Hello! I can assure you you're not the only one whose skills are between those of a normal person and a Unix veteran. In fact, I'm upgrading to the next Ubuntu LTS within minutes, using the GUI.
I think fixing whatever problem your computer has with the help of http://ubuntuforums.org/ is a good first step. After that you could try different window managers (Unity, KDE...). That way you'll find your way of doing things and will also learn how to swap parts of your Linux.
Finding out how you want to do things is important, since then you'll be a lot more motivated when you try to modify your system.
Right. People enjoy what they're good at. He's going for a Ph.D. Those are the kind of people that are good at making an impact. If we were good at "enjoying life", we would have pursued the path of greatest pleasure instead of the path of greatest impact. If he's not happier grinding, he's on the wrong path.
I hope you're joking, or trolling. These are not either/or choices. The idea of having to either live completely for something or not do it at all is crazy. Unless someone's signing up for a convent that is, and the OP isn't apparently.
The best way to become a loser is to concentrate on something 120% and then burn oneself out within a couple of years. Even if one were to survive, employers don't want boring people who have only ever done one thing.
If a 'well sealed' nuclear test releases 'faint traces', let's be thankful that it wasn't a 'badly sealed' one. I mean, wouldn't a 'well sealed' one mean no traces at all?
This is not the case, and the reason likely is that we're dealing with nuclear instead of chemical measurements.
IANA chemist or physicist, but from what I understand it's like this: while we can do pretty damn accurate measurements of chemicals, it's nothing compared to how well we can measure radioactive isotopes. They emit radiation by definition and therefore broadcast their presence. What's more, some specific radiation signatures only appear after nuclear tests.
Basically, there is an absurd amount of atoms all around us, and all of them get into everything. When you get close to the level of measuring single atoms you see the truth: there isn't really any such thing as "sealed" (if there are actual experts here you should feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
(okay now Slashdot broke completely normal letters so I have to use weird typing hacks. Thanks for sucking ¥$¥[{, Slashcode!)
Actually it's just vowel harmony, with a handy explanation including a Venn diagram available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_harmony#Finnish The vowels y, a:, o: can't be used together with a, o, u in the same non-compound word.
Also those dots aren't diacritics: a: and o: are considered letters like any other.
This post brought to you by the association of unnecessary language explanations.
As the sibling poster also pointed out you're confusing generations. The early blue LEDs go back further than 25 years - I believe some blue dashboard lights used to be LEDs in the early 80s.
Also, I was specifically talking about indicator lights, not all available LEDs. Among these there has been a trend of roughly red->green->blue->white, all depending on a combination of fashion and efficiency. In the 80s a red LED often meant "powered on", but now it's quite rare.
In recent years white LEDs have appeared in more and more places. After early red and even earlier weak blue LEDs, in quite a short time we went from green to blue to white indicator LEDs, and now the white ones are getting ever better.
They're really a pretty miraculous technology: they're at least partially replacing everything from real candles to filament lamps to gas discharge lamps. They're about to unseat low pressure sodium lights as the most efficient streetlights, if they haven't already done so. Meanwhile they can still turn on and off faster than other lamps, and contain smaller amounts of toxic substances than most alternatives. They're a very science fictioney technology happening right here in real life.
Hah, I pretty much came here to see if someone else made that connection.
If they deploy this tech more broadly in the future there's going to be an apparently random, small group of people who are somehow very hesitant about it.
So how can TI get away with charging almost that much today for a single-purpose device that doesn't even compare favorably with a low-end smartphone from two years ago? Does it serve as an espresso machine too, or maybe as an electric razor?
The TI doesn't need to and shouldn't get into a feature or spec sheet race. It's a mobile calculator and that's what it should do well. It compares very favourably with a smartphone if we actually consider what it's for.
I haven't had a serious use for my TI since upper secondary school, yet I still prefer it to any option. In more than a decade of owning it I've changed the batteries something like twice. Some smartphones on the other hand need charging twice a week even for standby.
I still have the interface in muscle memory after all these years. A smartphone would have died within this timespan, likely forcing an interface change. You cannot do touchtyping on a smartphone like you can on a TI. There's no way you'll have 30-40 always available hotkeys either.
Basically as long as it's within the budget the TI is superior for these tasks. That's why smartphones won't replace it. But it IS indeed overpriced - as someone else said, it's not known why there isn't competition pulling prices down (I write this assuming similar calculators from other manufacturers have roughly similar prices).
But until the prices fall you need to pay this to get a good device. The options will either be bulky (laptop), or run out of batteries and have worse interfaces. A low cost integrated camera won't get the job done.
