I don't really use Windows much and haven't for a while but, and this is just an idea, maybe if they did - you know - actually opt in then they'd get the patches applicable to their unique user machine instead of generic patches or the same patches that everyone gets? I have no idea how this works, I really don't. I used to be a pretty avid user but I got bored.
They're all going back to Windows within 6 months anyhow. This happens every time there's an upgrade to Windows. I've learned to just ignore it, mostly. I had an update today. I don't even remember what it was. I kind of doubt it broke anything or changed any of my settings.
I dimly recall another documentary about fake antiquities, biblical in nature, coming out of the same area as the box did in your Wikipedia link. I seem to recall that there was some investigation into a master forger who was pushing works out through unsuspecting dealers? One item was a box (I'm not sure if that's the same one) but there were more of them that were being questioned. I think the conclusion was that they did not really know but there were some pretty big indicators that they *might* have been forged. I think, in the documentary, someone went to prison for a long time (they take this stuff serious it seems) but it was for different charges?
I really should start trying to remember the names of all these documentaries. *sighs* The thing is that I watch them for light learning and amusement and not as a rigorous study or anything so I tend to forget all the names, details, etc... It probably doesn't help that I used to drink a great deal and watched many of them while I was drunk.
Thanks for the links. I may return with more questions - I'm off to read the first two links.
This appears to be absolutely true. I think it's likely due to being able to take greater risks and not worry about it and so you get bigger returned. Well, if I had to guess that's what I'd guess.
LOL I've never read the book but I would expect they're quite a fruitcake by now. I can not prove it but I strongly suspect that I have been influenced from all the hallucinogens I've consumed. My brain often works in odd ways and I follow some rather strange thoughts to non-obvious conclusions. It has its benefits and I don't think I'd be like this otherwise but, at the same time, I have some strange memory issues. I can remember stuff just fine but I have to make a conscious effort to remember them.
If I read a book I'll have forgotten the title and author just a few days later - yet I can recount specific passages pretty much verbatim because they were interesting and I decided to hold on to that. Then, say a movie, I'll have completely forgotten the majority of the movie but I'll remember what I ate during the movie, who I was with, and I might even remember the date and time. On the other hand, if you ask what I ate yesterday I may have to pause and think about it before responding.
I'd not say that they're necessarily harmful but I'd say that abuse can be harmful or have strange effects on you or at least that's my experience and what others have shared with me. I think moderation is key if one is going to opt to use them. I can't say one is better than the other but I'd probably suggest staying away from the research chemicals.
Finally, I don't think there's such a thing as a bad trip - they're just more interesting. Once you get on the ride you can't get off so go into it with that mindset and I've not seen anyone do more than freak for a little while though I am usually happiest when I trip alone or with just a few other people.
Do you know anything more about what to search for if I'm curious about the scraping process? I'm assuming this must be hide based.
As for your forgery story - I recall something very similar or perhaps the same story. I seem to recall that they were supposedly stealing the paper from old manuscripts at a library or private book collection but nobody figured out how they made the ink? If that's the same story then I'm vaguely familiar with it. I think it involved a monastery in Germany or some such.
I'm not sure how they'd go about testing just the ink without destroying the document. I guess, if it's on some hide (I still haven't read the article or looked into it deeply except to skim a link someone posted) then maybe they could separate a small amount from the hide assuming it hasn't been bound with the hide entirely but I'm not sure how accurate that could even be. That and, well, from what I've seen they seem to require quite a bit of material to do carbon testing.
It will be interesting to see where this goes. I'm guessing that this is a popular subject and will get some attention. I'm not sure how there can be more testing though - at least not the ink in and of itself and without destroying the document. Maybe there's some spillage in an unused section and they can remove that for testing?
Also, I think your memory is correct. The scholars seemed to think (again, a documentary or two on Islam) that the Koran was written not long after his death but not while he was alive. Your mention of a generation seems likely and I think the scholars had mentioned him living to be in his mid-60s.
There's a company that does this in rural Maine, neat looking receivers but I've not done any investigation. They did not provision my area when I paid ComTel to run the lines, add a CO, and hook myself (and a few others on the route and one beyond my home) with DSL. It was expensive but I believe I got a fair price. The speed is good enough (I'm slated for 10 but average 13 Mb/sec) and my neighbor chipped in to get the last mile done to his house though he would have been able to get the service anyhow even if he hadn't paid.
What's even more impressive is that I started at 5 and have steadily increased though I've never had to pay more for my service and I have three separate connections - each with a static IP address that seemingly only gets cycled when I call and ask them to change it. It's owned by Fairpoint now but they've done a decent job up here, so far. They also have a strange habit of sending me new routers on a regular basis. I'm not sure why.
Yup. If what I've read is correct then that's the reason. There are fewer hops but the overall throughput is less. This does not matter much because the overall traffic volume, while frequent, is not a great deal at once. I read an article that went into this pretty deep and explained HFT a bit while they were at it. I don't remember the name of the article but I think it was either Business Insider or Wired??? It may have been WSJ I guess but I don't think it was actually.
Ah well, the information is out there. I guess the folks provisioning these are making decent money but I'd not want to be a tech there if there's an outage. I wonder what the SLAs are and the penalties are?
