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File fragmentation and waste disk space
by Rohan McLeod 25 Jan '14

25 Jan '14

Assembled cognoscenti; a general question about file-systems and file fragmentation. As the price of storage of bytes drops, do file systems really need the economy of fragmenting files to fill fragmented empty disk space? That is if there is insufficient space between two existing files, the new file is just written in the first interstitial space which is large enough; or the unfragmented space starting at the last file; and small interstitial empty spaces are just wasted. Do any file-systems do this and if not is the reason simply storage economy ? regards Rohan McLeod

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Crowdsourced NBN think tank launches Senate submission
by David 22 Jan '14

22 Jan '14

Quoting from [1]: A loose-knit collective of Australian technologists has formed what it has dubbed an online crowdsourced think tank focused around the National Broadband Network project and has started putting together a submission to the NBN Senate Select Committee which will argue for a network built on the best available ‘fit for purpose’ technology - not on political ideology. The think tank, which has been dubbed the “NBN Alliance”, has set up a Wiki-based website [2] which allows any contributor to work with the organisation on NBN-related issues. [1] Delimiter article: http://delimiter.com.au/2014/01/21/crowdsourced-nbn-think-tank-launches-sen… [2] NBN Alliance wiki: http://wiki.nbnalliance.org/

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Re: [luv-talk] Silk Road etc
by Lev Lafayette 18 Jan '14

18 Jan '14

On Sat, January 18, 2014 9:30 pm, Tim Josling wrote: > For example, when customers take price to be a signal of quality, demand > can go *up* when the price is increased. I experienced this during my > consulting career when, after increasing my rate, the demand went up. > Shops > like jewelry shops and other outlets for status goods also tend to find > demand can go up when the price is increased. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good and especially... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_good -- Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech Mngmnt) (Chifley) mobile: 0432 255 208 RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt

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Re: [luv-talk] Silk Road etc
by Tim Josling 18 Jan '14

18 Jan '14

From: Russell Coker > Now could you please ask the ANZ people to remove that .sig. Have you ever worked in a large corporation? > I don't think that there's anything criminal in Austrian Economics, it merely fails to predict the economy and is advocated by people who don't even understand other people. I have studied Austrian economics as well as the other types. The Austrians don't seem any more silly than the others (though that is not saying much). If you judge experts by a) ability to make predictions that turn out to be right b) ability to explain things that otherwise make no sense c) ability to design things that work d) ability to fix problems, the economics discipline as a whole is an epic fail.

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Re: [luv-talk] Silk Road etc
by Tim Josling 18 Jan '14

18 Jan '14

From: Rohan McLeod Subject: Tim Josling wrote: >> ...the economics discipline as a whole is an epic fail >Tim I quite agree; >but would you agree the fundamental problem is a failure to accept, > the necessary constraints of objective falsifiability. >Two of which would be : >- abandonment of value judgements >-operational definitions of terms; > regards Rohan McLeod Not sure. These are very complex issues. My view on falsifiability is more along the lines of this. I try to update my opinions in a Bayesian way when new evidence comes along. This tends to lead to a state of having very few 100% certain views.

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Re: [luv-talk] Silk Road etc
by Tim Josling 18 Jan '14

18 Jan '14

> From: "Lev Lafayette" > In contrast I don't see much argument against a core economic principles, for example, that if the supply of a good is restricted the price goes up, or if the price is increased the demand is reduced. For sure... I think a lot of economic principles are true at a zeroeth approximation, even a first approximation, but not much past that point. Take for example, your suggestion that when prices go up the demand is reduced. This is true sometimes. For example, when customers take price to be a signal of quality, demand can go *up* when the price is increased. I experienced this during my consulting career when, after increasing my rate, the demand went up. Shops like jewelry shops and other outlets for status goods also tend to find demand can go up when the price is increased. Another example, a very important one, is asset markets. After a long bull run in the US stock market, various indicators of investor demand are at all-time *highs* (margin lending, AAII sentiment, put/call ratios etc). When house prices rise, people can get more desperate to get in "before it's too late". The price is up and the demand has gone up as a result! Having studied both economics (intermittently since 1971) and physics (intermittently since about 2007), I find that the big difference is that the physicists tend to take their models a lot less seriously than the economists. Simplifications like "perfect markets" are very useful abstractions, which help to explain much. But one should not confuse real markets with perfect markets. As another example the efficient markets hypothesis is true to a zeroeth degree, but it depends on efficient arbitrage which breaks down in all sorts of ways (agency problems, risk that cannot be gotten rid of, regulatory impediments to competition etc). Witness also the long delays in recognizing - and hostility to those pointing out - the non-normality of fluctuations in financial market prices (see eg Mandelbrot's autobiography). And this non-normality is not a small issue. Out in the margins, it means the risks are thousands of times higher than the standard models would suggest.

