I'm quite late to this party, and I did a search of all 710 comments and didn't find a reference, so I'll throw this one out. Heinlein already did this one. For some good reading, try "Jerry was a man."
There are two licensing models for Vista Business Edition (and presumably some of the other versions, or perhaps all, use these same two models.)
First is MAK (Multiple Activation Key): This key will activate Microsoft Windows Vista through the internet or telephone, and has a limited number of activations associated with it. Computers can be activated on an individual basis or by a central computer which can activate multiple computer at a time.
Secondly is running a KMS: Your organization can host the Key Management Service (KMS) internally to automatically activate computers running Windows Vista. To use the KMS, you must have a minimum of 25 computers running Vista that are connected together. Computer that have been activated through KMS will be required to reactivate by connecting to your org's network at least every six months. Currently the KMS runs on a Vista machine, or on a "Longhorn" server, with plans to release a Server 2003 KMS soon.
This is paraphrased from the offical release docs I have for a major federal department.
I know two people who work for MS, both are part of the MSN shopping channel and primarily are writers. One is an MS employee, and seems to work standard hours with fairly standard levels of stress and workload. The other is a contractor (Volt) and, incidentally, is the woman I'm going to marry. She works from home and spends far more time working on columns and product picks that is justified by the amount they pay her, but she likes the work and enjoys working with the product coordinators and vendors. Neither of them are whipped on the wheel of drudgery, but then again they are not programmers in one of the big application teams.
Microsoft's campuses are evidently quite beautiful and there is an employee shuttle service that gives rides hither and yon. The food is also evidently quite good, as my girl has examined the menus quite frequently with an eye towards their 39-cent gourmet salads. She sometimes rails about the silly things, like how she hates their RAS setup, and that she is continually frustrated by OWA kicking her out of corporate email if she doesn't refresh the window every five minutes, but these are just functional niggles. The other fellow works at Red West, I believe, and has an office window that he always keeps the blinds shut on, "or I just won't get any work done" he says.
Microsoft is a huge company, that's for sure... but it's not the kind of corporate suit-and-tie stuffiness that you get on the east coast. When my girl was visiting the campus to get her smart card set up she noted that a lot of guys were very casual in dress, and that cargo shorts were in great abundance. (She also noted that a lot of guys sported beards in various stages of repair.)
All anecdotal hearsay... but take it for what you will.
Who is going to provide the guards for these condensers, because you know that the local warlords and privileged will abscond with them as another source of wealth and power. There's more than just buying the equipment, there is maintenance and policing, just to name the obvious manpower needs.
The redundant fibre paths in a SAN has less to do with lasers failing all the time (which they don't... they're about as reliable as the rest of the electronics) than it has to do with thumb-fingered humans bumping cables in the back of the racks. Plus, you typically need two fibre switches for redundancy since they rarely (I've never seen one) have daul power supplies, and a simple power outage is a much more common event than a hardware failure.
Typically you'll have dual power feeds from two separate UPS, cluster nodes with dual power supplies (one per UPS feed), SAN shelves and controllers with dual power supplies, and then dual fibre switches with redundant cabling and HBAs.
The fact that a lot of HBAs have removable GBICs is because of modularity, not because the GBICs fail all the time.
Ah, but not quite as annoying as "two mis-punched characters in this fifty-foot paper tape" where you have to use the reader/punch/printer to get to *just* before the error, then stop the feed, lift the bail and move the tape past the error, then set the bail back down and continue.
And it's cheating to stop a *few* characters before the error and type in the characters up to and through the error by hand. Flipping the feed lever spastically to get only one character at a time as you approach the error is part of the challenge!
I work for a mid-sized university, whose primary finance/management package is SCT Banner. The back-end database is hosted on an 8-way Compaq Galaxy System (GS-80) cluster (running VMS... don't ask.) Yes, the licensing costs for Oracle alone approach half a million per year.
That being said, license costs are not the most expensive part of the equation. The developers and DBAs that support these systems are more expensive than the systems themselves.
