Returning amputees from Iraq are getting computer-driven artifical limbs allowing greater balance and mobility.
Let me guess... the returning amputees from Afghanistan, who aren't getting these artificial limbs, are compensated instead with compilers for the self-same computers, hence allowing them to make the amputees from Iraq go dancing around like Natalie Portman with hot grits down her britches?
Just conjecturing about why only the Iraqi amputees get this cool stuff.
Anti-spyware software. From a company that has a proven track record of putting "phone home" code into their software. I'll be sure to run out and install my copy over the already known-good open alternatives.
I'm in California. I can't be bothered to go figure out what I'm owed. By the time I get through the hassle of doing hundreds of dollars worth of labour (my time is worth hundreds/hour), I'll end up with, as the site says, a voucher for cash back after I buy certain eligible computer products.
With all due respect, who gives a flying f--k?
I didn't run down to the library to check out one of 1,000 copies of ABBA's first album after the RIAA got slapped down. I'm not going to bother with this either.
Microsoft can crow what it wants. I've already exacted my revenge on them. I work at a company with a very large datacentre, and we have TWO, count 'em, TWO Microsoft-based computers there. Both simply run software to control high-end proprietary hardware. Everything that actually does work is Linux. Microsoft can kiss my a--.
From the last post about this, I went and read up on the whole thing. I went to the beautiful CGI script where you input asteroid size and velocity and all that, and assumed I was 100km from the impact.
I had to up the asteroid size to 1300 metres and a velocity of 14kps of dense rock colliding with porous rock before I could interpret the results as something that would suck for me (2nd degree burns on my body from the fireball).
There would be no major earth effects of such an asteroid hitting Earth, so it said.
Compare these stats against our current fearsome asteroid.
In one thread I saw someone refer to this as possibly a human-extinction event. I have a hard time believing that once I actually bother to go check this out. It'd sure suck for everyone within 100km of the impact site but for everyone else, I guess we'd have about the same effects as a major earthquake to deal with.
My point was that if the DMCA can be used to interfere with law enforcement
DMCA can't interfere with law enforcement. Law enforcement doesn't follow the same laws as the rest of us do. They can speed to catch you. They can shoot an unarmed citizen. They can break and enter.
They can certainly do things the DMCA says a person can't do. Because they're law enforcement.
This is why you should never trust law enforcement. Because they don't have to follow the same rules as the rest of us. (That isn't to say they aren't useful, only that by default, you shouldn't trust them)
A long time ago, I started my wiki, with the goal of just being a place where people would go to add their knowledge.
Consider that you've never heard of my wiki, and you have heard of wikipedia.
So clearly the Wikimedia people did something right. How did they get to this point? What sort of "marketing" did they do? Did they have some group of dedicated editors who started it off with a couple hundred quality articles? What was their magic sauce for making something so cool that's now so popular?
Yes. Humans do know better than a computer. But the last person I want in charge of placing windows on my machine is the developer of the app.
Developers are incredibly bad at usability.
I can't count the number of dialogues I've had to deal with that don't resize, or if they do resize, the contents inside don't act sensibly. (I can only see two items in my 100-item file list at a time? Oh, please).
Oh! Great. I started up this appication, and the stupid unmoveable unresizeable uncoverable splash logo is right in the middle of my web browser, so I have to sit back and do absolutely nothing for the 45 seconds it's going to take for this lame app to start.
I'd much rather have the window manager have some simple window placement rules that no application can ever override. At least then, if I realise the window placement rules are stupid, I can fix it in ONE SPOT rather than try whack-a-mole fixing every application I use.
Um. Let's see if we can follow the train of logic here.
1. Do not call registry established. 2. People who don't want to be called put their name on the list. 3. Hence, politicians figure it's okay for those people to be called.
It's like responding to the "unsubscribe" link on spams you get. If you actually say you don't want any more, you'll become inundated. Politicians are working for the spammers, not for you and me.
Now, two Japanese scientists have developed technology they hope will one day turn the humble telephone booth into a high-tech chamber for beaming holographic images.
The next logical step is clear: move all motion picture screenings into these telephone booths with holographic images!
Soon, movie theatres will disappear, giving way to cramped little booths with people watching movies, having to pause halfway through to step out and sit down to take the weight off their feet.
