>Because we lose the trust of the nations of the >world? Any nation with a clue doesn't trust us >already. Ummm... yeah. Those nations may not _trust_ us, exactly, but learning that the US is developing controversial weapons tech. and having the US openly admit to such are two very different things. Although this is almost a strawman argument (argh!) think of it this way:
I think it's a fallacy to think that most of the countries of the world don't trust us. In actuality, most of the developed countries of the world do trust us, and demonstrate this explicitly with the billions of dollars in trade and investements they make with/in our country. The ones that don't trust us tend to be the very vocal ones that end up on the news (I'm thinking Iraq, Libya, etc.)
As for "boosting sales" through the "occasional confilct", I can hardly see how; the main affect of war is to depress the civilian economy as the govt. spends into debt to build tanks/planes/bombs in the factories which were building cars/civilian aircraft/consumer electronics.
This is just patently wrong. War, and military spending is an economic boon. World War II and the military build-up of the Reagan era taught us that. They may not necessarily be good long-term because of the tremendous debt incurred, but in the short run, pumping that kind of money into the economy makes for great prosperity.
"The War in Heaven" turns this on its head. The new spirituality seems to work this way: if you obsessively kill characters on Diablo or Quake, you're an evil, perhaps even murderous geek who might one day turn on your neighbors and classmates. But if you slaughter demons en route to heaven, you are merely acting out the will of God.
This actually has some historical precedence in the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. Christianity has long been able to overlook slaughter if its done in God's name. The more interesting thing, I find, here is the ingenious way a game company has found a new nich in the saturated gaming market. Hmmm... I wouldn't be surprised if this caught on with more mainstream companies. Maybe there'll be a Doom, Christian Edition. Or how about, Civ IV: Revelations.
I vaguely remember that there might have been something between Luke and Leia in this book. In any case, it was one of my favorite books as a kid. Highly recommend it if its still possible to find a copy somewhere. (I'm too lazy to check Amazon right now.)
Who is the author of this piece? It had the length of a Jon Katz, but was way more informative. Good job! Thanks for documenting this historic anniversary so eloquently!
Yeah, I posted the Rob Malda as Anonymous Coward question - mostly because I wanted clarification on it. It seemed very odd, and yes, I knew it was probably just some anonymous lame-oid. Now... to the rest of you (mostly A-Cowards as well) who choose to harsh on me because I merely question this... Screw you.
Trust me... I would put my IQ points up against any of yours any day of the week. And yes, I did list HTML on my resume as a programming language, because in the positions I would be interested in... there's very little reason to treat it otherwise. By profession, I'm a researcher, not a programmer.
So, as I said, to everyone who has so little better to do than scan Slashdot waiting for opportunities to flame others (under Anonymous Coward status), screw off.
I paid $300 for a Multia about 2 years ago. Here are my observations:
1) Not a great desktop machine. The last time I checked, there wasn't a version of Netscape (or any other quality browser) that runs on Linux Alpha.
2) Runs slow, and pretty hot.
Would I do it again? YES! (In fact, I will if I can get through tomorrow with all the other Slash'ers no doubt calling in.) The machine does run Linux quite nicely, and it has made a WONDERFUL gateway for my DSL modem. It's been 100% reliable. (I think they would also make a pretty nice little X client... If I can get one tomorrow, it's going next to my bed.)
They're in a great little form factor, and you should see the jaws on the techies drop when I tell them that I'm running my home's firewall on an Alpha box.
I can't believe all the people here who suggest that Redhat won't be able to turn a profit because they're selling a product that's free...
Hello!!! They're already doing it! They're selling at $50 a pop, something that essentially shouldn't cost them more than the media its burned on. That's $49 of pure profit, baby. I want a piece of that action.
In fact, Redhat better hurry themselves up. I'm on my way to Fry's right now to pick up some bulk CDRs, and I'm going public on Monday!!!
David
P.S. I know I'm simplifying things here... and Redhat does have overhead to cover... but the point is that the business model is already working. The only question is, do the founders need to share it with everyone else. Given the investments they have from Intel, and everyone elses brother, I'm not sure I know what their justification for it would be. But damn, I'll be first in line for that action when it opens up. Pure genius.
I have a few comments... first, programmers is programmers (deep words from a PhD). If there are more people out there writing Linux apps as a result of migration from windows, so be it... that rocks! It's all about world domination, and the Penguin is on his way.
