The RSS reader is something I use regularly, and have something like 30 feeds subscribed to including the one here on Slashdot. It is way easier (much faster) to skim through the RSS feeds for headlines, rather than going to the website itself. But pageviews etc, is what count these days I guess. Screw the user's time and any data caps.
The problem is that for Cameron to change his mind on trying to ban strong encryption, would imply that he was somehow wrong to try and ban it in the first place. This of course will not happen. Politicians HATE it when they are shown to be wrong.
A bit of heated rhetoric mentioning Paedophiles, Terrorists and Tor will put paid to this report, and GCHQ will continue on their merry way treating the entire population as enemies/criminals.
I haven't seen what you want on this site, but then I haven't been looking. There is a HUGE range of different areas there, so spend a bit of time having a look. http://www.instructables.com/
Just clicked on the Metamod link, and foom. No Slashdot. Aaargh. I've broken Slashdot, boy am I going to be in trouble now. The first time I have seen/. go bye byes for a very long time though. Must be phase of the moon or something. You just don't realise how much you are used to something being there until it suddenly isn't.
was the first game I ever played on computer. DEC-20 mainframe with a teletype as output. It too a full minute to reprint the board after each move. With 60 moves per game it took a while to finish a game... 1979 it was. I still have a soft spot for reversi. Found a fun clone on a Japanese game site a while back which I play when I feel the need for a bit of distraction.
this defence would not work. In the UK the law is such that the authorities do not care where the porn came from. The fact that it is on your machine means that you are in possession of it, and therefore guilty.
End of story. No excuses. No counter arguments allowed.
Go directly to Jail, do not pass go.
Justice? Pfft. Missing, presumed dead, and has been for a while now.
that this sort of bullshit would be in any way acceptable would be if the book was free for the asking. Ads (for other books, or closely related areas) at the end of the book is entirely acceptable. Solid pages of ads for [whatever] in the middle of the text? And you expect me to pay for it? What substances are you abusing? Note to Amazon. The printed page != web pages. The world is covered in far too fucking many adverts as it is.
.. to become a rigorous engineering discipline. It's not quite there yet. I am not convinced that it ever will be. Writing software is a creative process, arguably even an artistic one. Well understood rules can be followed, provably correct algorithms applied, formal design methods used, but it is still a human creative process, and as such, I suspect inherently non-rigorous. Computer Science compared to Software Engineering? Think aeronautics. The science of aeronautics ponders the laws of aerodynamics and the laws of flight. Engineering aeronautics is all about building the damn aircraft.
No, it is no fun turning the corner and coming muzzle to muzzle with someone who is on quad damage, but on the other hand, it is oh so satisfying to then splatter them with the good old shotgun.
The power ups and weapons are all part of the game. They do have limited shots and durations after all. The game. Ah. The highly addictive game. That I have spent many, many hours playing. That I am feeling an urge to log on to right now. (twitch, twitch.) It is seriously cutting into my/. time, dammit. I must work towards my 25K frags award. (gibber, gibber. twitch, twitch.) Flags to capture. Opponents to fry. Or splash. Or perforate. (gibber, gibber. twitch, twitch. mumble, mumble)
'Some people,' the patent application observes, 'have taken it upon themselves to remove the sensor from the special pocket of the [iPod-linked] Nike+ shoe and place it at inappropriate locations (shoelaces, for example) or place it on non-Nike+ model shoes.'"
So?
As has been observed on Slashdot many times in the past, if I have bought [whatever], I can do whatever the hell I want with it.
So I feel the urgent need to own a pair of iPod compatible sneakers, and duly buy a pair. I can now;
Paint them purple.
Shred them with a razor blade.
Change the laces.
Remove a sensor to see what it is and what fun I can have with it.
Apparently not. Apple seem to think that they have some say on what I can do with my shoes. What are they smoking? DRM'd sneakers. FFS, give me a break.
While this topic is about technology, this is nonetheless an interesting article, concerning her attitude to the environment, corruption and more; Go here.
I don't come from the US, but the thought that she could quite easily become President, well, the thought is a scary one.
