Exactly right. Google something, right-click-open-in-new-tab a bunch of interesting looking sites, then easily close them all down when you're finished. I use these very useful features multiple times every day. Please don't kill them.
That is exactly what I do, several times a day, so I would miss that feature. What is the motivation for the change?
Actually, if somebody writes an extension to put them back, it would be the best of both worlds. Those of us who use the feature will have it available, while those who don't use it will be running a leaner browser. (not sure how much leaner, though.;^)
It's pretty simple: if you have a device with a camera, just cover the camera with a little black tape and tada, no more spying
I use a Post-It, with the non-sticky part over the camera hole.
That way, when I actually do want to use the camera, I simply bend the paper back and expose the camera. When I am done, I fold it back. Replacements are pretty simple. One pad should last you a long time.;^)
Ok, so how do you create an infinite world with procedural generation?
You can't limit yourself to, say, a 64-bit int, cause that's not infinite. You could, presumably, use linked lists, but then you'd run into speed issues.
You seem to be assume the use of integers to identify the rooms. And there are many alternatives to linked lists.
A simple method would be to generate a pair of unique strings for each entrance/exit of a room. The first string would identify the current room / board, and the second string could represent the destination room. If you want to get really interesting, you can have one-way doorways, or even a different destination based on various factors. A simple hash table or an indexed database table could be used to locate the rooms. If the target string doesn't have a room associated with it, then you create a new room, save it, and then load the new room.
Just because an exit from one room takes you to a previously visited room doesn't mean the world repeats. In fact, if that never happened, the game would be boringly linear.
There is no reason that the entire world has to be in memory at one time, only the rooms where players are located. When memory gets tight, you can page out any rooms that are now empty, or perhaps where there has been no recent activity. When a new room is loaded, you can control its contents based on if the player has been there before, or if this is the first time that any player has been there within some time period. That would allow some one-time objects, others to be regenerated periodically, other items to be limited to one per party, etc.
I remember reading similar concerns when PBS came out with a radical new TV program called "Sesame Street.";^)
It is much easier asking these questions than doing actual research and coming up with some answers. I think a lot depends on what they are doing with technology: if they are reading and learning or just goofing around and wasting time.
I taught college classes for a number of years. Eventually, it became very common for students to bring their laptops with them to class. Some of them followed my lecture notes and tried sample problems. Others read email, web sites, or played games with the sound turned off. As long as they weren't disruptive, I didn't try to stop them.
Of course, K-12 is very different than college, but when I was in high school, I carried a book with me to read when a class got boring. These days I carry several books on my phone in case I get some extra time. My grades were pretty good, so I didn't seem to suffer from not paying attention.
Essentially, the question seems to be: "Does the teacher have to keep the students entertained?" Perhaps it should be phrased: "Does the teacher have to keep the students involved?" Teachers that drone on endlessly, sometimes reading their lecture notes, will have problems. Those that interact with their students and have activities that involve the students will do much better. As always, anything that changes the current situation is suspect.
That's great. I'm over 70 and I do indeed remember my Ovaltine decoders. I bet a very large percentage of the people here on/. have no clue what your post was about. Thank you sir, for reminding me of some good childhood memories.
Not only did I get an Ovaltine secret decoder ring, but I made my brother drink it, since I couldn't stand the stuff.;^)
I don't know where the original poster got their information, but nothing is forced to be public. You can control the privacy on any of the fields. If you look at your privacy settings, they look locked, but there is a "Change Privacy Settings" button that will prompt for your password before it will let you change any of the settings. It seems to me that would provide more protection against a robot changing profile settings.
In PA, you can make up to $200 a week (depending on what you were making) without it affecting your unemployment benefits. If you go over the limit, the amount in excess is deducted from your benefits check for that period.
This allows people on unemployment to look for part-time work, which might turn into full-time work, and thus take them off unemployment benefits. Of course, in this economy...
This "concern" has been around for some time, and has always been 5 to 20 years away.
IMHO, rather than concentrating increasing artificial intelligence, we need to figure out how to give computers common sense. Every programmer that has worked on AI has encountered cases where their program went off on a tangent that the programmer didn't expect (and probably couldn't believe). That isn't artificial intelligence, it is artificial stupidity. If we could get to the point where a program could ask "does this make sense?" we would be much better off than coming up with new and improved ways for computers to act like idiots.
So if a wheelchair bound grandfather wants to buy a stairmaster for his grandson, you don't want to sell it to him. Is that right? Or the injured woman who is currently in a wheelchair but wants a stairmaster to strengthen her legs? Just because you think somebody can't use you product directly doesn't mean they can't be a customer.
One concern is how long do they retain this information, and how much of the "full pipe" do they save? If they isolate the information they are looking for, and then discard the rest, then that is fine. I can even see an argument for keeping additional data in escrow, in the event that further research is necessary.
