I think one of the reasons this bill was created was the belief that simulated child pornography would make pedophiles more likely to accept there behavior/not seek help. One might argue that on it's own this behavior is hurting nobody, and there is no reason they should seek help unless they are likely to act on there fantasies. Furthermore, I would question that access to this material alone would make child molestation any more likely to occur - are we going to ban GAP ads and sue the Nabokov descendents next? In any case, I'm not a professional psychologists, and will leave the discussion to those who are more informed.
However, I take issue with you calling child pornography artistic expression. It is monetary exploitation, nothing more.
I think it's a terrific point that C++ is an innapropriate development tool for many projects.
Of course you don't want to (or couldn't) build an application that needs low-level control over a computer. Advanced databases, compilers, messaging software (a la TIBCO), or operating systems would be appropriate uses for C++ (at least IMHO). If a project is too large to use C or ASM, C++ still offers the lower level control and the advantage of OOP.
But if you're programming a business application with extremely complex business logic, java lets you spend more time worrying about the logic than memory management. If you're writing an accounting app for the 3 ladies in HR, then VB/Access will let you whip it up in a day. (Anyone can write a somewhat neat GUI app in VB in 30 minutes. I've not found that to be the case with C++ on any platform). If you parsing 40 GB of web logs for a particular IP, then PERL might be what you're looking for....
And all this is moot if you are a guru in a single language. If you know C++ inside and out, then why bother learning java to write the business app (compatibility, maintainence aside)?
I suppose all I'm saying is that, all else being equal, there are circumstances when c++ is far too much to do a given task, and other language choices are faster to develop and easier to debug. And if you happen to be an expert in one language, it is difficult to make a totally objective assessment of what language choice is best.
I have my suspicions that the actual "Einsteins" among them are often not so difficult to manager, too.
I have a feeling that the guy who wrote a poorly architected PHP/MySQL app for accounting and thinks he's an Einstein could probably be referred to as conceited or delusional.
I would think the obvious application of this device is for much younger children - 4-8 years old. A cel phone is probably not appropriate for a child this young, and they have a tendency to wander off. It might be useful for mentally disable people as well.
You're right, this would be very intrusive and oppressive for a teenager.
I'll buy that - I think it's just the mathematician in me is much more comforted by the words 'instance of an algorithm' or 'implementation of an algorithm' in this case.
You are _precisely_ the "people problem" - the "30 years of anti-newbie, RTFM baggage" in the linux community that the original post mentioned. Your post illustrated his point so beautifully that it was almost artistic.
A friendly hint. Take the following out of your resume:
"1998 - 1999 Windsor Star, Windsor, Canada News Paper Carrier
Collected, sorted, packaged and delivered news papers Monday through Saturday mornings to Windsor Star customers; Flyers on Tuesdays and Sundays; Collected payments from customers weekly;
Summer 1997 Maryvale, Windsor, Canada Gardening, landscaping and maintenance worker Worked with teams and individually to perform gardening, landscaping and maintenance duties including: mowing large areas of grass, trimming hedges, planting and caring for outdoor flowers, indoor and outdoor janitorial duties etc."
But I went to check out indymedia afterwards. I was shocked by how much anti-semetic crap was there - is that normal for the site? I hope my impression is wrong...
"I can (well, almost) hear you asking yourselves "why?". Hurd will be out in a year (or two, or next month, who knows), and I've already got minix. This is a program for hackers by a hacker. I've enjouyed doing it, and somebody might enjoy looking at it and even modifying it for their own needs. It is still small enough to understand, use and modify, and I'm looking forward to any comments you might have."
I have heard Jon M. Kleinberg give a technical talk about the search algorithm (or variant of) that I assume Clever is using while I was at Cornell. Let's not get in a pissing contest about credentials, we both obviously have exposure to this subject.
I simply assumed that Google used a similar algorithm, based on their description of it. Thank you for the link, it was informative.
How do you know this is not how Google creates its search results? What you've described sounds exactly like how Google describes their technology:
"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query."
As has no doubt been mentioned thousands of times across hundreds of Slashdot articles, Java has proven itself in the field. Huge enterprise applications are written in it. I've personally seen it used as middleware between old big iron and web interfaces/secure messaging systems in the health care industry.
It is less likely to have bugs, is less susceptible to security problems like buffer overflows, and is fast enough for most things. The major advange of java (imo) is that you can develop complex, powerful programs at a lower cost (eliminate huge class of bugs that need to be tested) and with less maintainence (only the VM needs to be ported, not applications).
Now someone can feel free to call me and idiot and rattle off the results of dozens of benchmarks proving c/c++ are faster, and how the better programmer who programs c or c++ is not likely to make mistakes the aforementioned mistakes like the newbies who program in java.
