Really, it is a rather puerile thing to do such pranks, and I see no value in it whatsoever.
And yes, it really pisses off the employees and kills any possibility of a reference. And in today's job
market, one needs all the good references one can get. Especially if you've been at a place for 6 years!
On the other hand, I've been at a couple of places that, when I gave them my letter of resignation, they were
quick to user me out of there, not let me near the computer, and give 2 weeks' pay without the work (in addition to severance), even though I offered to continue to work until the time was up.
I thought it was a bit paranoid on their parts, because if I had intended to do something so stupid and puerile as to sabatoge something, I would have had it in place before giving them my letter of resignation!
Well, stupidity goes both ways. It generally assures me that I'll never do anymore work for a company in the future if they treat me with suspicion that way, and I'll definitely NOT recommend anyone to work for them.
While I find the DNA rainbow interesting, I do have a few criticisms.
I think that speaking of "information" in the DNA is a bit misleading. It is not "information" in the sense we normally
think of information. The DNA sequence is the result of millions of years of evolution. One might even say that the DNA sequence is a "phenotype of evolution". It is as much a phenotype of evolution as the organism is a phenotype of the DNA itself.
The relationship between arbitrary base pairs is multidimensional and will not really be elucidated by mapping them on a 2-dimensional grid. It is a curio, but not likely to yield much of anything useful.
I would think it would be much better to do this with codons than with base pairs. Since it is codons that code for amino acids, we might actually see some really cool patterns that way. Some of the codons are polymorphic and that can be taken into account with the color assignments.
I wish the site were a bit more interactive. Basically, I want to be able to dynamically manipulate the data in real-time, in 3 or 4 dimensions, and be able to fly through it. OK, this would call for much more than just a mere website. Perhaps I am trying to inspire someone to crate an OpenGL project that would do this!!!
Overall, I think this is wicked cool, but amateurish from the standpoint of science. Actually, I'd like to see a Gerald Edelelman approach to handling and analyzing the DNA -- which would be wicked cool! See From Brain Dynamics to Consciousness to see what I mean. Applying his neural darwinistic approaches to DNA would not only reveal many surprises, but would be referentially cool, applying neural evolution to what was the result of biological (and memetic) evolution!
OK, so you think I am mad as a hatter. Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Why am I underwhelmed. Well, OK -- it's an "interceptor", but hey, I am so tired of the "defense" department sucking up all manners of resources and talent just to create the more "efficient" kill.
While technically it's attractive -- even to a die-hard peacenik like me -- I would much rather see more positive efforts. Besides, an inceptor -- expensive -- will be easy to foil with duds and dummies -- cheap. All "the enemy" on a shoestring budget needs to do is launch a bunch of duds along with the real missile, and the intecptors will waste their time, letting the real one slip through.
Yet another fine example of "military intelligence".
While the technology is mildly impressive, the intended purposes are not.
Government seems to love coming up with new and "wonderful" ways to kill indiscrimitantly at lower cost.
The nuclear bomb is the biggest of such atrocities. Now it can be done even cheaper. Nevermind how you are expected to aim such a high-velocity long-distance projectile with no guidiance system with any level of accurcacy to make it worhwhile, anyway.
Maybe we can grab this bad boy, get to the moon, and do an actual "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" scenario...:-D
This is a big win for those of us who are autodidacts, like myself. I have many interests in
a number of specialized areas, but don't have the desire to sit down at lectures or spend
tons of money and dozens of years to acquire something I could just as easily do in a few weeks
with all the materials at hand.
It is quite amusing to note that I spent much time in the past hanging out at university
libraries like UofP and MIT. Now, the open courseware represents yet another avenue of intellectual inquiry.
But I will still hang out at the libraries, anyway, if for no other reason than to have an occasional chat with an intelligent
babe.:-)
Often times articles are written with a certain level of naivete -- probably because those
writing the articles typically aren't the heavy-hitting experts in the field, or perhaps they
are writing for an andiance that can't handle all the nuances of the seasoned expert.
