I'll wait for the moondust to settle on this. But how's this any worse than Einstein writing or at least signing the letter that led to the actual detonation of three bombs, including the two original weapons of mass destruction? Sagan wasn't a nuclear scientist, so he couldn't have had a direct hand in the logistics of the operation, just as Einstein wasn't involved in the design of the first nukes.
TFA is low on details re: what Bluetooth devices are being monitored. I know my cellphone and laptop have Bluetooth support, but I keep that mostly turned off. Do all cars in Canada come with built-in Bluetooth tracking technology? Triangulating from actual cellphone signals appears to me to be a more fool-proof if not spook-proof technology. The limited range of BT devices do make them a better choice in terms of privacy.
"MS is definitely feeling the heat of the competition."
Not just the competition, the greatest threat that Microsoft faces is the commoditization of its business-oriented products. In a world where even subliterate text messages have become an accepted means of communication, most people can already survive without purchasing a dedicated document processing program like MS Office. Free or online programs like WordPad, Google Docs or LibreOpenOffice can already do the job.
The OS itself has become increasingly irrelevant with the browser and the App Store becoming the center of the new computing universe, reducing the OS into a glorified Steam platform.
Another threat that Microsoft faces is the rise of non-aligned or even nationalistic powers like China, Russia, India, and yes Iran, that might feel suspicious of products that are a black box to them, whose inner workings are beyond their knowledge or control. Here Microsoft's only solution is to opensource Windows, which in terms of commercial impact would probably be no different from the way the company largely tolerates Third World piracy unless commited by large, already highly profitable companies.
"The purpose of studies is not just to confirm knowledge or common sense suspicions, but to quantify that knowledge. There is no way in fuck that Professor Obvious knows a priori that an additional 1 second delay will cause 6% of viewers to flee. Professor Brilliant might know this, but that ain't me and it ain't you."
I think the OP's point is that some research is simply not worth the paperwork and grant money. I mean knowing precisely how broken a video can be before people stop watching is interesting, but theire are more interesting, and possibly more important, things out there. Studies like these divert resources from those research projects especially now during hard economic times.
Mod parent up. This is actually the sanest advice. I'm sure you'll receive a lot of generic solutions that may work great for, say, a company as large as Redhat but not for a company made up of a handful of programmers who must also double as the support staff.
Also, maybe you're already doing all right with your system, but your product is getting bad reviews from "sock puppet" social media accounts. And so your problem then is to identify and perhaps, if legally permissible, expose these trolls.
What history? Oracle's only prominent patent dispute is with Google. I remember Oracle suing some second-rate database company, but IIRC it was more about trade secrets than patent infringement. If anything Oracle is better known for dumping or abandoning the opensource projects it inherited from Sun, particularly OpenOffice and Solaris.
Unity looks okay on video displays that have a 16:10 or 16:9 aspect ratio or have greater horizontal than vertical real estate. The problem with such a widescreen "optimized" interface is that it looks cramped on a tablet or even smartphone in portrait mode, which is typically the orientation you'd use for reading full screen ebooks. The video demos I've seen of Unity on a tablet invariably show it in landscape mode. So how does Ubuntu plan to tweak Unity for gadgets that could be used in either landscape or portrait orientation?
BBC has a video interview with the RIM CEO which shows him demo-ing the BB10 UI. The UI is more elegant than visually in-your-face striking like WinPhone 8.
The UI kind of reminds me of the Opera/Chrome, and now Firefox too, Start Page with thumbnail previews of your favorite or most recently used apps.
Seriously, I think music would be a great way to get kids working out more than their thumbs this holiday season.
I myself would go for a Yamaha or Casio electronic keyboard. Why? Because a clarinet, trumpet, saxophone or other band or symphonic instrument tend to be noisy. Unless your kid's a born Mozart, you and your neighbors are not likely to get a moment's peace when the kids first starts to practice. Electronic pianos have head phones or line out connectors so your kid can practice wildly but quietly.
As the barest minimum, get the cheapest model with piano touch response that allows the player to vary the loudness of each note. You can also look for models with USB midi connectors or at least a removable disk slot that will allow you to save music tracks for later editing in the computer. This should come standard in mid-range models. Later, if your child shows promise, you can buy the more expensive concert keyboards.
If the rumors are indeed true, then this is further proof that stand-alone consoles are dying. The tabletop non-mobile console will be merged into the home TV; the portable consoles will become a tablet or an oversize smartphone. Everything will be downloaded, so while the world waits for gigabit Internet, smaller, less graphically intense games that require less minutes to download will become overwhelmingly popular.
