Without a doubt. GameFly basically said last year "Look dude, you keep breaking my shit and you handle my competitors shit with silk gloves. WTF?"
USPS responses a year later with "We don't know what you're talking about. We want copies of all research on all mailer designs you've tested, including the results of each test and what advantages or disadvantages were found and the research used to determine these advantages or disadvantages."
USPS even accused GameFly of stealing their own games: "Please describe any measures GameFly undertakes to manage
or limit theft. In your answer please include the anti-theft procedures utilized in
GameFly’s own plants and during transit of GameFly mail to and from postal
facilities."
W...T....F.... USPS are you serious? So, if I call you and say "hey my mail keeps disappearing" are you going to tell me "what are YOU doing to stop it?"
And like the article says, some of these questions are just ridiculous, like: "USPS/GFL-28. Please describe the total cost that GameFly would incur if it
expanded its distribution network to sixty or one hundred twenty locations. In
your answer, please itemize costs separately."
So USPS wants them to just figure out how much it would cost to expand to 60 or 120 locations, and then give them a itemized cost of doing so? That alone could, if done realistically, take hundreds of man hours, to determine where these 60 or 120 locations would be best located and the cost opening up a new facility in each of those areas.
USPS even wants GameFly to analyze the material DVDs are made of: "USPS/GFL-30. Has GameFly conducted any testing related to materials used in
the DVDs it distributes or that it is aware respective manufacturers have
undertaken? In your answer please describe the tests and any results from the
tests, including breakage rates for the materials tested."
This is a giant middle finger from USPS to GameFly if I've ever seen one.
USPS, you didn't have to be such an ass, a simple "Ok we'll give you the same treatment as Netflix and Blockbuster" would have been the right thing to do.
But watching the video in HD at full screen it's clear they're wearing bikini's. I know that (now), you know that, but the rest of the world thinks it's porn when they google it. That's what matters.
Or you could just have pointers to words in a dictionary. All you need is a few million words and you could recreate any possible email written in English
This isn't a really good idea. Like others have said this has been done already and real manual centrifuges already exist for a few dollars more. Only person this would interest is McGyver because he could clobber one together in 17.6 seconds, but if they're thinking of making these and shipping them then just send them the real centrifuges in the first place.
The Virtual Choir Project was done better than the Youtube Symphony. Maybe if they would have separated different instruments into their own sections and we could see them all play at once with the rest of the orchestrate it would be more impressive.
The Virtual Choir Project is a WIN because you can see everyone, at once, the entire time while they sing. It's like watching a real choir instead of a few frames of individuals like the Youtube Symphony.
Two dozen injuries out of 3.5 million people since 2005. That means over 99.999% are fine. I'll take those odds. Besides I've been there, nothings wrong, isn't anymore dangerous than any children's playground.
In the article the author raises an interesting point: "I just made fun of Little Gray's sex life for raiding 405 WoW dungeons, but am I any better? Are any of you? Maybe we are, maybe we're not....It might not be considered a "real" accomplishment to beat Bejeweled 2. It's not like Mike Leyde is a New York fireman or a scientist making lifesaving medical breakthroughs. At the end of the day though, he's achieved more through playing Bejeweled 2 than we have through pouring derision upon him and his ilk via the Internet."
Here's the rub: you (me, everyone) made fun of him for what, a few minutes? But he played a game for 2,205 hours to be "the best". He wasn't saving lives, he wasn't improving mankind, he wasn't doing this to make money (like a Starcraft player might), he simply sat on a chair and played for 2,205 hours, and he did that in just 3 years, which averages out to be 2 hours a day every day. That's a lot of wasted time within a short time frame, and he doesn't even have a train village to show for it like a model train builder might. I'm sure there's WoW players who might average out to be the same, but no one's telling anyone about it, and there's a lot of social interaction in WoW as anyone who watches The Guild knows.
Although maybe I shouldn't talk: how many hours does the average American watch TV a day? Although they wouldn't lock someone up for watching TV for 2 hrs a day, but if they did something crazy like, throw rocks at a tree for 2 hours, everyday, for 3 yrs, someone might notice. I think this guy needs professional help.
""their network - their rules" is something the asker should know (or at least familarize themselves with if they want to continue to use computers in the US)."
Agreed. I'm a bit shocked at the arrogance of this Ask Slashdot: "they now require full-disk encryption on any computer connected to their network on site....many of the employees (myself included) bring their own personal machines to work every day...Do I have any recourse, legal or otherwise, to stop them from requiring me to install software on my personal machines?"