However, if they retain the data and then perform new searches, then (IMHO) they are crossing the line. Considering what has happened in the past, there are reasons to be suspicious of their activities.
Re:Definitely has uses but..
on
Oracle Linux?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
A number of years ago, Oracle came out with "Raw Iron", which was a configuration where Oracle ran on an intel box without any operating system.
They found that much of their customer support was helping sys admins configure the operating
system so that Oracle would run well.
They also found that most customers used a dedicated database server,
so the only thing running on that box was Oracle.
As a result, they tried to eliminate the O/S and add a layer that interfaced Oracle to the hardware.
I would guess that they would offer a complete package that has Oracle running
with Linux pre-configured to run Oracle.
The idea would be that nothing else would be run on that box,
except perhaps for a few utilities the customer run to monitor, backup, etc.
As far as the customer is concerned, Linux would be transparent to them.
They would simply have "Oracle" running on that box.
Presumably Oracle would provide necessary support for Linux relative to Oracle.
They would probably not support other uses for Linux on that box.
If the customer wanted to run additional applications,
they would be responsible for any support.
I have a Can-Am system at home and it works great. It was recommended to me by a friend, who likewise had been using it for some time.
When I got them, you could buy them in 2 and 3 drawer configurations, and you can stack them as high as you want. You can order a base unit with casters so they can be moved easily. If you stack the units, they aren't idiot proof, since the safety lock mechanism only works for each unit. If you open one drawer of a unit, you can't open any other drawers in that unit, but you can open any of the drawers in the units above and below that one.
They are very sturdy. If you take the CDs out of the jewel cases and put them in sleeves you can fit even more into their drawers. They have wire dividers that keep the individual columns of CDs from sliding sidewise that you can space wherever. I love mine!
On the contrary, C is one of the worst languages you can use as your first language. I've tried teaching C to first year students. You end up teaching the syntax and vagaries of C and not very much programming or computer science.
I have been teaching introduction to programming for many, many years.
What I have seen is that about half the class finds C easy to learn,
while the other half found VB easy to learn.
Eventually, what I did was taught the principles of programming,
and then gave examples in both C and VB.
I had sample programs available on my web site that did the same thing,
but one was written in C, and one in VB.
I included notes that explained how the different languages influenced
how the programs were different (e.g., console or GUI).
I then told the students that I didn't care which language they used
to write their programs.
This approach improved the overall success rate for students.
They were able to work in the language that "made sense" to them.
I think the difference was in how the student approached understanding
the programs.
The ones who preferred VB tended to run the program and see what it did.
These students could quickly get a program to run, and then experiment
to make it work the way they wanted.
The ones who prefered C liked the fact that they could print out the entire program and look at a small amount of code and figure out what it did.
When they tried that with VB, they got a lot of GUI code that they found confusing.
I wouldn't drop it, but I would hold onto it for a while. I would hope that if it is a good story, somebody else would submit it shortly.
I must admit I wondered about story submissions. At one point, I submitted a bunch of stories only to have them all rejected. In some cases, the story appeared eventually, but by somebody else. I just assumed that I wasn't fast enough, or that the editors tended to look at submissions from certain people first.
Thanks for the description of the process. More articles like this might help help reduce the off-topic rants.
In general, if you can prove a positive, then you can prove the negative as well. You can also prove something by contradiction. Often, one will be easier than the other, so you can use that feature to decide what is the best / easiest / most practical approach.
For example, if I want to prove / disprove the statement "All crows are black", I can do one of two things: either find all the crows in the world and verify that they are black, or find all the non-black things in the world and verify that none of them is a crow.
Proving by contradiction is to assume the negative of what you want to prove, then see if you can derive a contradiction from your initial assumption. If you are able to do that, then that proves that your initial assumption is incorrect, which in turn proves what you were trying to prove.
Not everyone that deletes cookies do it for privacy reasons.
One of the standard answers that many help desk operations suggest if a user has problems with a web site is to delete your cache and cookies, and then restart your browser.
So, it is entirely possible that some people are deleting their cookies but not really aware of what they are and what side effects it causes.
Good point. The article doesn't give any numbers, just percentages. The fact that IE gained and FF lost percentages could simply be the result of new users that had IE preloaded.
If I ignore (for the moment) an interruption, then it has less of an impact on my productivity. And some of us multi-task fairly well, which would also reduce the impact.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly right. Google something, right-click-open-in-new-tab a bunch of interesting looking sites, then easily close them all down when you're finished. I use these very useful features multiple times every day. Please don't kill them.
That is exactly what I do, several times a day, so I would miss that feature. What is the motivation for the change?
