I really wish the music industry would realize some of us have really, really nice sound systems hooked up to our computers, and that we like to listen to music on them - without any intention to pirate that music!
I am a sucker - I actually forgot this was April Fool's day, and posted an honest response to the story. I am an idiot. Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!
Questions: Will we be able to post comments in slashvertisements as with normal news stories? Will they be clearly marked as ads? If so, they could actually be sort of fun - we could post rebuttals to the ads, make jokes about them, etc. The only problem would be if the editors modded down such posts in order to unfairly present the impression that slashdotters all love the product being advertised.
I have to say, I'm not going to miss the anonymous cowards. The only thing that troubles me, though, is that they are not being banned to make slashdot better. They are being banned because the advertisers want to see - probably - who is saying what, so they can market to them better.
Are the new changes going to keep me from reading slashdot? No, of course not - but I can't avoid thinking we're losing a little bit of specialness here.
One last thought: if the advertisers are paying to post stories, might they also pay to keep stories about why their products are bad from being posted? And will Taco say no to that?
How is this any different from MRE?
on
Self-Heating Can
·
· Score: 2
Made Ready to Eat meals have been in the Army for a long time, and they're self-heating. How is this new technology? At best, it's an MRE in can form - but you can already buy MREs from surplus stores if you positively have to have them!
"I probably won't be prioritizing government traffic on any of my routers."
Man, I have to say that that is pretty low. If there's an emergency, why the heck wouldn't you want to prioritize official traffic? Even if it helps a miniscule amount, what does it cost you? An hour of your time to make the configuration changes? A temporary loss of bandwidth during an emergency?
This post, I realize, has a good chance of starting an unproductive argument, and probably should not have been posted. Please moderate down.
I was not trying to start a flame war. I just felt sorry for this guy, and I posted that. Period. I am sorry my post offended you - if you could explain what made it offensive, I could avoid such transgressions in the future.
To be so completely integrated into one's computers - it must be a godlike feeling, to have all that data available at will. And then to lose all that power, all that data and insulation from the day-to-day world - no wonder Mann feels crippled. I remember reading that people who depend heavily on electronic organizers to store contact info have a harder time remembering phone numbers and addresses, and I know that my spelling skills have deteriorated slightly since I started relying more on spellcheck.
I know this is something that's not really going to sound right, but "rape" is the best word I can think of to describe this. Where the hell were this guys lawyers? How could the security dudes not realize what an incredib;e achievement Mann's gear is? I repeat: that poor bastard.
Because you know, that wouldn't really be a bad question at all. Is there any way one could take a basic notebook or desktop, and after-market mod it in such a way that it would ahev a fair chance of surviving ground shocks from high explosives, thermal shock, EMP etc.? It might not be Marine-proof, but it might be interesting.
For example, nobody is publishing software on 5.25 inch floppies anymore, but my new (athlon) desktop can still read them quite easily, thanks to the simple expedient of "liberating" the appropriate old drive from my high school. It looks odd next to my dvd-rom and 3.5 inch floppy drive, but it works fine. Thus, all my old backups and software are accessible, and can be copied to modern media.
If they do actually manage to contact the probe, that would be very, very cool. They don't build 'em like this anymore, gentlemen - all you need to do to see that is look at the Mars probes. What's really goofy is how now, one of the farthest man-made objects from Earth is completely, mind-bogglingly obsolete from a computing standpoint.
First of all, you don't need to bludgeon me with ads to get me to pay, Taco. This is my favorite web site - if you just posted an article explaining you really, really need money or you will go under, I'd be happy to pay my $10 to help keep you afloat.
The problem is that, as with many other people, I really don't like to conduct purchases online. I don't trust paypal, and I don't want to give you my credit card number. What I AM willing to do is send you cash or a check through snail-mail - and that is the ONLY way I (and probably many other people) am/are willing to pay. I'm sorry, but until you add a snailmail option, I will not subscribe. Add that option, however, and I will subscribe promptly.
but what I learned in high school was that the Magna Carta was forced on the king by nobles angered by what they perceived as the king stripping them of some of THEIR rights - the commoners weren't involved.
