I love Iron Chef, but certainly not for the transmission of cooking expertise. How in the world can you figure out how to cook on that show?
I love it for the pomp and rhetoric. Much like pro wrestling. It's a goofy show with a goofy premise, except that instead of resulting in heads beaten in with folding chairs, you get to see inspired works of culinary art, which probably taste unusual but flavorful.
I enjoy it way more than any sports broadcast, probably because of the mystery of how the food is going to be assembled. I guess I just don't have a strategic play-by-play type of mind, but watching the cooking and construction process makes the problem-solving portion of my brain happy.
And the costumes are great.
Alton Brown's show is head and shoulders above it, though. How many other shows have you seen where the host illustrates the process of yeast fermenting by using burping sock puppets? *That's* entertainment.
The examples you cite - Apache, Perl, etc - are also tools which have been lauded for their flexability under a variety of circumstances. It seems to me that once the major component is in place, innovation becomes a matter of what kind of modules you can tack onto a flexable system to cover a specific need in that system's baliwick. Therefore big success stories can be expected to be few and far between - a single flexable success story can cover a *lot* of ground, and the innovation then defers to figuring the niggly bits of how it applies specifically to you.
As far as games go... well. I'd expect that the game programming going in is really done more in the spirit of "I wonder if I can figure out how they did that, then add my own touches to it", such as a CS student might employ to test their skills. These games have simple rules and a narrow environment. The sparky games like Sims and Grand Theft Auto shot for the moon in creating games with unique characteristics of gameplay and theme. The rules and environments are far more complex - "emulate various personality traits in a world full of objects that affect statistics in different ways, which then play off of the personality traits themselves to produce human-like behaviour... and make it skinnable" is a far cry from "blow up missles falling from the sky" or "push rocks down a dirt tunnel."
Unfortunately, that takes a lot of talented and skilled developers working hard toward a declared, managed goal. The fact that these are ground-breaking ideas makes it all the more difficult and time-consuming. The sheer interactivity that *every object* in the sparky games carry with them is a thing of wonder to me, and I wouldn't expect anybody to pull something like that off in their copious spare time. The kind of game takes a fellowship of like-minded dedicated programmers who can put serious day-to-day time into the project -- and that means money.
Not a programmer, just a guy who tries to think about things. I could be wrong. GMFTatsujin
You make some really excellent points. I would say that the "I don't know - yet" answer has strong merits of its own. Who could have forseen what the desktop computer would be capable of twenty years ago?
The general purpose computer is the thing that gives us regular folks who don't have access to electronics manufacturing facilities the edge of utility. We don't have to purchase special hardware to do everything we want to do -- I don't need an XBox, a DVD player, and typewriter, a scientific calculator, a dedicated graphics production box, or any of the zillion other things that perform focussed functions. My PC can do it all. Admittedly it doesn't have the edge of specialization, so the apps don't all perform spectacularly, but it performs within my expectations.
It is the very flexability of the general-purpose desktop that gives it its power. If I want to write a screenplay without having to fsck around with all the weird formatting, I don't have a get a screenplay writing machine. I can just pick up a copy of Sophocles or something and install it next to my copy of NeverWinter Nights.
Plus, I don't have to find the *space* to keep all that shit. A seperate device for every purpose? Oh my god! That would certainly drive the housing market - I'd need a five bedroom house before I even had kids. Not to mention all the furniture, shelving, electric outlets, and so on.
As a final point -- the hardware openness issue is, to my mind, a non-issue. All I care about is whether the hardware can process the instructions coming from the software. General-purpose doesn't boil down to "can I make the hardware dance with a soldering iron." It's more, I think, a question of software functionality than hardware tweakability.
The double-l in "zilla" is actually the spanish phoneme, pronounced as a consonantal "y", as in "quesadilla" (kay-sah-dee-ya) or "llama" (ya-ma).
Thus, "Mozilla" = "Mo-zee-ya".
Problem solved.
Besides, after the $8 anal raping that was the american Godzilla movie a few years ago, I doubt that Soho has any respect at all for the trademark.
GMFTatsujin
Re:American Culture Not That Bad
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The Last Place
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· Score: 2
Although I agree with you the American culture is far more diverse than advertised, the problem here is that the bits of our culture that make it across the border are overwhelmingly backed by Time-Warner and other media conglomerates. In other words, your average 3rd world country (and most of the 2nd and 1st ones, actually) only see the *marketable* side of our culture. Denim jeans and McDonalds and the like -- cultural artefacts and institutions that sell.