My second peeve is... why is there so much compaining about the user interface? I'm using the latest version of Afterstep and it is the coolest friggin' thing on the planet. I don't need folders cluttering up my desktop. The interface is the computer, and Afterstep is awesome!!!!
Finally, for those people bagging on StarOffice... it rocks, and so does WordPerfect 8. I don't care if Microsoft Apps get ported, because I have these.
Now, has anyone compiled a decent browser yet for Alpha? Can I get my Multia out of the closet yet?
I agree with the poster above who didn't like the movie. But I'm not sure if its for the same reason.
When I first heard about the film playing at the local CinemaStar (a promising investment for anyone interested - ticker LUXY)... it blew me away... here was a movie... artsy or otherwise that was going to try to portray a guy trying to understand complexity. This could be the most important subject in the history of the world, because its about unlocking the nature of the world itself... or complexity could be the modern fountain of youth... always just out of reach because of the nature of chaotic systems.
I truly believe that we (as geeks) are best poised to pursue this complex issue. We have access to hardware that screams so fast trying to simulate reality vis-a-vis 3D games, but how many of these monster CPUs get applied trying to understand reality?
I think its about a 50/50 issue. The behavior of complex systems like the stock market may never be unraveled, or it may one day be a home Beowulf or even someone like distributed.net may do it... and that's going to make the world a fundamentally different place.
These are profound issues... Issues that get to the heart of the nature of the universe... but you know what... the movie Pi missed that... it wrapped itself up in artsy-fartsy (which can be okay) and never really got the big issue involved. That's what bugged me about the flick. It had possibilities, but just didn't get it.
Thank's for listening... now, how the hell do I get down off this soapbox?
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's a fallacy to think that most of the countries of the world don't trust us. In actuality, most of the developed countries of the world do trust us, and demonstrate this explicitly with the billions of dollars in trade and investements they make with/in our country. The ones that don't trust us tend to be the very vocal ones that end up on the news (I'm thinking Iraq, Libya, etc.)
As for "boosting sales" through the "occasional confilct", I can hardly see how; the main affect of war is to depress the civilian economy as the govt. spends into debt to build tanks/planes/bombs in the factories which were building cars/civilian aircraft/consumer electronics.
This is just patently wrong. War, and military spending is an economic boon. World War II and the military build-up of the Reagan era taught us that. They may not necessarily be good long-term because of the tremendous debt incurred, but in the short run, pumping that kind of money into the economy makes for great prosperity.
Just wanted to clarify those two points ... D.
This actually has some historical precedence in the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. Christianity has long been able to overlook slaughter if its done in God's name. The more interesting thing, I find, here is the ingenious way a game company has found a new nich in the saturated gaming market. Hmmm ... I wouldn't be surprised if this caught on with more mainstream companies. Maybe there'll be a Doom, Christian Edition. Or how about, Civ IV: Revelations.
Anyway, that's just my 0.02 Euros.
D.
I vaguely remember that there might have been something between Luke and Leia in this book. In any case, it was one of my favorite books as a kid. Highly recommend it if its still possible to find a copy somewhere. (I'm too lazy to check Amazon right now.)
Good job on getting this out. I really like
Enlightenment and am looking forward to playing
with all the features in the new version!
I think Slashdot actually ran on a Multia for awhile.
Who is the author of this piece? It had the length of a Jon Katz, but was way more informative. Good job! Thanks for documenting this historic anniversary so eloquently!
Yeah, I posted the Rob Malda as Anonymous Coward question - mostly because I wanted clarification on it. It seemed very odd, and yes, I knew it was probably just some anonymous lame-oid. Now ... to the rest of you (mostly A-Cowards as well) who choose to harsh on me because I merely question this ... Screw you.
... I would put my IQ points up against any of yours any day of the week. And yes, I did list HTML on my resume as a programming language, because in the positions I would be interested in ... there's very little reason to treat it otherwise. By profession, I'm a researcher, not a programmer.
Trust me
So, as I said, to everyone who has so little better to do than scan Slashdot waiting for opportunities to flame others (under Anonymous Coward status), screw off.
Cordially yours,
David
Is this for real? Rob Malda posting as an Anonymous Coward? What's up with that Rob?
I paid $300 for a Multia about 2 years ago. Here are my observations:
... If I can get one tomorrow, it's going next to my bed.)
