I think that this kind of electric cars are no threat to the oil industry indeed. Electric engines need a powersource. Oil still is a very good powersource, it is safe, light and widely available. This kind of engine will be a boost for hybrid cars, which is not a bad thing at all in my opinion.
Waves are generated by the wind, which in turn is generated by the sun.
Unfortunately I can't tell where tidal energy comes from, maybe it comes from the slowing rotation of the earth. At least it is impossible that it comes directly from the moon. There is no way that tidal energy could pull the moon down.
While they're at it, why don't they just tack on a 10 cent tax per sheet of blank paper...maybe the book industry should claim that the reason sales of books are down is because of Internet file sharing.
Actually, this year every Dutch company got a letter with an estimate of how many copies they make each year of copyrighted documents with a requast to pay the copyright association. This is why in college handouts don't contain copyrighted material. The copies of copyrighted material are handed over during class, which is legal, since it is paid for.
So this 'tax' is a pain in the ass and mighty convenient at the same time; people have to make an estimate of how mucht they copy, but when they have done so, they can copy copyrighted material at will (for personal use only, but still).
I noticed too. Actually I think DJ Shadow is excellent geek music, it is quite complex, engineered and it is not really made to dance to (unless you can dance to everything, and yes, anyone can).
What strikes me as curious is how the American way of rating movies absolutely conflicts with the Dutch ratings. For instance: Lost in Translation is rated R in the USA and all ages in Holland, and why? One naked breast and some adultery. Okay, no kid under 16 will really understand the movie, but it won't be damaging either.
It is the other way around with a movie like Hellboy that has violence, but is rated PG13 in the USA and >16 in Holland. Personally I think a ban on violence is much better than a ban on nudity. Nudity usually involves two people making each other feel good. This is quite the opposite of two persons trying to hurt each other in an action movie. But maybe it is just me.
Well, of course there is nothing wrong with silent ringtones apart from the fact that it costs me too much in royalties. Beeps in increasing annoyance do the job as well.
In that case, LaTeX would also be a good idea. It's more structured than HTML, and thus is a bit more programming-language-esque, but isn't much harder.
I think LaTeX would be a bad idea for a mom to learn, not because of the language per se, but more because making a lay-out for text feels quite pointless if the printed result looks much the same as what Word can produce. If you, on the other hand, give her a good book on web design and html she will be able to produce something that she can show off to her friends and will feel 'more relevant'. Keep in mind that the book shouldn't just be on the technical aspects of html. Proper design is an art, but a good web development book for dummies should point out the most obvious pitfalls and ways to avoid them.
But I have a question for anyone else:
Why are electric vehicles considered zero emission?
Even apart from the fact that the electricity might come from a 'clean' source there is still a reason why zero emission can be considered important: smog. Cities like Athens or New Mexico have become nearly unlivable because of it and smog is a valid consideration for almost any big city (except when you have a windy day in the midwest, then it is dust:-)
Articles on Slashdot generate articles in the mainstream press.
I agree, it happens quite a few times that I read my paper, a dutch paper, called the Volkskrant (in Dutch) that features/. articles some 4 days after they are posted on slashdot, okay, it is not fast, but still I like to think 'I read it first'...
I'm simply stating the science on the site is accurate, condoms aren't 100% reliable, that is the truth, they are nearly 100% reliable sure, but with things like AIDS and pregnancy, that 1 or 2% of the time that condoms don't work... well thats a big risk to be taking, even if its only 1/100 that you'll get screwed...
No matter how accurate it is, they are spreading doubt about the use of condoms, while they are still the best way to prevent STD's if people are gonna have sex no matter what, that is why I think it a Bad Thing (TM) if they spread bad news about the condom.
Oh, and just to make sure that you get the point: it is not so that you have a risk of 1-2% of transferring a STD every time you have sex with a condom, those statistics work differently, they are based on couples having protected sex over year and then the percentage people that get really infected, so the chance is much slimmer than it seems.
I can see how the abortion/breast cancer issue is blatant suppression of scientific evidence,
however, reading the article the information about condom use seems very accurate to me, and very similar to the information I was taught in middle/high school sex education, condoms work alot of the time, but the only truly sure way to stay safe is abstinence, or monogamy...
Well, of course abstination and monogamy are the best ways to prevent the transmission of STD's, but I will tell you a secret: normal people don't care that much and will have sex no matter what, so if they are gonna have sex they'd better wear their raincoats. While slowing down STD's they help preventing teenage pregnency's as well, what a deal.
