I thought Cryptonomicon had an interesting plot, but -- stylistically -- it was quite boring. And that lengthy section set in the remote Scottish community was just terrible -- irrelevant to the plot, and poorly structured. The Diamond Age was quite readable, and much funnier than Cryptonomicon, but they both have terrible endings, whereas the ending of "Foucault's Pendulum" is both hilarious and revelationary.
This is art mind, so Your Mileage May (and clearly does) Vary.
Re:Eco Book
on
Quicksilver
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Maybe if you like this Stephenson book, you'll like that. Eco's books tend to be a little smarter than most people enjoy, however.
I agree, but I wouldn't recommend "Island Of The Day Before" as an introduction to Eco's fiction. For that, I'd recommend "Foucault's Pendulum" to Geeks, and "The Name Of The Rose" to everyone else.
"Island..." I didn't care for so much.
Familiar...
on
Quicksilver
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Historical fiction in which a man who embodies Scientific Thought clashes with relgious zealots against the background of social upheaval in Western Europe. Contains lengthy divergent sections dealing with strands of physics, mathematics, theology and sex.
I think Stephenson has been reading a lot of Umberto Eco (either "Name of the Rose" or "Foucault's Pendulum") recently.
Well, they did. Thats how they got the settlement in the first place. The judgement is linked to from the website -- which is up so users can complaing about non-compliance with the judgement from the original complaint.
They're not complaining about the product. They're complaining about the company's leverage of their desktop OS near-monopoly to eliminate competition in other markets (web servers *NOT* among them).
Fortunately, the CA attorney general understands the case better than the average "MS is bad" slash-drone.
"If you did the hard work of obtaining a BA degree at Oxford, then held down a job and stayed out of debt for a year - your degree would instantly be upgraded to an MA"
Well, yes and no. They're not quite the criteria, but the idea is right. But you're obliged to refer to it as BA (Oxon), and those paranthesis give the game away. No reasonably competent employer is going to be fooled (especially when the studying period fails to appear elsewhere on your CV).
302. Duration of copyright: Works created on or after January 1, 1978: (a) In General. Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author's death.
303: Copyright in a work created before January 1, 1978, but not theretofore in the public domain or copyrighted, subsists from January 1, 1978, and endures for the term provided by section 302
70 years after death. Like I said.
Re:So is it Public Domain?
on
New Heinlein Novel
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· Score: 2, Informative
IIIRC, the standard term is presently 70 years after the author's death, so more than 50 years to go. And thats assuming that the US govt (proudly sponsored by Disney) haven't pushed for further extensions to prevent Mickey Mouse entering the public domain.
Yes, I know that. The copy I read belonged to an MS employee. But reading the book and implementing its strategies are very different ideas, and as noted elsewhere, its hard to bolt-on a secure-by-design strategy onto a massive existing codebase.
I know the article mentiones Justin Timberlake, but maybe another part is that the British are not being force fed the same shit that we Americans are.
Theres a certain truth in that. One of the success stories of the last few years is a store called Music Zone which does sell chart CDs, but also classics at very reasonable prices. Now I can go there and by the new 50 Cent album for 12 quid, but why should I when for that they'll sell me What's Going On and Innervisions for the same 6 pounds each.
They've also got their heads screwed on. To quote from their website:
The kids of today reportedly opting to copy CD's from friends... record companies are panicking at falling sales... and soiling their silky undergarments in the fear that the end is nigh....
Bullshit... Intelligent shoppers recognise good retail and when they do they'll keep making that informed choice. The industry needs to wake up, rub that sleepy complacency from its collective sockets and focus on the fact that the future could be bright if they make the effort rather than relying on making excuses.
Not really Richard Hell, since "blank" -- the word you've changed -- was his only contribution to that lyric. The rest goes back to Rod McKuen (or "the woeful Rod McKuen" to give him his full title), who wrote "I Belong To The Beat Generation"
You might see more, but Microsoft still hasn't grasped the sandbox principle
Well, part of it has. This is really an excellent book, covering sandboxing as just part of a secure design (and it does emphasise designing in security, rather than adding it on). It denigrates security by obscurity, and talks about non-trustworthy data sources, sandboxes and verifying data at some length. If only its methodologies had sunk in a bit deeper...
Hopefully, each new worm sneaks this book up the Redmond required reading list.
yet ignore that Linux application vulnerabilities are announced almost every day. But, they say, this is MICROSOFT! It's somehow DIFFERENT!
Yes, it is different. All those Microsoft flaws are in products written and tested by Microsoft themselves.
MS does not patch flaws in "Photoshop for Windows", or "CorelDraw for Windows" or Quicken, or Win32 Mozilla, or any number of the millions of Windows shareware apps. Unless you start counting those vulnerabilities as "MS vulnerabilities" you're not comparing like with like.
All those Linux application flaws are in products (usually obscure ones) written by companies other than Linux distribution vendors. They package them with they're distros because they can, and they promulgate the patchs (also written elsewhere) because its good practice.