"Or maybe getting tied up and tossed off the front of a moving ship like pirates used to do?"
That's called keelhauling, by the way. Nasty way to go. The rope is tied to the front of the boat, and by the time you're at the rear, you've been concussed, drowned - not fun.
First of all, this passage's connection to spam is even more tenuous than the other law being discussed. More importantly, the Magna Carta does not give any rights at all to the average man - it was intended for the protection of nobles - so the only people who'd benefit from this would be the House of Lords. Shame, though. I rather suspect the penalties for violating this part of the Magna Carta are...interesting.
Well, kinda. The programming class uses Borland Turbo Pascal 6.0 - but Borland is giving away 5.5 for free, which is perfectly compatable with 6.0 so far as the dinky student progs went.
I don't know or care how capable windows is at computational clustering. What I do care about is that windows is designed for several things that you just don't need in a clustering environment. It's designed to be compatible with DOS and older versions of windows - well, you don't need that for custom computational work. It's designed to be user-friendly - but in this sort of project, everyone is going to be technically inclined anyway, so a pretty GUI isn't that important.
Those are the main selling points of windows. But they are *selling* points - you pay for the privelege of using these features. I'm not an anti-microsoft fanatic, but why pay for windows here when Linux or several other free OSes would probably do just as well, with less overhead and cost?
This is really great
on
GNOME 2.0 Beta
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I've always thought that GNOME looked nicer than the windows or mac desktops (almost as nice as BeOS), and it's really cool to see that it's getting even prettier. To anyone who reads this who works on GNOME: thank you very much for working on this, and even more thanks for releasing it under the GPL.
It's people like the ones who work on GNOME who are going to make Linux into the desktop OS it has the potential to be.
They tried to do this back in the sixties with a cruise missile calles PLUTO - sucker woulda flown at supersonic speeds, treetop level, and be powered by and unshielded fission reactor ramjet. Air goes in one end, gets heated up and contaminated with radioactice byproducts, and goes out the rear. Thing would have had practically unlimited ranges, could carry and drop multiple individual bombs, and the sonic boom alone would have killed people on the ground, not to mention the contamination.
The problem, is, quite simply, nobody likes working with unshielded nuclear reactors, and shielding would made it way too heavy. Been there, scrapped that idea.
Teddy Roosevelt knew the power of the bigger guns. He built up the United States into a world naval power by giving us tons of kick-ass (for the day) battleships, and then he sent them around the world on "courtesy calls". Or he'd just park a few battleships off the coast of a country, and ask them very nicely if they would please do as the United States wanted, and if they did that would be really nice. "Speak softly, and carry a big stick." Every new weapon we own makes other countries just a little bit more afraid of us, and a bit more inclined to listen when we speak ever-so-softly-and-respectfully.
Yah, these terrorists sons of bitches don't play by the rules. But if we don't play by the rules, even with scum like these, then other countries start doubting whether we'll play by the rules with them. And that's the path to a whole world of diplomatic hurt, my slashdotting friends. That's how negotiations the world over break down - when a little voice starts whispering in your head "can I trust these people to keep their word?" The United States must always adhere to the Geneva Convention, even with people who never signed it, or we will never be trusted to adhere to the Geneva Convention.
The advantage of laser weapons is that they strike at the speed of light.
Yay! Who gives a flying fudge?! At the ranges where this specific laser system would be used, the difference in speed between our plain old supersonic bullets and lightspeed weapons really doesn't matter. If they're actually aimed right and firing at you, you won't be dodging either.
Slashdot Mirror
At twelve years old, that's pushing the upper age limit (or exceeding it) that these pages are designed for.
I really wish the music industry would realize some of us have really, really nice sound systems hooked up to our computers, and that we like to listen to music on them - without any intention to pirate that music!
