Patriotism is being loyal and loving your country unconditionally and your politicians when they deserve it.
This administration deserves neither loyalty nor love.
Both of these statements are true.
I went to one of the best private high schools in my state, I also have 6+ years of college, yet I have only recently been learning about the Constitution and our government in my spare time. Of all of the required studies I took in school, I can't believe none of them taught me the Constitution, and very little history. The government makes these standards, right?
Anyway, in my recent learning of our Constitution and government, I learned a little about the impeachment process.
For those that don't know, impeachment of a high official must be initiated by the House of Representatives. To find your representative, look here. Note that the site requires your 5+4 digit zip code.
If you are an American and you love your life and country, I believe it is time to write at least your representative and ask for at least the impeachment of President Bush. A decent starting point can be found here plus there are many other resources on the web.
I made the decision today with the recent Gonzales article here on slashdot to write a letter to at least my representative. I was embarrassed that I had to look it up, but emphasis on government has never been necessary in my life until recently.
If someone could reply with a boilerplate for a letter to your representative, that would be appreciated.
I think its time that we take back charge in this country.
How does that saying go? "The pen is mightier than the sword."
Well, I've never heard of a government being overthrown via a written document.
As we speak, people are loading up with ammunition. Its best to have between 20-30,000 rounds. Of course, its always better to have ammo and not need it, than need it and not have it.
Since when has "freedom of speech" been a "nearly absolute right"? We limit free speech all the time in this country. For instance, you can't:
- Yell "fire" in a crowded theater.
That is just stupid. If the only reason you don't yell fire in a crowded theater is because its illegal. Well, good luck in life. A better example of a lack of freedom of speech is that its illegal to talk about killing the President of the United States.
- Commit libel or slander
Libel and slander are subject to _civil_ law, not criminal law.
- Say something that creates a "hostile work environment" for others
Yes, the government did initiate many civil rights laws, especially in the 60s. I think that is a good thing, and again, most of the litigation here are civil suits, not criminal ones.
Criticize a political candidate on television 60 days before an elections. (Thanks to the new Alien and Sedition Acts - AKA McCain-Feingold)
I didn't know about this law. Sounds dumb if it really exists and is that specific. So, internet, radio, press, flyers, meetings are OK to criticize a political candidate, but TV is off limits for 60 days before an election? OK.
The US federal government is becoming too powerful, and it needs to stop.
I'm not sure who added the final blurb, "So our 1st amendment rights don't trump the right of the federal government to violate them?", but that entirely reminded me recently of another "trump" made recently. "The decision means that federal anti-drug laws trump state laws that allow the use of medical marijuana, said CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Ten states have such laws."
I'm dead serious here. If the federal government keeps on their power trip fascism journey, well, they will be in for a rude awakening. This kind of government is one that will either start a civil war or a revolt by the people. I'm dead serious.
Once people's standard of living here goes down a few notches, which is already happening with the skyrocketing cost of housing. But as soon as people get to a point where they cannot afford the basics anymore, or when something like Social Security goes bust, we will loose faith in the government, and that will be it.
the movement isn't a top-down organization, but, well, a diverse movement, so its not all that much something that is "led" by "leaders"
So true, I agree completely. Just like ESR's "Cathedral and the Bazaar", OSS is the bazaar, there is no real leader, someone to sue, someone to blame, its just there, and it works, and that is what scares the suits and whatnot.
I see Linux as "ours". It started out as Linus' baby, but its free, and anybody is capable of doing a fork of it at anytime just like XFree86 to X.org did. Heck, look at slashdot. Its open source, anybody can go to http://slashcode.com/ and put up a slashdot "killer" at any time, but does it happen? No. Why? Because slashdot is more than slashcode, its people like me and you that make slashdot work. We openly bash on slashdot all the time and the editors don't delete the posts, they frequently get modded up and the discussion diverges from there.
The cathedral way of doing things is certainly a way of doing things, but its not the only way. A big topic that comes here multiple times a week is the failing cathedral way of music distribution and the RIAA. The bazaar method of music distribution is scary for them, and they go to the bigger cathedral, the government and court rooms to maintain their cathedral existence.
I really think this newer bazaar way of doing things is pretty cool. Look at Wikipedia, slashdot, GNU, Linux, etc. All of these things are very successful, but there is no real boundary or ownership of any of these things. They are free. And the bizarre thing about it is that people make money off of it.
