What? Does everyone's choice of browser really mean that much anymore? I mean, I know MS likes to dominate every last possible interface and platform to the full extent of their abilities, but the browser wars seem to be over. Back when Netscape and MS were going for each others jugular, their was the percieved danger of Netscape being some kind of new platform for software development. That does not seem all that great a threat nowadays. So, what is the big deal from MS's standpoint?
Re:Do you have an 'S' on your shirt?
on
RFC for Spammers
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· Score: 1
That is exactly the right thing to do.
I just started working for a company that does telemarketing. While I am not in a department that engages in any selling, some of their training class was combined with mine. All people who are involved in selling on the phone are required to use at least 2 rebuttals from a list that we have on the computers. Thses are stock answers to comments like "i don't need that' or 'i don't like to buy things over the phone'. There are only 2 exceptions: you are not required (note, it is not a question of being allowed. It is a question of being REQUIRED) to push yuor sale if a) the client is retired or b) they ask to be put on the do not call list. So by all means reply to all telemarketers with 'do not call me again'. You are saving both you and the hapless wage slave on the line time.
I read several relpies saying how proud they were that, when asked about the case of links to code being taken down, he responded with 'I don't know yet, I can't answer yet.' Now, I don't mean to imply that I am in any way displeased with Rep. Boucher's answers. I found them encouraging and quite honest. But I don't see how that particular response was in any way unique. As an avid watcher of Sunday morning talking head shows, I can't tell you how many times I have heard a politico respond to Tim Russert with 'I can't really comment on that now, I'll have to look into it.' Now, I don't think there is anything Wrong with that, but it isn't really all that unique and special. Not like his very encouraging comments on the need to limit the length of copyright protection, which I definately have to applaud.
An interesting story, but I am pretty sure it is fictional. Illustrative, but fictional.
I first heard it in Asimov's first joke collection. His version went like this:
A fabulously wealthy and stylish lady was shopping for an outfit she could wear to a party that evening. Realizing that the perfect hat would absolutely complete the look for the evening, she headed off to Pierre's Milleniers on 5th. Pierre himself was at the desk when she walked in. 'Madamme' he exclamed, 'How good to see you'. Upon hearing her sad tale of woe (Imagine the horror of not looking absolutely fabulous for your party...) he said 'I have the perfect thing.' He pulled a length of ribbon from behind the desk and, within 3 minutes, had woven it into a beyond stunning creation that would be the talk of the town. He handed it to the lady and said, 'For you, 75 dollars'.
At the time this was an appreciable sum, and the lady blanchyed a bit. 'Pierre, why so much? It is only a piece of ribbon.'
Pierre chuckled and plucked at a knot on the side of the hat. It immediately lost all form and became a bit of ribbon once again. 'Madamme, the hat is $75. The ribbon is yours for free.'
I figured someone might find some background to the tale of the server repairman interesting.
This leads me to an interesting idea. How about a remake of the New York episode of Iron Chef.
We open with an ominous shot of the darkened kitchen stadium. The camera slowly crawls its way along the kitchen counters. James Earl Jones provides the narration:
For years Kitchen Stadium has been a bastion of Japanese culinary arts. Here tradition has been married to innovation as they struggle to guide an age old custom into the twenty first century. This is a land of honor and stoic struggle.
And today we loudmouth Americans are going to open a can of whupass on those foreign bastards.
Now we cut away to a high speed Mtv style montage of New York City intermixed with bartenders doing silly tricks with botttles and Emeril going 'Bam'. After a suitably driving techno beat builds up to fever pitch, we close in on that guy from the boxing matchs yelling "Let's get ready to RRRRRUUUUMMMBBBLLLLEEE".
Next shot, interior of kitchen stadium. The stands are packed with screaming american fans. Some imported dutcg soccer hooligans are hitting on the clueless Japanese actress in the judging booth. They start to do the wave. The normally reserved Iron Chefs are visibly disturbed by the noise and commotion. Except for the curiously stoic Iron Chef Hong Kong. Wait, Iron Chef Hong Kong? Who could that be? Why its Jet Li. And Jet doesn't like loud, disrespectful fans in kitchen stadium. He proceeds to make his displeasure known, in ways that only Mr. Li can.
