I have to agree. I don't want to be relegated to the "office" room when working on the computer, and having the machine at hand while watching a movie or television means never having to wonder "What else have we seen him/her in?" Or if I'm watching something good, I can search IMDB for other films by that director or writer, and queue them up in Netflix immediately, instead of making a mental note and misplacing it later.
And that does not even take into account the ability to leave home with it, and administer my servers remotely anywhere there is an accessible hotspot.
I think my next step will be a tablet PC, once I can be sure that I can run Debian on it. (And once I have the requisite cash, of course, which may mean around 2010.)
Judging from the way I and many people I know watch television (admittedly not a statistically significant data set), I would guess that a lot of those shows or genres in which people do not skip commercials, or change the channel, result from "ambient" television viewing. That is, people leaving the television on in the background while they do other things, like read Slashdot, or cook dinner.
The shows where people eliminate commercials are those to which they are actually paying attention.
Re:Does it have Heinlein's extreme right-wing view
on
Altered Carbon
·
· Score: 1
I don't read it as pro-military. I think it's an exploration of what it means to be a citizen of a society, and emphasizes that a citizen properly earns their "right" to the benefits of society by shouldering their responsibilities as a citizen.
The main characters in the novel prove their worth by being willing to lay their lives on the line to protect their civilization. And others, such as Rico's father, are so far removed from that viewpoint that they look down upon those who choose to possibly sacrifice themselves for the continuation of their society.
And if that is not the geekiest way of explaining my position, I don't know what is.
I started out as a physics major at university, with the plan of specialising in the theoretical, particle physics end of things. But I came to discover that what I loved about it was the beauty of the underlying mathematics.
Now I work much more closely with that math, in my job as a programmer. Not as close, perhaps, as I would like, since I spend a disproportionate amount of time writing code to spew HTML, rather than creating beautiful visual effects to accompany my friends' musical endeavors, but as time goes on, I expect the scales to continue to tip in favor of the art.
However, I do feel that any elegantly written piece of code, or design architecture, can be beautiful, in an artistic sense. It's all about whether the viewer has been trained to appreciate it. I don't care for opera or ballet -- they don't mean anything to me. But I'm sure that if I took the time to learn the "language" in which they are communicating, I would be able to appreciate the beauty.
Disclaimer: I enjoy many genres of music, from classical to trance, from White Zombie and Lords of Acid to Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. I paint. I built a deck in my backyard, of my own design. It still stands, years later, and looks good. I write, fiction and otherwise.
WaSP is not trying to get sites to force users to upgrade to Flash-compatible browsers. They are trying to get sites to "upgrade" to versions that conform to the open standards set forth by the W3C.
If done correctly, this should have the effect of making things more accessible by, among others, the visually-impaired. Additionally, it would make my life as a web app developer much easier.
That said, most businesses are not going to do what they suggest, because, whether they are the size of Yahoo! or Amazon, or are the local record store, I'm sure no one, if they can help it, wants to alienate their potential customers. Their customers could not care less about standards; they only care about whether or not they can view the site properly, with the tools they already have.
A search on Google for "Ted Williams Keele University" returns pages on www.cmruk.com -- an unreachable site.
But the cache once again comes through: here. However, it's still light on details, though it does mention that the Prof is Professor Emeritus of Optoelectronics at KU, and that his "main focus over the last thirteen years has been the research and development of 3-dimensional magneto-optical recording systems."
It appears that this has been in the news before, as early as September 1999, in The Register. I can't say that I'm impressed with the other "scientific curiosities" they mention CMR promoting, like "Zodee," the "disposable toilet cleaning device which avoids the hygiene problems associated with conventional toilet brushes."
And now that I look closer, it seems/. itself has posted about this before: back in August 1999. Nobody seemed to believe it then either.
See also Unitel, Inc. They claim to be developing HOLO-1, "the first practical quantum-computing device, which can be economically manufactured and introduced into the current computer industry." The esteemed Prof. is listed in their subcontractors section complete with picture.
