> They face the lonely insecurity of the individual entrepreneur in a marketplace and culture that stresses, with macho imagery from war and sports, that they are ultimately alone.
What's next, "There are no atheists in cubicles," kind of thing?
> Someone here did a project last year to "derive" a new symphony by a composer. The idea was to analyse various pieces written by the chosen composer, find the common themes, and then use them to produce new pieces which would have the same "feel" as the originals.
Here is a link to a paper a guy(?) wrote about using neural networks to create fake Bartok melodies. Follow the links for more along the same lines.
Of course, Bartok always sounded like sequences of random keystrokes to my Philistine tastes, so I can't judge how well the imitation worked.
> I am skeptical. Certainly these files, if they are legitimate, are not the complete collection, but rather very carefully selected tidbits from the massive archives of British intelligence.
I suppose that means we'll still only be able to get the anal probe videos on p2p, eh?
> But he said that even though Linux would be great, they could not have a foreign national have control over their system....they ended up with a proprietary OS.
Any empirical evidence that using a POS gives them better protection against foreign nationals than using an OSOS would?
OTOH, think what someone not from the USA might conclude from the same line of reasoning.
> I am still open to possibly a new lang that beats em all. Something thats (1) Open (2) Open source (3) Works for LOTS of databasen IMAP SSL LDAP etc (4) Flexible (5) Compilable on everything (6) plugs nicely into apache (7) Possibly compiles (8) Supports languages (i18) (9) Doesnt blindly try to follow C++ (10) Is not so concept-based that its workings cannot be understood.
> I'm sure showing the pilot would've helped the show, but the first three episodes that aired (the only ones I watched), just got more and more drab.
Sounds like you stopped watching just about the time it got good.
The down side, at least as far as popularity goes, is that you had to watch it regularly to understand the characters and their relations and motivations. Someone who watched the most recent episode out of the blue might have been baffled about what was going on - let alone why it was going on - but anyone who had seen the character-building episodes leading up to it would have been dazzled (if they like the genre at all).
> You want to see a high-concept new show that's actually worth your hour? Check out John Doe. A slightly sci-fi, slightly X-Files, slightly CSI type show that delivers on suspense, mystery, and solid writing.
Oh, please. JD's writers aren't trying to do anything but jerk your chain every week, and they're not even doing a good job of that. JD is targeted squarely at the mass market, not at fans of SF or The X Files. Google for the surveys on rec.arts.sf.tv and see how SF fans' respect for the show has plummeted since about the third episode, and compare that to their response to Firefly.
FOX decided to keep JD not because it's a good show, but because it makes a mass-market appeal to the world's bon-bon eating couch potatos. That sells lots of bon-bon commercials, you know.
> Sci-fi is an abbreviation of "science" and "fiction".
Sit down, I have some news that may shock you.
Science fiction isn't about science. It's just a setting; all the usual requirements for good storytelling still apply.
If you want science, go to grad school in a science field. If science fiction shows peddled real science they would be somewhat less popular than Alan Alda's Scientific American Frontiers. (I say "somewhat less" because even PBS's science shows tend to be watered down with a lot of human interest fluff. Take that out and the viewership would be even lower.)
> I mean comon, its not like Linux is that much of threat right now.
If you count the "might switch" headlines it looks like there has been a sudden upswing in Linux interest among companies and governments this year. Sure, it's still really minor in the big picture, but it's growing, and it appears to be growing faster. Someone at Micorsoft may have catastrophe theory on the mind.
Indeed, this announcement could be catastrophic as far as Micorsoft's pricing is concerned. And in the new Can't Cook The Books Anymore climate, that might be bad news for some quarterly income reports.
And since Micorsoft has always been more interested in share prices than in software, the catastrophe may be at hand.
I bet there will be a sudden demand for Linux gurus next week. Not for conversions, but for "studies" of potential conversions, so the companies can reap the new "Linux discounts" from Microsoft.
