I know you're joking, but I find this to be an interesting idea.. Perhaps requiring congressmen/women to pass a mandatory quiz (multiple-choice administered on a computer) before their ability to vote.
Didn't pass? Then you can't vote. A minimum % of representatives/senators must have passed the exam before voting could even commence on said bill- no more rushed bills. It would also have an added effect of weeding out the stupid people in congress- at least make the incumbents look dumb compared to their counterparts and they'll get unelected.
That would keep huge bloated bills like the PATRIOT act and the bailout bills to a minimum. Might even help simplify the language of the bills they pass as well... one can only dream. *sigh*
The "Reagan defense" would've backfired for Clinton. The only way it would be believable for someone forget that he got a blowjob from someone in particular is if he received a lot of blowjobs from a lot of different people. For Bill Clinton, that does sound plausible, but I don't think it would help his case.
There's no cowardice in agnosticism. I don't really need to be certain of god's existence in one way or another to live my life. Nor should my goals be to protect my like-minded brethren. Live and let live- those who violate this tenet should be shown the door- atheists included. If someone wants to pass out bibles at a public school, or to start off a city hall meeting with a prayer, that's okay with me. You know why? I don't have a stick up my ass about God, Allah, Jesus, Jehovah, Buddah, Vishnu, or any other deity... none of them offend me. And as long as I'm free to practice my life without being required to go through the motions of worship, I don't require my neighbors to keep practice their religion in private.
You're wrong about the need to take a stand. Just like I don't have to choose between voting for either major political party in America. I can simply opt out. It's not only my choice, it's my right. It's not that I won't take a stand or can't make up my mind- it's just that I really don't care. Believe in god? Don't care! Don't believe in god? Great, but don't care either!
I suspect this relatively new evangelical movement in the US is only a direct counterbalance to zealous atheism. If one goes away, so will the other. So don't expect me to join your petty tug-o-war. It's pointless, and needlessly divisive.
I was under the impression that they were making a new window manager. Replacing X would be a lot of (unnecessary) work, and possibly too ambitious a project due for release next year (even for Google).
Maybe eventually they'll replace X, but I don't see why they'd want to this early.
Technically no. Half-Life was near cutting-edge when it was released. The Quake2 engine added colored lighting and multitexturing to the Quake1 engine (I've looked at both sources- they share a lot of the same underlying code). Half-Life was based on the Quake1 tech, but Valve added multitexturing and colored lighting as well, as well as Direct3D support (HL1 had software, OpenGL, and D3D modes out of the box).
I could possibly argue that HL was technically superior to Quake2 as it had decals (bullet pock marks and blood spatters) and skeletal animation.
Generally yes- the software is free. But to businesses paying salaried workers, throwing in free software that takes additional time and effort to learn can end up costing you more in the long run.
For the average geek and quick-learner, free software is worthwhile. For computer-illiterates, "free" can be an oxymoron.
I use Word at work for engineering requirements and software documentation and it's a common occurrence- I've seen several instances of making a small change (no formatting), saving it, and reopening it to find the formatting completely corrupted. Furthermore, while Office 2007 has fixed many of the formatting issues I saw in 2003, it's equally frustrating when docs (not docx files, but plain old ".doc") would display differently between 2003 and 2007 (half of the office hasn't made the switch yet).
This means that only the 2-3 developers who have Word 2007 installed can officially save and commit changes to our official process documents and software documentation.
Say what you will about OpenOffice- they at least can maintain consistent tabs across different versions.
I don't particularly enjoy being attacked by those who don't seem to understand the nature of my post. But let me clarify for the mods who'd rather label me a troll than to engage in civil discourse.
I'm not advocating thought police- far from it in fact. You can think in any way or masturbate to whatever fantasy you desire, but photoshopping a kid's face onto porn is an action, not a mere thought. That behavior isn't normal nor considered remotely sane. I wasn't arguing whether or not it should be illegal, but the fact that this person felt inclined to chop children's pictures into porn should be enough question whether or not he/she should be near children.
Not all perverts are dangerous. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to identify the dangerous ones to protect the rest of society.
While most judges and prosecutors have common sense, we still need to have a well-defined guidelines for sentencing because we have a few judges that are either too lenient (let them go until they actually molest children) or too strict (20+ years for downloading just a few pictures on a computer).
In a perfect world, we'd lock up just the dangerous perverts...
