Posts by jake

Re: Commentard's previous point?

"You could record it and then you have a digital copy of a work of art."

Digital? Why would I go to all the time and trouble to properly mic up a symphony orchestra, just to record it digitally? What a waste that would be ...

I suspect this "digital is everything!" concept is part of the overall problem.

Re: Outrageous!

Of COURSE they can spend their money anywhere they like.

And we are equally free to point and giggle.

Re: What is this

"So why not also JPEGs, if the only difference is the ease of perfect replication?"

Because it's not the only difference. Another is lack of physical object, leading to lack of exclusivity. I can display the exact same piece of art as the bozo who paid 70 million for it.

Re: would last in perpetuity because the token is "in the blockchain"

There are a couple rolls of coins (US coinage dated 1978, pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollars), sealed in lead and cast into a concrete foundation that I laid in that year. I'm the only one that knows they are there. Hopefully someday, when they are worth something, somebody will find them. I'm fairly certain that they will still be there when the last of any of today's crypto keys have been lost (or compromised to the point of meaninglessness).

Is it art? No, of course not. But I rather suspect that whoever finds the stash will have more fun with it than any holder of one of these NFT thingies ever will.

Re: Say what you will...

Did you like them 70 million dollars worth? How about ten bucks? A dime?

Re: would last in perpetuity because the token is "in the blockchain"

Last I heard, only around 2 or 3% of all the tablets ever found have actually been read/translated (half a million, give or take, are in museums). I started learning cuneiform in it's various guises when I was young and deluded, thinking one could actually make a living contributing to knowledge of the past ... and it seemed more interesting than the mundane Latin and Greek. Perhaps I'll take it up again if I ever retire. There has GOT to be something of interest in all those unread tablets besides "<this year> billy-bob had 15 she-goats with kids, harvested 22 bushels of wheat and made 75 gallons of wine and 40 pounds of cheese" and the like ... wouldn't it be cool to be the first to read it after 5,000 years or so?

Re: Say what you will...

"The person I don't understand is the one who chose to buy it."

The people I don't understand are the ones bidding against him (her?) who helped drive the price up. Are they totally upset that they lost out on the deal?

Re: Artificial scarcity or, "Franklin Mint dear, I don't give a damn."

"What is the point of a toy that never leaves the box?"

Such a good setup, but I can't bring myself to finish it ...

Re: It just goes to show ...

All are forms of separating fools from their money, yes. Your point?

Re: What is this

The MPAA can babble all they like. The artist himself has allowed many people to copy the work with no payment. The MPAA doesn;t enter into it.

Re: Dumber than a rock?

The difference is that a numbered Picasso is a limited edition of a physical copy, numbered and signed by the artist. This thing is a series of ones and zeros with no physical representation that anyone can copy for free.

Re: Blockchain 0, Mona Lisa 1?

"Without this how would you 'own' a digital sculpture ?"

You don't. You own one of many identical copies. So does anyone else who wants one, but they weren't stupid enough to pay money for them.

Re: It just goes to show ...

Except the seller will have to pay taxes on it, and the transaction is a matter of public record, which kind of defeats two of the main purposes of money laundering.

Re: "Git"?

"Aside from that, punching up is comedy, punching down is bullying."

Glib, and quite Politically Correct, but obviously not true.

I'm white, yes. As the driven snow. But (and it's a big but), I am a minority. I'm not Caucasian, I am what you heathens call a Laplander (we prefer Sámi). Am I allowed to comment now?

Re: it would be so easy to solve all the problems of racism

"It's a tiny, insignificant change to the default name of something."

If its all that small a change, are you volunteering to pay for the replacement costs of all git documentation, including training materials, currently in use world-wide?

"If people are prepared to fight to keep that, what chance do we have of making real, substantive improvements to the racist institutions in our society?"

What does changing something that clearly is not racist have to do with making real, substansive improvements to the racist institutions in (y)our country? Shirley all that this kind of feel-good nonsense is doing is diluting the scope of what actually is a very real problem?

Re: Information?

Here's a little more on the subject of nitty-gritty (possibly NSFW):

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/18667/etymology-of-reduplicative-compound-nitty-gritty

Re: radial engine

"Of course, when there was just one program at a time running on a mainframe, the concept of master/slave and communication among them wasn't born yet."

Master and slave was applied to clock in railway and telegraph communications before the turn of the last century. I own a tall-case Master Clock from a hospital. It was made in the 1930s, and makes sure that a dozen or so slave clocks dotted around the place stay on time.

Most large networks today have a Master Clock that every other time keeping device on the network is slaved to. System logs are meaningless if the time doesn't match between them.

