Call me cynical, but if you have one of these things attached to a belt-worn PC (just wait until Bluetooth achieves ubiquity), then you're just asking for trouble. You walk down the street, and suddenly you're in the middle of a game of quake. It'd be a fascinating reason in court for going postal.
Some proper observations: isn't this the same thing that (for example) engineers are going to use for RTFMing on the job? And how the hell are you going to use a voice-activated control? 'Look over there?'
My favourite quote: "Its ability to... apply... light energy directly to the retina is substantially better than conventional technologies offered today" Looks like they've got William Shatner as spokesman.
I've got a PC^H^H console arriving in a few days; it'll be interesting to see what I pay for it (I probably could have found out at the time, but I was eager to just put down the deposit and ask no questions).
But questions are what I now have...
Will I get any of this cut in price, or does it all go to our Corporate chums?
How the hell am I going to program in BASIC? Using a gamepad? That'll be fun.
poke 35136,0 gave me infinite lives in Manic Miner. poke 35899,0 gave me infinite lives in Jet Set Willy. Does anyone know the poke for infinite lives in Tekken Tag?
If I bough a new New Kids on the Block CD 5 years ago, shouldn't I get a discounted competitive upgrade to the new Backstreet Boys CD?
Actually, in a fair and equitable world, you'd just be shot.
If you were listening to NKOTB five years ago you might be able to justify upgrading to something, for example, musical, but anyone still listening to boy bands after five years isn't really deserving any consideration.
But it really does a big disservice to our appreciation of what these people accomplished with their limited technology.
Well said, that [wo]man.
This whole 'alien' asininity started off when smug, relatively modern theorists decided that there was no way for so backward a people to have built the pyramids without help. Like the 'face' on Cydonia, this view has fuelled the aliens theory, all based on the scantiest of evidence (and I use the word advisedly).
Now that we know how the pyramids were (probably) built - using ramps - you'd think this nonsense would just evaporate. But no.
The more we know about past civilisations, the more we realise that they weren't the unsophisticated yokels that we've always assumed.
I don't doubt that the method used would have worked, but the article (I think; I'll have to read it again) gives no reasons for the anicent Egyptians to be aware of how or why that method would have worked. The article seems to imply that the scientists have figured not how the Egyptians did it, but how the scientists themselves would have done it had they found themselves thrown back in time.
What makes you think the entire Slashdot demographic uses open source software?
What makes you think a casual comment was meant to apply to every reader? I don't write into news progammes when they say 'the entire country was shocked' to point out that I wasn't; I simply assume that I'm in the minority as far as the audience is concerned. Similarly, the fact that I play quake on my linux box doesn't mean I should take umbrage with the good commander for daring to imply that I've got the source code for every package on every computer I own.
This sort of deliberate misunderstanding is what makes reading RMS a pain at times; you yourself may on occasion have uttered words such as 'dogmatic'[1].
To encapsulate: lighten up.
[1] When I say 'you', I'm referring primarily to the original poster, but also to other readers. If you[2] didn't mutter anything along the lines of those posted above, I urge you not to take offence.
[2]Yeah, you.
It is my considered medical opinion that every schoolchild should be shown the last episode of Cosmos. It's over a decade since I first saw it, and I still get those goosebumps when I think about it.
However...
The miserable, well-poisoning donkey blowers are only making the DVD available (as far as I can see) to denizens of the US. What about us humble Irishmen? How do we get it? DVD express (usually so reliable) never heard of it. Nor did DVD empire.
If any kind soul knows of a site that'll sell it to foreigners, I'd appreciate a note.
Y'know, when this happened with the boxed set of Urusei Yatsura movies, I was pissed off. But denying Cosmos to the Rest of The World isn't just annoying, it's positively criminal.
I hadn't really considered the 'vested interests' argument before; but it makes sense. If the price per kilo is to come down, it'll happen because of competition from a new source; most likely private enterprise. Already we see China, Japan and Brazil expanding their space activities, with India planning a mission to the moon. More and more companies, too, are getting in on the act; I believe the Roton was mentioned here before. The more countries and/or companies there are involved, the more incentive there is to lower the prices to something reasonable.
Of course, if we had a space elevator, it'd be far, far cheaper. And faster. And better.
