GPS haven't been around all that long. I doubt the likes of DHL would go bankrupt even though they depend on it today. Pretty sure they've got a backup (the old way of doing it) in case of GPS malfunction.
Apart from the terrible Flash thingie on the frontpage, something else struck me with this website.
Top left corner. Happy white couple. Take a look at the lower right corner.. a dog, a chinese boy and a black boy. Where I come from, likening chinese and blacks with dogs are racist.
Congrats. You're the first American online to ever admit that the US are having problems.
Now, if we could get only one of you to admit that your country isn't the "best in the world" in each and every aspect, then hell would indeed freeze over.
Yeah.. I know, fat chance of that happening. Reflective thought yields pretty fast to years and years of patriotic conditioning.
The fact that you pledge allegiance to the flag in schools, should scare you shitless, but it doesn't.
We propose a new technology to combat the "First Post" phenomenon.
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
A "First Post" is the very first post (generally on the top of the page) in an online digital bulletin board system.
The phenomenon were first witnessed on the now defunct Bitnet, but has had a renessaince on recent popular websites.
In certain communities it has become a sport to claim as many "First Posts" as possible. The difficulty lies in beating
hordes of other users, who also try to claim "First Post", much to the annoyance of legitimate users. While the "First Post"
doesn't normally occupy much webpage real estate, several variants with page widening technology have surfaced from time
to time.
2. Technology
Not much have been done to combat this nuisance in the past. Several bulletin board systems have enabled power users, or moderators, to rate and remove the posts in question. This however, is just a reactive measure. Nothing has been done to remove the very source of the annoying "First Post". We propose a proactive measure that would once and for all remove the
much dreaded "First Post" problem.
At the core of this technology, would be a random number generator. We propose to use a stochastic generator, utilizing primitive trinomials and Monte Carlo sequencing. Alternatively, a hardware random generator may be used.
We define a sequence of posts as one post sequentially numbered after another. With relative numbering, the first post is post number one. Assuming that there will be more than n-1 posts in a certain discussion, we number each subsequent post 1,2.. n. We call the number n, the random threshold. Depending on the popularity of a discussion, n may or may not be quite large. We propose a model for estimating the number of posts attached to a certain subject by Bayesian analysis on the body of the article in question.
Given an estimate of the randhom threshold, n, and the random generator one proceeds to generate every page of the forum dynamically. For every successive generation, the random generator is invoked to scramble the order of the first n posts. This will effectively kill off any illusion of "First Post", as post number one might be translated to post numer 2,..n.
If the number of posts are low, this technique might not be optimal, but then one would expect the occurences of "First Posts" to be much lower also.
3. Credits
The idea for this technology came from doctor Ida Lupino of the Texan Institute of Technology, on the annual "Digital Bulletin Board development" conference, held each year in Puerto Rico. This memo was written by the esteemed Shifter Potts in close cooperation with Becky Uchif Outs.
I've worked as a storeclerk, and while you don't have time to thorougly examine each and every note, you have a uv light placed by the register so that you can drag the note past it in the same motion that you put it into the register.
While I was working in this store, there was a wave of forgery in my hometown, so that we were urged to check every note we were handed. I can tell you, this wasn't very popular with the more "upstanding" customers. I was almost physically attacked by and older, obviously wealthy man. He thought it absurd that a man of his standing would be paying with counterfeit money. I politely told him that he could have been given forged money by another store, but this only enraged him further. Luckily, his wife was there to hold him back, but I never saw him in the store again.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, his name is Berlusconi, and he is thorougly corrupt, even by US standards. The italians call it tangentopoli.
GPS haven't been around all that long. I doubt the likes of DHL would go bankrupt even though they depend on it today. Pretty sure they've got a backup (the old way of doing it) in case of GPS malfunction.
Thats just it. Apps are kinda sluggish, no matter what windowmanager you use. Maybe this is the fault of the likes of gdk and qt though.
Apart from the terrible Flash thingie on the frontpage, something else struck me with this website.
Top left corner. Happy white couple. Take a look at the lower right corner.. a dog, a chinese boy and a black boy. Where I come from, likening chinese and blacks with dogs are racist.
Intruiging. Care to elaborate?
Congrats. You're the first American online to ever admit that the US are having problems.
Now, if we could get only one of you to admit that your country isn't the "best in the world" in each and every aspect, then hell would indeed freeze over.
Yeah.. I know, fat chance of that happening. Reflective thought yields pretty fast to years and years of patriotic conditioning.
The fact that you pledge allegiance to the flag in schools, should scare you shitless, but it doesn't.
Yet another way to increase your throughput, would be to eat constipatives, carefully timing your crapping to weekends and vacations.
Please don't feed the trolls. Replying to threads like this wastes good mod points.
I'll pitch in a vote to get your Internet privileges revoked.
Good idea. One catch though. We would have to buy goatse related products, for that to work.
It's a protocol, so how would it die?
The large ircnets are laggy and crap filled anyway, wouldn't be too much of a loss.
Here's what I do, when I buy a cd and it doesn't play on my dvd player due to copyprotection;
Rip it (cdparanoia works, if not, an analouge copy is ok), then return it. Not only do they lose out on the sale, but you get the music. Win win.
That's not really necessary. If they describe themselves as a religion, that's all I need to know.
The very first post?
Christian Science Monitor
I don't care what cultish rituals they dabble, but don't call it science.
Just out of curiosity, why would you go to the trouble of registering for referrals, if you weren't going to cash in on them?
Aw yeah, I forgot, middle eastern countries don't have to follow U.N. resolutions.
Much, in fact, like the US.
So.. 5 square inches, folded 4000 times equals 0,0013 square inches, and the bill would reach halwfay to the moon.
I've worked as a storeclerk, and while you don't have time to thorougly examine each and every note, you have a uv light placed by the register so that you can drag the note past it in the same motion that you put it into the register.
While I was working in this store, there was a wave of forgery in my hometown, so that we were urged to check every note we were handed. I can tell you, this wasn't very popular with the more "upstanding" customers. I was almost physically attacked by and older, obviously wealthy man. He thought it absurd that a man of his standing would be paying with counterfeit money. I politely told him that he could have been given forged money by another store, but this only enraged him further. Luckily, his wife was there to hold him back, but I never saw him in the store again.
I agree with you. It's simply too easy.
Even criminals might want to take the less obvious path.
Of course :) And for governments, it's even easier.
I don't think the forging is especially difficult when you have access to the kind of resources the CIA have.
Wasn't very difficult for Iran either, they just bought a press and paper from the same people who make this equipment for the govnerment.
My point is that Al has got nothing to do with the mechanics of robots or the science fiction they're trying to mimic with them.
Granted, you could apply Al in these areas, but that doesn't make it a priority.
It's like the abio thingie. It's things like that which most people couple with Al, although it has got very little to do with it.
It will make it harder for countries like Iran, who, at least in the eighties, were producing counterfeit dollars.