I wonder why any issue surrounding NASA and the space shuttle gets a lot of buzz in the US news media. Why? Similar accomplishments by the Russians do not get as much attention, yet they are equally daunting if not more. Is it an American `thing' or what?
A couple of guesses about the obvious:
- Big media is made up of largely American companies
- America has a manned reusable spacecraft with a (relatively) large crew capacity in production use. No one else does. Despite the shuttle's problems, it is still an admirable accomplishment.
With that said, it'd be interesting to see what the Russian shuttle could have accomplished had the USSR not gone broke. I doubt that the American space program would have stalled where it did.
That may be true but somehow it seems that commercial airliners have a catastrophic failure rate of somewhat less than 20% over that same timeframe, and I doubt that even with an aluminum airframe, that the typical Boeing or Airbus is likely to be as fatigued as a shuttle which goes from (ambient) 14+psi to near-zero PSI and is exposed to temperatures ranging from >2000*F to 200*F all during a single flight. Sure, they rebuild much of the shuttle between each flight, but you cannot un-fatigue the airframe or the skin.
No, it's Duck Tape. Duck Tape was marketed as a waterproofing tape, and never for ducts, because you know why? It SUCKS. It dries out, oxidizes, and flakes so if you use it to seal HVAC ducts, you'll have a really good seal for a few months and then a very leaky duct after that when the tape degrades.
The ripoff/copycat brands marketed their waterproof tape as "duct tape" for a couple of reasons:
- because the seal is initially good, folks get suckered into relying on it, not realizing that once the ducts are buried behind sheetrock that they got screwed
- confusion between the trademarked "Duck Tape" brand and "duct tape" marketing drivel which is fraudulent to begin with (because so-called "duct tape" sucks for ducts)
If you want a real "duct tape" look at adhesive tin or aluminum tape, not the so-called "duct tape" clones of Duck Tape.
If you want to play grammar nazi at least get it right.
Linux always is, by default (I don't know if you can make it otherwise without a LOT of hacking).
Windows: it is case "retentive" by default (it remembers cases as typed) but not case sensitive. It (full case sensitivity) can be enabled through a registry hack or two, or by selecting the "enable case sensitivity" option when installing SFU, at the cost of possibly breaking backwards compatibility with many applications.
Mac: OS 9 (and earlier) were case retentive only. OS X is case retentive (no sensitive) by default, however, if you install on a UFS filesystem it will become case sensitive, and just as with Windows, possibly breaking backwards compatibility with many applications.
In this case, the consumers win because if they buy the multi-format device they won't have to upgrade to BluRay when HD-DVD loses (or to be fair, vice-versa).
In the DRM wars, everyone loses except professional pirates. In the cable wars, consumers lose, unfortunately. I hope you enjoy your downsampled content once content providers turn that "feature" on. Actually, that is a DRM/cable war I look forward to when the shit hits the fan and even the kool-aid drinking consumers realize they've been getting ripped off by MPAA members. When Joe Sixpack's $7,000 Plasma screen HDTV doesn't display HD-DVD at full resolution, he's going to be looking to rip one of those artsy-fartsy folks a new orifice.
Compression wars? Yes, digital cable DOES suck (one of many reasons I haven't bothered with HDTV myself yet)
DVR wars? MythTV. If you choose MythTV, your DVR won't think you're gay if you catch Chasing Amy (oops, no pun intended there!) one night, and it won't decide to delete timeshifted content while you're away if big media or your DVR provider decided you can only keep it 24 hours. Need many more hours' of capacity? Just add a commodity hard disk. Also, it's worth pointing out that MythTV guide content is free, while Tivo's guide costs money and the DVR is pretty useless without the Tivo subscription.
Provider wars? (Digital) Satellite is OK, but I prefer cable, because in spite of its flaws, the features are great (I have Adelphia cable in my town). The guide features are great, OnDemand is great (aside from MPEG artifacts, but if I like the movie enough I buy it on DVD), and best of all, an office with real people I can speak with if there is a problem is right around the corner (literally), not 1,500 miles or 12,000 miles away.
