Hrmph. You may be right. However, I believe a good autoprobing kudzu-like deal at bootup would make installation a breeze for the vast majority of the machines.
Maybe someone could make a diagnostic cdrom/floppy set that will probe hardware and tell that "this machine is special, so we can't use plain ISO"? It's looking a bit more complex, but with bugzilla and some good working routines, I don't think it's impossible to work this out..
Oh. Btw - running Linux on your brand spankin' new hardware can be tricky. It's usually much easier to run Linux on hardware that's more than a year old - or has Linux support from the manufacturer.
The trouble is, if 60 days isn't enough time to audit 25,000 machines it sure as hell isn't enough time to convert them to Linux. It boggles my mind that Microsoft is going so far out of its way to piss people off.
I beg to differ. With a caffeine-powered geek in a room full of machines, I'm sure you could have Linux installed and ready to go in about three-four hours. Maybe even less. Basically, if you make an ISO image of the file system, you could boot with a floppy, partition, format and mount the HD, and then copy the files over. You'd need to run IP configuration and hostname, though.
I bet it's faster to make that ISO, get support at local colleges to rent-an-undergrad for a few hours (undergrads on a linux zealot mission go for 7-8 usd? less?). However, this is a split-second decision. If you want to do this remotely right, someone should get at the case right away. Start researching other eductional Linux projects, find out what experiences they've had. I know we are developing something here in Norway. They are making a K12-aimed Linux distro based upon Debian. Supposedly, you can install it by clicking the mouse three times.
If someone started the process of migrating to Linux, Microsoft might be scared enough to give more time on the audit, or maybe even help out during the audit. If Microsoft doesn't budge - well, fsck them!
Joe Sixpack will not care, nor notice. His machine is slow because cheap computers come without sufficient amounts of RAM. Had the manufacturers included more RAM in their lower end systems, people would realize that the high end systems did perform so much faster that the higher price was justified.
I'm using a P3 533 mhz with 512 MB of RAM. I run VMWare to be able to access company email, otherwise I'm all linux. According to hype, this should be obsoleted and unacceptable. It isn't. Even the VMWare solution is acceptable (though not ideal). You have to wonder if there are "conspiracies" within the hardware industry that makes Microsoft appear angelic.
So, for the end user, more RAM from the manufactorers side would be much more cost effective than a slightly faster processor.
One thing you should mention that is not technical (and this is probably something you want to put into the introduction), is the fact that Linux/Unix is used in most colleges. College graduates like Linux. This is in fact one of the ways we are moving towards world domination - we are making that would-be college graduates are introduced to Linux at a rather early stage.
You should also emphasize the vast number of libraries with already implemented algorithms, ready for them to use. CPAN is a good example. Also, a bit of freshmeat is quite impressive and motivating.
Once you have them motivated and convinced that Linux is the way of the future, you can start being more technical - showing how the CLI can be effective, how apt-get is the automatic, up-to-date, nighly version of windows update, how tunneling X through ssh enables them to run apps remotely.
These developers are future.NET people. Maybe show them some SOAP stuff on Linux? Show them some databases? Admit flaws, emphasize strengths.
Oh - and show them the way of groups.google.com!
But - again, never let them forget that the Linux mindshare is ever expanding, and that IBM is investing heavily into Linux.
Finally, maybe show them a java app the runs on both Windows and Linux, thus proving that they can work together?
Dependencies on a system sucks, sucks, sucks. Tried compiling perl 5.6.1 on a RedHat box? Chaos management replaces system administration!
Once you have one piece of non-rpm software, it just gets worse. Officially, you have an older version. You may even have a good reason why you custom-compiled in the first place. Anyhow, dependencies start complaining once you start upgrading packages that depend on what you custom-built.
The way to go is to integrate package management into
./configure make make test make install
That would be really, really nice and basically make all distros work together again!
I beg to differ. Briefly. I have to go back to coding a Linux-based app that we sell for a price with a quite a few digits.
