First, the "Yes:" Oxy-clean kicks ass. At least on food/drink stains (anything organic). But they're selling the stuff at Wal-mart now so it's pretty much in wide distribution.
Then, the "No:" Roll-A-Hose sucks ass. In theory, it's a great design, and when you roll it back up it's supposed to squeeze the water out, but the rollers aren't tight enough to get ALL the water out so it turns out to be rather difficult to get the entire hose back onto the spool. And the hose kinks very easily because it's so flexible (please refrain from viagra jokes). They also sell this at various stores.
I think I would much rather take a solid state player with me when jogging or working out (imagine that, some slashdot readers ARE physically active!) for the obvious reason that there are no moving parts to fail.
Don't worry about storying your entire collection in one place. Just dump your playlist on there and go. I may still wait until 512MB or 1GB solid state players are readily available though.
The theory of gravity is only a theory. Think about that the next time you drop a hammer on your toe.
You brought up a good point when you mentioned the misunderstanding of the terminology: to the non-scientist, a "theory" is a hypothesis, or a guess, that needs to be proven "true."
To the scientist, a "theory" is a working mathematical/logical model that is used to predict a result given a particular set of conditions. A theory gains credibility by accurately predicting results, and this is done via testing. A theory is never actually "proven" true. If it works well, you keep it. Or you tweak it to make it better. Or you replace it with something that is even better at predicting results.
Non-scientists think that theories somehow become laws (like a Bill becomes a Law!) when they are two different things. I mean, we already have laws of gravity, but we don't have a complete theory of gravity yet!
I really learned some great SQL tricks when I had to query against a completely retarded data model that I had no control over.
During this time I came up with something called a "coincidental join." That's where you select rows from a set of tables that contain values that just so happen to meet criteria that are defined based on values in other tables (in other words, having to join on a calculation, because the WHERE clause is effectively different for each record). Sure, I could've done it much better using P-SQL... did I mention that the client insisted that the reports be done with Microsoft Access (attached to oracle tables) and wouldn't allow me DB access to write proper stored procedures?
The woman who wrote the requirements for the reports I had to do was the same woman that created the data model. I asked her if we could create a new index on some particular fields and she responded "what's an index?" Yes, this is exactly the type of person that should be dictating the tools that are used and designing the data model.
So, a challenging data model is the best way to accidentally write a sentient query.
In R/C car races, you go from fully charged to fully discharged in about 4 minutes. Then you can have them fully charged again in 10 minutes off of a 12V lead acid battery. Leave them on the charger too long and they leak. Actually the cells designed for fast-charges have pressure release vents because leaking is much better than exploding if they are overcharged.
Go ahead. Abuse those NiCd's. Make them your bitch-- they won't complain.
Meditation is *very* useful for clearing the mind and relieving stress. It's a useful tool for collecting your thoughts, visualizing the achievement of goals, and quieting the useless chatter in your mind that keeps you from being productive. It's a technique that's been using tens of thousands of years, and it's very, very effective.
All of that also applies to sex. Think they'll be endorsing that in the workplace? I sure hope so.
...that a $5 billion aircraft carrier that we really don't need during this time of budget crunches and economic weakness bears the name of the man who invented modern deficit spending in America.
Actually, that would be 40 years worth of a democrat-controlled congress that created deficit spending as we know it.
In retrospect, it seems that the people who designed the hovercrafts for The Matrix may have just been slightly ahead of their time. Those machines are covered with lifter-type objects which produce lots of lightning bolts. And since they are hovercrafts, not spacecraft, we can assume that they do require an atmosphere.
The problem here, as it turns out, wasn't the tiles.
In fact, even if a few tiles were missing, there wouldn't be a problem; Columbia lost quite a few tiles during its first mission with no ill effects on re-entry.
Now, the reinforced carbon-carbon panels are another thing. That is what covers the nose of the shuttle and leading edges of the wings, because the heat there is too intense even for silica tiles. Lose a chunk of that and you're toast (literally).
