Just what we need, Jerry Falwell looking for obscene patterns on circuit boards. I can hear it now: Those COLORED computers are evil, they're good for nothing and lazy. Buy these nice, baige computers. These here, the ones powered by the K-K-Katmai chip, with the serial number! The LOOOORRRRRRD has so ordered!
Bah! Companies that have little or nothing to do with each other, should not merge. Pixar I can understand, but Apple itself? It's like MicroSoft and Pfizer joining. Hmmm.
I've had a Philips Nino for a few months now. I wish it hadn't come with WinCE, since it does crash. But I chose it over the Pilot because it has an on-screen writing area. Once the Pilot has this feature, I'll get it.
As for the PV, it looks great!! 11mm thick? Now THAT is something you can stick in a shirt pocket.
3COM - PLEASE make the writing area virtual... and move the buttons to the sides of the unit. I'll not only buy one (and burn the CE unit in effigy) but I'll also get one for each of my friends. That way all three of us will have one;)
Linux will never be supported in the same way as, say, HP-UX. Why? Well, it's not controlled by a large company, with a constant, stable and immutable product. The source-code is free to tweak by mom&pop shops, so no one in their right mind would offer commercial level support to it.
But, the fact that Linux is open significantly reduces the need for commercial level support. Compatibility with products is a matter of time and need, not politics and back-room handshakes. Problems are solved in a distributed fashion, with enthusiasm and good-will.
Linux represents all that is best in the Darwinian evolution of software. Corporate mentality can not fathom this, and neither can the Gartner Group. They need guarantees, and someone to sue if it breaks. Linux just doesn't break. And you can say that with more than a 0.8 probablility.
Someone needs to 'splain it to them in terms like that IBM commercial. For every Linux server you set up, you will save $20,000/year in support...
Support is free, fast and accurate. Everyone knows that contributing to it makes the penguin evolve faster and better; everyone benefits from solving each other's problems. So much so, that Tux will be the first penguin to actually take off.
M$ is simply following the rules because it is more convenient to do so.
What is to stop M$ from dissolving itself as a US firm, re-establishing itself in a country where the laws are more favorable, and simply importing it's product back to the US? It can set up the Redmond campus as a development sub-contractor, but 'officially' be located on Christmas Island, or in the UK, or wherever. In fact, M$ can buy a small Carribean island nation, and make it's own laws. Wm. Gibson had it right!
Then, the US would have to sanction that country to control M$.. Not likely.
As for M$ going OpenSource, I'd love to see the sh*t hit the fan if the DOJ even suggested that a company must reveal trade secrets. Pratt&Whitney, Pfizer, Ford... They'd all start screaming at that precedent. Again, as you say, it's not likely.
And just how do you think the DOJ would justify prejudicial treatment of M$? The purpose of the DOJ is to see that JUSTICE is done, and that even criminals are treated fairly. So, even if M$ doesn't play by the rules, the DOJ - by it's very existence, has to.
If the DOJ were to refuse to hear any and all cases dealing with piracy and the protection of intellectual property, that's another story. But in that scenario, the one with the most buck$$ would win. Guess who that is.
Nearly 10 years ago, I used to work with a guy who did his tour of duty in electronic countermeasures. He had a home-made 'pain generator' in his car, as an anti-theft measure.
What it was, really, was a bunch of speakers that oscillated between high and low frequencies, causing severe discomfort to whoever broke in to the car. Headaches, nausea, possibly a busted liver or spleen if you didn't go away - or so I was told.
He'd also mentioned things like portable rail-guns, that would put a paperclip through a cinderblock wall; focused microwave emitters that would cook a 1 inch diameter cylinder through some poor bastards gut at 100 yards; and EM weapons that put matter into something called 'runaway mode', i.e. electro-magnetic ionization (huh?) - which on a large scale promises to make nuclear weapons look like sticks and stones... Fun stuff - very creative use of technology.
He made a point of mentioning that none of this stuff was new - it just sounded new to people who assume that weapons must spit lead, and who never took the second semester of University physics.
He also mentioned external combusion engines on something he called the 'Aurora'... SQUID devices that can read the state of a CPU from a half mile away, and cameras that will read newspaper headlines from 100,000 feet above Moscow.
