Though run by a Verisign subsidiary, this is NOT SiteFinder. SiteFinder is a search engine meant to hijack the type in location-bar -> autocomplete.com process. This is an advertisement for a dot-cc domain, which you couldn't reach accidentally anyway.
Besides, dot WS, dot TK, etc. have this service. Where's the outcry?
One of the selling points of Halo 2 is its Xbox Live support. I currently don't have XBL, because none of my games support them; will there be a 12-month subscription card bundled with Halo 2 similar to the XBL+Crimson Skies package that they're selling now?
Once a situation arises that requires this type of action, the aftermath isn't quite the most pressing problem. This is for if a hostile government or a hostile group has taken control of launch pads or satellites to install their weaponry or spy systems, and the US is at war or cold war with them. That situation would be so rare and so dangerous that we really shouldn't be worrying about the political and biological aftermath, let alone the resulting space junk -- if we ever have to use such a plan, the damage from the whole war will be so terrible that we probably won't be going back to space for a long while.
Michael Crichton's fictional account The Andromeda Strain mentions plans for nuking non-Soviet-controlled areas (even neutral cities) should they become infected by a biocontaminant from outside earth, because the worldwide threat from such a contaminant would be high, and the chance for global nuclear war is low enough (less than 50%). At that point, the danger of nuclear war is less than the danger of the contaminant surviving and spreading.
And I think most people don't realize that the US has plans for just about everything - they had recently released (under the FOIA) plans for invading Canada. We'll probably never go to war against Canada in at least the next 200 years, but I'm glad we're prepared in case something should go terribly wrong. We probably have to have plans to defeat every country (including a secession of US states) and almost every hostile structure of weapons, etc., if the need ever arises. This is only a small part of that. And I'd guess they also have separate plans for dealing with any severe political aftermath.
An argumentum ad hominem is perfectly relevant in this case, since we're voting for a "hominem". not for the arguments. I really doubt Bush is trying to say that the Democratic platform is wrong; his immediate goal is to say Kerry is wrong. Here, Bush is saying that Kerry has had a record of changing his opinion probably too often.
Ad hominem is inappropriate when the target is an idea; e.g., it should not be used when discussing bills in Congress, since the bill's supporters have no bearing on the bill's intrinsic merits. Your logical error is in assuming that an ad hominem invalidates an argument. This itself is ad hominem: a faulty arguer or faulty argument has no bearing on his thesis. Ad hominem is only a category of statements very likely but not guaranteed to be irrelevant. "You are corrupt because you accept bribes" is an ad hominem, but it's logically correct. So too, "Kerry are unfit for the presidency because he's a flip-flopper too much" is not to be faulted for its ad hominem.
A slightly different interpretation of ad hominem requires that one side makes a claim, which the other side refutes solely on the claimant's cause, and not the argument's merits. This is not happening here, because Kerry is in effect claiming he is worthy to be president, and Bush is claiming he's not.
I'm going to assume that his term "cross-licensing" applies to Apple and Real agreeing, after both break each other's DRM, that they'd "license" each other the rights for just about free.
I then claim that "discussing terms" means "let's see which side can eke money or more rights out of the other".
He can't say "That's OK", because it would set a bad precedent for others (e.g., OSS projects) to disable the DRM, etc. Even if he personally doesn't mind, as a member of the music industry he can't approve that. But that's the only thing he can say to Apple if they do so, short of letting each side sue the other.
"A president should be as concerned about his country's future as about what happens while he is in office. What are your plans for restoring sanity to the national debt and Social Security? When I get an income, I would prefer not to pay income taxes into an ever-widening hole - the runaway national debt, thanks to our deficit budgets, or the slowly failing pyramid scheme of Social Security."
Yeah...there seem to be a lot of questions about Iraq, but for me, by the time I leave college we'll be out of Iraq (well, at least as "out" as we are every other country we've been in). But we won't have abadoned the war costs. And by then, we'll be suffering through the baby-boomer squeeze on Social Security. Why must my taxes be used to finance the mistakes of decisions I couldn't vote against?
