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Electronics sector lifts TAIEX
The TAIEX edged higher yesterday, led by surges in large-cap electronics stocks such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
The weighted index ranged between a high of 7,165.86 and a low of 7,107.78, before finishing up 23.7 points, or 0.33 percent, at 7,159.75 on turnover of NT$60.65 billion (US$2.09 billion).
A total of 2,069 stocks closed up, 1,950 finished down and 591 remained unchanged. Most of the market's eight major stock categories closed up, with textile shares scoring the highest gains, finishing up 1.02 percent.
HTC hopes for US-led recovery
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday unveiled its latest smartphone — the Droid DNA — that will spearhead its campaign to regain market share in the highly competitive US market.
The Droid DNA, which features a super-sharp display and high-speed 4G LTE Internet access, will serve as the company's leading smartphone for the holiday shopping season in the US, HTC said in a statement.
HTC said it is collaborating with US mobile network operator Verizon Wireless in launching the Droid DNA, with pre-orders starting on Tuesday and the phone expected to be available in retail stores from Nov. 21.
The Droid DNA comes equipped with a 5-inch display capable of displaying 1080p video and has the sharpest resolution of any smartphone screen on the market, the company said.
Taiwanese firms in Saudi expo
A group of Taiwanese building materials manufacturers participated in an exhibition in Saudi Arabia with the aim of finding thousands of buyers in the lucrative market, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said on Tuesday.
The 21 companies are seeking an estimated 20,000 buyers for consumer metal products, building materials and bathware in the Middle Eastern country, which has a housing market valued at US$67 billion, said TAITRA, which organized the delegation to Saudi Build 2012, which ran from Sunday until yesterday.
Taiwan's metal product exports to Saudi Arabia last year were valued at US$32.5 million, 14 percent of its total exports to the Middle Eastern country, customs data showed.
The figure represented a 16 percent increase from the US$28 million in exports to Saudi Arabia in 2010, the data showed.
Hon Hai in Indonesian talks
Senior Indonesian economic and trade affairs officials will visit Taiwan next month for a meeting with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) to discuss an investment project, an Indonesian industrial estate developer said yesterday.
During their stay in Taiwan, the officials will talk with Gou about his plans to build a mobile phone factory in Indonesia, said S.D. Darmono, president director of the publicly listed developer Jababeka, in an interview.
The Indonesian officials will try to determine what government support Hon Hai needs to make the investment, Darmono said.
Hon Hai is looking at setting up the factory in a suburban area of Indonesia's capital Jakarta, and plans to start operations by the end of the year.
However, the project seems to have encountered some hurdles.
Muhamad Chatib Basri, chairman of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board, said last week that negotiations on the investment project were still in progress.
NT dollar up against US dollar
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, edging up NT$0.004 to close at NT$29.125.


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Browsing by Subject "Student learning - Computer aided"
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Is Larry Cuban right about the impact of computer technology on student learning? (Polytechnic of Namibia, Department of Communication., 2009)This article seeks to offer some degree of classification of Larry Cuban's view, about the impact of computer Technology on student learning. Cuban is a Professor of Education at the august Stanford University, where the ...

subset: commoncrawl


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"Why do queens want to go and get married in churches? Obviously this crusty old pathetic, Anglican church – the most joke-ish church of all jokey churches – of course they don't want to have queens getting married. It's kind of understandable that they don't; they're crusty old calcified freaks. But why do we want to get married in churches? I don't understand that, myself, personally. I loathe heterosexual weddings; I would never go to a wedding in my life. I loathe the flowers, I loathe the fucking wedding dress, the little bridal tiara. It's grotesque. It's just hideous. The wedding cake, the party, the champagne, the inevitable divorce two years later. It's just a waste of time in the heterosexual world, and in the homosexual world I find it personally beyond tragic that we want to ape this institution that is so clearly a disaster."And:
"I can't think of anything worse than being brought up by two gay dads... For me, being gay was about wanting to do the opposite of the straight world, so I think that's where my problems in this particular area come from. For me, personally, the last thing I would like in the entire world would be to go through cocktailing my sperm with my boyfriend and finding some grim couple in Ohio who are gluten-free and who you pay $75,000 to have your baby. To me it feels absolutely hideous."His memoir is called "Vanished Years."


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This silicon ring is of Jamaica Reggae hiphop style, with skull and crossbones pattern decorated on the ring. Very cool black hiphop style with soft, comfortable and solid silicon material. Can show your personality by wearing this simple while stylish Jamaica Reggae hiphop silicon ring decorated with skull and crossbones. Also a gift for yourself or the people you care!
- A cool Jamaica Reggae hiphop style silicon ring
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- Silicon ring, very solid, soft and comfortable to wear
- To show your special taste, add you a lot of charm
- A great gift for yourself or the people you care
- Material: Silicon
- Color: Black ring with white skull and crossbones
- US size: 10 1/4
- Size(D x W): Approx. 0.79 x 0.39 inch/2 x 1cm
Package Includes:
- 1 x Silicon ring
Note: Please be reminded that due to lighting effects and monitor's brightness/contrast settings etc, the color tone of the website's photo and the actual item could be slightly different.


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When Jonathan Noble isn't writing books, he spends his time volunteering.
"4 days a week, I volunteer Monday through Friday from 8 to noon," said Noble.
Noble has been helping out at the United Way 2-1-1 office since January.
"This is something that I can do to help out in my own little small way, said Noble, to help out and know that I really am doing something good that really is helping people who face needs."
Directors say the free help is needed.
"Our annual budgets just don't allow us to hire the people we need."
"we cannot open those doors every morning if we don't have volunteers here helping and assisting," said 211 Director David Duke.
The Exchange Center for Child Abuse Prevention also uses volunteers to stay afloat.
Directors say due to budget cuts they only have a part time receptionist.
"I answer the phone, I run the desk, I talk to the clients, I schedule appointments, anything the ladies need in the office," said Samantha Patterson.
For the past two years, Samantha Patterson has volunteered every Wednesday and Friday at the Exchange Center.
She says her reasons are simple.
"To create a positive change and to give back to those who need."
Although volunteering doesn't include a paycheck, most say what they do get in return, matters more.
"It's a great feeling I love to see the children when were making a difference," added Patterson.
"It's been very very satisfying and rewarding," said Noble.
Feelings that keep the volunteer cycle going.
Many non-profit agencies throughout the Wiregrass need volunteers.
If you would like to give back by volunteering, dial 2-1-1 toll free and find out what volunteer opportunities are available in your community.


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Following comments that The Last Guardian had been put on hiatus, Sony's worldwide studios head Shuhei Yoshida reached out to correct the misunderstanding. He says the game is still in active development, but not quite ready for prime-time.
"That hiatus term -- I'm not a native English-speaking person -- but that's misleading," Yoshida told Kotaku. "The game is in active development. [Lead designer Fumito] Ueda-san shared updates a few months ago. Nothing has changed. My answer is, 'Yes, the game is in active development.' It's not hiatus at all. But we are not ready to reintroduce it. When we are ready, we will do that. Please wait."
This followed comments from Sony Computer Entertainment America president Jack Tretton to Geoff Keighley, saying it had been put "on hiatus."
While Yoshida's words are reassuring, Tretton's comments must have come from somewhere. After a historically troubled development with multiple delays and admittedly slow progress, it wouldn't be surprising if the PlayStation 3 version, at least, has been scuttled in favor of PlayStation 4.


