Is it just me, or are the headlines and summaries becoming more and more sarcastic and twisted, especially with regards to anything Apple-related?
Apple May Be Intel Show Pony Indeed, twisted by the Dark Side of the Source, young Zawinski has become.
And that's just on the front page this morning! It's not that I have anything against a little editorializing, but these don't even seem like relevant comments any more...
Not to mention that the "open platform" actually consists of letting some outside developers license certain aspects of AIM and its protocols. In particular, there will be some sort of plug-in architecture -- so no chance of getting better access to the protocols for 3rd party use. They aren't actually doing much "opening up," so much as making more business opportunities for themselves.
However, there is some English precedent for this as well. After the "middle ages," rulers made a ridiculous number of crimes into hanging offenses, often minor matters as well as major ones. Judges and juries eventually began to deal with this by simply refusing to convict people, even obviously guilty ones, because the punishment would have to be too harsh. This eventually helped fuel major changes in the judicial system.
That said, my history is a bit rusty and I'm sure I got a few details wrong. But this sort of activity has certainly existed before.
I tried this from http://www.google.ca/ which is the default Canadian Google page. In the process of setting it up, the server somehow ended up sending me into a redirect loop which caused Firefox to balk and never actually got my customizations set up. The loop was between google.ca and google.com. Bizarre...
It advances Disney's economic interests, but it surely diminishes the artistic community as a whole to have everything slowly fall under perpetual copyright.
Anyone who hasn't, should read Spider Robinson's short story, "Melancholy Elephants." While perhaps a bit over the top, it has some good things to say about perpetual copyrights.
The user is responsible for organizing the contents (such as adding keywords for "mackinaw bridge" OR putting it in a directory named for the date, etc
You are partly right. Adding metadata for "Mackinaw Bridge" would be the user's responsibility. But if you put them into a "Mackinaw Bridge Trip 2005" album in iPhoto, or tag them in iPhoto otherwise, that automatically becomes metadata. You are completely wrong on dates -- most digital cameras include the date taken in metadata, and the file creation and modification dates are automatically searched anyhow. Basically, the point is that data is taken from things users already do (with no thought as to their searching potential) -- such as tagging photos or mp3's, etc. Applications are largely responsible for adding useable metadata transparently, to make files easier to identify. That takes NO user effort.
As other posters have mentioned, there are some seriously useful other features, such as live-updating searches ("any time you see a new file with "Unfinished" in the title, add it to the search results") -- that requires user intervention, indeed, but it produces a result that you are unlikely to get through your own efforts.
I'm not sure where that's coming from. I can't speak for Longhorn's search features, but Spotlight (in OS X 10.4) will search based on contents, file name, and tons of metadata. You could toss your files onto your hard disk in any random way you want, and it would be equally efficient at searching as if you had organized it in a more human-friendly way.
Ideally, if you can't remember what you called the document, then maybe you can remember a few key words from its contents, the approximate day when you created it, some metadata such as "photo taken at the Mackinaw Bridge" or something like that.
So while this may not be groundbreakingly new, I think that Spotlight really will provide USEFUL features. Based on what I've seen in previews and whatnot, it would be extremely useful to have an always-ready and always-accessible search feature which can handle metadata easily.
I find that any internet addiction I may have disappears very quickly when I visit my parents. They still dial in to the local provider, and because they live in the middle of nowhere, the top speed they get is 24kbps. Even email checking can get really painful at that level, and don't even try to IM someone at the same time!
A good book and maybe a paper take care of my time then.
I should try using a toonie next time I visit the US. I can see it now...
dcclark walks up to the cashier with a $1 (US) purchase and a toonie in hand.
Me: Here ya go, eh?
Clerk: You seem to have handed me a penny smashed into a half dollar. Clearly half-dollars are not legal currency. Plus your accent has outed you as a, uh, one of those people from the state of Canadia. GUARDS!!
It works by scanning text for keywords, phrases and language patterns.
Which is to say, this prof is asking students to regurgitate data. Given, a certain level of base knowledge is necessary in any class and topic, and regurgitation (aka parroting) is an easy way to check that base knowledge. If a paper is assigned on a particular topic that they've been studying, then this sort of program can easily check for base level ability to spit back key words and phrases.
