I think you're wrong. He isn't GREAT yet but he is very good and I think getting better. His books have a depth that very few books have and I think he'll definately develop an ongoing cult following. He pays a lot of attention to details and how different threads interrelate which lends a lot to rereading and pondering.
He is the only writer that when he releases a new book I must buy that book the first day it's available. Far and away my favorite author. I like Sterling too but he isn't in the same ballpark as Stephenson. The only good book by Gibson IMHO was Idoru. I really can't think of any other current Sci Fi writer that I really like.
In Cryptonomicon and some of his outside comments Enoch Root was hinted to be sort of a Heavenly guide along the techno path stort of guy. I mean just look at his name. Do we need to be quite so obvious as Hiro Protagonist to get the point agross?;)
I hope so. I for one have already been calculating the cost of purchasing a petabyte of storage for my home network and it's way out of my price range. I could really use the space (yes - I could fill a petabyte within 2-3 years) so I'd like to see prices drop per gig 100 fold yet again within the next few years. A gigabyte seemed like a lot - then a terabyte seemed like a lot.. I'm sure the same problem will still exist for some time. There is always more data. I'd like to record live video streams of my life 24/7 til I die. Would be sort of fun to develop software that tracks the best/worst bits of your life and sort of spins it into your own personal tv series.:)
As the article points out there is a lot of crap that gets lumped under comp sci. Everything from mathematics and electrical engineering to real computer science and computer engineering is all lumped under the same heading a lot of the time. I think his, and my, biggest complaint is when those of us that'd consider ourselves computer artists get lumped in with the hard science folks. Not that a lot of us aren't involved in computers in more than one of these ways.. the problem is we just don't clarify the difference.
He outlines programming in a style much like I use. I usually make notes on paper, whiteboards, in my head, etc and then roughly sketch out what my goal is in actual source code. Then I go through and fill that sketch in. Then I finally add the little details that make a full program. I usually debug in each of these steps but usually there is very little source code reuse between the steps. Regardless to how detailed the original spec was the end result is almost never that product. Why? Because the spec just doesn't work. That's the #1 reason you get feature bloat during development. With this more flowing system there are more points at which you finish the working program and see what works, what doesn't work, and what needs to be added. You can make a revised spec and start again. Just paint over the last version you had.
I think I agree with you in that painting is an applied science. You have the science of chemicals, geometry, knowledge of the structure of various things (plants, animals, people, buildings), etc. It can still be an art. The art is taking the science and making something complex and well designed from it. The same happens when developing software. Connect with other developers, users, and the machine. Don't just do the job - do it well.
I'll second Python. It is very clean without being anal. It leaves you more mental capacity to write the program with less spent nitpicking or trying to read your own work. It certainly isn't perfect but so far it's my favorite (and I've used a lot of languages).
PHP is good for small to medium sized programs but just can't scale well to large programs. I'd say the same for Perl. Not that they can't technically handle the job - it just grows increasingly hard for the programmer to use them the larger the program is. I'd say each is very good for the job they were originally designed for.
C, C++, and even Java are good for things you need low level speed but again they scale poorly to large projects. I think C scales the worst and Java the best but I still like C best of the three. I think using C where C is needed and something higher (like Python) for the rest is the best idea.
I'd suggest that you copy your vhs originals to a harddrive and then make copies back to vhs for day to day use. That way you have the convience of what you're used to but can continue to produce copies without further degradation.
The first time I heard of this was along with nanotechnology and the twins have haunted my view of the future since. The current battle about genetics looks like kids stuff when you compare it to nanotechnology and programmable matter. Imagine if you could create an implant that'd let you manipulate individual atoms and add in your own quasi-atoms. It'd be especially cool if you could hack your own body with that technology. It makes most of our concepts of magic sound like nothing at all.:)
'"They control an important piece of the industry, and beyond that they have a lot of vision about the way they think things should go," Kay said.'
