I have heard "NP" used in the context of runtime, but not outside of academia, and I've never heard the term "NP-safe", but I would guess it means "the version of the algorithm that isn't NP and won't take forever to complete". Because sometimes you want to be fast, and sometimes you want to be 100% certain. But I work in security, so certainty is more important, I don't hear much talk about "big O" anymore.
As for whether or not facial recognition is NP: It certainly could be, if your algorithm is "try every face in the database, and see which one is the single best fit". A heuristic could cut down the sample search size, but might inadvertently discard the best match with some arbitrary criteria.
Veering offtopic here, but: NP can certainly be used to refer to the order of magnitude of the runtime for the algorithm. Simply put, all of the problems in the NP-Complete class don't (currently) have precise solutions for anything less than a superpolynomial time requirement relative to their input-- and hence the need for faster, sloppier heuristics and approximations.
The previous free version of the plugin worked marvelously, but it would only let you play the first half of any given movie file; this is great news, considering how prevalent WMVs are.
Or handing your credit card to the waitress to take off to the other room and do god-knows-what with it! Oh no!
Just carbon-copy paper or even a pen and paper coupled with your credit card can be trouble in the hands of a corrupt individual. The technology really isn't the problem here. In fact, since it's not using RFID or anything to look for the card itself-- presumably it needs to be swiped-- I would say this is probably more secure, since there's less chance that the employee even sees the credit card information for more than a brief moment, and the entire transaction takes place right in front of you.
Yep, that's officially old school. I got tired of paper, paper everywhere, and now for the majority of my bills, I just get a reminder in my inbox that they're online. My bank statement is online. And I just save copies of my receipts as PDFs. Not only is it easier to file away, but it's also easier to search through if the need arises.
Besides, the money is mostly a digital concept anyway, since you're just moving bits from your account into theirs. It's not like it's truly backed by silver or anything. Unless your money is old school, too.
They are also occassionally starting new servers, and there are a handful of them that still have relatively low populations, so things aren't all über'ed out over there.
It hardly matters. My grandmother only knows that she has MSN. Beyond that, and eBay, everything else is a mystery.
To test the new printer they had gotten over the holidays, I used Google image search to get random pictures of giraffes, and my aunt and grandmother were astounded; "How did you find those that fast?"
I don't expect the naming conventions of any of these programs sound any stranger than the others to those who don't know any better. I mean, eBay?
Actually, there have been cases where some third party informs Microsoft of a potentially critical bug. Then, when MS fails to respond meaningfully, either the third party releases the information to warn users, or the exploit appears in the wild. I work in security and follow too many vulnerability issues to cite the specific examples off the top of my head, but this happened recently with Cisco as well.
I remember an outcry, but I don't think it was massive. Many companies do not publicly release information of this sort immediately, but more often than not it's because they are working on a patch to address the issue, hoping that the "security through obscurity" will buy them time to fix it before a working exploit appears. The difference being, many companies (such as Mozilla or Apple) do provide those patches relatively fast.
And I highly doubt that patched vulnerabilities are the sole reason that Microsoft's competitors stay in business. Most people don't make their decisions on software based on security.
I would argue that the goal of the vast majority of Microsoft Users is just to get their work done. People don't buy computers just to mock the software companies.
The real issue is that Microsoft has been hesitant to scrap their legacy code because of their large user base.
"Is the apocalypse nigh? I sure think so. The last one happened at the height of Atari's power, they were invincible, pumping out hit after hit. Pac-Man, ET, Asteroids, movie tie-ins, overflowing arcades and a rabid fan base."
The same Pac-Man that Atari was left with 5 million unsold cartridges for? The same E.T. that was so lamented that most of the copies of the cartridge came back and are now occupying landfill space in New Mexico? These aren't prime examples.
14. VLC does not start anymore or does strange things Delete your preferences and try again. You can use the script "Delete Preferences.app" on the disk-image to do that. If you want to do it by hand, delete "org.videolan.vlc.plist" and a folder called "VLC" in ~/Library/Preferences (your personal preferences-folder inside the library of your HOME). If this does not help, see 13.
Sadly, "Wonderfalls" was a victim to this same era of TV madness. It got the axe after three-- THREE!-- episodes. Of course, there are a good parcel more than that on the DVD set, but I can't help but wonder where this show was going to go.
How they can decide the fate of a show after three episodes is beyond me. It was a great show.
A video out would have made it a dream machine. Hell, I rarely ever watch anything on my nice laptop screen, and use the video out whenever I can, and it's a nice 15" Powerbook screen. And really, I mostly use the PSP for Nintendo games, at least until I can get Burnout or GTA on the thing.
Sony's general closeminded attitude with the PSP firmware and propietary formats baffles me.
Heh, reminds me of the two-disc DVD "special edition" packs you always see in stores of two movies you would never want anyway (and are usually vaguely related at best).
Unfortunately most of the directors I like the best don't seem to work too often, but I would venture to say David Fincher could make a truly great Dr. Strange film.
McG, in general, would be a good choice for a superhero flick; the direction in the Charlie's Angels movies is anything but boring.
Slashdot Mirror
What, do Monster.com and Dice.com have permanent moderation privileges here?
I have heard "NP" used in the context of runtime, but not outside of academia, and I've never heard the term "NP-safe", but I would guess it means "the version of the algorithm that isn't NP and won't take forever to complete". Because sometimes you want to be fast, and sometimes you want to be 100% certain. But I work in security, so certainty is more important, I don't hear much talk about "big O" anymore.
As for whether or not facial recognition is NP: It certainly could be, if your algorithm is "try every face in the database, and see which one is the single best fit". A heuristic could cut down the sample search size, but might inadvertently discard the best match with some arbitrary criteria.