It still won't change the fact that there's a whole lot of java code out there doing useful stuff, and has been for years now.
Other times, I grab individual songs I happen to like, from newer artists that haven't put out anything else that I was impressed with. No way I'm going to buy a whole CD just to get one good song unless I absolutely have to. That's not about me ripping off an artist; that's about the artist ripping me off!
No... That's still _you_ ripping _the artist_ off.
The original intent is obvious. It referring to _private_ property, and while you can debate the idea of whether the people who constructed the Constitution would have found this palatable, it's a mute point. It's like arguing if all of the greatest Red Sox of all time could beat all of the greatest Yankees.
The US isn't supposed to assasinate foreign leaders because of Executive Order 11905, courtesy of Gerald Ford in 1976 (http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo11905.htm).
Cameras monitering public places is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution.
The closest they come to dealing with this subject is in the 4th amendment, which does not restrict monitering public areas but rather private property:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
(http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constit ut ion.overview.html)
So what I'm saying is, while both are patently objectionable, and perhaps should be illegal, neither is unconstitutional.
And it isn't every year that a fantasy/sci-fi movie gets nominated for so many academy awards. What's so different about this story and the numerous stories about FF: The Spirits Within, The Matrix, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, and so on...?
Sure, I'd rather have another one of the "Hi, my boss wants me to find a functional, object oriented language with dynamic-binding-error-handling-bounds-checking. Can you recommend one?" or another clarification of the ongoing de Icaza vs Stallman soap opera-that-isn't... but this will have to do, i suppose.
2. Lord of the Rings has been nominated for 13 academy awards, tied for 2nd all time. Not only is it a movie, but a series of novels that's just a bit popular with the computer crowd.
Slashdot Mirror
I think one of the reasons this bill was created was the belief that simulated child pornography would make pedophiles more likely to accept there behavior/not seek help. One might argue that on it's own this behavior is hurting nobody, and there is no reason they should seek help unless they are likely to act on there fantasies. Furthermore, I would question that access to this material alone would make child molestation any more likely to occur - are we going to ban GAP ads and sue the Nabokov descendents next? In any case, I'm not a professional psychologists, and will leave the discussion to those who are more informed.
However, I take issue with you calling child pornography artistic expression. It is monetary exploitation, nothing more.
both your first post and this second post are among the most lucid and thoughtful posts i've read here. nicely done...
I think it's a terrific point that C++ is an innapropriate development tool for many projects.
Of course you don't want to (or couldn't) build an application that needs low-level control over a computer. Advanced databases, compilers, messaging software (a la TIBCO), or operating systems would be appropriate uses for C++ (at least IMHO). If a project is too large to use C or ASM, C++ still offers the lower level control and the advantage of OOP.
But if you're programming a business application with extremely complex business logic, java lets you spend more time worrying about the logic than memory management. If you're writing an accounting app for the 3 ladies in HR, then VB/Access will let you whip it up in a day. (Anyone can write a somewhat neat GUI app in VB in 30 minutes. I've not found that to be the case with C++ on any platform). If you parsing 40 GB of web logs for a particular IP, then PERL might be what you're looking for....
And all this is moot if you are a guru in a single language. If you know C++ inside and out, then why bother learning java to write the business app (compatibility, maintainence aside)?
I suppose all I'm saying is that, all else being equal, there are circumstances when c++ is far too much to do a given task, and other language choices are faster to develop and easier to debug. And if you happen to be an expert in one language, it is difficult to make a totally objective assessment of what language choice is best.
I have my suspicions that the actual "Einsteins" among them are often not so difficult to manager, too.
I have a feeling that the guy who wrote a poorly architected PHP/MySQL app for accounting and thinks he's an Einstein could probably be referred to as conceited or delusional.
I would think the obvious application of this device is for much younger children - 4-8 years old. A cel phone is probably not appropriate for a child this young, and they have a tendency to wander off. It might be useful for mentally disable people as well.
You're right, this would be very intrusive and oppressive for a teenager.
I'll buy that - I think it's just the mathematician in me is much more comforted by the words 'instance of an algorithm' or 'implementation of an algorithm' in this case.
You are _precisely_ the "people problem" - the "30 years of anti-newbie, RTFM baggage" in the linux community that the original post mentioned. Your post illustrated his point so beautifully that it was almost artistic.
That's not really an algorithm...
