One of the first things I learned about purchasing a computer was that no matter how large the hard drive space, no matter how fast the processor, no matter how much bandwidth you have on your connection, you will always find a way to use the power. The software knows no bounds.
I found the same true when I got a Palm IIIxe last Christmas. At first, I only dabbled with it -- I took some notes, I downloaded a couple of simple games. But now, my entire life is organized on it. I have novels from Project Gutenberg and AvantGo web pages for reading material on long flights. Addresses and phone numbers. And recently, I discovered LispMe -- a Lisp/Scheme interpreter -- so now I can code, too! The calendar has every material appointment, and the Todo list has things to remember months in advance.
I look at the iPaq and think, "What would you possibly use all that for?" But I also know that if I owned one, I'd think of something to use it for. I'd make it work the way I work.
There really is no end to how far the PDA will evolve.
I would recommend using the books that have become old standards over the years for teaching undergraduates, the "Bibles" of their respective fields:
Aho, Sethi & Ullman's "Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools"
Cormen, Leiserson & Rivest's "Introduction to Algorithms"
Patterson & Hennessy, and Hennessy & Patterson.
Lewis & Papadimitriou, "Elements of the theory of computation."
Gamma, Helm, Johnson & Vissides, "Design Patterns."
And "The Mythical Man Month."
All of the above are about the fundamentals, the theories, and should be part of anyone's library who is serious about computers from a Computer Science perspective, IMHO. Some of them have survived basically unchanged for many, many years, without losing their relevance.
Don't try to frighten us with your closed-source ways, Lord Gates. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up more internet server market share, or given you clairvoyance enough to find all of the bugs in Win--
Disclaimer: I am a church-going Christian, and have been for many years.
The key difference between religion and science is right here, from the article: "As scientists, we have a responsibility when a mistake like that is made to fess up."
I visited the Institute for Creation Research a few years ago. These fools try to make the claim that belief in evolution is as much a matter of faith as belief in God -- and one counter to the Bible.
But this is patently false. The difference is, when scientists learn something new, they -usually- (but there are exceptions) give up on the old theories and make new ones.
Compare with religion: Once something becomes part of religious doctrine, it can take CENTURIES before someone convinces people that it was a mistake. And the folks at the ICR are like this: You cannot convince them, even with scriptures that plainly contradict their beliefs, that they're wrong. The human doctrine has become their God.
The relevant point I'm trying to make here is this: Don't poke fun at the scientists for making a mistake; give them credit for admitting it. It's what they ought to be doing. It's how science advances, and how we learn. This is, in the end, a very good thing.
Bah, everyone who's talking about freedom of speech and education (yes, I know you were joking, I'm not THAT dense) is missing the point. Porn is FUN. I like it. My girlfriend likes it. And as long as the people in the film are willing adults, who gives a flying turd?
I don't care if some porn star starts my girlfriend's engine as long as I get to drive the car.:)
"Although it's wonderful that there are some of us who do give a damn, it's disheartening that we have such an asnine law to begin with."
I thought so too, at first. But this is just the behavior of the American system -- things break, but they are fixed. That's why Jefferson said, "Eternal vigiliance is the price of freedom." (That quote may not be exactly right.) The system isn't designed never to break; it's designed so that when it does break, it can be fixed. But people have to care to fix it! If we ever stop caring, if we all throw up our arms saying, "The world's going to hell in a handbasket," that's the day our freedom and power will truly decay.
So don't be disheartened by the rattling sound coming from the engine...democracy requires constant maintenance to run smoothly.
Please pardon me for giving you that notion. I have a very close friend who was in Tianmen Square at the time the army began shooting, so I have great sympathy for dissidents.
My comments were not intended to criticize Russian and Chinese citizens, but rather to celebrate the fact that in America, the government, media, and people are still able to learn and express themselves and are willing to do so to make things better.
America is not perfect in this regard, but I wholeheartedly believe that humanity can make it better -- and not just in America, but worldwide.
I actually find it quite comforting. China arrests academics, and who comes to their aid? Americans, through diplomatic action and grass-roots outrage. A Russian gets arrested by a bad American law, and who comes to his aid? Americans, through a multitude of organizations (bug especially the EFF). Where is the Russian government in all this? Where were the Chinese protests of those arrests?
America has its bad laws just like any other place, but at least there are people who still give a damn. And as long as that's true, and as long as we aren't silenced, there's hope.
"But using a technique called computerized tomography, a sophisticated X-ray that allows for multidimensional imaging,..."
