On a more serious note it would be neat to have hobbyists designing bots for mars on a competitive level to see who can come up with the most
efficent/reliable/lightweight etc design. The guys at NASA have great ideas and implementations - but I think that the bazzar vs cathedral idea could
help here.
How about a manned mission, but instead if NASA, we can get CBS to do a reality-based series about it, like Survivor III. Tagline: "You thought a desert island and the Aussie Outback were rough, you haven't seen anything until we dump our castaways on Olympus Mons!"
I had lunch with Mark Olsen from the University of Chicago. He's overseen databases which track all sorts of metadata for many social and literary projects. For instance, you can check if the sexual orientation of a playright had anything to do with the quartier in which his play ran in Paris during any given span of years.
They also have checked the frequency of certain books checked out of the Harvard library by 18-25 year-olds during the American Revolution.
He told me that when they hired programmers for their project he looked for people with lib arts backgrounds because he knew they could learn how to code.
Mike Eisner (sp), CEO of Disney (I know, not the most popular place to post his quote), has a degree in Theatre. He, and George Lucas both lean towards working with people with arts backgrounds. Lucas said, "Working is like driving. Anyone can learn how. The real question is where are you going?"
Analysts expect non-profits and small firms to be hardest hit. Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for poor people, could have its technology budget wiped out by the increases, says Teresa Pudi, vice president of information services.
[...]
Habitat for Humanity is considering the free Linux operating system. But because Microsoft is so dominant, it will be difficult for firms to switch. Windows runs 92% of PCs. Its Office software has better than a 90% market share, Gartner says.
Anybody want to post contact info for those of us who whould like to help H4H migrate? (You know, it could count for my community service hours...)
I am very confidence that those HP engineers (and the project) that are being doomed today, will go out and come back with a much superior product now that they are faced with higher challenges due to this "change" that has been forced upon them.
What you described is called "creative deconstruction" and it is a proven principle of social/economic science.
[The DMCA] protects only access to a copyrighted work, not anything having
to do with "hacking" a proxy server to get out of your school's network.
Correct. This is why it was not illegal to crack the 802.11 encryption.
Also, cracking DVD region coding is not covered under the DMCA. Region coding is not encryption, nor is it copy protection (it's a distribution control measure).
Oracle's most recent software licenses have started to include additional restrictions, such as not being able to use the
software to conduct third-party training. This obviously is designed to protect Oracle's own Education centers, but isn't that a restraint of trade?
Why should they be able to say what uses you can make of the software?
Oracle does not have a monopoly, therefore they do not have live by the same rules. Apple can bundle as many utilities as they wish with their OS because they do not have a monopoly either.
The rules change when a company gains overpowering market share in one domain, they cannot use that advantage to take over other markets.
Although Oracle is a big player, they are not a monopoly in DB, thus they can push their training software all they want.
What I have found odd is that most of the people I've spoken to don't want the US infringe our rights or become a "Police State", by which they mean they don't think we should have machine gun-carrying guards in airports, train stations, etc.
They would rather restrict certain rights (because they aren't terrorists, so they have nothing to fear).
What's wrong with this idea is that in countries where there are armed guards in airports, malls, etc., the people do not consider that to be infringing on their rights, or to be evidence of a police state.
Most of the people I've talked with would definately give up their liberties (privacy, etc.) for a sense of security (not having armed guards). I guess WE, collectively, deserve neither.
P.S. One woman in my PhD program is a former judge, she was one of the people I've spoken with who see this propblem, so, hopefully, the cheques and balances may actually prevent this.
The editors of
this book put together some brilliant essays concerning the Simpsons' relation to some serious philosophical issues.
Kind of like when Homer argues with his brian ("Shut-up, Brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-tip."), demonstrates the cartesian mind-body split.
My parents will forever consider the Simpsons evil, but the Ph.D.s I studied under (French Lit), thought that they were some of the best social commentary of our day.
At Linux World in San Jose, Bob Young said that people always ask him why other industries haven't caught on to open source.
He tells them that open source is how every other industry works.
When I buy a car, I can take it apart and see how it works. I can even modify its workings. If I tried to fix a bug in a closed source program I could be sent to jail per the EULA.
It is important that lawmakers know that open source is not just a hairy programmer working late nights in his spare bedroom on a program he intends to give away. There are companies out there that have fully embraced open source because it's better for the consumer.
Apple just built a CD burner into their OS. Steve Jobs even took some shots at Roxio when they announced it at Mac World.
Of course, Apple doesn't hold a monopoly, so they can live by different rules than MS.
