Multiplying MCXIV by CXCIX
on
The Year 1000
·
· Score: 2
I can do it on paper, only making it even clearer why the Romans didn't do much with big numbers. MCXIV x CXCIX -------
Multiply each digit through, taking into account if it is negative. I'll use bold to represent the overline (a modern notation for writing large values of Roman numerals). XMCXL - MCXIV + CXMCD - XMCXL + CXMCD -------
Cancel out the XMCXL's, and convert everything to contain no subtraction within the numerals. CXMCCCC + CXMCCCC - MCXIIII =
Now, for the subtraction, borrow an LXXXXVIIIII. CXMCCCLXXXXVIIIII + CXMCCCC - MCXIIII =
Cancel out equivalent numerals that are subtracted, and concatenate the rest. CCXXMCCCCCCLXXXVI
And convert back into standard Roman Numerals. CCXXMDCLXXXVI
Now imagine chiseling all this into stone. Makes you glad that the Arabs came along, and we can just say 1114 x 199 = 221686, doesn't it? --
Re:Millennial hysteria in 1000
on
The Year 1000
·
· Score: 2
For all of you who like to celebrate the turn of a century in a year ending in 01, I direct you to Douglas Adams' take on all of this. http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/pedant s.html
Anyhow, who cares if some Roman guy messed everything up because there was no Roman numeral 0. Our number system has a 0 in it, so we might as well USE it. I doubt that the people who lived in 1 B.C. will care. --
Okay. Vaporware is when a company announces a product and never releases it. Transmeta, on the other hand, has announced absolutely nothing. They could release one of those plastic birds that bobs its head up and down, and it'd still be more than what they announced. --
I love how this Linux-basher is finally showing his true strategy - using a fallacy to argue his point.
Believe it or not, Linux doesn't yet have support for networking all its users' minds together. Therefore, some people have DIFFERENT OPINIONS than others! However, you treat the situation as if there is one collective Linux user. Let's call this user "Joe" for convenience.
So someone points out that a Linux GUI is as easy to use as Windows. Your translation: Joe says Linux is easy.
Later, someone who is almost definitely a different person, says that Linux as a whole (which isn't the same thing as the GUI, BTW) is too hard for the average user. Your translation: Joe says Linux is hard.
You compare your interpretations of the statements and deduce that Joe is a hypocrite, or maybe even a "hipocrit". Good work. --
Actually, the article was wrong in many places, as the CMU students pointed out over on that story's comments. They DID use Microsoft Networking to share the files. --
When forms ask for a city, state, country, and zip code, I put in: Shneederville, New Hampshire, Albania, 66666. I haven't encountered a form yet that cares about the inconsistencies or the fact that there's no town anywhere named Shneederville. --
Ooh, sounds neat. You should put the code for that on the Web. (just make sure it doesn't mangle Slashdot's cookies, they're the only ones that matter) --
Well, Lynx's various colors (which appear to be at different "depths" in the screen because of the contrast, and even seem to move in parallax) just might give me a mental breakdown someday. --
Well, I have a slightly different experience. For a few weeks, I had to run my computer on a piece-of-crap video card. I've got a dual-boot system. X would crash relatively often on this video card - but about 4 times out of 5, Windows wouldn't even boot. It'd give me a BSOD as it tries to display the login window. Fortunately, the many X crashes weren't the nasty type where you have to shut down remotely... ctrl-alt-backspace would always work. So Linux kept running, with only the minor annoyance that text characters on the console would get random extra pixels turned on. --
This is the third message you've posted like this. Do you go up to people in a crowded room and shout "NO! YOU'RE WRONG!" in their face and then run off to do it to someone else, or is this simply something you do because you can hide as an AC?
So tell us, why do you assume that everyone who says WINE stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator" is (a) wrong and (b) not thinking?
Well, in AC all the technologies do have odd names - but on the information screen, there's quotes and text about the technology. It may look boring at first, but there's some really cool stuff in there, including things that are quotable on their own.
