Folks, the problem with this ruling is that it affects every single DoI entity. That means thousands of people who depend on real time data such as stream flow measurements, information about volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides, data on endangered species/migratory birds, and even folks looking for information about National Park status, are left completely out in the cold. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is a very small part of the DoI's operations.
I've seen the faulty accounting system of the BIA up close and personal, and I agree it is completely bogus and needs to be torn down and redone from scratch. But taking the entire DoI off the Internet hurts thousands of people, including many Native Americans, who depend upon data supplied by DoI agencies for making critical decisions. Remember that the DoI includes not only the BIA, but the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Service, and several others. Taking all of them offline because of the actions of any one component, even the Secretary of the Interior, is downright irresponsible, and could even endanger the public safety.
Neither (most of) the DoI nor the American public deserve to be treated this way.
Re:I'd have a hard time taking this book seriously
on
God's Debris
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
If you truly have a difficult time taking Scott seriously, you haven't read any of his other (non-comic strip) books. In _The Dilbert Future_, especially, Scott reveals the depth of his intellect, and, more to the point, his great joy in tinkering with the established modes of thought. Scott likes to question not only social authority, but also our dogmatic approach to science. Even though I appreciate _Dilbert_ and the sardonic humor therewith associated (as someone else pointed out, BTW, Dilbert is _not_ satire, although some satirical elements do crop up from time to time), I enjoy even more Scott's critical give and take when he examines our beliefs and speculates on our future.
I don't expect Scott's style to appeal to or impress everyone. But don't make the mistake of dismissing him as a "mere cartoonist." In point of fact, it takes a fairly formidable intellect to generate graphic humor of this type, despite its superficial simplistic nature. I've examined a number of cartoonists in some depth, including Trudeau, Watterson, Breathed, Griffith, Sam Hurt (Eyebeam), and of course Adams. While most of them are egotists and some are rather disagreeable, all of them are quite intelligent.
While we can never really know with certainty what, if anything, can offer us spiritual salvation, I believe that the salvation of the earthly soul can be achieved through humor. With that precept firmly in mind, I celebrate Scott Adams and name him among my personal heroes.
I have to agree with you. While the x86 architecture has been hammered into a shape that
approximates the roles for which it has been largely kludged (high speed approximations), the Alpha chip was elegant, superbly adapted, and a joy to experience. I had a DEC Alpha 1000S workstation running Digital Unix 3.2d (derived from OSF/1) several years ago, and while I have been using and administering Unix boxen since the late 70s, I don't believe I've ever run across a more robust and downright pleasant platform. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
I've been trying to migrate to 2.0 for a couple
of weeks now, even though I have some strong issues with the liberties the Java applet wants
to take with the system being upgraded. However,
the migration process always stalls at the
"accept certificate" level, no matter what option
I choose. My bottom line analysis is that this is
one seriously broken process at present. I'd
advise against messing with Hushmail until they
resolve the problems.
I should like to add that Balaji Venkat from Cisco and I submitted a draft in December of 1999 entitled "A Method for the Transmission of IP
Datagrams on Chip-ridden Avian Carriers" that
described an experimental method for funneling IP datagrams over avian carriers using a system of tweets and chirps generated by embedded avian microprocessors.
For some reason it never made it to RFC status.:-(
It is available at
http://rgfsparc.cr.usgs.gov:8090/sysadmin/chips_on _avians.txt
NEDit is absolutely the most useful Unix utility I possess. I've been using NEdit exclusively for at least 5 years (except for the occasional recourse to vi when I'm in a hurry). I always have at least 3 NEdit windows open at any given time. If this product doesn't exemplify all that's good about the Open Software movement, I don't know what possibly could.
Somewhere along the way college has metamorphosed
from a place to get an education to a vocational training school. If your entire purpose in life is to get a high-paying job and then retire, you've completely missed the part about understanding and appreciating the world around you. College traditionally teaches you to think and a great deal more, at least if you let it. There are people who claim that they got nothing out of college, but I contend that you get out of any experience what you are willing to put into it. If you skate through wearing blinders, you'll come out with a piece of paper but no real body of knowledge other than in your major.
