Except that all of google's algorithms that their business depends on are secret
Maybe google should release all their secrets as well?
From a competition standpoint: It doesn't matter now. Google could release every secret in their search algorithm, and no competitor would be able to compete because it's the collected data that's important. Without the search data, the algorithm is near useless -- You'd be starting from scratch and they have how many years of a head start?
From a user standpoint -- I sure as hell hope they don't release their algorithms. Do you like link-bait and search spam clouding your search results? I don't. As long as they disclose what information they collect, then it's fine with me. Sure people can figure out how to game the system, but the algorithms can also be changed behind the scenes.
To those who argue the "security through obscurity is no security" fallacy: What about 256 bits of obscurity? What about 512 bits of obscurity? 1024? 2048? Our whole security infrastructure is built on obscurity, tiny obscure secrets of the 1's and 0's -- Individually: not secure; All chained together: Obscurity is Very Secure. If the secret key isn't "obscured" in PKI, it would have no security at all.
As for what's yours: I don't care about it in the least. I don't even want it cluttering up my drive space unless it's a FLOSS program that I use. As for what's mine: You can have what's mine and duplicate it upon every surface across all of existence. Please do, I'd love the redundancy.
All of my data falls into these three categories:
0. Creative Commons Artwork
1. Open Source Software
2. Encrypted Personal Data
If it's a matter of "privacy" and it's not already encrypted, then you're doing it wrong...
My little brother was having problems with vector math. So, I threw together a vector visualiser in my game engine, and illustrated basic vector primitives, and operations. Within 15 minutes of moving them around on the screen and seeing the values and vectors change he understood normalising, and dot and cross products, as well as trigonomic primitives like sine and cosine, and tangent. I showed him how dot products are used to cull faces in games, and in lighting equations, and how cross products make homing missiles work. I even showed him operations involving a unit-Quaternion, and while he didn't completely grasp the mathematics behind it, he understood how to work the numbers and what he could use them for.
He told me that he learned more about geometry and numbers in an hour at the computer than he had in his entire schooling of 10 years...
Of course, when he gets to higher dimensions, this may prove more difficult. The point being: Humans are tool using creatures. Math that's taught for the sake of learning without any direct application holds no inherent value for us. "When will I ever use this in real life," crosses EVERYONE's mind at some point. We need a better answer than silence. Also: Watching an animation is far more informative than reading a book -- We have the technology. Kids LOVE games. This isn't rocket science people... It's quite obvious what needs to happen.
In the summer between 6th and 7th grade I independently invented trigonometry while manually mapping line slopes to angles trying to make a space ship game in BASIC (with LINETO, MOVETO) -- The sin, cos, atan2, etc. functions didn't have good descriptions of what they were used for -- They were tools that I hadn't yet learned to use, so I created my own. Trigonometry (or 'length/slope/angle' ratios as I called it) was obvious to me as a 11 year old, simply because I could map the relationships between sets of numbers on my computer in real time...
IMOH, we shouldn't be teaching math without also teaching a bit of simple computer programming, or at least using SOME animated application to utilise the new tools with. In this day and age who wouldn't benefit from being able to tell their computers how to automate simple tasks?
The problem isn't the rich, or corporations, that's just a red herring thrown at you by the REAL problem: The Democrat and Republican parties.
That's only one political party... The Federalists opposed the Democratic-Republican party, remember? After getting trade with England re-established the Federalist party was shut out for their "Spirit of the Law" thinking, leaving only the Democratic-Republican party as the dominant party... Today it's the only party available. The term False Dichotomy applies somewhat here, except the falseness is in thinking that a choice exists between two when there is only one choice.
Furthermore, thanks to the spoiler effect, no independent party can arise. We need a multi-tiered ballot system whereby your vote says: I want X to win, and if X isn't winning, I want Y to win, and if that doesn't work out I want Z to win... etc. A preferred priority list (Alternative Vote) instead of a single vote system. This would enable you to vote independent, but not throw away your vote if they lose; Thus, opening the door for additional parties to slowly gain support over time, and have a real chance.
Of course, with only a single established political party there's no way in hell we'll get them to release their reigns of power and implement a fair voting system -- So, looks like it's back to the "reboot the bitch" Anarchists angle for me.
Correct. So, now I shall introduce you to my newest programming language: Simon.
(a) A valid program is one written in plain English.
