But we have no idea how similar ETs would be to us, nor how advanced their technology might be. Here on Earth we are seeing the transition to information-based society. Information warfare is trumping nuclear weapons as information industries push out manufacturing. Information is valuable, and anything we give aliens with unknown abilities could prove too much. It isn't worth the risk.
Am I the only one who thinks it's a bad idea to give aliens our DNA? Surely any civilization capable of interstellar travel would also be able to use our "blueprints," as it were, to quickly whip up a few fake humans, or even develop biological or genetic weaponry. Even if they don't use it against us (at first), they come into the relationship knowing tons more about us than we do about them. That initial inequity of information could set the tone for the duration of our contact with another species, making us little better than slaves of a race that is only superior because of the data we gave them.
Film is much more engrosing not having a pause button.
My solution is to just lose the remote. I then pour soda on my floor and listen to talk radio while the movie's playing. It truly brings the theater experience into my living room.
Wait, video card companies that cater to the gaming market aren't putting in other features that don't affect gaming performance? Outrageous. Next thing you know, they'll be selling sports cars without trailer hitches.
If they can do this, why not just have the whole thing encrypted all the time? This would be simpler, because you don't need to deal with the whole wireless issue. Also, if you had really sensitive information on your laptop (think state secrets, not just the porn you're hiding from your wife), then you might risk being kidnapped so that your attackers could use you (or your dead body) as a wireless "key" to unlock the laptop. Better to keep it all locked up with secure passphrases.
Is it a necessary measure of pre-caution, or, as Marge Simpson put it, "as long as everybody is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done"?
Those are the same thing. Perhaps you meant, "...or was Marge Simpson wrong when she said..." In any case, I can't help but feel that quoting a cartoon character in the introduction to a news story is a little gauche, but maybe that's just me.
If you consider OS X a type of Unix (I do), then you might consider the iPod. There is also Windows software available for it that may run under Wine. Anyone have some more info? It's generally a good choice for runners, because it's so rugged.
I'm impressed. Is this the first example of someone in Free Software recognizing his project isn't as good and just letting it go? Imagine if the creators of gnutella clients, mp3 players, or chat clients did this. Hopefully, this will be a growing trend. We all benefit when inefficiency is eliminated.
I'm continually stunned by what mankind can accomplish in this day and age. A century ago, crossing the Atlantic meant going by steamship. A century before that it meant sailing, and hoping you weren't boarded by pirates. A few centuries before that it was impossible! Now we can do it with a model airplane; what next?
This is truly a technological tour de force. If anyone has any doubts as to the future of humanity, I suggest they need look no further. We are thriving, healthy, and accomplishing more than any species ever has before. I would do anything to see what we'll do a century from now...hey, if things keep going as well as they have been, I might still be around!
My first instinct is to tell the RIAA where it can stick its royalties. But I'm wondering if perhaps raising Internet webcasting royalties wouldn't be so bad. I mean, here is the RIAA, actually trying to make Internet media work. If this is what they need to cover their costs, I say give it to them. This is how the free market works, and we will all be better off if we give them what they need to make Internet radio work for everyone.
Wow, this is really uncharacteristic for Apple. With an SDK out for any OS, we'll probably be getting FireWire support on Linux! It'll be interesting to see how Apple responds when people start buying iPods and using them with their Linux boxen, and when major Hollywood studios start doing their digital video editting on Linux and throw out their Macs. Steve Jobs might not be happy, but Linux users are rejoicing.
Also, this sentence, "the design is gorgeous and OS X will give me a Unix-based operating system without having to sacrifice main-stream comercial applications," could have been taken directly from a Steve Jobs speech. I hope Slashdot's getting paid for these ads...
At first I was a little disappointed that Linux sales were falling. After all, the greatest thing I could imagine would be the triumph of Linux companies over Micro$tuff. And dwindling sales hardly seemed like it could be a good sign.
But then I thought things out to their logical conclusion. You see, the more Micro$ucks' sales grow, the more they think they can get away with ripping off customers by selling worse products for inflated prices (XP, anyone?). It's only a matter of time before people won't take it anymore and switch to Linux. Every sale of Windows just accelerates them toward the inevitable. With this news, it looks like we will all be using Linux before too long.
