Remember that joke / urban-space legend?
NASA spent several million dollars developing a pen that can write without gravity; the Russians just used a pencil - well, apparently, it's true. It pains me to think just how this Russian toilet works.
I've been reading these comments, and it seems to me like Jerry Springer has just opensourced his show on \., and can't decide on whether to use BSD lic or GPL.
It's sad that almost everyone in either camp suffers from tunnel vision and just can't see how much each community is interconnected. GPL code, BSD licensed code and proprietary code need each other to grow and thrive. One can certainly imagine worlds where only one exists, but that's more like a North Korean nightmare.
Clearly, those contributing GPL code to the world are well within their right to insist that their license is respected. The BSD people have a more laissez-tomber attitude; they don't seem to care / worry too much about copyrights, as it is most important to them to produce what they (and not only they) consider great software. They don't care too much about who owns what, and they probably feel, on balance, that this is justified by them contributing more code than they "take" (and even when they "take", it's only to give back).
Now I would agree that their (bsd) response was over the top and seemingly unwarranted. Theo has lost an opportunity to be the pacifist, restrained leader that Linus has almost always managed to be - I use "almost" because not too long ago Linus himself was seen as being one-sided in coming strongly against Gnome. Theo's call, his vocation is to write good software. He may not see PR work as necessary or pleasant, but I would speculate that he'd rather hire that nice motherly woman that Bruce dreams about rather than becoming one himself - if only he had the money, that is.
But there is a long way from here to vilifing Theo for being Theo. I've never met him, but I saw his interview on the former ROBtv. He appeared as "cheerfully communist" as Craig in front of the Wall Street crowd, and he struggled to make the business reporter understand how he makes a living by giving away his work. The very fact of being impassioned about his project diqualifies him from accusations of Asperger or autism. Furthermore, accusing him of "social ineptitude" for ignoring a handshake seems more like ad hominem than constructive criticism. Is it not hypocritical to publicly chastise him for overreacting by actually overreacting to his overreaction?:)
I use both firefox & opera on my USB stick, but I find Opera more useful. It packs a lot (email with IMAP, IRC+RSS+torrent client, widgets in a small package), and with the latest version, you can block ads and add your own searches, which you could not easily do before (though you could with Firefox). You can also have the browser read pages to you aloud which I haven't figured out how to do with Firefox.
Mod me as a troll, if you wish, but my Opera experience vs. Firefox is similar to Mac vs. Ubuntu. This is not to say that it's necessarily better, but sometimes you just don't feel like configuring everything, and for those times, it's great to have someone who does it right for you, and to top it all, gives it away for free.
I see, so suggesting that a scientific theory might not be true is wrong? Depends on one's motivation. I strongly disagree with this point. All opinions should be seriously considered, without trying to second guess motivation. If a scientist, paid or unpaid, uses bad science to publish something, he will be caught in peer review. His name will be worthless afterward. OTOH, if he brings a logical, rational, fact-based criticism to a theory, even if it's a small piece he's attacking, that can only help by either demolishing the false theory or giving the other party a chance to improve it / correct their mistakes.
I wish there was an Exxon with deep pockets for string theory as well, physics would move forward much faster..
I think global climatic changes we are living through are the most significant challenge for the human race. It is best if governments respond intelligently through legislation, but that will not happen unless we, as individuals, are willing to take initiative in our daily lives.
To that end, I have sold my car in 2003 and living without one ever since. That's rather difficult, as I live in Toronto uptown, but I found that I can easily rent (Enterprise is my favourite) when I absolutely need to; my life and my health have improved and am generally happier this way, not to mention that it's much cheaper. I also try to avoid buying gas from Esso (for the few times I need to rent), because I disapprove of Exxon and what they stand for.
That being said, I believe that Exxon is doing a public service by spending their money this way. If I were a scientist offered money to play the devil's advocate, I would jump at the opportunity. This is because good ideas and good science do not come from unanimity. Dissent, if taken seriously, can only improve the scientific discourse and is the best sanity check against groupthink.
Maybe it's because I lived my formative years in a communist dictatorship, or maybe it's because I loved debating and miss judging those university tournaments, but I often found that I learned the most about a subject by listening to dissenting opinions - opinions I disagreed with.
I really think this is bunch of NASA BS. When a US Marine killed a Romanian pop star in Bucharest, the US Embassy took parachuted him back to US where he was subjected to a mock trial, instead of allowing a trial in Romania.
AFAIC, the script kiddie should not be extradited and Romania should show some cojones, but they probably won't. He shouldn't even have been charged in Ro. The one who should be charged is the person responsible for security at NASA.
