That's a very valid point for you, the user, but not for anyone who calls himself a journalist, imo. You have an excuse for not doing the homework (why should you?), but not anyone who attempts to write a comparison piece. He should have been more thorough.
All I can suggest is checking out the site I listed in the grandparent post. Actually, I poked around in the site a bit more, and I noticed he's slowly rolling out an updated guide for the new Opera 8.0. The best thing about the guide, imo, is that is breaks everything down into managable chunks. You will learn something new every "day". That's how I found out about some of the browser's more obscure features.
I even use a custom style sheet at work so I can browse without looking like I am browsing.:)
... and browsing completely by keyboard, and customizable mouse gestures (I understand Firefox has this as an extension, how good is it?), and the fast forward button (brilliant!), special style sheets (like text-only, blocking certain-size images, no tables, high contrast, show images/link only, etc), the M2 mail client, spellcheck.
This is stuff I thought of right after I posted the parent, and I know I am missing more.
I'm an Opera fan (you wanna fight about it?) and I was eager to read this article. Am I the only one who felt it ended pretty abruptly, without actually covering anything? All TFA covered was look-and-feel, RSS, and a couple of little things like ad blocking and Opera's Quick Prefs.
He didn't touch Notes, of the panels, or the hot bar, or the way they each handle tabs, cookies, the Wand, granularity of popup blocking, proxy servers, the Transfers window (and how Opera/Firefox handle downloads in general), the user-customizable CSS and link style in Opera (does Firefox have something comparable? I wish he covered it so I would know!), Opera's Zoom, quick enabling-disabling of images, methods of caching (including Opera's "delete private data" button), Opera's in-line search functionality, saving "sessions", crash recovery, little neat things like making a page printer friendly with one button...I could go on all day!
I mean no offense to Mr. Shaffer, but this article is really lacking in content. I expected something more along the lines of the 30 Days to Becoming an Opera Lover site (which is for version 7) in terms of depth. Very disappointing. I hope that Slashdot's Opera/Firefox lovers can at least turn this into a nice discussion in the comments. I missed a ton of features, but you can use my little rant up there as a starting point.
I jumped out of my chair when I saw this. My inital thoughts:
- This is going to legitimize the activities of companies like IGE.
- I hope it's a unprecendented failure, even though I fear it won't be.
- What's next? SOE selling in-game currency?
At least they have the good sense to do this on new, seperate servers. This is going to have far-reaching consequences, they've essentially broken the "fourth wall" of MMORPGs. First-sign-of-the-apocalypse dept, indeed!
Look at the write-up for the interview, and this one with the reponses. It's obvious that Taco digs this guy and his music. You've got a 4-digit UID, so you've been around long enough to know that the mantra around this place is "News for Nerds, stuff that matters to CmdrTaco."
It's not really anything new. Slashdot has always been Rob's sandbox.
I remember complaining for months that/. didn't even have an icon for Google. Now I wish they'd make google.slashdot.org and get this stuff off the front page. Maybe take the place of Apache, which has had a grand total of one article in all of 2005.
This site has always been "News for Nerds, stuff that matters to CmdrTaco". Glancing at your UID number (although I'm not oldbie either), I think it's safe to say: "You must be new here".:)
I didn't see anywhere in the article that answered the "who is going to pay for this?" question. Based on what it costs Apple to run the iTMS, somehow I don't see five cents doing much more than covering overhead, if that. If you're just ignoring copyright law and distributing illegally, like a certain site oft-mentioned here, you could make a profit out of it. But if everyone does it, say hello to less new music... right?
Things that you never even think about are used for facial recognition. Bone structure, the distance between your eyes, anything goes. Your problem is that you're approaching the problem like a human would, which is a fatal flaw. When you look at facial recognition like decronstructiing a face into component parts, or analyzing the variation between faces, you'll see why programs are getting fairly decent at it.
Any algorithm that's fooled by something as silly as a person smiling is a POS, plain and simple. Besides, with something like the recognition used for these cellphones, with limited reoslution, it would need to be turned on the fuzzy side anyway. Precision for scanning millions of people in an airport is a little bit different than one person authenticating a cellphone.
Funny thing about facial recognition is that it probably wouldn't matter, if it's good enough and uses the right algorithm. There are features about your face that don't change, even if you look outwardly different to everyone else after kissing your steering wheel at high speed.
