I work as a developer, primarily with MS products. Some of its products (Visual Studio, C#) are great. But overall I have to agree with the parent. Microsoft products usually work well in isolation, but tend to interoperate poorly with products from other vendors, and even more poorly with much older or newer versions of their own. Microsoft and Apple also are historically quite hostile to free and open-source code, although MS has gotten better in this area. Both companies encourage the use of proprietary "black boxes" that come without source and thus the ability to debug, whereas most of the rest of the industry has embraced the value of at least partially open code, specs, and protocols. Finally, the price of being on the MS treadmill is to have to upgrade constantly, test every upgrade, fix breakage that occurs along the way (hopefully minor, but not always), see existing technologies deprecated in favor of new ones, which tend to have a short shelf life. MS products really and truly do not lend themselves to robust, maintainable software, because of the constant requirement for upgrade and churn, a problem much less prevalent in the FOSS world. They are great for prototyping, but if you want to build truly high quality software, you really don't want to deploy it as a rich-client Windows application; it should be Web-based, and/or written using a portable GUI framework like wxWidget or SWT or Unity or something along those lines, and, in either case, there are much better options for every level of the software stack than Microsoft's.
I agree with you for the most part, but just an important factual error here: one most certainly WILL die from a sufficient excess of acetaminophen/paracetemol, possibly days or weeks later, and it is not a fun or pretty death.
If the goal is to exploit the synergistic effects of NSAIDs plus opiates, there are substances such as acetylcysteine which can be added to acetaminophen/paracetemol which make it vastly less toxic, by stimulating production of glutathione, which conjugates the most toxic of its metabolites (NAPQI) into relatively harmless byproducts and thus prevent death by liver failure.
If the goal is to reduce the abuse potential, I'd think that adding low doses of a cumulative but relatively mild poison, maybe an emetic, would do the trick . . something that would cause discomfort but no permanent damage. I'm not quite sure what would work in that capacity, but, given how toxic acetominophen becomes once glutathione stores are depleted, I'd think practically anything would work better for that purpose than that.
(Disclaimer: IANAD or other medical professional.)
Actually, even better, ask the people at KDE, Gnome, Ubuntu, Red Hat, freedesktop.org, etc., from whence most of what is running atop Linux on a typical desktop system actually originates. The kernel itself still is, or at least can be made, fairly lean and robust. And you do not *have* to use all the other stuff. It makes life easier for end-users accustomed to Windows, but if you want to rip out pulseaudio and udev and dbus and all that stuff because you genuinely do not want or need it, you certainly can.
That is kind of my point. Cities are, by definition, the focus of civilization. In the U.S., they have been allowed to decay into places that more people wish to avoid than not. There all kinds of interlocking and self-reinforcing pathologies that both feed on and worsen this problem: corruption, violence, poverty, poor education, pollution, organized crime, and many more. I don't pretend that these are easy problems to address, but I agree 1000% that they need to be.
Whiny mid-level mafia manager bemoans that his big city mafia has chased away business. Maybe if cities focused on becoming good places to do business again, business might move back. Just a thought.
I've long wondered why they don't wind a few rotations of heat-sensitive wire, measure the coil's temperature and the first few derivatives thereof, and send a signal back to the amp saying "whoa Nelly, cut that back a little/lot/as needed." When I first thought of the idea it would have required fairly complicated electronics, but today I imagine it could be done pretty cheaply.
You may not think of yourself as being sheltered, but if you live someplace where random violence is not a serious concern, then, compared to many of us, you are. Drive-bys, jackings, and other attacks against drivers are so common in Cleveland and even some of the inner suburbs as to be un-noteworthy unless someone dies, and rarely reported to police. (Sometimes they are commited BY police.) No one walks if they can help it, and while a lot of people do take buses if they have to, this is what befell a young man just a few days ago, across the street from my old grade school and one block away from Lake Erie, for the "crime" of trying to take a bus to his job at the Cleveland Clinic at 5am.
Cleveland area. (Most years, among the top U.S. cities for poverty and violent crime.). But to clarify I did not say I don't know anyone who *doesn't* have cameras . . only I don't know anyone who lives in areas where they are not needed (referring to the GP). Because I don't know of any such areas. Not in the U.S. anyway.