When has Microsoft ever had vision? Every idea they've ever had has been stollen or bought from somebody else. Oops my mistake - they did invent the iLoo.. no wait, I remember a bar that had Internet terminals in the John back before Microsoft even had Internet Explorer. Microsoft may have vision but they are in bad need of some glasses.
Another trend I've noticed is that in a down economy more people try to earn extra money by running a small part time business on the side. They work as a handy man, doing yards, selling hand-made crafts, etc to try to make a lil extra money and escape from the risk of being layed off. Some of these businesses will make it, some will die, and many will stay just side jobs. Tools that reduce the effort required allow these businesses to spend more time making money which obviously leads to their doing better. Not a hard sell if your product is affordable.
These people tend to need help with record keeping and various small business tasks because they aren't overly experienced and there is little in the way of software to fit their unique needs. A lot of the programs function almost the same but are just enough different to make big name products not fit very well.
It's not just selling software either. You can sell custom hardware too. One I'm working on is for farmers. Rather than hand recording various stats such as which animal is fed, bred, etc that day they have a small handheld computer and a barcode scanner. They can scan the animals barcode and press a couple buttons on screen and go on. A small time saving per animal but if they have 5000 animals it lets them finish MUCH faster while keeping better records. With those improved records they can manage their business better. In the case I'm working on we're trying to enable them to compete with 3 workers against farms that have 8 workers. Obviously, a huge savings from $1500 worth of software and hardware.
This exact system would be good on any farm that raises the same animal and it'd be very easy to adapt it to those raising other animals. This farm in question happens to be one that other farms watch as an example of best methods. Obviously, I'm hoping a lot of those farms will want to use my system also. Not bad for a program that has taken only about a month to produce (I love Python and wxPython) and using hardware which is mostly off-the-shelf plug together stuff. I'd agree totally that this is a market that really takes advantage of reusability.
The easiest way is to be part of that group to begin with. Read their magazines, attend their shows, chat on their mailing lists, invite them to your BBQs, etc. Even if you aren't part of the group before you begin it can be a beneficial process to make yourself part of it before you start coding. Learn what they really need and then give it to them. You won't sell 1000 copies the first day but word of mouth will tend to grow and you'll get a steadily growing stream of customers. I'd also suggest spending a little money to market the software in magazines and websites dedicated to the business your software reaches out to. If you know a company that sells products related to that business then give them a call and arrange for them to try your program out (free of course) and see if they'd be willing to resale it for you. That way they cover the marketing expenses. If the software might appeal to enough people in your local area then talk to the managers of the local Walmart and software stores.. they often try to carry local products. Marketing is certainly the hardest part of buiness (after fundraising) I think but you shouldn't be afraid of it. If you have experience coldcalling people it's a little easier - if not it's a good time to learn.:)
My usual approach is to write software that I'll either use for one of my other businesses or someone I know will. Then I resale it to others to recoup the time I invested in writing it. A lot of these apps are small and easy to write things that take maybe a few weeks to develop. Pass copies along to the right people and let them be your marketing. I won't say you'll get rich (I certainly haven't) but it's a pretty solid business model. I'm certainly not saying to spend five years writing a single vertical app and try to market it yourself - I'm suggesting small vertical apps that are pretty cheap to develop and market.
Dude! Microsoft, Quicken, etc sell shitloads of stuff to SOHO businesses. It's a lot easier to sell 1000 copies of something for $50 (or even $500) than it is to sell a $50000 program. I know a lot of people that own small businesses but I don't know a lot of people that run multimillion dollar businesses.
Not to say your idea won't work too if you happen to know the right people. Still, you're assuming this person has already worked for such companies. If so why are they on Slashdot asking what to do with their degree?:)
Effectively getting a garnishment or seizing assets in the US is almost impossible if the debter feels like avoiding them. Last time I checked they had to leave alone important "things to live" like your vcr and tv. It's full of loopholes.
Going to jail isn't really effective if the subject of the lawsuit is a business. Are you going to jail everyone there?