Another thing that is cool about Linux and OSS is that the "cathedrals" are participating in the bazaar as well. Big brand name companies like Apple, IBM, SGI, HP, etc are embracing and contributing and benefitting from this stuff.
a laptop phoning home is pretty easy to detect. Don't do anything serious on it, hook it up to the network, start typing while someone watches your packets. It's not like the Chinese have their new MagicNet(tm) which doesn't require wires, or emit electromagnetic radiation detectable by standard instruments.
Wrong. My little criminal mind just thought of an excellent way to do some nice compromises.
Smart hardware based key logging, and then have the victim mail the product to a service center to get serviced or hell even a mass recall, and then download the keylogged data.
I only thought this stuff was software/network based until my little criminal mind came up with a better, and very unlikely traceable solution.
Add to that the fact the the government buys these things in bulk and even IF a sample posessed no backdoor, how hard would it be to put a backdoor in 1 out of 1000 and hope it gets by?
That is FUD pure and simple. Unless I'm clueless, backdoors are software not hardware, and Levino makes hardware. The government buys software that is known to have the ability of backdoors in them by doing things like installing software or browsing the internet, why are they caring about a certain brand of hardware?
Also, isn't almost all computers and electronics made in China today? What is unique about Levino besides they are an offshoot of an American designed piece of hardware (that odds are was fabed in China for years)?
I would. I mean its pretty much between RMS and Linus, and I would give it to Linus.
Sure GNU did come first and Linux would be impotent without it, but Linus has something Stallman does not. Brand name recognition and a damn good OS that powers a bunch of the internet, routers, printers, digital picture frames, you name it.
Also, Linus is more suit and general public friendly than RMS will ever be.
If its not Linus or Stallman, who is the OSS leader or is there no leader but rather just a bizarre style of underground thing?
One thing I don't get about stories like this is why is it so difficult to go and pick up known "bad guys"?
You can look an Wikipedia and get a list of the big drug lords, read articles like this, or go to SpamHaus and see the list of the big fraud/spammers, but they keep doing what they do for a long time.
Is it because these people are so wealthy that its hard to get them? Is it because governments and law enforcement places are corrupt and get bought off or are part of the action as well?
When I buy goods or services on the street, I typically use "one click" stuff when the price is right.
Me: What do you have?
Them: I have X for $YY
Me: Sounds good, here is $YY.
Them: Here you go.
So, what is so unique about doing this on a computer or online?
Oh, I have to keep my CC on file with people I don't know who may sell or lose that info to someone else at any time with no compensation to me for my lost time or money. Oh, I get spammed from now to the end of time by Amazon about the killer deal of the week.
Patents need to change. Especially those that are only unique because they are "online" or "with a computer". These things are not that special, if not special at all.
Oh, and don't people in Europe buy soft drinks and other stuff from vending machines with 'one click' from their cell phones? Is that patented, or just common sense?
You should probably call up Intel and tell them to fix their spec sheets, because they seem to think that they're selling Itaniums clocked from 900MHz to 1.66GHz and draw anywhere from 90-122W.
62, 99, and 130 Watts, and check out the new memory bandwidth numbers: 10.6 GB/sec.
I am not brand loyal, but at this time I prefer Intel over AMD. One thing I like about Intel is that they are a more mature company and offer a wider range of products. Intel makes damn good compilers, motherboard chipsets, CPUs, NICs, etc. AMD pretty much just makes processors at this time. And one thing that confuses me about AMD, is why do they have so many different processors? They have a web form on their site to do a search on them. I understand there is a difference between the 1xx opterons that are single CPU boxes and 2xx models that are SMP, but then there is the 4xx, and 8xx models as well. I don't know the down and dirty here, I'm not a computer engineer or chip designer, but to me its always been SMP or not SMP. I've found that looking for an AMD chip is almost impossible, and I guess its just worthwhile to benchmark some tests on a vendors box and see what happens. There are 191 models of Opterons listed on their website today. That is nuts!
Itanic had far and away the best fp scores when it came out. If what you had to do was almost all fp math then the itanium made sense at the time, possibly even from a flops-per-watt standpoint. Today it's just a footnote to a sad joke.
