Whether they deserve $164m worth of success is another matter.
IMHO, and that of the free market too, they deserve precisely $164M (if that is the precise number in the transaction).
If this is what the market bears for such an "asset" (I won't debate that point), then so be it. What this means is that there were others willing to pay $150M, and $100,000, and $45,000, etc...
Yeah, Pi is fascinating, as is number theory in general. I like to follow these things, not in my day job these days unfortunately, but still interesting.
A good book on this sort of stuff is "The Mystery of the Aleph" by Amir D. Aczel, it's about the life of Georg Cantor, an 19th Century mathematician. It meanders a little, but the glimpse it gives into "infinity" is thought provoking.
I see your point, but maybe I didn't express mine well enough. Techniques for memorization are well established and used effectively in practice with some amount of discipline.
What I meant by "How does one memorize Pi backward" is that there is no "end" to Pi at which to begin memorizing and starting to count backwards from. It is an irrational transcendental number that goes on forever.
So the question becomes, how does he pick his point to start at? 500th digit? 5,000th? 50,000th? etc... ? And in doing so, how does he KNOW that digit? From my limited understanding of this field (number theory, and calculating digits of Pi), one needs to calculate ALL the other digits first (although I may be wrong). In other words, to recite an infinite string backwards, where does one choose to start? What does he "see" that the rest of the mathematical world does not, or may never see?
In any event, he has to have a VERY intimate knowledge of the nature of numbers, and arguably the nature of reality and existence to perform such a feat. This is more than just a Late Night TV odd-ball discussion. This fellow may have something that amounts to insight on consiousness and what it means to be aware.
To me, this has been the most stunning scientific story in recent times. Bigger than water on Mars and just short of a bona fide SETI signal
To him, pi isn't an abstract set of digits; it's a visual story, a film projected in front of his eyes. He learnt the number forwards and backwards and, last year, spent five hours recalling it
How does one memorize Pi backwards? And if he is arbitrarily starting at a very very precise value with tens of thousands of digits, how has he arrived at it? What "color, texture, or sound" does it make?
This truly borders on the metaphysical. Almost a peek into the nature of reality. The sort of questions one asks about how alien intelligence or an alternate consiousness views the universe. Or maybe i'm getting to philosphical about it
Sure, with stations 1 or 2 miles apart, we can commute to work in SkyWeb, putter around in our offices on our Segways, and then weekend-warrior ourselves into early heart-disease deaths with our SUVs.
I can't recall where I saw the study, but the correlation between suburban living and heart-disease is very high. Less walking, more clogged arteries. How does SkyWeb help?
And on a funny note... when does SkyWeb become self-aware, so that we can try to unplug it in a panic?
Nicholas Brand (who I believe has posted here before) has compiled a great looking List of Live CDs.
Looks like they are even categorized quite extensively too. You should find at least something to ease your paranoia. But if you don't, you can make your own with Morphix, which is sort of a customizable Knoppix, and even has a how-to for something similar to what you want.
IANA-Doctor, but I've read that the majority of people vaccinated against small pox more that a couple of decades ago are not nearly as immune anymore. Furthermore, I don't think they've done smallpox vaccinations in quite a while. You don't see those two little scars on one arm of kids less than 30 years old.
Speaking of which, is anyone over the age of 30 just amazed at what a different world this is from the 80's? Sure, communist menace is substituted by 'terrorist menace' but at least MAD is less likely.
This is a huge debate, and I don't think your analogies are related, but i'll bite.
Ok. So your argument is that the recording industry is entitled to levied fees because it some how compensates an infringement on their intellectual property.
No doubt, the industry enjoyed some fairly invincible protection due to the infeasibility of copying and distribution. The reality today, of course, is that they are no longer able to enforce their collection regime on the micro-copier (a "pirate" if they are unauthorized). It seems the logic of the media tax was to rectify the fact that the pirate MUST use some sort of media to achieve a reproduction. Therefore, the pirate would be forced to pay no matter what.
However, this levy punishes ALL users of the said media. Whether for copyright infringement or not. This is simply unfair to non-infringing users. In fact, it is a direct theft of fees unrelated to the intent of the levy.
Therefore I ask again, Why do I have to pay the recording artists a levy on the media that I use to image my harddrive?
By your analogy above, it would be similar to taxing the GPS car that drives around in a circle on its own property, and consumes none of the 'public' common roads.
The levy is wrong. A workable alternative is that the recording industry find a business model that makes money without government involvement or legislation. For example, the good old days of selling media only at the performance venue. The recording industry has no more right and entitlement to a robust business model than any other industry.
