Don't exaggerate, it's not in "almost every country."
South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Uganda & Senegal, just off the top of my head are pretty stable, and fairly democratic, and there are lots more countries like that for every Congo, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Sudan.
The latter countries would pretty much fit your description but the previously mentioned countries do NOT fit the two "potential bloody dictators fighting for power" description.
Assuming a doubling in clock speed every 2 years, in 20 years clock speed will increase by 2^10 ~ 1000. So PERFORMANCE should increase by a factor of 1000.
Obviously this is going to happen somehow but its nice to see how it might be done.
"In our days we only had 50GB hard drives and 2GB of RAM..... And we liked it!"
only 150MB? The machine I am on right now is using 357MB(NT 4.0)
Ok i confess it is running some Oracle databases we are using, but they only show up at 150MB is task manager. I guess the rest is hidden somewhere, normally the load is 70MB. Still a substantial load.
However, I have to disagree with you on the last point. It is true that it is hard for men to understand women, but there is a difference between being totally clueless and being semi-clueless.
I don't know if you are serious, but I'll give it a try. Of course I am not a karma whore so I won't try THAT hard....
1. Focus on developing yourself and developing something that girls will want. Girls like guys who have something going for themselves or who seem like they do. They know when something is good and they'll make sure they try and get some.(Or at least they will think about it)
2. Don't be desperate. Thats the number one thing to drive chicks away. If you look like you DON'T need it, thats when you get it. Thats the way it works.
3. So how do you implement #1? Focus on your strengths. The fortunate thing is that they are a lot of different girls out there and they like different things. Quiet girls, wild girls, freaks and everything in between. So in a sense it doesn't matter WHAT you have going on as long as its SOMETHING to differentiate you from the crowd.
So in summary, YES being a master of code does impress SOME girls, so you if thats your strength don't dispair. (But if you are in highschool all bets are off!) They are people out there looking for EXACTLY your qualities so make sure they can see them loud and clear(in a positive way of course).
4. Going back to part 2. This sounds touchy-feely but I suggest you develop your self-esteem. If you don't think that you are a worthwhile person and that your life is fulfilling people will definately pick up on that. I can't help you much here, as volumes have been written on this very subject. But as the saying goes, "Fake it till you make it." If you act like something is true very often you come to believe it. Psychologist William James famously advocated this. ("Feeling follows action" was how he put it.)
Project confidence and contentment and people will sense this. Note: This is definately not the same as arrogance which will definately turn a lot of people off.(Surprisingly enough SOME girls like arrogant guys - go figure)
5. I would suggest that you really try to understand women. Try to think like them, understand how they feel. Its obvious that men and women are very different in terms of what they value and how they go about things. They are a lot of resources that try to describe these differences. In any case, I feel that without really being able to empathize in general, WHY women do certain things or feel a certain way you will be trying to fight an invisible enemy. Going for the grand gesture when a simple hug or phone call would do, ie. screwing up. I suggest you read women's magazines, websites etc, get a lot of friends of the opposite sex and really try to understand them and what they want. As far as what do women want, that subject is so broad and controversial that I cannot go into it here. Short answer: They want EVERYTHING, right now! (just kidding)
6. Finally your success in this as in anything else will depend on how much effort you are prepared to put into it. If your spend your days and nights hunched over your monitor and posting to/. your chances of success are very slim. You have to take chances and risk a bunch of rejections if you are really want to get hooked.( I am assuming you want a long term relationship. If you want just want sex, I am sorry to dissappoint you. I doubt that you have the qualities to get "cute girls [to] jump into [your] arms and say "Fuck me now!" " Neither do I for that matter. Girls aren't stupid you know!)
Basically you have to do activities where you'll meet people in a positive way(Hiking, classes whatever). Just try to meet people and have fun.
7. Lastly I would hope that you realise that having a SO is no minor undertaking. Basically you'll have to do a bunch of stuff to make her happy and there will be fights and "issues" and all kinds of crap. Of course there are 'compensations' but you should know what you are getting into(if you've really never had a girlfriend). So if you like to code all night and sleep all day, this may not really be compatible with your ambitions.
