He's not just smart. He's smart with a fairly rich background in applied sciences. In other words, he's a lot less likely to create or support legislature based on the perception that the internet is a bunch of tubes.
Given the current lineup, at least nice to balance some of the technical ineptness on capitol hill right now... even if his area of experience is somewhat narrow. =Smidge=
Regardless fo how the patent is worded, if they are applying it Guitar Hero hen I fail to see why it wouldn't also apply to Guitar Freaks ot Rock Band. Guitar Hero is virtually a direct ripoff of Guitar Freaks in every way except with fancier graphics and inferior controllers.
It's hard to imagine a wording that both applies to Guitar Hero and is not, at the same time, negated by Guitar Freaks' prior art. =Smidge=
So I guess they just completely ignored Konami, who's had "Guitar Freaks" machines in arcades for nearly ten years at this point?
Since both "Guitar Freaks" and Gibson's patent have been around since 1999, I wonder which came first. Does prior art still count if it's in another country? =Smidge=
I'm not sure the police involved would WANT to make public comments about ongoing criminal investigations.
So, criminal investigations notwithstanding...
Would this even be permitted by their department? I don't see why it wouldn't be. A police officer is still private citizen. Maybe he'd get in trouble for doing so while on duty but there is no real premise to prevent him from commenting on his own time.
How do they know the identity of who they're responding to? This is a minor sticking point, perhaps. I have not seen the site itself but I would imagine things like officer name and badge # would be included. After that, the details of the complaint would likely spark a few memories.
Regarding otherwise good cops getting heat from angry people - that's the breaks. You'll get heat from anyone for doing anything eventually, and cops just happen to deal with more people in stressful situations (who ENJOYS getting pulled over?) so naturally they'll catch more bitching. Doesn't mean we should deny these people their forum though. =Smidge=
Even better, given the sophistication of some of these bootleggers - couldn't they just reverse engineer the blueprints and modify them to bypass the feature?
The chips need to be activated at the manufacturer's level, not the consumer level. It does this by an internal random number generator. So... Take one genuine chip, find out what it's random number/activation key is, then modify your blueprints to produce the SAME ID number (bypass the RNG) and then activate all of them with the same key.
This sounds no more secure than programs that require user-name based serial numbers...
Alternatively, produce the chips with the "combination lock" set to "open" to begin with and bypass activation altogether. =Smidge=
Suppose Google does get a picture of you sitting on the front porch in your skivvies.
The only people who are going to know it's you are the people you obviously don't mind knowing about it anyway... unless you make a big deal out of it.
So you end up in a captioned photo on somethingawful or fark or 4chan or whatever... so what? Nobody knows it's you except the people that already know you. Just go about your daily life and the chances of someone finding out are practically nill.
(Unless you're one of those idiots who pastes his face all over everything he does in the internet, in which case you have much, much bigger privacy issues to worry about...) =Smidge=
I always kinda fantasized about a switch that did the following:
-Activate the brake lights
-Activate a set of hydraulics to boost the read of the car up an inch or two
-Release a little smoke from a point near the rear wheelwells
-Play a loud screeching sound from a loudspeaker mounted under the trunk
Simulated emergency stop! Should give those tailgaters a reason to back off... =Smidge=
I think the fossil record pretty much provides the evidence for evolution in the past. What I do not understand is how this has been repeated in experiments or been used to make predictions, let alone accurate ones, for the future.
I would appreciate a response other than "your education is sorely lacking", "there's this wonderful tool called Google" or any of the myriad other less than helpful comments. TIA. To be honest, there really is no better way to answer this than "your education is sorely lacking." If you actually had any interest in the subject it's trivial to educate yourself on at least the basics. I suspect that you are still capable of asking this question with a straight face after reading this and countless other discussions on the topic, then you are being willfully ignorant. I further suspect that you'll end up disregarding any evidence for "evolution right before your eyes" even though you specifically asked for it.
In other words, you feel that whatever you currently believe is "good enough" or else you would have done your own homework by now, and no amount of talk from third parties will dispell that notion. It will take effort on your part to accomplish that. (Lead a horse to water etc etc)
I'll at least give you push in the right direction, though, just to be optomisitc about it:
You're being a little inconsistent with your argument. "Evidence from repeatable experiments" are, by definition, facts.
Gravity is a fact. That is, the phenomena where two or more physical objects exert mutual forces on each other is, by definition, a fact. It can be directly observed.
However, the "theory" part comes in when we attempt to explain these facts in a consistent and useful manner. "Falling" is not a theory, but the logic behind the why and the mathematics that describe the how are theories. =Smidge=
Fine. I'll sell you a car that gets "up to 120MPG*! Drive nearly 5x farther than ordinary vehicles!"
It's not sleezy if I can proove that kind of fuel economy, but I never tell you that it only applies to first first mile once you drive it off the lot? You wouldn't feel just a bit bothered about paying for something and being deliberately shortchanged on the deal?