I used to work for an Internet company where one of my tasks was to maintain a perl script that, once a day, pulled down whois reports on domains the NBA claimed they had legal right to.
Copies of the daily report would go to me, my boss, and the NBA legal department, if any domains had become available or changed status. I was expected to register anything that became available, although on some they were dreaming: they had no more right to wizards.com for the Washington Wizards than does the Wizards of the Coast, and they are never likely to get it.
Towards the end of my stint there, it became unwieldy to maintain the script, due to deliberate outages by NSI, and changing formats. However, it is notable that some mornings, domains that had become available were already snapped up, implying that there were others using a similar scheme to grab names.
It will be impossible for SnapNames to make any promises about your ability to grab names, unless they have some sort of agreement with NSI.
Director Andrew Nichol (The Truman Show) was unable to find a suitable lead actress for the title role of his new movie "Simone", and impressed by the latest CGI, he has decided to use a CGI "woman" opposite Al Pacino in the film.
See this SF Gate article. I had read about it in the SF Chronicle or Examiner, and this is the first reference I could find online -- I am sure there are others.
The story is called Lifeline, first published in the August 1939 issue of Astounding.
You can find it now in The Past Through Tomorrow, a collection of (mostly) short stories, as well as in paperback editions of The Man Who Sold The Moon, The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, and others, I'm sure. There's even a hardcover Lifeline available from Barnes & Noble, and given that the title stroy is so short, there must be more than that in there, for $23.95.
Anyway, I've got Past Through Tomorrow at home, and will try to find the relevant quote, unless someone else can come up with it in the meantime.
The second article has more about Judge Jackson's life before becoming a judge.
-- Chris Goldman
Re:Is it just me.. or is this incredibly silly?
on
Pay Lars
·
· Score: 2
It's not just you... The people who run the paylars.com site think it is incredibly silly as well.
That's what the site is all about, making Metallica look stupid for suing fans for payment when they could have easily started their own paylars.com site (or orangealley.com or mp3.com). At this point, Metallica should be preparing to make a comment to the press about how the money will be donated to some worthy charity.
Aside from fans *wanting* to pay the people who made the music, presumably there would be some measure of quality control in the generation of the mp3 stream and metadata that would make people prefer to "pay lars" than to pirate it.
That's funny. I wonder if "pay lars" will now become shorthand for "pay the copyright holder."
"Hey Joe, I just got a copy of the MIRV concert from last Saturday." "Oh yeah? Can I dupe it?" "No problem, but don't forget to pay lars..."
I'm sure I agree with all of your recommendations, but I think that when people are discussing defenses, and "what can we do?" they're talking about securing their machines to prevent them being used to launch DoS attacks, not to protect them from such attacks.
Others have made the comment that, according to the DSM-IV, it's easy to find a diagnosis to fit just about anybody, so I will not belabor the point.
At least part of the underlying reason for this, however, is the need for mental health professionals to be able to submit bills for treatment to insurance companies. In order for the insurance company to authorise payment for some treatment, they need to agree that it is justified, based on the diagnosed illness, just as this is the case with non-mental illness.
The problem is that the condition of a human mind is neither static nor quantifiable. But mental health professionals, I believe, are driven to succinctly categorise their patients illnesses by the need to get paid, even in situations where a diagnosis is unclear. And it is a legitimate need, I think you'll agree.
At the same time, the insurance companies need to ensure that they are not being bilked.
Any suggestions for a better system? I think there must be one, even if I am not up to the task of coming up with it.
Slashdot Mirror
I have to agree. I don't want to be relegated to the "office" room when working on the computer, and having the machine at hand while watching a movie or television means never having to wonder "What else have we seen him/her in?" Or if I'm watching something good, I can search IMDB for other films by that director or writer, and queue them up in Netflix immediately, instead of making a mental note and misplacing it later.