The funny thing is that some Mac users have told me the reason that it's okay for Apple to do this (when it's not for MS) is that the CD burner is an integrated part of the OS.
The U.S. Attorney's office brought charges against ElcomSoft after purchasing
a copy of the software over the Internet from ElcomSoft's Web site, which is
hosted in the U.S. and uses a U.S.-based payment services provider, the
indictment said.
So, the way that they knew about the crime was to commit the crime of purchasing, and thus owning "illegal" software? I guess they probably think that this is like the cop who poses as a buyer for crack on the street?
I couldn't agree with you more. I haven't had Legos since I moved out of my parents' house (they kept 'em), and I was not about to buy sets with nothing but peices that could, and should, be made out of other pieces.
One of the biggest shocks of my life was when my nephew got upset at me for rebuilding one of his sets into something original. He didn't know that you were supposed to deviate from 'ideas' on the box.
My wife finally caught on and gave me one of the 'Lego Constructor' sets for my birthday. It's 603-pieces for ~$20, ages 4-9. It's the best set I've had in a long time (except for the ugly new figrues). I find myself doing exactly what you said about "creatively compromising". When I get frustrated with a chapter in my disortation etc., I just take an hour-long Lego break.
What's more important than the margin of error is the confidence interval. Using Tukey's Family test (if you had the raw data), you could say quite easily (depending on sample size, varience, etc.) that there are not even two distinct populations.
In truth, without the raw data/complete computations (the kind you find in a doctoral disortation), you cannot really draw any conclusions from this information.
Step 1: Decrease the variance. Once population is in control, proceed to step 2.
Step 2: Raise mean. Since your population is in control, this raises the entire population.
I think we're still working on step one, but people who don't understand statistics, and who want to see results now, are jumping the gun.
The real problem with today's system is not so much the funding, but the curriculum and the techniques. We're still teaching people the same we did during the industrial revolution. There is a different set of criteria which we're trying to meet with out-dated materials and training.
Some in the field of Instructional Psychology have said it would be better to burn down every school in America than continue with the status quo. Whatever springs up to take its place will be better than what's there.
While I am not that militant, I do agree with much of this point of view. I'm working on my Ph.D. in computer-enhanced language learning, and I have run into some educators who really resent the use of media/computers in the classroom. I agree that these tools cannot replace teachers, but teachers who know how to use these tool will replace teachers who don't.
I spoke with one of the creators of one of the first large-scale Computer-Based Trainning courses at a major university (Bunderson, 1978), who told me that the first semester it was in place, they saw a 5% drop in test scores. At that point, some of the faculty jumped ship.
After four semesters, the non CBT teachers had raised their average 15%, but those who had stuck with the new set of tool, and adjusted their styles and methods around these tools, saw a 30%-40% jump in scores.
Educators cannot hope to instill a desire for life-long learning in students until they themselves are life-long learners. Rejecting new technology, or refusing to relearn and stay abreast of current teaching techniques are signs of just the opposite. These are traits of the teacher who is teaching because (a) it was the easiest path out of college, and (b) they would never succeed in industry.
I must say that I do not believe that all teachers are like this. In fact, the tide is slowly turning. And I am exremely grateful for every teacher I had who did not shy away from new methods. They gave me the desire to enter academia for good.
Jim Taylor (the foremost authority on DVD history and tech) tells that the MPAA was not too worried about CSS being insecure because they had already penned the DMCA (not by that name), and had a senator to introduce it.
Jim Taylor also predicted that CSS would be cracked much sooner than it was. He was offended by Hollywood's "shocked, can't believe it" attitude when it happened.
In short MS might use the DMCA to their advantage, but they're not the ones who came up with it.
"...it also
gives you an option to permanantly disable IIS."
This is a bigger fix than one might think. At the university at which I work, the major problem was not the sys admins who did not patch their servers, it was the professors who had Win2K Professional on their workstations with IIS on and didn't even know it. Some of them knew about the worm, even made sure that the department's IT teams patched their servers, but did not know that they were running a web server in their office, let alone that they were infected.
Books are of secondary educational importance. Book literacy is a non-essential skill. It is becoming less important as books
become more usable. Book education is dehumanizing at a period in a child's life where human experience is vital to development. I've
spoken to various teachers in elementary schools about this, and not one of them values books as a learning resource.
In a nation which struggles to achieve 50% moral literacy, isn't it a bit absurd to pursue book literacy.
Book education is merely part of the process that encourages this "wilful illiteracy". Books also teach students to disregard
rehtorical education. "Why learn vocabulary? I have a thesaurus do it for me!"
