Off topic I guess, but has anybody wondered why those hi-tech battle droids in Star Wars TPM actually "spoke" or had opinions? A wireless LAN would be far more appropriate, with an AI/KBS voting system upon which decisions to take.
Oh yeah, it's only a film you say but...
(Don't you just hate geeks who point out technical flaws in technical films?)
BT have a tight grip on the market, despite what they may claim. OFTel is fairly weak, and the Cable Companies don't really threaten it. That said, I was with C&W and they sucked worse than BT.
Until the Government says "Oi BT, you need to give just a ~little~", we're gonna be stuck with it.
Norweb (or maybe Manweb?*) just withdrew their plans for DPL. Their claim? Lack of interest! they were due to start large scale trial roll-out in Manchester a while back. Apparently, there's not enough interest. In reality, it's because of a tie-up between BT and Scottish Power (who own Demon), because the rumour is that Scot Power are going to buy Norweb (or was it Manweb?*).
* Whichever ISN'T already owned by Scot Power, is the one I'm talking about
Anyway, it's all about greed. Me? I'm launching my own Satelite, it's probably cheaper, and far quicker then BTs ISDN;)
Mong. * Paul Madley...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Why not get it to turn on the T.V, switch to the desired channel, and then stream it as full motion video to the PC you're using? I can't see how your ISP would dare complain about you hogging the b/width...
Maybe you could build one of those LEGO turtles, a really big one. Then use the PC to control it, you could open the door to let in your pets - feed them even.
Set up a camera, to ensure that your house isn't burning down. Although this same camera may capture your Son having sex with a guy you'd previously only imagined as a guy he plays football with...
The possibilities are endless - All thanks to Cable Modem!
New laws have been passed, meaning that the excess Ram produced can't simply be "dumped". Fine! You think, we now have an excess of ram... Wrong!
In the past, as opposed to dumping, excess has been sold on VERY cheaply to smaller vendors, these vendors then sell via.net or magazines, undercutting the larger, traditional vendors. This in turn causes the larger vendors to pull down their prices, the little guys respond... and so on.
Now with memory being much less in abundance, prices have started to rise again, and the little guys are right in saying there is a "shortage". The big guys however, maintain their current levels, and charge what they would have done anyway, if the "little guys" hadn't gotten in on the act.
Good News for the environment, not so good for upgraders...
Mong. * Paul Madley...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I agree. At first, I too thought "Feelgood Blockbuster ahoy!", but then I think to stuff, notably Schindlers List... Spielberg can do things like this right - it's not his acknowledged forte, but as he was friends with Kubrick, and probably understands the reasoning of AI thanks to this friendship... then maybe we'll have a good film after all.
Agreed, at my University, we teache HOW to program, as in, how to write decent Pseudo Code, how to develop decent test strategies. It's not until about 5 sessions into the course that we actually teach HOW to code a language. In this case, we use Pascal (Borland). It's fairly straightforward, and has an introduction to C-like syntax (Damn that ";"!). Okay, so Uni is more advanced than CS - I'm assuming CS is for 16+ ?
In a time where programming is becoming "dumbed down", I think we need to maintain an understanding in interested youngsters, of the core traditions/ideals of writing good programs, with good code - irrelvant of the language used.
I mean, I use FrontPage here (in MS hell) and even HTML creation has become "dumbed down". It's annoying that users are becoming less empowered, more disenfranchised...
And why not do very basic stuff with a "learning" language such as Pascal, Basic or Python? Once basic proncipals have been taught, then surely it's time to move onto more advanced stuff? Incidentaly, I'm sure Python used to be "123" or "ABC" - or somthing similar... Implying it's a language for learning. A good intro, imho is actually the "Mini Language" JavaScript. Whilst fundamentally used for scripting, it has a simple to learn syntax, that is familiar to a whole host of programmers - plus, it's extremely relevant and useful to todays markt, as it's a now integral part of todays Web.
