I remember when a few years ago, when all the cartoons on Cartoon Network were still the Classics ("That's all folks").
That has changed over the past 5-6 years. At first I thought it was just me outgrowing the charm of cartoons (I'm 27). But then I realized it wasn't me or my tastes that were changing. It was the quality of the new productions that was sadly deteriorating.
This applies to most of the cartoons produced by the major animation houses in Hollywood - WB, Disney, etc. The new Tom and Jerry cartoons are a joke compared to their witty and charming predecessors. It seems that most of the focus now is on better animation and special effects through computer animation, and less focus on the *wit* and everyday humor that made them so popular in the first place.
Take any old Tom and Jerry cartoon (directed by Fred Quimby) - you'll see it based on a cat and mouse chase in the familiar settings of a house or backyard. Fastforward to their newer counterparts (incidentally directed by Chuck Jones) and you'll see a sophisticated setting like a Spaceship or France, with better graphics, but almost *no* wit or simple but *clever* plots that were common in the episodes of old.
The same holds for the Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse and other classics. The trend seems to be towards slicker animation, with little or *no* emphasis to creative wit/humor. The newer cartoons are all rehashes or remakes of the successful plots with smaller "Tiny Toon" versions of the characters.
I prefer completely new (and independently produced, I think) cartoons like Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog, etc better to these incredibly non-creative rehased versions of the classics, that the studios seem to want to cash in on.
How long before the Chinese subsidiary of Google (presumably more susceptible to Chinese laws than the US based parent company) is forced to hand over logs and other identifiable information to track down and arrest potential "dissidents" who searched for unacceptable terms?
With Google moving quite rapidly into a "personalized" model, where your searches, email, search history, etc is all tied to a single account, tracking down people based on their Google activity shouldn't be too difficult.
As a side note, this is what happens (delete is quite a misnomer IMHO) when you choose to "delete" your search information:
4. What happens when I pause the service, remove items, or delete the My Search History service?
You can choose to stop storing your searches in My Search History either temporarily or permanently, or remove items, as described in My Search History Help. However, as is common practice in the industry, Google maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users. For example, we use this information to audit our ads systems, understand which features are most popular to users, improve the quality of our search results, and help us combat vulnerabilities such as denial of service attacks.
Not trolling here, and neither AIAL (am I a lawyer), but can Wine be sued for reverse engineering (definition may vary) Windows APIs/functionality under the DMCA?
From what we've seen in the past, even something as simple/straightforward like pressing the shift key can be construed as "intentionally breaking copy protection mechanisms" by sue-happy companies.
Is reverse engineering document formats (OpenOffice), OS APIs (Wine), illegal under the DMCA, or can it be spun as such?
I know it's all hep and stylish to bash India as a "third world country" nowadays, because many Americans perceive "offshoring" our "outsourcing" as a mean scheme by Indians to "steal aar jaabs", but I would like to mention a few things:
1. The Indian economy happens to be the 12th largest in terms of GDP and 4th largest when adjusted for PPP (Purchasing Power Parity). I quote from the Wikipedia article:
With a GDP of 568 billion (B$) ($3.096 trillion (T$) at PPP) India has the world's 12th largest economy (and the 4th largest when adjusted for PPP). However, the large population means that per capita income is quite low. In 2003 the World Bank ranked India 143rd in PPP per capita income and 160th in real terms, among 208 countries and territories.
# 1962: Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR); formed by the Department of Atomic Energy, and work on establishing Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) near Trivandrum began.
# 1963: First sounding rocket launched from TERLS (November 21, 1963).
# 1965: Space Science & Technology Centre (SSTC) established in Thumba.
# 1967: Satellite Telecommunication Earth Station set up at Ahmedabad.
# 1972: Space Commission and Department of Space set up.
# 1975: First Indian Satellite, Aryabhatta, launched (April 19, 1975).
It's also fruitful to note that India was a British colony till 1947. IMHO, starting a space program in about 1.5 decades after gaining independence is a laudable achievement. The major problem which India faces today is it's large population, which pretty much negates all the economic advances, and causes it's perception as a "thirld world country" to continue.
