Case 1: Most kids (and perhaps their families) who receive the laptops will be extremely appreciative of them, and will cherish them with gratitude. Some may hawk them or break them, but overall the trial was a success.
Case 2: The trial run of ~500 fails miserably, and Negroponte says "boy am I glad the initial run was only 500 instead of >1 miilon!)
There are two main things to fixing poverty in the undeveloped world: proper inter- and intra-national distribution of food, and educating the masses (although the US will only allow education if it's done in the right way).
Obviously the distribution plan isn't airtight. Some laptops will be broken, stolen, sold, or misused, and some kids may fall through the cracks because of it. But that doesn't mean we should cancel the project and rob millions of children of this opportunity--then nobody will fall through the cracks, they'll just all be in a big ugly hole.
If you know that you're under surveillance for terrorism, then what you need to do is look at your watch every hour on the hour when in public, concoct secret handshakes with a select group of colleagues, and use a silly walk on thursdays. You'll get passed off from the terrorism department to the freemason department, but will be otherwise scot-free.
Voyager 1 is 100 AU away. 2003 UB313 is 97 AU and Sedna is only 90 AU away.
To clarify, Voyager 1 is 100 AU away *from the sun*, not [necessarily] from us. With a little fudging for the Earth's location relative to the Sun, we could say that it is only 99 AU away from us.
So any of you rapture-seekers still have another chance once it's 101 AU from the sun. (It's like the millenium thing all over again!)
Can you tell me a real reason that a data entry person would have to type in all caps?
One very good reason is to remove ambiguity with accented letters. By typing in all caps, it is understood (at least in French) that accents are not to be applied.
If they were to type in mixed caps, names and places are more consistently typed (that is, the chance of human error is lower). For example, the government can do a search in its databases for entries with a certain name and birthdate (like... for pension benefits, or for tickets, or tax somethings) and not have to worry about searching for variants with and without accents, etc. Same applies to private sector.
My only beef is that you have to be online to watch the videos. For a month, I had access to a computer at work with no sound, and a computer at home with no internet.
Nevertheless, I love spending hours watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report clips!
Is it just a coincidence that the codename for this project was Acorn, or was the use of the codename in Dilbert a deliberate homage? (sorry, can't find video reference)
The Japanese are prohibited from engaging in warfare. It's in their Constitution.
I don't know whether I should reply to that with
"The US government is prohibited from engaging in unnecessary surveillance of its people. It's in their constitution [and this is supposed to be enforced by the People];" or
(at the risk of invoking Godwin's law) "Post-WWI Germany was also prohibited from engaging in warfare. [and this was supposed to be enforced by the Allies]."
But whichever you choose to take, the fact of the matter is that unless it is physically impossible for Japan to engage in warfare (which is impossible), we can only rely on trust [of Japan's people and of other countries' supervision] that this aspect of Japan's constitution will be enforced.
In fact, for the first time since WWII, Japan deployed troops to Iraq as part of Bush's war. The first step down the slippery slope.
Although I haven't WTFV (watched the video), it doesn't seem surprising that spam filters which use techniques that aren't used widely would be most successful.
If they aren't used widely, it would either be because they don't work, or they do work but they haven't caught on [yet].
It's like any other fad. As an example, when the original Survivor series came out, it was really popular because it achieved its goal (attracting viewers) in a way that was original. Heck, even I watched the original one. Now that all the networks are doing the reality TV thing, it has become hackneyed, and each successive version of survivor does a worse job of achieving its goal. And I've given up watching TV.
With antispam, new techniques are effective, but as they become more popular and more widely used, spammers will find equally innovative ways of getting around them.
I've noticed that at any given time, there will be a particular style of (non-blank) spam that manages to get through Gmail's filters fairly consistently, but every now and then Gmail adapts its spam filters to block the successful spam type of the season, and eventually a new type will make its way through.
Also, did you notice the part where the governments of not one, but four poor nations are buying the computers? That would seem to indicate somebody thinks they will be useful.
I agree. Brazil, for example, has a history of investing wisely in its development. They turned down President Bush's megamilliondolllar abstinence^W AIDS funding because it tied their hands on how to spend money to fight the HIV epidemic.
And Argentina may be an otherwise "rich" country, but with a ~30% unemployment rate brought about by World Bank/IMF policies, it will definitely be a while before it gets back on the wagon.
Most resources (my favourite is John Robbins' "The Food Revolution") on food will tell you that they use chemicals to artificially ripen fruit/vegs all at the same time, so that they can harvest the whole crop in one go (sometimes, the produce is genetically modified so that it will "activate" with the proper chemical).
