Not quite, what I tried to show was that we still need names for whatever we try to store and retrieve. Whether it's a short functional name (/etc/shadow) or a reference by means of tags it does not really matter. The mechanism is different, but the idea is the same.
What I really wanted to tackle was his point which said "If you have 3 cats , you name them. If you have 1000 cattle , you don't.". Whether you choose to name them yourself or not, it doesn't matter. Each and everyone is uniquely identifiable, by what's in the broadest sense a name.
Of course, what really irked me is the fact that the guy seems so eager to dismiss current technologies for future advancements. As if nothing what is now can fill a functional role in a few years time.
Well it must be said. I never thought I'd see such an overuse of buzzwords since my company's latest pressrelease.
What he talks about is not computing for the next 15 years but for centuries to come (that is, if we can unravel the way the mind works). Artificial intelligences, neural networks, associative memory retrieval all of them need major work and several revolutions before they can be applied like this.
One thing really irks me. Filenames are obsolete. I haven't heard many statements like this but this is definitely not very well thought out.(especially not if you consider the timeframe this article refers to). Documents need a way to be retrieved, now you can do this based on content or on name. But whichever way you chose, by giving it a unique name or by attaching labels to it, fact is that to determine which document to retrieve you need a unique identifier, whether it's by attached n labels to a document until it's uniquely identified or by giving it a unique name, it does NOT matter. Both are ways of naming and identifying a unique document. Of course we can be pedantic and only look at names in the purely strict sense but that would be limiting ourselves.
By comparing filenames to memories the author tries to show that the end of giving names in sight. But really he's just reinforcing the idea that we need to use unique identifiers. For example, you might have quite a few memories of going out skiing, but each and everyone will be unique, like "that time I went out skiing and got so drunk on gluhwein that I threw up , then slipped over it and broke my leg". By attaching those labels, we name it. Maybe not vocalise it but essentialy that's what we do. Ah well, enough waffling from me. (and this is not a first post!) -- Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Hey I live in Bracknell! (definitely one of the most boring places in the universe though!). On the other hand... Plenty of IT companies around: 3M, Sun, Oracle, C&W , Panasonic, Siemens and Netcom UK (where I work). All in all not a bad place for Geeks although the town is NOT geek-oriented at all.
But then again I got my company 2Mbit LL so who am I to complain. Might try Vancouver one day though. -- Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
It would make sense for the colleges to disable telnet and ftp access TO their machines. Disable telnetd and ftpd in the inetd.conf and you lose quite a few obvious routes of attack. Password sniffing is something that can be easily avoided if you just take precautions. You can always run a separate server for anonftp. But really, all this outcry about big brother and the freedom of speech is just a wee bit over the top. You simply should not take risks when it comes to system security. -- Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Ever considered that he just wants you to think about issues? Instead all 80% of the people here do is rehash the same old Katz-prejudices and slag him off because he's not technical enough, or he's not a geek. We judge others because they profile us, but we're just as bad. I often don't agree with Katz, but at least he makes me think about certain things I wouldn't otherwise be thinking about, whether it'd be geek profiling or corporatism or intellectual freedom. Is the art of debate lost on you? Slinging insults and taunts is not going to make you look better, nor will it help you convince people that you're right. Being geeks does not give us the right to be arrogant, because there will always be someone who's smarter, more technical or better than you. Humility is indeed a virtue. -- Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Can anyone shed some light on how NetPD did this fingering thing and obtained 350000 usernames/addresses? If they have at some point scanned the network for which I am the abuse admin, then I will file quite a few abuse complaints:). So can anyone shed a light on this? -- Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Maybe rather than cowardly post drivel like that anonymously you ought to put your name on it? It's amazing how many people here are in favour of the idea of free speech and the likes but only if it applied to everyone but Jon Katz. I don't like you trolls here but do you see me post the crap you do?
