Last time I played Halo2 online, this is the sort of language I had to put up with :
"Golly goodness, ive been HIT"
"Take THAT, big-ears"
"Achtung Kamaraden, die Englander schweinhund sind geradeaus"
"That gosh darned cad is hiding behind the rock, tally ho boys, lets nab the blighter"
"You cotton picking, lilly livered, mutton chomping, raw hiding, duck billed.. WARMINT What in tarnations name do ya think ya is doing thar ?"
"Mee how chong fa - xiang xiang we liang XA !!!"
"Yob tovjemat, ney krasnije zoicheck moi"... mind you, I was coming down from a big night out, still buzzing on E's. i had never appreciated the delicate textures of the controller so much, and the colours and sounds appeared to be extra vivid. Running around sharing danger with my online comrades, I suddenly understood the warm bond that we all shared - friends and enemies alike, and how killing those that we loved and shared these experiences with was an expression of the evolving cycle of all the emotions that we ever feel. errr... yeah.
I have many other writings on here too - eg: that rant about birds attacking cavemen, and the continuing relevance to todays modern life is worth a read if you care to look around.
This is one of the most complex problems in the realm of computer science, and the answers to this question are less than obvious.
What you need to do is reduce your code samples to a numerical matrix, assigning weights to various functions co-dependant upon the language that is being used in each case.
These matrices can then be overlayed in an N-dimensional space, and the resulting eigenvalues plotted.. I find that a typical Euler-lagrange transformation works a treat, especially when numerising C code.
For C-like languages (such as PHP), then a modified transform, such as the "saddlepoint" method used by Ridderinkhof and Loder is often more appropriate.
Once these transforms have been completed, computed, stored and plotted.. you now have a basis for a firm statistical analysis, and you are now on the road to the enjoying the luscious fruits of code-reuse.
Now you need to apply that numerisation of the coded functions across an (N+1) dimensional space, which is in fact - the source code to which the said functions have recently been applied. Time scale here is critically important - as the most recently used invocation of a function must by the merits of its use, hold a higher weight than one which has not suffered invocation for some considerable period. This is the much-discussed 'Wolverton-Hasselby functional relevance decay factor' which is often the subject of many a debate in computer science circles.
Having thus reduced the chaotic collection of functions to an orderly numeric topology (the graph of who's actual usage forms an ever-revolving surface spread across a time-dependant dimensional plane), we soon find by observation that the collection of functions now forms a pyramid.
Further quantum statistical analysis of this ever growing and ever evolving collection of co-dependant functions will reveal that the structure of this grouping forms not just a pyramid (no surprises there), but a SIX SIZED pyramid !! A pyramid with the base of a perfect hexagon is formed when this numerical matrix is rendered as a 3D image.
The ratio of the height of the pyramid to the size of the base is the value of 2/pi.
There are writings in Babylonian that hint at the architecture of the inner structures concealed within the Ziggurat of Ur.. and that these structures are also.. you guessed it... a six sized pyramid with a structural ratio of 2/pi. One more peice of evidence which confirms the widely held (but seldom admitted) secret knowledge that the ancient Sumerians were masters at the art of computer science.
So.. ah.. yeah, there you go. You should reduce your code to numbers, store it in a hexa-pyramidical structure, and continue to statistically analyse the usage of these functions until such times as your hexapyramidical representation of those functions reaches an ideal ratio of 2/pi. At that time, you know that you will have reached a higher plane of computing expertise. Take pleasure in this moment and revell in it - but be aware that such knowledge only opens the doors to longer and steeper pathways, beyond which lay more secrets yet to be uncovered.
Z-80 based with the ti graphics chip (reasonable rez and color, and 32 sprites)
I remember that it had some god-awful rubber keyboard where each key had half a dozen meanings depending on what 'mode' you were in.
Pathetic selection of games, and zero documentation on the ROM internals.
later upgraded to a SC-3000H (with a real keyboard, not the rubber crap), and the most bizarre SC-70000 3inch hard disk, which was contained in a HUGE box that sat under the keyboard, and made further typing impossible.
Oh yeah - had a marvy little 3 color plotter that came with it too.
Kept that machine for years, but rarely used it.
Dealing with C64 fanboys
Next machine after that was a monstrous great NCR 'Tower' - 68010 based with Unix Sys III, and a wyse-50 terminal. That was a cool machine. Loved the big orange button on the front.
Traded in the tower for a Wicat 150 going real cheap. I think the Wicat machines were sold through Amway or something - cant remember, it was a really weird time in my life. I do remember though that the Wicat salesman was a mormon, and he was really keen on getting me up to his farm on the weekend to stay a few days and meet his wife. Like I said - it was a weird time in my life back then.
