why does Americans see the need to constantly surround themselves with US flags? [...] Outside the USA, you'll only see it in dictatorships that tries to whip up unity/loyalty for to state
I think that's wrong. In Paris there flag poles on the street that serve no other purpose than to wave the French flag around. In Germany, following the last Euro cup, many people kept the German flags they had been displaying during the competition on their houses and cars (following a very long history of flag-taboo in that country, granted). In some neighbourhoods of my hometown of Montreal, hundreds of people display the Quebec flag on their porch for no other reason that affirm their patriotism.
I think we all have a natural tendency to notice flags much more when they have a negative connotation to us. Nationalist Quebecers notice Canadian flags everywhere but Quebec flags are invisible to them. Many people outside the US don't associate very positive thoughts to the Star-Spangled Banner, and the slight irritation it causes makes them notice it more.
And the picture we're discussing here is a military picture. Of course they're going to pose in front of their flag.
Just my $0.02 of course. Maybe the flag/capita ratio is indeed higher in the States than other countries, but I think that's the sort of domain where we're all heavily biased in what we notice and what we don't, so until I see actual figures I'll keep an eyebrow raised.
I'm not saying it's impossible to ride a bike in Montreal in the winter, I'm just trying to explain why you barely ever see anyone doing it. Or much, much less people, anyway, than during the summer. Which I'm sure you'll agree is true.
the bicycle may not be the best means of transportation in the winter, particularly in Montreal.
I know it's Canada, but they do shovel the streets... particularly downtown
They do indeed shovel the streets here, they shovel all the streets, but it still remains extremely slippery. It's quite a dangerous endeavour to ride bike in Wintertime, and only bike nuts and downtown bicycle couriers do it. Your wheels may suddenly just jerk sideways and completely slip away from under you, slamming you in the ground.
Besides, dangerous or not, riding a bike by minus 10, minus 20 is just very damn uncomfortable. At these temperatures, you already need to dress up considerably just to step outside. To ride a bike, you need double the insulation because of the wind, especially on your face and hands. And pedalling with winter boots on just isn't fun.
So, no. Montrealers in general don't bike in the Winter.
Alan Turing, in his 1950 paper Computing machinery and intelligence, where he discusses the question of whether machines can think, and where he introduces the Turing Test, says (section 7):
Estimates of the storage capacity of the brain vary from 10^10 to 10^15 binary digits. I incline to the lower values and believe that only a very small fraction is used for the higher types of thinking. Most of it is probably used for the retention of visual impressions. I should be surprised if more than 10^9 was required for [a computer to pass the Turing Test], at any rate against a blind man.
10^10 bits is 1.25 gigabytes, 10^15 bits is 125 terabytes. The former seems ridiculously small to me too, the latter would equate to 82kB/second, based on your calculation. Now would that be enough, you think?
I'm not even sure the question makes a lot of sense, actually. I don't picture the human memory as a discrete one (Turing discusses this too in his article, BTW), where information can be measured in terms of how many "storage units" it uses. I don't think a single memory, say the smell of my friend's uncle's basement when we were kids, could be extracted from my brain, taken out of any context, and measured to find out how many "bits" it uses.
The problem would also be, obviously, that we don't know how to represent all this data in binary form. Which "format" do you use? AI researchers have been trying to build ontologies that cover all of knowledge, computational linguists try to build grammars that fully describe a language, and both goals are mostly unattained yet.
Turing goes on to quote:
The capacity of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, is 2 x 10^9
So he estimates that the human brain holds less information than an encyclopedia. I find that hard to believe. The encyclopedia sure holds more facts than I'll ever remember, but how about habits, skills, things I could never fully describe into words, but that I undoubtedly hold in memory?
It should also be kept in mind that in Turing's time there were no compilers, and programmers like him actually coded by manipulating bit sequences. So no wonder estimating the size of such large databases was hard for them.
Anyway Turing's paper is a rather fascinating read, I highly recommend it to any programmer or CS student.
... it [Russian] has one of the largest working day-to-day vocabularies and there are probably more ways to say the same thing than in any other language [citation needed]
Well, to be fair, I did enjoy Oberg's piece where he debunks dead cosmonaut rumours, I found it quite interesting and I seems to me that, considering it was written by an American during the cold war, it is rather objective and well balanced.
I think he's generally considered a reference on Soviet (and so presumably modern Russian) space exploration. Now TFA is quite disappointing, I must agree.
