Ooops! I just RTFM'd... sorry, MythTV DOES support IR blasters. I am so checking this out right freaking now. Ok, soon. Thanks./.!
Now if only it would work with OS X... anybody know about this?
I'd love something like MythTV to break out and replace TiVo. Only problem: MythTV does not to my knowledge have an IR channel-changer, so I'm probably stuck with some TV-tuner card, which only will get a few stations. In other words, it's not cable-TV/satellite TV friendly. All the shows I watch are on cable/HBO. Bummer! Please tell me I'm wrong.
Also, even with an IR changer, it fairly often fails to change the channel correctly, for some reason. It's certainly no more than 95% or 98% reliable. The integrated satellite+TiVo (direcTivo) unit I have ALWAYS, FLAWLESSLY records what I want when I want.
That being said, TiVo sucks. It is not configurable enough, you have to do text entry with a freaking remote control, the filters and other choices are limited, and they've never improved their features in the years since I've been using them. But, like democracy, it's the "worst possible form of (entertainment), except for all the others."
I have had TiVo now for years. I wish the interviewer had asked Mr. TiVo President why they NEVER improve their interface. It always is the same. Many many clicks to get common tasks done, long pauses waiting for poorly implemented algorithms to finish, lack of customizability. As much as I love TiVo, I wish they would make it more configurable and flexible. For example, I wish I could set up arbitrary filters, instead of choosing from their sets. Also, I wish I could use wildcards. And I wish I could set up shortcuts for common operations. And I wish I had a keyboard to make typing easier. Their interface NEVER improves. Did I mention that?:-)
You said:
No computer can act as fast, sorting through a lifetime of experience in a fraction of a second and coming to a correct conclusion.
I say:
I don't think that's what human brains do. I think we "cheat" by developing feelings based on a few important data. Which data are important? You just develop a guessing instinct by trial and error. This is why life experience is invaluable and why ivory-tower academics are often so wildly wrong about obvious facts the rest of us understand implicitly. Some answers cannot be efficiently, algorithmically determined, that's the point of doing it. The computation involved in such an effort IMHO is not that amazing. What's amazing is that it works so well.
I would wait until I could dual-boot into it, then probably install it as a convenience. Otherwise hell no, if I were going to run a cheap OS like Windows I'd do it on cheap hardware! I don't know if there's much advantage to running on PPC. (Please don't flame me for that, it's just how I feel.)
I just realized that these people have invented a great way to make OS X less stable! Run the kernel on an unstable platform. Great. Why the heck would anyone want to do this?
True, but this cautious quote from the article makes it sound as though they based their prediction purely on previous history, not on any sort of geographical of physics information:
"We're elated our computer modeling technique has revealed a relationship between past and future earthquake locations"
This was a sensationalized article title, IMHO.
The only way the American people won't face the "a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush" type of dilemma is the following: Instant Runoff Voting. http://www.fairvote.org/irv/
This is something we need to get going and fast! Election reform is not about money, it's about the two major parties' death grip on the process. IRV and proportional representation would be very helpful.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/prlib.htm
Very misleading. If wind power costs less than fossil fuels to produce, then the change will not require any political willpower at all. Energy companies will all switch in an instant. All this is telling me is that the cost of wind is HEAVILY subsidized right now, which is complete stupidity.
This is indeed a security flaw. But sysadmins wishing to prevent data loss in a corporation would do better to restrict the means to EXPORT the data from the network, which is fully under their control, rather than try to play cat-and-mouse with technologies to IMPORT data to portable storage devices. E.g., keep secure data on machines without disks, ports, or network connections. You can do whatever you want to such a machine, but short of disassembling it or transcribing info from the screen to paper, it cannot be used to steal corp data no matter how many USB devices you have.
I think these have great potential, if only they could be combined with an IR blaster or directly connected to enable control of a cable or satellite box. Right now, I stick to TiVo because it performs flawlessly with Dish satellite TV, so I can get Sopranos etc.
I think you make a great point. It sounds easy, just plop some algae into a big pool of water, but I wonder what the actual production costs would be **per mile driven** compared to gasoline? And I don't see much benefit to the environment here, since "biodiesel" still produces the same pollutants when burned as "nonbiodiesel." I think net costs and emissions would be in the same ballpark as drilling might be.
We need to go nuclear or figure out a radically new technology. ( no troll intended here )
If I understand this correctly, you're wrong. (Well, not a *virus*, which is something that inserts itself into the code of another application, but a worm, certainly.) This exploit allows arbitrary code to run. It can simply run a server on your machine and send emails around to others pointing to said server to propagate itself. It can even add a crontab entry so it runs each time your machine is on.
Right?
This reminds me of an irritating "feature" of Safari. On other browsers, when you pass your mouse over a link, you can see the actual URL in an area below the window. Safari doesn't provide any way except copy-and-paste. IMHO this is a minor security issue, as I like to know exactly where Im going before I click.
This reminds me of a friend's rule of thumb for Apple SW updates: Always wait a few days before installing any new updates. Let others test them, because Apple can't think of everything.:-)
I wonder, is there a way to know what got installed where and undo an install? I suppose you could back up your/System,/Application, and/Library directories before each update, but that seems extreme.