Other weirdness :
DEC Rainbow running CP/M
Microport unix on 286 AT machines
teaching secretaries to do 'wordprocessing' using vi and embedding nroff commands in their 'documents'.
Something about wasting a month of my life debugging a very ancient 'Databasic' application on a Nixdorf 8870 machine for the lotteries commision, where all the comments and documentation was written in german. WTF ?
PICK - the very popular OS written by a guy called Dick. Dick Pick - no shit.
Anytime you happen to be near Adelaide, drop me an email, and Ill be happy to share what I know about live music & real entertainment in this fair city. (see my post above for an example of that).
Oh - and all that stuff about Adelaide being boring, and the 'city of churches' - shhhhhhh - dont tell a soul, its Australia's best kept secret, and we sort of want to keep it that way:)
I dont get any of this entertainment stuff
on
The Great HDCP Fiasco
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Call me a luddite, but I cant believe the amount of money people spend on all of this 'high end immersive home entertainment' crap.
really - thousands of dollars for what can only ever pass as a semblance of reality.
Want a real immersive FPS experience ? - drop $100 and spend a weekend out in the bush shooting paintball.
Want a real immersive flightsim ? drop $100 and spend a weekend learning to hang-glide, and get a feel for what flying is all about.
Want an immersive and memorable porn experience ? - drop $100, go out clubbing, meet dozens of attractive real people, have real conversions, get real phone numbers, and... the rest is up to you.
Here are some recent $0 experiences which no amount of 7800GTX SLI cards can come close to :
- Hours wasted building sandcastles on the beach with a hot nursing student from china who doesnt speak the local language that well. Teach her a bit of english, learn a bit of mandarin, and engage your brain in the most complex real-time strategy game as you attempt to interpret her alien body language. Still on the beach as the hour approaches midnight, having built a full scale replica of a great white shark in the sand. Accidentally trip over the shark, catch her in your arms... and kiss her for the first time as the tide laps against the beach.
- Hang out at a mate's house with a dozen or so others and play an 8-ball tournament, music, fridge full of drinks, play with the pet lizards.. feel good and learn more about the people you thought you knew.
- Go to a birthday party, get smashed, end up at a bizarre karaoke bar, get up on stage with complete strangers and yell your lungs out. Pile into a taxi with your new found friends and end up at a 5-star hotel for breakfast as the sun rises. Obnoxiously pile up your plates with everything on offer, and charge it all to room 315 before slipping out the back door.
- Hand write an ultra-soppy card that you make yourself to an imaginary woman that you might have known for ages. Make sure you put your name and phone number on it. Go out, walk into a club or restaraunt and approach the most stunningly unbelievable waitress you can find. Hand her the card, and say 'Hi again - just wanted to say that im real sorry about the other night, I hope this card makes up for it'. Turn around and walk out, and dont look back.
Dont know - I just dont even have time to turn the TV on these days.
I kind of hope that the whole backlash here is aimed not at BMW, but at the sleezy swine who sell SEO services.
Wouldnt be surprised if IE7 (when it gets out of beta), has support for Active-SEO-Script and built in auto-affliate subscription, and whatever other crap comes out next.
Angelina Jolie does a pretty good job with charity stuff too, huh ?
My hero though - that would have to be the chick I met last night, my god, I cant believe she did THAT.. what a hero !! Didnt even get her name, sorry.
Its a history of computers from the point of view of the sort of people who ask questions like this one.. I honestly believe this is how _some_ people view the world.
Gotta say - I regsitered for slashdot like YEARS ago, and it was always great. It was really hot news by geeks for geeks. It had earned the title 'News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters'.
Slashdot was enjoyable because it was DIFFERENT to all the other so called 'computer related sites' out there that are designed to cater to a different audience. Im not being a snob - Im just saying that slashdot is no longer any different to any other 'computer related site' when an article like this one makes it on to the front page.
I am not having a go at the guy that asked this question either - I get hit with a lot of questions like this in real life by real people who dont have the time or inclination to figure out the obvious for themselves. Its not about a lack of knowledge, its about the way their thought processes and reasoning work to be able to come up with questions like this in the first place.
When you get one of these questions in real life, you can do one of two things :
1) Smile and ask them 'what do you think the answer is ?'.. and watch them grapple with their own question and hopefully come up with a sensible answer. At least observe the methods in their own reasoning and guide that with debate where you can. Its all about the process not the conclusion. Teach a man to fish and all that good stuff.
