I don't see any of the Nordic countries on the list, and Germany is in a solid position. While Belgium is certainly more socially progressive than the US, it's the European Nordic countries and Germany that are the real standard of socialist democracy.
As the great Nate Diaz would say: I'm not surprised, motherfuckers! All four countries are being targeted by relatively large populations of hostile nations (Pakistan ---- India, Israel ---- Islamic world, Vietnam ---- China, Singapore ---- Islamic world AND China). In my mind it seems clear that nations who have been targeted for some time, have built up better "defenses" i.e. practices and protocols.
The second someone comes up with a Windows 7 look-alike theme for Windows 10, I'm sure a huge chunk of users will move to 10. I skipped Windows 8 because I hated the UI so much, for example, and didn't come back until 8.1's last update.
You seriously think people are avoiding Windows 10 because of the looks? Are you fucking high?
I worked at a bank that had several mainframes IPL-ing from 8" floppies - I left the bank at the end of the 90's - at that point, the system has been operational for more than a decade. As far as I know, not a single floppy has ever failed during the years I've been there, or before my tenure.
My dream is that an enterpreneur will found a company that makes phones that are NOT thin! In fact, their motto will be "Our phones are indeed fat - and you'll love the gloriously long battery life!" And after swallowing a sizable chunk of the market that thirsts for such phones, they could then go on to making thick, somewhat heavy but oh so long-lasting laptops! With full-travel keys, or at least like the ThinkPads of 5 years ago.
As a scientist, I can share with you my opinion on copyrights: they should die a fiery death, yesterday. And I am careful not to mix copyrights with licenses - such as Creative Commons - because giving credit where it's due is important. But copyrights are nothing but a tool for monetizing other people's ideas, and are always a tool of those with money and power, and antithetical to the spirit of scientific work.
It happens to nearly all companies. Once on top of the world, the next moment hanging on to survive. Who have we got? Motorola RIM Palm braodcom yahoo AOL Nokia Sony. Remember when everyone wanted SONY gear? Hell, it has even happened to Apple before. People are fickle. If some hot new thing comes along with a better way of doing things, then people will generally follow the trend. If the old guard is too slow, then they get left in the dust, living off their cash reserves until eventually, the die. Apple is no exception. Innovate or die.
At this point, nothing will dislodge Apple - and that's simply because of the ginormous pile of cash they have. Let's see Microsoft for example, who has a similarly ginormous pile of cash: they bought Nokia, played with it a bit, broke it, then they threw it away. And they didn't even notice the hit on their cash mountain.
Apple could do the same many, many times over, and eventually strike gold.
First iPads, now Chromebooks. They continue to increase the burden of already razor thin IT staff, and I have yet to see one single study indicating that education quality and grades have improved.
Actually, going from iPads to Chromebooks is an excellent way to decrease the burden on IT - the entire environment on the Chromebook is set and maintained online, and everyone gets his or hers based on their credentials. A Chromebook is a smart terminal par excellance.
Commodore's brand is now thrown around on products that have neither the innovativeness nor the features of the original Commodore computers. In fact the brand has now been prostituted so much, it's all but worthless. I hope the same won't happen with Nokia, but it seems likely.
This is NOT the first report in which HGST hard drives resulted to be the most reliable, and very much not the first report where Seagate came dead last in reliability. In fact Seagate's unreliability is becoming legendary.
I hope you screen for alcohol consumption, since it's one of the drugs that most impair mental health, impulse control, and thinking in general. It is also one of the most physically addictive drugs. It also gives a misplaced sense of self-confidence.
I've noticed many times before that Microsoft paid shills swirl the Slashdot forum posting lies and thinly veiled FUD - and usually there are a few sockpuppet accounts ready to mod them up. Please folks, don't fall for this paid propaganda machine.
These sockpuppets will possibly mod this post down, but no matter, I'll repost again.
And boy... if you have a short fuse for "everyone is stupid" episodes of Star Trek or some other SciFi show where every otherwise smart character acts like a complete idiot in order to serve the plot... well...
OK, I have enough data now to give the book a wide berth.
Try 3-body Problem. It may be a slow start, though and I don't think it was a nominee. For that matter, I'm not sure it's a current-year book, but it was a good read.
I think The Water Knife was on the list, though.
In a sense, Dan Brown's Inferno is sci-fi, although like all his books, it's as much about arcana and action as about what-if. And mass-market writing, of course. Just heard it's coming out as a movie.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't see any of the Nordic countries on the list, and Germany is in a solid position. While Belgium is certainly more socially progressive than the US, it's the European Nordic countries and Germany that are the real standard of socialist democracy.
As the great Nate Diaz would say: I'm not surprised, motherfuckers! All four countries are being targeted by relatively large populations of hostile nations (Pakistan ---- India, Israel ---- Islamic world, Vietnam ---- China, Singapore ---- Islamic world AND China).
