"There is a clear difference between surprise and suspense [...]. We are sitting here and having an innocent conversation. Let us assume that there is a bomb under this table between us. [...] suddenly there is a loud boom and the bomb goes off. The audience is surprised, but before this surprise they have only seen a very ordinary scene without any significance. Let us instead look at a suspense scene. The bomb is under the table and the audience is aware of this because they have seen the anarchist plant it there. They also know that the bomb will go off at one o'clock, and up on the wall is a clock showing that the time is now quarter to one [...]. In the first scene we have given the audience 15 seconds of surprise [...] but in the last scene we have given them fifteen minutes of suspense." - Alfred Hitchcock
Consider the film Alien, for example. That film is terrifying. Why is it terrifying? Because almost nothing happens for large chunks of it. We know something is going to happen, and that when it does it will be horrible, but we do not know when it is going to happen or where it is coming from.
Survival horror games should be the same - they're not scary because there's blood and gore everywhere, but because somewhere out there is something that is capable of killing you horribly, but you don't know where it is or when it will find you. This is why System Shock 2 is still one of the best games of this genre - you are incredibly vulnerable, and there are lots of enemies out there to get you, but you don't know where or when they will show up. As a result, you spend a lot of time creeping about without knowing when you will meet your demise. That is scary.
What, you mean like how JC Denton started out with the regeneration bio-mod? No, wait, he didn't - you had to work hard to get it and then use it wisely to make the most of it.
And less than a year ago it was proven that you could drive in a circle with absolutely no reason to brake, and having to slow down even a tiny amount will eventually lead to people coming to a complete stop.
Assuming a degenerate workload, with a naive algorithm that never remaps existing data except when it is written, death is swift. Assume a 256 KB flash block. Assume a 4 GB flash device with 2% spare. Assume 70 MB/sec. transfer rate. Assume TCQ/NCQ so that you can queue up requests without waiting for the previous request to complete.
Well, given that one is a website that you don't have to use, as against a country in which you live without a huge amount of choice, I'd say that analogy is absurd.
You aren't from the United States, but even then I'd venture guess you hid under your rock more than anything else, since he is a globally known person.
Speaking as a UK citizen - no, he's not. I know who he is, sure... But I'd comfortably bet that the majority of people in the UK don't know who he is.
Telecommuting is an odd word. The word is used to describe the solution, but the true meaning would more accurately describe the problem. Telecommuting is an option to avoid long commutes to work, by means of phones, the Internet, etc to allow you to work from home.
However, looking at the word, "telecommute" means a distant commute, in the same way that television means something to see at a distance and telephone means something to hear at a distance. Telecommute should mean commuting a distance.
Clearly the management-speak gurus picked "tele" as a nifty prefix with all it's modern sounding technological mystique and misapplied it. A better choice would be the somewhat dubious e- prefix i.e. e-commute. That would make much more sense than telecommute.
I would predict different results from different populations i.e. slashdot as against the general population, because that's just how statistics works.
The question of whether treating pot smoking as illegal is just or not is rather subjective, no? Perhaps, just perhaps, there are cops out there who do think the law against pot smoking is just, much as plenty of the civilian population and the lawmakers do. A shocking idea, I know, as surely any right-minded individual can clearly tell that there is nothing just about such a law.
I am not joking when I say that I can't even spell my mother's maiden name. She's Finnish and it's about 12 letters long. I always double up the wrong consonants and get it wrong.
If anyone asks for my mother's maiden name, I give my wife's maiden name.
The most restrictive arrangements I encountered in over five years as a CIO in higher education was a college that required students to register their MAC address and tied it to the switch port, blocking all other traffic on that port.
They did that at the University of Durham in the UK when I was there. Before you could get your computer on the network, you had to get the MAC address (which for many people was a nigh incomprehensible technological feat in itself) and go to the IT department to have it registered with them. The switch would then only allow your computer to connect from the relevant port in your room.
It was quite a pain in the arse at times. As the resident geek I was often called on to fix computers, and occasionally made the mistake of trying to troubleshoot someone's PC in my room. Plug their PC into the wall, switch picks up different MAC, and BAM! the port is locked out until you go and request that it be unlocked again.
This arrangement is prone to MAC spoofing as well as a router or firewall that will NAT traffic from the room.
Indeed, MAC spoofing would have worked, as would two network cards in one PC and a bit of windows ICS "magic". I imagine you could also have given them the MAC address of the WAN side of a router, but they might have picked up on the fact that the connection was being shared by the usage pattern of the port or whatever. That may or may not have been possible, I don't know.
Wikipedia says facebook has about 124 million users, so I'll retract my statement that most Internet users use it, as that's clearly a drop in the ocean. However, I'd hazard that a large proportion of Slashdot users use Facebook, so I'd still say that it's relevant.
Has there ever been a poll about which social networking sites people on Slashdot use?
Slashdot Mirror
And people peeing in it.
"There is a clear difference between surprise and suspense [...]. We are sitting here and having an innocent conversation. Let us assume that there is a bomb under this table between us. [...] suddenly there is a loud boom and the bomb goes off. The audience is surprised, but before this surprise they have only seen a very ordinary scene without any significance. Let us instead look at a suspense scene. The bomb is under the table and the audience is aware of this because they have seen the anarchist plant it there. They also know that the bomb will go off at one o'clock, and up on the wall is a clock showing that the time is now quarter to one [...]. In the first scene we have given the audience 15 seconds of surprise [...] but in the last scene we have given them fifteen minutes of suspense." - Alfred Hitchcock
Consider the film Alien, for example. That film is terrifying. Why is it terrifying? Because almost nothing happens for large chunks of it. We know something is going to happen, and that when it does it will be horrible, but we do not know when it is going to happen or where it is coming from.