A friendly hint. Take the following out of your resume:
"1998 - 1999 Windsor Star, Windsor, Canada
News Paper Carrier
Collected, sorted, packaged and delivered news papers Monday through Saturday mornings to Windsor Star customers; Flyers on Tuesdays and Sundays; Collected payments from customers weekly;
Summer 1997 Maryvale, Windsor, Canada
Gardening, landscaping and maintenance worker
Worked with teams and individually to perform gardening, landscaping and maintenance duties including: mowing large areas of grass, trimming hedges, planting and caring for outdoor flowers, indoor and outdoor janitorial duties etc."
Unfortunately, I am in fact the arbiter of all that's tasteful. And in my professional and personal opinion in that capacity, that story was boring.
Furthermore, your post if boring, too.
Frankly, that doesn't sound interesting at all.
That was pretty funny..
But I went to check out indymedia afterwards. I was shocked by how much anti-semetic crap was there - is that normal for the site? I hope my impression is wrong...
"I can (well, almost) hear you asking yourselves "why?". Hurd will be out in a year (or two, or next month, who knows), and I've already got minix. This is a program for hackers by a hacker. I've enjouyed doing it, and somebody might enjoy looking at it and even modifying it for their own needs. It is still small enough to understand, use and modify, and I'm looking forward to any comments you might have."
:)
0 54 106.4647%40klaava.Helsinki.FI)
This was in 1991
(http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1991Oct5.
I have heard Jon M. Kleinberg give a technical talk about the search algorithm (or variant of) that I assume Clever is using while I was at Cornell. Let's not get in a pissing contest about credentials, we both obviously have exposure to this subject.
I simply assumed that Google used a similar algorithm, based on their description of it. Thank you for the link, it was informative.
How do you know this is not how Google creates its search results? What you've described sounds exactly like how Google describes their technology:
"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query."
http://google.com/technology/index.html
As has no doubt been mentioned thousands of times across hundreds of Slashdot articles, Java has proven itself in the field. Huge enterprise applications are written in it. I've personally seen it used as middleware between old big iron and web interfaces/secure messaging systems in the health care industry.
It is less likely to have bugs, is less susceptible to security problems like buffer overflows, and is fast enough for most things. The major advange of java (imo) is that you can develop complex, powerful programs at a lower cost (eliminate huge class of bugs that need to be tested) and with less maintainence (only the VM needs to be ported, not applications).
Now someone can feel free to call me and idiot and rattle off the results of dozens of benchmarks proving c/c++ are faster, and how the better programmer who programs c or c++ is not likely to make mistakes the aforementioned mistakes like the newbies who program in java.
It still won't change the fact that there's a whole lot of java code out there doing useful stuff, and has been for years now.
Other times, I grab individual songs I happen to like, from newer artists that haven't put out anything else that I was impressed with. No way I'm going to buy a whole CD just to get one good song unless I absolutely have to. That's not about me ripping off an artist; that's about the artist ripping me off!
No... That's still _you_ ripping _the artist_ off.
Since I'm too cheap for a card...
The original intent is obvious. It referring to _private_ property, and while you can debate the idea of whether the people who constructed the Constitution would have found this palatable, it's a mute point. It's like arguing if all of the greatest Red Sox of all time could beat all of the greatest Yankees.
How exactly is this 'patently unconstitutional'?
t ut ion.overview.html)
The US isn't supposed to assasinate foreign leaders because of Executive Order 11905, courtesy of Gerald Ford in 1976 (http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo11905.htm).
Cameras monitering public places is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution.
The closest they come to dealing with this subject is in the 4th amendment, which does not restrict monitering public areas but rather private property:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
(http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/consti
So what I'm saying is, while both are patently objectionable, and perhaps should be illegal, neither is unconstitutional.
Okay, I was needlessly belligerent..
But admit it, you were wrong on the Google thing.
And it isn't every year that a fantasy/sci-fi movie gets nominated for so many academy awards. What's so different about this story and the numerous stories about FF: The Spirits Within, The Matrix, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, and so on...?
Sure, I'd rather have another one of the "Hi, my boss wants me to find a functional, object oriented language with dynamic-binding-error-handling-bounds-checking. Can you recommend one?" or another clarification of the ongoing de Icaza vs Stallman soap opera-that-isn't... but this will have to do, i suppose.
Anyway, no offense was intended.
Okay:
1. Slashdot discusses new search appliance
2. Lord of the Rings has been nominated for 13 academy awards, tied for 2nd all time. Not only is it a movie, but a series of novels that's just a bit popular with the computer crowd.
The worlds worst pickup lines are actually:
"The human body is 90% water... and you're making me thirsty"
and
"If you were a sandwich at mcdonalds, it'd be called the "mcbeautiful""
The only thing that it would cause is people demanding that MS make Word more secure. Word is like Herpes or fruit flies, it'll never go away.
true, but i really don't think he was referring to programs and email. More like reports, projections, status reports, blah...