The downside in this is that it is designed to be at its most luscious only at the time that it is important for profit-making: when it is on the shelf. Because of the "accelerator" chemical, they continue to ripen quickly, and don't last nearly as long once they are ripe.
I've experienced this. At one (non-super-) market, the regular carrots go limp after only a couple of days, whereas when I buy organic ones, they stay firm and tasty for weeks.
In a sane world, it ought to be that when a "little innocent guy" is attacked by a "big bad guy", the size of the guys ought to be irrelevant to their representation in the eye of justice.
In a sane world, a root canal should be difficult to perform on yourself.
In our world, however, the legal system doesn't work as it would in a sane world, but root canals do.
The first shuttle experimental shuttle flight was in August 1977; the first flight with astronauts aboard was in April 1981; and the first non-R&D flight was in November 1982. There were no flights between February 1986 and August 1988 inclusive, and the last regularly scheduled flight (until now) was in February 2003.
This gives a range of one vehicle lost every 9 years (1982-1986, 1988-2003) to one vehicle lost every 13 years (1977-2003).
Just because there were two shuttle losses 17 years apart doesn't mean that there was one lost vehicle every 17 years.
Others have already pointed out why this method of counting is irrelevant, but nobody else appears to have corrected the faulty math. Not that many people will see my comment at this point anyway.
Well they can always build it at a handy Lagrange point [wikipedia.org] so there's at least plenty of room for it to spread out. As a bonus, the orbit would be that much more stable, as well.
As if suburbs on our own planet weren't bad enough!
I got to ride it (both front and back) when they came out to Ottawa. It's such a delight to ride, although I didn't have to go up (or down) the rockies on it.
Incidentally, HPV also stands for Human Papillovirus (disease).
It's worked pretty well for us, so far. In a little over 200 years, the United States of America has grown to be the mightiest, most powerful and most economically successful nation in the history of mankind.
Right...
But once the U.S. colonizes the rest of the world, it'll have all these problems to deal with. May I point your direction towards Iraq?/playing your stupid game
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, and if he posts it as a dupe to this article, it'll be sure to go up!
- RG>
Case 1: Most kids (and perhaps their families) who receive the laptops will be extremely appreciative of them, and will cherish them with gratitude. Some may hawk them or break them, but overall the trial was a success.
Case 2: The trial run of ~500 fails miserably, and Negroponte says "boy am I glad the initial run was only 500 instead of >1 miilon!)
There are two main things to fixing poverty in the undeveloped world: proper inter- and intra-national distribution of food, and educating the masses (although the US will only allow education if it's done in the right way).
Obviously the distribution plan isn't airtight. Some laptops will be broken, stolen, sold, or misused, and some kids may fall through the cracks because of it. But that doesn't mean we should cancel the project and rob millions of children of this opportunity--then nobody will fall through the cracks, they'll just all be in a big ugly hole.
- RG>
If you know that you're under surveillance for terrorism, then what you need to do is look at your watch every hour on the hour when in public, concoct secret handshakes with a select group of colleagues, and use a silly walk on thursdays. You'll get passed off from the terrorism department to the freemason department, but will be otherwise scot-free.
Extra points for lederhosen.
- RG>
I dunno...
"Patentality" doesn't have the same ring as "Wikiality".
- RG>
To clarify, Voyager 1 is 100 AU away *from the sun*, not [necessarily] from us. With a little fudging for the Earth's location relative to the Sun, we could say that it is only 99 AU away from us.
So any of you rapture-seekers still have another chance once it's 101 AU from the sun. (It's like the millenium thing all over again!)
- RG>
One very good reason is to remove ambiguity with accented letters. By typing in all caps, it is understood (at least in French) that accents are not to be applied.
If they were to type in mixed caps, names and places are more consistently typed (that is, the chance of human error is lower). For example, the government can do a search in its databases for entries with a certain name and birthdate (like... for pension benefits, or for tickets, or tax somethings) and not have to worry about searching for variants with and without accents, etc. Same applies to private sector.
- RG>
Well, no. They bring paperclips.
- RG>
My only beef is that you have to be online to watch the videos. For a month, I had access to a computer at work with no sound, and a computer at home with no internet.
Nevertheless, I love spending hours watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report clips!
- RG>
Is it just a coincidence that the codename for this project was Acorn, or was the use of the codename in Dilbert a deliberate homage? (sorry, can't find video reference)
- RG>
Eventually, though, these Flat Earth Society people are going to have to give up and admit that the world is round.