It's sad, really, but it works both ways. Yesterday on NPR there was an article about movies from India - so-called "Baliwood" - the announcer noted that the cinematic output of India was something like 300 movies a year, and that they were all action-packed and strongly dependant on musical numbers and outlandish plot devices. It was pretty snide, as the implication was that these movies were somehow completely inferior to the summer lacklusters we're used to in the USA.
Honestly, how many times has a show been cancelled and you've wished to yourself, "Man, I wish I had a Neisen box so those network bastards would know what I really like?"
This seems like a great opt-in opportunity to democratize the airwaves, as it were. Neilsen gets a bigger market sample to forecast with, ratings become more accurate (at least for the tech-savvy, tivo-owning demographic), and we get more input into the shows we like - more than "boycott this sponsor!" or a half-assed writein campaign.
Hell, if it meant I could opt-in, Neilsen or not, I'd buy a Tivo. You betcha. GMFTatsujin
If I break my car, should I have to buy a new one?
If I leave a banana sitting around for 40 years, then for nostalgia's sake decide to eat it, only to discover that it suffered from rot-rot, should I expect the Chaquita company to send me a replacement banana?
Nobody ever promised you that your games are indestructable. Take care of your stuff, dude.
Now, to be fair, there's still a question as to what your money is going toward - owning a copy of the game on a medium, or purchasing the right to *play* the game. The EULA seems to want to have it both ways, or rather, niether way. GMFTatsujin
I recently had the pleasure of riding in one of these cars, and they're way nifty. Four of us drove from Washington DC to somewhere in central Pennsylvania and back again (about 4 hours at highway speeds each direction) on about half a tank of gas. It lasted a long time between tanks in the city too, even with all the stop'n'go driving of DC. I was *incredibly* impressed.
It had plenty of amenities too (CD player, AC, power locks and windows), rode quietly, was comfortable enough for a long trip, and didn't feel like it would blow away in a strong breeze. If I hadn't already purchased a new car 2 years ago, I would seriously consider one of these.
Of course, my opinion doesn't substitute for research, but on an aesthetic level I was happy as a passenger, and on a techie level I was all tingly at the thought of the reciprocating brake system recharging the batteries as we glided (glode?) to a halt.
I don't suppose it's worth mentioning that terror is a psychological part of any war, right? Half the battle is won when the enemy is so convinced of your ability to hurt him that he's afraid to retaliate. I mean, war isn't *all* smiles and teddy bears, right?
The only commonality I've found in the definition of "terrorists" is that it's always what the other guy calls them. All other criteria are either grey-area mushy, are based on emotional outbursts, or lack sufficient persuasive power. I hate words like that.
Here's a question for you search engine gurus out there - have any groups accused of being terrorists actually referred to themselves as terrorists, or insisted that they be called terrorists? Just asking.
GMFTatsujin
Re:Donate them to Libraries
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Free as in Books?
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· Score: 4, Insightful
... and how's your local library doing these days? Aside from getting slapped with censorware, protested for containing dangerous books like Harry Potter, and generally going broke, my local branch is just ducky.
The charm of this kind of project is that you find it where you least expect it. It's spontanious, requires no forethought on your account, and exposes you to literature you might not have considered picking up, or even looking for, in a library. It gets around the problem of indexed systems (libraries included), which is that you have to know what you're looking for in order to find it.
Plus, this is about sharing information with anybody, anytime, anywhere, for no reason whatsoever expect that somebody thought it was worthwhile and that other people might enjoy it.
That sounds almost noble, to me. GMFTatsujin
May I Make an Observation Here?
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Is Linux Dead?
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· Score: 5, Insightful
"It's for geeks," said Faber Fedor, a New Jersey-based consultant who helps small businesses upgrade to Linux.
Way to shoot yourself in the foot, dumbass. I'll bet that gets you *lots* of consumer interest right there. Or maybe that's a subtle twist of the knife by MSNBC. Grr.
Computers in general were just for geeks 20 years ago. Well, geeks, and businesses that wanted to manage information they didn't even know they had in ways they didn't even know were possible. Now, you can't get away from the things - much as you might want to.
I don't know about any of you folks, but I'm getting sick of the dismissive connotations of "geek." Maybe I'm just a little sensative, but it seems to me that the geek mindset has made more lasting, permanent contributions to the state of the everyday world in general than any other clique - curiousity, tenacatity, a ravenous hunger to know how things work and to make them better for anyone who cares.
Now, the thing is, noone has noticed a difference. No one talks about the censorship, no one even thinks about it. Because it doesn't seem to affect us.
Wow. Sounds like it worked a treat.
In related news, Mrs. Montag wants a new television wall to complement the other three. GMFTatsujin
Macrovisions-busters can also be bought, often disguised by names such as 'signal cleaners' to keep within the law.