Until they find those missing tapes, you can watch excerpts of the Apollo 11 videos at the ALSJ, along with a complete transcription of the radio transmissions.
Spacecraft Films also sells a 3-disc DVD box set with enhanced video of the whole mission (as well as other Apollo missions), including onboard footage, surface TV, etc. Fascinating stuff.
There are apocryphal anecdotes that the crew of the Apollo missions were issued poison pins laced with cyanide just in case they could not get into a proper reentry slot and skipped off into space for eternity.
The stories aren't apocryphal.
In the prologue to his autobiography Apollo 13 (formerly titled "Lost Moon"), Jim Lovell writes:
Stories about poison pills always made Jim Lovell laugh. Poison pills! Forget about it! There just weren't any situations in which you'd ever really consider making, well, an early exit. And even if there were, you had lots of easier ways to do it than poison pills. The command module did have a crank for the cabin vent, after all.
So according to him the stories are false.
You can read the book online at Amazon (go to "Search inside", do a search for "Prologue", then click on the only result you get). The first three pages are also available at ImageShack: page 1, page 2, page 3.
Overall, I feel GNU is a really really minor part of my Linux experience, as in "what % to you contribute to the total".
You don't use BASH?
Or ls, cp, rm, mkdir, cat, sort,... ?
Or make, tar, emacs,... ?
These are all GNU products. I agree with my grand-parent, who says that adding the "GNU/" prefix doesn't give much information, but still, GNU is everywhere on a Linux system. And whether the OS is GNU or Linux depends on your definition on an OS -- a kernel? a kernel plus tools? a whole system?
Anyway, I guess my point is, let's not be anal retentive Stallman clones. I'm not going to start saying "GNU slash Linux". Most self-respecting geeks understand what "Linux" implies. That is, GNU is all any Linux desktop.
map.search.ch also has a very sleek, highly usable interface, built using only JavaScript. You can drag the map, zooming is animated, and you get a mix of satellite imagery and vector graphics... Very cool.
It's more complicated than that. First Mozilla was a branch of Netscape Communicator; then they decided to re-write the browser from scratch using the XPFE framework; then Netscape used the Mozilla code to make Netscape 6 and following versions.
HTTP itself is text-based, and that alone increases the transfers greatly. I guess the main motivation behind such a design was that it makes it much easier to read, and to code HTTP applications; it also eliminates several low-level problems such as byte ordering. HTTP is very easy to pick up, and just any TCP/IP tool (such as telnet) can be used to debug an HTP app. I don't know what the other arguments for such a design were, but that certainly doesn't save bytes. If HTTP was encoded down to be bit level, transfers would be so much smaller!
But on the other hand, as it was mentionned in other postings nearby, clarity should be more important than efficienty. Where is the balance?
I would say that since bandwidth will always be broader and broader, clarity and ease of use should be more important than efficienty... while keeping it sane!
The only way this will work is if it is compatable with older versions.
I think it should be feasable to have a new Java which would require most programs to be recompiled, perhaps some to be slightly modified, just like the current switiching of Mac programs to MacOS X.
The article author suggests several API changes; that means programs using the removed API elements will have to be slightly modified. In many cases it's be a search-and-replace job (this class "X" is now renamed "Y", method "a" is now known as "b", etc). Aside from that, several of the changes he proposes are VM enhancements which {w|sh}ould not influence current Java2 programs.
I think the switch is feasible. I would definitely be a bigger step than Java evolution has ever made, and it would take time, but it would help. We could have VMs and plugins which would accept both binary formats, ideally.
Everyone should have a look at bb, a demo for the aa library. It's quite impressive! It is several minutes long, and features incredible things such as mandelbrot fractals! It also shows several of the aa lib features, such as anti-aliasing, random snow-like noise, dithering, etc.
Chances are it's installed on your distro (if you use a majort one). Just type "bb". It has several modes, including the X (as in XC Window) mode. It even has sound!
First time I discovered it we were a dozen in the lab, staring in amazement at the screen and calling colleagues over to see it:)
it's supposed to be object-oriented but there's no way to decalare class or methods
It's supposed to be Object-Based, not Object-Oriented.
Furthermore, there areways of declaring classes, although the keyword class is never used.
It's not a particularily powerful language, agreed. But in an environment such as the web, flexibility is a must and JavaScript provides it very well.
