I am posting this from elinks (the version w/Ecmascript support).
Frankly, I was also of that opinion, that non-graphical browsing would be OK. Unfortunately, since my daughter has started using the second computer, I've had to browse (mainly Slashdot) from my ~10-year-old half-broken laptop with 64 MiB of RAM. I understand the disadvantages of console mode browsing quite well now. For example, on Slashdot, I can read the posts, reply, and even moderate, but I can't get a good feel for the inter-post organization, e.g., which posts are replies to which other posts, or understand what are all the replies to a given post. There is just not enough real estate on my console screen, even if the site were optimized for using elinks.
Of course, some would blame the chicken-and-egg dilemma for most of this (since most sites are not designed for console mode browsing).
IIRC, the use of police forces in raids in Sweden is limited (if not by law, then by internal police policies) to crimes where the punishment involves imprisonment. The raid on the servers of TPB didn't qualify. In fact, some high government official had to intervene in the ordinary affairs of Swedish law enforcement for it to happen.
smalfries: "Not everyone on slashdot is having a go at me..." mathinker (takes deep breath): "Not everyone on slashdot is having a go at me..." smalfries: "Not everyone on slashdot is having a go at me..." mathinker: "Not everyone on slashdot is having a go at me..."
I am calm. I am very calm. I... what was I going to say?
Oh, yeah... Sorry if I was too reactive, there, no offense...
I remember reading about a study made long ago about electronic text communications; the researchers came to the conclusion that it tended to spiral out of control a lot easier than face-to-face. I think we just experienced that...
You called yourself lazy. Yes, I am also lazy --- too lazy to try to investigate you over and above how you characterize yourself.
1) You contradict yourself in your own post. You state that the engineers have always been using the one correct or logical way to measure information, which is in base-2 units (in order support your point), but then you deride them for wanting to differentiate the base-2 units they use from previously established base-10 units.
I do agree with you and disagree with fbjon that base-2 units are the most logical for memory capacity, but you, like him, miss the major point of the argument --- that these base-2 units need new unambiguous names.
2) By your logic, when the US moves to digital TV transmission, the frequencies of the TV channels, which up to now have been measured in megahertz = 10^6 hertz, should start to be measured in base-2 units, which would be mebihertz = 2^20 hertz but anyway you want to call those mebihertz frequencies megahertz because base-2 is the only logical way we'd talk about information transfer. Good luck trying to figure out if your microwave oven interferes with your WiFi or one of those digital TV channels.
3) Look at what happens when you try to figure out how long it will take to transfer the contents of the RAM of your computer over your Internet connection (the same engineers who you claim have been always using the "logical" SI units for memory capacities have also always been using the real (i.e., base-10) SI units for data transfer rates).
a person could go their entire life working with computers and not know what the decimal representation of a megabyte looks like. Until he has to transfer the information from his computer to another one via transmission (as opposed to moving media around).
Hmm, do I smell a class action suit against Comcast? Bandwidth and transmission rates are traditionally stated in real SI units.
> no logical reason whatsoever why we should use powers of two
Of course there is, as you correct yourself --- memory units should be power-of-two. You're missing the whole point, which is that you just shouldn't call the power-of-two units the same names as the power-of-ten units --- which is why there is kibi-, mebi-, and gibi-...
> connected pieces of hardware should use the same basic units
Your computer is probably connected to a network cable, so I suppose that the manufacturer of the cable should use the power-of-two convention when he calculates the bandwidth of the cable in megahertz, then, right?
And in 2009, US television transmissions will go digital, so Americans will have to recalculate the frequencies of the TV station transmissions, I suppose, no? Good luck trying to figure out if your microwave interferes with the WiFi in your house!
Using the same notation for two different things is an invitation for disaster.
> And how should I calculate the hard drive cache size ? with powers of ten ?
Far from it. Use kibi-, mebi-, and gibi- bytes to your heart's content! I do! Just don't call them kilo-, mega-, and giga-...
I personally heard of at least one university test (in the '80s) where people got a question wrong because the professor intentionally used the same SI prefixes in the same question but in two different "contexts" (data transmission rate and memory size) so that you had to know the different "conventions" to get the answer right.