I look for college graduates when I hire not for proof of technical competence, but for evidence of some exposure to social sciences, literature, geography, and history. The real question is, do you want to go through life as a machine programmed to perform a certain function, or do you want to live as a human being, with awareness and appreciation for what your species has accomplished, both for good and for ill? In effect, skipping college and going straight to work in a high-tech field is a form of self-exploitation; you are denying yourself some pretty basic enrichment experiences if you fall into that trap. Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. You can't learn from something you don't know about.
It's your life. Be a shallow, unenlightened techno droid if you want. Most of you probably won't even realize what you're missing; more's the pity.
Slashdot Mirror
Just FYI, this book is $60.00 at Fatbrain but
$36.00 at Amazon. I like Fatbrain and all,
but $24 is $24...
Folks, the problem with this ruling is that it affects every single DoI entity. That means thousands of people who depend on real time data such as stream flow measurements, information about volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides, data on endangered species/migratory birds, and even folks looking for information about National Park status, are left completely out in the cold. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is a very small part of the DoI's operations.
I've seen the faulty accounting system of the BIA up close and personal, and I agree it is completely bogus and needs to be torn down and redone from scratch. But taking the entire DoI off the Internet hurts thousands of people, including many Native Americans, who depend upon data supplied by DoI agencies for making critical decisions. Remember that the DoI includes not only the BIA, but the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Service, and several others. Taking all of them offline because of the actions of any one component, even the Secretary of the Interior, is downright irresponsible, and could even endanger the public safety.
Neither (most of) the DoI nor the American public deserve to be treated this way.
If you truly have a difficult time taking Scott seriously, you haven't read any of his other (non-comic strip) books. In _The Dilbert Future_, especially, Scott reveals the depth of his intellect, and, more to the point, his great joy in tinkering with the established modes of thought. Scott likes to question not only social authority, but also our dogmatic approach to science. Even though I appreciate _Dilbert_ and the sardonic humor therewith associated (as someone else pointed out, BTW, Dilbert is _not_ satire, although some satirical elements do crop up from time to time), I enjoy even more Scott's critical give and take when he examines our beliefs and speculates on our future.
I don't expect Scott's style to appeal to or impress everyone. But don't make the mistake of dismissing him as a "mere cartoonist." In point of fact, it takes a fairly formidable intellect to generate graphic humor of this type, despite its superficial simplistic nature. I've examined a number of cartoonists in some depth, including Trudeau, Watterson, Breathed, Griffith, Sam Hurt (Eyebeam), and of course Adams. While most of them are egotists and some are rather disagreeable, all of them are quite intelligent.
While we can never really know with certainty what, if anything, can offer us spiritual salvation, I believe that the salvation of the earthly soul can be achieved through humor. With that precept firmly in mind, I celebrate Scott Adams and name him among my personal heroes.
I have to agree with you. While the x86 architecture has been hammered into a shape that
approximates the roles for which it has been largely kludged (high speed approximations), the Alpha chip was elegant, superbly adapted, and a joy to experience. I had a DEC Alpha 1000S workstation running Digital Unix 3.2d (derived from OSF/1) several years ago, and while I have been using and administering Unix boxen since the late 70s, I don't believe I've ever run across a more robust and downright pleasant platform. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
m5x
For some reason it never made it to RFC status. :-(
It is available at http://rgfsparc.cr.usgs.gov:8090/sysadmin/chips_on _avians.txt
Cheers,
MadSaxon
NEDit is absolutely the most useful Unix utility I possess. I've been using NEdit exclusively for at least 5 years (except for the occasional recourse to vi when I'm in a hurry). I always have at least 3 NEdit windows open at any given time. If this product doesn't exemplify all that's good about the Open Software movement, I don't know what possibly could.
I look for college graduates when I hire not for proof of technical competence, but for evidence of some exposure to social sciences, literature, geography, and history. The real question is, do you want to go through life as a machine programmed to perform a certain function, or do you want to live as a human being, with awareness and appreciation for what your species has accomplished, both for good and for ill? In effect, skipping college and going straight to work in a high-tech field is a form of self-exploitation; you are denying yourself some pretty basic enrichment experiences if you fall into that trap. Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. You can't learn from something you don't know about.
It's your life. Be a shallow, unenlightened techno droid if you want. Most of you probably won't even realize what you're missing; more's the pity.