(Exception to ammendment #1)
Do NOT leave backups in your car if you live in a place where there is crime or criminals might come (heh)
Think about it: You go to great lengths to encrypt your email, rotate your passwords, block malicious Internet traffic, etc etc etc -- then you do a full system backup and leave it in your car along with your stereo system just begging to get stolen.
I am not saying that most stereo theives would know what to do with it... but do you want to take that risk? Here I think the cure is worse than the disease...
Now, even I'll admit that my political leanings run a little to the left, but give me a break...
No company is going to do all that because the financial incentive isn't there. We've all got to go in together on this or it's unlikely to get done.
Here's the thing, Wansu: Not all social problems call for a socialized response. There are lots of "brilliant" projects just itching for our funding... Missions to Mars, Cleaner sources of energy, High definition television signals and HDTVs in every home, etc... You may disagree with some or all of these. Certainly you would prioritize each differently than your neighbors...
But... We are blessed (and sometimes cursed) to be living in a system where market forces largely drive the supply and demand of new innovations... If there is a desire for something and it is beneficial to the economy at the time then it will happen...
Ah, but, wait... yet another economic problem that a group of elected officials, largely unaware of the scope of the issues at hand, are given the power to force a poorly fitting solution into place.
But then, of course, we are getting into the whole area of purpose anyway... computers exist to allow us to do things -- better weather forcasting, space travel, beautifully rendered graphics, amazingly playable games, music that can move the soul, increased business productivity, economic development, increased crop yields, cures for diseases...
The computer is a tool that lets us achieve these ends -- when we put all of our effort into building a better mousetrap when plenty of perfectly capable mousetraps are already out there (or in this case -- when most people simply argue about whether a proposed mousetrap could someday be slightly more (insert (x) here) instead of seeing the tool for what it is...
...well, I don't know about you, but I only have 24 hours in a day and I spend at least a few sleeping, a couple eating, grooming, etc... the rest of the time I would like to focus on something that matters... reinventing something that has already been done seem just, well, silly... Give me the end results thank you...
No need to be an asshole about it. Point me to something on/. that hasn't been a trite observation.
Whoa, slow down there big fella... Saying that Edwards' Law is a trite observation makes me an asshole??? I think the point I was attempting to make was that Edwards' "Law" isn't much of a "Law" at all.
It irks me these days that if someone can come up with something that is true more often than it is not true, suddenly it becomes "A Law". (Also, see Moore's Law, Murphy's Law, etc.)
But, as for being an asshole about it -- gosh, Mr. Thin Skin, I completely and humbly apologize.
P.S.
I'll grant that much (most) of what takes place here on/. is pretty trite, but at least the people are intelligent and can get through the day without referencing Survivor...
Please tell me I'm not the only one to notice this...
Your post talks about how the professor's program nearly ELIMINATED the plagiarism by the final class... But then your sig at the end reads:
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
This seems like a perfectly good example of a technological solution being applied successfully to a sociological problem... Maybe Edwards' Law is more like a trite observation...
Saying that the genome project was a "map to nowhere" is the same sort of neo-luddite crap we hear from people bashing pure research all the time. Whether it is measuring the age of the universe or decoding the human genome, the simple fact of the matter is that pure research is often done for just that... research.
There is no assured outcome any time you do pure research, but the knowledge continues to prove useful in many disperate fields. Anthropology, history, medicine... they have all had tangible results ALREADY from the work that was done.
Just because the initial "decoding" is done doesn't mean that the project is finished. Much like version 1.0 of software, there is much research and debugging to be done. Not really sure what the point of this article was... We don't have instant results on April 17, 2001??? Give it time.
It was called the Compaq Concerto. I did 3rd level tech support for Compaq back in 1995 and I can remember being totally in love with that machine. I was amazed pen based computing didn't take off at the time.
...Of course I am still amazed people put up with poorly backlit palms when they can get vibrant color...Just goes to show that the majority of people want to pay for crap and nothing extra, thank you very much.
I didn't know Nazi's read Slashdot, too...
on
15 Minutes
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· Score: 4
OK, so I'm an idiot. I couldn't help but click on the link that the guy posted at the end of his article. (You know its got to be SOMETHING good when then don't even bother with anything other than the IP address!)
