Latest news: The Utah Global Surveyor has detected alcohol in the state. However, it's locked up below the surface in ice and little umbrellas. It does bode well for future explorers, though.
But seriously, folks... if you haven't read Zubrin's The Case For Mars, do so. You'll be on the streets demanding Mars missions within minutes of finishing it.
I, too, used to get irritated by apostrophe misuse. I also disliked people used !=3 dots in an ellipsis. Then I grew up. Not everyone has perfect grammar, or punctuation. Fewer people care. Does this mean the downfall of civilisation? I doubt it.
The only (only) time to worry about punctuation is when it distorts the meaning of the sentence. And in this case, it doesn't.
If it worries you that much, why not send Katz a private email to Katz, rather than posting to a bunch of people, of whom the only ones who care seem to have moderation points to burn.
Freedom of speech isn't just about the GPL and software; it's about fundamental human rights and corporate control of government. Absolutely. However, should we criticise the Red Cross for not standing up for Free software?
I don't know if you appreciate how much work goes into activism. If someone spends their days coding and fighting for what they see as the freedom to code, they've precious little time to fight other battles. When they do,they're critisised for sticking their noses into subjects where they don't belong.
Rights, as you say, were being eroded long before the advent of the DMCA. Would they be any less eroded if RMS went to a Nike factory? If ESR hosted a page on the plight of the Afghan civilians? Of course not.
The population of this planet is over six billion. The reason that we've come as far as we have (in many areas) is that many of those individuals fight injustices as they see it, and inspire others to join them. Billions aren't in a position to do this, most of the rest don't bother, so the world relies on those who do. Doesn't matter how many fights they miss, it's what they do in the ones in which they're involved that counts.
I've never written an open source accounting packaging. Are you wondering, then, how I have the temerity to describe myself as an open source advocate?
I don't mean to sound picky, but surely a slinky is more than a helix? If it doesn't walk down the stairs, it's not a slinky to my mind.
And this thing - impressive though it is - doesn't look like it's going anywhere.
an anonymous entity providing some kind of technology to 10-15 year olds and learning.... something to be defined at a later date.
First of all, "to remain unnamed until the event is publicly unveiled" isn't the same thing as an "anonymous entity". It's a guy working on the project who's doing research, asking a bunch of allegedly clueful people for their opinions.
What we're left with is technology-oriented, open-ended research aimed at a particular segment of the population. When I spoke of "projects like this" I was thinking in more general terms, but I imagine - to take one example - there have been a bunch of useability studies on computer interfaces that have increased the ability of kids to learn via computer-based courses.
Y'know, as I sit here on this electric train, accessing the internet via a GSM phone and a laptop, I can't think of a single example of a technology that a bunch of guys came up with that makes the world a better place.
Of course, that's probably not what you asked. But I'm not sure what you did ask, so I'll have to settle for the snide answer until you clarify.
Hrm. Interestingly, this sounds like a situation where fewer is better. If there's one kid in a class who has one of these, then he'll either get wedgied to death or he'll have a classful of peers with suggestions. Not along the lines of "It'd be a major benefit if it were to have widget x", but "Cool! Does it have widget x?", which gets added to the report as the kid's own idea.
Alternatively, you could design a device that fits into a gameboy cartridge. Problem solved. Not that it'd work on thirty-something me; you can have my Tetris cartridge when you take it out of my cold, dead Gameboy Color.
I'm saying that there are better applications of that money, other than having a small percentage of the world's population (1 out of 2 million) play with a new toy.
And I'm saying that kids make great testers of technology because they consider it a toy, not a technological toy. Kids accept the world and all that's in it, and will reply with few preconceptions when asked about what they'd like.
These kids won't remember that this happened (if indeed it ever does). So what?
I'd much rather see children [etc etc] than children playing with PDAs. So would I. I'd also rather the world's governments fed children than build missiles. I'd like to teach the world to sing. But none of these things is going to happen, and any pontificating on my part isn't going to accomplish anything, except perhaps increasing my own level of smugness.
