The day I see unsolicited ads on my cell phone is the day I shitcan my carrier for another one, and I won't care what it costs in termination fees.
That's EXACTLY what they Want you to do. Do you really think it costs them $200+ to do paperwork to cancel your contract? Paying a termination fee on your contract is the equivalent of paying for 4+ months of service instantly.
Why couldn't they parse the info pages (via an HTML ripper or something), pull out the information they want, and post that on their own site? No cloned pages, but the data's the same. And of course, the new pages would work in all browsers.
So true. I live in Northern VA, i can't remember the last time ive been driving or getting food, that there Hasn't been someone near me yacking in a cell phone. Even at work, there's cell phones going off at least twice a day. It seems like everyone (even people who don't use Phones that much) are jumping on the cellphone bandwagon.
Would be out of line to ask for 'cell-phone free zones' ? Perhaps, in a restaurant ('No Smoking or Cell Phones, pls, tks.), or planes? I'd certainly frequent any restaurant with good food and a cellphone ban.
Hey, I have some ideas of my own, and I'm interested in this research. You should email me at requests at vt dot edu, and check out my earlier post about this, too. I've been working in C++, btw.
> Given the above, what I would like to see would be a computer program that could, given a set of > N cards, compose a deck of M card[s] (where M compose a new deck from the same N cards that answers the strategy of the opposing player.
Warning; this post is Tangental, not off-topic, since these theories can be applied to any game of skill where there's an element of chance (poker, bridge, backgammon, magic).
I would agree having a program that plays magic and is able to mutate its own deck (which i assume is what you are referring to) would be a great exercise in AI and genetic programming. But, before you can create this program, you'll need a program that's able to PLAY the game. This, of course, is no trivial task; there's only two programs that do this that I'm aware of (magiconline and the old Microprose magic game; and the Microprose game really does a half-assed job, since they hardcode every card instead of using a grammar parser on the card text).
Let's assume you have a program that lets you play a game of Magic (or a best-of-3 or 5 match) against the computer. (This CAN be done, since magiconline exists currently.) The computer will know which deck is 'better', since one of them will win the match. If the computer loses this match, it could look at the available cardpool and add / remove cards to make it a better deck, as necessary. This could be done by seeing how the deck lost, which cards won the game when they were played, and so on.
Taking this one step further, you could run the program against itself, and it will find the better deck. Then the losing deck could again be 'mutated' to make it a better competitor against that deck.
Taking THIS even further, you could create a set of random decks, and play all decks against each other, making all losing decks mutate appropriately. Repeating this a couple million times, you would eventually get a few decks (tier 1) that would beat all non-tier1 (which includes randomly-generated decks) about 95% of the time, and the tier-1 decks all win/lose in a rock-paper-scissors relationship.
You could, with this program, let it run for a few days (weeks, months, etc) and it will crank out decks that will just Beat everything else, given a cardpool of N cards.
This can be applied to bridge, poker, and to an extent, chess. (the computer will note 'If I move to A8, and I lose 90% of the time, I probably shouldn't move there anymore. Next time I play, I won't make this move.')
Also, as a side note, IF you are a fan of constructed Magic tournaments, you DO NOT want to see this program, since it will remove one of the crucial elements that bring people to tournaments in the first place: Fun. If everybody played one of the true tier-1 decks, then people wouldn't bother playing their fun decks, since they'd most likely lose. This isn't the case with chess, of course.
Fair enough; but i Personally work with JavaScript CODE,.asp CODE, and.jsp CODE. Hell; most major corporate websites use dynamically-generated HTML to markup their content.
So yes, when I (and other IT professionals) say they 'code' HTML, they really do.
Tables are fine; it's NESTED tables that give some browsers fits.
BTW, the W3C HTML validator checks out your code and will tell you what's not standard. To make sure your code is syntactically correct, make your page XHTML 1.0 compliant, and you'll be in good shape. (XHTML requires many of these 'optional' attributes, like 'alt' attributes for images, and closing 'p' tags, etc. It's very handy; it makes your code cleaner, and it turns HTML into an XML document.)
The competent ones shouldn't be punished by being forced to use another operating system; but yes i agree that Most win2k users aren't competent, and have never heard of 'windowsupdate'.
That's something the university should work on; Education instead of OS Bannings.
If I went there, I'd be insulted that the network admins say 'we KNOW everyone with a win2k system is a moron and wont patch it'. Wouldn't it make more sense to (at the very least) demonstrate your knowledge of basic system security before being allowed on the network (like disabling or uninstalling IIS, which i'm fairly confident is the primary reason they're doing this), so competent admins (like myself) wouldn't be forced to 'upgrade'? An all-inclusive 'No Windows 2000 Allowed' policy is completely befuddling.
