Honestly... http://pie.shop has been resolving for me and millions of other people for quite a while now. If you're a DNS server admin, enabling their domains is easy as a breeze. If you don't have the power to change your DNS server, you can either modify your resolv.conf on a unix system, or download a plugin for windows.
If you ask me, it surely beats waiting for ICANN and their ridiculous prices/timeframes. After all, they have no friggin power over the free Internet whatsoever! They just like to think that, because big corps are behind it.
New.net has organizations like @Home, Earthlink, and mp3.com supporting them. I'd say we need to hurry up and put ICANN out of business while it still doesn't have its hands on our throats.
It does kind of look like someone was watching STNG for a little too long, which bugs me because on the USS 1701D You can just say "computer, locate my slacker employee" and it tells you what they're up to.
Yeah, but they fixed it in DS9 and VOY.;) Now all you have to do is take off your com-badge and leave it in the restroom.
"Computer, locate ensign Kim."
"Ensign Kim is taking a dump and cannot be disturbed at this time."
It's silly to try and win the end-users' desktops. They'll use Win32 for the same reason we still use QWERTY keyboards. Linux (and other OS'es) will advance in stuff like appliances, where one doesn't have to adhere to the "i'm used to my start-button" crap.
Grab your favorite OS/GUI toolkit and make a killer appliance running linux/beos/etc, which will have an intuitive interface and will actually do useful stuff. Sure, we're a few years away from a real appliances market, but we'll get there, I think.
The people using Be, and using the QNX RTP aren't going to benefit from open source at all at this point.
I dunno... BeOS still thinks all PCMCIA network cards are ne2k clones... I mean, that's the reason I'm not running it on my laptop right now. Since Be in't GPL, they can't port all those ready drivers available for linux...
I know the difference between the censorship and censure. This doesn't invalidate the point -- since when doesn the govt have a say in what is OK to research and what is not? "Oh, science guys... We didn't like what you came up with, so here's a thumbs-down to your research."
I think this is very relevant to the running story.
The Congressional Censure of a Research Paper: Return of the Inquisition?
Kenneth K. Berry and Jason Berry
Skeptical Enquirer, volume 24, #1
On July 12, 1999, the United States House of Representatives took an historic step toward censorship of scientific findings when it voted 355 to 0 to condemn and censure a scientific publication because the members disagreed with the findings and believed that they would have a negative effect upon citizens' thoughts and actions.
The paper, published a year earlier in the American Psychological Association's jouirnal Psychological Bulletin (July, 1998), by Bruce Rind of Temple University, Philip Tromovitch, and Robert Bauserman was titled "A Meta-analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples." This paper was basically a review and analysis of fifty-nine previous research studies of the consequences of sexual molestation of children.
The congressional members found some of the findings personally repugnant, particularly the conclusion that some molested children grow up to be normal and a small portion are seemingly little affected by this experience. The members, especially Rep. Salmon (an Arizona Republican and a sponsor of H.Con.Res.107) believed that the findings would not only encourage pedophilia among United States citizens, but the findings could not be true. The Representatives' thinking appeared to be a demonstration of what Donald Watson (1993) called "Autistic Certainty" ("I would not believe something that was not true; I believe this is not true, therefore this must be untrue").
The article goes on for two more pages.
The point is -- just because something scares you or makes you awfully uncomfortable -- doesn't mean you have a right to censure findings. If the findings are incorrect, let the scientists deal with it, correct the results, and publish an article with opposing findings. However, legislation should have no right to censure something just because it doesn't sit well with their views.
Well, not to discard bragging rights, about which you're definitely correct, but we're talking about having a "cozy feeling" looking at a shelf full of books. I meant to say that a "bookshelf" as a necessary part of our entourage may not need to be a physical collection of paper.
Also, non-physical one-of-a-kind things can have bragging ability, too. E.g. I own the domain name linux-g.nu, having all bragging rights to that.;) It's non-physical and only exists as a zone file on a couple of boxes in the world, yet I brag about it any chance I have.;)
As much as some of us might want to live in a Bauhaus, minimalist world, there's something warm and reassuring about a shelf filled with books.
It's an ego thing as well - "see how many books I have!". If we didn't like the physical qualities of books, of having them in our own homes, we'd all use the library a lot more;-).
I predict that whenever we have some sort of hologram imaging mainstream, this problem will go away. Imagine -- punch in a few keys and your wall becomes a shell full of most exquisite works of literary art. Quite a thing to impress dates, too:
"And over there is my collection of Grecko-Roman philosophers... in their original tongue..."
Same goes for framed art works. Just click a few buttons and the walls of your house display a nice set of Van Gogh.
