Why is the Convention date 26 Apr 1852, but the doc "adopted" 1860? I suspect political shenanigans (of which that States are fully capable). Slavery was safe (for a while) in the South after Dred-Scott.
Rail all you like but the US you think you knew _never_ existed. The US has always exerted strong jurisdiction and controls of both imports (Morrill Tariff caused the US Civil War) _and_ exports. Most people know about imports but few know about US Export controls which date back to 1790 with a prohibition against exporting straight pine logs useable as ship masts and spars by the enemy of the day, Great Britain. The current lists are rather long and complex -- search on CCL and EAR.
It should come as no surprise to information-workers that some of these controls cover intangibles like information (xDxxx and xExxx series codes), especially when these can be viewed as "products" and not "free-speech". To avoid running afoul of the US Const 1st Amend (and potential invalidation by courts), the export regs have exemptions for certain types of public materials like conferences.
So these intercepts, however distasteful ("Gentlemen do not read each others letters") have an established basis in law a power-grabbing government is happy to seize. Their oath "protect and defend the Consititution" seems to mean "push up as hard as we dare against it, joyfully crossing the line when we can find a good enough justification".
You've done a lot of X programming, so as a user of that API, you must have strong opinions about it. What are the worst design decisions in X11? (The toughest things to get around/fix) What are the best? (Timesavers)
One of my pet peeves as a numerate person not impaired by statisto-phobia is the [ab]use of averages. Sure, the mean contains some information. But the standard deviation contains just as much, if not more! Very seldom do I see anything from which sigma could be inferred, yet whenever you collect data for averages, you can easily calc sigma.
In this case, network averages are useful only for advertising and not much use at all for consumers, with the possible exception of some large corporations who might reasonably suppose they have enough users spread evenly so they _on_average_ will see the average.
For individuals, what matters is the service you will see. And that depends with any carrier more on the neighborhood loading and upstream provisioning on that node.
The only real info you might guess from averages, provided you can make some reasonable assumptions about wirespeed, is what percent of a providers customers are under-provisioned. If cable is commonly 6 Mbps and DSL is 3 and they both net 2, cable is horribly cramped in spite of higher bandwidth.
The "national interests" reply is getting worn more than a bit thin. The proper reposte is:
"Since national security is so important to you, you ought to take especial care not to violate any laws or commit torts. Then you won't need to worry about being before courts, or can get yourselves severed from actions."
But No. The real problem is that at least some government officals believe themselves to be above the law. The same belief as held by common criminals. These officals believe that their "mission" is more important than obeying the law. Never mind that most of them are breaking some laws to enforce other laws. The irony escapes them -- must have thick heads. And please understand, obeying the law isn't tough -- there are lots of tame judges who will give out warrents. The rogues just don't want to submit, and can get away with it. Power trip.
I wonder why large numbers of office-holders aren't charged with treason as they wilfully violate their oath of office to uphold the US Constitution. But then, we live in a praetorian culture, much worse since 2001.
"mass crypto" -- already done, encouraged by commerce and useable by everyone: go look for httpsEverywhere. I'm using it right now with/.
Of course you will complain the crypto isn't perfect. It does not have to be, just enough to significantly increase the cost (CPU cycles) of sieving it all.
What parts of distributions you believe should be called GNU/Linux should be replaced so they are no longer GNU and can be plain Linux, just as you have never insisted *BSD be called GNU/*BSD? The Linux kernel itself is _not_ GNU, and *BSD also uses gcc. Most users make little use of bash or fileutils and many used KDE.
This latest round of "possible crackdown" stories _is_ the story itself -- frighten the masses into obedience. The legal system can only deal with a limited number of objectionable people. The rest have to be frightened/corralled into compliance.
With some norms, most people are happy to comply because they see the reason and rationale for it. Even if they don't like someone, most are unlikely to attack or steal from them because someone else is likely to do the same to them. The law can [barely] deal with the exceptions. When exceptions become common, as in the US alcohol prohibilition, and drug prohibition [borderline], the law fails in spectacular and mission-jeopardizing manner [discretion/corruption].