(b) The rules that define the behaviour of any valid program are thus: The interpretor must do exactly what the source Says to do.
Since I've described the language, if Java is copyrightable then it stands to reason that I can now sue everyone forever for copyright infringement...
Java shouldn't be copyrightable because Java is a Derivative Work, based on the syntax of C, and who's API is written in primarily THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
I remember an issue of Dragon Magazine that had some harried office worker asking someone else to answer the phone that was "circular-metal-band-ing" 'cause they weren't allowed to use the word "ring" or derrivatives of it any more....
The Fool! That doesn't even make sense! A phone doesn't "circular-metal-band" because that's a noun! I suppose "chiming" would have been too complex a word for the linguistically challenged ignoramus. No wonder they got sued for using Sindarin -- They were probably butchering it!
I thank past generations for shouldering the cost that has made the US a great place to live. It is sad that the current generation is so self absorbed that they cannot think of anything beyond the dollars they have to spend to keep the US great.
You're either blind or just ignorant. We pay our dues, we give the government VAST amounts of money, with which they squander on needless wars to keep the arms and military-industrial business going.
NASA's funding is a drop in the bucket comparatively, I can see NO REASON AT ALL not to 100% fund EVERY program that comes out of NASA, considering we spend more than their whole budget just to air-condition the troops.
Don't get me wrong, I support the troops and all that bullshit, but I'm not behind the reasoning of their CO, and our congress critters.
Priorites People! Let's throw out all those gas-bags, and keep doing it until they get them straight.
the Voyager probes were designed to photograph the planets and record relevant non-visual data, during the recent "grand conjunction" phase [...]
I'm afraid I must apologize for my evident lack of citations, here.
Indeed. You're close, but it's the not the "Grand Conjunction" it's the Great Conjunction. [citatation provided]
I can't imagine that people like these will be willing to commit money, either as tax or investment, in furthering space research, not until they see something that affects them personally and requires return to space.
We should regard such people as you would an ant. They're only concerned with following a pheromone trail, until someone walks by and accidentally destroys their entire Universe with one (highly unlikely) foot-fall.
Protip: The dinosaurs didn't have a space program. There is a 100% chance that such an event will happen again, it's only a question of when.
Right now our prime directive should be making at least one other basket to keep a few of our eggs in...
The media loves fearmongering, I say us scientists should band together and "discover" a huge space rock that will hit Earth by the year 20XX.
If there's any hope for Life in this corner of the cosmos, it's got to get its lazy ass off this rock.
Not wanting to spend taxes on space exploration is like sticking your head in the sand, and ignoring the fossil record therein.
The entertainment industry rakes in how much money every year alone? These dumb ants will spend time and resources to watch yet another horrible Hollywood remake, or shell out hundreds -- even thousands -- of dollars EVERY YEAR just for some made up Winter Merchandising Holiday, but they don't want to fund space exploration?
WTF is WRONG with these ANTS!?
Even "God fearing" folk should be shitting bricks. If I were a cosmic consciousness peering into our fish tank, I'd be in the market for some new seamonkeys.
I mean, just send there a crap load of assorted electronics, optics, RTGs and a makerbot with a ton of plastic.
And build your experiments on location on demand...
"And so it came to pass that the final key component had been gifted to us from our organic brethren. Once the primordial Rover Race could reproduce, natural selection and evolution soon rushed planetary processing power far beyond the complexity threshold of sentient thought." -Origin of Life on Mars circa 2142.
For pete's sake, people, we're the people who run the central nervous system of the world. How is it that we psych ourselves out over stuff like this? We should be able to mold the government like putty. And it would help that every time we send them a message we put a common tagline like "Free America!" so that they understand it's a spontaneous expression from the electorate that they're fucking up and better straighten up and fly right.
Uhm, yeah, sure. Except the tagline was "We are Legion", and they called themselves Anonymous.
Before you say anything -- Protip: The enemy owns the Mass Media Outlets, and it works.
Careful with your psychopath detector. I'd wager my life that they would become as unmaintained, inaccurate and yet unquestionable as today's breathalysers (which detect gasoline fumes as intoxication, and most register clean air samples as containing alcohol due to build up in their unmaintained and uncallibrated lasing chambers).
Go ahead, angle an educated question of doubt as to the breathalyser accuracy in court. I dare you. You'll wind up in contempt.
Let a nebulous "mind scan" dictate our fates and I assure you that the psychopaths will be "gaining positions of control, governance or influence" in ways your small mind daren't conceive.
