Ever the cynic, the first thing I did when I read this was shake my head at yet another urban myth and then set out to educate myself (yeah, I know, even though this *is*/.). Lo and behold, what do I find but report after report (mostly peer-reviewed) of the allergic reactions that have been reported from cochineal extract. (Here's just one of several I pulled up.)
And yes, it is in fact made from crushed female beetles. I suppose that part doesn't bother me as much as industry trying to hide the fact from consumers. (Remember all those Consumer Reports articles about insect parts and droppings in your canned food, like tuna and what not? Now it's legitimate!)
I know several people who've been abused through Craigslist -- unfortunately it just proves too tempting an environment for assholes. One friend had his garage pretty much cleaned out (bikes, tools, etc) from a posting on Craigslist saying he was moving and was offering it all free to people who would pick it up.
Sorry to be pendactic here, but I don't believe your friend was "abused through Craigslist." Instead, he was abused by the lowlife thieves that stole his property.
This isn't a Craigslist problem. This is a social problem. Every one of those individuals that ripped off your friend should have been prosecuted for theft.
...because my master's thesis, back in 1996, was using neural nets with a fuzzy logic component to identify surface features on Landsat satellite imagery. The algorithm I came up with was even scale invariant.
Guess I should have published and patented...damn...there goes any feelings of validation...
I would hope, for your financial sake and well-being, that you are at least releasing this software as a corporate entity. The legal liabilities are simply enormous (yes, I know all about the warranty disclaimers in the GPL...they in no way prevent legal action from being taken).
Along the way, if you are releasing the software under the guise of your corporate entity, wouldn't you now be in a better position to negotiate with the IRS for access to the eFile API?
Actually, it's been my experience that many are still in the dark ages when it comes to OSS. Imagine one of the 5 largest community college districts in the country still pushing proprietary (and patented!) online education at the tune of millions of dollars a year in taxpayer money. Four-years are no different (ever try to find a LyX layout/LaTeX class for a disseration? La-what?)
I've presented at several regional (Texas) conferences on various aspects of OSS in higher ed, and have talked to many, many people affiliated with higher education. I'm sorry, but I've never gotten the idea that OSS is in "heavy use" in Texas colleges. I'm sure there are "pockets of resistance," but by and large, Texas colleges are very much in bed with proprietary software vendors.
Unfortunately, it's in the form of a recommendation, but it's better than nothing. In a nutshell, it directs Texas state agencies and higher education institutions to consider OSS for all IT procurements. I believe it was originally the brainchild of a Dallas-area senator named John Corona.
I referenced it quite often while pushing for OSS-based IT implementation at the college I was teaching at...most administrators were ignorant that this even existed.
Hmm...I'm smart enough to put together a MythTV box (that works), but dumb enough not to be able to figure out why I'd need this piece of hardware after...well, building a Myth box!
$750? Let's see...a PVR-350 off eBay cost me $150 (with the remote)...threw together a cheapo computer for under $200. I guess I'm just not clear on the concept of why I'd need a DVR for...my DVR!
It seems irresponsible to me that UVa would have allowed a student -- any student -- to take 37 credit hours in one semester (as the article states). I graduated with 144 CH required for my major (petroleum engineering), and we were limited by the college to 21 CH/semester. I took one 19CH semester and regretted every second of it.
It seems to me this was more of a publicity stunt on the part of UVa that really wasn't in the best interest of the student. Personally, I'd think twice before sending my own kids there...
"The very brief net neutrality description used by the pollsters is somewhat misleading insofar as it suggests that net neutrality would bar Internet Service Providers from selling faster service than is available today."
Well, not to take sides here, but that is exactly how S.2917 proposes net neutrality should be defined: A prohibition against offering tiered Internet services.
The problem here is that there is no one definition of "net neutrality" that is accepted by either side of the issue. Spin is put on the definition depending upon one's perspective. Given the context of this one specific bill, the poll question as stated is not misleading.
To argue that this poll (or any other) is biased is futile, unless both sides agree to the rules of the game.