No offense, but WHY are you worried about what the US Government does with your info? I mean; do you pose a threat to national security? Are you using the.net to coordinate kiddie-porn or drugs cartels? Probably not.
They're not really interested in you, unless you're doing wrong. I'm not an advocate of "Big Brother" per se, but sometimes, I feel peoples ill-founded paranoia gets the better off them.
You say the problem is what they can do *legaly* with them.
Erm... So, they see you've downloaded a driver, read some sports news... maybe you even looked at some porn, got some new warez - so what? They are simply NOT interested in you. You are NOT going to get siezed from the street and bundled off, never to be seen again.
About the only thing you can say about giving your details online is that it will be used by marketing ppl - get a spam account, Mailcity isn't too bad for this, also Hotmail actually asks if you're willing to recieve "spam" - if not, you don't get it. Furthermore, don't give your real details unless you really must. Finally, although Slashdot has become (kinda) commercial, it still doesn't disclose your details to anyone - and it doesn't even demand your details.
Hmm, I agree... maybe. Personally, I feel that TNG was the worst of the "current" STs. Voyager had the same theme as TNG - Fly Round, Be nice... Only DS9 had anything approaching an "edge of seat" atmosphere. None of them, imho, had anything like the tension of B5's "Shadow Wars".
Now, if the new series is all about tension on the frontier, not knowing what the "enemy" is going to do, then fine. But if it's "Lets fly randomly and hope we get to debate over our Prime Directive", then it's not.
As a ship name, "Excellence" is alright I guess, but it simply doesn't work as the name of a TV show.
Actually, this is a VERY good idea indeed. Again, it wont fix the problem completely, but it will help. Or maybe have No Karma until a certain amount of +1 posts are made in a given period. It isn't particulalry hard to achieve +1, when all is said and done (Damn! I've even got the occaisional +5 in the past! - And I'm pretty dull, and can't write well).
Furthermore, it will encourage new users to post more, higher quality messages.
Slightly off-topic. The future of Digital Cameras with Linux looks very good indeed! Thanks to those wonderfull guys at Gnu Photo. Check out gphoto.org - pretty neat huh?
Mong. * Paul Madley...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Linus should sue! Seriously. He's probably the only person in the Linux world who can more or less demand 100% respect - if he's seen to endorse something, then it must be good. I mean, if a "stud like him" likes it...
Hmm, whoever did this mustn't have a great deal of confidence in the project. Why else would they do this? Unless it was f*cking excellent and they wanted the world to know about it.
I think the last part of the article is a masterful sumnation... Linux is growing up.
We want to oust MS, force them right out - or at least make them produce good, cheap software and adopt a proactive attitude to the industry as a whole. Anyway, the only way they'll be forced out is by valid competition - RH are the nearest the Linux world has got to a "proper" company.
I could go on for the need to come up with a definative set of standards for a Linux gooey - not a STANDARDIZED gui, but a set of standards for them all to stick too, but I won't (though I just did).
I think people are giving RH a hard time because they're maybe disenfranchising the industry as a whole with their continued and growing dominance - tough! RH still give you their work under GPL, M$ are highly unlikely to do that unless somebody forces their hand... I think that somebody is Red Hat.
A "Cracker" is a criminal, no matter what the justification, "Cracking" is a crime. A Craker may dislike a company, but does the Cracker stop to think about the knock on effect...?
Boss: We've been hacked * he'll mean "cracked" Sys-Admin: Erm, yeah, I'll fix it. Boss: You f*cking *@~&$ Sys-Admin: Sorry, some kids messed around, won't happen again... Boss: Better not you complete.... Sys-Admin: Hey, if you let us spend some money on... [blurb] Boss: No, I give you enough, if you can't do your job, then you're outta here.
Guy gets sacked....
Sys-Admin goes home, fights with Wife, Kids upset etc... Now has no job, bad marriage. Wife in mood at her work, pisses off friend. Kids do badly in school etc...