Those pumps . . . like water pumps . ..may depend on grid power. If it is gone, there is no guarantee that natural gas or water will be available either, unless you've stored some or the equivalent (propane?) yourself.
I don't know anyone who doesn't. Even in the best neighborhoods, bangers, thugs, and (most disturbingly perhaps) rogue cops enforcing rogue, unconstitutional "laws" are only a short drive or bus trip away. As other ways of protecting ourselves are being systematically eroded, having a videographic record of possible robberies, home invasions, or other crimes may represent many people's last line of defense against them.
NE Ohio here also (Lakewood). I remember those days in January 1994. Also somewhat snowy in addition to being cold. I remember having a LOT of trouble getting my car started . . . I had to a get a jump-start from a friend. But I don't remember it being very windy then. It's windy now and getting worse. The next 36 hours or so will not be fun. My two biggest fears are: (a) pipes freezing/bursting, since some of them run along outside walls; (b) my wife going out someplace and getting herself stranded; and (c) having to shovel snow while it is blowing right in my face at 30MPH or better. That was not fun when it was 40 degrees warmer than it'll be tonight.
I have a similar need and have found nothing FOSS that qualifies. Everything either has insane library dependencies, or opaque storage formats I can't customize or back up, or is limited to an insufficient number of platforms, or can't handle repeating appointments or tasks well. So, for now, I still use an ancient Palm as my master calendar, and remote into my home PC to store to-do lists of various kinds. But what I'm hoping to do is to write my own simple but flexible PIM, primarily Web-based, with no dependencies on the client side and none on the server except Python and Sqlite. Milestone 1: easy and flexible storage and searching of contact information and notes/memos. Milestone 2: Ability to create appointments and tasks, including repeating ones, with a reasonable degree of flexibility as to scheduling (e.g., "every Monday," or "last Sunday of the month," or "the next Saturday after the previous instance was completed." Milestone 3: Creating a text- and voice-friendly interface, so that it can parse and handle things like, "Doctor appointment for Eric on Friday, February 30 at 9pm" or "Remind me to clean the fridge every week starting tomorrow at 5." Milestone 4: Add ability to notify by e-mail or text, also to process e-mailed notifications. Milestone 5: Secure it enough that I can actually use it. Milestone 6: Add sufficient interoperability with other tools my family uses (probably GMail, Yahoo mail and calendar, iOS, Android, and for now at least (yuck) Palm). I cannot say for sure that the tool I come up with, even if I manage to finish it, will be of general usefulness to others, but I'll probably throw it out onto Sourceforge or Github anway, and people can decide that for themselves.
I'm 46, probably done having kids, and more than willing to sign up for dangerous work, but NOT for any less than what I'm making now, plus enough to pay for adequate life insurance so that when I finally do die from butt cancer, or undergo spontaneous fission, my family will be properly provided for.
I can't speak for any other potential freedom fighter, but I can speak for myself, so here are my answers:
(a) I will never target innocents, and will always make every reasonable effort to protect them from harm, including enemy reprisals.
(b) The blood flow stops when one side surrenders or everyone on it is deceased. It will likely be mine. We don't have the numbers to win, only to weaken the enemy and reduce its ability to rob, enslave and murder people, and to buy time for future generations of patriots to learn, prepare, and eventually renew the fight when the time is right. I am reluctant to kill for this or any other goal, but I am willing to die for it if necessary.
(c) I am willing to parole an enemy combatant once. He gets a nice brand or tat (in a non-prominent location) so he can be easily identified should he surrender again. After that he is detained or semi-permanently deprived of the ability to fight. (If I can do that without killing him I will. Life is precious.) As for the leaders, my belief is that a FEW of the very worst should be tried and punished for their crimes, publicly, according to their own law. After the conflict ends, if we are in a position to grant amnesty to the rest conditioned upon future lawful behavior, I will strongly recommend that we do.
