Yes, I should have done a google check before responding to your previous message. Very interesting indeed.
Sir, you are indeed the rarest of Slashdot posters, who can accept not being always right. The far more common variety here just figths to the bitter end, splitting hairs, bringing up minutiae, faking misunderstanding, wasting everybody's time and making fools of themselves.
So, even if I'm not the guy you were answering to, I salute you!;>)
Cheers,
Re:Sensationalist Journalism?
on
A Flu Pandemic?
·
· Score: 1
Well, I guess we need a -1, True but Irrelevant moderation category. Because you are comparing two completely different processes. Maybe you spent too much time at the crap table and not enough on autocatalytic sets?
Biological processes are emphatically NOT the same as throwing dice. They don't begin every round with a clean slate. Consider a mutation from sate A to state B, that needs some intermediate steps, in a certain order. Mutations may be random, but every time a step happens, it increases the odds for the next step.
Back to the dice. Imagine a crap game with a rule that says that when a particular combination happens three times in a row, you retire the numbers, and paint the dice's faces with any of the remaining numbers. Let's throw... two fours, two fours, two fours. Well, we have to retire the four, and paint, let's see... a five and a six. Not aces, just to make things difficult for us. Now you have increased dramatically the chances of getting two sixes and two fives, but also the chances for snake eyes. Rinse and repeat a few times, and you're guaranteed to get snake eyes.
Of course, biological processes are much, much more complicated than this (a chaotic system, in fact), but the mutation mechanism is very similar to my example, not to the completely random you suggest.
I'm not sure how much of it is Windows' fault, though. I've felt the same urge to reinstall Gentoo on my desktop.
That's the crux of the matter. Windows has to be reinstalled just to go back to the original state. Somehow, it deteriorates. If you are careful and knowlegeable, slowly; if ignorant or careless, very, very fast. Windows punishes the clueless user harshly. You obviously aren't clueless, so you keep going, but the typical Windows home PC is a horror story. If connected to the Internet, lasts two months, top. Then you have to reinstall. Everything. Every fucking program. Two, three hours, minimum. In my book, that's insane. With Mandrake, you upgrade periodically and see the beast solidify little by little. It works better with time. By now, I don't even install new versions anymore, just change mirrors and do an upgradefest. Idiot proof. In order to fuck the system you have to try hard, and be root. And as an added bonus: when Windows fails, it tends to do so catastrophically. Linux fails in stages, giving you a chance of recovering the system without rebooting.
Maybe I'm just super paranoid about cruft, but I haven't seen an OS yet that really makes me feel like it keeps itself in an "as new" state forever.
You can't ever be paranoid enough.;>)
Of Gentoo I cannot tell, but with XP relax: they really are out to get you.
You know, there are exceptions to the rule... I ran Windows ME for two years, on a motherboard and graphics card that were known to be buggy as hell together (I found out too late after buying them). I never saw one bluescreen, never had the registry corrupt itself, never actually had anything go wrong. By all logic, that computer should have been a smoldering pile of garbage within six months, but it worked just fine for me playing games, doing dev work, audio recording, divx encoding, you name it.
Well, some people win the lottery. Lucky you. Me, of the hundreds of Win machines I'm familiar with, the only one that doesn't need periodic reinstalations is the Word machine. That is a Win95, not networked, that only has Word 97 loaded (not the full Office), and is used as a glorified typewriter. The rest eventually corrupts, and has to be reistalled. Notice that I said "familiar with", and not "that I administer", because I'm fully conscious that the possibility of me being a moronic administrator invalidates personal anecdotes.
Neither I nor the parent to my first post are saying that the problem doesn't exist for anyone just because it didn't happen to us, but it's worth pointing out that not every user will experience catastrophic failure.
"Every" is a tricky word. Better to say that a big enough percentage of Win machines gives problems in normal use as to assume the OS is not really solid.
I agree completely with your fine post, except for this bit:
The reasons for our current state of "social immobility" are clear.
Social immobilty? You wish...
The main theme in the US social structure in the last 25 years is the gradual descent of the middle class towards poverty. The good, solid middle class jobs have been oursorced, and replaced with Mac-jobs, or even worse, Walt-jobs. The USA has become a two class society, with no hope of going from the lower class to the upper except excelling at sports, entertainment or drug dealing. Yes, a thirld world society.
People seem to be unaware of it, but the country had a class war, and the rich won.
ID People don't want to talk about the intelligent designer. They say things like, "You can't look at a watch and tell things about the watchmaker!", and other absurdities.
Living in South America, I'm not really acquainted with the ID people, so I'm constantly surprised. I find this gem particularly moronic: looking at a watch will tell you a huge lot about the watchmaker, no Sherlock needed. Looks like a good deduction exercise.
To put this in perspective the next highest number of manuscripts for an ancient text is Homer's Iliad at 643 copies and no one questions its accuracy or historical integrity.
Duh?
Until now you had me doubting, but now I must congratulate you for a truly great troll. You kept it going for a whole thread!
but they have become so emotionally attached to Microsoft they see it as a personal affront that anyone would ever dare to not use the obvious choice of whatever the Microsoft solution is.
