Java is a great language. However, their poor implementation of the GUI API's makes the end user experience bad.
I'm glad to hear someone else with the same experiences and opinions of java that I have had.
I've dinked with the java language some, but have lost interest because of other choices. I've seen java apps that basically just suck for 10 years now, and I'm java gunshy now.
Oracle's universal installer wasn't very universal on win nt when the colors were greater than 16 or so. I've had java "web" installers or whatever they called them crash when trying to display over a remote X connection, and had to resort to a text base interface. I've seen a number of "null pointer references" when java is not supposed to have pointers. I've "debugged" java apps by instead of doing java/path/to/java.app I had to cd to/pat/to and then run the application (classpath issue). I've worked with Mathworks trying to get Matlab to display remotely over an X connection. That too was a java problem. I used a java bittorrent program, but had to quit using it because it used too much CPU and for some reason it would not work for more than one user at a time. I've had java crash netscape so many times, I stopped using it in netscape to enable me to see wavy images and scrolling LED signs. I've had java not work right under OS X for a very simple zoom applet.
Those are just things I've come up with off of the top of my head. I've heard people say its OK as a middleware glue tool between web servers and databases. I've never done that. I can say that in my experience, the java implementation has always sucked over the years, and if I never saw another java app, I would be fine with that.
Password Security doesn't mean a damn when you're getting logged or someone is sniffing them over a network
Exactly. So changing them, and using "good" ones don't mean shit if you're just going to give it away to someone.
People seem to think that this password security crap is something real, but they rarely if ever change the PIN on their bank card, they rarely if ever change the locks on their car and/or house, or the combination on their fireproof safe. Its cool that everybody is so much into their password habits, that in itself will defeat the war on terror.
OK. Now back on topic.
This guy seems like he isn't a regular here. In fact he seems brand new. Oh, and what is the advertising believe in saying the product or company name? At least 3 times in a commercial. iDefense was repeated 3 times in the blurb that says little more.
On TV, they say before the infomercial that it is an infomercial and that the network is not responsible for anything they say, blah, blah. Are there no requirements or ethics for an online publication to do the same?
With a 32 bit OS (like Win2K and WinXP in my case), you cannot access all 4G of RAM (easily). Windows reports back anywhere from 3.2-3.5G of RAM - in part due to the PCI devices mapping resources, etc.
I have no experience with Windows and "lots" of RAM, but the 32bit Intel architecture supports something like 12 Gigs to 32 gigs of RAM via basically hardware hacks. The OS cannot address more than 2 gigs in one chunk though.
You OS seeing only 3.2 to 3.5 gigs makes no sense to me. Maybe you bought the RAM from a harddrive manufacturer? Dunno.
... for a political maneuver where you first propose something so outrageous that it's sure to get shot down, and then withdraw the proposal and advance something only slightly less outrageous?
If there is a word for it, I don't know it. But this is basic psychology. You do it with haggling for a price of something. The price is $300 for something, I'll give you $100, no way, how about $200, deal!
FWIW, this is how watergate happened.
Also, its a sales trick to show you the top of the line first, not the bottom of the line. People will spend more money that way vs the other way around.
Is the "motion blur" of 24fps movies added in post processing, inherent to the camera in original filming, or a combination of the two.
I'm also not a gamer, but being a geek I like the technology that goes into the newer games. I may very well buy a PS3 if I get unpissed at Sony. 2 HDTV outs, digital sound, absolutely sick looking screenshots, cell processors, looks neat. I'm curious about the blur in games. Why does that not exist? Would it take more processing to produce the blur than to just throw out more frames?
there's so many irrelevant points in your post, I can't begin to discuss each one separately.
Now, that my grip is applied, I'm confused why any sane person would discuss the irrelevant points.
Giraffes have long necks and never infringe on copyrights. Discuss!
It's Orwellian to allow others to redefine how and what you think by using newspeak.
ps: [quote]Walking out on a bill at a restaurant is not considered stealing I guess, even though it is in part stealing.[/quote] uhm... I'm pretty sure you'd in fact get charged for theft if you walked out on a restaurant bill... but hey, IANAL...:)
My whole irrelevant point was that I'm trying to say that, yes, in the literal strict meaning of the word theft and copyright infringement are not theft. Neither is identity theft. Walking out of a restaurant is not talked about as theft, but its closer to theft than copyright infringement, but the term "theft" and "stealing" are more commonly used for copyright infringement on commercial software, movies and music than it is used when leaving a restaurant without paying.
I did not make any of this up.
I will say that also according to the lawsuits going around, I would personally rather be charged with theft vs copyright infringement. If I were to run out of a store with a CD not much would happen if caught. If I were to "share" the same CD on the internet, it looks a bit nastier.
I have stolen things before, I have infringed on copyright before. Does that make me cooler now?
I guess its a losing battle, but I would like to end the infringement vs theft thing. Its stupid. No, they are not literally or legally the same, but pretty damn close.
I don't "infringe upon copyrighted software" because I'm selfish. I want there to be a software industry with quality supported software, and not just hacked together stuff by CS students before they go to collect unemployment.
Its just easier to say I don't steal software. But apparently it really makes people feel better to infringe on copyrights and face those lawsuits and/or criminal cases than those of theft which is not theft, but you end up in the same place.
No. Everybody with any basic concept of theft and copyright infringement know they are not literally the same, but in written and informal speaking, they are.
Even people that blatantly "infringe on copyrights" consider themselves thieves. Ever hear of http://thepiratebay.org/ Pirates are known as people that steal stuff off of boats. Not infringe on their copyrights.
The words will be inseparable as long as I can tell. Its no big deal.
Use of the item doesn't require any sort of deprivation of the owner, not even deprivation that might be inconsequential to them.
Copyright infringement is nowhere near stealing.
