rather than respond to communities and markets, he tries to get things happening behind closed doors
Didn't you see the picture of him talking to Jeff? He was in a restaurant. Talking on a cell phone. That's about as public as you can get (not to say about as rude as you can get - I wonder which is worse, filing a bogus patent or using a cell phone in a restaurant?).
Seriously, I do think that Jeff kind of doesn't get it about defensive patents. They are for defending yourself against patent attacks by others, not for defense against any possible competitive attacks. One of the nastier truisms of human relations is that we tend to become what we fight. As Microsoft became a sort of bizarro version of IBM (forcing IBM to morph into the warm and cuddly giant that we all love so much these days), so Amazon is likely to become some grotesque giant, stomping any and all who get in its way. Andrew Carnegie started out as a champion of labor and ended up stomping out labor unions.
It's a sad fact that as we go once more into the breech again and again, we lose sight of our original goals, and often of our humanity. I think we owe it to Jeff Bezos to do him the favor of never again buying anything from Amazon. Let's help to remove him from the fray, and give him the time to regain that peace and serenity that will allow him to see that suing people over patents is just not very nice. And mean people really do suck.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Well, I would be a whole lot more impressed if Tim had actually advocated the Amazon boycott. As it is, his actions are not likely to affect his own bottom line, and so it's not really putting his money anywhere. Not where his mouth is nor anywhere else. Jeff is not going to stop selling O'Reilly books because of Tim's letter, and not a single O'Reilly book will go unsold.
While I do admire Tim's decision to speak out - it's way more than any other industry leader has done, and I do believe utterly that he speaks from his heart and not from any profit motive, the net effect on the profits of his company will probably be very positive.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
I have been buying novels from Online Originals for years for reading on the Palm, and enjoying them very much. On the other hand, I've tried reading web pages and magazine-type material on the Palm and hated it. For me, the Palm works for light and relaxing reading of plain text but fails for heavy technical reading or reading that is significantly enhanced by formatting or graphics. Also, I would not give up the paper novel and read such works only on the Palm. There is a pleasure to the experience of paper and ink that I would be loathe to give up.
Just my own personal experience, others will certainly differ.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
if we do get viable nanotech and use it wisely, then our only limits are the laws of physics and our imaginations.
Yeah, but it's the using it wisely that's the trick. One of the most probable scenarios I foresee is the prolongation of life without a corresponding reduction of the birth rate. If you think we had an overpopulation problem in the 20th century, just wait until the 21st, when nobody dies from old age, thanks in large part to nanotech, and the babies just keep being born.
We'll need the nanotech that'll make us be able to survive in vacuum just to find a place to stay.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Jon has been expounding this theme since at least his Hotwired days. The fear of the clueless leading them to attack this thing that seems about to take away a little of their power. But he seems to have missed a couple of points here. The first and most obvious is that the attacks have shifted over to the realm of the absurd. The very funny parodies of the Stanford "Study" should have been a giveaway. Mail is good, email is bad? Newspapers are good, news online is bad? This segment of the attack force has really lost whatever grip on reality it ever had.
But I would think that any discussion of attacks on the wired culture should contain at least a mention of the attacks that are actually threatening us. Direct frontal assaults are bound to fail (on the net as in most cases), but the side forays may be our undoing. UCITA, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and stupid software patents are just as absurd as the Stanford Study, but are much more dangerous. In fact the Stanford Study is itself dangerous in that it gives the clueless one more weapon to use in their efforts to destroy this thing we hold so precious.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
While you do have a valid point, everything is not about you or your faith. Your message might have seemed a little less egotistical if you had waited until someone actually did attack you or the things you believe.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
I have been telling people for a long time that, if you count the time I am solving problems, genreating income, or improving my skillset, then I work 168 hours every week (for the math impaired, that's 24x7). I do my very best analytical work while I'm asleep, and even while I'm watching Titus, the ol' brain is chugging away at the current problem set. If you count as work only those things I would not do if they didn't pay me to do them, I work considerably less than 10 hours per week.
Except for the rare times when I have to listen in horror as management insists that the development team deliver garbage (oy, you wouldn't want to have heard the meeting last evening), I marvel that I get paid for having so much fun.
Folks, if you feel that you are being overworked and/or underpaid, now is the time to do something about it. Economic times will never be better, and right now you have the ability to pick your working conditions during a job interview (though don't be surprised to find out they lied during that interview- folks are desperate for talent right now). At some time in the future, this will no longer be true. So work for a better future right now. And believe me, you don't get that better future by busting your hump and hoping that management will be grateful.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Am I to stand by, waving a banner saying "please don't steal my rights"? Or should I practice civil disobedience - thumb my nose to the super-corporations, risk life and property and stand up and say simply "No more"?
