IIRC, the spelling "Esquimaux" was the original European transliteration of a term used by non-Inuit aboriginal people in contact with French fur traders. The term itself doesn't originate with the French language, but with one of the original language groups from the boreal forest (my guess would be Ojibwa/Cree).
No slur upon our Francophone neighbours and compatriots intended.;-)
So here's the question. I RTFA, and there are no details on the "identity theft" thing. Does 0wn1ng someone's underdefended box count as "identity theft", and if so, is that what they got this guy for?
And - more to the point - if not, could the law be construed that way? In other words, can we prosecute spammers for impersonating customers of fooISP by using their zombied boxes to spam?
Try "Inuk" (EE-nook) for singular, "Inuit" (INN-you-it with the Is elongated almost into Es) for plural. The language (not that anyone here besides me likely cares) is Inuktitut (ee-NOOK-tee-toot).
"Eskimo" is a derogatory term originally applied by Francophones ("Esquimaux") and meaning "eaters of raw meat".
I couldn't agree more. I was just talking about this with a co-worker yesterday. In fact, I'd go one better - license computer users. If you can't understand and pass a test on basic security procedures, you don't get to buy a computer.
There's a good rationale for this, too, and it's about the same as that behind driver licensing. Insecure boxen don't just affect the user - they screw things up for everyone else, and they cost IT pros money and time. Imagine your work life without spam and viruses...
Interestingly, every person I've evang^H^H^H^H^H introduced to this idea has agreed with it after hearing the arguments - including clueless lusers. Maybe the time has come.
My boss' church does the same with CDs these days - I know, 'cause she's always after me to copy them for her. (Don't worry, we're in Canada, we can do that, you know.)
Just a hunch, but I don't think we have a material that would be tough and flexible enough at low temps (down to -40) while still being strong enough to withstand substantial ice/packed snow cover.
I like the infrared thing, though - I was thinking along the same lines last night. If embedded markers emitted a wavelength that passed through snow, ice, and dirt and then was shifted to a visible wavelength on passing through the windshield - I think that would work. Given, you know, solutions to the mundane problems like power and such. Probably have to go with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light rather than longer (like infrared) tho.
Agree. One thing that helps is to have lights that make you look like a car - head, tail, signal, and brake, all appropriately colour-coded.
And if you drive a twitchy 'bent like mine, that practically steers by thought control (16" wheels and short wheelbase will do that), it's nice to not have to make hand signals in traffic.
... is gorgeous, I was there in December. And I know you folks get snow too. What you don't get (I don't think) is a layer of snow and ice that STAYS on the road. For months. See above.
Gotta love Skye, though. It didn't tug, it WRENCHED at my highland genes. Cheers!
It's not so much the ploughs I'm worried about, it's the fact that our roads are covered with snow and ice before and after ploughing - i.e., for most of the winter. Anything embedded would disappear exactly when most needed - low visibility due to snow & night, snow covering existing lane markers.
Seriously, it's a problem. We just had the Trans-Canada Highway closed for a couple of days due to heavy snow. Increased lane visibility would eliminate one part of the problem. Cheers!
...ever since I saw embedded reflectors in the UK. Problem is, where I live, we get large amounts of snow and ice building up on the roads. Sometimes when I'm driving on the highway, my mind will turn to the notion of holographic lane markers... or some equivalent system that would interact with the windshield of the car to visibly plot lanes etc... How about it, physicists of/.? Any brilliant ideas?
The climbing thing takes some getting used to on a recumbent, but it's not a problem really. There are two ways to climb - grinding (slow power strokes with all your weight on the pedals) and spinning (smooth fast cadence with minimal force applied). You can't grind on a recumbent, for the simple reason that you can't bring your weight to bear on the pedals. Once you get used to spinning, though - and maintaining your balance while slowly riding up a hill - climbing isn't a problem.
As for visibility in traffic, that's thought to be a myth by most recumbent riders with any experience. First, you're not really all that low. My 'bent has a seat height of something like 21" - trust me, I'm visible. Second, recumbents are still relatively rare, and they stand out like a sore thumb. I'd rather have drivers saying "WTF" and paying MORE attention to me than the idiots who look right through bikes because, well, they're just bikes, right?
I've been riding a recumbent (a RANS Rocket, which is a fairly basic entry-level model) for over a year now and I have to say I love it. Comfortable, efficient, low wind resistance compared to a wedgie^H^H^H^H^H^H upright (and that's without a fairing), and cool to boot. Check them out, I highly recommend them.
What a whacked-out site. You, sir or madam, have been sucked in. And what do all these things have in common? Proposed solutions or mitigation measures could have an impact upon those who put profit above all other considerations.
The way we live now is unsustainable. Sorry if you can't adapt, but things are going to change - voluntarily and gradually, or more quickly and catastrophically. Ideological ostriches disguising themselves as rational voices of scientific dissent aren't helping matters.
