Slashdot Mirror

OK, let me do my homework... here is it.

While I'm talking about it, I'd say that I found it good as a design book, for it brings many examples from areas other than web sites (TV ads, packaging, magazines). Something I didn't like is the usage of MSIE-only techniques, as well as NN-only ones that are presented. I never use those.

E-Commerc e Solutions with MySQL by Prima (Editor)
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in September 2000.
ISBN: 0761524452

MySQL and PHP from Scratch
List Price: unavailable
Published in January 2000
ISBN: 0789724499

Professio nal MySQL Programming by Wrox Author Team
List Price: $49.99
Will be published in July 2000.
ISBN: 1861004281

SAMS Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days by Mark Maslakowski
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in May 2000.
ISBN: 0672319144

Php3 and MySQL Web Development by William Jason Gilmore
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in April 2000.
ISBN: 0672317842

and for your reference:

MySQL & mSQL by Randy Jay Yarger, George Reese, and Tim King
List Price: $34.95
Published August 1999
ISBN: 1565924347

MySQL by Paul DuBois and Michael Widenius
List Price: $49.99
Published December 1999 (?)
ISBN: 0735709211

::Colz Grigor
--

E-Commerc e Solutions with MySQL by Prima (Editor)
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in September 2000.
ISBN: 0761524452

MySQL and PHP from Scratch
List Price: unavailable
Published in January 2000
ISBN: 0789724499

Professio nal MySQL Programming by Wrox Author Team
List Price: $49.99
Will be published in July 2000.
ISBN: 1861004281

SAMS Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days by Mark Maslakowski
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in May 2000.
ISBN: 0672319144

Php3 and MySQL Web Development by William Jason Gilmore
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in April 2000.
ISBN: 0672317842

and for your reference:

MySQL & mSQL by Randy Jay Yarger, George Reese, and Tim King
List Price: $34.95
Published August 1999
ISBN: 1565924347

MySQL by Paul DuBois and Michael Widenius
List Price: $49.99
Published December 1999 (?)
ISBN: 0735709211

::Colz Grigor
--

E-Commerc e Solutions with MySQL by Prima (Editor)
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in September 2000.
ISBN: 0761524452

MySQL and PHP from Scratch
List Price: unavailable
Published in January 2000
ISBN: 0789724499

Professio nal MySQL Programming by Wrox Author Team
List Price: $49.99
Will be published in July 2000.
ISBN: 1861004281

SAMS Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days by Mark Maslakowski
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in May 2000.
ISBN: 0672319144

Php3 and MySQL Web Development by William Jason Gilmore
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in April 2000.
ISBN: 0672317842

and for your reference:

MySQL & mSQL by Randy Jay Yarger, George Reese, and Tim King
List Price: $34.95
Published August 1999
ISBN: 1565924347

MySQL by Paul DuBois and Michael Widenius
List Price: $49.99
Published December 1999 (?)
ISBN: 0735709211

::Colz Grigor
--

E-Commerc e Solutions with MySQL by Prima (Editor)
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in September 2000.
ISBN: 0761524452

MySQL and PHP from Scratch
List Price: unavailable
Published in January 2000
ISBN: 0789724499

Professio nal MySQL Programming by Wrox Author Team
List Price: $49.99
Will be published in July 2000.
ISBN: 1861004281

SAMS Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days by Mark Maslakowski
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in May 2000.
ISBN: 0672319144

Php3 and MySQL Web Development by William Jason Gilmore
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in April 2000.
ISBN: 0672317842

and for your reference:

MySQL & mSQL by Randy Jay Yarger, George Reese, and Tim King
List Price: $34.95
Published August 1999
ISBN: 1565924347

MySQL by Paul DuBois and Michael Widenius
List Price: $49.99
Published December 1999 (?)
ISBN: 0735709211

::Colz Grigor
--

E-Commerc e Solutions with MySQL by Prima (Editor)
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in September 2000.
ISBN: 0761524452

MySQL and PHP from Scratch
List Price: unavailable
Published in January 2000
ISBN: 0789724499

