Nothing like putting a shiney target on yourself to make your enemy's day that much easier. There's a reason why combat uniforms don't have bright bits of metal for insignia like the dress uniforms.
"It Just Don't Look Right" is a time-tested law enforcement mantra.
And Schneier repeatedly has commented in favor of this technique. He just calls it "noticing something hinky" instead. It's blind following of rules and procedures that provide little or no benefit that he complains about.
If you accidentally read the fine article ('cause we know nobody actually tries to read it), you'll see that first off, it's 30% smaller than the record-setting ozone hole from last year. So while the value for this year is down, it looks to be about at or just slightly below the average level for the 90s. (So far, the 00s seem to have a lot of swings up and down, making it hard to visually estimate off the graph.) Furthermore, this year the hole was less centered over the South Pole than was the case in other years; this allows more warm air into the area which results in less ozone depletion. So the article has good reasons for the caution.
It's up to the security forces to determine which points need to be visited, not the computer. The computer only schedules the time to visit the predefined points. The patrols either go to their patrol points on a regular schedule or they go on this new random schedule. In both cases, the places covered are the same--the new method is neither better nor worse than the current method.
This isn't somebody's mom backing up her personal pictures of her cat. This is an experienced CEO-level executive with what is essentially a major company asset (film script) that's been lost due to his failure to perform the due diligence his position requires.
Are people expected to keep a second car around if their main one fails?
Bad analogy, as there are many alternative solutions (having a second car, ride from neighbor, taxi, public transportation, rental car, or even going out and buying a new car) that can all function with no previous connection, as it were, to the original car and all of which can be selected after the problem has arisen. Now, if we were talking about a race team, they will have backup cars going into the qualifications. They will have a full selection of replacement parts for during the race. That racing team knows that it is their responsibility to be prepared.
While the math works, it doesn't reflect real life. $400 five years from now isn't the same as $400 right now. Let's say you can get a 5%/year return on your cash. So the first car payment you make, one month from now, isn't really $400 in present value, it's only $398.67. But your final payment of $400, due 48 months from now, is only worth $340.95 in present value. So, when adjusted for present value, you're actualy paying the same as $17,715.53 right now. (Ignoring such things as inflation, taxes, the difference in returns available for short term savings versus longer term, and the such.)
For period t, we calculate PV = C(t)/(1 + annual rate/(periods per year))^t).
You'd have to prove that any of the editors actually cared about their reputation. Considering the number of dupes, pointless stories, and poorly edited postings there are here, you'd almost think they enjoy trashing their own reputations.
2. Will ride bicycles and electric trikes - cars are too expensive.
But not too expensive at Ralph Spoilsport Motors - the world's largest new used and used new automobile dealership - Ralph Spoilsport motors - right here in the city of EMPHYSEMA!
The house campaign I'm currently in should be ideal for the use of the 'forgery' skill. The characters are required to have citizenship papers, licenses for certain types of weapons, and the such. We're in the middle of a conflict between two criminal gangs. And I'm playing the party's rogue. So my choice is to spend skill points in forgery and spend 90 gold for a masterwork forger's kit...or drop by a certain bar and use the underworld links I've developed (using diplomacy) and drop 50 or so gold for a document produced by an expert.
Forgery is just too specialized a skill, even for a campaign dealing with organized crime, to be worthwhile spending skill point on.
It's more a matter of the value you can get out those skills. You might have an actual need for 'use rope' once every five sessions, while other skills such as 'spot' or 'diplomacy' would be used repeatedly during a session. So you have the choice of spending your limited number of points gaining ranks in a skill that might eventually be useful versus one you know will be used over and over.
The other side of this is that the people writing the adventures know that most players don't take those skills. So they don't add events that require the skills, or provide alternative ways of solving the problem. So it spirals down fast.
That this is about individuals being able to vote for members of congress.
If the only issue was individuals having the ability to vote in congressional elections, they would be pushing for the much easier and more reasonable goal of having most of DC rejoin Maryland. But for some reason, the example of Arlington being retroceded back in 1847 seems to escape them.
It's a blatent attempt to gain more power at the Federal level. It makes about as much sense as New York City asking for it's own Senators because it's the largest concentration of people in the US.
"It seemed like we announced we were going to do this and that, and the next day we got trucks from the providers doing this and that, when we've been asking for years and nothing ever happened," Lompoc Mayor Dick DeWees said.
If nothing else, the muni wi-fi forced the commerical players to upgrade. That by itself make the project a success.
some estimate that between 20,000 and 40,000 have cancelled.
