Does the Mail have a gallery of these "experts" on standby to give a comment as required for the scare of the day... "Experts say that nobody knows how many paedophiles are molesting your children at this very moment!" "Experts say you could be knifecrimed by a chav today!" "Experts say that Russell Brand might be prank-calling your grandfather RIGHT NOW."
Sssh! That's supposed to be a newspaper secret! (actually, they don't need a "gallery" - just a single "expert" (who is expert only at writing scare stories)
When it was discovered that there was a serious bug in Win95 that would crash the system after 40 days of operation, the reaction in many places, including here on Slashdot, was "You mean there are people who have actually kept Win95 running for 40 days?"
The most insidious part of the 40 (and some) days - 65536 minutes is 45 and a half days - crash was that everything appeared normal. The mouse would move the cursor and the icons were still all visible on the desktop. The problem was that no amount of double-clicking or keyboard shortcuts would make anything actually happen.
(I found this one out the hard way - leaving the machine on to let the daily backup complete, while I went home)
the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED, ROM and DISK BASIC.
Same old Microsoft - always wanting multiple versions of the same product, so no-one knows exactly which one they need. Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED> anyone?
Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), and was shown around. Having paid (in stock), he was allowed to "pick one of three", and went for the GUI. Apple developers then did significant extra items on top of Xerox's work (partly because they mis-remembered what they saw; some things like overlapping windows hadn't been worked out by Xerox, although the devs thought they had seen them)
Radio - third series (Tertiary Phase) also good; missed the 4th one, so can't comment
Books - three is good, four is short (because he was locked in a hotel room with only a Mac Plus to write it on, rather than an of his 5 Mac IIs,because the publisher had let him miss too many deadlines already, and wanted a book. any book). Pass on five, unless you like downer endings
The movie wasn't al bad - the last half hour or so (presumably when the studio execs started to panic and let the director just get on with it) had the right tone.
The best bit, though, was the Monty Python "Meaning of Life" homage that was the opening sequence - by the looks of things, most of the budget went on that (in the same way that the "Every Sperm is Sacred" opening number in "Meaning of Life" used up 80% of that film's budget.) Just the kind of silly, thumbing nose at authority gimmick that DNA would have approved of.
Raise a pan galactic gargle blaster to the late Douglas Adams for 30 years of bizarre geek humor. I agree, besides, I haven't been hit in the head with a lemon peel wrapped brick in ages...... "It's unpleasantly like being drunk"
One of my friends (also named Douglas, something that amused Douglas Adams when he was signing a book - "To Douglas from Douglas") pointed out the base 13 connection to Adams, which met with a bemused response at the time (and a mention in the forward to the book of the radio scripts to all the geek fans who had come up with that one)
If the U.S./UK governments are responsible for 9/11 is beyond the scope of this reply
They were certainly responsible for wanting something like it to happen - From 2000 onwards, China was being named as "the new enemy", and goaded into doing "something" - for example, the US Spy Plane 'accidentally' going into Chinese airspace. However, it looks as though they were wanting something along the lines of a maniac with an ICBM, as one of the first pieces of legislation pushed through after the attacks was to restart the Space based anti-missile stuff "to prevent this happening again". Except that no spaced based system will work against aircraft...
Far simpler - the ISP snoops on all traffic coming from MPs, and then publishes it so that everyone can see whether the elected representatives are doing anything illegal.
A few days of this, and even the densest lobby-fodder Nu Labour apparatchik might reckon that the legislation is a dumb idea.
It's not crazy, just retarded.. (yes I'm a brit). I read an article on the Register by an ex bomb disposal officer who explained that there is no such thing as the fabled hollywood binary liquid explosive.
To be honest, their retarded policy (and I never normally use that word, but in this case I'll make an exception) looks as though it came straight out of the 2001 novel A Big Boy did it and Ran Away, by Christopher Brookmyre. (The anti-hero uber terrorist used binary liquid explosives to blow up an airliner).
Here's a clue. It's a work of fiction. The policy lamebrains really need to get a clue.
And by keeping you mentally fenced in, you will be unable to think about why {insert oppressive regime here} is so bad.
"The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible."
The same VB apps have worked in Office for a hell of a lot longer than 4-5 years.
Indeed, in 1997, I took over development of an Excel spreadsheet with loads of VBA macros. I left after 3 years, but as far as I know, it is still in use.
The ZX81 (or Timex Sinclair 1000 in the US) did at least have slightly matt finish keys. Its predecessor, the ZX80 had smooth, flat, membrane keys. And they were blue, with white lettering.
It's possible that the original intention was to provide every web user with a web crawler, that would go and find only specific information for the individual.
However, when someone comes up with "But why send out our web crawler every time we want a search? Computers are really good at repetitive tasks, so why not get the crawler to go out and find _everything_? that means that when I want to look for something, chances are it's already been tagged", then the need for individual agents diminishes.
Some years ago, talk of software agents was all the rage. The theory was that they could be despatched to search web sites, and find and return the relevant data to you. It was going to be "the next Big Thing"
At the time, it seemed promising - the nascent Web was very hard to search (and the serious option was to have a paper "web directory").
And then, in 1995, Altavista came along - a search engine that:
1) worked
2) was fast enough for those on dial-up
and the whole notion died a death; direct typing in a search box beat nebulous user-programmable "agents" every time.
So, it looks like it's "Welcome to 1994" all over again.
Slashdot Mirror
Does the Mail have a gallery of these "experts" on standby to give a comment as required for the scare of the day... "Experts say that nobody knows how many paedophiles are molesting your children at this very moment!" "Experts say you could be knifecrimed by a chav today!" "Experts say that Russell Brand might be prank-calling your grandfather RIGHT NOW."
