I agree that this is a fantastic book, but I would disagree that The most important reason to find a copy of this book, though, is to read with the now 15 years of hindsight.
That's certainly important, but I think that for the majority of new readers, the most important reason for reading is to get some perspective on the "hacker ethos". Some "old git" history if you will:-) There's a lot of people coming into computing nowadays who could use the inspiration that reading this book brings. I think that Levy has probably done more to further the hacker (!= cracker) mentality than any other writer.
If you haven't read this - track it down and enjoy:-) "Give the anarchist a cigarette"
When I first heard about the Cue Cat on Slashdot, I thought that Digital Convergence seem to have created an excellent product, but are a little short on the old grey matter.
It seems pretty obvious that here's a company who have read "New Economy 101" and decided that their tangible product should be free so they can create money on the spin-off merchandise (the software). Shame they didn't think one step further.
Now they seem to be *proving* their ignorance of the real world. I mean, how naive can these people be? Does their whole business plan smack of "pointy haired boss" or what? "Our revenue model is being the gate keeper between codes and their destinations online!
Sorry DC, but I think you'll find that your (Cue) Cat is out of the bag and no amount of bullsh*t is going to put it back again. Better rethink that business plan.
I just so happen to have plots of land available at prime prices for not just the Moon, but also Venus and Mars! Be the envy of geek households everywhere.
Prices are superb! Mail me and we'll work out a price - payment is simple, you can snail mail cash in any currency to my handy P.O. Box address in sunny Switzerland. "Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Hmm - your comment appears to be both right and wrong to me. You're right about what the issue should be, but you mention "getting it done, tested, deployed". That's why a WAP browser that runs on Linux is important at the moment.
I develop for WAP and I use Linux as my OS of choice. Until very recently I had to boot into Windows (or upload and use my phone) every time I wanted to check that the WML my application is outputting. I think that an open WAP browser project is a great idea - just like the various open source WAP gateways are great ideas (and hopefully the various web tools that will spit out ready to run WML will be).
Ermm, what's so bad about being able to check your flight times from your phone wherever you are? (OK, so checking stocks is a bit "hooray henry!")
Seriously, most of the really exciting possibilities with WAP are still around the corner. One of the main upgrades to the network and phone systems that will be introduced in WAP 1.2 is the possibility for the user to give out information on where they currently are. This opens up a whole new range of location based services.
Imagine being on a holiday in Europe and being able to use a single site in conjunction with a connected mobile device to automatically receive information about the area you are currently in. As you walk down Strøget in Copenhagen, you use your phone to get information about building of interest on the street and receive an electronic coupon giving you 10% discount in a local shop.
That evening, your service recommends a great restaurant near the hotel and allows you to book a ticket for a concert at Tivoli. Such services exist today for computer users, but combining this with mobile devices opens up new possibilities.
I think that even WAP today opens up some great possibilities. While I was at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark this year (I'm not actually from Denmark, it's just been a useful example!), I used my WAP phone to keep tabs on work email, get weather information, find out changes to the festival program and get information about the festival's response to the tragedy when 9 people died at the Pearl Jam concert. That was all pretty damn useful and was possible in an environment where I woudn't dream of taking my laptop (which would require a mobile for connectivity anyway and would run out of battery WAY earlier).
So, no killer apps here yet, but certainly a useful toolfor people who need access to data while on the move.
I remember WAAAAY back, when AOL first installed a system wide keyword based filter. This was stricken with a similar problem when a guy in Scunthorpe, England tried to register his address. The solution from the tech support (when they had finally figured out what the problem was), was to change the spelling until they had a chance to upgrade their filtering software on the entire network.
Great to see the same mistakes being made by dumbass companies today!
Those seem like a good, well balanced bunch of comments. It sounds as though the Gnome and KDE teams have a good working relationship, where what counts is the software - not some dumbass rivalry between the two teams.
Let's face it, desktop choice is a truly personal thing. Everyone has a polarised view, which means there is more than enough room for both the K's and the G's of this world.
... if only more people realised that to be competitors doesn't mean that one has to do everything within one's power to destroy each other...
there's a form of games that they've not mentioned, which is continuously *gaining* in popularity...