But it is very damn close. Would everybody copyright infringing on Doom III instead of buying it or everybody taking a copy off of the shelf do anything different to ID Software? Would it deprive them of jobs and money? Yes it would.
In one of my examples, taking off without paying at a restaurant. That is not semantically called "stealing", but it is more technically "stealing" than copyright infringement of software.
I'm sorry, but who the fuck cares about "copyright infringement"? That means nothing to most people, and it sounds like its making someone uncomfortable at the most.
Identity infringement sounds stupid. Identity theft, although it might not be theft in any sense of the law, just sounds better in writing and speaking.
My point was and is that sometimes theft is not called theft when it is (leaving a restaurant) or simply isn't as in identity theft.
I'm a hedonist, my moral philosophy is to do whatever the fuck you want so long as you get away with it. I'm against stealing of software or infringing on the intellectual property owners rights or whatever you want to call it because you simply cannot get away with it. If that were universally or beyond some threshold to make software a profitable business, everybody looses.
So, is it stealing if nobody notices the item missing? I don't know how much money I have in my wallet right now. Around $50 plus or minus. Someone could take a 5, 10, or 20 and I would have no idea. Regardless, if I catch you in my wallet, you better be bigger and/or better armed than me. If I'm feeling particular feisty, that might not matter. If at all possible, you will not get away with it.
Value is just that. If people stop valuing software and "steal" it, then it will only hurt people like me in the end because I'm in the business. I value software. I use free and commercial software. I feel as though I am doing myself a disservice by "use better word than steal"ing software.
I once heard that someone once said that if someone rips off something inexpensive like a pack of gum or something, then their integrity is worth less than the cost of a pack of gum. There is some saying that goes like "It not that you lied to me that bothers me, its the fact that I can no longer trust you that bothers me".
Does any of this make sense? Is your mom's basement still OK for you?
No, in a legal sense it is not "stealing". But objectively it is.
It's important to remember that "copy-right infringemnt" != "stealing", and if people on/. can't keep this straight, how can anyone expect Joe Public to keep it straight?
Software is not a service, its a product.
Someone owes me $300 for back rent when they lived with me. They did not "steal" anything from me, but he believes he owes me the money and I sure do.
Obtaining a software product that is commercially available and using it as if you had paid for it is pretty damn close to stealing. I guess staying in a hotel without using any electricity or water and not paying is not stealing, but its still not right.
Killing someone could be misconstrued into stealing their life. Walking out on a bill at a restaurant is not considered stealing I guess, even though it is in part stealing.
What difference does it make?
Stealing a CD from wal-mart is not going to put them under, and neither is copying a CD that your friend bought from wal-mart. So, in order to avoid copy-right infringement, why not just steal the disk from wal-mart instead? Who cares?
The loosest version of the definition of stealing is to take a product without permission and using it just as if you paid for it.
Now taking Linux and mucking with it and then selling it w/o the proper attribution or source, is copyright-infringement. But nobody lost a sale here. Taking a copy of MS Office without paying for it and using it for yourself, is much closer to stealing than copyright infringement. Making other copies of it and selling it at a lower cost than the retail value is something entirely different.
No, copyright infringement is not stealing, but its certainly close enough. Kinda like the difference between identity infringement and identity theft.
Re:Sensationalist Journalism?
on
A Flu Pandemic?
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If you roll two dice 200 times without getting snake eyes, you are not "due" for them. You still have the same 1 in 36 odds as you did last roll.
I disagree. There are serial odds as well. Meaning that you sum up the total number of possible chances each time.
The odds of rolling 200 times w/o a snake eyes, is much less than 1/36. The odds of rolling 201 times w/o snake eyes is lower, etc.
But yes, the dice have no memory and there is a 1 in 36 chance they will roll snake eyes at any given time.
The odds of getting 40 heads in a row with a coin is 1 in 10^12. Nowhere near 50%.
AMD has come a very long way the past few years. If they had Intel's fabrication skills they would be almost unstoppable. This HTX stuff simply looks like the bomb.
I only really know how Linux boots at an overview, but other *NIX systems may be very similar. There is something called a "boot loader" that sits at the beginning of the boot disk and points to the Linux kernel. The linux kernel then takes over the machine in terms of getting an inventory of the hardware attached on the computer and initializing the device drivers and the devices. It then looks for/sbin/init which then brings up userland processes (GUI shell, bring up network, login prompts, etc) and/or modifies the behavior of the kernel via loading modules or modifying default parameters.
That in no way is very comprehensive, but its pretty much sums things up. I don't know if this is still the case, but I used to make linux bootable disks simply by doing "cat kernel_image >/dev/fd0" which puts the kernel at the beginning of the floppy disk, and if the machine is told to boot from a floppy linux comes right up.
How does it interact with hardware?
Depends. It just "does the right thing(tm)". Just kidding. I'm not sure what you are asking here in terms of how do you manipulate hardware via the OS, or how the OS internally handles the hardware. Both are too large of a topic to talk about here.
Is there a general hint to what all the directories are about or any memory aids for knowing what's in them?
Most of this is Linuxcentric, but many things apply to other systems as well.
I always put just about everything in my path, because some of the directory naming conventions are ambiguous or whatever (like traceroute being in/usr/sbin or ping being in weird places sometimes). But here is the overview./bin hold basic utilities. It almost always is on the same boot disk as the kernel, so you can do basic stuff even if the other drives are hosed or down or network attached, or whatever./sbin is the same, but has more "super user" commands in there which I guess is where the 's' comes from./etc is on the same disk and holds most of the configuration files for the system, to include the user and group database./lib is for basic common shared libraries (like DLLs). Again, its typically on the same disk. Sometimes some or all of the/sbin and/bin commands are statically linked or have statically linked alternatives so that the system is still useable in the event of shared library problems./dev is on the same disk and it is a file based abstraction of many of the hardware devices./dev/hda is the first IDE disk./dev/hda1 is the first IDE disk partition, etc./dev/null is where all of the important stuff goes. If you accidentally delete a file or something, its probably there:) There are other fun things like/dev/zero that is filled with zeros, bunches of them. And/dev/random or/dev/urandom which has bunches of random junk in there. There is too much about/dev for here and now, but its pretty cool.