Professio nal MySQL Programming by Wrox Author Team
List Price: $49.99
Will be published in July 2000.
ISBN: 1861004281

SAMS Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days by Mark Maslakowski
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in May 2000.
ISBN: 0672319144

Php3 and MySQL Web Development by William Jason Gilmore
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in April 2000.
ISBN: 0672317842

and for your reference:

MySQL & mSQL by Randy Jay Yarger, George Reese, and Tim King
List Price: $34.95
Published August 1999
ISBN: 1565924347

MySQL by Paul DuBois and Michael Widenius
List Price: $49.99
Published December 1999 (?)
ISBN: 0735709211

::Colz Grigor
--

E-Commerc e Solutions with MySQL by Prima (Editor)
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in September 2000.
ISBN: 0761524452

MySQL and PHP from Scratch
List Price: unavailable
Published in January 2000
ISBN: 0789724499

Professio nal MySQL Programming by Wrox Author Team
List Price: $49.99
Will be published in July 2000.
ISBN: 1861004281

SAMS Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days by Mark Maslakowski
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in May 2000.
ISBN: 0672319144

Php3 and MySQL Web Development by William Jason Gilmore
List Price: $39.99
Will be published in April 2000.
ISBN: 0672317842

and for your reference:

MySQL & mSQL by Randy Jay Yarger, George Reese, and Tim King
List Price: $34.95
Published August 1999
ISBN: 1565924347

MySQL by Paul DuBois and Michael Widenius
List Price: $49.99
Published December 1999 (?)
ISBN: 0735709211

::Colz Grigor
--

Barnes & Noble dot com: $39
Think Geek: $ 29
Amazon dot com: $39

My own work in this area leads me to believe there is some profound sense in or extent to which we can control our own identity, thereby becoming in touch with things outside our bodies. Any good technologist knows the feeling of really identifying with his tools and materials and understands how profoundly that affects the creative process. There is a point where one shifts one's thinking from "I want this thing to do that." and toward thinking "What can I do with this thing?" That is at a boundary between identities where the creative technologist and the psychic have more in common than either currently realizes.

I once read somewhere that while it wasn't intended, the films "Time Bandits", "Brazil", and "12 Monkeys" form an odd trilogy of movies produced by Terry, representing three phases of life. "Time Bandits" as childhood, "Brazil" as middle age, and "12 Monkeys" as old age.

Actually, you're only 2/3rds right. While Gilliam has said that he never set out to create a formal "trilogy", he realized after the fact that the themes of three of his films do track the progression of the life of the dreamer from birth to death: Time Bandits showing the dreamer as a child, Brazil depicting the dreamer in adulthood, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (not 12 Monkeys ) showing the dreamer in old age. The three movies in the "trilogy" were all written by Gilliam (which allowed him to shape the storyline to fit his ideas), but he did not write 12 Monkeys (he was brought in by Universal as a hired director to film an already-written script).

Gilliam's films are almost uniformly fascinating to watch and think about, even the less artistically successful ones such as Baron Munchausen and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Anyone who is interested in Gilliam's work can find lots of great info in two books: The Battle of Brazil by film critic Jack Mathews, chronicling the struggle on Gilliam's part to get Brazil released with its original ending, and Gilliam on Gilliam , a series of interviews in which Gilliam talks about his life and work. Both are excellent reads.

-- Jason A. Lefkowitz

I once read somewhere that while it wasn't intended, the films "Time Bandits", "Brazil", and "12 Monkeys" form an odd trilogy of movies produced by Terry, representing three phases of life. "Time Bandits" as childhood, "Brazil" as middle age, and "12 Monkeys" as old age.

Actually, you're only 2/3rds right. While Gilliam has said that he never set out to create a formal "trilogy", he realized after the fact that the themes of three of his films do track the progression of the life of the dreamer from birth to death: Time Bandits showing the dreamer as a child, Brazil depicting the dreamer in adulthood, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (not 12 Monkeys ) showing the dreamer in old age. The three movies in the "trilogy" were all written by Gilliam (which allowed him to shape the storyline to fit his ideas), but he did not write 12 Monkeys (he was brought in by Universal as a hired director to film an already-written script).

