Unlike your "let the buyer beware" attitude, some people actually don't like the idea of other people being scammed, and will voluntarily do something to help them before it's too late.
amen!
it's the exact same thing as the "well i've nothing to hide so i don't care about my privacy or liberties" attitude... it's a feeble excuse for not getting angry when someone is being screwed in an unpleasant manner
sometimes its better to get angry and do something
now what they need to do...
on
War Kayaking
·
· Score: 1
now what they need to do is modify the kyak to serve web content... then they'd have some thing
it's an interesting article, and it's dead-on about predections, but i think for the wrong reasons
sure, a lot of what we used to do is automated (as the article points out, software installs, etc.), but a lot of what we do is purely psychological
i doubt there is PHB anywhere that is so braindead to think that his human sys admin slave (who can receive a page at 3 am) can be replaced by a machine
nobody is so daft as to imagine that our work is anything but intellectual... they watch as at work, at front of the machine, and they know that what we are doing is no different that auto mechanics or detectiving or archaelogy... analytic problem solving employing a specific skill-set, and there's no machine that can do that, and upper management (thank god) knows it
until they invent a computer that can drive down to the co-lo in the wee hours and apply critical thought to packet-sniffer, humans will always be sys admins, and the article doesn't touch this part of it
it's not like those of us who are actually trying to walk anywhere aren't already constantly dodging distracted pedestrians who's eyes are glued to the adverts on the bus shelters, instead of looking where they're going
this is the sort of handy contraption that makes daily life for the rest of us that much more exciting!
its like those outdoor adventure and/or school athletics waivers you sign that ostensibly protect the provider from liability for damages in the event of injury, death, or worse...
if there's negligence involved, there's always liability, irresepctive of what's in the fine print
info from the tennessee dept of revenue is available here
but, can anyone find text of the ruling itself? that's what interests me, and google's not turning up much
writing as an ESL teacher in japan, here's a general breakdown of how (INMHO, natürlich), to learn a language if you aren't going to pay a lot of money/take course/whatever....
the grammar/vocab/sylabaries/kanji can all be brute forced, that's not a problem (other than the obvious common learning problems, but we'll ignore these and assume you have the motivation and intelligence to brute force these)
the hard parts are pronounciation, listening comprehension, and cognitive/production skills. without a native speaker to practice with, its next to impossible. so, here are my techniques (with which i've been having some success with french and german recently (i decided not to bother learning japanese, i need only a very tiny little bit, even living in a fairly rural part of japan) )
also, note that my suggestions are based on the techniques we use at the english factory where i work
1. pronounciation-- use internet based streaming video or audio of news casts. news is good because even if you only understand 2% of the story, you can read about it your own language and that helps with knowing whats going on. do short 1-2 phrase listen and repeats with the clip, trying to get your speach to match that of the speaker, and if you can find bits that use the grammar or vocab you're brute forcing, all the better
2. listening comp-- same as above. pick a few vocab words or target structures, and just listen for those. as your vocab grows, it will help tremendously to get used to just identifying those words used in natural speach in a variety of contexts
3. cognitive/production skills-- after every lesson, the most important thing is to REACT to what you've just seen/heard/read about by saying whatever you possibly can, out loud, in whatever rudiments of the language you have. getting used to have to think in the language, and produce your own language will aid fluency and long-term learning
best of luck!
on another note, another poster menioned babelfish... its okay for one or two words at a go, but not for anything longer (and its japanese is really quite attrocious).... i use it to communicate with a friend in paris, but i always have to strugle through a lenghty reality check of what it gave me, and ive gotten in the habit of only giving it content one clause at a time (and thankfully french grammar is so close to english that i can get away with this, it won't work in japanese)
the hardest part isn't separating the skilled from the no-hopers (which should be mostly recognizable from the C.V. and interview), its finding those who'll actually do productive work
I worked one summer as a roadie for a live-rock-and-roll production company, and the majority of the interview had to do with skills like knot-tying, cable coiling, equipment identification in a sea of red herrings in a short period of time, that kind of thing, which of course tells you who can do the work and who can't. however, it doesn't tell you who actually will work...
