Blaming people for what they are, beings that perpetually want better, is fucking retarded. Better quality of life, better tools, better food, better shelter.
Isn't wanting more/better/cheaper while assuming that no input has to go into producing more/better/cheaper equally fucking retarded? The laws of physics dictate that you can't get something for nothing.
Corrupt politicians is a huge problem, yes. But don't underestimate the power of the masses... The problem is most of the time the masses mostly want to not do stuff.
I guess my point is that I hope humanity on average will eventually, one way or another, become smarter and wiser on average.
The biggest issue is ultimately the short sighted consumer (read: voter) who wants everything and as cheaply as possible...
If there were a real market for clean safe energy that cost twice the amount of regular juice someone would supply the demand. Same thing with sweat shops producing our clothing, electronics, everything. Humans aren't ultimately that smart.
Yes, I'm cynical. But also an idealist. Maybe one day we'll learn?
Has the CD and digital distribution caused vinyl to die? Quite the opposite. The market for vinyls is small, but quite vibrant.
I'm sure there will be a market for physical books because some people will simply like them. Digital printing will make it possible to make a physical copy of any book relatively cheaply.
While I think that it makes a lot of sense to dump physical books I don't think they will disappear completely for quite a few more generations.
All and all, it sounds like a nice device if you don't want an iPad.
This is really the pivotal issue for me. If I pay for a device I want to decide what I run on it. Apple's model is great for a software consumer, but not for a power user/developer like myself. The global market for a non-closed platform isn't as big as the Average Joe Consumer market, but it's there, and I'm sure it has a future too. Homogeneous systems are a Bad Thing anyway, it's good to have options.
Is it just me, or were crazy comedies in the 70s, 80s and early 90s on average a little less abysmal? If I, for example, compare the works of Mel Brooks to movies like Scary Movie X or American Pie Y I can't help think that somewhere along the line we lost the intelligent humor and settled for what is truly the lowest common denominator?
I can't help feel a certain pattern emerging here...
There has to be closed-garden companies like Apple to make new paradigms. They control the OS, they can make it do what they want. They're also not afraid to do away with tradition that has no use anymore.
While you're right that controlling the whole stack does make it easier do throw away tradition, I have to disagree with the "has to" part. You're also right that a lot of the design work that goes on in the open source world is rather abysmal. But to assume that the open source approach in incapable of moving away from tradition or can never produce a decent GUI is just ignorant.
For the most part I do agree that Apple does produce much nicer hardware than the average PC. But even in this case the exeptions justify the rule.
About ten years ago, before the iPod and OS X, I suspect very few of us suspected anything like this from Apple. As much as I don't agree with their walled garden approach to software, it's hard not to be impressed with what they have accomplished.
And yet, we're very much in a transformative age in computing. Desktops are increasingly rare for mainstream computing, tablets are on the rise, and there are billions of people who are getting their first taste of the Internet not through a traditional computer, but instead a smartphone. Everyone is searching for the holy grail, the next big thing.
It's gonna be an interesting next ten years. I for one is staying idealistic and hoping for open standards and interoperability across devices, platforms, and operating systems. Sorry, Apple.
Yes, generalists are important for the reasons stated in the blurb. But specialists provide grist for the mill of generalists - you can only investigate different combinations of known components for so long.
Indeed. I am a generalist myself, working a lot on integrating stuff. Sometimes it's people, sometimes it's code, sometimes pieces of information. But without the rest of our team at work I'd probably be a lot less useful. Glue is useful to put pieces together, but build something out of glue only and you'll get a shapeless blob...
I know I'll likely never be really fundamentally great at anything. I'm too easily bored... So instead I try to be good at everything, and use that to my advantage. At least I'll likely never be out of a job.
Back when Ken and Roberta Williams founded Sierra game development was a very different scene from today. (Read Steven Levy's Hackers.)
Today game development is an industry, employing a huge amount of people. Much like movies, games need to sell for people to pay their expenses and live their lives.
It's likely that games, like movies, will develop an art scene where things are developed independently or funded by grants beforehand. But the mainstream stuff? Let's just say that the ship has sailed. Apologies for my cynicism...
I absolutely detest playing games, programming them on the other hand, that I love.
I love to program, but after doing it all day at work I quite enjoy a diversion in the form of games. Mostly it's with the kids and not very deep titles, but definitely helps to unwind.
When the Wii was announced people were _very_ sceptical about the whole motion control thing...
I'll wait and see if this is a winner or not. Also, I'm wondering if it will play my old Wii games. Not really that interested in keeping a stack of consoles in the living room.
I've been playing a bit of Tales of Monkey Island with my kids who have enjoyed it even though they don't understand English. I think it's quite enjoyable and does the originals justice.
