I highly recommend this book for the part about computation alone (there are 5 parts in the book). In the computational part it covers number systems, infinity, and computability and incomputability. Then the rest of the book is gravy for a geek: fractals, chaos, complex systems, and adaptation (genetic algorithms and neural networks). It's the kind of book that gives you a framework to hang the rest of your knowledge on. Seriously, get it.
I wonder if anonymity is just a passing phase for the Internet? A way to envision having a real network identity could the upbeat notion of a Citizen's card that allows you to participate virtually within the boundaries of accepted behavior. With wise regulation there's nothing bad about that.
But outside of that ideal in the real world we can hardly agree on what even constitutes human rights internationally. So there does seem to be a need for some forms of anonymity like when something is leaked because it's in the public interest. Although, for libel and slander accountability would seem to be better overall. Pragmatically, something that satisfies both could be logged access that requires a warrant to associate id with identity.
You'll never know when you need to defend yourself and your family. I don't give a damn if who I email gets recorded for 2 years but if we let it get to double plus good then I'm going to shoot someone who had a hand in it and be labeled a terrorist. At least in the US, guns are so widespread and accessible that it would take decades to remove the single bullet retribution.
And I'm not an extremist, I just remember my history classes from school - the writing was on the wall and the smart Jewish people left Germany before WW2 but now there are fewer places to go that aren't hellholes so that changes the logical thing to do from 'retreat' to 'fight'.
Ok, maybe I'm overreacting but if you judge someone only by their actions then politicians lately seem to fall into the evil category. They're blithly walking down the slippery path because 'it's what people want' not taking a stand for what is moral and good.
You know, when the police don't need warrents for searches your country is called a police state. On a related note, nice to see the patriot[sic] act extended for another four years.
Remember when CDs were just huge relative to the hard drive you had at the time? HVD's sound like they could help you recapture a bit of that magic...;)
What consumer media needs that much space right now? Massive compilations? Every Linux distro on one disc as ISOs? But that's the wrong question, having that much storage would enable the next level of expectations. Season one of Trek on one disc, now that would be nice.
Boycott's are ineffective and Sony's proven they're too incompetent to even clean up after themselves. I'd like to see some lawyers sick themselves on Sony... Let's see a class action settlement of ~$100 for each user to get a professional to remove the security hole the software introduces. They just don't seem to understand anything but dollars so at least the lawyers would be using the right stick.
There are only so many ways to select songs. "Their hierarchal navigation system" looks and smells just like standard window menus (File, Edit, View,...) to me except instead of using a mouse to generate events (such as up, down,...) they have buttons. There are only so many ways to do things and if it is so obviously not new why the hell did they get a patent? Really, anyone with a bit of thought would have hit upon something similar!
...Do bone marrow cells exhibit pluripotent characteristics that lend them to the use metastasis puts them to?...
Evolution does tend to use what's at hand.
Ignoring the **Beatles pagerank, understanding how cancer physically moves about in a host might just lead to novel medical techniques for anything ranging from delivering blocking drugs that occupy the targets to something like Halo's Flood that colonize the organism. /flippant 8p
Yeah but,
[Al Pacino: Scent of a Woman]
If I was half the man I was 5 years ago I'd take a flamethrower to this place!
[/Al Pacino]
Seriously some things are more important than contracts and I believe free speech is one of them.
I know he seems to have fallen out of favor a bit since the.boom but ESR's Magic Cauldron is still a compelling piece of writing.
I think IBM is trying to build a cauldron.
...Shouldn't it be "Google fixes Google Desktop bug"?...
Nope. Object-orientated programming. If the api documentation says that something should operate in a certain way and it does not then by fixing the problem on your side of things it weakens encapsulation of the function and makes it easier for future bugs to accumulate as the totality of code slowly turns to spaghetti.
I'd be a lot more accepting of the whole notion of IP rights if our fearless leaders would publically state the laws importance and need to their consitituents. Without some rational for why we should be doing this I'm left to conclude that its just to make rich people richer.
And what about extending ideas? They're locking up our common culture - I still can't legally link to a copy of steamboat willy (Micky Mouse precursor) for the readers in the US can I? Could this mean that in some future dystopia everyone will have to pay simply to participate? Sorry Bob, I can't talk to you about last nights episode of Friends as you don't have a license.... Damnit.
Only the fool would take trouble to verify that his sentence was composed of ten a's, three b's, four c's, four d's, forty-six e's, sixteen f's, four g's, thirteen h's, fifteen i's, two k's, nine l's, four m's, twenty-five n's, twenty-four o's, five p's, sixteen r's, forty-one s's, thirty-seven t's, ten u's, eight v's, eight w's, four x's, eleven y's, twenty-seven commas, twenty-three apostrophes, seven hyphens and, last but not least, a single !
There's got to be a piece of math that finds the positions where all constraints are satisfied as in the above quote.
Slashdot Mirror
It's Brazil not Brasil.
Yeesh, some people think God invented war to teach Americans geography. I don't know why.
He should countersue for $10 million for pain and anguish.
I highly recommend this book for the part about computation alone (there are 5 parts in the book). In the computational part it covers number systems, infinity, and computability and incomputability. Then the rest of the book is gravy for a geek: fractals, chaos, complex systems, and adaptation (genetic algorithms and neural networks). It's the kind of book that gives you a framework to hang the rest of your knowledge on. Seriously, get it.
