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User: veltyen

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Comments · 28

  1. Re:Just when I thought Sol couldn't top his antics on Telstra Kicked Out of $15bn Broadband Project · · Score: 1

    Deport?

    At least Ziggy is Strayan, and not a fucking yank.

  2. Re:IT part of mainstream again on Are Skimpy Raises the New Normal? · · Score: 1

    http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/26/news/economy/ceo_p ay/

    431 is down from 525-1 in 2001

    Publicly traded companies, which means the CEO compensation and average worker salary are of record.

  3. Re:Hard-SCI Fi is NOT fantasy based on Is Science Fiction the Opiate of the Geek Masses? · · Score: 2, Informative

    You might want to read some Brin then.
    http://www.davidbrin.com/

  4. Re:best degree to compliment comp sci on Best Degree to Pair w/ a B.Sc. in Computer Science? · · Score: 1

    http://www.latrobe.edu.au/

    Not a bad Uni. My Sis did physiotherapy there.

  5. Re:Three worlds on Game Industry Bigger Than Hollywood · · Score: 1

    The concept has been arround for a while.
    see here or here for examples.

    Conversely I have never heard of old world vs new world except where it comes to speciation. Of course, not living in the old world or the new world might cut down my exposure. :-)

  6. Re:Three worlds on Game Industry Bigger Than Hollywood · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are confusing the economic with the biological.

    Biologically there is the new world (the americas) and the old world (eurasia and africa). Old world monkeys vs new world monkeys. Old world Bison vs new world Bison, and so on.

    Then there is the economic terms
    1st world: Modern Capitalism
    2nd world: Modern Communism
    3rd world: not developed enough to count as either.

    Japan is very much 1st world. China is 2nd world. India is 3rd world (though could also be put in the 1st world bin). The terms are becoming antiquated with the fall of Russian Communism, and changes to world economics since the 1960/70's.

  7. Re:Could be worse than that on Red Hat announces GFS · · Score: 1

    If you can walk into my machine room.
    Find a correct and spare fibre channel cable.
    Know exactly what settings are required to talk to the system.
    Know all the appropriate SAN names and ID's.
    At that point yes, you can break the security of the system.

    Who uses GFS over a standard network? If you want any disk performance, pumping all data requests down a small pipe is not the way to go.

  8. Re:What if i added more rails to my railgun? on Slashback: Railing, Blocking, Scoffing · · Score: 1

    There are a couple of different effects taking place. One is that a circut carrying current wants to expand and occupy a larger 2 dimensional space. If you hold the rails and power supply in place then the only moving part becomes the projectile body which lies accross the rails, it moves outward to expand the circut.

    The other effect is casued by the combination of the two right hand rules. The first right hand rule creates a magnetic flux arround the rails, and because the current is going in opposite directions in either rail the flux reinforces itself. The second right hand rule implies a force dependant on the magnetic flux created by the rails, the current flowing through the body and the force that projects the body forward. As far as I am aware the second is the 'greater' force in most rail guns, but the first effect is not insignificant in most cases.

    These forces are related. The reason the circut want to expand is related to the magnetic flux flowing through the circut.

  9. Re:Does the EU have power? on EU Crosshair Still Points at Microsoft · · Score: 1

    The point is Microsoft will need to change, or they will get fined again. And again. And again. And Again.

    At a billion euros a pop, it won't take long to make redmond nervous.

    Veltyen

  10. Re:Bowling for Columbine (OT) (spoiler) on The Moral Pathology of Vice City · · Score: 1
    Please, don't ever compare absolute numbers for things that should be measured per-capita. The US has a much greater population than the other first world nations.

    Maybe you're just re-quoting a statistic Moore tossed out because it sounded exciting, but regardless of your stance on the issues, please don't propagate incomplete facts.

    Oh, and what's the spoiler? How is it possible to spoil a documenary, anyway??

    I've recently had a reason to look up the murder rates of the US and Australia. Last monday there was a shooting at where I work. 2 people were killed, and it reached the international news. This is a big deal here, and there are local calls to ban ALL handguns because of this.


