Are you really saying that you would always hire someone who's contributed to a FOSS project over someone who hasn't, just because they made a public contribution?
Yes, but not just because of the public contribution. Let me rephrase it: I would always hire someone who I know is good over someone who I don't know whether he is good or not. And by "good" I mean both a good programmer and a good citizen.
Can devices like this potentially use chemicals in blood to generate mechanical energy and then electricity so as to replace pacemakers?
No, these robots use muscles that need energy, just like your heart. They don't generate electricity from blood, but there was a story in August 2003, Powered by Blood: "Bringing us one step closer to becoming centrally-controlled meatbots, Japanese scientists have developed a device that produces power from the glucose in human blood." If they combine both of those technologies we might have meat robots powerd by blood, which would be the first step in creating life. The question is: should we play God? Could we create a monster? Do we have a right to do it? Those are very serious questions that have to be answered before any mass production begins because otherwise we might destroy the morality as we know it, if not the life itself.
I wonder if you could create a fuel cell powered by glucose or something filtered from human blood. Then you'd just need to make sure you ate enough to keep the thing powered.
There was a story in August 2003, Powered by Blood: "Bringing us one step closer to becoming centrally-controlled meatbots, Japanese scientists have developed a device that produces power from the glucose in human blood."
I ususally ask the most important question first: where can I see your code on-line--which in practice often means: which free software project have you contributed to? It's better than a test because I can see some Real World(TM) problem solving skills, read the mailing lists archives to see interpersonal communication skills, ask other developers, etc. Why is it more important than tests? Because that way I can see how the future code is going to look. Academic questions and tests are good for students, but the Real World(TM) is very different. In the Real World(TM) understanding CPAN and APT is more important than understanding the Turing Machine, even if the latter is otherwise much more important than the former for any serious scientist. Today usually in every group of candidates there are at least few who have their code to show, so it's pointless to waste time on those who don't. Also, it seems important to award those who are productive and useful to the humanity at large, to punish and motivate those who aren't, and to tell the Big Boss(TM) "I told you, embracing the open source paradigm is profitable and good for the economy. Why not be more proactive from the hiring perspective and always demand appropriate portfolio up front?" This is just a common sense. For example, hiring a Debian developer you can expect that he will be able to package his software and install it properly on all of the systems instead of cluttering the filesystem with junk and making the servers expensive to migrate. Similarly, hiring a CPAN author you can expect that he will know how to use standard Perl modules instead of wasting his time and your money on reinventing the wheel and writing one big-arse slow-as-hell monolithic stand-alone CGI script when a nice hierarchy of mod_perl modules would work like a charm. I could go on and on forever, but I guess you get the point already. I never buy a cat in the bag. Neither should anyone else. This is not to say that free software and open source is "better" than its proprietary counterpart, but it surely is more visible.
Since Europe doesn't bend over as easily as certain other continents, I believe that Verizon should just learn to respect citizens, for it has no other choice if it is going to survive in a truly free society or face serious consequences (trade sanctions, anyone?). This is how capitalism is meant to work, but Verizon might have some trouble to understand it having been living under the pro-corporation anti-individual government umbrella for so long. This is nothing new, a lot of corporations had to change their shady laissez-passer tactics, there is no reason to believe that Verizon is going to be different.
This would have been cool... ...TWENTY YEARS AGO, when these movies were actually good! Now look at them. He's waiting for THAT?
Yes, it would have been cool twenty years ago, when we were younger. The point is that such movies are not any worse than they used to be "back in my days," but that we no longer enjoy primitive storytelling, which we would have otherwised loved as kids, and which we would now remember as the coolest thing ever, just like our first sexual intercourse or car chase, which--let's face it--was an utterly laughable softcore by our current standards. So, I must disagree with you. Those movies (and their fans) are just as cool (if not cooler) as they used to be back in our days. The problem is that we are adults now and we have much important things to do than watching fairy tales.
"After almost three years of development, the Bugzilla project has released long-waited Bugzilla 2.18. It contains many new features, a huge number of bug fixes, some security updates, and more."
A huge number of bug fixes? You mean it contains built-in, preloaded bug fixes for future bug reports? I had no idea it was even possible but it surely sounds like a useful feature. I will also probably use those security updates, for I have a lot of open tickets asking for them. This is a very good news.
What this means is that the person doing the suing is also guilty of the same offense (that of sharing "illegal material"). Unless turrents allow downloading without uploading anything, the MPAA attack dogs are just as guilty of doing what they are accusing the ohter end user of.
