I'm from Canada you insensitive clod! The American History category is crappy enough to make us take hours upon end to find one that's easy enough to answer:)
Ironically, Trivial Pursuit is a Canadian invention. Chris Haney worked as a photo editor at the Montreal Gazette, and Scott Abbott was a sports journalist for The Canadian Press. A good history of the game can be found here
And anyone who considers Slashdot more than just another blog is smoking some good ganja.
I wouldn't call/. 'just' a blog, because by (my) definition a blog is either a) regurgitation/commentary on secondary sources, or b) personal musings that generally appeal to an audience of 1, or at most 2, people (depending on whether or not the blogger is schizophrenic).
Now,/. certainly has its fair share of blog-like postings - for arguments sake let's say 95%. What sets it apart from a mere blog is the ability to inject additional primary sources that flesh out stories. For example, when talking about some piece of satellite technology, you'll see posts from people who actually are rocket scientists. Assuming that these aren't simply kids wearing spaceman pyjamas (a big if...), they add valuable insight to the article. I therefore gain information that I could not learn from simply talking to my non-rocket scientist friends.
One then hopes that the mod system is able to separate the wheat from the chaff, and that a +5 read allows you to either learn something more about the story or at least branch off on an interesting tangent. It ain't perfect, but it works remarkably well.
So, in summary:
Blogs = generally irrelevant /. = very bloglike
Therefore, /. = mostly irrelevant
However, /. - bloglike parts = worthwhile
And, since
Blogs = worthless
Therefore /. != just another blog
Good strategy - everyone knows that the best way to make some money off/. is to use one of those clever Free iPod! sigs. They really work! People love getting spam in their newsthreads! Don't forget the exclamation marks!!!
I will worry about playing God as soon as you can prove scientifically that there is a god
Really? What do you think the Babel Fish is, a load of dingo's kidneys?
The Babel Fish is small, yellow, and leechlike, and probably the oddest thing in the universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them.
The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything that mindbogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. The argument goes something like this:
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you dont. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadnt thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book, Well That about Wraps It Up for God. Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.
They wanted that new version of Internet Explorer with the fancy built-in pop-up blocker.
Looks like they got a deal; they got the version that also blocks viruses, worms, and abuse of Solitaire!;)
They probably wanted to block assholes who disguise 'Free iPod' links in the sigs. 'TinyUrl' my ass. If you want an iPod, ask your parents to raise your allowance. Otherwise, I heartily encourage you to fuck off.
Also, D&D will turn you into Pentagram-doodling witch and the only way to come back to Jeebus is to burn all your D&D stuff (and heck, better throw all your other books on the fire, too).
To which I would reply, "I'll give you kids some candy if you let me hump your dog".
Queue comments on relative population density of Canada and the U.S., and how Canadians actually tend to live in cities more than Americans, yadda, yadda, yadda... blah, blah, blah...
It all boils down to lower cost of installation - Americans have their brick homes and concrete sidewalks, and all Canadians have to do is fish cable through the snow walls of their igloos.
In addition to decent infrastructire, don't forget that Canada already has the lowest telecommunications pricing in the world - essentially at the same $ price as in the US, less the current 20% exchange rate (which was a lot more significant when the dollar was at $0.64). This has gone a long way to speeding the adoption of broadband.
Not exactly low tech, but definitely old school: Get your 10-12 year old kid hardware hacking with a 200-in-1 Electronics Kit, crystal radio kit etc... I still have my kits from 20 years ago stashed in the closet. These packages are an inexpensive way to teach kids what's behind the UI of electronic devices. They're also safe because it keeps kids away from 110/220v equipment. If nothing else, it'll keep them from tearing apart your electronics to see what's inside (or could give them the confidence to disassemble your stereo...).
Does it violate Google's Terms of Service? If so, they have legal remedies.
If not, it's called doing business and gaining an advantage any legitimate way that you can. I think the interesting bit is in the conclusion. If MS is using this to establish a baseline, they can benchmark their spider against Google's over time.
If I copy your work and take credit or it, does it violate your terms of service? If so, you have legal remedies. If not, it's called doing business and gaining an advantage any legitimate way that I can.
Furthermore, I think the interesting bit is in the conclusion. If MS is using this to establish a baseline, they can benchmark their spider against Google's over time.
Of course, the second issue kind of takes care of the first. Based on the quality of most letter-blogs out there, I suspect that the vast majority of videoblogs could be safely co-hosted from a single Commodore 64 and a 300-baud modem.
There's a good discussion over at Kuro5hin about the same issue.
In particular, tmoertel published a pretty good statistical smackdown on the theory of electronic irregularities in Ohio (this isn't my analysis - so I don't take credit for it):
==========
Thanks for sharing the data. Looking at it, I don't see any indications of Republican foul play. My
analysis follows.
