If there's supposed to be seperation of Church and State, why did I have to go to a local church to cast my vote this morning?
I've wondered the same, but usually the churches have the best price and location for the space rental.
Local government's buildings aren't usually big enough to deal with the crowds and reorganization for a day, or are too centralized to deal with semi-rural populations.
Many high schools and hospitals give up the use of their gymnasium for the day, but most businesses charge too much for the inconvenience.
Church buildings are designed for this sort of need: easily accessible by the elderly, open spaces for the booths, parking available, centered in neighborhoods, not much else going on on Tuesdays, etc.
Someone suggested that you should visit the Dems and Reps for their shining wisdom on the issues. That's one solution, but it's like asking a salesperson if the product will cure all ills: they'll say pretty much anything to get your vote. Also, forget the titles of the initiatives: "Defense of Marriage Act" was also known by names like the "Defense of Homophobia Act." They'll pick whatever catchphrase will troll your emotions (and thus your vote).
Rather, get some less biased literature. Every place I've lived, I've been able to find a pamphlet by the National League of Women Voters, or some other non-partisan organization, that lists the Pros and Cons for every ballot initiative, right next to each other.
I agree, don't vote on what you're not informed about. However, I'd take it a step further and vote NO CHANGE on initiatives or propositions that you don't understand, even after reading them. Propositions are written by special-interests, not by legislators who even pretend to have the general public's welfare at heart. If you can't understand the proposed law, it doesn't deserve passage.
(AirSwitch, the service the poster was hawking, seems to be a ground-based solution, not a satellite solution.) I fell asleep before their no-fast-forward "presentation" got to the point they explained it.
I'd still be interested in seeing the numbers involved for either or both of these. Tens or hundreds of milliseconds?
My manager has their service very fast about 2 to 3 meg and very low pings. Stuff like this is the future.
You didn't give any numbers for what you claim are "very low pings," but there's a pretty darn hard-to-avoid minimum ping.
Your signal's gotta go up to a satellite and back down to a receiving dish. It gets routed and handled, then your reply goes up to the satellite and back down to your own dish.
So, four times the bird's altitude, times the speed of light, gives you what MINIMUM ping delay? I don't have the numbers, but I expect someone here does.
Lots of talk about "the vote counters are using an application that is closed source, maybe there's fraud!"
I want to ask you how Open Source would sweep away those claims? Before you go, "Duh..."
Who says the source you're reading is the source they'd be using?
Just because they hand you a sheaf of source code and say, "look, no fraud," doesn't mean they are 100% certainly using only 100% that "illuminated" source code.
It's like the carnival magicians who let you examine the deck of cards (or even takes your deck of cards) before doing something improbable with them... "sleight of hand" and "illumination" may always be paired up.
your insinuation the Ghost in the Shell is not insanely great earns you a whipping.
It's very good, I have a copy on laserdisc. I also have all Armitage III issues, both editions of Blade Runner, and the original PKD novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." They're all essentially exploring the same plotline, I just think the Director's Cut of Blade Runner does it best visually and in its storytelling.
Also, I like all the different movies listed, for very different reasons. They also have parts about them that suck.
I don't know why these browsers weren't made MDI to start with.
MDI, Multiple Document Interface, was specifically deprecated in the Windows 95 User Interface Style Guide. That's why IE isn't MDI.
MDI has some advantages, I will admit it. I couldn't imagine a developers' IDE without it.
MDI is not document-centric (see my earlier point #219). It forces the user to consider the software application before (or instead of) the actual content.
In a doc-centric world, users avoid backward-trained mental processes like the following: "I want to see what bugs are open on my project; my bug list is shown on a sourceforge website; let me open my web browser to see that." Instead, they click on a shortcut icon, a url link, a menu item or any other gateway, and the operating system opens the proper browser for the task.
The whole "task bar" thing in general drives me a little buggy... I usually end up with a lot of tiny rectangles at the bottom of my screen that say "mozi" "mozi" "mozi" etc. because that's as much room as they have space for text. Which removes all the alleged helpfulness of having those taskbar buttons at all.
That's one of the reasons why Microsoft's UI Style Guide shifted from "app-centric" to "doc-centric": the browsers give the doc/page's title followed by the app's title. It avoids buttons that read "Micr...", "Micr...", "Micr..."
I don't know if computer interfaces ever will really achieve data centrism, but I think it's the right way to go. Give me a file, and if I don't have the widget that lets me view or edit it, let me get it.
