Actually, that's only true from one set of perspectives. Think of it this way: Your title to the house is merely a piece of paper that says that the house is yours. All it means is that you can get men in blue uniforms with guns to show up and kick other people out of the house if you want, assuming the political climate stays roughly equivalent to what it is.
This does not mean you "own" the house, any more than having control of the police force and the ability to break into people's houses, kill them, and take their property means you "own" the house (butthen, whenhasthateverstoppedanyone?)
Simplest way to make sure you get the music you're looking for: Search for one song in the album. Attempt to download this song from 4 or 5 different people, simultaneously. Play each one. If one of them is the song you're looking for, browse that person's shared files list - chances are, the rest of the files they're sharing will also be good, and if they've got the whole CD, you win!
The corrolary of this, of course, is that it is now your responsibility (if you care) to make yours available for sharing, as well, to increase the signal-to-noise ratio.
Silly, silly boy. The Government is NOT trying to stop Microsoft from having a monopoly.
The Government is trying to stop Microsoft from having a monopoly THAT THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT CONTROL.
Federally controlled monopolies (like good ol' Ma Bell) are what the government wants, not 'loose cannons' with lots of money (power) that Big Brother has no real control over.
AdBusters went away, dude, and WhatReallyHappened may not be far behind. Sure, there's people out there that want to speak the truth, but noone wants to provide them with the funds to do it with.
See, that's just it. SlashDot exists to generate traffic. It doesn't matter if people come to scream and bitch, as far as/. is concerned, they're still coming.
Besides, it's clear that we're ALREADY bitching up a storm, and nothing is being done. Maybe we should try a different approach?
All I'm saying is, instead of bitching, whining, trolling and flaming, maybe we should just voice our dissent with our silence. Sometimes, in a roomful of noisy assholes, a sudden resounding silence can be the loudest, most noticable thing.
You know, I usually hate to be vitriolic, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree.
Why do we need John Katz to start discussions?
What does he have to say that one of us couldn't say better? Why does HE get a spotlight, when many people with a better grasp of the culture he comments on go unheard?
Why are we patronizing this man?
Here's a thought: What would happen if every time John Katz posted an article, NOONE responded to it? No insightful comments, no banter, not even trolls. What if everyone boycotted JohnKatz? If he only ever got 3-4 replies to any of his posts, all of which were 'fist p-sort beeyotch', how long do you think Malta, CmdrTaco et.al. would keep him around?
The power is in YOUR hands, people. But then, it always was.
There was a point in id software's evolution where John Carmack almost adopted Java as the "scripting language" for Quake 3. This got abandoned REAL quick when it wasn't fast enough.
Java is all about interoperability, then ease of design, then speed.
Id software's game engines are all about speed, then interoperability, then ease of use. All the same, they STILL tend to be pretty easy to use, since they aren't motivated by business decisions as much as they are by making a really, really cool game engine [while this has positive business ramifications, obviously, that's not why they do it].
Quake 3 is a SUPERB game engine on all platforms. I can write my own game as a Quake 3 mod, and without any recompiling, have it instantly work, at high framerate and with no bugs or glitches, on three different platforms. Show me how Java can do that.
Id software's game engines ALREADY surpass Java. It's not going to get worse from here; it's going to get better.
In my opinion, the Microsoft Antitrust settlement is greivously inadequate to redress Microsoft's demonstrated prior harm to the industry and economy, and does nothing to insure against further harm. Working in the IT field for the past 11 years, I have seen first-hand what Microsoft's artificial market dominance has wrought: poor quality of product, with no better choices ever coming to market, and those choices which already existed in the market have long since been driven out of business.
Microsoft now exists as the SOLE recourse for my industry, and it is woefully inadequate. A simple perusal of recent computer virus outbreaks demonstrates this - nearly every virus propogated in the past two years has done so as an exploit in Microsoft's operating systems and productivity tools. Worse, they are exploiting aspects of these tools that no reasonable piece of software should possess, and yet these softwares are not modified to remedy the threat.
Microsoft is willfully negligent in its duty, as a monopoly, to protect the consumers from the negative and inescapable effects of its decisions. If Microsoft is to have a 90% share of the computer desktop market, then Microsoft should be held 90% responsible for any problems that develop as a result of computer desktop software flaws. A proper injunction, at the very least, should allow peer or experct judicial review of Microsoft's production methods [i.e., their source code]. If Microsoft is allowed to continue their 90% stranglehold on the market, they should be forced to provide the market with a higher quality of service than the market would otherwise receive from competition.
