(not that anyone will read this so far down...)
I found this ironically amusing:
Salon has for years provided some of the smartest coverage of technology anywhere. None of the big media companies offer smart and smart-ass commentary the way Suckonce did. What's the last provocative story or discussion you saw in a Disney or AOL Time Warner property or on AOL?
And when was the last time we saw Slashdot do a provocative story about Slashdot, or OSDN, or Andover? When was the last time JonKatz did hard-hitting story about the lengthy articles by JonKatz?
The truth is, companies, like people don't like to beat themselves up. Salon, which I've followed for a couple years now, doesn't do articles about how it might suck or be a voice for the liberal elite, or whatever (except when the conservative David Horowitz gets flamed by liberal columnists and vice-versa).
At, in the very lest, writers for large companies will take on the other large companies. (I've seen this several times in Newsweek) -----
D. Fischer
What hardware, software, books, and other resources are available to you?
Is there money for field-trips (or other off-site excursions)?
How old are you?
Do you have professional contacts that could do presentations, demos, etc.?
Has this summer camp course been done before? If so, can you get the previous years' course notes, study guides, demo programs, etc.?
Does the school have a computer class for this age group during the school year? Can you get the books, notes, coursework used for that?
Do you have any teaching experience? (if not, talk with professional teachers)
Do you have any camp counseling experience? (if not, talk with those who have done this before)
How many kids will you have?
How is the day broken up? Do you have one class all day? Is it several classes, possibly of different kids in each one?
Will you have assisstants?
Those are just some questions to get started. While the general curriculum might be independent of the class size, age group, computer hardware available, and time spent in lab vs. in other parts of camp, the thousand details of just how you will run the course can be very dependent on those issues.
Get the best information you can about what's been done before and what the situation will be for your camp, to help you prepare.
Hope it goes well -- this could be a lot of fun and extremely rewarding (for you and the kids). -----
D. Fischer
Actually, I agree. That's a good idea, and would be very appropriate. Especially since a key principle in Open and Free Software is to give back to the community.
Also, I was a little surprised my comment got modded up, since it is partly an emulation of similar posts from previous Ask/.s.
Still I wonder about the line between good questions, and trying to get others to do part of your work (uncompensated). -----
D. Fischer
I work for a custom web solutions company and I'm working on a white paper and presentation that outlines the merits of open source software. This looks to be a difficult project, and I really don't want to to work late this week. Please use your unpaid minions to help me get my research done so I can I can enjoy the weekend.
OSW: Open Source Work -- Same great salary, but with reduced workload. -----
D. Fischer
the users pay you and for the bandwidth to share the songs they already bought
Maybe I'm just slow today, but I can't make sense of that sentance. Could someone parse it for me? Who or what is the antecedent to "you"? For what are users paying "you" in addition to paying for bandwidth? -----
D. Fischer
giving the PC side a transmitter - added cost
and the keyboard side a receiver. - added cost
the keyboard could have had a light sensor - added cost; requires keyboard to have line of sight to monitor and obviates much of wireless advantage.
docking/charging stand - added cost; requires regular connections to computer
Yes, Logitech could have done these things, resulting in a product that cost twice as much and half as convenient as what they currently sell. And someone would have found a way to snoop on them eventually anyway.
If you're at risk of having your keyboard sniffed, then you've got bigger concerns to begin with.
Re: Supporting two people at once, plus equipment.
At the heart of the system are the suction cups, each of which can hold 250 kilograms (550 lbs).
The suction cups (all four will support ~one ton. Allowing for one failing to get proper suction, and one disengaged during moviement, you've still got ~ 1000lbs of support, plenty for carrying two large people and several hundred pounds of equipment.
Re: Weight supported by 'Gekkonaut'. The climber is only supporing his weight and the weight of the backpack gear (66 lbs), as the suction cups support themselves. During movement, the climber must also support the weight of one 'sucker'. Hard to operate and carry a person down? Yes. But if it's your only/best option, I could see it working.
Re: Why doesn't system auto-disengage available sucker? That sounds like a bad idea. Like rock climbing, this probably takes a bit of concentration, and you don't want a suction cup suddenly letting go of the wall when you're not expecting it (e.g. when you're planning your next move up a burning building's wall).
