Rich white guy eh? Well it's true in a sense. I am indeed white (though I live in Australia where we don't have quite the same problems USA has, though some). Flash yacht - well no, it's pretty ratty, 30 years old and shared with some friends. Not that flash (but a joy on Sydney Harbour - come for a sail one day). Worth a heck of a lot less than your BMW. Or indeed any new car.
In fact, I think cops prefer the jobs that involve actually helping people - the water police get to rescue folk, the police rescue do too, I imagine it's good for their self esteem. But dealing with the everyday lowlifes on the streets must be a bit wearing.
It's nevertheless true that the cops are much nastier to poorer folk. It's also true the system seems set up to service richer folk better. Mostly. But not entirely - there's hope.
And yes, my opinions did change a lot after spending some time on the nasty end of the stick.
But the problem of power corrupting is the biggie. Any ideas on that would do the world some good.
We need a better feedback loop (I don't know the terms here - I'm a software guru, not a hardware one). There doesn't seem to be one. It used to be if you were good in life you supposedly went to heaven and bad , to hell. But it didn't seem to make people nicer, did it? I cite the Crusades. Or Israel v.s Palestine, for a more recent example. No, that didn't work.
I certainly have been helped by the police. I was once sailing and my mast fell down. The water police were indeed helpful. Generally they are in such situations. Given the opportunity, they will often show they are strong, brave and well trained.
Mind you, the general police I have had a lot less fun with - I spent most of a night in the cop shop with my wife, being questioned very nastily over something we did not do. (And our children were bundled off with their aging grandparents).
But I reckon they have a pretty tough task to perform in society - I don't think society would function without them. And they need the power to perform that task.
The problem is, with power comes corruption. Moral as well as financial.
Hah, you think that was bad, look what we got in Australia!
Actually, I think we did better. USA still seems to be the home of religious nut jobs (I mean, just look at Bush), whereas Australia seems no more beset by criminals than anywhere else.
Actually maybe we do a little better... must be the nice weather. Or the cold beer?
Incarceration rates per 100,000 Australia 114 USA 715 (!) UK 135 World average ?? (Iceland manages the lowest of any seemingly civilised country at an impressive 40)
Texas manages the world record of 1014. Incredible. Maybe they missed one.
From Microsoft's point of view, the problem is that hardware is getting so cheap that software is starting to look really expensive. If they can get the "cost" down low enough that people will actually buy it with their new PC, then all is well in Redmond-land. (Remember, the marketer are now in control - the boss geek just quit).
What they really want to do is lease the OS *and* Office. This means a lower purchase price for a PC with software, and annual income. I don't think people are that good at looking past the purchase price (at least, I have no other explanation for the success of McDonalds, but I digress)
First year free, perhaps? (Traditionally, the first hit is always free. Isn't it?)
Last month I bought a new laptop from one of these "major" Australian retailers - Officeworks, in fact. It was an Acer 5210 laptop, 80gb hard disc, DVD rewriter, decent 14" screen, I upgraded the RAM to 1.5gb (500mb - with Vista - are you kidding?). It had Vista (the bottom version), which is a bore, but it works for what I need.
Total cost was barely over AU$500. (That's pretty much US$500 these days... what's with your economy guys? Get your act together and stop having stupid wars. Oh, and drive sensible cars and stop polluting the planet while you are at it. Sorry, drifted off. Why don't you send some more little rovers to other planets - now that's cool.. a couple on our moon would be good for a start)
Where was I? Ah yes.
So you tell me the Asus EEE, supposedly a dirt cheap machine, is more than this? Where's the up side here? It's small and cute, but suddenly doesn't sound cheap.
BTW The current offer is slightly better with more memory, but involves a cashback - I hate those. (Have a look at officeworks.com.au and look up laptops - doubtless other retailers have similar offeres, even in the US)
Yes indeed. There are a fair number of different animals that fight a lot and thus should be good at recovery - the Tasmanian Devil comes to mind (nasty vicious thing, currently dying out rather, due to a transmissible cancer spread by, ironically, biting each other). Being very different from the alligator is a good thing here. Has anyone every looked into vultures - after all, they eat dead carcasses, they must be exposed to quite astounding levels of bugs. Not to mention other things that eat dead bodies - ants, for example.
And what about vampires... sorry, drifted off. I'm really missing my weekly dose of Buffy.
Re:I don't understand...
on
The Future of XML
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
>> Test question: Which is quicker? >> 1. Spending a few hours coding your formats in some binary format making maximum use of all the bits. >> 2. Spending a few minutes writing code to send your internal data structure to a library that will serialize it into XML and then running the XML through a generic compression routine (if space/speed actually makes any difference to your particular application).
