Whenever I need to put someone to sleep I place them in a Papasan with a nice cuddly "bankie" and warm glass of cognac (if they are of appropriate age) and read them Moby Dick out loud while giving learned commentary on the text.
There was a story here on Slashdot a while ago about resistence to an "open source" solution to the educational intraweb at Princeton.
Said professor made the argument that a bunch of "kids" writing experimental software weren't qualified to write such software and that it should be left to the experts. Bear in mind that one of these "kids" is Brian Frickin' Kernighan who is a professor at Princton.
I did some digging on said professor who holds himself out to be an expert on web design. His online tutorial a)is some of the worst web design I've ever seen and b)was a pretty shitty tutorial.
A little further digging showed he's been in PeopleSoft's pocket since before day one.
There's a lot of politics in these things, and a lot of money flying around and buying opinion. As often as not the last thing those in power want is their own Computer Science people involved. That would queer the whole money flying around deal. Nevermind that it all, ultimately, has to be taken out of the hides of students and other customers.
Pretty much half my stock in trade. Die Gadanken Sind Frei goes back perhaps a thousand years and is still, unfortunately, topical today.
Stephen Foster, Scot Joplin, Civil War songs. Lots of good public domain stuff out there.
Unfortunately Mississippi John Hurt didn't record until 1929 and that's when the copyright starts counting from, Robert Johnson later than that. The blues, a pure folk medium, is propriatary. Even given life of the author plus 50 years it will be some time before it becomes public domain, and many publishers are claiming that the clock starts at the time they copyrighted it, not at the time it was first protected by copyright, and if they can assert that legally the there's a 95 year clock on Hurt starting in 1963.
This isn't the first time Congress has fucked up royally.
Pretty please, could we have something new, or at least something pleasant to use ? More Microsoft interface clones do not in my book make the world a better place.
Well, the number of Microsoft interface clones is completely irrelevant to your complaint. The only thing that matters is how many nonclones are available, and there are a number (starting with the UNIX console clone).
So, let's be constructive, shall we? What is it that you're looking for?
Have you tried the open source Plan 9/UNIX II? Is this closer to what you want or further away? In what ways?
Is the Apple interface more to your taste? Ratpoison? A jack into your skull? A magic wand?
I'm not going to just yell "Show me the code!" at you. I happen to believe that noncoders have a perfectly acceptable, even valuable, role to play in the development of software in the discourse phase of things.
But discourse requires discourse, not just complaints. Point in a direction rather than just bitch about where you're standing. Any damned fool can bitch, thus there is no particular shortage of bitching in the world, thus most of it simply gets ignored.
I wonder how much CPU power would be enough to make further improvements unattractive to buyers.
That would appear to be somewhere around the Z80 which is still in production.
The reason consumers don't buy PII-400s anymore is because Intel no longer offers that option. One way to make a new style of mousetrap economically feasable from the marketers point of view is to discontinue the older style.
There's an old saying, "If you find something you like buy two, because they'll stop making it."
Nowhere, at the moment, is this more true than in the computer industry.
When you run out of mousetrap you resort to fashion, because fashion is mousetrap proof. Notice how all the modern systems sell case design and icons?
But your name is not on the ballot, so there can be no confirmation of who anyone voted for. So there's no, "Bring me your receipt, and I'll give you $10 if you voted for me!"
Exactly. And that's why ballots produced by an electronic voting machine won't have your name on the ballot it produces either, and why you should be allowed to examine the ballot to confirm that, as well as the accuracy of your recorded vote.
If you wish to worry about anything worry about the fact that with closed source voting software the machine may be attaching your name to the vote without your knowledge.
What, you take your ballot with you when you're done voting?
Of course not. Then it wouldn't work as a ballot, would it?
The voting receipt in question has your votes on it, not just that you voted
Well of course it does. It wouldn't work as a ballot otherwise, would it?
Nobody is suggesting you take your ballot home with you. They are suggesting that electronic voting machines produce a paper ballot, that that ballot can inspected for accuracy of the vote by the voter, and that after that they be treated as ballots are now, which is what makes them "ballots."
You weren't paying attention. This tour is in Britain where Windows geeks play Snakes and Ladders.
Well, at least the ones with MCSEs. I think the others play Candyland because you don't have to be able to count, only recognize the "icon" you get to move to.
My favorite is comparing the cost of insuring license compliance with Windows compared to Debian (and God forbid you should get nailed with the cost of accidental noncompliance).
No, not a conspiracy. A plot. It's just Bush's attempt to make himself appear "Kennedyesque," ingnorant of the fact that Kennedy launched the space program because he was already Kennedyesque. It doesn't work the other way around.
Not that it matters, because a project of this magnitude is going to take the continued support of multiple administrations, these aren't Kennedy's times either, and that continued support will not be forthcoming. This project is essentially doomed. It's a shame, but that's the reality on the ground. We'll get to Mars when a canditate runs on the "We're going to Mars" platform and wins, and not before.
