Well, I suppose I understand the FBI checking out a lead on a potential cracker, although the fact that he first looked at it hours after the breakin tells me about how clueful the FBI is. I wonder if they woke up everyone who saw the exploit?
But the fact that they STILL have his stuff and have not charged him (and probably won't) is totally ludicrous. Is there anyone we can write to to yell about this? Not that it would do any good...
Interesting. I hear they're currently engaged in a mad search for a Santa Claus-shaped galaxy by Christmas. What the space program won't do to look pertinent...
I don't mean to be a killjoy, but what a letdown after that headline! This will hardly be an end to blindness. People lose their sight in many different ways to many different degrees. Transplant or artificial replacement technologies for different parts of the eyes are great, but none individually will bring about an "end to blindness."
Why would you even want to say this is the case? I think a headline like "Further progress made restoring sight" would have been just as exciting and not at all a letdown when I read the actual article. Why claim miracles when simply describing current technology is amazing enough?
It seems to me that the problem with all these plans is that the internet is a "pull" medium - you have to go get what you want, unlike TV, which is a "push" medium. I mean, I guess I see the point of restricting the content of TV, since lazy asses just sit there and if something offensive comes on, whoops! they saw it.
But, people see exactly what they want on the internet. Now, granted, it's sometimes hard to find what you want with the rotten state of today's search engines, but it still takes quite a dunce to "accidentally" hit a porn site and start downloading stuff. If kids are sitting in school computer labs downloading porn, or reading white supremecy websites, or reading a rant by some kid who wants to blow up his school, there's a better question to ask than "how did they get ahold of this" -- WHY did they get ahold of this?
I think answering this would provide a lot more insight into kids' minds than putting up arbitrary boundaries on their experience, mostly because it requires TALKING to kids. Internet filtering seems mostly like an attempt to dodge complex, difficult parenting responsibilities.
Re:Some of us worked our way through art school...
on
Life as Video Game Art
·
· Score: 1
Point taken. Just for the record, I don't oppose scholarships for art students. I'm even in favor if the NEA, in fact. I was only trying to point out that it likely had nothing to do with this project.
Unfortunately, the culprit in this case is much more insidious: public universities (specifically ASU, but I won't go into that because of where I live:). More likely than an NEA grant, this kid got a pell grant or some other public support to get his art degree, which he's apparently put to quite a good use already.
Then again, if you vote republican, maybe you can get rid of those pesky public schools, too, what with the voucher plan and all:) Go W!
Fundamentally,"alternative" forms of energy cannot
provide the BTU's required to provide the economy and lifestyle we enjoy...
Wait. Isn't the energy density of methanol almost as good as gasoline? Also, current engines can run with a substantial amount of alcohol in the mix (like at least 20%). And that's without modification. I think if we had more alcohol-friendly engines we could burn a much better mix of methanol/octane without reducing apparent fuel efficiency very much.
By "apparent," I mean that the energy density of alcohol is somewhat lower and you need more gallons of it to go the distance. But it doesn't release the same nasty chemicals as gas.
I'm not sure where you live, but basically EVERY gas station near my house in michigan sold diesel. They're not quite so frequent here in Arizona, but you can still find diesel at gas stations near highways - after all, semis have to fuel up somewhere:)
In terms of how stable they are, I've never owned one. But I've had friends and family tell me that they tend to have more engine problems, god knows why.
You're right, of course, that prices across the board would be affected...
And this is a major point. If we taxed petroleum a whole lot more, it would instantly lead to inflation. No doubt about it. Cheap oil is actually one of the reasons our economy is so booming; it just doesn't cost nearly as much to deliver stuff here!
Of course, I don't think that's right, per se, but it's going to be damn hard to convince the average american to take a huge economic slowdown in order to clean up the environment. I mean, that hasn't worked so far.
