The Supreme Court has somewhat reluctantly clipped the wings of copyright pirates; it is time for Congress to do the same to the copyright incumbents.
Yeah, I'm sure Congress is going to get right on that. No doubt they'll reverse their current trend of supporting big business because of this article.
I don't really see the point. I mean, yes, it's kind of neat, but that's about it. It serves no practical purpose, really.
Not every machine has a GPU. I don't know, but I suspect GPUs aren't terribly compatible with each other, so for any sort of market, you'd have to code for multiple GPU types.
The fact is, co-processors have been around since the early x86 CPUs. Not just math co-processors, but Intel used to cell i860 and i960 co-processor boards (some with multiple CPUs) for just this sort of thing.
I'd also suspect that if your GPU is being used for sorting or some other calculation intensive operation, it's less useful as a GPU. If you don't need the GPU as a GPU, but you need the computing power, I suspect spending the additional money on more CPU power instead, is going to have a bigger overall payoff since it's going to speed up every operation, not just the ones a GPU can be adapted to.
So, again, I don't really see the point. Really, if you need specialized co-processing, getting a FPGA board will probably be a much better use of your money since it can be customized for many more tasks than a GPU.
I guess in that two weeks of planning, and painting, you neglected to address the fact that submitting your story to Slashdot would bring your web site to a grinding halt.
Personally, I think the Independence Day beam was probably the most impressive in terms of the special effects of the explosion. Especially on the tall buildings, exploding several floors at at time as the beam penetrates down the building. Those were just amazing special effects.
Sure, the Death Star beam blows up a planet, and it was definitely an impressive beam, especially those shots inside the Death Star with the guys standing next to the beams.
I don't know. Maybe a tie for me. I definitely think the Independence Day beam should have been second mentioned. Certainly before the Crotch Laser in Goldfinger. Come on...
For the past few nights the moon has appeared larger than many people have seen it for almost 20 years. It is the world's largest optical illusion, and one of its most enduring mysteries.
What is this optical illusion everyone's talking about? The moon always look 3476 km wide to me.
Personally, from the perspective of someone who will be a parent before too long, I am seriously concerned. I'm very computer savvy but I wonder how I'm going to protect my kids from a lot of stuff on the internet (that is, when they're old enough to use a computer). For example, I've got nothing against pornography for adults, but pornography can cause children a great deal of confusion regarding relationships. I'm very concerned about keeping my children from getting access to hard core pornography before a certain age. And then of course there's the problem with pedophiles on the internet.
At the very least, I know I'll be able to monitor their internet usage, at least while they're at home, but it's virtually impossible to block everything you don't want them to access.
I would really like to see something done, but I don't trust the government to do it. I'd prefer some sort of improvement in the technology, but I don't even have the foggiest idea of how it can be accomplished. And I don't just mean technically speaking, I mean from an abstract idea of what kind of content, how to identify it (in an application indepdent way), and how to block it. I mean, it's just a mind bogglingly difficult issue to get around.
I can understand parents wanting the gov't to do something but not trusting the gov't at the same time. And maybe what I want isn't even possible. In which case, I'll have to stick to simply monitoring all the traffic over the router and trust that my kids don't become better hackers than me, and find a way around my monitoring.
I would never use Linux for a firewall - iptables is awful - poorly documented and has a terrible syntax that means you have to dive into random HOWTO docs on the internet to get anything done.
I have to disagree. I'm pretty weak on Linux related stuff, but this precisely what I use Linux for (other than as a simple file server with lots of hard drives). I found iptables to be fairly easy to work out once I understood the basics. There are tons of samples available around the internet for different types of firewall implementations with iptables. The documentation was extremely helpful, I thought.
But I can't compare it to OpenBSD and pf because I've never used either. But I've been using Linux primarily just as a firewall and file server for years and have found it to be completely reliable and easy to use.
I'm sure Dvorak is great and everything and I hope it helps people with CTS and whatever other wrist problems they might develop.
I already type about as fast I need to and when typing text (like this), I'm held up more by thinking about what I want to say than the keyboard.