So, they will always come off sounding a bit hokey to us.
Having said that, I will now say that we are entering into a "new age" -- gee, how often have you heard that hackneyed adage? -- of massive torrents of information with a damning need to manage it all.
What I'm surprise to not hear are hardware projects to manage specialized requirements for massive data streams. Couldn't someone come up with, for instance, a clever way to arrange a battery of Field-Programmable Logic Arrays to crunch data in real time for
some really specialized application?
For years now, my snail mailbox gets flooded with Capital One credit card offers, some days 3 offers in the same day! It's very annoying because I shread that and other solitications for credit cards so that no one can use them in my name behind my back.
I have never had a Capital One card, nor do I ever intend to own one either. Have I tried to cancel their constant solicitations? No, for I fear it would be a LOT more trouble than it's worth.
I thought of saving all of ther junk mail and charging them for "disposal fees", but I simply don't have the time to pursue this crap.
I did once try telling the Post Office to stop delivering junk mail, but that went over like a lead baloon. Maybe I should take all the junk mail and stuff it in a big trash bag and dump it all on their doorstep one morning. Perhaps they'll get the message then.
Do they ever learn? All of this scaremongering is numbing the uninitiated, and when
there is a real threat no one will be prepared.
Well, my BS meter pings off the scale when I see alarmist claims like "shutting down the web." How many of those claims have we all seen over the past years?
I suppose it's the 21st-century equivalent of "The World is Comming to an End!"
I consider that anyone who makes such outlandish claims should be remembered, indexed, marked, and noted. When their claims fails to come true, then we can all stand around and laugh at them and grant them Idiot Awards.
The article mentions nothing at all about the poissible impact the Asian Brown Cloud's possible role in this flooding.
Why is that? Not to mention the hyperbolic language such as "forever", etc., which puts the objectivity of this article
in question.
An extensive impact study of the Asian Brown Cloud can be found Here.
Also some "Quick Facts" on the Asian Brown Cloud may be found Here.
And well, if you just Google it, you can become a complete expert!
Could Asia be doing itself in here? Surely, the ABC has a significant impact on their environment that simply cannot be ignored -- unless, that it, your goal is to milk the West of money. But hey, perhaps the ABC is having a significant impact on our climate here in the West and perhaps we should be bilking them for money!
Besides, with the new wave-powered "ducks", not only can the hydrogen be extracted directly from seawater, but by using the energy of the very waves themselves.
I am a dad with 3 kids, and am currently going through a divorce. My story is rather complicated, but the divorce is related to my IT occupation, in a more or less roundabout way.
Alas, I don't feel like telling the whole story here. If any are interested, shoot email to fred_thestory@sillylife.com and I will send you the URL once I have it set up.
If you think watching the news will tell your child what is really going on in the real world, I'm afraid you are sadly mistaken. Mass media, especially news, tends to be very slanted to the local prevailing politics and market expectations.
If you want your child to know what is going on in the *real* world, it's going to take a bit more effort than watching CNN or NBC news. There are *many* news sites on the Internet that report from different perspectives on what is going on in the real world, and not all of them are in English, either. I would strongly urge teaching your child one or two languages and encourage them to explore the Internet to get an inkling of what is going on in the *real* world.
I would say that I became "proficient" with Windows NT -- digging deep into the layers of the API and it Kernel structure, even though I primarily developed applications and middleware for it.
Getting into Linux has been largely a joy for me, if not for any other reason that I don't have to feed Microsoft $2000 a year in its MSDN program just to have a clue. All of that info is free on the Internet, just a Google or two away.
I enjoy building the kernel, and do so regulary to put in the features I want (and eliminate the ones I don't want). Can't do that with Windows -- you buy the whole package or nothing at all.
I would say that today I am proficient at Linux, though I have a ways to go before I can claim true proficiency at the Kernel level. But Linux is already so powerful there is little need to have to do things at a low level unless I am writing a driver for something new.
