An attack that is attempted but fails costs more than money.
That's just silly. I'm sure there were a number of terrorist attacks which were thwarted, but which no one heard anything about. This denied the terrorists *all* of their objectives, including the psychological ones.
I'm sure no one is thanking the government for that (how could they), but foiling attacks and NOT alerting the public is an important part of the policy of response to terrorism.
If someone thinks that the government is selling helium at 25 to 50 times below value, they should buy some and store it until 2020. If there's no one willing to do this, then I'd wager that the government is really not selling it at such a bargain. There's always someone with sufficient resources to capitalize on a government selloff of a critical resource. The current large private helium industry would be a good candidate. Once the government has sold off its inventory, the private industry can sell at true market value, and standard market efficiencies can kick in. Everybody wins.
There will be no "peak helium", just a slide into higher prices, and a shift to higher conservation and efficiency, as with other non-renewables.
The article didn't claim Hoover was currently the largest. Their exact words: "It is twice the size of what was the world's largest, the Hoover dam". Hoover, when it was built, was the world's largest dam. The FOX authors could have added a "once" in there for clarity, but technically, the article is correct.
But only people unable to detect sarcasm "actually believe that five years ago is ancient history". I guess that's the set you're addressing, but I think it's a small set. A joke doesn't support your assertion that there's no long term thinking these days.
Here's a pointer on how to make other people feel comfortable. Actually think about them instead of yourself. Your response was all "me, me, me". People who cuss, particularly to deliberately offend, speak volumes about their self-centered-ness.
"the Man" is in California, and he's telling people not to cuss for a week
Well I did say that I thought in many cases "the Man" is nowhere around. Do you think the California legislators are lurking on Slashdot to see the criticism? They're not, and all this "protest" cussing is just in an echo-chamber.
Any legislature that seeks to restrict the people should be met with such an attitude. I'd say it's what a good citizen would do.
I would disagree that requesting that people not offend others comes anywhere near the level of "restricting the people" that warrants any kind of backlash or protest. IMHO responding with cusswords just comes across as juvenile.
I am, however, very offended by people who believe they, and only they, have the right to tell me what words I am allowed to use...
Nice strawman. Who are you talking about?
Seriously - what is it about cussing that you find so enamoring?
Personally, I think it's a pride thing. Like... "No one can tell me what to do!!!" How about voluntarily managing your behavior to avoid offense when you can? Would you really use a boatload of expletives and vulgar references around women, children, your girlfriend, her parents? Would you praise the Nazi's in a room full of Jews?
If you don't care about what others find offensive, why should anyone care about what you find offensive?
It's polite to avoid making other people feel uncomfortable unnecessarily. I suspect people who have long been exposed to vulgarity lose a sense of it's emotional impact. No one is required to avoid offending people. And I'm no fan of political correctness. But avoiding rudeness just seems nicer than the alternative.
I understand the somewhat easy humor here, but I've never completely understood the desire to intentionally offend people often displayed by the most rampant cussers out there. I think that somehow people who intentionally cuss think they are "stickin' it to the Man", when "the Man" is nowhere to be seen.
I expect many Slashdotters will dismiss this as some kind of "censorship", although it's voluntary and apparently intended to be good-natured. I think it's a good thing.
One of my favorite definitions of courtesy is "acting so that those around you are most comfortable". All too often, people who use swear words are completely oblivious to those around them who would rather not hear them. I'm not in favor of any heavy-handed tactics on the part of government (or anyone else) to curb people's non-illegal behavior, but something that promotes civility and politeness in discourse seems unobjectionable to me.
A good post. I'll also add that continuing improvement in socialization skills as an adult can definitely come from persuasion by someone in a committed relationship (aka your spouse). Marriage may at times be painful, and we've all heard jokes about it, but sometimes there's no one else who will tell you something that needs to be fixed besides your spouse (who will tell you over and over and over...:-)
It was refreshing to read the article and comments without the usual trash-talking between creationists and non-creationists. Maybe the moderators are doing a good job and the trash-talking is just below my threshold, but it's really nice. If civility has broken out on Slashdot, thanks everyone!
The Branch Davidians were gassed and incinerated alive for nothing more serious than an unpaid tax or unfilled-out form regarding certain firearms laws.
The AFT suspected that the Branch Davidians were stockpiling illegal weapons, and when they sent officers to investigate the officers were shot at. One can complain about how events escalated, but to whitewash the Branch Davidian role in the conflict is deceitful.
Dual-core, asymmetric chipsets have been common in the mobile phone market (and in other embedded markets as well) for years. Often, it is a combination of an ARM processor and some sort of DSP. Symmetric ARM processors are pretty common also. It's hard to tell from the announcement if the "other" processor in the Qualcomm chipset is more general purpose than a DSP, but it's hardly groundbreaking.
Note that this arrangement is often used to "insulate" portions of the software stack from possible GPL issues.
Boot time is spent in 1 of 4 main areas: 1) BIOS, 2) bootloader, 3) kernel, 4) user space init.
