There is a NYTimes article about the use of Wikipedia in the courts (It's a couple months old so it may be inaccessible to non-subscribers).
From the article:
More than 100 judicial rulings have relied on Wikipedia, beginning in 2004, including 13 from circuit courts of appeal, one step below the Supreme Court.
But, some of the examples the article gave have the court citing Wikipedia for the definition of "jungle juice" in one instance, and "booty music" in another, for which I feel Wikipedia is an appropriate source.
Everyone complains about Wikipedia's inaccuracy, but for information on...less academic and more cultural topics (Lists of Simpson's Episodes, or jungle juice, for example), Wikipedia is probably the best source you can find.
I've seen a couple YouTube videos with very short (10, maybe 15 second) intro commercials that I found acceptable. If I'm watching a couple minute clip from the Daily Show or Comedy Central, I don't mind a ten second ad, and the majority of viewers probably won't either. An ad in front of some crappy homemade video? That won't fly.
Yes, people could recut the video and post it elsewhere, but is it really going to be worth the time and effort? If the video is already on a top tier video site (YouTube, Google Video, etc), then the answer is probably not.
By the time the video is popular enough to catch the attention of someone who would repost it, the original video is going to have too much traffic coming at it from that the repost won't even get significant notice.
In the reseach/acedmic world, a journal's "Impact Factor" can give you a good idea on the quality of the papers within it. The Impact Factor, determined by Thomson ISI, is the result of a mathmatical equation taking into consideration the citations of papers previously published in the last few years.
It works something like Slashdot's moderating system in that the readers of the journal determine its impact factor (and thus its credibility and prominence) by citing its papers. Publish good papers, more people cite them, your impact factor rises. Publish shit, nobody cites your journal, and your impact factor decreases.
The Impact Factor of a journal doesn't always reflect on the quality of all the papers. Sometimes a good paper is published in a poor journal, and, unfortunately, sometimes bad papers are published in good journals. The best way way to determine the quality of a paper is to just read it. If you are well versed enough in a scientific field to be doing research in it, you should be able to understand the experiments and analyze the results and look at controls and tell for yourself if it's BS or not.
Doing some rough calculations, Vf = Vi + a*t, the acceleration of 0 to 60,000m/s is 16.67m/s^2, or not quite 2G's. I know fighter pilots in special g-suits are supposed to be able to sustain brief periods of upto 9G's, but what about 2G's sustained for an hour? Any ideas?
A survey from Stanford University estimates the global cost of spam in terms of lost productivity to be at 50 billion dollars.
How can this be? Spam is a pain in the ass when I have spend 1 minute a month checking/deleting the contents of my spam inbox, but I don't see how it costs that much money. Yes, I know time is money and even 1 minute of my time is probably worth something, but I just can't see it adding up to 50 billion. I can see companies purchasing spam blocking software, but again, not 50 billion worth. Could someone please explain where they get this figure from?
I've never heard of the ACCF, so I go to the website and click the "about" link. I get this:
"...the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation represents an endless opportunity to enhance Sir Arthur Clarke's legacy.."
What the heck is that? I know he's a great author and all, but do we need a foundation to enhance his "legacy"?
For all that are interested, I'm going to start The Standmic Foundation. You too can be a member and help enhance my legacy!
Re:Screw the iPod, I bought myself one of these...
on
Three Books On The iPod
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Other than the trendy fashion thing, or the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses thing, I don't understand the big deal behind the Laserpod. A simple colored lightbulb does almost the same thing for a fraction of the price.
I think you've hit upon the crux of the problem - what about non-autonomous cars? While I'm sure the technology for autonomous vehicles exists now, the problem is implementing it county/state/nation/country wide. The FCC is removing all analog television signals by 2006, but that doesn't get rid of my 10 year old tv that only gets channel 2,4,5, and 7. Similarly, the car industry could be forced into producing autonomous-ready vehicles by any given date, but how what about the people driving their 67 Chevy? (or 2004 Chevy for that matter). Perhaps, like with older tv's, the industry will come up with an additional device to bring older cars up to date?
You are obviously white for you don't notice that any of your rights are being violated because the Patriot Act doesn't to fuck you over like it does to people of color. For example, I know a man from Syria who came to this country when he was 2 (and is now in his 30's) and is now being deported because he didn't register after 9/11.
Don't give me any crap about how "well, he wasn't a citizen so he's not american so we don't have to protect his rights" because that is such bullshit. Very few people come to America with the expectation of leaving after a few years (the most common reason would be education). People move here because they want to live the american way of life, which is simply to be free. America is a melting pot, and every single person, except for Native Americans, is part of an immigrant family.
How about being able to tell at time of purchase? I'm in the market for either ps2 or xbox (leaning xbox) and don't want to buy one with a shitty drive.
RPI requires (since the class of 2002 or 2003, I can't remember) all undergraduates to have laptops. Plus there is a huge main computer lab, and dozens of smaller ones scattered around campus. They also have campus-wide internet (I would bet that 99% of classrooms have either wireless or wired internet, the student union has wireless, even the dinning hall).
