Who says that FOSS and commercial companies are different world?
On the contrary. Niche apps are custom programmed, either in house or contracted and cannot usually be sold again. This would be the perfect place for FOSS -and- companies working on FOSS.
This is a big world. Other communities usually have the need similar niche programs. Modifications are necessary, but most companies aren't so pervasive, that they know who requires this niche product, or known to provide it, and/or cannot provide the modifications.
But, when those niche products are FOSS, those communities can hire a local company to provide the modifications for themselves (and others).
You don't have to go as far as German, where the whole range from 13 to 99 is big-endian. Read 19: nine-teen. In English, the range from 13 to 19 is big-endian.
Re:Yeah, that's interesting until you consider...
on
Japan's Empire of Cool
·
· Score: 1
> Why are the Japanese so keen to take, modify and integrate other cultures to suit their needs, yet they're still incredibly racist of other cultures?
Simple, because "the Japanese" are not a single person, but many different people. There are many people which are quite keen on foreign things and several which are not. The more eager people are to adopt parts of foreign culture the more it frightens the more conservative people. They fear the loss of their cultural identity.
As you said, Japan is a nation, which is historically quite eager to adopt foreign influences. But other nations are similar. Walk through Europe and you will also see many people wearing T-shirts with English phrases. Or look at the charts of various European countries. They have even more English titles in the Top 10 than Japan.
I'd say, it is similar to the fear of some Arabs of the "Imperial Americans". They observe the eager adoption of foreign cultural elements in their country and fear it as a loss of their own.
> Of course, for Americans it is a bit hard to understand the concept of being a distinct civilization since we've long been a melting pot, a nation made up of other nations.
Well, since the US is the cultural dominant nation in the world, you won't observe such a raise of xenophobia on that reason. Only the typical racism present in every nation and the occasional surge of racism due to recent events.
Actually, only Kyoto and some cities on Hokkaido are laid out in a grid and were planned in large scale. This stems from Chinese city planning in the time Kyoto was the capital.
Most other cities don't follow any particular order, except that of fire, earthquake and some reconstruction-plans.
And acutally I'd say that is the reason why some parts are quite unattractive. According to the Asahi Shinbun, a new law has been proposed, which puts constraints on the buildings in that way, that they have to fit into the neighbourhood. Similar to the rules which are in place in Europe.
> Nobody!, and I mean nobody spends money like the Japanese
Well, the Japanense people has the world most personal savings in the world. That is in absolute numbers not per person. (about $10 trillion)
Whereas in the United States consumer spending exceeds savings by leaps and bounds, Japanese citizens are highly conservative in their expenditures and their investments. The normal Japanese citizens' savings far exceeds their annual income, practically an unheard of practice in the U.S.
The current economical situation drives the average Japanese to spend even less money, which actually makes things worse. This is actually also the assessment of the Japanese goverment.
> when they see than Amtrack has derailed once again and dozens of people are dead or in the hospital
But they drive car? That is funny. What was the number one cause of unatural death?
> I'm 29 and most of my friends in Tokyo don't even own cars....they don't feel the need to.
Do they go out after 00:00? Or do they go out until 6:00? A car could come in handy. OTOH, you can't drink (or at least shouldn't), and there are also taxis. And compared to the costs of maintaining a car in Tokyo...
> The shinkansen (bullet train) is at least 5 times faster than driving a car and slightly cheaper than flying.
AFAIK, not anymore. For buisness people, flights with ANA can be even cheaper. The JR companies are losing market-share. That is why they faded out the old Shinkansen line, decreasing on-board service, and want faster trains. To be more competetive to the airlines.
Maybe I'm alone with my opinion, but I fail to see why a school needs computers, except for teaching how to use and program them.
I'd weep, if they didn't have the money for teachers, books, paper, chalk and the like.
I had a CS course at my high-school and they had a Bull Unix Workstation with a single 68k for 12 terminals. And this was the only computer at school for the pupils. And no, I'm not in my 30s or 40s. At that time Pentium processors where state of the art.