But, I seriously doubt that the class is ONLY about that base knowledge -- or that the program can reasonably check for anything more. I've had classes where the prof or graders did basically the same thing that this program does (i.e. check only for key words, phrases, and patterns they want to see), and I have little respect for those profs.
If you don't want to put even a basic amount of effort into checking a paper, don't assign it -- find some better way to check students' progress.
allegations!? Bullshit! They ripped of code and there's no argument about it, so can we please stop debating this and nail them to a wall, thank you.
Surprisingly, the purpose of a lawsuit is to actually look at the evidence in a controlled manner and determine whether Maui X-Stream truly did rip off the PearPC code and break the PearPC license. As obvious as it may seem to us, following the legal forms is pretty dang important as well, as you might agree if you were being sued.
Re:Don't mean to be a dick...
on
Apple Easter Egg
·
· Score: 3, Informative
It was, among other things, hidden in an invisible folder deep inside the Installer disk, where nobody who wasn't looking for it would ever be looking.
In addition, the news is that it's available online (specifically as a Torrent) now, not that somebody found it for the first time. I remember reading this on the (long defunct) appleeastereggs.com site about 7 years ago.
I think this was the same UMich server that got taken out by a/. story around exam time last December. It's probably close to midterm/exam time there now. I smell a conspiracy... "but the server was slashdotted! How could I look up the course materials?"
Bad habit to reply to my own post, but I made a mistake. It wasn't Rogers, but rather Bell Sympatico -- so as not to point fingers in the wrong direction. There were also more censored bits. If you're interested, here's the ad itself: Bell Sympatico Ad
I received a flyer in the mail last week from Rogers (a big cable/internet service hereabouts in Ontario). The headline on the front was "You'll do anything to keep your kids from seeing inappropriate material... so will we." I nearly tossed it (I'm a student in student housing), but I looked again... the REST of the front was an image of an encyclopedia page, one of those standard full-color bits that show a peel-away view of the human body. This one was a muscle diagram, showing the major muscle groups. The sketch was female, and sure enough, the groin and chest areas had been physically cut out of the flyer, apparently to make Rogers' point that parents would reasonably do things like this. The image didn't even have any skin, it was a freakin' muscle diagram just like most of us see in 7th grade science!
So the obvious message was, "We will keep your kids from seeing legitimate, educational material. We will go overboard just like you."
Will the lists in Utah be "reasonable," with ideas like that being supposedly "mainstream"? I'm not holding my breath.
It should be made clear that this bill does NOT force ISP's to block the sites all the time, but rather forces them to block those sites for specific subscribers, upon request. So this is basically saying "if you want to block people from accessing these sites from your home, your ISP will do this for you."
Not that I think this law is a good idea, but it's easy to read a bit fast and mistake it for something even worse.
I used to work in the box office at a performing arts center. We took credit card orders all the time, and all of us knew that we had to double-check the signatures. I remember more than one patron being very indignant when I refused to accept a card with "See ID" (or "CID") on the back, or worse yet, no signature at all.
"Can I just sign the card now?"
"I'm sorry, but I have no way of verifying your signature then."
"But nobody else ever cares!"
"I'm afraid that we do."
It's times like that that a boss who backs you up is a very, very helpful thing. (We would still take a different, and signed, credit card from them. We weren't total jerks!)
Does this actually matter?
on
MSN Sponsors Mensa
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Call me cynical, but how many people will this affect in any way? I see Google or MSN search boxes on all sorts of pages, but I never use them. They seem like a strange relic, more of a "Look what I can add to my site!" element. If I want to search for something, I'll go to Google itself or the handy-dandy search box in my browser's toolbar.
On the other side of things, I can't ever find ANYTHING on the horribly busy and disorganized MSN homepage anyhow, so I'm not sure MENSA questions on there will even be noticed.
Given all of that... if MENSA has someone new to feed them money for events, more power to them. I don't think there's anything to really care about here.
Other employees could not find the caller's name on a global IRS employee directory but gave their information anyway. Some hesitated but got approval from their managers to cooperate.
Scary.
Call me silly, but I think people should know that ANYONE in a position to legitimately be messing around with your account already has the ability to do what they need without giving you a call. There should be a simple policy (and maybe there even is, but obviously even some managers don't know): DON'T give out your password or userid to anyone. Period. And start telling that to the managers!