A while back (before XML parsers were common) I built a kinda cool system whereby a mainframe programmer built a system that read 3270 page descriptions and converted them to XML. At the other end, I wrote a generator that built huge amounts of VB (hey - it worked.. it had to build corresponding page objects) to handle it at the other end. This replaced a complex and incredibly expensive system using a proprietary binary format.
I was amazed (and delighted) to find the XML system was actually faster - even before we put compression on the data.
And it was was a damned sight easier to handle, upgrade, extend - and pay for!
Go XML, I say.
(And it was soo cool to generate, say, 100,000 lines of code and have it compile and work straight off the bat).
>> In fact, here's an even more depressing parting thought: the more blatantly absurd and provably wrong something is, the more vehemently its advocates will defend it.
For a moment there my mind drifted to thoughts of Queen Victoria, who had all the chairs removed from the Privy Council meeting chamber as she thought the meetings were getting too long (yes, it worked - try it!).
Sorry. This is slashdot. History is bunk. Sorry.
(They still don't get chairs - it's been a while now).
In times passed (actually in the late 70s and early 80s), I sailed thousands of miles offshore in a small, fast catamaran. We had minimal radar visibility (just 9m, fibreglass, no keel, tiny engine, not much metal). We had no radar of course, and never turned on our VHF radio. I used a sextant for navigation. On occasion I sailed alone - and even took naps. (That's what self steering is for - and this was in open ocean).
The idea of an autonomous jet ski sized vessel sneaking up on me and being able to shoot at me if I didn't have the "right" authorisation is truly scary. I feel it wouldn't like me as I'd appear to be on a stealth vessel.
I mean, it could try to hail me on radio - no response. What would it do next, shoot me or yell at me in - oh, I don't know, Russian?
Damn, as if icebergs, whales and semi submersed cargo containers weren't scary enough, here comes a new threat. Oh boy.
Quantum theory appears to state (IANAP, though I started a degree in it, but moved to IT cause it was more fun... then) that an object (a very small object) may exist in multiple states until observed.
The act of observation fixes [collapses the eigen state] the state of the object observed. If it has an entangled twin, the state of that is resolved at the same time. Pussyfooting around trying to say "No no, it was fixed all the time, we just didn't know" is NOT what is going on. (And yes, I have read that quote that says "if you feel you understand quantum mechanics intuitively, actually, you just plain don't understand it"). I recall recent experiments showing this.
The multiple universe proposal doesn't appear to solve this "spooky action at a distance".
But the real question is - What is an observer. And why the heck does it matter?
I imagine the best people to ask would be the the digital SLR folk - they definitely have some experience there. Mind you, something of a different scale of problem. And of course their sensors are vertical, not horizontal. Worth a shot, though.
Or maybe we could sent along a cat, which could sit on the solar panel and occasionally sweep it with its tail. That'd work.
So appealing... after all, they call me a thief when I'm not and waste my time in a maddening fashion. Insulting. Pirate DVDs from Thailand are so much nicer to use.
Sadly, this action will result in little more than getting you fired. Or something.
Here in Australia, we have a wonderful program on ABC (non commercial) television called "The Chasers War on Everything". They do exactly the sort of things like this that you really want to do but won't dare. (See www.abc.net.au/chaser/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaser's_War_on_E verything)
My favourite? A leading (and my personal choice) newspaper in Sydney is the Sydney Morning Herald (creative name, eh?). They starting sticking little post it notes with advertising all over it. It was incredibly annoying. And when you removed them they pulled the ink off the paper.
So Chaser managed to track down the editor or owner of the newspaper and stuck post it notes all over him until they were dragged away. On camera of course.
The annoying post it notes stopped for quite some time - but they're baack. Time for another dose.
Slashdot Mirror
Rich white guy eh? Well it's true in a sense. I am indeed white (though I live in Australia where we don't have quite the same problems USA has, though some). Flash yacht - well no, it's pretty ratty, 30 years old and shared with some friends. Not that flash (but a joy on Sydney Harbour - come for a sail one day). Worth a heck of a lot less than your BMW. Or indeed any new car.
In fact, I think cops prefer the jobs that involve actually helping people - the water police get to rescue folk, the police rescue do too, I imagine it's good for their self esteem. But dealing with the everyday lowlifes on the streets must be a bit wearing.
It's nevertheless true that the cops are much nastier to poorer folk. It's also true the system seems set up to service richer folk better. Mostly. But not entirely - there's hope.
And yes, my opinions did change a lot after spending some time on the nasty end of the stick.