2) If there are enough indications in the original question that all is not well in Denmark anyway (ie - Red Light signals like 'my virus definitions are up to date' ), well, you have to recognise that you have unwittingly walked into another BAD situation, and you need to back out of it gracefully before getting too involved. You dont want to get too involed in this particular person's computer issues - I just tell them 'Sorry mate, but I really dont know that much about computers - maybe your friend is right ? He seems to know a great deal !'
I love the old argument that windows is more vunerable to malware than (OSX/linux/VMS/other) simply because there are more of them out there, so they present a better target for virus writers.
What a load of toss.
Ask a Microsoftie the following question, and you should get the following answer :
Q: If you have to drive up against an enemy armed with a machine gun, are you safer in a hummv or a freely available M1 tank ?
A: You might be a bit safer in an M1 tank - at the moment, but the HUMMV is still a better bet. Why you ask ?.. well, easy really.. HUMMV's are actually much better protected than tanks.. but because there are more HUMMV's in the field, the evil bastards that have machine guns currently aim them at light vehicles. But dont worry about that - as soon as they put more tanks in the field, machine guns will magically start to be effective against them, and the truth will be known by all.
Also, HUMMV's offer a wide range of choices for additional armour plating and security measures to make you even safer !. If you are stupid and choose to drive a tank instead, then you will be hard pushed to find ANY third-party additional armour plating on sale for your tank... this makes the old HUMMV an even safer bet than a tank.
And even if tanks were available for free (!!!!), HUMMVs are still cheaper when you consider the total cost of ownership - basically anyone can hop into a HUMMv and drive it like a big car, but driving a tank takes a bit of skill.. so the training costs for tank crews offset the $0 purchase cost.
Finally - when your freely available tank throws a track or suffers mechanical problems in the field under fire.. whatcha gonna do ? You have to rely on your own engineers to get it rolling again. On the other hand, factory purchased HUMMVs come with full support - so if you puncture a tire or run out of fuel whilst surrounded by a horde of machete weilding natives - just send an email off to our 24/7 support group, and we will get back to you with some helpful advice by the next business day. "Have you tried turning the engine off and re-starting it sir ?" "The bulletproof glass is letting bullets through ? No worries sir - just hold tight for a while and wait for the next version to be released - we have a radical new type of glass we are testing in our labs, I promise".
I dont know off the top of my head, but Id estimate it to have a wingspan of 62 meters or more, and a beak about a foot thick and several meters long, harder than carbon steel, and weighing a massive 100kg.
The talons alone would be the length of a baseball bat... and the eyes would be the size of watermelons !!
I would imagine that the individual feathers alone of this beast would be the size of an average curtain used for a smallish window (not a large lounge room window, but more something like you would hang up in the bathroom maybe).
Good God - the eggs must have been the size of a Mercedes Benz E-class car !
Im so glad that somreone has had the guts to step forward and talk about this problem, since its still happening to this very day, and possibly because of the awful nature of this situation, it remains a deep and unspoken taboo.
Look up in the sky on any given day - and behold the clouds, the blue skies, the sunshine... and the circling sillouettes of those predators of the sky. Their beady eyes ever watchful for an opportunity to swoop and claim their victims from amongst the innocent below.
It was only weeks ago that I was having a picnic by the river with my girlfriend and her 2 gorgeous children. Many other families were there as well, happy, laughing, breathing the fresh air and revelling in the sunshine. During this blissfull experience, I couldnt help but notice the sight of a pack of ibises chasing a young child of about 3 years old. The child was wailing in terror, and the ibises eventually cornered the victim in the reeds, tripped him over, and began to peck greedily at his flesh. The child's wailing died down to the replaced only by the squelching sounds of torn flesh.
Whilst this awful scenario unfolded, everyone - including the child's parents, seemed to be totally oblivious to this horror. Countless generations of conditioning have left humankind in a position where we turn a blind eye to the sadistic excesses of our avian overlords.
"Oh my - arnt the ants bad today !" explaimed my girlfriend. Yes, the ants were out in small numbers, but the shocking fact is that she made this statement as an ibis trotted triumphantly past us, dragging a ropey length of some unnamed human organ from its most recent victim - that cornered child !. This march of triumph was conducted in full view of everyone present - however it seems that acknowledging this sight was soooo clearly taboo that it remained blocked in the minds of the observers. I cannot forget the blazing triumph in the eyes of that Ibis, nor the mocking grin sculpted permanently onto its beak !
