Eating 100 g of beans is well over the limit, assuming any of my math is right:)
Er, not quite...
Assuming our average geek weights healthy 80kg the lethal dose would be (greater then):
80kg x 192mg/kg = 15360mg = 15.36g
Assuming that you get the whole caffeine out of the beans and into your bloodstream, you could get a critical dose of caffeine by consuming ~ 1.2 kg of raw coffee beans. (it still might not kill but at least you gonna get a hell of indegestion:D)
Hell, this is not the first time a company tried something like that to get rid off unwanted "competition".
The bad thing is that it's gonna take a real case in court to either get rid of the patent (see prior art) or make it unusable to Nintendo (as it would be acknowledged that it only covers recognition what kind of system has to be emulated).
The real ironic thing is that if Nintendo were to use it against free emulators they might only hurt themselves - the coders might have to say uncle, but then they could leak the source-code into the web *woops to Nintendo*.
Bram Cohen (famous maker of Bittorrent) managed had his carrer boosted only because his open source project - Bittorrent.
His current employers saw his work and hired him on the spot...
Many readers ask the question "why is that a bad thing"?
Let me elaborate: This is an example how the US (military or government, your pick) seemingly tries to maintain "supremacy" over all the other global players (or at least the other feel like that). It might be different if e.g. the EU and the US would share those privileges - e.g. both would have the ability to jam the GPS systems etc.
But the last year(s) have show us that the US (at least under the current administration) will have their way, one way or another - The UN is against invading Iraq? Screw the UN we'll do it anyway (BTW I still wait to see those weapons of mass destruction, but that would lead us away from the topic - don't get me wrong I'm happy that the people of Afghanistan and Iraq are, more or less, freer). But the point is this way the US can afford to basically ignore the rest of the nations, because it is and remains the probably most powerful nation on the planet. And personally I ask myself - do I REALLY want a nation - ANY NATION - to have this kind of ability - even if it is the US of A?
Omg! Why don't they think of the consequences...
on
Space Elevator Going Up
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I can only shudder when I think about the new pick-up lines that arise once it is complete. "Hey Sweetie, wanna see my Space Elevator"
or "Guess what is 3 feet long and DOES NOT reach into space"
and "Let's play Space-elevator; I've got the cable, and you're gonna be the counterweight" ;)
Nope, it should just be heavy enough that the force caused by the rotation of the weight keeps the cable straight and also any weight it might carry.
Think spinning cicles with a jojo, if you spin fast enough the jojo-string will be nearly horizontikal (and it does not matter how heavy you are;)...
Well, the simplicity of those days won't be coming around again, but hey - you don't have to program on a Desktop PC.
Get them Lego Brainstorm (I think that's it called) and they gonna have tons of fun and afaik a programming language of acceptable difficulty:)
When they are older they'll probably use the programming language of their choice and learn that programming means more than a few hundred lines of code - it also means structure (no spagetti-code), style (goto = evil) etc.
Sound of Slashdotted Servers dying...
on
Searching Sound
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Neat!
I always wanted to know how it sound when a server dies during slashdotting
Is it a stretched-out *weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiii-clonk * or rather a quick and clean *fizz*
Can we also look for the sound of the website owners when the see the bandwith bill? ;)
Final Fantasy VI because it was the first console RPG I played, and it opened me the eyes how good RPGs on consoles can be - if you can't render 3D graphics you have to make up with excellent stories (note: this does not mean that there are no good PC RPGs) Fallout, for the excellent athmosphere, and because the German translation was butchered enough to make me seek out English language games whenever possible. And remember: in case of a nuclear detonation near you - duck & cover! Doom, for the addictiveness and the network play (via serial:p) - nothing more satifying to link up with a good chum and beat the hell out of some Demons Aliens vs Predator for the "little marine" feeling. I'm talking about the pre-patch, no-save AvP. Hear the motion tracker... *tick*..... *tick*..... *block*.... *block*.. *block*. *tick*..... where did it go? careful... careful... *block* Damn! *gunfire* *splatter* *restart level*
[i]In bullet-point form, these functions and features are:
Satellite-based (GPS) guidance and targeting
A form of inertial (or other) backup guidance
Jet-powered for high speed, minimum flight-times
Low radar signature to reduce detectability ...
[/i]
So... let's assume an average flight-time of less than 15 min.
Also lets assume that Mr. Evil deploys at least 50 of these babies (costing him 250.000$ plus warheads).
How high is the probabability that someone realizes what is going on before its too late?
Radar won't be too useful - they are flying too deep (and even if they are detected it will take some precious minutes for the radar officer to report to his superior, him to tell his suporior to check what is going etc.)
