In the metric system, a kilogram of mass weighs 1 kilogram of weight in earths gravity. Not so simple with the english system.
There is a common misconception about weight and mass. Weight measures force on a mass due to gravitation. Mass measures the amount of "stuff" in an object. A 1 kg weighs 9.81 Newtons.
As a side note, I do not think much of the kilogram, meter, second or the Celcius scale. They do not correspond to anything physical. They are somewhat convenient, and we are used to them (except for Americans). What really kicks ass is their division into subunits, which was chosen to be base 10 instead of the output of a random number generator. Also nice is the relation 1 g == 1 cm^3 of water.
A more useful set of units would be a 1/300000000 the distance light travels in a second for distance (or something similar that is on the right scale), something related to the number of atoms for mass and the appropriate combinations for the rest. (Time seems OK as it is as it comes in useful sized units that would be hard to use in base 10, I think)
Re:Remind Anyone of Blaster
on
A Worm's Worm
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· Score: 1
I think that this goes to show that virus wirters are not lunatics out to do severe damage. Instead, they either write viruses to allow them -to send spam (paid), or -to sniff passwords (malicious), or -to get M$ off their asses and patching code (stupid, but well intentioned), or -to show their worth (needs penis enhancement, but too poor to buy a SUV), or -to be able to DDoS a website (mostly bad)
Using unused channels is great, but I would much rather have an ultra-fast internet connection and download movies when I want them.
I don't know wether this is even technologically feasable (maybe have bittorent help out?), but it's not going to happen -- if it did, it would mark the end of TV commercials, and we don't want to see those go away, do we now?
If I can buy it with my choice of video card, ethernet card, etc, I might buy this. If instead they try to make this a Dell lock-up, or it is overpriced, then I will happily build my own box.
I wonder if we could convince Google to allow PGP signatures. Or rather, to automatically generate one. Then it would be harder for spammers and viruses to pretend to be from somewhere else. And if Gmail starts using PGP, I am sure that several others will follow suit.
Also, I recently received a zipped executable named TextDocument.zip from a gmail account. I wonder, have spammers already started using Gmail? Or perhaps a virus impersonating the address?
It has been a while since T have studied the Bible (for various reasons...), but I would think that any "mark of the beast" would be global, not simply US centric.
Right, but if it covers the entire U.S., it is very likely that it will be used elsewhere. Particularly if the government pressures others to use it.
You didn't elaborate much on your credit card peeve, but remember that they are not at all universal.
Mostly that there are a lot of crimes that wouldn't be feasable if a bank receipt was left detailing the time and value (and usually place and reason) for every transaction. For example, bank robbery, stealing wallets, bribes, black market sales, for-pay crimes. It would also be very convenient for people, esp. shopping, toll booth, keys for electronic locks, computer login, and many others (since bank accounts would have to be unique ids).
RFID, while it can identify every item ever manufactured, would probably not ever be a government mandate for citizens.
Just wait for an appropriate terrorist scandal.
Even so, it is still not global...
It is convenient. Convenient and global are never far appart
Then again, we have the petulant RMS who threatens to make "the big sacrifice" of leaving MIT because they used RFID badges for building security. Please. Grow the heck up. Don't threaten, leave or shut up.
Leave where to? His goal is not to leave, it is to not have RFID in that building. Leaving quietly is stupid. So how long before his new boss decides to put RFID in their building, should he move again? Its almost like saying if you don't like spam, don't read it (only RFID is not all over the place just yet, give it a decade or two).
My pet peeve with the RFID and credit card is to a high degree influenced by the following verses from the Bible:
Revelation 13:16,17 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Now I don't want to sound like a religious troll, but how long is it before some scandal like 9/11 or worse throw in a bunch of legislation to force everyone to be implanetd with an ID chip? And how long before it gets combined with a credit card?
And certainly this sort of chip, an implanted chip that allows you to buy and sell (with some pulse/body temperature detector to ensure that the chip is not stolen) would eliminate a lot of problems. Uncle Sam would really love to have all monetary transactions done by credit card because these can be easily tracked, and people would like that their tax forms can be filled out automatically. There would be no theft of money, because doing so will enable the theif to be tracked; likewise bribes would be noticed. Also any for pay crime would have to be done by barter or link the two people in a bank statement.
Anyways, that is my own rant about RFIDs and credit cards. Oh, and did I mention that such a system would be likely to be abused?
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I don't see how that would help but I bet it goes down faster thatn a crashing jet airplain.
I don't see how that would help but I bet your Karma goes down even faster.