I'm not talking crap here, these are real consequences of "victimless" crimes.
I rank "Crackers" along with makers of Viruses. I'd like to kill you all. I lost some work recently, my Virus Scanner was just over a month old, some stupid Excell virus cost me dearly... Thanks.
Usually, yes a hacker is a coder. See, it's all about perceptions. I always think of hackers being particularly dedicated to improving, perfecting and tinkering via the mdeium of code.
Personnally, I can't see how you can be a Hacker without any coding ability.
Yeah, sometime back, my beloved BBS was invaded for an hour or so by a small group of stupid sub-14yr Norwegian Kids - the ringleader claimed to be a "hacker". When I asked "what do you code", he got rather insulting and told me that I didn't know what I was on about.
Earlier this year, I was on irc (sorry, but we all do it sometimes) and a 13yr old Turkish kid proclaimed himself as a "hacker" - refusing to admit that he was wrong and actually wanted to be a "cracker". He said "it's up to me what I call myself". On this basis, I'm a Nuclear Brain Engineer.
The term "hacker" probably has a lot to do with the term "hack", a "hack" being a particularly dedicated journalist, or member of newsroom staff who slaves away to beat the deadline etc...
The point? In my experience, people who wrongly call themselves "hackers" are either;
So young, that they believe that the mainstream media definition is the correct one.
or
So incompetent at "cracking" that they even get the terms wrong (this is often the case)
None the less, ill-informity is nothing new, and nothing to get too heated about.
"every hit avoided is a hit avoided, every hit blocked is ten possible hits."
Not entirely sure what you mean - are you saying you should try not to be hit at all? I suppose you're saying that if you have time and space to block, why not simply attack instead? A lot of Chinese Kick Boxing is about that In Muay Thai however, a considerable emphasis is actually placed on simply absorbing a blow in order to be better prepared to strike back. The standard Muay Thai stance focuses on protecting the head, with the body expected to absorb any attacks that aren't easily avoided or blocked - something people don't realise is that we use our legs to shield our lower body, looks very odd, but it works. I personally start with a fairly standard European Kick Boxing stance, even when training at a Muay Thai camp - I guess it's what feels best. Ultimately, if you restrict yourself to one particular style, then you're losing out on the wealth of knowledge and experience offered by other forms.
Yup, much groundwork is taught in Kung-Foo. I've not done a great deal of Kung-Foo (mainly Muay Thai and Kick Boxing), but my (personal!) instructor is an expert, and often grabs my arm and tramples all over me:)
You do know that Warner (and all big companies) have close ties with the hardware manufactures, often owning, or owned by them. Now, how to promote a brilliant, hi-tech, piece of kit? Make The Matrix, a brilliant, hi-tech, movie, DVD-only.
I've seen plenty more brutal movies than The Matrix - in fact, The Matrix kinda trivialised the violence by making such a thing of it.
To some extent, I agree. The Tai Chi I've learned is especially usefull in one-2-one situation.
However, do you expect the audience to understand this? Sure, a large element of Kung-Foo is Chinese Kick Boxing, which is obviously more of a close-in fighting form. Personally, I favour my beloved Muay Thai if I absolutely have to fight somebody. It's brutal, fast and where the Matrix stuff looked beautiful, Muay Thai is damned ugly. My instructor said "You're not learning a Martial art, you're lerning how to fight". I could go on...
But you're right I guess. I too cringed when they were doing their (fairly dumb) stances, looking pretty much as stupid as the Kata seen in bloody Karate Kid! I know, I know, focus your Chi, but some off the stances just looked like bouts of constipation!
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm, wonder if we could apply the /. effect to less "worthy" targets...
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I believe MS have a great article on their site about Samba. Not sure where though, you'd better look around...
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Off topic I guess, but has anybody wondered why those hi-tech battle droids in Star Wars TPM actually "spoke" or had opinions? A wireless LAN would be far more appropriate, with an AI/KBS voting system upon which decisions to take.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Oh yeah, it's only a film you say but...