I don't think the Ita are bad necessarily. They are practical rather than purely theoretical as you say. Although I would suggest that they do make new things, based on the theories of the Avout, but not do any theory. The Avout do the theory, and the Ita implement it. Or that is my take on it. They are an important part of the functioning of the Concents.
Ita are cooler than Avout, I agree, apart from those from the Ringing Vale of course. They have to be the coolest.
I have had been lucky enough to have read a publishers proof of Anathem. And am currently re-reading it. I have read all of his books, from Zodiac to the System of the World. Cryptonomicon being my favourite.
Anathem is different. It is not Snow Crash or Diamond Age, although it does feature some themes from both and explores ideas raised there. It is not historic like The System of the World trilogy.
It is another thick book, some 935 pages including 40-odd pages of glossary, timelines, and math theorems called Calca.
There are new words. Lots of new words. 19 pages of them in the glossary. Initially this got in the way of the story, but once you got used to seeing them, it was fine. Now that I am re-reading it, I am enjoying it rather more.
What it it about? How do you do justice to an almost 1000 page novel in a couple of paragraphs?
Have you heard of the 10,000 year clock project? Anathem is based around the idea that these clocks were built, and run by an order of mathematicians, scientists, historians, philosophers etc with the aim of protecting knowledge whenever civilisation broke down, and have been doing so more or less continuously for several thousand years. The story feature Fraa Erasmas, one of the residents of one of these institutions and his tribulations and adventures when aliens visit the planet. Do not think of bugeyed aliens in faster than light starships though. This is not that sort of SF. In fact, some of the aliens are from Earth.
Obviously there is much more to it than that, but I am not even going to attempt a précis here.
Buy it. Read it. It is worth it.
For those of you who didn't like the Baroque cycle because you thought it was too long, bad news. Anathem is a long book, and does not rush things. There is a lot of background to set up and explain, being set on another planet and all, but it absolutely is worth it.
Summary. Although a have a proof copy, I will be buying a hardback copy when it comes out next month, and it will go alongside my hardback Baroque Cycle. A worth addition to my library.
Slashdot is full of Ita. Slines with jeejahs are everywhere, unfortunately. Read the book, you will agree with me on this.
IBM and water cooling of chips is not really new. I remember reading of some research they did back in the 80's when they etched micro channels on the back of processor chips, and forced water through them. IIRC, they reckoned they could eventually dissipate almost 1KW per square centimeter.
You want to drive bipolar chips fast, you apply more power. And end up with a piece of silicon dissipating way more heat per unit area than an electric fire. Mind you, so do Athlons.
I tend to prefer Spider Solitaire or Freecell, but do play the standard game every so often. Sad sod that I am, I also keep track of my high scores.
Solitaire, draw one card, standard scoring.
Top 5 scores.
1) 9294 time 81
2) 9007 time 84
3) 8909 time 85
4) 8819 time 86
5) 8814 time 86
For those who prefer minesweeper, there is a variant based on a hexagonal grid called (surprisingly) Hexsweeper. A cell could in fact be surrounded by 6 mines. To save you the trouble of Googling Hexsweeper, here is a page you can get the zip file from. Click. Is is so much more fun than minesweeper.
I use a striped pair of 36GB Raptors for my system disk. (Data disk is 3 drive RAID 5) Speed is great, but the little brutes do need active cooling, and are anything but quiet. Maybe it is the pair of them doing synchronous seeks that make them so noisy, who knows? They are the noisiest disks I have used since a pair of 250MB Connors about 15 years ago.
Happy with them? Oh hell yes.
Next computer will have the same setup, but much more noise damping.
Minor correction. The most recent Land Speed records were set on the Black Rock Desert. Prior to this almost all of them were done on the Bonneville salt.
From the Wikipedia article;
Richard Noble,
October 4 1983, Thrust2, 633.468mph (1019.47kph) Record stood for 13 years
September 25 1997, ThrustSSC, 763.035mph (1227.99kph) Sound barrier broken - (Mach 1.016)
There is a Java based take on the old Asteroids game called Basteroids.
You can register and submit high scores, as and when, or play anonymously. This has taken up far too much of my time over the years.
There are also a bunch of other games, some Flash based, some Java, and some for Linux and Macs.
Some more games, including Pacman clone.
