Sorry... I missed that post or we cross-posted, you know how Slashdot does this.
But you are completely right about the Linux DIY and elitism attitude. After a while you just get tired and just want it to work. I have other problems to solve in my life.
I am tired of having to work out problems that should not need to be worked out.
In a post a bit higher I essentially said this. Linux is a great hacker OS, but an end user is just left hanging.
I know many folks who are shifting for their desktop needs to OSX because they are tired of the "crap" that they need to deal with.
On the server side it is a completely different issue. But for getting things done, like development, reading email, writing documents, scanning documents, VOIP, Linux sucks!
The problem with Linux is that yes there are critics... BUT the Linux community dismisses them as twits who don't understand or appreciate Linux...
If the Linux community were to take end users seriously and start solving their problems then maybe Linux would move on...
Here is a simple question, why on earth when I have multiple applications that need the sound card have problems sharing the sound card? Who on freaken earth thought that one out...
Or they could just make the movie for the mindless sex-and-violence crowd...
Come on... Spock and emotions with women? Yeah that will fit well into the overall scheme of things.
So the director is a producer, directory, and writer from? Lost, Alias?
Look I happen to be a huge Lost fan, but Lost is a fantasy, not scifi! Or it is that new age goo that people call scifi mixed in with a whole bunch of make believe garbage.
I think that this is what Star Trek has become FANTASY that tries to pass off as SciFi...
Of the little that I have seen through the trailers I thought the exact SAME THING...
I thought, oh god not yet another movie that targets this "reality TV" generation. What I always liked about Star Trek is that they always tried to put some techy stuff into the overall scheme of things. They tried to answer or provoke some question.
For example with Star Trek 1 it was women and aliens... Ohhh they could even be NORMAL...
Star Trek NG... Ohhh robots can intermingle with HUMANS...
Star Trek DS9... Ohhh sometimes humans have to HUMANS...
Star Trek Voyager??? Well sort of bouncing around to survive, granted this one was entertainment more than anything. And some would argue bad entertainment...
Star Trek Enterprise: YAWN...
So when I see these trailers all I can think of is, "wow Star Trek is dead... "
Look at the core of the problem. We need to DRASTICALLY change our habits. And you and I know that change is not coming.
So if climate change is our fault (assuming it is) we are not going to change until it hits us flat in the face.
Ok let's take the other side of the coin. Let's say we are not at fault. It is indeed a earthly thing. What then? Keep pumping into the air CO2, since it does not matter anyways? Not change because we are screwed anyways?
My answer is that we need to start preparing ourselves through proper planning. This means changing our habits of how we grow things, build housing, etc, etc... Since those areas that were very suitable for growing and living probably are not going to be anymore.
As I wrote in a previous part of this article, the fact that it is cold and it should not be should make you very concerned.
In Europe we have the same thing happening. This is actually part of the global climate change problem.
Do some research into the Atlantic conveyor and the ramifications of its change. Answer (and I read about this five years ago) exactly what you are experiencing now.
Thus you should become VERY concerned because once the conveyor changes whole sections of climate change will occur. My mother lives in BC and she is getting tired of the cold...
No actually I believe there is global warming. As I run a financial blog I did some number crunching on CO2, energy and the likes. Conclusion, unless we cut by 50% we are screwed. So my advocacy is that we need to deal with the change coming.
Do I care if it came from humanity or not? Not really, actually it's beside the point. Sort of like arguing about a truck that's about to hit a crowd of people and asking, "well did that truck stop before making a right hand turn or not?" I said who shives a ghit, we need to do something about the ramifications of the truck....
Let me give you an example. I have been living here in Europe since 1994. In the past five years here in Switzerland we have been getting Canadian seasons. Yes the summers are warmer as well, but the winters are colder and more snow.
The media hypes the summers because they are hotter, but does not hype on the winter. They say, "oh this can be expected and normal". That bothers me completely because anybody who researches climate knows Europe is being kept warm by the Atlantic conveyor. If the Atlantic conveyor turns around further south then as paradoxical as it sounds with increased global warming Europe gets colder! The UK had its first snowfall in October in 74 YEARS!