Or, wait. Is this whole beamed holographic image thing just a big thought experiment? In that case, can't we just replace the stupid phone booth concept entirely? I mean, it isn't like we can't get throw-away cellphones for ten bucks at the corner store. Where's the forward thinking from these so-called smart researcher sorts? Porn. Naked, writhing women.
Video games cause obesity? Huh. That's curious. I sit around on my ass 90% of the time on a yearly basis, and yet I'm well within my ideal weight.
Oh! But I don't eat fast food. I eat vegetables and fruits and healthy food, and I can count the number of times I went to Micky D's last year on one hand.
And does anyone seriously believe sexual content hurts anyone anymore? We keep hearing this from the Bible thumpers, but year after year, there's no credible study that links sexual content with any deleterious behaviour.
Despite the obvious and known links between violence on television and in games, we say a little word here and there about it, but at the end of the day, the gov't wants violent children (pretty easy to get them to shoot defenseless Iraqis in a pile of dead guys, isn't it?), so no-one ever gets serious about that.
I'm beginning to wonder how enlightened we really are.
Yep. That's wholesome geek work. And if you want a job at Pixar or something, making a cult hit animation with my rigged meshes from that site would probably get you there. Just talk to me first, because I have some ideas...
Oh! Ha ha. Silly me. The SCO scammers *ARE* the lawyer scammers!
The company already paid $12 million to Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP, Kevin McBride and Berger Singerman, which provide legal services to the company.
No, no. It could be coincidence. If it was Korl McBride or Keveryl McBride then it'd be undeniable proof. But Kevin McBride may be a perfectly scummy non-SCO-related lawyer.
...but I couldn't help it. I went to the website and clicked the "I'm an AT&T customer" (I recently left Cingular for AT&T).
They had a list of bullet points and then a whole page devoted to how much better my life is going to be after this merger. I swear, there were about 64 kilobytes of text devoted to listing all the positives of this merger.
That's when it struck me that companies really need to read the Cluetrain Manifesto. I really would be interested in the six worst things that are going to happen to me, so that I can be prepared for it.
Take, for example, when I first signed up with AT&T. Plan: $65/month all told. First bill comes. $300. WTF? Everything that could go wrong, did. They put me on the wrong plans. They didn't count my mobile-to-mobile minutes. They signed me up for about 17 extra plans I didn't need or ask for. Not to mention that "Federal fund recovery fee" which is essentially AT&T's way of saying "How come restaurants get to charge you 15% extra for tips, and we don't??? Oh, wait. We do. We'll just charge a tip on every bill. Nice."
Now Cingular is going to take this bumblefuck of a corporation and incorporate it into its everyday operations.
And things are going to go smoothly? I don't think so.
This is Tweedle-dee meets Tweedle-dum, and they're in charge of your critical wireless communications. Be prepared to be pissed off.
I think AOL realizes this for what it is, Microsoft actually trying to do something useful to help the ailing email system.
And why, pray tell, is Microsoft trying to do something useful to help the ailing email system? Where's the profit in that?
Oh, or is this the New Microsoft that is helpful, kind, loving, and forgiving, that doesn't use evil patents and contract trickery to screw over honest businesses?
Hmmm. Riii-ight.
Maybe, and I know this is going out on a limb... but maybe Microsoft is trying to embrace and extend email, such that if you want to send or receive email, you have to go through their systems? Wouldn't that be a treat?
The Anime Shader Tutorial. (Warning: If you go to that link straight from Google, it will give you a 404 error, but if you cut/paste the URL into a new browser, it brings it up, so it looks like Netscape is playing some nasty referrer games -- they might do the same for Slashdot referrers)
Need some models? I have a free (for noncommercial use) nude woman model on my site: faemalia dot net, the Blender page. Feel free to improve upon her and share improvements with the world.
I'm looking for people to collaborate on animation and other 3D character work, so I'd be happy if anyone wants to help out.
If it can be made into a date rape drug, or something that will harden his member, then Joe Public will be all over it. 95% of the population is of (counts on fingers for a bit...) below-average intelligence. So that means there's only 5% of the population that can bitch about the rest of the population on Slashdot. And of course, I'm in that 5% that's of above-average intelligence. Right?
But seriously. If you like hard science... don't go to television to find it. Television is all about branding dumbed down entertainment as something it isn't. Science. Law. Journalism. Even shows that are about dumb topics (like bikini babe lifeguards) aren't realistic in any sense of the word.
