It would be great if someone made a bayesian filter or something that searches for words in EULAs which are associated with spyware. They're not perfect, but if they just showed some red flags in the these uber-long and deliberately confusing documents, it could help the user identify paragraphs they really can't afford not to read.
Of course software companies would have a fit over this because the user might just be reading the highlighted areas and not the actual EULA, but otherwise they wouldn't be reading it at all, so what harm could that do?
EULAs are made the way they are (long and full of lawyerese) so that even if you did read it, it would be difficult to tell if it was actually spyware or not.
This "may log keystrokes", etc. statement could be wedged so deep in a huge paragraph about legit stuff that it would be hard for a fairly savvy user (oxymoron?), or even an admin who didn't take any law courses, to detect.
I was speaking of this especially in terms of a science test. In many branches of science, there are only so many questions you can ask on a certain topic. Any other questions are merely permutations with slight modification. It is possible for a teacher of this subject to go over basically all the questions that can concievably be asked on a science test.
You obviously failed the test on basic binary multiplication and addition. Those darn Sesame Street muppets have tainted your mind with their "base 10" nonesense
I have had to explain my sig to many people, so here goes.
The "bits" used in the first three segments refer to the Spanish coin "pieces of eight". The "dollar" sign is actually derived from this "eight" pattern. It even looks like an eight. The coin had perforations so that it could be broken into eight "bits". Thus each "bit" would be equal to 12.5% of one full coin. This concept transfered into US currency when people called a US coin worth 25% of a dollar a "two bit" coin (2 x 12.5% = 25% = $.25) thus,
4 bits = 4 x 12.5% = 50% = $.50
6 bits = 6 x 12.5% = 75% = $.75
8 bits = 8 x 12.5% = 100% = $1
Now, of course, this does not explain the "10, 100, 110, 1000" business. Those numbers, of course, are in binary!
10=2
100=4
110=6
1000=8
And of course there are eight bits in a byte as well, showing the correlation between the components that make up a dollar and the components that make up a byte! Yay!
They really should teach more of this binary multiplication stuff in school. That is the only way future generations will be able to understand what is written on my thinkgeek T-Shirts!
Actually, nobody in higher math knows their multiplication tables. The ones who do well probably will never have to. They may go on to jobs such as engineering, cryptography, or computer science, where the answer to such multiplication problems is always just a few button presses away. They don't have to sweat the small stuff because these multiplication table functions are usually just a tiny part of a much more paramount solution.
"I seriously think the entire system should be changed so that each student had to pass a test showing that they have learned a preset amount of material. If halfway through any given year a student has demonstrated to the teacher that they were proficient at the level they are currently at, then the teacher could give the student a test and, upon completing the test, the student would be advanced to the next skill level."
_
The idea of a rigorous testing filter presents a very real problem. After a while, teachers would start teaching to the test, making kids memorize all the answers so that they would pass and make said teacher look good. Then the classes would become boring memorization sessions, furthering the problem that this system tries to avoid.
_
It may get to the point so that the students who actually know how to solve the problems will do worse (especially on a timed test) than those who may be considerable less intelligent but who just know the answers.
_
Don't answer. Solve.
Quite the opposite has been my experience with public schools- during primary and middle school, you are pretty much pushed through a round pipe. If you are a square peg, too bad. You have to learn the same stuff as everyone else. Only as you get toward High school are more and more advanced course opportunities given to you. As I recall, by senior year (or Junior year, for the people who skipped a whole level of science in middle school because lest they fall asleep)there were 4 or 5 different types of physics classes you could take.
"help prevent hackers from wreaking havoc on wireless networks.""making it next to impossible for hackers to tweak the device and cause trouble."
Call me naive, but what kinds of "havoc" and "trouble" are we talking about here? I have heard very little on slashdot or elsewhere concerning trouble caused by people who crack cellphone networks. The article provided no specific examples of such malice. Intel is solving a problem that does not exist (yet?) and at the same time further deteriorating the rights of the end user.