With something as ephemeral and esoteric as copyright monopoly grants, it is very unclear who is being harmed and by how much. Sure, it is easy to see harm from unauthorized identical copies being sold at retail. But far less obvious for downloading a TV episode/song that was broadcast yesterday.
So the monopoly grant-holders have to frighten everyone. Sometimes by head-on-pike examples.
Sure, this looks like mockery to us unrobed and unwigged. But look at it from the Judges PoV: they know that one or both litigants will hate them. Part of the job. What judges dislike is being overturned on appeal -- especially if they've "gone too far" (rather than missing facts).
Apple has just seriously impaired any appeal: They've spent alot of money to voluntarily quote the ruling -- they must agree with it, or at least that [foundational] part. Apple can plead compliance with the order, but not with respect to the material chosen. That was entirely their own choosing.
The law grinds fine, and it is not unusual to have things work out completely the opposite of knee-jerk first appearances. Life, too. I expect the UK justices will close ranks and not reward bad behaviour.
Why all the denial and knashing of teeth? Accept the Flynn effect as data, most likely the result of a vastly more technological society that requires more intelligence to run & live in. This even works for the one-third of intelligence that is attributable to environmental development. Human are nothing if not adaptable.
On the two-thirds genetic component of intelligence, it is likely that both women and men are selecting mates with an increased emphasis on intelligence, and decreased importance of other factors like health or strength. Nothing radical (3+sigma still won't get a date) just a central small shift.
In any case, the upside of intelligence has to pay for the downside (indecision, depression?autism?mental illness). Humans have always had this potential for increased intelligence, but before the upside never paid the downside. Now it increasingly does.
This is a _fine_ example of distraction-crafted legislation -- laws appearing to do one thing, but actually doing something quite different (and potentially protestable).
The "save the kids" is simply a total ban on open WiFi (since kids could connect) _plus_ potential for a network responsibility presumption. Of course the various Russian govt security agencies are in favor, plus a certain number of Russian corps (esp mobile telecoms).
The Russian people suffer as they have for centuries, under the insecurity of their politicans. As always, draconian laws corrupt.
... all it takes is _one_ over-zealous persecutor. The other prosecutors might think it going too far, or might even be genuinely outraged. But what can they do? Charges are charges, and will grind through the pre-established system. She might [or might not] be able to "beat the rap", but no-where can a targetted individual "beat the ride".
One could say things about Russia's lack of tradition and understanding of basic human rights. But frankly I'm not convinced this matters much -- look at how rapidly the majority of Americans have accepted the appalling violations of the TSA.
One might say western judges have a greater sense of procedural necessities like attorney-client or judicial privilige. But judges have been ground down over the years by the stick of overturned-on-appeal and the carrot of higher appointments. Judges routinely accept any intelligent or independant juror being rejected, and AFAIK none will instruct a jury on their [still legal] nullification power. Even some of the USSC rulings are bizzarely in favor of govt (property seizure).
I've owned a Roomba for ~3 years. After the second set of batteries went out 6 minths ago, I gave up. It cleaned OK (if emptied reguarly) & would park & recharge OK (kept a close eye), but not ready for prime-time.
Sure, toss away 10 B$ parts sales (100% loss) at 10% margin to get 10 B$ set sales (+25% gain) at 40% margin -- sales flat, profits +3B$. Price fixing takes a conspirator 3rd party. All SSung needs to do is increase prices, Apple might switch or not. LG is rumored in the wings, but watch'em violate SSung patents!
Neat trick--no one in the industry will consider Samsung "unreliable" or guilty of sharp dealing if they go for revenge against Apple.
Getting back to my original comment, Apple is tarred just as Jobs ordered, HTC is one sign, Google/Moto's suit is another.
hmm.. looks like that might be a hidden settlement.
"Where I get this stuff" is an overview of reality. Please do not politic by omitting key numbers needed for scale and perspective, like Samsungs smartphone sales are currently $40B and rising with high margin. Parts sales are not only smaller, but have lower margin.
