How will that work? Will the CDMA base stations be under the sea as well? (Is it feasible to locate microwave transmitters underwater?) Will they be on uninhabited islands or floating platforms?
<CONSPIRACY-THEORY> Perhaps once Monsanto has eliminated non-terminated crops from Africa, and the Africans are entirely dependent on international corporations for their very subsistence, they can be marshalled into a massive cheap data-entry force, doing menial shitwork over the Net at a fraction of the cost of Western labour. Now that Asian standards of living are rising to the levels of middle-class consumer society, it's about time someone found a new source of technoserfs. </CONSPIRACY-THEORY>
I read that Nigeria's second-largest foreign-revenue source (after oil) is mail fraud (i.e., the "Nigerian letter" scams). There is a core of highly skilled confidence tricksters expert at parting otherwise savvy Western businessmen from their money through the mail.
Wonder whether this means that once Nigeria has broadband Internet access, it will become the world leader in MLM schemes and spam...
The Nazis had specific rules on what defines Jewishness; if you had a Jewish ancestor within a certain number of generations, and the Nazi authorities knew, you'd be considered a Jew, and thus a legitimate target for extermination, regardless of what you considered yourself.
This definition was considerably broader than the one applied by Jewish religious authorities; there is an urban legend that Hitler himself would have been considered a Jew under Nazi laws, whilst not under Jewish law, because of a paternal grandparent or somesuch. Of course, this could be a made-up example.
Microsoft have a tradition of inviting all sorts of speakers onto their campus; the theory is that the more ideas their staff are exposed to, the better they work. It's a sort of memetic diversity thing.
As such, it was only a matter of time before they invited ESR or some other open-source figure onto campus. And ESR seems the obvious choice (being less zealously opposed to the basis of Microsoft's existence than RMS).
It doesn't necessarily mean that they'll be GPLing Windows 2000 or anything anytime soon. Though the increasing propagation of open-source memes in the MS environment may have an (as yet undetermined) effect.
I read The Meme Machine and found it to be the best, most solidly written book on memetics so far. It made considerable progress towards promoting memetics from a fuzzy, catchy idea to a solid scientific model, and made some controversial predictions. The other well-known book on memetics, Richard Brodie's Virus of the Mind, is a lot less rigorous, and reads almost like a self-help book.
Richard Brodie, the original author of Microsoft Word, also wrote Virus of the Mind, a popular book on memes. In it he mentions that Microsoft Word has "good memes", as well as using examples from Microsoft and Xerox corporate culture. (The original Word team were ex-Xerox people.)
There's something scary about David Brin; his advocacy of homogeneisation (as exemplified elsewhere by his belief that privacy is a tool of evil), and emotive denunciations of films on ideological grounds seem almost Stalinist. And then there's the way he repeatedly invokes parallels with Hitler to make a point, which is considered very bad form (see subject).
For Ghod's sake, it's only a movie. It's neither a revelation from above nor vile elitist propaganda, just 2 hours of well crafted entertainment.
David Brin commits the sin of taking things way too seriously, just like all the postmodernists writing Freudian-Marxist deconstructions of the inherent racist/patriarchial subtexts of bubble-gum wrappers.
The community probably won't get to see that report. Chances are it'll be proprietary MS information, used internally for formulation of marketing strategy. What the community will see is the spin MS put on their marketing and the strategy they use for attempting to lock Linux out.
And spin and strategy are what Microsoft excel at. They didn't get >90% OS market domination, with similar levels for Windows-based office and development software, by building a better product.
Surely nobody expects MS to pay someone to help Linux conquer the world.
Already friends who run private non-profit "virtual ISPs" for friends are talking about shutting down; rumour has it that the law will require them to buy special routers to implement the censorship scheme.
This could be a clever job-creation scheme; create a world-leading Australian industry in creating Internet censorship technology, and export it. The Chinese and Saudis, to name two, will probably be eager customers. Afterwards, once the industry is established as a major Australian export earner, Australia can set up pro-censorship lobbies elsewhere (the US, Europe, Britain, Canada, &c.), funnel funds to religious-right groups, and attempt to export censorship in the same way the Soviet Union attempted to export revolution.
The Microsoft anti-Java effort wasn't an abject failure. To this day, Java hasn't been adopted as the ubiquitous, MS-killing, networked platform it was initially touted to be. At least some of that would be due to Microsoft's use of FUD and divisive tactics (the IE/Visual J++ contamination as well as behind-the-scenes deals).
Software Engineering is a branch of computer science in most academic institutions.
Not at my institution (Monash University); here, both SE and CS are subdivisions of "computing and information technology". The taxonomy seems to be Computer Science = theoretical stuff (AI, image processing, architecture); Software Engineering = development methodology, applied design.
Even on that front, Linus's contributions were nill.
I wouldn't say that; he did preside over a novel development model, harnessing the work of hundreds of programmers across the world and coordinating these efforts into a kernel in quite a short time. I imagine that, were he to write this up in a thesis, he might get a degree of some sort for it, or at least be a good way towards one.
