The real story here is not how this man died, but where he died. This man was in an internet cafe, surrounded by other people.
People die like this more often than we realize. We don't notice because they they die as shut-ins at home. Most of them are obsessive compulsive or mentally ill, and usually takes a while before their bodies are even discovered.
This man, however, had been playing computer games in a busy public place, nonstop for 86 hours. If any of the staff or fellow users noticed, none of them saw fit to intervene. Since he was paying to use the computer, the staff must have had some idea how long he had been there. Also, I imagine he must have looked quite haggard and ill before he finally died.
The police have ruled out murder, but I hope that they investigate the staff for negligence. Mr. Kim was ultimately the victim of his own actions. However, the staff had a basic responsibility to ensure his health and safety while he was on using their service on their premises, just as a bartender might be liable if he continue to serve an extremely intoxicated customer who later died of alcohol poisoning.
The fact that no-one noticed or cared for four straight days is appalling. Such a pathetic and easily preventable death in a public place reflects poorly on South Korean society, both in and anywhere else that it occurs.
Microsoft sees Media Center PCs as ideal for college students or young urbanites living in cramped spaces where a combination computing and entertainment system might be more appealing than separate devices.
The fact that MSFT backed down on this issue is just another sign of desperation. They must be wondering whether there's any demand at all for Media Center PCs... because there sure as hell isn't demand for recording shows that can only be played back on your crappy monitor.
Microsoft's obsession with "convergence" is ridiculous. Apparently their target market consists of "young urbanites" and starving students who live in living spaces so cramped that they couldn't possibly squeeze in a separate VHR or DVR... so they're willing to put up with the hassle of recording shows on their hard drive, bogging down their PCs as they pound out a late night term paper. Don't forget the logistical nightmare of bringing their recorded shows over to Bob's house so they can watch it with buddies and beer (remember, their living quarters are too crowded to allow visitors). Someone's going to be burning a lot of DVDs.
What a strange reality those Microsoft folks are living in. The true market segment for Media Center PCs are lonely techno-hermits, 15 y.o. media pirates and some geeks who like toys. Nothing more, nothing less.
...if the Timbot needs to perform expensive calculations to ensure that it avoids an obstacle, then it can slow down and reduce the amount of time that it spends processing video. Once it is past the obstacle, Timbot can reallocate its resources, increasing the quality of the video images that it transmits, and moving faster again...
The Timbot has enough to think about... why waste its precious processor resources on a video feed? The Timbot doesn't need video to get around. It could rely entirely on its sonar, plus a simple still picture every second or so for the visual analysis algorithms.
To get that cool "first-person" footage of the Timbot moving around, slap an XCam on top of it. Meanwhile, focus on sonar (and possibly even lidar?) for the navigation systems.
The Constitution specifies that "to promote the progress of science and useful arts," Congress should secure "for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
It seems that the original intent of "copyrighting", as specified in the Constitution, has been mostly abandoned in the current debate. The writers of the Constitution weren't really concerned with the economic aspects and the rights of capitalists as they were with the welfare of society as a whole.
Ted Olson's case seems to be mostly based in the economic rights of corporations and creators in our capitalist economy. The Supreme Court, who are supposed to use the Constitution as the final arbiter in their decisions, are mostly concerned with legal precedents and the equity of past and present copyright holders.
Does society really benefit from a given legal entity (Disney Corp., for example) holding the rights to a cartoon mouse for eternity? Call me a socialist, but it seems to me that the welfare of society should be given at least an equal consideration to the individual rights of copyright-holders. That's what the founding fathers intended in the constitution, where "economic rights" are secondary to the "natural rights" of mankind.
1. Sign a non-disclosure agreement with a reputable encryption expert.
2. Pay said expert a fee to examine your system and comment on its merit.
3. If your system has potential but needs adjustment, repeat #1 and #2 as necessary, if possible with different experts (within the limits of your financial resources, of course).
4. If you are still convinced that your system is worthy, hire a patent lawyer and patent it.
5. Don't try to sell it on your own. Instead, try selling it to an encryption firm or software distributor, using the expert opinions from #1 and #2 to bolster your sales pitch.
6. If you find a buyer, try to license your encryption system rather then sell it outright.
Their seminal work in the model organism C. elegans established the foundation of cell suicide as a normal physiologic process.
I wonder if "cell suicide" applies to human stem cells as well? If so, someone should tell President Bush ASAP! We need to set up some kind of suicide hotline for them... it's the only way to save their little souls...
heck, even this post about a post about an interactive art piece is evidence enough that people have too much time ont their hands.
