I would support establishing a "baseline" level of various hormones for athletes, at the top end of the normal range and well within the margin of safety. Anyone who lacks sufficient natural quantities may enhance them up to but not beyond this baseline. Anyone who naturally exceeds the baseline must have medical documentation produced explaining why, once it is known.
This would NOT be age-dependent -- that is, a 42 year old Roger Clemens would be entitled to 18 year old HGH and T levels, although there's no imaginable way his body would produce these levels on its own.
Also, these athletes should be entitled to their privacy when it comes to short-term "performance enhancers", so long as they are not within their period of active competition. This means that if a football player wants to smoke eight joints (I'm looking at you, Ricky Williams), that's fine -- if it's off-season, or if he's on the Injured Reserve list for the rest of the season. This will have absolutely no effect on the athletic competition, and he should be given the freedom to make this choice. Come August, when the pre-season gets under way, he would be tested for short-term drugs again, so he'd know he had to stop toking a week (or a month depending how heavily he does it) or so before the first pre-season game. Unfortunately, it takes time for the body to clear these things and the testers have no easy way (remember they're testing dozens of people at a time) to distinguish heavy use a week ago from a puff yesterday. If this is your line of business, it's the sacrifice you have to make, but ONLY WHEN YOU'RE IN SEASON.
Also, under reasonable medical circumstances, baseline levels could be exceeded in the case of injury or illness that would be helped by such treatment. There is conflicting evidence of whether HGH helps recovery from injury or not, but if it does it should be established what safe and prudent doses are, and they should be allowed -- but must be reduced back to the baseline levels some time prior to re-entering competition.
This shouldn't restrict electric cars directly, but it might mean that they don't factor into CAFE calculations at all. This could lead to the unintended consequence of cars retaining serial-hybrid features while rarely using them, simply so they qualify as highly efficient fuel cars. Having a gasoline engine that is totally unnecessary in daily driving would of course HARM energy efficiency (from carrying dead weight around), but it might be there just so the auto makers can receive CAFE credit for a 100+ MPG vehicle where an all-electric car might result in no such credit.
35 miles per gallon of what exactly? Diesel? Gasoline? Ethanol? The energy density (or lack thereof) of ethanol basically means you have to make adjustments, as there is only about 3/4 the energy in a gallon of ethanol as there is in a gallon of gasoline -- and diesel is richer still. Let's hope that mandating a higher MPG doesn't simultaneously doom fuels that can't possibly meet it.
If the bill is written in a "gallon is a gallon is a gallon" sense, we may well be facing the next generation of cars being diesel-electric serial hybrids because all other fuels are squeezed out by economy mandates -- unless there is major advocacy for butanol as a fuel. Ethanol's primary advantages are that the technology for making it is very mature, and it's not particularly toxic. A straight substitute for gasoline, it isn't.
I tried something like this -- it was called a hundred sided die and it had the considerable drawback that the damn thing never stopped rolling. I guess that makes it a better representation of reality, but it means it sucks as a means of determining outcomes by random number generation.
Some genius must have been really, really stoned, picked up a golf ball, and said "let's make a die out of it!"
This is to be expected in a system of less than three drives -- it basically has to behave as a RAID 1. Use the Drobolator and flesh it out to three or four drives, and you will see it behaves more like a RAID 5 once you get beyond two drives.
Although I think the video is a bit misleading (if you fail two out of three drives, and they're not a bunch smaller than the survivor, you're NOT going to get these great results -- also this couldn't be the first time he'd inserted that drive, stuff just doesn't copy that fast), this does look like an incredibly useful device. So much so, in fact, that I just fired off a message to our company's IT department because they need some sort of expandable storage system, and they need it in a hurry. This may save them from having to do something considerably more painful. They'll still need two of them, one for the office and one for the disaster site, but they would have to have two of whatever solution they choose.
When it comes to cars though, it could be said that "Car of the Year 2007" means "Best Car of Model Year 2007", where the Model Year 2007 cars rolled out some time around August or September of 2006. The 2008 cars rolled out months ago, and pre-production models have been available for review since March or April, so it is hardly surprising that they have already been reviewed, compared, and ranked.
