In 1000 years or more, they'll have no idea what we were up to at all. At lease some paper records have a chance of surviving.
I wouldn't worry that much... think of it... USofA has some pretty extraordinary archaeologists: Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, Rick O'Connell, Benjamin Gates... should I continue?
Why does every aspect of the publishing industry seem to fail at grasping the advantages of limited or no DRM and digital products?
What purpose a publisher would have in the business landscape if the authors would (self-)publish exclusively in e-formats and DRM free? (maybe they do grasp the situation very well, and they are just fighting for their life?)
As he's still alive, you should correct the tense or replace Dylan with someone closer to be a role model in this respect (Jim Morrison would be the first to pop into my mind. Bon Scott almost qualifies as well).
Information Science is a basic science, like any other, and in our world has a lot more immediate practical applications. It should be taught. Why can my son, very bright, in the 8th grade, tell me the layers of the atmosphere and the earths crust and evolution and basic physics, but can't tell me the difference between a bit and a byte? That's crazy.
As crazy as the ideas of "coding is Computer Science", "coding is cool" or... oh, God... "coding video games is cool".
This is funny because Santrex itself sells bittorent hosting services called "seedboxes". What purpose do they think seedboxes serve other than sharing copyrighted material?
Making some money from naive people thinking this kind of service won't be subject to regulations?
BTW, sharing copyrighted content is not illegal - sharing it without permission is. E.g. linux is still copyrighted, but sharing an ISO of the most linux distros is not illegal (not from the point of view of copyright, anyway, GPL grants you the permission).
However, a problem with such books is that with material fragmented so much and the structure not visible directly, it is harder for someone to grasp the overall structure of knowledge in the domain if they're first getting oriented.
You can choose to provide, on top of with the multi-level structure:
1. many different "discourses" - linear/navigational paths inside the content. It's like providing many linear books build from the same content (your "prev/next page" nav bar flies on top of the content - instead of being embedded in the pages - and reacts to whatever "ToC" is loaded)
2. Different ontologies to organize the same content based on whatever "knowledge structures" are applicable.
Better yet, if you feel generous, you may provide tools for whatever reader to organize their own discourses/ontologies and share them with others
Students are more than empty buckets awaiting fulfilment from others.
Oh, are they?
Even as a student, I wanted to dive into them to change what was being said. Sometimes it was because it took me forever to understand what was being said, and I wanted to clarify things once I understood it. Other times it was because I wanted to expand upon what was being said.
You may be one of the rare exceptions, but I'm afraid the schools of the present don't think so and continue to use them as fertilizer recipients (read: fill the said buckets by pissing on them) and charge for the said fertilizer an amount to be paid in 10 years. And yet, for some reason that still escapes me, there seems to be a huge supply of buckets to be filled.
Efficiency should be measured in how small the number of lines of code/bug fixes are needed for implementing/maintaining the desired functionality.
You want me to minimize line count? I can do that. I'll probably follow it up by submitting the code to the IOCCC, but you'll get the small codebase you asked for.
You stretched a bit what I meant, but you do have a point
(thanks for reminding about them anyway; made me curious: are they still running the contest? Going to visit their site)
On top of that, it doesn't cost any more for me to write an extra 10,000 lines of code in a week so it isn't more expensive in a "value-spent" kind of way.
But it is related with a higher "value-spent", my young Padwan, it certainly is! Even if not for you (assuming you were "smart" enough to "externalize" it), the cost is still there!! Ignoring this cost pertains to the dark side of the force.
You see, never a code is written to stay unmodified forever - a code that doesn't need modifications is a dead code (nobody is using it) or an utopia of perfection (the application with a single button labeled "Do it for me").
And maintaining 10,000 extra line of code (with their own need of being documented and documentation kept up-to-date; with their chance of unique and tasty bugs to be searched in a larger haystack; and so on) comes with a higher cost.
First, if a system is that good, then managers won't be able to game it to play favorites.
This is the most likely reason I see why no performance metric that works would actually be picked up. The ideal rating system for a corrupt manager is one where everyone is rated poorly, and then...
An ugly world (I know it from my past experience)... I mean the world in which a manager doesn't compete with other managers (on budgets, prestige, etc) based on successes, but is "chosen to be a manager because we need one and... let's see who's the most notable and less-covered-by-shit on the floor". In the last case, the chosen person will be the most-full-of-shit-and-willing-to-spread it one... you can imagine how the managed team stinks.