Consumers do care, they just don't understand why they care. Proof of this is that disposable media has failed in test marketing, and Divx crashed and burned HARD. Consumers rejected it because they heard that they might get screwed, but didn't exactly understand how or why (aside the ones who bought into it and learned the hard way).
Yep, I intended it to be a jab at the USPTO taken as tongue-in-cheek. Apparantly some people here need it explained to them so that they do not throw mod points away.
I used to laugh at the idea of home schooling (given stereotypes you see in movies) but given the direction public schools have taken AND the fact that I have friends who have home schooled their children and their kids are very bright and have been accepted into GOOD colleges, I think that home schooling is the way to go nowadays. Public schools spend far too much time babysitting the students, focusing on "self esteem" and political agendas, and too little time on academics.
Let me guess: the USPTO granted a patent on a "device used to capture energy from wind, thereby generating forward motion of the attached vehicle" despite thousands of years' worth of prior art concerning this thing called a "sail?"
Oh right, using a glorified sail, determining the direction of wind, and gps navigation software together is novel and non-obvious. Carry on then!;)
(No I didn't RTFA, I'm only assuming someone patented the sail)
No need to be a complete asshole. You aren't a people person, are you?
Funny, the parent was addressing the issue, and not the poster. In other words, he did not stoop to a personal attack like you did right off the bat. Who's the one who is not being a people person here?
Furthermore, assume humor and good intentions when reading a post like that before you assume evil. You'll live longer due to less stress.:)
some of the legacy code from the bits stolen from BSD is still there
If the BSD license allows one to use the code in a commercial product, how can Microsoft steal "bits of code" from BSD? I'm confused! Especially since the code cannot be "stolen" if the BSD folks still have their code. Or, did Microsoft send a microserf into one of the BSD developer's homes and steal a CD containing the code?
The article DOES say: a smaller sphere of tungsten. They did not specify the diameter of the smaller sphere. I'm sure that is part of the experiment - determining the mass of what is required to achieve such an orbit vs. what their math predicted.
I've had chickens fly hundreds of feet. The smaller ones can indeed fly, some breeds can fly quite well. Some (like the Silkie) cannot fly at all. The fat chickens don't fly very well at all (duh). Chickens you raise for food generally get feed designed for maximum weight gain. Chickens you raise for fun, if you let then eat what they want (grass, grub, ants, vegetables, etc.) will be very lean and will be able to fly. Also, the chickens you raise for meat tend to be chickens which have been selectively bred to obtain the most breast tissue for maximum return on the dollar. Those varieties will hardly be able to get off the ground at all. Lean chickens, such as the leghorn, fly quite well. There are also smaller chicken breeds which resemble pheasants (can pheasants and chickens crossbreed) which can fly extremely well.
I'll be perfectly happy to pay for such a decoder providing that I retain the ability to exercise my rights as defined under fair use, such as making backups, format shifting, and so forth.
Let's substitute just one word to show how absurd this is:
All I think this is saying is that if person A sells you a "banana" - and it then turns out that A had no right to sell you such a banana - then you do not have a banana, regardless of how many hologram-encrusted bananas person A gave you.
Think about it. Microsoft did not develop Office 2003 under contract for you. They offer a COMMODITY GOOD sold OVER THE COUNTER/OFF THE SHELF. It is a commodity good and as such you have every legal right to resell it as you please (providing all media/backups/etc. accompanies it).
If the COA is not proof of a license, and the media isn't, then what exactly IS evidence of such? (the ridiculous notion of a commodity good being licensed" notwithstanding)
You cannot use the software after the subscription expires? WTF?
At least with MSDN, the result of the end of the subscription is just that they do not send you more updates - you still retain the "right" to continue running the software ("right" limitations by licenses aside, considering that commodity goods being "licensed" is bogus to begin with) forever.
OH heck, taking your idea a step further, even an entire auto brochure. Why watch a Rustang or Camaro (assuming the Camaro comes back) commercial on a test track for 30 seconds with some boring voice droning on about how the car performs, etc. but show a brief clip and then follow that with an entire brochure that DVR-using scum (scum from the broadcasters' perspective) can pause on and flip through the pages one by one?