And that does not even take into account the ability to leave home with it, and administer my servers remotely anywhere there is an accessible hotspot.
I think my next step will be a tablet PC, once I can be sure that I can run Debian on it. (And once I have the requisite cash, of course, which may mean around 2010.)
Judging from the way I and many people I know watch television (admittedly not a statistically significant data set), I would guess that a lot of those shows or genres in which people do not skip commercials, or change the channel, result from "ambient" television viewing. That is, people leaving the television on in the background while they do other things, like read Slashdot, or cook dinner.
The shows where people eliminate commercials are those to which they are actually paying attention.
I don't read it as pro-military. I think it's an exploration of what it means to be a citizen of a society, and emphasizes that a citizen properly earns their "right" to the benefits of society by shouldering their responsibilities as a citizen.
The main characters in the novel prove their worth by being willing to lay their lives on the line to protect their civilization. And others, such as Rico's father, are so far removed from that viewpoint that they look down upon those who choose to possibly sacrifice themselves for the continuation of their society.
Linux already has flightless waterfowl covered, though.
It's good to see that there are others who have visited the Bazaar!
Just a note to chime in on the praise for Sherri S. Tepper. I have not read "Grass", but I have read a few other of her novels.
Try "The Family Tree", "Six Moon Dance", "Gibbon's Decline and Fall", and "Sideshow".
Your non-geek girlfriends will enjoy them too, especially the first and third.
When is someone going to invent a Shipstone?
gold23
This reply only serves to let you know that *someone* else out there has watched Real Genius. Deborah Foreman... mmmmmmm!
And if that is not the geekiest way of explaining my position, I don't know what is.
I started out as a physics major at university, with the plan of specialising in the theoretical, particle physics end of things. But I came to discover that what I loved about it was the beauty of the underlying mathematics.
Now I work much more closely with that math, in my job as a programmer. Not as close, perhaps, as I would like, since I spend a disproportionate amount of time writing code to spew HTML, rather than creating beautiful visual effects to accompany my friends' musical endeavors, but as time goes on, I expect the scales to continue to tip in favor of the art.
However, I do feel that any elegantly written piece of code, or design architecture, can be beautiful, in an artistic sense. It's all about whether the viewer has been trained to appreciate it. I don't care for opera or ballet -- they don't mean anything to me. But I'm sure that if I took the time to learn the "language" in which they are communicating, I would be able to appreciate the beauty.
Disclaimer: I enjoy many genres of music, from classical to trance, from White Zombie and Lords of Acid to Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. I paint. I built a deck in my backyard, of my own design. It still stands, years later, and looks good. I write, fiction and otherwise.
-- gold23
WaSP is not trying to get sites to force users to upgrade to Flash-compatible browsers. They are trying to get sites to "upgrade" to versions that conform to the open standards set forth by the W3C.
If done correctly, this should have the effect of making things more accessible by, among others, the visually-impaired. Additionally, it would make my life as a web app developer much easier.
That said, most businesses are not going to do what they suggest, because, whether they are the size of Yahoo! or Amazon, or are the local record store, I'm sure no one, if they can help it, wants to alienate their potential customers. Their customers could not care less about standards; they only care about whether or not they can view the site properly, with the tools they already have.
-- gold23
A search on Google for "Ted Williams Keele University" returns pages on www.cmruk.com -- an unreachable site.
/. itself has posted about this before: back in August 1999. Nobody seemed to believe it then either.
But the cache once again comes through: here. However, it's still light on details, though it does mention that the Prof is Professor Emeritus of Optoelectronics at KU, and that his "main focus over the last thirteen years has been the research and development of 3-dimensional magneto-optical recording systems."
It appears that this has been in the news before, as early as September 1999, in The Register. I can't say that I'm impressed with the other "scientific curiosities" they mention CMR promoting, like "Zodee," the "disposable toilet cleaning device which avoids the hygiene problems associated with conventional toilet brushes."
