To the contrary, most industry pundits are wondering why years and millions of dollars have really resulted in very little of use or interest coming out of Microsoft Research. MIT's TechReview magazine had an excellent article on this very subject. The article from their Jan99 issue is not online:(, but here is a descriptive quote:
It's put-up time at Microsoft Research. Seven years after its founding, the lab has yet to make any real breakthroughs.
AOL is by no means the only game in town when it comes to instant messaging.
If you want a IM provider that plays nice with linux, FreeBSD, MacOs and Windows, try Yahoo. I have been using their client for a few months on all of the above platforms and I'm very satisfied.
You have a choice, you don't need to feed the beast.
ASCII encoding is a lossy encoding, but its the most likely to still be readable in a century.
True enough though, some aspects of a book are lost in their encoding, and that is why I also included the TEI link for those who favor very strong (yet device independent) encoding.
The folks at Gutenberg and the TEI (Text Encoding Initiaitve) have had the right idea all along - publish in good old ASCII, or SGML.
Most of the current Ebooks rely on broken structure models designed to exclude unwanted users.
Yes, most of the stuff on Gutenberg is certainly not bestseller material, but they are the trailblazer when it comes to making texts truly open and available.
i want to ask you if youve EVER been to a country like Haiti? Or even
the continent of africa? the middle east? Samolia? Cambodia?
These places would and will continue to suck with or without the UN.
Trust me, how the nation state in those parts of the world conducts its self is directly linked to your survival or death.
And that is exactly why the UN is unable to alter the course of these dismal places - they refuse to deal with the politics. The UN is the last agency I would want working in an area that requires drastic change, because drastic change cannot happen without someone's toes being stepped on, and the UN does not step on toes.
Technology has not changed the hopelessness of poverty, and the UN is THE forum for the introvention and comminication with such nations.
The UN has not changed the hoplessness of poverty either. If the UN was audited as a charitable organization like Care or Oxfam, their scorecard would be all F's. The amount of bureaucratic waste evident in UN operations is likely unequaled by any other aid group.
This of course is the resounding chorus of any closed technical community - the false belief that their acumen somehow translates into an ability to dictate.
Of course, the obvious reply is that realistic approaches to security will never get the investment capital needed until broadband is marketed to the general public.
Slashdot is clinging to the false notion that technology can or should be controlled by an elite.
This is liking asking the government whether we should be allowed to have sugar.
Once again, drive choice down to the consumer and let the market decide - and stop once and for all this disturbingly elitist trend of "deciding" for us what we do and do not want or need.
Your flippant attitude just gives away the fact that this seemingly innocent factual faux pas is indeed part of a deliberate slander campaign against the
organizations like the UN, that oppose, albeit timidly, the arrogant, merciless power of today's world: the military-industrial-media complex of the inadequately
named United States of America.
Haha, nice pseudo-intellectual rant. Thank the gods that the twentieth century taught us to never trust rule to intellectuals again. Now lets get to the facts - the UN is not anti-American as you naively claim, in fact, they are the lapdog of the US. Look at the resolutions passed around the time of the Gulf War. The fact that they continue to curry favor with the US is even more amazing in light of the fact that the US regularly fails to pay its UN dues.
As for "military industrial complex", please tell me how the absurdly elitist, unresponsive, undemocratic, unaccountable UN is supposed to be an improvement over the corporate state?? You're replacing one big brother with another.
While they are arguably making an effort to deliver the goods on these needs, they can't address the political issues that keep food and medicine out of the areas needed (newsflash - most of the barriers to aid are political, not economic - see 80s Ethiopian famine for a case study).
Why can't they address the political issues? The UN thinks it is above such things. This is why they are locked out of most of the useful change in developing nations.
Peacekeeping.
I'm tempted to enter a "ROTFL", but seriosuly, the UN does little to keep or create peace - mostly it puts its own soldiers in harm's way with no mandate whatsoever. As a peacekeeper, the UN is a complete failure.
Providing a forum for international diplomacy.
Sure - it creates elitist bodies that are answerable to no one, as they have no visible constituency. There is no real representation in any UN organization - its a loose thread of pseudo socialist ideals implemented by lifelong empolyees who respond to no one and have no notion of democratic accountability.