So in summary: Find out what they want, and give it to them. I hope this has been of some help.
PS: Of course I am just a 21 year old geek so take all this with a grain of salt. All of the above points have worked for me, however YMMV.
This is true to some extent. I am not happy that a commercial entity has control over the Java programming language. But I still think there is a difference between Sun and Microsoft's influence on their respective languages. To make it short and sweet you can use Java without using Solaris, you won't be able to use C# without using Windows (at least for a while).
Plus who really wants multiple incompatible Java versions anyway? I know I don't.
For some reason I cannot fathom even a bit of enthusiasm for this language. Fundamentally it begs the question WHY? What need does this language address that current languages do not?
The benefits of learning it do not seem worth the effort. My understanding of it after reading the interview is that it is simpler than C++ but includes some C++ feautures left out in Java.(operator overloading is offered as an example) Also of course it has a lot of integration with MS specific stuff like VB and DLLs.
There are also some very minor tweaks such as controlling garbage collection, managing the namespace differently and more control over compilation. They may be nice(i'm not really sure) but are they worthy of a whole new language? I don't think so.
Basically to me this language seems to address more Microsofts needs than any genuine developer needs. They want to take a bite out of Java and this is how they will do it. They may well succeed ( you know they will push it real hard).
Finally, in this day and age why would I want tie myself so closely to a Microsoft solution? The control that Sun has over Java is deplorable but at least they didn't integrate it real closely with Solaris and tie it in with their other products. In short you can download the JDK and start working without any further interaction with Sun. This C# language on the other hand is being heavily marketed as microsoft centered.
Essentially it does not look like this C# stuff will be ported over to Linux or Solaris any time soon.
I don't hate Microsoft, (hell, I am using NT right now)but at the same time I don't want to be tied to them any more than necessary. This is not zealotry,its common sense.
Mobile networks exist in most major African CITIES contrary to popular opinion. They all use GSM as well. Now whether or not your provider has a roaming agreement with the local companies is a different matter.
Needless to say such coverage is unavailable in most rurual areas.
I recently read your article titled "The Open-Source Platform Is Open to a Slew of Vulnerabilities"
In this article you very memorably claim that "Linux is the worst operating system ever." My aim is not to argue with your conclusion, (which I do not happen to share) but rather to challenge your methodology.
You based your conclusion on the number of bugtraq vulnerability postings. Do you really think this is a valid measure in and of itself. The very extensive disclaimer on the page that you quote( http://www.securityfocus.com/vdb/stats. html) should be enough to show that this methodology is severely limited. I do not think it is worth while to repeat all the information contained in the disclaimer.
Furthermore your numbers do not seem to add up. It appears you considered the aggregate of the Linux bugs while considering only Windows NT for the microsoft side. In order to be fair you should consider the total of 3.1/95/98/NT/2000 + all their default installed software components. And there is really no guarantee that such a comparison would be sensible at all, considering the different packages that come with each system.
On the other hand to compare only with NT you should take ONE linux distribution and contrast it with NT. this is somewhat more meaningful as it MAY point out which distribution is more tightly controlled.
In summary I believe that your analysis was not really very helpful in shedding light on the subject matter and I respectfully hope that you will reconsider your opinion.
PS: I further urge you to visit http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/08/02/212244 &mode=thread&threshold=1
where you can find a lot of insightful opinions to your article.
Now that Linux is mainstream I think we need to start thinking about the needs of the masses. In particular we need to come up with a simple catchy phrase that we can drum into the popular concsiousness and have it associated with Linux.
This will make it easier for the average non-geek to latch on to a single aspect of Linux and keep it in their brain. It doesn't have to be informative just something that will stick. I mean look at the rest:-
SUN - THe network is the Computer. - The dot in dot com. Translation: INTERNET
IBM - E-SERVICE and E-BUSINESS Translation: BUSINESS
MICRO$OFT - Where do want to go today? Translation: We'll do EVERYTHING for you {aka MONOPOLY}
Coke - The real thing. Translation: Coke is GOOD for you. Pepsi is NOT. etc. etc.
