"We're staying out of Europe partly because of the multitude of languages"
and yet you went to Japan? maybe if you were serious about your business you would research into markets.
Okay, if you were making a general rant, I wouldn't mind as much, but this is personal.
Do you know anything about us? Do you even know if we're a service or product oriented firm? Are you telling me that you know more about our market than we do?
Now I'm a software developer; I don't do the market research myself. But I'm of Japanese descent, and I can tell you that this came as a complete surprise to me: our target market in Japan already makes use of many English-language software packages. I gather that this is not the case in Europe. Besides, I said that was the lesser reason.
Don't go making personal attacks unless you know who you're attacking.
We're a US company with a development office in Canada (which is where I write from). We're staying out of Europe partly because of the multitude of languages, but mainly because (I'm told) it's a morass of different regulations; I have no doubt patent law is one of them. The complexity is not worth our trouble of going there. The first ocean we crossed was the pacific, to Japan.
I have very ambiguous feelings towards software patents, but the European Parliament is probably going in the right direction if they're harmonizing business regulations.
but for a totally different reason. (Okay, "crisis" is too strong a word.) Your point was more valid in the past, but not so much any longer. Other responses have touched on this, but I don't think they explained themselves clearly enough for most people to understand.
In Japanese, there are three sets of characters: two parallel alphabets that are basically phonetic, and the characters imported from China that are symbolic, called kanji. Kanji represent whole or parts of words.
Modern Japanese word processors usually have phonetic input methods, and can replace the phonetic letters with the appropriate kanji. It's not quite automatic, but all you need to do is choose from a list of options.
Now you have to understand that the skill of reading kanji is not the same as the skill of writing kanji. Word processors let you do all your writing without using the latter skill, of remembering the mapping from a word to the kanji that represents it.
As a result, some people are becoming less and less capable of remembering how to write the kanji for a word unless they have a machine to show them the possibilities.
The duality of this skill is apparent when you try to learn kanji. It's a bit like multiple-choice tests being easier than the usual ones in which you have to come up with the answer. Although, in one or two cases, I found that I could actually write a kanji, but be unable to read it! That was really bizarre.
You might wonder why Japanese bother with kanji... why not write everything with the phonetic alphabets? Believe it or not, it's easier to read with kanji. Part of the reason for this is that there are no spaces between words in Japanese (although some children's books do use spaces when they haven't learned any kanji yet). Kanji give you "signposts" of where words begin and end. There's more to it than just that, but that's part of the reason.
Heaven forbid anyone else should dare to lead (or try to lead) in any particular sector of industry...or in anything for that matter!!!
In Canada, there is a popular conspiracy theory about the Avro Arrow, a fighter-interceptor that was being developed up here in the 50s.
If you believe the hype that was around it, it was destined to be the fastest interceptor in the world, necessitated by the fact that Canada has such an enormous northern territory to protect.
The conspiracy theorists claim that it was killed by political pressure from the U.S., who was worried about its northern neighbour commanding such advanced technology.
I often hear people touting hydrogen because the only by-product is water, which sounds wonderful... However, I suspect that's only because we can drink the stuff.
But isn't water vapour the most potent greenhouse agent in our atmosphere?
Not sure, just asking.
One must also ask how much water vapour is currently in the atmosphere, and how much would be added by large numbers of hydrogen-driven power plants. Again, I don't know. Anyone know of any research on this question?
The UNIX-HATERS Handbook has a chapter called The X-Windows Disaster. Near the end, there is a hilarious bit about colours. The durned lameness filter prevents me from posting it.
Search for the word "circus" in that chapter, and you'll find it.
Now I'll admit that I didn't - but even with my quick perusal, I don't know how you can claim to have understood the core of their argument without mentioning Project Monterey. In a document short on specific references (I think we agree on that) there were several references to this joint project between SCO and IBM.
Here is my own summary of what I thought was their core argument.
