> I suppose if you expanded the group of > "handicapped" to include those suffering from > polio and other diseases that result muscular > dystrophy...
It's strange definition of 'handicapped' that excludes those people.
If the barrier is building a robot that will fit in with what the cultural expectations of how a domestic robot should do it's duties, then the Japanese will almost surely get there first.
Roomba is a domestic robot. It's already here and it's American. Where is the Japanese domestic robot?
Though the random numbers produced by your Geiger counter (or just about any other noise source) are not uniformly distributed they are random in that no matter how many you collect and study you cannot predict the next one.
Use the output of the Geiger counter to seed a good PRNG and you will have uniformly distributed random numbers good enough for cryptography.
> So basically, I was wondering if noise into my > computer's microphone would be considered random > enough for this application; it's easy, and I can > make an unlimited amount of numbers this way.
Use the noise to seed a good PRNG and you'll be fine.
Or just use/dev/random on Linux. It does essentially the same thing.
I work in a computer store, but the position of management (and it's been similar at a lot of stores I've visited or worked for) is that they don't want to push/give OpenOffice because they don't make money on it.
Why not? They can sell it for whatever the traffic will bear, with a zero cost of goods sold.
> Maybe you're confusing open source with Free > Software. They aren't one and the same.
All Free Software is open source. Are you one of those people who labors under the delusion that it is not legal to sell copies of programs licensed under Free Software terms?
> There are lots of businesses making a living off > open source.
There are lots of businesses making a living off of Free Software.
And how exactly are stores supposed to make money
from this?
By selling it at their standard markup. It's Mozilla that he's suggesting sell it at cost.
Why would a store replace one of their last remaining revenue streams with a non-revenue stream?
Revenue from sale of closed-source browsers and email clients? Not bloody likely.
Computer stores aren't going to stay alive selling beige boxes with $10 markus.
They can provide added value by installing Free Software at no significant cost to themselves.
It ain't gonna happen, and I think that most know, which is my no store (that will be in business in the near future) would consider touching Free Software.
This sort of thinking is the reason some stores aren't going to be in business in the near future.
Ok. All you guys downloading MP3's to your Ipods have to stop. You're infringing Iomega's patents:
"The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has confirmed that Iomega invented the broad concept of exchanging data between a computer and another digital device using removable data storage."
> hmm... of course we're in america, i wonder if > he still has a alwsuit over there, since we have > 50 for that sort of case.
Nothing gets the faculty senate at a major US university fired up like an attack on academic freedom, even that of an adjunct faculty member. In the US the dean would have known that caving in to the MPAA in this way might very well cost him his job. Pressure of some sort might have been applied, of course, but something this crude would be improbable.
> I might have my facts wrong but having a > dictator can sometimes get useful things done > when a voting board cannot.
Democracy and dictatorship are not the only choices.
> So how bout we just have a source tree where > everyone and anyone can write to the tree and > see where it takes us?
We already do. I have a kernel source tree right here on my workstation and I can write to it any time I want. You can have one too. Actually that could be fun. Make it so.
> The "some mechanism" for guaranteeing only > opt-ins is the tricky part; it's prone to people > scamming it for the cash.
Right. I'd have my spam filter send all my spam to a Perl script that would collect the bounty.
Another possible problem would be "inverse spamming": schemes to entice large numbers of people to send the scammer email so that he could collect $.05 from each of them.
Getting people to agree to a payment scheme is the biggest roadblock, though. I'm not going to open a Paypal account just so that I can email you.
Slashdot Mirror
> They hope that soon robots will become a common
> occurrence in our homes.
I don't think there is a big market for robots that draw, dance, and mimic humans. I could use one that would clean stalls, though.
> I suppose if you expanded the group of
> "handicapped" to include those suffering from
> polio and other diseases that result muscular
> dystrophy...
It's strange definition of 'handicapped' that excludes those people.
Why do you persist in calling these sorts of things robots? They are waldos of one sort or another (this one seems to be simply a powered suit).
I don't read it that way. 20% US and 26% EU is roughly proportional to population.
Roomba is a domestic robot. It's already here and it's American. Where is the Japanese domestic robot?
The poll appears to fail to distinguish between life and intelligent life.
Oh. Well. That's different. If it was on a news station it must be true.
> Yeah, I think people have a hard time separating
> what they want to believe from what they have a
> reason to believe.
Except for you, of course. You are entirely rational.
Though the random numbers produced by your Geiger counter (or just about any other noise source) are not uniformly distributed they are random in that no matter how many you collect and study you cannot predict the next one.
Use the output of the Geiger counter to seed a good PRNG and you will have uniformly distributed random numbers good enough for cryptography.
You just described the Linux kernel's /dev/random.
> So basically, I was wondering if noise into my
/dev/random on Linux. It does essentially the same thing.
> computer's microphone would be considered random
> enough for this application; it's easy, and I can
> make an unlimited amount of numbers this way.
Use the noise to seed a good PRNG and you'll be fine.
Or just use
> Does anyone know of a good distro for such a use?
Any, configured properly. You do not have to install the kitchen sink, though that's the usual default.
> Maybe you're confusing open source with Free
> Software. They aren't one and the same.
All Free Software is open source. Are you one of those people who labors under the delusion that it is not legal to sell copies of programs licensed under Free Software terms?
> There are lots of businesses making a living off
> open source.
There are lots of businesses making a living off of Free Software.
The article is about psychology.
s/downloading MP3's to your Ipods/burning CDs for your car CD players/
Ok. All you guys downloading MP3's to your Ipods have to stop. You're infringing Iomega's patents:
"The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has confirmed that Iomega invented the broad concept of exchanging data between a computer and another digital device using removable data storage."
> We should start lawsuiting them.
Only the copyright owner can sue them.
The DMCA does not make reverse-engineering illegal.
> hmm... of course we're in america, i wonder if
> he still has a alwsuit over there, since we have
> 50 for that sort of case.
Nothing gets the faculty senate at a major US university fired up like an attack on academic freedom, even that of an adjunct faculty member. In the US the dean would have known that caving in to the MPAA in this way might very well cost him his job. Pressure of some sort might have been applied, of course, but something this crude would be improbable.
> These regulations would ban non-Chinese firms
> from selling software to the Chinese government.
So some Chinese middleman presses the CDs.
> Given that how much trade all the countries in
> the world are engaged in with China...
Which is a lot less then the hype would lead you to believe.
> A better question would be how this might affect
> the worldwide economy, particularly that of the
> U.S. and China.
The amount of money involved is negligible on the scale or world trade (or even US-China trade).
> What benefits and drawbacks may China see as a
> result of this new policy?
Larger bribes with officials empowered to grant exceptions.
> What steps might the U.S. take to attempt to
> counter it?
A WTO complaint.
> I might have my facts wrong but having a
> dictator can sometimes get useful things done
> when a voting board cannot.
Democracy and dictatorship are not the only choices.
> So how bout we just have a source tree where
> everyone and anyone can write to the tree and
> see where it takes us?
We already do. I have a kernel source tree right here on my workstation and I can write to it any time I want. You can have one too.
Actually that could be fun. Make it so.
> The "some mechanism" for guaranteeing only
> opt-ins is the tricky part; it's prone to people
> scamming it for the cash.
Right. I'd have my spam filter send all my spam to a Perl script that would collect the bounty.
Another possible problem would be "inverse spamming": schemes to entice large numbers of people to send the scammer email so that he could collect $.05 from each of them.
Getting people to agree to a payment scheme is the biggest roadblock, though. I'm not going to open a Paypal account just so that I can email you.
> Remember things like classical music?
I'm listening to it right now on MPR's classical station.