It is also worth noting that India seems to be spending substantial amounts of money to improve it's people's lot and advancing education, science and research, rather than spending it instead on aggressive military tactics, which seems to be the trend nowadays. If you read up the history of the nation, you'll see that it's one of the few countries that has never pursued invasion/colonialism, and has instead been frequently invaded by conquerers (Mughals, British, etc) who looted the wealth of a formerly rich region and left it in a state that it's trying to dig itself out of now.
PS: Posted this because I perceived a derogatory slant in the Parent's use of the term "third world country". I find the practice of using wealth to rank nations (especially so when used to diss poor nations) quite abnoxious. I have nothing against using the term in a scientific/neutral sense.
I stopped watching Batman (shows, cartoons, comic books) after I realized what an anti-Linux zealots he and Robin are.This comic strip is just one example of Batman committing hate crimes against Mr. Penguin (clearly a stand in for Tux).
Batman is clearly another bit of Microsoft inspired FUD against Linux. I bet the Bat-mobile runs Windows too.
It's spelt "Gandhi" and not "Ghandi" as many people tend to misspell it as.
Check out wikipedia or elsewhere if you need further proof. Like your overall sig though....took me a while to actually get it (I thought I'd got it the first time I saw it, but I hadn't till recently)
While we're talking about random browsing...
on
Google's Past Homepage
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I took a peek at WayBackMachine.com and found Slashdot's pages since 1997. Did this way way back....but if somebody can get a story about it, the least I can hope for is a +5 Interesting.
About TIFR:
The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) was established in 1945 at the initiative of Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha. It had a modest beginning at the Kenilworth site on Peddar Road, Bombay in 1945 and later moved to the Royal Yacht Club, Apollo Bunder until the buildings at the Navy Nagar Campus in South Bombay were ready in 1962. The Institute is proud to have produced many of the finest scientists of India who have been involved in seminal research in fields ranging from Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics and Science Education as well as some aspects of Public Health.
There are at present about 400 scientists in the Institute working in various disciplines grouped into three major schools: the School of Mathematics, the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Technology and Computer Science. The Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education at Deonar, Bombay; The National Centre for Radio Astrophysics at Pune and The National Centre for Biological Sciences at Bangalore also form a part of TIFR activities.
The School of Mathematics has research interests in areas like Algebra, Algebraic Geometry, Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, Algebraic Groups, Representation Theory and Quantum Groups, Theory of Numbers, Combinatorics, Differential Geometry and Topology, Real and Complex Analysis, Ergodic Theory, Probability Theory on Groups and Mathematical Physics.
The School of Mathematics has a Centre in Bangalore dedicated to the study of Applied Mathematics where mathematicians work in the fields of Differential Equations, Harmonic Analysis, Numerical Analysis and Probability Theory.
What advice do you have in selling this to tech coordinators and administrators who are not enlightened by Open Source?
I recommend transcendental meditation. Through meditation on Open Source, one will achieve enlightenment or awareness of the true nature of source code. After attainment, he will be freed of the cycle of Microsoft updates, reboots, virus scans and reinstalls.
Re:Is anyone else curious what SSA trees are?
on
GCC 4.0.0 Released
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Wikipedia (as usual) has a nice article about the Static Single Assignment (SSA) form.
To put it simply, SSA is an intermediate representation where each variable in a block is defined only *once*. If a variable is defined multiple times, the target of any subsequent definitions of the same variable is replaced by a new variable name.
SSA helps to simplify later optimizations passes of a compiler (for example: eliminating unused definitions, etc) as described in greater detail (with examples and flowcharts) in the article linked to.
That's the SSA form in short. Now I need to ask somebody the difference between the standard SSA form and "SSA for trees".
When using your Modular PC Handtop device at the campgrounds, always practice safety. Surround your Modular PC with rocks to keep the fire from spreading. Be sure when you're done with your MPC to put it out with a bucket of water and make sure it has stopped smoking before you leave the area.
Remember what Smokey the Bear says. Only you can prevent your Modular PC Handtop from starting a forest fire.
John Stewart had one of these guys on....
on
Paul Graham on PR
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It was in one of the segments with Samantha Bee search the Daily Show's website for "Samantha Bee reveals why a fake "Town Hall" is better for our democracy" for the clip) interviewing the PR representative (forget the name) responsible for making the "truth" more palatable to the general public during the current administration's town hall meetings.
