Although I'm positive someone has come up with this idea before, it has struck me as somewhat novel. How about credit card companies implement some sort of authorization system for cardholders that wish to have it. Debit cards have this now to some extent, seeing how you have to enter a pin number to validate the purchase, but I see one step further that before a transaction is processed, you will have to verify the actual amount as well.
This wouldn't have to be mandatory and customers that wished to opt out of it should have every right to do so. But it would be remarkably easy with e-commerce. Any time a purchase is made, the user would be taken to a website owned by the credit-card company and the customer would enter in an authorization code if the dollar amount matches. After that point, the merchant would be able to charge ONLY that amount and no more, and no subsequent charges would be permitted unless previously authorized by the customer.
This would also make a moot point of someone stealing your credit card number. It would be useless to them. Its slightly less convienent, but much more secure.
I still find it rather odd that you can buy one in the store without the service, but you are forced to get the service bundled when you order it online. I might have to drop by Circut City tonight and check them out now.:)
The point here is not that these appliances will be internet controlled, but internet/network enhanced. A fridge has no real controllable features anyways, except maybe the humidity control, which you'll set once and leave forever. However, having a barcode scanner built into the door so you can scan products as you put them in the fridge and throw them out can keep an active inventory, and this inventory can be used in a variety of ways. You can cross reference the inventory against a database of recipies to determine what you would be able to cook for dinner tonight without buying anything extra. You could have a computer automatically re-order generic consumables as you are running low from one of these web-based grocery stores.
Of course, if you wish to escape the technology, that is, of course, your peragative. There will always be the less expensive versions available without these features for quite some time yet.
I haven't had health insurance for over 2 years now. ONE time I had to go visit a doctor. It cost me $45 for the visit plus $8 for the prescription medication I needed.
The alternative was to pay $168 a month to keep the health insurace plan I had when I still lived with my parents. At $168 a month, I'd have to be sick all the damn time for it to pay off.
Some people are sick all the time, but its usually an issue of diet, exercise (or the lack there of), and lifestyle. And besides, insurance is just a gamble. When you get insurance, you're gambling that you're going to need it. Some people see it the other way around, but I happen to be optimistic about these sorts of things.:)
Just for kicks... attack the problem from the opposite direction, and this one is easy to prove.
The sum of 2 prime numbers > 2 is an even number greater than 4. For obvious reasons, neither prime can be 2 because the sum will then be odd.
I forget what its called, but there are gaps in between prime numbers and these gaps grow as the numbers get higher. Up to the number 9, primes are spaced 2 apart: 3, 5, 7. Then there is a 4 number gap from 7 til 11. A 6 number gap appears between 23 and 29.
In order for a number to be the sum of 2 primes, either the sum of that number divided by 2 must be a prime, otherwise one number must be greater than half and the other must be less than half. Since gaps become more prevalant as the numbers get higher, there will likely be fewer prime numbers in between the halfway mark and the even number in question, than there are before the halfway mark.
You have to be able to prove that there MUST be a prime number P between any 2X > 4 and X.
Then there must also be a prime number p such that P+p=2X. Another quality is that P and p are both equidistant from the halfway mark.
This means, it must be proven that for any number Z >= 3, there must be a number Y >= 0 for which Z-Y is prime and Z+Y is prime. For example, in the case of Z=3, Y=0. In the case of Z=4, Y=1 (3 and 5 are both primes).
Now we get back to the gaps I was talking about earlier. As numbers get larger, the primes will occur with less frequency because there are more primes below it to help fill in the gaps. However, primes will still occur with a certain pattern. Primes are likely to occur when the numbers before and after it are rich in different prime factors. No 2 consecutive numbers share any prime factors. Therefore, the more unique factors both the adjacent numbers have, the less possible factors the middle number can have. If both adjacent numbers include all prime factors up to the square root of the largest number, then the middle number MUST be prime. Prove that first, if it isn't already.
In order to get a prime number, you need to get 2 factor rich even numbers on either side of it. This will occur with a predictable pattern. Prime numbers leave a trail, so to speak. You get a number that is prime and every multiple of that number from this point on will be composite. You are looking for points where these nth multiples all converge on 2 consecutive even numbers. That will get you ONE prime, but for this proof you ALSO need those multiples to converge an equidistant distance greater on the number scale from another number. Develop a system to determine what those numbers are, and if there is a set pattern to those numbers. If there IS a set pattern, and that pattern can be proven, then the numbers can be sieved out, and that seive can be used as a base proof for the other questions I asked earlier.
