and what competition was there for the Walkman cassette player before the introduction of the mp3?
Apples and oranges. To be honest, I'm not completely sure I understand your point. Perhaps you could offer a little more detail than simply a one-liner that involves multiple technological generation gaps (remember, there were portable CD players before iPods, for example), and competition with Walkmans at the time were other, portable cassette players. If you expect competition to be that of a solid state device, the technology then wouldn't have been miniaturized enough to be exactly considered "portable."
Yes, I wish we lived in a world where all formats, protocols, and standards were Free, but they never will be so long as capitalism remains our official state religion.
I think it is more appropriate to blame a broken patent system than capitalism itself. Patents impede competition which is an important concept in capitalism.
While some of my conservative peers may disagree as to the utility of the bill, it proposes wide-reaching accountability which can only help us all out.
As a personal anecdote, I travel a lot between two cities in southern New Mexico. Between them is a border patrol point through which I must regularly cross. While most of the border guards are quite friendly and accommodating, I'll occasionally run into a few who are generally in a really foul mood. I've often been asked the usual questions (where are you coming from, where you are going, etc), but from time to time, they've asked me what I'm carrying in my backpack, why I'm carrying it, and so forth. I'm all for discouraging illegal activities, but spending a few minutes answering questions adds up over the course of a month or two! Of course, I don't expect that they'd confiscate my belongings, but I would want some accountability if they did. Since I do need my laptop for working on various things between classes at university, going without it would certainly have real quantifiable repercussions.
I also imagine that most of their questions are directed toward me because I don't look like someone who fits in well in this part of the country--I look European, not Spanish, and most caucasians in this region tend to have darker features, are ranchers (easily identifiable as such), military, or are Germans assigned here with the German air force. As such, I've always figured it was a matter of time until they wind up grabbing a hold of my laptop via random search. Since I write short stories from time to time and have an assortment of partial manuscripts (on an encrypted partition, but who's to say they wouldn't force me to release the password?), I've always been mildly concerned that seizure of my laptop could result in someone who might be less ethical than most obtaining my copyrighted work and illegally distributing it. Yes, I've heard the argument that if I don't want to lose something, don't carry it on my laptop, but that's largely impractical and precisely what encrypting a partition is intended to discourage: petty theft. Thieves who had the means available to break such encryption are probably uninterested in lowly manuscripts and more interested in corporate data or information pertaining to national security. But law enforcement, on the other hand, could potentially force me to divulge such passwords! Perhaps someone who is more familiar with law pertaining to such search and seizures could offer some advice in this particular case.
Considering lost time, productivity, and somewhat valuable materials, it's a bit upsetting that average citizens in this nation have to worry about such ridiculous things. If someone working under law enforcement were to steal data of mine for his or her own benefit, you bet I'd want accountability! I'm sure that sort of accountability does already exist through established channels, but how are you to know that an unscrupulous individual didn't steal something from your computer for his own personal gains (software, mp3s, personal data)? The only downside I see to this bill is that it doesn't highlight an effective method of accountability and detection of theft, such as requiring multiple personnel to be present when examining data to ensure no such theft occurs. That alone could create an additional check and balance within the system.
...the FBI is again today warning users to ignore the spam and report any incidents...
Which is it? Ignore or report?
Modded insightful? That's laughable. While some press releases are indeed rather comical, if you're unable to deduce the obvious meaning, you're just being a snide bugger about it. Honestly, I don't think anyone is liable to be confused that the FBI's statement implies that 1) recipients should ignore the threat in the spam and 2) report the incident. It isn't rocket science, it's English! Anything more verbose wouldn't fundamentally assist reader comprehension, so why bother including even more words to clarify meaning? Newspapers and other printed publications of that caliber are targeted toward a 5th grade reading level, so I think you'd be better off saving your energy and taking issue with them instead.
I've seen grammar nazis who raise a fairly decent point before but this sort of nitpicking is just ridiculous.
Interesting that they should investigate this, I wonder whether this could implicate other planets discovered or if this was clearly questionable from the beginning.
I doubt it, because most other measurements were based upon the apparent wobbling of the parent star, not direct observation. This one, AFAIK, was tied to an attempt to "see" the planet transition across the parent star. Actually, I was of the frame of mind to think this is almost as exciting (if not more so) than a planetary discovery. If we can detect "cold spots" on an alien star, there's all sorts of fascinating implications.
From the article:
Our model shows that a cold spot covering 7% of the stellar surface and located at a latitude of 54 deg can reproduce the reported RV variations.
Impressive! There's a lot we may be able to learn about our own sun by monitoring the daily happenings of other stars. Things like the frequency of solar maximums, sunspots, and so forth on other stars comparing them with our own would be one such course of study.
I lived out west in southern AZ for awhile...yep, it is a dry heat. But man...when it is 115F, even with dry heat..that is HOT.
I have a friend who lived in a part of California where it tended to be rather foggy. He said it was a tremendous shock moving to AZ and his introduction there was about two weeks of sore throats from the dryness! I guess us desert folk tend to take the dry weather for granted. Then again, we're not as used to the humidity as those who are coast-dwellers and are liable to cough like mad much to the amusement of the locals.;)
At the very least, I cannot sleep when it is warm. I gotta have it abotu 72F or slightly less to be able to sleep well at night. Any hotter than that...and I toss and turn and sweat all night.
I definitely hear that--I absolutely detest trying to sleep when it's rather warm. What's really nice about this part of the country is the fact that once the sun goes down, it's not unusual for temperatures to drop from 90 or 100 in the day to 70 or lower at night. There are a few rather warm evenings during the middle of the summer, but those are often few and far between. Of course, the drastic temperature changes can take their toll, and it's usually an alien experience to people living in areas with a bit more stability throughout the day and night.