Here's a wild concept: Don't promise what you can't deliver! =Smidge=
Is there any valid reason why Comcast would front-load transfers in this way
Your average webpage is not 100+MB. If they give you full bandwidth for, say, 2 seconds - most reasonable webpages will download completely within that time. It's not "cheating" exactly since they don't guarantee those speeds, but "up to" those speeds. They're not the only ones who do it, either.
As a concept it's pretty straightforward: "Cook" the biomass until it turns into oil. I think it's one of the multitude of technologies we'll need for sustainable, "green" energy. =Smidge=
Thermal Depolymerization can convert almost any organic substance into raw hydrocarbons. So yeah, converting humans into oil is entirely possible.
That's actually how I'd prefer my body to be disposed of when the med students are done with it. Burying corpses is so wasteful in the grand scheme of things. =Smidge=
By passing odinances requiring certified "Dark Skies" light fixtures and adding requirements for municipality approved lighting plans. All exterior building lighting and parking lot lighting installed since ~2004 (that I know of) has been required to meet these requirements.
For example, no measurable light must be cast above the rim of the fixture. IE: Cast light can not shine greater than 90 degrees up from the vertical ("cutoff luminaires"). This is trickier than is sounds because it includes any light reflected off of the fixture and supporting structure itself. This is usually accomplished by specially designed reflectors that focus and direct the light to very predictable patterns rather than flooding an area like older designs.
In some municipalities the calculated total foot-candles at ground level must be between rather tight tolerances. =Smidge=
There is already a Dark Skies Initiative program in my area, and many areas, which makes light pollution a government regulated issue to begin with. It has little to do with energy policy so you can put away your "energy lobby" conspiracy theories.
"Abstinence makes the church grow fondlers." - If anything, it's sexual repression that causes sexual deviance.
Pedophilia is hardly a new aspect of society. Anyone here ever read Vladimir Nabokov? How can any honest, informed person make this kind of assertion? =Smidge=
Slashdot Mirror
Here's the thing, though.
He's not just smart. He's smart with a fairly rich background in applied sciences. In other words, he's a lot less likely to create or support legislature based on the perception that the internet is a bunch of tubes.
Given the current lineup, at least nice to balance some of the technical ineptness on capitol hill right now... even if his area of experience is somewhat narrow.
=Smidge=
Thanks for the input.
Regardless fo how the patent is worded, if they are applying it Guitar Hero hen I fail to see why it wouldn't also apply to Guitar Freaks ot Rock Band. Guitar Hero is virtually a direct ripoff of Guitar Freaks in every way except with fancier graphics and inferior controllers.
It's hard to imagine a wording that both applies to Guitar Hero and is not, at the same time, negated by Guitar Freaks' prior art.
=Smidge=
So I guess they just completely ignored Konami, who's had "Guitar Freaks" machines in arcades for nearly ten years at this point?
Since both "Guitar Freaks" and Gibson's patent have been around since 1999, I wonder which came first. Does prior art still count if it's in another country?
=Smidge=
I'm not sure the police involved would WANT to make public comments about ongoing criminal investigations.
So, criminal investigations notwithstanding...
Would this even be permitted by their department? I don't see why it wouldn't be. A police officer is still private citizen. Maybe he'd get in trouble for doing so while on duty but there is no real premise to prevent him from commenting on his own time.
How do they know the identity of who they're responding to? This is a minor sticking point, perhaps. I have not seen the site itself but I would imagine things like officer name and badge # would be included. After that, the details of the complaint would likely spark a few memories.
Regarding otherwise good cops getting heat from angry people - that's the breaks. You'll get heat from anyone for doing anything eventually, and cops just happen to deal with more people in stressful situations (who ENJOYS getting pulled over?) so naturally they'll catch more bitching. Doesn't mean we should deny these people their forum though.
=Smidge=
When it comes to internet analogies, you must use either "tubes", "trucks" or "clowns" - not cars.
=Smidge=
Even better, given the sophistication of some of these bootleggers - couldn't they just reverse engineer the blueprints and modify them to bypass the feature?
The chips need to be activated at the manufacturer's level, not the consumer level. It does this by an internal random number generator. So... Take one genuine chip, find out what it's random number/activation key is, then modify your blueprints to produce the SAME ID number (bypass the RNG) and then activate all of them with the same key.
This sounds no more secure than programs that require user-name based serial numbers...
Alternatively, produce the chips with the "combination lock" set to "open" to begin with and bypass activation altogether.
=Smidge=
Even better:
Suppose Google does get a picture of you sitting on the front porch in your skivvies.
The only people who are going to know it's you are the people you obviously don't mind knowing about it anyway... unless you make a big deal out of it.
So you end up in a captioned photo on somethingawful or fark or 4chan or whatever... so what? Nobody knows it's you except the people that already know you. Just go about your daily life and the chances of someone finding out are practically nill.
(Unless you're one of those idiots who pastes his face all over everything he does in the internet, in which case you have much, much bigger privacy issues to worry about...)
