Like that luserish neon crap people strap under their cars. Yes.. it IS cool.. for about five minutes >: Utility, people! Utility! It's all about getting it done, for me, and I just don't have the time for this sh*t. I also don't have time for/. much anymore. So much chaff, so little wheat. Even ASR has become useless (was it ever useFULL?). Wall to wall self congratulatory assholes whimpering about bad beer, lusers, and celebrating chocolate. All cliques (sp?) eventually degenerate into chaos. ASR is there now. And worse. All of/. should read it. You'll see what I mean. OK. I'm rambling. So kill -9 me.
I've long held a weighty cocktail party calibre hypothesis that our experience of particle activity strongly depends on our gravitational reference frame. IE: I could be sitting smack dab in the 'middle' of a black hole right now, and would never notice the difference, since all of the relativistic variables that make 'space' possible would have flexed in such a manner so as to preserve the information content of my reference. The notion of 'quark stars' strongly supports this view. If neutrons are so crowded together that their fields can no longer subsist in normal space, then it makes perfect sense that their manifestation could 'bubble' over into a less compacted extra (to us) dimensional space, whilst leaving their constituent parts here as a quark star, functioning normally. Since virtually all subatomic interactions are inherently frictionless, this is an interesting avenue of speculation. Oh. IANAP:)
My nephews, aged 8, 7, and 26 eagerly admit that DBZ makes no sense whatsoever. They watch it anyway, cuz it looks k3w1!
It's obvious to me now that the South Park Pokemon Parody episode was a thinly veiled documentary expose' of the true intentions of the japanese media... the ossification of the american brain via mindless eye candy and useless occupation of american mental computational capacity with ridiculous and STOOPID games, thus breeding a home-grown brain drain, rendering us effectively a nation of self involved non threating masturbatory morons. It seems to be working. Sigh.
I guess the Seizure Robots were too subtle in their results..
This one's a no-brainer for anyone who's been in the biz for even a small time. gates, realising that his initial release of x80 basic would be pirated big time, despite his protests to the contrary, always released his own software (to my knowledge) protection free. I believe that he subscribed to the model that this article suggests.. namely that ubiquity equals market control. Gain a market.. then tighten the reigns.. as he has done recently with XP. This is not a fair business model, in any way or shape, and should be subjected to some really tight DOJ scrutiny. Unfortunately, we do not have in place a true republican administration at present. We have, instead, a bunch of testicularly over tourqued dopes who seem to have the need to blow a lot of stuff up. This Is Not Good. If these guys (GWB and his buddies) succeed, be prepared to see many markets, including our own, crumble to 3rd world status. No. I'm not kidding. It will happen. I promise you.
Ok.. it was the 70's and I was probably buzzed, but I was told by the IBM salesguy who had shown us that neat APL/Basic toteable box they were marketing at the time (51xx?) that anyone who chalked up a patent or significant invention/process improvement got a cut of the profits/savings/royalties that they had created, and due to Blue's pervasiveness, that those perks could add up to some rather princely sums for the contributor. My take on IBM at the time is that they were exceedingly generous to their employees. As they are NOW exceedingly generous to US, as the OSS community, it would seem that some of that elder ethos has hung on. Input?
IE:Professional societies that closely resemble 'lodges'... guys like the masons, glassblowers, or the starguild of Dune fame. Not in the sense that we keep our knowledge secret, but in the sense that anyone who does 'the work' (whatever that might be) can join and speak and Move as one voice, IYGWIM. Let's face it. The tech classes and the worker (fruit pickers, farmers, assemblers, etc) classes have much more in common than we see at first blush. 1) We provide a VITAL service to any capitalist economy, and could really fuck it up if we chose to. 2) What we do is mostly invisible. Everything Just Works(TM) when we're doing it right, and SINCE we're doing it right, we're unappreciated.