They all emphasize an aspect that they want people to remember. I believe its called branding. These slogans create powerful mental associations in the public mind and Linux cannot afford to ignore this. Linux cannot afford to be called the "alternative software system" when it has reached this level. I propose that we emphasize STABILITY and OPENNESS, both proven qualities of LINUX. Now to summarize that in a few catchy words.
I predict that Geeks are more successful, based on the fact that Geeks don't have as much opportunity and interest in extra-marital affairs(among other things). They stay home a lot, are responsible, smart, logical, loyal. Girls might (apparently) not notice it, but those are perfect husband characteristics. Probably good wife characteristics too, I bet.
Contrast this with a party-mad jock type of personality and you'll see my point.
Also Geeks tend to improve with age, as they pick up more "normal" people skills and become generally less awkward to the point where you can't even tell they are Geeks. So basically if you marry a Geek he/she will only improve with age unlike some OTHER demographics out there. (Where are all those 'cool guys' fron high school now?)
Thats my basic thesis, although I have no data. Obviously there are a lot of other factors involved, I just think that Geeks posses a lot of the qualities that could help in marriage. PS: I am thinking of someone like WOZ here not Kevin Mitnick.
Although at 40 million dollars a pop it IS a wee bit steep. I'd say only someone with a net worth of more than 1 billion dollars would spring for this. Which gives a customer base of around 1000 people world wide.(According to Fortune magazine).
Still maybe if they can get 10 people a year they might be able to make the thing work financially.
I wonder what makes space travel so expensive? Is it the fuel (liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen I believe), the cost of the vehicle itself (the various booster stages and so on) or the maintenance costs(engineers, repairs and general upkeep).
Why haven't we developed cool spacecrafts like they had in Star Wars:TPM that can go straight into the atmosphere? It would seem to be more an economic issue as opposed to a technological issue. I guess they can't develop quite enough thrust to escape the Earth's gravity without using those huge rockets. Oh well... Time to work on that Warp Drive (Yeah I know this would only help once you are in orbit but Warp Drives are pretty damn cool)
Work is being done in this direction. When the Itanium comes out Linux will definately boot and most of the applications should work as well. It has already worked on a simulation.
The responsible group is the Trillian Project which has support from Intel, IBM and other industry heavy weights. Check it out here http://www.linuxia64.org/
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South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Uganda & Senegal, just off the top of my head are pretty stable, and fairly democratic, and there are lots more countries like that for every Congo, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Sudan.
The latter countries would pretty much fit your description but the previously mentioned countries do NOT fit the two "potential bloody dictators fighting for power" description.
I don't think the guy was being sarcastic. He sounded pretty sincere to me. But I can't be sure...
You're right, its the transistors that (should) double not clock speed.
Thanks for that informative post!
Assuming a doubling in clock speed every 2 years, in 20 years clock speed will increase by 2^10 ~ 1000. So PERFORMANCE should increase by a factor of 1000.
Obviously this is going to happen somehow but its nice to see how it might be done.
"In our days we only had 50GB hard drives and 2GB of RAM..... And we liked it!"
only 150MB? The machine I am on right now is using 357MB(NT 4.0)
Ok i confess it is running some Oracle databases we are using, but they only show up at 150MB is task manager. I guess the rest is hidden somewhere, normally the load is 70MB. Still a substantial load.
I need more RAM!!!!!!!!!!
haha! Glad to see all that advice wasn't for nothing.
No its ok, I was just bored anyway. Good luck with the "counselor".....
However, I have to disagree with you on the last point. It is true that it is hard for men to understand women, but there is a difference between being totally clueless and being semi-clueless.
Anyway, to each his own .....
1. Focus on developing yourself and developing something that girls will want. Girls like guys who have something going for themselves or who seem like they do. They know when something is good and they'll make sure they try and get some.(Or at least they will think about it)
2. Don't be desperate. Thats the number one thing to drive chicks away. If you look like you DON'T need it, thats when you get it. Thats the way it works.
