In N. America (and perhaps elsewhere) the standard texts on the Left are: Noam Chomsky's The Fateful Triangle; Norman Finkelstein's Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
As for the Right, another reader mentioned Alan Dershowitz' The Case for Israel .
Ordinarily, I'd recommend books rather than online material. For a comprehensive introduction, it's best to avoid the low S/N of the Web. But I can't help but point out Finkelstein's
dissection of Dershowitz' book. He also tackles it in this speech, around the 33rd minute.
I did expect osx fans would be annoyed. That's why I put the disclaimer in the beginning -- that this is not about osx. This is a comment on 'linux on the ibook'. It's the hardware which I object to. If you're happy with osx, all the more power to you.
As for linux, some other people may be happy with their ibook linux setup. But, my feedback, to those contemplating such a setup, is this: I compare my usage of the ibook to that of my other linux boxen (all having a stripped-down, near-mouseless setup), and I'm currently forced to assess it as a 'broken system'.
you'd be surprised how many geeky professional people are using ibooks and
imacs, including techies.
Yes I _would_ be surprised. Even if so, this may be a temporary phenomenon. I bought an iBook, and totally regret it. The main reasons why I bought one were:
I didn't want to support wintel;
I wanted RISC
I thought I might use some of the mac multimedia stuff if I was in a hurry.
I don't care for osx. It's good for other people, but not for me. But the single thing which has made me regret the purchase is the input mechanism. That may seem odd to some people, but this is crucial to me. The keyboard does not work like a normal keyboard, and it cannot be re-mapped as I like. By hardwiring Policy into the Mechanism of the keyboard, they've made the whole iBook a real pain to use for me.
And the trackpad is mis-placed. It's good for people who drag-and-drop to work with a computer. But if you have to use the keybaord a lot, it gets in the way and fucks everything up royally. You can reduce its effect by judicious changes in fvwm, but that's not enough. I even hoped to disable it by building the trackpad support as a kernel module, but its driver cannot be turned into a module. So I might go into the driver code and see if I can make it do what I want.
The Thinkpad would have been far better, even though it had wintel and a 3-hour battery life.
But what a good DJ does _is_ an art form. S/he _creates_ the mood as well as responds to it. A good DJ can lift an audience, make them rise and fall as s/he pleases. And then there is the issue of individual taste. The music selection of each DJ is driven by personal taste, experience, imagination and style; not merely a function of the audience.
More interestingly. the drug selection(s) of the crowd can affect (their hearbeat and so) this product's algorithm in interesting ways. And since different people 'peak' at different times, there'll be no convergence by the algorithm. It'll be akin to disk thrashing!:-)
"Take a look at MSDN"?! I have. It's a huge set, and very impressive. But my experience has been that there is always enough information missing (namely, protocols:-) that the only way of developing a competitive (to M$) product, is at least _some_ degree of reverse-engineering -- if at all possible!
Yah the music sucks! I didn't expect anything as great as Voyager's, but I didn't want Eighties' hair-and-spandex associations, either!
And they got on my nerves with their attitude. But I prepared to give it time (and saw it motivated by the context that they'd described), but they quickly justified it by the end.
Now, where do I find pics of that Lara Croft-y, Seven substitute, vulcan babe?...
Re:What can 60 billion dollars buy?
on
A New Kind of War
·
· Score: 1
Outstanding comment!
With this money spent on re-building these countries, they will hunt fundamentalists themselves instead of waiting for CIA/FBI to do it. They have to have an interest in Capitalism in order to defend it. They have to be given an interest in life, so they won't choose death.
Any suggestion that these people are driven by blind hatred or the promise of martyrdom, is demonization of an entire group. Remember, the most popular TV show in Iran is Baywatch. That itself, is far more telling of what a populace really wants.
Re:An article from a Canadian Journalist.
on
More On Tragedy
·
· Score: 1
BTW, this is an article from 1973. Gord Sinclair died in 1984!
Re:An article from a Canadian Journalist.
on
More On Tragedy
·
· Score: 1
Could you people stop posting this!
Gord Sinclair is loved in the US for this highly-selective and melodramatic piece -- referred to as 'The Americans'. It's just the kind of stuff Americans love to hear about themselves.
Unfortunately, however, reality is much harsher than that. As many knowledgable Americans admit (and many visitors discover by themselves), Americans know very little about anything outside their borders. To me this is the first obstacle to the solution of the current problems. You must first understand your enemy/neighbour. But so long as public media are profit-motivated, the sheltering and the babying will continue.