He plucks a live squid from the seafood tank. A few wild whirls of wicked whipping tentacles and several fans are going to be pissing black ink for the next few weeks. Emiril Lagasse leaps from the stands to come to the defense of a soon to be defenestrated David Rosengarten only to find himself on the recieving end of the razor sharp edge of a cluster of Japanese War Seaweed. Emeril will Bam! no more.
Sneaking behind Jet is the treacherous she-cook from Hades: Martha Stewart. It seems that she's got the drop on him. Little does she know that that was no clueless ingenue in the judging panel. It was HK movie star and protecter of Asian Cooking Shows the world over Michelle Yeoh. Before the Mistress of Affordable KMart Housewares knows what has happened, Yeoh rains down a storm of Wustoff-Trident death on the housemaking maven. The finely tempered German knives pierce Martha's lungs, killing her instantly.
A hush settles over the survivorsa of the crowd. Only Bobby Flay is unharmed on the Western side of the conflict. Iron Chef Japan Masaharu Morimoto stands before him, his hand on the sword at his side. (Who knew Wustoff-Trident made katanas, too). A thin bead of sweat makes its way down Flay's quivering face. Morimoto adresses the once cocky now urine soaked cook. He says: A true chef does not disrespect his stove by standing on it. Now the blade flies from its sheath. Now Flay dies.
Fade to Black.
My nick comes from a Spartan general who led a band of 300 troops to hold a mountainpass at Thermopylae against the invading Persian army. The idea of a few hundred troops facing off against an army reported to be a hundred thousand strong seemed very cool.
I first heard the name from a story in the Bolo series from Baen books called "The Legacy of Leonidas" where a monstrous sentient tank sacrifices itself to fend off an invading army. (Those cheesy Bolo stories are big on self sacrificing sentient tanks:)
A interesting side note: my mother was very mad at me when I told her about my hotmail adress, eduardoleonidas@hotmail.com. She had never heard the story about the greek fellows, she just knew the name to be the middle name of the former dictator of the Dominican Republic Trujillo.
Mr. Carr spends a lot of this article complaining about the lack of accountablity on the interent. He claims that the we need regulations guaranteeing that the authorship or origin of materials found and line can be traced. The abscence of this makes the internet dangerous and useless, according to him.
I fail to see why this is such a huge deal? How about if, instead of introducing such regulations, we educate people about why not to believe everything you read. Rather than introducing costly and difficult to enforce regulations about attributing sources, we have PSA's where James Earl Jones recites, in his best this-is-god-speaking tone, that strangers on the internet sometimes lie or are incorrect. That seems more sensible to me than having the Ministry of Truth licensing websites.
You don't really think he went to FAO, Circuit City, or the MALL! do you? Good god man, have you seen the people who frequent such establishments. That's what the help is for...
A lot of what you said sounds great. You are right, sexuality should not be a part of the scouting experience (except of course for the porn magazines shared at summer camp. That was the best part:). And I think it is perfectly legitimite to not allow gay men to donate blood. Not accepting blood from people that are at much higher risk to be HIV+ makes perfect sense. My problem comes from assuming that gay men are more likely to make their sexuality part of their role as scouts or scoutmasters. If my straight scout master could keep his sex life out of the job, so can a gay one. I also do not like the assumption that gay men are more likely to be pedophiles. I do not belive it to be true and I have never seen any evidence that it is.
So, unless you think that gay men really are pedophiles or are more likely to set out to convert children to their cause, I don't recommend you donate money to them. YMMV
I was a boy scout when I was younger, and found it to be a very rewarding experience. I made a lot of friends, and learned a great deal. Not to mention the white-water rafting:) I used to be very proud of being a boy scout.
That was before their policy regarding gay members and scout masters. I understand that as a private organization they have every right to discriminate against members for whatever reason they like. It still made me lose all respect for the BSA. If anti-gay policies do not bother you, by all means give generously to the organization. Personally, I'll not have anything to do with them until they revise their policies.