I know you know this, but I feel I have to say it anyhow. To do any of the above is to relinquish the field of battle to the enemy. Whenever, in the United States, vast amounts of power began to be concentrated in a small number of hands, other interests have mobilized to grasp more of the power for themselves, and so some semblance of balance has been maintained. These days way too much balance is being concentrated in the hands of corporations. The trouble is, all the traditional interests who whould have fought this type of concentration have become corporations themselves. And so they are, indeed, part of the problem. The solution has to be some kind of mobilization of the citizens to provide a voice for the interests of the citizens against both government and corporations. All of us are part of both government and business in one way or another. But the interests of government and business do not necessarily coincide with our own.
Organizations like EFF and SPI (the Software in the Public Interest SPI) do a great service for us all, but their efforts are somewhat scattered. Government and business do not need a vast conspiracy to help them achieve their ends. The gathering of power and money is just natural to the way they operate. Citizens, on the other hand, do not naturally put lots of time and energy into pulling power and money away from government and business. I suspect that some kind of coordinating organization will be needed to fight the unhealthy concentrations of wealth and power.
It will be interesting to see how such an organization will form, if, indeed, it ever does.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
I don't know if global warming will cause an overall rise or decline of sea level, but I find it hard to believe it will fall for the reason given above. Since an object floating in water displaces its weight in water, if you remove an ice cube (or iceberg) from the water and replace it with its weight in water, the level of the water should not change (ignoring the changes that happen while doing the removing and replacing). When an ice-thing melts, it essentially replaces itself with its weight in water, so there should be no change in water level. The expansion is seen in the ice that rides above the water. I've never done the icecube experiment, but if it does, indeed, work as described, there must be some further explanation than the expansion of water as it freezes.
Also, don't forget that all the ice that's sitting on land (e.g. on Greenland and Antarctica) will end up in the oceans if it melts. The ice will go to the seas, the land masses will rise because of the removal of the weight of all that ice. Will that cause a net rising or lowering of sea level? I sure don't know.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Encapsulation, by itself, does not make something Object Oriented. Encapsulation, and the whole idea of data hiding, was around long before OO, and is used in many non-OO areas. You must also have inheritance and polymorphism in order to be considered Object Oriented. A polymorphic Operating System kernel would be a very interesting thing to see. If HURD really is Object Oriented, it may really be worth a look, if only from an academic point of view. Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
The poke at Microsoft was a joke! Nobody seriously thinks that the NSA uses Microsoft products to perform mission critical communication and/or cryptanalysis(sp?) work. And we ALL know that the crash of a Microsoft OS is not a newsworthy event.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Just a bit of fluff that got stuck in my brain sometime in the past. Wouldn't surprise me all that much if I were wrong, but what the hell, I'll go on record and say I think it's so: NSA is part of the DoD.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
The problem with this is that capitalism, left unfettered, will always tend to degenerate into fascism, mercantilism and oligarcy. We see this happening right before our eyes, with the raid that's (supposedly) the subject of this thread having chilling overtones of fascism.
The problem, of course, is not evil corporations, or evil governments, or evil police; but the evil that comes from concentrations of power. If power is completely distributed between the corporate sector and the government sector, the citizen sector, having no power of its own, can expect to receive the royal shaft. The desired response to all of this in a free society would be the formation of of a power bloc representing the interests of free citizens. I don't see anything like this forming at the moment, but who knows what the future will bring? If such a thing does not form fairly soon (even if it's just everybody waking up and voting), we cannot expect to remain very long a free society.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
There's more information in the universe than elementary particles (whatever they might be). For every string there is a vibration and a vector through space and something through time, and how it is organized with its neighbors, and how the neighborhoods are organized into bigger things and don't forget the particles' opinions on the state of the universe. We are only just begining to think about scratching the surface of all this vastness of information.
And I, for one, will not be content until I have it all.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
This is obviously a message from God telling us all that we have, too, started the new millenium. Who are you going to believe, some monk who didn't even know about zero, or a heavenly portent?
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Actually, while only the folks enjoying night time can see the eclipse without electronic aids, it is happening all the same for all the others who are on the sunlit side of the world.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
I'd like to announce that I've received a trademark for the terms "computer" and "software", so I'll appreciate it if y'all will stop using them.