I think there was an article about someone researching and doing point-to-point networking with a laser which is, I suppose, wireless but I don't think the research went anywhere and I don't think it is really a good answer to the question. Then again, this is Slashdot... Do we give good answers here?
There was just a vulnerability reported not long ago on Slashdot and another one was just a few weeks before that as I recall. Is there an uptick in crappy code or is there just more eyeballs on routers now than there used to be?
I assume it was an unintentional effort and not some great effort to insult Islam - that was mostly where I was going with it. Even if the date's aren't exact there's no real difference in the story because they were careful to include the weasel words of "may predate." I'd say it is clickbait-y but probably not an active cabal of people who are attempting to slight a particular religious group.
I probably should have been more clear but, yeah... I doubt it's more than an attempt to get clicks and not some giant conspiracy to insult Islam. I could be mistaken but I'm really a fan of Occam's Razor and it doesn't really seem like/. would be motivated to insult Islam as a general rule. I'd expect they're motivated by greed more than they are likely to be motivated by theology.
Find something you're passionate about and tackle it in your spare time. Then, as it grows, expand your hours until you are in a position to take the risks and go at it alone or with a partner. A lot of the investors are not just the jackasses in VC firms looking to cash out or get control of the assets. "Silent" business partners are not entirely uncommon though they're not the easiest to find.
I think the key is to remember that every hour you're working at your real job is an hour that you're spending enriching someone else. I think single-proprietor and small businesses are the way of the future and I expect there to be an expansion of them in number. This seems to be something we're reverting to like the days of yore when we had a farmer, grocer, blacksmith, miller, etc... It's much like we're reverting to dumb terminals with our compute devices.
Not too long ago I found someone online who had an interesting plan. They are doing urban farming with closed water systems and growing both fish and "organic" food for market. I've mentioned that they should also consider keeping records of what they've done and how they've done it so that they can, eventually, consider franchising it. I have not told them specifically (I don't want to be anything other than a motivator in this case at this time) but if they manage to do get this off the ground - even a little, if they have a decent business plan, and if they have an expansion plan that covers something akin to the franchising option then, by all means, I'd buy a stake in their company and provide the business with low interest capital for expansion purposes. Absolutely...
I think, and this is just my opinion and it is shared by a few folks that I have spoken with on the subject, much of what is looked for (at the personal level - ignore the VC firms if you can) is passionate people with good business sense and an actionable and articulate plan. There's a risk but one can show where that risk is mitigated and how well one has researched the risks and how to approach them as cautiously as possible. Of course, one can not always be cautious.
So, again, if there's something you're passionate about and you're willing to work hard then you may find there are people interested. What is looked for is, often, people who've already got the business started. For example, don't come to me with an idea. Approach me with an idea that you've already thought about AND have started on - show me how you plan on making your idea a reality and why that can be profitable. Businesses started in spare time have huge growth potential and a lot of smaller businesses are a safer bet than investing in one giant business that demands a greater investment. On top of that, well, you have a greater chance at impacting good people by investing in small companies.
An example might be a friend of mine who had a single franchise coffee shop (their initials are D.D. but I don't want to promote them or anything) and he had several good locations to act on as well as one existing location (and a Subway). He came to me for help and offered me the chance to invest. He articulated his plan well, had done his research, and had a history of success but not at the level he needed to in order to expand like he wanted to.
Was my investing risky? Absolutely. However, that's a known and I happily threw a goodly sum at him. Instead of the five year plan my money was repaid in a little over two years. Today I still make 20% of his continued profits. I'd have been a fool to not have invested in him. He's currently looking into selling the Subway (he has a standing offer that is exceptional for a Subway in Farmington, Maine) and wanting to expand into a few other areas as well as increasing his coffee shop empire.
A key point was that we kept it strictly professional. I have no controlling interest and he can buy me out at any time for a pre-arranged figure (20% of the total value of the properties plus the existing properties - if he sells the Subway, for example, I get 20% of
That's an interesting use for it. I've not had GRUB not work in a very long time - I recall it breaking once when I'd been dual booting Linux and XP. I can't actually remember any other issues with it and that happened after an update? On the other mitt, I've had LILO flake a few more times. I seem to recall it trashing my MBR bad enough that an MBR repair did not work and I had issues re-installing on any partition and was forced to actually reformat the drive - I think I may have even had to do a low-level format with the OEM tools but I really don't remember it well enough to swear to it.
With its development ending, if you don't mind my asking, what are your plans? It's a boot loader so there really isn't much need to worry about immediate updates - I shouldn't think. Do you code well enough to maintain it for your own use? If so will you be making those changes public? Like any project that was big (I seem to recall LILO predating GRUB) and has lost interest this can be a problem that does have a real world impact. It's a smaller impact than, say, GRUB deciding it's time to quit.
Did you contribute to the project at all - financially or code? This is not a holier-than-thou thing but I figure I'll mention it. If I find an application that makes my life simpler then I'll often look for the developer's site so that I can send them an email of thanks and/or a donation. My last one was deciding that I'll send a donation to the makers of boot-repair every time I use their tool. Unfortunately, I've not yet had to use it since I made that choice so I've not contacted the devs yet but I did find and bookmark their actual site and not the Ubuntu site. I figure a $10 donation each time I have to use it will be more than fair.
