Today, i find out that some asshole stole the remainder of my fresh gum supply, four pieces. So now, until i can get to the store, i have to survive on pre-chewed gum. At least it is myself who prechewed it.

I am currently trying to make a new hosts file as defined in numerous standards, and want a list of websites to spawn it on. Can someone give me a list?

Does anyone have an old copy of the SRI-NIC Hosts.txt file? I want a copy of such so that I can do a study on the history of the internet, along with create a list of web sites in current use.

I have a unique situation. Attached to the internet is my router. Attached to my router is 3 computers, 2 of which we will ignore, one via wifi. Attached to this computer is another computer via ethernet cable, with a KVM switch for both of them. Attached to the furthest from the internet one, i have a pair of speakers and a speaker. Is there any way to make these two items shared between both of these computers? One machine is Windows Vista, controling the printer and speakers, and one is Ubuntu 10.04.

Yesterday I took the NWEA tests, and got a score of 276 (many people who have taken school since the advent of the computer probably know that this score corresponds with Calculus, or in that area). That isn't that important. What I'm wondering is, I got a question where the square root ended up negative, and it wanted an "exact" answer. The answer choices included a symbol I have never seen before. It is i, and it showed something like (3 / 4 + sqrt(7) i / 5 , 3 / 4 - sqrt(7) i / 5), and I wonder what it is. Can someone help me?

Right now i am making a universal pi finder, using the Gauss-Legendre Algorithm [wikipedia.org] . Currently, I am working on the pseudo-code for the entire project, focusing at the moment on the finding of the square roots. Any and all help is appreciated.
~Rallias Ubernerd

Argh. I know that if you are reading this, you are probably some kind of scientist or engineer, if not by trade then at least in mindset.

You are probably not a social scientist. I am. There are not many of us on Slashdot. So please, take a moment and let me explain a bit about our work to you:

It's true, correlation does not imply causation. However, not every SS study is a correlative study. There actually are ways to measure causation. Even ones that don't require a perfectly randomized full experiment, which is very hard to do when dealing with human subjects and nearly impossible to do if you're trying to find out how things work in the real world rather than how they work within a particular laboratory setup. There are many methodological and statistical techniques for piecing apart the likelihood of a correlation pointing to causation.

In addition to that, plenty of studies that do not measure causation don't claim to be. Now, the press release put out by their university might. The random blogger who posted about it might. But that doesn't mean that the authors actually claimed to find causation with methodologies that can only find correlation. Generally, that kind of thing gets mentioned in the peer review process.

So please, the next time you see a psychology/behavioral/education/other social science study on Slashdot, do not automatically cry "Correlation does not imply causation!!" without even reading the paper or understanding their methodologies or what they actually did or did not claim. And REALLY do not use this as your entire justification for declaring the study completely illegitimate. You just sound like a creationist who has wandered into a discussion of evolution and yelled "But what about entropy???"

This is the best summary of the great global warming fraud I've yet seen, and published in the most unlikely of places.

Although I feel Harold Ambler makes some good points, he misses what I've always felt was the most important. Given that the climate will change (as it always has), do we want it to be warmer, or colder? As glaciers covering Europe (the norm for the ice age we've been in for the past 100M years) seems to me far worse than rising sea levels, I've never understood why we'd want to fight warming in the first place.

I think the whole global warming fraud started by ignoring all of the available evidence and blindly asserting that the climate is naturally stable, so therefore if man did something to break that stability we'd be creating an otherwise-avoidable catastrophe. What BS. The only thing historically unprecedented is the inexplicable stability of the climate for the past 10K years. Change is unavoidable, with or without the actions of man.

I had a realization the other day, and thought I'd share it with my fellow Slashdotters.

I was watching one of the viral videos for McCain, by a former Army sergeant who lost his leg in Iraq. He was speaking to Obama, telling him why he wouldn't vote for him, and ended his message with the cliche that "freedom isn't free".

I beg to differ. Freedom is most certainly free. None of us are free because we are Americans; we aren't free because of the men and women who have risked their lives to safeguard our borders and national interests; and we certainly aren't free because of politicians who give rousing speeches before thousands.