What a timely article...just finished a lecture with my class where we talked about net neutrality and how a tiered Internet system would most likely result in "haves" and "have nots" based upon the ability and willingness to pay. When I asked my class of 25 how many had ever heard of "net neutrality," not a single hand went up.
In my view the problem with vi as a universal editor is that the rules for leaving insert mode are *not* universal. Under OpenBSD 2.6, almost any use of the arrow keys breaks you out of insert mode. Other versions of vi will leave you in insert mode within some nearby region of the inserted text region, but break you out if you move further away.
Well, therein lies your problem -- those nasty arrow keys! Banish them from your repertoire of vi commands, and all will be right with your world.
I've got TWO legal copies of XP for my current PC. The first was delivered with the PC, but not in the language I preferred. So I bought a second copy.
And we all continue to lament the fact that WGA is "acceptable" to the community despite its invasiveness. Gee, any wonder?
Funny, my experience was just the opposite: Several hours with Knoppmyth, and nothing to show for it (it's almost like a striptease, working with Knoppmyth: You get so close to the goods, but when you actually reach for them, they're no longer there!)
MythTV on Ubuntu took a goodly number of hours to set up, but once it was done, I had the real goods...
I was in a Circuit City the other day, casual browsing, and they had a plasma, LCD and DLP display set up, side by side. I didn't have any fancy measuring equipment with me at the time, but without a doubt, the DLP television was far sharper than either of the others (all three were made by the same manufacturer). To me, it wasn't even a contest: Had I money in pocket at that moment, I would have sprung for the DLP TV, hands down. The plasma and LCD displays weren't even close in terms of clarity and brightness.
Last year I spoke with a group from Sun's Santa Clara offices at the OSBC East conference in Boston, and asked them about Sun's open source efforts. After drawing blank stares, and a bit of hemming and hawing after requesting that they actually call someone ("Umm...give us a card and we'll get back to you"), they finally relented and made a few phone calls. Got the name of someone in Austin. Came back to Texas, and to this day I've never heard back from said individual, despite several attempts to contact him. (I'm truly confounded as to why Sun would show up at an open source conference, only to disavow their open sourcedness.)
Sun appears to treat its OSS efforts as some sort of "dirty little secret," so much lip service paid to the OSS community so we'll just go away and stop hounding them. At this point, I don't believe Sun is sincere about OSS, at least from a corporate standpoint. IBM's position appears to be completely justified.
They pinched the best bits of everybody else's sites (Craigslist, Evite, MP3.com)
Comparing myspace to craigslist is a travesty of the highest order. Myspace has done to the Internet what AOL did to cyberspace many years ago: Provided the keys to the kingdom to the lowest common denominator in terms of technical savvy. Luckily, the mindless damage caused by myspace is restricted largely to myspace.com.
If a software license is irrevocable, and the author simply walks away from it, how does the software then get "deleted"? Let's say I'm an OSS author, and I get sued. I disavow any further connection with the software that's being challenged. What then?
Bravo to the ACLU for taking this on. Unfortunately, their actions will be minimalized over the government's assertion that this technology will catch more terrorists. And before you know it, you'll be submitting to brain scans during your next employment interview, or police interrogation.
What kind of signatures? What kind of diagnostics? What the hell, exactly, is this article about?
And no, I'm not going to RTFA...if the submitter isn't articulate enough to succinctly describe what it is he or she is submitting, I'm not going to waste my time following the link.
Instead, I'm going to waste my time writing inane comments such as this...
...why it is that whenever I log into PayPal, the number of PayPal-phishing e-mails suddenly increases over the next few minutes? It's as if something is monitoring traffic destined for PayPal (a compromised router, perhaps?) and is automatically triggering phishing e-mails to the originating IP.
I can't say I feel much sympathy for the BofA folks in the article...if they don't have the backbone to say "no," then they are simply condoning what BofA is doing. I'm not saying it's right, but please take your whine somewhere else. I would bet not a single one of them is a member of the Programmer's Guild or any other organization that has been trying to address this very issue for years.
You lay in the bed you make. Don't come whining because you don't have the balls to stand up to shit like this. Suck it up and move on. Or consider becoming proactive about the problem, joining a guild, pushing for a union, or contacting your congressmen. But please don't whine about the problem you've made for yourselves.