That's laughable though really. Hell the government can't find me a job now so maybe if I can do some bad shit they'll suddenly be able to find something they can pay me for.:)
If you want to make a successful business writing software I suggest going after small and home businesses. They often need customized software and can't afford to hire their own programming staff. You could make a decent living I think by developing vertical apps for these users and offering customization services. At least that's what I'm working on. This is a good market to write opensource software in whie still making a living.
I am pretty sure that many - if not most- small claims judgements are never paid off. It's usually recommended that you not even bother if you're going to need to pay for a lawyer or collection agency. It might be worth $20 if you could spare it - just to hassle the telemarketing folks, but I certainly wouldn't count on a pay off of even $500. Sure you'd probably win your judgement but would they ever actually pay you?
Re:Why do "next gen" OSs have such GIANT interface
on
Looking at Longhorn
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· Score: 1
I'm careful about encouraging people to switch. I love using Linux but I know it's not a solution to every problem (yet).
If there are things you feel are missing in Linux I suggest joining some Linux user groups and asking questions. Maybe a program for that function does exist. If not you can help seed it's existence by giving some of us programmers the idea to work on it. Think about donating a little cash to these programmers when you can afford it. If you send $50 on a commercial program donate $5 to a opensource project working on an alternative. If there is a successful opensource product that competes with your commercial program and runs on Linux it'll be motivation to port that commercial program to Linux. You'll then have choices. Choices are good for you as a consumer. I call that the anti-monopoly tax. Donate 1/10th of your software buying money to opensource projects.:)
Be sure to tell those companies how you feel. Really that is the only way to get commecial interest in Linux. There has to be a large enough user base interested in their products or they simply can't afford to support Linux.
Switching your OS isn't an easy choice. It's like moving to a new city. Those comfortable old friends will be gone and you'll make new friends. Some of the new friends will be great but you'll still miss your old friends now and then. You won't know your way around for a while and you'll have to learn how to get places again. How well your move works out for you depends a lot on the choices you make. Give yourself time to adapt to your move.
Think of Windows as Las Vegas and Linux as New Orleans. Vegas is bright and flashy. You have plenty of games in Vegas and it's easy to find nude women. Vegas tends to cost a lot. New Orleans looks and feels old and can seem a place full of voodoo. You have a rich culture to explore. It's still pretty easy to find nude women but not as easy as in Vegas. New Orleans can be expensive but is easier to enjoy on the cheap if that's what you want. Both places can be great but which you like better depends on your personality.
I'd say we see natural selection everywhere. It's so prevailent that we overlook it happening. There is a massive cultural battle going on among humans. You have a war of technology going on, a war of economics, a war of breeding, etc. These are all factors in how we're evolving and who will win is still in question. We in western cultures tend to be capitalist technocrats with fairly low birthrates. We're competing with other cultures that emphasis less education and cash but may breed a lot more than we do (think China). The really interesting things happening are where these cultures are blending to find what I'd call superstrains of human culture. Say capitalist socialists (yes you can be both) with high technology and they breed a lot while keeping natural resource usage to a minimum. We're seeing some spots like that emerging as pre-industrial countries jump head first into technology. With the USA playing god with Afganastan, Iraq, etc we no doubt will see more of this.
Of course cultural evolution isn't 100% genetic but it does have a genetic effect. Sort of a feedback loop. For humans cultural evolution is at least as important to us as genetic evolution anyway. It's the cultural effect that prompts us to modify our own future with genetic engineering and nanotechnology.
My god is knowledge. I am not wise enough to know what is right for the future or wrong for the future. All I can do is try to open more possibilities and reveal more knowledge to give the future a better chance of making an educated decision. To me that is what technology is about. It's opening doors for my children, grandchildren, and so on. Which door they take is up to them.
I'd be prone to having my children modified in ways that'd be beneficial to them. To some degree that includes use of genetics but I'm really looking ahead to nanotechnology. In my mind I see those technologies as ways to give my descendents more open doors.