The upshot is that you can't use a jet engine to get into outer space, only a rocket engine, because there's not oxygen up there for a jet engine to burn enough fuel to make enough thrust.
Wrong! You *can* use a jet engine to go into space. You just need to accelerate to 11,000 km/h, the escape velocity (lower if you are at higher altitude, or just want to go into orbit). You can even go into space with a (really big) cannon.
Your jet engine will come crashing down.
And if you do reach space, you will be wishing that you did come crashing down.
Unfortunately, this is not true. Although maintainance cost might be the largest cost for Windoze, it does not appear on the price tag. There will be many uninformed people who will buy Windoze without taking into account the hidden costs.
It would take an awfully long time to catch it. You would have to use the slingshot effect to slow it down several times, and to do even that would require an awful lot of rocket power to do. Probably best to use an ion engine to aim it and slingshot it from mars to earth where it gets caught (you can slow it down by aiming it so it cuts in front of a planet and the planet's gravity slows it). However, it would take years to reach earth from mars.
It would be great for mining though, as material in space is very expensive.
> What scares me is the following line from the site -
>>Researchers can't predict far enough into the future to rule out Toutatis ever >>slamming into Earth, so it is listed officially as a Potentially Hazardous >>Asteroid. NASA says it won't hit for at least the next six centuries.
Yes, the solar system is actually chaotic. It is only slightly chaotic, and orbital periods are very long, so I doubt that this is much of a concern.
BTW, if one ever does reach an orbit that will collide with us, we will have something useful to do with all those nukes, no?
Slashdot Mirror
In the metric system, a kilogram of mass weighs 1 kilogram of weight in earths gravity. Not so simple with the english system.
There is a common misconception about weight and mass. Weight measures force on a mass due to gravitation. Mass measures the amount of "stuff" in an object. A 1 kg weighs 9.81 Newtons.
As a side note, I do not think much of the kilogram, meter, second or the Celcius scale. They do not correspond to anything physical. They are somewhat convenient, and we are used to them (except for Americans). What really kicks ass is their division into subunits, which was chosen to be base 10 instead of the output of a random number generator. Also nice is the relation 1 g == 1 cm^3 of water.
A more useful set of units would be a 1/300000000 the distance light travels in a second for distance (or something similar that is on the right scale), something related to the number of atoms for mass and the appropriate combinations for the rest. (Time seems OK as it is as it comes in useful sized units that would be hard to use in base 10, I think)
I think that this goes to show that virus wirters are not lunatics out to do severe damage. Instead, they either write viruses to allow them
-to send spam (paid), or
-to sniff passwords (malicious), or
-to get M$ off their asses and patching code (stupid, but well intentioned), or
-to show their worth (needs penis enhancement, but too poor to buy a SUV), or
-to be able to DDoS a website (mostly bad)
You added an extra 'm' in "asses"
Using unused channels is great, but I would much rather have an ultra-fast internet connection and download movies when I want them.
I don't know wether this is even technologically feasable (maybe have bittorent help out?), but it's not going to happen -- if it did, it would mark the end of TV commercials, and we don't want to see those go away, do we now?
I can still wish, though.
That way viruses can spread faster.
If I can buy it with my choice of video card, ethernet card, etc, I might buy this. If instead they try to make this a Dell lock-up, or it is overpriced, then I will happily build my own box.
Just wait untill you hear about X-Windows... heh
So far, WINE has appeared to be mostly focused on games.
I have heard it said, "Windows is only good for playing games". Does that explain anything?
I wonder if we could convince Google to allow PGP signatures. Or rather, to automatically generate one. Then it would be harder for spammers and viruses to pretend to be from somewhere else. And if Gmail starts using PGP, I am sure that several others will follow suit.
Also, I recently received a zipped executable named TextDocument.zip from a gmail account. I wonder, have spammers already started using Gmail? Or perhaps a virus impersonating the address?
I, on the other hand, will be getting an account the day it is publically available. Nothing like having a nice, short email address without numbers.
I'll decide if it is worth keeping later, but my gut instinct tells me that Google does Good Things (tm)
there are a million of [email accounts] and I'm sure they'll be just as spammy as hotmail and anyone else
Hell no! I expect Google to be able to clean up spam very, very well, and quickly.
Or do you think that they are bad at finding things?
No, I actually knew it was from Google. Because the first time I saw it it was in googly-colors (red, green, yellow, blue) and the appropriate font.
I think it would be interesting to write some other thing in Google-font and see if anyone falls for it.
So I said that Slashdot has a lot of humor, so much that I get all the humor I need right here.
Wouldn't modding this flamebait mean that lot of people don't think haveing a lot of humor on Slashdot is a good thing?
