"The Black Death killed 1/3 of the population of Europe: what recent epidemic has even come close to that?" Spanish Flu of 1918.
"today's wars involve far fewer deaths than the wars of the mid-20th century..." I call mid-20th century recent history. Much more recent than mid-15th century.
"The fact is that these "new diseases" (e.g. bird flu) have killed an INSIGNIFICANT NUMBER of people"
You're right, bird flu has killed an insignificant number of people compared to the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918. I call that recent history (less than 100 years ago, compared to 500 years ago).
"New wars?? You gotta be kidding right?"
Yeah, good job WW2 happened way back in the 14th century. Of course, since world war 2 ended, everything's been peachy in the world scene.
"New weapons? Really?"
No, you're right, no weapons have been invented in the last 100 years. WMD? What's one of those? Is it like a really really big catapult?
500 years ago, folks were 100% less likely to get run over, HIV, an aeroplane driven into their office building. That much is fact. The sort of folks who would once have travelled with an 'entourage' can now travel with 'bodyguards'. We now call 'bandits' 'muggers'. Starvation is still a major cause of death worldwide. There are new diseases, new strains, new cancers, new wars, new weapons, new ways to die.
I've used imagemagick in a coldfusion (ack) administrator tool for uploading images to a client's website. It seemed pretty versatile, but I prefer working in a GUI when dealing with images especially. Thanks all the same!
FSpot's looking promising, especially with its histogram. How detailed is the EXIF? My problem with iPhoto is it only displays basic EXIF data (date, camera). I'm looking for more advanced/detailed info like aperture, shutter speed, light sensitivity setting, etc. I'm looking for a tool I can use to track my progress w/digital photography - to be able to see why a shot worked is an important part of that.
Sounds like you're in the same boat as me. Raw (Super CCD Raw is almost universally unsupported) is preceisely the reason I use GIMP! UFRaw (a GIMP plugin) includes live histograms and many, many options. There are other plugins and maybe some built-in support for Raw, but my Fujifilm S5200 is unsupported by all the others I've looked at. (Photoshop CS2 didn't even support Fujifilm S5200/S5600 last time I checked. Picasa's Support page states specifically that it doesn't support S5200!)
OS X is certainly the prettiest, most polished OS out there, but my future is Linux, I can feel it. I'm starting to use applications like GIMP, Inkscape, and OpenOffice more and more. I'm slowly switching to OpenSource alternatives to everything. Seashore is great, but doesn't import SVG (or support any) paths and can't be used with UFRaw (my main reason for using GIMP). Picasa isn't Open Source, but it also isn't available on Mac, and I'd love a tool that gives me detailed EXIF data (plus iPhoto 5 is pretty slow and I don't want to pay to upgrade). Inkscape loads very slowly, but performs well once it's open. The latest NeoOffice alpha performs better than OpenOffice 2, and actually supports ODF; I consider that a solution.
Still, I haven't done a crossgrade on my Windows Photoshop CS (at first because I was waiting for a Universal - no point in upgrading to old technology) but also because money's too tight for the spare $175. In the meantime, I'm starting to become more supportive of Photoshop's open source alternatives. Sure, GIMP has no layer effects (yet), but it's catching up very quickly considering how long it's been in development.
What I'd really love to see is an open alternative to Aperture or LightRoom, or even just Picasa. I want to see my EXIF data without loading another application!
Fantastic news about Dapper and WPA support, thanks!
I don't think it's the device that's faulty - it works fine in OS X. It may work differently, though; I'm not sure how they accomplish the whole 'drag two fingers to scroll' effect (which is really handy). Maybe I should set up a NX Client/Server connection with another computer!
Next time I need a new laptop, I think I'll build it myself... unless anyone out there can recommend a decent indie laptop maker (first person to suggest Dell-owned Alienware gets shot!)
I tried out Flight 7 on my PowerBook when it was released earlier this month, and it was a little buggy. The trackpad response was s-l-o-w and altering the mouse speed and sensitivity accomplished nothing to solve the problem - I had to plug in my USB trackball to make it useable. Any ideas?