"Arad, where the guy is from is a historical hungarian town which now belongs to Romania" if we are to believe the wikipedia Arad entry 1. in 1720 "the population of the city was composed of 177 Romanian families, 162 Serbian and 35 Hungarian" 2. in 1910 "the town had 63166 inhabitants: 46085 (73%) Hungarians, 10279 (16,2%) Romanians, 4365 (7%) Germans" This leads me to believe that Hungary stole Arad from Romania and killed most Romanians over time; Arad then came back to Romania along with the rest of Transilvania.
I registered a few years ago an email address of johntory@rogers.com. John Tory was a relatively young lawyer turned executive (for those who know, Rogers Cablesystems is the main cable company in Canada, ran by Ted Rogers, also a lawyer). I registered it because he kept on appearing on TV explaining why Rogers sucks. Anyway, 1-2 years later he ran for mayor in Toronto, and took the second place (first loser). My mailbox got filled with messages from other lawyers and layppl congratulating him for his excellent campaign, even though all Rogers corp emails are in the *@rci.rogers.com namespace. Not long after, my service started to suck, I asked them to disconnect me, they didn't, and eventually I had a collection agency on my a** claiming almost $1000 from me. Typical.
It's rumored that version 2.0 will contain a GPS-enhanced RFID tag that surreptitiously penetrates you subcutaneously. This is so that the GOP underground wing can anally probe you at will. That'll teach ya to support fag weddings!
...about a brothel sale with the difference to the regular price being paid by the French Television. A new one could be: buy router on sale, make $10 after MIRs, guess who's paying for it?!?:)
at first, i used opera with a keygen. on some of my older computers it worked flawlessly, small memory footprint and extremely fast, which is something i still can't say about firefox/mozilla/netscape. then i kinda felt guilty so around version 6 i experimented with the free version. after a while the ads started to p me off so i blocked them through the hack in the hosts file. then i felt really guilty and ended up buying a license for all platforms.
I think a solution that doesn't involve relatives is better (what if you just go through some argument and then your HD crashes?). Get a safety deposit box at your bank, and you can use it for many other things (your will, etc.).
Alternatively, find out how long does your post-office keep stuff in poste-restante (6 months usually). Then backup everything on a few DVDs, (encrypt it first) and then mail it to yourself at poste-restante.
I think we can all agree that for starters, the reform should be to length of time of a patent and all the other government granted "IP" monopolies.
Secondly, the last phrase in that article ("The real question is how do we help the patent office so they don't issue the crap in the first place?") stuck with me.
It seems that there should be a way for patents to be reviewed in more depth, and by ppl with know-how in that particular field. Peer review is the first idea that comes to mind, but OTOH that would take too long. So why not use a simplified NSF grant-decision process? For instance, small interdisciplinary teams of at 3 could review the patent: a univ prof, an industry rep and an IP lawyer. (I know, I know, there may be jokes that start like that;^)
Actually, if you purchase Quicken XG (or whatever the latest version is called), you can return it straight to Intuit within 60 days of purchase, even if the box is open (which is, of course, the point). This is what was written on the box on display at Costco here in Canada.
I don't bother with either Quicken or MSM, however. I use AceMoney. Simple & straight forward, and subscription after 2 years mumbo-jumbo like Quicken or MSM. In case you wonder, it's made by an engineer who started making CAD software (apropos of the discussion re: design issues).
If I were to buy this, I would not have much of a need for the WiFi module. After all, the unit is not really meant to be moved around, and all the rooms in my house are Ethernet wired anyway. So, unless I ever want to use it as a WAP, I don't need it. Looking at what's available in MiniPCI, I found this on other MiniPCI offerings. There are about 3 modem cards, but no info on whether they support Caller ID. Wouldn't it be nice to have the Caller ID on your screen everytime the phone rings (some digital TV boxes implement this). And once this is done, you could add a bluetooth or infrared USB adapter so you can do the same with your "docked" cell phone!
yupeeee
BTW, just in case this isn't on your radar screen already, iSun makes some really kewl portable solar cells which, on a sunny day, could power your notebook even while you're away from your cabin. This way, you could rely on some more reliable power generator for your cabin needs, and use the portable power cell to truly enjoy the surroundings.
I was very bullish on solar power as well, but this recent article (also published on/.) changed my mind. The amount of sunshine reaching the earth has been severely decreasing for the past several decades (at least). (And I thought it's my increasing use of sunglasses, and going out mostly at night.)
Anyway, for what it's worth, personally I have a notebook, and plan to soon buy a Shuttle to use as a home computer / entertainment centre.
I doubt that those microphones are really that accurate. They are probably good for measuring ambient noise, and possibly withstand harsh atmospheric conditions, but that's it. It'd be hard to include accuracy and hi-fi along with those design requirements. Anyway, here in Toronto you get your picture taken almost everytime you take a cab...