(d) Anyone who uses force or violence against us or against innocents is a legitimate target, and that absolutely includes those who *knowingly* support, defend, promote, or give aid or encouragement to the enemy; but, as a practical matter, we will likely be focused on immediate threats only. Even in war I presume anyone who isn't shooting at me is innocent until proven guilty, and my goal is not to imprison or kill millions of people; it is to restore a society based on respect for life, liberty, property, and rule of law. And I understand that violence will not accomplish this goal, which is why I will fight only once attacked (or once attack is imminent) and fully realize that it will fall on those who come after me, those who remain after the fighting has ceased, to carry out the true revolution in the hearts and minds of the people.
Nitrogen can kill innocent people nearby if one is not careful and responsible, so, if you choose this method (which I might at some point), please take every reasonable precaution to warn and otherwise protect those around you. Don't do it if others are in nearby rooms. Make signs that people will see immediately on entering the building, and again on entering the room, warning them of the N2 and that they should get out and let the place air out. Don't use drastically more than you need. Try not to be noticed or found, until long enough afterward that most of the N2 would have dissipated.
I am sorry for your loss. For whatever it is worth, I do not believe you did anything wrong by confirming her wishes. If you had not, she would have died anyway, but probably much more painfully. I hope that time will dull the pain of your loss, but preserve the happy memories of your times together.
Unless you are trying to run on either crap or very new hardware, I can't understand why your Linux experiences would differ so much from others'. It is, by design, a different experience than Windows. But if it truly never worked, it would not be, by far, the world's most popular operating system (before you cry "troll" I am referring to all devices, including, e.g., Android (Linux) phones, not just desktops/laptops). Do you mind if I ask what exactly about Linux has not worked for you, and what distribution(s) you have tried? I'm not an expert but I might be able to point you in the direction of useful help, if I can better understand the problem. Thanks!
Just south of the Canadian border, in Cleveland, we experienced well over 120kph (70mph) winds from Sandy, probably closer to 140kph, although, in fairness, that was a once-in-recorded-history event. 100kph is quite common and all of our structures are designed to handle that, although trees are not, and often fall during storms, sometimes killing people when they do. We also get frequent tornadoes, as do, at least, the Canadian cities closest to us (London, Windsor, Niagara Falls, and Toronto). Most tornadoes are not in populated areas and are category 3 or less, but that is *not* always the case, and, as natural disasters go, they kill more people than any other kind except for heat (#1 by a very large margin) and blizzards (#2). (Blizzards should be no surprise, but heat on the Canada border? Yes; up to 45C/113F, though that's uncommon; the real killer is the much more common 35C/95F plus humidity which can linger, even at night, for days or even weeks, causing death from dehydration and/or heat exhaustion particularly in the older and poorer parts of the population).
could also help paedophiles escape. So let's close all the roads, shut down the trains, and require everyone to "shelter in place" permanently. After all, someone must think of the children!!!!
Not actually true if you count being able to run proprietary binaries and WINE . . there are packages to kludge together Netflix support on most Debian-based systems, and it will work on many others with some tweaking (e.g., I've made it work, though clumsily and at the expense of others apps that needed a different WINE version, on Gentoo). I'll agree though that Hulu is probably a better deal for most Linux users, but most of those who want to run Netflix on Linux now can.
That kind of system can't scale. The site *should* have collected just enough information to show users the relevant plan(s) and approximate costs. When someone decided on a plan, it should then have collected just enough additional information to forward to the actual providers so they could sign people up, and/or contact them for more information if needed. No real-time interfaces to any external systems needed. Yes, perhaps some batch processes to verify citizenship, to send out e-mails, to confirm pricing and signup, etc., yes, but nothing requiring real-time, two-way hookups with dozens if not hundreds of other parties.
Relativity has been demonstrated to be approximately correct - within the limits of our ability to measure, and in the cases we have been able to observe. It is not known for certain, at this time, whether it is absolutely correct, or simply a very good approximation in the cases we have been able to observe and test. A certain amount of humility, and openness to new data or new theories, is needed if we are to significantly improve or expand our current understanding of the universe.
