I doubt Google will go down this road (don't see how they can make money at it), but...
OS X already *does* all that. why bother doing it again, just so little zealots can say it "runs on linux"?
Why bother? So you don't have to deal with Apple. I mean, come on. I'd love to have a Unix-style operating system (not necessarily Apple-style) that ran on industry standard hardware, but also had a mainstream marketshare (for the application choices).
That's right. And in NYC, if you're on roller-blades, and a driver almost runs you off the road, the police can't do anything about it. If they injure you...well, that's a different story.
Yeah, hopefully the driver gets a medal.
Great system, huh?
It would be way better if the police could just throw roller bladers into jail on sight.
Can you tell I hate roller bladers on sideWALKs full of pedestrians?:)
Could it be your own inflated value of classical music that's out of wack?
No, Classical Music (and music of that general category) is provably more musically complex and sophisticated than almost all popular rock-offshoots (with certain exceptions). There is so much irony in that "music geeks" who pride themselves on finding obscure indie bands and having huge music collections are actually unbelievably myopic in their understanding of music. It's all in a very narrow band of genres by bands that are basically the same.
Now, that doesn't mean that simplistic music is bad or not worth listening to, anymore than a bowl of ice cream isn't worth eating. But don't fool yourself that you're eating a subtle, complex and satisfying meal.
Where does this idea come from that eveything the RIAA produces is crap, and everything independent is good? No one cares that you don't like popular music, and prefer obscure music. What matters is what the majority of people buy, and the majority of people buy music from the record labels. The VAST majority of music on your favorite music sharing site is mainstream music. That's what sells, and that's what people want (and personally, I think mainstream artists are mainstream for a reason, but that's off the topic).
The RIAA is right about one thing: iTunes is puny to the overall music market. There is no way most artists would "sign" with iTunes rather than sign with the big boys, assuming they actually want good sizes sales.
No matter how hard I try, I can't draw, No matter how much I practice, I'm still not as good as those who can draw.
Drawing is most definitely something that can be taught. I used to be completely pathetic, until I learned the "magic" secret. Drawing is about learning to see, not learning to move the pencil. If you do the exercises in this book, I guarantee that inside of a couple weeks, you'll be able to draw similar to the picture on the cover. No one ever believes me, but I'm not kidding. Drawing from life is so damn easy you'll be pissed off at how easy it is. Drawing from your imagination is harder, but you'll see that it's just a question of practice from there.
Now, producing actual "art" is something else we talk about.:)
If you're using those tools to create a graphic image intended as art, then you're being an artist, not an engineer. Just as someone who happens to be using brushes as tools to create a painting isn't an engineer.
Actually, the historical use of the term included breaking into computer systems. It's only relatively recent revisionism that changed the definition. So don't sweat it.:)
Design documents, etc, define "good" engineering, not engineering in general. Any sort of craft could be considered engineering.
Art is a creative process
Art is a creative process, but not all creative processes are art. I gave a working definition for art in another post, which I'll reproduce here:
The problem with that definition of art [basically, anything creative is art] is that it's so broad that everything becomes art.
I haven't thought about how to define art, but I would say it's something intended to inspire a philosophical thought or emotion in another person. Based on that definition, programming (or any craft) would not qualify as art.
I'm sure people could nitpick my definition, but I think it would cover things we would traditionally think as art. The important part is that intent counts.
The problem with that definition of art is that it's so broad that everything becomes art.
I haven't thought about how to define art, but I would say it's something intended to inspire a philosophical thought or emotion in another person. Based on that definition, programming (or any craft) would not qualify as art.
I'm sure people could nitpick my definition, but I think it would cover things we would traditionally think as art. The important part is that intent counts.
All right, you're actually making my curious what the actual number is. I look for a couple minutes the other day, but I didn't care enough.
According to this, "As expected, people in the survey purchase more CDs than average. More than 35% of
the respondents purchase 5 CDs or more each year, with an average of about 5.5 per year.
This contrasts with the average CD consumption of 2.6 per capita in France among adults of
20 or more.2 However, 16% of the respondents claimed they did not purchase any CD. Large
volumes of annual CD purchases translate into large collections of music CDs. The average
number of CDs owned is around 80. 31% of respondents owned more than 100 CDs."