Yeah, use Itanic and bust on an Intel chip and get modded up around here, but Itaniums are good chips, and they have a market, but a fairly small one right now. They have up to 1.3GHz models that use less power than a Xeon. They use 62 Watts of power. Current Opterons use anywhere from 62 Watts to 110 Watts.
No, odds are you can't justify one in your home, but for high performance floating point apps that need high memory bandwidth, Itaniums are still pretty much #1.
Intel has been pretty aggressive in their power/flop ratio here lately and they are making excellent progress. Even crap chips from Intel such as the i860 turned into the Xscale processors.
I've been using Itaniums from two different vendors for almost 4 years now, and I have no regrets. Opterons are damn good chips. The HTX spec is excellent. But its difficult to say which one is better at this time. I believe that the compilers are better for Itaniums than Opterons, but I haven't looked very deep into the good compilers for Opterons and have run no benchmarks yet. Its a tough call, and the competition is great.
On both, things run perfectly, with all gui features, XGL, aqua effects, etc etc.
You are a little blinded here. First, OS X dynamically turns off some eye candy based on performance. Second, I have run Linux on everything from a 16bit processor with a few K of RAM to high end 64bit machines with gigs of RAM. Just today some of the GUI effects and features in the Gnome desktop environment were a little sluggish and/or lacking proper feedback (dual opteron, nice graphics card, tons of RAM).
Hey, I'm a OS X and Linux fanboy myself, but lets keep it real.
Honestly, the only pigish requirement for Vista appears to be the 128 meg video card, but I'm sure that will only be for the eye candy and I believe I've heard that the system either disables the stuff or at least it will be an option for a more modest video card.
I'm still wondering when this beast will be out in the wild (just morbid curiosity, I'm happy with the systems I use), and actually what features will be left in the thing. From what I've read, it does not appear to really be and upgrade, but rather just what will come with new generic PCs. Feel free to correct me here, but that is what seems to be the case from a random learn about Windows from Slashdot geek like myself.
Can't they just add the words "keygen" and "crack" to the list of things they don't provide suggestions for?
Sure they _could_, but in my opinion and probably theirs, the should not.
Much of Google's success is due to its learning and dynamic mechanisms for determining search results. In a nutshell, PageRank works by using context of terms and hyperlinked terms and seeing what they point to. Older search engines worked on much more primitive algorithms or methods like the title of the page, keywords, the body, and those mechanisms simply did not work very well, mostly because they were easy to manipulate. Sure, there is google bombing, which is what "failure" and "miserable failure" demonstrate, and those silly sites that are all owned by the same people and point to each other or blog spammers, but its pretty good. I believe it would be wrong for google to do hand manipulated alterations of their searching mechanism.
Google's "Did you mean...?" stuff is learned, not a dictionary, and its based on context, not a pure [mis]spelling algorithm. Google search appliances on your network learn your acronyms and their context and help you with the "Did you mean... ?" stuff more specialized than an internet Google search.
I hope they get past the technobabble and win the case because I believe that learning software is where its at. I guess its one of the first approximations towards AI.
doesn't that particular function bring up the most popular searches for that keyword?
That is what the article seems to imply, and knowing how Google does things, I would bet money on it.
So, in other words they are being sued for an algorithm that is based on input from people based on their behavior, so of course Google is to blame (bigger pockets and a name than random anonymous joe smoe that actually did the searching).
The thing that sucks is because the 70-80 year old judge that probably cannot do anything besides use a push button telephone is actually going to ponder this for more than the 20 seconds it takes a technology minded person to ponder it.
Its just an algorithm based on user input. Much like searching for miserable failure. Google may or may not collectively agree with the result of such search, but they did not dope their search database with the information. It just happened. Shit happens.
You have two "known" "nutjobs". If you want to know who they're talking to and what they're saying, then get a warrant./i.
Ah, and this is why the new NSA dude rewrote the 4th amendment to do away with that pesky "probable cause" thing.
The data is clear. What over 90 probably closer to 99% of all convicted people keep doing what they are doing, which is parallel to being a known "nut job". But its still a violation of their rights to spy on them because there is no probable _cause_. There is probable crime, but no foreknowledge by the police and a judge of intent or extent or specifics for a warrant.
