His logos are genius. Simply put, the most profound use of the pixel since Pong. The colors are bold, never sassy, bright and in your face. The word "Sentra" becomes more than mere syllables or phonemes: it becomes a visual orgasm!
Actually, I see a large difference. The effort put into running 100 meters well pays off with increased physical fitness. The memorization of the numbers may or may not pay off in increased memory skills in other areas, however, the wrote memorization of numbers seems to lack significant usefulness. I agree it would be handy and faster, but cognition seems far more important than memorization.
Additionally, atheletes who are obsessive-compulsive practice too much and too hard and injur themselves. The ones who run the 100m faster than anyone else are fairly balanced. I would hazard a guess that a person who memorizes 80k+ digits of Pi has an obsessive personality. Is this wrong? Is this a problem? I don't really know or care very much. It is, however, what I see as a qualitative difference between the two.
Despite any silly comments and jokes posted about this, I feel compelled to say how impressed I am to see people taking such initiative. Such fearlessness in one of the great elements of the human character.
As for me, I am not against paying for online content. Right now, like most of us, I take for granted much of what is there. The problem for me is not an unwillingness to pay, but rather an unwillingness to put up with the inconvenience of doing so. If there were a safe and reliable way for sites to access my "digital wallet" or something, I would not be opposed.
That said, I am currently thinking that for a heavy info junkie such as myself, the bill at the end of the month should be in the US$15-30 range.
To recap, the big problems as I see them are:
1) lack of a unified SAFE way to charge users
2) lack of an agreed upon method to determine your usage (if I view the same page three times does it count? if I am hitting a transparent caching proxy, how will they even know??? etc.)
3) determining what the market price would be
That's just my 2 cents, and it didn't cost you a penny...
Amen. Why the hell would geeks be watching a football game? I can safely say I have never watched a football game on TV or in real life. I mean...what gives?
No I disagree. In my case I am only interesting in parenting my own child. It is part of the primate/mammal existence to want to promote YOUR genetic heritage. (I don't mean race or any other silly ideas like that, I simply mean, to believe that you have something genetically special to offer the world.)
I would not find adoption as fulfilling, nor in the same way. While I applaud those who do adopt children (Mia Farrow comes to mind), it is just not for me.
I think it is rash to assume that you can know what is fulfilling for other people, and that you can choose the better alternative.
Can cloning be used for something someone finds to be wrong? If you can find a technology that cannot, I would love to hear about it.
It is very typical for all of us (I am no different, and have to watch myself all the time) to assume our moral imperatives are some universal truth: applicable to all other people in all other situations. Even a cursory examination shows this to be ludicrous.
I completely understand where you are coming from with the "so many unwanted babies" thing. I couldn't agree more. But for some of us, it is just not an option. We would choose to not have children instead.
I completely agree. I wish there had been something like this when I was in school so I (a geek) could have had a better shot at protecting myself from a lot of the physical harassment I received.
There was no way in hell I would have openly talked to any school people, and there was no credible anonymous way to communicate to anyone. Any anonymous info would have been highly questioned or ignored. Perhaps this makes them more accountable.
The process seems to empower(I hate that word, but it fits) the underdog, not screw him over. Will it be misused ever? Hell yeah. But all changes comes with good and bad.
High school is a closed system that you are forced to be in. The rules for survival in it are not the same as the adult world. You can't just leave if you are scared or uncomfortable: thus I don't feel the rules for information should be the same as they are in the "adult world".
I am not trying to be mean or cruel or an irrational jerk...but I feel that you are giving him an arena in which he can express views to a large audience that clearly does not want to hear his ideas and opinions. His articles contain poorly though-out logical assumptions and cheap emotional shots.
May I suggest that Slashdot allow us to vote on this issue?
I feel that if we ignore this, Slashdot is in danger of becomming too much like a tabloid.
1981 - My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000 (the 1K version). My father had purchased it after becoming frustrated with is primitive and difficult to operate HeathKit computer. Its two red LED lights and hex keypad were just too much for the poor guy.
After delving into the Sinclair s BASIC interpreter for a year orso, he decided that what he really wanted to do was fly. As an accomplished amateur aviator, he longed to be able to do flight simulation in his non-flying spare time.
Surprisingly for 1982, such a program was available. He quickly ran out and purchased the necessary tape player, and the flight simulation software. Too his chagrin, he discovered that he needed the 16K expansion pack to actually run the program. After forking out a substantial sum, his dream became reality as he took off from the runway and flew through the night.
Throughout all this time, I had been teaching myself BASIC on this baby. One day, while in mid-flight, the BASIC program aborted with an error. Much to my father s surprise, I debuggedthe problem (a value had gone to zero and caused a divide-by-zero error). I set the value to one (which seemed sensible) and told the program to resume. It did, and actually seemed to work. At that point, my father did something that would shape the rest of my life. He gave me the computer, and with his normal eloquence and kind manner said: "Here, you figure the damn thing out."
Slashdot Mirror
His logos are genius. Simply put, the most profound use of the pixel since Pong. The colors are bold, never sassy, bright and in your face. The word "Sentra" becomes more than mere syllables or phonemes: it becomes a visual orgasm!