There's no chance I'd buy a copy of XP just to use their network. I'd talk to the guys in charge; im Sure there can be a compromise.
M:TG programs have been written before (who can forget the infamous Planeswalker game just before the release of 5th Edition?). The AI just needs to be improved before a Magic program can be taken seriously. All it takes is statistical analysis ('playing the odds'), using what it knows about the opponent's cards and/or deck, and a pretty extensive database of 'if I do A, then B will happen'. It's anything but trivial, but certainly within the reach of current technology and processing power.
I'm not saying a program could win a PTQ; but it would prove invaluable in training for one (especially for this season... invasions block constructed...)
Research like this has been going on for years; poker analysis has become a science of its own, using unknown information to formulate the 'best play'. Magic is just a linear step up; a larger database of cards, rules of the game, and known decks in the given format. Of course, this is all brainstorming, but it's certainly possible to write. I bet we'll see a quality Magic-playing computer program in the next six months.
This worm is combining TWO worms; both the Code Red worm we know and love, and the less-recent SANDMIND worm (sp?), famous for running of DOS commands and posting an anti-US webpage at 'default.asp', 'default.html', 'index.asp', and 'index.html' on directories relative to the website root. Apparently this worm is using 'cmd.exe' to get root access; what it does beyond that, I have no idea... I haven't been hit by it. I guess the logic is.... if the box isnt patched against Code Red, chances are it isn't patched against SANDMIND, too.
Also, 90% of the 'NNNN's in my server logs came from my Class A subnet (and much more frequently than the 'XXXXX' requests).
> Download from multiple sources- not only makes
> things faster, but if one guy you are
> downloading a 600MB divx from loses his
> connection right before you finish, you can just
> get the last 5MB from someone else
This assumes both versions of the downloaded file are identical TO THE BYTE. I don't know about you, but I tend to change the idv1/idv2 tags of mp3s, and rename images / movies when I download them (including CD / DVD / DIVX rips).
Downloading from multiple sources is a good idea in Theory, but unless there's a hash-checksum associated with each file, I think it's just wasted effort.
Your backside emits a controlled burst of a carbon compound called methane through a shutter called the anus. It quickly spreads around the area, where it is (hopefully) picked up by other humans with a device called a 'nose'. This nose sends signals along nerves to your brain, where the intended message is quickly decoded and the recipient yells, "d00d, wh0 f4rt3d?!?!"
The only systems that need real IPs are servers. It's as simple as that. Multiple www and ftp sites can be placed on a single server; all the server software has to do is check the request string. (eg. 'http://www.server1.com' goes to one virtual directory, 'http://www.server2.com' goes to another; both are on the same server).
I don't know what all the fuss is about.
Local networks can use fake IPs (just use a range of IPs that are reserved for local networks; I'm not sure what they are off the top of my head, though...)
... though IE, I have to say, doesn't have a single bug with rendering standard html...
As much as I love IE (compared to netscape), there's still plenty of annoying bugs. For example; some block elements don't render correctly (namely forms). They leave whitespace at the bottom, no matter what's inside, AND no matter what immediately follows it.
And until both Netscape and IE agree on using the Javascript standard, you might as well call that a 'bug' too (bug = something that needs to be fixed).
Finding a program that factors large prime numbers (or determines if a number is prime) has been going on for centuries (programs == algorithms, in some cases). Not until the advent of the RSA encryption / decryption algorithm has the need (or need for secrecy) of an ultra-fact factoring program been the goal of many accomplished mathematicians. The rewards are great; fame and fortune, face on the cover of TIME magazine, front page news on the paper, and recognition from your peers. However, it is very possible that the algorithm will be outlawed by the United States (since many forms of encryption are based on the idea that large near-prime numbers are very difficult to factor; RSA is a prime example; pardon the pun).
And besides; we probably wouldn't enjoy vanishing off the face of the earth.
I agree. Human brains take Years to develop intelligence (such as learning a language, spatial recognition, and common sense). There is nothing stopping someone from writing a very long computer program to emulate these processes; it's been done before. But we can't expect the program to be written in just 5 years.
In other words, using this analogy, we (humans) are a program with some random input (eg. body size, gender, hell.. anything), and a human life is simply that program executing, interracting with other 'programs' along the way. The program is already written, and it still takes Years to fully develop a 'person'. In addition, some people theorize that a person is Never fully developed, but I digress.