At that time, I felt it was a bad condition. In retrospect, I feel fortunate. And the reason were the teachers I had, which tought me things, which most people usually learn as undergrads at the university in CS.
You seem to have a very narrow understanding of the word privacy, it seems. Commonly, privacy doesn't only mean "private matter". In this context it means "the quality or state of being apart from company or observation".
> It's a contractual issue. Yeah, and the contractors do not agree with the new contract terms. Case closed.
> wants to know if the employee is really doing the work (or as much of the work as) the employee claims.
Yes, but it offers the possibility of a different quality of control. Not a casual check, whether the street/highway has been plowed by the contractor, but a minuit surveillance of every move of every single plow operator at work. I can imagine that most workers would be reluctant to agree to such terms.
> OT, but democracy is scary, which is why our ( the USA) founders created a Republic.
Yes, this is why Swiss is a wealthy country, with high taxes, a social system, and a subsidised train system.
> Simplistic example, run a K-12 classroom as a pure Democracy.
Well, this shows what kind of educational level you expect from the average U.S.American and from the average K-12 pupil's understanding about democracy.
And of course, the correct way is to adapt the election sytem.
Then maybe you got something wrong. Only terrestrial TV turned fully digital. Cable is unaffected from the change.
I've heard from friends, who have cable in Berlin that they considering buying a digital receiver instead of using cable. A receiver costs roughly 100 EUR once, while cable cost about 10 EUR/month.
> And what's this about "no freezer"? What exactly is outer space, if not cold?
Temperature is the mean kinetic energy of particles per volume. Space is quite empty, which keeps the temperature quite low. But, do you know what the best (heat-) insulator is? Vacuum.
What one usually calls "cold" is not something of low temperature, but something with a lower temperature and a good heat conductance. Hence, a piece of metal of room temperature is cold. It "drains" the heat from you.
Well, let me share my (simplified) view on things:
Germany has officially accepted their atrocities, and lives in personal denial, while Japans lives in collective denial of its atrocities.
In Germany, the atrocities of the nation under the dictatorship of the Nazis are tought and anyone in goverment denying these has a short-lived career. Still, most people living at that time deny any personal responsibility. The seperation of the Nazi-regime from the "ordinary people" became more visible as there was a exhibition about the war crimes of the Wehrmacht, which enraged people from the more conservative-nationalistic minority. They think, that atrocities were only commited (if ever) by the SS, SA. But not by the Wehrmacht, which only dutifully followed the orders of the supreme commander.
In Japan, the atrocities are seldom in textbooks, and some are even revisionistic. Most former soldiers in Germany as in Japan were denying any participation in atrocities. But, AFAIK, there are more Japanese soldiers were openly speaking (or writing books) about their participation than in Germany (IRC, I read it in the Asahi Shinbun).
The difference was, Germans were either officially determined a Nazi or not (Denazification), while the Japanese had come to personal terms with their history.
The sad part for Japan is, that after those people are dead, all that is left is ignorance, and only a minority is interested about the less pleasent parts of history of ones country.
Tell me, why there is a positive correlation between stork population and birth rates in The Netherlands.
That social unrest follows a harmonic oscillation is quite plausible, even without external factors. And that turmoil coincides is even less astonishing, especially in the last decades.
> Why did the students of Beijing, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Paris, Mexico City and Berkeley take it to the streets the same year?
Simple, they all wanted changes in their social and political systems. Their situations were different, but seeing people speak up motivates other people to speak up for their problems.
And that an oscillation with a frequency of (11+-1)a coincides with several events in time is hardly suprising, especially when the other oscillation is (23+-3)a (from the dates you provided)
> Of course there are a couple of other problems with airships, [...]
AFAIK, Zeppelins still had a better safety record than trains at that time. But as you said, a film of people dieing in a fireball has more impact that statistics.
> A large piece of the meaning and fluidity of a film is lost in translation.
