A lot of people are referring to the new multitouch trackpads as "no-button" mice. In fact the whole thing is one big button, and the multitouch makes it potentially much more flexible than an any multi-button mouse.
I'm using one now. Right-clicking and scrolling are simple and customizable. Plus the scaling, rotating and three- and four-finger gestures are pretty useful. My biggest complaint is that the three- and four-finger gestures are not customizable, and there's no way to turn on 'middle button' support. I think that's more of a software than hardware issue, though.
Right, but natural selection only 'improves' on an extremely local level. Plop a bunch of humans from today next to a neanderthal community in their time and place, and you can bet the humans wouldn't last long.
All the species on earth are consistently co-evolving (in genetic and/or cultural dimensions) in such a way that comparing modern homo sapien to neanderthal in terms of 'better' or 'progress' or 'improvement' does lose its meaning. I think it's pretty safe to say that complexity of organisms tends to increase, but even saying that loosely-defined 'fitness' (ability to sustainably reproduce) always increases is a somewhat meaningless statement, at least when you take it out of the evolutionary very-near-term.
I would agree that in a somehow 'fixed' environment with a single species, some form of optimization happens (there are some nice computer algorithms that rely on it). But in actual evolutionary history issues of environmental context, epigenetics and co-evolution kill the notions of optimum or progress.
Right.
But my point is that talking about the absolut 'functionality' of an organism isn't really productive or meaningful, at least not in terms of natural selection. Evolution by natural selection is a pretty good optimization technique in isolation, but an ecosystem is immensely complex, every element changing all the time (including not just climate, but every other species in proximity and even just incidentals of geography and configuration).
Natural selection is like a hill-climbing algorithm on the choppy surface of the ocean. In most cases the climbing can't even keep up with the shifting environment. Ends up looking more like a random walk. Complexity may increase but trying to talk about some sort of objective 'functionality' or 'progress' just ends up being misleading.
Out of curiosity, does that make PNA kind of dangerous in quantity for all of us DNA-based lifeforms?
That is, do DNA-based cells exposed to PNA stop being able to reproduce themselves? (DNA unzips, PNA wiggles in and binds, everything shuts down)
There's nothing in evolutionary theory that says that natural selection results in 'progress'. Nothing that says that homo sapiens are more 'progressed' than neanderthals. Same goes for elephants vs woolly mammoths. This is one of the biggest and most frustrating misconceptions out there about evolution by natural selection. I think this is what GP was referring to when mentioning anthropomorphization -- don't apply human rationality to evolutionary processes.
That said, I agree that it seems unlikely that such a fundamental shift as switching from PNA to DNA/RNA seems unlikely to have fluked itself into existence unless there's some tradeoff in, eg, efficiency of producing the molecules, or the difference is really pretty minor after all.
Why not scrap the system and use the money we are wasting to put an armed air marshal or two on every flight? I don't think box-cutters are going to be particularly effective against firearms....
until, of course, a non-marshal gets a hold of one of those guns...
Excellent point about the 'sample size' of terrorists to work from.
I guess that's the problem with a lot of the security measures, is that they work on (perhaps informed, but not necessarily tested) assumptions about the scenarios they're trying to prevent.
heehee. fair enough. but with the advent of the new portables there's no Apple computer made anymore that doesn't easily and natively support right click.
(but in Apple's you-don't-ever-need-a-second-mouse-button world, they expect you to use File>Open with>Acrobat or just drag the icon to acrobat somewhere. Matter of preference, I guess)
This is exactly what I do in Mac OS X. Virtually always, I just open the PDF with Preview.app (part of the basic OS distribution). On the rare occasion that it won't open or is a form or something, I'll right-click>open with>Acrobat.app. Not much of a pain.
I think it makes good sense to have a different app depending on what you need done. For instance, reading articles in PDF in Preview or Acrobat is a pain, and I'll use Skim.app for those.
There are arguably different pros and cons to all three operating systems, so why not have all three if you have the space? This is slashdot, the question is not why, but why not.
I was about to talk about my opinion of the various OSs and hardwares, but your point is more succinct and helpful.
You're referring to the "Bank of San Serriffe"? The one with branches in in Elbonia and Blefuscu?
I'm not sure I trust their safeguards any more than a traditional bank's..
some ideas:
1) Take the tire/tube off the wheel and the resulting rim works great for improvised belt-power transmission (to, say, a rod on bearings? I've done this before for a hacked-together spinning wheel).
2) most the bottom-brackets (where the pedals attach to the bike) can be tweeked to attach a long rod. In particular the old Schwinn-style where both of the pedal arms are one cast piece that threads through the bottom bracket should be relatively easy to replace with a long rod with a gear ring attached.
I'm not sure if this will fit your needs, but old used bicycles are cheap to find and full of cables, levers, cranks and gears -- all compatible with one another. (small wheels make good belt-pullies too)
I've seen some great and complex stuff made from bike parts.
Anyway, god forbid they keep dangerous people in jail. I mean, that's what it's for, right?
You make it sound like a foregone conclusion that prison is nothing more than a way to cordon off undesirables. It may well be, but that's by no means the generally accepted fact.
For the idealists out there, prison is supposed to rehabilitative. For the Machiavellians it's a political tool of disenfranchisement.
mod parent up, actually.
there's all sorts of tracking javascript and "open a new window and size it down and move it to the corner" sorts of stuff at gustavrelief.com.
Somebody more knowledgeable with javascript?
Slashdot Mirror
Tell me about it. Try this:
http://www.rseek.org/
Not if it isn't shown to be secure
Rather: Not if it is shown to be insecure.
...ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!
A lot of people are referring to the new multitouch trackpads as "no-button" mice. In fact the whole thing is one big button, and the multitouch makes it potentially much more flexible than an any multi-button mouse.
I'm using one now. Right-clicking and scrolling are simple and customizable. Plus the scaling, rotating and three- and four-finger gestures are pretty useful. My biggest complaint is that the three- and four-finger gestures are not customizable, and there's no way to turn on 'middle button' support. I think that's more of a software than hardware issue, though.
Right, but natural selection only 'improves' on an extremely local level. Plop a bunch of humans from today next to a neanderthal community in their time and place, and you can bet the humans wouldn't last long.
All the species on earth are consistently co-evolving (in genetic and/or cultural dimensions) in such a way that comparing modern homo sapien to neanderthal in terms of 'better' or 'progress' or 'improvement' does lose its meaning. I think it's pretty safe to say that complexity of organisms tends to increase, but even saying that loosely-defined 'fitness' (ability to sustainably reproduce) always increases is a somewhat meaningless statement, at least when you take it out of the evolutionary very-near-term.
I would agree that in a somehow 'fixed' environment with a single species, some form of optimization happens (there are some nice computer algorithms that rely on it). But in actual evolutionary history issues of environmental context, epigenetics and co-evolution kill the notions of optimum or progress.
But my point is that talking about the absolut 'functionality' of an organism isn't really productive or meaningful, at least not in terms of natural selection. Evolution by natural selection is a pretty good optimization technique in isolation, but an ecosystem is immensely complex, every element changing all the time (including not just climate, but every other species in proximity and even just incidentals of geography and configuration).
Natural selection is like a hill-climbing algorithm on the choppy surface of the ocean. In most cases the climbing can't even keep up with the shifting environment. Ends up looking more like a random walk. Complexity may increase but trying to talk about some sort of objective 'functionality' or 'progress' just ends up being misleading.
Out of curiosity, does that make PNA kind of dangerous in quantity for all of us DNA-based lifeforms?
That is, do DNA-based cells exposed to PNA stop being able to reproduce themselves? (DNA unzips, PNA wiggles in and binds, everything shuts down)
Heh, good point. The immortal 'species' are still stuck in the self-reproducing-chemical-chains-in-a-pool-of-hot-mud phase...
That said, I agree that it seems unlikely that such a fundamental shift as switching from PNA to DNA/RNA seems unlikely to have fluked itself into existence unless there's some tradeoff in, eg, efficiency of producing the molecules, or the difference is really pretty minor after all.
Why not scrap the system and use the money we are wasting to put an armed air marshal or two on every flight? I don't think box-cutters are going to be particularly effective against firearms....
until, of course, a non-marshal gets a hold of one of those guns...
Excellent point about the 'sample size' of terrorists to work from.
I guess that's the problem with a lot of the security measures, is that they work on (perhaps informed, but not necessarily tested) assumptions about the scenarios they're trying to prevent.
heehee. fair enough.
but with the advent of the new portables there's no Apple computer made anymore that doesn't easily and natively support right click.
(but in Apple's you-don't-ever-need-a-second-mouse-button world, they expect you to use File>Open with>Acrobat or just drag the icon to acrobat somewhere. Matter of preference, I guess)
I know this is meta discussion, but i wish i had mod points. +1 informative
This is exactly what I do in Mac OS X. Virtually always, I just open the PDF with Preview.app (part of the basic OS distribution). On the rare occasion that it won't open or is a form or something, I'll right-click>open with>Acrobat.app. Not much of a pain.
I think it makes good sense to have a different app depending on what you need done. For instance, reading articles in PDF in Preview or Acrobat is a pain, and I'll use Skim.app for those.
I think you're right. Good call.
There are arguably different pros and cons to all three operating systems, so why not have all three if you have the space? This is slashdot, the question is not why, but why not.
I was about to talk about my opinion of the various OSs and hardwares, but your point is more succinct and helpful.
You're referring to the "Bank of San Serriffe"? The one with branches in in Elbonia and Blefuscu?
I'm not sure I trust their safeguards any more than a traditional bank's..
some ideas:
1) Take the tire/tube off the wheel and the resulting rim works great for improvised belt-power transmission (to, say, a rod on bearings? I've done this before for a hacked-together spinning wheel).
2) most the bottom-brackets (where the pedals attach to the bike) can be tweeked to attach a long rod. In particular the old Schwinn-style where both of the pedal arms are one cast piece that threads through the bottom bracket should be relatively easy to replace with a long rod with a gear ring attached.
similar, if you're in Portland, OR, is Wacky Willy's. Amazing shop.
but oh, no! it looks like Wacky Willy's is gone. That is truly sad.
I'm not sure if this will fit your needs, but old used bicycles are cheap to find and full of cables, levers, cranks and gears -- all compatible with one another. (small wheels make good belt-pullies too)
I've seen some great and complex stuff made from bike parts.
Anyway, god forbid they keep dangerous people in jail. I mean, that's what it's for, right?
You make it sound like a foregone conclusion that prison is nothing more than a way to cordon off undesirables. It may well be, but that's by no means the generally accepted fact.
For the idealists out there, prison is supposed to rehabilitative. For the Machiavellians it's a political tool of disenfranchisement.
Better yet, calculate it by hand.
is that a typo for 50,000 or 500,000?
me too, but I just looked at the source via curl as ggp suggested
mod parent up, actually.
there's all sorts of tracking javascript and "open a new window and size it down and move it to the corner" sorts of stuff at gustavrelief.com.
Somebody more knowledgeable with javascript?