I suppose the Edmund Hilary justification works for making a 386 run linux. But at this point, there is really no economic reason to use that old of hardware. At this point the hardware you can get for free is late model pentiums or early pentium IIs.
I suppose the other reason to use older hardware is because it is more stylish...but the 386s usually came in big big bulky boxes that weren't that attractive.
There is enough old computer hardware out there that its not really even that original to do something with it...it is not clever, in the same way that retro kitsch like Smurf Dolls are no longer clever.
It's sad that Slashdot readers, who usually have a wide knowledge of many different social and political fields, and help defeat the stereotype that geeks don't know about anything, are so xenophobic when it comes to China.
This doesn't apply to everyone on here, but it seems that plenty of people only seem to know about Tiananmen Square and prison labor. Someone on here said that "the HUGE majority" of products made in China come from prison labor. Just on the face of this, I am going to guess that 600 million Chinese people aren't in prison.
Yes, the government of China is repressive. But probably not more so then the governments of Nigeria, Pakistan and maybe Mexico. And unlike those governments, the Chinese government does manage to provide some kind of education and welfare to its populace.
China is not some mysterious, closed prison state. If you want to find out about China, you can go on ICQ, find a chat partner, and ask them.
Politicans already overuse Pearl Harbor in situations where it is actually relevant, such as national defence. It's used for a catch phrase to mean if we let down our guard, we will be overwhelmed at any moment. It's a way to not explain exactly what they mean, which serves them well because the situation in intelligence gathering and warfare now is so different than it was in 1941.
So even using it in that context is a bit of a "Bavarian Fire Drill". Using the threat of a hacking attack and associating it with Pearl Harbor is even sillier. If this country faces a bad hacking attack, or major attempt on our internet infrastructure, what will it mean? I'll have to sklp read people's Live Journals for a few days? Some web pages will get defaces? Some banks records will get broken into? e-Mail will get choked with wormed messages? None of these things are very pleasent, but I don't think we will see a cyber attack that leaves thousands dead and billions of property smoking and burnt. In fact, I think comparing the effects of some "lost productivity" to an event like Pearl Harbor is somewhat tasteless.
Okay, for a long time it was cool to point out how Duct Tape, the cheap old standby from when you were a kid, was so technically helpful and reliable and cheap and easy and etc.
I think we all get the point. Duct Tape is now very well established as a useful item. We all know it is useful. We don't have to keep on pointing out that something that we thought was a little useful was a lot useful.
Strangely enough, this reminds me of Johnny Cash. When Johnny Cash first hooked up with Rick Rubin, it was a big deal, and everyone loved the irony of this old guy going alternative. Now, 9 years later or however much it is, it is no longer really clever that Johnny Cash is doing Nine Inch Nails songs. If it was just a novelty, we would be tired of it by now. But it is the actual quality of the work, not just the joke.
I am sure that made PERFECT sense to everyone.
Re:Is Thomas Friedman a simplistic hack?
on
Does Google = God?
·
· Score: 1
I think I stand corrected.
I am sure that at certain specific points he is very knowledgable.
It is just in his claims to be a wide ranging cultural critic and to understand the state of the world on a whole that he falls flat.
The full scope of my criticism of Mr. Friedman probably lays outside of this Slashdot article.
Is Thomas Friedman a simplistic hack?
on
Does Google = God?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I've read Thomas Friedman's book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree", and I can say the answer to that question is yes.
Thomas Friedman has a basic understanding that the 1990's saw major changes in the technological and social structure of the world. He uses this to make up sweeping trite statements about things that he doesn't really understand. Some of his statements are true, but he sugarcoats them and puts them in impressive terms that make them seem more impressive than they are.
For example, he has the famous statement: "Two nations with McDonald's have never gone to war with each other". Yes, that is true, but it actually means "advanced industrialized democracies don't go to war with each other", or perhaps "nation states no longer go to war with each other". But he puts it in flashy terms, and sounds like it is a magical formula.
"Is Google God" is his flashy way of saying "Is the internet a source of near endless information?". When you put it in those terms, then, well, yes, it is. But he gets away with being a serious writer by changing his words around and seeming to say something new.
It's people like him that make me wonder why Slashdotters ever bothered to complain about Jon Katz.