3. So how do you implement #1? Focus on your strengths. The fortunate thing is that they are a lot of different girls out there and they like different things. Quiet girls, wild girls, freaks and everything in between. So in a sense it doesn't matter WHAT you have going on as long as its SOMETHING to differentiate you from the crowd.
So in summary, YES being a master of code does impress SOME girls, so you if thats your strength don't dispair. (But if you are in highschool all bets are off!) They are people out there looking for EXACTLY your qualities so make sure they can see them loud and clear(in a positive way of course).
4. Going back to part 2. This sounds touchy-feely but I suggest you develop your self-esteem. If you don't think that you are a worthwhile person and that your life is fulfilling people will definately pick up on that. I can't help you much here, as volumes have been written on this very subject. But as the saying goes, "Fake it till you make it." If you act like something is true very often you come to believe it. Psychologist William James famously advocated this. ("Feeling follows action" was how he put it.)
Project confidence and contentment and people will sense this. Note: This is definately not the same as arrogance which will definately turn a lot of people off.(Surprisingly enough SOME girls like arrogant guys - go figure)
5. I would suggest that you really try to understand women. Try to think like them, understand how they feel. Its obvious that men and women are very different in terms of what they value and how they go about things. They are a lot of resources that try to describe these differences. In any case, I feel that without really being able to empathize in general, WHY women do certain things or feel a certain way you will be trying to fight an invisible enemy. Going for the grand gesture when a simple hug or phone call would do, ie. screwing up. I suggest you read women's magazines, websites etc, get a lot of friends of the opposite sex and really try to understand them and what they want. As far as what do women want, that subject is so broad and controversial that I cannot go into it here. Short answer: They want EVERYTHING, right now! (just kidding)
6. Finally your success in this as in anything else will depend on how much effort you are prepared to put into it. If your spend your days and nights hunched over your monitor and posting to
Basically you have to do activities where you'll meet people in a positive way(Hiking, classes whatever). Just try to meet people and have fun.
7. Lastly I would hope that you realise that having a SO is no minor undertaking. Basically you'll have to do a bunch of stuff to make her happy and there will be fights and "issues" and all kinds of crap. Of course there are 'compensations' but you should know what you are getting into(if you've really never had a girlfriend). So if you like to code all night and sleep all day, this may not really be compatible with your ambitions.
So in summary: Find out what they want, and give it to them. I hope this has been of some help.
PS: Of course I am just a 21 year old geek so take all this with a grain of salt. All of the above points have worked for me, however YMMV.
It worked for me on Windows NT 4.0. Netscape 4.61
Just for the historical record or something.
Plus who really wants multiple incompatible Java versions anyway? I know I don't.
The benefits of learning it do not seem worth the effort. My understanding of it after reading the interview is that it is simpler than C++ but includes some C++ feautures left out in Java.(operator overloading is offered as an example) Also of course it has a lot of integration with MS specific stuff like VB and DLLs.
There are also some very minor tweaks such as controlling garbage collection, managing the namespace differently and more control over compilation. They may be nice(i'm not really sure) but are they worthy of a whole new language? I don't think so.
Basically to me this language seems to address more Microsofts needs than any genuine developer needs. They want to take a bite out of Java and this is how they will do it. They may well succeed ( you know they will push it real hard).
Finally, in this day and age why would I want tie myself so closely to a Microsoft solution? The control that Sun has over Java is deplorable but at least they didn't integrate it real closely with Solaris and tie it in with their other products. In short you can download the JDK and start working without any further interaction with Sun. This C# language on the other hand is being heavily marketed as microsoft centered.
Essentially it does not look like this C# stuff will be ported over to Linux or Solaris any time soon.
I don't hate Microsoft, (hell, I am using NT right now)but at the same time I don't want to be tied to them any more than necessary. This is not zealotry,its common sense.
Just my 0.02$
Needless to say such coverage is unavailable in most rurual areas.
Dear Sir,
I recently read your article titled "The Open-Source Platform Is Open to a Slew of Vulnerabilities"
In this article you very memorably claim that "Linux is the worst operating system ever." My aim is not to argue with your conclusion, (which I do not happen to share) but rather to challenge your methodology.