Admittedly, Playboy is the only sex magazine in the Periodicals collection, but a quick search of subjects Pornagraphy and Erotica turns up a bit of historical porn from 1911, numerous collections of erotic stories, and at least 3 biographies of porn starts with plenty of visuals (I know about the last 3 because I've read them all:)
Librarys, good ones, collect a Huge variety of stuff. It is unbelievable the number of volumes of stuff in there on esoteric subjects. My favorite oddball find in UD's is a multi-volume collection on why the Masons are evil from 1893. A decent library will collect many items that seem of little use right now and keep them for future study. Really, the function of the library is to catalogue knowledge, not trim it.
My knowlegde of encryption is limited to a beat up copy of Applied Cryptography by my desk, but I think I can offer a bit of info, since you seem to not know very much about why RSA is in the public domain.
RSA was a patented algorithm. The patent expires today. In an attempt to either defuse publicity surrounding the patent expiration or just be nice guys, depending on your opinion of the folks at RSA Data Security Inc, they released the algorithm into the public domain early. In any case, the algorithm is not some weak piece of crypto that has been cracked. IIRC, the various crypto challenges that have so far been put forth by RSADSI and been succesfully completed involved at the highest a 129 digit number. RSA keys are between 512 and 2048 digits. This algorithm is used in a great many commercial products. It is used in PGP. And it I' pretty sure it is illegal to export without a license:)
If RSA had a better public key algorithm, they would be selling that one, instead.
I was looking at the fcc web page, and I was only able to find two stories that mentioned copy protection in Digital TV's. Both say that some measure of copy protection is not against the rules, but not that they are required. CAn anyone find something different? Links below. First Story Second Press Release
Eduardo Ramirez
For Calculus Girls to be really useful...
on
80 Proof Quickies
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· Score: 3
...They need to sort them by region! I mean, really, how can I use this site to find myself some deep derivative action, eh? Sure, there's always online-romances, but at the end of the day one needs a girl in your own time zone to get all integral with. There's no love like logarithmic love.
>He is a dangerous, slimy, man. Do not trust anything he says; he's probably wrong, and either way, his goal is to eliminate competition from his market by making his system the only viable one - while still holding all the trademarks and making sure everyone has to buy his products.
Ryan Dancey is a lot of things, but slimy is not one of them. Dangerous, maybe.
A few years ago Dancey was Brand Manager of FRPG, makers of the Legend of the Five Rings and Doomtown CCG's. He came up with a plan called Rolling Thunder that would make collecting CCG's cheaper and easier. First, Rarity would be flattened, making it easier to get all the cards you needed. Secondly, releases would be small monthly sets instead of big quaterly releases. This would mean that a complete set would run about $20-$40 a month instead of $150-$200 every 3 or 4 months. It could have made ccg's much easier to get into and expanded made it much easier to collect.
The problem? Players didn't like things being cheaper. They complained about the new cards not being worth as much as oldere ones. Today Scorpion Clan Coup (the first rolling thunder product) can be had for pennies while other expansions, even arguably weaker ones such as Anvil of Despair, are increasing in value all the times. Dealers had their own beef; those monthly releases took up too much shelf space. In posts to rec.games.frp.industry Dancey revealed that sales during this experiment plummeted and half of gthe games released during this time period never got off the ground. (The glut of releases during that time and other factors are even more off-topic than this, feel free to look up Rolling Thunder or Dancey's author profile at dejanews for more info.)
Ryan Dancey likes to come up with big ideas. He wants to make games into a huge, famous business. So famous that a discussion of D&D won't include moderated-up posts that assume this is a discussion about a computer product:) . He is always brutaly honest about his motives, in this case to make the most money for his company as possible. That is, after all, his job. But he also loves games and wants them to grow as much as possible. You can say all you want about how lousy AD&D is and how bottom-line focused Wotc is, but don't think that it's because these people are evil. Dancey and Peter Adkinson and everyone else at Wotc are gamers who love games. Even if they have some really kooky ideas about them every now and again.
Slashdot Mirror
b00bies
...that after leaving my user logged into /. on a public computer in IE in Windows XP, I am ditching Microsoft as well
God I am such an ass
How about open anuses on the web? I think I left my anus open.