In all seriousness, as far as catching trolls, Slashdot's moderation system seems to work. For a site the size and popularity of Slashdot, I see far fewer trolls than would be expected.
Implement Slashdot-style scores, karma, and karma-bonus. Just don't make the scores publicly visible. Anything below 1 is hidden unless you're moderating or you've set the preference not to hide; if the former, they're shown first. This way, moderators can counteract abuse of moderation. You can also add bonuses for posts that reach 5 (or some other max or near-max), either to the post (visually stands out or sorted near the top), or to the user (gets mod points quicker and gets karma-bonuses). This would be a helpful side-effect of adding moderation, although it's completely optional.
If I understand the facts right, this guy paid a professional programmer to modify GPL code in order to produce (what he thought would be) a competititive advantage for his website. He never said that the programmer was allowed to give those modifications back to the Mombo team (he claims he has a "contract").
He is redistributing Mombo from his website, but theoretically it would only be original Mombo code (without his contracted mods) if the mods hadn't made it back into the main branch.
The code was derived from GPL code, therefore its distribution is covered under the GPL. That supersedes the programmer's agreement to make modifications. The private use of modified GPL code, of course, is perfectly OK, but distribution is permitted.
This is probably an unnecessary argument, since the original programmer claims that a) his modifications were 9 lines, which probably shouldn't be considered a significant change from the GPL base, and b) he says he gave different code to Mambo and to Connelly, although they both accomplish the same thing.
Re:One-liner Mathematica solution to billboard puz
on
Google's Math Puzzle
·
· Score: 1
I was thinking of writing something along those lines (except I have a history test tomorrow). IntegerDigits may work well/better for what I think you're doing with Floor; it also may avoid needing to calculate N[E] immediately.
By the way, E works as well as \[ExponentialE] -- it's quicker to type, and also makes more sense in the console (I find the notebook an annoying waste of resources).
Get file with copy of prime numbers. Get file with copy of largest precision of e.
Both are infinite.
Well, the former, if restricted to ten digit primes, will be finite, though large, but the latter will be extremely large (though you can assume it's within a reasonable range of e).
It's simpler, if you want to approach this programatically, to do something like
string digits = "2718282818"; while (true) {
if (is_prime(atoi(digits))) break;
digits += calculate_another_digit_of_e();
digits.delete(0);
} There are several "this-isn't-prime" tests that are quicker than an absolute determination as a first step, so it won't take as long as you think. You only have to fully determine primeness if all the not-prime tests are inconclusive.
Change that sentence to "No, you won't get a virus" and you're fine. They'll hear it as the same thing; you'll be correct on practical grounds, because the first malicious exploit using this is still some way off. Your friends probably won't be infected first. You'll know ahead of time.
As your president, I'll veto deficit spending. Period. I expect this to be an easy thing to do, since I'll be slashing the size of the federal government at the same time--so much so that taxes will be slashed as well.
Ungh...you can't cut the federal government enough to bring us to even less of deficit spending without greatly increasing taxes too. If you somehow manage it, then you will seriously harm America's stability.
A promise like this will either be broken first thing, or invoke the 2/3 veto override. This is not workable in four years. Holding the deficit constant is workable in the first few years, and maybe next term we can start to reduce it.
And I'll veto legislation for any such operation that doesn't meet the true test of money: It is either made of gold or silver, or can be redeemed for a fixed amount of gold or silver.
We don't have enough standard to back our money...at some point, it becomes cost-ineffective to go look for more. Gold and silver have no more intrinsic value than fiat currency; they're just rare and useful in trade, so mining enough of them will make them lose their value.
create "money" out of thin air, debasing the value of the "money" in your wallet
It's not out of thin air - it's backed by the financial security of the US. Despite all our problems, our military strength can cancel our national debt if need be (though no one will say so); nobody expects the US economy to collapse, so the US dollar has value.
And I'm pretty sure we all agree that money in your wallet has value? Then it does. Again, gold and silver in your wallet have no more value than they're respected for, just like currency. Badnarik's argument brings us away from a discussion of money to a barter-like system with an alternate money, and I don't see the value of it.
