Hardly. A troll is someone who posts controversial views irrespective of their own, primarily for the purpose of eliciting reaction. Had I been one, you would have just "fed" me.
I am sincerely highly skeptical of the role of androgenic CO2 in global warming. Man can affect local climate, but it is hubris to automatically assume we can affect something as large as the world.
Ever open a can of soda on a hot day? Carbon dioxide came out of solution and you got sprayed.
If the Earth gets warmer for any reason (solar?geothermal), then atmospheric CO2 will increase as an effect, not cause.
Proving correlation is easy. Determining the direction of causality is much tougher.
I'm not saying the results are invalid, but every test is written a certain way and tests only a fraction of all knowledge. Some are easy questions, time pressure. Others are conundrums. Scores are likely reflecting the closeness of the administered test to the national teaching style and tests.
First, the areas of LA & ChiTown where this would be installed are low-rise and fairly soft buildings. Few problems with reflections. Even in a concrete canyon like Manhattan, it could be made to work with more mikes. Just key off the first pressure spike, that will be the shortest path. Tougher computational problem to solve, but reflections are predictable.
A relatively simple problem with a grid of microphones, three or more picking up the shot and precisely measuring delays. A slight complexity with the thermals and increase in the speed of sound with temperature.
Pole-mounted cameras could be pivoted and focussed within 5 seconds, but nobody may be identifiable from that angle, the vehicle will be gone, or there may be visual obstructions. Still a help to police, other than on New Years!
This ruling only covers HARDWARE keyloggers. The rare and wonderous kind. Software keyloggers, spyware and other intrusive software are already illegal under "unauthorized computer access" statues.
Still, I have to think the ruling is a bit funny. Yes, the PS/2 connection is strictly local. But so is an inductive pickup on a telephone. Both local links are intended and destined for interstate communications.
For once, I read the article. The whole thing. And I didn't
really see anything that explained why 9 years was good,
or that 9 months was too little, or that 19 would have
been better. It mostly seemed to be the DA boasting and
explaining why the prosecution was needed.
I don't have a problem with the prosecution. It was fraud,
on several levels. Nor do I have a problem with the punishment.
AFAIK exemplary sentences _are_ allowed, even under US law. One major purpose of the
entire justice system is deterrence. Punishment is too late,
and must not be a licence.
Use the force, Luke. Or at least Google gives lots of hits with Gandhi.
Read some other quotes from Gandhiji, you'll see that he avoided ornamentation and circumlocution, I suspect for deliberate personal effect.
Context is always interesting, and one supposes it was in reference to Indian Independence. But it really doesn't matter. The mark of a great aphorism is that it applies to many disparate contexts. The original instance hardly matters except from a historical perspective. OTOH, it is important not to lose irony or sarcasm as has happened with Shakespeare's "First, lets kill all the lawyers".
[Un]fortunately, very few dominant companies survive technological transformation. They're dinosaurs, too big and successful to be agile and open to new ideas.
Agreed that no one blog is as good a news source as big media. However, if you scout around, you'll find enough on all sides to give you enough
information so you can form your own opinion.
Learning takes work. It can't be spoonfed. Dealing with low S/N is part of the cost of learning -- look at USENET. Traditional media improve S/N but cutting Signal. Risky. Don't know how to deal with probabalistic news. I can, so can tolerate a lot more N to get more S.
The blogs are all frankly and admittedly biased, with carefully limited pretense at objectivity.
This gives them the moral standing to criticise any organization that falsely claims impartiality. I rather like the adversarial system.
What was it that Ghandi said? "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win."
Linux is following that path, with Microsoft deep into fighting territory. Blogs have passed being ignored, emerging from laughter, and starting to be seriously attacked.
Just what do you expect from self-important competitors who are being eclipsed?
17 USC 1001(3) allows other functions, only the recording function has to be digital:
(3) A "digital audio recording device" is any machine or device of a type commonly distributed to individuals for use by individuals, whether or not included with or as part of some other machine or device, the digital recording function of which is designed or marketed for the primary purpose of, and that is capable of, making a digital audio copied recording for private use, except for-
Agreed on 1001(4) and (5). Whole CDs and HDs probably aren't DA medium. But the individual bits on a HD pretty much have to be, or there is no copying going on at all!