And what is this German shit I have as a .sig? Am I a Nazi or something. God please mod this shit into the gutter
I left my user logged in on a public computer. What an ass I am
The story is at wired.com's web site. The Salon movie review linked in the story has a link to it.
What? Does everyone's choice of browser really mean that much anymore? I mean, I know MS likes to dominate every last possible interface and platform to the full extent of their abilities, but the browser wars seem to be over. Back when Netscape and MS were going for each others jugular, their was the percieved danger of Netscape being some kind of new platform for software development. That does not seem all that great a threat nowadays. So, what is the big deal from MS's standpoint?
That is exactly the right thing to do.
I just started working for a company that does telemarketing. While I am not in a department that engages in any selling, some of their training class was combined with mine. All people who are involved in selling on the phone are required to use at least 2 rebuttals from a list that we have on the computers. Thses are stock answers to comments like "i don't need that' or 'i don't like to buy things over the phone'. There are only 2 exceptions: you are not required (note, it is not a question of being allowed. It is a question of being REQUIRED) to push yuor sale if a) the client is retired or b) they ask to be put on the do not call list. So by all means reply to all telemarketers with 'do not call me again'. You are saving both you and the hapless wage slave on the line time.
I read several relpies saying how proud they were that, when asked about the case of links to code being taken down, he responded with 'I don't know yet, I can't answer yet.' Now, I don't mean to imply that I am in any way displeased with Rep. Boucher's answers. I found them encouraging and quite honest. But I don't see how that particular response was in any way unique. As an avid watcher of Sunday morning talking head shows, I can't tell you how many times I have heard a politico respond to Tim Russert with 'I can't really comment on that now, I'll have to look into it.' Now, I don't think there is anything Wrong with that, but it isn't really all that unique and special. Not like his very encouraging comments on the need to limit the length of copyright protection, which I definately have to applaud.
-Eduardo Ramirez
An interesting story, but I am pretty sure it is fictional. Illustrative, but fictional.
I first heard it in Asimov's first joke collection. His version went like this:
A fabulously wealthy and stylish lady was shopping for an outfit she could wear to a party that evening. Realizing that the perfect hat would absolutely complete the look for the evening, she headed off to Pierre's Milleniers on 5th. Pierre himself was at the desk when she walked in. 'Madamme' he exclamed, 'How good to see you'. Upon hearing her sad tale of woe (Imagine the horror of not looking absolutely fabulous for your party...) he said 'I have the perfect thing.' He pulled a length of ribbon from behind the desk and, within 3 minutes, had woven it into a beyond stunning creation that would be the talk of the town. He handed it to the lady and said, 'For you, 75 dollars'.
At the time this was an appreciable sum, and the lady blanchyed a bit. 'Pierre, why so much? It is only a piece of ribbon.'
Pierre chuckled and plucked at a knot on the side of the hat. It immediately lost all form and became a bit of ribbon once again. 'Madamme, the hat is $75. The ribbon is yours for free.'
I figured someone might find some background to the tale of the server repairman interesting.
This leads me to an interesting idea. How about a remake of the New York episode of Iron Chef.
We open with an ominous shot of the darkened kitchen stadium. The camera slowly crawls its way along the kitchen counters. James Earl Jones provides the narration:
For years Kitchen Stadium has been a bastion of Japanese culinary arts. Here tradition has been married to innovation as they struggle to guide an age old custom into the twenty first century. This is a land of honor and stoic struggle.
And today we loudmouth Americans are going to open a can of whupass on those foreign bastards.
Now we cut away to a high speed Mtv style montage of New York City intermixed with bartenders doing silly tricks with botttles and Emeril going 'Bam'. After a suitably driving techno beat builds up to fever pitch, we close in on that guy from the boxing matchs yelling "Let's get ready to RRRRRUUUUMMMBBBLLLLEEE".
Next shot, interior of kitchen stadium. The stands are packed with screaming american fans. Some imported dutcg soccer hooligans are hitting on the clueless Japanese actress in the judging booth. They start to do the wave. The normally reserved Iron Chefs are visibly disturbed by the noise and commotion. Except for the curiously stoic Iron Chef Hong Kong. Wait, Iron Chef Hong Kong? Who could that be? Why its Jet Li. And Jet doesn't like loud, disrespectful fans in kitchen stadium. He proceeds to make his displeasure known, in ways that only Mr. Li can.