And yesterday - queuing up in the local bank branch to deposit some cheques - there were at least a dozen people in the queue, all waiting patiently for service. Whilst things proceeded quickly enough, a few people were heard to mutter jokingly how they thought that the bank could afford to put on some more staff to speed up the level of service. A valid complaint perhaps..... BUT.. during the 5 minutes that I was in that queue, the ceiling in the building was smashed inwards by the razor sharp talons of a spiteful Hawk and its over-grown mate. The evil pair of them fell down onto the head of an old lady, wantonly ripped at her eyes, and then dragged her off towards the exit. At the door waiting for them was a flock of gleeful vultures.. ready to make fast on this unexpected feast.
Walking out of the bank, people continued about their business and even stepped over the grisly remains of the old lady - AS IF SHE WASNT THERE, AND AS IF THEY HAD NOT SEEN A THING. Smiling to themselves, they remembered the worst thing at the bank being the not-so-bad wait for service.
Maybe Macrovision & friends are well aware that anything they come up with will be easily overcome by some simple hacks in short time.
In which case, they just have to come up with yet another half-assed copy protection scheme, and know full well that the PHB's at the movie studios will reach for their cheque books one more time.
What a brilliant market - selling stuff that will never work, knowing full well that you can sell a new improved version of something that still wont ever work all over again a few months down the track.
Macrovision might be a lot cleverer than we give them credit for.
The DVD at some point puts out a stream of video and audio that goes to the display device.
Simply plug that into a Video/Audio input on the computer - and you can copy the darn thing, regardless of copy protection.
The only copy protection scheme for DVD's that is ever going to work is to overwrite the data with random noise - making the thing totally unviewable on a TV set.
Ill place bets that THEY will eventually dream this up as being 'a great step forward' one day soon.
Just an idea for how the Danish Govt might choose to react to this 'threat'
1) Cancel all govt microsoft contracts, convert everything to FOSS.
2) Use the money saved to employ the 800 laid of developers. Start a govt funded company to support FOSS development and porting to Danish local requirements.
3) Make use of the new govt funded company to support the new all-FOSS govt infrastructure
4) Let the new company grow into a commercially viable unit in it's own right, and generate income into Denmark from providing services to other EU states for FOSS migration.
Nett effect - saves a load of money leaving the country (MS Taxes), creates long term local employment, generates incoming coming into the country.
Did anyone else notice that the tail fin is the length of 200 sticks of rhubarb placed end on end, and the landing gear struts are the thickness of 12 oranges !!
The passenger seats are padded to the thickness of 8 mice, and the luxurious carpet pile is the length of 12 ants.
And the range of the aircraft is as long as a really really long peice of string.
This is all well and good for pure research, and may well lead to advances of a decent nature down the track (ie - powering spacecraft, etc)
BUT - the biggest operational challenge facing the US military at the moment, and for some time to come will be how to maintain a semblance of order and control over occupied cities populated by millions of pissed off ppl armed with ww2 era small arms.
If the future enemy of the US army is a 14 year old kid with an AK47 and a desire to avenge the death of his parents, then massive anti-matter bombs might be considered overkill.
For pure military applications, the R&D dollars would be better spent thinking up new and unique ways to control the minds of the masses. Maybe doping the water with MDMA would be a better option. This would also serve to make the occupied zones an attractive place for skilled IT contractors and engineers to move in...
A cheaper and far more effective alternative would be to have a serious look at re-writing the rule book on operational doctrine.
I just heard that someone has dared entered a 1973 RSR in the worlds greatest street race - Targa Tasmanii (starts in mid april). The race goes for a couple of weeks, and usually involves a good deal of carnage.. brave man.. there were only 12 RSR's built in that model.
http://www.targa.org.au
Nice to see a good selection of Minis still competing:)
If you get the chance, watch some of it on TV, or follow the website - most recommended.
Slashdot Mirror
Last time I played Halo2 online, this is the sort of language I had to put up with :
.. WARMINT What in tarnations name do ya think ya is doing thar ?"
... mind you, I was coming down from a big night out, still buzzing on E's. i had never appreciated the delicate textures of the controller so much, and the colours and sounds appeared to be extra vivid. Running around sharing danger with my online comrades, I suddenly understood the warm bond that we all shared - friends and enemies alike, and how killing those that we loved and shared these experiences with was an expression of the evolving cycle of all the emotions that we ever feel. errr ... yeah.
"Golly goodness, ive been HIT"
"Take THAT, big-ears"
"Achtung Kamaraden, die Englander schweinhund sind geradeaus"
"That gosh darned cad is hiding behind the rock, tally ho boys, lets nab the blighter"
"You cotton picking, lilly livered, mutton chomping, raw hiding, duck billed
"Mee how chong fa - xiang xiang we liang XA !!!"
