Re:Troubleshooting skills.
on
Stargate Universe
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· Score: 2, Interesting
So pull a Sheridan -- plant a couple of nukes onto an asteroid and gently push it so it drifts to where you expect the Ori to drop out of hyperspace. When the Ori ships have arrived, scanned for enemy ships, and dropped their shields (to save power) since they didn't detect any enemies, detonate.
Putting the laws in some sort of source/version control will not help as much as having dedicated testers that can take the specification of the law (the bill being proposed) and find the loopholes BEFORE the bill is implemented (becomes law.) And no, lawyers and judges don't fulfill those roles, at least not as I'd like to see them filled. Judges don't get to try out test cases before the law is passed; in fact, they only get to consider those cases once a "customer" has already found a bug.
What freedoms does a flesh-and-blood person lose when they are incarcerated?
Well, they lose the freedom of freedom to move around -- you could simulate this with a corporation by forbidding them from moving their facilities or starting new ones, or preventing them from making changes to their business plans in areas related to the crime that got them incarcerated. They lose the freedom to make decisions about what actions they can take -- make the corporation get approval from a neutral party (the corporation's "parole officer") for certain major decisions (hiring or firing executives or changing their compensation being the biggest ones.) They lose (to some extent) the right to privacy -- give the parole office carte blanc access to the corporation's records and allow them to disseminate information pertinent to the corporation's punishment to the courts. If a flesh-and-blood person has been found guilty of a serious enough crime, they can even lose the freedom to live and be executed -- to simulate this for a corporation, liquidate it and impose some restrictions on the heads of the corporation to prevent them from resurrecting it (easily.) For example, prohibit them from founding a new company for a certain period of time (or at least a new company in the same industry.) Although now that I think about it, if a corporation's done something so bad that it warrants the death penalty, I don't think that's going to be a big concern, as the executives have likely done something that is going to warrant some punishment themselves. I remember reading a series of stories about this type of scenario, but I don't remember who the author was or where to find them again.
If the police had enough evidence to get the warrant to put the GPS on your car, they're probably watching you and will be able to see if your friend borrows your car. [I could see if you were a suspect in a kidnapping or a murder, they'd want to track you to see if you visited your victim, without risking losing your car in traffic.]
I would assume it would be locked to the frame of your car somehow, to prevent you from easily disconnecting it. And if your car is stolen, I would assume you'd report to the police that someone stole it and thus there'd be a record.
If the insurance companies want to make it mandatory for their customers' cars to have these cameras, they should be required to go through it first. Require ALL vehicles (their personal cars, rental vehicles, etc.) driven by insurance company employees (from the guy down in the mail room to the CEO) to have these cameras. After all, they shouldn't ask others to do something they're unwilling to do themselves, should they?
If that second part of your prediction is fulfilled, it won't last for long. I predict the insurance companies will petition Congress to remove it the day after they lose the first lawsuit filed against them and the manufacturer of the cat and/or camera. After all, if someone is killed because the fuse on the camera's circuit fails and they lose control of their now-nonfunctional vehicle while going down the highway at 80 MPH, would you rule against them as a member of a jury?
Unless the library is trying to sell you that book, it's an "informational message" (like an airline telling you your flight has been delayed, which was an example in the article) and so should be okay.
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,690,000 for mohamed smith
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,520,000 for mohammed smith
That doesn't strike me as terribly uncommon. Now sure, a lot of those hits are going to be junk, but even if 10% of them were legitimate hits that's still over half a million hits -- and without any additional information, how are you going to determine which of those hits are relevant to _your_ Mohammed Smith?
So the SEC doesn't want fans broadcasting the games? Fine. Let's see what happens when they get a class action lawsuit against them and CBS for broadcasting an image of my face or body as I sit in the stands without my express written permission. "Any account or description, whether broadcast, written, or in other media, of my face or other body parts without my express written consent is strictly prohibited." [IANAL, but I'm sure someone who is could come up with an appropriately short disclaimer that you could say as you enter or while you're at the game, or that you could send to CBS and the SEC beforehand.] If they have something like that that you have to agree to in order to buy the tickets, how can they prove that I purchased the tickets and agreed to grant consent rather than having someone else buy them for me and give them to me as a gift?
