actively blocking them based on their browser is outright moronic.
You wouldn't like to mention this to Wightlink - http://www.wightlink.co.uk/ - would you? I've contacted them several times but they decline to fix their system.
Surely the obvious thing to do with this is to scrub Windows and install Linux on the other processor too. Then you can have low-power instant-on Linux for long battery life and quick tasks, then a fairly transparent transition to high power Linux when you want to do something requiring more grunt. It would be interesting to see whether you can have both running at the same time and communicating with each other.
IT as a subject in British schools is deeply flawed.
You're not kidding. ICT (as they call it) as taught at GCSE level is an almost totally made up subject. If you went in to an exam with, say, just 20 years of experience in software development then you'd pass but you wouldn't get a top grade. To do that you need to learn the parallel world of the ICT examiner.
An example question - sorry I don't have the paper here so I can't quote it verbatim, but the essence is correct.
"Given a computer and an Internet connection, what else do you need to be able to access the web?"
First thoughts about this question tend to come up with all sorts of possible answers. You can be silly and say "a monitor", or "a mains lead for the computer", but then you settle down and try to think of sensible answers. Discarding, "an operating system" I settled on "a web browser".
Trouble is, it was a multiple choice question and that wasn't one of the options. I can't remember all the options now but I can tell you that the right answer (in the parallel world of GCSE ICT) was, "An ISP".
Huh! Hang on a minute - you said I'd already got an Internet connection. Apparently not - in the parallel world of the examiners you can have an Internet connection without having an ISP, and said Internet connection won't work until you identify an ISP.
It's a very silly subject, and teaches practically nothing about real IT. It's more a training course in how to use Microsoft Office.
So is the photograph accompanying the story of the woman in question, or is it just a photograph of *a* woman in case we don't know what a woman looks like?
The Beta is available for free to anyone that wants it. Why not go download and test it instead of making crazy speculations?
I tried to download it, but it seems to involve a classic bit of Microsoft fuck-wittery and incompetent development. The old "well, the download works in my browser so it must be OK" response of the sixth-rate programmer.
A bit of research tells me exactly what's broken about the download, and I could go and find a different PC in order to complete it, but there's absolutely no reason why I should have to do that. The broken downloader doesn't even say, "Sorry, the configuration of your system won't allow me to work" - it just pauses for a few seconds and then does nothing. No message, no information - nothing.
Now why is it that I can download stuff from millions of sites all over the 'net but a big corporation like Microsoft can't master such basic technology?
*This* illustrates exactly why Microsoft products aren't fit for everyday use - they break in really stupid ways. From the broken FDISK in MS-DOS and early versions of Windows (would pretend it couldn't see Linux partitions half the time) to a broken downloader on their web site. It illustrates precisely their attitude to customers and reminds me exactly why I stopped using Microsoft products.
The only part of the GP story I haven't seen before (and can't find a reference for) is the bit about the design not working on other FPGAs of the same specification. The closest story is that of Adrian Thompson at the University of Sussex who got a circuit with unconnected elements which nonetheless seem to be needed in order for the whole thing to achieve its goal. Nothing about the design only working on specific instances of the FPGA.
In fact, i can drive past a cop at the speed limit in the rain and not get a ticket though clearly I have a much lower margin of safety going 65 in the rain than I do going 65 on dry pavement.
When I was last in New Zealand (admittedly over 20 years ago) they used to have variable speed limit signs. A given stretch of road would have a sign saying that the speed limit was, perhaps, 50 mph in dry and quiet conditions, but 30 mph if wet or busy. I presume they worked.
BTW, you're meant to drive on the road, not on the pavement.
Not sure what they mean by "Instead, they are doing the completely different, and more rigorous, International GCSEs, which are still in demand in Commonwealth countries."
It's a reference to the IGCSEs which are still in demand from countries which use the UK to provide their exams. Presumably the education system in Australia is large enough that you don't need to buy exams in from outside.
I have experience of only the maths IGCSE. It's much more like the old maths O-level. It's widely used in UK independent school because it's seen as being a better test of students' ability. The government won't allow it to be used in state schools for the same reason.
The year after I started teaching (summer 2004) the pass mark for the EdExcel higher level GCSE maths exam was, wait for it... 13.5% It would have had to be even lower to meet the government's required pass rate if there hadn't been coursework to massage the figures with.