"Yob tovjemat, ney krasnije zoicheck moi"
I make this shit up on the spot, thanks. It sort of rings true to me at the time, so I just spit it out.
2 1227>
You might also find my theory of optical interpolation when viewing CGI images to be quite interesting :
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=101108&cid=86
I have many other writings on here too - eg: that rant about birds attacking cavemen, and the continuing relevance to todays modern life is worth a read if you care to look around.
This is one of the most complex problems in the realm of computer science, and the answers to this question are less than obvious.
.. I find that a typical Euler-lagrange transformation works a treat, especially when numerising C code.
.. you now have a basis for a firm statistical analysis, and you are now on the road to the enjoying the luscious fruits of code-reuse.
.. and that these structures are also .. you guessed it ... a six sized pyramid with a structural ratio of 2/pi. One more peice of evidence which confirms the widely held (but seldom admitted) secret knowledge that the ancient Sumerians were masters at the art of computer science.
.. ah .. yeah, there you go. You should reduce your code to numbers, store it in a hexa-pyramidical structure, and continue to statistically analyse the usage of these functions until such times as your hexapyramidical representation of those functions reaches an ideal ratio of 2/pi. At that time, you know that you will have reached a higher plane of computing expertise. Take pleasure in this moment and revell in it - but be aware that such knowledge only opens the doors to longer and steeper pathways, beyond which lay more secrets yet to be uncovered.
What you need to do is reduce your code samples to a numerical matrix, assigning weights to various functions co-dependant upon the language that is being used in each case.
These matrices can then be overlayed in an N-dimensional space, and the resulting eigenvalues plotted
For C-like languages (such as PHP), then a modified transform, such as the "saddlepoint" method used by Ridderinkhof and Loder is often more appropriate.
Once these transforms have been completed, computed, stored and plotted
Now you need to apply that numerisation of the coded functions across an (N+1) dimensional space, which is in fact - the source code to which the said functions have recently been applied. Time scale here is critically important - as the most recently used invocation of a function must by the merits of its use, hold a higher weight than one which has not suffered invocation for some considerable period. This is the much-discussed 'Wolverton-Hasselby functional relevance decay factor' which is often the subject of many a debate in computer science circles.
Having thus reduced the chaotic collection of functions to an orderly numeric topology (the graph of who's actual usage forms an ever-revolving surface spread across a time-dependant dimensional plane), we soon find by observation that the collection of functions now forms a pyramid.
Further quantum statistical analysis of this ever growing and ever evolving collection of co-dependant functions will reveal that the structure of this grouping forms not just a pyramid (no surprises there), but a SIX SIZED pyramid !! A pyramid with the base of a perfect hexagon is formed when this numerical matrix is rendered as a 3D image.
The ratio of the height of the pyramid to the size of the base is the value of 2/pi.
There are writings in Babylonian that hint at the architecture of the inner structures concealed within the Ziggurat of Ur
So
Best wishes on your journey
Totally weird beast of a machine - Sega SC-3000.
Z-80 based with the ti graphics chip (reasonable rez and color, and 32 sprites)
I remember that it had some god-awful rubber keyboard where each key had half a dozen meanings depending on what 'mode' you were in.
Pathetic selection of games, and zero documentation on the ROM internals.
later upgraded to a SC-3000H (with a real keyboard, not the rubber crap), and the most bizarre SC-70000 3inch hard disk, which was contained in a HUGE box that sat under the keyboard, and made further typing impossible.
Oh yeah - had a marvy little 3 color plotter that came with it too.
Kept that machine for years, but rarely used it.
Dealing with C64 fanboys
Next machine after that was a monstrous great NCR 'Tower' - 68010 based with Unix Sys III, and a wyse-50 terminal. That was a cool machine. Loved the big orange button on the front.
Traded in the tower for a Wicat 150 going real cheap. I think the Wicat machines were sold through Amway or something - cant remember, it was a really weird time in my life. I do remember though that the Wicat salesman was a mormon, and he was really keen on getting me up to his farm on the weekend to stay a few days and meet his wife. Like I said - it was a weird time in my life back then.
Other weirdness :
DEC Rainbow running CP/M
Microport unix on 286 AT machines
teaching secretaries to do 'wordprocessing' using vi and embedding nroff commands in their 'documents'.
Something about wasting a month of my life debugging a very ancient 'Databasic' application on a Nixdorf 8870 machine for the lotteries commision, where all the comments and documentation was written in german. WTF ?
