This looks like something Apple will sue into oblivion faster than the MPAA took out 321 Studios. There's a time issue for the purchase, therefore. On the other hand, there are questions as to whether these folk are on the level, or are just out to steal credit card numbers. I have an unused platinum card; easy to monitor, and I was thinking of cancelling it anyway.
An additional concern: what does this install? Yes, a PPC emulator with no operating system, if they're not an outright fraud. (I wonder if I can put OS 9 on as well....) But are there deliberate or accidental security holes? Spyware? Were they stupid enough to go gold with a virus in the system?
I haven't bought VMWare, but I did pick up Virtual PC last Christmas so I could continue playing Master Of Orion (the original) after my 486 ate a power surge. So, yeah, my first test will be running OS 9 and OS X on CherryOS on Windows 2000 Advanced Server on Virtual PC on a P4 Windows 2000 machine, on an isolated subnet.
OK, so maybe "paranoid" would be a better choice than "cautious". =)
Computer Shopper provides a quick overview of things that are commercially available +/- 3 months of publication. I've seldom bought anything directly as a result, but it's useful to know what hardware genres are rising and falling.
I also periodically get "one year free trial offers" for it, and therefore have never paid for it. Yes, they want a credit card number for "automatic" renewal. I usually have at least one old card around from when I last took a "introductory 0.99% life-of-loan no-fee balance transfer!!!!!" offer up. I feed that number in, cancel the card when the first magazine arrives, and ignore any renewal notices I get. I have one less piece of plastic to keep track of, one more bank who desperately wants to offer me silly things to use their credit card, and some free reading material. Since trash removal is included in my rent, no problem for me. Not so good for the people giving me free magazines, but that's also no problem for me.
I would say that, in with the dozens of other election reforms that are needed, we should restrict the purchasing of domain names, search results, etc. which imply one candidate and promote another (or attack the promoted candidate).
I'd disagree with your specific restrictions. However, I'd suggest requiring that any such political site include a "Paid for by the Joe Blah for Senate Campaign" on each page, with a link to a web page version of the usual "I'm the candidate, and I approve this message".
If put up by a PAC, use "Paid for by Citizens Against Jim Mumble", with a link to a page stating the group's charter, directorship, and business office.
If put up by a private citizen, "Paid for by BillyBob Doe", linked to a page informing people that they are doing this as a private citizen, saying whether they are a registered voter, and if so, noting if they are registered in a precinct that will vote on this election.
Sorry, but Darwin awards only go to people who do something fatally stupid to themselves; pissing off an IT administrator who's in homicidal BOFH mode doesn't quite count.
The hazard of 100% flexibility is you maintaining adequate communications between them. If you can add one person each who work a nice "regular" schedule... but one working on a 21 hour/8 day week, and the other on a 28 hour/six day week, it helps communications immensely between the 24 hour/7 day humans. (I speak from experience, and would ADORE another job that lets me go 28/6 again.)
No, it's possible to create a computer network wihout ethernet, or without cables. One of my professors told about how on a drunken networking team they sent ARCNET over a paperclip chain in place of coax.
It is not possible to create a computer network without at least one computer; trivial case being a PC with a loopback serial cable (or meticulously braided paperclips). I suppose someone could create one with a java-capable cell phone and a coathanger, if truly daft and determined.
Any self-respecting supervillain uses neutronium/anti-neutronium.
The difference between proton and neutron mass is around 1 part in 1800, not enough to change the radiation spectrum appreciably; it still downscatters off even bare vacuum to.5MeV in a hurry. The heavier mass of the bomb mostly just changes how high the scenery bounces.
I can't remember the last time slashdot reviewed a tech book I could possibly be interested in.
Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, August 30. It's rather more technical philosophy than pure technical. However, the really deep problems in computers have an extensive social component. It's important to think about WHY we approach problems the way we do, and what may or may not be right or wrong with them, if we want the solutions to be real-world useful ones, rather than stupid, ill-considered things that are equivalent to overclocking a 486 to 300MHz: vaguely interesting, but pointless. While you may be familiar with most of the issues covered in F&F, you might not think about them that often... and the issues Glass presents are a good thing to periodically reconsider.
The reviews used to be of really in-depth books that might be interesting, or of hardcore SF.
I can't answer as to the in-depth tech stuff. As far as "really" Hard SF goes, there really aren't many writers doing it these days. The field may be fading, for reasons that have been discussed. Of the living big names that spring to mind...
