Seriously, Slashdot is becoming great lately for re-reading old news that I read on other tech sites days earlier.
Yeah, I realize this but if you read the Wired article that I linked:
Johansen wanted the ad displayed Monday, the first day of the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. That's when the Cupertino, California-based company unveiled a host of new products and prices. But it was taken down, Johansen said, because he was told the ad did not allow enough light through the subway station window.
The entrepreneur said he submitted the same ad to Titan Worldwide with a white background instead of a black one. He said Titan rejected that one, too.
Finally, the ad with a transparent background was approved and displayed Wednesday afternoon, Johansen said. Pending another brouhaha, the ad will remain there for months, he said.
I may have been this-side-up blitzed last night when I submitted this and I may have no recollection of submitting it but that ad is still on display!
Funny how it is you who are the one that is out of date... Sweet Spaghetti Monster my head hurts.
After scanning this article, I'm kind of worried. Everyone's jumping into 3D immersive technology and that's great. Heck, I own a Wii myself... but one thing I don't like about it is my inability to become really good at a game that relies on WiiMote motion. I don't know what the deal is but the learning curve seems really easy yet once you get there there is no way to differentiate between the 98 percentile player and the 99 percentile player. Now, I haven't gotten addicted to the WiiMote intensive games and I'm grateful that games like Super Smash Bros. don't rely on 3D motion of the WiiMote. It's just too complex and inaccurate. That said, this screenshot really worried me. No controller required or controller optional?
I welcome this new technology but as an avid gamer I'm more than a little bit afraid that with this new technology everyone is going to be expected to take advantage of it on the XBox360. We might be jumping into a new dimension too fast for software and hardware to support it. I know a lot of people would argue with that statement but Wii games feel 'soft' when they are WiiMote intensive and I wonder if Project Natal will feel the same way. Don't get me wrong, they are great games for four people to play while getting loaded.
I guess Nintendo pioneered what is the next step in video games much like Sony pioneering the transition from directional pad to miniature joystick. My question now is really whether or not the PS3 will follow suit. They have to in order to attract these motion titles, don't they?
Figure -> filter -> filler -> filbert -> finger... FINGERS !!! Oh my god, how could I be so blind?!
They're going to kill her, cut off her fingers and hang her in a meat locker! It's brilliant and evil all at the same time.
Ray, we have to warn her! I'll meet you at the comic book store down the street from my house in fifteen minutes! Our detective crime fighting team name will be the "The Extraordinary Super Aces!"
This could be a victory for Jammie. The judge carefully lays out, at pages 13-14, the standards for admissibility of technical evidence.
I know for a fact that neither MediaSentry nor Doug Jacobson could satisfy those standards.
Assuming the judge applies those standards evenly, this trial may end abrutly, because the RIAA's only witnesses may both be precluded from testifying.
Please, make up your mind and tell me how to properly react to this already. I feel like Philip J. Fry when he found out he was going to be snusnu'd to death. Or is watching humans squirm precisely what lawyers just like to watch?!
"We have worked hand in hand with state and local officials, broadcasters and community groups to educate and assist millions of Americans with the transition...I want to be clear: there will not be another delay."
Well, I hope my government is this vocal and helpful in getting everyone coordinated to switch to IPv6 and HTML5. Oh, ha, that's right. If we switch to those, the government doesn't get to auction off IPv4 or HTML4 for twenty billion dollars. So I guess you only get grade A support from the FCC and Department of Commerce only when they profit from it. That's really a shame, I think if the United States informed consumers on more standards and compliance it would benefit the average citizen. Hell, sometimes I wish the Senators & Congressmen themselves sought such information.
Combine those first two points and I wager that your comment not only falls upon deaf ears but might instead cause him to laugh. This guy's got a long history and he's been very successful doing it.
they were using a mathematical library that would solve partial differential equations, by presenting the user with the actual mathematical formulae to them.
Uh, just a point of note, I believe my TI-89 from high school in 1999 solves partial differential equations. Hell, I think Mathematica could do this when I used it in college in 2003.
these kinds of libraries are staggeringly complex to write, and they have been empirically proven over decades of use to actually work.
An operating system is staggeringly complex to write yet a single man can write one. A very special man but a man nonetheless. Your mentality is fatalistic.
to start again from scratch with such libraries would require man-centuries or possibly man-millenia of development effort to reproduce and debug, regardless of the programming language.
If that's the case, it would be my inkling to tackle this problem from a new angle and I think many people already have and continue to do that.
so it doesn't matter what people in the slashdot community think: for engineers to use anything but these tried-and-tested engineering libraries, that happen to be written in fortran, would just be genuinely stupid of them.
How did we ever make progress with people like you around?
Disclaimer: I went to the University of Minnesota for my BS and George Mason University for my MS both in Computer Science and I didn't learn one single thing about Fortran other then that it existed. People in other disciplines around me (ME, EE, etc) seemed to bitch about 77 versus 44 or whatever--I was too busy studying to care.
What do people in the Slashdot community think?
