If you don't have any idea what they're going to be doing with it, what business do you have reproaching it?
Based on their past performance...
Google image search? Hoo yeah.
Maps, phonebooks, toolbar, search-term spellchecker? Good ideas all, if not earthshattering, but it shows a consistent effort to improve the utility and relevance of their product.
Google News? Big pluses here.
Google Answers? Heh. Okay. But like I said, it deserved to be explored.
Google AdWords? They found -advertising- that -doesn't suck-. Yeesh. What does it take to impress you?... based on that, they're up to something that bears close attention. I can't speak to the -profitability- of it, but they're still here, at least.
If your opinion differs, so be it, but I'm not sure you're basing it on -anything- other than reflexive avoidance of a perceived agenda.
If you sit down and look at it, Google's "things touched/things that are 24-karat gold" ratio is exceptional.
They did this for a reason. I can think of many cool things they could do with this. They, I'm pretty sure, can think up more.
I'm going to make a guess -- backed up, mind, by both their past performance and the general attitude that they exhibit -- that whatever they're up to -will be- the next big thing.
Or something that darn well could've -been- the next big thing and deserved to be explored.
You're a -small businessman-. You're trying to -make a small profit- and -stay afloat-.
You -pay taxes-.
It's his job to shoo away criminals. Get an appointment and explain how these clowns are keeping you from doing things that make money, and which law lets them get away with that trash.
I dunno if this is a good idea, but ask HIM if HE can tell you where all his software licenses are. Would HE like to be audited? Have his computers impounded?
Tell him you expect him to keep it from happening. Express disappointment in his votes for those laws. Praise his negative votes.... although if you -do- try this, you might want to try -real hard- to find those CDs.
... if you want that, it's really fine with me. And if I can make some money selling you large, opaque sheets of material with a sequence of holes cut so that the text of C&P -is- presented as a light-hearted, romantic comedy... then I just might do it.
Having survived the school system, I know its precise value.
I'm not gonna worry if my child makes her babysitters angry. They're there to keep her busy while her parents are at work; they'd best not try to rise above their station.
I -used- to be in favor of more teachers and better pay, really I did, but after careful consideration, I've decided that they wouldn't do the job. We don't need more teachers, we need people who actually understand the real purpose of school.
Babysitting.
Academic rigor can be instilled in junior college. I'll pay for that, if it comes to it.
Sound impossible? One might think that, but with the super coolness of the Win32 API, I have a script that does just that. It 'talks" to the application, and virtually clicks all the buttons necessary. Totally automated.
That's really impressive until you remember that the whole, original, blasted POINT of Windows was to present a Graphical User Interface.
The fact that there exists a backhanded way to sit there, at a console, and figure out how to direct buttons to be pushed is exactly like something that's a good idea, but backwards. The fact that this is the most efficent way to conduct this automated task is nothing short of laughable.
This is gonna save me a lot of money. I don't even have to pretend to respect copyright anymore.
It's no longer my problem. It's not acceptable. I won't prop it up.
If you're a content producer, you'd better start lobbying backwards, because I'm going to do everything I can to get your works into the hands of those who want them, and I'm going to continue to do so until the fact of the law reflects the spirit of the Constitution.
Of course, even if you ARE a content producer, I will note that however many copyrights you hold, there's an near-infinite number you -don't- hold, and I'm gonna try just as hard to get -you- everything I'm getting everyone else.
Because I've got a nice one-handed controller for the PSX, and that's possibly the only way I could stand to sit there and do nothing for however long I'm supposed to exercise.
Probably cheaper than a custom-built bike (or bike attachment-thingie) for a game that isn't fun anyways.
Besides, my fiancee claims I lose track of time too easily, maybe I'd lose track and keep biking. (:
Strange -- for me, even when I take the time to KO people, the engine counts it as a kill once I'm past the third or so mission. That's -really- irritating.