Typing in something like that on a smartphone would be a huge pain though. No one would want to do it. So while it needs a more advanced platform it doesn't really mean smartphones are superior because of it.
A laptop would do better but then you're using a laptop instead of a small device which still has a purpose-built interface.
That summary would be wrong, for a very simple reason:
Not all the hackers live within the same "culture.
Well, since I happen to study a related field I can say that depends a lot on which specific definition of culture is being used.
But that doesn't really matter here since I wrote "studies nerds", not "studies all nerds" like you appear to have assumed. Basically everyday language requires a degree of co-operation, unlike scientific language.
And here we have, a person who only spent 3 fricking years (as she put it "researching") comes out with her "immense knowledge" of the hacker subculture.
Where did you get that "immense knowledge" part? It wasn't in the article, and it wasn't expressed using other words either.
Also at no point in the article did she say that all hacker culture everywhere is like that. In fact the article explicitly mentions that she wanted to study and studied differences between different hacker groups.
TL;DR - she's writing a book and wants us all to know, and Wired is cooperating. It's a fluff piece. Apparently we should buy it when it comes out.
As the sibling posts also say, you wrote a really bad summary. I think you just wanted to be cynical, or troll.
Aside from the fact that she'll apparently release the book copyleft, there's also the fact that it's a scholarly work - a good way to lose money.
A better summary would be something like "Anthropologist studies nerds, finds that they have an interesting culture and a clear interest in civil liberties issues."
But of course that isn't relevant to Slashdot. There are no nerds here, and no one cares about civil liberties here, right? We just discuss computer parts endlessly, right? I hope some smarter moderators show up soon.
People state, quite correctly, that you have worked a lot for freedom. But another thing you're famous for is the beard.
So basically, I look somewhat like a Roman emperor at the moment, and I'm wondering if you can give any tips on how to start looking a bit more respectable. Any general tips for the growth phase? How much work is it when done?
How many centimetres are required for the sudden and unexpected increase in programming ability?
I'm not the GP, but here are a few points. If you wrote your post while not caring about normal users at all then we are talking past each other, but that's fine too.
What you call a step backward with Android actually allows it to work, if the above posters are to be trusted. I'm guessing the video tearing and cut/paste problems of my Ubuntu desktop are gone too.
Normal users adopted 2000/XP/OS X because they actually worked. It wasn't about servers: hell, if you're lucky enough to get a static IP these days the next step is probably someone rooting you. No, the real reason these were succesful is that they provided working GUIs and features (video etc) without crashing. Something like this:
Win 98: Crashes, has features. XP/2K: Doesn't crash, has features, has malware. Linux: Doesn't crash, has no malware, has no features.
All this from a normal user's perspective, of course.
Linux doesn't have to do anything for programmers and sysadmins really, except continue being itself. For normal users on the other hand it has its priorities all wrong. All that's really needed is a system that doesn't crash, can do video, can do file formats and cut and paste. Also write some GUIs for those config files so the neighbour's kid can figure it out, pretty please?
Basically if dumping remote functions is needed for desktop features then that's the way to go. The people at the server end know how to install what they need themselves on the other hand.
I was actually somewhat disappointed when I realised this was the reason for your post. I was hoping it was one of those classic AC trolls where the text is re-posted almost verbatim, the only change being an added reference to sodomy, preferably among the Slashdot editors.
But I guess in the name of Slashdot trolling culture I'll refrain from reading your post in detail and imagine that you yourself posted your own text with such an alteration! Man I love Slashdot in any case...
Sorry to seem harsh, but this is probably not the best idea. If it's fun little web app, then you could pull it off. Anything that will deployed in a professional environment should not have something like this present.
"should not". Says who? On what authority? Who or what made you think that an expression of compassion is somehow damaging?
It's not like doing any particular thing excludes another. Nothing last forever so I don't think it's a big deal if he wants to dedicate some of his work to his grandmother. And the dedication is always for the person making it.
I agree completely!
Some suggest carving things into granite. But then the poster could just as well make a similar monument for himself: both will outlast him. But what's the point of something conveying his feelings when he is no longer there himself?
The grief and respect are here in this moment. If he feels like putting a dedication into a program then that works, not to mention it's been done before. It will also be nice since anyone who happens to see it will know that it was written by an actual human, rather than a self-aware database in the basement of Oracle's corporate HQ.
I'm not trying to be harsh either, but seriously an app dedication? Was she a ground breaking coder? Did she sponsor your education? It just seems like a very inappropriate way to honour her.