for all the useful info that quizes, tests, gagues, and surveys can provide, a 5 minute phone call with a previous employer might be not only more productive, but way easier
implementation on paper depends on the rules of the game
do you require only simple linear three-d words (e.g. just words on x & y, OR y & z, OR x & z) or are words that function in all three dimensions permitted (i.e. diagonal through the cube)?
if you DISALLOW diagonals, then you could do it (simply) with five (or whatever) crossword grids on a single page, and color code the various dimensions (like 6 down green, 8 across red, etc...)
the obvious difficulty would be that the instructions on how to work it would take up far too much space on the page!
perhaps the short answer is the sad one: since paper is a 2d medium, a 3d crossword puzzle ON PAPER is far more difficult than one would hope, once you take into account the end user
however, there's no reasons you couldn't do it in a medium that alows 3-d modeling, and rotation, and all that good stuff we've come to expect from our little glowing boxes... a web implementation would certainly be fun, and would require FAR less instruction, becuase the 3D nature of the thing would be clearly modeled in the display
it would certainly be fun to see how those solid black boxes work out in the 3d version
Actually, "total information", if done correctly, is better than the traditional methods. Or you would prefer to be prosecuted and tried based on partial information?
while that's absolutely true, no questions, its also not exactly the issue. this issue is: what does the government do with this information other than prosecute real and genuine baddies? (n.b. real and genuine baddies are few and far between)
for example, historical use of personal information (such as which groups people participate in) without any respect at all for the legality, but rather for the political content of those groups, lead to egregious violations of indivduals rights, such as COINTELPRO in the 60s...
this sort of data mine leads to malicious prosecution today, for example the malicious prosectution of this man....
if we can reasonably assume that our government does not have our best interests at heart, and will use personal information in mallicioius, illigal, or overtly political ways, then there is a very real impetus for reducing their ability to obtain it in the first place... to argue that "total information"... is better than traditional methods because of how it could work prosecutoraly is to completely ignore the covert and mallicious ways it can be used (again, see COINTELPRO).
i was a photography major at uni, and my advisor's son was an IP attorny...
the upshot is: if a person is in a public place when you take his photograph, he's fair game
poker & social engineering
on
Geeks and Poker?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
i for one find poker much more interesting than blackjack or other ostensibly "non-total luck" games
#1, blackjack basically is a "total luck" game once you've got a handle on basic strategy and counting... it just becomes a matter of whether or not you get an opportunity to put your counting skills to good use, and then not getting booted from the casino...
but poker, at least over beers with your mates, is basically social engineering... and the better you know the folks you're playing, the more interesting the game is...
as i side note, i generally have only played poker with my non-geeky friends, which is a coincidence, not a choice:)
based on all sorts of header criteria, as observed in actual spam
right... this is about sampling
just because one user can custom-tailor a system based on the kinds of mail he receives, doesn't mean that these specific header criteria are appropriate for all end users
for example, i live in japan, and regularly recieve email from all over the US, all over japan, france, and kazakstan (with occaisional messages from the UK and spain)... so, im dubious that the "specific header criteria" that worked for your sysop would be 100% reliable for me, or for any wide and varied user base
Oh, for fuck's sake, do we have to apply the property meme to every fucking thing humanity discovers?
that's the whole point!
the whole thing is about property! public versus private!
the lack of regulation of whispering represents the "public property" argument, and the argument for regulation suggests that the notion of "private property" is applicable
what's interesting about this, is that this sort of argument only exists in the context of (relatively) new technology... land, for instance, is something we would never argue about... we'd argue about protection for those lands *regulated* as public, but no one, and let me repeat, no one, is going around claiming "since this land was here before we were, it is necessarily public domain and therefore should not be regulate by government or some "property meme"
lets give credit where it's due: i used to work at one hour photo lab (which is a much worse job than tech support)
we had an old fuji minilab that was on its way out, and required nearly weekly calls to fuji support to keep it propped on its last legs
fuji support is unbelievable! yes, the hold times are long you might wait 6 hours for a call back, but, when you got a tech, you knew your problem was solved, and quickly.