They used a freaking CAT scan, folks. Something you can get in just about every hospital nowadays.
Yeah, I bet that was a real tough one to come up with, wasn't it? "Gee, maybe if we look inside the body with these sophisticated tools we've had for decades, we might see something?"
I've been on MP3.com for several years, and I've used a large number of its features, and I haven't experienced anything like what you're describing here. I have an artist's page, I manage several stations, I use it to buy CDs and look for (and then download) new music, I use the my.mp3.com feature to keep my favorites in order, and I get -maybe- two e-mails a month from them, which are all easily filtered because they come from "@mp3.com"!!!
Of course, if you use a fake e-mail address, you can still listen and download as much as you like without using all the extra features!
The Honeynet project was set up to demonstrate the threat of hacker attacks. I noticed throughout the report a certain amount of rile-'em-up sensationalism. In other words, although the data collected and their analyses are certainly important and extremely valuable, they should be taken with a grain of salt.
Although I'm probably going to clean my unprotected RedHat 6.2 box before I connect it to the 'net again.:)
I agree with the researchers' intent, but I fear that it could backfire. The worst thing that can happen, if the journal and the initiative fails, is that the boycott could essentially prevent scientists from being able to access each other's works online.
But somehow, I don't think that will happen. The market for journals is essentially its authors; the authors benefit more from a journal business model such as this. As long as the academic community is aware of their options, this should succeed, and the other publishers will have to fall in line, or find themselves without any submissions left to publish!
These suckers were pretty close to indestructible, too.
They were among the first "notebook" laptops made -- that is, in an 8.5"x11.5" form factor. 16 shades of gray VGA at 640x480, 286 processors, 1MB of RAM, and 20MB of hard disk space.
I had one for ten years. The only reason I gave it up was because it somehow ended up under my bedpost -- not very good for the LCD screen.
Anyhow, I remember PC Magazine ran an "abuse" test on several notebooks around this time (although I think they used the 386 model). They poured coffee on 'em. They dropped 'em from a height. They did all sorts of crazy things to them. In the end, the Sanyo design (also sold by Zeos and Everex) was the only laptop to remain functioning after all this abuse.
It was a great machine. And I hope this Athlon desktop I'm using now will last ten years as my music studio machine, too.
But it didn't look anything like the kind of laptops you see today. It had a four-line character-based LCD, and was fun as hell to play with. Every Radio Shack around that time had one...and it was nifty just to type on. Nowadays we'd use a Palm or a Visor for the sort of things you'd do on one of those, but I can see why you'd want a full-sized keyboard, BASIC, and a piece of near-indestructable hardware for the uses these old guys are seeing.
Probably nothing, unless the EFF pursues a lawsuit akin to the one they're doing for Felten. Although I don't see that as being likely, because in this case, he clearly broke the law. This is a much harder case to sell than that one; it just looks better to say "Defending an academic doing his job" than "Defending a guy who wrote software that circumvents copyright protection."
It's sad that we have to choose our battles, but we Americans probably never should have let the DMCA pass in the first place. Call me delusionally idealistic, but I still believe that people own this government of ours.
...and then I start crying after I remember what happened to Looking Glass Studios.
For those of you who don't know, after releasing the successful (and brilliant) Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II, Looking Glass Studios was denied funding by the publisher so that Ion Storm could continue working on Daikatana.
Looking Glass Studios closed its doors, and Ion Storm kept on keepin' on.
I totally agree with you that it's about time Romero got what was coming to him, but before that happened, a lot of innocent bystanders were hurt.
Before I got the note from the IRS, I'd completely forgotten about the refund. I'd already budgeted the rest of the year, and I didn't have any money available for the EFF, especially since I was still financially recovering from my jobless period, but most everything else was covered.
Now, I do have money to give. It was really only a "bonus" because of my own forgetfulness.:)
Slashdot Mirror
The evolution of the PDA really has no limits.
One of the first things I learned about purchasing a computer was that no matter how large the hard drive space, no matter how fast the processor, no matter how much bandwidth you have on your connection, you will always find a way to use the power. The software knows no bounds.
I found the same true when I got a Palm IIIxe last Christmas. At first, I only dabbled with it -- I took some notes, I downloaded a couple of simple games. But now, my entire life is organized on it. I have novels from Project Gutenberg and AvantGo web pages for reading material on long flights. Addresses and phone numbers. And recently, I discovered LispMe -- a Lisp/Scheme interpreter -- so now I can code, too! The calendar has every material appointment, and the Todo list has things to remember months in advance.