Books aren't dedicated exclusively to authors. While dedications are rarer in code, it follows that they don't have to go to coders exclusively.
I'm not a coder but looking at this thread it looks like people confuse being a professional with being inhuman. Being professional is about getting the job done. So what if some user sees a dedication - it means the author cares about other people.
But John Lee, the association's chairman insisted that the helium its members put into balloons, was not depriving the medical profession of the gas.
"The helium we use is not pure," he said. "It's recycled from the gas which is used in the medical industry, and mixed with air. We call it balloon gas rather than helium for that reason.
"There is no way the balloon and party industry would even consider taking badly-needed helium from the medical profession. That is important - people have to come first.
"If I thought this industry was taking helium away from the medical profession, I would be looking at doing things differently."
Except that medical grade helium and the crap they fill party balloons with are two different things.
Helium is an element. It won't break down, and actually due to being helium it won't even form compounds. The only problem is that it leaks into space, never to return.
If helium is mixed up with other elements you can purify it. Compared to purifying gold ore it's probably child's play.
The line about balloon helium being somehow different from important helium is actually the standard line of the balloon manufacturers. But it makes no scientific sense, so don't listen to it.
I don't know if you're having difficulty counting, or something. 15 years ago was *1997*, not 1977.
Read your own post again:
I live in a pretty stable European country. The basic technology and political landscape hasn't changed significantly for decades.
So 'decades' is what I replied to.
However, I meant what I said about the rate being greater: in the last 15 years we've gone from mobile phones and WWW being growing technologies to today, where you have to use them if you want to be a fully working citizen.
Fifteen years ago Angola was in the midst of civil war and people moved to Portugal for work. Portugal was about to join the euro club, and therefore considered to be doing well. Today Portugal has enormous economic problems, and people are actually more often moving to Angola to look for work.
Today we have driverless cars in some US states, and Facebook sells personal data to advertisers. The euro crisis is far from over. Basically, with the known rate of change it is nowhere near impossible for us to have the things in the text. It's not like we're discussing flying cars and android citizens. The medical technology is -sadly- the only part I'd mark as improbable.
I do realise we will probably just plain disagree on this. But I hope you can keep your eyes open: if your country is so socially stable, chances are its turn will come next. Also, genuinely disruptive technologies don't get release parties - they'll emerge in niche markets and later suddenly change the world.
Slashdot Mirror
Hello! I can assure you you're not the only one whose skills are between those of a normal person and a Unix veteran. In fact, I'm upgrading to the next Ubuntu LTS within minutes, using the GUI.
I think fixing whatever problem your computer has with the help of http://ubuntuforums.org/ is a good first step. After that you could try different window managers (Unity, KDE...). That way you'll find your way of doing things and will also learn how to swap parts of your Linux.
Finding out how you want to do things is important, since then you'll be a lot more motivated when you try to modify your system.
I hope you're joking, or trolling. These are not either/or choices. The idea of having to either live completely for something or not do it at all is crazy. Unless someone's signing up for a convent that is, and the OP isn't apparently.
The best way to become a loser is to concentrate on something 120% and then burn oneself out within a couple of years. Even if one were to survive, employers don't want boring people who have only ever done one thing.
If a 'well sealed' nuclear test releases 'faint traces', let's be thankful that it wasn't a 'badly sealed' one. I mean, wouldn't a 'well sealed' one mean no traces at all?
This is not the case, and the reason likely is that we're dealing with nuclear instead of chemical measurements.
IANA chemist or physicist, but from what I understand it's like this: while we can do pretty damn accurate measurements of chemicals, it's nothing compared to how well we can measure radioactive isotopes. They emit radiation by definition and therefore broadcast their presence. What's more, some specific radiation signatures only appear after nuclear tests.
Basically, there is an absurd amount of atoms all around us, and all of them get into everything. When you get close to the level of measuring single atoms you see the truth: there isn't really any such thing as "sealed" (if there are actual experts here you should feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
(okay now Slashdot broke completely normal letters so I have to use weird typing hacks. Thanks for sucking ¥$¥[{, Slashcode!)
Actually it's just vowel harmony, with a handy explanation including a Venn diagram available here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_harmony#Finnish
The vowels y, a:, o: can't be used together with a, o, u in the same non-compound word.
Also those dots aren't diacritics: a: and o: are considered letters like any other.
This post brought to you by the association of unnecessary language explanations.
As the sibling poster also pointed out you're confusing generations. The early blue LEDs go back further than 25 years - I believe some blue dashboard lights used to be LEDs in the early 80s.
