But they lost that battle and now look to win the war with their own Trojan Horse, a virus if you will (how ironic). The thing I find MOST egregious and offensive about this is they are sneaking their agenda in under the radar in a bill totally unrelated to their issue and likely to be passed.
Every issue should have a separate up or down vote. Two constitutional amendments would help to acheive this end.
AMENDMENT A Congress shall pass no law exceeding in length this Constitution.
AMENDMENT B The President may disapprove any item of appropriation in any bill. If any bill is approved by the President, any item of appropriation contained therein which is not disapproved shall become law. The President shall return with his objections any item of appropriation disapproved to the House in which the bill containing such item originated. The Congress may, in the manner prescribed under section 7 of article I for bills disapproved by the President, reconsider any item disapproved under this article.
The parent is right: one precondition for an ideal market is perfect information in the hands of all parties.
That is, if each buyer and each seller are aware of all other buyers and sellers and all their preferences and prices, then no one will gain a surplus of utility by under or over paying for an item. See, e.g., http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/wpd.pl?fcd=dsp&key= market
One of the things computers are beginning to provide to the economy is cheap information in useable form. Though, of course, the big players are getting this info earlier.
"I could explain it better, but I'd need charts, and graphs, and an easel." - Leon
If the public and "their" politicians believe that the entertainment industry is on the verge of collapse, they'll be much more likely to accept restrictions . ..
Oh happy day, long sought!
If the music industry collapses, maybe we'll all start paying attention (and $$) to the musicians we know, instead of the faceless corps.
Honestly, I can't tell you what features have been added to Office in the last 8 years that would be of any use to me.
The ability for Word to open an HTML document that contains [gasp] a table? The ability to scroll with the mouse wheel in Excel? The ability to extract embedded pictures from Word or Powerpoint? Not to mention MS Access incompatibilities with the current version.
Office 97 was a good program, but current file types and current hardware have left it behind.
Captain America (but should it be pro or anti) Bullseye (Colin Farrel can do it) Spiderman (Venom or Kraven) Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, baby!) Thor... (actually, Marvel may be out of A-list and B-list properties to develop)
From TFA: "I don't think there are four million people in the world who really want to play online games every month," said Michael Pachter, a research analyst for Wedbush Morgan, a securities firm . . . ". . . eventually it will come back to the mean, maybe a million subscribers."
Yeah, it will drop to ~1 million. Should happen right about the time that the other 3 million subscribers start playing the Next Big Thing(tm).
Meanwhile, Blizzard is earning over $500M per year (never mind the article's math, which assumes subscription fees are equal in all countries).
From TFA: "I don't think there are four million people in the world who really want to play online games every month," said Michael Pachter, a research analyst for Wedbush Morgan, a securities firm. ". . . eventually it will come back to the mean, maybe a million subscribers." . . . "It may continue to grow in China,. . . but not in Europe or the U.S. We don't need the imaginary outlet to feel a sense of accomplishment here. It just doesn't work in the U.S. It just doesn't make any sense."
You gotta love a guy who, when smacked over the head with 4000000 subscribers worth of evidence, can still find it in himself to deny reality. This is a guy with a very healthy imagination.
Gen Con is the tabletop industry's version of E3,...
Gen Con has run annually since 1968. (40th anniversary in just 2 years, wohoo!) It is the grandfather of gaming cons. E3 started in 1995.
For most of its life, it took place in Wisconsin, but moved to Indy in 2003. Since then, they have begun running additional shows in other locations. Gen Con and its progeny were even spoofed in the movie Galaxy Quest.
Say a couple of your friends, A and B, have you on their buddy lists. A, who has three people on her buddy list, doesn't add much to your score. That's because she doesn't have as many people on her buddy list as does B, who has 16. Your friend A is clearly not as well-connected as your friend B. Not unlike life.
No, this is very unlike life. The calculation of your popularity should be based on how many people like the people who like you, not on how many people the people who like you like. For example, using 2 degrees of separation only, under the current scheme:
Y's buddy list has y entries A's buddy list has 3 entries, including Y B's buddy list has 16 entries, including Y therefore, Y's score = 3 + 16 = 19
This model suffers because as B arbitrarily adds people to B's list, B inflates the scores of everyone on the list. B can skew the results for the whole userbase just by adding more and more buddies to his list (including bots, fake accounts, people who hate B, etc.).