And the public will probably be of little use - of course some will notice the missles and call the authorities (hey, and it was zooming by, like an UFO) so response times will be dreadful.
Now even if they are lucky and see that someone is flying that definitly shouldn't be there, how long will it take to shut down the GPS? less than 5 minutes? I don't think so.
That leaves only about 10 minutes for them to spot and realize what is going on - not too much...
Wouldn't it be more effective if the paperclip would only go away after you have registered?
That would give them product registrations AND extended exposure for their mascot.
And as an additional bonus, users could be driven insane by the clip - less work for the tech hotlines (ohhh... blue and white colours... shiny...) and increased sales on M$ products (sure, give me more, *giggle* Word, Powerpoint, gotta catch them all *drool*);)
Hmmm... so they basically implement a limited backdoor so government goons can get a sniff at the data?
Er... is it me or does that mean that those that are targeted will probably switch to homemade solutions, as do those "normal users" (read geeks) with enough intelligence, and only those that don't have the smarts will be stuck with a wide open router (many windows users, and probably some government types)
Oh well, the scriptkiddies will have a fun time once the first exploitable bug has been found:p
I must say the evolution of grafik engines for games is astouning - from the humble Wolfenstein 3d engine (hmm.... another id product) over Unreal, Quake, Unreal Tournament, to finally UT 2003/Unreal 2 and Doom 3 sometime (hmmm... I'd really love to see Duke Nukem Whenever's engine sometime:p)
Its astouning how powerful these engines have become, and how they often allow programmers to concentrate on what really counts - the gameplay! (HL - Counterstrike anyone?)
When I was younger I admired America.
Land of the Free, Land of the Limitless Possibilities for Everyone.
Of course, these were only a small boy's dreams - when I grew older I saw that there were problems, like in my own country, but still it looked quite a good place to live, and still there was the hint of desire to emigrate.
Yet this changed in the last few years, its not that the politicians here have become better, quite in contrary, they blow more hot air than ever, opposing each other for oppositings sake - but DMCA, Patriot Act, Homeland Security, Disregard to the UN, and Goverment initiated Patriotism that borders on Nationalism made me worry.
What had become of the Freedom? What had become of tolerance? What had become of Peace?
I am scared of this new America, where its government does what it wants to no matter what the people and the world say, where being Islamic became as bad as a few decades ago being suspected to be a Communist... What has become of America?
Well, it was the law that allowed Hitler to get his final grip on the power.
It allowed him to pass down laws without requirement for the parlament or other legeslative organs, effectively concentrating all the power on him.
Reading the story made me remember two words that ran shivers down my spine... "Gleichschaltung" and "Ermächtigungsgesetz".
Don't get me wrong, I do not wish to compare the Patriot act to those horrors of the past, or imply that the American Democracy is at stake.
And still, making an act permanent, that radically cuts civil rights for (the citicens' or the states'?) safety summoned those two horrors up.
And thus I must agree with another poster's Benjamin Franklin quote:
Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
How about those dilemmas: If you find a severe online security hole in a new important software application, is it correct to contact the programmers first (so they may release a patch) before warning the public (risking that the patch will be too late and other have already exploited the hole) or would it be correct to warn the public at once (risking that your warning will be abused as a pointer to the hole)?
Is it acceptable to make aviable for download / download software that is no longer distributed by its owners?
Using new biotechnology, would it be acceptable to create (via cloning or otherwise) new bodyparts to replace old/lost ones? Would it be acceptable to perfectly replicate a human's brain this way (if it were possible)?
In a hyperthetical situation, with gross lack of resources (food, raw materials, energy), would it be acceptable, given the appropiate technology, to convert human corpses into these resources to increase the chance of survival of the whole? Cosider the same situation where the conversion would not be vital, but still would greatly benefit the whole.
Good read - I think its important to recieve an impression on what your future jobs might turn into once you have been on the line for a couple of years. Of course, its important to try your dreamsjobs during during university, but you never know if your dream wont turn into a nightmare after a few years but just working a few weeks there...
So what does the readoption of traditional corporate culture mean to you? It means you're no longer going to be employed just because you're a technical guru. You are going to have to learn to dress, communicate, and adapt all the traditional corporate ideals that IT has been exempt from in the "dot-com culture".
Well, in my eyes it has always been important that you have to communicate, dress etc. - no matter the job.
On the other hand, while those things should not be totally ignored, they shouldnt take prevalence over your skill.
So Im seeing this developement with a laughing and a crying eye, another "dream" lost to harsh reality, but it the end it really just might have been just a dream.