Sssh! That's supposed to be a newspaper secret! (actually, they don't need a "gallery" - just a single "expert" (who is expert only at writing scare stories)
So, let's get this straight. You'd like people to be attracted to your business, but you don't want them to use your Name....
Kind of defeats the point in having a website, really.
Where are the mod points when you need them. Brilliantly succinct definition there :-)
When it was discovered that there was a serious bug in Win95 that would crash the system after 40 days of operation, the reaction in many places, including here on Slashdot, was "You mean there are people who have actually kept Win95 running for 40 days?"
The most insidious part of the 40 (and some) days - 65536 minutes is 45 and a half days - crash was that everything appeared normal. The mouse would move the cursor and the icons were still all visible on the desktop. The problem was that no amount of double-clicking or keyboard shortcuts would make anything actually happen.
(I found this one out the hard way - leaving the machine on to let the daily backup complete, while I went home)
Excellent! A quick precis on why it is so bad (it's because it's the solution to the wrong problem).
No mod points today though, so I can't mod you up.
Same old Microsoft - always wanting multiple versions of the same product, so no-one knows exactly which one they need. Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED> anyone?
Wrong on both counts.
Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), and was shown around. Having paid (in stock), he was allowed to "pick one of three", and went for the GUI. Apple developers then did significant extra items on top of Xerox's work (partly because they mis-remembered what they saw; some things like overlapping windows hadn't been worked out by Xerox, although the devs thought they had seen them)
http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/Apple_Computers.htm
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_Progress.txt
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Busy_Being_Born.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM_alliance>The AIM Alliance was an alliance formed in September 1991 between Apple Computer, IBM and Motorola to create a new computing standard based on the PowerPC architecture.. In other words, there was never any Atari "exclusivity"
Which series?
Radio - third series (Tertiary Phase) also good; missed the 4th one, so can't comment
Books - three is good, four is short (because he was locked in a hotel room with only a Mac Plus to write it on, rather than an of his 5 Mac IIs,because the publisher had let him miss too many deadlines already, and wanted a book. any book). Pass on five, unless you like downer endings
The movie wasn't al bad - the last half hour or so (presumably when the studio execs started to panic and let the director just get on with it) had the right tone.
The best bit, though, was the Monty Python "Meaning of Life" homage that was the opening sequence - by the looks of things, most of the budget went on that (in the same way that the "Every Sperm is Sacred" opening number in "Meaning of Life" used up 80% of that film's budget.) Just the kind of silly, thumbing nose at authority gimmick that DNA would have approved of.
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk"
"Ask a glass of water"
One of my friends (also named Douglas, something that amused Douglas Adams when he was signing a book - "To Douglas from Douglas") pointed out the base 13 connection to Adams, which met with a bemused response at the time (and a mention in the forward to the book of the radio scripts to all the geek fans who had come up with that one)
I'd mod you up, if I hadn't used them yesterday
They were certainly responsible for wanting something like it to happen - From 2000 onwards, China was being named as "the new enemy", and goaded into doing "something" - for example, the US Spy Plane 'accidentally' going into Chinese airspace. However, it looks as though they were wanting something along the lines of a maniac with an ICBM, as one of the first pieces of legislation pushed through after the attacks was to restart the Space based anti-missile stuff "to prevent this happening again". Except that no spaced based system will work against aircraft...
Good start. Don't forget to turn off the access for all BPI / BFI members as well.
A few days of this, and even the densest lobby-fodder Nu Labour apparatchik might reckon that the legislation is a dumb idea.
Oh great. First it was the grammar nazis. Now it's soup nazis. Anything else you want to add to the mix?
In the UK (and the US as well), legal Acts generally refer to what they support:
Data Protection Act - protection of (personal) data
Freedom of Information Act - freedom of information
and so forth. The previous version of anti-terror legislation was called the Prevention of Terrorism Act, so why is it now the Terrorism Act?
To be honest, their retarded policy (and I never normally use that word, but in this case I'll make an exception) looks as though it came straight out of the 2001 novel A Big Boy did it and Ran Away, by Christopher Brookmyre. (The anti-hero uber terrorist used binary liquid explosives to blow up an airliner).
Here's a clue. It's a work of fiction. The policy lamebrains really need to get a clue.
Indeed, in 1997, I took over development of an Excel spreadsheet with loads of VBA macros. I left after 3 years, but as far as I know, it is still in use.
The ZX81 (or Timex Sinclair 1000 in the US) did at least have slightly matt finish keys. Its predecessor, the ZX80 had smooth, flat, membrane keys. And they were blue, with white lettering.
2. Eliminate the facade that is security the check.
You forgot the obvious...
3. Collect $500,000, and... Profit!
It's possible that the original intention was to provide every web user with a web crawler, that would go and find only specific information for the individual.
However, when someone comes up with "But why send out our web crawler every time we want a search? Computers are really good at repetitive tasks, so why not get the crawler to go out and find _everything_? that means that when I want to look for something, chances are it's already been tagged", then the need for individual agents diminishes.
Some years ago, talk of software agents was all the rage. The theory was that they could be despatched to search web sites, and find and return the relevant data to you. It was going to be "the next Big Thing"
At the time, it seemed promising - the nascent Web was very hard to search (and the serious option was to have a paper "web directory").
And then, in 1995, Altavista came along - a search engine that:
1) worked
2) was fast enough for those on dial-up
and the whole notion died a death; direct typing in a search box beat nebulous user-programmable "agents" every time.
So, it looks like it's "Welcome to 1994" all over again.
Hah! I used to dream of "Knights that say NIH".
When I were a lad, NIH was Not Invented Here.