Ignoring that, my prediction is that this will be the hot 'must-have' toy this christmas. I know I want one! -----
D. Fischer
Re:There is use for a table in zero-gravity ?
on
Home Improvement
·
· Score: 2
But which force works up in the ISS? Momentum: A body at rest stays at rest.
They probably also use more tape, velcro, etc. But if something is put in place, it stays in place. -----
D. Fischer
I only wish there was some way to prove original authorship.
There is, and it's standard part of writing a paper: Notes
The notes you take researching your paper are the equivalent to a scientific lab book, which can be used to support claims of original authorship.
Good research and writing habits provide much of the tools needed to defend one's IP claims;)
Beyond that, one could look at other things:
- Non-final drafts of the paper.
- Library check-out logs showing you actually used the books you referenced
- An oral examination of the paper's material. (Most papers reflect just a portion of what was learned during the research)
- Witnesses. Roommates, friends, etc. testifying to you keeping them up until dawn the day the paper was done, with your incessant keyboard clacking. -----
D. Fischer
From the speech: "Despite the demonstrable success of the computing industry and the IP-based economy, and the clear failure of newer firms that gave away products for free"
Yes, MS has been quite smart about not giving software away for free!
Well, except for that whole Internet browser thing.
And Outlook Express.
And perhaps a bunch of little utilities that come with the OS
Oh, and all those fonts and clipart from their website.
Hmm... what was MS saying about the folly of giving away IP freely?;) -----
D. Fischer
But you can. You can go get the original, public domain code, and do with it what you want.
However, if you want to use MS's particular implementation, well, that's a bit different. The basis for it may well be public, but their own additions are their own creation, not public funded, and thus not publicly available, necessarily. And if there were no MS changes, then grab the original PD code, and you're good to go. -----
D. Fischer
I don't think that assessment is wholly accurate. Let's assume that whatever code that is produced under gov't contract is available to any and all. Now suppose that GPL is not used. The code is available to all. It is not 'walled off.'
Now a company takes this code and begins selling it. That's no good, since people can get it for free.
So the company takes the code, adds to it, sells that version, but doesn't release their new version of the code. What has been taken from the public? Nothing. The original, tax-payer funded code is still available. But the new, corporately funded changes are not. But those were never the people's to begin with, so nothing is lost.
So, it's not clear to me that GPL'ing gov't projects adds security to the public's access to it's 'own' code. And it could be argued that this would hinder the transfer of research from the gov't realm to the private realm, since companies will be less eager to utilize work that then hinders and/or destroys their business model.
I didn't 'get' it. Since there was (to my knowledge) any connection between MC and Columbine tragedy, it didn't strike me as either satire or funny. Just using MC's commercial format in a weak attempt to make a twisted joke.
Now, if the killers *had* used their MC to purchase their weapons, etc., then it would be funny (and still sick, twisted, and offensive). -----
D. Fischer
I've been reading Stephen Ambrose's books the past couple of years, and based on his work, I now think that the 'whassup' emails are of value, because they will tell historians about the common man.
While the histories, news articles, and official documents of a given era are very important and informative, it is also necessary to the personal accounts from the people involved in the society at the time to help provide perspective, and to help identify biases in the 'official' accounts.
Considering how valuable even the pedestrian of documents are from e.g. 3000 BC, I imagine that today's equivalent will be of equal value to historians in the 7000 AD. -----
D. Fischer
This was an interesting and insightful column, but I have a question.
"Computers bought in 1997 will reach the end of their tax-depreciation life next year. Computers bought in 1999 will be three years old in 2002. Even if no great new technologies hit us in the next few months, we are going to see a lot of old computers replaced before long, probably starting in the fourth quarter of 2001, in a cycle that is going to continue for at least another three years after that."
The implication is that there will be a boost to the tech sector because of distinct increase in computer purchases. But wasn't this year for replacing year-1996 purchases, and last year was the replacement year for year-1995 purchases, etc.?
It's not clear to me that next year's hardware purchases will be significantly greater than the past few years. And given the overall decrease in hardware margins, next year could be no better or even worse than this year.