I think it would be good to just tax automotive-grade gasoline. Or more precisely, cut back the subsidies on this commodity. Leave heating oil out of the picture; in fact, don't increase the price of diesel, even. This might prevent such a huge recession, but it would hit John Q. "Lincoln Navigator" Public right in the pocketbook. If gas was all the sudden 20 cents more per gallon, ethanol and other alternatives would look more appealing automatically.
Plus, if the consumer still isn't concerned enough to switch fuel technologies, at least there would be a few more cents per gallon to contribute to environmental protection funds:)
In light of the recent federal report finding that adu lt content is aimed at minors, much of this campaign's rhetoric has had to do with "decency" in the media and "protecting the children." However, no one has really said much besides "something must be done." For the candidates who said this, what, exactly is "something?" What specifically would you do to protect minors from violent content without infringing on the rights of musicians, writers, and filmmakers?
Wow. After that intro I was expecting to see a popsicle-stick and poster-paint diorama or halloween project or something. Turns out the thing just looks like a black and white iBook... not my cup of tea, but not reall "barf." Geez.
One of the first things you should learn (in any social science class, anyway) is that correlation does not imply causality. Wait a minute. Apparently someone doesn't get that. I'll say it again.
Correlation does not imply causality.
Saying "what we really need is more violence in the media" is a lot like Herrstein and Murray's conclusion in the Bell Curve that non-white people really *are* less intelligent. They conveniently forgot, as apparently you have as well, to look at confounding factors, and so they assigned race as a causative factor of low intellligence.
Now, I'm not accusing you of being a racist. I understand that what you probably MEANT was that "hey, the increase in media violence has not caused a corresponding increase in actual violence." I just wish you'd SAID that. Because what you DID say is that media violence somehow decreases actual violence. Which is preposterous, and not supported by anything.
Seriously, though. I've also never written what I would consider a "flame." I've written some pretty darn sarcastic responses, but they always had a point; it was never just "you're too stupid to live."
I guess that doesn't really mean anything; you can't really say that something isn't a problem just because you're not participating in it. But the funny thing is, I've barely ever BEEN flamed either. And I've been online a long, long time; I used to post to tons and tons of BBSs before I ever heard of the internet. The only flames I've actually gotten have been on Slashdot, and then about half the time, I just reexplain my position and the flamer recants. Or at least acknowledges me as human.
If there's all this rage and angst flying around on the internet, why isn't it evenly distributed? Why haven't I gotten my share? Could it be that people who get flamed a lot are somehow different than those who don't? In otherwords, could it be explained by the flamee just as much as the flamer? Jon, I'm not trying to say "it's all your fault," but maybe you're in a different position than a lot of us.
Wouldn't
this be akin to declaring that a reader is not allowed to summarize the content of a book he
borrows from the library, or purchases outright?
Right. And doesn't it also, logically, prohibit you from using your learned information in a commercial way? What about if I learn how to code linked lists in class, and then tell a coworker how to do that at my internship? Oops!
Of course, this is meant to prohibit those places that sell lecture notes back to students, a ban which I'd more or less agree with. But it doesn't seem written in quite the right way.
All in all, I thought Linus had to eat crow because IIS really *did* outperform Apache on Linux. Wasn't
there a story about that on Slashdot about a month ago?
And if so, wasn't it basically a rehash of the Mindcraft benchmark? You know, the one that showed Linux slower than NT on a number of services, including web serving and file serving.
If so, this leads me to ask: are these Dells SMP? Because IIRC, the main showing of that benchmark was that Linux doesn't scale as well to multiple processors as NT does. And Linus even conceded this, and there are supposedly big SMP support improvements in 2.4.
If, on the other hand, the Dell boxes AREN'T SMP, I'm really curious where those figures came from. Because I don't recall NT being 2-5 times better until scaled WAY up on multiple processors. Maybe Dell gets some kickbacks when they sell NT servers? Then they'd have to cite as many reasons as possible to prefer it over Linux.