Although from your sig I see I preach to the converted...
The big advantage of this kind of graphic is that it scales up to a nice sharp anti-aliased image as the user increases the text size. Well, at least Homer did when I tried it.
But of course, properly implemented SVG would do that just as well. It just lacks the super-geekiness of using something in an unintended way to get a useful result. And, of course, this way might have better support in some browsers than SVG.
Let me guess, "secretary" was thought to have too much anti-feminist connotations?
In the meantime, even Google has trouble helping me pin down the exact meaning of that word! An unusual occurance. I wonder if in the far future, there will be a special word for "the feeling one gets when searching/consulting the collective intelligence doesn't answer the question"? I think I just felt its puny echo from the future.:)
Hmm, about the only info in English is by automatic translation of an entry in the Dutch Wikipedia, which leaves me wondering...
I wonder how far advanced voice recognition for Mandarin Chinese is. My guess is that it is far behind what is available for English. This would mean that Chinese web sites are at an advantage with respect to word-based audio CAPTCHAs.
> but what it does want to do is get everyone to lose faith in standards bodies.
That's kind of a stupid goal, since even if ODF weren't an approved standard, it would still be a good choice for long-term archival of documents or cross-platform interoperability, since anyone can edit or display it using open-source software running in a VM. And any open-source implementation serves as documentation for the format (so you just have to choose a particular implementation and stick to it as your "standard" implementation).
No, my money is betting on MS thinking that by making OOXML a standard they'll manage to squeeze out a bit more governmental procuration budgets than otherwise....
Did you even bother to read the article you linked to (in its entirety)? It quotes the standard (emphasis mine):
The definitions of kilo, giga, and mega based on powers of two are included only to reflect common usage. IEEE/ASTM SI 10-1997 states "This practice frequently leads to confusion and is deprecated." Further confusion results from the popular use of a "megabyte" consisting of 1 024 000 bytes to define the capacity of the familiar "1.44-MB" diskette. An alternative system is found in Amendment 2 to IEC 60027-2: Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology â" Part 2
IANAL, but at least from a technical point of view, the patent you cite seems to have little to no relevance here:
1) It deals with using a Fresnel lens, not a zone plate, 2) It's main point is using, for a single imaging, one Fresnel lens twice via having two separate optical paths through it.
Looks like it might possibly be an interesting patent, but it's not connected with the idea for this telescope (unless the Fresnel lens cited in the article, which corrects the chromatic aberation of the zone plate, is used in the fashion cited in patent, which doesn't seem likely to me).
I think you are missing a big point here. We're not talking about a solid sheet like a sail, but rather, a sheet which is X% holes, and for which the exact geometric arrangement of the holes is critical for the physics to work. Looks to me like one has even started to think about how it can survive the stresses of being launched at multiple G's.
"part of the trade"? The use of metric prefixes for binary powers of two has been deprecated by professional standard bodies for almost 10 years now!
That doesn't mean that I don't agree that the manufacturers shouldn't have to print the full number, and it's representation in both SI and binary prefix units. If they did that, then people like you might start to become aware that the misuse of SI prefixes based on context is stupid.
I don't have the time to figure out everything but look at Section 202:
(1) Civil forfeiture proceedings. (A) The following property is subject to forfeiture to the United States:.... (iii) Any property used, or intended to be used, to commit or facilitate the commission of a violation of subsection (a) that is owned or predominantly controlled by the violator or by a person conspiring with or aiding and abetting the violator in committing the violation.
If "subsection (a)" includes illegal uploading or downloading, then that means any equipment used to do those things can be seized (it is forfeit). My guess is that this is what the people complaining about the law are referring to, unfortunately, I'm not skilled enough to figure out exact what/which "subsection (a)" is being referred to...
Based on an automatic keyword analysis it has been determined that the content is explicit with a probability exceeding 99.45%, and it has been replaced by this message. The material included the following keywords:
Slashdot Mirror
That whooshes don't extinguish flames.
I am posting this from elinks (the version w/Ecmascript support).
