And this is another reason why they do. In the UK, the army trains many of its soldiers, tank crews, pilots, etc etc, on computer games. They even use Microsoft Flight Simulator for training rookies.The same is starting to happen in America I see.
Now this is a new development. Farming computer games for new weapons ideas is a splendid idea. The most creative people are those who are not professionally involved in the area they are creating for, and who have not been educated in that field. This frees their minds from dogma and rigourously straight and uncreative thought. They are free to innovate, and may not even realise they are doing so.
I think that there could be lots of ideas to be reaped from computer games, which are truly the preeminent artistic genre of the 21st century. Rather like CERN's recent project to scan SF books and films for good ideas they could use for Physics and futures scientific developments, there is a good case for the Army searching through computer games for better methods of implementing death, be those methods strategic, technological or social, computer games designers spend time thinking of little else.
The US Army should create a department for this purpose. I really think it could reap dividends.
There is one obvious disadvantage to this idea. The poor will give up their privacy for money or services, and the rich will not. This would inevitably mean that we have a divided society, with the rich having privacy and the poor having none, almost the opposite of what we have now.
I can see that this idea will be very appealling to libertarians and Republicans, but I think that it is only so on a Prima Facie level. Only the rich will gain freedom and privacy from this idea. The rest, the poor, will be forced by necessity to sacrifice.
Linux is being pushed in several different directions by different groups and organisations. Some want it to be a Desktop OS, some wish it to be a Server OS, and some wish it to be in the world of embedded devices. Everybody has a different agenda for a free OS, and the means, if they wish, to take Linux and mould it for their wishes.
FreeBSD is a pure server OS. Nobody has to worry about the other possible applications, it is designed purely for one purpose, and one purpose alone. It does it well.
If I were running a server alone, I would use FreeBSD. For any other purpose, I would use Linux. Each have their strengths.
I have said the exact same thing in the past, and been modded down with flamebait, which really pissed me off.
Now, the simple fact is that all sorts of electronic devices do affect our mental abilities adversely, and in various ways. They do so through radiation, which heats the brain up, not a good thing. They can do so through the inherent way we use them. For example, Alzheimers has been linked to television - the rapid cut scenes of television mean that the visual part of our brain has to work overtime to completely regenrate its mental map of the world every few seconds. God knows what will happen to the computer game generation, who have to do it several times per second.
We just don't know enough about electronics to be really sure what is happening. We have only had electronics such as computers, televisions, PDA's and so forth for a couple of generations. We evolved to function in the African Savannah, with a much more sedate lifestyle, not to be running around with radiation punding into our brains and new stimuli and motivating forces every few seconds, as we do today, all the damn time.
We can't escape from the modern world, it is everywhere. What we need to do is make the modern world more natural, with the enlightened use of technology. But the corps and the government aren't interested in that, so how do we convince them? I just don't know. I am really beginning to despair. Especially when I read news like this.
Projects such as these are well funded by the intelligence services. It would be their dream come true to create a small robot that was capable of circulating around air conditioning vents and landing on the ceiling in order to spy.
There has been a lot of work into 'bionic' insects for this purpose. The idea is that you mount a small camera or microphone onto a fly, and also some small electronics that control the flies behaviour. You then have the perfect spy bot.
It seems to me that the next big surveilance technologies will be spawned from this sort of research. Terrorists and drug dealers had better watch out, because with these sorts of tools our police forces will really be able to make an impression, and perhaps really give them a good hiding. Its about time, too.
What else could a small robot with cameras be used for anyway? The major application, in my view, is crime fighting.
I am not saying that gay men all have better interpersonal skills, merely that they tend to, on the average. I am actually quite pleased at this, because it means that the world is not as homogenous as it could be, and has plentiful variety. Normally I would be for equal opportunities, but in certain situations, such as the army and the space corp, I think there are extenuating circumstances that mean it should not apply.