It was quite astounding how the guy managed to spin things around to make them sound easier to digest (justifying became "Educating and Explaining", relaxing pollution laws became the "Clear Skies" etc (reworded from memory)). It is reasonably justifiable to see companies doing this...but it is disconcerting to see governments do it (not just the US govt...I'm sure others do it too).
I've noticed a recurring pattern: I get put on a new project that already has a bit of history and I get told to read the design documents and then implement XYZ.
1. Write a design document containing information about the design document you're trying to create.
2. Read the design document you wrote in (1) describing the design document that you are trying to write.
3. Write actual design document as described in design document written in (2).
Do you or have you ever: [ ]timed your piss/dump schedule with TV commercial breaks?
[ ]emitted fart(s) during a room freshner and/or deodorant commercial(s)?
[ ]reloaded Slashdot on your broadband connection during the AOL "want a better internet...you belong to america online" commercial?
[ ]admired the preexisting length of your member during one or more Enzyte commercials?
[ ]eaten a homemade meal while watching a McDonald's advertisement?
If you answered Yes for one or more choices, you may be hurting America by violating your social contract(s). Please report to the nearest correction facility.
Big food companies are systematically ruining the Apple Pie baking efforts in kitchens across the country, likening these home baking initiatives to a form of communism.
"Pie manufacturing giants have mobilized a well-funded army of TV commercials, huge supermarkets and lazy mothers to protect their Apple Pie fiefdoms from these home kitchen initiatives, painting them as an affront to American innovation and free enterprise"
Yes. Or you can allow users to play your video for free. This is totally up to you and your video distribution goals. As the content owner, you decide whether you'd like to give away your video for free or charge a price that you set for it. If you do charge a price, Google will take a small revenue share to cover some of our costs.
# How is my content protected?
Google takes the security of your content very seriously. We've put a number of measures in place to prevent copying or sharing of your content. For more information on our copyright policies and procedures, please read the Copyright section of this FAQ.
Slashdot Mirror
That has changed over the past 5-6 years. At first I thought it was just me outgrowing the charm of cartoons (I'm 27). But then I realized it wasn't me or my tastes that were changing. It was the quality of the new productions that was sadly deteriorating.
This applies to most of the cartoons produced by the major animation houses in Hollywood - WB, Disney, etc. The new Tom and Jerry cartoons are a joke compared to their witty and charming predecessors. It seems that most of the focus now is on better animation and special effects through computer animation, and less focus on the *wit* and everyday humor that made them so popular in the first place.
Take any old Tom and Jerry cartoon (directed by Fred Quimby) - you'll see it based on a cat and mouse chase in the familiar settings of a house or backyard. Fastforward to their newer counterparts (incidentally directed by Chuck Jones) and you'll see a sophisticated setting like a Spaceship or France, with better graphics, but almost *no* wit or simple but *clever* plots that were common in the episodes of old.
The same holds for the Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse and other classics. The trend seems to be towards slicker animation, with little or *no* emphasis to creative wit/humor. The newer cartoons are all rehashes or remakes of the successful plots with smaller "Tiny Toon" versions of the characters.
I prefer completely new (and independently produced, I think) cartoons like Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog, etc better to these incredibly non-creative rehased versions of the classics, that the studios seem to want to cash in on.
I, for one, welcome our new Giant Madagascan Hissing Cockroach overlords.
With Google moving quite rapidly into a "personalized" model, where your searches, email, search history, etc is all tied to a single account, tracking down people based on their Google activity shouldn't be too difficult.
As a side note, this is what happens (delete is quite a misnomer IMHO) when you choose to "delete" your search information:
4. What happens when I pause the service, remove items, or delete the My Search History service?
You can choose to stop storing your searches in My Search History either temporarily or permanently, or remove items, as described in My Search History Help. However, as is common practice in the industry, Google maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users. For example, we use this information to audit our ads systems, understand which features are most popular to users, improve the quality of our search results, and help us combat vulnerabilities such as denial of service attacks.
If that "5V/12V variable pulse speed gauge" doesn't cut it, I don't know what will.