I guess South Australia could be considered humid compared to New Mexico (I wouldn't know for sure, not having been there, but I'll bow to your superior knowledge), but those of us who live here think of it as dry
When you're near the coast it most certainly is, although inland a bit is where it tends to get really dry--I remember spending a summer over there and the difference was noticeable, but it might be my experience with the desert out here. New Mexico tends to be very, very dry. For example, 10% humidity is considered quite humid, but we usually hover between 2-3% in the drier parts of the year. Right now, it isn't as bad as it normally is since we've received much more rain than normal. So, I suppose I've been enjoying the increase in humidity....the downside? Rain in the desert is really dreadful when it comes to allergies. Ugh!
Most "carbon-neutral" energy forms can be generated locally. Windmills use the wind in your area. Solar panels use the sunlight from your roof. This is also true for geothermal, ocean-wave, and bio-fueled energy.
*snip*
Which would you rather be remembered as: the generation that ignored the problem until it was too late, or the generation that set your state/country/civilization on a long-term course of prosperity?
It's just a shame that the other breeds of environmentalists happen to think certain species of birds are a bit more important than the real estate wind generators or molten salt solar plants would take up. I certainly won't debate the need for developing clean energy solutions, but at some point, you have to cut the ropes and say "enough is enough." Using ecological buzzwords is cute and all, but if the West doesn't pull its head out of its withering anal cavity, we may as well kiss electricity goodbye. There are plenty of niche groups that are standing in the way of everything because they feel we need to go back to pre-industrial population levels--to hell with the 6-point-something billion people we already have on this rock. No matter what happens, it'll never be enough. And if that's not frustrating, look at the various stories popping up here and there about locals who absolutely hate the noise wind generators make when they're running.
Fine. Maybe I'm just cynical. But trust me: Sooner or later, these wonderful carbon-neutral solutions are going to be put on a standstill because some fringe group is upset that their favorite little plot of land is being destroyed. At least, that's how it's worked out here in the southwest. There are a lot of the "not in my backyard" types who will do anything to halt human progress. I should think that we need to adopt sensible energy policies, but the greatest hurdle comes from the same crowd who want to save the planet--usually by suicide. (VHEMt comes to mind, if I remembered the acronym correctly.)
Here in the mountains of New Mexico, air conditioning also not even much of a consideration either. Of course, much of this depends on construction of the house, too. Adobe-style construction (thick-walled, usually with cement and a fair bit of insulation nowadays) tends to keep things in a wonderfully comfortable zone. There are some hot days here and there, but all in all it's not that bad. We don't get the high humidity like you would in the south. Having been to South Australia on several occasions during the summer where it can get fairly humid, I can attest that I'd rather contend with the hot, dry weather than hot and humid (ugh!). On the other hand, I usually blame my weird sense of humor on oxygen deprivation at the higher altitudes.;)
(I was intending to mod you up, but I felt the urge to forgo my mod points and comment instead! Doh!)
Even the Steam version of Bioshock contains securom. How screwed up is that?
There's a lot of games like that.
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is another example of a downloadable game (I got a copy from Direct2Drive, which a friend purchased for me) that has SecuROM enabled. I had to muck about for a good hour or digging around on the THQ site looking for answers. The only suggestions they had weren't particularly helpful, either. These were things along the lines of "SecuROM probably detects something it doesn't like on your system, so you should uninstall that software."
Oookay, so I have Visual Studio on here and its debugger might be upsetting SecuROM? Hah! I'd rather not play a game if I have to remove something I need for this upcoming semester!
Anyway, I eventually learned that I could apply one of the various patches released to the D2D version, which worked well enough such that it didn't pester me for activation codes. Not like the activation codes were much use, the game refused to send them to the authentication servers in the first place. But, that experience alone left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.
To be honest, I've found it much more redeeming to stick with older tried and true games. Hey, they don't pester me about authentication rubbish or the likes. And Tribes is still a great deal of fun multiplayer. It's just a shame that Tribes 2 is the epitome of everything that can go wrong when the developer kicks the bucket. (That's another raw spot to rub. If you want to get friends in to play a round of Tribes 2, you have to find them a key--and good luck there. You might find a copy used or new from Amazon, but then there's the issue of hoping the auth servers are up.)
ozmanjusri's debunking is quite on-target to be honest. I've played WoW under Gentoo, and it's maximum frame rate was about 2/3rd that of windows (natively). In fact, Wine's average framerate before I added 2GiB more RAM was generally better than Windows. (Of course, this last tidbit might be due to the fact that Windows, with 1GiB RAM, was eating up far more than X--but I suspect a better VM, too.) If you plan on playing a game under Wine that is purported to do well, you should probably at least check the Gentoo World of Warcraft Howto and browse the performance tweaks section. Applying the registry tweak really does work, if you're playing an OpenGL game.
Of course, the game very likely has to be an OpenGL game in order to work in the first place. But, in the case of WoW, OpenGL mode isn't slow because it's running under Wine--it's slow because of Blizzard's implementation. (Seriously--try running WoW in OpenGL mode under Windows, you'll lose approximately the same FPS as you would under Wine.) Plus, in a rather odd twist of irony, Tribes' dedicated server (the original Tribes!) runs somewhat better under Wine!
That would be 1/3rd, not 2/3rds. United States consumption of 17 million barrels per day (1990 number),
I should have clarified that I was referring to the US oil consumption by automobiles (I realize I made a mistake in that I neglected to specifically state that point, but reviewing my source would have clarified that was the number I was referring to: 9,286,000 barrels a day by automotive use). The OP had mentioned vehicles, hence my reply to the oil fires burning roughly 2/3rds of what we're burning on the roads. I apologize for having hastily typed up a response without checking to ensure I had stated precisely what I thought...