    Australia had 306 homicides in 2000/2001. This is not an abberation, that number has been fairly stable for a while. If I overestimate Australia's size (25 million) and underestimate the population of the USA (250 million) that would be an equivalent rate of 3000 murders accross the US. This is less then california's murder rate.


    Call it an unbiased view. I haven't seen bowling for Columbine yet. I used to think that the rhetoric of US polititians on America's crime problem was purely to beat up a platform, and give a meaningless rally call to boost votes. The number speak for themselves.


    Veltyen

  11. Re:Oh yeah? Well... on Turns out, Primes are in P · · Score: 1

    Um. Aren't they the same number
    10**100 (10 * 10 * 10 ...) is a 1 followed by 100 zeros, just as 10**2 is a 1 followed by 2 zeros.

  12. Re:Exactly why we need micropayments on Piro On Why .Coms Don't Work · · Score: 1

    For some reason the Porn industry is always one step ahead in content distribution. Must be the low profit margins and flexible morals.

    The model you are talking about is the model that the larger 'Adult verification Systems' use. You buy one access code for a whole slew of sites.

    From my own personal experience this model works quite well. While paying $40 for a single site seems a rip-off, paying $40 for an AVS ID that allows you to visit a couple of sites that you go to regularily, as well as a couple of thousand other sites that you would never pony up for upfront seems a much better deal.

    When it comes down to it, paying ${an amount} for access to a slew of news sites (theage.com.au, cnn.com etc) I wouldn't have a problem with. For another more relevant example paying 5 bucks or so for one of the consolidated comics sites I wouldn't have a problem with either.

  13. Thylacine... Goddamit on Coming Back Soon... The Tasmanian Tiger? · · Score: 1

    And why should we recreate this tiger?
    Could YOU tell a Tasmanian tiger from an Indian one?
    Would it look really different for humans ?
    No, this is just a waste of resources.
    I might a perhaps a good cloning/gene manipulation test, but that's all.


    Um. You do realise that the animal referred to as a "Tasmanian Tiger" is a striped carnivorous marsupial, like the numbat or Australian native cat? (which isn't a cat,but at least it is an Australian native).

    It does have stripes at least.

    Tragically it was wiped out more from ignorance and predjudice then for any real reason. There is no evidence that the Thylacine ever took any sheep. There are no reports of it attacking any humans either.

    Could I tell a Tasmanian Tiger from an Asiatic one? From that statement it is obvious you have never, ever, ever seen a Thylacine.

    Veltyen

  14. Humans did not kill on Coming Back Soon... The Tasmanian Tiger? · · Score: 1

    Humans did not cause the Thylacines to become extinct. Certainly the destruction of Thylacines thought to be culling sheep herds was a pressure on their population, but the final blow was some kind of disease.

    If it had definitely been humans that had wiped them out then I would be happier beleiving that there were specimens still at large.

    Veltyen

  15. Re:Genes aren't the only thing. on Coming Back Soon... The Tasmanian Tiger? · · Score: 1

    The big problem (I'm talking about real life ressurection of Tazmanian Devils here, not fictional dinosaurs) is getting viable DNA.You need all* of it pretty much 100% error free, which seems quite implausible from a stuffed museum exibit. I don't think this will be possible until we can take many samples, read each one, and merge to get a full good run.

    Tasmanian Devils are not extinct, and are in no danger of being so. The Thylacine is the one being brought back, it has 100's of 1000's of specimens availible, mainly because it went from being quite common to being extinct in a matter of years (about 5-10 in fact). The fact that it was earlier this century(goddam this millenium, last century) means that there are lots of reasonably intact specimens availible.

    Anyway, it is a really cool animal, lots of character, and an enormous jaw with astounding pressure behind it.


    Veltyen
  16. Re:.edu and .gov on .us Domains Coming in 2002 · · Score: 1

    It always intrigued me that the only truly international government is the US. It must be true, there is no whitehouse.gov.us, just whitehouse.gov.

