...the rest of the numbers are free-for-all. If you calculate the number of digits a cc can hold, it works out to 1,000,000,000,000 (10^12) - only 12 digits to guess.
I'm afraid that's incorrect. One can conduct a 'Luhn Check' on the digits - you'll find that if you just make one up, there is a high chance you'll get it wrong. A possibly incorrect summary is: The algorithm multiplies each digit by a number (1 or 2), replaces the number by mod10 of that number, adds them up, and gets the mod again - if it is 0, it is valid.
Isn't that how Great Britain screwed up their train system, having one outfit own the track while others ran the trains?
That is exactly right, and I pay dearly for it every morning and evening. However, with trains and tracks, there is not a large conflict of interest - there is not such a dynamic marketplace for tracks.
Maybe this will at least rekindle some of the exploratory and fun aspects of computing that have been lost since the ditching of the likes of GW-BASIC. Then, just maybe, kids will actually learn and explore instead of clicking and drooling.
Having just read the article, I'm gripped in a post-katz feeling of hysteria and paranoia. Should I be?
No, I don't think I should. Silicon Valley isn't the new anything. A lot of people have tech jobs there. A lot of people have other sorts of jobs. Yes, technology has got to the point where we can pirate. Just because we can doesn't mean the courts are forced not to prosecute us, as we are still responsible for our actions. Yes, gene research and biotechnology will have ramifications. Six months after an outcry, there'll be legislation (or at least there'll be lawyers).
While things change, it all stays the same really. Yes, technology impacts on things, but yes, the courts will catch up. We're not above the law. There's nothing stopping me going to kill someone, much like there's nothing stopping me pirating software, or invading somebodies privacy. The difference is that the crime of murder has been around a lot longer.
It's too easy to think the world will suddently melt down, if you read too much stuff from the net. (Like this article). Whether we need it, or want it, we'll get legislation. Nothing slides too much without being nailed down. We pay lawyers too much.
He is wrong in saying that eliminating inheritance tax will give rise to negative effects in society, because it will in fact bring about a stronger economy due to the fact that rather than having money tied in up in charitable foundations, it will be in more liquid forms, mainly equity.
Society is not the same as economy. Society may not get better because of money being freed up. Granted it should follow, but it doesn't necessarily. Money is not everything. He is right.
Why is liquid money better than money *used* by charities? This makes no sense! What use is a pile of cash floating around when you could help someone that needs it?
This is a bad thing sometimes, because extra money gained by having an expensive thing can be spent on making the product interoperable, modular, and higher quality. These properties are good.
thenerd.
Re:So what if games breed violence?
on
Trigger Happy
·
· Score: 1
I think people's right to life matters a bit more than exercising some extreme liberty and making someone who has 'guts to stand up and kill for what they believe in', 'happy'. How about having the guts to loving life even when things get ugly? How about having the guts to find a solution instead of murder?
Sorry to rant. When I hear stuff that promotes a strange, idiosyncratic law as a right over the far more important right to life I get mad.
The best learning I have ever done is when I have sat down with colleagues with a pad of paper and a pizza and just got down to fundamentals.
I think universities would find their results rocketed if they taped every lecture on video, and provided a library facility for people to watch them as and when needed.
I don't see how a laptop is realistically going to help a great deal. For most things like lectures, etc., the average person couldn't take notes fast enough on a computer.
Learning isn't something that magically happens when you distribute computers to lots of people.
We don't need to be able to write essays and do spreadsheets and listen to mp3s, and we don't need movie players (what are we going to watch, a 5 minute mpeg again and again?) all the while getting only a few hours of battery time.
I'm no Microsoft shrill, but I've got a Casio E115 PocketPC, and that has exactly the same battery life as that color visor.
Palm made it so big because they targeted the aspects where handhelds SHOULD be used, such as schedules, quick email on the fly, etc. Granted, the win CE devices are cool, but in this practical world of ours, they are annoying and useless.
Granted things like the movie player are not incredibly useful, but the primary use for my PDA are schedules, contacts, and quick email on the fly, and does it beautifully. I used to have an EPOC device (Psion 5), and I much prefer what I have now.
I have no love for Microsoft, but the OS on my PDA seems great and right for the job, and there's a whole load of useless eye candy too if I want it. If I don't, it's not like I'm forced to use it.
Saying 'Windows CD failed' [sic] is a bit premature!
Any you feel qualified to comment on things you don't understand? My Lord.
I was actually looking for clarification from you. I'm not really commenting on anything, I'm just wanting you to explain your point to me further, as I couldn't make sense of it.