You based your conclusion on the number of bugtraq vulnerability postings. Do you really think this is a valid measure in and of itself. The very extensive disclaimer on the page that you quote( http://www.securityfocus.com/vdb/stats. html) should be enough to show that this methodology is severely limited. I do not think it is worth while to repeat all the information contained in the disclaimer.
Furthermore your numbers do not seem to add up. It appears you considered the aggregate of the Linux bugs while considering only Windows NT for the microsoft side. In order to be fair you should consider the total of 3.1/95/98/NT/2000 + all their default installed software components. And there is really no guarantee that such a comparison would be sensible at all, considering the different packages that come with each system.
On the other hand to compare only with NT you should take ONE linux distribution and contrast it with NT. this is somewhat more meaningful as it MAY point out which distribution is more tightly controlled.
In summary I believe that your analysis was not really very helpful in shedding light on the subject matter and I respectfully hope that you will reconsider your opinion.
PS: I further urge you to visit http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/08/02/212244 &mode=thread&threshold=1
where you can find a lot of insightful opinions to your article.
yours,
Robert Rwebangira
Great Story. I loved it.
Thanks
Maybe its his little brother .....
1. This page is not labeled "The TRUTH about VA Linux Systems."
2.It does not attempt to do a biased comparison against OTHER Linux vendors such as Penguin Computing.
I understand what you are trying to say, but its not really a valid comparison.
Damn!
I feel violated....
Damn cookies, sheesh....
>>+ Serious, and Open Source
I think this is the best one so far.
I like the use of the word "open". So Open Source and business CAN work together inspite of what Bob Metcalfe thinks!;)
Not everyone has an Ars box. If you've read it you can just skip it and come to the comments.
This will make it easier for the average non-geek to latch on to a single aspect of Linux and keep it in their brain. It doesn't have to be informative just something that will stick. I mean look at the rest:-
SUN - THe network is the Computer.
- The dot in dot com.
Translation: INTERNET
IBM - E-SERVICE and E-BUSINESS
Translation: BUSINESS
MICRO$OFT - Where do want to go today?
Translation: We'll do EVERYTHING for you {aka MONOPOLY}
Coke - The real thing.
Translation: Coke is GOOD for you. Pepsi is NOT. etc. etc.
They all emphasize an aspect that they want people to remember. I believe its called branding. These slogans create powerful mental associations in the public mind and Linux cannot afford to ignore this. Linux cannot afford to be called the "alternative software system" when it has reached this level. I propose that we emphasize STABILITY and OPENNESS, both proven qualities of LINUX. Now to summarize that in a few catchy words.
Any ideas?
Contrast this with a party-mad jock type of personality and you'll see my point.
Also Geeks tend to improve with age, as they pick up more "normal" people skills and become generally less awkward to the point where you can't even tell they are Geeks. So basically if you marry a Geek he/she will only improve with age unlike some OTHER demographics out there. (Where are all those 'cool guys' fron high school now?)
Thats my basic thesis, although I have no data.
Obviously there are a lot of other factors involved, I just think that Geeks posses a lot of the qualities that could help in marriage.
PS: I am thinking of someone like WOZ here not Kevin Mitnick.
If yes, where is the source?
Still maybe if they can get 10 people a year they might be able to make the thing work financially.
I wonder what makes space travel so expensive? Is it the fuel (liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen I believe), the cost of the vehicle itself (the various booster stages and so on) or the maintenance costs(engineers, repairs and general upkeep).
Why haven't we developed cool spacecrafts like they had in Star Wars:TPM that can go straight into the atmosphere? It would seem to be more an economic issue as opposed to a technological issue. I guess they can't develop quite enough thrust to escape the Earth's gravity without using those huge rockets. Oh well
Work is being done in this direction. When the Itanium comes out Linux will definately boot and most of the applications should work as well. It has already worked on a simulation.
The responsible group is the Trillian Project which has support from Intel, IBM and other industry heavy weights.
Check it out here http://www.linuxia64.org/
Why don't you go to his web page? He is one of the MAIN kernel developers; among the top 5. (you know who the rest are right?)