Your observation about reviews of unheard-of Independent bands isn't really relevant. Yes, this was a fairly long review, but the book is hardly unheard-of. Everything Bad is Good For You made it onto various best-seller lists, and is widely available. See the June 16, 2005, entry of the author's blog: http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/arc hives/2005_06.html
Morse works in the time domain, so you only need one key (not three, and certainly not twelve); that's the entire point, and the reason why it's faster than texting.
I reached the part of the review where it says "Rather than beginning with the imminent demolition of one Arthur Dent's flat (a la the book),..." and decided that either the reviewer hadn't remembered much about the book, or was trying to use a half-remembered British-ism and failing. I know it's splitting geek hairs to point it out, but Arthur lived in a house. A simple, bulldozable house. Had he lived in a flat (an apartment, for non-British speakers) Prosser would have needed heavier equipment.
I take offense to the idea that just because BSG discovered that handheld style camera movements makes for a more dramatic show makes it worthy of being presented as "reinventing" science fiction.
If that's what it takes to "reinvent" science fiction, then Firefly did it first. For example, the "missed zoom" effect, where the CGI camera zooms through the fleet to a ship, zooms a bit too far, and then pulls back, was novel in Firefly. When the Firefly movie comes out later this year, it'll be interesting to see whether people think it looks like Galactica, when many comparisons should probably be looking in the other direction.
I feel old: Doom and Wolfenstein weren't so much "back in the day", as "oh, several years into my career." And probably the Wolfenstein in this case is the First Person Shooter, and not the original from the early 80s.
The thing that got me interested in computers was playing the Adventure (Collosal Cave) on a Burroughs mainframe. This had two important effects: it gave me a reason to learn how to type; and it made me interested in "how'd they do that?"
I'm heartened that Simon Jones has a part in the film (the "Magrathean greeting hologram"). It may be hard for me to accept anyone else playing Arthur (almost but not quite entirely unlike Simon Jones) but I'm pleased that the original Arthur is there in spirit.
Except, if you actually watch the drop-down list as you're typing, once you've typed "nia", it's already suggesting "niagara falls" with the correct spelling and 3,090,000 results. True, "niagra falls" (incorrectly spelled) is also in the list, but since it only has 129,000 results, it's probably clear which one you're actually looking for if you're not trying to make a joke about Viagra.
... only about 1/3 of US kids reported that they did not feel as though they were good at math, whereas about 2/3 of Koreans reported this--and the Koreans ranked in the top three
Which is to say (wildly over-simplifying) that as well as being better at math, the Koreans are more self-deprecating than the US kids.
...doesn't show how it's anywhere near the level of Google.
I guess it depends on how one defines "better". Perhaps "better" in this case means "omits a lot of pesky political stuff that no searcher really wants to hear about".
From the article: IBM would give the same credibility to the Macintosh computer, and its Microsoft-beating operating systems as it provided for the PC in the first place, thereby opening the flood gates of corporate demand.
Alternatively... it would give "the same credibility to the Macintosh computer" as it gave to OS/2: credible (at the time), but not exactly opening "the flood gates of corporate demand."
Although almost no-one does so, the first "g" in "giga" should actually be pronounced soft, like "j". Of course, hard "g" is also an accepted pronunciation. Here is a link that talks about it. Wikipedia lists it as a "disputed pronunciation", and claims that the prefix was originally chosen "because 10^9 can be described as a 'gigantic' number".
They sell Flymos in Britain. I'd love to have one, but they don't sell them in the US. Not sure why. Perhaps some sort of product liability issue, since it might be somewhat easier to injure oneself with a hovering mower than one with wheels.
It's a lot easier to mow a hill with a Flymo than a wheeled mower. You can stand uphill from it and sweep it from side to side, a bit like the motion you'd use to mop a floor, except you're cutting grass.
Out of the box, Linux supports more hardware devices than any other operating system. [from the linux kernel monkey log piece]
Perhaps my varying experiences with Linux over the last decade or so have been unusual, but this just doesn't ring true to me. Does Linux really support more hardware, today, than any other OS? Is there any sort of independently verified comparison list? I guess I could compare the various hardware compatibility lists myself, but if this is unvarnished truth, I'd expect there to be something concrete to show it.