On the other hand, it was a BASIC Sierpinski Gasket generator that first got me seriously interested in mathematics, and computational mathematics in particular.
Sierpinski gaskets are particularly good for this situation. Think of it this way: it's Pretty Pictures, combined with a really easy explanation ("You draw a triangle, put down your pencil, and roll this die. If it's 1 or 2, go halfway to this corner. If it's 3 or 4 (etc.) Then do it again. See what picture you get."), and simple code where you can point out "Here's where I go halfway to a corner. What if I went 1/4 of the way there? Give it a try!" Or, "here's what it looks like if every time you go to the top, you make a green point, every time you go left, you make a blue point..."
So yes, fractals could make a very good choice. It'll keep attention for a bit, and maybe even get some kids interested.
Gaim/Adium/otherwise libgaim-based folks, don't forget Off The Record encryption, which can encrypt your messages regardless of the protocol. No worries if you have things to say over AIM that you REALLY don't want others to see. But if that's the case... why are you saying them over AIM anyhow?
I don't want to get in trouble for not keeping all of my numerous sites up to date.
Are those personal sites? No worries. You can let them rot and maybe your friends and family will bug you. But if they are business-related sites for an active business such as the restaurant in this article, then you DO have a responsibility to either keep the site up to date, or make it obvious that the site is inaccurate and people coming to your shop should be prepared for different prices and availability. If you are a business owner, you have a responsibility not to advertise falsely, in whatever manner you choose to advertise.
It's not unlike putting out a pile of ads for people to pick up which list your prices as of half a year ago. If your prices are significantly different, you don't carry half those items any more, etc. then you are indeed falsely advertising. The difference is that an old flyer usually appears physically old, but a website can hide its age.
Speaking as a student living in Canada and using Canadian broadband, I highly approve of this move by our most excellent and intelligent government! They truly are a wonderful bunch of beautiful and caring people!
Slashdot Mirror
Is it just me, or are the headlines and summaries becoming more and more sarcastic and twisted, especially with regards to anything Apple-related?
Apple May Be Intel Show Pony
Indeed, twisted by the Dark Side of the Source, young Zawinski has become.
And that's just on the front page this morning! It's not that I have anything against a little editorializing, but these don't even seem like relevant comments any more...
In addition, CNET's main answer to the insane technical issues that this would involve is, "Steve Jobs said it would work."
Not to mention that the "open platform" actually consists of letting some outside developers license certain aspects of AIM and its protocols. In particular, there will be some sort of plug-in architecture -- so no chance of getting better access to the protocols for 3rd party use. They aren't actually doing much "opening up," so much as making more business opportunities for themselves.
However, there is some English precedent for this as well. After the "middle ages," rulers made a ridiculous number of crimes into hanging offenses, often minor matters as well as major ones. Judges and juries eventually began to deal with this by simply refusing to convict people, even obviously guilty ones, because the punishment would have to be too harsh. This eventually helped fuel major changes in the judicial system.
That said, my history is a bit rusty and I'm sure I got a few details wrong. But this sort of activity has certainly existed before.
I tried this from http://www.google.ca/ which is the default Canadian Google page. In the process of setting it up, the server somehow ended up sending me into a redirect loop which caused Firefox to balk and never actually got my customizations set up. The loop was between google.ca and google.com. Bizarre...
It advances Disney's economic interests, but it surely diminishes the artistic community as a whole to have everything slowly fall under perpetual copyright.
Anyone who hasn't, should read Spider Robinson's short story, "Melancholy Elephants." While perhaps a bit over the top, it has some good things to say about perpetual copyrights.
The user is responsible for organizing the contents (such as adding keywords for "mackinaw bridge" OR putting it in a directory named for the date, etc
You are partly right. Adding metadata for "Mackinaw Bridge" would be the user's responsibility. But if you put them into a "Mackinaw Bridge Trip 2005" album in iPhoto, or tag them in iPhoto otherwise, that automatically becomes metadata. You are completely wrong on dates -- most digital cameras include the date taken in metadata, and the file creation and modification dates are automatically searched anyhow. Basically, the point is that data is taken from things users already do (with no thought as to their searching potential) -- such as tagging photos or mp3's, etc. Applications are largely responsible for adding useable metadata transparently, to make files easier to identify. That takes NO user effort.