Yes, I saw the definitions 17 USC 1001(3) is most relevant. Computers now are always capable and often marketed as making digital audio copied recordings. They might not have been at the time of Diamond (add-in sound cards vs mobo). Computers could very easily have been specifically excluded in 3(C) but weren't. This stuff is hard to parse.
IANAL, but downloading _music_ is probably legal,
based on this
exemption in the US Code, Title 17 Copyright:
S: 1008. Prohibition on certain infringement actions
No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement
of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or
distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital
audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an
analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use
by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital
musical recordings or analog musical recordings.
Someone said there are advertisments on the World-Wide Web. I've never seen any, and I browse with both mainstream and alternative browsers. Lynx and links.:)
A state like Colorado wishing to shift away from
a Monolithic (winner take all) elector
allocations faces a loss of candidate interest
and consequently, power. Instead of fighting
over 8 electors, only one is in play. So no
state is likely to go for it, although the losing
party for that state will.
A change to all
proportional would take a Constitutional
Amendment, and that is likely to be opposed by
the small states since winning their marginal
elector will take more effort than winning one in
a big state. And abolishing the entire Electoral
College is virtually unthinkable -- it was
designed to give the small states
disproportionate influence. What would make them
give that up?
This is a surprise to anyone? The US SS is _required_
to investigate possible threats to The President. Do you
think they've become more lax after 9/11??? You can be sure
they've tightened their procedures quite a bit.
I suspect
Charlie Brooker -Screen Burn- from the UK Guardian (original
expired from the Google cache) is going to get a visit too.
Plus be on the watch-lists for an indeterminate time. Fool --
does he expect policemen to have a sense of humor?
This definitely sounds like electioneering. One
thing reasonably certain -- with House & Senate bills so different (in length if nothing else), even if passed,
both will have to go to a rather lengthy Conference Committee before they could be signed into law and struck down 4 years later by the USSC.
I think an open-hardware vidcard is a great idea, but I doubt it'd sell by that alone. I think it needs some other distinctiveness, like low power, excellent 2D, low CPU MPEGs, or TVout, etc...
You're swimming a bit upstream, because both NVidia & ATi have adequate (albeit closed) X drivers. So your real distinctiveness is for non-X graphics like cybercafes (noX browsers) or home theater PCs.
Or maybe games?!? Are NV&ATi forbidden from writing DirectX for Linux? OpenGL may be nice, but porting is always a b!tch.
I assume the researchers were modestly competant and did
a Hawthorn-defeating check back. It shouldn't have passed
peer-review without.
The results aren't too surprising
for pure neuromotor tasks like typing transcription.
Muscles and tendons work a good deal better when warmed-up.
Hands loose heat quickly.
Older studies of more cerebral
tasks (writing exams) have shown an optimum much colder,
around 50'F (10'C). I have successfully written exams much
colderi 40'F (5'C) , yet still found myself heated and sweating
from the mental effort by the end.
Ballmer apparently believes people have a total budget for PCs,
hardware + software, and that $100 hardware would increase
sales of MS-WinXP bundled in around $100 retail.
Perhaps
he has market research to show the increase in total sales is
enough to offset the leakage towards Linux, alternatives OSes
(including MS-Win* migrations) and illicit copying. I suspect
he's wrong. Leakage will increase with decreasing price.
Profit-maximizing monopoly pricing strategy is crucially dependant
on the exact shape of the demand curve.
Anyways, Ballmers wish is close to reality. Fry's already sells
bottom-end Linux machines at $200. The same machine with MS-WinXP costs
$300.
Slashdot Mirror
I am sincerely highly skeptical of the role of androgenic CO2 in global warming. Man can affect local climate, but it is hubris to automatically assume we can affect something as large as the world.
Proving correlation is easy. Determining the direction of causality is much tougher.
60W incand: Bulb $0.50 / 1000h + elec $7.20/kh = $7.70/kh
13W c.flor: Bulb $4.00 / 8000h + elec $1.56/kh = $2.06/kh
CFs are great, need little replacement (especially good for ceiling fans). But dimmers are noisy even on incandescents, and horrible on CF.