This just in: Japanese mobile phone technology is more advanced than that in North America.
In a related study, scientists find that wearing a blindfold while driving greatly increases the risk of an automobile accident.
"Requirements? Low cost pc and a dash LCD display."
If those are all the requirements then I will be very pleased. This is the first dashboard-mounted PC I've seen that does not even require a vehicle! (I'm guessing one will still need a dashboard, but those can be found on eBay.)
In light of the recent discovery of hydrocarbons
on Titan, U.S. president George Bush said the following:
{squints}"We will take immediate {pauses}
military action to protect US interests in Titan.
We will then make sure that the titanics [people of titan] have
democratic elections as soon as possible.
While you're at it, just make a mind reading pen, so the computer could read your mind (just like every luser wishes it could)! Seriously, it's a good idea, but no matter how intuitive you make an interface, there will always be a luser who thinks it is too hard.
"In one posting on the Web site Slashdot.org, someone using the handle "Monkelectric" asked if the leak could be a ploy by Microsoft to get users to upgrade from Windows NT and Windows 2000 to newer operating systems, perhaps to avoid an onslaught of security breaches. Other posters joked about Windows having gone open source."
"Handles"? They talk about us like we're a bunch of malicious hackers! (That's almost completely incorrect, right comrades?) Can we at least be like civilized people and call them usernames or UIDs instead?
I can't believe you've never heard of this (even if you are American). Ever wonder why so many of the features on the dark side of the moon have Russian names? It's the same with many features on Mars, too.
Well no wonder I am considered a security threat just for using Macs!Once at ASU, I was using their mac terminals to get some new VIS images of Mars. I overheard the security guys saying: "oh come on, these kiddies were weaned on windows; none of them know UNIX!" Being a long time mac user, I (stupidly) said "I know UNIX!" And was labeled a security threat. (Fortunately, they were out of the "I am a security threat" Tshirts that day)
"We never lost a Saturn V, but it was only used for 13 launches,"
Your point is right on; the shuttle's safety record is spectacular, but didn't NASA lose the crew of a Saturn V when they were doing a "plugs out" test during Apollo 1 testing? They filled the crew compartment with pure oxygen and the astronauts were incinerated on the pad. If you take that data into account, the shuttle's record looks even better (1:13 v. 2:113)
Look- Murphy's law has had its ways with the space flight industry since it was concieved (see Wherner Von Braun's early space flight attempts; plenty of those V2s blew up on the launch pad). There are a trillion and two things that can go wrong when you're putting a human where they did not evolve to go (i.e. outer space).
The most NASA can do is to take enough safety precautions (without making their vehicles too heavy to fly, I might add) so that only a trillion and one things can possibly go wrong. No matter how meticulous and numerous the precautions you take are, something is bound to go wrong eventually.
"You can strip the platinum out for more than the vehicle is worth"
Even if there was that much worth of platinum in the car, how would you go about removing it? In just about every industrial application of platinum I've ever seen, the platinum is in a molecule-thick coating (used for its chemical properties) and would be difficult to extract even if you had high-tech equipment and put in lots of time and effort
There is a company called Small Dog Electronics (http://www.smalldog.com) based in Waitsfield, USA. My physics prof broke a part on his laptop (I'm not sure if he called it the bezel or not, but it did have something to do with holding the LCD in place). He took it to Smalldog because the manufacturer's parts were hard to find, and they fixed it. Probably saved him a lot of money over what the manufacturer would have charged him. The lesson here: these guys deal in factory refurbished goods, so they are likely to have some spare parts lying around, even from slightly older models.
I find it extremely annoying when my each family member hogs 20-25 threads on our system when all they are doing is being on AIM, broadcasting an away message. This makes it impossible for me to do any decent graphical calculations (or play ArmyOps). "reliably being on AIM" merely causes fights over CPU time between family members.