Gilliam's films are almost uniformly fascinating to watch and think about, even the less artistically successful ones such as Baron Munchausen and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Anyone who is interested in Gilliam's work can find lots of great info in two books: The Battle of Brazil by film critic Jack Mathews, chronicling the struggle on Gilliam's part to get Brazil released with its original ending, and Gilliam on Gilliam , a series of interviews in which Gilliam talks about his life and work. Both are excellent reads.

-- Jason A. Lefkowitz

While mostly theoretical, Knuth's "The art of Programming" is a great place to start once you've gone through the other newbie books. Click here to find the boxed set at B&N

Of course, most people would probably prefer to get the individual volumes, or check them out of the library.

Dr. Robert Bakker proposed this theory years ago. Here is his book.

Life with Jeeves is a good read, if you like that sort of thing. Wodehouse compared it to musical comedy.

Not so amazing. In, The Discoverers : A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself , Daniel Boorstin pointed this out years ago.

Alvin Toffler said it all 30 years ago in Future Shock.

Interestingly enough, he took 561 pages to say it. It takes quite a while to read and digest it. Gleick skims the top, puts in some snappy internet-age anecdotes, and puts it in a book you can read on the flight between Boston and SF. (Implications here should be obvious.)

For an excellent treatment of possible implications of accelerated culture, check out John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider.

Alvin Toffler said it all 30 years ago in Future Shock.

Interestingly enough, he took 561 pages to say it. It takes quite a while to read and digest it. Gleick skims the top, puts in some snappy internet-age anecdotes, and puts it in a book you can read on the flight between Boston and SF. (Implications here should be obvious.)

For an excellent treatment of possible implications of accelerated culture, check out John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider.

Dedicated readers are available now! I use the Rocket eBook but there are others. These are reading appliances that are designed specifically for the purpose. They have very high contrast, long battery life (30 hours) and back light for night reading. You read content purchased over the web from Barnes and Noble, The Gutenburg Project, or just plain old content sucked off the web.

eBooks do not mean laptops! They ultimately look like that cool little thing that Capt. Picard carries around.

Think appliances, people!

Seriously, there are exactly two benchmarks that really make any difference:

1. The general-purpose benchmark (e.g. SPEC) which gives a pretty good indication of how fast an architecture is relative to other architectures, and
2. The specific benchmark, or "How much wall clock time will it take my application to run on this machine?"

Of these two benchmarks, the second is obviously the most important. (Surprisingly, the Quake FPS freaks aren't far off from the truth here).

Anyone that really wants to know about benchmarking should read the relevant papers or at least read The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis by Raj Jain (and no, I'm not a shill for Barnes & Noble but that's one spot where you can get the book).

If Van Smith got paid for that article, he should be forced to eat it... byte by byte (sorry, couldn't resist :-). -Brazilian

At least two, IIRC - read Cringley' s book on the history of Sillicon Valley, I believe he mentions 'em. AFAIK, at the time he wrote it, one of 'em still worked for MS.

In any case, looking at MS stock price and valuation over the last five years - couldn't dig any further than that on quicken.com - MS has had three stock splits; if you extrapolate backwards, I think that 5 splits since 1990 isn't too unlikely. Which means that anyone who had 500 shares or options in 1990 - including employees with MS stock in their 401ks and the like - and who still holds those shares, has been a millionaire for the last couple of years.

Given that, I'd be surprised if there weren't multiple secretaty/administrative assistants/salepeople/HR persons/others at MS who are - or have been - millionaires.

In the book, (originally a short story) a scientist manages to create an intelligent Lymphocite, which is the white blood cells, the 'Cops' of the Cardiovascular system. They end up in his own blood stream, and convert his body to a super healthy state, including restructuring his bones for more optimal movement and to prevent damage. Anyway, some more stuff happens, I won't ruin it. It's really good.

I had read the short story years ago, but the book picks up where the short story just got interesting. Highly recommend it.

--
Gonzo Granzeau

Just because it's free, don't assume you'd actually want it.