A bunch of brain-dead fundamentalists are picketing and pamphleteering the high school near where Kay and Caroline live. Where I may be living soon. Last year, Kay says, it was for hiring "secular humanists." This year it's because some science teacher worked up enough conviction in his profession to tell the kids that all research suggests that life on this Earth is an accident, that if you take a kettle of primordial soup and shake it enough, shock it enough, even freeze it enough, you get organic compounds. Allow these compounds to suffer random accidents long enough and you get life. That's Life with a capital L. The fundamentalists are outraged that something as sacred and important as Life could be an accident. They want it to be a result of a command, a plan, a blueprint, a simple, orderly, well-engineered, easily understood project designed by a deity who would figure out all tolerances and fudge them by a safety factor of five or ten. Well, fuck them. Accidents happen. We're one of them. But our loving each other's not an accident. Nor our enjoyment of the days we have together. Nor our anxieties for each other and our fear of sharp edges when our children learn to walk. But, like Scout, sometimes we have to brave and hurl ourselves headfirst into space, knowing that someone we love will be there to catch us if they can. Dan Simmons - Entropy's bed at midnight
One would have to say the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, which of course is far too complex to be turned into a movie (though perhaps a miniseries could be made of the first book, ala The Stand by King). You might argue that Bova's Mars is more readable and enjoyable than KSR's Mars series but at least KSR doesn't conjure up a deus ex machine martian, and his terraforming plans would actually work. -- Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
How about iPass? That does allow Global roaming (providing your isp is part of the iPass network). Netcom UK used to provide roaming in the US and Canada but due to the takeover of Netcom US by Mindspring, those f$^^££ng bastards didn't honour the roaming agreement. Anyway I am slightly biased because I work for Netcom:).
Or alternatively you might have a decent whois binary and have to use whois -h whois.arin.net , rather than Linux's half assed approach to the whois tool... bleh -- Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
I don't know... any article that wants to discuss more than just gadgets or outrage at the shortsightedness of the American Justice system gets labelled as banal. I found this post wellthought out and it highlights a major problem with society nowadays. In fact KSR pointed this out in his Mars trilogy and I hear noone call those banal -- Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Well, I agree with pro-SUN posters (no I don't work for SUN, although I had a job offer from them 3 weeks ago:P). I've installed 3 A1000's over the last couple of weeks, ranging from the minimally specced ones (50Gb RAID5) to a fully loaded one (8x 36.4Gb)
Although RAIDmanager is only marginally useful and you have to make sure your/etc/nodename doesn't contain your FQDN, it's still one impressive piece of kit.
I am very worried indeed. After Columbine it's obvious that they will target people who different. People in control are always afraid of diversity because that breaks up control they have over a group! Are you really willing to surrender basic rights for that little bit of extra security?
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin -- Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Well for a change... The bible is written by man, and since I don't believe in the supernatural, the bible for me has only value as any other philosophy book. I.E.: it promotes a worldvision, a way of life for which I have great respect, as it seems be about not choosing the easy path. However, to use the book for prophecies, or to justify the existence of an omnipotent god, sorry no can do. There may be some form of life out there that's has greater capabilities than us, I don't play along with this god mumbo jumbo. Hence me saying "use your mind". I've had enough of people who are just shouting because their doctrine or brainwashing demands it. And for the people scared about the ID card limiting their freedom... I don't feel more free since I don't have an ID card anymore. There is nothing more I can do now. Seriously, I don't understand what the fuss is about.
I don't see what's so bad about an ID card. I am originally from a country that had an ID card (Belgium).Okay... so you couldn't lie about your identity but then again I only needed that one card to prove anything. Nowadays I live in the UK, when I wanted to get a bank account I needed about 10 proves of ID, letters addressed to me, bills etc etc... it took me 2 months to get national insurance here... I think you lot are overly paranoid.(boy I might get quite a bit of flack for this).
And for those quoting the bible : use your mind for a change.
And why does a law abiding citizen need a gun? To protect them from the outlaws carrying guns. If there were proper laws on guns, the number of deaths in gun related incidents would signicantly drop. But of course that won't happen as long as societies as the NRA glorify guns. I don't know, but the US looks more and more as the country where the biggest value is egoism.
Wait a sec! I agree that inadequate security is the company's own fault, but it's not because some loophole exists that you have to make use of it. If I leave my frontdoor unlocked , it's my fault that the security of my house is inadequate but it doesn't absolve the burglar from any blame. What Mitnick did was illegal and he should be punished for it. To describe him as a modern day Robin Hood or as a hero is nothing short of silly and stupid. However he has the right to a fair trial, which does not seem to happen. This whole thing turned into a witch hunt and THAT is what is wrong with this whole thing.
