e.g., live365 radio is advert free if you pay for it, and the rates are cheap.
I suppose it is similar to everything in life. Pay a lot, get the most commercialised service because you know about it because it is advertised, but it raises the cost of the service.
Which "original"... the awful American version with the floating aliens and the nuclear bomb? That really didn't deserve to have that title, it was nothing like the book.
So we're going to have one film that is close to the original book, and thus be a film of the book. This will probably mean that there will be issues of course, maybe portray the actions as something that happened and was covered up or something... or just as the Victorian fantasy it was.
And another one which will be a horrible tacky American version with "American" heroes defeating the Alien "Terrorists" who will probably now be from a different star system. I expect the only similarity will be in how the aliens finally die.
Well, Blue was the most troublesome colour to make, but as CDT have a 40,000 hour half-life Blue now (well, that is how I understood their website), I'd imagine that the whole issue isn't that bad anymore.
Even if the lowest colour component half-life was 5000 hours, you could use the device 3 hours a day for 5 years, or 8 hours a day for 2 years. Given that this usage pattern is incredibly unlikely, I reckon you'll be replacing the hardware before it stops being easily usable even if you take your time upgrading.
A greater worry is that with mismatched colour component lifespans, a display would tend to go redder, or greener, or less blue, etc, over its life. I would imagine that this will be taken care of with the circuitry though, i.e., adjusting brighter colour components down over time (and maybe a user configurable setting too).
Well another link in the comments went to CDT, who had a 40,000 hour PLED.
Given the average lifespan of a cheap non-efficient lightbulb (500 hours apparently), and the fact that PLEDs can be printed cheaply, it could be the technology to replace the old light bulb finally - LED lighting is expensive still (although efficient and long-lasting) and the Energy Saving bulbs last ages, but have that warm up time issue and cost around 5 to 10x as much as a normal lightbulb, and can't be dimmed and the light is more yellow for some reason.
PLED/OLED lighting panels should also create softer shadows than the more intense point-light of a lightbulb, being more spread out. But they will create interesting issues regarding rewiring and removal of ceiling light sockets and stuff as the format will be so different in many cases.
Whilst I understand the petty satisfaction the developer might get from doing this, it doesnt' change the fact that he is breaking the law, committing an act of criminal damage.
His only defence is that people won't report him because they pirated the software.
But otherwise, he's going down for computer related crimes - like virus writers go down. In the UK he'd be breaking the Computer Misuse Act 1990. I'm sure other countries have similar laws.
So different to Europe though where everybody has a scale (hell, they are cheap as shit, why not have one? How do you weigh things?!) but nobody wants to spend their time squishing foodstuffs into various shaped volumetric measuring devices.
What really got to me were the people in this thread saying that 1 cup IS ~240g... hello, 1 cup of lead is a bit different to 1 cup of flour. Not that I use lead in my cookery. Not even when my mother-in-law is visiting.
Fair point... but at least they aren't charging their users/members a "morality tax" if they did use it in an adult business!:)
I suppose the problem with paypal is that it blurs the distinction between being an online debit card and being a merchant that accepts payments. They are all 'users'. I imagine that the rules are more against the merchants, not the users. And possibly for valid reasons to Paypal, probably not a morality check thing. I don't think that fining is the right response, but Paypal just doesn't have enough safeguards in a situation where so little is required to become a paypal merchant, unlike a real world merchant bank would ask for.
I'm sure that higher end PDAs with high-res screens and accurate digitisers are way better these days, but based on my old Palm IIIc using it to take notes is a big no-no.
The limited resolution compared to pen and paper for a start. Unless you write big all you'll get is a pixelly mess. Coupled with terrible accuracy with the touch screen and you get a mess even if you try to write carefully and large. Of course, if you write large, then you can't write the message in the area you want to write it in.
A pad of post it notes is simply a better option for most quick notes. If some need to be on the computer, spend the minute typing it into your preferred notes application.
The common theme with all those fines though, is that it is you misusing their money/investment.
You get fined for taking out more money from the CC company than it wants you to.
You get fined for keeping hold of a store's property longer than they allowed you to.
You get fined for breaking a contract which most likely included a $200+ mobile phone for free as part of it.
Terms of Service aren't legally binding if they are unfair, immoral, etc. You can't have Terms of Service saying "If you are black, you will be charged 20% more". Unless you are the insurance industry that is:rolleyes:
Paypal hold YOUR money in trust (as someone else pointed out). It is not up to them to judge the right and wrongs of how that money is made, that is up to THE LAW.
Remember credit cards are YOU borrowing money from someone else.
Paypal is YOUR money.