But then again, he also saw aliens over Groom Lake.
I've got the whole Internet on a CD, AOL sent it to me for free.. J. Dvorak said so, so it must be true.
The original article, I'm afraid, is another in a continuing trend. A little knowledge is dangerous, and tight deadlines, coupled with a desire to grand-stand, in addition to 'incentives' from corporate 'sponsors'; ultimately lead to irresponsible reporting.
CNN, and the grand-daddy of FUD ZDNET, have always thrown buzzwords and fuel on the fire, without really checking their facts and sources. Their (ZDNET) authors and editors probably get a beta and free support for the latest M$ product - and so journalistic ethics get swept under the rug.
What is shameful, is that the original article appeared in an off-shoot of the IEEE. (!?!?!) If we can't trust the IEEE to lead by example, maybe journalism should also become a grass-roots, open-source effort.
As for the reply to the drivvel.. Well done! Way to burn down the 'straw-man'. But it'd be even better to cram it down the author's throat by submitting it to a trade journal.
If this is a 'deep cut' regulation, browser caching will be the least of our problems.
Mirror sites are, technically, cached content of their master sites.
Routers routinely maintain routing tables in RAM caches, to expedite performance.
Bridges between LANs must cache data packets to map 802.3 to 802.5 and so forth.
Networks are inherently dependent on cached information, and this will become even more critical when IPv6 and it's encryption/security features are introduced. Hell, even Kermit 'sliding windows' are, technically, a cache. So is the wire through which the information passes, if you want to take the matter to an obscene level.
Every PC has a built-in cache, for memory, and resident on the processor.
This regulation will die a painful death. Or it will be clearly defined - likely by the same people that brought you the OSI standard.
Jerry Falwell, hmmm, lemme think... Isn't this the man that lost his virtue to his own mother, and in an outhouse??;)
What is HE doing watching children's programming? Shouldn't he be out predicting the wrath of God that shall befall all sinners at the turn of the millenium? Or begging for money, so that God would not "bring him home"?? Or maybe molesting a secretary, to help her start up a phonesex/psychic career??
Really folks, we've already seen it all, from Jessica Rabbit's underwear to the castles in the Little Mermaid. When will mainstream society realize that THEIR brand of 'religion' boarders on fascism, and is a bigger source of FUD than the whole computer industry put together? Nice try, but this won't distract people from the Clinton 'thing'.
And really,/. should not waste it's time, or add to the publicity.
SiliconJesus is right, this article should be part of a permanent/. repository. It includes one of the most thorough histories of hackerdom I've ever read. But I hope someone will go through and clean it up a little bit first.
David Boundy states the following in his _A_Taxonomy_of_Programmers_ (http://csis.olivet.edu/CSIS/courses/s98/taxonomy. html) : A great programmer writes many languages well (English not least among them!)...
Any paper, peer reviewed or otherwise, that poses as an academic treatise by using phrases such as bourgeoisie society, Taylorist principles and avant-garde of neo-laissez-faire economic liberalism really ought to take basic rules of grammar into account.
I realize that that author may not be a native English speaker, but if the paper was authored by a University Fellow...
SiliconJesus is right, this article should be part of a permanent/. repository. It includes one of the most thorough histories of hackerdom I've ever read. But I hope someone will go through and clean it up a little bit first.
David Boundy states the following in his _A_Taxonomy_of_Programmers_ (http://csis.olivet.edu/CSIS/courses/s98/taxonomy. html) : A great programmer writes many languages well (English not least among them!)...
Any paper, peer reviewed or otherwise, that poses as an academic treatise by using phrases such as bourgeoisie society, Taylorist principles and avant-garde of neo-laissez-faire economic liberalism really ought to take spelling, grammar and punctuation into account.
I realize that that author may not be a native English speaker, but if the paper was authored by a University Fellow...
Just what is the pedigree of Be? It sounds to me like they're a company founded and built, by an on, former Apple-ites.. It sprung on the scene recently, just as MS started to get pummled for being a monopoly. Around the same time MS gave Apple a whole lot of cash...
