Hear, hear. Reminds me of the time a "discussion" was started over the ending of the Sopranos. It's hard to say it without sounding like a dick, but someone has to do it: maybe editors should stick to stories relevant to the interests of the site (you know, "news for nerds, stuff that matters"), instead of stories/discussions that interests them.
I'm know that i'm not alone in not giving a shit about Harry Potter, and the thing is, a lot of/. readers might be interested, but it's completely outside the scope of the site. When i see stuff like this it ends up feeling like the site is a blog owned by the moderators and nothing more. Sorry, but it's true.
A search warrant makes it legal, it doesn't make it right. If they really had a probable cause (or cause:) and a search warrant you could seize and inspect the PC directly.
Heh, wrong expresion (i'm Argentinian, down in South America)... guess it should've been "from the other side of the pond and Mexico":). But yes, nasty stuff in England aswell. I wish that the 1984 comparison one is so bound to make in this case wasn't so close to reality.
The barrier between man and machine is becoming much narrower. And that is a good thing. At the far end of the spectrum people have long been getting artificial hearing enhancers, and now we are starting on intelligent artificial eyes and limbs. People with epilepsy are getting electronics embedded in their brains. At the nearer end of the spectrum, a large percentage of the population now carries a small computer with them everywhere (their cell phone). The man/machine split is disappearing.
Fuck that. Sorry, but you guys (US citizens) should start to become really concerned about your government violating personal, constitutional-granted rights in order to further the fight against "terrorism". This issue is real NOW, and, from what we read here on the other side of the pond, it's becoming increasingly out of control. Who cares about future artificial limbs when these people decide it's ok to install malware in your PC so they can eavesdrop private, personal files and communications, today?
Mining your data to generate targeted ads is how GMail works.
Yes, and GMail is a "free" web service. Long shot from a boxed operating system. If you want to compare it to something, do it to Windows Live Messenger, which annoys constantly with small ads in its main window.
Then again, MS just filled a patent. People are reading too much into this.
When I was younger my best tactic for fixing a computer issue was to format. As I got older I realized that solution is impractical.
Yeah, i guess that's why products like this aren't popular at all with Windows users. Half of our office computers at work had Windows reinstalled atleast once, from scratch. This is all too common with Windows systems, in my experience.
I know that/. is renowed for it's anti-Windows slant, but sheeze, if it's broken, fix it. An OS that requires a full disc image to get working again every once in a while has a problem.
KU is a game industry term, this is a story about the game industry, stop complaining about our vernacular.
Um, no. SKU is NOT a game industry term, it's a term used internally by any industry that offers products and/or services to customers. Saying that, and i quote, "at which point the only SKU remaining in the states will be the $599 80GB + Motorstorm bundle", is as retarded as saying that after selling some books you're left with only one ISBN. You are left with a stock of only one product, which happens to be identified internally by its SKU. I agree with the parent poster, using that acronym has no use in a/. story.
"From a mathematical standpoint we cannot speak of a theoretically absolute unsolvability of a cryptogram, but due to the special procedures performed by the Enigma machine, the solvability is so far removed from practical possibility that the cipher system of the machine, when the distribution of keys is correctly handled, must be regarded as virtually incapable of solution."
That's pretty much true, you know. IIRC, in the later days of WWII Enigma mesages were decyphered rather quicky because operators weren't working key schedules as they should. Some tidbits here. Still, calling a cyper system "unsolvable" is just asking to be made a fool:)
This can be proven mathematically, much like mathematics can prove there is no possible solution to certain types of problems. At base level, there has to be some assumption. In mathematics, the well ordering principle is one such assumptions...
I hate to play Devil's advocate here, but one has to be careful with physics and maths. All our knowledge of physics is based on the developing of models; the results of mathematical operation on these are exact and well defined, but only as accurate as the model that describes the physical process. Remember that before the developement of quantum physics, for example, a lot of physicist really thought that our knowledge of the universe was complete - that is, that Newtonian mechanics covered every single possible interaction, only because no one observed anything that contradicted it.
First, I suppose we have to cite the existence of this quantity called energy.