Pole-mounted cameras could be pivoted and focussed within 5 seconds, but nobody may be identifiable from that angle, the vehicle will be gone, or there may be visual obstructions. Still a help to police, other than on New Years!
Still, I have to think the ruling is a bit funny. Yes, the PS/2 connection is strictly local. But so is an inductive pickup on a telephone. Both local links are intended and destined for interstate communications.
Anyone have a graph, %Kerry versus average reg.voter age by state? NY is old, yet went Kerry. TX is young, yet went Bush.
It looks like he's more interested in punishing wrongdoers than ending wrongdoing. Kick-@$$ rather than make good. It does fit the political mood.
I don't have a problem with the prosecution. It was fraud, on several levels. Nor do I have a problem with the punishment. AFAIK exemplary sentences _are_ allowed, even under US law. One major purpose of the entire justice system is deterrence. Punishment is too late, and must not be a licence.
Read some other quotes from Gandhiji, you'll see that he avoided ornamentation and circumlocution, I suspect for deliberate personal effect.
Context is always interesting, and one supposes it was in reference to Indian Independence. But it really doesn't matter. The mark of a great aphorism is that it applies to many disparate contexts. The original instance hardly matters except from a historical perspective. OTOH, it is important not to lose irony or sarcasm as has happened with Shakespeare's "First, lets kill all the lawyers".
[Un]fortunately, very few dominant companies survive technological transformation. They're
dinosaurs, too big and successful to be agile
and open to new ideas.
Learning takes work. It can't be spoonfed. Dealing with low S/N is part of the cost of learning -- look at USENET. Traditional media improve S/N but cutting Signal. Risky. Don't know how to deal with probabalistic news. I can, so can tolerate a lot more N to get more S.
The blogs are all frankly and admittedly biased, with carefully limited pretense at objectivity. This gives them the moral standing to criticise any organization that falsely claims impartiality. I rather like the adversarial system.
Linux is following that path, with Microsoft deep into fighting territory. Blogs have passed being ignored, emerging from laughter, and starting to be seriously attacked.
Just what do you expect from self-important competitors who are being eclipsed?
(3) A "digital audio recording device" is any machine or device of a type commonly distributed to individuals for use by individuals, whether or not included with or as part of some other machine or device, the digital recording function of which is designed or marketed for the primary purpose of, and that is capable of, making a digital audio copied recording for private use, except for-
Agreed on 1001(4) and (5). Whole CDs and HDs probably aren't DA medium. But the individual bits on a HD pretty much have to be, or there is no copying going on at all!
S: 1008. Prohibition on certain infringement actions
No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.
A change to all proportional would take a Constitutional Amendment, and that is likely to be opposed by the small states since winning their marginal elector will take more effort than winning one in a big state. And abolishing the entire Electoral College is virtually unthinkable -- it was designed to give the small states disproportionate influence. What would make them give that up?
I suspect Charlie Brooker -Screen Burn- from the UK Guardian (original expired from the Google cache) is going to get a visit too. Plus be on the watch-lists for an indeterminate time. Fool -- does he expect policemen to have a sense of humor?
You're swimming a bit upstream, because both NVidia & ATi have adequate (albeit closed) X drivers. So your real distinctiveness is for non-X graphics like cybercafes (noX browsers) or home theater PCs.
Or maybe games?!? Are NV&ATi forbidden from writing DirectX for Linux? OpenGL may be nice, but porting is always a b!tch.
The results aren't too surprising for pure neuromotor tasks like typing transcription. Muscles and tendons work a good deal better when warmed-up. Hands loose heat quickly.
Older studies of more cerebral tasks (writing exams) have shown an optimum much colder, around 50'F (10'C). I have successfully written exams much colderi 40'F (5'C) , yet still found myself heated and sweating from the mental effort by the end.
Perhaps he has market research to show the increase in total sales is enough to offset the leakage towards Linux, alternatives OSes (including MS-Win* migrations) and illicit copying. I suspect he's wrong. Leakage will increase with decreasing price. Profit-maximizing monopoly pricing strategy is crucially dependant on the exact shape of the demand curve.
Anyways, Ballmers wish is close to reality. Fry's already sells bottom-end Linux machines at $200. The same machine with MS-WinXP costs $300.