> Setting aside the length of the film issue, why is this entirely reasonable?
"Apart from that, did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
The length of the film is the key issue here. To have a commercially successful film, they were going to have to cut _something_. A character who has no known connection with anything else, a character who isn't affected by the ring, seems like a good choice.
> Biological neurons have been shown in the laboratory to grow new connections based on information learned. [...] Programming is the only answer
There are people who use this as an argument to prove that intelligent biological life must have been designed. So all we need for working AI is to play god.
Alternatively, we just accept that the programmers' guiding is a more effective equivalent of the natural selection that led to biological life, and that the AI will be just as self-contained as biological life. After all, your brain wouldn't exist without your parents, and wouldn't work the same way without years of training. That doesn't make human intelligence unattainable.
can do much in the way of analysis or reverse engineering of the encryption algorithms used.
We're talking about RSA here. RSA is a public key algorithm. One where you can give out your public key, keep your private key secret, and anybody can send encrypted messages to you, but only you can decrypt. If you keep your algorithm secret, it becomes totally pointless.
In general, layering can help, but doesn't always, and can make things worse if you are careless about it. But keeping the layering scheme secret doesn't help much - it's probably equivalent to only a few bits of key, and if it is cracked changing schemes is much tedious than changing keys (and that assumes you _know_ it has been cracked). Making up your own crypto is almost always a really bad idea.
> Tom Bombadil is important to set the atmosphere and background of Middle Earth. I feel that the point is that some things are older and more mysterious than can be explained, even though they seem so warm and familiar.
http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~bouvin/tolkien/tombomba di l.html " it is good that there should be a lot of things unexplained (especially if an explanation actually exists);... And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)." (Letters, p. 174)
But I think leaving something like that out of the movie was entirely reasonable.
> but I think she had picked up that humans *used* the door knob in some capacity to open the door.
We used to have a cat that could open a door with a lever handle. (A round knob would be trickier).
Re:Yay, new way to waste time at work
on
Nethack 3.4.0
·
· Score: 2
> it was definitely the Amulet of Yendor, and I know I also wished for it once and got a cheap plastic imitation.
Been there, done that:-)
I got the Amulet out _once_, and realized I couldn't afford to spend that long again (especially playing at work). But playing in wizard mode, when you can give yourself whatever starting equipment you want, I got it down to 17 moves.
And no, there isn't (AFAIR) a scroll of recall. But if you teleport while confused, you teleport between levels. And if you have a ring of teleport control, you can choose _which_ level you go to - and you can go to level zero, and leave the dungeon.
These days there is much more to it, but I've resisted playing.
I used to know someone who claimed that playign Nethack improved his vi-movement skills a lot. Except that he had a nervous twitch whenever the cursor got close to a "c".
> The depth of monsters was always intriguing, including their many uses after death.
A dead cockatrice is effective in special cases, but it certainly used to be too easy to starve if you used it regularly. I gather the game has changed hugely since played it though, and some characters are encouraged to be vegetarian, so maybe that's not so much of a problem now. I assume you still have to be careful about tripping on stairs though.
Every time I see a new Nethack release I'm tempted to play again, but I remember how much time I - well, wasted might not be exactly the right word, but I think it's the one my manager used. These days I have a computer or two at home, but I also have a wife and children.
Damn. Forgot "Plain Old Text" means "Plain Old Text, but < and > still have to be < and >. Should have previewed. Anyway: "magnetic deviation is in , varying at per year"
> The magnetic declination on topo maps has always been out of date, usually from the moment they've been printed.
UK OS maps have "magnetic deviation is in , varying at per year". The rate isn't actually constant, since as you say the poles movement is irregular, so an old map will still give a wrong answer, but it takes a few years for the inaccuracy to be enough to be significant with a hand-held compass.
> A couple weeks later, the company's lawyer came down to talk to me, trying to convince me that I was taking the document too literally and that the company would never really use it against me.
Been there, done that. Though it helped in my case that I was one of the 60 or so people who refused to sign the new terms and conditions (after a takeover), and that some of the things they were asking for were almost certainly illegal restraint of trade.
> it's dumb to assume that people who voluntarily choose to carry guns around are untrained
No, it's dumb to assume that all people who voluntarily choose to carry guns around are untrained. Which he didn't. The untrained, clumsy, fanatical ones are the ones to be rationally scared of.
> nail clippers. A gun is a tool > So yeah, hoplophobia.
So hoplophobia is an irrational fear of guns, nail clippers, or other tools or instruments? Wouldn't a word specifically for fear of guns (or possibly weapons) be more useful? Even if equally irrelevent here.
http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?numbe r= 3696 Transliterated Word : Hoplon
Definition
1.any tool or implement for preparing a thing
a.arms used in warfare, weapons
2.an instrument"
Why doesn't the fucking lameness filter give an adequate explanation of what it's objecting too?