Most bank charges and fees (they are not called fines) occur when YOU start eating into THEIR money, by being overdrawn, etc. You don't get fined because some of your money in your account came from you doing something illegal or immoral (according to the bank).
I think that they shouldn't be the ones to judge what is right and wrong morally. If it was illegal activity then locking the account might seem a reasonable measure once notified by someone with authority (as a normal bank would lock an account if a judge ordered it, etc). But otherwise they should not be doing this.
It's simply retarded. It looks like theft. Since when do companies have the right to fine their customers? They aren't a court of law.
And why a lot of people will never consider using Paypal at all. What next?
Of course weighing bananas makes even more sense as you aren't limiting to 'mushing' the banana into the cup. Of course this isn't as sensible as the "3 ripe bananas" simple option.
We get out our weighing scales that weren't built in 1835 and thus weigh without needing to use counterweights and dump the flour in until we have the correct weight - without having to worry about if the flour is packed tightly, or rather loose. What if you need 1.25 cups of flour? Do you keep a different sized 'cup' for every common part-cup?
Measuring by volume just seems silly and horribly inaccurate or vague (not that it really matters when cooking although it can ruin bread). As my banana example showed. Also scales usually have a large bowl on top, so you can keep on measuring out different ingredients into it until it is full, or even better just stick your mixing bowl on top, press the tare button and never even have to transfer bowls and save on washing up!
However we do still use tsp, tbsp, etc. Mainly because they are the best size for measuring small quantities of things like spices, etc.
Apart from 'cup' which is not a measure of weight.
I've never seen a cooking book in the UK that uses a measurement of volume for non-liquids in a recipe. I simply have no/concept/ of what a cup of beef chunks is. I understand what 1lb or 450g of beef chunks is though.
I mean, I have tea cups, coffee mugs, my big double sized coffee mug, an expresso cup... which one?
What if I've cubed the beef wrong and am in fact putting too little or much in?
And finally, since like forever cooking books in the UK have been dual Imperial/Metric. And finally+1, converting from US English into Imperial can go wrong horribly sometimes because you messed up and have slightly different weights/volumes with the same names. Not that anyone under 35 years old in this country will have ever been taught in Imperial, and even less know that US "English" is actually different.
So my point is, why not give recipes in dual metric and US?
CSS is used to describe how HTML elements appear. It can equally be used to describe how GUI elements appear. In fact anything that has elements could use CSS to describe how it looks. Documents, Spreadsheets, Database Browser, Calendar, Email, your IM sessions and contact list, icons, menus....
SVG is a vector graphics format. It has nothing to do with web pages, most web browsers don't even have support for it built in. In terms of a desktop that might have to scale up to display readably on a 2560x2048 LCD display scalable elements are essential. And SVG works today. Tools exist to create and manipulate it. There are dozens of SVG iconsets for Gnome. I'm sure that a combination of SVG + CSS to render GUI elements would work fine... It'd be better than current pixmap theming which doesn't scale nicely.
1. Stop users bringing in undesirable content that you can't filter, including viruses and spyware
2. Stop users taking out corporate data that you can't check
If you want to run a secure company network, then these are essential aspects to stopping getting owned. Centralised backed-up storage for all users, no CD-RW drives, etc, will be other aspects.
Want to work from home? Tough titties. Maybe via a work built laptop with fixed specification that connects via a VPN to access data.
Sure, there will always be ways to get past these types of restriction. But they exist for a reason. It is the company's computer. You've got an iPod? Listen to it then. No possibly illegal MP3s on company computers to get them in trouble.
Re:I've seen some unworthy stories on Slashdot bef
on
They Killed Ken!
·
· Score: 1
I mainly thought that it wasn't worthy of being posted here... it isn't like it is a new series of $scifi_show... just a gameshow. If you are interested in it, you can find out easily, or watch in blissful unawareness... it was like have a giant spoiler as a story!
Re:I've seen some unworthy stories on Slashdot bef
on
They Killed Ken!
·
· Score: 1
I didn't even know what it was about until I clicked on it, and read halfway down the fucking comments.
If the story had said "Ken has left the gameshow Jeopardy after 75 appearances" in the damn story submission, then fine. But it didn't. It left the majority of the readership reading at that time clueless as to what it was about. I mean, it was posted at around 5am US time, sheesh. Why post it then, why not post it at a time when Americans will be up and browsing Slashdot at work?
I've seen some unworthy stories on Slashdot before
on
They Killed Ken!
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
but this has got to be the lowest of them all.
It didn't even mention what this dude was doing? Hello Slashdot, welcome to your international audience. At least create an "American Culture" category so everyone else can disable viewing it.