Unless Samsung wishes to forgo the consumer market (no indication of this), they need to fight for it, and sacrifice the parts market if need be. Better to use those parts in their own products.
Sure, 1B$ looks nice on the surface. But some victories are too costly (sow the seeds of final defeat) if they create and rally your opponents. HTC is one sign.
Thanks to activist shareholders, Apple cannot even settle for something reasonable (~100 M$ & xlicence) and will have the full slog ahead; including most likely losing supply of their high-res (RetinaTM) displays from Samsung. Do they have a second-source? From my PoV hi-res is the only Apple advantage -- software is fungible (but maybe not for the mass-market).
(-1 for obscurantism) AFAICS, all GUIs use skeuomorphs to some extent -- pictographs representing menu choices. The "Volume button" looking like a loudspeaker as one example. Some go further than others with "skins" incorporating non-functional decorations.
I believe (no solid data) icons were introduced and continue to be used because
they take fewer pixels than equivalent text;
they look nice in demonstrations by practiced users.
Interestingly, some GUIs provide text when mousing over their icons, doubtless in response to user complains about the ambiguity of icons.
Personally, I use batch whenever possible (wget), CLI normally and GUI only when absolutely necessary (graphical content). The later interfaces have serious drawbacks (require attention, no pipelines) along with their vaunted advantages.
Lets face it -- there are always things to hate. Or, if you are of a more optimistic bent, things to love. Abstraction is tough, and specifying abstraction oxymonically tougher.
... Haters gonna hate. With COBOL & FORTRAN faded, they need a new target.
How can the results of computations could be other than the results "free speech" of programmers and inputters? No matter how convoluted, complex and otherwise magic-appearing (to insufficiently advanced individuals) computers _always_ follow instructions created by humans.
Those humans usually had to work very hard to get correct results (debugging), not very different from a painter drawing an image, or a writer crafting a text.
Personally, I use xfce or ice for a "heavyweight" WM. And often run without any, only launching xterm or rxvt in.xinit . Most of the app bloatware (firefox) has their own routines for resizing, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm shocked there is blasphemy on this Institution! (Where are my winnings?)
Why is the Convention date 26 Apr 1852, but the doc "adopted" 1860? I suspect political shenanigans (of which that States are fully capable). Slavery was safe (for a while) in the South after Dred-Scott.
Rail all you like but the US you think you knew _never_ existed. The US has always exerted strong jurisdiction and controls of both imports (Morrill Tariff caused the US Civil War) _and_ exports. Most people know about imports but few know about US Export controls which date back to 1790 with a prohibition against exporting straight pine logs useable as ship masts and spars by the enemy of the day, Great Britain. The current lists are rather long and complex -- search on CCL and EAR.
It should come as no surprise to information-workers that some of these controls cover intangibles like information (xDxxx and xExxx series codes), especially when these can be viewed as "products" and not "free-speech". To avoid running afoul of the US Const 1st Amend (and potential invalidation by courts), the export regs have exemptions for certain types of public materials like conferences.
So these intercepts, however distasteful ("Gentlemen do not read each others letters") have an established basis in law a power-grabbing government is happy to seize. Their oath "protect and defend the Consititution" seems to mean "push up as hard as we dare against it, joyfully crossing the line when we can find a good enough justification".
You've done a lot of X programming, so as a user of that API, you must have strong opinions about it. What are the worst design decisions in X11? (The toughest things to get around/fix) What are the best? (Timesavers)
But a simple global sigma would give the informed a probability of being better than someone else. Rather than assume a better average always applies.
Should ignorance/illiteracy/unnumeracy be encouraged? Sure it exists -- but should it be pandered to?
One of my pet peeves as a numerate person not impaired by statisto-phobia is the [ab]use of averages. Sure, the mean contains some information. But the standard deviation contains just as much, if not more! Very seldom do I see anything from which sigma could be inferred, yet whenever you collect data for averages, you can easily calc sigma.
In this case, network averages are useful only for advertising and not much use at all for consumers, with the possible exception of some large corporations who might reasonably suppose they have enough users spread evenly so they _on_average_ will see the average.