It is true that exams have gotten easier. But you cant compare a GCSE with the old O-levels and have a like for like comparison. For a start most students today take about 10 GCSEs. Some take as many as 16! Taking that many O-levels would have been insane.
Interesting theory - I took 11 O-levels. (Actually, I took 12, but I failed Eng Lit for various reasons.)
Actually, private schools consistently get better grade averages because:
1. They select their intake
Not true. I used to teach in an independent school which quite specifically *didn't* select its intake. It got better results because of reason 6, which you missed:
With a code size of 11 kilobytes and a dynamic memory usage of less than 2 kilobytes (yes, kilobytes!)
I'm left wondering whether the submitter thinks this is impressively small or impressively large. Perhaps I'm getting old, but to me 11 kilobytes seems rather large. I might be impressed by someone squeezing a stack into, say, 301 bytes, but surely you can implement *anything* in 11 kilobytes.
The title "No IPV6 for UK broadband users" is significantly misleading. BT are far from being the only broadband provider in the UK. My ISP - using ADSL over BT lines - provides me with full IPv6 connectivity and has done for some time.
BT and the other big players are targeting the mass market and Joe Public hasn't even heard of IPv6 yet, let alone asked for it. If you want competent technical support then you don't use BT or any of the other mass-market players.
Scientists estimate that 98% of the minifigs created in the last three decades have lost a hand in a tragic vacuum accident, been melted by a magnifying glass, or been eaten by your dog.
I've never been able to make any Flash site at all work with gnash (I'm currently using gnash 0.8.2).
I too am using 64 bit Linux and and just recently gnash has come on by leaps and bounds. I'm currently running 0.8.3 and suddenly quite a lot of things (including youtube) work.
I'm puzzled by the original article though. I've always found Adobe flash on 32-bit Linux to work without problem. The real issue seems to me to be their failure to produce a 64-bit version of flash for *any* platform - Linux or Windows. With the steady shift to 64-bit computing, they're going to find themselves frozen out soon if they aren't careful.
Leave it alone and only apply the security updates. I have a server happily running sarge that I have no plans to change.
Good advice. Interestingly I've spent much of today doing a virtual upgrade (upgrading a copy) to a server which is currently running Sarge. I've been upgrading it to Etch! I might even go mad and upgrade it to etch-and-a-half.
I have a server running stable, and I don't have physical access to it. Does anyone have any practical advice on the safest way to handle the upgrade?
The first question to ask yourself is "Why do I want to upgrade this server?". Until you can come up with a compelling reason the best advice is - don't upgrade it.
Security patches for etch will continue to be available for some time yet. If there isn't a problem, don't try to fix it. Wait until you have a need to retire that piece of hardware and replace it with a new box. Then install the current stable Debian on the new box, test it, and finally swap it in as a replacement.
I can understand someone upgrading a desktop for the latest eye candy or just simple availability of nice new programs (and there are a *lot* in Lenny) but if your remote headless server is already doing its job fine with Etch then leave it alone (security patches excepted of course).
Speaking as a maths teacher (but formerly a programmer for 20 years) the formula editor is the one thing that enabled me to insist on having OOo installed on my school Windows PC (in addition to the Microsoft Office which was installed by default). At the time (admittedly about 5 years ago) the OOo formula editor worked and the Microsoft Office one simply didn't in several odd ways. For instance you couldn't embed a formula in a table in MO, which made it kind of useless.
I now use OOo all the time because I have to use Windows at school and I use Linux at home so it gives me easy portability. In September I start at a new school and everything there is Apple, so I suspect I'll still be pushing for OOo.
Obviously I wouldn't push OOo as a viable substitute for LaTeX, but it does seem to have the edge on MO in some areas.
(Incidentally, I have no difficulty with interworking with colleagues who still use MO.)
When the distance from source to sink is measured in meters instead, wouldn't it make sense to avoid the inversion step, and just use a voltage stepdown transformer, keeping everything DC?
How do you use a stepdown transformer if everything is DC?
Slashdot Mirror
actively blocking them based on their browser is outright moronic.
You wouldn't like to mention this to Wightlink - http://www.wightlink.co.uk/ - would you? I've contacted them several times but they decline to fix their system.
Or even the Principal's office!
(Silly Slashdot can't tell the difference between this post and its parent so I have to add some more text.)
Surely the obvious thing to do with this is to scrub Windows and install Linux on the other processor too. Then you can have low-power instant-on Linux for long battery life and quick tasks, then a fairly transparent transition to high power Linux when you want to do something requiring more grunt. It would be interesting to see whether you can have both running at the same time and communicating with each other.