Ok. I haven't had any sleep in a while. Time for bed. Hope I didnt' screw anything up TOO majorly.
This is not true. A great deal of other discoveries could occur while trying to solve this problem.
I think it was Newton (I COULD be wrong, so don't flame me too badly) who invented calculus in order to prove physics, thus plagueing freshmen college students forever more, but see what has become possible with physics. More incremental mathematical discoveries might need to be proven before Goldbach can be, but those discoveries could be helpful in other ways.
The networking of that speed isn't really required for the average local area network where simultanious HD access would be commonplace. This technology IS needed on the internet backbone, but since the backbone consists of of nothing more than wires and routers, HD speed isn't really an issue.
Not that I'm saying HD's shouldn't be faster anyways.:)
His points were valid. Stupid system administrators might possibly screw up their system(s) by doing things they shouldn't. Virii are really the least of their concerns in this regard. A computer platform is likely to remain virus free, be it windows, unix, linux, whatever, if the person using it has at least half a brain and follows some common sense techniques.
First of all, make sure your system is patched with all the up to date security patches, so the exploits which would even make such viruses possible won't even be available.
Second, don't run user applications as root... EVER unless it is absolutely necessary. Downloading source code from a respectable source and compiling it is not a significant security risk. Having the source available would make detection of any security problems easy and would be a serious loss of respect for whoever released the source in the first place. This is not a likely concern.
Of course, downloading binary rpms subjects yourself to the same set of circumstances. If you download a binary and run it as a normal user, the impact is minimal (assuming you never run it as root, and you shouldn't). If you plan to run something as root, download the source and compile it. Whats that you say? There is no source available? What operating system are you running again? If you feel a closed-source program that requires root to execute is THAT vital...well, thats just a risk you're going to have to take.
From the way he describes "viruses" the automated root kit installation is practically there. The only thing missing from it would be a feature to make it spread. Any bored programmer could probably add such a feature in an hour.
However, root kits can be detected with utilites like tripwire. Of course, such a "virus" could modify the actual kernel to return false information about infected programs, but that condition would be removed the first time the kernel was recompiled, and besides, it wouldn't affect a tripwire scan when the kernel and detection program was executed from a write protected boot disk.
That is the file I got from their site. It showed the transfer at 100% complete. Testing the archive, I got the same error, but going through the documents, I see no evidence of anything missing. In retrospect, I wish I had checked the file beforehand so I could have mentioned the problem before anyone downloaded a 27 meg file, but seeing how it seemed to work ok, and the fact that the original site was still swamped, I decided not to remove it.
I would provide a mirror (as would others I'd presume) if not for one minor issue... its going to take me 7 hours to download it at the 900 bytes per second I'm currently getting. Somewhat ironic comment about having the bandwidth to download the tarball. *I* have the bandwidth. Its just that they don't.:)
Oh well, in 24 hours it will be off of slashdot's main page and the site will settle back to a non-slashdot effect mode.:)
Better than using plip, how is the current linux support for USB based ethernet adapters? Sorry I haven't kept up with the 2.3.x development, but USB would seem to make more sense as a network interface than the parallel port, if for no other reason than its faster and could more easily interface with a currently built network than the parallel port could (which would require another computer to connect to, extra routing, etc.
Another thought... 16 megs might not seem like much for filesystem storage, but its enough to hold the kernel, and ALL filesystems can be loaded off the network once its up and running. Granted, extensive filesystem exporting can drain a network, but if the only current networking option is plip, a single computer could be set up to serve several of these screens without draining any other networking resources.
Although this isn't completely on topic, you might want to check out http://members.aol.com/s6sj7gt/mikerav.htm
This is a transformation of the poem "The Raven" converted so the number of letters in each word match the digits in PI. Talk about people with too much time on their hands.:)
Actually... its quite a bit older than 11 years. It was good to go in 1982 but due to launch delays, then the challenger explosion, it didn't get launched until the late 80's. However, it's only been in space for 11 years.
