Is it really that difficult to come up with a set of rules so things are worded correctly?
Yes.
Longer answer - computers are very bad at context and meaning. Take French to English - it would be one thing if words had the same exact connotations and grammar, and you could just do a find-replace. But, unfortunately, that's not the case. There are many words in French that - depending on context - have many different meanings. In mathematical terms, the mapping of French words to English words is not bijective, nor vice-versa. Take the French word bete - it most literally means "beast", but is often used to mean "stupid". How is a computer supposed to figure out which one to use?
I just checked and Google Translate actually gets the connotation right, but it's a relatively simple example. Consider the French word "baise" - either kiss or fuck - and a more complicated example. Now... Google gets this right too (creepy!)
In any case, the only to get perfect translation is to make the computer understand the relevant meanings and connotations of words and stylistic choices... How would you convey a Cockney accent, or Cockney phrasing, in Chinese? In short, you'd need an AI.
I was helping to decode all of this on Monday. And it was really cool.
Popping open the updated.gcf (game archive) revealed 9 new files - the "dinosaur" wav files. The first few are clearly in Morse code. Translating the Morse revealed some rather cryptic messages that sounded like a GlaDOS bootup sequence. One Morse message encoded the word "BEEP" or "BEEEP" - translating *those* from Morse revealed "LOL". Another Morse message was clearly an MD5 sum - reversing that revealed the phrase "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", which sounded like another test.
Then the sounds got more confusing - they were much noisier. Someone in the forums, presumably a ham, ran those sounds through a SSTV decoder and came up with some clear, deliberate images. The images were full of random stuff, but one image had what looked like an amber terminal with the pattern (###) (###)-(####) - a phone number
Each image had 4 hexadecimal digits circled. Taking them in order from the pictures revealed another md5 hash. Somebody wrote a little python script - assuming that the area code would be near Seattle (Valve headquarters), they brute-forced the md5 and came up with a phone number.
Dialing the phone number played a dialtone. While most of the people on the forum couldn't wrap their head around connecting to a computer without the internet, some folks fired up HyperTerminal and connected, getting a login screen. After looking around again, they found a hint in one of the pictures to try backup/backup. Each time this password was used, a "record dump" (mostly ASCII art) was sent.
I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't part of it. Reversing an MD5 hash, come on. But it's true - you can run the script yourself.
Fair enough. Though marking down for using a proxy service (often provided by the registrar) seems like a really, really bad idea. My whois information isn't inaccurate, fake, or anonymous. It's closer to a pseudonym, since I can still be contacted easily.
On the other hand, I've seen people putting in fake information. Then, you can't contact them at all. Shouldn't that be the problem?
Google has a history of releasing paid stuff for free. Keyhole was originally extremely expensive, and they released Google Earth free. They still charge something like $30 for the next version up, but that's a lot less than the several hundred+ it was originally.
Yes, by law hospitals are required to treat you if you go in and you are sick. If you can't pay, there's jack-all they can do about that.
But I honestly can't think of a less efficient system. Nevermind the fact that you're a leech, and don't seem to care, but your care isn't free. That MRI isn't free. Those pills aren't free. That lab tech isn't free. Somebody pays.
Who pays? It's all of us with insurance. So the insurance companies' costs go up. Can you blame them for raising premiums? Then less people can afford insurance.
You mention all those programs, but you also mention getting a bill. Hence, I can only conclude that nobody was paying and the hospital absorbed the cost.
I wonder - do you go to the doctor for your annual checkup and bloodwork? You know, the one where they would find your diabetes or your heart troubles, if you developed them? If I was the one paying, I'd rather you found out about your high cholesterol before you had a heart attack - it'd be a whole bunch cheaper. Oh, wait, I am paying - one way or another.
But the thing I can't understand is that we already decided on the question of universal healthcare! And we decided it was a universal right. We decided all of this when we mandated that hospitals had to handle anyone who came through. Why all this debate on whether to make it more efficient?
To all opponents of public-run universal healthcare - I challenge you to devise a less efficient system of universal healthcare than the one we already have; the "wait until you go into labor to provide prenatal care" and the "wait until you have a heart attack to find out about your heart troubles" system we have now. Please show all work.
I'm an EMT at a volunteer ambulance squad, and a friend of mine lost his phone from his pocket while climbing into the cab. Neither of us realized this, so we left - driving directly over it with a 14,000 pound vehicle.
We came back when he couldn't find his phone. The phone actually still worked (buttons and made phone calls), but the screen was pretty much powder. The whole thing was bent like a potato chip.
It worked well enough that they could recover all his data when they replaced it for him. He showed up in uniform to the Verizon store and they were so amused they gave him a free phone.
On the other hand, my first phone - a Motorola RAZR v3m - died from sitting on my dresser. Woke up one morning, opened it up, and the phone had turned off. Tried to turn it back on, and nothing happened. Wouldn't charge either, not even with a spare battery.