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Big East M5: 02.05.12 EditionPosted by mlemaire on February 5th, 2013
- Last night's game between Syracuse and Notre Dame featured two top-25 teams jostling for position in the conference standings, but it also was the first and maybe the only time the Grant brothers–Jerian and Jerami–will get to play against each other in college. This will be the only meeting between the two teams this season and with Syracuse set to leave for the ACC posthaste, who knows when the next time these two teams will play unless they meet in the Big East Tournament. The brothers are apparently quite close and Jerami even credits his older brother with making sure he didn't give up when he wasn't getting playing time early in the season. Jerami and his Orange repaid the older brother by throttling his Fighting Irish. Jerian may have scored more (15 to 14) but Jerami added six rebounds and two assists as Syracuse cruised to a 63-47 win.
- Pittsburgh finally got itself a marquee win over the weekend against Syracuse and then avoided the obvious letdown by beating Seton Hall last night for its sixth win in seven games. The Panthers tried their best to let Seton Hall beat them, shooting a season-low 34 percent from the field, but Pirates' star Fuquan Edwin got hurt in a one-point game and Pitt managed to pull away thanks to its depth and its defense. Seton Hall is headed for a finish near the bottom of the conference, but the win was still huge since the Panthers will play three ranked teams over the course of the next nine days.
- The end of the James Southerland saga is now in sight according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports who cited a source to say Southerland's eligibility appeal will be held Friday. Counting the game last night against Notre Dame, Southerland has missed six games and the team has gone 4-2 in his absence but surely Syracuse fans are excited to get one of their most dynamic offensive players back on the floor. Grant and Trevor Cooney were able-bodied replacements but they lack the scoring punch and athleticism of Southerland. The appeal is being heard by the university and assuming it is granted, the Orange could have Southerland back in uniform as soon as Sunday's game against St. John's. But few people know the severity of Southerland's academic transgressions and even fewer will know the nature of the appeal, so let's not get ahead of ourselves quite yet.
- It has been a good past few weeks for Cincinnati and coach Mick Cronin. The Bearcats have won five of their last six and currently sit just a half-game behind Syracuse in the conference standings. They also recently secured one of the more high-profile recruits of the Cronin era when the Bearcats landed New Jersey native and five-star forward Jermaine Lawrence on Sunday. Lawrence is an athletic power forward with plenty of face-up skills and decent range. He will need to add some meat to his bones but he has the frame to add serious muscle and could make an immediate impact in terms of floor-spacing and natural ability. Perhaps more importantly is that it signifies that Cronin can recruit with the big boys and once he is able to do that with consistency, the Bearcats will be a perennial contender no matter what happens to the Big East.
- Steve Lavin has St. John's playing tough basketball, which is why freshman point guard Jamal Branch's knee injury and presumed sprained MCL is especially inopportune. Branch has been up and down since becoming eligible, but recently he has been a spark plug for the Johnnies and the team is 5-1 since being inserted into the starting lineup. The Red Storm don't really have a true backup for Branch and will likely use a combination of Marc Bourgalt and Phil Greene IV at the point in Branch's absence. Hopefully Branch isn't out long because while Lavin's club doesn't quite have the look of a tournament team, they are headed in that direction in a hurry.


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Lady Dutch soccer team falls to Clearfield 4-0
The Lady Dutch were handed a 4-0 loss by the Clearfield Lady Bisons on Saturday morning in a match played under partly sunny skies at the St. Marys Area High School's soccer field. Prior to the playing of the national anthem, St. Marys Area School District Activities Director Terry Straub addressed the crowd and asked everyone to join in honoring the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and all of the country's servicemen and women. Once the match got under way, it did not take the Lady Bisons long to get on the board. Kristen Butler slipped a shot past St. Marys' goalie Mia Keener with 32:26 remaining in the first half to make the score 1-0. Shannon Reinke added to Clearfield's advantage just over halfway through the period. Keener came out of the net to try to get the ball, and Reinke was able to get around her and notch an empty net goal to make the Lady Bisons' lead 2-0 headed into the half. St. Marys did take a few shots throughout the half; however, Clearfield's keeper was able to stop them all. Clearfield had five corner kicks in the first half, while St. Marys had none. Both teams continued to fight hard in the second half, and Clearfield extended their lead by scoring two more goals in a span of just over three minutes. The first goal came with 20:35 remaining in the game, when Nichole Powers was able to put the ball past Keener to make the lead 3-0. Then Butler scored her second goal of the game with 17:20 remaining when her shot went past Keener and into the upper corner of the net to make the score 4-0. Clearfield had one corner kick during the second half, while St. Marys had none. "I think Clearfield obviously is a team that's played together for a while and they had very good team speed, team skill and communicated well. Our team needs to continue to work on that and the score reflected that," said St. Marys Area coach Bob Schmidt following the match.With the loss, St. Marys is now 1-2 on the season.The Lady Dutch will host Ridgway on Wednesday at 4 p.m.


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Granite Falls FBLA students make state
Twenty-two of the 33 Granite Falls High School students who attended the Future Business Leaders of America regional competition Feb. 10 in Stanwood will now move on to the state competition, to be held April 25-27 in Spokane.
The competition includes tests and presentations for verbal and academic skills.
At the regional event, Granite Falls students took first place in eight categories, including two team events. Students moving on to state are: Alaina Vanderhoff, Brooke Nicholson, Brandon Cole, Alexandra Krischano, Nick Hazelrigg, Miranda Meier, Cheney Hess, Alannah Roberts, Brian Jans, Hayley Nelson, Erin Hurn, Dagmar Mastrude, Pooja Sethi, Katelyn Campbell, Beau Byron, Aakash Sethi, Tyler Arp, Kenna Todd, Jeremy Miller, Hailey Murphy, Chloe Downs and Luis Torres.
Arlington Rotary honors students
The Rotary Club of Arlington recognized its Outstanding Students of the Month for February at its Feb. 21 meeting.
The students were awarded a voucher for a $50 donation to a nonprofit group at their school or in their community.
Sierra Baker is an eighth-grader at Haller Middle School. She was nominated for her leadership at school, creativity and desire to learn.
She volunteers as a camp counselor for Camp Fire. Sierra chose to give her $50 donation to Dog Wish.
Colin Davis is a junior at Darrington High School. He was nominated for his thoughtfulness and maturity as well as his loyalty to his family and friends.
He has had numerous leadership positions at school and he plans to become an engineer after college.
Colin chose to give his $50 donation to the YMCA North County Region's Youth and Family Services.
Everett Rotary honors students
The Rotary Club of Everett on Feb. 26 honored high school seniors Ryan Kouchakji and Abby Stringer of Archbishop Murphy High School, Chaeweon Seo of Cascade High School and Kelsey Calvert of Everett High School as its students of the month.
Ryan has volunteered for the Boys and Girls Club and Special Olympics.
Abby enjoys working with children and plans to attend Gonzaga University.
Chaeweon has gone on a service mission to Guatemala and hopes to become a nurse.
Kelsey is a varsity tennis player who holds a 3.97 GPA and plans a career in electrical engineering and aerospace.
Kamiak student honored by rotary
Ian Hughes was named Kamiak High School February Student of the Month by the South Everett-Mukilteo Rotary Club.
Ian, a senior, is editor of the school yearbook and was captain of the football team. He also is an academic coach and a member of the National Honor Society. He plans to attend college and study economics.
Jazz musicians win at Lionel Hampton fest
Jazz bands from Edmonds-Woodway High School, along with a vocal soloist from Meadowdale High School, performed well at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival held Feb. 20-23 at the University of Idaho. Many of the students were singled out for individual and group honors:
The "Ave B" combo, named outstanding jazz combo, is made up of seniors Jack Roben, Max Bennet, Cory Franklin and Miles Laven.
Jack (guitar), Max (tenor saxophone) and Miles (drums) also were recognized as outstanding soloists in their categories. Taylor Zickefoose from Meadowdale High School was named an outstanding vocal soloist.
Lynnwood teacher earns NEA 'salute'
Susan Sellers, a teacher at Lynnwood Elementary School, was honored Feb. 8 at the National Education Association Foundation's Salute to Excellence in Education Gala in Washington, D.C.
Sellers is the Washington state nominee for the NEA Foundation award.
Meadowdale teacher on national board
Mary Glodowski of Meadowdale High School has accepted a three-year appointment to the National Science Teachers Association Committee for High School Science Teaching.
The committee focuses on the impacts, implementations and best practices associated with the Next Generation Science Standards.
Glodowski is a national board-certified teacher, and is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching.
Terrace Rotary honors teachers
Jessica Asp, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Terrace Park School, has been named the Alderwood-Terrace Rotary Club's Educator of the Month for January. She also serves as Terrace Park's district math representative.
For February, Peter Breysse, English teacher at Mountlake Terrace High School, was the honored recipient.
Lake Stevens staffers earn Apple Awards
The Lake Stevens School Board will honor the district's Apple Award recipients for February at its March 13 meeting.
The awards honor district employees who are nominated and selected by their peers.
February's Apple Award winners are Tina Kinnard, teacher at Cavelero Mid High School; Dave Bartlow, principal at Skyline Elementary; Laurie Yoshihara, teacher at Cavelero Mid High; and Tim Bartlett, secondary math coach for the district.
To submit items, email firstname.lastname@example.com and put ["]School Winners" in the subject line, or leave a message for reporter Melissa Slager at 425-312-3530.