One day we'll have a downloadable set of skins for the interior of your house. "Hmm... I'm getting tired of this Austin Powers Shagadelic theme. I think I'm in the mood for some late 17-th century French.
If we are to have a viable space exploration program, with happy and committed astronauts, we must put what I have recomended into practice. It will do our space exploration program the world of good, and improve its success rate.
Damn, there go our plans for prolonged manned missions which require several generations of astronauts... Whichever way you try, you still need a straight woman on board for it to work...:)
when I saw a (bah!) M$ commercial. New one, about how _reliable_ thier servers are. It showed an empty office with servers in it and spoke of how everyone was home enjoying milk and cookies with no worries because Redmond was running the show.
I first saw it on Comedy Central, so I just figured it was part of the program.
Any of you see this interview that George had with Barbara Walters the night before George was sworn in? When asked directly if Russia was an enemy or friend, George said, "I don't know, I hope they're a friend." He hopes? Well doesn't he know?
Well, are you my friend? No. Are you my enemy? No, I hope not. Are you a friend of a guy who sells milk crates in downtown LA? Are you his enemy?
Russia has its own interests in the world and right now it's mostly concentrating on the internal issues. There is a wave of terrorism, a civil unrest in Chechen republic, neo-nazism is on the rize, and the economy is still wobbly on its feet. Is Russia a friend of US? Uhm... Countries, like people, can communicate and operate on far more categories than friendship or enmity.
I'd say that Russia is not a close friend of the US like it used (seemed) to be when Gorby was at his best in late 80's or when Yeltsin was in power in early-mid 90's. However, just because someone is not your friend, doesn't mean that they are your enemy. Of course there is going to be a conflict of interests already because Russia is a weapons manufacturer and tries to sell to the same market US is selling to. However, I don't see an open enmity developing en masse apart from conservative groups who are striving for the feeling of "power" they had when Soviet Union was at it's Cold-War peak.
The older post-communist groups are the ones who like to shake fists at the world and mention the Nuclear Arsenal -- it's kind of like a viagra pill for them. However, everyone else understands that any kind of an international conflict is the last thing Russia needs right now with its problems galore as it is.
I predict that Russia will keep relatively in the shadows for another decade or so, maybe two, until emerging again as a powerful influential country. We still have the brains, although many of them have been "leased" to the West.:)) I'd say there is a big chance that the balance of power will shift towards Asia in the next 25 years.
One of the main contributors to the development of PS3 is a committee from Iraq, who shared their opinions on what they would like to see in the next release of this powerful console. Some of the requested features include self-guiding missiles support, stronger console casing, able to withstand the rugged military life, as well as an Arabic interface.
I should also mention a very unpleasant encounter with opensound.com. When I was in Russia, stuck due to the INS/Visa regulations, I needed to get some drivers for my YMF724 sound card. Since ALSA didn't support it back then, I was going to buy OSS drivers from 4Front.
It was pretty disturbing to find out that the entire.ru domain was banned from the opensound.com website for whatever reasons. Naturally, I used an american proxy, but that left a very nasty aftertaste, as if I somehow I was a lesser human, only because my DNS traced back to Russia.
What might happen when commonplace objects, like shoes or underwear or furniture or toys, begin to contain more sensory and computer power than we can currently predict, and when innate, wireless nets fluidly link them to the rest of the planet's infinitely scaling information systems?
I think if our underwear contains sensory power which links it with planetary information systems, the USENET will simply die out, since dick-sizing will lose its touch.
Soemtime in the 200-400 AD range (don't remember), a Christian convert Emperor of the Roman Empire wanted to spread Christianity and so led the combination of the Roman Sun celebration (right after the Winter Solstice (sic?)) with Jesus' "birthday". Hence the formation of the holiday known today as Christmas.
To be more precise, this religion is called Mithraism, and it was the most wide-spread religion among Roman soldiers before emperor Constantine instituted the Christian faith, and thus signed the death warrant to Mithraism. The religion of Mithra comes from ancient Persia, and is a monotheistic religion based on assumption that Mithra is the Sun-god.
To make a transition from Mithraism to Christianity more smooth, Constantine borrowed a lot of things from the Sun-god religion. Thus, Mithra's birthday, December 25th, was instituted as Jesus of Nazareth's birthday, and the Mithraist holy day, SUNday, was made the Christian holy day, which was an outrage in itself, since it contradicted one of the commandments about keeping the Sixth's day (Sabbath) the holy day.
Nevertheless, these changes were adopted by Christianity and Mithraism was later in the 4th century nearly wiped out by repressive actions of Theodosius.
