It is still important for both Linux' and Solaris' sake that this is a local exploit. Multiuser systems are certainly at risk, but it is unlikely for this to spread around the globe causing billions of dollars of lost productivitiy like a Windows worm.
Even though UNIX' model is thirty years old and actually very simple in concept, it provides enough containment (and maturity) that global disasters are not terribly likely among UNIX systems. Also, with at least a dozen kernels out there, heterogeneity works to our advantage.
Astroturfers take note: "Overrated" is a better mod than "Offtopic" for a post about gaming on a gaming-related thread. I would have expected better from you.
I rented a Crash Bandicoot game once, and it was a disappointment. It was essentially a remake of a Looney Tunes game I had recently played where you go around doing mini games in various worlds and collecting stuff. Now that I think of it, Spyro and Ratchet and Clank are remakes of the same Looney Tunes game and/or that Crash game and/or themselves.
How does one put "jerking off" onto a resume tactfully? What if you have to tell the interviewer about your responsibilities and problem-solving skills? "I, uh, was really struggling for a few minutes as the porn mag didn't do anything for me, so I really tried hard to think of that girl at school, and badaboombadabing problem solved. BTW, I'm already a member of the prestigious Gallon Club."
When you have so many "me too" game developers out there, some of the genres are actually becoming diluted, IMO. Every game package reads "stunning graphics, fight through 20 levels, beat up gellatinous blobs."
Further, there really can be only one or two "platformers". Nintendo did this really well having only Mario Bros. and Zelda as their biggies. Actually, Mario Bros. games were generally so good, that everything since has been a distant second. Nothing on the PS2 really compares; Mario and Luigi to Nintendo are like Micky Mouse to Disney. Who does Sony and Microsoft have? Ratchet and Clank? Sonic sequels? A guy named Cid?
You know, there is a real advantage to a sealed hood/bonnet: stiffness. I would bet that the modern hood is a real PITA to car structural designers who look at that big unstressed hood and weep.
Wow, you're a student who is willing to afford $1200 per year just for internet access on top of everything else (e.g., tuition, food). How big is your trust fund?
In fact, I see no reason why databases can't be fairly used same as any other created work.
A database schema can already be copyrighted. The data itself cannot be copyrighted, unless it is itself already copyrightable (e.g., a database whose data is the text of novels and short stories).
Sports scores cannot be copyrighted, as they are available from many sources and as general knowledge (did you see the game last night...).
I decided that I didn't like SO after watching big high schools stomp little high schools into dust. This is a time when people's egos are very fragile, and there is simply too much importance put on those "bronze", "silver", and "gold" medals. With smaller schools, kids would have to take on multiple events to qualify, which is a real burden. Also, schools with helpful parents fare much better, especially for the construction events. Building a rube-goldberg machine is a bit easier if someone's dad has a garage full of junk or works for a surplus store.
The nationals were very sensationalistic, too. Not to mention far away, meaning many people were disappointed when their stuff got there broken.
Please don't use a scanner that "quarantines" e-mails that require admin intervention to get back. One of my prior employers created such a beast for their e-mail system, and it would even quarantine e-mails I send to co-workers. The admins of course have slow turn-around times. It ended up easier to use the telephone or FTP, defeating the original convenience and usefulness of e-mail. Even further, it would quarantine totally legitimate stuff from mailing lists. Really crappy stuff.
IMO, it is better to have suspicious e-mail diverted to a "Dangerous, Be Careful" folder with a big Skull-and-Bones air about it, so I can ignore the virus scanner altogether to get at important e-mails.
Also, don't use Windows. Of course, you already knew that, right?
Yet, XML is still useful, and everybody seems to be using it in some way or another.
They are also all using it differently. The only benefit to XML right now is a common syntax and a large number of APIs to access it. Above syntax, there is little common ground in how XML is actually applied. Also, I'd argue that only a few XML-related skills are really transferable from one job to another, because the second job is very likely to be using different APIs, schema definitions, etc.
1) Locality. You might even be able to keep your job. You stay near family, and you don't need a visa to visit them. 2) You retain citizenship and its benefits. Some people really do think that living under the Constitution is a big deal, and it would be pretty crappy to get driven away from it due to federal abuses of power.
Unfortunately, state governance has the disadvantages of both.