However, that still doesn't affect what the parent poster mentioned. Whether burned from the fields or burned from our cars isn't a moral equivalency as some on the left would like to think. While the carbon dioxide output is possibly quite similar (neglecting absorption that might happen if that same amount of output is spread across a much larger land mass or other sequestration that may happen naturally), I'm sure the byproducts from burning wells are much more toxic to a much more local area. To liken vehicular use to burning oil wells is just absurd. Never mind that vehicles provide us with transportation, services, goods delivery, and hundreds of more things useful to society than a burning oil well could ever provide.
Is the environmentalist agenda so narrow-minded that we're willing to overlook the utility that fuels can provide us over some silly debate regarding CO2 "output equivalence?"
Of course, you could always argue about catalytic converters and whether torching a barrel of oil is more or less harmful than burning the equivalent amount of gasoline, or what percentage of the oil is used to make plastic. But most of the carbon goes right into the air. The oil fires were just cutting out the middle-man, as it were.
It's necessary to consider that the Kuwait oil fires were burning roughly 2/3rds of the daily US oil consumption (as of 2007) across a relatively small land mass. It's easy to point out the equivalency by claiming that burning the oil out of the ground is no different than burning it from the engine of a car, but I think that's grossly naive. Considering that Kuwait was stillsuffering from the 1991 fires as reported in 2003, I think you're overlooking the health effects of burning nearly a day's worth of US oil consumption in an area not much bigger than Connecticut--without first refining it.
There are some things a little worse than carbon dioxide, and I frankly wouldn't want to live next to an oil well that's been on fire for months on end.
The truth is you can save 3% by keeping tires properly inflated and drilling in the arctic reserve will add 1% to our oil in 20 years.
I think Obama's intention isn't to save oil by inflating tires to increase the efficiency of vehicles on the road. I think he's aware of how gullible most Americans are. Coupled with the attitude of "some is good, more is better," he's probably wagering on saving oil by hoping we over-inflate our tires to the point of highway blowouts.
But hey, a car with buggered tires is a car that's not consuming oil!
(For the record, before I get modded down for mild sarcasm, I'm actually afraid this is what might happen. I've seen too many people take the advice of politicians a bit too literally. I also wouldn't put it passed people to inflate their tires to the point of rupture--remember that traveling on hot roads at highway speeds will increase the tire pressure as the gas inside expands. If you over-inflate them as some people are bound to do, you run the risk of bursting them.)
Really, people need to back off these guys a bit. I don't mean stop being suspicious and guarded, but sometimes it seems like this reaches levels of the paranoid delusional.
Actually, I think it's time someone steps forward and points out the obvious truth.
This is clearly a subversive ploy by Big Aluminum to coerce our conspiracy-leaning compatriots into buying up unnecessary tin foil hats. Tell your friends they're being duped by Big Aluminum!
I've been reading the Sun ceo's blog lately, and it seems like every post talks about open source at some point or another.
I have to agree. Jonathan Schwartz is a very brilliant individual, and his blog entries make for informative and often entertaining reads. His take on applying FOSS in the corporate world is very interesting, particularly in these times where the technological world seems to be moving away from proprietary software.
I very much believe that part of the reason Schwartz is so vehement about open sourcing Sun's offerings is partially the result of genuine goodwill. However, I also believe that much of the reason is due in no small part to his desire to a) keep Sun relevant in the news (it works to get headlines!), b) when he mentions Sun's GPL/OSI-approved software, he tends to also press the issues of maintainability, dependability, and Sun's commitment to continued support (i.e. it's open source and we can fix it if something goes wrong), and c) I think it may also be partially viral. One merely has to take a glance at the various languages (especially in the web development/scripting sphere) to understand how open sourcing the interpreter, virtual machine, or compiler tends to bolster a product's popularity. Yes, there are certainly failures in this regard, but considering Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, LUA, and company (let's not forget the popularity of gcc when it comes to C/C++!), the only thing that surprises me is that Sun didn't open source Java sooner.
Schwartz is a good man, and I'd like to believe that while he's looking out for maintaining Sun's relevance in the years ahead as well as pushing their own product offerings and support, he's also doing good for the community as a whole. As other posters stated before, it's really a moot point getting on Sun's case; there are serious, often frightening legal implications when you open up your source--especially if you licensed parts of it from other companies. It isn't that Sun wishes to do anything evil, it's just that their hands are tied by companies that don't exactly see the world in the same light as the rest of us do (remember the fiasco regarding Java's sound libraries and the Dolby or THX issues? that's a good example).
Bravo to Sun. VirtualBox is an awesome product, and I'm glad that they've added it to their product portfolio.
I had nothing but problems with it when I was testing it a couple of months ago. I couldn't get the networking to work in NAT mode, and bridging mode on a laptop ain't always the best idea. Maybe I'll give it another shot.
Getting the networking system to work is a bit of a pain, but I've only had minor difficulties when using the host interface. NAT will work, but you won't be able to ping or access any resources in your own network (which is a bad thing if you have a fileserver at home and wish to access it on a VM). There are, however, a few tutorials that can help you get started with bridging your network for Windows hosts or a variety of Linuxhosts.
FreeBSD is the only guest OS I've had difficulties with (even MSDOS will work, but it requires some additions to prevent it from eating up your cycles like crazy--FreeDOS plays nicely, though). I could only ever get the NAT-based networking to work and even then it would freeze whenever IO operations peaked.
Take a look at some of those articles, and you might be able to get networking up and running in VirtualBox! I have to say, for something of a FOSS offering, it's really nice.
They've basically shot themselves in both feet and broken an arm.
I have to agree, except from an end user standpoint. Frankly, the UI sucks. Sure, it may superficially look nice and shiny (because it's new and different--and most commercial sites just don't use black backgrounds) but there are already some major irritations.