That said, all a list like this needs to do is say "Best of 2007" and in small print, add "(so far)". Any consumer-oriented product is going to be out to market well before mid-November if they want to have any market penetration during the all-important "Holiday Season" (in quotes because there are holidays year-round). This does not apply so much to things like paint-on solar panels, which logically would be most welcome in spring when the weather would be right for installations, but they probably don't have much difference in ANY season, since most installations would be essentially permanent. Besides, what is winter in the northern hemisphere is summer in the southern, and solar panels work just as well on either side of the equator.
To me, the "Good Game" line has always been a PC way to be an ass. If you are the looser, telling the winner that they played a good game seems kind of stupid. If you are the winner, it always comes across as condescending.
Not if the game involves any degree of luck. Sure this does not apply to chess, but it surely would apply to backgammon -- nobody wins them all, no matter how good they are, and it happens quite frequently that someone makes the best possible decision at every point in the game, and still loses. This deserves a "Good Game" -- it acknowledges that there were some things that were out of the player's control that ultimately determined the outcome. Poker of course is particularly prone to this -- all those who play it know exactly what you mean if you say "I was good until the river." Telling someone "Good Game" after he just lost his entire chip stack to a 200:1 runner-runner suckout is hardly condescending.
Most games, including athletic competitions, involve some degree of luck. Environmental variables cannot be controlled, and some of them are not even visible to the players. You throw or kick the ball trusting that the wind will be blowing with the same speed and direction throughout that ball's flight -- what else can you do? When a sudden gust of wind pushes a kick two feet to the right of the upright and you miss the game-winning field goal, that's luck coming into play (unless you're indoors of course). This is why there is a "good" end of the field and a "bad" end to be kicking toward at any point in the game. The difference may not always be large, but it is there, and this is why teams switch sides at various points in the game.
Tennis is likewise prone to the vagaries of shifting and swirling wind, and also to patterns of light and shadow if played by natural light. Baseball has the same issues. Golf is not so prone to tricks of the light, but is very vulnerable to wind and rain -- and yesterday's weather often impacts the condition of the course even though it has changed since. There are no grounds crews to roll out tarps when the rain comes.
"Good Game" is a simple acknowledgment that, had a few variables been changed, the outcome of the contest may well have been different.
I've used swearing in the office when appropriate -- when nothing else will serve the purpose. I wouldn't do it to a client (though I've seen "WTF" in e-mails FROM clients), but I won't hesitate to quote someone exactly if it involves profanity (for example the Bill Gates "that's the dumbest fucking idea I've ever heard" anecdote). I've also been known to give a harsh opinion -- I think it's only been a week since I said about someone's presentation "it looks like shit on a stick, but I think he'll get the account anyhow, because his facts are good". And of course, nobody bats an eyebrow at a response of "that's bullshit!" when it's clearly the case.
For those who are manipulative and political, a well-timed "accidental" swear word can make you look honest and forthcoming when you may not be. If you are willing to call bullshit on someone once, people might consider you more likely to do so in the future, for example.
Even if drugs themselves were legal, being an asshole under the influence could and should remain illegal. The flip side of legal drugs is accepting responsibility for one's behavior under the influence. Sadly, accepting responsibility is no longer the American Way.
I have a Wii console sitting within arm's reach. Due to work demands, I haven't turned it on in three whole days, the longest span of inactivity since I bought it about two and a half months ago. When I get tired of the games I have, I will do a little research (namely, what's better on the Wii than on any other console, and a good game to start with) and have another couple months to enjoy.
The Wii appeals to a market segment that otherwise would not be gamers at all, because so many of the games have a "grip it and rip it" approach. You don't have to learn to use the console and can concentrate immediately on learning to play whatever the game is. As long as the focus is on those games that cater to the strengths of the Wii (namely, the controllers), I don't see the popularity going anywhere unless or until the market is saturated.
I too RTFA. All of it. For once, the "F" really does stand for "fine"... or "fatwa". I fear for this guy's life now -- if he goes rocking the wrong boats he may be singled out. He has nailed some pretty specific problems, but I'm sure he is aware of this and specifically avoided pushing too many hot buttons by not broaching the more general point -- power tends to the power-hungry, and they look out for themselves first. This is hardly an Islamic problem. This particular manifestation may be uniquely Islamic (or not, look where the U.S. is going), but it is not fundamentally different from any other long-term class struggle. The ones at the top are willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of many others to better themselves, and do whatever is necessary to reduce the risk of being challenged.
