That was my initial reaction as well... Though I suppose one could probably slice thin-like-inlaw-ham the definitions that we might apply to groups from that era...
As one of the co-authors on this paper I appreciate that you actually took the time to understand that we aren't trying to actually represent this as equivalent to a census. But rather we can estimate population density at spatial scales and across shorter temporal scales than one would normally be able to measure.
This represents a significant step forward as input data into a variety of disease transmission, demographic, transportation and other research areas and we are very excited about it. For more information check out our other research efforts: http://www.worldpop.org.uk/
I've been having students in my introductory programming courses work on this class of problem for a few years.. They all seem to really enjoy it. I code up bots to play RPS with certain biases just like the OP and they have to program a single player that identifies the bias in an opponent and adjusts its play to give it an advantage. They all routinely can generate solutions that perform far better than random against predictable, dumb bots, but things get very interesting when I throw the students' bots against each other in a throwdown tournament.:)
From what I can tell the concepts utilized are related to gravity models as applied from economic/business geography (which admittedly stole the idea from physicists). Interesting none-the-less, but hardly novel at this point (see publications in geographic literature by Grant Thrall and others for more info).
As an alumni and one whose graduation date falls within the years where data may have leaked I can say I'm a little disappointed with administrators.
I was never overly impressed with the quality of staff that the university employed as systems administrators. By and large the students that worked the various posts made available to students were far more qualified and up-to-the-task.
That said, I realize that administrators can't be responsible for all the content posted on univeristy sites. However, any decent sized organization such as universities need to have data screening mechanisms for SSNs at the very least.
How hard is it to run a few shell scripts once or twice a month looking for strings matching suspicious data patterns... They've done it for years looking for pirated software, MP3s, etc.
Homosexual behavior in humans or elsewhere in nature (which is quite common) could certainly be trasmitted and sustained by genetic mechanisms where evolutoinary processes exist. There is evidence that suggests that individuals with "gay genes" could actually confer reproductive benefits in primarily heterosexual populations, both as individuals or in small pockets of genetically similar individuals.
Please do some research (using reputable, peer-reviewed sources) and think for yourself before exposing yourself and your thoughtless response to simple rebuttal.
The only thing more sad than an out-of-touch geek is a sexist, out-of-touch geek.
My sister could put together a MythTV box in her sleep, as I suspect many other "sisters" or "daughters" out there can. That said, your point about not everyone having the technical know-how has merit, but you might consider leaving gender out of your next comment with a stereotype. I'm sure the three female slashdotters will appreciate it.;)
I agree, the extensibility of Firefox is a very powerful feature. The problem I've found is that there's little if any interoperability between extensions, leaving those of us that would like to use gestures to control our tab extender, etc. having to code our own.
I would never argue that Firefox isn't a great browser and extremely powerful/configurable, but in terms of integrating various features it leaves a little bit to be desired at times. I guess if I had the time I could roll my own extension that combined all the functionality I would like but then, I could just use Opera too.
I'm just at the end of a week with Firefox and I have to say I agree with you, for the most part.
I *really* wanted to be able to switch to Firefox (or Mozilla for that matter). Unfortunately there were some deal-breakers in terms of functionality that Opera does very well and I just can't bring myself to part with.
For anyone who's interested, you can in fact duplicate a lot of Opera's functionality using multiple extensions for Firefox, however, what you miss is interoperability *between* extensions. For example, to get mouse gestures you can use the very nice All-in-One Gestures extension, and to get fastforward/rewind functionality you can install yet another... But, there's no way to control fastforward/rewind (or any tab control extensions, etc.) with gestures...
In that sense, configuring Firefox to provide enough functionality that it compares to Opera in some areas is like trying to combine lego with duplo, and in the end it just feels a bit crufty.
Granted, Firefox does some things that are just too cool... the built in keyword bookmarking feature that lets you add in keyword with search words is very nice. Ad-blocking is very good, etc. as well as some other features, but in the end there are just some things that I choose to not have to work-around (like windowed tabs is a killer etc. and yes, I realize that this "should be the window manager's job" but sometimes it's nice to have it all built-in to the application).
Instead of an in-ear prompting device, could it be a vest-type body cooler? There are quite a few of them around, though most are passive devices that you cool by freezing, etc. before you put them on.
I can imagine keeping the "calm, cool, and collected" look was a high priority for the candidates, and neither wanted to look sweaty and nervous.
Well, I agree that under normal circumstances, with an unencrypted/scrambled signal, your passive receiver could be very small, and if the signal is strong enough it could be self-contained within the ear-piece.
But if the signal had to be very low strength and descrambled in some way (in order to avoid detection or bleed-over), wouldn't it be likely you'd need a larger piece of hardware for amplification/decoding?
Also, Salon and certainly the author, Dave Lindorff, are liberal media sources and they own it. However, you should read the article again if you think that Salon is reporting this as "The Truth." I think the story's intent is just to bring attention to the allegations and call attention to in-ear prompting.