Slashdot Mirror
I work as a developer, primarily with MS products. Some of its products (Visual Studio, C#) are great. But overall I have to agree with the parent. Microsoft products usually work well in isolation, but tend to interoperate poorly with products from other vendors, and even more poorly with much older or newer versions of their own. Microsoft and Apple also are historically quite hostile to free and open-source code, although MS has gotten better in this area. Both companies encourage the use of proprietary "black boxes" that come without source and thus the ability to debug, whereas most of the rest of the industry has embraced the value of at least partially open code, specs, and protocols. Finally, the price of being on the MS treadmill is to have to upgrade constantly, test every upgrade, fix breakage that occurs along the way (hopefully minor, but not always), see existing technologies deprecated in favor of new ones, which tend to have a short shelf life. MS products really and truly do not lend themselves to robust, maintainable software, because of the constant requirement for upgrade and churn, a problem much less prevalent in the FOSS world. They are great for prototyping, but if you want to build truly high quality software, you really don't want to deploy it as a rich-client Windows application; it should be Web-based, and/or written using a portable GUI framework like wxWidget or SWT or Unity or something along those lines, and, in either case, there are much better options for every level of the software stack than Microsoft's.
I agree with you for the most part, but just an important factual error here: one most certainly WILL die from a sufficient excess of acetaminophen/paracetemol, possibly days or weeks later, and it is not a fun or pretty death.
If the goal is to exploit the synergistic effects of NSAIDs plus opiates, there are substances such as acetylcysteine which can be added to acetaminophen/paracetemol which make it vastly less toxic, by stimulating production of glutathione, which conjugates the most toxic of its metabolites (NAPQI) into relatively harmless byproducts and thus prevent death by liver failure.
If the goal is to reduce the abuse potential, I'd think that adding low doses of a cumulative but relatively mild poison, maybe an emetic, would do the trick . . something that would cause discomfort but no permanent damage. I'm not quite sure what would work in that capacity, but, given how toxic acetominophen becomes once glutathione stores are depleted, I'd think practically anything would work better for that purpose than that.
(Disclaimer: IANAD or other medical professional.)
Actually, even better, ask the people at KDE, Gnome, Ubuntu, Red Hat, freedesktop.org, etc., from whence most of what is running atop Linux on a typical desktop system actually originates. The kernel itself still is, or at least can be made, fairly lean and robust. And you do not *have* to use all the other stuff. It makes life easier for end-users accustomed to Windows, but if you want to rip out pulseaudio and udev and dbus and all that stuff because you genuinely do not want or need it, you certainly can.
That is kind of my point. Cities are, by definition, the focus of civilization. In the U.S., they have been allowed to decay into places that more people wish to avoid than not. There all kinds of interlocking and self-reinforcing pathologies that both feed on and worsen this problem: corruption, violence, poverty, poor education, pollution, organized crime, and many more. I don't pretend that these are easy problems to address, but I agree 1000% that they need to be.
Whiny mid-level mafia manager bemoans that his big city mafia has chased away business. Maybe if cities focused on becoming good places to do business again, business might move back. Just a thought.
I've long wondered why they don't wind a few rotations of heat-sensitive wire, measure the coil's temperature and the first few derivatives thereof, and send a signal back to the amp saying "whoa Nelly, cut that back a little/lot/as needed." When I first thought of the idea it would have required fairly complicated electronics, but today I imagine it could be done pretty cheaply.
Your age is showing. :) (Mine too, of course.)
You may not think of yourself as being sheltered, but if you live someplace where random violence is not a serious concern, then, compared to many of us, you are. Drive-bys, jackings, and other attacks against drivers are so common in Cleveland and even some of the inner suburbs as to be un-noteworthy unless someone dies, and rarely reported to police. (Sometimes they are commited BY police.) No one walks if they can help it, and while a lot of people do take buses if they have to, this is what befell a young man just a few days ago, across the street from my old grade school and one block away from Lake Erie, for the "crime" of trying to take a bus to his job at the Cleveland Clinic at 5am.
Cleveland area. (Most years, among the top U.S. cities for poverty and violent crime.). But to clarify I did not say I don't know anyone who *doesn't* have cameras . . only I don't know anyone who lives in areas where they are not needed (referring to the GP). Because I don't know of any such areas. Not in the U.S. anyway.