A warrant requires language to search for specific items at a specific place at a specific time. Typically, a search warrant is ordered to search people and private property in order to seize suspected contraband and/or criminal evidence.
Being a nut job or convict does not provide that much specificity for a warrant.
The people that set up this country knew what they were doing. I wish the current residents knew these things, and removed people from office that don't abide by the rules of this country. And no, a blowjob from a fat chick does not count. Fat girls need love too.
I get the feeling that even if Osama were captured, the U.S. wouldn't know what to do with him.
I normally don't reply to an AC, but I guess this is here for others to see.
The US will NEVER catch Osama. Even if they did, they would "throw him back into the sea".
Based on public perception, the capturing of Osama would symbolically end the "War on Terror", and the government would have to create a new enemy, but Osama is good enough of one for now. At least 5-7 more years worth, maybe more.
The fact that the KSM guy was "caught" and received very little press and public attention says volumes.
Ah, soap operas, they aren't just for housewives in the daytime anymore.
From all this invasion of privacy and analysis of our records, have we caught anyone? Stopped any attacks? Where's Osama?
We, as in the US. No. Well, we found Saddam in a hole, but we can't find anybody else. They did find the supposed "mastermind" behind the 9/11/01 attacks in Pakistan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_Shaikh_Mohamme d
They just aren't that good at this stuff, but persistence is the key.
because the jokes they tell just don't have a funny punchline anymore. Take this quite from the FA:
ThinThread was designed to address two key challenges: The NSA had more information than it could digest, and, increasingly, its targets were in contact with people in the United States whose calls the agency was prohibited from monitoring.
a) they are spying on so many people that they can't even process the data. I've been under that assumption for quite some time, and now its clear. Hey, its a win for us.
b) they are spying on people they can, but the important stuff is "off limits"
Huh?
I'm beginning to think that these people are just like peeping toms or people rubernecking at an accident on the side of the road. They clearly don't even seem to know what the fuck they are doing, it just looks cool, they know they shouldn't do it, but they simply can't help themselves. What a bunch of children.
Now, although the article has not much more info, the article seems to imply that the NSA is going about their surveillance of innocent people, but to get around that pesky 4th amendment*, they are anomalizing (correct word?) the data via some encryption thingy, and if the random stuff looks interesting enough, I guess they have to get a warrant (or not??) to decrypt the data into something real.
Now, at first that sounded OK, but then I thought about it. Isn't the data already anonymous and anomalized (??) by default? I mean, even if they have my name, say George Bush, and phone number, and the name and phone number of the guy I called, say Aleister Crowley. Unless the NSA already knows both of these people, that data is still anonymous. It would take a little more investigation to determine if it was George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, or just a namesake or the real deal themselves.
So, in other words, get a fucking warrant, and stop wasting my tax money randomly looking at "chatter" of innocent people. The process goes like this. 1) Find out something is wrong 2) Get an idea of who is doing the wrong and develop "probable cause" 3) Get a warrant, and go after the bad guys.
Otherwise, sit on your asses and drink coffee or eat a donut. Don't waste my tax money and be a peeping tom.
Back to that pesky 4th amendment. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the new dipshit that is the new head of the NSA:
...NASA has finally set aside a portion of its budget for the hiring of a trombone player to lighten the mood after each disasterous miscalculation with a well-timed "waaah WAAAAAAAAH."
Close, they just need to open source their code. As in this case: --- nav.c 2005-04-20 04:20:00.000000000 -0400 +++ nav_new.c 2006-05-18 03:00:11.000000000 -0400 @@ -403,7 +403,7 @@
Slashdot Mirror
Linux and FreeBSD are the best.
OS X is not free, but I believe it is the better choice.
Patriotism is being loyal and loving your country unconditionally and your politicians when they deserve it.
This administration deserves neither loyalty nor love.
Both of these statements are true.
I went to one of the best private high schools in my state, I also have 6+ years of college, yet I have only recently been learning about the Constitution and our government in my spare time. Of all of the required studies I took in school, I can't believe none of them taught me the Constitution, and very little history. The government makes these standards, right?
Anyway, in my recent learning of our Constitution and government, I learned a little about the impeachment process.
For those that don't know, impeachment of a high official must be initiated by the House of Representatives. To find your representative, look here. Note that the site requires your 5+4 digit zip code.