To save you the trouble, turns out the writer belongs to a group called the National Alliance...
National Alliance Goals:
White Living Space
An Aryan Society
A Responsible Government
A New Educational System
An Economic Policy Based on Racial Principles
(taken from web site)
----------
Who knew that Nazis read Slashdot? Reading a little more on his web page, turns out the Holocaust never happened and that the Jews own all the media...
Sorry but we kicked your lying, insecure asses 50 years ago. Now let's get back to discussing some real issues here, OK? Not spreading the same old boring lies. Cuz, let's be frank -- if you want to really get people to listen, you've gotta update your image... Maybe talk about how Jews are really failed clones or how non-whites are really aliens from Saturn... and the Saturn auto division of GM is just their first step towards global domination...
Until then, leave the rest of us alone, OK? Oh, and yes, your penis *IS* smaller than everyone elses'... GET OVER IT...
...its always good to raise questions, but I think you are oversimplfying quite a bit here. Besides "reflecting sunlight" clouds also serve as a blanket, keeping warmth from escaping back into space. (See: "Venus")
A fool is someone who is ignorant.
A damn fool is someone who goes out of his or her way to prove to the rest of us just how ignorant they are......those of us who've followed this thread this far down have a pretty fair guess as to which category our friend ConsumedByTV falls into...
In the meantime, the rest of us, leeches and purists alike, will sit on the sidelines and watch Trevor defend reason...
The RIAA does have a point... I'm not saying that everyone logs on to Napster to steal copyrighted music -- but if you've been to Best Buy (CompUSA, Wal-Mart, etc) recently, you'll notice that a -shocking- amoung of shelf space is devoted to 10-50-100 packs of CD-Rs -- not to mention CD burners, CD labelers, etc... Obviously a lot of money is being spent buying media for putting music on CDs... There are only so many discretionary dollars in a person's budget to go around. If money is being spent on MP3 players and CDR (and bigger hard drives to hold hoards of MP3s) that is probably money that won't go to buy the latest $16.99 Kid Rock CD.
Slashdot Mirror
(Exception to ammendment #1) Do NOT leave backups in your car if you live in a place where there is crime or criminals might come (heh)
Think about it: You go to great lengths to encrypt your email, rotate your passwords, block malicious Internet traffic, etc etc etc -- then you do a full system backup and leave it in your car along with your stereo system just begging to get stolen.
I am not saying that most stereo theives would know what to do with it... but do you want to take that risk? Here I think the cure is worse than the disease...
You bleeding heart socialist...
Now, even I'll admit that my political leanings run a little to the left, but give me a break...
No company is going to do all that because the financial incentive isn't there. We've all got to go in together on this or it's unlikely to get done.
Here's the thing, Wansu: Not all social problems call for a socialized response. There are lots of "brilliant" projects just itching for our funding... Missions to Mars, Cleaner sources of energy, High definition television signals and HDTVs in every home, etc... You may disagree with some or all of these. Certainly you would prioritize each differently than your neighbors...
But... We are blessed (and sometimes cursed) to be living in a system where market forces largely drive the supply and demand of new innovations... If there is a desire for something and it is beneficial to the economy at the time then it will happen...
Ah, but, wait... yet another economic problem that a group of elected officials, largely unaware of the scope of the issues at hand, are given the power to force a poorly fitting solution into place.
A much better solution...
But then, of course, we are getting into the whole area of purpose anyway... computers exist to allow us to do things -- better weather forcasting, space travel, beautifully rendered graphics, amazingly playable games, music that can move the soul, increased business productivity, economic development, increased crop yields, cures for diseases...
...well, I don't know about you, but I only have 24 hours in a day and I spend at least a few sleeping, a couple eating, grooming, etc... the rest of the time I would like to focus on something that matters... reinventing something that has already been done seem just, well, silly... Give me the end results thank you...
The computer is a tool that lets us achieve these ends -- when we put all of our effort into building a better mousetrap when plenty of perfectly capable mousetraps are already out there (or in this case -- when most people simply argue about whether a proposed mousetrap could someday be slightly more (insert (x) here) instead of seeing the tool for what it is...