Absolutely worth it.
It may not be as mind-expanding as the original experience, but it will complement it. Dirk Gently rides again.
Go hit Amazon, your brain will thank you.
I have a thorough science-based education and outlook. I like to know how stuff works. Pseudo-science and other hippy new age shit makes me want to reach for a clue stick with six inch nails in it, and apply it vigorously and repeatedly to the person spouting said shit. However. I can't say that about homeopathy. It has been my experience that it works. And I can't see why. Placebo effect? Surely this is only effective when the person taking this "new treatment" expects it to work. How the hell does it work on someone like me who can't see how homeopathy could possibly work, with such ridiculously dilute solutions, water memory (give me a break), quantum entanglements (are you fucking kidding me?) ? I can't see any way, using established scientific criteria that it could work, and it bugs that it has been my experience that when I have taken homeopathic remedies in the past that it does. It could be something to do with the homeopath taking far more time than conventional doctors with each patient. This would go under placebo effect I think. See previous comments about dilutions etc. It has worked despite my skepticism that it should not work at all. This annoys me. So, faced with the apparent lack of scientific explanation of how it works, I am forced to conclude that there is something going on that is not yet understood by science. Anyone who says "I can't see how it works therefore it can't possibly work" is just being arrogant. Dawkins is guilty of this, in spades. While I applaud his skepticism and generally agree with his views, his unwavering view that if something has not been validated (if not actually invented) by western science means it is completely invalid doesn't sit well with me. He is a major sufferer of NIH-syndrome.
Note that my grudging acceptance of homeopathy is limited to stuff actually prescribed by a qualified homeopath after a consultation. The myriad of supposedly homeopathic remedies seen in health shops are quite another matter.
Slashdot Mirror
The RSS reader is something I use regularly, and have something like 30 feeds subscribed to including the one here on Slashdot. It is way easier (much faster) to skim through the RSS feeds for headlines, rather than going to the website itself. But pageviews etc, is what count these days I guess. Screw the user's time and any data caps.
Mozilla gets a downvote for this one.
Superb. Thank you Michael, that has made my day. Every day should start with a great actual LOL. Today it has for me. (big cheesy grin)
The problem is that for Cameron to change his mind on trying to ban strong encryption, would imply that he was somehow wrong to try and ban it in the first place. This of course will not happen. Politicians HATE it when they are shown to be wrong.
A bit of heated rhetoric mentioning Paedophiles, Terrorists and Tor will put paid to this report, and GCHQ will continue on their merry way treating the entire population as enemies/criminals.
I haven't seen what you want on this site, but then I haven't been looking. There is a HUGE range of different areas there, so spend a bit of time having a look.
http://www.instructables.com/
No connections to the site, just amazed at some of the stuff people come up with. For anyone interested, subscribe to their RSS feed.
Random subjects from today;
Like lava lamps? Got a spare mason jar?
http://www.instructables.com/i...
This sounds delicious;
http://www.instructables.com/i...
Always wanted to know how to make an origami crane?
http://www.instructables.com/i...
You get the idea. There is bound to be something there that will do, or can be adapted.
Just clicked on the Metamod link, and foom. No Slashdot. Aaargh. I've broken Slashdot, boy am I going to be in trouble now. /. go bye byes for a very long time though. Must be phase of the moon or something.
The first time I have seen
You just don't realise how much you are used to something being there until it suddenly isn't.
was the first game I ever played on computer.
DEC-20 mainframe with a teletype as output.
It too a full minute to reprint the board after each move. With 60 moves per game it took a while to finish a game...
1979 it was.
I still have a soft spot for reversi. Found a fun clone on a Japanese game site a while back which I play when I feel the need for a bit of distraction.
this defence would not work. In the UK the law is such that the authorities do not care where the porn came from. The fact that it is on your machine means that you are in possession of it, and therefore guilty.
End of story. No excuses. No counter arguments allowed.
Go directly to Jail, do not pass go.
Justice? Pfft. Missing, presumed dead, and has been for a while now.