Seriously, though, I once bought a roll of tape made by a company named MilSpec(tm). Heavy emphasis on the word once. Point being that anyone can apply for a trademark and maybe even get a particularly clueless clerk to issue it. Defending it - that is, getting others to not use it - is a whole different kind of issue. Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Excuse me for not following that link, but the very idea that I should read something to let me know how I should feel about anything makes my head spin.
Nothing is funny or not funny. Things strike some people as funny while others find no humor there at all. The very idea that people should not find something funny is utterly preposterous, and anyone who thinks that they can rationally argue anyone out of laughing is even more so.
I think we're seeing some serious humor impairment here. Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
The Whole Earth Review ran an article several years ago, giving five rules of human stupidity. I don't remember any of the others (actually, I don't remember any of them), but I do remember that the first rule parsed true only if the percentage of stupid individuals in any population was 100%. It went something like "the percentage of stupid people in any group is always larger than anyone in the group believes". So, if all the people in a group think that everyone but themselves is stupid, the rule is satisfied.
It was a very funny article, I'll have to go see it I can find it anywhere.
Many years ago I bought a dead tree version of the zip code directory from the local post office. It was as big as a phone book, and about two inches thick. I don't think it would fit into the World Almanac. Remember, it has to include the zip code of every address in every city, and the countryside as well.
Maybe we should worry instead about all the obnoxious or non-beautiful people the world will miss. Newton and Einstein come to mind. Newton was an ill-tempered sob, and Einstein was thought to be rather stupid in childhood. Genetic selection for beauty and "well adjustedness" would likely have eliminated both of them.
I notice that the Microsoft entry includes Personal Web Server as well as IIS. Now, all Microsoft has to do is configure Windows and NT workstation so that PWS is on by default, just like Apple does with the Mac web sharing, and every Windows user with a Cable Modem or DLS line will count as a Microsoft server. Then watch them brag.
Sure, it would slow things down and open up some security holes, but that would be a small price to pay for the greater glory of Redmond.
I think Bruce was right to say what he said. What will maintain the integrity of the GPL if not the threat of a lawsuit? Are we supposed to just trust major corporations to do the right thing????
Slashdot Mirror
rather than respond to communities and markets, he tries to get things happening behind closed doors
Didn't you see the picture of him talking to Jeff? He was in a restaurant. Talking on a cell phone. That's about as public as you can get (not to say about as rude as you can get - I wonder which is worse, filing a bogus patent or using a cell phone in a restaurant?).
Seriously, I do think that Jeff kind of doesn't get it about defensive patents. They are for defending yourself against patent attacks by others, not for defense against any possible competitive attacks. One of the nastier truisms of human relations is that we tend to become what we fight. As Microsoft became a sort of bizarro version of IBM (forcing IBM to morph into the warm and cuddly giant that we all love so much these days), so Amazon is likely to become some grotesque giant, stomping any and all who get in its way. Andrew Carnegie started out as a champion of labor and ended up stomping out labor unions.
It's a sad fact that as we go once more into the breech again and again, we lose sight of our original goals, and often of our humanity. I think we owe it to Jeff Bezos to do him the favor of never again buying anything from Amazon. Let's help to remove him from the fray, and give him the time to regain that peace and serenity that will allow him to see that suing people over patents is just not very nice. And mean people really do suck.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Well, I would be a whole lot more impressed if Tim had actually advocated the Amazon boycott. As it is, his actions are not likely to affect his own bottom line, and so it's not really putting his money anywhere. Not where his mouth is nor anywhere else. Jeff is not going to stop selling O'Reilly books because of Tim's letter, and not a single O'Reilly book will go unsold.
While I do admire Tim's decision to speak out - it's way more than any other industry leader has done, and I do believe utterly that he speaks from his heart and not from any profit motive, the net effect on the profits of his company will probably be very positive.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
I have been buying novels from Online Originals for years for reading on the Palm, and enjoying them very much. On the other hand, I've tried reading web pages and magazine-type material on the Palm and hated it. For me, the Palm works for light and relaxing reading of plain text but fails for heavy technical reading or reading that is significantly enhanced by formatting or graphics. Also, I would not give up the paper novel and read such works only on the Palm. There is a pleasure to the experience of paper and ink that I would be loathe to give up.
Just my own personal experience, others will certainly differ.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
if we do get viable nanotech and use it wisely, then our only limits are the laws of physics and our imaginations.
Yeah, but it's the using it wisely that's the trick. One of the most probable scenarios I foresee is the prolongation of life without a corresponding reduction of the birth rate. If you think we had an overpopulation problem in the 20th century, just wait until the 21st, when nobody dies from old age, thanks in large part to nanotech, and the babies just keep being born.