People skip ads because they know that, say, McDonalds exists, or yeah, Sprawl*Mart is still around. What new info does the ad give us, that we haven't heard hundreds of times already? McDonalds - broadcast a menu. Sprawl*Mart - broadcast a weekly sales flier. Best Buy - ditto, broadcast your weekly flier. Use high definition creatively and effectively, then there is incentive for people to not WANT to bother fast forwarding. Better yet, since the feed is digital, you can randomize your fliers to be assembled and streamed at broadcast time, ensuring that each commercial will highlight enough different products that there is STRONG incentive for deal-hunters to watch every ad spot.
A side effect: obesity will be reduced, but bladder infections will be up due to fewer skipped ad breaks.
Next up: elimination of the entertainment, because advertisements will be beamed directly to your brain. Let's look at how it's done in the year 3000, shall we?
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ball games and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No siree!
If you were to read the entire post rather than skim the first part of the first sentence, you will see that it was pretty much the point of my post. Paypal is BAD for customers, yet eBay will never ban paypal because they own it. They are leverage one monopoly in order to create and enforce a monopoly in another industry.
Yes, I'm sure fantastic shows such as The Simple Life, American Idol, Trading Spouses, and The Surreal World, with their high production values, stimulate mental growth, especially compared to old mindless tripe like Hogan's Heroes, I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek (TOS), and other older shows.;)
Face it: with few exceptions, most of what passes for entertainment today sucks. Sure there are a few exceptions here and there, but what gets ratings is "reality shows" with no substance.
At least a real auction house (the professional ones at any rate) have integrity and make sure you get paid for your items, and won't ban you because, say, Microsoft wants to eliminate the competition of the used software market. With a real auction house, you know what you're getting into, and just as with eBay, you can set a reserve. The only disadvantage is that you won't get the snipers who are willing to pay 2xretail to get something (although, I've been to auctions where idiots pay WELL over market value for Macintoshes, and these were just run-of-the-mill sawtooth and quicksilver models, NOTHING particularly special about them configuration-wise).
Slashdot Mirror
A couple of guesses about the obvious:
- Big media is made up of largely American companies
- America has a manned reusable spacecraft with a (relatively) large crew capacity in production use. No one else does. Despite the shuttle's problems, it is still an admirable accomplishment.
With that said, it'd be interesting to see what the Russian shuttle could have accomplished had the USSR not gone broke. I doubt that the American space program would have stalled where it did.
That may be true but somehow it seems that commercial airliners have a catastrophic failure rate of somewhat less than 20% over that same timeframe, and I doubt that even with an aluminum airframe, that the typical Boeing or Airbus is likely to be as fatigued as a shuttle which goes from (ambient) 14+psi to near-zero PSI and is exposed to temperatures ranging from >2000*F to 200*F all during a single flight. Sure, they rebuild much of the shuttle between each flight, but you cannot un-fatigue the airframe or the skin.
No, it's Duck Tape. Duck Tape was marketed as a waterproofing tape, and never for ducts, because you know why? It SUCKS. It dries out, oxidizes, and flakes so if you use it to seal HVAC ducts, you'll have a really good seal for a few months and then a very leaky duct after that when the tape degrades.
The ripoff/copycat brands marketed their waterproof tape as "duct tape" for a couple of reasons:
- because the seal is initially good, folks get suckered into relying on it, not realizing that once the ducts are buried behind sheetrock that they got screwed
- confusion between the trademarked "Duck Tape" brand and "duct tape" marketing drivel which is fraudulent to begin with (because so-called "duct tape" sucks for ducts)
If you want a real "duct tape" look at adhesive tin or aluminum tape, not the so-called "duct tape" clones of Duck Tape.
If you want to play grammar nazi at least get it right.
an SPF record is nice once in a while though, to help reduce spam. :)
Actually all three can be case sensitive.
Linux always is, by default (I don't know if you can make it otherwise without a LOT of hacking).
Windows: it is case "retentive" by default (it remembers cases as typed) but not case sensitive. It (full case sensitivity) can be enabled through a registry hack or two, or by selecting the "enable case sensitivity" option when installing SFU, at the cost of possibly breaking backwards compatibility with many applications.