Yes, software can be pricey, but developers and administrators are even more pricey. I won't say that Oracle is worth every cent, but I will say that the developers and DBAs who are extremely competent with Oracle *are* worth every cent. I've ceased to be surprised how many "large scale critical systems" are so much duct tape and bailing wire to hold them together... and it's the people who support these systems that keep them from imploding messily every quarter.
My first self-bought computer (circa fall of 1990):
386SX-16Mhz 4MB (everyone else that I knew has 1, maybe 2MB... totally jealous) VGA card/w 256K (I think) 40MB hard drive BOTH a 5.25 and a 3.5 floppy. 14" color vga monitor DOS 5.0 Original Soundblaster PLUS the add-on CMS chips for synthesized music Dual serial and single parallel card
Dropped about $2300 on it.
Anyone remember shopping around for SOCKETED serial ISA cards, so you could pull off the crappy UARTs and put on the 16550s?
I would like to hear a take on where you think they should be going with the next gen of the MMORPG.
It would take a long, arduous discussion in order to express the full extent of what I'd like to see, but in the short term I'd like:
Completely hidden algorithms and game mechanics. I never want to see actual numbers in a game. As soon as the numbers are exposed and the formulas discovered, the game turns into a number maximization exercise and all pretenses of actual role-play, adventure, or mystery are gone. I don't want to see "-78 HP" above the head of the creature when I bop it over the head with my club. I want visual feedback that indicates my success without using numbers.
Abandoning the "class" model. Think about yourself... what "class" are you? Can you think of any person where they have a defining "class" or "profession" that rigidly constrains what they can learn, practice, or do? SWG tried to forgo classes, but it looks like they are going back to them now. TES:Morrowind has a skill-driven system that is, likewise, an attempt at an alternative, but still fall short because all characters can develop all skills. I would prefer a system where you can specialize or generalize or anywhere in between, and the combinations of skills and abilities you develop are up to you without any constraints of class. A character could call himself a magician because he has trained primarily in magician skills, rather than choosing magician and thus being forces to only train in magical skills.
The abandonment of levels. In the same vein as the "class" question above, what level are you? Rather than having the level model, as classically created by D&D, I would prefer the development of a character to be skill and ability driven, including physical, mental, and ability development tied to improving those skills through use (similar, but not exactly like TES games) rather than simply accumulating XP, leveling up, and then arbitrarily spending points on whatever skill you like. Why can I train up stealth when I've not tried hiding from anyone for the last five levels?
This is just for starters. The actual mechanics of the system should be quite complex, and highly interrelated. Those that worry about the "killer combos" of training certain skills and making the uber-character shouldn't worry: There should be a couple hundred skill lines/trees that can be developed, and a rock-paper-scissors mentality taken to ensure that every ability has a counter-ability of some sort.
Ah, well, regardless, this isn't exactly the forum for a long-winded diatribe on why games become boring to play and what it is that makes us excited to play them.
If the game has a design where you get tasks to kill creatures, but those creatures are only found in linked groups, and you are playing solo... then how do you complete your tasks if you can't stand your ground and pound down three or four creatures? Why, you kite... because that's the tactic that the game rewards.
When they create a game with smart AI (or at least reasonably clever) and have a combat system that encourages tactics instead of kiting, then I'll agree with you. Until then your opinion should be applied to the architects of the game that designed such poor combat mechanics, not the people who play the game looking for enjoyment and are forced into certain tactics in order to complete simple missions.
About two years ago I played SWG for about three months. This is after having spent a couple years dabbling in DAOC, and wanting to try something that was a change from the fantasy genre. On first blush the game looked and played nicely, but in the end I sold my account and then returned to DAOC half a year later.
As a single player I was able to completely "max out" my character in two months, completely unassisted. At the end I was a Master Engineer, Master Droid Engineer, Master Architect, and just shy of Master Merchant. Granted, I wasn't going to be in combat any time soon... but I wanted a change from the combat grind I'd pursued in DAOC.
