Linux does not appear to have done well. How does this test translate into a real world situation? Isn't Slashdot running on a lesser machine than the test server? And cranking nicely with perl and Apache doing the dirtywork?
Someone has already mentioned the 960 MB self imposed Linux RAM use limit... Looks like a typo more than anything else.
Pretty graphs that an MBA would appreciate looking at.
The testbed was purely Win95 and Win98 machines running Microsoft TCP/IP - how this translates into 'extend and embrace' is interesting.
The one major anti-Linux thing said was that documentation and support were not forthcoming for the kernel and Apache, but the Samba docs were decent. Is this because Samba is a 'clone' of a Microsoft product?
Just how intimidating is the lack of formal documentation, for an enterprise level web server? After all, the people responsible for handling such an animal would surely have readily available access to the 'routine' expertise, and quirks and oddities are not something even Microsoft documents eagerly.
Well, mostly to ask the/. bunch if anyone here had personal experience of comparing Linux filesystems and NT. I thought my post said as much.
When I typed it, there were no other comments posted, so it seemed like a fair question. Now, after reading the article in question, I come back to such charming company. Nice.
Bravo, and you're so right. No easy answers, and the counterpoints you give are dead on. But still, it is a nice idea, is it not?
That in the long run, all the good ideas - when considered properly, will come to fruition despite the lobbies and the bottom line?
And is that not precisely what we have an opportunity to do right here? Consider the issues, get them out in the sunlight, knock them down, prop them back up and whail on them some more..
Yeah, in the short term all we really have is thought experiments. In the long term, maybe we can walk away with some answers for future directions.
And now and again, we share a heartfelt chuckle: "Sir the nerds are revolting!" "They can't help it, they don't get any sun or exercise." You made my day!
Stating the same thing?
on
Gene Leakage
·
· Score: 2
I'm not sure that this is contraty to what I'd said. The main thrust of my post probably got away from me, but it was, in a nutshell:
Since we can tailor our environment - we should do so with accordance with natural laws, not contrary to them. Making flying fish won't work.
Someone succeeded in making a chicken with legs where the wings should be. More drumsticks for KFC, but how do you catch the damn thing?:)
Yeah, "professional" to me means clean cut, organized, subtle and serious. Exactly the sort of thing marketting and graphic arts do not represent to me.
The new 'sgi' site is flashy, as was the old one. But the old one had the high tech feel that was easily associated with what they do.
The new 'sgi' site just doesn't seem to convey that cutting edge computing feel. It feels more like a mail order computer shop.
probably a little more clearly stated in my reply called "You miss the point", please see that, as I think it will serve to clarify.
As for mystical nonsense - It's not. I am in agreement with you on our potential capacity as a race. But, I feel that the best way to get there is to use the laws of the world to further our endeavors, rather than putting in a lot of effort to overcome them.
It's not about being a luddite and hugging trees. I'm as much of a technophile as anyone here. It's about understanding that we can get further, faster and better if we use nature to our advantage, rather than going against the grain so much.
We're learning, slowly; but we're still fixated on the post-WWII mentality of just throwing more resources at the problem rather than truly understanding it.
Consider: Airports are now being designed with uphill and downhill runways, as well as rampped ones. This allows for shorter and safer runways, by using gravity to help slow and speed up the planes, and allow them a steeper climb and descent in mountainous areas.
Homes are being heated by solar and geothermal (where available) energy, to reduce costs and in the long run reduce pollution. In Scandinavia (correct me if I'm wrong) geothermal is used to heat neighborhoods and steam is run beneath streets to keep them free of ice.
About 50% of the phones in Poland are cellular. The infrastructure is very old, and it's much cheaper to put up a tower here and there than it is to run new lines. And you don't have to restring the towers after a snowstorm.
France gets 70% of it's electricity from nuclear plants. Yes, actually it is safe. You just have to be responsible about it. Sometimes the true 'bottom-line' is a little farther then the next fiscal quarter.
This is a wiser use of resources than blasting away a mountain to let a freeway run straight. It's the same mentality that lengthens a road a mile, in order to build a shorter and sturdier bridge. Sure, the Golden Gate is an engineering achievement, and where necessary, we certainly have the means.
But we also have the means to apply our intellect to doing things in accordance with nature, rather than against it.
Engineering is about laziness. So is intelligence. We put a lot of effort into simplifying and conveniencing our lives... A little more will let us not have to worry about acting against the forces of nature - but rather using them to our advantage.
Don't you think that building a home down, rather than up, would be wise? Let's keep the living area below the frost-line, so as to cool and heat less. Let's pipe sunlight down with fiberoptics - maybe even some of that new 'slow glass' for a nightlight. The energy savings might prove adequate to have an elevator instead of stairs. This is just an off-the-cuff idea; I'm sure there are plenty of others.
Alright, so I visited their redesigned website briefly - briefly is all I could handle.
I'm sure that the technology that made SGI the wet-dream of geeks is still cutting edge, but image matters.
I knew SGI. I worked with SGI. Senator, you are not SGI; you look like an iMac, a '98 VW Bug. You're going cutesy, and it's pretty pathetic.