Gheesh, is trying to repress inevitable urges of humankind the best thing you liberal Americans can come up with? Glad I am member of a party that has a more realistic view.
As A big fan of SF and fantasy I will offer a short list of great books/writers (IMHO) that one should read in no particular order.
Frank Herbert's dune.
Kim Stanley Robertson - Mars Trilogy, it is hard SF and not for everybody, but I was completely gripped by the plot.
John Brunner - Stand on Zanzibar.
Stanislav Lem - Solyaris. Not really better than the movie (the original of course), which I really loved, it is still a good book.
Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Toopers. It is rather excellent, just as the movie, but entirely different.
Tad Williams - Otherland
David Weber - Honor Harrington series. Okay, it is pulp, but still an enjoyable read.
Jack McDevitt - Engines of God. Intriguing and a good read.
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Shadow. I name Ender's Shadow, which is excellent as well because I actually cried somewhere reading the book.
Ursula K. Le Guin - Left Hand of Darkness, intriguing, wellconstructed novel, the trek over the ice is actually breathtaking, I REALLY have to get more Le Guin
What I really like in good SF (and fantasy) is to be involved with the main character, so I like that kind of SF the best, I have a soft spot for sweeping descriptions though....
I wonder if you have read the Grimm brothers fairytales lately, if one would do a movie from them it would get k-85years or something rating, heads being chopped off, crows picking on eyes and generally good stuff like that.
I have read them fairly recently yes. I have to agree they are violent, but you have to consider one thing: Grimms fairytales were for grown-ups even more then for children. The Grimm brothers just collected local fairytales as people told them in Germany. In this there are parallels with the old testament, the Odyssee and other myths. They served as life lessons and depicted the world as the people saw them. Before the the Grimm brothers wrote the fairytales down it was just an oral tradition, which means that the stories were told by storytellers who were quite capable of adjusting the story to the audience, something which is impossible for the classic mass-media.
violence in entertainment is nothing new..
I have to agree with that though. People have used violence for entertainment. Even with the current taboo entertainment based on violence thrives. Everybody knows about bullfighting, cagefighting, people who like to trash up innocent people and so on and so on and so on. I think this is testament of a violent drive that is part of human nature. Even though I myself am abhorred by violence in general it is a thing I can't push away completely and I think that maybe, maybe, politicians should face this drive for violence and institute regulations to channel this drive constructively. But even as I write this I understand that I can't conceive of a way how to channel this drive constructively.
Jabber and Trillian have been mentioned, now for Miranda
Indeed, Miranda is my weapon of choice when using windows, while I prefer CenterICQ for linux, console rules.
Re:gnome and mozilla released in the same month!
on
GNOME 2.0 Released
·
· Score: 1
Not necesarily, homegrown weed doesn't help terrorists, is more consistant and gives one a hobby;)
Seriously though... I think that weed is not the bigget terrorist sponsor... and weedgrowers should get the Nobelprice for piece according to Lock, Stock.... Hmm, wonder why I am ranting this at all, maybe because I'm dutch? Can't think of another reason, never did drugs.
Why not gentoo-based? It's probably the best mix of Debian and Redhat. I hear lots of people switching from Slackware and Debian all the time to Gentoo.
Hey, a fellow Gentoo zealot;) But no, though I think Gentoo pretty spiffy 'n fast I think that this is something Gentoo should NOT be used for: The target market for the biggest part doesn't know linux and doesn't want to know linux, all they want to do is start a program and start doing their thing. At the moment my mother can install Gentoo with no sweat I would advice a Gentoo-based audio distro.
For the rest I think this is a lousy idea that will almost certainly fail because general public hasn't got a reason to throw their old CD's out of the window because of this.
Can I expect to see pickets of authors next time I go to a library?
I don't know what it's like in the USA, but at least in Holland it is not logical for authors to go picket libraries, since at least in here libraries pay a fee to a foundation that distributes it over the authors. Second I want to mention that real booklovers that read more books then they can afford still buy the books they really like even if it is just because that will allow them lo lend a book to friends and convince them a particular author is very good. Being the secretary of a student's library myself I know a lot of fanatic readers that are big bookbuyers.
It'd be interesting if somebody put together a website touting the benefits of Unix over MS in response to it. I'd hate MS to win by default because Unix isn't getting enough publicity.
There is allready a website like that, it has the appropriate name wehavethewayin.com. Contrary to IIS it has proven to be rock-solid up to now.
