So far, the technical people I've asked all have the same advice for reasonable connectivity: move. Move out of the house my wife and I built and lived in for 20 years.... Do you have an alternative solution for me?"
Wow. OK, I'll try to open my mind a little. I've done without it for about 50 years. Can't imagine it's that great!
What you are suggesting involves three things I really don't care for: Reading novels (passive activity), fiction (stuff that didn't happen), and "Science" fiction (stuff that can't happen). It sounds horribly boring, un-challenging, and something that will cause my eyes to roll.
I'll report back. I'm sure I am in the minority on Slashdot, but I never really "got it". I'd rather read a school history book or a technical manual!
But if the Estate (or descendants) "invested" in the scanning, and then released the manuscripts a little at a time, via torrents or free / cheap hosting services, it's possible that they would re-energize the market for his books.
I have never bought a Heinlein book, and don't intend to pay to download stuff. But if I were exposed to it via a free website, it might just pique my interest enough to buy a book (which has happened NUMEROUS times to me with technical books).
Then again, they might be executing the iPhone "skim the market" strategy. First, you pick up the early adopters at a premium price. Then you open it up for free / cheap, and try to use it to drive other business (like book sales).
I saw your acronym, and (once again, clueless me) I had to look it up in Wikipedia. And it's a Heinlein reference!
TANSTAAFL is an acronym for the adage "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch," popularized by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein in his 1966 novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, which discusses the problems caused by not considering the eventual outcome of an unbalanced economy. This phrase and book are popular with libertarians and economics textbooks. In order to avoid a double negative, the acronym "TINSTAAFL" is sometimes used instead, meaning "There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch".
Since I am generally clueless, not into Science Fiction, and was stumped when reading the posting (e.g. SF = San Francisco, not Sci Fi, when talking about the bay area), here's some background info.
From Wikipedia
Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 - May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of "hard" science fiction. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of literary quality. He was the first writer to break into mainstream, general magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, in the late 1940s, with unvarnished science fiction. He was among the first authors of bestselling, novel-length science fiction in the modern, mass-market era. For many years, Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction.
I wouldn't call height a merit. Have you heard of people being commended for their excellent achievement in height?
Dictionary.com again:
Merit: something that deserves or justifies a reward or commendation; a commendable quality, act, etc.
People discriminate on a daily basis, in hiring and in other daily activities. You may choose one restaurant over another, in a discriminatory fashion; nothing illegal about that: I might choose a sit-down restaurant over a fast-food joint purely because fast-food joints in general have poorer service or not the atmosphere I am looking for - and yet I have never been in THAT fast-food joint, so I am being discriminate. Discrimination in itself is completely legal and expected. Discrimination for the wrong reason is the only way it becomes illegal. And there are very specific reasons that are illegal.
In the hiring process, I may discriminate against candidates who are late for the interview. Or ones who dress poorly. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and yet it has presumably nothing to do with their job performance (since I haven't seen their job performance; this is just an interview).
Anytime someone shouts "That's discrimination!", I say (or think) "So! Discrimination is natural and good!" If mankind HAD to test the merit of every possible alternative prior to making a decision, we'd be in gridlock and get nothing done! Being discriminate is a sign of a good decision maker.
Discrimination = Good, generally. Discrimination for the wrong reason = bad.
Most people would think that the question implied that their life would be shortened. But with n=1200, n months would probably not be a shortened life for me.
I suspect that the question was worded that way to lure you in, one way or another. For example, one might answer "For sufficiently large values of n, I'd do it". And so someone might say that if n=1200, they'd do it, but if n=10 they wouldn't. Then it's a matter of trying to figure out for what value of n (number of months of food supply) you'd be willing to go to Mars for.
Personally, fame is not the reason that I would consider it. After all, what good is fame on Earth, when I'm on Mars (or dead)? But to advance human knowledge (which could, presumably, save lives), that might be worth it - for sufficiently large values of n.
Then again, what the hell am I going to do on Mars for 100 years? Unless there's slashdot.