(Don't you just hate geeks who point out technical flaws in technical films?)
Mong.
* Paul Madley
BT have a tight grip on the market, despite what they may claim. OFTel is fairly weak, and the Cable Companies don't really threaten it. That said, I was with C&W and they sucked worse than BT.
;)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Until the Government says "Oi BT, you need to give just a ~little~", we're gonna be stuck with it.
Norweb (or maybe Manweb?*) just withdrew their plans for DPL. Their claim? Lack of interest! they were due to start large scale trial roll-out in Manchester a while back. Apparently, there's not enough interest. In reality, it's because of a tie-up between BT and Scottish Power (who own Demon), because the rumour is that Scot Power are going to buy Norweb (or was it Manweb?*).
* Whichever ISN'T already owned by Scot Power, is the one I'm talking about
Anyway, it's all about greed. Me? I'm launching my own Satelite, it's probably cheaper, and far quicker then BTs ISDN
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Why not get it to turn on the T.V, switch to the desired channel, and then stream it as full motion video to the PC you're using? I can't see how your ISP would dare complain about you hogging the b/width...
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Maybe you could build one of those LEGO turtles, a really big one. Then use the PC to control it, you could open the door to let in your pets - feed them even.
Set up a camera, to ensure that your house isn't burning down. Although this same camera may capture your Son having sex with a guy you'd previously only imagined as a guy he plays football with...
The possibilities are endless - All thanks to Cable Modem!
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Then, my friend, you obviously didn't pay attention :) Any linguist knows that the implied meaning is often more relevant than the literal.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
"case of markengrabbing"
Mark = DMark = Money
Money Grabbing.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
New laws have been passed, meaning that the excess Ram produced can't simply be "dumped". Fine! You think, we now have an excess of ram... Wrong!
.net or magazines, undercutting the larger, traditional vendors. This in turn causes the larger vendors to pull down their prices, the little guys respond... and so on.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
In the past, as opposed to dumping, excess has been sold on VERY cheaply to smaller vendors, these vendors then sell via
Now with memory being much less in abundance, prices have started to rise again, and the little guys are right in saying there is a "shortage". The big guys however, maintain their current levels, and charge what they would have done anyway, if the "little guys" hadn't gotten in on the act.
Good News for the environment, not so good for upgraders...
Mong.
* Paul Madley
I agree. At first, I too thought "Feelgood Blockbuster ahoy!", but then I think to stuff, notably Schindlers List... Spielberg can do things like this right - it's not his acknowledged forte, but as he was friends with Kubrick, and probably understands the reasoning of AI thanks to this friendship... then maybe we'll have a good film after all.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Agreed, at my University, we teache HOW to program, as in, how to write decent Pseudo Code, how to develop decent test strategies. It's not until about 5 sessions into the course that we actually teach HOW to code a language. In this case, we use Pascal (Borland). It's fairly straightforward, and has an introduction to C-like syntax (Damn that ";"!). Okay, so Uni is more advanced than CS - I'm assuming CS is for 16+ ?
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
In a time where programming is becoming "dumbed down", I think we need to maintain an understanding in interested youngsters, of the core traditions/ideals of writing good programs, with good code - irrelvant of the language used.
I mean, I use FrontPage here (in MS hell) and even HTML creation has become "dumbed down". It's annoying that users are becoming less empowered, more disenfranchised...
And why not do very basic stuff with a "learning" language such as Pascal, Basic or Python? Once basic proncipals have been taught, then surely it's time to move onto more advanced stuff? Incidentaly, I'm sure Python used to be "123" or "ABC" - or somthing similar... Implying it's a language for learning. A good intro, imho is actually the "Mini Language" JavaScript. Whilst fundamentally used for scripting, it has a simple to learn syntax, that is familiar to a whole host of programmers - plus, it's extremely relevant and useful to todays markt, as it's a now integral part of todays Web.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Of course Java is not a better choice, as the vast majority of C++ problems are evident.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong.