Get over the not honoring cancellation requests bit. If there's actually a groundswell of support of customers cancelling their accounts, then XM's staff is going to be overwhelmed. Even in normal times there's going to be mistakes; in the midst of a consumer revolt it's a miracle they're getting anything done correctly.
The election is a year-and-a-half away. Everyone just shut up about it until the summer of '08 and do something more worthwhile with your time. You'll still have more than enough time to beat every conceivable topic to death, I promise, you just won't be boring people to death by drawing it out for a year too long.
Got any stats to back that up? (i.e. your tacit assertion that traffic fatalities have gone up...)
Obviously not. If I had researched the topic that far, I would have posted a link, nor would I have put in the disclaimer. Furthermore, it's not my assertion, but rather from the grandparent post.
So you make your argument, then say, "My argument is based on pulling a fact out of my ass."
The grandparent post had point A: automobile brakes are nowhere near as capable and the parent post responded with point B: You like having asbestos dust in the air produced from brake pads?. My argument is that if A is true then B is true--If brakes are worse without asbestos, then you should prefer the dust in the air. If you read my conclusion carefully, you might notice that it explicitly states that pads with great braking and without asbestos is the best possiblity.
You like having asbestos dust in the air produced from brake pads?
If the risk of my dying in a car accident due to using inferior brake pads is higher than the risk of dying from cancer due to breathing in asbestos dust, then yes. I would rather have asbestos dust in the air from brake pads.
As for the effect of dust from brake pads, in the fact sheet from the National Cancer Institute of the NIH (in question 4, second paragraph) it states that there was no detectable increase in lung cancers or mesothelioma among mechanics working on brake systems. Now, if people working close up with asbestos pads aren't getting sick from the dust, then I'm not too worried about the asbestos either...but I am worried about not being in an accident
In conclusion, while we'd all prefer brake pads without asbestos and great stopping capacity, we should prefer the more effective braking pads with asbestos over the poorer braking pads without.
Disclaimer: I'm not a car nut, so I'm going on the assumtion that the new non-asbestos organic brake pads are in fact inferior.
Many years ago, I had a discussion about Dvorak keyboards with the head of our document production center, who was proficient with both. She mentioned that the only problem she had when switching between the two was with words containing the letter 'm'. Occasionally, after hitting the 'm' key, she would spontaneously switch formats--if she had been using Dvorak, she would type in Qwerty for a bit; if using Qwerty, she would type in Dvorak.
According to Asian Tribune, the satellite channel was part of the ceasefire agreement between the LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka. Since Ranil Wickremasinghe hasn't been Prime Minister of Sri Lanka since 2004, this agreement that LTTE could broadcast obviously isn't exactly new.
Speculation time:
Some people are claiming that the LTTE is paying for the broadcasts. It sounds like someone at Intelsat may have accepted a contract based on the ceasefire agreement, only to get burned now that a different political party is in charge in Sri Lanka.
SCO didn't just pick some random lawyers out of the phone book. One of the firms has Kevin McBride as a partner. Last name sound familiar? Kevin is the brother of SCO's CEO Darl McBride. In my paranoid (yet possibly true) ravings, part of SCO's plan has alway been to funnel part of the money to their friends and relatives in these law firms. Grab as much as they can for themselves, send the rest to friends as legal fees, and leave as little as possible for the damages that they'll be forced to pay once the farce is over.
On the other hand, this monkey shit is exactly what the lawyers are getting paid for. Not to win the case, not even to make valid legal point--only to draw the case out as long as possible. SCO isn't trying to win, just to get more money out of the market. (Does Microsoft pay "licensing fees" based on how long SCO keeps up the FUD about the legality of OSS?)
Would you be happy if your salary went down as fast as the cost of computer equipment? I know I wouldn't be thrilled. The things involved in the registering of a domain where the costs have gone down (i.e., computers) are only a minor component; the things involved where the costs have gone up (i.e., rent, power, or people--not only salaries, but overhead costs like health insurance) are a major component.
As far as economies of scale, it works for some things, not for others. Buying coal by the bargeload is more cost-effective than by 50-pound sacks; however, help-desk costs theoretically scale pretty much with the number of customers. (Actually, I'd expect the amount of hand-holding required to go up slightly faster than the number of customers, as the tech-savy were the early adopters so the clueful-to-clueless ratio can only get worse...)
Slashdot Mirror
Nothing like putting a shiney target on yourself to make your enemy's day that much easier. There's a reason why combat uniforms don't have bright bits of metal for insignia like the dress uniforms.