I remember a report in National Geographic about 5 years ago, and documentaries on TV that said Europe with increased global warming would become cold! The reason was the Atlantic conveyor. What was scary about this is that research has shown that the conveyor can shut down in a matter of a decade, but requires thousands upon thousands of years to restore itself.
I think it is happening! Though do you read about this in the media? NOOOOO because we all associate climate change with warming not change! It is much easier to sell deserts, no water, etc than people freezing their butts... Mentally we associate deserts = death, but cold as just being something we need to deal with...
Though look at the latitude of North Europe... It is freaken Labrador! Definitely not a place I want to live in... (due to its weather...)
In the last little while I have found developers say, "you know if I live in this fairy tale world, [x] would be..."
Look the reality is that you CAN'T put privacy issues aside. That is the entire argument. Privacy issues exist and while they are not technical in nature they are of the legal nature, and that trumps technical!
Saying that you could just put the servers overseas is actually missing my point. That is the minimum. My point is, and the anonymous poster said this, data security and privacy is key. Are cloud operators giving me assurances that my data will never be stolen? Or are we talking EULA type stuff? Because if we are talking EULA type stuff no way in h**l will I use a cloud. What I see happening with cloud operators is that they think it is a technical issue to resolve, whereas I say "it is now a legal issue that needs resolution first".
You could argue that am I able to provide the same security? Well again missing the point. If I put my valuables in the bank it is because I know that the bank has a much higher level of security. The bank is not focusing on its ability to store my stuff, but in its ability to store my stuff securely. I have not seen any of this being a focus in any cloud computing operator. All they talk about is "oh look you can offload your computing..." Missing the point...
>Third, you aren't the market. Startups and web companies with spikey traffic are.
Want to make a bet? Why do you think Oracle focuses on enterprise and not startups and web companies? And why do you think Redhat focuses on the enterprise? Answer because they are the market!!! Or how about IBM? Startups and web companies are a small part of the market.
>This statement makes no sense.
No it makes complete sense. Those that can pay for it namely enterprises will not take advantage of cloud computing since many questions are left unanswered. And those that don't have the money or are loss-leaders will take advantage of this, but they don't make enough money for the entire cloud computing eco-system. So what you have is a underfunded new technology that most likely will just come and sort of be there...
BTW I actually disagree with RMS! It just happens we are probably on the same side of the coin for different reasons.
This is exactly what I was talking about. The cloud computing intiative is completely missing these aspects. And it is these aspects that will form the future of computing.
In 1999 I said at a conference that the future of computing is not in the algorithms, but in the data that the algorithms manipulate.
I said if you had the choice in 1999 to destroy either the harddisk containing the data, or the harddisk containing the algorithms, which would you choose?
Answer the algorithms. What this means is that algorithms are important, but data is more important. Thus by promoting cloud computing you are promoting that the algorithm is more important than the data, and in reality that is not the case.
If you have been following the news the governments of the world have become extremely NOSEY! This means (and I am right now personally experiencing it) companies DO care who and what is being shared. In my case we do not want servers in certain jurisdictions. I work for an investment bank, and my laptop does not go outside of Switzerland.
Look at what happened to wikileaks in Germany. Or look at what private banks have been advising their bankers! They say no travel outside of Switzerland.
Right now "cloud computing" is completely ignoring this issue and it will come back to haunt them.
That's why I am extremely skeptical that cloud computing will take off. Since those that would and can pay for it will not take advantage of it.
If you read this, please reply to my email address.
I have been meaning to do what you were talking about. But it has been told to me that everytime I switch SIM I need to resynchronize with iTunes. Is this true? What are the problems?
Interesting that you mention the rationale of vegan...
Vegan is not human nature. Yes yes we go through this argument all the time, but it is reality. Our body is capable of eating and digesting meat, and it is not a pure vegan since then we should be able to eat and digest things like all grasses, and branches, etc. We can't do that.
My point is that like Richard Stallman who is a rabid GPL advocate, vegans are rabid food people. It's their choice and they can do what they want. You can even have a properly balanced vegan diet. But it is something that you have to force yourself to do, and many people think, "ok what's the point..."
And even with vegans there is no clear line. For example, why oh why on earth is it ok to eat honey? Because it is an insect? You said,
"The basic philosophy behind veganism is reduction of suffering of all animals"
Insects are entities as well... I think you get my point.
