Hate to bite on this one, but the main reason I say that locking down machines is a Bad Idea is that it tends to keep people from doing legitimate things with the machines. Setting up machines to reset their state is just fine. Preventing any changes *at* *all* is bad.
> LaTeX can let me open up (or convert) my extant word document and start typing, using keyboard shortcuts or toolbars to denote what exceptions I want, and spit out word counts on demand?
No. LaTeX is a document processor. These are editor features. Look for them in emacs or vi or what-have-you.
> LaTeX can track changes, spell check, and autocorrect common typoes that I make?
See above.
> LaTeX can handle god damn'd [sic] em dashes!?
Well, LaTeX handles all three kinds of dashes --- simple dashes with "-", en dashes with "--", and em dashes with "---". And the mathematical minus with "$-$".
But teaching LaTeX to students would probably give them a considerable edge in some fields --- most notably in some math and science fields --- and would also keep them from getting tied to any specific program.
Word may be pretty, but LaTeX can do all the same stuff. Really.
Well, there is a good side to things, though --- to accelerate a massive object (one having mass) to c would require an infinite amount of energy. Not something you're likely to have around.
On the other hand, I seem to remember that massless objects (like photons) are *always* travelling at c in some direction. This leads to some oddities, but none that can't be resolved in some way.
As the protons are moving at such high speeds in the nucleus (disregarding for the moment the fact that their speed and location are rather hard to determine exactly), this is an expected result.
Why? Relativity. Objects moving at high speeds appear contracted along the axis of their movement to observers in a "fixed" reference frame.
Is there any reason you have to set up any such system? I'm a student myself, and I've found in my experience (doing innocent things like coding) that any "idiot-proofing" system tends to make the computers much harder to use for legitimate purposes.
Much better than a program to prevent people from doing certain things would be teaching the people to just not do those things. Worried about people saving things on specific hard drives? Tell them to not do it! Worried about people installing unauthorized software? Tell them to not do it! (And take off the programs that they invariably will install.)
So I'm working for a non-profit group that gets all sorts of donated computers. Mostly old nasty ones -- we're still getting Pentium and PII machines *today*.
Anyway, about two years ago, we get this *amazing* PII dual-processor box. Donated by its previous owner since he couldn't get it to work.
I plug it in, turn it on -- sure enough, it doesn't work. Nothing happens, *at* *all*. Heck, the power supply fan isn't turning!
So I give it a check. Everything looks fine when I take the mobo out and put it on the table. I hook up another power supply, plug it in... it boots.
Turns out the previous owner must have bought all the parts himself -- including the case -- and hadn't removed all the mounting screws in the case. Two of them were shorting out the power supply connector.
One new power supply and we had a shiny dual-processor machine. Fun.;-)
This is a telescope for radio signals, not visible-light. In any case, larger telescopes do not see much further, or get much higher resolution, simply because they are large. These benefits result only because they have a larger area, and therefore can gather more light.
Probably the fact that there is (as of yet) no integer-based decoder available for OGG. That, or weakness of the processor. AFAIK, it actually uses an ASIC for MPEG decoding, so that isn't being done by the processor at all.
Anyway, LAME at default VBR settings is transparent to most listeners and averages 1 MB/min. Good enough for me and my music.
All you have to do is label the food clearly and mark it as an "EXPERIMENT". For example, a jug of milk from last week would be labeled "MILK EXPERIMENT, 1 AUG 2002".
Hold on, are we calling MPEG4 (and MPEG in general) an "open" standard?
If so, then show me a site where a technical description of the format, complete enough to write a player or encoder from, is available. AFAIK, a copy of the standard will run you $5000 or more. Open, this isn't.
If you don't like this (and I would be *very* surprised if you did) then don't watch the channels that make use of this. Better yet, if it's on cable TV, get yourself a good antenna and set it up on your roof. Many antennas provide better reception than the corresponding cable channels. Antennas also don't give money to the media companies. I think.
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Hate to bite on this one, but the main reason I say that locking down machines is a Bad Idea is that it tends to keep people from doing legitimate things with the machines. Setting up machines to reset their state is just fine. Preventing any changes *at* *all* is bad.
> LaTeX can let me open up (or convert) my extant word document and start typing, using keyboard shortcuts or toolbars to denote what exceptions I want, and spit out word counts on demand?
No. LaTeX is a document processor. These are editor features. Look for them in emacs or vi or what-have-you.
> LaTeX can track changes, spell check, and autocorrect common typoes that I make?
See above.
> LaTeX can handle god damn'd [sic] em dashes!?