The growing focus on book learning is, to me, a symptom of the "children are adults in training" attitude. This warps children's
developmental years, and is mostly the product of people who dislike children. People who spend time with children know that children need
to act like children, not like adults. Children who spend too much time on books often grow to be withdrawn and isolated, often preferring
books over the company of friends. Other children strongly resist being forced to use books, and react rebelliously, often
violently.
Books are not a part of a healthy childhood. As a librarian, I have seen nothing to indicate that people who were exposed to
books early in life gain any advantage over those who are introduced to them in the workplace or university. Often, long time users are at a
disadvantage due to an unwillingness to learn new things about the text.
Books in schools reinforce an attitude that everything in life is preparation for something else. This is not healthy, and these are not the sort
of values we should be imparting to our children.
Sadly, that is what people thought back in the days of the printing press. Michele de Montaigne lashed out against this in his essay L'institution des enfant.
the reports of car
sized space rocks hitting the earth
Why is it that everything falling from the sky is compared in size to a car? I mean, in the movie Armageddon, they were "Baskeballs and Volkswagons", the chunks of MIR were "as large as a car" and now, people were saying that a falling object was "car-sized".
This reminds me of how they say that voracious fish can skeletonize a cow in less than X minutes. Are these some kind of bizarre empirial system measurement? What's the metric equivalent?
Slashdot Mirror
It's actually, "It is I, Captain Vegetable..."
: )
How about a manned mission, but instead if NASA, we can get CBS to do a reality-based series about it, like Survivor III. Tagline: "You thought a desert island and the Aussie Outback were rough, you haven't seen anything until we dump our castaways on Olympus Mons!"
They also have checked the frequency of certain books checked out of the Harvard library by 18-25 year-olds during the American Revolution.
He told me that when they hired programmers for their project he looked for people with lib arts backgrounds because he knew they could learn how to code.
Mike Eisner (sp), CEO of Disney (I know, not the most popular place to post his quote), has a degree in Theatre. He, and George Lucas both lean towards working with people with arts backgrounds. Lucas said, "Working is like driving. Anyone can learn how. The real question is where are you going?"
Anybody want to post contact info for those of us who whould like to help H4H migrate? (You know, it could count for my community service hours...)
What you described is called "creative deconstruction" and it is a proven principle of social/economic science.
Correct. This is why it was not illegal to crack the 802.11 encryption.
Also, cracking DVD region coding is not covered under the DMCA. Region coding is not encryption, nor is it copy protection (it's a distribution control measure).
Oracle does not have a monopoly, therefore they do not have live by the same rules. Apple can bundle as many utilities as they wish with their OS because they do not have a monopoly either.
The rules change when a company gains overpowering market share in one domain, they cannot use that advantage to take over other markets.
Although Oracle is a big player, they are not a monopoly in DB, thus they can push their training software all they want.
They would rather restrict certain rights (because they aren't terrorists, so they have nothing to fear).
What's wrong with this idea is that in countries where there are armed guards in airports, malls, etc., the people do not consider that to be infringing on their rights, or to be evidence of a police state.
Most of the people I've talked with would definately give up their liberties (privacy, etc.) for a sense of security (not having armed guards). I guess WE, collectively, deserve neither.
P.S. One woman in my PhD program is a former judge, she was one of the people I've spoken with who see this propblem, so, hopefully, the cheques and balances may actually prevent this.
Kind of like when Homer argues with his brian ("Shut-up, Brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-tip."), demonstrates the cartesian mind-body split.
My parents will forever consider the Simpsons evil, but the Ph.D.s I studied under (French Lit), thought that they were some of the best social commentary of our day.
I won't laugh. I'll agree with you.
He tells them that open source is how every other industry works.
When I buy a car, I can take it apart and see how it works. I can even modify its workings. If I tried to fix a bug in a closed source program I could be sent to jail per the EULA.
It is important that lawmakers know that open source is not just a hairy programmer working late nights in his spare bedroom on a program he intends to give away. There are companies out there that have fully embraced open source because it's better for the consumer.
Of course, Apple doesn't hold a monopoly, so they can live by different rules than MS.
The funny thing is that some Mac users have told me the reason that it's okay for Apple to do this (when it's not for MS) is that the CD burner is an integrated part of the OS.
From CNN:
The U.S. Attorney's office brought charges against ElcomSoft after purchasing a copy of the software over the Internet from ElcomSoft's Web site, which is hosted in the U.S. and uses a U.S.-based payment services provider, the indictment said.
So, the way that they knew about the crime was to commit the crime of purchasing, and thus owning "illegal" software? I guess they probably think that this is like the cop who poses as a buyer for crack on the street?
