My wife and I have used it for several months now, and have been very happy (although lately the servers seem to be overloaded too often).
The funny thing is, after we put the first amount on our credit card, Citibank called up to make sure that the charge was legit. Then when we put more money on a few months later, they called again! I guess Citibank just can't believe people might purchase stuff from a Russian company:)
Same thing happened to me when I got an ergonomic keyboard... the pattern crossed the split in the keys and didn't match up right for my muscle memory.
Now I use the split as an extra piece of information in the pattern, makes it a nonsense pattern on a normal keyboard.
Well I've used both thumb trackballs and index finger trackballs, and my index finger just ends up being bent in weird ways. The thumb motion seems much more natural to me (personal preference of course).
I think the real question is what you want AI to do for you. If all you get AI to do is mimic the discussion of an actual human, what have you gained? We have too many humans as it is, and they all talk too much.
So let's say I'm doing a simulation of structure formation in the universe.
I have a cube grid of cells, 512 on a side (my own code uses adaptive mesh refinement to increase resolution, but we'll ignore that for simplicity).
So each cell requires 3 floating variables to compute gravity, and 8 floating variables to calculate hydrodynamics. At 4 bytes per variable, that's a total of 5.5 GB just for the mesh.
Then you need to add dark matter particles, allow for star formation and cooling, track different element species, and data structures to allow for adaptive mesh refinement.... each of which have similar memory requirements.
Just checking for open relays wouldn't stop zombies... you'd just have your trojan listen on some other port (or listen to some complicated series of packets on many ports, so it's unlikely to be discovered accidentally).
Really you'd have to have whitelists, i.e. someone specifically requests to be allowed to send outbound on port 25. No ISP is going to do that though, they're much more likely to just block all port 25 traffic regardless (and force people like me to send to my work smtp server on alternate ports).
Doug
Re:The C++ Programming Language
on
Practical C++
·
· Score: 1
I guess I'm against the idea of copying examples out of textbooks altogether anyway....
People should be transcribing ideas, not text. A person who copies a flawed program exactly is in the same position as a person who copies a flawless program imperfectly, i.e. neither has any idea of what's going on.
Of course this doesn't mean you should intentionally create buggy examples for students to beat their heads against (at least not in a published reference book), but students should have enough of an idea of what they're doing before transcribing to fix any problems that arise.
Doug
Re:The C++ Programming Language
on
Practical C++
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I've actually found that typos can be helpful for the learning student. Sure, in the short term they'll pull their hair out, but in the long term, when they make similar typos, they know what to look for, and how to diagnose problems.
I don't think that he took an overly simplistic viewpoint... he mentions racism as another example of a "mind virus," so it seems to me that he's blaming such conflicts on exactly the type of segregationist thinking that you mention. A mind virus would naturally play to the desires of its host, i.e. the idea that one is superior to everyone else, otherwise it could never propagate.
Of course science shouldn't operate on the principal of pay to play, but how does it in this case?
You're free to re-implement his algorithms in any language you want. He just made your job much easier if you happen to use Mathematica. If he didn't code his samples in Mathematica, people would point to it as proof that he doesn't use his own product.
From poking around on their website, here's a preprint article, and there's another paper which discusses spectroscopic confirmation.
These are Lyman emitting galaxies, initially identified using a special camera with narrow band filters targeted at this redshift (a previously known z = 2.38 cluster was in the field which I think is why they picked it). They then used a multi-object spectrograph (2dF) to spectroscopically confirm the redshifts (second paper).
From what I recall of the Narnia series which was already created (I don't remember who did it, only that it was shown on PBS), 4 and 5 can be combined relatively easily... won't flow as well as a normal movie, but you can get all the important story elements together.
I think that's often critical to enjoying some of the crap that hollywood puts out...
If you expect nothing, you really can't be disappointed, and if there's anything at all to enjoy, you'll be happy. That's why I didn't hate Matrix Reloaded, I went into the theater expecting not to like it, so anything good stood out.
Doug
Re:You will have to work to not travel.
on
Traveling Jobs in IT?
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
So why are you spending time reading/posting to slashdot instead of spending it with your family?
Taking 15 years to the next step is only reasonable, provided they make that next step. I'd much rather China not follow in the US's footsteps and make hurried overly specialized design decisions just to make it to the moon, then stop just when the bugs started to be worked out.
Slow but sustained development would be a terrific thing, unfortunately I think China's government is really only interested in the short term propaganda value, just like the US.
Quite a few people filter the Referer header now. I know because I admin a blog site which is forced to limit access to uploaded files (shared images and the like) to people with local refer tags, or people will start abusing the service (hosting images/video files).
In short, you can't trust the client to provide an acurate http_refer anymore, so it's getting close to useless.
My Father-in-law had a somewhat similar experience with cowardly managers. He applied for a job for which he was very well qualified (engineer with an masters in something business... project management I think). They turned him down because he had no experience firing people.
What they were really looking for was to hire a new guy and have him take all the heat for firing everyone. What a way to make friends at the office! The people who don't get fired sure aren't going to trust you, so you probably won't be able to do your real job well.
Re:So why ever go to university?
on
MIT Everyware
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
why ever go to MIT
Because it's difficult to get into, and the classes are hard (expensive just goes along with that).
When you get a degree from MIT you're getting two things, 1) MIT's brand name recognition, 2) proof that you can work your ass off for a number of years, and stick things out no matter how tough they get.
The name will get you in the door, the work ethic will hopefully get you the job.
Slashdot Mirror
My wife and I have used it for several months now, and have been very happy (although lately the servers seem to be overloaded too often).