I agree with you, cheating at a nationally televised debate would be audacious, brash, and brazenly stupid given the likelihood of getting caught. Though the President has almost certainly used in-ear prompters during press conferences, I'm skeptical of their use during the debate. That said, I'll reserve judgement since he certainly has shown all of those aforementioned qualities.
The "evidence" presented is interesting yet hardly damning up to this point. What I'd like to have confirmed by the President's handlers is how often he uses in-ear prompters, etc. I think they should own it and respond to the accusation quickly if they don't want this ballooning to something they can't sweep under the rug.
It will be interesting to see whether Kerry gives Bush a little pat-down during the pre-debate handshake tonight.:)
Will you be releasing the source for Werkkzeug at some point? I would love to see some of the techniques you've used beyond the notes you've made on your personal web site.
Many different substances can be explosive given the right amount of oxygen surrounding the flammable particles. It's a fairly common trick that middle school science teachers do to wake up their students.:)
We need libraries now more than ever, especially given that rulings like this won't cease to be more heavily weighted towards the media interests than the public. A public repository of digital and traditional media is a resource we can't let slip away, and in many places libraries just can't get the funding to keep up with new technology and maintain the collections that they currently have.
What this means is that we need to fund and support not only your local public, government, and univeristy libraries, but also representatives willing to put their neck on the line to do the same.
I think we need to make sure that your library has the technology and capability to keep up with the times. Support local and national intiatives to protect what powers of preservation our libraries have left.
Heh, the site mentioned user accounts... I want a web interface so I could store my own preferences for drinks as well as add new ones to the database. That certainly could be added with not much additional cost.
Well, items like ReplayTV and Tivo aside (which obviously monitor viewing habits and report them back to the parent company for various reasons), for at least a few years set-top digital cable boxes collect viewing patterns, channels watched, time spent, etc. and are capable of transmitting this information back to the cable provider. I don't know how wide-spread it is in practice among providers, however, the tech is there.
I grant you though, for your low-end TV with a cable connection straight from the cable box on the outside of the house, it's not likely a cable company will put something in place to monitor viewing habits.
Slashdot Mirror
That was my initial reaction as well... Though I suppose one could probably slice thin-like-inlaw-ham the definitions that we might apply to groups from that era...
As one of the co-authors on this paper I appreciate that you actually took the time to understand that we aren't trying to actually represent this as equivalent to a census. But rather we can estimate population density at spatial scales and across shorter temporal scales than one would normally be able to measure.
This represents a significant step forward as input data into a variety of disease transmission, demographic, transportation and other research areas and we are very excited about it. For more information check out our other research efforts: http://www.worldpop.org.uk/
I've been having students in my introductory programming courses work on this class of problem for a few years.. They all seem to really enjoy it. I code up bots to play RPS with certain biases just like the OP and they have to program a single player that identifies the bias in an opponent and adjusts its play to give it an advantage. They all routinely can generate solutions that perform far better than random against predictable, dumb bots, but things get very interesting when I throw the students' bots against each other in a throwdown tournament. :)
426 horses if you want a v8.. more if you want it to be bitchin'
From what I can tell the concepts utilized are related to gravity models as applied from economic/business geography (which admittedly stole the idea from physicists). Interesting none-the-less, but hardly novel at this point (see publications in geographic literature by Grant Thrall and others for more info).
I found some old screenshots if anyone is interested, maybe Chromain can tell us if there any major graphical departures...
You are correct, pedantic, and a poor speller. (Ridiculous, not rediculous...) ;)
As an alumni and one whose graduation date falls within the years where data may have leaked I can say I'm a little disappointed with administrators.
I was never overly impressed with the quality of staff that the university employed as systems administrators. By and large the students that worked the various posts made available to students were far more qualified and up-to-the-task.
That said, I realize that administrators can't be responsible for all the content posted on univeristy sites. However, any decent sized organization such as universities need to have data screening mechanisms for SSNs at the very least.
How hard is it to run a few shell scripts once or twice a month looking for strings matching suspicious data patterns... They've done it for years looking for pirated software, MP3s, etc.
Yes, I'm afraid I misinterpreted your original comment and I apologize for the tone of my response. A rush of blood to the head I'm afraid.
;)
And certainly I agree with your assertion that homosexuality certainly doesn't prove or disprove evolution.
Thanks for reminding me I owed you a comment! I'll leave out any quotes about bleeding orifices...
No.
Homosexual behavior in humans or elsewhere in nature (which is quite common) could certainly be trasmitted and sustained by genetic mechanisms where evolutoinary processes exist. There is evidence that suggests that individuals with "gay genes" could actually confer reproductive benefits in primarily heterosexual populations, both as individuals or in small pockets of genetically similar individuals.
Please do some research (using reputable, peer-reviewed sources) and think for yourself before exposing yourself and your thoughtless response to simple rebuttal.
The only thing more sad than an out-of-touch geek is a sexist, out-of-touch geek.
;)
My sister could put together a MythTV box in her sleep, as I suspect many other "sisters" or "daughters" out there can. That said, your point about not everyone having the technical know-how has merit, but you might consider leaving gender out of your next comment with a stereotype. I'm sure the three female slashdotters will appreciate it.