Those pumps . . . like water pumps . . .may depend on grid power. If it is gone, there is no guarantee that natural gas or water will be available either, unless you've stored some or the equivalent (propane?) yourself.
I don't know anyone who doesn't. Even in the best neighborhoods, bangers, thugs, and (most disturbingly perhaps) rogue cops enforcing rogue, unconstitutional "laws" are only a short drive or bus trip away. As other ways of protecting ourselves are being systematically eroded, having a videographic record of possible robberies, home invasions, or other crimes may represent many people's last line of defense against them.
Three fears actually, not two. It seems to be affecting my brain.
NE Ohio here also (Lakewood). I remember those days in January 1994. Also somewhat snowy in addition to being cold. I remember having a LOT of trouble getting my car started . . . I had to a get a jump-start from a friend. But I don't remember it being very windy then. It's windy now and getting worse. The next 36 hours or so will not be fun. My two biggest fears are: (a) pipes freezing/bursting, since some of them run along outside walls; (b) my wife going out someplace and getting herself stranded; and (c) having to shovel snow while it is blowing right in my face at 30MPH or better. That was not fun when it was 40 degrees warmer than it'll be tonight.
I have a similar need and have found nothing FOSS that qualifies. Everything either has insane library dependencies, or opaque storage formats I can't customize or back up, or is limited to an insufficient number of platforms, or can't handle repeating appointments or tasks well. So, for now, I still use an ancient Palm as my master calendar, and remote into my home PC to store to-do lists of various kinds. But what I'm hoping to do is to write my own simple but flexible PIM, primarily Web-based, with no dependencies on the client side and none on the server except Python and Sqlite. Milestone 1: easy and flexible storage and searching of contact information and notes/memos. Milestone 2: Ability to create appointments and tasks, including repeating ones, with a reasonable degree of flexibility as to scheduling (e.g., "every Monday," or "last Sunday of the month," or "the next Saturday after the previous instance was completed." Milestone 3: Creating a text- and voice-friendly interface, so that it can parse and handle things like, "Doctor appointment for Eric on Friday, February 30 at 9pm" or "Remind me to clean the fridge every week starting tomorrow at 5." Milestone 4: Add ability to notify by e-mail or text, also to process e-mailed notifications. Milestone 5: Secure it enough that I can actually use it. Milestone 6: Add sufficient interoperability with other tools my family uses (probably GMail, Yahoo mail and calendar, iOS, Android, and for now at least (yuck) Palm). I cannot say for sure that the tool I come up with, even if I manage to finish it, will be of general usefulness to others, but I'll probably throw it out onto Sourceforge or Github anway, and people can decide that for themselves.
I'm 46, probably done having kids, and more than willing to sign up for dangerous work, but NOT for any less than what I'm making now, plus enough to pay for adequate life insurance so that when I finally do die from butt cancer, or undergo spontaneous fission, my family will be properly provided for.
I can't speak for any other potential freedom fighter, but I can speak for myself, so here are my answers:
(a) I will never target innocents, and will always make every reasonable effort to protect them from harm, including enemy reprisals.
(b) The blood flow stops when one side surrenders or everyone on it is deceased. It will likely be mine. We don't have the numbers to win, only to weaken the enemy and reduce its ability to rob, enslave and murder people, and to buy time for future generations of patriots to learn, prepare, and eventually renew the fight when the time is right. I am reluctant to kill for this or any other goal, but I am willing to die for it if necessary.
(c) I am willing to parole an enemy combatant once. He gets a nice brand or tat (in a non-prominent location) so he can be easily identified should he surrender again. After that he is detained or semi-permanently deprived of the ability to fight. (If I can do that without killing him I will. Life is precious.) As for the leaders, my belief is that a FEW of the very worst should be tried and punished for their crimes, publicly, according to their own law. After the conflict ends, if we are in a position to grant amnesty to the rest conditioned upon future lawful behavior, I will strongly recommend that we do.