Well, it depends, who guessed it, on the translator, and the voice actors.
IRC, there are even some films out there, which were more successful in a different language, because of the translation.
The translation is a work in itself, which, depending on the ability of the translator, can be a shallow copy of the original, or even better than the original (Especially, if the original is of poor quality)
I can undestand the other reason, but how can you prefer the original in a language you do not understand over a translated version, on the reason of loss in fluidity and meaning?
I prefer to watch english films in the original, although I have some problems understanding the spoken word. But still, I have the feeling, I'm not quite getting some details of the film. Most problematic are jokes. Partly because of cultural discrepancies, partly because I'm busy understanding the language.
In other words, I'm experience a loss in meaning and fluidity. And I guess that will always be the case, unless one lived a while in that nation, so one has a better grip of the language and culture.
A grip, a translator surely has.
Considering the two or three english dubs of Anime, I've seen, I can understand, why some people are avoiding them. But I wouldn't consider Ghost in the Shell as one of them.
> And with the visuals in the trailer of Ghost In the Shell 2, who cares what language it's in!!
Well, as long it isn't Polish, I'm fine with it:). Considering the previous Ghost-in-the-Shell film, I'd say it'd be a loss missing the monologues.
No, any tool can be used as a weapon. There is a reason why there are different words for different things.
> Guns are tools which are used for deterrence, among other things.
Pray, which of these things do not involve pointing and shooting someone? Opening cans, making the light off? "A gun is not a weapon, it's a tool, like a hammer or a screwdriver or an alligator."
A gun is not a deterrence and can be used for killing, but it is a deterrence, because it is used for killing.
A threat without the possibility realising its consequences is no threat.
Either accept that fact and stand to your right, or give it up. But don't play it down.
Since they are speaking about "using roadside sensors to measure pollutants spewing from tailpipes as vehicles accelerate", I assume, they either plan to measure the exhaust at the tailpipe of a still standing car, when it begins to drive. This is practically a still standing target. And AFAIK, it is the point where a car emits the second most pollution per time (after the initial start).
The next thing is, how does a moving car differ from a still standing plant with wind (In a small time intervall)? And how does convection affect the measured results? My assumption is, more wind will lower the results due to more dillution. Otherwise, I'd say the relative movement of sensor to target is neglectible as v<<c.
To my limited knowledge, spectroscopy is the method of choice of measuring pollution in exhaust of plants.
AFAIK, a LASER directed on the chute and measuring the reflected spectrum deliver accurate data on various gases (CO,SO2...)
The external factors you have named maybe unpredictable, but are measurable and the systematical errors and statistical errors stemming from them can be measured and accounted for.
I may be wrong, I only remember it from something I've heard 5-10 years ago. In that case, please enlighten me.
The report was something along this line: Before such systems, govermental agencies checking the exhaust of plants had to build up an apparatus at the site (at the exhaust). The arrival of the agency at the site gave the operator the signal change the settings, so that they pass the inspection, which usually operated at a cheaper and less cleaner moed. The (at that time) new system fitted into a van. They just had to drive some hundred meters near to the chute, with a line-of-sight, pointed the LASER at the exhaust and read the print-out, which listed the PPM of the pollutants.
The speech was also condemned by the European Union and Germany in particular, as well as by the United States, Australia and other Western states. [...] Speaking for the EU, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Dr Mahathir had employed "expressions that were gravely offensive, very strongly anti-Semitic and... strongly counter to principles of tolerance, dialogue and understanding".
"The Foreign Minister (Silvan Shalom) praised a letter that Chirac sent to the Malaysian prime minister condemning his statements. We see in that letter, a reiteration of Chirac's known position against any kind of antisemitism," spokesman Jonathan Peled said late Sunday.
Slashdot Mirror
Who says that FOSS and commercial companies are different world?
On the contrary. Niche apps are custom programmed, either in house or contracted and cannot usually be sold again. This would be the perfect place for FOSS -and- companies working on FOSS.