As for the hardware controller zealots that insist that touch is no substitute for buttons, think of smartphone docks where you can embed your phone should you want old-fashioned console gaming. Separate controllers are already being sold for the Xboxen, PSations and Wiis of today, so for couch potato gamers, the decision will be whether to buy a hardcore controller or simply frag the enemy with their pointy fingers.
No, I don't like the way technologies are converging into a gadget singularity. But the writing is on the wall, or should I say LCD screen.
"Here is an idea (car analogy)? Why doesn't Honda just take out the Drivers seat and steering wheels of its cars with that of their motorcycles? No gas or brake pedals. Just an uncomfortable seat and handle bars that function just like their motorcycles! That way they can sell more etc. Now it is a poor car and a poor motorcycle."
Actually using a motorcycle "interface" for a car or even a mini-bus isn't such a far-out idea, at least in the Third World. Take a look at what people have done to the basic idea of a tricycle.
More people would have the reflexes to maneuver the handlebars of a motorcycle/bicycle than the wheels of a car, even if there are more car drivers out there.
I think the news here is that some software developers are begging Slashdot readers to pledge some money for their Kickstarter project. Any self-respecting "hacker" who can root an Android phone and install an ARM version of GNU/Linux can do the same.
I'm sure the actual hardware would be a "whitebox" or generic 7" tablet that you can order wholesale from one of the smaller Chinese manufacturers. The Kickstarter money would probably go toward purchasing a certain number of minimum units.
I suspect that even rivals like Sony and Microsoft are hoping that the WiiNew does well, otherwise they'd need to rethink their whole console strategy. If Nintendo fails, then it might mean that dedicated consoles are giving way to tablets and enhanced TVs coupled with an online gaming service.
"If you take away the compensation, you'll find a lot less will be created. Thus doing the exact opposite of fostering innovation. The paper talks about a DJ Remix industry. That industry exist only because original songs exist. You would have fewer original songs (at least fewer quality ones) if you removed all forms of compensation."
I agree that taking away compensation removes the incentive to produce. However compensation shouldn't be seen as a purely financial transaction. Most people writing poetry continue to do so even if they don't expect to get paid enough for them not to have a day job as, for example, a literature teacher.
Your argument about a DJ Remix industry existing only because of original songs can also apply to the authors of the original songs. The original songwriters cannot write their songs without having at their disposal the public domain of freely reusable chord patterns and melodies. Most pop songs make use of a limited number of harmonic sequences. If these chord sequences were copyrighted and payment demanded every time they are used in a song, then the cascade of license fees would ensure that nobody can make a profit from songwriting.
The best that Kepler and allied planet-finding projects can do is whittle down the list of exoplanets to a candidate list of Earth-like planets. Spectral analysis might give a hint to the chemical composiition of a planet's atmosphere, but other factors might transform that planet into something worse than our worst climate-change nightmares. What we're probably looking for are planets that are easier to terraform, rather than life itself, which would be invisible to any direct imaging technique here on earth. Ironically, the SETI project probably stands a greater chance of confirming the presence of life on an extra-solar planet. Then again, that extraterrestrial transmission might come from the intelligent machines of a long extinct God-like species.
"another random user writes with bad news from the BBC for anybody who enjoys a hamburger now and again:"
Read "McDonald's opens vegetarian-only restaurant" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19479013) and be enlightened!
Seriously, the vegetarians that get "preachy" against the evils of meat-eating are either zealots or the culinary equivalent of ex-smokers. Many people would probably class me as a vegetarian, even if I eat eggs and cheese. I also don't mind eating bacan-flavored junk food. It's simply not worth it to be fussy about somebody trying to poison me by sneaking in that milligram of lard.
"So sure, you can install $PACKAGE yourself, but first you're going to have to track down the three libraries it uses, and the two libraries one of those use, and the three libraries one of those use. (Believe me, I do this a fair bit because I somewhat frequently have need to install things to non-standard locations.)"
Believe me, I've installed "official" versions of Firefox and Opera in any directory accessible to my non-root user account. They typically come in a tarball of program binaries rather than the usual open source code. A third-party binary tarball or installer intended for GNU/Linux will sensibly include any unusual libraries needed by the program.
You can visit the MegaGlest RTS project page for an example of a GNU/Linux installer that can be run from a non-root account (http://megaglest.org/download.html). The installer is itself binary that you must bless with the proper executable permissions.
So Linux binary tarballs and installers aren't as uncommon as you think, at least when it comes to cross-platform projects that have fairly frequent official releases.
