I don't recall Robinson Crusoe having anything to do with Robin Hood, except maybe for a similar first name.:)
When did Transmeta go public?? Where do I buy? This is going to be a HELL of an IPO when it happens. The last of the great tech investments, pre-biotech...
All valid PROs and CONs, but there seems to be a presumption in there. AOLinux, no matter how badly lobotomized, will not be force fed to anyone who does not want it.
If AOL needs to rip the brain out of Linux, and sink it's hooks into the kernel to make the AOL client fit, then so be it - who cares?
It will be one more step away from M$ - so people will realize that M$ != Internet != Computer. This 'revelation' might actually interest people in their other alternatives, such as the 'one true Linux' - which ever distro that happens to be that week.
It will bring a flexible and open platform into the internet market place - even if AOL doesn't share it's modification (though the GPL folks will have something to say about THAT) there will not be as big a chance for ILOVEYOU as there is with an M$ front-end.
The only concern is that AOL will require you to use their Linux flavor in order to use their service. No biggie right now, but the AOL/Time Warner merger may make it impossible to not go through that company in one way or another.
* JBuilder Foundation is free (as in beer) and comes with the JDK. Few parents can justify spending $hundreds on an IDE for their child.
* It will let kids put together a simple GUI just by dragging buttons and stuff around. Immediate sense of accomplishment keeps kids interested. Writing a "Hello World!" program isn't impressive enough to keep their attention. VB will do this, but it's expensive.
* It let's you make a graphical change in the GUI designer, and immediatelly let's you see the changes in code - and vice-versa. This is great for demonstrating how changing X and Y values of an object translates to a GUI layout.
* The code is pretty simple to read (may be my bias, since I'm familiar) when compared to C and even VB. The syntax is pretty straightforward, and the API naming conventions are consistent and English - no modified Hungarian notation here. There are some freaky things (for a kid) like escaping characters in Strings, logical operators, ternary (?:); but there are no pointers. Pointers hurt small heads.
* The IDE color-codes keywords and offers dynamic lookup of methods and parameters, organizes declarations and definitions, supports auto-indentation for readability, but doesn't enforce 'weird' habits. VB will structure their code for them (Capitalizes keywords, automatically normalizes spacing and such BS) but I've found that this just makes people sloppy - some discipline is good. Unlike VB, in JB you see all your code. VB keeps the subroutines visually separate - this breeds bad habits and confusion later, with REAL languages.
* It's something that they can show to their friends on the net, without the complications of VBRUNxxx or missing libs or actually copying the executable. Applets are a neat thing for this. Peer reinforcement is a powerful thing in the teen and pre-teen.
* It's a simple, yet non-trivial language that's a valuable skill (nobody hires Mindstorms developers). Granted, they're kids and it's not yet a priority - but Java is Cish in syntax, and the transition will be easier later; it's something they can use non-trivially NOW. They can do MATH homework with it, they can do hard-science with it. They can even hack together their own mini-ICQ with relatively (to other languages) little effort.
* It's something that will scale as their skills and interests grow. The API is developing and includes built-in support for neat-o things like images, sounds, 2D and 3D graphics; as well as XML, databases, real-time, complex math, crypto.
* It's as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, and the performance (a sore issue for hardened developers) is not a problem for kids writing toy programs. Once they start complaining about the poor performance of the interpreter, it will have done it's job.:)
Add to this a decent book, with examples, and you should be golden.
Can't be Lars... I mean, ug, grrrr (oh shit!) I mean...
"And it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel is just a freight train coming your way" can NOT be a product of Lars. The sentence alone is too long, nevermind the imagery and ironic payload. Is Metallica the heavy-metal version of Milli Vanilli or what?
Maybe there's a problem with someone trademarking the smell of freshly cut grass... Maybe it's wrong to patent a smell...
What gets me is WHY IN GOD'S NAME would anyone want lawn-scented tennis balls in the first place? What the freak is the point of scented tennis balls? I mean, their default rubbery smell is just fine.
I have to figure this out - bear with me. If I were an avid tennis player (and I'm and SO not!) I would tend to keep my tennis balls in my gym bag - along with socks, a towel, sneakers, whathaveyou. It would probably get pretty rank in there after a few days in the trunk..
Maybe deodorant scented tannis balls wouldn't be such a bad idea - but grass? Why? The smell of grass does nothing to offset the smell of sweat and feet. Lemons maybe, perhaps 'Summer Meadow' or some other MegaMarketting BS... Possibly the ubiquitous PINE. But grass? I just don't get it.
[rant=on] On a side note: I saw something in the super market the other day, that I found both fall-down-funny, and horrific at the same time.
Vanilla-scented-candle-scented-air-freshening- spray! Think that through for a minute. A spray scented to smell like a candle, scented to smell like vanilla. My GF had to drag me out of the chemical isle, because I couldn't stop staring at this stupid thing...