The new site looks like a page out of Wired. Lot's of disjoined graphics, buzz phrases and colors. Very nuevo 70's, very rounded, cartooney and completely unsophisticated. I wouldn't have been surprised to see a rendering of a Porche, with a speckled orange formica paintjob. It's just tacky.
Whoever they hired to revamp their image, I hope they fire in a hurry. Image matters, and SGI made a reputation of looking hi-tech. They now look like Yahoo! for christsakes!
There is something to be said for slick cases that look fast even when they're off. But really. I'd be hard pressed to take them seriously now - they look like an e-zine.
Now I wonder who will pick up the gauntlet and take up the image of being the coolest hi-tech firm out there. VAResearch, are you taking notes? Let's slap all that great hardware in some neato boxes. But please, keep it professional looking, sophisticated and tasteful.
There you humans go, again thinking it's all about you. It isn't. It isn't about you anymore than it is about the fleas on your dogs back. It isn't even about a Genus, or an Order or a Phylum. It's about life.
You meddle in things you only think you understand, and you speculate on the consequences of your actions, as though your actions were actually significant in the grand scheme of things.
Yes, you change the climate, yes you kill off the weak and inadaptible species. Guess what.. That's why you're here. Evolution has provided you with the ability to modify your environment, and the arrogance to think that it is actually yours to modify.
The world is not yours to modify, save or destroy with your actions. You belong to it, and it will be here long after you are gone. Wether you go to the stars, and leave your cradle behind you, forgotten and covered in plastic and asphalt; or you annihilate yourselves in a spectacular mushroom farm that will leave nothing but cockroaches and twinkies; the world will still be here.
The world, and life, will continue. You are just a piece of the puzzle, just a cog in the evolutionary machine. You are not the appointed guardians of life on your little mudball. You have delusions of grandeur, you are vain and selfish and you lack the instinctive knowledge of worms.
You do not understand balance. You do not realize that, as a part of nature, you must abide by it's laws, or be removed from the equation.
You stand tall and proud, like an oak tree on a sandy cliff. Reveling in your grandeur while the wind whittles the very earth from beneath your very roots. How arrogant you are, to think that you are somehow greater than the nature that bore you.
You build your homes on the windward side of the hill, and wonder why your kids suffer draft induced colds. You build your streets in the valleys and complain when they are washed away in the spring thaw.
You continually butt heads with the nature that made you, and rudely ignore her lessons. She knows you, better then you know yourselves. You breed like rabbits, and overrun her without asking permission. She gave you AIDS to keep you humble and to give you pause to contemplate your place in the scheme of things - and you think you can "engineer" yourselves a cure.
Insolent children, when will you learn that you simply do not have the 5 billion years of experience necessary to guide your own destiny? Your best intentions will kill you, and make roon for a more obedient race.
You must understand this, you must take it to heart and know it in every cell of your soft and delicate little bodies: Learn the House Rules. Abide by them, and conduct yourself in accordance with nature. Give onto her, and she shall benefit you. Insult her and you will be punished. You have been given prophets: Darwin, Newton, Einstein, Tesla, Fuller, countless others. You will be given more. The lessons are there, you must choose to see them.
It isn't ABOUT you - but it is your choice to be here or not. Think twice because you can only act once.
You, my friend, sound socialist - That's a compliment. Yes, you're absilutely right, giving everyone the opportunity to realize their potential is best for society in general.
Unfortunatelly, I don' think the human race is quite ready for the world on the other side of that door. I know I'm not.
There's just not enough money to reward all those brilliant minds - unless you're willing to live on satisfaction alone. I'm not, I like toys.:)
You mention bad times. Who makes the decision which neurosurgeons should flip burgers? Do they do it for the same pay? What about the career burger flippers? Where do they go?
It's not fair, but the financially selective US system works. Well, at least it worked for me. I hope it works for everyone. But I also hope no one ever gets cancer. All I can do is care for me and my loved ones. If I can help someone I feel is especially gifted, I will, but not at the cost of my kids. I mean, even if they're stupid, they're mine, right? I need to do best by them.
I intend to make a lot of money in my lifetime. When I'm done, I intend to set aside an account to feed a scholarship for other former hasbeens that didn't quit. That's my contribution.
Ok, so I can understand that copying a long sequence of words constitues plagarism, if the sequence is of publishable nature. You can't argue that copying a book, verbatim, is a violation - though interesting IP arguments are to be had about this. After all, information seeks freedom by it's very nature.
And I can understand that a single, specific word, such as the name of a company, can be protected as a trademark. It serves as an identifier, a propoer noun, and in effect it names a specific entity and serves as a reference to the same. This extends to acronyms that present a lengthy name concisely, such as ACME. (I don't know either)
But going rabid after a short phrase?? Am I going to get sued for asking "Where do you want to go today?" if I drive a cab? Can M$ dictate how I phrase my questions to my girlfriend? Can a phrase be forbidden by a corporation, simply because some lawyer without enough to do happens to misconstrue the meaning of that phrase as implying superiority over Microsoft?
I think that, with a name like Microsoft, somebody is simply overcompensating for their PC envy.
That's all this is, and unfortunatelly, it won't stop until someone gets burned.
