is that your picture there? You certainly don't look Chinese. Interestingly I am from Taipei too but grew up in Toronto, Canada. Haven't been back since; I heard everything has changed.
See, I don't know if I am just a poor university student but making high school kids to raise 21 grand hardly seems reasonable to me. As far as subsidising, when I participated they only did that if it was your first time entrance. So from that angle it almost seems like it's purely a promotional thing...
Again, you said this year it takes 8000 dollars to enter. Where does this money go to? Renting the place? I hardly think that's an issue considering there are so many alternative such as high school assembly halls, gyms or such would cost so little if nothing. As for the staff, how many staff do you need for such a competition? I would bet a lot of engineering professionals in the community would even do it for free, just to encourage the young people and making a good cause. (I know the people where I worked in the summer certainly would) It's this unexplained spent of the fees that made us come to the conclusion that this is in fact a big scam, and not worth of wasting our effort to. I suspect that also how some of the other teams that I spoke to feel.
(Actually me and my buddy were thinking of creating our own competition across Ontario(where I live), with a fixed budget(not 21000 or 8000!!) and some simple standardize components such as the RCX from MindStorm or perhaps some surplus materials. Does anyone think this is feasible or have some idea to contribute?)
I don't know about the FIRST competition in the states, but up here in Canada the "Canada FIRST Robotics Competition" was one of the biggest scam I have ever participated in. The first time I participated was when I was a junior in high school, and coincidentally the first time our school has ever compete in this competition. The result was dissapointing for our school, but my enthusiasm for robotics made me want to go back to the competition the next year. So the next year, we organized ourselves, started a school recognized club and got ourselves a teacher sponsor, with the determination to win this competition.
Little do we expect, when we acquire the application package it tells us that we need to hand the Canada FIRST people 5000 dollars just so we can compete in the contest!! It turned out that this entrance fee is used to buy the materials and parts the organization provides us, and our team did not pay for it the previous year because it was waived as the "first time entry deal"! The news was such a shock to us; it had already been almost half of the school year, where were we going to fundraise 5 grand in 2, 3 months? The school obviously was not going to give us any money(it was a huge school), and there were no disgustingly wealthy kids in the club that could spit out that kind of money.
Furthermore, the so-call standardized parts the organization provides consist of such things as 3 regular, dc powered motors, a rc control kit (including a modem) more or less a generation older, and the 2, 3 batteries they provide so that we have a standard power supply. Everything else such as wheels, wires, gears or other materials were not provided at all which means we had to go out and buy those things ourselves. All the parts provided add together would hardly cost over 1000 dollars in my opinion, consider there were no custom made components or anything like that. The robots were to be remote controlled, therefore there were no programming or any sort of logic or microprocessors involved. So where does all that money go? Afterall this organization that's responsible for the event is non-profit?
After contacting some of the other schools in the region, we reached to the same conclusion. Everyone we contacted were obviously having problems with this, and no one could explain to us why such a astronomical fee was required for entrance. Needless to say when the deadline came we did not have enough money to enter, and we all came to the conclusion that this whole competition is a scam. A look at their website at http://www.canadafirst.org confirms at least the very business-like attitude of the organization; very rich sponsorship for the competition, the selling slogans of "turning technology into sports". Despite what the page says, the nature of the competition seems much less about science and technology and more about business and sponsorship and "the use of World Wide Web"??? The two testimonials(seem like a lose-weight ad) are nothing about the actual competition but about the use of WWW and another contest called the Science Wave.
"...it bears pointing out that GNOME and KDE aren't really for them. They're for those hypothetical Linux Desktop Users Of The Future...."