In retrospect, it was a great way to make a geek's head explode. It's just one of those things, like an endless loop or an infinite recursion - like telling a [insert ethnic group] to stand in the corner of the Oval Office...
WHY?? Why make something that smells like something that smells like something else?? Why artifically scent something to smell like something that is artficially scented to smell like something natural?
And isn't the point of an air-deodorizer to de-odorize the air? How can you de-odorize something by adding new odors to it? [rant=off]
Sometimes I think people come up with these ideas on a bet. "Hey Joe, I bet you can't get people to buy tennis balls that smell like their LAWN!" "Oh yeah, Frank? I bet I can!!"
What is the difference between the (RIAA and MPAA) monopolistic practices and those of (Microsoft and AOL/TimeWarner)?
If we set aside the specifics of the Microsoft case - namely the leveraging of the OS/App empire against Netscape, the case is about the use of unfair monopoly power to excert unfair pressures on the market place.
If we set aside the vacuuous notion of Intellectual Property, and factor in the FACT that copying of music PROMOTES sales in the long run (witness cassette tape consequences), then the RIAA is trying to use of unfair monopoly power to excert unfair pressures on the market place.
Add to the pot the idea of regionalization and licensing USAGE rights for DVD's rather than the ownership of the content - as is key in the DeCSS vs MPAA conflict, and you have the same issue again. The use of unfair monopoly power to excert unfair pressures on the market place.
Consider AOL's latest tactic of excluding other ISP's as a 'side-effect' of installing the latest AOL software. Couple with this the FACT that AOL is now in virutal control of not only means of distribution of their service (Cable networks) but also of the message that is delivered to the general public by a significant segment of broadcast media. Again you have the use of unfair monopoly power to excert unfair pressures on the market place.
What gives?
M$ is getting drawn and quartered (not that I'm against this or anything), the MPAA and RIAA are getting laws passed in their favor. The AOL/TW thing is still to shake out - but they did have their hand slapped by the FCC over excluding Disney from their data stream.
Ok, so we can now instantly search a massive database, given vague query parameters, and come out with precise results.
So all the soon to be unemployed human genome researchers can start retooling for looking for needles in hay stacks now, eh?
The funny thing about a quantum search algorithm is that by the time a computer exists on which to implement the algorithm, a brute force linear search will have already solved the problem.:)
Ok, so IBM has some hot new hardware out. They'll make huge money on the sale of it - but not everyone wants their OS. Lot's of techies know Linux, and since Linux is free, it makes good business sense to port it to the Hot New Hardware(tm).
Looks like IBM is getting something of great value, for their new toy. But what about Linux-at-Large? What's the reciprocation?
Don't get me wrong, the Linux community and IBM have a good working relationship. But it seems that supporting Linux on some new essoretic piece of metal doesn't do a whole lot of good for the 'little people' who made Linux available to IBM in the first place.
I would love to hear that the 'information exchange' process works equitably in both directions. What are IBM's current projects which will benefit the community in tangible terms? Any more software being made available? Any sources being openned? How about a free RS/6000 for our favorite Geek Compound?
That infernal paper and pencil has rendered the Art of making your own papyrus, utterly useless. What a waste!
Why, when I was a yun'gin, we had to impress little lines onto clay tablets, WITH STICKS. Back then, we couldn't even spell cuneform, let alone set it down as Illuminated Manuscript.
Damn! Damn that Guttenberg! The skill of memorization that was taught by Homer is lost for eternity. Man will never again truly use his mind for anything useful. These lazy kids today, I tell ya!
Back in the glorious days of mankind, I tried to destroy every wheel I could find since using wheels keeps people from carrying everything everywhere - our muscles have just wasted away ever since... I also tried to put out all fires, since cooking is bad!
And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you PESKY KIDS!!
Santa Cruz, CA - A rift in the space-time continuum was created today when overclocker Jamie Aperman ran a 750 MHz Coppermine Pentium III at 1.6 GHz.
Overclocking has long been blamed for causing global warming, but this is the first occasion that the fabric of space-time has been damaged.
MIT Professor George Greznowski said, "It appears that the CPU was operating so fast that it began to execute instructions before they arrived. This execution of future instructions created a small tear in the fabric of space-time itself through which part of the motherboard passed into a parallel universe."
No one was injured in the accident, but a computer motherboard was partially damaged. Mr. Aperman better known as SpeedPhreeek said, "I'm pissed. I lost a brand new Alpha Cooler and Coppermine to a parallel universe. I called my insurance company and they don't cover losses to rifts in the space-time continuum."
Intel researchers have long warned of such damage to the space-time continuum, and added clock multiplier locks to their CPUs before they were required by Congress. A bill is now in the US Senate which would require a three day waiting period for purchasers of Alpha Cooling Fans and Peltier cooling devices. The bill would also require clock multiplier locks on all new processors.
Overclocking advocate Horace Spencer said, "This bill before Congress won't prevent overclocking. They'll just create a black market for non-locked processors. Most of the top overclockers already get their goods from Taiwan."