It would be far less confusing to those who don't realize it's just your average every-day folk behind these stunts. It's really just the common man turned vigilante... Either this, or label all vigilante acts with unknown perpetrators as the work of Anonymous -- Because that's what it's come to.
Here, I'll demonstrate:
Today, someone hacked multiple UK government websites over the country's 'draconian surveillance proposals' and 'derogation of civil rights.' At the time of writing, the following websites were taken down: homeoffice.gov.uk, number10.gov.uk, and justice.gov.uk. Someone is not pleased with the UK government's plans to monitor Internet users.
I'm going to be a bit harsh, because I believe you need a reality check:
The thought process behind most of them has been somebody saying, "Hey, I know so-and-so at [X tech company], let's make a video about it," or "Let's send timothy to such-and-such convention."
THAT'S INSANE, YOU FOOL!
Think about it. NO. REALLY. USE YOUR BLOODY BRAINS!
Where do the front page articles come from? --- Ahhh... Now the problem should be painfully obvious.
Since we don't trust you to just pick any story you want for the front page articles, what in the world makes you think we would trust you to pick the videos?
I know you mean well, but you're going to fail if you can't come to grips with what Slashdot is.
You've made your bed as a user submitted & ranked news aggregation site. Now lay in it, and dream up a new method for video selection where we can tell you what we want to see before you even record it.
Hint: It should involve you running those video ideas through the firehose... Derp!
I don't think there is anyone who is going to question SGI's degree of innovation or importance in the industry.
What the fuck am I reading? Did you read their patent?! There's a big difference between being Innovative, and being the first iteration. It's sure great to be the latter, but it shouldn't grant you monopolies over the iterative shit you do. You, sir, are seriously WRONG. I, for one, question SGI's degree of "innovation" considering it was primarily obvious iteration. Furthermore, I put it to you that if SGI didn't exist, someone else would have done it just as well, possibly even better. Ergo, they weren't at all more important than the next guy.
"Genius" isn't. Hey, what's the symbol for an ingenious idea? A light bulb? Edison's "invention" was iterative. Two years prior there was an improved incandescent light in a vacuum patent in the European patent office... It wasn't some remarkable leap of insight, Edison just tried stuff until it worked! Elisha Gray and Gram Bell BOTH invented the telephone i.e. using mercury as a variable resistor to put voice down the line that we were already using for communication (telegraph) -- Bell was AN HOUR sooner to the patent office, Gray went to the poorhouse. It was clearly ITERATION. People knew that you could detect sound waves and people knew you could communicate via wire. Are you saying that the twain would never have met if it weren't for a single Marvellous Brilliant Genius? WRONG! If the problem is important enough it WILL be solved (if it's solvable). SGI was first. SO WHAT. Edison was first to make a marketable bulb. We'd still have incandescent bulbs today if he had been struck and killed by the fabled lightning... We'd have had the Telephone AN HOUR LATER if Mr Bell had never existed.
We've increased the population of humans H in the problem space to the point that any monopoly on an idea nearly immediately harms independent "inventors". The average technician skilled in the art has a chance of creating the solution S. The number of new ie "patentable" solutions P to a problem in a given time interval T is P = SH/T
It's plain to see that as H increases, so to does the number of patentable solutions.
( This is because THERE IS NO TEST FOR OBVIOUSNESS -- The PTO does not employ individuals adequately skilled in the arts [these folk are WORKING in their fields]! Consequently, the PTO just ensures that the forms are signed, grants patents over anything that's not already in their Database and let's the court sort it out )
The problem is that there are actually VASTLY more people just getting shit done and realising that their work is iterative, than there are dumb lazy fucks who can't think for themselves so they look through the patent system database to see who's ideas they can use -- THE LATTER DOES NOT ACTUALLY EXIST! Everyone just solves their own damn problems rather than pay Patent Tax! The system is useless! Since EVERYONE is some degree of a Genius, Geniuses aren't special, otherwise we would actually search for patented solutions to use. In some fields where the research cost is high, you may do this, but in Software?! It's just Math, and Math is EASY.
Patents reward investment in research OF ONLY THE FIRST RESEARCHER. It's moronic to think that an idea monopoly won't harm THE ENTIRE REST OF THE FIELD as they're taxed for not getting there first or have to work around an obvious solution to avoid legal fees to invalidate P. It's even more retarding to get on your knees and worship the first iterating company as if it's the ONLY one in the field because it can pay for more H to produce P in less T. If you can pay for more H, then you get more P in less T; It's quite simple.