Most European countries are already doing this. There are lanes on the roads specially designated for bycicles, they even have special lights and special signs for bycicles. Some municipalities (Geneve, Wien, etc.) provide free bycicles (you only have to leave a deposit, which is returned when you bring it back) and you can rent a bycicle in nearly all train station (and almost every city has one), and trains have special compartments so that you can travel with your bycicle. Public transportation is usually subsidized, and they pay much more for gasoline then in North America. Paris has a rollerblade marathon (its reply to Pamplona, maybe?). It's really kewl, I nearly destroyed my rental rollerblades!
This reminds me of a Fedex commercial playing here in Canada on ROBtv. A woman comes to a young guy in a suit: "I know it's your first day here, but I really need your help." He says "sure" smiles, and uses a "breath cleaner". She takes him to a shipping room: "we need to ship everything today". He feels it's a mistake: "I don't do shipping." She says: "it's really easy, you do it from the computer". "You don't understand. I have an MBA." "You have an MBA?!? In that case I'll have to show you how to do it!"
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It's sad that almost everyone in either camp suffers from tunnel vision and just can't see how much each community is interconnected. GPL code, BSD licensed code and proprietary code need each other to grow and thrive. One can certainly imagine worlds where only one exists, but that's more like a North Korean nightmare.
Clearly, those contributing GPL code to the world are well within their right to insist that their license is respected. The BSD people have a more laissez-tomber attitude; they don't seem to care / worry too much about copyrights, as it is most important to them to produce what they (and not only they) consider great software. They don't care too much about who owns what, and they probably feel, on balance, that this is justified by them contributing more code than they "take" (and even when they "take", it's only to give back).
Now I would agree that their (bsd) response was over the top and seemingly unwarranted. Theo has lost an opportunity to be the pacifist, restrained leader that Linus has almost always managed to be - I use "almost" because not too long ago Linus himself was seen as being one-sided in coming strongly against Gnome. Theo's call, his vocation is to write good software. He may not see PR work as necessary or pleasant, but I would speculate that he'd rather hire that nice motherly woman that Bruce dreams about rather than becoming one himself - if only he had the money, that is.
But there is a long way from here to vilifing Theo for being Theo. I've never met him, but I saw his interview on the former ROBtv. He appeared as "cheerfully communist" as Craig in front of the Wall Street crowd, and he struggled to make the business reporter understand how he makes a living by giving away his work. The very fact of being impassioned about his project diqualifies him from accusations of Asperger or autism. Furthermore, accusing him of "social ineptitude" for ignoring a handshake seems more like ad hominem than constructive criticism. Is it not hypocritical to publicly chastise him for overreacting by actually overreacting to his overreaction? :)
ot
/ot
let me guess: aspie?
I use both firefox & opera on my USB stick, but I find Opera more useful. It packs a lot (email with IMAP, IRC+RSS+torrent client, widgets in a small package), and with the latest version, you can block ads and add your own searches, which you could not easily do before (though you could with Firefox). You can also have the browser read pages to you aloud which I haven't figured out how to do with Firefox.
Mod me as a troll, if you wish, but my Opera experience vs. Firefox is similar to Mac vs. Ubuntu. This is not to say that it's necessarily better, but sometimes you just don't feel like configuring everything, and for those times, it's great to have someone who does it right for you, and to top it all, gives it away for free.
I wish there was an Exxon with deep pockets for string theory as well, physics would move forward much faster..
To that end, I have sold my car in 2003 and living without one ever since. That's rather difficult, as I live in Toronto uptown, but I found that I can easily rent (Enterprise is my favourite) when I absolutely need to; my life and my health have improved and am generally happier this way, not to mention that it's much cheaper. I also try to avoid buying gas from Esso (for the few times I need to rent), because I disapprove of Exxon and what they stand for.
That being said, I believe that Exxon is doing a public service by spending their money this way. If I were a scientist offered money to play the devil's advocate, I would jump at the opportunity. This is because good ideas and good science do not come from unanimity. Dissent, if taken seriously, can only improve the scientific discourse and is the best sanity check against groupthink.
Maybe it's because I lived my formative years in a communist dictatorship, or maybe it's because I loved debating and miss judging those university tournaments, but I often found that I learned the most about a subject by listening to dissenting opinions - opinions I disagreed with.
I really think this is bunch of NASA BS. When a US Marine killed a Romanian pop star in Bucharest, the US Embassy took parachuted him back to US where he was subjected to a mock trial, instead of allowing a trial in Romania.
AFAIC, the script kiddie should not be extradited and Romania should show some cojones, but they probably won't. He shouldn't even have been charged in Ro. The one who should be charged is the person responsible for security at NASA.