Truth be told, if it runs out of manuvering fuel, then we'd no longer be able to control it, even though we'd be able to continue communicating with it. There is a possibility, over a period of several hundred years, that the orbit would decay to the point it would crash into one of the moons, or Jupiter itself. Even in Earth's orbit, the sattelites must constantly adjust their orbits. Satellites that don't eventually enter the atmosphere. I do agree that sending it away from the planet is a better plan than crashing it. At the very least, we have an opportunity for a 5th interstellar probe that way, and it could continue to operate as long as the batteries hold out.
One other option is to set it in an orbit that will guarantee a crash in, say, 20 years or so, and keep enough fuel handy to make adjustments every 19 years. This way, we keep the orbiter handy in case another comet decides to crash into jupiter anytime in the near future, or something else interesting happens there. However, if the craft goes dead on us, it will eventually crash into a benign target and we won't have to worry about it.
If you want to run a bandwidth hog on a network that is owned by someone else, the owner of that network has every right to filter/censor/curtail its (and your) use of it. You might feel that you have 100% rights to use the network however you like because you somehow pay for it through your tuition, but do a little bit of math first. If a university has a T3 line and each student in a..say.. 20,000 student body pays an equal network use fee, then each student is allotted approximately 2250 bits per second, which is about the speed of a 2400 baud modem. If your 24/7 running network processes don't exceed that bandwidth, and your activities are 100% legal, then you have every right to bitch about it. Somehow, I doubt this is the case.
First of all, Slashdot doesn't operate on a clickthrough basis, they operate on an impression basis. They get paid for you seeing the ad whether you click on it or not. Therefore, the 1/1000 part doesn't apply in this case. They only will need 109,000 hits per day to pay the 400k per year, assuming the $0.01 per ad impression rate, which is typical. Judging by the average slashdot effect, I'd say that 109,000 hits is easily in the bag.
However, in the case of clickthroughs, they generally pay 10x as much since they have a better chance to profit from the ad if someone actually clicks on it then if they glance on it and never go anywhere with it.
Mailing lists don't send unsolicited messages. Someone using the email account had to go out of their way to request to be added to the list and all mailing lists I'm on have easy to use, automated methods of removal which actually work (unlike the average spam method).
Another place I noticed that more words are becoming acceptable on the air: "Boyz in the Hood" by Dynamite Hack. This is a new remake of the old gangsta classic by Eazy-E. I haven't really been a fan of rap music for many years now, but I kinda dug it when I was in Jr. high and I remember hearing that rap on the radio once. The difference between the number of words bleeped out then and now are significant. The only words from that song they don't play now are sh*t and f*ck. -Restil
It would appear that the biggest problem is trying to get a corporation to open up their protocols, when they appear to have every interest in not doing it. Perhaps we, the Open Source community, should consider developing and GPL'ing our own standards for video/audio streaming and other protocols, with no interest in maintaining compatibility, but make sure that players are developed for every platform under the sun.
I know, developing a protocol and compression algorithms to rival the current competition wouldn't be even remotely easy. We might actually have to live with something that is somewhat substandard, but hopefully not so much that its unusable, until there is enough support to either pressure the competition to submit, or until we have perfected our formats to the point that they compete on even ground.
Most of our efforts are to cater to Microsoft products and protocols (samba, wine, etc). This buys us some time and helps to give linux a chance to get accepted in corporations since without compatibility with microsoft products, nobody would even give them a chance. But we must strive for a future where linux builds its own standards and microsoft is the one running to maintain compatibility with us, because it would be losing out if it didn't. This is where we will REALLY start to shine, since because of Microsoft's track record for spotting trends and running with them, theres a chance they might fall too far behind and lose significant market share in the process. This won't happen tomorrow, but if we plan right, it could be reality within the next 5 years.
Of course, the first step would be for someone to develop and advanced protocol and be willing to release it with no strings attached rather than sell it to a corporation for millions of $$$. I agree, this will be the hardest step. But it IS an important step, and will have to be taken.
Funny this should crop up right now. I'm currently in the process of implementing a great deal of the features mentioned in that article in my own house. Of course, I'm only doing it for the entertainment value, not for the purposes of convienence.
