Per-capita losses (absolute losses, not proportion of income) to the gambling dens inversely correlate with the socioeconomic status of the location.
Somewhat loose in your statistics to quote a socioeconomic link in an argument about intelligence, no? You are introducing a new topic which is much more directly related to money (as is gambling) than intelligence and therefore shifting the topic itself.
When I used to go to Comdex in Vegas every year, I had a bunch of local friends who used to really despise this convention, the largest ever in Vegas, because apparently the "tech people" didn't gamble. Why? Because they were smart and they knew the odds.
Utter nonsense. People from all walks of life gamble, as do people of all type abstain. They don't do it because it's such a great long term money-making scheme, they do it because it's fun and it's available.
I love arguments like yours that are perfect examples of bad statistics (btw 75% of all statistics are wrong). You might as well make the claim that "People with Palm Pilots don't like gambling in public" just because you witnessed that many of the techies carried PDAs with them.
If the techies weren't gambling it's probably because they were in the convention, in the parties, or most likely hanging around in Cumdex (aka AdultDex) droooooling over hot little starlets.
Think back to around 1994/95... It wasn't unusual to have an unfirewalled computer with a static IP address sitting on the net. We used to ping-flood people we didn't like while playing Quake. Maybe even throw a WinNuke their way if they got nasty. Whatever, it was the Wild West, no laws, no morality, everything was free and fun. Looking back on that behavior, it was pretty immature and irresponsible, but we were just playing with the new technology.
Fast forward almost a decade to now, and computers sit behind hardware firewalls with dynamic IP addresses, are assigned rotating NAT internal addresses, run virus protection and spyware removal softwares, must be constantly patched to fix security holes, and people are innundated with corporate media and SPAM.
OK who could have predicted all this back then? Sure some had the ideas that it was coming, but not like this. We lost what was the Original Internet, a thing of innocence and freedom. Much of what bound it together was trust. That's gone.
So this brings up an interesting concept. Rather than having "an internet", we may have our own mini-internets. Companies do this to some extent with intRAnets. But this idea now takes it to the next level. A completely isolated network with strict content and connectivity controls to the outside world. I get the feeling that this is our future, the best way to deal with all the problems that an international connected web of distrust that is the Internat brings: Set up a local web of trust and establish relations with other webs of trust. This is the model adopted by nations in how they interact with each other (in terms of laws, immigration, trade, etc.). Neighborhoods and tribes operate like this as well. And the interesting part of it in this new domain, is that physical proximity and characteristics are even less relevant than before, opening up many more opportunities for multiple memberships and diversification.
Sorry this is a bit rambling (-1 Rambling), but just wanted to float the idea out there that this or something like it may solve a lot of our problems (as well as introducing its own, of course).
The article actually talks about gambling clients trusting casino servers, which is an interesting reversal on the typical applications of DRM we usually here. Feel free to read the article, or you can just post again along party lines and hope to pick up some cheap karma. From the article:
Using remote attestation, player software could confirm that the casino was using a certified and validated software package for its game play calculations, one known to be free of bias and to give the player an honest chance.
Firefox is a huge step for Mozilla, and if it works for you great. But until IE and windows quit working for me or a more usable alternitave comes around I am going to keep using them.
You sound just like a guy I know who insisted on using lambskin condoms for years. Now he has AIDS and will probably die soon. Too late to switch. What the fuck are you waiting for? Get Firefox. Take back the web.
You can also always see the (unofficial) briefing transcripts at Adot's Notblog almost immediately. He does a pretty good job transcribing them as they happen.
Dude if the stores aren't even looking at who is putting stickers in their windows then they deserve to get them put up there.
This (troll?) is analagous to the argument that anybody who doesn't keep their servers patched 100% up to date deserves to get hax0r3d. Not everybody has manpower to handle the server patching (not to mentioned downtime it creates), and not everybody can afford security guards and closed-cicruit video surveillance at their sites.
Does it disturb anyone how much effort is put into building robots designed for distruction? I mean I understand
building robots that solve puzzles, and robots that overcome obstacles, but the idea of designing robots primarily for violence kind of bothers me.
There are more peaceful and puzzle-solving robotics competitions out there, such as the one put on by USFIRST. I am, in fact, one of the mentors for high school team 1031 in San Francisco, and we just took first place in the Pacific Northwest Regional division (see awards page) with our awesome robot designed and built by the team of students!
This is a great program, and the kids are getting so much out of it. We're now going to the finals in Atlanta, but <shameless plug> we need to raise money! If you or anybody you know appreciates the value of this program and wants to support your local community and proactively help get kids interested in science technology, please send me an email at "drobo at axonchisel dot net" and I can tell you how you can get involved and be a sponsor! </shameless plug> This is 100% serious, we're on a relatively short time frame, and any amount of help is appreciated.