> Right now, mobile phones are being shipped that have a JVM on board. It will be a matter of time before someone figures out how to use that for games.
It's already being done. See my reply http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=29201&cid=3141 877
> It feels like it should keep going to some other time,
There is a sequel by Stephen Baxter. http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch /isbnInqu iry.asp?isbn=0061056480
> I suppose the last sentence (ending which I won't give away) could be about that
http://www.literature.org/authors/wells-herbert- ge orge/the-time-machine/chapter-13.html for those who do want to see it. Pushing it to say that's about technological hubris.
> there's a way to copy it.... > There's always a way...
But is there a _legal_ way to copy it (for legitimate purposes)? If, for example, region free DVD players are made illegal, it will still be _technically_ possible to play out of region DVDs. But for the generally law-abiding consumer who at the moment can legally buy a region free player off the shelf, that won't matter.
What part of "Slashdot is about to start accepting new ad formats. The large ads that you see on many other sites are coming here." didn't you understand?
Read it before the UK government makes it illegal
on
Security Engineering
·
· Score: 2
Yes, you thought dumb crypto laws were a thing of the past, but no, here comes the UK trying to copy what the USA already gave up, only without that tedious constitutional protection of free speech stuff.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/exportbill.html (yes, rja14 is the Ross Anderson who wrote this book).
Mostly Netscape sell their _server_ products. (Now mostly branded iPlanet "a Sun-Netscape Alliance").
This was true even when Communicator/Navigator was closed source but free-as-in-beer, and before than when it was shareware and most people didn't pay for it.
P.S. I remember once seeing a "drinking alcohol can cause birth defects" in an LA restaurant - in the mens' toilets. How much good is it going to do there? Are men going to see it, go back to the table, and say "honey, I don't think you should be drinking that"?
Slashdot Mirror
> Setting aside the length of the film issue, why is this entirely reasonable?
"Apart from that, did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
The length of the film is the key issue here. To have a commercially successful film, they were going to have to cut _something_. A character who has no known connection with anything else, a character who isn't affected by the ring, seems like a good choice.
> Biological neurons have been shown in the laboratory to grow new connections based on information learned. [...] Programming is the only answer
There are people who use this as an argument to prove that intelligent biological life must have been designed. So all we need for working AI is to play god.
Alternatively, we just accept that the programmers' guiding is a more effective equivalent of the natural selection that led to biological life, and that the AI will be just as self-contained as biological life.
After all, your brain wouldn't exist without your parents, and wouldn't work the same way without years of training. That doesn't make human intelligence unattainable.
We're talking about RSA here. RSA is a public key algorithm. One where you can give out your public key, keep your private key secret, and anybody can send encrypted messages to you, but only you can decrypt. If you keep your algorithm secret, it becomes totally pointless.
In general, layering can help, but doesn't always, and can make things worse if you are careless about it. But keeping the layering scheme secret doesn't help much - it's probably equivalent to only a few bits of key, and if it is cracked changing schemes is much tedious than changing keys (and that assumes you _know_ it has been cracked). Making up your own crypto is almost always a really bad idea.
> Tom Bombadil is important to set the atmosphere and background of Middle Earth. I feel that the point is that some things are older and more mysterious than can be explained, even though they seem so warm and familiar.
a di l.html ... And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)." (Letters, p. 174)
http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~bouvin/tolkien/tombomb
" it is good that there should be a lot of things unexplained (especially if an explanation actually exists);
But I think leaving something like that out of the movie was entirely reasonable.
> Bill Gates is quoted as saying Microsoft software has no bugs.
Be fair. He said no "significant" bugs. Meaning the suckers keep buying the stuff, so why bother fixing it?
> but I think she had picked up that humans *used* the door knob in some capacity to open the door.
We used to have a cat that could open a door with a lever handle. (A round knob would be trickier).
> it was definitely the Amulet of Yendor, and I know I also wished for it once and got a cheap plastic imitation.
:-)
Been there, done that
I got the Amulet out _once_, and realized I couldn't afford to spend that long again (especially playing at work). But playing in wizard mode, when you can give yourself whatever starting equipment you want, I got it down to 17 moves.
And no, there isn't (AFAIR) a scroll of recall. But if you teleport while confused, you teleport between levels. And if you have a ring of teleport control, you can choose _which_ level you go to - and you can go to level zero, and leave the dungeon.
These days there is much more to it, but I've resisted playing.
> Followed by the cockatrice
>
> c
I used to know someone who claimed that playign Nethack improved his vi-movement skills a lot. Except that he had a nervous twitch whenever the cursor got close to a "c".
> The depth of monsters was always intriguing, including their many uses after death.
A dead cockatrice is effective in special cases, but it certainly used to be too easy to starve if you used it regularly. I gather the game has changed hugely since played it though, and some characters are encouraged to be vegetarian, so maybe that's not so much of a problem now. I assume you still have to be careful about tripping on stairs though.
