I hate to ask this, but are you an HR troll or a possibly a high school guidance counselor?
Neither. I'm a freelance software engineer, specializing in database-driven workflow management for mid-sized organizations with up to 1,000 staff. I find my work filled with the thrill and joy of pure creation, and I get a kick out of watching hundreds of people wrap their professional lives around my deliverables.
How about after finishing a bachelor's and a master's degree with a 3.5 GPA, your job gets outsourced to India, China, or any other cheaper country?
Which is just so much bullshit. What, are you better off huddling in your mother's basement?
Engineering is a rich and satisfying career, filled with the thrill and joy of pure creation, watching an idea you thought of turned into reality. As a software engineer of modest success, with hundreds of people actively using my products to save staff time worth far beyond my salary, I can attest: it really is worth it.
Interestingly, my career is in perhaps the most "outsourcable" field - programming and software. I'm already effectly outsourced, since I do all my work from my home, and rarely show up for work except when I need to meet with somebody.
Do what you love. Love what you do, and be the best you can be at it. When you do this, the rest will follow.
PS: You are out to be a doctor or RN. I hope you actually do what you enjoy - because I can't STAND doctors and nurses who have their egos or personalities in the way of treating ME - the patient. So many medicos forget the basic business maxim of "the customer is always right", or in the case of medicine, "the patient is always right"...
As an independent consultant/programmer/software engineer, I've made it a policy for YEARS that I do not work under circumstances where I don't own the resulting code.
I have my lawyer (hint hint!) draw up contracts such that I own the code, and the client(s) receive a transferrable, unlimited-use license to use/update the software. (I usually provide sources)
Generally, how I get clients to agree to this is: "A large part of my worth on this project is all the tools, functions, and pre-existing code from other projects that I'll be using in your project. I ask in return that pieces of the software I write for you can be used in other projects.".
If they balk at that, I ask them if they're willing to see the cost of the project triple as I re-write all this stuff from previous projects. I stress that they will be given generous licenses to the software that won't inhibit their use of the software. I generally agree to a non-compete clause in the contract when the client asks for it, though I have my lawyer draft it so it's not draconian.
I've never had anybody want to pay 3x as much, and I end up owning full copyrights to the sources for everything I write, and have for years.
Most consumer Internet connections are manned by consumers, who are often blissfully unaware of the fact that their (Win XP/Home) computers need to be patched, protected by Antivirus software, Anti-Spyware, and further protected not only by Windows firewall, but also a dedicated hardware firewall.
Fast pipes are good, but are they going to do what it takes to prevent their consumer users (with bandwidth pipes rivaling or exceeding many responsible commercial providers) from doing a "dumfuk" and blasting the planet with the latest worm/trojan/virus?
How can a "question" be either ill-informed or insightful?
Ill-informed question: How do you turn on a computer?
Insightful question: Now that we've invaded Iraq, will the U.S. have the resolve to make a clean break at the "end" of the war? Is such a goal even attainable?
No, the questions have nothing to do with the thread - only as answers to your question...
Being a geek isn't just about your field, it's about having a true passion for what you do. It's when you've found the work in life that you love. An example of a famous geek is Richard Feynman. He was a physics geek. If you read his biography and lectures, it becomes readily apparant that he LOVES physics. He worked in the field for that reason alone, that he made money at it and became famous was secondary.
I so utterly, totally, and completely agree! How many people in their figure out what they are really passionate about, and then get a chance to do it professionally?
So much of our training a la public schooling was to focus on our weak points - if we excelled at math, but were weak with Language Arts, what were we made to invest our time into? Math? Not.
How much easier life would be if, when assessed for our weaknesses, they focused instead on our strengths? As in "Well, your language arts competence is passable, but your math scores are out of this world! Let's talk about math, since it is very possibly something you love doing... "
What if we focused on doing the stuff that's easy for us, that we ENJOY doing, instead of focusing on our areas of weakness? Now much self-confidence would we get, knowing that we were blessed with a particular strength found useful by others, rather than knowing we can't do Language Arts to "standard"?
Our public education system is clearly and specifically engineered to produce quiet, obedient, non-questioning factory workers - except that the factory worker of the 19th century is extinct. We should be working instead to foster alternative education strategies, since the classroom environment has failed so well.
Therefore, a system with two cars and pulleys will always be almost in balance. The actual force in the rope will change depending on where exactly the cars are, due to centripetal forces.
How much does 36,000 km of cable weigh? I don't *care* what the strength to weight ratio is for nanotubes, I'd be quite certain that the 36,000 km miles of nanocable weighs lots more than the travelcar.
But, Carbon nanotubes in the "armchair 5,5" configuration are virtual superconductors. So, why not put a bunch of heavy capacity, superconducting, nanocable coils in the cars, and use electromagnetism to move the cars up/down by running a bunch of electricity into the nanocable?
If you made two nanocables going up to geosynch side by side, you could have a complete circuit, one cable for "up" traffic, another for "down", allow multiple cars to be going simultaneously in each direction, and not have to muck about with pulleys and all that jazz.
The slashdot community has a certain group-think to it, exemplified by my recent post.