If you are an American and you love your life and country, I believe it is time to write at least your representative and ask for at least the impeachment of President Bush. A decent starting point can be found here plus there are many other resources on the web.
I made the decision today with the recent Gonzales article here on slashdot to write a letter to at least my representative. I was embarrassed that I had to look it up, but emphasis on government has never been necessary in my life until recently.
If someone could reply with a boilerplate for a letter to your representative, that would be appreciated.
I think its time that we take back charge in this country.
How does that saying go? "The pen is mightier than the sword."
Well, I've never heard of a government being overthrown via a written document.
As we speak, people are loading up with ammunition. Its best to have between 20-30,000 rounds. Of course, its always better to have ammo and not need it, than need it and not have it.
Since when has "freedom of speech" been a "nearly absolute right"? We limit free speech all the time in this country. For instance, you can't:
- Yell "fire" in a crowded theater.
That is just stupid. If the only reason you don't yell fire in a crowded theater is because its illegal. Well, good luck in life. A better example of a lack of freedom of speech is that its illegal to talk about killing the President of the United States.
- Commit libel or slander
Libel and slander are subject to _civil_ law, not criminal law.
- Say something that creates a "hostile work environment" for others
Yes, the government did initiate many civil rights laws, especially in the 60s. I think that is a good thing, and again, most of the litigation here are civil suits, not criminal ones.
Criticize a political candidate on television 60 days before an elections. (Thanks to the new Alien and Sedition Acts - AKA McCain-Feingold)
I didn't know about this law. Sounds dumb if it really exists and is that specific. So, internet, radio, press, flyers, meetings are OK to criticize a political candidate, but TV is off limits for 60 days before an election? OK.
The US federal government is becoming too powerful, and it needs to stop.
I'm not sure who added the final blurb, "So our 1st amendment rights don't trump the right of the federal government to violate them?", but that entirely reminded me recently of another "trump" made recently. "The decision means that federal anti-drug laws trump state laws that allow the use of medical marijuana, said CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Ten states have such laws."
I'm dead serious here. If the federal government keeps on their power trip fascism journey, well, they will be in for a rude awakening. This kind of government is one that will either start a civil war or a revolt by the people. I'm dead serious.
Once people's standard of living here goes down a few notches, which is already happening with the skyrocketing cost of housing. But as soon as people get to a point where they cannot afford the basics anymore, or when something like Social Security goes bust, we will loose faith in the government, and that will be it.
So, you feds, watch your step.
I remember it being introduced in the early '90s to describe laptops that were the same size as, or smaller than, a paper notebook
When I was in the early to mid 90s, we had "palm tops", which were PDA precursors I guess.
"laptop" does not appear once in the MacBook's manual."
The term "laptop" went away after the first guy burnt his dick on one.
Then they called them "notebooks".
It's like asking Steve Ballmer to take estrogen.
Ha! I can see it now. Steve Ballmer on stage with the lights shining off of his bald head saying:
Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen. [ slight pause, and turn ] Estrogen! Estrogen! Estrogen! Estrogen! Estrogen! Estrogen! Estrogen! Estrogen! Estrogen!
the movement isn't a top-down organization, but, well, a diverse movement, so its not all that much something that is "led" by "leaders"
So true, I agree completely. Just like ESR's "Cathedral and the Bazaar", OSS is the bazaar, there is no real leader, someone to sue, someone to blame, its just there, and it works, and that is what scares the suits and whatnot.
I see Linux as "ours". It started out as Linus' baby, but its free, and anybody is capable of doing a fork of it at anytime just like XFree86 to X.org did. Heck, look at slashdot. Its open source, anybody can go to http://slashcode.com/ and put up a slashdot "killer" at any time, but does it happen? No. Why? Because slashdot is more than slashcode, its people like me and you that make slashdot work. We openly bash on slashdot all the time and the editors don't delete the posts, they frequently get modded up and the discussion diverges from there.
The cathedral way of doing things is certainly a way of doing things, but its not the only way. A big topic that comes here multiple times a week is the failing cathedral way of music distribution and the RIAA. The bazaar method of music distribution is scary for them, and they go to the bigger cathedral, the government and court rooms to maintain their cathedral existence.