I wonder if anonymity is just a passing phase for the Internet? A way to envision having a real network identity could the upbeat notion of a Citizen's card that allows you to participate virtually within the boundaries of accepted behavior. With wise regulation there's nothing bad about that.
But outside of that ideal in the real world we can hardly agree on what even constitutes human rights internationally. So there does seem to be a need for some forms of anonymity like when something is leaked because it's in the public interest. Although, for libel and slander accountability would seem to be better overall. Pragmatically, something that satisfies both could be logged access that requires a warrant to associate id with identity.
It's been a while since I was modded Troll. Now if I get a +5 Troll through underrated mods then I win!
;)
You'll never know when you need to defend yourself and your family. I don't give a damn if who I email gets recorded for 2 years but if we let it get to double plus good then I'm going to shoot someone who had a hand in it and be labeled a terrorist. At least in the US, guns are so widespread and accessible that it would take decades to remove the single bullet retribution.
And I'm not an extremist, I just remember my history classes from school - the writing was on the wall and the smart Jewish people left Germany before WW2 but now there are fewer places to go that aren't hellholes so that changes the logical thing to do from 'retreat' to 'fight'.
Ok, maybe I'm overreacting but if you judge someone only by their actions then politicians lately seem to fall into the evil category. They're blithly walking down the slippery path because 'it's what people want' not taking a stand for what is moral and good.
You know, when the police don't need warrents for searches your country is called a police state. On a related note, nice to see the patriot[sic] act extended for another four years.
Remember when CDs were just huge relative to the hard drive you had at the time? HVD's sound like they could help you recapture a bit of that magic... ;)
What consumer media needs that much space right now? Massive compilations? Every Linux distro on one disc as ISOs? But that's the wrong question, having that much storage would enable the next level of expectations. Season one of Trek on one disc, now that would be nice.
Boycott's are ineffective and Sony's proven they're too incompetent to even clean up after themselves. I'd like to see some lawyers sick themselves on Sony... Let's see a class action settlement of ~$100 for each user to get a professional to remove the security hole the software introduces. They just don't seem to understand anything but dollars so at least the lawyers would be using the right stick.
There are only so many ways to select songs. "Their hierarchal navigation system" looks and smells just like standard window menus (File, Edit, View, ...) to me except instead of using a mouse to generate events (such as up, down, ...) they have buttons. There are only so many ways to do things and if it is so obviously not new why the hell did they get a patent? Really, anyone with a bit of thought would have hit upon something similar!
...Do bone marrow cells exhibit pluripotent characteristics that lend them to the use metastasis puts them to?...
Evolution does tend to use what's at hand.
Oh yeah! Well I've got an anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-missile!
linkage.
Ignoring the **Beatles pagerank, understanding how cancer physically moves about in a host might just lead to novel medical techniques for anything ranging from delivering blocking drugs that occupy the targets to something like Halo's Flood that colonize the organism.
/flippant 8p
:)
My bad.
One definition of "it" could be the ability to predict and act on events.
Wish I could remember where I read that.
It's a sad state of affairs when the editors don't either fix it or ask the author to fix it.
Where's a <sic> when it needs one?
Strawman. Logic & Rhetoric kind.
Yeah but,
[Al Pacino: Scent of a Woman]
If I was half the man I was 5 years ago I'd take a flamethrower to this place!
[/Al Pacino]
Seriously some things are more important than contracts and I believe free speech is one of them.
I know he seems to have fallen out of favor a bit since the .boom but ESR's Magic Cauldron is still a compelling piece of writing.
I think IBM is trying to build a cauldron.
Yup. And since you can't do it all, it all comes back to who's responsible for the code - in this case Microsoft.
...Shouldn't it be "Google fixes Google Desktop bug"?...
Nope. Object-orientated programming. If the api documentation says that something should operate in a certain way and it does not then by fixing the problem on your side of things it weakens encapsulation of the function and makes it easier for future bugs to accumulate as the totality of code slowly turns to spaghetti.
Come on everyone! Join in!!!!. :)
I thought that song was great at one point in my life
I'd be a lot more accepting of the whole notion of IP rights if our fearless leaders would publically state the laws importance and need to their consitituents. Without some rational for why we should be doing this I'm left to conclude that its just to make rich people richer.
And what about extending ideas? They're locking up our common culture - I still can't legally link to a copy of steamboat willy (Micky Mouse precursor) for the readers in the US can I? Could this mean that in some future dystopia everyone will have to pay simply to participate? Sorry Bob, I can't talk to you about last nights episode of Friends as you don't have a license....
Damnit.
I think it was as close as it could be made... ;)
Reminds me of a bit of Hofstader's Metamagical Themas:
Only the fool would take trouble to verify that his sentence was composed of ten a's, three b's, four c's, four d's, forty-six e's, sixteen f's, four g's, thirteen h's, fifteen i's, two k's, nine l's, four m's, twenty-five n's, twenty-four o's, five p's, sixteen r's, forty-one s's, thirty-seven t's, ten u's, eight v's, eight w's, four x's, eleven y's, twenty-seven commas, twenty-three apostrophes, seven hyphens and, last but not least, a single !
There's got to be a piece of math that finds the positions where all constraints are satisfied as in the above quote.