No need to be an asshole about it. Point me to something on /. that hasn't been a trite observation.
/. is pretty trite, but at least the people are intelligent and can get through the day without referencing Survivor...
Whoa, slow down there big fella... Saying that Edwards' Law is a trite observation makes me an asshole??? I think the point I was attempting to make was that Edwards' "Law" isn't much of a "Law" at all.
It irks me these days that if someone can come up with something that is true more often than it is not true, suddenly it becomes "A Law". (Also, see Moore's Law, Murphy's Law, etc.)
But, as for being an asshole about it -- gosh, Mr. Thin Skin, I completely and humbly apologize.
P.S.
I'll grant that much (most) of what takes place here on
Please tell me I'm not the only one to notice this...
Your post talks about how the professor's program nearly ELIMINATED the plagiarism by the final class... But then your sig at the end reads:
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
This seems like a perfectly good example of a technological solution being applied successfully to a sociological problem... Maybe Edwards' Law is more like a trite observation...
Yeah, the last couple of weeks, I've been getting a TON of junk email at my hotmail address. Maybe it was that Usenet porn list I subscribed to...
Saying that the genome project was a "map to nowhere" is the same sort of neo-luddite crap we hear from people bashing pure research all the time. Whether it is measuring the age of the universe or decoding the human genome, the simple fact of the matter is that pure research is often done for just that... research.
There is no assured outcome any time you do pure research, but the knowledge continues to prove useful in many disperate fields. Anthropology, history, medicine... they have all had tangible results ALREADY from the work that was done.
Just because the initial "decoding" is done doesn't mean that the project is finished. Much like version 1.0 of software, there is much research and debugging to be done. Not really sure what the point of this article was... We don't have instant results on April 17, 2001??? Give it time.
It was called the Compaq Concerto. I did 3rd level tech support for Compaq back in 1995 and I can remember being totally in love with that machine. I was amazed pen based computing didn't take off at the time.
...Of course I am still amazed people put up with poorly backlit palms when they can get vibrant color...Just goes to show that the majority of people want to pay for crap and nothing extra, thank you very much.
To save you the trouble, turns out the writer belongs to a group called the National Alliance...
National Alliance Goals
- White Living Space
- An Aryan Society
- A Responsible Government
- A New Educational System
- An Economic Policy Based on Racial Principles
(taken from web site)----------
Who knew that Nazis read Slashdot? Reading a little more on his web page, turns out the Holocaust never happened and that the Jews own all the media...
Sorry but we kicked your lying, insecure asses 50 years ago. Now let's get back to discussing some real issues here, OK? Not spreading the same old boring lies. Cuz, let's be frank -- if you want to really get people to listen, you've gotta update your image... Maybe talk about how Jews are really failed clones or how non-whites are really aliens from Saturn
Until then, leave the rest of us alone, OK? Oh, and yes, your penis *IS* smaller than everyone elses'... GET OVER IT...
...its always good to raise questions, but I think you are oversimplfying quite a bit here. Besides "reflecting sunlight" clouds also serve as a blanket, keeping warmth from escaping back into space. (See: "Venus")
A fool is someone who is ignorant. A damn fool is someone who goes out of his or her way to prove to the rest of us just how ignorant they are... ...those of us who've followed this thread this far down have a pretty fair guess as to which category our friend ConsumedByTV falls into...
In the meantime, the rest of us, leeches and purists alike, will sit on the sidelines and watch Trevor defend reason...
The RIAA does have a point... I'm not saying that everyone logs on to Napster to steal copyrighted music -- but if you've been to Best Buy (CompUSA, Wal-Mart, etc) recently, you'll notice that a -shocking- amoung of shelf space is devoted to 10-50-100 packs of CD-Rs -- not to mention CD burners, CD labelers, etc... Obviously a lot of money is being spent buying media for putting music on CDs ... There are only so many discretionary dollars in a person's budget to go around. If money is being spent on MP3 players and CDR (and bigger hard drives to hold hoards of MP3s) that is probably money that won't go to buy the latest $16.99 Kid Rock CD.