"Being born" is a suicide mission. When you were in the womb, if someone said to you, "If you go out there, you are going to eventually die," (which is true), would you choose to be born anyway? If you stay in the safe womb, presumably you'd eventually die. If you go out, you'll eventually die.
What's different about Mars? The original post didn't say the food would run out in less than 100 years.
Actually it IS discrimination, it's just not illegal discrimination.
From Dictionary.com:
treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit
It's completely legal, and expected, that you discriminate in the hiring process. I try to discriminate against stupid people, for example.
Whitespace is syntactically significant in almost every language. Try splitting a variable name with whitespace in Java, C++, C, Visual Basic, or virtually any other language. I've worked in dozens of languages and only remember ONE (back in 1975) in which whitespace wasn't syntactically significant - HP Basic/2000. And you were limited to variable names of a single letter or a single letter followed by a single digit. Do you really want to go back to those days? I didn't think so.
Python happens to use whitespace to simplify the good programmers' life - Use whitespace to mean the RIGHT thing - to designate blocks of code (which good programmers do anyway).
To those who suck as programmers, it's a problem. Thanks for identifying yourself.
I know I've neglected my duties as a Slashdot reader, but I actually read the article AND parts of the website referred to in article. TFA mentions the company StrikeForce Technologies, as a way to validate someone's identity.
I've been questioned like this before over the phone - a financial institution that questioned me asked me questions from "publicly available information" which "confirmed that I am who I say I am." (The way they did it was to ask me multiple choice questions about my address from ten years ago, and which bank I once had a loan from, etc.)
Turning over access and control to your "meta data" - your personal contact list - to some third party provides an invasion of privacy. Control is the key issue. If this well-meaning company (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) gets hacked, or just decides on a whim to provide better access to the data (as Facebook did recently), you're out of luck.
The risks of interview candidates missing out on job opportunities because of MySpace profiles is a well-documented situation. I have seen real life examples of this.
My favorite example of the risks of these social networks, recently, was when I was looking into a product that was provided by a competitor of mine in the business world. By searching for one of the suppliers of the competitive product, I was able to discern many of their business contacts, which gave me a view of their customer base, their prospect list, etc. A VERY nice trove of information to get for FREE about my competition!
Unless you feel you can trust the MOTIVES and the TECHNICAL CAPABILITY of these companies (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), don't do it! Their motives must align with yours (your privacy over their profit) and their technical capability (and investment in your privacy) must be great enough to protect the security of the information. Given that a measured 67% of sites are vulnerable to XSS hacking, and every site is susceptible to SOME malicious hacking (by employees, for example), I think it's a safe assumption that your private information is not 100% safe with some random Social Network site.
But this article doesn't really raise any issues that the average Slashdot reader wouldn't know about.
Not sure that I agree with that statement.
Software Developers are writing the camera code. IT professionals are sometimes implementing the cameras. This article creates awareness for both. I think software developers and IT Professionals are "the average Slashdot reader", and can gain a lot from the article as written.
You imply that it's wasteful. I am neither agreeing or disagreeing.
I said that if you're watching 4 tenths of a cent on a $520 stock, you have taken your eye off the ball. First, I have yet to be convinced that this was a company expense. Second, this and other items that people consider to be wasteful are often investments in employee productivity (helping the executives be more efficient with their time), customer satisfaction (keeping other company's executive passengers efficient and impressing them), and employee satisfaction (perqs).
How do I measure the benefits vs. the cost? *I* don't. What I am really concerned about, when investing in a company, is whether the company is doing the right things to increase shareholder value for the long haul. And I don't do that by examining every 4 tenths of a penny, with an eye purely on the cost side of the equation.
As a shareholder, I see this as an egregious waste of company money. Sure their time is valuable, but so is my investment.
Let's keep this in perspective.
Google has 312 million shares outstanding. $1.3 million dollars per year, spread over 312 million shares, is only 4 tenths of a cent per share. As a shareholder, if you are worried about that, you have taken your eye off the ball.
Interesting comparison: China says they are watching the citizens, and the citizens self-censor.