I've been programming for 26 years (and obviously typing that long) and I've never had any wrist problems. I think part of that is because I never learned to type "correctly." I don't hold my hands in awkward positions and make sure they stay centered properly. I don't use certain fingers for certain keys. Whichever finger can get to the key most comfortable is the one that goes. For example, right now, I'm noticing that my right middle finger is doing more typing than any other (except the right thumb which is hitting the space bar), but when I shift my position or rotate my chair a bit, that'll all change.
I think what we need to advocate is that people stop taking typing classes and learning to put their hands in completely unnatural positions. Then it won't matter if you're using QWERTY, Dvorak, or whatever.
It's not like they're going to find anything anyway... I do care about the interference with other astronomical work, though. And as if there aren't cell phones in enough places, damn, the last thing I want is to be on a plane with 50 people talking on their cell phones.
Too bad those little personal cell phone jammers are illegal in the States. Otherwise I'd carry one around with me. I'm sick of people too busy talking on the phone to drive, or walking down the aisle of the supermarket asking some poor nitwit on the other end of the phone, "Should I buy the ice cream? It's only got 9 million calories. Oooh, trash bags are on sale."
Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to hear people talking on their cell phone anywhere, but especially not in a crowded airplane.
Is it just me? It kinda looks like the Outlook UI. So what, Apple copies it and it's revolutionary? Besides, I doubt we'll see the end of folders anytime soon.
First of all, I'll be the first to say, UI design in a lot of software, free, shareware, or otherwise, is atrocious. But, comparing it to building a house... That's just stupid.
Who builds shareware houses? You want to compare, at least compare commercial software, and in that case, commercial software that's not cheap. Otherwise, think about shanty towns for your homes and then start doing the comparison.
You get stuff cheap, you should expect to get what you pay for.
On top of which, Software Engineering is a misnomer. It's not engineering. It's not even a science. It's more an art at this point with some aspects of engineering and science.
Once we have automated tools that can verify a program as bug free (doubt that'll happen in my lifetime), then maybe it can become an engineering discipline.
With the assumption that your materials are within tolerances (and this can be determined for many), most engineering disciplines have very verifiable results. You can verify with mathematics that a bridge or building won't collapse, assuming your materials are verifiable. You can't do the equivalent with software.
The same goes for most other engineering disciplines. So the comparisons are invalid for a few reasons. But hey, I'm behind him on what he wants: Better UI design all around.
My manager was telling me yesterday about an resume he received from a UI designer. The resume was in 7pt type and my manager could barely read it.
Like another poster, I had problems with the "bummer dudes" and other informal statements in the paper. It does not strike me as terribly professional because of that and I think it will hurt how it's received.
On the other hand, I applaud anyone that will ignore political correctness in favor of scientific advance. Political correctness has its place. It's about being polite and there are places and times where it's good and necessary. But science should be blind to politeness. It's about finding facts, not what people "want" to find.
Not being PC doesn't mean being amoral either. Science shouldn't advance from amoral activities (in particular, I'm thinking of Nazi experiments on Jews during WWII), but again, it shouldn't have to stall in the face of polite society.
The author is the copyright owner
on
GPL Hard to Enforce?
·
· Score: 3, Informative
This is pretty stupid. The author of a work is the copyright owner in perpetuity unless they assign ownership to someone else. If there are multiple authors then the authors as a group own the copyright. This is the way copyright has always worked.
A work is technically, and legally, copyright upon creation by the author. You don't have to register something with the US Copyright Office for it to be protected. The point of registering with the Copyright Office is to provide an official registration so that if you are legally challenged, it's likely the first person to register is the owner. But it's nothing more than a measure of protection.
If I create a work and you register the copyright in your name, the burden of proof falls to me to prove that I created it first. But if I can do that, then legally I'm protected and you are not.
So putting your name on it does nothing for it. If you want to protect it, go to the Copyright Office web site, download the form, fill it out, and send it in with you $30. That's the best protection you can have.
Slashdot ran previousarticles on StarBridge Systems and their Hypercomputers that are built on massive parallel FPGA processors. And their operating system/Programming Environment, Viva is not vaporware. I can't find a reference to it, but I'm fairly certain the French department of energy already purchased one for researching nuclear blast yields.
Despite the initial handwaving about having these on our desktops, I think it's going to be a while before that happens. Still, it's a very cool idea.