And this, kids, is why we celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December..:)
Any "ism" is pathetic, unless you happen to be the follower of that particular "ism". That's called subjectivity and personal bias. Everyone has it, even those who deny that they are biased against anything.
Atheist children celebrate the New Year's eve, so it's 6 more days.:) At least Russian atheist children.
Also, an Eastern Orthodox Christian Christmas is on the 7th of January, since there was no way in hell they were switching to a gregorian calendar, instituted by some Pope guy.:)))
So, now Russians celebrate Catholic Christmas on the 25th (sorta), then New Year's eve on the 31st (the big one), then Orthodox Christmas on the 7th of January (pushed by the 'back-to the roots' pro-orthodox circles), and the "Old New Year" on the 13th, since it's the 1st by the old style calendar.
Overall, Russians start celebrating on the 25th and go on till the 13th. If you want any work done, you need to make sure it's either before or after that span.:)
It's hilarious when I come to Lowe's or Home Depot and bring my metric calculations with me (I'm Russian and I just don't dig the inches). You should have seen the face of a guy when I asked him to make my blinds 72.5cm long. He had no idea, and I wasn't about to help him.:) He finally had to call his manager and they figured out the imperial value of that -- hey, I'm a paying customer!.
I think if more people do this, then the transfer would happen sooner. It also cracks me up any time I do this.:)
"Yes, ma'am, just drive about two kilometers down the road, turn left, and drive for a hundred more meters until you see the drugstore where you can buy Aspirin for the headache you're gonna get just trying to convert all this into miles and feet."
Personally, I think it would be cool to have pneumatic delivery tubes everywhere.
I thought of that idea, too, when I was working at a daycare. It would be cool to have a bank-like drive-thru where you could stick your kid in one of the suction tubes and she would just whirl right into the classroom. The only problem with this approach was that kids ended up arriving head-down, but that shouldn't have been too much of a problem.
I could've had _the_ ultimate daycare from the kids' point of view. Sigh... Then I learned UNIX and don't work for the daycare no mo'.
Slashdot Mirror
Honestly... http://pie.shop has been resolving for me and millions of other people for quite a while now. If you're a DNS server admin, enabling their domains is easy as a breeze. If you don't have the power to change your DNS server, you can either modify your resolv.conf on a unix system, or download a plugin for windows.
If you ask me, it surely beats waiting for ICANN and their ridiculous prices/timeframes. After all, they have no friggin power over the free Internet whatsoever! They just like to think that, because big corps are behind it.
New.net has organizations like @Home, Earthlink, and mp3.com supporting them. I'd say we need to hurry up and put ICANN out of business while it still doesn't have its hands on our throats.
It's really no sweat to activate it. Try it today. http://www.new.net/
It does kind of look like someone was watching STNG for a little too long, which bugs me because on the USS 1701D You can just say "computer, locate my slacker employee" and it tells you what they're up to.
Yeah, but they fixed it in DS9 and VOY. ;) Now all you have to do is take off your com-badge and leave it in the restroom.
"Computer, locate ensign Kim."
"Ensign Kim is taking a dump and cannot be disturbed at this time."
That's what they should call their version of it. (hint: this is an obscure reference to the Jungle Book/Mowgli cartoon)
It's silly to try and win the end-users' desktops. They'll use Win32 for the same reason we still use QWERTY keyboards. Linux (and other OS'es) will advance in stuff like appliances, where one doesn't have to adhere to the "i'm used to my start-button" crap.
Grab your favorite OS/GUI toolkit and make a killer appliance running linux/beos/etc, which will have an intuitive interface and will actually do useful stuff. Sure, we're a few years away from a real appliances market, but we'll get there, I think.
In their Hemp-mobile...
You have been eaten by an ugly ogre.
That was painful!
You lose points.
The people using Be, and using the QNX RTP aren't going to benefit from open source at all at this point.
I dunno... BeOS still thinks all PCMCIA network cards are ne2k clones... I mean, that's the reason I'm not running it on my laptop right now. Since Be in't GPL, they can't port all those ready drivers available for linux...
I know the difference between the censorship and censure. This doesn't invalidate the point -- since when doesn the govt have a say in what is OK to research and what is not? "Oh, science guys... We didn't like what you came up with, so here's a thumbs-down to your research."
I think this is very relevant to the running story.
The Congressional Censure of a Research Paper: Return of the Inquisition?
Kenneth K. Berry and Jason Berry
Skeptical Enquirer, volume 24, #1
On July 12, 1999, the United States House of Representatives took an historic step toward censorship of scientific findings when it voted 355 to 0 to condemn and censure a scientific publication because the members disagreed with the findings and believed that they would have a negative effect upon citizens' thoughts and actions.
