Now, now. The man is an English teacher; his inspiration to take up writing was a Sidney Sheldon novel (as, in, I can do better than this tripe). That's not exactly a high bar; nor is it his fault that hitting on conspiracy theory as a plot is something the public will drink like free whicky in Inverness.
What, exactly, is the value of gold? It's, um, yellow, and it's shiny. Other people think it's valuable. But you can't eat it. You can't drink it. You can't plant it. Once you put your mney into it, you have to hope that other people will think it is even more valuable, or you'll have to sell it at a loss (and look at how that worked out for houses). You can bash people over the head with it. You can use very small amounts of it to make micro-electronics. You can dissolve it using aqua regis, or form it into circles and present it to girls. None of that explains why it is or is worth £18k per kilo (approx $30k). Sure, it's rare, but it's also almost useless.
Because he would spend all his time wanking off over military hardware and inventing elaborate subplots involving misogynistic sex with a combat barbie.
Most movies these days are being mastered well in excess of Blu-Ray standards so that they don't have to do anything when the successor format comes out. That's also the reason Blu-Ray was crippled - they will be able to introduce Blu-Ray 2 without having to redo most of the installed hardware base. However, they will be able to sell you the same damned film *again*.
Sometimes a fair point, sometimes not. Some foods can be manufactured anywhere, and can reasonably be called the same thing. Some specialist foods, however, can't. Wines depend for their taste upon the particular combination of soil and climate; you can make sparkling wine anywhere in the world but champagne can only come from Champagne. Similarly for things like Parma ham or the Spanish Pata Negra. If you don't think there's a difference, try them side by side. You might be surprised;)
More to the point, it's not small. It's anything up to 40%, depending which study you believe. When it comes to grabbing the best genes available, women can be pretty narcissistic.
If you don't know who you're talking to to start with, your encrypted password is giving you a false sense of security. Encryption is not a panacea; in fact it is the least important part of the security chain, because it is easy to do reasonably well.
Indeed. Mrs u38cg enjoyed it, and in all honesty, she only went to see it because of the director's pappy. Now she might even read an Iain Banks novel...
Another fantastic sci-fi piece recently released is Moon, directed by one Duncan Jones. Strongly recommend it, if you can find it - it's been reasonably widely released in Britain, not sure about the US and the rest of the world.
Hmm. As a Brit, I feel the same as our Russian friend. We were doing exercises on cursive writing (except we just called it "handwriting" when we were five. By seven, we had finished learning to write. I'm feeling mild astonishment at the level of hatred towards handwriting displayed in this thread (even allowing for the lefties); sure, it's not used much but it's a rather important skill to have when the lights go out.
I disagree, because being able to intercept someone's non-priority traffic (forum logins, etc) is extremely valuable in terms of being able to get access to more priviledged material. Everything really needs to be as secure as your banking encryption.
My solution is not a government agency, but private sector. Users should subscribe (ie pay money) to one of the root certificate providers for a certain amount of time. It doesn't have to be a lot of money but it creates both a chain of trust and more importantly, of liability.
It's a difficult one. We currently have the same issue in Britain, where we're arguing about continuing to build two new large aircraft carriers. If we don't, we're effectively out of the major warfighting game. On the other hand, there's a valid argument that there is no more major warfighting to be done in these carrier's lifetimes, and the billions could be better spent on infantry troops and equipment. Personally, I believe that both China and Russia are sufficiently xenophobic and jingoistic that either or both could kick off within the next fifty years, and that we (Britain, that is) should have sufficient strategic assets in place to deal with it, even at the cost of underfunding current operations. However, aircraft should be easier to spin up than a supercarrier or two.
Clive James made the point quite well recently when he wrote that the point of democracy is not so much being able to choose your leaders as being able to get rid of them at the whim of the electorate. We all know that a large percentage of the people who seek power shouldn't be allowed so much as a plastic bag to play with; the safety comes in the fact that they know they can be out on their elbow, for good, in a few short years.
One would have thought that it would be sufficient to simply make a distinctive noise that over time, the bats and others can learn to recognise as a danger signal. I wouldn't have thought it necessary for it to be damagingly or unpleasantly loud.
Traditionally, this is how book publishing worked in the 19th century - you'd circulate a prospectus advertising the work, you'd collect a certain number of subscribers, and then you'd go ahead and publish it. It works well for "long tail" stuff; it sounds like it would be worth a try, at least.
Slashdot Mirror
And does anyone know what some of the questions are leading to the given answers?
Now, now. The man is an English teacher; his inspiration to take up writing was a Sidney Sheldon novel (as, in, I can do better than this tripe). That's not exactly a high bar; nor is it his fault that hitting on conspiracy theory as a plot is something the public will drink like free whicky in Inverness.