Some systems can do neat things like correctly identify people after having radical plastic surgery, which is pretty cool. Can I get a -1, Pedantic mod for taking the parent's Funny comment too seriously?
There are several technical reasons why cellphones are banned, don't forget. Interference with the instruments in the plane is one thing. The fact that cellphones thousands of feet in the air can "see" a whole bunch of cellphone towers at once poses a problem, too.
To solve the problem, they'd probably have to have some sort of localized setup on the plane itself, which requires cooperation from the carriers (they are already arguing about how many carriers should be allowed to compete), which means cellphones on planes might happen when I'm too old to fly anyway.:D
Perhaps you are right. Just seems like a poor choice of words for a discussion such as this. Although I am not sure what would be ethically wrong with helping the paralysed walk again.
Maybe so. But I think the issue isn't the results, but the methods. People are worried about a slippery slope, and I think that's what the OP was getting at.
I will worry about playing God as soon as you can prove scientifically that there is a god. At no point should scientific research be affected by any religious beliefs and surely not the religious beliefs of one particular religion.
Alright, that's completely unfair to the OP. I am not a religious person, I understand what "playing God" means, and it has nothing to with a all-powerful diety. If you don't like that cliché because it sounds religious, here's another one for you: too often scientists will ask themselves "can I do this", instead of "should I do this?"
Unless you beleive that all non-religious people are morally bankrupt anarchists, I think you can grant that scientists are bound by ethics that have nothing to do with a god of any kind.
Ahh yes, the solution to bootlegging in theatres. How much of a problem is this anyway, though? I've seen copies of movies taken by some guy with a camcorder... the audio quality is always lousy, people chatter in the background, and there is invariably some big guy who takes a popcorn break right in the middle of the movie. We won't get into the video aspect, which is dog awful. Sounds like someone solving a non-problem, as usual.
The real issue are those screeners, which they've made some progress with (I hear), and the people who work in the theatres, which will be difficult. I doubt someone getting paid close to minimum wage is going to care about your IP. Watermarking sounds promising.
I usually post this comment as AC whenever/. covers Lucas and his treatment of the original trilogy, but today the mods can spend some points elsewhere. It's a quote from the introduction of Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley:
"Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address youself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.
Art also has its morality, and many of the rules of this morality are the same as, or at least analogous to, the rules of ordinary ethics. Remorse, for example, is as undesirable in relation to our bad art as it is in relation to our bad behaviour. The badness should be hunted out, acknowledged and, if possible, avoided in the future. To pore over the literary shortcomings of twenty years ago, to attempt to patch a faulty work into the perfection it missed at its first execution, to spend one`s middle age in trying to mend the artistic sins committed and bequeathed by that different person who was oneself in youth - all this is surely vain and futile. And that is why this new `Brave New World` is the same as the old one. Its defects as a work of art are considerable; but in order to correct them I should have to rewrite the book - and in the process of rewriting, as an older, other person, I should probably get rid not only of some faults of the story, but also of such merits as it originally possessed. And so, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think about something else."
Honestly, it requires no further commentary.
Re:Badnarik is not qualified to be President
on
Election Day Discussion
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Badnarik has good credentials as a geek, and I'd probably hire him for a programming or systems administration job, but he has no political experience whatsoever. Hell, he wasn't even able to get himself elected to the TEXAS House of Representives. If he (and the Libertarian party in general) are serious about getting into the White House, they need to set their sights a little lower at first: GET PEOPLE INTO OFFICE. *ANY* OFFICE. Local level, state level, whatever. School boards, town/county council, state legislatures, judgeships, etc. This serves two purposes: it shows people that Libertarians actually *can* work with the system and it gives the office-holders actual EXPERIENCE to run for higher office.
Good thing they already thought of this, eh? Click here, pick a state of your choosing, and behold all of the Libertarians in local positions.
(aside: Jesus it's hard to post with all of these 503 errors, I can't even check to see if this is redundant)
Well, not the only choice. Cobb also works if you want some radical, meaningful change.
I voted Badnarik in Massachusetts this morning, and was amused to see he was the first choice on the ballot. I know my vote is only a pebble, but I'll be voting 3rd party for as long as it takes to get election reform in this country. And not just on the Presidental level (where it matters the least, imo), but locally, where I can make a difference.
Unfortunately, I didn't have that option today, because almost every position was a Democrat running unopposed. That's Massachusetts for you.;)
I live in Massachusetts, where the outcome is more or less predetermined (we are sort of a wacky state that's solidly Democratic, and has a history of electing Republican governors. Don't let that fool you, though, Kerry will landslide here).