The real problem is that the people who use power to actually try to fix things don't stay in power very long. They end up dead, deposed, exiled, or can't get re-elected, depending on the locale. Only when problems become crises are politicians willing to address them, and usually badly -- whether by incompetence, compromise, or a mentality that has them dealing with the paint peeling when the real problem is that the house is on fire.
Chicagoans should go out of their way to act "suspicious" in front of these cameras if they want to prevent the onset of a nanny state. Wear thick coats during the summer months, keep their hands in their pockets, look back and forth. Hell, maybe sticking their tongues out at the cameras would constitute suspicious...
There is (kilogram) online precedent for (plutonium) this sort of (bomb) deliberate time-wasting (cocaine) behavior, and although it probably (Osama) isn't all that effective, (anthrax) it can be fun.
What are they distracting us from? Does Google really need human help to translate into Pig Latin. Iay ont'day inkthay osay. This sounds too much to me like an "accidentally on purpose" leak. Either they want us to know about it to create some free buzz, or it's sleight of hand to distract us from something else they're doing. Either way, there is probably a new something on the way. It just may not be Google Mail.
Booting Linux from a live CD is a perfectly valid idea, but it is not absolutely necessary to lock the machine down to pure web browsing. Leave OpenOffice available, and if anyone wants to keep their own data files, they can buy a flash drive -- a "one size fits all" approach is fine: if you can get 1 GB sticks in bulk for $15, that's probably a pretty good balance. Same with pictures they may want to download. If they don't want to bother, and most probably won't, that's fine. Those who want to do more are probably the "power users" you want helping you out anyhow.
That would be my second suggestion -- find out which users "get it", and ask them to assist you. Even late-blooming geeks can use a little extra popularity.:) If they can field even half the questions, everyone benefits. The users get answers faster, the power users get to be heroes, and you can get on with the actual difficult jobs. Remind them that due to the live CD nature of the stations, they can't permanently break anything -- so feel free to try to figure things out. If you muck it up too bad, restart it. The worst they can do is muck up is the USB key that's connected at the time.
You want appliances. Make them do what 90% of the people do without breaking, then extend to embrace the other 10%, maybe by letting them figure out what they need to do but can't.
Musicians work in bands because it's not physically possible for one man to do all of that at once, and sometimes inspiration slips away if it is not immediately applied. For those who can spread themselves out via the wonders of modern recording technology, you end up with one or two guys in a studio -- Nine Inch Nails, They Might Be Giants, and Kraftwerk are just the first three that pop into my head. Two guys allows for the bouncing and trading of ideas, something that becomes exponentially more difficult as people are added to the mix as true equals. (You can have all the backup crew you want, if they just follow orders.) Live gigs require manpower, but studio recordings show musicians tend to be a rather "do it yourself" bunch.
I believe this is similar to the programming mentality. Nobody knows what you want better than you do. If you farm it out, it is only because the scope of the project is too large for an individual or pair.
I call myself a civil libertarian, with a small L. I remain registered with the party with the big L mostly to tell the two major parties I'm not satisfied with either of them. I feel that economic powers should be regulated just enough to keep them from eating the whole system, but individual liberties are nobody's business but my own (and yours, and not the nanny state's). In the Goldwater days, I would probably have been aligned that way, but there is no resemblance between that Republican party and that of today. Sometimes such an ideology leads to governing too little (for example, Goldwater did not back federal enforcement on civil rights issues -- a position he later admitted was probably wrong), but such mistakes are more easily correctable than over-legislating, because very little of what goes on the books ever comes back off. It also leaves room for states and municipalities to operate.
For example, my solution to the whole "gay marriage" issue is very simple, yet some find it shocking. Take the government out of the marriage business entirely. Civil unions, as matters of contract, are government business and enforceable by same. Let churches decide what is or is not marriage. In order to have gay marriage, you need only have a church that allows the same, and the probability of that taking place is rather high -- one need only found a splinter church. If other churches will not accept the validity of marriages performed there, well that sort of bullshit has been going on for thousands of years and hasn't destroyed society.
The biggest problem we face is that the powers-that-be do not play fair, and have the resources to continue to not play fair. The game is much too expensive to play, now that the two controlling interests have rigged it that way. It's not right, but that's how it is, so those of us who feel left out of the process are justified in at least some of our various forms of subversion. The question is, as always, where to draw the line. Giving your own software away to stick it to the man, good. Giving away someone else's software to stick it to the man, not so good. Some muddy the waters between the two to serve their own interests, and their motivations should be questioned.