A barcode scanner will record in an inventory database all food products purchased and those thrown away. Before you go shopping, you program a menu database with the recipies of the meals you want to eat for the next week, or however long you wish to stock up for, then it prints out a grocery list for you, cross referencing what you already have, along with impending expiration dates.
For general consumables, like sodas, apples, etc, The program will keep statistics of how long it takes you to consume them, then predicts when you will likely run out and adds them to your next list.
Integrating the microwave, stove, and oven to the computer is a piece of cake. For microwaves, and many stoves and ovens, the interface for it is already a computer, all that is required is changing the input source. The advantageous part, and orders of magnitude more difficult, would be complete mechanical automation of the cooking process. Program in a recipe, and come back an hour later when its done to eat it, and let robotics take care of the mixing, inserting and removing items from the oven/microwave, etc. This isn't impossible, and could probably be done easier with a less conventional design. Perhaps a fully integrated system where the oven, burners, microwave, refridgerator was all a single homogenious system...
Anyways. I'm rambling. When I have something to show for it, I'll let you know.
All possible chess games out to 5 moves (including both sides) would make cracking DES look like counting to 10.
Also, the real trick is that the knight must MATE the king, which means that first, the king can't be able to move to a safe space. It either needs to be trapped or all other available spaces need to be guarded. And secondly, the knight can not be captured by any peices from the other side.
This IS just like a slashdot article. Complete with typos and all.:)
Nicely written article that didn't dwell on fearmongering, and just stated the facts as they were. It identified rumors as such, and while it laid out some potential catastophic circumstances, it also identified the fact that these events are unlikely.
The flow, however, was a little erratic. Seems that some of the topics were thrown together in no particular order. Otherwise, decent article.
I don't think I read it wrong, although I'm not sure if the reporter got it right. It stated that the mall's commission on sales, which the mall is afraid of losing to e-commerce, consists of about 4-10% of the tenants' rent. If this is true... then a 4-10% increase in the rent payments of all tenants and simply cutting out the commisions would solve all the problems the mall has with e-commerce. The very fact that this makes so little sense means that either I'm wrong or it was reported incorrectly.
However, I can see how the mall would want some percentage of sales. The amount of sales is directly proportional to the number of people that trample through the mall and therefore is directly related to upkeep costs. If suddenly, unexpectedly, the traffic in the mall increased 3-fold, then the mall would be able to handle the expense of the increased maintenance costs involved with that much extra traffic.
HOWEVER... if the mall really IS bringing in that much more traffic, then the mall can legitimately raise the rent payments during the next renewal of the contracts as the space is worth more, and vendors will pay it.
The mall may have no vacancies, but there was a mall near my home when I was growing up that had no vacancies, then one of the big department stores there moved out (JC Penny's I think). After that one store left, the other vendors left in droves and in a matter of just 2-3 years only 1/3 of the the spots were occupied. All this mall has to do is piss off one big customer enough to make a decision on relocation and that mall could die too. While this might not happen in this case, imagine if 10-15 of the smaller stores decided to close up shop and move elsewhere because of this new policy. Certainly, there are companies drooling to take their place, but now that this new policy is in effect, perhaps they'll decide to pursue other locations instead, which means the value of the space will go down.
Chances are good it won't come to this. Regardless, the internet is here to stay, and its not getting any smaller. You can either embrace it and use it to your advantage, or you can try to hide from it, but you can't hide from it for long.
No, it is NOT necessary. You can lie about it if you want to, its just a survey after all. I think the idea is they're trying to get a feel if the linux system is being used as a single user workstation or is being used with a heavier load of users.
They are free to ask anything they want. You are free to not answer anything. The only real statistics that matter here are the number of users and the number of machines (which is oddly less than the number of users).
Slashdot Mirror
Although I'm positive someone has come up with this idea before, it has struck me as somewhat novel. How about credit card companies implement some sort of authorization system for cardholders that wish to have it. Debit cards have this now to some extent, seeing how you have to enter a pin number to validate the purchase, but I see one step further that before a transaction is processed, you will have to verify the actual amount as well.