Acid rain as junk science... please. Look into Dave Schindler's research some time - there's a reason he was just awarded a million-dollar prize for contributions to the good of humanity.
Posts like yours leave me lost somewhere between pity for the dupes, anger at those who should know better, disgust for the politicians who let it happen, and sadness at our long-term prospects. I normally close with "cheers!", but I can't bring myself to add it here.
I've always been interested in the place where role-playing and fiction meet; they always kind of crossed over for my friends and I as our reading influenced our games and vice versa.
A couple of guys I know created a world to play and write in. One of them, Steven Erikson, is now a critically acclaimed fantasy writer. We still get together for our weekly game in the world of the Malazan Empire... which is weird, but cool. Some of the characters in his books have their roots in games, and as the books come out (the fifth, Midnight Tides, was released about a week ago), they in turn influence characters in our games.
To say nothing of the subversive social critique Steve has been known to throw in...;-) Anyway, good article. Cheers!
Yeah, I'm in Winnipeg. Close enough for Canada.;-)
Just listened to CBC on the way home from work - we have about 20 cm on the ground now, another 20 by tomorrow. Branches all over the place, power out, TransCanada closed... crazy, man, crazy.
Of course the farmers are loving it, and I can't blame them. About time we got some moisture into the ground. Lots of nitrogen, too. I can't complain. Besides, it gives me an excuse to stay in tonight and watch Calgary kick ass!;-)
...we're in the middle of a gigantic snowstorm. With thundersnow, yet, which is kind of unusual. I heard the forecast and thought "Hmmm, OK, a few flakes maybe!" (it was something like 24 C yesterday). Today? 10 cm of snow followed by a predicted 10mm of rain tonight, more of the same tomorrow. Looking outside my office window, I'm thinking we've had more than 10 cm already. It's been coming down so thick that driving visibility is severely curtailed.
Still, it's kind of neat to have one of these storms in May. Although if one more person comes into the office singing "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" I'm going to jam the "Department of Redundancy Department" sign down their throat.
I did not know that. Of course, Firefox is still the better browser... but I didn't know IE did that. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll have to remember it for the once a year or so that I am forced to use IE. Cheers!
Ahem. I'm no expert, but! I have done commercial web design and coding, and I work with (mentally and physically) disabled people and with disabled seniors. A few thoughts off the top of my head:
1) Keep the site layout simple. I'd go with as much text and as little graphic content as possible, other than actual thumbnails of the art. Two columns at most (say, navigation on left and content on right), and use percentages rather than fixed column sizes.
2) High contrast. Bold primary colours in graphics, black text on white bg (or vice versa, but seniors might like the former better).
3) Use CSS. In fact, use several, and customize them for different types of visual presentation. Like, you could have a high-contrast, white on black, large text version, etc. Make them available in links; it might mean duplicating some HTML if you're not serving it up full of steaming dynamic goodness, but it's worth the effort... and text files are pretty small, relative to graphics anyway.
4) Label your navigation elements clearly, with descriptive text links rather than inscrutable icons.
5) You might think about a link to Firefox (you're on/. so I assume you know what that is), making the explicit point that you can vary text size in Firefox just by ctrl+scroll wheel. Tell everyone. It's the better browser.;-)
6) TEST it. Find out what people like, what they don't. Using CSS, all you'll have to change (assuming they're OK with the graphics) is the stylesheet(s).
Good luck, it's nice to see people working to make the web more accessible. Cheers!
I'm curious - do you have a citation on this? The environmental scientists I know and whose work I have read consider prehistorical climate data from the sources I mentioned quite sufficient for extrapolation.
Are you an environmental scientist? Have you read the papers, articles, and books written by those who are, and share the concerns I've outlined?
I'm not saying those are opposite ends of a spectrum. I'm saying that they are identified possible consequences of climate change; I'm saying that the best science on the subject to date suggests that we are contributing to that change; I'm saying that we should act now on what we strongly suspect while trying to find out more. What's so unreasonable about this one particular aspect of environmental science that Slashdotters don't seem to get it? It's like fundies and evolution.
True. However! Homo's numbers were a tiny fraction of our current population. If we had somewhere between 10^8 and 10^9 people on this overloaded globe, I think we'd get through just fine. Problem is we're closer to 10^10, and huge numbers will have to move if sea levels rise appreciably. As someone pointed out, it's not pretty.
So, do we want chaos, mass death, and severely curtailed quality of life, or do we want to try to reduce anthropogenic climate forcing? We might not stop warming, but we can reduce what the best scientific minds around have agreed we are contributing to it.
Slashdot Mirror
IIRC, the spelling "Esquimaux" was the original European transliteration of a term used by non-Inuit aboriginal people in contact with French fur traders. The term itself doesn't originate with the French language, but with one of the original language groups from the boreal forest (my guess would be Ojibwa/Cree).
