...usually, I'm not much bothered by "celebrity" deaths.
This one, though. is different. Waking up this morning the Adams' passing was a shocker. No tears -- just sincere regret, and a selfish sense of "I'll miss him."
My wife and I listened to the Hitchhiker radio play back we were first married; it's been a part of our lives (as a central bit of humor) for so long. It's one of those comedic routines that provides stock lines for conversation; the number 42 shows up an awful lot. His style has been a strong influence on my own writing career...
Damn!
The only bright spot: Perhaps Douglas Adams can now hitchhike the galaxy on his own, giving the gods and angels a chuckle or two...
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
I didn't mean "dark" as a criticism -- one thing I love about Farscape is it's willingness to be down, dirty, and ugly. I almost lost faith when they brought Aeryn back to life -- but then they killed Zhaan... now that's ballsy, killing a major character.
Give me Farscape any day over the insipid Voyager...
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
I liked the original series, campy as it was (and when I was a preteen). Next Generation was good most of the time, even if the crew had a moral corn cob up their collective whatsis. Deep Space 9 bored me; Voyager is/was good sometimes, but is often too much of a soap opera for my taste.
Give me Farscape (although it's been rather dark recently), or the first four seasons of Babylon 5. Anything but forthright Federation/Earth folk seeking out new particles and human-like civilizations, going where countless episodes have gone before...
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
...that I feel a sense of satisfaction while watching the dot-com bubble burst.
Yes, this makes me a petty person, and yes, I really want to feel bad for these folks who created snake-oil dreams -- but I don't. The people I do feel for are the workers -- the developers, office people, and general grunts who got caught up in this mess. Most of these folks -- including the programmers -- went to work in good faith, being promised the sky by crooks and false visionaries.
Yah know what's funny, though? Two years ago, people were urging me to join their dot-com dreams; I, instead, found myself a comfortable position with an unexciting company that works in the boring realm of document management. The work is quite challenging, but not very sexy -- and a lot of techy friends derided my choice.
Those same techies are now calling *me* to ask for a job.
Yeah, I've made my mistakes over the years, so I don't blame people for wanting to get rich on the dot-com boom. Perhaps the dot-com mess is a reflection of our society; I think the reasoning is similar to that of gamblers -- one more pull of the lever, one more roll of the dice, and I'll never be rich beyond the dreams of avarice...
...but in the end, most folks go home with empty pockets and broken dreams.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
It's called "play", Jon. I spend a great deal of time dealing with "deep" subjects and tough technical issues (surprise, you're not alone!), and my mind needs to take a vacation sometimes. For two hours, The Mummy Returns asked nothing from me: no moral questions, no grand themes -- hell, no plot, either!;) Just some silly in-jokes, OK (but not great) CGI, a couple of cute babes, and a good doses of bad history. My eldest daughter is studying to be an Egyptologist; my wife has work on digs in the Yucatan -- and both of them loved this flick.
You take everything far too seriously, Jon, and you're going to hurt yourself doing that. That's why more and more people tune you out -- you're painful to listen to these days. I know, I've been there -- and I ended up bitter and burned out, before coming back to center again.
You'll find it much easier to cope with the complexities when you let your brain take a vacation every once and a while... you might find your mind refreshed after letting it rest.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
...earned -- but I get the feeling that people like Perens have become "leaders" by their own hand and word.
I respect the contributions of people like Stallman and Perens, but their egos tend to keep me at a distance from their "cause." I like the idea of free software; I release code under the GPL -- but I do not consider Perens and Stallman my "leaders", nor do have I granted them to right to speak for me.
Perens and company preach about noble goals embodied in free software -- yet they only seem to want information to be "free" when they have dictated the terms of that freedom. This closed meeting violates the spirit of free software. I smell hypocrisy in their words...
