You know, I wonder if there might be a simple test for these voting machines. Keep the things from being tampered with after the election is done. Then, reset them and have some trustworthy people visible enter a known number of votes for various candidates. If the end result is not akin to the data entered, then somebody has screwed with the machine to make it skew in favour of particular candidate(s).
It's not how you get the car, it's how you respect it. I know plenty of people that bought their own vehicles and then sent them to car-heaven. Heck, my own cousin I wouldn't let within 50 feet of the driver's seat.
I also know plenty of people who had cars bought for them and respected the vehicle, no crashes. There is a line, but it doesn't start at buying the vehicle. Some parents that will happily and repeatedly bail their kids out of automobile issues (crash car, parents pay to fix it or buy a new one), and even an experienced driver might be a but lead-footed if they were given (or bought) a viper or other such vehicle. I was bought my first car, it wasn't too flashy (88 Camry) but it was a stick so it had some juice to it, and I didn't do anything stupid enough to pile it into a cliff. I respected my vehicle, because I knew it was the only one I was getting, but more importantly because I didn't want to end up in the hospital or the morgue.
Nowadays, I've actually been finding that most bad drivers are not kids, and I've seen lots of bad drivers. The situation is aggravated by people who subject themselves to continual distractions while driving (cellphone, DUI, superloud stereo etc). There are plenty of adults out there who run lights, lane-change unsafely, and (my personal pet-peeve) block up the roads with their 3-car-length motorhomes towing SUV's and driving 30km under the limit.
Essentially, it's not an issue of being given a car, it's being given more than you can handle. John Doe might not be able to handle driving a flashy sports car, regardless of whether it was gifted or earned. That you were able to earn your own vehicle and drive it safely speaks for your personal maturity, but doesn't indicate that you would have been a terrible driver had it been gifted to you.
Also, one should keep in mind that the idiot drivers who buy their own car and total it aren't drivers for sometime afterward for the simple fact that they often can't afford another vehicle.
Sometimes it's unsafe to go slow because others are speeding, but other times it's because it backs up traffic and causes other related issues. When you've got a major roadway which fills up at a particular time (say when everyone goes to or gets off of work), having cars proceeding slowly allows for less intake of vehicles towards the rear. This in turn leads to clogged onramps and general traffic buildup. Of course, this would still be somewhat ok if not for the fact that people do stupid things, but in the even where somebody feels he/she must get somewhere, he/she will take the chance of cutting others off and doing other stupid traffic stunts, even if not actually speeding.
There are still deadbeat buyers out there. People who throw out fake money orders, claim items weren't delivered that were, etc etc. They're the dirty counterparts to sellers who don't ship items, ship the wrong thing on purpose, or ship broken stuff.
What they need is a feedback system wherein neither person sees the other's feedback until their own is posted. That way it would eliminate the issue of posting nasty response-feedback.
It's also about visibility. While ebay has modified their search+listing system to show the shipping costs, for many of the auctions I see this is still blank, and the little box at the bottom says "see item decription" wherein the shipping cost is hidden within a mass of tables, coloured text, and pictures.
The first thing that the buyer sees is "item X" at a low cost. It's enough at least to get that first viewing, and sometimes enough to snag an unwary bidder who doesn't notice the immense shipping cost. Sure, I wouldn't mind paying $0.50 more in shipping costs, but the fact is that sometimes the shipping is 100% the cost of the actual item, which is far beyond covering the ebay 'expenses'
More recently, I've noticed that ebay has started for many auctions to list shipping beside the price in the search/summary page. For the buyer, this is a good idea, as sellers like to pick up some extra coin in shipping (not a bad thing), but some pretty much pull the majority of their revenue from massively overinflated shipping costs. For example, a gamecube game might go for $20-30... but when the shipper is asking $40 to ship the damn thing then it costs more than it would at the store. Some sellers don't list shipping, so you have to be careful to ask ahead of time and hope they answer back before auction close.
What they need now, from a buyer's viewpoint, is a better sorting system (a way to sort on cost incl shipping), a way to opt out of viewing those damn bulk-list auctions, and of course a better way to deal with fraud. People come to ebay because they're looking for a deal, when sellers are getting tricky with shipping, insurance, and other silly little things it isn't a deal anymore, and it's not worth saving $4 on a $50 item when you have to wait weeks for delivery.