Why should this sort of discussion involve only games? What about other software that's out-of-print and no longer supported?
Putting old games into the public domain would set a precedent that the business software developers do not want to see. All old and unsupported software would become fair game, and Micros~1 innovation would be exposed for what it is - meme recycling.
First, let's consider that there's lots of good ideas out there, and someone still owns the rights to them. It's quite possible that the holders of these rights would like to act on them, but are waiting for a statute of limitation to expire before they do so. For example, maybe IBM would like to bring back the SmartSuite; they own the rights via their acquisition of Lotus - but there may be an injunction preventing this action for some number of years... IANAL and all that.
Now for the more likely (IMO) scenario:
What would happen for example, if M$ suddenly HAD to open DOS 6.0, and EMM386.EXE turned out to contain some undocumented calls that... ARE STILL THERE in Win98 (shock!).
Thing is, code is code, and who's to say what makes a particular piece of code into a game. For example, James Gleick's Chaos: The Software (featured for free here) is educational in nature; but I consider it a game. So is GIMP in my book, since I don't use it 'for work'. Same with AutoCad... It's just a fun little drawing program for me... Open up all but the current version, I say!
Now, this would be great for me, and most of you. But the rights-holders for old software may have some objections to openning up old software.
We're genetically engineering bacteria to eat oil spills, and designing cancer cells to secrete insulin. We're cloning sheep and making real viruses to attack malignant tumors.
Somehow, the symmetry of a worm that scours the Internet exploiting M$ security holes in an effort to fix them is.. poetic. Sort of like autonomous garbage collection.
Arguably, any virus/worm that deletes Windows system files is already trying to do this; but in a very heavy-handed way. A lighter touch is called for. Disabling the registry settings that allow auto-invokation of scripts attached to email is one good way to make the world a better place.
And hey! How could anyone (besides Micros~1) get upset over a benevolent virus?
Maybe it could even open a pop-up on the screen every 20 minutes, to remind the user to stretch their hands to prevent RSI?:)
Maybe it could replace the talking paper-clip with a talking Penguin? "I see you're trying to write a letter. Wouldn't you rather write it on actual paper, and add some humanity to your interpersonal communicaton?" "I noticed your key-stroke rate drop over the last hour. You seem tired. Shall I have some pizza delivered?"
I would be very curious to see how Hemos, or any other geek-in-residence, would review the Bible. What, with the geek mindset being what it is and all.:)
Just this morning, I was wishing that these things would debut already...
I needed to review a pile of code, walk aroun with it, get comfy like with a print out..
Something a half-inch thick, with an 8.5x11 screen, with hand-writing recognition, would be ideal. If I could sit "indian style" on my desk, and review/edit some code... Mmmm...
Personally, I don't think it should be MEANT for web browsing. Browsing is an application. This thing should be an actual computer - a 'full size' PalmPilot if you will.. With a virtual keyboard or graffitti, full color. 128MB Ram, a several Gig of drive space...
Something the size of a large notebook's screen, with all the functionality of the notebook. Yeah, that's what I want. If it's a dedicated browser, forget it - I have too many other things I want to do.
All your points are well taken, and I agree, except..
Also you are not making your moral argument very strong when you start off by bragging about causing someone else to lose their job so that you can financially profit from it.
Man... Sarcasm. I was playing off a stereotypical bias against immigrants. Jeez! All I've earned, I've earned on MY MERIT. If I'm depriving a natural-born American Son of a job, it's because I work harder, that's all. I am and American, I just wasn't born here - neither were most American's grand-parents.
Aside: It's funny how racism only runs rampant in the one country that considers 'racial hatred' to be a protected, inalienable civil right.
Something tells me that "ONLY" should not be in that statement. That would have kept the flames to a tollerable level - though still toasty.:) But it made for a good discussion.
Yeah, there's racism everywhere - or more precisely, there's ethnic and religious discrimination everywhere. The US is the only place in this hemisphere where blacks are still discriminated against on sight. South American countries have intermixed a lot since slavery was abolished there, and the color-line is nowhere near as clear anymore.
When I wrote the statement that's been thrown in my face all day, I was thinking of the black man who was dragged behind a pick-up to his death, here in the most free and tolerant country in the world. That, more than any clearly thought out argument, prompted me to choose those particular words. It's a shameful 'current event'. Had it happened in the 50's or even 60's, we could look back and say "back then racism was a problem". But the shameful thing is, despite government and civil actions, hate is still with us, and we protect it to the death under the First Amendment.
No, I don't think that ANY opinion, no matter how vile, should be silenced. Not at all. What gets under my skin is that, here we are, having walked on the Moon; and a man can still die because of the color of his skin - or over sexual preference (the boy tied to a farm fence and beaten to death) .
BTW: I've read 1984, Animal Farm, We... I lived in Communist Poland and left in time to see it reborn. Maybe growing up in a repressive system made me a little more tolerant to government control, and a little less tolerant to flag waving.
