Don't get me wrong, I think Bill Gates is the anti-christ, but I think books like this are of dubious quality at best. Whether or not we approve of how he runs his company, it is HIS company (or at least most of it is).
At some point we all learn to compromise because we have to, not because we want to. In the beginning so did wild Bill. Things have changed, it's now his game, he has more money than all of us combined. He DOES (did) run the biggest company in the world, and he, through his own manipulation (be it good or bad), created from scratch his own wealth. He is walking proof that "the system" works for those who know how to use it. He's not some rich boy who took Daddy's money and added a little more to it. He was a middle-class boy who took some of daddy's money, and his own skills (even if not technical) and turned it into an empire.
It is HIS empire to destroy if he so desires it. He's a smart boy, he knows what would be the BEST way of preserving his company, but maybe he doesn't want to. He built that company from nothing and it's being taken from him. If he can't run it his way, he'd probably rather not run it at all. Even if this process "ruins" him (maybe only a few hundred million left), he will always live comfortably. He's merely standing up for what he believes in and for that I admire him, it's a sign of character and backbone.
It irks me (but doesn't surprise me) that Katz of all people will assist in villifying Gates for doing nothing more than standing up for his beliefs. We all do the same for the opposing side, and most of us fall on our own swords, but we do so freely for our cause. It does not make Bill Gates a bad man to fight for his cause. What makes him a bad man is what his cause is. Unfortunately this book is little more than glorified name calling. "He shoulda done this or that" is NOT useful reading. I'm not going to pay any money to hear someone make fun of someone else.
an electronics techie, he can fix your vcr and shit. Not that it's something to be ashamed of, but not exactly the best use of an allegedly super human brain with massive abstract thinking abilities.
Give him a Playstation 2 and let his brain hibernate until he's 18. You have only one shot at childhood, then it's over. You have the rest of your life to be an adult.
It's necessary because Star Wars is one of the best Sci-Fi movies ever made. It's a shame that since then Lucas has become nothing more than a whore, but one should not let that overshadow the original. Dune and Star Wars have a lot in common, and when I first read this book at 10 I tought of Paul as a deeper Luke Skywalker.
Dune is one of the best sci-fi novels of all time, which has yet to find a home on the big screen, in part due to it's incredible complexity which you can only fully grasp if you are reading the book and absorbing information at your own pace and thinking. A movie is limited by the ability to convey information and our ability to absorb it correctly real time. I have no problems if they continue trying to get it right, but I also hate to see a good book butchered.
I thought this movie was a yawn and was missing out on something, namely a plot. if the rumors that there is more to this movie coming out in the future are true, then tehre is hope. But as a stand-alone effort, lets face it, this movie sucks. Perhaps I'm jaded after seeing the 6th sense (about 100000 times and loving it each time) and hoping he could meet or exceed that.
Yet my company has been doing this for 10+ years...the only difference is that we do not make it as a product, it's simply a process for chip design/software design (and production of the datasheets involved) etc.
Yet another dumb patent. I think we should have public executions held for anyone whose name is attached not dumb patents.
I'm not sure I agree with the problem with power SOURCES, but power DISTRIBUTION is an issue. It's not that the electric companies have a shortage of power to deliver, as far as I'm aware we're never near their capacity. The trouble is in the lines which bring it to us. Every summer when we fire up our ACs, this causes more current to flow through those wires. More current, means more heat. More heat means things melt and run out of spec. Transformers blow. Lines fuse (I have a great pic soemwhere). Blackouts and the resulting mayhem and general CWS (computer withdrawal syndrome). The cost of the power companies having to make changes to their distribution system... that's bad. Now, imagine a world with everyone plugging in their cars and running their ACs...
On the other hand, I'm not clear on exactly what kind of power drain would necessarily be imposed by an electric vehicle. From something i was reading a while ago they wanted to have 'fast charges' and 'slow charges'... Fast charges you'd get on the road, slow charges you'd get at home. Slow charges would not likely incur significant power drain, wherein fast charges...well you wouldn't want that equipment around your children or pets. Possibly your mother in law.
As usual with Katz there are a couple really intelligent lines, then the rest is a bunch of sedititious babble backed by random facts thrown together. I think perhaps he doesn't truly understand the people he is evangelizing.
