Plus if you wanted to be an evil spoil sport, as you're returning it you can shout out "Harry dies" (or whatever happens at the end of the book) to the crowds waiting to get their copy
Wow, I seriously thought I may have been the only one to know about that Chopper Commando game. I remember playing that for hours! It really had a lot of replayability. Sometimes I would play a game with self-imposed rules such as only getting enemies by setting your helicopter on course for them and ejecting out at the last second. Or one where I wouldn't fire a single shot...I had to maneuver such that they'd shoot themselves. It had some wierd features/bugs too like that Mark Currie zone where you could crash into words floating in midair, and also when sometimes if you ran into something fast enough you'd create an explosion that would never end...
Not knowing the size of your company I'd consider a couple other things:
1. How much is the software being used on said computers? If the software or the computers are seldom being used, I'd say don't worry about it. If on the other hand, these an intergral part of what you produce you should really have a license.
2. Is there a free or cheaper alternative that does the same work just as well? If the app in question is Photoshop, could they be using Gimp instead? And maybe keep one license for Photatoshop on the server so someone could use it.
As far as CYA goes, I don't think you really can, as many others have suggested. One suggestion might be to talk to the person in charge of finances and see how big an impact it would have, and weigh that against the risks of prosecution. Either way I think the best way to CYA is start looking for another job.
I have this theory that people who have bad eyesight from birth tend to pay more attention to books and examine things in detail during the critical learning years simply because they are easier to see for them(nearsightedness). So in general they gain a lot more book smarts, and tend to be more geeky as a group. I also think that children who have their vision corrected earlier in life may not exhibit this, or may display the same qualities for an entirely different reason if they are shunned by classmates for having "four eyes".. and naturally gravitate towards learning more.
I'm not sure how people who are farsighted or have some other vision problem would fit into this schema though. If my theory is correct, maybe your friends have a "geeky" interest in something non-technical? Or perhaps they just happen to be a outside the bell curve of this group...
(I think maybe the stereotype came about in the first place because people who read more without taking breaks to prevent eye strain end up needing glasses)
I disagree. The main difference with blogs today is that there are millions of them that only reach a small unconnected group of individuals.
Those colonial newspapers were few in number but reached almost 100% of a community (either directly or by word of mouth). It was a major form of entertainment, and could enact major social change.
The difference is today we have thousands of entertainment outlets as compared to a few dozen in colonial times. It may be easier now to reach millions around the globe, but it's harder to get anoyone to read in the first place. It's also harder to get a group of individuals with enough in common and close enough proximity to actually affect changes in government or whatever social cause you have. There's just too much noise out there on the internet.
Right. The hard part is getting media large enough to notice you and tell your story. For that you either need to know people or think outside the box.
For example, think of how most people get news attention. They either commit a crime, are famous, or do something so wacky that they get attention. Most of us wouldn't fit the first two, but the third is definitely a possibility for anyone. Climb up a billboard, camp out in front of city hall, or whatever. Whenver a person does something odd, the first thing everyone wants to know is why. And that's what the media loves to report.
The second option of committing a crime is risky, but if you do it by violating a rediculous law in the first place and can demonstrate how absurd it is while you're doing it the media will notice (they watch for every police dispatch, you know). You may get put in jail but if you can get a large enough group of people on your side things might pan out.
My thinking is that we could avoid this whole problem of whether conciousness is transferred to the copy by simply doing the process gradually.
Replace the neurons, or areas of the brain one at a time, by directly connecting them to the rest of the functioning brain. The remaining part would treat the new electronic parts the same as the old one, and consciousness would remain intact.
If you wanted to make a copy, then perhaps the new parts could be connected in parallel with the old parts. When your brain signals a group of neurons, it also signals the electronic copy. Eventually you've got an entire brain connected in parallel. Disconnect that and you have two functioning brains still.
Of course with the millions of neurons this gradual replacement would have to happen pretty fast, but I would think as long as you give the brain the time to communicate with the new parts and adjust, you could do it successfully.