Linux is actually a business success that is destined to advance. Amazon.com turned a loss into a profit by migrating to Linux, thus dodging license costs. Google runs on Linux. Various governments are looking into migrating onto Linux (their National Security advisors don't like to run software run by a company that got a settlement offer in such a weak case. Maybe there are paragraphs we don't know about?). IBM is embracing linux. Sun is recognizing Linux. Compaq & HP are dealing with Linux. Why? Because it is cost effective, and destined to become even more cost effective in the future.
A lot of really bright college graduates have used Linux extensively, and prefer working with Linux. Academia loves Linux, providing us with an ever expanding brainshare. This vastly increases Linux marketplace muscle. Would you like to develop your application on Linux, using free everything and readily available brainpower, or would you like to retrain your developers to use costly Microsoft solutions?
The hype was "pump and dump". However, some of those that followed the hype in trying out Linux got pleasantly surprised. It is a vibrant community, far outshining the dull, grey, business-oriented Microsoft-world. Microsoft once had that advantage over its competitors at the time (being developer-friendly), but it appears they have lost their shine.
On the long term, expect Microsoft to do several dramatic turns to re-attract the developer community - or die.
Piracy is giving the music business an excuse to do evil, wicked things to our rights. By emphasizing abuse, they are making the argument that they are doing this in order to protect themselves. They show no willingness to look for alternatives, and those they do attempt to launch seem toothless and are quite expensive in comparison to the distribution costs.
Really. The record store, transportation and physical media costs are eliminated. Granted, there is an introduced per-transaction cost for paying for the goods (you usually have the cash-option), but their prices are still too expensive.
Instead of using the new medium, they are fighting it. Look at what the MPAA did concerning the VCRs. They fought it. All the way. It was a dark day for Hollywood, or something like that. Whatever. Turns out, we spend more money on buying dvd's and vhs's than we spend in the box office.
Rather than giving us a good, modestly priced alternative to piracy, they are shooting them selves in the foot thinking they are giving us the finger.
In fact, you could (weakly) argue that the music industry is behaving like Bush and Sharon. By making impossible yet seemingly reasonable demands and making sure they aren't met, they get out on top. "You can't pirat a CD" while overpricing the product. "You must crack down on the terrorists amid you" while bombing their police station. "Axis of evil", four relatively unrelated nations singled out and bunched together. Think they will behave now that they know they'll be taken out anyhow?
I'm drifting off what I meant to say.
By using the piracy argument, they are trying to shift public opinion towards schemes like Shakira and Celine Dion. They are even putting them on high-profile disks, hoping that we will buy them, and that cognitive dissonance will stop us from ranting. It is a dumb, dumb bet. They have lost their power, but don't realize it. I just feel sorry for the artists that are bound to suffer from this unneeded shift towards freeloading.
By the way - the best way to support an artist you like is to go to their concert. That is often more profitable for the artist than if you buy their cd. Also, I buy albums I find myself listening to. Hope Sandoval & Warm Inventions. Grant Lee Phillips. Fantomas. Tomahawk. Joe Henry. I also owe a CD or two to Ben Folds Five, Bjork, Air and a couple more.
If the alternative OS can really "swim," a retailer can open which does business only with the alternative, and doesn't deal with M$.
This has already happened long ago. However, most companies that I know of tend to have one vendor that they buy from. That enables them to build good relations with their vendor, getting good deals and good support. With your reasoning, people would have to migrate their entire business onto Linux in one go.
M$ is no scapegoat. Ask BeOS, Mac, Sun, IBM, DR. They don't compete on an open market, they compete through litigation and intimidation (that is what those OEM licenses really are). If you get that $10 penalty on every system you sell, along with lower priority whenever you have a request for your main OS vendor, well - that amounts to a serious business disadvantage that does not compensate for those additional 5% you can do business with.
This is a really good idea! More and more people have pretty potent computers (more or less) permanently connected to the internet. These are idling, wasting cycles most of the time.
So - why not make a distributed network where you pay people to process data for you? They download the client, sign up necessary information for you to pay them, and fire up their client. Client runs at the lowest priority, doing calculations in the background while they enjoy whatever they enjoy doing in front of their computer.
Currently, several such projects are underway, except they're free. If I got a few bucks a month for running some software on my computer, I'd be pretty happy.