* Paul Madley
They're not really interested in you, unless you're doing wrong. I'm not an advocate of "Big Brother" per se, but sometimes, I feel peoples ill-founded paranoia gets the better off them.
You say the problem is what they can do *legaly* with them.
Erm... So, they see you've downloaded a driver, read some sports news... maybe you even looked at some porn, got some new warez - so what? They are simply NOT interested in you. You are NOT going to get siezed from the street and bundled off, never to be seen again.
About the only thing you can say about giving your details online is that it will be used by marketing ppl - get a spam account, Mailcity isn't too bad for this, also Hotmail actually asks if you're willing to recieve "spam" - if not, you don't get it. Furthermore, don't give your real details unless you really must. Finally, although Slashdot has become (kinda) commercial, it still doesn't disclose your details to anyone - and it doesn't even demand your details.
So there
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Hmm, I agree... maybe. Personally, I feel that TNG was the worst of the "current" STs. Voyager had the same theme as TNG - Fly Round, Be nice... Only DS9 had anything approaching an "edge of seat" atmosphere. None of them, imho, had anything like the tension of B5's "Shadow Wars".
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Now, if the new series is all about tension on the frontier, not knowing what the "enemy" is going to do, then fine. But if it's "Lets fly randomly and hope we get to debate over our Prime Directive", then it's not.
As a ship name, "Excellence" is alright I guess, but it simply doesn't work as the name of a TV show.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Actually, this is a VERY good idea indeed. Again, it wont fix the problem completely, but it will help. Or maybe have No Karma until a certain amount of +1 posts are made in a given period. It isn't particulalry hard to achieve +1, when all is said and done (Damn! I've even got the occaisional +5 in the past! - And I'm pretty dull, and can't write well).
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Furthermore, it will encourage new users to post more, higher quality messages.
Everyones a winner, baby.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Slightly off-topic. The future of Digital Cameras with Linux looks very good indeed! Thanks to those wonderfull guys at Gnu Photo. Check out gphoto.org - pretty neat huh?
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Linus should sue! Seriously. He's probably the only person in the Linux world who can more or less demand 100% respect - if he's seen to endorse something, then it must be good. I mean, if a "stud like him" likes it...
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Hmm, whoever did this mustn't have a great deal of confidence in the project. Why else would they do this? Unless it was f*cking excellent and they wanted the world to know about it.
Urgh. I'm all confused.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
I think the last part of the article is a masterful sumnation... Linux is growing up.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
We want to oust MS, force them right out - or at least make them produce good, cheap software and adopt a proactive attitude to the industry as a whole. Anyway, the only way they'll be forced out is by valid competition - RH are the nearest the Linux world has got to a "proper" company.
I could go on for the need to come up with a definative set of standards for a Linux gooey - not a STANDARDIZED gui, but a set of standards for them all to stick too, but I won't (though I just did).
I think people are giving RH a hard time because they're maybe disenfranchising the industry as a whole with their continued and growing dominance - tough! RH still give you their work under GPL, M$ are highly unlikely to do that unless somebody forces their hand... I think that somebody is Red Hat.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
My friends mother did "American Studies" - she's a short-contract typist.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
University = Jobs? Nope.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
The "the" was actually a close-bold html tag (/b) - read previous if this means nothing to you :)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Adding the was a good idea :)
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Seriously though, I think you're right.
A "Cracker" is a criminal, no matter what the justification, "Cracking" is a crime. A Craker may dislike a company, but does the Cracker stop to think about the knock on effect...?
Boss: We've been hacked * he'll mean "cracked"
Sys-Admin: Erm, yeah, I'll fix it.
Boss: You f*cking *@~&$
Sys-Admin: Sorry, some kids messed around, won't happen again...
Boss: Better not you complete....