Of course, it's exactly this trend that has also put Microsoft's security in the crapper: automatic installations of who-knows-what code.
The Constitution lays out how the Government works. Any attempt to do things differently would require an Amendment, which is a lot harder to pass than a regular law (thank goodness).
As we speak, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of Missouri's representatives. The Missouri people passed a reform: "when you're elected, you must sign this form saying you'll do everything in your power to get congressional term limits passed." If they don't sign the form, a black mark appears on their re-election ballot. If they go to Washington and don't write term limits stuff, or vote against term limits stuff, another black mark. I have a feeling the Supreme Court will empathize with the voters, but strike it down; once elected, Constituents cannot force the hand of the Representative so strongly.
Smaller elements of process, such as whether House votes are done by voice or are held accountable, may be changable. I hope so. C-SPAN has gone a long way to exposing the process to so many more people, but it's no where near enough.
I personally would like to see some more comparative data on those "know your representatives" websites.
For example, lets take a bio from a fictitious Congressman Tony Schnell*:
Tony Schnell, Republican, Anystate Serving Third Term as Congressman [list defeated opponents]
Voted for 15 bills ultimately Vetoed by Presidents [list vetoed bills]
Voted for 5 laws passed, provisions of which Struck Down by Supreme Court as Unconstititional [list unconstitutional laws]
Voted for 73 non-spending amendments to Appropriations bills [list unrelated riders]
Further, with some per-visitor preferences, those sites could help you watchdog your own pet issues. "Mark voting records for/against NRA positions," "for/against affirmative-action," "for/against abortion rights," etc.
We're in a Republic, disguised as a Democracy. In either case, a well-informed constituency giving their congress careful attention is the best weapon against the grandstanding anti-progress that we see on Capitol Hill every day.
* Tony Schnell (R), one of the prime supporters of the infamous email tax legislation.
Hm, conformity and military service go hand-in-hand. Are we talking about a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps member, bucking authority "every chance you got"?
Get 'im another bucket of 'taters to peel. He'll be on KP for a while longer.
In general, all the approaches for specific finding digits within transcendental (non-rational, radix patternless) numbers require discovery in order, from the greatest significant digit down. You can't find out the 50th digit without finding the 49th first and refining the result.
So yes, the guy has worked from finding it to be a little more than 3.0, to finding the next quadrillion fractional binary digits.
Patents are not about who is right, or who is first; patents are
about who can sue.
The US PTO is a money-making service for the government, and this fact is why it operates as it does.
There is a misconception that it is the central duty of the PTO to form a blockade against granting patents. The PTO can and will block applications where there's heavy similarity with prior art or existing patents, but that's really just a guideline to using the service, not the core function.
The PTO's purpose is to grant patents for a fee, and it's wholly suited to do so.
The application vetting process of the PTO is a cost center for the operation of the PTO. This is akin to saying that customer service is a cost center for the operation of AT&T. It is required, but they'll cut costs as much as they can get away with.
To fix the patent application vetting process, two things must happen:
Congress must stop using the PTO's filing fees as a revenue
source for other pet interests instead of the PTO's own budget, and
The PTO needs to allow third parties to aid the vetting process by challenging potential patents before
they're granted.
At the minimum, if the PTO would publish the abstract for each patent
application at the time of filing, then third parties could submit
"helpful" arguments against controversial applications. The PTO
shouldn't publish the details, just the abstract; the PTO can then weigh
obviousness against challenges without incurring the costs of doing all
the searching themselves.
Once a patent has been granted, the Patent Office does not get
involved in disputes; that is a matter for the courts.
This whole story should be marked (-1, Flamebait) or (-1, Troll).
The job shared by Hemos, CmdrTaco, et al., can be stated as publishing stories on the front page that will generate lots of page visits. To troll, in the fishing sense, is to put bait out that will generate predictable bites on the hook. Thus, Slashdot is a troll, but that's by design.
If you don't want to be baited, don't go somewhere that constantly and loudly claims to have nothing to do with professional journalism. They intend to get people to talk, even if it's on a gut-reaction level, as that is what pays the rent.
You haven't seen the scanner for the handspring only because you haven't looked!
So far, PalmGear's Springboard Module page hasn't listed a module for barcode scanning. Not saying that it doesn't exist yet, but PalmGear is the first place Handspring suggests you look for modules.