Now MS is paying for Apple's SuperBowl ad, and Be says it is NOT a contender.
Methinks the alternative OS doth protest too much.
You have to feel the source. You have to be the source.
A hard coded string is the strong oak, mighty and unyielding - but a variable parameter is the reed that bends in the wind of maintenence and upgrade.
What I would like to find, as a complement to these books, is a western philosophy counterpart. Perhaps something a'la Nietsche?? Is there anything out there like THAT?
-- When you can mask the NMI, it will be time for you to leave.
I guess I should buy a Packard Bell and never, ever, break that little hologram sticker on the case. It voids your warranty, you know. And I certainly wouldn't want to do something that the manufacturer didn't intend.
Gasp! I've heard that some really bad people out there actually RECOMPILE their operating systems. Those idiots! Don't they know that if they make a mistake, their computers will blow up and they won't be able to use chatrooms any more??
Look up the beginning of this thread and then follow it back down again. While you're at it, pick up a dictionary and read up on SARCASM -- it's right there between SAP and SATIABLE. d00d!;)
Look up the beginning of this thread, and while you're at it, pick up a dictionary and read up on SARCASM -- it's right there between SAP and SATIABLE. d00d!;)
Here's to a small intellectual elite ruling class overseeing a large, highly-skilled, productive and hard working middle class, taxed into surrendering their aspirations; kept hard at work with the fear of becoming a member of the poor lower class.
Actually, the educated socialist mantra goes more like this: " I've got an education, and if you had one, you could challenge my ideas and choose your own path, to socialism, capitalism, or whatever otherism you please. We would both walk away from the debate, agreeing to disagree, but respectful of one another's educated views. However, if you are an uneducated dolt, I know what's good for you and society in general, so get back to some useful work!"
And just what does having the Will drafted by a lawyer, have to do with this? How many blue collar shmoes set up trust funds? Don't spouses compare notes on their Wills, to see such 'critical section' conditions?
You're posing logic problems. These are considerations that a lawyer is more likely to make, then any intelligent person, due to experience. This is something that any self-respecting piece of software would include. Contingency clauses are not obscure legal inventions, a private lease has plenty of them.
Having a lawyer's signature on the document will not make these problems go away. Lawyer prepared Wills are contested every day. In fact, many lawyers make a lucrative living on exploiting loopholes in other lawyers work. The point of the discussion is the general case, typical public scenario, not singular obscurity.
Frankly, your arguments have as much to do with the point of the discussion, as the dining philosophers problem has to do with the culinary arts.
You're absolutely right? What's next? Banning access to public record, because people might find a legal precedent?
Someone has piped up about banning medical software because people can hurt themselves.. Are these the same people that still practice leeching and blood letting? If someone lacks the common sense to realize that something is out of their scope, let them get taken for a ride. Arrgh!
Another creepy thing is that if this goes through, and is not abolished by someone sane, the medical boards will want the med s'ware banned, the accountants will want the self-tax software gone, the Post Office will seek a moratorium on email...
After all, all those things are stiffling innovation by creating the illusion of competition and individual empowerment. Right Bill?
I'm glad someone hit the nail on the head. (though I'm not volunteering for the job) What legal software does is fill in the blanks on a few forms. It really is a simple matter of javascript, or even an HTML form.
For a vast majority of what they do, lawyers can be replaced by a machine!
That is what this is all about. Fear of obsolescence. Next thing you know, they'll be saying that real lawyers are better because they're Y2K compliant..
IMHO, and I am not a lawyer, if a Will states my will, and has a public notary stamp on it, then it is a valid Will. Also, a Do Not Resussitate (sp?) order is good enough as word of mouth, if my next of kin is aware of it. I don't need an expensive piece of paper to die in peace, or to distribute my estate. At least I shouldn't - If it's necessary, where's freedom?
Slashdot Mirror
It wasn't so much the inability to do it, but the amount of screen real-estate that the dedicated area takes away.
Are there any convincing reasons for the Ppilot 'feature', when it CAN be done in software?
Just what we need, Jerry Falwell looking for obscene patterns on circuit boards.
