Second, people get as much organized crime as they will tolerate. If the immediate response to every lowlife that demanded protection money was an injection of 15,000mg of Pb, the problem would clear up pretty quickly. So there's no government, and somebody decided to form a gang to rule your neighborhood. A gang member tried to shake you down and you shot him dead. And you think the gang leader would say "whoa, don't mess with that guy!"? That night, your house would get an injection of 1,500 grams of Pb, as you put it. Unless you can kill every member of the gang, whoever is left will come kill you. Think about it from their perspective. If the neighbors see that all you have to do is stand up for themselves and the gang leaves them alone, they'll have no power. If they see that anyone acting up gets put in the ground or severely beaten, they'll be more likely to just pay the racket money peacefully.
Media : Food DRM media : GM food Buying off-label independent media : Buying organic food Charging more for the ability to make copies : Charging more for organic food Removing DRM : ? Distributing infinite cheap copies of purchased media : ? Outlawing circumvention of DRM : ?
As you see, there are several things going on in the media world that don't have analogs in food.
I used to think I didn't like automatic climate control, based on my experience with a BMW. Constant fiddling, temperature controls were placed in various locations, never liked it. Then we got our Honda Odyssey with the feature, and it just works. I set the temperature about where I want it and leave it alone. Sometimes I have to manually tell it blow air on my feet, and sometimes I have to turn it artificially low to compensate for sun right on my face, but generally I don't have to touch it. And of course if I want it to stop blowing air, there's this nice little Off button.:-) But that rarely gets used, compared to the manual control in the Subaru, which is frequently off because in the morning the inside of the car is comfortable so I don't need to cool it down so I need to have it off to not blow cold air, or it's cold but the engine isn't warm yet so I have to have it turned off to now blow cold air. In the Honda as the engine warms up the fan automatically picks up to warm up the car. I guess some car companies have figured how to make nice auto climate control and some haven't - either that or I just happen to like how Honda's works.
I don't think I'm assuming too much. I think it's pretty clear the DMCA is a response to cracking. If they weren't concerned about people ripping DVDs and otherwise breaking their DRM, why would they have bothered getting legislation to outlaw it? I didn't intend to imply that the new charge-more-for-fair-use scheme is a response to cracking/ripping though. Sounds more like a simple bald-faced attempt to get more money.
Of course, this doesn't make much sense in a car where you're almost always next to the volume control anyway. It makes sense when you have steering-wheel audio controls and/or automatic speed-sensitive volume.
That's how business works. I don't see that as any different than the organic food market, where they introduced foods that were irradiated or genetically modified, then charged us more to buy foods that didn't contain the new technology. The analogy would be that people started using technologies to remove the effects of irradiation or GM from the food they bought. Then the FIAA (Farming Industry Association of America, natch) got laws passed that make it illegal to do this. THEN they sell "organic" food for more money. Those first two steps are both missing from the food market, so the analogy is (big surprise coming up here) flawed.
Might we see tungsten sabot rounds for rifles? Yep! - bottom of the page, after the annoying age verification. It doesn't actually say whether they're tungsten or not though.:-)
On the way, perhaps - Dragon Skin is the nickname. Apparently it's had some problems, but maybe it will prove itself. You can't be totally sure about what you see on TV, but the tests they did on Futureweapons looked pretty impressive.
Do you mean specifically with Terran? Because I can imagine a Zerg player could make swarms of zerglings and scourge, and be ready for just about anything. I would think 50 or 60 scourge could cut 12 carriers down to a manageable group, if not destroy them altogether. And certainly the Zerg could replace the scourge far faster than the Protoss could make more carriers. And if the carrier player isn't careful a high templar or two can bust them up pretty badly.
But you're definitely right about the computer. I don't recall seeing a computer player with more than 3 carriers at a time. On the other hand, I haven't seen any mention of carriers in SC2, so we don't know for sure they'll make an appearance. I hope they do just because they're cool, but they need to be toned down, and/or the other races need some serious counters if Protoss is not going to walk all over them with both carriers and a mother ship.
No, they won't. Because if you do it properly, nobody will be able to tell the difference - that was my whole point. You won't notice that your bittorrent download took 6 hours and 12 minutes instead of the 6 hours and 3 minutes that it would have taken otherwise, but someone will certainly notice if they are unable to make a VOIP call, versus being able to do so. As I said, it is NOT about preferences or about what kind of traffic you happen to use. It is about recognizing that different kinds of traffic have different technical requirements.