He plucks a live squid from the seafood tank. A few wild whirls of wicked whipping tentacles and several fans are going to be pissing black ink for the next few weeks. Emiril Lagasse leaps from the stands to come to the defense of a soon to be defenestrated David Rosengarten only to find himself on the recieving end of the razor sharp edge of a cluster of Japanese War Seaweed. Emeril will Bam! no more.
Sneaking behind Jet is the treacherous she-cook from Hades: Martha Stewart. It seems that she's got the drop on him. Little does she know that that was no clueless ingenue in the judging panel. It was HK movie star and protecter of Asian Cooking Shows the world over Michelle Yeoh. Before the Mistress of Affordable KMart Housewares knows what has happened, Yeoh rains down a storm of Wustoff-Trident death on the housemaking maven. The finely tempered German knives pierce Martha's lungs, killing her instantly.
A hush settles over the survivorsa of the crowd. Only Bobby Flay is unharmed on the Western side of the conflict. Iron Chef Japan Masaharu Morimoto stands before him, his hand on the sword at his side. (Who knew Wustoff-Trident made katanas, too). A thin bead of sweat makes its way down Flay's quivering face. Morimoto adresses the once cocky now urine soaked cook. He says: A true chef does not disrespect his stove by standing on it. Now the blade flies from its sheath. Now Flay dies.
Fade to Black.
Of course I can't give you a PS2.
:) (At least that is what the guy at EB told me).
They won't be back in stock until March
My nick comes from a Spartan general who led a band of 300 troops to hold a mountainpass at Thermopylae against the invading Persian army. The idea of a few hundred troops facing off against an army reported to be a hundred thousand strong seemed very cool. :)
I first heard the name from a story in the Bolo series from Baen books called "The Legacy of Leonidas" where a monstrous sentient tank sacrifices itself to fend off an invading army. (Those cheesy Bolo stories are big on self sacrificing sentient tanks
A interesting side note: my mother was very mad at me when I told her about my hotmail adress, eduardoleonidas@hotmail.com. She had never heard the story about the greek fellows, she just knew the name to be the middle name of the former dictator of the Dominican Republic Trujillo.
"Go tell the spartans..."
Mr. Carr spends a lot of this article complaining about the lack of accountablity on the interent. He claims that the we need regulations guaranteeing that the authorship or origin of materials found and line can be traced. The abscence of this makes the internet dangerous and useless, according to him.
I fail to see why this is such a huge deal? How about if, instead of introducing such regulations, we educate people about why not to believe everything you read. Rather than introducing costly and difficult to enforce regulations about attributing sources, we have PSA's where James Earl Jones recites, in his best this-is-god-speaking tone, that strangers on the internet sometimes lie or are incorrect. That seems more sensible to me than having the Ministry of Truth licensing websites.
Eduardo Ramirez
You don't really think he went to FAO, Circuit City, or the MALL! do you? Good god man, have you seen the people who frequent such establishments. That's what the help is for...
A lot of what you said sounds great. You are right, sexuality should not be a part of the scouting experience (except of course for the porn magazines shared at summer camp. That was the best part:). And I think it is perfectly legitimite to not allow gay men to donate blood. Not accepting blood from people that are at much higher risk to be HIV+ makes perfect sense. My problem comes from assuming that gay men are more likely to make their sexuality part of their role as scouts or scoutmasters. If my straight scout master could keep his sex life out of the job, so can a gay one. I also do not like the assumption that gay men are more likely to be pedophiles. I do not belive it to be true and I have never seen any evidence that it is.
So, unless you think that gay men really are pedophiles or are more likely to set out to convert children to their cause, I don't recommend you donate money to them. YMMV
Eduardo Ramirez
I was a boy scout when I was younger, and found it to be a very rewarding experience. I made a lot of friends, and learned a great deal. Not to mention the white-water rafting :) I used to be very proud of being a boy scout.