It's really a simple thing. The traditional music industry has been a bunch of middle men that get the product from musician to consumer, on the bizarre premise that consumers don't actually want to see the band perform, but would rather be able to listen to a stale, overproduced, overedited piece of music from a CD or cassette.
Consumers, rightly so, don't see a whole lot of value here anymore. If they want a stale, overproduced piece of music, they download it from the internet or listen to the radio.
The value will be in watching a skilled set of musicians perform together. Check out, for example, the Asylum Street Spankers. (I mean, look them up and go watch them when they're in your city. You'll understand once you see them perform (And this is just one example. I'm sure music afficionados can think of a few others)).
Just wait until this thing collides with that other space probe that is programmed to eliminate organic entities off the outside of spaceships, and they combine their AI into a super-probe that is out to exterminate all life.
A rapist today admitted that the women he'd raped are giving him a "Bad Image" when they take him to court for his transgressions. However, given that his friends have been able to rape without consequence in Uganda, he says he plans to continue to fight for his right to rape women. "After all, they're just women," he said.
Jim Allchin, Bill Gates, and Steve Ballmer, when asked to comment, said "He's not very personable, but we'd hire him, right Bill?" "Certainly. He'd fit right in to our corporate culture. What do you say, Steve-o?" "DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS RAPISTS AND ARSONISTS DEVELOPERS!"
George W. Bush could not immediately be reached for comment.
Gmail is too creepy, because militant religio-fascist police states might read the email? Why don't we point the finger at the actual problem: militant religio-fascist police states are creepy.
Reminds me of something a friend told me in college: "Why is it when someone has an incident with Alcohol+X+Vomiting they never eat X again? Why don't they stop drinking alcohol?"
When SCO was Caldera (or whatever the convoluted line of ownership) they were more or less non-evil. Then new owners came in and made it all evil.
Microsoft, even granting the somewhat tenuous proposition that they're doing this for good, will soon be a different set of people. You know. Darl McBride junior and his buddies.
So okay, Marshall, I'm sure you're a good guy and all, but I'm not giving you kudos for playing along with an evil, broken system "for good." I'd Microsoft spent its seven hundred godzillion dollars helping bring about reform in the patent system and changing its abuse-of-monopoly behaviours.
Slashdot Mirror
Just conjecturing about why only the Iraqi amputees get this cool stuff.
Anti-spyware software. From a company that has a proven track record of putting "phone home" code into their software. I'll be sure to run out and install my copy over the already known-good open alternatives.
How much is a license of SCO/Linux again?
Sorry to be posting to this story so late, but I was out looting in the general mayhem from the last announcement.
So, etiquette question. Now that I know the odds are about NIL of total annihilation in 2038, do I have to stop looting now?
I'm in California. I can't be bothered to go figure out what I'm owed. By the time I get through the hassle of doing hundreds of dollars worth of labour (my time is worth hundreds/hour), I'll end up with, as the site says, a voucher for cash back after I buy certain eligible computer products.
With all due respect, who gives a flying f--k?
I didn't run down to the library to check out one of 1,000 copies of ABBA's first album after the RIAA got slapped down. I'm not going to bother with this either.
Microsoft can crow what it wants. I've already exacted my revenge on them. I work at a company with a very large datacentre, and we have TWO, count 'em, TWO Microsoft-based computers there. Both simply run software to control high-end proprietary hardware. Everything that actually does work is Linux. Microsoft can kiss my a--.
From the last post about this, I went and read up on the whole thing. I went to the beautiful CGI script where you input asteroid size and velocity and all that, and assumed I was 100km from the impact.
I had to up the asteroid size to 1300 metres and a velocity of 14kps of dense rock colliding with porous rock before I could interpret the results as something that would suck for me (2nd degree burns on my body from the fireball).
There would be no major earth effects of such an asteroid hitting Earth, so it said.
Compare these stats against our current fearsome asteroid.
In one thread I saw someone refer to this as possibly a human-extinction event. I have a hard time believing that once I actually bother to go check this out. It'd sure suck for everyone within 100km of the impact site but for everyone else, I guess we'd have about the same effects as a major earthquake to deal with.
They can certainly do things the DMCA says a person can't do. Because they're law enforcement.
This is why you should never trust law enforcement. Because they don't have to follow the same rules as the rest of us. (That isn't to say they aren't useful, only that by default, you shouldn't trust them)
It crosses the line into false advertising when someone who has no financial interest in the company says "But that's misleading!"