*Ahem*
As a guy who has personal videotapes going back to the 80's, and as a guy who has seen the quality of these tapes drop by orders of magnitude over time, and as a guy who would like to record them onto a digital media to prevent further degradation, and as a guy who relies on signal processing to clean said tapes up to make them worth watching again, I think I speak for everyone in similar circumstances when I say: Fuck you and the whores you rode in on, you New Scientist media bitch.
Signal cleaners have a useful purpose. They clean degraded signals. Entropy can, in this case, be compensated for by these useful little devices. And thank goodness for it, especially when an old tape is the *only* record of an event that may happen to be dear to somebody.
I mean, fuck, what am I supposed to do, ask my sister to get married again so I can record it on a DRM-compliant videocamera this time? Geez o'Pete!
Whose fault is it that the copy protection mechanism of choice relies on DESTROYING AN INTACT SIGNAL????
Barry Fox can be also bought by proponents of the copy protection racket, often disguised by job titles such as 'reporter' to keep within the realm of legitimacy.
I understand the theory that says I'm paying for the superior quality of CDs (yes, I agree that "quality" is a factor in price)
It seems to me that the issue of quality being more expensive is purely of aesthetic satisfaction, and not relevent to the cost of the technology to achieve that quality.
I'm thinking thusly - In the old days of analog media, all the recording was done on analog devices, each of which could introduce hiss, tones, and other audiosquibble that detracted from the recording before it even made it to the master tape. Studios would hire engineers to work their magic and reduce the introduction of this noise, play editing tricks, and so on, so that the master tape was as pure as could be. Also, fun new equipment like the Dolby Noise Reduction Widget (with lots of exciting and expensive algorhythms) were employed, driving the cost up more to keep up the fidelity of the analog signal. It *did* cost a lot to keep the tunes pure, even though a lot of that fidelity would be lost by the time the music was mass-copied and sent out on tape.
But that's not really the case anymore, is it? Digital recording devices - from the mic on down - are available to everyone. Artists actually *seek out* old analog equipment to capture the weird artifacts that made "the sound," and eBay has made a killing off of it. Analog processing and recording equipment is getter more and more rare, in favor of the digital way.
The upshot is that, right from the artist's mouth, guitar, piano or what have you, the signal is digitally captured (and replicated) in a pure state. You don't need all the widgets, tricks, and spoodwah to get a clear recording. In my opinion, engineers have shifted focus from the noise reduction business to the "what weird studio effect can we create today" business. They're artists in their own right.
*sigh*
My point is, it doesn't cost any more to get a high quality signal if you're in a quiet studio. High fidelity is unavoidable if you know how to set up a mic. You actually have to go out of your way to *introduce* noise into a recording if you're working in a studio of any quality whatsoever. That costs time, and time is money, so noisy recording are actually more expensive than clean ones.
Mileage may vary for Joe Grunge's garage band, but a properly soundproofed, low-reflection studio with a good mic setup will be clean as a whistle, no extras added.
Of course, I could be talking out of my ass. It's been known to happen. GMFTatsujin
Jesus, Mohammad, Buddah and Ra the Sun God have been elected to serve on the High Council of the RIAA.
Nicholas, Patron Saint of Thieves, has been strangely silent on the matter. GMFTatsujin
Re:the payola hearings of the 60's were a scam
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Homogenized Music
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I have to say at this point that DJ's do nothing but get my dander up anymore.
I'm only 28, so this is before my time, but it seems like the days of the Golden Age of Radio Music (50's and 60's) focussed as much on the music that the DJ played by choice as they did on the personality of the DJ. Nowadays, DJs are handed lists of scheduled tunes to spit out, leaving them completely removed from the decision-making process.
What's the upshot? You can't listen to what the DJ likes to listen to anymore. There's no musical connection to them for the audience to resonate with. Particular DJs don't have particular styles anymore. There's no recognition of individual DJs and styles, no loyalty, and no sense that (*here's the important bit*) the DJ is sharing music with you that he or she thinks is really worth listening to.
(Whoops -- there's that "sharing music" idea again.)
DJs are therefore distinguished by their chatter between songs. Which is not music. I turn on the radio to listen to music or news, not chatter. Hence, I hate DJs. They're cookie-cutter gibbering monkeys to me, failed stand-up comedians who couldn't muster enough journalistic skills to become bona fide reporters.
I listen to my local university-driven NPR affiliate, and that's all. That station has a vast library of out-of-the-way music from every conceivable genre, and the DJs get to pick and chose what they'd like to play. Sometime I hate what they chose. Other times, I'm pleasantly surprised.
Imay not know their names, but I know their styles. I love that.
I guess the real question then is "More functionality for WHO, exactly?"