This is ridiculous. Sure, I can pick and choose open source projects and say, "They're not innovative." I can do the same of a billion commercial apps. Is Word innovative? It depends how you define innovative. Is Linux innovative? Again, it depends how you define it.
There are truely innovative apps that began as open source. But there are also a lot that have been created specifically to provide an alternative to commercial equivalents. Every new application is not meant to be about innovation. It's meant to fill a need. Clearly open source fills a need, otherwise it wouldn't exist.
I have an account with Wachovia. About 6 months ago, I started putting rather significant sums in it. Enough that were the account to get robbed, I'd be seriously upset. What concerned me at the time was that I had used my check card for online transactions, though.
The thought that someone could wipe me out financially by cracking an online system got me worried enough that I opened a checking account at a local bank where I now keep a majority of my funds. I move enough into the Wachovia account for paying bills and stuff that are connected to it, but there's never enough in there to completely wipe me out anymore.
And obviously, with the new bank, I won't be using the check card online. It looks like mine wasn't affected and it doesn't look like the account info was being used for robbery, I still feel more secure with the new account.
Episode 3 is breaking records for how much money it's already made. Boy, I can really see how BitTorrent is just screwing the movie industry. Just how it screwed Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi. What a bunch of whining chumps.
I think MS thinks if they say it enough, it'll happen. It's like they live in some alternate universe where what they want to happen will simply come to pass.
I have to say, the browser tabs were the main feature that got me to switch to Firefox as my primary browser. Not that I'll switch back now that IE will have them. I've grown very accustomed to some of the other features of FireFox that IE still doesn't have, so I'm staying with it.
On the other hand, there are certain things I have to use IE for and at least those will be slightly less onerous tasks now that it will have tabs. So I'm happy it's finally happening.
Whoever described doctors as "techs" was right on. Anyone who isn't actively involved in their own treatment is being absoutely careless. I decided this years ago, but it came crashing home when I got misdiagnosed by 3 doctors who said I had asthma based on very sketchy evidence. I was promptly put on a steroid inhaler for daily treatment and an albuterol inhaler for emergencies.
Now, the reason I went to 3 other doctors (the 4th being the one who correctly diagnosed my problem), is that the albuterol (a stimulant that opens the airways) was making my attacks WORSE, not better. But the second and third doctor said it was all in my head and to stick with it.
It turns out I was actually having panic attacks. So the last thing I really needed was to be sending a stimulant directly into my lungs which is just shy of injecting one right into your veins. I actually stopped taking the albuterol shortly after the second idiot doctor and just kept going back saying the same thing until I finally got a doctor who was willing to actually check if I really had asthma.
Now this is just a single example, but it's also not the first misdiagnosis I've had. I've been prescribed antibiotics for flu. I've been told I had food poisoning when I didn't.
There are some good doctors out there. There are a number of really, really, bad doctors out there. And most doctors, good or bad, are rarely willing to take the time to really investigate their patients' problems these days. You simply can't count on doctors to do the homework on your condition. Someone should be doing the homework. The doctor can run tests, but what if they're not running the right tests? You need to do at least some homework and be willing to make suggestions to your doctor. And if that bugs your doctor, find a new one.
I know we can't all get medical degrees and it should be the doctors' job to figure all this crap out, but the fact is with HMOs and the like, doctors aren't doing their jobs. They're working on a factory line and getting through as many patients as they can as quickly as they can.
Need market changes, not subterfuge
on
Revamping Freenet
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· Score: 3, Insightful
We need the market to change to make trading TV shows, movies, and music legal. This article yesterday is a perfect example of tackling the problem from the right direction.
Just trying to hide it will only invite further problems and frankly, the idea of being unable to avoid contributing to the spreading of child pornography bothers me a lot more than the MPAA and RIAA going after people illegally trading copyrighted material.
What we need is for the RIAA, MPAA, or some organization(s) that will eventually supplant them to find a financially viable market in open, distributed file sharing. A solution that makes everyone happy and doesn't contribute to child pornography.
I am convinced that this is possible. If the MPAA and RIAA can't figure out a way to make money doing it, someone else will and the MPAA and RIAA will eventually die off. Evolution: Adapt or die off. Wasn't there an article on that over the weekend as well?
Slashdot Mirror
The Supreme Court has somewhat reluctantly clipped the wings of copyright pirates; it is time for Congress to do the same to the copyright incumbents.