This code was shown (briefly) at Forum2003 to convince their resellers they had a good case. It would appear that due to the BSD provenance, that case is not entirely sound.
Someone needs to tell the resellers. Is there anyone from the Las Vegas LUG who can (very politely) stand outside the MGM Grand and distribute information showing: a) The photos from the talk b) The late 1970s provenance of the source c) Proof of the Santa Cruz Operation's release of this source under the BSD licence.
SCO can ignore kernel hackers, but if the resellers -- handily gathered in one place -- realise they've been lied to, they can give management a seriously hard time.
The Federalist Papers are not a user manual for the Bill of Rights. They're a collection of essays and (then) anonymous letters designed to lobby for ratification of the constitution. They don't represent the opinions of the founding fathers en masse, but rather a small number of them: namely Hamilton, Madison and Jay.
They're fascinating documents, but never forget that they were a) never ratified by the founding fathers, the states or the office of the president. b) written purely for the sake of propaganda.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, each to his own.
I thought Cryptonomicon had an interesting plot, but -- stylistically -- it was quite boring. And that lengthy section set in the remote Scottish community was just terrible -- irrelevant to the plot, and poorly structured. The Diamond Age was quite readable, and much funnier than Cryptonomicon, but they both have terrible endings, whereas the ending of "Foucault's Pendulum" is both hilarious and revelationary.
This is art mind, so Your Mileage May (and clearly does) Vary.
"Island..." I didn't care for so much.
Historical fiction in which a man who embodies Scientific Thought clashes with relgious zealots against the background of social upheaval in Western Europe. Contains lengthy divergent sections dealing with strands of physics, mathematics, theology and sex.
I think Stephenson has been reading a lot of Umberto Eco (either "Name of the Rose" or "Foucault's Pendulum") recently.
Sheesh.
(RIP Johnny Cash)
They're not complaining about the product. They're complaining about the company's leverage of their desktop OS near-monopoly to eliminate competition in other markets (web servers *NOT* among them).
Fortunately, the CA attorney general understands the case better than the average "MS is bad" slash-drone.
Maybe there's something wrong with my peripheral vision.
Oh, and Cambridge do it too (MA Cantab).
G Owen (MA Oxon)
70 years after death. Like I said.
IIIRC, the standard term is presently 70 years after the author's death, so more than 50 years to go. And thats assuming that the US govt (proudly sponsored by Disney) haven't pushed for further extensions to prevent Mickey Mouse entering the public domain.
Yes, I know that. The copy I read belonged to an MS employee. But reading the book and implementing its strategies are very different ideas, and as noted elsewhere, its hard to bolt-on a secure-by-design strategy onto a massive existing codebase.
Oh, wait...
They've also got their heads screwed on. To quote from their website: The rest of that article is similarly articulate.
CD sales in Britain are up and most of the credit is going to price cuts.
Who'd have thought it: a depressed economy leads to changes in price elasticity. I demand the Nobel Prize for Economics
Not really Richard Hell, since "blank" -- the word you've changed -- was his only contribution to that lyric. The rest goes back to Rod McKuen (or "the woeful Rod McKuen" to give him his full title), who wrote "I Belong To The Beat Generation"
Hopefully, each new worm sneaks this book up the Redmond required reading list.
Hi Simon.
MS does not patch flaws in "Photoshop for Windows", or "CorelDraw for Windows" or Quicken, or Win32 Mozilla, or any number of the millions of Windows shareware apps. Unless you start counting those vulnerabilities as "MS vulnerabilities" you're not comparing like with like.
All those Linux application flaws are in products (usually obscure ones) written by companies other than Linux distribution vendors. They package them with they're distros because they can, and they promulgate the patchs (also written elsewhere) because its good practice.
Yes, I know. IHBT. IHL.
Aclerex? Why have they named it as if it werea cream for clearing up acne?
Plus ca change...
This code was shown (briefly) at Forum2003 to convince their resellers they had a good case. It would appear that due to the BSD provenance, that case is not entirely sound.
Someone needs to tell the resellers. Is there anyone from the Las Vegas LUG who can (very politely) stand outside the MGM Grand and distribute information showing:
a) The photos from the talk
b) The late 1970s provenance of the source
c) Proof of the Santa Cruz Operation's release of this source under the BSD licence.
SCO can ignore kernel hackers, but if the resellers -- handily gathered in one place -- realise they've been lied to, they can give management a seriously hard time.
Go on, you know it makes sense...
The Federalist Papers are not a user manual for the Bill of Rights. They're a collection of essays and (then) anonymous letters designed to lobby for ratification of the constitution. They don't represent the opinions of the founding fathers en masse, but rather a small number of them: namely Hamilton, Madison and Jay.
They're fascinating documents, but never forget that they were
a) never ratified by the founding fathers, the states or the office of the president.
b) written purely for the sake of propaganda.
Don't they teach this stuff in schools any more?