I didn't go onto any networks when I tested, but does anyone know if there'll be support for WPA wireless encryption anytime soon? WEP doesn't cut it at my office, and Ubuntu 5.10 (current stable) doesn't offer any other type.
Other than those problems, this is great news! I wasn't expecting a new Ubuntu until August! GNOME's new Spotlight-killer is fantastic (especially since Linux filesystem is *that* much faster than Mac journaled) and the UI looks a lot cleaner.
I too usually use iTMS as a 'discovery' tool for new music and podacsts, then turn to other legal sources like eMusic and for music - because though I dislike DRM, respecting copyright is still important to me.
I love working with my Mac, but whenever I see those commercials, I feel drawn to Windows. The PC guy seems so much friendlier and more approachable than the show-off blow-off in the t-shirt. Maybe I should compromise and go Linux.
I've never understood teenager to mean any more or any less than "person between 13 and 19", though I don't disagree with your statement that people tend to assume "person 17 or younger". That is, of course, their error. You're also right on the money with the term "kids" - ageing baby-boomer population - except with the reference you linked. The media makes an awkward example because it has good reason to sensationalize. "Kids" sounds so much more sensational than "young adults", even though only two of them were under 18, and even then not young enough to bring the mean age of his victims below 21. This is also why the term "teenager" was chosen to describe the MySpace "hackers". Extortionist teenagers being carted off to jail is so much more sensational than the same thing happening to "young adults". But the term was used correctly.
"The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!"
Seriously, though. As an Englishman in the US, I'm extremely frustrated by the imperial system, non-standard arbitrary paper sizes (god how I miss A4), and all the other quirky things Americans seem to follow in favor of standards.
People's response? It's that way because it's always been that way and it'd cost too much to change.
It's not the metric system people fear, it's the switch.
Does a giant elevator register omnipotence to you?
I think it would be arrogant to assume we won't ever be capable of this one thing. I hope we've grown out of the idea by the time it's possible, though. Seems a bit of a waste. Give it 5 years and it'll be converted into a giant version of Dr. Doom's Death Drop:
I still don't understand the idea that obeying Chinese law is evil (yes, it's mentioned again in this article). Does this mean that every law abiding Chinese citizen is evil? Does this mean that every news/media source legally available to Chinese people is evil?
That's what's suggested every time you call Google evil for providing a special censored (and it says so) Chinese service.
"Note number 5: I'm really wondering how this whole non-sense would hold up against the 'innocent until proven guilty' idea. If I'm innocent, why am I being tracked?!?"
In a court, you're innocent until proven guilty. That doesn't mean detectives can't dig up evidence to present in court.
This only applies to the legal system. As is my understanding, American citizen or no, someone can be taken prisoner after having been declared an "enemy of state". Any takers?
No, no, no, that doesn't go nearly far enough. There's only one way to send a clear message to all the other patent trolls: community service... service for the open source community, that is. That or capital punishment...
ODF also stands for Oregon Department of Forestry, we're worried our Oregon customers will become confused.
ODF also stands for Orientation Distribution Function, we're worried our crystallographer customers will become confused.
ODF doesn't have a Start button.
ODF encourages piracy. You know, document piracy.
ODF undermines our current business strategy and is unfair to Microsoft.
Microsoft supports Open formats such as ODF...
...in fact, we've introduced some exclusive new features to make ODF even better! (only available in Microsoft Office 2008, make that 9, no, 2010, maybe...)
USA Today reported that the NSA doesn't record or listen to conversations. Rather, the article said, the agency uses the data -- including phone numbers, times and locations -- to look for patterns that might suggest terrorist activity.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is in conflict with Mark Klein's recent evidence in the separate Hepting vs. AT&T case:
In 2003 AT&T built "secret rooms" hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in various cities, housing computer gear for a government spy operation which taps into the company's popular WorldNet service and the entire internet. These installations enable the government to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing. Documents showing the hardwire installation in San Francisco suggest that there are similar locations being installed in numerous other cities.
To me, this sounded far-fetched. Everything is a lot of stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
"The Black Death killed 1/3 of the population of Europe: what recent epidemic has even come close to that?"
Spanish Flu of 1918.
