue -- within 5-10%. Sweet deal, huh? Thank god I don't own their stock.
I'm sorry. I know how bitter I've come off sounding. I just get annoyed when someone with an obvious vested interest in the company tries to put a happy face on things when he also has a committment to journalistic integrity. Can't be fair? Don't post it, or go into PR. (This all springs from a couple failed start-ups following a career in journalism. Figures, huh?)
t.a.f.
obviously, I make the assumption that slashdot has an obligation to journalistic ethics. if you choose to argue with me, and I hope you will, please don't bother with that particular point, since I firmly believe that rob & co. qualify as journalists (and consider themselves as such when it suits them).
I read applications for my university, and basically, I don't know how the systems has worked this long to begin with.
You'd be amazed how little an idea of a student's abilities (to say nothing of personality!) you actually get from reading his or her application. It's entirely a crapshoot, as far as I'm concerned. I'd say with the state of things as they are, we might not want to eliminate pieces of information that can be used to further evaluate prospective students.
Of course the SAT is subjective, doesn't measure a student's self-worth (or even intelligence, for that matter), and it's far from perfect. But then again, so are grades. In high school, my GPA was barely above a 3 (with 1400+ SATs), but in college (taking "real" classes in a demanding double-degree program) I ended up with a 3.9 something. I got rejected (and rightfully so, for the most part) from a lot of top schools, though I think my performance indicates I could have done as well had those schools let me in. (The school I ended up going was a fine school, just not top 10.)
My point boils down to, there's no way to accurately judge a student based on what's a very limited dataset. Sure, there are some fairly reliable indicators but in the end, there's really nothing that can definitively prove how a given student will perform at college. If we're going to eliminate SAT's, there's a whole host of criteria we also might as well get rid of. (And if you want to talk about sheer uselessness, don't get me started on letters of recommendation. Christ.)
Hey now, only my last paragraph could even be close to construed as inflammatory and/or insulting (and even then only my gratuitous link to VA Linux's stock price). When I said I appreciated your being forthcoming, I actually meant that with sincerity, I'm sorry that part didn't come through clear:(
(Note to self, don't end posts with the sarcastic part from now on.)
Now, in all serious Michael, your inflammatory posts have brought me close to leaving Slashdot before (and no, I'm not another 300k+ bimbo; I recently lost the password to my original uid, which was obtained with an academic e-mail account I no longer have access to). Certainly I'm not the only one guilty of making posts that can be misconstrued. Perhaps we can both agree to be more civil?
I question the accuracy of this e-mail exchange. Nike's site says that ID's are limited to eight letters. Last time I check, 'sweatshop' was nine. Perhaps this story isn't entirely true?
Of course, if he tried to obtain 'sweat' and 'shop', then that's entirely possible.
That was what seemed to be the second significant outage in the last week. I don't think I'm alone when I say that I think the readers deserve to have such events posted as a news article to the main page.
I appreciate your being forthcoming here, Michael, but a reply posted to an offtopic post (no offense to the parent poster) in a story completely unrelated to the outages isn't exactly keeping us informed.
But as we've all heard before a million times, Slashdot is all Rob's, he'd continue to do it even if he and Jeff were the only ones to read it, he's not in it for the money (obviously), etc., so who are we to ask?
That's really funny, I too am of Irish descent (and as my senior thesis at University, did an examination of semiotics and Irish naming conventions) but am not familiar with your surname. From what county are your ancestors?
Contrary to what you seem to believe, the laptops carried aboard the shuttle serve no 'mission critical' (per se) functions. They're just laptops like you or I use, and Windows 95 is more than adequate for the purposes they serve.
The actual guidance, life support, etc., systems run on the shuttles five redundant GPCs which, no, do not run Linux. The way in which the flight systems are coded is incredible -- every single line of code is audited dozens of times. Every single bug generates a binder of paperwork. And it's not just bureaucracy -- it works. Something like half a dozen bugs have affected the shuttle computers in the last decade.
I wouldn't trust my life to Windows, but I sure as hell wouldn't trust it to Linux either. Anyone who says that they would is either suicidal or a damn fool.
Slashdot Mirror
My drivers license already does this. I present it to a cashier, he looks at the display face (i.e., the "front") and confirms that a.) I resemble the person pictured and that b.) my birthday is before a predetermined date. What you're proposing is some thousands of dollars worth of equipment to replace a six-second process.
(Oh, by the way, anti-forgery measures are already in effect -- in Texas at least, clerks can run the mag stripe on the back of a DL through a a card reader and confirm that the birthday associated with that DL number matches the one on the card.)
Supremely illogical idea of yours. Good luck next time.