If this thing got big, the computing power would be immense, probably equivalent of really hairy supercomputers. Imagine literally millions of good, solid computers running a thin client, silently crushing numbers.
You could even persuade ISPs to optionally distribute the technology, since the income from running the client could help finance the broadband connection, thus increasing their customer base.
Low latency, pre-emptive. All nice and good. However, what I really want is to get a super-fast connection between my database server and my application server. How much will the lower latency patches affect the throughput, given that I operate in multiple small queries? (No way around it, at the moment. So please don't flame (too hard))
Will Ethernet devices, TCP/IP stacks and the lot become more responsive? Will MySQL/PostgreSQL/SapDB/Oracle/DB2/Interbase be able to execute a small query even faster? How much?
Actually, I hope to measure this sometime not too far into the future!
The lead developer for "Microsoft's Xbox Advanced Technology Group", Pete Isensee, said something interesting:
"Microsoft has this stigma about not getting it right until version three. We didn't have a choice with Xbox. If we didn't get it right with version one, Sony and Nintendo would eat us alive."
What is the implicit message? I would say : "As long as we have direct, real competition, we will produce quality products on time"
Europe has changed in 8 years. I don't know whether these laws in Germany have changed or not, though I suspect the EU mandated they be removed since they were in effect protectionist.
That being said, sometimes a bit of regulation is a good thing. If the gov't makes rules to force businesses to prove their product work and deliver what the commercial says, is that an infringement of liberty? Right now, you can buy a $5 blender at kmart that will work - once. The stronger consumer rights in (parts of?) Europe mandates warranties that keep such scams off the market. Things cost a bit more, but they appear to be working better and for longer than the stash I bought when I lived in the States.
Basically, more liberty for the consumer, less for the business. I believe that businesses that abuse their liberties should have those taken away, just like what happens when the citizens behave irresponsibly.
There was a schedule to coordinate releases. That was a mistake. The knowledge of the exploit should have been released as soon as someone became aware of it. If there was no patch, I would turn off the service until there was a patch - or I would look for a more secure alternative, say, a Java version unless I needed really high performance.
Oh. Virus free? And you give Microsoft credit for that?
Really. Please take a look at the length of the interval between a black hat creates an exploit, and a working patch is available for your platform. How many days a year is your computer exposed?
With the "we don't tell you 'till we got a patch" information policy, you can be exposed for months without knowing it. With the "we tell you, and then we release the patch" information policy, you can react according to your relevant security policy.
Microsoft has a long history of the former. Linux is generally rather quick on releasing comments and patches, and I believe almost all the major Linux distributions have automated security patch services now. I know Mandrake, Debian and Red Hat do.
Until recently, windows update was used for pushing new versions of software. They rarely released security fixes, and then usually clogged together. If you wanted to stay secure in windows-land, you needed to look around for the patches. They appear to be using windows update for pushing security now, but remember that one of the worms of fall 2001 infected a windows update server. Do you trust these guys? Really?
Oh - btw - the fact that they let a mac/solaris guy administer NT boxes could be yet another sign of brassy incompetence. And judgement is always biased. That is what judgement is. If it is purely bases upon facts and clear rules, it is not "judgement" but a fact.
Crikey. Don't post on level 2 when you're just too dumb/tired to understand what he's saying.
Quite simply : In the west, we only care about linux because it's cheap. In India, they care because it's Free as in Speech and they consider that a good thing.
When I hire someone, I'm looking for BOTH theoretical knowledge AND practical experience. I'm liberal in terms of theory - most of the market is very much looking for people with very specific skills. I believe they are shooting themselves in the foot.
However, I hire a good CS student with good social skills over an excellent CS student with bad or mediocre social skills. Good CS students in a good enviroment are more productive than excellent CS students in a bad environment. To my knowledge.
With Methane-powered fuel cells coming out, why bother about batteries? With methane-powered fuel cells, you can eat beans, stick a hose up your butt and surf pr0n 'till you collapse into a puddle of.. something.
Most new music blows. Let's list a few albums you might want to check out, cuz they don't blow.