Part of the problem is that the trade skills are learned in lieu of combat skills. Most mmorpgs have tradeskills seperated, such that you don't give up the classical "leveling" and combat for being a crafter. I can't say this is bad, but it means that making a character like I did results in absolutely no gameplay after spending all of my development points. Sure, I can make guild halls, craft all kinds of gear, and spend time running to and fro gathering up raw materials from my mining installations and making trades... but that has very little in the way of ongoing excitement. In short, there were several ways to make a character that would have no endgame at all, and couldn't directly contribute to the "empire divided" overarching plot.
Granted, this was my choice. But part of that choice was made after experimenting with the mechanics of the combat system. There were so many things I didn't like about their implementation of combat that I was driven away from that choice. For example, I found that kiting a mob (forgive the parlance) was easier in this game than any other... but there was this odd "feature" about doing so: Killing your target made your character suddenly stop in his tracks and pause for a second before you could start moving again. This would typically result in the BAF'd mobs catching up with you and beating you to a pulp on the spot. I considered it very poor design or coding or logic or whatever... and simply abandoned combat-based characters.
I think that their complete overhaul of SWG is an indication acknowledging that they really didn't know what they were doing in the first couple years of creating and expanding their mmorpg. But, then again, I've got some pretty specific ideas about where I want the mmo genre to head, and I've yet to see anyone who's willing to abandon the old tabletop RPG conventions that have been translated over to CRPGs and move onto something more suited to large, highly-detailed, persistent worlds.
I think that what BillG is referring to coporate/enterprise computing, not small business computing. The big boys went with big [blue] iron. What were the computers used by the banks, telcos, and major manufacturers?
Could someone post the article text, or perhaps another news source with this article, or perhaps post an alternative link that bypasses the NYT registration? I mean, I looked... I really did, but I just couldn't find a way to view that article in all these replies.
P.P.S- Immoral behavior? Guess what- there is no wrong and no right. There's only pleasure and pain.
If there is no right and wrong, then your statement cannot be right. You have stated a paradox that is at odds with human sentience. In a world where there is no cognizance, your statement is correct since it is null.
However, in a world in which a sentient mind evaluates, there must be right and wrong, or there is no way to evaluate.
It's a nice theory, as it justifies anything, but it fails if you bother to think about it.
I agree, I should have read the article first. However, this does not invalidate the fact that this is a project that a lot of time, money, and effort is being put into. As such, we can be reasonably sure that the developers of this new plant have already addressed the "how to we plant it in a minefield" problem.
Indeed, just thinking about seeds and spores would lead one to believe that you don't need to run around a minefield with a hoe stuffing seedlings in the ground. The parent of this comment gets the "funny ha-ha" reaction for the simple reason that it's the first thing that pops into your brain. I'd like to think that slashdot culture isn't about the first thing that pops into your brain, but rather the first thing that pops into your brain followed up by a few thoughts about how the problem might be solved.
Ah, yes... the brainpower of geekus maximus shows that it needs to get out of the house a little more often. You see, plants produce these little things called "seeds" which are actually baby plants in hibernation. These "seeds" typically germinate when sitting in suitable soil... it all depends upon the plant itself, of course: a scrub grass or low-lying shrub will grow in pretty harsh places.
Anyhow, I hope you can see where this is leading. Plants tend to reproduce on their own without the need for human intervention. Of course, if you really wanted these plants to grow in a location, you could always try something innovative like flying overhead and sprinkling a mixtures of seed and fertilizer on the patch of land in question. It may take several years for the plant to get established and spread, but, well, I don't think anyone would complain about turning this particular patch of land over to these weeds for a time, as it's a bit tricky to use it for anything with all those mines in it anyhow.
Honestly, at least half a dozen people have posted "How are they going to plant it?!?" without ever bothering to stop and think for a second. What is this, Fark.com?