We bring much of it upon ourselves Mr. Katz. My company, which I won't mention for legal reasons, is rather generous. I'm right out of school, I make 75k/yr, I get, all said and done, about 3-4 weeks of vacation which I *may* use, without any argument from my boss. However, I choose not to use it, or to use only fractions of it. Why? Simple, like anyone else, I want more money and a lower risk for the future. The market is really great right now, but that will not always stay. The US Gov't is ensuring that the "hi-tech" market will get it's salaries under control soon. Personally, i want to get ahead and do my own thing, but I have to prove myself or no one will give me the money I need. I'm young, I'm single (women in an enginering company? please). I'm willing to work hard while I'm young. Most people in my age group did not take jobs based upon vacation time, most in fact told each other they probably weren't going to use any for the first few years. Why? We're not married, we have no family (beyond our parents), we can hang with our friends any time (and we took care of that in school)...it's time to be serious. Our criteria were: Salary, Stocks (and viability thereof), Benefits (financial), Location, Name Brand. Name Brand you say? My only queef about the "real world" is that it's still not what you know, or not what you can do, but where you do it, but I digress. Those were our parameters, we expect to work and we give it freely. My company does ensure that I CAN work long hours, but my boss doesn't watch my hours. I don't know anyone who feels that is the case. They do feel like they better work hard or someone else will get the $$$ but that is the mess WE make for ourselves.
Finally, whoever said that technology should make our work easier OR shorter? I know we like to exist on the idea that the entire world benefits from the life we in technologically advanced countries have, but I'd say the majority of the world population does not. We don't think about this on a daily basis, but much of the world is still in poverty. For the most part, we cannot do a thing about it. Sure we could "fairly" divide resources to split among everyone, and everyone would suffer at the same level. instead we have these "pockets" of wealth, with the idea (perhaps) that these areas will promote the overall well being of the whole faster than by dividing resources evenly. I know this isn't in any textbook, I don't even think it's planned, but this is how it happens by force. Until everyone is "happy" there can not and should not be rest for anyone. We have to work as hard as we can and still produce. Supply/Demand and competition ensures this always happens. If we don't perform our best, someone else will. There are still plenty of people who are willing to work with little to no vacation on a lot less money than I (for example) make. While it's important we have a certain level of happiness or I think we'll notice a drop in productivity, it's also impossible we'll ever see this overall happiness and quality of life until EVERYONE can enjoy it. That's as it should be. Technology should only ensure that we can provide more resources to more people. Not that we can provide more resources to some people. I realize of course things don't always happen this way in the short term, but in the longer term...it's hard to establish a base of comparison, but if you read history books and old novels, how many people enjoyed the "middle class" quality of life then as we do now? Percentage wise I'd say we're only somewhat better, but sheer #'s we've gone up orders of magnitudes. However, there are things we can see as possible on the horizon which promise good things for everyone...but it takes a LOT of work to develop those things (and the stuff we use which supports this system we have, call it overhead if you will).
It's not big brother or the evil corporate "man" it's what we choose to do. Bosses do get spoiled when they get used to people not wanting to use their vacations, but, that says more about the employee's than the boss. Then, always looming in the background, are the people who will gladly take what we feel is pathetic and work well on it, making sure we don't all get together and collectively go to the bahama's for 3 months out of the year.
Many people evaluate the algorithms for various implementations. One person, Brian Gladman (www.seven77.demon.co.uk) has C implementations of all the algorithms on his page, his implementations in my opinion are very good and efficient.
I worked for a while with my school while I was stuck doing my thesis implementing these algorithms in hardware. Our goal was to see which had the most efficient implementation.
Other people attempt to break the algorithms in the time honored (but highly dubious) tradition we all see in spy vs. spy movies. Others still evaluate the algorithms for resilliance to known attacks (such as mathematical, power based, electrical based etc). Everyone submits papers, theoretically those papers are read and conclusions are reached.
In actuality, no one is quite sure how secure any of them are. Many have suggested using more than one AES candidate as our new standard, in the case that one is broken.
As far as developers are concerned, I suggest checking brian gladman's page, however note the license agreements. Also note that in certain countries (like the US) you may never redistribute that code outside the US boundaries (stupidist *#*#$ I've ever heard).
Slashdot Mirror
Don't get me wrong, I think Bill Gates is the anti-christ, but I think books like this are of dubious quality at best. Whether or not we approve of how he runs his company, it is HIS company (or at least most of it is).