The paper, published a year earlier in the American Psychological Association's jouirnal Psychological Bulletin (July, 1998), by Bruce Rind of Temple University, Philip Tromovitch, and Robert Bauserman was titled "A Meta-analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples." This paper was basically a review and analysis of fifty-nine previous research studies of the consequences of sexual molestation of children.
The congressional members found some of the findings personally repugnant, particularly the conclusion that some molested children grow up to be normal and a small portion are seemingly little affected by this experience. The members, especially Rep. Salmon (an Arizona Republican and a sponsor of H.Con.Res.107) believed that the findings would not only encourage pedophilia among United States citizens, but the findings could not be true. The Representatives' thinking appeared to be a demonstration of what Donald Watson (1993) called "Autistic Certainty" ("I would not believe something that was not true; I believe this is not true, therefore this must be untrue").
The article goes on for two more pages.
The point is -- just because something scares you or makes you awfully uncomfortable -- doesn't mean you have a right to censure findings. If the findings are incorrect, let the scientists deal with it, correct the results, and publish an article with opposing findings. However, legislation should have no right to censure something just because it doesn't sit well with their views.
Well, not to discard bragging rights, about which you're definitely correct, but we're talking about having a "cozy feeling" looking at a shelf full of books. I meant to say that a "bookshelf" as a necessary part of our entourage may not need to be a physical collection of paper.
Also, non-physical one-of-a-kind things can have bragging ability, too. E.g. I own the domain name linux-g.nu, having all bragging rights to that. ;) It's non-physical and only exists as a zone file on a couple of boxes in the world, yet I brag about it any chance I have. ;)
As much as some of us might want to live in a Bauhaus, minimalist world, there's something warm and reassuring about a shelf filled with books.
It's an ego thing as well - "see how many books I have!". If we didn't like the physical qualities of books, of having them in our own homes, we'd all use the library a lot more ;-).
I predict that whenever we have some sort of hologram imaging mainstream, this problem will go away. Imagine -- punch in a few keys and your wall becomes a shell full of most exquisite works of literary art. Quite a thing to impress dates, too:
"And over there is my collection of Grecko-Roman philosophers... in their original tongue..."
Same goes for framed art works. Just click a few buttons and the walls of your house display a nice set of Van Gogh.
One day we'll have a downloadable set of skins for the interior of your house. "Hmm... I'm getting tired of this Austin Powers Shagadelic theme. I think I'm in the mood for some late 17-th century French.
Ahh... I give it 50 years. ;)
Goats whose milk contains spiderwebs? Who is the marketing genius who came up with this idea?
If you're really looking for a genetic research which will instantly pay off -- create a goat who pisses with beer!
If we are to have a viable space exploration program, with happy and committed astronauts, we must put what I have recomended into practice. It will do our space exploration program the world of good, and improve its success rate.
Damn, there go our plans for prolonged manned missions which require several generations of astronauts... Whichever way you try, you still need a straight woman on board for it to work... :)
Sorry, officer, I couldn't have noticed that red light -- my arse was being whooped by some level 35 paladin from Australia...
when I saw a (bah!) M$ commercial. New one, about how _reliable_ thier servers are. It showed an empty office with servers in it and spoke of how everyone was home enjoying milk and cookies with no worries because Redmond was running the show.
I first saw it on Comedy Central, so I just figured it was part of the program.
Any of you see this interview that George had with Barbara Walters the night before George was sworn in? When asked directly if Russia was an enemy or friend, George said, "I don't know, I hope they're a friend." He hopes? Well doesn't he know?
Well, are you my friend? No. Are you my enemy? No, I hope not. Are you a friend of a guy who sells milk crates in downtown LA? Are you his enemy?
Russia has its own interests in the world and right now it's mostly concentrating on the internal issues. There is a wave of terrorism, a civil unrest in Chechen republic, neo-nazism is on the rize, and the economy is still wobbly on its feet. Is Russia a friend of US? Uhm... Countries, like people, can communicate and operate on far more categories than friendship or enmity.
I'd say that Russia is not a close friend of the US like it used (seemed) to be when Gorby was at his best in late 80's or when Yeltsin was in power in early-mid 90's. However, just because someone is not your friend, doesn't mean that they are your enemy. Of course there is going to be a conflict of interests already because Russia is a weapons manufacturer and tries to sell to the same market US is selling to. However, I don't see an open enmity developing en masse apart from conservative groups who are striving for the feeling of "power" they had when Soviet Union was at it's Cold-War peak.
The older post-communist groups are the ones who like to shake fists at the world and mention the Nuclear Arsenal -- it's kind of like a viagra pill for them. However, everyone else understands that any kind of an international conflict is the last thing Russia needs right now with its problems galore as it is.