Whatever you measure will be gamed. Measure bugs fixed, and you will find people wasting time listing each tiny variation of a bug. Measure lines of code, you will get spaghetti code.
Two things:
1. Your point - which is "Tell me how you measure me and I'll tell you how I'll behave" - with the addition that it's so natural/visceral a reaction that one doesn't even need to intend to game the measurement, the behavior of the measured will alter
2. I'm firmly on the opinion that code is value-spent and is not value-created. From this point of view, seems very strange to me for one to use metrics of cost to measure productivity. Efficiency should be measured in how small the number of lines of code/bug fixes are needed for implementing/maintaining the desired functionality.
The theory is that the more countries and NGO that have nuclear weapons, then the more likely they are to be used.
Strange theory... last I know of, the only time a nuclear weapon was used in a war was at a time only one nation has had the technology.And they used it twice. And I heard/read some arguing that their use was gratuitous, just for showing some muscles.
As it stands now with Facebook, I say that the moment you interfere with this process and shelter this kind of spinelessness is the moment you prevent the character growth of those who are badly in need of a lesson. I know it looks like a nice thing to do but that's short-term thinking; in the long run it makes the problem worse.
You mean... like... until it becomes a felony to break the FB's TOS and create a pseudonymous account?
Those who have a clue, care about privacy, and make their own decisions avoided Facebook from the beginning. The rest are making their beds and should not be prevented from laying in them.
Hmmm... I can see other ends if this goes unchecked... like until it will be a felony not to have a FB account? By peer-pressure initially and eventually by the law of the land (that land of the home and free of the brave)?
Slashdot Mirror
In 1000 years or more, they'll have no idea what we were up to at all. At lease some paper records have a chance of surviving.
I wouldn't worry that much... think of it... USofA has some pretty extraordinary archaeologists: Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, Rick O'Connell, Benjamin Gates... should I continue?
DRM is a joke
Definitely a not funny one.
Thanks for the Baen reference. In return: Scott Card's IGMS (e-periodic)
Why does every aspect of the publishing industry seem to fail at grasping the advantages of limited or no DRM and digital products?
What purpose a publisher would have in the business landscape if the authors would (self-)publish exclusively in e-formats and DRM free?
(maybe they do grasp the situation very well, and they are just fighting for their life?)
Besides, this is /. - who the hell has rainy days women... even more, at least 35 of them?
Bob Dylan would be proud.
As he's still alive, you should correct the tense or replace Dylan with someone closer to be a role model in this respect (Jim Morrison would be the first to pop into my mind. Bon Scott almost qualifies as well).
But, apparently, enough of the other 97% still click the link.
And... what? Will the link explode? Or will the cheap Rolex replica strangle the owner?
Just who is actually in danger and need protection?
They're banning illegal counterfeit goods to protect consumers
Protect consumer from what? What is so dangerous in a cheap counterfeit Coco Channel purse or a Rolex replica?
What happens when the missiles get hacked and detonate without launching?
Identify the source and stone the attacker to death.
The news clip broadcasted last evening on ABC.
Information Science is a basic science, like any other, and in our world has a lot more immediate practical applications. It should be taught. Why can my son, very bright, in the 8th grade, tell me the layers of the atmosphere and the earths crust and evolution and basic physics, but can't tell me the difference between a bit and a byte? That's crazy.
As crazy as the ideas of "coding is Computer Science", "coding is cool" or... oh, God... "coding video games is cool".
This is funny because Santrex itself sells bittorent hosting services called "seedboxes". What purpose do they think seedboxes serve other than sharing copyrighted material?
Making some money from naive people thinking this kind of service won't be subject to regulations?
BTW, sharing copyrighted content is not illegal - sharing it without permission is. E.g. linux is still copyrighted, but sharing an ISO of the most linux distros is not illegal (not from the point of view of copyright, anyway, GPL grants you the permission).
However, a problem with such books is that with material fragmented so much and the structure not visible directly, it is harder for someone to grasp the overall structure of knowledge in the domain if they're first getting oriented.
You can choose to provide, on top of with the multi-level structure:
1. many different "discourses" - linear/navigational paths inside the content. It's like providing many linear books build from the same content (your "prev/next page" nav bar flies on top of the content - instead of being embedded in the pages - and reacts to whatever "ToC" is loaded)
2. Different ontologies to organize the same content based on whatever "knowledge structures" are applicable.
Better yet, if you feel generous, you may provide tools for whatever reader to organize their own discourses/ontologies and share them with others
Students are more than empty buckets awaiting fulfilment from others.