The only one who can sue you for copyright infringement is the copyright holder. Therefore, by definition, the people who are suing you must've had the right to distribute the work in question in the firt place, ergo their hands are perfectly clean. Remember that there is no such a thing as an "illegal material"--there is only an illegal distribution of said legal material. The question to ask is more subtle than that, namely if the copyright holder herself had been uploading the work, was it illegal to download? The answer is: no. But was it legal to upload by other people who were downloading it? Again, the answer is: no.
Acceptable my ass. I haven't seen a hard drive last more than a year since, oh, single-digit capacities.
I, on the other hand, haven't seen a hard drive failure on my desktop since the single-digit 1GB drive I fried by changing jumpers while it was connected something like a dozen years ago. My secret is this: always buy the slowest spinning hard drives on the market. My main hard drive is a 40GB drive spinning at only 5krpm, but it has been spinning 24 hours a day and 7 days a week for at least five years with no single problem, outliving four power supplies and six keyboards. Also, it is still very quiet. Maybe I am just lucky but I haven't got any problem with slow disks yet. But I don't buy old models. I buy big, slow disks. And if the seek time is an issue than two 5krpm disks in an array have the same seek time and additionally twice the throughput of a single 10krpm unreliable noisy piece of junk.
Yes. Actually, seeing that nothing interesting is happening, I decided to go out and I almost got lucky, if you know what I mean. I kid you not. So, ironically, no news can be good news, if you follow my drift.
Flatbed-like Scanners? Why not Waterbed-like Scanners! It reminds me of a strange prank couple of my students made few years ago. They essentially combined flatbed scanners with a waterbed mattress. The scanners were under the transparent mattress filled with water and their lights were supposed to have a good influence on the skin and blood circulation. And now the best part: they have actually managed to get a test group of students to test its effectiveness. What those poor girls and boys didn't know, was the fact that during the test their naked bodies were scanned and posted on usenet. Sick idea if you ask me. They have been expelled in no time. Too bad, those were some of the best students I've ever had. The moral of the story is that I cannot look at a flatbed scanner with no suspicion since then. Fortunately, in the era of digital cammeras, scanners are less needed than they were back then. Answering the question of MessageDrivenBean. You would be surprised how many interesting things I have found pasting random parts of your question in Google and Froogle. You should really try it sometimes, it's much faster than Ask Slashdot.
Things you probably cant do nowadays but we did in high school (which was only 8 yrs ago)
1) Play with radioactive stuff
Play with radioactive stuff? Why not drink it! Oh, yeah, I remember the days when radioactive stuff was cool, trendy and good for you. On the other hand, it has been many years since then, but as far as I remember physics has never been "uncool" for me. Though apparently I was "uncool" for the bullies, but that's another story. And since I read the Sex Tips For Geeks by Eric S. Raymond I believe that I am not only cool, but actually quite a hot stud if you ask me. All in all, a very interesting article, but in my opinion it should pay more attention to social problems that the most intelligent kids face these days, as unfortunately many of us know from experience.
I really can't imagine how a person living in Fallouja could possibly contribute to wikinews. I doubt that there is any internet access in Fallouja. The people there are probably busy trying to put food on the table and keep from getting killed, not sitting in front of a computer. Very few of them can write well in English, and, sorry, I don't read Arabic.
One thing I've noticed is the more fans your computer has the more often you end up needing to replace components. I've had 2 high-end video cards fry themselves due to the bearings in the fans wearing out.
Now I run a box practically devoid of fans and it's been running great for 4 years & counting.
That's interesting.
So the logical solution
to make the hardware more robust
would be to get rid of the fans.
Here, let me--
It is a late reply so probably no one will see it, but I'll answer anyway. I remember reading a book Hyperspace by Michio Kaku something between ten and twenty years ago. In that book he wrote that he had built a cyclotron when he was a kid. There were no technical details, but you could probably find more in other of his publication, or after contacting him. He has a website MKaku.org. Good luck.
Most of that unlocking time is [...] not Steam network activity.
That is true, however it remains Valve's fault.
So, the problems with steam are valve's fault... Well, yes, most probably. I really hate when it happens. But meanwhile, before you have your espresso machine fixed, you might want to check out this new game: Half-Life 2. I've heard it's great.
AOL will add some proprietary plug-ins. Change the look and feel, add a new skin and you have the AOL/Netscape branded Fire Fox. However there is a possible bright side to all of this. They may contribute to the project.
