"Do I want to be the one to tell the American people... yea, we knew about this guy, and we obeyed the law and didn't go get him, and he was able to kill thousands..?"
If a politician had the balls to say that and not skirt the issue, I'd vote him/her in the re-election.
Terrorism is the single most overrated threat there is. How many people in the entire world have ever died from a terrorist attack ever? (rough estimate based on wikipedia info ~10,000) How many people died in a car accident in the U.S. last year (in 2002, it was ~48,000)?
it IS an erosion of civil liberties, because the Bill of Rights specifically grants me freedom from government intrusion of my life unless they have probable cause to believe I committed a crime. The doctrine is innocent UNTIL proven guilty. The NSA wiretapping is guilty by association until proven innocent.
I'll leave you with a few juicy quotes from one of the founding fathers, by personal hero, Benjamin Franklin. No tyrannical society can long exist when it cannot control the flow of information.
There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace.
Whate'ers begun in anger ends in shame.
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety (commonly attributed to him, but he edited the book in which this line appeared, he did not write it, but based on the fact that he edited and published the book, it surely carried his sentiment.
Looking through the entire text of the submission, my guess would be that the text was scanned from the paper book and then used some bundled OCR software to convert it to text. OCR programs have been known to make mistakes like those.
When I first started buring CD's about 4 years ago, I always bought Verbatim, which are supposed to have a 100 year life-span. I treat my dics well over all (stored vertically in jewel cases, never touch the bottom, etc) with the exception of the cheap media I burn mixes onto to play in the car, which just get stuffed into one of those visors, or sometimes just the passenger seat when I'm chagning disks when there's some traffic. I've had more than one of those fail, but I usually get tired of the mix and stop listening to the CD long before that happens.
The big hullabaloo about the Librie was the DRM. IMHO, they should have put that famous spin on it "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Just like you cant rent a movie at Blockbuster for $4 that costs $20 to buy at BestBuy, if Sony has a service where you could rent an ebook for a resonably lengthed limited time (such as the 60 days of the Librie DRM) for a similarly reduced price (say about $2) I'd jump at it. I go through 5-10 books a month, usually rented free from the library some purchases at Barnes&Noble or Amazon.com, but to have access to a bigger selection and the advantages of an ebook reader over a paperback would be worth the investment and paying $10-$20 per month for new content
When somebody says that their blackberry/PDA/laptop/etc gets pretty good battery life and it's good enough for the purpose, they're missing the point that this has a bigger screen and the battery life is measured in pages. The Sony Reader is purported to have a battery life of 7500 pages. If you read a page a minute, thats 125 hours, or over 5 days of CONSTANT reading. Since e-ink only uses battery to change the display, you can leave it sit on the "open page" over night, or all week, and not loose any charge. How does your blackberry compare now?
I do enough reading (and not enough emailing, scheduling, game playing or even music listening) for it to be worth my money to buy a good quality device dedicated to just reading books. That said I've never bought a piece of SONY equipment in my life, and I'm not about to start now.
First of all, to all the people how said that the corrective lenses leading to worse vision being a myth perpetuated by eye doctors, I stand corrected. I made the mistake of believing what my doctor told me.
To those who noted that there is nothing intrinsicly uncorrectable about 20/600, you are correct. I did a poor job of saying what I meant to say. The point I was trying to make is that there are many vision problems that are uncorrectable, or only partially correctable, such as mine. My vision problems are related to the fact that I have a severe astigmatism in my bad eye
I've been wearing glasses full time since I was 14. I'm legally blind in one eye without them. They're only off when I go to bed, take a shower, have a photo taken of me (glare from flash) or play contact sports. (and it shows, it shows!) I wore my glasses when I got my liscence, and when I renewed it a few years ago. There was nowhere on the form (in NJ) to check saying I need glasses either time. Nobody at the DMV ever asked my about my glasses, and my license has never indicated that I need glasses.
But glasses are very cool looking, if you wear the right style, just avoid the geeky looking large frames, or the lenses that cover half your face.
On a tinfoil hat conspiracy sidenote: I was an eye glass wearer for a very long time. My vision deteriorated every year or two it seemed. I stopped wearing glasses a few years back and tried some of the eye exercises (as a friend recommended) and I was able to drop my driving restriction and I pass every eye test I've taken for the past few years -- without my glasses on. Anyone else have similar problems with glasses?