I can hear it now: Those COLORED computers are evil, they're good for nothing and lazy. Buy these nice, baige computers. These here, the ones powered by the K-K-Katmai chip, with the serial number! The LOOOORRRRRRD has so ordered!
Bah! Companies that have little or nothing to do with each other, should not merge. Pixar I can understand, but Apple itself? It's like MicroSoft and Pfizer joining. Hmmm.
I've had a Philips Nino for a few months now. I wish it hadn't come with WinCE, since it does crash. But I chose it over the Pilot because it has an on-screen writing area. Once the Pilot has this feature, I'll get it.
;)
As for the PV, it looks great!! 11mm thick? Now THAT is something you can stick in a shirt pocket.
3COM - PLEASE make the writing area virtual... and move the buttons to the sides of the unit. I'll not only buy one (and burn the CE unit in effigy) but I'll also get one for each of my friends.
That way all three of us will have one
That said, hold your fire!
Linux will never be supported in the same way as, say, HP-UX. Why? Well, it's not controlled by a large company, with a constant, stable and immutable product. The source-code is free to tweak by mom&pop shops, so no one in their right mind would offer commercial level support to it.
But, the fact that Linux is open significantly reduces the need for commercial level support. Compatibility with products is a matter of time and need, not politics and back-room handshakes.
Problems are solved in a distributed fashion, with enthusiasm and good-will.
Linux represents all that is best in the Darwinian evolution of software. Corporate mentality can not fathom this, and neither can the Gartner Group. They need guarantees, and someone to sue if it breaks. Linux just doesn't break. And you can say that with more than a 0.8 probablility.
Someone needs to 'splain it to them in terms like that IBM commercial. For every Linux server you set up, you will save $20,000/year in support...
Support is free, fast and accurate. Everyone knows that contributing to it makes the penguin evolve faster and better; everyone benefits from solving each other's problems. So much so, that Tux will be the first penguin to actually take off.
M$ is simply following the rules because it is more convenient to do so.
What is to stop M$ from dissolving itself as a US firm, re-establishing itself in a country where the laws are more favorable, and simply importing it's product back to the US? It can set up the Redmond campus as a development sub-contractor, but 'officially' be located on Christmas Island, or in the UK, or wherever. In fact, M$ can buy a small Carribean island nation, and make it's own laws. Wm. Gibson had it right!
Then, the US would have to sanction that country to control M$.. Not likely.
As for M$ going OpenSource, I'd love to see the sh*t hit the fan if the DOJ even suggested that a company must reveal trade secrets. Pratt&Whitney, Pfizer, Ford... They'd all start screaming at that precedent. Again, as you say, it's not likely.
And just how do you think the DOJ would justify prejudicial treatment of M$? The purpose of the DOJ is to see that JUSTICE is done, and that even criminals are treated fairly. So, even if M$ doesn't play by the rules, the DOJ - by it's very existence, has to.
If the DOJ were to refuse to hear any and all cases dealing with piracy and the protection of intellectual property, that's another story. But in that scenario, the one with the most buck$$ would win. Guess who that is.
Nearly 10 years ago, I used to work with a guy who did his tour of duty in electronic countermeasures. He had a home-made 'pain generator' in his car, as an anti-theft measure.
What it was, really, was a bunch of speakers that oscillated between high and low frequencies, causing severe discomfort to whoever broke in to the car. Headaches, nausea, possibly a busted liver or spleen if you didn't go away - or so I was told.
He'd also mentioned things like portable rail-guns, that would put a paperclip through a cinderblock wall; focused microwave emitters that would cook a 1 inch diameter cylinder through some poor bastards gut at 100 yards; and EM weapons that put matter into something called 'runaway mode', i.e. electro-magnetic ionization (huh?) - which on a large scale promises to make nuclear weapons look like sticks and stones... Fun stuff - very creative use of technology.
He made a point of mentioning that none of this stuff was new - it just sounded new to people who assume that weapons must spit lead, and who never took the second semester of University physics.
He also mentioned external combusion engines on something he called the 'Aurora'... SQUID devices that can read the state of a CPU from a half mile away, and cameras that will read newspaper headlines from 100,000 feet above Moscow.
But then again, he also saw aliens over Groom Lake.