I still don't see how his theology relates to the pros and cons of various economic/political systems. You clearly do, which is why I asked for your explanation!
Yet after issuing such a statement, they still will try to hold that the Secular Humanist creed (also known as "theory") of Evolution is science.
You seem to saying that evolution is unscientific.
How scientific are the alternatives to evolution, in comparison?
I'm confused after reading what you have said, as you appear to be saying that economics is more exact than the theory of evolution. I'm not entirely sure what this means. Whether or not this is the case has no bearing on how good various economic systems are.
I don't see how his theology not being a contemporary American Christian one has anything to do with his economic views. Please explain!
I justifiably came under fire just yesterday for being an absolute idiot, by having an online petition against software patents underneath an amazon banner. This was done due to my absolute bone-headedness. It was good to be given a bash with the clue-by-four.
I'd still like everybody to take the time to sign this petition against online petitions. I'm not making a cent. At the moment there are no sponsors.
When imagining the depths of stupidity, your own actions rarely seem to be prevalent. I was fairly horrified to see what I had done, getting up in the morning to see how the petition had got on. I suddenly realised that I just had not thought. It wasn't really that I cared for Amazon's money, nobody is going to get very fat on referrals from anyone, least of all me as I'm better off doing my day job. The banner was there simply because I didn't want to cause a debate by putting a banner there later on, and an Amazon ad was the first thing that came into my mind. I shall always remember from now on that the first thing that comes into my mind is usually wrong. When you can't see the wood for the trees, sit in a clearing and think about it.
I can see how that must have seemed like a lot of things - hypocrisy, stupidity, short-sightedness, idiocy, etc.
I've pulled the Amazon banner (at least graphic due to system nightmares) - thanks for telling me what I'd done - I would have probably never realised.
I remember in 1992, I found a utility that I've still got somewhere on a BBS called something like 'disk_id'. It allowed you to set the ID on your floppy to whatever ####-#### hex value you chose.
Oh what fun we had changing the codes to things like 'EFFF-0FFF'.
There's no guarantee that automatic checking would fix this bug. If the model didn't account for negative altitudes properly, it wouldn't catch the bug.
Still, it's probably easier to see the error in a clearly-written formula than in a few thousand lines of dispersed code.
You are right, however a mathematical proof, where you rigorously define inputs and outputs using set-theoretic terms, would, if *correctly* done, have probably avoided this. Formal specification languages such as the horrific Vienna Development Method should probably be used in these cases.
However, I'll be the first to say that I find it much more fun to mess around and cut those corners when not getting paid for my code. If I was in charge of developing software for military jets, I would absolutely insist on rigour.
He started this free software (or Open Source, whatever you want to call it...)
Open Source software is not necessarily free.
If you release 'open source' software, then people have the source. if you release free software then you are free to do with it what you want to achieve your own aims, and share it with people.
But they wouldn't get any poorer if they just listened to the radio instead of buying CD's.
People have a choice about buying a CD - they can buy it and then have licensed to listen to the music, or they can not buy it. To then copy it for free is not legal. Maybe it should be, but it isn't. There is no justification for it. If they buy the CD, then they accept the conditions. If they don't want the conditions, they don't buy the CD.
nope, it's not your right, that's your greedy inner child refusing to share, and play nice with the people (not wallets) you're supposedly making music for.
So he has to submit his music to you for free? It is not his right to keep it or charge people for a copy of it? Why not? He can choose to do anything he wants with it. He made it. You didn't, neither did anyone else. Nobody else but him can dictate the conditions that people would have to adhere to, if they choose to listen to his music. If they choose his music, they choose his conditions. If they do not, then it is they who is the 'greedy' one.
Slashdot Mirror
...the rest of the numbers are free-for-all. If you calculate the number of digits a cc can hold, it works out to 1,000,000,000,000 (10^12) - only 12 digits to guess.
. txt. Alternatively, do a google search with terms like 'Luhn', 'validation', 'mod 10', 'credit card check', etc...
I'm afraid that's incorrect. One can conduct a 'Luhn Check' on the digits - you'll find that if you just make one up, there is a high chance you'll get it wrong. A possibly incorrect summary is: The algorithm multiplies each digit by a number (1 or 2), replaces the number by mod10 of that number, adds them up, and gets the mod again - if it is 0, it is valid.
You can a perl version of this algorithm on http://www.extropia.com/hacks/source/cc_valid_lib
thenerd.
Isn't that how Great Britain screwed up their train system, having one outfit own the track while others ran the trains?