I'd start by killing monkeys that harassed me or my family, regardless of any laws. Then I'd start defending people outside my family the same way, and assisting others in taking up the same cause. By the time news of this spread to "law enforcement", the whole village should be united in the cause. Maybe they get me but the village lives on, or, more likely, the village would be willing to provide some form of protection.
It's the Reader's Digest Abridged Version (Photo)!
There are circumstances where it makes sense to abridge (or retarget) and others where it makes more sense to simply rescale. Since this appears to allow the content provider to choose the method that will be used, the overall effect should be fairly acceptable. For existing content, and future unmarked content, some guesswork will be necessary, and I would imagine this is going to be the hardest part. Computers still can't "see", so getting them to assign the same priorities to pictured objects as we would is going to be a difficult task, though one that is likely to have applications far beyond the mere manipulation of images.
Your average slashdotter produces millions of nano-oscillators daily, and usually releases them while imagining covering a naked and petrified Natalie Portman in hot grits. All it takes is one hand, a few minutes, and a locked door.
If used as a substitute for a printed page, the response time of 1s should be perfectly adequate -- that's faster than most people will turn a page, especially with a big, glossy magazine. If this could be permanently applied to curved surfaces, you could also have a car that changes color at the touch of a button. It could be Tom Green's pornmobile as you roll across town, and convert back into an innocent slate gray as you pull up to your date's house. You could flash messages at tailgaters (I've always wanted to install a big rear-facing "WTF" sign but this would be far better), and haven't you always wanted to display a reversed "HANG UP AND DRIVE" on your hood when someone is yapping and weaving in front of you?
Obviously they won't replace Intel anytime soon, but they're not in dire straits, either.
That's OK, if they keep practicing, maybe they'll make it as the 114th and soon to be former member. Should happen some time around 2027, after Mark Knopfler runs out of names in his Rolodex...
Slashdot Mirror
I would support establishing a "baseline" level of various hormones for athletes, at the top end of the normal range and well within the margin of safety. Anyone who lacks sufficient natural quantities may enhance them up to but not beyond this baseline. Anyone who naturally exceeds the baseline must have medical documentation produced explaining why, once it is known.
This would NOT be age-dependent -- that is, a 42 year old Roger Clemens would be entitled to 18 year old HGH and T levels, although there's no imaginable way his body would produce these levels on its own.
Also, these athletes should be entitled to their privacy when it comes to short-term "performance enhancers", so long as they are not within their period of active competition. This means that if a football player wants to smoke eight joints (I'm looking at you, Ricky Williams), that's fine -- if it's off-season, or if he's on the Injured Reserve list for the rest of the season. This will have absolutely no effect on the athletic competition, and he should be given the freedom to make this choice. Come August, when the pre-season gets under way, he would be tested for short-term drugs again, so he'd know he had to stop toking a week (or a month depending how heavily he does it) or so before the first pre-season game. Unfortunately, it takes time for the body to clear these things and the testers have no easy way (remember they're testing dozens of people at a time) to distinguish heavy use a week ago from a puff yesterday. If this is your line of business, it's the sacrifice you have to make, but ONLY WHEN YOU'RE IN SEASON.
Also, under reasonable medical circumstances, baseline levels could be exceeded in the case of injury or illness that would be helped by such treatment. There is conflicting evidence of whether HGH helps recovery from injury or not, but if it does it should be established what safe and prudent doses are, and they should be allowed -- but must be reduced back to the baseline levels some time prior to re-entering competition.
Mal-2
This shouldn't restrict electric cars directly, but it might mean that they don't factor into CAFE calculations at all. This could lead to the unintended consequence of cars retaining serial-hybrid features while rarely using them, simply so they qualify as highly efficient fuel cars. Having a gasoline engine that is totally unnecessary in daily driving would of course HARM energy efficiency (from carrying dead weight around), but it might be there just so the auto makers can receive CAFE credit for a 100+ MPG vehicle where an all-electric car might result in no such credit.
Mal-2
35 miles per gallon of what exactly? Diesel? Gasoline? Ethanol? The energy density (or lack thereof) of ethanol basically means you have to make adjustments, as there is only about 3/4 the energy in a gallon of ethanol as there is in a gallon of gasoline -- and diesel is richer still. Let's hope that mandating a higher MPG doesn't simultaneously doom fuels that can't possibly meet it.