Slashdot Mirror
Ever the cynic, the first thing I did when I read this was shake my head at yet another urban myth and then set out to educate myself (yeah, I know, even though this *is* /.). Lo and behold, what do I find but report after report (mostly peer-reviewed) of the allergic reactions that have been reported from cochineal extract. (Here's just one of several I pulled up.)
And yes, it is in fact made from crushed female beetles. I suppose that part doesn't bother me as much as industry trying to hide the fact from consumers. (Remember all those Consumer Reports articles about insect parts and droppings in your canned food, like tuna and what not? Now it's legitimate!)
Well, almost as stupid as
set alias rm='rm -i'
(But not quite)
I know several people who've been abused through Craigslist -- unfortunately it just proves too tempting an environment for assholes. One friend had his garage pretty much cleaned out (bikes, tools, etc) from a posting on Craigslist saying he was moving and was offering it all free to people who would pick it up.
Sorry to be pendactic here, but I don't believe your friend was "abused through Craigslist." Instead, he was abused by the lowlife thieves that stole his property.
This isn't a Craigslist problem. This is a social problem. Every one of those individuals that ripped off your friend should have been prosecuted for theft.
...because my master's thesis, back in 1996, was using neural nets with a fuzzy logic component to identify surface features on Landsat satellite imagery. The algorithm I came up with was even scale invariant.
Guess I should have published and patented...damn...there goes any feelings of validation...
I would hope, for your financial sake and well-being, that you are at least releasing this software as a corporate entity. The legal liabilities are simply enormous (yes, I know all about the warranty disclaimers in the GPL...they in no way prevent legal action from being taken).
Along the way, if you are releasing the software under the guise of your corporate entity, wouldn't you now be in a better position to negotiate with the IRS for access to the eFile API?
Give me a break. In the states, it's called "filming an assault." Why attach a cutesy-poo name to an otherwise illegal activity?
Actually, it's been my experience that many are still in the dark ages when it comes to OSS. Imagine one of the 5 largest community college districts in the country still pushing proprietary (and patented!) online education at the tune of millions of dollars a year in taxpayer money. Four-years are no different (ever try to find a LyX layout/LaTeX class for a disseration? La-what?)
I've presented at several regional (Texas) conferences on various aspects of OSS in higher ed, and have talked to many, many people affiliated with higher education. I'm sorry, but I've never gotten the idea that OSS is in "heavy use" in Texas colleges. I'm sure there are "pockets of resistance," but by and large, Texas colleges are very much in bed with proprietary software vendors.
Unfortunately, it's in the form of a recommendation, but it's better than nothing. In a nutshell, it directs Texas state agencies and higher education institutions to consider OSS for all IT procurements. I believe it was originally the brainchild of a Dallas-area senator named John Corona.
I referenced it quite often while pushing for OSS-based IT implementation at the college I was teaching at...most administrators were ignorant that this even existed.
Hmm...I'm smart enough to put together a MythTV box (that works), but dumb enough not to be able to figure out why I'd need this piece of hardware after...well, building a Myth box!
$750? Let's see...a PVR-350 off eBay cost me $150 (with the remote)...threw together a cheapo computer for under $200. I guess I'm just not clear on the concept of why I'd need a DVR for...my DVR!
It seems irresponsible to me that UVa would have allowed a student -- any student -- to take 37 credit hours in one semester (as the article states). I graduated with 144 CH required for my major (petroleum engineering), and we were limited by the college to 21 CH/semester. I took one 19CH semester and regretted every second of it.
It seems to me this was more of a publicity stunt on the part of UVa that really wasn't in the best interest of the student. Personally, I'd think twice before sending my own kids there...
When speed of access is tied to cost of access, ability to access will also be affected.
Well, not to take sides here, but that is exactly how S.2917 proposes net neutrality should be defined: A prohibition against offering tiered Internet services.
The problem here is that there is no one definition of "net neutrality" that is accepted by either side of the issue. Spin is put on the definition depending upon one's perspective. Given the context of this one specific bill, the poll question as stated is not misleading.
To argue that this poll (or any other) is biased is futile, unless both sides agree to the rules of the game.
