These are NOT nice people; they have an agenda, and it's to milk the UK until they're inevitably kicked out
Talking to a friend of mine who worked for Income
Support confirms this. She said that immigrants
would come in and sign on, making no attempt to
look for work. When she refused to pay them on those
grounds, they frequently threatened her, and
always appealed, and her decisions were always
overturned by her managers who wanted
to avoid any trouble. If they're given
carte blanche to milk the state for money like
this, of course they're going to do it. No wonder
the UK seems like such an attractive place to come...
No, the best game for Linux is Unreal Tournament.
Sure, UT2003 may have better graphics, and a more
advanced engine, but the original UT is the better,
more playable game.
Running OpenBSD on anything but a single blade 1000/2000/ the upcoming jalapeno-workstations or a small server is - IMHO - completely nuts.
Given the lack of SMP support, then yes, OpenBSD
doesn't make much sense on larger Sun boxen.
However, running OpenBSD on a V100 or V120 makes
perfect sense, particularly for firewalls. We
currently use Compaq DL320/360s for this, but
Intel hardware suck, and Sun
hardware is a joy to work with remotely (particularly
the Netra T1 and V100/V120 series, which can be
remotely power cycled via the serial port). Does
anyone know if the V100/V120s are supported by
OpenBSD? They're not on the list of approved
hardware, but they do have an UltraSPARC IIi,
rather than the UltraSPARC III that is causing
so many problems. I might have a go at installing
it when we get our next batch in...
One would hope not. Since the intent of this archive
is to preserve sounds, throwing half of it away at
the first hurdle by using a lossy compression
algorithm doesn't seem like the way to go. So rather
than MP3 or Ogg Vorbis, I'd suggest lossless formats
like Shorten or FLAC. FLAC has the advantage of
being completely free (beer and speech), both in terms of algorithm
and implementation.
Hey, you grew up in Potters Bar. I'm from just up the road in Hatfield. Small world.
Don't DO that!:-) I was thinking "shit, do I know
this guy, and have just forgotten it?". Then I
realised you probably worked it out from my pictures page. Yes, it's a very small
world. I actually grew up in Totteridge, but I
went to school in Potters Bar...
Eventually 8192-bit will be the standard for a while, then we'll take it from there.
Unlikely. Assume Moore's law accellerates
significantly, and computing power quadruples
every year. Furthermore, assume a couple of
major technological breakthroughs increase it
by two or three orders of magnitude in the next
10 years. Even with these advances, it would
still take your $10M machine
longer than the lifetime of
the universe to crack 2048 bits using brute force
with today's algorithms. So while the extremely
paranoid might go to say, 2560 bits, the chances
of the world in general going past 2048 bits is
pretty slim. Either some new technique, be it
quantum computing, or a non-exponential time
factoring algorithm will make key length irrelevant,
or 2048 bits will be enough effectively for ever.
Serious Sam (first and second) encounter has also been ported.
I've been playing the First Encounter beta on Linux,
and while there are still a few bugs to iron out,
I've got to say it rocks! The thought of the Second
Encounter as well has me drooling. Flamethrower,
here we come!
Nope. Unicenter(-TNG), Tivoli and OpenView all
epitomise products designed to sell to management.
They cost a fortune, and provide negligible benefits
over what can be accomplished using a handful of homebrewed
scripts. Yes, it's all in a single supported bundle,
but have you seen the cost? Yet management lap it
up. Sometimes I despair of the IT industry...
I aim to make people laugh until coke comes out of their noses.
No, no, no... you're doing it wrong. Coke's
supposed to go in your nose, not come
out of it. Or so I've been told...
Re:For idiots like me -
on
SVG On the Rise
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Macromedia Swiff (.sfw) format is NOT closed source, and you have a better chance reaching your audience with it.
Yes and no. Sure, it'll work fine for the majority
of the web browsing public. But once browsers start
shipping with SVG plugins (or just native support)
by default, then so will SVG. No one is arguing that
SWF is the more mature, and more widespread format at the moment.
But what about the content itself? If it's all in
SWF, then it won't appear on search engines, so
you're far less likely to have visitors driven to
your site in the first place. SVG content, on the
other hand, will be picked up so that Auntie
Millie will find her cookie recipe in Google,
even if the site in question uses an animated
cookie chef to convey it's information. Furthermore,
she'll be able to get at the content even if
she's blind and using a braille terminal, or if
she's using her mobile phone. The same can't be
said of SWF. I agree that Flash is a pretty good
product, but it suffers from three critical flaws,
which have prevented me from using it to date.