"It Just Don't Look Right" is a time-tested law enforcement mantra.
And Schneier repeatedly has commented in favor of this technique. He just calls it "noticing something hinky" instead. It's blind following of rules and procedures that provide little or no benefit that he complains about.
If you accidentally read the fine article ('cause we know nobody actually tries to read it), you'll see that first off, it's 30% smaller than the record-setting ozone hole from last year. So while the value for this year is down, it looks to be about at or just slightly below the average level for the 90s. (So far, the 00s seem to have a lot of swings up and down, making it hard to visually estimate off the graph.) Furthermore, this year the hole was less centered over the South Pole than was the case in other years; this allows more warm air into the area which results in less ozone depletion. So the article has good reasons for the caution.
It's up to the security forces to determine which points need to be visited, not the computer. The computer only schedules the time to visit the predefined points. The patrols either go to their patrol points on a regular schedule or they go on this new random schedule. In both cases, the places covered are the same--the new method is neither better nor worse than the current method.
This isn't somebody's mom backing up her personal pictures of her cat. This is an experienced CEO-level executive with what is essentially a major company asset (film script) that's been lost due to his failure to perform the due diligence his position requires.
Are people expected to keep a second car around if their main one fails?
Bad analogy, as there are many alternative solutions (having a second car, ride from neighbor, taxi, public transportation, rental car, or even going out and buying a new car) that can all function with no previous connection, as it were, to the original car and all of which can be selected after the problem has arisen. Now, if we were talking about a race team, they will have backup cars going into the qualifications. They will have a full selection of replacement parts for during the race. That racing team knows that it is their responsibility to be prepared.
$400 x 12 months = $4800 x 4 years = $19200.
While the math works, it doesn't reflect real life. $400 five years from now isn't the same as $400 right now. Let's say you can get a 5%/year return on your cash. So the first car payment you make, one month from now, isn't really $400 in present value, it's only $398.67. But your final payment of $400, due 48 months from now, is only worth $340.95 in present value. So, when adjusted for present value, you're actualy paying the same as $17,715.53 right now. (Ignoring such things as inflation, taxes, the difference in returns available for short term savings versus longer term, and the such.)For period t, we calculate PV = C(t)/(1 + annual rate/(periods per year))^t).
You'd have to prove that any of the editors actually cared about their reputation. Considering the number of dupes, pointless stories, and poorly edited postings there are here, you'd almost think they enjoy trashing their own reputations.
2. Will ride bicycles and electric trikes - cars are too expensive.
But not too expensive at Ralph Spoilsport Motors - the world's largest new used and used new automobile dealership - Ralph Spoilsport motors - right here in the city of EMPHYSEMA!
Guilty as charged!
Not even then.
The house campaign I'm currently in should be ideal for the use of the 'forgery' skill. The characters are required to have citizenship papers, licenses for certain types of weapons, and the such. We're in the middle of a conflict between two criminal gangs. And I'm playing the party's rogue. So my choice is to spend skill points in forgery and spend 90 gold for a masterwork forger's kit...or drop by a certain bar and use the underworld links I've developed (using diplomacy) and drop 50 or so gold for a document produced by an expert.
Forgery is just too specialized a skill, even for a campaign dealing with organized crime, to be worthwhile spending skill point on.
It's more a matter of the value you can get out those skills. You might have an actual need for 'use rope' once every five sessions, while other skills such as 'spot' or 'diplomacy' would be used repeatedly during a session. So you have the choice of spending your limited number of points gaining ranks in a skill that might eventually be useful versus one you know will be used over and over.
The other side of this is that the people writing the adventures know that most players don't take those skills. So they don't add events that require the skills, or provide alternative ways of solving the problem. So it spirals down fast.
Already been done. Go to Hokey Spokes and take a look at the demo video.
That this is about individuals being able to vote for members of congress.
If the only issue was individuals having the ability to vote in congressional elections, they would be pushing for the much easier and more reasonable goal of having most of DC rejoin Maryland. But for some reason, the example of Arlington being retroceded back in 1847 seems to escape them.
It's a blatent attempt to gain more power at the Federal level. It makes about as much sense as New York City asking for it's own Senators because it's the largest concentration of people in the US.
If nothing else, the muni wi-fi forced the commerical players to upgrade. That by itself make the project a success.
But it just makes it easier for the Drow.
some estimate that between 20,000 and 40,000 have cancelled.