I suppose wanting to drive thing to the edge of what's possible is something that is built into human beings, but, in the case of cloning I think this just is irresponsible. Aside from all the ethical stuff (Like in The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin) chances are that the child won't live long because on DNA level the child is as old as the mother, but there are no definitive conclusions on that. All in all I think it unacceptable to perform such extreme experiments un children (or animals) who don't have a say in their treatment.
If only human beings knew their limits when messing around with technology some of the worst atrocities wouldn't have happened, but some revolutionary things that have enabled to prolong life and welfare on higher age wouldn't be discovered either. Fortunately I am no philosopher, or I would be driven mad when trying to decide whether technology is a blessing or a curse.
Quote from Blade Runner: Replicants are like any other machine, they are either a benefit or a hazard, if they are a benefit it is not my problem.
Hmmm, I have to admit that game- to movie usually doesn't make a high-quality movie (take Tomb Raider, interesting view but no storyline worth mentioning), but Myst won't just be a computergame worked out, since there were Myst novels already (never read them, are they any good?) so in that case it will be more like Dune. Anyway, to get back to what I expect and hope: I expect Myst the miniseries will continue to show the stunning graphics we already knew from the game. At the same time I hope they will try to create an interesting storyline that will bring something new, even for seasoned Myst-players. I am curious though how they will treat the most important feature of Myst: puzzles. I think they should honor the legacy of Myst by keeping a puzzling kind of element in it while I hope at the same time that the won't spoil it all by replacing storyline with puzzles.
Like some people allready mentioned most people still think (with reason) that the best online Roleplaying experience are still the text-only MU* and Play By E-Mail games, but I think it isn't realistic to assume they can just be scaled up to MMORPG's, as most MU*s I know don't have much more then a 1000 users online at one moment. There has to be some moderation to keep low on the damage and the spam that can be caused by ill-intending users, but it is virtually impossible to actively watch everything that happens. Maybe the rogue players could be held in trackt with a slashdot style of moderating players, with a possibility of playing with only positively rated players.
The old article on everquest economy in here (392K PDF file) has some nice views on the future of MMORPG's and how people interact on them. Actually some of the findings in the article prove that a large majority of the players will, just as I have seen in MU*s, create an own set of unwritten rules that allows the game to be quite self-regulating anyways
Slashdot Mirror
I think that this kind of electric cars are no threat to the oil industry indeed. Electric engines need a powersource. Oil still is a very good powersource, it is safe, light and widely available. This kind of engine will be a boost for hybrid cars, which is not a bad thing at all in my opinion.
Waves are generated by the wind, which in turn is generated by the sun.
Unfortunately I can't tell where tidal energy comes from, maybe it comes from the slowing rotation of the earth. At least it is impossible that it comes directly from the moon. There is no way that tidal energy could pull the moon down.
While they're at it, why don't they just tack on a 10 cent tax per sheet of blank paper...maybe the book industry should claim that the reason sales of books are down is because of Internet file sharing.
Actually, this year every Dutch company got a letter with an estimate of how many copies they make each year of copyrighted documents with a requast to pay the copyright association. This is why in college handouts don't contain copyrighted material. The copies of copyrighted material are handed over during class, which is legal, since it is paid for.
So this 'tax' is a pain in the ass and mighty convenient at the same time; people have to make an estimate of how mucht they copy, but when they have done so, they can copy copyrighted material at will (for personal use only, but still).
I noticed too. Actually I think DJ Shadow is excellent geek music, it is quite complex, engineered and it is not really made to dance to (unless you can dance to everything, and yes, anyone can).
What strikes me as curious is how the American way of rating movies absolutely conflicts with the Dutch ratings. For instance: Lost in Translation is rated R in the USA and all ages in Holland, and why? One naked breast and some adultery. Okay, no kid under 16 will really understand the movie, but it won't be damaging either.
It is the other way around with a movie like Hellboy that has violence, but is rated PG13 in the USA and >16 in Holland. Personally I think a ban on violence is much better than a ban on nudity. Nudity usually involves two people making each other feel good. This is quite the opposite of two persons trying to hurt each other in an action movie. But maybe it is just me.
Well, of course there is nothing wrong with silent ringtones apart from the fact that it costs me too much in royalties. Beeps in increasing annoyance do the job as well.
In that case, LaTeX would also be a good idea. It's more structured than HTML, and thus is a bit more programming-language-esque, but isn't much harder.
