In light of this interesting news, I have started my own rights-protection company.
Here at RighterKorp, we employ state-of-the-art technologies to track down copyright violations and identify the violators with 100% precision. Either that, or we just make shit up. In either case, under the DMCA ISPs are required by law to immediately comply with our outrageous and hugely disproportionate demands, immediately depriving their customers the benefit of essential services they have bought and paid for, despite the fact that we provide no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing.
Otherwise, we sue. Our industry-leading "judicial partnership" program helps us to achieve a high percentage of favorable rulings, in many cases before the actual trial.
We are now accepting new clients, especially those who made a series of pornos on VHS tape in the nineties, and then put them on YouTube under an alias and want to sue Google over it.
"$TERM is a code word for rich white people" is a code phrase for "I'm too lazy to actually debate the case on its merits, so I'll just create an intentionally flawed argument and pretend like you said it."
Not that there's not a bunch of racist sexist elitist assholes in the world, but you don't get to just glibly dismiss their points and pretend like you've won the argument. Well, I mean, you absolutely can do that, but it doesn't really count.
Yahoo to get all their remaining users to move to gmail (why were they still using yahoo is an interesting question that's not in the scope of this post).
I have a GMail account, but my Yahoo address is still my primary one. Partly because, well, it always has been. But also, why switch, really? For one, I like my email like a grizzled veteran of the Vietnam War likes his car radio: just regular, dammit.
But also, Google and Yahoo are both frankly villainous companies hell-bent on using their privileged knowledge of your internet activities to track your every move. And Google is way, way better at it. Way. So I'd prefer not to give them any more advantages than I have to. For me, it's basically a choice between Real Historical Hitler and the cartoon Hitler from a inexplicably insensitive box of Japanese noodles.
Thanks, very informative. I've been meaning to set this up, only since about... oh, 1997 or so. But accessing my mail through the interwebsheets has just been too convenient.
Another major reason is the speed. So many web sites are so much faster with adds blocked. I am not talking about small change, but something that is clearly visible.
Right. Occasionally I'll see a "please disable your ad blocker" notice on sites that I like and that I use all the time. And I'll say, okay, that's reasonable, they have to make money to keep the lights on. So I'll disable the ad blocker and reload. Aaaand the site no longer loads, not even within (seriously) two full minutes. And so I say, if this is what it takes to keep the lights on, I'd be happier in the dark. So I turn the ad blocker off, and reload the same page, in milliseconds.
CMYK is absolutely essential [...] All image editing software should support RGB and CMYK at a minimum.
I've never used GIMP for anything print-related, but I understand that, among those who do, there are frequent complaints about its CMYK support.
I'm genuinely curious. Can someone summarize the major problems here? Speaking out of my near-complete ignorance, isn't it just an alternate color space? On the one hand, how much time could an alternate color space take to implement? And, on the other hand, what makes it so inconvenient to do all the editing work in RGB and convert it to CMYK as the last step?
Yes. Send me a self-addressed stamped envelope, and I'll mail you a copy. Or, for a slightly smaller fee, I'll telegraph you the script. Here's a sample:
dit dit dit dit dit-dah dah-dit dit-dit-dit dit-dit-dit-dit dah-dah-dah dah dit-dit-dah-dit dit-dit dit-dah-dit dit-dit-dit dah
("Filter error: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.")
Yeah, there was basically a feature request for single-window mode that languished in "WONTFIX" status for fifteen years or so, with the same developer repeatedly shitting all over the latest chump who asked why GIMP still didn't support it in 20XX. Then that developer had a kid, or discovered girls, or something, and he kind of retired from GIMP. Sometime after that (2008-ish, maybe?), the team hired out a sort of a freelance UI consultant, and he took one look at it and said, "OMG, why don't you have a single-window mode in 2008, it's not like your users don't want it", and nobody had a good answer for that. So they finally implemented it. I had been eagerly following the saga for years at that point, installing each new version within a week of release, and it still took me a few days to figure out that they'd added it, they were so bitterly reticent about it.
To paraphrase Jefferson: "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to listen to your every word and track your every move."
