If you check back to this thread, I've got some random questions for you.
I'm an avid recreational scuba diver, and have been fascinated by the few times I've actually come across a cephalopod underwater. But they're amazingly difficult for a novice to spot. I've even had difficulty pointing them out to other divers within an arm's length of them.
Do you have any advice for actually seeing one of these buggers, when they're trying their best to look like a hunk of coral? Keeping an eye out for midden is obviously useful, but still seems insufficient for one of my skill. Did your polarized lenses make it any easier to pick out a camouflaged octopus? Would yanking the IR filter off a digital camera result in them showing up differently in the viewscreen? Anything else, technological or otherwise, that might help?
Regardless, excellent posts on this article. Really fascinating stuff. You should really have some journal entries!
Just an FYI: Ars Technica has done exactly that with all of its reviews. No more numbers. (I believe they got some ridicule for assigning an infamous "7" to most reviews) I think it's definitely a move for the better.
That being said, I've seen several people bitch about the lack of a rating number on the forums. So you can't please everyone...
Why on earth has no one mentioned Pandora? There's a surprising amount of music on there that isn't part of a big name recording company. It does a damn good job of introducing you to music you actually *like*. Toss in something you already enjoy, RIAA affiliated or not, and it will start playing similar music. Note the stuff you like, and give it a pass through riaaradar. While it's not intentionally aiming for indie/non-RIAA music, it's definitely a solid way to get started. And from what I've found, it really can branch out into the fringes a bit.
That being said, this is obviously just my personal experience. It's entirely possible that my particular style of music (Metal & Industrial) has a better non-RIAA showing on Pandora. So I guess your mileage may vary.
This is not to say that OSS does it much better, although Red Hat and FreeBSD (two other OSs we use) nailed the patch months ago.
Actually, the Java that RedHat uses is based on gnu libraries that have their own tracking of DST. And the patch for that came out....Monday. Yes, this last Monday. Six days before the changeover.
Watchguard released a patch for their firewall product *yesterday*. And I see Sun just posted a big red warning on their Java Update page *today* warning about how it breaks backwards compatibility. EVERYONE is handling this poorly, and Microsoft is nowhere near the worst of the pack.
Nonetheless, I've spent this entire week thanking $DIETY that I'm not the Exchange Admin.
But is there any proof that the universe is strectching itself and not simply just getting larger without having to stretch.
From what I recall of my jaunts into physics, the evidence for this is 'redshift'. That is basically just the Doppler Effect occuring in EM/light Waves. Since every point in space is moving away from each other, the EM waves get stretched out a bit. Thus, giving all light longer wavelength. (ie: More 'red')
If you're having a hard time visualizing this, imagine our 3 dimensional universe as the surface of a balloon. (2D, obviously) Now, blow more air into the balloon. Now the surface area of the balloon is larger than it was. Where did the extra 'space' on that 2D surface come from? Basically, everywhere. Now, if you took a step on that ballon as it was expanding, your feet would be further apart than on usual solid gound. Once you put your foot down at a normal stride's distance, the ground between your feet would have expanded, giving you a longer step. The same concept works for waves.
Thanks a bunch for posting that. Before your post, the grandparent's comments seemed like the most retarded, irrational thing I've ever heard. While your rephrasing did nothing for the idiocy of the position, at least now there's a chain of logic. Well, chain of unfounded assumptions. You know what I mean.
Regardless, you're very right. It's important to understand the other side's opinion. Thanks for helping me do that.
--LordPixie
I gleefully play games at 1600x1200. But this is obviously after a significant and expensive hardware upgrade. And it's going out to a 21" LCD with 1600x1200 as its native resolution.
That being said, most people probably DON'T play like that. Cranking up resolution is extremely taxing on most of your resources. If you're working on a budget, dropping the resolution lets you keep all the other eyecandy effects, and save some cash in hardware. If you've got a decent stockpile of money to blow on gaming equipment, then you can hit those higher resolutions.
...a Fortune 500 CEO and Slashdot reader...what are the chances of that being true?
Well, he doesn't seem to have a sufficient grasp of the English language to use capitalization correctly. What's more, he was too cowardly to sign his name and take credit for going against the status quo.