1) Not a great desktop machine. The last time I checked, there wasn't a version of Netscape (or any other quality browser) that runs on Linux Alpha.
2) Runs slow, and pretty hot.
Would I do it again? YES! (In fact, I will if I can get through tomorrow with all the other Slash'ers no doubt calling in.) The machine does run Linux quite nicely, and it has made a WONDERFUL gateway for my DSL modem. It's been 100% reliable. (I think they would also make a pretty nice little X client
They're in a great little form factor, and you should see the jaws on the techies drop when I tell them that I'm running my home's firewall on an Alpha box.
HOW SWEET IT IS!
D
Archon did rock ... but I must say, by far, the best game ever was M.U.L.E.
...
I still think of the soundtrack and get all teary-eyed over it. Boom boom buh buh boom
Yeah, I remember the VIC-20. I did more in 3.5K than most people do with their 256 node beowulf clusters.
Actually, I loved my VIC and wrote a stunning BBS system for the C64. Those were the days! When a 5.25 inch floppy was a status symbol.
The unknown is always really fricken' scarey,
but some of the very best things in life come out
of the unknown.
My congrats to CmdrTaco and the whole Slashdot
crew. You guys have done tremendous work, and
deserve any rewards you get!!
Yeah ... I still have my DOS 3.21 manuals ... ... when 640K really meant
Those were the days
something!
As I sat reading the article, and the comments, I kept wishing to myself someone with knowledge would comment ...
... get enough minds together, and eventually good stuff comes out.
Thanks for doing so. This is truly the value of Slashdot (and probably OSS as well)
(Well, maybe that's reaching, but thanks for the comment!)
David
I can't believe all the people here who suggest that Redhat won't be able to turn a profit because they're selling a product that's free ...
... and Redhat does have overhead to cover ... but the point is that the business model is already working. The only question is, do the founders need to share it with everyone else. Given the investments they have from Intel, and everyone elses brother, I'm not sure I know what their justification for it would be. But damn, I'll be first in line for that action when it opens up. Pure genius.
Hello!!! They're already doing it! They're selling at $50 a pop, something that essentially shouldn't cost them more than the media its burned on. That's $49 of pure profit, baby. I want a piece of that action.
In fact, Redhat better hurry themselves up. I'm on my way to Fry's right now to pick up some bulk CDRs, and I'm going public on Monday!!!
David
P.S. I know I'm simplifying things here
I have a few comments ... first, programmers is programmers (deep words from a PhD). If there are more people out there writing Linux apps as a result of migration from windows, so be it ... that rocks! It's all about world domination, and the Penguin is on his way.
... why is there so much compaining about the user interface? I'm using the latest version of Afterstep and it is the coolest friggin' thing on the planet. I don't need folders cluttering up my desktop. The interface is the computer, and Afterstep is awesome!!!!
... it rocks, and so does WordPerfect 8. I don't care if Microsoft Apps get ported, because I have these.
My second peeve is
Finally, for those people bagging on StarOffice
Now, has anyone compiled a decent browser yet for Alpha? Can I get my Multia out of the closet yet?
Kvetchingly, D.
I agree with the poster above who didn't like the movie. But I'm not sure if its for the same reason.
... it blew me away ... here was a movie ... artsy or otherwise that was going to try to portray a guy trying to understand complexity. This could be the most important subject in the history of the world, because its about unlocking the nature of the world itself ... or complexity could be the modern fountain of youth ... always just out of reach because of the nature of chaotic systems.
... and that's going to make the world a fundamentally different place.
... Issues that get to the heart of the nature of the universe ... but you know what ... the movie Pi missed that ... it wrapped itself up in artsy-fartsy (which can be okay) and never really got the big issue involved. That's what bugged me about the flick. It had possibilities, but just didn't get it.
... now, how the hell do I get down off this soapbox?
When I first heard about the film playing at the local CinemaStar (a promising investment for anyone interested - ticker LUXY)
I truly believe that we (as geeks) are best poised to pursue this complex issue. We have access to hardware that screams so fast trying to simulate reality vis-a-vis 3D games, but how many of these monster CPUs get applied trying to understand reality?
I think its about a 50/50 issue. The behavior of complex systems like the stock market may never be unraveled, or it may one day be a home Beowulf or even someone like distributed.net may do it
These are profound issues
Thank's for listening
David Clatfelter