There is/proc which is typically on the first disk, but it is a virtual filesystem, and all the stuff in there is dynamically displayed by the kernel. General information about each process is stuffed in there, getting and setting kernel variables is in there. Its kinda like/dev and again its too involved for this overview.
Now there is/opt, which is wrongly put in / and its misnamed from/usr/local. I see the conceptual value of/opt (for optional) and I do see a small distinction from/opt and/usr/local because/opt typically has optional stuff that came with your base system. I'll get to that in a second./usr has
At least in the US, money is printed on cotton pulp and not wood pulp.
Actually, its 25% linen and 75% cotton. "Paper" money is a misnomer. Paper cannot withstand the folding, washing, and other abuses that "paper" money goes through.
With this new processor Sun hopes to get a leg up on the competition.
Oh, instead of the previous attempt to get a leg "up" on the competition with the "if you can't beat them, join them" method like: http://www.sun.com/x64/
Before anybody gets weird on me, I am not an AMD fanboy. I am kinda a Sun fanboy, but I have been very critical of them in recent years for a reason. They have been for years watering down their name and reputation. Hopefully this new chip is in the right direction. We will see. UltraSPARC IVs have been on the roadmap for years. Lets see some good stuff here guys. Memory bandwidth would be something nice to have as well.
This whole thing is a silly notion. The setup for the problem is impossible, you can't make the sun instantly disappear. But the question is, what would happen if it did.
My thesis was that it would be instantly or take forever that the gravity to go away. I spoke with someone today that knows more about gravity, and he agrees with the 8 minute thing, but given the impossible circumstances, I'm still not sure what would happen anymore that anybody else.
I said that I thought that it would be instant because gravity is entirely dependent on the mass being there for the gravity to work, so taking away the mass takes away the gravity at the same time. You can turn off light, you can't turn off gravity except for this patented new idea. So keeping it simple, it seems reasonable to assume that no mass = no gravity.
Now my other completely opposite idea was that the time-space thing could not fix itself because there would be nothing to tell the gravity to stop.
This is like the mathematical proof that 1=2. It looks good, but it takes dividing by zero which is simply undefined. This condition is simply undefined. So, yeah its a silly notion.
I'm just not going to pay $15 for the right to listen to music in a fixed order in a certain CD player on the second Tuesday of each month between five and eight PM. The things Sony is demanding go against the concept of fair use...and I get the feeling that thi story could do just as much damage as the rootkit one did, if not more.
Ah, but we all now respect Sony's intellectual rights now, right?
Fuck these people and their "intellectual" property. Fuck them right in the ear while I "break the law" and smoke pot in my house.
I've found that its easier to think of large groups of people as one person. It seems to make sense, like a country or a corporation. When countries fight, bicker, or have issues or get along, its just like individuals. The same goes for a corporation.
If I were to know somebody that sold me a car, I would think they were paranoid and psychotic if they came over and inspected if I were changing the oil regularly and made sure I didn't take the american brand name emblems off of it and rice it up with some V-TEC stickers. Lord fucking forgive me if I wreck the car, it gets stolen, or I sell the thing and buy another one.
Instead of being psychotic you stupid rich fucking music pimps, and either get out of the way because your doing a shitty job, or sell us a product that we want.
Apple is close with iPods and iTunes. The downside is that 1) you can only really "properly" get your music from them 2) its a hack at best if you want to do something stupid like listen to your music in your car or home stereo instead of earphones.
We don't want CDs anymore. Don't you realize that? People throw away the plastic cases that break and take up too much room. They trow them in a CD book, and over time they get scratched because the technology sucks for portability and convenience. Its next to impossible to switch and hear one song from another CD while you are driving in the car, and then listen to another CD. CD changers hold what? Maybe 10 CDs. Whoopty shit.
We want more music at a reasonable price that is convenient and portable to listen to.
I repeat.
We want more music at a reasonable price that is convenient and portable to listen to.
We don't want stuff that you have to listen to on one piece of equipment (DRMed to hell). We don't want early 80's shiny fragile disks that hold about 45 minutes to an hour of music provided that every song is worth listening to.
People on average are not unreasonable. Or at least not like you're trying to be.
Proprietary things like game cartridges are OK, because they work, and its a thing. My large stereo speakers are OK at my house, but suck in my car, or if I'm walking down the street. Your 45 minute at best CD is barely acceptable in a car, barely acceptable when walking, and barely acceptable at home.
We want playlists, smart shuffling, portability, variety, and are willing to pay for it.
I mean, what does this stupid company Sony do besides fuck around with music recordings and DRM and rootkits? Oh, I've heard they make electronics for the home, the car, portable audio, and even computers. In fact at one time the word Walkman (didn't even get caught by my spell checker) was as big as the word iPod. In fact, that was about the time the CD came out. If you had your shit together and made electronics to satisfy our needs, you could give the music away and still make money. What the fuck have you done differently since 1982 Sony? Times have changed. People are very willing to pay money for convenience and entertainment. We don't go around stealing shit at every chance we get.
So finally, fuck you and your DRM, your EULAs, proprietary redundant formats, and everything else.
The shit you do is stupid, and we simply are demonstrating this fact by the way we spend our money on other goods and services.
I never, ever though that when I was a kid who liked the songs I heard on the radio and the albums that I had at
If the sun were magically eliminated, it would still take 8 minutes for the earth to suddenly break orbit as space relaxed into the form of having no mass at that point. Till then, the earth would keep orbiting.