State are of a good size for managing highways and taxes, for example. Each state can set their priorities regarding their infrastructure as they see fit. This also allows states to compete for businesses, as infrastructure and tax incentives are a big attractor for factories and warehouses.
States are a good size for experimenting with ways of addressing modern health care. To socialize or not to socialize...let the states try out solutions that can eventually lead to a real best-of-breed solution. Right now, there is a lot of propoganda for nationalized health care, which the country is not ready for (just the required tax increases alone are not politically viable). If our whole country gets put under a nationalized plan in one big step, what happens if/when that plan fails? Potentially, with all eggs in one basket, the USA could fall into a medical dark ages. If one state falls into a pit they dug for themselves, there is at least a chance that other states can help them out and figure out a new solution.
States are a good size for standing up for themselves on big issues that are not quite big enough for the federal Congress, and there is a better chance that their representatives actually match the views of their constituents. State representatives are more accessible than national ones. State representatives actually live in the communities they represent.
Local governments are ideal for running libraries, snow plows, fire departments, schools, community centers, basic welfare, etc. It might be appropriate for state governments to chip in to support rural areas, but it is a real stretch to say the federal government has this responsibility. Like taxes and highways, education and community support is another way states can compete.
I say let the Libertarians move to New Hampshire, let the Republicans move to South Carolina, let the Democrats move to California, and let them set up their governments like they want. At the federal level, the polarization right now on social issues (i.e., local issues) is destroying the meaning of what federal government is really all about. Kerry and Bush really are talking about all the wrong things and people are asking of them all the wrong things.
If Democrats in California really want to give health care to Mexican citizens, then why not...just keep those policies out of the other states. If people in South Carolina really want to allow men to marry their livestock, then by all means they should. If people in New Hampshire want to strip welfare programs to their bare bones, then they have every right to do this. None of these issues can be satisfactorally dealt with at a national level.
Again, why should such extremism (aka, marriage amendment) be allowed at the federal level? The whole reason for the decentralization of the USA and the balances of power put into place is to keep extremists from imposing their beliefs unfairly on the citizens. If we ask for the final answer from the federal government on every big issue that comes along, then we will end up with no satisfied person anywere at all.
Actually, I'm pretty sure all big SMP systems are NUMA, in a sense. Opteron is similar to UltraSPARC in that each CPU gets its own local RAM, and the CPUs are networked together in some manner with a rediculous-speed interconnect (GB/sec rather than Mb/sec for Ethernet). I belive such a network might even be called HyperTransport by AMD.
So, what happens when the federal government passes a law you cannot live with? Your only choices are to either fight an uphill battle in a congress that doesn't care about you or to move to another country.
Having indpendent states does more to preserve our freedoms that most of us even imagine. We can have Vermont and New Hampshire side by side for all their differences yet be part of the same country. Having 50 states allows for 50 times the diversity of one singular federal government. For example, what is your opinion of Bushy-bush's support for a freaking constitional amendment defining, of all things, marriage? What if it gets ratified? The marriage amendment is founded only in bigotry, and, if it gets ratified, it will be the biggest abuse of federal power in a long time.
Aren't there people in charge of administering the elections in that county? Perhaps you can check with someone on the county council or at your town hall to find out who these people are? Actually, you might even check the "blue pages" in your phone book under 'e' for "elections board".
I heard a rumor that in South Carolina, Democrats flooded the Republican primary for Governor to ensure the weakest canidate got onto the final ballot.
This is disenfranchisment of the minority opinion in each state, and is as wrong as was taxation without representation. The reason that congress and the senate are so bad these days is not a result of direct election, but because they are the ones with the most cash for campaigning, and the toleration our country has of such abomiable practices as gerymandering.
If the federal government were run like it was intended, there would be no issues today with the electoral college system. People are supposed to live in their states and vote for their state and local officials. The federal government was supposed to be absolutely nothing more than a "glue" between the states, and the states voted for that "glue" via the electoral college. Now, the federal government has more influence over people's lives than their local governments, and this is the deep fundamental problem that gets mistakenly re-cast as a problem with the electoral process.
Then also of course "At the end of the 20th century, the people realized that in a demoracy they could vote themselves bread and circuses, and the world went to hell afterwards" (Beyond the sunset)
The form of government in Starship Troopers is also based on the concept of 20th century democracies going awry and needing some tweaking (e.g., mandatory military service as a requirement for citizenship).