How exactly did you write a post on ongoing plotlines in a TV series, and fail to mention Babylon 5 ? Especially given the SciFi context ! B5 unquestionably led the way with the concept of one gigantic story arc, to the point where its creator was repeatedly told that it just wouldn't work.
I sense a need for my Mad Googling Skills. LordPixie, to the rescue !!
After wasting the last 15 minutes of my life. (OK. Fine. My employer's time/money.) I have determined that this little story is not apocryphal bullshit !
For example, see this little site. It not only covers the anecdote you mentioned, but also includes a link to a (now defunct) CNN article. Further references can be found by simply googling for Koskinen "three computers".
I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that LordPixie usually charges for the services of his Madcap Googling Skills. This time was free. =)
There's TV and movie nominations as well. So feel free to discuss those too. =)
In the "Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form" (TV) category, the nominations were the pilot of Lost, two Angel episodes, as well as ones from Battlestar Galactica & StarGate SG-1. The SG-1 episode was the two parter "Heroes", which I for one loved immensely. The BSG nomination was for their first episode, "33". Definitely good, but I'm saddened at the lack of love for the BSG miniseries.
This is kind of like shutting down your Help Desk phones and then reporting the technical support issues are way down.
On a completely unrelated tangent...that's not a bad idea !
Back on track, I would like to point out that the complaint data was collected by the DoJ. I don't know about anyone else, but if I had a case of the PATRIOT ACT being abused, I probably wouldn't go file a complaint with the people that did the abusing. I may just be a tad too paranoid. But then again, wouldn't anyone on the receiving end of that sort of thing ?
[Parent]No, it only proves that slashdot includes three intelligent non-zealots. Okay, and the 12 people that modded them to 5. So I'll give you 15.
Hey now, I've got excellent Karma. So it only took three people to mod me to +5. Now all we need is Mary McDonnell to decrement the whiteboard to 14...
[Grand Parent]This may not have been true when you posted your comment - but at the moment, I see three separate, top-level, +5 comments reminding us that correlation does not imply causation, one of which invokes the Latin term for the fallacy involved.
So it seems that the pessimism is unwarranted:-).
Indeed, there are several such people. However, they all did it after my post. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. They only posted as much because *I* convinced them !*
In all seriousness, this was obviously a bad example, and I jumped the gun. My bad. However, I think the overall point still stands. The general spirit of Slashdot ("Slashgeist" ?) often applies different rules of logic depending on who the players are. There's just a very strong disposition with regards to Microsoft/Linux/Apple/Real Player/etc that seems to overwhelm objectivity.
Welcome to Slashdot. Where correlation does not mean causality for things like piracy, but does for things like legislation inducing spam. The trick is to remember that the evidence supports your position, and then figure out why.
Are you forwarding BitTorrent ports through your firewall/gateway/PAT ? It sounds like you're getting dropped off other clients' upload lists because their connect requests aren't getting through.
And speaking of download speeds...FilePlanet subscribers have incredibly fast speeds. I, uhh..."borrow" my friend's account, and I can consistently get 300-400Kbps, with zero wait time. The limiting factor is literally the size of my pipe to the Internet.
Does it tag.wav files? If so, and the program says they're infringing files, which leads someone to delete them, Windows might not be too happy about that...
Funny, I just deleted all those tagged files. And I haven't heard any complaints from Windows. Not a peep, in fact !
Slashdot Mirror
Awesome! Thanks for the advice. And great stories to boot!
--LordPixie
If you check back to this thread, I've got some random questions for you.
I'm an avid recreational scuba diver, and have been fascinated by the few times I've actually come across a cephalopod underwater. But they're amazingly difficult for a novice to spot. I've even had difficulty pointing them out to other divers within an arm's length of them.
Do you have any advice for actually seeing one of these buggers, when they're trying their best to look like a hunk of coral? Keeping an eye out for midden is obviously useful, but still seems insufficient for one of my skill. Did your polarized lenses make it any easier to pick out a camouflaged octopus? Would yanking the IR filter off a digital camera result in them showing up differently in the viewscreen? Anything else, technological or otherwise, that might help?
