Original parent comment was talking about making 95% of bitcoin uses illegal. There's nothing inherently illegal about I.O.U.s, script, payment-in-king, etc. as you listed. Making tax evasion with bitcoin illegal is very different from making 95% of its uses illegal.
Personally, I'm fine with the government taking a cut of my bitcoin profits. It's profit, fair enough. I'm happy with being able to store wealth in a method that can't be seized by the government (whether that is by simply printing ridiculous amounts of money, or otherwise), and being able to send money anywhere with basically no charge.
I was going to buy a PS3, but why should I support a company that discourages me from using my hardware how I want?
The open pandora system looks like a much better place to spend my money. An open source handheld gaming system, yes, it can work: http://openpandora.org/
I was at Whistler last week for another conference. I sat in on a few mozilla talks cause I couldn't resist. (Funny how when I asked the official front desk if I could, they told me "No, we fly all these people in, they're private talks" but everyone else I asked was like "Oh yeah no problem go ahead")
Our bus to Vancouver airport was scheduled 8am to make 12pm flights, and it had to be moved to 2am -- and we took the long way around, going from roughly 3 hours to 9 hours. It's actually a really nice scenic route, though it's a bit of a jolt when the sun came up and see us winding along roads meters away from a cliff.
I can't access my web host, textdrive.com, nor wikipedia.com from my resnet connection here at Waterloo University. Apparently they're relying exclusively on Cogent. It's quite frustrating because I can't can't do much. I have, however, found some anonymous browsing services and HTTP proxies that work well enough.
I've been in contact with the Information Services Technology here and it looks like some more important services are being distrupted:
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 16:34:21 -0400
From: Yuri Kolomiyets
Newsgroups: uw.cscf.help
Subject: Re: Can't connect to textdrive.com (or wikipedia)
Oxford University Press is broken too, and library is actually paying to get
access to those resources.
Yuri Kolomiyets
Network Support
Information Systems & Technology
University of Waterloo
On one hand it's good for me that official services are affected, as it should boost priority.
Some of our friends here at TextDrive have put up some Katrina sites, and one in particular was done by Josh Benton, who is a reporter with The Dallas Morning News, and is from that area.
Josh's site (katrinacheckin.org) allows people from that area and their loved ones to connect, talk to each other in a forum and to post about missing loved ones. It seems to have been picked up by the media and some people from back home and we all of sudden found it running at 120Mbps and doing about 1000 requests/second, and has been doing that for about the last 9 hours.
The problem is that we ourselves honestly can't sustain that output from a single site with no notice, and being still in the middle of a datacenter move where we maintained two parallel setups.
So if you happen to have about 5-10ish extra (high-end) servers and an extra 100-1000Mbps drop sitting around, and would be able to help out, please let me know at jason at textdrive dot com.
The real trouble with using a lot of mediocre programmers instead of a couple of good ones is that no matter how long they work, they never produce something as good as what the great programmers can produce.
Five Antonio Salieris won't produce Mozart's Requiem. Ever. Not if they work for 100 years.
His main point seems to be that great programmers are able to write solid code in a much shorter time than the mediocre programmers. I'm not disagreeing with that. However, another point he seems to be making is that these programmers have an innate talent. They "good" programmers can try all they like, and never get to that level!
It seems sort of pointless. If I'm a "good" programmer, I'm stuck that way. I can never be a "Mozart". Maybe people hiring will find it useful - look for the "great" programmers, don't go for a "good" programmer hoping he'll improve or that having lots of "good" programmers will make up for lack of "great" programmers. But as far as an individual goes, if you're good, you're good, if you're great, you're greatness is >> good. Seems rather obvious and similar to many skills.
That said, I think it is possible to improve vastly with practice and training. A "good" programmer might not be "great" but he can get close, in the same way practice and training can vastly improve anyone's ability in a sport. Just seems like he doesn't address this aspect at all.
As fitting as "Eclipse" is, they were actually targeting Microsoft. From Eclipse: Behind the Name:
Back in 2003, when Sun Microsystems Inc. was considering whether it might join the then soon-to-be-independent Eclipse Foundation, one of the key concerns, aside from technical issues, was the name Eclipse.
Sun said it would not join an organization named Eclipse, and the foundation agreed to change the name. The Santa Clara, Calif., company didn't want to join an organization whose name was perceived as encouraging the demise of Sun, company executives said at the time.