Perhaps, but after looking at the 700+ page spec, which, by the way, has dependencies on almost every spec ever issued by the W3C...
Sigh. So, chances are that SVG will go the way of VRML? At 700+ pages with interdependencies, no implementation of SVG will be complete, and different vendors/OSS projects will choose to implement different subsets of SVG if only by fate, time, and money.
Web standards are already plenty complex. Hell, even XML hasn't fully matured after a decade, because of its 1 billion different associated APIs and specifications.
I imagine this about future attempts at ground-up web browser implementations: "Sure GeeWhizBrowser does XHTML2.0/XHTML1.0/HTML4/HTML3/HTML2/JavaScript/CSS 2/CSS1/PNG alpha/etc/etc/etc pretty well, but it can't do SVG 1.5.2, which means it is useless for -insert complaint-."
You know, I am beginning to think the invention of computers was a practical joke, and the founders of computing are looking down from a cloud and laughing at everyone scrambling about inventing ceaselessly without cleaning up their prior messes first.
...every computer professional I know thinks this is a lousy idea.
This is because real computer professionals know enough about complexity and reliability in commercial software to have to really work hard to not shit their pants when thinking about electronic voting machines. The people who actually program electronic voting machines are not professionals, otherwise they would have quit their jobs due to the ethical problems. Instead, the programmers who make these voting machines are whores, and, apparently, the people who buy these machines want to get fucked real hard.
I mean really, why all the fancy computers with touch screen monitors, why complicated software? Grab the vote in from a keyboard, encrypt it, save it, done.
1) Reliable software is very hard to make. 2) Mathematically provably secure software is impossible or very nearly so. 3) Reliable software that is mathematically provably secure and is affordable simply will never exist. 4) Our county and state gee-whiz government officials don't really understand this and are blowing wads of taxpayer dollars on a hopeless technology project. 5) Representative Democracy gets a big spiked shaft in its rear end.
Slashdot Mirror
It is still important for both Linux' and Solaris' sake that this is a local exploit. Multiuser systems are certainly at risk, but it is unlikely for this to spread around the globe causing billions of dollars of lost productivitiy like a Windows worm.
Even though UNIX' model is thirty years old and actually very simple in concept, it provides enough containment (and maturity) that global disasters are not terribly likely among UNIX systems. Also, with at least a dozen kernels out there, heterogeneity works to our advantage.
Astroturfers take note: "Overrated" is a better mod than "Offtopic" for a post about gaming on a gaming-related thread. I would have expected better from you.
I rented a Crash Bandicoot game once, and it was a disappointment. It was essentially a remake of a Looney Tunes game I had recently played where you go around doing mini games in various worlds and collecting stuff. Now that I think of it, Spyro and Ratchet and Clank are remakes of the same Looney Tunes game and/or that Crash game and/or themselves.
How does one put "jerking off" onto a resume tactfully? What if you have to tell the interviewer about your responsibilities and problem-solving skills? "I, uh, was really struggling for a few minutes as the porn mag didn't do anything for me, so I really tried hard to think of that girl at school, and badaboombadabing problem solved. BTW, I'm already a member of the prestigious Gallon Club."
I didn't actually buy it, so don't worry yourself into an ulcer over my potential misfortune. The thought is nice, though, so thanks.
That 1000 dollars will keep you equipped with gloves and waders for the whole summer, so everything else is pure profit!!!
When you have so many "me too" game developers out there, some of the genres are actually becoming diluted, IMO. Every game package reads "stunning graphics, fight through 20 levels, beat up gellatinous blobs."
Further, there really can be only one or two "platformers". Nintendo did this really well having only Mario Bros. and Zelda as their biggies. Actually, Mario Bros. games were generally so good, that everything since has been a distant second. Nothing on the PS2 really compares; Mario and Luigi to Nintendo are like Micky Mouse to Disney. Who does Sony and Microsoft have? Ratchet and Clank? Sonic sequels? A guy named Cid?
You know, there is a real advantage to a sealed hood/bonnet: stiffness. I would bet that the modern hood is a real PITA to car structural designers who look at that big unstressed hood and weep.
Wow, you're a student who is willing to afford $1200 per year just for internet access on top of everything else (e.g., tuition, food). How big is your trust fund?
In fact, I see no reason why databases can't be fairly used same as any other created work.