:)
This wouldn't have to be mandatory and customers that wished to opt out of it should have every right to do so. But it would be remarkably easy with e-commerce. Any time a purchase is made, the user would be taken to a website owned by the credit-card company and the customer would enter in an authorization code if the dollar amount matches. After that point, the merchant would be able to charge ONLY that amount and no more, and no subsequent charges would be permitted unless previously authorized by the customer.
This would also make a moot point of someone stealing your credit card number. It would be useless to them. Its slightly less convienent, but much more secure.
I still find it rather odd that you can buy one in the store without the service, but you are forced to get the service bundled when you order it online. I might have to drop by Circut City tonight and check them out now.
-Restil
The point here is not that these appliances will be internet controlled, but internet/network enhanced. A fridge has no real controllable features anyways, except maybe the humidity control, which you'll set once and leave forever. However, having a barcode scanner built into the door so you can scan products as you put them in the fridge and throw them out can keep an active inventory, and this inventory can be used in a variety of ways. You can cross reference the inventory against a database of recipies to determine what you would be able to cook for dinner tonight without buying anything extra. You could have a computer automatically re-order generic consumables as you are running low from one of these web-based grocery stores.
Of course, if you wish to escape the technology, that is, of course, your peragative. There will always be the less expensive versions available without these features for quite some time yet.
-Restil
I haven't had health insurance for over 2 years now. ONE time I had to go visit a doctor. It cost me $45 for the visit plus $8 for the prescription medication I needed.
:)
The alternative was to pay $168 a month to keep the health insurace plan I had when I still lived with my parents. At $168 a month, I'd have to be sick all the damn time for it to pay off.
Some people are sick all the time, but its usually an issue of diet, exercise (or the lack there of), and lifestyle. And besides, insurance is just a gamble. When you get insurance, you're gambling that you're going to need it. Some people see it the other way around, but I happen to be optimistic about these sorts of things.
-Restil
Just for kicks... attack the problem from the opposite direction, and this one is easy to prove.
The sum of 2 prime numbers > 2 is an even number greater than 4. For obvious reasons, neither prime can be 2 because the sum will then be odd.
I forget what its called, but there are gaps in between prime numbers and these gaps grow as the numbers get higher. Up to the number 9, primes are spaced 2 apart: 3, 5, 7. Then there is a 4 number gap from 7 til 11. A 6 number gap appears between 23 and 29.
In order for a number to be the sum of 2 primes, either the sum of that number divided by 2 must be a prime, otherwise one number must be greater than half and the other must be less than half. Since gaps become more prevalant as the numbers get higher, there will likely be fewer prime numbers in between the halfway mark and the even number in question, than there are before the halfway mark.
You have to be able to prove that there MUST be a prime number P between any 2X > 4 and X.
Then there must also be a prime number p such that P+p=2X. Another quality is that P and p are both equidistant from the halfway mark.
This means, it must be proven that for any number Z >= 3, there must be a number Y >= 0 for which Z-Y is prime and Z+Y is prime. For example, in the case of Z=3, Y=0. In the case of Z=4, Y=1 (3 and 5 are both primes).
Now we get back to the gaps I was talking about earlier. As numbers get larger, the primes will occur with less frequency because there are more primes below it to help fill in the gaps. However, primes will still occur with a certain pattern. Primes are likely to occur when the numbers before and after it are rich in different prime factors. No 2 consecutive numbers share any prime factors. Therefore, the more unique factors both the adjacent numbers have, the less possible factors the middle number can have. If both adjacent numbers include all prime factors up to the square root of the largest number, then the middle number MUST be prime. Prove that first, if it isn't already.
In order to get a prime number, you need to get 2 factor rich even numbers on either side of it. This will occur with a predictable pattern. Prime numbers leave a trail, so to speak. You get a number that is prime and every multiple of that number from this point on will be composite. You are looking for points where these nth multiples all converge on 2 consecutive even numbers. That will get you ONE prime, but for this proof you ALSO need those multiples to converge an equidistant distance greater on the number scale from another number. Develop a system to determine what those numbers are, and if there is a set pattern to those numbers. If there IS a set pattern, and that pattern can be proven, then the numbers can be sieved out, and that seive can be used as a base proof for the other questions I asked earlier.
Ok. I haven't had any sleep in a while. Time for bed. Hope I didnt' screw anything up TOO majorly.