Personally, I see this sort of thing as a direct result of the 60's thru the 80's. The "free love" that turned into "it's all about ME", that later became the "MY money" decade. Parents have become so bent on material posessions and image projection (keeping up with the Joneses) that they have lost their grip on the real nature of parenting. They truly believe that if they provide for their kids material needs, their kids will grow up to be shinning examples of good parenting. (I am speaking strictly of the average, median parent, and to varrying degrees - the ones we hear about in the news are the pathological extreme of the trend to MEdom)
Consider the Ramseys, the Menendez... The more kids see of image and posessions, the less they know of soul and responsibility. And I believe that this is an offshoot of the reaction to the hippy lifestyle.
And it goes further than that. People don't like to take blame, it's human nature. People don't like to be proved wrong either. So reformers are branded as heretics, revolutionaries are beheaded and Judas Priest is put on trial for convincing a fan-kid to commit suicide. God knows that it couldn't have anything to do with mommy and daddy having an open marriage.
Let's think about this: Smoking. This is a free country, yet in L.A. you can't smoke on the street because you're affecting the health of someone else. Nevermind the fact that L.A. has a chronic SMOG problem, it's the smokers who get blamed. It's a free country, if you don't like the smoker - leave the area.
What does this have to do with Id Software getting sued? Everything! It's always "their" fault, it's never "our" fault. We (American parents) do not take responsibility for our kids problems. We mean well, so it cna't be our fault. It's "THEM"!
People, raise your kids to OWN their actions, to understand CONSEQUENCES, and to leave the campsite better then they found it. First, do no harm.
Oh BTW: The telletubbies are GAY! It's all THEIR fault..
Since you left school before getting the degree, you can not speak on the value of having one. Having the degree is not the same as going to college for 3 years.
You can run a marathon in the best time ever, and stop 10 feet before the finish line. That way, you know how tough the run is, but you just don't know how that medal feels around your neck.
If you spent $60k on 3 years of school, don't ever attempt to manage money. You can go to a state school at half that amount, and have much less anxiety about walking away from it without actually finishing the job. At $10k/semester, if you quit before seeing it through, sorry to say, you changed jobs a week before deadline. You should have felt that things were not right after the first semester, rather than beating your head against the wall of the Ivory Tower.
Don't ever admit it to an employer, they'll see you as a quitter and as someone who doesn't have the guts to follow through with a committment.
If daddy had given me $60k for school, I would have had a Ph.D. to show for it, and I'd be set for life - I'd be able to pay him back in a year, and still have my bills paid.
As it is, I worked full time while taking full time semesters, and am now working on a Masters in CS. My employer knows that I'm stubborn as hell, and that education means the world to me. My signing bonus included full graduate tuition in one the country's best engineering schools. If I didn't stick it out as an undergrad, I'd never have this option.
It is not judgemental and shortsighted of an employer to look for a degree - it shows a desire to learn, and more importantly it shows fidelity to commitment.
You're right, but there's a reason for it being expensive - it keeps people out, leaving only those with the means (or excellent grades) to even contend for the degree.. It isn't fair, or right, or anything, but neither is evolution, or big rocks falling out of the sky. It just is.
And as for customer friendly... Well, FEH! Zen buddist monks are not consumer friendly, neither are dojo masters, drill seargants or the tutors of world class pianists. They turn out champions by making them overcome adversity.
If college were cheap and fun, everyone would be doing it.
Some people lack the grades, and can't even get in - and a good thing, since the world can only support so many pointless grads. Some can't hack the pay - for those that are able minded it's truly too bad. I've seen briliant minds flip burgers, it's a shame. Those that smoke their Pell grants deserve to dig ditches. Those that have the grades and the money, but do not navigate the burocracy well, well, they're probably better off dropping out and becoming experts in their own right. They may bet branded as non-team-players by their managers, and as anit-social by their coworkers, but they have absolute respect as alpha geeks in the office.
In Europe (Eastern) where higher education is purely merit based, there is a true tragedy. Many Ph.D's are working as salespeople and plumbers, because anyone can get an education if they want to. Here in the US, if you can't pay, you can';t play, and this acts as a safety valve to curb Graduate overpopulatioon.
Despair not, valiant college student, for thou are on the path most righteous!
The one thing that seems to be missing from these discussions is this:
You're not there to learn useful skills. You're there to learn to think.
ASM on s 68k is BS, sure, you'll never use it. But you need the concept of assembler, and that 68k is as good a tool as any. I learned on a VAX, seen any around?
Come for a little walk with me...
But now, with my VAX ASM experience, I see the value of Hungarian notation, and I see why it's worthless in C++. I know that this is not critical knowledge, but actually it is. In the 'real world' we write more documentation than code - sad to say. If we're lucky, we get to write the docs that dictate how we write code. Shmoe #1 writes: We should standardize on Hungarian notation because that's what M$ uses. Shmoe #2 (me) writes: We should use human readable naming conventions, because we can write maintainable code that way, there is no learning curve required for the naming convention, the IDE will keep the data types and function return values straight for us - in short we do a better job faster.
Manager calls both Shmoes into office - Explain this difference of opinion, he says.
Shmoe #2 can talk intelligently about the value of Simonyi's notation, and why it is not applicable (but only habitual) in a high-level language like C++ and especially our language du jour Java.