First, the entry field on the first page. It's awful. The text is fairly small and it doesn't seem to stand out particularly well from the background. At least with most other sensible search engines, it's trivial to see what you've typed in, even if you're using a ridiculously high resolution. If I have to ctrl+wheel to increase the size of a font, there's already something wrong.
Secondly, and this is where I stopped because of the results (beaten to death already by most posters). How the heck are two columns of text--or the default of three--supposed to be easy enough for someone to quickly scan. When I search, I'm not going to have my eyes bouncing across my browser window just to look for a result. I'd rather scan DOWN the page with minimal effort. Less eye movement == easier, friendly interface. I can't seem to find the article now, but Jakob Nielsen had one written on how users scan pages (something to the effect of scanning a page in the shape of an F). I'm sure he'll have something to say about the design of Cuil if prodded enough.
That's my rant about the UI. I'm certainly no UI expert, so I'd advise that my comments should be taken with a grain of salt. However, I do know what works easiest for me, and having search results returned in a single column is easiest. If I have to read a more detailed site overview simply because a search engine doesn't return concise results, I'm going to go somewhere else. Obviously, I'm using the search engine to find something fast. If the search engine impedes my ability to find results quickly and with minimal effort on my behalf, they're not bound to get visited by me again!
While reading through the thread, I came across a note from the hosting provider indicating that he'd exceeded his CPU quota. I guess that's Slashdot bullying people now!
To be fair (and playing the obligatory devil's advocate), the accused bully may very well have been a troll. Remember, not all trolls are alike. Some can use fairly detailed information during their games. Perhaps one clue lies in the post wherein he attacks the use of phpBB--completely unrelated to the original discussion. "carlos" replies with an off-handed remark about phpBB being fairly "easy" to setup and administer, to which the accused bully indicates that there's no need to "split hairs" about something off-topic. That sort of smells like a troll to me. Lure someone out with a potentially inflammatory comment, and then rail them when they bite. It's entirely possible that BlackHawk0 was indeed hoping to improve the calculator, but his self-described disdain for the imperial system while also not being aware that some metric countries use "." as a thousands separator and "," as a decimal strikes me as unusual. I'm especially flabbergasted by the notion that BlackHawk0 appears to be using a non-English language version of Windows and is also unaware of this fact. (Hint: I suspect he's entirely aware of the differential usage of "," and "." but chooses to be publicly ignorant to further his criticism.)
Of course, "carlos" should have just dealt with this himself--or let it slide. If the "bully" in question is in fact a troll, you've just granted him more attention than he ever thought possible! Good going there, "carlos."
Actually, wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that this cyber-bully was the one who submitted the article under the guise of the site owner just to see if he could get the forum Slashdotted?
From what I understand (since I don't seem to be of the mindset) part of the reason why Americans drive the cars they do is status symbol/machismo/style.
I think it's much easier to claim that it's due to American arrogance than to do a few minutes worth of research into locations in the US where it's almost a necessity to have a vehicle. Where I currently live, it's at least a 30 minute drive to the grocery store during which time you cover approximately 12 miles of windy, mountain roads and lose around 2000 feet of altitude. There is very limited public transportation, and because this State is quite poor, the local economy can barely support the small van/light bus service that operates within the confines of the local city. (This city is just over 30,000 people, too.)
Furthermore, just to get to a decent doctor or university, it's well over 172 miles round-trip. I can't say that's exactly within walking distance. Now, while car pooling is certainly an option, it's difficult finding someone who has a similar enough schedule to avoid the 2-3 hour wait 85 miles from home.
Look up New Mexico, USA, if you're curious. There's a lot of barren space to travel through just to get anywhere here. And if you blink, you might inadvertently miss a town.
Let's watch the accidental death, manslaughter, and suicide rates in DC go up.
Last I checked, guns aren't required to commit suicide, accidental death can occur as a byproduct of swimming pool ownership, and manslaughter can be committed with a blunt object. So if guns are to blame for these, why not also blame: pools, rope (which is obviously unnecessary for the homeowner, unless her or she intends to hang themselves), razor blades, sharp drops, baseball bats, knives, gravity, broken glass......I think you get the idea.
However I find it interesting and worth mentioning the difference in guild demographics.
In my particular situation, I think it's most likely server demographics. I play on Terenas (effectively a day zero server, although it wasn't one of the initial servers in the pool until a few hours after launch). The realm itself is quite poorly progressed compared to others and its population now--near as I can tell at least, from anecdotal evidence--is comprised largely of working individuals who haven't much time to play the game. There is still a "hardcore" population but that population is a shadow of its former self. Many of the original players who prized themselves on seeing new content before anyone else have since moved on to other realms or quit the game entirely. I don't think my realm is necessarily representative of all (though it might be representative of those that have large working populations or professional populations). So, you're certainly right, demographics play a huge role. As such, different demographics are more willing to devote more time and others are less willing to devote the same.
The separation of PvE and PvP I believe diminished a large amount of complaints on both sides, and was the correct choice to remove the inherent competition between the casual and hardcore styles of play.