There was a Wired Magazine Article about natural and man-made diamonds. While talking about distinguishing between the two, the article says one way to tell them about is the "fake" diamonds are actually too perfect to be real. (The scientific way is to look at the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer signal - the man-made and fake diamonds have unique signitures.)
Not only were they "Gibbering uncontrollably", but they were all talking "unloopedly" according to the author. Cutting out the internet cold turkey must really mess you up if you suddenly start talking "unloopedly".
I think it will definetly be president dependent. I once had the opportunity of lunching with Robert Zubrin and he talked about his Mars Direct plan. Part of what makes his plan doable is the cost (50 billion, I think?), but when asked what it would take for us to actually visit Mars, he said it would take a president, at the beginning of his first term of office, to announce that going to mars would be a priority, and then for him to be re-elected. I think the timeline he said it would take would be about 10 years, and he explained that by the time the first 7 or 8 were through (because of a presidential directive), the next president wouldn't scrap all that effort and money when we were so close. It will definetly depend on who is president, but not who is elected on Nov. 2. Bush is all talk about making space a priority (he probably thinks there are WMD on the moon), and Kerry is not as pro-space as Bush (from the Nature article posted earlier today). Maybe in 2008?
In 20,000 Leagues, Captain Nemo never says a single word about being from India or anywhere else for that matter. The most you can gleam from the story is that he lost his wife and child(ren, I don't remember). Maybe you got that information from Mysterious Island (which I haven't read), but I literally just finished 20,000 Leagues, and none of that information was contained in it. Use Amazon's Search Within the Book if youd on't believe me.
That's the key. Lock your door and lock your laptop. 99.9% of theives are looking for something quick and easy. Even in your dorm room, even if you lock your door regularly, buy a 10 dollar laptop lock and use it all the time. Your roommate might leave the door unlocked or open for 30 seconds while he/she goes to the bathroom, but if your laptop's unlocked, 30 seconds is all it takes. I just graduated from RPI where they make all students own a laptop. Every week in the paper one or two people would have their laptop stolen. Every single time the laptop was not locked, either on a library table or in an unlocked/door wide open dorm room. Be slightly paranoid and the would-be thief will steal your neighbor's unlocked stuff instead of yours.
I had totally forgotten about The Andromeda Strain movie until it was brought up. I remembered the book but had totally forgot that it was made into a movie. This is precisely why it wasn't in the top 10. It did deal with a cool idea, but the movie itself just wasn't that great. There was no "edge of your seat" through the whole movie, the acting didn't particularly stand out in my mind, and it was a very drab set. Cool idea, but weak movie.
Slashdot Mirror
Everyone complains about Wikipedia's inaccuracy, but for information on...less academic and more cultural topics (Lists of Simpson's Episodes, or jungle juice, for example), Wikipedia is probably the best source you can find.
I've seen a couple YouTube videos with very short (10, maybe 15 second) intro commercials that I found acceptable. If I'm watching a couple minute clip from the Daily Show or Comedy Central, I don't mind a ten second ad, and the majority of viewers probably won't either. An ad in front of some crappy homemade video? That won't fly.
Yes, people could recut the video and post it elsewhere, but is it really going to be worth the time and effort? If the video is already on a top tier video site (YouTube, Google Video, etc), then the answer is probably not.
By the time the video is popular enough to catch the attention of someone who would repost it, the original video is going to have too much traffic coming at it from that the repost won't even get significant notice.
Try this article, http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/03 /how-to-snatch-an-expiring-domain/ from Mike Davidson (of Newsvine) on how he grabbed the Newsvine.com domain.
Even if M$'s search engine did not appear evil at all, I would still suspect something just because it is M$.
In the reseach/acedmic world, a journal's "Impact Factor" can give you a good idea on the quality of the papers within it. The Impact Factor, determined by Thomson ISI, is the result of a mathmatical equation taking into consideration the citations of papers previously published in the last few years.
It works something like Slashdot's moderating system in that the readers of the journal determine its impact factor (and thus its credibility and prominence) by citing its papers. Publish good papers, more people cite them, your impact factor rises. Publish shit, nobody cites your journal, and your impact factor decreases.
The Impact Factor of a journal doesn't always reflect on the quality of all the papers. Sometimes a good paper is published in a poor journal, and, unfortunately, sometimes bad papers are published in good journals. The best way way to determine the quality of a paper is to just read it. If you are well versed enough in a scientific field to be doing research in it, you should be able to understand the experiments and analyze the results and look at controls and tell for yourself if it's BS or not.
Sounds good to me. I would love for my daughter to be able to spot a pedophile from 25 yards away.
Doing some rough calculations, Vf = Vi + a*t, the acceleration of 0 to 60,000m/s is 16.67m/s^2, or not quite 2G's. I know fighter pilots in special g-suits are supposed to be able to sustain brief periods of upto 9G's, but what about 2G's sustained for an hour? Any ideas?