Shmoe #1 can only say: It's what M$ uses.
Shmoe #2 writes draft that get's read by upper management --> name recognition. Shmoe #2 gets to be team leader (bonus!)
All because Shmoe #2 had to learn assembler on the VAX, and knows that when you only have one data type, naming conventions matter, but when you have lots of code, readability matters.
So, even though it seems like BS now, it will prove very valuable after you earn your B.S. And those things that seem like useless drivel now, will click into place, at the most unexpected moments, and pay off in spades.
So suck it up, log off, and get your arse to class. You're missing drivel that might save your job someday.
Is not very important to you. It's just a piece of paper, right?
I have a little metal ring in my pocket. On it are flat little piece of metal, with teeth. Worthless and useless, right? Too thin to cut food, too thick to pick your nails. Oddly, they fit locks. I can easily get into rooms and cars that are otherwise inaccessible to me.
I can secure my house against thieves, get into my car and drive myself to my job. I can get into my office, in which lay confidential and propriatary materials. I can check my PO box for mail.
I wouldn't have any of these things without my keys. And, I wouldn't have any of them without my degree.
A college education opens doors.
It teaches structured thinking, but most geeks already have that skill. We've argued the value of a college education and the experience of University ad nauseum here on/.
It turns out that it's a unary argument. One can not make an informed decision about it, since you either do or do not have the experience. A comparison can not be made, since it would be like men trying to compare their experience of manhood with the experience of being a woman. We do not have the means to be objective here.
But, without a doubt, that little piece of paper opens doors. Some people without it get quite lucky, but they are a significant exception to an otherwise unnoticed majority. Most people who do not have the degree, do not get as far as those with the degree. It's not flame-bait, it's fact. Without a degree, you start as a tech, and you need to prove yourselv constantly, to advance. With the degree, you start at a higher level, and if you continue to prove yourself to advance, you advance faster and higher.
Bill Gates' success not withstanding, a significant majority of executives, CEOs, CIOs, managers and others who make lots of money, is college educated, (sadly) with business degrees that exceed the Bachelor level.
Get your keys. You don't have to use them, you can still use a crowbar or a credit card to open those doors, but keys make it a) easier, and b) socially acceptable.
were the dominant life form. We all know that. We also know that, cataclysm or natural selection, they are no longer here because they were unable/unwilling to adapt to changing conditions.
So it seems will it be with M$ (or at least their OS) Design by committee and focus group of bored housewives does not a lasting OS make. Feature glut creeps in and pretty soon you have a cold-blooded saurian that can't get out of the water for fear of being crushed under it's own weight. It can't comprehend, in it's little brain, that those small critters it tries so hard to stomp, will be eating it a few years later.
Did ya ever consider that maybe dinosaurs were pecked to death by penguins? I goes well with evolutionary theory, that dinosaurs should be replaced by birds.
Not exactly ON TOPIC, but... Let's start our own FUD campaign. Well, not really FUD. Modelled after the Microsoft Refund Day effort, let's shout about major Microsoft bugs and bad business practices, serially. One after another, let's put them out there for the media to feast upon, and as M$ knocks them down (well, they can't really - but as they respond) let's just move on to the next one. The more bad press the better.
Let's see how long it takes to maneuver the press to sit Death watch for Microsoft.
And here I thought that Linux was immune, or at least resistant, to viruses.
But then again, geeks all over the world have had their fingers in it. ANYBODY can get their hands on it. Likes a big hard disk, but comes on a floppy as well. Likes lots of RAM. As far as hardware goes, the faster the better. Can keep going non-stop for months, without ever going down on you. Is, by default, multi-user. You can share it with your friends. If you get it on the street, the shrinkwrap comes off without a fight. Gladly gives you an intimate look at the source.
How many M$ executives does it take to change the definition of a word?
Remember when Compton's tried unsuccesfully to trademark "multimedia"??
M$ isn't just living in a different world, they're in a whole different dimention (dementia) if they're starting to redefine words to suit their marketting strategy.
Unfortunatelly, it is going to get worse before it gets better. It's going to make "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms Lewinsky." look like an honest mistake before it's over.
For a very long time I felt that there was room for M$ on the planet. Now, I hope the DOJ breaks them up into development teams of one individual.
The letter is a call to arms for the OSS community as well as a treaty for M$ acceptance by the same. ESR outlines what the OSS community should accept, and what it should reject, on principle.
Well written, to the point, and clear to both intended recipients. Kudos.
Just how many nanites can dance on the R/W-head of a hard drive? And will looking at it while it runs make it disappear here, and appear again in Alpha Centauri? And do we really have to stick a cat in the PC case to make it work? Will it work faster if travelling at the speed of light? And if it weighs as much as a duck, does that mean it is made of wood, and therefore a witch??
Things are getting freaky. But, I'm looking forward to downloading the whole internet.:)
Slashdot Mirror
The FTC is investigating volunteers?
What will this do to Clinton/Gore's "volunteer to pay off your college" initiative?
That would violate the rule about no side-effects in programming.. I.. I.. I JUST CAN'T DO THAT, IT'S PLAIN WRONG!!! :)
There are not many things to shoot at.