It is good that India and China are competing through science, and not through arms. Honestly, I don't see how this could be a bad thing for anyone. India and China will both make new scientific discoveries, and seeing them get into space may inspire the EU, the US and Russia to increase their space efforts.
I know lots of people are going to complain that India should be focusing their efforts on improving their living standards rather than going on wild adventures. But I don't think the one has to distract from the other. India actually has enough food to feed herself, its just a problem of social structure and education. And it is not as if the resources used for going into space make that great of a impact on the ability of India to educate its population. In economic terms, there isn't that great of a cost of space missions, because the resources that go into them can't really easily go anywhere else.
Also, on a somewhat serious note, e2 isn't about the technical interface...not that it wasn't nice for Mr. Nate et al to give it to us. However, e2 really succeeds as much as it does for the human bonds it encourages. Or in other words, what other web community can gather 100 people from across the continent to have a scavenger hunt?
Okay, you can sit around with your TI-86 all night long and talk about XML parsing times, but who cares? The only real test of a site is how much it provides content, and by content, I mean a peek into the life of CowboyNeal. Using this test, let's compare:
On one level Linux is really just an operating system, and will not neccesarily promote world peace. But on the other, Linux has won the "hearts and minds" of people with an anti-corporate image. If large evil companies like Telstra (which I hear is even worse than Qwest, if such a thing could be imagined) start endorsing it, Linux may be seen as just another corporate tool.
Industries rising, with energy declinging, People think I am whining? Really, I don't give a shit. Because everyone's dying but you all think that is the end of it. That is why it's so easy to be a Benedict. Or imitate, Because they wouldn't teach you algebra when you were eight
As we can see from Del's words, it isn't just science and technology that algebra provides a gateway to, but also to a true understanding of the afterlife.
Well, this isn't new, but it is great that someone is finally actually doing it. I hope I don't offend gamers, but I think there are some places where discussions more fruitful then just about games. I think e2 would certainly benefit from having a 3-D city to interact in.
The biggest problem with gnutella is not technical. It is that gnutella was invented so that true hardcore underground people such as myself could complete our collection of harcore underground things, such as the entire run of Evangelion. However, gnutella is cluttered with people only interested in Brittney Spears. Here is an idea I first proposed on everything2 for making gnutella less crowded.
Gnutella is one of the best things to come out of Sedona, AZ since the hordes of Alien Invaders who passed through the vortex. At leat for those of us who have DSL or better, Gnutella is the best way to complete our collection of Evangelion episodes, obscure hip hop mp3s and fets.com sets.
The problem with gnutella though, is that it is crowded, and according to my estimates, about 75% of this crowding is due to people looking either for mp3s of that damn song that plays on the radio every half hour and\or nude pictures of celebrities. Often to compound matters, these people are looking for nude pictures of that one celebrity that sings that damn song they play on the radio every half hour.
If we have a tool that allows us to download obscure 90 minute long epic techno ballads from the Slovak Republic, why are we allowing people to use it to listen to music that they can hear by turning on MTV?
The answer is because we don't know how to stop them. But I have a possible solution for our problem. All it requires is for about 100 or so people to put a file in a shared directory called "Brittneyspearsbarebreasts.jpg" or something along those lines. But instead of said picture actually being of Miss Spears beare breats, why not make it something else...such as possibly goatse.cx?
After seeing this picture one too many times (which will probably be the first time), many people will cease to use gnutella as a vehicle for their pop culture stupidities.
Beause often this device also causes ontological collapse, causing the very Being-as-such of the destroyed areas to return to an essential, rather than an existential being. Now, normally, being and essence are two seperate things, and since to destroy one would be to destroy the other, Being-as-occupying in the way a city does can not be destroyed totally, and so even as one side is wiped out, the other can not be, so the city reasserts its ontological identity.
Now, some people would believe that memory is just data reflected in a synapse. But really, memory is a process where the ontological throwingness-of-being of Beings is reassertted in the personal ego by reconciling somethings Being-as-such with its Being-towards-others. Butif identity and being are crossed, as they are in a Mobius Strip, they can be linked together, and thus annilated from the memory of Being-as-being-towards-its-own-reconcilation at once.
So lots of cities have been destroyed with this weapon, we just don't remember them.
