Yes, those arguments were used during the industrial revolution and when computers first entered the workplace. Heck, wasn't it something like one computer replaced many accountants at each place they were introduced?
Let's look at the world today. There are only two things that are guaranteed investments: real estate and intellectual property. Both Bill Gates and the recording industry have shown us how much money there can be made from licensing. Donald Trump has shown us how profitable real estate can be.
If such a robot could be made today would either type of person sell you the robot, or sell you the rights to use it, perpetuating their income along the lifetime of the patent? If either type of person could buy the robot flat out like you can buy a car, what would stop them from increasing their bottom line at the expense of other people. With our sagging economy we see people with excellent degrees in computer science and the like flipping burgers at McDonalds. Sure, some new types of jobs might pop up, but will they be as high paying?
Go off to to FedStats for an education on how our "quality of life" has changed since the early 50's. Sure we have computers and other things we didn't have back then, but we also have to have two people earning a decent wage to support our "average" lifestyle.
Could one person buy a house reasonable close to or inside of a major city and hold an average job while supporting a family of four in todays economy? No. Why? The cost of real estate has gone up.
Could a business and afford to dish out the same percentage of income that they did many years ago? No. Why? The cost to pay an individual person has gone up (specialization), operating margins have gone down, more specialized tools (computers, CAD/CAM, etc) are required, the cost to conforma with local and federal regulations have gone up, and shareholders are greedy.
Cut out the need for insurance, workers compensation, vacation, sick leave, and real estate to park employee cars and you have guaranteed yourself the upper hand in business.
P.S. Mod me +5 Paranoid, -2 troll, or -5 idiot. Any is fine with me
Karma burn in process. I have some to spare. Bite me.
Absolutly correct. We should have turned our backs on nuclear technology and hoped nobody would build any. After all, if we can keep it secret it won't ever be discovered.
To bring it down to your level, do you like security through obscurity (Microsoft) or letting everyone know what is going on (Linux).
If you let the cat out of the bag people know that it is possible AND that you are going to be the first one on the block to have it. If you keep it secret or bury it someone else will just come along and develop it in secret.
Karma Burn ends.
This is a simple case of them strategically releasing information at a time when it will better them. E.G. The SR-71 Blackbird and the F-177A Stealth Fighter were created MANY years before the news knew about them. We saw them have a starring role in Desert Storm Part I. The question that went through my head was "If they had that 10 years ago, what do they have NOW?"
Move along as this isn't news. It is a strategic news release.
My only wish is to cause you politically correct hyper-sensitives some offense which is so vile, so immediately repulsive to your delicate constitutions, that you shrivel up and die like a salted snail.
Don't compare DEB's with RPM. They are just a fileformat. Compare the tools....
What you should compare is up2date(rh),urpmi(mdk),apt-get(debian),portage(gen too) and red-carpet(ximian).
The problem here is that the average user isn't going to know what question to ask, they are just going to get an error while trying to install a program.
In Windoze you install a program and if it needs certain files, 99% of the time they are included AND installing them doesn't break other programs because the dependencies were wrong. You can never go wrong with including the files (even if it adds overhead to your download) that may not be needed versus pissing off potential Linux converts who are looking at the screen wondering WTF is going on and why didn't the program install.
Rule #1 in politics: Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
I simply cannot believe that Microsoft waited until now to set up a lab to debunk Linux.
I wonder what is going to happen when the Gartner Group (I like to think of them as the Gardener group as they usually provide a medium for MS FUD to grow well in) comes out with their first unbiased Microsoft endorsed report showing the TCO of Linux is astronomical in comparison to Windows.
Personally I can hardly wait until they show that Windows is more stable than Linux on their platform. I'll be laughing at that one.
Oh, like during the Carter Administration when everyone was urged to conserve ("A 5 minute shower saves more power") so that we wouldn't cause a global ice-age.
Everyone started conserving and the power companies said "What? We aren't making as much as we used to? Raise the rates!"
Been there. Just as long as Billy Beer or anything in white saying that it is "generic" doesn't come back we will all be safe.