I was looking into ways of approaching this type of problem, and it seems that a good firewall monitoring solution could help. One I came across is made by
OnGarde. They run a service that allows deep inspection of traffic, and they support alot of devices.
Recruiters make money by selling you. In Canada anyway, they typically only get paid if they place you and you meet expectations. They benefit by from your resume being up to par.
Interview your recruiters closely, and talk to their previous hires. Get an idea of what worked before, and what the recruiter is willing to do to make you sellable (ie better resume). If you're worth it, they will help you.
Like any profession, some recruiters can be really good at what they do, and others can be just useless. Run in the opposite direction of the latter.
If there is was ever a problem that can be solved through technology and not legislation this would be the one. (As opposed to the madness involved in technologies to "enforce" DRM).
How hard is it to filter calls from junk fax senders? There must be some solutions for this out there.
Pre-emptive Personal Telcos
on
WiFi Gone Wild
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
How long before telcos ship integrated devices that include DSL modem and wifi, all interoperable with VoIP networks?
They could still make money on the DSL subscriptions and do and end-run around the grassroots personal telcos.
Well, there you have it. The sysadmin can indeed work from home (India in this case), the vendor will happily replace non-functioning hardware on-site as needed (as per another post), and power management is a phone call away.
I don't see anything left to debate, really. Unless I've left something out? Maybe language?
Even with the sysadmin being in India. A grunt will still be required to walk up to the box and reboot it (rarely of course, if it's one of the favored OSes). The Indian admin still can't email himself.
Slashdot Mirror
Me too!!
Mod me up! *g*
...trying to undermine Good Judgement!!
Linux doesn't need defending any more than anything else that is Good For You(tm).
Whether they deserve $164m worth of success is another matter.
IMHO, and that of the free market too, they deserve precisely $164M (if that is the precise number in the transaction).
If this is what the market bears for such an "asset" (I won't debate that point), then so be it. What this means is that there were others willing to pay $150M, and $100,000, and $45,000, etc...
lasaiz-faire... etc. etc.
Yeah, Pi is fascinating, as is number theory in general. I like to follow these things, not in my day job these days unfortunately, but still interesting.
A good book on this sort of stuff is "The Mystery of the Aleph" by Amir D. Aczel, it's about the life of Georg Cantor, an 19th Century mathematician. It meanders a little, but the glimpse it gives into "infinity" is thought provoking.
If you check it out, let me know...
I see your point, but maybe I didn't express mine well enough. Techniques for memorization are well established and used effectively in practice with some amount of discipline.
What I meant by "How does one memorize Pi backward" is that there is no "end" to Pi at which to begin memorizing and starting to count backwards from. It is an irrational transcendental number that goes on forever.
So the question becomes, how does he pick his point to start at? 500th digit? 5,000th? 50,000th? etc... ? And in doing so, how does he KNOW that digit? From my limited understanding of this field (number theory, and calculating digits of Pi), one needs to calculate ALL the other digits first (although I may be wrong). In other words, to recite an infinite string backwards, where does one choose to start? What does he "see" that the rest of the mathematical world does not, or may never see?
In any event, he has to have a VERY intimate knowledge of the nature of numbers, and arguably the nature of reality and existence to perform such a feat. This is more than just a Late Night TV odd-ball discussion. This fellow may have something that amounts to insight on consiousness and what it means to be aware.
To me, this has been the most stunning scientific story in recent times. Bigger than water on Mars and just short of a bona fide SETI signal
Truly mind boggling.
Not to mention his memorization of Pi...
To him, pi isn't an abstract set of digits; it's a visual story, a film projected in front of his eyes. He learnt the number forwards and backwards and, last year, spent five hours recalling it
How does one memorize Pi backwards? And if he is arbitrarily starting at a very very precise value with tens of thousands of digits, how has he arrived at it? What "color, texture, or sound" does it make?
This truly borders on the metaphysical. Almost a peek into the nature of reality. The sort of questions one asks about how alien intelligence or an alternate consiousness views the universe. Or maybe i'm getting to philosphical about it
Unsettling indeed!
Sure, with stations 1 or 2 miles apart, we can commute to work in SkyWeb, putter around in our offices on our Segways, and then weekend-warrior ourselves into early heart-disease deaths with our SUVs.
I can't recall where I saw the study, but the correlation between suburban living and heart-disease is very high. Less walking, more clogged arteries. How does SkyWeb help?
And on a funny note... when does SkyWeb become self-aware, so that we can try to unplug it in a panic?