IT as a subject in British schools is deeply flawed.
You're not kidding. ICT (as they call it) as taught at GCSE level is an almost totally made up subject. If you went in to an exam with, say, just 20 years of experience in software development then you'd pass but you wouldn't get a top grade. To do that you need to learn the parallel world of the ICT examiner.
An example question - sorry I don't have the paper here so I can't quote it verbatim, but the essence is correct.
"Given a computer and an Internet connection, what else do you need to be able to access the web?"
First thoughts about this question tend to come up with all sorts of possible answers. You can be silly and say "a monitor", or "a mains lead for the computer", but then you settle down and try to think of sensible answers. Discarding, "an operating system" I settled on "a web browser".
Trouble is, it was a multiple choice question and that wasn't one of the options. I can't remember all the options now but I can tell you that the right answer (in the parallel world of GCSE ICT) was, "An ISP".
Huh! Hang on a minute - you said I'd already got an Internet connection. Apparently not - in the parallel world of the examiners you can have an Internet connection without having an ISP, and said Internet connection won't work until you identify an ISP.
It's a very silly subject, and teaches practically nothing about real IT. It's more a training course in how to use Microsoft Office.
So is the photograph accompanying the story of the woman in question, or is it just a photograph of *a* woman in case we don't know what a woman looks like?
So the download didn't work and it's proof that ALL microsoft products are rubbish?
No - please read and respond to what I actually wrote rather than putting up straw men.
The Beta is available for free to anyone that wants it. Why not go download and test it instead of making crazy speculations?
I tried to download it, but it seems to involve a classic bit of Microsoft fuck-wittery and incompetent development. The old "well, the download works in my browser so it must be OK" response of the sixth-rate programmer.
A bit of research tells me exactly what's broken about the download, and I could go and find a different PC in order to complete it, but there's absolutely no reason why I should have to do that. The broken downloader doesn't even say, "Sorry, the configuration of your system won't allow me to work" - it just pauses for a few seconds and then does nothing. No message, no information - nothing.
Now why is it that I can download stuff from millions of sites all over the 'net but a big corporation like Microsoft can't master such basic technology?
*This* illustrates exactly why Microsoft products aren't fit for everyday use - they break in really stupid ways. From the broken FDISK in MS-DOS and early versions of Windows (would pretend it couldn't see Linux partitions half the time) to a broken downloader on their web site. It illustrates precisely their attitude to customers and reminds me exactly why I stopped using Microsoft products.
Is that why LED brake lights on cars flicker? Are they being driven by some sort of switching circuit?
A simple Google search for "fpga genetic algorithm" shows up references quite quickly - e.g.
http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio3/AI/GEN_ALGO/gen_algo.html
The only part of the GP story I haven't seen before (and can't find a reference for) is the bit about the design not working on other FPGAs of the same specification. The closest story is that of Adrian Thompson at the University of Sussex who got a circuit with unconnected elements which nonetheless seem to be needed in order for the whole thing to achieve its goal. Nothing about the design only working on specific instances of the FPGA.
In fact, i can drive past a cop at the speed limit in the rain and not get a ticket though clearly I have a much lower margin of safety going 65 in the rain than I do going 65 on dry pavement.
When I was last in New Zealand (admittedly over 20 years ago) they used to have variable speed limit signs. A given stretch of road would have a sign saying that the speed limit was, perhaps, 50 mph in dry and quiet conditions, but 30 mph if wet or busy. I presume they worked.
BTW, you're meant to drive on the road, not on the pavement.
That's not a low UID
Paper tape - accept no substitute.
Apart from anything else, the standing waves you can get as it goes through the reader are alone enough to justify it.
Not sure what they mean by "Instead, they are doing the completely different, and more rigorous, International GCSEs, which are still in demand in Commonwealth countries."
It's a reference to the IGCSEs which are still in demand from countries which use the UK to provide their exams. Presumably the education system in Australia is large enough that you don't need to buy exams in from outside.
I have experience of only the maths IGCSE. It's much more like the old maths O-level. It's widely used in UK independent school because it's seen as being a better test of students' ability. The government won't allow it to be used in state schools for the same reason.
The year after I started teaching (summer 2004) the pass mark for the EdExcel higher level GCSE maths exam was, wait for it... 13.5% It would have had to be even lower to meet the government's required pass rate if there hadn't been coursework to massage the figures with.