:)
Linux does not appear to have done well. How does this test translate into a real world situation? Isn't Slashdot running on a lesser machine than the test server? And cranking nicely with perl and Apache doing the dirtywork?
Someone has already mentioned the 960 MB self imposed Linux RAM use limit... Looks like a typo more than anything else.
Pretty graphs that an MBA would appreciate looking at.
The testbed was purely Win95 and Win98 machines running Microsoft TCP/IP - how this translates into 'extend and embrace' is interesting.
The one major anti-Linux thing said was that documentation and support were not forthcoming for the kernel and Apache, but the Samba docs were decent. Is this because Samba is a 'clone' of a Microsoft product?
Just how intimidating is the lack of formal documentation, for an enterprise level web server? After all, the people responsible for handling such an animal would surely have readily available access to the 'routine' expertise, and quirks and oddities are not something even Microsoft documents eagerly.
Ah well.. Back to time off.
Well, mostly to ask the /. bunch if anyone here had personal experience of comparing Linux filesystems and NT. I thought my post said as much.
When I typed it, there were no other comments posted, so it seemed like a fair question. Now, after reading the article in question, I come back to such charming company. Nice.
I have yet to read the paper, but if it comes from M$, I wouldn't be surprised to see that the computers used for the 'comparison' were different.
Does anyone have specs comparing FS performance between the filesystems supported by Linux and by NT? On the same system?
Bravo, and you're so right. No easy answers, and the counterpoints you give are dead on. But still, it is a nice idea, is it not?
That in the long run, all the good ideas - when considered properly, will come to fruition despite the lobbies and the bottom line?
And is that not precisely what we have an opportunity to do right here? Consider the issues, get them out in the sunlight, knock them down, prop them back up and whail on them some more..
Yeah, in the short term all we really have is thought experiments. In the long term, maybe we can walk away with some answers for future directions.
And now and again, we share a heartfelt chuckle:
"Sir the nerds are revolting!"
"They can't help it, they don't get any sun or exercise."
You made my day!
I'm not sure that this is contraty to what I'd said. The main thrust of my post probably got away from me, but it was, in a nutshell:
:)
Since we can tailor our environment - we should do so with accordance with natural laws, not contrary to them. Making flying fish won't work.
Someone succeeded in making a chicken with legs where the wings should be. More drumsticks for KFC, but how do you catch the damn thing?
Yeah, "professional" to me means clean cut, organized, subtle and serious. Exactly the sort of thing marketting and graphic arts do not represent to me.
The new 'sgi' site is flashy, as was the old one. But the old one had the high tech feel that was easily associated with what they do.
The new 'sgi' site just doesn't seem to convey that cutting edge computing feel. It feels more like a mail order computer shop.
probably a little more clearly stated in my reply called "You miss the point", please see that, as I think it will serve to clarify.
As for mystical nonsense - It's not. I am in agreement with you on our potential capacity as a race. But, I feel that the best way to get there is to use the laws of the world to further our endeavors, rather than putting in a lot of effort to overcome them.
It's not about being a luddite and hugging trees. I'm as much of a technophile as anyone here. It's about understanding that we can get further, faster and better if we use nature to our advantage, rather than going against the grain so much.
We're learning, slowly; but we're still fixated on the post-WWII mentality of just throwing more resources at the problem rather than truly understanding it.
Consider: Airports are now being designed with uphill and downhill runways, as well as rampped ones. This allows for shorter and safer runways, by using gravity to help slow and speed up the planes, and allow them a steeper climb and descent in mountainous areas.
Homes are being heated by solar and geothermal (where available) energy, to reduce costs and in the long run reduce pollution. In Scandinavia (correct me if I'm wrong) geothermal is used to heat neighborhoods and steam is run beneath streets to keep them free of ice.
About 50% of the phones in Poland are cellular. The infrastructure is very old, and it's much cheaper to put up a tower here and there than it is to run new lines. And you don't have to restring the towers after a snowstorm.
France gets 70% of it's electricity from nuclear plants. Yes, actually it is safe. You just have to be responsible about it. Sometimes the true 'bottom-line' is a little farther then the next fiscal quarter.
This is a wiser use of resources than blasting away a mountain to let a freeway run straight. It's the same mentality that lengthens a road a mile, in order to build a shorter and sturdier bridge. Sure, the Golden Gate is an engineering achievement, and where necessary, we certainly have the means.
But we also have the means to apply our intellect to doing things in accordance with nature, rather than against it.
Engineering is about laziness. So is intelligence. We put a lot of effort into simplifying and conveniencing our lives... A little more will let us not have to worry about acting against the forces of nature - but rather using them to our advantage.
Don't you think that building a home down, rather than up, would be wise? Let's keep the living area below the frost-line, so as to cool and heat less. Let's pipe sunlight down with fiberoptics - maybe even some of that new 'slow glass' for a nightlight. The energy savings might prove adequate to have an elevator instead of stairs. This is just an off-the-cuff idea; I'm sure there are plenty of others.
Alright, so I visited their redesigned website briefly - briefly is all I could handle.
I'm sure that the technology that made SGI the wet-dream of geeks is still cutting edge, but image matters.
I knew SGI. I worked with SGI. Senator, you are not SGI; you look like an iMac, a '98 VW Bug. You're going cutesy, and it's pretty pathetic.