:)
The funny thing is, after we put the first amount on our credit card, Citibank called up to make sure that the charge was legit. Then when we put more money on a few months later, they called again! I guess Citibank just can't believe people might purchase stuff from a Russian company
Doug
Same thing happened to me when I got an ergonomic keyboard... the pattern crossed the split in the keys and didn't match up right for my muscle memory.
Now I use the split as an extra piece of information in the pattern, makes it a nonsense pattern on a normal keyboard.
Doug
Thankfully we have special relativity on our side...
Doug
Well I've used both thumb trackballs and index finger trackballs, and my index finger just ends up being bent in weird ways. The thumb motion seems much more natural to me (personal preference of course).
Doug
I think the real question is what you want AI to do for you. If all you get AI to do is mimic the discussion of an actual human, what have you gained? We have too many humans as it is, and they all talk too much.
Doug
Trust me, 6 GB goes by very quickly.
So let's say I'm doing a simulation of structure formation in the universe.
I have a cube grid of cells, 512 on a side (my own code uses adaptive mesh refinement to increase resolution, but we'll ignore that for simplicity).
So each cell requires 3 floating variables to compute gravity, and 8 floating variables to calculate hydrodynamics. At 4 bytes per variable, that's a total of 5.5 GB just for the mesh.
Then you need to add dark matter particles, allow for star formation and cooling, track different element species, and data structures to allow for adaptive mesh refinement.... each of which have similar memory requirements.
Doug
Just checking for open relays wouldn't stop zombies... you'd just have your trojan listen on some other port (or listen to some complicated series of packets on many ports, so it's unlikely to be discovered accidentally).
Really you'd have to have whitelists, i.e. someone specifically requests to be allowed to send outbound on port 25. No ISP is going to do that though, they're much more likely to just block all port 25 traffic regardless (and force people like me to send to my work smtp server on alternate ports).
Doug
I guess I'm against the idea of copying examples out of textbooks altogether anyway....
People should be transcribing ideas, not text. A person who copies a flawed program exactly is in the same position as a person who copies a flawless program imperfectly, i.e. neither has any idea of what's going on.
Of course this doesn't mean you should intentionally create buggy examples for students to beat their heads against (at least not in a published reference book), but students should have enough of an idea of what they're doing before transcribing to fix any problems that arise.
Doug
I've actually found that typos can be helpful for the learning student. Sure, in the short term they'll pull their hair out, but in the long term, when they make similar typos, they know what to look for, and how to diagnose problems.
Doug
I don't think that he took an overly simplistic viewpoint... he mentions racism as another example of a "mind virus," so it seems to me that he's blaming such conflicts on exactly the type of segregationist thinking that you mention. A mind virus would naturally play to the desires of its host, i.e. the idea that one is superior to everyone else, otherwise it could never propagate.
Doug
I notice you dropped the "Orbiting." Are you trying to imply something about ISS's near future?
Doug
I'm far more disturbed by Bass.... nothing like the image of a load of sperm to leave a bitter (or should I say salty) taste in your mouth.
Doug
Of course science shouldn't operate on the principal of pay to play, but how does it in this case?
You're free to re-implement his algorithms in any language you want. He just made your job much easier if you happen to use Mathematica. If he didn't code his samples in Mathematica, people would point to it as proof that he doesn't use his own product.
Doug
Thanks... I had to be a little careful with the details, I'm a theorist by training ;)
Doug
From poking around on their website, here's a preprint article, and there's another paper which discusses spectroscopic confirmation.
These are Lyman emitting galaxies, initially identified using a special camera with narrow band filters targeted at this redshift (a previously known z = 2.38 cluster was in the field which I think is why they picked it). They then used a multi-object spectrograph (2dF) to spectroscopically confirm the redshifts (second paper).
Doug
From what I recall of the Narnia series which was already created (I don't remember who did it, only that it was shown on PBS), 4 and 5 can be combined relatively easily... won't flow as well as a normal movie, but you can get all the important story elements together.
Doug
I think that's often critical to enjoying some of the crap that hollywood puts out...
If you expect nothing, you really can't be disappointed, and if there's anything at all to enjoy, you'll be happy. That's why I didn't hate Matrix Reloaded, I went into the theater expecting not to like it, so anything good stood out.
Doug
So why are you spending time reading/posting to slashdot instead of spending it with your family?
Doug
... and as long as they have copyright protection, there will be a Disney... wonderfully circular, don't you think?
Doug
God should have thought to create man without curiosity if he didn't want us looking around.
Doug
Taking 15 years to the next step is only reasonable, provided they make that next step. I'd much rather China not follow in the US's footsteps and make hurried overly specialized design decisions just to make it to the moon, then stop just when the bugs started to be worked out.
Slow but sustained development would be a terrific thing, unfortunately I think China's government is really only interested in the short term propaganda value, just like the US.
Doug
Quite a few people filter the Referer header now. I know because I admin a blog site which is forced to limit access to uploaded files (shared images and the like) to people with local refer tags, or people will start abusing the service (hosting images/video files).
In short, you can't trust the client to provide an acurate http_refer anymore, so it's getting close to useless.
Doug
My Father-in-law had a somewhat similar experience with cowardly managers. He applied for a job for which he was very well qualified (engineer with an masters in something business... project management I think). They turned him down because he had no experience firing people.
What they were really looking for was to hire a new guy and have him take all the heat for firing everyone. What a way to make friends at the office! The people who don't get fired sure aren't going to trust you, so you probably won't be able to do your real job well.
Doug
key action is *prefect*
;)
Looks a little off to me
(sorry, couldn't resist)
Doug
why ever go to MIT
Because it's difficult to get into, and the classes are hard (expensive just goes along with that).
When you get a degree from MIT you're getting two things, 1) MIT's brand name recognition, 2) proof that you can work your ass off for a number of years, and stick things out no matter how tough they get.
The name will get you in the door, the work ethic will hopefully get you the job.
Doug