Joe Henry - Scar Grant Lee Phillips - Mobilize Aphex Twin - DrukQs Tomahawk - Tomahawk (new Mike Patton project. rawk. really.) St Germain - (forgot album title)
(AP) Lance Bass rocked out during orbiting, and accidentally triggered an obscure mechanism that fired the propulsion system, sending him off out into deep space. Bass is still in contact with Mission Control, saying "Comrades, we have a problem" repeatedly. No comrades appear to be listening, though.
That was my dream. Now I have to find another dream.
"...some sleep loss actually acts as an antidepressant."
My current theory is that people will become depressed if they think deeply. By being sleep-deprived and caffeinated, they will not be mentally alert enough to realize how deeply life sucks, and how unfair the world is.
Depression is bad for your life expectancy (my assertion), so sleeping less will increase your life expectancy given that you won't be so depressed when you're no longer fully awake. Isn't that a beautiful theory of the causality between long life, sleep deprivation and happiness? Now how do I test it?!
The journalists and the Christian missionaries captured in Kabul were treated quite well, all things considered. Just bringing a tiny piece of balance into the equation, folks.
BTW - It is interesting that nations that cannot afford to dress their soldiers up in proper military insignia cannot be at war, but must be harboring unlawful combatants.
And you would also admit that the enemy is allowed to torture your CIA undercover operatives by extending your argument to its logical conclusion. They don't wear insignia, they may not answer to a chain of command, and they may target civilians (unlawful combatants are civilians, though bad ones).
So - let's rather discuss a nice piece of thought experiment. If you were the enemy of the United States, who would be your best ally? That would be the Republicans, sir. By making sure the republicans go apeshit, they have also exposed not very flattering aspects of the current administration. The Al Qaeida could be winning the war as we speak.
American unilateralism has weakened popular support for continued partnership between America and its allies. The foreign governments are making sharper and sharper comments day by day concerning American unilateral interpretation of international law, and American willingness. You don't know where Osama bin Laden is, and none of your heightened states of alert have shown predictive power.
While Bush and Musharraf were shaking hands, Muslem extremeists were unhindered in plotting to attack the Indian parliament. Only after extended outrage and threat of war did Musharraf crack down on domestic extremism. Are you certain he is on your side in the war on terror? Could he be hiding the Taliban? Why or why not?
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Hrmph. You may be right. However, I believe a good autoprobing kudzu-like deal at bootup would make installation a breeze for the vast majority of the machines.
Maybe someone could make a diagnostic cdrom/floppy set that will probe hardware and tell that "this machine is special, so we can't use plain ISO"? It's looking a bit more complex, but with bugzilla and some good working routines, I don't think it's impossible to work this out..
Oh. Btw - running Linux on your brand spankin' new hardware can be tricky. It's usually much easier to run Linux on hardware that's more than a year old - or has Linux support from the manufacturer.
I beg to differ. With a caffeine-powered geek in a room full of machines, I'm sure you could have Linux installed and ready to go in about three-four hours. Maybe even less. Basically, if you make an ISO image of the file system, you could boot with a floppy, partition, format and mount the HD, and then copy the files over. You'd need to run IP configuration and hostname, though.
I bet it's faster to make that ISO, get support at local colleges to rent-an-undergrad for a few hours (undergrads on a linux zealot mission go for 7-8 usd? less?). However, this is a split-second decision. If you want to do this remotely right, someone should get at the case right away. Start researching other eductional Linux projects, find out what experiences they've had. I know we are developing something here in Norway. They are making a K12-aimed Linux distro based upon Debian. Supposedly, you can install it by clicking the mouse three times.
If someone started the process of migrating to Linux, Microsoft might be scared enough to give more time on the audit, or maybe even help out during the audit. If Microsoft doesn't budge - well, fsck them!
Joe Sixpack will not care, nor notice. His machine is slow because cheap computers come without sufficient amounts of RAM. Had the manufacturers included more RAM in their lower end systems, people would realize that the high end systems did perform so much faster that the higher price was justified.