The graph happens to say who was president at the time of the deficits. And that's about it. On the surface it's not that informative, really. The president only has limited veto power over the budget. Congress is the one that appropriates and actually votes on the budget.
So, if you overlay who was in congress and how the economy was doing at the time, you get a slightly more informative picture. The second is actually a better indicator since tax revenue is almost directly proportional to how the economy is doing. Even congress has limited effect, I think it's more a psychological factor when the economy gets a quick jump under republican congress.
It seems like even if the library provisions got extended, if enough people got together and checked out every questionable book they can find, the information gathered would be useless.
Libraries are always celebrating the concept "Read a banned book". Maybe they ought to start a "Read a 'terrorist' book" campaign to protest the Patriot Act
From what I understand they actually encourage people to park their RV's and camp out overnight. Since most of them are open 24hrs at least you'd have a bathroom indoors. And it'd be easy to find a new one if they kick you out.
One option other than the Y. Try a state park membership. Usually around $20-30 a year plus you'd have some nice scenery. State parks with camping usually have showers but they probaby wont be open in the winter in most of the country. Maybe then you could find a truck stop for showering? As for food there are always food pantries/soup kitchens in cities.
Is this some sort of new troll? Let's call it the "post a virtually identical comment 5 minutes after someone else does" troll. I'm starting to notice this a lot more lately....
There isn't really a fixed frequency at which nerve cells operate/communicate at. The first thing to understand is that the rate at which nerves fire generally varies according to the intensity of the stimulus.
Furthermore, there are many different types of nerve cells and receptors in your eyes. Some only respond to certain features based on the shape of the cell. Some only are activated with a certain intensity of stimulus. Some are only activated when a stimulus changes. Some are only activated when certain combinations of neighboring cells are stimulated.
So the short answer is there is no fixed "refresh rate" of the brain. There is so much we don't know about the nervous system it is amazing. Over 50 neurotrasmitter substances have been identified, and there are more out there! We dont know exactly what half of them even do. Research into these types of questions is really on the cutting edge of science so there are a lot of unanswered questions out there...
I think you're right. I've always thought the first season of X-files was the best since each episode had to survive on it's own merits. The only real connection or story arc was this govt. conspiracy thing. There's definitely something to be said for subtlety. Too many times, producers seem to concentrate on what they see as being the most important aspects and then it gets thrown in your face... intead of being ehancing elements, they become the show and it gets bogged down.
Again, like with Enterprise. Someone thought, "Hey, time travel is this nifty idea that everyone loves, we can make the entire series about that!" I wish I could find a comment someone made a while back about how there should be a 50 year moratorium on time travel stories in Sci-Fi. It definitely backfired in Enterprise in that they boxed themselves in that storyline. The Xindi arc, in retrospect, was not a bad idea (like the temporal cold war), it just seemed to get tedious after a while. I think a lot of that was due to the acting though... the characters focused too much on stereotypical personality types instead of having multiple dimensions like a real person. But yeah you're right, subtle elements that enhance shows should not become the focus
"Enterprise" is nearly an all-white western crew with the exception of a black driver and a vulcan.
Then again, Star Trek TNG in season 1 was a nearly an all-white crew with the exception of a black driver and an andriod, and look what they managed to do.
But you do have good points... especially about the cost per episode and the type of writing it's buying. If I had spent 3 million of my own money to produce a star trek show, I'd be pretty pissed off if I got almost any of the episodes in seasons 1-3. The problem with these large organizations, like any large company...is that large amounts of money get thrown around at problems without anyone really being accountable or using the money wisely... because it's not directly impacting their paycheck. B & B probably have contracts and options such that even if they drive the show to the ground, they'll still do alright, just like a lot of CEOs today.