The new site looks like a page out of Wired. Lot's of disjoined graphics, buzz phrases and colors. Very nuevo 70's, very rounded, cartooney and completely unsophisticated. I wouldn't have been surprised to see a rendering of a Porche, with a speckled orange formica paintjob. It's just tacky.
Whoever they hired to revamp their image, I hope they fire in a hurry. Image matters, and SGI made a reputation of looking hi-tech. They now look like Yahoo! for christsakes!
There is something to be said for slick cases that look fast even when they're off. But really. I'd be hard pressed to take them seriously now - they look like an e-zine.
Now I wonder who will pick up the gauntlet and take up the image of being the coolest hi-tech firm out there. VAResearch, are you taking notes? Let's slap all that great hardware in some neato boxes. But please, keep it professional looking, sophisticated and tasteful.
Tsk, tsk..
There you humans go, again thinking it's all about you. It isn't. It isn't about you anymore than it is about the fleas on your dogs back. It isn't even about a Genus, or an Order or a Phylum. It's about life.
You meddle in things you only think you understand, and you speculate on the consequences of your actions, as though your actions were actually significant in the grand scheme of things.
Yes, you change the climate, yes you kill off the weak and inadaptible species. Guess what.. That's why you're here. Evolution has provided you with the ability to modify your environment, and the arrogance to think that it is actually yours to modify.
The world is not yours to modify, save or destroy with your actions. You belong to it, and it will be here long after you are gone. Wether you go to the stars, and leave your cradle behind you, forgotten and covered in plastic and asphalt; or you annihilate yourselves in a spectacular mushroom farm that will leave nothing but cockroaches and twinkies; the world will still be here.
The world, and life, will continue. You are just a piece of the puzzle, just a cog in the evolutionary machine. You are not the appointed guardians of life on your little mudball. You have delusions of grandeur, you are vain and selfish and you lack the instinctive knowledge of worms.
You do not understand balance. You do not realize that, as a part of nature, you must abide by it's laws, or be removed from the equation.
You stand tall and proud, like an oak tree on a sandy cliff. Reveling in your grandeur while the wind whittles the very earth from beneath your very roots. How arrogant you are, to think that you are somehow greater than the nature that bore you.
You build your homes on the windward side of the hill, and wonder why your kids suffer draft induced colds. You build your streets in the valleys and complain when they are washed away in the spring thaw.
You continually butt heads with the nature that made you, and rudely ignore her lessons. She knows you, better then you know yourselves. You breed like rabbits, and overrun her without asking permission. She gave you AIDS to keep you humble and to give you pause to contemplate your place in the scheme of things - and you think you can "engineer" yourselves a cure.
Insolent children, when will you learn that you simply do not have the 5 billion years of experience necessary to guide your own destiny? Your best intentions will kill you, and make roon for a more obedient race.
You must understand this, you must take it to heart and know it in every cell of your soft and delicate little bodies: Learn the House Rules. Abide by them, and conduct yourself in accordance with nature. Give onto her, and she shall benefit you. Insult her and you will be punished. You have been given prophets: Darwin, Newton, Einstein, Tesla, Fuller, countless others. You will be given more. The lessons are there, you must choose to see them.
It isn't ABOUT you - but it is your choice to be here or not. Think twice because you can only act once.
You, my friend, sound socialist - That's a compliment. Yes, you're absilutely right, giving everyone the opportunity to realize their potential is best for society in general.
:)
Unfortunatelly, I don' think the human race is quite ready for the world on the other side of that door. I know I'm not.
There's just not enough money to reward all those brilliant minds - unless you're willing to live on satisfaction alone. I'm not, I like toys.
You mention bad times. Who makes the decision which neurosurgeons should flip burgers? Do they do it for the same pay? What about the career burger flippers? Where do they go?
It's not fair, but the financially selective US system works. Well, at least it worked for me. I hope it works for everyone. But I also hope no one ever gets cancer. All I can do is care for me and my loved ones. If I can help someone I feel is especially gifted, I will, but not at the cost of my kids. I mean, even if they're stupid, they're mine, right? I need to do best by them.
I intend to make a lot of money in my lifetime. When I'm done, I intend to set aside an account to feed a scholarship for other former hasbeens that didn't quit. That's my contribution.
Ok, so I can understand that copying a long sequence of words constitues plagarism, if the sequence is of publishable nature. You can't argue that copying a book, verbatim, is a violation - though interesting IP arguments are to be had about this. After all, information seeks freedom by it's very nature.
And I can understand that a single, specific word, such as the name of a company, can be protected as a trademark. It serves as an identifier, a propoer noun, and in effect it names a specific entity and serves as a reference to the same. This extends to acronyms that present a lengthy name concisely, such as ACME. (I don't know either)
But going rabid after a short phrase??
Am I going to get sued for asking "Where do you want to go today?" if I drive a cab? Can M$ dictate how I phrase my questions to my girlfriend? Can a phrase be forbidden by a corporation, simply because some lawyer without enough to do happens to misconstrue the meaning of that phrase as implying superiority over Microsoft?
I think that, with a name like Microsoft, somebody is simply overcompensating for their PC envy.
That's all this is, and unfortunatelly, it won't stop until someone gets burned.