(d) Anyone who uses force or violence against us or against innocents is a legitimate target, and that absolutely includes those who *knowingly* support, defend, promote, or give aid or encouragement to the enemy; but, as a practical matter, we will likely be focused on immediate threats only. Even in war I presume anyone who isn't shooting at me is innocent until proven guilty, and my goal is not to imprison or kill millions of people; it is to restore a society based on respect for life, liberty, property, and rule of law. And I understand that violence will not accomplish this goal, which is why I will fight only once attacked (or once attack is imminent) and fully realize that it will fall on those who come after me, those who remain after the fighting has ceased, to carry out the true revolution in the hearts and minds of the people.
Nitrogen can kill innocent people nearby if one is not careful and responsible, so, if you choose this method (which I might at some point), please take every reasonable precaution to warn and otherwise protect those around you. Don't do it if others are in nearby rooms. Make signs that people will see immediately on entering the building, and again on entering the room, warning them of the N2 and that they should get out and let the place air out. Don't use drastically more than you need. Try not to be noticed or found, until long enough afterward that most of the N2 would have dissipated.
I am sorry for your loss. For whatever it is worth, I do not believe you did anything wrong by confirming her wishes. If you had not, she would have died anyway, but probably much more painfully. I hope that time will dull the pain of your loss, but preserve the happy memories of your times together.
Unless you are trying to run on either crap or very new hardware, I can't understand why your Linux experiences would differ so much from others'. It is, by design, a different experience than Windows. But if it truly never worked, it would not be, by far, the world's most popular operating system (before you cry "troll" I am referring to all devices, including, e.g., Android (Linux) phones, not just desktops/laptops). Do you mind if I ask what exactly about Linux has not worked for you, and what distribution(s) you have tried? I'm not an expert but I might be able to point you in the direction of useful help, if I can better understand the problem. Thanks!
Just south of the Canadian border, in Cleveland, we experienced well over 120kph (70mph) winds from Sandy, probably closer to 140kph, although, in fairness, that was a once-in-recorded-history event. 100kph is quite common and all of our structures are designed to handle that, although trees are not, and often fall during storms, sometimes killing people when they do. We also get frequent tornadoes, as do, at least, the Canadian cities closest to us (London, Windsor, Niagara Falls, and Toronto). Most tornadoes are not in populated areas and are category 3 or less, but that is *not* always the case, and, as natural disasters go, they kill more people than any other kind except for heat (#1 by a very large margin) and blizzards (#2). (Blizzards should be no surprise, but heat on the Canada border? Yes; up to 45C/113F, though that's uncommon; the real killer is the much more common 35C/95F plus humidity which can linger, even at night, for days or even weeks, causing death from dehydration and/or heat exhaustion particularly in the older and poorer parts of the population).
In other words, too late, they already did? Not sure whether to feel horrified, or more horrified.
could also help paedophiles escape. So let's close all the roads, shut down the trains, and require everyone to "shelter in place" permanently. After all, someone must think of the children!!!!
Not actually true if you count being able to run proprietary binaries and WINE . . there are packages to kludge together Netflix support on most Debian-based systems, and it will work on many others with some tweaking (e.g., I've made it work, though clumsily and at the expense of others apps that needed a different WINE version, on Gentoo). I'll agree though that Hulu is probably a better deal for most Linux users, but most of those who want to run Netflix on Linux now can.
That kind of system can't scale. The site *should* have collected just enough information to show users the relevant plan(s) and approximate costs. When someone decided on a plan, it should then have collected just enough additional information to forward to the actual providers so they could sign people up, and/or contact them for more information if needed. No real-time interfaces to any external systems needed. Yes, perhaps some batch processes to verify citizenship, to send out e-mails, to confirm pricing and signup, etc., yes, but nothing requiring real-time, two-way hookups with dozens if not hundreds of other parties.
Relativity has been demonstrated to be approximately correct - within the limits of our ability to measure, and in the cases we have been able to observe. It is not known for certain, at this time, whether it is absolutely correct, or simply a very good approximation in the cases we have been able to observe and test. A certain amount of humility, and openness to new data or new theories, is needed if we are to significantly improve or expand our current understanding of the universe.