I think people are more concerned that the series is being cancelled just as it is starting to get good. All the other series, except for TOS, had a good run and were then gracefully let go rather than cancelled. For a perfect example of what happens when you let a series go too long just look at X-Files. After the 7th season, the two main actors hardly wanted to be in it anymore, and the producers start adding gimmicks like throwing a baby into the mix; the one thing guaranteed to kill a show.
I think that people aren't so concerned about the lack of another Trek series on the horizon, but the fact that this one is being cancelled just as we are getting good plots and good characterization. Yes, B&B made some tremendous mistakes the first 3 seasons, but the show should be judged on the merits of *this* season, not the mistakes of the past.
that "Social" Security, isn't really much of a socialized program. The idea behind Social Security should be more like welfare... except to provide retirement benefits to people *unable* to provide for themselves. The idea being that those people in society who easily afford retirement take up some of the slack.
Instead we have a system which is more like a managed retirement account. People don't have to pay SS tax on any of their income over $90,000. The amount of benefits you get is proportional to what you put in. You get benefits whether you really need it compared to your other income. It's silly. If we really want a "Social" program we should treat it as such. All income and wages should be SS taxable. That alone could extend the system another 75 years with no other changes!! In addition if we make some common-sense limits on who exactly can collect benefits, the system could probably be extended indefinitely
I have to disagree. There are psychological ways of stopping theft that are probably more effective than technical ways (or at least complementary to them). Anyone determined enough can find a way around technical safeguards... your goal should be to make them stand out like a purple cow!
-I think the best is simply putting whatever solution you have in a highly visible area, like in a commons area. It's rare that you see a car broken into right in front of the entrance to a store, where everyone can see it.
-Lock it up at the end of the night, by putting a cage around it.
-Put a sign up, "This automated rental system generously donated by (whomever gave you a few bucks to implement this)".
-Have a loud alarm that sounds if it is broken into.
-Put up a camera inside, and have one in a separate location facing the person so everyone who uses it can be identified. Or at least a sign saying "This machine under electronic surveillance".
The key here is not to making it technically impossible to steal something, but to strongly discourage it. And to make it more likely to identify someone who does manage to break into it. You know those signs around military areas that say "Use of deadly force authorized"? Do you really think they put them up because they intend to shoot to kill everyone who wanders in there? Absolutely not. Psychology is a very powerful tool- use it however you can.
This may be a little farfetched but I could imagine the one of the intents for Life + 70 years is to prevent someone from killing the author in order that their works would pass on to the public domain immediately. Now that being said, I agree with you completely on all counts... it *is* rediculous. It should be a set number of years from the moment of creation; then there is no doubt as to when a work will become public domain, and for the most part it will only benefit the author.
One of the big problems I see with the current system, is it essentially is a tax-free way of passing on an inheritance. The surviving family members get full rights to the work; which is essentially like receiving an investment portfolio without the inheritance tax! How is that fair?
Yes, I agree. The Republican party has been shifting away from it's libertarian roots ever since the Newt Gingrich and Contract with America days. They no longer care about fiscal responsibility, states rights and individual freedoms.
I think what has happened is the Republicans who believed in those two things have either become Libertarians, or only still reluctantly vote for people like Bush. And to fill that void, the party has sucked in Democrats and Moderates who care more about religion than common sense civil government. So basically they've alienated the people who really believe in personal liberty. I sincerely hope McCain leads the charge to taking back the Republican party.
Why are you libertarians unable to see the value in any law or regulation?
Now hold on here. Of course most libertarians, just like anyone else in a civil society, see the value in laws and regulations. People always stereotype Libertarians as wanting to start some anarchist society, which couldn't be farther from the truth. The whole idea behind Libertarianism is that people have a fundamental right to do as they please as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others. And when someone does infringe on the rights of others, they must take full responsiblity for their actions. Of course we need laws and regulations... how else would you decide when someone does something wrong?