An article was posted where the headline had little to do with the article. There was post after post of based on an erroneous headline. I pointed this out, and got modded flamebait.
I'm not upset by this; I knew pretty much that's what would happen going in. But, it's an example of a preference engine (the moderation system on Slashdot) acting to squelch any ideas that don't conform to the group-think so prevalent here.
Thus, you say what slashbots think you should say, and you get modded up. Question them, or provide meaningful data in opposition to any of the core mantras around here, and your voice is quickly trampled in mods of "flamebait" and "off topic", or perhaps "overrated" to avoid any karma consequences in metamoderation.
Microsoft=bad. Linux=perfection. Sun=irrelevant. Everybody here's a single male between 14 and 35, living in momma's cellar. ??? profit!
These are all Slashdot mantras, ideas so firmly entrenched into the moderation culture that to really oppose these ideas means moderation oblivion and a loss of karma. (voice)
It's entertaining, and as a Linux user, I mostly fit in, but it's definitely an ideological monoculture. Sometimes, I just get pissed. (and modded to the wasteland that is -1)
PS: I have some mod points now, and will be using them soon...
What I find interesting is the incredible number of posts made here that are knee-jerk replies to the headline, which has almost nothing at all to do with TFA. What I find truly stupid is the number of such posts that have been moderated UP.
The Slashdot moderation system is designed to filter out trolls and losers based on what everybody agrees to be "insightful", "interesting" and whatnot.
But this breaks down when the average luzer who reads this is dumb, boring, and in posession of some mod points.
Price your movie tickets within the reach of NORMAL FAMILIES!
Which is just so much hogwash. When you adjust for inflation, movie tickets are actually kind of cheap especially when compared to 1971-ish prices, where they were 50& MORE expensive than today!
A notable quote from the linked article:
Defenders of movie ticket price increases point out that while prices have increased in recent years -- to an average of $5.66 in 2001, according to the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theater Owners -- they long lagged behind inflation.
Although the average movie ticket price rose from 47 cents in 1951 to $1.65 in 1971, to $4.21 in 1991, the picture changes when the prices are stated in constant dollars. Using 2001 dollars, the price rose from $3.20 in 1951 to $7.22 in 1971, but then fell to $5.47 in 1991, and even dropped below $5 in 1994 and 1996.
I'd suggest that the biggest problem faced by the Entertainment industry is the rise of more options such as video games, the Internet, online music, etc as well as the increased competition from the long tail effect that these increased options provide.
There will probably always be the "blockbuster hit" but there simply won't be nearly as many.
We recently bought Dish Network satellite television, with the (Linux based!) DVR522 recorder. I can tell it to record whatever I like to watch whenever I want - and let me assure you, it's NOT what the networks show on "primetime". This is an extension of the "long tail" - even though the shows I might watch aren't as popular, they are popular enough to justify airing at non prime-time hours, and the DVR effectively lets me make that my own "prime time".
Since the economics of the local theatre only allows for blockbusters, they have to compete more heavily against material more directly suited for my own tastes.
yeah, the human brains of your typical genius and your average sheeple aren't actually all that different. in fact with the exception of those who've used alchohol and drugs to damage there brains they're usualy identical. so what is the difference? it's the software.
I wish I could agree with you, and once upon a time, I did. However, being a parent has dramatically altered my views.
Much of who you are, and what you like, what you'll be good at, and what you'll become, is hardwired at birth.
I'm one of those weird intellectuals who is both reasonably intelligent (at least, I'd like to think so) and has a good-sized family. (5 children) The truth is that I could see who and what my kids were likely to become at a very early age - by the age of 6-8 or so.
It's not training or parenting styles - it's the simple and true fact that genetics does account for a large percentage of what you are and who you'll most likely be. There's definitely a cultural and educational component - but basic personality is quite significant, too.
And thank Evolution that's the case - otherwise anybody born to dysfunctional parents is simply doomed! My experiences make it clear to me that people can be raised by nutjob parents and still come out decent. (Alternatively, they can be born by great parents and still end up nutjobs, but I digress)
I hate to burst your bubble, but most people don't even know that Windows is an OS. They don't "know" Windows is unreliable, they "know" that computers in general are unreliable and virus-ridden because 90% of the computers they've seen in their life are Windows computers.
Windows == Computer.
Thus, since Computers are unreliable, Windows is unreliable.
It's fairly easy to describe Linux - I tell them:
"You know how a Macintosh looks alot like Windows, but doesn't use the same software? That's kinda like what Linux is - except that you can use the same actual computer to run either Windows or Linux".
Just because they don't know doesn't mean you can't tell them in a succinct, logical way.
Linux on the desktop is as far away as it when I started using it four years ago (ask your non-techie friends), MS are still kings of the hill.
I guess some people haven't been paying attention to their non-techie friends.
Windows used to be "cool". Now, it's common knowledge that it sucks, it's inconsistent, unreliable, and a pain in the arse. Many of them have heard of Linux, and a few have even tried it.
Here's my experience:
For a while, my computer ran RedHat/Fedora, while my wife's computer ran Windows. Mine worked great, hers crashed often. With little time to spend fixing Windows hiccups, I finally just reloaded her ccomputer with Fedora Core.