Why do NASA try and make all their astronauts tall, heterosexual all-American good guy types? These types are not the best for the job, IMO. Deviant conditions of work require deviant workers, and I do not mean that as an insult, but rather as a compliment. I just want people to consider this important issue.
What about the most important guidance computer of all? The astronauts? Were/are they as good as they could be?
This may seem a little startling, but what I have to say is of the utmost importance IMO, and has not been touched upon by our biased media representatives. It is a matter of scientific fact that male astronauts are better suited to the rigours of space exploration than are females. This is due to better water retention in men, better skills at navigating in 3D environments, an important skill on spacewalks, and highly superior hand-eye coordination and physical strength. Men are the clear choice for space missions.
However, there are a number of problems involved in extended space missions for men. Amongst these is the loneliness and alienation involved. For this reason, it is my belief that gay men are far better suited for long term space exploration, being used to alienation and having a number of talents that heterosexual men do not, including better interpersonal skills. They would be far less likely to suffer from depression and the decrease in performance this would cause, as they would be able to love each other while on missions. As Human Beings are the most crucial elements in any space mission, equal opportunities regulation should not apply. We should find the very best men for the job, regardless of political and social motives.
Unfortunately, NASA is beholden to the right wing Bush administration that runs our country, and so it will insist on choosing from men and women equally, without regard to performance.
If we are to have a viable space exploration program, with happy and committed astronauts, we must put what I have recomended into practice. It will do our space exploration program the world of good, and improve its success rate.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
Anti-Mainstream Mainstream is the Mainstream.
on
The Pledge
·
· Score: 5
Nowadays, the commercial concerns that control hollywood have come to realise that what we all desire is to feel cool and with it. The way to achieve high ticket sales, they think, is to tell us that we are watching something which is countercultural. Hollywood is trying to co-opt the real rebellious, non-mainstream filmstyles for its own moneymaking schemes.
One can consider a hollywood film to be an extended phenotype. It is the modern extension of our instinct to tell stories and educate of old, but stripped of any real worthwhile qualities. If only Hollywood were not dominated by commercial concerns, and existed to create good films for their own sake, I don't think this vacancy and and the other problems I have mentioned would be a problem.
The United Kingdom has, of late, set up a highly succesful method of making films which is government funded, though indirectly. Government owned television stations, such as Channel 4, make excellent films such as Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and 4 Weddings and a Funeral. These films are designed to be good to watch, not to make money. And they represent the true counterculture sweeping the film world from Europe (Dogme 95 is another example).
It would be good if America, through PBS, were to implement a similar profit free, for the love of it system. It would give us some innovative and interesting films, and a relief from Hollywood.
If they manage to patent WAP, then that would mean that some of the biggest companies in the world would be beholden to them. Sony, Nokia, Vodafone, names such as these are against the patent system because without patants they can steal others work and dominate the field. A functioning patent system allows small companies and inventors to protect their investment. We can see that this is what this company is doing, trying to protect its investment.
If they can be proved to have prior art for WAP, then what is the problem? Sometimes I suspect that people are too ready to defend the big companies that benefit from the abscence of patents. My boyfriend works for Amazon, and he has told me that the only reason they took out a their patents was because other companies would have first, and after all, Amazon did invent the idea of one click shopping, so they were just protecting their investment. Patents protect, that is what they are for.
It is well known that g++, the GNU C++ compiler, just turns C++ code into C code and then uses gcc to compile. This means that it is rather innefficient compared to the Borland compiler, bcc. So it is very good news for Open Source Advocates & developers that the Borland compiler is available on Linux. They will at last have an excellents compiler to use, and though it may be commercial, it is worth it for the extra performance it brings. gcc and g++ are not nearly so important to the Linux community now that the commercial big guns are here. Through variety and independance of any one compiler comes strength.
I say this because the OSS community revolves around chaos. It is chaos and disorganisation that make it work. As soon as people start organising in this perfidious fashion, we become less like the bazaar, and more like the Cathedral. This would be another step along the way.
We should guard against suggestions like these, lest our birthright be spoiled and we lose the sense of ourselves. Linux development is not about this kind of organised behaviour.