Last time I looked there were over half a million players. Small compared to WoW I agree, but 500K ain't that small, surely.
that this sort of bullshit would be in any way acceptable would be if the book was free for the asking. Ads (for other books, or closely related areas) at the end of the book is entirely acceptable. Solid pages of ads for [whatever] in the middle of the text? And you expect me to pay for it? What substances are you abusing?
Note to Amazon. The printed page != web pages.
The world is covered in far too fucking many adverts as it is.
.. to become a rigorous engineering discipline. It's not quite there yet. I am not convinced that it ever will be. Writing software is a creative process, arguably even an artistic one. Well understood rules can be followed, provably correct algorithms applied, formal design methods used, but it is still a human creative process, and as such, I suspect inherently non-rigorous.
Computer Science compared to Software Engineering?
Think aeronautics. The science of aeronautics ponders the laws of aerodynamics and the laws of flight.
Engineering aeronautics is all about building the damn aircraft.
No, it is no fun turning the corner and coming muzzle to muzzle with someone who is on quad damage, but on the other hand, it is oh so satisfying to then splatter them with the good old shotgun.
The power ups and weapons are all part of the game. They do have limited shots and durations after all. /. time, dammit.
The game. Ah.
The highly addictive game.
That I have spent many, many hours playing.
That I am feeling an urge to log on to right now. (twitch, twitch.)
It is seriously cutting into my
I must work towards my 25K frags award. (gibber, gibber. twitch, twitch.)
Flags to capture. Opponents to fry. Or splash. Or perforate. (gibber, gibber. twitch, twitch. mumble, mumble)
So?
As has been observed on Slashdot many times in the past, if I have bought [whatever], I can do whatever the hell I want with it.
So I feel the urgent need to own a pair of iPod compatible sneakers, and duly buy a pair. I can now;
Paint them purple.
Shred them with a razor blade.
Change the laces.
Remove a sensor to see what it is and what fun I can have with it.
Apparently not. Apple seem to think that they have some say on what I can do with my shoes. What are they smoking? DRM'd sneakers. FFS, give me a break.
While this topic is about technology, this is nonetheless an interesting article, concerning her attitude to the environment, corruption and more;
Go here.
I don't come from the US, but the thought that she could quite easily become President, well, the thought is a scary one.
I don't think the Ita are bad necessarily. They are practical rather than purely theoretical as you say. Although I would suggest that they do make new things, based on the theories of the Avout, but not do any theory. The Avout do the theory, and the Ita implement it. Or that is my take on it. They are an important part of the functioning of the Concents.
Ita are cooler than Avout, I agree, apart from those from the Ringing Vale of course. They have to be the coolest.
I have had been lucky enough to have read a publishers proof of Anathem. And am currently re-reading it. I have read all of his books, from Zodiac to the System of the World. Cryptonomicon being my favourite.
Anathem is different. It is not Snow Crash or Diamond Age, although it does feature some themes from both and explores ideas raised there. It is not historic like The System of the World trilogy.
It is another thick book, some 935 pages including 40-odd pages of glossary, timelines, and math theorems called Calca.
There are new words. Lots of new words. 19 pages of them in the glossary. Initially this got in the way of the story, but once you got used to seeing them, it was fine. Now that I am re-reading it, I am enjoying it rather more.
What it it about? How do you do justice to an almost 1000 page novel in a couple of paragraphs?
Have you heard of the 10,000 year clock project? Anathem is based around the idea that these clocks were built, and run by an order of mathematicians, scientists, historians, philosophers etc with the aim of protecting knowledge whenever civilisation broke down, and have been doing so more or less continuously for several thousand years. The story feature Fraa Erasmas, one of the residents of one of these institutions and his tribulations and adventures when aliens visit the planet.
Do not think of bugeyed aliens in faster than light starships though. This is not that sort of SF. In fact, some of the aliens are from Earth.
Obviously there is much more to it than that, but I am not even going to attempt a précis here.
Buy it. Read it. It is worth it.
For those of you who didn't like the Baroque cycle because you thought it was too long, bad news. Anathem is a long book, and does not rush things. There is a lot of background to set up and explain, being set on another planet and all, but it absolutely is worth it.
Summary. Although a have a proof copy, I will be buying a hardback copy when it comes out next month, and it will go alongside my hardback Baroque Cycle. A worth addition to my library.