A database schema can already be copyrighted. The data itself cannot be copyrighted, unless it is itself already copyrightable (e.g., a database whose data is the text of novels and short stories).
Sports scores cannot be copyrighted, as they are available from many sources and as general knowledge (did you see the game last night...).
I own the copyright on frightening facts, so pay up, loser!
I decided that I didn't like SO after watching big high schools stomp little high schools into dust. This is a time when people's egos are very fragile, and there is simply too much importance put on those "bronze", "silver", and "gold" medals. With smaller schools, kids would have to take on multiple events to qualify, which is a real burden. Also, schools with helpful parents fare much better, especially for the construction events. Building a rube-goldberg machine is a bit easier if someone's dad has a garage full of junk or works for a surplus store.
The nationals were very sensationalistic, too. Not to mention far away, meaning many people were disappointed when their stuff got there broken.
Please don't use a scanner that "quarantines" e-mails that require admin intervention to get back. One of my prior employers created such a beast for their e-mail system, and it would even quarantine e-mails I send to co-workers. The admins of course have slow turn-around times. It ended up easier to use the telephone or FTP, defeating the original convenience and usefulness of e-mail. Even further, it would quarantine totally legitimate stuff from mailing lists. Really crappy stuff.
IMO, it is better to have suspicious e-mail diverted to a "Dangerous, Be Careful" folder with a big Skull-and-Bones air about it, so I can ignore the virus scanner altogether to get at important e-mails.
Also, don't use Windows. Of course, you already knew that, right?
Yet, XML is still useful, and everybody seems to be using it in some way or another.
They are also all using it differently. The only benefit to XML right now is a common syntax and a large number of APIs to access it. Above syntax, there is little common ground in how XML is actually applied. Also, I'd argue that only a few XML-related skills are really transferable from one job to another, because the second job is very likely to be using different APIs, schema definitions, etc.
How is that any better?
1) Locality. You might even be able to keep your job. You stay near family, and you don't need a visa to visit them.
2) You retain citizenship and its benefits. Some people really do think that living under the Constitution is a big deal, and it would be pretty crappy to get driven away from it due to federal abuses of power.
Unfortunately, state governance has the disadvantages of both.
State are of a good size for managing highways and taxes, for example. Each state can set their priorities regarding their infrastructure as they see fit. This also allows states to compete for businesses, as infrastructure and tax incentives are a big attractor for factories and warehouses.
States are a good size for experimenting with ways of addressing modern health care. To socialize or not to socialize...let the states try out solutions that can eventually lead to a real best-of-breed solution. Right now, there is a lot of propoganda for nationalized health care, which the country is not ready for (just the required tax increases alone are not politically viable). If our whole country gets put under a nationalized plan in one big step, what happens if/when that plan fails? Potentially, with all eggs in one basket, the USA could fall into a medical dark ages. If one state falls into a pit they dug for themselves, there is at least a chance that other states can help them out and figure out a new solution.
States are a good size for standing up for themselves on big issues that are not quite big enough for the federal Congress, and there is a better chance that their representatives actually match the views of their constituents. State representatives are more accessible than national ones. State representatives actually live in the communities they represent.
Local governments are ideal for running libraries, snow plows, fire departments, schools, community centers, basic welfare, etc. It might be appropriate for state governments to chip in to support rural areas, but it is a real stretch to say the federal government has this responsibility. Like taxes and highways, education and community support is another way states can compete.
I say let the Libertarians move to New Hampshire, let the Republicans move to South Carolina, let the Democrats move to California, and let them set up their governments like they want. At the federal level, the polarization right now on social issues (i.e., local issues) is destroying the meaning of what federal government is really all about. Kerry and Bush really are talking about all the wrong things and people are asking of them all the wrong things.
If Democrats in California really want to give health care to Mexican citizens, then why not...just keep those policies out of the other states. If people in South Carolina really want to allow men to marry their livestock, then by all means they should. If people in New Hampshire want to strip welfare programs to their bare bones, then they have every right to do this. None of these issues can be satisfactorally dealt with at a national level.
Again, why should such extremism (aka, marriage amendment) be allowed at the federal level? The whole reason for the decentralization of the USA and the balances of power put into place is to keep extremists from imposing their beliefs unfairly on the citizens. If we ask for the final answer from the federal government on every big issue that comes along, then we will end up with no satisfied person anywere at all.
