Napster's owned and run by a bunch of your typical faceless suit-wearing executives.
1. Napster is located in Silicon Valley (San Mateo)
2. I assume it is owned in large part by it's veture capitalists. That might be wrong, but it's been reported that the founders only have a few % left of it.
What needs to be developed, besides the HDTV equivalent of he VCR, is the TIVO like thing where programs with the 'don't copy' bit set can be recorded locally on the machine but in no way can be pulled to any other device or media.
If it can't be pulled to a TV, it's not of much use, is it? If it can, it can be intercepted on the way.
I guess you could build such a machine with an integrated TV screen...
I know it's out of fashion, but it doesn't make it any less true.
Nuclear power is by far the cleanest, safest and among the cheapest of all large scale power generation schemes.
Nuclear power is usually compared to other technologies by comparing the nuclear worst case with others normal case, and by counting 1 nuclear death as 1000 other deaths. If you do an honest comparision nuclear comes out clearly ahead, even though it is forced by regulators to have a 1000 times higher security than the competition.
I do to, but according to the research mouse menu commands are actually faster than keyboard shortcuts, even though the research subject themselves think the keys are faster.
It's one of the weirder things in UI design. Of course, since users are more comfortable with keyboard shortcuts, the software should provide it as well.
And no, this is not a joke. I'm not making this up.
I don't have time to dig up the reference, but if you measure it, it turns out that on average Mac users do menu commands 5 times faster than other system users.
You hear the same things in Sweden, where I come from. And it's correct in a way, but it's (IMHO) both a good thing and impossible to stop.
All through history language areas have been formed by practicality. Any area where communication is so developed that people need to talk to each other frequently enough, will develop at least a common second language that everybody uses when talking to other groups, or if the contacts are frequent and intense enough everyone will speak the same first language after a few generations.
This is a good thing. Without it we would not be able to talk to most of the people we meet everyday.
The situation at this time in history is that communications are developing very rapidly. People from different corners of the planet are talking to each other at an ever increasing rate.It is already clear that English will be the second language of the entire developed world soon. There is still not enough pressure to make it the first language of the world, but I think that if communications develop at this rate for a few more decades, it definitely will be.
Already more than half of the 6000 languages spoken will not survive to the next generation- many due to pressure from Spanish. Of course, the small languages go first. Giants like Spanish will be around for a long time.
Those who fight for the purity of their language often forget that their language area was formed in a similar way (if not through far more brutal ways), and if all languages had been preserved then, there might well be 5 or 50 languages spoken there now.
And don't equate language with culture. Customs, religions and most of the other things that make up a culture are not language dependent at all. But do expect cultures to mix more and more as a result of the increasing communication as well.
Maybe what he means is that "whoever produces these programs is lazy", and the thing he misses is that it's not programmers who produces them, but the organizations they work for. And those organizations, taken as a whole, have many faults.
A better question might be "Can living beings perceive an infinite amount of colors?" Color is just a function of wavelength, and there is obviously an infinite number of discreet wavelengths within the visible color spectrum.
This is, or at least touches on, a common misconception. I'll try to explain.
There is vastly more color information in what we see than we percieve. Yes, monochromatic green light has only one frequence, and is percieved as green. But simultaneous blue and yellow light contain two different frequencies, and is percieved as the exact same green color. And it doesn't even contain any green light!
Almost any light we see is made up of a huge number of frequencies, which our eyes and brains, using 3 measuring points, somehow averages out to one single color that it presents to us as what we "see". But there is much more in the light than the small summary we see.
One application of this is cameras that "see" in different frequencies that are used for air surveilance. A camouflage that may look like it melts in perfectly to the human eye, may be made up of completely different frequencies, and be easily detectable this way.
But is it observable?
on
eLection '04
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· Score: 1
One basic demand for a fair voting system is that it's observable. Any interested citizen should be able to go to the voting place and watch every step, and be able to see that it's done the correct way.
When some steps take place inside computer software or hardware, it's hard to see how that can be accomplished. Nobody can see what is actually going on.
Remember that the system cannot rely on honest election officials.
Tog on the butterfly ballot
on
eLection '04
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· Score: 1
User interface legend has an article on how this is another example of why you must user test your interfaces.
The idea that "primitive people" don't have any concept of property is entirely the product of guiltdriven fantasies of western intellectuals.
Just go there and try to take stuff if you don't believe me.
These people had and have concepts of property, just like any other people. It's true that many nomadic people don't have the concept of ownership of land, when it's available in abundance. It's just too cheap to meter. That doesn't mean that they don't consider horses, tools, food etc to be personal and/or tribal property.
Another display of how fundamental property is to human existence is that most every language have special gramattical forms of words to express property relations, i.e "his", "my", "our" etc.