I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I think they've handled this whole situation correctly.
There's no indication that the document in question was *not* copyright by Microsoft. In this case, the correct legal action is a DMCA, same as if you had a movie up on your site. NetSol is just being a dick, as usual - it's not their responsibility to screw with the domain over the dispute between 2 third-parties unless legally required to (I don't think that's the case here).
In any case, when Microsoft saw how this was about to go all Streisand on them, they decided correctly that it wasn't worth the fight.
I believe them when they said they didn't intend to take Cryptome down. Looks like it was just NetSol being... proactive. So really the only thing they'd be at fault for was sending a DMCA, which is clearly within their rights. They probably have underlings scouring the web and sending DMCAs - so they were probably not delibrately targeted. When it had unintended consequences, they withdrew it.
I don't think MS is at fault here. I actually think they acted quite exemplary.
Get a Linux box and set up NAT between 2 NICs. Plug your DSL/cable modem into one of the ports. Set up the internet on the router (set up PPPoE or DHCP). Connect your old router to the new router, turn off routing (relegate it to just an AP). Set up a DHCP server and DNS server on the new router. Use firewall rules to redirect stuff around, possibly with Perl scripts or something.
Sorry I don't have any links, you'll have to google. But once you get to the point where all traffic on your network passes through IPtables, you win.
That 3d box software is a real thing for IRIX - called fsn (filesystem navigator). At least that was real. It's even conceivable you could use it to run a shell script that would do whatever it was they needed.
I may have mistyped - I think I meant greenpeace, who does things like blow up a factory without realizing that rebuilding it will be worse for the environment.
I'm not so sure I care. I'm an atheist, but was raised Catholic. I didn't disappear - I just realized that we turn to dust when we die, there's no reason behind anything, and we should make the most of our lives. It might be depressing if I wasn't happy with my life and how I'm leading it.
Going off heroin can kill you too. And I even concede that in a hypothetical world where religion disappeared one night, people might kill themselves. But the next generation would be raised with no ingrained religious misconceptions about the world, so the benefit would come fairly quickly.
In any case, how many religious people kill themselves because their life sucks, and it occurs to them that their lifelong friend God couldn't possibly be on their side?
This is why logic should be a required part of high school. Perhaps not coincidentally, your sig fits what I'm about to say perfectly.
Humans can, and do, come to conclusions without bias. We see this a lot in science (by no means always), and we see it in mathematics etc. In other words, there are some things to be 'right' about - but more importantly, our obviously flawed thought processes can come to them.
A mathematical proof that sqrt(2) is not rational, or the infinitude of primes, is simply true - assuming you take as a given the rules of mathematics (a reasonable assumption). Our brains are therefore capable of devising such incontrovertible statements and reasons - but how?
I submit that we can only improve our reasoning abilities by learning our mental weaknesses - that is, being able to go over a mental argument and methodically examine all sources of bias. This would be required by a logic class.
Logic teaches you how to think. If everybody knew how to think, we wouldn't have any of the associated junk like PETA, fear of "death panels", or any of this Creationism crap.
But so few people actually know how to think. It's really the only way we can rise above our capricious biology.
I just read the document and it's really kinda reassuring. They lay out exactly what they require in order to disclose exactly what information, and they don't say anything without a subpoena (gets you name/address/email older than 180 days). Anything more interesting than that requires a court order (for address book/friend list/email to-from) or a search warrant (new email).
Plus, they detail exactly what they do and don't keep - for example, they don't have messenger logs.
Frankly, I thought they had more info than that. They really keep very little info aside from what they need to actually deliver the service.
YMMV due to the Patriot act, etc - but I don't see why MSFT would lie in a confidential document
Does Google even *have* upstream providers any more? I guess so... but none that'd be stupid enough to cut them off.
What Google should do is light up enough of that dark fiber to *own* it's datacenter-to-datacenter links. Then they could easily become their own Tier-1 provider.
I would pity them, but they're wrecking everything I care about. I'd like to think they'll go home, sigh, and think about how unfulfilled they are, but instead they'll just take a shower in hundred dollar bills and bang their trophy wife to break in that new boobjob.
So instead I hope they die in a fire. They're fucking everybody else over so they can make another few bucks.
Slashdot Mirror
Is it really that difficult to come up with a set of rules so things are worded correctly?
Yes.
Longer answer - computers are very bad at context and meaning. Take French to English - it would be one thing if words had the same exact connotations and grammar, and you could just do a find-replace. But, unfortunately, that's not the case. There are many words in French that - depending on context - have many different meanings. In mathematical terms, the mapping of French words to English words is not bijective, nor vice-versa. Take the French word bete - it most literally means "beast", but is often used to mean "stupid". How is a computer supposed to figure out which one to use?