Anyhow, I don't keep track or anything but I'd guess that I spend a few hundred each year just sending out small donations to developers who make stuff that I use. Even trying to find a bug (yeah, I get bored) can help them out though I try to reproduce and document any bugs that I find and plan on reporting. I imagine that they're grateful just to get a sincere email thanking them - note I did not read the article to see why they have chosen to shut the project down.
Finally, keep the project alive if it's something you need. I don't imagine there's a whole lot of updating that you'd have to do - it's probably a pretty solid application after all these years and I doubt there is much to maintain about it. Have you grabbed the source so that you can work on it if you need to? While I don't use it there are a lot of people who do so I'll grab a copy of it as well and just store it locally until it's needed or until the storage media is no longer workable.
They mention they want people to contact them if they're interested in developing the project further - at least that's what the summary says. Give 'em a shout and see where it goes from there. It would probably be pretty low-level work to maintain it. Maybe some company will pick it up to further the community or to protect it? Maybe someone like Oracle will grab it (for better or worse) and put a dev on it when it needs attention? If you use it for a work-related task then you might be able to present a decent case to have your place of employment actually pay you to maintain it - the publicity would be good for them and it's probably not a whole lot of work to keep the project up to date.
Obviously this is not my field of expertise. But there are some ideas for you if you're interested.
Honestly, I am not sure what I'd have done in their shoes? I am not a fan of suppressing findings or anything but my welfare is reasonably important to me. I'd likely publish my findings and just be more aware of my surroundings should there be an uproar.
I've also thought about this a bit more...
If they were to harm the researchers then it would be interpreted as saying that the facts they claimed were accurate and the religion needed protection. Or, as you mention, they could say that is is just punishment for them being infidels and causing trouble. The former might make people question them? So, maybe - just maybe, they'll opt to simply decry it as false and not attempt an act of retribution. I suspect they could get away with both and I don't have a lot of faith that rational thinkers will prevail.
The Koran was written after Mohammad died. There's probably not much chance, at all, that he was alive while the animal was alive IF we assume that the carbon dating was accurate considering he is believed to have lived until his 60s if I recall the documentary correctly.
My understanding is that karma has effects in this life, as well. I have no beliefs that it continues after life has ended though many do think that it does. However, there are lots of instances of otherwise bad people having good things happen to them but we're not really meant to understand it deeply as far as I have been taught. Then again, it's not like there's an entirely monolithic belief system with Buddhism - you can (and are encouraged to) find your own path - depending on which school one studies.
Nice and thank you for the information. I had no idea it was in the spec, or at least partially. A nice handy GUI for it that one can optionally load would be nifty too. Is the EFI available in user-land so that one could develop a GUI for it? Heck, it needn't even be GUI - just a menu would work as well as some ability to customize it to select a default, have a set wait time, etc...
No but I suspect it can be a cultural thing and, unfortunately, it appears that it is not. For a culture with such a rich history of knowledge acquisition and creation it is a bit sad that they've forsaken those traditions. Even a lot of literature was preserved by the Arabic peoples who translated it to Arabic which preserved it to be translated into new languages today. From math to chemistry, we owe a lot of our knowledge to them.
While Europe was wallowing in feces and actively suppressing critical thinking the Arabic peoples were bathing and advancing human knowledge significantly. Yet, today, the cultural roles seem to be reversed. The people who are in a position of power seem hell bent on draconian authoritarian repressive theological regimes. As an outsider looking in this appears to not be a very good situation for anyone who's not in a position of power.
I certainly agree with and support the idea of religious freedoms but when those beliefs are manifest in ways that are harmful then they really should reconsider their tyrannical ideals. That is rather unlikely. I suspect there's a group, or multiple individuals, who are simply using freedom as a way to justify exploitation and control of others.
Yeah, it was a bit tough to touch on all the subjects I wanted to mention and there was no way I could really be deep with any of them because of the length and readability reasons. I am not a writer. I probably could have written it in PERL and had it shorter and more readable.
Anyhow, to comment on your reply, I am not sure how to have a meaningful long-term relationship really. Well, no... I'm sure of how to do it but the trouble is getting to the long-term part. I am not sure how to achieve that. I currently have two lady friends that I am intimate with who know the situation and accept it and don't actually seek a committed relationship.
I am definitely not sure how to say this...
They are not prostitutes or anything but I choose to financially support them in part as a gift. I do not do so because they sleep with me. I do so because they are enabled more with the help. It would be tough to gift anonymously in this sort of situation and I think I'd decline to pay if they directly asked for money. I do frequently give them gifts (sometimes cash) because it helps them and it is something I can afford to do - again, it's not as a payment for services rendered or anything.
This is awkward to explain. Hmm... I guess I'd potentially give them cash if they asked but it's too complex to give list the variables. An example might be that one mentioned that she was having issues with her vehicle and asked if I was willing to loan her the money to get it repaired (Was it hinting, asking, or merely conversation? I can never be certain.) and that was an issue that I was able to resolve for her quickly and easily.
I'd say we have loving relationships. The two know each other and have been in the same room at the same time and are completely aware of the situation. I don't think that either of them prefer it but they seem inclined to be okay with it and have stated that they are happy. One of them lived here in the house with me for a while and they've both gone off on extended vacations with me in the past. No, not at the same time... Strangely, that's not as much fun as one might think and neither of these two seem to be "into" that sort of thing.