Also, I was specifically talking about indicator lights, not all available LEDs. Among these there has been a trend of roughly red->green->blue->white, all depending on a combination of fashion and efficiency. In the 80s a red LED often meant "powered on", but now it's quite rare.
In recent years white LEDs have appeared in more and more places. After early red and even earlier weak blue LEDs, in quite a short time we went from green to blue to white indicator LEDs, and now the white ones are getting ever better.
They're really a pretty miraculous technology: they're at least partially replacing everything from real candles to filament lamps to gas discharge lamps. They're about to unseat low pressure sodium lights as the most efficient streetlights, if they haven't already done so. Meanwhile they can still turn on and off faster than other lamps, and contain smaller amounts of toxic substances than most alternatives. They're a very science fictioney technology happening right here in real life.
Hah, I pretty much came here to see if someone else made that connection.
If they deploy this tech more broadly in the future there's going to be an apparently random, small group of people who are somehow very hesitant about it.
(I'll leave it to someone else to explain how traveling by Guild vessel works...)
Drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. You snort the line so fast you go right past c.
Yeah I know it sounds weird, but are *you* going to argue with Frank Herbert? I know I'm not!
So how can TI get away with charging almost that much today for a single-purpose device that doesn't even compare favorably with a low-end smartphone from two years ago? Does it serve as an espresso machine too, or maybe as an electric razor?
The TI doesn't need to and shouldn't get into a feature or spec sheet race. It's a mobile calculator and that's what it should do well. It compares very favourably with a smartphone if we actually consider what it's for.
I haven't had a serious use for my TI since upper secondary school, yet I still prefer it to any option. In more than a decade of owning it I've changed the batteries something like twice. Some smartphones on the other hand need charging twice a week even for standby.
I still have the interface in muscle memory after all these years. A smartphone would have died within this timespan, likely forcing an interface change. You cannot do touchtyping on a smartphone like you can on a TI. There's no way you'll have 30-40 always available hotkeys either.
Basically as long as it's within the budget the TI is superior for these tasks. That's why smartphones won't replace it. But it IS indeed overpriced - as someone else said, it's not known why there isn't competition pulling prices down (I write this assuming similar calculators from other manufacturers have roughly similar prices).
But until the prices fall you need to pay this to get a good device. The options will either be bulky (laptop), or run out of batteries and have worse interfaces. A low cost integrated camera won't get the job done.
Typing in something like that on a smartphone would be a huge pain though. No one would want to do it. So while it needs a more advanced platform it doesn't really mean smartphones are superior because of it.
A laptop would do better but then you're using a laptop instead of a small device which still has a purpose-built interface.
That summary would be wrong, for a very simple reason:
Not all the hackers live within the same "culture.
Well, since I happen to study a related field I can say that depends a lot on which specific definition of culture is being used.
But that doesn't really matter here since I wrote "studies nerds", not "studies all nerds" like you appear to have assumed. Basically everyday language requires a degree of co-operation, unlike scientific language.
And here we have, a person who only spent 3 fricking years (as she put it "researching") comes out with her "immense knowledge" of the hacker subculture.
Where did you get that "immense knowledge" part? It wasn't in the article, and it wasn't expressed using other words either.
Also at no point in the article did she say that all hacker culture everywhere is like that. In fact the article explicitly mentions that she wanted to study and studied differences between different hacker groups.
TL;DR - she's writing a book and wants us all to know, and Wired is cooperating. It's a fluff piece. Apparently we should buy it when it comes out.
As the sibling posts also say, you wrote a really bad summary. I think you just wanted to be cynical, or troll.
Aside from the fact that she'll apparently release the book copyleft, there's also the fact that it's a scholarly work - a good way to lose money.
A better summary would be something like "Anthropologist studies nerds, finds that they have an interesting culture and a clear interest in civil liberties issues."
But of course that isn't relevant to Slashdot. There are no nerds here, and no one cares about civil liberties here, right? We just discuss computer parts endlessly, right? I hope some smarter moderators show up soon.
Hello,
People state, quite correctly, that you have worked a lot for freedom. But another thing you're famous for is the beard.
So basically, I look somewhat like a Roman emperor at the moment, and I'm wondering if you can give any tips on how to start looking a bit more respectable. Any general tips for the growth phase? How much work is it when done?
How many centimetres are required for the sudden and unexpected increase in programming ability?
Trust me, if you think there are just three ways to get poor you haven't seen much of life. That, or you haven't been paying attention.
I'm not the GP, but here are a few points. If you wrote your post while not caring about normal users at all then we are talking past each other, but that's fine too.