-Restil
This is not true. A great deal of other discoveries could occur while trying to solve this problem.
I think it was Newton (I COULD be wrong, so don't flame me too badly) who invented calculus in order to prove physics, thus plagueing freshmen college students forever more, but see what has become possible with physics. More incremental mathematical discoveries might need to be proven before Goldbach can be, but those discoveries could be helpful in other ways.
-Restil
The networking of that speed isn't really required for the average local area network where simultanious HD access would be commonplace. This technology IS needed on the internet backbone, but since the backbone consists of of nothing more than wires and routers, HD speed isn't really an issue.
:)
Not that I'm saying HD's shouldn't be faster anyways.
-Restil
His points were valid. Stupid system administrators might possibly screw up their system(s) by doing things they shouldn't. Virii are really the least of their concerns in this regard. A computer platform is likely to remain virus free, be it windows, unix, linux, whatever, if the person using it has at least half a brain and follows some common sense techniques.
First of all, make sure your system is patched with all the up to date security patches, so the exploits which would even make such viruses possible won't even be available.
Second, don't run user applications as root... EVER unless it is absolutely necessary. Downloading source code from a respectable source and compiling it is not a significant security risk. Having the source available would make detection of any security problems easy and would be a serious loss of respect for whoever released the source in the first place. This is not a likely concern.
Of course, downloading binary rpms subjects yourself to the same set of circumstances. If you download a binary and run it as a normal user, the impact is minimal (assuming you never run it as root, and you shouldn't). If you plan to run something as root, download the source and compile it. Whats that you say? There is no source available? What operating system are you running again? If you feel a closed-source program that requires root to execute is THAT vital...well, thats just a risk you're going to have to take.
From the way he describes "viruses" the automated root kit installation is practically there. The only thing missing from it would be a feature to make it spread. Any bored programmer could probably add such a feature in an hour.
However, root kits can be detected with utilites like tripwire. Of course, such a "virus" could modify the actual kernel to return false information about infected programs, but that condition would be removed the first time the kernel was recompiled, and besides, it wouldn't affect a tripwire scan when the kernel and detection program was executed from a write protected boot disk.
Well, thats enough for this rant.
-Restil
That is the file I got from their site. It showed the transfer at 100% complete. Testing the archive, I got the same error, but going through the documents, I see no evidence of anything missing. In retrospect, I wish I had checked the file beforehand so I could have mentioned the problem before anyone downloaded a 27 meg file, but seeing how it seemed to work ok, and the fact that the original site was still swamped, I decided not to remove it.
If this was poor judgement, my apologies.
-Restil
Now that its not on the main page anymore, the site will probably clear up and mirrors won't be necessary anymore.
t ar.gz
:)
But despite that, here's one mirror:
ftp://alignment.net/pub/Grokking-the-GIMP-v1.0.
Be gentle.
-Restil
I would provide a mirror (as would others I'd presume) if not for one minor issue... its going to take me 7 hours to download it at the 900 bytes per second I'm currently getting. Somewhat ironic comment about having the bandwidth to download the tarball. *I* have the bandwidth. Its just that they don't. :)
:)
Oh well, in 24 hours it will be off of slashdot's main page and the site will settle back to a non-slashdot effect mode.
-Restil
Better than using plip, how is the current linux support for USB based ethernet adapters? Sorry I haven't kept up with the 2.3.x development, but USB would seem to make more sense as a network interface than the parallel port, if for no other reason than its faster and could more easily interface with a currently built network than the parallel port could (which would require another computer to connect to, extra routing, etc.
:)
Another thought... 16 megs might not seem like much for filesystem storage, but its enough to hold the kernel, and ALL filesystems can be loaded off the network once its up and running. Granted, extensive filesystem exporting can drain a network, but if the only current networking option is plip, a single computer could be set up to serve several of these screens without draining any other networking resources.
Just a thought
Cool hack.
-Restil
Although this isn't completely on topic, you might want to check out http://members.aol.com/s6sj7gt/mikerav.htm
:)
This is a transformation of the poem "The Raven" converted so the number of letters in each word match the digits in PI. Talk about people with too much time on their hands.