Of course, the preferrable method would be to de-couple Microsoft's NT/XP kernel development from the rest of the corporation, allowing the resulting desktop/productivity development [the IE desktop/browser and the Office productivity suite] to be developed on multiple base operating system platforms. As both the Telephony industry and California's power grid have demonstrated, a government-regulated monopoly is seldom preferrable to a regulated free market.
Workers are a dime a dozen - primarily because PEOPLE are a dime a dozen. It ISN'T in a company's best interest to ensure that its work environment is safe and non-injurious, because if its work environment destroys its employees, it can always get more employees to replace them. Companies consider all of their parts in the same way - through cost-benefit analysis. If the cost of replacing X widgets every Y months is less than the cost of making those widgets tough enough to last longer, then you go with that. And, to be honest, people are CHEAP to replace.
Re: Also under investigation...
on
Bert Is Evil
·
· Score: 1
... are the letters 'R' and 'Q', and the number '11'.
We're all hardware/firmware/software hackers, code warriors, and kernel/driver sorcerors here, right? And even if we aren't, chances are, one or two "degrees of seperation" down, we know someone who is. Now, imagine what a system like this could do on Linux:
Open-source Linux drivers for the hard drive 'copy protection' firmware which allow root [or any user with sufficient permissions] to said firmware at will. Additional file security based around tracking how often a given file has been accessed. Cryptography algorithms that utilize that same firmware to guarantee that the FBI can't just grab your machine, yank out your hard drive, and try to crack your data.
I don't know how much of this will or won't be possible; but the point is - and this is a VERY important lesson, that EVERY hacker should have wedged firmly in their heart - What Something Was "Designed" To Do Is Not Necessarily The Only Thing It Can Be Used For.
I say, if these things come out at all, we all run out to the store, buy 20 of them (in case they're designed to short-circuit if tampered with, we'll have plenty to play with until we get it right), and see just how much fun we, the Open Source community, can have with the technology.
Can you imagine what a slap-in-the-face it would be if we could turn this entire technology around on them?
Heinlein? how about Robert Anton Wilson?
Look at the 'Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy'. In one of the alternate Americas he presents, a coalition of computer professionals - which write the software that runs EVERYTHING - have banded together under Discordian ideals to monkeywrench the entire system in generally benevolent or good-natured ways. An example of this is hidden code in credit card systems that grant a few thousand random people a year complete obsolvement of their debt with the credit card company - and all the coders vehemently refuse to remove the algorithms, or even admit that they're there, and noone else knows how to modify the source.
Something to think about, anyway.
Yep. I got turned down for a senior Web design job a little under 2 years ago because I didn't have "5+ years of Java experience".
I was utterly speechless. I couldn't imagine how to respond to that. (for those of you who don't know: This was early 1998. Java was created in 1995. 1998 - 1995 = 3 years. Thus, NOONE had 5+ years of Java experience, BECAUSE JAVA HADN'T EXISTED THAT LONG.)
I've actually been considering it for awhile. I'd like to get the source to some 128-bit encyrption codec tattooed across the left side of my back, and the DeCSS code tattooed across the right side of my back. If I go ahead with it, I'll continue to add more tattooes as more expressions that can be transcribed onto flesh become illegal.
I'm also, incidentally, considering having a tattoo of a naked 12-year-old - since certain laws consider a drawing of someone the court decides is underage in a manner the court decides is lewd an example of "child pornogrpahy", it'd be interesting to see where this would go.
Re:Superstition, Fear, and Jealousy...
on
Mage The Ascension
·
· Score: 1
I have to admit, I get pissed off at JonKatz's tirades too. Not precisely because I think he's a windbag (although he is); not precisely because I think he's soaking up the confusion and misery of the modern world to stoke his own ego (although he is); but because he is doing it and I am not. This irritates me far beyond the capacity for words. Why should one man with a penchant for grandstanding and soapboxing be allowed to take the stage when there's millions of us out here, in the audience, with just as valid of ideas? Why should the Powers that Be cater to him when I am so deserving of the limelight?
I know, I'm petty. JonKatz, I apologize for this. I don't really consider myself any better than you; I simply don't consider myself any worse, any less insightful, any less deserving of merit or attention than you do. Yet I'm down here amidst the trolls and you're up there posting the articles. Bah, I say.
Sorry. First instinct was to throw out the old "Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of these"?
Anyways. Can anyone out there point me to some good books on programming for distributed systems? I know a bit about genetic programming and quite a bit about networking, but I'd like to look over what's been done in the field before paving new ground myself.
Slashdot Mirror
Not that that helped Darth Maul.
Then again, he did have a pit to contend with.
(The Pit theory of Jedi combat:
Three Jedi enter a room with a pit; one Jedi leaves.)