DINGDINGDING!You are correct. This is the intended meaning of my sig. The whole "1000 bits= 1 byte" was intended to represent that, just as bits make up a byte, pieces of 8 (also known as "bits") make up a dollar.
Slashdot Mirror
It would be great if someone made a bayesian filter or something that searches for words in EULAs which are associated with spyware. They're not perfect, but if they just showed some red flags in the these uber-long and deliberately confusing documents, it could help the user identify paragraphs they really can't afford not to read.
Of course software companies would have a fit over this because the user might just be reading the highlighted areas and not the actual EULA, but otherwise they wouldn't be reading it at all, so what harm could that do?
EULAs are made the way they are (long and full of lawyerese) so that even if you did read it, it would be difficult to tell if it was actually spyware or not.
This "may log keystrokes", etc. statement could be wedged so deep in a huge paragraph about legit stuff that it would be hard for a fairly savvy user (oxymoron?), or even an admin who didn't take any law courses, to detect.
I was speaking of this especially in terms of a science test. In many branches of science, there are only so many questions you can ask on a certain topic. Any other questions are merely permutations with slight modification. It is possible for a teacher of this subject to go over basically all the questions that can concievably be asked on a science test.
You obviously failed the test on basic binary multiplication and addition. Those darn Sesame Street muppets have tainted your mind with their "base 10" nonesense I have had to explain my sig to many people, so here goes. The "bits" used in the first three segments refer to the Spanish coin "pieces of eight". The "dollar" sign is actually derived from this "eight" pattern. It even looks like an eight. The coin had perforations so that it could be broken into eight "bits". Thus each "bit" would be equal to 12.5% of one full coin. This concept transfered into US currency when people called a US coin worth 25% of a dollar a "two bit" coin (2 x 12.5% = 25% = $.25) thus, 4 bits = 4 x 12.5% = 50% = $.50 6 bits = 6 x 12.5% = 75% = $.75 8 bits = 8 x 12.5% = 100% = $1 Now, of course, this does not explain the "10, 100, 110, 1000" business. Those numbers, of course, are in binary! 10=2 100=4 110=6 1000=8 And of course there are eight bits in a byte as well, showing the correlation between the components that make up a dollar and the components that make up a byte! Yay! They really should teach more of this binary multiplication stuff in school. That is the only way future generations will be able to understand what is written on my thinkgeek T-Shirts!
Actually, nobody in higher math knows their multiplication tables. The ones who do well probably will never have to. They may go on to jobs such as engineering, cryptography, or computer science, where the answer to such multiplication problems is always just a few button presses away. They don't have to sweat the small stuff because these multiplication table functions are usually just a tiny part of a much more paramount solution.
"I seriously think the entire system should be changed so that each student had to pass a test showing that they have learned a preset amount of material. If halfway through any given year a student has demonstrated to the teacher that they were proficient at the level they are currently at, then the teacher could give the student a test and, upon completing the test, the student would be advanced to the next skill level." _ The idea of a rigorous testing filter presents a very real problem. After a while, teachers would start teaching to the test, making kids memorize all the answers so that they would pass and make said teacher look good. Then the classes would become boring memorization sessions, furthering the problem that this system tries to avoid. _ It may get to the point so that the students who actually know how to solve the problems will do worse (especially on a timed test) than those who may be considerable less intelligent but who just know the answers. _ Don't answer. Solve.
Quite the opposite has been my experience with public schools- during primary and middle school, you are pretty much pushed through a round pipe. If you are a square peg, too bad. You have to learn the same stuff as everyone else. Only as you get toward High school are more and more advanced course opportunities given to you. As I recall, by senior year (or Junior year, for the people who skipped a whole level of science in middle school because lest they fall asleep)there were 4 or 5 different types of physics classes you could take.
"help prevent hackers from wreaking havoc on wireless networks." "making it next to impossible for hackers to tweak the device and cause trouble." Call me naive, but what kinds of "havoc" and "trouble" are we talking about here? I have heard very little on slashdot or elsewhere concerning trouble caused by people who crack cellphone networks. The article provided no specific examples of such malice. Intel is solving a problem that does not exist (yet?) and at the same time further deteriorating the rights of the end user.