Before Slashdot posts stories like this, they should very expressly warn their readers about the dangers inherent in such projects. Although a simple Tesla Coil is not particularly dangerous, if a Tesla Coil is turned into a mobius strip and enough energy is put into it, a electrotemporal-topological disaster can result, plunging an area up to 5 kilometers around it into Dirac Space.
You can find more information about this strange and dangerous phenomenea here .
I would beat every airship, hoping to find the princess so I could view the object of my lust...but it was always some goofy king instead. I beat the entire game one handed! Good for you for admitting to this also, CmdrTaco!
CmdrTaco certainly does have a knack for attacking all the masive power blocks in our society. When will he stop his suicidal habit of making powerful enemies, such as Microsoft, Scientology and the all powerful Frisbee Golfers, with their hordes of vicious lawyers? If the Frisbee Golfers don't get this article eaten before 5 PM, I will be surprised.
There is so many different ways of trying to explain NGE. Is it Foucault's Pendulum with mechas? Is it the Red Chamber Dream with Hebrew cosmology instead of Buddhist? Or is it just a heap of anime cliches? I still don't know, and I am a pretty dedicated Eva-no-Otaku. But I tried to explain it here:
I think that it is interesting that since 9-11 the economy has kept on starting and halting, not totally going into recession, but not pulling out either. Alan Greenspan says that the nation is out of recession, but it remains to be seen whether we are on the way to recovery.
I don't think that the nation is on the way to recovery, simply because the international situation remains so jittery. Businesses may be able to act normally, but how can they expand with such factors as escalting violence in Israel, clashes between Palestine and India, a war that has an uncertain course and end; and now this talk of plans for nuclear attacks?
Of course we have nuclear weapons for the purpose of attacking certain nations, and these countries shouldn't be surprised to see themselves on the list. But do we have to go around announcing to everyone that we are planning on nuking them? That seems a little extreme to me. Or just plain rude.
The bottom line is, as long as we have this free floating international violence, the economy will probably not be able to recover very much.
On the other hand, this may be Bush's roundabout plan to improve the economy by helping get consumer dollars back into the economy, I can imagine all the people thinking: "Ah well, if there is going to be a nuclear war, I might as well spend my retirement fund on a Mercedes, and enjoy it while I can!"
Well, it is not unreasonable. Enoch does seem to be pretty active for a man in his mid-seventies. Of course, it is nothing that requires a supernatural explanation, but it does perhaps suggest one.
Slashdot Mirror
I suppose the Edmund Hilary justification works for making a 386 run linux. But at this point, there is really no economic reason to use that old of hardware. At this point the hardware you can get for free is late model pentiums or early pentium IIs.
I suppose the other reason to use older hardware is because it is more stylish...but the 386s usually came in big big bulky boxes that weren't that attractive.
There is enough old computer hardware out there that its not really even that original to do something with it...it is not clever, in the same way that retro kitsch like Smurf Dolls are no longer clever.
It's sad that Slashdot readers, who usually have a wide knowledge of many different social and political fields, and help defeat the stereotype that geeks don't know about anything, are so xenophobic when it comes to China.
This doesn't apply to everyone on here, but it seems that plenty of people only seem to know about Tiananmen Square and prison labor. Someone on here said that "the HUGE majority" of products made in China come from prison labor. Just on the face of this, I am going to guess that 600 million Chinese people aren't in prison.
Yes, the government of China is repressive. But probably not more so then the governments of Nigeria, Pakistan and maybe Mexico. And unlike those governments, the Chinese government does manage to provide some kind of education and welfare to its populace.
China is not some mysterious, closed prison state. If you want to find out about China, you can go on ICQ, find a chat partner, and ask them.
Politicans already overuse Pearl Harbor in situations where it is actually relevant, such as national defence. It's used for a catch phrase to mean if we let down our guard, we will be overwhelmed at any moment. It's a way to not explain exactly what they mean, which serves them well because the situation in intelligence gathering and warfare now is so different than it was in 1941.
So even using it in that context is a bit of a "Bavarian Fire Drill". Using the threat of a hacking attack and associating it with Pearl Harbor is even sillier. If this country faces a bad hacking attack, or major attempt on our internet infrastructure, what will it mean? I'll have to sklp read people's Live Journals for a few days? Some web pages will get defaces? Some banks records will get broken into? e-Mail will get choked with wormed messages? None of these things are very pleasent, but I don't think we will see a cyber attack that leaves thousands dead and billions of property smoking and burnt. In fact, I think comparing the effects of some "lost productivity" to an event like Pearl Harbor is somewhat tasteless.