There is a possible bright side even if they don't contribute anything. More people using non-MS browsers will mean that more webmasters will have to start designing portable websites with standards in mind, instead of only making sure it works in one particular browser.
Screwed up family tree?
on
Netscape Reborn?
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Netscape, the company, begot Mozilla, the Browser. Mozilla, the browser begot Netscape, the Browser. Mozilla, the browser, begot Firefox, the Browser. Firefox, the browser, begot Netscape the Browser. Man, that's one screwed up family tree:>
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but not just because of the public contribution. Let me rephrase it: I would always hire someone who I know is good over someone who I don't know whether he is good or not. And by "good" I mean both a good programmer and a good citizen.
No, these robots use muscles that need energy, just like your heart. They don't generate electricity from blood, but there was a story in August 2003, Powered by Blood: "Bringing us one step closer to becoming centrally-controlled meatbots, Japanese scientists have developed a device that produces power from the glucose in human blood." If they combine both of those technologies we might have meat robots powerd by blood, which would be the first step in creating life. The question is: should we play God? Could we create a monster? Do we have a right to do it? Those are very serious questions that have to be answered before any mass production begins because otherwise we might destroy the morality as we know it, if not the life itself.
There was a story in August 2003, Powered by Blood: "Bringing us one step closer to becoming centrally-controlled meatbots, Japanese scientists have developed a device that produces power from the glucose in human blood."
I ususally ask the most important question first: where can I see your code on-line--which in practice often means: which free software project have you contributed to? It's better than a test because I can see some Real World(TM) problem solving skills, read the mailing lists archives to see interpersonal communication skills, ask other developers, etc. Why is it more important than tests? Because that way I can see how the future code is going to look. Academic questions and tests are good for students, but the Real World(TM) is very different. In the Real World(TM) understanding CPAN and APT is more important than understanding the Turing Machine, even if the latter is otherwise much more important than the former for any serious scientist. Today usually in every group of candidates there are at least few who have their code to show, so it's pointless to waste time on those who don't. Also, it seems important to award those who are productive and useful to the humanity at large, to punish and motivate those who aren't, and to tell the Big Boss(TM) "I told you, embracing the open source paradigm is profitable and good for the economy. Why not be more proactive from the hiring perspective and always demand appropriate portfolio up front?" This is just a common sense. For example, hiring a Debian developer you can expect that he will be able to package his software and install it properly on all of the systems instead of cluttering the filesystem with junk and making the servers expensive to migrate. Similarly, hiring a CPAN author you can expect that he will know how to use standard Perl modules instead of wasting his time and your money on reinventing the wheel and writing one big-arse slow-as-hell monolithic stand-alone CGI script when a nice hierarchy of mod_perl modules would work like a charm. I could go on and on forever, but I guess you get the point already. I never buy a cat in the bag. Neither should anyone else. This is not to say that free software and open source is "better" than its proprietary counterpart, but it surely is more visible.
It doesn't help per say, but some people need it: the government, big business, et caytera.
Since Europe doesn't bend over as easily as certain other continents, I believe that Verizon should just learn to respect citizens, for it has no other choice if it is going to survive in a truly free society or face serious consequences (trade sanctions, anyone?). This is how capitalism is meant to work, but Verizon might have some trouble to understand it having been living under the pro-corporation anti-individual government umbrella for so long. This is nothing new, a lot of corporations had to change their shady laissez-passer tactics, there is no reason to believe that Verizon is going to be different.
Why did they name it after a heretic in the first place, if not to piss off religious people?
Yes, it would have been cool twenty years ago, when we were younger. The point is that such movies are not any worse than they used to be "back in my days," but that we no longer enjoy primitive storytelling, which we would have otherwised loved as kids, and which we would now remember as the coolest thing ever, just like our first sexual intercourse or car chase, which--let's face it--was an utterly laughable softcore by our current standards. So, I must disagree with you. Those movies (and their fans) are just as cool (if not cooler) as they used to be back in our days. The problem is that we are adults now and we have much important things to do than watching fairy tales.
"After almost three years of development, the Bugzilla project has released long-waited Bugzilla 2.18. It contains many new features, a huge number of bug fixes, some security updates, and more."
A huge number of bug fixes? You mean it contains built-in, preloaded bug fixes for future bug reports? I had no idea it was even possible but it surely sounds like a useful feature. I will also probably use those security updates, for I have a lot of open tickets asking for them. This is a very good news.