Well, from the/. article, it would seem that they certainly aren't taking these guys seriously. Perhaps they're hoping to have them quickly laughed out of existance (and possible slashdotted out of existance) before they can actually hook some sucker into believing them?
I haven't used it yet, but how about the VESA bochs extension for the newer Qemu versions? I think it's supposed to communicate more directly with the hardware, so perhaps it helps to avoid some of these issues.
Aside from military use (which to some might be a vice as well), isn't it interesting how much of our innovation nowadays is centered around profiting from people's vices (gambling, sex/porn, etc)
One might also want to take into account that many vaccines do have an effective lifetime. Many of them work by stimulating your body to produce antibodies etc against a particular virus. Your immune system acts like an army encampment that catches enemy scouts, and gets prepared for the possible invasion. Over time though, when no enemy shows up, your system may "stand down" stop producing the antibodies in sufficient number (and then you need a new shot of vaccine).
Having a working vaccine would be great and could definately improve the lives of some people (those with HIV+ partners, for example), as well as reduce the overall AIDS problem, but it would really really such if we find that out the hard way that after 7 years of use it no longer has an effective lifespan without a booster. Of course, the funny thing is that if it did work but have a limited effective term, those having relationships with HIV+ people would stay immune due to repeated exposure (your little army guys are staying on alert due to continued enemy presence).
There have been cases where people have been found to have a resistance to HIV/AIDS, and I do remember hearing of one where after being removed from exposure the ladies (who were prostitutes) in question were later infected years later after again exposing themselves to the virus, which would fit with the concept of their immuno-response lessening after exposure stops stimulating it. Of course it could just be that they were lucky to begin with, as having relations with an infected person does not 100% guarantee infection the first time.... but the risk thereof is enough that one wouldn't want to play the odds.
After all - if it's lifestyle choices and not the virus, you'd have nothing to fear, right
Not that I'm part of the HIV-doesn't-cause-AIDS crowd, but I'd think the societal stigma of having the former would be enough reason to avoid infection, nevermind the premature and unpleasant death associated with it.
Yes, my GF (who is Chinese) and other Chinese friends have actually told me not to trust Chinese in various matters - particularly involving money - because they will cheat you. On the other hand, I've found that for some things such as computer parts, the Chinese-run stores offered much better prices on items that often lasted longer than their expensive local-store counterparts, but of course there's a matter of feedback for that.
Oh, and if you want to see same real bargaining, take a Chinese female to a Chinese market and let her haggle the price of various items for you:-)
One thing to keep in mind is that water to be used for plant irrigation and other such things has a different purity requirement than human drinking water. What might be good for your plants isn't always good for people, so one might be able to happily use other sources of non-drinkable water without affecting the regular supply.
Build a small somewhat-insulated enclosure around the machines. Obviously you'd have to build it so that the machines don't overheat, but it should allow them to heat their own little areas over time, regardless of the overall warehouse temperature.
A frequent various music sites like Garageband and others. Whilst they do have their share of crap, there are also some good songs (and at times some fricking amazing ones) that I've found on there. In fact, some of my favorite songs are "Creative Commons" licensed, which - depending on the CC license - allows (and even encourages) copying, distribution, posting it on your webpage, or various use, personal and sometimes even commercial (though you must give credit to the artist).
I'm particularly fond of the CC-licensed stuff because I can pull up somebody's appropriately licensed song, and mix it with some homemade video clips or whatever, and post them online (with credit to the artist, like a "song by: XXXX" caption subtitle at the beginning) without the risk of getting sued.
First thing I do is make a copy of my discs, stick the originals on the rack, and use the copies (or a master-CD of mp3 copies) for my car, etc.
It makes a lot more sense to copy a CD and use the duplicate than use a copy as backup when the original is lost/wrecked/stolen.
But that did remind me of some advice my dad gave me the last time we hit a concert and I got to meet the band
"make sure you give them an original disc to sign and not a copy"
I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if somebody tried to get 'em to sign a copy. Of course a signed copy would also be pretty lame, I just brought the original case and got the various band members to sign the pages with their profiles (from the insert).