Is there anything like a Time Bank I can save my mod points in? I'm willing to save up to fifty or so -- or even a 100 -- if I could have the privledge of getting a front-page story saying "a moderator just spent 100 mod points to inform you that Cliff in general and the story "Do Programming Languages Affect Your Sex Life" in particular are (-1, Permitted To Fellate Me)."
On a somewhat different note, I see that my original comment has been moderated as 5, Troll, which I find
amusing. Of course, I'd prefer for it to be otherwise, but then, given the large, but certainly nt nearly
exclusive, American readership that Slashdot has, I should have expected no more.
You must be asserting that it was the wise, unbiased foreigners who granted you the +5 -- I can only assume it'd have to be plus five -- while the ignorant, grasping Americans bestowed upon you the lone Troll mark.
Don't you find something inconsistent here? You made five, you got heard, quit your bitching.
I can't count how many hours I've waited to get a real problem escalated to a tech who can do more than
follow a "make sure it's plugged in/reboot the computer/reinstall Windows" flowchart. I've tried asking for
problem escalation directly, but (since this is tantamount to telling the first-level guy he's stupid) this rarely
works. Instead, the guy makes me follow every step of the flowchart. Since I'm not a moron, I've already
tried all of the relevant steps. But the first-level guy doesn't actually understand how computers work, so he
usually makes me follow the irrelevant steps as well. I've actually started lying about having already tried
something, just so I can be escalated to someone who earns more than $7/hour.
Sorry, cowboy. There's very little more irritating than someone who thinks he's infallible.
I -always- ran smarty-men through the whole checklist, point-by-point -- even adding some points depending on just how smart they were.
The ones who -really- knew what the fsck they were doing stayed calm and asserted that "yes, they've done that," "yes, they've done THAT," "yes, they've done that TOO."
Y'see, everyone makes mistakes. Everyone. Without exception. And if you're calling -me-, then something's wrong somewhere... and if I don't already know about it, the odds are that it's not on my side. Ignoring snotty bastards like you and -going through the checklist- is the best, most efficent way to make sure every goddamn base is covered... 'cause the one I miss is sure as hell gonna be the one you missed too. And then you'll be on the phone for DAYS.
Methodical. Plodding. Point-by-fragging-point. It's not glamarous, and it sure doesn't exclude listening, analysis, and creativity... but if you want to catch -everything-, then you build a formula and follow it. Every time. Without exception.
His posts? Who told you that I'm a guy? Ever consider that I'm a member of, oh, the majority gender?
What told him you're a guy is the Queen's English, in which all indefinite pronouns are assumed to be masculine.
Don't like it? Learn Esperanto. Or change the language -- I think Mr. Katz has some words about his luck with that.
Or get a grip. Sheesh. Your post doesn't say a lot for your gender, you know -- if you ARE female; please note you never explicitly said so, that I could tell anyways.
I'm gonna pay for this, I'll wager, but who cares? Them's the rules of English, and I'm not budging.
But the only episode of B5 *I* ever saw was the one that involved some guy who thought he was King Arthur wandering around the whatever-it-is-they-wander-around.
This thing's been on Happy Penguin [happypenguin.org] for aeons now. Gotta love aalib, the library that makes it all possible.
The sick thing is, aalib will work with an astonishing array of "real" apps. There's even a GIMP plugin, I hear, if you're just dying to make screenshots even a Lynxer can read.
Does anyone else out there remember that [Slashdotted] story about some large effort to determine the OS of every computer on the net?
If I recall, they dealt with one NASTY little rootkit that knocked on their door and installed its happy ass onto their systems in something like 13 seconds. Came from some poorly maintained Aussie ISP.
Wonder how many of -those- puppies are out there, lurking?
}... that stupid amulet if it's the last thing my character ever does! Oh, wait...
Oh, no. You think that GETTING the Amulet is your trial? Don't you recall your instructions?
That's right, chummer. You have to get the Amulet -and bring it back-. And the bearer of the Amulet, uhm, can't teleport. You gotta hoof it back up all fifty levels, with the Wizard of Yendor all over your ass and with no help from your god.
