but technology cooperation is probably a bad idea unless it is tested more thoroughly than in the ISS. That's exactly what they're doing. That's the point of the ISS. Or rather one of the points.
The only way you can test is by doing. They're running the very test you're asking for.
FTA:
It is dismaying that after decades of experience with manned space stations, Russian space engineers still couldn't keep unwanted condensation at bay. But what's worse is that they designed circuitry that would allow one spot of corrosion to fell a supposedly triply redundant control computer complex. I find it more dismaying that an otherwise seemingly adult and mature article writer feels such an urge to childishly emphasize blame. What is it with this childish American and Russian jingoism? If blame is so important, can't you people at least blame the engineers and not the nationality?
Here in Sweden, for things like your table we use decimeters. A dm feels nicely human-scale because it's very roughly the width of a hand (with or without thumb depending on the hand). Your table would be 18 by 9 dm.
Strangely, lots of metric countries don't use the dm. I really can't see why. With mm, cm, dm and meters you've got very practical units for all sizes from small to big, and your choice of unit conveys a clear message about precision. You give a table's size in dm for rough size, in cm for greater precision, and in mm to convey the fact that you're giving the table's exact size.
And, btw, your "cm" is not an approved SI unit. SI goes by thousands not tens. In Sweden we use deciliters for recipes. Very practical, it's like a rather small coffee cup.
We even use a special kind of "mile" which is ten kilometers. Very handy for distances between cities.
From my Swedish standpoint I'd say the proper way to use metric units in everyday usage is to use what's practical. The SI is about science and technology. Let them stay in those fields. For everyday usage, use what's practical in everyday usage. But keep it firmly based on SI units, for convenient, easy conversion.
It's not even conversion. For me 18 dm and 180 cm mean the same size, only the precision is different.
I bet metric units would be more popular in the US and the UK if they were used with nicely practical units like dm and dl, rather than sticking too much to what the SI says, which is intended for science and should stay in science.
Ah, and by the way, I had no intention of trolling. It was just a joke with a glint in the eye. Occasionally after posting a joke I notice that my tone didn't come out quite as friendly as it was intended. A risky business, joking.
Just like going from 0 to 60 in a car in a mile or so For modern people using modern measurement units that's just below 100 km/h.
going from 60 to 0 in two feet, by hitting a brick wall Those two so-called "feet" are actually 60 cm.
Sheesh, I can't believe we're already well into the Internet age and still people keep insisting on using those antiquated units. "Feet". Why not "toes" and "noses"?
Just make sure you have health insurance before you sink your electric drill into your temple. Are you sure opening your brain chassis won't void your warranty?
Back then I never really considered that we'd still be here a decade later and actually CARE about them;) One thing I've been wondering for quite a while: Accumulating such a lot of discussion for ten years, how big has the database become? Is it gargantuan? Or is it something that a single modern hard disk can swallow with ease?
We'd totally love that. If you'd serious about trying, If you write the same thing in a direct reply to Lord Apathy's comment 20813271, with luck maybe in his user settings he has e-mail notification enabled so that he notices your post, and with some more luck maybe he'll be willing to look through his old disks.
Database breaks upon reaching 2**31-1. Site goes back online without threading for a few days. 2**24-1. We have reached far, but not billions.
And I seem to recall that it was repaired in a matter of hours.
One thing amazed me. When that error had just appeared I shot them an e-mail suggesting that it looked like a 2**24 limit problem, just in case they hadn't noticed and found it useful. And to my amazement CmdrTaco found time to reply. His reply was very short, something like "We're looking into it", but I was amazed that he actually took the time to write me an answer in the middle of the crisis, when surely anyone would accept that he was too busy. And his reply arrived just a few minutes after I sent my message.
It's not like he knows me or anything. I'm only yet another slashdotter.
Myself, I'm never polite enough to answer that fast, so I was impressed.
The screen is only 11 inches. It's tiny! It's tinier than the old, old 14-inch computer screens!
The box below is like half the size of an ordinary keyboard, or something like that.
How they plan to charge $1,740 for 11 inches is beyond me. I know Japanese people like things small and dainty, and need small stuff for small apartments, but aren't they exaggerating here?
I'm not sure any procedure is necessary. Here in Sweden we cast our votes by giving three closed envelopes to a poll worker, one each for Parliament, region and local election. The poll worker checks a small slit in the side of each envelope where he can make sure that there is a single paper slip in each envelope, one envelope with a blue slip, one with a yellow and one with a white slip. He calls out the colors aloud to a second poll worker who marks each of the three in a list of voters. While calling them out he places them on three poll boxes, one of each color. After the second worker has confirmed, he shoves them in the slits of the three boxes.
