It involves doing one thing, until you reach a natural pause, or delay - then picking up the next thing (or one which you were doing before, until you put it down) and continuing with that. Then, when your high-priority task becomes freed from whatever had caused you to stop doing it, you either pick it up again straightaway or make it the next thing you pick up when your current task reaches it's next natural stopping point.
What multitasking is not is simply fielding one interruption after another - that's either panicking or extremely poor organisation. Either way, the outcome is what these researchers have found: you start lots of things, do them badly and (probably) never get to finish a lot of them.
So, in practice if you want to "multitask", just do one thing at a time. You'll still have many projects or tasks running at any one time, but you won't find yourself idle when you need a #5 nail and the shops are closed - unless of course you want to be.
Yes, the OP's correct this is well known. The programme I saw (again, in the UK) showed the effect of having a building's column designed near a fire exit. Everyone's first thought was "criminally stupid", until it was explained that this reduces the occupants' ability to crowd the exit, thus reducing the pressure from weight of bodies (live ones) thereby allowing more people out - rather than jammed in the exit.
In almost every country in the world, the answer is "yes - we can do that already". I have heard that some, more remote parts of Africa and Siberia still have poor coverage - does anywhere else still suffer from this?
What this new crop of phones needs is a mechanism to drive an external display and keyboard
Yep, and if I could connect to it via wifi or whatever, using an X11 remote desktop (or as another have said VNC), *and* I can stream the phone audio to/from the device in the same way, then you could leave the phone in your brieface when you arrive at work and just initiate a remote connection to your desk PC. Maybe even have a screen icon that flashes when your phone rings.
I would also like the ability to log into the phone and (maybe) use the camera from it. Take a photo of whereever the phone is and then drag it back to where I logged in from. The possibilities for abusing this are huge, but if the supplier doesn't implement features like this - and so give the owners some benefits, why build the features in?
There's lots of potential here - but I won't pay for potential, I'll spend my money on what it can actually do.
OK, nice spec 'n' all -but what will I actually be able to do with this puppy that I can't do with my "ordinary" smart phone, or PDA or computer or whatever this turns out to be?
I don't buy an appliance just because it runs Linux or X11 - however I *might* buy one if these features add new functions, or make existing ones easier. So far as what I've already got is concerned, the only thing that comes to mind would be the ability for me (and not anybody else) to log into the phone remotely and use its functions across a network connection.
Other than that, my experience of smart phones is that the keyboard's too small for serious word-work, the screen's too small for almost everything (esp. watching movies) and it's also far too dim to use in daylight. The music player's nice and the camera while limited is good enough for "happy snaps", almost all of which are discarded or ignored as soon as they've been taken. I.e. all features, but few benefits.
So come on Nokia, don't try to impress me with megabytes and gigahertz, tell me what I'll be able to do now, that I couldn't do before. That's where the sales are.
What an excellent idea. Instead of saturating the media with insincere sound-bites from politicians who are judged more by their hair, makeup and height than their policies or competences, people actually get to meet the individuals they'll be voting for and are able to judge the person who wil represent them.
Maybe what we need is a news blackout on anything political as soon as an election is called. Make the candidates work for their election and getting comment from real people.. They'll still lie through their teeth, but they'll have to do it up-front and personal, to the voters - which is a much less forgiving environment.
Unless you have an established reputation in your field - one that is worth real cash (hint: most exist only in the mind of the author and/or are not worth a cent), or you are an already published author you won't be in a position to pick or choose which publisher gets to risk thousands in the shrinkingly small possibility that your work might just, possibly break even, or (even more unlikely) make a few bucks.
As it is, there's this recession thing going on at the moment. What that means for you is that publishers are less willing to risk their money on unknowns - and since you have to ask which publishers are good / bad, it doesn't sound as if you've done this before. It also means they have a backlog of new authors waiting for their stuff to get into print. It also means fewer people are spending money on books. Put all this together and even if you can find someone willing to put your work into print, it won't happen this year - maybe not even next. You might just see you name on the cover in 2011 and you might just see an earnings cheque somethime the next year. However, the money you eventually make won't cover the cost of your time - even at minimum wage rates.