As for Twitter... nobody on there should count toward anything. Twiter is about whoring yourself out just like all the other social networks. It's about spreading yourself around to boost your ego (or your business). It's not about listening or having a bi-directional friendship.
I don't use Twitter, but I do use Facebook for real social interaction. In fact a lot of real world events I've gone to lately (meeting friends, parties, dancing events, even some business stuff) have been initialized through Facebook. As annoying as it is "social technology" has it's merits when applied properly and used like the tool it is.
I think these days you need a valid US mailing address and credit card to activate even the pre-paid devices. And the cost for pre-paid data is $5 for 10 MB, $15 for 100 MB, $25 for 500 MB.
We had this experience when visiting the US as while back. For whatever reason we couldn't buy prepaid cards with European credit cards. Ironically we were told that we could buy a US prepaid credit card and use that to pay the prepaid SIM... Argh. Can't remember if we just gave up at that point.
But there's also Momo which even starred the author himself (Michael Ende) in the beginning of the movie - and which is actually pretty true to the book.
I missed that one. (Then again I'm born in 1979.) Probably should see it sometime, thanks for the tip!
This is probably the single most important reason I think Big Content is ultimately more harmful to our culture than good. Copyright one can always be infringed if there are no other options, but how does one battle a torrent of mediocre crap?
Fortunately, technology is putting power back into the ones who have vision, and not just cash.
Those who read the book know how horribly wrong a film adaptation can go... I think drawing parallels is relevant because both books have great movie potential, but also a huge amount of room for spectacular failure.
But the possibility to fail is no reason for not trying, so more power to them.:)
When you're dealing with that, process does just get in the way.
All development follows some process. The trick is to find a process which supports the needs of the (development) organization. Process that gets in the way is the wrong process. This doesn't mean it's impossible or pointless to formalize the bits of ad-hoc process that are determined by trial and error to work.
Slashdot Mirror
Blaming people for what they are, beings that perpetually want better, is fucking retarded. Better quality of life, better tools, better food, better shelter.
Isn't wanting more/better/cheaper while assuming that no input has to go into producing more/better/cheaper equally fucking retarded? The laws of physics dictate that you can't get something for nothing.
Corrupt politicians is a huge problem, yes. But don't underestimate the power of the masses... The problem is most of the time the masses mostly want to not do stuff.
I guess my point is that I hope humanity on average will eventually, one way or another, become smarter and wiser on average.
The biggest issue is ultimately the short sighted consumer (read: voter) who wants everything and as cheaply as possible...
If there were a real market for clean safe energy that cost twice the amount of regular juice someone would supply the demand. Same thing with sweat shops producing our clothing, electronics, everything. Humans aren't ultimately that smart.
Yes, I'm cynical. But also an idealist. Maybe one day we'll learn?
Has the CD and digital distribution caused vinyl to die? Quite the opposite. The market for vinyls is small, but quite vibrant.
I'm sure there will be a market for physical books because some people will simply like them. Digital printing will make it possible to make a physical copy of any book relatively cheaply.
While I think that it makes a lot of sense to dump physical books I don't think they will disappear completely for quite a few more generations.
All and all, it sounds like a nice device if you don't want an iPad.
This is really the pivotal issue for me. If I pay for a device I want to decide what I run on it. Apple's model is great for a software consumer, but not for a power user/developer like myself. The global market for a non-closed platform isn't as big as the Average Joe Consumer market, but it's there, and I'm sure it has a future too. Homogeneous systems are a Bad Thing anyway, it's good to have options.
Is it just me, or were crazy comedies in the 70s, 80s and early 90s on average a little less abysmal? If I, for example, compare the works of Mel Brooks to movies like Scary Movie X or American Pie Y I can't help think that somewhere along the line we lost the intelligent humor and settled for what is truly the lowest common denominator?
I can't help feel a certain pattern emerging here...
Am I just getting old?
...or doesn't this seem a little hypocritical in light of how the whole Wikileaks thing has been handled?
I should probably start buying up some forest just about now...
There has to be closed-garden companies like Apple to make new paradigms. They control the OS, they can make it do what they want. They're also not afraid to do away with tradition that has no use anymore.
While you're right that controlling the whole stack does make it easier do throw away tradition, I have to disagree with the "has to" part. You're also right that a lot of the design work that goes on in the open source world is rather abysmal. But to assume that the open source approach in incapable of moving away from tradition or can never produce a decent GUI is just ignorant.
For the most part I do agree that Apple does produce much nicer hardware than the average PC. But even in this case the exeptions justify the rule.