For the end user, one does not really become proficient with the OS, but with the applications. The GUI is there to deliberately hide the details of the OS-level interface, to add a macro-metaphor on top of a deeper metaphor.
Ultimately, if you can get done what you need to get done, you are proficient at that level. I can get everything done in Linux what I used to do in Windows, and with much greater efficiency and lower cost. In Windows I feel like a peon, whereas in Linux I feel like the "Star Child" in 2001. And that, my friends, says it all.
I think it's wonderful that Google refuses to provide guidiance. Finally a company takes a stand against the silly and inane games played on Wall Street every damned day.
If you think GOOG is just a "pump and dump" scheme, you obviously don't understand much about the stock market -- the zero-sum nature of the stock market. Hello! Wake up! It's *all* pump and dump! Every IPO does this. Every damned one. After that, the battle of the Greater Fools takes over. All else is smoke and mirrors
Alas, most investors harbor great titanic myths about the stock market. How sad. Day Trader, Investor, Speculator -- the goals of all are the same: Find a Greater Fool to take the stock off your hands at a price higher than your strike price (or just inverse that if you are shorting the stock). For every dollar one makes on an issue,someone else had to loose that dollar. All the fundamentals of a company are largely irrevelant to this.
I recently went to see 2001 at a movie house near Boston. I missed seeing it on the big screen when it initially came out (I was only 8 or 9 then!!!!) I was truly impressed with all the details I missed on the dinky little screen.
I can't say the same for any movie since. Usually, you are not missing much on the little screen. Why is that, I wonder?
Also, if you also consider that CGI simply did not exist when 2001 was produced, you can appreciate the film even more!
Hell, I even like the old Dr. Who series. Seems the level of use of CGI is inversely proportional to story quality these days. There are a few exceptions, but darn few, as I can count them on one hand.
CGI is simply not impressive anymore, considering what you see in the average videogame these days, and that's in real time. When all the chips are down, nothing beats a good story and a gripping plot. Nothing. Perhaps MPAA will finnaly catch a clue. If not, perhaps they will go bankrupt.
We'll see the rise of the independent films with streaming video distribution. Now with fibre to the last mile a reality, it's only a matter of time, folks.
I'm against *ANY* restrictions on speech, including how one advertises for housing. If I were a renter and did not want, for example, bible-banging Christians to apply, why should I waste my time screening them out? It's not like I would rent to them anyway. And if I were a rentee, why should I waste my time applying to places that don't like Atheists like myself?
It is a great timesaver to let people post in their classifieds their personal stipulations, because no one will rent to anyone they don't like anyway. Perhaps I only want to do business with Libertarians and don't want to deal with Rebublicans or Democrats. And perhaps they would not want to ddeal with me. What is so bloody wrong witht that?
You simply cannot force people to associate with those they wish not to by passing inane laws. All you end up doing is pushing the mess under the rug. I like knowing up front who likes and doesn't like me; that way I won't waste my time.
I have thousands of CD that I've purchased over the past 15 or more years. As far as I'm concerned, I've done more than my "fair share" of supporting the artists that I like.
If I download music, it's to check it out first. If I like, I buy. If not, I don't waste my money. And usually I go by artist than individual songs. If I really like an artist, I will buy most of that artist's productions "sight unseen".
But these days, I simply hang out at Internet Radio Stations and do streaming. Better that way, and I get endless variety. And I did make a few purchases of the artists I really like from that as well.
The answer is to not beat up on music fans, but for artists to produce better and more original music. Artists should also consider ways of cutting out the middle man and go to the fans directly. Today the Internet makes this all possible, which probably has the RIAA running scared. Soon, they will not be able to justify their existence! They will be iPodded to death!
Oh boy I can't believe I am reading this stuff. You can find what you are looking for on the Usenet, and you can killfile all sorts of nasties if you are too squeamish to deal.