The easy route is just to let them teach what they want to. Professors will talk and push whatever they feel is valuable and they sure the hell aren't going to listen to a Slashdot user half their age that will get on his knees and write Java for an extra buck. If you get a whack job professor teaching only archaic languages, the University will probably hear complaints from alums about getting into the job market and wishing they had learned R instead of Fortran. I don't know about the other engineering programs but I'd sure rather be a master with R than Fortran. Is Fortran more efficient? Depends on if you're talking about cycles or amount of time it takes to write a quadratic sieve for prime numbers.
I had to learn C and I actually like plain jane C in all its simplicity. I think colleges should stick to a low level language for numerical computation courses (in my case C but I believe Fortran would function fine), an intro course to an interpreted language like lisp scheme perl whatever and should of course offer full courses in whatever is the latest craze for usable languages like C++, Java... maybe even Ruby?
I wager this will be a hot debate and I think it's fine if people want to teach Fortran, I learned scheme and I've never used it in my professional work! Just so long as when they enter the job market, they're prepared.
You know, I read so many stories recently that just make me do a double take and question if it's a hoax/prank or what. Case in point, just today I noticed that a Nigerian professor at Jackson State University in Mississippi has been granted not a few patents for a bitter leaf-based anti-diabetic and cancer medication which may also benefit HIV/AIDS patients!
I don't know how this works! I mean, I know patents get handed out for most anything but is this guy patenting something that's well known in Nigeria (I heard a lot of Indian medicinal researchers are busting their asses to publish a herbal book so that this doesn't happen--prior art and all)? If he's the professor of Biology at an American university I certainly hope this isn't a scam... it also wouldn't make sense for him to create his own company and hold the patents with the intent of doing something if it is a scam.
A confusingly exciting time in medicine. Too bad big pharma is pure evil.
I'm convinced Futurama was not canceled for any reason within its power. The powers that be at Fox seemed to think that moving its time slot around so no one knew when it was on was a great idea. I don't know how the politics work there within the scheduling and piloting areas of Fox but someone must have had a problem with Futurama.
The show had a great format. You had a mechanism for sending the crew anywhere where Professor Farnsworth would walk in saying "Good news everyone... you're going to planet X to deliver package Y" with optional information about said planet. From there, they could go anywhere. Using a mechanism like this was a lot like Star Trek (although better than just Trek's "for the sake of discovery" in my opinion but I know that's a monkey shit fight I can't win). And Star Trek (or some form of it) is still going strong on that same idea. Hell, I'll bet there's some pulp sci-fi series in nickel paperback form long ago that used the idea that the universe has an uncountable number of planets so there's an uncountable number of plot lines to keep my readers entertained and me employed.
And Futurama is animated so you're not limited by budgets and CGI.
I think the writers did a good job of keeping multiple plot arcs up and concentrating on them every now and then to keep the fans happy. I think the first movie (Bender's Big Score) was a clear indication of how much they value development in plot arcs and connections between episodes.
To compare it to a show far past it's prime and in a similar format: The Simpsons. The Simpsons has explored every possible crevice and building in Springfield to center on... from the town sundial to the quarry to the statue of Jedediah Springfield to Springfield Gorge to the old folks home to the... they have stretched that town out so badly that recent episodes seem to seep more into neighboring towns for a desperate change of pace. You wouldn't have this problem with Futurama.
Sure, Futurama could jump the shark. But I bet it will last a lot longer than other series if given the chance. Sure, Futurama could end up worse than before the break--much like Family Guy. But I think Family Guy depended too much on edgy questionable humor and when it came back and still had that humor it just wasn't as shocking. And the gimmicks and long digresses got old and tedious. I don't think Futurama relies on these as much as Family Guy.
Anyways, that's my largely opinionated two cents about a show I knew nothing about when it was airing and found it immensely enjoyable years after it was canceled. That's the only show I can say that about. The movies were ok but nothing like the TV formatted shows. Here's to hoping it's just as good as when it left off Season Four!
For the record normally I would complain about lack of originality in a situation like this but after watching some new shows on TV I don't care. Who ever is pitching/accepting these shows like The War at Home and 'til Death should be shot.
OMG I just got my new blog on blogspot, everyone I know is now reading hilarious stories about my cat. Yesterday, he threw up on my carpet and I spent four or five posts describing the *huck huck huck* noise he started making, the vomit on the carpet, removing the vomit, getting the stain out, you know just things people love to read about! Mr. Freckles was sick but he got better! Oh yes he did! Yesyesyesyes!
*one week later*
Oh, blogpost is so last week. It turns out only about one person was reading it but now you can see Mr. Freckles on Flickr! You can actually see the vomit and the piece of yarn covered in bile that Mr. Freckles produced! And we have pictures of Mr. Freckles at the vet getting his temperature taken! People LOVE IT!
*one week later*
Oh, Flickr isn't as great as Mr. Freckles thought. It turns out only about one person was looking at Mr. Freckles but that doesn't matter because I just figured out how to get my own podcast! Now people can hear my awesome squeaky super opinionated voice explain how cuddly wuddly my cat is! Who's more cuddly than Mr. Freckles? Nobody, that's who! Listen to Mr. Freckles complain about his ear infection!