And if you live in San Francisco, check out KRON-4 news tonight (Thursday) at 5pm! They're doing an exclusive story on our robotics team!
Moderators show your support for our team by modding up this post!;-)
Sexism is when you make a judgment based not on reason, but on a person's gender. We in agreement so far? So if you have a logical argument for a judgment, even if that judgment relates to people of a specific gender, then it's not sexism.
Be careful with your definition of "sexism". Mischaracterizations and bad implications are at the root of much of the knee-jerk politically correct mentality crippling our society.
Sexism is discrimination based on gender. Prejudice is forming an opinion before investigating all facts. Discrimination is the act of making distinctions and distinguishing among options. UNLOAD THESE WORDS and use them for what they mean, honestly, and we can move forward. They are not necessarily bad things.
The atmosphere of Mars is 96 percent carbon dioxide, about 3 percent nitrogen and 1 percent other stuff, including water vapor and a little bit of oxygen. And it is a very thin atmosphere.
The average air pressure there is only about 1 percent of Earth's.
However, it has enough of an atmosphere to have wind. As a matter of fact, because the atmosphere is so thin, the wind reaches very high speeds. ...
In the 1970s, NASA's Viking landers found the top wind speed on Mars was about 60 mph and the average was around 20 mph.
That's enough wind to kick up huge dust storms that can go on for weeks and cover the entire planet.
So basically if it can "kick up huge dust storms", then presumably it can push a giant lightweight inflated ball around enough to cover some ground.
can't they do any better with the incredible lag due to the distance between Earth and Mars?
The lag (~10 min) affects our real-time control ability, but much of what makes the current rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) so advanced is their autonomous navigation abilities. Ground control says something like "move 100m north" and the rover figures out how to get there, drives itself, so lag isn't an issue at all. They've just been fairly cautious so far utilizing this. As the mission gets further along and past 100% success point, you'll likely see longer autonomous drives, since there is less to lose at that point of rovers fall off a cliff.
HTML email is the stupidest thing ever created, but how outlook does it by having all the graphics IN the fricking email is a magnitude worse.
There may be alternative implementations to attaching all media files to each mail individually, but they would all require more configuration and would over-complicate the task. And to say that HTML email is "the stupidest thing ever created" just demonstrates a myopic view of computing sadly shared by many others in this community.
I see they didn't go with an MDI-style interface. Having independently floating windows makes GIMP practically unuseable, unless it's the only program running... [grumble]
I find this to be very annoying as well. If you can set up virtual desktops, then it can live in its own desktop. But most Win32 users don't have virtual desktops.
And here's the deal: if you obnoxious Linux zealots keep responding to points like this with "d00d install linux u l00s3r" and comments about how stupid windows users are, you will continue to miss the point that Linux will survive by gaining mindshare and marketshare, and this will not happen if the majority of Win32 people (yes there are lots of them that don't love Win32, but they like to be productive) have the idea that "wow, the OSS tools on Linux are really hard to use". And that's the impression people get. I would think that if they go to the effort of building and releasing binaries on Win32, they could add some MDI support so people could actually find the product useable without burning through their ALT and TAB keys. My left hand is sore after ever GIMP session on my Win32 box, and I feel like I spend half my time minimizing/restoring windows to try to find the right ones. This is a problem, period. Many solutions, but a good one would be to support MDI, like nearly every other windows app in the world.
That's nothing. The box I'm currently hacking on costs a cool $22K or thereabouts. Basically it's a Supermicro MB with 2 Xeons and two 8 disk arrays and a 80GB boot drive. It's also got 2 HotLink II cards in it for good measure.
Big deal. I just gave one of those to my gardener because it was too slow. I'm installing Slackware right now on a $800M supercomputer that I built out of leaves and mud, and it's colocated in space.
WASHINGTON (DP Wire) - The BLAA (Book and Literature Association of America) filed a movement yesterday in 9th circuit federal court to ban the use of cellphones in and within one mile of all libraries in the U.S.
"This technology has no use other than the blatant piracy of books," said Samuel Ezzle, President of BLAA. "The numbers show," he declared, "that widespread use of these phone scanners has already lead to a sharp increase in illiteracy among children. Further, these devices violate the DMCA, and we are working with libraries across the country to review surveillance tapes in order to find and prosecute anybody who brings these anywhere near a library."
You opened with: "Perhaps we are placing just a little TOO much faith in the POWER of OSS." [emphasis from source], and continued to talk about how the content is more important than the medium, and that we shouldn't get lost down the OSS sink hole and miss the point.