Nothing builds character like a heavy duty Sun workstation carefully balanced on one's lap. To say nothing of more resilient balls.
Not trolling here, and neither AIAL (am I a lawyer), but can Wine be sued for reverse engineering (definition may vary) Windows APIs/functionality under the DMCA?
From what we've seen in the past, even something as simple/straightforward like pressing the shift key can be construed as "intentionally breaking copy protection mechanisms" by sue-happy companies.
Is reverse engineering document formats (OpenOffice), OS APIs (Wine), illegal under the DMCA, or can it be spun as such?
My plans for world domination have been foiled.
$ factor --version
factor (GNU sh-utils) 2.0.11
$ factor 10000000000000000000
10000000000000000000: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
$ factor 100000000000000000000
factor: `100000000000000000000' is not a valid positive integer
Try `factor --help' for more information.
On a positive note, I was short only by 179 digits.
1. The Indian economy happens to be the 12th largest in terms of GDP and 4th largest when adjusted for PPP (Purchasing Power Parity). I quote from the Wikipedia article:
With a GDP of 568 billion (B$) ($3.096 trillion (T$) at PPP) India has the world's 12th largest economy (and the 4th largest when adjusted for PPP). However, the large population means that per capita income is quite low. In 2003 the World Bank ranked India 143rd in PPP per capita income and 160th in real terms, among 208 countries and territories.
2. India has (through the Indian Space Research Organization) pursued a pretty widespread (and largely non-military space program) since the 60's. From this relevant Wikipedia article:
# 1962: Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR); formed by the Department of Atomic Energy, and work on establishing Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) near Trivandrum began.
# 1963: First sounding rocket launched from TERLS (November 21, 1963).
# 1965: Space Science & Technology Centre (SSTC) established in Thumba.
# 1967: Satellite Telecommunication Earth Station set up at Ahmedabad.
# 1972: Space Commission and Department of Space set up.
# 1975: First Indian Satellite, Aryabhatta, launched (April 19, 1975).
It's also fruitful to note that India was a British colony till 1947. IMHO, starting a space program in about 1.5 decades after gaining independence is a laudable achievement. The major problem which India faces today is it's large population, which pretty much negates all the economic advances, and causes it's perception as a "thirld world country" to continue.
It is also worth noting that India seems to be spending substantial amounts of money to improve it's people's lot and advancing education, science and research, rather than spending it instead on aggressive military tactics, which seems to be the trend nowadays. If you read up the history of the nation, you'll see that it's one of the few countries that has never pursued invasion/colonialism, and has instead been frequently invaded by conquerers (Mughals, British, etc) who looted the wealth of a formerly rich region and left it in a state that it's trying to dig itself out of now.
PS: Posted this because I perceived a derogatory slant in the Parent's use of the term "third world country". I find the practice of using wealth to rank nations (especially so when used to diss poor nations) quite abnoxious. I have nothing against using the term in a scientific/neutral sense.
Hope NASA has AAA emergency roadside assistance membership.
Batman is clearly another bit of Microsoft inspired FUD against Linux. I bet the Bat-mobile runs Windows too.
Check out wikipedia or elsewhere if you need further proof. Like your overall sig though....took me a while to actually get it (I thought I'd got it the first time I saw it, but I hadn't till recently)
1997
1998
1999
2000
Take a look once their server comes up.
(on a side note, Slashcode interprets embedded http://links/ (as in : http://web.archive.org/web/20000301205131/http://w ww.slashdot.org/ incorrectly).
Via: 1.1 sj-netcache (NetCache NetApp/5.3.1R4D10)
Server: Apache/1.3.29 (Debian GNU/Linux) PHP/4.3.4 mod_perl/1.29
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Client-Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 17:12:59 GMT
Client-Response-Num: 1
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.4
About TIFR:
The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) was established in 1945 at the initiative of Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha. It had a modest beginning at the Kenilworth site on Peddar Road, Bombay in 1945 and later moved to the Royal Yacht Club, Apollo Bunder until the buildings at the Navy Nagar Campus in South Bombay were ready in 1962. The Institute is proud to have produced many of the finest scientists of India who have been involved in seminal research in fields ranging from Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics and Science Education as well as some aspects of Public Health.