Do Linux's leading browsers or underlying GUI elements support keyboards? If not, go hack it in, it's not rocket science.
Windows' standard combobox control (drop down list, whatever) will jump to any item when you hit the initial letters. I see 'Angola' in a combo box, I hit U. If it says 'United Kingdom', I hit U again. Oooo, tough.
I'm from Michigan. That's the fourth M state in a dropdown of the United States' states. Do I holler about that?
Certainly there are better things to whine about. And personally, I think it's better if US-centric Americans were subtly reminded that the US isn't the whole world.
And Excel is called a spreadsheet, even though it really is an application that lets a user edit a spreadsheet. What's your point?
People mix and match levels of metaphor all the time. Sometimes, a tool and its function ARE the same thing (Hand me that level, I don't think this table is level).
If your mother wants to use the Internet because "it's included in her iMac," what's the point in correcting that level of semantics?
Seriously, though, the trademark for Sony's platform is PS2, not PS/2. The former stands for "PlayStation 2", and the latter is IBM's "Personal System/2".
Newest HPs and Compaqs have USB ports in little lidded bays on the front of the machine. With so many digital cameras and other 'guest' devices like these, it's a great idea.
I use SanDisk's CompactFlash reader, but SanDisk also makes similar SmartMedia readers. Often, the digital camera you buy will help you make the decision on what sort of removable media you use.:)
The other solution to this is to get a small unpowered USB hub, and put it wherever you want. The only USB device that I have that won't run on an unpowered hub is my scanner, so it takes power from my second motherboard port.
Now, if only SOME camera company would make a simple cradle solution so I don't have to keep fussing with tiny power and download plugs and removable media at all!
When I play First Person Shooter games, I remap all the commands I need to the numeric keypad area. Then, with LEFT hand on the keypad (keyboard moved leftward), and RIGHT hand on the mouse, I have all the controls I need without hand motion.
I started this with the first Descent, but it works for Hexen II or others, too.
/ = run forward
* = flare or torch
7,9 = roll left, roll right (Descent)
7,9 = turn left, turn right (others)
Slashdot Mirror
If there's supposed to be seperation of Church and State, why did I have to go to a local church to cast my vote this morning?
I've wondered the same, but usually the churches have the best price and location for the space rental.
Local government's buildings aren't usually big enough to deal with the crowds and reorganization for a day, or are too centralized to deal with semi-rural populations.
Many high schools and hospitals give up the use of their gymnasium for the day, but most businesses charge too much for the inconvenience.
Church buildings are designed for this sort of need: easily accessible by the elderly, open spaces for the booths, parking available, centered in neighborhoods, not much else going on on Tuesdays, etc.
If I'm not informed, I don't vote.
Hear, hear. Now, get informed!
Someone suggested that you should visit the Dems and Reps for their shining wisdom on the issues. That's one solution, but it's like asking a salesperson if the product will cure all ills: they'll say pretty much anything to get your vote. Also, forget the titles of the initiatives: "Defense of Marriage Act" was also known by names like the "Defense of Homophobia Act." They'll pick whatever catchphrase will troll your emotions (and thus your vote).
Rather, get some less biased literature. Every place I've lived, I've been able to find a pamphlet by the National League of Women Voters, or some other non-partisan organization, that lists the Pros and Cons for every ballot initiative, right next to each other.
I agree, don't vote on what you're not informed about. However, I'd take it a step further and vote NO CHANGE on initiatives or propositions that you don't understand, even after reading them. Propositions are written by special-interests, not by legislators who even pretend to have the general public's welfare at heart. If you can't understand the proposed law, it doesn't deserve passage.
(AirSwitch, the service the poster was hawking, seems to be a ground-based solution, not a satellite solution.) I fell asleep before their no-fast-forward "presentation" got to the point they explained it.
I'd still be interested in seeing the numbers involved for either or both of these. Tens or hundreds of milliseconds?
My manager has their service very fast about 2 to 3 meg and very low pings. Stuff like this is the future.
You didn't give any numbers for what you claim are "very low pings," but there's a pretty darn hard-to-avoid minimum ping.
Your signal's gotta go up to a satellite and back down to a receiving dish. It gets routed and handled, then your reply goes up to the satellite and back down to your own dish.
So, four times the bird's altitude, times the speed of light, gives you what MINIMUM ping delay? I don't have the numbers, but I expect someone here does.
Lots of talk about "the vote counters are using an application that is closed source, maybe there's fraud!"