I had quite a few monitors at work (which happened to be a school) where the VGA connector would come loose just inside the machine. Kids would complain about having a blue/pink-hued screen, at which point I would walk over, and firmly give the monitor a slap upside the CRT. Most times this would jiggle things enough that they contacted again, and normal colours would return. Sometimes it required a few smacks, but the look on the kids' faces (not to mention the teachers) was definately worth the sore hand afterwards:-)
Personally, when I hear something that sounds fairly reasonable from enough people, I tend to go with tentatively believing the story as told until I hear a better explanation otherwise. Amongst my courses in Math, Science, IT, English, etc, *shock and horror* nobody, it just happens that nobody mentioned the memory span of a goldfish, this not being a really critical piece of information. Now, of course, various more importance pieces of information I'd tend to take for more a grain of salt, but as goldfish memory span is hardly a life-or-death piece of information (unless I'm playing a trivia game or something along those lines) I might tend to accept it as credible.
Of course, in my case I've also had goldfish and they have a tendency to associate people with food, etc etc, indicating that their overall memory span is larger than 3s, enough that in long-term memory they can relate "large bipedal person = incoming food", but as no scientists or credible sources have contradicted that particular smidgeon on information, I'd be happy to accept that they have have a rather limited short-term memory (heck, I've met people with about a 5-10s memory/attention-span).
Oh, and there's no snopes article on this subject either, at least not that I could find.
Seriously though, at some people, depending on the import of a given piece of information, it makes sense to accept what is largely held to be true (again, until properly-presented contradictory fact is presented). If a dozen people tell me that they've heard "Dave's Electronic's" is having a big sale on Saturday, I'll probably look forward to getting some cheap toys unless a "Dave's" employee tells me otherwise.
I've always wondered why devices can't use ultra-bright LED's? I'm not sure what the maximum lumens of output an LED can output is, but I've got a multi-LED flashlight that was cheaper, lasts longer on smaller batteries, and shines a whole lot brighter than most of the competing bulb-lights at the same size.
The LED's themselves are supposed to have a very long life-expentency compared to standard bulbs, likely due to the fact that they don't use a burning filiment or other hot method of producing light.
I'd agree and disagree, as this really depends on the album.
Playing the tracks of Pink Floyd's Pulse out of order or with tracks missing loses impact. Playing the good track of shitty-CD-with-two-good-songs without the crappy tracks is an improvement
Yes, but that doesn't mean that the 40 psi in the tires is the same amount of pressure on the device. That, again, is a measure of the pressure of the air within the tire itself. It also applies to balloons, bike tires, etc. Having X psi in a car tire and the same psi on a party balloon doesn't mean the party balloon could support the car.
And yes, there is a minimum pressure the tires must be to hold the weight of the car, but 40psi in the tires does not mean 40 pounds of pressure per each square inch of the device's measurement... again, this is the in-tire pressure.
So, since every action has an equal and opposite reaction, you must have 10 000 Newtons pressing upwards on the car through the air in the tyres
Here's partly where things go wrong, as ome of the air in the tire is helping exert the upward pressure on the vehicle, but the weight is also being born by the superstructure of the tire itself and other factors. You could have a 40psi tire or a 50psi tire, but that doesn't directly increase or decrease how much the items underneath are bearing by 10 psi (if you put a scale underneath, increasing or decreasing tire pressure does not make the scale show a different measurement. That's weight, which I think is where the article got a bit wrong using PSI instead of pounds). Again, the downward pressure is not a direct function of the internal psi, because the equalization of force up and down are not only absorbed by the air, but the rubber and others, but what you are measuring is just the pressure of the air against the outer walls (which in themselves must exert force back against the air in retaining shape).
Well, considering they recommend about 4 months after your last sexual act with a questionable partner before you can test "clean" and consider it safe (and sometimes a post test a few months later), I'd say it's about a 120-200 day window for signs that can be detected through blood testing.
I've never had any real cause to worry myself, but I have been tested as a just-in-case for the safety of myself and others.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, I wonder if there might be a simple test for these voting machines. Keep the things from being tampered with after the election is done. Then, reset them and have some trustworthy people visible enter a known number of votes for various candidates. If the end result is not akin to the data entered, then somebody has screwed with the machine to make it skew in favour of particular candidate(s).