It's a well-known fact that wearing corrective lenses causes the eye to learn to depend on the lense, causing the eye to weeken and need a higher perscription. Even your optometrist will tell you that. That said, there are limits to how well using alternative measures will work, or how well standard measures such as glasses work. Uncorrected, I'm legally blind in one eye, 20/600 (I've done the math, that's like a football field being nearly 2 miles). Even with glasses, it can only be corrected to 20/45
Haven't you ever said something and someone responded by rubbing their finger across their palm saying "this is the world's smallest violin playing just for you"
For a couple dollars per month (under $20) I get caller ID (I haven't bought a phone without caller ID in 10 years, are they even still made?), call blocking, call forwarding, and free repair service. Now that's for a land-line from the local major teleco. A lot of the smaller companies (and the VoIP providors, IIRC) offer caller ID and other services free with the plan. So do wireless providors.
So for most people, the service is rediculously cheap, and for others it's included free. And you expect the government to provide a better service? The Do Not Call list is an utter failure, as is the CAN-SPAM act, so why do we think the government will provide a better service for less cost here?
For My Documents, right click on the icon, and go to properties. Click the "Target" tab (default in Win2k, may be named something different on other versions), and click Move. Select the folder where you want "My Documents" to be and OK. Viola! I've been doing this on each Windows version ever since Wni98.
The line I was quoting someone didn't make it into my post. "Doctors in Jerusalem say they will keep the 77-year-old leader in an "induced coma" for up to 72 hours." Like I said, I don't know much French, but I'm fairly certain that the paragraph supplied does not have that line. The point I was making is that adding information that isn't in the original is a disinginuous way of claiming that machine translation isn't up to snuff with human translation.
Wow, the human translator must also have and ESP link with the story's author. I don't read much French, but I'm fairly certain that sentence isn't in the French original. So Google's translator's main flaw then is that it doesn't guess what the author didn't include?
There are flaws in computer translators especially where words have multiple definitions, but overall, if a computer can't translate what you typed correctly, then your probably not using the language right in the first place.
2005 was the year I decided I'd never spend another dime on Norton.
First when I installed NAV2005 on a clean machine (installed Windows and then immediately installed Norton before even attaching the network cable) in March, the computer crashed mid-installation. Did you know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to uninstall Norton if it wasn't completely installed in the first place? Things have to be uninstalled in a certain order, and the first thing that gets uninstalled hadn't been installed yet. And of course, you can't install Norton if it's already installed (even if the current installation doesn't load). I had to reformat and reinstall Windows, just to start over. Currently, Norton has been freezing up if the computer is left on for more than 24 hours.
As of NAV 2005, if you delete or change in any way, the start menu folder for Norton, the program gives you error messages whenever you try to open it or a program that uses virus scanning, like Office. (want to guess how many times a day a household with two secondary-school age children, a VBA programmer, and a woman who saves multi-part online stories to a Word document to read it all together opens an Office program?)
And finally, last month, my brother got a virus (nammed cutely enough IEXPLORE.EXE and kept firefox from loading) that Norton missed with it set with maximum protections and heuristics to automatically scan every downloaded bit, and then still missed when doing a manual scan.
When Norton was getting ready to expire on my mother's computer, it gave her a pop-up message everyday saying that the subscription was going to expire and after that, she wouldn't be protected against new viruses, and gave a link to buy another year's subscription. I did this every day until I uninstalled Norton and installed AVGFree
the instructions for the that link RE: flash:
[blockquote]
# Flash Plugin - The Flash plugin can't be included by default in Portable Firefox due to licensing issues, but you can add it yourself. Follow these steps:
1. Install Firefox on a local directory
2. Install the Flash plugin from Macromedia's website
3. Copy the NPSWF32.dll from the plugins folder of your local computer (usually C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Plugins\) to the PortableFirefox\plugins folder of your portable drive
[/blockquote]
I wonder if this would work for "non-portable" firefox already installed on my work PC, just drop the dll from my home PC into the local plugins folder of my work PC? Since I already have firefox installed here, being able to run it from the hard drive is much preferable to running it from my (only) flash-drive blugged into the back of my work computer.