"today's wars involve far fewer deaths than the wars of the mid-20th century..."
I call mid-20th century recent history. Much more recent than mid-15th century.
"The fact is that these "new diseases" (e.g. bird flu) have killed an INSIGNIFICANT NUMBER of people"
You're right, bird flu has killed an insignificant number of people compared to the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918. I call that recent history (less than 100 years ago, compared to 500 years ago).
"New wars?? You gotta be kidding right?"
Yeah, good job WW2 happened way back in the 14th century. Of course, since world war 2 ended, everything's been peachy in the world scene.
"New weapons? Really?"
No, you're right, no weapons have been invented in the last 100 years. WMD? What's one of those? Is it like a really really big catapult?
500 years ago, folks were 100% less likely to get run over, HIV, an aeroplane driven into their office building. That much is fact. The sort of folks who would once have travelled with an 'entourage' can now travel with 'bodyguards'. We now call 'bandits' 'muggers'. Starvation is still a major cause of death worldwide. There are new diseases, new strains, new cancers, new wars, new weapons, new ways to die.
I've used imagemagick in a coldfusion (ack) administrator tool for uploading images to a client's website. It seemed pretty versatile, but I prefer working in a GUI when dealing with images especially. Thanks all the same!
FSpot's looking promising, especially with its histogram. How detailed is the EXIF? My problem with iPhoto is it only displays basic EXIF data (date, camera). I'm looking for more advanced/detailed info like aperture, shutter speed, light sensitivity setting, etc. I'm looking for a tool I can use to track my progress w/digital photography - to be able to see why a shot worked is an important part of that.
Sounds like you're in the same boat as me. Raw (Super CCD Raw is almost universally unsupported) is preceisely the reason I use GIMP! UFRaw (a GIMP plugin) includes live histograms and many, many options. There are other plugins and maybe some built-in support for Raw, but my Fujifilm S5200 is unsupported by all the others I've looked at. (Photoshop CS2 didn't even support Fujifilm S5200/S5600 last time I checked. Picasa's Support page states specifically that it doesn't support S5200!)
u fraw-gimpshop-app-plugin
SourceForge page for Linux:
http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Install.html
For OS X, this guy built an installer for use with GIMPshop (a commercial version of GIMP, without the X11, haven't tried it yet) but I used it on the PowerPC version of regular "GIMP for Mac" and it works great!
http://collectivity.goof.com/articles/2006/03/18/
Hope that helps.
OS X is certainly the prettiest, most polished OS out there, but my future is Linux, I can feel it. I'm starting to use applications like GIMP, Inkscape, and OpenOffice more and more. I'm slowly switching to OpenSource alternatives to everything. Seashore is great, but doesn't import SVG (or support any) paths and can't be used with UFRaw (my main reason for using GIMP). Picasa isn't Open Source, but it also isn't available on Mac, and I'd love a tool that gives me detailed EXIF data (plus iPhoto 5 is pretty slow and I don't want to pay to upgrade). Inkscape loads very slowly, but performs well once it's open. The latest NeoOffice alpha performs better than OpenOffice 2, and actually supports ODF; I consider that a solution.
Still, I haven't done a crossgrade on my Windows Photoshop CS (at first because I was waiting for a Universal - no point in upgrading to old technology) but also because money's too tight for the spare $175. In the meantime, I'm starting to become more supportive of Photoshop's open source alternatives. Sure, GIMP has no layer effects (yet), but it's catching up very quickly considering how long it's been in development.
What I'd really love to see is an open alternative to Aperture or LightRoom, or even just Picasa. I want to see my EXIF data without loading another application!
Fantastic news about Dapper and WPA support, thanks!
I don't think it's the device that's faulty - it works fine in OS X. It may work differently, though; I'm not sure how they accomplish the whole 'drag two fingers to scroll' effect (which is really handy). Maybe I should set up a NX Client/Server connection with another computer!
Next time I need a new laptop, I think I'll build it myself... unless anyone out there can recommend a decent indie laptop maker (first person to suggest Dell-owned Alienware gets shot!)
...they need all the support they can get.
This time I needed a new laptop, I needed commercial software. Next time, I think I'll build it myself and go the Ubuntu route!