I really think this newer bazaar way of doing things is pretty cool. Look at Wikipedia, slashdot, GNU, Linux, etc. All of these things are very successful, but there is no real boundary or ownership of any of these things. They are free. And the bizarre thing about it is that people make money off of it.
Another thing that is cool about Linux and OSS is that the "cathedrals" are participating in the bazaar as well. Big brand name companies like Apple, IBM, SGI, HP, etc are embracing and contributing and benefitting from this stuff.
a laptop phoning home is pretty easy to detect. Don't do anything serious on it, hook it up to the network, start typing while someone watches your packets. It's not like the Chinese have their new MagicNet(tm) which doesn't require wires, or emit electromagnetic radiation detectable by standard instruments.
Wrong. My little criminal mind just thought of an excellent way to do some nice compromises.
Smart hardware based key logging, and then have the victim mail the product to a service center to get serviced or hell even a mass recall, and then download the keylogged data.
I only thought this stuff was software/network based until my little criminal mind came up with a better, and very unlikely traceable solution.
Heh!
Add to that the fact the the government buys these things in bulk and even IF a sample posessed no backdoor, how hard would it be to put a backdoor in 1 out of 1000 and hope it gets by?
That is FUD pure and simple. Unless I'm clueless, backdoors are software not hardware, and Levino makes hardware. The government buys software that is known to have the ability of backdoors in them by doing things like installing software or browsing the internet, why are they caring about a certain brand of hardware?
Also, isn't almost all computers and electronics made in China today? What is unique about Levino besides they are an offshoot of an American designed piece of hardware (that odds are was fabed in China for years)?
I wouldn't call him OSS leader :)
I would. I mean its pretty much between RMS and Linus, and I would give it to Linus.
Sure GNU did come first and Linux would be impotent without it, but Linus has something Stallman does not. Brand name recognition and a damn good OS that powers a bunch of the internet, routers, printers, digital picture frames, you name it.
Also, Linus is more suit and general public friendly than RMS will ever be.
If its not Linus or Stallman, who is the OSS leader or is there no leader but rather just a bizarre style of underground thing?
One thing I don't get about stories like this is why is it so difficult to go and pick up known "bad guys"?
You can look an Wikipedia and get a list of the big drug lords, read articles like this, or go to SpamHaus and see the list of the big fraud/spammers, but they keep doing what they do for a long time.
Is it because these people are so wealthy that its hard to get them? Is it because governments and law enforcement places are corrupt and get bought off or are part of the action as well?
Inquiring minds want to know.
I guess any link gets +1 informative.
But this is not prior art, its common sense.
When I buy goods or services on the street, I typically use "one click" stuff when the price is right.
Me: What do you have?
Them: I have X for $YY
Me: Sounds good, here is $YY.
Them: Here you go.
So, what is so unique about doing this on a computer or online?
Oh, I have to keep my CC on file with people I don't know who may sell or lose that info to someone else at any time with no compensation to me for my lost time or money. Oh, I get spammed from now to the end of time by Amazon about the killer deal of the week.
Patents need to change. Especially those that are only unique because they are "online" or "with a computer". These things are not that special, if not special at all.
Oh, and don't people in Europe buy soft drinks and other stuff from vending machines with 'one click' from their cell phones? Is that patented, or just common sense?
You should probably call up Intel and tell them to fix their spec sheets, because they seem to think that they're selling Itaniums clocked from 900MHz to 1.66GHz and draw anywhere from 90-122W.
i ndex.htm
This is where I got the info from: http://www.intel.com/products/processor/itanium2/
62, 99, and 130 Watts, and check out the new memory bandwidth numbers: 10.6 GB/sec.
I am not brand loyal, but at this time I prefer Intel over AMD. One thing I like about Intel is that they are a more mature company and offer a wider range of products. Intel makes damn good compilers, motherboard chipsets, CPUs, NICs, etc. AMD pretty much just makes processors at this time. And one thing that confuses me about AMD, is why do they have so many different processors? They have a web form on their site to do a search on them. I understand there is a difference between the 1xx opterons that are single CPU boxes and 2xx models that are SMP, but then there is the 4xx, and 8xx models as well. I don't know the down and dirty here, I'm not a computer engineer or chip designer, but to me its always been SMP or not SMP. I've found that looking for an AMD chip is almost impossible, and I guess its just worthwhile to benchmark some tests on a vendors box and see what happens. There are 191 models of Opterons listed on their website today. That is nuts!