Get over the not honoring cancellation requests bit. If there's actually a groundswell of support of customers cancelling their accounts, then XM's staff is going to be overwhelmed. Even in normal times there's going to be mistakes; in the midst of a consumer revolt it's a miracle they're getting anything done correctly.
The election is a year-and-a-half away. Everyone just shut up about it until the summer of '08 and do something more worthwhile with your time. You'll still have more than enough time to beat every conceivable topic to death, I promise, you just won't be boring people to death by drawing it out for a year too long.
In computer science, Big O notation is used for the complexity of a task.
Got any stats to back that up? (i.e. your tacit assertion that traffic fatalities have gone up...)
Obviously not. If I had researched the topic that far, I would have posted a link, nor would I have put in the disclaimer. Furthermore, it's not my assertion, but rather from the grandparent post.
So you make your argument, then say, "My argument is based on pulling a fact out of my ass."
The grandparent post had point A: automobile brakes are nowhere near as capable and the parent post responded with point B: You like having asbestos dust in the air produced from brake pads?. My argument is that if A is true then B is true--If brakes are worse without asbestos, then you should prefer the dust in the air. If you read my conclusion carefully, you might notice that it explicitly states that pads with great braking and without asbestos is the best possiblity.
You like having asbestos dust in the air produced from brake pads?
If the risk of my dying in a car accident due to using inferior brake pads is higher than the risk of dying from cancer due to breathing in asbestos dust, then yes. I would rather have asbestos dust in the air from brake pads.
As for the effect of dust from brake pads, in the fact sheet from the National Cancer Institute of the NIH (in question 4, second paragraph) it states that there was no detectable increase in lung cancers or mesothelioma among mechanics working on brake systems. Now, if people working close up with asbestos pads aren't getting sick from the dust, then I'm not too worried about the asbestos either...but I am worried about not being in an accident
In conclusion, while we'd all prefer brake pads without asbestos and great stopping capacity, we should prefer the more effective braking pads with asbestos over the poorer braking pads without.
Disclaimer: I'm not a car nut, so I'm going on the assumtion that the new non-asbestos organic brake pads are in fact inferior.
While the plural of anecdote isn't data...
Many years ago, I had a discussion about Dvorak keyboards with the head of our document production center, who was proficient with both. She mentioned that the only problem she had when switching between the two was with words containing the letter 'm'. Occasionally, after hitting the 'm' key, she would spontaneously switch formats--if she had been using Dvorak, she would type in Qwerty for a bit; if using Qwerty, she would type in Dvorak.
I heard rumor that a very small country changed which side of the road they drove on in the past ten years.
The trick was they did a staggered implementation--they had all the truck drivers change to other side first.
I'll be here all week, try the veal.
According to Asian Tribune, the satellite channel was part of the ceasefire agreement between the LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka. Since Ranil Wickremasinghe hasn't been Prime Minister of Sri Lanka since 2004, this agreement that LTTE could broadcast obviously isn't exactly new.
Speculation time:
Some people are claiming that the LTTE is paying for the broadcasts. It sounds like someone at Intelsat may have accepted a contract based on the ceasefire agreement, only to get burned now that a different political party is in charge in Sri Lanka.
Except they aren't paying peanuts.
SCO didn't just pick some random lawyers out of the phone book. One of the firms has Kevin McBride as a partner. Last name sound familiar? Kevin is the brother of SCO's CEO Darl McBride. In my paranoid (yet possibly true) ravings, part of SCO's plan has alway been to funnel part of the money to their friends and relatives in these law firms. Grab as much as they can for themselves, send the rest to friends as legal fees, and leave as little as possible for the damages that they'll be forced to pay once the farce is over.
On the other hand, this monkey shit is exactly what the lawyers are getting paid for. Not to win the case, not even to make valid legal point--only to draw the case out as long as possible. SCO isn't trying to win, just to get more money out of the market. (Does Microsoft pay "licensing fees" based on how long SCO keeps up the FUD about the legality of OSS?)
Would you be happy if your salary went down as fast as the cost of computer equipment? I know I wouldn't be thrilled. The things involved in the registering of a domain where the costs have gone down (i.e., computers) are only a minor component; the things involved where the costs have gone up (i.e., rent, power, or people--not only salaries, but overhead costs like health insurance) are a major component.
As far as economies of scale, it works for some things, not for others. Buying coal by the bargeload is more cost-effective than by 50-pound sacks; however, help-desk costs theoretically scale pretty much with the number of customers. (Actually, I'd expect the amount of hand-holding required to go up slightly faster than the number of customers, as the tech-savy were the early adopters so the clueful-to-clueless ratio can only get worse...)