Thus even though the poll workers have no way of seeing whom you vote for, they can check that you give exactly one slip in each election.
Thus at least with this procedure there is no need for any special procedure for spoiled ballots. Every voter can have any number of slips, it doesn't matter, because you can't deliver more than one when you vote.
Indeed it has nothing to do with tenses, I should have said mixture of past and future.
And you got modded up informative? Of course I got modded up informative. I'm the only one so far informing people about how this is related to recent developments in time machine research.
Sometimes I get the impression that moderators are joking by giving surprising mods.
Having both electronic and manual count is very valuable as a double check. If there are errors, it's highly unlikely that both methods will give the same errors.
There's one detail where it seems I disagree with you. Where you say "they return the printout as a spoiled ballot" I get the impression that you mean that they give the spoiled ballot to some poll worker. But if that's what you mean, then that would break voting secrecy. Instead you just tear it apart and put it in a wastebasket inside the voting booth. It's best if this wastebasket is a locked box with a slit, so that nobody can see the interior. At the end of the day nobody knows who threw away what.
an abnormally strong five millisecond burst to be detected six years ago You know that research into time machines is finally making progress when you get to read combinations of past and future tense like in this report about an event that is to be detected six years ago.
What if it wasn't the Republicans or Democrats doing the rigging, but rather, the government of Russia or China? What would we call it then? And why should we treat it any differently when the attack comes from within? Mod parent up! Really insightful!
You could easily claim you'd lost the bit of paper "We did warn you that your job was on the line, and still you lost the paper? Of course you're fired, what did you expect?"
More on the importance of secrecy in my comment here.
If the system is lying, then paper votes are just as bad. How do you know someone didn't take your paper out of the box after you put it in there? How do you know [...] At most polling places you should find several observers who are simply standing there and watching what happens. They are observers from several interested political parties. They keep observing the entire process until the votes have been counted and reported. It is in each one's interest to react to any fraud that is unfavorable to his or her party.
Especially in a country with many influential parties, a large proportion among these observers are more interested in a change in power than in preserving the status quo. In this way they guarantee that the polling and counting process will be very carefully observed.
Put a big button for "I want a receipt". If you want to stay employed at our company you'd better push that button.
The secrecy of your vote is a basic tenet of democracy. When international observers check on the voting process of a country, this secrecy is one of the absolute requirements. If it's not carefully observed, the observers will inevitably declare that the election did not conform to the basic requirements of free and open elections.
That's because when this secrecy is not carefully observed, this fact is invariably abused all over the place. Always. This is no paranoia, it's an observable fact.
Thus, if your country were to abstain from this secrecy, the rest of the world would no longer consider you a real democracy.
This would break vote secrecy. A thug, employer, vote buyer, oppressive husband, etc, etc, etc, could force you to show your code and then check how you voted, and thus coerce you to vote the way they want, or else you lose your job, get beaten, etc.
And how would it be useful? When afterward you go to that website and check your vote, if it's shown with incorrect selections, how do you prove that it's wrong?
And even if you could somehow prove that it's wrong, how can you use this information? How do you get the error corrected? What can you do about it?
An even if it is shown correctly on the website, how does that prove that your vote was counted correctly? Maybe the system is tricking you, by deliberately showing you exactly the selections that you made, while at the same time showing the rest of the system completely different selections.
Slashdot Mirror
The only way you can test is by doing. They're running the very test you're asking for.
Isn't gold a much better conductor? I thought gold wires could be so much thinner that they'd be lighter.
It's a joke. You're supposed to laugh or smile. The joke alludes to this.
Microsoft astroturfers can get mod points just like everybody else. Don't give much importance to mod points, that way you'll feel much better.
Mod parent funny!
Strangely, lots of metric countries don't use the dm. I really can't see why. With mm, cm, dm and meters you've got very practical units for all sizes from small to big, and your choice of unit conveys a clear message about precision. You give a table's size in dm for rough size, in cm for greater precision, and in mm to convey the fact that you're giving the table's exact size. And, btw, your "cm" is not an approved SI unit. SI goes by thousands not tens. In Sweden we use deciliters for recipes. Very practical, it's like a rather small coffee cup.
We even use a special kind of "mile" which is ten kilometers. Very handy for distances between cities.
From my Swedish standpoint I'd say the proper way to use metric units in everyday usage is to use what's practical. The SI is about science and technology. Let them stay in those fields. For everyday usage, use what's practical in everyday usage. But keep it firmly based on SI units, for convenient, easy conversion.
It's not even conversion. For me 18 dm and 180 cm mean the same size, only the precision is different.
