Unless chess appeals to ther violent character of kids -- you know, horsies trampling on bishops. Which brings out the fact that chess is part of an attack on Christianity[1]!!one! Ban it!
[1] You do know chess came from Arabia, right? Chess is conclusively a terrorist game, expect to hear all about it on O'Reilly Factor soon.
Are trying to set up a straw man and ignore that the global warming debate is inreference to the past couple millenia, no more? And that humans didn't even exist 55 mil years ago?
I understand what you're implying -- if the climate could change without us then, surely it can change now without human input. But the fact of the matter is that we're contributing to some extent, which may or may not have dire consequences.
"I find it difficult to believe that trees would flourish with long periods of darkness annually."
Why is that? Deciduous trees in temperate areas now thrive without photosynthesis for many months each year. I'd even speculate that extremely northern (or southern) origin of deciduous trees helps explain their seasonal metabolic extremes -- whereas coniferous trees probably evolved an a latitude with less seasonal variation (and less moisture).
I've directed a lot of sabre bouts, and the most common action was, of course, "simulte," but occasionally, a prize-de-affaire or stop (in time or not). I'm sure that hasn't changed, since the offense far outweighs defense in sabre in terms of effectivness. Interestingly enough, though, I find it does almost mimic the idea of cavalry riding by each other, so it's true to its roots.
Slowing the action down in foil makes sense to me as well, since historically, the risk of injury meant that you'd spend more time testing your opponent -- their timing, distance, form, etc. Though most historic duelling was far more like epee than the other weapons.
The decrease in lockout time is pretty nasty. Personally, I think the director should call the action, and the machines just register hit/off-target/second hit. Depending on machines to call the action via lockout may standardize direction, but leads to errors. I'd much rather human error that at least can be disputed or acknowledged rather than a machine which has to be obeyed (and styles altered) in order to consistently win bouts.
My pet peeve with the sabre was the captor. Retreating, laying out a line (in time) then parry the opponent -- doesn't register as a touch unless there is significant change in momentum of the bell. Which means if you extend smoothly as you retreat, you cannot register a stop cut or stop line -- even if it's in time and contact is clear. One of my team-mates lost a cucial bout in the state finals due to this -- even the opposing fencer's teammates were demanding he acknowledge the touch.
Yes I did. And a lot of the posts at the time I posted (which I should have responded to) were discussing the infeasibility of using it for other things.
"What happened to good ol' free commerce, where the best product makes the buck? "
Whatever happened to collusion not being part of good ol' free commerce?
This lawsuit is based on the concept that free commerce (and therefore competition) was not allowed to happen because of collusion. Reagrdless of whether Rambus was terrible or not, there is merit in these types of lawsuits.
It's very simple: Unregulated commerce != free commerce. It's "free" as in free of non-competitive influences, not as in free from regulation.
Flash memory only? The only way I'd run one of these is as a thin server client. And in terms of saving space (which is the only reason to do this), I'm still dealing with a monitor, keyboard, other peripherals, so the marginal space saved by the box being in the wall is near zero.
Though, if I'm using it to process video being run to my 54" wall-mount LCD TV (Yes, I'm dreaming), I could see the point... Of course, I don't see jacks for any media lines on the plate shown in TFA. Toss those in, plus native wireless capability for input devices, and I (well, my wife) might be finally willing to have a PC in the living room.
Not that all that will fit in the same space, but that's where I'd see the biggest utility for a small form factor in retail.
I've been out of it for a while, what changes did they make in the timing?
When I fenced competitively, electric was just starting to be used for sabre, TONS of problems with the captors (sp?) and with not registering dead circuits (like when people would disconnect in the back to avoid a touch), easier in sabre since the off hand is kept down, not up. Big hooplah at the individual State championships when I was a senior in HS -- many of the schools couldn't afford electric equipment for sabre, and their fencers were at first not allowed to participate -- though they got a grant to purchase loaner equipment to the schools who didn't have it yet.
My understanding is that sabre has slowed down a lot due to the elimination of the fleche -- though at the scholastic level in the US, the fleche was never allowed anyway, and the speed was still extremely fast.
And yet, the discussion of the article will prove to be much more illuminating than the article.
What's wrong with an article being a spark for more in-depth discussion? How else are things rarely discussed in the media and never in depth (like most tech topics) going to be discussed on slashdot?
Sure, I know this post (and the parent) are off-topic, but it bugs me when people think that the purpose of slashdot is just to accumulate articles... that's what RSS feeds are for.
