It's pretty obvious what you're supposed to do in the first puzzle, especially given the hint in the lower-right corner: write a function that will treat the 2D array "d" like a simple "tetris" grid of falling "true" blocks. (The "false" bits in the grid are empty space, and the "true" bits are the "blocks".
Just run all internet-facing software under a restricted set of user rights. Two years ago I changed all my browser and messenger shortcuts to launch using the handy little DropMyRights utility. Result? I haven't caught anything from a malformed web page or IM attack in all that time -- even with running everything else under my normal administrator-class account. (This is on WinXP Pro SP2).
Linux support for integrated motherboard SATA-RAID has been pathetic. It's still basically impossible for a user who has Windows installed on an integrated motherboard SATA-RAID array to shrink the Windows partition on it, create a new one, and install Linux on it in a dual-boot configuration.
Until that gets fixed, fewer and fewer Windows users are going to be installing Linux as integrated motherboard SATA-RAID continues to permeate the market.
When Not to Use chroot 1. While trying to get a date. 2. While operating a motor vehicle. 3. While dining at an expensive restaurant. 4. While dancing. 5. While urinating. 6. While defending yourself against a murder charge. 7. While picking fleas off a gorilla's back. 8. While seasoning a fine hamburger patty. 9. While being arrested. 10. While having sex.
Your revised question also has an easy answer: contribute in any way you can to make Linux more widely acceptable. Once it's finally good enough that most people prefer it over Windows, then it will have enough marketshare for it to be worth companies' efforts.
This is a good thing for the console gamers because it means they won't have to be victims of the various cheats and hacks that the PC gamers inevitably find and exploit.
What they are less keen on is video calling: in Japan, as in the UK, 90% say "no thanks, never". That will change when someone finally invents software to change not only your voice, but your on-screen appearance, to any popular persona of your choice.
If you think ringtones of popular songs sell well, or custom voices to make your GPS sound like Mr. T, imagine how well the "Jessic Alba" and "Brad Pitt" video chat disguises would sell.
What's so hard about giving back to the community a tiny little something. Businesses don't care about "giving back to the community". They care about making money. Period.
Why don't more Linux-using shops reach out to the Linux-using community? Because the Linux-using community represents such a small percentage of their customer base that it doesn't make financial sense for them to spend the resources to specifically cater to it.
Cost of living in the US is generally higher because we have to pay for medical insurance, hospital visits, childcare/daycare, etc, almost entirely out of our own pockets, in addition to all the taxes we already pay. In most European countries, those kinds of services are provided through some kind of government-run socialized program paid for by your taxes. Here in the states we have to handle those things entirely on our own and they cost a lot, so we have to earn more to be able to do that.
Plus, here in the states, most people have to commute a really long way by car to get to their jobs, whereas in Europe the distances travelled by car for daily commute probably average less because (1) there just isn't as much sprawl, and (2) there's better public transit. The cost of owning, maintaining, and refueling a car adds up.
Microsoft can't fix Windows properly (by redesigning all its obviously flawed subsystems and conventions) because most people value backward compatibility with existing devices, drivers, and applications over anything else.
If Microsoft introduced a version of Windows that had been re-written from the ground up in a robust, efficient, sensible way, nobody would buy it (because there wouldn't be any device drivers and applications for it), device manufacturers wouldn't write drivers for it (because the customer base for the OS was so miniscule), and application developers wouldn't port all their software to it (again, because the customer base for the OS was miniscule).
Look at the modest architectural changes Microsoft took a risk and made with Vista. That broke driver compatibility, and messed with app compatibility in some fringe cases, so now you've got millions of complaints from people bitching that their existing hardware and programs won't work on Vista. It's a major reason that Vista hasn't been well received. Now imagine how Microsoft would have fared if the device and app compatibility had been 100% broken.
People who claim Microsoft should take the OS X route (new clean OS design, providing backward compatibility by running other OSes in virtual machines) are again forgetting the drivers issue. A new OS architecture cannot generally use drivers from some other OS, and without drivers for your host OS, you're again stuck.
Microsoft is in a tough position -- damned if they do, damned if they don't. But I just wish they would be transparent and honest about the position they are in. They haven't solved the security issues, and should just admit that they never will be able to as long as they don't control the hardware the way Apple does and customers keep valuing backward compatibility.
The coop's argument here reminds me of that old "Microsoft patents 1's and 0's" article on The Onion, because it's just as arrogant and ludicrous.
College textbooks are one of the biggest evil overpriced rip-offs in the world anyway. Most of them aren't worth their weight in shit to begin with, and then your classes "require" them even though the professor inevitably lectures and tests you on stuff mostly not in the textbook anyway.
College kids, if you want to make the world a better place, stop pirating MP3s and start pirating textbooks.
I hear the same thing about Zelda: Twilight Princess. People spend half an hour, don't make it out of the village, and complain that you have to fish to much, conclude that the game sucks, and don't play any further. Any game that requires you to spend time in a boring, monotonous activity in order to earn things (experience/points/items/coins/gold/etc) or unlock things (weapons/keys/flutes/goblets/etc) is a boring game.
If I wanted to have to suffer through somethig boring just to finally get something good, I'd shut down my console and go live real life.
Future Crew's "Starport 2" BBS ad was the tightest, most cleverly-optimized, elegant piece of assembly code I've ever seen. The binary was even zero-byte-reduced to fit in exactly 1993 bytes, which was the year it was written. And it implemented a surprising amount of functionality in such a small binary.
Step 1: Grasp stick with right hand. Step 2: Gently pull until stick dislodges from butt hole. Step 3: Practice sense of humor -- but be patient, it may take a while to return.