Being that this is absurd, because the Sun cannot magically be eliminated, this can only be a thought experiment that other people much brighter than I have already thought about, but here is my take.
Gravity is believed to be within 1% of the speed of light (I've read plus or minus, but the plus one had an error range to put it equal or slightly less). However, none of the experiments dealt with such a case like this, where the source of the gravity (the mass) was instantly taken away.
Now, if I were spinning a ball on a string around my head, and the string were to become instantly become cut, then the ball would go at a tangent to the string and straight into the direction of the ball's motion.
I believe that it would be instantaneous as well for the Earth to shoot in a tangent trajectory if the Sun were to instantly disappear. The space-time continuum model of gravity seems OK, and with that there is a deformation in space caused by the Sun's mass to "pull" the Earth into it like the string pulls the ball.
So, in other words, I'm saying that gravity is instantaneous which is faster than light. Some other thought evidence for this theory, is the fact that now that the Sun's mass is gone, what force would then take over time (8 minutes in this case) to cause the space-time continuum to go back to "flat" instead of warped? With that thought, I now think that if that the gravitational effect of the Sun on the Earth would/could take much longer than the speed of light if not forever. You could picture this as a dent in a car. Space is now dented by the Sun.
Anyway, again, this is impossible because there is no magic trick that we know of to make matter simply disappear so things, so we are stuck with gravity being attached to things.
Has a patent ever been invalidated based on the premise "We had no business issuing a patent on this"? I'm not talking prior art or technicalities, but "this was patently absurd".
Come on, USA! At least in the cities, there is no reason to be so far behind with regards to residential access!
OK. I'm an American downloading pig. I trade (legally and encouraged by the artists) live music that averages at about a Gig of data per show, and all of the regular other junk that I do. I have, I guess, about the fastest internet one can get now at work, Internet2, and soon to be upgraded to Lamda Rail.
Sure, I guess I would take a 100Mpbs connection at home at the same price or lower than I pay now for my 1.5-5 Mpbs connection at home (I don't know what the speed is now, its pretty fast). Especially for the upgraded upload bandwidth.
But, what I'm getting at, is I don't see a pressing need to have such high bandwidth at home at this time. Sure, this is subject to change in the future, but I do not at all feel as though my bandwidth is inadequate.
Yeah, I sometimes I could wish that I could transfer gigs of data from work to my house at the speed that I can from machine to machine at work. But then again, I have a laptop that I can put the data on at work, and bring the laptop home and then transfer the data at gigabit speeds to my home PC.
Aside from the real geek factor of my bandwidth is bigger than yours, do people really need that much bandwidth at their home for regular stuff? If I had a server that I ran or if I ran a business from my home, that would be different. But essentially, I have somewhere between a T1 and a T3 in bandwidth to my house which used to cost THOUSANDS a month not too long ago.
Some of why I get the low rate is because it uses the old infrastructure that was already laid, cable TV. Other options are DSL which too use existing infrastructure.
At this time, I see no real benefit from either the consumer point of view or a business model to lay that much new cable to each and every home and apartment in either a city or the whole country,
My hands are firmly gripped on my geek badge as it is being pulled from me.
I often search the web for material for my games, using words like names of different weapons, ritual magic, sacrifice, summoning demons, explosives and such - Would this put me under the magnifying glass?
If you were suspected of using weapons, ritual magic, sacrifice, summoning demons, or explosives in a murder. You bet ya.
Patents don't apply to the government, unless the government wants them to.
AFAIK, patents don't apply to anybody unless the patent holder defends their patent. IE, its not a crime to use something patented by another, its just a civil matter. Patented technology can be used by anybody from no price to license fees of any creative amount.
Now, about:
Apparently 10% of US Blackberry users are government users.
Aren't 100% of US Blackberry users government users? If you have electricity to power a Blackberry, then you use government things like roads, buildings, or whatever in some form or another.
I'm guessing that the intended statement was, "Apparently 10% of US Blackberry users are government employees."
I know of no innocent people. None. Maybe very small children that do not have the knowledge, need, or resources to do anything un-innocent. But besides that, nope.
In the eyes of the law and your personal freedom and liberties, you are innocent until proven otherwise. Regardless of the truth or future status of your innocence.
I'm a little paranoid by nature. I suspect that anyone and everyone might have, including the police, government, private citizens, military, you name it.
There simply needs to be some fucking piece of evidence and a specific crime to investigate before detaining someone against their will and without the consent of a lawyer.
In our societies today, it take somebody between I dunno, between 5 to 8 years of dedicated training and then a complete full time job to simply know the rules of the society (lawyer).
Individual citizens know little more about the rules and their rights then what they see on TV or read in casual books and magazines. Many of them have gone to school themselves for quite some period of time, and have full time jobs doing something valuable to society besides being a lawyer.
Under no circumstances is it acceptable or necessary for a part of the government to detain someone without a specific crime and without any evidence of a crime _AND_ without the consent of a lawyer.
None.
I simply cannot think of an exception, and I can be the devil's advocate in almost any situation. I cannot think of one.
I first thought of, well if they thought that the guy was a serial killer, then I stopped. That was a specific crime, and odds are there will be some sort of evidence, and he would get a lawyer.
We can, should, and have the right to fight this. Its unacceptable.
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Java is a great language. However, their poor implementation of the GUI API's makes the end user experience bad.
/path/to/java.app I had to cd to /pat/to and then run the application (classpath issue). I've worked with Mathworks trying to get Matlab to display remotely over an X connection. That too was a java problem. I used a java bittorrent program, but had to quit using it because it used too much CPU and for some reason it would not work for more than one user at a time. I've had java crash netscape so many times, I stopped using it in netscape to enable me to see wavy images and scrolling LED signs. I've had java not work right under OS X for a very simple zoom applet.