There is such a huge disconnect between common sense and many laws and regulations in this country. How is it that we trust 18 year olds to operate guns and missiles and WMD's and yet we can't trust them to drink alcohol until they are 21?! Why is it against the law to circumvent copyright protection to play a DVD in Linux? Why do public protests have to be carefully planned out and approved by the local govt?
With any group you get fringe people who would ignore thousands of years of common sense. But the vast majority of libertarians are a lot more moderate in their views than most people outside the party think
Re:Most surprising prediction...
on
In the Year 2020
·
· Score: 1
You know, why not I say. I think we need more people in politics that are willing to shake up things. Jenna Bush seems like that sort of person, so does Arnold. Minnesota elected Jesse Ventura, and it has turned out okay. People like this may make big mistakes, but they also make big strides forward. And besides we still have the supreme court and congress to keep them in check. Risktakers and idealists are the ones that lead us into the future.
Slashdot Mirror
What model is your Sony?
Plus if you wanted to be an evil spoil sport, as you're returning it you can shout out "Harry dies" (or whatever happens at the end of the book) to the crowds waiting to get their copy
Wow, I seriously thought I may have been the only one to know about that Chopper Commando game. I remember playing that for hours! It really had a lot of replayability. Sometimes I would play a game with self-imposed rules such as only getting enemies by setting your helicopter on course for them and ejecting out at the last second. Or one where I wouldn't fire a single shot...I had to maneuver such that they'd shoot themselves. It had some wierd features/bugs too like that Mark Currie zone where you could crash into words floating in midair, and also when sometimes if you ran into something fast enough you'd create an explosion that would never end...
I agree with the above posters sentiments.
Not knowing the size of your company I'd consider a couple other things:
1. How much is the software being used on said computers? If the software or the computers are seldom being used, I'd say don't worry about it. If on the other hand, these an intergral part of what you produce you should really have a license.
2. Is there a free or cheaper alternative that does the same work just as well? If the app in question is Photoshop, could they be using Gimp instead? And maybe keep one license for Photatoshop on the server so someone could use it.
As far as CYA goes, I don't think you really can, as many others have suggested. One suggestion might be to talk to the person in charge of finances and see how big an impact it would have, and weigh that against the risks of prosecution. Either way I think the best way to CYA is start looking for another job.
I have this theory that people who have bad eyesight from birth tend to pay more attention to books and examine things in detail during the critical learning years simply because they are easier to see for them(nearsightedness). So in general they gain a lot more book smarts, and tend to be more geeky as a group. I also think that children who have their vision corrected earlier in life may not exhibit this, or may display the same qualities for an entirely different reason if they are shunned by classmates for having "four eyes".. and naturally gravitate towards learning more.
I'm not sure how people who are farsighted or have some other vision problem would fit into this schema though. If my theory is correct, maybe your friends have a "geeky" interest in something non-technical? Or perhaps they just happen to be a outside the bell curve of this group...
(I think maybe the stereotype came about in the first place because people who read more without taking breaks to prevent eye strain end up needing glasses)
I disagree. The main difference with blogs today is that there are millions of them that only reach a small unconnected group of individuals.
Those colonial newspapers were few in number but reached almost 100% of a community (either directly or by word of mouth). It was a major form of entertainment, and could enact major social change.
The difference is today we have thousands of entertainment outlets as compared to a few dozen in colonial times. It may be easier now to reach millions around the globe, but it's harder to get anoyone to read in the first place. It's also harder to get a group of individuals with enough in common and close enough proximity to actually affect changes in government or whatever social cause you have. There's just too much noise out there on the internet.
Of course then you have an annoying divide right in the center where you'll probably be looking most of the time
For example, think of how most people get news attention. They either commit a crime, are famous, or do something so wacky that they get attention. Most of us wouldn't fit the first two, but the third is definitely a possibility for anyone. Climb up a billboard, camp out in front of city hall, or whatever. Whenver a person does something odd, the first thing everyone wants to know is why. And that's what the media loves to report.