Again, I haven't read the whole thing, so I can't claim to have understood it myself... but I think I can say that I doubt you do.
Based on a really really quick (and therefore possibly erroneous or inaccurate) skimming of their complaint (can be seen here), the crux of their argument seems to be as follows.
50. "IBM approached SCO to jointly develop a new 64-bit UNIX-based operating system for Intel-based processing platforms. This joint development effort was widely known as Project Monterey."
92. "Thereafter, on December 20, 2000, IBM Vice President Robert LeBlanc disclosed IBM's improper use of confidential and proprietary information learned from Project Monterey to bolster Linux as part of IBM's long term vision...
"[IBM] continued with Monterey as an extension of AIX [IBM UNIX] to support high-end hardware. AIX 5 has the best of Monterey.
"[IBM stated it is] willing to open source any part of AIX that the Linux community considers valuable.
95. "IBM's AIX contributions were integrated into the standard Linux source tree, a win for open source.
96. "Again,IBM's AIX contributions" consisted of the improper extraction, use, and dissemination of SCO'S UNIX source code and libraries, and unauthorized misuse of UNIX methods, concepts, and know-how."
It goes on and on the way legal documents always do, so I don't have the patience to read it all... But there might be some substance to the argument.
Seems to me like rejecting this patent would be the best thing -- then the information would stay in the public domain, and a good precedent would be set for not allowing viruses to be patented.
I think you're right, but I gather that the USPTO has been setting precedent after precedent of the opposite, which is why this kind of "defensive" patenting is going on at all.
I am Canadian and I'm quiet offended by how some Canadians all of a sudden see this subject as a reason to tell the US how better we are at liberties and stuff.
Fellow Canadian here... And I agree.
I think the U.S. currently is stricken with a range of almost intractably difficult social and political troubles. It's shameful that some people seize on the opportunity to laugh at them when they're down.
Myself, I feel heartbroken about the problems in the U.S. I would urge all Americans to act. Take your nation back from your government. Involve yourself as much as you can.
Above all, VOTE. Educate yourself and vote for the party whose ideals you share. Maybe you should even start a new party. Believe in your democratic system and make it work for you. And remember that you are the current world superpower; it behooves you to educate yourselves about world events and foreign policy. The internet is here - use it.
Again, I'm not saying Canada's perfect... but it's clear you're having problems, and you must all work to heal yourselves.
I'd prefer to live in a country where police can't arrest you and keep you in jail for no reason.
I'm a proud Canadian, but I'm bound to say, in fairness, that we've had our own share of troubles.
Particularly if you talk to a Quebecer, you will probably get an earfull about the FLQ crisis of October 1970, when Quebec sovereignist terrorists kidnapped (and subsequently killed) a Canadian minister. In response, the federal government invoked the War Measures Act, suspending certain civil liberties, and many people suspected of links to the FLQ were detained without good reason.
Now, in fairness to the Canadian government, the act was invoked at the request of the Quebec government... But I'm sure you'll hear other sides to this story.
Switching back to "proud Canadian" mode, I do feel that our governments (at all levels) have done a pretty good job at balancing security against liberty.
I agree with those saying there's been no imagination in coming up with new Star Trek series. They are all carbon copies of each other, with the possible exception of DS9.
In the vein of different Star Trek stories, has anyone read the novel(s) "The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh?" It's in two parts, and I'm impatiently waiting for the second to appear in paperback.
I know this is just slightly off-topic, but I must talk about it!
The story (obviously) follows the life of Khan. However, in an absolute stroke of genius, the writer also included the character of Gary Seven, the mysterious alien-bred human introduced in the original series. The episode was clearly being set up to be spun off, but never did.
As I said before, I think that putting Gary Seven and Khan on the same stage (or rather, realizing that they would have been contemporaries) was a stroke of genius. They're both genetically enhanced, but with completely opposite political and personal ideologies.You could not ask for two men more perfectly crafted to oppose each other in a dramatic conflict.