What's the difference between finding a new use for widget x, and making widget x actually more useful? The telephone found all kinds of new uses during the telemarketing boom, but with all the calls I now ignore during certain times of the day and all the call tracking gadgets I have hooked up to the phone, I'd say it's become nearly useless.
Ditto for TV. With all the icons, banners, and other commercial graphics, it's getting more and more difficult to put the TV to the use for which I bought it - watching my shows. Utility for the consumer has dropped while utility for the advertiser has grown.
Bah. Bah on them all. Some days I feel >this close to calling the whole thing off, throwing my electronic goodies out the window, and investing in a printing press to do my business on.
Of course, then we'll get legislation for "Smart Movable Type Technology(tm)" that prevents certain copyrighted combinations of letters from being formed...
They need transportation, they go out and buy a truck. They need a machine tool, they go out and buy one. They need a copy machine, they have one installed. Although some of these tools can certainly be dangerous, there is a basic expectation that when buying, say, a machine tool (a) it will more or less do what it says it will do (b) it won't suddenly explode and destroy an entire city block.
If they're smart, they also hire a driver, a machinist (or at least an operator), or an admin assistant. None of these technologies run themselves, or run indefinitely without maintainance.
Honestly, I have no sympathy for bottom-line dimwits who think that technology alone is the answer to a tight profit margin. Technology is the tool. The guy with the skills to *use* technology is the real answer.
Hire a goddamned administrator, for crying out loud. If it's worth the investment to purchase the system, it's worth at least that much to invest in someone who can keep it working.
If computer technology is so integral to the business world, how come it's so freakin' hard to find a technology job again? Short-sightedness, that's all I can figure.
The only way I can see this tactic working is if the companies *knew* that Microsoft was being hard on them specifically for their support of Linux.
I mean, there's nothing too unusual about the legal departments reading contracts the way they want to anyway, right? If I'm a company that gets shut out this way, I'm not going to think to myself first thing, "If only I hadn't released a driver for Linux, they'd be nice to me."
Ergo, they needed to leak this memo, if it's real at all. The whole point of this passive-agressive behaviour was to do it in an inconspicuous way - this document is the only clue a company would have as to why they're getting shut out.
I've never understood this fascination with the wireless world on a PDA anyway, but here's my two cents:
If you've got an 802.11b wireless network card going, it's going pretty much all the time. And battery life suffers horribly, especially if you're using a high-drain PDA anyway, like a bright color screen. My boss has an iPac with a Xircom wireless LAN PCMCIA card, and it destroys his battery life - it goes from maybe 5-7 days between charges to maybe 5-7 *hours*.
So here's my advice. Either get an adapter that has it's own little battery pack and won't cripple your PDA proper, or get one that's hot-swappable, tiny, and convenient to slip in and out when needed.
That's if you really think you're going to get that much use out of the thing. Myself, I'm happy to just get in the habit of syncing every time I'm at my computer, and letting the information exchange happen then. Honestly, though, I still don't see the attraction.
I think this post points to the need for a new set of moderation comments.
I mean, folks are whipping out statistics, back of the envelope calculations, and all kinds of wacky definitions -- I don't think any one person would be able to go through and verify all the claims made by posters, expert or not.
I propose "Yeah, I'll Buy That," "Sounds Good to Me," or "I Think I Read That Once Too." Whether they're +1 or -1, I leave up to other folks...
XP virtually installs itself. You barely have to be there.
Rumor has it the next generation of Windows *will* install itself. Whether you're there or not.
Yes, it's true! This new generation of cutting edge technology (codenamed InterTransGenObsidianPyramidObscura) will take advantage of the inevitable switchover to pure wireless, broadcasting itself from Redmond over the very airwaves themselves, using cellphones as booster stations. Once those little quantum perturbations detect a computer nearby, they will zero in, and with no effort whatsoever, install this exciting new upgrade, free of charge. A truly cross-platform OS, InterTransGenObsidianPyramidObscura will replace previous versions of Windows on Intel systems, as well as dynamically configure itself to run on Mac, Sun, Alpha and Palm processors. Upgrade packs are already in the works for electric blankets, HDTVs, Macrovision-disabled VCRs, and low-water toilets. It will be sure to be everywhere you look -- Very, very sure.
I've got a teenie three-node network at home - two Windows computers and a Mandrake server. It's not much, but it gets me there.:)
Samba is absolutely the most important service running on the server. It lets my wife and I share files, print whenever we like, and maintain private backups off of our computers. I'd put it down as the single most useful software package for anyone who wants to run a home network. It's the one we use most often and most transparently. Well, that and Squid...