Its amazing that people think of this collection of appointed dupes as the ruling ideal - at the very best it stinks of a second-world planned-economy style operation that completely defies any efforts to further empower individuals over institutions.
At a time when radical technologies are allowing decentralization at such a rapid pace, why are we bothering with the UN anymore?
Think Washington is unresponsive to you? Try New York. Although he is a repugnant geezer, Jesse Helms is correct in deriding the UN - its a completely meaningless debate society that has done almost nothing to really alter the course of world events throughout its history.
At a time when the nation state is becoming irrelevant, you have to wonder why anyone would applaud the creation and maintainence of a body that really has no useful mechanism to responding to the people who are paying for it - it is a grossly elitist body that has absolutely no mandate to listen to any individuals, because it has no constituency. It has no democratic foundations at all.
Push power down to individuals and local governments. Screw Big Brother.
If I write some code which is considered equally threatening to commercial interests as DeCSS, by posting it on my
website, I risk prosecution and legal sanctions, assuming my code falls foul of the DMCA, UCITA, etc., which is not that difficult.
This a good point - our society hasn't reached the conclusion that code == speech. I hope it does, but I'm not optimistic.
On the other hand, you have to wonder if it really matters. Sure, DeCSS is "illegal", but I have a copy of it, and so do thousands of other people. Technically, J-walking is illegal too.
Of course, this is a cop-out- I understand that there is a profound difference between "legal" and "getting away with it", and it mostly has to do with society being honest about what it thinks is right and wrong.
What if there's no money to be had? What if the individual wants to do something that he believes is of social importance but doesn't have a great deal of direct
monetary worth?
Then beyond threatening someone with violence, this individual should have no problem posting his/her thoughts on the web in the US.
Hell, if NAMBLA can have a PO box, anyone can.
There aren't any corporations selling DeCSS, though - why is that?
It was fun while it lasted, but lets be serious folks, setting up Naspter as a legal business was a joke from day one.
Don't get me wrong, I love it and use it, but the type of function that Napster performs is never going to be given the carried out by a publically traded company.
Arguably this is healthy - it pushes us towards real distributed file sharing like Freenet.
As for you folks considering changing your vote - be real - neither party in the duocracy would consent to this.
Better keep that tinfoil wrapped tight around your skull, or the chip the government implanted in your skull will surely reestablish contact with the observation pod mounted on the black helicopter hovering always just outside your field of vision.
Come on folks, you've all been watching a bit too much X-Files.
Firstly, a corporation is behind some of the most subversive software of our times - if there's money to be had, somneone, some company will back you.
You seem to have an overly high opinion of the "conformity", if you will, of corporations. There are companies that let you gamble and buy drugs, steal music and videos, and hire prostitutes, all over the web.
What on earth could you be doing thats is worse than this?
I have a funny feeling that you're a minor-league developer who has let the slashdot "black-helicopter" club feed your paranoia.
Vint Cerf may have helped author the TCP/IP standard, but this really doesn't provide any credentials regarding the ethics of privacy in a free society.
This isn't a rip on him - its a rip on slashdot for expecting him to say something momentous.
Its amusing how the readership of this site hangs on the words of Linus, Alan, ESR, Larry Wall, etc.
Make up your own mind folks, forget the celebrity worship.
I see a small bit of trolling in your post, but the fact is that partly you are right - it is shameful how badly AOL, Oracle and Sun have whored themselves to the government.
Each of these companies is hugely powerful on their own, dominating their respective markets.
What it should show people is that corporations could care less about fairness and competition - left to their devices they will work to diminish and eliminate competition at the earliest possible stage (even if it is not in their own long-term interests). This is why the government has anti-trust laws and oversight.
There aren't enough competent Eiffel programmers to bother.
Of course, a project like this would be a great way to start up interest in a worthy alternative, and it couldn't have slowed down any more than it already is.
You have to wonder how long C/C++ are going to continue to hold reign. It looks like at least another thirty years (no joke) at this point.
John Doerr told them to. He saw his investment in NSCP going down the tubes, so he asked another KPCB company to buy them thus converting his huge number of NSCP shares into AOL shares.