I've got the whole Internet on a CD, AOL sent it to me for free.. J. Dvorak said so, so it must be true.
The original article, I'm afraid, is another in a continuing trend. A little knowledge is dangerous, and tight deadlines, coupled with a desire to grand-stand, in addition to 'incentives' from corporate 'sponsors'; ultimately lead to irresponsible reporting.
CNN, and the grand-daddy of FUD ZDNET, have always thrown buzzwords and fuel on the fire, without really checking their facts and sources. Their (ZDNET) authors and editors probably get a beta and free support for the latest M$ product - and so journalistic ethics get swept under the rug.
What is shameful, is that the original article appeared in an off-shoot of the IEEE. (!?!?!) If we can't trust the IEEE to lead by example, maybe journalism should also become a grass-roots, open-source effort.
As for the reply to the drivvel.. Well done! Way to burn down the 'straw-man'. But it'd be even better to cram it down the author's throat by submitting it to a trade journal.
If this is a 'deep cut' regulation, browser caching will be the least of our problems.
Mirror sites are, technically, cached content of their master sites.
Routers routinely maintain routing tables in RAM caches, to expedite performance.
Bridges between LANs must cache data packets to map 802.3 to 802.5 and so forth.
Networks are inherently dependent on cached information, and this will become even more critical when IPv6 and it's encryption/security features are introduced. Hell, even Kermit 'sliding windows' are, technically, a cache. So is the wire through which the information passes, if you want to take the matter to an obscene level.
Every PC has a built-in cache, for memory, and resident on the processor.
This regulation will die a painful death. Or it will be clearly defined - likely by the same people that brought you the OSI standard.
Jerry Falwell, hmmm, lemme think... ;)
/. should not waste it's time, or add to the publicity.
Isn't this the man that lost his virtue to his own mother, and in an outhouse??
What is HE doing watching children's programming? Shouldn't he be out predicting the wrath of God that shall befall all sinners at the turn of the millenium? Or begging for money, so that God would not "bring him home"?? Or maybe molesting a secretary, to help her start up a phonesex/psychic career??
Really folks, we've already seen it all, from Jessica Rabbit's underwear to the castles in the Little Mermaid. When will mainstream society realize that THEIR brand of 'religion' boarders on fascism, and is a bigger source of FUD than the whole computer industry put together? Nice try, but this won't distract people from the Clinton 'thing'.
And really,
SiliconJesus is right, this article should be part of a permanent /. repository. It includes one of the most thorough histories of hackerdom I've ever read. But I hope someone will go through and clean it up a little bit first.
. html) :
David Boundy states the following in his _A_Taxonomy_of_Programmers_ (http://csis.olivet.edu/CSIS/courses/s98/taxonomy
A great programmer writes many languages well (English not least among them!)...
Any paper, peer reviewed or otherwise, that poses as an academic treatise by using phrases such as bourgeoisie society, Taylorist principles and avant-garde of neo-laissez-faire economic liberalism really ought to take basic rules of grammar into account.
I realize that that author may not be a native English speaker, but if the paper was authored by a University Fellow...
Just my 2 cents.
SiliconJesus is right, this article should be part of a permanent /. repository. It includes one of the most thorough histories of hackerdom I've ever read. But I hope someone will go through and clean it up a little bit first.
. html) :
David Boundy states the following in his _A_Taxonomy_of_Programmers_ (http://csis.olivet.edu/CSIS/courses/s98/taxonomy
A great programmer writes many languages well (English not least among them!)...
Any paper, peer reviewed or otherwise, that poses as an academic treatise by using phrases such as bourgeoisie society, Taylorist principles and avant-garde of neo-laissez-faire economic liberalism really ought to take spelling, grammar and punctuation into account.
I realize that that author may not be a native English speaker, but if the paper was authored by a University Fellow...
Just my 2 cents.
Just what is the pedigree of Be? It sounds to me like they're a company founded and built, by an on, former Apple-ites.. It sprung on the scene recently, just as MS started to get pummled for being a monopoly. Around the same time MS gave Apple a whole lot of cash...
Now MS is paying for Apple's SuperBowl ad, and Be says it is NOT a contender.