>Traffic lights are there because people can't just be nice and obey basic traffic laws and common courtesy.
No, traffic lights are there to enhance the ability of traffic to flow efficiently without using stop signs. With a traffic light, you can keep going when the light is green. With a stop sign or other static convention, you must stop at the intersection to be safe, or at least slow way down.
So what? I honestly don't see why anyone is surprised to learn that there is a number X at which buckyballs harm fish. The article seems to put forth the idea that 0.5 ppm is particularly significant because it's "a concentration level on par with common US pollutants." This is just foolish. This just means that the regulations for buckyball emissions into the environment need to be set at some safer number, below 0.5 ppm. EVERYTHING kills fish at concentrations that are high enough, including water, which must be "diluted" with oxygen in order for them to survive.
Excellent points. It's amazing to me someone would try to claim a CLI is superior to a gui for beginners!
There are lots of things that just can't be done from the GUI, e.g. Photoshop or Netscape or other inherently graphical, visual tasks.
Regarding the control panel thing, it is much easier to remember the location of things in control panels, because the mind organizes information this way anyhow. The idea of placing information into spatial locations, e.g., leaving a bit of text on the desktop, is a familiar idea from the real world that maps directly onto everyday experience. A common memory enhancement trick is in fact to put items into an imaginary location in a building to remember them later. Monks used to use this trick to memorize the Bible.
I think you make a decent point, that the limited examples in the article didn't make a convincing argument for free trade. But consider the opposite. What happens if trade restrictions (protectionist policies to "protect jobs") are put into place by the US? Surely you don't think that efforts to prop up the US steel industry is resulting in more American jobs? You really have to use macro-economic arguments to justify free trade, but essentially I believe it from a gut feeling that empowering individuals in the marketplace to buy from whomever they please is going to be more efficient and thus lead to better lives for all of us than allowing government to "protect us" from the "huge multinational corporate threat." Efficient, free markets are good for us. Another point to keep in mind: every 3 months, 8 or 9 million American workers lose their jobs, in ordinary "churning." The number of jobs expected to go to India by *year 2015* is 3.3 million, according to the most widely cited study on the subject. So the danger is overstated at anyrate. An economist can argue the point better, but blaming evil multinational corporations is just demagoguery.
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Ooops! I just RTFM'd... sorry, MythTV DOES support IR blasters. I am so checking this out right freaking now. Ok, soon. Thanks. /.!
Now if only it would work with OS X... anybody know about this?
I'd love something like MythTV to break out and replace TiVo. Only problem: MythTV does not to my knowledge have an IR channel-changer, so I'm probably stuck with some TV-tuner card, which only will get a few stations. In other words, it's not cable-TV/satellite TV friendly. All the shows I watch are on cable/HBO. Bummer! Please tell me I'm wrong. Also, even with an IR changer, it fairly often fails to change the channel correctly, for some reason. It's certainly no more than 95% or 98% reliable. The integrated satellite+TiVo (direcTivo) unit I have ALWAYS, FLAWLESSLY records what I want when I want. That being said, TiVo sucks. It is not configurable enough, you have to do text entry with a freaking remote control, the filters and other choices are limited, and they've never improved their features in the years since I've been using them. But, like democracy, it's the "worst possible form of (entertainment), except for all the others."
But if we don't regulate it, how will we stop terrorists from sending pornography to the children? Save us, FCC!
I have had TiVo now for years. I wish the interviewer had asked Mr. TiVo President why they NEVER improve their interface. It always is the same. Many many clicks to get common tasks done, long pauses waiting for poorly implemented algorithms to finish, lack of customizability. As much as I love TiVo, I wish they would make it more configurable and flexible. For example, I wish I could set up arbitrary filters, instead of choosing from their sets. Also, I wish I could use wildcards. And I wish I could set up shortcuts for common operations. And I wish I had a keyboard to make typing easier. Their interface NEVER improves. Did I mention that? :-)
You said: No computer can act as fast, sorting through a lifetime of experience in a fraction of a second and coming to a correct conclusion. I say: I don't think that's what human brains do. I think we "cheat" by developing feelings based on a few important data. Which data are important? You just develop a guessing instinct by trial and error. This is why life experience is invaluable and why ivory-tower academics are often so wildly wrong about obvious facts the rest of us understand implicitly. Some answers cannot be efficiently, algorithmically determined, that's the point of doing it. The computation involved in such an effort IMHO is not that amazing. What's amazing is that it works so well.
I would wait until I could dual-boot into it, then probably install it as a convenience. Otherwise hell no, if I were going to run a cheap OS like Windows I'd do it on cheap hardware! I don't know if there's much advantage to running on PPC. (Please don't flame me for that, it's just how I feel.)
I just realized that these people have invented a great way to make OS X less stable! Run the kernel on an unstable platform. Great. Why the heck would anyone want to do this?
True, but this cautious quote from the article makes it sound as though they based their prediction purely on previous history, not on any sort of geographical of physics information:
"We're elated our computer modeling technique has revealed a relationship between past and future earthquake locations"
This was a sensationalized article title, IMHO.