Re:*I* think that this is newsworthy...
on
Linux 2.3.0
·
· Score: 1
I thought that/. was all about news for geeks and nerds? Well as a geek I would want to read about 2.3.x being released .
Slashdot Mirror
What I really wanted to tackle was his point which said "If you have 3 cats , you name them. If you have 1000 cattle , you don't.". Whether you choose to name them yourself or not, it doesn't matter. Each and everyone is uniquely identifiable, by what's in the broadest sense a name.
Of course, what really irked me is the fact that the guy seems so eager to dismiss current technologies for future advancements. As if nothing what is now can fill a functional role in a few years time.
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
What he talks about is not computing for the next 15 years but for centuries to come (that is, if we can unravel the way the mind works). Artificial intelligences, neural networks, associative memory retrieval all of them need major work and several revolutions before they can be applied like this.
One thing really irks me. Filenames are obsolete. I haven't heard many statements like this but this is definitely not very well thought out.(especially not if you consider the timeframe this article refers to). Documents need a way to be retrieved, now you can do this based on content or on name.
But whichever way you chose, by giving it a unique name or by attaching labels to it, fact is that to determine which document to retrieve you need a unique identifier, whether it's by attached n labels to a document until it's uniquely identified or by giving it a unique name, it does NOT matter. Both are ways of naming and identifying a unique document. Of course we can be pedantic and only look at names in the purely strict sense but that would be limiting ourselves.
By comparing filenames to memories the author tries to show that the end of giving names in sight. But really he's just reinforcing the idea that we need to use unique identifiers.
For example, you might have quite a few memories of going out skiing, but each and everyone will be unique, like "that time I went out skiing and got so drunk on gluhwein that I threw up , then slipped over it and broke my leg". By attaching those labels, we name it. Maybe not vocalise it but essentialy that's what we do. Ah well, enough waffling from me. (and this is not a first post!)
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
All in all not a bad place for Geeks although the town is NOT geek-oriented at all.
But then again I got my company 2Mbit LL so who am I to complain. Might try Vancouver one day though.
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
It would make sense for the colleges to disable telnet and ftp access TO their machines. Disable telnetd and ftpd in the inetd.conf and you lose quite a few obvious routes of attack. Password sniffing is something that can be easily avoided if you just take precautions. You can always run a separate server for anonftp. But really, all this outcry about big brother and the freedom of speech is just a wee bit over the top. You simply should not take risks when it comes to system security.
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Didn't he get a Nebula or a Hugo for that?
I think ACC got a Hugo AND a Nebula for Rendezvous, plus some 2 other awards.
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Ever considered that he just wants you to think
about issues? Instead all 80% of the people here do is rehash the same old Katz-prejudices and slag him off because he's not technical enough, or he's not a geek. We judge others because they profile us, but we're just as bad. I often don't agree with Katz, but at least he makes me think about certain things I wouldn't otherwise be thinking about, whether it'd be geek profiling or corporatism or intellectual freedom. Is the art of debate lost on you? Slinging insults and taunts is not going to make you look better, nor will it help you convince people that you're right.
Being geeks does not give us the right to be arrogant, because there will always be someone who's smarter, more technical or better than you.
Humility is indeed a virtue.
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Can anyone shed some light on how NetPD did this fingering thing and obtained 350000 usernames/addresses? If they have at some point scanned the network for which I am the abuse admin, then I will file quite a few abuse complaints :). So can anyone shed a light on this?
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Maybe rather than cowardly post drivel like that anonymously you ought to put your name on it?
It's amazing how many people here are in favour of the idea of free speech and the likes but only if it applied to everyone but Jon Katz.
I don't like you trolls here but do you see me post the crap you do?
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
That's Life with a capital L.
The fundamentalists are outraged that something as sacred and important as Life could be an accident. They want it to be a result of a command, a plan, a blueprint, a simple, orderly, well-engineered, easily understood project designed by a deity who would figure out all tolerances and fudge them by a safety factor of five or ten.