But standard popularity is based on having well-liked people like you. A better model would be: H is on the buddy lists of 2 people (J,K) J is on the buddy lists of 3 people K is on the buddy lists of 16 people therefore H's score = 3 + 16 = 19
The score is the same, but the only way for H, J, or K to increase the score is to get more people to like them (i.e. to buddy list them).
Mouthing off is the first step in lobbying the govt for a law prohibiting the BBC from "competing" with record companies in the distribution of music and hurting the "music industry". Keep an eye on these guys -- they don't have to buy off all that many legislators to get the law they want.
I've always found it intriguing that a programmer who could master several arcane computer languages (especially since computers are notably intolerant of errors), could fail so utterly to master his own native human language.
You've identified the cause already: rules. In human languages, imperfect communication usually functions sufficiently for the purpose because the intelligent recipient reforms the communication to match the rules he was expecting. In computer languages, imperfect communication is often rejected outright by the recipient or produces an unusable result because the less-adapable computer recipient strictly interprets the rules.
The difference between human languages and computer languages isn't that the latter has rules and the former has none. Both have rules, but, believe it or not, the rule set of the computer language is shorter and simpler by far.
The problem with learning a human language is that they have no rules without caveats (even this one).
Slashdot Mirror
But they lost that battle and now look to win the war with their own Trojan Horse, a virus if you will (how ironic). The thing I find MOST egregious and offensive about this is they are sneaking their agenda in under the radar in a bill totally unrelated to their issue and likely to be passed.
Every issue should have a separate up or down vote. Two constitutional amendments would help to acheive this end.
AMENDMENT A
Congress shall pass no law exceeding in length this Constitution.
AMENDMENT B
The President may disapprove any item of appropriation in any bill. If any bill is approved by the President, any item of appropriation contained therein which is not disapproved shall become law. The President shall return with his objections any item of appropriation disapproved to the House in which the bill containing such item originated. The Congress may, in the manner prescribed under section 7 of article I for bills disapproved by the President, reconsider any item disapproved under this article.
The parent is right: one precondition for an ideal market is perfect information in the hands of all parties.
= market
That is, if each buyer and each seller are aware of all other buyers and sellers and all their preferences and prices, then no one will gain a surplus of utility by under or over paying for an item. See, e.g., http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/wpd.pl?fcd=dsp&key
One of the things computers are beginning to provide to the economy is cheap information in useable form. Though, of course, the big players are getting this info earlier.
"I could explain it better, but I'd need charts, and graphs, and an easel." - Leon
If the public and "their" politicians believe that the entertainment industry is on the verge of collapse, they'll be much more likely to accept restrictions . . .
Oh happy day, long sought!
If the music industry collapses, maybe we'll all start paying attention (and $$) to the musicians we know, instead of the faceless corps.
Honestly, I can't tell you what features have been added to Office in the last 8 years that would be of any use to me.
The ability for Word to open an HTML document that contains [gasp] a table?
The ability to scroll with the mouse wheel in Excel?
The ability to extract embedded pictures from Word or Powerpoint?
Not to mention MS Access incompatibilities with the current version.
Office 97 was a good program, but current file types and current hardware have left it behind.
Captain America (but should it be pro or anti) ...
Bullseye (Colin Farrel can do it)
Spiderman (Venom or Kraven)
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, baby!)
Thor
(actually, Marvel may be out of A-list and B-list properties to develop)
From TFA: "I don't think there are four million people in the world who really want to play online games every month," said Michael Pachter, a research analyst for Wedbush Morgan, a securities firm . . . ". . . eventually it will come back to the mean, maybe a million subscribers."
Yeah, it will drop to ~1 million. Should happen right about the time that the other 3 million subscribers start playing the Next Big Thing(tm).
Meanwhile, Blizzard is earning over $500M per year (never mind the article's math, which assumes subscription fees are equal in all countries).