Veering offtopic here, but: NP can certainly be used to refer to the order of magnitude of the runtime for the algorithm. Simply put, all of the problems in the NP-Complete class don't (currently) have precise solutions for anything less than a superpolynomial time requirement relative to their input-- and hence the need for faster, sloppier heuristics and approximations.
Everyone who want to view a WMV3 format video file that isn't running Windows, that's who. It's widely used.
The previous free version of the plugin worked marvelously, but it would only let you play the first half of any given movie file; this is great news, considering how prevalent WMVs are.
Or handing your credit card to the waitress to take off to the other room and do god-knows-what with it! Oh no!
Just carbon-copy paper or even a pen and paper coupled with your credit card can be trouble in the hands of a corrupt individual. The technology really isn't the problem here. In fact, since it's not using RFID or anything to look for the card itself-- presumably it needs to be swiped-- I would say this is probably more secure, since there's less chance that the employee even sees the credit card information for more than a brief moment, and the entire transaction takes place right in front of you.
Yep, that's officially old school. I got tired of paper, paper everywhere, and now for the majority of my bills, I just get a reminder in my inbox that they're online. My bank statement is online. And I just save copies of my receipts as PDFs. Not only is it easier to file away, but it's also easier to search through if the need arises.
Besides, the money is mostly a digital concept anyway, since you're just moving bits from your account into theirs. It's not like it's truly backed by silver or anything. Unless your money is old school, too.
They are also occassionally starting new servers, and there are a handful of them that still have relatively low populations, so things aren't all über'ed out over there.
It hardly matters. My grandmother only knows that she has MSN. Beyond that, and eBay, everything else is a mystery.
To test the new printer they had gotten over the holidays, I used Google image search to get random pictures of giraffes, and my aunt and grandmother were astounded; "How did you find those that fast?"
I don't expect the naming conventions of any of these programs sound any stranger than the others to those who don't know any better. I mean, eBay?
This is exactly why I didn't buy my PSP at BestBuy, same deal. Sigh.
Agreed. "Rant" may be a better term.
Actually, there have been cases where some third party informs Microsoft of a potentially critical bug. Then, when MS fails to respond meaningfully, either the third party releases the information to warn users, or the exploit appears in the wild. I work in security and follow too many vulnerability issues to cite the specific examples off the top of my head, but this happened recently with Cisco as well.
I remember an outcry, but I don't think it was massive. Many companies do not publicly release information of this sort immediately, but more often than not it's because they are working on a patch to address the issue, hoping that the "security through obscurity" will buy them time to fix it before a working exploit appears. The difference being, many companies (such as Mozilla or Apple) do provide those patches relatively fast.
And I highly doubt that patched vulnerabilities are the sole reason that Microsoft's competitors stay in business. Most people don't make their decisions on software based on security.
I would argue that the goal of the vast majority of Microsoft Users is just to get their work done. People don't buy computers just to mock the software companies. The real issue is that Microsoft has been hesitant to scrap their legacy code because of their large user base.
I have a friend who quit her job in 2003 and moved to the Virgin Islands to become a scuba diving instructor...
"Is the apocalypse nigh? I sure think so. The last one happened at the height of Atari's power, they were invincible, pumping out hit after hit. Pac-Man, ET, Asteroids, movie tie-ins, overflowing arcades and a rabid fan base."
The same Pac-Man that Atari was left with 5 million unsold cartridges for? The same E.T. that was so lamented that most of the copies of the cartridge came back and are now occupying landfill space in New Mexico? These aren't prime examples.
From the README.MacOSX.rtf:
14. VLC does not start anymore or does strange things
Delete your preferences and try again. You can use the script "Delete Preferences.app" on the disk-image to do that. If you want to do it by hand, delete "org.videolan.vlc.plist" and a folder called "VLC" in ~/Library/Preferences (your personal preferences-folder inside the library of your HOME). If this does not help, see 13.
I think it had something to do with Final Fantasy and the Power of Chocobos.
FreeBSD db.**** 5.2.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE #0: Mon Feb 23 20:45:55 GMT 2004 root@wv1u.btc.adaptec.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GEN ERIC i386
11:17AM up 439 days, 1:57, 1 user, load averages: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00
Yep, mere days.
Who knew feeding the trolls could be so fun and educational?
Oh, wait, this isn't the Monster-o-meter! It's the frog exaggerator!
Sadly, "Wonderfalls" was a victim to this same era of TV madness. It got the axe after three-- THREE!-- episodes. Of course, there are a good parcel more than that on the DVD set, but I can't help but wonder where this show was going to go.
How they can decide the fate of a show after three episodes is beyond me. It was a great show.
Gratz, Time.com editors, you mispelled someone's name in the most glaring place possible: the headline of the piece (and on the HTML title).
...and a character named Sid/Cid/Syd.
A video out would have made it a dream machine. Hell, I rarely ever watch anything on my nice laptop screen, and use the video out whenever I can, and it's a nice 15" Powerbook screen. And really, I mostly use the PSP for Nintendo games, at least until I can get Burnout or GTA on the thing.
Sony's general closeminded attitude with the PSP firmware and propietary formats baffles me.
Heh, reminds me of the two-disc DVD "special edition" packs you always see in stores of two movies you would never want anyway (and are usually vaguely related at best).
"Gigli AND Ishtar! For only $25!"
Unfortunately most of the directors I like the best don't seem to work too often, but I would venture to say David Fincher could make a truly great Dr. Strange film.
McG, in general, would be a good choice for a superhero flick; the direction in the Charlie's Angels movies is anything but boring.