For individuals, what matters is the service you will see. And that depends with any carrier more on the neighborhood loading and upstream provisioning on that node.
The only real info you might guess from averages, provided you can make some reasonable assumptions about wirespeed, is what percent of a providers customers are under-provisioned. If cable is commonly 6 Mbps and DSL is 3 and they both net 2, cable is horribly cramped in spite of higher bandwidth.
The "national interests" reply is getting worn more than a bit thin. The proper reposte is:
"Since national security is so important to you, you ought to take especial care not to violate any laws or commit torts. Then you won't need to worry about being before courts, or can get yourselves severed from actions."
But No. The real problem is that at least some government officals believe themselves to be above the law. The same belief as held by common criminals. These officals believe that their "mission" is more important than obeying the law. Never mind that most of them are breaking some laws to enforce other laws. The irony escapes them -- must have thick heads. And please understand, obeying the law isn't tough -- there are lots of tame judges who will give out warrents. The rogues just don't want to submit, and can get away with it. Power trip.
I wonder why large numbers of office-holders aren't charged with treason as they wilfully violate their oath of office to uphold the US Constitution. But then, we live in a praetorian culture, much worse since 2001.
"mass crypto" -- already done, encouraged by commerce and useable by everyone: go look for httpsEverywhere. I'm using it right now with /.
Of course you will complain the crypto isn't perfect. It does not have to be, just enough to significantly increase the cost (CPU cycles) of sieving it all.
A busybox Linux can be devoid of GNU-project code. How many GNU pgms make it a GNU-system? One pgm with readline()?
What parts of distributions you believe should be called GNU/Linux should be replaced so they are no longer GNU and can be plain Linux, just as you have never insisted *BSD be called GNU/*BSD? The Linux kernel itself is _not_ GNU, and *BSD also uses gcc. Most users make little use of bash or fileutils and many used KDE.
This latest round of "possible crackdown" stories _is_ the story itself -- frighten the masses into obedience. The legal system can only deal with a limited number of objectionable people. The rest have to be frightened/corralled into compliance.
With some norms, most people are happy to comply because they see the reason and rationale for it. Even if they don't like someone, most are unlikely to attack or steal from them because someone else is likely to do the same to them. The law can [barely] deal with the exceptions. When exceptions become common, as in the US alcohol prohibilition, and drug prohibition [borderline], the law fails in spectacular and mission-jeopardizing manner [discretion/corruption].
With something as ephemeral and esoteric as copyright monopoly grants, it is very unclear who is being harmed and by how much. Sure, it is easy to see harm from unauthorized identical copies being sold at retail. But far less obvious for downloading a TV episode/song that was broadcast yesterday.
So the monopoly grant-holders have to frighten everyone. Sometimes by head-on-pike examples.
What if people are so "irredeemably evil" that they just used their increased intelligence to pursue the same values? [Nevermind the third case]
Sure, this looks like mockery to us unrobed and unwigged. But look at it from the Judges PoV: they know that one or both litigants will hate them. Part of the job. What judges dislike is being overturned on appeal -- especially if they've "gone too far" (rather than missing facts).
Apple has just seriously impaired any appeal: They've spent alot of money to voluntarily quote the ruling -- they must agree with it, or at least that [foundational] part. Apple can plead compliance with the order, but not with respect to the material chosen. That was entirely their own choosing.
The law grinds fine, and it is not unusual to have things work out completely the opposite of knee-jerk first appearances. Life, too. I expect the UK justices will close ranks and not reward bad behaviour.
Why all the denial and knashing of teeth? Accept the Flynn effect as data, most likely the result of a vastly more technological society that requires more intelligence to run & live in. This even works for the one-third of intelligence that is attributable to environmental development. Human are nothing if not adaptable.
On the two-thirds genetic component of intelligence, it is likely that both women and men are selecting mates with an increased emphasis on intelligence, and decreased importance of other factors like health or strength. Nothing radical (3+sigma still won't get a date) just a central small shift.
In any case, the upside of intelligence has to pay for the downside (indecision, depression?autism?mental illness). Humans have always had this potential for increased intelligence, but before the upside never paid the downside. Now it increasingly does.