In the US, we preach freedom, and people feel they aren't being watched, and probably let their guard down. Yet our very act of patriotism, "The Patriot Act", provides unprecedented watching.
I watched last night's Monday Night Football (American Football) on beautiful high-def broadcast (over the air, not cable). Worked great 99.5% of the time, but literally during EVERY big play for the home team, the signal cut out.
It was a perfect picture during the normal plays. It was TERRIBLE (worse than old-style broadcasting) during touchdowns.
The only thing I can figure is that crowd reaction of the broadcaster (i.e. the *employees* of ESPN or the local affiliate) during the touchdowns was the problem. I can't imagine it was interference from crowd reaction at the local bars. I suppose it could have been from the stadium interference, but that doesn't explain why the low-def TV next to it was fine.
It got to the point where I gave up on High Def. Who wants to watch crappy plays in high def and good plays in static? (I caught them later on the news.)
Slashdot Mirror
I can't be the only person here who doesn't EVER read Sci-fi, and has no interest whatsoever in them, or in memorizing various authors' names.
But thanks for not being elitist. :-)
What you are suggesting involves three things I really don't care for: Reading novels (passive activity), fiction (stuff that didn't happen), and "Science" fiction (stuff that can't happen). It sounds horribly boring, un-challenging, and something that will cause my eyes to roll.
I'll report back. I'm sure I am in the minority on Slashdot, but I never really "got it". I'd rather read a school history book or a technical manual!
But if the Estate (or descendants) "invested" in the scanning, and then released the manuscripts a little at a time, via torrents or free / cheap hosting services, it's possible that they would re-energize the market for his books.
I have never bought a Heinlein book, and don't intend to pay to download stuff. But if I were exposed to it via a free website, it might just pique my interest enough to buy a book (which has happened NUMEROUS times to me with technical books).
Then again, they might be executing the iPhone "skim the market" strategy. First, you pick up the early adopters at a premium price. Then you open it up for free / cheap, and try to use it to drive other business (like book sales).
I saw your acronym, and (once again, clueless me) I had to look it up in Wikipedia. And it's a Heinlein reference!
I take it they are charging for access?I was thinking San Diego, San Francisco, San Antonio, San Jose, Santa Claus.
Potential Nasdaq symbols: STNL, ASST, ASTNL
Dictionary.com again:
People discriminate on a daily basis, in hiring and in other daily activities. You may choose one restaurant over another, in a discriminatory fashion; nothing illegal about that: I might choose a sit-down restaurant over a fast-food joint purely because fast-food joints in general have poorer service or not the atmosphere I am looking for - and yet I have never been in THAT fast-food joint, so I am being discriminate. Discrimination in itself is completely legal and expected. Discrimination for the wrong reason is the only way it becomes illegal. And there are very specific reasons that are illegal.In the hiring process, I may discriminate against candidates who are late for the interview. Or ones who dress poorly. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and yet it has presumably nothing to do with their job performance (since I haven't seen their job performance; this is just an interview).
Anytime someone shouts "That's discrimination!", I say (or think) "So! Discrimination is natural and good!" If mankind HAD to test the merit of every possible alternative prior to making a decision, we'd be in gridlock and get nothing done! Being discriminate is a sign of a good decision maker.
Discrimination = Good, generally. Discrimination for the wrong reason = bad.
I suspect that the question was worded that way to lure you in, one way or another. For example, one might answer "For sufficiently large values of n, I'd do it". And so someone might say that if n=1200, they'd do it, but if n=10 they wouldn't. Then it's a matter of trying to figure out for what value of n (number of months of food supply) you'd be willing to go to Mars for.
Personally, fame is not the reason that I would consider it. After all, what good is fame on Earth, when I'm on Mars (or dead)? But to advance human knowledge (which could, presumably, save lives), that might be worth it - for sufficiently large values of n.
Then again, what the hell am I going to do on Mars for 100 years? Unless there's slashdot.
What's different about Mars? The original post didn't say the food would run out in less than 100 years.