Therefore; maybe in 15 - 20 years, someone will have developed a complete learning 'program' that can be set free, and we'll see what happens. Plenty of people have already begun.
Of course, this is all a 'theory', and im certainly not an expert.. but it's interesting nonetheless.
-Egon
Emotional speech (smileys, etc)
on
Anticryptography
·
· Score: 1
I move that Slashdot mirrors the victim site before posting a link. >=(
BTW, I haven't read the article, but.. I agree with learning to communicate using the lowest-common-denominator (using small words so more people can understand). Hell; I even take it a step further, by using smileys whenever possible =D that way, people know how i feel. and emotions are KEY in understanding a message. =)
Was that the AnnaKournakova.jpg.vba virus? One of our partner companies was infected with that as well.... good thing the virus-writer wasn't smart enough to put a later date in there.
Macafee has a page dedicated to removing this virus, fyi.
By the way, for all of ye running Outlook, you can turn the security setting from 'Internet' to 'Restricted' to prevent running scripts from email attachments. er.. at least, there's a warning before doing so.
-Egon
Did you guys miss the quote at the end?
on
Spidergoats
·
· Score: 1
His expansion plan? Spidercows.
Next thing you know, you wont have to watch out for cowpies,.... instead, look out for the damn cowwebs between the barns.
And make SURE you look up when you walk in a dark alley.
Because most of us grew up with televisions and computers (giving us a 2-dimensional view of the world), and we learned at an early age that MOST stuff on television is made up, we associated television with make-believe. We didn't see a Tom and Jerry cartoon where Jerry drops an anvil on Tom, and then tried to do the same to our cat. (At least, I hope not; that would void my entire argument.) We associated 'flat' with 'not real', and the same neurons didn't fire.
As an experiment, I bet if you had someone who had Never seen a television before, and you showed them a video clip of an act of violence, they Would feel the same thing as the people involved. But because we are pretty much insensitized to it (and we know that it isn't real unless it is in 3D), the images don't affect us.
HOWEVER; if the same event happened right in front of us (for example, someone gets stabbed), then it Would affect us greatly; much moreso than seeing the same image on television.
Slashdot Mirror
By 'CPU', do you mean the computer itself, or the Central Processing Unit (the chip in the motherboard) was missing?
That's EXACTLY what they Want you to do. Do you really think it costs them $200+ to do paperwork to cancel your contract? Paying a termination fee on your contract is the equivalent of paying for 4+ months of service instantly.
Try the Google search with "oingo.com" surrounded by doublequotes. You'll see plenty of results.
Why couldn't they parse the info pages (via an HTML ripper or something), pull out the information they want, and post that on their own site? No cloned pages, but the data's the same. And of course, the new pages would work in all browsers.
So true. I live in Northern VA, i can't remember the last time ive been driving or getting food, that there Hasn't been someone near me yacking in a cell phone. Even at work, there's cell phones going off at least twice a day. It seems like everyone (even people who don't use Phones that much) are jumping on the cellphone bandwagon.
Would be out of line to ask for 'cell-phone free zones' ? Perhaps, in a restaurant ('No Smoking or Cell Phones, pls, tks.), or planes? I'd certainly frequent any restaurant with good food and a cellphone ban.
Hey, I have some ideas of my own, and I'm interested in this research. You should email me at requests at vt dot edu, and check out my earlier post about this, too. I've been working in C++, btw.
> Given the above, what I would like to see would be a computer program that could, given a set of
> N cards, compose a deck of M card[s] (where M compose a new deck from the same N cards that answers the strategy of the opposing player.
Warning; this post is Tangental, not off-topic, since these theories can be applied to any game of skill where there's an element of chance (poker, bridge, backgammon, magic).
I would agree having a program that plays magic and is able to mutate its own deck (which i assume is what you are referring to) would be a great exercise in AI and genetic programming. But, before you can create this program, you'll need a program that's able to PLAY the game. This, of course, is no trivial task; there's only two programs that do this that I'm aware of (magiconline and the old Microprose magic game; and the Microprose game really does a half-assed job, since they hardcode every card instead of using a grammar parser on the card text).
Let's assume you have a program that lets you play a game of Magic (or a best-of-3 or 5 match) against the computer. (This CAN be done, since magiconline exists currently.) The computer will know which deck is 'better', since one of them will win the match. If the computer loses this match, it could look at the available cardpool and add / remove cards to make it a better deck, as necessary. This could be done by seeing how the deck lost, which cards won the game when they were played, and so on.
Taking this one step further, you could run the program against itself, and it will find the better deck. Then the losing deck could again be 'mutated' to make it a better competitor against that deck.