Firstly, it doesn't degrade if you browser isn't
able to support it. Secondly, it changes the
usage pattern of a browser. You want to go to the
previous page? Click the back button. You want to
open a new tab? Press Ctrl-T. You want to search
for a given string? Ctrl-F. But not in Flash.
Admittedly, Flash MX has made some progress in
that area, but it's still got a long way to go.
Finally, search engines won't index Flash content.
SVG remedies all of those deficiences, which is
why I hope to see it succeed.
the undersized American pint, which is 16 fl oz versus the British/International/Imperial pint which is 20 fl oz.
Oh, it's even better than that -- they redefined
the fluid ounce as well. An Imperial
fluid ounce is defined as the volume of water
that weighs 1 ounce. Except in the USA where
someone saw fit to redefine it so that 1
fluid ounce weighs approx 1.04 oz. Maybe America
has more gravity than the rest of the world, but
I somehow doubt it...
Try to visualize 50mm in your head. If that's too hard, try visualizing 0.05m instead.
I bet you mentally converted that to 5cm when you thought about it.
Nope. I thought about a 50mm sized distance.
Now when I thought about 0.05m, I did mentally
convert that to 50mm, because that's the more
natural unit. Now I'll admit that an engineering
background (where everything
is measured in mm) means I'm perhaps more comfortable with
mm than the general public. But I don't see why
anyone would have a problem with it, particularly
if taught in school (rather than cm as is
currently the case in the UK at least).
Metric still suffers from the too small/too big syndrome, where the units are spaced too far apart for convienence (3 orders of magnitude difference is a lot).
I couldn't disagree more with this. Any
number in the metric system is between 0 and 1000,
with an appropriate prefix added to the units,
which makes it convenient for just about every
application.
I don't see why measuring in millimetres is a
problem. I routinely say "that gap's about 50 mil".
Is that so much different to "that gap's about
5cm"? Can't see it myself. Contrast that with
Imperial units, where people tend to say a
vehicle weighs 3500 pounds. Surely that suffers
from the "too big" syndrome far more than metric
units?
For those of you using sane units, this is about 250 gigabits per cm^2
Of course "cm" isn't a sane unit no matter how
you look at it. It's not an SI unit, and "centi"
is not a standard SI prefix. SI acknowledges the
prefix, but recommends sticking to the standard
"multiples of three" prefixes. So it would be better
expressed as 2.5 Pb/m^2 (assuming your calculations
are correct, which I haven't checked).
And why are we still using inches for speakers and tires still?
Tyres are inexplicably measured in both metric
and imperial units.
Tyre width is measured in millimetres and
profile as a pecentage of width, but rim size is
in inches. Which moron thought that one up, then?
Take Gandalf, for example. He's a shootin' image of Moses, if you ask me.
Actually, Gandalf is almost directly modelled on
Odin, an
old bearded man with a crumpled grey cloak
and hat. Odin's spear became Gandalf's staff,
and there are many other similarities. Equally,
many other themes in Tolkein's works are lifted
from Norse and Anglo Saxon mythology.
Where's the skill in that? Okay, sure, you have to be able to get a good launch, and shift properly. Otherwise, "Keep the throttle wide open, and don't touch that steering wheel."
A few corrections... yes, dragsters have to be
steered. There is just so much power that the
slightest imbalance in tyre pressures, for example
is enough to send a car sideways. I've seen top
fuelers going down the strip with alternate
opposite lock. Scary. Secondly, there's no shift,
because there's no gearbox. It's pure direct
drive. The clutch is progressive, based on
centrifugal weights. Many a drag race is won or
lost on the settings of the clutch weights. Too much at
the start and you wheelspin. Not enough, and you
don't get away quick enough.
The thing that Sendmail did well, address rewriting, is irrelevant for today's net
I couldn't disagree more. Address rewriting is
essential on today's internet, and I've had to
do a lot of it (both professionally, and to a
lesser extent on my home systems). Without the
flexibility sendmail provides, I'd be sunk.
Sure, there are other alternatives, but since
sendmail does everything I want without problems,
why change? No, the cryptic config file isn't
sufficient reason. Firstly, it's no more cryptic
than other more "geek approved" tools,
such as perl -- once you know what the different
symbols mean, both start to make sense. Secondly,
it's hard to provide the power of sendmail in a
configuration language that's much less complex.
SGI like all server companies cannot drop their customer base suddenly and leave then stranded. They will carry on developing IRIX and MIPS systems and softly let them die.