One good response was "But most of us here are far more knowledgeable about OSS than iranian politics... so we should concentrate on what we know and leave the political power struggle to the experts."
I agree with your point in so much as there would appear to be some limits to the cascading effects of which word processor or operating system you are using. And installing and training a bunch of Iranian nerds on Linux is not really the shortest path toward a free press and an open society (both nice building blocks for stable democracies).
But if we look into the future a decade or so, we can see massive changes happening (which have already begun) with respect to information storage and transmission. "Digital Rights Management" becomes a central power when nearly all aspects of human life are in some ways digital. And the next generations of DRM will be strongly embedded in the software with ties down into hardware itself. This is, of course, desirable and therefore on the roadmap of major capitalist software vendors, because people with lots of money like the ideas of copyright protection and national security and are willing to pay big.
At the same time as this is happening, we have the ubiquitous spectres of terrorism and fear (code yellow today, bomb killed 12, code orange, flight cancelled, take off your shoes, wait in line, code yellow, bomb kills 9...) and people slowly surrender their rights in order to feel just a little bit safer.
So do we want Iran evolving in an atmosphere of fear, being raised as slaves to corporate masters with very different interests than their own? This is 10-20 years from now, and it is the intersection of the future of information technology and the future of a budding society in a precarious part of the world.
So here's the point, to sum it up: while OSS isn't going to change the world right now, it serves as an important long-term play toward *defending* the world and our way of life as we now know it.
Agreed. The patent seems to be about embedding multiple scripts in a single XML file and ways for extracting and executing them appropriately. MS has done this for a while in WSH (Windows Script Host). This is a far cry from "patenting XML".
That being said, the patent is a bit over the line, as compared to say, the light bulb or the washing machine. I mean, come on... You're putting generic stuff (code of different types) into a generic file type (XML) and then executing it. This isn't especially novel or unique, and I'm sure plenty of people (myself included) have been doing this for quite some time.
Make sure you don't tie TOO many to his wrist. If you recall, back in 1982, a guy called "Lawnchair Larry" launched himself into the sky... From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters:
Larry Walters, nicknamed "Lawnchair Larry", was one of the few Darwin Award contenders that lived to tell the tale, nominated after he had used helium-filled balloons to make his lawnchair (dubbed "Inspiration I") fly on July 2, 1982...
"A man can't just sit around," said Larry, immediately after his flight when asked by a reporter why he did it.
Slashdot Mirror
I love arguments like yours that are perfect examples of bad statistics (btw 75% of all statistics are wrong). You might as well make the claim that "People with Palm Pilots don't like gambling in public" just because you witnessed that many of the techies carried PDAs with them.
If the techies weren't gambling it's probably because they were in the convention, in the parties, or most likely hanging around in Cumdex (aka AdultDex) droooooling over hot little starlets.
Think back to around 1994/95... It wasn't unusual to have an unfirewalled computer with a static IP address sitting on the net. We used to ping-flood people we didn't like while playing Quake. Maybe even throw a WinNuke their way if they got nasty. Whatever, it was the Wild West, no laws, no morality, everything was free and fun. Looking back on that behavior, it was pretty immature and irresponsible, but we were just playing with the new technology.
Fast forward almost a decade to now, and computers sit behind hardware firewalls with dynamic IP addresses, are assigned rotating NAT internal addresses, run virus protection and spyware removal softwares, must be constantly patched to fix security holes, and people are innundated with corporate media and SPAM.
OK who could have predicted all this back then? Sure some had the ideas that it was coming, but not like this. We lost what was the Original Internet, a thing of innocence and freedom. Much of what bound it together was trust. That's gone.
So this brings up an interesting concept. Rather than having "an internet", we may have our own mini-internets. Companies do this to some extent with intRAnets. But this idea now takes it to the next level. A completely isolated network with strict content and connectivity controls to the outside world. I get the feeling that this is our future, the best way to deal with all the problems that an international connected web of distrust that is the Internat brings: Set up a local web of trust and establish relations with other webs of trust. This is the model adopted by nations in how they interact with each other (in terms of laws, immigration, trade, etc.). Neighborhoods and tribes operate like this as well. And the interesting part of it in this new domain, is that physical proximity and characteristics are even less relevant than before, opening up many more opportunities for multiple memberships and diversification.
Sorry this is a bit rambling (-1 Rambling), but just wanted to float the idea out there that this or something like it may solve a lot of our problems (as well as introducing its own, of course).
You can also always see the (unofficial) briefing transcripts at Adot's Notblog almost immediately. He does a pretty good job transcribing them as they happen.