Taking THIS even further, you could create a set of random decks, and play all decks against each other, making all losing decks mutate appropriately. Repeating this a couple million times, you would eventually get a few decks (tier 1) that would beat all non-tier1 (which includes randomly-generated decks) about 95% of the time, and the tier-1 decks all win/lose in a rock-paper-scissors relationship.
You could, with this program, let it run for a few days (weeks, months, etc) and it will crank out decks that will just Beat everything else, given a cardpool of N cards.
This can be applied to bridge, poker, and to an extent, chess. (the computer will note 'If I move to A8, and I lose 90% of the time, I probably shouldn't move there anymore. Next time I play, I won't make this move.')
Also, as a side note, IF you are a fan of constructed Magic tournaments, you DO NOT want to see this program, since it will remove one of the crucial elements that bring people to tournaments in the first place: Fun. If everybody played one of the true tier-1 decks, then people wouldn't bother playing their fun decks, since they'd most likely lose. This isn't the case with chess, of course.
Fair enough; but i Personally work with JavaScript CODE, .asp CODE, and .jsp CODE. Hell; most major corporate websites use dynamically-generated HTML to markup their content.
So yes, when I (and other IT professionals) say they 'code' HTML, they really do.
Tables are fine; it's NESTED tables that give some browsers fits.
BTW, the W3C HTML validator checks out your code and will tell you what's not standard. To make sure your code is syntactically correct, make your page XHTML 1.0 compliant, and you'll be in good shape. (XHTML requires many of these 'optional' attributes, like 'alt' attributes for images, and closing 'p' tags, etc. It's very handy; it makes your code cleaner, and it turns HTML into an XML document.)
The competent ones shouldn't be punished by being forced to use another operating system; but yes i agree that Most win2k users aren't competent, and have never heard of 'windowsupdate'.
That's something the university should work on; Education instead of OS Bannings.
How many NIMDAs are there for win2k boxes without IIS (the default installation)?
How many NIMDA vulnerabilities are there for win2k boxes administered by competent people?
If I went there, I'd be insulted that the network admins say 'we KNOW everyone with a win2k system is a moron and wont patch it'. Wouldn't it make more sense to (at the very least) demonstrate your knowledge of basic system security before being allowed on the network (like disabling or uninstalling IIS, which i'm fairly confident is the primary reason they're doing this), so competent admins (like myself) wouldn't be forced to 'upgrade'? An all-inclusive 'No Windows 2000 Allowed' policy is completely befuddling.
There's no chance I'd buy a copy of XP just to use their network. I'd talk to the guys in charge; im Sure there can be a compromise.
M:TG programs have been written before (who can forget the infamous Planeswalker game just before the release of 5th Edition?). The AI just needs to be improved before a Magic program can be taken seriously. All it takes is statistical analysis ('playing the odds'), using what it knows about the opponent's cards and/or deck, and a pretty extensive database of 'if I do A, then B will happen'. It's anything but trivial, but certainly within the reach of current technology and processing power.
... invasions block constructed...)
I'm not saying a program could win a PTQ; but it would prove invaluable in training for one (especially for this season
Research like this has been going on for years; poker analysis has become a science of its own, using unknown information to formulate the 'best play'. Magic is just a linear step up; a larger database of cards, rules of the game, and known decks in the given format. Of course, this is all brainstorming, but it's certainly possible to write. I bet we'll see a quality Magic-playing computer program in the next six months.
This worm is combining TWO worms; both the Code Red worm we know and love, and the less-recent SANDMIND worm (sp?), famous for running of DOS commands and posting an anti-US webpage at 'default.asp', 'default.html', 'index.asp', and 'index.html' on directories relative to the website root. Apparently this worm is using 'cmd.exe' to get root access; what it does beyond that, I have no idea... I haven't been hit by it. I guess the logic is .... if the box isnt patched against Code Red, chances are it isn't patched against SANDMIND, too.
Also, 90% of the 'NNNN's in my server logs came from my Class A subnet (and much more frequently than the 'XXXXX' requests).
Logs available upon request, etc.
Now wait a minute ...
> Download from multiple sources- not only makes
> things faster, but if one guy you are
> downloading a 600MB divx from loses his
> connection right before you finish, you can just
> get the last 5MB from someone else
This assumes both versions of the downloaded file are identical TO THE BYTE. I don't know about you, but I tend to change the idv1/idv2 tags of mp3s, and rename images / movies when I download them (including CD / DVD / DIVX rips).
Downloading from multiple sources is a good idea in Theory, but unless there's a hash-checksum associated with each file, I think it's just wasted effort.