We in the Free Software community just love to berate the Federal Government for giving in to corporations and lobbyists. We tend to draw a distinct line between what benefits big firms like the RIAA or MPAA and what is morally correct. When the government bows to industry pressure, as in the passage of the DMCA, it is rightly considered a tragedy. We, the consumers, bear the cost in these cases.
So what is the lesson? That we should not allow pragmatic arguments from profit-minded companies to dictate legislation. Such is, unfortunately, the case here. Yes, Red Hat is a "good" company. It has supported Linux and Open Source and contributed to the community as a whole. But when it argues that it could sell more software without the requirements put forth in UCITA, well, we have to call a spade a spade and recognize that, hey, that's just Red Hat looking out for Red Hat. We need to take a step back and see that argument for what it is: an appeal to government for the kind of corporate welfare we Free Software folks usually disdain. Or once again, we, the consumers, shall bear the cost.
Well, what can I say to this? We've all suspected that poor design could finally bite Micro$oft for real. And now here it is. The unpatchable security hole.
I think this is the end of Windows.
What can they do? Where can they go? Even if M$ could take all of its employees off the Office, X-Box, and every other project, and put them to work on a new OS, it would be months before it could be released, and more months before there were any applications for it. By that time, most or all of the existing Windows base will have been compromised.
It's kind of unfortunate that Linux will win, not based on its (considerable) technical merits, but because of a Windows design flaw. But in the end, all computer users will be better off, so I can't complain. Welcome to the world without Windows.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess this means we can expect to hear from Tux more often.
But we have no idea how similar ETs would be to us, nor how advanced their technology might be. Here on Earth we are seeing the transition to information-based society. Information warfare is trumping nuclear weapons as information industries push out manufacturing. Information is valuable, and anything we give aliens with unknown abilities could prove too much. It isn't worth the risk.
Finally, a use for those old joysticks.
How does Combat look on these babies?
Am I the only one who thinks it's a bad idea to give aliens our DNA? Surely any civilization capable of interstellar travel would also be able to use our "blueprints," as it were, to quickly whip up a few fake humans, or even develop biological or genetic weaponry. Even if they don't use it against us (at first), they come into the relationship knowing tons more about us than we do about them. That initial inequity of information could set the tone for the duration of our contact with another species, making us little better than slaves of a race that is only superior because of the data we gave them.
Does running my Athlon box with the cover off to keep it from bursting into flames count as "open hardware?"
Film is much more engrosing not having a pause button.
My solution is to just lose the remote. I then pour soda on my floor and listen to talk radio while the movie's playing. It truly brings the theater experience into my living room.
Wait, video card companies that cater to the gaming market aren't putting in other features that don't affect gaming performance? Outrageous. Next thing you know, they'll be selling sports cars without trailer hitches.
Last weekend it took me nearly two hours to get from Penn Station to 110th Street. That's, what...a frame per minute?
If they can do this, why not just have the whole thing encrypted all the time? This would be simpler, because you don't need to deal with the whole wireless issue. Also, if you had really sensitive information on your laptop (think state secrets, not just the porn you're hiding from your wife), then you might risk being kidnapped so that your attackers could use you (or your dead body) as a wireless "key" to unlock the laptop. Better to keep it all locked up with secure passphrases.
Is it a necessary measure of pre-caution, or, as Marge Simpson put it, "as long as everybody is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done"?
Those are the same thing. Perhaps you meant, "...or was Marge Simpson wrong when she said..." In any case, I can't help but feel that quoting a cartoon character in the introduction to a news story is a little gauche, but maybe that's just me.
If you consider OS X a type of Unix (I do), then you might consider the iPod. There is also Windows software available for it that may run under Wine. Anyone have some more info? It's generally a good choice for runners, because it's so rugged.
I'm impressed. Is this the first example of someone in Free Software recognizing his project isn't as good and just letting it go? Imagine if the creators of gnutella clients, mp3 players, or chat clients did this. Hopefully, this will be a growing trend. We all benefit when inefficiency is eliminated.