... retro gaming!
It's certainly where I spend all my gaming time these days. Who needs games that require a supercomputer to process, when the gameplay is lacking. With MAME and my ROM collection, I can keep my gaming urges satisfied for years to come:-)
The press release doesn't actually state that it's "not a full-sized laptop", it says that it's "slightly smaller than the company's current laptops".
For me that doesn't suggest any reduction in features, Sony's VAIO range generally comes with a great feature set and from those already listed, this doesn't sound too different.
I would *guess* that the reduced size could have as much to do with the Crusoe's reduced power consumption as anything else. At least I would hope that this helps it reduce the size.
One other thing - isn't is possible on a laptop to bypass a Winmodem and use a PCMCIA modem instead if one wishes? I would certainly hope so - any confirmation or denail of this would be interesting.
Jeez, that's pretty dumb. Are you allowed to listen to music at work? If so, there would be a very good case for challenging the new rule based upon the availability of thousands of completely legals MP3's at places like mp3.com.
Of course, if their reasoning is based more on productivity or download bandwidth, it's slightly more understandable - but not much!
I got my IRQ values muddled up for my modem and my mouse when I got my first modem up and running. It actually worked OK - but only as long as I kept the mouse moving!
Move mouse - stream of packets!
Stop moving mouse - no packets!
My first dial up (and this is nothing extreme compared to some of the "old-timer" tales I have heard), was from a 386 40DX (remember DX abd SX?) with a 14,400 modem. So far so good, but my first account was a SLIP account using DIS from Demon! DIS was Dos based and an ABSOLUTE pain in the arse to install and configure - especially sitting on your own at home having never even *seen* the Internet before:-)
Worth the effort though - or so I thought until I downloaded Trumpet WinSock and got my first taste of the Internet through a GUI.
The other way of doing this of course, is simply to download and install the appropriate browser from the evolt.org browser archive at http://browsers.evolt.org/.
Having visited Ericsson's show-home recently, I was actually pretty impressed with the direction they are taking. Although they have one of the (in)famous Internet Fridges installed, this is actually one of the least important bits of kit they have.
The majority of their focus at the moment seems to be on intelligent home automation systems - such things that might be found in a care home for instance, to help improve quality of life for the elderly or infirm. Such things as intelligent alarm systems, devices to control that electrical appliances are switched off when they should be, lighting systems with usage patterns and simple IR-based on-off routines. The emphasis is on using existing technology and making it simple and easy to use.
I think that Linux would be a good step forward in this, inasmuch as it is freely and easily customisable for new applications. Who needs Windows for embedded systems?
On the more nerdy side, I look forward to these technologies filtering out of the lab and into MY home:-)
OK, it wasn't good humour, but it certainly wasn't a troll. Also, it wasn't moderated up to 2, it was posted at 2 because I've been posting for years and happen to have high enough karma.
Of course, I should have chosen to post without the +1 advantage as this wasn't a serious comment - but I forgot.
This is scarily true - my GF was over the moon when I gave her a copy of Mame and a pack of roms for those games (yeah, yeah - I know!! Shouldn't be doing that!). Anyhoo, she's now WAAAAY better than me at those platformers - though I kick ass at Mr Do and Qix:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I agree that this is a fantastic book, but I would disagree that The most important reason to find a copy of this book, though, is to read with the now 15 years of hindsight.
:-) There's a lot of people coming into computing nowadays who could use the inspiration that reading this book brings. I think that Levy has probably done more to further the hacker (!= cracker) mentality than any other writer.
:-)
That's certainly important, but I think that for the majority of new readers, the most important reason for reading is to get some perspective on the "hacker ethos". Some "old git" history if you will
If you haven't read this - track it down and enjoy
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
When I first heard about the Cue Cat on Slashdot, I thought that Digital Convergence seem to have created an excellent product, but are a little short on the old grey matter.
It seems pretty obvious that here's a company who have read "New Economy 101" and decided that their tangible product should be free so they can create money on the spin-off merchandise (the software). Shame they didn't think one step further.