Re:there's an argument to be made....
on
More On Tragedy
·
· Score: 1
I have been all
around this crappy little planet, and every day I thank god for the shining gem of western culture.
Well, they say 'travel is education'. Some people go to school, and never learn a thing.
As for "reaping the benefits" of US/Western culture, the rest of the world suffers the dichotomy of loving the American pop culture, and hating its government. Perhaps this should clue you in on what to do, and what to avoid. Send them Hollywoood, but keep out the CIA.
Free s/w (or open src) is like any other movement.
The leader during the revolution, is not necessarily the leader _after_ the revolution. Each stage demands different skills/convictions. RMS drove this movement for a long time. It is not at all surprising (nor necessarily valid) to me that he'd be increasingly ignored. Though he may remain the conscience of the movement, his role may increasingly become a symbolic one -- at best!
But I hope that such a possibility, will not discourage/detract us from the larger goal. Ulrich is right that free s/w is a burden, but it's one that I hope extremely talented individuals -- such as yourself, Miguel, and Drepper -- will not abandon.
Re:Message from the Admin (repost)
on
Geek Flavor
·
· Score: 1
I was going to do something like this, and was just waiting till I moved back to my hometown, Toronto ( a coincidence?;-).
However, I was going to do it on my own machine, the second one which I have and which is pretty open to potential destruction.
The idea, however, was not to 'open source' it. I'd read a long time ago (back in '92, probably in the book 'Hackers') that rms fundamentally opposed the idea of introducing passwords into the MIT AI lab. I knew that doing this under the current circumstances would result in major destruction (it's always easier to tear down than to construct), but I wanted to see what would happen anyways. I wanted to see what would _eventually_ come about. It _is_ a great experiment. The box will be trashed initially, but what would happen _eventually_? Would the constructors get in eventually and build-up the necessary walls against the destructors? Would the forces of light prevail? A communal space on the Net?
It'll be another 2 months before I'll be back in Toronto. I do hope that someone else wil give this a try in the mean time.
Re:Amazing Web page. Too bad it's "spun".
on
The History of UNIX
·
· Score: 1
I refer you to Andrew Tanenbaum's OS books (eg Modern Operating Systems) for a brief history of UNIX. http://www.multicians.org may have some info as well.
The signal/noise ratio of usenet, and particularly the more Web-oriented forums, is getting exponentially low. I, personally, would be interested in the moderated technical groups being archived & searchable eg clcm. I'm not sure how effective the others may be. It'd be an extraordinary pain getting some decent info out of all the noise.
It's a wonder how otherwise-knowledgable people confuse these things. They are lumping everything from the UI down to the sys calls, and petulantly whining about this and that. But their incoherence is missed by the increasing mass of clueless developers who think 'policy vs. mechanism' has to do with the White House.
Top 10+ Ways Your NT Box Would Improve If Converted To Unix:
- 64 Megs of your memory won't be used just to boot! You'll finally get to see what all the fuss was about all that "speed"... unless you enjoy blaming your netscape's performance on your ISP;
- no more fortnightly reboots... unless you're one of those people who turn off their computer 'so it won't get damaged'.
- A data file would be a data file; an executable, an executable. Open any email you want;
- the word 'server' would have meaning again... unless if you're still unclear on the concept;
- you'll have one real, in the flesh, competent admin for 50 users... instead of one off-site admin and 50 incompetent mini-admin users struggling to do everything themselves;
- if you don't like a tool... you replace it! And no need to run a huge monolith to do a small job: OO command-set lets you do *anything* to source files short of making them sing;
- tried and tested virtual memory;
- one stray app won't bring down the system... unless if you find a blue screen 'soothing';
- remote login. You've got the whole network to run processes on;
- remote display. Work anywhere, from anywhere. Work 'in' the lab... from *home*.
Top Ten Ways Your NT network Would Improve If Converted To Unix:
- what NT 'network'?! You can't log into another machine; you can't run a process elsewhere; you can't display on another machine; most/every software has to be installed on every machine (you got 100 machines, you install 100 times); no true shared filesystem.
An irony is that Linus uses plain fvwm2, not gnome/kde. The fact that I can totally change my environment is one of unix's prime attractions to me. SO I could not care less about his annoyance that I can change my wm.