Yet we had one very funny (from todays perspective) trademark case in Germany...
A company called Symicron GmbH had a trademark on the term "Explora" (yes with "a") and tried to sue several companies, and private persons (on of them 16 year old pupil) for "linking to a download site containing the program FTP-Explorer and thus violating their trademark".
Yes, you read correctly, you get sued for linking to a shareware program download site.
Even worse, half of the time the courts agreed that there was a violation!
Fortunately one of the bigger companies that got sued (c.t. , mother company of Heise News Online (German) managed to get their trademark deleted, ending the insantiy. Freedom for Links has a coverage.
ROFL What do they do on those patent offices - throw dice? Jack: Hey... Paul... theres some guy that wants to patent "using graphics and text to sell things on the web" Paul: Geee... the web... sounds intresting... Jack: I think its your turn. Paul: *rolls dice* Four - sounds good? Jack: Yup, you only had to roll a 2 or more. *Grants Patent*
Geee - its almost as if youd patent air - or maybe smog? Hmmm... where was that patent office again?
And maybe we can gain some additional insights too
on
Project Eden
·
· Score: 1
Wow, looks like some major feat to build this and even more to keep it running smoothly despide the host of tourists visiting it...
Anyway, maybe we could even get a few additional insights why loosly "related" projects like Biosphere failed.
LAN/Internet via the powerlines has alreay been tried in Germany, in the Ruhr-Gebiet to be specivic (for non Germans: Ruhr-Gebiet = area in Germany where lots of big cities are REALLY close to each other), too.
Unfortunately it didnt seem to work out that well, they had tons of problems with interferences in the lines (limiting bandwith and causing total network failurse every few weeks) and that the bandwith per user slowly dwindled into 56k areas since too many people signed up for the field test (and I dont even want to mention ping times here, gamers stay away!)
To cut a long story short, even though the German Telekom dominated the internet sector with their crappy and expensive service and people were looking for alternatives, the field test for powerline from the electicity companies failed and was ended last month...:(
Anyone who has only had a minor glimps behind the scenes of emulation (or rather emulation hardware) knows that its more than hard work.
It always boils down to:
-Attempt to reverse engineer
-Guess
-Try it
-Goto 1
Not to mention that all these steps should be 100% error-free and highly efficient code wise...
Major props to the emulation programmers!
Slashdot Mirror
Eating 100 g of beans is well over the limit, assuming any of my math is right :)
:D)
Er, not quite...
Assuming our average geek weights healthy 80kg the lethal dose would be (greater then):
80kg x 192mg/kg = 15360mg = 15.36g
Assuming that you get the whole caffeine out of the beans and into your bloodstream, you could get a critical dose of caffeine by consuming ~ 1.2 kg of raw coffee beans. (it still might not kill but at least you gonna get a hell of indegestion
Hell, this is not the first time a company tried something like that to get rid off unwanted "competition".
The bad thing is that it's gonna take a real case in court to either get rid of the patent (see prior art) or make it unusable to Nintendo (as it would be acknowledged that it only covers recognition what kind of system has to be emulated).
The real ironic thing is that if Nintendo were to use it against free emulators they might only hurt themselves - the coders might have to say uncle, but then they could leak the source-code into the web *woops to Nintendo*.
Bram Cohen (famous maker of Bittorrent) managed had his carrer boosted only because his open source project - Bittorrent.
His current employers saw his work and hired him on the spot...
Many readers ask the question "why is that a bad thing"?
Let me elaborate: This is an example how the US (military or government, your pick) seemingly tries to maintain "supremacy" over all the other global players (or at least the other feel like that). It might be different if e.g. the EU and the US would share those privileges - e.g. both would have the ability to jam the GPS systems etc.
But the last year(s) have show us that the US (at least under the current administration) will have their way, one way or another - The UN is against invading Iraq? Screw the UN we'll do it anyway (BTW I still wait to see those weapons of mass destruction, but that would lead us away from the topic - don't get me wrong I'm happy that the people of Afghanistan and Iraq are, more or less, freer).
But the point is this way the US can afford to basically ignore the rest of the nations, because it is and remains the probably most powerful nation on the planet. And personally I ask myself - do I REALLY want a nation - ANY NATION - to have this kind of ability - even if it is the US of A?
Good, old American Crusade Trading Cards - they have one the just hits the spot... :D
USA Patriot & Homeland Security: Acts of Freedom, Land of Liberty
I can only shudder when I think about the new pick-up lines that arise once it is complete.