Gary Seven was sent to Earth to quietly pull strings and guide world events for the betterment of the human race. Khan actually has similar motives, but intends to fix the world by forcibly taking control of everything. He's not the obsessed villain of ST:TWOK (not yet, anyway), and he's a thoroughly believable character.
It's amazing that the stage, the plot, and the characters for this story could all emerge by accident! When you realize they were on the same planet at the same time, you realize they must have butted heads.
Make a miniseries of this, I say. I'd be all over it.
BTW, if you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. There's a little bit of gratuitous reference-dropping, but I have nothing else bad to say about it. Read it!
It seems like a rather anal-retentive thing to argue about...
Yeah. Just a little related story, if anyone's interested...
A few years back, I was working at a software firm that dealt with satellite radar imagery. The software calculated the satellite's lat/long position by extrapolating from a known time and position right after launch, to the time when the data was captured. Some of these satellites had been in operation for over ten years.
At the time, I was fixing it up to be Y2K compliant. I did some refactoring and put all the date-related code in one place, which was nice. It was also nice because (if I remember correctly), some pieces of code weren't doing leap year calculation correctly.
That was when I learned all about precise time-keeping, and the question of leap seconds weighed on me a little bit. How far off were our lat/long calculations? I'm pretty sure the on-board clock didn't do leap seconds, so we were probably okay, but in some cases, it's possible that the ground receiving station might have inserted the time stamps. Then what? I still have no idea.
In the end, nobody ever talked about leap seconds (including long-time radar experts, which I was not), and furthermore, it was already a reasonably established product, so I just decided it was a can of worms I didn't want to open.
But for a short while, I was cursing the name of those anal-retentive time geeks who had to make life so freakin' complicated for me.
...it seems that Windows has such a high market share when 40% of developers who use Linux are focusing primarily on Linux.
Wait a minute. This is still incorrect.
Petreley was very precise in his wording. The conclusion was that 40% of developers currently using Linux used to use Windows.
It does not at all address overall market share! The question being answered was, "is Linux taking more market share, in an absolute sense, from Windows or from Unix?" If there were more people migrating to Windows, then Linux would be losing overall market share. But Petreley's conclusion would still stand.
From what I see, the previous Slashdot article completely misinterpreted the conclusion. It was not even close.
...we can bottle ourselves up in nice little climate-controlled houses, eat carefully prepared and nutritionally balanced foods, get regimented exercise, and receive all manner of medical treatment that cancel out pretty much everything that evolution has to work with.
On the contrary, all of these things are huge "environmental" changes that will cause many evolutionary changes in human beings who continue to live for generations under such conditions.
...that make them seem like two-hour-long television episodes.
Do others agree? Why do you think this is?
My brother and I were debating this a little bit. We couldn't put our fingers on what it was, but we had theories like poor sets, poor lighting, the pacing of the stories, or something about the cinematography.
We both agreed that they are making a mistake in trying to give all the cast members a chance to shine, because the tightness of the stories have suffered as a result. They have too many parts to fill. But neither of us thought that this was the reason for the movies' "TV-ness".
I think the essence of dissatisfaction with one's life is being dishonest with yourself. Do you really love the work you're doing?
Learn the telltale signs of self-deception: Where do you really end up spending your time? Step back and examine your own body language when you say things like "I enjoy my job" or "I'm happy with my life." What really gives you that warm feeling inside? Follow your gut.
Most of all: are you saying and doing what you believe, or are you saying and doing what you want people to believe of you?
Everyone must assess themselves in their own way. And everyone must come up with their own solution in their own way.
Just because it's in the distant past doesn't mean nobody is observing it. We are still the ones indirectly observing the effects of the events of the distant past.
Whoops. I missed your core question (too early in the morning), and it's a good one ("how did the first observer emerge?").
Well, I don't see any reason why one of those unobserved quantum states couldn't include an observer, by happenstance (or by God). So maybe the first quantum state that includes an observer is the one that it will automatically "settle" on.