We'll need the nanotech that'll make us be able to survive in vacuum just to find a place to stay.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Jon has been expounding this theme since at least his Hotwired days. The fear of the clueless leading them to attack this thing that seems about to take away a little of their power. But he seems to have missed a couple of points here. The first and most obvious is that the attacks have shifted over to the realm of the absurd. The very funny parodies of the Stanford "Study" should have been a giveaway. Mail is good, email is bad? Newspapers are good, news online is bad? This segment of the attack force has really lost whatever grip on reality it ever had.
But I would think that any discussion of attacks on the wired culture should contain at least a mention of the attacks that are actually threatening us. Direct frontal assaults are bound to fail (on the net as in most cases), but the side forays may be our undoing. UCITA, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and stupid software patents are just as absurd as the Stanford Study, but are much more dangerous. In fact the Stanford Study is itself dangerous in that it gives the clueless one more weapon to use in their efforts to destroy this thing we hold so precious.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
While you do have a valid point, everything is not about you or your faith. Your message might have seemed a little less egotistical if you had waited until someone actually did attack you or the things you believe.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
I have been telling people for a long time that, if you count the time I am solving problems, genreating income, or improving my skillset, then I work 168 hours every week (for the math impaired, that's 24x7). I do my very best analytical work while I'm asleep, and even while I'm watching Titus, the ol' brain is chugging away at the current problem set. If you count as work only those things I would not do if they didn't pay me to do them, I work considerably less than 10 hours per week.
Except for the rare times when I have to listen in horror as management insists that the development team deliver garbage (oy, you wouldn't want to have heard the meeting last evening), I marvel that I get paid for having so much fun.
Folks, if you feel that you are being overworked and/or underpaid, now is the time to do something about it. Economic times will never be better, and right now you have the ability to pick your working conditions during a job interview (though don't be surprised to find out they lied during that interview- folks are desperate for talent right now). At some time in the future, this will no longer be true. So work for a better future right now. And believe me, you don't get that better future by busting your hump and hoping that management will be grateful.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Am I to stand by, waving a banner saying "please don't steal my rights"? Or should I practice civil disobedience - thumb my nose to the super-corporations, risk life and property and stand up and say simply "No more"?
I know you know this, but I feel I have to say it anyhow. To do any of the above is to relinquish the field of battle to the enemy. Whenever, in the United States, vast amounts of power began to be concentrated in a small number of hands, other interests have mobilized to grasp more of the power for themselves, and so some semblance of balance has been maintained. These days way too much balance is being concentrated in the hands of corporations. The trouble is, all the traditional interests who whould have fought this type of concentration have become corporations themselves. And so they are, indeed, part of the problem. The solution has to be some kind of mobilization of the citizens to provide a voice for the interests of the citizens against both government and corporations. All of us are part of both government and business in one way or another. But the interests of government and business do not necessarily coincide with our own.
Organizations like EFF and SPI (the Software in the Public Interest SPI) do a great service for us all, but their efforts are somewhat scattered. Government and business do not need a vast conspiracy to help them achieve their ends. The gathering of power and money is just natural to the way they operate. Citizens, on the other hand, do not naturally put lots of time and energy into pulling power and money away from government and business. I suspect that some kind of coordinating organization will be needed to fight the unhealthy concentrations of wealth and power.
It will be interesting to see how such an organization will form, if, indeed, it ever does.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
I don't know if global warming will cause an overall rise or decline of sea level, but I find it hard to believe it will fall for the reason given above. Since an object floating in water displaces its weight in water, if you remove an ice cube (or iceberg) from the water and replace it with its weight in water, the level of the water should not change (ignoring the changes that happen while doing the removing and replacing). When an ice-thing melts, it essentially replaces itself with its weight in water, so there should be no change in water level. The expansion is seen in the ice that rides above the water. I've never done the icecube experiment, but if it does, indeed, work as described, there must be some further explanation than the expansion of water as it freezes.