Okay, for a long time it was cool to point out how Duct Tape, the cheap old standby from when you were a kid, was so technically helpful and reliable and cheap and easy and etc.
I think we all get the point. Duct Tape is now very well established as a useful item. We all know it is useful. We don't have to keep on pointing out that something that we thought was a little useful was a lot useful.
Strangely enough, this reminds me of Johnny Cash. When Johnny Cash first hooked up with Rick Rubin, it was a big deal, and everyone loved the irony of this old guy going alternative. Now, 9 years later or however much it is, it is no longer really clever that Johnny Cash is doing Nine Inch Nails songs. If it was just a novelty, we would be tired of it by now. But it is the actual quality of the work, not just the joke.
I am sure that made PERFECT sense to everyone.
I think I stand corrected.
I am sure that at certain specific points he is very knowledgable.
It is just in his claims to be a wide ranging cultural critic and to understand the state of the world on a whole that he falls flat.
The full scope of my criticism of Mr. Friedman probably lays outside of this Slashdot article.
I've read Thomas Friedman's book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree", and I can say the answer to that question is yes.
Thomas Friedman has a basic understanding that the 1990's saw major changes in the technological and social structure of the world. He uses this to make up sweeping trite statements about things that he doesn't really understand. Some of his statements are true, but he sugarcoats them and puts them in impressive terms that make them seem more impressive than they are.
For example, he has the famous statement: "Two nations with McDonald's have never gone to war with each other". Yes, that is true, but it actually means "advanced industrialized democracies don't go to war with each other", or perhaps "nation states no longer go to war with each other". But he puts it in flashy terms, and sounds like it is a magical formula.
"Is Google God" is his flashy way of saying "Is the internet a source of near endless information?". When you put it in those terms, then, well, yes, it is. But he gets away with being a serious writer by changing his words around and seeming to say something new.
It's people like him that make me wonder why Slashdotters ever bothered to complain about Jon Katz.
It is good that India and China are competing through science, and not through arms. Honestly, I don't see how this could be a bad thing for anyone. India and China will both make new scientific discoveries, and seeing them get into space may inspire the EU, the US and Russia to increase their space efforts.
I know lots of people are going to complain that India should be focusing their efforts on improving their living standards rather than going on wild adventures. But I don't think the one has to distract from the other. India actually has enough food to feed herself, its just a problem of social structure and education. And it is not as if the resources used for going into space make that great of a impact on the ability of India to educate its population. In economic terms, there isn't that great of a cost of space missions, because the resources that go into them can't really easily go anywhere else.
I am thinking that perhaps the cost of raw silicon is not the rate limiting factor in the manufactre of chips.
A new processor goes for several hundred dollars...the silicon in it can't be more than a few dollars, with the rest going to pay for the cost of R&D.
I could be wrong on this, though. Does anyone know for sure?
Also, on a somewhat serious note, e2 isn't about the technical interface...not that it wasn't nice for Mr. Nate et al to give it to us. However, e2 really succeeds as much as it does for the human bonds it encourages. Or in other words, what other web community can gather 100 people from across the continent to have a scavenger hunt?
Okay, you can sit around with your TI-86 all night long and talk about XML parsing times, but who cares? The only real test of a site is how much it provides content, and by content, I mean a peek into the life of CowboyNeal. Using this test, let's compare:
CowboyNeal on e2
Versus
CowboyNeal's livejournal account.
Aside from technical details, which one of these gives us more insight into the delicate poetic soul that is Mr. Pater?
On one level Linux is really just an operating system, and will not neccesarily promote world peace. But on the other, Linux has won the "hearts and minds" of people with an anti-corporate image. If large evil companies like Telstra (which I hear is even worse than Qwest, if such a thing could be imagined) start endorsing it, Linux may be seen as just another corporate tool.
As Del said:
Industries rising,
with energy declinging,
People think I am whining?
Really, I don't give a shit.
Because everyone's dying but you all think that is the end of it.
That is why it's so easy to be a Benedict.