Yes, the way the system is run isn't the best. However, Badnarik's arguments are too idealistic to work in the US political climate and still support ourselves. Though the ground is solid below, we're on a tightrope, and we'll kill ourselves jumping off improperly.
This is a program that, at its heart, is truly Christian
So of course, we must cancel Social Security to enforce separation of church and state! The government cannot be allowed to do good works or help people! They must be evil like...oh wait, Satanism's a religion, too? curses.;-)
It's more reliable than tape backup, if you believe Cringely's personal account. This practically cannot fail...because of redundancy, you're about 75% sure to get it when you ask, and about 99% sure to get it in a day. Any system going offline (or self-noticing it isn't being used) should send its data elsewhere - that can even be in the TOS.
foundation library of objects, inter language, cross platform compatability
And this is needed to control a palm-size device with just three variable inputs, three motor outputs, an LED screen, and a monotone speaker? Cross-platform won't even help, because no reasonable program for Mindstorms will make sense running on another.NET device, and vice versa.
Next thing, someone will port Linux to it. There's not even a place to enter your login! This is a special-purpose microcomputer - other than the experience of trying, there's little reason to port general-purpose systems software to it.
Can't we just change the law to use the same "consensual" definition used in rape cases, except of course ignoring statutory rape (or making the peenalty considerably less for that)?
if you want Internet, you have it through the school.
if you want something else (a private service, or another ISP's connection), you can always set up a desktop to host it through a local VPN.
There's nothing you really can't get through the existing network, so most arguments here are just arguing on principle. And there are equal principles arguing against you.
Slashdot Mirror
Though run by a Verisign subsidiary, this is NOT SiteFinder. SiteFinder is a search engine meant to hijack the type in location-bar -> autocomplete .com process. This is an advertisement for a dot-cc domain, which you couldn't reach accidentally anyway.
Besides, dot WS, dot TK, etc. have this service. Where's the outcry?
One of the selling points of Halo 2 is its Xbox Live support. I currently don't have XBL, because none of my games support them; will there be a 12-month subscription card bundled with Halo 2 similar to the XBL+Crimson Skies package that they're selling now?
And for the love of bees
:-)
I really hope that doesn't catch on.
Once a situation arises that requires this type of action, the aftermath isn't quite the most pressing problem. This is for if a hostile government or a hostile group has taken control of launch pads or satellites to install their weaponry or spy systems, and the US is at war or cold war with them. That situation would be so rare and so dangerous that we really shouldn't be worrying about the political and biological aftermath, let alone the resulting space junk -- if we ever have to use such a plan, the damage from the whole war will be so terrible that we probably won't be going back to space for a long while.
Michael Crichton's fictional account The Andromeda Strain mentions plans for nuking non-Soviet-controlled areas (even neutral cities) should they become infected by a biocontaminant from outside earth, because the worldwide threat from such a contaminant would be high, and the chance for global nuclear war is low enough (less than 50%). At that point, the danger of nuclear war is less than the danger of the contaminant surviving and spreading.
And I think most people don't realize that the US has plans for just about everything - they had recently released (under the FOIA) plans for invading Canada. We'll probably never go to war against Canada in at least the next 200 years, but I'm glad we're prepared in case something should go terribly wrong. We probably have to have plans to defeat every country (including a secession of US states) and almost every hostile structure of weapons, etc., if the need ever arises. This is only a small part of that. And I'd guess they also have separate plans for dealing with any severe political aftermath.
An argumentum ad hominem is perfectly relevant in this case, since we're voting for a "hominem". not for the arguments. I really doubt Bush is trying to say that the Democratic platform is wrong; his immediate goal is to say Kerry is wrong. Here, Bush is saying that Kerry has had a record of changing his opinion probably too often.