Now they seem to be *proving* their ignorance of the real world. I mean, how naive can these people be? Does their whole business plan smack of "pointy haired boss" or what? "Our revenue model is being the gate keeper between codes and their destinations online!
Sorry DC, but I think you'll find that your (Cue) Cat is out of the bag and no amount of bullsh*t is going to put it back again. Better rethink that business plan.
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Hey - I can help you with that!
I just so happen to have plots of land available at prime prices for not just the Moon, but also Venus and Mars! Be the envy of geek households everywhere.
Prices are superb! Mail me and we'll work out a price - payment is simple, you can snail mail cash in any currency to my handy P.O. Box address in sunny Switzerland.
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Hmm - your comment appears to be both right and wrong to me. You're right about what the issue should be, but you mention "getting it done, tested, deployed". That's why a WAP browser that runs on Linux is important at the moment.
I develop for WAP and I use Linux as my OS of choice. Until very recently I had to boot into Windows (or upload and use my phone) every time I wanted to check that the WML my application is outputting. I think that an open WAP browser project is a great idea - just like the various open source WAP gateways are great ideas (and hopefully the various web tools that will spit out ready to run WML will be).
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Ermm, what's so bad about being able to check your flight times from your phone wherever you are? (OK, so checking stocks is a bit "hooray henry!")
Seriously, most of the really exciting possibilities with WAP are still around the corner. One of the main upgrades to the network and phone systems that will be introduced in WAP 1.2 is the possibility for the user to give out information on where they currently are. This opens up a whole new range of location based services.
Imagine being on a holiday in Europe and being able to use a single site in conjunction with a connected mobile device to automatically receive information about the area you are currently in. As you walk down Strøget in Copenhagen, you use your phone to get information about building of interest on the street and receive an electronic coupon giving you 10% discount in a local shop.
That evening, your service recommends a great restaurant near the hotel and allows you to book a ticket for a concert at Tivoli. Such services exist today for computer users, but combining this with mobile devices opens up new possibilities.
I think that even WAP today opens up some great possibilities. While I was at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark this year (I'm not actually from Denmark, it's just been a useful example!), I used my WAP phone to keep tabs on work email, get weather information, find out changes to the festival program and get information about the festival's response to the tragedy when 9 people died at the Pearl Jam concert. That was all pretty damn useful and was possible in an environment where I woudn't dream of taking my laptop (which would require a mobile for connectivity anyway and would run out of battery WAY earlier).
So, no killer apps here yet, but certainly a useful toolfor people who need access to data while on the move.
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
I remember WAAAAY back, when AOL first installed a system wide keyword based filter. This was stricken with a similar problem when a guy in Scunthorpe, England tried to register his address. The solution from the tech support (when they had finally figured out what the problem was), was to change the spelling until they had a chance to upgrade their filtering software on the entire network.
:-)
Great to see the same mistakes being made by dumbass companies today!
AOL - putting the c*nt in Scunthorpe
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Yeah, but he's being sarcastic there I think you'll find.
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Those seem like a good, well balanced bunch of comments. It sounds as though the Gnome and KDE teams have a good working relationship, where what counts is the software - not some dumbass rivalry between the two teams.
Let's face it, desktop choice is a truly personal thing. Everyone has a polarised view, which means there is more than enough room for both the K's and the G's of this world.
... if only more people realised that to be competitors doesn't mean that one has to do everything within one's power to destroy each other...
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
there's a form of games that they've not mentioned, which is continuously *gaining* in popularity...
... retro gaming!
It's certainly where I spend all my gaming time these days. Who needs games that require a supercomputer to process, when the gameplay is lacking. With MAME and my ROM collection, I can keep my gaming urges satisfied for years to come:-)
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
CmdrTaco reports a problem with his bowel movements.
Katz has lost a contact lens - can anyone pop round to help him look for it.
Rob Limo had trouble sleeping last night.
:-)
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
I'll be over in a tick - now, when's the next flight from Gothenburg, Sweden?
DOH!!
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
That's the point at which Slashdot moved over from the existing farm of Linux servers - to the new VAX based system :-)
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
The press release doesn't actually state that it's "not a full-sized laptop", it says that it's "slightly smaller than the company's current laptops".