Sad but true. I watched EMC kill DG/UX after they
bought DG, HP are doing the same with Alpha
and Tru64 (nee Digital Unix, nee OSF/1), and SGI
are ditching IRIX. All of them are continuing
maintenance of their old systems while it's still
profitable, but DG/UX is dead, and the others are
on their last legs:-(
Can't say I have any other book on my shelf. Fourteen in all
Pah! Amateur:-) Having just counted up, I have 51
of thier books. In all of those, there's only one that
I feel really doesn't match the quality of the
rest, and that's Power
Programming with RPC. To this day, I still
can't work out why they published it, when it's
so obviosuly not up to scratch. But among the
rest, there are some real gems, covering most of
my favourite geeky subjects. And of course, the
X11 books are indispensable...
I don't see anyone being up in arms over the video being captured by using ATMs or speed cameras.
That's just because you're not looking hard enough.
There are plenty of people concerned, particularly
about speed cameras being used to track people's movements
(as is being proposed here in the UK).
Slashdot Mirror
man vfork
Talking to a friend of mine who worked for Income Support confirms this. She said that immigrants would come in and sign on, making no attempt to look for work. When she refused to pay them on those grounds, they frequently threatened her, and always appealed, and her decisions were always overturned by her managers who wanted to avoid any trouble. If they're given carte blanche to milk the state for money like this, of course they're going to do it. No wonder the UK seems like such an attractive place to come...
Pretty much anything, I'd guess. I'm assuming it to be inspired by the original geek port.
No, the best game for Linux is Unreal Tournament. Sure, UT2003 may have better graphics, and a more advanced engine, but the original UT is the better, more playable game.
Given the lack of SMP support, then yes, OpenBSD doesn't make much sense on larger Sun boxen. However, running OpenBSD on a V100 or V120 makes perfect sense, particularly for firewalls. We currently use Compaq DL320/360s for this, but Intel hardware suck, and Sun hardware is a joy to work with remotely (particularly the Netra T1 and V100/V120 series, which can be remotely power cycled via the serial port). Does anyone know if the V100/V120s are supported by OpenBSD? They're not on the list of approved hardware, but they do have an UltraSPARC IIi, rather than the UltraSPARC III that is causing so many problems. I might have a go at installing it when we get our next batch in...
One would hope not. Since the intent of this archive is to preserve sounds, throwing half of it away at the first hurdle by using a lossy compression algorithm doesn't seem like the way to go. So rather than MP3 or Ogg Vorbis, I'd suggest lossless formats like Shorten or FLAC. FLAC has the advantage of being completely free (beer and speech), both in terms of algorithm and implementation.
Don't DO that! :-) I was thinking "shit, do I know
this guy, and have just forgotten it?". Then I
realised you probably worked it out from my pictures page. Yes, it's a very small
world. I actually grew up in Totteridge, but I
went to school in Potters Bar...
Unlikely. Assume Moore's law accellerates significantly, and computing power quadruples every year. Furthermore, assume a couple of major technological breakthroughs increase it by two or three orders of magnitude in the next 10 years. Even with these advances, it would still take your $10M machine longer than the lifetime of the universe to crack 2048 bits using brute force with today's algorithms. So while the extremely paranoid might go to say, 2560 bits, the chances of the world in general going past 2048 bits is pretty slim. Either some new technique, be it quantum computing, or a non-exponential time factoring algorithm will make key length irrelevant, or 2048 bits will be enough effectively for ever.
I've been playing the First Encounter beta on Linux, and while there are still a few bugs to iron out, I've got to say it rocks! The thought of the Second Encounter as well has me drooling. Flamethrower, here we come!
Nope. Unicenter(-TNG), Tivoli and OpenView all epitomise products designed to sell to management. They cost a fortune, and provide negligible benefits over what can be accomplished using a handful of homebrewed scripts. Yes, it's all in a single supported bundle, but have you seen the cost? Yet management lap it up. Sometimes I despair of the IT industry...
Bleugh! After his apalling treatment of Clarke's universe in "Beyond the fall of night", I've struggle to treat Benford seriously.
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky are both great
Here I couldn't agree more. "The peace war" is the best scifi book I've read in the last 10 years.
Stephen Baxter - The Time Ships, Ring, etc.
Hmmm. I didn't particularly get on with Baxter. Just didn't like his writing style.
No, no, no... you're doing it wrong. Coke's supposed to go in your nose, not come out of it. Or so I've been told...