We really should form guilds and unions so as to exercise our collective clout in a manner that will be noticed by those freeloading bastards who play currency against currency, do differentials on options, etc.. No useful work whatsoever, yet they claim to control our lives. Guess what? They don't. A global 'geek strike', work slowdown, or even better, (twirls moustache) a sudden 'stupidity strike' (oooh! looky! shiny server crashy! Code really bad!) would get these lusers' attention. Only Guilds or something like them could accomplish this. You need members who all agree to do something in unison. We don't have that yet. GeekPac is a teensy tiny baby step in the right direction, but it will fail. Until we learn to act as one, and embrace a common ideal, we won't make a dent. This ain't hard guys. It might take secret handshakes (chuckle), actual face-to-face contact (OHMIGOD!) and shit like that to get it done, but it CAN be done! Think about it.
Btw, we should try to bring the fruit guys and the farmers with us. Let us leave No Man Behind! (notajoke)
Dynamic Fidgeting(TM)! "It's what made a Man out of Mack!" (anyone else remember that one?) I fidget constantly, in every possible way, and I find it an excellent way to exercise whilst one is stuck performing boring tasks. I'm always amazed at how much stronger I seem to be than my peers who actually exercise normally. Maybe it's genetics, but this body performs brilliantly given its' 48 yr history, and all the abuse that I've heaped upon it.
Sorry if that was a tad incoherent, but it hit all the notes that I intended. The thing about loppings of heads should have been more closely targeted towards the wannabe inclinations of the poster. My segue'(sp?) sucked.
A constantly same work environment with no unanticipated stimulus (hopefully NOT from the PHBs) is antithetical to mental health and creativity. That's why workers with (small w) windows are more productive than those without. Nobody can focus on a particular task without relief for more than a finite, task dependent period of time without losing focus, and becoming inefficient. Sorry, Mr. PHB wannabe, but this is a property of ALL neurological systems, from flatworms on up the ladder. What one is accustomed to, one ceases to pay attention to. Which leads to a mind inhabited by one big 'think within the box' hummmmm.... I'm gonna guess you're a 20ish business sk001 grad that fantasises that he actually possesses a clue or t00. Guess what? YOU'RE A MORON! You know *nothing*. Life does not work in the infantile 'gimme, gimme' fashion that you seem used to thinking in. You do NOT own a plantation, and your workers, in order to do good work(s) for you, must be attracted to you via your glowing personality and obvious democratic ideals. Otherwise.. Well.. you know the rest. I had a physics teacher that put this one on a final: 'Joe Physics is sentenced to death. The height of his guillotine is precisely 10 cubits. We had to convert. (lots of stuff about neck diameter and coefficients of friction slicing through flesh) Will his head fall into the basket?' Yes/No?
Besides, what you're talking about is impossible, since most genetically engineered plants are sterile so that this *won't* happen. You *must* buy new seeds every year. Huh? How could he *intentionally* plant second generation seeds *IF THEY'RE STERILE*? Where would he get first generation seeds if he didn't buy them?
Your lassiesz faire (sp? please?) attitude towards dubious capitalist practices is obviously influenced by your chosen avenue of enterprise.. the marketing of really bad porn, and insinuating yourself as a middleman in that process. (dude! your site has really gone down hill! you need less automation! more hands on! (chuckle) at least there are no dialer sites there anymore.)
But seriously, don't let your free enterprise views cloud your judgement. I'm mostly right wing, but invading Iraq sends my hackles straight up, Rush is sounding like a total GWB apologist, Foxnews makes me puke, and the only things I can hang onto are Hentoff, Buckley and PJ O'Rourke.
There ARE alleged conservatives that are corrupt. Count on it. Don't get complacent. Consider. Liberty and stuff like that MATTERS more than 'Intellectual Property' does. THAT'S a Conservative view. Don't be an opportunistic weenie. Embrace that which allowed you to do your 'thing' in the first place, and fight for it.