My wife, a real trooper, put out honest effort to get to know it. At first, she didn't like it. She couldn't find N or window X opened in annoying ways... Problem printing, etc. You know the routine.
But, after using it for 6 months, she's an advocate! She's gotten familiar with the shortcomings (EG: not reliably playing Windows Media files) but more importantly, she's gotten familiar with the strengths, too. (EG: It works day in and day out)
Her usual line goes something like: "It's not for everyone, and it's not perfect. It won't run Windows software, for example. But if you need your computer to just work everyday like it did yesterday, this is something you need to consider. What do you actually DO on your computer? Really?".
Next thing I know, I'm installing Linux on another computer...
Here's the funny thing: My parents recently got NAILED by Yet Another Windows Worm and my wife was espousing the benefits of Linux. Turns out their satellite receiver runs... Linux!
Profits and competition are the main reason for a lot of the recent advances in processor performance. Look at the processor introductions back when 486 and pentium processors were around and Intel didn't have any credible competition.
Wow. Only on Slashdot would THIS be considered insightful.
There were *MORE* options for chips back then, not less. MIPS. Alpha. Power. 680x0. AMD 486. Cx 486.
No innovation here... (!)
Intel has pretty much always "pushed it". Their projected timelines for Mhz improvement has been fairly trackable, and fairly steady since the 1970s.
So, how is it that you can imply that there was no competition for Intel back in the 90s, and still ignore all the above?
This should have been moderated -1 TOLL
Re:How can you vouche for the security of this?
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
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· Score: 1
As for the "potty mouth" - maybe it comes naturally to someone who has had to deal with the bullshit that Microsoft has been pushing for 20 years now
And, if you don't mind me asking, how MANY of those 20 years you've been a legal adult, or at least, over 18? Have you spent *any* time yet over 18?
The fact that I feel compelled to ask should explain why excessive use of "Tourette's Syndrome" is so remarkably ineffective at communicating your intended message.
Re:How can you vouche for the security of this?
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
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· Score: 1
No, Microsoft does not take security any more seriously than in the past.
Really? Why do you say that? Windows XP SP2 has several times not been vulnerable to flaws found in earlier releases. Now, all products must go through a fairly extensive security review at Microsoft before release - this was not previously the case.
They have to be kicked and dragged into continuing to provide security fixes for NT, claiming "sorry, its 5 years old - we don't support it any more". Would you take that from any other manufacturer of any other product? Like, say, your car? Or your fridge? Or your toilet?
I spend many thousands of dollars on the car. I spent about $250 for my ceramic toilet. I spent about $50 for my OEM copy of windows. Let's compare apples to apples: my coffee maker. I spent about $50 on my cerafe-free countertop coffee maker. If it died in 4 years, I'd buy another one, and wouldn't feel too upset.
Love it, hate it, Windows is a CONSUMER product, and does quite well when you consider it as such. I wouldn't use my $50 countertop coffee maker in a cafeteria; even if it could be made to produce enough coffee, it'd die in a month or less with that kind of use.
It's a bit of perverse economics to compare the $50 Windows to the free Linux, but that's the reality. Linux is NOT a consumer product. It's merely an expensive product whose price isn't paid in cash. It's NOT on the desktop, it's NOT sold at Circuit City, and it's NOT for just anyone.
For anything serious, I use Whitebox Enterprise Linux. It's stable, reliable, reasonably secure, and holds up well under heavy loads. None of these things I can say with confidence about the Microsoft counterparts. As for the sorry schmucks who pay hundreds for the "server" versions of Windows, well, you sleep in the bed you make. I hope you like it.
Microsoft pays lip service to security. That's all. Their "big security push" that they so proudly declaimed, where they spent a "whole month" concentrating on making their people more aware of the problems of buffer overflows, etc., was pure marketing bullshit.
Hmmm. Pure "marketing bullshit". So, they didn't have their staff get together and discuss buffer overflows? They didn't run staff education seminars? What looked to be "staff training" was really all "marketing bullshit"?
You may feel underwhelmed by what they've done, but it took Unix the better part of a decade to get "best practices" together to come up with a reasonably secure install. Remember RedHat 6.2? I saw it rooted more than once in under 24 hours on a public connection after a fresh default install - before RedHat 7.0 came out! It could be *made* secure, but it took TIME to lock it all down.
You can't change decades of irresponsible behaviour with one month of rah-rah rally-the-troops crap.
Finally, something sensible. But why did you end your first meaningful statement with an expletive? Overuse of profanity just makes you sound like trash, or at least like an inexperienced kid with little value to add to the conversation.
Why should I listen to somebody who can't even be bothered to put out the effort to say what he/she means, rather than just say "shit" every 5th word?
If they REALLY wanted to concentrate on security in any meaningful way, they wouldn't continually fragment their own resources and create even more maintenance problems (7 versions of Vista? Fucking idiots - they can't even maintain what they've got now - this is a company that doesn't care about quality, or customer needs. Its ALL marketing, all the time).