Yeah, I'm sure Congress is going to get right on that. No doubt they'll reverse their current trend of supporting big business because of this article.
I don't really see the point. I mean, yes, it's kind of neat, but that's about it. It serves no practical purpose, really.
Not every machine has a GPU. I don't know, but I suspect GPUs aren't terribly compatible with each other, so for any sort of market, you'd have to code for multiple GPU types.
The fact is, co-processors have been around since the early x86 CPUs. Not just math co-processors, but Intel used to cell i860 and i960 co-processor boards (some with multiple CPUs) for just this sort of thing.
I'd also suspect that if your GPU is being used for sorting or some other calculation intensive operation, it's less useful as a GPU. If you don't need the GPU as a GPU, but you need the computing power, I suspect spending the additional money on more CPU power instead, is going to have a bigger overall payoff since it's going to speed up every operation, not just the ones a GPU can be adapted to.
So, again, I don't really see the point. Really, if you need specialized co-processing, getting a FPGA board will probably be a much better use of your money since it can be customized for many more tasks than a GPU.
I guess in that two weeks of planning, and painting, you neglected to address the fact that submitting your story to Slashdot would bring your web site to a grinding halt.
Personally, I think the Independence Day beam was probably the most impressive in terms of the special effects of the explosion. Especially on the tall buildings, exploding several floors at at time as the beam penetrates down the building. Those were just amazing special effects.
Sure, the Death Star beam blows up a planet, and it was definitely an impressive beam, especially those shots inside the Death Star with the guys standing next to the beams.
I don't know. Maybe a tie for me. I definitely think the Independence Day beam should have been second mentioned. Certainly before the Crotch Laser in Goldfinger. Come on...
For the past few nights the moon has appeared larger than many people have seen it for almost 20 years. It is the world's largest optical illusion, and one of its most enduring mysteries.
What is this optical illusion everyone's talking about? The moon always look 3476 km wide to me.
Personally, from the perspective of someone who will be a parent before too long, I am seriously concerned. I'm very computer savvy but I wonder how I'm going to protect my kids from a lot of stuff on the internet (that is, when they're old enough to use a computer). For example, I've got nothing against pornography for adults, but pornography can cause children a great deal of confusion regarding relationships. I'm very concerned about keeping my children from getting access to hard core pornography before a certain age. And then of course there's the problem with pedophiles on the internet.
At the very least, I know I'll be able to monitor their internet usage, at least while they're at home, but it's virtually impossible to block everything you don't want them to access.
I would really like to see something done, but I don't trust the government to do it. I'd prefer some sort of improvement in the technology, but I don't even have the foggiest idea of how it can be accomplished. And I don't just mean technically speaking, I mean from an abstract idea of what kind of content, how to identify it (in an application indepdent way), and how to block it. I mean, it's just a mind bogglingly difficult issue to get around.
I can understand parents wanting the gov't to do something but not trusting the gov't at the same time. And maybe what I want isn't even possible. In which case, I'll have to stick to simply monitoring all the traffic over the router and trust that my kids don't become better hackers than me, and find a way around my monitoring.
I would never use Linux for a firewall - iptables is awful - poorly documented and has a terrible syntax that means you have to dive into random HOWTO docs on the internet to get anything done.
I have to disagree. I'm pretty weak on Linux related stuff, but this precisely what I use Linux for (other than as a simple file server with lots of hard drives). I found iptables to be fairly easy to work out once I understood the basics. There are tons of samples available around the internet for different types of firewall implementations with iptables. The documentation was extremely helpful, I thought.
But I can't compare it to OpenBSD and pf because I've never used either. But I've been using Linux primarily just as a firewall and file server for years and have found it to be completely reliable and easy to use.
I'm sure Dvorak is great and everything and I hope it helps people with CTS and whatever other wrist problems they might develop.
I already type about as fast I need to and when typing text (like this), I'm held up more by thinking about what I want to say than the keyboard.
I've been programming for 26 years (and obviously typing that long) and I've never had any wrist problems. I think part of that is because I never learned to type "correctly." I don't hold my hands in awkward positions and make sure they stay centered properly. I don't use certain fingers for certain keys. Whichever finger can get to the key most comfortable is the one that goes. For example, right now, I'm noticing that my right middle finger is doing more typing than any other (except the right thumb which is hitting the space bar), but when I shift my position or rotate my chair a bit, that'll all change.