--
For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
(AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers - News, Status, Technical Info, History.
This is a great program, and the kids are getting so much out of it. We're now going to the finals in Atlanta, but <shameless plug> we need to raise money! If you or anybody you know appreciates the value of this program and wants to support your local community and proactively help get kids interested in science technology, please send me an email at "drobo at axonchisel dot net" and I can tell you how you can get involved and be a sponsor! </shameless plug> This is 100% serious, we're on a relatively short time frame, and any amount of help is appreciated.
And if you live in San Francisco, check out KRON-4 news tonight (Thursday) at 5pm! They're doing an exclusive story on our robotics team!
Moderators show your support for our team by modding up this post!
Sexism is discrimination based on gender. Prejudice is forming an opinion before investigating all facts. Discrimination is the act of making distinctions and distinguishing among options. UNLOAD THESE WORDS and use them for what they mean, honestly, and we can move forward. They are not necessarily bad things.
I will accept the latter, reserving the right to perform criminal acts independently of said assignment.
So what are you saying then, that only criminals can be logicians?
--
For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
(AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers - News, Status, Technical Info, History.
--
For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
(AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers - News, Status, Technical Info, History.
And here's the deal: if you obnoxious Linux zealots keep responding to points like this with "d00d install linux u l00s3r" and comments about how stupid windows users are, you will continue to miss the point that Linux will survive by gaining mindshare and marketshare, and this will not happen if the majority of Win32 people (yes there are lots of them that don't love Win32, but they like to be productive) have the idea that "wow, the OSS tools on Linux are really hard to use". And that's the impression people get. I would think that if they go to the effort of building and releasing binaries on Win32, they could add some MDI support so people could actually find the product useable without burning through their ALT and TAB keys. My left hand is sore after ever GIMP session on my Win32 box, and I feel like I spend half my time minimizing/restoring windows to try to find the right ones. This is a problem, period. Many solutions, but a good one would be to support MDI, like nearly every other windows app in the world.
You opened with: "Perhaps we are placing just a little TOO much faith in the POWER of OSS." [emphasis from source], and continued to talk about how the content is more important than the medium, and that we shouldn't get lost down the OSS sink hole and miss the point.
... so we should concentrate on what we know and leave the political power struggle to the experts."
One good response was "But most of us here are far more knowledgeable about OSS than iranian politics
I agree with your point in so much as there would appear to be some limits to the cascading effects of which word processor or operating system you are using. And installing and training a bunch of Iranian nerds on Linux is not really the shortest path toward a free press and an open society (both nice building blocks for stable democracies).
But if we look into the future a decade or so, we can see massive changes happening (which have already begun) with respect to information storage and transmission. "Digital Rights Management" becomes a central power when nearly all aspects of human life are in some ways digital. And the next generations of DRM will be strongly embedded in the software with ties down into hardware itself. This is, of course, desirable and therefore on the roadmap of major capitalist software vendors, because people with lots of money like the ideas of copyright protection and national security and are willing to pay big.
At the same time as this is happening, we have the ubiquitous spectres of terrorism and fear (code yellow today, bomb killed 12, code orange, flight cancelled, take off your shoes, wait in line, code yellow, bomb kills 9...) and people slowly surrender their rights in order to feel just a little bit safer.
So do we want Iran evolving in an atmosphere of fear, being raised as slaves to corporate masters with very different interests than their own? This is 10-20 years from now, and it is the intersection of the future of information technology and the future of a budding society in a precarious part of the world.
So here's the point, to sum it up: while OSS isn't going to change the world right now, it serves as an important long-term play toward *defending* the world and our way of life as we now know it.
That is a very good idea. You should make it like this:
- a web front end like: paste text into a box and click "Generate Quote".
- backend parses text, looks for keywords, and outputs a list of possible quotes with % relevance, sorted most to least.
Then from there, you can make it auto-post to Slashdot, but at least you will be creating something cool and useful for the rest of the world.Here's one that runs in: ANSI COBOL, ISO Pascal, ANSI Fortran, ANSI C (lint free), Postscript, Shell script, 8086 machine language.
Agreed. The patent seems to be about embedding multiple scripts in a single XML file and ways for extracting and executing them appropriately. MS has done this for a while in WSH (Windows Script Host). This is a far cry from "patenting XML".
That being said, the patent is a bit over the line, as compared to say, the light bulb or the washing machine. I mean, come on... You're putting generic stuff (code of different types) into a generic file type (XML) and then executing it. This isn't especially novel or unique, and I'm sure plenty of people (myself included) have been doing this for quite some time.
Err... Not only can we land an airbag on Mars, but we just did it successfully. Twice.