Tsk tsk... any semblance of reason gets washed away by the tide of vulgarities! How is it that Microsoft is called to the carpet for having 7 closely related releases of a common Windows version, but Linux's "flavor of the month" distro chaos is a "good thing"(tm) ?
What leads you to believe that Microsoft "continually" produces fragmented products? Are you referring to XP/home vs XP/Pro? Having used both, I
This is an old thread. Chances are, the parent poster won't even read this. Ah, well. Such is life.
I started coding hard and heavy in early 2000, giving up a life as the owner of a small computer shop to pursue the much-more-rewarding role of software engineer.
Within a few months, I ran into the dreaded carpal tunnel issue - wrists that were sore and painful by mid-day, everyday. If I carefully positioned my wrists with rests, and adjusted my chair just so, I was good, but it was very hard to sit just so everyday, all day.
I bought a Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard, and was shocked at the difference it made. Immediate pain elimination. I could sit more/less however I wanted to.
About 2 years ago, I bought a Dell Inspiron laptop, and quickly had it set up at "the desk" with the large monitor (configured to do dual screen) ergo keyboard, etc.
But, then a few strange things happened.
1) I discovered that laptops let you sit anywhere you like.
2) I discovered that laptops let you move and flex.
I program at home, as in independent. I sit in the yard, I sit on the couch, I lay on my bed, whatever suits my fancy.
Today, I put in >12 hour day, but I spent part of it on the couch, part curled up in my papason chair, and part on the back porch deck watching my children swim in the pool.
And, with all these different angles and seating positions, my wrists just don't get sore. It'd still be nice to have dual-monitors, but KDE's virtual desktop + VERY tiny fonts does well enough, that the ergo keyboard and 20" monitor almost always sit, unused.
And, my quality of life has shot out through the roof, even as my young business grows rapidly!
My company frequently goes to industry shows and conferences, where we typically have a booth to demonstrate our wares to prospective clients.
We can NEVER count on an Internet connection, even when using a cellular network card - so we have a used laptop set up with the same software as on our public servers, configured with Linux, HTTP, DHCP, PostgreSQL, and DNS, connected to a hotspot. Effectively, the "Internet" that the hotspot is connected to consists solely of the laptop server. This way our salesforce can connect with their laptops and demonstrate our wares easily, while the server and hotspot sit in the corner somewheres near a power outlet. The DNS is wild-carded to our website hosted on said server. Even the user's homepage is co-opted, so if their homepage is goole or yahoo, it redirects automatically to our website.
It's quite funny when, at conferences, we hear people two booths down swear after connecting to our hotspot and all they can get to is our website! People have gotten *MAD* at us for "taking over the Internet"!!!
Now, get real: Want to know the BIGGEST, best-kept secret in data forensics? The most effective way to forever put your data beyond the reach of cops and courts is:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
Ok, trying it now on my laptop....
Hmmm. Doesn't SEEM to do anything but stop my MP3 player from working. Oh, now my email program crashed. WTF? I thought this was supposed to erase everything from my HDD?
Why did it just crash Gimp? I can't believe you'd give such worthleASDFL!@#!@!@# { CARRIER LOST }
Yeah. I work in the media revision department of the Chinese Federal Govornment.
We block the signals by running iptraf on a 486 Linux box connected to the China -> California gateway. Iptraf, as you may know, is ncurses-based, so we have a REALLY BIG SCREEN on it so we can see all the connections going on.
Then, we have a bunch of short, four-eyed people on ladders in front of the screen watching the connections. Whenever someting nefarious happens, they scream out port numbers to one of our typists who furiously type in commands like
Every morning, we flush the tables, ensuring we have plenty of work to do that day...
Just so you know, Slashdot is usually on our ban list, so anytime, one of the foureyes is going to notice m!@#!@#913899!# !# { 192.168.1.1: PACKET DENIED }
And just for the record: How do you "buyout" a community that makes Open Source software to ensure that they can't continue working? Hire them into your fold... for ANYTHING, and then tell them that they can't work on FOSS as a matter of company policy.
You don't see that that's only going to accelerate any erosion already taking place?
If merely working on OSS software is sure to land you a good job and income so that you don't work on OSS software, can't you picture the massive rush of people (GASP!) developing OSS software so that they too can get the primo job?
Sorry. Software is becoming food in the first world. Food itself has little value, and you can make very little money selling bare agricultural goods, you have to move massive amounts to become profitable. In order to make money at a higher margin, you have to open a restaurant, or provide some kind of premium service, using the food as raw material.
So it will be with software - the software itself will be fairly cheap and easy to come by; the money will be made using software as a product base to deliver premium services with. Think hosting, backups, customization, etc.
we've NEVER had a hard drive failure... Of course the question is "What brand/type?" Unfortunately I don't know. But when I buy my own computer (this one was a gift) I will be sure to find out.
Manufacture is almost irrelevant. Every one, it seems, has a bad run from time to time. Spend more to get "server" grade SCSI, and you'll get better performance. But, I doubt your father is doing that.
But with only 5 computers in the house, what's to go wrong? I've deal with nearly an order of magnitude more hardware in the past 3 years, and have had only 1 HDD failure, not including a bad buy from a cheeseball distributor who sold me bum hardware)
Slashdot Mirror
I hate to ask this, but are you an HR troll or a possibly a high school guidance counselor?
Neither. I'm a freelance software engineer, specializing in database-driven workflow management for mid-sized organizations with up to 1,000 staff. I find my work filled with the thrill and joy of pure creation, and I get a kick out of watching hundreds of people wrap their professional lives around my deliverables.
Of course, you could have figured that out looking at my posting history including perhaps, my most recent post to this one... ?
How about after finishing a bachelor's and a master's degree with a 3.5 GPA, your job gets outsourced to India, China, or any other cheaper country?
Which is just so much bullshit. What, are you better off huddling in your mother's basement?
Engineering is a rich and satisfying career, filled with the thrill and joy of pure creation, watching an idea you thought of turned into reality. As a software engineer of modest success, with hundreds of people actively using my products to save staff time worth far beyond my salary, I can attest: it really is worth it.
Interestingly, my career is in perhaps the most "outsourcable" field - programming and software. I'm already effectly outsourced, since I do all my work from my home, and rarely show up for work except when I need to meet with somebody.
Do what you love. Love what you do, and be the best you can be at it. When you do this, the rest will follow.
PS: You are out to be a doctor or RN. I hope you actually do what you enjoy - because I can't STAND doctors and nurses who have their egos or personalities in the way of treating ME - the patient. So many medicos forget the basic business maxim of "the customer is always right", or in the case of medicine, "the patient is always right"...
As an independent consultant/programmer/software engineer, I've made it a policy for YEARS that I do not work under circumstances where I don't own the resulting code.
I have my lawyer (hint hint!) draw up contracts such that I own the code, and the client(s) receive a transferrable, unlimited-use license to use/update the software. (I usually provide sources)
Generally, how I get clients to agree to this is: "A large part of my worth on this project is all the tools, functions, and pre-existing code from other projects that I'll be using in your project. I ask in return that pieces of the software I write for you can be used in other projects.".
If they balk at that, I ask them if they're willing to see the cost of the project triple as I re-write all this stuff from previous projects. I stress that they will be given generous licenses to the software that won't inhibit their use of the software. I generally agree to a non-compete clause in the contract when the client asks for it, though I have my lawyer draft it so it's not draconian.
I've never had anybody want to pay 3x as much, and I end up owning full copyrights to the sources for everything I write, and have for years.
In short, the formula goes like this:Fast pipes are good, but are they going to do what it takes to prevent their consumer users (with bandwidth pipes rivaling or exceeding many responsible commercial providers) from doing a "dumfuk" and blasting the planet with the latest worm/trojan/virus?
How can a "question" be either ill-informed or insightful?
Ill-informed question: How do you turn on a computer?
Insightful question: Now that we've invaded Iraq, will the U.S. have the resolve to make a clean break at the "end" of the war? Is such a goal even attainable?
No, the questions have nothing to do with the thread - only as answers to your question...
Being a geek isn't just about your field, it's about having a true passion for what you do. It's when you've found the work in life that you love. An example of a famous geek is Richard Feynman. He was a physics geek. If you read his biography and lectures, it becomes readily apparant that he LOVES physics. He worked in the field for that reason alone, that he made money at it and became famous was secondary.
I so utterly, totally, and completely agree! How many people in their figure out what they are really passionate about, and then get a chance to do it professionally?
So much of our training a la public schooling was to focus on our weak points - if we excelled at math, but were weak with Language Arts, what were we made to invest our time into? Math? Not.
How much easier life would be if, when assessed for our weaknesses, they focused instead on our strengths? As in "Well, your language arts competence is passable, but your math scores are out of this world! Let's talk about math, since it is very possibly something you love doing... "
What if we focused on doing the stuff that's easy for us, that we ENJOY doing, instead of focusing on our areas of weakness? Now much self-confidence would we get, knowing that we were blessed with a particular strength found useful by others, rather than knowing we can't do Language Arts to "standard"?
Our public education system is clearly and specifically engineered to produce quiet, obedient, non-questioning factory workers - except that the factory worker of the 19th century is extinct. We should be working instead to foster alternative education strategies, since the classroom environment has failed so well.
KDE=Open Source=BAD.
OSX=Aqua=Closed Source=BAD.
OSX!=Microsoft=GOOD.
OSX~BSD=GOOD
KDE+OSX=(GOOD+BAD)=(BRAIN ASSPLODES)
You can't use mod points in a thread where you post. See this post for more details.
I moderate "insightful" those posts that make me think. I mod down stuff that's "par for the course". I mod "funny" stuff that makes me laugh.
Therefore, a system with two cars and pulleys will always be almost in balance. The actual force in the rope will change depending on where exactly the cars are, due to centripetal forces.
How much does 36,000 km of cable weigh? I don't *care* what the strength to weight ratio is for nanotubes, I'd be quite certain that the 36,000 km miles of nanocable weighs lots more than the travelcar.