And it's not because of Windows 8, Ballmer, Gates, Sinofsky, or anything Microsoft has or hasn't done. Microsoft's decline is part of a trend affecting every American IT company that tries to sell products to the small, non-enterprise user. Apple might be the exception of the moment, but I suspect it would soon follow in the steps of Dell, HP, and IBM, which sold off its PC business to a little-known Chinese company called Lenovo.
Blame it on East Asia's high-volume manufacturers.
China's hardware manufacturers will soon see software as an added expense that can be more cheaply produced in-house, especially given the wide availability of open-source software like Android and, yes, even GNU/Linux. China might also view with distrust software made chiefly in the US, even if only as a retaliatory gesture for Amercan distrust of Chinese hardware.
Whatever happened to the promise of phase-change memory that's supposed to be a million times more rewritable than flash? I have a fuzzy memory of reading a story here about Samsung or HP producing a 512 MB or Mb part that was ready to roll off the lines.
I've been watching reruns of Space Above and Beyond, military sci-fi from the 1990s with the usual Starship Troopers vs. aliens premise. I'll just quote the wiki article about the race of "artificial" humans in the series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Above_and_Beyond):
'The Space: Above and Beyond milieu includes an underclass race of genetically engineered and artificially gestated humans who are born at the physical age of 18, and are collectively known as In Vitroes or sometimes, derogatorily, "tanks" or "nipple-necks".'
The In Vitroes are gestated in glass "tanks" and have what looks like navels in their necks, although I'm not sure if these are for nutrition or Matrix-style neural programming.
Artificial wombs could become a cost-efficient proposition, even if the artificial human is grown to near adulthood and not just for the length of human pregnancy. What's needed is the ability to program human brains via dream-like states and some means to prevent muscular atrophy. This would reduce the need for infancy or adolescence, when a normal human is a net consumer rather than a producer.
You won't know until you get a call or worse a visit from the Feds. Ask a certain ex-CIA director. I know it's evil to be spied on by somebody else but your neighbor, but just imagine the civil rights uproar that would arise should the list be made public.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll wait for the moondust to settle on this. But how's this any worse than Einstein writing or at least signing the letter that led to the actual detonation of three bombs, including the two original weapons of mass destruction? Sagan wasn't a nuclear scientist, so he couldn't have had a direct hand in the logistics of the operation, just as Einstein wasn't involved in the design of the first nukes.
TFA is low on details re: what Bluetooth devices are being monitored. I know my cellphone and laptop have Bluetooth support, but I keep that mostly turned off. Do all cars in Canada come with built-in Bluetooth tracking technology? Triangulating from actual cellphone signals appears to me to be a more fool-proof if not spook-proof technology. The limited range of BT devices do make them a better choice in terms of privacy.
"MS is definitely feeling the heat of the competition."
Not just the competition, the greatest threat that Microsoft faces is the commoditization of its business-oriented products. In a world where even subliterate text messages have become an accepted means of communication, most people can already survive without purchasing a dedicated document processing program like MS Office. Free or online programs like WordPad, Google Docs or LibreOpenOffice can already do the job.
The OS itself has become increasingly irrelevant with the browser and the App Store becoming the center of the new computing universe, reducing the OS into a glorified Steam platform.
Another threat that Microsoft faces is the rise of non-aligned or even nationalistic powers like China, Russia, India, and yes Iran, that might feel suspicious of products that are a black box to them, whose inner workings are beyond their knowledge or control. Here Microsoft's only solution is to opensource Windows, which in terms of commercial impact would probably be no different from the way the company largely tolerates Third World piracy unless commited by large, already highly profitable companies.
"The purpose of studies is not just to confirm knowledge or common sense suspicions, but to quantify that knowledge. There is no way in fuck that Professor Obvious knows a priori that an additional 1 second delay will cause 6% of viewers to flee. Professor Brilliant might know this, but that ain't me and it ain't you."
I think the OP's point is that some research is simply not worth the paperwork and grant money. I mean knowing precisely how broken a video can be before people stop watching is interesting, but theire are more interesting, and possibly more important, things out there. Studies like these divert resources from those research projects especially now during hard economic times.
Not according to Wordnet:
"drone
n 1: stingless male bee in a colony of social bees (especially
honeybees) whose sole function is to mate with the queen"
In the workers' society of the beehive, drones have all the fun.
Mod parent up. This is actually the sanest advice. I'm sure you'll receive a lot of generic solutions that may work great for, say, a company as large as Redhat but not for a company made up of a handful of programmers who must also double as the support staff.
Also, maybe you're already doing all right with your system, but your product is getting bad reviews from "sock puppet" social media accounts. And so your problem then is to identify and perhaps, if legally permissible, expose these trolls.