Best quote in the game, paraphrased because I don't exactly remember it: "Beware of he who would restrict your access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master." -Lal --
I listen to well-stated arguments about cases when Windows is better. There are a few - one of them is games. Topical example: Windows got Alpha Centauri, arguably the best strategy game ever released; Linux got Civ: CTP, the also-ran among Civ games. (It's really too bad Sid Meier doesn't pay attention to Linux.)
When someone flames someone else simply because they bashed Microsoft, though, I agree wholeheartedly. Most likely they're not actually hired by Microsoft - just brainwashed by them. Or maybe they're simply trolls. --
For those who really care, 10^-18 is 'atto'. But the prefix 'nano' seems to be already accepted for the purpose of molecular computing. I assume that the resulting processors would be 'nanoprocessors'.
But there will probably one day be better technology... picocomputing - using electrons for computing (pretty much quantum computing) femtocomputing - computing in base 6 using quarks attocomputing - computing using whatever the hell quarks are made of (superstrings? energy patterns? green cheese?) --
Except RealJukebox doesn't download things from websites. That's RealAudio you're thinking of. RealJukebox plays audio files and CDs on your computer, and therefore has no business sending any kind of data over the Internet. --
IMO, whoever first came up with the "My..." idea should be shot and then rot in the deepest pits of hell. For one thing, it encourages lots of terrible portal sites. It also sounds incredibly stupid, and isn't even the correct use of the word "My". For example, who is the "me" in "My Computer"? Is it a user who reads everything displayed on his screen out loud? Is it the computer, in which case simply "Me" would suffice? Or is it Bill Gates, which seems to be the most likely case? ("This is MY computer. I'm giving you the privilege to use it productively. Whoops, I just took away that privilege, so here's a blue screen.") --
On another topic, how much Karma do you need to start out posting at score=2?
I thought it was at least 20, but it seems the requirement is to have more than 20 karma, because here I am with exactly 20 karma and still posting at score 1.
Stupid imprecise wording. It made me dance around, singing a Gershwin tune with the words mangled into "I've got Karma", and generally looking like an idiot if there had been anyone around to see me when my score changed from 19 to 20, all for nothing.
Reminds me of my idea for "Extended Internet Time". Internet Time is a good idea that Swatch just happened to use to sell cheesy watches... it's a metric time system where the day is divided into 1000 "beats", which respectively consist of 100 "centibeats", which are each.864 of a second. The Internet Time as I type this is @147.08
The problem is that Internet Time clocks (mostly found as computer programs) use the normal date system, which makes even less sense than our time system. Because Internet Time has no time zones, the date changes at some arbitrary point during the ITime day.
I propose Extended Internet Time, which includes a metric date before the @. Extended Internet Time would include a date consisting of the number of days (yes, 24-hour solar days, I'm leaving these alone) since 1970 (or maybe some other significant year), with a , inserted for readability and to set apart units of 1000 days that would act like years. It would wreck the concept of years as defined by the sun, but oh well. It would change at @000 internet time.
The complete Extended Internet Time is now 10,892@152.11. Of course this could be abbreviated to 892@152, 892@, @152, or even 2@152 (it's assumed to be the current 10-day "week" - if it really was day 2 of the year, it would be 002@152). I can tell someone "hey, log onto microsoft.com on 3@400, I'm going to hack their main page." (Not that this is the kind of thing I do.)
I'm not getting my hopes up that people will use this, though I'd like to see it as an option for Slashdot's time format:) --
I can still remember when I was in highschool how they were so hopped up about this new program that would identify for the students what they were good at and what their future held.
I got social worker.
Whoa. That sounds like something out of Ayn Rand's Anthem. That's scary. (For the uninformed, in Anthem the main character is part of a completely communistic nation, where things are so tightly controlled that singular pronouns are banned. The character is a genius, but is assigned the job of "Street Sweeper".)