Or imitate,
Because they wouldn't teach you algebra when you were eight
As we can see from Del's words, it isn't just science and technology that algebra provides a gateway to, but also to a true understanding of the afterlife.
Well, this isn't new, but it is great that someone is finally actually doing it. I hope I don't offend gamers, but I think there are some places where discussions more fruitful then just about games. I think e2 would certainly benefit from having a 3-D city to interact in.
Although I am glad to see that it somehow sparked a fight about the validity of Evangelion's ending. Perhaps we can also have a Rei vs. Asuka debate?
The biggest problem with gnutella is not technical. It is that gnutella was invented so that true hardcore underground people such as myself could complete our collection of harcore underground things, such as the entire run of Evangelion. However, gnutella is cluttered with people only interested in Brittney Spears. Here is an idea I first proposed on everything2 for making gnutella less crowded.
Beause often this device also causes ontological collapse, causing the very Being-as-such of the destroyed areas to return to an essential, rather than an existential being. Now, normally, being and essence are two seperate things, and since to destroy one would be to destroy the other, Being-as-occupying in the way a city does can not be destroyed totally, and so even as one side is wiped out, the other can not be, so the city reasserts its ontological identity.
Now, some people would believe that memory is just data reflected in a synapse. But really, memory is a process where the ontological throwingness-of-being of Beings is reassertted in the personal ego by reconciling somethings Being-as-such with its Being-towards-others. Butif identity and being are crossed, as they are in a Mobius Strip, they can be linked together, and thus annilated from the memory of Being-as-being-towards-its-own-reconcilation at once.
So lots of cities have been destroyed with this weapon, we just don't remember them.
Before Slashdot posts stories like this, they should very expressly warn their readers about the dangers inherent in such projects. Although a simple Tesla Coil is not particularly dangerous, if a Tesla Coil is turned into a mobius strip and enough energy is put into it, a electrotemporal-topological disaster can result, plunging an area up to 5 kilometers around it into Dirac Space.
You can find more information about this strange and dangerous phenomenea here .
I would beat every airship, hoping to find the princess so I could view the object of my lust...but it was always some goofy king instead. I beat the entire game one handed! Good for you for admitting to this also, CmdrTaco!
CmdrTaco certainly does have a knack for attacking all the masive power blocks in our society. When will he stop his suicidal habit of making powerful enemies, such as Microsoft, Scientology and the all powerful Frisbee Golfers, with their hordes of vicious lawyers? If the Frisbee Golfers don't get this article eaten before 5 PM, I will be surprised.
There is so many different ways of trying to explain NGE. Is it Foucault's Pendulum with mechas? Is it the Red Chamber Dream with Hebrew cosmology instead of Buddhist? Or is it just a heap of anime cliches? I still don't know, and I am a pretty dedicated Eva-no-Otaku. But I tried to explain it here:
Why I love Neon Genesis Evangelion
I think that it is interesting that since 9-11 the economy has kept on starting and halting, not totally going into recession, but not pulling out either. Alan Greenspan says that the nation is out of recession, but it remains to be seen whether we are on the way to recovery.
I don't think that the nation is on the way to recovery, simply because the international situation remains so jittery. Businesses may be able to act normally, but how can they expand with such factors as escalting violence in Israel, clashes between Palestine and India, a war that has an uncertain course and end; and now this talk of plans for nuclear attacks?
Of course we have nuclear weapons for the purpose of attacking certain nations, and these countries shouldn't be surprised to see themselves on the list. But do we have to go around announcing to everyone that we are planning on nuking them? That seems a little extreme to me. Or just plain rude.
The bottom line is, as long as we have this free floating international violence, the economy will probably not be able to recover very much.
On the other hand, this may be Bush's roundabout plan to improve the economy by helping get consumer dollars back into the economy, I can imagine all the people thinking: "Ah well, if there is going to be a nuclear war, I might as well spend my retirement fund on a Mercedes, and enjoy it while I can!"
Where exactly do they show the angel Samael?
I can imagine the edited, inoffensive Evangelion.
The rest has to go.
THE SHIN-RA are poisoning the earth and we got to do something about it!
Well, it is not unreasonable. Enoch does seem to be pretty active for a man in his mid-seventies. Of course, it is nothing that requires a supernatural explanation, but it does perhaps suggest one.
In any case, we will find out.