Linus' achievements, the design decisions taken in the implementation of the Linux kernel and the open-source development model used to manage such a large, distributed project, are both closer to the realm of software engineering than that of computer science. CS is a more abstract, theoretical discipline, whereas Linux is firmly grounded in the world of day-to-day use and practical considerations.
Perhaps you were looking for a different word, but NT is certainly not more mature than UNIX. Given that UNIX has been around for more than two decades, and has been used for implementing TCP/IP services from the early days, whereas NT is a relative newcomer, yet to make its own mistakes and learn its own lessons.
Even if NT was to objectively outperform UNIX (which I doubt it would realistically do), it does not inspire as much confidence by its youth and lack of pedigree.
Which is why they plan to phase CDs out and replace them with "DVD Audio". This will presumably be encrypted to be playable only by trusted hardware, and may have provisions for geographical restrictions (a truly evil idea in this age of global commerce).
As for SDMI devices, chances are the consumer ones won't have digital line outputs. Most portable MiniDisc players don't, for example.
Audio out is analogue, which is lossy. Once the signal hits the audio out socket, it has already been through the D-A converter. You can redigitise it, but that introduces degradation. After a few generations, the results will be as dismal as a Nth-generation bootleg tape.
Under Linux, it is possible to hack the kernel to redirect/dev/dsp to an arbitrary file, in effect providing a software-based digital audio out. Someone has written something like that for Windows as well, though since Windows is a closed specification, MS could hobble it easily.
Wonder whether the RIAA will push for a ban on music decoding software for open-source OSes as well; it seems logically consistent with their attitude.
This is probably a bit off-topic... if someone announced plans to make a portable MP3 encoder, a device capable of taking audio input from, say, a microphone or a line input, MPEG encoding it and storing it in a file on a Flash card or Clik disc or what have you, it would be more interesting. It could be useful for taping concerts, sampling and a lot of other things, and you'd get nice, convenient MP3 files out of it too, unlike MiniDisc systems.
(Then again, MiniDisc (ATRAC) compression yields better quality, though you have to decompress it and convert it, as it's a proprietary algorithm.)
Slashdot Mirror
How will that work? Will the CDMA base stations be under the sea as well? (Is it feasible to locate microwave transmitters underwater?) Will they be on uninhabited islands or floating platforms?
There could be geographical reasons for this; possibly such locations make convenient sites for base stations or other infrastructure...
<CONSPIRACY-THEORY>
Perhaps once Monsanto has eliminated non-terminated crops from Africa, and the Africans are entirely dependent on international corporations for their very subsistence, they can be marshalled into a massive cheap data-entry force, doing menial shitwork over the Net at a fraction of the cost of Western labour. Now that Asian standards of living are rising to the levels of middle-class consumer society, it's about time someone found a new source of technoserfs.
</CONSPIRACY-THEORY>
I read that Nigeria's second-largest foreign-revenue source (after oil) is mail fraud (i.e., the "Nigerian letter" scams). There is a core of highly skilled confidence tricksters expert at parting otherwise savvy Western businessmen from their money through the mail.
Wonder whether this means that once Nigeria has broadband Internet access, it will become the world leader in MLM schemes and spam...
Goto is an actual Japanese name. Or at least it's a name seen in anime credits among other Japanese names.
In my copy she's always referred to as Y.T., and her mother is just "Y.T.'s mom".
Not only that, bit an open-source essay with a Star Wars reference in the title. The quintessential Slashdot essay.
The Nazis had specific rules on what defines Jewishness; if you had a Jewish ancestor within a certain number of generations, and the Nazi authorities knew, you'd be considered a Jew, and thus a legitimate target for extermination, regardless of what you considered yourself.
This definition was considerably broader than the one applied by Jewish religious authorities; there is an urban legend that Hitler himself would have been considered a Jew under Nazi laws, whilst not under Jewish law, because of a paternal grandparent or somesuch. Of course, this could be a made-up example.
Microsoft have a tradition of inviting all sorts of speakers onto their campus; the theory is that the more ideas their staff are exposed to, the better they work. It's a sort of memetic diversity thing.
As such, it was only a matter of time before they invited ESR or some other open-source figure onto campus. And ESR seems the obvious choice (being less zealously opposed to the basis of Microsoft's existence than RMS).
It doesn't necessarily mean that they'll be GPLing Windows 2000 or anything anytime soon. Though the increasing propagation of open-source memes in the MS environment may have an (as yet undetermined) effect.
I read The Meme Machine and found it to be the best, most solidly written book on memetics so far. It made considerable progress towards promoting memetics from a fuzzy, catchy idea to a solid scientific model, and made some controversial predictions. The other well-known book on memetics, Richard Brodie's Virus of the Mind, is a lot less rigorous, and reads almost like a self-help book.
Richard Brodie, the original author of Microsoft Word, also wrote Virus of the Mind, a popular book on memes. In it he mentions that Microsoft Word has "good memes", as well as using examples from Microsoft and Xerox corporate culture. (The original Word team were ex-Xerox people.)