What a timely article...just finished a lecture with my class where we talked about net neutrality and how a tiered Internet system would most likely result in "haves" and "have nots" based upon the ability and willingness to pay. When I asked my class of 25 how many had ever heard of "net neutrality," not a single hand went up.
Typical. They had never heard of ICANN, either.
Well, therein lies your problem -- those nasty arrow keys! Banish them from your repertoire of vi commands, and all will be right with your world.
And we all continue to lament the fact that WGA is "acceptable" to the community despite its invasiveness. Gee, any wonder?
Make your bed, sleep in it.
Funny, my experience was just the opposite: Several hours with Knoppmyth, and nothing to show for it (it's almost like a striptease, working with Knoppmyth: You get so close to the goods, but when you actually reach for them, they're no longer there!)
MythTV on Ubuntu took a goodly number of hours to set up, but once it was done, I had the real goods...
I was in a Circuit City the other day, casual browsing, and they had a plasma, LCD and DLP display set up, side by side. I didn't have any fancy measuring equipment with me at the time, but without a doubt, the DLP television was far sharper than either of the others (all three were made by the same manufacturer). To me, it wasn't even a contest: Had I money in pocket at that moment, I would have sprung for the DLP TV, hands down. The plasma and LCD displays weren't even close in terms of clarity and brightness.
Last year I spoke with a group from Sun's Santa Clara offices at the OSBC East conference in Boston, and asked them about Sun's open source efforts. After drawing blank stares, and a bit of hemming and hawing after requesting that they actually call someone ("Umm...give us a card and we'll get back to you"), they finally relented and made a few phone calls. Got the name of someone in Austin. Came back to Texas, and to this day I've never heard back from said individual, despite several attempts to contact him. (I'm truly confounded as to why Sun would show up at an open source conference, only to disavow their open sourcedness.)
Sun appears to treat its OSS efforts as some sort of "dirty little secret," so much lip service paid to the OSS community so we'll just go away and stop hounding them. At this point, I don't believe Sun is sincere about OSS, at least from a corporate standpoint. IBM's position appears to be completely justified.
--A.A. Milne,
Comparing myspace to craigslist is a travesty of the highest order. Myspace has done to the Internet what AOL did to cyberspace many years ago: Provided the keys to the kingdom to the lowest common denominator in terms of technical savvy. Luckily, the mindless damage caused by myspace is restricted largely to myspace.com.
If a software license is irrevocable, and the author simply walks away from it, how does the software then get "deleted"? Let's say I'm an OSS author, and I get sued. I disavow any further connection with the software that's being challenged. What then?
So are polygraph tests, yet these are routinely used in a "forensic" capacity.
Since when has the unsuitability of polygraphs for forensic use ever stopped the government from using such technology to their own purposes?
Bravo to the ACLU for taking this on. Unfortunately, their actions will be minimalized over the government's assertion that this technology will catch more terrorists. And before you know it, you'll be submitting to brain scans during your next employment interview, or police interrogation.
What kind of signatures? What kind of diagnostics? What the hell, exactly, is this article about?
And no, I'm not going to RTFA...if the submitter isn't articulate enough to succinctly describe what it is he or she is submitting, I'm not going to waste my time following the link.
Instead, I'm going to waste my time writing inane comments such as this...
...why it is that whenever I log into PayPal, the number of PayPal-phishing e-mails suddenly increases over the next few minutes? It's as if something is monitoring traffic destined for PayPal (a compromised router, perhaps?) and is automatically triggering phishing e-mails to the originating IP.
Has anyone else seen this?
I can't say I feel much sympathy for the BofA folks in the article...if they don't have the backbone to say "no," then they are simply condoning what BofA is doing. I'm not saying it's right, but please take your whine somewhere else. I would bet not a single one of them is a member of the Programmer's Guild or any other organization that has been trying to address this very issue for years.
You lay in the bed you make. Don't come whining because you don't have the balls to stand up to shit like this. Suck it up and move on. Or consider becoming proactive about the problem, joining a guild, pushing for a union, or contacting your congressmen. But please don't whine about the problem you've made for yourselves.