Actually there was an article a while back about how the origin of the Xbox goes all the way to the development of DirectX. The basis for DirectX to be the graphics language for a Microsoft game console.
Re:Slashvertisements continue.
on
Pro C#
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
It's a book review, not an advertisement A review lists good and bad and gives an overall impression (well a good one does at least, and this one dpes, it lists several things that the reviewer didn't like), while an ad is a one-sided look intending to induce you to buy the product. For a new book (making it NEWs) on a technical subject (of interested for nerds). Does a new book on C# interest you? Apparently not. Does it interest me? Well, yes. The review gave me good information that this book isn't for me, because it's intended for an audiance with more experience that I have.
Anyone know if can install plug-ins (i.e. Flash) to portable Firefox? I installed firefox onto my work computer from a CDR but I don't have the neccessary permissions to install the flash player.
The Windows 2k permissions set on this computer are rather odd. I could install firefox, gaim, and Acrobat Reader, but not flash and I can't defragment the disk (and this one needs it BAD)
Except that Microsoft has more to loose if it's patch breaks something. The author of the unofficial patch doesn't have to worry about selling more copies of Windows, Office, and dozens of other programs in the future.
Slashdot Mirror
If a politician had the balls to say that and not skirt the issue, I'd vote him/her in the re-election.
it IS an erosion of civil liberties, because the Bill of Rights specifically grants me freedom from government intrusion of my life unless they have probable cause to believe I committed a crime. The doctrine is innocent UNTIL proven guilty. The NSA wiretapping is guilty by association until proven innocent.
I'll leave you with a few juicy quotes from one of the founding fathers, by personal hero, Benjamin Franklin.
No tyrannical society can long exist when it cannot control the flow of information.
There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace.
Whate'ers begun in anger ends in shame.
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety (commonly attributed to him, but he edited the book in which this line appeared, he did not write it, but based on the fact that he edited and published the book, it surely carried his sentiment.
If you think that's bulky try walking around with this! Rip Records Straight to your iPod
Looking through the entire text of the submission, my guess would be that the text was scanned from the paper book and then used some bundled OCR software to convert it to text. OCR programs have been known to make mistakes like those.
When I first started buring CD's about 4 years ago, I always bought Verbatim, which are supposed to have a 100 year life-span. I treat my dics well over all (stored vertically in jewel cases, never touch the bottom, etc) with the exception of the cheap media I burn mixes onto to play in the car, which just get stuffed into one of those visors, or sometimes just the passenger seat when I'm chagning disks when there's some traffic. I've had more than one of those fail, but I usually get tired of the mix and stop listening to the CD long before that happens.
The big hullabaloo about the Librie was the DRM. IMHO, they should have put that famous spin on it "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Just like you cant rent a movie at Blockbuster for $4 that costs $20 to buy at BestBuy, if Sony has a service where you could rent an ebook for a resonably lengthed limited time (such as the 60 days of the Librie DRM) for a similarly reduced price (say about $2) I'd jump at it. I go through 5-10 books a month, usually rented free from the library some purchases at Barnes&Noble or Amazon.com, but to have access to a bigger selection and the advantages of an ebook reader over a paperback would be worth the investment and paying $10-$20 per month for new content
I do enough reading (and not enough emailing, scheduling, game playing or even music listening) for it to be worth my money to buy a good quality device dedicated to just reading books. That said I've never bought a piece of SONY equipment in my life, and I'm not about to start now.
I was tested too, and I was wearing my coke bottle glasses that day, if the DMV lady missed them, then she needs glasses more than I do!
To those who noted that there is nothing intrinsicly uncorrectable about 20/600, you are correct. I did a poor job of saying what I meant to say. The point I was trying to make is that there are many vision problems that are uncorrectable, or only partially correctable, such as mine. My vision problems are related to the fact that I have a severe astigmatism in my bad eye
you insensitive clod!
But glasses are very cool looking, if you wear the right style, just avoid the geeky looking large frames, or the lenses that cover half your face.
