What the HELL is it with these moron webmasters who decide the optimal way to present an article is GREY TEXT on a white background!
Do these people have no clue about contrast? Do they actually WANT to make it harder to read their content?
Or is it the fact that there is very little content to this article, and they want to use the Wired approach of "we will make it impossible for an average reader to read this in less than three hours by using bad color schemes, so that people will think this article was deep and profound rather than a shallow recap of history with very little original thought."
Or perhaps, like the little bastards in the story who torture their Sims, the owners of this web site wish to abuse the "little people" (read: US) on the other side of their screens?
Correcting geeks, be it in grammar, facts, dress, manners, or any other way, is like handling old nitroglycerin - you might get away with it, or you might get an explosion.
Many geeks (myself included) are very intelligent, and very proud (of the intelligence and in general). They do not like being shown to be less than perfect as that is what they demand of themselves - so in correcting them you have provoked an emotional response of "How dare you make me feel bad about myself by disrupting my self image!"
Now, *some* geeks (and I would like to think this is the group I am in most of the time) will recognize this response, and realize that it is an emotional response, and realize that the only way to improve is to be corrected, and will thank you for the correction.
However, many geeks, their professed "rationalism" aside, will go with the emotional reaction, and go on the attack.
Hey now - let's not get insulting here: robots are much smarter than Marines, and Marines are much tougher than robots!
(Note: JOKE! My brother was a Marine before he worked for NASA, my insurance agent is a Marine, and there are few people I'd rather have guarding my ass than Marines.)
Do not commit such blasphemy as to compare Omni with that magazine which does not deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Omni!
Omni was a magazine of the thinking man.
Wired always was "Ohh, look at us! We are so tragically hip we cannot see over our own pelvis! Look at this game, which you cannot hope to afford the computer to run! Bow before the computer we use to run it! Look at the trends which shall be cool, because we say they are cool! Spend hours reading our tripe because we hide our vacuousness behind insane color choices and bizarre layouts! You are honored just to pay us money!"
Sorry, Wired is to a real magazine what MTV is to real entertainment.
Point taken - and actually, I know of somebody who *used* to have a marine radar on his chase vehicle - note the emphasis on the past tense - it was removed for that very reason.
Although you really should have better qualified your statement "Operating marine radars on vehicles is illegal." to "Operating marine radars on vehicles other than boats on the water is illegal."
As is operating an aviation WX radar on a vehicle that is not an aircraft.
Hmmm - a thought strikes me:
Aviation WX unit. Small computer. GPS. 801.11 Big Wx balloon.
Depending upon the workload the server sees, you could get away with something as simple and stupid as a Linksys/DLink/... firewall configured to port forward the server's ports inward. (cost ca. US$30)
You might also dig up a junk machine and set up the Linux Router project (or a *BSD equivalent) on it.
If the servers are big enough that a cheap hardware firewall won't do, then I'd say they are big enough to need a real router in front of them.
Here I was, thinking that maybe this guy had done something truly nifty, like interfacing the marine radar to the computer and having it serve the radar images.
Here in Tornado Alley, such a thing would be pretty damn interesting - I know a couple of storm spotters who might just be persuaded to add that to their chase vehicles.
But no - all this guy did was put a PC in a Radar case, and use the PC to look at radar data from the Internet.
Now, had he fabricated a fake radar unit from sheet metal, that would have been somewhat interesting.
Had he gone whole-hog like the guy who did the HalfLife case mods - that would have been interesting.
But this?
Can I have the seconds of my life back I spent looking at the article?
May I suggest that/. create another section, pointlesscasemods.slashdot.org, and put these sort of things there?
Or at least a "Pointless Case Mod" icon?
I mean really - computers are getting to be like digital clock modules were in the 1980's - "Let's put them into everything! Here - let's put one in this banana!"
Why, oh why, cannot more sites do as the linked site did, and offer a layout that does not force the width of the article to some predetermined size, but rather lets me use all of my 1600x1200 display?
And since the.torrent file is derived from the files being served (as it contains hashes of the files being served) I would guess that it would be legally considered a derived work, and thus infringing upon the copyright of the files referred to in the.torrent.
IANAL, but - would any of the lawyers on here care to give a more informed (but still not binding as no attorney/client privilege exists) opinion?
Most amps like that have a diode across the power input, configured to be forward biased if the amp is hooked up backwards. That way all the current goes through the diode, and the amp sees only -.7V across it.