I see humanity splitting as some of us evolve and some resist. Some may turn down genetics but their children will adopt nanotechnology. Some may geneticly modify their child who in turn refuse nanotechnology. We will have the choice to physically engineer the Net, AI, and other advanced technologies directly into our children. Man will reach the peak of it's existence and merge with his own machines. There will be a lot of question about what man is. Are these new beings gods, men, both, or neither?
You can't stop the future so we better learn how to respect each other now because soon we're going to have unbelievable power in our grasp.
Related sci-fi book references: The Postman The Diamond Age Distraction The Bohr Maker Hyperion
Re:Why do "next gen" OSs have such GIANT interface
on
Looking at Longhorn
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· Score: 1
Ahh, I know that problem. Usually not to hard to fix if you read the error messages (to stderr - not in the graphical box) but that means having to know how to do so and of course knowing what the errors mean. I'm not overly a fan of either Gnome or KDE's desktop enviroments. In a lot of ways I think they are getting worse with maturity rather than better.
If you want a very simple WM try BlackBox or it's even simpler child HackedBox. Being much simpler than Gnome or KDE they also have far fewer problems. Not exactly user-friendly but my none-geek sister figured out how to use it in under five minutes so it isn't that horrible. I had to compile HackedBox myself but it wasn't difficult. I still use Gnome/KDE apps - just not their desktop or window managers.
Re:Why do "next gen" OSs have such GIANT interface
on
Looking at Longhorn
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· Score: 1
I have no panels, toolbars, or other bullshit on my desktop. Until I start opening windows it's a pure black screen. If you ever feel like trying Linux again try HackedBox as your WM.:)
If you don't mind me asking how did your RedHat cease to function? Was it a consistant error? Just curious.:)
Omikron is okay but it doesn't seem to draw me in like Final Fantasy and similar games. To a large part I think it's because the fonts are terribly hard to read for me. I don't know if it's just me or my tv or what but half the time I can't tell what they have written.
I think if the fonts worked better the other problems wouldn't matter to me. The game looks and sounds good and has a lot of interesting things you can see and do. It takes more mental work IMO than most games and I think I like that. It's easy to screw up though.:)
I really loved Final Fantasy 8. The others before and after were good too but 8 was my favorite. Parasite Eve and Chrono Cross also rate very high for me. Skies of Arcadia isn't quite as addictive as FF8 (IMHO) but it is also very good.
The most addicting of all I'd say are online charachter-based games. MUDs and things such as that.
The first time I played DOOM it was about 4am and I'd just spent some many hours coaching it's download across my 2400 baud modem. After all that work I had to try it of course. I was sitting in a dark house by myself and the realism was unlike anything I'd seen at the time. I admit that when I went to bed the game was all I dreamed of that night. IMO that effect is the mark of a good game. Of course it didn't hurt how tired I was at the time.
Later some friends and I did experiments on the combination of DOOM and hypnosis. Was sort of interesting because we found that you could hypnotize someone before they played the game and use visual cues such as certain sprites and outside flashing lights to triger panic and aggression and the general suspense of disbelief. Not that you could train killers or anything that way - just you could make the game really REALLY bitchin.
I'd agree that installing Linux software isn't typically that hard once you've done it a while. Red Carpet makes updating/installing RPM files really easy. Apt-get makes the same process almost as easy in Debian based systems. Anything not available as a package just download and compile (which has gotten much easier in recent years).
What needs to be made easier is making good third party packages. It needs to be as easy as making a tarball or using WinZip. Obviously, the distros can't keep up with providing packages for every program that exists. They need to make it so your average sysadmin or developer can package the software he is trying to compile and install so that it works well across all his systems. Sure they can do learn to do it the hard way but obviously most of them are busy. The low number of third party packages is a good example as to the need for such tools.
As for every dick distro having trouble running standard packages it's been my experience they cause these problems by changing things pointlessly. Good packages play nice in any sane distro and distros should be smart enough to leave themselves compatible with those packages. Debian based distros should maintain compatibility with Debian, RedHat based distros with RedHat, etc. Pretty simple.
