Why would you assume that the "funny" content of this comment is the reference to Michael J. Fox, and not the reference to the Airboard from Back to the Future II? (neither of which were in the least bit funny, IMO)
On another note, I suppose you have never told or laughed at a sexist, racist, or otherwise offensive joke? Somehow I doubt it.
If you must express your offense, don't knock the moderator for his sense of humour, knock the poster for his insensitivity.
Who is
they? What is it? Why is the word even there?
Try reading the story out loud in a Dutch accent. (That is a serious suggestion.) You'll find that poor grammar is much more acceptable when spoken in a foreign accent than when read without the benefit of accent and emphasis.
If that doesn't help, carve the following sentence into one side of a length of 2" x 4" timber and beat yourself over the head with it until you understand.
The submissions must contain at LEAST one AOL CD used creatively. The more you use, however, the better your chances of winning. You can use as many CD?s as you like, but the discs must be the central focus of your project
Come on! Surely the most creative use of AOL CD's involves the least number of disks.
I mean really, how much imagination does it take to envisage a 24 foot Yellowfin Tuna made out of hundreds of AOL cd's? But creating a replica of the Eiffel tower out of a single disk? Now that takes imagination!
The comp. should be the most creative use of the least number of AOL cd's
The big problem is this approach does not take enough of those nasty silver-ish coasters off the general market
Why do people on Slashdot insist on knocking Microsoft just because they copied everyone else. What is Linux except a lame UNIX clone?
Um, perhaps because Microsoft are crowing so damn loud about innovation? I don't make any claims that Linux is innovative, and I don't hear anyone else doing so. So it's a UNIX clone! So what? That's what it was always intended to be.
FYI: The llama book is indeed an O'Reilly book (Learning Perl)
As far as I know, it is one of only a handful of O'Reilly books more commonly referred to by their colophonic companion animal than by their official title. The others being the Camel book (Programming Perl) and the bat book (Sendmail). There may be a couple of others, but those three are the only ones I know of that fit that description
I think it is more akin to selling bongs than selling hypodermic syringes. Sure, you can use a bong to inhale tobacco smoke, or the smoke of any other legal combustible compound, but does the bong vendor really believe (or care, for that matter) that any of his clientele use them for anything other than smoking marijuana? I don't think so!
It's not as if Napster is more commonly used for (non-copyright-breaching) legal file sharing, than for legal file sharing.
Napster, inc. knew that their service would be used by people who were breaking the law. So what?! What they were doing was not in and of itself against the law was it? How was it any different to selling a bong?
You'll also bump into those same beasties on Solaris. Check out/bin/clear(at least on Solaris 8) if you get a chance. When it was first pointed out to me, I spent about 20 seconds trying to decode the tput arguments until I realised what I was supposed to be looking at!
OK troll, I'll bite (if only to refute the obvious disinformation).
The term "newbie" has nothing whatsoever to do with race. It is not derived from "nubian" but from a contraction of "new" and "beginner". Similarly, "gnubie" (which you may have seen in use) is the obvious contraction of "GNU" and "newbie" and thus, also has nothing to do with race.
(By the way, if you were not trolling, seek help immediately! You have a doozie of a chip on your shoulder.)
Yes these people may indeed be well known for their views on AI and spiritual computers.
BUT... There are a couple of things aside from the date that make me wonder why more people haven't raised the "April Fool" alarm.
1) "This just in.... Robot Monks take over New York City.... Mayor blames Moore's law...."
Is this really the way serious philosophical symposia are announced?
2) "There are no plans to webcast the event, but it will be videotaped - please e-mail Chris after the 1st about obtaining a copy."
I suspect that Chris has just set up anakin@leland.stanford.edu with an autoresponder to reply after 1st April with "YHBT HAND" (or something similar:)
I would be more inclined to believe that this is not a joke if the page had links to abstracts of papers to be presented at this event.
I think it is a (less than elaborate) April Fool's Gag.