Your backside emits a controlled burst of a carbon compound called methane through a shutter called the anus. It quickly spreads around the area, where it is (hopefully) picked up by other humans with a device called a 'nose'. This nose sends signals along nerves to your brain, where the intended message is quickly decoded and the recipient yells, "d00d, wh0 f4rt3d?!?!"
Therefore, farts are nature's PING.
The only systems that need real IPs are servers. It's as simple as that. Multiple www and ftp sites can be placed on a single server; all the server software has to do is check the request string. (eg. 'http://www.server1.com' goes to one virtual directory, 'http://www.server2.com' goes to another; both are on the same server).
I don't know what all the fuss is about.
Local networks can use fake IPs (just use a range of IPs that are reserved for local networks; I'm not sure what they are off the top of my head, though...)
-Egon
... though IE, I have to say, doesn't have a single bug with rendering standard html ...
As much as I love IE (compared to netscape), there's still plenty of annoying bugs. For example; some block elements don't render correctly (namely forms). They leave whitespace at the bottom, no matter what's inside, AND no matter what immediately follows it.
And until both Netscape and IE agree on using the Javascript standard, you might as well call that a 'bug' too (bug = something that needs to be fixed).
-Egon
Finding a program that factors large prime numbers (or determines if a number is prime) has been going on for centuries (programs == algorithms, in some cases). Not until the advent of the RSA encryption / decryption algorithm has the need (or need for secrecy) of an ultra-fact factoring program been the goal of many accomplished mathematicians. The rewards are great; fame and fortune, face on the cover of TIME magazine, front page news on the paper, and recognition from your peers. However, it is very possible that the algorithm will be outlawed by the United States (since many forms of encryption are based on the idea that large near-prime numbers are very difficult to factor; RSA is a prime example; pardon the pun).
And besides; we probably wouldn't enjoy vanishing off the face of the earth.
I agree. Human brains take Years to develop intelligence (such as learning a language, spatial recognition, and common sense). There is nothing stopping someone from writing a very long computer program to emulate these processes; it's been done before. But we can't expect the program to be written in just 5 years.
In other words, using this analogy, we (humans) are a program with some random input (eg. body size, gender, hell.. anything), and a human life is simply that program executing, interracting with other 'programs' along the way. The program is already written, and it still takes Years to fully develop a 'person'. In addition, some people theorize that a person is Never fully developed, but I digress.
Therefore; maybe in 15 - 20 years, someone will have developed a complete learning 'program' that can be set free, and we'll see what happens. Plenty of people have already begun.
Of course, this is all a 'theory', and im certainly not an expert.. but it's interesting nonetheless.
-Egon
I move that Slashdot mirrors the victim site before posting a link. >=(
BTW, I haven't read the article, but.. I agree with learning to communicate using the lowest-common-denominator (using small words so more people can understand). Hell; I even take it a step further, by using smileys whenever possible =D that way, people know how i feel. and emotions are KEY in understanding a message. =)
-Egon
2001-03-03 05:00:00
Poor lil mir...
-Egon
Was that the AnnaKournakova.jpg.vba virus? One of our partner companies was infected with that as well .... good thing the virus-writer wasn't smart enough to put a later date in there.
Macafee has a page dedicated to removing this virus, fyi.
By the way, for all of ye running Outlook, you can turn the security setting from 'Internet' to 'Restricted' to prevent running scripts from email attachments. er.. at least, there's a warning before doing so.
-Egon
His expansion plan? Spidercows.
.... instead, look out for the damn cowwebs between the barns.
Next thing you know, you wont have to watch out for cowpies,
And make SURE you look up when you walk in a dark alley.
-Egon
Acutally, that would explain a lot.
Because most of us grew up with televisions and computers (giving us a 2-dimensional view of the world), and we learned at an early age that MOST stuff on television is made up, we associated television with make-believe. We didn't see a Tom and Jerry cartoon where Jerry drops an anvil on Tom, and then tried to do the same to our cat. (At least, I hope not; that would void my entire argument.) We associated 'flat' with 'not real', and the same neurons didn't fire.
As an experiment, I bet if you had someone who had Never seen a television before, and you showed them a video clip of an act of violence, they Would feel the same thing as the people involved. But because we are pretty much insensitized to it (and we know that it isn't real unless it is in 3D), the images don't affect us.
HOWEVER; if the same event happened right in front of us (for example, someone gets stabbed), then it Would affect us greatly; much moreso than seeing the same image on television.
Pretty fascinating, if you ask me.
-egon