I'm glad to hear someone else with the same experiences and opinions of java that I have had.
I've dinked with the java language some, but have lost interest because of other choices. I've seen java apps that basically just suck for 10 years now, and I'm java gunshy now.
Oracle's universal installer wasn't very universal on win nt when the colors were greater than 16 or so. I've had java "web" installers or whatever they called them crash when trying to display over a remote X connection, and had to resort to a text base interface. I've seen a number of "null pointer references" when java is not supposed to have pointers. I've "debugged" java apps by instead of doing java
Those are just things I've come up with off of the top of my head. I've heard people say its OK as a middleware glue tool between web servers and databases. I've never done that. I can say that in my experience, the java implementation has always sucked over the years, and if I never saw another java app, I would be fine with that.
Password Security doesn't mean a damn when you're getting logged or someone is sniffing them over a network
Exactly. So changing them, and using "good" ones don't mean shit if you're just going to give it away to someone.
People seem to think that this password security crap is something real, but they rarely if ever change the PIN on their bank card, they rarely if ever change the locks on their car and/or house, or the combination on their fireproof safe. Its cool that everybody is so much into their password habits, that in itself will defeat the war on terror.
OK. Now back on topic.
This guy seems like he isn't a regular here. In fact he seems brand new. Oh, and what is the advertising believe in saying the product or company name? At least 3 times in a commercial. iDefense was repeated 3 times in the blurb that says little more.
On TV, they say before the infomercial that it is an infomercial and that the network is not responsible for anything they say, blah, blah. Are there no requirements or ethics for an online publication to do the same?
Just curious.
With a 32 bit OS (like Win2K and WinXP in my case), you cannot access all 4G of RAM (easily). Windows reports back anywhere from 3.2-3.5G of RAM - in part due to the PCI devices mapping resources, etc.
I have no experience with Windows and "lots" of RAM, but the 32bit Intel architecture supports something like 12 Gigs to 32 gigs of RAM via basically hardware hacks. The OS cannot address more than 2 gigs in one chunk though.
You OS seeing only 3.2 to 3.5 gigs makes no sense to me. Maybe you bought the RAM from a harddrive manufacturer? Dunno.
What exacty goes into base?
All your base are belong to us.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
... for a political maneuver where you first propose something so outrageous that it's sure to get shot down, and then withdraw the proposal and advance something only slightly less outrageous?
If there is a word for it, I don't know it. But this is basic psychology. You do it with haggling for a price of something. The price is $300 for something, I'll give you $100, no way, how about $200, deal!
FWIW, this is how watergate happened.
Also, its a sales trick to show you the top of the line first, not the bottom of the line. People will spend more money that way vs the other way around.
I'm asking because I simply do not know.
Is the "motion blur" of 24fps movies added in post processing, inherent to the camera in original filming, or a combination of the two.
I'm also not a gamer, but being a geek I like the technology that goes into the newer games. I may very well buy a PS3 if I get unpissed at Sony. 2 HDTV outs, digital sound, absolutely sick looking screenshots, cell processors, looks neat. I'm curious about the blur in games. Why does that not exist? Would it take more processing to produce the blur than to just throw out more frames?
wow. get a grip...
:)
Grip now firmly applied. Good suggestion.
there's so many irrelevant points in your post, I can't begin to discuss each one separately.
Now, that my grip is applied, I'm confused why any sane person would discuss the irrelevant points.
Giraffes have long necks and never infringe on copyrights. Discuss!
It's Orwellian to allow others to redefine how and what you think by using newspeak.
ps:
[quote]Walking out on a bill at a restaurant is not considered stealing I guess, even though it is in part stealing.[/quote] uhm... I'm pretty sure you'd in fact get charged for theft if you walked out on a restaurant bill... but hey, IANAL...
My whole irrelevant point was that I'm trying to say that, yes, in the literal strict meaning of the word theft and copyright infringement are not theft. Neither is identity theft. Walking out of a restaurant is not talked about as theft, but its closer to theft than copyright infringement, but the term "theft" and "stealing" are more commonly used for copyright infringement on commercial software, movies and music than it is used when leaving a restaurant without paying.
I did not make any of this up.
I will say that also according to the lawsuits going around, I would personally rather be charged with theft vs copyright infringement. If I were to run out of a store with a CD not much would happen if caught. If I were to "share" the same CD on the internet, it looks a bit nastier.
I have stolen things before, I have infringed on copyright before. Does that make me cooler now?
I guess its a losing battle, but I would like to end the infringement vs theft thing. Its stupid. No, they are not literally or legally the same, but pretty damn close.
I don't "infringe upon copyrighted software" because I'm selfish. I want there to be a software industry with quality supported software, and not just hacked together stuff by CS students before they go to collect unemployment.
Its just easier to say I don't steal software. But apparently it really makes people feel better to infringe on copyrights and face those lawsuits and/or criminal cases than those of theft which is not theft, but you end up in the same place.
No. Everybody with any basic concept of theft and copyright infringement know they are not literally the same, but in written and informal speaking, they are.
Even people that blatantly "infringe on copyrights" consider themselves thieves. Ever hear of http://thepiratebay.org/ Pirates are known as people that steal stuff off of boats. Not infringe on their copyrights.
The words will be inseparable as long as I can tell. Its no big deal.
If I write a book and release it on the internet for everybody to download for free, you still can't copy and sell it without my permission.
Oh yeah? I'll take 10 dollars for the text above this line, or best offer.
Use of the item doesn't require any sort of deprivation of the owner, not even deprivation that might be inconsequential to them.
Copyright infringement is nowhere near stealing.