Regardless, excellent posts on this article. Really fascinating stuff. You should really have some journal entries!
--LordPixie
Just an FYI: Ars Technica has done exactly that with all of its reviews. No more numbers. (I believe they got some ridicule for assigning an infamous "7" to most reviews) I think it's definitely a move for the better.
That being said, I've seen several people bitch about the lack of a rating number on the forums. So you can't please everyone...
--LordPixie
Why on earth has no one mentioned Pandora? There's a surprising amount of music on there that isn't part of a big name recording company. It does a damn good job of introducing you to music you actually *like*. Toss in something you already enjoy, RIAA affiliated or not, and it will start playing similar music. Note the stuff you like, and give it a pass through riaaradar. While it's not intentionally aiming for indie/non-RIAA music, it's definitely a solid way to get started. And from what I've found, it really can branch out into the fringes a bit.
That being said, this is obviously just my personal experience. It's entirely possible that my particular style of music (Metal & Industrial) has a better non-RIAA showing on Pandora. So I guess your mileage may vary.
--LordPixie
This is not to say that OSS does it much better, although Red Hat and FreeBSD (two other OSs we use) nailed the patch months ago.
Actually, the Java that RedHat uses is based on gnu libraries that have their own tracking of DST. And the patch for that came out....Monday. Yes, this last Monday. Six days before the changeover.
Watchguard released a patch for their firewall product *yesterday*. And I see Sun just posted a big red warning on their Java Update page *today* warning about how it breaks backwards compatibility. EVERYONE is handling this poorly, and Microsoft is nowhere near the worst of the pack.
Nonetheless, I've spent this entire week thanking $DIETY that I'm not the Exchange Admin.
--LordPixie
I wonder how long until some RIAA exec is found dead with massive radiation poisoning or something of that effect?
Too long. No matter the answer, it's Too. Fucking. Long.
--LordPixie
But is there any proof that the universe is strectching itself and not simply just getting larger without having to stretch.
From what I recall of my jaunts into physics, the evidence for this is 'redshift'. That is basically just the Doppler Effect occuring in EM/light Waves. Since every point in space is moving away from each other, the EM waves get stretched out a bit. Thus, giving all light longer wavelength. (ie: More 'red')
If you're having a hard time visualizing this, imagine our 3 dimensional universe as the surface of a balloon. (2D, obviously) Now, blow more air into the balloon. Now the surface area of the balloon is larger than it was. Where did the extra 'space' on that 2D surface come from? Basically, everywhere. Now, if you took a step on that ballon as it was expanding, your feet would be further apart than on usual solid gound. Once you put your foot down at a normal stride's distance, the ground between your feet would have expanded, giving you a longer step. The same concept works for waves.
--LordPixie
...whereas most PC users are stupid enough to think that using a complicated computer somehow makes you the smart ones, huh?
Dude, you misspelled Linux
--LordPixie
Thanks a bunch for posting that. Before your post, the grandparent's comments seemed like the most retarded, irrational thing I've ever heard. While your rephrasing did nothing for the idiocy of the position, at least now there's a chain of logic. Well, chain of unfounded assumptions. You know what I mean. Regardless, you're very right. It's important to understand the other side's opinion. Thanks for helping me do that. --LordPixie
I gleefully play games at 1600x1200. But this is obviously after a significant and expensive hardware upgrade. And it's going out to a 21" LCD with 1600x1200 as its native resolution.
That being said, most people probably DON'T play like that. Cranking up resolution is extremely taxing on most of your resources. If you're working on a budget, dropping the resolution lets you keep all the other eyecandy effects, and save some cash in hardware. If you've got a decent stockpile of money to blow on gaming equipment, then you can hit those higher resolutions.
--LordPixie
Wow. I laughed my ass off at that one. It was a horribly joke, and morally wrong to make. You're going to hell, and so am I.
But damn...that's what makes that post so funny.
--LordPixie
Well, he doesn't seem to have a sufficient grasp of the English language to use capitalization correctly. What's more, he was too cowardly to sign his name and take credit for going against the status quo.
Sooo...the odds are pretty good ?
--LordPixie
p.s. I'm being facetious !