How much real code have Perens and Stallman contributed to the free world? I look at freshmeat and other repositories, and I see many, many names, from many countries -- yet Perens and Stallman get to decide who gets to speak for all of us, and they couch their cause in terms of a nation that does not encompass us all. Much as I love my country and its Constitution, I am disturbed by the insular attitude of Perens statement.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
...every other game in my collection, too. Let's see, I have (in no particular order): Kohan, Age of Ampires, Age of Kings, Blade of Darkness, Heroes of Might & Magic 3, Diablo II, Fighting Steel, Starfleet Command II, RealMyst, Majesty, Combat Flight Sim 2, Age of Sails 2, Heretic II, Pharoah, Warcraft II -- and they all work just dandy. I think you need to check your drivers...
Ya know, it's amazing I get any work done with all those games on my system...;)
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you..." -- Matthew 7:12, NRS Translation
A generally good philosophy, regardless of your adherence to ceratin world religions.
When releasing software, I ask myself: Would I be pleased if somebody gave/sold this program to me? It isn't so much a matter of numbering conventions of bug severities -- it's a matter of pride and responsibility.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
I've tried looking for old Slashdot articles on Google with little success. If I search for "ChaoticCoyote" and "Slashdot", I receive on three results... and I'm a lot more verbose than that...;)
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
History, my friends, history. I was trying to find my old postings here on Slashdot, but the search engine is -- to put it politely -- poor. I go to the box at the bottom of the page, type in "ChaoticCoyote", and it can't find more than a few of my postings here.
However, now that Google has the old Usenet stuff back online, I can search back and review what I've said over many years.
Are old Usenet postings relevant? Well, consider the creation of a historical record -- as more communications travel the electronic road, fewer are preserved to provide a historical context of our times. Beyond the momentous issue of history, I often like to see what I was thinking 2, 5 or even ten years ago, to see how (or if) I've grown or changed.
Let's see what Google digs up from my long career on Usenet... hmmm... sort it by date...
1,620 hits since 1995. It sure does accumulate... let's see what I was talking about way back when...
Okay, there's some leftist stuff (Native American and environmental)... a lot of messages about Age of Empires and naval gaming... a random dinosaur article or two... lots of dicussion of my books, mostly positive (yeah!)... and, of course, all my C++ and Java postings.
Nothing embarrassing, to my relief. That is perhaps the only problem with history -- we have to live with what we've done. That's why I'm against Anonymous postings -- people don;t have to live with or learn from the immaturity or past stupidity.
A suggestion to Slahsdot: If Google had an "obligation" to maintain the old Usenet archive, isn't it equally incumbent on Slashdot to make its old messages readily searchable? Just a thought...
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
...since what's in the ISO/ANSI/IEC standard is substantially different from what Stepanov and company invented as the original STL.
Compare the standard containers library, as implemented by ISO/ANSI/IEC, to Stepanov's original STL, and you'll find a rather large set of differences. The C++ Standard Library is a corruption of Stepanov's fine work...
I continue to use the original STL in many projects, avoiding the ugly, often poorly-implemented mess that stems from Chapter 23 of the standard.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
I'm a rather eclectic fellow when it comes to programming languages. Since the mid-70s, I've written code in (chronological order) MBASIC, Z80 assembler, FORTRAN, COBOL, 8080 assembler, C, Pascal, Modula-2, Prolog, C++, Java, and Python. I've dabbled in many more languages.
Specialization is for ants, as Heinlein said.
Where is it written that every program must be written in one "true" language? I won't hire one-trick wonders; give me a programmer who knows a couple of programming languages, who shows me they can adapt and think, and I'll give 'em an office...
Programming isn't about syntax -- the essence of software development is design and algorithms. Each language brings a different perspective to the table, and a wise engineer uses the right tool for the job.
My current commercial project wraps a portable, high-performance engine (C++) in component architectures (COM, JavaBeans) for server-side (Java) and standalone (C++, Visual Basic, Java) applications; we have several utilities written in Python. The C++ is for performance (Java and Python can't cut it, believe me), the Python for quick development, and the Java for network-oriented "stuff".