    As for what should happen? The .EDU domain should only be used by truly international educational institutions. Which means for those
    world series loving Americans, more then one country.

    .GOV should only be used by the true international world government.

    That leaves the only valid .gov site as illuminati.vatican.gov


    Veltyen
  17. Re:Don't get too excited over it. on More Australian Insanity: Forwarding Mail Illegal (updated) · · Score: 1

    Let's not forget that Australia is just a penal colony. Why should prisoners have the same rights as a free man?

    The new Americas were also a dumping ground for the criminal elements of English society. Australia just didn't get the religious nutters exported. We also didn't get messed up in that nasty Slavery business.

    From the Australian beareu of Statistics 7.5 million Australias are first or second generation. Out of 19 million total population that is a fair chunk. If you extend that back the actual percentage of Australians who can claim to be penal is relatively minute. The massive flods of migration during the Australian gold rush, and post world war II see to that.

    Considering the crime rate and the incarceration rate is much lower in Australia then it is in the USA, your statements appear either un-informed, malicious, or an excrutiatingly bad attempt at humour. I suspect the latter, but you pissed me off.

    I was thinking of working in the US at one point, but your crime rate, murder rate, religious overtones and corporate ownership of government scared me off.

    As for the current anti-tech government in Australia, at least they don't assume that they're the government of the world. (DNS error on "www.whitehouse.gov.us" "www.whitehouse.gov" does exist. "www.fed.gov.au" does exist)

    --Veltyen
  18. Trademarks applying in same area only on Blizzard Sues Over Diablo Movie Title · · Score: 1

    According to Australian censorship laws this would be a direct breach of trademark.
    Computer Games are classified as films.
    Hence they would be in the same industry, using the same name. Whereas Lamborghini(sp?) is a car maker. Diferent sector (at least different enough).
    Now if Diablo was a car-racing game.....
    -Veltyen

  19. Re:Ubiquity? on Administering Apache · · Score: 1

    What's with equating all Unixes as Linux.

    Apache, with enough tweaking, will run on anything.

    ApacheC64 coming soon.....

    Veltyen
  20. Re:Sweeten the pot and hope for the best on What's The Best Way To Retain Trained Employees? · · Score: 1

    One last thing to all you HR people. As an IC I would take 4-6 weeks off a year. I routinely make up for all those lost weeks and more in overtime. Every time I look for a job I mention desiring 4 weeks of vacation. I get looks like I am from mars. Its not a negotiable benefit, and no one seems to think its a reasonable request. If I ever found a company that offered 4 weeks of vacation to start I would be willing to make substantial allowances for that. I can't be the only one. Try offering more vacation!

    Oddly enough I work at a University, who, by din't of not being able to pay that well, offers a minimum of 4 weeks a year, with an option of 8. It is one of the reasons that I stay.

    Extensive Vacation

    Reasonable pay

    Responsibility

    Flexible hours

    Ability to work from home

    Trust

    Minimal Dress Code (ie. Clothes)

    In order of importance pay comes somewhere beneath flexible hours, responibility, trust, and dress code.


    Veltyen
  21. Re:nanotech is a billion years old on Cornell Nanohelicopters Achieve 8rps · · Score: 1

    So what happens when you have the ability to create at a whim and unlimited energy?

    Every time that anyone has postulated that the time worked, and the amount worked will decrease, they have been terribly wrong. Look at the 50's and now. Far more labor saving devices. Far less NEED to work. Automated factories, automated accounting, and yet.... we work more.

    When the only job availible is being an extra in films, or being paid to think, then that's what people will do.

    Collapse the economy. Maybe. But it will all be the same Masters and Slaves afterwards.

    Veltyen
  22. Re:3D Realism is becoming dangerous. on Nvidia's NV20 · · Score: 1

    But one aspect of them has been increasingly worrying me over the last few years; their increasing realism. When this new graphics card is fully exploited, games scenes will be indistinguishable from reality.

    It always amazes me that reality can keep up the framerate.