Assuming that most coders who would be asked to do sucha despicable thing such as this, here are a few options: 1) Write it badly and/or ineffectually. Who'd know? They're all suits! 2) Backdoor it all to hell.. ala Ken Thompson's C compiler follies. Pass r00t access about globally via IRC. Render it all useless. 3) Share it with all your hacker buddies, via snail-mail.. (no radar)
I think it utterly impossible that these boobs can find enough skillful lackeys to carry these mandates out without creating a situation far more dire than the one they're fearful of.
A deliberately designed phage that is focused on low level functions and vulnerabilities of the DNA (DNA is a state machine.. think hacking) could easily hijack the internal processes of a bacterium, since they are ALL based on a universal tech foundation. What the guys in the article were doing was getting really close to using an enzyme (think packet) to transmit information to a virus (crude processor) so as to press it into service so as to accomplish a task. This idea is so cool that I'm peeing myself. Hope this helps.
>the possibility of it never happening by random mutation is approximately 0.00000000%
ITYM 'ever happening':) You'll have to concede, however, that such a mutation would quickly snuff out it's own source of propagation. Locally, at least. Hence, we have a *Possible* genetic configuration, that nature has weeded out as nonviable, and has not repeated in further mutations. This does NOT mean that we, as humans, cannot reintroduce it, or something similar. Think of DNA as an OS with various levels of API's and I think you'll get what I mean.
Some bright guy might attempt to engineer a broad spectrum bacteriophage, which would, of course, shut down our entire foodchain. That would be bad. If I was George W., I'd be much more concerned about stuff like this emanating from Iraq than nasty gasses and stuff. After all, we're talking Doomsday weapon here... Total climate change, and utter devastation with but one tiny twiddle of a genetic code. I pray that these guys have thought this through..
I've never read that one before.. a true pro witnessing from the edge of the battle hardened frontier. (redundant?:) Thanks!
Re:I interrupt this subthread to, again, advocate:
on
Copyright as Cudgel
·
· Score: 2
This was NOT meant to be a joke. I'm serious. Geeks *must* organise, and consolidate their powers. Otherwise, all of society is really and truly fucked.
Re:I interrupt this subthread to, again, advocate:
on
Copyright as Cudgel
·
· Score: 2
So in otherwords you're calling for a strike. Short of killing them in their beds, I'd say yeah.
Geeks and True Workers (the guys who hang drywall, do carpentry, build and fix your car, etc..) are the people who built all of the Stuff that Rich Folks want to control. Since they can't do it without US, we can Take It All Back. Either frontally via a strike, as I suggest, or more subtly via a vast network of backdoors in practically all software that matters. Managers NEVER review code, so it's a doable thing.
I interrupt this subthread to, again, advocate:
on
Copyright as Cudgel
·
· Score: 3, Funny
"Geeks' Day Off!"(TM) One day a year (I like March 14.. 3/14 Get it?) when all whose smarts drive the engines of industry show these bastards who's boss by staying home, turning off the phones, pagers, everything. Let 'em stew in the hell they hath created for 24 hrs. Maybe they'll think for once. You can't legislate intelligence into existence. We'd have 'em by the balls. We control supply. Oh, and also forever refuse to prepare contingency plans for the event after the resounding success of the first one. Sorta like Mayday. With teeth! It's time, people!
IE: creating a nonexistent HUGE file that normal measures would not delete. Try this: cat/dev/null >/pathto/peskyfile worked for me in vanilla ext2. Should (?!?) work in ext3.
On this mere quote, alone, I now find myself, finally, moved to read Darwin's works. Not only a fine scientist, apparently, the man was a fine and amusing author, as well! Off to my library I fly! Whoosh! (not a joke. I fully intend to read his stuff. It was best seller material when it came out THEN, so it should prove readable to us, now, fairly easily)
Slashdot Mirror
Like that luserish neon crap people strap under their cars. /. much anymore. So much chaff, so little wheat. /. should read it. You'll see what I mean.
Yes.. it IS cool.. for about five minutes >:
Utility, people!
Utility!
It's all about getting it done, for me, and I just don't have the time for this sh*t.