With regards to the original question: Yes, poles are arbitrary. For example, if the dominant civilization that spawned our culture were to have arisen in Australia, we'd have drawn all of our maps flipped 180 degrees since the southern cross would be "up" (and thus be north) since it's the primary point of navigation.
So, the decision to drawn the globe of Earth with the north pole at the top is an arbitrary decision. It would be just as accurate to draw the globe with the south pole at the top. It is simply tradition that tells us north is "up."
Imagine if the Earth had an axis of rotation similar to Uranus, where it rotates on it's "side" compared to the planar axis of the solar system. What would our ancestors have used as "up" when there is no star in the sky that stays relatively stationary with compared to rotation? (I'm assuming that Uranus doesn't orbit with one pole continually towards the sun, but I could be wrong.)
These sorts of arbitrary definitions work the same as any other definition: Get into widest use possible the quickest, and that'll typically become the accepted standard. Isn't that what most of these patents are all about... getting your standard widely used and then charging for it?
(Newton should have patented his algorithms. Not only would have have made a mint, I would probably not have had to learn calculus due to the university not wanting to pay the licensing fees!)
You can contribute to propogating a bittorrent without monopolizing your ISPs bandwidth. Simply limit outbound bittorrent traffic to a lesser amount and get the IPS off your back without having to abandon your civic-bittorrent-duty.
There is a middle ground here, you know. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
... and set up a shaper on your ISP link that slows down your outbound BitTorrent traffic. Me, I use a SmoothWall box with a regular old Wondershaper script. Keeps my DMZ traffic in line (so it doesn't choke my isp link) and works well enough for a system that you don't have to twiddle the knobs on too much.
(Yes, I read the docs for tc, and I'd love to have an HTB shaper instead of the standard qdisc one I use, but I'm too busy to spend that much time for the small advantages a truly custom firewall box would offer.)
Slashdot Mirror
You know... I might have to re-read this book soon.
Waaay down upon da su-wahneee ribberrrrr...
There are two licensing models for Vista Business Edition (and presumably some of the other versions, or perhaps all, use these same two models.)
First is MAK (Multiple Activation Key): This key will activate Microsoft Windows Vista through the internet or telephone, and has a limited number of activations associated with it. Computers can be activated on an individual basis or by a central computer which can activate multiple computer at a time.
Secondly is running a KMS: Your organization can host the Key Management Service (KMS) internally to automatically activate computers running Windows Vista. To use the KMS, you must have a minimum of 25 computers running Vista that are connected together. Computer that have been activated through KMS will be required to reactivate by connecting to your org's network at least every six months. Currently the KMS runs on a Vista machine, or on a "Longhorn" server, with plans to release a Server 2003 KMS soon.
This is paraphrased from the offical release docs I have for a major federal department.
I know two people who work for MS, both are part of the MSN shopping channel and primarily are writers. One is an MS employee, and seems to work standard hours with fairly standard levels of stress and workload. The other is a contractor (Volt) and, incidentally, is the woman I'm going to marry. She works from home and spends far more time working on columns and product picks that is justified by the amount they pay her, but she likes the work and enjoys working with the product coordinators and vendors. Neither of them are whipped on the wheel of drudgery, but then again they are not programmers in one of the big application teams.
Microsoft's campuses are evidently quite beautiful and there is an employee shuttle service that gives rides hither and yon. The food is also evidently quite good, as my girl has examined the menus quite frequently with an eye towards their 39-cent gourmet salads. She sometimes rails about the silly things, like how she hates their RAS setup, and that she is continually frustrated by OWA kicking her out of corporate email if she doesn't refresh the window every five minutes, but these are just functional niggles. The other fellow works at Red West, I believe, and has an office window that he always keeps the blinds shut on, "or I just won't get any work done" he says.
Microsoft is a huge company, that's for sure... but it's not the kind of corporate suit-and-tie stuffiness that you get on the east coast. When my girl was visiting the campus to get her smart card set up she noted that a lot of guys were very casual in dress, and that cargo shorts were in great abundance. (She also noted that a lot of guys sported beards in various stages of repair.)