They forgot, however, to include in the instruction manual that it should NOT be used in conjunction with transmission fluid. You need the optional "baling wire add-on kit" to pull that off.
Most of the *nix community to SCO:
"What we have here is failure to communicate." (Cool Hand Luke)
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." (Gone with the Wind)
"I want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore.'" (Network)
What SCO execs think they are telling their shareholders:
"Show me the money." (Jerry Maguire)
SCO execs in the near future:
"I coulda been a contender." (On the Waterfront)
thank god.... from a developer standpoint having to have 'n' different database table entries for all the countries you support is a pain in the ass...
Yeah, that would be tough. Just imagine if you had to convert your current 5 character numeric ZIP code field (some companies still aren't with the program) to a longer alphanumeric field.
Not to mention your printed forms, data entry screens, ZIP to newZIP translation tables...
Glad we had practice with Y2K.
Re:New age fluff piece of crap:
on
Biofeedback Gaming
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
It's worse than that:
"At the Wild Divine Project, our founding principles"... "are to serve as an integrative force among groups aligned with our vision and mission."
Are they anticipating an increase in followers after releasing their "biofeedback" game? Perhaps the flower wearing, left leaning, tree hugging people at the company are actually taking this "Rocky Mountain High" thing a little bit too far.
What? You have never been to a Sci-Fi convention? OK, turn in your geek badge as you leave the building.
I just couldn't believe this article when I read it.
What is even worse is I KNOW people (OK, met them once or twice at a convention) that could APPLY for this job. I can just hear them finally justifying their obsession with Star Trek by telling their moms when they come down for breakfast in the morning that they FINALLY have a job, it is a direct result of their obsession with the show, and they can finally move out on their own.
This job posting just HAS to be posted at NorWesCon, RustyCon, and other local conventions. I would LOVE to see the recruiters faces as they try to tell the difference between the insane and the applicant (if such a distinction can be made that is).:)
Perhaps the perfect applicant one of those guys on that DirectTV commercial with the "SuperModels", but I repeat myself.
What methods have we used in the past to kill the following:
smallpox
polio
yellow fever
measles
mumps
rubella
Vaccinations. If you come down with any of those today you are just as screwed as you were in the past. With childhood vaccinations you are protected from them pretty much for life. IIRC dead samples of the virus to be protected against were injected into the person to stimulate the immune system into producing the appropriate antibodies.
How have we done with the following:
AIDS
the common cold (I know, not a virus)
pneumonia
viral meningitis
We haven't. The best we can do at this point is adopt a wait and see posture for the last three. AIDS still has us baffled.
Antibiotics only help with bacterial infections so if you come down with ANY viral infection you are screwed.
I am NOT saying that we shouldn't find way to kill a (as in any) virus, but we should be prepared for lots of failure along the way. After all, didn't the medical community predict a cure for AIDS within about three years of it having been discovered 20 years ago?
I am not even close to being an authority on this so I am sure someone can explain this better than me, but...
The VCD and SVCD formats are time based. They encode the audio and video similar to an audio CD. Ever see an audio CD with more than 80 minutes of record time? Not unless it has mp3s on it. Try making a single standards compliant VCD or SVCD more than about an hour or so. Good luck
DivX is not time based, but is instead size based. You can fit at a fairly respectable quality a two hour movie on a single CD in DivX format. You would have to switch CDs otherwise.
About a year and a half ago I downloaded the codecs and stuff to see what all of this "ripping" stuff was about. I copied the.VOB files (using SmartRipper) to my hard drive. Essentially (oversimplification time here) the.VOB file is an MPEG-2 stream with indexes so you can skip to that favorite chapter in the movie. The thing was about 6GB for The Matrix on my hard drive.
After conversion (which took forever because I was such a newbie at the time) the movie fit on a CD-ROM. You lose resolution and quality in the conversion, but you at least have it.
If I had a video camera I would convert my movies to DIVX because of the size savings. You can make them retain high quality, but you lose diskspace fast. Finding the balance that is just right for you (and your movie) takes time.