In my mind it seems clear that nations who have been targeted for some time, have built up better "defenses" i.e. practices and protocols.
Indeed.
Notice that both yours and my comments were down-modded by a butthurt Apple fanboy.
This is pretty much what Baxter hypothesized in Manifold: Space - an excellent hard sci-fi novel.
That is not a theory, that's a hypothesis.
You would think that on Slashdot people would know the difference.
The difference is, Apple will have invented it.
Socialism works wonderfully well in Finland as well. My wife, kid and myself live in Finland, so I should know.
3M floppies got worse, too. I know, as I bought those almost exclusively.
But 8" floppies never did get into that race to the bottom you mention.
The second someone comes up with a Windows 7 look-alike theme for Windows 10, I'm sure a huge chunk of users will move to 10. I skipped Windows 8 because I hated the UI so much, for example, and didn't come back until 8.1's last update.
You seriously think people are avoiding Windows 10 because of the looks? Are you fucking high?
Silver ions are no replacement for antibiotics: they are completely indiscriminate.
I worked at a bank that had several mainframes IPL-ing from 8" floppies - I left the bank at the end of the 90's - at that point, the system has been operational for more than a decade. As far as I know, not a single floppy has ever failed during the years I've been there, or before my tenure.
My dream is that an enterpreneur will found a company that makes phones that are NOT thin! In fact, their motto will be "Our phones are indeed fat - and you'll love the gloriously long battery life!"
And after swallowing a sizable chunk of the market that thirsts for such phones, they could then go on to making thick, somewhat heavy but oh so long-lasting laptops! With full-travel keys, or at least like the ThinkPads of 5 years ago.
I can dream, can't I.
As a scientist, I can share with you my opinion on copyrights: they should die a fiery death, yesterday.
And I am careful not to mix copyrights with licenses - such as Creative Commons - because giving credit where it's due is important. But copyrights are nothing but a tool for monetizing other people's ideas, and are always a tool of those with money and power, and antithetical to the spirit of scientific work.
It happens to nearly all companies.
Once on top of the world, the next moment hanging on to survive.
Who have we got?
Motorola
RIM
Palm
braodcom
yahoo
AOL
Nokia
Sony. Remember when everyone wanted SONY gear?
Hell, it has even happened to Apple before.
People are fickle. If some hot new thing comes along with a better way of doing things, then people will generally follow the trend. If the old guard is too slow, then they get left in the dust, living off their cash reserves until eventually, the die. Apple is no exception. Innovate or die.
At this point, nothing will dislodge Apple - and that's simply because of the ginormous pile of cash they have.
Let's see Microsoft for example, who has a similarly ginormous pile of cash: they bought Nokia, played with it a bit, broke it, then they threw it away. And they didn't even notice the hit on their cash mountain.
Apple could do the same many, many times over, and eventually strike gold.
First iPads, now Chromebooks. They continue to increase the burden of already razor thin IT staff, and I have yet to see one single study indicating that education quality and grades have improved.
Actually, going from iPads to Chromebooks is an excellent way to decrease the burden on IT - the entire environment on the Chromebook is set and maintained online, and everyone gets his or hers based on their credentials. A Chromebook is a smart terminal par excellance.
Commodore's brand is now thrown around on products that have neither the innovativeness nor the features of the original Commodore computers. In fact the brand has now been prostituted so much, it's all but worthless. I hope the same won't happen with Nokia, but it seems likely.
This is NOT the first report in which HGST hard drives resulted to be the most reliable, and very much not the first report where Seagate came dead last in reliability. In fact Seagate's unreliability is becoming legendary.
I hope you screen for alcohol consumption, since it's one of the drugs that most impair mental health, impulse control, and thinking in general. It is also one of the most physically addictive drugs. It also gives a misplaced sense of self-confidence.
put the pedal to the medal
to the metal.
I've noticed many times before that Microsoft paid shills swirl the Slashdot forum posting lies and thinly veiled FUD - and usually there are a few sockpuppet accounts ready to mod them up. Please folks, don't fall for this paid propaganda machine.
These sockpuppets will possibly mod this post down, but no matter, I'll repost again.
"The three body problem" was nominated but didn't win a Nebula award.
And boy... if you have a short fuse for "everyone is stupid" episodes of Star Trek or some other SciFi show where every otherwise smart character acts like a complete idiot in order to serve the plot... well...
OK, I have enough data now to give the book a wide berth.
Try 3-body Problem. It may be a slow start, though and I don't think it was a nominee. For that matter, I'm not sure it's a current-year book, but it was a good read.
I think The Water Knife was on the list, though.
In a sense, Dan Brown's Inferno is sci-fi, although like all his books, it's as much about arcana and action as about what-if. And mass-market writing, of course. Just heard it's coming out as a movie.
So none of the winners is hard sci-fi?
Is there any hard sci-fi among them? I am starving for good hard sci-fi.
Thanks for the info. Duly noted.