The current then is enough to blow the fuse.
Now, if you had removed the diode, and the fuse holder....
Or better still, replaced the diode with a diode and a squib, and a little thermite.
I like to mention the disgruntled employee thing, because it puts things into terms they can understand.
Terms they can mis-understand, you mean. Putting it like this will almost guarantee that your boss will take this as a threat by you to do exactly what you describe.
Making your boss think you are threatening him is NEVER a good thing.
This guy's boss is clearly incapable of understanding ANYTHING more complicated than a nipple - and people like that judge everybody else by their own set of morals. His boss has no problem screwing other people - do you think his boss wil NOT think "Hey, this guy's trying to screw me 'cause that's what I'd do?"
Again, as many others have already said:
Get the requests in writing, signed by your boss, on company letterhead. DO NOT accept an email, or a simple scribble on a random piece of paper is NOT good enough to stand in court.
Respond to the requests in writing on company letterhead, detailing your concerns.
Send copies of both your boss's letter and your response to your company's legal counsel, along with a cover letter summarizing your concerns about the legality of the actions.
Codeweavers is the commercial company behind much of the work on Wine, which is a Windows compatability layer that allows (some) Windows applications to run under *nix operating systems without Windows being installed.
Which, had you read the linked story, you would have learned.
OK, so this whole story depends upon the ability to create the "magic^Wcomputational clay" that can magically^Wscientifically reform itself to mirror whatever the cameras look at.
Sure, give me enough of this magic^Wcompuational clay and I can build a Holodeck.
And while you are at it, why don't you give me some negative mass matter so I can build a stable wormhole.
And I'd like about a hundred thousand kilometers of superconducting buckycables for a combination beanstalk/generator.
And I'd like the Philosopher's Stone, so I can transmute all the gold I'll need to pay to build this.
Demonstrate just one gram of this magic^Wcomputational clay, and I'll start getting excited about this. Until then, this whole story is just bullshit - low-grade sci-fi, not even worth the title of "speculative fiction", more on a par with a fourth-grader's "What if George Washington could turn himself invisible and had a robot friend".
I am all for forward looking science - including looking forward to things we don't even begin to know how to do now. But to get all breathless about something that we cannot even begin to think about doing....
And the funny thing is I just finished a "Slashdot Survey" that asked me my opinions about Slashdot....
Document all the COM interfaces provided by Media Player in sufficent detail that anybody could create objects which could implement those interfaces (NOTE: I say NOTHING about the ability to implement the actual FUNCTIONALITY behind those interfaces - just because you have a
void foo(HWND *bar,FILE *narf)
call does not mean that you actually foo correctly.)
Release that documentation for all to use
Provide a means by Media Player could be completely un-installed.
Then Microsoft could look at companies like Real and Apple and say "OK, you want to replace us - fine. Here's our API, and here's how your product can request WMP un-install itself. So long as you implement COM objects that implement these interfaces and register them with the system, and so long as your implementations work, you can completely replace WMP. Ball's in your court."
Then if the other companies get it wrong - Microsoft can say "Sorry Mr. J. Random Consumer, but the product you chose in favor of our product isn't as good - perhaps you should try our product, as it is better?"
And if the other companies get it right - well then, we, the consumers, have choice.
I cannot predict sucess, but I can predict the stupidity of the sitcom by a very simple formula:
S = a * Lv*Pl^1.5
Where:
S
Stupidity of the show
a
Scaling constant
L
Volume of laugh track normalized to the volume of the rest of the show
Pl
Probability of the laugh track being used in any 5 minute segment of the show
The more stupid the sit-com, the louder the laughtrack and the more often it will be used.
Just look at "Everybody hates^WLoves Raymond" - a typical show segment might go:
The security of writing down passwords depends upon the security of the paper they are written upon.
If you have a router/firewall on your Internet connection, and you write the password(s) to the router on a piece of paper taped to the router, then you are not really reducing your security - if the bad guys are in the room reading the password you are already in trouble.
However, if you write your workstation password down on a piece of paper under your keyboard, and other people can reasonably be expected to have access to your office, then you are greatly reducing your security. If, on the other hand, you have your password written down on a piece of paper you keep in your wallet, then the reduction in security is fairly minimal - especially if there is nothing in your wallet that would lead the bad guys to your workstation.
Slashdot Mirror
What the HELL is it with these moron webmasters who decide the optimal way to present an article is GREY TEXT on a white background!