So I guess when my kids ask me if I "pirated" I can say, "Yes, but I didn't install."
One of the biggest shocks of my life was when my nephew got upset at me for rebuilding one of his sets into something original. He didn't know that you were supposed to deviate from 'ideas' on the box.
My wife finally caught on and gave me one of the 'Lego Constructor' sets for my birthday. It's 603-pieces for ~$20, ages 4-9. It's the best set I've had in a long time (except for the ugly new figrues). I find myself doing exactly what you said about "creatively compromising". When I get frustrated with a chapter in my disortation etc., I just take an hour-long Lego break.
"Putin" is the correct spelling. It means "bitch" in French. (I know he's Russian, but it's still funny, or at least "instightful") : )
In truth, without the raw data/complete computations (the kind you find in a doctoral disortation), you cannot really draw any conclusions from this information.
Step 2: Raise mean. Since your population is in control, this raises the entire population.
I think we're still working on step one, but people who don't understand statistics, and who want to see results now, are jumping the gun.
Some in the field of Instructional Psychology have said it would be better to burn down every school in America than continue with the status quo. Whatever springs up to take its place will be better than what's there.
While I am not that militant, I do agree with much of this point of view. I'm working on my Ph.D. in computer-enhanced language learning, and I have run into some educators who really resent the use of media/computers in the classroom. I agree that these tools cannot replace teachers, but teachers who know how to use these tool will replace teachers who don't.
I spoke with one of the creators of one of the first large-scale Computer-Based Trainning courses at a major university (Bunderson, 1978), who told me that the first semester it was in place, they saw a 5% drop in test scores. At that point, some of the faculty jumped ship.
After four semesters, the non CBT teachers had raised their average 15%, but those who had stuck with the new set of tool, and adjusted their styles and methods around these tools, saw a 30%-40% jump in scores.
Educators cannot hope to instill a desire for life-long learning in students until they themselves are life-long learners. Rejecting new technology, or refusing to relearn and stay abreast of current teaching techniques are signs of just the opposite. These are traits of the teacher who is teaching because (a) it was the easiest path out of college, and (b) they would never succeed in industry.
I must say that I do not believe that all teachers are like this. In fact, the tide is slowly turning. And I am exremely grateful for every teacher I had who did not shy away from new methods. They gave me the desire to enter academia for good.
Jim Taylor (the foremost authority on DVD history and tech) tells that the MPAA was not too worried about CSS being insecure because they had already penned the DMCA (not by that name), and had a senator to introduce it.
Jim Taylor also predicted that CSS would be cracked much sooner than it was. He was offended by Hollywood's "shocked, can't believe it" attitude when it happened.
In short MS might use the DMCA to their advantage, but they're not the ones who came up with it.
This is a bigger fix than one might think. At the university at which I work, the major problem was not the sys admins who did not patch their servers, it was the professors who had Win2K Professional on their workstations with IIS on and didn't even know it. Some of them knew about the worm, even made sure that the department's IT teams patched their servers, but did not know that they were running a web server in their office, let alone that they were infected.
I think "31 years ago" was 0 Unix time.
Donations?
In a nation which struggles to achieve 50% moral literacy, isn't it a bit absurd to pursue book literacy. Book education is merely part of the process that encourages this "wilful illiteracy". Books also teach students to disregard rehtorical education. "Why learn vocabulary? I have a thesaurus do it for me!"
The growing focus on book learning is, to me, a symptom of the "children are adults in training" attitude. This warps children's developmental years, and is mostly the product of people who dislike children. People who spend time with children know that children need to act like children, not like adults. Children who spend too much time on books often grow to be withdrawn and isolated, often preferring books over the company of friends. Other children strongly resist being forced to use books, and react rebelliously, often violently.
Books are not a part of a healthy childhood. As a librarian, I have seen nothing to indicate that people who were exposed to books early in life gain any advantage over those who are introduced to them in the workplace or university. Often, long time users are at a disadvantage due to an unwillingness to learn new things about the text.
Books in schools reinforce an attitude that everything in life is preparation for something else. This is not healthy, and these are not the sort of values we should be imparting to our children.
Sadly, that is what people thought back in the days of the printing press. Michele de Montaigne lashed out against this in his essay L'institution des enfant.
Why is it that everything falling from the sky is compared in size to a car? I mean, in the movie Armageddon, they were "Baskeballs and Volkswagons", the chunks of MIR were "as large as a car" and now, people were saying that a falling object was "car-sized".
This reminds me of how they say that voracious fish can skeletonize a cow in less than X minutes. Are these some kind of bizarre empirial system measurement? What's the metric equivalent?