Personally, I see this sort of thing as a direct result of the 60's thru the 80's. The "free love" that turned into "it's all about ME", that later became the "MY money" decade. Parents have become so bent on material posessions and image projection (keeping up with the Joneses) that they have lost their grip on the real nature of parenting. They truly believe that if they provide for their kids material needs, their kids will grow up to be shinning examples of good parenting. (I am speaking strictly of the average, median parent, and to varrying degrees - the ones we hear about in the news are the pathological extreme of the trend to MEdom)
Consider the Ramseys, the Menendez... The more kids see of image and posessions, the less they know of soul and responsibility. And I believe that this is an offshoot of the reaction to the hippy lifestyle.
And it goes further than that. People don't like to take blame, it's human nature. People don't like to be proved wrong either. So reformers are branded as heretics, revolutionaries are beheaded and Judas Priest is put on trial for convincing a fan-kid to commit suicide. God knows that it couldn't have anything to do with mommy and daddy having an open marriage.
Let's think about this: Smoking. This is a free country, yet in L.A. you can't smoke on the street because you're affecting the health of someone else. Nevermind the fact that L.A. has a chronic SMOG problem, it's the smokers who get blamed. It's a free country, if you don't like the smoker - leave the area.
What does this have to do with Id Software getting sued? Everything! It's always "their" fault, it's never "our" fault. We (American parents) do not take responsibility for our kids problems. We mean well, so it cna't be our fault. It's "THEM"!
People, raise your kids to OWN their actions, to understand CONSEQUENCES, and to leave the campsite better then they found it. First, do no harm.
Oh BTW: The telletubbies are GAY! It's all THEIR fault..
Since you left school before getting the degree, you can not speak on the value of having one. Having the degree is not the same as going to college for 3 years.
You can run a marathon in the best time ever, and stop 10 feet before the finish line. That way, you know how tough the run is, but you just don't know how that medal feels around your neck.
If you spent $60k on 3 years of school, don't ever attempt to manage money. You can go to a state school at half that amount, and have much less anxiety about walking away from it without actually finishing the job. At $10k/semester, if you quit before seeing it through, sorry to say, you changed jobs a week before deadline. You should have felt that things were not right after the first semester, rather than beating your head against the wall of the Ivory Tower.
Don't ever admit it to an employer, they'll see you as a quitter and as someone who doesn't have the guts to follow through with a committment.
If daddy had given me $60k for school, I would have had a Ph.D. to show for it, and I'd be set for life - I'd be able to pay him back in a year, and still have my bills paid.
As it is, I worked full time while taking full time semesters, and am now working on a Masters in CS. My employer knows that I'm stubborn as hell, and that education means the world to me. My signing bonus included full graduate tuition in one the country's best engineering schools. If I didn't stick it out as an undergrad, I'd never have this option.
It is not judgemental and shortsighted of an employer to look for a degree - it shows a desire to learn, and more importantly it shows fidelity to commitment.
Tuche'..
You're right, but there's a reason for it being expensive - it keeps people out, leaving only those with the means (or excellent grades) to even contend for the degree.. It isn't fair, or right, or anything, but neither is evolution, or big rocks falling out of the sky. It just is.
And as for customer friendly... Well, FEH!
Zen buddist monks are not consumer friendly, neither are dojo masters, drill seargants or the tutors of world class pianists. They turn out champions by making them overcome adversity.
If college were cheap and fun, everyone would be doing it.
Some people lack the grades, and can't even get in - and a good thing, since the world can only support so many pointless grads.
Some can't hack the pay - for those that are able minded it's truly too bad. I've seen briliant minds flip burgers, it's a shame. Those that smoke their Pell grants deserve to dig ditches.
Those that have the grades and the money, but do not navigate the burocracy well, well, they're probably better off dropping out and becoming experts in their own right. They may bet branded as non-team-players by their managers, and as anit-social by their coworkers, but they have absolute respect as alpha geeks in the office.
In Europe (Eastern) where higher education is purely merit based, there is a true tragedy. Many Ph.D's are working as salespeople and plumbers, because anyone can get an education if they want to. Here in the US, if you can't pay, you can';t play, and this acts as a safety valve to curb Graduate overpopulatioon.
Despair not, valiant college student, for thou are on the path most righteous!
The one thing that seems to be missing from these discussions is this:
You're not there to learn useful skills. You're there to learn to think.
ASM on s 68k is BS, sure, you'll never use it. But you need the concept of assembler, and that 68k is as good a tool as any. I learned on a VAX, seen any around?
Come for a little walk with me...
But now, with my VAX ASM experience, I see the value of Hungarian notation, and I see why it's worthless in C++. I know that this is not critical knowledge, but actually it is. In the 'real world' we write more documentation than code - sad to say. If we're lucky, we get to write the docs that dictate how we write code.
Shmoe #1 writes: We should standardize on Hungarian notation because that's what M$ uses.
Shmoe #2 (me) writes: We should use human readable naming conventions, because we can write maintainable code that way, there is no learning curve required for the naming convention, the IDE will keep the data types and function return values straight for us - in short we do a better job faster.
Manager calls both Shmoes into office - Explain this difference of opinion, he says.