Doing it properly includes a few things. One of them is having enough bandwidth, both up and down, to serve everyone. If the ISP's infrastructure can't handle the load being put on it, they're going to get unhappy customers, and it's just a matter of which ones are going to be unhappy. That's the road they're going down now, and of course they're choosing to piss off the least profitable customers. Since they generally have little or no competition (in the US anyway), there's no reason to actually provide better service. Second, doing it properly means prioritizing by bumping up the priority of certain packets compared to other ones, not by artificially throttling certain kinds of traffic regardless of what other packets are on the network. They're doing the latter, which naturally annoys those users getting throttled. But if the ISP does both of those things correctly, the high-priority traffic gets where it needs to go in a timely fashion, the doesn't-matter traffic gets where it's going fast enough too, and everyone is happy.
I know you weren't talking to me, but personally no, I don't see how that works. His argument was not "I like VOIP better than porn so my VOIP should be prioritized." The argument was that VOIP is totally unworkable unless it has low latency. It's not that it's a pain or you have to be more patient - it just doesn't work. Downloading porn (or downloading anything) does not require low latency, only bandwidth. Therefore, things like VOIP (and streaming media) should be given priority.
First, pointing out one major world figure without major security measures doesn't indicate that the rest of them don't need security or shouldn't have it. Second, even if it did prove that, it doesn't have any bearing on whether the other leaders will have such security measures, which is really what I was talking about. Maybe Bush needs 100 people and black helicopters guarding him and maybe he doesn't, but the fact is that's what he has. Finally, I doubt the Secret Service is so stupid that they didn't realize publicizing this technique would tip off any potential attackers. And it seems to me it would be useful to publicize a few of the methods they're using that would stop very simple attacks. That way maybe some of the crazies who might think about a cheap and unsophisticated attack would realize it wouldn't work and not try it. Perhaps their entire goal in this is to make sure that the attack is done some other way - some way that's more expensive and difficult to do, and therefore available to fewer potential attackers.
It seems to me that the problem is your leaders are not willing to say to Bush (well, to the third-level functionary who actually makes such phone calls) that no, we are not willing to inconvenience our citizens to this degree in order to satisfy your security requirements. I assume this is both because they pretty much don't care about their citizens except as voters, and because it's geopolitically disadvantageous to snub the POTUS. His Bushness has every right to make whatever security requirements he wants, and if Howard doesn't like it he has every right to uninvite him. You may consider whether you yourself would be better off in a country that has the goodwill of countries such as the US, or in one where you can use your cell phone all the time. I don't think the answer to that question is obvious. On the other hand, it's purely academic since we all know the likes of Bush will go pretty much wherever they want and do what they like.
And please mock about anything you like. We're trying too, but there's so much to make fun of these days any help is appreciated.
So you're suggesting that heads of state should never travel to other countries? Or that they should employ no intrusive security measures when they're there? Because the latter would amount to the former, and it's not just Bush either. If the head of any prominent nation had to drive through traffic jams and walk through crowded plazas where anybody with an ax to grind could take him out, they just wouldn't do it. You really don't need to make this about Bush, because I was walking in Chicago once and asked the cops why they were stopping all the traffic on Lake Shore Drive. It was because the ambassador from some South American country was coming through. And you think the President of the United States is going to have fewer security measures than that?
When you apply any serious force on a bike you need your arms to prevent yourself from sliding backwards out the sadle. Theoretically, with clipless pedals (not a good name for them) you could apply exactly the same force on the left pedal as the right pedal but in opposite directions, which would not push your upper body in any direction. But that's just theoretical.
A Toyota Prius is a gas assisted electric car. The electric motor drives the wheels and the gas motor powers the batteries. Actually in Toyota's HSD the gas engine is connected to an electric motor-generator. I don't fully understand everything on the WP page, but it's not like the gas engine drives an alternator which charges the batteries, while the batteries discharge to power the motors. The ICE is connected directly to one of the electric motors.
And just for some pedantic fun, it's "braking energy" not "breaking energy", and "all intents and purposes" not "all intensive purposes". The latter seems like a fairly common mistake.
I don't think you're giving kids enough credit. My six-year-old understands that programming means entering instructions into a computer, and then the computer follows the instructions. And this is not a new concept for him, either. When a kid is programming the turtle, I think s/he understands that he's giving instructions to the computer, and it's the computer that makes the turtle move. I know I did.