This is a big world. Other communities usually have the need similar niche programs. Modifications are necessary, but most companies aren't so pervasive, that they know who requires this niche product, or known to provide it, and/or cannot provide the modifications.
But, when those niche products are FOSS, those communities can hire a local company to provide the modifications for themselves (and others).
>(except a byte might not be 8 bits on *all* hardware, hardware where it is not true is quite rare at this point however :)
Ummh... the smallest adressable unit for an ARM-processors is a 16bit. I'd say it is quite common. Not on the desktop, but still.
The US-goverment are the nervous people with nuclear weapons wmspringer is talking about.
You don't have to go as far as German, where the whole range from 13 to 99 is big-endian.
Read 19: nine-teen. In English, the range from 13 to 19 is big-endian.
> Why are the Japanese so keen to take, modify and integrate other cultures to suit their needs, yet they're still incredibly racist of other cultures?
Simple, because "the Japanese" are not a single person, but many different people. There are many people which are quite keen on foreign things and several which are not. The more eager people are to adopt parts of foreign culture the more it frightens the more conservative people. They fear the loss of their cultural identity.
As you said, Japan is a nation, which is historically quite eager to adopt foreign influences. But other nations are similar. Walk through Europe and you will also see many people wearing T-shirts with English phrases. Or look at the charts of various European countries. They have even more English titles in the Top 10 than Japan.
I'd say, it is similar to the fear of some Arabs of the "Imperial Americans". They observe the eager adoption of foreign cultural elements in their country and fear it as a loss of their own.
> Of course, for Americans it is a bit hard to understand the concept of being a distinct civilization since we've long been a melting pot, a nation made up of other nations.
Well, since the US is the cultural dominant nation in the world, you won't observe such a raise of xenophobia on that reason. Only the typical racism present in every nation and the occasional surge of racism due to recent events.
Actually, only Kyoto and some cities on Hokkaido are laid out in a grid and were planned in large scale. This stems from Chinese city planning in the time Kyoto was the capital.
Most other cities don't follow any particular order, except that of fire, earthquake and some reconstruction-plans.
And acutally I'd say that is the reason why some parts are quite unattractive. According to the Asahi Shinbun, a new law has been proposed, which puts constraints on the buildings in that way, that they have to fit into the neighbourhood.
Similar to the rules which are in place in Europe.
Well, the Japanense people has the world most personal savings in the world. That is in absolute numbers not per person. (about $10 trillion)
source
The current economical situation drives the average Japanese to spend even less money, which actually makes things worse. This is actually also the assessment of the Japanese goverment.
> when they see than Amtrack has derailed once again and dozens of people are dead or in the hospital
But they drive car? That is funny. What was the number one cause of unatural death?
> I'm 29 and most of my friends in Tokyo don't even own cars....they don't feel the need to.
Do they go out after 00:00? Or do they go out until 6:00? A car could come in handy. OTOH, you can't drink (or at least shouldn't), and there are also taxis. And compared to the costs of maintaining a car in Tokyo...
> The shinkansen (bullet train) is at least 5 times faster than driving a car and slightly cheaper than flying.
AFAIK, not anymore. For buisness people, flights with ANA can be even cheaper. The JR companies are losing market-share. That is why they faded out the old Shinkansen line, decreasing on-board service, and want faster trains. To be more competetive to the airlines.
Maybe I'm alone with my opinion, but I fail to see why a school needs computers, except for teaching how to use and program them.
I'd weep, if they didn't have the money for teachers, books, paper, chalk and the like.
I had a CS course at my high-school and they had a Bull Unix Workstation with a single 68k for 12 terminals. And this was the only computer at school for the pupils. And no, I'm not in my 30s or 40s. At that time Pentium processors where state of the art.
At that time, I felt it was a bad condition. In retrospect, I feel fortunate. And the reason were the teachers I had, which tought me things, which most people usually learn as undergrads at the university in CS.
