Well, it would have been a simple matter to (in addition to the png and jpg download formats) add a third of JP2 and see what kind of response you got. Whoever used that version would have saved the server some bandwidth...
I informally note that (from a lossless compression standpoint) JP2 is outstanding for photographs but PNG will occasionally beat JP2 in images with large swaths of a solid color (a frame of animation, for example).
Not completely offtopic, but how prevalent is the JPEG2 format these days? I've been using it on OS X for some time now, I thought it was a standard, and I just checked and converting the "orion-centre-xlarge.png" to a lossless JP2 file caused it to go from 3.5MB to 1.1MB. Is there still spotty support of this format on Windows/*nix?
The only WoW "grind" experience that I've felt is when my Cooking was sub-par due to the fact that night elves didn't have a lot of opportunities to practice, and I found myself returning to earlier areas just to get Small Spider Legs, but Blizz fixed this in the recent patch and made those more frequent drops.
Pretty much the whole rest of the game, though, is designed for you to be able to practice your other abilities WHILE you are on a quest.
World of Warcraft has a fully-customizable and programmable interface and I'm sure someone could write up a chat encrypter for it that would look like gobbledygook to outside players.
Heck, WoW already sort of does this internally- the two factions can't talk to each other, it looks to the other faction like nonsense.
Since I love this game so far, and know a little bit about encryption, I think I'm going to have to get on coding that =)
This one's simple. Take advantage of the inverse-cube law of radiation and distance and MOVE THE CELLPHONE AWAY FROM YOUR HEAD. Use a cord!
There are a number of "grand, untested social experiments" going on right now, this is just one of them. Convenience outweighs the time delay in testing cellphones on a small subset of the population over a number of years to see what the effects are.
(Offtopic- One of the other untested social experiments going on right now is seemingly every yuppie American family going [perhaps by necessity due to economic stresses] to "dual-income-plus-daycare"... I wonder what effect that will have on a whole generation of kids... Another one is the "easy access to unlimited pr0n for all ages" generational experiment...)
Go to mailinator.com. You'll see what I'm talking about. Scenario:
You tell Amazon that your address is kencurry@mailinator.com (no need to register at mailinator.com, just do it)
Amazon sends you email, like a confirmation email.
You head on down to www.mailinator.com, enter "kencurry" as the email name to check, and voila! there's your email. Check it and forget it. Inbox stays clean. Mailinator holds emails for a few days but eventually deletes them.
1) Use a long email address that is difficult to brute-force 2) Only give it to real people 3) Use a mailinator address for online registrations and whatnot where you have to read a reply. 4) For those sites that force you to reply from a real email address to complete registration, use a spam webmail address.
This has stopped almost all spam from bugging me.
Anecdote: My first email address ever was from Cornell in 1990. Cornell has a policy that lets you keep your email address for life by setting up an auto-forward after you graduate. The irony is that Cornell, back in the days before spam, unfortunately picked an address format (initials+number@cornell.edu) that turned out to be easy to brute-force, and that I've since had to turn the auto-forward feature off due to too much spam, defeating the purpose of the "lifetime email address". oh well...
I've definitely seen this exact post before. I know because I ended up using a similar method to create a lookup table that I keep in my wallet!
Re:Why they probably block searches containing "se
on
Google Suggest
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I just posted that from work. I'm such an idiot
Why they probably block searches containing "sex"
on
Google Suggest
·
· Score: 1
and "porn" and "xxx" (etc.)
Since the information is retrieved via an XMLHTTP request, it will go right through corporate http url/content scanners and I'm sure that after a few attempts, some friendly neighborhood net admins (or perhaps HR) will come breathing down your neck. =)
What's with the senseless sideswipe at Apple? (I'm glad to see the/. mod system was correct as usual...) Try using a late-model Powerbook before you dismiss it outright, since it's clear you have not. But, since you brought it up, hey, let's perform a basic experiment, since I've used BOTH of these extensively (unlike you):
1) Close lid of laptop. Powerbook goes immediately to sleep. And I mean immediately. Running apps, movies, mp3 players, etc. freeze in place. The Thinkpad (depending on how you've set it up) either just turns off the screen (meaning the hair-dryer-fan vent still runs, meaning you can't just stash it right in your laptop bag or it will overheat) or goes into Windows hibernation mode, which takes like a minute, and wasn't always successful in my experience.