Mac: OS 9 (and earlier) were case retentive only. OS X is case retentive (no sensitive) by default, however, if you install on a UFS filesystem it will become case sensitive, and just as with Windows, possibly breaking backwards compatibility with many applications.
In this case, the consumers win because if they buy the multi-format device they won't have to upgrade to BluRay when HD-DVD loses (or to be fair, vice-versa).
In the DRM wars, everyone loses except professional pirates. In the cable wars, consumers lose, unfortunately. I hope you enjoy your downsampled content once content providers turn that "feature" on. Actually, that is a DRM/cable war I look forward to when the shit hits the fan and even the kool-aid drinking consumers realize they've been getting ripped off by MPAA members. When Joe Sixpack's $7,000 Plasma screen HDTV doesn't display HD-DVD at full resolution, he's going to be looking to rip one of those artsy-fartsy folks a new orifice.
Compression wars? Yes, digital cable DOES suck (one of many reasons I haven't bothered with HDTV myself yet)
DVR wars? MythTV. If you choose MythTV, your DVR won't think you're gay if you catch Chasing Amy (oops, no pun intended there!) one night, and it won't decide to delete timeshifted content while you're away if big media or your DVR provider decided you can only keep it 24 hours. Need many more hours' of capacity? Just add a commodity hard disk. Also, it's worth pointing out that MythTV guide content is free, while Tivo's guide costs money and the DVR is pretty useless without the Tivo subscription.
Provider wars? (Digital) Satellite is OK, but I prefer cable, because in spite of its flaws, the features are great (I have Adelphia cable in my town). The guide features are great, OnDemand is great (aside from MPEG artifacts, but if I like the movie enough I buy it on DVD), and best of all, an office with real people I can speak with if there is a problem is right around the corner (literally), not 1,500 miles or 12,000 miles away.
Consumers do care, they just don't understand why they care. Proof of this is that disposable media has failed in test marketing, and Divx crashed and burned HARD. Consumers rejected it because they heard that they might get screwed, but didn't exactly understand how or why (aside the ones who bought into it and learned the hard way).
Yep, I intended it to be a jab at the USPTO taken as tongue-in-cheek. Apparantly some people here need it explained to them so that they do not throw mod points away.
I used to laugh at the idea of home schooling (given stereotypes you see in movies) but given the direction public schools have taken AND the fact that I have friends who have home schooled their children and their kids are very bright and have been accepted into GOOD colleges, I think that home schooling is the way to go nowadays. Public schools spend far too much time babysitting the students, focusing on "self esteem" and political agendas, and too little time on academics.
Let me guess: the USPTO granted a patent on a "device used to capture energy from wind, thereby generating forward motion of the attached vehicle" despite thousands of years' worth of prior art concerning this thing called a "sail?"
;)
Oh right, using a glorified sail, determining the direction of wind, and gps navigation software together is novel and non-obvious. Carry on then!
(No I didn't RTFA, I'm only assuming someone patented the sail)
Funny, the parent was addressing the issue, and not the poster. In other words, he did not stoop to a personal attack like you did right off the bat. Who's the one who is not being a people person here?
Furthermore, assume humor and good intentions when reading a post like that before you assume evil. You'll live longer due to less stress.
Immutable, suid, and other extended attributes.
:)
Personally I'd love to see ReiserFS on Windows. I have never lost data on ReiserFS.
What are you complaining about? "Sentinence" is a perfectly cromulent word.
If the BSD license allows one to use the code in a commercial product, how can Microsoft steal "bits of code" from BSD? I'm confused! Especially since the code cannot be "stolen" if the BSD folks still have their code. Or, did Microsoft send a microserf into one of the BSD developer's homes and steal a CD containing the code?
The article DOES say: a smaller sphere of tungsten. They did not specify the diameter of the smaller sphere. I'm sure that is part of the experiment - determining the mass of what is required to achieve such an orbit vs. what their math predicted.
Read the summary again - nowhere is a 10cm sphere mentioned.