I stopped by the Mac store to buy the Altec Lansing inMotion speakers after reading a good review of them. They had the the JBL OnStage and it has better bass and nicer controls. The donut shape seems to fill a room better than the flat inMotion speakers. It synchs and charges newer iPods and will accept output from a headphone jack. I'd rate it higher than my Harman Kardon soundsticks and it takes up way less room.
I'm pretty happy with the inMotion speakers that I got as a birthday present. While they are on the pricey side, the sound is impressive (especially) for such a small package. They don't take up much room, they charge/sync, and they accept line in and headphones out. However, their big advantage is portability - they collapse to a small size, come with a soft case and are battery-operated. I've taken them on canoe trips, to bbqs and on the road. The rest of the time they take up a small amount of room on my dresser. If you're never going to move the speakers you might want something else, but in terms of sound quality/ruggedness/portability they are tough to beat.
The problem with photoblogs is the same problem with regular blogs - lack of focus. Precisely because it is so easy to web-publish, there are far too many people posting without giving any thought to producing a thematically-consistent portfolio of work. This shouldn't limit your creativity:
- A photo-a-day blog can be very compelling (I'm thinking of the album made by Harvey Keitel's character in Smoke). - Build your blog around something offbeat like things your dog brought home or food that looks like Elvis - whatever turns your crank - Take pictures of doors, sidewalks, homeless people or whatever it takes to produce a thematic arc - Go out and blitz a city with 500 pics in one day, and show us your best 10 (or better yet, 5)
Your equipment doesn't even matter - use your crappy phone cam, but use it well. The ability to edit your body of work, not just your pictures, is what will separate your portfolio from the rest of the drek that's out there.
The difference between PearPc and CherryOs is that Cherry has personal info about hundreds (thousands?) of users who filled their contact form.
...who are now about to get an email from confirmation@apple-security-totallylegit.com asking them to confirm their credit card information in order to "ensure that their version of MacOS is fully cross-platform compliant".
You mention Icebergs and maritime activity. But most drug smugler boats are less than 8 feet above water at the top while most icebergs and any ships worth tracking are at least 40 feet at the top. Can the radar work with such a small profile?
Manufacturers claim it can: - AMS says that their system can track small high-speed craft. - Raytheon claims that it has proof-of-concept that their system can detect "go-fast boats, fishing boats, large support
vessels, rigid hull inflatable boats, jet skis, as well as small, low flying
aircraft and helicopters" (link).
Whether it works reliably is the big question, but then you're unlikely to encounter a RHIB at 500km offshore. One would expect conventional radar to provide additional resolution closer to shore.
The big problem with conventional radar is that it only works in line-of-site, but Raytheon's SWR-503 Surface Wave Radar uses high-frequency radar waves that "wrap" around the curvature of the earth. The system has been proven to detect and track aircraft, surface vessels and icebergs out to 500 km from the shore in a sector of up to 120 degrees. Suspicious objects can be investigated by satellite, surface ship, patrol aircraft or very cheaply & covertly via unmanned drone.
Canada plans to install an array of radar installations along the East Coast in order to provide a seamless picture of all maritime activity occuring in the country's economic zone. Similar research is being carried out in the US, Australia and other countries. This seems like a much more effective use of resources than a massive blimp installation
We should stop modding the guy "Funny" and "Informative" instead, since the former doesn't increase his karma. In fact, he should post a dumb comment and then mods should go and mod that up just to equalize his karma.
In a similar exercise, a pair of business professors have predicteding the final Olympic medal count using socio-economic data rather than athletic performance. Andrew Bernard and Meghan Busse developed their methodology using four factors: population, per capita income, past performance, and a host effect. They were 96% accurate in their predictions for the 2000 Games, including correctly guessing 97 total and 37 gold medals for the USA. Also discussed is why some countries, such as Australia, surpass expectations while others, particularly Canada and Japan, underperform relative to countries with similar populations/national income.
This year's predicted winners? The USA (93), Russia (83) and China (57). The full paper was published in the Feb 2004 Review of Economics and Statistics - summary here.
Slashdot Mirror
This university could answer an old question.
Which is smarter, cats or dogs?
Well, the cat earned an MBA so I'm putting my money on dogs.
I'm from Canada you insensitive clod! The American History category is crappy enough to make us take hours upon end to find one that's easy enough to answer :)
Ironically, Trivial Pursuit is a Canadian invention. Chris Haney worked as a photo editor at the Montreal Gazette, and Scott Abbott was a sports journalist for The Canadian Press. A good history of the game can be found here
I'd say round paintbrush, 20 pixels, black with 10% opacity.
Either that or he needs to clean his camera lens.
And anyone who considers Slashdot more than just another blog is smoking some good ganja.