Yes and no. Sure, it'll work fine for the majority of the web browsing public. But once browsers start shipping with SVG plugins (or just native support) by default, then so will SVG. No one is arguing that SWF is the more mature, and more widespread format at the moment. But what about the content itself? If it's all in SWF, then it won't appear on search engines, so you're far less likely to have visitors driven to your site in the first place. SVG content, on the other hand, will be picked up so that Auntie Millie will find her cookie recipe in Google, even if the site in question uses an animated cookie chef to convey it's information. Furthermore, she'll be able to get at the content even if she's blind and using a braille terminal, or if she's using her mobile phone. The same can't be said of SWF. I agree that Flash is a pretty good product, but it suffers from three critical flaws, which have prevented me from using it to date. Firstly, it doesn't degrade if you browser isn't able to support it. Secondly, it changes the usage pattern of a browser. You want to go to the previous page? Click the back button. You want to open a new tab? Press Ctrl-T. You want to search for a given string? Ctrl-F. But not in Flash. Admittedly, Flash MX has made some progress in that area, but it's still got a long way to go. Finally, search engines won't index Flash content. SVG remedies all of those deficiences, which is why I hope to see it succeed.
Oh, it's even better than that -- they redefined the fluid ounce as well. An Imperial fluid ounce is defined as the volume of water that weighs 1 ounce. Except in the USA where someone saw fit to redefine it so that 1 fluid ounce weighs approx 1.04 oz. Maybe America has more gravity than the rest of the world, but I somehow doubt it...
Nope. I thought about a 50mm sized distance. Now when I thought about 0.05m, I did mentally convert that to 50mm, because that's the more natural unit. Now I'll admit that an engineering background (where everything is measured in mm) means I'm perhaps more comfortable with mm than the general public. But I don't see why anyone would have a problem with it, particularly if taught in school (rather than cm as is currently the case in the UK at least).
I couldn't disagree more with this. Any number in the metric system is between 0 and 1000, with an appropriate prefix added to the units, which makes it convenient for just about every application. I don't see why measuring in millimetres is a problem. I routinely say "that gap's about 50 mil". Is that so much different to "that gap's about 5cm"? Can't see it myself. Contrast that with Imperial units, where people tend to say a vehicle weighs 3500 pounds. Surely that suffers from the "too big" syndrome far more than metric units?
Of course "cm" isn't a sane unit no matter how you look at it. It's not an SI unit, and "centi" is not a standard SI prefix. SI acknowledges the prefix, but recommends sticking to the standard "multiples of three" prefixes. So it would be better expressed as 2.5 Pb/m^2 (assuming your calculations are correct, which I haven't checked).
Tyres are inexplicably measured in both metric and imperial units. Tyre width is measured in millimetres and profile as a pecentage of width, but rim size is in inches. Which moron thought that one up, then?
Actually, Gandalf is almost directly modelled on Odin, an old bearded man with a crumpled grey cloak and hat. Odin's spear became Gandalf's staff, and there are many other similarities. Equally, many other themes in Tolkein's works are lifted from Norse and Anglo Saxon mythology.
A few corrections... yes, dragsters have to be steered. There is just so much power that the slightest imbalance in tyre pressures, for example is enough to send a car sideways. I've seen top fuelers going down the strip with alternate opposite lock. Scary. Secondly, there's no shift, because there's no gearbox. It's pure direct drive. The clutch is progressive, based on centrifugal weights. Many a drag race is won or lost on the settings of the clutch weights. Too much at the start and you wheelspin. Not enough, and you don't get away quick enough.
I couldn't disagree more. Address rewriting is essential on today's internet, and I've had to do a lot of it (both professionally, and to a lesser extent on my home systems). Without the flexibility sendmail provides, I'd be sunk. Sure, there are other alternatives, but since sendmail does everything I want without problems, why change? No, the cryptic config file isn't sufficient reason. Firstly, it's no more cryptic than other more "geek approved" tools, such as perl -- once you know what the different symbols mean, both start to make sense. Secondly, it's hard to provide the power of sendmail in a configuration language that's much less complex.
Sad but true. I watched EMC kill DG/UX after they bought DG, HP are doing the same with Alpha and Tru64 (nee Digital Unix, nee OSF/1), and SGI are ditching IRIX. All of them are continuing maintenance of their old systems while it's still profitable, but DG/UX is dead, and the others are on their last legs :-(
Pah! Amateur :-) Having just counted up, I have 51
of thier books. In all of those, there's only one that
I feel really doesn't match the quality of the
rest, and that's Power
Programming with RPC. To this day, I still
can't work out why they published it, when it's
so obviosuly not up to scratch. But among the
rest, there are some real gems, covering most of
my favourite geeky subjects. And of course, the
X11 books are indispensable...
That's just because you're not looking hard enough. There are plenty of people concerned, particularly about speed cameras being used to track people's movements (as is being proposed here in the UK).