We're free because we're human beings. We have an inherent freedom, built into the fabric of our beings and selves. It's not something that can be taken away or given by another. And it's something that all people, throughout the world and throughout time, have.

Yes, we are fortunate to live in a land where the laws recognize this freedom, at least for the most part. But don't ever think you owe your freedom to the actions of any person, or groups of people. They didn't make you free; you were free long before they made whatever sacrifices they may have made, and will remain free long after those sacrifices are forgotten.

The reason this is important to remember is, if we start thanking our servicemen and women "for their service", with the understanding that they somehow gave us our freedom, well, anyone who can give a thing, can take that thing away. We mustn't allow ourselves to fall into the trap of worshipping our military, or thinking that all we have in our lives comes from their beneficence. It's a very small step from that kind of thinking to giving up control of our lives and our liberties to men in uniform.

former IT1, USNR

Earlier this morning, Nintendo made several major announcements in a press conference in Japan. Ranging from a new Nintendo DS to a Wii storage solution. Nintendo's first announcement was a brand-new handheld in the Nintendo DS line of consoles. This revision of the DS brand will be a significant break from the previous DS Lite console. It will be named "Nintendo DSi". (Nintendo DS-Eye, get it?) Nintendo also announced a solution to the Wii storage problem. Unfortunately, it sounds like players will be able to download to their SD Card, but not actually play games directly from the card.

Firehose Link: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=1225579

(Still trying to figure out if the firehose does anything.)

UPDATE: Problem solved, I've gotten in touch with other local officials, and apparently the whole thing was just a misunderstanding. Everyone's happy and working together again. Thanks for the input and words of encouragement I've received from everyone who sent them.

I don't think I've been this frustrated with a party official in my life. I so much want to start helping the Libertarian Party get candidates elected (just see my sig and about a hundred different comments from me in the last month to show that), and the first time I really reach out to a local party official, this is the response I got.

At least when I contacted the Republicans in Arizona eight years ago, they welcomed me with open arms. It's guys like this that will keep the Libertarians from ever holding elective office in this country. Considering the fact that I consider the Republican party broken and the Libertarian party the way of the future for social libs/economic conservatives, guys like this will have to be pushed aside to make room for others who are more willing to welcome change.

Who wants to help me do that?

Cory
(all phone numbers and email addresses left intact...please feel free to email or call Mr. Benedict and let him know what you think of him...or email me and flame me all you want, as the case may be)

I'd like to forward your emails to other people and post it on blogs. Let me know if you don't want me to do that.

--Wes Benedict
Executive Director
Libertarian Party of Texas
512-442-4910

Cory Waddingham wrote:
> Wes,
>
> Your arrogance is extremely infuriating. I may not have had the time in the past to help out, but what am I supposed to do when the person I reach out to shuts me down?
>
> You need to reach out to new people, and pull your head out of your ass.
>
> Cory
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Wes Benedict <wesliberty@aol.com>
> To: Cory Waddingham <cory@waddingham.org>
> Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2008 1:30:52 AM
> Subject: Re: work before November
>
> Cory,
>
> I suspect you are trying to sell something.
>
> Since you have no money to contribute, have never contributed to the LP Texas or the National LP according to my records, and no reputation as a volunteer in Texas, and I get solicited constantly, I'll let you know right now that I am getting irritated by your solicitations.
>
> After you have spent 20 hours or so putting up 1,000 door hangers in Texas, we can talk about your new ideas.
> --Wes Benedict
> Executive Director
> Libertarian Party of Texas
> 512-442-4910
>
>
>
> Cory Waddingham wrote:
>> Wes,
>>
>> Last time we corresponded over email, I mentioned that I'm working in Virginia. I've arranged to come back home and work from there for the next two months, starting Labor Day weekend. I'd like to schedule some time to present some ideas on how to get out the Libertarian vote in November in Collin County. I can't access the group websites from work, are there any planned events coming up in the near future? Have you already scheduled any phone banks, mailings, or anything like that?
>>
>> Cory

First, let me state up front: I don't trust Google. I think they track entirely too much data about their users, and I don't trust them to use it wisely or fairly enough of the time.