Slashdot Mirror
"We're staying out of Europe partly because of the multitude of languages"
and yet you went to Japan? maybe if you were serious about your business you would research into markets.
Okay, if you were making a general rant, I wouldn't mind as much, but this is personal.
Do you know anything about us? Do you even know if we're a service or product oriented firm? Are you telling me that you know more about our market than we do?
Now I'm a software developer; I don't do the market research myself. But I'm of Japanese descent, and I can tell you that this came as a complete surprise to me: our target market in Japan already makes use of many English-language software packages. I gather that this is not the case in Europe. Besides, I said that was the lesser reason.
Don't go making personal attacks unless you know who you're attacking.
We're a US company with a development office in Canada (which is where I write from). We're staying out of Europe partly because of the multitude of languages, but mainly because (I'm told) it's a morass of different regulations; I have no doubt patent law is one of them. The complexity is not worth our trouble of going there. The first ocean we crossed was the pacific, to Japan.
I have very ambiguous feelings towards software patents, but the European Parliament is probably going in the right direction if they're harmonizing business regulations.
but for a totally different reason. (Okay, "crisis" is too strong a word.) Your point was more valid in the past, but not so much any longer. Other responses have touched on this, but I don't think they explained themselves clearly enough for most people to understand.
In Japanese, there are three sets of characters: two parallel alphabets that are basically phonetic, and the characters imported from China that are symbolic, called kanji. Kanji represent whole or parts of words.
Modern Japanese word processors usually have phonetic input methods, and can replace the phonetic letters with the appropriate kanji. It's not quite automatic, but all you need to do is choose from a list of options.
Now you have to understand that the skill of reading kanji is not the same as the skill of writing kanji. Word processors let you do all your writing without using the latter skill, of remembering the mapping from a word to the kanji that represents it.
As a result, some people are becoming less and less capable of remembering how to write the kanji for a word unless they have a machine to show them the possibilities.
The duality of this skill is apparent when you try to learn kanji. It's a bit like multiple-choice tests being easier than the usual ones in which you have to come up with the answer. Although, in one or two cases, I found that I could actually write a kanji, but be unable to read it! That was really bizarre.
You might wonder why Japanese bother with kanji... why not write everything with the phonetic alphabets? Believe it or not, it's easier to read with kanji. Part of the reason for this is that there are no spaces between words in Japanese (although some children's books do use spaces when they haven't learned any kanji yet). Kanji give you "signposts" of where words begin and end. There's more to it than just that, but that's part of the reason.
Heaven forbid anyone else should dare to lead (or try to lead) in any particular sector of industry...or in anything for that matter!!!
In Canada, there is a popular conspiracy theory about the Avro Arrow, a fighter-interceptor that was being developed up here in the 50s.
If you believe the hype that was around it, it was destined to be the fastest interceptor in the world, necessitated by the fact that Canada has such an enormous northern territory to protect.
The conspiracy theorists claim that it was killed by political pressure from the U.S., who was worried about its northern neighbour commanding such advanced technology.
I often hear people touting hydrogen because the only by-product is water, which sounds wonderful... However, I suspect that's only because we can drink the stuff.
But isn't water vapour the most potent greenhouse agent in our atmosphere?
Not sure, just asking.
One must also ask how much water vapour is currently in the atmosphere, and how much would be added by large numbers of hydrogen-driven power plants. Again, I don't know. Anyone know of any research on this question?
The UNIX-HATERS Handbook has a chapter called The X-Windows Disaster. Near the end, there is a hilarious bit about colours. The durned lameness filter prevents me from posting it.
Search for the word "circus" in that chapter, and you'll find it.
Now I'll admit that I didn't - but even with my quick perusal, I don't know how you can claim to have understood the core of their argument without mentioning Project Monterey. In a document short on specific references (I think we agree on that) there were several references to this joint project between SCO and IBM.