Oh, are they?
Even as a student, I wanted to dive into them to change what was being said. Sometimes it was because it took me forever to understand what was being said, and I wanted to clarify things once I understood it. Other times it was because I wanted to expand upon what was being said.
You may be one of the rare exceptions, but I'm afraid the schools of the present don't think so and continue to use them as fertilizer recipients (read: fill the said buckets by pissing on them) and charge for the said fertilizer an amount to be paid in 10 years. And yet, for some reason that still escapes me, there seems to be a huge supply of buckets to be filled.
You want me to minimize line count? I can do that. I'll probably follow it up by submitting the code to the IOCCC, but you'll get the small codebase you asked for.
You stretched a bit what I meant, but you do have a point
(thanks for reminding about them anyway; made me curious: are they still running the contest? Going to visit their site)
On top of that, it doesn't cost any more for me to write an extra 10,000 lines of code in a week so it isn't more expensive in a "value-spent" kind of way.
But it is related with a higher "value-spent", my young Padwan, it certainly is!
Even if not for you (assuming you were "smart" enough to "externalize" it), the cost is still there!! Ignoring this cost pertains to the dark side of the force.
You see, never a code is written to stay unmodified forever - a code that doesn't need modifications is a dead code (nobody is using it) or an utopia of perfection (the application with a single button labeled "Do it for me").
And maintaining 10,000 extra line of code (with their own need of being documented and documentation kept up-to-date; with their chance of unique and tasty bugs to be searched in a larger haystack; and so on) comes with a higher cost.
First, if a system is that good, then managers won't be able to game it to play favorites.
This is the most likely reason I see why no performance metric that works would actually be picked up. The ideal rating system for a corrupt manager is one where everyone is rated poorly, and then ...
An ugly world (I know it from my past experience)... I mean the world in which a manager doesn't compete with other managers (on budgets, prestige, etc) based on successes, but is "chosen to be a manager because we need one and... let's see who's the most notable and less-covered-by-shit on the floor".
In the last case, the chosen person will be the most-full-of-shit-and-willing-to-spread it one... you can imagine how the managed team stinks.
Whatever you measure will be gamed. Measure bugs fixed, and you will find people wasting time listing each tiny variation of a bug. Measure lines of code, you will get spaghetti code.
Two things:
1. Your point - which is "Tell me how you measure me and I'll tell you how I'll behave" - with the addition that it's so natural/visceral a reaction that one doesn't even need to intend to game the measurement, the behavior of the measured will alter
2. I'm firmly on the opinion that code is value-spent and is not value-created. From this point of view, seems very strange to me for one to use metrics of cost to measure productivity. Efficiency should be measured in how small the number of lines of code/bug fixes are needed for implementing/maintaining the desired functionality.
Strange theory...
It's well known. My opinion is that it's also true.
Just be careful on forming opinions... I assume you still remember the 4 years ago well known theory of "House prices never go down".
For deterrence to work, they had to be used at least once.
As I said: "for showing some muscles".
The theory is that the more countries and NGO that have nuclear weapons, then the more likely they are to be used.
Strange theory... last I know of, the only time a nuclear weapon was used in a war was at a time only one nation has had the technology.And they used it twice. And I heard/read some arguing that their use was gratuitous, just for showing some muscles.
All those devices will sooner or later need some kind of technical attention.
U serious? Haven't yet heard of planned obsolescence? It's more likely to have large drops in prices.
would waste valuvable coding time by going to a par . . . ty? Am I saying that correctly?
Me thinks you misspelled vulvalabium.
Someone please explain: why should he have been stopped?
What about 600 million shreds from 45 million documents?
As it stands now with Facebook, I say that the moment you interfere with this process and shelter this kind of spinelessness is the moment you prevent the character growth of those who are badly in need of a lesson. I know it looks like a nice thing to do but that's short-term thinking; in the long run it makes the problem worse.
You mean... like... until it becomes a felony to break the FB's TOS and create a pseudonymous account?
Those who have a clue, care about privacy, and make their own decisions avoided Facebook from the beginning. The rest are making their beds and should not be prevented from laying in them.
Hmmm... I can see other ends if this goes unchecked... like until it will be a felony not to have a FB account? By peer-pressure initially and eventually by the law of the land (that land of the home and free of the brave)?