Not that you're done yet. Remember the rest? You gotta bring the Amulet -to your God-. So you'll need to take a short jaunt through the four Elemental Planes -- bring your pickaxe!
Heh. But I'm not done yet. Nothing's ever fair, is it? Welcome to the Astral Plane, home of the three High Altars of the Gods. And their attendants. And you know what? The other two Gods really AREN'T the least bit interested in your God gaining ascendancy over all things. Get ready to kick some Archon butt.
And who invited THOSE guys? For -no apparent reason-, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse want to kick your butt too, and you can't make those bastards stay dead. Fun fun fun.
And you thought -one- Wizard of Yendor was bad news...?
So fight your way back up through all fifty levels of the dungeon, traverse the Elemental Planes, and fight your way through that warzone they call the Astral, puzzle out which altar your God owns -- don't botch this one -- and offer the Amulet.
And THAT will be the last thing your character does -- except for the gloating. Lots of gloating.
The reason you can't brute force a one-time pad is because you'd get an infinite number of possibles.
Think of your standard alphabetic subsitituion code. Except that EVERY SINGLE BYTE of the message has a different, random, substitution matrix.
So for the -first- letter, A--X, while the fourth is A--M.
You could just generate every possible cipher, and you would indeed get the encrypted message -- as well as every other combination of letters N bytes long.
So "ATTACK AT DAWN" would be disclosed -- as would "ATTACK AT NOON", "FALL BACK NOW!", and "LETS DO LUNCH."...
A webpage that lacks support for Lynx sort of violates the core ideas of HTML.
They shouldn't be supporting Lynx because it's open source -- that's just silly.
They should be supporting it because it will cost them vast amounts of prestige when snooty Lynx users (hint: I'm composing this in an 80x25 window) mock and deride it because, well, it's poorly designed.
Isn't this one of the rubrics of web design, seperating macromedia-extravaganza.com from the rest of the clued?
If it can't be read in Lynx, a large chunk of their target audience isn't gonna read it. Period.
Besides, thems fighting words -- browsers better than Lynx, indeed. I don't have to kill *LYNX* because it's eating ninety megs of RAM at a 3.6 loadavg...
Slashdot Mirror
If you don't have any idea what they're going to be doing with it, what business do you have reproaching it?
... based on that, they're up to something that bears close attention. I can't speak to the -profitability- of it, but they're still here, at least.
Based on their past performance...
Google image search? Hoo yeah.
Maps, phonebooks, toolbar, search-term
spellchecker? Good ideas all, if not earthshattering, but it shows a consistent effort to improve the utility and relevance of their product.
Google News? Big pluses here.
Google Answers? Heh. Okay. But like I said, it deserved to be explored.
Google AdWords? They found -advertising- that -doesn't suck-. Yeesh. What does it take to impress you?
If your opinion differs, so be it, but I'm not sure you're basing it on -anything- other than reflexive avoidance of a perceived agenda.
If you sit down and look at it, Google's "things touched/things that are 24-karat gold" ratio is exceptional.
They did this for a reason. I can think of many cool things they could do with this. They, I'm pretty sure, can think up more.
I'm going to make a guess -- backed up, mind, by both their past performance and the general attitude that they exhibit -- that whatever they're up to -will be- the next big thing.
Or something that darn well could've -been- the next big thing and deserved to be explored.
You're a -small businessman-. You're trying to -make a small profit- and -stay afloat-.
... although if you -do- try this, you might want to try -real hard- to find those CDs.
You -pay taxes-.
It's his job to shoo away criminals. Get an appointment and explain how these clowns are keeping you from doing things that make money, and which law lets them get away with that trash.
I dunno if this is a good idea, but ask HIM if HE can tell you where all his software licenses are. Would HE like to be audited? Have his computers impounded?
Tell him you expect him to keep it from happening. Express disappointment in his votes for those laws. Praise his negative votes.