The thing about libertarians is that they are VERY PRO IP, and very pro ownership. In fact, considering that I am libertarian and a card carrying member of the Swiss Libertarian party many would not like what libertarians represent...
I relied on IP, yes I spoke at conferences, and yes I wrote books. But guess what I don't do that anymore. Yes I realize that I am not the greatest of speakers and book authors.
BUT, and this is the big but. IP theft has made it a situation where I CANNOT make a living with what I used to. Before 2000 people used to buy books, and they used to buy things. I could make a somewhat ok living. Again I realize that I am not the greatest of writers and speakers.
I understand that many think the price of books is too high. I understand that completely. BUT please understand it from my perspective in that the situation we have is just as unsustainable.
I have also spoken and was good acquaintances with people who tried the Open source route where they gave up their books and asked people to buy print. It did not work and they made even less. Many have just left the market because they just don't think it is worth it.
So until this attitude of theft changes I for one am not going to be that critical of the RIAA.
BTW I do accept some theft, but not to the levels we have now...
Religion is the anti-thesis of science because you are not allowed to question in religion. When was the last time anybody happened to say, "you know the bible/koran/tora needs updating, let's change a few paragraphs shall we."
Whereas in science things do get updated, changed, and altered. This is what science does in that it makes us question dogma and come up with solutions.
Many people consider evolution dogma because those who believe do not consider the alternatives. Yet I think if there were plausible alternatives to evolution we would change our thinking.
One example is plate tectonics. We assume that the earth is a constant diameter, but it is starting to become more accepted that the earth might indeed be growing. You might disagree, but there are people who are researching this.
My point is that somebody is indeed questioning dogma...
If you look at the effects of venom it is actually quite amazing.
Bee Venom: Used for many joint, and allergies. Snake Venom: Cancer
Venom has very interesting side effects, but the devil is in the details and the dosage. Too much and you die, but just enough and your body has a reaction.
It is an extremely fine line. In the case of this guy who could walk again it would not surprise me that the venom kicked off a reaction that caused the nerves to regenerate.
The human body is an amazing creation since it has the ability to regenerate itself. The reason we age is because our body tells us to stop regenerating. For example look at amphibians, they just keep growing, growing, and growing...
Considering that I live in Switzerland I actually see this as quite worrisome.
Not all money is illegal, in fact I really doubt how much is truly illegal. It is more like this...
I made 100,000 dollars. I paid taxes on that. And now I want to save it... So I put it to work and at that point many folks say, "Why on earth should the government get more money from me."
Completely understandable, and in a place like Switzerland you have it build wealth year by year without having a pesky government look over your shoulder.
After all countries like Germany like to look at how wealthy you are and then determine what you should pay in taxes.
If that is not possible anymore then Switzerland will have a problem.
My thinking is that the Caribbean will benefit quite a bit. After all if the Caymans were put on the blacklist they would probably say, "whoopeee dooo... now go bugger off..."
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry... I missed that post or we cross-posted, you know how Slashdot does this.
But you are completely right about the Linux DIY and elitism attitude. After a while you just get tired and just want it to work. I have other problems to solve in my life.
I am tired of having to work out problems that should not need to be worked out.
In a post a bit higher I essentially said this. Linux is a great hacker OS, but an end user is just left hanging.
I know many folks who are shifting for their desktop needs to OSX because they are tired of the "crap" that they need to deal with.
On the server side it is a completely different issue. But for getting things done, like development, reading email, writing documents, scanning documents, VOIP, Linux sucks!
And on OSX well it just WORKS...
The problem with Linux is that yes there are critics... BUT the Linux community dismisses them as twits who don't understand or appreciate Linux...
If the Linux community were to take end users seriously and start solving their problems then maybe Linux would move on...
Here is a simple question, why on earth when I have multiple applications that need the sound card have problems sharing the sound card? Who on freaken earth thought that one out...
Or they could just make the movie for the mindless sex-and-violence crowd...
Come on... Spock and emotions with women? Yeah that will fit well into the overall scheme of things.
So the director is a producer, directory, and writer from? Lost, Alias?