When Microsoft completely and irrevocably blocks out Samba, that's when Windows goes out the door forever. But seeing as how we haven't budged from 98SE since it came out, I don't know that's really going to be a problem.
Smaba team, you folks rock my weird little computing world. Well done, and totally deserved. GMFTatsujin
Slashdot Mirror
I love Iron Chef, but certainly not for the transmission of cooking expertise. How in the world can you figure out how to cook on that show?
I love it for the pomp and rhetoric. Much like pro wrestling. It's a goofy show with a goofy premise, except that instead of resulting in heads beaten in with folding chairs, you get to see inspired works of culinary art, which probably taste unusual but flavorful.
I enjoy it way more than any sports broadcast, probably because of the mystery of how the food is going to be assembled. I guess I just don't have a strategic play-by-play type of mind, but watching the cooking and construction process makes the problem-solving portion of my brain happy.
And the costumes are great.
Alton Brown's show is head and shoulders above it, though. How many other shows have you seen where the host illustrates the process of yeast fermenting by using burping sock puppets? *That's* entertainment.
GMFTatsujin
Faster invalidation of digital media than you ever thought possible!
GMFTatsujin
The examples you cite - Apache, Perl, etc - are also tools which have been lauded for their flexability under a variety of circumstances. It seems to me that once the major component is in place, innovation becomes a matter of what kind of modules you can tack onto a flexable system to cover a specific need in that system's baliwick. Therefore big success stories can be expected to be few and far between - a single flexable success story can cover a *lot* of ground, and the innovation then defers to figuring the niggly bits of how it applies specifically to you.
As far as games go... well. I'd expect that the game programming going in is really done more in the spirit of "I wonder if I can figure out how they did that, then add my own touches to it", such as a CS student might employ to test their skills. These games have simple rules and a narrow environment. The sparky games like Sims and Grand Theft Auto shot for the moon in creating games with unique characteristics of gameplay and theme. The rules and environments are far more complex - "emulate various personality traits in a world full of objects that affect statistics in different ways, which then play off of the personality traits themselves to produce human-like behaviour... and make it skinnable" is a far cry from "blow up missles falling from the sky" or "push rocks down a dirt tunnel."
Unfortunately, that takes a lot of talented and skilled developers working hard toward a declared, managed goal. The fact that these are ground-breaking ideas makes it all the more difficult and time-consuming. The sheer interactivity that *every object* in the sparky games carry with them is a thing of wonder to me, and I wouldn't expect anybody to pull something like that off in their copious spare time. The kind of game takes a fellowship of like-minded dedicated programmers who can put serious day-to-day time into the project -- and that means money.
Not a programmer, just a guy who tries to think about things. I could be wrong.
GMFTatsujin
You make some really excellent points. I would say that the "I don't know - yet" answer has strong merits of its own. Who could have forseen what the desktop computer would be capable of twenty years ago?
The general purpose computer is the thing that gives us regular folks who don't have access to electronics manufacturing facilities the edge of utility. We don't have to purchase special hardware to do everything we want to do -- I don't need an XBox, a DVD player, and typewriter, a scientific calculator, a dedicated graphics production box, or any of the zillion other things that perform focussed functions. My PC can do it all. Admittedly it doesn't have the edge of specialization, so the apps don't all perform spectacularly, but it performs within my expectations.
It is the very flexability of the general-purpose desktop that gives it its power. If I want to write a screenplay without having to fsck around with all the weird formatting, I don't have a get a screenplay writing machine. I can just pick up a copy of Sophocles or something and install it next to my copy of NeverWinter Nights.
Plus, I don't have to find the *space* to keep all that shit. A seperate device for every purpose? Oh my god! That would certainly drive the housing market - I'd need a five bedroom house before I even had kids. Not to mention all the furniture, shelving, electric outlets, and so on.
As a final point -- the hardware openness issue is, to my mind, a non-issue. All I care about is whether the hardware can process the instructions coming from the software. General-purpose doesn't boil down to "can I make the hardware dance with a soldering iron." It's more, I think, a question of software functionality than hardware tweakability.
Just my opinion. Could be wrong.
GMFTatsujin
The double-l in "zilla" is actually the spanish phoneme, pronounced as a consonantal "y", as in "quesadilla" (kay-sah-dee-ya) or "llama" (ya-ma).
Thus, "Mozilla" = "Mo-zee-ya".
Problem solved.
Besides, after the $8 anal raping that was the american Godzilla movie a few years ago, I doubt that Soho has any respect at all for the trademark.