Europeans do not value their freedom like we do in the US.
This is an interesting point, and I think it should be clarified. It is not that Europeans value their Freedoms LESS than Americans, they value them differently. That's one thing.
The other thing is WHY this is so. I don't know the answer, but I suspect (uh-oh, opinion warning) that it's because Europe has seen the lines drawn and redrawn, and the fronts marched across the landscape so many times, that they have a different perspective about things. They tend to take changes and attitudes more in stride than Americans.
Americans tend to see things in absolutes, Europeans tend to see things in gradients. Americans think that gradients and shades of gray are a cop-out. Europeans think that viewing the world as Black and White (reference intended) is naive and almost childish.
I have an interesting observation. Racism in the US started to decline in the 60's, and the mental build-up for this started in the 50's... This was the same time that the 'revolutionaries', 'peacenicks' and hippies were cowering under grade-school desks, doing A-Bomb drills.
What's the point? Well, once the Red Scare came ashore, there was someone else to hate, so hating blacks became a little more difficult.
Europeans have a new ethnic group, religious group or political group to confront every election. Encapsulating a different group of people under a different label is a matter of routine, and so people take it less seriously.
That's exactly my point about racism, in the parallel threads. Government policing of human nature is a bad idea - on grounds of religion, morality, ethics, pronounciation, whatever.
It's certainly not an easy problem to solve, and I don't claim that I have a better way. I just claim that the US reaching out across the ocean, trying to tell the world how to use the Internet, is going to become a huge embarassment.
The only reason the US is perceived as being so terribly racist is because the US is the *only* country on Earth that seems to actually care!
Oh bull! It's political correctness, not caring. IMHO, if the US didn't make such a big deal out of racism and ethnic hatered, it would go away more quickly. By making a government mandate out of 'getting along', you're just making the opponents more verbal. The resolution to racism is in proper education, not Federal dogma.
Everybody, everywhere, is bigoted. The fact that you think the US is the only racist country is a reflection of your own bigotry.
Never said it was the only one. It's the only one that is on a Crusade against human nature.
It should not be the role of the government to step in and censor religious expression.
...
Sex and nudity is different, there is no reason that children should be exposed to it at the ages that they are today. This is not a free speech issue like religious expression, it is a question of morality and standards of decency.
The only reason these two issues are different to you, is because of cultural inertia. That is how things are viewed by you.
To me, religious fanaticism is much more objectionable and obscene than full-penetration on national television. Sex is a natural act. The belief that other people are lesser than you because God said so, borders on schizophrenia.
Well, actually, it only does so if someone elses God said so. If MY God said so, it must be true - right?
People have sex the world over, most of them in the same positions, but there are too many Gods to count. Even the Christian God is fractured into sects and factions, with the Southern Baptist God saying that 'the woman should humbly and happily submit to the will of her husband'. Yet spousal rape is illegal, even in S. Baptist territory.
In France, Scientology is considered a cult, and is pretty heavily regulated. Members are interviewed about their activities, annually, by the government. Should we go to war over their rights?
The point is that the government control over one thing, and not another, is pretty arbitrary, and societal ethics are what gives the government the chalk to draw the lines between issues.
It can be argued that the government should not impose moral or religious standards on a person.
It is pretty obvious that one government has no right to impose it's people's standards onto the people of another government - and that's what the US is trying to do with this Internet policing.
As for children being exposed to sex on television, pornography and those other festering issues... My parents handled that well when I was young. "Mommy, what are those two dogs doing?" was all it took for my attitude about sex, porn and rape to be set straight. My parents took the time to explain, instead of letting the TV-babysitter and schoolmates do it. For example, pornography has little appeal to me, it's only value is an occasional idea to try something new with the person I love and respect.
Spoken like an ignorant jerk who's never been out of the continental USA..
Actually, I was born and raised in Europe. I only came to the US to steal your job!;)
I've seen my share of racism and ethnic hatred, both there and here, and what I say comes from experience. Have YOU ever crossed 'the pond', or are you just venting gas?
No one is questioning world-wide hatred and ignorance. The point of the comment is that in the US hating another race is your "God given right!", whereas elsewhere it's viewed as human nature, and NOT protected by the government. (Dictatorial regimes excepted, of course)
In the US, you can spew hate-speak at strangers, march in a white hood and burn a cross - and you're expressing your views. When Milosevicz goes on an 'ethnic cleansing spree', the US is up in arms, standing up for the underdog. Hypocricy, elevated to an art form.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't recall Robinson Crusoe having anything to do with Robin Hood, except maybe for a similar first name. :)
When did Transmeta go public?? Where do I buy?
This is going to be a HELL of an IPO when it happens. The last of the great tech investments, pre-biotech...
All valid PROs and CONs, but there seems to be a presumption in there. AOLinux, no matter how badly lobotomized, will not be force fed to anyone who does not want it.