But it is very damn close. Would everybody copyright infringing on Doom III instead of buying it or everybody taking a copy off of the shelf do anything different to ID Software? Would it deprive them of jobs and money? Yes it would.
In one of my examples, taking off without paying at a restaurant. That is not semantically called "stealing", but it is more technically "stealing" than copyright infringement of software.
I'm sorry, but who the fuck cares about "copyright infringement"? That means nothing to most people, and it sounds like its making someone uncomfortable at the most.
Identity infringement sounds stupid. Identity theft, although it might not be theft in any sense of the law, just sounds better in writing and speaking.
My point was and is that sometimes theft is not called theft when it is (leaving a restaurant) or simply isn't as in identity theft.
I'm a hedonist, my moral philosophy is to do whatever the fuck you want so long as you get away with it. I'm against stealing of software or infringing on the intellectual property owners rights or whatever you want to call it because you simply cannot get away with it. If that were universally or beyond some threshold to make software a profitable business, everybody looses.
So, is it stealing if nobody notices the item missing? I don't know how much money I have in my wallet right now. Around $50 plus or minus. Someone could take a 5, 10, or 20 and I would have no idea. Regardless, if I catch you in my wallet, you better be bigger and/or better armed than me. If I'm feeling particular feisty, that might not matter. If at all possible, you will not get away with it.
Value is just that. If people stop valuing software and "steal" it, then it will only hurt people like me in the end because I'm in the business. I value software. I use free and commercial software. I feel as though I am doing myself a disservice by "use better word than steal"ing software.
I once heard that someone once said that if someone rips off something inexpensive like a pack of gum or something, then their integrity is worth less than the cost of a pack of gum. There is some saying that goes like "It not that you lied to me that bothers me, its the fact that I can no longer trust you that bothers me".
Does any of this make sense? Is your mom's basement still OK for you?
No, in a legal sense it is not "stealing". But objectively it is.
It's important to remember that "copy-right infringemnt" != "stealing", and if people on /. can't keep this straight, how can anyone expect Joe Public to keep it straight?
Software is not a service, its a product.
Someone owes me $300 for back rent when they lived with me. They did not "steal" anything from me, but he believes he owes me the money and I sure do.
Obtaining a software product that is commercially available and using it as if you had paid for it is pretty damn close to stealing. I guess staying in a hotel without using any electricity or water and not paying is not stealing, but its still not right.
Killing someone could be misconstrued into stealing their life. Walking out on a bill at a restaurant is not considered stealing I guess, even though it is in part stealing.
What difference does it make?
Stealing a CD from wal-mart is not going to put them under, and neither is copying a CD that your friend bought from wal-mart. So, in order to avoid copy-right infringement, why not just steal the disk from wal-mart instead? Who cares?
The loosest version of the definition of stealing is to take a product without permission and using it just as if you paid for it.
Now taking Linux and mucking with it and then selling it w/o the proper attribution or source, is copyright-infringement. But nobody lost a sale here. Taking a copy of MS Office without paying for it and using it for yourself, is much closer to stealing than copyright infringement. Making other copies of it and selling it at a lower cost than the retail value is something entirely different.
No, copyright infringement is not stealing, but its certainly close enough. Kinda like the difference between identity infringement and identity theft.
If you roll two dice 200 times without getting snake eyes, you are not "due" for them. You still have the same 1 in 36 odds as you did last roll.
I disagree. There are serial odds as well. Meaning that you sum up the total number of possible chances each time.
The odds of rolling 200 times w/o a snake eyes, is much less than 1/36. The odds of rolling 201 times w/o snake eyes is lower, etc.
But yes, the dice have no memory and there is a 1 in 36 chance they will roll snake eyes at any given time.
The odds of getting 40 heads in a row with a coin is 1 in 10^12. Nowhere near 50%.
Have you tried Pathscale compilers http://www.pathscale.com/ekopath.html? They seem to give quite decent performance on AMD64 chips.
I haven't used their compiler, but this looks fscking sick: http://www.pathscale.com/infinipath.php
AMD has come a very long way the past few years. If they had Intel's fabrication skills they would be almost unstoppable. This HTX stuff simply looks like the bomb.
How does **nix boot?
/sbin/init which then brings up userland processes (GUI shell, bring up network, login prompts, etc) and/or modifies the behavior of the kernel via loading modules or modifying default parameters.
/dev/fd0" which puts the kernel at the beginning of the floppy disk, and if the machine is told to boot from a floppy linux comes right up.
/usr/sbin or ping being in weird places sometimes). But here is the overview. /bin hold basic utilities. It almost always is on the same boot disk as the kernel, so you can do basic stuff even if the other drives are hosed or down or network attached, or whatever. /sbin is the same, but has more "super user" commands in there which I guess is where the 's' comes from. /etc is on the same disk and holds most of the configuration files for the system, to include the user and group database. /lib is for basic common shared libraries (like DLLs). Again, its typically on the same disk. Sometimes some or all of the /sbin and /bin commands are statically linked or have statically linked alternatives so that the system is still useable in the event of shared library problems. /dev is on the same disk and it is a file based abstraction of many of the hardware devices. /dev/hda is the first IDE disk. /dev/hda1 is the first IDE disk partition, etc. /dev/null is where all of the important stuff goes. If you accidentally delete a file or something, its probably there :) There are other fun things like /dev/zero that is filled with zeros, bunches of them. And /dev/random or /dev/urandom which has bunches of random junk in there. There is too much about /dev for here and now, but its pretty cool.
/proc which is typically on the first disk, but it is a virtual filesystem, and all the stuff in there is dynamically displayed by the kernel. General information about each process is stuffed in there, getting and setting kernel variables is in there. Its kinda like /dev and again its too involved for this overview.