Here is my own summary of what I thought was their core argument.
Again, I haven't read the whole thing, so I can't claim to have understood it myself... but I think I can say that I doubt you do.
Based on a really really quick (and therefore possibly erroneous or inaccurate) skimming of their complaint (can be seen here), the crux of their argument seems to be as follows.
It goes on and on the way legal documents always do, so I don't have the patience to read it all... But there might be some substance to the argument.
Seems to me like rejecting this patent would be the best thing -- then the information would stay in the public domain, and a good precedent would be set for not allowing viruses to be patented.
I think you're right, but I gather that the USPTO has been setting precedent after precedent of the opposite, which is why this kind of "defensive" patenting is going on at all.
I am Canadian and I'm quiet offended by how some Canadians all of a sudden see this subject as a reason to tell the US how better we are at liberties and stuff.
Fellow Canadian here... And I agree.
I think the U.S. currently is stricken with a range of almost intractably difficult social and political troubles. It's shameful that some people seize on the opportunity to laugh at them when they're down.
Myself, I feel heartbroken about the problems in the U.S. I would urge all Americans to act. Take your nation back from your government. Involve yourself as much as you can.
Above all, VOTE. Educate yourself and vote for the party whose ideals you share. Maybe you should even start a new party. Believe in your democratic system and make it work for you. And remember that you are the current world superpower; it behooves you to educate yourselves about world events and foreign policy. The internet is here - use it.
Again, I'm not saying Canada's perfect... but it's clear you're having problems, and you must all work to heal yourselves.
I'd prefer to live in a country where police can't arrest you and keep you in jail for no reason.
I'm a proud Canadian, but I'm bound to say, in fairness, that we've had our own share of troubles.
Particularly if you talk to a Quebecer, you will probably get an earfull about the FLQ crisis of October 1970, when Quebec sovereignist terrorists kidnapped (and subsequently killed) a Canadian minister. In response, the federal government invoked the War Measures Act, suspending certain civil liberties, and many people suspected of links to the FLQ were detained without good reason.
Now, in fairness to the Canadian government, the act was invoked at the request of the Quebec government... But I'm sure you'll hear other sides to this story.
Switching back to "proud Canadian" mode, I do feel that our governments (at all levels) have done a pretty good job at balancing security against liberty.
e.g. tulip blubs sell well, but not like they used to.
Ah, gotta love Slashdot and all its spelling fulbs.
As soon as the first one is put into operation, we must post its IP address here and Slashdot it! HAHAHAHA!!
I don't know why that's so funny to me.
England is their testbed?
They should be taking it to Japan, where toilets are already equipped with countless unimaginable electronic doodads.
I agree with those saying there's been no imagination in coming up with new Star Trek series. They are all carbon copies of each other, with the possible exception of DS9.
In the vein of different Star Trek stories, has anyone read the novel(s) "The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh?" It's in two parts, and I'm impatiently waiting for the second to appear in paperback.
I know this is just slightly off-topic, but I must talk about it!
The story (obviously) follows the life of Khan. However, in an absolute stroke of genius, the writer also included the character of Gary Seven, the mysterious alien-bred human introduced in the original series. The episode was clearly being set up to be spun off, but never did.
As I said before, I think that putting Gary Seven and Khan on the same stage (or rather, realizing that they would have been contemporaries) was a stroke of genius. They're both genetically enhanced, but with completely opposite political and personal ideologies.You could not ask for two men more perfectly crafted to oppose each other in a dramatic conflict.
Gary Seven was sent to Earth to quietly pull strings and guide world events for the betterment of the human race. Khan actually has similar motives, but intends to fix the world by forcibly taking control of everything. He's not the obsessed villain of ST:TWOK (not yet, anyway), and he's a thoroughly believable character.
It's amazing that the stage, the plot, and the characters for this story could all emerge by accident! When you realize they were on the same planet at the same time, you realize they must have butted heads.
