Well that would be an amazing coincidence. People worship metric like its some kind of universal standard and forget that its based on measurements that we choose to use like the size of our planet, heating water at our atmosphere's pressure, etc. I'm sure aliens would have their own "universal system" too.
And its not a ridiculous hypothetical question. There have been many more systems of measurement than just imperial and metric and many times before we've had to drop one in favor of another.
I think its alright to have a few different systems in the world. Sure, there is an attractiveness to consolidation. But what are we going to do when we encounter aliens? Demand that they switch to the metric system? I'm actually serious. I'm not saying it will happen tomorrow or even in the next decade or century, but eventually it will. There is a lot to be said for having a tolerance for the differences among cultures and retaining those differences.
Like many people, I read/. back then, but didn't think there would be this social need for a low uid until later. Of course, if we all knew that, we'd all have the same uids that we do now.
Sure it did. And if Slashdot's archived their stories like they should, we could all see how it originally became aware on August 29th, 1997 and Slashdot already had an article from 1997 about this. And yes, I know that the TV show changed it.
After four hours of sometimes tedious toiling with the single-ply bathroom tissue that Tanton bought online at ToiletPaperWorld.com, he said he and the students from St. Mark's finally folded the paper a 13th time.
Apparently the toilet paper industry was unaffected by the dotcom burst.
Shitty companies have a way of surviving. Now I know its literally true.
Thanks for the feedback. I would love to click on the link for your user and select to make you a friend, but unfortunately the GUI seems to be broken and of all the advanced things that you can do in a web browser, it has lost the ability to do the most basic function. It seems to be something with Slashdot as I've tried to click on comment links on different browsers and even from other computers. What is up with that? Some new Slashdot bug?
Obviously so do you since you didn't understand that I wasn't talking about humans comprehending humans. I was talking about computers comprehending humans. But you made your point.
You can say that Linux has won when it hasn't beaten Microsoft in the market that makes it Microsoft. The only thing that Linux has won really in the desktop market is its right to exist. We fought long and hard to try to keep the desktop an open environment and competition going. I'm not talking about Linux vs. Windows really though, I'm talking about Open Source vs. Proprietary. But as long as salesmen breath, the battle to keep formats open will wage on. The new battle is how to deal with things like app stores.
I find that discovery can lead people to do a lot of things that they don't understand. This is especially bad when it comes to server administration. Things like webmin lead untrained web monkeys to mess with settings that they know nothing about or the ramifications of.
The frustration of doing this was foreseen by some of the writers of Star Trek. If you watch some TNG episodes where Geordi interacts with the computer, you'll see him getting frustrated with it not understanding what he wants. I always felt that Geordi was a lot like an IT engineer of today.
We may be able to talk to computers, but I imagine it will be very hard to get them to the point that they understand each of our individual expectations. Even once we think they are comprehending, they still won't.
I can back up the claim that the CLI is making a huge come back. I run a feed on twitter and identi.ca called @climagic that is becoming very popular. I think that people are trying to find ways to do the things that they need to do in GUIs and when it can't be done, they find that it is easier to access and manipulate your data using Unix command line tools in very efficient ways. Does that mean that its great for everything? No of course not, I'll admit that I use the GUI for many things too, in fact, I do graphical work in Blender and Inkscape and listen to music in Pandora and do my browsing in Firefox because it works well for me, but in many places, I can get my work done using the CLI and still wow people with iPhones and Androids in 2011.
This bothers old people like me, but it will becoming the newly accepted culture over time - the "new normal".
What is wrong with us these days? We control our destiny and this "new normal" that you talk about as the future is being determined by people just like us. If you get off your ass and try to do something about it you can drive the boat in the other direction. If you want any of what we worked towards in the past 20 years to matter, then its time to get up and get people going in a different direction, or at least in a direction that is open.
If this whole app store bullshit doesn't end, we're going to end up in a world that nobody with a brain will enjoy living in. An Internet controlled by dictators from governments called corporations. You think that blonde girl throwing the hammer represented Apple? Wrong. Steve Jobs was the wrinkly old man on the screen and the blonde girl is us. Its time to get up and make a difference.