If AOL needs to rip the brain out of Linux, and sink it's hooks into the kernel to make the AOL client fit, then so be it - who cares?
It will be one more step away from M$ - so people will realize that M$ != Internet != Computer. This 'revelation' might actually interest people in their other alternatives, such as the 'one true Linux' - which ever distro that happens to be that week.
It will bring a flexible and open platform into the internet market place - even if AOL doesn't share it's modification (though the GPL folks will have something to say about THAT) there will not be as big a chance for ILOVEYOU as there is with an M$ front-end.
The only concern is that AOL will require you to use their Linux flavor in order to use their service. No biggie right now, but the AOL/Time Warner merger may make it impossible to not go through that company in one way or another.
The main frame of the Stamford wearables page is already timing out.
:)
Way to go Slashdot!! Stick it to 'em
No, really..
:)
* JBuilder Foundation is free (as in beer) and comes with the JDK. Few parents can justify spending $hundreds on an IDE for their child.
* It will let kids put together a simple GUI just by dragging buttons and stuff around. Immediate sense of accomplishment keeps kids interested. Writing a "Hello World!" program isn't impressive enough to keep their attention. VB will do this, but it's expensive.
* It let's you make a graphical change in the GUI designer, and immediatelly let's you see the changes in code - and vice-versa. This is great for demonstrating how changing X and Y values of an object translates to a GUI layout.
* The code is pretty simple to read (may be my bias, since I'm familiar) when compared to C and even VB. The syntax is pretty straightforward, and the API naming conventions are consistent and English - no modified Hungarian notation here. There are some freaky things (for a kid) like escaping characters in Strings, logical operators, ternary (?:); but there are no pointers. Pointers hurt small heads.
* The IDE color-codes keywords and offers dynamic lookup of methods and parameters, organizes declarations and definitions, supports auto-indentation for readability, but doesn't enforce 'weird' habits. VB will structure their code for them (Capitalizes keywords, automatically normalizes spacing and such BS) but I've found that this just makes people sloppy - some discipline is good. Unlike VB, in JB you see all your code. VB keeps the subroutines visually separate - this breeds bad habits and confusion later, with REAL languages.
* It's something that they can show to their friends on the net, without the complications of VBRUNxxx or missing libs or actually copying the executable. Applets are a neat thing for this. Peer reinforcement is a powerful thing in the teen and pre-teen.
* It's a simple, yet non-trivial language that's a valuable skill (nobody hires Mindstorms developers). Granted, they're kids and it's not yet a priority - but Java is Cish in syntax, and the transition will be easier later; it's something they can use non-trivially NOW. They can do MATH homework with it, they can do hard-science with it. They can even hack together their own mini-ICQ with relatively (to other languages) little effort.
* It's something that will scale as their skills and interests grow. The API is developing and includes built-in support for neat-o things like images, sounds, 2D and 3D graphics; as well as XML, databases, real-time, complex math, crypto.
* It's as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, and the performance (a sore issue for hardened developers) is not a problem for kids writing toy programs. Once they start complaining about the poor performance of the interpreter, it will have done it's job.
Add to this a decent book, with examples, and you should be golden.
Can't be Lars... I mean, ug, grrrr (oh shit!) I mean...
"And it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel is just a freight train coming your way" can NOT be a product of Lars. The sentence alone is too long, nevermind the imagery and ironic payload. Is Metallica the heavy-metal version of Milli Vanilli or what?
Maybe there's a problem with someone trademarking the smell of freshly cut grass... Maybe it's wrong to patent a smell...
What gets me is WHY IN GOD'S NAME would anyone want lawn-scented tennis balls in the first place? What the freak is the point of scented tennis balls? I mean, their default rubbery smell is just fine.
I have to figure this out - bear with me. If I were an avid tennis player (and I'm and SO not!) I would tend to keep my tennis balls in my gym bag - along with socks, a towel, sneakers, whathaveyou. It would probably get pretty rank in there after a few days in the trunk..
Maybe deodorant scented tannis balls wouldn't be such a bad idea - but grass? Why? The smell of grass does nothing to offset the smell of sweat and feet. Lemons maybe, perhaps 'Summer Meadow' or some other MegaMarketting BS... Possibly the ubiquitous PINE. But grass? I just don't get it.
[rant=on]
On a side note: I saw something in the super market the other day, that I found both fall-down-funny, and horrific at the same time.
Vanilla-scented-candle-scented-air-freshening- spray! Think that through for a minute. A spray scented to smell like a candle, scented to smell like vanilla. My GF had to drag me out of the chemical isle, because I couldn't stop staring at this stupid thing...
In retrospect, it was a great way to make a geek's head explode. It's just one of those things, like an endless loop or an infinite recursion - like telling a [insert ethnic group] to stand in the corner of the Oval Office...
WHY?? Why make something that smells like something that smells like something else?? Why artifically scent something to smell like something that is artficially scented to smell like something natural?
And isn't the point of an air-deodorizer to de-odorize the air? How can you de-odorize something by adding new odors to it?