Maybe. My personal guess is that MSFT has made astoturfing in the web part of the job description.
but I do not believe Linux itself capable of toppling the giant.
May I suggest we're using the wrong metaphor?
Linux, and OSS in general aren't going to topple anything. What they're doing is rather washing the ground under the foundations of closed source companies. The quicksand effect would be a better image.
When you have quicksand under your feet you have to grasp for a hold (see a parallel?), and your former strengh becomes a liability.
IMHO this is what we're beginning to see now: as OSS goes up the stack MSFT must DEFEND the bases of its monopoly. A stregh becomes a liability. And, as some guy posted before, in order to defend its stock price it has to appear to be the MSFT of old, attacking one market after another, the Sauron of IT. But the truth is they're just faking it. They're afraid, they're confused, and they're playing for time. Because when the market realizes this, the run in the stock begins in earnest. And MSFT honchos still have most of their wealth in MSFT stock. And they must sell it little by little, lest the suck^H^H^H^H investors grasp what happening.
Just a quick note... there was a stock split about two years ago, which might explain the jump from $70 -> $30. (It's actually around $25-26, and its been that way for a while)
A quicker note... the $70 price is after the stock split. Once upon time, MSFT hovered around $ 130, which became $ 65 after the split, give or take a few cents.
Now it's $ 26, so yes, it has lost 60% of its value.
Unless every man, woman, and child on the planet decides to download Firefox, Google is fine here.
And if EMWaCotP decides to download Firefox, Google is going to be even better off. In fact, it would become the most valuable corporation in the planet overnight.
Slashdot Mirror
Uh?
Yesterday's Apartment Building Completed On Time And On Budget, Came Tumbling To The Ground Today, Killing All Of Kansas' Board Of Education.
And this is bad news exactly how?
Cheers,
CC
Sad referring to whom?
Cheers,
CC
You make the statement, you back it up. That's how it works around here
Well, at least is how it should work.
Hope never dies.
Cheers,
Yes, I should have done a google check before responding to your previous message. Very interesting indeed.
;>)
Sir, you are indeed the rarest of Slashdot posters, who can accept not being always right.
The far more common variety here just figths to the bitter end, splitting hairs, bringing up minutiae, faking misunderstanding, wasting everybody's time and making fools of themselves.
So, even if I'm not the guy you were answering to, I salute you!
Cheers,
Well, I guess we need a -1, True but Irrelevant moderation category.
Because you are comparing two completely different processes.
Maybe you spent too much time at the crap table and not enough on autocatalytic sets?
Biological processes are emphatically NOT the same as throwing dice. They don't begin every round with a clean slate.
Consider a mutation from sate A to state B, that needs some intermediate steps, in a certain order. Mutations may be random, but every time a step happens, it increases the odds for the next step.
Back to the dice. Imagine a crap game with a rule that says that when a particular combination happens three times in a row, you retire the numbers, and paint the dice's faces with any of the remaining numbers.
Let's throw... two fours, two fours, two fours. Well, we have to retire the four, and paint, let's see... a five and a six. Not aces, just to make things difficult for us.
Now you have increased dramatically the chances of getting two sixes and two fives, but also the chances for snake eyes. Rinse and repeat a few times, and you're guaranteed to get snake eyes.
Of course, biological processes are much, much more complicated than this (a chaotic system, in fact), but the mutation mechanism is very similar to my example, not to the completely random you suggest.
So, no Gambler's Fallacy here.
Cheers,
Carlos Cesar
Now we are talking... A couple of points:
I'm not sure how much of it is Windows' fault, though. I've felt the same urge to reinstall Gentoo on my desktop.
That's the crux of the matter. Windows has to be reinstalled just to go back to the original state. Somehow, it deteriorates. If you are careful and knowlegeable, slowly; if ignorant or careless, very, very fast.
Windows punishes the clueless user harshly. You obviously aren't clueless, so you keep going, but the typical Windows home PC is a horror story. If connected to the Internet, lasts two months, top. Then you have to reinstall. Everything. Every fucking program. Two, three hours, minimum. In my book, that's insane.
With Mandrake, you upgrade periodically and see the beast solidify little by little. It works better with time.
By now, I don't even install new versions anymore, just change mirrors and do an upgradefest. Idiot proof. In order to fuck the system you have to try hard, and be root.
And as an added bonus: when Windows fails, it tends to do so catastrophically. Linux fails in stages, giving you a chance of recovering the system without rebooting.
Maybe I'm just super paranoid about cruft, but I haven't seen an OS yet that really makes me feel like it keeps itself in an "as new" state forever.
You can't ever be paranoid enough.
Of Gentoo I cannot tell, but with XP relax: they really are out to get you.
Cheers,
You know, there are exceptions to the rule... I ran Windows ME for two years, on a motherboard and graphics card that were known to be buggy as hell together (I found out too late after buying them). I never saw one bluescreen, never had the registry corrupt itself, never actually had anything go wrong. By all logic, that computer should have been a smoldering pile of garbage within six months, but it worked just fine for me playing games, doing dev work, audio recording, divx encoding, you name it.