Detractors say what you will, but this is exactly the situation that Richard Stallman was talking about with his essay about not being able to lend a computer to a friend in 2096 because he didn't really own it. 2096, yeah right that's a typo. Stallman is living here and now. We have no ownership man. No ownership. (to paraphrase from Cereal Killer)
So how do we attack this problem you ask? Simple, go out and make your own companies, software, or products of your own whose goal is to make the world in your own vision? Think that open source can't get traction with non-geeks? Ask Mark Shuttlesworth about that. Think it won't get big and have influence? Ask Larry Page and Sergey Brin about that. Think you won't get noticed? Ask Mark Zuckerberg about that. Think you can't start small with nothing and make a difference? Ask Linus Torvalds about that. Maybe not all those people are good role models for you, but they are all people who did what they loved and excelled at it and people loved them for it and followed their ways too. The people who say right place/right time are just the ones that didn't try.
Its funny that you mention Sun because it was the fact that Linus couldn't afford a Sun or other workstation and because Unix was closed up by big corporations (sound familiar) that led him to invent Linux, which is the reason we're all here now. So you can make a difference, and there are just enough people disgruntled about the existance of app stores, smart phones to make it a movement. In fact, let's just call it the open movement. Or the open source movement. Oh wait, there is already one of those? Ok, how about Open Source 2: Electric Boogaloo.
What is the point of having a positive without a negative? Are they just trying to "keep things positive?" What if a Facebook page for the KKK had 300 likes? Isn't that be misleading when you can't compare it to anything?
I think the code was probably meant for his eyes only, which means he probably constructed it using abbreviations and codewords that only he himself would understand. Without knowing those, well...good luck.
This is kinda like solving the whole P=NP thing. If you actually were able to crack his code, I would say its better to keep the technique to yourself because then you know that you have a code that large portions of the government aren't able to crack. I'm kinda surprised that the FBI would release this information.
Yeah exactly. I made a wad of paper laptop once........ in Blender. So what. Rolltop is probably a 13 year old kid with no budget. Actually, the logo even looks like Blender's logo a bit.
Slashdot Mirror
Well that would be an amazing coincidence. People worship metric like its some kind of universal standard and forget that its based on measurements that we choose to use like the size of our planet, heating water at our atmosphere's pressure, etc. I'm sure aliens would have their own "universal system" too.
And its not a ridiculous hypothetical question. There have been many more systems of measurement than just imperial and metric and many times before we've had to drop one in favor of another.
I think its alright to have a few different systems in the world. Sure, there is an attractiveness to consolidation. But what are we going to do when we encounter aliens? Demand that they switch to the metric system? I'm actually serious. I'm not saying it will happen tomorrow or even in the next decade or century, but eventually it will. There is a lot to be said for having a tolerance for the differences among cultures and retaining those differences.
Like many people, I read /. back then, but didn't think there would be this social need for a low uid until later. Of course, if we all knew that, we'd all have the same uids that we do now.
Ah right. Whoops. Who cares anyways, just a slow news day.
Sure it did. And if Slashdot's archived their stories like they should, we could all see how it originally became aware on August 29th, 1997 and Slashdot already had an article from 1997 about this. And yes, I know that the TV show changed it.
Now die!
I think this is an invitation for all of us to crash this wedding.
TFA:
After four hours of sometimes tedious toiling with the single-ply bathroom tissue that Tanton bought online at ToiletPaperWorld.com, he said he and the students from St. Mark's finally folded the paper a 13th time.
Apparently the toilet paper industry was unaffected by the dotcom burst.
Shitty companies have a way of surviving. Now I know its literally true.
Thanks for the feedback. I would love to click on the link for your user and select to make you a friend, but unfortunately the GUI seems to be broken and of all the advanced things that you can do in a web browser, it has lost the ability to do the most basic function. It seems to be something with Slashdot as I've tried to click on comment links on different browsers and even from other computers. What is up with that? Some new Slashdot bug?
You give humans too much credit.
Obviously so do you since you didn't understand that I wasn't talking about humans comprehending humans. I was talking about computers comprehending humans. But you made your point.
Sorry. I meant you can't say that Linux has won when it hasn't beaten Microsoft in the desktop market.
You can say that Linux has won when it hasn't beaten Microsoft in the market that makes it Microsoft. The only thing that Linux has won really in the desktop market is its right to exist. We fought long and hard to try to keep the desktop an open environment and competition going. I'm not talking about Linux vs. Windows really though, I'm talking about Open Source vs. Proprietary. But as long as salesmen breath, the battle to keep formats open will wage on. The new battle is how to deal with things like app stores.
I find that discovery can lead people to do a lot of things that they don't understand. This is especially bad when it comes to server administration. Things like webmin lead untrained web monkeys to mess with settings that they know nothing about or the ramifications of.