My experience has been that when I shop for hardware for my Linux boxes, I have to be somewhat careful about what I pick. On the other hand, when my dad shops for his Windows boxes, pretty much everything is guaranteed to work (provided it is physically compatible, of course -- not something that only fits in, say, a Macintosh Powerbook).
Perhaps it depends on what "out of the box" means, or what "more hardware" means.
...almost without exception, all the stuff the RIAA is pushing is crap. Unlistenable crap. I just rely on my existing collection for music, sometimes picking up CD's directly from bands' websites (fuck you, RIAA, no cut for you) or mp3.com back when it existed. I can't even listen to the radio any more it's such shite.
I agree about mainstream-marketed music. I do still find new music that I like, but mainly through other sources. I'll sound like an Amazon-shill for saying this, but after rating a few of my favorite CDs at Amazon, they've been pretty good at finding other stuff that I like and sometimes end up buying.
Also, the NPR radio station KCRW in Santa Monica, California, plays some interesting new music during their Morning Becomes Eclectic program. Certainly not everyone's taste, but new, fairly diverse, and generally not mainstream. If you're not lucky enough to live within range of their antennae, they broadcast on the web in MP3, RealAudio and Windows Media formats. There's a simulcast, a news-only stream, and a music-only stream.
I Googled to see if I could find an online hearing test that would do something similar to what you describe (tones at different frequencies and amplitudes). I found these, in particular this. They're pretty cool, although they do require a Java-enabled browser, decent headphones, and someone with good hearing in order to calibrate the tests.
A challenge for/. readers -- go buy some gasoline in graduated containers, and check for yourself [avoid 1,5, and 10 gallon sizes; many states use these for testing purposes and the computers inside the pumps 'catch up' temporarily at these intervals].
If this is indeed the case -- and you think this is fraud of some sort rather than just poorly adjusted pumps -- then one solution would be to always put 1, 5, or 10 gallons of gas in your car. I wonder if they also "catch up" at the 20- or 25-gallon interval, so you can fill a Hummer.
Slashdot Mirror
Your observation about reviews of unheard-of Independent bands isn't really relevant. Yes, this was a fairly long review, but the book is hardly unheard-of. Everything Bad is Good For You made it onto various best-seller lists, and is widely available. See the June 16, 2005, entry of the author's blog: http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/arc hives/2005_06.html
Seems silly to argue, but, no it isn't.
I looked for a more official source, but those are the best I could come up with.
Morse works in the time domain, so you only need one key (not three, and certainly not twelve); that's the entire point, and the reason why it's faster than texting.
Regular expressions are not Turing complete.
Surely you meant chicken/ogg situation.
I reached the part of the review where it says "Rather than beginning with the imminent demolition of one Arthur Dent's flat (a la the book),..." and decided that either the reviewer hadn't remembered much about the book, or was trying to use a half-remembered British-ism and failing. I know it's splitting geek hairs to point it out, but Arthur lived in a house. A simple, bulldozable house. Had he lived in a flat (an apartment, for non-British speakers) Prosser would have needed heavier equipment.
I take offense to the idea that just because BSG discovered that handheld style camera movements makes for a more dramatic show makes it worthy of being presented as "reinventing" science fiction.
If that's what it takes to "reinvent" science fiction, then Firefly did it first. For example, the "missed zoom" effect, where the CGI camera zooms through the fleet to a ship, zooms a bit too far, and then pulls back, was novel in Firefly. When the Firefly movie comes out later this year, it'll be interesting to see whether people think it looks like Galactica, when many comparisons should probably be looking in the other direction.
Doom and Wolfenstein back in the day
I feel old: Doom and Wolfenstein weren't so much "back in the day", as "oh, several years into my career." And probably the Wolfenstein in this case is the First Person Shooter, and not the original from the early 80s.
The thing that got me interested in computers was playing the Adventure (Collosal Cave) on a Burroughs mainframe. This had two important effects: it gave me a reason to learn how to type; and it made me interested in "how'd they do that?"
I'm heartened that Simon Jones has a part in the film (the "Magrathean greeting hologram"). It may be hard for me to accept anyone else playing Arthur (almost but not quite entirely unlike Simon Jones) but I'm pleased that the original Arthur is there in spirit.
