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User: colinrichardday

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  1. Re:This isn't Bill Gates on Bill Gates Proclaims US High Schools Obsolete · · Score: 1

    Would it take 12 years to teach someone to work in a factory? Hey, in the 1700's unschooled orphans could work in factories.

  2. Re:Marx was not even fit to lick Franklin's boot on ALA President Not Fond of Bloggers · · Score: 1

    Actually, our numerals were originally from India.

  3. Re:Librarians on ALA President Not Fond of Bloggers · · Score: 1

    The US Constitution does not mention a higher power, although the Declaration of Independence does. Same for inalienable rights, though the Ninth Amendment ("The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.") does come close.

    The Sixth Amendment has no restrictions to citizens, merely speaking of "the accused".

  4. Request for clarification on Optimizations - Programmer vs. Compiler? · · Score: 1

    A question about the word "may". Do you mean that it might not have the value 0xdeadbeef (but it might), or that it cannot have the value 0xdeadbeef?

  5. Pedant point on Optimizations - Programmer vs. Compiler? · · Score: 1

    The program's speed is directly proportional to how often a function is called? So the more the function is called, the faster the program?

    Or is it the execution time that is proportional to how often the function is called?

  6. Could this be fun on Court Says FCC Out-of-Bounds With Digital TV · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Could this be fun!

  7. Re:Don't let users login as either administrators on Microsoft Warns of Impossible to Clean Spyware · · Score: 1

    You can only log in as you? You don't have separate admin and user accounts? I can log in as either myself or root.

  8. Re:Happened to me 2 days ago. on Microsoft Warns of Impossible to Clean Spyware · · Score: 1

    But it's unlikely that they would have used Firefox-only design tools for their web pages.

  9. Re:Nothing is impossible to clean on Microsoft Warns of Impossible to Clean Spyware · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but I need to know something to prevent the recovery disk from wiping out my Linux partition.

  10. Re:My God They're Right!!!! on Study Finds Windows More Secure Than Linux · · Score: 1

    OK, but how much time would I have to spend downloading GNU emacs, TeX/LaTeX, gcc, and so on?

  11. Re:My God They're Right!!!! on Study Finds Windows More Secure Than Linux · · Score: 1

    Would that include the time to search the web and download TeX/LaTeX, C/C++, GNU Emacs (or vi), Apache, etc. Oh wait, that takes zero time on Linux because most distros already have them. So how long would it take to do this in Windows XP?

  12. Re:My God They're Right!!!! on Study Finds Windows More Secure Than Linux · · Score: 1

    OK. $79.99 for SuSe Linux 9.2 Pro, and 3 three hours to setup (mostly installation). Certainly less than the cost to upgrade to XP Pro. Also, the presence of multiple media means that you can upgrade several machines almost simultaneously.

  13. Re:Source code of the randum number generators use on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 1

    Lack of bias is insufficient. There may be subtle correlations between successive bits, which would increase the probability of spikes.

  14. Re:Random Numbers on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 1

    But is this quantum-indeterminate electric noise random? And I will be skeptical of this.

  15. Re:Uh huh.... on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 1

    I'm reminded that Knuth wrote on random-number generating. I wonder if their algorithms would pass muster.

    The moral of this story is that random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random. Some theory should be used.

    Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 2, 3rd Edition, page 6.

  16. Re:women's breasts on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 0, Troll

    No, No, No! It's the clitoris!

  17. Re:How do these boxes obtain their numbers? on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 1

    Ah, but how do you generate your random numbers? Linear-congruential method?

  18. Re:Fascinating live view on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 1

    She's a bit young. Now, Elizabeth Hurley. . .

  19. Re:These people ARE NOT crackpots. on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 1

    But were those time ranges random? Or did they see the data before choosing the ranges?

  20. Re:Plenty of [expensive] questions on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 1

    Emotionalism? How about testing it during the Super Bowl?

  21. Re:Superstitious Crackery on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 1

    Even airplane wings are consistent with Bernoulli's principle.

  22. Re:Random number machines predicting the future eh on Random Number Generator That Sees Into the Future · · Score: 1

    Assuming that the results of different trials are independent, the variance should decrease as the number of trials increases (variance is proportional to 1/n, where n is the number of trials).

  23. Re:Stupid bureaucrats on Inside Windows XP Reduced Media Edition · · Score: 1

    As opposed to the stupid Dollar governement, or the stupid Yen government, . . . ? :-)

  24. Re:Amazing stupidity! on Inside Windows XP Reduced Media Edition · · Score: 1

    But Microsoft has already benefited from antitrust laws. Or
    did you think that IBM would have given Microsoft the deal it did if it were not for antitrust?

    Also, would the OEM's form a cartel were it not for antitrust law?

    And what about the 1958 consent decree signed by AT&T? How would Unix have developed in that case?

  25. Re:It's inevitable on Microsoft: The Faint Smell of Rot · · Score: 1

    Charlemagne's empire was hardly most of Europe.