Porn is primarily for getting aroused (or getting off). Getting aroused (or getting off) to pictures of children (not teenagers, but pre-pubescent kids) is just sick- porn or no porn. Legality aside, these people should receive psych treatment and be forced to avoid contact with children.
I live and work near UCF, and it certainly doesn't deserve to be on this list. I believe most of the IT/engineering jobs are outside of Orlando proper, near UCF (Research Park, Siemens, Lockheed-Martin, etc)... basically near the NE corner of Orange County. Luckily, the touristy areas are to the SW of Orlando, which means your morning commute won't be interrupted by a lost family in a rental van driving very slowly while looking for Seaworld.
The blue-hairs drive badly, but I think the bulk of accidents is due to the combination of them, the Puerto Ricans (not being racist- but driving laws in PR are rarely enforced, and then they move here), and the New Englanders who think that they can drive fast and careless not have to worry about the two aforementioned groups.
It is f@#ing hot today. I drive a black car with black interior (I bought it before I moved to FL) and I dare not leave work to go to lunch today.
Also, the 120hz TV causes a strange effect when you see blu-ray movies on it...almost feels like the movie is being fast forwarded.
The effect you're referring to is motion interpolation. Many 120 Hz TVs that have this feature have it enabled by default. Personally, I only use it for video games.
Yes, the newer remastered blu-ray of the Fifth Element is definitely demo-worthy. Sadly, the original blu-ray release was a terrible video transfer that was nearly indistinguishable from the upconverted standard-def (DVD) version.
AMD/ATI sold its mobile graphics to Qualcomm, so they're no longer competing in the mobile graphics market. Hence, Tegra's only [worthy] competitor at the moment is Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform.
I was going to say... the original mario game (Donkey Kong) was released in 1981. The first Super Mario Bros platformer (for the NES/Famicom) was released in 1985. And I remember them fondly...
It's both, but the majority of rocks getting thrown around are tossed rearward. If you're following a vehicle with RWD, you'll get blasted every time they lose traction. Where I used to live (rural Missouri), pickup trucks (which are mostly RWD) are notorious for kicking up gravel as there is relatively low weight on the rear axle.
That being said, AWD vehicles on vacant gravel roads are pretty fun. It was pretty neat to drive my subaru sideways (this was on a private road- nothing illegal).
I doubt this is how the machines work, but to answer your question, assume thread A and B are voting machines trying to update a single vote count.
The three steps in doing that are:
1) Read the current value
2) Increment the current value
3) Store the result back in the memory location
If thread A and B read the current value at the same time, they will both increment that same value and both try to restore the new incremented-by-one value. So if current votes is 55, thread A and B will both simultaneously read that value, increment 55 to 56 and store that result.
God, I hope not- that's a horrible algorithm.
Client threads should never query the server for the current tally. They simply need to post a single event that carries the argument(s) identifying the vote for the candidate/issue, and a unique ID (ie- an MD5 generated from the current user's voting ID) to prevent multiple votes. The only communication that the client should receive from the server is a confirmation that the vote has been received.
We'd probably still have our crazies (e.g. Hitler) but would we have had the Mother Theresas?
No, some of the crazies would be gone as well. Eg, the Inqusition. There have been Mother Theresa-like people in history before, without the "benefit" of being Christian.
There have also been Hitler-like people in history before, without the "benefit" of being Christian (or religious).
Religion is just a symptom, not the cause; "God/Allah's will" is simply one of many ways of justifying murder and other irrational behavior.
My point was, and continues to be, that it is funny that you take a nasty, dilapidated stripped chunk of industrial machinery that no one would want to walk aboard if it were tied to a pier, sink it in 100 feet of water and suddenly it's a cool place to visit.
While I get your cynicism, it's a pretty fair argument that everything is more interesting under water. Boulders on land are generally boring. But if you drop it into a warm part of the ocean, it suddenly attracts colorful and often unique wildlife. Within a short period of time, it's unrecognizable.
While you might be unimpressed by wreck diving, there are many out there, myself included, who are awestruck by the manner in which the sea reclaims otherwise uninteresting objects.
Artificial reefs help with tourism and help minimize beach erosion. Believe it or not, there is a lot of public support here for adding artificial reefs. Besides, a rusty old ship at a drydock is much more of an eyesore than a coral-covered divespot.
As a Florida [fiscally-conservative] taxpayer, I say this is a smart investment.
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I know you're joking, but I find this to be an interesting idea.. Perhaps requiring congressmen/women to pass a mandatory quiz (multiple-choice administered on a computer) before their ability to vote.