[rant=off]
Sometimes I think people come up with these ideas on a bet. "Hey Joe, I bet you can't get people to buy tennis balls that smell like their LAWN!" "Oh yeah, Frank? I bet I can!!"
What is the difference between the (RIAA and MPAA) monopolistic practices and those of (Microsoft and AOL/TimeWarner)?
If we set aside the specifics of the Microsoft case - namely the leveraging of the OS/App empire against Netscape, the case is about the use of unfair monopoly power to excert unfair pressures on the market place.
If we set aside the vacuuous notion of Intellectual Property, and factor in the FACT that copying of music PROMOTES sales in the long run (witness cassette tape consequences), then the RIAA is trying to use of unfair monopoly power to excert unfair pressures on the market place.
Add to the pot the idea of regionalization and licensing USAGE rights for DVD's rather than the ownership of the content - as is key in the DeCSS vs MPAA conflict, and you have the same issue again. The use of unfair monopoly power to excert unfair pressures on the market place.
Consider AOL's latest tactic of excluding other ISP's as a 'side-effect' of installing the latest AOL software. Couple with this the FACT that AOL is now in virutal control of not only means of distribution of their service (Cable networks) but also of the message that is delivered to the general public by a significant segment of broadcast media. Again you have the use of unfair monopoly power to excert unfair pressures on the market place.
What gives?
M$ is getting drawn and quartered (not that I'm against this or anything), the MPAA and RIAA are getting laws passed in their favor. The AOL/TW thing is still to shake out - but they did have their hand slapped by the FCC over excluding Disney from their data stream.
Ok, so we can now instantly search a massive database, given vague query parameters, and come out with precise results.
:)
So all the soon to be unemployed human genome researchers can start retooling for looking for needles in hay stacks now, eh?
The funny thing about a quantum search algorithm is that by the time a computer exists on which to implement the algorithm, a brute force linear search will have already solved the problem.
Ok, so IBM has some hot new hardware out. They'll make huge money on the sale of it - but not everyone wants their OS. Lot's of techies know Linux, and since Linux is free, it makes good business sense to port it to the Hot New Hardware(tm).
Looks like IBM is getting something of great value, for their new toy. But what about Linux-at-Large? What's the reciprocation?
Don't get me wrong, the Linux community and IBM have a good working relationship. But it seems that supporting Linux on some new essoretic piece of metal doesn't do a whole lot of good for the 'little people' who made Linux available to IBM in the first place.
I would love to hear that the 'information exchange' process works equitably in both directions. What are IBM's current projects which will benefit the community in tangible terms? Any more software being made available? Any sources being openned? How about a free RS/6000 for our favorite Geek Compound?
Heh!
That infernal paper and pencil has rendered the Art of making your own papyrus, utterly useless. What a waste!
Why, when I was a yun'gin, we had to impress little lines onto clay tablets, WITH STICKS. Back then, we couldn't even spell cuneform, let alone set it down as Illuminated Manuscript.
Damn! Damn that Guttenberg! The skill of memorization that was taught by Homer is lost for eternity. Man will never again truly use his mind for anything useful. These lazy kids today, I tell ya!
Back in the glorious days of mankind, I tried to destroy every wheel I could find since using wheels keeps people from carrying everything everywhere - our muscles have just wasted away ever since... I also tried to put out all fires, since cooking is bad!
And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you PESKY KIDS!!
Santa Cruz, CA - A rift in the space-time continuum was created today when overclocker Jamie Aperman ran a 750 MHz Coppermine Pentium III at 1.6 GHz.
Overclocking has long been blamed for causing global warming, but this is the first occasion that the fabric of space-time has been damaged.
MIT Professor George Greznowski said, "It appears that the CPU was operating so fast that it began to execute instructions before they arrived. This execution of future instructions created a small tear in the fabric of space-time itself through which part of the motherboard passed into a parallel universe."
No one was injured in the accident, but a computer motherboard was partially damaged. Mr. Aperman better known as SpeedPhreeek said, "I'm pissed. I lost a brand new Alpha Cooler and Coppermine to a parallel universe. I called my insurance company and they don't cover losses to rifts in the space-time continuum."
Intel researchers have long warned of such damage to the space-time continuum, and added clock multiplier locks to their CPUs before they were required by Congress. A bill is now in the US Senate which would require a three day waiting period for purchasers of Alpha Cooling Fans and Peltier cooling devices. The bill would also require clock multiplier locks on all new processors.
Overclocking advocate Horace Spencer said, "This bill before Congress won't prevent overclocking. They'll just create a black market for non-locked processors. Most of the top overclockers already get their goods from Taiwan."
Article stolen from here.
Another poster has already implied this:
... ARE STILL THERE in Win98 (shock!).
Why should this sort of discussion involve only games? What about other software that's out-of-print and no longer supported?
Putting old games into the public domain would set a precedent that the business software developers do not want to see. All old and unsupported software would become fair game, and Micros~1 innovation would be exposed for what it is - meme recycling.