;)
"Hey Sweetie, wanna see my Space Elevator"
or
"Guess what is 3 feet long and DOES NOT reach into space"
and
"Let's play Space-elevator; I've got the cable, and you're gonna be the counterweight"
Nope, it should just be heavy enough that the force caused by the rotation of the weight keeps the cable straight and also any weight it might carry. ;)...
Think spinning cicles with a jojo, if you spin fast enough the jojo-string will be nearly horizontikal (and it does not matter how heavy you are
Well, the simplicity of those days won't be coming around again, but hey - you don't have to program on a Desktop PC. :)
Get them Lego Brainstorm (I think that's it called) and they gonna have tons of fun and afaik a programming language of acceptable difficulty
When they are older they'll probably use the programming language of their choice and learn that programming means more than a few hundred lines of code - it also means structure (no spagetti-code), style (goto = evil) etc.
Neat!k * or rather a quick and clean *fizz*
;)
I always wanted to know how it sound when a server dies during slashdotting
Is it a stretched-out *weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiii-clon
Can we also look for the sound of the website owners when the see the bandwith bill?
Final Fantasy VI because it was the first console RPG I played, and it opened me the eyes how good RPGs on consoles can be - if you can't render 3D graphics you have to make up with excellent stories (note: this does not mean that there are no good PC RPGs) :p) - nothing more satifying to link up with a good chum and beat the hell out of some Demons
Fallout, for the excellent athmosphere, and because the German translation was butchered enough to make me seek out English language games whenever possible.
And remember: in case of a nuclear detonation near you - duck & cover!
Doom, for the addictiveness and the network play (via serial
Aliens vs Predator for the "little marine" feeling.
I'm talking about the pre-patch, no-save AvP. Hear the motion tracker... *tick*..... *tick*..... *block*.... *block*.. *block*. *tick*..... where did it go? careful... careful... *block* Damn! *gunfire* *splatter* *restart level*
[i]In bullet-point form, these functions and features are:
...
[/i]
So... let's assume an average flight-time of less than 15 min.
Satellite-based (GPS) guidance and targeting
A form of inertial (or other) backup guidance
Jet-powered for high speed, minimum flight-times
Low radar signature to reduce detectability
Also lets assume that Mr. Evil deploys at least 50 of these babies (costing him 250.000$ plus warheads).
How high is the probabability that someone realizes what is going on before its too late?
Radar won't be too useful - they are flying too deep (and even if they are detected it will take some precious minutes for the radar officer to report to his superior, him to tell his suporior to check what is going etc.)
And the public will probably be of little use - of course some will notice the missles and call the authorities (hey, and it was zooming by, like an UFO) so response times will be dreadful.
Now even if they are lucky and see that someone is flying that definitly shouldn't be there, how long will it take to shut down the GPS? less than 5 minutes? I don't think so.
That leaves only about 10 minutes for them to spot and realize what is going on - not too much...
Wouldn't it be more effective if the paperclip would only go away after you have registered? ;)
That would give them product registrations AND extended exposure for their mascot.
And as an additional bonus, users could be driven insane by the clip - less work for the tech hotlines (ohhh... blue and white colours... shiny...) and increased sales on M$ products (sure, give me more, *giggle* Word, Powerpoint, gotta catch them all *drool*)
Hmmm... so they basically implement a limited backdoor so government goons can get a sniff at the data? :p
Er... is it me or does that mean that those that are targeted will probably switch to homemade solutions, as do those "normal users" (read geeks) with enough intelligence, and only those that don't have the smarts will be stuck with a wide open router (many windows users, and probably some government types)
Oh well, the scriptkiddies will have a fun time once the first exploitable bug has been found
I must say the evolution of grafik engines for games is astouning - from the humble Wolfenstein 3d engine (hmm.... another id product) over Unreal, Quake, Unreal Tournament, to finally UT 2003/Unreal 2 and Doom 3 sometime (hmmm... I'd really love to see Duke Nukem Whenever's engine sometime :p)
Its astouning how powerful these engines have become, and how they often allow programmers to concentrate on what really counts - the gameplay! (HL - Counterstrike anyone?)
When I was younger I admired America.
Land of the Free, Land of the Limitless Possibilities for Everyone.
Of course, these were only a small boy's dreams - when I grew older I saw that there were problems, like in my own country, but still it looked quite a good place to live, and still there was the hint of desire to emigrate.
Yet this changed in the last few years, its not that the politicians here have become better, quite in contrary, they blow more hot air than ever, opposing each other for oppositings sake - but DMCA, Patriot Act, Homeland Security, Disregard to the UN, and Goverment initiated Patriotism that borders on Nationalism made me worry.
What had become of the Freedom? What had become of tolerance? What had become of Peace?