That is exactly right, and I pay dearly for it every morning and evening. However, with trains and tracks, there is not a large conflict of interest - there is not such a dynamic marketplace for tracks.
thenerd.
How many times are we going to see:
10 PRINT "Sega sucks"
20 GOTO 10
On the screens?
Maybe this will at least rekindle some of the exploratory and fun aspects of computing that have been lost since the ditching of the likes of GW-BASIC. Then, just maybe, kids will actually learn and explore instead of clicking and drooling.
thenerd.
Having just read the article, I'm gripped in a post-katz feeling of hysteria and paranoia. Should I be?
No, I don't think I should. Silicon Valley isn't the new anything. A lot of people have tech jobs there. A lot of people have other sorts of jobs. Yes, technology has got to the point where we can pirate. Just because we can doesn't mean the courts are forced not to prosecute us, as we are still responsible for our actions. Yes, gene research and biotechnology will have ramifications. Six months after an outcry, there'll be legislation (or at least there'll be lawyers).
While things change, it all stays the same really. Yes, technology impacts on things, but yes, the courts will catch up. We're not above the law. There's nothing stopping me going to kill someone, much like there's nothing stopping me pirating software, or invading somebodies privacy. The difference is that the crime of murder has been around a lot longer.
It's too easy to think the world will suddently melt down, if you read too much stuff from the net. (Like this article). Whether we need it, or want it, we'll get legislation. Nothing slides too much without being nailed down. We pay lawyers too much.
thenerd.
Can you say "Prior Art"? I thought you could.
thenerd.
There's a company that makes DJ mixers and turntables called KAM.
thenerd.
Just a small point, but violent gun crime in London looks like a kids fairytale compared to the stuff in the states.
He is wrong in saying that eliminating inheritance tax will give rise to negative effects in society, because it will in fact bring about a stronger economy due to the fact that rather than having money tied in up in charitable foundations, it will be in more liquid forms, mainly equity.
Society is not the same as economy. Society may not get better because of money being freed up. Granted it should follow, but it doesn't necessarily. Money is not everything. He is right.
Why is liquid money better than money *used* by charities? This makes no sense! What use is a pile of cash floating around when you could help someone that needs it?
thenerd.
This is a bad thing sometimes, because extra money gained by having an expensive thing can be spent on making the product interoperable, modular, and higher quality. These properties are good.
thenerd.
I think people's right to life matters a bit more than exercising some extreme liberty and making someone who has 'guts to stand up and kill for what they believe in', 'happy'. How about having the guts to loving life even when things get ugly? How about having the guts to find a solution instead of murder?
Sorry to rant. When I hear stuff that promotes a strange, idiosyncratic law as a right over the far more important right to life I get mad.
Though, perhaps I've bitten.
thenerd.
The best learning I have ever done is when I have sat down with colleagues with a pad of paper and a pizza and just got down to fundamentals.
I think universities would find their results rocketed if they taped every lecture on video, and provided a library facility for people to watch them as and when needed.
I don't see how a laptop is realistically going to help a great deal. For most things like lectures, etc., the average person couldn't take notes fast enough on a computer.
Learning isn't something that magically happens when you distribute computers to lots of people.
thenerd
This means that the closest competitor outputs 4096 colors, or 12-bit; not 256 colors, or 8-bit.
The Casio E115 has 16 bit colour, not 12 bit. At 320x240. Doom has been ported to it, and is actually playable and looks lovely.
thenerd.
We don't need to be able to write essays and do spreadsheets and listen to mp3s, and we don't need movie players (what are we going to watch, a 5 minute mpeg again and again?) all the while getting only a few hours of battery time.
I'm no Microsoft shrill, but I've got a Casio E115 PocketPC, and that has exactly the same battery life as that color visor.
Palm made it so big because they targeted the aspects where handhelds SHOULD be used, such as schedules, quick email on the fly, etc. Granted, the win CE devices are cool, but in this practical world of ours, they are annoying and useless.
Granted things like the movie player are not incredibly useful, but the primary use for my PDA are schedules, contacts, and quick email on the fly, and does it beautifully. I used to have an EPOC device (Psion 5), and I much prefer what I have now.
I have no love for Microsoft, but the OS on my PDA seems great and right for the job, and there's a whole load of useless eye candy too if I want it. If I don't, it's not like I'm forced to use it.
Saying 'Windows CD failed' [sic] is a bit premature!
thenerd.
Any you feel qualified to comment on things you don't understand? My Lord.
I was actually looking for clarification from you. I'm not really commenting on anything, I'm just wanting you to explain your point to me further, as I couldn't make sense of it.
