Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:To this, I say, so what? (Score 0) 544

"This is dumb and doesn't belong here" bubbles up to the surface here all the time. I'm turning in my sig. Slashdot, you're too into yourself. I no longer identify with what has become a community where easy criticism is consistently considered insightful. The tone is ugly and the signal to noise ratio has, for me, crossed a waste-of-time threshold on a scale much larger than single-silly-article. The whole community seems to exist (largely) in order to congratulate itself for its own cleverness. Bye bye.

Comment Pretense, much? (Score 1) 388

"The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads"

Really? Doubt it. The smartest people I know want nothing to do with the profit motive. I bet you've got a bunch of very bright 700-math SAT types out there, but that's not saying much. The best minds of any generation have the confidence to embark upon unconventional lives.

Comment Reason provides means, not ends. (Score 1) 510

I'm saddened by how common this error is. We are constantly faced with "what's best on a population basis" Vs "what I want for me" questions. Logic has nothing to do with it. It's about values.

Otherwise thoughtful people seem to like to think that they have a "rational perspective", whatever that means. You might be better than "the masses" (whoever they are) at logically solving problems once you have a *goal*, but you can't reason your way to ends. You will end up chasing your ends to a plurality of mutually defensible and mutually assailable assumptions. If that weren't the case, moral philosophy would actually be useful, and used.

Comment Re:Squandered technology (Score 3, Interesting) 450

Yes, the Loudness War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war continues.

But, as you know, many people aren't participating. And I'm not just talking about microphone geeks recording Mozart for the 18,000th time.

I find the Age of Adz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_Of_Adz to be a great example of how some artists are embracing the latest production techniques, yet employing them with careful compositional intent. Such work deserves to be delivered with the temporal and amplitude resolution with which it was created, says me.

Comment Re:A quick google search (Score 1) 845

As you probably know, *these* are the ones that really kick your ass: http://www.nachi.org/images10/oneWayScrew.png
Of course, they are only used for things like bathroom stalls because they would kick the Authorized Service Person's ass, too.
I have often thought of the one way screw (as shown in that image) coupled with a left-handed thread as somehow deep in its uselessness...

Comment Re:Excellent Work You've Invented Gnutella (Score 1) 218

My *hypothesis*, (note "I believe") is that users themselves can serve this function by rating comments. Pretty simple, really. You can imagine any number of integration schemes that connect these ratings to a reputation value.

Sure, you can be pessimistic and say "never work", but the sociology of online communities is a young science. An anarchical web is important to me, so these questions are worth my energy and optimism.

Comment Re:Excellent Work You've Invented Gnutella (Score 1) 218

Giant waste of time, bittorrents benefit is from the community bitching about bad torrents, you cant do that without a web of trust or a trusted third party.

But torrent search sites are neither webs of trust nor trusted third parties, right? They assist in separating the wheat from the chaff simply by allowing the wisdom of crowds to accumulate through posts linked to a torrent file.
Seems to me that this "what are people saying about this torrent?" functionality is consistent with complete decentralization; the community can in principle be built around the client instead of some site. Who hosts the discussions? Everyone who participates in them. Seems as cloud-able as anything else. Mods *can* be replaced by user ratings and associated karma, I believe.

Comment Re:Dude that would be soo cool... (Score 1) 171

Trolling sucks and our IP system is broken, yada yada, but...
That patent contains a lot of information about *how*, not just what. Of course, the language is vague and leaves you with no idea where they are with implementation; that's the lawyers' job!
I mean, this probably means *something*, right? Right?...

The system as claimed in claim 28 further comprising circuitry for determining an angle of a normal of the surface function that is correct for aiming a reflected beam into an eye of the observer using the equation: .delta..function..delta..delta..function..function..times..func- tion..pi. ##EQU00007## wherein: .delta..sub.OP is the angle of the normal of the surface function; .delta..sub.O is the angle of the reflected light beam measured from the plane of the projection screen; .delta..sub.P is the angle of a projected light beam measured from the plane of the projection screen; L.sub.P is the horizontal displacement of the projector; L.sub.PS is the vertical displacement of the projector; L.sub.O is the horizontal displacement of the observer; L.sub.OS is the vertical displacement of the observer; Z.sub.O is the average thickness of the projection screen; Z.sub.0 is the difference between the average thickness and the maximum thickness of the projection screen, x is the horizontal displacement along the surface of the projection screen; and k.sub.0=2/.lamda..sub.P wherein .lamda..sub.P is the length of a pixel that is to be projected to and from the normal location.

Slashdot Top Deals

People will buy anything that's one to a customer.

Working...