If the bill is written in a "gallon is a gallon is a gallon" sense, we may well be facing the next generation of cars being diesel-electric serial hybrids because all other fuels are squeezed out by economy mandates -- unless there is major advocacy for butanol as a fuel. Ethanol's primary advantages are that the technology for making it is very mature, and it's not particularly toxic. A straight substitute for gasoline, it isn't.
Mal-2
I tried something like this -- it was called a hundred sided die and it had the considerable drawback that the damn thing never stopped rolling. I guess that makes it a better representation of reality, but it means it sucks as a means of determining outcomes by random number generation.
Some genius must have been really, really stoned, picked up a golf ball, and said "let's make a die out of it!"
Mal-2
This is to be expected in a system of less than three drives -- it basically has to behave as a RAID 1. Use the Drobolator and flesh it out to three or four drives, and you will see it behaves more like a RAID 5 once you get beyond two drives.
Mal-2
Although I think the video is a bit misleading (if you fail two out of three drives, and they're not a bunch smaller than the survivor, you're NOT going to get these great results -- also this couldn't be the first time he'd inserted that drive, stuff just doesn't copy that fast), this does look like an incredibly useful device. So much so, in fact, that I just fired off a message to our company's IT department because they need some sort of expandable storage system, and they need it in a hurry. This may save them from having to do something considerably more painful. They'll still need two of them, one for the office and one for the disaster site, but they would have to have two of whatever solution they choose.
Mal-2
When it comes to cars though, it could be said that "Car of the Year 2007" means "Best Car of Model Year 2007", where the Model Year 2007 cars rolled out some time around August or September of 2006. The 2008 cars rolled out months ago, and pre-production models have been available for review since March or April, so it is hardly surprising that they have already been reviewed, compared, and ranked.
That said, all a list like this needs to do is say "Best of 2007" and in small print, add "(so far)". Any consumer-oriented product is going to be out to market well before mid-November if they want to have any market penetration during the all-important "Holiday Season" (in quotes because there are holidays year-round). This does not apply so much to things like paint-on solar panels, which logically would be most welcome in spring when the weather would be right for installations, but they probably don't have much difference in ANY season, since most installations would be essentially permanent. Besides, what is winter in the northern hemisphere is summer in the southern, and solar panels work just as well on either side of the equator.
Mal-2
Not if the game involves any degree of luck. Sure this does not apply to chess, but it surely would apply to backgammon -- nobody wins them all, no matter how good they are, and it happens quite frequently that someone makes the best possible decision at every point in the game, and still loses. This deserves a "Good Game" -- it acknowledges that there were some things that were out of the player's control that ultimately determined the outcome. Poker of course is particularly prone to this -- all those who play it know exactly what you mean if you say "I was good until the river." Telling someone "Good Game" after he just lost his entire chip stack to a 200:1 runner-runner suckout is hardly condescending.
Most games, including athletic competitions, involve some degree of luck. Environmental variables cannot be controlled, and some of them are not even visible to the players. You throw or kick the ball trusting that the wind will be blowing with the same speed and direction throughout that ball's flight -- what else can you do? When a sudden gust of wind pushes a kick two feet to the right of the upright and you miss the game-winning field goal, that's luck coming into play (unless you're indoors of course). This is why there is a "good" end of the field and a "bad" end to be kicking toward at any point in the game. The difference may not always be large, but it is there, and this is why teams switch sides at various points in the game.
Tennis is likewise prone to the vagaries of shifting and swirling wind, and also to patterns of light and shadow if played by natural light. Baseball has the same issues. Golf is not so prone to tricks of the light, but is very vulnerable to wind and rain -- and yesterday's weather often impacts the condition of the course even though it has changed since. There are no grounds crews to roll out tarps when the rain comes.
"Good Game" is a simple acknowledgment that, had a few variables been changed, the outcome of the contest may well have been different.
Mal-2
I like 'em really bot
I like 'em really flat
I like 'em lookin' just
Like a TCP/IP stack
Virus really tiny?
I call you Your Highness
In hacking class,
you got a bot-minus!
Flat bots
I like flat bots!
Flat bots
I like flat bots!
