Says something about the state of the US today, that someone's "vain hope" is that a large company will spend lots of money to change the law the way that company wants it to be, just because that might coincide with that person's interests.
However, this kind of thing is precisely why Nokia dropped Meego. Nokia is in the business of selling phones, not on some never-ending quest for the ultimate Linux UI without ever getting something out of the door.
The mobile phone marketplace is very fast-moving. At some point, you need to stick with what already works, and polish it, instead of dropping it for the latest shiny instead.
The tragedy with Nokia is that they were 90% there with Maemo. While their competitors surged ahead, they dropped Maemo and virtually started afresh with something about 10% ready instead.
And if the result of your action is that Slashdot IS indeed made invisible from a whole country, and that 50-60 million people are indeed cut off from a potentially interesting and useful source of technical information and discussion, I'm sure you'll feel insanely proud of yourself.
Insanely proud of typing the typical juvenile response that comes to stories like this, and insanely proud about not giving a toss about the potential consequences to millions of people who have done no harm whatsoever to you.
(Yes, yes, we all know that those who are technically knowledgeable enough can get round any ban by using suitable proxies, but only a small subset of people have that required level of knowledge).
Never heard of this guy before, but I did watch the interview.
Not impressed at all. As you say, very sensationalist, and a complete attention whore.
As someone still in favour of (new and existing) nuclear power, I hope the "anti-s" can come up with people better than this - they do have a a point of view worthy of serious consideration and debate. But guys like this aren't helping that. To be honest, I think the way this guy presents himself is damaging to the viewpoint he represents.
I take your point, but no, the *real* shame in all of this is the loss of life on a massive scale caused by the tsunami, and the grief and pain caused to those who lost loved ones.
Strangely enough, *if* the reactors do manage to be shutdown without any further mishaps, I don't think the damage to long-term nuclear power will be that great over the long term. People will remember the panic-stricken headlines, they will remember seeing reactor buildings experience multiple violent explosions, they will remember them being hit by one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded, and then hit by a 30ft tsunami, and will remember that nobody was killed by radiation (if indeed that is how this plays out). Whereas away from the nuclear plant, tens of thousands lost their lives.
With the current lack of knowledge of exactly what is going on in the reactors, it seems prudent to evacuate those living in the immediate vicinity. Better safe than sorry. But for those living much further away, it's somewhat strange that the reaction of many people to being told that the tiny risk of minute radiation isn't a problem is to put their fingers in their ears and go la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you, whereas the reaction of many people to being told that climate change is a problem is to put their fingers in their ears and go la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you.
If the goal is "to place a friendly face on Java through the implementation of a syntax whose primary concern is developer friendliness (think Ruby/Python/Groovy)", then perhaps the "route of least surprise" would be to offer some assistance to Jython (python running on Java), as it's been around for over a decade already, but seems to have been a bit neglected in the past couple of years.
I'm pretty sure there is an existing implementation of Ruby, too.
The reason places like this are now used for data centres is probably because they were originally built to survive the force of a fission bomb, but not a hydrogen bomb.
Thus making them not safe as "nuclear" shelters. Which is probably why they were sold off in the first place. The fact that there isn't really all that much they are suitable for, except for something like a data centre, which can then be *marketed* as being "nuclear-war-proof".
Now if they'd gone for it as a stop-gap until Meego is ready, with promises to Microsoft that if they really make a good job of it then Nokia will continue to promote and sell it, then they've got a fair amount of leverage with the Beast of Redmond. Plus a lifeline if either one of W7 or Meego don't cut it.
It wouldn't have cost Nokia so much to do that, providing that what they said about actually shipping a Meego phone isn't an outright lie - they'll have to bring Meega to some level of readiness to do that anyway.
But instead they seem to have bet the farm on Microsoft, and Microsoft surely knows it. Nokia are going to get shafted.
As well as that, they already seem to have alienated most of their own workforce, and a large chunk of their user community.
(Yes, the N900 is very good - if they'd ported the latest Ovi maps, paid Adobe for the latest hardware-accelerated flash (which was already demonstrated running on it by Adobe), and polished a few of the standard apps, it would be superb. Still, lets see what happens with Meego).
The whole Meego thing was a disastrous decision for Nokia.
Maemo (as on the N900) works great as an OS. The UI is decent enough too. The "only" thing missing is applications.