I think this is a really good point, and it's also ironic that the PvP element (particularly the hardcore PvPers themselves) isn't much different from the PvE side. Hardcore PvPers complain about the ease with which gear can be attained, and Blizzard complies by slapping rating requirements on various pieces of gear to make them available only to groups that are able to perform reasonably well. Of course, this is used as an e-penis inflation device by those who somehow think game achievements are grossly important, but that's beside the point. What many of the hardcore PvPers neglect to consider--and I think this holds true for the similar mindset that exists in PvE--is that increasing progression and better gear affects the progress of new players and those who have alternate characters they wish to level up. I do think this is an issue more pertinent to PvP (resilience requirements now notwithstanding), but I find it rather interesting that the same complaints faced in PvE with regards to removing attunement requirements and more easily attained raids is homologous to that in the PvP element. It is also rather interesting that Blizzard has been more interested in addressing the complaints of the small hardcore PvP population subset by way of rating requirements on specific pieces of gear while they have simultaneously loosened requirements on PvE encounters. Honestly, I think this is because Blizzard intends to allow the arenas to carry much of the game while the Sunwell keeps the remaining raiders busy. Having said that, I do think that's also why WotLK content is going to be more targeted toward casual players by introducing every raid as a 10-man instance. Perhaps they expect the hardcore PvE population to eventually dry up, much of it moving toward the arenas and assorted tournaments (isn't that what Blizzard is quite obviously focusing on anyway?).
Hopefully, WotLK will continue this trend, I think they are going the right way with 10 and 25 man raid progressions. As I said earlier, striking the balance will be the key to success.
I appreciate your optimism, and it's certainly a breath of fresh air. I think Blizzard has learned many valuable lessons about the changing demographics of an extraordinarily popular MMO. In fact, I think there's many lessons that they had to make up as they went along, solely because no one else has quite managed to do what they have done with this genre. I'm not holding out much hope myself, simply because I've lost a great deal of interest in the game, and I have a nagging suspicion that WotLK is just going to be TBC v2.0 (only with more well-thought out plans re
Slashdot Mirror
Apples and oranges. To be honest, I'm not completely sure I understand your point. Perhaps you could offer a little more detail than simply a one-liner that involves multiple technological generation gaps (remember, there were portable CD players before iPods, for example), and competition with Walkmans at the time were other, portable cassette players. If you expect competition to be that of a solid state device, the technology then wouldn't have been miniaturized enough to be exactly considered "portable."
I think it is more appropriate to blame a broken patent system than capitalism itself. Patents impede competition which is an important concept in capitalism.
While some of my conservative peers may disagree as to the utility of the bill, it proposes wide-reaching accountability which can only help us all out.
As a personal anecdote, I travel a lot between two cities in southern New Mexico. Between them is a border patrol point through which I must regularly cross. While most of the border guards are quite friendly and accommodating, I'll occasionally run into a few who are generally in a really foul mood. I've often been asked the usual questions (where are you coming from, where you are going, etc), but from time to time, they've asked me what I'm carrying in my backpack, why I'm carrying it, and so forth. I'm all for discouraging illegal activities, but spending a few minutes answering questions adds up over the course of a month or two! Of course, I don't expect that they'd confiscate my belongings, but I would want some accountability if they did. Since I do need my laptop for working on various things between classes at university, going without it would certainly have real quantifiable repercussions.
I also imagine that most of their questions are directed toward me because I don't look like someone who fits in well in this part of the country--I look European, not Spanish, and most caucasians in this region tend to have darker features, are ranchers (easily identifiable as such), military, or are Germans assigned here with the German air force. As such, I've always figured it was a matter of time until they wind up grabbing a hold of my laptop via random search. Since I write short stories from time to time and have an assortment of partial manuscripts (on an encrypted partition, but who's to say they wouldn't force me to release the password?), I've always been mildly concerned that seizure of my laptop could result in someone who might be less ethical than most obtaining my copyrighted work and illegally distributing it. Yes, I've heard the argument that if I don't want to lose something, don't carry it on my laptop, but that's largely impractical and precisely what encrypting a partition is intended to discourage: petty theft. Thieves who had the means available to break such encryption are probably uninterested in lowly manuscripts and more interested in corporate data or information pertaining to national security. But law enforcement, on the other hand, could potentially force me to divulge such passwords! Perhaps someone who is more familiar with law pertaining to such search and seizures could offer some advice in this particular case.
Considering lost time, productivity, and somewhat valuable materials, it's a bit upsetting that average citizens in this nation have to worry about such ridiculous things. If someone working under law enforcement were to steal data of mine for his or her own benefit, you bet I'd want accountability! I'm sure that sort of accountability does already exist through established channels, but how are you to know that an unscrupulous individual didn't steal something from your computer for his own personal gains (software, mp3s, personal data)? The only downside I see to this bill is that it doesn't highlight an effective method of accountability and detection of theft, such as requiring multiple personnel to be present when examining data to ensure no such theft occurs. That alone could create an additional check and balance within the system.
Modded insightful? That's laughable. While some press releases are indeed rather comical, if you're unable to deduce the obvious meaning, you're just being a snide bugger about it. Honestly, I don't think anyone is liable to be confused that the FBI's statement implies that 1) recipients should ignore the threat in the spam and 2) report the incident. It isn't rocket science, it's English! Anything more verbose wouldn't fundamentally assist reader comprehension, so why bother including even more words to clarify meaning? Newspapers and other printed publications of that caliber are targeted toward a 5th grade reading level, so I think you'd be better off saving your energy and taking issue with them instead.
I've seen grammar nazis who raise a fairly decent point before but this sort of nitpicking is just ridiculous.
I doubt it, because most other measurements were based upon the apparent wobbling of the parent star, not direct observation. This one, AFAIK, was tied to an attempt to "see" the planet transition across the parent star. Actually, I was of the frame of mind to think this is almost as exciting (if not more so) than a planetary discovery. If we can detect "cold spots" on an alien star, there's all sorts of fascinating implications.
From the article:
Impressive! There's a lot we may be able to learn about our own sun by monitoring the daily happenings of other stars. Things like the frequency of solar maximums, sunspots, and so forth on other stars comparing them with our own would be one such course of study.