If you're idle, this might be a good time to set up a "switch to Linux" consulting business.
> This guy Ralsky sends a billion spams a day, which has got to be costing the unwilling recipients a huge amount of money in wasted resources and time, but the FBI is busy busting a few people who uncap their cable modems in Toledo Ohio.
Yeah, they need the bandwidth to download all that spam as fast as it arrives.
Also, at least in my dialect, there's an overtone of toyishness, or perhaps an attempt to cover up cheapness with a sugar coating (whether literally or metaphorically).
> So, (as I've said before) besides the systray, task bar buttons, icons on the desktop and the start menu we have *another* way to "quickly" get to applications and documents?
> You all (who read) remember that Tom Bombadil was cirurgically removed from the FotR. I have no concerns about this, indded, I am very thankful. I almost stopped reading because of the stupiduty of such a character.
Meetoo. But for some reason when read it a second time many years later, it wasn't annoying at all. (And interestingly, some of the stuff that I thought cool the first time around seemed like hamfisted melodrama the second time around.)
Slashdot Mirror
> They face the lonely insecurity of the individual entrepreneur in a marketplace and culture that stresses, with macho imagery from war and sports, that they are ultimately alone.
What's next, "There are no atheists in cubicles," kind of thing?
> Dont download it now if you dont need it. there are peopel waiting to use those servers.
No problem, we can listen to Beethoven's 9th Symphony a few times while we wait.
> Ode to Joy must sound better to a native German speaker. I just read it and it sucked.
Try an English translation.
(nyuk,nyuk!)
> Someone here did a project last year to "derive" a new symphony by a composer. The idea was to analyse various pieces written by the chosen composer, find the common themes, and then use them to produce new pieces which would have the same "feel" as the originals.
Here is a link to a paper a guy(?) wrote about using neural networks to create fake Bartok melodies. Follow the links for more along the same lines.
Of course, Bartok always sounded like sequences of random keystrokes to my Philistine tastes, so I can't judge how well the imitation worked.
> I am skeptical. Certainly these files, if they are legitimate, are not the complete collection, but rather very carefully selected tidbits from the massive archives of British intelligence.
I suppose that means we'll still only be able to get the anal probe videos on p2p, eh?
> But he said that even though Linux would be great, they could not have a foreign national have control over their system.
Any empirical evidence that using a POS gives them better protection against foreign nationals than using an OSOS would?
OTOH, think what someone not from the USA might conclude from the same line of reasoning.
> I think its funny that Microsoft didn't say that their stuff is better. They can only argue that their stuff isn't worse.
Yes, it is amusing to reflect on how far that goalpost has moved in the past five years.
On c.o.l.a. I've also seen "Linux is too hard to install" shift to "Windows is just as easy to install as Linux is".
> > Science fiction isn't about science. It's just a setting; all the usual requirements for good storytelling still apply.
> "Hard" science fiction most certainly is about the science. What you're describing is "soft" science fiction.
Could you give a familiar example?
> has found a way to blend relativity with quantum theory
Shaken, not stirred!
> I am still open to possibly a new lang that beats em all. Something thats
(1) Open
(2) Open source
(3) Works for LOTS of databasen IMAP SSL LDAP etc
(4) Flexible
(5) Compilable on everything
(6) plugs nicely into apache
(7) Possibly compiles
(8) Supports languages (i18)
(9) Doesnt blindly try to follow C++
(10) Is not so concept-based that its workings cannot be understood.
(11) Buzzword compliant
(12)
(13) Profit!
> thing.<set message="hello world">
Wouldn't a real OO language require sending a hello message to an object named world ?
> Water + PROLOG = Waterlog
> Water + Java = Kaffe
Water + BASIC = pottie training language.
Water + Visual BASIC -- let's not go there, OK?
> I'm sure showing the pilot would've helped the show, but the first three episodes that aired (the only ones I watched), just got more and more drab.