That is to say, about 99.99% of all advertising out there today.
Maybe I'm being radical and pining for the good old days when only 90% of advertising was completely fabricated.
A long time ago, I started my wiki, with the goal of just being a place where people would go to add their knowledge.
Consider that you've never heard of my wiki, and you have heard of wikipedia.
So clearly the Wikimedia people did something right. How did they get to this point? What sort of "marketing" did they do? Did they have some group of dedicated editors who started it off with a couple hundred quality articles? What was their magic sauce for making something so cool that's now so popular?
How about instead of defining the list like that, we define it like this?
- Anyone who sends out unsolicited bulk email
- Anyone who doesn't.
I propose we put the line right between those two.
Yes. Humans do know better than a computer. But the last person I want in charge of placing windows on my machine is the developer of the app.
Developers are incredibly bad at usability.
I can't count the number of dialogues I've had to deal with that don't resize, or if they do resize, the contents inside don't act sensibly. (I can only see two items in my 100-item file list at a time? Oh, please).
Oh! Great. I started up this appication, and the stupid unmoveable unresizeable uncoverable splash logo is right in the middle of my web browser, so I have to sit back and do absolutely nothing for the 45 seconds it's going to take for this lame app to start.
I'd much rather have the window manager have some simple window placement rules that no application can ever override. At least then, if I realise the window placement rules are stupid, I can fix it in ONE SPOT rather than try whack-a-mole fixing every application I use.
Um. Let's see if we can follow the train of logic here.
1. Do not call registry established.
2. People who don't want to be called put their name on the list.
3. Hence, politicians figure it's okay for those people to be called.
It's like responding to the "unsubscribe" link on spams you get. If you actually say you don't want any more, you'll become inundated. Politicians are working for the spammers, not for you and me.
The next logical step is clear: move all motion picture screenings into these telephone booths with holographic images!
Soon, movie theatres will disappear, giving way to cramped little booths with people watching movies, having to pause halfway through to step out and sit down to take the weight off their feet.
Or, wait. Is this whole beamed holographic image thing just a big thought experiment? In that case, can't we just replace the stupid phone booth concept entirely? I mean, it isn't like we can't get throw-away cellphones for ten bucks at the corner store. Where's the forward thinking from these so-called smart researcher sorts? Porn. Naked, writhing women.
Video games cause obesity? Huh. That's curious. I sit around on my ass 90% of the time on a yearly basis, and yet I'm well within my ideal weight.
Oh! But I don't eat fast food. I eat vegetables and fruits and healthy food, and I can count the number of times I went to Micky D's last year on one hand.
And does anyone seriously believe sexual content hurts anyone anymore? We keep hearing this from the Bible thumpers, but year after year, there's no credible study that links sexual content with any deleterious behaviour.
Despite the obvious and known links between violence on television and in games, we say a little word here and there about it, but at the end of the day, the gov't wants violent children (pretty easy to get them to shoot defenseless Iraqis in a pile of dead guys, isn't it?), so no-one ever gets serious about that.
I'm beginning to wonder how enlightened we really are.
Just don't worry about all the "professional" artwork like icons and crap like that. Go straight to the nude art, like me!
Use Blender to make Cool Nude Art! Or, check it, Sodipodi (vector graphics) and/or Pencil,Paper,GIMP for all your nude art needs.
*THAT* is what Linux was made for, folks.
Yep. That's wholesome geek work. And if you want a job at Pixar or something, making a cult hit animation with my rigged meshes from that site would probably get you there. Just talk to me first, because I have some ideas...
I thought SCO were a bunch of scam artists. Looks like the lawyers are the ones running the scam. $31 million for a clearly fraudulent case. Nice.
Surely it must be hard for these guys to go home and sleep at night?
...but I couldn't help it. I went to the website and clicked the "I'm an AT&T customer" (I recently left Cingular for AT&T).
They had a list of bullet points and then a whole page devoted to how much better my life is going to be after this merger. I swear, there were about 64 kilobytes of text devoted to listing all the positives of this merger.
That's when it struck me that companies really need to read the Cluetrain Manifesto. I really would be interested in the six worst things that are going to happen to me, so that I can be prepared for it.