All anecdotal hearsay... but take it for what you will.
Who is going to provide the guards for these condensers, because you know that the local warlords and privileged will abscond with them as another source of wealth and power. There's more than just buying the equipment, there is maintenance and policing, just to name the obvious manpower needs.
The redundant fibre paths in a SAN has less to do with lasers failing all the time (which they don't... they're about as reliable as the rest of the electronics) than it has to do with thumb-fingered humans bumping cables in the back of the racks. Plus, you typically need two fibre switches for redundancy since they rarely (I've never seen one) have daul power supplies, and a simple power outage is a much more common event than a hardware failure.
Typically you'll have dual power feeds from two separate UPS, cluster nodes with dual power supplies (one per UPS feed), SAN shelves and controllers with dual power supplies, and then dual fibre switches with redundant cabling and HBAs.
The fact that a lot of HBAs have removable GBICs is because of modularity, not because the GBICs fail all the time.
Ah, but not quite as annoying as "two mis-punched characters in this fifty-foot paper tape" where you have to use the reader/punch/printer to get to *just* before the error, then stop the feed, lift the bail and move the tape past the error, then set the bail back down and continue.
And it's cheating to stop a *few* characters before the error and type in the characters up to and through the error by hand. Flipping the feed lever spastically to get only one character at a time as you approach the error is part of the challenge!
I work for a mid-sized university, whose primary finance/management package is SCT Banner. The back-end database is hosted on an 8-way Compaq Galaxy System (GS-80) cluster (running VMS... don't ask.) Yes, the licensing costs for Oracle alone approach half a million per year.
That being said, license costs are not the most expensive part of the equation. The developers and DBAs that support these systems are more expensive than the systems themselves.
Yes, software can be pricey, but developers and administrators are even more pricey. I won't say that Oracle is worth every cent, but I will say that the developers and DBAs who are extremely competent with Oracle *are* worth every cent. I've ceased to be surprised how many "large scale critical systems" are so much duct tape and bailing wire to hold them together... and it's the people who support these systems that keep them from imploding messily every quarter.
My first self-bought computer (circa fall of 1990):
/w 256K (I think)
386SX-16Mhz
4MB (everyone else that I knew has 1, maybe 2MB... totally jealous)
VGA card
40MB hard drive
BOTH a 5.25 and a 3.5 floppy.
14" color vga monitor
DOS 5.0
Original Soundblaster PLUS the add-on CMS chips for synthesized music
Dual serial and single parallel card
Dropped about $2300 on it.
Anyone remember shopping around for SOCKETED serial ISA cards, so you could pull off the crappy UARTs and put on the 16550s?
Actually, I prefer:
"Hardware Error. There is a nut loose on the keyboard."
I would like to hear a take on where you think they should be going with the next gen of the MMORPG. It would take a long, arduous discussion in order to express the full extent of what I'd like to see, but in the short term I'd like: Completely hidden algorithms and game mechanics. I never want to see actual numbers in a game. As soon as the numbers are exposed and the formulas discovered, the game turns into a number maximization exercise and all pretenses of actual role-play, adventure, or mystery are gone. I don't want to see "-78 HP" above the head of the creature when I bop it over the head with my club. I want visual feedback that indicates my success without using numbers. Abandoning the "class" model. Think about yourself... what "class" are you? Can you think of any person where they have a defining "class" or "profession" that rigidly constrains what they can learn, practice, or do? SWG tried to forgo classes, but it looks like they are going back to them now. TES:Morrowind has a skill-driven system that is, likewise, an attempt at an alternative, but still fall short because all characters can develop all skills. I would prefer a system where you can specialize or generalize or anywhere in between, and the combinations of skills and abilities you develop are up to you without any constraints of class. A character could call himself a magician because he has trained primarily in magician skills, rather than choosing magician and thus being forces to only train in magical skills. The abandonment of levels. In the same vein as the "class" question above, what level are you? Rather than having the level model, as classically created by D&D, I would prefer the development of a character to be skill and ability driven, including physical, mental, and ability development tied to improving those skills through use (similar, but not exactly like TES games) rather than simply accumulating XP, leveling up, and then arbitrarily spending points on whatever skill you like. Why can I train up stealth when I've not tried hiding from anyone for the last five levels? This is just for starters. The actual mechanics of the system should be quite complex, and highly interrelated. Those that worry about the "killer combos" of training certain skills and making the uber-character shouldn't worry: There should be a couple hundred skill lines/trees that can be developed, and a rock-paper-scissors mentality taken to ensure that every ability has a counter-ability of some sort. Ah, well, regardless, this isn't exactly the forum for a long-winded diatribe on why games become boring to play and what it is that makes us excited to play them.
