They did go for something with a B in it according to the articla.
Device from "The Trigger Effect"
on
Science Faction
·
· Score: 1
The device from "The Trigger Effect" (Arthur C. Clark and Michael Kube-McDowell) is the one we should all be striving for. It is an electromagnetic field that renders gun powder useless and explosives in general useless. Great book, BTW.
(The conspiracy theorist in me says it would be "swept under the carpet" like electric powered cars have been).
Look here: http://www.la.unm.edu/~mbrettin/algorithms/lzexpla ined.html for some pseudo code that compresses in 10 lines of code. It's not hard to write that in a real language and be about 30 lines long.
The point I was making is that the lZW compression algorithm is very simple. Silly things like patents make it hard to legally use that simplicity in your own applications.
The patent of that code is held my Unisys (until the patent expires).
I was initially hufman encoding the output but it took too long for the comparatively little return.
Interesting question though. I modified the algorithm slightly to allow for larger code sizes (up to 22 bits per code, I know the computers running this will have stacks of free memory). I also compressed all text files before binary files. Does that make enough of a difference to not be under the thumb of their patent?
We used their LZW compression algorithm in our product (for compressing product update files). It compresses text quite well for very little code. I asked Unisys what the fees would be for the use of this and it was US $2000! As a result we don't have that compression option in countries that have this patent.
Stuff paying $2000 for something that can be represnted by less than 30 lines of code.
Science isn't a belief system and can't be expected to be a source of morality.
The problem I have with religion is the ignorance factor (no offense intended). By that I mean that religion can cause people to put their hands over their ears and shout "Not listening! Not listening!" when their beliefs are questioned rather than taking the intellectually honest approach and actually investigating the issue. I have no respct for beliefs that are held in blind faith. Oh, that and the fact there is no evidence for a god.
That would be a great idea. I have noticed (out of luck probably) that I use quite a bit of national traffic with my bittorrent downloads/uploads. I have nearly reached my 10Gb cap this month though, at which point I start paying 20c per Mb! (Ludicrous I know, but that's NZ internet for you).
How they can expect us to survive without heated towel rails I don't know. (All of ours are turned off, and I only have one PC folding proteins. Oh the humanity...)
Number four would serve a limited purpose, but the first three? Why would anyone over the age of 12 want windows tumbling onto their screen?
He should stand down as president
on
Strike on Iraq
·
· Score: 1
I have an idea:
Any world leader who declares war on another country must, after the war, stand down as leader. Wars will still be waged, but the leaders will think damn hard about waging them.
Do you think such a policy would have changed Bush's mind?
There are numerous motorways, but they are all within cities, and there are none between cities. Those are commonly called "roads" or maybe "state highway" (I'm not sure why, NZ doesn't have any states).
I accept what you are saying but I disagree that there is an inherent need to believe in something (at least from my own perspective).
It's an interesting philosophical point though: Is it better to have believe in a lie because it is "comfortable" or to not believe the lie? (Although I must say I am perfectly comfortable grounding myself in reality).
Just because a lot of people do it doesn't make it right and doesn't excuse anyone from getting a fine.
I'm no saint either, I often creep up to 130kph on my bike, but I always have the attitude that if I get a ticket I have only one person to blame. In NZ it doesn't take many high speed tickets to get your license revoked (you get it instantly revoked for 6 months if you go 50k over the limit - as well as a whopping fine and an appearance in court). For me it's just not worth the risk.
Breaking the law if breaking the law, and the law is there for a reason. It would be good to see people get tickets for going too slow though.
That's a sorry state of affairs indeed if that's the way speed cameras are operated in your country. It amazing me that a system such as that even started.
Where I live (New Zealand) it's not like that (at least I am pretty sure it's not). Our police don't even carry guns, and I don't want them to start.
I disagree. I think technology should be used as much as possible to prevent (or to catch) people breaking the law.
Speed cameras are a great idea, so long as they are used correctly. Having said that, I also think that radar detectors should be perfectly legal as well.
Machines have done the job of the police for a very long time. Speed cameras, cars, traffic lights. All examples of machines that do the polices work (or at least help them).
For those of you who live in a society where police carry guns (I don't BTW), isn't a gun simply a machine that the police use to do their job?
I think people who travel 140kph in a 100kph area and get a $400 fine because of a speed camera have only themselves to blame.
BUT, surveillance should be used only to prevent crime or to catch criminals. Surveillance data of someone who has not broken any laws should not be used for anything. (all IMHO of course).
Slashdot Mirror
Is "Linux x86 assembly" any different to any other kind of "x86 assembly"?
XSS = three syllables. "Cross-site scripting" = four.
I agree with your sentiment of www. It is becoming a fad in the media (at least where I live) to say "dub dub dub", which is strangely annoying.
Now, I don't know what kind of ISPs they have in New Zealand, but 1MBps shouldn't be that hard to achieve!
Heh. Then you've never been to NZ, where a connection that fast would have a data cap of 600Mb! I kid you not.