It has been a while since T have studied the Bible (for various reasons...), but I would think that any "mark of the beast" would be global, not simply US centric.
Right, but if it covers the entire U.S., it is very likely that it will be used elsewhere. Particularly if the government pressures others to use it.
You didn't elaborate much on your credit card peeve, but remember that they are not at all universal.
Mostly that there are a lot of crimes that wouldn't be feasable if a bank receipt was left detailing the time and value (and usually place and reason) for every transaction. For example, bank robbery, stealing wallets, bribes, black market sales, for-pay crimes. It would also be very convenient for people, esp. shopping, toll booth, keys for electronic locks, computer login, and many others (since bank accounts would have to be unique ids).
RFID, while it can identify every item ever manufactured, would probably not ever be a government mandate for citizens.
Just wait for an appropriate terrorist scandal.
Even so, it is still not global...
It is convenient. Convenient and global are never far appart
when Slashdot has to go elsewhere to look for humor.
Then again, we have the petulant RMS who threatens to make "the big sacrifice" of leaving MIT because they used RFID badges for building security. Please. Grow the heck up. Don't threaten, leave or shut up.
Leave where to? His goal is not to leave, it is to not have RFID in that building. Leaving quietly is stupid. So how long before his new boss decides to put RFID in their building, should he move again? Its almost like saying if you don't like spam, don't read it (only RFID is not all over the place just yet, give it a decade or two).
My pet peeve with the RFID and credit card is to a high degree influenced by the following verses from the Bible:
Revelation 13:16,17
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Now I don't want to sound like a religious troll, but how long is it before some scandal like 9/11 or worse throw in a bunch of legislation to force everyone to be implanetd with an ID chip? And how long before it gets combined with a credit card?
And certainly this sort of chip, an implanted chip that allows you to buy and sell (with some pulse/body temperature detector to ensure that the chip is not stolen) would eliminate a lot of problems. Uncle Sam would really love to have all monetary transactions done by credit card because these can be easily tracked, and people would like that their tax forms can be filled out automatically. There would be no theft of money, because doing so will enable the theif to be tracked; likewise bribes would be noticed. Also any for pay crime would have to be done by barter or link the two people in a bank statement.
Anyways, that is my own rant about RFIDs and credit cards. Oh, and did I mention that such a system would be likely to be abused?
...a row of Linux computers proclaiming 'Welcome to the William H. Gates Building' by Tux
Is this supposed to be an ironical joke, or have they been brainwashing penguins? Perhaps it's time to put on our tin foil hats.
The day Google "goes down in protest" is the day tech support gets 1000+ calls per minute about the internet being down.
Please help with bandwidth! Please right click on the links, and choose save target as. These videos are in real audio format. If you do not have real player you can get it for free HERE [real.com]
I don't see how that would help but I bet it goes down faster thatn a crashing jet airplain.
I don't see how that would help but I bet your Karma goes down even faster.
The upshot is that you can't use a jet engine to get into outer space, only a rocket engine, because there's not oxygen up there for a jet engine to burn enough fuel to make enough thrust.
Wrong! You *can* use a jet engine to go into space. You just need to accelerate to 11,000 km/h, the escape velocity (lower if you are at higher altitude, or just want to go into orbit). You can even go into space with a (really big) cannon.
Your jet engine will come crashing down.
And if you do reach space, you will be wishing that you did come crashing down.
Unfortunately, this is not true. Although maintainance cost might be the largest cost for Windoze, it does not appear on the price tag. There will be many uninformed people who will buy Windoze without taking into account the hidden costs.
BTW, are upgrade costs included in the estimates?
we should have patented atoms or quarks when they were firsn discovered. Talk about monopoly!
It would take an awfully long time to catch it. You would have to use the slingshot effect to slow it down several times, and to do even that would require an awful lot of rocket power to do. Probably best to use an ion engine to aim it and slingshot it from mars to earth where it gets caught (you can slow it down by aiming it so it cuts in front of a planet and the planet's gravity slows it). However, it would take years to reach earth from mars.
It would be great for mining though, as material in space is very expensive.
> What scares me is the following line from the site -
>>Researchers can't predict far enough into the future to rule out Toutatis ever
>>slamming into Earth, so it is listed officially as a Potentially Hazardous
>>Asteroid. NASA says it won't hit for at least the next six centuries.
Yes, the solar system is actually chaotic. It is only slightly chaotic, and orbital periods are very long, so I doubt that this is much of a concern.
BTW, if one ever does reach an orbit that will collide with us, we will have something useful to do with all those nukes, no?