People that are very wealthy pay other people to be smart for them, i.e. the wealthy don't have to do anything because they have money.
Seems like "paying other people to be smart for them" is doing something. (Btw It's probably the best one-sentence description of Capitalism I've seen!) Rather than this being the opposite of doing something, it's the best possible thing they can be doing! For example, all the programmers on Slashdot (are there still any?):-) are most likely benefiting from being paid to be smarter at programming than the person/organization doing the paying.
Paying others to be smarter causes investment in businesses and ventures that generate more jobs and grow the economy. Even the stereotypical "rich d-bag" with a gawdawful big, tacky mansion, provides jobs for construction, plumbing, electrical, architects, interior designers, furniture builders, artists, landscapers, etc. (Paying each for being smarter in their respective trades.) i.e. It benefits people at every tier of society.
This system has produced the most innovative society ever! Technology miracles happen so often now we take them for granted, because of this system. The overall standard of living is much higher for everyone in societies that adopt this approach.
Please, please encourage the wealthy to pay others for their smarts!
Why would she have those names? The CIA isn't part of the State Department. If the CIA (or anyone else) is emailing operative's names, the security flaw isn't Clinton's choice of email server, but the emails in the first place.
The CIA is part of the State department. It's the part authorized to do clandestine operations outside the borders of the US.
Gosh I hope this is an ironic reference to how far things have dropped here since the excellent threads/discussions here after the Columbine School shootings.
That's what I get for trying to make a point about how Slashdot seems to be pushing more political stories but then also letting my opinions in to the mix. Human nature, though... I can't help but take up your comment. (Damn it, trolled again!)
In full disclosure, I don't know where you're from or the details of your system and I admit my comment was extremely general. It may be better than ours in many ways, if not every way, but it may also not be apples to apples. You may have all the elements I describe below and if so, I leave the educated one.
In our system, if you get high marks in secondary education, you generally already receive highly subsidized higher education through things like government grants or scholarships funded by the private or personal sector. (Yes, even from the dreaded 1%.) Students who can afford it or who's family can afford it are generally restricted from these, so there's already a distributive element built in to the system.
If you don't receive those marks at that time, you still have higher-ed options and choices. If you mature at a different rate from your peers or find that your interests don't align with your abilities at the same time to meet the specific criteria needed in your system, you can still find many options for college. You just have to decide personally whether the benefits that you'll receive from the degree outweigh the costs.
I believe that we under-value vocational education in this country and tell kids that the only way to be successful is through higher ed. We do a bad job of helping kids and families do the cost/benefit analysis but since the government took over much of the student loan business, it's kind of hard not to see them as beneficiaries and thus complicit in this. (There I go, showing my stripes again.)
Your system seems rather unforgiving to us "anything goes" yanks but I also kind of feel that ours maximizes personal freedom at the expense of allowing people to make choices that aren't in their best interests.
So to take it all the way back to the techie discussions I'd rather be having, it's kind of like when the manager wants you to keep putting more VMs on the same VM host instead of buying new hardware. The raw computing resources are still limited and have a real cost. When you start thinking of the underlying layer as free and unlimited, things will break.
There are several methods/theories on how to best ration a limited resource and far fewer are actually evil than get credited as such in Slashdot these days.
Actually, I vehemently agree with you. I'd MUCH rather be talking about tech than topics which require using classifications like left or right-wing to discuss. I feel like many of the recent stories lately were picked or positioned to do just that. I'm not sure if I'm the troll here or just being trolled but there seems to me more of a political agenda in the stories themselves which just catalyzes a bunch of, "if you don't agree with me, you're not just wrong, you're evil" kinds of comment bouts. (Case in point.)
I hardy ever post comments so I don't get to enjoy being called stupid very often, but I'm pretty sure I can differentiate a basic left vs right-wing approach to a issue, rather than just self-identifying with right and thus anything I disagree with is automatically left. (Believe me, both sides have their strengths and weaknesses.) Yeah, I let my stripes show a bit but the bigger point is: "Hey story approvers, stop posting stories that try to stir up all the political BS and get back to what we came here for, heated, political debates about stuff like init vs systemd."
Maybe your last point was that I'm the stupid one for still coming back hoping that this wasn't the case. As I wrap up this comment, I certainly feel a little more stupid than when I started so you may just be right.
I totally agree. Not only are there more political stories, they're decidedly left-leaning. It's getting even worse in the comments. I remember when government was "the man"' and hackers were mostly libertarian. Now every Slashdot issue seems to end up as a fight for who can hand government more power and control. (Don't like big corporations? Why do you think big government is better? Maybe small both is best. Bernie Sanders? Give me a break. Do you know how other countries provide college for free? They pick the people who are allowed to go.)