Now consider for a moment: If the thinking is that you're programming the turtle, then the student will always think of the language as only useful for programming the turtle. At least until exposed to another language or a new use for that language. I don't think that has anything to do with kids or Logo. I've seen plenty of code written by adults who thought of a language as X and didn't realize you could do Y with it, too. Some people learn to apply their skills and comprehension to broader problems, and others don't so much.
You're basically pointing out differences between Logo and BASIC, and I certainly wouldn't argue with that. Probably they have different strengths and weaknesses as teaching tools, particularly when applied to different groups of people. But I don't think you've demonstrated that Logo is a poor teaching tool.
Case in point seat belts. No one likes them, but we use them any way in the States.No one likes them? No one likes this easy-to-use device that has an excellent chance of saving your life in a serious accident and already comes with your car? Please don't speak for everyone, because personally I love seat belts. Probably the greatest automotive innovation since... well, since the car.
I believe they also managed to make it illegal to even create such software for your own use. This is in the US of course; I hear some places still have fair use rights.
What's more, because of their inherent complexity, personal computers still have a steep learning curve, even though they are at a relatively mature stage of their evolution. Mature? WTF? We haven't even begun to see what computers will be capable of. I would say computers are barely out of the toddler stage, if that.
Only if you consider a logo an advertisement. If you're tired of seeing the names of companies, then you're probably tired of living in a capitalist country. You could move to somewhere like Zimbabwe. I'll bet you wouldn't have to deal with the soul-crushing misery of having to look at the Crest logo on your toothbrush if you lived somewhere like that. Or perhaps poking out your eyes would be better. That way you could still live somewhere with half-decent health care, libraries (oops you're blind), a general lack of violence, etc. but you wouldn't have to be so bummed out that your TV (oops you're blind) says Toshiba on it. Or you could just ignore it like the rest of us do. Just an idea.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems you may not have read the subject line. "*Waves iPhone around* Oooo, look shiny." Meaning the iPhone is shiny - which it is.
I still think the food analogy isn't quite right.
Media : Food
DRM media : GM food
Buying off-label independent media : Buying organic food
Charging more for the ability to make copies : Charging more for organic food
Removing DRM : ?
Distributing infinite cheap copies of purchased media : ?
Outlawing circumvention of DRM : ?
As you see, there are several things going on in the media world that don't have analogs in food.
I used to think I didn't like automatic climate control, based on my experience with a BMW. Constant fiddling, temperature controls were placed in various locations, never liked it. Then we got our Honda Odyssey with the feature, and it just works. I set the temperature about where I want it and leave it alone. Sometimes I have to manually tell it blow air on my feet, and sometimes I have to turn it artificially low to compensate for sun right on my face, but generally I don't have to touch it. And of course if I want it to stop blowing air, there's this nice little Off button. :-) But that rarely gets used, compared to the manual control in the Subaru, which is frequently off because in the morning the inside of the car is comfortable so I don't need to cool it down so I need to have it off to not blow cold air, or it's cold but the engine isn't warm yet so I have to have it turned off to now blow cold air. In the Honda as the engine warms up the fan automatically picks up to warm up the car. I guess some car companies have figured how to make nice auto climate control and some haven't - either that or I just happen to like how Honda's works.
I don't think I'm assuming too much. I think it's pretty clear the DMCA is a response to cracking. If they weren't concerned about people ripping DVDs and otherwise breaking their DRM, why would they have bothered getting legislation to outlaw it? I didn't intend to imply that the new charge-more-for-fair-use scheme is a response to cracking/ripping though. Sounds more like a simple bald-faced attempt to get more money.
I guess that's what you get for buying a fricking Malibu. Sorry, that was harsh. No wait, totally appropriate. :-)
Dragon Skin at Defense Tech
Do you mean specifically with Terran? Because I can imagine a Zerg player could make swarms of zerglings and scourge, and be ready for just about anything. I would think 50 or 60 scourge could cut 12 carriers down to a manageable group, if not destroy them altogether. And certainly the Zerg could replace the scourge far faster than the Protoss could make more carriers. And if the carrier player isn't careful a high templar or two can bust them up pretty badly.
But you're definitely right about the computer. I don't recall seeing a computer player with more than 3 carriers at a time. On the other hand, I haven't seen any mention of carriers in SC2, so we don't know for sure they'll make an appearance. I hope they do just because they're cool, but they need to be toned down, and/or the other races need some serious counters if Protoss is not going to walk all over them with both carriers and a mother ship.