The truth is probably that the blame for this is squarely on the head of Microsoft for trying to make the PC ubiquitous, like a toaster, when it's really an extremely complicated technology which the common man should not even try to understand, let alone use to it's full potential.
By your logic, most people should ride on buses or taxis, rather than try to operate their own cars, which are themselves extremely complicated pieces of machinery that most people can't undestand.
Otherwise, the roads would be full of idiots who can't drive. Wait a minute...
Tell that to the Apollo 13 astronauts who used duct tape to rig up a CO2 filtering system. Certainly, it could've worked much better if they'd taken the time to properly design a more elegant solution using different materials. But sometimes you just need something that works "good enough" and RIGHT NOW.
Yes, duct tape is a cludge. In fact, it generally fits into the "it's not pretty but it works" category of quick fixes. If it can be used immediately to save you from certain doom (or perhaps just getting stuck somewhere) then who cares about the white residue? If you anticipate needing a universal quick-fix for an emergency, which would you rather carry with you at all times:
1) spools of wire in various guages, wire cutters, various glues/epoxies (for porous and non-porous surfaces, because you never know), rivets, rivet gun, assorted nails, and a hammer
2) a roll of duct tape
But the best uses for duct tape are the ones you don't even think of until the need arises. I had no idea duct tape could be used to temporarily patch a leaky coolant hose until I tried it. It was enough to let me drive the car home instead of tow it, at which point I was able to fix it properly.
Patent #1, of course, was "a method of rapidly oxidizing combustible materials using concentrated heat and oxygen."
And the "wheel" came before patent #3, which was "A method and appararatus for creating regular rectangular subdivisions of a yeast byproduct-enhanced grain based matrix."
Would future versions of operating systems be required to have an "RIAA Back Door" that only they have the key for? Will this be a feature of Palladium perhaps? What hardware changes will firewall vendors be forced to make?
Will they use known exploits in various operating systems? Would it then be illegal to patch these security holes?
I think Mr. Hatch has been watching too many movies. I mean, if we have the technology to upload a virus that is capable of destroying an alien mothership, surely it's trivial to destroy a single user's PC, right?
Re:Do younger minds absorb quicker?
on
Ageism in IT?
·
· Score: 5, Funny
...because no matter how good you are there will always be an 11 year old asian girl who is better than you'll ever be.
I reckon (yes, "reckon") it might be a little more complex than that. There are 8 corners... so what if two corners are wrong? There are 9 possible combinations of any 2 corners, 1 of which is correct. There would be 3^8 combinations of all 8 corners, though many of those would be duplicates due to symmetry.
I wonder how many possible combinations of the cube are solvable (if you put the pieces together in all possible combinations?)
Furthermore, any solvable combination will just be a permutation of any other solvable combination (i.e. you don't have to take the cube apart to create another solvable combination from one). So all these "solvable" states can be collapsed into 1.
So then I wonder how many unique combinations there are, of which only one is solvable. The answer is left as an exercise to a reader who is much more motivated than I am.
Hi! I've managed to take a funny story and turn it into a mind-boggling math problem.
The foam was going 500mph with respect to the shuttle. It's just a frame of reference.
If, for example, the shuttle was travelling at 2500mph, and the foam had slowed to 2000mph by the time it hit the wing, the difference in velocity is 500mph so it's the same thing as a piece of foam travelling at 500mph and hitting a stationary shuttle.
Slashdot Mirror
First, the "Yes:" Oxy-clean kicks ass. At least on food/drink stains (anything organic). But they're selling the stuff at Wal-mart now so it's pretty much in wide distribution.
Then, the "No:" Roll-A-Hose sucks ass. In theory, it's a great design, and when you roll it back up it's supposed to squeeze the water out, but the rollers aren't tight enough to get ALL the water out so it turns out to be rather difficult to get the entire hose back onto the spool. And the hose kinks very easily because it's so flexible (please refrain from viagra jokes). They also sell this at various stores.