The only way the American people won't face the "a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush" type of dilemma is the following: Instant Runoff Voting. http://www.fairvote.org/irv/ This is something we need to get going and fast! Election reform is not about money, it's about the two major parties' death grip on the process. IRV and proportional representation would be very helpful. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/prlib.htm
Very misleading. If wind power costs less than fossil fuels to produce, then the change will not require any political willpower at all. Energy companies will all switch in an instant. All this is telling me is that the cost of wind is HEAVILY subsidized right now, which is complete stupidity.
The title should be "Mysterious Force Affects Pioneer 10 & 11 Probes." Just a pet peeve of mine.
Oh, for Christ's sake. You know he meant "with the -g flag." Give him a break. :-)
This is indeed a security flaw. But sysadmins wishing to prevent data loss in a corporation would do better to restrict the means to EXPORT the data from the network, which is fully under their control, rather than try to play cat-and-mouse with technologies to IMPORT data to portable storage devices. E.g., keep secure data on machines without disks, ports, or network connections. You can do whatever you want to such a machine, but short of disassembling it or transcribing info from the screen to paper, it cannot be used to steal corp data no matter how many USB devices you have.
I think these have great potential, if only they could be combined with an IR blaster or directly connected to enable control of a cable or satellite box. Right now, I stick to TiVo because it performs flawlessly with Dish satellite TV, so I can get Sopranos etc.
Care to expand on what the bad idea was?
I think you make a great point. It sounds easy, just plop some algae into a big pool of water, but I wonder what the actual production costs would be **per mile driven** compared to gasoline? And I don't see much benefit to the environment here, since "biodiesel" still produces the same pollutants when burned as "nonbiodiesel." I think net costs and emissions would be in the same ballpark as drilling might be. We need to go nuclear or figure out a radically new technology. ( no troll intended here )
If I understand this correctly, you're wrong. (Well, not a *virus*, which is something that inserts itself into the code of another application, but a worm, certainly.) This exploit allows arbitrary code to run. It can simply run a server on your machine and send emails around to others pointing to said server to propagate itself. It can even add a crontab entry so it runs each time your machine is on. Right?
This reminds me of an irritating "feature" of Safari. On other browsers, when you pass your mouse over a link, you can see the actual URL in an area below the window. Safari doesn't provide any way except copy-and-paste. IMHO this is a minor security issue, as I like to know exactly where Im going before I click.
This reminds me of a friend's rule of thumb for Apple SW updates: Always wait a few days before installing any new updates. Let others test them, because Apple can't think of everything. :-)
I wonder, is there a way to know what got installed where and undo an install? I suppose you could back up your /System, /Application, and /Library directories before each update, but that seems extreme.
>Traffic lights are there because people can't just be nice and obey basic traffic laws and common courtesy. No, traffic lights are there to enhance the ability of traffic to flow efficiently without using stop signs. With a traffic light, you can keep going when the light is green. With a stop sign or other static convention, you must stop at the intersection to be safe, or at least slow way down.
So what? I honestly don't see why anyone is surprised to learn that there is a number X at which buckyballs harm fish. The article seems to put forth the idea that 0.5 ppm is particularly significant because it's "a concentration level on par with common US pollutants." This is just foolish. This just means that the regulations for buckyball emissions into the environment need to be set at some safer number, below 0.5 ppm. EVERYTHING kills fish at concentrations that are high enough, including water, which must be "diluted" with oxygen in order for them to survive.
Who cares if they survive if you can just reanimate them?
Excellent points. It's amazing to me someone would try to claim a CLI is superior to a gui for beginners! There are lots of things that just can't be done from the GUI, e.g. Photoshop or Netscape or other inherently graphical, visual tasks. Regarding the control panel thing, it is much easier to remember the location of things in control panels, because the mind organizes information this way anyhow. The idea of placing information into spatial locations, e.g., leaving a bit of text on the desktop, is a familiar idea from the real world that maps directly onto everyday experience. A common memory enhancement trick is in fact to put items into an imaginary location in a building to remember them later. Monks used to use this trick to memorize the Bible.
I think you make a decent point, that the limited examples in the article didn't make a convincing argument for free trade. But consider the opposite. What happens if trade restrictions (protectionist policies to "protect jobs") are put into place by the US? Surely you don't think that efforts to prop up the US steel industry is resulting in more American jobs? You really have to use macro-economic arguments to justify free trade, but essentially I believe it from a gut feeling that empowering individuals in the marketplace to buy from whomever they please is going to be more efficient and thus lead to better lives for all of us than allowing government to "protect us" from the "huge multinational corporate threat." Efficient, free markets are good for us. Another point to keep in mind: every 3 months, 8 or 9 million American workers lose their jobs, in ordinary "churning." The number of jobs expected to go to India by *year 2015* is 3.3 million, according to the most widely cited study on the subject. So the danger is overstated at anyrate. An economist can argue the point better, but blaming evil multinational corporations is just demagoguery.
The advantage would be that if you have a wma file you could play it on your iPod, no? Or is it easy to convert between them?