Two hours later, pressing F5 to reload slashdot, and at exactly that moment, Visual Studio steals the focus, and Accepts the F5 key as "continue". Two hours of work wasted. (True story).
That's an awesome definition of "work". You should submit to the OED!;-)
I don't doubt that; but there's a huge step from BMI-based prosthetics to the kind of science fiction being alluded to in Zonk's "dibs on a datajack" comment.
The model and procedure for making the many parts of our body is encoded in our DNA. If we just drop in a a chip how can the body know to interact with it? Unless our genes are rewritten to include driver software (heh!) then the only likely result will be a mucus surface forming around the inorganic material, rather like a pearl forming around a piece of grit. At the basic level everything is done in terms of shuffling chemicals around. There is no "master planner" who will integrate our new chip capabilities (64-bit floating point maths or something) into the normal functioning of our brains.
But you don't pay to receive calls, only to send them. So it's the same as
setting up a blacklist on a mail server, in effect. The phone checks the
number, realises it's on the blacklist and sends back the "not interested"
signal. The person dialling gets "number not recognised" or similar, to put
them off.
It seems like a grand idea. Are there any open source phone operating systems
that this could be implemented on, or are we at the mercy of the telcos and
manufacturers?
Personally I think Four Tet does it best when it comes to using modern
technology to create music. It seems (I don't pay too much attention to that
field of music) that his style is a lot more rooted in jazz, for example,
while using the sounds he finds as real instruments.
The equivalent, I suppose, of Tom Waits' recent stuff in the "analogue" world: if it makes a good noise then it can fit into an orchestra!:)
PS. For the love of all that is decent, when is Slashdot going to allow HTML entities? A technology site, of all things, and can't even get basic punctuation marks like dashes. Argh.
can only be prompted by the need for promotion for your own personnal sect or a secret desire for public humiliation.
Yeah, nice one. Maybe it's all a form of intellectual masochism. An attempt to make people all over the world laugh at them... I would sleep easier in my bed knowing it was some form of sexual perversion than if they actually were this stupid.
I fear that truth is stranger than fiction; and creationists are stranger than either.
And now we get to rename Anonymous Coward to Anonymous Ignoramus, since "to call a spade a spade" is not a racial slur:
It derives from an ancient Greek expression: ta syka syka, te:n
skaphe:n de skaphe:n onomasein = "to call a fig a fig, a trough a
trough". This is first recorded in Aristophanes' play The Clouds
(423 B.C.), was used by Menander and Plutarch, and is still current
in modern Greek.
They're probably really nice and elegant and all that but... are they not just a wee bitty dull? I mean, two out of the three winners appear to create thumbnails of pages (whether from the history or other open pages). And while Web Developer is a fantastic package it's hardly cutting edge and new. I was hoping for something with real pizzaz. Something where the very idea and description was enough to make me go, "wow".
through the pager which doesnt operate on the cell network because the cell network is not a reliable form of communication
I think you're missing the brunt of the argument --- the copper nanotube paint will block all signals. It doesn't know what a phone network signal looks/sounds/tastes like any more than I know do. It's just a lump of metal.
and second of all, why would you have to get a hold of a doctor at 2 am if he is travelling that just flat out doesnt make sense.
This isn't your day is it? Let me explain how on-call works in rural areas. (The regulations have changed recently but this is the principle.)
The GPs for an area share out responsibility for the emergency calls. Each doctor will be responsible for a 24 hour period every fortnight or so (depending on how many doctors there are to share amongst).
The doctor on call on a particular night lives in town H. Generally they will have a second phone line in the house devoted to official calls. This will be redirected to dispatch during the 24 hour on-call.
It's 12.15am and someone has had a $MEDICAL_EMERGENCY in village V, which is a tiny little place 45 minutes drive from H. The doctor leaves home and heads towards the patient... arrives at 1am.
The doctor leaves the patient and heads home after 45 minutes. Time = 1.45am.
Fifteen minutes later another page comes in. Doctor is in the middle of nowhere. It's 2am! Doctor calls in to find out what the next emergency is...
I don't know about other professions but doctors on call 'round here have a pager which alerts them when they are needed, and a phone to get in touch with the dispatch point. If the signals are blocked then neither of these methods will work.
How do you propose you get in touch with a doctor at two in the morning if they're travelling between small towns? Mobile phones are incredibly useful, and network coverage is always a prime consideration, especially in rural areas.
> Clearly our scientific definition of a living organism just sucks.
I think it's actually our intuitive definition of a living organism that sucks. The science is there to cut out the woolly and contradicting thinking that people use from day to day.
A 'living' virus would look like nothing at all under a microscope, and you certainly couldn't fool anyone that it was alive if you didn't tell them what it was. Only a preconceived idea that a virus is alive would cause them to change their mind.
I'm willing to give it a go, though. I suppose out of a sense of noble self-sacrifice that I have. Please start posting your cheques so I can start my campaign for world do^W^Wthe coming elections.
Parent didn't say "blood" but "plasma". I believe you do get paid for plasma donation, however, because it's such a horrible and invasive procedure. They pipe you up to a little filter to remove the plasma and give you back your red blood cells in one smooth move. So it takes a good deal longer.
In all seriousness though, surely use of the red cross in computer games (as in movies, cartoons and TV) helps to spread the awareness of the purpose of the symbol.
It's a universal symbol for a medkit in gaming. The games are just reflecting its use in real life - hardly something you would prosecute over, is it?