C++ is a power tool that shouldn't be given to inexperienced or undisciplined programmers. What makes C++ powerful is that it isn't an object-oriented programming language -- C++ is a multiparadigmic language providing the tools I need to build code in the best way for a given task. Is it perfect? No. Is it a dmaned fine tool? Yes.
Oh, I have my criticisms of C++: A new standard is a mistake when no on produces a fully-ISO compliant compiler today. The STL is an ugly mess designed by committee; I'd like to see restricted template arguments, inheritable enums, and a few other new ideas. But overall, C++ is a damned fine tool, if used by a professional in an intelligent fashion.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
...or, more accurately, I've smelled them, back when I spent some time in the Big Apple. New York City may have something for everyone, but some of its residents desperately needed to be taught that a payphone enclosure is not a public restroom...
My NexTel cellphone works from most anywhere, so I don't use payphones much anymore. But not everyone has a cellphone, and not every cellphone works well -- so I suspect the payphone (as communication device and as an impromptu urinal) -- will be around a bit longer.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
... when they ship an incompatible, pre-beta level copy of gcc (in this case, "2.96")? They didn't tell people the whole truth about shipping a CVS snapshot of the compiler -- that doesn't seem very trustworthy.
And if you do pick up a source RPM for Red Hat, the "2.96" compiler may contain bugs or incomplete features that generate a broken binary.
Because of Red Hat's perfidy, I no longer trust commercial Linux distributions; I'll stick with Debian, thank you.
And the behavior of Microsoft/InstallShield is no excuse for Linux to be sloppy or insecure. Linux is supposed to be better than the competition, remember? If:Linux wants to be taken seriously by "real" people, its community needs to focus on trust and security. Shipping beta compilers and source code archives is not the answer...
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Neptune's aurorae occur near its equator, due to the alignment of that planet's magnetic field... I couldn't find a definite page or photograph of aurorae on Uranus, although I did find an AAS paper that discusses auroral emissions.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Timothy, timothy, timothy -- do you actually read articles before you publish them? Once again, you've shown an disturbing lack of knowledge when reporting a scientific topic...
The BBC article you referenced is about the discover of an auroral flare -- a phenomena hitherto unseen in Jovia aurorae. Aurorae have, however, been photographed on Jupiter for several years, by Galileo, Hubble, and other devices. Here, for example, is a 1996 article about related observations by Hubble. I spent a whole ten seconds checking my facts on Google; you might want to try it sometime!
I appreciate Slashdot's commitment to science -- but a core principle of science is accurate observation and reporting... and when you publish erroneous stories, it destroys both your reputation and Slashdot's value.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
The future of the desktop will be using Internet appliances where the applications will sit out on the net (or your corporate Intranet) and you just download the small pieces that allow you to use those applications without having to take responsibility for them.
Does Bob really believe what he's said above?
Does this remind anyone else (other than me) of the oft-failed concept of the network computer? This seems to come up every few years -- it's back to the future time, as companies try to restore the days of dumb terminals and mainframes. Sure, the processing is now distributed, but the fundamental problem remains: People simply aren't comfortable with having their software residing on another machine. The idea has failed several times under various guises; what makes Bob Young and Microsoft (as in Hailstorm) think this idea is going to work now? Maybe Red Hat needs to find a scheme for making money, since selling a free product isn't working all that well.
Okay, I can see the MIS director loving this idea, and (as someone who managed a couple-hundred PC network) I see advantages to centralized application distribution and data storage on a corporate intranet. But such a scheme simply doesn't work for the Internet, where privacy and data security are very important to individual and otherwise disconnected people.
And who wants to run software via a browser? Sheesh, these damns apps are slow enough as it is... just how is he planning in distributing a word processor, or a powerful drawing package? Perl scripts?!? Java ?!? The general death of applets should have proven that the "apps via the web" concept was a loser... and let's not forget issues of bandwidth and security...
Linux is the antithesis of central control, especially for those of us who value our independence and privacy. I don't wish Red Hat ill, but I don't expect them to find success with "apps that sit on the net."