It is interesting how many physicists turn to religion of some sort, or at least write about it to some extent.
Here's my theory on why this happens. Pure speculation of course, but perhaps feasible.
The physicist spends years studying the intricacies and mysteries of the universe in an effort to gain some measure of understanding of its nature.
Each time a mystery is de-mystified, another exposes itself, thereby presenting a further intellectual challenge.
The physicist's confidence that all things may be explained and understood increases with each discovery.
As more mysteries become apparent, the physicist begins to change his views, ever so slightly. Such that, although all things exist for a reason and can be explained by physics, the infinite complexity of the universe precludes any one being from understanding it all, unless that one being is omniscient. Aha!
Hire a recent release video from your local video library and record this ad over the inevitable DVD promo at the start. (I dunno about the USA, but here in.au they are on every major release)
Innocent viewer sees it, visits the website at the end, and viola! More mindshare courtesy of MindShare.
Actually, both these thoughts ran through my mind until I read the blurb. And I was still mistaken when I hit the link for the pics. I thought I was going to see the coat of arms of UMass.
Achieving that level of detail in 6um would have been really impressive!
Many people are going to say that RMS is a crackpot or a communist.
Sure he's a crackpot. But, he's a crackpot who stays true to his cause, a driven crackpot, exactly the kind of crackpot we need. Without RMS and the FSF providing the "lunatic fringe" of the open source (note the lack of case) revolution, the world would consider pragmatists like ESR and the Open Source(TM) movement to be the lunatic fringe. Which would probably mean that The Establishment would outright reject the concept of distributing the source code with the object code.
As it is, we have The Establishment embracing Open Source(TM), which is probably more than we could without RMS and his cronies.
The key phrase here is "non-constituent". Does anyone really believe that these weasels would EVER care about the views of someone who cannot vote for them? So vote! Maybe we can legalize knowledge.
Umm, how can they tell? I mean, there's no guarantee that, for example, a *.ca address even belongs to a US citizen, let alone a Californian resident.
I've gone and got lazy over the past 20 or so years, so I don't read that much anymore.
But, at about that age, I recall not being able to get enough of John Wyndham's stuff. The Chrysalids, Day of the Triffids, Chocky, The Kraken Wakes, Consider her Ways and others that I can't recall at the moment. Certainly not "pure" science fiction, and possibly a little bit UK-centric for a US reader, but a good read nonetheless.
I think that we detect air movement by the hairs on our skin, but I am certain that we can detect air pressure by another method. For instance, when you dive, climb a mountain, or go up in an unpressurised airplane, you will almost certainly need to equalise the pressure between your inner ear and the outside atmosphere.
Come to think of it, the way that is detected might also be a manifestation of touch due to membranes pressing against certain sensors (either from within or from without) harder than they otherwise should at 1 atmosphere.
What is it that defines a sense? Is it a mechanism for detecting stimuli to which a response is appropriate? Or something else?
Humans are able to detect changes in air pressure, there's no denying that. Is that a sense?
A sense of temperature? Maybe it's just another manifestation of the sense of touch, or maybe it's related to touch in the same way as taste is to smell.
What about a sense of time? We can detect the passage of time, does that count as a sense?
What about thirst and hunger, are those sensations the result of a sense?
So would all contributors get an equal slice of the pie? So that the contributor who puts forth a 5-minute 2 line fix gets the same as the one who spends 3 weeks debugging a 1200 line mega-function?
Or do you plan to somehow determine the "worth" of each contributor's code? What method would possibly be fair? Lines of code? Profiling?
Postgres, MySQL, or mSQL for varying degrees of "open source-ness". Or you may wish to go with one of the "big 5" commercial databases, Oracle, Informix, DB2, Ingres, (what's the other one, Unidata?). Each of these DBMSes provide a rich API - basically SQL, or a superset thereof - to which to write your application. With careful use of SQL statements, your app will be a lot more portable across DBMSes as well as across platforms. This could be a considerable advantage if your project grows beyond all expectations, or if a new client already has a SQL database. Hell, it might even work on MSSQL!