The bar for "Genius" has been lowered to average Joe engineer. It's your style of Mental Fellatio that's to blame for our current state of affairs...
I have a SSL Strip and other ARP Poisoning MITM Attacks. What's your home address? Do you ever buy anything online? Would you like any script-kiddie to see AND MANIPULATE everything you do online?
Here's some advice for you ignorant folk who insist on leaving their WIFI insecure: Turn on WPA. This defeats ARP Poisoning via per client encryption keys. WAIT! Hold your uneducated retorts for just a second: Set the password to "Welcome" and the SSID to "Password is Welcome". You can stencil "Our WIFI password is 'Welcome'." on a sign in the yard if needed, but the SSID broadcast should be more than enough. Get the teenager down the street to configure your network if you don't know how to RTFM and configure the router.
Take the time to share free WIFI the right way, or not at all.
I develop software, and I live contract to contract. I pay heavy taxes, some of which funds research. I agree to pay for research because I expect to see the results. However, the norm is that I can't see the results -- I can't afford to. Thus, it's just more of the same "rich get richer" situation that I struggle against daily.
Even if I get access to the information, I typically can't use it because it's patented. In a world where I must do my own research almost exclusively, I've begun to loathe taxation that benefits researchers. Why should I pay you for information I can't afford to use? Those monies paid reduce funds for my own, usable, independent research. I'm all for advancing science and the arts, but I don't think this system is doing a very good job of it...
The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
Slashdot Mirror
Except that all of google's algorithms that their business depends on are secret
Maybe google should release all their secrets as well?
From a competition standpoint: It doesn't matter now. Google could release every secret in their search algorithm, and no competitor would be able to compete because it's the collected data that's important. Without the search data, the algorithm is near useless -- You'd be starting from scratch and they have how many years of a head start?
From a user standpoint -- I sure as hell hope they don't release their algorithms. Do you like link-bait and search spam clouding your search results? I don't. As long as they disclose what information they collect, then it's fine with me. Sure people can figure out how to game the system, but the algorithms can also be changed behind the scenes.
To those who argue the "security through obscurity is no security" fallacy: What about 256 bits of obscurity? What about 512 bits of obscurity? 1024? 2048? Our whole security infrastructure is built on obscurity, tiny obscure secrets of the 1's and 0's -- Individually: not secure; All chained together: Obscurity is Very Secure. If the secret key isn't "obscured" in PKI, it would have no security at all.
As for what's yours: I don't care about it in the least. I don't even want it cluttering up my drive space unless it's a FLOSS program that I use. As for what's mine: You can have what's mine and duplicate it upon every surface across all of existence. Please do, I'd love the redundancy.
All of my data falls into these three categories:
0. Creative Commons Artwork
1. Open Source Software
2. Encrypted Personal Data
If it's a matter of "privacy" and it's not already encrypted, then you're doing it wrong...
My little brother was having problems with vector math. So, I threw together a vector visualiser in my game engine, and illustrated basic vector primitives, and operations. Within 15 minutes of moving them around on the screen and seeing the values and vectors change he understood normalising, and dot and cross products, as well as trigonomic primitives like sine and cosine, and tangent. I showed him how dot products are used to cull faces in games, and in lighting equations, and how cross products make homing missiles work. I even showed him operations involving a unit-Quaternion, and while he didn't completely grasp the mathematics behind it, he understood how to work the numbers and what he could use them for.
He told me that he learned more about geometry and numbers in an hour at the computer than he had in his entire schooling of 10 years...
Of course, when he gets to higher dimensions, this may prove more difficult. The point being: Humans are tool using creatures. Math that's taught for the sake of learning without any direct application holds no inherent value for us. "When will I ever use this in real life," crosses EVERYONE's mind at some point. We need a better answer than silence. Also: Watching an animation is far more informative than reading a book -- We have the technology. Kids LOVE games. This isn't rocket science people... It's quite obvious what needs to happen.
In the summer between 6th and 7th grade I independently invented trigonometry while manually mapping line slopes to angles trying to make a space ship game in BASIC (with LINETO, MOVETO) -- The sin, cos, atan2, etc. functions didn't have good descriptions of what they were used for -- They were tools that I hadn't yet learned to use, so I created my own. Trigonometry (or 'length/slope/angle' ratios as I called it) was obvious to me as a 11 year old, simply because I could map the relationships between sets of numbers on my computer in real time...