I predict that Russia will keep relatively in the shadows for another decade or so, maybe two, until emerging again as a powerful influential country. We still have the brains, although many of them have been "leased" to the West. :)) I'd say there is a big chance that the balance of power will shift towards Asia in the next 25 years.
Disclaimer: I am a Russian citizen working in US.
One of the main contributors to the development of PS3 is a committee from Iraq, who shared their opinions on what they would like to see in the next release of this powerful console. Some of the requested features include self-guiding missiles support, stronger console casing, able to withstand the rugged military life, as well as an Arabic interface.
I should also mention a very unpleasant encounter with opensound.com. When I was in Russia, stuck due to the INS/Visa regulations, I needed to get some drivers for my YMF724 sound card. Since ALSA didn't support it back then, I was going to buy OSS drivers from 4Front.
It was pretty disturbing to find out that the entire .ru domain was banned from the opensound.com website for whatever reasons. Naturally, I used an american proxy, but that left a very nasty aftertaste, as if I somehow I was a lesser human, only because my DNS traced back to Russia.
So, the supposedly "good" guys do this, too.
From the article:
I think if our underwear contains sensory power which links it with planetary information systems, the USENET will simply die out, since dick-sizing will lose its touch.
Not long ago it seems we had a problem on linking to ISS during one of the major events there.
Could that be because MPAA confused ISS and DeCSS and ordered Houston to remove all links to ISS from it's operation site?
(Ducking after a corny joke)
Soemtime in the 200-400 AD range (don't remember), a Christian convert Emperor of the Roman Empire wanted to spread Christianity and so led the combination of the Roman Sun celebration (right after the Winter Solstice (sic?)) with Jesus' "birthday". Hence the formation of the holiday known today as Christmas.
To be more precise, this religion is called Mithraism, and it was the most wide-spread religion among Roman soldiers before emperor Constantine instituted the Christian faith, and thus signed the death warrant to Mithraism. The religion of Mithra comes from ancient Persia, and is a monotheistic religion based on assumption that Mithra is the Sun-god.
To make a transition from Mithraism to Christianity more smooth, Constantine borrowed a lot of things from the Sun-god religion. Thus, Mithra's birthday, December 25th, was instituted as Jesus of Nazareth's birthday, and the Mithraist holy day, SUNday, was made the Christian holy day, which was an outrage in itself, since it contradicted one of the commandments about keeping the Sixth's day (Sabbath) the holy day.
Nevertheless, these changes were adopted by Christianity and Mithraism was later in the 4th century nearly wiped out by repressive actions of Theodosius.
And this, kids, is why we celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December.. :)
Any "ism" is pathetic, unless you happen to be the follower of that particular "ism". That's called subjectivity and personal bias. Everyone has it, even those who deny that they are biased against anything.
Atheist children celebrate the New Year's eve, so it's 6 more days. :) At least Russian atheist children.
Also, an Eastern Orthodox Christian Christmas is on the 7th of January, since there was no way in hell they were switching to a gregorian calendar, instituted by some Pope guy. :)))
So, now Russians celebrate Catholic Christmas on the 25th (sorta), then New Year's eve on the 31st (the big one), then Orthodox Christmas on the 7th of January (pushed by the 'back-to the roots' pro-orthodox circles), and the "Old New Year" on the 13th, since it's the 1st by the old style calendar.
Overall, Russians start celebrating on the 25th and go on till the 13th. If you want any work done, you need to make sure it's either before or after that span. :)
It's hilarious when I come to Lowe's or Home Depot and bring my metric calculations with me (I'm Russian and I just don't dig the inches). You should have seen the face of a guy when I asked him to make my blinds 72.5cm long. He had no idea, and I wasn't about to help him. :) He finally had to call his manager and they figured out the imperial value of that -- hey, I'm a paying customer!.
I think if more people do this, then the transfer would happen sooner. It also cracks me up any time I do this. :)
"Yes, ma'am, just drive about two kilometers down the road, turn left, and drive for a hundred more meters until you see the drugstore where you can buy Aspirin for the headache you're gonna get just trying to convert all this into miles and feet."
It's so hard not to be smilink when doink this. :)
I thought of that idea, too, when I was working at a daycare. It would be cool to have a bank-like drive-thru where you could stick your kid in one of the suction tubes and she would just whirl right into the classroom. The only problem with this approach was that kids ended up arriving head-down, but that shouldn't have been too much of a problem.
I could've had _the_ ultimate daycare from the kids' point of view. Sigh... Then I learned UNIX and don't work for the daycare no mo'.