Slashdot Mirror
Why would you assume that the "funny" content of this comment is the reference to Michael J. Fox, and not the reference to the Airboard from Back to the Future II? (neither of which were in the least bit funny, IMO)
On another note, I suppose you have never told or laughed at a sexist, racist, or otherwise offensive joke? Somehow I doubt it.
If you must express your offense, don't knock the moderator for his sense of humour, knock the poster for his insensitivity.
Try reading the story out loud in a Dutch accent. (That is a serious suggestion.) You'll find that poor grammar is much more acceptable when spoken in a foreign accent than when read without the benefit of accent and emphasis.
If that doesn't help, carve the following sentence into one side of a length of 2" x 4" timber and beat yourself over the head with it until you understand.
English is not everyone's native language.
True, but the /. team could have easily deleted the story. They do deserve some credit for not doing so.
Come on! Surely the most creative use of AOL CD's involves the least number of disks.
I mean really, how much imagination does it take to envisage a 24 foot Yellowfin Tuna made out of hundreds of AOL cd's? But creating a replica of the Eiffel tower out of a single disk? Now that takes imagination!
The comp. should be the most creative use of the least number of AOL cd's
The big problem is this approach does not take enough of those nasty silver-ish coasters off the general market
Both users report that they are very happy!
Um, perhaps because Microsoft are crowing so damn loud about innovation? I don't make any claims that Linux is innovative, and I don't hear anyone else doing so. So it's a UNIX clone! So what? That's what it was always intended to be.
FYI: The llama book is indeed an O'Reilly book (Learning Perl)
As far as I know, it is one of only a handful of O'Reilly books more commonly referred to by their colophonic companion animal than by their official title. The others being the Camel book (Programming Perl) and the bat book (Sendmail). There may be a couple of others, but those three are the only ones I know of that fit that description
...reminds me of my approach to all manner of engineering.
1) Measure with a micrometer.
2) Mark with chalk.
3) Cut with an axe.
Yes and no.
I think it is more akin to selling bongs than selling hypodermic syringes. Sure, you can use a bong to inhale tobacco smoke, or the smoke of any other legal combustible compound, but does the bong vendor really believe (or care, for that matter) that any of his clientele use them for anything other than smoking marijuana? I don't think so!
It's not as if Napster is more commonly used for (non-copyright-breaching) legal file sharing, than for legal file sharing.
Napster, inc. knew that their service would be used by people who were breaking the law. So what?! What they were doing was not in and of itself against the law was it? How was it any different to selling a bong?
...a self-fulfilling prophecy?
/. effect alone might come close to "collapsing" hotmail.
The
You'll also bump into those same beasties on Solaris. Check out /bin/clear(at least on Solaris 8) if you get a chance. When it was first pointed out to me, I spent about 20 seconds trying to decode the tput arguments until I realised what I was supposed to be looking at!
Does anyone else see judge T.P. Jackson as Mickey Mouse in Fantasia?
MS as the broom(s)?
MS' lawyers as the buckets?
The court as the well?
Appeals as the water?
OK troll, I'll bite (if only to refute the obvious disinformation).
The term "newbie" has nothing whatsoever to do with race. It is not derived from "nubian" but from a contraction of "new" and "beginner". Similarly, "gnubie" (which you may have seen in use) is the obvious contraction of "GNU" and "newbie" and thus, also has nothing to do with race.
(By the way, if you were not trolling, seek help immediately! You have a doozie of a chip on your shoulder.)
No.
Yes these people may indeed be well known for their views on AI and spiritual computers.
:)
BUT... There are a couple of things aside from the date that make me wonder why more people haven't raised the "April Fool" alarm.
1) "This just in.... Robot Monks take over New York City.... Mayor blames Moore's law...."
Is this really the way serious philosophical symposia are announced?