;-)
No slur upon our Francophone neighbours and compatriots intended.
So here's the question. I RTFA, and there are no details on the "identity theft" thing. Does 0wn1ng someone's underdefended box count as "identity theft", and if so, is that what they got this guy for?
And - more to the point - if not, could the law be construed that way? In other words, can we prosecute spammers for impersonating customers of fooISP by using their zombied boxes to spam?
Just a thought.
Try "Inuk" (EE-nook) for singular, "Inuit" (INN-you-it with the Is elongated almost into Es) for plural. The language (not that anyone here besides me likely cares) is Inuktitut (ee-NOOK-tee-toot).
"Eskimo" is a derogatory term originally applied by Francophones ("Esquimaux") and meaning "eaters of raw meat".
Cheers!
I couldn't agree more. I was just talking about this with a co-worker yesterday. In fact, I'd go one better - license computer users. If you can't understand and pass a test on basic security procedures, you don't get to buy a computer.
There's a good rationale for this, too, and it's about the same as that behind driver licensing. Insecure boxen don't just affect the user - they screw things up for everyone else, and they cost IT pros money and time. Imagine your work life without spam and viruses...
Interestingly, every person I've evang^H^H^H^H^H introduced to this idea has agreed with it after hearing the arguments - including clueless lusers. Maybe the time has come.
My boss' church does the same with CDs these days - I know, 'cause she's always after me to copy them for her. (Don't worry, we're in Canada, we can do that, you know.)
Just a hunch, but I don't think we have a material that would be tough and flexible enough at low temps (down to -40) while still being strong enough to withstand substantial ice/packed snow cover.
I like the infrared thing, though - I was thinking along the same lines last night. If embedded markers emitted a wavelength that passed through snow, ice, and dirt and then was shifted to a visible wavelength on passing through the windshield - I think that would work. Given, you know, solutions to the mundane problems like power and such. Probably have to go with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light rather than longer (like infrared) tho.
Cheers!
Agree. One thing that helps is to have lights that make you look like a car - head, tail, signal, and brake, all appropriately colour-coded.
And if you drive a twitchy 'bent like mine, that practically steers by thought control (16" wheels and short wheelbase will do that), it's nice to not have to make hand signals in traffic.
Cheers!
... is gorgeous, I was there in December. And I know you folks get snow too. What you don't get (I don't think) is a layer of snow and ice that STAYS on the road. For months. See above.
Gotta love Skye, though. It didn't tug, it WRENCHED at my highland genes. Cheers!
It's not so much the ploughs I'm worried about, it's the fact that our roads are covered with snow and ice before and after ploughing - i.e., for most of the winter. Anything embedded would disappear exactly when most needed - low visibility due to snow & night, snow covering existing lane markers.
Seriously, it's a problem. We just had the Trans-Canada Highway closed for a couple of days due to heavy snow. Increased lane visibility would eliminate one part of the problem. Cheers!
Right. Force. Like pounds. ;-)
...ever since I saw embedded reflectors in the UK. Problem is, where I live, we get large amounts of snow and ice building up on the roads. Sometimes when I'm driving on the highway, my mind will turn to the notion of holographic lane markers... or some equivalent system that would interact with the windshield of the car to visibly plot lanes etc... How about it, physicists of /.? Any brilliant ideas?
The climbing thing takes some getting used to on a recumbent, but it's not a problem really. There are two ways to climb - grinding (slow power strokes with all your weight on the pedals) and spinning (smooth fast cadence with minimal force applied). You can't grind on a recumbent, for the simple reason that you can't bring your weight to bear on the pedals. Once you get used to spinning, though - and maintaining your balance while slowly riding up a hill - climbing isn't a problem.
As for visibility in traffic, that's thought to be a myth by most recumbent riders with any experience. First, you're not really all that low. My 'bent has a seat height of something like 21" - trust me, I'm visible. Second, recumbents are still relatively rare, and they stand out like a sore thumb. I'd rather have drivers saying "WTF" and paying MORE attention to me than the idiots who look right through bikes because, well, they're just bikes, right?
I've been riding a recumbent (a RANS Rocket, which is a fairly basic entry-level model) for over a year now and I have to say I love it. Comfortable, efficient, low wind resistance compared to a wedgie^H^H^H^H^H^H upright (and that's without a fairing), and cool to boot. Check them out, I highly recommend them.
"Bob fell into the manure pond yesterday."
"Can he swim?"
"No, but he sure went through the 'movements'!"
*ducks*
flying whales? I guess I must be the last one.
(Don't get it? Look at my nick, fercrisake.)
What a whacked-out site. You, sir or madam, have been sucked in. And what do all these things have in common? Proposed solutions or mitigation measures could have an impact upon those who put profit above all other considerations.
