Let's do a back-of-the-envelope calculation. If your job pays $50,000 a year, it takes 20 years to earn a million. Yup, 6 months plus a couple weeks overhead is quick!
Actually, FUNNER is in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 3rd edition. That dictionary was derived from 5 source dictionaries, including Merriam-Websters, American Heritage, Funk&Wagnalls, and Random House.
What would one do with your tag number anyway? Would you expect someone to get a car that is your make and color, fake a plate with your number on it to commit a crime with it?
That's exactly what happened to a friend of mine. Some neighboorhood kids with a car of the same model and color switched the back license plate from her car to their car. When they ran thru tollbooths, the cameras "caught" HER plate, and sent her the bill.
An alert cop noticed that her front and back plates were not the same, and the scam was uncovered. Guess the kids didn't think of everything...
Yes, the Scrabble Brand Crossword Game. Plastic grid for a board, tiles that you shuffle by hand. I've traveled cross-country to participate in the National Championship. Ever heard the sound of 350 bags of plastic tiles being shuffled at once? It's amazing. -Joe
Looks like we are getting closer to David Brin's Transparent Society.
--Joe
Power satellites
on
Ask Larry Niven
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· Score: 3, Interesting
In Niven's Laws, you discuss how we could have seriously changed the world by now if we launched solar-collecting power satellites 20 years ago. Do you still think these satellites are a good idea? Is it (ever) too late?
When I TA'ed a couple intro CS courses, I caught a few cheaters who made it so blatant, it was hard to ignore.
In the Pascal course, the students had to generate a maze and solve it, finding the path recursively. They were supposed to use a random-number generator from the textbook, with three 5-digit constants. One student made a typo in one of the constants. Then I saw it again. A quick grep revealed a third program with the same goof... sorry, wrong number.
The other case occurred in a course where all examples and assignments were in ANSI C. Imagine my amazement when a homework file came in using K&R syntax. Just how red does a flag have to be?:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Gives a whole new meaning to "the fog of war"...
-Joe
Let's do a back-of-the-envelope calculation. If your job pays $50,000 a year, it takes 20 years to earn a million. Yup, 6 months plus a couple weeks overhead is quick!
Actually, FUNNER is in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 3rd edition. That dictionary was derived from 5 source dictionaries, including Merriam-Websters, American Heritage, Funk&Wagnalls, and Random House.
So, it's a word.
-DrJoe
That's exactly what happened to a friend of mine. Some neighboorhood kids with a car of the same model and color switched the back license plate from her car to their car. When they ran thru tollbooths, the cameras "caught" HER plate, and sent her the bill.
An alert cop noticed that her front and back plates were not the same, and the scam was uncovered. Guess the kids didn't think of everything...
-DrJoe
According to the Seldon Plan, this book should not be coming our for another 5 years!
-Joe
Yes, the Scrabble Brand Crossword Game. Plastic grid for a board, tiles that you shuffle by hand. I've traveled cross-country to participate in the National Championship. Ever heard the sound of 350 bags of plastic tiles being shuffled at once? It's amazing.
-Joe
Supposedly, Robin Cook did a similar analysis for the Perfect Novel, mixed the ingredients, and came up with Coma, a best-seller.
-Joe
Looks like we are getting closer to David Brin's Transparent Society.
--Joe
In Niven's Laws, you discuss how we could have seriously changed the world by now if we launched solar-collecting power satellites 20 years ago. Do you still think these satellites are a good idea? Is it (ever) too late?
-Joe
The episode is based on a story from "Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories" by James Patrick Kelly. The collection is an excellent read.
-Joe
Ninety-nine off-by-one bugs in the code,
Ninety-nine off-by-one bugs,
Take one down,
Fix it up,
One hundred off-by-one bugs in the code!
-Joe
Santa is a fib? C'mon, next you'll be telling me there is no Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy!
-Joe
In the Pascal course, the students had to generate a maze and solve it, finding the path recursively. They were supposed to use a random-number generator from the textbook, with three 5-digit constants. One student made a typo in one of the constants. Then I saw it again. A quick grep revealed a third program with the same goof... sorry, wrong number.
The other case occurred in a course where all examples and assignments were in ANSI C. Imagine my amazement when a homework file came in using K&R syntax. Just how red does a flag have to be? :-)
-Joe
So, how many clicks does it take to get to the home page of Kevin Bacon?
-Joe
Whew... at least it wasn't 200 Ogre Mk IV's. (someone had to say it)