GMFTatsujin
Although I agree with you the American culture is far more diverse than advertised, the problem here is that the bits of our culture that make it across the border are overwhelmingly backed by Time-Warner and other media conglomerates. In other words, your average 3rd world country (and most of the 2nd and 1st ones, actually) only see the *marketable* side of our culture. Denim jeans and McDonalds and the like -- cultural artefacts and institutions that sell.
It's sad, really, but it works both ways. Yesterday on NPR there was an article about movies from India - so-called "Baliwood" - the announcer noted that the cinematic output of India was something like 300 movies a year, and that they were all action-packed and strongly dependant on musical numbers and outlandish plot devices. It was pretty snide, as the implication was that these movies were somehow completely inferior to the summer lacklusters we're used to in the USA.
Bah. Bah on all of them.
GMFTatsujin
Honestly, how many times has a show been cancelled and you've wished to yourself, "Man, I wish I had a Neisen box so those network bastards would know what I really like?"
This seems like a great opt-in opportunity to democratize the airwaves, as it were. Neilsen gets a bigger market sample to forecast with, ratings become more accurate (at least for the tech-savvy, tivo-owning demographic), and we get more input into the shows we like - more than "boycott this sponsor!" or a half-assed writein campaign.
Hell, if it meant I could opt-in, Neilsen or not, I'd buy a Tivo. You betcha.
GMFTatsujin
Or... wait, wouldn't he need the time machine from the future, so really he acquired it *after* he got the 486?
*gzzt! Poing*
GMFTatsujin
If I break my car, should I have to buy a new one?
If I leave a banana sitting around for 40 years, then for nostalgia's sake decide to eat it, only to discover that it suffered from rot-rot, should I expect the Chaquita company to send me a replacement banana?
Nobody ever promised you that your games are indestructable. Take care of your stuff, dude.
Now, to be fair, there's still a question as to what your money is going toward - owning a copy of the game on a medium, or purchasing the right to *play* the game. The EULA seems to want to have it both ways, or rather, niether way.
GMFTatsujin
I recently had the pleasure of riding in one of these cars, and they're way nifty. Four of us drove from Washington DC to somewhere in central Pennsylvania and back again (about 4 hours at highway speeds each direction) on about half a tank of gas. It lasted a long time between tanks in the city too, even with all the stop'n'go driving of DC. I was *incredibly* impressed.
It had plenty of amenities too (CD player, AC, power locks and windows), rode quietly, was comfortable enough for a long trip, and didn't feel like it would blow away in a strong breeze. If I hadn't already purchased a new car 2 years ago, I would seriously consider one of these.
Of course, my opinion doesn't substitute for research, but on an aesthetic level I was happy as a passenger, and on a techie level I was all tingly at the thought of the reciprocating brake system recharging the batteries as we glided (glode?) to a halt.
GMFTatsujin
I don't suppose it's worth mentioning that terror is a psychological part of any war, right? Half the battle is won when the enemy is so convinced of your ability to hurt him that he's afraid to retaliate. I mean, war isn't *all* smiles and teddy bears, right?
The only commonality I've found in the definition of "terrorists" is that it's always what the other guy calls them. All other criteria are either grey-area mushy, are based on emotional outbursts, or lack sufficient persuasive power. I hate words like that.
Here's a question for you search engine gurus out there - have any groups accused of being terrorists actually referred to themselves as terrorists, or insisted that they be called terrorists? Just asking.
GMFTatsujin
... and how's your local library doing these days? Aside from getting slapped with censorware, protested for containing dangerous books like Harry Potter, and generally going broke, my local branch is just ducky.
The charm of this kind of project is that you find it where you least expect it. It's spontanious, requires no forethought on your account, and exposes you to literature you might not have considered picking up, or even looking for, in a library. It gets around the problem of indexed systems (libraries included), which is that you have to know what you're looking for in order to find it.
Plus, this is about sharing information with anybody, anytime, anywhere, for no reason whatsoever expect that somebody thought it was worthwhile and that other people might enjoy it.
That sounds almost noble, to me.
GMFTatsujin
Way to shoot yourself in the foot, dumbass. I'll bet that gets you *lots* of consumer interest right there. Or maybe that's a subtle twist of the knife by MSNBC. Grr.
Computers in general were just for geeks 20 years ago. Well, geeks, and businesses that wanted to manage information they didn't even know they had in ways they didn't even know were possible. Now, you can't get away from the things - much as you might want to.
I don't know about any of you folks, but I'm getting sick of the dismissive connotations of "geek." Maybe I'm just a little sensative, but it seems to me that the geek mindset has made more lasting, permanent contributions to the state of the everyday world in general than any other clique - curiousity, tenacatity, a ravenous hunger to know how things work and to make them better for anyone who cares.
Caveman geeks made the wheel.
GMFTatsujin
Wow. Sounds like it worked a treat.