Actually, I see a large difference. The effort put into running 100 meters well pays off with increased physical fitness. The memorization of the numbers may or may not pay off in increased memory skills in other areas, however, the wrote memorization of numbers seems to lack significant usefulness. I agree it would be handy and faster, but cognition seems far more important than memorization.
Additionally, atheletes who are obsessive-compulsive practice too much and too hard and injur themselves. The ones who run the 100m faster than anyone else are fairly balanced. I would hazard a guess that a person who memorizes 80k+ digits of Pi has an obsessive personality. Is this wrong? Is this a problem? I don't really know or care very much. It is, however, what I see as a qualitative difference between the two.
Say what?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebra
I was sooooo waiting for someone to say that!!! Thank you!
Am I the only one that needs a Kleenex after reading this???
Despite any silly comments and jokes posted about this, I feel compelled to say how impressed I am to see people taking such initiative. Such fearlessness in one of the great elements of the human character.
As for me, I am not against paying for online content. Right now, like most of us, I take for granted much of what is there. The problem for me is not an unwillingness to pay, but rather an unwillingness to put up with the inconvenience of doing so. If there were a safe and reliable way for sites to access my "digital wallet" or something, I would not be opposed.
That said, I am currently thinking that for a heavy info junkie such as myself, the bill at the end of the month should be in the US$15-30 range.
To recap, the big problems as I see them are:
1) lack of a unified SAFE way to charge users
2) lack of an agreed upon method to determine your usage (if I view the same page three times does it count? if I am hitting a transparent caching proxy, how will they even know??? etc.)
3) determining what the market price would be
That's just my 2 cents, and it didn't cost you a penny...
Amen. Why the hell would geeks be watching a football game? I can safely say I have never watched a football game on TV or in real life. I mean...what gives?
No I disagree. In my case I am only interesting in parenting my own child. It is part of the primate/mammal existence to want to promote YOUR genetic heritage. (I don't mean race or any other silly ideas like that, I simply mean, to believe that you have something genetically special to offer the world.)
I would not find adoption as fulfilling, nor in the same way. While I applaud those who do adopt children (Mia Farrow comes to mind), it is just not for me.
I think it is rash to assume that you can know what is fulfilling for other people, and that you can choose the better alternative.
Can cloning be used for something someone finds to be wrong? If you can find a technology that cannot, I would love to hear about it.
It is very typical for all of us (I am no different, and have to watch myself all the time) to assume our moral imperatives are some universal truth: applicable to all other people in all other situations. Even a cursory examination shows this to be ludicrous.
I completely understand where you are coming from with the "so many unwanted babies" thing. I couldn't agree more. But for some of us, it is just not an option. We would choose to not have children instead.
I completely agree. I wish there had been something like this when I was in school so I (a geek) could have had a better shot at protecting myself from a lot of the physical harassment I received.
There was no way in hell I would have openly talked to any school people, and there was no credible anonymous way to communicate to anyone. Any anonymous info would have been highly questioned or ignored. Perhaps this makes them more accountable.
The process seems to empower(I hate that word, but it fits) the underdog, not screw him over. Will it be misused ever? Hell yeah. But all changes comes with good and bad.
High school is a closed system that you are forced to be in. The rules for survival in it are not the same as the adult world. You can't just leave if you are scared or uncomfortable: thus I don't feel the rules for information should be the same as they are in the "adult world".
I know I am just one reader...but...
Please stop letting Jon Katz write articles.
I am not trying to be mean or cruel or an irrational jerk...but I feel that you are giving him an arena in which he can express views to a large audience that clearly does not want to hear his ideas and opinions. His articles contain poorly though-out logical assumptions and cheap emotional shots.
May I suggest that Slashdot allow us to vote on this issue?
I feel that if we ignore this, Slashdot is in danger of becomming too much like a tabloid.
Thanks
1981 - My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000 (the 1K version). My father had purchased it after becoming frustrated with is primitive and difficult to operate HeathKit computer. Its two red LED lights and hex keypad were just too much for the poor guy.
After delving into the Sinclair s BASIC interpreter for a year orso, he decided that what he really wanted to do was fly. As an accomplished amateur aviator, he longed to be able to do flight simulation in his non-flying spare time.
Surprisingly for 1982, such a program was available. He quickly ran out and purchased the necessary tape player, and the flight simulation software. Too his chagrin, he discovered that he needed the 16K expansion pack to actually run the program. After forking out a substantial sum, his dream became reality as he took off from the runway and flew through the night.
Throughout all this time, I had been teaching myself BASIC on this baby. One day, while in mid-flight, the BASIC program aborted with an error. Much to my father s surprise, I debuggedthe problem (a value had gone to zero and caused a divide-by-zero error). I set the value to one (which seemed sensible) and told the program to resume. It did, and actually seemed to work. At that point, my father did something that would shape the rest of my life. He gave me the computer, and with his normal eloquence and kind manner said: "Here, you figure the damn thing out."