Well, fuck them. Accidents happen. We're one of them. But our loving each other's not an accident. Nor our enjoyment of the days we have together. Nor our anxieties for each other and our fear of sharp edges when our children learn to walk.
But, like Scout, sometimes we have to brave and hurl ourselves headfirst into space, knowing that someone we love will be there to catch us if they can.
Dan Simmons - Entropy's bed at midnight
What more can I say?
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
One would have to say the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, which of course is far too complex to be turned into a movie (though perhaps a miniseries could be made of the first book, ala The Stand by King). You might argue that Bova's Mars is more readable and enjoyable than KSR's Mars series but at least KSR doesn't conjure up a deus ex machine martian, and his terraforming plans would actually work.
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
How about iPass? That does allow Global roaming (providing your isp is part of the iPass network). :).
Netcom UK used to provide roaming in the US and Canada but due to the takeover of Netcom US by Mindspring, those f$^^££ng bastards didn't honour the roaming agreement. Anyway I am slightly biased because I work for Netcom
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Or alternatively you might have a decent whois binary and have to use whois -h whois.arin.net , rather than Linux's half assed approach to the whois tool... bleh
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
I don't know ... any article that wants to discuss more than just gadgets or outrage at the shortsightedness of the American Justice system gets labelled as banal. I found this post wellthought out and it highlights a major problem with society nowadays. In fact KSR pointed this out in his Mars trilogy and I hear noone call those banal
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Well, I agree with pro-SUN posters (no I don't work for SUN, although I had a job offer from them 3 weeks ago :P).
/etc/nodename doesn't contain your FQDN, it's still one impressive piece of kit.
I've installed 3 A1000's over the last couple of weeks, ranging from the minimally specced ones (50Gb RAID5) to a fully loaded one (8x 36.4Gb)
Although RAIDmanager is only marginally useful and you have to make sure your
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
I am very worried indeed. After Columbine it's obvious that they will target people who different. People in control are always afraid of diversity because that breaks up control they have over a group!
Are you really willing to surrender basic rights for that little bit of extra security?
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Well for a change ... The bible is written by man, ... I don't feel more free since I don't have an ID card anymore. There is nothing more I can do now. Seriously, I don't understand what the fuss is about.
and since I don't believe in the supernatural, the
bible for me has only value as any other philosophy book. I.E.: it promotes a worldvision, a way of life for which I have great respect, as it seems be about not choosing the easy path. However, to use the book for prophecies, or to justify the existence of an omnipotent god, sorry no can do. There may be some form of life out there that's has greater capabilities than us,
I don't play along with this god mumbo jumbo. Hence me saying "use your mind". I've had enough of people who are just shouting because their doctrine or brainwashing demands it.
And for the people scared about the ID card limiting their freedom
I don't see what's so bad about an ID card. I am originally from a country that had an ID card (Belgium).Okay... so you couldn't lie about your identity but then again I only needed that one card to prove anything. Nowadays I live in the UK, when I wanted to get a bank account I needed about 10 proves of ID, letters addressed to me, bills etc etc ... it took me 2 months to get national insurance here ... I think you lot are overly paranoid.(boy I might get quite a bit of flack for this).
And for those quoting the bible : use your mind for a change.
Actually the US are the biggest debtor in the world... believe it or not.
----
And why does a law abiding citizen need a gun? To
protect them from the outlaws carrying guns. If there were proper laws on guns, the number of deaths in gun related incidents would signicantly drop. But of course that won't happen as long as societies as the NRA glorify guns.
I don't know, but the US looks more and more as the country where the biggest value is egoism.
Wait a sec! I agree that inadequate security is the company's own fault, but it's not because some
loophole exists that you have to make use of it.
If I leave my frontdoor unlocked , it's my fault that the security of my house is inadequate but it doesn't absolve the burglar from any blame.
What Mitnick did was illegal and he should be punished for it. To describe him as a modern day Robin Hood or as a hero is nothing short of silly and stupid. However he has the right to a fair trial, which does not seem to happen. This whole thing turned into a witch hunt and THAT is what is wrong with this whole thing.
I thought that /. was all about news for geeks and nerds? Well as a geek I would want to read about
2.3.x being released .