If the game has a design where you get tasks to kill creatures, but those creatures are only found in linked groups, and you are playing solo... then how do you complete your tasks if you can't stand your ground and pound down three or four creatures? Why, you kite... because that's the tactic that the game rewards.
When they create a game with smart AI (or at least reasonably clever) and have a combat system that encourages tactics instead of kiting, then I'll agree with you. Until then your opinion should be applied to the architects of the game that designed such poor combat mechanics, not the people who play the game looking for enjoyment and are forced into certain tactics in order to complete simple missions.
About two years ago I played SWG for about three months. This is after having spent a couple years dabbling in DAOC, and wanting to try something that was a change from the fantasy genre. On first blush the game looked and played nicely, but in the end I sold my account and then returned to DAOC half a year later.
As a single player I was able to completely "max out" my character in two months, completely unassisted. At the end I was a Master Engineer, Master Droid Engineer, Master Architect, and just shy of Master Merchant. Granted, I wasn't going to be in combat any time soon... but I wanted a change from the combat grind I'd pursued in DAOC.
Part of the problem is that the trade skills are learned in lieu of combat skills. Most mmorpgs have tradeskills seperated, such that you don't give up the classical "leveling" and combat for being a crafter. I can't say this is bad, but it means that making a character like I did results in absolutely no gameplay after spending all of my development points. Sure, I can make guild halls, craft all kinds of gear, and spend time running to and fro gathering up raw materials from my mining installations and making trades... but that has very little in the way of ongoing excitement. In short, there were several ways to make a character that would have no endgame at all, and couldn't directly contribute to the "empire divided" overarching plot.
Granted, this was my choice. But part of that choice was made after experimenting with the mechanics of the combat system. There were so many things I didn't like about their implementation of combat that I was driven away from that choice. For example, I found that kiting a mob (forgive the parlance) was easier in this game than any other... but there was this odd "feature" about doing so: Killing your target made your character suddenly stop in his tracks and pause for a second before you could start moving again. This would typically result in the BAF'd mobs catching up with you and beating you to a pulp on the spot. I considered it very poor design or coding or logic or whatever... and simply abandoned combat-based characters.
I think that their complete overhaul of SWG is an indication acknowledging that they really didn't know what they were doing in the first couple years of creating and expanding their mmorpg. But, then again, I've got some pretty specific ideas about where I want the mmo genre to head, and I've yet to see anyone who's willing to abandon the old tabletop RPG conventions that have been translated over to CRPGs and move onto something more suited to large, highly-detailed, persistent worlds.
But that is material for a long, long discussion.
Does the fact that gravity (wave or whatever) exceeds the speed of light pose a problem?
h tml
http://www.ldolphin.org/vanFlandern/gravityspeed.
I think that what BillG is referring to coporate/enterprise computing, not small business computing. The big boys went with big [blue] iron. What were the computers used by the banks, telcos, and major manufacturers?
Could someone post the article text, or perhaps another news source with this article, or perhaps post an alternative link that bypasses the NYT registration? I mean, I looked... I really did, but I just couldn't find a way to view that article in all these replies.
Seriously.