I think what we need to advocate is that people stop taking typing classes and learning to put their hands in completely unnatural positions. Then it won't matter if you're using QWERTY, Dvorak, or whatever.
It's not like they're going to find anything anyway... I do care about the interference with other astronomical work, though. And as if there aren't cell phones in enough places, damn, the last thing I want is to be on a plane with 50 people talking on their cell phones.
Too bad those little personal cell phone jammers are illegal in the States. Otherwise I'd carry one around with me. I'm sick of people too busy talking on the phone to drive, or walking down the aisle of the supermarket asking some poor nitwit on the other end of the phone, "Should I buy the ice cream? It's only got 9 million calories. Oooh, trash bags are on sale."
Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to hear people talking on their cell phone anywhere, but especially not in a crowded airplane.
Is it just me? It kinda looks like the Outlook UI. So what, Apple copies it and it's revolutionary? Besides, I doubt we'll see the end of folders anytime soon.
First of all, I'll be the first to say, UI design in a lot of software, free, shareware, or otherwise, is atrocious. But, comparing it to building a house... That's just stupid.
Who builds shareware houses? You want to compare, at least compare commercial software, and in that case, commercial software that's not cheap. Otherwise, think about shanty towns for your homes and then start doing the comparison.
You get stuff cheap, you should expect to get what you pay for.
On top of which, Software Engineering is a misnomer. It's not engineering. It's not even a science. It's more an art at this point with some aspects of engineering and science.
Once we have automated tools that can verify a program as bug free (doubt that'll happen in my lifetime), then maybe it can become an engineering discipline.
With the assumption that your materials are within tolerances (and this can be determined for many), most engineering disciplines have very verifiable results. You can verify with mathematics that a bridge or building won't collapse, assuming your materials are verifiable. You can't do the equivalent with software.
The same goes for most other engineering disciplines. So the comparisons are invalid for a few reasons. But hey, I'm behind him on what he wants: Better UI design all around.
My manager was telling me yesterday about an resume he received from a UI designer. The resume was in 7pt type and my manager could barely read it.
Like another poster, I had problems with the "bummer dudes" and other informal statements in the paper. It does not strike me as terribly professional because of that and I think it will hurt how it's received.
On the other hand, I applaud anyone that will ignore political correctness in favor of scientific advance. Political correctness has its place. It's about being polite and there are places and times where it's good and necessary. But science should be blind to politeness. It's about finding facts, not what people "want" to find.
Not being PC doesn't mean being amoral either. Science shouldn't advance from amoral activities (in particular, I'm thinking of Nazi experiments on Jews during WWII), but again, it shouldn't have to stall in the face of polite society.
This is pretty stupid. The author of a work is the copyright owner in perpetuity unless they assign ownership to someone else. If there are multiple authors then the authors as a group own the copyright. This is the way copyright has always worked.
A work is technically, and legally, copyright upon creation by the author. You don't have to register something with the US Copyright Office for it to be protected. The point of registering with the Copyright Office is to provide an official registration so that if you are legally challenged, it's likely the first person to register is the owner. But it's nothing more than a measure of protection.
If I create a work and you register the copyright in your name, the burden of proof falls to me to prove that I created it first. But if I can do that, then legally I'm protected and you are not.
So putting your name on it does nothing for it. If you want to protect it, go to the Copyright Office web site, download the form, fill it out, and send it in with you $30. That's the best protection you can have.
Slashdot ran previous articles on StarBridge Systems and their Hypercomputers that are built on massive parallel FPGA processors. And their operating system/Programming Environment, Viva is not vaporware. I can't find a reference to it, but I'm fairly certain the French department of energy already purchased one for researching nuclear blast yields.
Despite the initial handwaving about having these on our desktops, I think it's going to be a while before that happens. Still, it's a very cool idea.
So we ought to just start arresting all smokers because they're probably terrorists.
Ah, thank God for the level-headed politicians in charge.
This is ridiculous. Sure, I can pick and choose open source projects and say, "They're not innovative." I can do the same of a billion commercial apps. Is Word innovative? It depends how you define innovative. Is Linux innovative? Again, it depends how you define it.