I want to ask you how Open Source would sweep away those claims? Before you go, "Duh..."
Who says the source you're reading is the source they'd be using?
Just because they hand you a sheaf of source code and say, "look, no fraud," doesn't mean they are 100% certainly using only 100% that "illuminated" source code.
It's like the carnival magicians who let you examine the deck of cards (or even takes your deck of cards) before doing something improbable with them... "sleight of hand" and "illumination" may always be paired up.
your insinuation the Ghost in the Shell is not insanely great earns you a whipping.
It's very good, I have a copy on laserdisc. I also have all Armitage III issues, both editions of Blade Runner, and the original PKD novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." They're all essentially exploring the same plotline, I just think the Director's Cut of Blade Runner does it best visually and in its storytelling.
Also, I like all the different movies listed, for very different reasons. They also have parts about them that suck.
But which will be better... Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons?
Standard analogy format reads (A : B :: a : b), or 'A' is to 'B', as 'a' is to 'b'.
My guess, just from trailers (and I'm sure people will disagree)...
I don't know why these browsers weren't made MDI to start with.
MDI, Multiple Document Interface, was specifically deprecated in the Windows 95 User Interface Style Guide. That's why IE isn't MDI.
MDI has some advantages, I will admit it. I couldn't imagine a developers' IDE without it.
MDI is not document-centric (see my earlier point #219). It forces the user to consider the software application before (or instead of) the actual content.
In a doc-centric world, users avoid backward-trained mental processes like the following: "I want to see what bugs are open on my project; my bug list is shown on a sourceforge website; let me open my web browser to see that ." Instead, they click on a shortcut icon, a url link, a menu item or any other gateway, and the operating system opens the proper browser for the task.
The whole "task bar" thing in general drives me a little buggy ... I usually end up with a lot of tiny rectangles at the bottom of my screen that say "mozi" "mozi" "mozi" etc. because that's as much room as they have space for text. Which removes all the alleged helpfulness of having those taskbar buttons at all.
That's one of the reasons why Microsoft's UI Style Guide shifted from "app-centric" to "doc-centric": the browsers give the doc/page's title followed by the app's title. It avoids buttons that read "Micr...", "Micr...", "Micr..."
I don't know if computer interfaces ever will really achieve data centrism, but I think it's the right way to go. Give me a file, and if I don't have the widget that lets me view or edit it, let me get it.
Of course, it's exactly this trend that has also put Microsoft's security in the crapper: automatic installations of who-knows-what code.
The Constitution lays out how the Government works. Any attempt to do things differently would require an Amendment, which is a lot harder to pass than a regular law (thank goodness).
As we speak, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of Missouri's representatives. The Missouri people passed a reform: "when you're elected, you must sign this form saying you'll do everything in your power to get congressional term limits passed." If they don't sign the form, a black mark appears on their re-election ballot. If they go to Washington and don't write term limits stuff, or vote against term limits stuff, another black mark. I have a feeling the Supreme Court will empathize with the voters, but strike it down; once elected, Constituents cannot force the hand of the Representative so strongly.
Smaller elements of process, such as whether House votes are done by voice or are held accountable, may be changable. I hope so. C-SPAN has gone a long way to exposing the process to so many more people, but it's no where near enough.
I personally would like to see some more comparative data on those "know your representatives" websites.
For example, lets take a bio from a fictitious Congressman Tony Schnell*:
Tony Schnell, Republican, Anystate
Serving Third Term as Congressman [list defeated opponents]
Further, with some per-visitor preferences, those sites could help you watchdog your own pet issues. "Mark voting records for/against NRA positions," "for/against affirmative-action," "for/against abortion rights," etc.
We're in a Republic, disguised as a Democracy. In either case, a well-informed constituency giving their congress careful attention is the best weapon against the grandstanding anti-progress that we see on Capitol Hill every day.
* Tony Schnell (R), one of the prime supporters of the infamous email tax legislation.
"as well as being in the JROTC program"
Hm, conformity and military service go hand-in-hand. Are we talking about a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps member, bucking authority "every chance you got"?
Get 'im another bucket of 'taters to peel. He'll be on KP for a while longer.
In general, all the approaches for specific finding digits within transcendental (non-rational, radix patternless) numbers require discovery in order, from the greatest significant digit down. You can't find out the 50th digit without finding the 49th first and refining the result.