Look I happen to be a huge Lost fan, but Lost is a fantasy, not scifi! Or it is that new age goo that people call scifi mixed in with a whole bunch of make believe garbage.
I think that this is what Star Trek has become FANTASY that tries to pass off as SciFi...
Of the little that I have seen through the trailers I thought the exact SAME THING...
I thought, oh god not yet another movie that targets this "reality TV" generation. What I always liked about Star Trek is that they always tried to put some techy stuff into the overall scheme of things. They tried to answer or provoke some question.
For example with Star Trek 1 it was women and aliens... Ohhh they could even be NORMAL...
Star Trek NG... Ohhh robots can intermingle with HUMANS...
Star Trek DS9... Ohhh sometimes humans have to HUMANS...
Star Trek Voyager??? Well sort of bouncing around to survive, granted this one was entertainment more than anything. And some would argue bad entertainment...
Star Trek Enterprise: YAWN...
So when I see these trailers all I can think of is, "wow Star Trek is dead... "
Here is the thing...
We probably agree that climate change is coming, yes?
If I say it is human activity how much would we need to change to make an impact? Remember we are dealing with a dynamic system.
Here are my calculations:
http://www.happyasahippo.com/~christianhgross/?p=296
Look at the core of the problem. We need to DRASTICALLY change our habits. And you and I know that change is not coming.
So if climate change is our fault (assuming it is) we are not going to change until it hits us flat in the face.
Ok let's take the other side of the coin. Let's say we are not at fault. It is indeed a earthly thing. What then? Keep pumping into the air CO2, since it does not matter anyways? Not change because we are screwed anyways?
My answer is that we need to start preparing ourselves through proper planning. This means changing our habits of how we grow things, build housing, etc, etc... Since those areas that were very suitable for growing and living probably are not going to be anymore.
Actually you should be VERY concerned...
As I wrote in a previous part of this article, the fact that it is cold and it should not be should make you very concerned.
In Europe we have the same thing happening. This is actually part of the global climate change problem.
Do some research into the Atlantic conveyor and the ramifications of its change. Answer (and I read about this five years ago) exactly what you are experiencing now.
Thus you should become VERY concerned because once the conveyor changes whole sections of climate change will occur. My mother lives in BC and she is getting tired of the cold...
No actually I believe there is global warming. As I run a financial blog I did some number crunching on CO2, energy and the likes. Conclusion, unless we cut by 50% we are screwed. So my advocacy is that we need to deal with the change coming.
Do I care if it came from humanity or not? Not really, actually it's beside the point. Sort of like arguing about a truck that's about to hit a crowd of people and asking, "well did that truck stop before making a right hand turn or not?" I said who shives a ghit, we need to do something about the ramifications of the truck....
Actually this is quite a bit of the problem.
Let me give you an example. I have been living here in Europe since 1994. In the past five years here in Switzerland we have been getting Canadian seasons. Yes the summers are warmer as well, but the winters are colder and more snow.
The media hypes the summers because they are hotter, but does not hype on the winter. They say, "oh this can be expected and normal". That bothers me completely because anybody who researches climate knows Europe is being kept warm by the Atlantic conveyor. If the Atlantic conveyor turns around further south then as paradoxical as it sounds with increased global warming Europe gets colder! The UK had its first snowfall in October in 74 YEARS!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3278378/Snow-covers-parts-of-England-as-winter-weather-sets-in.html
I remember a report in National Geographic about 5 years ago, and documentaries on TV that said Europe with increased global warming would become cold! The reason was the Atlantic conveyor. What was scary about this is that research has shown that the conveyor can shut down in a matter of a decade, but requires thousands upon thousands of years to restore itself.
I think it is happening! Though do you read about this in the media? NOOOOO because we all associate climate change with warming not change! It is much easier to sell deserts, no water, etc than people freezing their butts... Mentally we associate deserts = death, but cold as just being something we need to deal with...
Though look at the latitude of North Europe... It is freaken Labrador! Definitely not a place I want to live in... (due to its weather...)
>Privacy issues aside
In the last little while I have found developers say, "you know if I live in this fairy tale world, [x] would be..."