2) Open lid of laptop. Powerbook wakes up. Immediately. Everything resumes exactly where it was. Thinkpad takes a while to un-hibernate (since a sleep mode that just shuts the screen off is useless, imho). Strum fingers. Complain when Windows and some Windows apps start acting REALLY funky after a couple of hibernations, requiring a reboot. (Windows does not seem designed to tolerate hibernation states very well.) Ick.
(Aside: The only reason why I found the hibernate feature in the first place [it's not an obvious feature] is because I was USED TO the Powerbook's nice sleep feature and I thus was LOOKING for something similar on the Thinkpad. I showed it to my coworkers and turns out none of them knew about it either, and they were amazed! Moral: It pays to get to know "alien technology", because it broadens your mind to what is possible.)
Sturdiness-wise, I think they are about equal, and I thought the Thinkpad docking mechanism was clever. The Powerbook is (of course...) prettier. Battery life on Powerbooks leaves something to be desired- you'd think that these supposedly-more-efficient PowerPC chips would leave more batt time, but I guess Intel did its homework in that area. There are a lot more possible connections on this powerbook (Al 15" 1.25ghz) than on any Thinkpad I've seen.
Usability-wise... Well, there's really no comparison. I just wish I could do the SQL Server development I do for work, on this Powerbook...
I understand that this is all a matter of faith, but I was raised Catholic and even though I think God created the universe, I do not believe in creationism. It strikes me as much more beautiful a thing that God might have created all the physical laws as they are in order for life to exist (using evolution) than that a being in a gray beard spoke everything into instantaneous existence 6000 years ago. If you look at this week's TIME magazine, it discusses the irony of how some physicists "found religion" due to the examination of the physical laws and the realization that if just one physical constant was tweaked just a little, it would be impossible for life to exist as we know it.
As a student of the Bible, I'm sure you've noticed the huge difference between the depiction of God in the Old Testament (interactive, present at certain moments in time, testing, punishing) and the God of the New Testament (passive, timeless, acting through Jesus and other prophets, etc.) Unless God had a personality makeover when Jesus was born, I put more faith in the New Testament God, and the New Testament in general, and I think the idea that God fired off the Big Bang in a very special way suits that better.
Not to mention all the evidence that the universe is much much more than 6000 years old. Do you think God is playing a big trick on us by having us believe (based on available evidence) that we can see parts of the galaxy that are millions of light-years away? Astronomers are actually fools? The fossil record was planted there to give archaeologists an impotent reason to exist? And dinosaurs! I mean WTF? How can you possibly still believe it? Ugh.
http://talkorigins.org/ Use thy God-given brain and edumacate thyself.
I have to admit that I'm a::ahem:: Mac gamer and therefore haven't been privy to much of what the MMORPG genre has to offer, but I am stupendously glad that Blizzard's longtime Mac support continues unabated.
I played the game for the first time last night for about 3 hrs, picking an elven hunter to start off. Pretty amazing and easy to get into.
Since I was playing the game at night, it was night-time in the environment, which I thought was a nice touch. I did manage to get some sleep last night, so I'm not an addict, which is fine.
I guess the best sign that this game is good is that I sent an email to my boss last night that I was going to "work from home" today;)
Hey, anonymous asshole, I've been using ALL computers since 1982, including having built a few PC's, and it's always been a pain in the ass, so why don't you sit your guaranteed-to-be-more-noob-than-me ass down?
They use the same paradigm: 1) High standards 2) Design and user interface are the priority 3) Quality components 4) Style and marketing 5) Priced higher than most competitors as a result
Since both a Mac and an iPod basically seem to use the same business model, why is it that iPods are so successful now? Is it because most people simply find it easier to save up a few hundred bucks for a nice music player versus a couple thousand for a much nicer computing experience? Is it due to the "network effect" of "all my friends have pc's, so I won't get a mac" (hehe "all my friends have spyware and viruses, I guess it's normal for me to also have them")? Perhaps the iPod was able to break out of this network effect and create one of its own? What do you folks think?