Every time I see a new Nethack release I'm tempted to play again, but I remember how much time I - well, wasted might not be exactly the right word,
but I think it's the one my manager used.
These days I have a computer or two at home, but I also have a wife and children.
Damn. Forgot "Plain Old Text" means "Plain Old Text, but < and > still have to be < and >. Should have previewed. Anyway: "magnetic deviation is in , varying at per year"
> The magnetic declination on topo maps has always been out of date, usually from the moment they've been printed.
UK OS maps have "magnetic deviation is in , varying at per year". The rate isn't actually constant, since as you say the poles movement is irregular, so an old map will still give a wrong answer, but it takes a few years for the inaccuracy to be enough to be significant with a hand-held compass.
> A couple weeks later, the company's lawyer came down to talk to me, trying to convince me that I was taking the document too literally and that the company would never really use it against me.
Been there, done that. Though it helped in my case that I was one of the 60 or so people who refused to sign the new terms and conditions (after a takeover), and that some of the things they were asking for were almost certainly illegal restraint of trade.
We got the terms changed.
> Similarly, IE is not written by Microsoft either.
Originally, it wasn't, but is there any of Spyglass Mosaic still left in IE?
> it's dumb to assume that people who voluntarily choose to carry guns around are untrained
e r= 3696
No, it's dumb to assume that all people who voluntarily choose to carry guns around are untrained. Which he didn't. The untrained, clumsy, fanatical ones are the ones to be rationally scared of.
> nail clippers. A gun is a tool
> So yeah, hoplophobia.
So hoplophobia is an irrational fear of guns, nail clippers, or other tools or instruments? Wouldn't a word specifically for fear of guns (or possibly weapons) be more useful? Even if equally irrelevent here.
http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?numb
Transliterated Word : Hoplon
Definition
1.any tool or implement for preparing a thing
a.arms used in warfare, weapons
2.an instrument"
Why doesn't the fucking lameness filter give an adequate explanation of what it's objecting too?
> .. smartcards can be hacked with a lot less money involved
> Try searching for it
http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/anderson97low.html is a good start. "Low Cost Attacks on Tamper Resistant Devices" (1997), Ross Anderson, Markus Kuhn.
> Haha, by that logic, if I couldn't grow pot on my land, despite having bought it in 1900 expressly for that purpose, the gov't would owe me money.
If you couldn't reasonably grow any other crop on it, and the market for hemp ropes hadn't shrunk hugely anyway, you might have a case.
I'm sure if growing tobacco is ever made illegal tobacco farmers will want compensation.
> Right now, mobile phones are being shipped that have a JVM on board. It will be a matter of time before someone figures out how to use that for games.
1 877
It's already being done. See my reply http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=29201&cid=314
> I have yet to talk to anyone who has actually made games professionally and has seriously considered using Java.
http://industry.java.sun.com/javanews/stories/stor y2/0,1072,37890,00.htmlg review.com/articles/ngame 072701.php
nGame. Not consoles (or PCs), but they do use a Java based system.
http://www.ngame.com/corporate/technology.html
http://www.wirelessgamin
> It feels like it should keep going to some other time,
h /isbnInqu iry.asp?isbn=0061056480
- ge orge/the-time-machine/chapter-13.html for those who do want to see it. Pushing it to say that's about technological hubris.
There is a sequel by Stephen Baxter.
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearc
> I suppose the last sentence (ending which I won't give away) could be about that
http://www.literature.org/authors/wells-herbert
> there's a way to copy it....
> There's always a way...
But is there a _legal_ way to copy it (for legitimate purposes)? If, for example, region free DVD players are made illegal, it will still be _technically_ possible to play out of region DVDs.
But for the generally law-abiding consumer who at the moment can legally buy a region free player off the shelf, that won't matter.
> There's only one banner ad at the top
What part of "Slashdot is about to start accepting new ad formats. The large ads that you see on many other sites are coming here." didn't you understand?
Yes, you thought dumb crypto laws were a thing of the past, but no, here comes the UK trying to copy what the USA already gave up, only without that tedious constitutional protection of free speech stuff.
(yes, rja14 is the Ross Anderson who wrote this book).
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/exportbill.html
> Britain, where they sometimes actually spell it "aluminium"
0 37 610
We did this before.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=28259&cid=3
Mostly Netscape sell their _server_ products.
(Now mostly branded iPlanet "a Sun-Netscape Alliance").
This was true even when Communicator/Navigator was closed source but free-as-in-beer, and before than when it was shareware and most people didn't pay for it.
s/defects" in/defects" sign in/
P.S. I remember once seeing a "drinking alcohol can cause birth defects" in an LA restaurant - in the mens' toilets. How much good is it going to do there? Are men going to see it, go back to the table, and say "honey, I don't think you should be drinking that"?