You seem to have a very narrow understanding of the word privacy, it seems. Commonly, privacy doesn't only mean "private matter". In this context it means "the quality or state of being apart from company or observation".
> It's a contractual issue.
Yeah, and the contractors do not agree with the new contract terms. Case closed.
> wants to know if the employee is really doing the work (or as much of the work as) the employee claims.
Yes, but it offers the possibility of a different quality of control.
Not a casual check, whether the street/highway has been plowed by the contractor, but a minuit surveillance of every move of every single plow operator at work. I can imagine that most workers would be reluctant to agree to such terms.
Actually it is not a joke, but a funny anecdote. And it was a barometer.
> OT, but democracy is scary, which is why our ( the USA) founders created a Republic.
Yes, this is why Swiss is a wealthy country, with high taxes, a social system, and a subsidised train system.
> Simplistic example, run a K-12 classroom as a pure Democracy.
Well, this shows what kind of educational level you expect from the average U.S.American and from the average K-12 pupil's understanding about democracy.
And of course, the correct way is to adapt the election sytem.
Then maybe you got something wrong. Only terrestrial TV turned fully digital. Cable is unaffected from the change.
I've heard from friends, who have cable in Berlin that they considering buying a digital receiver instead of using cable. A receiver costs roughly 100 EUR once, while cable cost about 10 EUR/month.
> And what's this about "no freezer"? What exactly is outer space, if not cold?
Temperature is the mean kinetic energy of particles per volume. Space is quite empty, which keeps the temperature quite low. But, do you know what the best (heat-) insulator is? Vacuum.
What one usually calls "cold" is not something of low temperature, but something with a lower temperature and a good heat conductance. Hence, a piece of metal of room temperature is cold.
It "drains" the heat from you.
Recycled MBA/Engineer joke?
Or was it engineer/mathematics?
Anyway, the engineer part is important, as it shows the pragmatism of an engineer on most matters in contrast to their humouristic antagonists.
The transposition of the joke on Mac/Win lacks this kind of insight as pragmatism is, IMHO, not the distinguishing attribute of a Mac user.
Well, let me share my (simplified) view on things:
Germany has officially accepted their atrocities, and lives in personal denial, while Japans lives in collective denial of its atrocities.
In Germany, the atrocities of the nation under the dictatorship of the Nazis are tought and anyone in goverment denying these has a short-lived career.
Still, most people living at that time deny any personal responsibility. The seperation of the Nazi-regime from the "ordinary people" became more visible as there was a exhibition about the war crimes of the Wehrmacht, which enraged people from the more conservative-nationalistic minority.
They think, that atrocities were only commited (if ever) by the SS, SA. But not by the Wehrmacht, which only dutifully followed the orders of the supreme commander.
In Japan, the atrocities are seldom in textbooks, and some are even revisionistic. Most former soldiers in Germany as in Japan were denying any participation in atrocities. But, AFAIK, there are more Japanese soldiers were openly speaking (or writing books) about their participation than in Germany (IRC, I read it in the Asahi Shinbun).
The difference was, Germans were either officially determined a Nazi or not (Denazification), while the Japanese had come to personal terms with their history.
The sad part for Japan is, that after those people are dead, all that is left is ignorance, and only a minority is interested about the less pleasent parts of history of ones country.
- Unless there is a complaint, surely the electronic votes, otherwise the printed votes.
- No one, that is why one can complain and request a recount, should there be a doubt.
- Well, those who care to vote, surely care how it will be counted. I mean, it is not like one goes there just for fun.
Tell me, why there is a positive correlation between stork population and birth rates in The Netherlands.
That social unrest follows a harmonic oscillation is quite plausible, even without external factors. And that turmoil coincides is even less astonishing, especially in the last decades.
> Why did the students of Beijing, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Paris, Mexico City and Berkeley take it to the streets the same year?
Simple, they all wanted changes in their social and political systems. Their situations were different, but seeing people speak up motivates other people to speak up for their problems.