This is a joke, right? Late April Fools'? Surely this guy is not crying "I want to use my private spyware and virus-ridden laptop on my company's network and they're requiring (INSERT SOFTWARE) be installed!" Oh sure, your laptop has no spyware/viruses, but what about Nurse Betty's laptop on 3rd floor? Or Janitor Steve's?
"Todd Lehman says:
March 25, 2010 at 10:14 pm
The maximum number of bits you can squeeze into a tweet using 32-bit non-Unicode characters is 4339.
Below is an algorithm which uses large-integer arithmetic to carry out operations which encode and decode a 4339-bit value. Perhaps someone can develop this into a working program.
Constants:
Let V = 2 = 2147483648 be the number of non-negative integers representable in 31 bits.
Let U = 10FFFF + 1 = 110000 = 1114112 be the number of valid Unicode code points.
Let N = V – U = 2147483648 – U = 2146369536 be the base for numeric conversions below.
The encoding and decoding algorithms below operate on the principle that 4339 / logV 139.97 and that ceil(4339 / logV) = 140.
Encoding algorithm (K M[140])
(1) Let K be any 4339-bit integer
(2) a:= K// Initialize accumulator
(3) for each i in {0..139}:
(3a) d:= a % N// Extract lowest-order digit from accumulator
(3b) c:= U + d// Convert base-N digit to 32-bit character
(3c) M[139-i]:= c// Store 32-bit character in message
(3d) a:= (a – d) / N// Subtract lowest-order digit and shift accumulator right
(4) Output M[140]
Decoding algorithm (M[140] K)
(1) Let M[140] be an array of characters representing a message to decode
(2) a:= 0// Initialize accumulator
(3) for each i in {0..139}:
(3a) c:= M[i]// Extract 32-bit character
(3b) d:= c – U// Convert 32-bit character to base-N digit
(3c) a:= (a * N) + d// Shift accumulator left and add digit
(4) K = a"
It's nice to watch YouTube videos or other flash heavy websites to decide what to do the next day and the 1 megabit at best required a lot of waiting just to watch one video. Also the upload was piss poor, forget the exact speed but we couldn't upload any videos because it took hours for normal SD video.
I guess the real problem was there was nothing else. There was no ethernet, no high speed anything, the best connection available was ~125 kBps at best and then I had to pay $10 daily just for that. Felt like I went back to the 90s, can't believe a $140/nite hotel offered such poor Internet access in 2010.
Went to Disney this year. Not only did Buena Vista Suites charge $10 a day for wifi, the speeds were only 1 megabit down (~150 kBps) while my 3G iPhone offered a bit over 2 megabit.
"sometimes I will read them over again just to make sure there are no mistakes."
And sometimes I try to get my facts straight, like that Toyota and Volvo does not offer Night Vision at all (only on concepts), and Mercedes and BMW just started offering it in 2006, but Cadillac offered Night Vision 10 years ago on the 2000 DTS: "on the DTS, and options include a better-than-average navigation system and the "Night Vision" system, which features the first civilian use of infrared thermal-imaging technology to allow the driver to better see pedestrians and animals along the road at night.... A DTS with Night Vision has been my transportation for the past week. It has been an interesting week, with more night driving than usual.... Night Vision really does work."
If the author can't bother to get their facts straight I can't be bothered to read their article. Author completely left out the Cadillac which is plain wrong considering they were one of the first to offer it and it showed up in many popular reviews. Instead, they gave all the credit to German and Asian manufactures for introducing systems either many years later or offering concept cars with night vision
Slashdot Mirror
"Is it me, or is GameFly being dicked around?"
Without a doubt. GameFly basically said last year "Look dude, you keep breaking my shit and you handle my competitors shit with silk gloves. WTF?"
USPS responses a year later with "We don't know what you're talking about. We want copies of all research on all mailer designs you've tested, including the results of each test and what advantages or disadvantages were found and the research used to determine these advantages or disadvantages."
USPS even accused GameFly of stealing their own games:
"Please describe any measures GameFly undertakes to manage or limit theft. In your answer please include the anti-theft procedures utilized in GameFly’s own plants and during transit of GameFly mail to and from postal facilities."
W...T....F.... USPS are you serious? So, if I call you and say "hey my mail keeps disappearing" are you going to tell me "what are YOU doing to stop it?"
And like the article says, some of these questions are just ridiculous, like: "USPS/GFL-28. Please describe the total cost that GameFly would incur if it expanded its distribution network to sixty or one hundred twenty locations. In your answer, please itemize costs separately."