"What a nasty unpleasant and largely untrue saying that is."
I'm not so sure... My father and I have discussed this a couple of times, with regards to the lottery. Anecdotal evidence (and his professional experience as a bankruptcy accountant) suggests that not insignificant proportion of people who win a substantial lottery, ~$1e6, fairly rapidly lose most or all of it.
Our conjecture is that if they were in financial straits to start with, it may have been due to their inability to manage their finances. That doesn't change when given a large sum of money, it just takes a little bit longer to fritter it all away.
But, this is all hearsay, anecdotes and conjecture. I'd be very interested in solid stats on the finanical status of people >5 years after winning a lottery. -----
D. Fischer
"if Microsoft doesn't know what's in its own terms of service regarding personal information, then what hope do its customers have for the privacy of their own information?"
That makes me feel much safer. If MS doesn't bother reading their own materials, then they certainly won't read my stuff. Clearly, their Passport system is the best place to hide my confidential data. -----
D. Fischer
I've got IE 5.0 SP1, which would seem to have been supported. Yet the patch failed (with the message that I don't need to install it).
I looked through the bulletin and didn't see any mention of need SP2 for IE 5.0. Perhaps its there, but if so, was not obvious to someone wanting to get in, get the patch, and get on with life.
Now to get SP2 and hope that does it... -----
D. Fischer
Well, now that I understand true subversive tactics from "1984", it's clear to me that CmdrTaco == Bill Gates.
Identify deviants, recruit them, gain their trust, then burn and 're-educate' them. How do you think/. stays running despite losing money on every post? (They don't make it up in volume.) It's all secretly funded by M$ ("Andover"? Pfft! As if that's a real company.)
Old/.'ers don't die, they just 'learn' the joy of windows.
Slashdot Mirror
(not that anyone will read this so far down...)
I found this ironically amusing:
Salon has for years provided some of the smartest coverage of technology anywhere. None of the big media companies offer smart and smart-ass commentary the way Suckonce did. What's the last provocative story or discussion you saw in a Disney or AOL Time Warner property or on AOL?
And when was the last time we saw Slashdot do a provocative story about Slashdot, or OSDN, or Andover? When was the last time JonKatz did hard-hitting story about the lengthy articles by JonKatz?
The truth is, companies, like people don't like to beat themselves up. Salon, which I've followed for a couple years now, doesn't do articles about how it might suck or be a voice for the liberal elite, or whatever (except when the conservative David Horowitz gets flamed by liberal columnists and vice-versa).
At, in the very lest, writers for large companies will take on the other large companies. (I've seen this several times in Newsweek)
-----
D. Fischer
Those are just some questions to get started. While the general curriculum might be independent of the class size, age group, computer hardware available, and time spent in lab vs. in other parts of camp, the thousand details of just how you will run the course can be very dependent on those issues.
Get the best information you can about what's been done before and what the situation will be for your camp, to help you prepare.
Hope it goes well -- this could be a lot of fun and extremely rewarding (for you and the kids).
-----
D. Fischer
Actually, I agree. That's a good idea, and would be very appropriate. Especially since a key principle in Open and Free Software is to give back to the community.
/.s.
Also, I was a little surprised my comment got modded up, since it is partly an emulation of similar posts from previous Ask
Still I wonder about the line between good questions, and trying to get others to do part of your work (uncompensated).
-----
D. Fischer
Dear Slashdot,
I work for a custom web solutions company and I'm working on a white paper and presentation that outlines the merits of open source software. This looks to be a difficult project, and I really don't want to to work late this week. Please use your unpaid minions to help me get my research done so I can I can enjoy the weekend.
OSW: Open Source Work -- Same great salary, but with reduced workload.
-----
D. Fischer
Thanks. That 'you and for bandwidth' word-glob just confounded me. Your paraphrase clarified things
-----
D. Fischer
I noticed after posting that it was probably mis-spelled. (I have trouble with 'sentence' for some reason.)
-----
D. Fischer
the users pay you and for the bandwidth to share the songs they already bought
Maybe I'm just slow today, but I can't make sense of that sentance. Could someone parse it for me? Who or what is the antecedent to "you"? For what are users paying "you" in addition to paying for bandwidth?