I'd hate to add another layer of recursion, but this post about a post about a post of an interactive art piece isn't a shining example of effective time management either.
Then again, nobody is claiming that posting on/. is a productive use of time. It's leisure time... an opportunity to take a quick break from the drudgery of work.
While it's possible that/. users would otherwise be creating timeless masterpieces of cellphone art, I think it's more likely that they'd be "wasting" time some other way. Not that I consider leisure time a waste.
As if we needed any more evidence that some people have too much time on their hands...
As least they showed some ingenuity in turning a major annoyance into an art form. What's next, an gallery of spam art?
``The laws that have passed in recent years have imbalanced the historical balance between owners of copyrighted works and users of copyrighted works,'' Boucher said in an interview Tuesday. ``The balance has been tilted dramatically in favor of owners at the expense of users.''
Finally, a politician with the sense to speak the simple, obvious truth. Hallelujah
The surface area of the earth is 5*10^14 square meters. Assume that 1 square meter is occupied by each of the 6 billion humans on the planet.
This means that every time a massive chunk of ice hurtles randomly from the sky, the chance that it will actually hit someone is about 0.000001, even if the unlucky bastard happens to live in Spain.
Further assume that a huge chunk of ice falling from clear skies, for no apparent reason, is a pretty rare phenomenon. So rare, in fact, that it has never before been documented.
Imagine witnessing, on a sunny day in the park, an oblivious bystander being splattered by a boulder of ice that plummeted five miles down from nowhere. You wouldn't dismiss it as a "random event". Hardened atheists would be fumbling for their rosary beads.
I'm not a religious man, but you ever get nailed by a 30kg block of ice falling from a clear sky, you can be pretty sure God was trying to tell you something.
A "Flamin' Ford" Aerostar loaded to the hilt with a satellite dish, wireless LAN, laptops, printers, various other electronics, and thousands of sheets of paper. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Let's hope it makes it to Washington in one piece...
I think the whole concept of a mobile bookmobile downloading e-books by satellite is cute, but... couldn't they just show the kids how to download the e-books from home?
Or, since the books are mostly public-domain classics, why not provide the kids with some of the millions of second-hand paper editions in circulation? It's not as sexy a solution, but at least the kids won't strain their young eyeballs squinting at a screen, or waste trees by printing them out.
Slashdot Mirror
The real story here is not how this man died, but where he died. This man was in an internet cafe, surrounded by other people.
People die like this more often than we realize. We don't notice because they they die as shut-ins at home. Most of them are obsessive compulsive or mentally ill, and usually takes a while before their bodies are even discovered.
This man, however, had been playing computer games in a busy public place, nonstop for 86 hours. If any of the staff or fellow users noticed, none of them saw fit to intervene. Since he was paying to use the computer, the staff must have had some idea how long he had been there. Also, I imagine he must have looked quite haggard and ill before he finally died.
The police have ruled out murder, but I hope that they investigate the staff for negligence. Mr. Kim was ultimately the victim of his own actions. However, the staff had a basic responsibility to ensure his health and safety while he was on using their service on their premises, just as a bartender might be liable if he continue to serve an extremely intoxicated customer who later died of alcohol poisoning.
The fact that no-one noticed or cared for four straight days is appalling. Such a pathetic and easily preventable death in a public place reflects poorly on South Korean society, both in and anywhere else that it occurs.
The fact that MSFT backed down on this issue is just another sign of desperation. They must be wondering whether there's any demand at all for Media Center PCs... because there sure as hell isn't demand for recording shows that can only be played back on your crappy monitor.
Microsoft's obsession with "convergence" is ridiculous. Apparently their target market consists of "young urbanites" and starving students who live in living spaces so cramped that they couldn't possibly squeeze in a separate VHR or DVR... so they're willing to put up with the hassle of recording shows on their hard drive, bogging down their PCs as they pound out a late night term paper. Don't forget the logistical nightmare of bringing their recorded shows over to Bob's house so they can watch it with buddies and beer (remember, their living quarters are too crowded to allow visitors). Someone's going to be burning a lot of DVDs.
What a strange reality those Microsoft folks are living in. The true market segment for Media Center PCs are lonely techno-hermits, 15 y.o. media pirates and some geeks who like toys. Nothing more, nothing less.
The Timbot has enough to think about... why waste its precious processor resources on a video feed? The Timbot doesn't need video to get around. It could rely entirely on its sonar, plus a simple still picture every second or so for the visual analysis algorithms.