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I think you're wrong. He isn't GREAT yet but he is very good and I think getting better. His books have a depth that very few books have and I think he'll definately develop an ongoing cult following. He pays a lot of attention to details and how different threads interrelate which lends a lot to rereading and pondering.
He is the only writer that when he releases a new book I must buy that book the first day it's available. Far and away my favorite author. I like Sterling too but he isn't in the same ballpark as Stephenson. The only good book by Gibson IMHO was Idoru. I really can't think of any other current Sci Fi writer that I really like.
In Cryptonomicon and some of his outside comments Enoch Root was hinted to be sort of a Heavenly guide along the techno path stort of guy. I mean just look at his name. Do we need to be quite so obvious as Hiro Protagonist to get the point agross? ;)
I hope so. I for one have already been calculating the cost of purchasing a petabyte of storage for my home network and it's way out of my price range. I could really use the space (yes - I could fill a petabyte within 2-3 years) so I'd like to see prices drop per gig 100 fold yet again within the next few years. A gigabyte seemed like a lot - then a terabyte seemed like a lot.. I'm sure the same problem will still exist for some time. There is always more data. I'd like to record live video streams of my life 24/7 til I die. Would be sort of fun to develop software that tracks the best/worst bits of your life and sort of spins it into your own personal tv series. :)
As the article points out there is a lot of crap that gets lumped under comp sci. Everything from mathematics and electrical engineering to real computer science and computer engineering is all lumped under the same heading a lot of the time. I think his, and my, biggest complaint is when those of us that'd consider ourselves computer artists get lumped in with the hard science folks. Not that a lot of us aren't involved in computers in more than one of these ways.. the problem is we just don't clarify the difference.
He outlines programming in a style much like I use. I usually make notes on paper, whiteboards, in my head, etc and then roughly sketch out what my goal is in actual source code. Then I go through and fill that sketch in. Then I finally add the little details that make a full program. I usually debug in each of these steps but usually there is very little source code reuse between the steps. Regardless to how detailed the original spec was the end result is almost never that product. Why? Because the spec just doesn't work. That's the #1 reason you get feature bloat during development. With this more flowing system there are more points at which you finish the working program and see what works, what doesn't work, and what needs to be added. You can make a revised spec and start again. Just paint over the last version you had.
I think I agree with you in that painting is an applied science. You have the science of chemicals, geometry, knowledge of the structure of various things (plants, animals, people, buildings), etc. It can still be an art. The art is taking the science and making something complex and well designed from it. The same happens when developing software. Connect with other developers, users, and the machine. Don't just do the job - do it well.
I'll second Python. It is very clean without being anal. It leaves you more mental capacity to write the program with less spent nitpicking or trying to read your own work. It certainly isn't perfect but so far it's my favorite (and I've used a lot of languages).
PHP is good for small to medium sized programs but just can't scale well to large programs. I'd say the same for Perl. Not that they can't technically handle the job - it just grows increasingly hard for the programmer to use them the larger the program is. I'd say each is very good for the job they were originally designed for.
C, C++, and even Java are good for things you need low level speed but again they scale poorly to large projects. I think C scales the worst and Java the best but I still like C best of the three. I think using C where C is needed and something higher (like Python) for the rest is the best idea.
I'd suggest that you copy your vhs originals to a harddrive and then make copies back to vhs for day to day use. That way you have the convience of what you're used to but can continue to produce copies without further degradation.
The first time I heard of this was along with nanotechnology and the twins have haunted my view of the future since. The current battle about genetics looks like kids stuff when you compare it to nanotechnology and programmable matter. Imagine if you could create an implant that'd let you manipulate individual atoms and add in your own quasi-atoms. It'd be especially cool if you could hack your own body with that technology. It makes most of our concepts of magic sound like nothing at all. :)
'"They control an important piece of the industry, and beyond that they have a lot of vision about the way they think things should go," Kay said.'