Frankly, I was also of that opinion, that non-graphical browsing would be OK. Unfortunately, since my daughter has started using the second computer, I've had to browse (mainly Slashdot) from my ~10-year-old half-broken laptop with 64 MiB of RAM. I understand the disadvantages of console mode browsing quite well now. For example, on Slashdot, I can read the posts, reply, and even moderate, but I can't get a good feel for the inter-post organization, e.g., which posts are replies to which other posts, or understand what are all the replies to a given post. There is just not enough real estate on my console screen, even if the site were optimized for using elinks.
Of course, some would blame the chicken-and-egg dilemma for most of this (since most sites are not designed for console mode browsing).
IIRC, the use of police forces in raids in Sweden is limited (if not by law, then by internal police policies) to crimes where the punishment involves imprisonment. The raid on the servers of TPB didn't qualify. In fact, some high government official had to intervene in the ordinary affairs of Swedish law enforcement for it to happen.
smalfries: "Not everyone on slashdot is having a go at me..."
mathinker (takes deep breath): "Not everyone on slashdot is having a go at me..."
smalfries: "Not everyone on slashdot is having a go at me..."
mathinker: "Not everyone on slashdot is having a go at me..."
I am calm. I am very calm. I... what was I going to say?
Oh, yeah... Sorry if I was too reactive, there, no offense...
I remember reading about a study made long ago about electronic text communications; the researchers came to the conclusion that it tended to spiral out of control a lot easier than face-to-face. I think we just experienced that...
You called yourself lazy. Yes, I am also lazy --- too lazy to try to investigate you over and above how you characterize yourself.
1) You contradict yourself in your own post. You state that the engineers have always been using the one correct or logical way to measure information, which is in base-2 units (in order support your point), but then you deride them for wanting to differentiate the base-2 units they use from previously established base-10 units.
I do agree with you and disagree with fbjon that base-2 units are the most logical for memory capacity, but you, like him, miss the major point of the argument --- that these base-2 units need new unambiguous names.
2) By your logic, when the US moves to digital TV transmission, the frequencies of the TV channels, which up to now have been measured in megahertz = 10^6 hertz, should start to be measured in base-2 units, which would be mebihertz = 2^20 hertz but anyway you want to call those mebihertz frequencies megahertz because base-2 is the only logical way we'd talk about information transfer. Good luck trying to figure out if your microwave oven interferes with your WiFi or one of those digital TV channels.
3) Look at what happens when you try to figure out how long it will take to transfer the contents of the RAM of your computer over your Internet connection (the same engineers who you claim have been always using the "logical" SI units for memory capacities have also always been using the real (i.e., base-10) SI units for data transfer rates).
Hmm, do I smell a class action suit against Comcast? Bandwidth and transmission rates are traditionally stated in real SI units.
> only engineers, mathematicians, and scientists would think that reduces confusion
There, fixed that for you.
> But I'm way too lazy to look for some sort of citation for that,
kibi- = 1024, mebi- = 2^20, gibi- = 2^30
But I suppose you're also too lazy to actually use them. It does require effort nowadays, like any kind of pioneering.
> no logical reason whatsoever why we should use powers of two
...
Of course there is, as you correct yourself --- memory units should be power-of-two. You're missing the whole point, which is that you just shouldn't call the power-of-two units the same names as the power-of-ten units --- which is why there is kibi-, mebi-, and gibi-
> connected pieces of hardware should use the same basic units
...
Your computer is probably connected to a network cable, so I suppose that the manufacturer of the cable should use the power-of-two convention when he calculates the bandwidth of the cable in megahertz, then, right?
And in 2009, US television transmissions will go digital, so Americans will have to recalculate the frequencies of the TV station transmissions, I suppose, no? Good luck trying to figure out if your microwave interferes with the WiFi in your house!
Using the same notation for two different things is an invitation for disaster.
> And how should I calculate the hard drive cache size ? with powers of ten ?