To get that cool "first-person" footage of the Timbot moving around, slap an XCam on top of it. Meanwhile, focus on sonar (and possibly even lidar?) for the navigation systems.
It seems that the original intent of "copyrighting", as specified in the Constitution, has been mostly abandoned in the current debate. The writers of the Constitution weren't really concerned with the economic aspects and the rights of capitalists as they were with the welfare of society as a whole.
Ted Olson's case seems to be mostly based in the economic rights of corporations and creators in our capitalist economy. The Supreme Court, who are supposed to use the Constitution as the final arbiter in their decisions, are mostly concerned with legal precedents and the equity of past and present copyright holders.
Does society really benefit from a given legal entity (Disney Corp., for example) holding the rights to a cartoon mouse for eternity? Call me a socialist, but it seems to me that the welfare of society should be given at least an equal consideration to the individual rights of copyright-holders. That's what the founding fathers intended in the constitution, where "economic rights" are secondary to the "natural rights" of mankind.
1. Sign a non-disclosure agreement with a reputable encryption expert.
...
2. Pay said expert a fee to examine your system and comment on its merit.
3. If your system has potential but needs adjustment, repeat #1 and #2 as necessary, if possible with different experts (within the limits of your financial resources, of course).
4. If you are still convinced that your system is worthy, hire a patent lawyer and patent it.
5. Don't try to sell it on your own. Instead, try selling it to an encryption firm or software distributor, using the expert opinions from #1 and #2 to bolster your sales pitch.
6. If you find a buyer, try to license your encryption system rather then sell it outright.
7.
8. Profit!
I wonder if "cell suicide" applies to human stem cells as well? If so, someone should tell President Bush ASAP! We need to set up some kind of suicide hotline for them... it's the only way to save their little souls...
I'd hate to add another layer of recursion, but this post about a post about a post of an interactive art piece isn't a shining example of effective time management either.
Then again, nobody is claiming that posting on /. is a productive use of time. It's leisure time... an opportunity to take a quick break from the drudgery of work.
While it's possible that /. users would otherwise be creating timeless masterpieces of cellphone art, I think it's more likely that they'd be "wasting" time some other way. Not that I consider leisure time a waste.
As if we needed any more evidence that some people have too much time on their hands... As least they showed some ingenuity in turning a major annoyance into an art form. What's next, an gallery of spam art?
Finally, a politician with the sense to speak the simple, obvious truth. Hallelujah
I think we'll be amazed at life's ability to develop and thrive in highly "adverse" environments--even a dark, frigid sea beneath 100 miles of ice.
For instance, the supposed inhabitants of Triton may not have evolved into multicellular life forms, but I bet they have one hell of a hockey team.
The surface area of the earth is 5*10^14 square meters. Assume that 1 square meter is occupied by each of the 6 billion humans on the planet.
This means that every time a massive chunk of ice hurtles randomly from the sky, the chance that it will actually hit someone is about 0.000001, even if the unlucky bastard happens to live in Spain.
Further assume that a huge chunk of ice falling from clear skies, for no apparent reason, is a pretty rare phenomenon. So rare, in fact, that it has never before been documented.
Imagine witnessing, on a sunny day in the park, an oblivious bystander being splattered by a boulder of ice that plummeted five miles down from nowhere. You wouldn't dismiss it as a "random event". Hardened atheists would be fumbling for their rosary beads.
I'm not a religious man, but you ever get nailed by a 30kg block of ice falling from a clear sky, you can be pretty sure God was trying to tell you something.
I had no idea hydrogen peroxide was so versatile:
-ANTISEPTIC
-BLONDE BLEACH for low-rent types
-ROCKET FUEL
...and all for just $2.99/L at the local drugstore!
[Ned answers the door. He's wearing dark glasses and carrying a cane]
Ned: Jesus? Is that you?
Ralph: Mr. Flanders, you're blinded-ded!
Ned: Oh, yeah. I never should have had that trendy laser surgery. It was great at first but, you know, at the ten-year mark your eyes fall out.
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/BABF13A "Flamin' Ford" Aerostar loaded to the hilt with a satellite dish, wireless LAN, laptops, printers, various other electronics, and thousands of sheets of paper. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Let's hope it makes it to Washington in one piece...
I think the whole concept of a mobile bookmobile downloading e-books by satellite is cute, but... couldn't they just show the kids how to download the e-books from home? Or, since the books are mostly public-domain classics, why not provide the kids with some of the millions of second-hand paper editions in circulation? It's not as sexy a solution, but at least the kids won't strain their young eyeballs squinting at a screen, or waste trees by printing them out.