The discussion is what keeps me coming back, and typically, no matter how moronic the article is, there are several posts that give the kind of information that I wish was included in the article (but isn't). At the very least, people provide links to more comprehensive information and/or discussion of the issues concerned.
"I am just waiting for the day that our bought and paid for legislators are kicked out of office." (emphasis mine)
What a useless statement. Get off your ass and do something about it, just *waiting* isn't going to help at all. You and the other millions 'just waiting' for it to happen means that it will NEVER happen.
Sorry to come off so strong, but if you see something wrong in your government, it's YOUR responsibility to do something about it. Write letters to the editor to make more people aware of the problem (that is, moneyed interests purchasing legislation). Write, email, fax, and call your legislators and tell them how you feel and why it's important that they do the right thing.
But if you're not willing to work for change, then don't complain when things remain the same.
The Constitution is still pretty OK. It's the state and federal election laws that have made the US government a plaything of the rich and well-connected. Plus mass media and the advent of the culture of thinking that politics cannot be discussed in public.
"ther Olympic sports are discrete entities with well-defined rules that don't change much over decades or centuries."
Not so. The modern Olympics have new events added almost every cycle, while some less-popular events are canceled. Fencing, for example, is under constant threat of removal.
Rules changes are common as well -- from regulations of ski sizes and shapes, to the ball used in football^Wsoccer (see the concerns about the new ball to be used in the World Cup), to regulations on bicycle materials. The Olympics are a collection of sports that changes in composition of the whole and of individual parts.
Also, just an FYI (as an example) fencing has changed it's rules many times since the advent of modern fencing in the early 20th century.
To be quite honest, modern sport is little more than a century old, and though the roots of modern sports go back farther than that, only mass media has caused solidification of the rules of sports. While I heartily agree that adherence to tradition is a major appeal factor of the olympics, the inclusion of sports such as snowboarding in recent years shows that the Olympics are trying to blend tradition with new things.
However, in re: video games, I say they have no part in the Olympics. The only sport that comes close to being as non-athletic as video games are would be marksmanship, which even outside the *athlons requires physical action on the real world more so than videogames.
Also part of the Olympic ideal is the concept of fair competition -- though different nations have different capacities to develop a pool of talented athletes in many sports, even Jamaica can get a bobsled team together. But many developing nations would not be able to compete in video games for decades -- until video games are more international (read: not just 1st-world) I think we have to leave them off the docket.
"The question of legality is irrelevant to effectiveness and can actually be counterproductive."
Nope. It may be counterproductive, but it is certainly not irrelevant. If evidence is obtained illegally, it cannot be used effectively (in court, for example). Unless you advocate repealing the 4th amendment.
The problem is that the court precedent for phone call monitoring to be reasonable (no reasonable expectation of privacy) relates to a search where the evidence gathered was part of an investigation in progress, not to develop leads on potential crimes not already under investigation -- that is, the information was not private, but there was specific cause such that the introduction as evidence was not the rsult of just fishing.
Any evidence therefore gathered as a result of data mining, is to me, fruit of a poisonous tree, and unadmissable -- since data mining is fishing, and is an unacceptable means of gathering evidence.
"If I'm sitting outside of a gas station at 1:30 am with a ski mask on and a cop pulls up, no crime has been committed but the officer would have probable cause to stop me and search my car because I'm behaving in a suspicious manner and the officer could reasonably speculate that a crime was about to be committed or had been committed."
Not at all. I think you need to research your rights better. The cop could stop you, he could ask to search your car, but would not be allowed to search it without a warrant unless you gave him permission -- same with your personal effects (like what's in your pockets). If he smelled marijuana or gunpowder residue, or saw blood, then he'd have grounds. But it's absolutely scary to me that people would believe that wearing a ski mask is grounds to be searched.
If you're not even aware of your rights, how do you know when they are taken from you?
"It's not unreasonable for the government to take non intrusive, reasonable precautions to protect the welfare of the nation from outside threats."
Outside threats.
And 'reasonable' is a matter of debatable degree -- as has been mentioned numerous times on slashdot, it's a question of relative value of safety (or perceived safety, in most cases) vs. liberty and the potential for misuse.
Your bulleted examples do not corollate with what I'm saying. Individual citizens, monitoring of aggregate data (of debatable utility for the stated purpose) to find potential perps is awkward at best. For your speeding example, the better metaphor would be to monitor Speedpass/EZPass times to then investigate the driving records, bank records, etc of all people who averaged over the speed limit for distance x. Or even more appropriate, to investigate all people who happen to drive at 10 PM, since that is when there are the most egregious speeders on the road (time made up, of course).
