I truly can't understand why a blockbuster Hollywood movie with the world's most famous actors, thousands of special effects created by the world's most powerful supercomputers, and a credits list that takes 5-10 minutes just to scroll by on the screen normally costs about $15, while a CD, often with already-released songs, and requiring only a singer, guitarist, drummer, etc., and a sound technician, costs the same amount. *What is up with that?!*
Did you ever think about how the ability to put knowledge into the brain using technology would change the world in an unimaginable way?
No one would ever have to study or go to school, or when they did it would be only to discover something new, not to learn stuff that mankind already knows. Anything one person learned could instantly be shared with everyone else on the planet. Such is the nature of information. Everyone could learn every language in existence so no language barriers would exist.
Of course, this is like The Matrix, when Neo learns Kung Fu from the computer.
On the plus side, OpenOffice has gotten *much* faster since 1.0, and compatibility is remarkably good. I let my dad try OpenOffice about a month ago and he loved it and switched to it for all his office work.
However, on Linux, OpenOffice looks like *crap*. The interface doesn't match any other apps on my system. GTK apps look tight and clean, QT apps too. But OpenOffice doesn't even look "native" like it does on Windows. It has a look all its own, which is ugly, the widgets are not as responsive as GTK widgets, and it's quirky--especially with respect to input methods, such as Japanese. If they simply used a toolkit such as GTK, they would have *proper* Japanese input, a consistent, clean, customizable interface, and access to any future GTK features.
Heh, I was about to say, "But he *did* link it!" until I realized that the simple-but-oh-so-convenient Firefox extension called "Linkification" had seamlessly made the plain-text url into a hyperlink for me.:)
Which reminds my of the RIDICULOUS three-eyed headgear that Sam Fisher wears in Splinter Cell. Looks cool, but totally impractical. A bright green triad of glowing lights moving slowly through the shadows... and the guards never notice. Oh, but one ray of light from a regular light source, and BAM, they're all over you.
You're joking, right? That "telephone" thing seems to be working pretty well, as well as my "computer" and "car".
In this case, I use "problem" to mean "there is something truly wrong," as opposed to "X could be more easily accomplished with Y." Cars and telephones and computers are tools that are useful, but there is nothing "wrong" about walking or talking face to face. In the case of the email bug, when someone is lazy, has their priorities out of whack, or just doesn't care, the real problem isn't whether they read your email.
Just because social engineering may be the best way to solve a number of problems doesn't mean that technology can't help. (or hurt!)
Agreed. Technology can help but it cannot be the solution itself to a people problem. It's kind of like Digital Rights Management. DRM is a technological solution that is completely doomed to failure if it's the primary component of the music industry's solution.
The "solution" in question here for an interpersonal communications problem will simply create new problems. The quote says, " This will eliminate that excuse completely." But there will be new, creative, and exciting excuses to hear.
Unless it works for every single message it's no good.
So true. And this is straight from their main page:
"Are you as sick of getting the "I never got your email." line as I was? This will eliminate that excuse completely. It really lets you know whom you're dealing with."
Now you simply say, "My spam filter blocks images." And you may have a reason then to think that the person who sent you the message doesn't trust you.
Probably the biggest problem isn't a violation of privacy (spammers are are using this same technique all the time anyhow, you REALLY should disable the loading of images in your mail client) is the fact that is does not and *cannot* work for all email providers and clients.
Even Yahoo! webmail allows you to disable image loading. Furthermore, I always set my mail client to only show the plain text message, and not display any HTML at all. I don't need hypertext markup in my email messages.
In the manner of the dvdcss code T-shirts, we can have T-shirts containing moderately large programs, such that anyone can obtain the exact code with a simply photograph (otherwise, you'd have to manually read the source code and type it in, with a huge possiblity of error)
Since the code can be as big as necessary, it might be a full page, but with the ubiquity of high-resolution digital cameras, it will be easy for almost anyone to digitize the bar code.
I am absolutely sick of hearing "just use PNG for everything" as a response to the JPEG patent problems. PNG is a great format, for many things. But JPEG is a great format for many other things.
It will at least be many years before everyone has broadband internet, and even then, serving content over the internet costs money and this is, in the end, based entirely on the quantity of data transferred. A huge web site, serving millions of images a day, may see its bandwidth bill soar by a factor of 10 if they switched exclusively to lossless compression for images. For instance, Google Image search, which has to serve the thumbnail images for search results. These are low-quality, small images to allow the user to quickly pick an image that seems interesting. JPEG, or another lossy compression format, is perfect for this.
I really would like to see an open-source lossy image compression format, like an Ogg for images, though. I wish I were knowledgable enough to work on this myself.
An SSL web server knows a private key that is required to initiate the connection. Any man-in-the-middle, such as any kind of "network security device", will NOT be able to masquerade as the server because it doesn't have the server's secret key.
Take a chill pill, he's not even root anyway
on
HDD Assault Cannon
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· Score: 1
Sure, '#' usually means root, but this guy's prompt says "(104):tim@pigeon:{11:45}:~#". That looks like a custom prompt if I've ever seen one (you too can set the PS1 variable). Looks like the prompt tells us: 104 commands on the history stack, the user is tim (not root!!), the host is pigeon, current time 11:45, current directory is tim's home directory. The '#' is probably just his favorite prompt character.
Slashdot Mirror
Check out some of the winners from the last 5k compo. Really cool stuff.
I think they mean ordnance, not ordinance. Sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine, along with affect/effect, its/it's, etc.