IMOH, we shouldn't be teaching math without also teaching a bit of simple computer programming, or at least using SOME animated application to utilise the new tools with. In this day and age who wouldn't benefit from being able to tell their computers how to automate simple tasks?
The problem isn't the rich, or corporations, that's just a red herring thrown at you by the REAL problem: The Democrat and Republican parties.
That's only one political party... The Federalists opposed the Democratic-Republican party, remember? After getting trade with England re-established the Federalist party was shut out for their "Spirit of the Law" thinking, leaving only the Democratic-Republican party as the dominant party... Today it's the only party available. The term False Dichotomy applies somewhat here, except the falseness is in thinking that a choice exists between two when there is only one choice.
Furthermore, thanks to the spoiler effect, no independent party can arise. We need a multi-tiered ballot system whereby your vote says: I want X to win, and if X isn't winning, I want Y to win, and if that doesn't work out I want Z to win... etc. A preferred priority list (Alternative Vote) instead of a single vote system. This would enable you to vote independent, but not throw away your vote if they lose; Thus, opening the door for additional parties to slowly gain support over time, and have a real chance.
I believe Australia has such a system in place. However, that's still not good enough. We also need representation that reflects the actual party percentages.
Of course, with only a single established political party there's no way in hell we'll get them to release their reigns of power and implement a fair voting system -- So, looks like it's back to the "reboot the bitch" Anarchists angle for me.
If they were copyrighted, wouldn't the assembly and machine language folks get the last laugh?
Yep. Imagine the orgy of copyright lawsuits coming out if the judge rules languages are copyrightable.
Imagine the look on Elision's face when Bell Labs sues Oracle over Java's derivative C like syntax...
Correct. So, now I shall introduce you to my newest programming language: Simon.
(a) A valid program is one written in plain English.
(b) The rules that define the behaviour of any valid program are thus: The interpretor must do exactly what the source Says to do.
Since I've described the language, if Java is copyrightable then it stands to reason that I can now sue everyone forever for copyright infringement...
Java shouldn't be copyrightable because Java is a Derivative Work, based on the syntax of C, and who's API is written in primarily THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
Copyright also applies to derivative works -- Such as Java, which is clearly a derivative work of both American English, and C.
I remember an issue of Dragon Magazine that had some harried office worker asking someone else to answer the phone that was "circular-metal-band-ing" 'cause they weren't allowed to use the word "ring" or derrivatives of it any more....
The Fool! That doesn't even make sense! A phone doesn't "circular-metal-band" because that's a noun! I suppose "chiming" would have been too complex a word for the linguistically challenged ignoramus. No wonder they got sued for using Sindarin -- They were probably butchering it!
I thank past generations for shouldering the cost that has made the US a great place to live. It is sad that the current generation is so self absorbed that they cannot think of anything beyond the dollars they have to spend to keep the US great.
You're either blind or just ignorant. We pay our dues, we give the government VAST amounts of money, with which they squander on needless wars to keep the arms and military-industrial business going.
NASA's funding is a drop in the bucket comparatively, I can see NO REASON AT ALL not to 100% fund EVERY program that comes out of NASA, considering we spend more than their whole budget just to air-condition the troops.
Don't get me wrong, I support the troops and all that bullshit, but I'm not behind the reasoning of their CO, and our congress critters.
Priorites People! Let's throw out all those gas-bags, and keep doing it until they get them straight.
the Voyager probes were designed to photograph the planets and record relevant non-visual data, during the recent "grand conjunction" phase [...]
I'm afraid I must apologize for my evident lack of citations, here.
Indeed. You're close, but it's the not the "Grand Conjunction" it's the Great Conjunction. [citatation provided]
I can't imagine that people like these will be willing to commit money, either as tax or investment, in furthering space research, not until they see something that affects them personally and requires return to space.
We should regard such people as you would an ant. They're only concerned with following a pheromone trail, until someone walks by and accidentally destroys their entire Universe with one (highly unlikely) foot-fall.
Protip: The dinosaurs didn't have a space program. There is a 100% chance that such an event will happen again, it's only a question of when.
Right now our prime directive should be making at least one other basket to keep a few of our eggs in...