The way we live now is unsustainable. Sorry if you can't adapt, but things are going to change - voluntarily and gradually, or more quickly and catastrophically. Ideological ostriches disguising themselves as rational voices of scientific dissent aren't helping matters.
Acid rain as junk science... please. Look into Dave Schindler's research some time - there's a reason he was just awarded a million-dollar prize for contributions to the good of humanity.
Posts like yours leave me lost somewhere between pity for the dupes, anger at those who should know better, disgust for the politicians who let it happen, and sadness at our long-term prospects. I normally close with "cheers!", but I can't bring myself to add it here.
I've always been interested in the place where role-playing and fiction meet; they always kind of crossed over for my friends and I as our reading influenced our games and vice versa.
;-) Anyway, good article. Cheers!
A couple of guys I know created a world to play and write in. One of them, Steven Erikson, is now a critically acclaimed fantasy writer. We still get together for our weekly game in the world of the Malazan Empire... which is weird, but cool. Some of the characters in his books have their roots in games, and as the books come out (the fifth, Midnight Tides, was released about a week ago), they in turn influence characters in our games.
To say nothing of the subversive social critique Steve has been known to throw in...
Yeah, I'm in Winnipeg. Close enough for Canada. ;-)
;-)
Just listened to CBC on the way home from work - we have about 20 cm on the ground now, another 20 by tomorrow. Branches all over the place, power out, TransCanada closed... crazy, man, crazy.
Of course the farmers are loving it, and I can't blame them. About time we got some moisture into the ground. Lots of nitrogen, too. I can't complain. Besides, it gives me an excuse to stay in tonight and watch Calgary kick ass!
...we're in the middle of a gigantic snowstorm. With thundersnow, yet, which is kind of unusual. I heard the forecast and thought "Hmmm, OK, a few flakes maybe!" (it was something like 24 C yesterday). Today? 10 cm of snow followed by a predicted 10mm of rain tonight, more of the same tomorrow. Looking outside my office window, I'm thinking we've had more than 10 cm already. It's been coming down so thick that driving visibility is severely curtailed.
Still, it's kind of neat to have one of these storms in May. Although if one more person comes into the office singing "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" I'm going to jam the "Department of Redundancy Department" sign down their throat.
Cheers!
I did not know that. Of course, Firefox is still the better browser... but I didn't know IE did that. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll have to remember it for the once a year or so that I am forced to use IE. Cheers!
Ahem. I'm no expert, but! I have done commercial web design and coding, and I work with (mentally and physically) disabled people and with disabled seniors. A few thoughts off the top of my head:
/. so I assume you know what that is), making the explicit point that you can vary text size in Firefox just by ctrl+scroll wheel. Tell everyone. It's the better browser. ;-)
1) Keep the site layout simple. I'd go with as much text and as little graphic content as possible, other than actual thumbnails of the art. Two columns at most (say, navigation on left and content on right), and use percentages rather than fixed column sizes.
2) High contrast. Bold primary colours in graphics, black text on white bg (or vice versa, but seniors might like the former better).
3) Use CSS. In fact, use several, and customize them for different types of visual presentation. Like, you could have a high-contrast, white on black, large text version, etc. Make them available in links; it might mean duplicating some HTML if you're not serving it up full of steaming dynamic goodness, but it's worth the effort... and text files are pretty small, relative to graphics anyway.
4) Label your navigation elements clearly, with descriptive text links rather than inscrutable icons.
5) You might think about a link to Firefox (you're on
6) TEST it. Find out what people like, what they don't. Using CSS, all you'll have to change (assuming they're OK with the graphics) is the stylesheet(s).
Good luck, it's nice to see people working to make the web more accessible. Cheers!
I'm curious - do you have a citation on this? The environmental scientists I know and whose work I have read consider prehistorical climate data from the sources I mentioned quite sufficient for extrapolation.
Are you an environmental scientist? Have you read the papers, articles, and books written by those who are, and share the concerns I've outlined?
I'm not saying those are opposite ends of a spectrum. I'm saying that they are identified possible consequences of climate change; I'm saying that the best science on the subject to date suggests that we are contributing to that change; I'm saying that we should act now on what we strongly suspect while trying to find out more. What's so unreasonable about this one particular aspect of environmental science that Slashdotters don't seem to get it? It's like fundies and evolution.
True. However! Homo's numbers were a tiny fraction of our current population. If we had somewhere between 10^8 and 10^9 people on this overloaded globe, I think we'd get through just fine. Problem is we're closer to 10^10, and huge numbers will have to move if sea levels rise appreciably. As someone pointed out, it's not pretty.
So, do we want chaos, mass death, and severely curtailed quality of life, or do we want to try to reduce anthropogenic climate forcing? We might not stop warming, but we can reduce what the best scientific minds around have agreed we are contributing to it.
You mean, like glacial ice and sediment cores? Got 'em.