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User: MikeFM

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  1. Re:low self esteem? on Ask Slashdot: Geeks Stereotypes and Their Origins · · Score: 1

    I'd agree. I think other than the low self esteem part of it he hit the nail on the head but I don't think geeks have low self esteem in most areas and many in no areas. I am very egotistical about my abilities at times while still modest that there is so much to learn. I think geeks have a more Eastern fell of themselfs and life in general.

  2. Re:Use Windows ! on Changing the Keyboard · · Score: 1

    I find it humorous that Netware under NT seems to use this magic combination of keys to start. I always wonder who decided to use CTRL-ALT-DEL to start. Is this a statement about themselfs or Windows or what? :)

  3. Snow Crash / The Diamond Age? on Creation of a Cybernation · · Score: 1

    Okay so they fucked up the idea of a phyle. I'm so proud of them. On the flip side I do think quasi-nations or phyles or virtual countries or whatever are the future. I don't think they will replace countries though. I think countries will eventually set up quasi-states as the next step in the democratic evolution. There is always the pull for a centralized government and then for a decentralized government back and forth. Probably the next big swing we get away from centralization they will begin to form in the U.S. or in a similar country. It'd reduce the amount of control the Federal government had and drop the governments expenses hugely. The basic idea phyles within this country. The government still maintains it's own borders against other countries but stays out of the affairs of the average Joe Blow. Anyone that has read Neal Stephenson knows the basics of how a phyle works and that you can be a member of more than one. Like copyrights (yes, now outdated) and other things that were steps of democracy evolving eventually other countries adopt the same idea with little or no modification. Once this happens the government wouldn't need to worry about controling movement of citizens between borders as long as they belonged to a registered phyle within it. This would be great IMO. Finally people from different countries could move between physical places without the need for immigration papers and the like. It'd be more like the Internet. In the U.S. states are a first attempt at such a system though of course they couldn't imagine the Internet or travel by jetplane when they designed that system. Each state is sort of a francise organization set up under the Federal gov't to handle some of the burden and to allow more freedom to the people. Each is basiclly the same but w/ it's own laws and subtle differences. Quasi-states is just the next conceptual leap forward because you are removing their bounding to a physical location. Many large apartment complexes are already similar to quasi-states. It is easier to move between complexes ran by the same group, you hang out w/ people from the same complex, by from the complex store, etc. Some phyles may have physical locations in each city, some may be individual people just scattered, and some may be web sites. It's all still a quasi-state. :)

  4. User-created boxes on Another Wierd Linux Box · · Score: 1

    What I really want is a box that is easy to change. My suggestion is make the case so the top edges can be unscrewed and inside is like a small hollow between two clear plastic sides. This way you could customize the box by putting in colored paper, sand, etc. I always wanted a computer case done up w/ colored sand patterns to say my name and stuff like those little bottles of sand you can buy at fairs. Another thing I'd like is if the sides had lava lamps or bubbles or something in them. Now that'd rock.

  5. Re:A free clue! on RedHat's Solution to Pseudo-Free Software Problem. · · Score: 1

    If you like their stuff and it isn't free then just recode it. I'd find it hard to believe it's to complex for the rest of us to understand. Personally one of my major complaints between different dist's is a lack of a unified installation interface. I'm not saying they shouldn't be able to put files in different places or install different files or whatever but it'd be great if they had a single unified itnerface with the differences set by their config files. I end up working with pretty much everything and it would go faster if I could just get used to the way one interface works and go with that. Also I really really want a non-interactive installation process made easier. Both for installing Linux and software at later dates. To pop the disk into the cd-rom and a floppy w/ my config settings would be fantastic.

    But IMO all code should be GPL. I don't expect everyone else to use GPL for their code but it's certainly what I use on the stuff I code. Even LGPL bugs me. If there was a stricter form of GPL I'd love that.

  6. Best place to trade stocks? on Red Hat IPO Update · · Score: 1

    Okay, I admit it. I've never traded stocks. It's because all the places I've seen require at least $1000 to start and I can't part with more than $250 at most. I'm stuck playing along on Yahoo's investment challenge game wishing I could do it for real. Is there any place online that lets you begin with little money and I hope still has small transaction fees? I'm dying to buy some RedHat and MP3.com stocks as soon as I can. I guess maybe you aren't a serious investor until you can spend $10000 on it but hey I'm poor here! :)

    Also I hope to see more investment software coming out as free software now. Anybody here tried software by Omega Research? I'd like to duplicate and extend that. Possibly give it a web interface. Would be awesome IMO. :)

  7. Re:investors are not dumb...i hope on Red Hat IPO Update · · Score: 1

    First, just my assumption but like all other corp's RedHat is bound by the GPL. It can't un-GPL Linux or it's support code. Second, if it tried there would be a huge backlash that would ruin RedHat faster than they could begin to apoligize. Third, I hope many of the stockholders for RedHat are Linux people who understand the point of free software. I think the idea of free software being able to profit people in such a free exchange system is great. They seem to go together. For once programmers can actually buy (or be given) stock in a free software company and profit from their own code while still leaving it free. This I think is close to being a perfect way of throwing the gold coins back into the Linux community. IMO RedHat should work out a system for paying it's project leaders in stock options and allow them to pass out a portion of those options to others they feel have contributed a lot.