... More than 640 Terabytes anyway, right?
(did I just say that out loud?)...
...but I need to, erm, be somewhere.. else... oh, nevermind!
doh! i'm sure an email would help...
please use: philntc @@@@ hotmail
thanks!
Hi, I would be interested in seeing what Orkut is about. Please invite me if you don't mind :-)
(it probably wouldn't hurt me to learn some portuguese either!)
thanks!
Nicholas Brand (who I believe has posted here before) has compiled a great looking List of Live CDs.
Looks like they are even categorized quite extensively too. You should find at least something to ease your paranoia. But if you don't, you can make your own with Morphix, which is sort of a customizable Knoppix, and even has a how-to for something similar to what you want.
... the sound of a Methane Wind...
IANA-Doctor, but I've read that the majority of people vaccinated against small pox more that a couple of decades ago are not nearly as immune anymore. Furthermore, I don't think they've done smallpox vaccinations in quite a while. You don't see those two little scars on one arm of kids less than 30 years old.
Speaking of which, is anyone over the age of 30 just amazed at what a different world this is from the 80's? Sure, communist menace is substituted by 'terrorist menace' but at least MAD is less likely.
This is a huge debate, and I don't think your analogies are related, but i'll bite.
Ok. So your argument is that the recording industry is entitled to levied fees because it some how compensates an infringement on their intellectual property.
No doubt, the industry enjoyed some fairly invincible protection due to the infeasibility of copying and distribution. The reality today, of course, is that they are no longer able to enforce their collection regime on the micro-copier (a "pirate" if they are unauthorized). It seems the logic of the media tax was to rectify the fact that the pirate MUST use some sort of media to achieve a reproduction. Therefore, the pirate would be forced to pay no matter what.
However, this levy punishes ALL users of the said media. Whether for copyright infringement or not. This is simply unfair to non-infringing users. In fact, it is a direct theft of fees unrelated to the intent of the levy.
Therefore I ask again, Why do I have to pay the recording artists a levy on the media that I use to image my harddrive?
By your analogy above, it would be similar to taxing the GPS car that drives around in a circle on its own property, and consumes none of the 'public' common roads.
The levy is wrong. A workable alternative is that the recording industry find a business model that makes money without government involvement or legislation. For example, the good old days of selling media only at the performance venue. The recording industry has no more right and entitlement to a robust business model than any other industry.
How then, does the logic follow, that maintaining a "levy" is a reasonable? Why do recording artists deserve a pay-back for my disk imaging activity?
Does this happen anywhere other than Canada?
I was looking into ways of approaching this type of problem, and it seems that a good firewall monitoring solution could help. One I came across is made by OnGarde. They run a service that allows deep inspection of traffic, and they support alot of devices.
Recruiters make money by selling you. In Canada anyway, they typically only get paid if they place you and you meet expectations. They benefit by from your resume being up to par.
Interview your recruiters closely, and talk to their previous hires. Get an idea of what worked before, and what the recruiter is willing to do to make you sellable (ie better resume). If you're worth it, they will help you.
Like any profession, some recruiters can be really good at what they do, and others can be just useless. Run in the opposite direction of the latter.
"Sometimes I look back and wonder if this wave of ERP software ... wasn't a collective hallucination," says Stanford CIO Chris Handley
That would have been Berkeley then, no? Home of LSD and UNIX IIRC.
about how feeble a device that a 486 is today, and look at the PC in front of you now.
What will be sitting in its place 15 years from now? A.I. or bloatware?
Even if it is hard, does this mean impossible? Could 30, 40, 50% or more junk faxes be caught?
It's agreed that email spam filtering is far from perfect, but why expect perfection this?
What would be the optimal approach and result? Surely making it illegal isn't the only resort.
If there is was ever a problem that can be solved through technology and not legislation this would be the one. (As opposed to the madness involved in technologies to "enforce" DRM).
How hard is it to filter calls from junk fax senders? There must be some solutions for this out there.
How long before telcos ship integrated devices that include DSL modem and wifi, all interoperable with VoIP networks?
They could still make money on the DSL subscriptions and do and end-run around the grassroots personal telcos.
Well, there you have it. The sysadmin can indeed work from home (India in this case), the vendor will happily replace non-functioning hardware on-site as needed (as per another post), and power management is a phone call away.
I don't see anything left to debate, really. Unless I've left something out? Maybe language?
Even with the sysadmin being in India. A grunt will still be required to walk up to the box and reboot it (rarely of course, if it's one of the favored OSes). The Indian admin still can't email himself.