What history? Oracle's only prominent patent dispute is with Google. I remember Oracle suing some second-rate database company, but IIRC it was more about trade secrets than patent infringement. If anything Oracle is better known for dumping or abandoning the opensource projects it inherited from Sun, particularly OpenOffice and Solaris.
Unity looks okay on video displays that have a 16:10 or 16:9 aspect ratio or have greater horizontal than vertical real estate. The problem with such a widescreen "optimized" interface is that it looks cramped on a tablet or even smartphone in portrait mode, which is typically the orientation you'd use for reading full screen ebooks. The video demos I've seen of Unity on a tablet invariably show it in landscape mode. So how does Ubuntu plan to tweak Unity for gadgets that could be used in either landscape or portrait orientation?
BBC has a video interview with the RIM CEO which shows him demo-ing the BB10 UI. The UI is more elegant than visually in-your-face striking like WinPhone 8.
The UI kind of reminds me of the Opera/Chrome, and now Firefox too, Start Page with thumbnail previews of your favorite or most recently used apps.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20087221
What are you, Woody Allen?
Seriously, I think music would be a great way to get kids working out more than their thumbs this holiday season.
I myself would go for a Yamaha or Casio electronic keyboard. Why? Because a clarinet, trumpet, saxophone or other band or symphonic instrument tend to be noisy. Unless your kid's a born Mozart, you and your neighbors are not likely to get a moment's peace when the kids first starts to practice. Electronic pianos have head phones or line out connectors so your kid can practice wildly but quietly.
As the barest minimum, get the cheapest model with piano touch response that allows the player to vary the loudness of each note. You can also look for models with USB midi connectors or at least a removable disk slot that will allow you to save music tracks for later editing in the computer. This should come standard in mid-range models. Later, if your child shows promise, you can buy the more expensive concert keyboards.
The "article" mostly quotes from Torrent Freak. Here's the longer source:
http://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-9-year-old-pirate-bay-girl-confiscate-winnie-the-pooh-laptop-121122/
"Why are you browsing games.slashdot in the first place?"
Beats me. These weird stories keep popping up in the front page.
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Strange? If the other side nukes you, you'd be a fool not to nuke them back.
If the rumors are indeed true, then this is further proof that stand-alone consoles are dying. The tabletop non-mobile console will be merged into the home TV; the portable consoles will become a tablet or an oversize smartphone. Everything will be downloaded, so while the world waits for gigabit Internet, smaller, less graphically intense games that require less minutes to download will become overwhelmingly popular.
As for the hardware controller zealots that insist that touch is no substitute for buttons, think of smartphone docks where you can embed your phone should you want old-fashioned console gaming. Separate controllers are already being sold for the Xboxen, PSations and Wiis of today, so for couch potato gamers, the decision will be whether to buy a hardcore controller or simply frag the enemy with their pointy fingers.
No, I don't like the way technologies are converging into a gadget singularity. But the writing is on the wall, or should I say LCD screen.
"Here is an idea (car analogy)? Why doesn't Honda just take out the Drivers seat and steering wheels of its cars with that of their motorcycles? No gas or brake pedals. Just an uncomfortable seat and handle bars that function just like their motorcycles! That way they can sell more etc. Now it is a poor car and a poor motorcycle."
Actually using a motorcycle "interface" for a car or even a mini-bus isn't such a far-out idea, at least in the Third World. Take a look at what people have done to the basic idea of a tricycle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw
More people would have the reflexes to maneuver the handlebars of a motorcycle/bicycle than the wheels of a car, even if there are more car drivers out there.
I think the news here is that some software developers are begging Slashdot readers to pledge some money for their Kickstarter project. Any self-respecting "hacker" who can root an Android phone and install an ARM version of GNU/Linux can do the same.
I'm sure the actual hardware would be a "whitebox" or generic 7" tablet that you can order wholesale from one of the smaller Chinese manufacturers. The Kickstarter money would probably go toward purchasing a certain number of minimum units.
I suspect that even rivals like Sony and Microsoft are hoping that the WiiNew does well, otherwise they'd need to rethink their whole console strategy. If Nintendo fails, then it might mean that dedicated consoles are giving way to tablets and enhanced TVs coupled with an online gaming service.
"If you take away the compensation, you'll find a lot less will be created. Thus doing the exact opposite of fostering innovation.
The paper talks about a DJ Remix industry. That industry exist only because original songs exist. You would have fewer original songs (at least fewer quality ones) if you removed all forms of compensation."
