...while the tech innovations of the past 50 years may be less significant than those of the 50 years before that, I think it's premature to assume that the overall pace is slowing and that there's less to be discovered. I agree that basic sanitation and such is more universally important than cell phones, but just think of some of the things which we as a society have not yet even considered.
Maybe in 50 years AIDS and cancer will be non-existent. Or maybe we'll come up with some sort of Star Trek transporter.
To say that inventions from 1900-1950 are more important than ones from 1950-2000 is a fair statement. To say that we've invented all the important things we, as a society, need to invent is foolish.
While I agree with your main point, teaching a student Latin is not just teaching them a language. Latin is a dead language so knowing it by itself does one very little good in today's world. However, so many words and word roots in modern English are derived from Latin roots. Also, Latin sentences are very structured and logical and learning to construct and interpret such sentences teaches certain logic skills. Finally, it if were just about teaching a language, HS honor students would be taught one with more explicit uses than Latin.
I sort of agree. Overall, RMS's philosophy is more sound and his goals are more admirable. However, following "the proof is in the puddin'" theory, I gotta vote for one of the creators of UNIX. Overall, better than any tangible things RMS produced for the world.
I just downloaded and installed this last week and have found it to be quite unusable. While the buttons and scroll bars sure do look futuristic, the amount of times it just flat out crashes is completely unacceptable. I'll try this release, but I'm fearful I'll be stuck with 4.72 (which, incidentally, still crashes on me more than once per day which is normally unacceptable but is awesome compared to the once per 5 minutes with PR3).
Aside from these specifics, I can't agree more with the author of this note about Netscape cheesily leveraging their browser to promote other areas of their business. First thing I do when I install Netscape is reset the Home button away from the popup window laden Netcenter and delete all Netscape default bookmarks and buttons. I know, many companies leverage popularity in one strong department to assist them in other areas (AOL, Microsoft), but I don't have to use agree with it. I won't such features from Netscape just like I won't use any MS products at home and won't use AOL.
Power to the people,
darthcornfed
Slashdot Mirror
Sometimes practical application has to take a back seat to geeky coolness when it comes to leisurely activities. Very cool!
...while the tech innovations of the past 50 years may be less significant than those of the 50 years before that, I think it's premature to assume that the overall pace is slowing and that there's less to be discovered. I agree that basic sanitation and such is more universally important than cell phones, but just think of some of the things which we as a society have not yet even considered. Maybe in 50 years AIDS and cancer will be non-existent. Or maybe we'll come up with some sort of Star Trek transporter. To say that inventions from 1900-1950 are more important than ones from 1950-2000 is a fair statement. To say that we've invented all the important things we, as a society, need to invent is foolish.
While I agree with your main point, teaching a student Latin is not just teaching them a language. Latin is a dead language so knowing it by itself does one very little good in today's world. However, so many words and word roots in modern English are derived from Latin roots. Also, Latin sentences are very structured and logical and learning to construct and interpret such sentences teaches certain logic skills. Finally, it if were just about teaching a language, HS honor students would be taught one with more explicit uses than Latin.
I sort of agree. Overall, RMS's philosophy is more sound and his goals are more admirable. However, following "the proof is in the puddin'" theory, I gotta vote for one of the creators of UNIX. Overall, better than any tangible things RMS produced for the world.
I just downloaded and installed this last week and have found it to be quite unusable. While the buttons and scroll bars sure do look futuristic, the amount of times it just flat out crashes is completely unacceptable. I'll try this release, but I'm fearful I'll be stuck with 4.72 (which, incidentally, still crashes on me more than once per day which is normally unacceptable but is awesome compared to the once per 5 minutes with PR3). Aside from these specifics, I can't agree more with the author of this note about Netscape cheesily leveraging their browser to promote other areas of their business. First thing I do when I install Netscape is reset the Home button away from the popup window laden Netcenter and delete all Netscape default bookmarks and buttons. I know, many companies leverage popularity in one strong department to assist them in other areas (AOL, Microsoft), but I don't have to use agree with it. I won't such features from Netscape just like I won't use any MS products at home and won't use AOL. Power to the people, darthcornfed