Better to use your book as a loss-leader and give it away (thereby helping to ensure that future authors have an even tougher time trying to get their works into bookshops - no-one said it was fair, just or right:-), and try to make your money on consultancy based around your book and the knowledge you have in that field.
How will this NOT lead to governments banning email from foreign countries
(That's foreign to them)
All this will achieve is even greater restrictions, until ultimately countries' censors will be operating entirely autonomous, independent, local versions of what was once referred to as The World Wide Web and just so that they can put their version of the facts in front of a small minority of people in other countries who might just care.
for everyone else, if you can't measure it, it's worthless.
Whether it's "goodwill", "reputation", "contacts" or whatever. Yo often see these so-called assets listed when a business is up for sale. However no-one has ever found a way to measure the amount of any of these things that a company claims to have - klet alone being able to place an objective value on it. All these attributes are pretty much meaningless - either to customers or shareholders. The only thing that matters is price. Take low-cost airlines as an example. They (mostly) have a terrible reputation for service, attitude, courtesy and any sort of customer satisfaction. However by being a penny cheaper than the competition, they can always fill their planes and make a profit.
Yes, it's also quite easy to detect. Presumably all you need to do is scan each block and do some sort of correlation function on the data you find there. If the result is that a block shows up as random data AND it's inside a TC. partition, then presume it's a hidden filesystem. Just reapply the thumbscrews until yo get an admission.
Yes, it is. However make the decryption app a part of the encrypted filesystem (or file). That way there can be no third party application available to perform the decryption. The decryption process would therefore be a two-stage affair:
1.) supply one or other of the passwords to the publicly available decryption system
2.) this runs and decrypts something like a bootstrap, which checks the password it was given and either decides to decrypt the rest of the data, or to overwrite it (without ever decrypting it) or otherwise corrupt the files headers.
Now this wouldn't work in cases where the disk was write-inhibited, in a forensic lab. But for situations where the investigator was either stupid/lazy/unaware of the underlying mechanism, the self-destruct would be good enough.
Yes, I've see systems like truecrypt. However, in this case it's possession of encrypted dfata (and the unwillingness / inability to disclose the password) which is the crime. The only solution is to have an encryption mechanism that is indistinguishable from a block of random data. No doubt, then random number generators will be considered "munitions" and made illegal, too.
One decrypts the files or filesystem while the other key overwrites the contents with random data.
I would also like to know how the authorities could possibly tell a properly encrypted file from one that only contains random data and consequently how they could prove that a filesystem is, in fact, encrypted.
Isn't this a straightforward displacement activity? I Am Not A Shrink, but a lot of people have a hobby that gives them the fulfillment they don't find from a job. Personally, after a hard (or light) day doing abstract things on a computer I never see, in a datacentre I've never been to - I like to do a bit of woodworking. That allows me to produce a tangible result: an "I made that" feeling.
Likewise, I would expect lumberjacks to.. hang around in bars.
It doesn't matter if it's stupid or looks ugly, so long as it gets the job done.
In any evolutionary system, provided the species with the "mistakes" survives to maturity in sufficient numbers to maintain the population, it's a success.
Maybe the real stupid evolutionary "designs" belong to all the thousands of species that have been too inflexible to survive and have become extinct.
Seriously, if the current maintainer (in name only - sounds like he/she's lost interest, or to use the modern euphemism, is "too busy"), can't be bothered to fulfill their responsibilities the project should be taken away from them.
Face it some people can't make up their minds. That puts the level of complexity of their brains somewhere beneath a simple OR logic gate. Other people would need a random number generator to emulate their brains.
I would think there are better places to ask this question, if you want a reply from the people the question is addressed at.
If it does turn out that this is where 8 - 12's spend their time, then I'm in the wrong place - though it could explain some of the comments that appear.