Actually, that's only true from one set of perspectives. Think of it this way: Your title to the house is merely a piece of paper that says that the house is yours. All it means is that you can get men in blue uniforms with guns to show up and kick other people out of the house if you want, assuming the political climate stays roughly equivalent to what it is.
This does not mean you "own" the house, any more than having control of the police force and the ability to break into people's houses, kill them, and take their property means you "own" the house (but then, when has that ever stopped anyone?)
Simplest way to make sure you get the music you're looking for: Search for one song in the album. Attempt to download this song from 4 or 5 different people, simultaneously. Play each one. If one of them is the song you're looking for, browse that person's shared files list - chances are, the rest of the files they're sharing will also be good, and if they've got the whole CD, you win!
The corrolary of this, of course, is that it is now your responsibility (if you care) to make yours available for sharing, as well, to increase the signal-to-noise ratio.
Silly, silly boy. The Government is NOT trying to stop Microsoft from having a monopoly.
The Government is trying to stop Microsoft from having a monopoly THAT THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT CONTROL.
Federally controlled monopolies (like good ol' Ma Bell) are what the government wants, not 'loose cannons' with lots of money (power) that Big Brother has no real control over.
You get with the system or you get taken out.
... but the drugs like me.
AdBusters went away, dude, and WhatReallyHappened may not be far behind. Sure, there's people out there that want to speak the truth, but noone wants to provide them with the funds to do it with.
Believe it or not, I haven't looked at user preferences in over a year. I didn't realize you could do this. Thank you!
Sorry to bitch; I didn't realize this was so easily correctable.
See, that's just it. SlashDot exists to generate traffic. It doesn't matter if people come to scream and bitch, as far as /. is concerned, they're still coming.
Besides, it's clear that we're ALREADY bitching up a storm, and nothing is being done. Maybe we should try a different approach?
All I'm saying is, instead of bitching, whining, trolling and flaming, maybe we should just voice our dissent with our silence. Sometimes, in a roomful of noisy assholes, a sudden resounding silence can be the loudest, most noticable thing.
You know, I usually hate to be vitriolic, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree.
Why do we need John Katz to start discussions?
What does he have to say that one of us couldn't say better? Why does HE get a spotlight, when many people with a better grasp of the culture he comments on go unheard?
Why are we patronizing this man?
Here's a thought: What would happen if every time John Katz posted an article, NOONE responded to it? No insightful comments, no banter, not even trolls. What if everyone boycotted JohnKatz? If he only ever got 3-4 replies to any of his posts, all of which were 'fist p-sort beeyotch', how long do you think Malta, CmdrTaco et.al. would keep him around?
The power is in YOUR hands, people. But then, it always was.
There was a point in id software's evolution where John Carmack almost adopted Java as the "scripting language" for Quake 3. This got abandoned REAL quick when it wasn't fast enough.
Java is all about interoperability, then ease of design, then speed.
Id software's game engines are all about speed, then interoperability, then ease of use. All the same, they STILL tend to be pretty easy to use, since they aren't motivated by business decisions as much as they are by making a really, really cool game engine [while this has positive business ramifications, obviously, that's not why they do it].
Quake 3 is a SUPERB game engine on all platforms. I can write my own game as a Quake 3 mod, and without any recompiling, have it instantly work, at high framerate and with no bugs or glitches, on three different platforms. Show me how Java can do that.
Id software's game engines ALREADY surpass Java. It's not going to get worse from here; it's going to get better.
There's two ways they could do this:
1. They could make it cheap, and ensure that just about anyone at an airport can get minimal 'net access, or
2. They could make it expensive, and ensure that high-class business-types can get a fat pipe.
Of course, the OPTIMAL solution would be to do both: Rent a low-bandwidth node for $5.00/hour, or a high-bandwidth node for $0.25/minute.
If they choose to only provide an expensive connection for corporate use, though, I'm not sure it'll be a step in the right direction.
Here's what I sent:
In my opinion, the Microsoft Antitrust settlement is greivously inadequate to redress Microsoft's demonstrated prior harm to the industry and economy, and does nothing to insure against further harm. Working in the IT field for the past 11 years, I have seen first-hand what Microsoft's artificial market dominance has wrought: poor quality of product, with no better choices ever coming to market, and those choices which already existed in the market have long since been driven out of business.
Microsoft now exists as the SOLE recourse for my industry, and it is woefully inadequate. A simple perusal of recent computer virus outbreaks demonstrates this - nearly every virus propogated in the past two years has done so as an exploit in Microsoft's operating systems and productivity tools. Worse, they are exploiting aspects of these tools that no reasonable piece of software should possess, and yet these softwares are not modified to remedy the threat.