I don't pay their way through life or anything. They both have jobs and whatnot. I have the house that was here on the land when I bought it so I could easily afford to put them both up here but I imagine that would just lead to conflict. They may be friendly to one another now but I'd expect some conflicts if it were long-term. I'd "settle" for one but I have a poor history at being faithful and do not want to harm anyone - some of the issues are my own personal failings and others are monetary. I guess that's accurate.
Can I make a long-term relationship work? Well, these days it's possible to sue for "palimony" (strangely enough - spell check recognizes that as a word). I could almost certainly get a legally binding contract written up to protect my assets I suppose. Hell, I'd be fine even if I lost a bunch in a lawsuit. I just don't want the hassle, the risk, or having that much baggage when the inevitable breakup occurs.
With my ex-wife, even though the divorce was a long time before I sold my business, I still felt obligated to give her a chunk of money after the business sold and I was actually able to access the money. She'd helped me create the business, in some ways, by enabling me and encouraging me to take the risks and try the route I did take. If I'd not been sexing secretaries or other random women we'd likely be together still.
Then, we have the really awkward situation of proposing that contract or a prenuptial agreement. While they're more acceptable today they are basically saying that I don't believe the relationship will last and that I think they're a money grubbing whore. I'm not really sure how to put that in a light manner that will be honest. It's not like I can say that I'm interested in protecting them...
So, it's possible but I can't think of a way to make it probable. I could expand my horizons
I've pondered if there should be an open standard and just having a boot loader embedded in the BIOS that can be changed to boot to different partitions, disks, networked drives, etc... It could even allow you to setup a boot menu to select your OS of choice. In my mind it's the perfect spot to put it and I've yet to find a GOOD reason for this to not be the case.
A simple pointer, or pointers for those who multi-boot, and an optional menu would be fairly trivial and it's not like it makes a giant security hole that I can think of. I can already select a boot device, why not make it partitions, network, etc? I've been wondering why it's not in the BIOS for years. I really can't think of a reason for it not to be and stripping the function as a requirement for the OS would make things much simpler in my opinion.
I'm frequently opting to boot from a USB drive or a CD drive (while not wanting to change the default orders) as it is so I'm already using a menu to do that. It seems like it would be fairly trivial to make it recognize partitions and throw a simple menu up on the screen. They could still have an additional boot loader for things that need it or those who wish to customize it but they'd not need to and I'd think it would make things much simpler.
Yes, yes I have been pondering this for a while. No, no I can't really think of any drawbacks or anything that makes it painfully difficult - even if it doesn't read partitions and only works with separate physical disks. Instead of ESC or F2 during boot it could have a nice optional menu brought up to select it or go to the default.
This needn't be turned on by default so the average user would not even notice unless they went poking. Reading partition tables wouldn't be all that difficult either - I don't think though we may need to insist on some standards and those should be open and free. I doubt that even Microsoft would protest it or sabotage it.
Seriously, I've been pondering this since the mid 1990s at least when I wanted to dual boot. Oddly, I think it was with LILO at the time and I think I was trying to dual boot an early RedHat install that I'd picked up at a store similar to Best Buy though it may not have been RedHat. It might have been Knoppix. Those brain cells have long since been formatted and overwritten with random content.
Thanks for the information. I don't think that changes the information a great deal given that they use the weasel words of "may predate" instead of making a claim that it does predate Muhammad. However, we can also remember that he didn't start his teaching until he was much older in life and the Koran wasn't' written until after he passed away (as I recall).
The scraping part is interesting (I'd not heard of that before and haven't looked into it so I'll take your word for it, it does not sound unreasonable) so they should test the ink if they can do so without harming the document and if they can get a usable amount. Do we have the technology to actually get enough ink for a valid test without harming the document?
I believe that he didn't start teaching until he was in his 30s, if I remember the documentaries well enough, and that scholars believe it was shortly after his death when they began to write down his teachings. Again, just using my poor memory, he lived to be in his 60s so that would put the first writings somewhere near the second decade of the 8th century at the earliest. That puts the earliest writings at some 150 years, approximately, after the paper was created.
I've not checked. Was this paper or papyrus or?
I also recall a documentary about the history of Islam and some older lady was doing it. She'd found some architectural ruins that seemed to indicate that some of the beliefs and practices may have predated the scholarly accepted history of Islam but, unfortunately, I am unable to recall the name of the documentary. That sort of stuff, names of actors and things like that too, just don't stick and I'm way too lazy to keep some sort of notes for something that is light history/hobby work. I think it may have been a Pure History Special or a Nova piece? Maybe BBC? It was about the history of Islam though it was more from a skeptical viewpoint than anything else. I give the clues so that maybe someone can jog my memory.
Anyhow, the idea isn't that new as I recall. I am not, nor should I be considered, an authoritarian figure on the subject (obviously). Though this is not the first time I've seen or heard of people proposing that Muhammad may have cribbed from prior art. I imagine copyrights and patents have expired by now.;-)
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I don't really use Windows much and haven't for a while but, and this is just an idea, maybe if they did - you know - actually opt in then they'd get the patches applicable to their unique user machine instead of generic patches or the same patches that everyone gets? I have no idea how this works, I really don't. I used to be a pretty avid user but I got bored.