*one week later*
I guess those five podcast downloads were really just me if you count my laptop/desktop/work computer/iPod/iPhone but that doesn't matter, Mr. Freckles is a movie star! We have our own YouTube channel and we get over 100 views a week! Mr. Freckles is friends with Play Him Off Cat too! We just wish they weren't from the same bad egg posting that "nobody wants to watch your fucking cat!" Well, I know the world loves Mr. Freckles almost as much as I do and you're going to hear about him. No matter where you live or what you do, I'm going to leave a bunch of accounts that are nothing but shells like a trail of used condoms behind a frat boy. And if you post painful anti-Mr. Freckles posts about me and Mr. Freckles, I shall only redouble my efforts. I will not stop until I find a way to bring Mr. Freckles' love to you!
Why Stanislaw Lem doesn't get more attention on this News for Nerds site I just don't understand... But for everyone here I'd recommend strongly the Cyberiad
As someone who took twenty minutes to write up a review on The Futurological Congress, I may point out that it's very easy to write a review and submit it. You could do that for Cyberiad if you'd like. I agree that it is also a great book.
Maybe it's just a general adversion [sic] to works in translation.
One thing that's confused me about Lem's books is the wordplay he does and how the hell anyone can translate that from Polish to English so flawlessly that the alliteration and prefix/suffix work moves from one language to another. Perhaps these two languages are more closely related than I know but I am always impressed with the translations.
Why would anyone be averse to books in another language if a decent translation exists? I feel that I am very eager to find these books and read them as I don't get out of the country a lot and love hearing different cultures reflected in works like Hesse and Tolstoy and Bulgakov... why, prior to this book I read 2666 by Roberto Bolano (Peruvian born Mexican resident who died in 2003) and reviewed it but it was rejected. Probably because it's not nerdy enough.
I suspect that as special effects get better and better that Lem will be exposed to many more people through movies of his stories. Hopefully people return to the original works to enjoy them.
Perhaps a rather odd statement coming from a lad whose passions include martial arts, scuba diving and playing piano. He also aspires to be a movie actor.
I found that amusing that he finds some form of entertainment to (music & movies) to benefit humanity more so than games. I wonder if he's ever played Settlers of Catan?
Leaves a bit to be desired. Is it possible to "get" a degree in physics (let alone a special area of physics) with the most advanced course being "Optics and Modern Physics?" I think in my undergrad we touched on relativity in required physics courses with several advanced courses devoted entirely to it and its special forms.
Using Wikipedia for population, we have Asia at 4x10^9 or four billion. We also see that the population of China is 1.33x10^9--that is over one fourth the population of Asia is in China. Your data for the range you specified shows Baidu in China at 56.42%--a figure I believe although I would expect Baidu to be trouncing Google more so than a 21% lead. So using these numbers we can establish that China's numbers should be reflected in Asia's numbers at 1.33/4 or 33%. Now, we know that over half of that third is using Baidu. which means that at least 1/6 or 16.6% of your Asia statistics for that same range should reflect 16% using Baidu! Instead you show 1.51% of Asia using Baidu for that range.
Ok? I stand by my assessment that your collection methods are flawed and do not accurately represent usage across large expanses of users.
I'm skeptical of this data--at least worldwide. When I click the gs.statcounter.com link and go to Statistic:Search Engine and Country/Region:Asia I see Baidu at an alarmingly low rate. Barely even recognizable. The CSV sheet shows it at zero until 03/05/2009 which is hilarious and then it bumps up to 1%. Yeah, I think they have some problems with their data collection methods or who is reporting this data anyhow. Maybe their software's only in English? I don't know but that data alarms me and I would take their stats in other realms lightly as that's a vote of no confidence from me--something is skewed horribly and I don't like it. They might be right about Yahoo! compared to Bing but this is certainly not reassuring.
It figures that chinese dissidents will still be able to get around censorship filters for a while before the communist regime learns how most basic filters can be dodged with search terms like "pr0n" and "1337 h4xx0rz".
No. Chinese "dissidents" looking to remove this filter need only uninstall it or disable it with the password they set when the software is installed.
I don't think you understand how this software works in even the most basic sense, it bans IPs. It doesn't ban searches for terms spelled correctly or incorrectly, it bans IPs. The hackers can call their sites whatever they want. They will just be added to the list of numbers sooner or later anyway. The best thing they could do to avoid being on the list is just continually change their IP addresses.
I wouldn't be surprised, however, to learn of Chinese kids implementing proxies on machines without the software to access whatever they want.
basically a PC-resident IP blocker that gets regular updates of banned sites from a central government site.
That's not what I read in the article, I read that the founder of Jinhui Computer System Engineering (Mr. Zhang) said:
Mr Zhang said his company now compiles and maintains the list of blocked sites, which he says is currently limited to pornography sites. But the software makes it possible to restrict other sites.
So the company seems to be maintaining that list of sites... if it's coming from the government why wouldn't they say? China hasn't been too shy of saying it's in control of other things. Why that level of abstraction unless the Chinese government just wants all computers to have the option of being green?
Interesting to note that might be blown out of proportion as it's unclear how this software works or if it's activated by default. The reason I say that is this line from the article:
the Green Dam software can be turned off if parents want to access blocked sites, and that the program can be uninstalled. Users who want to remove it need a password that they set when the software is installed, a precaution he said is aimed at preventing children from disabling the software.
And also:
The notice says the software must either be preinstalled on the hard drive or enclosed on a compact disc.
So it's ok if I burn this to a compact disc and include it with a netbook that has no compact disc drive? And I am not required to install that on the computer?