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Prep For 2009 Season Begins Friday at 2 p.m.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Anticipation for a new era in Yale Football has reached a crescendo and fans don't have much longer to wait to get a look at the Bulldogs. The first practice of the 2009 Yale Football season is Friday, Aug. 21, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Clint Frank Field and the other fields next to Yale's baseball stadium.
All but one of the nine practices leading up to the first day of classes on Sept. 2 will be in that 2 to 4 time slot. The exception is Aug. 29 when the Blue goes from 12:30 to 2:30. Other changes could be made along the way.
From Sept. 1 through the end of the season, the Bulldogs are on the practice field Tuesday through Thursday from 7:30 to 9:15 AM.
All Yale Football practices are open to the public. The Bulldogs, under Tom Williams, the first-year Joel E. Smilow '54 Head Coach of Yale Football, kick the regular season off at Georgetown on Sept. 19. From then on Mondays are off while Friday pre-game, walk-through at Yale Bowl will vary.
The Elis, who report in New Haven on Aug. 20, host Union College for a Sept. 5 scrimmage in the Bowl at 2 p.m.
Release filed by Steve Conn, Yale Associate AD & Sports Publicity Director


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Let's hope that somebody who can actually achieve something in the marketplace actually listens to what Michael Geist has got to say.
Don't bet on it. All the science we have has told us that Cannabis is at least as safe as any drug in our medicine cabinets. Yet we have been fighting a war against it for decades.
You can't use facts to win a debate the government isn't even willing to have.
I'm somewhat skeptical. I sell an iOS app at the usual App Store rock bottom prices. 90+% of my downloads are still attributed to pirates. I can't really drop the price any lower without giving it away for free. Pirates are going to pirate no matter what the cost is.
If demand is below the price set by the seller, the buyer will acquire the item through alternate channels where available.
Piracy dropped like a stone when cheap downloads became available. If you want to kill it off entirely, stop charging the same price for media that are new and media that are 20 years old.
I would argue that the payment mechanism can also form a significant barrier. Having to create a paypal or other account or enter a credit card number is a barrier. The entering of the information is a barrier, trust of the system accepting the information is also a barrier.
A lot of online game servers and download sites (like Rapidshare or Megaupload) also accept payments through local resellers. Credit cards are not that common outside US so a lot of people can't pay with them. It's not about security or privacy, it's about accessibility.
Long lineups at the checkout are a barrier; so I just stuff the things in my pockets and head for the door.
I would argue that the payment mechanism can also form a significant barrier. Having to create a paypal or other account or enter a credit card number is a barrier. The entering of the information is a barrier, trust of the system accepting the information is also a barrier.
My B.S. detector just exploded.
If your justification for stealing is, too much work to reach for my wallet, you may just be a thief.
Yes, putting a credit card number in to a form is a (very low) barrier. But downloading and installing LimeWire or a Bit Torrent client is also a barrier. Searching warez sites is a barrier. Running something from an unknown source is a barrier. Plenty of folks make it over those barriers. But PayPal is a "significant barrier"? I doubt it.
Speaking for myself, it is just a
I think there are always going to be a lot of people that steal because they can.
Winnona Rider? Lindsay Lohan? Did either one HAVE to steal anything?
The problem is that RIAA logic counts these people as "lost revenue" when they were never going to get their money to begin with. Where they are ACTUALLY losing money is with the people that are willing to pay but where it out prices what they are willing to pay. That is supply/demand economics.
There are people that will NEVER pay and there are people wil
So they're not worth worrying about, because they're not and never will be your customers. Look at how much money the indie devs made as compared to what they were on track for without that promotion. Look at all the charity that was helped because of it.
Yes, there are douchebags out there. But the majority of people are decent folk that understand value exchanges. Give them value for their money, and they'll gladly part with it at appropriate price points. Especially if you make it easy like Steam does.
'Even in those jurisdictions where there are legal distribution channels, pricing renders many products unaffordable for the vast majority of the population.
Most, if not all, Western nations completely invalidate such studies given that music is extremely affordable and reasonably priced - and much cheaper than capitalistic pricing would otherwise allow.
Its a societal failure, not an economic failure. Period.
Most, if not all, Western nations completely invalidate such studies given that music is extremely affordable and reasonably priced - and much cheaper than capitalistic pricing would otherwise allow.
Its a societal failure, not an economic failure. Period.
So you have also done a multi-year study to back up your claim. I'd love to see your data, and compare it to Geist's study.
Actually, studies like this contradict multitudes of studies which completely contradict this study. Not to mention, basic economics even contradict this study. So the onus of proof is most definitely not on me. They have an extremely higher burden from proof to overcome the overwhelming evidence they are full of shit.
The problem is that "extremely affordable and reasonably priced" is very subjective. When I was in college with basically no income a $10 cd was not affordable at all. Now that I have a job it is. Reasonably priced is also subjective. To some people $0.99 for one song is not reasonable at all.
There is virtually no extra cost for delivering one or one thousand extra copies, and therefore overhead is minimized = profits maximized.
While I agree that it's logistically much easier, bandwidth is not free and using 1000 times more bandwidth does cost more.
Not only was it cheaper on the DVD, as far as I know Amazon won't go and revoke your license to the DVD while they might to the digital copy.
That anecdote presumes that she has a right to obtain the content on her terms or prices.
If we're going to assume that her (thrifty) needs trump the plans (or lack thereof) of the copyright holders, then perhaps the law of the land should reflect that.
why not buy the DVDs?
More likely she wanted it *now* and decided that piracy was a permanent solution rather than the temporary 3-5 day solution while her shiny DVDs shipped from Amazon.
Piracy is just the new socially acceptable temper tantrum. Individual consumers (as opposed to collective market forces) have decided *they* get to decide the price and medium and if they don't get their way, they'll just take it for free.
Fine, pirate it, right after you process your order with Amazon. That way you don't have wait to enjoy what you now legally own. Or, why don't you write a check for a price you're willing to pay per episode and send it to the company as a donation?
I'm guessing you and your girlfriend are perfectly content not paying anything ever because the company dared to not have it your way right now.
why not buy the DVDs?
That's why [imgur.com].
What TV show has 30+ episodes in a season ($100/$3)? TV seasons are usually fewer than 25 episodes.
Why not order the DVD? Because she wanted to watch it now? Why not order 1 episode for $3 to watch now and order the DVDs to arrive in a day or two?
Why not go to the store and buy the DVDs now?
This is always the smoke screen that pirates use. I would have bought it. You want $x ? I would have bought it for $x/2 or $x/3. That goes for all reasonable values of x.
Now that she downloaded it, what's keeping her from buying the DVDs right now? She's "more than willing to buy it", right?
I pirate my TV content. Here's why:
- many shows are not available in my country (Canada)...
- When the shows do appear in canada, they are 1 or more seasons after originally aired.
- I enjoy discussing certain shows online with my friends in other countries
- broadcast schedules are sporadic. ie: this season of BigBangTheory has not been regularly broadcast week after week after week. So I prefer to wait until the entire season has been broadcast and then watch the season as a whole.
- the broadcaster or local distributor often puts animated ads on the bottom of content, occasionally covering up subtitles or other text that is part of the content.
- my local cableco compresses the crap out of HD content so pirated content is of higher quality, less blotchy.
- pirated content has had the commercials removed.
- my cableco messes with the encoding so frequently that my capture methods aren't reliable. (firewire on DCT6200)
- a PVR from my cableco has limited disk space, can not accomodate additional disks added, and can not be backed up.
- I also don't have the flexibility to transfer recorded content from my cableco's PVR to my laptop so I can watch it on the plane.
HOWEVER, I pay my cableco monthly anyway. Most of the content I do pirate, is content that would have eventually recorded or at least have come into my home via coax on the cableco's network.. The rest of the content, (foreign content) is I guess truly being pirated but I probably can't buy the DVD's due to region code issues anyway so I'm not a lost sale there anyway.
Sure, it's a fairly weak justification but I feel morally 'ok' with my decisions.
Yeah, I'm also more than willing to buy that low-mileage BMW M3 I saw in the dealership parking lot. Problem is they wanted around 70K for it! Ridiculous! Who has that kind of money?
So the logical flow is leading me to getting some 15 year old street punk to steal the car for me.
That's not only cheaper, but more convenient too, compared to spending, what, like half a day signing some papers and making trips to the bank and stuff.
Yeah, I'm also more than willing to buy that low-mileage BMW M3 I saw in the dealership parking lot. Problem is they wanted around 70K for it! Ridiculous! Who has that kind of money?
So the logical flow is leading me to use my matter replicator to duplicate my friends one.
That's not only cheaper, but more convenient too, compared to spending, what, like half a day signing some papers and making trips to the bank and stuff.
That is exactly my case. Let me use ebooks as an example. I always payed for my ebooks. From Amazon, Fictionwise and Ebooks.com. Then, one not-so-beautiful day, "export" restrictions started applying to ebooks. Most publishers would simply not allow those shops to sell me ebooks, because I was on a different country. I even talked to 2 of the authors, and both were aware of this, not happy, and trying to fight these measures, to no avail. As a corroborating note, these specific books were not available in my country, through any channels. Be it physical books, translated or not, or ebooks. Harper Collins is the leader of this "geographic restrictions", as far as I can tell. Well Mr. Publisher, I went out of my way to try getting these books legally. I contacted the shops, contact you and contacted the authors. For reference, everyone but YOU responded. Everyone pointed fingers at you.
In Eastern-European countries average salaries are around $600, but there's a highly educated youth, with cheap internet access (around $30 a month), and a lot of free time, and relaxed copyright laws (suing warez downloaders is not legally possible; you can only sue those who make a profit while pirating ).
At the university where I studied, teachers expected students to use pirated Matlab, as they didn't had an academic license program, so they provided intranet warez copies.
At the same time there's strong opensource culture as well.
Firefox usage:
Poland: 42%
Slovakia: 41.2%
Hungary: 40.3%
(And my guess is that in China hacker groups are government supported.)
"rather than actively trying to engage the local population with reasonably-priced access. "
You mean like high-school and college students without any income?
Piracy evidences the unstoppable propagation of art and ideas within and across cultures. To characterize it as a "market failure" only acknowledges the failure of the economically powerful to co-opt and monetize this particular mode of circulation. Even if media prices plummeted to lows that media companies would consider unthinkable, piracy would continue because the impetus to subvert would remain, and the demand for alternative distribution methods, file formats, and content would survive.
The good professor's got a peculiar view of things.
The intellectual property owners have a legal monopoly and the market is inherently averse to monopolies rewarding everyone who figures out a way to undercut the monopolists. Far from being a market failure it illustrates the proper functioning of the market and the role of government in interfering with the proper functioning of the market.
The purpose of copyright, like the purpose of the patent, is to confer a temporary monopoly to encourage the development of worthwhile ideas. That purpose is undercut by endlessly extending copyright into the indeterminable future. It's hard to even guess what that sort of appropriation of the patent system would've resulted in but it would hardly have been to serve the end of encouraging new developments.
Because in the market, sellers can choose the price they wish to charge, even if most other people think it is too high. After all, many more people want Ferraris than can afford them. That doesn't mean auto theft is a "market failure."
Piracy provides copies of content for free; there is no way the content creator can compete with that and make money. So it is necessary to create legal remedies, which create a "price" for pirated content against which the content creators can legitimately compete.
You don't simply have a right to help yourself to something just because it is priced out of your range. Doing is is a legal problem, and not a marketing problem. Furthermore, pirates are accustomed to paying nothing at all, which is demonstrably less than what many of them can actually afford.
The driving force behind piracy has always been, and will always be, "because we can". People have made unlicensed copies of things since the technology existed not because the original was too expensive, but because piracy was cheaper. Too many middle-class Americans do it for me to believe it has that much to do with cost.
Even if a factor behind piracy is the high price of content, it's self-defeating. Companies have lost the incentive to lower the price of content when sales slow down. People not willing to pay $20 for a DVD can wait for it to come down to $5. But they don't, they pirate, and now the company doesn't stand to sell as many units at $5 than they might have, so they're less likely to reduce the price. One might argue that piracy hurts the tendency to lower prices by removing demand for low-priced content.
Better pass a bunch of poorly written laws with over-reaching and unforeseen ramifications and egregious penalties anyway. You know, just to be safe.
I got to say, I agree 1000% with this...if the industry stopped making a big deal about it, and invested in making a better version to avoid piracy, that would solve the problem there.
If a door maker, makes cheap doors that people can just punch and break, does that mean that the problem is people punching and breaking doors down, and robbing you of your house and possessions....or really is it the door manufacturer's fault for making flimsy doors....i never once heard a door maker say...
>"god dang, that's another one this week,
So why is it ok for all these other companies to always blame others....I am not saying it is right for someone to steal....but the definition of stealing is bound to physical objects...when everything we talk about is virtual it becomes a big grey area.....
so fix the problem by coming out with a steel door, instead of balsa wood....add deadbolts to your door, instead of just changing the small door lock....why cant they come up with a better system for music, movies, software, instead of blaming the people that are doing what comes naturally, finding a way to save money.....if they can, they will.....
"An open mind has but one disadvantage: it collects dirt." -- a saying at RPI