PICK - the very popular OS written by a guy called Dick. Dick Pick - no shit.
Cheers to that, buddy.
:)
Anytime you happen to be near Adelaide, drop me an email, and Ill be happy to share what I know about live music & real entertainment in this fair city. (see my post above for an example of that).
Oh - and all that stuff about Adelaide being boring, and the 'city of churches' - shhhhhhh - dont tell a soul, its Australia's best kept secret, and we sort of want to keep it that way
Call me a luddite, but I cant believe the amount of money people spend on all of this 'high end immersive home entertainment' crap.
... the rest is up to you.
... and kiss her for the first time as the tide laps against the beach.
.. feel good and learn more about the people you thought you knew.
really - thousands of dollars for what can only ever pass as a semblance of reality.
Want a real immersive FPS experience ? - drop $100 and spend a weekend out in the bush shooting paintball.
Want a real immersive flightsim ? drop $100 and spend a weekend learning to hang-glide, and get a feel for what flying is all about.
Want an immersive and memorable porn experience ? - drop $100, go out clubbing, meet dozens of attractive real people, have real conversions, get real phone numbers, and
Here are some recent $0 experiences which no amount of 7800GTX SLI cards can come close to :
- Hours wasted building sandcastles on the beach with a hot nursing student from china who doesnt speak the local language that well. Teach her a bit of english, learn a bit of mandarin, and engage your brain in the most complex real-time strategy game as you attempt to interpret her alien body language. Still on the beach as the hour approaches midnight, having built a full scale replica of a great white shark in the sand. Accidentally trip over the shark, catch her in your arms
- Hang out at a mate's house with a dozen or so others and play an 8-ball tournament, music, fridge full of drinks, play with the pet lizards
- Go to a birthday party, get smashed, end up at a bizarre karaoke bar, get up on stage with complete strangers and yell your lungs out. Pile into a taxi with your new found friends and end up at a 5-star hotel for breakfast as the sun rises. Obnoxiously pile up your plates with everything on offer, and charge it all to room 315 before slipping out the back door.
- Hand write an ultra-soppy card that you make yourself to an imaginary woman that you might have known for ages. Make sure you put your name and phone number on it. Go out, walk into a club or restaraunt and approach the most stunningly unbelievable waitress you can find. Hand her the card, and say 'Hi again - just wanted to say that im real sorry about the other night, I hope this card makes up for it'. Turn around and walk out, and dont look back.
Dont know - I just dont even have time to turn the TV on these days.
640 cores ought to be enough for anyone.
I kind of hope that the whole backlash here is aimed not at BMW, but at the sleezy swine who sell SEO services.
Wouldnt be surprised if IE7 (when it gets out of beta), has support for Active-SEO-Script and built in auto-affliate subscription, and whatever other crap comes out next.
Angelina Jolie does a pretty good job with charity stuff too, huh ?
.. what a hero !! Didnt even get her name, sorry.
My hero though - that would have to be the chick I met last night, my god, I cant believe she did THAT
A Brief History of Computers
Its a history of computers from the point of view of the sort of people who ask questions like this one .. I honestly believe this is how _some_ people view the world.
Gotta say - I regsitered for slashdot like YEARS ago, and it was always great. It was really hot news by geeks for geeks. It had earned the title 'News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters'.
.. and watch them grapple with their own question and hopefully come up with a sensible answer. At least observe the methods in their own reasoning and guide that with debate where you can. Its all about the process not the conclusion. Teach a man to fish and all that good stuff.
Slashdot was enjoyable because it was DIFFERENT to all the other so called 'computer related sites' out there that are designed to cater to a different audience. Im not being a snob - Im just saying that slashdot is no longer any different to any other 'computer related site' when an article like this one makes it on to the front page.
I am not having a go at the guy that asked this question either - I get hit with a lot of questions like this in real life by real people who dont have the time or inclination to figure out the obvious for themselves. Its not about a lack of knowledge, its about the way their thought processes and reasoning work to be able to come up with questions like this in the first place.
When you get one of these questions in real life, you can do one of two things :
1) Smile and ask them 'what do you think the answer is ?'
2) If there are enough indications in the original question that all is not well in Denmark anyway (ie - Red Light signals like 'my virus definitions are up to date' ), well, you have to recognise that you have unwittingly walked into another BAD situation, and you need to back out of it gracefully before getting too involved. You dont want to get too involed in this particular person's computer issues - I just tell them 'Sorry mate, but I really dont know that much about computers - maybe your friend is right ? He seems to know a great deal !'