What you call a step backward with Android actually allows it to work, if the above posters are to be trusted. I'm guessing the video tearing and cut/paste problems of my Ubuntu desktop are gone too.
Normal users adopted 2000/XP/OS X because they actually worked. It wasn't about servers: hell, if you're lucky enough to get a static IP these days the next step is probably someone rooting you. No, the real reason these were succesful is that they provided working GUIs and features (video etc) without crashing. Something like this:
Win 98: Crashes, has features.
XP/2K: Doesn't crash, has features, has malware.
Linux: Doesn't crash, has no malware, has no features.
All this from a normal user's perspective, of course.
Linux doesn't have to do anything for programmers and sysadmins really, except continue being itself. For normal users on the other hand it has its priorities all wrong. All that's really needed is a system that doesn't crash, can do video, can do file formats and cut and paste. Also write some GUIs for those config files so the neighbour's kid can figure it out, pretty please?
Basically if dumping remote functions is needed for desktop features then that's the way to go. The people at the server end know how to install what they need themselves on the other hand.
I was actually somewhat disappointed when I realised this was the reason for your post. I was hoping it was one of those classic AC trolls where the text is re-posted almost verbatim, the only change being an added reference to sodomy, preferably among the Slashdot editors.
But I guess in the name of Slashdot trolling culture I'll refrain from reading your post in detail and imagine that you yourself posted your own text with such an alteration! Man I love Slashdot in any case...
I don't why something like this becomes a problem for the geek.
It has never been a problem for the writer, the composer, the theatrical or motion picture producer, the architect or the engineer.
Well put, you managed to convey what I was thinking too.
Sorry to seem harsh, but this is probably not the best idea. If it's fun little web app, then you could pull it off. Anything that will deployed in a professional environment should not have something like this present.
"should not". Says who? On what authority? Who or what made you think that an expression of compassion is somehow damaging?
It's not like doing any particular thing excludes another. Nothing last forever so I don't think it's a big deal if he wants to dedicate some of his work to his grandmother. And the dedication is always for the person making it.
I agree completely!
Some suggest carving things into granite. But then the poster could just as well make a similar monument for himself: both will outlast him. But what's the point of something conveying his feelings when he is no longer there himself?
The grief and respect are here in this moment. If he feels like putting a dedication into a program then that works, not to mention it's been done before. It will also be nice since anyone who happens to see it will know that it was written by an actual human, rather than a self-aware database in the basement of Oracle's corporate HQ.
It's fine if you don't read that kind of thing.
But I read them and think.
I'm not trying to be harsh either, but seriously an app dedication? Was she a ground breaking coder? Did she sponsor your education? It just seems like a very inappropriate way to honour her.
Books aren't dedicated exclusively to authors. While dedications are rarer in code, it follows that they don't have to go to coders exclusively.
I'm not a coder but looking at this thread it looks like people confuse being a professional with being inhuman. Being professional is about getting the job done. So what if some user sees a dedication - it means the author cares about other people.
It was news to me too, and here's the news item:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19676639
Except that medical grade helium and the crap they fill party balloons with are two different things.
Helium is an element. It won't break down, and actually due to being helium it won't even form compounds. The only problem is that it leaks into space, never to return.
If helium is mixed up with other elements you can purify it. Compared to purifying gold ore it's probably child's play.
The line about balloon helium being somehow different from important helium is actually the standard line of the balloon manufacturers. But it makes no scientific sense, so don't listen to it.
I don't know if you're having difficulty counting, or something. 15 years ago was *1997*, not 1977.
Read your own post again:
I live in a pretty stable European country. The basic technology and political landscape hasn't changed significantly for decades.
So 'decades' is what I replied to.
However, I meant what I said about the rate being greater: in the last 15 years we've gone from mobile phones and WWW being growing technologies to today, where you have to use them if you want to be a fully working citizen.
Fifteen years ago Angola was in the midst of civil war and people moved to Portugal for work. Portugal was about to join the euro club, and therefore considered to be doing well. Today Portugal has enormous economic problems, and people are actually more often moving to Angola to look for work.
Today we have driverless cars in some US states, and Facebook sells personal data to advertisers. The euro crisis is far from over. Basically, with the known rate of change it is nowhere near impossible for us to have the things in the text. It's not like we're discussing flying cars and android citizens. The medical technology is -sadly- the only part I'd mark as improbable.
I do realise we will probably just plain disagree on this. But I hope you can keep your eyes open: if your country is so socially stable, chances are its turn will come next. Also, genuinely disruptive technologies don't get release parties - they'll emerge in niche markets and later suddenly change the world.