Mal-2
I've used swearing in the office when appropriate -- when nothing else will serve the purpose. I wouldn't do it to a client (though I've seen "WTF" in e-mails FROM clients), but I won't hesitate to quote someone exactly if it involves profanity (for example the Bill Gates "that's the dumbest fucking idea I've ever heard" anecdote). I've also been known to give a harsh opinion -- I think it's only been a week since I said about someone's presentation "it looks like shit on a stick, but I think he'll get the account anyhow, because his facts are good". And of course, nobody bats an eyebrow at a response of "that's bullshit!" when it's clearly the case.
For those who are manipulative and political, a well-timed "accidental" swear word can make you look honest and forthcoming when you may not be. If you are willing to call bullshit on someone once, people might consider you more likely to do so in the future, for example.
Mal-2
Even if drugs themselves were legal, being an asshole under the influence could and should remain illegal. The flip side of legal drugs is accepting responsibility for one's behavior under the influence. Sadly, accepting responsibility is no longer the American Way.
Mal-2
I have a Wii console sitting within arm's reach. Due to work demands, I haven't turned it on in three whole days, the longest span of inactivity since I bought it about two and a half months ago. When I get tired of the games I have, I will do a little research (namely, what's better on the Wii than on any other console, and a good game to start with) and have another couple months to enjoy.
The Wii appeals to a market segment that otherwise would not be gamers at all, because so many of the games have a "grip it and rip it" approach. You don't have to learn to use the console and can concentrate immediately on learning to play whatever the game is. As long as the focus is on those games that cater to the strengths of the Wii (namely, the controllers), I don't see the popularity going anywhere unless or until the market is saturated.
Mal-2
I'll give them that one -- I really don't want to see bus stop ads with "Need a refinance? Call I-DCCC-DCCCLXVII-_VCCCIX"...
That's 1-800-867-5309 for the Roman numeral impaired. I have no idea how the Romans could do their engineering while dealing with that shit.
Mal-2
I too RTFA. All of it. For once, the "F" really does stand for "fine"... or "fatwa". I fear for this guy's life now -- if he goes rocking the wrong boats he may be singled out. He has nailed some pretty specific problems, but I'm sure he is aware of this and specifically avoided pushing too many hot buttons by not broaching the more general point -- power tends to the power-hungry, and they look out for themselves first. This is hardly an Islamic problem. This particular manifestation may be uniquely Islamic (or not, look where the U.S. is going), but it is not fundamentally different from any other long-term class struggle. The ones at the top are willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of many others to better themselves, and do whatever is necessary to reduce the risk of being challenged.
The real problem is that the people who use power to actually try to fix things don't stay in power very long. They end up dead, deposed, exiled, or can't get re-elected, depending on the locale. Only when problems become crises are politicians willing to address them, and usually badly -- whether by incompetence, compromise, or a mentality that has them dealing with the paint peeling when the real problem is that the house is on fire.
Mal-2
There is (kilogram) online precedent for (plutonium) this sort of (bomb) deliberate time-wasting (cocaine) behavior, and although it probably (Osama) isn't all that effective, (anthrax) it can be fun.
Mal-2
What are they distracting us from? Does Google really need human help to translate into Pig Latin. Iay ont'day inkthay osay. This sounds too much to me like an "accidentally on purpose" leak. Either they want us to know about it to create some free buzz, or it's sleight of hand to distract us from something else they're doing. Either way, there is probably a new something on the way. It just may not be Google Mail.
Mal-2
There's a hole in the ground and something smells bad. We should all know where it came from, the same place the gigantic rampaging breast came from in "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask":
Lake Titicaca, I'm looking at you.
Mal-2
Booting Linux from a live CD is a perfectly valid idea, but it is not absolutely necessary to lock the machine down to pure web browsing. Leave OpenOffice available, and if anyone wants to keep their own data files, they can buy a flash drive -- a "one size fits all" approach is fine: if you can get 1 GB sticks in bulk for $15, that's probably a pretty good balance. Same with pictures they may want to download. If they don't want to bother, and most probably won't, that's fine. Those who want to do more are probably the "power users" you want helping you out anyhow.
:) If they can field even half the questions, everyone benefits. The users get answers faster, the power users get to be heroes, and you can get on with the actual difficult jobs. Remind them that due to the live CD nature of the stations, they can't permanently break anything -- so feel free to try to figure things out. If you muck it up too bad, restart it. The worst they can do is muck up is the USB key that's connected at the time.
That would be my second suggestion -- find out which users "get it", and ask them to assist you. Even late-blooming geeks can use a little extra popularity.