Yeah, the Nokia looks like it is using the classic Psion 5 layout, which in my opinion was the single most awesome portable computer / PDA device ever made (especially considering that was so long ago) and it had a great keyboard. Even the cut-down Revo model simply rocked.
Please, someone, make a device that merges a decent phone with the Psion layout AND keyboard (yes, the Nokia communicators do mimik the Psion layout in a non-stylish way, but not the keyboard).
The biggest problem I have with any type of predictive system is: "I'll meet you at 7.30" which always comes out "Ill meet you at "... before you have to switch modes using the # key to type in numbers.
1. This doesn't use T9 input, it uses something more like T13 (two letters per key) which is clearly going to be way more accurate) and has a QWERTY layout not an ABC layout like most phones.
2. T9 is amazingly fast, and it would be faster if it actually auto-completed words (I mean, if you are guessing at the word already, then why not auto-complete the damn thing? Maybe it is just a problem with my old Nokia 6100) - T9 also meant the end of txt spk because it is quicker write the full word!
It might be a downgrade from having a full keyboard, but it is a phone first and foremost. Larger keys with good prediction is going to be better than tiny keys that will be mashed.
I'd imagine that papers would be presented at random for peer review when you submit your own paper, so the chances of getting that competitor or friend's paper are lower. I suppose it is limited by having to present papers in fields that the reviewer will have knowledge of though.
Nothing stopping them from giving the paper to a PhD student to review on their behalf of course if they've got no time or they are too important to bother with actually improving science everywhere.
And after that, a paper will get on average 5 reviews say. If any are way off, you can ignore the score. Like on Amazon where you see that a book is mostly loved and then someone gives it 1 star because it wasn't written in third person and include poetry about carrots.
Let people publish to it with the proviso that they peer review another 5 papers before they can publish again.
Free peer review (well, it is done for pittance anyway) and they don't have to buy journals so really they are saving money anyway, and papers get rated which solves one of the arguments against this system.
If they are too lazy to peer review, then make them pay $20 to submit their paper to aid in the running of the system, although it should be run as JustAnotherServer at universities anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
e.g., live365 radio is advert free if you pay for it, and the rates are cheap.
I suppose it is similar to everything in life. Pay a lot, get the most commercialised service because you know about it because it is advertised, but it raises the cost of the service.
Which "original" ... the awful American version with the floating aliens and the nuclear bomb? That really didn't deserve to have that title, it was nothing like the book.
... or just as the Victorian fantasy it was.
So we're going to have one film that is close to the original book, and thus be a film of the book. This will probably mean that there will be issues of course, maybe portray the actions as something that happened and was covered up or something
And another one which will be a horrible tacky American version with "American" heroes defeating the Alien "Terrorists" who will probably now be from a different star system. I expect the only similarity will be in how the aliens finally die.
Well, Blue was the most troublesome colour to make, but as CDT have a 40,000 hour half-life Blue now (well, that is how I understood their website), I'd imagine that the whole issue isn't that bad anymore.
Even if the lowest colour component half-life was 5000 hours, you could use the device 3 hours a day for 5 years, or 8 hours a day for 2 years. Given that this usage pattern is incredibly unlikely, I reckon you'll be replacing the hardware before it stops being easily usable even if you take your time upgrading.
A greater worry is that with mismatched colour component lifespans, a display would tend to go redder, or greener, or less blue, etc, over its life. I would imagine that this will be taken care of with the circuitry though, i.e., adjusting brighter colour components down over time (and maybe a user configurable setting too).
Well another link in the comments went to CDT, who had a 40,000 hour PLED.
Given the average lifespan of a cheap non-efficient lightbulb (500 hours apparently), and the fact that PLEDs can be printed cheaply, it could be the technology to replace the old light bulb finally - LED lighting is expensive still (although efficient and long-lasting) and the Energy Saving bulbs last ages, but have that warm up time issue and cost around 5 to 10x as much as a normal lightbulb, and can't be dimmed and the light is more yellow for some reason.
PLED/OLED lighting panels should also create softer shadows than the more intense point-light of a lightbulb, being more spread out. But they will create interesting issues regarding rewiring and removal of ceiling light sockets and stuff as the format will be so different in many cases.
Whilst I understand the petty satisfaction the developer might get from doing this, it doesnt' change the fact that he is breaking the law, committing an act of criminal damage.
His only defence is that people won't report him because they pirated the software.
But otherwise, he's going down for computer related crimes - like virus writers go down. In the UK he'd be breaking the Computer Misuse Act 1990. I'm sure other countries have similar laws.