Personally I think it's the author that's missing the whole point of open source development. Hackers code for Linux, not because they are getting paid, not because of the dental plan offered by Redhat or Helixcode; they write a mp3 player because they need it on Linux. Because they use it every day. Why was DeCSS written? Because we want to watch DVD on Linux too. Not because we want to piss off DVD-CCA and the MPAA(that's a bonus;), not because we are expecting DeCSS to be famous so Jon Johassen or whoever can make millions, but because we use it, as users. And frankly I like that about the open source world. "Feature"-bloated but useless software are not there because they were never written in the first place. We write what we need. Not for some "hypothetical Linux Desktop Users Of The Future", whoever they might be so we can be the "dominating desktop" like Windows? No thanks, Helixcode or Eazel or the next company that's out to capitalize on Linux can do whatever the hell they want, I have absolutely no problem with that. But I want my "desktop" computer be for me, with software and GUIs I need, not another Office Assistant called Bob.
Even though Game Gear really was a better product; it had more and better games, it had colours, and the thing itself just looked cooler. But you are right, most people attribute it's failure to its bulky size. As for the GBA, all I have to say is Nintendo has outdone themselves in the tacky department once again. Maybe they should call it iBoy?
What's wrong with using a better, widely accepted existing technology for both gaming and movies? You use Compact Discs to listen to music and install softwares. Using the same medium doesn't neccessarily mean a convergence of functionality; it's just better technology and better standard.
I agree. Somehow I have a feeling that Nintendo will not do nearly as good as Playstation 2, simply because of all the proprietary hardware they use in the Game Cube. Despite the whole DeCSS fiasco, DVD *is* the next generation(arguably this generation already) entertainment medium, and not embracing it and use a much smaller proprietary catridge instead is not a smart move on Nintendo's part. Although I could maybe imagine Nintendo as one of the few companies that don't like the big "convergence" thing, because unlike SONY they are mostly a gaming company, without all the home entertainment techs, music CDs or movies. So perhaps this is really an intentional move to somehow slow down the SONY empire to take over the whole multimedia/entertainment industry??
I agree with most of what you said, but I think the important thing here is this: once a government has been voted into office, does that mean free for all for them to create and modify laws as they see fit? In another word, should the government have the absolute power to make laws that take away basic rights(in the public's opinion)? Because here, many people(myself included) view computer code as a form of speech, and that basically implies the ruling does not respect the amendament that states the freedom of speech is guaranteed to everyone under the law. Of course you can argue that the people that think so(slashdot readers and the like) are really a minority in America and the majority public probably has the same opinion on the matter as Kaplan. But either way this is an important and delicate issue here, and the government should realize that. If tomorrow the government suddenly decides that enslaving black people is legal under the law, does it make it okay if the black people in America are minorities and the majority Americans agree? I don't believe so, and neither does the constitution.
PS. I do agree with what you said about the hippies though...;)
I have to admit, Helixcode screenshots do look very pretty and slick. Unfortunately I think somehow I have been spoiled with all these pretty GUIs(KDE, GNOME, Aqua etc.), because none of these "desktop environments" excites me anymore: I am bored of the same old conventional GUI, I want something different.
Something that's designed completely different from the ground up, something that incorporates real cutting-edge concepts that have incredible usability and makes everything I do as a programmer/sysadmin/enduser efficient and powerful. Is it possible to have a user interface that's both powerful like bash yet still slick looking and built on modern computer concepts like OO? I have been thinking about this issue for quite a long time now yet it is really hard to think outside of the box that is the GUI we have today.
One thing I have been pondering about is windows. Really, why do we need windows on a GUI? I can understand if it was a CAD program for example because you need to look at different views at once or something like that; but for day to day tasks I have always thought that the concept of "virtual consoles"(Ctrl+F1-6) is far more powerful and intuitive. Personally 99% of the time when I have multiple programs running at the same time, I never look outside the focused window I am using anyways, and when I want to switch between them I almost never use the mouse to select them. Instead I use the hotkey combo I have set up, which now I think of is really just a emulation of virtual consoles!!
That bring me to another thing about modern GUI: the mouse. I really really hate that thing. Like hate it with a passion. It is just not a very good designed piece of hardware in my opinion. And I don't think it's because I am a fast typer; I have seen my mom(who has no computer experience whatsoever) struggle with the mouse, and my conclusion is people who are afraid of the keyboard are even more afraid of the little rolly thing that controls that tiny cursor which always seem to move either too fast or too slow. And there seems to be a trend toward abandoning the keyboard even in the Open Source world recently. I don't understand it. Why can't there be a GUI that will still be 100% functional even when you unplug that damn rodent from your desktop without turning into Emac?