I love the old argument that windows is more vunerable to malware than (OSX/linux/VMS/other) simply because there are more of them out there, so they present a better target for virus writers.
.. well, easy really .. HUMMV's are actually much better protected than tanks .. but because there are more HUMMV's in the field, the evil bastards that have machine guns currently aim them at light vehicles. But dont worry about that - as soon as they put more tanks in the field, machine guns will magically start to be effective against them, and the truth will be known by all.
... this makes the old HUMMV an even safer bet than a tank.
.. so the training costs for tank crews offset the $0 purchase cost.
.. whatcha gonna do ? You have to rely on your own engineers to get it rolling again. On the other hand, factory purchased HUMMVs come with full support - so if you puncture a tire or run out of fuel whilst surrounded by a horde of machete weilding natives - just send an email off to our 24/7 support group, and we will get back to you with some helpful advice by the next business day. "Have you tried turning the engine off and re-starting it sir ?" "The bulletproof glass is letting bullets through ? No worries sir - just hold tight for a while and wait for the next version to be released - we have a radical new type of glass we are testing in our labs, I promise".
What a load of toss.
Ask a Microsoftie the following question, and you should get the following answer :
Q: If you have to drive up against an enemy armed with a machine gun, are you safer in a hummv or a freely available M1 tank ?
A: You might be a bit safer in an M1 tank - at the moment, but the HUMMV is still a better bet. Why you ask ?
Also, HUMMV's offer a wide range of choices for additional armour plating and security measures to make you even safer !. If you are stupid and choose to drive a tank instead, then you will be hard pushed to find ANY third-party additional armour plating on sale for your tank
And even if tanks were available for free (!!!!), HUMMVs are still cheaper when you consider the total cost of ownership - basically anyone can hop into a HUMMv and drive it like a big car, but driving a tank takes a bit of skill
Finally - when your freely available tank throws a track or suffers mechanical problems in the field under fire
Get the facts - HUMMVs are safer than tanks !
No no no - I meant the BEAK alone would weigh in at 100Kg.
Thats one hell of a beak !
"How big a bird?" you ask ...
... and the eyes would be the size of watermelons !!
I dont know off the top of my head, but Id estimate it to have a wingspan of 62 meters or more, and a beak about a foot thick and several meters long, harder than carbon steel, and weighing a massive 100kg.
The talons alone would be the length of a baseball bat
I would imagine that the individual feathers alone of this beast would be the size of an average curtain used for a smallish window (not a large lounge room window, but more something like you would hang up in the bathroom maybe).
Good God - the eggs must have been the size of a Mercedes Benz E-class car !
Frightful creature !!!!!
Im so glad that somreone has had the guts to step forward and talk about this problem, since its still happening to this very day, and possibly because of the awful nature of this situation, it remains a deep and unspoken taboo.
... and the circling sillouettes of those predators of the sky. Their beady eyes ever watchful for an opportunity to swoop and claim their victims from amongst the innocent below.
..... BUT .. during the 5 minutes that I was in that queue, the ceiling in the building was smashed inwards by the razor sharp talons of a spiteful Hawk and its over-grown mate. The evil pair of them fell down onto the head of an old lady, wantonly ripped at her eyes, and then dragged her off towards the exit. At the door waiting for them was a flock of gleeful vultures .. ready to make fast on this unexpected feast.
Look up in the sky on any given day - and behold the clouds, the blue skies, the sunshine
It was only weeks ago that I was having a picnic by the river with my girlfriend and her 2 gorgeous children. Many other families were there as well, happy, laughing, breathing the fresh air and revelling in the sunshine. During this blissfull experience, I couldnt help but notice the sight of a pack of ibises chasing a young child of about 3 years old. The child was wailing in terror, and the ibises eventually cornered the victim in the reeds, tripped him over, and began to peck greedily at his flesh. The child's wailing died down to the replaced only by the squelching sounds of torn flesh.
Whilst this awful scenario unfolded, everyone - including the child's parents, seemed to be totally oblivious to this horror. Countless generations of conditioning have left humankind in a position where we turn a blind eye to the sadistic excesses of our avian overlords.
"Oh my - arnt the ants bad today !" explaimed my girlfriend. Yes, the ants were out in small numbers, but the shocking fact is that she made this statement as an ibis trotted triumphantly past us, dragging a ropey length of some unnamed human organ from its most recent victim - that cornered child !. This march of triumph was conducted in full view of everyone present - however it seems that acknowledging this sight was soooo clearly taboo that it remained blocked in the minds of the observers. I cannot forget the blazing triumph in the eyes of that Ibis, nor the mocking grin sculpted permanently onto its beak !