Look the reality is that you CAN'T put privacy issues aside. That is the entire argument. Privacy issues exist and while they are not technical in nature they are of the legal nature, and that trumps technical!
Saying that you could just put the servers overseas is actually missing my point. That is the minimum. My point is, and the anonymous poster said this, data security and privacy is key. Are cloud operators giving me assurances that my data will never be stolen? Or are we talking EULA type stuff? Because if we are talking EULA type stuff no way in h**l will I use a cloud. What I see happening with cloud operators is that they think it is a technical issue to resolve, whereas I say "it is now a legal issue that needs resolution first".
You could argue that am I able to provide the same security? Well again missing the point. If I put my valuables in the bank it is because I know that the bank has a much higher level of security. The bank is not focusing on its ability to store my stuff, but in its ability to store my stuff securely. I have not seen any of this being a focus in any cloud computing operator. All they talk about is "oh look you can offload your computing..." Missing the point...
>Third, you aren't the market. Startups and web companies with spikey traffic are.
Want to make a bet? Why do you think Oracle focuses on enterprise and not startups and web companies? And why do you think Redhat focuses on the enterprise? Answer because they are the market!!! Or how about IBM? Startups and web companies are a small part of the market.
>This statement makes no sense.
No it makes complete sense. Those that can pay for it namely enterprises will not take advantage of cloud computing since many questions are left unanswered. And those that don't have the money or are loss-leaders will take advantage of this, but they don't make enough money for the entire cloud computing eco-system. So what you have is a underfunded new technology that most likely will just come and sort of be there...
BTW I actually disagree with RMS! It just happens we are probably on the same side of the coin for different reasons.
THANK-YOU...
This is exactly what I was talking about. The cloud computing intiative is completely missing these aspects. And it is these aspects that will form the future of computing.
In 1999 I said at a conference that the future of computing is not in the algorithms, but in the data that the algorithms manipulate.
I said if you had the choice in 1999 to destroy either the harddisk containing the data, or the harddisk containing the algorithms, which would you choose?
Answer the algorithms. What this means is that algorithms are important, but data is more important. Thus by promoting cloud computing you are promoting that the algorithm is more important than the data, and in reality that is not the case.
And this is exactly why it will fail!
If you have been following the news the governments of the world have become extremely NOSEY! This means (and I am right now personally experiencing it) companies DO care who and what is being shared. In my case we do not want servers in certain jurisdictions. I work for an investment bank, and my laptop does not go outside of Switzerland.
Look at what happened to wikileaks in Germany. Or look at what private banks have been advising their bankers! They say no travel outside of Switzerland.
Right now "cloud computing" is completely ignoring this issue and it will come back to haunt them.
That's why I am extremely skeptical that cloud computing will take off. Since those that would and can pay for it will not take advantage of it.
If you read this, please reply to my email address.
I have been meaning to do what you were talking about. But it has been told to me that everytime I switch SIM I need to resynchronize with iTunes. Is this true? What are the problems?
Please email with an answer when you can, ok?
Funny you showed NY state law, I showed California law. And yes it is so sad that people don't understand traffic laws...
But then again look at some of these accidents and you understand why people are often quite clueless.
Did you flunk your drivers test?
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/dl600.pdf
Do not enter the intersection if you cannot get completely across before the light turns red. If you block the intersection, you can be cited.
What people end up doing is that they don't want to wait. They want to get going as quickly as possible and hence run the red taking a risk...
Interesting that you mention the rationale of vegan...
Vegan is not human nature. Yes yes we go through this argument all the time, but it is reality. Our body is capable of eating and digesting meat, and it is not a pure vegan since then we should be able to eat and digest things like all grasses, and branches, etc. We can't do that.
My point is that like Richard Stallman who is a rabid GPL advocate, vegans are rabid food people. It's their choice and they can do what they want. You can even have a properly balanced vegan diet. But it is something that you have to force yourself to do, and many people think, "ok what's the point..."
And even with vegans there is no clear line. For example, why oh why on earth is it ok to eat honey? Because it is an insect? You said,
"The basic philosophy behind veganism is reduction of suffering of all animals"
Insects are entities as well... I think you get my point.
It is easy to critize... So what should he have done? And by this I don't mean cut taxes as a general concept. I want details...