You could argue that this notion of primitive nobility and purity is fundamentally racist, but let's not get into that. We're far enough from the posted article already:-)
From his page about the project to revamp the DNA nightclub.
Does this remind anyone of another reimplementation project jwc was involved in ?
Is the DNA Lounge open now?
No, we're closed for remodeling. And for other things like soundproofing and hiring staff.
When are you re-opening?
We don't know for sure yet. We have a guess, but it's too early to make any promises. Stay tuned.
``Technology?'' Is this going to be some nerd thing? You're scaring me.
No, of course not. It is, however, going to be very high tech and cool like that club you saw in that movie that one time.
So when did you say you were re-opening?
Thursday. No, only kidding. We don't know when we're re-opening yet. Keep checking this web site, or subscribe to the announcement list, and we'll let you know a date as soon as we know.
Theoretically - October 17, when Bill Clinton signed it. In practice - when the INS publishes the regulations for implementing the law. My estimate - mid 2002.
Is that true of all parts? It seems to me that the "portability provision" could be done with no involvement from the INS. You simply start working at the new company, and no one has any legal way of stopping you.
Unless there's something shady about the new job, I haven't heard that there are any problems getting the new H1B. As a person, the INS has already found that you qualify.
If you wait 3-6 months to accept the new job, it will not be there in many cases.
And there are never any guarantees for employment in the US anyway. Anyone can get fired tomorrow.
Never ask the INS for information. It is not reliable. Ask your lawyer instead. They know both the laws and how they're applied, which is sometimes very different.
Whoever happens to pick up the phone at INS probably has no clue, and doesn't care.
The article says that Bill Clinton signed the bill on Oct 17. Doesn't that mean that has turned into law already, or will do so as soon as the legal formalities are done?
I think the "portability provision" means that you can move to a new H1B job when the papers are submitted to INS, not when they finally have approved them. Correct?
Does it affect at all that in order to get a green card you need to stay at the same company for the full (3-6 years) INS processing time?
Slashdot Mirror
Napster's owned and run by a bunch of your typical faceless suit-wearing executives.
1. Napster is located in Silicon Valley (San Mateo)
2. I assume it is owned in large part by it's veture capitalists. That might be wrong, but it's been reported that the founders only have a few % left of it.
:-)
What needs to be developed, besides the HDTV equivalent of he VCR, is the TIVO like thing where programs with the 'don't copy' bit set can be recorded locally on the machine but in no way can be pulled to any other device or media.
If it can't be pulled to a TV, it's not of much use, is it? If it can, it can be intercepted on the way.
I guess you could build such a machine with an integrated TV screen...
I've seen several Silicon Valley venture capitalists, and none has worn a suit. None has been faceless either for that matter.
Your main point is correct, of course. Just nitpicking. It's my inalianable right.
...is about 12-16 programmers, depending on body weight.
I know it's out of fashion, but it doesn't make it any less true.
Nuclear power is by far the cleanest, safest and among the cheapest of all large scale power generation schemes.
Nuclear power is usually compared to other technologies by comparing the nuclear worst case with others normal case, and by counting 1 nuclear death as 1000 other deaths. If you do an honest comparision nuclear comes out clearly ahead, even though it is forced by regulators to have a 1000 times higher security than the competition.
At least here in California, a local (toll free) call is defined as a call to less than 12 miles away.
There are plenty of calls to the same area code that are toll calls, and also plenty of calls to neighbouring area codes that are toll free.
I do to, but according to the research mouse menu commands are actually faster than keyboard shortcuts, even though the research subject themselves think the keys are faster.
It's one of the weirder things in UI design. Of course, since users are more comfortable with keyboard shortcuts, the software should provide it as well.
And no, this is not a joke. I'm not making this up.
I don't have time to dig up the reference, but if you measure it, it turns out that on average Mac users do menu commands 5 times faster than other system users.
It holds up well.
My friend in the movie businerss tells me it's pretty common for movies to be released with more violence in the US and more nudity in Europe.
You hear the same things in Sweden, where I come from. And it's correct in a way, but it's (IMHO) both a good thing and impossible to stop.
All through history language areas have been formed by practicality. Any area where communication is so developed that people need to talk to each other frequently enough, will develop at least a common second language that everybody uses when talking to other groups, or if the contacts are frequent and intense enough everyone will speak the same first language after a few generations.
This is a good thing. Without it we would not be able to talk to most of the people we meet everyday.
The situation at this time in history is that communications are developing very rapidly. People from different corners of the planet are talking to each other at an ever increasing rate.It is already clear that English will be the second language of the entire developed world soon. There is still not enough pressure to make it the first language of the world, but I think that if communications develop at this rate for a few more decades, it definitely will be.