I wouldn't call myself an otaku, but I'm quite the fan; I've about 80 tapes (fifteen of them Urusei Yatsura). So when I saw that Animeigo were making the movies available in a DVD box set, my first reaction was 'woohoo!'. Sadly, they won't ship to Ireland. In fact, they state that they won't ship to another address if they think it's going to Ireland (okay, they said outside the US, but I only read Ireland). This is a pain in the nuts, if you'll pardon the technical term. Especially so since I was able to order the first movie direct from Japan (only one, just in case it didn't have subtitles. Guess what? It didn't. At least Bubblegum Crisis did). This isn't an anti-animeigo rant; they're the company I have the most time for. Their liner notes are excellent, and they've a much higher hit rate than (say) Manga, who'll release any old crap. Rather it's an anti-region-licencing thing; something I'm sure I don't have to elucidate on here.
On a related topic, the reason I'm able to write this in the first place is that I've got a multi-region DVD player. If I didn't, I'd be stuck with disks from the UK and Japan. There are many, many films that just aren't available in Region 2 (or on PAL VHS, for that matter), and I don't appreciate being told I'm not allowed watch them. Again, I'm probably preaching to the converted here but I needed to get it off my chest.
PS: When will we see slashbid so I can sell a Japanese Language copy of Urusei Yatsura movie #1?
Okay, fair points all. I still feel, though, that a) online voting is inevitable and b) it should be possible to do it fairly. What we should be doing, therefore, is making sure that b) is possible before a) comes along. Basically, we're looking at a tradeoff. At the moment, few people vote; turnouts of 16% aren't unheard of for local elections here in Ireland. If people can vote while they're waiting for their mail to download, they will. A certain amount of trust is needed; I can't speak for the US system, but in Ireland candiates' agents take it on trust that the boxes delivered to the counting centres are the actual and untampered votes. I work as a presiding officer during elections, and I can see how organised, government-based abuse is possible. That'll always be the case.
Did any of that make sense? I guess the nub of my (somewhat rambling) argument is that it'll happen whether we like it or not, so we should make damn sure that it's as secure as possible.
The real problem is that if voting results are purely virtual, they are too easy to be manipulated A corrupt government will always find a way. In Zimbabwe yesterday, the government refused access to the count to all journalists and candidates' agents. WRT crackers; the system will have to be at least as secure as the current one, but I reckon it's mostly (if not totally) available; it just has to be implemented.
Who can tell whether a vote's been rigged? Experts. If someone is interested in monitoring elections, they can learn the technology, or work with someone who knows it. Does the current system of checks discriminate against people who can't read?
I mean, when you allow technology like this, which the public does not understand, to become central to the democratic process, you empower a small technological elite who understands the technology and its limitations.
I think you're confusing the medium with the message. Does television favour those who know how infra-red remote controls work? Do airplanes favour those who understand aerodynamics?
What we're seeing now is a nascent attitude to digital signatures; when they become commonplace the signing of documents will be automatic and tech-free; you just click on 'sign this document'. Sure, lengthy passwords will always be a putoff for the lazier of the population - and these'll be easy targets for anyone harvesting sigs for a petition - but the answer there, as it is in reponse to most other problems we face - is education.
In the short term, though, I believe you have a point. If all that's needed to pass a law is for everyone on an electronic mailing list to click on a link, we're far more likely to see free beer for 31337 d00dz become mandatory. This isn't the fault of the technology; rather it's the indolent human nature that refuses to get of its collective arse that's the problem.
It may be an informative site, but the number of words per page seems to be dropping all the time. And given that it's regularly linked to from slashdot, it's a pain in the arse; it takes upwards of ten minutes to read a two-minute review. And some of the picture links were broken. I hereby suggest that a printable option be mandatory on all stories where more than one page is used. You hear me, w3c?
Offtopic? Probably. But pertinent to all our lives.
Re:Diversion from the main task/ counterproductive
on
Terminus Demo Released
·
· Score: 1
Speaking as an enthusiastic outsider, I'm not sure that Slashdot should be promoting and giving kudos to projects that are ultimately going to damage the Linux project. You don't think you're overreacting slightly? Check out freshmeat any day and see what percentage are games. head on over to linuxtoday and see how many announcements are for games. And wtf is a columbine-style massacre simulator? Is ridge racer a multi-car-pile up trauma simulator?