Well, LaTeX handles all three kinds of dashes --- simple dashes with "-", en dashes with "--", and em dashes with "---". And the mathematical minus with "$-$".
Uhm, that's TeX. Not LaTeX.
And there are a number of very nice front ends to LaTeX, one of which is the OS X TeXShop. Barely looks like a command-line app at all.
Seriously, ye ACs...
I know this isn't quite an answer.
But teaching LaTeX to students would probably give them a considerable edge in some fields --- most notably in some math and science fields --- and would also keep them from getting tied to any specific program.
Word may be pretty, but LaTeX can do all the same stuff. Really.
Well, there is a good side to things, though --- to accelerate a massive object (one having mass) to c would require an infinite amount of energy. Not something you're likely to have around.
On the other hand, I seem to remember that massless objects (like photons) are *always* travelling at c in some direction. This leads to some oddities, but none that can't be resolved in some way.
As the protons are moving at such high speeds in the nucleus (disregarding for the moment the fact that their speed and location are rather hard to determine exactly), this is an expected result.
Why? Relativity. Objects moving at high speeds appear contracted along the axis of their movement to observers in a "fixed" reference frame.
No surprises here, move on, move on...
Is there any reason you have to set up any such system? I'm a student myself, and I've found in my experience (doing innocent things like coding) that any "idiot-proofing" system tends to make the computers much harder to use for legitimate purposes.
Much better than a program to prevent people from doing certain things would be teaching the people to just not do those things. Worried about people saving things on specific hard drives? Tell them to not do it! Worried about people installing unauthorized software? Tell them to not do it! (And take off the programs that they invariably will install.)
Stop using the 12-tone scale! Example: Teka i se rraki does not -- as far as I know -- infringe any copyrights. Even by this definition.
So I'm working for a non-profit group that gets all sorts of donated computers. Mostly old nasty ones -- we're still getting Pentium and PII machines *today*.
;-)
Anyway, about two years ago, we get this *amazing* PII dual-processor box. Donated by its previous owner since he couldn't get it to work.
I plug it in, turn it on -- sure enough, it doesn't work. Nothing happens, *at* *all*. Heck, the power supply fan isn't turning!
So I give it a check. Everything looks fine when I take the mobo out and put it on the table. I hook up another power supply, plug it in... it boots.
Turns out the previous owner must have bought all the parts himself -- including the case -- and hadn't removed all the mounting screws in the case. Two of them were shorting out the power supply connector.
One new power supply and we had a shiny dual-processor machine. Fun.
Yes.
But it wouldn't make any difference. What's the UN supposed to do, slap spammers with an oven mitt? They have no jurisdiction and no enforcing power.
...is a moment-of-silence post. Please use the below space for your personal remembrances.
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There. Don't you feel much better now?
I'm in contact with an iTunes developer. Commencing OGG advocacy NOW...
This is a telescope for radio signals, not visible-light. In any case, larger telescopes do not see much further, or get much higher resolution, simply because they are large. These benefits result only because they have a larger area, and therefore can gather more light.
Perhaps that's where the mysterious noises are coming from.
Heh.
That's essentially what I'm using.
Probably the fact that there is (as of yet) no integer-based decoder available for OGG. That, or weakness of the processor. AFAIK, it actually uses an ASIC for MPEG decoding, so that isn't being done by the processor at all.
Anyway, LAME at default VBR settings is transparent to most listeners and averages 1 MB/min. Good enough for me and my music.
Ooh.
That works even better. Thanks.
All you have to do is label the food clearly and mark it as an "EXPERIMENT". For example, a jug of milk from last week would be labeled "MILK EXPERIMENT, 1 AUG 2002".
*smirk*
On Mac OS X, you can just open up the tracks on CDs as AIFF files.
Hold on, are we calling MPEG4 (and MPEG in general) an "open" standard?
If so, then show me a site where a technical description of the format, complete enough to write a player or encoder from, is available. AFAIK, a copy of the standard will run you $5000 or more. Open, this isn't.
All the technology -- and the software, too -- is out there. People just need to start using it.
Actually, I believe that LZW compression is *not* an integral part of the GIF algorithm -- if I recall correctly, the GIF can be stored uncompressed.
Correct me if I'm wrong, anybody?
Laser printers are *cheap*. I got one recently for about $100 USD.
So stop complaining. Localtalk was dead years ago.
If you don't like this (and I would be *very* surprised if you did) then don't watch the channels that make use of this. Better yet, if it's on cable TV, get yourself a good antenna and set it up on your roof. Many antennas provide better reception than the corresponding cable channels. Antennas also don't give money to the media companies. I think.