Potentially, computing could be used to make voting easier, more honest and even, if information becme more
widely available to more citizens, more rational. Online campaigns could, theoretically, be far less expensive,
alienating and Washington-centered, as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura proved a few years ago.
Right, right, and right. But, how does this constitute a "virtual community?" Looks to me like this is an example of the internet being used to improve life in pre-existing communities.
Let's think about it. Were there radio communities in the early 20th century? TV and telephone communities in the late 20th? "Hey, I got this new telephone thingy, now I can meet all KINDS of new people!" No. I think the idea that a new technology can magically create a community IS rather pie-in-the-sky.
However, the telephone in particular has helped me maintain community ties that I made otherwise. For example, I live 2000 miles away from my parents now, but I'm still able to talk to them in real time. It's nice.
In a sense, the same thing is happening with the internet, especially email and IM. My parents don't use those things so much, but my friends from college do (who I also rarely see in person). I've already had 3 people contact me via email in the past 2 months to come out and visit. Have we formed a "virtual community" because they emailed instead of calling?
I'd say no. We just used the internet as a tool to maintain our friendship. And that's how I like it. Enough with this argument that the "digital age" is somehow replacing whatever came before. You don't form virtual communities, you virtually reinforce the communities you've got.
Apple World never evoked a virtual community, it was just trying to steal
some of AOL's business.
Oh, please, Jon. AOL is about as community as virtual communities get. So what if everyone on AOL is a luser and not at all 37334? That's how real communities are, too; full of dummies. If there are online communities, this is what they look like. And to argue that the opposite is true - that virtual communities somehow bring out the best and brightest, well, that just confirms the essay's thesis: we're a bunch of elitists. Which way will you have it?
For others, like university students, access is a privilege
or perk that comes with tuition...
First of all, before I post my real rant, I'd like to point out that so-called Academic communities are also nothing more than a ponzi scheme perpetuated by a bunch of elite snobs who think that their colleagues are the best damn people on earth and true enlightenment stems from free access to their published works.
I thought of something similar right away. Why not have parallel Gnutella "rings" with a limited number of clients in each? Each ring operates like the current Gnutella p2p setup, but there's no inter-ring communication.
If you're concerned you didn't find something because you were on the wrong ring, just switch which ring you're on. Of course, this is mostly good for mp3 sharing where there's pretty much always a critical mass of SOMETHING you want. If you were to use Gnutella for, say, an album release, you'd run into problems not being on every ring. Of course, with transactions that are mainly 1-way like that, you could just post a website.
I just got a letter via FedEx this morning almost
exactly like the one sent to Michael Rothwell...
Let's see a copy of that letter, eh? The only links in that post were to other, "similar" letters. If they really are sending letters to people for dinking around with their own hardware, that's a new level of ridiculous. But I'd like to see confirmation of that before I fly off the handle.
Slashdot Mirror
But the fact that they STILL have his stuff and have not charged him (and probably won't) is totally ludicrous. Is there anyone we can write to to yell about this? Not that it would do any good...
Interesting. I hear they're currently engaged in a mad search for a Santa Claus-shaped galaxy by Christmas. What the space program won't do to look pertinent...
Why would you even want to say this is the case? I think a headline like "Further progress made restoring sight" would have been just as exciting and not at all a letdown when I read the actual article. Why claim miracles when simply describing current technology is amazing enough?
Hey! This could save a lot of trouble evaluating the thing if carnivore's made illegal by this treaty!
But, people see exactly what they want on the internet. Now, granted, it's sometimes hard to find what you want with the rotten state of today's search engines, but it still takes quite a dunce to "accidentally" hit a porn site and start downloading stuff. If kids are sitting in school computer labs downloading porn, or reading white supremecy websites, or reading a rant by some kid who wants to blow up his school, there's a better question to ask than "how did they get ahold of this" -- WHY did they get ahold of this?
I think answering this would provide a lot more insight into kids' minds than putting up arbitrary boundaries on their experience, mostly because it requires TALKING to kids. Internet filtering seems mostly like an attempt to dodge complex, difficult parenting responsibilities.