Maybe a HIGH-END Mac, but: 1) not a laptop- Mac laptops are pretty damn price-competitive with PC laptops 2) not a consumer-level Mac- Prices are also very competitive 3) Not a used Mac- If you want to try it without too much risk, get a used Mac on eBay. You'll likely be able to sell it for not much cheaper than you bought it for, if you don't like it (since Macs hold value much better than PC's). And it thus won't dent your precious mortgage payment.
The only way price (and I'm just talking the raw dollars) MAY be stopping you is if you build your own PC. But man, if those headaches are worth it to you, then I can't help you. The value of headache-free computing, quality components, and the nice, hassle-free interface should really be experienced to understand.
I'd like to remind the Slashdot viewership that the reason why illicit drugs work in the first place is that there are receptors for them in the brain; in other words, in the course of "regular existence" those receptors have the potential to be naturally stimulated; and sex being a very potent self-reinforcing activity, I wouldn't be surprised if it acted on some of the very same receptors that drugs do.
Hence the addictive possibility- despite all your cynicisms that this is just a conservative crusade.
I can say from personal experience from having dated someone seriously that was (high passion/low compatibility) that it was very difficult to not only get away from... but forget. =/
I would like to add something I forgot to mention.
As a consultant here, I am sort of expected to work long hours. It's the whole "salaried slavery" thing that seems to be happening everywhere.
When I was in the military, after your 8 hour shift was up, someone came in to replace you if you were in the middle of something. I had no idea what a blessing an 8 hour workday was until I left!! And for not too much less pay, either.
SO my point is, I seemed to have a lot more time for hiking, beach, skiing, partying, exercising, etc. etc... (I also lived in California which perhaps helped all of that, but still). Take that into account! I have had health problems already due to too much stress and lack of exercise.
I was 2A636 in the USAF =) My commander wanted me to cross-train to 2E251 once he discovered I was a closeted computer geek, but they were requiring more enlistment time and I wanted to finish school (which I did).
I have a consulting job that I am not terribly happy with, but the good news is that I'm getting plenty of hits on Monster if I feel like jumping ship. I live in Boston. I have a pretty big range of computer skills.
Oh, and I have this minor problem with the word "orientated". It's "oriented";)
Why is it that the only iPod naysayers seem to be the ones who cannot find a way to afford one of these wonderful devices? Rationalization?
I just went from a 1st-gen Mac-only iPod to a 4th-gen (bought just before the color one, oh well). It made my pocket lighter, sure... but dang if I don't have a huuuuuge music library when I'm on the road!!
I also love iTunes Smart Playlists and the way that everything synchs between your computer and the iPod. I use the iPod to audition a lot of music and lately (using a Smart Playlist that picks "recently-added music that has not been listened to more than twice"), if I find something I like, I rate it a few stars directly on the iPod. Then the next time I synch, I have a smart playlist set up to automatically cull those tunes in. You have no idea how cool this is unless you love music and try it. You can also now set up playlists directly on the iPod pretty easily, and those too will appear on your computer once you sync.
I basically don't know if it gets any better than this... which is why I also use OS X =)
I have a DVR/HDTV cable box from Comcast. It has a firewire out.
I am able to send the MPEG2 Transport Stream down to my OS X machine via a couple of tools available on OS X (AVCBrowser, etc.), and then open it directly using VLC, and show it on my cinema display. Pretty neat stuff! I watched a recent Patriots game in HDTV with some friends this way.
Perhaps they overestimated the load-carrying capacity of Windoze. =)/karma-whore
disclaimer- I use Windoze every day for work (ASP web development, try not to puke) and hate it, I'd love to find work where I can use OS X (which I run at home) or anything non-Windoze, for that matter.
Music is like porn. There is tons of free porn out there, but the porn business is still booming. When a person "consumes" pornographic media, their desire for more generally increases. I believe the same goes for music. My exposure to easy music downloads has only served to increase my general interest in music. I listen to more genres and artists now than I ever thought imaginable a few years ago. And I have paid a decent amount for new music as a result, via the current channels.
If I am 32 and the first computer I programmed was a Commodore PET, and I programmed a Rot13 algorithm on the first Apple Macintosh in Microsoft BASIC, does that make me a fogey?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, it would have been a simple matter to (in addition to the png and jpg download formats) add a third of JP2 and see what kind of response you got. Whoever used that version would have saved the server some bandwidth...