At some point we all learn to compromise because we have to, not because we want to. In the beginning so did wild Bill. Things have changed, it's now his game, he has more money than all of us combined. He DOES (did) run the biggest company in the world, and he, through his own manipulation (be it good or bad), created from scratch his own wealth. He is walking proof that "the system" works for those who know how to use it. He's not some rich boy who took Daddy's money and added a little more to it. He was a middle-class boy who took some of daddy's money, and his own skills (even if not technical) and turned it into an empire.
It is HIS empire to destroy if he so desires it. He's a smart boy, he knows what would be the BEST way of preserving his company, but maybe he doesn't want to. He built that company from nothing and it's being taken from him. If he can't run it his way, he'd probably rather not run it at all. Even if this process "ruins" him (maybe only a few hundred million left), he will always live comfortably. He's merely standing up for what he believes in and for that I admire him, it's a sign of character and backbone.
It irks me (but doesn't surprise me) that Katz of all people will assist in villifying Gates for doing nothing more than standing up for his beliefs. We all do the same for the opposing side, and most of us fall on our own swords, but we do so freely for our cause. It does not make Bill Gates a bad man to fight for his cause. What makes him a bad man is what his cause is. Unfortunately this book is little more than glorified name calling. "He shoulda done this or that" is NOT useful reading. I'm not going to pay any money to hear someone make fun of someone else.
an electronics techie, he can fix your vcr and shit. Not that it's something to be ashamed of, but not exactly the best use of an allegedly super human brain with massive abstract thinking abilities.
Give him a Playstation 2 and let his brain hibernate until he's 18. You have only one shot at childhood, then it's over. You have the rest of your life to be an adult.
Bell Labs isn't part of AT&T, it is part of Lucent. Lucent does not sell UNIX. Lucent doesn't really sell Plan 9 either.
It's necessary because Star Wars is one of the best Sci-Fi movies ever made. It's a shame that since then Lucas has become nothing more than a whore, but one should not let that overshadow the original. Dune and Star Wars have a lot in common, and when I first read this book at 10 I tought of Paul as a deeper Luke Skywalker.
Dune is one of the best sci-fi novels of all time, which has yet to find a home on the big screen, in part due to it's incredible complexity which you can only fully grasp if you are reading the book and absorbing information at your own pace and thinking. A movie is limited by the ability to convey information and our ability to absorb it correctly real time. I have no problems if they continue trying to get it right, but I also hate to see a good book butchered.
I thought this movie was a yawn and was missing out on something, namely a plot. if the rumors that there is more to this movie coming out in the future are true, then tehre is hope. But as a stand-alone effort, lets face it, this movie sucks. Perhaps I'm jaded after seeing the 6th sense (about 100000 times and loving it each time) and hoping he could meet or exceed that.
Yet my company has been doing this for 10+ years...the only difference is that we do not make it as a product, it's simply a process for chip design/software design (and production of the datasheets involved) etc.
Yet another dumb patent. I think we should have public executions held for anyone whose name is attached not dumb patents.
I'm not sure I agree with the problem with power SOURCES, but power DISTRIBUTION is an issue. It's not that the electric companies have a shortage of power to deliver, as far as I'm aware we're never near their capacity. The trouble is in the lines which bring it to us. Every summer when we fire up our ACs, this causes more current to flow through those wires. More current, means more heat. More heat means things melt and run out of spec. Transformers blow. Lines fuse (I have a great pic soemwhere). Blackouts and the resulting mayhem and general CWS (computer withdrawal syndrome). The cost of the power companies having to make changes to their distribution system... that's bad.
Now, imagine a world with everyone plugging in their cars and running their ACs...
On the other hand, I'm not clear on exactly what kind of power drain would necessarily be imposed by an electric vehicle. From something i was reading a while ago they wanted to have 'fast charges' and 'slow charges'... Fast charges you'd get on the road, slow charges you'd get at home. Slow charges would not likely incur significant power drain, wherein fast charges...well you wouldn't want that equipment around your children or pets. Possibly your mother in law.
As usual with Katz there are a couple really intelligent lines, then the rest is a bunch of sedititious babble backed by random facts thrown together. I think perhaps he doesn't truly understand the people he is evangelizing.