I'm continually stunned by what mankind can accomplish in this day and age. A century ago, crossing the Atlantic meant going by steamship. A century before that it meant sailing, and hoping you weren't boarded by pirates. A few centuries before that it was impossible! Now we can do it with a model airplane; what next?
This is truly a technological tour de force. If anyone has any doubts as to the future of humanity, I suggest they need look no further. We are thriving, healthy, and accomplishing more than any species ever has before. I would do anything to see what we'll do a century from now...hey, if things keep going as well as they have been, I might still be around!
My first instinct is to tell the RIAA where it can stick its royalties. But I'm wondering if perhaps raising Internet webcasting royalties wouldn't be so bad. I mean, here is the RIAA, actually trying to make Internet media work. If this is what they need to cover their costs, I say give it to them. This is how the free market works, and we will all be better off if we give them what they need to make Internet radio work for everyone.
Computer viruses have been instrumental in the evolution of MS Windows.
Wow, this is really uncharacteristic for Apple. With an SDK out for any OS, we'll probably be getting FireWire support on Linux! It'll be interesting to see how Apple responds when people start buying iPods and using them with their Linux boxen, and when major Hollywood studios start doing their digital video editting on Linux and throw out their Macs. Steve Jobs might not be happy, but Linux users are rejoicing.
So I can finally get that solid gold cup I was eyeing at the sports store. I shall be the man of the hour in the locker room.
Why was he booed? Isn't ethanol fairly popular throughout the US?
Since when do PowerBooks qualify as Handhelds?
Also, this sentence, "the design is gorgeous and OS X will give me a Unix-based operating system without having to sacrifice main-stream comercial applications," could have been taken directly from a Steve Jobs speech. I hope Slashdot's getting paid for these ads...
At first I was a little disappointed that Linux sales were falling. After all, the greatest thing I could imagine would be the triumph of Linux companies over Micro$tuff. And dwindling sales hardly seemed like it could be a good sign.
But then I thought things out to their logical conclusion. You see, the more Micro$ucks' sales grow, the more they think they can get away with ripping off customers by selling worse products for inflated prices (XP, anyone?). It's only a matter of time before people won't take it anymore and switch to Linux. Every sale of Windows just accelerates them toward the inevitable. With this news, it looks like we will all be using Linux before too long.
We in the Free Software community just love to berate the Federal Government for giving in to corporations and lobbyists. We tend to draw a distinct line between what benefits big firms like the RIAA or MPAA and what is morally correct. When the government bows to industry pressure, as in the passage of the DMCA, it is rightly considered a tragedy. We, the consumers, bear the cost in these cases.
So what is the lesson? That we should not allow pragmatic arguments from profit-minded companies to dictate legislation. Such is, unfortunately, the case here. Yes, Red Hat is a "good" company. It has supported Linux and Open Source and contributed to the community as a whole. But when it argues that it could sell more software without the requirements put forth in UCITA, well, we have to call a spade a spade and recognize that, hey, that's just Red Hat looking out for Red Hat. We need to take a step back and see that argument for what it is: an appeal to government for the kind of corporate welfare we Free Software folks usually disdain. Or once again, we, the consumers, shall bear the cost.
Who said ethanol was a "total loss?" It is probably my all-time favorite chemical.
Well, what can I say to this? We've all suspected that poor design could finally bite Micro$oft for real. And now here it is. The unpatchable security hole.
I think this is the end of Windows.
What can they do? Where can they go? Even if M$ could take all of its employees off the Office, X-Box, and every other project, and put them to work on a new OS, it would be months before it could be released, and more months before there were any applications for it. By that time, most or all of the existing Windows base will have been compromised.
It's kind of unfortunate that Linux will win, not based on its (considerable) technical merits, but because of a Windows design flaw. But in the end, all computer users will be better off, so I can't complain. Welcome to the world without Windows.
A gentleman does not discuss his sustained disk transfer rates in public. I assure you, however, that they are adequate for my purposes.
So the chip has an instruction for "fail to detect video card?"