Itanic had far and away the best fp scores when it came out. If what you had to do was almost all fp math then the itanium made sense at the time, possibly even from a flops-per-watt standpoint. Today it's just a footnote to a sad joke.
Yeah, use Itanic and bust on an Intel chip and get modded up around here, but Itaniums are good chips, and they have a market, but a fairly small one right now. They have up to 1.3GHz models that use less power than a Xeon. They use 62 Watts of power. Current Opterons use anywhere from 62 Watts to 110 Watts.
No, odds are you can't justify one in your home, but for high performance floating point apps that need high memory bandwidth, Itaniums are still pretty much #1.
Intel has been pretty aggressive in their power/flop ratio here lately and they are making excellent progress. Even crap chips from Intel such as the i860 turned into the Xscale processors.
I've been using Itaniums from two different vendors for almost 4 years now, and I have no regrets. Opterons are damn good chips. The HTX spec is excellent. But its difficult to say which one is better at this time. I believe that the compilers are better for Itaniums than Opterons, but I haven't looked very deep into the good compilers for Opterons and have run no benchmarks yet. Its a tough call, and the competition is great.
On both, things run perfectly, with all gui features, XGL, aqua effects, etc etc.
You are a little blinded here. First, OS X dynamically turns off some eye candy based on performance. Second, I have run Linux on everything from a 16bit processor with a few K of RAM to high end 64bit machines with gigs of RAM. Just today some of the GUI effects and features in the Gnome desktop environment were a little sluggish and/or lacking proper feedback (dual opteron, nice graphics card, tons of RAM).
Hey, I'm a OS X and Linux fanboy myself, but lets keep it real.
Honestly, the only pigish requirement for Vista appears to be the 128 meg video card, but I'm sure that will only be for the eye candy and I believe I've heard that the system either disables the stuff or at least it will be an option for a more modest video card.
I'm still wondering when this beast will be out in the wild (just morbid curiosity, I'm happy with the systems I use), and actually what features will be left in the thing. From what I've read, it does not appear to really be and upgrade, but rather just what will come with new generic PCs. Feel free to correct me here, but that is what seems to be the case from a random learn about Windows from Slashdot geek like myself.
Can't they just add the words "keygen" and "crack" to the list of things they don't provide suggestions for?
...?" stuff is learned, not a dictionary, and its based on context, not a pure [mis]spelling algorithm. Google search appliances on your network learn your acronyms and their context and help you with the "Did you mean ... ?" stuff more specialized than an internet Google search.
Sure they _could_, but in my opinion and probably theirs, the should not.
Much of Google's success is due to its learning and dynamic mechanisms for determining search results. In a nutshell, PageRank works by using context of terms and hyperlinked terms and seeing what they point to. Older search engines worked on much more primitive algorithms or methods like the title of the page, keywords, the body, and those mechanisms simply did not work very well, mostly because they were easy to manipulate. Sure, there is google bombing, which is what "failure" and "miserable failure" demonstrate, and those silly sites that are all owned by the same people and point to each other or blog spammers, but its pretty good. I believe it would be wrong for google to do hand manipulated alterations of their searching mechanism.
Google's "Did you mean
I hope they get past the technobabble and win the case because I believe that learning software is where its at. I guess its one of the first approximations towards AI.
doesn't that particular function bring up the most popular searches for that keyword?
That is what the article seems to imply, and knowing how Google does things, I would bet money on it.
So, in other words they are being sued for an algorithm that is based on input from people based on their behavior, so of course Google is to blame (bigger pockets and a name than random anonymous joe smoe that actually did the searching).
The thing that sucks is because the 70-80 year old judge that probably cannot do anything besides use a push button telephone is actually going to ponder this for more than the 20 seconds it takes a technology minded person to ponder it.
Its just an algorithm based on user input. Much like searching for miserable failure. Google may or may not collectively agree with the result of such search, but they did not dope their search database with the information. It just happened. Shit happens.
You have two "known" "nutjobs". If you want to know who they're talking to and what they're saying, then get a warrant./i.
Ah, and this is why the new NSA dude rewrote the 4th amendment to do away with that pesky "probable cause" thing.