I want details of what he should have done, and how it would have helped the economy...
The thing about libertarians is that they are VERY PRO IP, and very pro ownership. In fact, considering that I am libertarian and a card carrying member of the Swiss Libertarian party many would not like what libertarians represent...
I relied on IP, yes I spoke at conferences, and yes I wrote books. But guess what I don't do that anymore. Yes I realize that I am not the greatest of speakers and book authors.
BUT, and this is the big but. IP theft has made it a situation where I CANNOT make a living with what I used to. Before 2000 people used to buy books, and they used to buy things. I could make a somewhat ok living. Again I realize that I am not the greatest of writers and speakers.
I understand that many think the price of books is too high. I understand that completely. BUT please understand it from my perspective in that the situation we have is just as unsustainable.
I have also spoken and was good acquaintances with people who tried the Open source route where they gave up their books and asked people to buy print. It did not work and they made even less. Many have just left the market because they just don't think it is worth it.
So until this attitude of theft changes I for one am not going to be that critical of the RIAA.
BTW I do accept some theft, but not to the levels we have now...
Religion is the anti-thesis of science because you are not allowed to question in religion. When was the last time anybody happened to say, "you know the bible/koran/tora needs updating, let's change a few paragraphs shall we."
Whereas in science things do get updated, changed, and altered. This is what science does in that it makes us question dogma and come up with solutions.
Many people consider evolution dogma because those who believe do not consider the alternatives. Yet I think if there were plausible alternatives to evolution we would change our thinking.
One example is plate tectonics. We assume that the earth is a constant diameter, but it is starting to become more accepted that the earth might indeed be growing. You might disagree, but there are people who are researching this.
My point is that somebody is indeed questioning dogma...
When was the last time this happened in religion?
I have heard this argument SO OFTEN... And it is completely misguided.
Yes those lawsuits cost money, but they are on stuff that are not that expensive. I am talking about the real things that cost real money.
For example lawsuit malpractice insurance costs:
75 K
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0843/is_2_28/ai_84236557
Let's look at the costs of cancer treatment?
http://www.alixnorth.com/what-does-it-cost-have-cancer
$224,725
So that means a doctor can spread the costs across many patients, but since many get cancer this cost more than outweighs malpractice.
So who is the dumb FUCK NOW! Oh yes, YOU!
If you ever decided to run the numbers like I did you would actually see that I am right and you are wrong.
Funny a good friend of mine told me about six months ago to buy Sun for exactly this reason...
So I bought and averaged down to about 6.08... Sold out this morning at 8.35... Sweet!!!!
If IBM buys at a higher price so be it, I took my money and ran...
I am going to disagree with you.
If you look at the effects of venom it is actually quite amazing.
Bee Venom: Used for many joint, and allergies.
Snake Venom: Cancer
Venom has very interesting side effects, but the devil is in the details and the dosage. Too much and you die, but just enough and your body has a reaction.
It is an extremely fine line. In the case of this guy who could walk again it would not surprise me that the venom kicked off a reaction that caused the nerves to regenerate.
The human body is an amazing creation since it has the ability to regenerate itself. The reason we age is because our body tells us to stop regenerating. For example look at amphibians, they just keep growing, growing, and growing...
Be careful of what you speak. There are always double edged swords.
I could argue that with free speech I incense racism and bigotry. Free speech is a double edged sword. Likewise is banking secrecy.
Yes there are criminals, but there are also many people who just don't want the government breathing down their necks.
Well you actually have a point here...
Considering that I live in Switzerland I actually see this as quite worrisome.
Not all money is illegal, in fact I really doubt how much is truly illegal. It is more like this...
I made 100,000 dollars. I paid taxes on that. And now I want to save it... So I put it to work and at that point many folks say, "Why on earth should the government get more money from me."
Completely understandable, and in a place like Switzerland you have it build wealth year by year without having a pesky government look over your shoulder.
After all countries like Germany like to look at how wealthy you are and then determine what you should pay in taxes.
If that is not possible anymore then Switzerland will have a problem.
My thinking is that the Caribbean will benefit quite a bit. After all if the Caymans were put on the blacklist they would probably say, "whoopeee dooo... now go bugger off..."