As to one way in which anyone has been affected -- how about citizens of Middle Eastern descent who are afraid to call their family overseas? How about the fact that it's always in the back of my mind that big brother could be listening?
"But if we lived our lives in fear of what might be, we'd never leave our homes."
Exactly. Which is exactly why we shouldn't allow the government to take measures with a high risk of abuse -- we're allowing it just because of the fear of what might be.
The fact of the matter is that we're allowing the government a tool that would facilitate trampling of our rights. We CANNOT trust government not to misuse this information -- therefore, they should not be allowed to have it. As all the TJ followers have taken to heart, a "healthy mistrust of government" is a predicate for participatory government like ours. To do otherwise is to be naive, short-sighted, and without understanding of history.
I'm against datamining by the govt, but, in re: "If you want to catch terror cells, you'll never beat the 3 I's : intelligence, infiltration and informants."
Data mining is a way of acquiring intelligence. It's not a competing strategy, it's part of the 3 I's.
No. It can identify people who have calling patterns associated with terrorist activity, regardless of whether they are a terrorist or not.
Note that these calling patterns cannot be used to associate that person with a committed or planned crime in the normal data mining scenario.
Data mining is unreasonable search.
Now, I have no problem if they've got evidence of a crime or plan of a crime, and use known information to deduce who might else be involved. That's investigative work.
Data mining is speculative work, not investigative, so regardless of whether it *can* be used for speculative 'research' into the activity of American citizens, it *shouldn't* be.
It was obvious he's unfamiliar w/ Hoboken NJ anyway, or that would be "Vito's Plumbing" or possibly "O'Shea's Plumbing" but definitely not "Bob's". Regardless of the ubiquitous Bob's Foo Shop.
"For the record, one punch can CERTAINLY kill if the person is hit in the correct way. The fact that you have not perished yet does not constitute evidence."
And when you do perish, that's just Darwinism in action.
I say, let them go at it. Supply them with chainsaws, even.
To quote Doug Larson -- "YOU -- Out of the gene pool!"
Slashdot Mirror
AND() not OR().
Unless chess appeals to ther violent character of kids -- you know, horsies trampling on bishops. Which brings out the fact that chess is part of an attack on Christianity[1]!!one! Ban it!
[1] You do know chess came from Arabia, right? Chess is conclusively a terrorist game, expect to hear all about it on O'Reilly Factor soon.
"How about we just throw out all the crap and use the current laws instead?"
What current laws? Public decency laws? Pornography laws? The ESRB is not law, it's voluntary.
It appears that you've illegally made 19 copies of "DRM." Please hand over your laptop and report to the Consumer Re-education Center.
Thank you,
Agent Smith
Federal Bureau of Corporate Rights Enforcement.
Are trying to set up a straw man and ignore that the global warming debate is inreference to the past couple millenia, no more? And that humans didn't even exist 55 mil years ago?
I understand what you're implying -- if the climate could change without us then, surely it can change now without human input. But the fact of the matter is that we're contributing to some extent, which may or may not have dire consequences.
"I find it difficult to believe that trees would flourish with long periods of darkness annually."
Why is that? Deciduous trees in temperate areas now thrive without photosynthesis for many months each year. I'd even speculate that extremely northern (or southern) origin of deciduous trees helps explain their seasonal metabolic extremes -- whereas coniferous trees probably evolved an a latitude with less seasonal variation (and less moisture).
I've directed a lot of sabre bouts, and the most common action was, of course, "simulte," but occasionally, a prize-de-affaire or stop (in time or not). I'm sure that hasn't changed, since the offense far outweighs defense in sabre in terms of effectivness. Interestingly enough, though, I find it does almost mimic the idea of cavalry riding by each other, so it's true to its roots.
Slowing the action down in foil makes sense to me as well, since historically, the risk of injury meant that you'd spend more time testing your opponent -- their timing, distance, form, etc. Though most historic duelling was far more like epee than the other weapons.
The decrease in lockout time is pretty nasty. Personally, I think the director should call the action, and the machines just register hit/off-target/second hit. Depending on machines to call the action via lockout may standardize direction, but leads to errors. I'd much rather human error that at least can be disputed or acknowledged rather than a machine which has to be obeyed (and styles altered) in order to consistently win bouts.
My pet peeve with the sabre was the captor. Retreating, laying out a line (in time) then parry the opponent -- doesn't register as a touch unless there is significant change in momentum of the bell. Which means if you extend smoothly as you retreat, you cannot register a stop cut or stop line -- even if it's in time and contact is clear. One of my team-mates lost a cucial bout in the state finals due to this -- even the opposing fencer's teammates were demanding he acknowledge the touch.
