We live in a capitalistic society, so everything has a value, which is discounted according to the current interest rate. This means that the sum total of everything of value that could possibly exist in 1000 years, or at any point thereafter, is worth less today than the candy bar sitting on my desk. Therefore, unless you think the asteroid will hit within the next 1000 years, it's simply not worth looking for. QED
The common thread I was alluding to was the attempt by these parties to take something from the "public domain" and restrict it for commercial purposes.
I for one hope that Amazon will not hesitate to grind their customers under the Amazon Wheel of Bureaucratic Justice. They are big, they are powerful, and they should listen to no one--no one I say!--on their path to world domination.
Microsoft is at its heart a parasitic entity, whose only purpose is to maximize its profits, which means maximizing income with the minimum amount of effort. Already we see that real software innovation has moved elsewhere. For example, if it weren't from external pressure from open source software like Mozilla, Microsoft would have stopped development on IE completely. An even better model for them would be simply to have others do the development at no cost to Microsoft, and then for them to charge users for the use of this software, via software patents, etc.
This is a rather Orwellian use of the word "freeing". What they are really describing is the furtherance of a Bayh-Dole world in which research is only considered to be valuable if it can be licensed (i.e., kept from use by others, except at the licensors whim).
In an area tangential to something I do, an early researcher got a marginal patent on an algorithm (as applied to that particular field). That patent was used to prevent others from following the work and more-or-less shut down innovation in this area for a decade.
I don't know if there are any socially redeeming uses for patents, but I know that there aren't in academia.
It does sound like quite a bit, but if he's losing energy, it's clearly working for him. And if he's eating some vegetables, it's probably a better diet than 95% of us...
They're pretty good nutrionally. I can eat them anywhere in about two minutes. They keep for months in a desk drawer, etc. Sweet enough to be palatable but not sickeningly so. Pretty smooth energy burn for several hours.
Once upon a time I worked in operations for a Very Large Telecommunications Company (TM). One of my primary duties was to compile an onerous weekly report on server uptimes and send it to one of the directors, via his secretary. One day I found out that his secretary was moving to a different department, so I stopped sending them, to see what would happen.
No one ever asked me about those reports again.
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That line from Microsoft's past would fit right in at Gitmo...
We live in a capitalistic society, so everything has a value, which is discounted according to the current interest rate. This means that the sum total of everything of value that could possibly exist in 1000 years, or at any point thereafter, is worth less today than the candy bar sitting on my desk. Therefore, unless you think the asteroid will hit within the next 1000 years, it's simply not worth looking for. QED
Putting on my tin-foil hat, this might be handy for keeping draftees from skipping to Canada...
Larry McVoy. Here's an extremely bland description of what happened:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitKeeper
The common thread I was alluding to was the attempt by these parties to take something from the "public domain" and restrict it for commercial purposes.
Perl could be the first language to bow out gracefully when it's day is done, but I'm not holding my breath...
Not as bad as the Bitkeeper guy, nor probably even the CDDB guy, but still--grrr...
National Guard when those nasty bullies come after them...
I for one hope that Amazon will not hesitate to grind their customers under the Amazon Wheel of Bureaucratic Justice. They are big, they are powerful, and they should listen to no one--no one I say!--on their path to world domination.
Microsoft is at its heart a parasitic entity, whose only purpose is to maximize its profits, which means maximizing income with the minimum amount of effort. Already we see that real software innovation has moved elsewhere. For example, if it weren't from external pressure from open source software like Mozilla, Microsoft would have stopped development on IE completely. An even better model for them would be simply to have others do the development at no cost to Microsoft, and then for them to charge users for the use of this software, via software patents, etc.
Now there's a name I haven't heard for a while...
In an area tangential to something I do, an early researcher got a marginal patent on an algorithm (as applied to that particular field). That patent was used to prevent others from following the work and more-or-less shut down innovation in this area for a decade.
I don't know if there are any socially redeeming uses for patents, but I know that there aren't in academia.
That was a joke. You must be new here (on Slashdot)... ;-)
You must be new here (in the USA)...
Interesting. Does the core PS3 come with a game? If not, I guess that's about even...
For some reason I read that as "Xbox360 plus Wii". Would the two of them cost less than a PS3? (Not sure what I'd do with a 360, though...)
Could this be used to make a window to look out of that would show me what happened five minutes ago?
It does sound like quite a bit, but if he's losing energy, it's clearly working for him. And if he's eating some vegetables, it's probably a better diet than 95% of us...
They're pretty good nutrionally. I can eat them anywhere in about two minutes. They keep for months in a desk drawer, etc. Sweet enough to be palatable but not sickeningly so. Pretty smooth energy burn for several hours.
(okay, so the platters are a little on the heavy side)
If someone thinks I want to see HTML, they can send me a link to the web page in question. HTML email has been a general disaster.
one from Walmart, at least here in the US. :-)
Yeah, but you don't know what I did six months ago...here...in the northern hemisphere... ;-)
To answer your question, I was the only person covering the (mission critical!) systems in question, so no one else could have prepared the reports.
Once upon a time I worked in operations for a Very Large Telecommunications Company (TM). One of my primary duties was to compile an onerous weekly report on server uptimes and send it to one of the directors, via his secretary. One day I found out that his secretary was moving to a different department, so I stopped sending them, to see what would happen. No one ever asked me about those reports again.