Sounds like you stopped watching just about the time it got good.
The down side, at least as far as popularity goes, is that you had to watch it regularly to understand the characters and their relations and motivations. Someone who watched the most recent episode out of the blue might have been baffled about what was going on - let alone why it was going on - but anyone who had seen the character-building episodes leading up to it would have been dazzled (if they like the genre at all).
> You want to see a high-concept new show that's actually worth your hour? Check out John Doe. A slightly sci-fi, slightly X-Files, slightly CSI type show that delivers on suspense, mystery, and solid writing.
Oh, please. JD's writers aren't trying to do anything but jerk your chain every week, and they're not even doing a good job of that. JD is targeted squarely at the mass market, not at fans of SF or The X Files. Google for the surveys on rec.arts.sf.tv and see how SF fans' respect for the show has plummeted since about the third episode, and compare that to their response to Firefly.
FOX decided to keep JD not because it's a good show, but because it makes a mass-market appeal to the world's bon-bon eating couch potatos. That sells lots of bon-bon commercials, you know.
> What's the difference between John Doe and The Pretender?
The Pretender did it about five times better.
> Sci-fi is an abbreviation of "science" and "fiction".
Sit down, I have some news that may shock you.
Science fiction isn't about science. It's just a setting; all the usual requirements for good storytelling still apply.
If you want science, go to grad school in a science field. If science fiction shows peddled real science they would be somewhat less popular than Alan Alda's Scientific American Frontiers. (I say "somewhat less" because even PBS's science shows tend to be watered down with a lot of human interest fluff. Take that out and the viewership would be even lower.)
> That young lady definitely had the best ass on television at the time
Better than the daemon bidge on Beastmaster? She sure walks away from the camera well!
> According to my calculations, all that means I am going to meet a tall, dark stranger tomorrow and then go on a long journey.
Hope his name isn't Charon.
> I mean comon, its not like Linux is that much of threat right now.
If you count the "might switch" headlines it looks like there has been a sudden upswing in Linux interest among companies and governments this year. Sure, it's still really minor in the big picture, but it's growing, and it appears to be growing faster. Someone at Micorsoft may have catastrophe theory on the mind.
Indeed, this announcement could be catastrophic as far as Micorsoft's pricing is concerned. And in the new Can't Cook The Books Anymore climate, that might be bad news for some quarterly income reports.
And since Micorsoft has always been more interested in share prices than in software, the catastrophe may be at hand.
I bet there will be a sudden demand for Linux gurus next week. Not for conversions, but for "studies" of potential conversions, so the companies can reap the new "Linux discounts" from Microsoft.
If you're idle, this might be a good time to set up a "switch to Linux" consulting business.
> This guy Ralsky sends a billion spams a day, which has got to be costing the unwilling recipients a huge amount of money in wasted resources and time, but the FBI is busy busting a few people who uncap their cable modems in Toledo Ohio.
Yeah, they need the bandwidth to download all that spam as fast as it arrives.
(The rest is special offers from Nigeria.)
> instead of doubting the moon landing, they will now be convinced that it's fake.
Wow - they went all the way up there just to put a fake lander on view!
> > what does "candy-assed" mean?
> A sissy; a wimp [reference.com]
Also, at least in my dialect, there's an overtone of toyishness, or perhaps an attempt to cover up cheapness with a sugar coating (whether literally or metaphorically).
> So, (as I've said before) besides the systray, task bar buttons, icons on the desktop and the start menu we have *another* way to "quickly" get to applications and documents?
They're trying to make it Touring Complete.
> You all (who read) remember that Tom Bombadil was cirurgically removed from the FotR. I have no concerns about this, indded, I am very thankful. I almost stopped reading because of the stupiduty of such a character.
Meetoo. But for some reason when read it a second time many years later, it wasn't annoying at all. (And interestingly, some of the stuff that I thought cool the first time around seemed like hamfisted melodrama the second time around.)