Anyways previewing this post I realize it has gone way off topic, but just something to think about. Maybe I should just stop complaining and start coding;)....
My question is this: how do you know if the human mind is a lot more secure than the lines of code? In fact I propose the human mind is much easier to crack and manipulate, if you look at any major war in the human history. Countless wars were started and carried out because of propaganda and brainwashing. A simple speech, if done right will easily manipulate thousands of people's mind and influence their collective decision on war or peace. It is, in my opinion ironic that we humans think we are so invulnerable and free-willing when compared to machines. Remember, machines are different than us because they act by a set of rules already pre-programmed inside them that's often very hard to change(you would need to gain access to the source code first), while us human don't and are constantly changing our set of rules according to all the inputs from the outside world. I guess in a way we humans are "open sourced" and anyone can change and contribute to everyone else's code. If they know how. Like Adolf.
Slashdot Mirror
It already does.
is that your picture there? You certainly don't look Chinese. Interestingly I am from Taipei too but grew up in Toronto, Canada. Haven't been back since; I heard everything has changed.
Again, you said this year it takes 8000 dollars to enter. Where does this money go to? Renting the place? I hardly think that's an issue considering there are so many alternative such as high school assembly halls, gyms or such would cost so little if nothing. As for the staff, how many staff do you need for such a competition? I would bet a lot of engineering professionals in the community would even do it for free, just to encourage the young people and making a good cause. (I know the people where I worked in the summer certainly would) It's this unexplained spent of the fees that made us come to the conclusion that this is in fact a big scam, and not worth of wasting our effort to. I suspect that also how some of the other teams that I spoke to feel.
(Actually me and my buddy were thinking of creating our own competition across Ontario(where I live), with a fixed budget(not 21000 or 8000!!) and some simple standardize components such as the RCX from MindStorm or perhaps some surplus materials. Does anyone think this is feasible or have some idea to contribute?)
Little do we expect, when we acquire the application package it tells us that we need to hand the Canada FIRST people 5000 dollars just so we can compete in the contest!! It turned out that this entrance fee is used to buy the materials and parts the organization provides us, and our team did not pay for it the previous year because it was waived as the "first time entry deal"! The news was such a shock to us; it had already been almost half of the school year, where were we going to fundraise 5 grand in 2, 3 months? The school obviously was not going to give us any money(it was a huge school), and there were no disgustingly wealthy kids in the club that could spit out that kind of money.
Furthermore, the so-call standardized parts the organization provides consist of such things as 3 regular, dc powered motors, a rc control kit (including a modem) more or less a generation older, and the 2, 3 batteries they provide so that we have a standard power supply. Everything else such as wheels, wires, gears or other materials were not provided at all which means we had to go out and buy those things ourselves. All the parts provided add together would hardly cost over 1000 dollars in my opinion, consider there were no custom made components or anything like that. The robots were to be remote controlled, therefore there were no programming or any sort of logic or microprocessors involved. So where does all that money go? Afterall this organization that's responsible for the event is non-profit?
After contacting some of the other schools in the region, we reached to the same conclusion. Everyone we contacted were obviously having problems with this, and no one could explain to us why such a astronomical fee was required for entrance. Needless to say when the deadline came we did not have enough money to enter, and we all came to the conclusion that this whole competition is a scam. A look at their website at http://www.canadafirst.org confirms at least the very business-like attitude of the organization; very rich sponsorship for the competition, the selling slogans of "turning technology into sports". Despite what the page says, the nature of the competition seems much less about science and technology and more about business and sponsorship and "the use of World Wide Web"??? The two testimonials(seem like a lose-weight ad) are nothing about the actual competition but about the use of WWW and another contest called the Science Wave.