I also don't have time for
Even ASR has become useless (was it ever useFULL?). Wall to wall self congratulatory assholes whimpering about bad beer, lusers, and celebrating chocolate. All cliques (sp?) eventually degenerate into chaos. ASR is there now. And worse.
All of
OK. I'm rambling. So kill -9 me.
I've long held a weighty cocktail party calibre hypothesis that our experience of particle activity strongly depends on our gravitational reference frame. :)
IE: I could be sitting smack dab in the 'middle' of a black hole right now, and would never notice the difference, since all of the relativistic variables that make 'space' possible would have flexed in such a manner so as to preserve the information content of my reference.
The notion of 'quark stars' strongly supports this view. If neutrons are so crowded together that their fields can no longer subsist in normal space, then it makes perfect sense that their manifestation could 'bubble' over into a less compacted extra (to us) dimensional space, whilst leaving their constituent parts here as a quark star, functioning normally.
Since virtually all subatomic interactions are inherently frictionless, this is an interesting avenue of speculation.
Oh.
IANAP
My nephews, aged 8, 7, and 26 eagerly admit that DBZ makes no sense whatsoever.
They watch it anyway, cuz it looks k3w1!
It's obvious to me now that the South Park Pokemon Parody episode was a thinly veiled documentary expose' of the true intentions of the japanese media... the ossification of the american brain via mindless eye candy and useless occupation of american mental computational capacity with ridiculous and STOOPID games, thus breeding a home-grown brain drain, rendering us effectively a nation of self involved non threating masturbatory morons.
It seems to be working. Sigh.
I guess the Seizure Robots were too subtle in their results..
That's why Wordperfect has persisted for so long.
Legal documents are primarily "Text Only", as they should be.
And always will be!
This one's a no-brainer for anyone who's been in the biz for even a small time.
gates, realising that his initial release of x80 basic would be pirated big time, despite his protests to the contrary, always released his own software (to my knowledge) protection free.
I believe that he subscribed to the model that this article suggests.. namely that ubiquity equals market control.
Gain a market.. then tighten the reigns.. as he has done recently with XP.
This is not a fair business model, in any way or shape, and should be subjected to some really tight DOJ scrutiny.
Unfortunately, we do not have in place a true republican administration at present.
We have, instead, a bunch of testicularly over tourqued dopes who seem to have the need to blow a lot of stuff up.
This Is Not Good.
If these guys (GWB and his buddies) succeed, be prepared to see many markets, including our own, crumble to 3rd world status.
No. I'm not kidding.
It will happen.
I promise you.
I have but one thing to say to you, 'cause more would be a waste of my time, (you wouldn't understand it anyway) and it is thus:
Fuck You, Asshole.
There. I'm done.
Ok.. it was the 70's and I was probably buzzed, but I was told by the IBM salesguy who had shown us that neat APL/Basic toteable box they were marketing at the time (51xx?) that anyone who chalked up a patent or significant invention/process improvement got a cut of the profits/savings/royalties that they had created, and due to Blue's pervasiveness, that those perks could add up to some rather princely sums for the contributor.
My take on IBM at the time is that they were exceedingly generous to their employees.
As they are NOW exceedingly generous to US, as the OSS community, it would seem that some of that elder ethos has hung on.
Input?
IE:Professional societies that closely resemble 'lodges' ... guys like the masons, glassblowers, or the starguild of Dune fame.
Not in the sense that we keep our knowledge secret, but in the sense that anyone who does 'the work' (whatever that might be) can join and speak and Move as one voice, IYGWIM.
Let's face it. The tech classes and the worker (fruit pickers, farmers, assemblers, etc) classes have much more in common than we see at first blush.
1) We provide a VITAL service to any capitalist economy, and could really fuck it up if we chose to.
2) What we do is mostly invisible. Everything Just Works(TM) when we're doing it right, and SINCE we're doing it right, we're unappreciated.