... if you want that, it's really fine with me. And if I can make some money selling you large, opaque sheets of material with a sequence of holes cut so that the text of C&P -is- presented as a light-hearted, romantic comedy... then I just might do it.
You-buy-it-and-it's-yours.
Hollywood is not thrilled with that idea.
That -is- sort of subjective, after all.
Having survived the school system, I know its precise value.
I'm not gonna worry if my child makes her babysitters angry. They're there to keep her busy while her parents are at work; they'd best not try to rise above their station.
I -used- to be in favor of more teachers and better pay, really I did, but after careful consideration, I've decided that they wouldn't do the job. We don't need more teachers, we need people who actually understand the real purpose of school.
Babysitting.
Academic rigor can be instilled in junior college. I'll pay for that, if it comes to it.
That's really impressive until you remember that the whole, original, blasted POINT of Windows was to present a Graphical User Interface.
The fact that there exists a backhanded way to sit there, at a console, and figure out how to direct buttons to be pushed is exactly like something that's a good idea, but backwards. The fact that this is the most efficent way to conduct this automated task is nothing short of laughable.
I let the system have its chance. It failed.
This is gonna save me a lot of money. I don't even have to pretend to respect copyright anymore.
It's no longer my problem. It's not acceptable. I won't prop it up.
If you're a content producer, you'd better start lobbying backwards, because I'm going to do everything I can to get your works into the hands of those who want them, and I'm going to continue to do so until the fact of the law reflects the spirit of the Constitution.
Of course, even if you ARE a content producer, I will note that however many copyrights you hold, there's an near-infinite number you -don't- hold, and I'm gonna try just as hard to get -you- everything I'm getting everyone else.
The lines are drawn. Let's get to work.
No, they got the media they were searching for.
Someone else got "scammed".
I really need an exercise bike. Really badly.
Because I've got a nice one-handed controller for the PSX, and that's possibly the only way I could stand to sit there and do nothing for however long I'm supposed to exercise.
Probably cheaper than a custom-built bike (or bike attachment-thingie) for a game that isn't fun anyways.
Besides, my fiancee claims I lose track of time too easily, maybe I'd lose track and keep biking. (:
One word.
Rubberhose.
Strange -- for me, even when I take the time to KO people, the engine counts it as a kill once I'm past the third or so mission. That's -really- irritating.
So is this fast enough to send me a 1280x1024x32bpp image sixty times a second?
Wallhack THIS.
Ever since I played TotD I've thought that twenty licensed copies of it for a school would teach much better typing than ever Mavis Beacon could.
Anyone else know any good replacements for subjects? A best of three round of Carmen Sandiego for a geography final?
Is there anything like a Time Bank I can save my mod points in? I'm willing to save up to fifty or so -- or even a 100 -- if I could have the privledge of getting a front-page story saying "a moderator just spent 100 mod points to inform you that Cliff in general and the story "Do Programming Languages Affect Your Sex Life" in particular are (-1, Permitted To Fellate Me)."
You must be asserting that it was the wise, unbiased foreigners who granted you the +5 -- I can only assume it'd have to be plus five -- while the ignorant, grasping Americans bestowed upon you the lone Troll mark.
Don't you find something inconsistent here? You made five, you got heard, quit your bitching.
Sorry, cowboy. There's very little more irritating than someone who thinks he's infallible.
I -always- ran smarty-men through the whole checklist, point-by-point -- even adding some points depending on just how smart they were.
The ones who -really- knew what the fsck they were doing stayed calm and asserted that "yes, they've done that," "yes, they've done THAT," "yes, they've done that TOO."
Y'see, everyone makes mistakes. Everyone. Without exception. And if you're calling -me-, then something's wrong somewhere... and if I don't already know about it, the odds are that it's not on my side. Ignoring snotty bastards like you and -going through the checklist- is the best, most efficent way to make sure every goddamn base is covered... 'cause the one I miss is sure as hell gonna be the one you missed too. And then you'll be on the phone for DAYS.