When has Microsoft ever had vision? Every idea they've ever had has been stollen or bought from somebody else. Oops my mistake - they did invent the iLoo.. no wait, I remember a bar that had Internet terminals in the John back before Microsoft even had Internet Explorer. Microsoft may have vision but they are in bad need of some glasses.
Another trend I've noticed is that in a down economy more people try to earn extra money by running a small part time business on the side. They work as a handy man, doing yards, selling hand-made crafts, etc to try to make a lil extra money and escape from the risk of being layed off. Some of these businesses will make it, some will die, and many will stay just side jobs. Tools that reduce the effort required allow these businesses to spend more time making money which obviously leads to their doing better. Not a hard sell if your product is affordable.
These people tend to need help with record keeping and various small business tasks because they aren't overly experienced and there is little in the way of software to fit their unique needs. A lot of the programs function almost the same but are just enough different to make big name products not fit very well.
It's not just selling software either. You can sell custom hardware too. One I'm working on is for farmers. Rather than hand recording various stats such as which animal is fed, bred, etc that day they have a small handheld computer and a barcode scanner. They can scan the animals barcode and press a couple buttons on screen and go on. A small time saving per animal but if they have 5000 animals it lets them finish MUCH faster while keeping better records. With those improved records they can manage their business better. In the case I'm working on we're trying to enable them to compete with 3 workers against farms that have 8 workers. Obviously, a huge savings from $1500 worth of software and hardware.
This exact system would be good on any farm that raises the same animal and it'd be very easy to adapt it to those raising other animals. This farm in question happens to be one that other farms watch as an example of best methods. Obviously, I'm hoping a lot of those farms will want to use my system also. Not bad for a program that has taken only about a month to produce (I love Python and wxPython) and using hardware which is mostly off-the-shelf plug together stuff. I'd agree totally that this is a market that really takes advantage of reusability.
The easiest way is to be part of that group to begin with. Read their magazines, attend their shows, chat on their mailing lists, invite them to your BBQs, etc. Even if you aren't part of the group before you begin it can be a beneficial process to make yourself part of it before you start coding. Learn what they really need and then give it to them. You won't sell 1000 copies the first day but word of mouth will tend to grow and you'll get a steadily growing stream of customers. I'd also suggest spending a little money to market the software in magazines and websites dedicated to the business your software reaches out to. If you know a company that sells products related to that business then give them a call and arrange for them to try your program out (free of course) and see if they'd be willing to resale it for you. That way they cover the marketing expenses. If the software might appeal to enough people in your local area then talk to the managers of the local Walmart and software stores.. they often try to carry local products. Marketing is certainly the hardest part of buiness (after fundraising) I think but you shouldn't be afraid of it. If you have experience coldcalling people it's a little easier - if not it's a good time to learn. :)
My usual approach is to write software that I'll either use for one of my other businesses or someone I know will. Then I resale it to others to recoup the time I invested in writing it. A lot of these apps are small and easy to write things that take maybe a few weeks to develop. Pass copies along to the right people and let them be your marketing. I won't say you'll get rich (I certainly haven't) but it's a pretty solid business model. I'm certainly not saying to spend five years writing a single vertical app and try to market it yourself - I'm suggesting small vertical apps that are pretty cheap to develop and market.
Dude! Microsoft, Quicken, etc sell shitloads of stuff to SOHO businesses. It's a lot easier to sell 1000 copies of something for $50 (or even $500) than it is to sell a $50000 program. I know a lot of people that own small businesses but I don't know a lot of people that run multimillion dollar businesses.
:)
Not to say your idea won't work too if you happen to know the right people. Still, you're assuming this person has already worked for such companies. If so why are they on Slashdot asking what to do with their degree?
Effectively getting a garnishment or seizing assets in the US is almost impossible if the debter feels like avoiding them. Last time I checked they had to leave alone important "things to live" like your vcr and tv. It's full of loopholes.