Turtledove does alternate history. Niven is getting soft and lazy in his dotage; plus, his best pieces were always his short stories, rather than the his novels. Stephenson is on a historical SF jag... and has been reviewed anyway. Bujold does brilliant space opera, although she does glance at some of the social implications of apparently minor (to the first glance) future breakthroughs in biomedicine and other fields. Modesitt does interesting social SF with a fairly hard science (and social science) background, and is the best of a poor lot these days for hard SF; however, he spends more time on his fantasies, his characterization tends to be cardboard and dialog wooden (although he continues to improve over time), and I do not recommend his books to most freinds. Vernor Vinge is still ---ing brilliant... but publishes about as often as we change presidents.
If you think there's something out there that ought to be reviewed, buy it and review it. Those that can, do; those that can't, kvetch.
Caesar's actions helped bring an end to the Roman Republic.
On the other hand, he set the stage for an empire that had a decent run, and was more viable than the republic had been at the end. Of course, I'm not into empires.
Is this really a historical parallel you want to explore?
Those who do not study their history are doomed to repeat it -- Santayana.
On the bright side, the addiction to Everquest is probably less of strain on his liver (even given the bad effects of excess chair time) than alcoholism. If you feel motivated, try and find a way to get him hooked on long distance running or some other form of endurance exercise. My dad switched to that, which helped cut his alcohol problem out. When his knees started having problems, he switched to swimming. I'm told biking also works well. Dad's now retired at the beach, amazingly healthy, and having a blast spending my inheritance so I won't have to. =)
I remember seeing once a button/TShirt slogan to the effect "Don't you wish you could get that feeling of accomplishment without actually doing anything?" It appears we have solved this problem. =|
Gee, almost sounds like a libertarian, right? Then you read stuff like this rant. So in other words, he supports people's rights to all voluntary social and economic associations for certain values of voluntary, namely "socially conservative".
No, it sounds like he considers the rights of the people more important than the rights of the federal government, but the rights of the states so obviously more important than the rights of individuals as to not need stating. This is fairly consistent with the 10th amendment: the federal government only gets the powers explicitly granted it, the states get everything else unless explicitly denied, in which case the right devolves to the people.
Of course, this is inconsistent with what his website says, as you note. So yes, he's probably just another old Confederate bigot, hiding behind the cry of "state's rights!" as a sandbag to try and hold back the tide of history from his home. Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it; but those who do not study demographics are doomed to history. Specifically, age demographics. The young may collectively ever quote to their elders: "We will bury you..." and with more inevitability of history than Kruschev managed.
Failure to apply all Microsoft patches, keep current anti-virus definitions, and use something other than IE may be stupid, but hardly counts as consent. I've seen a network worm install over a dozen spyware apps during the time required to get a new machine to download the Windows Update critical patches over DSL, despite my having the service packs pre-installed from my repair kit's patch CD. That was an eye-opener; fortunately, I had ghosted off an image to a USB drive beforehand, reducing restore time to about 30 minutes. I now carry a cheapo NAT router for firewalling on such housecalls. =)
Some good long term milestones to work (and have prizes) for would be:
Private attempt to achieve orbit.
Private attempt to maintain orbit for at least 24 hours.
Private moon landing.
Private skyhook capable of bringing two 10kg payloads from earth to orbit in under a month.
Get that last, and you will own space. Skyhooks promise to be the cheapest price per kg to orbit, and the cheapest way to put one up is if you already have another one....
You mean like this? There are a number of such engineering competitions. You only need big cash prizes when there is a truly massive capital investment to enter... such as "build a spacecraft". Most of your "tech advances" are possible with minor refinements of current S.O.t.A, rather than needing major breakthroughs.
Make a new prize for the first to acheive orbit, to make an orbit or two around the world. That would have real world impacts.
Only if they botch the rentry and landing.
Re:Not as interesting as the Bigelow $50 mil prize
on
Win the X-Prize Cup
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· Score: 1
According to her, he looked at her like she was completely insane.
And that, right there, is why the west won the cold war.
Of course, this does not mean the Russian was wrong.
And that in turn does not mean that you are wrong.
American engineers make absolutely no consideration as to whether an idea is sane when first considering whether an idea is possible... which is both a strength and weakness to our system. A weakness, since we waste a LOT of effort on some really silly things. A strength, because we figure out how to do some really cool and useful stuff in the process.
Step 1: Is it even possible?