I informally note that (from a lossless compression standpoint) JP2 is outstanding for photographs but PNG will occasionally beat JP2 in images with large swaths of a solid color (a frame of animation, for example).
Not completely offtopic, but how prevalent is the JPEG2 format these days? I've been using it on OS X for some time now, I thought it was a standard, and I just checked and converting the "orion-centre-xlarge.png" to a lossless JP2 file caused it to go from 3.5MB to 1.1MB. Is there still spotty support of this format on Windows/*nix?
The only WoW "grind" experience that I've felt is when my Cooking was sub-par due to the fact that night elves didn't have a lot of opportunities to practice, and I found myself returning to earlier areas just to get Small Spider Legs, but Blizz fixed this in the recent patch and made those more frequent drops.
Pretty much the whole rest of the game, though, is designed for you to be able to practice your other abilities WHILE you are on a quest.
World of Warcraft has a fully-customizable and programmable interface and I'm sure someone could write up a chat encrypter for it that would look like gobbledygook to outside players. Heck, WoW already sort of does this internally- the two factions can't talk to each other, it looks to the other faction like nonsense. Since I love this game so far, and know a little bit about encryption, I think I'm going to have to get on coding that =)
This one's simple. Take advantage of the inverse-cube law of radiation and distance and MOVE THE CELLPHONE AWAY FROM YOUR HEAD. Use a cord!
There are a number of "grand, untested social experiments" going on right now, this is just one of them. Convenience outweighs the time delay in testing cellphones on a small subset of the population over a number of years to see what the effects are.
(Offtopic- One of the other untested social experiments going on right now is seemingly every yuppie American family going [perhaps by necessity due to economic stresses] to "dual-income-plus-daycare"... I wonder what effect that will have on a whole generation of kids... Another one is the "easy access to unlimited pr0n for all ages" generational experiment...)
Go to mailinator.com. You'll see what I'm talking about. Scenario:
You tell Amazon that your address is kencurry@mailinator.com (no need to register at mailinator.com, just do it)
Amazon sends you email, like a confirmation email.
You head on down to www.mailinator.com, enter "kencurry" as the email name to check, and voila! there's your email. Check it and forget it. Inbox stays clean. Mailinator holds emails for a few days but eventually deletes them.
1) Use a long email address that is difficult to brute-force
2) Only give it to real people
3) Use a mailinator address for online registrations and whatnot where you have to read a reply.
4) For those sites that force you to reply from a real email address to complete registration, use a spam webmail address.
This has stopped almost all spam from bugging me.
Anecdote: My first email address ever was from Cornell in 1990. Cornell has a policy that lets you keep your email address for life by setting up an auto-forward after you graduate. The irony is that Cornell, back in the days before spam, unfortunately picked an address format (initials+number@cornell.edu) that turned out to be easy to brute-force, and that I've since had to turn the auto-forward feature off due to too much spam, defeating the purpose of the "lifetime email address". oh well...
I've definitely seen this exact post before. I know because I ended up using a similar method to create a lookup table that I keep in my wallet!
I just posted that from work. I'm such an idiot
and "porn" and "xxx" (etc.)
/content scanners and I'm sure that after a few attempts, some friendly neighborhood net admins (or perhaps HR) will come breathing down your neck. =)
Since the information is retrieved via an XMLHTTP request, it will go right through corporate http url
What's with the senseless sideswipe at Apple? (I'm glad to see the /. mod system was correct as usual...) Try using a late-model Powerbook before you dismiss it outright, since it's clear you have not. But, since you brought it up, hey, let's perform a basic experiment, since I've used BOTH of these extensively (unlike you):
1) Close lid of laptop.
Powerbook goes immediately to sleep. And I mean immediately. Running apps, movies, mp3 players, etc. freeze in place.
The Thinkpad (depending on how you've set it up) either just turns off the screen (meaning the hair-dryer-fan vent still runs, meaning you can't just stash it right in your laptop bag or it will overheat) or goes into Windows hibernation mode, which takes like a minute, and wasn't always successful in my experience.
2) Open lid of laptop.