Slashdot Mirror
It's pretty obvious what you're supposed to do in the first puzzle, especially given the hint in the lower-right corner: write a function that will treat the 2D array "d" like a simple "tetris" grid of falling "true" blocks. (The "false" bits in the grid are empty space, and the "true" bits are the "blocks".
Just run all internet-facing software under a restricted set of user rights. Two years ago I changed all my browser and messenger shortcuts to launch using the handy little DropMyRights utility. Result? I haven't caught anything from a malformed web page or IM attack in all that time -- even with running everything else under my normal administrator-class account. (This is on WinXP Pro SP2).
More people are spending more time gaming and less time working :-)
Linux support for integrated motherboard SATA-RAID has been pathetic. It's still basically impossible for a user who has Windows installed on an integrated motherboard SATA-RAID array to shrink the Windows partition on it, create a new one, and install Linux on it in a dual-boot configuration.
Until that gets fixed, fewer and fewer Windows users are going to be installing Linux as integrated motherboard SATA-RAID continues to permeate the market.
Dibs on "billg@slashdot.org"
(S)enator
(O)n-
(L)ine
=
(S)hit
(O)ut of
(L)uck
My guess:
1. Being the MPAA's and RIAA's paid/bribed bitch.
2. Illegally detaining, interrogating, and torturing innocent people in the name of "fighting terror".
2. While operating a motor vehicle.
3. While dining at an expensive restaurant.
4. While dancing.
5. While urinating.
6. While defending yourself against a murder charge.
7. While picking fleas off a gorilla's back.
8. While seasoning a fine hamburger patty.
9. While being arrested.
10. While having sex.
Your revised question also has an easy answer: contribute in any way you can to make Linux more widely acceptable. Once it's finally good enough that most people prefer it over Windows, then it will have enough marketshare for it to be worth companies' efforts.
This is a good thing for the console gamers because it means they won't have to be victims of the various cheats and hacks that the PC gamers inevitably find and exploit.
If you think ringtones of popular songs sell well, or custom voices to make your GPS sound like Mr. T, imagine how well the "Jessic Alba" and "Brad Pitt" video chat disguises would sell.
I don't know about you, but half the time I have 3 legs.
Why haven't you been hanged, or hung, or swung (swanged?) from a rope?
Cost of living in the US is generally higher because we have to pay for medical insurance, hospital visits, childcare/daycare, etc, almost entirely out of our own pockets, in addition to all the taxes we already pay. In most European countries, those kinds of services are provided through some kind of government-run socialized program paid for by your taxes. Here in the states we have to handle those things entirely on our own and they cost a lot, so we have to earn more to be able to do that.
Plus, here in the states, most people have to commute a really long way by car to get to their jobs, whereas in Europe the distances travelled by car for daily commute probably average less because (1) there just isn't as much sprawl, and (2) there's better public transit. The cost of owning, maintaining, and refueling a car adds up.
850 x 77.1 = Pat Buchanan?
You forgot Christopher Walken, Peter Griffin, Mr. T, and Sean Connery
Microsoft can't fix Windows properly (by redesigning all its obviously flawed subsystems and conventions) because most people value backward compatibility with existing devices, drivers, and applications over anything else.
If Microsoft introduced a version of Windows that had been re-written from the ground up in a robust, efficient, sensible way, nobody would buy it (because there wouldn't be any device drivers and applications for it), device manufacturers wouldn't write drivers for it (because the customer base for the OS was so miniscule), and application developers wouldn't port all their software to it (again, because the customer base for the OS was miniscule).
Look at the modest architectural changes Microsoft took a risk and made with Vista. That broke driver compatibility, and messed with app compatibility in some fringe cases, so now you've got millions of complaints from people bitching that their existing hardware and programs won't work on Vista. It's a major reason that Vista hasn't been well received. Now imagine how Microsoft would have fared if the device and app compatibility had been 100% broken.
People who claim Microsoft should take the OS X route (new clean OS design, providing backward compatibility by running other OSes in virtual machines) are again forgetting the drivers issue. A new OS architecture cannot generally use drivers from some other OS, and without drivers for your host OS, you're again stuck.
Microsoft is in a tough position -- damned if they do, damned if they don't. But I just wish they would be transparent and honest about the position they are in. They haven't solved the security issues, and should just admit that they never will be able to as long as they don't control the hardware the way Apple does and customers keep valuing backward compatibility.
The coop's argument here reminds me of that old "Microsoft patents 1's and 0's" article on The Onion, because it's just as arrogant and ludicrous.
College textbooks are one of the biggest evil overpriced rip-offs in the world anyway. Most of them aren't worth their weight in shit to begin with, and then your classes "require" them even though the professor inevitably lectures and tests you on stuff mostly not in the textbook anyway.
College kids, if you want to make the world a better place, stop pirating MP3s and start pirating textbooks.
If I wanted to have to suffer through somethig boring just to finally get something good, I'd shut down my console and go live real life.
If anyone's interested in CCD astrophotography, my dad is somewhat of an expert on the subject: http://www.ghg.net/akelly
Future Crew's "Starport 2" BBS ad was the tightest, most cleverly-optimized, elegant piece of assembly code I've ever seen. The binary was even zero-byte-reduced to fit in exactly 1993 bytes, which was the year it was written. And it implemented a surprising amount of functionality in such a small binary.
See info at http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=12217
I think I know how to solve your problem.
Step 1: Grasp stick with right hand.
Step 2: Gently pull until stick dislodges from butt hole.
Step 3: Practice sense of humor -- but be patient, it may take a while to return.
It can't be flamebait if it's true (which it is).