Microsoft is willfully negligent in its duty, as a monopoly, to protect the consumers from the negative and inescapable effects of its decisions. If Microsoft is to have a 90% share of the computer desktop market, then Microsoft should be held 90% responsible for any problems that develop as a result of computer desktop software flaws. A proper injunction, at the very least, should allow peer or experct judicial review of Microsoft's production methods [i.e., their source code]. If Microsoft is allowed to continue their 90% stranglehold on the market, they should be forced to provide the market with a higher quality of service than the market would otherwise receive from competition.
Of course, the preferrable method would be to de-couple Microsoft's NT/XP kernel development from the rest of the corporation, allowing the resulting desktop/productivity development [the IE desktop/browser and the Office productivity suite] to be developed on multiple base operating system platforms. As both the Telephony industry and California's power grid have demonstrated, a government-regulated monopoly is seldom preferrable to a regulated free market.
Workers are a dime a dozen - primarily because PEOPLE are a dime a dozen. It ISN'T in a company's best interest to ensure that its work environment is safe and non-injurious, because if its work environment destroys its employees, it can always get more employees to replace them. Companies consider all of their parts in the same way - through cost-benefit analysis. If the cost of replacing X widgets every Y months is less than the cost of making those widgets tough enough to last longer, then you go with that. And, to be honest, people are CHEAP to replace.
... are the letters 'R' and 'Q', and the number '11'.
YOUR FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND NOMAD INDICATES THAT YOU ARE AN IMPERFECT AND INFERIOR LIFE-FORM. YOU MUST BE EXTERMINATED.
ERROR. ERROR. BATTERY POWER LOW. NOMAD CANNOT BE INFERIOR.
(Note to moderators [and excess padding to avoid the 'no caps' filter]: Before you mod me down, go ask a trekkie.)
We're all hardware/firmware/software hackers, code warriors, and kernel/driver sorcerors here, right? And even if we aren't, chances are, one or two "degrees of seperation" down, we know someone who is. Now, imagine what a system like this could do on Linux:
Open-source Linux drivers for the hard drive 'copy protection' firmware which allow root [or any user with sufficient permissions] to said firmware at will. Additional file security based around tracking how often a given file has been accessed. Cryptography algorithms that utilize that same firmware to guarantee that the FBI can't just grab your machine, yank out your hard drive, and try to crack your data.
I don't know how much of this will or won't be possible; but the point is - and this is a VERY important lesson, that EVERY hacker should have wedged firmly in their heart - What Something Was "Designed" To Do Is Not Necessarily The Only Thing It Can Be Used For.
I say, if these things come out at all, we all run out to the store, buy 20 of them (in case they're designed to short-circuit if tampered with, we'll have plenty to play with until we get it right), and see just how much fun we, the Open Source community, can have with the technology.
Can you imagine what a slap-in-the-face it would be if we could turn this entire technology around on them?
Heinlein? how about Robert Anton Wilson? Look at the 'Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy'. In one of the alternate Americas he presents, a coalition of computer professionals - which write the software that runs EVERYTHING - have banded together under Discordian ideals to monkeywrench the entire system in generally benevolent or good-natured ways. An example of this is hidden code in credit card systems that grant a few thousand random people a year complete obsolvement of their debt with the credit card company - and all the coders vehemently refuse to remove the algorithms, or even admit that they're there, and noone else knows how to modify the source. Something to think about, anyway.
Fear the meow-meow army. [do a web search... this is a PERFECT example of what we're talking about]. And remember: There Is No Cabal.
Yep. I got turned down for a senior Web design job a little under 2 years ago because I didn't have "5+ years of Java experience".
I was utterly speechless. I couldn't imagine how to respond to that. (for those of you who don't know: This was early 1998. Java was created in 1995. 1998 - 1995 = 3 years. Thus, NOONE had 5+ years of Java experience, BECAUSE JAVA HADN'T EXISTED THAT LONG.)
Does this count as "linking"?
I'm also, incidentally, considering having a tattoo of a naked 12-year-old - since certain laws consider a drawing of someone the court decides is underage in a manner the court decides is lewd an example of "child pornogrpahy", it'd be interesting to see where this would go.
Funny, that.
I know, I'm petty. JonKatz, I apologize for this. I don't really consider myself any better than you; I simply don't consider myself any worse, any less insightful, any less deserving of merit or attention than you do. Yet I'm down here amidst the trolls and you're up there posting the articles. Bah, I say.
No you don't.
Fascinating.
Sorry. First instinct was to throw out the old "Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of these"?
Anyways. Can anyone out there point me to some good books on programming for distributed systems? I know a bit about genetic programming and quite a bit about networking, but I'd like to look over what's been done in the field before paving new ground myself.