I still don't see how his theology relates to the pros and cons of various economic/political systems. You clearly do, which is why I asked for your explanation!
Thanks.
thenerd.
Yet after issuing such a statement, they still will try to hold that the Secular Humanist creed (also known as "theory") of Evolution is science.
You seem to saying that evolution is unscientific.
How scientific are the alternatives to evolution, in comparison?
I'm confused after reading what you have said, as you appear to be saying that economics is more exact than the theory of evolution. I'm not entirely sure what this means. Whether or not this is the case has no bearing on how good various economic systems are.
I don't see how his theology not being a contemporary American Christian one has anything to do with his economic views. Please explain!
thenerd.
I justifiably came under fire just yesterday for being an absolute idiot, by having an online petition against software patents underneath an amazon banner. This was done due to my absolute bone-headedness. It was good to be given a bash with the clue-by-four.
/fpt/view.cgi?id=1.
I'd still like everybody to take the time to sign this petition against online petitions. I'm not making a cent. At the moment there are no sponsors.
http://freepetitions.com/cgi- bin
Please sign against software patents if you believe they halt innovation.
thenerd.
When imagining the depths of stupidity, your own actions rarely seem to be prevalent. I was fairly horrified to see what I had done, getting up in the morning to see how the petition had got on. I suddenly realised that I just had not thought. It wasn't really that I cared for Amazon's money, nobody is going to get very fat on referrals from anyone, least of all me as I'm better off doing my day job. The banner was there simply because I didn't want to cause a debate by putting a banner there later on, and an Amazon ad was the first thing that came into my mind. I shall always remember from now on that the first thing that comes into my mind is usually wrong. When you can't see the wood for the trees, sit in a clearing and think about it.
I can see how that must have seemed like a lot of things - hypocrisy, stupidity, short-sightedness, idiocy, etc.
I've pulled the Amazon banner (at least graphic due to system nightmares) - thanks for telling me what I'd done - I would have probably never realised.
Please sign it.
Fair play. Sometimes you cannot see the wood for the trees, myself included.
Duly chastened.
thenerd.
Hey,
/fpt/view.cgi?id=1 and put your name against software patents. I believe that patents really work against the industry as a whole and we do need to protest.
Admittedly I've just started this site, but the first petition I've set up is against software patents.
Go to http://freepetitions.com/cgi- bin
thenerd.
I remember in 1992, I found a utility that I've still got somewhere on a BBS called something like 'disk_id'. It allowed you to set the ID on your floppy to whatever ####-#### hex value you chose.
Oh what fun we had changing the codes to things like 'EFFF-0FFF'.
thenerd.
There's no guarantee that automatic checking would fix this bug. If the model didn't account for negative altitudes properly, it wouldn't catch the bug.
Still, it's probably easier to see the error in a clearly-written formula than in a few thousand lines of dispersed code.
You are right, however a mathematical proof, where you rigorously define inputs and outputs using set-theoretic terms, would, if *correctly* done, have probably avoided this. Formal specification languages such as the horrific Vienna Development Method should probably be used in these cases.
However, I'll be the first to say that I find it much more fun to mess around and cut those corners when not getting paid for my code. If I was in charge of developing software for military jets, I would absolutely insist on rigour.
thenerd.
You could try Kenjin, from Autonomy. It has an extremely good press and is basically what you describe.
www.kenjin.com.
thenerd.
He started this free software (or Open Source, whatever you want to call it...)
Open Source software is not necessarily free.
If you release 'open source' software, then people have the source. if you release free software then you are free to do with it what you want to achieve your own aims, and share it with people.
thenerd.
The rich get richer and poorer get poorer.
But they wouldn't get any poorer if they just listened to the radio instead of buying CD's.
People have a choice about buying a CD - they can buy it and then have licensed to listen to the music, or they can not buy it. To then copy it for free is not legal. Maybe it should be, but it isn't. There is no justification for it. If they buy the CD, then they accept the conditions. If they don't want the conditions, they don't buy the CD.
thenerd.
nope, it's not your right, that's your greedy inner child refusing to share, and play nice with the people (not wallets) you're supposedly making music for.
So he has to submit his music to you for free? It is not his right to keep it or charge people for a copy of it? Why not? He can choose to do anything he wants with it. He made it. You didn't, neither did anyone else. Nobody else but him can dictate the conditions that people would have to adhere to, if they choose to listen to his music. If they choose his music, they choose his conditions. If they do not, then it is they who is the 'greedy' one.
Liberty is not impunity.
thenerd.