Our behavior is not controlled by our genes. Genes merely indicate certain innate tendencies. If mumsy & daddy pay a million dollars for the perfect child, but don't provide that child with the love and nurturing it needs, the child will not be the perfect social model. Simple as that. We are not controlled by our genes.
Also, addressing the "everyone will be beautiful" comment... Please. Do you see everyone getting plastic surgery now? It's available! Why isn't everyone the perfect looking person? The answer: Not everyone is so shallow. Most people are happy with who they are and don't put so much empahsis on the way they look. Of the people who do, many can't afford it. What is beauty after all? There have been studies showing that most find a person with symmetric characteristics (2 even eyes spaced the appropriate distance apart, etc..) to be more beautiful. But if you look at many 'popular' attrative people, you'll find that most have some kind of 'defect'. Look at Julia Robert's big mouth, Cindy Crawford's mole. etc. etc..
IIRC, the trademark and copyright laws only apply to products that are being sold and not to individual speech. So the real question here is whether a web page/mailing list post is to be regarded as individual speech (and therefore protected under the first amendment). I believe that courts have already ruled that web pages are an expression of free speech although I cannot cite any specific cases.
Any lawyers out there that can shed light on this?
Not being usable as a tool called from other programs, nor being able to call other tools using this programs.
This is merely the definition of a stand alone application. It serves a different purpose than the traditional Unix app which is basically a tool. A game like Civ: CTP isn't going to be called as a tool. It's not meant for that. Same thing for various other apps.
Requiring a bitmapped display with bus-speed updates for proper operation, making them useless over a modem connection or on a vt100-style terminal.
That's right. Some programs are graphical. Some aren't. You're not going to be able to do everything you want over a terminal - and you shouldn't! The command line is good for some things, and a graphical display is good for others.
Can't be run in a batch script or cron job, because it can't be automated. Again, the tool vs. stand alone app arguement.
Being forced to learn yet another set of unsearchable, unmemorizable, unsortable hieroglyphics (iconic ideograms) rather than alphabetic commands. The ubiquitous "toolbar" at the top of every program.
Most winapps do have menus and keyboard shortcuts for commands. In fact, the commonality of the same commands in teh same places of windows programs (cut, copy, paste) means that the learning time required to use them is greatly decreased. The toolbar can often be disabled as well.
You do bring up a lot of good points, and if I didn't respond to a point, that meant I agreed with it. But how does the prevelance of these winix apps detract from what is Unix? If someone copies files from one directory to another in KDE instead of using cp, what does it matter? Unix isn't losing it's functionality by using GUI's, it's gaining. The trick is to do it correctly. You've made a lot of really good points, but I have to disagree with you in that I don't view something that's user-friendly, easy to learn, and graphical as something that's bad. If I misinterpreted your view, please let me know.
There's a lot of eliteist's who view the mass acceptance of linux as detrimental because they lose their select club. (I'm not saying you're one of these). I think that linux can move toward mass acceptance without requiring the user to operate at a minimal level of intelligence. Linux originated as an OS for programmers and I don't think it should lose that focus, but I do think that in years to come it can be flexible enough for your mom to use as well.
I'm guessing that microsoft is wanting to stake an early claim in the linux application department. They're making tons of money off of their products like Office. If they could get office over to *NIX platforms, they'd have the entire market of office software.
Also, look at it from Gates' perspective. He wants to be the big daddy showing the world the wonders of computers. He sees himself as the man who brought the information age to the world. His apsirations for money and dominance are not as great as his belief in himself as the 'bringer of technology to the world'. He sees the trend toward linux and this move with MainWin will allow him to plant his big foot securely in Linux. Gates controls the mass applications. The applications become what people know and use, making the OS secondary. The OS is merely there to get the average user into their favorite app. If everyone is running Linux, but staring at MS products all day long, Gates still wins. He's still steering the boat of technology and that's what he wants.
Has anyone created an interface to actually control boil/mash temps with a computer. Or even logging your brew session or fermentation with your computer (it automatically records the temp at certain intervals). I've had some experience talking through serial ports with Perl, and have programmed in Java a bit too. Unfortunately, I don't have the $$ for digital thermometers - can anyone point me to a cheap one? If not, I'd love to help!