It's not like mending your car. There are no instruction manuals worth a dam'. Either you (that's both of you) have the depth of character and maturity to enter into the relationship as sensible adults or, like the majority - considering the break-up statistics, you don't.
Obviously how you approach it depends on the country you live in and the rules, laws and expectations that come from the culture and families you are both marrying into.
The problem with geeky types is that they ofter think there are/should-be rules or tried and tested techniques for doing things. When dealing with other people (apart from the obivousl ones to do with respect and consideration - both ways) there aren't.
For a start, what are your plans for having children? - have you discussed it. How much are your / her family going to be involved? Who's going to give up or continue working? What will you / she do if the partner has an affair - are either of you the jealous type. Don't forget, that people change after marriage (though some, who should: don't). Is the motivation to be married, or to be with the other person (if the latter, why marry at all?).
Maybe when you have both sat down and had a full and frank discussion about these, and other topics you will be ready to decide whether ot not to marry.
Finally, remember that when women say "commitment", it frequently means "sacrifice". What are you prepared to give up?
... it's your CV that's poor. If you don't get the job offers, it's you who#s the problem.
This individual has "peppered" companies with letters, CVs and only had 2 replies. That kinda tells you something about either her applications, or the job market, or the companies she's applying to. Now I don't know what "Business Administration" is - but it sounds like low-level clerical work, compared with "Business Mamagement" which is high-level clerical work:-) Maybe she's confused about exactly how qualified she actually is.
When you run Oregano, the "Help" page just throws an error with the message The requested URI ghelp:Oregano is invalid. Add to this the entry / apology from the Wiki entry
Documentation: We need documentation, tutorials, manuals and much more.
and you see the problem.
While this tool is being written with the best of intentions, it's nowhere near the level of support needed to teach a class. The students will spend as long trying to learn the tool as they will trying to learn the course. Any package used is merely to illustrate and support the course content - not a learning goal in it's own right. Until this (and any other package: OSS or commercial) can be useful from minute #1, rather than another thing you have to learn, then it's more of an obstruction than a help.
Don't give a solution, just define the problem. Let the students come up with their own way of solving it (isn't that what tertiary education is about?)
In the course description make a statement to the effect that "this course will require you to acquire a circuit simulation package capable of <insert reasonable specification here > An example of the complexity and functionality required is the following file [take your most complex course material] which your package must be able to handle." Then go on to say "... The course text is designed around < textbook name > which includes a free version of <package name> which only runs on the following operating systems. You may use any other circuit simulation package, provided it allows you to run the course examples and submit the course assignments."
Obviously, almost all the students will go with the recommended solution. You will get the occasional smart-arse who thinks they know better and tries something unconventional. They'll either pass, make more work for themselves and still pass, or crash and burn. However thy do, they'll have learned another valuable lesson: this time about life - which is another attribute of tertiary education.
So, should you have to pay road taxes - for the upkeep of roads (presuming you live in a country where road tax is hypothecated) if you only drive backwards?
Slashdot Mirror
What multitasking is not is simply fielding one interruption after another - that's either panicking or extremely poor organisation. Either way, the outcome is what these researchers have found: you start lots of things, do them badly and (probably) never get to finish a lot of them.
So, in practice if you want to "multitask", just do one thing at a time. You'll still have many projects or tasks running at any one time, but you won't find yourself idle when you need a #5 nail and the shops are closed - unless of course you want to be.
Yes, the OP's correct this is well known. The programme I saw (again, in the UK) showed the effect of having a building's column designed near a fire exit. Everyone's first thought was "criminally stupid", until it was explained that this reduces the occupants' ability to crowd the exit, thus reducing the pressure from weight of bodies (live ones) thereby allowing more people out - rather than jammed in the exit.
In almost every country in the world, the answer is "yes - we can do that already". I have heard that some, more remote parts of Africa and Siberia still have poor coverage - does anywhere else still suffer from this?