I agree that taking away compensation removes the incentive to produce. However compensation shouldn't be seen as a purely financial transaction. Most people writing poetry continue to do so even if they don't expect to get paid enough for them not to have a day job as, for example, a literature teacher.
Your argument about a DJ Remix industry existing only because of original songs can also apply to the authors of the original songs. The original songwriters cannot write their songs without having at their disposal the public domain of freely reusable chord patterns and melodies. Most pop songs make use of a limited number of harmonic sequences. If these chord sequences were copyrighted and payment demanded every time they are used in a song, then the cascade of license fees would ensure that nobody can make a profit from songwriting.
The best that Kepler and allied planet-finding projects can do is whittle down the list of exoplanets to a candidate list of Earth-like planets. Spectral analysis might give a hint to the chemical composiition of a planet's atmosphere, but other factors might transform that planet into something worse than our worst climate-change nightmares. What we're probably looking for are planets that are easier to terraform, rather than life itself, which would be invisible to any direct imaging technique here on earth. Ironically, the SETI project probably stands a greater chance of confirming the presence of life on an extra-solar planet. Then again, that extraterrestrial transmission might come from the intelligent machines of a long extinct God-like species.
"another random user writes with bad news from the BBC for anybody who enjoys a hamburger now and again:" Read "McDonald's opens vegetarian-only restaurant" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19479013) and be enlightened! Seriously, the vegetarians that get "preachy" against the evils of meat-eating are either zealots or the culinary equivalent of ex-smokers. Many people would probably class me as a vegetarian, even if I eat eggs and cheese. I also don't mind eating bacan-flavored junk food. It's simply not worth it to be fussy about somebody trying to poison me by sneaking in that milligram of lard.
"So sure, you can install $PACKAGE yourself, but first you're going to have to track down the three libraries it uses, and the two libraries one of those use, and the three libraries one of those use. (Believe me, I do this a fair bit because I somewhat frequently have need to install things to non-standard locations.)"
Believe me, I've installed "official" versions of Firefox and Opera in any directory accessible to my non-root user account. They typically come in a tarball of program binaries rather than the usual open source code. A third-party binary tarball or installer intended for GNU/Linux will sensibly include any unusual libraries needed by the program.
You can visit the MegaGlest RTS project page for an example of a GNU/Linux installer that can be run from a non-root account (http://megaglest.org/download.html). The installer is itself binary that you must bless with the proper executable permissions.
So Linux binary tarballs and installers aren't as uncommon as you think, at least when it comes to cross-platform projects that have fairly frequent official releases.
And it's not because of Windows 8, Ballmer, Gates, Sinofsky, or anything Microsoft has or hasn't done. Microsoft's decline is part of a trend affecting every American IT company that tries to sell products to the small, non-enterprise user. Apple might be the exception of the moment, but I suspect it would soon follow in the steps of Dell, HP, and IBM, which sold off its PC business to a little-known Chinese company called Lenovo.
Blame it on East Asia's high-volume manufacturers.
China's hardware manufacturers will soon see software as an added expense that can be more cheaply produced in-house, especially given the wide availability of open-source software like Android and, yes, even GNU/Linux. China might also view with distrust software made chiefly in the US, even if only as a retaliatory gesture for Amercan distrust of Chinese hardware.
Whatever happened to the promise of phase-change memory that's supposed to be a million times more rewritable than flash? I have a fuzzy memory of reading a story here about Samsung or HP producing a 512 MB or Mb part that was ready to roll off the lines.
I've been watching reruns of Space Above and Beyond, military sci-fi from the 1990s with the usual Starship Troopers vs. aliens premise. I'll just quote the wiki article about the race of "artificial" humans in the series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Above_and_Beyond): 'The Space: Above and Beyond milieu includes an underclass race of genetically engineered and artificially gestated humans who are born at the physical age of 18, and are collectively known as In Vitroes or sometimes, derogatorily, "tanks" or "nipple-necks".' The In Vitroes are gestated in glass "tanks" and have what looks like navels in their necks, although I'm not sure if these are for nutrition or Matrix-style neural programming. Artificial wombs could become a cost-efficient proposition, even if the artificial human is grown to near adulthood and not just for the length of human pregnancy. What's needed is the ability to program human brains via dream-like states and some means to prevent muscular atrophy. This would reduce the need for infancy or adolescence, when a normal human is a net consumer rather than a producer.
You won't know until you get a call or worse a visit from the Feds. Ask a certain ex-CIA director. I know it's evil to be spied on by somebody else but your neighbor, but just imagine the civil rights uproar that would arise should the list be made public.