i'd be deep in the guts of the machine, phone pinched between ear and shoulder, with needle nose pliers in one hand and screw driver in the other, talking to the tech:
tech: "you see the L-shaped bracket holding the CB212 circuit board to the lens deck?"
me: "yes"
tech: "thats one the you remove to get to the nerps underneath the deck"...
they would hapily walk you throught the whole disassembly, they were just great, and, they had trust! after they'd gotten you through the hard part it would be "just reset the nerps with a ballpoint pen and reassemble in reverse of the disasembly"
me: "thanks!"
tech: "just call if you have any problems!"
it was cool
and there really was a part on the machine called a nerp (plurarl: the nerps):)
i had just moved from one us coast to the other, and called mindspring for the local dialup numbers in boston. i was told "that information is available on our website":)
sorry, but i (for one) doubt it... ive used those paint remover things lots o times (and done my share of playing with lenses [smirk] )...
most of what they do has to do with the hot air blown across the paint, drying it out rapidly, causing it to curl, not just baking it via the application of energy
Slashdot Mirror
Unlike your "let the buyer beware" attitude, some people actually don't like the idea of other people being scammed, and will voluntarily do something to help them before it's too late.
amen!
it's the exact same thing as the "well i've nothing to hide so i don't care about my privacy or liberties" attitude... it's a feeble excuse for not getting angry when someone is being screwed in an unpleasant manner
sometimes its better to get angry and do something
now what they need to do is modify the kyak to serve web content... then they'd have some thing
ha ha!
see the article about the future of sys-admin positions!
imagine supporting these boxes! what used to be a software call, or faulty ram, or something like that, could now be fluid leak!
in addition to supporting the box, we now will need to be spot-on with fluid-dynamics, plumbing, and things like this!
ok, sure, its a really great idea, and why did it take so long for someone to think of it, but i really hope the manual is good!
it's an interesting article, and it's dead-on about predections, but i think for the wrong reasons
sure, a lot of what we used to do is automated (as the article points out, software installs, etc.), but a lot of what we do is purely psychological
i doubt there is PHB anywhere that is so braindead to think that his human sys admin slave (who can receive a page at 3 am) can be replaced by a machine
nobody is so daft as to imagine that our work is anything but intellectual... they watch as at work, at front of the machine, and they know that what we are doing is no different that auto mechanics or detectiving or archaelogy... analytic problem solving employing a specific skill-set, and there's no machine that can do that, and upper management (thank god) knows it
until they invent a computer that can drive down to the co-lo in the wee hours and apply critical thought to packet-sniffer, humans will always be sys admins, and the article doesn't touch this part of it
former requirements for "national identity":
-> language
-> territory
-> self-rule
new requirements for "national identity"?
-> language
-> territory
-> self-rule
-> TLD
anyone still use the 1st person shooters where you have to hold a key to run?
map the "run" key to caps lock, and you're in business!
it's not like those of us who are actually trying to walk anywhere aren't already constantly dodging distracted pedestrians who's eyes are glued to the adverts on the bus shelters, instead of looking where they're going
this is the sort of handy contraption that makes daily life for the rest of us that much more exciting!
yes, it is the same in the USA
its like those outdoor adventure and/or school athletics waivers you sign that ostensibly protect the provider from liability for damages in the event of injury, death, or worse...
if there's negligence involved, there's always liability, irresepctive of what's in the fine print
Back it up yourself. Like everything else - if you want it done right, do it yourself!
sure, but after june 1 (that is, three days ago), microsoft began disallowing pop access to hotmail for non-paying users!
other than paying $ or doing a manual cut/paste, it would have been impossible for the woman to do it herself!