Yes I did. And a lot of the posts at the time I posted (which I should have responded to) were discussing the infeasibility of using it for other things.
"What happened to good ol' free commerce, where the best product makes the buck? "
Whatever happened to collusion not being part of good ol' free commerce?
This lawsuit is based on the concept that free commerce (and therefore competition) was not allowed to happen because of collusion. Reagrdless of whether Rambus was terrible or not, there is merit in these types of lawsuits.
It's very simple: Unregulated commerce != free commerce. It's "free" as in free of non-competitive influences, not as in free from regulation.
Flash memory only? The only way I'd run one of these is as a thin server client. And in terms of saving space (which is the only reason to do this), I'm still dealing with a monitor, keyboard, other peripherals, so the marginal space saved by the box being in the wall is near zero.
Though, if I'm using it to process video being run to my 54" wall-mount LCD TV (Yes, I'm dreaming), I could see the point... Of course, I don't see jacks for any media lines on the plate shown in TFA. Toss those in, plus native wireless capability for input devices, and I (well, my wife) might be finally willing to have a PC in the living room.
Not that all that will fit in the same space, but that's where I'd see the biggest utility for a small form factor in retail.
I've been out of it for a while, what changes did they make in the timing?
When I fenced competitively, electric was just starting to be used for sabre, TONS of problems with the captors (sp?) and with not registering dead circuits (like when people would disconnect in the back to avoid a touch), easier in sabre since the off hand is kept down, not up. Big hooplah at the individual State championships when I was a senior in HS -- many of the schools couldn't afford electric equipment for sabre, and their fencers were at first not allowed to participate -- though they got a grant to purchase loaner equipment to the schools who didn't have it yet.
My understanding is that sabre has slowed down a lot due to the elimination of the fleche -- though at the scholastic level in the US, the fleche was never allowed anyway, and the speed was still extremely fast.
And yet, the discussion of the article will prove to be much more illuminating than the article.
What's wrong with an article being a spark for more in-depth discussion? How else are things rarely discussed in the media and never in depth (like most tech topics) going to be discussed on slashdot?
Sure, I know this post (and the parent) are off-topic, but it bugs me when people think that the purpose of slashdot is just to accumulate articles... that's what RSS feeds are for.
The discussion is what keeps me coming back, and typically, no matter how moronic the article is, there are several posts that give the kind of information that I wish was included in the article (but isn't). At the very least, people provide links to more comprehensive information and/or discussion of the issues concerned.
"I am just waiting for the day that our bought and paid for legislators are kicked out of office." (emphasis mine)
What a useless statement. Get off your ass and do something about it, just *waiting* isn't going to help at all. You and the other millions 'just waiting' for it to happen means that it will NEVER happen.
Sorry to come off so strong, but if you see something wrong in your government, it's YOUR responsibility to do something about it. Write letters to the editor to make more people aware of the problem (that is, moneyed interests purchasing legislation). Write, email, fax, and call your legislators and tell them how you feel and why it's important that they do the right thing.
But if you're not willing to work for change, then don't complain when things remain the same.
Was sabre. You?
The Constitution is still pretty OK. It's the state and federal election laws that have made the US government a plaything of the rich and well-connected. Plus mass media and the advent of the culture of thinking that politics cannot be discussed in public.
"ther Olympic sports are discrete entities with well-defined rules that don't change much over decades or centuries."
Not so. The modern Olympics have new events added almost every cycle, while some less-popular events are canceled. Fencing, for example, is under constant threat of removal.
Rules changes are common as well -- from regulations of ski sizes and shapes, to the ball used in football^Wsoccer (see the concerns about the new ball to be used in the World Cup), to regulations on bicycle materials. The Olympics are a collection of sports that changes in composition of the whole and of individual parts.
Also, just an FYI (as an example) fencing has changed it's rules many times since the advent of modern fencing in the early 20th century.
To be quite honest, modern sport is little more than a century old, and though the roots of modern sports go back farther than that, only mass media has caused solidification of the rules of sports. While I heartily agree that adherence to tradition is a major appeal factor of the olympics, the inclusion of sports such as snowboarding in recent years shows that the Olympics are trying to blend tradition with new things.
However, in re: video games, I say they have no part in the Olympics. The only sport that comes close to being as non-athletic as video games are would be marksmanship, which even outside the *athlons requires physical action on the real world more so than videogames.
Also part of the Olympic ideal is the concept of fair competition -- though different nations have different capacities to develop a pool of talented athletes in many sports, even Jamaica can get a bobsled team together. But many developing nations would not be able to compete in video games for decades -- until video games are more international (read: not just 1st-world) I think we have to leave them off the docket.