But that's ok. The point of the project is exactly where you say it is, and where the real conspiracy lies. Spinning off tax dollars into the private sector, into the hands of cronies.
I realize it takes a while to write a book, but doesn't it usually need to be finished before someone can read and review it?
Well, no, actually. It just needs to be mostly finished. Call it a "release candidate."
Surely it can't take a whole year to setup the press to print the book.
There is considerably more to selling a book than printing up a few copies.
Presumably the publisher has other books it's trying to print and sell as well and this one has to "wait its turn."
We're talking marketing here, not manufacturing. Movies sometimes sit "in the can" for years before being released for various reasons. I believe this is common knowledge. The same is true of books.
Or sound recordings. Or automobiles. Or video games. Or whatever.
Well, not to pussyfoot around the issue, you are by virtue of having a Trek fanzine. Any dork can have a Trek fanzine, even one without a degree in robotics, or a brain.
Math is about geekyness, not dorkyness.
But hey, if you weren't such a dork you'd already know that.:)
Classical stations, Jazz stations, indie/college stations, shortwave stations from around the world.
The cool shit to buy isn't at the mall. The mall caters to the average, which, by definition, isn't cool. The cool shit is out of the way and you have to go looking for it.
Radio is still cool. You just have to look around a bit.
If you aren't willing to look around, hey, maybe you aren't cool.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Somebody took an Underdog Super Irony Pill today.
KFG
Thanks for digging that up and clarifying that he wasn't on teaching staff.
I certainly didn't mean to imply that he was from the CS department though, he was their opposition.
KFG
Whenever I need to put someone to sleep I place them in a Papasan with a nice cuddly "bankie" and warm glass of cognac (if they are of appropriate age) and read them Moby Dick out loud while giving learned commentary on the text.
15 minutes tops every time.
KFG
There was a story here on Slashdot a while ago about resistence to an "open source" solution to the educational intraweb at Princeton.
Said professor made the argument that a bunch of "kids" writing experimental software weren't qualified to write such software and that it should be left to the experts. Bear in mind that one of these "kids" is Brian Frickin' Kernighan who is a professor at Princton.
I did some digging on said professor who holds himself out to be an expert on web design. His online tutorial a)is some of the worst web design I've ever seen and b)was a pretty shitty tutorial.
A little further digging showed he's been in PeopleSoft's pocket since before day one.
There's a lot of politics in these things, and a lot of money flying around and buying opinion. As often as not the last thing those in power want is their own Computer Science people involved. That would queer the whole money flying around deal. Nevermind that it all, ultimately, has to be taken out of the hides of students and other customers.
KFG
Yes, this is basically what Jules Verne had Captain Nemo do to the Nautilus.
.an beyond!
Military technology, pressing ever forward into the 19th century. .
KFG
Sing songs written before 1923.
Pretty much half my stock in trade. Die Gadanken Sind Frei goes back perhaps a thousand years and is still, unfortunately, topical today.
Stephen Foster, Scot Joplin, Civil War songs. Lots of good public domain stuff out there.
Unfortunately Mississippi John Hurt didn't record until 1929 and that's when the copyright starts counting from, Robert Johnson later than that. The blues, a pure folk medium, is propriatary. Even given life of the author plus 50 years it will be some time before it becomes public domain, and many publishers are claiming that the clock starts at the time they copyrighted it, not at the time it was first protected by copyright, and if they can assert that legally the there's a 95 year clock on Hurt starting in 1963.
This isn't the first time Congress has fucked up royally.
KFG
They don't have to. Singing in public is already legal infringement (as is playing a radio), but that falls under the auspices of ASCAP and BMI.
The lawyers have divided up the turf between themselves and singing isn't on the RIAAs turf.
KFG
The reason that the great-grandparent was modded troll was because it offered no argument. It was a piece of content-free flamebait.
You, sir, win the prize, being the first to simply supply the correct answer.
KFG
Pretty please, could we have something new, or at least something pleasant to use ? More Microsoft interface clones do not in my book make the world a better place.
Well, the number of Microsoft interface clones is completely irrelevant to your complaint. The only thing that matters is how many nonclones are available, and there are a number (starting with the UNIX console clone).
So, let's be constructive, shall we? What is it that you're looking for?
Have you tried the open source Plan 9/UNIX II? Is this closer to what you want or further away? In what ways?
Is the Apple interface more to your taste? Ratpoison? A jack into your skull? A magic wand?
I'm not going to just yell "Show me the code!" at you. I happen to believe that noncoders have a perfectly acceptable, even valuable, role to play in the development of software in the discourse phase of things.
But discourse requires discourse, not just complaints. Point in a direction rather than just bitch about where you're standing. Any damned fool can bitch, thus there is no particular shortage of bitching in the world, thus most of it simply gets ignored.