The data is clear. What over 90 probably closer to 99% of all convicted people keep doing what they are doing, which is parallel to being a known "nut job". But its still a violation of their rights to spy on them because there is no probable _cause_. There is probable crime, but no foreknowledge by the police and a judge of intent or extent or specifics for a warrant.
A warrant requires language to search for specific items at a specific place at a specific time. Typically, a search warrant is ordered to search people and private property in order to seize suspected contraband and/or criminal evidence.
Being a nut job or convict does not provide that much specificity for a warrant.
The people that set up this country knew what they were doing. I wish the current residents knew these things, and removed people from office that don't abide by the rules of this country. And no, a blowjob from a fat chick does not count. Fat girls need love too.
I get the feeling that even if Osama were captured, the U.S. wouldn't know what to do with him.
I normally don't reply to an AC, but I guess this is here for others to see.
The US will NEVER catch Osama. Even if they did, they would "throw him back into the sea".
Based on public perception, the capturing of Osama would symbolically end the "War on Terror", and the government would have to create a new enemy, but Osama is good enough of one for now. At least 5-7 more years worth, maybe more.
The fact that the KSM guy was "caught" and received very little press and public attention says volumes.
Ah, soap operas, they aren't just for housewives in the daytime anymore.
From all this invasion of privacy and analysis of our records, have we caught anyone? Stopped any attacks? Where's Osama?
e d
We, as in the US. No. Well, we found Saddam in a hole, but we can't find anybody else. They did find the supposed "mastermind" behind the 9/11/01 attacks in Pakistan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_Shaikh_Mohamm
They just aren't that good at this stuff, but persistence is the key.
Another humorous quote:
Sources say the NSA's existing system for data-sorting has produced a database clogged with corrupted and useless information.
Be scared, very scared. What dipshits.
because the jokes they tell just don't have a funny punchline anymore. Take this quite from the FA:
. mov (about 2.5 megs)
ThinThread was designed to address two key challenges: The NSA had more information than it could digest, and, increasingly, its targets were in contact with people in the United States whose calls the agency was prohibited from monitoring.
a) they are spying on so many people that they can't even process the data. I've been under that assumption for quite some time, and now its clear. Hey, its a win for us.
b) they are spying on people they can, but the important stuff is "off limits"
Huh?
I'm beginning to think that these people are just like peeping toms or people rubernecking at an accident on the side of the road. They clearly don't even seem to know what the fuck they are doing, it just looks cool, they know they shouldn't do it, but they simply can't help themselves. What a bunch of children.
Now, although the article has not much more info, the article seems to imply that the NSA is going about their surveillance of innocent people, but to get around that pesky 4th amendment*, they are anomalizing (correct word?) the data via some encryption thingy, and if the random stuff looks interesting enough, I guess they have to get a warrant (or not??) to decrypt the data into something real.
Now, at first that sounded OK, but then I thought about it. Isn't the data already anonymous and anomalized (??) by default? I mean, even if they have my name, say George Bush, and phone number, and the name and phone number of the guy I called, say Aleister Crowley. Unless the NSA already knows both of these people, that data is still anonymous. It would take a little more investigation to determine if it was George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, or just a namesake or the real deal themselves.
So, in other words, get a fucking warrant, and stop wasting my tax money randomly looking at "chatter" of innocent people. The process goes like this. 1) Find out something is wrong 2) Get an idea of who is doing the wrong and develop "probable cause" 3) Get a warrant, and go after the bad guys.
Otherwise, sit on your asses and drink coffee or eat a donut. Don't waste my tax money and be a peeping tom.
Back to that pesky 4th amendment. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the new dipshit that is the new head of the NSA:
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Countdown-nsa-Ha
...NASA has finally set aside a portion of its budget for the hiring of a trombone player to lighten the mood after each disasterous miscalculation with a well-timed "waaah WAAAAAAAAH."
Close, they just need to open source their code. As in this case:
--- nav.c 2005-04-20 04:20:00.000000000 -0400
+++ nav_new.c 2006-05-18 03:00:11.000000000 -0400
@@ -403,7 +403,7 @@
-if (!moving_towards_satellite) {
+if (moving_towards_satellite) {
move_away();
}
Simple logic error that would have been caught if open sourced, right?