What this new crop of phones needs is a mechanism to drive an external display and keyboard
Yep, and if I could connect to it via wifi or whatever, using an X11 remote desktop (or as another have said VNC), *and* I can stream the phone audio to/from the device in the same way, then you could leave the phone in your brieface when you arrive at work and just initiate a remote connection to your desk PC. Maybe even have a screen icon that flashes when your phone rings.
I would also like the ability to log into the phone and (maybe) use the camera from it. Take a photo of whereever the phone is and then drag it back to where I logged in from. The possibilities for abusing this are huge, but if the supplier doesn't implement features like this - and so give the owners some benefits, why build the features in?
There's lots of potential here - but I won't pay for potential, I'll spend my money on what it can actually do.
I don't buy an appliance just because it runs Linux or X11 - however I *might* buy one if these features add new functions, or make existing ones easier. So far as what I've already got is concerned, the only thing that comes to mind would be the ability for me (and not anybody else) to log into the phone remotely and use its functions across a network connection.
Other than that, my experience of smart phones is that the keyboard's too small for serious word-work, the screen's too small for almost everything (esp. watching movies) and it's also far too dim to use in daylight. The music player's nice and the camera while limited is good enough for "happy snaps", almost all of which are discarded or ignored as soon as they've been taken. I.e. all features, but few benefits.
So come on Nokia, don't try to impress me with megabytes and gigahertz, tell me what I'll be able to do now, that I couldn't do before. That's where the sales are.
Maybe what we need is a news blackout on anything political as soon as an election is called. Make the candidates work for their election and getting comment from real people.. They'll still lie through their teeth, but they'll have to do it up-front and personal, to the voters - which is a much less forgiving environment.
Unless you have an established reputation in your field - one that is worth real cash (hint: most exist only in the mind of the author and/or are not worth a cent), or you are an already published author you won't be in a position to pick or choose which publisher gets to risk thousands in the shrinkingly small possibility that your work might just, possibly break even, or (even more unlikely) make a few bucks.
As it is, there's this recession thing going on at the moment. What that means for you is that publishers are less willing to risk their money on unknowns - and since you have to ask which publishers are good / bad, it doesn't sound as if you've done this before. It also means they have a backlog of new authors waiting for their stuff to get into print. It also means fewer people are spending money on books. Put all this together and even if you can find someone willing to put your work into print, it won't happen this year - maybe not even next. You might just see you name on the cover in 2011 and you might just see an earnings cheque somethime the next year. However, the money you eventually make won't cover the cost of your time - even at minimum wage rates.
Better to use your book as a loss-leader and give it away (thereby helping to ensure that future authors have an even tougher time trying to get their works into bookshops - no-one said it was fair, just or right :-), and try to make your money on consultancy based around your book and the knowledge you have in that field.
whatever you type in, it refuses to respond. No matter how hard you provoke it. Called /dev/null, it's been around for decades
(That's foreign to them)
All this will achieve is even greater restrictions, until ultimately countries' censors will be operating entirely autonomous, independent, local versions of what was once referred to as The World Wide Web and just so that they can put their version of the facts in front of a small minority of people in other countries who might just care.
Whether it's "goodwill", "reputation", "contacts" or whatever. Yo often see these so-called assets listed when a business is up for sale. However no-one has ever found a way to measure the amount of any of these things that a company claims to have - klet alone being able to place an objective value on it. All these attributes are pretty much meaningless - either to customers or shareholders. The only thing that matters is price. Take low-cost airlines as an example. They (mostly) have a terrible reputation for service, attitude, courtesy and any sort of customer satisfaction. However by being a penny cheaper than the competition, they can always fill their planes and make a profit.
Yes, it's also quite easy to detect. Presumably all you need to do is scan each block and do some sort of correlation function on the data you find there. If the result is that a block shows up as random data AND it's inside a TC. partition, then presume it's a hidden filesystem. Just reapply the thumbscrews until yo get an admission.
1.) supply one or other of the passwords to the publicly available decryption system
2.) this runs and decrypts something like a bootstrap, which checks the password it was given and either decides to decrypt the rest of the data, or to overwrite it (without ever decrypting it) or otherwise corrupt the files headers.