So USPS wants them to just figure out how much it would cost to expand to 60 or 120 locations, and then give them a itemized cost of doing so? That alone could, if done realistically, take hundreds of man hours, to determine where these 60 or 120 locations would be best located and the cost opening up a new facility in each of those areas.
USPS even wants GameFly to analyze the material DVDs are made of:
"USPS/GFL-30. Has GameFly conducted any testing related to materials used in the DVDs it distributes or that it is aware respective manufacturers have undertaken? In your answer please describe the tests and any results from the tests, including breakage rates for the materials tested."
This is a giant middle finger from USPS to GameFly if I've ever seen one.
USPS, you didn't have to be such an ass, a simple "Ok we'll give you the same treatment as Netflix and Blockbuster" would have been the right thing to do.
Where have you been, stuck in 2000? I said HD home movies and photographs. First, average joe can't hardly find a camera that's not digital since walmart only sells 2 cameras that still use film.
Second, you can't buy a camcorder that's not flash or hard disk. Yep, you heard me: Walmart only sells 2 camcorders that record directly to DVD, the other 150+ are all flash and hard drive. The camcorder offering the smallest hard drive capacity is still 80gb for a paltry sum of $350 and HD camcorders start at only $89.
So it is not I that is projecting my geek lifestyle on the world, it is you who is out of touch with modern consumer electronics.
Summary says porn, article says porn.
Doesn't matter what actually happened, just what shows up when you google it.
But watching the video in HD at full screen it's clear they're wearing bikini's. I know that (now), you know that, but the rest of the world thinks it's porn when they google it. That's what matters.
Umm... no one said it was a crime... do you understand why looking at photos of nude women while at work is not acceptable behavior?
Maybe he already made up his mind how he wanted to vote?
Her and three of her nude friends?
Or you could just have pointers to words in a dictionary. All you need is a few million words and you could recreate any possible email written in English
And if it were in phonebooks stacked on top of each other how far would it reach?
HD home movies and photographs are far more than 1gb
This isn't a really good idea. Like others have said this has been done already and real manual centrifuges already exist for a few dollars more. Only person this would interest is McGyver because he could clobber one together in 17.6 seconds, but if they're thinking of making these and shipping them then just send them the real centrifuges in the first place.
Same title, different list. Guess someone could combine both and make a top 15
The Virtual Choir Project was done better than the Youtube Symphony. Maybe if they would have separated different instruments into their own sections and we could see them all play at once with the rest of the orchestrate it would be more impressive.
The Virtual Choir Project is a WIN because you can see everyone, at once, the entire time while they sing. It's like watching a real choir instead of a few frames of individuals like the Youtube Symphony.
Yeah it's cool, and the blonde that does the solo is gorgeous. Click here to see more of her.
you're doing it wrong
;)
We Require More Vespene Gas.
Office prank: when co-worker forgets to lock PC (big no-no!), turn on their speakers and go to that website. Everyone will know what they did
Two dozen injuries out of 3.5 million people since 2005. That means over 99.999% are fine. I'll take those odds. Besides I've been there, nothings wrong, isn't anymore dangerous than any children's playground.
So if you don't hire criminals, what do you think should be done with them?
"With Bejeweled you're using your brain for problem solving."
..... oh, that's right, putting four colors in a row.
the problem of... solving world hunger? Curing cancer? What exactly is the problem Bejeweled solves again?
In the article the author raises an interesting point:
"I just made fun of Little Gray's sex life for raiding 405 WoW dungeons, but am I any better? Are any of you? Maybe we are, maybe we're not....It might not be considered a "real" accomplishment to beat Bejeweled 2. It's not like Mike Leyde is a New York fireman or a scientist making lifesaving medical breakthroughs. At the end of the day though, he's achieved more through playing Bejeweled 2 than we have through pouring derision upon him and his ilk via the Internet."
Here's the rub: you (me, everyone) made fun of him for what, a few minutes? But he played a game for 2,205 hours to be "the best". He wasn't saving lives, he wasn't improving mankind, he wasn't doing this to make money (like a Starcraft player might), he simply sat on a chair and played for 2,205 hours, and he did that in just 3 years, which averages out to be 2 hours a day every day. That's a lot of wasted time within a short time frame, and he doesn't even have a train village to show for it like a model train builder might. I'm sure there's WoW players who might average out to be the same, but no one's telling anyone about it, and there's a lot of social interaction in WoW as anyone who watches The Guild knows.