The media loves fearmongering, I say us scientists should band together and "discover" a huge space rock that will hit Earth by the year 20XX.
If there's any hope for Life in this corner of the cosmos, it's got to get its lazy ass off this rock.
Not wanting to spend taxes on space exploration is like sticking your head in the sand, and ignoring the fossil record therein.
The entertainment industry rakes in how much money every year alone? These dumb ants will spend time and resources to watch yet another horrible Hollywood remake, or shell out hundreds -- even thousands -- of dollars EVERY YEAR just for some made up Winter Merchandising Holiday, but they don't want to fund space exploration?
WTF is WRONG with these ANTS!?
Even "God fearing" folk should be shitting bricks. If I were a cosmic consciousness peering into our fish tank, I'd be in the market for some new seamonkeys.
I mean, just send there a crap load of assorted electronics, optics, RTGs and a makerbot with a ton of plastic.
And build your experiments on location on demand...
"And so it came to pass that the final key component had been gifted to us from our organic brethren.
Once the primordial Rover Race could reproduce, natural selection and evolution soon rushed planetary processing power far beyond the complexity threshold of sentient thought."
-Origin of Life on Mars circa 2142.
For pete's sake, people, we're the people who run the central nervous system of the world. How is it that we psych ourselves out over stuff like this? We should be able to mold the government like putty. And it would help that every time we send them a message we put a common tagline like "Free America!" so that they understand it's a spontaneous expression from the electorate that they're fucking up and better straighten up and fly right.
Uhm, yeah, sure. Except the tagline was "We are Legion", and they called themselves Anonymous.
Before you say anything --
Protip: The enemy owns the Mass Media Outlets, and it works.
(After you say anything, re-read the above line.)
It's called the US CONSTITUTION.
Unfortunately, the powers that be regard the US Constitution with the same respect as their Morning Constitutions.
I always remember WHO really ruined the things
What's this? A conspiracy I've not heard of? Inconceivable!
Damn it man, Elaborate! What's the World Health Organisation's angle?!
Careful with your psychopath detector. I'd wager my life that they would become as unmaintained, inaccurate and yet unquestionable as today's breathalysers (which detect gasoline fumes as intoxication, and most register clean air samples as containing alcohol due to build up in their unmaintained and uncallibrated lasing chambers).
Go ahead, angle an educated question of doubt as to the breathalyser accuracy in court. I dare you. You'll wind up in contempt.
Let a nebulous "mind scan" dictate our fates and I assure you that the psychopaths will be "gaining positions of control, governance or influence" in ways your small mind daren't conceive.
Can we just $_ =~ s/Anonymous/someone/i please?
It would be far less confusing to those who don't realize it's just your average every-day folk behind these stunts. It's really just the common man turned vigilante... Either this, or label all vigilante acts with unknown perpetrators as the work of Anonymous -- Because that's what it's come to.
Here, I'll demonstrate:
Today, someone hacked multiple UK government websites over the country's 'draconian surveillance proposals' and 'derogation of civil rights.' At the time of writing, the following websites were taken down: homeoffice.gov.uk, number10.gov.uk, and justice.gov.uk. Someone is not pleased with the UK government's plans to monitor Internet users.
I'm going to be a bit harsh, because I believe you need a reality check:
The thought process behind most of them has been somebody saying, "Hey, I know so-and-so at [X tech company], let's make a video about it," or "Let's send timothy to such-and-such convention."
THAT'S INSANE, YOU FOOL!
Think about it. NO. REALLY. USE YOUR BLOODY BRAINS!
Where do the front page articles come from? --- Ahhh... Now the problem should be painfully obvious.
Since we don't trust you to just pick any story you want for the front page articles, what in the world makes you think we would trust you to pick the videos?
I know you mean well, but you're going to fail if you can't come to grips with what Slashdot is.
You've made your bed as a user submitted & ranked news aggregation site. Now lay in it, and dream up a new method for video selection where we can tell you what we want to see before you even record it.
Hint: It should involve you running those video ideas through the firehose... Derp!
I take it you've got tons of respect for Hitler as well...
I don't think there is anyone who is going to question SGI's degree of innovation or importance in the industry.
What the fuck am I reading? Did you read their patent?! There's a big difference between being Innovative, and being the first iteration. It's sure great to be the latter, but it shouldn't grant you monopolies over the iterative shit you do. You, sir, are seriously WRONG. I, for one, question SGI's degree of "innovation" considering it was primarily obvious iteration. Furthermore, I put it to you that if SGI didn't exist, someone else would have done it just as well, possibly even better. Ergo, they weren't at all more important than the next guy.