Far from it. Use kibi-, mebi-, and gibi- bytes to your heart's content! I do! Just don't call them kilo-, mega-, and giga-
I personally heard of at least one university test (in the '80s) where people got a question wrong because the professor intentionally used the same SI prefixes in the same question but in two different "contexts" (data transmission rate and memory size) so that you had to know the different "conventions" to get the answer right.
Although from your sig I see I preach to the converted...
If we're really lucky, after that we'll get Web 3.1, Web 3.14, Web 3.141, ...
But don't hold your breath waiting...
The big advantage of this kind of graphic is that it scales up to a nice sharp anti-aliased image as the user increases the text size. Well, at least Homer did when I tried it.
But of course, properly implemented SVG would do that just as well. It just lacks the super-geekiness of using something in an unintended way to get a useful result. And, of course, this way might have better support in some browsers than SVG.
I want my authentic "Crunchy Core"!
Sheeeesh! Even God fears the FDA nowadays! (Or Inspector Flying Praline of the Yard, anyway...)
Let me guess, "secretary" was thought to have too much anti-feminist connotations?
:)
In the meantime, even Google has trouble helping me pin down the exact meaning of that word! An unusual occurance. I wonder if in the far future, there will be a special word for "the feeling one gets when searching/consulting the collective intelligence doesn't answer the question"? I think I just felt its puny echo from the future.
Hmm, about the only info in English is by automatic translation of an entry in the Dutch Wikipedia, which leaves me wondering...
I wonder how far advanced voice recognition for Mandarin Chinese is. My guess is that it is far behind what is available for English. This would mean that Chinese web sites are at an advantage with respect to word-based audio CAPTCHAs.
But then the human would also need to be able to spell.
> but what it does want to do is get everyone to lose faith in standards bodies.
That's kind of a stupid goal, since even if ODF weren't an approved standard, it would still be a good choice for long-term archival of documents or cross-platform interoperability, since anyone can edit or display it using open-source software running in a VM. And any open-source implementation serves as documentation for the format (so you just have to choose a particular implementation and stick to it as your "standard" implementation).
No, my money is betting on MS thinking that by making OOXML a standard they'll manage to squeeze out a bit more governmental procuration budgets than otherwise....
This one-off controversy about when the millenium started is getting a little old, no?
...
Yeah, I know, "no one likes a math geek"
Did you even bother to read the article you linked to (in its entirety)? It quotes the standard (emphasis mine):
The definitions of kilo, giga, and mega based on powers of two are included only to reflect common usage. IEEE/ASTM SI 10-1997 states "This practice frequently leads to confusion and is deprecated." Further confusion results from the popular use of a "megabyte" consisting of 1 024 000 bytes to define the capacity of the familiar "1.44-MB" diskette. An alternative system is found in Amendment 2 to IEC 60027-2: Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology â" Part 2
IANAL, but at least from a technical point of view, the patent you cite seems to have little to no relevance here:
1) It deals with using a Fresnel lens, not a zone plate,
2) It's main point is using, for a single imaging, one Fresnel lens twice via having two separate optical paths through it.
Looks like it might possibly be an interesting patent, but it's not connected with the idea for this telescope (unless the Fresnel lens cited in the article, which corrects the chromatic aberation of the zone plate, is used in the fashion cited in patent, which doesn't seem likely to me).
Also forgot to add: the efficiency of transmission is better as the percentage of holes gets bigger, i.e., as it gets more fragile.
I think you are missing a big point here. We're not talking about a solid sheet like a sail, but rather, a sheet which is X% holes, and for which the exact geometric arrangement of the holes is critical for the physics to work. Looks to me like one has even started to think about how it can survive the stresses of being launched at multiple G's.
"part of the trade"? The use of metric prefixes for binary powers of two has been deprecated by professional standard bodies for almost 10 years now!
That doesn't mean that I don't agree that the manufacturers shouldn't have to print the full number, and it's representation in both SI and binary prefix units. If they did that, then people like you might start to become aware that the misuse of SI prefixes based on context is stupid.
Dear Oregon Resident,
Based on an automatic keyword analysis it has been determined that the content is explicit with a probability exceeding 99.45%, and it has been replaced by this message. The material included the following keywords:
studs chains
Have a good day!