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
If there's one hard lesson I've learned, it's that you can't force people to think.
Okay, so this is a bit of a side issue -- but my point is very important, especially to a forum like Slashdot, where there an article such as this urges readers to influence the world at large by saying "make them think".
The "Age of Communication" bombards people with causes and issues; the noise is driving people insane, so they tune out. Even if you can raise your cause above the cacophany, the average person doesn't want to think about "big issues". In the U.S., at least, time is precious and few people have any room for recreational thinking. They much prefer to react as needed, answering "yes" or "no" according to dogma.
The average person does not want to think about "questions of great import." Understand that, and you'll realize why few people look down the road to the consequences of today's actions.
Community is damned dimportant, and Slashdot does well to bring up such articles -- but realize that no one is going to make anyone consider the issue, because the vast majority of folk just don't want to think.
Certainly there is much in the world that people should think about -- but to instigate real change, you need to find a route that doesn't involve "making" people think.
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Not to mention the sense of power you feel when you type some code that is incoherent gibberish to 99.99% of the world but is actually a usefull perl program.
...is an example of why I haven't much use for Perl. I gave up running line noise when I stopped programming in APL...;)
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Microsoft's Hailstorm is another manifestation of the American "I want my mommy" society. Consider, for instance, a currently-running commercial for the Chevy Suburban, wherein some dumb cluck locks his keys in the truck whilst ruining tundra in the Rocky Mountains. He calls out on his cell phone, and Chevy unlocks his car remotely.
Holy Big Brother, Batman!
It sure makes me appreciate my 1985 4x4 Chevy Suburban; the most technologically-advanced priginal equipment feature on my truck is the electric windows. Now, I have some communication doodads onboard, and I'm adding a few other James Bond features, but I'll be damned if I want some anonymous corporate cog accessing to my doorlocks!
And Satan will be dodging snowballs in Hades before Microsoft pries the personal data from my cold, dead fingers. Just don't be surprised if Hailstorm is a success, especially among the people who desperately want to be wet-nursed through life...
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
You've expressed one of my problems with hiring people whose experience is limited to a college education. Of course, a lack of practical experience with software development extends beyond those who've just finished a degree -- I've seen a lot of "script kiddies" recently, who think they are "developers" because they learned how to write Perl scripts from web tutorials. They have little or no clue about working with people on design, analysis, and development.
(Note this is not a slam at Perl, or college grads, or anyone in particular. One of the best programmer's I've ever hired was a straight-from-college guy who was eager to learn. And I've been known to dabble in Perl and Javascript myself...)
-- Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Slashdot Mirror
This one, though. is different. Waking up this morning the Adams' passing was a shocker. No tears -- just sincere regret, and a selfish sense of "I'll miss him."
My wife and I listened to the Hitchhiker radio play back we were first married; it's been a part of our lives (as a central bit of humor) for so long. It's one of those comedic routines that provides stock lines for conversation; the number 42 shows up an awful lot. His style has been a strong influence on my own writing career...
Damn!
The only bright spot: Perhaps Douglas Adams can now hitchhike the galaxy on his own, giving the gods and angels a chuckle or two...
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
I didn't mean "dark" as a criticism -- one thing I love about Farscape is it's willingness to be down, dirty, and ugly. I almost lost faith when they brought Aeryn back to life -- but then they killed Zhaan... now that's ballsy, killing a major character.
Give me Farscape any day over the insipid Voyager...
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
positively dreadful.
I liked the original series, campy as it was (and when I was a preteen). Next Generation was good most of the time, even if the crew had a moral corn cob up their collective whatsis. Deep Space 9 bored me; Voyager is/was good sometimes, but is often too much of a soap opera for my taste.
Give me Farscape (although it's been rather dark recently), or the first four seasons of Babylon 5. Anything but forthright Federation/Earth folk seeking out new particles and human-like civilizations, going where countless episodes have gone before...