As it well should be.
KFG
I wonder how much CPU power would be enough to make further improvements unattractive to buyers.
That would appear to be somewhere around the Z80 which is still in production.
The reason consumers don't buy PII-400s anymore is because Intel no longer offers that option. One way to make a new style of mousetrap economically feasable from the marketers point of view is to discontinue the older style.
There's an old saying, "If you find something you like buy two, because they'll stop making it."
Nowhere, at the moment, is this more true than in the computer industry.
When you run out of mousetrap you resort to fashion, because fashion is mousetrap proof. Notice how all the modern systems sell case design and icons?
KFG
. . .look at the PC in front of you now.
A 486.
What will be sitting in its place 15 years from now?
God willing and the crick don't rise none a 486, but yeah, I keep a bit more up to date for gaming.
KFG
20GB is not* enough for me to fit my photo album
They don't expect you take all of your pr0n with you, just the stuff you can't live without while away from your desk.
KFG
*edited to mean what OP meant
But your name is not on the ballot, so there can be no confirmation of who anyone voted for. So there's no, "Bring me your receipt, and I'll give you $10 if you voted for me!"
Exactly. And that's why ballots produced by an electronic voting machine won't have your name on the ballot it produces either, and why you should be allowed to examine the ballot to confirm that, as well as the accuracy of your recorded vote.
If you wish to worry about anything worry about the fact that with closed source voting software the machine may be attaching your name to the vote without your knowledge.
KFG
What, you take your ballot with you when you're done voting?
Of course not. Then it wouldn't work as a ballot, would it?
The voting receipt in question has your votes on it, not just that you voted
Well of course it does. It wouldn't work as a ballot otherwise, would it?
Nobody is suggesting you take your ballot home with you. They are suggesting that electronic voting machines produce a paper ballot, that that ballot can inspected for accuracy of the vote by the voter, and that after that they be treated as ballots are now, which is what makes them "ballots."
KFG
Once there are verifiable voting receipts, your vote can be coerced after the fact.
But isn't this what we're using now?
I believe we call them "ballots."
KFG
You weren't paying attention. This tour is in Britain where Windows geeks play Snakes and Ladders.
Well, at least the ones with MCSEs. I think the others play Candyland because you don't have to be able to count, only recognize the "icon" you get to move to.
KFG
Kudos, sir.
KFG
My favorite is comparing the cost of insuring license compliance with Windows compared to Debian (and God forbid you should get nailed with the cost of accidental noncompliance).
KFG
And here's another clue for ACs,
The walrus is Steve.
KFG
"oh-my-God-it's-a-conspiracy"
No, not a conspiracy. A plot. It's just Bush's attempt to make himself appear "Kennedyesque," ingnorant of the fact that Kennedy launched the space program because he was already Kennedyesque. It doesn't work the other way around.
Not that it matters, because a project of this magnitude is going to take the continued support of multiple administrations, these aren't Kennedy's times either, and that continued support will not be forthcoming. This project is essentially doomed. It's a shame, but that's the reality on the ground. We'll get to Mars when a canditate runs on the "We're going to Mars" platform and wins, and not before.
But that's ok. The point of the project is exactly where you say it is, and where the real conspiracy lies. Spinning off tax dollars into the private sector, into the hands of cronies.
Make hay while the sun shines, as it were.
KFG
I realize it takes a while to write a book, but doesn't it usually need to be finished before someone can read and review it?
Well, no, actually. It just needs to be mostly finished. Call it a "release candidate."
Surely it can't take a whole year to setup the press to print the book.
There is considerably more to selling a book than printing up a few copies.
Presumably the publisher has other books it's trying to print and sell as well and this one has to "wait its turn."
We're talking marketing here, not manufacturing. Movies sometimes sit "in the can" for years before being released for various reasons. I believe this is common knowledge. The same is true of books.
Or sound recordings. Or automobiles. Or video games. Or whatever.
KFG
Man, I thought I was a dork
:)
Well, not to pussyfoot around the issue, you are by virtue of having a Trek fanzine. Any dork can have a Trek fanzine, even one without a degree in robotics, or a brain.
Math is about geekyness, not dorkyness.
But hey, if you weren't such a dork you'd already know that.
KFG
That is why it is interesting. Not why it is more interesting.
KFG
Classical stations, Jazz stations, indie/college stations, shortwave stations from around the world.
:)
The cool shit to buy isn't at the mall. The mall caters to the average, which, by definition, isn't cool. The cool shit is out of the way and you have to go looking for it.
Radio is still cool. You just have to look around a bit.
If you aren't willing to look around, hey, maybe you aren't cool.
KFG
. . .it's totally different.
That's entirely possible. We'll know for sure when we can directly compare samples of each.
Making both equally interesting.
KFG