It's a well-known fact that wearing corrective lenses causes the eye to learn to depend on the lense, causing the eye to weeken and need a higher perscription. Even your optometrist will tell you that. That said, there are limits to how well using alternative measures will work, or how well standard measures such as glasses work. Uncorrected, I'm legally blind in one eye, 20/600 (I've done the math, that's like a football field being nearly 2 miles). Even with glasses, it can only be corrected to 20/45
Haven't you ever said something and someone responded by rubbing their finger across their palm saying "this is the world's smallest violin playing just for you"
For a couple dollars per month (under $20) I get caller ID (I haven't bought a phone without caller ID in 10 years, are they even still made?), call blocking, call forwarding, and free repair service. Now that's for a land-line from the local major teleco. A lot of the smaller companies (and the VoIP providors, IIRC) offer caller ID and other services free with the plan. So do wireless providors. So for most people, the service is rediculously cheap, and for others it's included free. And you expect the government to provide a better service? The Do Not Call list is an utter failure, as is the CAN-SPAM act, so why do we think the government will provide a better service for less cost here?
For My Documents, right click on the icon, and go to properties. Click the "Target" tab (default in Win2k, may be named something different on other versions), and click Move. Select the folder where you want "My Documents" to be and OK. Viola! I've been doing this on each Windows version ever since Wni98.
The line I was quoting someone didn't make it into my post. "Doctors in Jerusalem say they will keep the 77-year-old leader in an "induced coma" for up to 72 hours." Like I said, I don't know much French, but I'm fairly certain that the paragraph supplied does not have that line. The point I was making is that adding information that isn't in the original is a disinginuous way of claiming that machine translation isn't up to snuff with human translation.
Wow, the human translator must also have and ESP link with the story's author. I don't read much French, but I'm fairly certain that sentence isn't in the French original. So Google's translator's main flaw then is that it doesn't guess what the author didn't include?
There are flaws in computer translators especially where words have multiple definitions, but overall, if a computer can't translate what you typed correctly, then your probably not using the language right in the first place.
First when I installed NAV2005 on a clean machine (installed Windows and then immediately installed Norton before even attaching the network cable) in March, the computer crashed mid-installation. Did you know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to uninstall Norton if it wasn't completely installed in the first place? Things have to be uninstalled in a certain order, and the first thing that gets uninstalled hadn't been installed yet. And of course, you can't install Norton if it's already installed (even if the current installation doesn't load). I had to reformat and reinstall Windows, just to start over.
Currently, Norton has been freezing up if the computer is left on for more than 24 hours.
As of NAV 2005, if you delete or change in any way, the start menu folder for Norton, the program gives you error messages whenever you try to open it or a program that uses virus scanning, like Office. (want to guess how many times a day a household with two secondary-school age children, a VBA programmer, and a woman who saves multi-part online stories to a Word document to read it all together opens an Office program?)
And finally, last month, my brother got a virus (nammed cutely enough IEXPLORE.EXE and kept firefox from loading) that Norton missed with it set with maximum protections and heuristics to automatically scan every downloaded bit, and then still missed when doing a manual scan.
When Norton was getting ready to expire on my mother's computer, it gave her a pop-up message everyday saying that the subscription was going to expire and after that, she wouldn't be protected against new viruses, and gave a link to buy another year's subscription. I did this every day until I uninstalled Norton and installed AVGFree
Tough to play your xbox when you don't have it.
I wonder if this would work for "non-portable" firefox already installed on my work PC, just drop the dll from my home PC into the local plugins folder of my work PC? Since I already have firefox installed here, being able to run it from the hard drive is much preferable to running it from my (only) flash-drive blugged into the back of my work computer.
Actually there was an article a while back about how the origin of the Xbox goes all the way to the development of DirectX. The basis for DirectX to be the graphics language for a Microsoft game console.
It's a book review, not an advertisement A review lists good and bad and gives an overall impression (well a good one does at least, and this one dpes, it lists several things that the reviewer didn't like), while an ad is a one-sided look intending to induce you to buy the product. For a new book (making it NEWs) on a technical subject (of interested for nerds). Does a new book on C# interest you? Apparently not. Does it interest me? Well, yes. The review gave me good information that this book isn't for me, because it's intended for an audiance with more experience that I have.
The Windows 2k permissions set on this computer are rather odd. I could install firefox, gaim, and Acrobat Reader, but not flash and I can't defragment the disk (and this one needs it BAD)
Except that Microsoft has more to loose if it's patch breaks something. The author of the unofficial patch doesn't have to worry about selling more copies of Windows, Office, and dozens of other programs in the future.