Maybe by now your former highschool gives bonus credits to people who take classes pertaining to the career the computer chooses... be very afraid. --
If you really want "Security" then its simple. Mandate mandatory firearms safty at a young age, then let every kid and every teacher carry guns to school.
A psychotic gunslinger wouldn't make it 5 feet if people were armed. The simple fact people forget is that guns are to people what Atom Bombs are to nations. If everybody has them, then nobody can use one, without immediate and deadly retaliation (possibly from 3rd parties)
I completely disagree. Kids should not be given guns. You're assuming that all kids are smart enough to think about the consequences of their actions. This is not even close to the truth.
Also, Mutually Assured Destruction is not a good thing, it's just the way we accept the fact that several nations have the ability to destroy the Earth.
Let's take a look at a school where nobody has guns. Bob says something really nasty about Joe's girlfriend. Joe pulls out his gun and points it at Bob as a warning. Bob pulls out his gun in response. Obviously neither wants to be the first to put down the gun. Joe is already emotionally unstable from some other event, and blows Bob away. Some of Bob's friends standing by shoot Joe in retaliation. One of them misses and hits Sue, an innocent bystander. Some of Sue's friends seek retaliation. Chaos ensues. Several people die.
If only Joe had a gun (that he snuck into school, for example), the death count would be much lower. Also, Joe might find it more effective to simply beat the crap out of Bob, since Bob isn't defending himself, which is a favorable alternative to shooting him.
Watch as this comment gets crammed against the right margin. --
Slashdot Mirror
I can do it on paper, only making it even clearer why the Romans didn't do much with big numbers.
MCXIV
x CXCIX
-------
Multiply each digit through, taking into account if it is negative. I'll use bold to represent the overline (a modern notation for writing large values of Roman numerals).
XMCXL
- MCXIV
+ CXMCD
- XMCXL
+ CXMCD
-------
Cancel out the XMCXL's, and convert everything to contain no subtraction within the numerals.
CXMCCCC + CXMCCCC - MCXIIII =
Now, for the subtraction, borrow an LXXXXVIIIII.
CXMCCCLXXXXVIIIII + CXMCCCC - MCXIIII =
Cancel out equivalent numerals that are subtracted, and concatenate the rest.
CCXXMCCCCCCLXXXVI
And convert back into standard Roman Numerals.
CCXXMDCLXXXVI
Now imagine chiseling all this into stone.
Makes you glad that the Arabs came along, and we can just say 1114 x 199 = 221686, doesn't it?
--
For all of you who like to celebrate the turn of a century in a year ending in 01, I direct you to Douglas Adams' take on all of this.
http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/pedant s.html
Anyhow, who cares if some Roman guy messed everything up because there was no Roman numeral 0. Our number system has a 0 in it, so we might as well USE it. I doubt that the people who lived in 1 B.C. will care.
--
Abaci.
I don't know much Latin, but I believe that the plural of -us is -i, and you only get two i's if the singular ends in -ius.
--
Okay. Vaporware is when a company announces a product and never releases it.
Transmeta, on the other hand, has announced absolutely nothing.
They could release one of those plastic birds that bobs its head up and down, and it'd still be more than what they announced.
--
How long would it take for one of those mini-lasers to make someone go blind? Because I know of a lot of stupid people who have them.
--
I love how this Linux-basher is finally showing his true strategy - using a fallacy to argue his point.
Believe it or not, Linux doesn't yet have support for networking all its users' minds together. Therefore, some people have DIFFERENT OPINIONS than others! However, you treat the situation as if there is one collective Linux user. Let's call this user "Joe" for convenience.
So someone points out that a Linux GUI is as easy to use as Windows. Your translation: Joe says Linux is easy.
Later, someone who is almost definitely a different person, says that Linux as a whole (which isn't the same thing as the GUI, BTW) is too hard for the average user. Your translation: Joe says Linux is hard.