Japan has an uncomfortably dense population, too By "dense" I hope you mean that there are many people per square kilometer?
Yeah... Nokia is based in Finland. - Nokia Head Office Keilalahdentie 2-4 P.O. Box 226 FIN-00045 Nokia Group Finland Tel. +358 7180 08000
This just in: Japanese mobile phone technology is more advanced than that in North America. In a related study, scientists find that wearing a blindfold while driving greatly increases the risk of an automobile accident.
"Requirements? Low cost pc and a dash LCD display." If those are all the requirements then I will be very pleased. This is the first dashboard-mounted PC I've seen that does not even require a vehicle! (I'm guessing one will still need a dashboard, but those can be found on eBay.)
While you're at it, just make a mind reading pen, so the computer could read your mind (just like every luser wishes it could)! Seriously, it's a good idea, but no matter how intuitive you make an interface, there will always be a luser who thinks it is too hard.
If you want to sell these to the unwashed masses weaned on GUIs, you're going to have to include a mouse pen, too
I can't believe you've never heard of this (even if you are American). Ever wonder why so many of the features on the dark side of the moon have Russian names? It's the same with many features on Mars, too.
Well no wonder I am considered a security threat just for using Macs!Once at ASU, I was using their mac terminals to get some new VIS images of Mars. I overheard the security guys saying: "oh come on, these kiddies were weaned on windows; none of them know UNIX!" Being a long time mac user, I (stupidly) said "I know UNIX!" And was labeled a security threat. (Fortunately, they were out of the "I am a security threat" Tshirts that day)
"We never lost a Saturn V, but it was only used for 13 launches," Your point is right on; the shuttle's safety record is spectacular, but didn't NASA lose the crew of a Saturn V when they were doing a "plugs out" test during Apollo 1 testing? They filled the crew compartment with pure oxygen and the astronauts were incinerated on the pad. If you take that data into account, the shuttle's record looks even better (1:13 v. 2:113)
Look- Murphy's law has had its ways with the space flight industry since it was concieved (see Wherner Von Braun's early space flight attempts; plenty of those V2s blew up on the launch pad). There are a trillion and two things that can go wrong when you're putting a human where they did not evolve to go (i.e. outer space). The most NASA can do is to take enough safety precautions (without making their vehicles too heavy to fly, I might add) so that only a trillion and one things can possibly go wrong. No matter how meticulous and numerous the precautions you take are, something is bound to go wrong eventually.
"You can strip the platinum out for more than the vehicle is worth" Even if there was that much worth of platinum in the car, how would you go about removing it? In just about every industrial application of platinum I've ever seen, the platinum is in a molecule-thick coating (used for its chemical properties) and would be difficult to extract even if you had high-tech equipment and put in lots of time and effort
Try being a football statistician- then tell me the 30 seconds between plays is "downtime".
There is a company called Small Dog Electronics (http://www.smalldog.com) based in Waitsfield, USA. My physics prof broke a part on his laptop (I'm not sure if he called it the bezel or not, but it did have something to do with holding the LCD in place). He took it to Smalldog because the manufacturer's parts were hard to find, and they fixed it. Probably saved him a lot of money over what the manufacturer would have charged him. The lesson here: these guys deal in factory refurbished goods, so they are likely to have some spare parts lying around, even from slightly older models.
I find it extremely annoying when my each family member hogs 20-25 threads on our system when all they are doing is being on AIM, broadcasting an away message. This makes it impossible for me to do any decent graphical calculations (or play ArmyOps). "reliably being on AIM" merely causes fights over CPU time between family members.
DINGDINGDING!You are correct. This is the intended meaning of my sig. The whole "1000 bits= 1 byte" was intended to represent that, just as bits make up a byte, pieces of 8 (also known as "bits") make up a dollar.