Slashdot Mirror


User: DoktorGonzo

DoktorGonzo's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
20
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 20

  1. Hmm... on New Bill Threatens to Plug "Analog Hole" · · Score: 1

    I feel that the MPAA is a bunch of Luddites.

  2. Re:Not a complete list on Time Picks Top 100 Films · · Score: 1

    Yeah, the Criterion Collection is a great place to start. Until you realize that they've already released "Armageddon."

    If they release "Pearl Harbor," I'll melt my DVD player. There's no hope.

  3. Re:it's a shame... on Ubisoft CEO Speaks out Against EA Move · · Score: 1

    what if all the slashdot readers out there pooled their ms shares? i know i own some through my 401k...not that that could be easily pooled...

    Reminds me of an idea I've had for a while: "Hedge against evil."
    Find companies out there who have successful business models, yet do naughty things. You have a definite interest in them failing. However, if they do well, you'd want a piece of the action to compensate for how much worse they make your world.

    Disney: Lobby for excessive copyright extensions.
    Big Tobacco: Inspire stupid anti-tobacco ads.
    Recording Industry: Fill my airwaves with complete and utter suck.

    This idea is much like investing in foreign markets. When your own stock market falls, there's some chance it doesn't fall at the same time as markets all over the world. By diversifying your portfolio, you can smooth out your returns and hedge against drops in your national market.

    However, the "hedge against evil" takes a more holistic approach to your investments. For example, I would like to have the "Happy Birthday" song hit the public domain so each restaurant doesn't have to have its own crazy song to signify that a cake is coming. However, I for one would listen to quite a few of those songs for an extra $1000 in my pocket courtesy of Disney.

  4. Re:-1 Reality Check on Virtual Island Sells For $26,500 · · Score: 1

    I agree. It's not as though this exchange even takes up any real goods, anyway. A bunch of pieces of US-goverment-faith-paper were traded for a figment of someone's imagination. The amount of food available for the starving children remains the same. Go tell the developers to feed them.

  5. Re:Yeah, because the old way just wasn't effective on Live to be 1000 Years Old? · · Score: 1

    A Poisson process would work just fine for a model, if you only measure the fatal events. You certainly could model a hypothetical number of fatal events for one person over some interval of time, and count the number of times he's died, but that doesn't make as much sense if the first event kills him. What you'd really want to draw from the Poisson process is that the waiting time from time 0 (birth) to the first event (death) would be exponentially distributed if we're only looking at accidents. And the exponential distribution is basically what you're describing in your third paragraph.

    What the grandparent probably means is that if you could die repeatedly from horrible accidents, yet continue to live in mocking counterpoint to your pending dooms, then a Poisson distribution adequately models the number of times you will decease over some interval of time. Also, at any given point, no matter how long it's been since you've last died, Death is equally likely to be waiting around the corner right... this... minute...

  6. Re:No fair on X10 Hallowe'en Display · · Score: 1

    That's not fair! The Hulk is taking votes away from Kerry!

    Well, the Hulk was really a shoo-in for the Green Party nomination.

  7. Re:"Rooster Teeth" on Red vs Blue Meets The Sims · · Score: 4, Funny

    If I knew that the way to get modded up (as "Informative," no less) is to post only the words "Cock Bite," I would have started long, long ago.

  8. Re:What's in a name? on New Robots and the Ten Ethical Laws Of Robotics · · Score: 1

    Makes me wonder if it's fair game to name a corporation after a fictional one. I always wanted to start up the Soylent Corporation, you know. Maybe I could manufacture low-carb snacks. "It's Atkins-friendly, but it's PEOPLE!"

  9. Re:Want to hear something else that's dumb? on Defending The Skies Against Congress And The Elderly · · Score: 1

    Now can someone please tell me how requiring babies to have their own passports adds to the security of the US?

    I concur. Babies can be checked by a simple test: "Does it cry or does it tick?"

  10. Re:Hand Motions on Gametrak Controller Wins Award · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are a couple of games kind of like that already: Para Para Paradise and Dance ManiaX. You don't really have to move your feet for them, though. I suppose in combining those with DDR, you'd start having issues with where to put the sensors if you were playing doubles (covering both pads at the same time).

  11. Re:useless matrix on Ten-disc 'Matrix' DVD Box Set Planned · · Score: 1

    eXistenZ is PAUSED!

  12. They were wrong... on Microchips to Save Peru's Alpacas · · Score: 1

    All this time, people thought I was paranoid. Turns out I just think I'm an alpaca!

  13. Re:Bog them down with litigation on Charter Cable Sues To Quash RIAA Subpoenas · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ummm... if you really want to boycott the music industry... you'll have to stop listening to the radio too. They do get paid each time a song is played.

    If a song is played on the radio and no one is tuned in to hear, does it make any royalties?

  14. Where's my job security? on Oops, Dave Barry Does It Again · · Score: 1

    My new career is to sneak up on people, trip them, and kick them in the back of the head with fuzzy dog slippers. But the government started a "Do Not Kick" list that you don't even have to sign up for! What about my First Amendment rights to cute slipper ultra-violence? I might lose my job!

  15. Re:Bringing some common sense to "damages" on 'Jane Doe' Lawyer Glenn Peterson Talks With GrepLaw · · Score: 1

    Say, I recall a website where one could click on a link that would send a small encryption program to another country. This was a violation of some U.S. law, of course, which was exactly the point. Has anyone made one to send Metallica clips to John Ashcroft yet?

  16. They are here to protect us? on Robots for Air Force Protection · · Score: 1

    I didn't see the pusher and shover robots. Are those other ones here to protect us from the Terrible Secret of Space?

  17. My New Car Battery on Science Faction · · Score: 1

    In the interest of efficiency, I've replaced my Diehard with a MMORPG player hard-wired to a laptop. Strangely enough, it hasn't had any problem adapting to the simulation...

  18. Re:Vehicle that runs on bad news on Science Faction · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or one that runs on fear ("The Tick vs. The Big Nothing," anyone?).
    I bet Tom Ridge has one. "Red" actually means "Alaska is starting to run dry, but I won't give up my SUV."

  19. I researched this years ago... on Random Movement Printing Technology · · Score: 1

    I just remember back in kindergarten, where we could accurately print the image of an oak leaf using random movements. Would have had the patent, too, if Crayola didn't have prior art.

  20. Re:And, upon checkmating the machine, a cry is hea on Brain vs. Computer: Place Your Bets · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...chess is not a "game" in the game theory sense of the word. Every move has known, predicatable consiquences, and all the data is available to both sides during play.

    Does anyone have all the data on white moving a given pawn as its first play? What shall white do for its next move? Can black predict it? Consider chess to be exclusively a two-player game (or computation, or whatever)--black versus white. But poker, in a bizarre sense, always has at least three: a player, his opponent, and chance, each with their own secret information which the others cannot use to aid their own decisions.

    I would be interested in seeing the definition of "game" according to game theory. Prisoner's Dilemma has neither the complexity of chess nor the chance element of poker, what with only two moves and four possible outcomes. I call it a game. What does game theory call it?