It seems that there are ways around this for both the producers and consumers and that this is just the trend of China being Nanny State China.
They killed Socrates this way, they can sure as hell ratchet down internet rights this way.
The Louisiana House Legislature killed Socrates? That's terrible.
I wouldn't be surprised, in 2001 (yes, within this millennium) they branded Darwin a racist with the following flawless logic:
Be it resolved that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby deplore all instances and ideologies of racism, and does hereby reject the core concepts of Darwinist ideology that certain races and classes of humans are inherently superior to others.
Yeah, they actually brought out this gem (page 2 line 1):
WHEREAS, Adolf Hitler and others have exploited the racist views of Darwin and those he influenced, such as German zoologist Ernst Haekel, to justify the annihilation of millions of purportedly racially inferior individuals.
Who knows where they'll set their sights next to appease their God? I certainly wouldn't want to be in their way lest I be likened to Adolf Hitler.
Rep. Mack "Bodi" White, R-Denham Springs, said he sponsored the bill for Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, to raise money to finance a division in Caldwell's office that investigates Internet crimes, particularly online sex crimes against children.
I agree that sex crime against children are very very bad but I think that if you look at the scope and size of the problems that plague the internet and ranked them in order, you'd find many other things precede sex crimes against children. Like Internet Fraud and Identity Theft. How much money do people lose to things like that? Hint: A lot.
I'm sick and tired of thinking of the children, let's think about everybody for a while. The lil' bastards don't even pay taxes and they're the motivation behind 50% of the legislation in this country.
Christopher Barton, lead research scientist at McAfee, said a number of 3FN domain name servers already have popped up at new locations online.
"The rats are running," Barton said.
Oh, that's a shame, maybe next time we should hand this matter over to the USAF or at least the FBI. You know, someone capable of exterminating or prosecuting the 'rats'?
Leibowitz said his agency would continue to pursue other ISPs that "provide a haven for Internet criminals."
"This is a signal that we're going to go after you, and you're not going to be able to hide behind the shroud of the Internet and be immune from enforcement action," Leibowitz said.
A signed copy of the FTC's complaint is available here (PDF).
Ahahah, is that a joke?
FTC Chairman Leibowitz: Let this very strongly worded complaint be a clear message to those that escaped yet again! We will not falter until we have lodged very strongly worded complaints against each and every one of you at least four times! Botnet Leader: Jesus Christ, I think I just shit myself! My god, you just shut down one of like 50 ISPs we use! We might even have to go to another country to run our lucrative operations! Oh the horror of operating out of the Cayman Islands! Laying on the beach, raking in cash! Will you show us no mercy?!
So tell me, when will all the court cases be launched from the data you collected from the servers you confiscated in this coup de grace? They were operating out of Northern California, surely you contacted the appropriate law enforcement agencies, gathered a massive stack of warrants and cunningly orchestrated a perfect storming of all facilities to capture servers with juicy financial, IP, personal and foreign data? And then surely you froze the assets in these accounts and entered all this as evidence in a mounting trial against business and individuals foreign and domestic? Oh you didn't? Oh, you just warned their ISPs and strutted around waving a complaint and acting like you saved the day? Well done.
I think what works for consumers most likely -- and this has to be tested, frankly -- is bundles. I think you have to figure out what are the right bundles that people buy and what's contained in that bundle. For example, you could have -- and I'm making this up entirely -- you could have a New York bundle, and that could consist of various papers or publications that are relevant to the audience in New York, and you could make that all, potentially, a bundle to a consumer at one price.
For what it's worth, he also made this statement:
I went from paying $14 to The Wall Street Journal to paying $10 to Amazon. Now the splits there, and I think this is relatively well known, are very, very much in favor of Amazon. So I became very much less valuable to The Wall Street Journal. That's part one. Part two is they don't know I exist. I went from being someone who's their subscriber to being someone who is an Amazon subscriber, which The Wall Street Journal has no visibility back to and cannot manage that customer relationship. . . . So they've lost both the customer management and, trust me, the lion's share of the economics.
You know I hate to be voice of calm reason, folks but this is all the original source reported:
Asked specifically about the future of online video joint venture Hulu, which is currently advertising-supported, he said it "is an environment for premium content." Pointing to the popularity of iPhone applications, he added: "We're seeing the beginning of a very strong app economy."
From there, you can trace a very hilarious wave of the telephone game from blog to blog of people slowly blowing it out of proportion as it's put together that this guy is talking about paid subscriptions and he's in charge of Hulu therefore Hulu must be becoming a paid subscription service.
Slashdot Mirror
Umm, that ad for DoubleTwist was pulled down a week ago:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/06/vdouble_twists_ad_ripped_down_by_bart_before_wwdc_too_dark_really.html
Seriously, Slashdot is becoming great lately for re-reading old news that I read on other tech sites days earlier.
Yeah, I realize this but if you read the Wired article that I linked:
Johansen wanted the ad displayed Monday, the first day of the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. That's when the Cupertino, California-based company unveiled a host of new products and prices. But it was taken down, Johansen said, because he was told the ad did not allow enough light through the subway station window.
The entrepreneur said he submitted the same ad to Titan Worldwide with a white background instead of a black one. He said Titan rejected that one, too.