I think LaTeX would be a bad idea for a mom to learn, not because of the language per se, but more because making a lay-out for text feels quite pointless if the printed result looks much the same as what Word can produce. If you, on the other hand, give her a good book on web design and html she will be able to produce something that she can show off to her friends and will feel 'more relevant'. Keep in mind that the book shouldn't just be on the technical aspects of html. Proper design is an art, but a good web development book for dummies should point out the most obvious pitfalls and ways to avoid them.
Ung! What was I thinking? I meant Mexico City of course. Geography was always a weak point:-S
But I have a question for anyone else:
:-)
Why are electric vehicles considered zero emission?
Even apart from the fact that the electricity might come from a 'clean' source there is still a reason why zero emission can be considered important: smog. Cities like Athens or New Mexico have become nearly unlivable because of it and smog is a valid consideration for almost any big city (except when you have a windy day in the midwest, then it is dust
Articles on Slashdot generate articles in the mainstream press.
/. articles some 4 days after they are posted on slashdot, okay, it is not fast, but still I like to think 'I read it first'...
I agree, it happens quite a few times that I read my paper, a dutch paper, called the Volkskrant (in Dutch) that features
I'm simply stating the science on the site is accurate, condoms aren't 100% reliable, that is the truth, they are nearly 100% reliable sure, but with things like AIDS and pregnancy, that 1 or 2% of the time that condoms don't work... well thats a big risk to be taking, even if its only 1/100 that you'll get screwed...
No matter how accurate it is, they are spreading doubt about the use of condoms, while they are still the best way to prevent STD's if people are gonna have sex no matter what, that is why I think it a Bad Thing (TM) if they spread bad news about the condom.
Oh, and just to make sure that you get the point: it is not so that you have a risk of 1-2% of transferring a STD every time you have sex with a condom, those statistics work differently, they are based on couples having protected sex over year and then the percentage people that get really infected, so the chance is much slimmer than it seems.
Imagine a.....
Oh, they're called videowalls?
I can see how the abortion/breast cancer issue is blatant suppression of scientific evidence, however, reading the article the information about condom use seems very accurate to me, and very similar to the information I was taught in middle/high school sex education, condoms work alot of the time, but the only truly sure way to stay safe is abstinence, or monogamy...
Well, of course abstination and monogamy are the best ways to prevent the transmission of STD's, but I will tell you a secret: normal people don't care that much and will have sex no matter what, so if they are gonna have sex they'd better wear their raincoats. While slowing down STD's they help preventing teenage pregnency's as well, what a deal.
Gheesh, is trying to repress inevitable urges of humankind the best thing you liberal Americans can come up with? Glad I am member of a party that has a more realistic view.
Frank Herbert's dune.
Kim Stanley Robertson - Mars Trilogy, it is hard SF and not for everybody, but I was completely gripped by the plot.
John Brunner - Stand on Zanzibar.
Stanislav Lem - Solyaris. Not really better than the movie (the original of course), which I really loved, it is still a good book.
Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Toopers. It is rather excellent, just as the movie, but entirely different.
Tad Williams - Otherland
David Weber - Honor Harrington series. Okay, it is pulp, but still an enjoyable read.
Jack McDevitt - Engines of God. Intriguing and a good read.
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Shadow. I name Ender's Shadow, which is excellent as well because I actually cried somewhere reading the book.
Ursula K. Le Guin - Left Hand of Darkness, intriguing, wellconstructed novel, the trek over the ice is actually breathtaking, I REALLY have to get more Le Guin
What I really like in good SF (and fantasy) is to be involved with the main character, so I like that kind of SF the best, I have a soft spot for sweeping descriptions though....
I wonder if you have read the Grimm brothers fairytales lately, if one would do a movie from them it would get k-85years or something rating, heads being chopped off, crows picking on eyes and generally good stuff like that.
I have read them fairly recently yes. I have to agree they are violent, but you have to consider one thing: Grimms fairytales were for grown-ups even more then for children. The Grimm brothers just collected local fairytales as people told them in Germany. In this there are parallels with the old testament, the Odyssee and other myths. They served as life lessons and depicted the world as the people saw them. Before the the Grimm brothers wrote the fairytales down it was just an oral tradition, which means that the stories were told by storytellers who were quite capable of adjusting the story to the audience, something which is impossible for the classic mass-media.
violence in entertainment is nothing new..
I have to agree with that though. People have used violence for entertainment. Even with the current taboo entertainment based on violence thrives. Everybody knows about bullfighting, cagefighting, people who like to trash up innocent people and so on and so on and so on. I think this is testament of a violent drive that is part of human nature. Even though I myself am abhorred by violence in general it is a thing I can't push away completely and I think that maybe, maybe, politicians should face this drive for violence and institute regulations to channel this drive constructively. But even as I write this I understand that I can't conceive of a way how to channel this drive constructively.