Firstly, it's heavyweight, secondly it's an interface to a cloud of other interfaces, any one of which may be sufficient, and thirdly it drags along the assumptions of the authors about "what's good for the 'net".

As Laurence Lessig points out in Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, a perfect authentication and identification system may be something you don't want.

--dave

• Bookpool
• Barnes & Noble
• Books a million
• and I'm sure there are others!

I reccomend The Code Book. It's about the evolution of cryptography from the very early and primitive Caesar cypher, through the Enigma machine, RSA, PGP, and even quantum cryptography. It's not only very informative, but an extremely enjoyable read besides.

I read a book in middle school called The Wave, ironically enough. It described a school in which one of the teachers did almost exactly what WAVE is proposing, set up a system of "guidelines," and ended up turning the whole school into a Fascist state before he shocked the students into recognition of what they had become. It's actually based on an actual incident, too. This is a 6th grade level book, I don't think it takes a geek to understand what's wrong with this system.

May I suggest The Elegant Universe by Brian R Greene?

It offers an excellent, laypersons explaination for Special and General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, String Theory, Superstring Theory, and M-Theory. It explains these theories and their ramifications in terms easilly understood, as well as their limitations.

You may not like Quantum Theory (Einstein didn't like it either), but it has been demonstrated to be correct, as far as it goes, as has General Relativity.

I too wish there was some way off this rock in our lifetimes, and there may well be if we get off our butts and build a space habitat or two. But, alas, unless M-Theory contains some interesting suprises for us over the next few decades (and it very well could), while we may make it into space, it is unlikely any of us will have the pleasure of walking beneath an alien sun, unless medical science delivers that immortality serum I've been asking for for years now, and we're willing to make a journey of hundreds or even thousands of years.

The movie was based on this teen novel which was published in 1981.

Or even here at Barnes and Noble and Border's.

There's a great book called "the Sparrow" that's about a Jesuit priest winging off to Alpha Centauri... it's not X-ian lit by any means, but does talk in a lot of very interesting depth about the religious implications of meeting with alien life forms... I'm doing it a errible disservice by glossing over the plot so much, but you can check it out a little more for yourself here (on the B&N website, sorry)

You mean, of course, its pre-history, and I would suggest there simply isn't enough data available to make such a confident statement one way or another. Herbert's observation of a vast number of agricultural land plots, elaborate ritual structures, etc. are evidence for his argument. So, no, I am not joking. You can't rate carrying capacity on the basis of durable artifacts that people normally expect. Some native Americans were engaged in fascinating large scale ecosystem management involving periodic and controlled burn-offs of some types of trees and other vegitation that would bias toward acorn productivity. Today we observe an inordinate number of grinding holes in rocks but not much else -- not even densely sub-divided agricultural plots.

As for Herbert's hybrid sterility theory, it isn't really central to my point, but we can discuss it as a fascinating side issue:

It is certainly the case that there was an enormous displacement of Rh-negative peoples by Rh-positive peoples that extended vastly beyond the Basque. The entire mythology of the wars between the gods of the Aesir and the gods of the Vanir is likely related to this conflict. The Aesir, for example, poked fun at the Vanir fertility god and goddess, Frey and Freya, for having an incestuous marriage -- something that would tend to reflect the competition for reproductive resources between Rh negative tribes, for whom intermarriage would be ethnocidal, and Rh postivie tribes, for whom a de facto polygyny based on first child would be a reproductive win. This sort of mockery is still poked at Scotch-Irish "hillbillies" who are, it turns out, quite likely to have have Rh negative blood. US marriage licenses into this century required blood tests that included Rh factor because of the high percentage of the British immigrant population that was still Rh negative. Rh negativity applies to many of the Atlantic populations from north sea Scandanavians groups to western Africa peoples such as the Berbers. The higher fertility rate among populations with greater genetic dominance is predicted fromthe fact that hybrid infertility results, primarily, from the expression of deleterious recessives. Although fertility among European ethnicity hybrids is higher than predicted by Herbert's population crash scenario, it is much less than the more genetically dominant groups. Further, Herbert was reporting on a much more isolated population -- possibly with far more inbreeding and therefore homozygous recessives that would make them vulnerable to introduction of otherwise hidden deleterious recessives during hybridization with genetically dominant tribes. One has to keep in mind that genetic dominance is vastly more complex than the mere expression of a particular protein -- it involves the entire heirarchy of phenotypic expression up to and including extended phenotypic expression.