Not fair. You've picked the gaming area. Given the fact that MS is the only viable PC platform for games, this is not a fair comparison. Your objectivity is questionable in this regard.
As for MS' R&D dept, yes we've all heard of Bill Labs: 'last one in academia, please turn off the lights.' So far, however, they've just assimilated existing technologies into their own non-interoperable versions e.g. COM.
As for your point on component programming, I'm sure there is room for it in *nix. The only thing I have problem with, is industry's tendency to jump on _one_ approach.. where many are needed. The problem that this hype/hysteria causes is that eventually that one approach is all that remains.
Slashdot Mirror
As for the Right, another reader mentioned Alan Dershowitz' The Case for Israel .
Ordinarily, I'd recommend books rather than online material. For a comprehensive introduction, it's best to avoid the low S/N of the Web. But I can't help but point out Finkelstein's dissection of Dershowitz' book. He also tackles it in this speech, around the 33rd minute.
As for linux, some other people may be happy with their ibook linux setup. But, my feedback, to those contemplating such a setup, is this: I compare my usage of the ibook to that of my other linux boxen (all having a stripped-down, near-mouseless setup), and I'm currently forced to assess it as a 'broken system'.
Much regards,
ali
Yes I _would_ be surprised. Even if so, this may be a temporary phenomenon. I bought an iBook, and totally regret it. The main reasons why I bought one were:
I didn't want to support wintel;
I wanted RISC
I thought I might use some of the mac multimedia stuff if I was in a hurry.
I don't care for osx. It's good for other people, but not for me. But the single thing which has made me regret the purchase is the input mechanism. That may seem odd to some people, but this is crucial to me. The keyboard does not work like a normal keyboard, and it cannot be re-mapped as I like. By hardwiring Policy into the Mechanism of the keyboard, they've made the whole iBook a real pain to use for me. And the trackpad is mis-placed. It's good for people who drag-and-drop to work with a computer. But if you have to use the keybaord a lot, it gets in the way and fucks everything up royally. You can reduce its effect by judicious changes in fvwm, but that's not enough. I even hoped to disable it by building the trackpad support as a kernel module, but its driver cannot be turned into a module. So I might go into the driver code and see if I can make it do what I want.
The Thinkpad would have been far better, even though it had wintel and a 3-hour battery life.
I do!
But what a good DJ does _is_ an art form. S/he _creates_ the mood as well as responds to it. A good DJ can lift an audience, make them rise and fall as s/he pleases. And then there is the issue of individual taste. The music selection of each DJ is driven by personal taste, experience, imagination and style; not merely a function of the audience.
More interestingly. the drug selection(s) of the crowd can affect (their hearbeat and so) this product's algorithm in interesting ways. And since different people 'peak' at different times, there'll be no convergence by the algorithm. It'll be akin to disk thrashing!
"Take a look at MSDN"?! I have. It's a huge set, and very impressive. But my experience has been that there is always enough information missing (namely, protocols :-) that the only way of developing a competitive (to M$) product, is at least _some_ degree of reverse-engineering -- if at all possible!
And what the hell is with all the people complaining about 'soft porn'?! How repressed can a person get!!
And they got on my nerves with their attitude. But I prepared to give it time (and saw it motivated by the context that they'd described), but they quickly justified it by the end.
Now, where do I find pics of that Lara Croft-y, Seven substitute, vulcan babe?
With this money spent on re-building these countries, they will hunt fundamentalists themselves instead of waiting for CIA/FBI to do it. They have to have an interest in Capitalism in order to defend it. They have to be given an interest in life, so they won't choose death.
Any suggestion that these people are driven by blind hatred or the promise of martyrdom, is demonization of an entire group. Remember, the most popular TV show in Iran is Baywatch. That itself, is far more telling of what a populace really wants.
BTW, this is an article from 1973. Gord Sinclair died in 1984!
Gord Sinclair is loved in the US for this highly-selective and melodramatic piece -- referred to as 'The Americans'. It's just the kind of stuff Americans love to hear about themselves.
Unfortunately, however, reality is much harsher than that. As many knowledgable Americans admit (and many visitors discover by themselves), Americans know very little about anything outside their borders. To me this is the first obstacle to the solution of the current problems. You must first understand your enemy/neighbour. But so long as public media are profit-motivated, the sheltering and the babying will continue.
I have been all around this crappy little planet, and every day I thank god for the shining gem of western culture.