Take, for example, when I first signed up with AT&T. Plan: $65/month all told. First bill comes. $300. WTF? Everything that could go wrong, did. They put me on the wrong plans. They didn't count my mobile-to-mobile minutes. They signed me up for about 17 extra plans I didn't need or ask for. Not to mention that "Federal fund recovery fee" which is essentially AT&T's way of saying "How come restaurants get to charge you 15% extra for tips, and we don't??? Oh, wait. We do. We'll just charge a tip on every bill. Nice."
Now Cingular is going to take this bumblefuck of a corporation and incorporate it into its everyday operations.
And things are going to go smoothly? I don't think so.
This is Tweedle-dee meets Tweedle-dum, and they're in charge of your critical wireless communications. Be prepared to be pissed off.
Oh, or is this the New Microsoft that is helpful, kind, loving, and forgiving, that doesn't use evil patents and contract trickery to screw over honest businesses?
Hmmm. Riii-ight.
Maybe, and I know this is going out on a limb... but maybe Microsoft is trying to embrace and extend email, such that if you want to send or receive email, you have to go through their systems? Wouldn't that be a treat?
Do your model in Blender. Follow this tutorial:
The Anime Shader Tutorial. (Warning: If you go to that link straight from Google, it will give you a 404 error, but if you cut/paste the URL into a new browser, it brings it up, so it looks like Netscape is playing some nasty referrer games -- they might do the same for Slashdot referrers)
Need some models? I have a free (for noncommercial use) nude woman model on my site: faemalia dot net, the Blender page. Feel free to improve upon her and share improvements with the world.
I'm looking for people to collaborate on animation and other 3D character work, so I'd be happy if anyone wants to help out.
If it can be made into a date rape drug, or something that will harden his member, then Joe Public will be all over it. 95% of the population is of (counts on fingers for a bit...) below-average intelligence. So that means there's only 5% of the population that can bitch about the rest of the population on Slashdot. And of course, I'm in that 5% that's of above-average intelligence. Right?
But seriously. If you like hard science... don't go to television to find it. Television is all about branding dumbed down entertainment as something it isn't. Science. Law. Journalism. Even shows that are about dumb topics (like bikini babe lifeguards) aren't realistic in any sense of the word.
It's really a simple thing. The traditional music industry has been a bunch of middle men that get the product from musician to consumer, on the bizarre premise that consumers don't actually want to see the band perform, but would rather be able to listen to a stale, overproduced, overedited piece of music from a CD or cassette.
Consumers, rightly so, don't see a whole lot of value here anymore. If they want a stale, overproduced piece of music, they download it from the internet or listen to the radio.
The value will be in watching a skilled set of musicians perform together. Check out, for example, the Asylum Street Spankers. (I mean, look them up and go watch them when they're in your city. You'll understand once you see them perform (And this is just one example. I'm sure music afficionados can think of a few others)).
Just wait until this thing collides with that other space probe that is programmed to eliminate organic entities off the outside of spaceships, and they combine their AI into a super-probe that is out to exterminate all life.
Ooh! Scary!
A rapist today admitted that the women he'd raped are giving him a "Bad Image" when they take him to court for his transgressions. However, given that his friends have been able to rape without consequence in Uganda, he says he plans to continue to fight for his right to rape women. "After all, they're just women," he said.
Jim Allchin, Bill Gates, and Steve Ballmer, when asked to comment, said "He's not very personable, but we'd hire him, right Bill?" "Certainly. He'd fit right in to our corporate culture. What do you say, Steve-o?" "DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS RAPISTS AND ARSONISTS DEVELOPERS!"
George W. Bush could not immediately be reached for comment.
Gmail is too creepy, because militant religio-fascist police states might read the email? Why don't we point the finger at the actual problem: militant religio-fascist police states are creepy.
Reminds me of something a friend told me in college: "Why is it when someone has an incident with Alcohol+X+Vomiting they never eat X again? Why don't they stop drinking alcohol?"
When SCO was Caldera (or whatever the convoluted line of ownership) they were more or less non-evil. Then new owners came in and made it all evil.
Microsoft, even granting the somewhat tenuous proposition that they're doing this for good, will soon be a different set of people. You know. Darl McBride junior and his buddies.
So okay, Marshall, I'm sure you're a good guy and all, but I'm not giving you kudos for playing along with an evil, broken system "for good." I'd Microsoft spent its seven hundred godzillion dollars helping bring about reform in the patent system and changing its abuse-of-monopoly behaviours.
No offense.