From Dictionary.com: It's completely legal, and expected, that you discriminate in the hiring process. I try to discriminate against stupid people, for example.
This is old news. These stars were around 7 Billion years ago.
Whitespace is syntactically significant in almost every language. Try splitting a variable name with whitespace in Java, C++, C, Visual Basic, or virtually any other language. I've worked in dozens of languages and only remember ONE (back in 1975) in which whitespace wasn't syntactically significant - HP Basic/2000. And you were limited to variable names of a single letter or a single letter followed by a single digit. Do you really want to go back to those days? I didn't think so.
Python happens to use whitespace to simplify the good programmers' life - Use whitespace to mean the RIGHT thing - to designate blocks of code (which good programmers do anyway).
To those who suck as programmers, it's a problem. Thanks for identifying yourself.
I've been questioned like this before over the phone - a financial institution that questioned me asked me questions from "publicly available information" which "confirmed that I am who I say I am." (The way they did it was to ask me multiple choice questions about my address from ten years ago, and which bank I once had a loan from, etc.)
From StrikeForce Technology's web page:
I have one question: If I, as the end user, am the only one who can have the correct answers, how can you verify my answers?Bah, "feel-good" security for suckers.
The risks of interview candidates missing out on job opportunities because of MySpace profiles is a well-documented situation. I have seen real life examples of this.
My favorite example of the risks of these social networks, recently, was when I was looking into a product that was provided by a competitor of mine in the business world. By searching for one of the suppliers of the competitive product, I was able to discern many of their business contacts, which gave me a view of their customer base, their prospect list, etc. A VERY nice trove of information to get for FREE about my competition! Unless you feel you can trust the MOTIVES and the TECHNICAL CAPABILITY of these companies (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), don't do it! Their motives must align with yours (your privacy over their profit) and their technical capability (and investment in your privacy) must be great enough to protect the security of the information. Given that a measured 67% of sites are vulnerable to XSS hacking, and every site is susceptible to SOME malicious hacking (by employees, for example), I think it's a safe assumption that your private information is not 100% safe with some random Social Network site.
Software Developers are writing the camera code. IT professionals are sometimes implementing the cameras. This article creates awareness for both. I think software developers and IT Professionals are "the average Slashdot reader", and can gain a lot from the article as written.
Open Source summits, great! I imagine that the most frequently heard phrase at the summits will be "IANAL,..."
I said that if you're watching 4 tenths of a cent on a $520 stock, you have taken your eye off the ball. First, I have yet to be convinced that this was a company expense. Second, this and other items that people consider to be wasteful are often investments in employee productivity (helping the executives be more efficient with their time), customer satisfaction (keeping other company's executive passengers efficient and impressing them), and employee satisfaction (perqs).
How do I measure the benefits vs. the cost? *I* don't. What I am really concerned about, when investing in a company, is whether the company is doing the right things to increase shareholder value for the long haul. And I don't do that by examining every 4 tenths of a penny, with an eye purely on the cost side of the equation.
Google has 312 million shares outstanding. $1.3 million dollars per year, spread over 312 million shares, is only 4 tenths of a cent per share. As a shareholder, if you are worried about that, you have taken your eye off the ball.
In the US, we preach freedom, and people feel they aren't being watched, and probably let their guard down. Yet our very act of patriotism, "The Patriot Act", provides unprecedented watching.
My thought exactly! Who are these 10% using Netscape? They must be AOL users with the built-in browser.
It was a perfect picture during the normal plays. It was TERRIBLE (worse than old-style broadcasting) during touchdowns.
The only thing I can figure is that crowd reaction of the broadcaster (i.e. the *employees* of ESPN or the local affiliate) during the touchdowns was the problem. I can't imagine it was interference from crowd reaction at the local bars. I suppose it could have been from the stadium interference, but that doesn't explain why the low-def TV next to it was fine.
It got to the point where I gave up on High Def. Who wants to watch crappy plays in high def and good plays in static? (I caught them later on the news.)
Dr. Evil, is that you?
I read it as "enough". Then again, I read this article earlier.