As far as viruses, only if you are idiot enough to download and execute "attachments" there. No protection for people who insist on doing the stupid. Gee, I can drink mercury and wail about its hazards too!
This is an interesting exploit, but I consider it moot from the standpoint that if you have an untrustworthy source for software, there are other ways to hide viruses and malware with timed-release activation, say, on a certain date.
Having said that, I find it highly amusing that Microsoft would ban MD5. Are they really trying to say we can't trust them as a source of software?
On the ZoneAlarm bit, I find it quite annoying that much legitimate software simply *fail to operate* due to the presence of ZoneAlarm. Alarmed, I usually wind up disabling ZoneAlarm.
For Windows Users, the easiest first step in security is to NOT use Internet Explorer and NOT use LookOut (OutLook). That will solve 90% or better of virus/spyware issues. You then don't need ZoneAlarm or other "anti" virus software -- as long as, of course, the PC is behind a good firewall.
Other commonsense things to know is not to click on any executable attachment, and be wary of any attachment you wern't expecting to receive.
Also, be wary of any email that is formatted in HTML. I like KMail's feature of not automatically displaying the HTML email until you click a link first. And as far as phising goes, it is extremely hard to disguise a text link -- what you see is what you get.
Security is an illusion; Credit Card security doubly so.
There is no substitute for hard Commonsense. Signatures are meaningless. Retailers are interested in making the sale and not annoying the customers with suspicion.
In my case, my signature cannot fit on that tiny space provided on the credit card, and so resembles nothing like it. Most clerks will make a perfunctory "check" of signatures, if they even bother.
Regard your credit card like you would cash, since there is little more security involved. Though, most institutions that issue Credit Cards and increasingly Debit Cards will give you a chance to dispute charges and have them removed.
Slashdot Mirror
Really, it is a rather puerile thing to do such pranks, and I see no value in it whatsoever.
And yes, it really pisses off the employees and kills any possibility of a reference. And in today's job market, one needs all the good references one can get. Especially if you've been at a place for 6 years!
On the other hand, I've been at a couple of places that, when I gave them my letter of resignation, they were quick to user me out of there, not let me near the computer, and give 2 weeks' pay without the work (in addition to severance), even though I offered to continue to work until the time was up.
I thought it was a bit paranoid on their parts, because if I had intended to do something so stupid and puerile as to sabatoge something, I would have had it in place before giving them my letter of resignation!
Well, stupidity goes both ways. It generally assures me that I'll never do anymore work for a company in the future if they treat me with suspicion that way, and I'll definitely NOT recommend anyone to work for them.
Overall, I think this is wicked cool, but amateurish from the standpoint of science. Actually, I'd like to see a Gerald Edelelman approach to handling and analyzing the DNA -- which would be wicked cool! See From Brain Dynamics to Consciousness to see what I mean. Applying his neural darwinistic approaches to DNA would not only reveal many surprises, but would be referentially cool, applying neural evolution to what was the result of biological (and memetic) evolution!
OK, so you think I am mad as a hatter. Perhaps. Perhaps not.
While technically it's attractive -- even to a die-hard peacenik like me -- I would much rather see more positive efforts. Besides, an inceptor -- expensive -- will be easy to foil with duds and dummies -- cheap. All "the enemy" on a shoestring budget needs to do is launch a bunch of duds along with the real missile, and the intecptors will waste their time, letting the real one slip through.
Yet another fine example of "military intelligence".
Government seems to love coming up with new and "wonderful" ways to kill indiscrimitantly at lower cost.
The nuclear bomb is the biggest of such atrocities. Now it can be done even cheaper. Nevermind how you are expected to aim such a high-velocity long-distance projectile with no guidiance system with any level of accurcacy to make it worhwhile, anyway.
Maybe we can grab this bad boy, get to the moon, and do an actual "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" scenario...:-D
It is quite amusing to note that I spent much time in the past hanging out at university libraries like UofP and MIT. Now, the open courseware represents yet another avenue of intellectual inquiry. But I will still hang out at the libraries, anyway, if for no other reason than to have an occasional chat with an intelligent babe. :-)
So, they will always come off sounding a bit hokey to us.