The kernel can be made to boot fairly quickly following the suggestions and tips at:
http://elinux.org/Boot_Time. With a little elbow grease, boot times for the Linux kernel in the range of 6-10 seconds should be achievable.
I have personally seen the kernel portion of a boot on an embedded board reduced to 186 milliseconds, using aggressive techniques such as Execute-in-Place.
For user space, customize your init scripts (actually, dump your init scripts in favor
of one compiled/sbin/init binary).
In the x86 space, with legacy hardware, I think the thing that will give you the most
problem is BIOS. I know of products with custom code that replaces BIOS, that load
the kernel from ROM in under 150 milliseconds. But that's probably more effort than
you are interested in. You may want to check out what options are available in your
current (legacy) BIOS for skipping things like the POST test, etc.
I work for Sony, putting Linux into many different Sony products. I also lead
the CE Linux Forum, which has a number of large of members from Japan.
I can assure you that Linux is used in Japan in droves, and that the range
of practices for obtaining Linux, from paying a vendor to downloading directly from kernel.org,
is as broad there as anywhere else in the world.
A lot of people may not know that one of the reasons Caldera was started in the first place (SCO's parent) was that Ransom Love recuited a load of engineers to get Zen works to run on Linux. Internally, Novell rejected the idea after they saw a massively failed WordPerfect on Linux project, and thought they had better stay clear of alternative OS's for a while.
Whoa! That's not how I remember it, and I was one of the original employees of Caldera. Caldera was started
by Bryan Sparks, who recruited Ransom and other Novell people to spin out "Secret Project X" into its own
standalone startup. "Secret Project X" was a Novell project to create a *nix-based desktop OS, using Linux
as the base OS. Bryan has tried to do this with UnixWare, but ran into problems.
Novell rejected the idea of building a Linux-based desktop OS in 1993, which was too bad. It was a bit
galling to see Novell get back into the Linux business a full 10 years later, after squandering what could have
been an early lead. The decision pre-dated Windows 95, which was arguably where the Redmond Windows monopoly began, so history could have been different.
I read the article you suggested. Salon does indeed make it sound like the Republicans spent a lot of time and energy making the story "stick", and may have exagerated some claims. However, the vandalism that the GAO verified strikes me as juvenile, destructive and beyond-the-pale rude. I wouldn't want such people running the government again. I'm glad the effort was made to expose this. Thanks for the link!
A corporation exists to limit liability, specifically the liability of its owners for the deeds, misdeeds, or misadventures of the corporation.
No. A corporation exists to do things that are difficult or impossible for individuals to accomplish. It provides the legal structure for teamwork. Part of that is limiting the liability of individuals for things that other individuals do in a company. Implying that this liability limitation is the sole reason for a corporations existence is misleading and cynical.
Slashdot Mirror
Please note that there have been no failed terrorist attacks in the past 10 years.
An attack that is attempted but fails costs more than money.
That's just silly. I'm sure there were a number of terrorist attacks which were thwarted, but which no one heard anything about. This denied the terrorists *all* of their objectives, including the psychological ones. I'm sure no one is thanking the government for that (how could they), but foiling attacks and NOT alerting the public is an important part of the policy of response to terrorism.
If someone thinks that the government is selling helium at 25 to 50 times below value, they should buy some and store it until 2020. If there's no one willing to do this, then I'd wager that the government is really not selling it at such a bargain. There's always someone with sufficient resources to capitalize on a government selloff of a critical resource. The current large private helium industry would be a good candidate. Once the government has sold off its inventory, the private industry can sell at true market value, and standard market efficiencies can kick in. Everybody wins.
There will be no "peak helium", just a slide into higher prices, and a shift to higher conservation and efficiency, as with other non-renewables.
...effect of capricious supernatural sky fairies...
I know diety disdain is popular here on Slashdot, but "Act of God" is a legal term of art. You can calm down now.
Is it just me, or is Wave just a fancy wiki?
The article didn't claim Hoover was currently the largest. Their exact words: "It is twice the size of what was the world's largest, the Hoover dam". Hoover, when it was built, was the world's largest dam. The FOX authors could have added a "once" in there for clarity, but technically, the article is correct.
But only people unable to detect sarcasm "actually believe that five years ago is ancient history". I guess that's the set you're addressing, but I think it's a small set. A joke doesn't support your assertion that there's no long term thinking these days.
Here's a pointer on how to make other people feel comfortable. Actually think about them instead of yourself. Your response was all "me, me, me". People who cuss, particularly to deliberately offend, speak volumes about their self-centered-ness.
Well I did say that I thought in many cases "the Man" is nowhere around. Do you think the California legislators are lurking on Slashdot to see the criticism? They're not, and all this "protest" cussing is just in an echo-chamber.
I would disagree that requesting that people not offend others comes anywhere near the level of "restricting the people" that warrants any kind of backlash or protest. IMHO responding with cusswords just comes across as juvenile.
Really??? Do you like deliberately offending people, or is it just a tool you use to get your way?
That just makes you a rude person.
Nice strawman. Who are you talking about?
Seriously - what is it about cussing that you find so enamoring?