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Advice on some products?
by jk＠smartguide.com.au 17 Jan '14

17 Jan '14

Hi all, I'm in need of buying a couple of devices and I'm hoping to borrow from people's experiences. These are: - Photo negative scanner - For scanning those old 35mm film strips - Good quality scans - Support for Linux not necessary - Save to SD card or USB stick or PC via USB - Preferably TV out for preview - Easy to use - DVR - Self-contained unit, not a PC card or USB dongle - Both analogue and digital TV tuner (yes, I know analogue is no longer transmitted, but this is for a specific application where it still is used) - No internal HD - records to external USB HD - Remote control - Ability to set up recording schedules easily - Playback is on same device - no need for media conversion - Either TV out or HDMI, not too fussed I would really appreciate any suggestions or pointers on either or both. Thanks! jk

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Silk Road etc
by Russell Coker 16 Jan '14

16 Jan '14

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/silk_road-au.html Silk Road was a TOR based system for selling a variety of illegal products and services. It's recently been shut down by the police and the above article is one of many about it. One amusing thing is that the criminal responsible was a fan of Austrian economics. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Fwd: Bashing victim told to leave the country
by Russell Coker 15 Jan '14

15 Jan '14

-------- Original Message -------- From: "Adrian de Luca via Change.org" <mail(a)change.org> Sent: Wed Jan 15 14:37:32 AEDT 2014 To: russell(a)coker.com.au Subject: Bashing victim told to leave the country He was viciously bashed to near death by three neo-nazis. Studying in Melbourne, Minh was punched, stabbed and had a brick broken over his head -- now as Minh visited his mum in Vietnam while recovering, his student visa has been cancelled. Last week, Minh was travelling back to Melbourne for the start of uni when Immigration officials said his visa had been cancelled. Without letting him know, it seems they changed the expiry date of his student visa to a year earlier (it is technically still valid according to the documents) -- meaning Minh was ordered to return to Vietnam immediately or be arrested. I'm shocked and ashamed that our government could do this to him. After seeing the horrific news of Minh's bashing on the news last year, I knew I had to help in any way I could. So I offered free piano lessons. Since then, I've been helping Minh recover from the trauma of being bashed through music. We hope to even have a concert back in Melbourne once his visa has been re-instated. Minh is just one year away from finishing his Advanced Diploma of Accounting. He has lived here with his brother for the last six years, loves uni and only missed classes just after the beating left him in hospital. All he wants to do is graduate this year, and start putting this shocking bashing behind him. Every day, Minh still lives in pain. His cheekbone was smashed and he's still missing teeth -- he's got dental work scheduled, but that needs him to be allowed back into the country. Please sign my petition asking Scott Morrison to not allow this cruel visa cancellation to go through -- and allow Minh to finish his studies in Australia. https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/he-was-viciously-bashed-and-left-for… The person (or organisation) who started this petition is not affiliated with Change.org. Change.org did not create this petition and is not responsible for the petition content. This email was sent by Change.org to russell(a)coker.com.au. Edit your email preferences: http://www.change.org/en-AU/account_settings/edit_email_preferences?utm_sou… Unsubscribe from Change.org emails: http://www.change.org/en-AU/unsubscribe?token=7FWFBXZttIUVCZOhGs6cV5AnBRkfq… Mailing Address: 216 West 104th Street, Suite #130 · New York, NY 10025 · USA -- Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 with K-9 Mail.

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Re: [luv-talk] I want a new netbook!
by Petros 14 Jan '14

14 Jan '14

Quoting "Trent W. Buck" <trentbuck(a)gmail.com> > Any suggestions on what netbook to buy? Did you have any success? I am probably in the same boat, my little Samsung 10 inch netbook is not getting younger, and I had a scare recently (but it was a lose connector only, I have it quite often in a bicycle basket - not the smoothest way of transport) I took Chris' suggestion and found http://www.linuxnow.com.au/nsasusX202E-CT259H.html I just wonder how to use the touchscreen efficiently. Does anyone has experience with a notebook touchscreen under Linux? Which desktop do you use? But the model has not enough battery for your liking, I guess: http://www.linlap.com/asus_s202e "i'm getting 2~4h depending on usage. charging time is about the same" Another minus is the screen: "annoyingly bright and reflexive" but 11.6" is a good display size, I think. http://netrunner-mag.com/?p=3385 suggests the MacBook Air - the only problem seems the boot complication and the camera does not work.. Regards Peter

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