Powerbook wakes up. Immediately. Everything resumes exactly where it was.
Thinkpad takes a while to un-hibernate (since a sleep mode that just shuts the screen off is useless, imho). Strum fingers. Complain when Windows and some Windows apps start acting REALLY funky after a couple of hibernations, requiring a reboot. (Windows does not seem designed to tolerate hibernation states very well.) Ick.
(Aside: The only reason why I found the hibernate feature in the first place [it's not an obvious feature] is because I was USED TO the Powerbook's nice sleep feature and I thus was LOOKING for something similar on the Thinkpad. I showed it to my coworkers and turns out none of them knew about it either, and they were amazed! Moral: It pays to get to know "alien technology", because it broadens your mind to what is possible.)
Sturdiness-wise, I think they are about equal, and I thought the Thinkpad docking mechanism was clever. The Powerbook is (of course...) prettier. Battery life on Powerbooks leaves something to be desired- you'd think that these supposedly-more-efficient PowerPC chips would leave more batt time, but I guess Intel did its homework in that area. There are a lot more possible connections on this powerbook (Al 15" 1.25ghz) than on any Thinkpad I've seen.
Usability-wise... Well, there's really no comparison. I just wish I could do the SQL Server development I do for work, on this Powerbook...
I understand that this is all a matter of faith, but I was raised Catholic and even though I think God created the universe, I do not believe in creationism. It strikes me as much more beautiful a thing that God might have created all the physical laws as they are in order for life to exist (using evolution) than that a being in a gray beard spoke everything into instantaneous existence 6000 years ago. If you look at this week's TIME magazine, it discusses the irony of how some physicists "found religion" due to the examination of the physical laws and the realization that if just one physical constant was tweaked just a little, it would be impossible for life to exist as we know it.
As a student of the Bible, I'm sure you've noticed the huge difference between the depiction of God in the Old Testament (interactive, present at certain moments in time, testing, punishing) and the God of the New Testament (passive, timeless, acting through Jesus and other prophets, etc.) Unless God had a personality makeover when Jesus was born, I put more faith in the New Testament God, and the New Testament in general, and I think the idea that God fired off the Big Bang in a very special way suits that better.
Not to mention all the evidence that the universe is much much more than 6000 years old. Do you think God is playing a big trick on us by having us believe (based on available evidence) that we can see parts of the galaxy that are millions of light-years away? Astronomers are actually fools? The fossil record was planted there to give archaeologists an impotent reason to exist? And dinosaurs! I mean WTF? How can you possibly still believe it? Ugh.
http://talkorigins.org/ Use thy God-given brain and edumacate thyself.
I have to admit that I'm a ::ahem:: Mac gamer and therefore haven't been privy to much of what the MMORPG genre has to offer, but I am stupendously glad that Blizzard's longtime Mac support continues unabated.
;)
I played the game for the first time last night for about 3 hrs, picking an elven hunter to start off. Pretty amazing and easy to get into.
Since I was playing the game at night, it was night-time in the environment, which I thought was a nice touch. I did manage to get some sleep last night, so I'm not an addict, which is fine.
I guess the best sign that this game is good is that I sent an email to my boss last night that I was going to "work from home" today
Isn't this simply a corollary of "do what you love, and the rest will follow"?
Hey, anonymous asshole, I've been using ALL computers since 1982, including having built a few PC's, and it's always been a pain in the ass, so why don't you sit your guaranteed-to-be-more-noob-than-me ass down?
because Macs aren't as successful.
They use the same paradigm:
1) High standards
2) Design and user interface are the priority
3) Quality components
4) Style and marketing
5) Priced higher than most competitors as a result
Since both a Mac and an iPod basically seem to use the same business model, why is it that iPods are so successful now? Is it because most people simply find it easier to save up a few hundred bucks for a nice music player versus a couple thousand for a much nicer computing experience? Is it due to the "network effect" of "all my friends have pc's, so I won't get a mac" (hehe "all my friends have spyware and viruses, I guess it's normal for me to also have them")? Perhaps the iPod was able to break out of this network effect and create one of its own? What do you folks think?