From TFA: "I don't think there are four million people in the world who really want to play online games every month," said Michael Pachter, a research analyst for Wedbush Morgan, a securities firm. ". . . eventually it will come back to the mean, maybe a million subscribers." . . . "It may continue to grow in China,. . . but not in Europe or the U.S. We don't need the imaginary outlet to feel a sense of accomplishment here. It just doesn't work in the U.S. It just doesn't make any sense."
You gotta love a guy who, when smacked over the head with 4000000 subscribers worth of evidence, can still find it in himself to deny reality. This is a guy with a very healthy imagination.
Word Perfect
MS Office 95
MS Office 97
MS Office 2000
MS Office XP
MS Office 2003
Star Office
Open Office (stable)
Open Office (development)
Not us. Here, we use Office 97.
We are promised an upgrade to Office 2003 before 2006. I'm not holding my breath.
Gen Con is the tabletop industry's version of E3,...
Gen Con has run annually since 1968. (40th anniversary in just 2 years, wohoo!) It is the grandfather of gaming cons. E3 started in 1995.
For most of its life, it took place in Wisconsin, but moved to Indy in 2003. Since then, they have begun running additional shows in other locations. Gen Con and its progeny were even spoofed in the movie Galaxy Quest.
We have enough problems keeping the native species alive.
While this is true of some species, others are doing quite well.
Can't we just declare a war on piracy and get it over with?
Not really, no. It appears that declaring war on something just makes it go on and on and on.
Piracy, terror, drugs, Viet Nam, Palestine, Israel . . .
Say a couple of your friends, A and B, have you on their buddy lists. A, who has three people on her buddy list, doesn't add much to your score. That's because she doesn't have as many people on her buddy list as does B, who has 16. Your friend A is clearly not as well-connected as your friend B. Not unlike life.
No, this is very unlike life. The calculation of your popularity should be based on how many people like the people who like you, not on how many people the people who like you like. For example, using 2 degrees of separation only, under the current scheme:
Y's buddy list has y entries
A's buddy list has 3 entries, including Y
B's buddy list has 16 entries, including Y
therefore, Y's score = 3 + 16 = 19
This model suffers because as B arbitrarily adds people to B's list, B inflates the scores of everyone on the list. B can skew the results for the whole userbase just by adding more and more buddies to his list (including bots, fake accounts, people who hate B, etc.).
But standard popularity is based on having well-liked people like you. A better model would be:
H is on the buddy lists of 2 people (J,K)
J is on the buddy lists of 3 people
K is on the buddy lists of 16 people
therefore H's score = 3 + 16 = 19
The score is the same, but the only way for H, J, or K to increase the score is to get more people to like them (i.e. to buddy list them).
They're recommending that the internet be governed by wicanns?
I guess the only thing to say is, "Any suffciently advanced technology is indistiguishable from magic".
Mouthing off is the first step in lobbying the govt for a law prohibiting the BBC from "competing" with record companies in the distribution of music and hurting the "music industry". Keep an eye on these guys -- they don't have to buy off all that many legislators to get the law they want.
[Insert buggy whip maker metaphor here.]
You've identified the cause already: rules. In human languages, imperfect communication usually functions sufficiently for the purpose because the intelligent recipient reforms the communication to match the rules he was expecting. In computer languages, imperfect communication is often rejected outright by the recipient or produces an unusable result because the less-adapable computer recipient strictly interprets the rules.
The difference between human languages and computer languages isn't that the latter has rules and the former has none. Both have rules, but, believe it or not, the rule set of the computer language is shorter and simpler by far.
- Pre-SP2, most Windows users didn't know to enable the firewall
;)
Post-SP2, they still don't.
I stand corrected.
The brain is not a clock.
The brain is not a steam engine.
The brain is not a computer.
Next?
Answer: Never. Or when the U.S. changes over to proportional representation, whichever comes first.
Only if I'm really there; it might be that I'm just seeing things. -- Things like . . . dead people.
Well, it's like this: after the U.S. government effectively banned stem cell research, we were bored. So, . . .
Only if Microsoft can obtain more than $4 billion (approx cost of its army) by invading Norway.
this is ubercreepy. Even the electrical shock at the end bit...
Ubercreepy is definitely the word. Feels just like sitting in an empty house after midnight watching a Kiefer Sutherland movie . . .