They're all going back to Windows within 6 months anyhow. This happens every time there's an upgrade to Windows. I've learned to just ignore it, mostly. I had an update today. I don't even remember what it was. I kind of doubt it broke anything or changed any of my settings.
I dimly recall another documentary about fake antiquities, biblical in nature, coming out of the same area as the box did in your Wikipedia link. I seem to recall that there was some investigation into a master forger who was pushing works out through unsuspecting dealers? One item was a box (I'm not sure if that's the same one) but there were more of them that were being questioned. I think the conclusion was that they did not really know but there were some pretty big indicators that they *might* have been forged. I think, in the documentary, someone went to prison for a long time (they take this stuff serious it seems) but it was for different charges?
I really should start trying to remember the names of all these documentaries. *sighs* The thing is that I watch them for light learning and amusement and not as a rigorous study or anything so I tend to forget all the names, details, etc... It probably doesn't help that I used to drink a great deal and watched many of them while I was drunk.
Thanks for the links. I may return with more questions - I'm off to read the first two links.
This appears to be absolutely true. I think it's likely due to being able to take greater risks and not worry about it and so you get bigger returned. Well, if I had to guess that's what I'd guess.
Yeah, I should have said he said what is in the Koran. It was written after he died as I mentioned later. :/
LOL I've never read the book but I would expect they're quite a fruitcake by now. I can not prove it but I strongly suspect that I have been influenced from all the hallucinogens I've consumed. My brain often works in odd ways and I follow some rather strange thoughts to non-obvious conclusions. It has its benefits and I don't think I'd be like this otherwise but, at the same time, I have some strange memory issues. I can remember stuff just fine but I have to make a conscious effort to remember them.
If I read a book I'll have forgotten the title and author just a few days later - yet I can recount specific passages pretty much verbatim because they were interesting and I decided to hold on to that. Then, say a movie, I'll have completely forgotten the majority of the movie but I'll remember what I ate during the movie, who I was with, and I might even remember the date and time. On the other hand, if you ask what I ate yesterday I may have to pause and think about it before responding.
I'd not say that they're necessarily harmful but I'd say that abuse can be harmful or have strange effects on you or at least that's my experience and what others have shared with me. I think moderation is key if one is going to opt to use them. I can't say one is better than the other but I'd probably suggest staying away from the research chemicals.
Finally, I don't think there's such a thing as a bad trip - they're just more interesting. Once you get on the ride you can't get off so go into it with that mindset and I've not seen anyone do more than freak for a little while though I am usually happiest when I trip alone or with just a few other people.
Do you know anything more about what to search for if I'm curious about the scraping process? I'm assuming this must be hide based.
As for your forgery story - I recall something very similar or perhaps the same story. I seem to recall that they were supposedly stealing the paper from old manuscripts at a library or private book collection but nobody figured out how they made the ink? If that's the same story then I'm vaguely familiar with it. I think it involved a monastery in Germany or some such.
I'm not sure how they'd go about testing just the ink without destroying the document. I guess, if it's on some hide (I still haven't read the article or looked into it deeply except to skim a link someone posted) then maybe they could separate a small amount from the hide assuming it hasn't been bound with the hide entirely but I'm not sure how accurate that could even be. That and, well, from what I've seen they seem to require quite a bit of material to do carbon testing.
It will be interesting to see where this goes. I'm guessing that this is a popular subject and will get some attention. I'm not sure how there can be more testing though - at least not the ink in and of itself and without destroying the document. Maybe there's some spillage in an unused section and they can remove that for testing?
Also, I think your memory is correct. The scholars seemed to think (again, a documentary or two on Islam) that the Koran was written not long after his death but not while he was alive. Your mention of a generation seems likely and I think the scholars had mentioned him living to be in his mid-60s.
The whole IoT is going to be grand, isn't it?
There's a company that does this in rural Maine, neat looking receivers but I've not done any investigation. They did not provision my area when I paid ComTel to run the lines, add a CO, and hook myself (and a few others on the route and one beyond my home) with DSL. It was expensive but I believe I got a fair price. The speed is good enough (I'm slated for 10 but average 13 Mb/sec) and my neighbor chipped in to get the last mile done to his house though he would have been able to get the service anyhow even if he hadn't paid.
What's even more impressive is that I started at 5 and have steadily increased though I've never had to pay more for my service and I have three separate connections - each with a static IP address that seemingly only gets cycled when I call and ask them to change it. It's owned by Fairpoint now but they've done a decent job up here, so far. They also have a strange habit of sending me new routers on a regular basis. I'm not sure why.
Yup. If what I've read is correct then that's the reason. There are fewer hops but the overall throughput is less. This does not matter much because the overall traffic volume, while frequent, is not a great deal at once. I read an article that went into this pretty deep and explained HFT a bit while they were at it. I don't remember the name of the article but I think it was either Business Insider or Wired??? It may have been WSJ I guess but I don't think it was actually.
Ah well, the information is out there. I guess the folks provisioning these are making decent money but I'd not want to be a tech there if there's an outage. I wonder what the SLAs are and the penalties are?