:)
Going to jail isn't really effective if the subject of the lawsuit is a business. Are you going to jail everyone there?
That's laughable though really. Hell the government can't find me a job now so maybe if I can do some bad shit they'll suddenly be able to find something they can pay me for.
If you want to make a successful business writing software I suggest going after small and home businesses. They often need customized software and can't afford to hire their own programming staff. You could make a decent living I think by developing vertical apps for these users and offering customization services. At least that's what I'm working on. This is a good market to write opensource software in whie still making a living.
I am pretty sure that many - if not most- small claims judgements are never paid off. It's usually recommended that you not even bother if you're going to need to pay for a lawyer or collection agency. It might be worth $20 if you could spare it - just to hassle the telemarketing folks, but I certainly wouldn't count on a pay off of even $500. Sure you'd probably win your judgement but would they ever actually pay you?
I'm careful about encouraging people to switch. I love using Linux but I know it's not a solution to every problem (yet).
:)
If there are things you feel are missing in Linux I suggest joining some Linux user groups and asking questions. Maybe a program for that function does exist. If not you can help seed it's existence by giving some of us programmers the idea to work on it. Think about donating a little cash to these programmers when you can afford it. If you send $50 on a commercial program donate $5 to a opensource project working on an alternative. If there is a successful opensource product that competes with your commercial program and runs on Linux it'll be motivation to port that commercial program to Linux. You'll then have choices. Choices are good for you as a consumer. I call that the anti-monopoly tax. Donate 1/10th of your software buying money to opensource projects.
Be sure to tell those companies how you feel. Really that is the only way to get commecial interest in Linux. There has to be a large enough user base interested in their products or they simply can't afford to support Linux.
Switching your OS isn't an easy choice. It's like moving to a new city. Those comfortable old friends will be gone and you'll make new friends. Some of the new friends will be great but you'll still miss your old friends now and then. You won't know your way around for a while and you'll have to learn how to get places again. How well your move works out for you depends a lot on the choices you make. Give yourself time to adapt to your move.
Think of Windows as Las Vegas and Linux as New Orleans. Vegas is bright and flashy. You have plenty of games in Vegas and it's easy to find nude women. Vegas tends to cost a lot. New Orleans looks and feels old and can seem a place full of voodoo. You have a rich culture to explore. It's still pretty easy to find nude women but not as easy as in Vegas. New Orleans can be expensive but is easier to enjoy on the cheap if that's what you want. Both places can be great but which you like better depends on your personality.
I'd say we see natural selection everywhere. It's so prevailent that we overlook it happening. There is a massive cultural battle going on among humans. You have a war of technology going on, a war of economics, a war of breeding, etc. These are all factors in how we're evolving and who will win is still in question. We in western cultures tend to be capitalist technocrats with fairly low birthrates. We're competing with other cultures that emphasis less education and cash but may breed a lot more than we do (think China). The really interesting things happening are where these cultures are blending to find what I'd call superstrains of human culture. Say capitalist socialists (yes you can be both) with high technology and they breed a lot while keeping natural resource usage to a minimum. We're seeing some spots like that emerging as pre-industrial countries jump head first into technology. With the USA playing god with Afganastan, Iraq, etc we no doubt will see more of this.
Of course cultural evolution isn't 100% genetic but it does have a genetic effect. Sort of a feedback loop. For humans cultural evolution is at least as important to us as genetic evolution anyway. It's the cultural effect that prompts us to modify our own future with genetic engineering and nanotechnology.
My god is knowledge. I am not wise enough to know what is right for the future or wrong for the future. All I can do is try to open more possibilities and reveal more knowledge to give the future a better chance of making an educated decision. To me that is what technology is about. It's opening doors for my children, grandchildren, and so on. Which door they take is up to them.
I'd be prone to having my children modified in ways that'd be beneficial to them. To some degree that includes use of genetics but I'm really looking ahead to nanotechnology. In my mind I see those technologies as ways to give my descendents more open doors.