Point taken. Just for the record, I don't oppose scholarships for art students. I'm even in favor if the NEA, in fact. I was only trying to point out that it likely had nothing to do with this project.
Then again, if you vote republican, maybe you can get rid of those pesky public schools, too, what with the voucher plan and all :) Go W!
ASU Art Student Seeks Credit For Playing Video Games
Wait. Isn't the energy density of methanol almost as good as gasoline? Also, current engines can run with a substantial amount of alcohol in the mix (like at least 20%). And that's without modification. I think if we had more alcohol-friendly engines we could burn a much better mix of methanol/octane without reducing apparent fuel efficiency very much.
By "apparent," I mean that the energy density of alcohol is somewhat lower and you need more gallons of it to go the distance. But it doesn't release the same nasty chemicals as gas.
In terms of how stable they are, I've never owned one. But I've had friends and family tell me that they tend to have more engine problems, god knows why.
And this is a major point. If we taxed petroleum a whole lot more, it would instantly lead to inflation. No doubt about it. Cheap oil is actually one of the reasons our economy is so booming; it just doesn't cost nearly as much to deliver stuff here!
Of course, I don't think that's right, per se, but it's going to be damn hard to convince the average american to take a huge economic slowdown in order to clean up the environment. I mean, that hasn't worked so far.
I think it would be good to just tax automotive-grade gasoline. Or more precisely, cut back the subsidies on this commodity. Leave heating oil out of the picture; in fact, don't increase the price of diesel, even. This might prevent such a huge recession, but it would hit John Q. "Lincoln Navigator" Public right in the pocketbook. If gas was all the sudden 20 cents more per gallon, ethanol and other alternatives would look more appealing automatically.
Plus, if the consumer still isn't concerned enough to switch fuel technologies, at least there would be a few more cents per gallon to contribute to environmental protection funds :)
In light of the recent federal report finding that adu lt content is aimed at minors, much of this campaign's rhetoric has had to do with "decency" in the media and "protecting the children." However, no one has really said much besides "something must be done." For the candidates who said this, what, exactly is "something?" What specifically would you do to protect minors from violent content without infringing on the rights of musicians, writers, and filmmakers?
Wow. After that intro I was expecting to see a popsicle-stick and poster-paint diorama or halloween project or something. Turns out the thing just looks like a black and white iBook... not my cup of tea, but not reall "barf." Geez.
One of the first things you should learn (in any social science class, anyway) is that correlation does not imply causality. Wait a minute. Apparently someone doesn't get that. I'll say it again.
Correlation does not imply causality.
Saying "what we really need is more violence in the media" is a lot like Herrstein and Murray's conclusion in the Bell Curve that non-white people really *are* less intelligent. They conveniently forgot, as apparently you have as well, to look at confounding factors, and so they assigned race as a causative factor of low intellligence.
Now, I'm not accusing you of being a racist. I understand that what you probably MEANT was that "hey, the increase in media violence has not caused a corresponding increase in actual violence." I just wish you'd SAID that. Because what you DID say is that media violence somehow decreases actual violence. Which is preposterous, and not supported by anything.
Linux 2.6? Oh, be optimistic; say Linux 3.0
:)
Oh man, you're way too late. Al Gore invented that a LONG time ago.
Seriously, though. I've also never written what I would consider a "flame." I've written some pretty darn sarcastic responses, but they always had a point; it was never just "you're too stupid to live."
I guess that doesn't really mean anything; you can't really say that something isn't a problem just because you're not participating in it. But the funny thing is, I've barely ever BEEN flamed either. And I've been online a long, long time; I used to post to tons and tons of BBSs before I ever heard of the internet. The only flames I've actually gotten have been on Slashdot, and then about half the time, I just reexplain my position and the flamer recants. Or at least acknowledges me as human.