Developing a games console is a bit like developing a new aircraft or going to the moon. It requires the utmost investment in time and money. The good thing about their being a console monopoly is that one company can afford to expend lots of cash developing the ultimate games machine. We can see this with the PSX2, which has had chips specially fabricated for it, unlike the X-Box and Dreamcast, which use PC technology designed for Microsoft Word.
There is still competition within such an environmement, with different games companies competing with each other. The consoles are sold at a loss anyway, and must compete with thin client PC's, which as far as the end home user is concerned, is very similar these days.
A console monopoly is good for the market, IMO. It is good for the consumer.
Before this point, Linux could wallow in its obscurity. But now it is being attacked by marketing. Marketing will be the death of Linux, from within and without. Within, Linux is mainly promoted by marketing companies these days. The ere of the lonely advocate is gone.
Problem is, the marketers always make unfounded claims. Hence, the promotion of Linux is gradually deviating away from what it can actually do. This puts off the core group that would be interested in Linux.
From the outside, it is being attacked by the mighty marketing machines of MS, Apple and Sun. This two probged attack is bad news.
Perception id the most important part of making something popular. When the perception varies from the performance, people get disappointed. This is beggining to happen with Linux.
It is a little well known fact that Old 80's games are more likely to cause epilepsy among people who play them due to the simple nature of the graphics displayed, which often rely on graphics flashing at a particular frequency.
Also, old games require the player to exercise his imagination to a much greater degree than modern photorealistic games, which reflect reality but do not introduce a warped alternative version of it, like Pac Man or Space Invaders do.
Of course, this imagination is healthy in small doses, but it can be quite dangerous in larger doses. As the people buying these games are likely to be games enthusiasts, they will be more at danger than the rest of us. Someone should warn them of the potential pitfalls.
I say this because my brother became depressed in the late 80's, and the doctor said he should stop playing video games, citing these reasons. He almost immediately improved.
The simple fact is that if it were not for patents, drugs research would not happen at all. How is a company supposed to recoup its investment? Another point is that by the time they actually manage to produce any useful drugs from the material the patent gives them, the patent will only have a few years to run.
Another point in favour is that the money they are paying to the DoE comes back to us all - through the mechanism of public services in America provided by Celera. Thanks to this company you will be paying a little less taz this year. Also, as America is the biggest provider of foriegn aid, payments for the drugs sold in foriegn countries will recoup the USA a little for its unselfish attitude in this arena. IMHO, this deal has some very good points indeed, though there may of course be pitfalls.
Junk mail is the ugly face of capitalism. However, in the UK you can opt out of Junk Mail completely by registering your name with a government organisation. It is then illegal for a company to send you unsolicited mail, and they have to check a central repository of names before they send any mail at all.
Why can't the US drop it's paranoid fear of government and implement such a system? It's not as though it will bring socialism crashing down on your head, is it? Is it?
It is clear to me that the more people believe in something, the more real it becomes. Everything all around is is merely symbolic, representations flying through the neural pathways of our brain, and the collective unconscious, according to Jung, defines what reality is. From this we can specualte that, to all intents and purposes, the LoTR is becoming a form of reality just as valid as the many others we participate in.
The problem is that with so many different representations of the LoTR, its representative reality will become schismed, and we shall all suffer the consequences of the crack in the prevailing group think.
I call on the film makers to make the film as accurate as possible, and I hope they have, to avoid this most dangerous disaster.
Why is it that it is the lawyers that get all the glamour? Here we are, the geeks who built this industry up from the ground, expending our blood, sweat, tears and various other bodiliy fluids in the case of some, and here we are, we have reached the promised land of world domination. But does the entertainment industry make films about us? No, do they hell, instead they glamourise the lawyers, as uaual.
Many of us were inspired by the geeks of our youth - Einstein, Feynman and the like were loved by the media like film stars. But todays generation of geeks seem too corporate, too boring, too robotic to be idolised. Who will the next generation of geeks be inspired by? Nobody, I guess.