I bet metric units would be more popular in the US and the UK if they were used with nicely practical units like dm and dl, rather than sticking too much to what the SI says, which is intended for science and should stay in science.
Ah, and by the way, I had no intention of trolling. It was just a joke with a glint in the eye. Occasionally after posting a joke I notice that my tone didn't come out quite as friendly as it was intended. A risky business, joking.
Sheesh, I can't believe we're already well into the Internet age and still people keep insisting on using those antiquated units. "Feet". Why not "toes" and "noses"?
And I seem to recall that it was repaired in a matter of hours.
One thing amazed me. When that error had just appeared I shot them an e-mail suggesting that it looked like a 2**24 limit problem, just in case they hadn't noticed and found it useful. And to my amazement CmdrTaco found time to reply. His reply was very short, something like "We're looking into it", but I was amazed that he actually took the time to write me an answer in the middle of the crisis, when surely anyone would accept that he was too busy. And his reply arrived just a few minutes after I sent my message.
It's not like he knows me or anything. I'm only yet another slashdotter.
Myself, I'm never polite enough to answer that fast, so I was impressed.
The screen is only 11 inches. It's tiny! It's tinier than the old, old 14-inch computer screens!
The box below is like half the size of an ordinary keyboard, or something like that.
How they plan to charge $1,740 for 11 inches is beyond me. I know Japanese people like things small and dainty, and need small stuff for small apartments, but aren't they exaggerating here?
This is yet another proof that Linux is ready for the desktop!
I'm not sure any procedure is necessary. Here in Sweden we cast our votes by giving three closed envelopes to a poll worker, one each for Parliament, region and local election. The poll worker checks a small slit in the side of each envelope where he can make sure that there is a single paper slip in each envelope, one envelope with a blue slip, one with a yellow and one with a white slip. He calls out the colors aloud to a second poll worker who marks each of the three in a list of voters. While calling them out he places them on three poll boxes, one of each color. After the second worker has confirmed, he shoves them in the slits of the three boxes.
Thus even though the poll workers have no way of seeing whom you vote for, they can check that you give exactly one slip in each election.
Thus at least with this procedure there is no need for any special procedure for spoiled ballots. Every voter can have any number of slips, it doesn't matter, because you can't deliver more than one when you vote.
Sometimes I get the impression that moderators are joking by giving surprising mods.
Exactly! That's exactly how it should work!
Having both electronic and manual count is very valuable as a double check. If there are errors, it's highly unlikely that both methods will give the same errors.
There's one detail where it seems I disagree with you. Where you say "they return the printout as a spoiled ballot" I get the impression that you mean that they give the spoiled ballot to some poll worker. But if that's what you mean, then that would break voting secrecy. Instead you just tear it apart and put it in a wastebasket inside the voting booth. It's best if this wastebasket is a locked box with a slit, so that nobody can see the interior. At the end of the day nobody knows who threw away what.
More on the importance of secrecy in my comment here. If the system is lying, then paper votes are just as bad. How do you know someone didn't take your paper out of the box after you put it in there? How do you know [...] At most polling places you should find several observers who are simply standing there and watching what happens. They are observers from several interested political parties. They keep observing the entire process until the votes have been counted and reported. It is in each one's interest to react to any fraud that is unfavorable to his or her party.
Especially in a country with many influential parties, a large proportion among these observers are more interested in a change in power than in preserving the status quo. In this way they guarantee that the polling and counting process will be very carefully observed.
The secrecy of your vote is a basic tenet of democracy. When international observers check on the voting process of a country, this secrecy is one of the absolute requirements. If it's not carefully observed, the observers will inevitably declare that the election did not conform to the basic requirements of free and open elections.
That's because when this secrecy is not carefully observed, this fact is invariably abused all over the place. Always. This is no paranoia, it's an observable fact.
Thus, if your country were to abstain from this secrecy, the rest of the world would no longer consider you a real democracy.
Really, it's that important.
This would break vote secrecy. A thug, employer, vote buyer, oppressive husband, etc, etc, etc, could force you to show your code and then check how you voted, and thus coerce you to vote the way they want, or else you lose your job, get beaten, etc.
And how would it be useful? When afterward you go to that website and check your vote, if it's shown with incorrect selections, how do you prove that it's wrong?
And even if you could somehow prove that it's wrong, how can you use this information? How do you get the error corrected? What can you do about it?
An even if it is shown correctly on the website, how does that prove that your vote was counted correctly? Maybe the system is tricking you, by deliberately showing you exactly the selections that you made, while at the same time showing the rest of the system completely different selections.
Votes on paper is the only solution.