Why do you think AtHome bought Excrete?
Yes folks, huge swaths of this industry are manipulated by a few people. There are many good reads that illustrate the incredible influence a few VCs have over large parts of the industry. Try Perkin's Internet Bubble.
If US businesses want more computer workers and they're so important to their business processes, THEN TREAT THEM THAT WAY.
Pay huge salaries. Bonuses. Stock Options. Cars. Window Offices. Secretaries. Free training programs to get "obsolete" IT workers
Duh. Been to Silicon Valley lately? Geek pursuit has been played for at least three years now. With the exception of a car and secretary, I could land all of the above at any employer I went to.
The notion that one must spend $100k and spend four years of your life just to prove that you can learn, is simply ridiculous. I understand that is currently how things are, but come on, we should be able to do this in high school (which has become a complete joke in North America).
As it stands, a college degree really proves virtually nothing - look at all the dimwits out there with degrees (as well, of course, as the smart ones). Its almost impossible to draw any useful conclusion from a degree.
UGH. I have to spend every day debugging hacked together code with no regard to commonly accepted standards, much less actual
algorithms. If I could help it I would never hire a programmer who doesn't have formal training.
Newsflash - numerous colleges have very few programming requirements of students (amazing as that sounds).
A college degree in no way indicates any exposure to rigorous programming practices.
Slashdot Mirror
It's put-up time at Microsoft Research. Seven years after its founding, the lab has yet to make any real breakthroughs.
Just mouseover the cached queries and hit the delete key on your keyboard.
If you want a IM provider that plays nice with linux, FreeBSD, MacOs and Windows, try Yahoo. I have been using their client for a few months on all of the above platforms and I'm very satisfied.
You have a choice, you don't need to feed the beast.
True enough though, some aspects of a book are lost in their encoding, and that is why I also included the TEI link for those who favor very strong (yet device independent) encoding.
Most of the current Ebooks rely on broken structure models designed to exclude unwanted users.
Yes, most of the stuff on Gutenberg is certainly not bestseller material, but they are the trailblazer when it comes to making texts truly open and available.
These places would and will continue to suck with or without the UN.
Trust me, how the nation state in those parts of the world conducts its self is directly linked to your survival or death.
And that is exactly why the UN is unable to alter the course of these dismal places - they refuse to deal with the politics. The UN is the last agency I would want working in an area that requires drastic change, because drastic change cannot happen without someone's toes being stepped on, and the UN does not step on toes.
Technology has not changed the hopelessness of poverty, and the UN is THE forum for the introvention and comminication with such nations.
The UN has not changed the hoplessness of poverty either. If the UN was audited as a charitable organization like Care or Oxfam, their scorecard would be all F's. The amount of bureaucratic waste evident in UN operations is likely unequaled by any other aid group.
Of course, the obvious reply is that realistic approaches to security will never get the investment capital needed until broadband is marketed to the general public.
Slashdot is clinging to the false notion that technology can or should be controlled by an elite.
Once again, drive choice down to the consumer and let the market decide - and stop once and for all this disturbingly elitist trend of "deciding" for us what we do and do not want or need.
Haha, nice pseudo-intellectual rant. Thank the gods that the twentieth century taught us to never trust rule to intellectuals again. Now lets get to the facts - the UN is not anti-American as you naively claim, in fact, they are the lapdog of the US. Look at the resolutions passed around the time of the Gulf War. The fact that they continue to curry favor with the US is even more amazing in light of the fact that the US regularly fails to pay its UN dues.
As for "military industrial complex", please tell me how the absurdly elitist, unresponsive, undemocratic, unaccountable UN is supposed to be an improvement over the corporate state?? You're replacing one big brother with another.
While they are arguably making an effort to deliver the goods on these needs, they can't address the political issues that keep food and medicine out of the areas needed (newsflash - most of the barriers to aid are political, not economic - see 80s Ethiopian famine for a case study).
Why can't they address the political issues? The UN thinks it is above such things. This is why they are locked out of most of the useful change in developing nations.
Peacekeeping.