I look at the iPaq and think, "What would you possibly use all that for?" But I also know that if I owned one, I'd think of something to use it for. I'd make it work the way I work.
There really is no end to how far the PDA will evolve.
I second the motion.
I would recommend using the books that have become old standards over the years for teaching undergraduates, the "Bibles" of their respective fields:
Aho, Sethi & Ullman's "Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools"
Cormen, Leiserson & Rivest's "Introduction to Algorithms"
Patterson & Hennessy, and Hennessy & Patterson.
Lewis & Papadimitriou, "Elements of the theory of computation."
Gamma, Helm, Johnson & Vissides, "Design Patterns."
And "The Mythical Man Month."
All of the above are about the fundamentals, the theories, and should be part of anyone's library who is serious about computers from a Computer Science perspective, IMHO. Some of them have survived basically unchanged for many, many years, without losing their relevance.
I think a lot of those of us who post to slashdot would be in trouble if jerks were outlawed.
I'd certainly flee to Canada if that happened.
But then Canada would be populated with jerks...
Perhaps we could all flee to Australia? Then Australia would have THREE social classes -- descendants of British "criminals," aborigines, AND jerks!
Bah, nevermind...
Don't try to frighten us with your closed-source ways, Lord Gates. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up more internet server market share, or given you clairvoyance enough to find all of the bugs in Win--
*cough*
*gag*
Disclaimer: I am a church-going Christian, and have been for many years.
The key difference between religion and science is right here, from the article: "As scientists, we have a responsibility when a mistake like that is made to fess up."
I visited the Institute for Creation Research a few years ago. These fools try to make the claim that belief in evolution is as much a matter of faith as belief in God -- and one counter to the Bible.
But this is patently false. The difference is, when scientists learn something new, they -usually- (but there are exceptions) give up on the old theories and make new ones.
Compare with religion: Once something becomes part of religious doctrine, it can take CENTURIES before someone convinces people that it was a mistake. And the folks at the ICR are like this: You cannot convince them, even with scriptures that plainly contradict their beliefs, that they're wrong. The human doctrine has become their God.
The relevant point I'm trying to make here is this: Don't poke fun at the scientists for making a mistake; give them credit for admitting it. It's what they ought to be doing. It's how science advances, and how we learn. This is, in the end, a very good thing.
Bah, everyone who's talking about freedom of speech and education (yes, I know you were joking, I'm not THAT dense) is missing the point. Porn is FUN. I like it. My girlfriend likes it. And as long as the people in the film are willing adults, who gives a flying turd?
:)
I don't care if some porn star starts my girlfriend's engine as long as I get to drive the car.
"Although it's wonderful that there are some of us who do give a damn, it's disheartening that we have such an asnine law to begin with."
I thought so too, at first. But this is just the behavior of the American system -- things break, but they are fixed. That's why Jefferson said, "Eternal vigiliance is the price of freedom." (That quote may not be exactly right.) The system isn't designed never to break; it's designed so that when it does break, it can be fixed. But people have to care to fix it! If we ever stop caring, if we all throw up our arms saying, "The world's going to hell in a handbasket," that's the day our freedom and power will truly decay.
So don't be disheartened by the rattling sound coming from the engine...democracy requires constant maintenance to run smoothly.
Please pardon me for giving you that notion. I have a very close friend who was in Tianmen Square at the time the army began shooting, so I have great sympathy for dissidents.
My comments were not intended to criticize Russian and Chinese citizens, but rather to celebrate the fact that in America, the government, media, and people are still able to learn and express themselves and are willing to do so to make things better.
America is not perfect in this regard, but I wholeheartedly believe that humanity can make it better -- and not just in America, but worldwide.
I actually find it quite comforting. China arrests academics, and who comes to their aid? Americans, through diplomatic action and grass-roots outrage. A Russian gets arrested by a bad American law, and who comes to his aid? Americans, through a multitude of organizations (bug especially the EFF). Where is the Russian government in all this? Where were the Chinese protests of those arrests?
America has its bad laws just like any other place, but at least there are people who still give a damn. And as long as that's true, and as long as we aren't silenced, there's hope.
Here's to giving a damn.
"But using a technique called computerized tomography, a sophisticated X-ray that allows for multidimensional imaging, ..."
They used a freaking CAT scan, folks. Something you can get in just about every hospital nowadays.