The second option of committing a crime is risky, but if you do it by violating a rediculous law in the first place and can demonstrate how absurd it is while you're doing it the media will notice (they watch for every police dispatch, you know). You may get put in jail but if you can get a large enough group of people on your side things might pan out.
My thinking is that we could avoid this whole problem of whether conciousness is transferred to the copy by simply doing the process gradually.
Replace the neurons, or areas of the brain one at a time, by directly connecting them to the rest of the functioning brain. The remaining part would treat the new electronic parts the same as the old one, and consciousness would remain intact.
If you wanted to make a copy, then perhaps the new parts could be connected in parallel with the old parts. When your brain signals a group of neurons, it also signals the electronic copy. Eventually you've got an entire brain connected in parallel. Disconnect that and you have two functioning brains still.
Of course with the millions of neurons this gradual replacement would have to happen pretty fast, but I would think as long as you give the brain the time to communicate with the new parts and adjust, you could do it successfully.
The graph happens to say who was president at the time of the deficits. And that's about it. On the surface it's not that informative, really. The president only has limited veto power over the budget. Congress is the one that appropriates and actually votes on the budget.
So, if you overlay who was in congress and how the economy was doing at the time, you get a slightly more informative picture. The second is actually a better indicator since tax revenue is almost directly proportional to how the economy is doing. Even congress has limited effect, I think it's more a psychological factor when the economy gets a quick jump under republican congress.
Libraries are always celebrating the concept "Read a banned book". Maybe they ought to start a "Read a 'terrorist' book" campaign to protest the Patriot Act
From what I understand they actually encourage people to park their RV's and camp out overnight. Since most of them are open 24hrs at least you'd have a bathroom indoors. And it'd be easy to find a new one if they kick you out.
One option other than the Y. Try a state park membership. Usually around $20-30 a year plus you'd have some nice scenery. State parks with camping usually have showers but they probaby wont be open in the winter in most of the country. Maybe then you could find a truck stop for showering? As for food there are always food pantries/soup kitchens in cities.
Is this some sort of new troll? Let's call it the "post a virtually identical comment 5 minutes after someone else does" troll. I'm starting to notice this a lot more lately....
There isn't really a fixed frequency at which nerve cells operate/communicate at. The first thing to understand is that the rate at which nerves fire generally varies according to the intensity of the stimulus.
Furthermore, there are many different types of nerve cells and receptors in your eyes. Some only respond to certain features based on the shape of the cell. Some only are activated with a certain intensity of stimulus. Some are only activated when a stimulus changes. Some are only activated when certain combinations of neighboring cells are stimulated.
So the short answer is there is no fixed "refresh rate" of the brain. There is so much we don't know about the nervous system it is amazing. Over 50 neurotrasmitter substances have been identified, and there are more out there! We dont know exactly what half of them even do. Research into these types of questions is really on the cutting edge of science so there are a lot of unanswered questions out there...
Yes, I would love to see an open source implementation of this program. Does anyone know of anything like this, or similar software?
Again, like with Enterprise. Someone thought, "Hey, time travel is this nifty idea that everyone loves, we can make the entire series about that!" I wish I could find a comment someone made a while back about how there should be a 50 year moratorium on time travel stories in Sci-Fi. It definitely backfired in Enterprise in that they boxed themselves in that storyline. The Xindi arc, in retrospect, was not a bad idea (like the temporal cold war), it just seemed to get tedious after a while. I think a lot of that was due to the acting though... the characters focused too much on stereotypical personality types instead of having multiple dimensions like a real person. But yeah you're right, subtle elements that enhance shows should not become the focus
Then again, Star Trek TNG in season 1 was a nearly an all-white crew with the exception of a black driver and an andriod, and look what they managed to do.