I've had chickens fly hundreds of feet. The smaller ones can indeed fly, some breeds can fly quite well. Some (like the Silkie) cannot fly at all. The fat chickens don't fly very well at all (duh). Chickens you raise for food generally get feed designed for maximum weight gain. Chickens you raise for fun, if you let then eat what they want (grass, grub, ants, vegetables, etc.) will be very lean and will be able to fly. Also, the chickens you raise for meat tend to be chickens which have been selectively bred to obtain the most breast tissue for maximum return on the dollar. Those varieties will hardly be able to get off the ground at all. Lean chickens, such as the leghorn, fly quite well. There are also smaller chicken breeds which resemble pheasants (can pheasants and chickens crossbreed) which can fly extremely well.
I'll be perfectly happy to pay for such a decoder providing that I retain the ability to exercise my rights as defined under fair use, such as making backups, format shifting, and so forth.
Let's substitute just one word to show how absurd this is:
All I think this is saying is that if person A sells you a "banana" - and it then turns out that A had no right to sell you such a banana - then you do not have a banana, regardless of how many hologram-encrusted bananas person A gave you.
Think about it. Microsoft did not develop Office 2003 under contract for you. They offer a COMMODITY GOOD sold OVER THE COUNTER/OFF THE SHELF. It is a commodity good and as such you have every legal right to resell it as you please (providing all media/backups/etc. accompanies it).
If the COA is not proof of a license, and the media isn't, then what exactly IS evidence of such? (the ridiculous notion of a commodity good being licensed" notwithstanding)
You cannot use the software after the subscription expires? WTF?
At least with MSDN, the result of the end of the subscription is just that they do not send you more updates - you still retain the "right" to continue running the software ("right" limitations by licenses aside, considering that commodity goods being "licensed" is bogus to begin with) forever.
OH heck, taking your idea a step further, even an entire auto brochure. Why watch a Rustang or Camaro (assuming the Camaro comes back) commercial on a test track for 30 seconds with some boring voice droning on about how the car performs, etc. but show a brief clip and then follow that with an entire brochure that DVR-using scum (scum from the broadcasters' perspective) can pause on and flip through the pages one by one?
People skip ads because they know that, say, McDonalds exists, or yeah, Sprawl*Mart is still around. What new info does the ad give us, that we haven't heard hundreds of times already? McDonalds - broadcast a menu. Sprawl*Mart - broadcast a weekly sales flier. Best Buy - ditto, broadcast your weekly flier. Use high definition creatively and effectively, then there is incentive for people to not WANT to bother fast forwarding. Better yet, since the feed is digital, you can randomize your fliers to be assembled and streamed at broadcast time, ensuring that each commercial will highlight enough different products that there is STRONG incentive for deal-hunters to watch every ad spot.
A side effect: obesity will be reduced, but bladder infections will be up due to fewer skipped ad breaks.
Next up: elimination of the entertainment, because advertisements will be beamed directly to your brain. Let's look at how it's done in the year 3000, shall we?
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ball games and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No siree!
If you were to read the entire post rather than skim the first part of the first sentence, you will see that it was pretty much the point of my post. Paypal is BAD for customers, yet eBay will never ban paypal because they own it. They are leverage one monopoly in order to create and enforce a monopoly in another industry.
Yes, I'm sure fantastic shows such as The Simple Life, American Idol, Trading Spouses, and The Surreal World, with their high production values, stimulate mental growth, especially compared to old mindless tripe like Hogan's Heroes, I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek (TOS), and other older shows. ;)
Face it: with few exceptions, most of what passes for entertainment today sucks. Sure there are a few exceptions here and there, but what gets ratings is "reality shows" with no substance.
At least a real auction house (the professional ones at any rate) have integrity and make sure you get paid for your items, and won't ban you because, say, Microsoft wants to eliminate the competition of the used software market. With a real auction house, you know what you're getting into, and just as with eBay, you can set a reserve. The only disadvantage is that you won't get the snipers who are willing to pay 2xretail to get something (although, I've been to auctions where idiots pay WELL over market value for Macintoshes, and these were just run-of-the-mill sawtooth and quicksilver models, NOTHING particularly special about them configuration-wise).