text: Happy Fourth of July! What better way to commemorate the birth of the United States than with a patriotic NASCAR video. Much praise and thanks to YouTuber gadgefan48 who obviously put a lot of time and thought into this creation. The video (below) starts around the :12 mark following a brief introduction. The song is "It's America" by Rodney Atkins. <a href="http://www.linkedtube.com/HSfHkB_Mr3w7fc964495437d6963590cba941eccdb5.htm" _fcksavedu ...//more


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England Under-21s boss Stuart Pearce has been delighted to see Connor Wickham enjoying himself with the national set-up during a frustrating period with his club Sunderland.
Wickham is in good form for Pearce's side, taking his tally to three goals in his last four appearances for the team with the opener in the 2-0 friendly victory Northern Ireland at Bloomfield Road. At club level, though, he has barely had a chance to showcase his ability this term.
Pearce has been happy to give Wickham - who had a considerable reputation when he joined Sunderland for around £8million from Ipswich in 2011 - an opportunity, and he feels it is something the player is relishing. Pearce said: "He did well at Ipswich and obviously he got his move and then it has been a little bit start-stop for him at Sunderland."
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2012, All Rights Reserved.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


text:
Developing a Community Vision of Cyberinfrastructure Needs for Coral Reef Systems Science
On October 23-24, 2013, NCEAS is hosting an Earth Cube end-user workshop of coral reef researchers, to identify how improved cyberinfrastructure and Internet-enabled data tools can help address "grand challenge" questions in the coral reef systems sciences. Organized by Ruth Gates of the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaiʻi, and Mark Schildhauer, NCEAS' Director of Computing, this week's workshop follows on the heels of the first workshop held in September in Hawai'i.
The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Earth Cube Initiative encompasses "transformative concepts and approaches to create integrated data management infrastructures across the Geosciences." Coral reef research data exemplifies many of the challenges that the Earth Cube Initiative is addressing. The coral reef research community focuses on a critically important ecosystem and is extremely diverse from a disciplinary perspective, crossing the boundaries of biological, physical and chemical oceanography, land-ocean interactions, climate science, remote sensing, modeling and engineering.
The goal of these workshops is to gather feedback from data generators and users on how cyberinfrastructure and data tools can play a role in enhancing the value, scope and impact of coral reef systems science. Participants have been selected to represent a broad geographic range of US academic coral reef community members, including women and minorities, and as many early to mid career coral biologists as possible. Between the two workshops 50-60 participants are expected to attend either in person or virtually.
More information on the Earth Cube Coral Reef Systems Community Workshops


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Women's Open SinglesWomen's Open Doubles
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ITA Sanction Codes for Coaches to enter player
USTA BJK NTC Women's College Invitational (Women's) (264543)
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Checking in: Please enter the facility through our Indoor Training Center via parking lot B (overflow parking is located west of lot B in the Ashe TV lot OR in Lot D, located east of Lot B, over the bridge and to the left). Initial check-in is at the front desk in the main lobby.
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The year 2010 was a very bad one for Haiti. It started with an earthquake that killed over 300,000 people, mostly in the crowded capital of Port-au-Prince. After that, cholera originating in a U.N. camp broke out in a northern province and eventually spread to the city.
But public health researchers learned something useful from the tragedy: Cell phones can help stem an unfolding epidemic and funnel aid to the needy.
Shortly after the quake, Linus Bengtsson at Sweden's Karolinska Institute helped put together a team to capitalize on Haiti's cell phone system. "When people start to move around, as they often do after a natural disaster, it's very difficult to know where to deliver supplies," Bengtsson says.
But about a third of Haiti's population have cell phones. So Bengtsson and colleagues collaborated with the cell phone company Digicell to track calls by the SIM cards in the phones.
The phone owners remained anonymous, but their whereabouts showed that some 600,000 fled Port-au-Prince within three weeks of the quake. That relieved pressure on aid groups in the city, but not for long. Soon, the phone maps showed that most of those refugees returned because there was no food in the countryside.
While the quake experience was more a proof of principle for disaster relief, the team actually got results when they applied their tracking system to the cholera epidemic months later. The researchers describe their experiment in the journal PLoS Medicine.
Team member Richard Garfield of Columbia University says they tracked people leaving the epicenter of the epidemic, near the city of St. Marc. They wanted to alert medics to go where infected people might carry the disease. It worked, Garfield says.
"The second wave of cases did appear exactly in the areas where most of the population was moving to...out of the cholera zone," Garfield says.
In addition to trying to point health teams where the epidemic would spread, the cell phone trackers also sent health advice to Haitians via text or voice mail--things like, wash your hands frequently, get oral rehydration if you get sick, and continue to breast feed infected babies.
People who track infectious diseases say the technique should work for other outbreaks. "I think it's incredibly beneficial," says Andrew Tatem, who studies malaria at the University of Florida. "I think we're seeing a glimpse into the future of gathering information for disaster management."