I think it is about time that we made a conscious effort, starting here on/., to inspire and entertain the youth of the world. Throw away those biros! Get rid of your pocket calculator! Buy a pair of Bongo drums and start grooving with the geeks of the 21st century.
If you don't, our type will die, and technology will grind to a halt.
This may seem unrelated to the article, but all will become clear in just a moment, and you shall see why it is relevant.
Ask yourself a question. What is the dominant mode at the beginning of the 21'st century? I would say it is entertainment.
Entertainment is the lynchpin of all forms of Human interaction and media these days, from business meetings using projectors and whizz bang graphics to our schools, where children are taught in an entertaining fashion as teachers realise their young minds are used to the compleity and speed of television.
Entertainment is what our century will be all about, whether it be in business, education, or government.
People in earlier centuries may have strove to be free, or to be educated, or to be saved, but in ours we merely want to be entertained. They were scared of being damned or killed. We are scared of being bored.
Now, the point about this with regard to these new Hacker friendly appliances is that we can see this trend in action. Everything must be entertaining. It is no longer good enough to have a PDP10, with wires sticking out everywhere designed specially for the real hacker. The 21st century hacker must also be entertained.
This is part of a wider trend. It is no longer good enough for a computer OS and GUI to be easy to use - that is 90's and passe. It must be intrinsically entertaining, like Enlightenment is, a little. These new appliances are the first wave of the new paradigm of 21st century computing. We had better get used to it.
The problem with the voting system at the last election was that it was too technical already. Why does America have a penchant for complicating the simple? All that is needed is a simple pencil, piece of paper and a bunch of people to count the votes.
I am so glad the the rumours of Microsoft and Dell developing a new voting machine are false. It would doubtless have been even more of a disaster than the present one.
Voting procedures should be as simple as possible, like the UKian model, in order to make it as resistant to fraud as possible.
Complexity breeds error and fraud. Technical types tend to forget that.
...for the Linux Community? Hi. I was wondering, how important is the press to Linux, and the dissemination of information? I (speaking as a newbie;-), have noticed that everybody seems to be getting really paranoid about what the press thinks about them, and the media in general! But, only a few years ago, it didn't really matter, because everyone who used Linux was involved in the development side, and was very knowledgible, right? Now, the Linux community is becoming more like those of other OS's as it gets larger, and it is regressing to the mean (A term I learned in Higher Mathematics, yuk!).
So it would seem that the media is becoming more important to the Linus Community, and so events like this are starting to appear. Is it healthy that the Linux Development be driven by the press and users? I thought that the success of Linux was due to the fact that it was developed for programmers by programmers, without referance to the media. I'm very interested in this. Thanks!;)
I don't understand why this fraudelent idea lives on. People are always saying, rightly, that the Open Source development model breaks the mould, and is radically different from the old.
Well, in my opinion, the idea of competition neing good for software development id also outdated. Nothing would make me happier if, instead of halving a choice between half a dozen different poorly implemented solutions, there was just one excellent solution. The best open source projects have a monopoly, and suck all the development effort for that field - The Kernel and Apache for example.
Why do we need several different versions of SQL to be on the go? It would be far better if there were just one, and the quality of the product would improve also.
I say this because their business strategies appear to come straight from the 80's, and have been terribly outmoded. They seem to labour under the illusion that total control of ones products is neccessary for success. It isn't. They have perhaps realised this a little bit, with their adoption of the UNIX style core for OSX, but the simple fact is that Apple will never be successful until they lose their control freak attitudes. Look at the succesful companies in the industry. Microsoft, Compaq, IBM et al are not control freaks, and between them have molded the free computer world we now live in. We should thank them - Linux would not exist if it were not for their efforts.
I would like to see Apple open their hardware platform to third party manufacturers and also port their OS to different platforms, like x86. It is the only way they will join the 21st century with the rest of us. Their business strategy is to old time hard core capitalist to succeed. They need to adopt the more socialist methods (if I may use that word) of MS, IBM and so forth, who are unafraid to compete in an open market, with open standards. MS has seen this, that is what.NET is all about. Time for Apple to join them - I don't see a.NET initiative from Apple. They need to get one, fast.