Using the information from the RTSP Proxy White Paper, it should be feasible to build a very simple client which would simply download all UDP packets and save them sequentially in a.ram file. The document explains how streams are controlled etc.
Anyone know if such a tool exists (the foremenyionned StreamBox is for Windows and moreover requires a crack)?
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting links, thanks!
Here's a much better link: (ASF format, 313MB, 640x480px)
(Link taken from here)
why does Americans see the need to constantly surround themselves with US flags? [...] Outside the USA, you'll only see it in dictatorships that tries to whip up unity/loyalty for to state
I think that's wrong. In Paris there flag poles on the street that serve no other purpose than to wave the French flag around. In Germany, following the last Euro cup, many people kept the German flags they had been displaying during the competition on their houses and cars (following a very long history of flag-taboo in that country, granted). In some neighbourhoods of my hometown of Montreal, hundreds of people display the Quebec flag on their porch for no other reason that affirm their patriotism.
I think we all have a natural tendency to notice flags much more when they have a negative connotation to us. Nationalist Quebecers notice Canadian flags everywhere but Quebec flags are invisible to them. Many people outside the US don't associate very positive thoughts to the Star-Spangled Banner, and the slight irritation it causes makes them notice it more.
And the picture we're discussing here is a military picture. Of course they're going to pose in front of their flag.
Just my $0.02 of course. Maybe the flag/capita ratio is indeed higher in the States than other countries, but I think that's the sort of domain where we're all heavily biased in what we notice and what we don't, so until I see actual figures I'll keep an eyebrow raised.
Longer version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flZRps0pBEo
Hello RealGrouchy,
I'm not saying it's impossible to ride a bike in Montreal in the winter, I'm just trying to explain why you barely ever see anyone doing it. Or much, much less people, anyway, than during the summer. Which I'm sure you'll agree is true.
the bicycle may not be the best means of transportation in the winter, particularly in Montreal.
I know it's Canada, but they do shovel the streets... particularly downtownThey do indeed shovel the streets here, they shovel all the streets, but it still remains extremely slippery. It's quite a dangerous endeavour to ride bike in Wintertime, and only bike nuts and downtown bicycle couriers do it. Your wheels may suddenly just jerk sideways and completely slip away from under you, slamming you in the ground.
Besides, dangerous or not, riding a bike by minus 10, minus 20 is just very damn uncomfortable. At these temperatures, you already need to dress up considerably just to step outside. To ride a bike, you need double the insulation because of the wind, especially on your face and hands. And pedalling with winter boots on just isn't fun.
So, no. Montrealers in general don't bike in the Winter.
Alan Turing, in his 1950 paper Computing machinery and intelligence, where he discusses the question of whether machines can think, and where he introduces the Turing Test, says (section 7):
10^10 bits is 1.25 gigabytes, 10^15 bits is 125 terabytes. The former seems ridiculously small to me too, the latter would equate to 82kB/second, based on your calculation. Now would that be enough, you think?
I'm not even sure the question makes a lot of sense, actually. I don't picture the human memory as a discrete one (Turing discusses this too in his article, BTW), where information can be measured in terms of how many "storage units" it uses. I don't think a single memory, say the smell of my friend's uncle's basement when we were kids, could be extracted from my brain, taken out of any context, and measured to find out how many "bits" it uses.
The problem would also be, obviously, that we don't know how to represent all this data in binary form. Which "format" do you use? AI researchers have been trying to build ontologies that cover all of knowledge, computational linguists try to build grammars that fully describe a language, and both goals are mostly unattained yet.
Turing goes on to quote:
So he estimates that the human brain holds less information than an encyclopedia. I find that hard to believe. The encyclopedia sure holds more facts than I'll ever remember, but how about habits, skills, things I could never fully describe into words, but that I undoubtedly hold in memory?
It should also be kept in mind that in Turing's time there were no compilers, and programmers like him actually coded by manipulating bit sequences. So no wonder estimating the size of such large databases was hard for them.
Anyway Turing's paper is a rather fascinating read, I highly recommend it to any programmer or CS student.
... it [Russian] has one of the largest working day-to-day vocabularies and there are probably more ways to say the same thing than in any other language [citation needed]Well, to be fair, I did enjoy Oberg's piece where he debunks dead cosmonaut rumours, I found it quite interesting and I seems to me that, considering it was written by an American during the cold war, it is rather objective and well balanced.
I think he's generally considered a reference on Soviet (and so presumably modern Russian) space exploration. Now TFA is quite disappointing, I must agree.