I'd much rather *NOT* see children exploited for a corporation's PR purposes I'd rather not see Concern, or Christian Aid, or any of that bunch exploit children in order to increase donations.
The fact that children are involved doesn't mean they're being exploited.
I'm sorry, but I don't see why this is deserving of the millions of dollars you're putting into it. I'd much rather see that money go towards feeding the hundreds of millions of people starving all around the world, and not to some corporate PR department trying to spin this as world-changing.
Or maybe it's just me.
Yeah, it's just you. For a lot of the rest of us, humanity and society are advanced by projects like this; it may be less than innovative, but it's a start, and isn't helped by sanctimonious slashdotters (who own computers doubtless lots of other stuff) whining about why other people aren't helping the needy.
Why I think this is a good idea: as we all know, kids are the best at adapting to new technology. The old staple of only the eight-year-old being able to set the video is more than a cliche; it's often true. Equipping a bunch of sprogs with PDAs and asking them how they could be improved is the best way of advancing the internet, and therefore communications, and therefore humanity. A kid will tell you what s/he'd like to see, and what it'd be cool for his new tricorder to do.
I've got to add my voice to the dead-tree lobby; when chilling on the couch of an evening, I tend not to huddle up with my palm pilot. A chunky tome is just the thing.
As for content: there's only one thing worse than humourless books, it's books with badly-written, forced humour. Especially if the book is a reference book; something that seems quite funny the first time really gets on your tits when you've to flick through the chapter for the nth time. So no jokes in chapters on regular expressions, please.
Other than that: the real-life example is far too underutilised, in my experience. How I Configured Apache And Why My httpd.conf Looks Like This and Leaves These Options Out is a trifle unwieldy for a title, but it'd be a very handy book to have.
Of course, in the context of the BOFH, hearing phrases like 'two thumbs up' can be a portent of doom. However...
I really enjoyed the first book, but it wasn't really meant to be read in one sitting; it was starting to get tedious towards the end. Having said that, if you don't have diarrhoea, then it's eminently dippable, and well worth keeping in the bathroom.
Let's see...
They paid $8.75. And they paid that much to remain competitive. Damn those slashdot editors for daring to think their readers were smart enough to figure it out for themselves.
Or maybe, just maybe, the phrase '$8.75 per hour' in the story was supposed to be a clue.
The NAS, god bless 'em, tend to make their books available to the great unwashed; you have signed on for email updates, haven't you?
Well, just in case you haven't the draft report is available for online perusal here
Because people are lazy. Given the choice of sitting on their arses and seeing our heroes in glorious high definition is easier than booting, logging on, downloading...
All this assumes the internet as it is now, of course. For always-on users with speedy access, the computer is as easy. But for the drooling masses television is the first port of call, and if it's available on TV it's not needed elsewhere.
Also: in the above example, a lengthy search wouldn't be necessary. Interactive->Entertainment->Hot Love Story. Three presses.
Producers have spent decades making TV the exact opposite of interactive, and they've done an admirable job of it. I know of no better way to kill your mind than TV, even drugs don't do the job as well or as easily. QED.
This one'll sink because people would rather be lazy. Interactive TV is in its infancy at the moment, and (here in Europe at least) the various stations are still vying for the Most Inane Use of the Red Button on a Sky Remote award (my nomination: vote for the brainiest contender on Discovery Mastermind). And, as you said, people are lazy. However, I suspect this will be a much-used aspect of future TV watching (or 'participating', as our chums in the media will doubtless prefer).
Imagine for a moment that you're a normal muggle. Someone tells you that one of the cast of Friends has a new celeb boyfriend. You turn on the TV, type in the name of that woman who was on The Misfits of Science, and voila! You need never read a proper news story again.
I too read the CNN story; it was also on a bunch of other news sites. Each of them had the same headline - or some slight variation thereon. NYT, for example.
Don't feel grumpy. Revel in the fact that you're superior to all those subeditors who mindlessly copy headlines written by AP hacks.
At the risk of turning your BBS history into a telephony history, I'd include the first translantic phone call (Virginia->Paris, 1915) on any list of communication milestones.