    Personally I plan on buying as much RedHat stock as I can over time with the sole intent of just holding on to it. If the Linux community buys up the stock then we can make sure we keep control of the stock. RedHat giving first chance to big businesses kind of pisses me off although I'm certain it's just doing things in the usual manner. They should only offer the stock options to Linux friendly companies to begin. Would be good to see Caldera and others buy up a large chunk.

  8. Matrix on TPM movie reel stolen · · Score: 1

    I just bought a copy of The Matrix on DVD from a friend in Malaysia just because I can't buy it here yet. I'll probably buy a real copy on VHS when it comes out also since all my DVD players are in computers.

  9. Re:Multiple servers + load balancing on Mindcraft Study Validated · · Score: 1

    Any suggested resources for studying these topics? Thnaks.

  10. Re:Review is overly harsh on Review:Bots: The Origin of New Species · · Score: 1

    I always define Bots as programs that appear to be intelligent. I define AI as programs that have intelligence and/or emotional states and can come to their own conclussions to problems presented them. For this reason a Bot is not always an AI but an AI is almost always a Bot. Though on to many occassions I've seen AI's that could not even reach the Bot status. Marketing, everything is a buzz word. :P

  11. Noooo save me from the BOREdom! on Linus says Linux is fun · · Score: 1

    Boredom is the worst thing. I can take stress, lack of sleep, pain, whatever.. but not being bored. I hate being bored. Working this boring job annoys me because it uses enough of my attention span to make it hard to just sit and think but not enough to interest me. It doesn't pay to well either. Hey somebody offer me twice the money to play w/ Linux all day! Please! I'm actually thinking of quitting this techie job to go work at a pizza place because I like making pizza. Anybody need a code hacking pizza guy who has read Snow Crash and the Diamond Age way to much? :) If required I can learn to use swords too.

  12. Distributed Computing Protocol on Adam Beberg Leaves Distributed.net to develop Cosm · · Score: 1

    Is there any such protocol (public, private doesn't count) and does it work on a wide selection of problems? I mean can one machine connect to another at port x and send it a list of arguments telling the other computer about itself and what it's doing and the net address to find the same component to execute or data to share or something. Would be really cool if done right. Rather than needing a centralized server you could have data passed between individual machines in interlinked clusters.

  13. More Low Budget Flicks! on Bootleg Movies for Download · · Score: 1

    Yeh I was thinking of cutting The Matrix and PM to DVD disks and sending them over to a friend in Asia who probably won't see them for a year after they are here.

  14. Mostly sizzle, not the real veggie skewer... on Stephenson Counter Rant · · Score: 1

    I was born in '78 so I guess I'm right in that area but luckily I was poor when I was young and we couldn't afford a computer so I spent my time studying the old technical books at the library and reading sci fi. Then it went to hacking my Atari 2600 and then playing w/ cast off TSR-80's, c64's, ancient Apples, Texas Instruments, and 8088/8086 machines. Finally I got a 486 and was in computer heaven, so much power! *laughs* It wasn't really until I got to college that I realized how useful this offroad track was to me. A lot of those people had no knowledge of anything except the latest and greatest Windows interfaces and PC hardware. IMO all comp sci students should have to take a semester of computer history. Is sure a lot more useful than those lame computer ethics classes.

  15. Sounds like another poll idea to me... on Drug Use Among Programmers · · Score: 1

    I don't use drugs but I drink lots of alcohol and caffine, especially when writing code. It really fucks you up but it seems to temporarily improve creativity and let you work longer hours. Lately I've been drinking a lot of vodka before coming to work. Makes me perform better. Has the very noticable effect of doubling my productivity.

  16. How Do *You* Listen To Music? on Cringley predicts Microsoft Audio will triumph · · Score: 1

    MP3 has all the content you want. I can find almost any song I want as an MP3 in half an hour, most take about five minutes. I never bought CD's before I started listening to MP3's, the only reason I buy them now is to rip them and I only buy cd's that have a large number of songs I like. Something that is rare. As I recall from ancient software pirating flame wars there is a code of ethics. It is okay to copy and use something but if you sale it you are a bootlicking slimey bootlegger. I know lots of old ladies who copy there friends cassettes and cd's of church music and oldies. Maybe we should bust them for pirating. They are hurting society and stealing from those rich companies! Yeh right. I have x amount of money, a small portion which can be applied to entertainment. If I can only afford one cd per week w/ that amount of money then obviously I'm not hurting the profits made by those companies if I copy two of my friends cd's also. I couldn't have bought them anyway. And BTW, I listen to lots of those worthless MP3's at MP3.com and they are just as good as commercial music in many cases. 1 in 10 songs I listen to I like. Just this way I don't have to pay for the other nine.