Now, the physics crowd of/. will jump at my jugular here, but energy is another mathematical construction. Energy, in its core, is defined as work per unit of time, with work (for a force) being defined by W = F x D. That energy is a massively useful concept is not something that i'm about to discuss, but it all boils down to the same Newtonian force interactions we're based on from the start. It just simplifies concepts and calculations - same with fields, for example. A charged particle doesn't "spawn" a field, per se, but it's an useful concept that allows us to work on force interactions when another charged particle comes into play. Chemical energy, thermodynamics, same deal - all based on the very same model which describes physical interactions.
What i'm trying to say is that one has to be very careful when demonstrating things mathematically. The only thing maths can probe beyond a shadow of a doubt is math problems; this doesn't mean that your conclusions are bad, but it does mean that they might very well be not precise, or even incomplete.
As for the free energy claims, i always take them with loads of scepticisim. I'd love to see some truth to this claims, to be honest, but incredible claims need conclusive proof. I'm open minded, just not gullible.
Same here. The guy might seem like a bit of an asshole sometimes, but he surely knows what he's talking about. Some of the things he points out are plain unbelievable:
Basically the MMU simply does not operate as specified/implimented in previous generations of x86 hardware. It is not just buggy, but Intel has gone further and defined "new ways to handle page tables" (see page 58).
Some of these bugs are along the lines of "buffer overflow"; where a write-protect or non-execute bit for a page table entry is ignored. Others are floating point instruction non-coherencies, or memory corruptions -- outside of the range of permitted writing for the process -- running common instruction sequences.
It will be interesting to see what Intel has to say about this.
Nothing really - it's not a completely accurate description of the GPL, but it was never intended to be. In fact, like you, i think it's a darn good layman explanation.
Why do we have editors?
Hey, someone has to dupe this story next Wednesday!
Google for 'SSC Service Utility' for Epson printers. This allows you reset ink levels on cartridges using the printer, and can also reset the 'protection counter' on Epsons, which once at a certain level prevents you from using the printer until it has been serviced.
Am i the only one pissed beyond comprehension with Epson's policy of locking their printers after a number of pages? This is done, theoretically, so users take the printer to be serviced, where a little sponge (used to clean the printing heads) is replaced. The thing is that this isn't stated by the monitor utility, which just says someting like "Unknown printer error - can't continue. Please take the printer to an authorized service center". It's enfuriating, specially considering that anyone with a screwdriver and 20 minutes to spare can clean the sponge or replace it altogheter.
Products should not be sold based on how valuable it is TO YOU, but how valuable it is on its own merit. Product price should not be allowed to be based on how much money you have to spend, that does not affect the actual value of your product.
No, sorry. The price is set by how much the consumer is willing to pay for the product, because products are NOT not inherently valuble. The trick is finding a balance between manufacture cost and sell price.
The only thing that keeps this practice in check normally is law of supply and demand, but with software you have a legally supported monopoly so that doesn't help.
Indeed, this is a problem with monopolies, because what makes this mechanism work is indeed the law of supply and demand - that is, if you price something too expensive there might very well be someone willing to sell it for less. This is the reason most countries have antitrust laws in one way or another.
Ken has obviously brought much shame and dishonor to his family with the release of the play station three. Clearly, an honorable suicide is the only way to remedy this situation.
Mods on crack! This is a troll? Sheeze, i don't know who this guy is but he owes me a new keyboard.
I'm getting increasingly concerned about ads disguised as stories here.
Seriously guys, cellphones? Yeah, they're cute, with "big" cameras, WiFi and oodles of memory. You'll have this available in less than 6 months from other vendors and in a couple of years as entry level devices for $50. I mean, i can understand the geek factor of the iPhone, but this is yet another cell. Feature packed, but so what?
Holy cow, no it can't! Not only isn't it going nearly fast enough, but the vast majority of that delta-V came from a conventional rocket.
Not only that, scramjets need an additional propulsion system in order to reach working speeds. Usually, yes, conventional rockets are used. This is one of the major drawbacks in these type of designs.
There's a very good article in Wikipedia (here) regarding this very issue, including some very good waveform images and analysis - both the comparison of a 1981 album and its' 2005 re-release, and the waveform of an Oasis single are particularly telling.
Slashdot Mirror
Harry potter discussion on my Slashdot?
/. readers might be interested, but it's completely outside the scope of the site. When i see stuff like this it ends up feeling like the site is a blog owned by the moderators and nothing more. Sorry, but it's true.
Hear, hear. Reminds me of the time a "discussion" was started over the ending of the Sopranos. It's hard to say it without sounding like a dick, but someone has to do it: maybe editors should stick to stories relevant to the interests of the site (you know, "news for nerds, stuff that matters"), instead of stories/discussions that interests them.