Oh, and I'm getting no route to http://software.hostnet.net/
It's been a while since we heard anything about Pioneer's anomalous acceleration. This sounds like the sort of thing that might be able to shed a little light.
I got home from work just in time for the Christmas lecture, this morning, only to find that our friends on the BBC had started a similar science programme half an hour beforehand. It was called Come to Your Senses and it was pretty good. Unfortunately, it means I missed most of the damn Lecture.
Maybe it's just my misanthropic nature, but I can't think of any reason for putting on such a similar programme at the same time that doesn't involve fucking over Channel 4.
Offtopic? Perhaps. But I'm bitter, and needed to get it off my chest.
On an unrelated matter, I recently got hold of the book of a series of Christmas Lectures given by Sir William H. Bragg in the 1920s. It's noteable for the fact that it's not afraid of explaining maths to the audience. He also wrote The Universe of Light, a popular science book that contains actual equations!.
I got totoro (as well as a bunch of other movies such as Mamoru Oshii's excellent Avalon) from cdjapan . The only thing to watch out for is the language; not all of them have subtitles. For some things like Gatchaman it doesn't matter, but be warned.
Here in Europe, we're getting a new currency next week. And gosh darn it, that mean's that I've got to be in work. For the last few weeks, I've needed to be in from 3am every day, and that'll continue until the end of the year. The bright side is we'll have a cool, new pan-European currency at the end of it.
It's funny how you don't appreciate how much work goes into changing a currency until you've got to update the software on tens of thousands of terminals across Europe.
Of course, this is a once-off. It'll never happen again. Just like the night of 31-12-99 that I spent in front of a bank of computers.
Slashdot Mirror
Latest news:
The Utah Global Surveyor has detected alcohol in the state. However, it's locked up below the surface in ice and little umbrellas. It does bode well for future explorers, though.
But seriously, folks... if you haven't read Zubrin's The Case For Mars, do so. You'll be on the streets demanding Mars missions within minutes of finishing it.
Yet using two exclamation marks is acceptable?
I, too, used to get irritated by apostrophe misuse. I also disliked people used !=3 dots in an ellipsis. Then I grew up.
Not everyone has perfect grammar, or punctuation. Fewer people care. Does this mean the downfall of civilisation? I doubt it.
The only (only) time to worry about punctuation is when it distorts the meaning of the sentence. And in this case, it doesn't.
If it worries you that much, why not send Katz a private email to Katz, rather than posting to a bunch of people, of whom the only ones who care seem to have moderation points to burn.
Freedom of speech isn't just about the GPL and software; it's about fundamental human rights and corporate control of government.
Absolutely. However, should we criticise the Red Cross for not standing up for Free software?
I don't know if you appreciate how much work goes into activism. If someone spends their days coding and fighting for what they see as the freedom to code, they've precious little time to fight other battles. When they do,they're critisised for sticking their noses into subjects where they don't belong.
Rights, as you say, were being eroded long before the advent of the DMCA. Would they be any less eroded if RMS went to a Nike factory? If ESR hosted a page on the plight of the Afghan civilians? Of course not.
The population of this planet is over six billion. The reason that we've come as far as we have (in many areas) is that many of those individuals fight injustices as they see it, and inspire others to join them. Billions aren't in a position to do this, most of the rest don't bother, so the world relies on those who do. Doesn't matter how many fights they miss, it's what they do in the ones in which they're involved that counts.
I've never written an open source accounting packaging. Are you wondering, then, how I have the temerity to describe myself as an open source advocate?
Will the driver-less cabs understand the line: "Follow that car!"
No. But it's on rails, so it'll have no problems understanding the line "follow that cab!"
First line of their privacy policy:
No personal information is used by DoubleClick to deliver Internet ads.
So either their software doesn't include doubleclick customers, or the Privacy policy is wrong.
Course, if they've got any lawyers, both are probably right.
I don't mean to sound picky, but surely a slinky is more than a helix? If it doesn't walk down the stairs, it's not a slinky to my mind.