A computer? Amercians can't even manufacture a pencil.
What, exactly, is the value of gold? It's, um, yellow, and it's shiny. Other people think it's valuable. But you can't eat it. You can't drink it. You can't plant it. Once you put your mney into it, you have to hope that other people will think it is even more valuable, or you'll have to sell it at a loss (and look at how that worked out for houses). You can bash people over the head with it. You can use very small amounts of it to make micro-electronics. You can dissolve it using aqua regis, or form it into circles and present it to girls. None of that explains why it is or is worth £18k per kilo (approx $30k). Sure, it's rare, but it's also almost useless.
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Geeks in Space yet.
Goddammit, I thought *I* was the lowest UID piper on slashdot. Bah.
Because he would spend all his time wanking off over military hardware and inventing elaborate subplots involving misogynistic sex with a combat barbie.
Most movies these days are being mastered well in excess of Blu-Ray standards so that they don't have to do anything when the successor format comes out. That's also the reason Blu-Ray was crippled - they will be able to introduce Blu-Ray 2 without having to redo most of the installed hardware base. However, they will be able to sell you the same damned film *again*.
Sometimes a fair point, sometimes not. Some foods can be manufactured anywhere, and can reasonably be called the same thing. Some specialist foods, however, can't. Wines depend for their taste upon the particular combination of soil and climate; you can make sparkling wine anywhere in the world but champagne can only come from Champagne. Similarly for things like Parma ham or the Spanish Pata Negra. If you don't think there's a difference, try them side by side. You might be surprised ;)
Sentences, structure of, can you. Learn it. Ta.
Call me old fashioned, but when I was a kid we sorted our books alphabetically and found them like that. Bah, humbug, lawn, depart, etc etc.
More to the point, it's not small. It's anything up to 40%, depending which study you believe. When it comes to grabbing the best genes available, women can be pretty narcissistic.
If you don't know who you're talking to to start with, your encrypted password is giving you a false sense of security. Encryption is not a panacea; in fact it is the least important part of the security chain, because it is easy to do reasonably well.
Indeed. Mrs u38cg enjoyed it, and in all honesty, she only went to see it because of the director's pappy. Now she might even read an Iain Banks novel...
If it is sufficiently important to require encryption, then it is sufficiently important that you must be able to know who you are talking to.
Another fantastic sci-fi piece recently released is Moon, directed by one Duncan Jones. Strongly recommend it, if you can find it - it's been reasonably widely released in Britain, not sure about the US and the rest of the world.
I just composed a hilarious reply in Morse, which the lameness filter ate :-/ Please laugh uproariously and mod me up, thanks.
Hmm. As a Brit, I feel the same as our Russian friend. We were doing exercises on cursive writing (except we just called it "handwriting" when we were five. By seven, we had finished learning to write. I'm feeling mild astonishment at the level of hatred towards handwriting displayed in this thread (even allowing for the lefties); sure, it's not used much but it's a rather important skill to have when the lights go out.
My solution is not a government agency, but private sector. Users should subscribe (ie pay money) to one of the root certificate providers for a certain amount of time. It doesn't have to be a lot of money but it creates both a chain of trust and more importantly, of liability.
It's a difficult one. We currently have the same issue in Britain, where we're arguing about continuing to build two new large aircraft carriers. If we don't, we're effectively out of the major warfighting game. On the other hand, there's a valid argument that there is no more major warfighting to be done in these carrier's lifetimes, and the billions could be better spent on infantry troops and equipment. Personally, I believe that both China and Russia are sufficiently xenophobic and jingoistic that either or both could kick off within the next fifty years, and that we (Britain, that is) should have sufficient strategic assets in place to deal with it, even at the cost of underfunding current operations. However, aircraft should be easier to spin up than a supercarrier or two.
Try this. Sadly, bagpipes are pretty intricate things to play, so a bagpipe hero game is probably a long way off.
Clive James made the point quite well recently when he wrote that the point of democracy is not so much being able to choose your leaders as being able to get rid of them at the whim of the electorate. We all know that a large percentage of the people who seek power shouldn't be allowed so much as a plastic bag to play with; the safety comes in the fact that they know they can be out on their elbow, for good, in a few short years.
One would have thought that it would be sufficient to simply make a distinctive noise that over time, the bats and others can learn to recognise as a danger signal. I wouldn't have thought it necessary for it to be damagingly or unpleasantly loud.
Traditionally, this is how book publishing worked in the 19th century - you'd circulate a prospectus advertising the work, you'd collect a certain number of subscribers, and then you'd go ahead and publish it. It works well for "long tail" stuff; it sounds like it would be worth a try, at least.
Mod -1, Whoosh.