That said, I've had to move the hosting for my Open Source project, Power Time, from SourceForge to Google Code. SourceForge was just too unresponsive, and it took forever to simply add a release file. Google Code makes it much easier to release updates; so much so, that I didn't think I had a choice but to use the service.

Besides which, a Google search for "time management", "power time", "consultant billing", or related keywords didn't find my project. I'm hoping that'll change now that they're the hosting provider, and maybe I'll get a few more downloads (which might lead to more consulting gigs, eg more money for me).

I'm working on something new, klatchr.com. I don't know what it is yet, but when I'll do I'll let you know if you're curious.

OK, not really my place, but the bar/restaurant where my coworkers and I usually go for happy hour on Fridays. Any and all are welcome. Let's see if we can't get a decent sized turn out for this.

Oh, and the bribe (almost forgot about that): since this is ostensibly IT related, I'll pick up the tab for the first two drinks for each person. And by "I" I mean "my boss's corporate card".

To clarify: I'll need to collect business cards to pick up the tab. Sorry, that's the way things are. If you don't have a business card, just put your name and work number down on a scrap of paper. And do try to be honest, this is for posterity.

Once again, someone went and down modded five of my comments in a two to three minute span of time. All of these comments were from stories that ranged from one to three days old, not old enough to be archived, but not exactly active, either.

This time, I decided to write to the powers that be: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. So far, it's proven to be an exercise in futility. Below is the email conversation we've had up to this point, going from oldest to newest email. Be sure to read the whole thing to keep things in perspective, and read on to the end where I've included a call to action.

Monday September 24, 9:04 am CST, from me to Taco
Rob,

My username on Slashdot is corbettw, and I think I'm being "stalked"
(for lack of a better term). I'm hoping you can help.

For several months now, there's been an ongoing campaign by some
person to mod all of my comments down. Just today, when I logged I had a message
about comment moderation: five moderations with minutes, all on different
stories, and all negative. Usually they're Overrated (which, of course, isn't
meta-moderated), but sometimes they're Troll (which is ludicrous).
It's obvious to me that someone is doing this on purpose. I've seen my
karma rating go from Excellent (where it's been for years), down to Good,
and now today down to Positive. Is there anything you guys can do to stop this
kind of stalking moderation?

I know there are more important things in the world than one's karma
rating on /., but it's still pretty annoying and is the only negative thing
on an otherwise favorite site. If there's anything you guys can do to cut
down on this, it would be much appreciated.

Cory

Monday September 24, 9:40 am CST, from Taco to me
I'll look into this and see if anything suspect is happening. Thanks
for the heads up.

Monday September 24, 2:41 pm CST, from me to Taco
I don't know if Slashcode gives you the ability to do this, but maybe you could put a check in place where, if someone moderates comments by the same user more than twice in a 24 hour window, they lose any moderation points in their pool and all recent moderations (within the previous 24 hours, for example) are undone. Though you might only limit it to negative moderations, since it doesn't really hurt anyone if someone gives their friends positive moderations all at once.

Just an idea, I have no idea how workable it is.

Monday September 24, 5:30 pm CST, from Taco to me
there are a number of checks in place to prevent extreme abuses. Don't worry ;)

Monday September 24, 9:25 pm CST, from me to Taco
Well, you might want to double check those checks, because they don't seem to be working all that well. I've heard from several other people today that they've been hit by the same thing.

Like I said before, my karma has gone from Excellent down to Positive. Maybe you guys just need to do away with Overrated, and keep a link to metamoderation up on the front page on a more regular basis (instead of swapping it out for the firehose and other links, like you started doing a few months ago).