You compare your interpretations of the statements and deduce that Joe is a hypocrite, or maybe even a "hipocrit". Good work.
--
Actually, the article was wrong in many places, as the CMU students pointed out over on that story's comments. They DID use Microsoft Networking to share the files.
--
Uh... what?
Would you care to explain how we are going from the 20th to the 22nd century in 2 years?
Must be that darn Y2K bug.
--
When forms ask for a city, state, country, and zip code, I put in:
Shneederville, New Hampshire, Albania, 66666.
I haven't encountered a form yet that cares about the inconsistencies or the fact that there's no town anywhere named Shneederville.
--
Ooh, sounds neat. You should put the code for that on the Web. (just make sure it doesn't mangle Slashdot's cookies, they're the only ones that matter)
--
It's called "astroturfing". Get used to it.
--
Well, Lynx's various colors (which appear to be at different "depths" in the screen because of the contrast, and even seem to move in parallax) just might give me a mental breakdown someday.
--
Well, I have a slightly different experience. For a few weeks, I had to run my computer on a piece-of-crap video card. I've got a dual-boot system. X would crash relatively often on this video card - but about 4 times out of 5, Windows wouldn't even boot. It'd give me a BSOD as it tries to display the login window.
Fortunately, the many X crashes weren't the nasty type where you have to shut down remotely... ctrl-alt-backspace would always work. So Linux kept running, with only the minor annoyance that text characters on the console would get random extra pixels turned on.
--
Well, then, what IS true?
This is the third message you've posted like this. Do you go up to people in a crowded room and shout "NO! YOU'RE WRONG!" in their face and then run off to do it to someone else, or is this simply something you do because you can hide as an AC?
So tell us, why do you assume that everyone who says WINE stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator" is (a) wrong and (b) not thinking?
--
Wow - playing the SuSE DVD on your stereo would be even more fun than 'cat /vmlinuz > /dev/audio'!
--
SimCity 3k is the game I so wanted to love, but I couldn't use it for more than 5 minutes without thinking, "Why hasn't it LOADED yet?"
Obviously I don't exactly have a top-of-the-line computer. So I played SimCity 2000 instead. It loaded in all of 10 seconds, and I had a blast.
--
Well, in AC all the technologies do have odd names - but on the information screen, there's quotes and text about the technology. It may look boring at first, but there's some really cool stuff in there, including things that are quotable on their own.
Best quote in the game, paraphrased because I don't exactly remember it:
"Beware of he who would restrict your access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master." -Lal
--
I listen to well-stated arguments about cases when Windows is better. There are a few - one of them is games. Topical example: Windows got Alpha Centauri, arguably the best strategy game ever released; Linux got Civ: CTP, the also-ran among Civ games. (It's really too bad Sid Meier doesn't pay attention to Linux.)
When someone flames someone else simply because they bashed Microsoft, though, I agree wholeheartedly. Most likely they're not actually hired by Microsoft - just brainwashed by them.
Or maybe they're simply trolls.
--
For those who really care, 10^-18 is 'atto'. But the prefix 'nano' seems to be already accepted for the purpose of molecular computing. I assume that the resulting processors would be 'nanoprocessors'.
But there will probably one day be better technology...
picocomputing - using electrons for computing (pretty much quantum computing)
femtocomputing - computing in base 6 using quarks
attocomputing - computing using whatever the hell quarks are made of (superstrings? energy patterns? green cheese?)
--
Except RealJukebox doesn't download things from websites. That's RealAudio you're thinking of. RealJukebox plays audio files and CDs on your computer, and therefore has no business sending any kind of data over the Internet.
--
IMO, whoever first came up with the "My..." idea should be shot and then rot in the deepest pits of hell. For one thing, it encourages lots of terrible portal sites. It also sounds incredibly stupid, and isn't even the correct use of the word "My".