I agree with you that Herbert is wrong about the degree to which mtDNA correlates with ethnicity -- that Y-Chromosomal correlations are much stronger for the reasons you cite. Indeed Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza assert such in their genetic opus.

Nevertheless, we are operating in a vacum of information about Y-Chromosomes compared to the relatively vast information that has been acquired about mtDNA, so strong our conclusions must be tempered accordingly. (BTW: I'll probably be seeing one of these authors tonight so I'll see if I can get a good reference for recent progress in Y-Chromosome geographic mapping).

In present day populations, we are probably witnessing stablized hybrids that have gone through a period of genetic annealing, as well as the introduction of dominance suppression of hybrid infertility. Indeed, it may be the Bantu/Scotch-Irish hybrids sometimes called "African Americans", and the Spanish-Indian hybrids sometimes called "Hispanics" have been around long enough that their fertility has probably been enhanced by genetic annealing as well as dominance-suppression of hybrid infertility.

Nevertheless, we are still witnessing other populations that have serious fertility problems extending all the way from high rates of spontaneous abortions (probably due to direct nonviable proteins expressing in the zygote) to behavioral difficulties during the years of fertility (which is a vastly complex arena of evolutionary psychology that may involve a lot more extended phenotypics than anyone would like to believe).

You mean, of course, its pre-history, and I would suggest there simply isn't enough data available to make such a confident statement one way or another. Herbert's observation of a vast number of agricultural land plots, elaborate ritual structures, etc. are evidence for his argument. So, no, I am not joking. You can't rate carrying capacity on the basis of durable artifacts that people normally expect. Some native Americans were engaged in fascinating large scale ecosystem management involving periodic and controlled burn-offs of some types of trees and other vegitation that would bias toward acorn productivity. Today we observe an inordinate number of grinding holes in rocks but not much else -- not even densely sub-divided agricultural plots.

As for Herbert's hybrid sterility theory, it isn't really central to my point, but we can discuss it as a fascinating side issue:

It is certainly the case that there was an enormous displacement of Rh-negative peoples by Rh-positive peoples that extended vastly beyond the Basque. The entire mythology of the wars between the gods of the Aesir and the gods of the Vanir is likely related to this conflict. The Aesir, for example, poked fun at the Vanir fertility god and goddess, Frey and Freya, for having an incestuous marriage -- something that would tend to reflect the competition for reproductive resources between Rh negative tribes, for whom intermarriage would be ethnocidal, and Rh postivie tribes, for whom a de facto polygyny based on first child would be a reproductive win. This sort of mockery is still poked at Scotch-Irish "hillbillies" who are, it turns out, quite likely to have have Rh negative blood. US marriage licenses into this century required blood tests that included Rh factor because of the high percentage of the British immigrant population that was still Rh negative. Rh negativity applies to many of the Atlantic populations from north sea Scandanavians groups to western Africa peoples such as the Berbers. The higher fertility rate among populations with greater genetic dominance is predicted fromthe fact that hybrid infertility results, primarily, from the expression of deleterious recessives. Although fertility among European ethnicity hybrids is higher than predicted by Herbert's population crash scenario, it is much less than the more genetically dominant groups. Further, Herbert was reporting on a much more isolated population -- possibly with far more inbreeding and therefore homozygous recessives that would make them vulnerable to introduction of otherwise hidden deleterious recessives during hybridization with genetically dominant tribes. One has to keep in mind that genetic dominance is vastly more complex than the mere expression of a particular protein -- it involves the entire heirarchy of phenotypic expression up to and including extended phenotypic expression.

I agree with you that Herbert is wrong about the degree to which mtDNA correlates with ethnicity -- that Y-Chromosomal correlations are much stronger for the reasons you cite. Indeed Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza assert such in their genetic opus.