I agree, the extensibility of Firefox is a very powerful feature. The problem I've found is that there's little if any interoperability between extensions, leaving those of us that would like to use gestures to control our tab extender, etc. having to code our own.
I would never argue that Firefox isn't a great browser and extremely powerful/configurable, but in terms of integrating various features it leaves a little bit to be desired at times. I guess if I had the time I could roll my own extension that combined all the functionality I would like but then, I could just use Opera too.
I'm just at the end of a week with Firefox and I have to say I agree with you, for the most part.
I *really* wanted to be able to switch to Firefox (or Mozilla for that matter). Unfortunately there were some deal-breakers in terms of functionality that Opera does very well and I just can't bring myself to part with.
For anyone who's interested, you can in fact duplicate a lot of Opera's functionality using multiple extensions for Firefox, however, what you miss is interoperability *between* extensions. For example, to get mouse gestures you can use the very nice All-in-One Gestures extension, and to get fastforward/rewind functionality you can install yet another... But, there's no way to control fastforward/rewind (or any tab control extensions, etc.) with gestures...
In that sense, configuring Firefox to provide enough functionality that it compares to Opera in some areas is like trying to combine lego with duplo, and in the end it just feels a bit crufty.
Granted, Firefox does some things that are just too cool... the built in keyword bookmarking feature that lets you add in keyword with search words is very nice. Ad-blocking is very good, etc. as well as some other features, but in the end there are just some things that I choose to not have to work-around (like windowed tabs is a killer etc. and yes, I realize that this "should be the window manager's job" but sometimes it's nice to have it all built-in to the application).
Instead of an in-ear prompting device, could it be a vest-type body cooler? There are quite a few of them around, though most are passive devices that you cool by freezing, etc. before you put them on.
I can imagine keeping the "calm, cool, and collected" look was a high priority for the candidates, and neither wanted to look sweaty and nervous.
Well, I agree that under normal circumstances, with an unencrypted/scrambled signal, your passive receiver could be very small, and if the signal is strong enough it could be self-contained within the ear-piece.
But if the signal had to be very low strength and descrambled in some way (in order to avoid detection or bleed-over), wouldn't it be likely you'd need a larger piece of hardware for amplification/decoding?
Also, Salon and certainly the author, Dave Lindorff, are liberal media sources and they own it. However, you should read the article again if you think that Salon is reporting this as "The Truth." I think the story's intent is just to bring attention to the allegations and call attention to in-ear prompting.
I agree with you, cheating at a nationally televised debate would be audacious, brash, and brazenly stupid given the likelihood of getting caught. Though the President has almost certainly used in-ear prompters during press conferences, I'm skeptical of their use during the debate. That said, I'll reserve judgement since he certainly has shown all of those aforementioned qualities.
:)
The "evidence" presented is interesting yet hardly damning up to this point. What I'd like to have confirmed by the President's handlers is how often he uses in-ear prompters, etc. I think they should own it and respond to the accusation quickly if they don't want this ballooning to something they can't sweep under the rug.
It will be interesting to see whether Kerry gives Bush a little pat-down during the pre-debate handshake tonight.
Will you be releasing the source for Werkkzeug at some point? I would love to see some of the techniques you've used beyond the notes you've made on your personal web site.
Yeah Mr. Wizard did the dust explosion trick way back in the day (episode 16).
:)
Many different substances can be explosive given the right amount of oxygen surrounding the flammable particles. It's a fairly common trick that middle school science teachers do to wake up their students.
Hmm, you mean they figured out how to make it leak?
You forgot to include the all important "over-hyping" and "patching" in your list... ;)
We need libraries now more than ever, especially given that rulings like this won't cease to be more heavily weighted towards the media interests than the public. A public repository of digital and traditional media is a resource we can't let slip away, and in many places libraries just can't get the funding to keep up with new technology and maintain the collections that they currently have.
What this means is that we need to fund and support not only your local public, government, and univeristy libraries, but also representatives willing to put their neck on the line to do the same.
I think we need to make sure that your library has the technology and capability to keep up with the times. Support local and national intiatives to protect what powers of preservation our libraries have left.
Heh, the site mentioned user accounts... I want a web interface so I could store my own preferences for drinks as well as add new ones to the database. That certainly could be added with not much additional cost.
Actually, that's not the case any longer. There's a nice piece of open-source code available to convert the X3 RAW image format (among other proprietary formats). Here's a direct link to the source.
Supposedly it even compiles on OS X, click here for a discussion of its use for the SD9.
Well, items like ReplayTV and Tivo aside (which obviously monitor viewing habits and report them back to the parent company for various reasons), for at least a few years set-top digital cable boxes collect viewing patterns, channels watched, time spent, etc. and are capable of transmitting this information back to the cable provider. I don't know how wide-spread it is in practice among providers, however, the tech is there.
I grant you though, for your low-end TV with a cable connection straight from the cable box on the outside of the house, it's not likely a cable company will put something in place to monitor viewing habits.