2) "There are no plans to webcast the event, but it will be videotaped - please e-mail Chris after the 1st about obtaining a copy."
I suspect that Chris has just set up anakin@leland.stanford.edu with an autoresponder to reply after 1st April with "YHBT HAND" (or something similar
I would be more inclined to believe that this is not a joke if the page had links to abstracts of papers to be presented at this event.
I think it is a (less than elaborate) April Fool's Gag.
Here's my theory on why this happens. Pure speculation of course, but perhaps feasible.
That gives me a great idea!
.au they are on every major release)
:(
Hire a recent release video from your local video library and record this ad over the inevitable DVD promo at the start. (I dunno about the USA, but here in
Innocent viewer sees it, visits the website at the end, and viola! More mindshare courtesy of MindShare.
Now if I only had two VCR's
Actually, both these thoughts ran through my mind until I read the blurb. And I was still mistaken when I hit the link for the pics. I thought I was going to see the coat of arms of UMass.
Achieving that level of detail in 6um would have been really impressive!
Sure he's a crackpot. But, he's a crackpot who stays true to his cause, a driven crackpot, exactly the kind of crackpot we need. Without RMS and the FSF providing the "lunatic fringe" of the open source (note the lack of case) revolution, the world would consider pragmatists like ESR and the Open Source(TM) movement to be the lunatic fringe. Which would probably mean that The Establishment would outright reject the concept of distributing the source code with the object code.
As it is, we have The Establishment embracing Open Source(TM), which is probably more than we could without RMS and his cronies.
In short, RMS may be a loonie, that's fine by me!
Umm, how can they tell? I mean, there's no guarantee that, for example, a *.ca address even belongs to a US citizen, let alone a Californian resident.
I've gone and got lazy over the past 20 or so years, so I don't read that much anymore.
But, at about that age, I recall not being able to get enough of John Wyndham's stuff. The Chrysalids, Day of the Triffids, Chocky, The Kraken Wakes, Consider her Ways and others that I can't recall at the moment. Certainly not "pure" science fiction, and possibly a little bit UK-centric for a US reader, but a good read nonetheless.
I think that we detect air movement by the hairs on our skin, but I am certain that we can detect air pressure by another method. For instance, when you dive, climb a mountain, or go up in an unpressurised airplane, you will almost certainly need to equalise the pressure between your inner ear and the outside atmosphere.
Come to think of it, the way that is detected might also be a manifestation of touch due to membranes pressing against certain sensors (either from within or from without) harder than they otherwise should at 1 atmosphere.
Whaddya think?
OK, good point, but lets take it a step further.
What is it that defines a sense? Is it a mechanism for detecting stimuli to which a response is appropriate? Or something else?
Humans are able to detect changes in air pressure, there's no denying that. Is that a sense?
A sense of temperature? Maybe it's just another manifestation of the sense of touch, or maybe it's related to touch in the same way as taste is to smell.
What about a sense of time? We can detect the passage of time, does that count as a sense?
What about thirst and hunger, are those sensations the result of a sense?
So is that 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11 senses in all?
So would all contributors get an equal slice of the pie? So that the contributor who puts forth a 5-minute 2 line fix gets the same as the one who spends 3 weeks debugging a 1200 line mega-function?
Or do you plan to somehow determine the "worth" of each contributor's code? What method would possibly be fair? Lines of code? Profiling?
I think you might be asking for disputes.
Postgres, MySQL, or mSQL for varying degrees of "open source-ness". Or you may wish to go with one of the "big 5" commercial databases, Oracle, Informix, DB2, Ingres, (what's the other one, Unidata?). Each of these DBMSes provide a rich API - basically SQL, or a superset thereof - to which to write your application. With careful use of SQL statements, your app will be a lot more portable across DBMSes as well as across platforms. This could be a considerable advantage if your project grows beyond all expectations, or if a new client already has a SQL database. Hell, it might even work on MSSQL!