"The question of legality is irrelevant to effectiveness and can actually be counterproductive."
Nope. It may be counterproductive, but it is certainly not irrelevant. If evidence is obtained illegally, it cannot be used effectively (in court, for example). Unless you advocate repealing the 4th amendment.
The problem is that the court precedent for phone call monitoring to be reasonable (no reasonable expectation of privacy) relates to a search where the evidence gathered was part of an investigation in progress, not to develop leads on potential crimes not already under investigation -- that is, the information was not private, but there was specific cause such that the introduction as evidence was not the rsult of just fishing.
Any evidence therefore gathered as a result of data mining, is to me, fruit of a poisonous tree, and unadmissable -- since data mining is fishing, and is an unacceptable means of gathering evidence.
"If I'm sitting outside of a gas station at 1:30 am with a ski mask on and a cop pulls up, no crime has been committed but the officer would have probable cause to stop me and search my car because I'm behaving in a suspicious manner and the officer could reasonably speculate that a crime was about to be committed or had been committed."
Not at all. I think you need to research your rights better. The cop could stop you, he could ask to search your car, but would not be allowed to search it without a warrant unless you gave him permission -- same with your personal effects (like what's in your pockets). If he smelled marijuana or gunpowder residue, or saw blood, then he'd have grounds. But it's absolutely scary to me that people would believe that wearing a ski mask is grounds to be searched.
If you're not even aware of your rights, how do you know when they are taken from you?
"It's not unreasonable for the government to take non intrusive, reasonable precautions to protect the welfare of the nation from outside threats."
Outside threats.
And 'reasonable' is a matter of debatable degree -- as has been mentioned numerous times on slashdot, it's a question of relative value of safety (or perceived safety, in most cases) vs. liberty and the potential for misuse.
Your bulleted examples do not corollate with what I'm saying. Individual citizens, monitoring of aggregate data (of debatable utility for the stated purpose) to find potential perps is awkward at best. For your speeding example, the better metaphor would be to monitor Speedpass/EZPass times to then investigate the driving records, bank records, etc of all people who averaged over the speed limit for distance x. Or even more appropriate, to investigate all people who happen to drive at 10 PM, since that is when there are the most egregious speeders on the road (time made up, of course).
As to one way in which anyone has been affected -- how about citizens of Middle Eastern descent who are afraid to call their family overseas? How about the fact that it's always in the back of my mind that big brother could be listening?
"But if we lived our lives in fear of what might be, we'd never leave our homes."
Exactly. Which is exactly why we shouldn't allow the government to take measures with a high risk of abuse -- we're allowing it just because of the fear of what might be.
The fact of the matter is that we're allowing the government a tool that would facilitate trampling of our rights. We CANNOT trust government not to misuse this information -- therefore, they should not be allowed to have it. As all the TJ followers have taken to heart, a "healthy mistrust of government" is a predicate for participatory government like ours. To do otherwise is to be naive, short-sighted, and without understanding of history.
I'm against datamining by the govt, but, in re: "If you want to catch terror cells, you'll never beat the 3 I's : intelligence, infiltration and informants."
Data mining is a way of acquiring intelligence. It's not a competing strategy, it's part of the 3 I's.
"Can data mining identify terrorists?"
No. It can identify people who have calling patterns associated with terrorist activity, regardless of whether they are a terrorist or not.
Note that these calling patterns cannot be used to associate that person with a committed or planned crime in the normal data mining scenario.
Data mining is unreasonable search.
Now, I have no problem if they've got evidence of a crime or plan of a crime, and use known information to deduce who might else be involved. That's investigative work.
Data mining is speculative work, not investigative, so regardless of whether it *can* be used for speculative 'research' into the activity of American citizens, it *shouldn't* be.
It was obvious he's unfamiliar w/ Hoboken NJ anyway, or that would be "Vito's Plumbing" or possibly "O'Shea's Plumbing" but definitely not "Bob's". Regardless of the ubiquitous Bob's Foo Shop.
"For the record, one punch can CERTAINLY kill if the person is hit in the correct way. The fact that you have not perished yet does not constitute evidence."
And when you do perish, that's just Darwinism in action.
I say, let them go at it. Supply them with chainsaws, even.
To quote Doug Larson -- "YOU -- Out of the gene pool!"
So, how about a grind session of pill eating? Or do you want to go fight some Pinky mobs?
And can we all just agree to hate the cherry farmers?
As well as a Slashdot logo. Fairly important, IMO :)