You could use the Metal GTK theme to get the Swing look.
I forgot what it was like to turn on the TV or drive 2 blocks without being flooded with political ads. Yay! Finally back to real life. :)
I truly can't understand why a blockbuster Hollywood movie with the world's most famous actors, thousands of special effects created by the world's most powerful supercomputers, and a credits list that takes 5-10 minutes just to scroll by on the screen normally costs about $15, while a CD, often with already-released songs, and requiring only a singer, guitarist, drummer, etc., and a sound technician, costs the same amount. *What is up with that?!*
Did you ever think about how the ability to put knowledge into the brain using technology would change the world in an unimaginable way?
No one would ever have to study or go to school, or when they did it would be only to discover something new, not to learn stuff that mankind already knows. Anything one person learned could instantly be shared with everyone else on the planet. Such is the nature of information. Everyone could learn every language in existence so no language barriers would exist.
Of course, this is like The Matrix, when Neo learns Kung Fu from the computer.
On the plus side, OpenOffice has gotten *much* faster since 1.0, and compatibility is remarkably good. I let my dad try OpenOffice about a month ago and he loved it and switched to it for all his office work.
However, on Linux, OpenOffice looks like *crap*. The interface doesn't match any other apps on my system. GTK apps look tight and clean, QT apps too. But OpenOffice doesn't even look "native" like it does on Windows. It has a look all its own, which is ugly, the widgets are not as responsive as GTK widgets, and it's quirky--especially with respect to input methods, such as Japanese. If they simply used a toolkit such as GTK, they would have *proper* Japanese input, a consistent, clean, customizable interface, and access to any future GTK features.
http://syllable.org.nyud.net:8090/ Just in case. I don't suppose their server is running on Syllable yet? That would be cool.
You need to use the "-target 1.4" option to javac to tell it to produce the older version of class files.
Perfect! Because there are only 4 days, 00:40:06 left until International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2004!
Heh, I was about to say, "But he *did* link it!" until I realized that the simple-but-oh-so-convenient Firefox extension called "Linkification" had seamlessly made the plain-text url into a hyperlink for me. :)
If a ninja is too much for your budget or risk level, you could consider one of the other wannabe Real Ultimate Powers.
Which reminds my of the RIDICULOUS three-eyed headgear that Sam Fisher wears in Splinter Cell. Looks cool, but totally impractical. A bright green triad of glowing lights moving slowly through the shadows... and the guards never notice. Oh, but one ray of light from a regular light source, and BAM, they're all over you.
In this case, I use "problem" to mean "there is something truly wrong," as opposed to "X could be more easily accomplished with Y." Cars and telephones and computers are tools that are useful, but there is nothing "wrong" about walking or talking face to face. In the case of the email bug, when someone is lazy, has their priorities out of whack, or just doesn't care, the real problem isn't whether they read your email.
Agreed. Technology can help but it cannot be the solution itself to a people problem. It's kind of like Digital Rights Management. DRM is a technological solution that is completely doomed to failure if it's the primary component of the music industry's solution.
The "solution" in question here for an interpersonal communications problem will simply create new problems. The quote says, " This will eliminate that excuse completely." But there will be new, creative, and exciting excuses to hear.
Unless it works for every single message it's no good.
So true. And this is straight from their main page:
Now you simply say, "My spam filter blocks images." And you may have a reason then to think that the person who sent you the message doesn't trust you.
You can't solve a people problem with technology.
Even Yahoo! webmail allows you to disable image loading. Furthermore, I always set my mail client to only show the plain text message, and not display any HTML at all. I don't need hypertext markup in my email messages.
- Magazine ad containing a song
- Movie poster containing a multimedia presentation (maybe a cool Flash movie or something)
- I can now print Strongbad emails on a T-shirt!!!
- In the manner of the dvdcss code T-shirts, we can have T-shirts containing moderately large programs, such that anyone can obtain the exact code with a simply photograph (otherwise, you'd have to manually read the source code and type it in, with a huge possiblity of error)
Since the code can be as big as necessary, it might be a full page, but with the ubiquity of high-resolution digital cameras, it will be easy for almost anyone to digitize the bar code.Thank you CowboyNeal! The link has the magic partner=GOOGLE token so we don't have to sell our souls to RTFA. 8-)
Be bold and be proud of your geekdom! Say "mebibytes" and "gibibytes" in public!!
It will at least be many years before everyone has broadband internet, and even then, serving content over the internet costs money and this is, in the end, based entirely on the quantity of data transferred. A huge web site, serving millions of images a day, may see its bandwidth bill soar by a factor of 10 if they switched exclusively to lossless compression for images. For instance, Google Image search, which has to serve the thumbnail images for search results. These are low-quality, small images to allow the user to quickly pick an image that seems interesting. JPEG, or another lossy compression format, is perfect for this.
I really would like to see an open-source lossy image compression format, like an Ogg for images, though. I wish I were knowledgable enough to work on this myself.
An SSL web server knows a private key that is required to initiate the connection. Any man-in-the-middle, such as any kind of "network security device", will NOT be able to masquerade as the server because it doesn't have the server's secret key.
Sure, '#' usually means root, but this guy's prompt says "(104):tim@pigeon:{11:45}:~#". That looks like a custom prompt if I've ever seen one (you too can set the PS1 variable). Looks like the prompt tells us: 104 commands on the history stack, the user is tim (not root!!), the host is pigeon, current time 11:45, current directory is tim's home directory. The '#' is probably just his favorite prompt character.