How often do you read (or send) your credit-card number by email?
Neither is good from an information-theft perspective, but dealing with sites that have your financial info generally requires more security.
It's not how you get the car, it's how you respect it. I know plenty of people that bought their own vehicles and then sent them to car-heaven. Heck, my own cousin I wouldn't let within 50 feet of the driver's seat.
I also know plenty of people who had cars bought for them and respected the vehicle, no crashes. There is a line, but it doesn't start at buying the vehicle. Some parents that will happily and repeatedly bail their kids out of automobile issues (crash car, parents pay to fix it or buy a new one), and even an experienced driver might be a but lead-footed if they were given (or bought) a viper or other such vehicle. I was bought my first car, it wasn't too flashy (88 Camry) but it was a stick so it had some juice to it, and I didn't do anything stupid enough to pile it into a cliff. I respected my vehicle, because I knew it was the only one I was getting, but more importantly because I didn't want to end up in the hospital or the morgue.
Nowadays, I've actually been finding that most bad drivers are not kids, and I've seen lots of bad drivers. The situation is aggravated by people who subject themselves to continual distractions while driving (cellphone, DUI, superloud stereo etc). There are plenty of adults out there who run lights, lane-change unsafely, and (my personal pet-peeve) block up the roads with their 3-car-length motorhomes towing SUV's and driving 30km under the limit.
Essentially, it's not an issue of being given a car, it's being given more than you can handle. John Doe might not be able to handle driving a flashy sports car, regardless of whether it was gifted or earned. That you were able to earn your own vehicle and drive it safely speaks for your personal maturity, but doesn't indicate that you would have been a terrible driver had it been gifted to you.
Also, one should keep in mind that the idiot drivers who buy their own car and total it aren't drivers for sometime afterward for the simple fact that they often can't afford another vehicle.
Sometimes it's unsafe to go slow because others are speeding, but other times it's because it backs up traffic and causes other related issues. When you've got a major roadway which fills up at a particular time (say when everyone goes to or gets off of work), having cars proceeding slowly allows for less intake of vehicles towards the rear. This in turn leads to clogged onramps and general traffic buildup. Of course, this would still be somewhat ok if not for the fact that people do stupid things, but in the even where somebody feels he/she must get somewhere, he/she will take the chance of cutting others off and doing other stupid traffic stunts, even if not actually speeding.
There are still deadbeat buyers out there. People who throw out fake money orders, claim items weren't delivered that were, etc etc. They're the dirty counterparts to sellers who don't ship items, ship the wrong thing on purpose, or ship broken stuff.
What they need is a feedback system wherein neither person sees the other's feedback until their own is posted. That way it would eliminate the issue of posting nasty response-feedback.
It's also about visibility. While ebay has modified their search+listing system to show the shipping costs, for many of the auctions I see this is still blank, and the little box at the bottom says "see item decription" wherein the shipping cost is hidden within a mass of tables, coloured text, and pictures.
The first thing that the buyer sees is "item X" at a low cost. It's enough at least to get that first viewing, and sometimes enough to snag an unwary bidder who doesn't notice the immense shipping cost. Sure, I wouldn't mind paying $0.50 more in shipping costs, but the fact is that sometimes the shipping is 100% the cost of the actual item, which is far beyond covering the ebay 'expenses'
More recently, I've noticed that ebay has started for many auctions to list shipping beside the price in the search/summary page. For the buyer, this is a good idea, as sellers like to pick up some extra coin in shipping (not a bad thing), but some pretty much pull the majority of their revenue from massively overinflated shipping costs. For example, a gamecube game might go for $20-30... but when the shipper is asking $40 to ship the damn thing then it costs more than it would at the store. Some sellers don't list shipping, so you have to be careful to ask ahead of time and hope they answer back before auction close.
What they need now, from a buyer's viewpoint, is a better sorting system (a way to sort on cost incl shipping), a way to opt out of viewing those damn bulk-list auctions, and of course a better way to deal with fraud. People come to ebay because they're looking for a deal, when sellers are getting tricky with shipping, insurance, and other silly little things it isn't a deal anymore, and it's not worth saving $4 on a $50 item when you have to wait weeks for delivery.