Survival horror games should be the same - they're not scary because there's blood and gore everywhere, but because somewhere out there is something that is capable of killing you horribly, but you don't know where it is or when it will find you. This is why System Shock 2 is still one of the best games of this genre - you are incredibly vulnerable, and there are lots of enemies out there to get you, but you don't know where or when they will show up. As a result, you spend a lot of time creeping about without knowing when you will meet your demise. That is scary.
The Golgafrinchan third arkers from marketing sell the software that the developers WRITE.
It was the "B" that was full of the useless people, so that would arguably be the second ark.
Here endeth the pedantry.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again... Slashdot desperately needs a -1 too informative mod.
What, you mean like how JC Denton started out with the regeneration bio-mod? No, wait, he didn't - you had to work hard to get it and then use it wisely to make the most of it.
s/bucket/petrol tank
s/firehose/petrol pump
Troll much?
You're right. And now we are both nerds together.
And less than a year ago it was proven that you could drive in a circle with absolutely no reason to brake, and having to slow down even a tiny amount will eventually lead to people coming to a complete stop.
A year ago? I'm sure the M25 is older than that.
Ubuntu Jack Bauer
If Jack Bauer says his name begins with the letter X, you better agree with him.
Assuming a degenerate workload, with a naive algorithm that never remaps existing data except when it is written, death is swift. Assume a 256 KB flash block. Assume a 4 GB flash device with 2% spare. Assume 70 MB/sec. transfer rate. Assume TCQ/NCQ so that you can queue up requests without waiting for the previous request to complete.
Assume a fucking big television.
Well, given that one is a website that you don't have to use, as against a country in which you live without a huge amount of choice, I'd say that analogy is absurd.
Indeed. The Viz once ran a feature called "Su Doc Who" with all the numbers replaced by pictures of the various Doctors.
You aren't from the United States, but even then I'd venture guess you hid under your rock more than anything else, since he is a globally known person.
Speaking as a UK citizen - no, he's not. I know who he is, sure... But I'd comfortably bet that the majority of people in the UK don't know who he is.
Telecommuting is an odd word. The word is used to describe the solution, but the true meaning would more accurately describe the problem. Telecommuting is an option to avoid long commutes to work, by means of phones, the Internet, etc to allow you to work from home.
However, looking at the word, "telecommute" means a distant commute, in the same way that television means something to see at a distance and telephone means something to hear at a distance. Telecommute should mean commuting a distance.
Clearly the management-speak gurus picked "tele" as a nifty prefix with all it's modern sounding technological mystique and misapplied it. A better choice would be the somewhat dubious e- prefix i.e. e-commute. That would make much more sense than telecommute.
I would predict different results from different populations i.e. slashdot as against the general population, because that's just how statistics works.
The question of whether treating pot smoking as illegal is just or not is rather subjective, no? Perhaps, just perhaps, there are cops out there who do think the law against pot smoking is just, much as plenty of the civilian population and the lawmakers do. A shocking idea, I know, as surely any right-minded individual can clearly tell that there is nothing just about such a law.
I'm predicting negative karma for this...
I am not joking when I say that I can't even spell my mother's maiden name. She's Finnish and it's about 12 letters long. I always double up the wrong consonants and get it wrong.
If anyone asks for my mother's maiden name, I give my wife's maiden name.
While I concur that Willie was awful, I'd defend Short Round. He was good fun.
With the exception of the mine cart chase and the rope bridge fight, Short Round was the only good thing about Temple of Doom.
The most restrictive arrangements I encountered in over five years as a CIO in higher education was a college that required students to register their MAC address and tied it to the switch port, blocking all other traffic on that port.
They did that at the University of Durham in the UK when I was there. Before you could get your computer on the network, you had to get the MAC address (which for many people was a nigh incomprehensible technological feat in itself) and go to the IT department to have it registered with them. The switch would then only allow your computer to connect from the relevant port in your room.
It was quite a pain in the arse at times. As the resident geek I was often called on to fix computers, and occasionally made the mistake of trying to troubleshoot someone's PC in my room. Plug their PC into the wall, switch picks up different MAC, and BAM! the port is locked out until you go and request that it be unlocked again.
This arrangement is prone to MAC spoofing as well as a router or firewall that will NAT traffic from the room.
Indeed, MAC spoofing would have worked, as would two network cards in one PC and a bit of windows ICS "magic". I imagine you could also have given them the MAC address of the WAN side of a router, but they might have picked up on the fact that the connection was being shared by the usage pattern of the port or whatever. That may or may not have been possible, I don't know.
Last I checked, you only need to be a Doctor to invent a timemachine.
Poor choice of rapper, given that Jay-Z generally eschews bling.
It's because what people are really saying is +1 satire./P
Wikipedia says facebook has about 124 million users, so I'll retract my statement that most Internet users use it, as that's clearly a drop in the ocean. However, I'd hazard that a large proportion of Slashdot users use Facebook, so I'd still say that it's relevant.
Has there ever been a poll about which social networking sites people on Slashdot use?