Until they find those missing tapes, you can watch excerpts of the Apollo 11 videos at the ALSJ, along with a complete transcription of the radio transmissions.
Spacecraft Films also sells a 3-disc DVD box set with enhanced video of the whole mission (as well as other Apollo missions), including onboard footage, surface TV, etc. Fascinating stuff.
In the prologue to his autobiography Apollo 13 (formerly titled "Lost Moon"), Jim Lovell writes:
So according to him the stories are false.
You can read the book online at Amazon (go to "Search inside", do a search for "Prologue", then click on the only result you get). The first three pages are also available at ImageShack: page 1, page 2, page 3.
Or ls, cp, rm, mkdir, cat, sort, ... ?
Or make, tar, emacs, ... ?
These are all GNU products. I agree with my grand-parent, who says that adding the "GNU/" prefix doesn't give much information, but still, GNU is everywhere on a Linux system. And whether the OS is GNU or Linux depends on your definition on an OS -- a kernel? a kernel plus tools? a whole system?
Anyway, I guess my point is, let's not be anal retentive Stallman clones. I'm not going to start saying "GNU slash Linux". Most self-respecting geeks understand what "Linux" implies. That is, GNU is all any Linux desktop.
In other news, here's the world's most secure captcha (as seen on this page), and here's the world's sickest captcha (as seen on Google).
map.search.ch also has a very sleek, highly usable interface, built using only JavaScript. You can drag the map, zooming is animated, and you get a mix of satellite imagery and vector graphics... Very cool.
Only covers Switzerland, unfortunately.
jwz calls that song "Why cooperation with RMS is impossible", and points to a techno and a death metal remixes.
MT
It's more complicated than that. First Mozilla was a branch of Netscape Communicator; then they decided to re-write the browser from scratch using the XPFE framework; then Netscape used the Mozilla code to make Netscape 6 and following versions.
HTTP itself is text-based, and that alone increases the transfers greatly. I guess the main motivation behind such a design was that it makes it much easier to read, and to code HTTP applications; it also eliminates several low-level problems such as byte ordering. HTTP is very easy to pick up, and just any TCP/IP tool (such as telnet) can be used to debug an HTP app. I don't know what the other arguments for such a design were, but that certainly doesn't save bytes. If HTTP was encoded down to be bit level, transfers would be so much smaller!
But on the other hand, as it was mentionned in other postings nearby, clarity should be more important than efficienty. Where is the balance?
I would say that since bandwidth will always be broader and broader, clarity and ease of use should be more important than efficienty... while keeping it sane!
I think it should be feasable to have a new Java which would require most programs to be recompiled, perhaps some to be slightly modified, just like the current switiching of Mac programs to MacOS X.
The article author suggests several API changes; that means programs using the removed API elements will have to be slightly modified. In many cases it's be a search-and-replace job (this class "X" is now renamed "Y", method "a" is now known as "b", etc). Aside from that, several of the changes he proposes are VM enhancements which {w|sh}ould not influence current Java2 programs.
I think the switch is feasible. I would definitely be a bigger step than Java evolution has ever made, and it would take time, but it would help. We could have VMs and plugins which would accept both binary formats, ideally.
Everyone should have a look at bb, a demo for the aa library. It's quite impressive! It is several minutes long, and features incredible things such as mandelbrot fractals! It also shows several of the aa lib features, such as anti-aliasing, random snow-like noise, dithering, etc.
:)
Chances are it's installed on your distro (if you use a majort one). Just type "bb". It has several modes, including the X (as in XC Window) mode. It even has sound!
First time I discovered it we were a dozen in the lab, staring in amazement at the screen and calling colleagues over to see it
Check the Acronym Finder, it's got huge database.PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange
Furthermore, there are ways of declaring classes, although the keyword class is never used. It's not a particularily powerful language, agreed. But in an environment such as the web, flexibility is a must and JavaScript provides it very well.
I think it's well suited for what it's used for.
Using the information from the RTSP Proxy White Paper, it should be feasible to build a very simple client which would simply download all UDP packets and save them sequentially in a .ram file. The document explains how streams are controlled etc.
Anyone know if such a tool exists (the foremenyionned StreamBox is for Windows and moreover requires a crack)?
The bookmarklets *are* source code. They are simply bookmarks whose URL begins with javascript: instead of http:
Well, all these confused people demonstrate that the interface is clearly not intuitive enough...