Get a word processor that counts footnotes correctly, then we can all sit down and play "Terminus". In one sentence you've managed to betray your total ignorance of the main advantage of linux and/or free software. If you're interested in it, write it. If you're not, don't. Just because you've a fascination with footnotes doesn't mean we should all drop our rocket launchers and rush to cvs. There are plenty of people already working on footnote counters, and I'm sure more are arriving every day.
Earlier this year, the BBC's excellent Horizon (do you get that in the US?) featured the supervolcano, along with rather disturbing pictures of land being shifted in the park as the pressure builds. Scary stuff; last time it blew the global human(ish) population was reduced to a couple of thousand. A transcript of the programme can be found here
So there's a 2.5% chance that having our eggs in two baskets is of any use, assuming our technology is good enough to succeed in the first place Your numbers seem quite reasonable, but you're assuming that we're talking about two centres of population; Earth and Somewhere Else. In our solar system colonies on Mars, Titan and Europa will some day (however far into the distance) will be possible, and I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that within the next five or six decades we'll be able to 'see' extrasolar, Earthlike(ish) planets. We're hundreds of years away from generation ships, but I'm not prepared to say they won't happen.
The point is that the Earth is very very complex. Absolutely. And even if Mars is totally dead (which it most likely is), its weather is sufficiently complex that it will never be taken for granted. But what we're initially looking at isn't an entire earthlike biosphere with trillions of species, but an atmosphere that will be made denser over a couple of hundred years. The flora and fauna will be added gradually, and evolution'll ultimately finish the job.
I believe that they are just as deserving as I am. And if the universe agrees with me, they will get what I think they deserve. As a father, you may think that your offspring are entitled to a long and successful life, but if you lock them in the closet until they're 18 and then expect them to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company then you're sorely misguided. More than ever before, our descendents' quality of life is affected by decisions -- long and short term -- that we make today.
What is probability of supervolcanos, asteroids, war, and other stuff somewhere else compared to here? Wrong question. What you should be asking is what's the probably of [stuff] happening in two places, compared to just one?
Though all our eggs are in one basket, it's a much better basket than one we are going to be able to build ourselves That's certainly true now, and will be for centuries to come. But even if it's true forever, it doesn't matter. Humanity may struggle and worry on an extraterrestrial colony, but the species will survive. Which is nice.
why are we so intent on outsurviving the Earth's willingness to let us live here? I'm tempted to give a specious answer to this one, but let me instead ask you why your descendents are less deserving of a long lifespan than you are?
space travel is probably not a solution to the problem of resources. Maybe not, but it's pretty vital for the continuation of the human species. When you consider threats from
The supervolcano under Yellowstone park
Asteroids
Nuclear/biological war
other stuff there are countless ways that the denizens of Earth could one day find themselves without a planet. Ultimately, all of the above will happen, it's only a question of when and how nasty. You can sort of counter some threats (asteroids, eg) if you throw a tonne of money at them, but the chances of humanity surviving until the sun boils the Earth are bordering on zero. If there's a colony on Mars, it'll be dependent of Earth for decades (maybe centuries), but will most likely ultimately prove self-sufficient. Until it does, all humanity's eggs are in the one basket.
i seem to recall hearing something similar to this quite a while ago, it was about ion drives That was on the deep space probes (DS1 was the first test, I believe). The rather wonderful Astronomy Picture of the day had a piccie of it with a description a while ago. As for the difference: they look pretty similar to my untrained eye.
I may be totally wide of the mark here, but does this spell trouble for Palm? Not just from the increased competition, but the Nerd factor must surely be in favour of Transmeta now. Part of the Palm's success (I'd guess) was its appeal to nerds; and when one nerd brought his to a LUG, suddenly everyone else had to have one too. But luggers are more likely, are they not, to opt for something made by a company for which The Creator works?
What worries me more than the spamming is the fact that he hijacked someone else's box to do his spamflooding. However, I'm always suspicious of figures like $18,000 in caused damage.
One thought: surely if AOLusers have a use, it's as spam fodder? If it wasn't for THEM we'd probably all be getting thee times as many invitions to vist mandy being spanked in her dorm.