Finally, the ad with a transparent background was approved and displayed Wednesday afternoon, Johansen said. Pending another brouhaha, the ad will remain there for months, he said.
I may have been this-side-up blitzed last night when I submitted this and I may have no recollection of submitting it but that ad is still on display!
... Sweet Spaghetti Monster my head hurts.
Funny how it is you who are the one that is out of date
"iPhone-like fluidity"
gimmie a break. How and why did you manage to fit a reference to the iphone into the summary.
No, no, that made up adjective was very informative. I now know that Project Natal will have the same viscosity as the iPhone.
After scanning this article, I'm kind of worried. Everyone's jumping into 3D immersive technology and that's great. Heck, I own a Wii myself ... but one thing I don't like about it is my inability to become really good at a game that relies on WiiMote motion. I don't know what the deal is but the learning curve seems really easy yet once you get there there is no way to differentiate between the 98 percentile player and the 99 percentile player. Now, I haven't gotten addicted to the WiiMote intensive games and I'm grateful that games like Super Smash Bros. don't rely on 3D motion of the WiiMote. It's just too complex and inaccurate. That said, this screenshot really worried me. No controller required or controller optional?
I welcome this new technology but as an avid gamer I'm more than a little bit afraid that with this new technology everyone is going to be expected to take advantage of it on the XBox360. We might be jumping into a new dimension too fast for software and hardware to support it. I know a lot of people would argue with that statement but Wii games feel 'soft' when they are WiiMote intensive and I wonder if Project Natal will feel the same way. Don't get me wrong, they are great games for four people to play while getting loaded.
I guess Nintendo pioneered what is the next step in video games much like Sony pioneering the transition from directional pad to miniature joystick. My question now is really whether or not the PS3 will follow suit. They have to in order to attract these motion titles, don't they?
Ray, where are you Ray? It's been a half hour, Ray! Ray, we were going to stop the RIAA together, remember Ray? Remember?
I'll just wait outside your office until morning and get an update from you.
[Posted via Slashdot Mobile.]
eldavojohn, you're a cool guy, you can figure it out.
Cool -> cold -> frigid -> frigerator -> meat -> meat locker! Meat locker, that's it! Of course!
... FINGERS !!! Oh my god, how could I be so blind?!
Figure -> filter -> filler -> filbert -> finger
They're going to kill her, cut off her fingers and hang her in a meat locker! It's brilliant and evil all at the same time.
Ray, we have to warn her! I'll meet you at the comic book store down the street from my house in fifteen minutes! Our detective crime fighting team name will be the "The Extraordinary Super Aces!"
This could be a victory for Jammie. The judge carefully lays out, at pages 13-14, the standards for admissibility of technical evidence.
I know for a fact that neither MediaSentry nor Doug Jacobson could satisfy those standards.
Assuming the judge applies those standards evenly, this trial may end abrutly, because the RIAA's only witnesses may both be precluded from testifying.
Please, make up your mind and tell me how to properly react to this already. I feel like Philip J. Fry when he found out he was going to be snusnu'd to death. Or is watching humans squirm precisely what lawyers just like to watch?!
"We have worked hand in hand with state and local officials, broadcasters and community groups to educate and assist millions of Americans with the transition...I want to be clear: there will not be another delay."
Well, I hope my government is this vocal and helpful in getting everyone coordinated to switch to IPv6 and HTML5. Oh, ha, that's right. If we switch to those, the government doesn't get to auction off IPv4 or HTML4 for twenty billion dollars. So I guess you only get grade A support from the FCC and Department of Commerce only when they profit from it. That's really a shame, I think if the United States informed consumers on more standards and compliance it would benefit the average citizen. Hell, sometimes I wish the Senators & Congressmen themselves sought such information.
Some things the Senator needs to understand ...
Might I remind you that this is the same Senator Orrin Hatch who
Combine those first two points and I wager that your comment not only falls upon deaf ears but might instead cause him to laugh. This guy's got a long history and he's been very successful doing it.
Where exactly did he get his numbers? I wonder?
I believe he was citing the Business Software Alliance's annual report on piracy. Although that value I believe is for world-wide losses, not American.
they were using a mathematical library that would solve partial differential equations, by presenting the user with the actual mathematical formulae to them.
Uh, just a point of note, I believe my TI-89 from high school in 1999 solves partial differential equations. Hell, I think Mathematica could do this when I used it in college in 2003.
these kinds of libraries are staggeringly complex to write, and they have been empirically proven over decades of use to actually work.
An operating system is staggeringly complex to write yet a single man can write one. A very special man but a man nonetheless. Your mentality is fatalistic.
to start again from scratch with such libraries would require man-centuries or possibly man-millenia of development effort to reproduce and debug, regardless of the programming language.
If that's the case, it would be my inkling to tackle this problem from a new angle and I think many people already have and continue to do that.
so it doesn't matter what people in the slashdot community think: for engineers to use anything but these tried-and-tested engineering libraries, that happen to be written in fortran, would just be genuinely stupid of them.
How did we ever make progress with people like you around?
What do people in the Slashdot community think?