The fact that Linux is usable on a wide variety of architectures and a wide variety of differently powerd machines is to be welcomed. However, does it not adversely affect the development of the OS as a whole? If the kernel has to be made to run on everything from a mobile phone to the largest IBM mainframe, does this not mean that kernel development is compromised through being unfocused?
I would far rather have a kernel developed specifically for the desktop and server market. All this other exotica does not benefit the average user and diffuses the focus and purpose of the linux advocate and developer.
I suppose if this were the 1950's or somesuch, then this would be a disaster. But the simple fact is that the injury of these actors does not mean a thing.
Why? Because the Matrix isn't about plot or characterisation, its always been about making its audience slack-jawed with amazement at the quality of the effects, and has been very enjoyable for doing so.
The abscence of the actors is no big deal, the Matrix series is mostly done on computer anyway, and so they can easily be replaced. The Matrix is all about the unreality of reality, so I suppose this is an irony.
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Now this is a new development. Farming computer games for new weapons ideas is a splendid idea. The most creative people are those who are not professionally involved in the area they are creating for, and who have not been educated in that field. This frees their minds from dogma and rigourously straight and uncreative thought. They are free to innovate, and may not even realise they are doing so.
I think that there could be lots of ideas to be reaped from computer games, which are truly the preeminent artistic genre of the 21st century. Rather like CERN's recent project to scan SF books and films for good ideas they could use for Physics and futures scientific developments, there is a good case for the Army searching through computer games for better methods of implementing death, be those methods strategic, technological or social, computer games designers spend time thinking of little else.
The US Army should create a department for this purpose. I really think it could reap dividends.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
I can see that this idea will be very appealling to libertarians and Republicans, but I think that it is only so on a Prima Facie level. Only the rich will gain freedom and privacy from this idea. The rest, the poor, will be forced by necessity to sacrifice.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
FreeBSD is a pure server OS. Nobody has to worry about the other possible applications, it is designed purely for one purpose, and one purpose alone. It does it well.
If I were running a server alone, I would use FreeBSD. For any other purpose, I would use Linux. Each have their strengths.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
Now, the simple fact is that all sorts of electronic devices do affect our mental abilities adversely, and in various ways. They do so through radiation, which heats the brain up, not a good thing. They can do so through the inherent way we use them. For example, Alzheimers has been linked to television - the rapid cut scenes of television mean that the visual part of our brain has to work overtime to completely regenrate its mental map of the world every few seconds. God knows what will happen to the computer game generation, who have to do it several times per second.
We just don't know enough about electronics to be really sure what is happening. We have only had electronics such as computers, televisions, PDA's and so forth for a couple of generations. We evolved to function in the African Savannah, with a much more sedate lifestyle, not to be running around with radiation punding into our brains and new stimuli and motivating forces every few seconds, as we do today, all the damn time.
We can't escape from the modern world, it is everywhere. What we need to do is make the modern world more natural, with the enlightened use of technology. But the corps and the government aren't interested in that, so how do we convince them? I just don't know. I am really beginning to despair. Especially when I read news like this.
It pisses me off.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
There has been a lot of work into 'bionic' insects for this purpose. The idea is that you mount a small camera or microphone onto a fly, and also some small electronics that control the flies behaviour. You then have the perfect spy bot.
It seems to me that the next big surveilance technologies will be spawned from this sort of research. Terrorists and drug dealers had better watch out, because with these sorts of tools our police forces will really be able to make an impression, and perhaps really give them a good hiding. Its about time, too.