But, Carbon nanotubes in the "armchair 5,5" configuration are virtual superconductors. So, why not put a bunch of heavy capacity, superconducting, nanocable coils in the cars, and use electromagnetism to move the cars up/down by running a bunch of electricity into the nanocable?
If you made two nanocables going up to geosynch side by side, you could have a complete circuit, one cable for "up" traffic, another for "down", allow multiple cars to be going simultaneously in each direction, and not have to muck about with pulleys and all that jazz.
Why wouldn't this work?
The slashdot community has a certain group-think to it, exemplified by my recent post.
An article was posted where the headline had little to do with the article. There was post after post of based on an erroneous headline. I pointed this out, and got modded flamebait.
I'm not upset by this; I knew pretty much that's what would happen going in. But, it's an example of a preference engine (the moderation system on Slashdot) acting to squelch any ideas that don't conform to the group-think so prevalent here.
Thus, you say what slashbots think you should say, and you get modded up. Question them, or provide meaningful data in opposition to any of the core mantras around here, and your voice is quickly trampled in mods of "flamebait" and "off topic", or perhaps "overrated" to avoid any karma consequences in metamoderation.
Microsoft=bad. Linux=perfection. Sun=irrelevant. Everybody here's a single male between 14 and 35, living in momma's cellar. ??? profit!
These are all Slashdot mantras, ideas so firmly entrenched into the moderation culture that to really oppose these ideas means moderation oblivion and a loss of karma. (voice)
It's entertaining, and as a Linux user, I mostly fit in, but it's definitely an ideological monoculture. Sometimes, I just get pissed. (and modded to the wasteland that is -1)
PS: I have some mod points now, and will be using them soon...
What I find interesting is the incredible number of posts made here that are knee-jerk replies to the headline, which has almost nothing at all to do with TFA. What I find truly stupid is the number of such posts that have been moderated UP.
The Slashdot moderation system is designed to filter out trolls and losers based on what everybody agrees to be "insightful", "interesting" and whatnot.
But this breaks down when the average luzer who reads this is dumb, boring, and in posession of some mod points.
Which is just so much hogwash. When you adjust for inflation, movie tickets are actually kind of cheap especially when compared to 1971-ish prices, where they were 50& MORE expensive than today!
A notable quote from the linked article:I'd suggest that the biggest problem faced by the Entertainment industry is the rise of more options such as video games, the Internet, online music, etc as well as the increased competition from the long tail effect that these increased options provide.
There will probably always be the "blockbuster hit" but there simply won't be nearly as many.
We recently bought Dish Network satellite television, with the (Linux based!) DVR522 recorder. I can tell it to record whatever I like to watch whenever I want - and let me assure you, it's NOT what the networks show on "primetime". This is an extension of the "long tail" - even though the shows I might watch aren't as popular, they are popular enough to justify airing at non prime-time hours, and the DVR effectively lets me make that my own "prime time".
Since the economics of the local theatre only allows for blockbusters, they have to compete more heavily against material more directly suited for my own tastes.
It's a battle that will only get harder in time.
yeah, the human brains of your typical genius and your average sheeple aren't actually all that different. in fact with the exception of those who've used alchohol and drugs to damage there brains they're usualy identical. so what is the difference? it's the software.
I wish I could agree with you, and once upon a time, I did. However, being a parent has dramatically altered my views.
Much of who you are, and what you like, what you'll be good at, and what you'll become, is hardwired at birth.
I'm one of those weird intellectuals who is both reasonably intelligent (at least, I'd like to think so) and has a good-sized family. (5 children) The truth is that I could see who and what my kids were likely to become at a very early age - by the age of 6-8 or so.
It's not training or parenting styles - it's the simple and true fact that genetics does account for a large percentage of what you are and who you'll most likely be. There's definitely a cultural and educational component - but basic personality is quite significant, too.
And thank Evolution that's the case - otherwise anybody born to dysfunctional parents is simply doomed! My experiences make it clear to me that people can be raised by nutjob parents and still come out decent. (Alternatively, they can be born by great parents and still end up nutjobs, but I digress)
I hate to burst your bubble, but most people don't even know that Windows is an OS. They don't "know" Windows is unreliable, they "know" that computers in general are unreliable and virus-ridden because 90% of the computers they've seen in their life are Windows computers.
Windows == Computer.
Thus, since Computers are unreliable, Windows is unreliable.
It's fairly easy to describe Linux - I tell them:
"You know how a Macintosh looks alot like Windows, but doesn't use the same software? That's kinda like what Linux is - except that you can use the same actual computer to run either Windows or Linux".
Just because they don't know doesn't mean you can't tell them in a succinct, logical way.
Linux on the desktop is as far away as it when I started using it four years ago (ask your non-techie friends), MS are still kings of the hill.
I guess some people haven't been paying attention to their non-techie friends.
Windows used to be "cool". Now, it's common knowledge that it sucks, it's inconsistent, unreliable, and a pain in the arse. Many of them have heard of Linux, and a few have even tried it.
Here's my experience:
For a while, my computer ran RedHat/Fedora, while my wife's computer ran Windows. Mine worked great, hers crashed often. With little time to spend fixing Windows hiccups, I finally just reloaded her ccomputer with Fedora Core.