"Genius" isn't. Hey, what's the symbol for an ingenious idea? A light bulb? Edison's "invention" was iterative. Two years prior there was an improved incandescent light in a vacuum patent in the European patent office... It wasn't some remarkable leap of insight, Edison just tried stuff until it worked! Elisha Gray and Gram Bell BOTH invented the telephone i.e. using mercury as a variable resistor to put voice down the line that we were already using for communication (telegraph) -- Bell was AN HOUR sooner to the patent office, Gray went to the poorhouse. It was clearly ITERATION. People knew that you could detect sound waves and people knew you could communicate via wire. Are you saying that the twain would never have met if it weren't for a single Marvellous Brilliant Genius? WRONG! If the problem is important enough it WILL be solved (if it's solvable). SGI was first. SO WHAT. Edison was first to make a marketable bulb. We'd still have incandescent bulbs today if he had been struck and killed by the fabled lightning... We'd have had the Telephone AN HOUR LATER if Mr Bell had never existed.
We've increased the population of humans H in the problem space to the point that any monopoly on an idea nearly immediately harms independent "inventors". The average technician skilled in the art has a chance of creating the solution S. The number of new ie "patentable" solutions P to a problem in a given time interval T is P = SH/T
It's plain to see that as H increases, so to does the number of patentable solutions.
( This is because THERE IS NO TEST FOR OBVIOUSNESS -- The PTO does not employ individuals adequately skilled in the arts [these folk are WORKING in their fields]! Consequently, the PTO just ensures that the forms are signed, grants patents over anything that's not already in their Database and let's the court sort it out )
The problem is that there are actually VASTLY more people just getting shit done and realising that their work is iterative, than there are dumb lazy fucks who can't think for themselves so they look through the patent system database to see who's ideas they can use -- THE LATTER DOES NOT ACTUALLY EXIST! Everyone just solves their own damn problems rather than pay Patent Tax! The system is useless! Since EVERYONE is some degree of a Genius, Geniuses aren't special, otherwise we would actually search for patented solutions to use. In some fields where the research cost is high, you may do this, but in Software?! It's just Math, and Math is EASY.
Patents reward investment in research OF ONLY THE FIRST RESEARCHER. It's moronic to think that an idea monopoly won't harm THE ENTIRE REST OF THE FIELD as they're taxed for not getting there first or have to work around an obvious solution to avoid legal fees to invalidate P. It's even more retarding to get on your knees and worship the first iterating company as if it's the ONLY one in the field because it can pay for more H to produce P in less T. If you can pay for more H, then you get more P in less T; It's quite simple.
The bar for "Genius" has been lowered to average Joe engineer. It's your style of Mental Fellatio that's to blame for our current state of affairs...
I have an open Wifi setup
I have a SSL Strip and other ARP Poisoning MITM Attacks. What's your home address?
Do you ever buy anything online? Would you like any script-kiddie to see AND MANIPULATE everything you do online?
Here's some advice for you ignorant folk who insist on leaving their WIFI insecure: Turn on WPA. This defeats ARP Poisoning via per client encryption keys. WAIT! Hold your uneducated retorts for just a second: Set the password to "Welcome" and the SSID to "Password is Welcome". You can stencil "Our WIFI password is 'Welcome'." on a sign in the yard if needed, but the SSID broadcast should be more than enough. Get the teenager down the street to configure your network if you don't know how to RTFM and configure the router.
Take the time to share free WIFI the right way, or not at all.
I develop software, and I live contract to contract. I pay heavy taxes, some of which funds research. I agree to pay for research because I expect to see the results. However, the norm is that I can't see the results -- I can't afford to. Thus, it's just more of the same "rich get richer" situation that I struggle against daily.
Even if I get access to the information, I typically can't use it because it's patented. In a world where I must do my own research almost exclusively, I've begun to loathe taxation that benefits researchers. Why should I pay you for information I can't afford to use? Those monies paid reduce funds for my own, usable, independent research. I'm all for advancing science and the arts, but I don't think this system is doing a very good job of it...
The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
- Commissioner Pravin Lal
It's almost as if hardware wants to be free as much as information does...
2. That's all I got for now.
Sounds like you need to level up, ideasman.
Get on our level.