Do these people have no clue about contrast? Do they actually WANT to make it harder to read their content?
Or is it the fact that there is very little content to this article, and they want to use the Wired approach of "we will make it impossible for an average reader to read this in less than three hours by using bad color schemes, so that people will think this article was deep and profound rather than a shallow recap of history with very little original thought."
Or perhaps, like the little bastards in the story who torture their Sims, the owners of this web site wish to abuse the "little people" (read: US) on the other side of their screens?
Correcting geeks, be it in grammar, facts, dress, manners, or any other way, is like handling old nitroglycerin - you might get away with it, or you might get an explosion.
Many geeks (myself included) are very intelligent, and very proud (of the intelligence and in general). They do not like being shown to be less than perfect as that is what they demand of themselves - so in correcting them you have provoked an emotional response of "How dare you make me feel bad about myself by disrupting my self image!"
Now, *some* geeks (and I would like to think this is the group I am in most of the time) will recognize this response, and realize that it is an emotional response, and realize that the only way to improve is to be corrected, and will thank you for the correction.
However, many geeks, their professed "rationalism" aside, will go with the emotional reaction, and go on the attack.
Actually, you are wrong.
"should of" is not the common usage.
"should've" is the common usage - which is a contraction of "should have"
However, some people, having only heard "should've" and mis-heard it as "should of", think that "should of" is the common usage.
Hey now - let's not get insulting here: robots are much smarter than Marines, and Marines are much tougher than robots!
(Note: JOKE! My brother was a Marine before he worked for NASA, my insurance agent is a Marine, and there are few people I'd rather have guarding my ass than Marines.)
Do not commit such blasphemy as to compare Omni with that magazine which does not deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Omni!
Omni was a magazine of the thinking man.
Wired always was "Ohh, look at us! We are so tragically hip we cannot see over our own pelvis! Look at this game, which you cannot hope to afford the computer to run! Bow before the computer we use to run it! Look at the trends which shall be cool, because we say they are cool! Spend hours reading our tripe because we hide our vacuousness behind insane color choices and bizarre layouts! You are honored just to pay us money!"
Sorry, Wired is to a real magazine what MTV is to real entertainment.
Point taken - and actually, I know of somebody who *used* to have a marine radar on his chase vehicle - note the emphasis on the past tense - it was removed for that very reason.
/worthy!
Although you really should have better qualified your statement "Operating marine radars on vehicles is illegal." to "Operating marine radars on vehicles other than boats on the water is illegal."
As is operating an aviation WX radar on a vehicle that is not an aircraft.
Hmmm - a thought strikes me:
Aviation WX unit.
Small computer.
GPS.
801.11
Big Wx balloon.
Now, *there's* something
Depending upon the workload the server sees, you could get away with something as simple and stupid as a Linksys/DLink/... firewall configured to port forward the server's ports inward. (cost ca. US$30)
You might also dig up a junk machine and set up the Linux Router project (or a *BSD equivalent) on it.
If the servers are big enough that a cheap hardware firewall won't do, then I'd say they are big enough to need a real router in front of them.
Gag. Another Pointless Case Mod Article.
/. create another section, pointlesscasemods.slashdot.org, and put these sort of things there?
Here I was, thinking that maybe this guy had done something truly nifty, like interfacing the marine radar to the computer and having it serve the radar images.
Here in Tornado Alley, such a thing would be pretty damn interesting - I know a couple of storm spotters who might just be persuaded to add that to their chase vehicles.
But no - all this guy did was put a PC in a Radar case, and use the PC to look at radar data from the Internet.
Now, had he fabricated a fake radar unit from sheet metal, that would have been somewhat interesting.
Had he gone whole-hog like the guy who did the HalfLife case mods - that would have been interesting.
But this?
Can I have the seconds of my life back I spent looking at the article?
May I suggest that
Or at least a "Pointless Case Mod" icon?
I mean really - computers are getting to be like digital clock modules were in the 1980's - "Let's put them into everything! Here - let's put one in this banana!"
Well, I have a new subject for them right here in the Sedgwick County Jail....
Why, oh why, cannot more sites do as the linked site did, and offer a layout that does not force the width of the article to some predetermined size, but rather lets me use all of my 1600x1200 display?
And since the
IANAL, but - would any of the lawyers on here care to give a more informed (but still not binding as no attorney/client privilege exists) opinion?
And I, for one, am glad this will not be available for Linux.
I've lost too many hours to CivCTP as it is, and I don't need another addiction.