And yesterday - queuing up in the local bank branch to deposit some cheques - there were at least a dozen people in the queue, all waiting patiently for service. Whilst things proceeded quickly enough, a few people were heard to mutter jokingly how they thought that the bank could afford to put on some more staff to speed up the level of service. A valid complaint perhaps
Walking out of the bank, people continued about their business and even stepped over the grisly remains of the old lady - AS IF SHE WASNT THERE, AND AS IF THEY HAD NOT SEEN A THING. Smiling to themselves, they remembered the worst thing at the bank being the not-so-bad wait for service.
The deeds of birds remain blocked in our minds.
WHY ?
Thats a lot of bandwidth to convey a simple message.
:
Here is the short version
I can fit 1 girl laying down in my bed.
If I got chicks to stand up instead, I could fit 10 in the bed at the same time.
woohoo !
Maybe Macrovision & friends are well aware that anything they come up with will be easily overcome by some simple hacks in short time.
In which case, they just have to come up with yet another half-assed copy protection scheme, and know full well that the PHB's at the movie studios will reach for their cheque books one more time.
What a brilliant market - selling stuff that will never work, knowing full well that you can sell a new improved version of something that still wont ever work all over again a few months down the track.
Macrovision might be a lot cleverer than we give them credit for.
The DVD at some point puts out a stream of video and audio that goes to the display device.
Simply plug that into a Video/Audio input on the computer - and you can copy the darn thing, regardless of copy protection.
The only copy protection scheme for DVD's that is ever going to work is to overwrite the data with random noise - making the thing totally unviewable on a TV set.
Ill place bets that THEY will eventually dream this up as being 'a great step forward' one day soon.
Just an idea for how the Danish Govt might choose to react to this 'threat'
1) Cancel all govt microsoft contracts, convert everything to FOSS.
2) Use the money saved to employ the 800 laid of developers. Start a govt funded company to support FOSS development and porting to Danish local requirements.
3) Make use of the new govt funded company to support the new all-FOSS govt infrastructure
4) Let the new company grow into a commercially viable unit in it's own right, and generate income into Denmark from providing services to other EU states for FOSS migration.
Nett effect - saves a load of money leaving the country (MS Taxes), creates long term local employment, generates incoming coming into the country.
Too easy. They should call his bluff I reckon.
Wingspan the size of a football field.
Fuselage length the size of 2 blue whales.
Did anyone else notice that the tail fin is the length of 200 sticks of rhubarb placed end on end, and the landing gear struts are the thickness of 12 oranges !!
The passenger seats are padded to the thickness of 8 mice, and the luxurious carpet pile is the length of 12 ants.
And the range of the aircraft is as long as a really really long peice of string.
I love it !!
This is all well and good for pure research, and may well lead to advances of a decent nature down the track (ie - powering spacecraft, etc)
...
BUT - the biggest operational challenge facing the US military at the moment, and for some time to come will be how to maintain a semblance of order and control over occupied cities populated by millions of pissed off ppl armed with ww2 era small arms.
If the future enemy of the US army is a 14 year old kid with an AK47 and a desire to avenge the death of his parents, then massive anti-matter bombs might be considered overkill.
For pure military applications, the R&D dollars would be better spent thinking up new and unique ways to control the minds of the masses. Maybe doping the water with MDMA would be a better option. This would also serve to make the occupied zones an attractive place for skilled IT contractors and engineers to move in
A cheaper and far more effective alternative
would be to have a serious look at re-writing the rule book on operational doctrine.
Heres another great idea, this time from the milk industry.
.. arnt doing this already ??
Add a use by date to the CD, so that after say a week or 2, the music is no longer interesting.
Wait a minute
The RIAA, artists, distributors, and the entire music industry should just stick to what works, and what has already been proven.
Just stick to producing country music, and that feel-good gospel stuff as well.
Nobody is going to copy that.
umm .. I have an AMD64 3200+, running gentoo in 64bit mode.
I got it to emerge mplayer cleanly in 64bit mode this week, and it is reporting that sse2 is being used, so no problemo.
Try it again soon - I suggest building from source (but it sounds like you are doing that anyway). Which distro are you on ?
On a different note entirely ...
.. brave man .. there were only 12 RSR's built in that model.
:)
I just heard that someone has dared entered a 1973 RSR in the worlds greatest street race - Targa Tasmanii (starts in mid april). The race goes for a couple of weeks, and usually involves a good deal of carnage
http://www.targa.org.au
Nice to see a good selection of Minis still competing
If you get the chance, watch some of it on TV, or follow the website - most recommended.