I think there was an article about someone researching and doing point-to-point networking with a laser which is, I suppose, wireless but I don't think the research went anywhere and I don't think it is really a good answer to the question. Then again, this is Slashdot... Do we give good answers here?
There was just a vulnerability reported not long ago on Slashdot and another one was just a few weeks before that as I recall. Is there an uptick in crappy code or is there just more eyeballs on routers now than there used to be?
I assume it was an unintentional effort and not some great effort to insult Islam - that was mostly where I was going with it. Even if the date's aren't exact there's no real difference in the story because they were careful to include the weasel words of "may predate." I'd say it is clickbait-y but probably not an active cabal of people who are attempting to slight a particular religious group.
I probably should have been more clear but, yeah... I doubt it's more than an attempt to get clicks and not some giant conspiracy to insult Islam. I could be mistaken but I'm really a fan of Occam's Razor and it doesn't really seem like /. would be motivated to insult Islam as a general rule. I'd expect they're motivated by greed more than they are likely to be motivated by theology.
Find something you're passionate about and tackle it in your spare time. Then, as it grows, expand your hours until you are in a position to take the risks and go at it alone or with a partner. A lot of the investors are not just the jackasses in VC firms looking to cash out or get control of the assets. "Silent" business partners are not entirely uncommon though they're not the easiest to find.
I think the key is to remember that every hour you're working at your real job is an hour that you're spending enriching someone else. I think single-proprietor and small businesses are the way of the future and I expect there to be an expansion of them in number. This seems to be something we're reverting to like the days of yore when we had a farmer, grocer, blacksmith, miller, etc... It's much like we're reverting to dumb terminals with our compute devices.
Not too long ago I found someone online who had an interesting plan. They are doing urban farming with closed water systems and growing both fish and "organic" food for market. I've mentioned that they should also consider keeping records of what they've done and how they've done it so that they can, eventually, consider franchising it. I have not told them specifically (I don't want to be anything other than a motivator in this case at this time) but if they manage to do get this off the ground - even a little, if they have a decent business plan, and if they have an expansion plan that covers something akin to the franchising option then, by all means, I'd buy a stake in their company and provide the business with low interest capital for expansion purposes. Absolutely...
I think, and this is just my opinion and it is shared by a few folks that I have spoken with on the subject, much of what is looked for (at the personal level - ignore the VC firms if you can) is passionate people with good business sense and an actionable and articulate plan. There's a risk but one can show where that risk is mitigated and how well one has researched the risks and how to approach them as cautiously as possible. Of course, one can not always be cautious.
So, again, if there's something you're passionate about and you're willing to work hard then you may find there are people interested. What is looked for is, often, people who've already got the business started. For example, don't come to me with an idea. Approach me with an idea that you've already thought about AND have started on - show me how you plan on making your idea a reality and why that can be profitable. Businesses started in spare time have huge growth potential and a lot of smaller businesses are a safer bet than investing in one giant business that demands a greater investment. On top of that, well, you have a greater chance at impacting good people by investing in small companies.
An example might be a friend of mine who had a single franchise coffee shop (their initials are D.D. but I don't want to promote them or anything) and he had several good locations to act on as well as one existing location (and a Subway). He came to me for help and offered me the chance to invest. He articulated his plan well, had done his research, and had a history of success but not at the level he needed to in order to expand like he wanted to.
Was my investing risky? Absolutely. However, that's a known and I happily threw a goodly sum at him. Instead of the five year plan my money was repaid in a little over two years. Today I still make 20% of his continued profits. I'd have been a fool to not have invested in him. He's currently looking into selling the Subway (he has a standing offer that is exceptional for a Subway in Farmington, Maine) and wanting to expand into a few other areas as well as increasing his coffee shop empire.
A key point was that we kept it strictly professional. I have no controlling interest and he can buy me out at any time for a pre-arranged figure (20% of the total value of the properties plus the existing properties - if he sells the Subway, for example, I get 20% of
That's an interesting use for it. I've not had GRUB not work in a very long time - I recall it breaking once when I'd been dual booting Linux and XP. I can't actually remember any other issues with it and that happened after an update? On the other mitt, I've had LILO flake a few more times. I seem to recall it trashing my MBR bad enough that an MBR repair did not work and I had issues re-installing on any partition and was forced to actually reformat the drive - I think I may have even had to do a low-level format with the OEM tools but I really don't remember it well enough to swear to it.
With its development ending, if you don't mind my asking, what are your plans? It's a boot loader so there really isn't much need to worry about immediate updates - I shouldn't think. Do you code well enough to maintain it for your own use? If so will you be making those changes public? Like any project that was big (I seem to recall LILO predating GRUB) and has lost interest this can be a problem that does have a real world impact. It's a smaller impact than, say, GRUB deciding it's time to quit.
Did you contribute to the project at all - financially or code? This is not a holier-than-thou thing but I figure I'll mention it. If I find an application that makes my life simpler then I'll often look for the developer's site so that I can send them an email of thanks and/or a donation. My last one was deciding that I'll send a donation to the makers of boot-repair every time I use their tool. Unfortunately, I've not yet had to use it since I made that choice so I've not contacted the devs yet but I did find and bookmark their actual site and not the Ubuntu site. I figure a $10 donation each time I have to use it will be more than fair.