So yes, the guy has worked from finding it to be a little more than 3.0, to finding the next quadrillion fractional binary digits.
Do you have a link or reference that backs up that assertion?
At what point do you need to stop worrying about oxygen, so much as worrying about re-entry friction?
Compare this to
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday October 20, 1999 at 11:02AM EST
from the now-that-is-cool dept.
Yeah, they're both funny. But not very.
[stock rant on the subject]
Patents are not about who is right, or who is first; patents are about who can sue.
The US PTO is a money-making service for the government, and this fact is why it operates as it does.
There is a misconception that it is the central duty of the PTO to form a blockade against granting patents. The PTO can and will block applications where there's heavy similarity with prior art or existing patents, but that's really just a guideline to using the service, not the core function.
The PTO's purpose is to grant patents for a fee, and it's wholly suited to do so.
The application vetting process of the PTO is a cost center for the operation of the PTO. This is akin to saying that customer service is a cost center for the operation of AT&T. It is required, but they'll cut costs as much as they can get away with.
To fix the patent application vetting process, two things must happen:
At the minimum, if the PTO would publish the abstract for each patent application at the time of filing, then third parties could submit "helpful" arguments against controversial applications. The PTO shouldn't publish the details, just the abstract; the PTO can then weigh obviousness against challenges without incurring the costs of doing all the searching themselves.
Once a patent has been granted, the Patent Office does not get involved in disputes; that is a matter for the courts.
[end of stock rant on the subject]
[stock rant on the subject]
This whole story should be marked (-1, Flamebait) or (-1, Troll) .
The job shared by Hemos, CmdrTaco, et al., can be stated as publishing stories on the front page that will generate lots of page visits. To troll, in the fishing sense, is to put bait out that will generate predictable bites on the hook. Thus, Slashdot is a troll, but that's by design.
If you don't want to be baited, don't go somewhere that constantly and loudly claims to have nothing to do with professional journalism. They intend to get people to talk, even if it's on a gut-reaction level, as that is what pays the rent.
[end of stock rant on the subject]
You haven't seen the scanner for the handspring only because you haven't looked!
So far, PalmGear's Springboard Module page hasn't listed a module for barcode scanning. Not saying that it doesn't exist yet, but PalmGear is the first place Handspring suggests you look for modules.
Do Linux's leading browsers or underlying GUI elements support keyboards? If not, go hack it in, it's not rocket science.
Windows' standard combobox control (drop down list, whatever) will jump to any item when you hit the initial letters. I see 'Angola' in a combo box, I hit U. If it says 'United Kingdom', I hit U again. Oooo, tough.
I'm from Michigan. That's the fourth M state in a dropdown of the United States' states. Do I holler about that?
Certainly there are better things to whine about. And personally, I think it's better if US-centric Americans were subtly reminded that the US isn't the whole world.
And Excel is called a spreadsheet, even though it really is an application that lets a user edit a spreadsheet. What's your point?
People mix and match levels of metaphor all the time. Sometimes, a tool and its function ARE the same thing (Hand me that level, I don't think this table is level).
If your mother wants to use the Internet because "it's included in her iMac," what's the point in correcting that level of semantics?
Even IBM doesn't list it on their public history of milestones pages. :)
Seriously, though, the trademark for Sony's platform is PS2, not PS/2. The former stands for "PlayStation 2", and the latter is IBM's "Personal System/2".
Newest HPs and Compaqs have USB ports in little lidded bays on the front of the machine. With so many digital cameras and other 'guest' devices like these, it's a great idea.
I use SanDisk's CompactFlash reader, but SanDisk also makes similar SmartMedia readers. Often, the digital camera you buy will help you make the decision on what sort of removable media you use. :)
The other solution to this is to get a small unpowered USB hub, and put it wherever you want. The only USB device that I have that won't run on an unpowered hub is my scanner, so it takes power from my second motherboard port.
Now, if only SOME camera company would make a simple cradle solution so I don't have to keep fussing with tiny power and download plugs and removable media at all!
leftmouse = fire
rightmouse = mouselook (with lookspring ON)
When I play First Person Shooter games, I remap all the commands I need to the numeric keypad area. Then, with LEFT hand on the keypad (keyboard moved leftward), and RIGHT hand on the mouse, I have all the controls I need without hand motion.
I started this with the first Descent, but it works for Hexen II or others, too.
7,9 = turn left, turn right (others)
There, now I don't need to spend money on a gadget that only has nine programmable keys.