Re: "Git"?

He later claimed to name all his projects after himself. Those of us who were there at the time know otherwise. I'm not telling tales out of class, it was widely reported and is hardly a secret.

Re: Aargh...

At least we'll have glitter and stickers!

Re: radial engine

But there is no such thing as "software". So-called "software" is merely the current state of the hardware.

Put another way, hardware is inert. Code wakes up hardware. Software is one ephemeral result.

Re: Too late to change now

"I do not expect that to happen within this century."

Or the next. These things are cyclical, this particular wave is already past it's peak.

Re: We did it anyway...

You type all that? Why? Haven't learned scripting yet?

Clearly you are someone not to be reckoned with (in the late 13th, early 14th century meaning of the word).

Re: "Git"?

Quite odd, isn't it? Especially seeing as it's a personal insult, directed at one particular man. But that's OK, he's white.

"So how do we differentiate the code module that contains the main() function?"

How can you be so insensitive as to point out that the rule-makers are clearly not coders? You'll be trying to turn them into second-class citizens next! You should be ashamed of yourself!

Re: "legacy"

"I'm sure there's a good reason why "legacy" should also be purged."

As everybody knows, "legacy" originally meant "a body of people sent on a mission" ... which obviously must mean a lynch mob! And as we all know, only black people were lynched!

BAN LEGACY! IT'S CLEARLY RACIST!!!!!1one!!!!!eleven!!11

"Hmm. Am I allowed to use "purged"?"

Absolutely not! It means "to get rid of objectionable elements or members", which clearly means everybody except rich, white, middle-aged men. Blahblahblahblah ...

Re: RE: Master / slave

Nor the mechanic rebuilding the brakes on your car.

Re: RE: Master / slave

""Nitty gritty" is far worse in my mind"

In your mind? What about the rest of the planet?

The term was heavily used in the Jazz world of the late '50s and early '60s (where I first heard it as a nipper), and I can assure you that neither the black nor the white musicians using it were using it with any form of racial intent. Here's an example from 1963.

People are perverting the English Language looking for any excuse to claim racism, sexism, or any other ism that the hand-wringers and namby-pambys can come up with ... apparently even when that particular ism doesn't even exist.

"It's possible for humanity to build a dyson sphere today"

Really? Other than the lack of human industrial capability (by several orders of magnitude), how do you propose to get around the issues surrounding the net gravitational interaction with the englobed star? (See Shell theorem, if you're not familiar with the concept.)

Re: First Amendment - False Claims

Bottom line: Freedom of speech is one thing, but freedom of the press is another, and belongs to the man who owns one.

I own a press (a couple, actually). You are not allowed to use them, because I say so. It is mine, and that is my choice to make. No court in the land (except maybe in Texas ... and they will get stomped on by SCotUS) will overturn my decision. It's a private property thing.

Likewise, twitter (go ogle, et alia) owns a press. You are allowed to publish tweets on it just as long as they say you can use it. When they decide that you cannot use it any more, you're out of there. Because they say so. Don't like it? Don't use it. I don't, and have no difficulty getting my point across. Twitter (and go ogle, et alia) is not the only press in town.

Have you gone through all the presses in town, and now nobody will loan you one anymore? Perhaps it's because you've been rolling around in muck and nobody wants you around because you stink bad enough to knock a buzzard off a shit wagon at 400 paces downwind. Clean up your act, or stay ostracized.

Re: The New York Times?

"It might teach you some respect for the trade."

I seriously doubt it. I have known newspaper publishers. They are all in it to sell newspapers. Its for subscribers and their nickles, and the advertising that that brings, and that's about it.

I'm not usually prone to such things, but I guess I'll have to look into that particular organ in order to verify your assertion.

"Nobody taught us flaming in school, either."

You didn't study the Greek & Roman classic orators? Or even the modern-day Shakespeare? Poor deprived thing.

Trump's no master troll. He's just a natural born bumbling buffoon.

Re: Hacking is honourable

But they are all just talking heads (even the headless ones on the radio), selling razorblades, tampons, cheese and beer. They don't give a rat's ass what they say, as long as they are entertaining the masses enough to sell lots of advertising. None of the so-called "news" broadcasts is anything more than entertainment catering to a specific segment of the population when you look at it with a critical eye.

Re: Hacking in the Physical World

What you are talking about is called "breaking and entering" in the RealWorld. In computer terminology, it is called "cracking".

Hacking is something else entirely.

Re: Wait!

"I didn't get to vote!"

Don't worry, I did it for you. It's a perk of voting online :-)