Even if we had a way to produce hydrogen for free starting next week there would still be a few little problems to overcome:
Distribution of fuel. Currently our infrastructure is designed to move gasoline. Fine, we can have hyrdogen trucks on the road instead. But how many gas stations are going to either want to add this system or even be in a financial position to add this new system?
Speaking of gas stations, how many drivers would be willing to give up their perfectly working automobile for something else? It will be like the problems faced with converting TV here in the US to an all digital format. The costs are expensive and the current technology works just fine. Why spend more for something that works just fine. I mean, would YOU be able to afford switching next week to a hydrogen car?
Fearmongering by the oil companies. Nothing is better than a good old fashioned smear campaign to disuade the general public from doing something good. Commercials with the Hindenburg and other spectular footage will dominate the airwaves.
Automobile production. How well will companies from Ford to Ferrari want you to change over to hydrogen? Will their new hydrogen powered cars have any features, other than a large prestigious price tag, that will convince you to change over?
Retrofitting. This would be a key element (no pun intended) in converting people over to hydrogen. I certainly wouldn't want to give up my current car if I could retrofit instead. BTW, I haven't retrofit my car to run on natural gas yet either.
Classic cars. Some people just wouldn't want to use hydrogen. Would you want to take your '57 Chevy into the shop to get a non-stock motor installed? I didn't think so.
While I, and most people, are theoretically in support of alternative fuels how many would actually make the switch if the option was available?
Now that Microsoft is no longer bogging down the development of the OpenGL API there is great potential for it to succeed. I mean, when was the last time you bought a game CD that did not have the latest and greatest version of DirectX? Or sometimes even your latest video driver? If a better AND cross platform version of OpenGL was included on the CD (with the auto-install option for Joe Sixpack) then the gaming engine could be ported depending on what the underlying binaries were created in.
I think that MS might have shot themselves in the foot here. It is certain that THEY will not write a scrap of code using OpenGL, but how will that stop people like John Carmack? Heck, he could be a major driving force for better extentions to the language. He is certainly not unaware of the rabid linux user who will refuse to buy the product unless it is cross platform compliant. After all, how many recent games can you point to by ID that were NOT able to run on linux eventually?
I don't belive that this technology will be universally adopted. Why? Your analog distortion created by vacuum tubes, which is a mainstay effect of everything from rock to death metal, differs from digital or transistor generated distortion in that analog will gradually saturate and digital is instant.
For the non musical: Touching or picking the string lightly in an analog environment will result in a clean sound, pretty much no matter how much distortion you have. Touching, picking, or even breathing on a string in a digital environment will instantly result in massive distortion.
I can pretty much guarantee that artists from Eric Clapton to Metallica will stay with analog as the mainstay for their sound.
One story that I have heard is back from the early eightes during the Blizzard Of Ozz tour the entire MIDI rack crashed and needed to be restarted during one of Randy Rhoads' solos resulting in a really pissed off Ozzy. How many musicians would like to take a chance of their system crashing that hard during a live performance?
Question. When the sales drone would show me their midi equipment at the local music store I would always overwork the contraption. Try hammering out Tocatta & Fugue in D Minor with the MIDI device set to pipe organ. The long ramp up, sustain, and decay for the organ would inevitably result in clipping.
Will this digital guitar help out the above situation?
Slashdot Mirror
No, filter the applications with your firewall (ala ZoneAlarm) or (gasp) don't run cracked software.
Yes, those arguments were used during the industrial revolution and when computers first entered the workplace. Heck, wasn't it something like one computer replaced many accountants at each place they were introduced?
Let's look at the world today. There are only two things that are guaranteed investments: real estate and intellectual property. Both Bill Gates and the recording industry have shown us how much money there can be made from licensing. Donald Trump has shown us how profitable real estate can be.