So I've decided to vote Libertarian. While I don't agree with everything Badnarik stands for (free market can't solve everything), I am using my vote to try to put a spotlight on election reform. Anyone else in the same boat?
I didn't think history would repeat itself so soon. How many people remember the class-action lawsuit against Sony? They had the infamous "Disk Read Error" on the 1st generation PS2s. If I recall correctly, Sony has to repair or replace the affected systems, even if they are out of warranty (I'm sure someone will correct me if I am mistaken).
Reputable links are pretty sparse, but a quick Google search revealed a FAQ that has surfaced in several places. I usually despise class-action suits, they tend to only make lawyers rich, but as the owner of a failed 1st gen PS2, I have to say this might be a worthy use of it. IANAL, etc.
Roblimo should clean up the question by removing the silly analogy, and re-submit it to Rob Pike, since most of the discussion seems to be centered around his flippant answer. Include his reply in a Slashback. How's that sound?
Slashdot Mirror
That's a very valid point for you, the user, but not for anyone who calls himself a journalist, imo. You have an excuse for not doing the homework (why should you?), but not anyone who attempts to write a comparison piece. He should have been more thorough.
:)
All I can suggest is checking out the site I listed in the grandparent post. Actually, I poked around in the site a bit more, and I noticed he's slowly rolling out an updated guide for the new Opera 8.0. The best thing about the guide, imo, is that is breaks everything down into managable chunks. You will learn something new every "day". That's how I found out about some of the browser's more obscure features.
I even use a custom style sheet at work so I can browse without looking like I am browsing.
... and browsing completely by keyboard, and customizable mouse gestures (I understand Firefox has this as an extension, how good is it?), and the fast forward button (brilliant!), special style sheets (like text-only, blocking certain-size images, no tables, high contrast, show images/link only, etc), the M2 mail client, spellcheck.
This is stuff I thought of right after I posted the parent, and I know I am missing more.
I'm an Opera fan (you wanna fight about it?) and I was eager to read this article. Am I the only one who felt it ended pretty abruptly, without actually covering anything? All TFA covered was look-and-feel, RSS, and a couple of little things like ad blocking and Opera's Quick Prefs.
He didn't touch Notes, of the panels, or the hot bar, or the way they each handle tabs, cookies, the Wand, granularity of popup blocking, proxy servers, the Transfers window (and how Opera/Firefox handle downloads in general), the user-customizable CSS and link style in Opera (does Firefox have something comparable? I wish he covered it so I would know!), Opera's Zoom, quick enabling-disabling of images, methods of caching (including Opera's "delete private data" button), Opera's in-line search functionality, saving "sessions", crash recovery, little neat things like making a page printer friendly with one button...I could go on all day!
I mean no offense to Mr. Shaffer, but this article is really lacking in content. I expected something more along the lines of the 30 Days to Becoming an Opera Lover site (which is for version 7) in terms of depth. Very disappointing. I hope that Slashdot's Opera/Firefox lovers can at least turn this into a nice discussion in the comments. I missed a ton of features, but you can use my little rant up there as a starting point.
I jumped out of my chair when I saw this. My inital thoughts:
- This is going to legitimize the activities of companies like IGE.
- I hope it's a unprecendented failure, even though I fear it won't be.
- What's next? SOE selling in-game currency?
At least they have the good sense to do this on new, seperate servers. This is going to have far-reaching consequences, they've essentially broken the "fourth wall" of MMORPGs. First-sign-of-the-apocalypse dept, indeed!
So nice of you to copy this comment from an earlier story, verbatim, without crediting the original author.
Look at the write-up for the interview, and this one with the reponses. It's obvious that Taco digs this guy and his music. You've got a 4-digit UID, so you've been around long enough to know that the mantra around this place is "News for Nerds, stuff that matters to CmdrTaco." It's not really anything new. Slashdot has always been Rob's sandbox.
Well, never let it be said that Google's search results aren't equal-opportunity. The second hit for "miserable failure" is www.michaelmoore.com :)
I remember complaining for months that /. didn't even have an icon for Google. Now I wish they'd make google.slashdot.org and get this stuff off the front page. Maybe take the place of Apache, which has had a grand total of one article in all of 2005.