Sys-Admin: Hey, if you let us spend some money on... [blurb]
Boss: No, I give you enough, if you can't do your job, then you're outta here.
Guy gets sacked....
Sys-Admin goes home, fights with Wife, Kids upset etc... Now has no job, bad marriage. Wife in mood at her work, pisses off friend. Kids do badly in school etc...
I'm not talking crap here, these are real consequences of "victimless" crimes.
I rank "Crackers" along with makers of Viruses. I'd like to kill you all. I lost some work recently, my Virus Scanner was just over a month old, some stupid Excell virus cost me dearly... Thanks.
Hmm, guess this one's hit a sore spot
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Usually, yes a hacker is a coder. See, it's all about perceptions. I always think of hackers being particularly dedicated to improving, perfecting and tinkering via the mdeium of code.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Personnally, I can't see how you can be a Hacker without any coding ability.
Maybe a Cracker is an anti-Hacker?
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Earlier this year, I was on irc (sorry, but we all do it sometimes) and a 13yr old Turkish kid proclaimed himself as a "hacker" - refusing to admit that he was wrong and actually wanted to be a "cracker". He said "it's up to me what I call myself". On this basis, I'm a Nuclear Brain Engineer.
The term "hacker" probably has a lot to do with the term "hack", a "hack" being a particularly dedicated journalist, or member of newsroom staff who slaves away to beat the deadline etc...
The point? In my experience, people who wrongly call themselves "hackers" are either;
or
None the less, ill-informity is nothing new, and nothing to get too heated about.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
> Works like a charm. Blocking/Absorbing/Dodging > is just about useless.
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Unless of course you're Neo, and you now fully understand how to use the Matrix
Mong.
* Paul Madley
"every hit avoided is a hit avoided, every hit blocked is ten possible hits."
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Not entirely sure what you mean - are you saying you should try not to be hit at all? I suppose you're saying that if you have time and space to block, why not simply attack instead? A lot of Chinese Kick Boxing is about that In Muay Thai however, a considerable emphasis is actually placed on simply absorbing a blow in order to be better prepared to strike back. The standard Muay Thai stance focuses on protecting the head, with the body expected to absorb any attacks that aren't easily avoided or blocked - something people don't realise is that we use our legs to shield our lower body, looks very odd, but it works. I personally start with a fairly standard European Kick Boxing stance, even when training at a Muay Thai camp - I guess it's what feels best. Ultimately, if you restrict yourself to one particular style, then you're losing out on the wealth of knowledge and experience offered by other forms.
Hmm, getting off topic aren't we?
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Yup, much groundwork is taught in Kung-Foo. I've not done a great deal of Kung-Foo (mainly Muay Thai and Kick Boxing), but my (personal!) instructor is an expert, and often grabs my arm and tramples all over me :)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong.
* Paul Madley
You do know that Warner (and all big companies) have close ties with the hardware manufactures, often owning, or owned by them. Now, how to promote a brilliant, hi-tech, piece of kit? Make The Matrix, a brilliant, hi-tech, movie, DVD-only.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I've seen plenty more brutal movies than The Matrix - in fact, The Matrix kinda trivialised the violence by making such a thing of it.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
To some extent, I agree. The Tai Chi I've learned is especially usefull in one-2-one situation.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
However, do you expect the audience to understand this? Sure, a large element of Kung-Foo is Chinese Kick Boxing, which is obviously more of a close-in fighting form. Personally, I favour my beloved Muay Thai if I absolutely have to fight somebody. It's brutal, fast and where the Matrix stuff looked beautiful, Muay Thai is damned ugly. My instructor said "You're not learning a Martial art, you're lerning how to fight". I could go on...
But you're right I guess. I too cringed when they were doing their (fairly dumb) stances, looking pretty much as stupid as the Kata seen in bloody Karate Kid! I know, I know, focus your Chi, but some off the stances just looked like bouts of constipation!
From one fighter, to another - "Wai".
Mong.
* Paul Madley