  17. GPLed Compression Anyone? on Cringley predicts Microsoft Audio will triumph · · Score: 1

    Anyone know any good books, articles, web sites, etc about practical thorey of sound and sound compression? I honestly think it is BS to say that it is to complex for one person to figure out. It isn't like it's the first time, most of the work has been done and should be documented. One of my complaints against mathmatics is it takes simple things and makes them complex for the sake of math. Math is nothing more than one symbolic computation system. It is sort of like assembly language. There are always other ways to do the same thing and often they are easier to comprehend and work with. This is my lesson from studying AI. You do the same thing, you just do it in a different way. :)

  18. Rebirth of the Internet! on Wireless "Pulse" Technology · · Score: 1

    This is just what I want! Would be perfect for a highly uncentralized highspeed wireless network. Instead of IP addresses you could address them by machine id (an encrypted key) and the approximate physical location. By using a sort of binary search you could find the machine quickly anywhere in the world just by it's key. No risk of someone higher up your chain cutting you off the net, no gov't or big business control. Total Net. :)

  19. Yeh on Flat Panel Speakers · · Score: 1

    Yeh we sell those, they sound pretty nice are do indeed have black ones also. And yes they can hang on the wall. These are my current personal fav speakers (at this price range) and I asked them today and they said they might be releasing clear ones in the future. Awesome eh?

  20. A "Linux for Games" distro... on Draeker speaks on Linux Game Development · · Score: 1

    Damn right. I've had two jobs this week fixing hardware problems under Windows because it couldn't identify it correctly and wouldn't let you tell it the hardware manually. RedHat works much better for me w/ the exception of crappy Win modems.

  21. Linux should do it first on Thought Recognition · · Score: 1

    It's possible to add 'thought' macros to the computer w/ some cheap (under $100) hardware and a short program that can be programed to recognize occurances. Sure it takes some practice and a weird thing on your head and isn't always accurate but it still is really fun to use. My desire is to make a wireless unit that I can mouse around with and freak people out at work. *grins* I spend to much time working w/ devices for my handicapped sister, I have some really weird gadgets. :) Anyone think this beats a scroll mouse for web browsing? Might sell well off porn sites, hands free browsing.

  22. The Matrix will be here sooner than you think on Katz vs. Taco: The Matrix · · Score: 1

    Not pure software. Software that floats around in a sort of huge matrix (not actually related to this flic, was my term for it before) of tiny independant computers. I see it as a huge utility cloud (nano term) made of computers that on command can link together into any object you want, including bodies and our brains are the computers but not necessarily the same ones making up the body. Of course the whole thing would be very reduntant and module so our brains would be safe from destruction and could be changed on our personal whim. Virtual reality would be a sort of shared universe inside the matrix but reality outside would be virtual to because we could control all matter mentally. I don't think we'll go at war with the computers. I think we'll merge with them until we are our tools. The question isn't "What is the Matrix?" but "What am I?" To get to sounding religous, "I Am." Anything that can decide it exists does exist. God exists because I exist. If I didn't exist would God exist? A whole list of redundant and mostly pointless questions. :)

  23. Gnostic film. on Katz vs. Taco: The Matrix · · Score: 1

    I think if you mix The Matrix w/ What Dreams May Come and the book The Diamond Age you almost get my religion. All reality is virtual and all realities are inside another reality (infinity loop) and all realities run on rules like a computer program but there is no computer, just the program. The world is made of information. Matter is what is really virtual. Blah blah blah.

  24. blew me away...but the premise sucked on Katz vs. Taco: The Matrix · · Score: 1

    I so disagree. I could watch this movie over and over. It leaves a lot of room for a really awesome sequel too. I could see this becoming a cult series similar to Star Wars. A mystical virtual world where the majority of mankind lives because they could not comprehend reality after being jacked in so long and on the outside the last city of humans fighting a T2 like war with the machines. If they could do a sequel as good as this they would really rock. Some of the premises were cheesy but in a good way. A lot of this movie seemed cheesy to me but not in a way that seemed cheesy if that makes sense. It was like they realized they could never really explain the concept to people in two hours so instead they invented their own world that held the main plot in a little saftey net to make it all tie together.

  25. The MATRIX on Playing Hooky to Watch Star Wars · · Score: 1

    I went, best movie I've ever seen. Really awesome. It had a solid plot (and somewhat original), lots of action, great effects, and was funny. This movie is the best. The trailer for PM did look pretty good but I'm not a Star Wars cultist. I liked all the trailers they showed at the begining of the Matrix actually. They all look like they will be good movies. Oddly enough I find it hard to explain the plot of The Matrix to people who asked. All I can tell them is to go watch.