If such a robot could be made today would either type of person sell you the robot, or sell you the rights to use it, perpetuating their income along the lifetime of the patent? If either type of person could buy the robot flat out like you can buy a car, what would stop them from increasing their bottom line at the expense of other people. With our sagging economy we see people with excellent degrees in computer science and the like flipping burgers at McDonalds. Sure, some new types of jobs might pop up, but will they be as high paying?
Go off to to FedStats for an education on how our "quality of life" has changed since the early 50's. Sure we have computers and other things we didn't have back then, but we also have to have two people earning a decent wage to support our "average" lifestyle.
Could one person buy a house reasonable close to or inside of a major city and hold an average job while supporting a family of four in todays economy? No. Why? The cost of real estate has gone up.
Could a business and afford to dish out the same percentage of income that they did many years ago? No. Why? The cost to pay an individual person has gone up (specialization), operating margins have gone down, more specialized tools (computers, CAD/CAM, etc) are required, the cost to conforma with local and federal regulations have gone up, and shareholders are greedy.
Cut out the need for insurance, workers compensation, vacation, sick leave, and real estate to park employee cars and you have guaranteed yourself the upper hand in business.
P.S. Mod me +5 Paranoid, -2 troll, or -5 idiot. Any is fine with me
I'll bite.
Karma burn in process. I have some to spare. Bite me.
Absolutly correct. We should have turned our backs on nuclear technology and hoped nobody would build any. After all, if we can keep it secret it won't ever be discovered.
To bring it down to your level, do you like security through obscurity (Microsoft) or letting everyone know what is going on (Linux).
If you let the cat out of the bag people know that it is possible AND that you are going to be the first one on the block to have it. If you keep it secret or bury it someone else will just come along and develop it in secret.
Karma Burn ends.
This is a simple case of them strategically releasing information at a time when it will better them. E.G. The SR-71 Blackbird and the F-177A Stealth Fighter were created MANY years before the news knew about them. We saw them have a starring role in Desert Storm Part I. The question that went through my head was "If they had that 10 years ago, what do they have NOW?"
Move along as this isn't news. It is a strategic news release.
My only wish is to cause you politically correct hyper-sensitives some offense which is so vile, so immediately repulsive to your delicate constitutions, that you shrivel up and die like a salted snail.
Ammonia works better than salt for snails.
Don't compare DEB's with RPM. They are just a fileformat. Compare the tools....
n too) and red-carpet(ximian).
What you should compare is up2date(rh),urpmi(mdk),apt-get(debian),portage(ge
The problem here is that the average user isn't going to know what question to ask, they are just going to get an error while trying to install a program.
In Windoze you install a program and if it needs certain files, 99% of the time they are included AND installing them doesn't break other programs because the dependencies were wrong. You can never go wrong with including the files (even if it adds overhead to your download) that may not be needed versus pissing off potential Linux converts who are looking at the screen wondering WTF is going on and why didn't the program install.
Rule #1 in war: Know thine enemy.
Rule #1 in politics: Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
I simply cannot believe that Microsoft waited until now to set up a lab to debunk Linux.
I wonder what is going to happen when the Gartner Group (I like to think of them as the Gardener group as they usually provide a medium for MS FUD to grow well in) comes out with their first unbiased Microsoft endorsed report showing the TCO of Linux is astronomical in comparison to Windows.
Personally I can hardly wait until they show that Windows is more stable than Linux on their platform. I'll be laughing at that one.
Yes, they probably need to be drug tested. After all, I don't think that you should piss off Wal Mart who is selling linux pcs.
Oh, like during the Carter Administration when everyone was urged to conserve ("A 5 minute shower saves more power") so that we wouldn't cause a global ice-age.
Everyone started conserving and the power companies said "What? We aren't making as much as we used to? Raise the rates!"
Been there. Just as long as Billy Beer or anything in white saying that it is "generic" doesn't come back we will all be safe.
I can't believe Disney actually came up with this. But what prevents the people who pay for the movie to share it?
What is to prevent you from setting your computer clock forward to 2025 then downloading the movie to extend the 30 day period? Ethics.
DMCA (Legislated ethics). RIAA (Ethic enforcement group). Your God(tm) (Ethical being personified). Your conscious.