I can just picture this on a special MythBusters episode that's a collaboration between the Discovery Channel and Fashion TV or the Style Network.
Adam: What's the best way to get red wine out of cotton? We're going to try several over-the-counter methods and a couple "homemade" solutions. When... I mean IF they don't work, Frank Doyle has a special concoction that we'll be heading over to the Alameda bomb range to test that WILL get the red wine out of the cotton... the same way we got that slab of cement out of the cement truck.
If a person makes a typo during the domain registration process, then let them fix it... DURING the domain registration process. The person enters the domain name they want on the first page of the form, and has to confirm on each of the next two or three pages that yes, this is the domain name they want, spelled the way they want. Making a typo once on a form is understandable. Making that same typo five times? Not so much.
I'm sure they have a "consumer problems" report, where they try to help viewers settle differences with companies. If you spin it as "I want DirectTV to help me protect my identity from being stolen, but they refuse putting my identity at risk" they'd probably jump at the chance to run a report on it.
I'd love to see the paper suppliers that sell to the WSJ try to reestablish their "old margins of profitability" by charging several times as much for paper as they do now, or for Starbucks to try to do the same by charging Mr. Murdock $20 for a small coffee. [I'm assuming they don't already charge $20 for a small coffee, of course.] I wonder if he'd think those businesses changing their business models would be a good thing.
The OP didn't leave out the Egyptian pantheon. But you're right, the representatives of other pantheons might be upset. Let's hope Thor doesn't call for the Avengers to assemble and kick our asses for it.
Can they? Two words: Eminent Domain. Of course, that might make potential future buyers less likely to buy without some promise that the building will not be put under ED without a real reason... but they can have the money for selling the building and have the building too.
Aside from FFX-2, each Final Fantasy game has been more or less independent of its predecessors, so essentially the series gets a small reboot with every game. And as for the non-turn-based combat option, FF12 came close -- each character still takes their turns, but it's less "your guys go, then the enemies go" and more of a "do your stuff, then wait for a cooldown" system.
I agree that I'd like to see a darker Final Fantasy -- while most of the FF games deal with the end of the world as a consequence for your party's failure, that's too broad a penalty. It doesn't hit you in the gut like Aeris's fate in FF7 or Cyan's family and General Leo's fate in FF6. [Damn you, Kefka!]
Now you've got me wondering, how crazy and obviously fake would a product need to be before an informercial for it would result in no one trying to buy it? Given how many people fall for spam sales pitches, I bet it would have to be pretty far out there.
And if there's ever an OS X release that has a really bad bug, one that causes users to scream and swear as soon as they see it, I predict it'll get a new nickname.
The difference between a minor and major bug fix is somewhat subjective. If a coder spent hours tracking down a bug that's been in the source code for ten years and never reported by any customers, that would seem to me to be a good candidate for the title "minor bug". If instead a coder spends 5 minutes changing a 1 to a 0 in a piece of code that has caused the program to crash for 50 customers (who have had technical support's phones ringing off the hook) since it was released yesterday, I'd call that a "major bug".
As for the "increment the version number each time there's a code change" -- that would make a change that fixes the typo "teh" to "the" equally "important" with respect to the version number as a change that fixes a problem that crashes the entire program.
The Mythbusters may not always be rigorous about operating in a controlled environment, with a well-designed experiment... but they certainly can get children interested in science and mathematics.
Are any of those three telephone numbers his cell phone number, or are they all linked with his office telephone? Remember, cell phone numbers were one of the items about which the summary quotes him saying Canadians have no real expectation of privacy.
Once he has released his cell phone number, give him a polite call [each person should only call once, of course] and "forget" about the time difference that means he's sitting down to dinner when you call.
Slashdot Mirror
So pull a Sheridan -- plant a couple of nukes onto an asteroid and gently push it so it drifts to where you expect the Ori to drop out of hyperspace. When the Ori ships have arrived, scanned for enemy ships, and dropped their shields (to save power) since they didn't detect any enemies, detonate.