This is a _fine_ example of distraction-crafted legislation -- laws appearing to do one thing, but actually doing something quite different (and potentially protestable).
The "save the kids" is simply a total ban on open WiFi (since kids could connect) _plus_ potential for a network responsibility presumption. Of course the various Russian govt security agencies are in favor, plus a certain number of Russian corps (esp mobile telecoms).
The Russian people suffer as they have for centuries, under the insecurity of their politicans. As always, draconian laws corrupt.
... all it takes is _one_ over-zealous persecutor. The other prosecutors might think it going too far, or might even be genuinely outraged. But what can they do? Charges are charges, and will grind through the pre-established system. She might [or might not] be able to "beat the rap", but no-where can a targetted individual "beat the ride".
One could say things about Russia's lack of tradition and understanding of basic human rights. But frankly I'm not convinced this matters much -- look at how rapidly the majority of Americans have accepted the appalling violations of the TSA.
One might say western judges have a greater sense of procedural necessities like attorney-client or judicial privilige. But judges have been ground down over the years by the stick of overturned-on-appeal and the carrot of higher appointments. Judges routinely accept any intelligent or independant juror being rejected, and AFAIK none will instruct a jury on their [still legal] nullification power. Even some of the USSC rulings are bizzarely in favor of govt (property seizure).
I've owned a Roomba for ~3 years. After the second set of batteries went out 6 minths ago, I gave up. It cleaned OK (if emptied reguarly) & would park & recharge OK (kept a close eye), but not ready for prime-time.
Neat trick--no one in the industry will consider Samsung "unreliable" or guilty of sharp dealing if they go for revenge against Apple.
Getting back to my original comment, Apple is tarred just as Jobs ordered, HTC is one sign, Google/Moto's suit is another.
"Where I get this stuff" is an overview of reality. Please do not politic by omitting key numbers needed for scale and perspective, like Samsungs smartphone sales are currently $40B and rising with high margin. Parts sales are not only smaller, but have lower margin.
Unless Samsung wishes to forgo the consumer market (no indication of this), they need to fight for it, and sacrifice the parts market if need be. Better to use those parts in their own products.
Sure, 1B$ looks nice on the surface. But some victories are too costly (sow the seeds of final defeat) if they create and rally your opponents. HTC is one sign.
Thanks to activist shareholders, Apple cannot even settle for something reasonable (~100 M$ & xlicence) and will have the full slog ahead; including most likely losing supply of their high-res (RetinaTM) displays from Samsung. Do they have a second-source? From my PoV hi-res is the only Apple advantage -- software is fungible (but maybe not for the mass-market).
(-1 for obscurantism) AFAICS, all GUIs use skeuomorphs to some extent -- pictographs representing menu choices. The "Volume button" looking like a loudspeaker as one example. Some go further than others with "skins" incorporating non-functional decorations.
I believe (no solid data) icons were introduced and continue to be used because
they take fewer pixels than equivalent text;
they look nice in demonstrations by practiced users.
Interestingly, some GUIs provide text when mousing over their icons, doubtless in response to user complains about the ambiguity of icons.
Personally, I use batch whenever possible (wget), CLI normally and GUI only when absolutely necessary (graphical content). The later interfaces have serious drawbacks (require attention, no pipelines) along with their vaunted advantages.
Lets face it -- there are always things to hate. Or, if you are of a more optimistic bent, things to love. Abstraction is tough, and specifying abstraction oxymonically tougher.
How can the results of computations could be other than the results "free speech" of programmers and inputters? No matter how convoluted, complex and otherwise magic-appearing (to insufficiently advanced individuals) computers _always_ follow instructions created by humans.
Those humans usually had to work very hard to get correct results (debugging), not very different from a painter drawing an image, or a writer crafting a text.
A bloated race to the fattest!
Personally, I use xfce or ice for a "heavyweight" WM. And often run without any, only launching xterm or rxvt in .xinit . Most of the app bloatware (firefox) has their own routines for resizing, etc.