I'm using a P3 533 mhz with 512 MB of RAM. I run VMWare to be able to access company email, otherwise I'm all linux. According to hype, this should be obsoleted and unacceptable. It isn't. Even the VMWare solution is acceptable (though not ideal). You have to wonder if there are "conspiracies" within the hardware industry that makes Microsoft appear angelic.
So, for the end user, more RAM from the manufactorers side would be much more cost effective than a slightly faster processor.
One thing you should mention that is not technical (and this is probably something you want to put into the introduction), is the fact that Linux/Unix is used in most colleges. College graduates like Linux. This is in fact one of the ways we are moving towards world domination - we are making that would-be college graduates are introduced to Linux at a rather early stage.
.NET people. Maybe show them some SOAP stuff on Linux? Show them some databases? Admit flaws, emphasize strengths.
You should also emphasize the vast number of libraries with already implemented algorithms, ready for them to use. CPAN is a good example. Also, a bit of freshmeat is quite impressive and motivating.
Once you have them motivated and convinced that Linux is the way of the future, you can start being more technical - showing how the CLI can be effective, how apt-get is the automatic, up-to-date, nighly version of windows update, how tunneling X through ssh enables them to run apps remotely.
These developers are future
Oh - and show them the way of groups.google.com!
But - again, never let them forget that the Linux mindshare is ever expanding, and that IBM is investing heavily into Linux.
Finally, maybe show them a java app the runs on both Windows and Linux, thus proving that they can work together?
Dependencies on a system sucks, sucks, sucks. Tried compiling perl 5.6.1 on a RedHat box? Chaos management replaces system administration!
Once you have one piece of non-rpm software, it just gets worse. Officially, you have an older version. You may even have a good reason why you custom-compiled in the first place. Anyhow, dependencies start complaining once you start upgrading packages that depend on what you custom-built.
The way to go is to integrate package management into
./configure
make
make test
make install
That would be really, really nice and basically make all distros work together again!
I beg to differ. Briefly. I have to go back to coding a Linux-based app that we sell for a price with a quite a few digits.
Linux is actually a business success that is destined to advance. Amazon.com turned a loss into a profit by migrating to Linux, thus dodging license costs. Google runs on Linux. Various governments are looking into migrating onto Linux (their National Security advisors don't like to run software run by a company that got a settlement offer in such a weak case. Maybe there are paragraphs we don't know about?). IBM is embracing linux. Sun is recognizing Linux. Compaq & HP are dealing with Linux. Why? Because it is cost effective, and destined to become even more cost effective in the future.
A lot of really bright college graduates have used Linux extensively, and prefer working with Linux. Academia loves Linux, providing us with an ever expanding brainshare. This vastly increases Linux marketplace muscle. Would you like to develop your application on Linux, using free everything and readily available brainpower, or would you like to retrain your developers to use costly Microsoft solutions?
The hype was "pump and dump". However, some of those that followed the hype in trying out Linux got pleasantly surprised. It is a vibrant community, far outshining the dull, grey, business-oriented Microsoft-world. Microsoft once had that advantage over its competitors at the time (being developer-friendly), but it appears they have lost their shine.
On the long term, expect Microsoft to do several dramatic turns to re-attract the developer community - or die.
Piracy is giving the music business an excuse to do evil, wicked things to our rights. By emphasizing abuse, they are making the argument that they are doing this in order to protect themselves. They show no willingness to look for alternatives, and those they do attempt to launch seem toothless and are quite expensive in comparison to the distribution costs.
Really. The record store, transportation and physical media costs are eliminated. Granted, there is an introduced per-transaction cost for paying for the goods (you usually have the cash-option), but their prices are still too expensive.
Instead of using the new medium, they are fighting it. Look at what the MPAA did concerning the VCRs. They fought it. All the way. It was a dark day for Hollywood, or something like that. Whatever. Turns out, we spend more money on buying dvd's and vhs's than we spend in the box office.
Rather than giving us a good, modestly priced alternative to piracy, they are shooting them selves in the foot thinking they are giving us the finger.