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Like this [internet.com]? Breakout is a fairly simple game that requires only minimal animation. That makes it relatively easy to program. That doesn't mean it can't be done better. The breakout example I linked to it pretty choppy once you slow it down to a reasonable speed.
I wrote a DHTML version of Pong a while back that is far superior. Here's a link. [dnsalias.com] The underlying architecture was very primitive when I wrote it, not having features like the Canvas tag available. And yet it is one of the better Pong variations on the
in chrome the javascript breakout game you linked runs too fast to humanly play.
Another great one is DHTML Lemmings [elizium.nu]
javascript is more like scheme with a C syntax (the one and only syntax, all hail!)
http://www.quantumg.net/tetris.php [quantumg.net]
Presses 'down' key on keyboard
Seeing page scrolling down
Is JavaScript Ready For Creating Quality Games? NO
The keys are A-D to move, S to rotate, hold X to drop.
This is 100% pure javascript baby.
Think yourself fucking lucky that I even implemented the arrow keys. I sure as hell don't remember doing it.
why would you build a tetris game that *doesn't* use the cursor keys !?
Because, for some ungodly reason, everyone still uses keyboards that put the cursor keys on the same side as the mouse. Surfing the web is all about the freakin' mouse.. so making a web game that requires you to take your hand off the mouse is a bit silly.
I accept your point. I hadnt considered it because my cursor keys were about 1" from my trackpad!
Notice what happens if you rotate an L shaped piece into an already occupied position?
Another great win for JavaScript.
Notice what happens if you rotate an L shaped piece into an already occupied position?
But is it any more odd than what happens in authentic Tetris games if you rotate a T shaped piece into an occupied position [ytmnd.com]? What about what happens if you lay down a piece and keep spinning it [ytmnd.com]? Not only are these behaviors not considered bugs, they're actually required by The Tetris Company in authentic Tetris products published on or after 2001.
Needs work. Here's my version, complete with an adapter for Internet Exploder:
http://java.dnsalias.com/tetris/ie [dnsalias.com]
(Mine is based on the NES version rather than the more modern Tetris versions, so use UP to rotate, DOWN to make it drop faster, LEFT/RIGHT to reposition the piece. If you use IE, click outside the block-drop area to make sure that it has proper focus as I have not finished the adapter.)
While not as pretty, there's also an online multiplayer version written in Javascript here:
http://www.wiicade.com/gameDetail.aspx?gameID=1063 [wiicade.com]
That one is not mine, though the programmer did use my network technology.
You're too kind.
You can see some videos of a PacMan game I was working on as well as the evolution of the Tetris game here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=thewiirocks&view=videos [youtube.com]
I used to have a very pretty Space Invaders game written in 100% DHTML, but I never released it where anyone could see it. If you're curious, shoot me an email sometime and I'll point you to it. While it had sound effects and music, the underlying code was not nearly as good as I could have done. (It was written before
I very seriously doubt the designers of Java would have envisioned someone making a couple of FPS out of their creation.
Java was originally designed [wikipedia.org] to be a multi-media platform for televisions. It's 2d and 3d APIs are, although simple, pretty good. Actual functionality was bolted on later (see ya Vector!).
It is getting easier and more popular with libraries like jQuery, MooTools, Prototype, etc
What does "easiness" (of programming) have to do with the end quality of the game? It could probably be argued that "easiness" (fancy API's etc) actually reduce the quality of games by giving tools to people who do not know how to wield them properly. This is obviously not true for all games; there are simple games that can be adequately programmed in lots of languages. Addictive, puzzle-like, entertaining games. Then there are other games that push the envelope of what is possible. Pushing the envelope does not make a good game though so I digress.
To cut a long story short I don't think the availability of libraries etc to do the grunt work of games will improves things. In fact, I think it may result in an influx of poorly programmed/poorly thought-out games written by people who know enough to program a web page or move a LOGO turtle. It may of course be great for prototyping.
Note to QuantumG: Exclude your tetris implementation from the above comments. Nice work.
It's because most game developers wont want to pratt about for weeks trying to get the core Javascript stuff done, they'll want to write games.
The availability of these libraries mean they can do that.
There's the argument that developers always used to have to write their own driver layer and such in the DOS days and then build a graphics engine on top of that so it's not like game developers didn't used to have this barrier and yet still did well. The problem with that argument is back then, everyone had to do that, nowadays people could just go build something with Flash or just do a non-web game with XNA or something instead.
The importance of good and easy to use libraries means Javascript has a more level playing field with other technologies that currently attract game developers.
Messing around developing the underlying APIs, framework and such detracts from the important part of developing games- developing the game itself. The more time that can be spent actually developing games, the more potential there is for the games to be better because more time can be spent on the actual gameplay.
I don't think we'll ever eliminate bad games on some specific platform no matter how easy we make it to make games for that platform.
What we will see is an overall increase in games, and with that an increase in good games. It may be that we only get 1 good game for every 100 crap games, but I don't see that as a problem because people will play the good games and ignore the crap ones- as long as there are more good ones out there than that's what we want. Easy to use libraries allow for that, they allow 10
While that's a good argument, those libraries are often complex, and not optimised for what you want to do. Function calling in JavaScript is more expensive than in other languages as well.
What does "easiness" (of programming) have to do with the end quality of the game?
It's not so much "easiness" as "speed", which is crucial.
If you have two programmers instead of four, your game is cheaper to make.
If you have four programmers, and your competitor also has four, if you choose something "easier", you'll get to market faster than them.
It could probably be argued that "easiness" (fancy API's etc) actually reduce the quality of games by giving tools to people who do not know how to wield them properly.
Anyone can find a way to abuse any tool. I would argue that the cleaner and easier the language, the more readable the code, and the easier it is to find out who those people are.
Contrast this with something like, say, Java or C, and someone co
"What does "easiness" (of programming) have to do with the end quality of the game?"
Not a programmer?
If you have to spend weeks doing the basic, grunty underlying stuff (with assembler, let's say), that's less time you have to spend on quality interface, graphics, sound, innovation, vision, finesse.
GREAT languages let you do a lot with a little.
Matter of performance, not language capabilities.
Writing games in JS is rather easy, rather pleasant, rather fast. It's a nice language for the programmer, due to very flexible structure (override built-in methods? yay!) and has some great development tools (Firebug), and it's a nice language for the user, because everyone has a web browser, no installation required.
It's not nice for the machine. First, it's an interpreter. Second, due to this very extreme flexibility it won't ever be very efficient. It's s
First, it's an interpreter.
Actually, it's just-in-time compiled and run in a VM, on modern browsers.
A language cannot, by itself, be interpreted or compiled -- that's a property of the implementation. It is, in fact, possible to have interpreted C.
Second, due to this very extreme flexibility it won't ever be very efficient.
Take a look at some of the recent work done on Javascript engines, particularly in Chrome. I wouldn't be surprised if it got at least as fast as Python or Java.
It's sandboxed, meaning it can't run natively at full speed, every operation must be scrutinized security-wise.
Actually, no. I'm fairly sure modern implementations don't do this, and I know for a fact that it's possible to sandbox something w
VM = interpreter. No matter how much marketing people may want to convince you otherwise. If it's not native code, it's not run by native CPU, but by a virtual machine, it means it's interpreted.
Guess why people don't write quality games in Python and Java.
VM = interpreter. No matter how much marketing people may want to convince you otherwise.
Sigh... [wikipedia.org]
If it's not native code, it's not run by native CPU
And what do you think happens to your C source? It's not native code, it's a bunch of ASCII.
It then produces native code -- just like a VM does. The only difference is when this happens.
Guess why people don't write quality games in Python and Java.
Because they don't know better?
Most games do, in fact, implement some sort of scripting language to implement AI, game logic, etc. The smarter ones use an existing language, rather than rolling their own. WoW uses Lua. Civ4 uses Python.
As for virtualization, try virtualizing a different architecture than your native, say running a virtual MIPS machine under an x86 system.
I'll have to find you a citation later, but from what I understand, there was onc
"That's not a flaw of Javascript, it is a lack of an API. I see no reason why a vblank couldn't trigger a Javascript event."
Heh, and that's what shows you're just a newbie.
I see. File a bug in bugzilla.mozilla.org "Javascript needs a vblank trigger". If it isn't RESOLVED WONTFIX in first week, it will stay unresolved for the next eternity and some. The reason is not because it can't be done, it's because nobody will do it. You're confusing theory with reality. Try getting this feature in Explorer, talk with
it seems like web developers are now in the game development pot
Flash was the realm of web designers/web developers and is now one of the most widespread game development platforms.
Moreover, Flash's scripting language, Actionscript [wikipedia.org] is based on ECMAScript [wikipedia.org] which is in turn based on JavaScript [wikipedia.org], so Flash game developers have in fact been creating games in Javascript for some time now.
Flash Actionscript = JavaScript (although Actionscript 3.0 now resembles Java more)
So yes, Javascript is not just ready, but has in fact been one of the de facto languages for creating quality (fun and addicting!) (Flash) games in the past few years.
There is no reason why you can't use JavaScript as the script engine for your game engine. Just like you could use lua or python.
As you say it's getting easier and more popular, and bandwidth is getting better, but I can't for the life of me see why people already writing browser games would try to use that to write *better* browser games... can you? You'd better ask slashdot!
How about we start with some quality... webpages?
You know, the type that worked reliably with just about any browser, the way it used to in Web 1.0 before web standards became a marketshare battleground?
Lately, websites have become picky about which browser you use for just this reason. The AJAX monster they're trying to get everyone to use is just too unwieldy and expensive to maintain in terms of programmer time if they actually have to support all of the browser versions. The outstanding bug count is too much even for some of the big players in this space, I dare say.
I'm sorry, but I'm just not that optimistic that games will be very well supported across browser versions to think that it will result in "quality". Instead I have a sneaky suspicion that someone will try to use some slick game that works on a couple of browsers to pull marketshare over to its cloud, but all the while dictating to people which browser they must waste their time upgrading in order to participate in the hypefest. Then, a few browser versions later, the game won't work anymore.
HTML+CSS (current versions) is inadequate for most of what it's used for (user interfaces), as opposed to what it's meant for (documents). Add to the mix the monster that is IE, and you need javascript to make it bearable.
Specifically, IE 6 needs to die. IE 7 is tolerable but annoying, but IE 6 is really holding the web back.
Push up the web [pushuptheweb.com] has a nifty little mostly unobtrusive widget you can put on your web page to gently encourage your users to upgrade. The web designer in me likes the idea, but the security person in me doesn't want to train people to click on "upgrade your browser popups. Still, it's an interesting idea.
You must have been on different internet tubes from me.
For me "Web 1.0" was riddled with badly written copy/paste JavaScript, IE only sites, punchable monkeys, doubleclick cookies, dancing hamster gifs and pop-ups that you couldn't block.
How can the vast progress we've made not make you optimistic?
It depends where you draw the Web 1.0 line. Once the browser wars were in full swing, then of course sites ended up written for IE. Before that, the web was designed to be a collaborative research tool and deep linking was not only allowed by the "content owners" but expected. You were supposed to surf from site to site following your interests. Now each website is supposed to be its own little fiefdom where jumping offsite is discouraged. Rather than linking to the vast resources offsite, the typical
Part of the reason people use libraries like Dojo, Mootools, etc is because they solve a lot of the cross browser woes. I've been developing in dojo for over 2 years now and I rarely have browser compatibility problems, except with older IE which I'm lucky not to support.
I do think certain goals would be idiotic to even attempt outside of the Canvas element, and if you are working in the DOM, you most likely would like transparent PNG support because most games that aren't text based have some form of image
Assuming for a second I am misunderstanding. I think that web-based games are about 20 years behind the current technology. XOR? F
the way it used to in Web 1.0
This website is best viewed in Netscape Navigator 4.0
Bananas? Oranges?
How about we start with some quality... apples?
Q: Is JavaScript Ready For Creating Quality Games?
A: No, but it's happening anyway.
People build quality games out of the wierdest languages, for example Transport Tycoon Deluxe was built in assembler around 1995. I have no doubt you can write quality games in javascript. I don't think it's the easiest or best way, but it's not really my concern. If they cna make it happen, more power to them.
Hasn't anyone heard of "the right tool for the right job"?
Have you checked which language flash is scripted with these days?
With the new javscript revision, the main difference will be the graphics library.
That is admittedly important, but canvas+dom will enable quite a few nice things.
"Will" being the key word there. And of course it's scripted quite a lot with Javascript, since Javascript is primarily a scripting language
but why bother when you can do the same thing much easier and with many fewer browser or speed issues in Flash?
Because not every budding game developer owns a copy of Flash CS3, nor (I presume) is TheSpoom ready to donate thousands of copies of Adobe software. To write JavaScript, you don't need anything more than the Notepad that came on your existing PC.
but the games people are creating in ActionScript and JavaScript are closer to Atari 2600 games than [NES games]
Video games in the Atari 2600 era were often developed entirely by one person. NES games might have had a team of three to twenty people.
I'm always happy to see stories like this go by, because it gives me a chance to shamelessly plug my own webgame.
In this case, PseudoQuest is a great example of some of the crazy stuff one can do when combining existing libraries (Prototype, Scriptaculous) with custom code.
Interesting bits relevant to the JS portion of this article include: realtime PvP combat, a spiffy windowing system, drag/drop quickbar, in-game chat, easy-to-use player housing customization interface (drag/drop), and - of course - a
Even as a huge fan of AJAX web applications and javascript libraries, I don't understand why'd you'd pick javscript over flash for developing anything any more complex than tetris.
In less than a century, computers will be making substantial progress on ... the overriding problem of war and peace. -- James Slagle