The frustration of doing this was foreseen by some of the writers of Star Trek. If you watch some TNG episodes where Geordi interacts with the computer, you'll see him getting frustrated with it not understanding what he wants. I always felt that Geordi was a lot like an IT engineer of today.
We may be able to talk to computers, but I imagine it will be very hard to get them to the point that they understand each of our individual expectations. Even once we think they are comprehending, they still won't.
I can back up the claim that the CLI is making a huge come back. I run a feed on twitter and identi.ca called @climagic that is becoming very popular. I think that people are trying to find ways to do the things that they need to do in GUIs and when it can't be done, they find that it is easier to access and manipulate your data using Unix command line tools in very efficient ways. Does that mean that its great for everything? No of course not, I'll admit that I use the GUI for many things too, in fact, I do graphical work in Blender and Inkscape and listen to music in Pandora and do my browsing in Firefox because it works well for me, but in many places, I can get my work done using the CLI and still wow people with iPhones and Androids in 2011.
>
This bothers old people like me, but it will becoming the newly accepted culture over time - the "new normal".
What is wrong with us these days? We control our destiny and this "new normal" that you talk about as the future is being determined by people just like us. If you get off your ass and try to do something about it you can drive the boat in the other direction. If you want any of what we worked towards in the past 20 years to matter, then its time to get up and get people going in a different direction, or at least in a direction that is open.
If this whole app store bullshit doesn't end, we're going to end up in a world that nobody with a brain will enjoy living in. An Internet controlled by dictators from governments called corporations. You think that blonde girl throwing the hammer represented Apple? Wrong. Steve Jobs was the wrinkly old man on the screen and the blonde girl is us. Its time to get up and make a difference.
Detractors say what you will, but this is exactly the situation that Richard Stallman was talking about with his essay about not being able to lend a computer to a friend in 2096 because he didn't really own it. 2096, yeah right that's a typo. Stallman is living here and now. We have no ownership man. No ownership. (to paraphrase from Cereal Killer)
So how do we attack this problem you ask? Simple, go out and make your own companies, software, or products of your own whose goal is to make the world in your own vision? Think that open source can't get traction with non-geeks? Ask Mark Shuttlesworth about that. Think it won't get big and have influence? Ask Larry Page and Sergey Brin about that. Think you won't get noticed? Ask Mark Zuckerberg about that. Think you can't start small with nothing and make a difference? Ask Linus Torvalds about that. Maybe not all those people are good role models for you, but they are all people who did what they loved and excelled at it and people loved them for it and followed their ways too. The people who say right place/right time are just the ones that didn't try.
Its funny that you mention Sun because it was the fact that Linus couldn't afford a Sun or other workstation and because Unix was closed up by big corporations (sound familiar) that led him to invent Linux, which is the reason we're all here now. So you can make a difference, and there are just enough people disgruntled about the existance of app stores, smart phones to make it a movement. In fact, let's just call it the open movement. Or the open source movement. Oh wait, there is already one of those? Ok, how about Open Source 2: Electric Boogaloo.
I think you get the idea. I'll shut up now.
I don't know about you, but I love this new particle. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
That didn't come out right. I mean I would be worried if it did result in a patch.
That's often what happens with April Fools jokes. Most are silly, but some are silly enough that they actually raise a point.
I'm just worried that the one I'll be posting in a few hours on @climagic will not end up with someone patching the source to accomplish such a thing.
Oh wait...it's March 31st.
Not in Japan.
What is the point of having a positive without a negative? Are they just trying to "keep things positive?" What if a Facebook page for the KKK had 300 likes? Isn't that be misleading when you can't compare it to anything?
I think the code was probably meant for his eyes only, which means he probably constructed it using abbreviations and codewords that only he himself would understand. Without knowing those, well...good luck.
This is kinda like solving the whole P=NP thing. If you actually were able to crack his code, I would say its better to keep the technique to yourself because then you know that you have a code that large portions of the government aren't able to crack. I'm kinda surprised that the FBI would release this information.
Yeah exactly. I made a wad of paper laptop once........ in Blender. So what. Rolltop is probably a 13 year old kid with no budget. Actually, the logo even looks like Blender's logo a bit.
I'd say its not nearly as bad as in other countries. Generally people are against bribery in the U.S. In other countries, its a way of life.
Even though I was joking, I can't believe I just said that. You can ostracize me now.