You want appliances. Make them do what 90% of the people do without breaking, then extend to embrace the other 10%, maybe by letting them figure out what they need to do but can't.
Mal-2
There is no real problem with Dubyas attending Yale. Someone has the subsidize the poor kids on scholarship.
Mal-2
Musicians work in bands because it's not physically possible for one man to do all of that at once, and sometimes inspiration slips away if it is not immediately applied. For those who can spread themselves out via the wonders of modern recording technology, you end up with one or two guys in a studio -- Nine Inch Nails, They Might Be Giants, and Kraftwerk are just the first three that pop into my head. Two guys allows for the bouncing and trading of ideas, something that becomes exponentially more difficult as people are added to the mix as true equals. (You can have all the backup crew you want, if they just follow orders.) Live gigs require manpower, but studio recordings show musicians tend to be a rather "do it yourself" bunch.
I believe this is similar to the programming mentality. Nobody knows what you want better than you do. If you farm it out, it is only because the scope of the project is too large for an individual or pair.
I call myself a civil libertarian, with a small L. I remain registered with the party with the big L mostly to tell the two major parties I'm not satisfied with either of them. I feel that economic powers should be regulated just enough to keep them from eating the whole system, but individual liberties are nobody's business but my own (and yours, and not the nanny state's). In the Goldwater days, I would probably have been aligned that way, but there is no resemblance between that Republican party and that of today. Sometimes such an ideology leads to governing too little (for example, Goldwater did not back federal enforcement on civil rights issues -- a position he later admitted was probably wrong), but such mistakes are more easily correctable than over-legislating, because very little of what goes on the books ever comes back off. It also leaves room for states and municipalities to operate.
For example, my solution to the whole "gay marriage" issue is very simple, yet some find it shocking. Take the government out of the marriage business entirely. Civil unions, as matters of contract, are government business and enforceable by same. Let churches decide what is or is not marriage. In order to have gay marriage, you need only have a church that allows the same, and the probability of that taking place is rather high -- one need only found a splinter church. If other churches will not accept the validity of marriages performed there, well that sort of bullshit has been going on for thousands of years and hasn't destroyed society.
The biggest problem we face is that the powers-that-be do not play fair, and have the resources to continue to not play fair. The game is much too expensive to play, now that the two controlling interests have rigged it that way. It's not right, but that's how it is, so those of us who feel left out of the process are justified in at least some of our various forms of subversion. The question is, as always, where to draw the line. Giving your own software away to stick it to the man, good. Giving away someone else's software to stick it to the man, not so good. Some muddy the waters between the two to serve their own interests, and their motivations should be questioned.
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I'd start by killing monkeys that harassed me or my family, regardless of any laws. Then I'd start defending people outside my family the same way, and assisting others in taking up the same cause. By the time news of this spread to "law enforcement", the whole village should be united in the cause. Maybe they get me but the village lives on, or, more likely, the village would be willing to provide some form of protection.
Hopefully, the BBC would still be reporting.
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It's the Reader's Digest Abridged Version (Photo)!
There are circumstances where it makes sense to abridge (or retarget) and others where it makes more sense to simply rescale. Since this appears to allow the content provider to choose the method that will be used, the overall effect should be fairly acceptable. For existing content, and future unmarked content, some guesswork will be necessary, and I would imagine this is going to be the hardest part. Computers still can't "see", so getting them to assign the same priorities to pictured objects as we would is going to be a difficult task, though one that is likely to have applications far beyond the mere manipulation of images.
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Your average slashdotter produces millions of nano-oscillators daily, and usually releases them while imagining covering a naked and petrified Natalie Portman in hot grits. All it takes is one hand, a few minutes, and a locked door.
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If used as a substitute for a printed page, the response time of 1s should be perfectly adequate -- that's faster than most people will turn a page, especially with a big, glossy magazine. If this could be permanently applied to curved surfaces, you could also have a car that changes color at the touch of a button. It could be Tom Green's pornmobile as you roll across town, and convert back into an innocent slate gray as you pull up to your date's house. You could flash messages at tailgaters (I've always wanted to install a big rear-facing "WTF" sign but this would be far better), and haven't you always wanted to display a reversed "HANG UP AND DRIVE" on your hood when someone is yapping and weaving in front of you?
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That's OK, if they keep practicing, maybe they'll make it as the 114th and soon to be former member. Should happen some time around 2027, after Mark Knopfler runs out of names in his Rolodex...
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