Slashdot Mirror
Also, addressing the "everyone will be beautiful" comment... Please. Do you see everyone getting plastic surgery now? It's available! Why isn't everyone the perfect looking person? The answer: Not everyone is so shallow. Most people are happy with who they are and don't put so much empahsis on the way they look. Of the people who do, many can't afford it. What is beauty after all? There have been studies showing that most find a person with symmetric characteristics (2 even eyes spaced the appropriate distance apart, etc..) to be more beautiful. But if you look at many 'popular' attrative people, you'll find that most have some kind of 'defect'. Look at Julia Robert's big mouth, Cindy Crawford's mole. etc. etc..
ponder...
IIRC, the trademark and copyright laws only apply to products that are being sold and not to individual speech. So the real question here is whether a web page/mailing list post is to be regarded as individual speech (and therefore protected under the first amendment). I believe that courts have already ruled that web pages are an expression of free speech although I cannot cite any specific cases.
Any lawyers out there that can shed light on this?
Shane Brauner
Not being usable as a tool called from other programs, nor being able to call other tools using this programs.
This is merely the definition of a stand alone application. It serves a different purpose than the traditional Unix app which is basically a tool. A game like Civ: CTP isn't going to be called as a tool. It's not meant for that. Same thing for various other apps.
Requiring a bitmapped display with bus-speed updates for proper operation, making them useless over a modem connection or on a vt100-style terminal.
That's right. Some programs are graphical. Some aren't. You're not going to be able to do everything you want over a terminal - and you shouldn't! The command line is good for some things, and a graphical display is good for others.
Can't be run in a batch script or cron job, because it can't be automated.
Again, the tool vs. stand alone app arguement.
Being forced to learn yet another set of unsearchable, unmemorizable, unsortable hieroglyphics (iconic ideograms) rather than alphabetic commands.
The ubiquitous "toolbar" at the top of every program.
Most winapps do have menus and keyboard shortcuts for commands. In fact, the commonality of the same commands in teh same places of windows programs (cut, copy, paste) means that the learning time required to use them is greatly decreased. The toolbar can often be disabled as well.
You do bring up a lot of good points, and if I didn't respond to a point, that meant I agreed with it. But how does the prevelance of these winix apps detract from what is Unix? If someone copies files from one directory to another in KDE instead of using cp, what does it matter? Unix isn't losing it's functionality by using GUI's, it's gaining. The trick is to do it correctly. You've made a lot of really good points, but I have to disagree with you in that I don't view something that's user-friendly, easy to learn, and graphical as something that's bad. If I misinterpreted your view, please let me know.
There's a lot of eliteist's who view the mass acceptance of linux as detrimental because they lose their select club. (I'm not saying you're one of these). I think that linux can move toward mass acceptance without requiring the user to operate at a minimal level of intelligence. Linux originated as an OS for programmers and I don't think it should lose that focus, but I do think that in years to come it can be flexible enough for your mom to use as well.
Shane Brauner
PS - Thanks for Perl!
I'm guessing that microsoft is wanting to stake an early claim in the linux application department. They're making tons of money off of
their products like Office. If they could get office over to *NIX platforms, they'd have the entire market of office software.
Also, look at it from Gates' perspective. He wants to be the big daddy showing the world the wonders of computers. He sees himself as the man who brought the information age to the world. His apsirations for money and dominance are not as great as his belief in himself as the 'bringer of technology to the world'. He sees the trend toward linux and this move with MainWin will allow him to plant his big foot securely in Linux. Gates controls the mass applications. The applications become what people know and use, making the OS secondary. The OS is merely there to get the average user into their favorite app. If everyone is running Linux, but staring at MS products all day long, Gates still wins. He's still steering the boat of technology and that's what he wants.
Has anyone created an interface to actually control boil/mash temps with a computer. Or even logging your brew session or fermentation with your computer (it automatically records the temp at certain intervals). I've had some experience talking through serial ports with Perl, and have programmed in Java a bit too. Unfortunately, I don't have the $$ for digital thermometers - can anyone point me to a cheap one? If not, I'd love to help!