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Yes, this makes me a petty person, and yes, I really want to feel bad for these folks who created snake-oil dreams -- but I don't. The people I do feel for are the workers -- the developers, office people, and general grunts who got caught up in this mess. Most of these folks -- including the programmers -- went to work in good faith, being promised the sky by crooks and false visionaries.
Yah know what's funny, though? Two years ago, people were urging me to join their dot-com dreams; I, instead, found myself a comfortable position with an unexciting company that works in the boring realm of document management. The work is quite challenging, but not very sexy -- and a lot of techy friends derided my choice.
Those same techies are now calling *me* to ask for a job.
Yeah, I've made my mistakes over the years, so I don't blame people for wanting to get rich on the dot-com boom. Perhaps the dot-com mess is a reflection of our society; I think the reasoning is similar to that of gamblers -- one more pull of the lever, one more roll of the dice, and I'll never be rich beyond the dreams of avarice...
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
It's called "play", Jon. I spend a great deal of time dealing with "deep" subjects and tough technical issues (surprise, you're not alone!), and my mind needs to take a vacation sometimes. For two hours, The Mummy Returns asked nothing from me: no moral questions, no grand themes -- hell, no plot, either! ;) Just some silly in-jokes, OK (but not great) CGI, a couple of cute babes, and a good doses of bad history. My eldest daughter is studying to be an Egyptologist; my wife has work on digs in the Yucatan -- and both of them loved this flick.
You take everything far too seriously, Jon, and you're going to hurt yourself doing that. That's why more and more people tune you out -- you're painful to listen to these days. I know, I've been there -- and I ended up bitter and burned out, before coming back to center again.
You'll find it much easier to cope with the complexities when you let your brain take a vacation every once and a while... you might find your mind refreshed after letting it rest.
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
I respect the contributions of people like Stallman and Perens, but their egos tend to keep me at a distance from their "cause." I like the idea of free software; I release code under the GPL -- but I do not consider Perens and Stallman my "leaders", nor do have I granted them to right to speak for me.
Perens and company preach about noble goals embodied in free software -- yet they only seem to want information to be "free" when they have dictated the terms of that freedom. This closed meeting violates the spirit of free software. I smell hypocrisy in their words...
How much real code have Perens and Stallman contributed to the free world? I look at freshmeat and other repositories, and I see many, many names, from many countries -- yet Perens and Stallman get to decide who gets to speak for all of us, and they couch their cause in terms of a nation that does not encompass us all. Much as I love my country and its Constitution, I am disturbed by the insular attitude of Perens statement.
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Ya know, it's amazing I get any work done with all those games on my system... ;)
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
...would seem to apply.
"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you..." -- Matthew 7:12, NRS TranslationA generally good philosophy, regardless of your adherence to ceratin world religions.
When releasing software, I ask myself: Would I be pleased if somebody gave/sold this program to me? It isn't so much a matter of numbering conventions of bug severities -- it's a matter of pride and responsibility.
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
I've tried looking for old Slashdot articles on Google with little success. If I search for "ChaoticCoyote" and "Slashdot", I receive on three results... and I'm a lot more verbose than that... ;)
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
History, my friends, history. I was trying to find my old postings here on Slashdot, but the search engine is -- to put it politely -- poor. I go to the box at the bottom of the page, type in "ChaoticCoyote", and it can't find more than a few of my postings here.
However, now that Google has the old Usenet stuff back online, I can search back and review what I've said over many years.
Are old Usenet postings relevant? Well, consider the creation of a historical record -- as more communications travel the electronic road, fewer are preserved to provide a historical context of our times. Beyond the momentous issue of history, I often like to see what I was thinking 2, 5 or even ten years ago, to see how (or if) I've grown or changed.
Let's see what Google digs up from my long career on Usenet... hmmm... sort it by date...
1,620 hits since 1995. It sure does accumulate... let's see what I was talking about way back when...
Okay, there's some leftist stuff (Native American and environmental)... a lot of messages about Age of Empires and naval gaming... a random dinosaur article or two... lots of dicussion of my books, mostly positive (yeah!)... and, of course, all my C++ and Java postings.