Whether Jefferson said it or not, it's also important to note that, no matter how much power you foolishly cede to the government, you still don't get everything you want. To me, at least, it's not really clear that you get much of anything in exchange.
Yeah, Jefferson was an incredible hypocrite. He's also one of the major reasons the U.S. Constitution has the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights, in turn, has done far more to promote liberty in the U.S. and the world at large than any other single thing in history. So, yes, I'll drink to the old bastard.
I think the biggest question though is whether these reactors will ever make commercial sense. The big benefit of fusion is that it has basically zero fuel costs and the potential to provide endless amounts of energy. But this is basically the same as renewables for all intents and purposes*. In the end it will really be a competition of capital costs...
The other benefit of fusion over renewables is that it would almost certainly fit in a vastly smaller space. A modern solar installation might take up a square mile of land. A modern wind farm might take up multiple square miles of land. That's a lot of land. Land is not especially cheap already, and it's getting more expensive by the day. Wind farms and solar plants also have their own economic impacts, and some people (not necessarily me) consider them an eyesore. If your power generator fits in a shopping mall rather than in, say, a county, I guarantee it's going to be relatively attractive option to many.
Boss: Everyone gather round. Listen, guys, this new line of Merriam-Webster-brand phosphorescent butt plugs is killing us! If we want to stay relevant in the twenty-first century, we have to innovate, people! Who has some forward-thinking ideas for our next edition?
Worker 1: What if started a FaceBook account for every word in the dictionary?
Worker 2: What if we used a different color of ink for every part of speech? No, wait, a different scent!
Worker 3: What if we started calling ourselves OXDIC.com?
Boss: Yes, perfect, these are all great ideas. Henderson, what's your idea? Henderson? Hey, where's Henderson?
Worker 1: I think he's in his cube writing definitions.
Boss: Okay, I'll fire Henderson after the meeting. Meanwhile, here's my idea, and it's a beaut: the Word of the Year is a cartoon picture of a taco.
Workers: Brilliant, boss!... Great work!... Our storied tradition of excellence is preserved!...
You know how wind cools you down in a hot summer? Well, without wind you'd feel more warm. So of course you can deduce that the Earth itself works in the exact same way. Because science!
Well, that's not necessarily an anti-scientific viewpoint. It's kind of a hypothesis, which is of course the beginnings of science. I don't think it's right to ridicule him for making a hypothesis. In fact, I think we should actually give him an award for his scientific thinking!
If people are too stupid to listen to their doctor, they deserve to die.
Well, it seems that, in any field, you should probably listen to the experts if you want to maximize your chance of a positive outcome. Then again, doctors as a profession actually have a worse track record than anybody. For at least six thousand years, people have been saying, "listen to your doctor, he knows what he's talking about", and for about five thousand nine hundred years that's been a mostly false statement and terrible advice.
It seems to me that they Just Dont Get that we're have hardly any spare capacity and closing another load of stations without any new ones to immediately replace them is only going to make things worse especially if we have another cold winter. FFS , if they can't even formulate and carry out a sensibly policy for building basic infrastructure what fecking chance do we have if there's a real emergency?
Don't worry, they're not really going to turn off the plants by the due date. Some "emergency" will happen between now and then, and they'll be like: "Well, we can't close it down yet, because $EMERGENCY, but come election time everyone please remember that we really wanted to! We're pro-environment, in theory!"
That way they can have their coke and heat it too.
Slashdot Mirror
In light of this interesting news, I have started my own rights-protection company.
Here at RighterKorp, we employ state-of-the-art technologies to track down copyright violations and identify the violators with 100% precision. Either that, or we just make shit up. In either case, under the DMCA ISPs are required by law to immediately comply with our outrageous and hugely disproportionate demands, immediately depriving their customers the benefit of essential services they have bought and paid for, despite the fact that we provide no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing.
Otherwise, we sue. Our industry-leading "judicial partnership" program helps us to achieve a high percentage of favorable rulings, in many cases before the actual trial.
We are now accepting new clients, especially those who made a series of pornos on VHS tape in the nineties, and then put them on YouTube under an alias and want to sue Google over it.
"top talent" is a code word for rich white people
"$TERM is a code word for rich white people" is a code phrase for "I'm too lazy to actually debate the case on its merits, so I'll just create an intentionally flawed argument and pretend like you said it."
Not that there's not a bunch of racist sexist elitist assholes in the world, but you don't get to just glibly dismiss their points and pretend like you've won the argument. Well, I mean, you absolutely can do that, but it doesn't really count.
Billy (age 5): Look, Mommy, I writed a symphony!
Mom: Wrote, not writed, idiot. Let me see that. Harumph! This is barely a sonata. And no one writes for harpsichord anymore!
Billy: I wrote it for you! It's pretty, like you are!
Mom: Pandering, now? Disgusting. And I guess I would have been impressed, if Mozart hadn't beat you to it, by, oh, like, two hundred years!
Yahoo to get all their remaining users to move to gmail (why were they still using yahoo is an interesting question that's not in the scope of this post).
I have a GMail account, but my Yahoo address is still my primary one. Partly because, well, it always has been. But also, why switch, really? For one, I like my email like a grizzled veteran of the Vietnam War likes his car radio: just regular, dammit.
But also, Google and Yahoo are both frankly villainous companies hell-bent on using their privileged knowledge of your internet activities to track your every move. And Google is way, way better at it. Way. So I'd prefer not to give them any more advantages than I have to. For me, it's basically a choice between Real Historical Hitler and the cartoon Hitler from a inexplicably insensitive box of Japanese noodles.
Thanks, very informative. I've been meaning to set this up, only since about... oh, 1997 or so. But accessing my mail through the interwebsheets has just been too convenient.
Another major reason is the speed. So many web sites are so much faster with adds blocked. I am not talking about small change, but something that is clearly visible.
Right. Occasionally I'll see a "please disable your ad blocker" notice on sites that I like and that I use all the time. And I'll say, okay, that's reasonable, they have to make money to keep the lights on. So I'll disable the ad blocker and reload. Aaaand the site no longer loads, not even within (seriously) two full minutes. And so I say, if this is what it takes to keep the lights on, I'd be happier in the dark. So I turn the ad blocker off, and reload the same page, in milliseconds.
CMYK is absolutely essential [...] All image editing software should support RGB and CMYK at a minimum.
I've never used GIMP for anything print-related, but I understand that, among those who do, there are frequent complaints about its CMYK support.
I'm genuinely curious. Can someone summarize the major problems here? Speaking out of my near-complete ignorance, isn't it just an alternate color space? On the one hand, how much time could an alternate color space take to implement? And, on the other hand, what makes it so inconvenient to do all the editing work in RGB and convert it to CMYK as the last step?
The GIMP is a very useful, highly functional, stable and reliable piece of software.
...written by developers that think it's ok to piss off a sizeable chunk of their user base. You're right, I think there should be a word for it.
I think the word for that is "open source".
The point being that neither success nor failure in youth should be interpreted as leading to wisdom in older age.
So, what you're saying is, the past is not a good predictor of the future? I'll buy that, I guess, but... what are the alternatives?
How about we don't put a network chip on a pacemaker, dumbasses.
Why would you ever need to communicate with it? Is there ever a time when you want your heart not to beat?
Yes. Send me a self-addressed stamped envelope, and I'll mail you a copy. Or, for a slightly smaller fee, I'll telegraph you the script. Here's a sample:
dit dit dit dit dit-dah dah-dit dit-dit-dit dit-dit-dit-dit dah-dah-dah dah dit-dit-dah-dit dit-dit dit-dah-dit dit-dit-dit dah
("Filter error: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.")
Yeah, there was basically a feature request for single-window mode that languished in "WONTFIX" status for fifteen years or so, with the same developer repeatedly shitting all over the latest chump who asked why GIMP still didn't support it in 20XX. Then that developer had a kid, or discovered girls, or something, and he kind of retired from GIMP. Sometime after that (2008-ish, maybe?), the team hired out a sort of a freelance UI consultant, and he took one look at it and said, "OMG, why don't you have a single-window mode in 2008, it's not like your users don't want it", and nobody had a good answer for that. So they finally implemented it. I had been eagerly following the saga for years at that point, installing each new version within a week of release, and it still took me a few days to figure out that they'd added it, they were so bitterly reticent about it.