- RG>
I don't know whether I should reply to that with
"The US government is prohibited from engaging in unnecessary surveillance of its people. It's in their constitution [and this is supposed to be enforced by the People];" or
(at the risk of invoking Godwin's law) "Post-WWI Germany was also prohibited from engaging in warfare. [and this was supposed to be enforced by the Allies]."
But whichever you choose to take, the fact of the matter is that unless it is physically impossible for Japan to engage in warfare (which is impossible), we can only rely on trust [of Japan's people and of other countries' supervision] that this aspect of Japan's constitution will be enforced.
In fact, for the first time since WWII, Japan deployed troops to Iraq as part of Bush's war. The first step down the slippery slope.
- RG>
No, but I will make you read my obligatory RealGrouchy joke.
- RG>
Although I haven't WTFV (watched the video), it doesn't seem surprising that spam filters which use techniques that aren't used widely would be most successful.
If they aren't used widely, it would either be because they don't work, or they do work but they haven't caught on [yet].
It's like any other fad. As an example, when the original Survivor series came out, it was really popular because it achieved its goal (attracting viewers) in a way that was original. Heck, even I watched the original one. Now that all the networks are doing the reality TV thing, it has become hackneyed, and each successive version of survivor does a worse job of achieving its goal. And I've given up watching TV.
With antispam, new techniques are effective, but as they become more popular and more widely used, spammers will find equally innovative ways of getting around them.
I've noticed that at any given time, there will be a particular style of (non-blank) spam that manages to get through Gmail's filters fairly consistently, but every now and then Gmail adapts its spam filters to block the successful spam type of the season, and eventually a new type will make its way through.
- RG>
I agree. Brazil, for example, has a history of investing wisely in its development. They turned down President Bush's megamilliondolllar abstinence^W AIDS funding because it tied their hands on how to spend money to fight the HIV epidemic.
And Argentina may be an otherwise "rich" country, but with a ~30% unemployment rate brought about by World Bank/IMF policies, it will definitely be a while before it gets back on the wagon.
- RG>
Most resources (my favourite is John Robbins' "The Food Revolution") on food will tell you that they use chemicals to artificially ripen fruit/vegs all at the same time, so that they can harvest the whole crop in one go (sometimes, the produce is genetically modified so that it will "activate" with the proper chemical).
The downside in this is that it is designed to be at its most luscious only at the time that it is important for profit-making: when it is on the shelf. Because of the "accelerator" chemical, they continue to ripen quickly, and don't last nearly as long once they are ripe.
I've experienced this. At one (non-super-) market, the regular carrots go limp after only a couple of days, whereas when I buy organic ones, they stay firm and tasty for weeks.
- RG>
I hear that. I'm still on my July 1/July 4 long weekend.
- RG>
He was speaking in a normative sense.
In a sane world, it ought to be that when a "little innocent guy" is attacked by a "big bad guy", the size of the guys ought to be irrelevant to their representation in the eye of justice.
In a sane world, a root canal should be difficult to perform on yourself.
In our world, however, the legal system doesn't work as it would in a sane world, but root canals do.
- RG>
The first shuttle experimental shuttle flight was in August 1977; the first flight with astronauts aboard was in April 1981; and the first non-R&D flight was in November 1982. There were no flights between February 1986 and August 1988 inclusive, and the last regularly scheduled flight (until now) was in February 2003.
This gives a range of one vehicle lost every 9 years (1982-1986, 1988-2003) to one vehicle lost every 13 years (1977-2003).
Just because there were two shuttle losses 17 years apart doesn't mean that there was one lost vehicle every 17 years.
Others have already pointed out why this method of counting is irrelevant, but nobody else appears to have corrected the faulty math. Not that many people will see my comment at this point anyway.
- RG>
Just be thankful that you're not a subscriber. Then they'd all come early, and you'd miss them!
- RG>
No, it said that the names will be "immortalized in Firefox 2.0's source code". I can only assume (and hope) that it won't be transferred to 2.0.1.
- RG>
As if suburbs on our own planet weren't bad enough!
- RG>
Oh, good; I'm not alone.
...much less RTFA.
As a grammar Nahtzee, I'm utterly incapable of reading further until I understand the meaning of the sentence I'm reading.
- RG>
With that kind of money, Belgium will be able to afford copies of MS Office for its workers and citizens!
- RG>
Maybe if you had tried it on a back-to-back tandem recumbent? They're in Vancouver.
I got to ride it (both front and back) when they came out to Ottawa. It's such a delight to ride, although I didn't have to go up (or down) the rockies on it.
Incidentally, HPV also stands for Human Papillovirus (disease).
- RG>
Right...
But once the U.S. colonizes the rest of the world, it'll have all these problems to deal with. May I point your direction towards Iraq?
- RG>