In fact, you could (weakly) argue that the music industry is behaving like Bush and Sharon. By making impossible yet seemingly reasonable demands and making sure they aren't met, they get out on top. "You can't pirat a CD" while overpricing the product. "You must crack down on the terrorists amid you" while bombing their police station. "Axis of evil", four relatively unrelated nations singled out and bunched together. Think they will behave now that they know they'll be taken out anyhow?
I'm drifting off what I meant to say.
By using the piracy argument, they are trying to shift public opinion towards schemes like Shakira and Celine Dion. They are even putting them on high-profile disks, hoping that we will buy them, and that cognitive dissonance will stop us from ranting. It is a dumb, dumb bet. They have lost their power, but don't realize it. I just feel sorry for the artists that are bound to suffer from this unneeded shift towards freeloading.
By the way - the best way to support an artist you like is to go to their concert. That is often more profitable for the artist than if you buy their cd. Also, I buy albums I find myself listening to. Hope Sandoval & Warm Inventions. Grant Lee Phillips. Fantomas. Tomahawk. Joe Henry. I also owe a CD or two to Ben Folds Five, Bjork, Air and a couple more.
This has already happened long ago. However, most companies that I know of tend to have one vendor that they buy from. That enables them to build good relations with their vendor, getting good deals and good support. With your reasoning, people would have to migrate their entire business onto Linux in one go.
M$ is no scapegoat. Ask BeOS, Mac, Sun, IBM, DR. They don't compete on an open market, they compete through litigation and intimidation (that is what those OEM licenses really are). If you get that $10 penalty on every system you sell, along with lower priority whenever you have a request for your main OS vendor, well - that amounts to a serious business disadvantage that does not compensate for those additional 5% you can do business with.
This is a really good idea! More and more people have pretty potent computers (more or less) permanently connected to the internet. These are idling, wasting cycles most of the time.
So - why not make a distributed network where you pay people to process data for you? They download the client, sign up necessary information for you to pay them, and fire up their client. Client runs at the lowest priority, doing calculations in the background while they enjoy whatever they enjoy doing in front of their computer.
Currently, several such projects are underway, except they're free. If I got a few bucks a month for running some software on my computer, I'd be pretty happy.
If this thing got big, the computing power would be immense, probably equivalent of really hairy supercomputers. Imagine literally millions of good, solid computers running a thin client, silently crushing numbers.
You could even persuade ISPs to optionally distribute the technology, since the income from running the client could help finance the broadband connection, thus increasing their customer base.
Hmm. Whaddya think? Is there a market for this?
Trivialization is how we deal with the incomprehensible. That or painting black and white. That's 'or', not 'xor'.
Low latency, pre-emptive. All nice and good. However, what I really want is to get a super-fast connection between my database server and my application server. How much will the lower latency patches affect the throughput, given that I operate in multiple small queries? (No way around it, at the moment. So please don't flame (too hard))
Will Ethernet devices, TCP/IP stacks and the lot become more responsive? Will MySQL/PostgreSQL/SapDB/Oracle/DB2/Interbase be able to execute a small query even faster? How much?
Actually, I hope to measure this sometime not too far into the future!
Europe has changed in 8 years. I don't know whether these laws in Germany have changed or not, though I suspect the EU mandated they be removed since they were in effect protectionist.
That being said, sometimes a bit of regulation is a good thing. If the gov't makes rules to force businesses to prove their product work and deliver what the commercial says, is that an infringement of liberty? Right now, you can buy a $5 blender at kmart that will work - once. The stronger consumer rights in (parts of?) Europe mandates warranties that keep such scams off the market. Things cost a bit more, but they appear to be working better and for longer than the stash I bought when I lived in the States.
Basically, more liberty for the consumer, less for the business. I believe that businesses that abuse their liberties should have those taken away, just like what happens when the citizens behave irresponsibly.
There was a schedule to coordinate releases. That was a mistake. The knowledge of the exploit should have been released as soon as someone became aware of it. If there was no patch, I would turn off the service until there was a patch - or I would look for a more secure alternative, say, a Java version unless I needed really high performance.
Oh. Virus free? And you give Microsoft credit for that?
Really. Please take a look at the length of the interval between a black hat creates an exploit, and a working patch is available for your platform. How many days a year is your computer exposed?