How can this be? Spam is a pain in the ass when I have spend 1 minute a month checking/deleting the contents of my spam inbox, but I don't see how it costs that much money. Yes, I know time is money and even 1 minute of my time is probably worth something, but I just can't see it adding up to 50 billion. I can see companies purchasing spam blocking software, but again, not 50 billion worth. Could someone please explain where they get this figure from?
"...the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation represents an endless opportunity to enhance Sir Arthur Clarke's legacy.."
What the heck is that? I know he's a great author and all, but do we need a foundation to enhance his "legacy"?
For all that are interested, I'm going to start The Standmic Foundation. You too can be a member and help enhance my legacy!
Other than the trendy fashion thing, or the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses thing, I don't understand the big deal behind the Laserpod. A simple colored lightbulb does almost the same thing for a fraction of the price.
I think you've hit upon the crux of the problem - what about non-autonomous cars? While I'm sure the technology for autonomous vehicles exists now, the problem is implementing it county/state/nation/country wide. The FCC is removing all analog television signals by 2006, but that doesn't get rid of my 10 year old tv that only gets channel 2,4,5, and 7. Similarly, the car industry could be forced into producing autonomous-ready vehicles by any given date, but how what about the people driving their 67 Chevy? (or 2004 Chevy for that matter). Perhaps, like with older tv's, the industry will come up with an additional device to bring older cars up to date?
You are obviously white for you don't notice that any of your rights are being violated because the Patriot Act doesn't to fuck you over like it does to people of color. For example, I know a man from Syria who came to this country when he was 2 (and is now in his 30's) and is now being deported because he didn't register after 9/11. Don't give me any crap about how "well, he wasn't a citizen so he's not american so we don't have to protect his rights" because that is such bullshit. Very few people come to America with the expectation of leaving after a few years (the most common reason would be education). People move here because they want to live the american way of life, which is simply to be free. America is a melting pot, and every single person, except for Native Americans, is part of an immigrant family.
Thank you!
Thanks!
How about being able to tell at time of purchase? I'm in the market for either ps2 or xbox (leaning xbox) and don't want to buy one with a shitty drive.
http://www.byopvr.com/
RPI requires (since the class of 2002 or 2003, I can't remember) all undergraduates to have laptops. Plus there is a huge main computer lab, and dozens of smaller ones scattered around campus. They also have campus-wide internet (I would bet that 99% of classrooms have either wireless or wired internet, the student union has wireless, even the dinning hall).
There was a Wired Magazine Article about natural and man-made diamonds. While talking about distinguishing between the two, the article says one way to tell them about is the "fake" diamonds are actually too perfect to be real. (The scientific way is to look at the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer signal - the man-made and fake diamonds have unique signitures.)
Not only were they "Gibbering uncontrollably", but they were all talking "unloopedly" according to the author. Cutting out the internet cold turkey must really mess you up if you suddenly start talking "unloopedly".
HOLY CRAP! Georgia has WMD! Quick, we better invade them!
I think it will definetly be president dependent. I once had the opportunity of lunching with Robert Zubrin and he talked about his Mars Direct plan. Part of what makes his plan doable is the cost (50 billion, I think?), but when asked what it would take for us to actually visit Mars, he said it would take a president, at the beginning of his first term of office, to announce that going to mars would be a priority, and then for him to be re-elected. I think the timeline he said it would take would be about 10 years, and he explained that by the time the first 7 or 8 were through (because of a presidential directive), the next president wouldn't scrap all that effort and money when we were so close. It will definetly depend on who is president, but not who is elected on Nov. 2. Bush is all talk about making space a priority (he probably thinks there are WMD on the moon), and Kerry is not as pro-space as Bush (from the Nature article posted earlier today). Maybe in 2008?
In 20,000 Leagues, Captain Nemo never says a single word about being from India or anywhere else for that matter. The most you can gleam from the story is that he lost his wife and child(ren, I don't remember). Maybe you got that information from Mysterious Island (which I haven't read), but I literally just finished 20,000 Leagues, and none of that information was contained in it. Use Amazon's Search Within the Book if youd on't believe me.
Wired ran an article about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow several months ago.
That's the key. Lock your door and lock your laptop. 99.9% of theives are looking for something quick and easy. Even in your dorm room, even if you lock your door regularly, buy a 10 dollar laptop lock and use it all the time. Your roommate might leave the door unlocked or open for 30 seconds while he/she goes to the bathroom, but if your laptop's unlocked, 30 seconds is all it takes. I just graduated from RPI where they make all students own a laptop. Every week in the paper one or two people would have their laptop stolen. Every single time the laptop was not locked, either on a library table or in an unlocked/door wide open dorm room. Be slightly paranoid and the would-be thief will steal your neighbor's unlocked stuff instead of yours.
I had totally forgotten about The Andromeda Strain movie until it was brought up. I remembered the book but had totally forgot that it was made into a movie. This is precisely why it wasn't in the top 10. It did deal with a cool idea, but the movie itself just wasn't that great. There was no "edge of your seat" through the whole movie, the acting didn't particularly stand out in my mind, and it was a very drab set. Cool idea, but weak movie.