Putting the laws in some sort of source/version control will not help as much as having dedicated testers that can take the specification of the law (the bill being proposed) and find the loopholes BEFORE the bill is implemented (becomes law.) And no, lawyers and judges don't fulfill those roles, at least not as I'd like to see them filled. Judges don't get to try out test cases before the law is passed; in fact, they only get to consider those cases once a "customer" has already found a bug.
What freedoms does a flesh-and-blood person lose when they are incarcerated?
Well, they lose the freedom of freedom to move around -- you could simulate this with a corporation by forbidding them from moving their facilities or starting new ones, or preventing them from making changes to their business plans in areas related to the crime that got them incarcerated.
They lose the freedom to make decisions about what actions they can take -- make the corporation get approval from a neutral party (the corporation's "parole officer") for certain major decisions (hiring or firing executives or changing their compensation being the biggest ones.)
They lose (to some extent) the right to privacy -- give the parole office carte blanc access to the corporation's records and allow them to disseminate information pertinent to the corporation's punishment to the courts.
If a flesh-and-blood person has been found guilty of a serious enough crime, they can even lose the freedom to live and be executed -- to simulate this for a corporation, liquidate it and impose some restrictions on the heads of the corporation to prevent them from resurrecting it (easily.) For example, prohibit them from founding a new company for a certain period of time (or at least a new company in the same industry.) Although now that I think about it, if a corporation's done something so bad that it warrants the death penalty, I don't think that's going to be a big concern, as the executives have likely done something that is going to warrant some punishment themselves.
I remember reading a series of stories about this type of scenario, but I don't remember who the author was or where to find them again.
So in other words, we need better QA for the "program" that is the US legal system. I'll agree with that.
If the police had enough evidence to get the warrant to put the GPS on your car, they're probably watching you and will be able to see if your friend borrows your car. [I could see if you were a suspect in a kidnapping or a murder, they'd want to track you to see if you visited your victim, without risking losing your car in traffic.]
I would assume it would be locked to the frame of your car somehow, to prevent you from easily disconnecting it. And if your car is stolen, I would assume you'd report to the police that someone stole it and thus there'd be a record.
If the insurance companies want to make it mandatory for their customers' cars to have these cameras, they should be required to go through it first. Require ALL vehicles (their personal cars, rental vehicles, etc.) driven by insurance company employees (from the guy down in the mail room to the CEO) to have these cameras. After all, they shouldn't ask others to do something they're unwilling to do themselves, should they?
If that second part of your prediction is fulfilled, it won't last for long. I predict the insurance companies will petition Congress to remove it the day after they lose the first lawsuit filed against them and the manufacturer of the cat and/or camera. After all, if someone is killed because the fuse on the camera's circuit fails and they lose control of their now-nonfunctional vehicle while going down the highway at 80 MPH, would you rule against them as a member of a jury?
And even if they're not physically threatening you, if you ask them to protest more quietly and they refuse, isn't that disturbing the peace?
Unless the library is trying to sell you that book, it's an "informational message" (like an airline telling you your flight has been delayed, which was an example in the article) and so should be okay.
Google says:
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,690,000 for mohamed smith
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,520,000 for mohammed smith
That doesn't strike me as terribly uncommon. Now sure, a lot of those hits are going to be junk, but even if 10% of them were legitimate hits that's still over half a million hits -- and without any additional information, how are you going to determine which of those hits are relevant to _your_ Mohammed Smith?
So the SEC doesn't want fans broadcasting the games? Fine. Let's see what happens when they get a class action lawsuit against them and CBS for broadcasting an image of my face or body as I sit in the stands without my express written permission. "Any account or description, whether broadcast, written, or in other media, of my face or other body parts without my express written consent is strictly prohibited." [IANAL, but I'm sure someone who is could come up with an appropriately short disclaimer that you could say as you enter or while you're at the game, or that you could send to CBS and the SEC beforehand.] If they have something like that that you have to agree to in order to buy the tickets, how can they prove that I purchased the tickets and agreed to grant consent rather than having someone else buy them for me and give them to me as a gift?