Actually, if somebody writes an extension to put them back, it would be the best of both worlds. Those of us who use the feature will have it available, while those who don't use it will be running a leaner browser. (not sure how much leaner, though. ;^)
I think the real shortage is probably for H1-B visas so that companies can hire foreign workers at lower salaries.
It's pretty simple: if you have a device with a camera, just cover the camera with a little black tape and tada, no more spying
I use a Post-It, with the non-sticky part over the camera hole.
That way, when I actually do want to use the camera, I simply bend the paper back and expose the camera. When I am done, I fold it back. Replacements are pretty simple. One pad should last you a long time. ;^)
Well, actually it's quite embarrassing that they're only doing this now...
I agree. It is amazing what little effort companies make to "protect" their data. They seem to think that having a password is all that is needed.
This seems to be another dupe: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/07/26/005230/noaa-goes-live-with-new-forecasting-supercomputers
Wasn't there a Big Bang Theory episode that feature this technique?
Yes, Howard had a Remote Kissing Machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9KXKbBKp1A
Ok, so how do you create an infinite world with procedural generation? You can't limit yourself to, say, a 64-bit int, cause that's not infinite. You could, presumably, use linked lists, but then you'd run into speed issues.
You seem to be assume the use of integers to identify the rooms. And there are many alternatives to linked lists.
A simple method would be to generate a pair of unique strings for each entrance/exit of a room. The first string would identify the current room / board, and the second string could represent the destination room. If you want to get really interesting, you can have one-way doorways, or even a different destination based on various factors. A simple hash table or an indexed database table could be used to locate the rooms. If the target string doesn't have a room associated with it, then you create a new room, save it, and then load the new room.
Just because an exit from one room takes you to a previously visited room doesn't mean the world repeats. In fact, if that never happened, the game would be boringly linear.
There is no reason that the entire world has to be in memory at one time, only the rooms where players are located. When memory gets tight, you can page out any rooms that are now empty, or perhaps where there has been no recent activity. When a new room is loaded, you can control its contents based on if the player has been there before, or if this is the first time that any player has been there within some time period. That would allow some one-time objects, others to be regenerated periodically, other items to be limited to one per party, etc.
The RNC has disowned and pulled the brief. The main article (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/an-anti-ip-turn-for-the-gop/ contains a link to the pulled document. http://www.scribd.com/doc/113633834/Republican-Study-Committee-Intellectual-Property-Brief.
I remember reading similar concerns when PBS came out with a radical new TV program called "Sesame Street." ;^)
It is much easier asking these questions than doing actual research and coming up with some answers. I think a lot depends on what they are doing with technology: if they are reading and learning or just goofing around and wasting time.
I taught college classes for a number of years. Eventually, it became very common for students to bring their laptops with them to class. Some of them followed my lecture notes and tried sample problems. Others read email, web sites, or played games with the sound turned off. As long as they weren't disruptive, I didn't try to stop them.
Of course, K-12 is very different than college, but when I was in high school, I carried a book with me to read when a class got boring. These days I carry several books on my phone in case I get some extra time. My grades were pretty good, so I didn't seem to suffer from not paying attention.
Essentially, the question seems to be: "Does the teacher have to keep the students entertained?" Perhaps it should be phrased: "Does the teacher have to keep the students involved?" Teachers that drone on endlessly, sometimes reading their lecture notes, will have problems. Those that interact with their students and have activities that involve the students will do much better. As always, anything that changes the current situation is suspect.
I found this link with Google: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/education/technology-is-changing-how-students-learn-teachers-say.html?pagewanted=all
"drink more ovaltine"
doh! I knew it. just knew it.
That's great. I'm over 70 and I do indeed remember my Ovaltine decoders. I bet a very large percentage of the people here on /. have no clue what your post was about. Thank you sir, for reminding me of some good childhood memories.
Not only did I get an Ovaltine secret decoder ring, but I made my brother drink it, since I couldn't stand the stuff. ;^)
I don't know where the original poster got their information, but nothing is forced to be public. You can control the privacy on any of the fields. If you look at your privacy settings, they look locked, but there is a "Change Privacy Settings" button that will prompt for your password before it will let you change any of the settings. It seems to me that would provide more protection against a robot changing profile settings.
In PA, you can make up to $200 a week (depending on what you were making) without it affecting your unemployment benefits. If you go over the limit, the amount in excess is deducted from your benefits check for that period.
This allows people on unemployment to look for part-time work, which might turn into full-time work, and thus take them off unemployment benefits. Of course, in this economy ...
This "concern" has been around for some time, and has always been 5 to 20 years away.
IMHO, rather than concentrating increasing artificial intelligence, we need to figure out how to give computers common sense. Every programmer that has worked on AI has encountered cases where their program went off on a tangent that the programmer didn't expect (and probably couldn't believe). That isn't artificial intelligence, it is artificial stupidity. If we could get to the point where a program could ask "does this make sense?" we would be much better off than coming up with new and improved ways for computers to act like idiots.