-----
D. Fischer
That immortal 19 year old boy doesn't look a day over 40. Perhaps his rings need to be tweaked further.
-----
D. Fischer
And, of course, they've done the community a service by exposing vunerable security holes...
Likewise I'm very appreciative of the local youngsters, who rattle my doorknob, checking to see if there is a security hole with my house.
Or the time they jimmied the lock, showing its vulnerability to common tools, and helpfully left a note, spray-painted on my wall.
Yes indeed, where would I be without all this wonderful community service?
-----
D. Fischer
giving the PC side a transmitter - added cost
and the keyboard side a receiver. - added cost
the keyboard could have had a light sensor - added cost; requires keyboard to have line of sight to monitor and obviates much of wireless advantage.
docking/charging stand - added cost; requires regular connections to computer
Yes, Logitech could have done these things, resulting in a product that cost twice as much and half as convenient as what they currently sell. And someone would have found a way to snoop on them eventually anyway.
If you're at risk of having your keyboard sniffed, then you've got bigger concerns to begin with.
-----
D. Fischer
Re: Supporting two people at once, plus equipment.
At the heart of the system are the suction cups, each of which can hold 250 kilograms (550 lbs).
The suction cups (all four will support ~one ton. Allowing for one failing to get proper suction, and one disengaged during moviement, you've still got ~ 1000lbs of support, plenty for carrying two large people and several hundred pounds of equipment.
Re: Weight supported by 'Gekkonaut'. The climber is only supporing his weight and the weight of the backpack gear (66 lbs), as the suction cups support themselves. During movement, the climber must also support the weight of one 'sucker'. Hard to operate and carry a person down? Yes. But if it's your only/best option, I could see it working.
Re: Why doesn't system auto-disengage available sucker? That sounds like a bad idea. Like rock climbing, this probably takes a bit of concentration, and you don't want a suction cup suddenly letting go of the wall when you're not expecting it (e.g. when you're planning your next move up a burning building's wall).
Ignoring that, my prediction is that this will be the hot 'must-have' toy this christmas. I know I want one!
-----
D. Fischer
But which force works up in the ISS?
Momentum: A body at rest stays at rest.
They probably also use more tape, velcro, etc. But if something is put in place, it stays in place.
-----
D. Fischer
I only wish there was some way to prove original authorship.
;)
There is, and it's standard part of writing a paper: Notes
The notes you take researching your paper are the equivalent to a scientific lab book, which can be used to support claims of original authorship.
Good research and writing habits provide much of the tools needed to defend one's IP claims
Beyond that, one could look at other things:
- Non-final drafts of the paper.
- Library check-out logs showing you actually used the books you referenced
- An oral examination of the paper's material. (Most papers reflect just a portion of what was learned during the research)
- Witnesses. Roommates, friends, etc. testifying to you keeping them up until dawn the day the paper was done, with your incessant keyboard clacking.
-----
D. Fischer
From the speech: "Despite the demonstrable success of the computing industry and the IP-based economy, and the clear failure of newer firms that gave away products for free"
;)
Yes, MS has been quite smart about not giving software away for free!
Well, except for that whole Internet browser thing.
And Outlook Express.
And perhaps a bunch of little utilities that come with the OS
Oh, and all those fonts and clipart from their website.
Hmm... what was MS saying about the folly of giving away IP freely?
-----
D. Fischer
The majority of software developed for profit is developed for specific customers.
Can you provide support for this claim? That's rather surprising to me.
-----
D. Fischer
But you can. You can go get the original, public domain code, and do with it what you want.
However, if you want to use MS's particular implementation, well, that's a bit different. The basis for it may well be public, but their own additions are their own creation, not public funded, and thus not publicly available, necessarily. And if there were no MS changes, then grab the original PD code, and you're good to go.
-----
D. Fischer
I don't think that assessment is wholly accurate. Let's assume that whatever code that is produced under gov't contract is available to any and all. Now suppose that GPL is not used. The code is available to all. It is not 'walled off.'
Now a company takes this code and begins selling it. That's no good, since people can get it for free.