Already more than half of the 6000 languages spoken will not survive to the next generation- many due to pressure from Spanish. Of course, the small languages go first. Giants like Spanish will be around for a long time.
Those who fight for the purity of their language often forget that their language area was formed in a similar way (if not through far more brutal ways), and if all languages had been preserved then, there might well be 5 or 50 languages spoken there now.
And don't equate language with culture. Customs, religions and most of the other things that make up a culture are not language dependent at all. But do expect cultures to mix more and more as a result of the increasing communication as well.
Maybe what he means is that "whoever produces these programs is lazy", and the thing he misses is that it's not programmers who produces them, but the organizations they work for. And those organizations, taken as a whole, have many faults.
A better question might be "Can living beings perceive an infinite amount of colors?" Color is just a function of wavelength, and there is obviously an infinite number of discreet wavelengths within the visible color spectrum.
This is, or at least touches on, a common misconception. I'll try to explain.
There is vastly more color information in what we see than we percieve. Yes, monochromatic green light has only one frequence, and is percieved as green. But simultaneous blue and yellow light contain two different frequencies, and is percieved as the exact same green color. And it doesn't even contain any green light!
Almost any light we see is made up of a huge number of frequencies, which our eyes and brains, using 3 measuring points, somehow averages out to one single color that it presents to us as what we "see". But there is much more in the light than the small summary we see.
One application of this is cameras that "see" in different frequencies that are used for air surveilance. A camouflage that may look like it melts in perfectly to the human eye, may be made up of completely different frequencies, and be easily detectable this way.
One basic demand for a fair voting system is that it's observable. Any interested citizen should be able to go to the voting place and watch every step, and be able to see that it's done the correct way.
When some steps take place inside computer software or hardware, it's hard to see how that can be accomplished. Nobody can see what is actually going on.
Remember that the system cannot rely on honest election officials.
User interface legend has an article on how this is another example of why you must user test your interfaces.
http://www.asktog.com
The idea that "primitive people" don't have any concept of property is entirely the product of guiltdriven fantasies of western intellectuals.
:-)
Just go there and try to take stuff if you don't believe me.
These people had and have concepts of property, just like any other people. It's true that many nomadic people don't have the concept of ownership of land, when it's available in abundance. It's just too cheap to meter. That doesn't mean that they don't consider horses, tools, food etc to be personal and/or tribal property.
Another display of how fundamental property is to human existence is that most every language have special gramattical forms of words to express property relations, i.e "his", "my", "our" etc.
You could argue that this notion of primitive nobility and purity is fundamentally racist, but let's not get into that. We're far enough from the posted article already
From his page about the project to revamp the DNA nightclub.
Does this remind anyone of another reimplementation project jwc was involved in ?
Is the DNA Lounge open now?
No, we're closed for remodeling. And for other things like soundproofing and hiring staff.
When are you re-opening?
We don't know for sure yet. We have a guess, but it's too early to make any promises. Stay tuned.
``Technology?'' Is this going to be some nerd thing? You're scaring me.
No, of course not. It is, however, going to be very high tech and cool like that club you saw in that movie that one time.
So when did you say you were re-opening?
Thursday. No, only kidding. We don't know when we're re-opening yet. Keep checking this web site, or subscribe to the announcement list, and we'll let you know a date as soon as we know.
On the channels I watched several people said that that is a Florida law.
When does it go into effect?
Theoretically - October 17, when Bill Clinton signed it. In practice - when the INS publishes the regulations for implementing the law. My estimate - mid 2002.
Is that true of all parts? It seems to me that the "portability provision" could be done with no involvement from the INS. You simply start working at the new company, and no one has any legal way of stopping you.
Or am I being naive?
I have to disagree.
Unless there's something shady about the new job, I haven't heard that there are any problems getting the new H1B. As a person, the INS has already found that you qualify.
If you wait 3-6 months to accept the new job, it will not be there in many cases.
And there are never any guarantees for employment in the US anyway. Anyone can get fired tomorrow.
Never ask the INS for information. It is not reliable. Ask your lawyer instead. They know both the laws and how they're applied, which is sometimes very different.
Whoever happens to pick up the phone at INS probably has no clue, and doesn't care.
Wow! If this turns into the law...
The article says that Bill Clinton signed the bill on Oct 17. Doesn't that mean that has turned into law already, or will do so as soon as the legal formalities are done?
The article is pretty vague on the specifics.
I think the "portability provision" means that you can move to a new H1B job when the papers are submitted to INS, not when they finally have approved them. Correct?
Does it affect at all that in order to get a green card you need to stay at the same company for the full (3-6 years) INS processing time?
When does it go into effect?
This review is far better than the movie itself...
http://www.speakeasy.org/~ohh/bakshi.htm