Shmoe #2 can talk intelligently about the value of Simonyi's notation, and why it is not applicable (but only habitual) in a high-level language like C++ and especially our language du jour Java.
Shmoe #1 can only say: It's what M$ uses.
Shmoe #2 writes draft that get's read by upper management --> name recognition.
Shmoe #2 gets to be team leader (bonus!)
All because Shmoe #2 had to learn assembler on the VAX, and knows that when you only have one data type, naming conventions matter, but when you have lots of code, readability matters.
So, even though it seems like BS now, it will prove very valuable after you earn your B.S. And those things that seem like useless drivel now, will click into place, at the most unexpected moments, and pay off in spades.
So suck it up, log off, and get your arse to class. You're missing drivel that might save your job someday.
Is not very important to you. It's just a piece of paper, right?
/.
I have a little metal ring in my pocket. On it are flat little piece of metal, with teeth. Worthless and useless, right? Too thin to cut food, too thick to pick your nails. Oddly, they fit locks. I can easily get into rooms and cars that are otherwise inaccessible to me.
I can secure my house against thieves, get into my car and drive myself to my job. I can get into my office, in which lay confidential and propriatary materials. I can check my PO box for mail.
I wouldn't have any of these things without my keys. And, I wouldn't have any of them without my degree.
A college education opens doors.
It teaches structured thinking, but most geeks already have that skill. We've argued the value of a college education and the experience of University ad nauseum here on
It turns out that it's a unary argument. One can not make an informed decision about it, since you either do or do not have the experience. A comparison can not be made, since it would be like men trying to compare their experience of manhood with the experience of being a woman. We do not have the means to be objective here.
But, without a doubt, that little piece of paper opens doors. Some people without it get quite lucky, but they are a significant exception to an otherwise unnoticed majority. Most people who do not have the degree, do not get as far as those with the degree. It's not flame-bait, it's fact.
Without a degree, you start as a tech, and you need to prove yourselv constantly, to advance. With the degree, you start at a higher level, and if you continue to prove yourself to advance, you advance faster and higher.
Bill Gates' success not withstanding, a significant majority of executives, CEOs, CIOs, managers and others who make lots of money, is college educated, (sadly) with business degrees that exceed the Bachelor level.
Get your keys. You don't have to use them, you can still use a crowbar or a credit card to open those doors, but keys make it a) easier, and b) socially acceptable.
were the dominant life form. We all know that.
We also know that, cataclysm or natural selection, they are no longer here because they were unable/unwilling to adapt to changing conditions.
So it seems will it be with M$ (or at least their OS) Design by committee and focus group of bored housewives does not a lasting OS make. Feature glut creeps in and pretty soon you have a cold-blooded saurian that can't get out of the water for fear of being crushed under it's own weight. It can't comprehend, in it's little brain, that those small critters it tries so hard to stomp, will be eating it a few years later.
Did ya ever consider that maybe dinosaurs were pecked to death by penguins? I goes well with evolutionary theory, that dinosaurs should be replaced by birds.
Not exactly ON TOPIC, but...
Let's start our own FUD campaign. Well, not really FUD. Modelled after the Microsoft Refund Day effort, let's shout about major Microsoft bugs and bad business practices, serially. One after another, let's put them out there for the media to feast upon, and as M$ knocks them down (well, they can't really - but as they respond) let's just move on to the next one. The more bad press the better.
Let's see how long it takes to maneuver the press to sit Death watch for Microsoft.
Genital Herpes?? Eeewwwww!!!!!
And here I thought that Linux was immune, or at least resistant, to viruses.
But then again, geeks all over the world have had their fingers in it. ANYBODY can get their hands on it. Likes a big hard disk, but comes on a floppy as well. Likes lots of RAM. As far as hardware goes, the faster the better. Can keep going non-stop for months, without ever going down on you. Is, by default, multi-user. You can share it with your friends. If you get it on the street, the shrinkwrap comes off without a fight. Gladly gives you an intimate look at the source.
Linux is a slut!
Was that Nikita?? Hmmm..
What does "mean" mean?? What does "what" mean?
How many M$ executives does it take to change the definition of a word?
Remember when Compton's tried unsuccesfully to trademark "multimedia"??
M$ isn't just living in a different world, they're in a whole different dimention (dementia) if they're starting to redefine words to suit their marketting strategy.
Unfortunatelly, it is going to get worse before it gets better. It's going to make "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms Lewinsky." look like an honest mistake before it's over.
For a very long time I felt that there was room for M$ on the planet. Now, I hope the DOJ breaks them up into development teams of one individual.
The letter is a call to arms for the OSS community as well as a treaty for M$ acceptance by the same.
ESR outlines what the OSS community should accept, and what it should reject, on principle.
Well written, to the point, and clear to both intended recipients. Kudos.
Now let's hope all involved get the message.
Just how many nanites can dance on the R/W-head of a hard drive? And will looking at it while it runs make it disappear here, and appear again in Alpha Centauri? And do we really have to stick a cat in the PC case to make it work? Will it work faster if travelling at the speed of light? And if it weighs as much as a duck, does that mean it is made of wood, and therefore a witch??
:)
Things are getting freaky. But, I'm looking forward to downloading the whole internet.