With the "we don't tell you 'till we got a patch" information policy, you can be exposed for months without knowing it. With the "we tell you, and then we release the patch" information policy, you can react according to your relevant security policy.
Microsoft has a long history of the former. Linux is generally rather quick on releasing comments and patches, and I believe almost all the major Linux distributions have automated security patch services now. I know Mandrake, Debian and Red Hat do.
Until recently, windows update was used for pushing new versions of software. They rarely released security fixes, and then usually clogged together. If you wanted to stay secure in windows-land, you needed to look around for the patches. They appear to be using windows update for pushing security now, but remember that one of the worms of fall 2001 infected a windows update server. Do you trust these guys? Really?
Oh - btw - the fact that they let a mac/solaris guy administer NT boxes could be yet another sign of brassy incompetence. And judgement is always biased. That is what judgement is. If it is purely bases upon facts and clear rules, it is not "judgement" but a fact.
Crikey. Don't post on level 2 when you're just too dumb/tired to understand what he's saying.
Quite simply : In the west, we only care about linux because it's cheap. In India, they care because it's Free as in Speech and they consider that a good thing.
The mission will be completed. They failed because they were critical. Bloody hell, where's your head at?
Really? How's that?
When I hire someone, I'm looking for BOTH theoretical knowledge AND practical experience. I'm liberal in terms of theory - most of the market is very much looking for people with very specific skills. I believe they are shooting themselves in the foot.
However, I hire a good CS student with good social skills over an excellent CS student with bad or mediocre social skills. Good CS students in a good enviroment are more productive than excellent CS students in a bad environment. To my knowledge.
Limp Bizkit + Linkin Park = evil, corporate rock that brainwashes kids into being angry WWF fans.
Incubus = Ok
KoRN = lost all magic
Creed = dull
With Methane-powered fuel cells coming out, why bother about batteries? With methane-powered fuel cells, you can eat beans, stick a hose up your butt and surf pr0n 'till you collapse into a puddle of.. something.
Most new music blows. Let's list a few albums you might want to check out, cuz they don't blow.
Joe Henry - Scar
Grant Lee Phillips - Mobilize
Aphex Twin - DrukQs
Tomahawk - Tomahawk (new Mike Patton project. rawk. really.)
St Germain - (forgot album title)
That was my dream. Now I have to find another dream.
My current theory is that people will become depressed if they think deeply. By being sleep-deprived and caffeinated, they will not be mentally alert enough to realize how deeply life sucks, and how unfair the world is.
Depression is bad for your life expectancy (my assertion), so sleeping less will increase your life expectancy given that you won't be so depressed when you're no longer fully awake. Isn't that a beautiful theory of the causality between long life, sleep deprivation and happiness? Now how do I test it?!
The journalists and the Christian missionaries captured in Kabul were treated quite well, all things considered. Just bringing a tiny piece of balance into the equation, folks.
BTW - It is interesting that nations that cannot afford to dress their soldiers up in proper military insignia cannot be at war, but must be harboring unlawful combatants.
And you would also admit that the enemy is allowed to torture your CIA undercover operatives by extending your argument to its logical conclusion. They don't wear insignia, they may not answer to a chain of command, and they may target civilians (unlawful combatants are civilians, though bad ones).
So - let's rather discuss a nice piece of thought experiment. If you were the enemy of the United States, who would be your best ally? That would be the Republicans, sir. By making sure the republicans go apeshit, they have also exposed not very flattering aspects of the current administration. The Al Qaeida could be winning the war as we speak.
American unilateralism has weakened popular support for continued partnership between America and its allies. The foreign governments are making sharper and sharper comments day by day concerning American unilateral interpretation of international law, and American willingness. You don't know where Osama bin Laden is, and none of your heightened states of alert have shown predictive power.
While Bush and Musharraf were shaking hands, Muslem extremeists were unhindered in plotting to attack the Indian parliament. Only after extended outrage and threat of war did Musharraf crack down on domestic extremism. Are you certain he is on your side in the war on terror? Could he be hiding the Taliban? Why or why not?
I think that's enough for today.