Except now you've inconvenienced your paying customer, who can no longer burn a CD for his car...
and, he has now paid more because he's aslo paid an extra 12 cents or what have you for the r&d and implementation of the protection
no win for anyone
info from the tennessee dept of revenue is available here but, can anyone find text of the ruling itself? that's what interests me, and google's not turning up much
writing as an ESL teacher in japan, here's a general breakdown of how (INMHO, natürlich), to learn a language if you aren't going to pay a lot of money/take course/whatever....
the grammar/vocab/sylabaries/kanji can all be brute forced, that's not a problem (other than the obvious common learning problems, but we'll ignore these and assume you have the motivation and intelligence to brute force these)
the hard parts are pronounciation, listening comprehension, and cognitive/production skills. without a native speaker to practice with, its next to impossible. so, here are my techniques (with which i've been having some success with french and german recently (i decided not to bother learning japanese, i need only a very tiny little bit, even living in a fairly rural part of japan) )
also, note that my suggestions are based on the techniques we use at the english factory where i work
1. pronounciation-- use internet based streaming video or audio of news casts. news is good because even if you only understand 2% of the story, you can read about it your own language and that helps with knowing whats going on. do short 1-2 phrase listen and repeats with the clip, trying to get your speach to match that of the speaker, and if you can find bits that use the grammar or vocab you're brute forcing, all the better
2. listening comp-- same as above. pick a few vocab words or target structures, and just listen for those. as your vocab grows, it will help tremendously to get used to just identifying those words used in natural speach in a variety of contexts
3. cognitive/production skills-- after every lesson, the most important thing is to REACT to what you've just seen/heard/read about by saying whatever you possibly can, out loud, in whatever rudiments of the language you have. getting used to have to think in the language, and produce your own language will aid fluency and long-term learning
best of luck!
on another note, another poster menioned babelfish... its okay for one or two words at a go, but not for anything longer (and its japanese is really quite attrocious).... i use it to communicate with a friend in paris, but i always have to strugle through a lenghty reality check of what it gave me, and ive gotten in the habit of only giving it content one clause at a time (and thankfully french grammar is so close to english that i can get away with this, it won't work in japanese)
the hardest part isn't separating the skilled from the no-hopers (which should be mostly recognizable from the C.V. and interview), its finding those who'll actually do productive work
I worked one summer as a roadie for a live-rock-and-roll production company, and the majority of the interview had to do with skills like knot-tying, cable coiling, equipment identification in a sea of red herrings in a short period of time, that kind of thing, which of course tells you who can do the work and who can't. however, it doesn't tell you who actually will work...
for all the useful info that quizes, tests, gagues, and surveys can provide, a 5 minute phone call with a previous employer might be not only more productive, but way easier
implementation on paper depends on the rules of the game
do you require only simple linear three-d words (e.g. just words on x & y, OR y & z, OR x & z) or are words that function in all three dimensions permitted (i.e. diagonal through the cube)?
if you DISALLOW diagonals, then you could do it (simply) with five (or whatever) crossword grids on a single page, and color code the various dimensions (like 6 down green, 8 across red, etc...)
the obvious difficulty would be that the instructions on how to work it would take up far too much space on the page!
perhaps the short answer is the sad one: since paper is a 2d medium, a 3d crossword puzzle ON PAPER is far more difficult than one would hope, once you take into account the end user
however, there's no reasons you couldn't do it in a medium that alows 3-d modeling, and rotation, and all that good stuff we've come to expect from our little glowing boxes... a web implementation would certainly be fun, and would require FAR less instruction, becuase the 3D nature of the thing would be clearly modeled in the display
it would certainly be fun to see how those solid black boxes work out in the 3d version
Actually, "total information", if done correctly, is better than the traditional methods. Or you would prefer to be prosecuted and tried based on partial information?
while that's absolutely true, no questions, its also not exactly the issue. this issue is: what does the government do with this information other than prosecute real and genuine baddies? (n.b. real and genuine baddies are few and far between)
for example, historical use of personal information (such as which groups people participate in) without any respect at all for the legality, but rather for the political content of those groups, lead to egregious violations of indivduals rights, such as COINTELPRO in the 60s...