Red Green would be proud.
They forgot, however, to include in the instruction manual that it should NOT be used in conjunction with transmission fluid. You need the optional "baling wire add-on kit" to pull that off.
Um, you missed a few:
Most of the *nix community to SCO:
"What we have here is failure to communicate." (Cool Hand Luke)
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." (Gone with the Wind)
"I want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore.'" (Network)
What SCO execs think they are telling their shareholders:
"Show me the money." (Jerry Maguire)
SCO execs in the near future:
"I coulda been a contender." (On the Waterfront)
HEY! I like Oreos! Give them a six pack of Fresca or something else nobody likes.
Two points:
Which is cheaper, buying SCO or kicking their butt in the courtroom?
Would buying SCO just to shut them up set a bad example for any company looking to get bought that has a wooden spoon and a pot to bang on?
BTW, on the subject of the hat, would running Tinfoil Hat Linux be an acceptable alternative?
thank god.... from a developer standpoint having to have 'n' different database table entries for all the countries you support is a pain in the ass...
Yeah, that would be tough. Just imagine if you had to convert your current 5 character numeric ZIP code field (some companies still aren't with the program) to a longer alphanumeric field.
Not to mention your printed forms, data entry screens, ZIP to newZIP translation tables...
Glad we had practice with Y2K.
It's worse than that:
... "are to serve as an integrative force among groups aligned with our vision and mission."
"At the Wild Divine Project, our founding principles"
Are they anticipating an increase in followers after releasing their "biofeedback" game? Perhaps the flower wearing, left leaning, tree hugging people at the company are actually taking this "Rocky Mountain High" thing a little bit too far.
Yes. But since you are entering a semi-trance state you might actually learn to like the music.
What? You have never been to a Sci-Fi convention? OK, turn in your geek badge as you leave the building.
:)
I just couldn't believe this article when I read it.
What is even worse is I KNOW people (OK, met them once or twice at a convention) that could APPLY for this job. I can just hear them finally justifying their obsession with Star Trek by telling their moms when they come down for breakfast in the morning that they FINALLY have a job, it is a direct result of their obsession with the show, and they can finally move out on their own.
This job posting just HAS to be posted at NorWesCon, RustyCon, and other local conventions. I would LOVE to see the recruiters faces as they try to tell the difference between the insane and the applicant (if such a distinction can be made that is).
Perhaps the perfect applicant one of those guys on that DirectTV commercial with the "SuperModels", but I repeat myself.
What methods have we used in the past to kill the following:
smallpox
polio
yellow fever
measles
mumps
rubella
Vaccinations. If you come down with any of those today you are just as screwed as you were in the past. With childhood vaccinations you are protected from them pretty much for life. IIRC dead samples of the virus to be protected against were injected into the person to stimulate the immune system into producing the appropriate antibodies.
How have we done with the following:
AIDS
the common cold (I know, not a virus)
pneumonia
viral meningitis
We haven't. The best we can do at this point is adopt a wait and see posture for the last three. AIDS still has us baffled.
Antibiotics only help with bacterial infections so if you come down with ANY viral infection you are screwed.
I am NOT saying that we shouldn't find way to kill a (as in any) virus, but we should be prepared for lots of failure along the way. After all, didn't the medical community predict a cure for AIDS within about three years of it having been discovered 20 years ago?
I am not even close to being an authority on this so I am sure someone can explain this better than me, but...
.VOB files (using SmartRipper) to my hard drive. Essentially (oversimplification time here) the .VOB file is an MPEG-2 stream with indexes so you can skip to that favorite chapter in the movie. The thing was about 6GB for The Matrix on my hard drive.
The VCD and SVCD formats are time based. They encode the audio and video similar to an audio CD. Ever see an audio CD with more than 80 minutes of record time? Not unless it has mp3s on it. Try making a single standards compliant VCD or SVCD more than about an hour or so. Good luck
DivX is not time based, but is instead size based. You can fit at a fairly respectable quality a two hour movie on a single CD in DivX format. You would have to switch CDs otherwise.
