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Robin Schenck

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Everything posted by Robin Schenck

  1. I'm already familiar with chaos theory, as I'm currently doing research into its application in networks - I haven't looked into the weather aspect of it yet however, but I was just wondering if there was a noticeable critical point in weather forecasting where the weather goes from somewhat predictable to not predicatable. Is it something that can be expressed by a power law?
  2. If it's possible, could you elaborate on this?
  3. Why do you think there's a conflict of interest, and between whom? In addition, how are you defining "moral"?
  4. While some would argue otherwise, I would claim this to be both a moral and valid business move. This same tactic is still commonly used, albeit not over land. For example, Porsche just recently bought a large stake in Volkswagen in order to prevent a takeover by them.
  5. Thanks for posting this. Will TIA get a referral bonus if I purchase the book though the link to Amazon at the bottom of the review? [(Yes. - David)]
  6. I've personally always been partial to calculators that can handle RPN expressions (implementing this is also a great programming exercise). It's also a bit beyond what you're doing now, but a framework that allows users to easily add in their own custom functions and other features without having to modify the source code would also be awesome.
  7. Anyways, how will you test for randomness? As softwareNerd was leading to, functions like rand() and its counterparts in other languages will not give true random numbers and you could in fact, predict the returns you would get.
  8. Why couldn't it be both? Also, I believe SCO did sue both some companies and individuals. It was probably to make an example of them, but I'm not sure what become of all that either. The code in question was quoted in several different legal documents, emails, and presentations. If your Google skills are good, you should be able to easily find the lines somewhere and they only number in a couple of dozen or so.
  9. I have not been following the case much either, but from my understanding SCO's claims are a bit unfounded, if not silly. Supposedly, the offending lines of code might have once been part of some library or header file that was used in most Linux distributions but they have long since been removed. If you're really interested in reading about everything that has been going in it, check out Groklaw.net - it probably has the best coverage, despite its liberal point of view. When this became news in the open source community, most if not all of the source code for Linux and its supporting files have been checked for any other chances of copyright violations and none were found. Based on that, I would say it's safe to use Linux from both a legal and ethical standpoint. The case itself though, brought about an interesting issue with the open source model. How does one determine if code in an open source product has not been copied over from a proprietary system or used in violation of its original license? I'm sure the Linux kernel maintainers are very cautious now in this regard, when reviewing changes and updates. As for SCO, ownership of the UNIX source code is still in dispute with Novell and I'm not sure what has been going on with that. Furthermore, SCO has oddly enough been acting inappropriately in its cooperation with the Court over the SCO vs. IBM case. The company's CEO, David McBride, has also pretty much run it into the ground over the past several years - I'd rather not imagine why he's not been fired.
  10. Drop the Geico line. It's already a cliché and distracts the reader away from the goal of the letter - never use clichés in writing. While what you have in those three paragraphs are great in terms of content and are perfect grammatically, all of the sentences lack any sense of flow and are very choppy when read. Try combining some of them into more complex sentences and toss in some nice transitions or signposts. If I have some free time tomorrow I'll rewrite some what you wrote to give an example. How is it practical? Just because other states have restrictions? The two don't fit with each other. Also, using examples of laws of other states are fine to back up your point, but you should actually list and describe some of them along with their reference numbers (I can't seem to remember how they're indexed, but I'm guessing you should know). In its current form, it's a decent letter, but that's where it stops. Maybe it's just late for me and I missed it when reading, but I couldn't identify anywhere in the letter that proposes what exactly can be done by your state's legislators. Essentially, you need to propose a plan and describe what they can do to eliminate or restrict eminent domain. Hell, if you used some of your education and experience, you could even draft a bill and send that in with your letter. Most importantly, personalize your letters and do not just use "Dear Senators." It will most likely be read by an intern or staffer at first, but if it does eventually end up in front of one of your Senators, then they'll appreciate the letter a bit more.
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