I just checked and Google Translate actually gets the connotation right, but it's a relatively simple example. Consider the French word "baise" - either kiss or fuck - and a more complicated example. Now... Google gets this right too (creepy!)
In any case, the only to get perfect translation is to make the computer understand the relevant meanings and connotations of words and stylistic choices... How would you convey a Cockney accent, or Cockney phrasing, in Chinese? In short, you'd need an AI.
Teenagers don't have legitimate reasons to be at stores and train stations and bus stops?
I can't figure out why kids would prefer to hang out at some bus stop or a train station when they could be hanging out somewhere cooler.
Well, yes - as demonstrated. And I have a DVD's worth of rainbow tables for... academic reasons.
But all the same, if you told me the story, I'd think you were pulling my leg, or else talking about a movie.
Pretty crazy - and impressive - stuff.
I don't actually remember what number I was intending to put in there, but it's definitely more than 9.
Replace 9 with "a bunch of"
I was helping to decode all of this on Monday. And it was really cool.
Popping open the updated .gcf (game archive) revealed 9 new files - the "dinosaur" wav files. The first few are clearly in Morse code. Translating the Morse revealed some rather cryptic messages that sounded like a GlaDOS bootup sequence. One Morse message encoded the word "BEEP" or "BEEEP" - translating *those* from Morse revealed "LOL". Another Morse message was clearly an MD5 sum - reversing that revealed the phrase "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", which sounded like another test.
Then the sounds got more confusing - they were much noisier. Someone in the forums, presumably a ham, ran those sounds through a SSTV decoder and came up with some clear, deliberate images. The images were full of random stuff, but one image had what looked like an amber terminal with the pattern (###) (###)-(####) - a phone number
Each image had 4 hexadecimal digits circled. Taking them in order from the pictures revealed another md5 hash. Somebody wrote a little python script - assuming that the area code would be near Seattle (Valve headquarters), they brute-forced the md5 and came up with a phone number.
Dialing the phone number played a dialtone. While most of the people on the forum couldn't wrap their head around connecting to a computer without the internet, some folks fired up HyperTerminal and connected, getting a login screen. After looking around again, they found a hint in one of the pictures to try backup/backup. Each time this password was used, a "record dump" (mostly ASCII art) was sent.
I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't part of it. Reversing an MD5 hash, come on. But it's true - you can run the script yourself.
graph a console cable
What is its function?
Sounds like jailbreaking an iPhone. Plug it in, run the program, wait for it to restart...
Fair enough. Though marking down for using a proxy service (often provided by the registrar) seems like a really, really bad idea. My whois information isn't inaccurate, fake, or anonymous. It's closer to a pseudonym, since I can still be contacted easily.
On the other hand, I've seen people putting in fake information. Then, you can't contact them at all. Shouldn't that be the problem?
Use a proxy service. It's not fake info, but it adds a level or indirection.
Google has a history of releasing paid stuff for free. Keyhole was originally extremely expensive, and they released Google Earth free. They still charge something like $30 for the next version up, but that's a lot less than the several hundred+ it was originally.
Would astonish me if he could so much as light up an LED with it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Effects_on_wildlife_and_eggshell_thinning
Yes, by law hospitals are required to treat you if you go in and you are sick. If you can't pay, there's jack-all they can do about that.
But I honestly can't think of a less efficient system. Nevermind the fact that you're a leech, and don't seem to care, but your care isn't free. That MRI isn't free. Those pills aren't free. That lab tech isn't free. Somebody pays.
Who pays? It's all of us with insurance. So the insurance companies' costs go up. Can you blame them for raising premiums? Then less people can afford insurance.
You mention all those programs, but you also mention getting a bill. Hence, I can only conclude that nobody was paying and the hospital absorbed the cost.
I wonder - do you go to the doctor for your annual checkup and bloodwork? You know, the one where they would find your diabetes or your heart troubles, if you developed them? If I was the one paying, I'd rather you found out about your high cholesterol before you had a heart attack - it'd be a whole bunch cheaper. Oh, wait, I am paying - one way or another.
But the thing I can't understand is that we already decided on the question of universal healthcare! And we decided it was a universal right. We decided all of this when we mandated that hospitals had to handle anyone who came through. Why all this debate on whether to make it more efficient?
To all opponents of public-run universal healthcare - I challenge you to devise a less efficient system of universal healthcare than the one we already have; the "wait until you go into labor to provide prenatal care" and the "wait until you have a heart attack to find out about your heart troubles" system we have now. Please show all work.
I'm an EMT at a volunteer ambulance squad, and a friend of mine lost his phone from his pocket while climbing into the cab. Neither of us realized this, so we left - driving directly over it with a 14,000 pound vehicle.