The only one who can sue you for copyright infringement is the copyright holder. Therefore, by definition, the people who are suing you must've had the right to distribute the work in question in the firt place, ergo their hands are perfectly clean. Remember that there is no such a thing as an "illegal material"--there is only an illegal distribution of said legal material. The question to ask is more subtle than that, namely if the copyright holder herself had been uploading the work, was it illegal to download? The answer is: no. But was it legal to upload by other people who were downloading it? Again, the answer is: no.
I, on the other hand, haven't seen a hard drive failure on my desktop since the single-digit 1GB drive I fried by changing jumpers while it was connected something like a dozen years ago. My secret is this: always buy the slowest spinning hard drives on the market. My main hard drive is a 40GB drive spinning at only 5krpm, but it has been spinning 24 hours a day and 7 days a week for at least five years with no single problem, outliving four power supplies and six keyboards. Also, it is still very quiet. Maybe I am just lucky but I haven't got any problem with slow disks yet. But I don't buy old models. I buy big, slow disks. And if the seek time is an issue than two 5krpm disks in an array have the same seek time and additionally twice the throughput of a single 10krpm unreliable noisy piece of junk.
Yes. Actually, seeing that nothing interesting is happening, I decided to go out and I almost got lucky, if you know what I mean. I kid you not. So, ironically, no news can be good news, if you follow my drift.
--it's how you use it. I know, I hear it all the time...
It is interesting to see how this $23 to $36 billion growth compares to the drop of the USD value during those very years. Do the math.
Flatbed-like Scanners? Why not Waterbed-like Scanners! It reminds me of a strange prank couple of my students made few years ago. They essentially combined flatbed scanners with a waterbed mattress. The scanners were under the transparent mattress filled with water and their lights were supposed to have a good influence on the skin and blood circulation. And now the best part: they have actually managed to get a test group of students to test its effectiveness. What those poor girls and boys didn't know, was the fact that during the test their naked bodies were scanned and posted on usenet. Sick idea if you ask me. They have been expelled in no time. Too bad, those were some of the best students I've ever had. The moral of the story is that I cannot look at a flatbed scanner with no suspicion since then. Fortunately, in the era of digital cammeras, scanners are less needed than they were back then. Answering the question of MessageDrivenBean. You would be surprised how many interesting things I have found pasting random parts of your question in Google and Froogle. You should really try it sometimes, it's much faster than Ask Slashdot.
Me too. I believe we both need to go out more often.
Play with radioactive stuff? Why not drink it! Oh, yeah, I remember the days when radioactive stuff was cool, trendy and good for you. On the other hand, it has been many years since then, but as far as I remember physics has never been "uncool" for me. Though apparently I was "uncool" for the bullies, but that's another story. And since I read the Sex Tips For Geeks by Eric S. Raymond I believe that I am not only cool, but actually quite a hot stud if you ask me. All in all, a very interesting article, but in my opinion it should pay more attention to social problems that the most intelligent kids face these days, as unfortunately many of us know from experience.
See Baghdad Burning.
That's true, but you have to remember that the FAT filesystem doesn't work very well on thin clients, for some reason.
That's interesting. So the logical solution to make the hardware more robust would be to get rid of the fans. Here, let me--
Yes.
It is a late reply so probably no one will see it, but I'll answer anyway. I remember reading a book Hyperspace by Michio Kaku something between ten and twenty years ago. In that book he wrote that he had built a cyclotron when he was a kid. There were no technical details, but you could probably find more in other of his publication, or after contacting him. He has a website MKaku.org. Good luck.
So, the problems with steam are valve's fault... Well, yes, most probably. I really hate when it happens. But meanwhile, before you have your espresso machine fixed, you might want to check out this new game: Half-Life 2. I've heard it's great.
AOL will add some proprietary plug-ins. Change the look and feel, add a new skin and you have the AOL/Netscape branded Fire Fox. However there is a possible bright side to all of this. They may contribute to the project.
There is a possible bright side even if they don't contribute anything. More people using non-MS browsers will mean that more webmasters will have to start designing portable websites with standards in mind, instead of only making sure it works in one particular browser.
Netscape, the company, begot Mozilla, the Browser. :>
Mozilla, the browser begot Netscape, the Browser.
Mozilla, the browser, begot Firefox, the Browser.
Firefox, the browser, begot Netscape the Browser.
Man, that's one screwed up family tree
Screwed up family tree? You haven't read "--All You Zombies--" by Robert A. Heinlein, have you? Now, that is one screwed up family tree. (You can find the full text on Google or buy The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein.)