For example, who is the "me" in "My Computer"? Is it a user who reads everything displayed on his screen out loud? Is it the computer, in which case simply "Me" would suffice? Or is it Bill Gates, which seems to be the most likely case? ("This is MY computer. I'm giving you the privilege to use it productively. Whoops, I just took away that privilege, so here's a blue screen.")
--
On another topic, how much Karma do you need to start out posting at score=2?
I thought it was at least 20, but it seems the requirement is to have more than 20 karma, because here I am with exactly 20 karma and still posting at score 1.
Stupid imprecise wording. It made me dance around, singing a Gershwin tune with the words mangled into "I've got Karma", and generally looking like an idiot if there had been anyone around to see me when my score changed from 19 to 20, all for nothing.
--
Reminds me of my idea for "Extended Internet Time". Internet Time is a good idea that Swatch just happened to use to sell cheesy watches... it's a metric time system where the day is divided into 1000 "beats", which respectively consist of 100 "centibeats", which are each .864 of a second. The Internet Time as I type this is @147.08
:)
The problem is that Internet Time clocks (mostly found as computer programs) use the normal date system, which makes even less sense than our time system. Because Internet Time has no time zones, the date changes at some arbitrary point during the ITime day.
I propose Extended Internet Time, which includes a metric date before the @.
Extended Internet Time would include a date consisting of the number of days (yes, 24-hour solar days, I'm leaving these alone) since 1970 (or maybe some other significant year), with a , inserted for readability and to set apart units of 1000 days that would act like years. It would wreck the concept of years as defined by the sun, but oh well.
It would change at @000 internet time.
The complete Extended Internet Time is now 10,892@152.11. Of course this could be abbreviated to 892@152, 892@, @152, or even 2@152 (it's assumed to be the current 10-day "week" - if it really was day 2 of the year, it would be 002@152). I can tell someone "hey, log onto microsoft.com on 3@400, I'm going to hack their main page." (Not that this is the kind of thing I do.)
I'm not getting my hopes up that people will use this, though I'd like to see it as an option for Slashdot's time format
--
I can still remember when I was in highschool how they were so hopped up about this new program that would identify for the students what they were good at and what their future held.
I got social worker.
Whoa. That sounds like something out of Ayn Rand's Anthem. That's scary. (For the uninformed, in Anthem the main character is part of a completely communistic nation, where things are so tightly controlled that singular pronouns are banned. The character is a genius, but is assigned the job of "Street Sweeper".)
Maybe by now your former highschool gives bonus credits to people who take classes pertaining to the career the computer chooses... be very afraid.
--
If you really want "Security" then its simple.
Mandate mandatory firearms safty at a young age,
then let every kid and every teacher carry
guns to school.
A psychotic gunslinger wouldn't make it 5 feet if
people were armed. The simple fact people forget
is that guns are to people what Atom Bombs are to
nations. If everybody has them, then nobody
can use one, without immediate and deadly
retaliation (possibly from 3rd parties)
I completely disagree. Kids should not be given guns. You're assuming that all kids are smart enough to think about the consequences of their actions. This is not even close to the truth.
Also, Mutually Assured Destruction is not a good thing, it's just the way we accept the fact that several nations have the ability to destroy the Earth.
Let's take a look at a school where nobody has guns. Bob says something really nasty about Joe's girlfriend. Joe pulls out his gun and points it at Bob as a warning. Bob pulls out his gun in response. Obviously neither wants to be the first to put down the gun. Joe is already emotionally unstable from some other event, and blows Bob away.
Some of Bob's friends standing by shoot Joe in retaliation. One of them misses and hits Sue, an innocent bystander. Some of Sue's friends seek retaliation. Chaos ensues. Several people die.
If only Joe had a gun (that he snuck into school, for example), the death count would be much lower. Also, Joe might find it more effective to simply beat the crap out of Bob, since Bob isn't defending himself, which is a favorable alternative to shooting him.
Watch as this comment gets crammed against the right margin.
--