=Smidge=
I always kinda fantasized about a switch that did the following:
-Activate the brake lights
-Activate a set of hydraulics to boost the read of the car up an inch or two
-Release a little smoke from a point near the rear wheelwells
-Play a loud screeching sound from a loudspeaker mounted under the trunk
Simulated emergency stop! Should give those tailgaters a reason to back off...
=Smidge=
=Smidge=
I would appreciate a response other than "your education is sorely lacking", "there's this wonderful tool called Google" or any of the myriad other less than helpful comments. TIA. To be honest, there really is no better way to answer this than "your education is sorely lacking." If you actually had any interest in the subject it's trivial to educate yourself on at least the basics. I suspect that you are still capable of asking this question with a straight face after reading this and countless other discussions on the topic, then you are being willfully ignorant. I further suspect that you'll end up disregarding any evidence for "evolution right before your eyes" even though you specifically asked for it.
In other words, you feel that whatever you currently believe is "good enough" or else you would have done your own homework by now, and no amount of talk from third parties will dispell that notion. It will take effort on your part to accomplish that. (Lead a horse to water etc etc)
I'll at least give you push in the right direction, though, just to be optomisitc about it:
http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-evolution.html
=Smidge=
You're being a little inconsistent with your argument. "Evidence from repeatable experiments" are, by definition, facts.
Gravity is a fact. That is, the phenomena where two or more physical objects exert mutual forces on each other is, by definition, a fact. It can be directly observed.
However, the "theory" part comes in when we attempt to explain these facts in a consistent and useful manner. "Falling" is not a theory, but the logic behind the why and the mathematics that describe the how are theories.
=Smidge=
This has already happened =( Hey! No spoilers... I'm still waiting for the download to finish!
=Smidge=
Some variant of a Wheatstone Bridge maybe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatstone_bridge
=Smidge=
Fine. I'll sell you a car that gets "up to 120MPG*! Drive nearly 5x farther than ordinary vehicles!"
It's not sleezy if I can proove that kind of fuel economy, but I never tell you that it only applies to first first mile once you drive it off the lot? You wouldn't feel just a bit bothered about paying for something and being deliberately shortchanged on the deal?
Here's a wild concept: Don't promise what you can't deliver!
=Smidge=
Is there any valid reason why Comcast would front-load transfers in this way
Your average webpage is not 100+MB. If they give you full bandwidth for, say, 2 seconds - most reasonable webpages will download completely within that time. It's not "cheating" exactly since they don't guarantee those speeds, but "up to" those speeds. They're not the only ones who do it, either.
Still a sleezy thing to do...
=Smidge=
Not science fiction.
As a concept it's pretty straightforward: "Cook" the biomass until it turns into oil. I think it's one of the multitude of technologies we'll need for sustainable, "green" energy.
=Smidge=
Thermal Depolymerization can convert almost any organic substance into raw hydrocarbons. So yeah, converting humans into oil is entirely possible.
That's actually how I'd prefer my body to be disposed of when the med students are done with it. Burying corpses is so wasteful in the grand scheme of things.
=Smidge=
1) Provide free, unlimited, high-speed internet access (and /. subscriptions) to all citizens.
2) People stop going outside.
3) Secrecy!
=Smidge=
"582 films in the last five years."
116 movies per year. That's just over two a week. Maybe you have more spare time than you thought...
=Smidge=
The difference is, we are still clinging to our 2nd amendment - so at least we still have armed revolt as an option. The UK doesn't even have that.
Either way, it's probably a good time to start learning Chinese.
=Smidge=
By passing odinances requiring certified "Dark Skies" light fixtures and adding requirements for municipality approved lighting plans. All exterior building lighting and parking lot lighting installed since ~2004 (that I know of) has been required to meet these requirements.
For example, no measurable light must be cast above the rim of the fixture. IE: Cast light can not shine greater than 90 degrees up from the vertical ("cutoff luminaires"). This is trickier than is sounds because it includes any light reflected off of the fixture and supporting structure itself. This is usually accomplished by specially designed reflectors that focus and direct the light to very predictable patterns rather than flooding an area like older designs.
In some municipalities the calculated total foot-candles at ground level must be between rather tight tolerances.
=Smidge=
There is already a Dark Skies Initiative program in my area, and many areas, which makes light pollution a government regulated issue to begin with. It has little to do with energy policy so you can put away your "energy lobby" conspiracy theories.
=Smidge=
"Abstinence makes the church grow fondlers." - If anything, it's sexual repression that causes sexual deviance.
Pedophilia is hardly a new aspect of society. Anyone here ever read Vladimir Nabokov? How can any honest, informed person make this kind of assertion?
=Smidge=
Okay, so benchmarks don't adequately reflect real applications. Not much of a surprise there...
But does this impact their usefullness in comparing hardware at all?
=Smidge=
I submit "Battlezone" and "Merlin's Walls" as counterproof, both available on the Atari 2600.
=Smidge=