I am a sucker - I actually forgot this was April Fool's day, and posted an honest response to the story. I am an idiot. Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!
Questions: Will we be able to post comments in slashvertisements as with normal news stories? Will they be clearly marked as ads? If so, they could actually be sort of fun - we could post rebuttals to the ads, make jokes about them, etc. The only problem would be if the editors modded down such posts in order to unfairly present the impression that slashdotters all love the product being advertised.
I have to say, I'm not going to miss the anonymous cowards. The only thing that troubles me, though, is that they are not being banned to make slashdot better. They are being banned because the advertisers want to see - probably - who is saying what, so they can market to them better.
Are the new changes going to keep me from reading slashdot? No, of course not - but I can't avoid thinking we're losing a little bit of specialness here.
One last thought: if the advertisers are paying to post stories, might they also pay to keep stories about why their products are bad from being posted? And will Taco say no to that?
Made Ready to Eat meals have been in the Army for a long time, and they're self-heating. How is this new technology? At best, it's an MRE in can form - but you can already buy MREs from surplus stores if you positively have to have them!
"I probably won't be prioritizing government traffic on any of my routers."
Man, I have to say that that is pretty low. If there's an emergency, why the heck wouldn't you want to prioritize official traffic? Even if it helps a miniscule amount, what does it cost you? An hour of your time to make the configuration changes? A temporary loss of bandwidth during an emergency?
This post, I realize, has a good chance of starting an unproductive argument, and probably should not have been posted. Please moderate down.
"All he has going for him is hotter assistants."
Not true, really. Hennessy was on the show with Moriarty as well as Watterson, and she is beyond a doubt the hottest ADA ever on the show.
The uber-server (DHCP, Proxy, email, file, whole nine yards) is named Mr. Bill. As in "Oh, no, Mr. Bill!"
I was not trying to start a flame war. I just felt sorry for this guy, and I posted that. Period. I am sorry my post offended you - if you could explain what made it offensive, I could avoid such transgressions in the future.
To be so completely integrated into one's computers - it must be a godlike feeling, to have all that data available at will. And then to lose all that power, all that data and insulation from the day-to-day world - no wonder Mann feels crippled. I remember reading that people who depend heavily on electronic organizers to store contact info have a harder time remembering phone numbers and addresses, and I know that my spelling skills have deteriorated slightly since I started relying more on spellcheck.
I know this is something that's not really going to sound right, but "rape" is the best word I can think of to describe this. Where the hell were this guys lawyers? How could the security dudes not realize what an incredib;e achievement Mann's gear is? I repeat: that poor bastard.
Because you know, that wouldn't really be a bad question at all. Is there any way one could take a basic notebook or desktop, and after-market mod it in such a way that it would ahev a fair chance of surviving ground shocks from high explosives, thermal shock, EMP etc.? It might not be Marine-proof, but it might be interesting.
For example, nobody is publishing software on 5.25 inch floppies anymore, but my new (athlon) desktop can still read them quite easily, thanks to the simple expedient of "liberating" the appropriate old drive from my high school. It looks odd next to my dvd-rom and 3.5 inch floppy drive, but it works fine. Thus, all my old backups and software are accessible, and can be copied to modern media.
If they do actually manage to contact the probe, that would be very, very cool. They don't build 'em like this anymore, gentlemen - all you need to do to see that is look at the Mars probes. What's really goofy is how now, one of the farthest man-made objects from Earth is completely, mind-bogglingly obsolete from a computing standpoint.
First of all, you don't need to bludgeon me with ads to get me to pay, Taco. This is my favorite web site - if you just posted an article explaining you really, really need money or you will go under, I'd be happy to pay my $10 to help keep you afloat.