How about having several LED's pointing at a mirrored concave focal point?
Well, from the /. article, it would seem that they certainly aren't taking these guys seriously. Perhaps they're hoping to have them quickly laughed out of existance (and possible slashdotted out of existance) before they can actually hook some sucker into believing them?
I haven't used it yet, but how about the VESA bochs extension for the newer Qemu versions? I think it's supposed to communicate more directly with the hardware, so perhaps it helps to avoid some of these issues.
Aside from military use (which to some might be a vice as well), isn't it interesting how much of our innovation nowadays is centered around profiting from people's vices (gambling, sex/porn, etc)
One might also want to take into account that many vaccines do have an effective lifetime. Many of them work by stimulating your body to produce antibodies etc against a particular virus. Your immune system acts like an army encampment that catches enemy scouts, and gets prepared for the possible invasion. Over time though, when no enemy shows up, your system may "stand down" stop producing the antibodies in sufficient number (and then you need a new shot of vaccine).
Having a working vaccine would be great and could definately improve the lives of some people (those with HIV+ partners, for example), as well as reduce the overall AIDS problem, but it would really really such if we find that out the hard way that after 7 years of use it no longer has an effective lifespan without a booster. Of course, the funny thing is that if it did work but have a limited effective term, those having relationships with HIV+ people would stay immune due to repeated exposure (your little army guys are staying on alert due to continued enemy presence).
There have been cases where people have been found to have a resistance to HIV/AIDS, and I do remember hearing of one where after being removed from exposure the ladies (who were prostitutes) in question were later infected years later after again exposing themselves to the virus, which would fit with the concept of their immuno-response lessening after exposure stops stimulating it. Of course it could just be that they were lucky to begin with, as having relations with an infected person does not 100% guarantee infection the first time.... but the risk thereof is enough that one wouldn't want to play the odds.
After all - if it's lifestyle choices and not the virus, you'd have nothing to fear, right
Not that I'm part of the HIV-doesn't-cause-AIDS crowd, but I'd think the societal stigma of having the former would be enough reason to avoid infection, nevermind the premature and unpleasant death associated with it.
Yes, my GF (who is Chinese) and other Chinese friends have actually told me not to trust Chinese in various matters - particularly involving money - because they will cheat you. On the other hand, I've found that for some things such as computer parts, the Chinese-run stores offered much better prices on items that often lasted longer than their expensive local-store counterparts, but of course there's a matter of feedback for that.
:-)
Oh, and if you want to see same real bargaining, take a Chinese female to a Chinese market and let her haggle the price of various items for you
$5 rebate on NiMH rechargeable batteries. [batteriesnimh.com]
:-)
Well, there's still one way (for women at least) to have constant, safe, enjoyable sex without worrying at such STD's
One thing to keep in mind is that water to be used for plant irrigation and other such things has a different purity requirement than human drinking water. What might be good for your plants isn't always good for people, so one might be able to happily use other sources of non-drinkable water without affecting the regular supply.
Build a small somewhat-insulated enclosure around the machines. Obviously you'd have to build it so that the machines don't overheat, but it should allow them to heat their own little areas over time, regardless of the overall warehouse temperature.
A frequent various music sites like Garageband and others. Whilst they do have their share of crap, there are also some good songs (and at times some fricking amazing ones) that I've found on there. In fact, some of my favorite songs are "Creative Commons" licensed, which - depending on the CC license - allows (and even encourages) copying, distribution, posting it on your webpage, or various use, personal and sometimes even commercial (though you must give credit to the artist).
I'm particularly fond of the CC-licensed stuff because I can pull up somebody's appropriately licensed song, and mix it with some homemade video clips or whatever, and post them online (with credit to the artist, like a "song by: XXXX" caption subtitle at the beginning) without the risk of getting sued.
First thing I do is make a copy of my discs, stick the originals on the rack, and use the copies (or a master-CD of mp3 copies) for my car, etc.
It makes a lot more sense to copy a CD and use the duplicate than use a copy as backup when the original is lost/wrecked/stolen.