In related news, Mrs. Montag wants a new television wall to complement the other three.
GMFTatsujin
*Ahem*
As a guy who has personal videotapes going back to the 80's, and as a guy who has seen the quality of these tapes drop by orders of magnitude over time, and as a guy who would like to record them onto a digital media to prevent further degradation, and as a guy who relies on signal processing to clean said tapes up to make them worth watching again, I think I speak for everyone in similar circumstances when I say: Fuck you and the whores you rode in on, you New Scientist media bitch.
Signal cleaners have a useful purpose. They clean degraded signals. Entropy can, in this case, be compensated for by these useful little devices. And thank goodness for it, especially when an old tape is the *only* record of an event that may happen to be dear to somebody.
I mean, fuck, what am I supposed to do, ask my sister to get married again so I can record it on a DRM-compliant videocamera this time? Geez o'Pete!
Whose fault is it that the copy protection mechanism of choice relies on DESTROYING AN INTACT SIGNAL????
Barry Fox can be also bought by proponents of the copy protection racket, often disguised by job titles such as 'reporter' to keep within the realm of legitimacy.
GMFTatsujin
It seems to me that the issue of quality being more expensive is purely of aesthetic satisfaction, and not relevent to the cost of the technology to achieve that quality.
I'm thinking thusly - In the old days of analog media, all the recording was done on analog devices, each of which could introduce hiss, tones, and other audiosquibble that detracted from the recording before it even made it to the master tape. Studios would hire engineers to work their magic and reduce the introduction of this noise, play editing tricks, and so on, so that the master tape was as pure as could be. Also, fun new equipment like the Dolby Noise Reduction Widget (with lots of exciting and expensive algorhythms) were employed, driving the cost up more to keep up the fidelity of the analog signal. It *did* cost a lot to keep the tunes pure, even though a lot of that fidelity would be lost by the time the music was mass-copied and sent out on tape.
But that's not really the case anymore, is it? Digital recording devices - from the mic on down - are available to everyone. Artists actually *seek out* old analog equipment to capture the weird artifacts that made "the sound," and eBay has made a killing off of it. Analog processing and recording equipment is getter more and more rare, in favor of the digital way.
The upshot is that, right from the artist's mouth, guitar, piano or what have you, the signal is digitally captured (and replicated) in a pure state. You don't need all the widgets, tricks, and spoodwah to get a clear recording. In my opinion, engineers have shifted focus from the noise reduction business to the "what weird studio effect can we create today" business. They're artists in their own right.
*sigh*
My point is, it doesn't cost any more to get a high quality signal if you're in a quiet studio. High fidelity is unavoidable if you know how to set up a mic. You actually have to go out of your way to *introduce* noise into a recording if you're working in a studio of any quality whatsoever. That costs time, and time is money, so noisy recording are actually more expensive than clean ones.
Mileage may vary for Joe Grunge's garage band, but a properly soundproofed, low-reflection studio with a good mic setup will be clean as a whistle, no extras added.
Of course, I could be talking out of my ass. It's been known to happen.
GMFTatsujin
Jesus, Mohammad, Buddah and Ra the Sun God have been elected to serve on the High Council of the RIAA.
Nicholas, Patron Saint of Thieves, has been strangely silent on the matter.
GMFTatsujin
I have to say at this point that DJ's do nothing but get my dander up anymore.
I'm only 28, so this is before my time, but it seems like the days of the Golden Age of Radio Music (50's and 60's) focussed as much on the music that the DJ played by choice as they did on the personality of the DJ. Nowadays, DJs are handed lists of scheduled tunes to spit out, leaving them completely removed from the decision-making process.
What's the upshot? You can't listen to what the DJ likes to listen to anymore. There's no musical connection to them for the audience to resonate with. Particular DJs don't have particular styles anymore. There's no recognition of individual DJs and styles, no loyalty, and no sense that (*here's the important bit*) the DJ is sharing music with you that he or she thinks is really worth listening to.
(Whoops -- there's that "sharing music" idea again.)
DJs are therefore distinguished by their chatter between songs. Which is not music. I turn on the radio to listen to music or news, not chatter. Hence, I hate DJs. They're cookie-cutter gibbering monkeys to me, failed stand-up comedians who couldn't muster enough journalistic skills to become bona fide reporters.
I listen to my local university-driven NPR affiliate, and that's all. That station has a vast library of out-of-the-way music from every conceivable genre, and the DJs get to pick and chose what they'd like to play. Sometime I hate what they chose. Other times, I'm pleasantly surprised.
Imay not know their names, but I know their styles. I love that.
GMFTatsujin
I guess the real question then is "More functionality for WHO, exactly?"