To paraphrase Jefferson: "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to listen to your every word and track your every move."
Whether Jefferson said it or not, it's also important to note that, no matter how much power you foolishly cede to the government, you still don't get everything you want. To me, at least, it's not really clear that you get much of anything in exchange.
Yeah, Jefferson was an incredible hypocrite. He's also one of the major reasons the U.S. Constitution has the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights, in turn, has done far more to promote liberty in the U.S. and the world at large than any other single thing in history. So, yes, I'll drink to the old bastard.
Wind farms and solar plants also have their own economic impacts
Sorry, I meant to say environmental impacts. Got to start proofreading better.
I think the biggest question though is whether these reactors will ever make commercial sense. The big benefit of fusion is that it has basically zero fuel costs and the potential to provide endless amounts of energy. But this is basically the same as renewables for all intents and purposes*. In the end it will really be a competition of capital costs...
The other benefit of fusion over renewables is that it would almost certainly fit in a vastly smaller space. A modern solar installation might take up a square mile of land. A modern wind farm might take up multiple square miles of land. That's a lot of land. Land is not especially cheap already, and it's getting more expensive by the day. Wind farms and solar plants also have their own economic impacts, and some people (not necessarily me) consider them an eyesore. If your power generator fits in a shopping mall rather than in, say, a county, I guarantee it's going to be relatively attractive option to many.
The theory is using a photoelectic method ; an "onion" of metallic layers which the x-rays jostle electrons out of.
So if your photons are energetic enough, ordinary metal becomes a solar cell? Neat!
Maybe someone will point out that it isn't a French project; clue being in the I of ITER.
Yeah, but they probably just named it that to head off the inevitable "FTER, I barely know her" jokes.
Dammit, AC, I wanted to say this!
What the world really needs now is more working ears, am I right?
Hey, don't mes with Texa.
Boss: Everyone gather round. Listen, guys, this new line of Merriam-Webster-brand phosphorescent butt plugs is killing us! If we want to stay relevant in the twenty-first century, we have to innovate, people! Who has some forward-thinking ideas for our next edition?
Worker 1: What if started a FaceBook account for every word in the dictionary?
Worker 2: What if we used a different color of ink for every part of speech? No, wait, a different scent!
Worker 3: What if we started calling ourselves OXDIC.com?
Boss: Yes, perfect, these are all great ideas. Henderson, what's your idea? Henderson? Hey, where's Henderson?
Worker 1: I think he's in his cube writing definitions.
Boss: Okay, I'll fire Henderson after the meeting. Meanwhile, here's my idea, and it's a beaut: the Word of the Year is a cartoon picture of a taco.
Workers: Brilliant, boss!... Great work!... Our storied tradition of excellence is preserved!...
You know how wind cools you down in a hot summer? Well, without wind you'd feel more warm. So of course you can deduce that the Earth itself works in the exact same way. Because science!
Well, that's not necessarily an anti-scientific viewpoint. It's kind of a hypothesis, which is of course the beginnings of science. I don't think it's right to ridicule him for making a hypothesis. In fact, I think we should actually give him an award for his scientific thinking!
Now, what kindergarten does little Joey attend?
If people are too stupid to listen to their doctor, they deserve to die.
Well, it seems that, in any field, you should probably listen to the experts if you want to maximize your chance of a positive outcome. Then again, doctors as a profession actually have a worse track record than anybody. For at least six thousand years, people have been saying, "listen to your doctor, he knows what he's talking about", and for about five thousand nine hundred years that's been a mostly false statement and terrible advice.
It seems to me that they Just Dont Get that we're have hardly any spare capacity and closing another load of stations without any new ones to immediately replace them is only going to make things worse especially if we have another cold winter. FFS , if they can't even formulate and carry out a sensibly policy for building basic infrastructure what fecking chance do we have if there's a real emergency?
Don't worry, they're not really going to turn off the plants by the due date. Some "emergency" will happen between now and then, and they'll be like: "Well, we can't close it down yet, because $EMERGENCY, but come election time everyone please remember that we really wanted to! We're pro-environment, in theory!"
That way they can have their coke and heat it too.