I have a friend who lived in a part of California where it tended to be rather foggy. He said it was a tremendous shock moving to AZ and his introduction there was about two weeks of sore throats from the dryness! I guess us desert folk tend to take the dry weather for granted. Then again, we're not as used to the humidity as those who are coast-dwellers and are liable to cough like mad much to the amusement of the locals. ;)
I definitely hear that--I absolutely detest trying to sleep when it's rather warm. What's really nice about this part of the country is the fact that once the sun goes down, it's not unusual for temperatures to drop from 90 or 100 in the day to 70 or lower at night. There are a few rather warm evenings during the middle of the summer, but those are often few and far between. Of course, the drastic temperature changes can take their toll, and it's usually an alien experience to people living in areas with a bit more stability throughout the day and night.
When you're near the coast it most certainly is, although inland a bit is where it tends to get really dry--I remember spending a summer over there and the difference was noticeable, but it might be my experience with the desert out here. New Mexico tends to be very, very dry. For example, 10% humidity is considered quite humid, but we usually hover between 2-3% in the drier parts of the year. Right now, it isn't as bad as it normally is since we've received much more rain than normal. So, I suppose I've been enjoying the increase in humidity. ...the downside? Rain in the desert is really dreadful when it comes to allergies. Ugh!
*snip*
It's just a shame that the other breeds of environmentalists happen to think certain species of birds are a bit more important than the real estate wind generators or molten salt solar plants would take up. I certainly won't debate the need for developing clean energy solutions, but at some point, you have to cut the ropes and say "enough is enough." Using ecological buzzwords is cute and all, but if the West doesn't pull its head out of its withering anal cavity, we may as well kiss electricity goodbye. There are plenty of niche groups that are standing in the way of everything because they feel we need to go back to pre-industrial population levels--to hell with the 6-point-something billion people we already have on this rock. No matter what happens, it'll never be enough. And if that's not frustrating, look at the various stories popping up here and there about locals who absolutely hate the noise wind generators make when they're running.
Fine. Maybe I'm just cynical. But trust me: Sooner or later, these wonderful carbon-neutral solutions are going to be put on a standstill because some fringe group is upset that their favorite little plot of land is being destroyed. At least, that's how it's worked out here in the southwest. There are a lot of the "not in my backyard" types who will do anything to halt human progress. I should think that we need to adopt sensible energy policies, but the greatest hurdle comes from the same crowd who want to save the planet--usually by suicide. (VHEMt comes to mind, if I remembered the acronym correctly.)
Here in the mountains of New Mexico, air conditioning also not even much of a consideration either. Of course, much of this depends on construction of the house, too. Adobe-style construction (thick-walled, usually with cement and a fair bit of insulation nowadays) tends to keep things in a wonderfully comfortable zone. There are some hot days here and there, but all in all it's not that bad. We don't get the high humidity like you would in the south. Having been to South Australia on several occasions during the summer where it can get fairly humid, I can attest that I'd rather contend with the hot, dry weather than hot and humid (ugh!). On the other hand, I usually blame my weird sense of humor on oxygen deprivation at the higher altitudes. ;)
(I was intending to mod you up, but I felt the urge to forgo my mod points and comment instead! Doh!)
There's a lot of games like that.
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is another example of a downloadable game (I got a copy from Direct2Drive, which a friend purchased for me) that has SecuROM enabled. I had to muck about for a good hour or digging around on the THQ site looking for answers. The only suggestions they had weren't particularly helpful, either. These were things along the lines of "SecuROM probably detects something it doesn't like on your system, so you should uninstall that software."
Oookay, so I have Visual Studio on here and its debugger might be upsetting SecuROM? Hah! I'd rather not play a game if I have to remove something I need for this upcoming semester!
Anyway, I eventually learned that I could apply one of the various patches released to the D2D version, which worked well enough such that it didn't pester me for activation codes. Not like the activation codes were much use, the game refused to send them to the authentication servers in the first place. But, that experience alone left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.
To be honest, I've found it much more redeeming to stick with older tried and true games. Hey, they don't pester me about authentication rubbish or the likes. And Tribes is still a great deal of fun multiplayer. It's just a shame that Tribes 2 is the epitome of everything that can go wrong when the developer kicks the bucket. (That's another raw spot to rub. If you want to get friends in to play a round of Tribes 2, you have to find them a key--and good luck there. You might find a copy used or new from Amazon, but then there's the issue of hoping the auth servers are up.)
ozmanjusri's debunking is quite on-target to be honest. I've played WoW under Gentoo, and it's maximum frame rate was about 2/3rd that of windows (natively). In fact, Wine's average framerate before I added 2GiB more RAM was generally better than Windows. (Of course, this last tidbit might be due to the fact that Windows, with 1GiB RAM, was eating up far more than X--but I suspect a better VM, too.) If you plan on playing a game under Wine that is purported to do well, you should probably at least check the Gentoo World of Warcraft Howto and browse the performance tweaks section. Applying the registry tweak really does work, if you're playing an OpenGL game.
Of course, the game very likely has to be an OpenGL game in order to work in the first place. But, in the case of WoW, OpenGL mode isn't slow because it's running under Wine--it's slow because of Blizzard's implementation. (Seriously--try running WoW in OpenGL mode under Windows, you'll lose approximately the same FPS as you would under Wine.) Plus, in a rather odd twist of irony, Tribes' dedicated server (the original Tribes!) runs somewhat better under Wine!
I should have clarified that I was referring to the US oil consumption by automobiles (I realize I made a mistake in that I neglected to specifically state that point, but reviewing my source would have clarified that was the number I was referring to: 9,286,000 barrels a day by automotive use). The OP had mentioned vehicles, hence my reply to the oil fires burning roughly 2/3rds of what we're burning on the roads. I apologize for having hastily typed up a response without checking to ensure I had stated precisely what I thought...