And that an oscillation with a frequency of (11+-1)a coincides with several events in time is hardly suprising, especially when the other oscillation is (23+-3)a (from the dates you provided)
> Of course there are a couple of other problems with airships, [...]
AFAIK, Zeppelins still had a better safety record than trains at that time. But as you said, a film of people dieing in a fireball has more impact that statistics.
Well, then try German
It has the advantage of sporting almost the same character-set as english.
> Who knows if the translation is correct?
:).
Well, hopefully the translator.
> A large piece of the meaning and fluidity of a film is lost in translation.
Well, it depends, who guessed it, on the translator, and the voice actors.
IRC, there are even some films out there, which were more successful in a different language, because of the translation.
The translation is a work in itself, which, depending on the ability of the translator, can be a shallow copy of the original, or even better than the original (Especially, if the original is of poor quality)
I can undestand the other reason, but how can you prefer the original in a language you do not understand over a translated version, on the reason of loss in fluidity and meaning?
I prefer to watch english films in the original, although I have some problems understanding the spoken word. But still, I have the feeling, I'm not quite getting some details of the film. Most problematic are jokes. Partly because of cultural discrepancies, partly because I'm busy understanding the language.
In other words, I'm experience a loss in meaning and fluidity. And I guess that will always be the case, unless one lived a while in that nation, so one has a better grip of the language and culture.
A grip, a translator surely has.
Considering the two or three english dubs of Anime, I've seen, I can understand, why some people are avoiding them. But I wouldn't consider Ghost in the Shell as one of them.
> And with the visuals in the trailer of Ghost In the Shell 2, who cares what language it's in!!
Well, as long it isn't Polish, I'm fine with it
Considering the previous Ghost-in-the-Shell film, I'd say it'd be a loss missing the monologues.
> any tool can become a weapon.
No, any tool can be used as a weapon. There is a reason why there are different words for different things.
> Guns are tools which are used for deterrence, among other things.
Pray, which of these things do not involve pointing and shooting someone? Opening cans, making the light off? "A gun is not a weapon, it's a tool, like a hammer or a screwdriver or an alligator."
A gun is not a deterrence and can be used for killing, but it is a deterrence, because it is used for killing.
A threat without the possibility realising its consequences is no threat.
Either accept that fact and stand to your right, or give it up. But don't play it down.
Since they are speaking about "using roadside sensors to measure pollutants spewing from tailpipes as vehicles accelerate", I assume, they either plan to measure the exhaust at the tailpipe of a still standing car, when it begins to drive. This is practically a still standing target. And AFAIK, it is the point where a car emits the second most pollution per time (after the initial start).
The next thing is, how does a moving car differ from a still standing plant with wind (In a small time intervall)?
And how does convection affect the measured results? My assumption is, more wind will lower the results due to more dillution.
Otherwise, I'd say the relative movement of sensor to target is neglectible as v<<c.
To my limited knowledge, spectroscopy is the method of choice of measuring pollution in exhaust of plants.
AFAIK, a LASER directed on the chute and measuring the reflected spectrum deliver accurate data on various gases (CO,SO2...)
The external factors you have named maybe unpredictable, but are measurable and the systematical errors and statistical errors stemming from them can be measured and accounted for.
I may be wrong, I only remember it from something I've heard 5-10 years ago.
In that case, please enlighten me.
The report was something along this line:
Before such systems, govermental agencies checking the exhaust of plants had to build up an apparatus at the site (at the exhaust). The arrival of the agency at the site gave the operator the signal change the settings, so that they pass the inspection, which usually operated at a cheaper and less cleaner moed.
The (at that time) new system fitted into a van. They just had to drive some hundred meters near to the chute, with a line-of-sight, pointed the LASER at the exhaust and read the print-out, which listed the PPM of the pollutants.
IPv5 or ST2+ is circuit switched instead of packet switched.
Source
source (Actually by the l'Agence France-Presse)
I'm interested, where you are getting your news from.