But you do have good points... especially about the cost per episode and the type of writing it's buying. If I had spent 3 million of my own money to produce a star trek show, I'd be pretty pissed off if I got almost any of the episodes in seasons 1-3. The problem with these large organizations, like any large company...is that large amounts of money get thrown around at problems without anyone really being accountable or using the money wisely... because it's not directly impacting their paycheck. B & B probably have contracts and options such that even if they drive the show to the ground, they'll still do alright, just like a lot of CEOs today.
Did anyone look at the picture on that link?? Holy crap! They're bringing back the Enterprise-D!!! Woo-hoo!!
I think that people aren't so concerned about the lack of another Trek series on the horizon, but the fact that this one is being cancelled just as we are getting good plots and good characterization. Yes, B&B made some tremendous mistakes the first 3 seasons, but the show should be judged on the merits of *this* season, not the mistakes of the past.
Instead we have a system which is more like a managed retirement account. People don't have to pay SS tax on any of their income over $90,000. The amount of benefits you get is proportional to what you put in. You get benefits whether you really need it compared to your other income. It's silly. If we really want a "Social" program we should treat it as such. All income and wages should be SS taxable. That alone could extend the system another 75 years with no other changes!! In addition if we make some common-sense limits on who exactly can collect benefits, the system could probably be extended indefinitely
I have to disagree. There are psychological ways of stopping theft that are probably more effective than technical ways (or at least complementary to them). Anyone determined enough can find a way around technical safeguards... your goal should be to make them stand out like a purple cow!
-I think the best is simply putting whatever solution you have in a highly visible area, like in a commons area. It's rare that you see a car broken into right in front of the entrance to a store, where everyone can see it.
-Lock it up at the end of the night, by putting a cage around it.
-Put a sign up, "This automated rental system generously donated by (whomever gave you a few bucks to implement this)".
-Have a loud alarm that sounds if it is broken into.
-Put up a camera inside, and have one in a separate location facing the person so everyone who uses it can be identified. Or at least a sign saying "This machine under electronic surveillance".
The key here is not to making it technically impossible to steal something, but to strongly discourage it. And to make it more likely to identify someone who does manage to break into it. You know those signs around military areas that say "Use of deadly force authorized"? Do you really think they put them up because they intend to shoot to kill everyone who wanders in there? Absolutely not. Psychology is a very powerful tool- use it however you can.
One of the big problems I see with the current system, is it essentially is a tax-free way of passing on an inheritance. The surviving family members get full rights to the work; which is essentially like receiving an investment portfolio without the inheritance tax! How is that fair?
I think what has happened is the Republicans who believed in those two things have either become Libertarians, or only still reluctantly vote for people like Bush. And to fill that void, the party has sucked in Democrats and Moderates who care more about religion than common sense civil government. So basically they've alienated the people who really believe in personal liberty. I sincerely hope McCain leads the charge to taking back the Republican party.
Now hold on here. Of course most libertarians, just like anyone else in a civil society, see the value in laws and regulations. People always stereotype Libertarians as wanting to start some anarchist society, which couldn't be farther from the truth. The whole idea behind Libertarianism is that people have a fundamental right to do as they please as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others. And when someone does infringe on the rights of others, they must take full responsiblity for their actions. Of course we need laws and regulations... how else would you decide when someone does something wrong?
There is such a huge disconnect between common sense and many laws and regulations in this country. How is it that we trust 18 year olds to operate guns and missiles and WMD's and yet we can't trust them to drink alcohol until they are 21?! Why is it against the law to circumvent copyright protection to play a DVD in Linux? Why do public protests have to be carefully planned out and approved by the local govt?
With any group you get fringe people who would ignore thousands of years of common sense. But the vast majority of libertarians are a lot more moderate in their views than most people outside the party think
You know, why not I say. I think we need more people in politics that are willing to shake up things. Jenna Bush seems like that sort of person, so does Arnold. Minnesota elected Jesse Ventura, and it has turned out okay. People like this may make big mistakes, but they also make big strides forward. And besides we still have the supreme court and congress to keep them in check. Risktakers and idealists are the ones that lead us into the future.