So you Windows people can keep your games, and we will keep our productivity.
After all, all Windows is good for is games, right?
Most amps like that have a diode across the power input, configured to be forward biased if the amp is hooked up backwards. That way all the current goes through the diode, and the amp sees only -.7V across it.
The current then is enough to blow the fuse.
Now, if you had removed the diode, and the fuse holder....
Or better still, replaced the diode with a diode and a squib, and a little thermite.
Terms they can mis-understand, you mean. Putting it like this will almost guarantee that your boss will take this as a threat by you to do exactly what you describe.
Making your boss think you are threatening him is NEVER a good thing.
This guy's boss is clearly incapable of understanding ANYTHING more complicated than a nipple - and people like that judge everybody else by their own set of morals. His boss has no problem screwing other people - do you think his boss wil NOT think "Hey, this guy's trying to screw me 'cause that's what I'd do?"
Again, as many others have already said:
Yes, you are confused.
Codeweavers is the commercial company behind much of the work on Wine, which is a Windows compatability layer that allows (some) Windows applications to run under *nix operating systems without Windows being installed.
Which, had you read the linked story, you would have learned.
Penguins, zebras, and pandas are not monochromatic.
They are duochromatic - black, and white.
You want a monochromatic animal? Think panther with its eyes closed.
Or Micheal Jackson.
The League of Virginal Gentlemen?
The Red Shirt Gang?
OK, so this whole story depends upon the ability to create the "magic^Wcomputational clay" that can magically^Wscientifically reform itself to mirror whatever the cameras look at.
Sure, give me enough of this magic^Wcompuational clay and I can build a Holodeck.
And while you are at it, why don't you give me some negative mass matter so I can build a stable wormhole.
And I'd like about a hundred thousand kilometers of superconducting buckycables for a combination beanstalk/generator.
And I'd like the Philosopher's Stone, so I can transmute all the gold I'll need to pay to build this.
Demonstrate just one gram of this magic^Wcomputational clay, and I'll start getting excited about this. Until then, this whole story is just bullshit - low-grade sci-fi, not even worth the title of "speculative fiction", more on a par with a fourth-grader's "What if George Washington could turn himself invisible and had a robot friend".
I am all for forward looking science - including looking forward to things we don't even begin to know how to do now. But to get all breathless about something that we cannot even begin to think about doing....
And the funny thing is I just finished a "Slashdot Survey" that asked me my opinions about Slashdot....
Then Microsoft could look at companies like Real and Apple and say "OK, you want to replace us - fine. Here's our API, and here's how your product can request WMP un-install itself. So long as you implement COM objects that implement these interfaces and register them with the system, and so long as your implementations work, you can completely replace WMP. Ball's in your court."
Then if the other companies get it wrong - Microsoft can say "Sorry Mr. J. Random Consumer, but the product you chose in favor of our product isn't as good - perhaps you should try our product, as it is better?"
And if the other companies get it right - well then, we, the consumers, have choice.
Hey, when you are done with the book, how about you send it on to someone who needs it?
Alright - we need somebody to get to the bottom of all these off-color puns - they cannot be allowed to gluon indefinitely.
S = a * Lv*Pl^1.5
Where:
S Stupidity of the show
a Scaling constant
L Volume of laugh track normalized to the volume of the rest of the show
Pl Probability of the laugh track being used in any 5 minute segment of the show
The more stupid the sit-com, the louder the laughtrack and the more often it will be used.
Just look at "Everybody hates^WLoves Raymond" - a typical show segment might go:
(of course, since
The security of writing down passwords depends upon the security of the paper they are written upon.
If you have a router/firewall on your Internet connection, and you write the password(s) to the router on a piece of paper taped to the router, then you are not really reducing your security - if the bad guys are in the room reading the password you are already in trouble.
However, if you write your workstation password down on a piece of paper under your keyboard, and other people can reasonably be expected to have access to your office, then you are greatly reducing your security. If, on the other hand, you have your password written down on a piece of paper you keep in your wallet, then the reduction in security is fairly minimal - especially if there is nothing in your wallet that would lead the bad guys to your workstation.
At those speeds, I shudder to think how fast you can burn through ink.
I suppose you can find the people/businesses with these printers by the 6 large water towers converted into ink tanks out back....
Of course - the Nazis keep him under constant surveilance.
Since they could measure only his current level of progress XOR his rate of progress, and the Nazis wanted both, he couldn't do anything!