So different to Europe though where everybody has a scale (hell, they are cheap as shit, why not have one? How do you weigh things?!) but nobody wants to spend their time squishing foodstuffs into various shaped volumetric measuring devices.
... hello, 1 cup of lead is a bit different to 1 cup of flour. Not that I use lead in my cookery. Not even when my mother-in-law is visiting.
What really got to me were the people in this thread saying that 1 cup IS ~240g
Fair point ... but at least they aren't charging their users/members a "morality tax" if they did use it in an adult business! :)
I suppose the problem with paypal is that it blurs the distinction between being an online debit card and being a merchant that accepts payments. They are all 'users'. I imagine that the rules are more against the merchants, not the users. And possibly for valid reasons to Paypal, probably not a morality check thing. I don't think that fining is the right response, but Paypal just doesn't have enough safeguards in a situation where so little is required to become a paypal merchant, unlike a real world merchant bank would ask for.
They suck for note taking.
I'm sure that higher end PDAs with high-res screens and accurate digitisers are way better these days, but based on my old Palm IIIc using it to take notes is a big no-no.
The limited resolution compared to pen and paper for a start. Unless you write big all you'll get is a pixelly mess. Coupled with terrible accuracy with the touch screen and you get a mess even if you try to write carefully and large. Of course, if you write large, then you can't write the message in the area you want to write it in.
A pad of post it notes is simply a better option for most quick notes. If some need to be on the computer, spend the minute typing it into your preferred notes application.
The common theme with all those fines though, is that it is you misusing their money/investment.
:rolleyes:
You get fined for taking out more money from the CC company than it wants you to.
You get fined for keeping hold of a store's property longer than they allowed you to.
You get fined for breaking a contract which most likely included a $200+ mobile phone for free as part of it.
Terms of Service aren't legally binding if they are unfair, immoral, etc. You can't have Terms of Service saying "If you are black, you will be charged 20% more". Unless you are the insurance industry that is
Paypal hold YOUR money in trust (as someone else pointed out). It is not up to them to judge the right and wrongs of how that money is made, that is up to THE LAW.
Not to the tune of $500 though.
Remember credit cards are YOU borrowing money from someone else.
Paypal is YOUR money.
Most bank charges and fees (they are not called fines) occur when YOU start eating into THEIR money, by being overdrawn, etc. You don't get fined because some of your money in your account came from you doing something illegal or immoral (according to the bank).
I agree, it seems totally illegal to me.
I think that they shouldn't be the ones to judge what is right and wrong morally. If it was illegal activity then locking the account might seem a reasonable measure once notified by someone with authority (as a normal bank would lock an account if a judge ordered it, etc). But otherwise they should not be doing this.
It's simply retarded. It looks like theft. Since when do companies have the right to fine their customers? They aren't a court of law.
And why a lot of people will never consider using Paypal at all. What next?
Still better to weigh the banana-mass in my opinion that try and squoosh the bananamatter into a cupmeasure.
And most people know what an average banana is shaped like and can compensate for buying those minibananas.
Of course weighing bananas makes even more sense as you aren't limiting to 'mushing' the banana into the cup. Of course this isn't as sensible as the "3 ripe bananas" simple option.
Yes, we weigh flour by weight.
We get out our weighing scales that weren't built in 1835 and thus weigh without needing to use counterweights and dump the flour in until we have the correct weight - without having to worry about if the flour is packed tightly, or rather loose. What if you need 1.25 cups of flour? Do you keep a different sized 'cup' for every common part-cup?
Measuring by volume just seems silly and horribly inaccurate or vague (not that it really matters when cooking although it can ruin bread). As my banana example showed. Also scales usually have a large bowl on top, so you can keep on measuring out different ingredients into it until it is full, or even better just stick your mixing bowl on top, press the tare button and never even have to transfer bowls and save on washing up!
However we do still use tsp, tbsp, etc. Mainly because they are the best size for measuring small quantities of things like spices, etc.
Apart from 'cup' which is not a measure of weight.
/concept/ of what a cup of beef chunks is. I understand what 1lb or 450g of beef chunks is though.
... which one?
I've never seen a cooking book in the UK that uses a measurement of volume for non-liquids in a recipe. I simply have no
I mean, I have tea cups, coffee mugs, my big double sized coffee mug, an expresso cup
What if I've cubed the beef wrong and am in fact putting too little or much in?
And finally, since like forever cooking books in the UK have been dual Imperial/Metric. And finally+1, converting from US English into Imperial can go wrong horribly sometimes because you messed up and have slightly different weights/volumes with the same names. Not that anyone under 35 years old in this country will have ever been taught in Imperial, and even less know that US "English" is actually different.