There's something scary about David Brin; his advocacy of homogeneisation (as exemplified elsewhere by his belief that privacy is a tool of evil), and emotive denunciations of films on ideological grounds seem almost Stalinist. And then there's the way he repeatedly invokes parallels with Hitler to make a point, which is considered very bad form (see subject).
For Ghod's sake, it's only a movie. It's neither a revelation from above nor vile elitist propaganda, just 2 hours of well crafted entertainment.
David Brin commits the sin of taking things way too seriously, just like all the postmodernists writing Freudian-Marxist deconstructions of the inherent racist/patriarchial subtexts of bubble-gum wrappers.
Not to mention Richard Alston, the communications minister and architect of this oppressive law. I foresee a Big Brother Award for him.
Your computer has been Alstoned.
The community probably won't get to see that report. Chances are it'll be proprietary MS information, used internally for formulation of marketing strategy. What the community will see is the spin MS put on their marketing and the strategy they use for attempting to lock Linux out.
And spin and strategy are what Microsoft excel at. They didn't get >90% OS market domination, with similar levels for Windows-based office and development software, by building a better product.
Surely nobody expects MS to pay someone to help Linux conquer the world.
Already friends who run private non-profit "virtual ISPs" for friends are talking about shutting down; rumour has it that the law will require them to buy special routers to implement the censorship scheme.
This could be a clever job-creation scheme; create a world-leading Australian industry in creating Internet censorship technology, and export it. The Chinese and Saudis, to name two, will probably be eager customers. Afterwards, once the industry is established as a major Australian export earner, Australia can set up pro-censorship lobbies elsewhere (the US, Europe, Britain, Canada, &c.), funnel funds to religious-right groups, and attempt to export censorship in the same way the Soviet Union attempted to export revolution.
The Microsoft anti-Java effort wasn't an abject failure. To this day, Java hasn't been adopted as the ubiquitous, MS-killing, networked platform it was initially touted to be. At least some of that would be due to Microsoft's use of FUD and divisive tactics (the IE/Visual J++ contamination as well as behind-the-scenes deals).
Research in pure computer science might get you a name in the computer science history books, but
:-)
software engineering seems like a lot more fun.
I beg to differ; computer science is where you get to play with cool, interesting technologies without any regard to real-world constraints.
-- acb [doing a thesis in computer-generated music]
Software Engineering is a branch of computer science in most academic institutions.
Not at my institution (Monash University); here, both SE and CS are subdivisions of "computing and information technology". The taxonomy seems to be Computer Science = theoretical stuff (AI, image processing, architecture); Software Engineering = development methodology, applied design.
Even on that front, Linus's contributions were nill.
I wouldn't say that; he did preside over a novel development model, harnessing the work of hundreds of programmers across the world and coordinating these efforts into a kernel in quite a short time.
I imagine that, were he to write this up in a thesis, he might get a degree of some sort for it, or at least be a good way towards one.
Linus' achievements, the design decisions taken in the implementation of the Linux kernel and the open-source development model used to manage such a large, distributed project, are both closer to the realm of software engineering than that of computer science. CS is a more abstract, theoretical discipline, whereas Linux is firmly grounded in the world of day-to-day use and practical considerations.
Perhaps you were looking for a different word, but NT is certainly not more mature than UNIX. Given that UNIX has been around for more than two decades, and has been used for implementing TCP/IP services from the early days, whereas NT is a relative newcomer, yet to make its own mistakes and learn its own lessons.
Even if NT was to objectively outperform UNIX (which I doubt it would realistically do), it does not inspire as much confidence by its youth and lack of pedigree.
How about a system of 3 (or any 2n+1) independent computers voting on the status, with a majority making the decision?
Which is why they plan to phase CDs out and replace them with "DVD Audio". This will presumably be encrypted to be playable only by trusted hardware, and may have provisions for geographical restrictions (a truly evil idea in this age of global commerce).
As for SDMI devices, chances are the consumer ones won't have digital line outputs. Most portable MiniDisc players don't, for example.
Audio out is analogue, which is lossy. Once the signal hits the audio out socket, it has already been through the D-A converter. You can redigitise it, but that introduces degradation. After a few generations, the results will be as dismal as a Nth-generation bootleg tape.
/dev/dsp to an arbitrary file, in effect providing a software-based digital audio out. Someone has written something like that for Windows as well, though since Windows is a closed specification, MS could hobble it easily.
Under Linux, it is possible to hack the kernel to redirect
Wonder whether the RIAA will push for a ban on music decoding software for open-source OSes as well; it seems logically consistent with their attitude.
This is probably a bit off-topic... if someone announced plans to make a portable MP3 encoder, a device capable of taking audio input from, say, a microphone or a line input, MPEG encoding it and storing it in a file on a Flash card or Clik disc or what have you, it would be more interesting. It could be useful for taping concerts, sampling and a lot of other things, and you'd get nice, convenient MP3 files out of it too, unlike MiniDisc systems.
(Then again, MiniDisc (ATRAC) compression yields better quality, though you have to decompress it and convert it, as it's a proprietary algorithm.)
They "perform pretty good"? Surely you mean that they perform pretty well.
Don't mean to be a grammar Nazi, but that was just awful.