Make a miniseries of this, I say. I'd be all over it.
BTW, if you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. There's a little bit of gratuitous reference-dropping, but I have nothing else bad to say about it. Read it!
It seems like a rather anal-retentive thing to argue about...
Yeah. Just a little related story, if anyone's interested...
A few years back, I was working at a software firm that dealt with satellite radar imagery. The software calculated the satellite's lat/long position by extrapolating from a known time and position right after launch, to the time when the data was captured. Some of these satellites had been in operation for over ten years.
At the time, I was fixing it up to be Y2K compliant. I did some refactoring and put all the date-related code in one place, which was nice. It was also nice because (if I remember correctly), some pieces of code weren't doing leap year calculation correctly.
That was when I learned all about precise time-keeping, and the question of leap seconds weighed on me a little bit. How far off were our lat/long calculations? I'm pretty sure the on-board clock didn't do leap seconds, so we were probably okay, but in some cases, it's possible that the ground receiving station might have inserted the time stamps. Then what? I still have no idea.
In the end, nobody ever talked about leap seconds (including long-time radar experts, which I was not), and furthermore, it was already a reasonably established product, so I just decided it was a can of worms I didn't want to open.
But for a short while, I was cursing the name of those anal-retentive time geeks who had to make life so freakin' complicated for me.
Wait a minute. This is still incorrect.
Petreley was very precise in his wording. The conclusion was that 40% of developers currently using Linux used to use Windows.
It does not at all address overall market share! The question being answered was, "is Linux taking more market share, in an absolute sense, from Windows or from Unix?" If there were more people migrating to Windows, then Linux would be losing overall market share. But Petreley's conclusion would still stand.
From what I see, the previous Slashdot article completely misinterpreted the conclusion. It was not even close.
But then, I could be wrong, too.
My brain must be screwed in backwards today, I thought the description read "it reportedly uses character recognition from 007 surveillance cameras.."
On the contrary, all of these things are huge "environmental" changes that will cause many evolutionary changes in human beings who continue to live for generations under such conditions.
If it gets to hot for us, we just crank up the AC.
That's only true for the small percentage of "we" on this planet that can afford AC.
...that make them seem like two-hour-long television episodes.
Do others agree? Why do you think this is?
My brother and I were debating this a little bit. We couldn't put our fingers on what it was, but we had theories like poor sets, poor lighting, the pacing of the stories, or something about the cinematography.
We both agreed that they are making a mistake in trying to give all the cast members a chance to shine, because the tightness of the stories have suffered as a result. They have too many parts to fill. But neither of us thought that this was the reason for the movies' "TV-ness".
Anyone have any theories?
There are certainly no silver bullets here.
I think the essence of dissatisfaction with one's life is being dishonest with yourself. Do you really love the work you're doing?
Learn the telltale signs of self-deception: Where do you really end up spending your time? Step back and examine your own body language when you say things like "I enjoy my job" or "I'm happy with my life." What really gives you that warm feeling inside? Follow your gut.
Most of all: are you saying and doing what you believe, or are you saying and doing what you want people to believe of you?
Everyone must assess themselves in their own way. And everyone must come up with their own solution in their own way.
There are no silver bullets, period.
I tend to have a lot more trouble with my mouse in terms of repetetive stress.
I wonder if this guy can replace it with my old Etch-a-Sketch? :-)
Of course, one of those NASA scientists must, just MUST, create a planet for the express purpose of finding the answer to the great question:
What do you get if you multiply six by nine?
Just because it's in the distant past doesn't mean nobody is observing it. We are still the ones indirectly observing the effects of the events of the distant past.
Whoops. I missed your core question (too early in the morning), and it's a good one ("how did the first observer emerge?").
Well, I don't see any reason why one of those unobserved quantum states couldn't include an observer, by happenstance (or by God). So maybe the first quantum state that includes an observer is the one that it will automatically "settle" on.
But IANA physicist.