-Restil
Actually... its quite a bit older than 11 years. It was good to go in 1982 but due to launch delays, then the challenger explosion, it didn't get launched until the late 80's. However, it's only been in space for 11 years.
Truth be told, if it runs out of manuvering fuel, then we'd no longer be able to control it, even though we'd be able to continue communicating with it. There is a possibility, over a period of several hundred years, that the orbit would decay to the point it would crash into one of the moons, or Jupiter itself. Even in Earth's orbit, the sattelites must constantly adjust their orbits. Satellites that don't eventually enter the atmosphere. I do agree that sending it away from the planet is a better plan than crashing it. At the very least, we have an opportunity for a 5th interstellar probe that way, and it could continue to operate as long as the batteries hold out.
One other option is to set it in an orbit that will guarantee a crash in, say, 20 years or so, and keep enough fuel handy to make adjustments every 19 years. This way, we keep the orbiter handy in case another comet decides to crash into jupiter anytime in the near future, or something else interesting happens there. However, if the craft goes dead on us, it will eventually crash into a benign target and we won't have to worry about it.
-Restil
If you want to run a bandwidth hog on a network that is owned by someone else, the owner of that network has every right to filter/censor/curtail its (and your) use of it. You might feel that you have 100% rights to use the network however you like because you somehow pay for it through your tuition, but do a little bit of math first. If a university has a T3 line and each student in a..say.. 20,000 student body pays an equal network use fee, then each student is allotted approximately 2250 bits per second, which is about the speed of a 2400 baud modem. If your 24/7 running network processes don't exceed that bandwidth, and your activities are 100% legal, then you have every right to bitch about it. Somehow, I doubt this is the case.
-Restil
First of all, Slashdot doesn't operate on a clickthrough basis, they operate on an impression basis. They get paid for you seeing the ad whether you click on it or not. Therefore, the 1/1000 part doesn't apply in this case. They only will need 109,000 hits per day to pay the 400k
per year, assuming the $0.01 per ad impression
rate, which is typical. Judging by the average
slashdot effect, I'd say that 109,000 hits is
easily in the bag.
However, in the case of clickthroughs, they generally pay 10x as much since they have a better chance to profit from the ad if someone actually clicks on it then if they glance on it and never go anywhere with it.
-Restil
Mailing lists don't send unsolicited messages. Someone using the email account had to go out of their way to request to be added to the list and all mailing lists I'm on have easy to use, automated methods of removal which actually work (unlike the average spam method).
-Restil
Another place I noticed that more words are becoming acceptable on the air: "Boyz in the Hood" by Dynamite Hack. This is a new remake of the old gangsta classic by Eazy-E. I haven't really been a fan of rap music for many years now, but I kinda dug it when I was in Jr. high and I remember hearing that rap on the radio once. The difference between the number of words bleeped out then and now are significant. The only words from that song they don't play now are sh*t and f*ck.
-Restil
It would appear that the biggest problem is trying to get a corporation to open up their protocols, when they appear to have every interest in not doing it. Perhaps we, the Open Source community, should consider developing and GPL'ing our own standards for video/audio streaming and other protocols, with no interest in maintaining compatibility, but make sure that players are developed for every platform under the sun.
I know, developing a protocol and compression algorithms to rival the current competition wouldn't be even remotely easy. We might actually have to live with something that is somewhat substandard, but hopefully not so much that its unusable, until there is enough support to either pressure the competition to submit, or until we have perfected our formats to the point that they compete on even ground.
Most of our efforts are to cater to Microsoft products and protocols (samba, wine, etc). This buys us some time and helps to give linux a chance to get accepted in corporations since without compatibility with microsoft products, nobody would even give them a chance. But we must strive for a future where linux builds its own standards and microsoft is the one running to maintain compatibility with us, because it would be losing out if it didn't. This is where we will REALLY start to shine, since because of Microsoft's track record for spotting trends and running with them, theres a chance they might fall too far behind and lose significant market share in the process. This won't happen tomorrow, but if we plan right, it could be reality within the next 5 years.
Of course, the first step would be for someone to develop and advanced protocol and be willing to release it with no strings attached rather than sell it to a corporation for millions of $$$. I agree, this will be the hardest step. But it IS an important step, and will have to be taken.