Didn't pass? Then you can't vote. A minimum % of representatives/senators must have passed the exam before voting could even commence on said bill- no more rushed bills. It would also have an added effect of weeding out the stupid people in congress- at least make the incumbents look dumb compared to their counterparts and they'll get unelected.
That would keep huge bloated bills like the PATRIOT act and the bailout bills to a minimum. Might even help simplify the language of the bills they pass as well... one can only dream. *sigh*
This isn't capitalism.
The "Reagan defense" would've backfired for Clinton. The only way it would be believable for someone forget that he got a blowjob from someone in particular is if he received a lot of blowjobs from a lot of different people. For Bill Clinton, that does sound plausible, but I don't think it would help his case.
There's no cowardice in agnosticism. I don't really need to be certain of god's existence in one way or another to live my life. Nor should my goals be to protect my like-minded brethren. Live and let live- those who violate this tenet should be shown the door- atheists included. If someone wants to pass out bibles at a public school, or to start off a city hall meeting with a prayer, that's okay with me. You know why? I don't have a stick up my ass about God, Allah, Jesus, Jehovah, Buddah, Vishnu, or any other deity... none of them offend me. And as long as I'm free to practice my life without being required to go through the motions of worship, I don't require my neighbors to keep practice their religion in private.
You're wrong about the need to take a stand. Just like I don't have to choose between voting for either major political party in America. I can simply opt out. It's not only my choice, it's my right. It's not that I won't take a stand or can't make up my mind- it's just that I really don't care. Believe in god? Don't care! Don't believe in god? Great, but don't care either!
I suspect this relatively new evangelical movement in the US is only a direct counterbalance to zealous atheism. If one goes away, so will the other. So don't expect me to join your petty tug-o-war. It's pointless, and needlessly divisive.
I was under the impression that they were making a new window manager. Replacing X would be a lot of (unnecessary) work, and possibly too ambitious a project due for release next year (even for Google).
Maybe eventually they'll replace X, but I don't see why they'd want to this early.
Technically no. Half-Life was near cutting-edge when it was released. The Quake2 engine added colored lighting and multitexturing to the Quake1 engine (I've looked at both sources- they share a lot of the same underlying code). Half-Life was based on the Quake1 tech, but Valve added multitexturing and colored lighting as well, as well as Direct3D support (HL1 had software, OpenGL, and D3D modes out of the box).
I could possibly argue that HL was technically superior to Quake2 as it had decals (bullet pock marks and blood spatters) and skeletal animation.
Generally yes- the software is free. But to businesses paying salaried workers, throwing in free software that takes additional time and effort to learn can end up costing you more in the long run.
For the average geek and quick-learner, free software is worthwhile. For computer-illiterates, "free" can be an oxymoron.
I use Word at work for engineering requirements and software documentation and it's a common occurrence- I've seen several instances of making a small change (no formatting), saving it, and reopening it to find the formatting completely corrupted. Furthermore, while Office 2007 has fixed many of the formatting issues I saw in 2003, it's equally frustrating when docs (not docx files, but plain old ".doc") would display differently between 2003 and 2007 (half of the office hasn't made the switch yet).
This means that only the 2-3 developers who have Word 2007 installed can officially save and commit changes to our official process documents and software documentation.
Say what you will about OpenOffice- they at least can maintain consistent tabs across different versions.
I don't particularly enjoy being attacked by those who don't seem to understand the nature of my post. But let me clarify for the mods who'd rather label me a troll than to engage in civil discourse.
I'm not advocating thought police- far from it in fact. You can think in any way or masturbate to whatever fantasy you desire, but photoshopping a kid's face onto porn is an action, not a mere thought. That behavior isn't normal nor considered remotely sane. I wasn't arguing whether or not it should be illegal, but the fact that this person felt inclined to chop children's pictures into porn should be enough question whether or not he/she should be near children.
Not all perverts are dangerous. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to identify the dangerous ones to protect the rest of society.
While most judges and prosecutors have common sense, we still need to have a well-defined guidelines for sentencing because we have a few judges that are either too lenient (let them go until they actually molest children) or too strict (20+ years for downloading just a few pictures on a computer).
In a perfect world, we'd lock up just the dangerous perverts...
Porn is primarily for getting aroused (or getting off). Getting aroused (or getting off) to pictures of children (not teenagers, but pre-pubescent kids) is just sick- porn or no porn. Legality aside, these people should receive psych treatment and be forced to avoid contact with children.