To be fair, I found another survey the other day of UK people (that I can't find right now) that had an average of 170 or something, which is a tad higher that my estimate, but still well below what people like you think.
If you know people who are buying enormous numbers of CDs, yes, they are above the average. It doesn't matter what you or your friends do -- it just means you know people who like music more than other people. You just don't realize it.
I don't argue that IQ measures *something*, the question is what is actually does measure, and I submit that what it measures is only loosely correlated to what we think of as intelligence.
Or to put it another way, I don't think you can reduce intelligence to a single number.
The original proposition was, "Remember, statistically, half of the people you meet are below average." The poster was making a point about "intelligence", of which IQ is only loosely related. The point is about some fuzzy concept of "intelligence" that we can't really measure, but if we could, it's an analog function, not a digital one. No one will have an identical intelligence.
Let's put it another way... "half the people you meet are below the median in muscle strength". That we can measure a bit more effectively, but it's still an analog function. No two people are going to be exactly as strong down to the nanogram.
As a "tech guy" for over 20 years, I'm amazed at how out of touch this "tech savy" generation really is. I realize that things may be better in some ways, but I have to agree with Techni-Veteran. Ask them HOW the things work, and they have no idea. They are really riding on the backs of the "old folks" like us that built the goodies they enjoy.
As a "geezer" of 40 years old, most people have NEVER cared about "how" things work, they just want them to work. And thought I'm someone who loves to know how things work, it drives me crazy that technoids thing it's a problem that not everyone is passionate about how things are done. You know, not everyone's brain is wired the same way, and it's OKAY that not everyone is the same.
I don't give a crap what style they're writing to, I actually looked at the source code. Either they're not following it or they're not doing it enough.
Have you actually looked at the code? Don't call me a troll unless you've actually looked at it.
I was just looking at the source to OpenSSH yesterday, and wished we'd have a story about it so I could write a rant.:)
WHAT A PIECE OF F'ING CRAP.
I'm really not trying to post flamebait here, but GAH, the people who work on that thing should hang their heads in embarrassment. Spaghetti code, no comments -- I'm talking a total mess. I was actually just looking for the code that clears the screen when you log out of a session (because I actually hate the automatic clear screen, and was hoping there was an option for it). I finally gave up in disgust.
Now, I'm not saying that proprietary source is always golden (I mean, we know it isn't), but the worst code I've ever developed in my life is better than that rat's nest. I'd fire any programmer who dared to bring me such a horrible mess.
Any, a big "thank you" to the universe for getting this story posted.:)
I'm guessing we're talking about a severed spinal column here. How do the stem cells "know" how to get the correct nerves to growth back together? Does each nerve have a unique chemical signature so it knows how to reconnect to its partner?
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OS X already *does* all that. why bother doing it again, just so little zealots can say it "runs on linux"?
Why bother? So you don't have to deal with Apple. I mean, come on. I'd love to have a Unix-style operating system (not necessarily Apple-style) that ran on industry standard hardware, but also had a mainstream marketshare (for the application choices).
Yeah, hopefully the driver gets a medal. Great system, huh?
It would be way better if the police could just throw roller bladers into jail on sight.
Can you tell I hate roller bladers on sideWALKs full of pedestrians? :)
Exactly what is the story here? Both sides had lawyers. Are you going to tell me that all the lawyers on the other side are shining knights of glory?
Project Gutenberg is great and all, but there's something to be said for some effort made at presentation. Sometimes italics are a good thing.
No, Classical Music (and music of that general category) is provably more musically complex and sophisticated than almost all popular rock-offshoots (with certain exceptions). There is so much irony in that "music geeks" who pride themselves on finding obscure indie bands and having huge music collections are actually unbelievably myopic in their understanding of music. It's all in a very narrow band of genres by bands that are basically the same.
Now, that doesn't mean that simplistic music is bad or not worth listening to, anymore than a bowl of ice cream isn't worth eating. But don't fool yourself that you're eating a subtle, complex and satisfying meal.
The RIAA is right about one thing: iTunes is puny to the overall music market. There is no way most artists would "sign" with iTunes rather than sign with the big boys, assuming they actually want good sizes sales.