Nevertheless, we are operating in a vacum of information about Y-Chromosomes compared to the relatively vast information that has been acquired about mtDNA, so strong our conclusions must be tempered accordingly. (BTW: I'll probably be seeing one of these authors tonight so I'll see if I can get a good reference for recent progress in Y-Chromosome geographic mapping).

In present day populations, we are probably witnessing stablized hybrids that have gone through a period of genetic annealing, as well as the introduction of dominance suppression of hybrid infertility. Indeed, it may be the Bantu/Scotch-Irish hybrids sometimes called "African Americans", and the Spanish-Indian hybrids sometimes called "Hispanics" have been around long enough that their fertility has probably been enhanced by genetic annealing as well as dominance-suppression of hybrid infertility.

Nevertheless, we are still witnessing other populations that have serious fertility problems extending all the way from high rates of spontaneous abortions (probably due to direct nonviable proteins expressing in the zygote) to behavioral difficulties during the years of fertility (which is a vastly complex arena of evolutionary psychology that may involve a lot more extended phenotypics than anyone would like to believe).

Actually, it was Thomas Freidman, the Foreign Affairs columnist for the NY Times, who came up with the McDonald's Theory of Conflict Prevention. And yes, it did fail in the case of the US bombings of Serbia, although Freidman rather convincingly argues that it was "McDonald's" that stopped that war, rather than any traditional military concerns.

That is to say (since obviously McDonald's didn't literally stop the war, just like it doesn't literally prevent other ones) that the reasons the Serbs gave in and withdrew from Kosovo had nothing to do with any military losses we inflicted on them. Indeed, we barely touched their tanks/artilary in Kosovo, which were dug in well in advance and shielded by the mountainous terrain. Our bombing campaign against their military targets was a pretty big flop.

Instead, they surrendered because we bombed their economic infrastructure--namely all the bridges and power plants in Belgrade. Thus, Milosovic didn't withdraw because he no longer had the military ability to continue occupying Kosovo and killing/kicking out Kosovars at will, but rather because Serbia wants to be part of the global economy--hence the McDonald's--and the economic/political costs were too great. Indeed, he would have had a revolt on his hands, precisely (so says Freidman) because the citizens of Serbia care more about being able to "eat at McDonald's" (i.e. partake in the global economy) than they care about oppressing a bunch of Kosovars. (Or Kosovians, if you're George W. Bush.)

Hence the McDonald's Theory of Conflict Prevention is strengthened, despite being conclusively refuted by example. Or so says Freidman. (If you can't tell, I'm taking a course that he's co-teaching this semester. But you can read all of this in his book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree .)

Other books Stephen King has released (not for free) in electronic form:

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Hearts in Atlantis
Bag of Bones

mahlen

Napoleon: What shall we do with this soldier, Giuseppe? Everything he says is wrong.
Giuseppe: Make him a general, Excellency, and then everything he says will be right.
--George Bernard Shaw

Who doesn't want a smart strong son? Or a pretty and smart daughter?

I direct you towards Nancy Kress's Beggars in Spain , a sci-fi novel in which genetic engineering progresses to the point where it is possible to alter one's children's genes. The main character is genetically engineered so that she does not need sleep; she and many of her fellow Sleepless experience a great deal of backlash.

Obviously, this is not something that can be done in the present day -- it is fiction, after all -- but it presents some fascinating moral and ethical questions, and attempts to answer some of them. I found it fascinating.

We don't live in this kind of a world full of people working towards the good will of human kind. Ever hear of the word "Economy"? Thats what we live in. If it doesn't make a profit, companies don't care about it. How about we throw away all our money, just work to help our fellow man and distrubute goods to the people who need them? I don't have to say much more about that.

If all companies have free access to all ideas and it only take milliseconds to get ideas, whats the point of them? Every company would be just like everyone else. No ones going to make a profit if any consumer can go to the next store over and get the same thing. Patents, copyrights, these are all just forms of economic competition.

Unless you have some money backing your words, they are always going to stay words.