But the problem of power corrupting is the biggie. Any ideas on that would do the world some good.
We need a better feedback loop (I don't know the terms here - I'm a software guru, not a hardware one). There doesn't seem to be one. It used to be if you were good in life you supposedly went to heaven and bad , to hell. But it didn't seem to make people nicer, did it? I cite the Crusades. Or Israel v.s Palestine, for a more recent example. No, that didn't work.
Any ideas?
I certainly have been helped by the police. I was once sailing and my mast fell down. The water police were indeed helpful. Generally they are in such situations. Given the opportunity, they will often show they are strong, brave and well trained.
Mind you, the general police I have had a lot less fun with - I spent most of a night in the cop shop with my wife, being questioned very nastily over something we did not do. (And our children were bundled off with their aging grandparents).
But I reckon they have a pretty tough task to perform in society - I don't think society would function without them. And they need the power to perform that task.
The problem is, with power comes corruption. Moral as well as financial.
Yeah, but has he still got the only passwords?
Doesn't he?
Hah, you think that was bad, look what we got in Australia!
Actually, I think we did better. USA still seems to be the home of religious nut jobs (I mean, just look at Bush), whereas Australia seems no more beset by criminals than anywhere else.
Actually maybe we do a little better ... must be the nice weather. Or the cold beer?
Incarceration rates per 100,000
Australia 114
USA 715 (!)
UK 135
World average ??
(Iceland manages the lowest of any seemingly civilised country at an impressive 40)
Texas manages the world record of 1014. Incredible. Maybe they missed one.
From Microsoft's point of view, the problem is that hardware is getting so cheap that software is starting to look really expensive.
If they can get the "cost" down low enough that people will actually buy it with their new PC, then all is well in Redmond-land. (Remember, the marketer are now in control - the boss geek just quit).
What they really want to do is lease the OS *and* Office. This means a lower purchase price for a PC with software, and annual income. I don't think people are that good at looking past the purchase price (at least, I have no other explanation for the success of McDonalds, but I digress)
First year free, perhaps? (Traditionally, the first hit is always free. Isn't it?)
begin sarcasm
Yeah, Ug, what's with inventing a new wheel thing, those old rollers work just fine. And everybody uses them.
Stupid idiot. Wasting time on thought and inventing when he could be pushing rocks about like everyone else.
end sarcasm
Last month I bought a new laptop from one of these "major" Australian retailers - Officeworks, in fact.
... what's with your economy guys? Get your act together and stop having stupid wars. Oh, and drive sensible cars and stop polluting the planet while you are at it. Sorry, drifted off. Why don't you send some more little rovers to other planets - now that's cool .. a couple on our moon would be good for a start)
It was an Acer 5210 laptop, 80gb hard disc, DVD rewriter, decent 14" screen, I upgraded the RAM to 1.5gb (500mb - with Vista - are you kidding?). It had Vista (the bottom version), which is a bore, but it works for what I need.
Total cost was barely over AU$500. (That's pretty much US$500 these days
Where was I? Ah yes.
So you tell me the Asus EEE, supposedly a dirt cheap machine, is more than this? Where's the up side here? It's small and cute, but suddenly doesn't sound cheap.
BTW The current offer is slightly better with more memory, but involves a cashback - I hate those.
(Have a look at officeworks.com.au and look up laptops - doubtless other retailers have similar offeres, even in the US)
TIE fighters conjures a wonderful image of two Dilberts in some sort of battle.
Evenly matched, of course.
Yes indeed. There are a fair number of different animals that fight a lot and thus should be good at recovery - the Tasmanian Devil comes to mind (nasty vicious thing, currently dying out rather, due to a transmissible cancer spread by, ironically, biting each other). Being very different from the alligator is a good thing here.
... sorry, drifted off. I'm really missing my weekly dose of Buffy.
Has anyone every looked into vultures - after all, they eat dead carcasses, they must be exposed to quite astounding levels of bugs.
Not to mention other things that eat dead bodies - ants, for example.
And what about vampires
>> Self-cleaning anal beads! You're a genius!
...
Hang on. The sun don't shine there
>> Test question: Which is quicker?
.. it had to build corresponding page objects) to handle it at the other end.
>> 1. Spending a few hours coding your formats in some binary format making maximum use of all the bits.
>> 2. Spending a few minutes writing code to send your internal data structure to a library that will serialize it into XML and then running the XML through a generic compression routine (if space/speed actually makes any difference to your particular application).
A while back (before XML parsers were common) I built a kinda cool system whereby a mainframe programmer built a system that read 3270 page descriptions and converted them to XML. At the other end, I wrote a generator that built huge amounts of VB (hey - it worked
This replaced a complex and incredibly expensive system using a proprietary binary format.