/opt, which is wrongly put in / and its misnamed from /usr/local. I see the conceptual value of /opt (for optional) and I do see a small distinction from /opt and /usr/local because /opt typically has optional stuff that came with your base system. I'll get to that in a second. /usr has
I only really know how Linux boots at an overview, but other *NIX systems may be very similar. There is something called a "boot loader" that sits at the beginning of the boot disk and points to the Linux kernel. The linux kernel then takes over the machine in terms of getting an inventory of the hardware attached on the computer and initializing the device drivers and the devices. It then looks for
That in no way is very comprehensive, but its pretty much sums things up. I don't know if this is still the case, but I used to make linux bootable disks simply by doing "cat kernel_image >
How does it interact with hardware?
Depends. It just "does the right thing(tm)". Just kidding. I'm not sure what you are asking here in terms of how do you manipulate hardware via the OS, or how the OS internally handles the hardware. Both are too large of a topic to talk about here.
Is there a general hint to what all the directories are about or any memory aids for knowing what's in them?
Most of this is Linuxcentric, but many things apply to other systems as well.
I always put just about everything in my path, because some of the directory naming conventions are ambiguous or whatever (like traceroute being in
There is
Now there is
At least in the US, money is printed on cotton pulp and not wood pulp.
Actually, its 25% linen and 75% cotton. "Paper" money is a misnomer. Paper cannot withstand the folding, washing, and other abuses that "paper" money goes through.
With this new processor Sun hopes to get a leg up on the competition.
Oh, instead of the previous attempt to get a leg "up" on the competition with the "if you can't beat them, join them" method like: http://www.sun.com/x64/
Before anybody gets weird on me, I am not an AMD fanboy. I am kinda a Sun fanboy, but I have been very critical of them in recent years for a reason. They have been for years watering down their name and reputation. Hopefully this new chip is in the right direction. We will see. UltraSPARC IVs have been on the roadmap for years. Lets see some good stuff here guys. Memory bandwidth would be something nice to have as well.
This is a silly notion.
This whole thing is a silly notion. The setup for the problem is impossible, you can't make the sun instantly disappear. But the question is, what would happen if it did.
My thesis was that it would be instantly or take forever that the gravity to go away. I spoke with someone today that knows more about gravity, and he agrees with the 8 minute thing, but given the impossible circumstances, I'm still not sure what would happen anymore that anybody else.
I said that I thought that it would be instant because gravity is entirely dependent on the mass being there for the gravity to work, so taking away the mass takes away the gravity at the same time. You can turn off light, you can't turn off gravity except for this patented new idea. So keeping it simple, it seems reasonable to assume that no mass = no gravity.
Now my other completely opposite idea was that the time-space thing could not fix itself because there would be nothing to tell the gravity to stop.
This is like the mathematical proof that 1=2. It looks good, but it takes dividing by zero which is simply undefined. This condition is simply undefined. So, yeah its a silly notion.
I'm just not going to pay $15 for the right to listen to music in a fixed order in a certain CD player on the second Tuesday of each month between five and eight PM. The things Sony is demanding go against the concept of fair use...and I get the feeling that thi story could do just as much damage as the rootkit one did, if not more.
Ah, but we all now respect Sony's intellectual rights now, right?
Fuck these people and their "intellectual" property. Fuck them right in the ear while I "break the law" and smoke pot in my house.
I've found that its easier to think of large groups of people as one person. It seems to make sense, like a country or a corporation. When countries fight, bicker, or have issues or get along, its just like individuals. The same goes for a corporation.
If I were to know somebody that sold me a car, I would think they were paranoid and psychotic if they came over and inspected if I were changing the oil regularly and made sure I didn't take the american brand name emblems off of it and rice it up with some V-TEC stickers. Lord fucking forgive me if I wreck the car, it gets stolen, or I sell the thing and buy another one.
Instead of being psychotic you stupid rich fucking music pimps, and either get out of the way because your doing a shitty job, or sell us a product that we want.
Apple is close with iPods and iTunes. The downside is that 1) you can only really "properly" get your music from them 2) its a hack at best if you want to do something stupid like listen to your music in your car or home stereo instead of earphones.
We don't want CDs anymore. Don't you realize that? People throw away the plastic cases that break and take up too much room. They trow them in a CD book, and over time they get scratched because the technology sucks for portability and convenience. Its next to impossible to switch and hear one song from another CD while you are driving in the car, and then listen to another CD. CD changers hold what? Maybe 10 CDs. Whoopty shit.
We want more music at a reasonable price that is convenient and portable to listen to.
I repeat.
We want more music at a reasonable price that is convenient and portable to listen to.
We don't want stuff that you have to listen to on one piece of equipment (DRMed to hell). We don't want early 80's shiny fragile disks that hold about 45 minutes to an hour of music provided that every song is worth listening to.
People on average are not unreasonable. Or at least not like you're trying to be.
Proprietary things like game cartridges are OK, because they work, and its a thing. My large stereo speakers are OK at my house, but suck in my car, or if I'm walking down the street. Your 45 minute at best CD is barely acceptable in a car, barely acceptable when walking, and barely acceptable at home.
We want playlists, smart shuffling, portability, variety, and are willing to pay for it.
I mean, what does this stupid company Sony do besides fuck around with music recordings and DRM and rootkits? Oh, I've heard they make electronics for the home, the car, portable audio, and even computers. In fact at one time the word Walkman (didn't even get caught by my spell checker) was as big as the word iPod. In fact, that was about the time the CD came out. If you had your shit together and made electronics to satisfy our needs, you could give the music away and still make money. What the fuck have you done differently since 1982 Sony? Times have changed. People are very willing to pay money for convenience and entertainment. We don't go around stealing shit at every chance we get.
So finally, fuck you and your DRM, your EULAs, proprietary redundant formats, and everything else.
The shit you do is stupid, and we simply are demonstrating this fact by the way we spend our money on other goods and services.