It turned out Sun wasn't the target of the Eclipse moniker, though. In his keynote at the EclipseCon 2005 conference in March, Lee Nackman, chief technology officer and vice president of Design, Construction, and Test Tools at IBM's Rational Software division, said Microsoft Corp. was actually the company IBM wanted to "eclipse" and was the true object of IBM's attention.
"Our target was Microsoft," Nackman said. "Microsoft was clearly the market leader and was on a path to become the dominant tools platform. It was clear there'd be competition for developers... So around 1998 we felt, key to the competition around application servers and middleware, we needed to bring developers to Java-based middleware... IBM's middleware business depended on bringing developers to our Java-based middleware."
[snip]
"But the name seems so perfect a knock against Sun. How could it not be? Well, according to a source, some of the early Eclipse originators had a retreat where one of the themes was the universe and many code names emerged involving celestial themes. Eclipse stuck. And while Sun was not necessarily the primary target, "these were really smart people, and I don't think the visualization and competitive implication was lost," a source said."
Heh, on the topic of the name, it took months before the whole Eclipse - Java - Sun Microsystems thing clicked in for me. But apparently they weren't targeting Sun at all!
"Our target was Microsoft," Nackman said. "Microsoft was clearly the market leader and was on a path to become the dominant tools platform. It was clear there'd be competition for developers... So around 1998 we felt, key to the competition around application servers and middleware, we needed to bring developers to Java-based middleware... IBM's middleware business depended on bringing developers to our Java-based middleware."
[snip]
"But the name seems so perfect a knock against Sun. How could it not be? Well, according to a source, some of the early Eclipse originators had a retreat where one of the themes was the universe and many code names emerged involving celestial themes. Eclipse stuck. And while Sun was not necessarily the primary target, "these were really smart people, and I don't think the visualization and competitive implication was lost," a source said."
This isn't directly related to 3.1, but maybe there will be people trying out eclipse.
When I started using eclipse (at 3.0), I wish I had known that projects are synched with the file system. After creating a project, there's no need to "add files" or "import folder" to the project - just hit F5 and the file structure where your project is located will be used. I kept looking for something more complicated:) Right click on your main class, Run -> Java Application.
Hit F1 in any editor window, and a menu of ~10 topics will pop up. I found these well worth the look! They're well-structured and full of useful screenshots.
Wow, I didn't know about that visual editor, thanks!
Speaking of plugins, there is a C++ plugin, but I found it difficult to set up. I still haven't been able to get some of the development aids to work (such as highlighting errors as you go along).
One plugin that is uber cool is "Creole". It visually lays out the stucture of your code, including method calls. And the navigation is really slick. There's a screenshot at http://www.thechiselgroup.org/creole but it doesn't do it justice.
I've only used version 3 and it's quite fast. Admittedly I'm on a 3 GHz with 512 MB RAM. I've heard several people the same thing, so maybe 3.X is improved. Occasionally, it will stall for about 30 seconds but I've never had it crash.
I've found that developing in eclipse is faster than writing and compiling, because it highlights errors as you type (like how word underlines spelling mistakes). Once I'm done editing, I know it compiles, although just clicking the "run" icon is all that's required. (You can get a list of errors and go through them one by one if you prefer.)
I also find the development aids they have to be time-saving. For example, a ctrl-T will bring up a class hierarchy tree. Ctrl-E will pop up a list of all files opened where you can type in a filter (Action*.java). Ctrl-alt-H will show all the methods that call the method you'are currently editing. Not to mention the refactoring, debugger, views, etc.
Of course, each editor/IDE has their strength and weaknesses, but I've been quite happy with eclipse. The only thing I miss is a GUI editor like netbeans has.
Very strange! Maybe only some versions are vulnerable? According to secunia, Firefox 1.x is vulnerable (http://secunia.com/advisories/15601/). Maybe it's OS? I'm running on Windows XP SP 2. Maybe it's a FF setting? I can't recall having modified the default settings.
>Got three windows, two with secunia content, one with MS content.
I'm not sure why you have three windows. If this vulnerability works, you should have only two: the secunia test page, and the MSDN page with secunia content injected into the main frame.
Maybe you're opening the "Inject Secunia.com into Microsoft.com" link in a new window? Just left click it. Or maybe 1.02 isn't vulnerable.