As one of Mr Raymond's much-touted reasons for using Open Source development is not reinventing the wheel it's a loss for OSS too. When it's closed, it's closed.
I'm curious. If the "head of Macintosh products at Symantec" says that OS X hasn't had any viruses... what does he do? Why do they sell Macintosh AV software?
Do people pay for "peace of mind", and regularly download completely empty virus definition files?;) I'm sure people would buy it if they did, but I'm assuming they do other things as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah but does he read Slashdot? And does he do any hacking? (No, I haven't RTFA.)
That's an awesome definition of "work". You should submit to the OED! ;-)
I don't doubt that; but there's a huge step from BMI-based prosthetics to the kind of science fiction being alluded to in Zonk's "dibs on a datajack" comment.
The model and procedure for making the many parts of our body is encoded in our DNA. If we just drop in a a chip how can the body know to interact with it? Unless our genes are rewritten to include driver software (heh!) then the only likely result will be a mucus surface forming around the inorganic material, rather like a pearl forming around a piece of grit. At the basic level everything is done in terms of shuffling chemicals around. There is no "master planner" who will integrate our new chip capabilities (64-bit floating point maths or something) into the normal functioning of our brains.
But you don't pay to receive calls, only to send them. So it's the same as setting up a blacklist on a mail server, in effect. The phone checks the number, realises it's on the blacklist and sends back the "not interested" signal. The person dialling gets "number not recognised" or similar, to put them off.
It seems like a grand idea. Are there any open source phone operating systems that this could be implemented on, or are we at the mercy of the telcos and manufacturers?
Personally I think Four Tet does it best when it comes to using modern technology to create music. It seems (I don't pay too much attention to that field of music) that his style is a lot more rooted in jazz, for example, while using the sounds he finds as real instruments.
The equivalent, I suppose, of Tom Waits' recent stuff in the "analogue" world: if it makes a good noise then it can fit into an orchestra! :)
PS. For the love of all that is decent, when is Slashdot going to allow HTML entities? A technology site, of all things, and can't even get basic punctuation marks like dashes. Argh.
Yeah, nice one. Maybe it's all a form of intellectual masochism. An attempt to make people all over the world laugh at them... I would sleep easier in my bed knowing it was some form of sexual perversion than if they actually were this stupid.
I fear that truth is stranger than fiction; and creationists are stranger than either.
And now we get to rename Anonymous Coward to Anonymous Ignoramus, since "to call a spade a spade" is not a racial slur:
If you cross Idaho with a ho, do you get your original ho back?
Hmm, (+1, Balls of Steel) or (-1, Unusable)?
They're probably really nice and elegant and all that but ... are they not just a wee bitty dull? I mean, two out of the three winners appear to create thumbnails of pages (whether from the history or other open pages). And while Web Developer is a fantastic package it's hardly cutting edge and new. I was hoping for something with real pizzaz. Something where the very idea and description was enough to make me go, "wow".
Anyone else find it a bit anticlimactic?
What makes you assume I even live in the USA?
I think you're missing the brunt of the argument --- the copper nanotube paint will block all signals. It doesn't know what a phone network signal looks/sounds/tastes like any more than I know do. It's just a lump of metal.
This isn't your day is it? Let me explain how on-call works in rural areas. (The regulations have changed recently but this is the principle.)
Now do you see why you were gabbering?
I don't know about other professions but doctors on call 'round here have a pager which alerts them when they are needed, and a phone to get in touch with the dispatch point. If the signals are blocked then neither of these methods will work.
How do you propose you get in touch with a doctor at two in the morning if they're travelling between small towns? Mobile phones are incredibly useful, and network coverage is always a prime consideration, especially in rural areas.
> Clearly our scientific definition of a living organism just sucks.
I think it's actually our intuitive definition of a living organism that sucks. The science is there to cut out the woolly and contradicting thinking that people use from day to day.
A 'living' virus would look like nothing at all under a microscope, and you certainly couldn't fool anyone that it was alive if you didn't tell them what it was. Only a preconceived idea that a virus is alive would cause them to change their mind.
Ooh, I wouldn't want to be fighting alongside Cheney!
I'm willing to give it a go, though. I suppose out of a sense of noble self-sacrifice that I have. Please start posting your cheques so I can start my campaign for world do^W^Wthe coming elections.
I trust I can rely on your vote.
That, sir, is a slur on Scarborough! ;)
No, but when you die Netcraft confirms it.
Parent didn't say "blood" but "plasma". I believe you do get paid for plasma donation, however, because it's such a horrible and invasive procedure. They pipe you up to a little filter to remove the plasma and give you back your red blood cells in one smooth move. So it takes a good deal longer.
They can sue the British royal family while they're at it.
In all seriousness though, surely use of the red cross in computer games (as in movies, cartoons and TV) helps to spread the awareness of the purpose of the symbol.
It's a universal symbol for a medkit in gaming. The games are just reflecting its use in real life - hardly something you would prosecute over, is it?
It won't stop the top of someone's head from being outside the shot though. Or the other one, the "pot-plant on head" effect.
As one of Mr Raymond's much-touted reasons for using Open Source development is not reinventing the wheel it's a loss for OSS too. When it's closed, it's closed.
I'm curious. If the "head of Macintosh products at Symantec" says that OS X hasn't had any viruses... what does he do? Why do they sell Macintosh AV software?
Do people pay for "peace of mind", and regularly download completely empty virus definition files? ;) I'm sure people would buy it if they did, but I'm assuming they do other things as well.
Yeah, but they're aussies and kiwis, so we don't talk about them! :)