I never, ever though that when I was a kid who liked the songs I heard on the radio and the albums that I had at
If the sun were magically eliminated, it would still take 8 minutes for the earth to suddenly break orbit as space relaxed into the form of having no mass at that point. Till then, the earth would keep orbiting.
Being that this is absurd, because the Sun cannot magically be eliminated, this can only be a thought experiment that other people much brighter than I have already thought about, but here is my take.
Gravity is believed to be within 1% of the speed of light (I've read plus or minus, but the plus one had an error range to put it equal or slightly less). However, none of the experiments dealt with such a case like this, where the source of the gravity (the mass) was instantly taken away.
Now, if I were spinning a ball on a string around my head, and the string were to become instantly become cut, then the ball would go at a tangent to the string and straight into the direction of the ball's motion.
I believe that it would be instantaneous as well for the Earth to shoot in a tangent trajectory if the Sun were to instantly disappear. The space-time continuum model of gravity seems OK, and with that there is a deformation in space caused by the Sun's mass to "pull" the Earth into it like the string pulls the ball.
So, in other words, I'm saying that gravity is instantaneous which is faster than light. Some other thought evidence for this theory, is the fact that now that the Sun's mass is gone, what force would then take over time (8 minutes in this case) to cause the space-time continuum to go back to "flat" instead of warped? With that thought, I now think that if that the gravitational effect of the Sun on the Earth would/could take much longer than the speed of light if not forever. You could picture this as a dent in a car. Space is now dented by the Sun.
Anyway, again, this is impossible because there is no magic trick that we know of to make matter simply disappear so things, so we are stuck with gravity being attached to things.
IMNAAP
Has a patent ever been invalidated based on the premise "We had no business issuing a patent on this"? I'm not talking prior art or technicalities, but "this was patently absurd".
No. Example: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2178
We all know that the only valuable anti-gravity device is a (Score:5, Informative)
However, a link is often required.
Come on, USA! At least in the cities, there is no reason to be so far behind with regards to residential access!
OK. I'm an American downloading pig. I trade (legally and encouraged by the artists) live music that averages at about a Gig of data per show, and all of the regular other junk that I do. I have, I guess, about the fastest internet one can get now at work, Internet2, and soon to be upgraded to Lamda Rail.
Sure, I guess I would take a 100Mpbs connection at home at the same price or lower than I pay now for my 1.5-5 Mpbs connection at home (I don't know what the speed is now, its pretty fast). Especially for the upgraded upload bandwidth.
But, what I'm getting at, is I don't see a pressing need to have such high bandwidth at home at this time. Sure, this is subject to change in the future, but I do not at all feel as though my bandwidth is inadequate.
Yeah, I sometimes I could wish that I could transfer gigs of data from work to my house at the speed that I can from machine to machine at work. But then again, I have a laptop that I can put the data on at work, and bring the laptop home and then transfer the data at gigabit speeds to my home PC.
Aside from the real geek factor of my bandwidth is bigger than yours, do people really need that much bandwidth at their home for regular stuff? If I had a server that I ran or if I ran a business from my home, that would be different. But essentially, I have somewhere between a T1 and a T3 in bandwidth to my house which used to cost THOUSANDS a month not too long ago.
Some of why I get the low rate is because it uses the old infrastructure that was already laid, cable TV. Other options are DSL which too use existing infrastructure.
At this time, I see no real benefit from either the consumer point of view or a business model to lay that much new cable to each and every home and apartment in either a city or the whole country,
My hands are firmly gripped on my geek badge as it is being pulled from me.
I often search the web for material for my games, using words like names of different weapons, ritual magic, sacrifice, summoning demons, explosives and such - Would this put me under the magnifying glass?
If you were suspected of using weapons, ritual magic, sacrifice, summoning demons, or explosives in a murder. You bet ya.
Patents don't apply to the government, unless the government wants them to.
AFAIK, patents don't apply to anybody unless the patent holder defends their patent. IE, its not a crime to use something patented by another, its just a civil matter. Patented technology can be used by anybody from no price to license fees of any creative amount.
Now, about:
Apparently 10% of US Blackberry users are government users.
Aren't 100% of US Blackberry users government users? If you have electricity to power a Blackberry, then you use government things like roads, buildings, or whatever in some form or another.
I'm guessing that the intended statement was, "Apparently 10% of US Blackberry users are government employees."
"presumed innocent until proven guilty."
Sure. That is 100% correct.
I know of no innocent people. None. Maybe very small children that do not have the knowledge, need, or resources to do anything un-innocent. But besides that, nope.
In the eyes of the law and your personal freedom and liberties, you are innocent until proven otherwise. Regardless of the truth or future status of your innocence.
just because they suspect you might have
I'm a little paranoid by nature. I suspect that anyone and everyone might have, including the police, government, private citizens, military, you name it.
There simply needs to be some fucking piece of evidence and a specific crime to investigate before detaining someone against their will and without the consent of a lawyer.
In our societies today, it take somebody between I dunno, between 5 to 8 years of dedicated training and then a complete full time job to simply know the rules of the society (lawyer).
Individual citizens know little more about the rules and their rights then what they see on TV or read in casual books and magazines. Many of them have gone to school themselves for quite some period of time, and have full time jobs doing something valuable to society besides being a lawyer.
Under no circumstances is it acceptable or necessary for a part of the government to detain someone without a specific crime and without any evidence of a crime _AND_ without the consent of a lawyer.
None.
I simply cannot think of an exception, and I can be the devil's advocate in almost any situation. I cannot think of one.
I first thought of, well if they thought that the guy was a serial killer, then I stopped. That was a specific crime, and odds are there will be some sort of evidence, and he would get a lawyer.
We can, should, and have the right to fight this. Its unacceptable.