There are at present about 400 scientists in the Institute working in various disciplines grouped into three major schools: the School of Mathematics, the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Technology and Computer Science. The Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education at Deonar, Bombay; The National Centre for Radio Astrophysics at Pune and The National Centre for Biological Sciences at Bangalore also form a part of TIFR activities.
The School of Mathematics has research interests in areas like Algebra, Algebraic Geometry, Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, Algebraic Groups, Representation Theory and Quantum Groups, Theory of Numbers, Combinatorics, Differential Geometry and Topology, Real and Complex Analysis, Ergodic Theory, Probability Theory on Groups and Mathematical Physics.
The School of Mathematics has a Centre in Bangalore dedicated to the study of Applied Mathematics where mathematicians work in the fields of Differential Equations, Harmonic Analysis, Numerical Analysis and Probability Theory.
I recommend transcendental meditation. Through meditation on Open Source, one will achieve enlightenment or awareness of the true nature of source code. After attainment, he will be freed of the cycle of Microsoft updates, reboots, virus scans and reinstalls.
(not trolling: merely rephrasing)
Or maybe they'll put it among Moore's other images (doesn't show up currently).
To put it simply, SSA is an intermediate representation where each variable in a block is defined only *once*. If a variable is defined multiple times, the target of any subsequent definitions of the same variable is replaced by a new variable name.
SSA helps to simplify later optimizations passes of a compiler (for example: eliminating unused definitions, etc) as described in greater detail (with examples and flowcharts) in the article linked to.
That's the SSA form in short. Now I need to ask somebody the difference between the standard SSA form and "SSA for trees".
They're creepy and they're kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They're all together ooky,
The Addams Family.
da da da da. tum tum.
If only he hadn't eaten them for dinner all those years ago...
When using your Modular PC Handtop device at the campgrounds, always practice safety. Surround your Modular PC with rocks to keep the fire from spreading. Be sure when you're done with your MPC to put it out with a bucket of water and make sure it has stopped smoking before you leave the area.
Remember what Smokey the Bear says. Only you can prevent your Modular PC Handtop from starting a forest fire.
It was quite astounding how the guy managed to spin things around to make them sound easier to digest (justifying became "Educating and Explaining", relaxing pollution laws became the "Clear Skies" etc (reworded from memory)). It is reasonably justifiable to see companies doing this...but it is disconcerting to see governments do it (not just the US govt...I'm sure others do it too).
1. Write a design document containing information about the design document you're trying to create.
2. Read the design document you wrote in (1) describing the design document that you are trying to write.
3. Write actual design document as described in design document written in (2).
Find out by taking this short survey.
Do you or have you ever:
[ ]timed your piss/dump schedule with TV commercial breaks?
[ ]emitted fart(s) during a room freshner and/or deodorant commercial(s)?
[ ]reloaded Slashdot on your broadband connection during the AOL "want a better internet...you belong to america online" commercial?
[ ]admired the preexisting length of your member during one or more Enzyte commercials?
[ ]eaten a homemade meal while watching a McDonald's advertisement?
If you answered Yes for one or more choices, you may be hurting America by violating your social contract(s). Please report to the nearest correction facility.
Big food companies are systematically ruining the Apple Pie baking efforts in kitchens across the country, likening these home baking initiatives to a form of communism.
"Pie manufacturing giants have mobilized a well-funded army of TV commercials, huge supermarkets and lazy mothers to protect their Apple Pie fiefdoms from these home kitchen initiatives, painting them as an affront to American innovation and free enterprise"
It's the sign of changing times - Mac lovers no longer have to hide their feelings for fear of being ridiculed and discriminated against by society.
Expect to see more examples of Mac pride across the country, as more people come to terms with who they are, and stand up for their rights.
https://upload.video.google.com/video_faq.html
# Can I charge for playback of my video?
Yes. Or you can allow users to play your video for free. This is totally up to you and your video distribution goals. As the content owner, you decide whether you'd like to give away your video for free or charge a price that you set for it. If you do charge a price, Google will take a small revenue share to cover some of our costs.
# How is my content protected?
Google takes the security of your content very seriously. We've put a number of measures in place to prevent copying or sharing of your content. For more information on our copyright policies and procedures, please read the Copyright section of this FAQ.