Actually, I'm pretty sure all big SMP systems are NUMA, in a sense. Opteron is similar to UltraSPARC in that each CPU gets its own local RAM, and the CPUs are networked together in some manner with a rediculous-speed interconnect (GB/sec rather than Mb/sec for Ethernet). I belive such a network might even be called HyperTransport by AMD.
So, what happens when the federal government passes a law you cannot live with? Your only choices are to either fight an uphill battle in a congress that doesn't care about you or to move to another country.
Having indpendent states does more to preserve our freedoms that most of us even imagine. We can have Vermont and New Hampshire side by side for all their differences yet be part of the same country. Having 50 states allows for 50 times the diversity of one singular federal government. For example, what is your opinion of Bushy-bush's support for a freaking constitional amendment defining, of all things, marriage? What if it gets ratified? The marriage amendment is founded only in bigotry, and, if it gets ratified, it will be the biggest abuse of federal power in a long time.
Don't forget that the DHS scored an "F" for its own computer security. Electronic voting isn't the only thing to be concerned about.
Aren't there people in charge of administering the elections in that county? Perhaps you can check with someone on the county council or at your town hall to find out who these people are? Actually, you might even check the "blue pages" in your phone book under 'e' for "elections board".
"open" primaries
I heard a rumor that in South Carolina, Democrats flooded the Republican primary for Governor to ensure the weakest canidate got onto the final ballot.
This is disenfranchisment of the minority opinion in each state, and is as wrong as was taxation without representation. The reason that congress and the senate are so bad these days is not a result of direct election, but because they are the ones with the most cash for campaigning, and the toleration our country has of such abomiable practices as gerymandering.
If the federal government were run like it was intended, there would be no issues today with the electoral college system. People are supposed to live in their states and vote for their state and local officials. The federal government was supposed to be absolutely nothing more than a "glue" between the states, and the states voted for that "glue" via the electoral college. Now, the federal government has more influence over people's lives than their local governments, and this is the deep fundamental problem that gets mistakenly re-cast as a problem with the electoral process.
Then also of course
"At the end of the 20th century, the people realized that in a demoracy they could vote themselves bread and circuses, and the world went to hell afterwards"
(Beyond the sunset)
The form of government in Starship Troopers is also based on the concept of 20th century democracies going awry and needing some tweaking (e.g., mandatory military service as a requirement for citizenship).
Perhaps, but after looking at the 700+ page spec, which, by the way, has dependencies on almost every spec ever issued by the W3C...
S 2/CSS1/PNG alpha/etc/etc/etc pretty well, but it can't do SVG 1.5.2, which means it is useless for -insert complaint-."
Sigh. So, chances are that SVG will go the way of VRML? At 700+ pages with interdependencies, no implementation of SVG will be complete, and different vendors/OSS projects will choose to implement different subsets of SVG if only by fate, time, and money.
Web standards are already plenty complex. Hell, even XML hasn't fully matured after a decade, because of its 1 billion different associated APIs and specifications.
I imagine this about future attempts at ground-up web browser implementations: "Sure GeeWhizBrowser does XHTML2.0/XHTML1.0/HTML4/HTML3/HTML2/JavaScript/CS
You know, I am beginning to think the invention of computers was a practical joke, and the founders of computing are looking down from a cloud and laughing at everyone scrambling about inventing ceaselessly without cleaning up their prior messes first.
...every computer professional I know thinks this is a lousy idea.
This is because real computer professionals know enough about complexity and reliability in commercial software to have to really work hard to not shit their pants when thinking about electronic voting machines. The people who actually program electronic voting machines are not professionals, otherwise they would have quit their jobs due to the ethical problems. Instead, the programmers who make these voting machines are whores, and, apparently, the people who buy these machines want to get fucked real hard.
I mean really, why all the fancy computers with touch screen monitors, why complicated software? Grab the vote in from a keyboard, encrypt it, save it, done.
1) Reliable software is very hard to make.
2) Mathematically provably secure software is impossible or very nearly so.
3) Reliable software that is mathematically provably secure and is affordable simply will never exist.
4) Our county and state gee-whiz government officials don't really understand this and are blowing wads of taxpayer dollars on a hopeless technology project.
5) Representative Democracy gets a big spiked shaft in its rear end.