And now that I look closer, it seems
See also Unitel, Inc. They claim to be developing HOLO-1, "the first practical quantum-computing device, which can be economically manufactured and introduced into the current computer industry." The esteemed Prof. is listed in their subcontractors section complete with picture.
-- gold23
It's the Fortress of Solitude, for the record.
And no wonder. All that unrelieved whiteness. How about a throw pillow, Supes?
-- gold23
Makes sense. Has anyone else noticed our elected leaders are becoming more and more worthy of the title "Hindmost?"
-- gold23
I used to work for an Internet company where one of my tasks was to maintain a perl script that, once a day, pulled down whois reports on domains the NBA claimed they had legal right to.
Copies of the daily report would go to me, my boss, and the NBA legal department, if any domains had become available or changed status. I was expected to register anything that became available, although on some they were dreaming: they had no more right to wizards.com for the Washington Wizards than does the Wizards of the Coast, and they are never likely to get it.
Towards the end of my stint there, it became unwieldy to maintain the script, due to deliberate outages by NSI, and changing formats. However, it is notable that some mornings, domains that had become available were already snapped up, implying that there were others using a similar scheme to grab names.
It will be impossible for SnapNames to make any promises about your ability to grab names, unless they have some sort of agreement with NSI.
-- Chris Goldman
Director Andrew Nichol (The Truman Show) was unable to find a suitable lead actress for the title role of his new movie "Simone", and impressed by the latest CGI, he has decided to use a CGI "woman" opposite Al Pacino in the film.
See this SF Gate article. I had read about it in the SF Chronicle or Examiner, and this is the first reference I could find online -- I am sure there are others.
-- Chris Goldman
The story is called Lifeline, first published in the August 1939 issue of Astounding.
You can find it now in The Past Through Tomorrow, a collection of (mostly) short stories, as well as in paperback editions of The Man Who Sold The Moon, The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, and others, I'm sure. There's even a hardcover Lifeline available from Barnes & Noble, and given that the title stroy is so short, there must be more than that in there, for $23.95.
Anyway, I've got Past Through Tomorrow at home, and will try to find the relevant quote, unless someone else can come up with it in the meantime.
-- Chris Goldman
Newsmaker: Thomas Penfield Jackson1 2-newsmaker.html
http://w ww.internetworld.com/print/1998/10/12/news/199810
Jurist in Microsoft case opinionated, tardy in decisions
http://www.mercurycent er.com/business/microsoft/trial/judge/
The second article has more about Judge Jackson's life before becoming a judge.
-- Chris Goldman
It's not just you... The people who run the paylars.com site think it is incredibly silly as well.
That's what the site is all about, making Metallica look stupid for suing fans for payment when they could have easily started their own paylars.com site (or orangealley.com or mp3.com). At this point, Metallica should be preparing to make a comment to the press about how the money will be donated to some worthy charity.
Aside from fans *wanting* to pay the people who made the music, presumably there would be some measure of quality control in the generation of the mp3 stream and metadata that would make people prefer to "pay lars" than to pirate it.
That's funny. I wonder if "pay lars" will now become shorthand for "pay the copyright holder."
"Hey Joe, I just got a copy of the MIRV concert from last Saturday."
"Oh yeah? Can I dupe it?"
"No problem, but don't forget to pay lars..."
-- Chris Goldman
-- Chris Goldman
At least part of the underlying reason for this, however, is the need for mental health professionals to be able to submit bills for treatment to insurance companies. In order for the insurance company to authorise payment for some treatment, they need to agree that it is justified, based on the diagnosed illness, just as this is the case with non-mental illness.
The problem is that the condition of a human mind is neither static nor quantifiable. But mental health professionals, I believe, are driven to succinctly categorise their patients illnesses by the need to get paid, even in situations where a diagnosis is unclear. And it is a legitimate need, I think you'll agree.
At the same time, the insurance companies need to ensure that they are not being bilked.
Any suggestions for a better system? I think there must be one, even if I am not up to the task of coming up with it.