Now this wouldn't work in cases where the disk was write-inhibited, in a forensic lab. But for situations where the investigator was either stupid/lazy/unaware of the underlying mechanism, the self-destruct would be good enough.
Yes, I've see systems like truecrypt. However, in this case it's possession of encrypted dfata (and the unwillingness / inability to disclose the password) which is the crime. The only solution is to have an encryption mechanism that is indistinguishable from a block of random data. No doubt, then random number generators will be considered "munitions" and made illegal, too.
One decrypts the files or filesystem while the other key overwrites the contents with random data.
I would also like to know how the authorities could possibly tell a properly encrypted file from one that only contains random data and consequently how they could prove that a filesystem is, in fact, encrypted.
Likewise, I would expect lumberjacks to .. hang around in bars.
In any evolutionary system, provided the species with the "mistakes" survives to maturity in sufficient numbers to maintain the population, it's a success.
Maybe the real stupid evolutionary "designs" belong to all the thousands of species that have been too inflexible to survive and have become extinct.
Seriously, if the current maintainer (in name only - sounds like he/she's lost interest, or to use the modern euphemism, is "too busy"), can't be bothered to fulfill their responsibilities the project should be taken away from them.
These we can do already - but why bother?
I would think there are better places to ask this question, if you want a reply from the people the question is addressed at. If it does turn out that this is where 8 - 12's spend their time, then I'm in the wrong place - though it could explain some of the comments that appear.
you are obviously a divorce lawyer, trying to drum up business
Obviously how you approach it depends on the country you live in and the rules, laws and expectations that come from the culture and families you are both marrying into.
The problem with geeky types is that they ofter think there are/should-be rules or tried and tested techniques for doing things. When dealing with other people (apart from the obivousl ones to do with respect and consideration - both ways) there aren't.
For a start, what are your plans for having children? - have you discussed it. How much are your / her family going to be involved? Who's going to give up or continue working? What will you / she do if the partner has an affair - are either of you the jealous type. Don't forget, that people change after marriage (though some, who should: don't). Is the motivation to be married, or to be with the other person (if the latter, why marry at all?). Maybe when you have both sat down and had a full and frank discussion about these, and other topics you will be ready to decide whether ot not to marry.
Finally, remember that when women say "commitment", it frequently means "sacrifice". What are you prepared to give up?
This individual has "peppered" companies with letters, CVs and only had 2 replies. That kinda tells you something about either her applications, or the job market, or the companies she's applying to. Now I don't know what "Business Administration" is - but it sounds like low-level clerical work, compared with "Business Mamagement" which is high-level clerical work :-) Maybe she's confused about exactly how qualified she actually is.
Documentation: We need documentation, tutorials, manuals and much more.
and you see the problem.
While this tool is being written with the best of intentions, it's nowhere near the level of support needed to teach a class. The students will spend as long trying to learn the tool as they will trying to learn the course. Any package used is merely to illustrate and support the course content - not a learning goal in it's own right. Until this (and any other package: OSS or commercial) can be useful from minute #1, rather than another thing you have to learn, then it's more of an obstruction than a help.
In the course description make a statement to the effect that "this course will require you to acquire a circuit simulation package capable of <insert reasonable specification here > An example of the complexity and functionality required is the following file [take your most complex course material] which your package must be able to handle." Then go on to say " ... The course text is designed around < textbook name > which includes a free version of <package name> which only runs on the following operating systems. You may use any other circuit simulation package, provided it allows you to run the course examples and submit the course assignments."
Obviously, almost all the students will go with the recommended solution. You will get the occasional smart-arse who thinks they know better and tries something unconventional. They'll either pass, make more work for themselves and still pass, or crash and burn. However thy do, they'll have learned another valuable lesson: this time about life - which is another attribute of tertiary education.
So, should you have to pay road taxes - for the upkeep of roads (presuming you live in a country where road tax is hypothecated) if you only drive backwards?