There are truely innovative apps that began as open source. But there are also a lot that have been created specifically to provide an alternative to commercial equivalents. Every new application is not meant to be about innovation. It's meant to fill a need. Clearly open source fills a need, otherwise it wouldn't exist.
This guy's an idiot.
I have an account with Wachovia. About 6 months ago, I started putting rather significant sums in it. Enough that were the account to get robbed, I'd be seriously upset. What concerned me at the time was that I had used my check card for online transactions, though.
The thought that someone could wipe me out financially by cracking an online system got me worried enough that I opened a checking account at a local bank where I now keep a majority of my funds. I move enough into the Wachovia account for paying bills and stuff that are connected to it, but there's never enough in there to completely wipe me out anymore.
And obviously, with the new bank, I won't be using the check card online. It looks like mine wasn't affected and it doesn't look like the account info was being used for robbery, I still feel more secure with the new account.
Episode 3 is breaking records for how much money it's already made. Boy, I can really see how BitTorrent is just screwing the movie industry. Just how it screwed Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi. What a bunch of whining chumps.
I'm already a certified space cadet. Do I get a discount?
people come out to say "thank gosh it was...
I know nobody that says "thank gosh!" Who is gosh and why would you thank him/her/it?
I think MS thinks if they say it enough, it'll happen. It's like they live in some alternate universe where what they want to happen will simply come to pass.
They really need to cut down on the crack.
Isn't honeymonkey a dish in Africa?
I have to say, the browser tabs were the main feature that got me to switch to Firefox as my primary browser. Not that I'll switch back now that IE will have them. I've grown very accustomed to some of the other features of FireFox that IE still doesn't have, so I'm staying with it.
On the other hand, there are certain things I have to use IE for and at least those will be slightly less onerous tasks now that it will have tabs. So I'm happy it's finally happening.
Whoever described doctors as "techs" was right on. Anyone who isn't actively involved in their own treatment is being absoutely careless. I decided this years ago, but it came crashing home when I got misdiagnosed by 3 doctors who said I had asthma based on very sketchy evidence. I was promptly put on a steroid inhaler for daily treatment and an albuterol inhaler for emergencies.
Now, the reason I went to 3 other doctors (the 4th being the one who correctly diagnosed my problem), is that the albuterol (a stimulant that opens the airways) was making my attacks WORSE, not better. But the second and third doctor said it was all in my head and to stick with it.
It turns out I was actually having panic attacks. So the last thing I really needed was to be sending a stimulant directly into my lungs which is just shy of injecting one right into your veins. I actually stopped taking the albuterol shortly after the second idiot doctor and just kept going back saying the same thing until I finally got a doctor who was willing to actually check if I really had asthma.
Now this is just a single example, but it's also not the first misdiagnosis I've had. I've been prescribed antibiotics for flu. I've been told I had food poisoning when I didn't.
There are some good doctors out there. There are a number of really, really, bad doctors out there. And most doctors, good or bad, are rarely willing to take the time to really investigate their patients' problems these days. You simply can't count on doctors to do the homework on your condition. Someone should be doing the homework. The doctor can run tests, but what if they're not running the right tests? You need to do at least some homework and be willing to make suggestions to your doctor. And if that bugs your doctor, find a new one.
I know we can't all get medical degrees and it should be the doctors' job to figure all this crap out, but the fact is with HMOs and the like, doctors aren't doing their jobs. They're working on a factory line and getting through as many patients as they can as quickly as they can.
We need the market to change to make trading TV shows, movies, and music legal. This article yesterday is a perfect example of tackling the problem from the right direction.
Just trying to hide it will only invite further problems and frankly, the idea of being unable to avoid contributing to the spreading of child pornography bothers me a lot more than the MPAA and RIAA going after people illegally trading copyrighted material.
What we need is for the RIAA, MPAA, or some organization(s) that will eventually supplant them to find a financially viable market in open, distributed file sharing. A solution that makes everyone happy and doesn't contribute to child pornography.
I am convinced that this is possible. If the MPAA and RIAA can't figure out a way to make money doing it, someone else will and the MPAA and RIAA will eventually die off. Evolution: Adapt or die off. Wasn't there an article on that over the weekend as well?