    The effect you describe reminds me of autism, which someone once postulated was caused by the autistics internal universe being more interesting then the "real" universe. Austistic's have been arround long before killer 3d cards.

    Veltyen
    -not even a pretty face
  23. Re:Communism? on Look to Windward · · Score: 1

    Also, his work is very refreshing when compared to that of most other SF writers, as it regards communism as inevitable, something I would agree with, in the long term.

    Hate to break this too you, but the culture is not a commune. It's not even vaguely socialistic. Part democracy, part benevolent dictatorship. You seem to be missing the fact that the Minds are in charge.

    Sure the humans have a say. But the ultimate decisions are nearly always left to the Minds. Once you get past the orbital/plate/GSV stage then you end up with a anarchic commitee system, where the Minds decide the direction of the culture.

    When it comes down to it it is a lot better solution that what most humans currently use. Human politicians are fallible. Once we make an adequate enough AI then, once we're sure it has our best interests at heart, we should put it in charge. Less likely to be distracted by matters mundane.

    --quote here--
  24. American Politics An Outside Perspective on Feedback: Politics and the Internet Dog · · Score: 1

    The more I look into the American Political system the more that it strikes me as badly done.

    The things that strike me as odd:

    Uncompulsory voting is thought of as a good thing. This is bizarre, although I can see it's point. What it leaves out however is that this means that only someone with an agenda will vote, and the silent majorities views are ignored

    Prefferential Voting is unheard of. This is why Nader's vote is wasted. This is why any third vote is wasted. And this is why the two party system will stay a two party system. While either of the two parties can ignore the fringe parties they can stand on their own idiotic platforms. If you could vote Nader, or Gore if Nader won't get in would you vote that way, rather then having to decide on the basis of whether one will succeed? There are working systems arround that do this.

    Presidential Power is overwhelming. This leaves one man with no real checks and balances running one arm of your government. Why? Under a nation at war this makes sense, otherwise it is two much power in one set of hands. This is also what makes the position attractive to greedy evil men, as well as those who wish to combat evil greedy men.

    The social contract between the people and the governing body over them appears to be made of tissue paper in the american model. Once you elect your surrogate King there is no real control over him by the people. What was that quote again... by the people for the people....

    Religious and Sexual Preferrences seem to be carped on extensively for the position of president. Why does who he fucks, and who he worships matter? If a bisexual Satanist was going to make a good president he would never get in because of the personality level of the political race, even if he was going to make a stellar president in comparrison to the other choices.

    Social Security is not an evil word. Do you want people homeless and starving on the streets? Do you care about your fellow citizens? The answer is a working Social Security system. Answer this, would you prefer a tax cut over shovelling the remains of the disenfranchised off your lawn?

    To put this in perspective, I come from a country that has a working compulsory prefferential election. That has no president, the powers of the president being split between the prime minister, the governer general, and the head of the armed forces. The social contract between the people and the people with political power is strong, if a little rocky. And no one cares if a politician is laid. I have no idea what religious preference most of the politicians have, it is a moot point, no one really cares.

    As for social security. I had a child on public health a few years ago. With top flight medical attention (there were complications) hospital stays and no health insurance. All up it would have cost me about $100. There is no real homeless problem, although there are homeless people. There is currently compulsory superannuation, meaning the old age pension will be less of a deal in 20 years time, though it is an economic backlog until then. There is (free-ish) tertiary education for anyone who wants it.

    All this means that I get somewhat weirded out when people want to go to the US

    Veltyen
    On a side note, the original presidents of the US weren't actually christian. What happened?
    As an un-american diatribe I expect this to be modded down, much as the current political debate only has two people.
  25. Re:$55k is that all?? what a joke on Perl Community To Buy Damian Conway? · · Score: 1

    If that's USD then it is probably about what Conwei-san already makes. Lecturers and proffessors aren't paid that well. This is balanced by living in Melbourne, which is pretty cheap when you know where to look.

    I had Damian as my project supervisor many years ago, I hope this turns out well for him.

    Veltyen