Have a look at talk.maemo.org. The main complaints there are things like the old version of Ovi Maps (no turn-by-turn voice navigation), the old version of Flash (no version 10.1 with hardware acceleration), the poor email program, missing support for a few "nice" features like per-caller ringtones.
Nokia found themselves suddenly trailing behind the iPhone and Android, but they had an alternative which was 90% ready. So in a very-time-critical market did they decide to finish off that last 10%? No, instead of allocating resources to providing the missing apps and features, they decided to ditch it completely and start again from scratch. Which also, understandably, pissed off a lot of Maemo supporters.
Nokia were so close with Maemo, but they threw it all away.
"Since I spend a lot of my time in code, and I'm an engineer at heart, I'd say I've learned how to do decent coding -- modularity, MVC, properly normalized databases, small well-defined functions, OO when necessary (and recognizing when its necessary). Now I won't claim to be at all skilled in anything lower level....."
By the sound of it, you're actually a better programmer than 80% of the "programmers" out there. And I say this as an experienced programmer myself.
Slashdot Mirror
"I keep having this discussion with people again and again".
Perhaps you should write it down?
Says something about the state of the US today, that someone's "vain hope" is that a large company will spend lots of money to change the law the way that company wants it to be, just because that might coincide with that person's interests.
Yes, it is good to see that.
However, this kind of thing is precisely why Nokia dropped Meego. Nokia is in the business of selling phones, not on some never-ending quest for the ultimate Linux UI without ever getting something out of the door.
The mobile phone marketplace is very fast-moving. At some point, you need to stick with what already works, and polish it, instead of dropping it for the latest shiny instead.
The tragedy with Nokia is that they were 90% there with Maemo. While their competitors surged ahead, they dropped Maemo and virtually started afresh with something about 10% ready instead.
And if the result of your action is that Slashdot IS indeed made invisible from a whole country, and that 50-60 million people are indeed cut off from a potentially interesting and useful source of technical information and discussion, I'm sure you'll feel insanely proud of yourself.
Insanely proud of typing the typical juvenile response that comes to stories like this, and insanely proud about not giving a toss about the potential consequences to millions of people who have done no harm whatsoever to you.
(Yes, yes, we all know that those who are technically knowledgeable enough can get round any ban by using suitable proxies, but only a small subset of people have that required level of knowledge).
Never heard of this guy before, but I did watch the interview.
Not impressed at all. As you say, very sensationalist, and a complete attention whore.
As someone still in favour of (new and existing) nuclear power, I hope the "anti-s" can come up with people better than this - they do have a a point of view worthy of serious consideration and debate. But guys like this aren't helping that. To be honest, I think the way this guy presents himself is damaging to the viewpoint he represents.
Muppets.
And yet things like this get away without even a slap on the wrist from the OFT.
96% receive a lower offer than was quoted? That's not a con at all....
I take your point, but no, the *real* shame in all of this is the loss of life on a massive scale caused by the tsunami, and the grief and pain caused to those who lost loved ones.
Strangely enough, *if* the reactors do manage to be shutdown without any further mishaps, I don't think the damage to long-term nuclear power will be that great over the long term. People will remember the panic-stricken headlines, they will remember seeing reactor buildings experience multiple violent explosions, they will remember them being hit by one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded, and then hit by a 30ft tsunami, and will remember that nobody was killed by radiation (if indeed that is how this plays out). Whereas away from the nuclear plant, tens of thousands lost their lives.
With the current lack of knowledge of exactly what is going on in the reactors, it seems prudent to evacuate those living in the immediate vicinity. Better safe than sorry. But for those living much further away, it's somewhat strange that the reaction of many people to being told that the tiny risk of minute radiation isn't a problem is to put their fingers in their ears and go la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you, whereas the reaction of many people to being told that climate change is a problem is to put their fingers in their ears and go la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you.
If the goal is "to place a friendly face on Java through the implementation of a syntax whose primary concern is developer friendliness (think Ruby/Python/Groovy)", then perhaps the "route of least surprise" would be to offer some assistance to Jython (python running on Java), as it's been around for over a decade already, but seems to have been a bit neglected in the past couple of years.
I'm pretty sure there is an existing implementation of Ruby, too.
"If my neighbors gave me have the shit Google does for free, they could write down all they want."
Think what you like about that Mr Hitler, but I won't hear a bad word said about someone who can make the trains run on time.