Having said that, I will now say that we are entering into a "new age" -- gee, how often have you heard that hackneyed adage? -- of massive torrents of information with a damning need to manage it all.
What I'm surprise to not hear are hardware projects to manage specialized requirements for massive data streams. Couldn't someone come up with, for instance, a clever way to arrange a battery of Field-Programmable Logic Arrays to crunch data in real time for some really specialized application?
Impressive...
I have never had a Capital One card, nor do I ever intend to own one either. Have I tried to cancel their constant solicitations? No, for I fear it would be a LOT more trouble than it's worth.
I thought of saving all of ther junk mail and charging them for "disposal fees", but I simply don't have the time to pursue this crap.
I did once try telling the Post Office to stop delivering junk mail, but that went over like a lead baloon. Maybe I should take all the junk mail and stuff it in a big trash bag and dump it all on their doorstep one morning. Perhaps they'll get the message then.
Do they ever learn? All of this scaremongering is numbing the uninitiated, and when there is a real threat no one will be prepared.
Well, my BS meter pings off the scale when I see alarmist claims like "shutting down the web." How many of those claims have we all seen over the past years?
I suppose it's the 21st-century equivalent of "The World is Comming to an End!"
I consider that anyone who makes such outlandish claims should be remembered, indexed, marked, and noted. When their claims fails to come true, then we can all stand around and laugh at them and grant them Idiot Awards.
An extensive impact study of the Asian Brown Cloud can be found Here.
Also some "Quick Facts" on the Asian Brown Cloud may be found Here.
And well, if you just Google it, you can become a complete expert!
Could Asia be doing itself in here? Surely, the ABC has a significant impact on their environment that simply cannot be ignored -- unless, that it, your goal is to milk the West of money. But hey, perhaps the ABC is having a significant impact on our climate here in the West and perhaps we should be bilking them for money!
Ain't Geopolitics grand?
Hydrogen-powered Ducks
Alas, I don't feel like telling the whole story here. If any are interested, shoot email to fred_thestory@sillylife.com and I will send you the URL once I have it set up.
If you think watching the news will tell your child what is really going on in the real world, I'm afraid you are sadly mistaken. Mass media, especially news, tends to be very slanted to the local prevailing politics and market expectations. If you want your child to know what is going on in the *real* world, it's going to take a bit more effort than watching CNN or NBC news. There are *many* news sites on the Internet that report from different perspectives on what is going on in the real world, and not all of them are in English, either. I would strongly urge teaching your child one or two languages and encourage them to explore the Internet to get an inkling of what is going on in the *real* world.
It's called WOM, or Write-Only Memory system. This system has near-infinite storage capacity, and can be implemented across the entire enterprise.
Document retrival in the WOM? Not a problem! Just create imaginary documents! Isin't that the way it's done, anyway?
Oh, and if you need a record expunged, not a problem! In fact, it requires almost no effort at all!
Write-Only Memory Virtual Filing System. It was good enough for Nasa, it ought to be good enough for the FBI.
Getting into Linux has been largely a joy for me, if not for any other reason that I don't have to feed Microsoft $2000 a year in its MSDN program just to have a clue. All of that info is free on the Internet, just a Google or two away.
I enjoy building the kernel, and do so regulary to put in the features I want (and eliminate the ones I don't want). Can't do that with Windows -- you buy the whole package or nothing at all.
I would say that today I am proficient at Linux, though I have a ways to go before I can claim true proficiency at the Kernel level. But Linux is already so powerful there is little need to have to do things at a low level unless I am writing a driver for something new.
For the end user, one does not really become proficient with the OS, but with the applications. The GUI is there to deliberately hide the details of the OS-level interface, to add a macro-metaphor on top of a deeper metaphor.