/. 'just' a blog, because by (my) definition a blog is either a) regurgitation/commentary on secondary sources, or b) personal musings that generally appeal to an audience of 1, or at most 2, people (depending on whether or not the blogger is schizophrenic).
/. certainly has its fair share of blog-like postings - for arguments sake let's say 95%. What sets it apart from a mere blog is the ability to inject additional primary sources that flesh out stories. For example, when talking about some piece of satellite technology, you'll see posts from people who actually are rocket scientists. Assuming that these aren't simply kids wearing spaceman pyjamas (a big if...), they add valuable insight to the article. I therefore gain information that I could not learn from simply talking to my non-rocket scientist friends.
/. = very bloglike
/. = mostly irrelevant
/. - bloglike parts = worthwhile
/. != just another blog
I wouldn't call
Now,
One then hopes that the mod system is able to separate the wheat from the chaff, and that a +5 read allows you to either learn something more about the story or at least branch off on an interesting tangent. It ain't perfect, but it works remarkably well.
So, in summary:
Blogs = generally irrelevant
Therefore,
However,
And, since
Blogs = worthless
Therefore
what I do on my day job... read slashdot.
/. is to use one of those clever Free iPod! sigs. They really work! People love getting spam in their newsthreads! Don't forget the exclamation marks!!!
Good strategy - everyone knows that the best way to make some money off
Want to join a Free Pyramid Scheme? Click here!!
I will worry about playing God as soon as you can prove scientifically that there is a god
Really? What do you think the Babel Fish is, a load of dingo's kidneys?
The Babel Fish is small, yellow, and leechlike, and probably the oddest thing in the universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them.
The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything that mindbogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. The argument goes something like this:
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you dont. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadnt thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book, Well That about Wraps It Up for God. Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.
They wanted that new version of Internet Explorer with the fancy built-in pop-up blocker. ;)
Looks like they got a deal; they got the version that also blocks viruses, worms, and abuse of Solitaire!
Writing article about Free iPod. Please help out.
They probably wanted to block assholes who disguise 'Free iPod' links in the sigs. 'TinyUrl' my ass. If you want an iPod, ask your parents to raise your allowance. Otherwise, I heartily encourage you to fuck off.
Also, D&D will turn you into Pentagram-doodling witch and the only way to come back to Jeebus is to burn all your D&D stuff (and heck, better throw all your other books on the fire, too).
To which I would reply, "I'll give you kids some candy if you let me hump your dog".
Queue comments on relative population density of Canada and the U.S., and how Canadians actually tend to live in cities more than Americans, yadda, yadda, yadda... blah, blah, blah...
It all boils down to lower cost of installation - Americans have their brick homes and concrete sidewalks, and all Canadians have to do is fish cable through the snow walls of their igloos.
In addition to decent infrastructire, don't forget that Canada already has the lowest telecommunications pricing in the world - essentially at the same $ price as in the US, less the current 20% exchange rate (which was a lot more significant when the dollar was at $0.64). This has gone a long way to speeding the adoption of broadband.
Not exactly low tech, but definitely old school:
Get your 10-12 year old kid hardware hacking with a 200-in-1 Electronics Kit, crystal radio kit etc... I still have my kits from 20 years ago stashed in the closet. These packages are an inexpensive way to teach kids what's behind the UI of electronic devices. They're also safe because it keeps kids away from 110/220v equipment. If nothing else, it'll keep them from tearing apart your electronics to see what's inside (or could give them the confidence to disassemble your stereo...).
Does it violate Google's Terms of Service? If so, they have legal remedies.
If not, it's called doing business and gaining an advantage any legitimate way that you can.
I think the interesting bit is in the conclusion. If MS is using this to establish a baseline, they can benchmark their spider against Google's over time.
If I copy your work and take credit or it, does it violate your terms of service? If so, you have legal remedies. If not, it's called doing business and gaining an advantage any legitimate way that I can.
Furthermore, I think the interesting bit is in the conclusion. If MS is using this to establish a baseline, they can benchmark their spider against Google's over time.
Bandwidth.... and nobody cares.
Of course, the second issue kind of takes care of the first. Based on the quality of most letter-blogs out there, I suspect that the vast majority of videoblogs could be safely co-hosted from a single Commodore 64 and a 300-baud modem.
In particular, tmoertel published a pretty good statistical smackdown on the theory of electronic irregularities in Ohio (this isn't my analysis - so I don't take credit for it):
==========
Thanks for sharing the data. Looking at it, I don't see any indications of Republican foul play. My analysis follows.
First, I loaded your data into R from The R Project for Statistical Computing:
I stopped by the Mac store to buy the Altec Lansing inMotion speakers after reading a good review of them. They had the the JBL OnStage and it has better bass and nicer controls. The donut shape seems to fill a room better than the flat inMotion speakers. It synchs and charges newer iPods and will accept output from a headphone jack. I'd rate it higher than my Harman Kardon soundsticks and it takes up way less room.