Linux and Unix have improved--but in incremental ways that don't introduce many new concepts to the user. That's Rob's point. I take his point, but I still don't know that it matters. When someone finds a need that a computer can fill, a program and/or OS will appear (eventually) to fill that need. If that need can be filled by a hacked linux kernel, then there's no point in writing a new OS. If there's no demand, there's no innovation. What new needs have manifested themselves? We have Be for multimedia, and Palm OS for portability. I haven't used Be often enough to comment, but I love my palm (so to speak) for many reasons, not least the fact that I've a device in my pocket with a spreadsheet, a bunch of books and copies of Elite and Wolfenstein. And lots more besides. To me, PalmOS is innovative.
"I'll just repeat Slashdot dogma, instead of considering that a creator of Unix might know something about systems innovation". I was a bit wary of commenting on the words of someone who obviously knows more than I, but I stand by my non-comment. I didn't (and don't) want to explain why MS isn't innovative precisely because it's dogma; I'd just be wasting my breath. Or my fingers. I can trot out my take on this, but it's been said here a thousand times already. Just because it's on/. and it's anti-MS doesn't mean it's wrong.
but the fact remains that most Windows users have these things today, and most Unix users don't. Which goes back to my point about demand. Do you think there'd be a Real player for linux if it had as many users as Windows? Or any of those other features you mentioned? They'll all be available soon; no-one doubts that. And they won't be considered innovative, but they'll increase the usability of the OS no end. Which will mean that although it'll still be Linux, it'll be a better Linux that fills the needs of its users.
1. He states that hardware is going on and on while software is stagnant, citing the fact that (amongst others) Netscape and X and Unix are still being used ten years later. But is Unix (or Linux) what it was ten years ago? Is Netscape? The fact that it's got the same name doesn't mean it's the same product. 2. "Where is the innovation? Microsoft, mostly". 'nuff said.
Basically, his argument seems to be that if we don't completely change our software every few years, we're being stagnant, which more or less flies in the face of the 'if it ain't broke' school of thought. Ten years ago, there was no instant messaging and no napster. I use neither, but I'm impressed with implemention of both, and with such things as Quake 3. I'd consider them innovative and elegant.
I agree with the gist of his argument, but I reckon he's making bad examples that do nothing for his point.
Slashdot Mirror
Call me cynical, but if you have one of these things attached to a belt-worn PC (just wait until Bluetooth achieves ubiquity), then you're just asking for trouble. You walk down the street, and suddenly you're in the middle of a game of quake. It'd be a fascinating reason in court for going postal. ... apply ... light energy directly to the retina is substantially better than conventional technologies offered today" Looks like they've got William Shatner as spokesman.
Some proper observations: isn't this the same thing that (for example) engineers are going to use for RTFMing on the job? And how the hell are you going to use a voice-activated control? 'Look over there?'
My favourite quote: "Its ability to
But questions are what I now have...
Will I get any of this cut in price, or does it all go to our Corporate chums?
How the hell am I going to program in BASIC? Using a gamepad? That'll be fun.
poke 35136,0 gave me infinite lives in Manic Miner. poke 35899,0 gave me infinite lives in Jet Set Willy. Does anyone know the poke for infinite lives in Tekken Tag?
If I bough a new New Kids on the Block CD 5 years ago, shouldn't I get a discounted competitive upgrade to the new Backstreet Boys CD?
Actually, in a fair and equitable world, you'd just be shot.
If you were listening to NKOTB five years ago you might be able to justify upgrading to something, for example, musical, but anyone still listening to boy bands after five years isn't really deserving any consideration.
But it really does a big disservice to our appreciation of what these people accomplished with their limited technology.
Well said, that [wo]man.
This whole 'alien' asininity started off when smug, relatively modern theorists decided that there was no way for so backward a people to have built the pyramids without help. Like the 'face' on Cydonia, this view has fuelled the aliens theory, all based on the scantiest of evidence (and I use the word advisedly).
Now that we know how the pyramids were (probably) built - using ramps - you'd think this nonsense would just evaporate. But no.
The more we know about past civilisations, the more we realise that they weren't the unsophisticated yokels that we've always assumed.
I don't doubt that the method used would have worked, but the article (I think; I'll have to read it again) gives no reasons for the anicent Egyptians to be aware of how or why that method would have worked. The article seems to imply that the scientists have figured not how the Egyptians did it, but how the scientists themselves would have done it had they found themselves thrown back in time.