I'm tempted to enter a "ROTFL", but seriosuly, the UN does little to keep or create peace - mostly it puts its own soldiers in harm's way with no mandate whatsoever. As a peacekeeper, the UN is a complete failure.
Providing a forum for international diplomacy.
Sure - it creates elitist bodies that are answerable to no one, as they have no visible constituency. There is no real representation in any UN organization - its a loose thread of pseudo socialist ideals implemented by lifelong empolyees who respond to no one and have no notion of democratic accountability.
Its amazing that people think of this collection of appointed dupes as the ruling ideal - at the very best it stinks of a second-world planned-economy style operation that completely defies any efforts to further empower individuals over institutions.
Think Washington is unresponsive to you? Try New York. Although he is a repugnant geezer, Jesse Helms is correct in deriding the UN - its a completely meaningless debate society that has done almost nothing to really alter the course of world events throughout its history.
At a time when the nation state is becoming irrelevant, you have to wonder why anyone would applaud the creation and maintainence of a body that really has no useful mechanism to responding to the people who are paying for it - it is a grossly elitist body that has absolutely no mandate to listen to any individuals, because it has no constituency. It has no democratic foundations at all.
Push power down to individuals and local governments. Screw Big Brother.
This a good point - our society hasn't reached the conclusion that code == speech. I hope it does, but I'm not optimistic.
On the other hand, you have to wonder if it really matters. Sure, DeCSS is "illegal", but I have a copy of it, and so do thousands of other people. Technically, J-walking is illegal too.
Of course, this is a cop-out- I understand that there is a profound difference between "legal" and "getting away with it", and it mostly has to do with society being honest about what it thinks is right and wrong.
Then beyond threatening someone with violence, this individual should have no problem posting his/her thoughts on the web in the US.
Hell, if NAMBLA can have a PO box, anyone can.
There aren't any corporations selling DeCSS, though - why is that?
Uh, maybe because its free?
Don't get me wrong, I love it and use it, but the type of function that Napster performs is never going to be given the carried out by a publically traded company.
Arguably this is healthy - it pushes us towards real distributed file sharing like Freenet.
As for you folks considering changing your vote - be real - neither party in the duocracy would consent to this.
Come on folks, you've all been watching a bit too much X-Files.
You seem to have an overly high opinion of the "conformity", if you will, of corporations. There are companies that let you gamble and buy drugs, steal music and videos, and hire prostitutes, all over the web.
What on earth could you be doing thats is worse than this?
I have a funny feeling that you're a minor-league developer who has let the slashdot "black-helicopter" club feed your paranoia.
This isn't a rip on him - its a rip on slashdot for expecting him to say something momentous.
Its amusing how the readership of this site hangs on the words of Linus, Alan, ESR, Larry Wall, etc.
Make up your own mind folks, forget the celebrity worship.
Oh, by the way, the whole "pagan" movement mostly has to do with trying to justify orgies.
Each of these companies is hugely powerful on their own, dominating their respective markets.
What it should show people is that corporations could care less about fairness and competition - left to their devices they will work to diminish and eliminate competition at the earliest possible stage (even if it is not in their own long-term interests). This is why the government has anti-trust laws and oversight.
Of course, a project like this would be a great way to start up interest in a worthy alternative, and it couldn't have slowed down any more than it already is.
You have to wonder how long C/C++ are going to continue to hold reign. It looks like at least another thirty years (no joke) at this point.
Why do you think AtHome bought Excrete?
Yes folks, huge swaths of this industry are manipulated by a few people. There are many good reads that illustrate the incredible influence a few VCs have over large parts of the industry. Try Perkin's Internet Bubble.
Morgan Kaufman publishers. Don't recall the author. A meaty tome that goes into the nitty gritty of programming language design an implementation.
Duh. Been to Silicon Valley lately? Geek pursuit has been played for at least three years now. With the exception of a car and secretary, I could land all of the above at any employer I went to.
As it stands, a college degree really proves virtually nothing - look at all the dimwits out there with degrees (as well, of course, as the smart ones). Its almost impossible to draw any useful conclusion from a degree.
Newsflash - numerous colleges have very few programming requirements of students (amazing as that sounds).
A college degree in no way indicates any exposure to rigorous programming practices.