I tried out Flight 7 on my PowerBook when it was released earlier this month, and it was a little buggy. The trackpad response was s-l-o-w and altering the mouse speed and sensitivity accomplished nothing to solve the problem - I had to plug in my USB trackball to make it useable. Any ideas?
I didn't go onto any networks when I tested, but does anyone know if there'll be support for WPA wireless encryption anytime soon? WEP doesn't cut it at my office, and Ubuntu 5.10 (current stable) doesn't offer any other type.
Other than those problems, this is great news! I wasn't expecting a new Ubuntu until August! GNOME's new Spotlight-killer is fantastic (especially since Linux filesystem is *that* much faster than Mac journaled) and the UI looks a lot cleaner.
I too usually use iTMS as a 'discovery' tool for new music and podacsts, then turn to other legal sources like eMusic and for music - because though I dislike DRM, respecting copyright is still important to me.
I love working with my Mac, but whenever I see those commercials, I feel drawn to Windows. The PC guy seems so much friendlier and more approachable than the show-off blow-off in the t-shirt. Maybe I should compromise and go Linux.
I've never understood teenager to mean any more or any less than "person between 13 and 19", though I don't disagree with your statement that people tend to assume "person 17 or younger". That is, of course, their error. You're also right on the money with the term "kids" - ageing baby-boomer population - except with the reference you linked. The media makes an awkward example because it has good reason to sensationalize. "Kids" sounds so much more sensational than "young adults", even though only two of them were under 18, and even then not young enough to bring the mean age of his victims below 21. This is also why the term "teenager" was chosen to describe the MySpace "hackers". Extortionist teenagers being carted off to jail is so much more sensational than the same thing happening to "young adults". But the term was used correctly.
"First of they are not teens. 18 and 19 makes them adult in america doesn't it?"
Sorry, could you say that again with numbers in writing? I'll give you a hint: EighTEEN and NineTEEN.
You are correct that they are adults (legally able to sign a contract). They are also teenagers.
"The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!"
Seriously, though. As an Englishman in the US, I'm extremely frustrated by the imperial system, non-standard arbitrary paper sizes (god how I miss A4), and all the other quirky things Americans seem to follow in favor of standards.
People's response? It's that way because it's always been that way and it'd cost too much to change.
It's not the metric system people fear, it's the switch.
Does a giant elevator register omnipotence to you?
M /DRDOOM.htm
I think it would be arrogant to assume we won't ever be capable of this one thing. I hope we've grown out of the idea by the time it's possible, though. Seems a bit of a waste. Give it 5 years and it'll be converted into a giant version of Dr. Doom's Death Drop:
http://www.universal-excitement.com/ISLANDS/DRDOO
I still don't understand the idea that obeying Chinese law is evil (yes, it's mentioned again in this article). Does this mean that every law abiding Chinese citizen is evil? Does this mean that every news/media source legally available to Chinese people is evil?
That's what's suggested every time you call Google evil for providing a special censored (and it says so) Chinese service.
Not to be a pedant, but isn't that "application/xhtml+xml"?
"Note number 5: I'm really wondering how this whole non-sense would hold up against the 'innocent until proven guilty' idea. If I'm innocent, why am I being tracked?!?"
In a court, you're innocent until proven guilty. That doesn't mean detectives can't dig up evidence to present in court.
This only applies to the legal system. As is my understanding, American citizen or no, someone can be taken prisoner after having been declared an "enemy of state". Any takers?
Go Pragmatic Programmers. Pragmatic Ajax is a pretty good read (I've been with it since beta) and they're all over Ruby.
What we need is an open source publisher in the US.
No, no, no, that doesn't go nearly far enough. There's only one way to send a clear message to all the other patent trolls: community service... service for the open source community, that is. That or capital punishment...
From the CNN article:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is in conflict with Mark Klein's recent evidence in the separate Hepting vs. AT&T case:
From The documents released by Wired on Monday:
To me, this sounded far-fetched. Everything is a lot of stuff.
More background on Hepting vs. AT&T
Thanks for the info. That's actually quite a large chunk considering each download works out to be only 24 cents or so. Good to know.