But that did remind me of some advice my dad gave me the last time we hit a concert and I got to meet the band
"make sure you give them an original disc to sign and not a copy"
I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if somebody tried to get 'em to sign a copy. Of course a signed copy would also be pretty lame, I just brought the original case and got the various band members to sign the pages with their profiles (from the insert).
I had quite a few monitors at work (which happened to be a school) where the VGA connector would come loose just inside the machine. Kids would complain about having a blue/pink-hued screen, at which point I would walk over, and firmly give the monitor a slap upside the CRT. Most times this would jiggle things enough that they contacted again, and normal colours would return. Sometimes it required a few smacks, but the look on the kids' faces (not to mention the teachers) was definately worth the sore hand afterwards :-)
Personally, when I hear something that sounds fairly reasonable from enough people, I tend to go with tentatively believing the story as told until I hear a better explanation otherwise. Amongst my courses in Math, Science, IT, English, etc, *shock and horror* nobody, it just happens that nobody mentioned the memory span of a goldfish, this not being a really critical piece of information. Now, of course, various more importance pieces of information I'd tend to take for more a grain of salt, but as goldfish memory span is hardly a life-or-death piece of information (unless I'm playing a trivia game or something along those lines) I might tend to accept it as credible.
Of course, in my case I've also had goldfish and they have a tendency to associate people with food, etc etc, indicating that their overall memory span is larger than 3s, enough that in long-term memory they can relate "large bipedal person = incoming food", but as no scientists or credible sources have contradicted that particular smidgeon on information, I'd be happy to accept that they have have a rather limited short-term memory (heck, I've met people with about a 5-10s memory/attention-span).
Oh, and there's no snopes article on this subject either, at least not that I could find.
Seriously though, at some people, depending on the import of a given piece of information, it makes sense to accept what is largely held to be true (again, until properly-presented contradictory fact is presented). If a dozen people tell me that they've heard "Dave's Electronic's" is having a big sale on Saturday, I'll probably look forward to getting some cheap toys unless a "Dave's" employee tells me otherwise.
I've always wondered why devices can't use ultra-bright LED's? I'm not sure what the maximum lumens of output an LED can output is, but I've got a multi-LED flashlight that was cheaper, lasts longer on smaller batteries, and shines a whole lot brighter than most of the competing bulb-lights at the same size.
The LED's themselves are supposed to have a very long life-expentency compared to standard bulbs, likely due to the fact that they don't use a burning filiment or other hot method of producing light.
Anyone know of good LED-backlit projection units?
I'd agree and disagree, as this really depends on the album.
Playing the tracks of Pink Floyd's Pulse out of order or with tracks missing loses impact. Playing the good track of shitty-CD-with-two-good-songs without the crappy tracks is an improvement
Yes, but that doesn't mean that the 40 psi in the tires is the same amount of pressure on the device. That, again, is a measure of the pressure of the air within the tire itself. It also applies to balloons, bike tires, etc. Having X psi in a car tire and the same psi on a party balloon doesn't mean the party balloon could support the car.
And yes, there is a minimum pressure the tires must be to hold the weight of the car, but 40psi in the tires does not mean 40 pounds of pressure per each square inch of the device's measurement... again, this is the in-tire pressure.
So, since every action has an equal and opposite reaction, you must have 10 000 Newtons pressing upwards on the car through the air in the tyres
Here's partly where things go wrong, as ome of the air in the tire is helping exert the upward pressure on the vehicle, but the weight is also being born by the superstructure of the tire itself and other factors. You could have a 40psi tire or a 50psi tire, but that doesn't directly increase or decrease how much the items underneath are bearing by 10 psi (if you put a scale underneath, increasing or decreasing tire pressure does not make the scale show a different measurement. That's weight, which I think is where the article got a bit wrong using PSI instead of pounds). Again, the downward pressure is not a direct function of the internal psi, because the equalization of force up and down are not only absorbed by the air, but the rubber and others, but what you are measuring is just the pressure of the air against the outer walls (which in themselves must exert force back against the air in retaining shape).
Well, considering they recommend about 4 months after your last sexual act with a questionable partner before you can test "clean" and consider it safe (and sometimes a post test a few months later), I'd say it's about a 120-200 day window for signs that can be detected through blood testing.
I've never had any real cause to worry myself, but I have been tested as a just-in-case for the safety of myself and others.