As other posters have mentioned, there are some seriously useful other features, such as live-updating searches ("any time you see a new file with "Unfinished" in the title, add it to the search results") -- that requires user intervention, indeed, but it produces a result that you are unlikely to get through your own efforts.
I'm not sure where that's coming from. I can't speak for Longhorn's search features, but Spotlight (in OS X 10.4) will search based on contents, file name, and tons of metadata. You could toss your files onto your hard disk in any random way you want, and it would be equally efficient at searching as if you had organized it in a more human-friendly way.
Ideally, if you can't remember what you called the document, then maybe you can remember a few key words from its contents, the approximate day when you created it, some metadata such as "photo taken at the Mackinaw Bridge" or something like that.
So while this may not be groundbreakingly new, I think that Spotlight really will provide USEFUL features. Based on what I've seen in previews and whatnot, it would be extremely useful to have an always-ready and always-accessible search feature which can handle metadata easily.
... but, wow:
... and a typical American house takeing at least six months to complete...
A neight feet tall and six feet wide phototype house building machine...
That's some amazing editing!
I find that any internet addiction I may have disappears very quickly when I visit my parents. They still dial in to the local provider, and because they live in the middle of nowhere, the top speed they get is 24kbps. Even email checking can get really painful at that level, and don't even try to IM someone at the same time!
A good book and maybe a paper take care of my time then.
I should try using a toonie next time I visit the US. I can see it now...
dcclark walks up to the cashier with a $1 (US) purchase and a toonie in hand.
Me: Here ya go, eh?
Clerk: You seem to have handed me a penny smashed into a half dollar. Clearly half-dollars are not legal currency. Plus your accent has outed you as a, uh, one of those people from the state of Canadia. GUARDS!!
It works by scanning text for keywords, phrases and language patterns.
Which is to say, this prof is asking students to regurgitate data. Given, a certain level of base knowledge is necessary in any class and topic, and regurgitation (aka parroting) is an easy way to check that base knowledge. If a paper is assigned on a particular topic that they've been studying, then this sort of program can easily check for base level ability to spit back key words and phrases.
But, I seriously doubt that the class is ONLY about that base knowledge -- or that the program can reasonably check for anything more. I've had classes where the prof or graders did basically the same thing that this program does (i.e. check only for key words, phrases, and patterns they want to see), and I have little respect for those profs.
If you don't want to put even a basic amount of effort into checking a paper, don't assign it -- find some better way to check students' progress.
allegations!? Bullshit! They ripped of code and there's no argument about it, so can we please stop debating this and nail them to a wall, thank you.
Surprisingly, the purpose of a lawsuit is to actually look at the evidence in a controlled manner and determine whether Maui X-Stream truly did rip off the PearPC code and break the PearPC license. As obvious as it may seem to us, following the legal forms is pretty dang important as well, as you might agree if you were being sued.
It was, among other things, hidden in an invisible folder deep inside the Installer disk, where nobody who wasn't looking for it would ever be looking.
In addition, the news is that it's available online (specifically as a Torrent) now, not that somebody found it for the first time. I remember reading this on the (long defunct) appleeastereggs.com site about 7 years ago.
I think this was the same UMich server that got taken out by a /. story around exam time last December. It's probably close to midterm/exam time there now. I smell a conspiracy... "but the server was slashdotted! How could I look up the course materials?"
Bad habit to reply to my own post, but I made a mistake. It wasn't Rogers, but rather Bell Sympatico -- so as not to point fingers in the wrong direction. There were also more censored bits. If you're interested, here's the ad itself: Bell Sympatico Ad
Serves me right for posting from memory!
eb.com...
I received a flyer in the mail last week from Rogers (a big cable/internet service hereabouts in Ontario). The headline on the front was "You'll do anything to keep your kids from seeing inappropriate material... so will we." I nearly tossed it (I'm a student in student housing), but I looked again... the REST of the front was an image of an encyclopedia page, one of those standard full-color bits that show a peel-away view of the human body. This one was a muscle diagram, showing the major muscle groups. The sketch was female, and sure enough, the groin and chest areas had been physically cut out of the flyer, apparently to make Rogers' point that parents would reasonably do things like this. The image didn't even have any skin, it was a freakin' muscle diagram just like most of us see in 7th grade science!
So the obvious message was, "We will keep your kids from seeing legitimate, educational material. We will go overboard just like you."
Will the lists in Utah be "reasonable," with ideas like that being supposedly "mainstream"? I'm not holding my breath.
It should be made clear that this bill does NOT force ISP's to block the sites all the time, but rather forces them to block those sites for specific subscribers, upon request. So this is basically saying "if you want to block people from accessing these sites from your home, your ISP will do this for you."
Not that I think this law is a good idea, but it's easy to read a bit fast and mistake it for something even worse.
I used to work in the box office at a performing arts center. We took credit card orders all the time, and all of us knew that we had to double-check the signatures. I remember more than one patron being very indignant when I refused to accept a card with "See ID" (or "CID") on the back, or worse yet, no signature at all.
"Can I just sign the card now?"
"I'm sorry, but I have no way of verifying your signature then."
"But nobody else ever cares!"
"I'm afraid that we do."
It's times like that that a boss who backs you up is a very, very helpful thing. (We would still take a different, and signed, credit card from them. We weren't total jerks!)
Call me cynical, but how many people will this affect in any way? I see Google or MSN search boxes on all sorts of pages, but I never use them. They seem like a strange relic, more of a "Look what I can add to my site!" element. If I want to search for something, I'll go to Google itself or the handy-dandy search box in my browser's toolbar.
On the other side of things, I can't ever find ANYTHING on the horribly busy and disorganized MSN homepage anyhow, so I'm not sure MENSA questions on there will even be noticed.
Given all of that... if MENSA has someone new to feed them money for events, more power to them. I don't think there's anything to really care about here.
Other employees could not find the caller's name on a global IRS employee directory but gave their information anyway. Some hesitated but got approval from their managers to cooperate.
Scary.
Call me silly, but I think people should know that ANYONE in a position to legitimately be messing around with your account already has the ability to do what they need without giving you a call. There should be a simple policy (and maybe there even is, but obviously even some managers don't know): DON'T give out your password or userid to anyone. Period. And start telling that to the managers!
On the other hand, it was a BASIC Sierpinski Gasket generator that first got me seriously interested in mathematics, and computational mathematics in particular.
Sierpinski gaskets are particularly good for this situation. Think of it this way: it's Pretty Pictures, combined with a really easy explanation ("You draw a triangle, put down your pencil, and roll this die. If it's 1 or 2, go halfway to this corner. If it's 3 or 4 (etc.) Then do it again. See what picture you get."), and simple code where you can point out "Here's where I go halfway to a corner. What if I went 1/4 of the way there? Give it a try!" Or, "here's what it looks like if every time you go to the top, you make a green point, every time you go left, you make a blue point..."
So yes, fractals could make a very good choice. It'll keep attention for a bit, and maybe even get some kids interested.
Gaim/Adium/otherwise libgaim-based folks, don't forget Off The Record encryption, which can encrypt your messages regardless of the protocol. No worries if you have things to say over AIM that you REALLY don't want others to see. But if that's the case... why are you saying them over AIM anyhow?
I don't want to get in trouble for not keeping all of my numerous sites up to date.
Are those personal sites? No worries. You can let them rot and maybe your friends and family will bug you. But if they are business-related sites for an active business such as the restaurant in this article, then you DO have a responsibility to either keep the site up to date, or make it obvious that the site is inaccurate and people coming to your shop should be prepared for different prices and availability. If you are a business owner, you have a responsibility not to advertise falsely, in whatever manner you choose to advertise.
It's not unlike putting out a pile of ads for people to pick up which list your prices as of half a year ago. If your prices are significantly different, you don't carry half those items any more, etc. then you are indeed falsely advertising. The difference is that an old flyer usually appears physically old, but a website can hide its age.
Speaking as a student living in Canada and using Canadian broadband, I highly approve of this move by our most excellent and intelligent government! They truly are a wonderful bunch of beautiful and caring people!
psst... End-Say Elp-Hay Ow-Nay!