So the company takes the code, adds to it, sells that version, but doesn't release their new version of the code. What has been taken from the public? Nothing. The original, tax-payer funded code is still available. But the new, corporately funded changes are not. But those were never the people's to begin with, so nothing is lost.
So, it's not clear to me that GPL'ing gov't projects adds security to the public's access to it's 'own' code. And it could be argued that this would hinder the transfer of research from the gov't realm to the private realm, since companies will be less eager to utilize work that then hinders and/or destroys their business model.
Just some thoughts...
-----
D. Fischer
"There's a curious trend in the linux community to speculate on legal matters, so I thought I'd throw this into the mix. BTW, IAAL (sic--no N)."
That's because there's a curious trend in the legal community to muck around with computer matters. BTW, IAAG (sic--I am a geek)
:)
-----
D. Fischer
I didn't 'get' it. Since there was (to my knowledge) any connection between MC and Columbine tragedy, it didn't strike me as either satire or funny. Just using MC's commercial format in a weak attempt to make a twisted joke.
Now, if the killers *had* used their MC to purchase their weapons, etc., then it would be funny (and still sick, twisted, and offensive).
-----
D. Fischer
I've been reading Stephen Ambrose's books the past couple of years, and based on his work, I now think that the 'whassup' emails are of value, because they will tell historians about the common man.
While the histories, news articles, and official documents of a given era are very important and informative, it is also necessary to the personal accounts from the people involved in the society at the time to help provide perspective, and to help identify biases in the 'official' accounts.
Considering how valuable even the pedestrian of documents are from e.g. 3000 BC, I imagine that today's equivalent will be of equal value to historians in the 7000 AD.
-----
D. Fischer
This was an interesting and insightful column, but I have a question.
"Computers bought in 1997 will reach the end of their tax-depreciation life next year. Computers bought in 1999 will be three years old in 2002. Even if no great new technologies hit us in the next few months, we are going to see a lot of old computers replaced before long, probably starting in the fourth quarter of 2001, in a cycle that is going to continue for at least another three years after that."
The implication is that there will be a boost to the tech sector because of distinct increase in computer purchases. But wasn't this year for replacing year-1996 purchases, and last year was the replacement year for year-1995 purchases, etc.?
It's not clear to me that next year's hardware purchases will be significantly greater than the past few years. And given the overall decrease in hardware margins, next year could be no better or even worse than this year.
Any clueful people to clarify?
-----
D. Fischer
"What a nasty unpleasant and largely untrue saying that is."
I'm not so sure... My father and I have discussed this a couple of times, with regards to the lottery. Anecdotal evidence (and his professional experience as a bankruptcy accountant) suggests that not insignificant proportion of people who win a substantial lottery, ~$1e6, fairly rapidly lose most or all of it.
Our conjecture is that if they were in financial straits to start with, it may have been due to their inability to manage their finances. That doesn't change when given a large sum of money, it just takes a little bit longer to fritter it all away.
But, this is all hearsay, anecdotes and conjecture. I'd be very interested in solid stats on the finanical status of people >5 years after winning a lottery.
-----
D. Fischer
"if Microsoft doesn't know what's in its own terms of service regarding personal information, then what hope do its customers have for the privacy of their own information?"
That makes me feel much safer. If MS doesn't bother reading their own materials, then they certainly won't read my stuff. Clearly, their Passport system is the best place to hide my confidential data.
-----
D. Fischer
I've got IE 5.0 SP1, which would seem to have been supported. Yet the patch failed (with the message that I don't need to install it).
I looked through the bulletin and didn't see any mention of need SP2 for IE 5.0. Perhaps its there, but if so, was not obvious to someone wanting to get in, get the patch, and get on with life.
Now to get SP2 and hope that does it...
-----
D. Fischer
"unless Bill G's been moderating again"
/. stays running despite losing money on every post? (They don't make it up in volume.) It's all secretly funded by M$ ("Andover"? Pfft! As if that's a real company.)
/.'ers don't die, they just 'learn' the joy of windows.
Well, now that I understand true subversive tactics from "1984", it's clear to me that CmdrTaco == Bill Gates.
Identify deviants, recruit them, gain their trust, then burn and 're-educate' them. How do you think
Old
(evil grin)
-----
D. Fischer