Step 2 (hopefully): Is it immoral, or otherwise a really bad idea?
Step 3: Can I convince someone to pay for me to work on this?
Step 4: Can we make money doing it?
Step 5: Profit! =)
Step 6: How can we do it better/faster/cheaper?
Inter-Continental Ballistic Pizza. Hmm... even if we can't start the company, someone should start selling the T-Shirts for it. "From the Cold War to Hot Pizza-- delivery to anywhere on the planet in 30 minutes." I'd buy one. =)
It's all fun and games until someone reaches escape velocity.
Terran, or solar escape velocity? Local, or general?
At local terran escape velocity of 10 kps, you're about ready to start lunar colonization. At local solar escape velocity of about 42 kps, you're ready to start mining the Oort cloud for volitiles (for space colonies and/or terraforming Mars and Venus) and any other fun stuff out there. At base solar escape velocity of about 620 kps, you can get anywhere in the solar system, and have a decent start on leaving it.
Of course, it's not all fun and games now. As reported earlier, there's already people trying to make a fast buck off of it.
Slashdot Mirror
This looks like something Apple will sue into oblivion faster than the MPAA took out 321 Studios. There's a time issue for the purchase, therefore. On the other hand, there are questions as to whether these folk are on the level, or are just out to steal credit card numbers. I have an unused platinum card; easy to monitor, and I was thinking of cancelling it anyway.
An additional concern: what does this install? Yes, a PPC emulator with no operating system, if they're not an outright fraud. (I wonder if I can put OS 9 on as well....) But are there deliberate or accidental security holes? Spyware? Were they stupid enough to go gold with a virus in the system?
I haven't bought VMWare, but I did pick up Virtual PC last Christmas so I could continue playing Master Of Orion (the original) after my 486 ate a power surge. So, yeah, my first test will be running OS 9 and OS X on CherryOS on Windows 2000 Advanced Server on Virtual PC on a P4 Windows 2000 machine, on an isolated subnet.
OK, so maybe "paranoid" would be a better choice than "cautious". =)
I also periodically get "one year free trial offers" for it, and therefore have never paid for it. Yes, they want a credit card number for "automatic" renewal. I usually have at least one old card around from when I last took a "introductory 0.99% life-of-loan no-fee balance transfer!!!!!" offer up. I feed that number in, cancel the card when the first magazine arrives, and ignore any renewal notices I get. I have one less piece of plastic to keep track of, one more bank who desperately wants to offer me silly things to use their credit card, and some free reading material. Since trash removal is included in my rent, no problem for me. Not so good for the people giving me free magazines, but that's also no problem for me.
I'd disagree with your specific restrictions. However, I'd suggest requiring that any such political site include a "Paid for by the Joe Blah for Senate Campaign" on each page, with a link to a web page version of the usual "I'm the candidate, and I approve this message". If put up by a PAC, use "Paid for by Citizens Against Jim Mumble", with a link to a page stating the group's charter, directorship, and business office. If put up by a private citizen, "Paid for by BillyBob Doe", linked to a page informing people that they are doing this as a private citizen, saying whether they are a registered voter, and if so, noting if they are registered in a precinct that will vote on this election.
Sorry, but Darwin awards only go to people who do something fatally stupid to themselves; pissing off an IT administrator who's in homicidal BOFH mode doesn't quite count.
Are you refering to both candidates, both teams, or both the sport of football and the presidential election process?
"Dis is a noice compootah heyah. Be a shame if dese pop-ups keep coming. We can help youse wid dat for a vewy weasonable fee...."
It is not possible to create a computer network without at least one computer; trivial case being a PC with a loopback serial cable (or meticulously braided paperclips). I suppose someone could create one with a java-capable cell phone and a coathanger, if truly daft and determined.
The difference between proton and neutron mass is around 1 part in 1800, not enough to change the radiation spectrum appreciably; it still downscatters off even bare vacuum to .5MeV in a hurry. The heavier mass of the bomb mostly just changes how high the scenery bounces.
Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, August 30. It's rather more technical philosophy than pure technical. However, the really deep problems in computers have an extensive social component. It's important to think about WHY we approach problems the way we do, and what may or may not be right or wrong with them, if we want the solutions to be real-world useful ones, rather than stupid, ill-considered things that are equivalent to overclocking a 486 to 300MHz: vaguely interesting, but pointless. While you may be familiar with most of the issues covered in F&F, you might not think about them that often... and the issues Glass presents are a good thing to periodically reconsider.