"Arad, where the guy is from is a historical hungarian town which now belongs to Romania"
if we are to believe the wikipedia Arad entry
1. in 1720 "the population of the city was composed of 177 Romanian families, 162 Serbian and 35 Hungarian"
2. in 1910 "the town had 63166 inhabitants: 46085 (73%) Hungarians, 10279 (16,2%) Romanians, 4365 (7%) Germans"
This leads me to believe that Hungary stole Arad from Romania and killed most Romanians over time; Arad then came back to Romania along with the rest of Transilvania.
I registered a few years ago an email address of johntory@rogers.com. John Tory was a relatively young lawyer turned executive (for those who know, Rogers Cablesystems is the main cable company in Canada, ran by Ted Rogers, also a lawyer). I registered it because he kept on appearing on TV explaining why Rogers sucks. Anyway, 1-2 years later he ran for mayor in Toronto, and took the second place (first loser). My mailbox got filled with messages from other lawyers and layppl congratulating him for his excellent campaign, even though all Rogers corp emails are in the *@rci.rogers.com namespace. Not long after, my service started to suck, I asked them to disconnect me, they didn't, and eventually I had a collection agency on my a** claiming almost $1000 from me. Typical.
It's rumored that version 2.0 will contain a GPS-enhanced RFID tag that surreptitiously penetrates you subcutaneously. This is so that the GOP underground wing can anally probe you at will. That'll teach ya to support fag weddings!
...about a brothel sale with the difference to the regular price being paid by the French Television. A new one could be: buy router on sale, make $10 after MIRs, guess who's paying for it?!? :)
at first, i used opera with a keygen. on some of my older computers it worked flawlessly, small memory footprint and extremely fast, which is something i still can't say about firefox/mozilla/netscape. then i kinda felt guilty so around version 6 i experimented with the free version. after a while the ads started to p me off so i blocked them through the hack in the hosts file. then i felt really guilty and ended up buying a license for all platforms.
Alternatively, find out how long does your post-office keep stuff in poste-restante (6 months usually). Then backup everything on a few DVDs, (encrypt it first) and then mail it to yourself at poste-restante.
Secondly, the last phrase in that article ("The real question is how do we help the patent office so they don't issue the crap in the first place?") stuck with me.
It seems that there should be a way for patents to be reviewed in more depth, and by ppl with know-how in that particular field. Peer review is the first idea that comes to mind, but OTOH that would take too long. So why not use a simplified NSF grant-decision process? For instance, small interdisciplinary teams of at 3 could review the patent: a univ prof, an industry rep and an IP lawyer. (I know, I know, there may be jokes that start like that ;^)
I don't bother with either Quicken or MSM, however. I use AceMoney. Simple & straight forward, and subscription after 2 years mumbo-jumbo like Quicken or MSM. In case you wonder, it's made by an engineer who started making CAD software (apropos of the discussion re: design issues).
Get a beer first, only THEN will you understand :)
the word blackbird comes to mind... :)
This survey might explain the difference :)
If I were to buy this, I would not have much of a need for the WiFi module. After all, the unit is not really meant to be moved around, and all the rooms in my house are Ethernet wired anyway. So, unless I ever want to use it as a WAP, I don't need it. Looking at what's available in MiniPCI, I found this on other MiniPCI offerings. There are about 3 modem cards, but no info on whether they support Caller ID. Wouldn't it be nice to have the Caller ID on your screen everytime the phone rings (some digital TV boxes implement this). And once this is done, you could add a bluetooth or infrared USB adapter so you can do the same with your "docked" cell phone! yupeeee
BTW, just in case this isn't on your radar screen already, iSun makes some really kewl portable solar cells which, on a sunny day, could power your notebook even while you're away from your cabin. This way, you could rely on some more reliable power generator for your cabin needs, and use the portable power cell to truly enjoy the surroundings.
Anyway, for what it's worth, personally I have a notebook, and plan to soon buy a Shuttle to use as a home computer / entertainment centre.
It seems to me that this law will never be enforced... :(
mod this "insightful" :)
I doubt that those microphones are really that accurate. They are probably good for measuring ambient noise, and possibly withstand harsh atmospheric conditions, but that's it. It'd be hard to include accuracy and hi-fi along with those design requirements. Anyway, here in Toronto you get your picture taken almost everytime you take a cab...
Most European countries are already doing this. There are lanes on the roads specially designated for bycicles, they even have special lights and special signs for bycicles. Some municipalities (Geneve, Wien, etc.) provide free bycicles (you only have to leave a deposit, which is returned when you bring it back) and you can rent a bycicle in nearly all train station (and almost every city has one), and trains have special compartments so that you can travel with your bycicle. Public transportation is usually subsidized, and they pay much more for gasoline then in North America. Paris has a rollerblade marathon (its reply to Pamplona, maybe?). It's really kewl, I nearly destroyed my rental rollerblades!
"You don't understand. I have an MBA."
"You have an MBA?!? In that case I'll have to show you how to do it!"
FEDEX: So simple, even an MBA can do it! :)