Is this a dup of this story from July 31?
So if a wheelchair bound grandfather wants to buy a stairmaster for his grandson, you don't want to sell it to him. Is that right? Or the injured woman who is currently in a wheelchair but wants a stairmaster to strengthen her legs? Just because you think somebody can't use you product directly doesn't mean they can't be a customer.
One concern is how long do they retain this information, and how much of the "full pipe" do they save? If they isolate the information they are looking for, and then discard the rest, then that is fine. I can even see an argument for keeping additional data in escrow, in the event that further research is necessary.
However, if they retain the data and then perform new searches, then (IMHO) they are crossing the line. Considering what has happened in the past, there are reasons to be suspicious of their activities.
A number of years ago, Oracle came out with "Raw Iron", which was a configuration where Oracle ran on an intel box without any operating system. They found that much of their customer support was helping sys admins configure the operating system so that Oracle would run well. They also found that most customers used a dedicated database server, so the only thing running on that box was Oracle. As a result, they tried to eliminate the O/S and add a layer that interfaced Oracle to the hardware.
I would guess that they would offer a complete package that has Oracle running with Linux pre-configured to run Oracle. The idea would be that nothing else would be run on that box, except perhaps for a few utilities the customer run to monitor, backup, etc.
As far as the customer is concerned, Linux would be transparent to them. They would simply have "Oracle" running on that box. Presumably Oracle would provide necessary support for Linux relative to Oracle. They would probably not support other uses for Linux on that box. If the customer wanted to run additional applications, they would be responsible for any support.
I have a Can-Am system at home and it works great. It was recommended to me by a friend, who likewise had been using it for some time.
When I got them, you could buy them in 2 and 3 drawer configurations, and you can stack them as high as you want. You can order a base unit with casters so they can be moved easily. If you stack the units, they aren't idiot proof, since the safety lock mechanism only works for each unit. If you open one drawer of a unit, you can't open any other drawers in that unit, but you can open any of the drawers in the units above and below that one.
They are very sturdy. If you take the CDs out of the jewel cases and put them in sleeves you can fit even more into their drawers. They have wire dividers that keep the individual columns of CDs from sliding sidewise that you can space wherever. I love mine!
I have been teaching introduction to programming for many, many years. What I have seen is that about half the class finds C easy to learn, while the other half found VB easy to learn. Eventually, what I did was taught the principles of programming, and then gave examples in both C and VB. I had sample programs available on my web site that did the same thing, but one was written in C, and one in VB. I included notes that explained how the different languages influenced how the programs were different (e.g., console or GUI). I then told the students that I didn't care which language they used to write their programs.
This approach improved the overall success rate for students. They were able to work in the language that "made sense" to them. I think the difference was in how the student approached understanding the programs.
The ones who preferred VB tended to run the program and see what it did. These students could quickly get a program to run, and then experiment to make it work the way they wanted.
The ones who prefered C liked the fact that they could print out the entire program and look at a small amount of code and figure out what it did. When they tried that with VB, they got a lot of GUI code that they found confusing.
I wouldn't drop it, but I would hold onto it for a while. I would hope that if it is a good story, somebody else would submit it shortly.
I must admit I wondered about story submissions. At one point, I submitted a bunch of stories only to have them all rejected. In some cases, the story appeared eventually, but by somebody else. I just assumed that I wasn't fast enough, or that the editors tended to look at submissions from certain people first.
Thanks for the description of the process. More articles like this might help help reduce the off-topic rants.
In general, if you can prove a positive, then you can prove the negative as well. You can also prove something by contradiction. Often, one will be easier than the other, so you can use that feature to decide what is the best / easiest / most practical approach.
For example, if I want to prove / disprove the statement "All crows are black", I can do one of two things: either find all the crows in the world and verify that they are black, or find all the non-black things in the world and verify that none of them is a crow.
Proving by contradiction is to assume the negative of what you want to prove, then see if you can derive a contradiction from your initial assumption. If you are able to do that, then that proves that your initial assumption is incorrect, which in turn proves what you were trying to prove.
Not everyone that deletes cookies do it for privacy reasons.
One of the standard answers that many help desk operations suggest if a user has problems with a web site is to delete your cache and cookies, and then restart your browser.
So, it is entirely possible that some people are deleting their cookies but not really aware of what they are and what side effects it causes.
Good point. The article doesn't give any numbers, just percentages. The fact that IE gained and FF lost percentages could simply be the result of new users that had IE preloaded.
If I ignore (for the moment) an interruption, then it has less of an impact on my productivity. And some of us multi-task fairly well, which would also reduce the impact.