However, that still doesn't affect what the parent poster mentioned. Whether burned from the fields or burned from our cars isn't a moral equivalency as some on the left would like to think. While the carbon dioxide output is possibly quite similar (neglecting absorption that might happen if that same amount of output is spread across a much larger land mass or other sequestration that may happen naturally), I'm sure the byproducts from burning wells are much more toxic to a much more local area. To liken vehicular use to burning oil wells is just absurd. Never mind that vehicles provide us with transportation, services, goods delivery, and hundreds of more things useful to society than a burning oil well could ever provide.
Is the environmentalist agenda so narrow-minded that we're willing to overlook the utility that fuels can provide us over some silly debate regarding CO2 "output equivalence?"
It's necessary to consider that the Kuwait oil fires were burning roughly 2/3rds of the daily US oil consumption (as of 2007) across a relatively small land mass. It's easy to point out the equivalency by claiming that burning the oil out of the ground is no different than burning it from the engine of a car, but I think that's grossly naive. Considering that Kuwait was still suffering from the 1991 fires as reported in 2003, I think you're overlooking the health effects of burning nearly a day's worth of US oil consumption in an area not much bigger than Connecticut--without first refining it.
There are some things a little worse than carbon dioxide, and I frankly wouldn't want to live next to an oil well that's been on fire for months on end.
That's so last century. Here, let me fix it for you:
I take it you've never heard of soylent green? ;)
I think Obama's intention isn't to save oil by inflating tires to increase the efficiency of vehicles on the road. I think he's aware of how gullible most Americans are. Coupled with the attitude of "some is good, more is better," he's probably wagering on saving oil by hoping we over-inflate our tires to the point of highway blowouts.
But hey, a car with buggered tires is a car that's not consuming oil!
(For the record, before I get modded down for mild sarcasm, I'm actually afraid this is what might happen. I've seen too many people take the advice of politicians a bit too literally. I also wouldn't put it passed people to inflate their tires to the point of rupture--remember that traveling on hot roads at highway speeds will increase the tire pressure as the gas inside expands. If you over-inflate them as some people are bound to do, you run the risk of bursting them.)
Actually, I think it's time someone steps forward and points out the obvious truth.
This is clearly a subversive ploy by Big Aluminum to coerce our conspiracy-leaning compatriots into buying up unnecessary tin foil hats. Tell your friends they're being duped by Big Aluminum!
I'm definitely going to have to try out the new version. Thank you for this link.
I have to agree. Jonathan Schwartz is a very brilliant individual, and his blog entries make for informative and often entertaining reads. His take on applying FOSS in the corporate world is very interesting, particularly in these times where the technological world seems to be moving away from proprietary software.
I very much believe that part of the reason Schwartz is so vehement about open sourcing Sun's offerings is partially the result of genuine goodwill. However, I also believe that much of the reason is due in no small part to his desire to a) keep Sun relevant in the news (it works to get headlines!), b) when he mentions Sun's GPL/OSI-approved software, he tends to also press the issues of maintainability, dependability, and Sun's commitment to continued support (i.e. it's open source and we can fix it if something goes wrong), and c) I think it may also be partially viral. One merely has to take a glance at the various languages (especially in the web development/scripting sphere) to understand how open sourcing the interpreter, virtual machine, or compiler tends to bolster a product's popularity. Yes, there are certainly failures in this regard, but considering Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, LUA, and company (let's not forget the popularity of gcc when it comes to C/C++!), the only thing that surprises me is that Sun didn't open source Java sooner.
Schwartz is a good man, and I'd like to believe that while he's looking out for maintaining Sun's relevance in the years ahead as well as pushing their own product offerings and support, he's also doing good for the community as a whole. As other posters stated before, it's really a moot point getting on Sun's case; there are serious, often frightening legal implications when you open up your source--especially if you licensed parts of it from other companies. It isn't that Sun wishes to do anything evil, it's just that their hands are tied by companies that don't exactly see the world in the same light as the rest of us do (remember the fiasco regarding Java's sound libraries and the Dolby or THX issues? that's a good example).
Bravo to Sun. VirtualBox is an awesome product, and I'm glad that they've added it to their product portfolio.
Getting the networking system to work is a bit of a pain, but I've only had minor difficulties when using the host interface. NAT will work, but you won't be able to ping or access any resources in your own network (which is a bad thing if you have a fileserver at home and wish to access it on a VM). There are, however, a few tutorials that can help you get started with bridging your network for Windows hosts or a variety of Linux hosts.
FreeBSD is the only guest OS I've had difficulties with (even MSDOS will work, but it requires some additions to prevent it from eating up your cycles like crazy--FreeDOS plays nicely, though). I could only ever get the NAT-based networking to work and even then it would freeze whenever IO operations peaked.
Take a look at some of those articles, and you might be able to get networking up and running in VirtualBox! I have to say, for something of a FOSS offering, it's really nice.
I have to agree, except from an end user standpoint. Frankly, the UI sucks. Sure, it may superficially look nice and shiny (because it's new and different--and most commercial sites just don't use black backgrounds) but there are already some major irritations.
First, the entry field on the first page. It's awful. The text is fairly small and it doesn't seem to stand out particularly well from the background. At least with most other sensible search engines, it's trivial to see what you've typed in, even if you're using a ridiculously high resolution. If I have to ctrl+wheel to increase the size of a font, there's already something wrong.
Secondly, and this is where I stopped because of the results (beaten to death already by most posters). How the heck are two columns of text--or the default of three--supposed to be easy enough for someone to quickly scan. When I search, I'm not going to have my eyes bouncing across my browser window just to look for a result. I'd rather scan DOWN the page with minimal effort. Less eye movement == easier, friendly interface. I can't seem to find the article now, but Jakob Nielsen had one written on how users scan pages (something to the effect of scanning a page in the shape of an F). I'm sure he'll have something to say about the design of Cuil if prodded enough.