I suggest reading some Neal Stephenson books like Snow Crash or The Diamond Age. They may seem to be a bit exaggerated, but they are a good view to what we are heading towards.

We don't live in this kind of a world full of people working towards the good will of human kind. Ever hear of the word "Economy"? Thats what we live in. If it doesn't make a profit, companies don't care about it. How about we throw away all our money, just work to help our fellow man and distrubute goods to the people who need them? I don't have to say much more about that.

If all companies have free access to all ideas and it only take milliseconds to get ideas, whats the point of them? Every company would be just like everyone else. No ones going to make a profit if any consumer can go to the next store over and get the same thing. Patents, copyrights, these are all just forms of economic competition.

Unless you have some money backing your words, they are always going to stay words.

I suggest reading some Neal Stephenson books like Snow Crash or The Diamond Age. They may seem to be a bit exaggerated, but they are a good view to what we are heading towards.

Mating dynamics in "The New Economy" are completely out of whack. As a more extreme example: A couple of years back I ran across a CEO of a hundred million dollar initial capitalization startup who would do things like bake and deliver Thanksgiving dinner to his wife, an executive at a fortune 500 firm. He was was hospitalized after she went into a tantrum and broke his ribs. No charges filed but at least he had the good sense to divorce her. I'm sure if people were honest with themselves, they could think of plenty of less extreme examples of similar market inefficiencies in places like Silicon Valley that are just begging to be exploited.

The real initial successes for these devices will come when they are used to "short out" mating/money potentials between geek/money saturated places like Silicon Valley and Seattle, and concubine/fertility saturated places like Washington D.C., NYC and LA.

The rapidly increasing population of high income geeks is making some sort of exploitation of these potentials inevitable, and computer intermediation for geeks is a natural for all sorts of reasons:

Geeks think they understand the technical issues.

Geeks actually do understand the technical issues.

Geeks are motivated by the motivation of all motivators: Evolution.

Geeks are motivated by the motivation of all civilizations: Money.

Geeks are decreasingly willing to inhibit their thinking as their status increases.

Geeks trust computers more than they trust people -- often with good reason.

There are some other problems involving authentication and security to manage, as well as legal liability, but most of these problems are already being addressed as part of the general movement toward high-value transactions in electronic commerce.

Hello,

Am not sure why they are endosing Amazon. You can also buy the book at Barnes and Noble for $31.99.

Grokking the Gimp

Other Gimp Books
--

Hello,

Am not sure why they are endosing Amazon. You can also buy the book at Barnes and Noble for $31.99.

Grokking the Gimp

Other Gimp Books
--

Answer: NO.

In the book Shamans, Software, and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society , the author, James Boyle, discusses this very issue. An excerpt from the beginning of the book:

"Who owns your genetic information? Might it be the doctors who, in the course of removing your spleen, decode a few cells and turn them into a patented product? In 1990 the Supreme Court of California said yes, marking another milestone on the information superhighway. "

The doctors made millions; the unwitting cell-provider received nothing and was told he had given up his rights to his own genetic material to the doctors. Be very afraid.

- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions

How would YOU react if you'd spent all the time and effort Bezos has, only to see that a competitor is copying everything you do, and trying very specifically to put YOUR company out of business? What other methods are there, legally, to stop this sort of thing?

Which is why, if I don't buy from Amazon, I definitely won't buy from B&N.

Have you read the comment text perhaps? If you had you might see why I came to this conclusion. Likewise the books I've read about Microsoft have led me to believe that their success is owed to their ruthless business strategy, and not their saavy programming skill. Their flagship product, DOS, upon which their entire fortune has since been built, was not written by them. Since then, their software has either been purchased, or implemented in a half-assed manner in order to get a leg up on the competition long enough to steal their features. I doubt I could match Bill Gates at crushing one's opponents in the business arena, but as a programmer he was at best mediocre (although it's impossible to grade him accurately due to his policy of not allowing people to see his work).