Ad hominem is inappropriate when the target is an idea; e.g., it should not be used when discussing bills in Congress, since the bill's supporters have no bearing on the bill's intrinsic merits. Your logical error is in assuming that an ad hominem invalidates an argument. This itself is ad hominem: a faulty arguer or faulty argument has no bearing on his thesis. Ad hominem is only a category of statements very likely but not guaranteed to be irrelevant. "You are corrupt because you accept bribes" is an ad hominem, but it's logically correct. So too, "Kerry are unfit for the presidency because he's a flip-flopper too much" is not to be faulted for its ad hominem.
A slightly different interpretation of ad hominem requires that one side makes a claim, which the other side refutes solely on the claimant's cause, and not the argument's merits. This is not happening here, because Kerry is in effect claiming he is worthy to be president, and Bush is claiming he's not.
I'm going to assume that his term "cross-licensing" applies to Apple and Real agreeing, after both break each other's DRM, that they'd "license" each other the rights for just about free.
I then claim that "discussing terms" means "let's see which side can eke money or more rights out of the other".
He can't say "That's OK", because it would set a bad precedent for others (e.g., OSS projects) to disable the DRM, etc. Even if he personally doesn't mind, as a member of the music industry he can't approve that. But that's the only thing he can say to Apple if they do so, short of letting each side sue the other.
"A president should be as concerned about his country's future as about what happens while he is in office. What are your plans for restoring sanity to the national debt and Social Security? When I get an income, I would prefer not to pay income taxes into an ever-widening hole - the runaway national debt, thanks to our deficit budgets, or the slowly failing pyramid scheme of Social Security."
Yeah...there seem to be a lot of questions about Iraq, but for me, by the time I leave college we'll be out of Iraq (well, at least as "out" as we are every other country we've been in). But we won't have abadoned the war costs. And by then, we'll be suffering through the baby-boomer squeeze on Social Security. Why must my taxes be used to finance the mistakes of decisions I couldn't vote against?
Good job on thinking ahead.
Firstly, you directed the spam trolls away from your site to the attacking site.
Secondly, you sent the interested users to an interstitial ad page.
No Slashdot trolls compounding the problem and maybe some ad revenue on the side. Brilliant.
In all seriousness, as far as catching trolls, Slashdot's moderation system seems to work. For a site the size and popularity of Slashdot, I see far fewer trolls than would be expected.
Implement Slashdot-style scores, karma, and karma-bonus. Just don't make the scores publicly visible. Anything below 1 is hidden unless you're moderating or you've set the preference not to hide; if the former, they're shown first. This way, moderators can counteract abuse of moderation. You can also add bonuses for posts that reach 5 (or some other max or near-max), either to the post (visually stands out or sorted near the top), or to the user (gets mod points quicker and gets karma-bonuses). This would be a helpful side-effect of adding moderation, although it's completely optional.
If I understand the facts right, this guy paid a professional programmer to modify GPL code in order to produce (what he thought would be) a competititive advantage for his website. He never said that the programmer was allowed to give those modifications back to the Mombo team (he claims he has a "contract").
He is redistributing Mombo from his website, but theoretically it would only be original Mombo code (without his contracted mods) if the mods hadn't made it back into the main branch.
The code was derived from GPL code, therefore its distribution is covered under the GPL. That supersedes the programmer's agreement to make modifications. The private use of modified GPL code, of course, is perfectly OK, but distribution is permitted.
This is probably an unnecessary argument, since the original programmer claims that a) his modifications were 9 lines, which probably shouldn't be considered a significant change from the GPL base, and b) he says he gave different code to Mambo and to Connelly, although they both accomplish the same thing.
I was thinking of writing something along those lines (except I have a history test tomorrow). IntegerDigits may work well/better for what I think you're doing with Floor; it also may avoid needing to calculate N[E] immediately.
By the way, E works as well as \[ExponentialE] -- it's quicker to type, and also makes more sense in the console (I find the notebook an annoying waste of resources).
Get file with copy of prime numbers. Get file with copy of largest precision of e.
Both are infinite.
Well, the former, if restricted to ten digit primes, will be finite, though large, but the latter will be extremely large (though you can assume it's within a reasonable range of e).