Not if they took out twitter.
The reason places like this are now used for data centres is probably because they were originally built to survive the force of a fission bomb, but not a hydrogen bomb.
Thus making them not safe as "nuclear" shelters. Which is probably why they were sold off in the first place. The fact that there isn't really all that much they are suitable for, except for something like a data centre, which can then be *marketed* as being "nuclear-war-proof".
Fortunately, it was well planned, not just a result of someone changing their mind while writing an email.
Odd that they have a GNOME Marketing Contractor, when the GNOME Devs themselves seem to be doing such a good job of contracting their market (share).
I don't understand how this Py3k praising always gets such good moderation on /.
Perhaps what you don't understand is how anyone can have a point of view other than your own.
I cannot see how would anyone call this an "improvement"... Oh, sure, it gives me more options, more control...
And still you cannot see?
You're helping to make my point, that being that there are ways it can be done.
Take advantage of the weaknesses of the alternatives.
Provide something better.
Compete.
How did Apple do it?
After all, Microsoft had been producing smartphones for a long time before the iPhone. Surely they had the market sewn up before Apple came along?
How did Google do it?
After all, the iPhone was an runaway success for Apple. Surely they had the market sewn up before Google came along?
Going whole hog for W7 is a disaster for Nokia.
Now if they'd gone for it as a stop-gap until Meego is ready, with promises to Microsoft that if they really make a good job of it then Nokia will continue to promote and sell it, then they've got a fair amount of leverage with the Beast of Redmond. Plus a lifeline if either one of W7 or Meego don't cut it.
It wouldn't have cost Nokia so much to do that, providing that what they said about actually shipping a Meego phone isn't an outright lie - they'll have to bring Meega to some level of readiness to do that anyway.
But instead they seem to have bet the farm on Microsoft, and Microsoft surely knows it. Nokia are going to get shafted.
As well as that, they already seem to have alienated most of their own workforce, and a large chunk of their user community.
(Yes, the N900 is very good - if they'd ported the latest Ovi maps, paid Adobe for the latest hardware-accelerated flash (which was already demonstrated running on it by Adobe), and polished a few of the standard apps, it would be superb. Still, lets see what happens with Meego).
The whole Meego thing was a disastrous decision for Nokia.
Maemo (as on the N900) works great as an OS. The UI is decent enough too. The "only" thing missing is applications.
Have a look at talk.maemo.org. The main complaints there are things like the old version of Ovi Maps (no turn-by-turn voice navigation), the old version of Flash (no version 10.1 with hardware acceleration), the poor email program, missing support for a few "nice" features like per-caller ringtones.
Nokia found themselves suddenly trailing behind the iPhone and Android, but they had an alternative which was 90% ready. So in a very-time-critical market did they decide to finish off that last 10%? No, instead of allocating resources to providing the missing apps and features, they decided to ditch it completely and start again from scratch. Which also, understandably, pissed off a lot of Maemo supporters.
Nokia were so close with Maemo, but they threw it all away.
Most useless invention ever...
Speaking of statistic, 100,000 is starting to be a big group of.....voters. Especially if you include the families of those affected.
Big enough to make the difference in some marginal seats.
Perhaps it's time to start asking questions of which politicians do and don't support these legal actions.
Politiians are whores for your votes - perhaps it's time to start using that fact.
"...since anything negative said about the USA is automatically believed and embraced..."
Perhaps your government (amongst others) should start a process of thinking long and hard about why this might be.
"How come Microsoft gets to name an entire galaxy?"
No, that's Mars you're thinking of (and no, that's not the Mars you're thinking of).
(With Wikipedia links for the whoooooosh.... crowd).
"Since I spend a lot of my time in code, and I'm an engineer at heart, I'd say I've learned how to do decent coding -- modularity, MVC, properly normalized databases, small well-defined functions, OO when necessary (and recognizing when its necessary). Now I won't claim to be at all skilled in anything lower level....."
By the sound of it, you're actually a better programmer than 80% of the "programmers" out there. And I say this as an experienced programmer myself.
The debts involved are massive, too.
From this article (though note it was written back in September):
"Under the current program, we estimate that each Irish family of four will be liable for 200,000 euros in public debt by 2015."
Ouch.
Strange that you should answer the question "What happened to innocent until proven quilty?" with the words:
"As with most crimes in progress..."