this sort of data mine leads to malicious prosecution today, for example the malicious prosectution of this man....
if we can reasonably assume that our government does not have our best interests at heart, and will use personal information in mallicioius, illigal, or overtly political ways, then there is a very real impetus for reducing their ability to obtain it in the first place... to argue that "total information"... is better than traditional methods because of how it could work prosecutoraly is to completely ignore the covert and mallicious ways it can be used (again, see COINTELPRO).
http://www.ritzpics.com
i once worked for these assholes, and i don't recomend them, but they are
a: near you
b: capable of doing what you need
you'll eventually be happy with the result, but it may take a few goes, and you'll pay too much... but, see (a) and (b) above
not true
i was a photography major at uni, and my advisor's son was an IP attorny...
the upshot is: if a person is in a public place when you take his photograph, he's fair game
i for one find poker much more interesting than blackjack or other ostensibly "non-total luck" games
:)
#1, blackjack basically is a "total luck" game once you've got a handle on basic strategy and counting... it just becomes a matter of whether or not you get an opportunity to put your counting skills to good use, and then not getting booted from the casino...
but poker, at least over beers with your mates, is basically social engineering... and the better you know the folks you're playing, the more interesting the game is...
as i side note, i generally have only played poker with my non-geeky friends, which is a coincidence, not a choice
shit :)
what a good way to do it! look at DNS/hostname matching for a start... what a good indicator...
why don't the big commercial filters do it this way?
based on all sorts of header criteria, as observed in actual spam
right... this is about sampling
just because one user can custom-tailor a system based on the kinds of mail he receives, doesn't mean that these specific header criteria are appropriate for all end users
for example, i live in japan, and regularly recieve email from all over the US, all over japan, france, and kazakstan (with occaisional messages from the UK and spain)... so, im dubious that the "specific header criteria" that worked for your sysop would be 100% reliable for me, or for any wide and varied user base
Oh, for fuck's sake, do we have to apply the property meme to every fucking thing humanity discovers?
that's the whole point!
the whole thing is about property! public versus private!
the lack of regulation of whispering represents the "public property" argument, and the argument for regulation suggests that the notion of "private property" is applicable
what's interesting about this, is that this sort of argument only exists in the context of (relatively) new technology... land, for instance, is something we would never argue about... we'd argue about protection for those lands *regulated* as public, but no one, and let me repeat, no one, is going around claiming "since this land was here before we were, it is necessarily public domain and therefore should not be regulate by government or some "property meme"
lets give credit where it's due: i used to work at one hour photo lab (which is a much worse job than tech support) we had an old fuji minilab that was on its way out, and required nearly weekly calls to fuji support to keep it propped on its last legs fuji support is unbelievable! yes, the hold times are long you might wait 6 hours for a call back, but, when you got a tech, you knew your problem was solved, and quickly. i'd be deep in the guts of the machine, phone pinched between ear and shoulder, with needle nose pliers in one hand and screw driver in the other, talking to the tech: tech: "you see the L-shaped bracket holding the CB212 circuit board to the lens deck?" me: "yes" tech: "thats one the you remove to get to the nerps underneath the deck" ...
they would hapily walk you throught the whole disassembly, they were just great, and, they had trust! after they'd gotten you through the hard part it would be "just reset the nerps with a ballpoint pen and reassemble in reverse of the disasembly"
me: "thanks!"
tech: "just call if you have any problems!"
it was cool
and there really was a part on the machine called a nerp (plurarl: the nerps) :)
i had just moved from one us coast to the other, and called mindspring for the local dialup numbers in boston. i was told "that information is available on our website" :)
i recomend this aritcle for info about a similar (though not identical) disorder
sorry, but i (for one) doubt it... ive used those paint remover things lots o times (and done my share of playing with lenses [smirk] )... most of what they do has to do with the hot air blown across the paint, drying it out rapidly, causing it to curl, not just baking it via the application of energy