What makes you think the entire Slashdot demographic uses open source software?
What makes you think a casual comment was meant to apply to every reader? I don't write into news progammes when they say 'the entire country was shocked' to point out that I wasn't; I simply assume that I'm in the minority as far as the audience is concerned. Similarly, the fact that I play quake on my linux box doesn't mean I should take umbrage with the good commander for daring to imply that I've got the source code for every package on every computer I own.
This sort of deliberate misunderstanding is what makes reading RMS a pain at times; you yourself may on occasion have uttered words such as 'dogmatic'[1].
To encapsulate: lighten up.
[1] When I say 'you', I'm referring primarily to the original poster, but also to other readers. If you[2] didn't mutter anything along the lines of those posted above, I urge you not to take offence.
[2]Yeah, you.
It is my considered medical opinion that every schoolchild should be shown the last episode of Cosmos. It's over a decade since I first saw it, and I still get those goosebumps when I think about it.
However...
The miserable, well-poisoning donkey blowers are only making the DVD available (as far as I can see) to denizens of the US. What about us humble Irishmen? How do we get it? DVD express (usually so reliable) never heard of it. Nor did DVD empire.
If any kind soul knows of a site that'll sell it to foreigners, I'd appreciate a note.
Y'know, when this happened with the boxed set of Urusei Yatsura movies, I was pissed off. But denying Cosmos to the Rest of The World isn't just annoying, it's positively criminal.
I hadn't really considered the 'vested interests' argument before; but it makes sense. If the price per kilo is to come down, it'll happen because of competition from a new source; most likely private enterprise.
Already we see China, Japan and Brazil expanding their space activities, with India planning a mission to the moon. More and more companies, too, are getting in on the act; I believe the Roton was mentioned here before.
The more countries and/or companies there are involved, the more incentive there is to lower the prices to something reasonable.
Of course, if we had a space elevator, it'd be far, far cheaper. And faster. And better.
I wouldn't call myself an otaku, but I'm quite the fan; I've about 80 tapes (fifteen of them Urusei Yatsura). So when I saw that Animeigo were making the movies available in a DVD box set, my first reaction was 'woohoo!'.
Sadly, they won't ship to Ireland. In fact, they state that they won't ship to another address if they think it's going to Ireland (okay, they said outside the US, but I only read Ireland).
This is a pain in the nuts, if you'll pardon the technical term. Especially so since I was able to order the first movie direct from Japan (only one, just in case it didn't have subtitles. Guess what? It didn't. At least Bubblegum Crisis did).
This isn't an anti-animeigo rant; they're the company I have the most time for. Their liner notes are excellent, and they've a much higher hit rate than (say) Manga, who'll release any old crap. Rather it's an anti-region-licencing thing; something I'm sure I don't have to elucidate on here.
On a related topic, the reason I'm able to write this in the first place is that I've got a multi-region DVD player. If I didn't, I'd be stuck with disks from the UK and Japan. There are many, many films that just aren't available in Region 2 (or on PAL VHS, for that matter), and I don't appreciate being told I'm not allowed watch them. Again, I'm probably preaching to the converted here but I needed to get it off my chest.
PS: When will we see slashbid so I can sell a Japanese Language copy of Urusei Yatsura movie #1?
Okay, fair points all. I still feel, though, that a) online voting is inevitable and b) it should be possible to do it fairly. What we should be doing, therefore, is making sure that b) is possible before a) comes along.
Basically, we're looking at a tradeoff. At the moment, few people vote; turnouts of 16% aren't unheard of for local elections here in Ireland. If people can vote while they're waiting for their mail to download, they will. A certain amount of trust is needed; I can't speak for the US system, but in Ireland candiates' agents take it on trust that the boxes delivered to the counting centres are the actual and untampered votes. I work as a presiding officer during elections, and I can see how organised, government-based abuse is possible. That'll always be the case.
Did any of that make sense? I guess the nub of my (somewhat rambling) argument is that it'll happen whether we like it or not, so we should make damn sure that it's as secure as possible.
The real problem is that if voting results are purely virtual, they are too easy to be manipulated
A corrupt government will always find a way. In Zimbabwe yesterday, the government refused access to the count to all journalists and candidates' agents.