I can just picture this on a special MythBusters episode that's a collaboration between the Discovery Channel and Fashion TV or the Style Network.
... I mean IF they don't work, Frank Doyle has a special concoction that we'll be heading over to the Alameda bomb range to test that WILL get the red wine out of the cotton ... the same way we got that slab of cement out of the cement truck.
Adam: What's the best way to get red wine out of cotton? We're going to try several over-the-counter methods and a couple "homemade" solutions. When
If a person makes a typo during the domain registration process, then let them fix it ... DURING the domain registration process. The person enters the domain name they want on the first page of the form, and has to confirm on each of the next two or three pages that yes, this is the domain name they want, spelled the way they want. Making a typo once on a form is understandable. Making that same typo five times? Not so much.
I'm sure they have a "consumer problems" report, where they try to help viewers settle differences with companies. If you spin it as "I want DirectTV to help me protect my identity from being stolen, but they refuse putting my identity at risk" they'd probably jump at the chance to run a report on it.
I'd love to see the paper suppliers that sell to the WSJ try to reestablish their "old margins of profitability" by charging several times as much for paper as they do now, or for Starbucks to try to do the same by charging Mr. Murdock $20 for a small coffee. [I'm assuming they don't already charge $20 for a small coffee, of course.] I wonder if he'd think those businesses changing their business models would be a good thing.
No, that's the procedure for when they sell a paper copy of Fahrenheit 451 illegally.
The OP didn't leave out the Egyptian pantheon. But you're right, the representatives of other pantheons might be upset. Let's hope Thor doesn't call for the Avengers to assemble and kick our asses for it.
Can they? Two words: Eminent Domain. Of course, that might make potential future buyers less likely to buy without some promise that the building will not be put under ED without a real reason ... but they can have the money for selling the building and have the building too.
Aside from FFX-2, each Final Fantasy game has been more or less independent of its predecessors, so essentially the series gets a small reboot with every game. And as for the non-turn-based combat option, FF12 came close -- each character still takes their turns, but it's less "your guys go, then the enemies go" and more of a "do your stuff, then wait for a cooldown" system.
I agree that I'd like to see a darker Final Fantasy -- while most of the FF games deal with the end of the world as a consequence for your party's failure, that's too broad a penalty. It doesn't hit you in the gut like Aeris's fate in FF7 or Cyan's family and General Leo's fate in FF6. [Damn you, Kefka!]
Now you've got me wondering, how crazy and obviously fake would a product need to be before an informercial for it would result in no one trying to buy it? Given how many people fall for spam sales pitches, I bet it would have to be pretty far out there.
And if there's ever an OS X release that has a really bad bug, one that causes users to scream and swear as soon as they see it, I predict it'll get a new nickname.
The difference between a minor and major bug fix is somewhat subjective. If a coder spent hours tracking down a bug that's been in the source code for ten years and never reported by any customers, that would seem to me to be a good candidate for the title "minor bug". If instead a coder spends 5 minutes changing a 1 to a 0 in a piece of code that has caused the program to crash for 50 customers (who have had technical support's phones ringing off the hook) since it was released yesterday, I'd call that a "major bug".
As for the "increment the version number each time there's a code change" -- that would make a change that fixes the typo "teh" to "the" equally "important" with respect to the version number as a change that fixes a problem that crashes the entire program.
The Mythbusters may not always be rigorous about operating in a controlled environment, with a well-designed experiment ... but they certainly can get children interested in science and mathematics.
Actually, xkcd sums it up pretty well.
why not increase the strangeness and have Wells Fargo hire Jack Thompson to represent one of the sides?
...
...
Oh, right.
Are any of those three telephone numbers his cell phone number, or are they all linked with his office telephone? Remember, cell phone numbers were one of the items about which the summary quotes him saying Canadians have no real expectation of privacy.
Once he has released his cell phone number, give him a polite call [each person should only call once, of course] and "forget" about the time difference that means he's sitting down to dinner when you call.