Does this mean that many/most of Wiki's contributions are in small amounts?
Yes, looking at the donation details for December, most contributions were less than $10.
I've heard that once the new servers are up an running, the powers that be will look into handling credit card transactions directly, without having to use PayPal. For the time being, PayPal is the easiest way to donate.
One of the great things about Wikipedia is that it can include articles that you wouldn't find in a typical encyclopedia or almanac. Generally, anything that is fairly famous and verifiable is a candidate for a Wikipedia article. Examples include:
Every country that has sent orbiters/landers/rovers to Mars has had a high number of failures, including the Soviet Union (later Russia), the United States, Japan, and Europe.
I remember that as well. It was fairly informative and timely with news and a few product reviews as well. They started reviewing interesting websites as well... but then it started changing.
Eventually they'd starting doing 30-45 super-quick segments with no depth and maybe flash a website for half a second at the end and then say, "If you missed any of that, head on over to our website, CNET.com..."
The show became very light on substance and was soon just a nonstop plug for its website.
On another note, CNET launched an actual broadcast radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area a few years ago at 910 AM. It mysteriously disappeared from the air at the beginning of this year and turned into a news-talk station.
It's interesting to search for "SearchKing" on Google. Back when this story first hit Slashdot in October, SearchKing's website came up somewhere on the fourth page of listings on Google. Now it comes up as number one, but their PageRank still remains at 4. It shows that there is some behind-the-scenes results manipulation going on at Google... which of course is their perogative.
Another example was the Microsoft and "go to hell" incident which dissappeared from Google rather quickly once it became public.
From now on, anyone caught using nuclear weapons in California must give a sample to the state's DNA registry of criminals. No longer will nuclear holocaust get in the way of unsolved crimes.
When we discussed pipelining this semester, the analogy used was the four stages of doing laundry: washing, drying, folding, and stashing. Here are the lecturenotes (both PDF). The notes spend a good deal of time going over the hazards of pipelines and how to avoid them.
For over a year now, UC Berkeley has been rolling out its own campus-wide wireless access system, dubbed AirBears, based on 802.11b technology. Coverage is still limited to a handful of buildings around campus, however.
Well, when I had a corporate email account about a year ago, I don't recall ever receiving one piece of spam. Granted, maybe this was due to some good filtering at the server level, but I think it's more due to the fact that I never used that email address for business outside of the company. I never used it to buy anything online or sign up for any service, or published it on any website. Also, the address was firstname.lastname@[companyname].com. I'm sure that makes it considerably harder for a spammer just to cycle though alphanumeric string hoping to hit a real address.
Similarly, I currently have an email account with my university, but I use it almost exclusively for academic-related communications, and I've not received one spam email at that address in over a year now. And, I doubt the university has invested much money in spam filters for student email accounts.
WASHINGTON, DC--Seeking to address "the number-one threat to airline security," the Federal Aviation Administration announced Monday that it will consider banning passengers on all domestic and international commercial flights.
"In every single breach of security in recent years, whether it was an act of terrorism or some other form of crime, it was a passenger who subverted the safety systems on board the aircraft or in the terminal," FAA administrator Marion Blakey said. "Even threats that came in the form of explosives inside baggage were eventually traced back to a ticketed individual. As great a revenue source as they have been, passengers simply represent too great a risk to the airline industry."
Under the proposed reforms, the FAA would institute a strict ban on adult passengers, passengers 18 and under, international travelers, and domestic customers. A battery of questions and ID checks will be used to determine whether an individual is a pilot, flight attendant, or federal security officer--the only humans who will be allowed to board an aircraft flying within or headed for the U.S.
...
I thought I'd never have to hear about such twisted logic outside the bounds of a satire publication.
My astronomy professor, who's seen many more solar eclipses than I will in my lifetime, said that the difference between a 99% solar eclipse and a 100% total eclipse is like being 99% pregnant versus 100% pregnant. Either you get the full experience, or it's basically a wash.
In other words, if you're close to the path of totality, make sure to go see the total solar eclipse, even if it's just a little bit out of your way. It makes a big difference.
Additionally, this solar eclipse will be right at sunset in Australia. It should be a doubly spectacular sight.
The volcano is far more powerful than any eruption recorded by scientists on Earth, with an estimated power output of about 78,000 gigawatts. By comparison, the power produced by the last significant eruption of Mount Etna in Italy in 1992 was just 12 gigawatts.
Re:Alameda County's electronic voting was great
on
Indecision 2002
·
· Score: 1
A minor point -- Alameda County is actually the third county in California to utilize touch-screen voting. Riverside and Plumas Counties have already implemented such systems. Alameda is the first in the Bay Area, however.
And, even though I voted absentee, I've heard pretty much the same things about how easy the system was to use. Basically you're just given a credit-card size "smart card", insert it into touch-screen machine, make your selections, and return the smart card to the elections officials. In the end, things seem to have worked out pretty well.
Create a site with content and design that are straightforward, appropriate and relevant for visitors to your site.
Feel free to exchange links with other sites that are compatible with your site's content and users' interests.
Be very careful about allowing an individual consultant or company to 'optimize' your web site. Chances are they will engage in some of our Don'ts and end up hurting your site.