I think I would much rather take a solid state player with me when jogging or working out (imagine that, some slashdot readers ARE physically active!) for the obvious reason that there are no moving parts to fail.
Don't worry about storying your entire collection in one place. Just dump your playlist on there and go. I may still wait until 512MB or 1GB solid state players are readily available though.
The theory of gravity is only a theory.
Think about that the next time you drop a hammer on your toe.
You brought up a good point when you mentioned the misunderstanding of the terminology:
to the non-scientist, a "theory" is a hypothesis, or a guess, that needs to be proven "true."
To the scientist, a "theory" is a working mathematical/logical model that is used to predict a result given a particular set of conditions. A theory gains credibility by accurately predicting results, and this is done via testing. A theory is never actually "proven" true. If it works well, you keep it. Or you tweak it to make it better. Or you replace it with something that is even better at predicting results.
Non-scientists think that theories somehow become laws (like a Bill becomes a Law!) when they are two different things. I mean, we already have laws of gravity, but we don't have a complete theory of gravity yet!
I really learned some great SQL tricks when I had to query against a completely retarded data model that I had no control over.
During this time I came up with something called a "coincidental join." That's where you select rows from a set of tables that contain values that just so happen to meet criteria that are defined based on values in other tables (in other words, having to join on a calculation, because the WHERE clause is effectively different for each record).
Sure, I could've done it much better using P-SQL... did I mention that the client insisted that the reports be done with Microsoft Access (attached to oracle tables) and wouldn't allow me DB access to write proper stored procedures?
The woman who wrote the requirements for the reports I had to do was the same woman that created the data model. I asked her if we could create a new index on some particular fields and she responded "what's an index?" Yes, this is exactly the type of person that should be dictating the tools that are used and designing the data model.
So, a challenging data model is the best way to accidentally write a sentient query.
You can really dump current INTO NiCd cells too.
In R/C car races, you go from fully charged to fully discharged in about 4 minutes. Then you can have them fully charged again in 10 minutes off of a 12V lead acid battery. Leave them on the charger too long and they leak. Actually the cells designed for fast-charges have pressure release vents because leaking is much better than exploding if they are overcharged.
Go ahead. Abuse those NiCd's. Make them your bitch-- they won't complain.
Meditation is *very* useful for clearing the mind and relieving stress. It's a useful tool for collecting your thoughts, visualizing the achievement of goals, and quieting the useless chatter in your mind that keeps you from being productive. It's a technique that's been using tens of thousands of years, and it's very, very effective.
All of that also applies to sex. Think they'll be endorsing that in the workplace? I sure hope so.
Actually, if you want to wave your arms around to make music, you can't beat being the conductor of the New York Philharmonic.
If the president really wanted to sort through countless messages from dim-witted lunatics, he'd just read slashdot. :-p
...that a $5 billion aircraft carrier that we really don't need during this time of budget crunches and economic weakness bears the name of the man who invented modern deficit spending in America.
Actually, that would be 40 years worth of a democrat-controlled congress that created deficit spending as we know it.
In retrospect, it seems that the people who designed the hovercrafts for The Matrix may have just been slightly ahead of their time.
Those machines are covered with lifter-type objects which produce lots of lightning bolts. And since they are hovercrafts, not spacecraft, we can assume that they do require an atmosphere.
Are you talking about those pesky kids that accidentally got launched into orbit by an annoying, gay robot during their visit to Space Camp?
The problem here, as it turns out, wasn't the tiles.
In fact, even if a few tiles were missing, there wouldn't be a problem; Columbia lost quite a few tiles during its first mission with no ill effects on re-entry.
Now, the reinforced carbon-carbon panels are another thing. That is what covers the nose of the shuttle and leading edges of the wings, because the heat there is too intense even for silica tiles. Lose a chunk of that and you're toast (literally).