I tried it too! I put the window so that I could only see the description. Reviewed it before going to sleep..
About all I came up with was a way to skip runs of the same number (4999999 will alternate between 1 and 4 the whole way through)...
I agree with Snags - it's misleading, at worst flawed. It would have been better if they put a shortcut that can be logically proven. If I took part, unless they specifically asked me if I noticed anything weird, I don't think I would have said anything.
What about people who wake up in the middle of the night with a solution? Doesn't this suggest they were thinking about it while sleeping? I agree thinking more clearly when rested is a factor, but this suggests something is going on in the brain while sleeping (to make it more rested). My speculation is that in "sorting things out" the brain might actually find a solution -- and this is the "thought it up in a dream". If it doesn't then you're rested and if you tackle the problem again you can think more clearly.
http://www.fi.winbolo.us/ (contains a good variety of content of various winbolo topics including winbolo netiquette)
I have been around in the winbolo community since it's release almost three years ago (Christmas 2000). In my opinion, it is a decent clone and will provide what the poster is looking for.
However, having played mac bolo on the internet during the late 90s, in more competitive game with experienced players, there are some definite differences in game play in winbolo compared to the original. If you played the original once in a while in a computer lab and are looking for some nostalgia, winbolo is great. The "hardcore" mac bolo players however will notice some differences once they get back into it. (http://www.lgm.com/winbolo/goodclone.html for some more info)
It seems evident to me that a line must be drawn somewhere. For example, it's not unreasonable to predict that gene manipulation will be possible with other pets, such as say gerbils or cats. At that time, if genetically modified fish are accepted, will the argument be "fish are accepted, why not cats?"
Personally, I just hope people will think about this and decide where they place the line. If someone has decided that genetically modified pets are fine as long as there has been research into making sure they're safe for the ecosystem, or whatever, then the way I see it, at least they've thought about it.
Of course this means educating yourself and others where you can. I'm no biologist so something like bananas once having seeds bigger than apple seeds surprised me. Humans actually over time bred them selectively.. so is selective breeding OK but technological gene manipulation OK? And how safe are these things? Will they mess up the natural ecosystem if one escapes? 'guess I have some research to do:|
But, techological gene manipulation only for human pleasure (ie pets) seems a reasonable line to me..
knoppix sounds promising but there are a few inital questions that come to mind with regards of using it as your main OS:
If it boots and runs off CD, does that mean I can't use my cd drive?
If I change some settings, won't they be lost when I reboot?
Lastly, what package manager does it use? If I'm not mistaken, knoppix is based on debian.. does apt-get work by default? (as someone who uses debian mainly because of apt, this would be great)
I have looked through the knoppix FAQ, but didn't see answers to any of these. Although I will probably try knoppix regardless just cause it sounds so cool:)
Since Dasher seems to be targeted at handicapped and/or paralyzed users, it might go well with another alternative input software called "Nouse".
Nouse is a nose tracker that requires only a USB camera, and can move the cursor based on head movements. Obviously both packages need a bit of polishing but it's an interesting possibility (look ma, no hands!).
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Original parent comment was talking about making 95% of bitcoin uses illegal. There's nothing inherently illegal about I.O.U.s, script, payment-in-king, etc. as you listed. Making tax evasion with bitcoin illegal is very different from making 95% of its uses illegal.
Personally, I'm fine with the government taking a cut of my bitcoin profits. It's profit, fair enough. I'm happy with being able to store wealth in a method that can't be seized by the government (whether that is by simply printing ridiculous amounts of money, or otherwise), and being able to send money anywhere with basically no charge.
I was going to buy a PS3, but why should I support a company that discourages me from using my hardware how I want?
The open pandora system looks like a much better place to spend my money. An open source handheld gaming system, yes, it can work: http://openpandora.org/
I was at Whistler last week for another conference. I sat in on a few mozilla talks cause I couldn't resist. (Funny how when I asked the official front desk if I could, they told me "No, we fly all these people in, they're private talks" but everyone else I asked was like "Oh yeah no problem go ahead")
Our bus to Vancouver airport was scheduled 8am to make 12pm flights, and it had to be moved to 2am -- and we took the long way around, going from roughly 3 hours to 9 hours. It's actually a really nice scenic route, though it's a bit of a jolt when the sun came up and see us winding along roads meters away from a cliff.