text:
Considered by many to be the best textbook on Strategy, Contemporary Strategy Analysis 7th edition builds on the strengths of previous editions by introducing students to the core concepts and principles of strategy. Rob Grant eloquently combines theory with current real world examples and practice using a clearly written, logical and comprehensive approach.
Updates for the 7th Edition:
-An improved focus on strategy implementation, including additional content.
-Case material substantially enhanced including new cases form a variety of industries.
-More use of Strategy Capsules in every chapter that give more detailed examples of each strategy being implemented by a real company and the impacts the strategy has on their operation.
-Several of the longer chapters shortened or split into two to further improve readability.
Contemporary Strategy Analysis 7th edition is suitable for both MBA and advanced undergraduate students.
Full teachings notes to the cases are now available at the companion website www.contemporarystrategyanalysis.com
Contemporary Strategy Analysis 7th Edition is also available in a combined text and cases version
"The new edition of Grant's extraordinarily well-written textbook has the same accessible style as prior editions. This comprehensive textbook makes complicated material understandable and clear. The many new capsule examples of recent business events as well as text material based on new research keep the book completely up-to-date. The book also contains revisions of core materials for even greater clarity. Students rave about this book." Constance Helfat, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth


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And very often if there is even a small advantage to doing so. The plus side of having a national policy and laws is you can have some sort of a framework governing the use of the retained data. The downside is that most of these laws just encourage big brotherish behavior
Why on Earth should my telephone calls (source and destination) be logged and retained indefinitely? A "framework governing the user of the data"? Are you crazy? Any national framework governing the use of the data is next to useless. Once the data are there (recorded) no "framework" will guarantee how the data are used in the future. If I want to telephone my mother there is NO REASON AT ALL to log this. Indeed, if I want to telephone my drug dealer (I actually don't use drugs, but it's an example), there is NO REASON AT ALL to log that either. There is no "positive" (as your comment suggests) to this stupid proposal.
The solution is to "accidentally" dial the wrong number several times for every one time you dial the correct one. Eventually there will be enough complaints about the system and the data itself will be such complete worthless junk that they'll have to do something about it.
And by something I mean probably ban people from dialing the wrong number.
These people have no idea at all. I have younger relatives who don't have an email address at all, preferring to do everything via social networks. Then there is of course Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo et al.
Then there are tools like this Track Me Not http://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/ [nyu.edu]. Tools like this will extend to every communications medium to flood records with junk connections, basically multiply by a factor of thousands the information to be stored.
Computers are great at filtering and correlating data, they are even better at creating junk data making any filtering and correlation impossible, GIGO.
Sorry, I don't agree.
Precisely because computers are so good at data, a smart operator can bust the junk pattern and then filter it all out. The basic idea is that I-BigBro don't care about the sum total of your calls, I care about whether particular hotspots get hit at all. Put simply as an example, you can have 88,000 pages of data but the filter in Excel will sort it all up and a "known terrorist phone number" is there.
You do NOT have a right to commit a crime and calling your drug dealer is NOT something that society wants you to get away with.
If society wanted people to be able to commit crimes, it wouldn't have created the police and spend billions on funding for it. It would simply have kept anarchy. The police instead have been given powers to track criminals down and this has always meant powers to track people and communication. Why should your phone logs NOT be available after a court order has been issued for the
Given that it's Australia, the data will be in an incompatible format, the people acessing it won't know what any of it means and the system that is supposedly gathering the data will be just making the shit up.
If you really want to know what we are up to just buy it from china.
Given that it's Australia, the data will be in an incompatible format, the people acessing it won't know what any of it means and the system that is supposedly gathering the data will be just making the shit up.
If you really want to know what we are up to just buy it from china.
Yes, because Australia is a backwater nation that encodes all data in incompatible and undocumented formats of our own design. *rolls eyes*
This does raise an important question: do eyes in Australia roll in the opposite direction from ours in the U.S.?
This does raise an important question: do eyes in Australia roll in the opposite direction from ours in the U.S.?
No, downhill, just like anywhere else.
You can run your own tests, the victims won't be able to identify you.
Yes, because Australia is a backwater nation that encodes all data in incompatible and undocumented formats of our own design.
Actually, if you have ever tried to do anything in Australia regarding a log of phone calls or the like, it would seem that we do INDEED use incompatible and undocumented formats of our own design. This comes from many hours spent the phone with Telstra, Optus and worst of all Vodafone.
Oh, and by the way, I work for an Australian employer of over 200,000 employees. The data formats and accuracy that we have is utterly appalling. Even we can't read much of our data to any useful degree or match it with anyth
That in Europe data retention is only for a finite amount of time, and can only be used to investigate major crimes, e.g., murder and terrorism (the real kind, not the US kind). Recent rulings by European courts confirm this (no IP addresses should be given to investigate copyright infringement).
With Europe's increadible laws protecting personal privacy of data, this seems to go in exactly the other direction. It's like there is us and them and we are the government and we know whats best, on one side and the other, no one should have your data, you should be protected (but not from us). These are hard philosophies to resolve together consistantly.
Oh, you mean the very same EU Data Retention Directive that has been condemned by the EU's own data protection authority [dw-world.de], slammed by legal experts [ejlt.org] and is currently under evaluation [europa.eu] within the European Commission and which, after being found in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights in Romania and staggeringly overpowered in Germany [eff.org], will probably be either restricted so severely it will not matter much anymore or, if enough political pressure can be built in time, completely taken back.
Yeah, looks like a winner to me to introduce into your country now.
It is a winner if your goal is to fight a war on terror (U.S.). You appear to view spying as some kind of negative? The American government thinks Australia adopting Data retention is a wonderful policy.
BTW the EU is rapidly passing the ACTA. Apparently they don't care aboot privacy either.
This will affect those stupid enough to use their ISP's email address, and call on their normal landline or contract phone.
Others will use IRC channels, (occasionally) instant messaging, cycle through disposable or free web-mail accounts, use pre-paid no-contract mobiles using forged details, or just keep bribing those handling the data - just as they've done before.
In fact this really is just theatre with a few headlining arrests to come... (which will be arranged through the previous wiretaps, investigation, and existing lawful methods)
As always.
e-credibility: the non-guaranteeable likelihood that the electronic data you're seeing is genuine rather than somebody's made-up crap. - Karl Lehenbauer