That's my rant about the UI. I'm certainly no UI expert, so I'd advise that my comments should be taken with a grain of salt. However, I do know what works easiest for me, and having search results returned in a single column is easiest. If I have to read a more detailed site overview simply because a search engine doesn't return concise results, I'm going to go somewhere else. Obviously, I'm using the search engine to find something fast. If the search engine impedes my ability to find results quickly and with minimal effort on my behalf, they're not bound to get visited by me again!
While reading through the thread, I came across a note from the hosting provider indicating that he'd exceeded his CPU quota. I guess that's Slashdot bullying people now!
To be fair (and playing the obligatory devil's advocate), the accused bully may very well have been a troll. Remember, not all trolls are alike. Some can use fairly detailed information during their games. Perhaps one clue lies in the post wherein he attacks the use of phpBB--completely unrelated to the original discussion. "carlos" replies with an off-handed remark about phpBB being fairly "easy" to setup and administer, to which the accused bully indicates that there's no need to "split hairs" about something off-topic. That sort of smells like a troll to me. Lure someone out with a potentially inflammatory comment, and then rail them when they bite. It's entirely possible that BlackHawk0 was indeed hoping to improve the calculator, but his self-described disdain for the imperial system while also not being aware that some metric countries use "." as a thousands separator and "," as a decimal strikes me as unusual. I'm especially flabbergasted by the notion that BlackHawk0 appears to be using a non-English language version of Windows and is also unaware of this fact. (Hint: I suspect he's entirely aware of the differential usage of "," and "." but chooses to be publicly ignorant to further his criticism.)
Of course, "carlos" should have just dealt with this himself--or let it slide. If the "bully" in question is in fact a troll, you've just granted him more attention than he ever thought possible! Good going there, "carlos."
Actually, wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that this cyber-bully was the one who submitted the article under the guise of the site owner just to see if he could get the forum Slashdotted?
I think it's much easier to claim that it's due to American arrogance than to do a few minutes worth of research into locations in the US where it's almost a necessity to have a vehicle. Where I currently live, it's at least a 30 minute drive to the grocery store during which time you cover approximately 12 miles of windy, mountain roads and lose around 2000 feet of altitude. There is very limited public transportation, and because this State is quite poor, the local economy can barely support the small van/light bus service that operates within the confines of the local city. (This city is just over 30,000 people, too.)
Furthermore, just to get to a decent doctor or university, it's well over 172 miles round-trip. I can't say that's exactly within walking distance. Now, while car pooling is certainly an option, it's difficult finding someone who has a similar enough schedule to avoid the 2-3 hour wait 85 miles from home.
Look up New Mexico, USA, if you're curious. There's a lot of barren space to travel through just to get anywhere here. And if you blink, you might inadvertently miss a town.
Last I checked, guns aren't required to commit suicide, accidental death can occur as a byproduct of swimming pool ownership, and manslaughter can be committed with a blunt object. So if guns are to blame for these, why not also blame: pools, rope (which is obviously unnecessary for the homeowner, unless her or she intends to hang themselves), razor blades, sharp drops, baseball bats, knives, gravity, broken glass... ...I think you get the idea.
In my particular situation, I think it's most likely server demographics. I play on Terenas (effectively a day zero server, although it wasn't one of the initial servers in the pool until a few hours after launch). The realm itself is quite poorly progressed compared to others and its population now--near as I can tell at least, from anecdotal evidence--is comprised largely of working individuals who haven't much time to play the game. There is still a "hardcore" population but that population is a shadow of its former self. Many of the original players who prized themselves on seeing new content before anyone else have since moved on to other realms or quit the game entirely. I don't think my realm is necessarily representative of all (though it might be representative of those that have large working populations or professional populations). So, you're certainly right, demographics play a huge role. As such, different demographics are more willing to devote more time and others are less willing to devote the same.
I think this is a really good point, and it's also ironic that the PvP element (particularly the hardcore PvPers themselves) isn't much different from the PvE side. Hardcore PvPers complain about the ease with which gear can be attained, and Blizzard complies by slapping rating requirements on various pieces of gear to make them available only to groups that are able to perform reasonably well. Of course, this is used as an e-penis inflation device by those who somehow think game achievements are grossly important, but that's beside the point. What many of the hardcore PvPers neglect to consider--and I think this holds true for the similar mindset that exists in PvE--is that increasing progression and better gear affects the progress of new players and those who have alternate characters they wish to level up. I do think this is an issue more pertinent to PvP (resilience requirements now notwithstanding), but I find it rather interesting that the same complaints faced in PvE with regards to removing attunement requirements and more easily attained raids is homologous to that in the PvP element. It is also rather interesting that Blizzard has been more interested in addressing the complaints of the small hardcore PvP population subset by way of rating requirements on specific pieces of gear while they have simultaneously loosened requirements on PvE encounters. Honestly, I think this is because Blizzard intends to allow the arenas to carry much of the game while the Sunwell keeps the remaining raiders busy. Having said that, I do think that's also why WotLK content is going to be more targeted toward casual players by introducing every raid as a 10-man instance. Perhaps they expect the hardcore PvE population to eventually dry up, much of it moving toward the arenas and assorted tournaments (isn't that what Blizzard is quite obviously focusing on anyway?).
I appreciate your optimism, and it's certainly a breath of fresh air. I think Blizzard has learned many valuable lessons about the changing demographics of an extraordinarily popular MMO. In fact, I think there's many lessons that they had to make up as they went along, solely because no one else has quite managed to do what they have done with this genre. I'm not holding out much hope myself, simply because I've lost a great deal of interest in the game, and I have a nagging suspicion that WotLK is just going to be TBC v2.0 (only with more well-thought out plans re