No, they won't. Because if you do it properly, nobody will be able to tell the difference - that was my whole point. You won't notice that your bittorrent download took 6 hours and 12 minutes instead of the 6 hours and 3 minutes that it would have taken otherwise, but someone will certainly notice if they are unable to make a VOIP call, versus being able to do so. As I said, it is NOT about preferences or about what kind of traffic you happen to use. It is about recognizing that different kinds of traffic have different technical requirements.
Doing it properly includes a few things. One of them is having enough bandwidth, both up and down, to serve everyone. If the ISP's infrastructure can't handle the load being put on it, they're going to get unhappy customers, and it's just a matter of which ones are going to be unhappy. That's the road they're going down now, and of course they're choosing to piss off the least profitable customers. Since they generally have little or no competition (in the US anyway), there's no reason to actually provide better service. Second, doing it properly means prioritizing by bumping up the priority of certain packets compared to other ones, not by artificially throttling certain kinds of traffic regardless of what other packets are on the network. They're doing the latter, which naturally annoys those users getting throttled. But if the ISP does both of those things correctly, the high-priority traffic gets where it needs to go in a timely fashion, the doesn't-matter traffic gets where it's going fast enough too, and everyone is happy.
I know you weren't talking to me, but personally no, I don't see how that works. His argument was not "I like VOIP better than porn so my VOIP should be prioritized." The argument was that VOIP is totally unworkable unless it has low latency. It's not that it's a pain or you have to be more patient - it just doesn't work. Downloading porn (or downloading anything) does not require low latency, only bandwidth. Therefore, things like VOIP (and streaming media) should be given priority.
First, pointing out one major world figure without major security measures doesn't indicate that the rest of them don't need security or shouldn't have it. Second, even if it did prove that, it doesn't have any bearing on whether the other leaders will have such security measures, which is really what I was talking about. Maybe Bush needs 100 people and black helicopters guarding him and maybe he doesn't, but the fact is that's what he has. Finally, I doubt the Secret Service is so stupid that they didn't realize publicizing this technique would tip off any potential attackers. And it seems to me it would be useful to publicize a few of the methods they're using that would stop very simple attacks. That way maybe some of the crazies who might think about a cheap and unsophisticated attack would realize it wouldn't work and not try it. Perhaps their entire goal in this is to make sure that the attack is done some other way - some way that's more expensive and difficult to do, and therefore available to fewer potential attackers.
And please mock about anything you like. We're trying too, but there's so much to make fun of these days any help is appreciated.
So you're suggesting that heads of state should never travel to other countries? Or that they should employ no intrusive security measures when they're there? Because the latter would amount to the former, and it's not just Bush either. If the head of any prominent nation had to drive through traffic jams and walk through crowded plazas where anybody with an ax to grind could take him out, they just wouldn't do it. You really don't need to make this about Bush, because I was walking in Chicago once and asked the cops why they were stopping all the traffic on Lake Shore Drive. It was because the ambassador from some South American country was coming through. And you think the President of the United States is going to have fewer security measures than that?
And just for some pedantic fun, it's "braking energy" not "breaking energy", and "all intents and purposes" not "all intensive purposes". The latter seems like a fairly common mistake.
You're basically pointing out differences between Logo and BASIC, and I certainly wouldn't argue with that. Probably they have different strengths and weaknesses as teaching tools, particularly when applied to different groups of people. But I don't think you've demonstrated that Logo is a poor teaching tool.
Yeah, those are awesome too! Like seatbelts, we just need to get more people to use them.
I believe they also managed to make it illegal to even create such software for your own use. This is in the US of course; I hear some places still have fair use rights.
It was seven years, 1984 to 1991.
Only if you consider a logo an advertisement. If you're tired of seeing the names of companies, then you're probably tired of living in a capitalist country. You could move to somewhere like Zimbabwe. I'll bet you wouldn't have to deal with the soul-crushing misery of having to look at the Crest logo on your toothbrush if you lived somewhere like that. Or perhaps poking out your eyes would be better. That way you could still live somewhere with half-decent health care, libraries (oops you're blind), a general lack of violence, etc. but you wouldn't have to be so bummed out that your TV (oops you're blind) says Toshiba on it. Or you could just ignore it like the rest of us do. Just an idea.