I am scared of this new America, where its government does what it wants to no matter what the people and the world say, where being Islamic became as bad as a few decades ago being suspected to be a Communist...
What has become of America?
Well, it was the law that allowed Hitler to get his final grip on the power.
It allowed him to pass down laws without requirement for the parlament or other legeslative organs, effectively concentrating all the power on him.
Reading the story made me remember two words that ran shivers down my spine... "Gleichschaltung" and "Ermächtigungsgesetz".
Don't get me wrong, I do not wish to compare the Patriot act to those horrors of the past, or imply that the American Democracy is at stake.
And still, making an act permanent, that radically cuts civil rights for (the citicens' or the states'?) safety summoned those two horrors up.
And thus I must agree with another poster's Benjamin Franklin quote:
Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
How about those dilemmas:
:)
If you find a severe online security hole in a new important software application, is it correct to contact the programmers first (so they may release a patch) before warning the public (risking that the patch will be too late and other have already exploited the hole) or would it be correct to warn the public at once (risking that your warning will be abused as a pointer to the hole)?
Is it acceptable to make aviable for download / download software that is no longer distributed by its owners?
Using new biotechnology, would it be acceptable to create (via cloning or otherwise) new bodyparts to replace old/lost ones? Would it be acceptable to perfectly replicate a human's brain this way (if it were possible)?
In a hyperthetical situation, with gross lack of resources (food, raw materials, energy), would it be acceptable, given the appropiate technology, to convert human corpses into these resources to increase the chance of survival of the whole? Cosider the same situation where the conversion would not be vital, but still would greatly benefit the whole.
I hope you find them usable
Good read - I think its important to recieve an impression on what your future jobs might turn into once you have been on the line for a couple of years.
Of course, its important to try your dreamsjobs during during university, but you never know if your dream wont turn into a nightmare after a few years but just working a few weeks there...
So what does the readoption of traditional corporate culture mean to you? It means you're no longer going to be employed just because you're a technical guru. You are going to have to learn to dress, communicate, and adapt all the traditional corporate ideals that IT has been exempt from in the "dot-com culture".
Well, in my eyes it has always been important that you have to communicate, dress etc. - no matter the job.
On the other hand, while those things should not be totally ignored, they shouldnt take prevalence over your skill.
So Im seeing this developement with a laughing and a crying eye, another "dream" lost to harsh reality, but it the end it really just might have been just a dream.
Yet we had one very funny (from todays perspective) trademark case in Germany...
A company called Symicron GmbH had a trademark on the term "Explora" (yes with "a") and tried to sue several companies, and private persons (on of them 16 year old pupil) for "linking to a download site containing the program FTP-Explorer and thus violating their trademark".
Yes, you read correctly, you get sued for linking to a shareware program download site.
Even worse, half of the time the courts agreed that there was a violation!
Fortunately one of the bigger companies that got sued (c.t. , mother company of Heise News Online (German) managed to get their trademark deleted, ending the insantiy.
Freedom for Links has a coverage.
ROFL
What do they do on those patent offices - throw dice?
Jack: Hey... Paul... theres some guy that wants to patent "using graphics and text to sell things on the web"
Paul: Geee... the web... sounds intresting...
Jack: I think its your turn.
Paul: *rolls dice* Four - sounds good?
Jack: Yup, you only had to roll a 2 or more.
*Grants Patent*
Geee - its almost as if youd patent air - or maybe smog? Hmmm... where was that patent office again?
Wow, looks like some major feat to build this and even more to keep it running smoothly despide the host of tourists visiting it...
Anyway, maybe we could even get a few additional insights why loosly "related" projects like Biosphere failed.
LAN/Internet via the powerlines has alreay been tried in Germany, in the Ruhr-Gebiet to be specivic (for non Germans: Ruhr-Gebiet = area in Germany where lots of big cities are REALLY close to each other), too. :(
Unfortunately it didnt seem to work out that well, they had tons of problems with interferences in the lines (limiting bandwith and causing total network failurse every few weeks) and that the bandwith per user slowly dwindled into 56k areas since too many people signed up for the field test (and I dont even want to mention ping times here, gamers stay away!)
To cut a long story short, even though the German Telekom dominated the internet sector with their crappy and expensive service and people were looking for alternatives, the field test for powerline from the electicity companies failed and was ended last month...
Anyone who has only had a minor glimps behind the scenes of emulation (or rather emulation hardware) knows that its more than hard work.
It always boils down to:
-Attempt to reverse engineer
-Guess
-Try it
-Goto 1
Not to mention that all these steps should be 100% error-free and highly efficient code wise...
Major props to the emulation programmers!