Tuesday September 25, 7:03 am CST, from Taco to me
if anyone really thinks this is happening, they need to contact me and
not bitch somewhere that I might not see them. I gotta say- the # of
people that blame conspiracy on simply being modded down by random
users is pretty amazing... what you describe DOES occasionally happen.
But more often, people just can't BELIEVE that 3 people might call
them out on their obviously wonderful perfect flawless genius posts :)

Meta moderation is a difficult thing. We need more people to do it,
but the link is being ignored.

As for karma going from excellent to positive, I don't see that as
much of a big deal. Karma doesn't matter except to be negative or
positive really.

Tuesday September 25, 7:11 am CST, from me to Taco
Don't misunderstand me, it's not that Positive karma is bad, per se. Hell, I wouldn't even care if it was Negative, it doesn't really affect my life. But the speed with which it's dropped is the concern. And I'm not talking about 3 mod downs, I'm talking about 5, all within two to three minutes, all on stories that are two or three days old. It's blatantly obvious that one of my foes is going through my recent posts and modding them down. This isn't what the moderation system is meant for.

I'm a sarcastic, opinionated, guy (which is why I like Slashdot, duh). So, yeah, I'll say trollish things sometimes, or make a snarky comment that's not directly on topic. So the occasional Off-topic or Troll mod doesn't faze me. It's the obvious pattern of stalking behavior that's going on that has me concerned, and that's what I wanted to bring to your attention.

Not everybody is willing to contact you directly about this, for whatever reason(s). Rather than ignore an obvious problem, why don't you post a story on it? Bring the problem out into the open, and give people a forum on the front page for addressing the problem. You might be surprised how many people this has happened to.

Tuesday September 25, 7:25 am CST, from Taco to me
the faq pretty clearly explains to contact me in cases of abuse.

Tuesday September 25, 7:57 am CST, from me to Taco
OK, so now someone has contacted you about it. Now what?

That's where it stands as of now. I'll update as things progress. In the meantime, if you're reading this, and you've experienced the scenario I've described, PLEASE EMAIL CMDRTACO at Slashdot and share your experience(s) with him. He's obviously willing to ignore this problem until enough people complain about it.

UPDATE:
I just received another email from Taco. Here it is:
Tuesday September 25, 8:08 am CST, from Taco to me
I've looked into the allegations of abuse and made my decision about
what needs to be done about it. It's my policy not to explain
specifically what I find (or don't) or what I do (or don't do) in
response.

Hopefully this satisfies you... and hopefully you understand the need
to be coy on the matter... I've had this work out both ways- if I
find no abuse and tell you, sometimes readers will go post and bitch
that I'm a liar. If I *do* find abuse and tell you that, sometimes
readers will turn around and post their 'haha' message to say someone
got busted.

Quite simply, the mod system is an ongoing project with problems and
mistakes... its a constant balancing act... and since we have a small
percentage of assholes, there will ALWAYS be little problems in the
system. The question is how much we can do to stop assholes without
restricting the vaaaast majority of readers who are cool and
trustworthy.

September 25, 8:13 am CST, from me to Taco
Fair enough, although I have to say it's usually better to be open and up front about things like this rather than hide. That policy hasn't worked out too well for the current administration in the White House, I'm not sure why you think it'll work out any better for you.

My only goal in this is to help improve the Slashdot experience, so to help with that I've posted about this in my journal. I'm trying to raise the attention level of this problem.

I'll let you know if I see the same problem re-occurring. Hopefully more people will start contacting you directly about it, and it will finally get resolved.

(Yes, I'm assuming you're blowing this off. I have no evidence to the contrary, and most of your emails on this subject have displayed a very dismissive view on the problem. If that's not the case, then please let me know.)

LAST UPDATE:

Last email from Taco (it's his site, he gets the last word)
September 25 8:51 am CST, from Taco to me
Well, your journal post at least clearly demonstrates why I don't
spell out results of abuse investigations to readers...

Anyway, despite your attitude and insinuations, I welcome notification
from anyone with legitimate concern of abuse. While real abuse is
fairly rare, reader feedback is a key part of us dealing with the
problem when it arises.

So that's the end of the story, kids. Just make sure you email Taco about any problems, and we can all make this a better place to trade ideas and thoughts.