So my point is, why not give recipes in dual metric and US?
Come on ... "cooking for engineers" ... use Metric for chrissakes.
... no kidding.
...
I once read a recipe : "1 cup banana"
Americans
CSS is used to describe how HTML elements appear. It can equally be used to describe how GUI elements appear. In fact anything that has elements could use CSS to describe how it looks. Documents, Spreadsheets, Database Browser, Calendar, Email, your IM sessions and contact list, icons, menus ....
... It'd be better than current pixmap theming which doesn't scale nicely.
SVG is a vector graphics format. It has nothing to do with web pages, most web browsers don't even have support for it built in. In terms of a desktop that might have to scale up to display readably on a 2560x2048 LCD display scalable elements are essential. And SVG works today. Tools exist to create and manipulate it. There are dozens of SVG iconsets for Gnome. I'm sure that a combination of SVG + CSS to render GUI elements would work fine
1. Stop users bringing in undesirable content that you can't filter, including viruses and spyware
2. Stop users taking out corporate data that you can't check
If you want to run a secure company network, then these are essential aspects to stopping getting owned. Centralised backed-up storage for all users, no CD-RW drives, etc, will be other aspects.
Want to work from home? Tough titties. Maybe via a work built laptop with fixed specification that connects via a VPN to access data.
Sure, there will always be ways to get past these types of restriction. But they exist for a reason. It is the company's computer. You've got an iPod? Listen to it then. No possibly illegal MP3s on company computers to get them in trouble.
I mainly thought that it wasn't worthy of being posted here ... it isn't like it is a new series of $scifi_show ... just a gameshow. If you are interested in it, you can find out easily, or watch in blissful unawareness ... it was like have a giant spoiler as a story!
I didn't even know what it was about until I clicked on it, and read halfway down the fucking comments.
If the story had said "Ken has left the gameshow Jeopardy after 75 appearances" in the damn story submission, then fine. But it didn't. It left the majority of the readership reading at that time clueless as to what it was about. I mean, it was posted at around 5am US time, sheesh. Why post it then, why not post it at a time when Americans will be up and browsing Slashdot at work?
but this has got to be the lowest of them all.
It didn't even mention what this dude was doing? Hello Slashdot, welcome to your international audience. At least create an "American Culture" category so everyone else can disable viewing it.
IT IS A DAMN GAMESHOW. Sheesh.
Yeah, the Nokia looks like it is using the classic Psion 5 layout, which in my opinion was the single most awesome portable computer / PDA device ever made (especially considering that was so long ago) and it had a great keyboard. Even the cut-down Revo model simply rocked.
... before you have to switch modes using the # key to type in numbers.
Please, someone, make a device that merges a decent phone with the Psion layout AND keyboard (yes, the Nokia communicators do mimik the Psion layout in a non-stylish way, but not the keyboard).
The biggest problem I have with any type of predictive system is: "I'll meet you at 7.30" which always comes out "Ill meet you at "
Read the bloody article before passing judgement.
1. This doesn't use T9 input, it uses something more like T13 (two letters per key) which is clearly going to be way more accurate) and has a QWERTY layout not an ABC layout like most phones.
2. T9 is amazingly fast, and it would be faster if it actually auto-completed words (I mean, if you are guessing at the word already, then why not auto-complete the damn thing? Maybe it is just a problem with my old Nokia 6100) - T9 also meant the end of txt spk because it is quicker write the full word!
It might be a downgrade from having a full keyboard, but it is a phone first and foremost. Larger keys with good prediction is going to be better than tiny keys that will be mashed.
I'd imagine that papers would be presented at random for peer review when you submit your own paper, so the chances of getting that competitor or friend's paper are lower. I suppose it is limited by having to present papers in fields that the reviewer will have knowledge of though.
Nothing stopping them from giving the paper to a PhD student to review on their behalf of course if they've got no time or they are too important to bother with actually improving science everywhere.
And after that, a paper will get on average 5 reviews say. If any are way off, you can ignore the score. Like on Amazon where you see that a book is mostly loved and then someone gives it 1 star because it wasn't written in third person and include poetry about carrots.
Let people publish to it with the proviso that they peer review another 5 papers before they can publish again.
Free peer review (well, it is done for pittance anyway) and they don't have to buy journals so really they are saving money anyway, and papers get rated which solves one of the arguments against this system.
If they are too lazy to peer review, then make them pay $20 to submit their paper to aid in the running of the system, although it should be run as JustAnotherServer at universities anyway.