text:
Priest on a Rope
I heard something about tying a rope to the High Priest in the Holy Temple. What was that all about?
The Aish Rabbi Replies:
In the Second Temple period, some people who were unfit took the position of High Priest. When they entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, they died, since they lacked the ability to handle the spiritual power of that place.
The other priests had to devise a plan to pull the dead body out, since no one other than the High Priest was allowed to enter in the Holy of Holies. So they tied a golden rope to the High Priest's leg when he entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur.
(Sources: Zohar – Acharei Mot 67a, Emor 102a; Talmud – Yoma 53b; Me'am Loaz; Arbanel – Exodus 28:33.)


text:
Regular price: $3.95
This book place it's focus on a few of the more popular forms of meditation and the effect that they have on the overall well-being of an individual. It starts out with a concise definition of meditation and also highlights the benefits of practicing meditation. It then goes on to focus on Zen Meditation, Mindfulness Meditation, and Yoga and the different ways in which they can help to improve the health of the individuals who practice them.
Everything is laid out in a manner that is easy to follow and understand. For those who may not be familiar with the practices a definition and a bit of history is given for each before the health benefits are examined.
Mediation has religious roots but has over the years been utilized by more and more individuals for the other benefits that it affords them other than being one with a specific religious practice. Getting healing is one of the main ones along with getting peace of mind and clarity of thought.
The author opts to outline everything and leave the reader to make an informed decision in the long run as to whether they feel that the practice of yoga will have any benefit on their health.


text:
Who's a less reliable kicker, Folk or Graham?
"Reality tells us there are no guarantees. Except that some day Jon Lester will be on that list of 100-game winners." - Peter Gammons
As Lombardi used to say the week before playing Halas and the Bears:
Its Bear Week!!!
This is going to be a good one.
* completed 31 of 36 passes for 366 yards.
* completed all 10 of his attempts on third down
* His 81.6 completion percentage ranks fifth-best in postseason history (Behind Brady, Simms, Warner and Montana).
* He has a 134.3 passer rating in the 2010 postseason, having thrown six touchdowns and no interceptions.
I think Rodgers is probably a top 3 QB now, top 4 if you want to put Roethlisberger in front of him (I wouldn't). I could easily see Green Bay winning it all with the field that's left.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." - H. L. Mencken
"The players make the manager, it's never the other way." - Sparky Anderson
I hate the Steelers. As a Redskins fan, they're not enemy #1 (Cowboys), but they are definitely a solid #2. It hasn't always been that way but even here in Virginia Beach, Steelers fans are EVERYWHERE. I think it's a combination of bandwagon fans and an abundance of military folks from Pennsylvania who are stationed here. And I'm sure I don't have to tell Bengals fans this but Steelers fans are insufferable.
My boss, who is from a Redskins family and has never lived anywhere but Virginia, came in wearing his Steelers sweatshirt today. That's bad enough but if they win another Super Bowl, I might have to call in sick for a week.
Oh, and it sure didn't take long for Steelers fans to change their tune about Roethlisberger, did it? Bah.
"I can make all the stadiums rock."
-Air Supply
Where's Jack Burton's spot-on analysis about Aaron Rodgers now?
I don't think a requirement of employment should be that you can never offend people. It's high time folks deal with being offended. It's another example of how we're becoming a bunch of wimps. - Person offended by NFL players not standing for national anthem.
Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please.


text:
Given recent weather, we may have to put a disclaimer on this: This is no joke.
June 2-8 is National Sun Safety Week, a time to remind ourselves to stay safe in the sun and avoid melanoma and other sun-related diseases.
Following are some tips on how to stay safe in the sun form the Sun Safety Alliance.
n Insect repellants reduce sunscreen's SPF by up to a third. When using a combination, use a sunscreen with a higher SPF.
n Overexposure to the sun's harmful rays can result in sunburns which increase your risk of developing skin cancer. Therefore, check your local UV Index which provides important information to help you plan your outdoor activities in ways that prevent overexposure to the sun. The UV Index forecast is issued each afternoon by the National Weather Service and EPA.
n Seek the shade whenever possible! The sun's UV rays are strongest between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. so remember the shadow rule when in the sun: If your shadow is short it's time to abort and seek the shade.
n Don't be deceived by color or cost of sunglasses. The ability to block UV light is not dependent on the darkness of the lens or the price tag. While both plastic and glass lenses absorb some UV light, UV absorption is improved by adding certain chemicals to the lens material during manufacturing or by applying special lens coatings. Always choose sunglasses that are labeled as blocking 99-100 percent of UV rays. Some manufacturers' labels will say "UV absorption up to 400nm." This is the same thing as 100 percent UV absorption. Look before you choose.
n Sunburn doesn't only happen during the summer. Water, snow and sand reflect the damaging rays of the sun, which can increase your chance of sunburn. Protect yourself year-round by using sunscreen with protection from both UVA and UVB rays, and an SPF of 15 or greater. Wear protective clothing, such as long-sleeved shirts, pants, a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses and sunscreen on the exposed areas of your skin whenever possible. Block the sun, not the fun.


text:
Too often, valuable components of industrial waste, particularly copper wiring and cable, are lost or discarded. But with cable granulating equipment available today, these materials can be recovered and efficiently recycled. Depending upon the volume and types of industrial cable and wiring, we have industrial granulators that fit your material, capacity, space, and budget.
Contact us today to find the copper wire granulator that fits your budget and need! You can get your wire granulator anywhere in the U.S., or near our fully stocked facilities in PA, VA, MD, and DE!
The Monster EVO is capable of up to 220 pounds of wire and cable per hour. With the addition of a powder dosing system and pre-shredder, the Monster Evo can additionally handle a wide range of household cable, wire, car wire looms, and harness wires. Small and extremely efficient, the Monster can achieve 99.9 percent separation of metal from plastics in the first pass.
A turbo unit can be added to increase productivity by eliminating the need to pre-sort the cable and wire. If only rigid cable is being processed, the Turbo accessory may not be needed, thereby improving efficiency.
The MG 150 is a compact copper wire granulator specifically built to recover copper from electrical cables while consuming minimal energy. This equipment is capable of processing 330 – 660 pounds of material per hour. The MG 150 granulator has the ability to separate fine and rigid wire through a pulverizing and separation process. Another important feature of the MG 150 is the self-cleaning mode that removes dust and reduces maintenance.
The larger capacity MG 220 effectively separates electric cables and other waste materials that have varying specific gravities by first pulverizing, then separating through an air flow process. The MG 220 manages 660 to 1100 pounds per hour of raw material and, like the MG 150, has a self-cleaning dust removal system to reduce maintenance time and expense.
The MG 220 VZT is a higher volume plant that efficiently recovers copper from just about any waste wiring component including electric cables and other scrap of different specific gravities. Through the patented pulverizing system, the MG 220 VZT will process 1100-1300 pounds of waste material per hour. The system is able to identify and separate thin wire from coarse rigid material and channels these to their respective sections of the system for further processing.
The MG 380 VZT processes from 1765 to 2650 pounds of material per hour. After pulverizing, the MG 380 VZT sorts materials of varying specific gravity through air flow separation. The equipment is designed for full recovery of copper and aluminum materials from even the thinnest materials. Utilizing the tritonic pre-shredder, the 380 VZT adjusts to the thickness of the material before conveying to the wire granulator and separator, thus creating achieving high efficiency. And, as with the other MG granulators, this model comes with a self-operated dust removal system for easier maintenance.
The MG Matrix system generates over 2000 pounds per hour of material pulverizing and separation. This high-volume series is surprisingly compact and recycles a high volume of cable while separating all the copper from plastic. This plant is rated at 99.9% effectiveness at separating copper or aluminum from plastics in the first pass.
Our experts can help you choose the exact system that you will need for the projected volume of material that you plan to process. And, depending upon your space and other logistic requirements, we can ensure that the wire granulator you select coordinates well with your other activities. From these and other specific variables, such as cost and efficiency, you will be able to select a logical solution for high-quality granulating equipment that will last.
Contact us today for your copper wire granulators!
Also don't forget to check out our stock and used equipment!
We work with anyone in the continental United States, and have full-service facilities located in:


text:
holy ****balls, that picture is ****ing huge
moving on...
i should post these in teh politks forum, lol...
Gold Jerry!
Well done gents!
Meanwhile, in America...
oh the ironing
And for no reason at all
Some stuff to do with dead files in your windowsill...
holy ****
This is why Twitter is stupid
Successful puffin is successful


text:
He has 49 been since 2001, and will be long after the dolphins leave and the earth is demolished. Once does not age past death, only decompose.
Well, it does say "would have been" and if he were alive is "would have been" his birthday today. And he would have been 61.
Interesting. So young. I'm the age he was, when he passed away. In his photos, you'd swear he was 20-25 years older than I.
I'm sad he died, and I'd have greatly enjoyed more of his work. Yet, the evidence is that his death might not have been so surprising - if visual assessment of Adams' vitality is any real measure.
Does anybody have a link to it? I can't see it.
PS: No, it's not here: http://www.google.com/doodles/finder/2013/All%20doodles [google.com]
That one's not interactive.
(I assume there's an interactive one because it says "many of the iconic sound effects used in our doodle were kindly provided by the creative folks behind this show"...)
Try this:
http://www.google.com/doodles/douglas-adams-61st-birthday [google.com]
Imagine if he was 42... that would have surely been wild.
He has 49 been since 2001, and will be long after the dolphins leave and the earth is demolished. Once does not age past death, only decompose.
Do the scientists that do carbon-dating know about this? It certainly is going to throw off their results...
I'm glad no one has ever made a HGTTG film. They would have screwed it up.
Although uneven, the movie was not bad, with a few brilliant parts. it's not like it's "blasphemous" -- Adams himself wildly changed the story every time it switched mediums. It's got most of the best bits from the book, plus a new ending that does more than just stop (as the book does), and as a bonus it does a great job of capturing Adams' absolute love and fascination with life itself.
not saying it's great beginning to end, but acting like it's any more uneven than a lot of his books is silly.
I didn't care for the film on first watch, but warmed up to it after 2 or 3 more viewings. I think the biggest thing they screwed up was "Hollywoodizing" it. It's too American - what I loved about the BBC series and books was their British. Arthur Dent and our window into his world are quintessentially British.
That said, the movie had some nice new bits, such as cutting back to the pub just before the Earth is destroyed to see everyone lying on the floor with bags on their heads!
One thing that bothered me was casting Mos Def as Ford. And not because he's black; he's just wrong for the part. I came out of the movie feeling like Ford wasn't in it.
(captcha: rescind)
i think my absolute favorite part is the destruction scene: the brutal, stomping musical queues as the camera zooms out from the rubble of arthur's home to outer space, giving a true sense of the mind-breaking scale of the vogon fleet, before it simply ploops the earth into oblivion.
I honestly didn't have a problem with Ford, but that may well be because I had no idea there was a Mos Def before I saw the movie. Zaphod, on the other hand, had me grinding out my own fillings.
And the less said about the iMarvin, the better...
I loved the Heart of Gold, too.
I don't know, my biggest problem with Zaphod wasn't the stupid head-configuration (though I agree with you, it failed). It was more like he gave me the impression that DNA was taking a swipe at the low-hanging fruit of the popular American stereotype.
The thought was kind of amusing in a meta sort of way, since the whole thing was a Hollywood implementation of quintessential British humor.
"Getting a movie made in Hollywood is like trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it."
Douglas Adams
The original radio series [wikipedia.org] is by far the best and funniest version. As people so often say, the pictures are better on the radio. If you haven't heard it, buy yourself a present [amazon.co.uk].
I think it's VERY difficult bringing something on screen that draws most of the humor from encyclopedia entries. Or Footnotes (that would be Terry Pratchett. Still waiting for a decent screen adaption.)
Indeed. Can you also imagine a third "Aliens" movie?
Screwed up too, it would have been.
"There are lots more tributes hidden including Marvin - the real one not the one in the film"
Huh? What makes the TV Marvin "the real one"?
I always thought the TV Marvin was completely wrong, compared to how he's described in the books.
Though I agree with your sentiment in principle, when I was a child, the TV series was my first exposure to the story and thusly, for me*, the TV Marvin is the real one (It also had the correct voice which helps the continuity).
I also went on to consume said story in every other form that I could find, and liked them all, bar one. it helped that, for the most part, the radio and TV show had the same voices.
However, I know some people that will have seen the film first and to them, *that* is the real Marvin and that just makes me want to curl up & shudder.
*I have always supposed that for any given story or song, the first version you experienced will always be the greatest in your own mind. Haven't found many exceptions to this rule yet.
Sadly, the OP doesn't realize that the TV marvin *WAS* in the movie. He's in the queue for paperwork.
See, the TV and movie Marvin are the same. Marvin keeps getting all his parts replaced, given that he's several times older than the universe itself.
New chassis, new interface, new hydraulics, everything's been replaced several times in different tech levels and different planets...
(except for one bank of painful diodes on the left side. )
If that was the case, who was in the Vogon office lining up in the film?
(hint: The TV Marvin)
A few options:
1. Marvin himself, filling out the forms. Since they can time travel, the rest of the crew knew how long it would take to get the release forms sorted out and left him there for 100,000 years.
2. A robot built out of the replacement parts, that, due to a shipping accident, ended up with a new bank of left-side diodes.
Lol, touche!
I'm getting the standard Google logo.
Does it not work when you use SSL?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1a87wzILF0 [youtube.com]
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Douglas_Adams/ [quotationspage.com]
It's funny though, how accurate that idea is. That's exactly what orbiting is - falling, but moving sideways so fast that you miss the ground.
Ingenious, humorous and really well done! Thanks for the "big warm smile" e
... a strong Brownian Motion producer, which is essential for the Infinite Improbability Drive which powers Zaphod's stolen spaceship, the Heart of Gold.
So Adams must have mentioned tea in more than one body of work, which isn't too surprising for an Englishman.
Completely useless stats for the record:
Tea is mentioned 31 times in the five volumes of the Hitchhiker Trilogy. That includes
once in the first volume's dedication ("...for tea, sympathy, and a sofa"), and three
uses of the phrase "a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea"
(twice in vol. 1, once in vol. 2).
In detail:
... a strong Brownian Motion producer, which is essential for the Infinite Improbability Drive which powers Zaphod's stolen spaceship, the Heart of Gold.
...plus all that fun with Arthur's attempt to get a cup of tea from the Nutrimatic machine.
Oh, and the title of the Dirk Gently book was taken from the third HHGTTG novel, anyway.
Wow, I post a comment [slashdot.org] and two hours later it's become the subject of a front page story. Seems a bit like something out of one of DA's books. Or one of PDK's, take your pick.
Have a nice diurnal anomaly!
Here's a link to a rather good tribute podcast made for what would have been his 59th Birthday, including Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Mark Carwardine, Stephen Mangan, Dirk Maggs, and me as the voice of Douglas himself.
http://poddelusion.co.uk/blog/2011/03/08/a-tribute-to-douglas-adams/ [poddelusion.co.uk]
I tried a bunch of localised Googles (google.ru,
Now that I'm using Google Plus, I don't get the Google Doodles anymore; I'm always shunted to a vanilla search page, with a small sign that cajoles me into using Google's Chrome browser instead of whatever else I'm using at the time. Attempts to view the front page or the Canadian *.ca search page senses that I'm a Google Plus user, and shunts me back to the "you would be happier if you used Chrome" doodle-less page.
Who goeth a-borrowing goeth a-sorrowing. -- Thomas Tusser