We came back when he couldn't find his phone. The phone actually still worked (buttons and made phone calls), but the screen was pretty much powder. The whole thing was bent like a potato chip.
It worked well enough that they could recover all his data when they replaced it for him. He showed up in uniform to the Verizon store and they were so amused they gave him a free phone.
On the other hand, my first phone - a Motorola RAZR v3m - died from sitting on my dresser. Woke up one morning, opened it up, and the phone had turned off. Tried to turn it back on, and nothing happened. Wouldn't charge either, not even with a spare battery.
I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I think they've handled this whole situation correctly.
There's no indication that the document in question was *not* copyright by Microsoft. In this case, the correct legal action is a DMCA, same as if you had a movie up on your site. NetSol is just being a dick, as usual - it's not their responsibility to screw with the domain over the dispute between 2 third-parties unless legally required to (I don't think that's the case here).
In any case, when Microsoft saw how this was about to go all Streisand on them, they decided correctly that it wasn't worth the fight.
I believe them when they said they didn't intend to take Cryptome down. Looks like it was just NetSol being... proactive. So really the only thing they'd be at fault for was sending a DMCA, which is clearly within their rights. They probably have underlings scouring the web and sending DMCAs - so they were probably not delibrately targeted. When it had unintended consequences, they withdrew it.
I don't think MS is at fault here. I actually think they acted quite exemplary.
Get a Linux box and set up NAT between 2 NICs. Plug your DSL/cable modem into one of the ports. Set up the internet on the router (set up PPPoE or DHCP). Connect your old router to the new router, turn off routing (relegate it to just an AP). Set up a DHCP server and DNS server on the new router. Use firewall rules to redirect stuff around, possibly with Perl scripts or something.
Sorry I don't have any links, you'll have to google. But once you get to the point where all traffic on your network passes through IPtables, you win.
That 3d box software is a real thing for IRIX - called fsn (filesystem navigator). At least that was real. It's even conceivable you could use it to run a shell script that would do whatever it was they needed.
No. Use a real router, then it's easy.
I may have mistyped - I think I meant greenpeace, who does things like blow up a factory without realizing that rebuilding it will be worse for the environment.
In any case, the individualistic, techie ones were fans of authority? Nobody show them Slashdot...
I'm not so sure I care. I'm an atheist, but was raised Catholic. I didn't disappear - I just realized that we turn to dust when we die, there's no reason behind anything, and we should make the most of our lives. It might be depressing if I wasn't happy with my life and how I'm leading it.
Going off heroin can kill you too. And I even concede that in a hypothetical world where religion disappeared one night, people might kill themselves. But the next generation would be raised with no ingrained religious misconceptions about the world, so the benefit would come fairly quickly.
In any case, how many religious people kill themselves because their life sucks, and it occurs to them that their lifelong friend God couldn't possibly be on their side?
This is why logic should be a required part of high school. Perhaps not coincidentally, your sig fits what I'm about to say perfectly.
Humans can, and do, come to conclusions without bias. We see this a lot in science (by no means always), and we see it in mathematics etc. In other words, there are some things to be 'right' about - but more importantly, our obviously flawed thought processes can come to them.
A mathematical proof that sqrt(2) is not rational, or the infinitude of primes, is simply true - assuming you take as a given the rules of mathematics (a reasonable assumption). Our brains are therefore capable of devising such incontrovertible statements and reasons - but how?
I submit that we can only improve our reasoning abilities by learning our mental weaknesses - that is, being able to go over a mental argument and methodically examine all sources of bias. This would be required by a logic class.
Logic teaches you how to think. If everybody knew how to think, we wouldn't have any of the associated junk like PETA, fear of "death panels", or any of this Creationism crap.
But so few people actually know how to think. It's really the only way we can rise above our capricious biology.
I just read the document and it's really kinda reassuring. They lay out exactly what they require in order to disclose exactly what information, and they don't say anything without a subpoena (gets you name/address/email older than 180 days). Anything more interesting than that requires a court order (for address book/friend list/email to-from) or a search warrant (new email).
Plus, they detail exactly what they do and don't keep - for example, they don't have messenger logs.
Frankly, I thought they had more info than that. They really keep very little info aside from what they need to actually deliver the service.
YMMV due to the Patriot act, etc - but I don't see why MSFT would lie in a confidential document
Does Google even *have* upstream providers any more? I guess so... but none that'd be stupid enough to cut them off.
What Google should do is light up enough of that dark fiber to *own* it's datacenter-to-datacenter links. Then they could easily become their own Tier-1 provider.
I would pity them, but they're wrecking everything I care about. I'd like to think they'll go home, sigh, and think about how unfulfilled they are, but instead they'll just take a shower in hundred dollar bills and bang their trophy wife to break in that new boobjob.
So instead I hope they die in a fire. They're fucking everybody else over so they can make another few bucks.