What else could a small robot with cameras be used for anyway? The major application, in my view, is crime fighting.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
Why do NASA try and make all their astronauts tall, heterosexual all-American good guy types? These types are not the best for the job, IMO. Deviant conditions of work require deviant workers, and I do not mean that as an insult, but rather as a compliment. I just want people to consider this important issue.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
This may seem a little startling, but what I have to say is of the utmost importance IMO, and has not been touched upon by our biased media representatives. It is a matter of scientific fact that male astronauts are better suited to the rigours of space exploration than are females. This is due to better water retention in men, better skills at navigating in 3D environments, an important skill on spacewalks, and highly superior hand-eye coordination and physical strength. Men are the clear choice for space missions.
However, there are a number of problems involved in extended space missions for men. Amongst these is the loneliness and alienation involved. For this reason, it is my belief that gay men are far better suited for long term space exploration, being used to alienation and having a number of talents that heterosexual men do not, including better interpersonal skills. They would be far less likely to suffer from depression and the decrease in performance this would cause, as they would be able to love each other while on missions. As Human Beings are the most crucial elements in any space mission, equal opportunities regulation should not apply. We should find the very best men for the job, regardless of political and social motives.
Unfortunately, NASA is beholden to the right wing Bush administration that runs our country, and so it will insist on choosing from men and women equally, without regard to performance.
If we are to have a viable space exploration program, with happy and committed astronauts, we must put what I have recomended into practice. It will do our space exploration program the world of good, and improve its success rate.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
One can consider a hollywood film to be an extended phenotype. It is the modern extension of our instinct to tell stories and educate of old, but stripped of any real worthwhile qualities. If only Hollywood were not dominated by commercial concerns, and existed to create good films for their own sake, I don't think this vacancy and and the other problems I have mentioned would be a problem.
The United Kingdom has, of late, set up a highly succesful method of making films which is government funded, though indirectly. Government owned television stations, such as Channel 4, make excellent films such as Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and 4 Weddings and a Funeral. These films are designed to be good to watch, not to make money. And they represent the true counterculture sweeping the film world from Europe (Dogme 95 is another example).
It would be good if America, through PBS, were to implement a similar profit free, for the love of it system. It would give us some innovative and interesting films, and a relief from Hollywood.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
If they can be proved to have prior art for WAP, then what is the problem? Sometimes I suspect that people are too ready to defend the big companies that benefit from the abscence of patents. My boyfriend works for Amazon, and he has told me that the only reason they took out a their patents was because other companies would have first, and after all, Amazon did invent the idea of one click shopping, so they were just protecting their investment. Patents protect, that is what they are for.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
We should guard against suggestions like these, lest our birthright be spoiled and we lose the sense of ourselves. Linux development is not about this kind of organised behaviour.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
There is still competition within such an environmement, with different games companies competing with each other. The consoles are sold at a loss anyway, and must compete with thin client PC's, which as far as the end home user is concerned, is very similar these days.
A console monopoly is good for the market, IMO. It is good for the consumer.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
Problem is, the marketers always make unfounded claims. Hence, the promotion of Linux is gradually deviating away from what it can actually do. This puts off the core group that would be interested in Linux.
From the outside, it is being attacked by the mighty marketing machines of MS, Apple and Sun. This two probged attack is bad news.
Perception id the most important part of making something popular. When the perception varies from the performance, people get disappointed. This is beggining to happen with Linux.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
Also, old games require the player to exercise his imagination to a much greater degree than modern photorealistic games, which reflect reality but do not introduce a warped alternative version of it, like Pac Man or Space Invaders do.
Of course, this imagination is healthy in small doses, but it can be quite dangerous in larger doses. As the people buying these games are likely to be games enthusiasts, they will be more at danger than the rest of us. Someone should warn them of the potential pitfalls.
I say this because my brother became depressed in the late 80's, and the doctor said he should stop playing video games, citing these reasons. He almost immediately improved.
Another point in favour is that the money they are paying to the DoE comes back to us all - through the mechanism of public services in America provided by Celera. Thanks to this company you will be paying a little less taz this year. Also, as America is the biggest provider of foriegn aid, payments for the drugs sold in foriegn countries will recoup the USA a little for its unselfish attitude in this arena. IMHO, this deal has some very good points indeed, though there may of course be pitfalls.