I'm know that i'm not alone in not giving a shit about Harry Potter, and the thing is, a lot of
A search warrant makes it legal, it doesn't make it right. If they really had a probable cause (or cause :) and a search warrant you could seize and inspect the PC directly.
Heh, wrong expresion (i'm Argentinian, down in South America)... guess it should've been "from the other side of the pond and Mexico" :). But yes, nasty stuff in England aswell. I wish that the 1984 comparison one is so bound to make in this case wasn't so close to reality.
The barrier between man and machine is becoming much narrower. And that is a good thing. At the far end of the spectrum people have long been getting artificial hearing enhancers, and now we are starting on intelligent artificial eyes and limbs. People with epilepsy are getting electronics embedded in their brains. At the nearer end of the spectrum, a large percentage of the population now carries a small computer with them everywhere (their cell phone). The man/machine split is disappearing.
Fuck that. Sorry, but you guys (US citizens) should start to become really concerned about your government violating personal, constitutional-granted rights in order to further the fight against "terrorism". This issue is real NOW, and, from what we read here on the other side of the pond, it's becoming increasingly out of control. Who cares about future artificial limbs when these people decide it's ok to install malware in your PC so they can eavesdrop private, personal files and communications, today?
Mining your data to generate targeted ads is how GMail works.
Yes, and GMail is a "free" web service. Long shot from a boxed operating system. If you want to compare it to something, do it to Windows Live Messenger, which annoys constantly with small ads in its main window.
Then again, MS just filled a patent. People are reading too much into this.
When I was younger my best tactic for fixing a computer issue was to format. As I got older I realized that solution is impractical.
/. is renowed for it's anti-Windows slant, but sheeze, if it's broken, fix it. An OS that requires a full disc image to get working again every once in a while has a problem.
Yeah, i guess that's why products like this aren't popular at all with Windows users. Half of our office computers at work had Windows reinstalled atleast once, from scratch. This is all too common with Windows systems, in my experience.
I know that
KU is a game industry term, this is a story about the game industry, stop complaining about our vernacular.
/. story.
Um, no. SKU is NOT a game industry term, it's a term used internally by any industry that offers products and/or services to customers. Saying that, and i quote, "at which point the only SKU remaining in the states will be the $599 80GB + Motorstorm bundle", is as retarded as saying that after selling some books you're left with only one ISBN. You are left with a stock of only one product, which happens to be identified internally by its SKU. I agree with the parent poster, using that acronym has no use in a
"From a mathematical standpoint we cannot speak of a theoretically absolute unsolvability of a cryptogram, but due to the special procedures performed by the Enigma machine, the solvability is so far removed from practical possibility that the cipher system of the machine, when the distribution of keys is correctly handled, must be regarded as virtually incapable of solution."
:)
That's pretty much true, you know. IIRC, in the later days of WWII Enigma mesages were decyphered rather quicky because operators weren't working key schedules as they should. Some tidbits here. Still, calling a cyper system "unsolvable" is just asking to be made a fool
Energy, in its core, is defined as work per unit of time
Woops, brain fart! Make that E = delta W.
This can be proven mathematically, much like mathematics can prove there is no possible solution to certain types of problems. At base level, there has to be some assumption. In mathematics, the well ordering principle is one such assumptions...
/. will jump at my jugular here, but energy is another mathematical construction. Energy, in its core, is defined as work per unit of time, with work (for a force) being defined by W = F x D. That energy is a massively useful concept is not something that i'm about to discuss, but it all boils down to the same Newtonian force interactions we're based on from the start. It just simplifies concepts and calculations - same with fields, for example. A charged particle doesn't "spawn" a field, per se, but it's an useful concept that allows us to work on force interactions when another charged particle comes into play. Chemical energy, thermodynamics, same deal - all based on the very same model which describes physical interactions.
I hate to play Devil's advocate here, but one has to be careful with physics and maths. All our knowledge of physics is based on the developing of models; the results of mathematical operation on these are exact and well defined, but only as accurate as the model that describes the physical process. Remember that before the developement of quantum physics, for example, a lot of physicist really thought that our knowledge of the universe was complete - that is, that Newtonian mechanics covered every single possible interaction, only because no one observed anything that contradicted it.
First, I suppose we have to cite the existence of this quantity called energy.