We really should form guilds and unions so as to exercise our collective clout in a manner that will be noticed by those freeloading bastards who play currency against currency, do differentials on options, etc.. No useful work whatsoever, yet they claim to control our lives.
Guess what?
They don't.
A global 'geek strike', work slowdown, or even better, (twirls moustache) a sudden 'stupidity strike' (oooh! looky! shiny server crashy! Code really bad!) would get these lusers' attention.
Only Guilds or something like them could accomplish this. You need members who all agree to do something in unison. We don't have that yet.
GeekPac is a teensy tiny baby step in the right direction, but it will fail.
Until we learn to act as one, and embrace a common ideal, we won't make a dent.
This ain't hard guys.
It might take secret handshakes (chuckle), actual face-to-face contact (OHMIGOD!) and shit like that to get it done, but it CAN be done!
Think about it.
Btw, we should try to bring the fruit guys and the farmers with us.
Let us leave No Man Behind!
(notajoke)
Dynamic Fidgeting(TM)!
"It's what made a Man out of Mack!" (anyone else remember that one?)
I fidget constantly, in every possible way, and I find it an
excellent way to exercise whilst one is stuck performing boring tasks.
I'm always amazed at how much stronger I seem to be than my peers who actually exercise normally.
Maybe it's genetics, but this body performs brilliantly given its' 48 yr
history, and all the abuse that I've heaped upon it.
Sorry if that was a tad incoherent, but it hit all the notes that I intended.
The thing about loppings of heads should have been more closely targeted towards the wannabe inclinations of the poster.
My segue'(sp?) sucked.
A constantly same work environment with no unanticipated stimulus (hopefully NOT from the PHBs) is antithetical to mental health and creativity.
That's why workers with (small w) windows are more productive than those without.
Nobody can focus on a particular task without relief for more than a finite, task dependent period of time without losing focus, and becoming inefficient.
Sorry, Mr. PHB wannabe, but this is a property of ALL neurological systems, from flatworms on up the ladder.
What one is accustomed to, one ceases to pay attention to. Which leads to a mind inhabited by one big 'think within the box' hummmmm....
I'm gonna guess you're a 20ish business sk001 grad that fantasises that he actually possesses a clue or t00.
Guess what?
YOU'RE A MORON!
You know *nothing*.
Life does not work in the infantile 'gimme, gimme' fashion that you seem used to thinking in.
You do NOT own a plantation, and your workers, in order to do good work(s) for you, must be attracted to you via your glowing personality and obvious democratic ideals.
Otherwise..
Well.. you know the rest.
I had a physics teacher that put this one on a final:
'Joe Physics is sentenced to death.
The height of his guillotine is precisely 10 cubits.
We had to convert.
(lots of stuff about neck diameter and coefficients of friction slicing through flesh)
Will his head fall into the basket?'
Yes/No?
This guy was a BOFH par excellance.
Besides, what you're talking about is impossible, since most genetically engineered plants are sterile so that this *won't* happen. You *must* buy new seeds every year.
Huh?
How could he *intentionally* plant second generation seeds *IF THEY'RE STERILE*?
Where would he get first generation seeds if he didn't buy them?
Your lassiesz faire (sp? please?) attitude towards dubious capitalist practices is obviously influenced by your chosen avenue of enterprise.. the marketing of really bad porn, and insinuating yourself as a middleman in that process.
(dude! your site has really gone down hill! you need less automation! more hands on! (chuckle) at least there are no dialer sites there anymore.)
But seriously, don't let your free enterprise views cloud your judgement.
I'm mostly right wing, but invading Iraq sends my hackles straight up, Rush is sounding like a total GWB apologist, Foxnews makes me puke, and the only things I can hang onto are Hentoff, Buckley and PJ O'Rourke.
There ARE alleged conservatives that are corrupt. Count on it.
Don't get complacent.
Consider.
Liberty and stuff like that MATTERS more than 'Intellectual Property' does.
THAT'S a Conservative view.
Don't be an opportunistic weenie.