I was amazed (and delighted) to find the XML system was actually faster - even before we put compression on the data.
And it was was a damned sight easier to handle, upgrade, extend - and pay for!
Go XML, I say.
(And it was soo cool to generate, say, 100,000 lines of code and have it compile and work straight off the bat).
Go the Duke! Duke Nukem forever! (oh, sorry)
How do you play Duke Nukem 3d? It won't even run on current OSes. Do you have an 12 year old machine as well?
...)
(Actually if there's an easy way I might try it
>> Lucifer has announced the launch of a massive advertisement campaign to promote the opening of his new snow park under the brand "Hell Inc."
Heliskiing, I've always wanted to go heliskiing.
>> Every time we send probes to other planets we find out really cool stuff.
cool stuff? Now come on, this is Mercury.
>> In fact, here's an even more depressing parting thought: the more blatantly absurd and provably wrong something is, the more vehemently its advocates will defend it.
I cite religion.
For a moment there my mind drifted to thoughts of Queen Victoria, who had all the chairs removed from the Privy Council meeting chamber as she thought the meetings were getting too long (yes, it worked - try it!).
Sorry. This is slashdot. History is bunk. Sorry.
(They still don't get chairs - it's been a while now).
I sail.
In times passed (actually in the late 70s and early 80s), I sailed thousands of miles offshore in a small, fast catamaran. We had minimal radar visibility (just 9m, fibreglass, no keel, tiny engine, not much metal). We had no radar of course, and never turned on our VHF radio. I used a sextant for navigation.
On occasion I sailed alone - and even took naps. (That's what self steering is for - and this was in open ocean).
The idea of an autonomous jet ski sized vessel sneaking up on me and being able to shoot at me if I didn't have the "right" authorisation is truly scary. I feel it wouldn't like me as I'd appear to be on a stealth vessel.
I mean, it could try to hail me on radio - no response. What would it do next, shoot me or yell at me in - oh, I don't know, Russian?
Damn, as if icebergs, whales and semi submersed cargo containers weren't scary enough, here comes a new threat. Oh boy.
Maybe I'll stick to Sydney Harbour.
Quantum theory appears to state (IANAP, though I started a degree in it, but moved to IT cause it was more fun ... then) that an object (a very small object) may exist in multiple states until observed.
The act of observation fixes [collapses the eigen state] the state of the object observed. If it has an entangled twin, the state of that is resolved at the same time.
Pussyfooting around trying to say "No no, it was fixed all the time, we just didn't know" is NOT what is going on. (And yes, I have read that quote that says "if you feel you understand quantum mechanics intuitively, actually, you just plain don't understand it"). I recall recent experiments showing this.
The multiple universe proposal doesn't appear to solve this "spooky action at a distance".
But the real question is - What is an observer. And why the heck does it matter?
No no, you don't understand.
It's not REALLY news unless we observe it.
Maybe it'll help you spot a Gman. Is that what you want?
May I be the first to offer condolences to Darl McBride.
I had a mid-range recreational cat. It was 30 feet long and had bunks for 6 people.
I covered some 10,000 miles and used maybe 50 gallons.
Of course I also used solar power - I sailed a lot.
Maybe it would work for other boats.
In fact, damn why didn't I think of this before, didn't people do that in the old days? Before diesel had been invented?
I imagine the best people to ask would be the the digital SLR folk - they definitely have some experience there.
Mind you, something of a different scale of problem. And of course their sensors are vertical, not horizontal.
Worth a shot, though.
Or maybe we could sent along a cat, which could sit on the solar panel and occasionally sweep it with its tail. That'd work.
So appealing ... after all, they call me a thief when I'm not and waste my time in a maddening fashion. Insulting. Pirate DVDs from Thailand are so much nicer to use.
E verything)
Sadly, this action will result in little more than getting you fired. Or something.
Here in Australia, we have a wonderful program on ABC (non commercial) television called "The Chasers War on Everything". They do exactly the sort of things like this that you really want to do but won't dare. (See www.abc.net.au/chaser/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaser's_War_on_
My favourite? A leading (and my personal choice) newspaper in Sydney is the Sydney Morning Herald (creative name, eh?). They starting sticking little post it notes with advertising all over it. It was incredibly annoying. And when you removed them they pulled the ink off the paper.
So Chaser managed to track down the editor or owner of the newspaper and stuck post it notes all over him until they were dragged away. On camera of course.
The annoying post it notes stopped for quite some time - but they're baack. Time for another dose.