I see humanity splitting as some of us evolve and some resist. Some may turn down genetics but their children will adopt nanotechnology. Some may geneticly modify their child who in turn refuse nanotechnology. We will have the choice to physically engineer the Net, AI, and other advanced technologies directly into our children. Man will reach the peak of it's existence and merge with his own machines. There will be a lot of question about what man is. Are these new beings gods, men, both, or neither?
You can't stop the future so we better learn how to respect each other now because soon we're going to have unbelievable power in our grasp.
Related sci-fi book references:
The Postman
The Diamond Age
Distraction
The Bohr Maker
Hyperion
Ahh, I know that problem. Usually not to hard to fix if you read the error messages (to stderr - not in the graphical box) but that means having to know how to do so and of course knowing what the errors mean. I'm not overly a fan of either Gnome or KDE's desktop enviroments. In a lot of ways I think they are getting worse with maturity rather than better.
If you want a very simple WM try BlackBox or it's even simpler child HackedBox. Being much simpler than Gnome or KDE they also have far fewer problems. Not exactly user-friendly but my none-geek sister figured out how to use it in under five minutes so it isn't that horrible. I had to compile HackedBox myself but it wasn't difficult. I still use Gnome/KDE apps - just not their desktop or window managers.
I have no panels, toolbars, or other bullshit on my desktop. Until I start opening windows it's a pure black screen. If you ever feel like trying Linux again try HackedBox as your WM. :)
:)
If you don't mind me asking how did your RedHat cease to function? Was it a consistant error? Just curious.
Both of you? Just kidding - I tried BeOS for a while.
Omikron is okay but it doesn't seem to draw me in like Final Fantasy and similar games. To a large part I think it's because the fonts are terribly hard to read for me. I don't know if it's just me or my tv or what but half the time I can't tell what they have written.
:)
I think if the fonts worked better the other problems wouldn't matter to me. The game looks and sounds good and has a lot of interesting things you can see and do. It takes more mental work IMO than most games and I think I like that. It's easy to screw up though.
I really loved Final Fantasy 8. The others before and after were good too but 8 was my favorite. Parasite Eve and Chrono Cross also rate very high for me. Skies of Arcadia isn't quite as addictive as FF8 (IMHO) but it is also very good.
The most addicting of all I'd say are online charachter-based games. MUDs and things such as that.
The first time I played DOOM it was about 4am and I'd just spent some many hours coaching it's download across my 2400 baud modem. After all that work I had to try it of course. I was sitting in a dark house by myself and the realism was unlike anything I'd seen at the time. I admit that when I went to bed the game was all I dreamed of that night. IMO that effect is the mark of a good game. Of course it didn't hurt how tired I was at the time.
Later some friends and I did experiments on the combination of DOOM and hypnosis. Was sort of interesting because we found that you could hypnotize someone before they played the game and use visual cues such as certain sprites and outside flashing lights to triger panic and aggression and the general suspense of disbelief. Not that you could train killers or anything that way - just you could make the game really REALLY bitchin.
I'd agree that installing Linux software isn't typically that hard once you've done it a while. Red Carpet makes updating/installing RPM files really easy. Apt-get makes the same process almost as easy in Debian based systems. Anything not available as a package just download and compile (which has gotten much easier in recent years).
What needs to be made easier is making good third party packages. It needs to be as easy as making a tarball or using WinZip. Obviously, the distros can't keep up with providing packages for every program that exists. They need to make it so your average sysadmin or developer can package the software he is trying to compile and install so that it works well across all his systems. Sure they can do learn to do it the hard way but obviously most of them are busy. The low number of third party packages is a good example as to the need for such tools.
As for every dick distro having trouble running standard packages it's been my experience they cause these problems by changing things pointlessly. Good packages play nice in any sane distro and distros should be smart enough to leave themselves compatible with those packages. Debian based distros should maintain compatibility with Debian, RedHat based distros with RedHat, etc. Pretty simple.