My wife, a real trooper, put out honest effort to get to know it. At first, she didn't like it. She couldn't find N or window X opened in annoying ways... Problem printing, etc. You know the routine.
But, after using it for 6 months, she's an advocate! She's gotten familiar with the shortcomings (EG: not reliably playing Windows Media files) but more importantly, she's gotten familiar with the strengths, too. (EG: It works day in and day out)
Her usual line goes something like: "It's not for everyone, and it's not perfect. It won't run Windows software, for example. But if you need your computer to just work everyday like it did yesterday, this is something you need to consider. What do you actually DO on your computer? Really?".
Next thing I know, I'm installing Linux on another computer...
Here's the funny thing: My parents recently got NAILED by Yet Another Windows Worm and my wife was espousing the benefits of Linux. Turns out their satellite receiver runs... Linux!
Profits and competition are the main reason for a lot of the recent advances in processor performance. Look at the processor introductions back when 486 and pentium processors were around and Intel didn't have any credible competition.
Wow. Only on Slashdot would THIS be considered insightful.
There were *MORE* options for chips back then, not less. MIPS. Alpha. Power. 680x0. AMD 486. Cx 486.
No innovation here... (!)
Intel has pretty much always "pushed it". Their projected timelines for Mhz improvement has been fairly trackable, and fairly steady since the 1970s.
So, how is it that you can imply that there was no competition for Intel back in the 90s, and still ignore all the above?
This should have been moderated -1 TOLL
As for the "potty mouth" - maybe it comes naturally to someone who has had to deal with the bullshit that Microsoft has been pushing for 20 years now
And, if you don't mind me asking, how MANY of those 20 years you've been a legal adult, or at least, over 18? Have you spent *any* time yet over 18?
The fact that I feel compelled to ask should explain why excessive use of "Tourette's Syndrome" is so remarkably ineffective at communicating your intended message.
No, Microsoft does not take security any more seriously than in the past.
Really? Why do you say that? Windows XP SP2 has several times not been vulnerable to flaws found in earlier releases. Now, all products must go through a fairly extensive security review at Microsoft before release - this was not previously the case.
They have to be kicked and dragged into continuing to provide security fixes for NT, claiming "sorry, its 5 years old - we don't support it any more". Would you take that from any other manufacturer of any other product? Like, say, your car? Or your fridge? Or your toilet?
I spend many thousands of dollars on the car. I spent about $250 for my ceramic toilet. I spent about $50 for my OEM copy of windows. Let's compare apples to apples: my coffee maker. I spent about $50 on my cerafe-free countertop coffee maker. If it died in 4 years, I'd buy another one, and wouldn't feel too upset.
Love it, hate it, Windows is a CONSUMER product, and does quite well when you consider it as such. I wouldn't use my $50 countertop coffee maker in a cafeteria; even if it could be made to produce enough coffee, it'd die in a month or less with that kind of use.
It's a bit of perverse economics to compare the $50 Windows to the free Linux, but that's the reality. Linux is NOT a consumer product. It's merely an expensive product whose price isn't paid in cash. It's NOT on the desktop, it's NOT sold at Circuit City, and it's NOT for just anyone.
For anything serious, I use Whitebox Enterprise Linux. It's stable, reliable, reasonably secure, and holds up well under heavy loads. None of these things I can say with confidence about the Microsoft counterparts. As for the sorry schmucks who pay hundreds for the "server" versions of Windows, well, you sleep in the bed you make. I hope you like it.
Microsoft pays lip service to security. That's all. Their "big security push" that they so proudly declaimed, where they spent a "whole month" concentrating on making their people more aware of the problems of buffer overflows, etc., was pure marketing bullshit.
Hmmm. Pure "marketing bullshit". So, they didn't have their staff get together and discuss buffer overflows? They didn't run staff education seminars? What looked to be "staff training" was really all "marketing bullshit"?
You may feel underwhelmed by what they've done, but it took Unix the better part of a decade to get "best practices" together to come up with a reasonably secure install. Remember RedHat 6.2? I saw it rooted more than once in under 24 hours on a public connection after a fresh default install - before RedHat 7.0 came out! It could be *made* secure, but it took TIME to lock it all down.
You can't change decades of irresponsible behaviour with one month of rah-rah rally-the-troops crap.
Finally, something sensible. But why did you end your first meaningful statement with an expletive? Overuse of profanity just makes you sound like trash, or at least like an inexperienced kid with little value to add to the conversation.
Why should I listen to somebody who can't even be bothered to put out the effort to say what he/she means, rather than just say "shit" every 5th word?
If they REALLY wanted to concentrate on security in any meaningful way, they wouldn't continually fragment their own resources and create even more maintenance problems (7 versions of Vista? Fucking idiots - they can't even maintain what they've got now - this is a company that doesn't care about quality, or customer needs. Its ALL marketing, all the time).
Tsk tsk... any semblance of reason gets washed away by the tide of vulgarities! How is it that Microsoft is called to the carpet for having 7 closely related releases of a common Windows version, but Linux's "flavor of the month" distro chaos is a "good thing"(tm) ?
