My roommate is an intern in the political system, so he actually spends a lot of time filtering through letters, faxes, and emails. He said that if they get a lot of identical letters, faxes, or emails, they more or less ignore them. If there is a very large quantity of them, they carry some weight, but not nearly as much as when they get individual letters.
Thus, you really ought to fill in your own message in those automatic faxing forms. Of course, if you're not willing to do that, you may as well send off the default. It's better than nothing.
Microsoft recently donated some winxp machines to a computer club I'm in. Naturally, we gave them names which evoked our feelings about Microsoft: war.upl.cs.wisc.edu, famine.upl.cs.wisc.edu, death.upl.cs.wisc.edu, and pestilence.upl.cs.wic.edu. : ) Incidentally, the unix and linux machines are named after Star Trek characters. Typical geek stuff.
Oh, and at my job, a research project called Condor, all the machines are named after birds or bird components. We have blackbird.cs.wisc.edu, firebird.cs.wisc.edu, perdita.cs.wisc.edu, robin.cs.wisc.edu, beak.cs.wisc.edu, vulture.cs.wisc.edu, and bunch of others.
Even if AOL bastardizes the RedHat distribution in one way or another, there will be no effect on other fine distributions such as SuSe, Mandrake, etc. If AOL makes a serious effort to compete with Microsoft using RedHat, that could mean a lot of resources being poured into Linux development, which would benefit all distros. We could see more current device drivers and compatibility.
Factoring doesn't have to be NP-complete. If a polynomial time algorithm is found for some NP-complete problem, then you can solve all NP problems in polynomial time. Factoring is certainly in NP, because it has a polynomial time verifier (just multiply the factors).
So if we proved NP = P, then all factoring based crypto would be in great peril. Of course, it could turn out the the polynomial time algorithm we get for factoring is O(n^1000000), in which case our crypto would be fine for now.
You raise an interesting point Julian. When I hear the views of the "they're playing god" types, my thought is "How is that possible?". Humans are limited by the natural capabilities of their brain; whatever they choose to do, they are acting as humans - nothing more. If anyone thinks that a little science allows us to transcend our nature, they are mistaken. Genetic engineering is well within the realm of normal human behaviour. Why? Because if it was "God" behaviour, humans would incapable of performing it.
This is not a matter of corporations making or enforcing laws. Here's the bottom line: a car company can do what they want with their property, and you can choose whether or not you want to do business with them. The rental company clearly spelled out how the gps system works and the fees associated with your speed in the rental contract. The customer must sign this contract to rent a car. The fact that speeding is against the law is immaterial; when you sign the contract you are accepting the terms of a private agreement with the rental company.
I don't know about you, but I read everything I sign before I sign it. I am aware that I am making a legal commitment when I sign my name. Personally, I am also unnerved by the notion of the rental company tracking my speed and location. My solution? Go to a different rental company. Or don't rent a car. Or buy your own car. Hell, you may even want to start your own rental place to get their unsatisfied customers. But don't try to sue the company about their policies when you already agreed to them!
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My roommate is an intern in the political system, so he actually spends a lot of time filtering through letters, faxes, and emails. He said that if they get a lot of identical letters, faxes, or emails, they more or less ignore them. If there is a very large quantity of them, they carry some weight, but not nearly as much as when they get individual letters. Thus, you really ought to fill in your own message in those automatic faxing forms. Of course, if you're not willing to do that, you may as well send off the default. It's better than nothing.
Microsoft recently donated some winxp machines to a computer club I'm in. Naturally, we gave them names which evoked our feelings about Microsoft: war.upl.cs.wisc.edu, famine.upl.cs.wisc.edu, death.upl.cs.wisc.edu, and pestilence.upl.cs.wic.edu. : ) Incidentally, the unix and linux machines are named after Star Trek characters. Typical geek stuff.
Oh, and at my job, a research project called Condor, all the machines are named after birds or bird components. We have blackbird.cs.wisc.edu, firebird.cs.wisc.edu, perdita.cs.wisc.edu, robin.cs.wisc.edu, beak.cs.wisc.edu, vulture.cs.wisc.edu, and bunch of others.
I wonder if they could remotely overclock that thing?
Even if AOL bastardizes the RedHat distribution in one way or another, there will be no effect on other fine distributions such as SuSe, Mandrake, etc. If AOL makes a serious effort to compete with Microsoft using RedHat, that could mean a lot of resources being poured into Linux development, which would benefit all distros. We could see more current device drivers and compatibility.
African or European pigeons?
Factoring doesn't have to be NP-complete. If a polynomial time algorithm is found for some NP-complete problem, then you can solve all NP problems in polynomial time. Factoring is certainly in NP, because it has a polynomial time verifier (just multiply the factors). So if we proved NP = P, then all factoring based crypto would be in great peril. Of course, it could turn out the the polynomial time algorithm we get for factoring is O(n^1000000), in which case our crypto would be fine for now.
You raise an interesting point Julian. When I hear the views of the "they're playing god" types, my thought is "How is that possible?". Humans are limited by the natural capabilities of their brain; whatever they choose to do, they are acting as humans - nothing more. If anyone thinks that a little science allows us to transcend our nature, they are mistaken. Genetic engineering is well within the realm of normal human behaviour. Why? Because if it was "God" behaviour, humans would incapable of performing it.
This is not a matter of corporations making or enforcing laws. Here's the bottom line: a car company can do what they want with their property, and you can choose whether or not you want to do business with them. The rental company clearly spelled out how the gps system works and the fees associated with your speed in the rental contract. The customer must sign this contract to rent a car. The fact that speeding is against the law is immaterial; when you sign the contract you are accepting the terms of a private agreement with the rental company.
I don't know about you, but I read everything I sign before I sign it. I am aware that I am making a legal commitment when I sign my name. Personally, I am also unnerved by the notion of the rental company tracking my speed and location. My solution? Go to a different rental company. Or don't rent a car. Or buy your own car. Hell, you may even want to start your own rental place to get their unsatisfied customers. But don't try to sue the company about their policies when you already agreed to them!