Maybe a HIGH-END Mac, but:
1) not a laptop- Mac laptops are pretty damn price-competitive with PC laptops
2) not a consumer-level Mac- Prices are also very competitive
3) Not a used Mac- If you want to try it without too much risk, get a used Mac on eBay. You'll likely be able to sell it for not much cheaper than you bought it for, if you don't like it (since Macs hold value much better than PC's). And it thus won't dent your precious mortgage payment.
The only way price (and I'm just talking the raw dollars) MAY be stopping you is if you build your own PC. But man, if those headaches are worth it to you, then I can't help you. The value of headache-free computing, quality components, and the nice, hassle-free interface should really be experienced to understand.
I'd like to remind the Slashdot viewership that the reason why illicit drugs work in the first place is that there are receptors for them in the brain; in other words, in the course of "regular existence" those receptors have the potential to be naturally stimulated; and sex being a very potent self-reinforcing activity, I wouldn't be surprised if it acted on some of the very same receptors that drugs do.
Hence the addictive possibility- despite all your cynicisms that this is just a conservative crusade.
I can say from personal experience from having dated someone seriously that was (high passion/low compatibility) that it was very difficult to not only get away from... but forget. =/
I would like to add something I forgot to mention.
As a consultant here, I am sort of expected to work long hours. It's the whole "salaried slavery" thing that seems to be happening everywhere.
When I was in the military, after your 8 hour shift was up, someone came in to replace you if you were in the middle of something. I had no idea what a blessing an 8 hour workday was until I left!! And for not too much less pay, either.
SO my point is, I seemed to have a lot more time for hiking, beach, skiing, partying, exercising, etc. etc... (I also lived in California which perhaps helped all of that, but still). Take that into account! I have had health problems already due to too much stress and lack of exercise.
I was 2A636 in the USAF =) My commander wanted me to cross-train to 2E251 once he discovered I was a closeted computer geek, but they were requiring more enlistment time and I wanted to finish school (which I did).
;)
I have a consulting job that I am not terribly happy with, but the good news is that I'm getting plenty of hits on Monster if I feel like jumping ship. I live in Boston. I have a pretty big range of computer skills.
Oh, and I have this minor problem with the word "orientated". It's "oriented"
Why is it that the only iPod naysayers seem to be the ones who cannot find a way to afford one of these wonderful devices? Rationalization?
I just went from a 1st-gen Mac-only iPod to a 4th-gen (bought just before the color one, oh well). It made my pocket lighter, sure... but dang if I don't have a huuuuuge music library when I'm on the road!!
I also love iTunes Smart Playlists and the way that everything synchs between your computer and the iPod. I use the iPod to audition a lot of music and lately (using a Smart Playlist that picks "recently-added music that has not been listened to more than twice"), if I find something I like, I rate it a few stars directly on the iPod. Then the next time I synch, I have a smart playlist set up to automatically cull those tunes in. You have no idea how cool this is unless you love music and try it. You can also now set up playlists directly on the iPod pretty easily, and those too will appear on your computer once you sync.
I basically don't know if it gets any better than this... which is why I also use OS X =)
I have a DVR/HDTV cable box from Comcast. It has a firewire out.
I am able to send the MPEG2 Transport Stream down to my OS X machine via a couple of tools available on OS X (AVCBrowser, etc.), and then open it directly using VLC, and show it on my cinema display. Pretty neat stuff! I watched a recent Patriots game in HDTV with some friends this way.
That stream eats gigs of HD space fast, though!
And it's most definitely not "wife-proof"... yet
Perhaps they overestimated the load-carrying capacity of Windoze. =) /karma-whore
disclaimer- I use Windoze every day for work (ASP web development, try not to puke) and hate it, I'd love to find work where I can use OS X (which I run at home) or anything non-Windoze, for that matter.
Music is like porn. There is tons of free porn out there, but the porn business is still booming. When a person "consumes" pornographic media, their desire for more generally increases. I believe the same goes for music. My exposure to easy music downloads has only served to increase my general interest in music. I listen to more genres and artists now than I ever thought imaginable a few years ago. And I have paid a decent amount for new music as a result, via the current channels.
If I am 32 and the first computer I programmed was a Commodore PET, and I programmed a Rot13 algorithm on the first Apple Macintosh in Microsoft BASIC, does that make me a fogey?