The problem is that, as with many other people, I really don't like to conduct purchases online. I don't trust paypal, and I don't want to give you my credit card number. What I AM willing to do is send you cash or a check through snail-mail - and that is the ONLY way I (and probably many other people) am/are willing to pay. I'm sorry, but until you add a snailmail option, I will not subscribe. Add that option, however, and I will subscribe promptly.
but what I learned in high school was that the Magna Carta was forced on the king by nobles angered by what they perceived as the king stripping them of some of THEIR rights - the commoners weren't involved.
"Or maybe getting tied up and tossed off the front of a moving ship like pirates used to do?"
That's called keelhauling, by the way. Nasty way to go. The rope is tied to the front of the boat, and by the time you're at the rear, you've been concussed, drowned - not fun.
Or alternatively, "Hail to the King, Baby!"
I had to say that. I just had to.
First of all, this passage's connection to spam is even more tenuous than the other law being discussed. More importantly, the Magna Carta does not give any rights at all to the average man - it was intended for the protection of nobles - so the only people who'd benefit from this would be the House of Lords. Shame, though. I rather suspect the penalties for violating this part of the Magna Carta are...interesting.
Well, kinda. The programming class uses Borland Turbo Pascal 6.0 - but Borland is giving away 5.5 for free, which is perfectly compatable with 6.0 so far as the dinky student progs went.
I don't know or care how capable windows is at computational clustering. What I do care about is that windows is designed for several things that you just don't need in a clustering environment. It's designed to be compatible with DOS and older versions of windows - well, you don't need that for custom computational work. It's designed to be user-friendly - but in this sort of project, everyone is going to be technically inclined anyway, so a pretty GUI isn't that important.
Those are the main selling points of windows. But they are *selling* points - you pay for the privelege of using these features. I'm not an anti-microsoft fanatic, but why pay for windows here when Linux or several other free OSes would probably do just as well, with less overhead and cost?
I've always thought that GNOME looked nicer than the windows or mac desktops (almost as nice as BeOS), and it's really cool to see that it's getting even prettier. To anyone who reads this who works on GNOME: thank you very much for working on this, and even more thanks for releasing it under the GPL.
It's people like the ones who work on GNOME who are going to make Linux into the desktop OS it has the potential to be.
They tried to do this back in the sixties with a cruise missile calles PLUTO - sucker woulda flown at supersonic speeds, treetop level, and be powered by and unshielded fission reactor ramjet. Air goes in one end, gets heated up and contaminated with radioactice byproducts, and goes out the rear. Thing would have had practically unlimited ranges, could carry and drop multiple individual bombs, and the sonic boom alone would have killed people on the ground, not to mention the contamination.
The problem, is, quite simply, nobody likes working with unshielded nuclear reactors, and shielding would made it way too heavy. Been there, scrapped that idea.
Teddy Roosevelt knew the power of the bigger guns. He built up the United States into a world naval power by giving us tons of kick-ass (for the day) battleships, and then he sent them around the world on "courtesy calls". Or he'd just park a few battleships off the coast of a country, and ask them very nicely if they would please do as the United States wanted, and if they did that would be really nice. "Speak softly, and carry a big stick." Every new weapon we own makes other countries just a little bit more afraid of us, and a bit more inclined to listen when we speak ever-so-softly-and-respectfully.
Yah, these terrorists sons of bitches don't play by the rules. But if we don't play by the rules, even with scum like these, then other countries start doubting whether we'll play by the rules with them. And that's the path to a whole world of diplomatic hurt, my slashdotting friends. That's how negotiations the world over break down - when a little voice starts whispering in your head "can I trust these people to keep their word?" The United States must always adhere to the Geneva Convention, even with people who never signed it, or we will never be trusted to adhere to the Geneva Convention.
The advantage of laser weapons is that they strike at the speed of light.
Yay! Who gives a flying fudge?! At the ranges where this specific laser system would be used, the difference in speed between our plain old supersonic bullets and lightspeed weapons really doesn't matter. If they're actually aimed right and firing at you, you won't be dodging either.