What I meant was:
those damn c z e c h s!
those damn c z e c h s!
Personally I think it's the author that's missing the whole point of open source development. Hackers code for Linux, not because they are getting paid, not because of the dental plan offered by Redhat or Helixcode; they write a mp3 player because they need it on Linux. Because they use it every day. Why was DeCSS written? Because we want to watch DVD on Linux too. Not because we want to piss off DVD-CCA and the MPAA(that's a bonus ;), not because we are expecting DeCSS to be famous so Jon Johassen or whoever can make millions, but because we use it, as users. And frankly I like that about the open source world. "Feature"-bloated but useless software are not there because they were never written in the first place. We write what we need. Not for some "hypothetical Linux Desktop Users Of The Future", whoever they might be so we can be the "dominating desktop" like Windows? No thanks, Helixcode or Eazel or the next company that's out to capitalize on Linux can do whatever the hell they want, I have absolutely no problem with that. But I want my "desktop" computer be for me, with software and GUIs I need, not another Office Assistant called Bob.
Even though Game Gear really was a better product; it had more and better games, it had colours, and the thing itself just looked cooler. But you are right, most people attribute it's failure to its bulky size. As for the GBA, all I have to say is Nintendo has outdone themselves in the tacky department once again. Maybe they should call it iBoy?
What's wrong with using a better, widely accepted existing technology for both gaming and movies? You use Compact Discs to listen to music and install softwares. Using the same medium doesn't neccessarily mean a convergence of functionality; it's just better technology and better standard.
I agree. Somehow I have a feeling that Nintendo will not do nearly as good as Playstation 2, simply because of all the proprietary hardware they use in the Game Cube. Despite the whole DeCSS fiasco, DVD *is* the next generation(arguably this generation already) entertainment medium, and not embracing it and use a much smaller proprietary catridge instead is not a smart move on Nintendo's part. Although I could maybe imagine Nintendo as one of the few companies that don't like the big "convergence" thing, because unlike SONY they are mostly a gaming company, without all the home entertainment techs, music CDs or movies. So perhaps this is really an intentional move to somehow slow down the SONY empire to take over the whole multimedia/entertainment industry??
PS. I do agree with what you said about the hippies though... ;)
Something that's designed completely different from the ground up, something that incorporates real cutting-edge concepts that have incredible usability and makes everything I do as a programmer/sysadmin/enduser efficient and powerful. Is it possible to have a user interface that's both powerful like bash yet still slick looking and built on modern computer concepts like OO? I have been thinking about this issue for quite a long time now yet it is really hard to think outside of the box that is the GUI we have today.
One thing I have been pondering about is windows. Really, why do we need windows on a GUI? I can understand if it was a CAD program for example because you need to look at different views at once or something like that; but for day to day tasks I have always thought that the concept of "virtual consoles"(Ctrl+F1-6) is far more powerful and intuitive. Personally 99% of the time when I have multiple programs running at the same time, I never look outside the focused window I am using anyways, and when I want to switch between them I almost never use the mouse to select them. Instead I use the hotkey combo I have set up, which now I think of is really just a emulation of virtual consoles!!
That bring me to another thing about modern GUI: the mouse. I really really hate that thing. Like hate it with a passion. It is just not a very good designed piece of hardware in my opinion. And I don't think it's because I am a fast typer; I have seen my mom(who has no computer experience whatsoever) struggle with the mouse, and my conclusion is people who are afraid of the keyboard are even more afraid of the little rolly thing that controls that tiny cursor which always seem to move either too fast or too slow. And there seems to be a trend toward abandoning the keyboard even in the Open Source world recently. I don't understand it. Why can't there be a GUI that will still be 100% functional even when you unplug that damn rodent from your desktop without turning into Emac?
Anyways previewing this post I realize it has gone way off topic, but just something to think about. Maybe I should just stop complaining and start coding ;)....
Who needs directories and files when you have LIBRARY and MEMBERs!!!
Green screens shall inherit the earth.
Operation Ivy rules.
gc