As an (occasional) professional journalist, I think you underestimate the ethical fortitude of the vast majority of working journalists. I can assure you that if such a directive did come down from the corporate ownership, CNN would meet with resignations en masse. I have very little doubt that their news division would be decimated and its quality would quickly fall to the level of, say, Fox News.
In essence, CNN would no longer be an important (or trustworthy) source of news should such a situation come to pass. Think of it as a system of checks on corporate mouthpieces posing as news organizations.
(And I'm not so naive as to believe corporate pressure is never applied -- certainly, I've seen it happen. But it's minimized remarkably well.)
Just my two cents.
strom, you're a dirty old man. and it was a good one nonetheless. however, I think your post could have been improved had you inserted a fake "Read the rest of this comment..." link to the nefarious site of your choice. But that's just my uninformed opinion.
tim, you've always struck me as a little weird, but I have to say that you really seem to enjoy your job. it's nice one slashdot editor still reads the comments.
and michael doesn't count, since as far as I can tell, he only reads them to either mod down or personally attack people who disagree with them.
-tf
This post is filled with logical fallacies. To wit...
How exactly, or what makes you so sure, are the next owners of the Iridium network going to be able to increase data throughput? I doubt a cut-rate satphone venture is going to be able to afford to launch a second-generation constellation.
Even if your pirate broadcast scheme were technically feasible, I think the pirates are probably a lot safer now in their unmarked van. My $200 GPS receiver is accurate to some 30 feet. Let's be conservative and say that the FCC can only narrow down the broadcast to a 60-foot circle. Well, gee, guess what, know who's broadcasting? The guy with the cell phone, mic, and two cd decks strapped to his back. Even in NYC -- hell, even in New Dehli -- it wouldn't be so hard to find that jackass.
I'm impressed that you managed to get modded up, but yours is one of the number posts I've read lately.
Huh, never mind, I originally thought your UID was in the mid-40k's. Guess that means IHBT. Good one.
I don't know how to but this delicately, but... you're a blowhard.
Hate to be the one to tell you, but Vinny the Vampire is some horrendously unfunny shit. Maybe it's time for a new sig?
I had a Game Gear. I would probably get a couple hours of play time out of six AA batteries, which also means that yes, it had a TV tuner, but it was the most god-awfully inefficient portable TV ever. As far as the use of cartridges goes, I'd like you to suggest another media that would work at a $100 price point.
Frankly, I couldn't agree more. And I think the moderator who wastes his points on taking down this reply to an AC post is even more of a detriment to this community than I am.
I think you've forgotten that ESR's windfall was entirely dependent on the shares of VA Linux stock he had been given. As we all know, LNUX is next to worthless. If ESR had sold his shares at the peak of valuation, then he might be in a position to donate some money, but according to insider trading reports for LNUX, he has not yet done so. At this point, his best bet is to hope the stock makes a modest recovery, perhaps to the neighborhood of 20...
Let's consider this, though. Platform-independent or not, it's not terribly simple to extract a tar/gz archive on a Windows machine - easy enough, but not quite like a Zip (much less a self-extracting EXE). A conservative estimate is that 90% of computer users use Windows and, presumably, nearly 100% of Microsoft's customers. Why, exactly, would Microsoft want to slightly inconvenience 100% of their customers so a few Linux geek can be accomodated?
(anyone know what the Chinese version of astronaut/cosmonaut would be?)
Taikonaut. Not sure what the exact translation is, though.
from a cursory glance around the internet, DLT's seem to be capable of storing up to 70 gigs, compressed. when you consider 10 movies on a single tape, the economics begin to make a bit (but not much) more sense.
Of course you are. No one else knows who that is.
Timothy, I'm sure you're a great guy and everything, but I swear... sometimes you write the most opaque intros. I understand that that's part of your schtick and all, but please don't undervalue the importance of a clear, precise presentation in some cases. I know this is a fairly off-topic nitpick, but it's a point I felt deserves to be made. Spend a little more time in the submission queue, a little less time with the thesaurus, maybe?
Please don't even consider this criticism. I mean no offense whatsoever, it's just my point of view... Please don't take this the wrong way, like michael is wont to do (at least in my personal experience) when constructive advice is offered.
-tf
If you want a truly excellent example of an online cartoon -- especially one that takes full advantage of its medium -- check out Leisure Town. Technically brilliant, it's also hilarious and pretty much a work of art.
;-)
I warn you though, it can take a while to really get into it. But stick with it, check out some of the older ones, and you won't be sorry.
-tcf
Full Disclosure: I have the same first name and nearly the same set of initials as the author of Leisure Town, but I can only wish I was capable of such brilliance
Amazing. Certainly, I'm aware of who Raymond is, but I had never paid much attention to him. What a sad, bitter man. Any esteem I ever held for him (not much, to be sure) is now firmly in negative territory.