Consider submitting your sites to our partner directories Yahoo! and DMOZ.
Don't:
Cloak.
Write text or create links that can be seen by search engines but not by visitors to your site.
Participate in link exchanges for the sole purpose of increasing your ranking in search engines.
Send automated queries to Google in an attempt to monitor your site's ranking.
Use programs that generate lots of generic doorway pages.
In high school, I worked backstage for some of the plays the Drama department put on. For one of the plays, one of the parents brought in a home-made fog machine constructed very much like you've described it.
The main difference was that he had a giant 55-gal drum which was basically converted into a hot water heater. It was filled with water, and then a submersible heater was turned on. It took several hours to get the water up to a significantly toasty temperature. Once it was nice and steamy and the show started, the dry ice blocks were broken up slightly (to increase surface area) and then it was lowered via a basket down into the hot water.
Voila, instant fog. It was sent out to the stage via a small fan and a twenty foot dryer hose. The biggest downside was having to wait so long for the water to heat up, but once things got rolling, the effects were great.
Yes, granted, they do pay for a certain amount whether it's used or not, but frankly, it's always in use all the way up to the cap, slowing everybody down, and ultimately forcing the university to purchase more bandwidth.
Slashdot Mirror
Does this mean that many/most of Wiki's contributions are in small amounts?
Yes, looking at the donation details for December, most contributions were less than $10.
I've heard that once the new servers are up an running, the powers that be will look into handling credit card transactions directly, without having to use PayPal. For the time being, PayPal is the easiest way to donate.
All your base are belong to us
Crushing by elephant
Extreme ironing
List of people known by one name
List of films by gory death scene
For more, see unusual articles and list of trivia lists.
Slashdot
Slashdot effect
Slashdot trolling phenomena
Another interesting point of note:
According to Alexa (which is not always reliable), Wikipedia.org is now more popular than Slashdot.org.
Every country that has sent orbiters/landers/rovers to Mars has had a high number of failures, including the Soviet Union (later Russia), the United States, Japan, and Europe.
Take a look at this quality Wikipedia article on Mars exploration.
For those interested, here is a link to the text of Assembly Bill 213, sponsored by Assemblyman Tim Leslie:
CA Assembly Bill 213
I remember that as well. It was fairly informative and timely with news and a few product reviews as well. They started reviewing interesting websites as well... but then it started changing.
Eventually they'd starting doing 30-45 super-quick segments with no depth and maybe flash a website for half a second at the end and then say, "If you missed any of that, head on over to our website, CNET.com..."
The show became very light on substance and was soon just a nonstop plug for its website.
On another note, CNET launched an actual broadcast radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area a few years ago at 910 AM. It mysteriously disappeared from the air at the beginning of this year and turned into a news-talk station.
Another example was the Microsoft and "go to hell" incident which dissappeared from Google rather quickly once it became public.
Incidentally, searching for "SearchKing" on SearchKing doesn't even come up with SearchKing's front page, and the first result that is even close is number 7.
I just finished a CS course co-taught by Professor Patterson, and our primary text this semester was Patterson and Hennessy's Computer Organization and Design.
When we discussed pipelining this semester, the analogy used was the four stages of doing laundry: washing, drying, folding, and stashing. Here are the lecture notes (both PDF). The notes spend a good deal of time going over the hazards of pipelines and how to avoid them.
This sounds like the ultimate compliment, or at least the ultimate spam advertisement.
I'm still waiting for my free laptop. :)
Here's a little background and some pictures.
Apparently, they used roughly "500,000 free hours" worth of AOL CDs. You do the math.
Similarly, I currently have an email account with my university, but I use it almost exclusively for academic-related communications, and I've not received one spam email at that address in over a year now. And, I doubt the university has invested much money in spam filters for student email accounts.
His page of graphs shows the exponential growth of spam over the past few years.
This is indeed a disturbing development...
In other words, if you're close to the path of totality, make sure to go see the total solar eclipse, even if it's just a little bit out of your way. It makes a big difference.
Additionally, this solar eclipse will be right at sunset in Australia. It should be a doubly spectacular sight.
Interesting snip:
And, even though I voted absentee, I've heard pretty much the same things about how easy the system was to use. Basically you're just given a credit-card size "smart card", insert it into touch-screen machine, make your selections, and return the smart card to the elections officials. In the end, things seem to have worked out pretty well.
http://www.geekstyle.co.uk/ntkmart.cgi#Corrupt
Brown calls S.F. voters 'ass-backward'
The main difference was that he had a giant 55-gal drum which was basically converted into a hot water heater. It was filled with water, and then a submersible heater was turned on. It took several hours to get the water up to a significantly toasty temperature. Once it was nice and steamy and the show started, the dry ice blocks were broken up slightly (to increase surface area) and then it was lowered via a basket down into the hot water.
Voila, instant fog. It was sent out to the stage via a small fan and a twenty foot dryer hose. The biggest downside was having to wait so long for the water to heat up, but once things got rolling, the effects were great.
Yes, granted, they do pay for a certain amount whether it's used or not, but frankly, it's always in use all the way up to the cap, slowing everybody down, and ultimately forcing the university to purchase more bandwidth.