First, let's consider that there's lots of good ideas out there, and someone still owns the rights to them. It's quite possible that the holders of these rights would like to act on them, but are waiting for a statute of limitation to expire before they do so. For example, maybe IBM would like to bring back the SmartSuite; they own the rights via their acquisition of Lotus - but there may be an injunction preventing this action for some number of years... IANAL and all that.
Now for the more likely (IMO) scenario:
What would happen for example, if M$ suddenly HAD to open DOS 6.0, and EMM386.EXE turned out to contain some undocumented calls that
Thing is, code is code, and who's to say what makes a particular piece of code into a game.
For example, James Gleick's Chaos: The Software (featured for free here) is educational in nature; but I consider it a game. So is GIMP in my book, since I don't use it 'for work'. Same with AutoCad... It's just a fun little drawing program for me... Open up all but the current version, I say!
Now, this would be great for me, and most of you. But the rights-holders for old software may have some objections to openning up old software.
I LIKE IT!
:)
We're genetically engineering bacteria to eat oil spills, and designing cancer cells to secrete insulin. We're cloning sheep and making real viruses to attack malignant tumors.
Somehow, the symmetry of a worm that scours the Internet exploiting M$ security holes in an effort to fix them is.. poetic. Sort of like autonomous garbage collection.
Arguably, any virus/worm that deletes Windows system files is already trying to do this; but in a very heavy-handed way. A lighter touch is called for. Disabling the registry settings that allow auto-invokation of scripts attached to email is one good way to make the world a better place.
And hey! How could anyone (besides Micros~1) get upset over a benevolent virus?
Maybe it could even open a pop-up on the screen every 20 minutes, to remind the user to stretch their hands to prevent RSI?
Maybe it could replace the talking paper-clip with a talking Penguin? "I see you're trying to write a letter. Wouldn't you rather write it on actual paper, and add some humanity to your interpersonal communicaton?" "I noticed your key-stroke rate drop over the last hour. You seem tired. Shall I have some pizza delivered?"
.. everything looks like a nail.
It's a good filter and all, but what if somoene actually wants to receive vb, js, com, bat, exe and God only knows what else?
This filter will protect the ignorant from themselves, but then again, so does Microsoft's 'solution' to the problem.
I would be very curious to see how Hemos, or any other geek-in-residence, would review the Bible. What, with the geek mindset being what it is and all. :)
Just this morning, I was wishing that these things would debut already...
I needed to review a pile of code, walk aroun with it, get comfy like with a print out..
Something a half-inch thick, with an 8.5x11 screen, with hand-writing recognition, would be ideal. If I could sit "indian style" on my desk, and review/edit some code... Mmmm...
Personally, I don't think it should be MEANT for web browsing. Browsing is an application. This thing should be an actual computer - a 'full size' PalmPilot if you will.. With a virtual keyboard or graffitti, full color. 128MB Ram, a several Gig of drive space...
Something the size of a large notebook's screen, with all the functionality of the notebook. Yeah, that's what I want. If it's a dedicated browser, forget it - I have too many other things I want to do.
All your points are well taken, and I agree, except..
Also you are not making your moral argument very strong when you start off by bragging about causing someone else to lose their job so that you can financially profit from it.
Man... Sarcasm. I was playing off a stereotypical bias against immigrants. Jeez! All I've earned, I've earned on MY MERIT. If I'm depriving a natural-born American Son of a job, it's because I work harder, that's all. I am and American, I just wasn't born here - neither were most American's grand-parents.
Aside: It's funny how racism only runs rampant in the one country that considers 'racial hatred' to be a protected, inalienable civil right.
:) But it made for a good discussion.
Something tells me that "ONLY" should not be in that statement. That would have kept the flames to a tollerable level - though still toasty.
Yeah, there's racism everywhere - or more precisely, there's ethnic and religious discrimination everywhere. The US is the only place in this hemisphere where blacks are still discriminated against on sight. South American countries have intermixed a lot since slavery was abolished there, and the color-line is nowhere near as clear anymore.
When I wrote the statement that's been thrown in my face all day, I was thinking of the black man who was dragged behind a pick-up to his death, here in the most free and tolerant country in the world. That, more than any clearly thought out argument, prompted me to choose those particular words. It's a shameful 'current event'. Had it happened in the 50's or even 60's, we could look back and say "back then racism was a problem". But the shameful thing is, despite government and civil actions, hate is still with us, and we protect it to the death under the First Amendment.
No, I don't think that ANY opinion, no matter how vile, should be silenced. Not at all. What gets under my skin is that, here we are, having walked on the Moon; and a man can still die because of the color of his skin - or over sexual preference (the boy tied to a farm fence and beaten to death) .
BTW: I've read 1984, Animal Farm, We... I lived in Communist Poland and left in time to see it reborn. Maybe growing up in a repressive system made me a little more tolerant to government control, and a little less tolerant to flag waving.