If there's all this rage and angst flying around on the internet, why isn't it evenly distributed? Why haven't I gotten my share? Could it be that people who get flamed a lot are somehow different than those who don't? In otherwords, could it be explained by the flamee just as much as the flamer? Jon, I'm not trying to say "it's all your fault," but maybe you're in a different position than a lot of us.
Hey, great. Since we can preserve select Panda DNA, I guess that means their natural ecosystem is saved too, right? Yay, a cure for extinction!
Right. And doesn't it also, logically, prohibit you from using your learned information in a commercial way? What about if I learn how to code linked lists in class, and then tell a coworker how to do that at my internship? Oops!
Of course, this is meant to prohibit those places that sell lecture notes back to students, a ban which I'd more or less agree with. But it doesn't seem written in quite the right way.
And if so, wasn't it basically a rehash of the Mindcraft benchmark? You know, the one that showed Linux slower than NT on a number of services, including web serving and file serving.
If so, this leads me to ask: are these Dells SMP? Because IIRC, the main showing of that benchmark was that Linux doesn't scale as well to multiple processors as NT does. And Linus even conceded this, and there are supposedly big SMP support improvements in 2.4.
If, on the other hand, the Dell boxes AREN'T SMP, I'm really curious where those figures came from. Because I don't recall NT being 2-5 times better until scaled WAY up on multiple processors. Maybe Dell gets some kickbacks when they sell NT servers? Then they'd have to cite as many reasons as possible to prefer it over Linux.
Potentially, computing could be used to make voting easier, more honest and even, if information becme more widely available to more citizens, more rational. Online campaigns could, theoretically, be far less expensive, alienating and Washington-centered, as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura proved a few years ago.
Right, right, and right. But, how does this constitute a "virtual community?" Looks to me like this is an example of the internet being used to improve life in pre-existing communities.
Let's think about it. Were there radio communities in the early 20th century? TV and telephone communities in the late 20th? "Hey, I got this new telephone thingy, now I can meet all KINDS of new people!" No. I think the idea that a new technology can magically create a community IS rather pie-in-the-sky.
However, the telephone in particular has helped me maintain community ties that I made otherwise. For example, I live 2000 miles away from my parents now, but I'm still able to talk to them in real time. It's nice.
In a sense, the same thing is happening with the internet, especially email and IM. My parents don't use those things so much, but my friends from college do (who I also rarely see in person). I've already had 3 people contact me via email in the past 2 months to come out and visit. Have we formed a "virtual community" because they emailed instead of calling?
I'd say no. We just used the internet as a tool to maintain our friendship. And that's how I like it. Enough with this argument that the "digital age" is somehow replacing whatever came before. You don't form virtual communities, you virtually reinforce the communities you've got.
Oh, please, Jon. AOL is about as community as virtual communities get. So what if everyone on AOL is a luser and not at all 37334? That's how real communities are, too; full of dummies. If there are online communities, this is what they look like. And to argue that the opposite is true - that virtual communities somehow bring out the best and brightest, well, that just confirms the essay's thesis: we're a bunch of elitists. Which way will you have it?
First of all, before I post my real rant, I'd like to point out that so-called Academic communities are also nothing more than a ponzi scheme perpetuated by a bunch of elite snobs who think that their colleagues are the best damn people on earth and true enlightenment stems from free access to their published works.
If you're concerned you didn't find something because you were on the wrong ring, just switch which ring you're on. Of course, this is mostly good for mp3 sharing where there's pretty much always a critical mass of SOMETHING you want. If you were to use Gnutella for, say, an album release, you'd run into problems not being on every ring. Of course, with transactions that are mainly 1-way like that, you could just post a website.
Anyway, there would be advantages to this setup.
Let's see a copy of that letter, eh? The only links in that post were to other, "similar" letters. If they really are sending letters to people for dinking around with their own hardware, that's a new level of ridiculous. But I'd like to see confirmation of that before I fly off the handle.