Damnit, I just ran out of mod points. Otherwise you would have earned some right there. Very nicely done !
--LordPixie
How exactly did you write a post on ongoing plotlines in a TV series, and fail to mention Babylon 5 ? Especially given the SciFi context ! B5 unquestionably led the way with the concept of one gigantic story arc, to the point where its creator was repeatedly told that it just wouldn't work.
--LordPixie
I wish I had a link,
I sense a need for my Mad Googling Skills. LordPixie, to the rescue !!
After wasting the last 15 minutes of my life. (OK. Fine. My employer's time/money.) I have determined that this little story is not apocryphal bullshit !
For example, see this little site. It not only covers the anecdote you mentioned, but also includes a link to a (now defunct) CNN article. Further references can be found by simply googling for Koskinen "three computers".
I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that LordPixie usually charges for the services of his Madcap Googling Skills. This time was free. =)
--LordPixie
Incremental costs of running them must be a bargain. Great to see how well these things were made.
One can basically say the same about the Voyager probes. But that doesn't seem to have saved them from being eyed for downsizing.
--LordPixie
> produces a Greater Than symbol (>)
< produces a Less Than symbol. (<)
And I'll be rescinding your geek card now. Thank you.
--LordPixie
There's TV and movie nominations as well. So feel free to discuss those too. =)
In the "Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form" (TV) category, the nominations were the pilot of Lost, two Angel episodes, as well as ones from Battlestar Galactica & StarGate SG-1. The SG-1 episode was the two parter "Heroes", which I for one loved immensely. The BSG nomination was for their first episode, "33". Definitely good, but I'm saddened at the lack of love for the BSG miniseries.
--LordPixie
This is kind of like shutting down your Help Desk phones and then reporting the technical support issues are way down.
On a completely unrelated tangent...that's not a bad idea !
Back on track, I would like to point out that the complaint data was collected by the DoJ. I don't know about anyone else, but if I had a case of the PATRIOT ACT being abused, I probably wouldn't go file a complaint with the people that did the abusing. I may just be a tad too paranoid. But then again, wouldn't anyone on the receiving end of that sort of thing ?
--LordPixie
It's not the size of a msn's cache that matters, but how they use it...
--LordPixie
[Parent]No, it only proves that slashdot includes three intelligent non-zealots. Okay, and the 12 people that modded them to 5. So I'll give you 15.
:-).
Hey now, I've got excellent Karma. So it only took three people to mod me to +5. Now all we need is Mary McDonnell to decrement the whiteboard to 14...
[Grand Parent]This may not have been true when you posted your comment - but at the moment, I see three separate, top-level, +5 comments reminding us that correlation does not imply causation, one of which invokes the Latin term for the fallacy involved.
So it seems that the pessimism is unwarranted
Indeed, there are several such people. However, they all did it after my post. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. They only posted as much because *I* convinced them !*
In all seriousness, this was obviously a bad example, and I jumped the gun. My bad. However, I think the overall point still stands. The general spirit of Slashdot ("Slashgeist" ?) often applies different rules of logic depending on who the players are. There's just a very strong disposition with regards to Microsoft/Linux/Apple/Real Player/etc that seems to overwhelm objectivity.
--LordPixie
* Yes, it's a joke.
Hah ! I'm honored. Thank you !
--LordPixie
Welcome to Slashdot. Where correlation does not mean causality for things like piracy, but does for things like legislation inducing spam. The trick is to remember that the evidence supports your position, and then figure out why.
--LordPixie
Are you forwarding BitTorrent ports through your firewall/gateway/PAT ? It sounds like you're getting dropped off other clients' upload lists because their connect requests aren't getting through.
And speaking of download speeds...FilePlanet subscribers have incredibly fast speeds. I, uhh..."borrow" my friend's account, and I can consistently get 300-400Kbps, with zero wait time. The limiting factor is literally the size of my pipe to the Internet.
--LordPixie
Does it tag .wav files? If so, and the program says they're infringing files, which leads someone to delete them, Windows might not be too happy about that...
Funny, I just deleted all those tagged files. And I haven't heard any complaints from Windows. Not a peep, in fact !
--LordPixie