Anyhow, I don't keep track or anything but I'd guess that I spend a few hundred each year just sending out small donations to developers who make stuff that I use. Even trying to find a bug (yeah, I get bored) can help them out though I try to reproduce and document any bugs that I find and plan on reporting. I imagine that they're grateful just to get a sincere email thanking them - note I did not read the article to see why they have chosen to shut the project down.
Finally, keep the project alive if it's something you need. I don't imagine there's a whole lot of updating that you'd have to do - it's probably a pretty solid application after all these years and I doubt there is much to maintain about it. Have you grabbed the source so that you can work on it if you need to? While I don't use it there are a lot of people who do so I'll grab a copy of it as well and just store it locally until it's needed or until the storage media is no longer workable.
They mention they want people to contact them if they're interested in developing the project further - at least that's what the summary says. Give 'em a shout and see where it goes from there. It would probably be pretty low-level work to maintain it. Maybe some company will pick it up to further the community or to protect it? Maybe someone like Oracle will grab it (for better or worse) and put a dev on it when it needs attention? If you use it for a work-related task then you might be able to present a decent case to have your place of employment actually pay you to maintain it - the publicity would be good for them and it's probably not a whole lot of work to keep the project up to date.
Obviously this is not my field of expertise. But there are some ideas for you if you're interested.
Honestly, I am not sure what I'd have done in their shoes? I am not a fan of suppressing findings or anything but my welfare is reasonably important to me. I'd likely publish my findings and just be more aware of my surroundings should there be an uproar.
I've also thought about this a bit more...
If they were to harm the researchers then it would be interpreted as saying that the facts they claimed were accurate and the religion needed protection. Or, as you mention, they could say that is is just punishment for them being infidels and causing trouble. The former might make people question them? So, maybe - just maybe, they'll opt to simply decry it as false and not attempt an act of retribution. I suspect they could get away with both and I don't have a lot of faith that rational thinkers will prevail.
The Koran was written after Mohammad died. There's probably not much chance, at all, that he was alive while the animal was alive IF we assume that the carbon dating was accurate considering he is believed to have lived until his 60s if I recall the documentary correctly.
My understanding is that karma has effects in this life, as well. I have no beliefs that it continues after life has ended though many do think that it does. However, there are lots of instances of otherwise bad people having good things happen to them but we're not really meant to understand it deeply as far as I have been taught. Then again, it's not like there's an entirely monolithic belief system with Buddhism - you can (and are encouraged to) find your own path - depending on which school one studies.
Nice and thank you for the information. I had no idea it was in the spec, or at least partially. A nice handy GUI for it that one can optionally load would be nifty too. Is the EFI available in user-land so that one could develop a GUI for it? Heck, it needn't even be GUI - just a menu would work as well as some ability to customize it to select a default, have a set wait time, etc...
That may be true but I had a lot of fun trying.
No but I suspect it can be a cultural thing and, unfortunately, it appears that it is not. For a culture with such a rich history of knowledge acquisition and creation it is a bit sad that they've forsaken those traditions. Even a lot of literature was preserved by the Arabic peoples who translated it to Arabic which preserved it to be translated into new languages today. From math to chemistry, we owe a lot of our knowledge to them.
While Europe was wallowing in feces and actively suppressing critical thinking the Arabic peoples were bathing and advancing human knowledge significantly. Yet, today, the cultural roles seem to be reversed. The people who are in a position of power seem hell bent on draconian authoritarian repressive theological regimes. As an outsider looking in this appears to not be a very good situation for anyone who's not in a position of power.
I certainly agree with and support the idea of religious freedoms but when those beliefs are manifest in ways that are harmful then they really should reconsider their tyrannical ideals. That is rather unlikely. I suspect there's a group, or multiple individuals, who are simply using freedom as a way to justify exploitation and control of others.
Yeah, it was a bit tough to touch on all the subjects I wanted to mention and there was no way I could really be deep with any of them because of the length and readability reasons. I am not a writer. I probably could have written it in PERL and had it shorter and more readable.
Anyhow, to comment on your reply, I am not sure how to have a meaningful long-term relationship really. Well, no... I'm sure of how to do it but the trouble is getting to the long-term part. I am not sure how to achieve that. I currently have two lady friends that I am intimate with who know the situation and accept it and don't actually seek a committed relationship.
I am definitely not sure how to say this...
They are not prostitutes or anything but I choose to financially support them in part as a gift. I do not do so because they sleep with me. I do so because they are enabled more with the help. It would be tough to gift anonymously in this sort of situation and I think I'd decline to pay if they directly asked for money. I do frequently give them gifts (sometimes cash) because it helps them and it is something I can afford to do - again, it's not as a payment for services rendered or anything.
This is awkward to explain. Hmm... I guess I'd potentially give them cash if they asked but it's too complex to give list the variables. An example might be that one mentioned that she was having issues with her vehicle and asked if I was willing to loan her the money to get it repaired (Was it hinting, asking, or merely conversation? I can never be certain.) and that was an issue that I was able to resolve for her quickly and easily.
I'd say we have loving relationships. The two know each other and have been in the same room at the same time and are completely aware of the situation. I don't think that either of them prefer it but they seem inclined to be okay with it and have stated that they are happy. One of them lived here in the house with me for a while and they've both gone off on extended vacations with me in the past. No, not at the same time... Strangely, that's not as much fun as one might think and neither of these two seem to be "into" that sort of thing.