What is GAS access? or a GAS ISP? I've heard these terms thrown around but I can't find any info on them by googling or otherwise.
Just don't make it like this guy's startup sound: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mt1bgsvsWms
I can't access my web host, textdrive.com, nor wikipedia.com from my resnet connection here at Waterloo University. Apparently they're relying exclusively on Cogent. It's quite frustrating because I can't can't do much. I have, however, found some anonymous browsing services and HTTP proxies that work well enough.
I've been in contact with the Information Services Technology here and it looks like some more important services are being distrupted:
On one hand it's good for me that official services are affected, as it should boost priority.Apparently someone who hosts at textdrive.com built something like you describe, put it online, but the servers got swamped.
They're currently looking for a host.
From here:
It seems sort of pointless. If I'm a "good" programmer, I'm stuck that way. I can never be a "Mozart". Maybe people hiring will find it useful - look for the "great" programmers, don't go for a "good" programmer hoping he'll improve or that having lots of "good" programmers will make up for lack of "great" programmers. But as far as an individual goes, if you're good, you're good, if you're great, you're greatness is >> good. Seems rather obvious and similar to many skills.
That said, I think it is possible to improve vastly with practice and training. A "good" programmer might not be "great" but he can get close, in the same way practice and training can vastly improve anyone's ability in a sport. Just seems like he doesn't address this aspect at all.
Heh, on the topic of the name, it took months before the whole Eclipse - Java - Sun Microsystems thing clicked in for me. But apparently they weren't targeting Sun at all!
From Eclipse: Behind the Name:
"Our target was Microsoft," Nackman said. "Microsoft was clearly the market leader and was on a path to become the dominant tools platform. It was clear there'd be competition for developers... So around 1998 we felt, key to the competition around application servers and middleware, we needed to bring developers to Java-based middleware ... IBM's middleware business depended on bringing developers to our Java-based middleware."
[snip]
"But the name seems so perfect a knock against Sun. How could it not be? Well, according to a source, some of the early Eclipse originators had a retreat where one of the themes was the universe and many code names emerged involving celestial themes. Eclipse stuck. And while Sun was not necessarily the primary target, "these were really smart people, and I don't think the visualization and competitive implication was lost," a source said."
This isn't directly related to 3.1, but maybe there will be people trying out eclipse.
:) Right click on your main class, Run -> Java Application.
When I started using eclipse (at 3.0), I wish I had known that projects are synched with the file system. After creating a project, there's no need to "add files" or "import folder" to the project - just hit F5 and the file structure where your project is located will be used. I kept looking for something more complicated
Hit F1 in any editor window, and a menu of ~10 topics will pop up. I found these well worth the look! They're well-structured and full of useful screenshots.
Since eclipse.org is struggling, there's a screenshot about halfway down this IBM visual editor tutorial.
Wow, I didn't know about that visual editor, thanks!
Speaking of plugins, there is a C++ plugin, but I found it difficult to set up. I still haven't been able to get some of the development aids to work (such as highlighting errors as you go along).
One plugin that is uber cool is "Creole". It visually lays out the stucture of your code, including method calls. And the navigation is really slick. There's a screenshot at http://www.thechiselgroup.org/creole but it doesn't do it justice.
I've only used version 3 and it's quite fast. Admittedly I'm on a 3 GHz with 512 MB RAM. I've heard several people the same thing, so maybe 3.X is improved. Occasionally, it will stall for about 30 seconds but I've never had it crash.
I've found that developing in eclipse is faster than writing and compiling, because it highlights errors as you type (like how word underlines spelling mistakes). Once I'm done editing, I know it compiles, although just clicking the "run" icon is all that's required. (You can get a list of errors and go through them one by one if you prefer.)
I also find the development aids they have to be time-saving. For example, a ctrl-T will bring up a class hierarchy tree. Ctrl-E will pop up a list of all files opened where you can type in a filter (Action*.java). Ctrl-alt-H will show all the methods that call the method you'are currently editing. Not to mention the refactoring, debugger, views, etc.
Of course, each editor/IDE has their strength and weaknesses, but I've been quite happy with eclipse. The only thing I miss is a GUI editor like netbeans has.
Very strange! Maybe only some versions are vulnerable? According to secunia, Firefox 1.x is vulnerable (http://secunia.com/advisories/15601/). Maybe it's OS? I'm running on Windows XP SP 2. Maybe it's a FF setting? I can't recall having modified the default settings.