Well, some people win the lottery. Lucky you.
Me, of the hundreds of Win machines I'm familiar with, the only one that doesn't need periodic reinstalations is the Word machine. That is a Win95, not networked, that only has Word 97 loaded (not the full Office), and is used as a glorified typewriter. The rest eventually corrupts, and has to be reistalled.
Notice that I said "familiar with", and not "that I administer", because I'm fully conscious that the possibility of me being a moronic administrator invalidates personal anecdotes.
Neither I nor the parent to my first post are saying that the problem doesn't exist for anyone just because it didn't happen to us, but it's worth pointing out that not every user will experience catastrophic failure.
"Every" is a tricky word. Better to say that a big enough percentage of Win machines gives problems in normal use as to assume the OS is not really solid.
Cheers,
While I think that his language is a bit inflammatory
Man, here's a quarter, go buy some sense of humor.
Cheers,
Possible Europian as well.
So, they didn't help you to invade Iraq, but they will go to war with China over IP?
Yeah, sure. Pass the bong.
Cheers,
I agree completely with your fine post, except for this bit:
The reasons for our current state of "social immobility" are clear.
Social immobilty? You wish...
The main theme in the US social structure in the last 25 years is the gradual descent of the middle class towards poverty.
The good, solid middle class jobs have been oursorced, and replaced with Mac-jobs, or even worse, Walt-jobs.
The USA has become a two class society, with no hope of going from the lower class to the upper except excelling at sports, entertainment or drug dealing. Yes, a thirld world society.
People seem to be unaware of it, but the country had a class war, and the rich won.
Cheers,
CC
Yep... anybody that has had not horrible experiences with Windows just HAS to be a troll
This mythical being is:
1) Not using Windows,
or
2) Not turning his computer on.
Everybody else has at some time had horrible experiences with Windows (tm)
Cheers,
Please reread definition of Troll.
;>)
I don't think it means what you apparently think it means.
Or have I been trolled again?
Am I looking at the work of a master? Oh, doubt...
Cheers,
CC
ID People don't want to talk about the intelligent designer. They say things like, "You can't look at a watch and tell things about the watchmaker!", and other absurdities.
Living in South America, I'm not really acquainted with the ID people, so I'm constantly surprised. I find this gem particularly moronic: looking at a watch will tell you a huge lot about the watchmaker, no Sherlock needed.
Looks like a good deduction exercise.
Cheers,
Perhaps a little late, thanks for sharing your grandfather's history. I found it strangely moving.
Cheers,
Carlos Cesar
To put this in perspective the next highest number of manuscripts for an ancient text is Homer's Iliad at 643 copies and no one questions its accuracy or historical integrity.
Duh?
Until now you had me doubting, but now I must congratulate you for a truly great troll. You kept it going for a whole thread!
Hat off to you!
Cheers,
However, I shudder to think what would happen if a virus were to implant itself into the traffic grid... or in the vehicles.
;>)
It has already happened. It's called people.
Cheers,
but they have become so emotionally attached to Microsoft they see it as a personal affront that anyone would ever dare to not use the obvious choice of whatever the Microsoft solution is.
Maybe. My personal guess is that MSFT has made astoturfing in the web part of the job description.
Cheers,
A real showdown will probably happen before that, over a software patent issue or gene patent.
A real showdown has already happened: South Africa and Brazil over AIDS drugs.
The shot heard around the world?
Cheers,
but I do not believe Linux itself capable of toppling the giant.
May I suggest we're using the wrong metaphor?
Linux, and OSS in general aren't going to topple anything. What they're doing is rather washing the ground under the foundations of closed source companies. The quicksand effect would be a better image.
When you have quicksand under your feet you have to grasp for a hold (see a parallel?), and your former strengh becomes a liability.
IMHO this is what we're beginning to see now: as OSS goes up the stack MSFT must DEFEND the bases of its monopoly. A stregh becomes a liability.
And, as some guy posted before, in order to defend its stock price it has to appear to be the MSFT of old, attacking one market after another, the Sauron of IT.
But the truth is they're just faking it. They're afraid, they're confused, and they're playing for time. Because when the market realizes this, the run in the stock begins in earnest. And MSFT honchos still have most of their wealth in MSFT stock. And they must sell it little by little, lest the suck^H^H^H^H investors grasp what happening.
Cheers,
Carlos Cesar
Just to play the devil's advocate - yes. That is, if you want the average Joe Blow to start even thinking about Linux instead of Windows.
Frankly, I don't.
Cheers,
I wish /. had a +1, Great Troll moderation, because yours is a beauty.
;>)
Thumbs up to you!
You're quite right
Just a quick note
A quicker note... the $70 price is after the stock split. Once upon time, MSFT hovered around $ 130, which became $ 65 after the split, give or take a few cents.
Now it's $ 26, so yes, it has lost 60% of its value.
Cheers,
Unless every man, woman, and child on the planet decides to download Firefox, Google is fine here.
And if EMWaCotP decides to download Firefox, Google is going to be even better off. In fact, it would become the most valuable corporation in the planet overnight.
Cheers,