No, tim, these are not the big leagues. I would call, oh, IBM announcing a writeoff of a failed venture a beanball. Rambus was/is a beanball for Intel. MS Bob was a beanball for Microsoft. These would be isolated incidents for otherwise successful (profitable) companies. I'd say VA Linux has had nothing but beanballs even since that record-breaking IPO.
Look at this story for the definition of spin, folks. Did VA Linux double their revenues last quarter? Absolutely. But at what cost? Their losses increased at almost exactly the same rate as their revenue -- within 5-10%. Sweet deal, huh? Thank god I don't own their stock.
I'm sorry. I know how bitter I've come off sounding. I just get annoyed when someone with an obvious vested interest in the company tries to put a happy face on things when he also has a committment to journalistic integrity. Can't be fair? Don't post it, or go into PR. (This all springs from a couple failed start-ups following a career in journalism. Figures, huh?)
t.a.f.
obviously, I make the assumption that slashdot has an obligation to journalistic ethics. if you choose to argue with me, and I hope you will, please don't bother with that particular point, since I firmly believe that rob & co. qualify as journalists (and consider themselves as such when it suits them).
I read applications for my university, and basically, I don't know how the systems has worked this long to begin with.
You'd be amazed how little an idea of a student's abilities (to say nothing of personality!) you actually get from reading his or her application. It's entirely a crapshoot, as far as I'm concerned. I'd say with the state of things as they are, we might not want to eliminate pieces of information that can be used to further evaluate prospective students.
Of course the SAT is subjective, doesn't measure a student's self-worth (or even intelligence, for that matter), and it's far from perfect. But then again, so are grades. In high school, my GPA was barely above a 3 (with 1400+ SATs), but in college (taking "real" classes in a demanding double-degree program) I ended up with a 3.9 something. I got rejected (and rightfully so, for the most part) from a lot of top schools, though I think my performance indicates I could have done as well had those schools let me in. (The school I ended up going was a fine school, just not top 10.)
My point boils down to, there's no way to accurately judge a student based on what's a very limited dataset. Sure, there are some fairly reliable indicators but in the end, there's really nothing that can definitively prove how a given student will perform at college. If we're going to eliminate SAT's, there's a whole host of criteria we also might as well get rid of. (And if you want to talk about sheer uselessness, don't get me started on letters of recommendation. Christ.)
-tf
Hey now, only my last paragraph could even be close to construed as inflammatory and/or insulting (and even then only my gratuitous link to VA Linux's stock price). When I said I appreciated your being forthcoming, I actually meant that with sincerity, I'm sorry that part didn't come through clear :(
(Note to self, don't end posts with the sarcastic part from now on.)
Now, in all serious Michael, your inflammatory posts have brought me close to leaving Slashdot before (and no, I'm not another 300k+ bimbo; I recently lost the password to my original uid, which was obtained with an academic e-mail account I no longer have access to). Certainly I'm not the only one guilty of making posts that can be misconstrued. Perhaps we can both agree to be more civil?
I question the accuracy of this e-mail exchange. Nike's site says that ID's are limited to eight letters. Last time I check, 'sweatshop' was nine. Perhaps this story isn't entirely true?
Of course, if he tried to obtain 'sweat' and 'shop', then that's entirely possible.
That was what seemed to be the second significant outage in the last week. I don't think I'm alone when I say that I think the readers deserve to have such events posted as a news article to the main page.
I appreciate your being forthcoming here, Michael, but a reply posted to an offtopic post (no offense to the parent poster) in a story completely unrelated to the outages isn't exactly keeping us informed.
But as we've all heard before a million times, Slashdot is all Rob's, he'd continue to do it even if he and Jeff were the only ones to read it, he's not in it for the money (obviously), etc., so who are we to ask?
-tf
No, as a matter of fact, it isn't.
That's really funny, I too am of Irish descent (and as my senior thesis at University, did an examination of semiotics and Irish naming conventions) but am not familiar with your surname. From what county are your ancestors?
Contrary to what you seem to believe, the laptops carried aboard the shuttle serve no 'mission critical' (per se) functions. They're just laptops like you or I use, and Windows 95 is more than adequate for the purposes they serve.
The actual guidance, life support, etc., systems run on the shuttles five redundant GPCs which, no, do not run Linux. The way in which the flight systems are coded is incredible -- every single line of code is audited dozens of times. Every single bug generates a binder of paperwork. And it's not just bureaucracy -- it works. Something like half a dozen bugs have affected the shuttle computers in the last decade.
I wouldn't trust my life to Windows, but I sure as hell wouldn't trust it to Linux either. Anyone who says that they would is either suicidal or a damn fool.