Methinks the alternative OS doth protest too much.
You have to feel the source. You have to be the source.
A hard coded string is the strong oak, mighty and unyielding - but a variable parameter is the reed that bends in the wind of maintenence and upgrade.
What I would like to find, as a complement to these books, is a western philosophy counterpart. Perhaps something a'la Nietsche?? Is there anything out there like THAT?
-- When you can mask the NMI, it will be time for you to leave.
Now THAT is hard-core dedication! The only way to be more self-sufficient is to roll your own assembly code. :)
Thank you for educating me FUDmeister.
I guess I should buy a Packard Bell and never, ever, break that little hologram sticker on the case. It voids your warranty, you know. And I certainly wouldn't want to do something that the manufacturer didn't intend.
Gasp! I've heard that some really bad people out there actually RECOMPILE their operating systems. Those idiots! Don't they know that if they make a mistake, their computers will blow up and they won't be able to use chatrooms any more??
Uh-huh! And every 7 year old will want a new $2000 PC for Christmas. Sure.
Actually, the reverse should be done. A cheap, console-like appliance, that would let people do what they do on the computer, like surfing.
WebTV anyone?
Look up the beginning of this thread and then follow it back down again. While you're at it, pick up a dictionary and read up on SARCASM -- it's right there between SAP and SATIABLE. d00d! ;)
Look up the beginning of this thread, and while you're at it, pick up a dictionary and read up on SARCASM -- it's right there between SAP and SATIABLE. d00d! ;)
Absolutely!
Here's to a small intellectual elite ruling class overseeing a large, highly-skilled, productive and hard working middle class, taxed into surrendering their aspirations; kept hard at work with the fear of becoming a member of the poor lower class.
Sound like any country you know?
Actually, the educated socialist mantra goes more like this: " I've got an education, and if you had one, you could challenge my ideas and choose your own path, to socialism, capitalism, or whatever otherism you please. We would both walk away from the debate, agreeing to disagree, but respectful of one another's educated views. However, if you are an uneducated dolt, I know what's good for you and society in general, so get back to some useful work!"
And just what does having the Will drafted by a lawyer, have to do with this? How many blue collar shmoes set up trust funds? Don't spouses compare notes on their Wills, to see such 'critical section' conditions?
You're posing logic problems. These are considerations that a lawyer is more likely to make, then any intelligent person, due to experience. This is something that any self-respecting piece of software would include. Contingency clauses are not obscure legal inventions, a private lease has plenty of them.
Having a lawyer's signature on the document will not make these problems go away. Lawyer prepared Wills are contested every day. In fact, many lawyers make a lucrative living on exploiting loopholes in other lawyers work. The point of the discussion is the general case, typical public scenario, not singular obscurity.
Frankly, your arguments have as much to do with the point of the discussion, as the dining philosophers problem has to do with the culinary arts.
You're absolutely right? What's next? Banning access to public record, because people might find a legal precedent?
Someone has piped up about banning medical software because people can hurt themselves.. Are these the same people that still practice leeching and blood letting? If someone lacks the common sense to realize that something is out of their scope, let them get taken for a ride. Arrgh!
Another creepy thing is that if this goes through, and is not abolished by someone sane, the medical boards will want the med s'ware banned, the accountants will want the self-tax software gone, the Post Office will seek a moratorium on email...
After all, all those things are stiffling innovation by creating the illusion of competition and individual empowerment. Right Bill?
I'm glad someone hit the nail on the head. (though I'm not volunteering for the job) What legal software does is fill in the blanks on a few forms. It really is a simple matter of javascript, or even an HTML form.
For a vast majority of what they do, lawyers can be replaced by a machine!
That is what this is all about. Fear of obsolescence. Next thing you know, they'll be saying that real lawyers are better because they're Y2K compliant..
IMHO, and I am not a lawyer, if a Will states my will, and has a public notary stamp on it, then it is a valid Will. Also, a Do Not Resussitate (sp?) order is good enough as word of mouth, if my next of kin is aware of it. I don't need an expensive piece of paper to die in peace, or to distribute my estate. At least I shouldn't - If it's necessary, where's freedom?