Enlightened Self Interest
on
Free For All
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· Score: 3
I like to see books like this. Free software not only has its utility value... I think it also has cultural values which might help us to play fewer zero-sum games with one another.
One of the ideas that I'm constantly wondering about is that productivity is mainly fueled by greed. I won't deny that sometimes it is, but I get worried about reducing it to that equation, which is what happens sometimes when I'm talking to those who favor very hands-off/invisible hand economics (and frankly, I plan to tell my children that the invisible hand is something like Santa Claus). I think it's ideas like this that get us into some of the trouble we have today... see if you can think of a few recent legal cases where profit and greed come up against individual rights...
One of the things that I like very much about the free software community, is that its existence is a strong refutation of the idea that greed =
productivity. People create software because they like to. The fact that they recognize that their contributions may be useful to others and benefit them doesn't change this... along with throwing out greed = productivity, you also get
altruism included in self-interest (whether or
not RMS and ESR can get along).
I wasn't too surprised to see the insane amount of forks. What I WAS surprised to see, however, was the number of arrows connecting the branches... perhaps one reason
Unix has become so mature is the influences being traded back and forth.
Of course this happens elsewhere in the computing industry... we all know others borrow. But in the "Open Source" world, it seems that the best available features are put back in the pool for anyone to get.
... or it might not be, but it perhaps it could be turned to some advantage?
You see, my understanding was that they KNEW they were probably going to lose with Kaplan, and were prepared to take this higher up. Banning linking is somewhat silly; and perhaps the more silly things there are in the rulling, the more likely it will be found wanting and overturned.
I've used Linux and other Unices quite extensively as a developer. Which means that, in general, I know how to get around, how to mind my ps's and quotas, and in general, function as an intelligent user.
But system setup and configuration... well, I haven't done much of tha, and I don't know much about hardware, and I find that this is exactly the weakness that many of the books, installers, and docs don't cater to. Once the system is up and running I can generally figure things out. But getting it up has, so far, taken more than a few hours of effort.
So a dummies book that holds my hand during an install but lets me fly once we're done would be just up my alley. I expect there might be a few more people out there like me....
You're seriously asserting that Penrose -- not exactly a mathematical lightweight -- misunderstands Godel's Theorem?
Man, I hope you have credentials to match his or a serious reference to back you up. In either case, fess up. If there's a real case to be made, I'd like to hear it. I'm a math grad student and don't think he does such a bad job.
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Um, no, we don't know; where can we find them?
on
Author Unknown
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· Score: 2
Now that we know the techniques, how about some countermeasures...
Um, no, we don't know the techniques. Not really. At least I don't, not from the Katz article -- though he's probably raised our awareness of what can/is being done. And yes, I'll remember to get this book and read it myself, but still I can't help but wonder:
Where can I learn more about the techniques described here? Are there software packages (open source, even) out there that do this kind of text analysis? Texts on how to do it yourself? Publications describing word-pattern detection algorithms?
(And where are all the karma whores who usually post these links, now that I need you?)
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I like to see books like this. Free software not only has its utility value... I think it also has cultural values which might help us to play fewer zero-sum games with one another.
One of the ideas that I'm constantly wondering about is that productivity is mainly fueled by greed. I won't deny that sometimes it is, but I get worried about reducing it to that equation, which is what happens sometimes when I'm talking to those who favor very hands-off/invisible hand economics (and frankly, I plan to tell my children that the invisible hand is something like Santa Claus). I think it's ideas like this that get us into some of the trouble we have today... see if you can think of a few recent legal cases where profit and greed come up against individual rights...
One of the things that I like very much about the free software community, is that its existence is a strong refutation of the idea that greed = productivity. People create software because they like to. The fact that they recognize that their contributions may be useful to others and benefit them doesn't change this... along with throwing out greed = productivity, you also get altruism included in self-interest (whether or not RMS and ESR can get along).
Just some thoughts...
I wasn't too surprised to see the insane amount of forks. What I WAS surprised to see, however, was the number of arrows connecting the branches... perhaps one reason
Unix has become so mature is the influences being traded back and forth.
Of course this happens elsewhere in the computing industry... we all know others borrow. But in the "Open Source" world, it seems that the best available features are put back in the pool for anyone to get.
... or it might not be, but it perhaps it could be turned to some advantage?
You see, my understanding was that they KNEW they were probably going to lose with Kaplan, and were prepared to take this higher up. Banning linking is somewhat silly; and perhaps the more silly things there are in the rulling, the more likely it will be found wanting and overturned.
I've used Linux and other Unices quite extensively as a developer. Which means that, in general, I know how to get around, how to mind my ps's and quotas, and in general, function as an intelligent user. But system setup and configuration... well, I haven't done much of tha, and I don't know much about hardware, and I find that this is exactly the weakness that many of the books, installers, and docs don't cater to. Once the system is up and running I can generally figure things out. But getting it up has, so far, taken more than a few hours of effort. So a dummies book that holds my hand during an install but lets me fly once we're done would be just up my alley. I expect there might be a few more people out there like me....
You're seriously asserting that Penrose -- not exactly a mathematical lightweight -- misunderstands Godel's Theorem?
Man, I hope you have credentials to match his or a serious reference to back you up. In either case, fess up. If there's a real case to be made, I'd like to hear it. I'm a math grad student and don't think he does such a bad job.
--
Now that we know the techniques, how about some countermeasures...
Um, no, we don't know the techniques. Not really. At least I don't, not from the Katz article -- though he's probably raised our awareness of what can/is being done. And yes, I'll remember to get this book and read it myself, but still I can't help but wonder:
Where can I learn more about the techniques described here? Are there software packages (open source, even) out there that do this kind of text analysis? Texts on how to do it yourself? Publications describing word-pattern detection algorithms?
(And where are all the karma whores who usually post these links, now that I need you?)
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