WRT crackers; the system will have to be at least as secure as the current one, but I reckon it's mostly (if not totally) available; it just has to be implemented.
Who can tell whether a vote's been rigged? Experts. If someone is interested in monitoring elections, they can learn the technology, or work with someone who knows it. Does the current system of checks discriminate against people who can't read?
What was the video quality like?
I mean, when you allow technology like this, which the public does not understand, to become central to the democratic process, you empower a small technological elite who understands the technology and its limitations.
I think you're confusing the medium with the message. Does television favour those who know how infra-red remote controls work? Do airplanes favour those who understand aerodynamics?
What we're seeing now is a nascent attitude to digital signatures; when they become commonplace the signing of documents will be automatic and tech-free; you just click on 'sign this document'. Sure, lengthy passwords will always be a putoff for the lazier of the population - and these'll be easy targets for anyone harvesting sigs for a petition - but the answer there, as it is in reponse to most other problems we face - is education.
In the short term, though, I believe you have a point. If all that's needed to pass a law is for everyone on an electronic mailing list to click on a link, we're far more likely to see free beer for 31337 d00dz become mandatory. This isn't the fault of the technology; rather it's the indolent human nature that refuses to get of its collective arse that's the problem.
It may be an informative site, but the number of words per page seems to be dropping all the time. And given that it's regularly linked to from slashdot, it's a pain in the arse; it takes upwards of ten minutes to read a two-minute review. And some of the picture links were broken.
I hereby suggest that a printable option be mandatory on all stories where more than one page is used. You hear me, w3c?
Offtopic? Probably. But pertinent to all our lives.
Speaking as an enthusiastic outsider, I'm not sure that Slashdot should be promoting and giving kudos to projects that are ultimately going to damage the Linux project.
You don't think you're overreacting slightly? Check out freshmeat any day and see what percentage are games. head on over to linuxtoday and see how many announcements are for games.
And wtf is a columbine-style massacre simulator? Is ridge racer a multi-car-pile up trauma simulator?
Get a word processor that counts footnotes correctly, then we can all sit down and play "Terminus".
In one sentence you've managed to betray your total ignorance of the main advantage of linux and/or free software. If you're interested in it, write it. If you're not, don't. Just because you've a fascination with footnotes doesn't mean we should all drop our rocket launchers and rush to cvs. There are plenty of people already working on footnote counters, and I'm sure more are arriving every day.
I notice that if you try to use a browser to log on to the ftp site, you'll be SOL. Use ncftp (or your client of choice) instead.
Earlier this year, the BBC's excellent Horizon (do you get that in the US?) featured the supervolcano, along with rather disturbing pictures of land being shifted in the park as the pressure builds. Scary stuff; last time it blew the global human(ish) population was reduced to a couple of thousand. A transcript of the programme can be found here
So there's a 2.5% chance that having our eggs in two baskets is of any use, assuming our technology is good enough to succeed in the first place
Your numbers seem quite reasonable, but you're assuming that we're talking about two centres of population; Earth and Somewhere Else. In our solar system colonies on Mars, Titan and Europa will some day (however far into the distance) will be possible, and I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that within the next five or six decades we'll be able to 'see' extrasolar, Earthlike(ish) planets. We're hundreds of years away from generation ships, but I'm not prepared to say they won't happen.
The point is that the Earth is very very complex.
Absolutely. And even if Mars is totally dead (which it most likely is), its weather is sufficiently complex that it will never be taken for granted. But what we're initially looking at isn't an entire earthlike biosphere with trillions of species, but an atmosphere that will be made denser over a couple of hundred years. The flora and fauna will be added gradually, and evolution'll ultimately finish the job.
I believe that they are just as deserving as I am. And if the universe agrees with me, they will get what I think they deserve.
As a father, you may think that your offspring are entitled to a long and successful life, but if you lock them in the closet until they're 18 and then expect them to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company then you're sorely misguided.
More than ever before, our descendents' quality of life is affected by decisions -- long and short term -- that we make today.
What is probability of supervolcanos, asteroids, war, and other stuff somewhere else compared to here?
Wrong question. What you should be asking is what's the probably of [stuff] happening in two places, compared to just one?