Methodical. Plodding. Point-by-fragging-point. It's not glamarous, and it sure doesn't exclude listening, analysis, and creativity... but if you want to catch -everything-, then you build a formula and follow it. Every time. Without exception.
What told him you're a guy is the Queen's English, in which all indefinite pronouns are assumed to be masculine.
Don't like it? Learn Esperanto. Or change the language -- I think Mr. Katz has some words about his luck with that.
Or get a grip. Sheesh. Your post doesn't say a lot for your gender, you know -- if you ARE female; please note you never explicitly said so, that I could tell anyways.
I'm gonna pay for this, I'll wager, but who cares? Them's the rules of English, and I'm not budging.
I'm speaking up, and karma be damned.
But the only episode of B5 *I* ever saw was the one that involved some guy who thought he was King Arthur wandering around the whatever-it-is-they-wander-around.
King. Arthur. Check please!
The sick thing is, aalib will work with an astonishing array of "real" apps. There's even a GIMP plugin, I hear, if you're just dying to make screenshots even a Lynxer can read.
If I recall, they dealt with one NASTY little rootkit that knocked on their door and installed its happy ass onto their systems in something like 13 seconds. Came from some poorly maintained Aussie ISP.
Wonder how many of -those- puppies are out there, lurking?
Why stop? Maybe the trolls could add some threads about a naked and petrified -- uhm -- Brad Pitt?
Oh, no. You think that GETTING the Amulet is your trial? Don't you recall your instructions?
That's right, chummer. You have to get the Amulet -and bring it back-. And the bearer of the Amulet, uhm, can't teleport. You gotta hoof it back up all fifty levels, with the Wizard of Yendor all over your ass and with no help from your god.
Not that you're done yet. Remember the rest? You gotta bring the Amulet -to your God-. So you'll need to take a short jaunt through the four Elemental Planes -- bring your pickaxe!
Heh. But I'm not done yet. Nothing's ever fair, is it? Welcome to the Astral Plane, home of the three High Altars of the Gods. And their attendants. And you know what? The other two Gods really AREN'T the least bit interested in your God gaining ascendancy over all things. Get ready to kick some Archon butt.
And who invited THOSE guys? For -no apparent reason-, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse want to kick your butt too, and you can't make those bastards stay dead. Fun fun fun.
And you thought -one- Wizard of Yendor was bad news...?
So fight your way back up through all fifty levels of the dungeon, traverse the Elemental Planes, and fight your way through that warzone they call the Astral, puzzle out which altar your God owns -- don't botch this one -- and offer the Amulet.
And THAT will be the last thing your character does -- except for the gloating. Lots of gloating.
Happy hacking...
If I had read the letter, *I'D SPEAK SPANISH*.
The reason you can't brute force a one-time pad is because you'd get an infinite number of possibles.
...
Think of your standard alphabetic subsitituion code. Except that EVERY SINGLE BYTE of the message has a different, random, substitution matrix.
So for the -first- letter, A--X, while the fourth is A--M.
You could just generate every possible cipher, and you would indeed get the encrypted message -- as well as every other combination of letters N bytes long.
So "ATTACK AT DAWN" would be disclosed -- as would "ATTACK AT NOON", "FALL BACK NOW!", and "LETS DO LUNCH."
A webpage that lacks support for Lynx sort of violates the core ideas of HTML.
They shouldn't be supporting Lynx because it's open source -- that's just silly.
They should be supporting it because it will cost them vast amounts of prestige when snooty Lynx users (hint: I'm composing this in an 80x25 window) mock and deride it because, well, it's poorly designed.
Isn't this one of the rubrics of web design, seperating macromedia-extravaganza.com from the rest of the clued?
If it can't be read in Lynx, a large chunk of their target audience isn't gonna read it. Period.
Besides, thems fighting words -- browsers better than Lynx, indeed. I don't have to kill *LYNX* because it's eating ninety megs of RAM at a 3.6 loadavg...