Embrace that which allowed you to do your 'thing' in the first place, and fight for it.
Sorry for the grammatical irregularities. :)
I should have previewed more carefully.
You should get my drift
Assuming that most coders who would be asked to do sucha despicable thing such as this, here are a few options:
1) Write it badly and/or ineffectually. Who'd know? They're all suits!
2) Backdoor it all to hell.. ala Ken Thompson's C compiler follies. Pass r00t access about globally via IRC. Render it all useless.
3) Share it with all your hacker buddies, via snail-mail.. (no radar)
I think it utterly impossible that these boobs can find enough skillful lackeys to carry these mandates out without creating a situation far more dire than the one they're fearful of.
Rebel! Don't collaborate!
They can't do this without US!
Don't be a Traitor!
Be a PATRIOT!
A deliberately designed phage that is focused on low level functions and vulnerabilities of the DNA (DNA is a state machine.. think hacking) could easily hijack the internal processes of a bacterium, since they are ALL based on a universal tech foundation.
What the guys in the article were doing was getting really close to using an enzyme (think packet) to transmit information to a virus (crude processor) so as to press it into service so as to accomplish a task.
This idea is so cool that I'm peeing myself.
Hope this helps.
>the possibility of it never happening by random mutation is approximately 0.00000000%
:)
ITYM 'ever happening'
You'll have to concede, however, that such a mutation would quickly snuff out it's own source of propagation. Locally, at least.
Hence, we have a *Possible* genetic configuration, that nature has weeded out as nonviable, and has not repeated in further mutations.
This does NOT mean that we, as humans, cannot reintroduce it, or something similar.
Think of DNA as an OS with various levels of API's and I think you'll get what I mean.
Some bright guy might attempt to engineer a broad spectrum bacteriophage, which would, of course, shut down our entire foodchain.
That would be bad.
If I was George W., I'd be much more concerned about stuff like this emanating from Iraq than nasty gasses and stuff.
After all, we're talking Doomsday weapon here...
Total climate change, and utter devastation with but one tiny twiddle of a genetic code.
I pray that these guys have thought this through..
I've never read that one before.. a true pro witnessing from the edge of the battle hardened frontier. :)
(redundant?
Thanks!
This was NOT meant to be a joke.
I'm serious.
Geeks *must* organise, and consolidate their powers.
Otherwise, all of society is really and truly fucked.
So in otherwords you're calling for a strike.
Short of killing them in their beds, I'd say yeah.
Geeks and True Workers (the guys who hang drywall, do carpentry, build and fix your car, etc..) are the people who built all of the Stuff that Rich Folks want to control.
Since they can't do it without US, we can Take It All Back. Either frontally via a strike, as I suggest, or more subtly via a vast network of backdoors in practically all software that matters.
Managers NEVER review code, so it's a doable thing.
"Geeks' Day Off!"(TM)
One day a year (I like March 14.. 3/14 Get it?) when all whose smarts drive the engines of industry show these bastards who's boss by staying home, turning off the phones, pagers, everything.
Let 'em stew in the hell they hath created for 24 hrs. Maybe they'll think for once. You can't legislate intelligence into existence. We'd have 'em by the balls. We control supply.
Oh, and also forever refuse to prepare contingency plans for the event after the resounding success of the first one.
Sorta like Mayday. With teeth!
It's time, people!
It's probably the most useful response in this entire thread!
IE: creating a nonexistent HUGE file that normal measures would not delete. /dev/null > /pathto/peskyfile
Try this:
cat
worked for me in vanilla ext2.
Should (?!?) work in ext3.
I'm so glad somebody mentioned that...
The context is left as an exercise for the reader..
On this mere quote, alone, I now find myself, finally, moved to read Darwin's works.
Not only a fine scientist, apparently, the man was a fine and amusing author, as well!
Off to my library I fly!
Whoosh!
(not a joke. I fully intend to read his stuff. It was best seller material when it came out THEN, so it should prove readable to us, now, fairly easily)