Though all our eggs are in one basket, it's a much better basket than one we are going to be able to build ourselves
That's certainly true now, and will be for centuries to come. But even if it's true forever, it doesn't matter. Humanity may struggle and worry on an extraterrestrial colony, but the species will survive. Which is nice.
why are we so intent on outsurviving the Earth's willingness to let us live here?
I'm tempted to give a specious answer to this one, but let me instead ask you why your descendents are less deserving of a long lifespan than you are?
Maybe not, but it's pretty vital for the continuation of the human species. When you consider threats from
The supervolcano under Yellowstone park
Asteroids
Nuclear/biological war
other stuff
there are countless ways that the denizens of Earth could one day find themselves without a planet. Ultimately, all of the above will happen, it's only a question of when and how nasty. You can sort of counter some threats (asteroids, eg) if you throw a tonne of money at them, but the chances of humanity surviving until the sun boils the Earth are bordering on zero. If there's a colony on Mars, it'll be dependent of Earth for decades (maybe centuries), but will most likely ultimately prove self-sufficient. Until it does, all humanity's eggs are in the one basket.
i seem to recall hearing something similar to this quite a while ago, it was about ion drives
That was on the deep space probes (DS1 was the first test, I believe). The rather wonderful Astronomy Picture of the day had a piccie of it with a description a while ago.
As for the difference: they look pretty similar to my untrained eye.
I may be totally wide of the mark here, but does this spell trouble for Palm? Not just from the increased competition, but the Nerd factor must surely be in favour of Transmeta now.
Part of the Palm's success (I'd guess) was its appeal to nerds; and when one nerd brought his to a LUG, suddenly everyone else had to have one too.
But luggers are more likely, are they not, to opt for something made by a company for which The Creator works?
Just a thought.
PS oh, I want one. As well as my palm.
What worries me more than the spamming is the fact that he hijacked someone else's box to do his spamflooding. However, I'm always suspicious of figures like $18,000 in caused damage.
One thought: surely if AOLusers have a use, it's as spam fodder? If it wasn't for THEM we'd probably all be getting thee times as many invitions to vist mandy being spanked in her dorm.
Linux and Unix have improved--but in incremental ways that don't introduce many new concepts to the user. That's Rob's point.
/. and it's anti-MS doesn't mean it's wrong.
I take his point, but I still don't know that it matters. When someone finds a need that a computer can fill, a program and/or OS will appear (eventually) to fill that need. If that need can be filled by a hacked linux kernel, then there's no point in writing a new OS. If there's no demand, there's no innovation.
What new needs have manifested themselves? We have Be for multimedia, and Palm OS for portability. I haven't used Be often enough to comment, but I love my palm (so to speak) for many reasons, not least the fact that I've a device in my pocket with a spreadsheet, a bunch of books and copies of Elite and Wolfenstein. And lots more besides. To me, PalmOS is innovative.
"I'll just repeat Slashdot dogma, instead of considering that a creator of Unix might know something about systems innovation".
I was a bit wary of commenting on the words of someone who obviously knows more than I, but I stand by my non-comment. I didn't (and don't) want to explain why MS isn't innovative precisely because it's dogma; I'd just be wasting my breath. Or my fingers. I can trot out my take on this, but it's been said here a thousand times already.
Just because it's on
but the fact remains that most Windows users have these things today, and most Unix users don't.
Which goes back to my point about demand. Do you think there'd be a Real player for linux if it had as many users as Windows? Or any of those other features you mentioned?
They'll all be available soon; no-one doubts that. And they won't be considered innovative, but they'll increase the usability of the OS no end. Which will mean that although it'll still be Linux, it'll be a better Linux that fills the needs of its users.
I've got a few problems with this piece...
1. He states that hardware is going on and on while software is stagnant, citing the fact that (amongst others) Netscape and X and Unix are still being used ten years later. But is Unix (or Linux) what it was ten years ago? Is Netscape? The fact that it's got the same name doesn't mean it's the same product.
2. "Where is the innovation? Microsoft, mostly". 'nuff said.
Basically, his argument seems to be that if we don't completely change our software every few years, we're being stagnant, which more or less flies in the face of the 'if it ain't broke' school of thought.
Ten years ago, there was no instant messaging and no napster. I use neither, but I'm impressed with implemention of both, and with such things as Quake 3. I'd consider them innovative and elegant.
I agree with the gist of his argument, but I reckon he's making bad examples that do nothing for his point.