Also, don't forget that all the ice that's sitting on land (e.g. on Greenland and Antarctica) will end up in the oceans if it melts. The ice will go to the seas, the land masses will rise because of the removal of the weight of all that ice. Will that cause a net rising or lowering of sea level? I sure don't know.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Encapsulation, by itself, does not make something Object Oriented. Encapsulation, and the whole idea of data hiding, was around long before OO, and is used in many non-OO areas. You must also have inheritance and polymorphism in order to be considered Object Oriented. A polymorphic Operating System kernel would be a very interesting thing to see. If HURD really is Object Oriented, it may really be worth a look, if only from an academic point of view.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
The poke at Microsoft was a joke! Nobody seriously thinks that the NSA uses Microsoft products to perform mission critical communication and/or cryptanalysis(sp?) work. And we ALL know that the crash of a Microsoft OS is not a newsworthy event.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Just a bit of fluff that got stuck in my brain sometime in the past. Wouldn't surprise me all that much if I were wrong, but what the hell, I'll go on record and say I think it's so: NSA is part of the DoD.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
The problem with this is that capitalism, left unfettered, will always tend to degenerate into fascism, mercantilism and oligarcy. We see this happening right before our eyes, with the raid that's (supposedly) the subject of this thread having chilling overtones of fascism.
The problem, of course, is not evil corporations, or evil governments, or evil police; but the evil that comes from concentrations of power. If power is completely distributed between the corporate sector and the government sector, the citizen sector, having no power of its own, can expect to receive the royal shaft. The desired response to all of this in a free society would be the formation of of a power bloc representing the interests of free citizens. I don't see anything like this forming at the moment, but who knows what the future will bring? If such a thing does not form fairly soon (even if it's just everybody waking up and voting), we cannot expect to remain very long a free society.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
There's more information in the universe than elementary particles (whatever they might be). For every string there is a vibration and a vector through space and something through time, and how it is organized with its neighbors, and how the neighborhoods are organized into bigger things and don't forget the particles' opinions on the state of the universe. We are only just begining to think about scratching the surface of all this vastness of information.
And I, for one, will not be content until I have it all.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
This is obviously a message from God telling us all that we have, too, started the new millenium. Who are you going to believe, some monk who didn't even know about zero, or a heavenly portent?
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Actually, while only the folks enjoying night time can see the eclipse without electronic aids, it is happening all the same for all the others who are on the sunlit side of the world.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Of course it's a full moon. A full lunar eclipse can only happen during a full moon, just as a solar eclipse can only happen during a new moon.
If we can see the dark side of the moon, we're not directly between the moon and the sun, which we must be to completely put the moon in shadow.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
I'd like to announce that I've received a trademark for the terms "computer" and "software", so I'll appreciate it if y'all will stop using them.
Seriously, though, I once bought a roll of tape made by a company named MilSpec(tm). Heavy emphasis on the word once. Point being that anyone can apply for a trademark and maybe even get a particularly clueless clerk to issue it. Defending it - that is, getting others to not use it - is a whole different kind of issue.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Excuse me for not following that link, but the very idea that I should read something to let me know how I should feel about anything makes my head spin.
Nothing is funny or not funny. Things strike some people as funny while others find no humor there at all. The very idea that people should not find something funny is utterly preposterous, and anyone who thinks that they can rationally argue anyone out of laughing is even more so.
I think we're seeing some serious humor impairment here.
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation
Since then I have been happy to believe that everyone but I was stupid. To do otherwise would be a violation of a fundamental law of the universe.
The Whole Earth Review ran an article several years ago, giving five rules of human stupidity. I don't remember any of the others (actually, I don't remember any of them), but I do remember that the first rule parsed true only if the percentage of stupid individuals in any population was 100%. It went something like "the percentage of stupid people in any group is always larger than anyone in the group believes". So, if all the people in a group think that everyone but themselves is stupid, the rule is satisfied.
It was a very funny article, I'll have to go see it I can find it anywhere.
Many years ago I bought a dead tree version of the zip code directory from the local post office. It was as big as a phone book, and about two inches thick. I don't think it would fit into the World Almanac. Remember, it has to include the zip code of every address in every city, and the countryside as well.
Now, there's a really wonderful value system!
Maybe we should worry instead about all the obnoxious or non-beautiful people the world will miss. Newton and Einstein come to mind. Newton was an ill-tempered sob, and Einstein was thought to be rather stupid in childhood. Genetic selection for beauty and "well adjustedness" would likely have eliminated both of them.
I notice that the Microsoft entry includes Personal Web Server as well as IIS. Now, all Microsoft has to do is configure Windows and NT workstation so that PWS is on by default, just like Apple does with the Mac web sharing, and every Windows user with a Cable Modem or DLS line will count as a Microsoft server. Then watch them brag.
Sure, it would slow things down and open up some security holes, but that would be a small price to pay for the greater glory of Redmond.
Note for the humor impaired: just kidding, folks.
I think Bruce was right to say what he said. What will maintain the integrity of the GPL if not the threat of a lawsuit? Are we supposed to just trust major corporations to do the right thing????