Well, they say 'travel is education'. Some people go to school, and never learn a thing.
As for "reaping the benefits" of US/Western culture, the rest of the world suffers the dichotomy of loving the American pop culture, and hating its government. Perhaps this should clue you in on what to do, and what to avoid. Send them Hollywoood, but keep out the CIA.
The leader during the revolution, is not necessarily the leader _after_ the revolution. Each stage demands different skills/convictions. RMS drove this movement for a long time. It is not at all surprising (nor necessarily valid) to me that he'd be increasingly ignored. Though he may remain the conscience of the movement, his role may increasingly become a symbolic one -- at best!
But I hope that such a possibility, will not discourage/detract us from the larger goal. Ulrich is right that free s/w is a burden, but it's one that I hope extremely talented individuals -- such as yourself, Miguel, and Drepper -- will not abandon.
The protected content, OTOH, may come later -- as a second-generation offspin.
As for usability, they have failed, utterly , in providing the advantages of paper -- let alone exceeding them.
Backus Naur Form, ain't it?
:-) Very true.
My condolences to his family and friends.
However, I was going to do it on my own machine, the second one which I have and which is pretty open to potential destruction.
The idea, however, was not to 'open source' it. I'd read a long time ago (back in '92, probably in the book 'Hackers') that rms fundamentally opposed the idea of introducing passwords into the MIT AI lab. I knew that doing this under the current circumstances would result in major destruction (it's always easier to tear down than to construct), but I wanted to see what would happen anyways. I wanted to see what would _eventually_ come about. It _is_ a great experiment. The box will be trashed initially, but what would happen _eventually_? Would the constructors get in eventually and build-up the necessary walls against the destructors? Would the forces of light prevail? A communal space on the Net?
It'll be another 2 months before I'll be back in Toronto. I do hope that someone else wil give this a try in the mean time.
I refer you to Andrew Tanenbaum's OS books (eg Modern Operating Systems) for a brief history of UNIX. http://www.multicians.org may have some info as well.
I think the oreilly SysAdmin book had a tree showing the major branches.
Says it all.
The signal/noise ratio of usenet, and particularly the more Web-oriented forums, is getting exponentially low. I, personally, would be interested in the moderated technical groups being archived & searchable eg clcm. I'm not sure how effective the others may be. It'd be an extraordinary pain getting some decent info out of all the noise.
It's a wonder how otherwise-knowledgable people confuse these things. They are lumping everything from the UI down to the sys calls, and petulantly whining about this and that. But their incoherence is missed by the increasing mass of clueless developers who think 'policy vs. mechanism' has to do with the White House.
- 64 Megs of your memory won't be used just to boot! You'll finally get to see what all the fuss was about all that "speed" ... unless you enjoy blaming your netscape's performance on your ISP;
- no more fortnightly reboots ... unless you're one of those people who turn off their computer 'so it won't get damaged'.
- A data file would be a data file; an executable, an executable. Open any email you want;
- the word 'server' would have meaning again ... unless if you're still unclear on the concept;
- you'll have one real, in the flesh, competent admin for 50 users ... instead of one off-site admin and 50 incompetent mini-admin users struggling to do everything themselves;
- if you don't like a tool ... you replace it! And no need to run a huge monolith to do a small job: OO command-set lets you do *anything* to source files short of making them sing;
- tried and tested virtual memory;
- one stray app won't bring down the system ... unless if you find a blue screen 'soothing';
- remote login. You've got the whole network to run processes on;
- remote display. Work anywhere, from anywhere. Work 'in' the lab ... from *home*.
Top Ten Ways Your NT network Would Improve If Converted To Unix:
- what NT 'network'?! You can't log into another machine; you can't run a process elsewhere; you can't display on another machine; most/every software has to be installed on every machine (you got 100 machines, you install 100 times); no true shared filesystem.
An irony is that Linus uses plain fvwm2, not gnome/kde. The fact that I can totally change my environment is one of unix's prime attractions to me. SO I could not care less about his annoyance that I can change my wm.
As for MS' R&D dept, yes we've all heard of Bill Labs: 'last one in academia, please turn off the lights.' So far, however, they've just assimilated existing technologies into their own non-interoperable versions e.g. COM.
As for your point on component programming, I'm sure there is room for it in *nix. The only thing I have problem with, is industry's tendency to jump on _one_ approach .. where many are needed. The problem that this hype/hysteria causes is that eventually that one approach is all that remains.