Yeah, I bet that was a real tough one to come up with, wasn't it? "Gee, maybe if we look inside the body with these sophisticated tools we've had for decades, we might see something?"
I've been on MP3.com for several years, and I've used a large number of its features, and I haven't experienced anything like what you're describing here. I have an artist's page, I manage several stations, I use it to buy CDs and look for (and then download) new music, I use the my.mp3.com feature to keep my favorites in order, and I get -maybe- two e-mails a month from them, which are all easily filtered because they come from "@mp3.com"!!!
Of course, if you use a fake e-mail address, you can still listen and download as much as you like without using all the extra features!
The Honeynet project was set up to demonstrate the threat of hacker attacks. I noticed throughout the report a certain amount of rile-'em-up sensationalism. In other words, although the data collected and their analyses are certainly important and extremely valuable, they should be taken with a grain of salt.
:)
Although I'm probably going to clean my unprotected RedHat 6.2 box before I connect it to the 'net again.
I agree with the researchers' intent, but I fear that it could backfire. The worst thing that can happen, if the journal and the initiative fails, is that the boycott could essentially prevent scientists from being able to access each other's works online.
But somehow, I don't think that will happen. The market for journals is essentially its authors; the authors benefit more from a journal business model such as this. As long as the academic community is aware of their options, this should succeed, and the other publishers will have to fall in line, or find themselves without any submissions left to publish!
And you know about these countries where kids run around naked how? :)
News to me...
These suckers were pretty close to indestructible, too.
They were among the first "notebook" laptops made -- that is, in an 8.5"x11.5" form factor. 16 shades of gray VGA at 640x480, 286 processors, 1MB of RAM, and 20MB of hard disk space.
I had one for ten years. The only reason I gave it up was because it somehow ended up under my bedpost -- not very good for the LCD screen.
Anyhow, I remember PC Magazine ran an "abuse" test on several notebooks around this time (although I think they used the 386 model). They poured coffee on 'em. They dropped 'em from a height. They did all sorts of crazy things to them. In the end, the Sanyo design (also sold by Zeos and Everex) was the only laptop to remain functioning after all this abuse.
It was a great machine. And I hope this Athlon desktop I'm using now will last ten years as my music studio machine, too.
Ciao!
But it didn't look anything like the kind of laptops you see today. It had a four-line character-based LCD, and was fun as hell to play with. Every Radio Shack around that time had one...and it was nifty just to type on. Nowadays we'd use a Palm or a Visor for the sort of things you'd do on one of those, but I can see why you'd want a full-sized keyboard, BASIC, and a piece of near-indestructable hardware for the uses these old guys are seeing.
No kidding. You wouldn't believe the number of hits my MP3.com page gets every time I post to slashdot, because of the .sig!
Seems like a good way to get rid of not just the virus, but your friends, too. No, they won't be dead, but they sure won't be talking to you again. :)
Probably nothing, unless the EFF pursues a lawsuit akin to the one they're doing for Felten. Although I don't see that as being likely, because in this case, he clearly broke the law. This is a much harder case to sell than that one; it just looks better to say "Defending an academic doing his job" than "Defending a guy who wrote software that circumvents copyright protection."
It's sad that we have to choose our battles, but we Americans probably never should have let the DMCA pass in the first place. Call me delusionally idealistic, but I still believe that people own this government of ours.
...How long is it before the Chinese hackers sue eEye under the terms of the DMCA?
I can't stop laughing every time I hear that...
...and then I start crying after I remember what happened to Looking Glass Studios.
For those of you who don't know, after releasing the successful (and brilliant) Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II, Looking Glass Studios was denied funding by the publisher so that Ion Storm could continue working on Daikatana.
Looking Glass Studios closed its doors, and Ion Storm kept on keepin' on.
I totally agree with you that it's about time Romero got what was coming to him, but before that happened, a lot of innocent bystanders were hurt.
You make some very good points.
:)
Before I got the note from the IRS, I'd completely forgotten about the refund. I'd already budgeted the rest of the year, and I didn't have any money available for the EFF, especially since I was still financially recovering from my jobless period, but most everything else was covered.
Now, I do have money to give. It was really only a "bonus" because of my own forgetfulness.
Yes, but I don't WANT it to go to THAT cause.
I want it to go to THIS one.
And the beauty of it is that I now have a choice -- and the irony of it all is that I have George W. Bush to thank for it.
If I hadn't lost moderator priveleges for posting to the thread, I'd give you a (+1, Funny) on the spot. :)