Jabber and Trillian have been mentioned, now for Miranda Indeed, Miranda is my weapon of choice when using windows, while I prefer CenterICQ for linux, console rules.
What's next, Duke Nukem Forever?
Who knows, maybe GNU/HURD 1.0?
just like smoking weed gives money to terrorists.
;)
Not necesarily, homegrown weed doesn't help terrorists, is more consistant and gives one a hobby
Seriously though... I think that weed is not the bigget terrorist sponsor... and weedgrowers should get the Nobelprice for piece according to Lock, Stock.... Hmm, wonder why I am ranting this at all, maybe because I'm dutch? Can't think of another reason, never did drugs.
Why not gentoo-based? It's probably the best mix of Debian and Redhat. I hear lots of people switching from Slackware and Debian all the time to Gentoo.
;) But no, though I think Gentoo pretty spiffy 'n fast I think that this is something Gentoo should NOT be used for: The target market for the biggest part doesn't know linux and doesn't want to know linux, all they want to do is start a program and start doing their thing. At the moment my mother can install Gentoo with no sweat I would advice a Gentoo-based audio distro.
Hey, a fellow Gentoo zealot
Imagine a Beowolf cluster of those!
For the rest I think this is a lousy idea that will almost certainly fail because general public hasn't got a reason to throw their old CD's out of the window because of this.
Sincerely,
Remco
Can I expect to see pickets of authors next time I go to a library?
I don't know what it's like in the USA, but at least in Holland it is not logical for authors to go picket libraries, since at least in here libraries pay a fee to a foundation that distributes it over the authors. Second I want to mention that real booklovers that read more books then they can afford still buy the books they really like even if it is just because that will allow them lo lend a book to friends and convince them a particular author is very good. Being the secretary of a student's library myself I know a lot of fanatic readers that are big bookbuyers.
It'd be interesting if somebody put together a website touting the benefits of Unix over MS in response to it. I'd hate MS to win by default because Unix isn't getting enough publicity.
There is allready a website like that, it has the appropriate name wehavethewayin.com. Contrary to IIS it has proven to be rock-solid up to now.
I suppose wanting to drive thing to the edge of what's possible is something that is built into human beings, but, in the case of cloning I think this just is irresponsible. Aside from all the ethical stuff (Like in The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin) chances are that the child won't live long because on DNA level the child is as old as the mother, but there are no definitive conclusions on that. All in all I think it unacceptable to perform such extreme experiments un children (or animals) who don't have a say in their treatment.
If only human beings knew their limits when messing around with technology some of the worst atrocities wouldn't have happened, but some revolutionary things that have enabled to prolong life and welfare on higher age wouldn't be discovered either. Fortunately I am no philosopher, or I would be driven mad when trying to decide whether technology is a blessing or a curse.
Quote from Blade Runner:
Replicants are like any other machine, they are either a benefit or a hazard, if they are a benefit it is not my problem.
Hmmm, I have to admit that game- to movie usually doesn't make a high-quality movie (take Tomb Raider, interesting view but no storyline worth mentioning), but Myst won't just be a computergame worked out, since there were Myst novels already (never read them, are they any good?) so in that case it will be more like Dune. Anyway, to get back to what I expect and hope: I expect Myst the miniseries will continue to show the stunning graphics we already knew from the game. At the same time I hope they will try to create an interesting storyline that will bring something new, even for seasoned Myst-players. I am curious though how they will treat the most important feature of Myst: puzzles. I think they should honor the legacy of Myst by keeping a puzzling kind of element in it while I hope at the same time that the won't spoil it all by replacing storyline with puzzles.
Sincerely,
Remco
Like some people allready mentioned most people still think (with reason) that the best online Roleplaying experience are still the text-only MU* and Play By E-Mail games, but I think it isn't realistic to assume they can just be scaled up to MMORPG's, as most MU*s I know don't have much more then a 1000 users online at one moment. There has to be some moderation to keep low on the damage and the spam that can be caused by ill-intending users, but it is virtually impossible to actively watch everything that happens. Maybe the rogue players could be held in trackt with a slashdot style of moderating players, with a possibility of playing with only positively rated players. The old article on everquest economy in here (392K PDF file) has some nice views on the future of MMORPG's and how people interact on them. Actually some of the findings in the article prove that a large majority of the players will, just as I have seen in MU*s, create an own set of unwritten rules that allows the game to be quite self-regulating anyways