It is true that exams have gotten easier. But you cant compare a GCSE with the old O-levels and have a like for like comparison. For a start most students today take about 10 GCSEs. Some take as many as 16! Taking that many O-levels would have been insane.
Interesting theory - I took 11 O-levels. (Actually, I took 12, but I failed Eng Lit for various reasons.)
Actually, private schools consistently get better grade averages because:
1. They select their intake
Not true. I used to teach in an independent school which quite specifically *didn't* select its intake. It got better results because of reason 6, which you missed:
6. They have a higher teacher/pupil ratio.
With a code size of 11 kilobytes and a dynamic memory usage of less than 2 kilobytes (yes, kilobytes!)
I'm left wondering whether the submitter thinks this is impressively small or impressively large. Perhaps I'm getting old, but to me 11 kilobytes seems rather large. I might be impressed by someone squeezing a stack into, say, 301 bytes, but surely you can implement *anything* in 11 kilobytes.
AAISP is trying to provide IPv6 and can't because BT won't fix a bug in their network
Huh? I use AAISP and have no difficulty with the IPv6 which they provide (over a BT line).
The title "No IPV6 for UK broadband users" is significantly misleading. BT are far from being the only broadband provider in the UK. My ISP - using ADSL over BT lines - provides me with full IPv6 connectivity and has done for some time.
BT and the other big players are targeting the mass market and Joe Public hasn't even heard of IPv6 yet, let alone asked for it. If you want competent technical support then you don't use BT or any of the other mass-market players.
Scientists estimate that 98% of the minifigs created in the last three decades have lost a hand in a tragic vacuum accident, been melted by a magnifying glass, or been eaten by your dog.
That dog must rattle as it walks.
I've never been able to make any Flash site at all work with gnash (I'm currently using gnash 0.8.2).
I too am using 64 bit Linux and and just recently gnash has come on by leaps and bounds. I'm currently running 0.8.3 and suddenly quite a lot of things (including youtube) work.
I'm puzzled by the original article though. I've always found Adobe flash on 32-bit Linux to work without problem. The real issue seems to me to be their failure to produce a 64-bit version of flash for *any* platform - Linux or Windows. With the steady shift to 64-bit computing, they're going to find themselves frozen out soon if they aren't careful.
Leave it alone and only apply the security updates. I have a server happily running sarge that I have no plans to change.
Good advice. Interestingly I've spent much of today doing a virtual upgrade (upgrading a copy) to a server which is currently running Sarge. I've been upgrading it to Etch! I might even go mad and upgrade it to etch-and-a-half.
I have a server running stable, and I don't have physical access to it. Does anyone have any practical advice on the safest way to handle the upgrade?
The first question to ask yourself is "Why do I want to upgrade this server?". Until you can come up with a compelling reason the best advice is - don't upgrade it.
Security patches for etch will continue to be available for some time yet. If there isn't a problem, don't try to fix it. Wait until you have a need to retire that piece of hardware and replace it with a new box. Then install the current stable Debian on the new box, test it, and finally swap it in as a replacement.
I can understand someone upgrading a desktop for the latest eye candy or just simple availability of nice new programs (and there are a *lot* in Lenny) but if your remote headless server is already doing its job fine with Etch then leave it alone (security patches excepted of course).
Speaking as a maths teacher (but formerly a programmer for 20 years) the formula editor is the one thing that enabled me to insist on having OOo installed on my school Windows PC (in addition to the Microsoft Office which was installed by default). At the time (admittedly about 5 years ago) the OOo formula editor worked and the Microsoft Office one simply didn't in several odd ways. For instance you couldn't embed a formula in a table in MO, which made it kind of useless.
I now use OOo all the time because I have to use Windows at school and I use Linux at home so it gives me easy portability. In September I start at a new school and everything there is Apple, so I suspect I'll still be pushing for OOo.
Obviously I wouldn't push OOo as a viable substitute for LaTeX, but it does seem to have the edge on MO in some areas.
(Incidentally, I have no difficulty with interworking with colleagues who still use MO.)
When the distance from source to sink is measured in meters instead, wouldn't it make sense to avoid the inversion step, and just use a voltage stepdown transformer, keeping everything DC?
How do you use a stepdown transformer if everything is DC?
Parent makes no such claim.
Yes it does! For goodness sake go and read it instead of making a fool of yourself.