Lightweight. My UID is odd, and has fewer prime factors than yours. 684663 -> 3, 7, 32603 32242 -> 2, 7, 7, 7, 47
This site has always been "News for Nerds, stuff that matters to CmdrTaco". Glancing at your UID number (although I'm not oldbie either), I think it's safe to say: "You must be new here". :)
I didn't see anywhere in the article that answered the "who is going to pay for this?" question. Based on what it costs Apple to run the iTMS, somehow I don't see five cents doing much more than covering overhead, if that. If you're just ignoring copyright law and distributing illegally, like a certain site oft-mentioned here, you could make a profit out of it. But if everyone does it, say hello to less new music... right?
Things that you never even think about are used for facial recognition. Bone structure, the distance between your eyes, anything goes. Your problem is that you're approaching the problem like a human would, which is a fatal flaw. When you look at facial recognition like decronstructiing a face into component parts, or analyzing the variation between faces, you'll see why programs are getting fairly decent at it.
Any algorithm that's fooled by something as silly as a person smiling is a POS, plain and simple. Besides, with something like the recognition used for these cellphones, with limited reoslution, it would need to be turned on the fuzzy side anyway. Precision for scanning millions of people in an airport is a little bit different than one person authenticating a cellphone.
Funny thing about facial recognition is that it probably wouldn't matter, if it's good enough and uses the right algorithm. There are features about your face that don't change, even if you look outwardly different to everyone else after kissing your steering wheel at high speed.
Some systems can do neat things like correctly identify people after having radical plastic surgery, which is pretty cool. Can I get a -1, Pedantic mod for taking the parent's Funny comment too seriously?
There are several technical reasons why cellphones are banned, don't forget. Interference with the instruments in the plane is one thing. The fact that cellphones thousands of feet in the air can "see" a whole bunch of cellphone towers at once poses a problem, too. To solve the problem, they'd probably have to have some sort of localized setup on the plane itself, which requires cooperation from the carriers (they are already arguing about how many carriers should be allowed to compete), which means cellphones on planes might happen when I'm too old to fly anyway. :D
Unless you beleive that all non-religious people are morally bankrupt anarchists, I think you can grant that scientists are bound by ethics that have nothing to do with a god of any kind.
Ahh yes, the solution to bootlegging in theatres. How much of a problem is this anyway, though? I've seen copies of movies taken by some guy with a camcorder... the audio quality is always lousy, people chatter in the background, and there is invariably some big guy who takes a popcorn break right in the middle of the movie. We won't get into the video aspect, which is dog awful. Sounds like someone solving a non-problem, as usual.
The real issue are those screeners, which they've made some progress with (I hear), and the people who work in the theatres, which will be difficult. I doubt someone getting paid close to minimum wage is going to care about your IP. Watermarking sounds promising.
(aside: Jesus it's hard to post with all of these 503 errors, I can't even check to see if this is redundant)
Well, not the only choice. Cobb also works if you want some radical, meaningful change.
;)
I voted Badnarik in Massachusetts this morning, and was amused to see he was the first choice on the ballot. I know my vote is only a pebble, but I'll be voting 3rd party for as long as it takes to get election reform in this country. And not just on the Presidental level (where it matters the least, imo), but locally, where I can make a difference.
Unfortunately, I didn't have that option today, because almost every position was a Democrat running unopposed. That's Massachusetts for you.
I live in Massachusetts, where the outcome is more or less predetermined (we are sort of a wacky state that's solidly Democratic, and has a history of electing Republican governors. Don't let that fool you, though, Kerry will landslide here). So I've decided to vote Libertarian. While I don't agree with everything Badnarik stands for (free market can't solve everything), I am using my vote to try to put a spotlight on election reform. Anyone else in the same boat?
I didn't think history would repeat itself so soon. How many people remember the class-action lawsuit against Sony? They had the infamous "Disk Read Error" on the 1st generation PS2s. If I recall correctly, Sony has to repair or replace the affected systems, even if they are out of warranty (I'm sure someone will correct me if I am mistaken).
Reputable links are pretty sparse, but a quick Google search revealed a FAQ that has surfaced in several places. I usually despise class-action suits, they tend to only make lawyers rich, but as the owner of a failed 1st gen PS2, I have to say this might be a worthy use of it. IANAL, etc.
Roblimo should clean up the question by removing the silly analogy, and re-submit it to Rob Pike, since most of the discussion seems to be centered around his flippant answer. Include his reply in a Slashback. How's that sound?