Shouldn't the size heuristics be in kernel space? Why should cp be analysing the RAM on the system? Take a look at the obscene hacky amount of heuristics userspace ends up with here, for example: http://insights.oetiker.ch/linux/fadvise/

IMHO, POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL should be sufficient, but it doesn't seem to do anything useful (wrt. the page cache). I'm using POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED continuously on just-read pieces of file for an md5sum-type program (moderate CPU on a one-off sequential read), and this seems to work, but I'll also need to do the Oetiker mincore hack as referenced above in order to avoid evicting files out of the page cache if they were in there before.

This is a massive hack though; why shouldn't POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL suffice? IMHO the kernel should do the following heuristic on POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL: for large files don't cause cache misses to populate the cache. And cp could then do a single posix_fadvise and be done with it.

You assume that these groups are independent, whereas in fact the size (in real terms) of your 10% group depends on the 90%.

That's an entirely separate and irrelevant discussion.

The field of AI is advanced as CAPTCHAs are broken (eg: OCR). The great thing is that spammers work on this for us, too. When humans and computers cannot be separated, then we'll have computers that can pass the Turing test. AI research will have finished.

You could use that argument in response to every point about coding style, indentation or the number of spaces to use after a sentence, including your own.

How do I get my editor to do that for me? Or am I supposed to hold down the space bar every time I want to line things up like that?

Also, how wide does my screen have to be? I like the 80 character standard. If the tabs have variable width, then what happens when I view someone's code with a tab width of 8 when he wrote it with 4? Everything wraps horribly? No thanks.

Just a thought. Here in Europe I drive a TDi and get 40-60 mpg depending on how hard I drive it.

However, I took a while getting the hang of it. The turbo only kicks in at about 2500 rpm, and only after a delay. If I want real acceleration this involves being in the right gear and getting the engine revved up in advance.

How much more difficult/impossible would this be in an automatic? A kick down won't work as well as there will still be a turbo lag.

In Europe this is easy: everyone drives stick.

Mitchell and Webb have done an amusing sketch on it, too.

Why not use a handheld scanner and some stitching software?

Who'd have guessed that element 114 would turn out to be a cancer-detecting breathalyzer?

I'd be fine with scrolling through pictures as described, but I'd hate to write an SMS with a touchscreen. I think that the difference with the iPhone is that it's a trade-off. You get a much bigger screen in return for dealing with the touchscreen.

It isn't extortion. The disconnection is legal under the terms of the contract (violation of TOS).

Reconnection is then subject to negotiation, or the customer can take their business elsewhere. That cannot be extortion because you aren't threatening the customer with anything. He can have his server back. He is under no obligation.

<i>...it's forcing entry to a legitimate server or tampering with their equipment (if you were mistaken about them being a spammer).</i>

It's not forcing entry at all. It is entry with permission as the result of a non-obligatory contract renegotiation.

Well, you probably broke quite a few laws by using coersion to gain access to a customer's servers. But I for one would overlook it, given the benefits to the world at large (still it could be risky).

Fortunately, given the use of GRE tunnels, the spammer probably broke more laws, and would probably be a bit hesitant to sue.

No legal problem there. It's a contract issue.