P.P.S- Immoral behavior? Guess what- there is no wrong and no right. There's only pleasure and pain.
If there is no right and wrong, then your statement cannot be right. You have stated a paradox that is at odds with human sentience. In a world where there is no cognizance, your statement is correct since it is null.
However, in a world in which a sentient mind evaluates, there must be right and wrong, or there is no way to evaluate.
It's a nice theory, as it justifies anything, but it fails if you bother to think about it.
Well, in addition to Brother Bear they brought us Country Bears .
Methinks there's a Disney VP that has a thing for furries or something.
When I read the story, Arthur was black and Ford was chinese. How dare they change the characters all around!
(And what's with them removing the Dutch accent that all the Orcs had in LotR? Everyone knows that's how they talked!)
I agree, I should have read the article first. However, this does not invalidate the fact that this is a project that a lot of time, money, and effort is being put into. As such, we can be reasonably sure that the developers of this new plant have already addressed the "how to we plant it in a minefield" problem.
Indeed, just thinking about seeds and spores would lead one to believe that you don't need to run around a minefield with a hoe stuffing seedlings in the ground. The parent of this comment gets the "funny ha-ha" reaction for the simple reason that it's the first thing that pops into your brain. I'd like to think that slashdot culture isn't about the first thing that pops into your brain, but rather the first thing that pops into your brain followed up by a few thoughts about how the problem might be solved.
Who's going to volunteer to plant them?
Ah, yes... the brainpower of geekus maximus shows that it needs to get out of the house a little more often. You see, plants produce these little things called "seeds" which are actually baby plants in hibernation. These "seeds" typically germinate when sitting in suitable soil... it all depends upon the plant itself, of course: a scrub grass or low-lying shrub will grow in pretty harsh places.
Anyhow, I hope you can see where this is leading. Plants tend to reproduce on their own without the need for human intervention. Of course, if you really wanted these plants to grow in a location, you could always try something innovative like flying overhead and sprinkling a mixtures of seed and fertilizer on the patch of land in question. It may take several years for the plant to get established and spread, but, well, I don't think anyone would complain about turning this particular patch of land over to these weeds for a time, as it's a bit tricky to use it for anything with all those mines in it anyhow.
Honestly, at least half a dozen people have posted "How are they going to plant it?!?" without ever bothering to stop and think for a second. What is this, Fark.com?
With regards to the original question: Yes, poles are arbitrary. For example, if the dominant civilization that spawned our culture were to have arisen in Australia, we'd have drawn all of our maps flipped 180 degrees since the southern cross would be "up" (and thus be north) since it's the primary point of navigation.
So, the decision to drawn the globe of Earth with the north pole at the top is an arbitrary decision. It would be just as accurate to draw the globe with the south pole at the top. It is simply tradition that tells us north is "up."
Imagine if the Earth had an axis of rotation similar to Uranus, where it rotates on it's "side" compared to the planar axis of the solar system. What would our ancestors have used as "up" when there is no star in the sky that stays relatively stationary with compared to rotation? (I'm assuming that Uranus doesn't orbit with one pole continually towards the sun, but I could be wrong.)
These sorts of arbitrary definitions work the same as any other definition: Get into widest use possible the quickest, and that'll typically become the accepted standard. Isn't that what most of these patents are all about... getting your standard widely used and then charging for it?
(Newton should have patented his algorithms. Not only would have have made a mint, I would probably not have had to learn calculus due to the university not wanting to pay the licensing fees!)
You can contribute to propogating a bittorrent without monopolizing your ISPs bandwidth. Simply limit outbound bittorrent traffic to a lesser amount and get the IPS off your back without having to abandon your civic-bittorrent-duty.
There is a middle ground here, you know. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
(Yes, I read the docs for tc, and I'd love to have an HTB shaper instead of the standard qdisc one I use, but I'm too busy to spend that much time for the small advantages a truly custom firewall box would offer.)
Sooo... how old does a shapechanger look? How can you tell?