I'm pretty happy with the inMotion speakers that I got as a birthday present. While they are on the pricey side, the sound is impressive (especially) for such a small package. They don't take up much room, they charge/sync, and they accept line in and headphones out. However, their big advantage is portability - they collapse to a small size, come with a soft case and are battery-operated. I've taken them on canoe trips, to bbqs and on the road. The rest of the time they take up a small amount of room on my dresser.
If you're never going to move the speakers you might want something else, but in terms of sound quality/ruggedness/portability they are tough to beat.
All I need now is the link to the Draft-Dodging HOWTO.
The Canadian Refugee System.
The problem with photoblogs is the same problem with regular blogs - lack of focus. Precisely because it is so easy to web-publish, there are far too many people posting without giving any thought to producing a thematically-consistent portfolio of work. This shouldn't limit your creativity:
- A photo-a-day blog can be very compelling (I'm thinking of the album made by Harvey Keitel's character in Smoke).
- Build your blog around something offbeat like things your dog brought home or food that looks like Elvis - whatever turns your crank
- Take pictures of doors, sidewalks, homeless people or whatever it takes to produce a thematic arc
- Go out and blitz a city with 500 pics in one day, and show us your best 10 (or better yet, 5)
Your equipment doesn't even matter - use your crappy phone cam, but use it well. The ability to edit your body of work, not just your pictures, is what will separate your portfolio from the rest of the drek that's out there.
Advertised 15 hour battery life
65k-color screen
220 x 176 pixel resolution
Same click wheel as previous generation
Still only a single click wheel? What a joke - they'll never be able to compete with Windows until they add a second one.
The difference between PearPc and CherryOs is that Cherry has personal info about hundreds (thousands?) of users who filled their contact form.
...who are now about to get an email from confirmation@apple-security-totallylegit.com asking them to confirm their credit card information in order to "ensure that their version of MacOS is fully cross-platform compliant".
You mention Icebergs and maritime activity. But most drug smugler boats are less than 8 feet above water at the top while most icebergs and any ships worth tracking are at least 40 feet at the top. Can the radar work with such a small profile?
Manufacturers claim it can:
- AMS says that their system can track small high-speed craft.
- Raytheon claims that it has proof-of-concept that their system can detect "go-fast boats, fishing boats, large support vessels, rigid hull inflatable boats, jet skis, as well as small, low flying aircraft and helicopters" (link).
Whether it works reliably is the big question, but then you're unlikely to encounter a RHIB at 500km offshore. One would expect conventional radar to provide additional resolution closer to shore.
There are much cheaper alternatives in the works, such as the High Frequency Surface Wave Radar being developed by Raytheon Canada and Defence Research Development Canada.
The big problem with conventional radar is that it only works in line-of-site, but Raytheon's SWR-503 Surface Wave Radar uses high-frequency radar waves that "wrap" around the curvature of the earth. The system has been proven to detect and track aircraft, surface vessels and icebergs out to 500 km from the shore in a sector of up to 120 degrees. Suspicious objects can be investigated by satellite, surface ship, patrol aircraft or very cheaply & covertly via unmanned drone.
Canada plans to install an array of radar installations along the East Coast in order to provide a seamless picture of all maritime activity occuring in the country's economic zone. Similar research is being carried out in the US, Australia and other countries. This seems like a much more effective use of resources than a massive blimp installation
I hear that they are going to save money by hosting the entire database in a couple of GMail accounts.
We should stop modding the guy "Funny" and "Informative" instead, since the former doesn't increase his karma. In fact, he should post a dumb comment and then mods should go and mod that up just to equalize his karma.
Or, maybe he should just quote his source.
Of course, that fact that he's called TrollBridge shouldn't tip you off at all...
Guvf jbexf whfg svar sbe zr! Bu pbzr ba, lbh pna qb orggre guna gung!
The same problem actually exists with lots and lots of files...
Nice links. In the same vein, try variations of this:
"company confidential" filetype:ppt
In a similar exercise, a pair of business professors have predicteding the final Olympic medal count using socio-economic data rather than athletic performance. Andrew Bernard and Meghan Busse developed their methodology using four factors: population, per capita income, past performance, and a host effect.
They were 96% accurate in their predictions for the 2000 Games, including correctly guessing 97 total and 37 gold medals for the USA. Also discussed is why some countries, such as Australia, surpass expectations while others, particularly Canada and Japan, underperform relative to countries with similar populations/national income.
This year's predicted winners? The USA (93), Russia (83) and China (57). The full paper was published in the Feb 2004 Review of Economics and Statistics - summary here.