And this thing - impressive though it is - doesn't look like it's going anywhere.
an anonymous entity providing some kind of technology to 10-15 year olds and learning.... something to be defined at a later date.
First of all, "to remain unnamed until the event is publicly unveiled" isn't the same thing as an "anonymous entity". It's a guy working on the project who's doing research, asking a bunch of allegedly clueful people for their opinions.
What we're left with is technology-oriented, open-ended research aimed at a particular segment of the population. When I spoke of "projects like this" I was thinking in more general terms, but I imagine - to take one example - there have been a bunch of useability studies on computer interfaces that have increased the ability of kids to learn via computer-based courses.
Y'know, as I sit here on this electric train, accessing the internet via a GSM phone and a laptop, I can't think of a single example of a technology that a bunch of guys came up with that makes the world a better place.
Of course, that's probably not what you asked. But I'm not sure what you did ask, so I'll have to settle for the snide answer until you clarify.
Hrm. Interestingly, this sounds like a situation where fewer is better. If there's one kid in a class who has one of these, then he'll either get wedgied to death or he'll have a classful of peers with suggestions. Not along the lines of "It'd be a major benefit if it were to have widget x", but "Cool! Does it have widget x?", which gets added to the report as the kid's own idea.
Alternatively, you could design a device that fits into a gameboy cartridge. Problem solved. Not that it'd work on thirty-something me; you can have my Tetris cartridge when you take it out of my cold, dead Gameboy Color.
I'm saying that there are better applications of that money, other than having a small percentage of the world's population (1 out of 2 million) play with a new toy.
And I'm saying that kids make great testers of technology because they consider it a toy, not a technological toy. Kids accept the world and all that's in it, and will reply with few preconceptions when asked about what they'd like.
These kids won't remember that this happened (if indeed it ever does).
So what?
I'd much rather see children [etc etc] than children playing with PDAs.
So would I. I'd also rather the world's governments fed children than build missiles. I'd like to teach the world to sing. But none of these things is going to happen, and any pontificating on my part isn't going to accomplish anything, except perhaps increasing my own level of smugness.
I'd much rather *NOT* see children exploited for a corporation's PR purposes
I'd rather not see Concern, or Christian Aid, or any of that bunch exploit children in order to increase donations.
The fact that children are involved doesn't mean they're being exploited.
I'm sorry, but I don't see why this is deserving of the millions of dollars you're putting into it. I'd much rather see that money go towards feeding the hundreds of millions of people starving all around the world, and not to some corporate PR department trying to spin this as world-changing.
Or maybe it's just me.
Yeah, it's just you. For a lot of the rest of us, humanity and society are advanced by projects like this; it may be less than innovative, but it's a start, and isn't helped by sanctimonious slashdotters (who own computers doubtless lots of other stuff) whining about why other people aren't helping the needy.
Why I think this is a good idea: as we all know, kids are the best at adapting to new technology. The old staple of only the eight-year-old being able to set the video is more than a cliche; it's often true. Equipping a bunch of sprogs with PDAs and asking them how they could be improved is the best way of advancing the internet, and therefore communications, and therefore humanity. A kid will tell you what s/he'd like to see, and what it'd be cool for his new tricorder to do.
In short: this is a great idea.
I've got to add my voice to the dead-tree lobby; when chilling on the couch of an evening, I tend not to huddle up with my palm pilot. A chunky tome is just the thing.
As for content: there's only one thing worse than humourless books, it's books with badly-written, forced humour. Especially if the book is a reference book; something that seems quite funny the first time really gets on your tits when you've to flick through the chapter for the nth time. So no jokes in chapters on regular expressions, please.
Other than that: the real-life example is far too underutilised, in my experience. How I Configured Apache And Why My httpd.conf Looks Like This and Leaves These Options Out is a trifle unwieldy for a title, but it'd be a very handy book to have.
Of course, in the context of the BOFH, hearing phrases like 'two thumbs up' can be a portent of doom. However...
I really enjoyed the first book, but it wasn't really meant to be read in one sitting; it was starting to get tedious towards the end. Having said that, if you don't have diarrhoea, then it's eminently dippable, and well worth keeping in the bathroom.