Although maybe I shouldn't talk: how many hours does the average American watch TV a day? Although they wouldn't lock someone up for watching TV for 2 hrs a day, but if they did something crazy like, throw rocks at a tree for 2 hours, everyday, for 3 yrs, someone might notice. I think this guy needs professional help.
""their network - their rules" is something the asker should know (or at least familarize themselves with if they want to continue to use computers in the US)."
Agreed. I'm a bit shocked at the arrogance of this Ask Slashdot:
"they now require full-disk encryption on any computer connected to their network on site....many of the employees (myself included) bring their own personal machines to work every day...Do I have any recourse, legal or otherwise, to stop them from requiring me to install software on my personal machines?"
This is a joke, right? Late April Fools'? Surely this guy is not crying "I want to use my private spyware and virus-ridden laptop on my company's network and they're requiring (INSERT SOFTWARE) be installed!" Oh sure, your laptop has no spyware/viruses, but what about Nurse Betty's laptop on 3rd floor? Or Janitor Steve's?
"It's kind of in bad web etiquette to ninja that entire post from Ksplice."
/. to post an article in case a site get's slashdotted
Actually AC it's very common on
FTA:
:= K // Initialize accumulator := a % N // Extract lowest-order digit from accumulator := U + d // Convert base-N digit to 32-bit character := c // Store 32-bit character in message := (a – d) / N // Subtract lowest-order digit and shift accumulator right
:= 0 // Initialize accumulator := M[i] // Extract 32-bit character := c – U // Convert 32-bit character to base-N digit := (a * N) + d // Shift accumulator left and add digit
"Todd Lehman says:
March 25, 2010 at 10:14 pm
The maximum number of bits you can squeeze into a tweet using 32-bit non-Unicode characters is 4339.
Below is an algorithm which uses large-integer arithmetic to carry out operations which encode and decode a 4339-bit value. Perhaps someone can develop this into a working program.
Constants:
Let V = 2 = 2147483648 be the number of non-negative integers representable in 31 bits.
Let U = 10FFFF + 1 = 110000 = 1114112 be the number of valid Unicode code points.
Let N = V – U = 2147483648 – U = 2146369536 be the base for numeric conversions below.
The encoding and decoding algorithms below operate on the principle that 4339 / logV 139.97 and that ceil(4339 / logV) = 140.
Encoding algorithm (K M[140])
(1) Let K be any 4339-bit integer
(2) a
(3) for each i in {0..139}:
(3a) d
(3b) c
(3c) M[139-i]
(3d) a
(4) Output M[140]
Decoding algorithm (M[140] K)
(1) Let M[140] be an array of characters representing a message to decode
(2) a
(3) for each i in {0..139}:
(3a) c
(3b) d
(3c) a
(4) K = a"
Anyone care to translate?
It's nice to watch YouTube videos or other flash heavy websites to decide what to do the next day and the 1 megabit at best required a lot of waiting just to watch one video. Also the upload was piss poor, forget the exact speed but we couldn't upload any videos because it took hours for normal SD video.
I guess the real problem was there was nothing else. There was no ethernet, no high speed anything, the best connection available was ~125 kBps at best and then I had to pay $10 daily just for that. Felt like I went back to the 90s, can't believe a $140/nite hotel offered such poor Internet access in 2010.
Went to Disney this year. Not only did Buena Vista Suites charge $10 a day for wifi, the speeds were only 1 megabit down (~150 kBps) while my 3G iPhone offered a bit over 2 megabit.
I stand corrected: Toyota began offering in 2008 a Japanese only vehicle called the "Crown Hybrid" with optional "Night View". But good luck finding any vehicles with this system, but you can buy a 2000 DTS with Night Vision if you call Nick
"sometimes I will read them over again just to make sure there are no mistakes."
:
And sometimes I try to get my facts straight, like that Toyota and Volvo does not offer Night Vision at all (only on concepts), and Mercedes and BMW just started offering it in 2006, but Cadillac offered Night Vision 10 years ago on the 2000 DTS
"on the DTS, and options include a better-than-average navigation system and the "Night Vision" system, which features the first civilian use of infrared thermal-imaging technology to allow the driver to better see pedestrians and animals along the road at night.... A DTS with Night Vision has been my transportation for the past week. It has been an interesting week, with more night driving than usual.... Night Vision really does work."
If the author can't bother to get their facts straight I can't be bothered to read their article. Author completely left out the Cadillac which is plain wrong considering they were one of the first to offer it and it showed up in many popular reviews. Instead, they gave all the credit to German and Asian manufactures for introducing systems either many years later or offering concept cars with night vision