Nothing embarrassing, to my relief. That is perhaps the only problem with history -- we have to live with what we've done. That's why I'm against Anonymous postings -- people don;t have to live with or learn from the immaturity or past stupidity.
A suggestion to Slahsdot: If Google had an "obligation" to maintain the old Usenet archive, isn't it equally incumbent on Slashdot to make its old messages readily searchable? Just a thought...
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Compare the standard containers library, as implemented by ISO/ANSI/IEC, to Stepanov's original STL, and you'll find a rather large set of differences. The C++ Standard Library is a corruption of Stepanov's fine work...
I continue to use the original STL in many projects, avoiding the ugly, often poorly-implemented mess that stems from Chapter 23 of the standard.
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
I'm a rather eclectic fellow when it comes to programming languages. Since the mid-70s, I've written code in (chronological order) MBASIC, Z80 assembler, FORTRAN, COBOL, 8080 assembler, C, Pascal, Modula-2, Prolog, C++, Java, and Python. I've dabbled in many more languages.
Specialization is for ants, as Heinlein said.
Where is it written that every program must be written in one "true" language? I won't hire one-trick wonders; give me a programmer who knows a couple of programming languages, who shows me they can adapt and think, and I'll give 'em an office...
Programming isn't about syntax -- the essence of software development is design and algorithms. Each language brings a different perspective to the table, and a wise engineer uses the right tool for the job.
My current commercial project wraps a portable, high-performance engine (C++) in component architectures (COM, JavaBeans) for server-side (Java) and standalone (C++, Visual Basic, Java) applications; we have several utilities written in Python. The C++ is for performance (Java and Python can't cut it, believe me), the Python for quick development, and the Java for network-oriented "stuff".
C++ is a power tool that shouldn't be given to inexperienced or undisciplined programmers. What makes C++ powerful is that it isn't an object-oriented programming language -- C++ is a multiparadigmic language providing the tools I need to build code in the best way for a given task. Is it perfect? No. Is it a dmaned fine tool? Yes.
Oh, I have my criticisms of C++: A new standard is a mistake when no on produces a fully-ISO compliant compiler today. The STL is an ugly mess designed by committee; I'd like to see restricted template arguments, inheritable enums, and a few other new ideas. But overall, C++ is a damned fine tool, if used by a professional in an intelligent fashion.--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Some of us are big boys, and we can handle C++ just fine, thank you.
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
My NexTel cellphone works from most anywhere, so I don't use payphones much anymore. But not everyone has a cellphone, and not every cellphone works well -- so I suspect the payphone (as communication device and as an impromptu urinal) -- will be around a bit longer.
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Okay, so it's "flamebait" to question Red Hat's trustworthiness -- but an article is "insightful" or "interesting" when criticizing Microsoft.
Ahhh. And people wonder why Slashdot is losing relevancy... (whoops, there goes more karma!)
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
And if you do pick up a source RPM for Red Hat, the "2.96" compiler may contain bugs or incomplete features that generate a broken binary.
Because of Red Hat's perfidy, I no longer trust commercial Linux distributions; I'll stick with Debian, thank you.
And the behavior of Microsoft/InstallShield is no excuse for Linux to be sloppy or insecure. Linux is supposed to be better than the competition, remember? If :Linux wants to be taken seriously by "real" people, its community needs to focus on trust and security. Shipping beta compilers and source code archives is not the answer...
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Other non-terrestrial auroras can be found:
Neptune's aurorae occur near its equator, due to the alignment of that planet's magnetic field... I couldn't find a definite page or photograph of aurorae on Uranus, although I did find an AAS paper that discusses auroral emissions.
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Timothy, timothy, timothy -- do you actually read articles before you publish them? Once again, you've shown an disturbing lack of knowledge when reporting a scientific topic...