Slashdot is full of Ita. Slines with jeejahs are everywhere, unfortunately. Read the book, you will agree with me on this.
See this previous discussion
IBM and water cooling of chips is not really new. I remember reading of some research they did back in the 80's when they etched micro channels on the back of processor chips, and forced water through them. IIRC, they reckoned they could eventually dissipate almost 1KW per square centimeter.
You want to drive bipolar chips fast, you apply more power. And end up with a piece of silicon dissipating way more heat per unit area than an electric fire. Mind you, so do Athlons.
I tend to prefer Spider Solitaire or Freecell, but do play the standard game every so often. Sad sod that I am, I also keep track of my high scores.
Solitaire, draw one card, standard scoring.
Top 5 scores.
1) 9294 time 81
2) 9007 time 84
3) 8909 time 85
4) 8819 time 86
5) 8814 time 86
For those who prefer minesweeper, there is a variant based on a hexagonal grid called (surprisingly) Hexsweeper. A cell could in fact be surrounded by 6 mines. To save you the trouble of Googling Hexsweeper, here is a page you can get the zip file from. Click. Is is so much more fun than minesweeper.
I use a striped pair of 36GB Raptors for my system disk. (Data disk is 3 drive RAID 5) Speed is great, but the little brutes do need active cooling, and are anything but quiet. Maybe it is the pair of them doing synchronous seeks that make them so noisy, who knows? They are the noisiest disks I have used since a pair of 250MB Connors about 15 years ago. Happy with them? Oh hell yes. Next computer will have the same setup, but much more noise damping.
Minor correction. The most recent Land Speed records were set on the Black Rock Desert. Prior to this almost all of them were done on the Bonneville salt. From the Wikipedia article;
Richard Noble,
October 4 1983, Thrust2, 633.468mph (1019.47kph) Record stood for 13 years
September 25 1997, ThrustSSC, 763.035mph (1227.99kph) Sound barrier broken - (Mach 1.016)
There is a Java based take on the old Asteroids game called Basteroids. You can register and submit high scores, as and when, or play anonymously. This has taken up far too much of my time over the years. There are also a bunch of other games, some Flash based, some Java, and some for Linux and Macs. Some more games, including Pacman clone.
at Groklaw. ,PJ sets it out cleanly and succinctly.
As usual
SCO II has arrived.
Absolutely worth it.
It may not be as mind-expanding as the original experience, but it will complement it. Dirk Gently rides again.
Go hit Amazon, your brain will thank you.
I have a thorough science-based education and outlook. I like to know how stuff works. Pseudo-science and other hippy new age shit makes me want to reach for a clue stick with six inch nails in it, and apply it vigorously and repeatedly to the person spouting said shit.
However.
I can't say that about homeopathy. It has been my experience that it works. And I can't see why.
Placebo effect? Surely this is only effective when the person taking this "new treatment" expects it to work. How the hell does it work on someone like me who can't see how homeopathy could possibly work, with such ridiculously dilute solutions, water memory (give me a break), quantum entanglements (are you fucking kidding me?) ? I can't see any way, using established scientific criteria that it could work, and it bugs that it has been my experience that when I have taken homeopathic remedies in the past that it does.
It could be something to do with the homeopath taking far more time than conventional doctors with each patient. This would go under placebo effect I think. See previous comments about dilutions etc.
It has worked despite my skepticism that it should not work at all.
This annoys me.
So, faced with the apparent lack of scientific explanation of how it works, I am forced to conclude that there is something going on that is not yet understood by science.
Anyone who says "I can't see how it works therefore it can't possibly work" is just being arrogant. Dawkins is guilty of this, in spades. While I applaud his skepticism and generally agree with his views, his unwavering view that if something has not been validated (if not actually invented) by western science means it is completely invalid doesn't sit well with me. He is a major sufferer of NIH-syndrome.
Note that my grudging acceptance of homeopathy is limited to stuff actually prescribed by a qualified homeopath after a consultation. The myriad of supposedly homeopathic remedies seen in health shops are quite another matter.
for I would surely have modded you up, Anonymous cow herder.
Still cackling quietly to myself. Excellent comment.