I live and work near UCF, and it certainly doesn't deserve to be on this list. I believe most of the IT/engineering jobs are outside of Orlando proper, near UCF (Research Park, Siemens, Lockheed-Martin, etc)... basically near the NE corner of Orange County. Luckily, the touristy areas are to the SW of Orlando, which means your morning commute won't be interrupted by a lost family in a rental van driving very slowly while looking for Seaworld.
The blue-hairs drive badly, but I think the bulk of accidents is due to the combination of them, the Puerto Ricans (not being racist- but driving laws in PR are rarely enforced, and then they move here), and the New Englanders who think that they can drive fast and careless not have to worry about the two aforementioned groups.
It is f@#ing hot today. I drive a black car with black interior (I bought it before I moved to FL) and I dare not leave work to go to lunch today.
Also, the 120hz TV causes a strange effect when you see blu-ray movies on it...almost feels like the movie is being fast forwarded.
The effect you're referring to is motion interpolation. Many 120 Hz TVs that have this feature have it enabled by default. Personally, I only use it for video games.
Yes, the newer remastered blu-ray of the Fifth Element is definitely demo-worthy. Sadly, the original blu-ray release was a terrible video transfer that was nearly indistinguishable from the upconverted standard-def (DVD) version.
AMD/ATI sold its mobile graphics to Qualcomm, so they're no longer competing in the mobile graphics market. Hence, Tegra's only [worthy] competitor at the moment is Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform.
I was going to say... the original mario game (Donkey Kong) was released in 1981. The first Super Mario Bros platformer (for the NES/Famicom) was released in 1985. And I remember them fondly...
GP needs to get off my lawn.
It's both, but the majority of rocks getting thrown around are tossed rearward. If you're following a vehicle with RWD, you'll get blasted every time they lose traction. Where I used to live (rural Missouri), pickup trucks (which are mostly RWD) are notorious for kicking up gravel as there is relatively low weight on the rear axle.
That being said, AWD vehicles on vacant gravel roads are pretty fun. It was pretty neat to drive my subaru sideways (this was on a private road- nothing illegal).
By adding additional lines?
The iPhone 3GS has the same 480x320 resolution as the previous iPhones and iTouches.
I doubt this is how the machines work, but to answer your question, assume thread A and B are voting machines trying to update a single vote count.
The three steps in doing that are:
1) Read the current value 2) Increment the current value 3) Store the result back in the memory location
If thread A and B read the current value at the same time, they will both increment that same value and both try to restore the new incremented-by-one value. So if current votes is 55, thread A and B will both simultaneously read that value, increment 55 to 56 and store that result.
God, I hope not- that's a horrible algorithm.
Client threads should never query the server for the current tally. They simply need to post a single event that carries the argument(s) identifying the vote for the candidate/issue, and a unique ID (ie- an MD5 generated from the current user's voting ID) to prevent multiple votes. The only communication that the client should receive from the server is a confirmation that the vote has been received.
Ever traded stocks?
Geez, what do you and so many other people have against Texas??
I believe he was ripping on Alaska, not Texas.
We'd probably still have our crazies (e.g. Hitler) but would we have had the Mother Theresas?
No, some of the crazies would be gone as well. Eg, the Inqusition. There have been Mother Theresa-like people in history before, without the "benefit" of being Christian.
There have also been Hitler-like people in history before, without the "benefit" of being Christian (or religious).
Religion is just a symptom, not the cause; "God/Allah's will" is simply one of many ways of justifying murder and other irrational behavior.
My point was, and continues to be, that it is funny that you take a nasty, dilapidated stripped chunk of industrial machinery that no one would want to walk aboard if it were tied to a pier, sink it in 100 feet of water and suddenly it's a cool place to visit.
While I get your cynicism, it's a pretty fair argument that everything is more interesting under water. Boulders on land are generally boring. But if you drop it into a warm part of the ocean, it suddenly attracts colorful and often unique wildlife. Within a short period of time, it's unrecognizable.
While you might be unimpressed by wreck diving, there are many out there, myself included, who are awestruck by the manner in which the sea reclaims otherwise uninteresting objects.
Artificial reefs help with tourism and help minimize beach erosion. Believe it or not, there is a lot of public support here for adding artificial reefs. Besides, a rusty old ship at a drydock is much more of an eyesore than a coral-covered divespot.
As a Florida [fiscally-conservative] taxpayer, I say this is a smart investment.