There are a few pro-Microsoft posts on this thread, but I replied only to this one because of the glaring innaccuracies contained therein (only one of which is mentioned in my original post). I call people trolls when I find it ridiculous to believe that, given they are mentally compentant human beings, that they are taking what they are saying seriously. Whether or not the original poster was not a troll or not a mentally competant human being, I will leave as an exercise for the reader.
I am from Europe, and we are always hearing about how the Americans like to reward success, hard work, achievment, and winning etc etc. Judging by the comments on Slashdot, this is not true. Don't be blinkered by jealousy.

Do all Europeans make gross generalizations about people in foriegn nations :-)? I myself cannot speak for ALL Americans, or even any American besides me. Personally I don't think that money is that important -- I value personal satisfaction and morality. I'm sure that in your biased eyes I am longing to be just like the Bowman's (whoever they are), with a Porche Carrera and a job at a soulless Silicon Valley manufacturer of bullshit, but that's not how I measure success.

Please have a pleasant day and a rewarding tomorrow,

-W.W.

sealed? That book is presently on sale. And you say there are parts of mormon history that are being hidden away and dismissed like some X-Files conspiracy?

I see the argument coming.

Ms. Conception:"They have hidden these records so we won't find them"

Chorus: "How do we know you are telling the truth?"

Ms. Conception:"Becuase we do not see them!"

^~~^~^^~~^~^~^~^^~^^~^~^~~^^^~^^~~^~~~^~~^~

The original and best treatment of this subject matter is William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

Read the book:
Lord of the Flies at Barnes and Nobles

Or watch the movie:
Lord of the Flies (1963) at IMDB.COM

-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!

It's about the U.S. Government trying to decide for you what sites you can and cannot look at (and using some pretty crappy software to do it). It's about a government that may say in the future "We have removed the Anarchists Cookbook from all public library's since it has no useful information and may constitute a threat to national security." and the people will say in resounding unison "ok". We can't let this happen! I still want to live in a country, indeed a world, where the citizens (albeit a small portion) can tell the government to STFU and have them listen to us.


Munky_v2
"Warning: you are logged into reality as root..."

And for those of us who are boycotting Amazon.com, you can find the book here.

K&R is short for Brian W. Kernighan & Dennis M. Ritchie, and generally refers to their landmark work The C Programming Language, which was the definitive definition of C until ANSI got their hands on it, and is still a must read for C programmers.

----

I recommend to everyone the book The Art of Happiness. It was written based on many interviews that the author conducted with the Dalai Lama. This was a very insightful read and I am finding applications of his advice in all areas of my life.

One of the ideas he suggests, is to consciously attempt to identify with your "enemies". They are just trying to be happy, just like you, right? So if someone angers you, then try and see why they said what they did. There is probably a good reason. They might be frustrated, or feel overwhelmed, or even have a personal issue with someone who likes Linux!(for example). Every one of those flames should have said something like: I understand that you think linux is too technical to approach. . . . If you think any other OS is better then perhaps I could point you to some information that shows otherwise . . . We would appreciate your help . . . etc. Every reply should have been positive and humble.

I think many people are more interested in protecting their fears and beliefs than truly trying to expand Linux. I also believe that a person who is afraid or insecure often responds to the criticism with anger. This is not the face Linux wants to put forward. If you are incapable of expressing your anger anyone but your precieved "enemies", then leave the advocacy to people who are.

Linux is not an exclusive club. We should all try to help people "get it", and if you flame other people for not getting it then you probably don't either.

I know dumb questions and bad press are annoying, but yelling at the press will only alienate them and cause them to have a personal stake in writing more bad press to vindicate themselves. Your flames only make things worse.

-pos

The truth is more important than the facts.

Go look that book title up on BarnesAndNoble.Com and you'll see there also is a March 2000 issue expected...

These questions have been so often repeated, rephrased and turned around that I do not believe anything new can come of them.

The best possible book about the mysteries of consciousness is, IMHO, The Mind's I by Doug Hofstdater and Daniel Dennet. I do not want to dwell upon how great that book is, so I will merely say that I find it equal, if not superior, to GEB.

On the other hand, I think any attempt to explain the mysteries of consciousness by using quantum mechanics is not misguided, but simply misses the point completely.

Also try this text for an idea of the amount of nonsense that can be said about the subject.