Drawing is most definitely something that can be taught. I used to be completely pathetic, until I learned the "magic" secret. Drawing is about learning to see, not learning to move the pencil. If you do the exercises in this book, I guarantee that inside of a couple weeks, you'll be able to draw similar to the picture on the cover. No one ever believes me, but I'm not kidding. Drawing from life is so damn easy you'll be pissed off at how easy it is. Drawing from your imagination is harder, but you'll see that it's just a question of practice from there.
Now, producing actual "art" is something else we talk about. :)
If you're using those tools to create a graphic image intended as art, then you're being an artist, not an engineer. Just as someone who happens to be using brushes as tools to create a painting isn't an engineer.
Actually, the historical use of the term included breaking into computer systems. It's only relatively recent revisionism that changed the definition. So don't sweat it. :)
Art is a creative process
Art is a creative process, but not all creative processes are art. I gave a working definition for art in another post, which I'll reproduce here:
I haven't thought about how to define art, but I would say it's something intended to inspire a philosophical thought or emotion in another person. Based on that definition, programming (or any craft) would not qualify as art.
I'm sure people could nitpick my definition, but I think it would cover things we would traditionally think as art. The important part is that intent counts.
Hacking (or any programming) is neither art or science. It's applied engineering. And applied engineering is what it is.
All right, you're actually making my curious what the actual number is. I look for a couple minutes the other day, but I didn't care enough.
According to this, "As expected, people in the survey purchase more CDs than average. More than 35% of the respondents purchase 5 CDs or more each year, with an average of about 5.5 per year. This contrasts with the average CD consumption of 2.6 per capita in France among adults of 20 or more.2 However, 16% of the respondents claimed they did not purchase any CD. Large volumes of annual CD purchases translate into large collections of music CDs. The average number of CDs owned is around 80. 31% of respondents owned more than 100 CDs."
To be fair, I found another survey the other day of UK people (that I can't find right now) that had an average of 170 or something, which is a tad higher that my estimate, but still well below what people like you think.
If you know people who are buying enormous numbers of CDs, yes, they are above the average. It doesn't matter what you or your friends do -- it just means you know people who like music more than other people. You just don't realize it.
Or to put it another way, I don't think you can reduce intelligence to a single number.
Hmm, interesting. I didn't know that. Ah well, it's a still a pretty useless number. :)
In any case, I highly doubt that IQ is absolutely exactly a normal distribution.
Let's put it another way... "half the people you meet are below the median in muscle strength". That we can measure a bit more effectively, but it's still an analog function. No two people are going to be exactly as strong down to the nanogram.
(let's just ignore the fact that "IQ" is stupid and "intelligence" (whatever that means) is a multi-variable function)
No, statistically, half of the people you meet are below the median, not the average.
As a "geezer" of 40 years old, most people have NEVER cared about "how" things work, they just want them to work. And thought I'm someone who loves to know how things work, it drives me crazy that technoids thing it's a problem that not everyone is passionate about how things are done. You know, not everyone's brain is wired the same way, and it's OKAY that not everyone is the same.
You've obviously never seen professionally documented source code. That it has a couple of useless comments doesn't make it well-documented.
Have you actually looked at the code? Don't call me a troll unless you've actually looked at it.
Thanks. :) I'll check it out.
WHAT A PIECE OF F'ING CRAP.
I'm really not trying to post flamebait here, but GAH, the people who work on that thing should hang their heads in embarrassment. Spaghetti code, no comments -- I'm talking a total mess. I was actually just looking for the code that clears the screen when you log out of a session (because I actually hate the automatic clear screen, and was hoping there was an option for it). I finally gave up in disgust.
Now, I'm not saying that proprietary source is always golden (I mean, we know it isn't), but the worst code I've ever developed in my life is better than that rat's nest. I'd fire any programmer who dared to bring me such a horrible mess.
Any, a big "thank you" to the universe for getting this story posted. :)
I'm guessing we're talking about a severed spinal column here. How do the stem cells "know" how to get the correct nerves to growth back together? Does each nerve have a unique chemical signature so it knows how to reconnect to its partner?