What leads you to believe that Microsoft "continually" produces fragmented products? Are you referring to XP/home vs XP/Pro? Having used both, I
This is an old thread. Chances are, the parent poster won't even read this. Ah, well. Such is life.
I started coding hard and heavy in early 2000, giving up a life as the owner of a small computer shop to pursue the much-more-rewarding role of software engineer.
Within a few months, I ran into the dreaded carpal tunnel issue - wrists that were sore and painful by mid-day, everyday. If I carefully positioned my wrists with rests, and adjusted my chair just so, I was good, but it was very hard to sit just so everyday, all day.
I bought a Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard, and was shocked at the difference it made. Immediate pain elimination. I could sit more/less however I wanted to.
About 2 years ago, I bought a Dell Inspiron laptop, and quickly had it set up at "the desk" with the large monitor (configured to do dual screen) ergo keyboard, etc.
But, then a few strange things happened.
1) I discovered that laptops let you sit anywhere you like.
2) I discovered that laptops let you move and flex.
I program at home, as in independent. I sit in the yard, I sit on the couch, I lay on my bed, whatever suits my fancy.
Today, I put in >12 hour day, but I spent part of it on the couch, part curled up in my papason chair, and part on the back porch deck watching my children swim in the pool.
And, with all these different angles and seating positions, my wrists just don't get sore. It'd still be nice to have dual-monitors, but KDE's virtual desktop + VERY tiny fonts does well enough, that the ergo keyboard and 20" monitor almost always sit, unused.
And, my quality of life has shot out through the roof, even as my young business grows rapidly!
My company frequently goes to industry shows and conferences, where we typically have a booth to demonstrate our wares to prospective clients.
We can NEVER count on an Internet connection, even when using a cellular network card - so we have a used laptop set up with the same software as on our public servers, configured with Linux, HTTP, DHCP, PostgreSQL, and DNS, connected to a hotspot. Effectively, the "Internet" that the hotspot is connected to consists solely of the laptop server. This way our salesforce can connect with their laptops and demonstrate our wares easily, while the server and hotspot sit in the corner somewheres near a power outlet. The DNS is wild-carded to our website hosted on said server. Even the user's homepage is co-opted, so if their homepage is goole or yahoo, it redirects automatically to our website.
It's quite funny when, at conferences, we hear people two booths down swear after connecting to our hotspot and all they can get to is our website! People have gotten *MAD* at us for "taking over the Internet"!!!
Now, get real: Want to know the BIGGEST, best-kept secret in data forensics? The most effective way to forever put your data beyond the reach of cops and courts is:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
Ok, trying it now on my laptop....
Hmmm. Doesn't SEEM to do anything but stop my MP3 player from working. Oh, now my email program crashed. WTF? I thought this was supposed to erase everything from my HDD?
Why did it just crash Gimp? I can't believe you'd give such worthleASDFL!@#!@!@# { CARRIER LOST }
Remember the fiasco over the "for dummies" trademarks?
How long before Wolfram & Co. trademarks "A new kind of ________"?
Stupid that such a dumb though also bears legitimacy...
We block the signals by running iptraf on a 486 Linux box connected to the China -> California gateway. Iptraf, as you may know, is ncurses-based, so we have a REALLY BIG SCREEN on it so we can see all the connections going on.
Then, we have a bunch of short, four-eyed people on ladders in front of the screen watching the connections. Whenever someting nefarious happens, they scream out port numbers to one of our typists who furiously type in commands likeEvery morning, we flush the tables, ensuring we have plenty of work to do that day...
Just so you know, Slashdot is usually on our ban list, so anytime, one of the foureyes is going to notice m!@#!@#913899!# !# { 192.168.1.1: PACKET DENIED }
And just for the record: How do you "buyout" a community that makes Open Source software to ensure that they can't continue working? Hire them into your fold... for ANYTHING, and then tell them that they can't work on FOSS as a matter of company policy.
You don't see that that's only going to accelerate any erosion already taking place?
If merely working on OSS software is sure to land you a good job and income so that you don't work on OSS software, can't you picture the massive rush of people (GASP!) developing OSS software so that they too can get the primo job?
Sorry. Software is becoming food in the first world. Food itself has little value, and you can make very little money selling bare agricultural goods, you have to move massive amounts to become profitable. In order to make money at a higher margin, you have to open a restaurant, or provide some kind of premium service, using the food as raw material.
So it will be with software - the software itself will be fairly cheap and easy to come by; the money will be made using software as a product base to deliver premium services with. Think hosting, backups, customization, etc.
we've NEVER had a hard drive failure ... Of course the question is "What brand/type?" Unfortunately I don't know. But when I buy my own computer (this one was a gift) I will be sure to find out.
Manufacture is almost irrelevant. Every one, it seems, has a bad run from time to time. Spend more to get "server" grade SCSI, and you'll get better performance. But, I doubt your father is doing that.
But with only 5 computers in the house, what's to go wrong? I've deal with nearly an order of magnitude more hardware in the past 3 years, and have had only 1 HDD failure, not including a bad buy from a cheeseball distributor who sold me bum hardware)
PS: Knock on wood...