The easy route is just to let them teach what they want to. Professors will talk and push whatever they feel is valuable and they sure the hell aren't going to listen to a Slashdot user half their age that will get on his knees and write Java for an extra buck. If you get a whack job professor teaching only archaic languages, the University will probably hear complaints from alums about getting into the job market and wishing they had learned R instead of Fortran. I don't know about the other engineering programs but I'd sure rather be a master with R than Fortran. Is Fortran more efficient? Depends on if you're talking about cycles or amount of time it takes to write a quadratic sieve for prime numbers.
... maybe even Ruby?
I had to learn C and I actually like plain jane C in all its simplicity. I think colleges should stick to a low level language for numerical computation courses (in my case C but I believe Fortran would function fine), an intro course to an interpreted language like lisp scheme perl whatever and should of course offer full courses in whatever is the latest craze for usable languages like C++, Java
I wager this will be a hot debate and I think it's fine if people want to teach Fortran, I learned scheme and I've never used it in my professional work! Just so long as when they enter the job market, they're prepared.
You know, I read so many stories recently that just make me do a double take and question if it's a hoax/prank or what. Case in point, just today I noticed that a Nigerian professor at Jackson State University in Mississippi has been granted not a few patents for a bitter leaf-based anti-diabetic and cancer medication which may also benefit HIV/AIDS patients!
... it also wouldn't make sense for him to create his own company and hold the patents with the intent of doing something if it is a scam.
I don't know how this works! I mean, I know patents get handed out for most anything but is this guy patenting something that's well known in Nigeria (I heard a lot of Indian medicinal researchers are busting their asses to publish a herbal book so that this doesn't happen--prior art and all)? If he's the professor of Biology at an American university I certainly hope this isn't a scam
A confusingly exciting time in medicine. Too bad big pharma is pure evil.
I'm convinced Futurama was not canceled for any reason within its power. The powers that be at Fox seemed to think that moving its time slot around so no one knew when it was on was a great idea. I don't know how the politics work there within the scheduling and piloting areas of Fox but someone must have had a problem with Futurama.
... you're going to planet X to deliver package Y" with optional information about said planet. From there, they could go anywhere. Using a mechanism like this was a lot like Star Trek (although better than just Trek's "for the sake of discovery" in my opinion but I know that's a monkey shit fight I can't win). And Star Trek (or some form of it) is still going strong on that same idea. Hell, I'll bet there's some pulp sci-fi series in nickel paperback form long ago that used the idea that the universe has an uncountable number of planets so there's an uncountable number of plot lines to keep my readers entertained and me employed.
... from the town sundial to the quarry to the statue of Jedediah Springfield to Springfield Gorge to the old folks home to the ... they have stretched that town out so badly that recent episodes seem to seep more into neighboring towns for a desperate change of pace. You wouldn't have this problem with Futurama.
The show had a great format. You had a mechanism for sending the crew anywhere where Professor Farnsworth would walk in saying "Good news everyone
And Futurama is animated so you're not limited by budgets and CGI.
I think the writers did a good job of keeping multiple plot arcs up and concentrating on them every now and then to keep the fans happy. I think the first movie (Bender's Big Score) was a clear indication of how much they value development in plot arcs and connections between episodes.
To compare it to a show far past it's prime and in a similar format: The Simpsons. The Simpsons has explored every possible crevice and building in Springfield to center on
Sure, Futurama could jump the shark. But I bet it will last a lot longer than other series if given the chance. Sure, Futurama could end up worse than before the break--much like Family Guy. But I think Family Guy depended too much on edgy questionable humor and when it came back and still had that humor it just wasn't as shocking. And the gimmicks and long digresses got old and tedious. I don't think Futurama relies on these as much as Family Guy.
Anyways, that's my largely opinionated two cents about a show I knew nothing about when it was airing and found it immensely enjoyable years after it was canceled. That's the only show I can say that about. The movies were ok but nothing like the TV formatted shows. Here's to hoping it's just as good as when it left off Season Four!
For the record normally I would complain about lack of originality in a situation like this but after watching some new shows on TV I don't care. Who ever is pitching/accepting these shows like The War at Home and 'til Death should be shot.
OMG I just got my new blog on blogspot, everyone I know is now reading hilarious stories about my cat. Yesterday, he threw up on my carpet and I spent four or five posts describing the *huck huck huck* noise he started making, the vomit on the carpet, removing the vomit, getting the stain out, you know just things people love to read about! Mr. Freckles was sick but he got better! Oh yes he did! Yesyesyesyes!
*one week later*
Oh, blogpost is so last week. It turns out only about one person was reading it but now you can see Mr. Freckles on Flickr! You can actually see the vomit and the piece of yarn covered in bile that Mr. Freckles produced! And we have pictures of Mr. Freckles at the vet getting his temperature taken! People LOVE IT!
*one week later*
Oh, Flickr isn't as great as Mr. Freckles thought. It turns out only about one person was looking at Mr. Freckles but that doesn't matter because I just figured out how to get my own podcast! Now people can hear my awesome squeaky super opinionated voice explain how cuddly wuddly my cat is! Who's more cuddly than Mr. Freckles? Nobody, that's who! Listen to Mr. Freckles complain about his ear infection!