Let's see...
They paid $8.75. And they paid that much to remain competitive. Damn those slashdot editors for daring to think their readers were smart enough to figure it out for themselves.
Or maybe, just maybe, the phrase '$8.75 per hour' in the story was supposed to be a clue.
That book of his sounds interesting. Is there an electronic version available?
The NAS, god bless 'em, tend to make their books available to the great unwashed; you have signed on for email updates, haven't you?
Well, just in case you haven't the draft report is available for online perusal here
PS I said NAS, not NSA. Just to be clear.
Why not the computer then?
Because people are lazy. Given the choice of sitting on their arses and seeing our heroes in glorious high definition is easier than booting, logging on, downloading...
All this assumes the internet as it is now, of course. For always-on users with speedy access, the computer is as easy. But for the drooling masses television is the first port of call, and if it's available on TV it's not needed elsewhere.
Also: in the above example, a lengthy search wouldn't be necessary. Interactive->Entertainment->Hot Love Story. Three presses.
Producers have spent decades making TV the exact opposite of interactive, and they've done an admirable job of it. I know of no better way to kill your mind than TV, even drugs don't do the job as well or as easily.
QED.
This one'll sink because people would rather be lazy.
Interactive TV is in its infancy at the moment, and (here in Europe at least) the various stations are still vying for the Most Inane Use of the Red Button on a Sky Remote award (my nomination: vote for the brainiest contender on Discovery Mastermind). And, as you said, people are lazy. However, I suspect this will be a much-used aspect of future TV watching (or 'participating', as our chums in the media will doubtless prefer).
Imagine for a moment that you're a normal muggle. Someone tells you that one of the cast of Friends has a new celeb boyfriend. You turn on the TV, type in the name of that woman who was on The Misfits of Science, and voila! You need never read a proper news story again.
D'you really think it's wise linking to a story that has a page on 'best text editor'? Especially one in which no-one picks vi?
However, it's good to see that I'm not the only one heartily sick of 'linux on the desktop' stories.
I too read the CNN story; it was also on a bunch of other news sites. Each of them had the same headline - or some slight variation thereon. NYT, for example.
Don't feel grumpy. Revel in the fact that you're superior to all those subeditors who mindlessly copy headlines written by AP hacks.
At the risk of turning your BBS history into a telephony history, I'd include the first translantic phone call (Virginia->Paris, 1915) on any list of communication milestones.
Oh, and I'm getting no route to http://software.hostnet.net/
It's been a while since we heard anything about Pioneer's anomalous acceleration. This sounds like the sort of thing that might be able to shed a little light.
I got home from work just in time for the Christmas lecture, this morning, only to find that our friends on the BBC had started a similar science programme half an hour beforehand. It was called Come to Your Senses and it was pretty good. Unfortunately, it means I missed most of the damn Lecture.
Maybe it's just my misanthropic nature, but I can't think of any reason for putting on such a similar programme at the same time that doesn't involve fucking over Channel 4.
Offtopic? Perhaps. But I'm bitter, and needed to get it off my chest.
On an unrelated matter, I recently got hold of the book of a series of Christmas Lectures given by Sir William H. Bragg in the 1920s. It's noteable for the fact that it's not afraid of explaining maths to the audience. He also wrote The Universe of Light, a popular science book that contains actual equations!.
I got totoro (as well as a bunch of other movies such as Mamoru Oshii's excellent Avalon) from cdjapan . The only thing to watch out for is the language; not all of them have subtitles. For some things like Gatchaman it doesn't matter, but be warned.
Here in Europe, we're getting a new currency next week. And gosh darn it, that mean's that I've got to be in work. For the last few weeks, I've needed to be in from 3am every day, and that'll continue until the end of the year. The bright side is we'll have a cool, new pan-European currency at the end of it.
It's funny how you don't appreciate how much work goes into changing a currency until you've got to update the software on tens of thousands of terminals across Europe.
Of course, this is a once-off. It'll never happen again. Just like the night of 31-12-99 that I spent in front of a bank of computers.