About ten years ago, before the iPod and OS X, I suspect very few of us suspected anything like this from Apple. As much as I don't agree with their walled garden approach to software, it's hard not to be impressed with what they have accomplished.
And yet, we're very much in a transformative age in computing. Desktops are increasingly rare for mainstream computing, tablets are on the rise, and there are billions of people who are getting their first taste of the Internet not through a traditional computer, but instead a smartphone. Everyone is searching for the holy grail, the next big thing.
It's gonna be an interesting next ten years. I for one is staying idealistic and hoping for open standards and interoperability across devices, platforms, and operating systems. Sorry, Apple.
Yes, generalists are important for the reasons stated in the blurb. But specialists provide grist for the mill of generalists - you can only investigate different combinations of known components for so long.
Indeed. I am a generalist myself, working a lot on integrating stuff. Sometimes it's people, sometimes it's code, sometimes pieces of information. But without the rest of our team at work I'd probably be a lot less useful. Glue is useful to put pieces together, but build something out of glue only and you'll get a shapeless blob...
I know I'll likely never be really fundamentally great at anything. I'm too easily bored... So instead I try to be good at everything, and use that to my advantage. At least I'll likely never be out of a job.
Back when Ken and Roberta Williams founded Sierra game development was a very different scene from today. (Read Steven Levy's Hackers.)
Today game development is an industry, employing a huge amount of people. Much like movies, games need to sell for people to pay their expenses and live their lives.
It's likely that games, like movies, will develop an art scene where things are developed independently or funded by grants beforehand. But the mainstream stuff? Let's just say that the ship has sailed. Apologies for my cynicism...
I absolutely detest playing games, programming them on the other hand, that I love.
I love to program, but after doing it all day at work I quite enjoy a diversion in the form of games. Mostly it's with the kids and not very deep titles, but definitely helps to unwind.
I read the article and peaked at the site. $20 a month, for what is practically a CDN?
I'm assuming they have some pretty heavy limits on the amount of traffic you can get for that amount... Bandwidth isn't free after all.
That being said this seems like a cool service for smaller sites, especially when you don't want to do everything yourself.
Ignorance is bliss, they say...
When the Wii was announced people were _very_ sceptical about the whole motion control thing...
I'll wait and see if this is a winner or not. Also, I'm wondering if it will play my old Wii games. Not really that interested in keeping a stack of consoles in the living room.
I've been playing a bit of Tales of Monkey Island with my kids who have enjoyed it even though they don't understand English. I think it's quite enjoyable and does the originals justice.
As for Twitter... nobody on there should count toward anything. Twiter is about whoring yourself out just like all the other social networks. It's about spreading yourself around to boost your ego (or your business). It's not about listening or having a bi-directional friendship.
I don't use Twitter, but I do use Facebook for real social interaction. In fact a lot of real world events I've gone to lately (meeting friends, parties, dancing events, even some business stuff) have been initialized through Facebook. As annoying as it is "social technology" has it's merits when applied properly and used like the tool it is.
Without modifying ourselves it's improbable that any technology can change the limits our biological make-up presents.
I think these days you need a valid US mailing address and credit card to activate even the pre-paid devices. And the cost for pre-paid data is $5 for 10 MB, $15 for 100 MB, $25 for 500 MB.
We had this experience when visiting the US as while back. For whatever reason we couldn't buy prepaid cards with European credit cards. Ironically we were told that we could buy a US prepaid credit card and use that to pay the prepaid SIM... Argh. Can't remember if we just gave up at that point.
But there's also Momo which even starred the author himself (Michael Ende) in the beginning of the movie - and which is actually pretty true to the book.
I missed that one. (Then again I'm born in 1979.) Probably should see it sometime, thanks for the tip!
This is probably the single most important reason I think Big Content is ultimately more harmful to our culture than good. Copyright one can always be infringed if there are no other options, but how does one battle a torrent of mediocre crap?
Fortunately, technology is putting power back into the ones who have vision, and not just cash.
Those who read the book know how horribly wrong a film adaptation can go... I think drawing parallels is relevant because both books have great movie potential, but also a huge amount of room for spectacular failure.
But the possibility to fail is no reason for not trying, so more power to them. :)
When you're dealing with that, process does just get in the way.
All development follows some process. The trick is to find a process which supports the needs of the (development) organization. Process that gets in the way is the wrong process. This doesn't mean it's impossible or pointless to formalize the bits of ad-hoc process that are determined by trial and error to work.
http://www.workrave.org/
Being a good coder has nothing to do with sex.
People who are passionate about making good code have the potential to achieve greatness.
People who only care about making it "work" without requiring beauty in the code itself, well, you do the math...