*one week later*
I guess those five podcast downloads were really just me if you count my laptop/desktop/work computer/iPod/iPhone but that doesn't matter, Mr. Freckles is a movie star! We have our own YouTube channel and we get over 100 views a week! Mr. Freckles is friends with Play Him Off Cat too! We just wish they weren't from the same bad egg posting that "nobody wants to watch your fucking cat!" Well, I know the world loves Mr. Freckles almost as much as I do and you're going to hear about him. No matter where you live or what you do, I'm going to leave a bunch of accounts that are nothing but shells like a trail of used condoms behind a frat boy. And if you post painful anti-Mr. Freckles posts about me and Mr. Freckles, I shall only redouble my efforts. I will not stop until I find a way to bring Mr. Freckles' love to you!
Why Stanislaw Lem doesn't get more attention on this News for Nerds site I just don't understand... But for everyone here I'd recommend strongly the Cyberiad
As someone who took twenty minutes to write up a review on The Futurological Congress, I may point out that it's very easy to write a review and submit it. You could do that for Cyberiad if you'd like. I agree that it is also a great book.
Maybe it's just a general adversion [sic] to works in translation.
One thing that's confused me about Lem's books is the wordplay he does and how the hell anyone can translate that from Polish to English so flawlessly that the alliteration and prefix/suffix work moves from one language to another. Perhaps these two languages are more closely related than I know but I am always impressed with the translations.
... why, prior to this book I read 2666 by Roberto Bolano (Peruvian born Mexican resident who died in 2003) and reviewed it but it was rejected. Probably because it's not nerdy enough.
Why would anyone be averse to books in another language if a decent translation exists? I feel that I am very eager to find these books and read them as I don't get out of the country a lot and love hearing different cultures reflected in works like Hesse and Tolstoy and Bulgakov
I suspect that as special effects get better and better that Lem will be exposed to many more people through movies of his stories. Hopefully people return to the original works to enjoy them.
There is one thing this boy wonder does not like.
"I feel it's a waste of time playing video games, I feel its a waste of time and it's not helping humanity in any way."
And GamePolitics' Andrew Eisen notes:
Perhaps a rather odd statement coming from a lad whose passions include martial arts, scuba diving and playing piano. He also aspires to be a movie actor.
I found that amusing that he finds some form of entertainment to (music & movies) to benefit humanity more so than games. I wonder if he's ever played Settlers of Catan?
Once again, I'm not trying to detract from his accomplishments but this isn't exactly as intensive as a four year bachelor's of science.
I was looking for a course plan from that college but could not find one for astrophysics
Leaves a bit to be desired. Is it possible to "get" a degree in physics (let alone a special area of physics) with the most advanced course being "Optics and Modern Physics?" I think in my undergrad we touched on relativity in required physics courses with several advanced courses devoted entirely to it and its special forms.
I'm from StatCounter and I would just like to address your concern. The detection for baidu was added on the 5th March 2009 at 21.00 GMT. When a new detection is added it is noted on the visual graph (but not in the csv download). Also if you look at the stats just for China you can easily see Baidu's dominance there.
Using Wikipedia for population, we have Asia at 4x10^9 or four billion. We also see that the population of China is 1.33x10^9--that is over one fourth the population of Asia is in China. Your data for the range you specified shows Baidu in China at 56.42%--a figure I believe although I would expect Baidu to be trouncing Google more so than a 21% lead. So using these numbers we can establish that China's numbers should be reflected in Asia's numbers at 1.33/4 or 33%. Now, we know that over half of that third is using Baidu. which means that at least 1/6 or 16.6% of your Asia statistics for that same range should reflect 16% using Baidu! Instead you show 1.51% of Asia using Baidu for that range.
Ok? I stand by my assessment that your collection methods are flawed and do not accurately represent usage across large expanses of users.
I'm skeptical of this data--at least worldwide. When I click the gs.statcounter.com link and go to Statistic:Search Engine and Country/Region:Asia I see Baidu at an alarmingly low rate. Barely even recognizable. The CSV sheet shows it at zero until 03/05/2009 which is hilarious and then it bumps up to 1%. Yeah, I think they have some problems with their data collection methods or who is reporting this data anyhow. Maybe their software's only in English? I don't know but that data alarms me and I would take their stats in other realms lightly as that's a vote of no confidence from me--something is skewed horribly and I don't like it. They might be right about Yahoo! compared to Bing but this is certainly not reassuring.
It figures that chinese dissidents will still be able to get around censorship filters for a while before the communist regime learns how most basic filters can be dodged with search terms like "pr0n" and "1337 h4xx0rz".
No. Chinese "dissidents" looking to remove this filter need only uninstall it or disable it with the password they set when the software is installed.
I don't think you understand how this software works in even the most basic sense, it bans IPs. It doesn't ban searches for terms spelled correctly or incorrectly, it bans IPs. The hackers can call their sites whatever they want. They will just be added to the list of numbers sooner or later anyway. The best thing they could do to avoid being on the list is just continually change their IP addresses.
I wouldn't be surprised, however, to learn of Chinese kids implementing proxies on machines without the software to access whatever they want.
basically a PC-resident IP blocker that gets regular updates of banned sites from a central government site.
That's not what I read in the article, I read that the founder of Jinhui Computer System Engineering (Mr. Zhang) said:
Mr Zhang said his company now compiles and maintains the list of blocked sites, which he says is currently limited to pornography sites. But the software makes it possible to restrict other sites.