-Restil
Funny this should crop up right now. I'm currently in the process of implementing a great deal of the features mentioned in that article in my own house. Of course, I'm only doing it for the entertainment value, not for the purposes of convienence.
A barcode scanner will record in an inventory database all food products purchased and those
thrown away. Before you go shopping, you program a menu database with the recipies of the meals you want to eat for the next week, or however long you wish to stock up for, then it prints out a grocery list for you, cross referencing what you already have, along with impending expiration dates.
For general consumables, like sodas, apples, etc,
The program will keep statistics of how long it takes you to consume them, then predicts when you will likely run out and adds them to your next list.
Integrating the microwave, stove, and oven to the computer is a piece of cake. For microwaves, and many stoves and ovens, the interface for it is already a computer, all that is required is changing the input source. The advantageous part, and orders of magnitude more difficult, would be complete mechanical automation of the cooking process. Program in a recipe, and come back an hour later when its done to eat it, and let robotics take care of the mixing, inserting and removing items from the oven/microwave, etc. This
isn't impossible, and could probably be done easier with a less conventional design. Perhaps a fully integrated system where the oven, burners, microwave, refridgerator was all a single homogenious system...
Anyways. I'm rambling. When I have something to show for it, I'll let you know.
-Restil
All possible chess games out to 5 moves (including both sides) would make cracking DES look like counting to 10.
Also, the real trick is that the knight must MATE the king, which means that first, the king can't be able to move to a safe space. It either needs to be trapped or all other available spaces need to be guarded. And secondly, the knight can not be captured by any peices from the other side.
-Restil
This IS just like a slashdot article. Complete with typos and all. :)
Nicely written article that didn't dwell on fearmongering, and just stated the facts as they were. It identified rumors as such, and while it laid out some potential catastophic circumstances, it also identified the fact that these events are unlikely.
The flow, however, was a little erratic. Seems that some of the topics were thrown together in no particular order. Otherwise, decent article.
-Restil
I don't think I read it wrong, although I'm not sure if the reporter got it right. It stated that the mall's commission on sales, which the mall is afraid of losing to e-commerce, consists of about 4-10% of the tenants' rent. If this is true... then a 4-10% increase in the rent payments of all tenants and simply cutting out the commisions would solve all the problems the mall has with e-commerce. The very fact that this makes so little sense means that either I'm wrong or it was reported incorrectly.
However, I can see how the mall would want some percentage of sales. The amount of sales is directly proportional to the number of people that trample through the mall and therefore is directly related to upkeep costs. If suddenly, unexpectedly, the traffic in the mall increased 3-fold, then the mall would be able to handle the expense of the increased maintenance costs involved with that much extra traffic.
HOWEVER... if the mall really IS bringing in that much more traffic, then the mall can legitimately raise the rent payments during the next renewal of the contracts as the space is worth more, and vendors will pay it.
The mall may have no vacancies, but there was a mall near my home when I was growing up that had no vacancies, then one of the big department stores there moved out (JC Penny's I think). After that one store left, the other vendors left in droves and in a matter of just 2-3 years only 1/3 of the the spots were occupied. All this mall has to do is piss off one big customer enough to make a decision on relocation and that mall could die too. While this might not happen in this case, imagine if 10-15 of the smaller stores decided to close up shop and move elsewhere because of this new policy. Certainly, there are companies drooling to take their place, but now that this new policy is in effect, perhaps they'll decide to pursue other locations instead, which means the value of the space will go down.
Chances are good it won't come to this. Regardless, the internet is here to stay, and its not getting any smaller. You can either embrace it and use it to your advantage, or you can try to hide from it, but you can't hide from it for long.
-Restil
An interesting side-light: Flourinert was developed to be a blood substitute. Perhaps the semiconductor systems are acquiring a circulatory system.
Or this is the first step in the evolution of The Borg.
-Restil
No, it is NOT necessary. You can lie about it if you want to, its just a survey after all. I think the idea is they're trying to get a feel if the linux system is being used as a single user workstation or is being used with a heavier load of users.
They are free to ask anything they want. You are free to not answer anything. The only real statistics that matter here are the number of users and the number of machines (which is oddly less than the number of users).
-Restil
That Yugo comment was classic. :)
-Restil