That was before their policy regarding gay members and scout masters. I understand that as a private organization they have every right to discriminate against members for whatever reason they like. It still made me lose all respect for the BSA. If anti-gay policies do not bother you, by all means give generously to the organization. Personally, I'll not have anything to do with them until they revise their policies.
Eduardo Ramirez
Admittedly, Playboy is the only sex magazine in the Periodicals collection, but a quick search of subjects Pornagraphy and Erotica turns up a bit of historical porn from 1911, numerous collections of erotic stories, and at least 3 biographies of porn starts with plenty of visuals (I know about the last 3 because I've read them all :)
Librarys, good ones, collect a Huge variety of stuff. It is unbelievable the number of volumes of stuff in there on esoteric subjects. My favorite oddball find in UD's is a multi-volume collection on why the Masons are evil from 1893. A decent library will collect many items that seem of little use right now and keep them for future study. Really, the function of the library is to catalogue knowledge, not trim it.
My knowlegde of encryption is limited to a beat up copy of Applied Cryptography by my desk, but I think I can offer a bit of info, since you seem to not know very much about why RSA is in the public domain.
:)
RSA was a patented algorithm. The patent expires today. In an attempt to either defuse publicity surrounding the patent expiration or just be nice guys, depending on your opinion of the folks at RSA Data Security Inc, they released the algorithm into the public domain early. In any case, the algorithm is not some weak piece of crypto that has been cracked. IIRC, the various crypto challenges that have so far been put forth by RSADSI and been succesfully completed involved at the highest a 129 digit number. RSA keys are between 512 and 2048 digits. This algorithm is used in a great many commercial products. It is used in PGP. And it I' pretty sure it is illegal to export without a license
If RSA had a better public key algorithm, they would be selling that one, instead.
Eduardo Ramirez
I was looking at the fcc web page, and I was only able to find two stories that mentioned copy protection in Digital TV's. Both say that some measure of copy protection is not against the rules, but not that they are required. CAn anyone find something different? Links below.
First Story
Second Press Release
Eduardo Ramirez
...They need to sort them by region!
I mean, really, how can I use this site to find myself some deep derivative action, eh? Sure, there's always online-romances, but at the end of the day one needs a girl in your own time zone to get all integral with. There's no love like logarithmic love.
>He is a dangerous, slimy, man. Do not trust anything he says; he's probably wrong, and either way, his goal is to eliminate competition from his market by making his system the only viable one - while still holding all the trademarks and making sure everyone has to buy his products.
:) . He is always brutaly honest about his motives, in this case to make the most money for his company as possible. That is, after all, his job. But he also loves games and wants them to grow as much as possible. You can say all you want about how lousy AD&D is and how bottom-line focused Wotc is, but don't think that it's because these people are evil. Dancey and Peter Adkinson and everyone else at Wotc are gamers who love games. Even if they have some really kooky ideas about them every now and again.
Ryan Dancey is a lot of things, but slimy is not one of them. Dangerous, maybe.
A few years ago Dancey was Brand Manager of FRPG, makers of the Legend of the Five Rings and Doomtown CCG's. He came up with a plan called Rolling Thunder that would make collecting CCG's cheaper and easier. First, Rarity would be flattened, making it easier to get all the cards you needed. Secondly, releases would be small monthly sets instead of big quaterly releases. This would mean that a complete set would run about $20-$40 a month instead of $150-$200 every 3 or 4 months. It could have made ccg's much easier to get into and expanded made it much easier to collect.
The problem? Players didn't like things being cheaper. They complained about the new cards not being worth as much as oldere ones. Today Scorpion Clan Coup (the first rolling thunder product) can be had for pennies while other expansions, even arguably weaker ones such as Anvil of Despair, are increasing in value all the times. Dealers had their own beef; those monthly releases took up too much shelf space. In posts to rec.games.frp.industry Dancey revealed that sales during this experiment plummeted and half of gthe games released during this time period never got off the ground. (The glut of releases during that time and other factors are even more off-topic than this, feel free to look up Rolling Thunder or Dancey's author profile at dejanews for more info.)
Ryan Dancey likes to come up with big ideas. He wants to make games into a huge, famous business. So famous that a discussion of D&D won't include moderated-up posts that assume this is a discussion about a computer product