So the company seems to be maintaining that list of sites ... if it's coming from the government why wouldn't they say? China hasn't been too shy of saying it's in control of other things. Why that level of abstraction unless the Chinese government just wants all computers to have the option of being green?
Interesting to note that might be blown out of proportion as it's unclear how this software works or if it's activated by default. The reason I say that is this line from the article:
the Green Dam software can be turned off if parents want to access blocked sites, and that the program can be uninstalled. Users who want to remove it need a password that they set when the software is installed, a precaution he said is aimed at preventing children from disabling the software.
And also:
The notice says the software must either be preinstalled on the hard drive or enclosed on a compact disc.
So it's ok if I burn this to a compact disc and include it with a netbook that has no compact disc drive? And I am not required to install that on the computer?
It seems that there are ways around this for both the producers and consumers and that this is just the trend of China being Nanny State China.
They killed Socrates this way, they can sure as hell ratchet down internet rights this way.
The Louisiana House Legislature killed Socrates? That's terrible.
I wouldn't be surprised, in 2001 (yes, within this millennium) they branded Darwin a racist with the following flawless logic:
Be it resolved that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby deplore all instances and ideologies of racism, and does hereby reject the core concepts of Darwinist ideology that certain races and classes of humans are inherently superior to others.
Yeah, they actually brought out this gem (page 2 line 1):
WHEREAS, Adolf Hitler and others have exploited the racist views of Darwin and those he influenced, such as German zoologist Ernst Haekel, to justify the annihilation of millions of purportedly racially inferior individuals.
Who knows where they'll set their sights next to appease their God? I certainly wouldn't want to be in their way lest I be likened to Adolf Hitler.
Rep. Mack "Bodi" White, R-Denham Springs, said he sponsored the bill for Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, to raise money to finance a division in Caldwell's office that investigates Internet crimes, particularly online sex crimes against children.
I agree that sex crime against children are very very bad but I think that if you look at the scope and size of the problems that plague the internet and ranked them in order, you'd find many other things precede sex crimes against children. Like Internet Fraud and Identity Theft. How much money do people lose to things like that? Hint: A lot.
I'm sick and tired of thinking of the children, let's think about everybody for a while. The lil' bastards don't even pay taxes and they're the motivation behind 50% of the legislation in this country.
Christopher Barton, lead research scientist at McAfee, said a number of 3FN domain name servers already have popped up at new locations online.
"The rats are running," Barton said.
Oh, that's a shame, maybe next time we should hand this matter over to the USAF or at least the FBI. You know, someone capable of exterminating or prosecuting the 'rats'?
Leibowitz said his agency would continue to pursue other ISPs that "provide a haven for Internet criminals."
"This is a signal that we're going to go after you, and you're not going to be able to hide behind the shroud of the Internet and be immune from enforcement action," Leibowitz said.
A signed copy of the FTC's complaint is available here (PDF).
Ahahah, is that a joke?
FTC Chairman Leibowitz: Let this very strongly worded complaint be a clear message to those that escaped yet again! We will not falter until we have lodged very strongly worded complaints against each and every one of you at least four times!
Botnet Leader: Jesus Christ, I think I just shit myself! My god, you just shut down one of like 50 ISPs we use! We might even have to go to another country to run our lucrative operations! Oh the horror of operating out of the Cayman Islands! Laying on the beach, raking in cash! Will you show us no mercy?!
So tell me, when will all the court cases be launched from the data you collected from the servers you confiscated in this coup de grace? They were operating out of Northern California, surely you contacted the appropriate law enforcement agencies, gathered a massive stack of warrants and cunningly orchestrated a perfect storming of all facilities to capture servers with juicy financial, IP, personal and foreign data? And then surely you froze the assets in these accounts and entered all this as evidence in a mounting trial against business and individuals foreign and domestic? Oh you didn't? Oh, you just warned their ISPs and strutted around waving a complaint and acting like you saved the day? Well done.
I think what works for consumers most likely -- and this has to be tested, frankly -- is bundles. I think you have to figure out what are the right bundles that people buy and what's contained in that bundle. For example, you could have -- and I'm making this up entirely -- you could have a New York bundle, and that could consist of various papers or publications that are relevant to the audience in New York, and you could make that all, potentially, a bundle to a consumer at one price.
For what it's worth, he also made this statement:
I went from paying $14 to The Wall Street Journal to paying $10 to Amazon. Now the splits there, and I think this is relatively well known, are very, very much in favor of Amazon. So I became very much less valuable to The Wall Street Journal. That's part one. Part two is they don't know I exist. I went from being someone who's their subscriber to being someone who is an Amazon subscriber, which The Wall Street Journal has no visibility back to and cannot manage that customer relationship. . . . So they've lost both the customer management and, trust me, the lion's share of the economics.
You know I hate to be voice of calm reason, folks but this is all the original source reported:
Asked specifically about the future of online video joint venture Hulu, which is currently advertising-supported, he said it "is an environment for premium content." Pointing to the popularity of iPhone applications, he added: "We're seeing the beginning of a very strong app economy."
From there, you can trace a very hilarious wave of the telephone game from blog to blog of people slowly blowing it out of proportion as it's put together that this guy is talking about paid subscriptions and he's in charge of Hulu therefore Hulu must be becoming a paid subscription service.