Why can't the US drop it's paranoid fear of government and implement such a system? It's not as though it will bring socialism crashing down on your head, is it? Is it?
The problem is that with so many different representations of the LoTR, its representative reality will become schismed, and we shall all suffer the consequences of the crack in the prevailing group think.
I call on the film makers to make the film as accurate as possible, and I hope they have, to avoid this most dangerous disaster.
Many of us were inspired by the geeks of our youth - Einstein, Feynman and the like were loved by the media like film stars. But todays generation of geeks seem too corporate, too boring, too robotic to be idolised. Who will the next generation of geeks be inspired by? Nobody, I guess.
I think it is about time that we made a conscious effort, starting here on /., to inspire and entertain the youth of the world. Throw away those biros! Get rid of your pocket calculator! Buy a pair of Bongo drums and start grooving with the geeks of the 21st century.
If you don't, our type will die, and technology will grind to a halt.
Ask yourself a question. What is the dominant mode at the beginning of the 21'st century? I would say it is entertainment. Entertainment is the lynchpin of all forms of Human interaction and media these days, from business meetings using projectors and whizz bang graphics to our schools, where children are taught in an entertaining fashion as teachers realise their young minds are used to the compleity and speed of television. Entertainment is what our century will be all about, whether it be in business, education, or government. People in earlier centuries may have strove to be free, or to be educated, or to be saved, but in ours we merely want to be entertained. They were scared of being damned or killed. We are scared of being bored.
Now, the point about this with regard to these new Hacker friendly appliances is that we can see this trend in action. Everything must be entertaining. It is no longer good enough to have a PDP10, with wires sticking out everywhere designed specially for the real hacker. The 21st century hacker must also be entertained.
This is part of a wider trend. It is no longer good enough for a computer OS and GUI to be easy to use - that is 90's and passe. It must be intrinsically entertaining, like Enlightenment is, a little. These new appliances are the first wave of the new paradigm of 21st century computing. We had better get used to it.
I am so glad the the rumours of Microsoft and Dell developing a new voting machine are false. It would doubtless have been even more of a disaster than the present one.
Voting procedures should be as simple as possible, like the UKian model, in order to make it as resistant to fraud as possible.
Complexity breeds error and fraud. Technical types tend to forget that.
So it would seem that the media is becoming more important to the Linus Community, and so events like this are starting to appear. Is it healthy that the Linux Development be driven by the press and users? I thought that the success of Linux was due to the fact that it was developed for programmers by programmers, without referance to the media. I'm very interested in this. Thanks! ;)
Well, in my opinion, the idea of competition neing good for software development id also outdated. Nothing would make me happier if, instead of halving a choice between half a dozen different poorly implemented solutions, there was just one excellent solution. The best open source projects have a monopoly, and suck all the development effort for that field - The Kernel and Apache for example.
Why do we need several different versions of SQL to be on the go? It would be far better if there were just one, and the quality of the product would improve also.
If only this were to happen across the board.
I would like to see Apple open their hardware platform to third party manufacturers and also port their OS to different platforms, like x86. It is the only way they will join the 21st century with the rest of us. Their business strategy is to old time hard core capitalist to succeed. They need to adopt the more socialist methods (if I may use that word) of MS, IBM and so forth, who are unafraid to compete in an open market, with open standards. MS has seen this, that is what .NET is all about. Time for Apple to join them - I don't see a .NET initiative from Apple. They need to get one, fast.
I would far rather have a kernel developed specifically for the desktop and server market. All this other exotica does not benefit the average user and diffuses the focus and purpose of the linux advocate and developer.
Why? Because the Matrix isn't about plot or characterisation, its always been about making its audience slack-jawed with amazement at the quality of the effects, and has been very enjoyable for doing so.
The abscence of the actors is no big deal, the Matrix series is mostly done on computer anyway, and so they can easily be replaced. The Matrix is all about the unreality of reality, so I suppose this is an irony.