How would this work for my > 1Gb VMWare virtual disks? I don't think it would very well.
OpenOffice runs on the Mac, last time I looked.
I have always found that F2 is the quickest way to rename files. Instant response, no right clicking and no waiting for a "slow click".
Heh. Life of Brian. Funny stuff.
They did go for something with a B in it according to the articla.
The device from "The Trigger Effect" (Arthur C. Clark and Michael Kube-McDowell) is the one we should all be striving for. It is an electromagnetic field that renders gun powder useless and explosives in general useless. Great book, BTW.
(The conspiracy theorist in me says it would be "swept under the carpet" like electric powered cars have been).
Look here: http://www.la.unm.edu/~mbrettin/algorithms/lzexpla ined.html for some pseudo code that compresses in 10 lines of code. It's not hard to write that in a real language and be about 30 lines long.
The point I was making is that the lZW compression algorithm is very simple. Silly things like patents make it hard to legally use that simplicity in your own applications.
The patent of that code is held my Unisys (until the patent expires).
I was initially hufman encoding the output but it took too long for the comparatively little return.
Interesting question though. I modified the algorithm slightly to allow for larger code sizes (up to 22 bits per code, I know the computers running this will have stacks of free memory). I also compressed all text files before binary files. Does that make enough of a difference to not be under the thumb of their patent?
I'm two hours ahead of you mate. You know what country that makes me from....
Go All Blacks!
We used their LZW compression algorithm in our product (for compressing product update files). It compresses text quite well for very little code. I asked Unisys what the fees would be for the use of this and it was US $2000! As a result we don't have that compression option in countries that have this patent.
Stuff paying $2000 for something that can be represnted by less than 30 lines of code.
Science isn't a belief system and can't be expected to be a source of morality.
The problem I have with religion is the ignorance factor (no offense intended). By that I mean that religion can cause people to put their hands over their ears and shout "Not listening! Not listening!" when their beliefs are questioned rather than taking the intellectually honest approach and actually investigating the issue. I have no respct for beliefs that are held in blind faith. Oh, that and the fact there is no evidence for a god.
That would be a great idea. I have noticed (out of luck probably) that I use quite a bit of national traffic with my bittorrent downloads/uploads. I have nearly reached my 10Gb cap this month though, at which point I start paying 20c per Mb! (Ludicrous I know, but that's NZ internet for you).
How they can expect us to survive without heated towel rails I don't know. (All of ours are turned off, and I only have one PC folding proteins. Oh the humanity...)
I read it and thought: This guys is getting back a 50, a 20 and a 5. We have 5, 10, 20s and 50 down here in NZ.
Number four would serve a limited purpose, but the first three? Why would anyone over the age of 12 want windows tumbling onto their screen?
I have an idea:
Any world leader who declares war on another country must, after the war, stand down as leader. Wars will still be waged, but the leaders will think damn hard about waging them.
Do you think such a policy would have changed Bush's mind?
There are numerous motorways, but they are all within cities, and there are none between cities. Those are commonly called "roads" or maybe "state highway" (I'm not sure why, NZ doesn't have any states).
Posted from Auckland.
I agree completely. As long as they don't push their beliefs onto anyone else.
I accept what you are saying but I disagree that there is an inherent need to believe in something (at least from my own perspective).
It's an interesting philosophical point though:
Is it better to have believe in a lie because it is "comfortable" or to not believe the lie? (Although I must say I am perfectly comfortable grounding myself in reality).
Just because a lot of people do it doesn't make it right and doesn't excuse anyone from getting a fine.
I'm no saint either, I often creep up to 130kph on my bike, but I always have the attitude that if I get a ticket I have only one person to blame. In NZ it doesn't take many high speed tickets to get your license revoked (you get it instantly revoked for 6 months if you go 50k over the limit - as well as a whopping fine and an appearance in court). For me it's just not worth the risk.
Breaking the law if breaking the law, and the law is there for a reason. It would be good to see people get tickets for going too slow though.
That's a sorry state of affairs indeed if that's the way speed cameras are operated in your country. It amazing me that a system such as that even started.
Where I live (New Zealand) it's not like that (at least I am pretty sure it's not). Our police don't even carry guns, and I don't want them to start.
I disagree. I think technology should be used as much as possible to prevent (or to catch) people breaking the law.
Speed cameras are a great idea, so long as they are used correctly. Having said that, I also think that radar detectors should be perfectly legal as well.
Machines have done the job of the police for a very long time. Speed cameras, cars, traffic lights. All examples of machines that do the polices work (or at least help them).
For those of you who live in a society where police carry guns (I don't BTW), isn't a gun simply a machine that the police use to do their job?
I think people who travel 140kph in a 100kph area and get a $400 fine because of a speed camera have only themselves to blame.
BUT, surveillance should be used only to prevent crime or to catch criminals. Surveillance data of someone who has not broken any laws should not be used for anything. (all IMHO of course).