The BBC article you referenced is about the discover of an auroral flare -- a phenomena hitherto unseen in Jovia aurorae. Aurorae have, however, been photographed on Jupiter for several years, by Galileo, Hubble, and other devices. Here, for example, is a 1996 article about related observations by Hubble. I spent a whole ten seconds checking my facts on Google; you might want to try it sometime!
I appreciate Slashdot's commitment to science -- but a core principle of science is accurate observation and reporting... and when you publish erroneous stories, it destroys both your reputation and Slashdot's value.
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Does Bob really believe what he's said above?
Does this remind anyone else (other than me) of the oft-failed concept of the network computer? This seems to come up every few years -- it's back to the future time, as companies try to restore the days of dumb terminals and mainframes. Sure, the processing is now distributed, but the fundamental problem remains: People simply aren't comfortable with having their software residing on another machine. The idea has failed several times under various guises; what makes Bob Young and Microsoft (as in Hailstorm) think this idea is going to work now? Maybe Red Hat needs to find a scheme for making money, since selling a free product isn't working all that well.
Okay, I can see the MIS director loving this idea, and (as someone who managed a couple-hundred PC network) I see advantages to centralized application distribution and data storage on a corporate intranet. But such a scheme simply doesn't work for the Internet, where privacy and data security are very important to individual and otherwise disconnected people.
And who wants to run software via a browser? Sheesh, these damns apps are slow enough as it is... just how is he planning in distributing a word processor, or a powerful drawing package? Perl scripts?!? Java ?!? The general death of applets should have proven that the "apps via the web" concept was a loser... and let's not forget issues of bandwidth and security...
Linux is the antithesis of central control, especially for those of us who value our independence and privacy. I don't wish Red Hat ill, but I don't expect them to find success with "apps that sit on the net."
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
If there's one hard lesson I've learned, it's that you can't force people to think.
Okay, so this is a bit of a side issue -- but my point is very important, especially to a forum like Slashdot, where there an article such as this urges readers to influence the world at large by saying "make them think".
The "Age of Communication" bombards people with causes and issues; the noise is driving people insane, so they tune out. Even if you can raise your cause above the cacophany, the average person doesn't want to think about "big issues". In the U.S., at least, time is precious and few people have any room for recreational thinking. They much prefer to react as needed, answering "yes" or "no" according to dogma.
The average person does not want to think about "questions of great import." Understand that, and you'll realize why few people look down the road to the consequences of today's actions.
Community is damned dimportant, and Slashdot does well to bring up such articles -- but realize that no one is going to make anyone consider the issue, because the vast majority of folk just don't want to think.
Certainly there is much in the world that people should think about -- but to instigate real change, you need to find a route that doesn't involve "making" people think.
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Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
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Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Microsoft's Hailstorm is another manifestation of the American "I want my mommy" society. Consider, for instance, a currently-running commercial for the Chevy Suburban, wherein some dumb cluck locks his keys in the truck whilst ruining tundra in the Rocky Mountains. He calls out on his cell phone, and Chevy unlocks his car remotely .
Holy Big Brother, Batman!
It sure makes me appreciate my 1985 4x4 Chevy Suburban; the most technologically-advanced priginal equipment feature on my truck is the electric windows. Now, I have some communication doodads onboard, and I'm adding a few other James Bond features, but I'll be damned if I want some anonymous corporate cog accessing to my doorlocks!
And Satan will be dodging snowballs in Hades before Microsoft pries the personal data from my cold, dead fingers. Just don't be surprised if Hailstorm is a success, especially among the people who desperately want to be wet-nursed through life...
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Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
You've expressed one of my problems with hiring people whose experience is limited to a college education. Of course, a lack of practical experience with software development extends beyond those who've just finished a degree -- I've seen a lot of "script kiddies" recently, who think they are "developers" because they learned how to write Perl scripts from web tutorials. They have little or no clue about working with people on design, analysis, and development.
(Note this is not a slam at Perl, or college grads, or anyone in particular. One of the best programmer's I've ever hired was a straight-from-college guy who was eager to learn. And I've been known to dabble in Perl and Javascript myself...)
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Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos