Doctors recommended growth hormone therapy early in Brooke's life, but the treatment produced no results. Howard Greenberg recalled the follow-up visit to the endocrinologist. "We took her back in six months, and the doctor looked at us and said, 'Why didn't you give Brooke the growth hormones?' And I said, 'We gave Brooke the growth hormones. We gave her everything you told us to do.' And Brooke didn't put on a pound, an ounce; she didn't grow an inch."
So clearly an HGH deficiency isn't the (only) issue, it's that her HGH receptors don't respond to the hormone. But, to the best of my knowledge, that wouldn't account for a lack of mental development. This sounds like a combination of many factors coming together.
I'll have to take a look to see if there's anything written from a medical perspective (e.g., a journal paper) on this case. It could be interesting to hear what the doctors have to say, as opposed to what ABC News reports the poor mother has to say (projecting her wishes onto her daughter: thinking she's a rebellious teenager when really she's just an infant).
I found God - the Lord gives me the ability to mingle with society as the techie I am without the fear of what people will think or how they will react...
One possibility would be to create a family "treasure chest" of sorts. Well in advance of the holiday season, ask everyone in the family to contribute something (according to a theme). Then, you collect all the submissions and put them (along with your letter) on each USB drive.
As a concrete example of a theme, one year an aunt of mine asked everyone in the family to contribute their favourite recipe. Then, she typed all of them up and sent everyone a collected-effort recipe book. It was such a simple thing, but everyone in the family loved it.
You could do this with any number of themes: recipes, old photographs, favourite stories from the past, etc. Then, put your Christmas letter along with this treasure chest on the USB drives.
Pictures of your family for Christmas, home movies, etc, each encrypted with a different key you send to your recipients on each day in December [...]
I would use password-based cryptography, instead of sending them actual cryptographic keys by e-mail. Not only is it easier for the recipients, but you could choose fairly weak, Christmas-themed passwords (e.g., "snowflake," "cookie," "Santa," etc.). That way, the "peekers" in the family could try to guess the passwords in advance!
And I agree whole-heartily with the GP: make the USB drives into some sort of ornament. You could even use coloured pipe cleaners and those goofy stick-on eyes to make the USB keys look like reindeer. That way, the drives don't go to waste.
That episode was by far one of the best Star Trek episodes (in my opinion, up there with "In the Pale Moonlight" from DS9). To tie your comment into the movie review, Memory Alpha says that Rick Berman hated the entire premise of Darmok. If Memory Alpha is accurate, all I can do is shake my head...
Like many Slashdot users, I run both NoScript and AdBlock Plus.
Had NoScript asked me if I wanted to whitelist adds on their site (in my AdBlock preferences) to support NoScript development, I would have happily clicked "Yes."
As it is, I've left the NoScript whitelist intact in my AdBlock preferences, because I do want to support their development (NoScript leaves a comment in the AdBlock preferences indicating that this whitelist can be disabled easily). That said, I would have been much happier had my permission been asked!
The fill-in tax forms had a lot of behind-the-scenes scripting (javascript, I assume) and only worked with the Adobe browser plugin.
I can second this: I've encountered fill-in forms that just didn't play nicely with Preview.app.
Another issue is that the full-screen presentation mode in Acrobat works much more nicely for, e.g., giving PDF presentations compiled in LaTeX. It works with clickers for advancing slides.
Let's hope the game's storyline will at least be somewhat compelling this time.
If they want my money, how about making the game fun -- that seems like a good goal. FF4-FF7 were incredibly fun, but they seriously lost their way with later games. FF8 was an exercise in redundancy (draw, draw, draw...). FF10 had a painful level dynamic (having to bring every character into every fight, in order to actually level up your party). FF12 lost me the moment I realized that if I opened the wrong treasure chest at the beginning of the game, I'd be screwed out of something much later in the game.
Focus on pure fun, the way FF5 did (the job system was great); or, tell an amazing story in a fashion that is enjoyable to play, as FF7 did. If they can't fix this horrifically paced, guidebook-requiring style of game that FF has become, I'll spend my money on a different game.
[...] he was deported after he'd been jailed for 6 years
As a quick correction to your post, he was actually jailed for six months. He had been sentenced to six years, but that was reduced to three years because of his guilty plea. He was pardoned about a month after his guilty plea, having spent a total of six months in prison.
While it is sucks that there may have to be a retrial, the important of impartial justice supersedes the inconvenience.
If only I had mod points. The potential issue is that a juror may have been showboating (i.e., not being impartial). The fact that it was done using Twitter is irrelevant. It's really no different than if he went home and said these things to everyone in person...except that the lawyers probably wouldn't have known about it then.
Anyone interested in the serious (mathematical, formal proofs, etc.) side of RTS games may find the following an interesting companion read: ORTS. The goal of this project is to develop an RTS platform that can serve as a testbed for real AI research. In other words, a supercomputer could play against you, or even help you by controlling some of your units (roll your own client).
I'm not involved with this project in any way, but it looks pretty exciting. It looks like a bunch of people who contributed to this project wound up at Bioware.
[...] how is a politician like me going to get re-elected on the nanny vote with a message like that, hmm??? [...] Yeah, you obviously didn't think that one through, did you? That's why I'm a senator and you aint!
Despite being a tongue-in-cheek joke, your comment says so very much.
I'd love to enter politics, because I feel like I could make a difference, and because I would love to help solve some of the problems faced by the people in my country. That being said, I know that my voicemail would be filled with non-sarcastic versions of your post, 24/7.
I'm honestly curious how many people with a passion for solving problems were driven away from politics for this very reason. After all, an aspiration to genuinely confront issues is rarely compatible with appealing to the lowest common denominator (and thus being electable).
Wow... wooooooosh. Did you even read my post? Past the first sentence?
Fine, I'll feed the troll. Yeah, I read your post. Yes, I thought the comic was funny. And yes, I understand full well that the even the strongest crypto will not withstand social engineering.
That being said, you could have made your point better by getting your facts straight. As one small suggestion: "there's no *practical* difference between, say, 80-bit encryption and 256-bit encryption because...". Given that many people don't understand the difference between symmetric and asymmetric crypto, I though something informative was in order, rather than allowing implicit misinformation to propagate.
It's become quite the popular thing to reply "whoosh" to any post on Slashdot and think you're being clever. Next time, either take the opportunity to learn something, or at least be slightly original.
Wouldn't the old-school on-off switch work just as well?
Provided that the power switch is visible and easily accessible to parents, then yes. And hey, it doesn't even need to be red -- I think the "red button" idea is metaphorical.
But, think about it. Like many people on Slashdot, I'm an advocate of responsible parenting: know what your children are doing (within bounds of privacy, dependent on the child's maturity), set reasonable boundaries, and take opportunities to discuss things with your children (i.e., make things learning experiences where possible). Is it such a bad idea, if a parent sees a child exposed to inappropriate media (whether it be music, television, or video games, always taking into account the age and maturity of the child), to hit the power switch? What better time to have a discussion with your child?
I mean, you could try to have a discussion hours later. Or, you could turn off the inappropriate movie / video game / whatever, and have a discussion about, e.g., reality vs. fiction. If you, as a parent, are convinced that the child understands the implications of whatever media they were viewing, and that they are mature enough to view it / play with it, then turn it back on. Worst case, your child is pouty about having to go back to their last save point.
Sure as hell beats being one of those parents who doesn't understand why the government didn't stop them from purchasing GTA IV for their six-year-old.
The point of the comic is that there's no *practical* difference between, say, 128-bit encryption and 4096-bit encryption [...]
There's a huge difference. When you see numbers like "128-bit," you're dealing with a symmetric encryption algorithm (e.g., AES). When you see numbers like "4096-bit," you're dealing with an asymmetric algorithm (e.g., RSA).
See the NIST Recommendation for Key Management (PDF), page 63. For example, to get RSA that is "equivalently" secure (for some predicted meaning of equivalent) to AES-128, you need a 3072-bit key. The table is explained on page 62.
As an aside, the comparably small key sizes that asymmetric elliptic curve cryptograph (ECC) can use, illustrated on page 63, are one of the reasons that ECC is so valuable.
Studies that are more in depth than the ones trying to promote their agenda have all shown that eating some meat (as part of a balanced diet) is healthier than eating no meat.
That was an excellent point: only compare vegetarians/vegans who put some thought into their food with carnivores who put some thought into their food. Not to mention, a vegetarian would immediately have to turn down, e.g., meat lover's pizza (mmm...heart stopping).
Do you have any links / sources for those more in-depth, non-PETA studies? I'd be curious to see better coverage of the topic, as opposed to the rantings of PETA.
With Illico (Videotron) in Quebec, we had the American ads on NBCHD.
I can confirm the same on the NBCHD channel using Shaw in Edmonton. I can't figure out why the American HD channels are treated differently than standard channels.
I'm somewhat surprised that commercials are actually slightly amusing during the Super Bowl. Why don't advertisers do this all year long, rather than have annoying people yelling at me (at which point I hit mute and read for a few minutes until my show comes back on)? Wouldn't they see better (i.e., viral) interest in their ads?
I don't see how it's any different from say studying the theory of chess
It's actually an even more complex and more interesting thing to study than chess, despite its "humble" origins as just a video game played by the masses. Players have to work with incomplete knowledge (they cannot see all of the opponents' pieces, like in chess). Notice also that opponents was plural -- enemies may turn on each other, or gang up on you. Also, in chess you have time to sit and think (aside from not overrunning the game clock), whereas in RTS games, sitting and thinking is rarely valuable: usually you're better off doing something than nothing at all.
...and that's just from the point of view of a human player. Now, try getting an AI to play an RTS instead of chess, and I think you'll quickly find the complexity of the game to be quite a challenge.
Slashdot Mirror
I know. Thanks, FiendFreed!
So clearly an HGH deficiency isn't the (only) issue, it's that her HGH receptors don't respond to the hormone. But, to the best of my knowledge, that wouldn't account for a lack of mental development. This sounds like a combination of many factors coming together.
I'll have to take a look to see if there's anything written from a medical perspective (e.g., a journal paper) on this case. It could be interesting to hear what the doctors have to say, as opposed to what ABC News reports the poor mother has to say (projecting her wishes onto her daughter: thinking she's a rebellious teenager when really she's just an infant).
I find rum gives me the same ability :)
Umm, encryption of...what, exactly?
Are we talking about the flash drive being encrypted? Are we talking about the iPhone finally supporting PGP?
One possibility would be to create a family "treasure chest" of sorts. Well in advance of the holiday season, ask everyone in the family to contribute something (according to a theme). Then, you collect all the submissions and put them (along with your letter) on each USB drive.
As a concrete example of a theme, one year an aunt of mine asked everyone in the family to contribute their favourite recipe. Then, she typed all of them up and sent everyone a collected-effort recipe book. It was such a simple thing, but everyone in the family loved it.
You could do this with any number of themes: recipes, old photographs, favourite stories from the past, etc. Then, put your Christmas letter along with this treasure chest on the USB drives.
I would use password-based cryptography, instead of sending them actual cryptographic keys by e-mail. Not only is it easier for the recipients, but you could choose fairly weak, Christmas-themed passwords (e.g., "snowflake," "cookie," "Santa," etc.). That way, the "peekers" in the family could try to guess the passwords in advance!
And I agree whole-heartily with the GP: make the USB drives into some sort of ornament. You could even use coloured pipe cleaners and those goofy stick-on eyes to make the USB keys look like reindeer. That way, the drives don't go to waste.
So that someone would make a fan site about the movie?
That episode was by far one of the best Star Trek episodes (in my opinion, up there with "In the Pale Moonlight" from DS9). To tie your comment into the movie review, Memory Alpha says that Rick Berman hated the entire premise of Darmok. If Memory Alpha is accurate, all I can do is shake my head...
Like many Slashdot users, I run both NoScript and AdBlock Plus.
Had NoScript asked me if I wanted to whitelist adds on their site (in my AdBlock preferences) to support NoScript development, I would have happily clicked "Yes."
As it is, I've left the NoScript whitelist intact in my AdBlock preferences, because I do want to support their development (NoScript leaves a comment in the AdBlock preferences indicating that this whitelist can be disabled easily). That said, I would have been much happier had my permission been asked!
I can second this: I've encountered fill-in forms that just didn't play nicely with Preview.app.
Another issue is that the full-screen presentation mode in Acrobat works much more nicely for, e.g., giving PDF presentations compiled in LaTeX. It works with clickers for advancing slides.
If they want my money, how about making the game fun -- that seems like a good goal. FF4-FF7 were incredibly fun, but they seriously lost their way with later games. FF8 was an exercise in redundancy (draw, draw, draw...). FF10 had a painful level dynamic (having to bring every character into every fight, in order to actually level up your party). FF12 lost me the moment I realized that if I opened the wrong treasure chest at the beginning of the game, I'd be screwed out of something much later in the game.
Focus on pure fun, the way FF5 did (the job system was great); or, tell an amazing story in a fashion that is enjoyable to play, as FF7 did. If they can't fix this horrifically paced, guidebook-requiring style of game that FF has become, I'll spend my money on a different game.
As a quick correction to your post, he was actually jailed for six months. He had been sentenced to six years, but that was reduced to three years because of his guilty plea. He was pardoned about a month after his guilty plea, having spent a total of six months in prison.
Of course, it's still absolutely ridiculous!
(Source)
I think he may have been looking for the other kind.
See?
Umm, I'm not sure I should take etiquette lessons from you :)
If only I had mod points. The potential issue is that a juror may have been showboating (i.e., not being impartial). The fact that it was done using Twitter is irrelevant. It's really no different than if he went home and said these things to everyone in person...except that the lawyers probably wouldn't have known about it then.
Anyone interested in the serious (mathematical, formal proofs, etc.) side of RTS games may find the following an interesting companion read: ORTS. The goal of this project is to develop an RTS platform that can serve as a testbed for real AI research. In other words, a supercomputer could play against you, or even help you by controlling some of your units (roll your own client).
I'm not involved with this project in any way, but it looks pretty exciting. It looks like a bunch of people who contributed to this project wound up at Bioware.
Despite being a tongue-in-cheek joke, your comment says so very much.
I'd love to enter politics, because I feel like I could make a difference, and because I would love to help solve some of the problems faced by the people in my country. That being said, I know that my voicemail would be filled with non-sarcastic versions of your post, 24/7.
I'm honestly curious how many people with a passion for solving problems were driven away from politics for this very reason. After all, an aspiration to genuinely confront issues is rarely compatible with appealing to the lowest common denominator (and thus being electable).
Fine, I'll feed the troll. Yeah, I read your post. Yes, I thought the comic was funny. And yes, I understand full well that the even the strongest crypto will not withstand social engineering.
That being said, you could have made your point better by getting your facts straight. As one small suggestion: "there's no *practical* difference between, say, 80-bit encryption and 256-bit encryption because...". Given that many people don't understand the difference between symmetric and asymmetric crypto, I though something informative was in order, rather than allowing implicit misinformation to propagate.
It's become quite the popular thing to reply "whoosh" to any post on Slashdot and think you're being clever. Next time, either take the opportunity to learn something, or at least be slightly original.
Provided that the power switch is visible and easily accessible to parents, then yes. And hey, it doesn't even need to be red -- I think the "red button" idea is metaphorical.
But, think about it. Like many people on Slashdot, I'm an advocate of responsible parenting: know what your children are doing (within bounds of privacy, dependent on the child's maturity), set reasonable boundaries, and take opportunities to discuss things with your children (i.e., make things learning experiences where possible). Is it such a bad idea, if a parent sees a child exposed to inappropriate media (whether it be music, television, or video games, always taking into account the age and maturity of the child), to hit the power switch? What better time to have a discussion with your child?
I mean, you could try to have a discussion hours later. Or, you could turn off the inappropriate movie / video game / whatever, and have a discussion about, e.g., reality vs. fiction. If you, as a parent, are convinced that the child understands the implications of whatever media they were viewing, and that they are mature enough to view it / play with it, then turn it back on. Worst case, your child is pouty about having to go back to their last save point.
Sure as hell beats being one of those parents who doesn't understand why the government didn't stop them from purchasing GTA IV for their six-year-old.
There's a huge difference. When you see numbers like "128-bit," you're dealing with a symmetric encryption algorithm (e.g., AES). When you see numbers like "4096-bit," you're dealing with an asymmetric algorithm (e.g., RSA).
See the NIST Recommendation for Key Management (PDF), page 63. For example, to get RSA that is "equivalently" secure (for some predicted meaning of equivalent) to AES-128, you need a 3072-bit key. The table is explained on page 62.
As an aside, the comparably small key sizes that asymmetric elliptic curve cryptograph (ECC) can use, illustrated on page 63, are one of the reasons that ECC is so valuable.
Tragically, similar events have happened.
That was an excellent point: only compare vegetarians/vegans who put some thought into their food with carnivores who put some thought into their food. Not to mention, a vegetarian would immediately have to turn down, e.g., meat lover's pizza (mmm...heart stopping).
Do you have any links / sources for those more in-depth, non-PETA studies? I'd be curious to see better coverage of the topic, as opposed to the rantings of PETA.
I can confirm the same on the NBCHD channel using Shaw in Edmonton. I can't figure out why the American HD channels are treated differently than standard channels.
I'm somewhat surprised that commercials are actually slightly amusing during the Super Bowl. Why don't advertisers do this all year long, rather than have annoying people yelling at me (at which point I hit mute and read for a few minutes until my show comes back on)? Wouldn't they see better (i.e., viral) interest in their ads?
Nah, just give them a cut of everyone caught lying! :)
It's actually an even more complex and more interesting thing to study than chess, despite its "humble" origins as just a video game played by the masses. Players have to work with incomplete knowledge (they cannot see all of the opponents' pieces, like in chess). Notice also that opponents was plural -- enemies may turn on each other, or gang up on you. Also, in chess you have time to sit and think (aside from not overrunning the game clock), whereas in RTS games, sitting and thinking is rarely valuable: usually you're better off doing something than nothing at all.
...and that's just from the point of view of a human player. Now, try getting an AI to play an RTS instead of chess, and I think you'll quickly find the complexity of the game to be quite a challenge.