It's simpler, if you want to approach this programatically, to do something like
string digits = "2718282818"; while (true) {
if (is_prime(atoi(digits))) break;
digits += calculate_another_digit_of_e();
digits.delete(0);
}
There are several "this-isn't-prime" tests that are quicker than an absolute determination as a first step, so it won't take as long as you think. You only have to fully determine primeness if all the not-prime tests are inconclusive.
In this case, the usage was wrong but arguable. To effect is to create or to make happen.
Given the size of Jabber's market share, effecting it is almost as valid as affecting it.
Relax, guys. Dupes are okay. Just rehash your original good comments and you'll get even more karma!
Does Homer, for one, welcome his new obsessive cartographer overlords?
He doesn't want to know. He's looking for a Todd Walters.
:-)
Nice try for a troll, but you might want to spell your own name correctly next time....
Change that sentence to "No, you won't get a virus" and you're fine. They'll hear it as the same thing; you'll be correct on practical grounds, because the first malicious exploit using this is still some way off. Your friends probably won't be infected first. You'll know ahead of time.
As your president, I'll veto deficit spending. Period. I expect this to be an easy thing to do, since I'll be slashing the size of the federal government at the same time--so much so that taxes will be slashed as well.
Ungh...you can't cut the federal government enough to bring us to even less of deficit spending without greatly increasing taxes too. If you somehow manage it, then you will seriously harm America's stability.
A promise like this will either be broken first thing, or invoke the 2/3 veto override. This is not workable in four years. Holding the deficit constant is workable in the first few years, and maybe next term we can start to reduce it.
And I'll veto legislation for any such operation that doesn't meet the true test of money: It is either made of gold or silver, or can be redeemed for a fixed amount of gold or silver.
We don't have enough standard to back our money...at some point, it becomes cost-ineffective to go look for more. Gold and silver have no more intrinsic value than fiat currency; they're just rare and useful in trade, so mining enough of them will make them lose their value.
create "money" out of thin air, debasing the value of the "money" in your wallet
It's not out of thin air - it's backed by the financial security of the US. Despite all our problems, our military strength can cancel our national debt if need be (though no one will say so); nobody expects the US economy to collapse, so the US dollar has value.
And I'm pretty sure we all agree that money in your wallet has value? Then it does. Again, gold and silver in your wallet have no more value than they're respected for, just like currency. Badnarik's argument brings us away from a discussion of money to a barter-like system with an alternate money, and I don't see the value of it.
Yes, the way the system is run isn't the best. However, Badnarik's arguments are too idealistic to work in the US political climate and still support ourselves. Though the ground is solid below, we're on a tightrope, and we'll kill ourselves jumping off improperly.
This is a program that, at its heart, is truly Christian
;-)
So of course, we must cancel Social Security to enforce separation of church and state! The government cannot be allowed to do good works or help people! They must be evil like...oh wait, Satanism's a religion, too? curses.
Slashdot easily confirms....dupes ARE NOT DYING!!! :-)
There is the additional concern that you entrust all your data to Google, Inc. That's probably more relevant.
It's more reliable than tape backup, if you believe Cringely's personal account. This practically cannot fail...because of redundancy, you're about 75% sure to get it when you ask, and about 99% sure to get it in a day. Any system going offline (or self-noticing it isn't being used) should send its data elsewhere - that can even be in the TOS.
foundation library of objects, inter language, cross platform compatability
.NET device, and vice versa.
And this is needed to control a palm-size device with just three variable inputs, three motor outputs, an LED screen, and a monotone speaker? Cross-platform won't even help, because no reasonable program for Mindstorms will make sense running on another
Next thing, someone will port Linux to it. There's not even a place to enter your login! This is a special-purpose microcomputer - other than the experience of trying, there's little reason to port general-purpose systems software to it.
Can't we just change the law to use the same "consensual" definition used in rape cases, except of course ignoring statutory rape (or making the peenalty considerably less for that)?
Besides...
if you want Internet, you have it through the school.
if you want something else (a private service, or another ISP's connection), you can always set up a desktop to host it through a local VPN.
There's nothing you really can't get through the existing network, so most arguments here are just arguing on principle. And there are equal principles arguing against you.