I'm damn sure techno-jerks like yourself will construct a way to detect that as well.
;)
Just did it. You set off bells.
Poetic justice.
:)
It's been done to death in all James Bond movies... Might as well bring it to the PC.
You know the scene, it's where the villan in about to kill the hero, and absolutely MUST explain his evil plot about taking over the world.
Maybe make the paper clip look like Dr. Eeeviil, just for effect.
Europeans do not value their freedom like we do in the US.
This is an interesting point, and I think it should be clarified. It is not that Europeans value their Freedoms LESS than Americans, they value them differently. That's one thing.
The other thing is WHY this is so. I don't know the answer, but I suspect (uh-oh, opinion warning) that it's because Europe has seen the lines drawn and redrawn, and the fronts marched across the landscape so many times, that they have a different perspective about things. They tend to take changes and attitudes more in stride than Americans.
Americans tend to see things in absolutes, Europeans tend to see things in gradients. Americans think that gradients and shades of gray are a cop-out. Europeans think that viewing the world as Black and White (reference intended) is naive and almost childish.
I have an interesting observation. Racism in the US started to decline in the 60's, and the mental build-up for this started in the 50's... This was the same time that the 'revolutionaries', 'peacenicks' and hippies were cowering under grade-school desks, doing A-Bomb drills.
What's the point? Well, once the Red Scare came ashore, there was someone else to hate, so hating blacks became a little more difficult.
Europeans have a new ethnic group, religious group or political group to confront every election. Encapsulating a different group of people under a different label is a matter of routine, and so people take it less seriously.
It's not schizophrenia, it's human nature.
That's exactly my point about racism, in the parallel threads. Government policing of human nature is a bad idea - on grounds of religion, morality, ethics, pronounciation, whatever.
It's certainly not an easy problem to solve, and I don't claim that I have a better way. I just claim that the US reaching out across the ocean, trying to tell the world how to use the Internet, is going to become a huge embarassment.
The only reason the US is perceived as being so terribly racist is because the US is the *only* country on Earth that seems to actually care!
Oh bull! It's political correctness, not caring. IMHO, if the US didn't make such a big deal out of racism and ethnic hatered, it would go away more quickly. By making a government mandate out of 'getting along', you're just making the opponents more verbal. The resolution to racism is in proper education, not Federal dogma.
Everybody, everywhere, is bigoted. The fact that you think the US is the only racist country is a reflection of your own bigotry.
Never said it was the only one. It's the only one that is on a Crusade against human nature.
It should not be the role of the government to step in and censor religious expression.
...
Sex and nudity is different, there is no reason that children should be exposed to it at the ages that they are today. This is not a free speech issue like religious expression, it is a question of morality and standards of decency.
The only reason these two issues are different to you, is because of cultural inertia. That is how things are viewed by you.
To me, religious fanaticism is much more objectionable and obscene than full-penetration on national television. Sex is a natural act. The belief that other people are lesser than you because God said so, borders on schizophrenia.
Well, actually, it only does so if someone elses God said so. If MY God said so, it must be true - right?
People have sex the world over, most of them in the same positions, but there are too many Gods to count. Even the Christian God is fractured into sects and factions, with the Southern Baptist God saying that 'the woman should humbly and happily submit to the will of her husband'. Yet spousal rape is illegal, even in S. Baptist territory.
In France, Scientology is considered a cult, and is pretty heavily regulated. Members are interviewed about their activities, annually, by the government. Should we go to war over their rights?
The point is that the government control over one thing, and not another, is pretty arbitrary, and societal ethics are what gives the government the chalk to draw the lines between issues.
It can be argued that the government should not impose moral or religious standards on a person.
It is pretty obvious that one government has no right to impose it's people's standards onto the people of another government - and that's what the US is trying to do with this Internet policing.
As for children being exposed to sex on television, pornography and those other festering issues... My parents handled that well when I was young. "Mommy, what are those two dogs doing?" was all it took for my attitude about sex, porn and rape to be set straight. My parents took the time to explain, instead of letting the TV-babysitter and schoolmates do it. For example, pornography has little appeal to me, it's only value is an occasional idea to try something new with the person I love and respect.
Spoken like an ignorant jerk who's never been out of the continental USA..
;)
Actually, I was born and raised in Europe. I only came to the US to steal your job!
I've seen my share of racism and ethnic hatred, both there and here, and what I say comes from experience. Have YOU ever crossed 'the pond', or are you just venting gas?
No one is questioning world-wide hatred and ignorance. The point of the comment is that in the US hating another race is your "God given right!", whereas elsewhere it's viewed as human nature, and NOT protected by the government. (Dictatorial regimes excepted, of course)
In the US, you can spew hate-speak at strangers, march in a white hood and burn a cross - and you're expressing your views. When Milosevicz goes on an 'ethnic cleansing spree', the US is up in arms, standing up for the underdog. Hypocricy, elevated to an art form.