I don't pay their way through life or anything. They both have jobs and whatnot. I have the house that was here on the land when I bought it so I could easily afford to put them both up here but I imagine that would just lead to conflict. They may be friendly to one another now but I'd expect some conflicts if it were long-term. I'd "settle" for one but I have a poor history at being faithful and do not want to harm anyone - some of the issues are my own personal failings and others are monetary. I guess that's accurate.
Can I make a long-term relationship work? Well, these days it's possible to sue for "palimony" (strangely enough - spell check recognizes that as a word). I could almost certainly get a legally binding contract written up to protect my assets I suppose. Hell, I'd be fine even if I lost a bunch in a lawsuit. I just don't want the hassle, the risk, or having that much baggage when the inevitable breakup occurs.
With my ex-wife, even though the divorce was a long time before I sold my business, I still felt obligated to give her a chunk of money after the business sold and I was actually able to access the money. She'd helped me create the business, in some ways, by enabling me and encouraging me to take the risks and try the route I did take. If I'd not been sexing secretaries or other random women we'd likely be together still.
Then, we have the really awkward situation of proposing that contract or a prenuptial agreement. While they're more acceptable today they are basically saying that I don't believe the relationship will last and that I think they're a money grubbing whore. I'm not really sure how to put that in a light manner that will be honest. It's not like I can say that I'm interested in protecting them...
So, it's possible but I can't think of a way to make it probable. I could expand my horizons
I've pondered if there should be an open standard and just having a boot loader embedded in the BIOS that can be changed to boot to different partitions, disks, networked drives, etc... It could even allow you to setup a boot menu to select your OS of choice. In my mind it's the perfect spot to put it and I've yet to find a GOOD reason for this to not be the case.
A simple pointer, or pointers for those who multi-boot, and an optional menu would be fairly trivial and it's not like it makes a giant security hole that I can think of. I can already select a boot device, why not make it partitions, network, etc? I've been wondering why it's not in the BIOS for years. I really can't think of a reason for it not to be and stripping the function as a requirement for the OS would make things much simpler in my opinion.
I'm frequently opting to boot from a USB drive or a CD drive (while not wanting to change the default orders) as it is so I'm already using a menu to do that. It seems like it would be fairly trivial to make it recognize partitions and throw a simple menu up on the screen. They could still have an additional boot loader for things that need it or those who wish to customize it but they'd not need to and I'd think it would make things much simpler.
Yes, yes I have been pondering this for a while. No, no I can't really think of any drawbacks or anything that makes it painfully difficult - even if it doesn't read partitions and only works with separate physical disks. Instead of ESC or F2 during boot it could have a nice optional menu brought up to select it or go to the default.
This needn't be turned on by default so the average user would not even notice unless they went poking. Reading partition tables wouldn't be all that difficult either - I don't think though we may need to insist on some standards and those should be open and free. I doubt that even Microsoft would protest it or sabotage it.
Seriously, I've been pondering this since the mid 1990s at least when I wanted to dual boot. Oddly, I think it was with LILO at the time and I think I was trying to dual boot an early RedHat install that I'd picked up at a store similar to Best Buy though it may not have been RedHat. It might have been Knoppix. Those brain cells have long since been formatted and overwritten with random content.
Assuming there is a divine being, a big assumption to make, then it is not a great leap to go from there to accepting divine inspiration.
Assuming your questions are not rhetoric then, in order...
Possibly.
Probably.
Thanks for the information. I don't think that changes the information a great deal given that they use the weasel words of "may predate" instead of making a claim that it does predate Muhammad. However, we can also remember that he didn't start his teaching until he was much older in life and the Koran wasn't' written until after he passed away (as I recall).
The scraping part is interesting (I'd not heard of that before and haven't looked into it so I'll take your word for it, it does not sound unreasonable) so they should test the ink if they can do so without harming the document and if they can get a usable amount. Do we have the technology to actually get enough ink for a valid test without harming the document?
I believe that he didn't start teaching until he was in his 30s, if I remember the documentaries well enough, and that scholars believe it was shortly after his death when they began to write down his teachings. Again, just using my poor memory, he lived to be in his 60s so that would put the first writings somewhere near the second decade of the 8th century at the earliest. That puts the earliest writings at some 150 years, approximately, after the paper was created.
I've not checked. Was this paper or papyrus or?
I also recall a documentary about the history of Islam and some older lady was doing it. She'd found some architectural ruins that seemed to indicate that some of the beliefs and practices may have predated the scholarly accepted history of Islam but, unfortunately, I am unable to recall the name of the documentary. That sort of stuff, names of actors and things like that too, just don't stick and I'm way too lazy to keep some sort of notes for something that is light history/hobby work. I think it may have been a Pure History Special or a Nova piece? Maybe BBC? It was about the history of Islam though it was more from a skeptical viewpoint than anything else. I give the clues so that maybe someone can jog my memory.
Anyhow, the idea isn't that new as I recall. I am not, nor should I be considered, an authoritarian figure on the subject (obviously). Though this is not the first time I've seen or heard of people proposing that Muhammad may have cribbed from prior art. I imagine copyrights and patents have expired by now. ;-)