About a year and a half ago I downloaded the codecs and stuff to see what all of this "ripping" stuff was about. I copied the
After conversion (which took forever because I was such a newbie at the time) the movie fit on a CD-ROM. You lose resolution and quality in the conversion, but you at least have it.
If I had a video camera I would convert my movies to DIVX because of the size savings. You can make them retain high quality, but you lose diskspace fast. Finding the balance that is just right for you (and your movie) takes time.
If you want the lowdown on how to convert I suggest going over to Digital Digest and looking at Nicky Pages' Digital Solutions for a comprehensive overview of the process.
Distribution of fuel. Currently our infrastructure is designed to move gasoline. Fine, we can have hyrdogen trucks on the road instead. But how many gas stations are going to either want to add this system or even be in a financial position to add this new system?
Speaking of gas stations, how many drivers would be willing to give up their perfectly working automobile for something else? It will be like the problems faced with converting TV here in the US to an all digital format. The costs are expensive and the current technology works just fine. Why spend more for something that works just fine. I mean, would YOU be able to afford switching next week to a hydrogen car?
Fearmongering by the oil companies. Nothing is better than a good old fashioned smear campaign to disuade the general public from doing something good. Commercials with the Hindenburg and other spectular footage will dominate the airwaves.
Automobile production. How well will companies from Ford to Ferrari want you to change over to hydrogen? Will their new hydrogen powered cars have any features, other than a large prestigious price tag, that will convince you to change over?
Retrofitting. This would be a key element (no pun intended) in converting people over to hydrogen. I certainly wouldn't want to give up my current car if I could retrofit instead. BTW, I haven't retrofit my car to run on natural gas yet either.
Classic cars. Some people just wouldn't want to use hydrogen. Would you want to take your '57 Chevy into the shop to get a non-stock motor installed? I didn't think so.
While I, and most people, are theoretically in support of alternative fuels how many would actually make the switch if the option was available?
Now that Microsoft is no longer bogging down the development of the OpenGL API there is great potential for it to succeed. I mean, when was the last time you bought a game CD that did not have the latest and greatest version of DirectX? Or sometimes even your latest video driver? If a better AND cross platform version of OpenGL was included on the CD (with the auto-install option for Joe Sixpack) then the gaming engine could be ported depending on what the underlying binaries were created in.
I think that MS might have shot themselves in the foot here. It is certain that THEY will not write a scrap of code using OpenGL, but how will that stop people like John Carmack? Heck, he could be a major driving force for better extentions to the language. He is certainly not unaware of the rabid linux user who will refuse to buy the product unless it is cross platform compliant. After all, how many recent games can you point to by ID that were NOT able to run on linux eventually?
No, it was good when I was a child. Now, looking back, the show should've been named Battlestar Galaxative.
I don't belive that this technology will be universally adopted. Why? Your analog distortion created by vacuum tubes, which is a mainstay effect of everything from rock to death metal, differs from digital or transistor generated distortion in that analog will gradually saturate and digital is instant.
For the non musical: Touching or picking the string lightly in an analog environment will result in a clean sound, pretty much no matter how much distortion you have. Touching, picking, or even breathing on a string in a digital environment will instantly result in massive distortion.
I can pretty much guarantee that artists from Eric Clapton to Metallica will stay with analog as the mainstay for their sound.
One story that I have heard is back from the early eightes during the Blizzard Of Ozz tour the entire MIDI rack crashed and needed to be restarted during one of Randy Rhoads' solos resulting in a really pissed off Ozzy. How many musicians would like to take a chance of their system crashing that hard during a live performance?
Question. When the sales drone would show me their midi equipment at the local music store I would always overwork the contraption. Try hammering out Tocatta & Fugue in D Minor with the MIDI device set to pipe organ. The long ramp up, sustain, and decay for the organ would inevitably result in clipping.
Will this digital guitar help out the above situation?
And we KNOW that the spammers will pay attention to this.