Personally, I think it's a pride thing. Like... "No one can tell me what to do!!!" How about voluntarily managing your behavior to avoid offense when you can? Would you really use a boatload of expletives and vulgar references around women, children, your girlfriend, her parents? Would you praise the Nazi's in a room full of Jews?
If you don't care about what others find offensive, why should anyone care about what you find offensive?
It's polite to avoid making other people feel uncomfortable unnecessarily. I suspect people who have long been exposed to vulgarity lose a sense of it's emotional impact. No one is required to avoid offending people. And I'm no fan of political correctness. But avoiding rudeness just seems nicer than the alternative.
I understand the somewhat easy humor here, but I've never completely understood the desire to intentionally offend people often displayed by the most rampant cussers out there. I think that somehow people who intentionally cuss think they are "stickin' it to the Man", when "the Man" is nowhere to be seen.
I expect many Slashdotters will dismiss this as some kind of "censorship", although it's voluntary and apparently intended to be good-natured. I think it's a good thing.
One of my favorite definitions of courtesy is "acting so that those around you are most comfortable". All too often, people who use swear words are completely oblivious to those around them who would rather not hear them. I'm not in favor of any heavy-handed tactics on the part of government (or anyone else) to curb people's non-illegal behavior, but something that promotes civility and politeness in discourse seems unobjectionable to me.
A good post. I'll also add that continuing improvement in socialization skills as an adult can definitely come from persuasion by someone in a committed relationship (aka your spouse). Marriage may at times be painful, and we've all heard jokes about it, but sometimes there's no one else who will tell you something that needs to be fixed besides your spouse (who will tell you over and over and over... :-)
It was refreshing to read the article and comments without the usual trash-talking between creationists and non-creationists. Maybe the moderators are doing a good job and the trash-talking is just below my threshold, but it's really nice. If civility has broken out on Slashdot, thanks everyone!
The Branch Davidians were gassed and incinerated alive for nothing more serious than an unpaid tax or unfilled-out form regarding certain firearms laws.
The AFT suspected that the Branch Davidians were stockpiling illegal weapons, and when they sent officers to investigate the officers were shot at. One can complain about how events escalated, but to whitewash the Branch Davidian role in the conflict is deceitful.
very poor, lower than anticipated game sales
LittleBigPlanet is closing in on 2 million sales after 10 weeks. See vgchartz.
It started off a little slow, but picked up steam through the holidays. This game doesn't support the hypothesis.
Dual-core, asymmetric chipsets have been common in the mobile phone market (and in other embedded markets as well) for years. Often, it is a combination of an ARM processor and some sort of DSP. Symmetric ARM processors are pretty common also. It's hard to tell from the announcement if the "other" processor in the Qualcomm chipset is more general purpose than a DSP, but it's hardly groundbreaking.
Note that this arrangement is often used to "insulate" portions of the software stack from possible GPL issues.
Which must be confusing for the cows...
I have personally seen the kernel portion of a boot on an embedded board reduced to 186 milliseconds, using aggressive techniques such as Execute-in-Place.
For user space, customize your init scripts (actually, dump your init scripts in favor of one compiled /sbin/init binary).
In the x86 space, with legacy hardware, I think the thing that will give you the most problem is BIOS. I know of products with custom code that replaces BIOS, that load the kernel from ROM in under 150 milliseconds. But that's probably more effort than you are interested in. You may want to check out what options are available in your current (legacy) BIOS for skipping things like the POST test, etc.
I work for Sony, putting Linux into many different Sony products. I also lead the CE Linux Forum, which has a number of large of members from Japan. I can assure you that Linux is used in Japan in droves, and that the range of practices for obtaining Linux, from paying a vendor to downloading directly from kernel.org, is as broad there as anywhere else in the world.
Whoa! That's not how I remember it, and I was one of the original employees of Caldera. Caldera was started by Bryan Sparks, who recruited Ransom and other Novell people to spin out "Secret Project X" into its own standalone startup. "Secret Project X" was a Novell project to create a *nix-based desktop OS, using Linux as the base OS. Bryan has tried to do this with UnixWare, but ran into problems.
Novell rejected the idea of building a Linux-based desktop OS in 1993, which was too bad. It was a bit galling to see Novell get back into the Linux business a full 10 years later, after squandering what could have been an early lead. The decision pre-dated Windows 95, which was arguably where the Redmond Windows monopoly began, so history could have been different.
Would-a, Could-a, Should-a...
I read the article you suggested. Salon does indeed make it sound like the
Republicans spent a lot of time and energy making the story "stick", and may have
exagerated some claims. However, the vandalism that the GAO verified
strikes me as juvenile, destructive and beyond-the-pale rude. I wouldn't want
such people running the government again. I'm glad the effort was made to
expose this. Thanks for the link!
No. A corporation exists to do things that are difficult or impossible for individuals to accomplish. It provides the legal structure for teamwork. Part of that is limiting the liability of individuals for things that other individuals do in a company. Implying that this liability limitation is the sole reason for a corporations existence is misleading and cynical.