What's the difference between finding a new use for widget x, and making widget x actually more useful? The telephone found all kinds of new uses during the telemarketing boom, but with all the calls I now ignore during certain times of the day and all the call tracking gadgets I have hooked up to the phone, I'd say it's become nearly useless.
Ditto for TV. With all the icons, banners, and other commercial graphics, it's getting more and more difficult to put the TV to the use for which I bought it - watching my shows. Utility for the consumer has dropped while utility for the advertiser has grown.
Bah. Bah on them all. Some days I feel >this close to calling the whole thing off, throwing my electronic goodies out the window, and investing in a printing press to do my business on.
Of course, then we'll get legislation for "Smart Movable Type Technology(tm)" that prevents certain copyrighted combinations of letters from being formed...
GMFTatsujin
If they're smart, they also hire a driver, a machinist (or at least an operator), or an admin assistant. None of these technologies run themselves, or run indefinitely without maintainance.
Honestly, I have no sympathy for bottom-line dimwits who think that technology alone is the answer to a tight profit margin. Technology is the tool. The guy with the skills to *use* technology is the real answer.
Hire a goddamned administrator, for crying out loud. If it's worth the investment to purchase the system, it's worth at least that much to invest in someone who can keep it working.
If computer technology is so integral to the business world, how come it's so freakin' hard to find a technology job again? Short-sightedness, that's all I can figure.
GMFTatsujin
The only way I can see this tactic working is if the companies *knew* that Microsoft was being hard on them specifically for their support of Linux.
I mean, there's nothing too unusual about the legal departments reading contracts the way they want to anyway, right? If I'm a company that gets shut out this way, I'm not going to think to myself first thing, "If only I hadn't released a driver for Linux, they'd be nice to me."
Ergo, they needed to leak this memo, if it's real at all. The whole point of this passive-agressive behaviour was to do it in an inconspicuous way - this document is the only clue a company would have as to why they're getting shut out.
Leaked. Leaked 100%.
GMFTatsuin
I've never understood this fascination with the wireless world on a PDA anyway, but here's my two cents:
If you've got an 802.11b wireless network card going, it's going pretty much all the time. And battery life suffers horribly, especially if you're using a high-drain PDA anyway, like a bright color screen. My boss has an iPac with a Xircom wireless LAN PCMCIA card, and it destroys his battery life - it goes from maybe 5-7 days between charges to maybe 5-7 *hours*.
So here's my advice. Either get an adapter that has it's own little battery pack and won't cripple your PDA proper, or get one that's hot-swappable, tiny, and convenient to slip in and out when needed.
That's if you really think you're going to get that much use out of the thing. Myself, I'm happy to just get in the habit of syncing every time I'm at my computer, and letting the information exchange happen then. Honestly, though, I still don't see the attraction.
GMFTatsujin
I think this post points to the need for a new set of moderation comments.
I mean, folks are whipping out statistics, back of the envelope calculations, and all kinds of wacky definitions -- I don't think any one person would be able to go through and verify all the claims made by posters, expert or not.
I propose "Yeah, I'll Buy That," "Sounds Good to Me," or "I Think I Read That Once Too." Whether they're +1 or -1, I leave up to other folks...
GMFTatsujin
Yes, it's true! This new generation of cutting edge technology (codenamed InterTransGenObsidianPyramidObscura) will take advantage of the inevitable switchover to pure wireless, broadcasting itself from Redmond over the very airwaves themselves, using cellphones as booster stations. Once those little quantum perturbations detect a computer nearby, they will zero in, and with no effort whatsoever, install this exciting new upgrade, free of charge. A truly cross-platform OS, InterTransGenObsidianPyramidObscura will replace previous versions of Windows on Intel systems, as well as dynamically configure itself to run on Mac, Sun, Alpha and Palm processors. Upgrade packs are already in the works for electric blankets, HDTVs, Macrovision-disabled VCRs, and low-water toilets. It will be sure to be everywhere you look -- Very, very sure.
Be sure to register within 30 days!
GMFTatsujin
I've got a teenie three-node network at home - two Windows computers and a Mandrake server. It's not much, but it gets me there. :)
Samba is absolutely the most important service running on the server. It lets my wife and I share files, print whenever we like, and maintain private backups off of our computers. I'd put it down as the single most useful software package for anyone who wants to run a home network. It's the one we use most often and most transparently. Well, that and Squid...
When Microsoft completely and irrevocably blocks out Samba, that's when Windows goes out the door forever. But seeing as how we haven't budged from 98SE since it came out, I don't know that's really going to be a problem.
Smaba team, you folks rock my weird little computing world. Well done, and totally deserved.
GMFTatsujin