Ultimately, if you can get done what you need to get done, you are proficient at that level. I can get everything done in Linux what I used to do in Windows, and with much greater efficiency and lower cost. In Windows I feel like a peon, whereas in Linux I feel like the "Star Child" in 2001. And that, my friends, says it all.
I think it's wonderful that Google refuses to provide guidiance. Finally a company takes a stand against the silly and inane games played on Wall Street every damned day.
Alas, most investors harbor great titanic myths about the stock market. How sad. Day Trader, Investor, Speculator -- the goals of all are the same: Find a Greater Fool to take the stock off your hands at a price higher than your strike price (or just inverse that if you are shorting the stock). For every dollar one makes on an issue,someone else had to loose that dollar. All the fundamentals of a company are largely irrevelant to this.
I can't say the same for any movie since. Usually, you are not missing much on the little screen. Why is that, I wonder?
Also, if you also consider that CGI simply did not exist when 2001 was produced, you can appreciate the film even more!
Hell, I even like the old Dr. Who series. Seems the level of use of CGI is inversely proportional to story quality these days. There are a few exceptions, but darn few, as I can count them on one hand.
CGI is simply not impressive anymore, considering what you see in the average videogame these days, and that's in real time. When all the chips are down, nothing beats a good story and a gripping plot. Nothing. Perhaps MPAA will finnaly catch a clue. If not, perhaps they will go bankrupt.
We'll see the rise of the independent films with streaming video distribution. Now with fibre to the last mile a reality, it's only a matter of time, folks.
It is a great timesaver to let people post in their classifieds their personal stipulations, because no one will rent to anyone they don't like anyway. Perhaps I only want to do business with Libertarians and don't want to deal with Rebublicans or Democrats. And perhaps they would not want to ddeal with me. What is so bloody wrong witht that?
You simply cannot force people to associate with those they wish not to by passing inane laws. All you end up doing is pushing the mess under the rug. I like knowing up front who likes and doesn't like me; that way I won't waste my time.
If I download music, it's to check it out first. If I like, I buy. If not, I don't waste my money. And usually I go by artist than individual songs. If I really like an artist, I will buy most of that artist's productions "sight unseen".
But these days, I simply hang out at Internet Radio Stations and do streaming. Better that way, and I get endless variety. And I did make a few purchases of the artists I really like from that as well.
The answer is to not beat up on music fans, but for artists to produce better and more original music. Artists should also consider ways of cutting out the middle man and go to the fans directly. Today the Internet makes this all possible, which probably has the RIAA running scared. Soon, they will not be able to justify their existence! They will be iPodded to death!
Some like it hot
Some like it cold
Some like it in the pot
9 days old!
As far as viruses, only if you are idiot enough to download and execute "attachments" there. No protection for people who insist on doing the stupid. Gee, I can drink mercury and wail about its hazards too!
Give me a break.
Having said that, I find it highly amusing that Microsoft would ban MD5. Are they really trying to say we can't trust them as a source of software?
<evil grin>
For Windows Users, the easiest first step in security is to NOT use Internet Explorer and NOT use LookOut (OutLook). That will solve 90% or better of virus/spyware issues. You then don't need ZoneAlarm or other "anti" virus software -- as long as, of course, the PC is behind a good firewall.
Other commonsense things to know is not to click on any executable attachment, and be wary of any attachment you wern't expecting to receive.
Also, be wary of any email that is formatted in HTML. I like KMail's feature of not automatically displaying the HTML email until you click a link first. And as far as phising goes, it is extremely hard to disguise a text link -- what you see is what you get.
There is no substitute for hard Commonsense. Signatures are meaningless. Retailers are interested in making the sale and not annoying the customers with suspicion.
In my case, my signature cannot fit on that tiny space provided on the credit card, and so resembles nothing like it. Most clerks will make a perfunctory "check" of signatures, if they even bother.
Regard your credit card like you would cash, since there is little more security involved. Though, most institutions that issue Credit Cards and increasingly Debit Cards will give you a chance to dispute charges and have them removed.