The reviews used to be of really in-depth books that might be interesting, or of hardcore SF.
I can't answer as to the in-depth tech stuff. As far as "really" Hard SF goes, there really aren't many writers doing it these days. The field may be fading, for reasons that have been discussed. Of the living big names that spring to mind... Turtledove does alternate history. Niven is getting soft and lazy in his dotage; plus, his best pieces were always his short stories, rather than the his novels. Stephenson is on a historical SF jag... and has been reviewed anyway. Bujold does brilliant space opera, although she does glance at some of the social implications of apparently minor (to the first glance) future breakthroughs in biomedicine and other fields. Modesitt does interesting social SF with a fairly hard science (and social science) background, and is the best of a poor lot these days for hard SF; however, he spends more time on his fantasies, his characterization tends to be cardboard and dialog wooden (although he continues to improve over time), and I do not recommend his books to most freinds. Vernor Vinge is still ---ing brilliant... but publishes about as often as we change presidents.
If you think there's something out there that ought to be reviewed, buy it and review it. Those that can, do; those that can't, kvetch.
On the other hand, he set the stage for an empire that had a decent run, and was more viable than the republic had been at the end. Of course, I'm not into empires.
Is this really a historical parallel you want to explore?
Those who do not study their history are doomed to repeat it -- Santayana.
But those who do are usually quite willing to sign their names to such, rather than hiding in anonymity.
So what does that mean if a KGB successor agency employee, or other foreign agency, installs such software on a US computer? Is it legal?
No, it sounds like he considers the rights of the people more important than the rights of the federal government, but the rights of the states so obviously more important than the rights of individuals as to not need stating. This is fairly consistent with the 10th amendment: the federal government only gets the powers explicitly granted it, the states get everything else unless explicitly denied, in which case the right devolves to the people.
Of course, this is inconsistent with what his website says, as you note. So yes, he's probably just another old Confederate bigot, hiding behind the cry of "state's rights!" as a sandbag to try and hold back the tide of history from his home. Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it; but those who do not study demographics are doomed to history. Specifically, age demographics. The young may collectively ever quote to their elders: "We will bury you..." and with more inevitability of history than Kruschev managed.
Failure to apply all Microsoft patches, keep current anti-virus definitions, and use something other than IE may be stupid, but hardly counts as consent. I've seen a network worm install over a dozen spyware apps during the time required to get a new machine to download the Windows Update critical patches over DSL, despite my having the service packs pre-installed from my repair kit's patch CD. That was an eye-opener; fortunately, I had ghosted off an image to a USB drive beforehand, reducing restore time to about 30 minutes. I now carry a cheapo NAT router for firewalling on such housecalls. =)
Private attempt to achieve orbit.
Private attempt to maintain orbit for at least 24 hours.
Private moon landing.
Private skyhook capable of bringing two 10kg payloads from earth to orbit in under a month.
Get that last, and you will own space. Skyhooks promise to be the cheapest price per kg to orbit, and the cheapest way to put one up is if you already have another one....
Only if they botch the rentry and landing.
And that in turn does not mean that you are wrong.
American engineers make absolutely no consideration as to whether an idea is sane when first considering whether an idea is possible... which is both a strength and weakness to our system. A weakness, since we waste a LOT of effort on some really silly things. A strength, because we figure out how to do some really cool and useful stuff in the process.
Step 1: Is it even possible?
Step 2 (hopefully): Is it immoral, or otherwise a really bad idea?
Step 3: Can I convince someone to pay for me to work on this?
Step 4: Can we make money doing it?
Step 5: Profit! =)
Step 6: How can we do it better/faster/cheaper?
Inter-Continental Ballistic Pizza. Hmm... even if we can't start the company, someone should start selling the T-Shirts for it. "From the Cold War to Hot Pizza-- delivery to anywhere on the planet in 30 minutes." I'd buy one. =)
Terran, or solar escape velocity? Local, or general?
At local terran escape velocity of 10 kps, you're about ready to start lunar colonization. At local solar escape velocity of about 42 kps, you're ready to start mining the Oort cloud for volitiles (for space colonies and/or terraforming Mars and Venus) and any other fun stuff out there. At base solar escape velocity of about 620 kps, you can get anywhere in the solar system, and have a decent start on leaving it.
Of course, it's not all fun and games now. As reported earlier, there's already people trying to make a fast buck off of it.
So, any guesses until the first private race to the moon?