We bring much of it upon ourselves Mr. Katz. My company, which I won't mention for legal reasons, is rather generous. I'm right out of school, I make 75k/yr, I get, all said and done, about 3-4 weeks of vacation which I *may* use, without any argument from my boss. However, I choose not to use it, or to use only fractions of it. Why? Simple, like anyone else, I want more money and a lower risk for the future. The market is really great right now, but that will not always stay. The US Gov't is ensuring that the "hi-tech" market will get it's salaries under control soon. Personally, i want to get ahead and do my own thing, but I have to prove myself or no one will give me the money I need. I'm young, I'm single (women in an enginering company? please). I'm willing to work hard while I'm young. Most people in my age group did not take jobs based upon vacation time, most in fact told each other they probably weren't going to use any for the first few years. Why? We're not married, we have no family (beyond our parents), we can hang with our friends any time (and we took care of that in school)...it's time to be serious. Our criteria were: Salary, Stocks (and viability thereof), Benefits (financial), Location, Name Brand. Name Brand you say? My only queef about the "real world" is that it's still not what you know, or not what you can do, but where you do it, but I digress. Those were our parameters, we expect to work and we give it freely. My company does ensure that I CAN work long hours, but my boss doesn't watch my hours. I don't know anyone who feels that is the case. They do feel like they better work hard or someone else will get the $$$ but that is the mess WE make for ourselves.
Finally, whoever said that technology should make our work easier OR shorter? I know we like to exist on the idea that the entire world benefits from the life we in technologically advanced countries have, but I'd say the majority of the world population does not. We don't think about this on a daily basis, but much of the world is still in poverty. For the most part, we cannot do a thing about it. Sure we could "fairly" divide resources to split among everyone, and everyone would suffer at the same level. instead we have these "pockets" of wealth, with the idea (perhaps) that these areas will promote the overall well being of the whole faster than by dividing resources evenly. I know this isn't in any textbook, I don't even think it's planned, but this is how it happens by force. Until everyone is "happy" there can not and should not be rest for anyone. We have to work as hard as we can and still produce. Supply/Demand and competition ensures this always happens. If we don't perform our best, someone else will. There are still plenty of people who are willing to work with little to no vacation on a lot less money than I (for example) make. While it's important we have a certain level of happiness or I think we'll notice a drop in productivity, it's also impossible we'll ever see this overall happiness and quality of life until EVERYONE can enjoy it. That's as it should be. Technology should only ensure that we can provide more resources to more people. Not that we can provide more resources to some people. I realize of course things don't always happen this way in the short term, but in the longer term...it's hard to establish a base of comparison, but if you read history books and old novels, how many people enjoyed the "middle class" quality of life then as we do now? Percentage wise I'd say we're only somewhat better, but sheer #'s we've gone up orders of magnitudes. However, there are things we can see as possible on the horizon which promise good things for everyone...but it takes a LOT of work to develop those things (and the stuff we use which supports this system we have, call it overhead if you will).
It's not big brother or the evil corporate "man" it's what we choose to do. Bosses do get spoiled when they get used to people not wanting to use their vacations, but, that says more about the employee's than the boss. Then, always looming in the background, are the people who will gladly take what we feel is pathetic and work well on it, making sure we don't all get together and collectively go to the bahama's for 3 months out of the year.
This is why those who can do, do, those who can't, obtain PhDs.
Many people evaluate the algorithms for various implementations. One person, Brian Gladman (www.seven77.demon.co.uk) has C implementations of all the algorithms on his page, his implementations in my opinion are very good and efficient.
I worked for a while with my school while I was stuck doing my thesis implementing these algorithms in hardware. Our goal was to see which had the most efficient implementation.
Other people attempt to break the algorithms in the time honored (but highly dubious) tradition we all see in spy vs. spy movies. Others still evaluate the algorithms for resilliance to known attacks (such as mathematical, power based, electrical based etc). Everyone submits papers, theoretically those papers are read and conclusions are reached.
In actuality, no one is quite sure how secure any of them are. Many have suggested using more than one AES candidate as our new standard, in the case that one is broken.
As far as developers are concerned, I suggest checking brian gladman's page, however note the license agreements. Also note that in certain countries (like the US) you may never redistribute that code outside the US boundaries (stupidist *#*#$ I've ever heard).