The truth is probably that the blame for this is squarely on the head of Microsoft for trying to make the PC ubiquitous, like a toaster, when it's really an extremely complicated technology which the common man should not even try to understand, let alone use to it's full potential.
By your logic, most people should ride on buses or taxis, rather than try to operate their own cars, which are themselves extremely complicated pieces of machinery that most people can't undestand.
Otherwise, the roads would be full of idiots who can't drive. Wait a minute...
Tell that to the Apollo 13 astronauts who used duct tape to rig up a CO2 filtering system. Certainly, it could've worked much better if they'd taken the time to properly design a more elegant solution using different materials. But sometimes you just need something that works "good enough" and RIGHT NOW.
Yes, duct tape is a cludge. In fact, it generally fits into the "it's not pretty but it works" category of quick fixes. If it can be used immediately to save you from certain doom (or perhaps just getting stuck somewhere) then who cares about the white residue?
If you anticipate needing a universal quick-fix for an emergency, which would you rather carry with you at all times:
1) spools of wire in various guages, wire cutters, various glues/epoxies (for porous and non-porous surfaces, because you never know), rivets, rivet gun, assorted nails, and a hammer
2) a roll of duct tape
But the best uses for duct tape are the ones you don't even think of until the need arises. I had no idea duct tape could be used to temporarily patch a leaky coolant hose until I tried it. It was enough to let me drive the car home instead of tow it, at which point I was able to fix it properly.
Actually the wheel was patent #2, not #23663589.
Patent #1, of course, was "a method of rapidly oxidizing combustible materials using concentrated heat and oxygen."
And the "wheel" came before patent #3, which was "A method and appararatus for creating regular rectangular subdivisions of a yeast byproduct-enhanced grain based matrix."
Does this count as prior art? Somebody better tell microsoft...
Would future versions of operating systems be required to have an "RIAA Back Door" that only they have the key for? Will this be a feature of Palladium perhaps? What hardware changes will firewall vendors be forced to make?
Will they use known exploits in various operating systems? Would it then be illegal to patch these security holes?
I think Mr. Hatch has been watching too many movies. I mean, if we have the technology to upload a virus that is capable of destroying an alien mothership, surely it's trivial to destroy a single user's PC, right?
...because no matter how good you are there will always be an 11 year old asian girl who is better than you'll ever be.
Well then she must be destroyed.
I reckon (yes, "reckon") it might be a little more complex than that. There are 8 corners... so what if two corners are wrong? There are 9 possible combinations of any 2 corners, 1 of which is correct. There would be 3^8 combinations of all 8 corners, though many of those would be duplicates due to symmetry.
I will meditate on this.
...but it's not brain surgery.
*rimshot*
I wonder how many possible combinations of the cube are solvable (if you put the pieces together in all possible combinations?)
Furthermore, any solvable combination will just be a permutation of any other solvable combination (i.e. you don't have to take the cube apart to create another solvable combination from one). So all these "solvable" states can be collapsed into 1.
So then I wonder how many unique combinations there are, of which only one is solvable. The answer is left as an exercise to a reader who is much more motivated than I am.
Hi! I've managed to take a funny story and turn it into a mind-boggling math problem.
The foam was going 500mph with respect to the shuttle. It's just a frame of reference.
If, for example, the shuttle was travelling at 2500mph, and the foam had slowed to 2000mph by the time it hit the wing, the difference in velocity is 500mph so it's the same thing as a piece of foam travelling at 500mph and hitting a stationary shuttle.
I don't know about you, but I can't hold my breath 5 months
It's only hard for the first 4 or 5 minutes.
That reminds me, Dale Gribble once said it's possible to build a bomb using nothing but a roll of toilet paper and a stick of dynamite.
The beauty of Slashdot: be totally wrong, get modded up anyway. :)