For me that doesn't suggest any reduction in features, Sony's VAIO range generally comes with a great feature set and from those already listed, this doesn't sound too different.
I would *guess* that the reduced size could have as much to do with the Crusoe's reduced power consumption as anything else. At least I would hope that this helps it reduce the size.
One other thing - isn't is possible on a laptop to bypass a Winmodem and use a PCMCIA modem instead if one wishes? I would certainly hope so - any confirmation or denail of this would be interesting.
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Don't you think that standing around naked holding a keyboard for 24 hours is slightly overkill?
I normally use a hairdryer on the keyboard - speeds things up no end.
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Cool! I wasn't aware of that either.
:-)
Somewhat open to abuse though I expect
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Jeez, that's pretty dumb. Are you allowed to listen to music at work? If so, there would be a very good case for challenging the new rule based upon the availability of thousands of completely legals MP3's at places like mp3.com.
:-)
Of course, if their reasoning is based more on productivity or download bandwidth, it's slightly more understandable - but not much!
Where do you work? The RIAA
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Some years ago, I read that there was more computing power in a particular digital watch than there had been in the whole world in 1962!
This article has made me think about that more deeply - nowadays, there is more computing power in this digital watch than in a 10 year old PC.
As Jeffrey Harrow would say, "We've only just begun!".
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Last one from me...
I got my IRQ values muddled up for my modem and my mouse when I got my first modem up and running. It actually worked OK - but only as long as I kept the mouse moving!
Move mouse - stream of packets!
Stop moving mouse - no packets!
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
While we're reminiscing, I'll bite!
:-)
:-p
My first dial up (and this is nothing extreme compared to some of the "old-timer" tales I have heard), was from a 386 40DX (remember DX abd SX?) with a 14,400 modem. So far so good, but my first account was a SLIP account using DIS from Demon! DIS was Dos based and an ABSOLUTE pain in the arse to install and configure - especially sitting on your own at home having never even *seen* the Internet before
Worth the effort though - or so I thought until I downloaded Trumpet WinSock and got my first taste of the Internet through a GUI.
Ahhhh - those were the days
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
The other way of doing this of course, is simply to download and install the appropriate browser from the evolt.org browser archive at http://browsers.evolt.org/.
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
Having visited Ericsson's show-home recently, I was actually pretty impressed with the direction they are taking. Although they have one of the (in)famous Internet Fridges installed, this is actually one of the least important bits of kit they have.
:-)
The majority of their focus at the moment seems to be on intelligent home automation systems - such things that might be found in a care home for instance, to help improve quality of life for the elderly or infirm. Such things as intelligent alarm systems, devices to control that electrical appliances are switched off when they should be, lighting systems with usage patterns and simple IR-based on-off routines. The emphasis is on using existing technology and making it simple and easy to use.
I think that Linux would be a good step forward in this, inasmuch as it is freely and easily customisable for new applications. Who needs Windows for embedded systems?
On the more nerdy side, I look forward to these technologies filtering out of the lab and into MY home
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
errr... I'm not trolling!
:-(
OK, it wasn't good humour, but it certainly wasn't a troll. Also, it wasn't moderated up to 2, it was posted at 2 because I've been posting for years and happen to have high enough karma.
Of course, I should have chosen to post without the +1 advantage as this wasn't a serious comment - but I forgot.
Sheez the trolls have gotten everyone jumpy
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
... police are investigating a man with the pseudoname "Ransom Love" who was reputed to have bought a huge lump of hash earlier today.
Upon further investigation, the hash proved to be a dried cow flop. Ransom Love declined to comment.
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
... and Rainbow Islands too!
:-)
This is scarily true - my GF was over the moon when I gave her a copy of Mame and a pack of roms for those games (yeah, yeah - I know!! Shouldn't be doing that!). Anyhoo, she's now WAAAAY better than me at those platformers - though I kick ass at Mr Do and Qix
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
From the Yahoo article
"It is very difficult to tell the sex of a penguin. For all we know Peter could be a female,"
This is worrying! What sex is Tux in that case? And how do we *know*??!
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"