Here's a screenshot of how it looks for me.
>Got three windows, two with secunia content, one with MS content.
I'm not sure why you have three windows. If this vulnerability works, you should have only two: the secunia test page, and the MSDN page with secunia content injected into the main frame.
Maybe you're opening the "Inject Secunia.com into Microsoft.com" link in a new window? Just left click it. Or maybe 1.02 isn't vulnerable.
Here's how I got it to work. From http://secunia.com/multiple_browsers_frame_injecti on_vulnerability_test/
0. First, close any MSDN windows you might have left open.
1. Right click on the msdn link, choose "Open Link in New Window"
2. Leave the new window open, and click back to the secunia example page.
3. Click the "Inject Secunia.com into Microsoft.com" link.
4. Look at the new window that opened in #1.
Not good. Using FF 1.04.
Google news search for "mag-beam" returned http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/507649/ and http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mag_beam_p ropulsion_system.html?14102004 with a sci-fi looking picture.
Froogle search for "mag-beam" did not match any products. :)
I tried it too! I put the window so that I could only see the description. Reviewed it before going to sleep..
About all I came up with was a way to skip runs of the same number (4999999 will alternate between 1 and 4 the whole way through)...
I agree with Snags - it's misleading, at worst flawed. It would have been better if they put a shortcut that can be logically proven. If I took part, unless they specifically asked me if I noticed anything weird, I don't think I would have said anything.
What about people who wake up in the middle of the night with a solution? Doesn't this suggest they were thinking about it while sleeping? I agree thinking more clearly when rested is a factor, but this suggests something is going on in the brain while sleeping (to make it more rested). My speculation is that in "sorting things out" the brain might actually find a solution -- and this is the "thought it up in a dream". If it doesn't then you're rested and if you tackle the problem again you can think more clearly.
http://www.lgm.com/winbolo (download link for windows and linux versions here)
http://winbolo.net (real-time logs of current games, current game list, and several forums)
http://winbolo.us (contains a good variety of winbolo links)
http://www.fi.winbolo.us/ (contains a good variety of content of various winbolo topics including winbolo netiquette)
I have been around in the winbolo community since it's release almost three years ago (Christmas 2000). In my opinion, it is a decent clone and will provide what the poster is looking for.
However, having played mac bolo on the internet during the late 90s, in more competitive game with experienced players, there are some definite differences in game play in winbolo compared to the original. If you played the original once in a while in a computer lab and are looking for some nostalgia, winbolo is great. The "hardcore" mac bolo players however will notice some differences once they get back into it. (http://www.lgm.com/winbolo/goodclone.html for some more info)
It seems evident to me that a line must be drawn somewhere. For example, it's not unreasonable to predict that gene manipulation will be possible with other pets, such as say gerbils or cats. At that time, if genetically modified fish are accepted, will the argument be "fish are accepted, why not cats?"
Personally, I just hope people will think about this and decide where they place the line. If someone has decided that genetically modified pets are fine as long as there has been research into making sure they're safe for the ecosystem, or whatever, then the way I see it, at least they've thought about it.
Of course this means educating yourself and others where you can. I'm no biologist so something like bananas once having seeds bigger than apple seeds surprised me. Humans actually over time bred them selectively.. so is selective breeding OK but technological gene manipulation OK? And how safe are these things? Will they mess up the natural ecosystem if one escapes? 'guess I have some research to do :|
But, techological gene manipulation only for human pleasure (ie pets) seems a reasonable line to me..
knoppix sounds promising but there are a few inital questions that come to mind with regards of using it as your main OS:
If it boots and runs off CD, does that mean I can't use my cd drive?
If I change some settings, won't they be lost when I reboot?
Lastly, what package manager does it use? If I'm not mistaken, knoppix is based on debian .. does apt-get work by default? (as someone who uses debian mainly because of apt, this would be great)
I have looked through the knoppix FAQ, but didn't see answers to any of these. Although I will probably try knoppix regardless just cause it sounds so cool :)
Since Dasher seems to be targeted at handicapped and/or paralyzed users, it might go well with another alternative input software called "Nouse".
Nouse is a nose tracker that requires only a USB camera, and can move the cursor based on head movements. Obviously both packages need a bit of polishing but it's an interesting possibility (look ma, no hands!).