Nah. I usually turned it in early.
Except, if you actually watch the drop-down list as you're typing, once you've typed "nia", it's already suggesting "niagara falls" with the correct spelling and 3,090,000 results. True, "niagra falls" (incorrectly spelled) is also in the list, but since it only has 129,000 results, it's probably clear which one you're actually looking for if you're not trying to make a joke about Viagra.
This is pretty amazing, really.
Which is to say (wildly over-simplifying) that as well as being better at math, the Koreans are more self-deprecating than the US kids.
I guess it depends on how one defines "better". Perhaps "better" in this case means "omits a lot of pesky political stuff that no searcher really wants to hear about".
From the article: IBM would give the same credibility to the Macintosh computer, and its Microsoft-beating operating systems as it provided for the PC in the first place, thereby opening the flood gates of corporate demand.
Alternatively ... it would give "the same credibility to the Macintosh computer" as it gave to OS/2: credible (at the time), but not exactly opening "the flood gates of corporate demand."
Although almost no-one does so, the first "g" in "giga" should actually be pronounced soft, like "j". Of course, hard "g" is also an accepted pronunciation. Here is a link that talks about it. Wikipedia lists it as a "disputed pronunciation", and claims that the prefix was originally chosen "because 10^9 can be described as a 'gigantic' number".
It is shaped like a shoe for an improbably-shaped spherical foot (at an improbability factor of 2 to the power of 4/3 pi r cubed).
They sell Flymos in Britain. I'd love to have one, but they don't sell them in the US. Not sure why. Perhaps some sort of product liability issue, since it might be somewhat easier to injure oneself with a hovering mower than one with wheels.
It's a lot easier to mow a hill with a Flymo than a wheeled mower. You can stand uphill from it and sweep it from side to side, a bit like the motion you'd use to mop a floor, except you're cutting grass.
Sounds interesting. Is the book still in print, and what was it called?
Out of the box, Linux supports more hardware devices than any other operating system. [from the linux kernel monkey log piece]
Perhaps my varying experiences with Linux over the last decade or so have been unusual, but this just doesn't ring true to me. Does Linux really support more hardware, today, than any other OS? Is there any sort of independently verified comparison list? I guess I could compare the various hardware compatibility lists myself, but if this is unvarnished truth, I'd expect there to be something concrete to show it.
My experience has been that when I shop for hardware for my Linux boxes, I have to be somewhat careful about what I pick. On the other hand, when my dad shops for his Windows boxes, pretty much everything is guaranteed to work (provided it is physically compatible, of course -- not something that only fits in, say, a Macintosh Powerbook).
Perhaps it depends on what "out of the box" means, or what "more hardware" means.
I agree about mainstream-marketed music. I do still find new music that I like, but mainly through other sources. I'll sound like an Amazon-shill for saying this, but after rating a few of my favorite CDs at Amazon, they've been pretty good at finding other stuff that I like and sometimes end up buying.
Also, the NPR radio station KCRW in Santa Monica, California, plays some interesting new music during their Morning Becomes Eclectic program. Certainly not everyone's taste, but new, fairly diverse, and generally not mainstream. If you're not lucky enough to live within range of their antennae, they broadcast on the web in MP3, RealAudio and Windows Media formats. There's a simulcast, a news-only stream, and a music-only stream.
far more likely to burn your ear off
or explode.
Most ravers probably aren't fans of XTC, not even in lace. Perhaps you meant the drug ecstasy, instead.
I Googled to see if I could find an online hearing test that would do something similar to what you describe (tones at different frequencies and amplitudes). I found these, in particular this. They're pretty cool, although they do require a Java-enabled browser, decent headphones, and someone with good hearing in order to calibrate the tests.
From the products page of the Secunia web-site:
A challenge for /. readers -- go buy some gasoline in graduated containers, and check for yourself [avoid 1,5, and 10 gallon sizes; many states use these for testing purposes and the computers inside the pumps 'catch up' temporarily at these intervals].
If this is indeed the case -- and you think this is fraud of some sort rather than just poorly adjusted pumps -- then one solution would be to always put 1, 5, or 10 gallons of gas in your car. I wonder if they also "catch up" at the 20- or 25-gallon interval, so you can fill a Hummer.