Now, the physics crowd of
What i'm trying to say is that one has to be very careful when demonstrating things mathematically. The only thing maths can probe beyond a shadow of a doubt is math problems; this doesn't mean that your conclusions are bad, but it does mean that they might very well be not precise, or even incomplete.
As for the free energy claims, i always take them with loads of scepticisim. I'd love to see some truth to this claims, to be honest, but incredible claims need conclusive proof. I'm open minded, just not gullible.
Still, I think the point stand: Hollywood needs to give out free women at movies.
Oh, hush. You had me at "still".
I wonder what other piece of childhood nostalgia they'll ruin before the year's over?
I think the guys at Penny Arcade have an idea or two...
Yeah, let's go for gameplay patents! There're too many Tetris clones on the wild as it is!
Same here. The guy might seem like a bit of an asshole sometimes, but he surely knows what he's talking about. Some of the things he points out are plain unbelievable:
Basically the MMU simply does not operate as specified/implimented in previous generations of x86 hardware. It is not just buggy, but Intel has gone further and defined "new ways to handle page tables" (see page 58).
Some of these bugs are along the lines of "buffer overflow"; where a write-protect or non-execute bit for a page table entry is ignored. Others are floating point instruction non-coherencies, or memory corruptions -- outside of the range of permitted writing for the process -- running common instruction sequences.
It will be interesting to see what Intel has to say about this.
What is so wrong, again?
Nothing really - it's not a completely accurate description of the GPL, but it was never intended to be. In fact, like you, i think it's a darn good layman explanation.
Why do we have editors?
Hey, someone has to dupe this story next Wednesday!
Google for 'SSC Service Utility' for Epson printers. This allows you reset ink levels on cartridges using the printer, and can also reset the 'protection counter' on Epsons, which once at a certain level prevents you from using the printer until it has been serviced.
Am i the only one pissed beyond comprehension with Epson's policy of locking their printers after a number of pages? This is done, theoretically, so users take the printer to be serviced, where a little sponge (used to clean the printing heads) is replaced. The thing is that this isn't stated by the monitor utility, which just says someting like "Unknown printer error - can't continue. Please take the printer to an authorized service center". It's enfuriating, specially considering that anyone with a screwdriver and 20 minutes to spare can clean the sponge or replace it altogheter.
Products should not be sold based on how valuable it is TO YOU, but how valuable it is on its own merit. Product price should not be allowed to be based on how much money you have to spend, that does not affect the actual value of your product.
No, sorry. The price is set by how much the consumer is willing to pay for the product, because products are NOT not inherently valuble. The trick is finding a balance between manufacture cost and sell price.
The only thing that keeps this practice in check normally is law of supply and demand, but with software you have a legally supported monopoly so that doesn't help.
Indeed, this is a problem with monopolies, because what makes this mechanism work is indeed the law of supply and demand - that is, if you price something too expensive there might very well be someone willing to sell it for less. This is the reason most countries have antitrust laws in one way or another.
Ken has obviously brought much shame and dishonor to his family with the release of the play station three.
Clearly, an honorable suicide is the only way to remedy this situation.
Mods on crack! This is a troll? Sheeze, i don't know who this guy is but he owes me a new keyboard.
Yup, my bad. I had to re-submit the story in a rush and that one slipped by.
I'm getting increasingly concerned about ads disguised as stories here.
Seriously guys, cellphones? Yeah, they're cute, with "big" cameras, WiFi and oodles of memory. You'll have this available in less than 6 months from other vendors and in a couple of years as entry level devices for $50. I mean, i can understand the geek factor of the iPhone, but this is yet another cell. Feature packed, but so what?
Holy cow, no it can't! Not only isn't it going nearly fast enough, but the vast majority of that delta-V came from a conventional rocket.
Not only that, scramjets need an additional propulsion system in order to reach working speeds. Usually, yes, conventional rockets are used. This is one of the major drawbacks in these type of designs.
This sums it up better than i ever could.
That makes sense. Yay for software patents!
I find ironic that the most popular online *game* in the world is so readily compared to work.
I find it just plain sad. Most MMOG players today need to see a shrink as far as i'm concerned.
There's a very good article in Wikipedia (here) regarding this very issue, including some very good waveform images and analysis - both the comparison of a 1981 album and its' 2005 re-release, and the waveform of an Oasis single are particularly telling.