The more Slashdot becomes a hang out for privleged young lefties to tell everyone how to think, the more I just want to chuck the whole thing. And fwiw, I've been a daily visitor since I downloaded Debian onto floppies with my 28.8 modem.
This will really mess with my obsessive/compulsiveness. I'll never miss a day again!
I too go back to the very early days. I started reading about the same time that I did my first Debian install, using FTP over dial-up! In many ways I owe my technology career to Slashdot and by extension to Rob and Jeff.
So many things along the way, but the one that really sticks out was the Columbine thread. Every news/blog/comment site that exists today owes it to Slashdot for pioneering the form. That DEC alpha should be in the Smithsonian!
How scary would a combo Wireshark + root kit or botnet be? A lot of companies download Wireshark, stick it on old laptops, park them on various parts of their network, and remote desktop into it as a cheap troubleshooting solution. Get malware on those boxes and the bad guys now can see inside everything that crosses the network, inside all the firewalls. Yikes!!
Regardless of the debatable benefits to the recording companies, doesn't this approach do the most damage to the artist by reducing the public's perception of that artist's overall quality?
Most corporations would never allow low-quality reproduction of their branding, even for legitimate business use. To do so would undermine the value of the brand because of the association with lower quality.
An artist's professional reputation is based on the public's perception of their quality. Seeding the market with poor quality content only causes the public to associate that artist with poor quality.
Ultimately, this will drive consumers toward artists that fight to protect the quality of their on-line body of work.
Personally, I feel that the recording industry can keep people buying their product if they enhance the music with liner notes, album art, and other forms of content that are harder to distribute in its original format.
Lego Alpha Team is a game that makes the player solve spatial puzzles to continue to the next level. The puzzles require the player to place special blocks that change the direction of movement of the on-screen characters.
In effect, you "program" the movement to accomplish a specific goal. In fact, the playing process reminds me a great deal of programming. Kind of an edit-run-debug sort of process. You have unlimited time and lives to complete the puzzles (unlike actual programming, I guess).
All of this is wrapped up in a action/adventure story-line which keep it engaging. My eight-year-old son loves this game and I enjoy playing it too.
I realize this guy has no "legal defense fund." However, if the FBI's actions end up puting him out of business (or even harming his busness in any way), wouldn't he legitimately have a case aginst the FBI?
If so, is this the kind of case a lawyer might take on contingency?
It seems that the FBI's actions here are not unlike a certain software company that uses its size and power instead of legal means to get the results it wants.
I agree wholeheartedly that the availability of a quality browser will help attract and keep new desktop users. But I also agree with those that say that we should put some pressure on the creators of the websites that use non-standard features.
To this end, here is a template of a letter that you can use. It puts this issue in terms that a VP of Marketing, or other non-technical executive can understand, that of market restriction and ROI.
If you come across sites that aren't compatible, find the highest level executive of the offending firm and send this letter. Every bit helps.
*** Begin Letter ***
Dear {insert executive name here}:
To introduce myself, I am a user of the Internet and a potential customer.
I would like to inform you of an issue that prevents you from realizing the maximum benefit from your Internet marketing investment.
When I attempt to visit your web site, I am unable to use the site's features. This is due to portions of its design that render it incompatible with many types of software, including the very popular Netscape browser and the quickly growing Linux operating system. This incompatibility is caused by the use of non-standard, proprietary methods of web programming.
This problem limits the reach of your site and limits the potential market for your service. The result of this is your investment in the web has less overall probability of success than the more compatible sites of your competitors.
Compatibility with these types of systems becomes even more of an issue when you look at the types of people who use this combination of software.
These are the technically astute, early adopters of web based services. These are the people most likely to use the Web for the services that your site offers. This is the last group of users that you should be alienating.
Thankfully, the solution is an easy one. Please see to it that your web features are only implemented with standards based methods. Additionally, please make sure that these features are properly tested on many different combinations of operating systems and web browsers.
By ensuring 100% browser compatibility, you can realize the greatest return on your investment, and millions of previously unreachable users will be able to benefit from your site.
I remember a study regarding the speed limits. It showed that for the most part, people find 70-75mph a "comfortable" speed to drive.
When the speed limits were maxed at 55mph in the US, the majority of people still drove 70mph or so on the interstates. Now that the limits are 70mph in most places, people haven't increased their speed to 90mph (as many critics of rasing the limit said would happen) but rather kept in the 70-75 range.
Of course, there are still a small minority who drive 90 but they would do that regardless of lower limtis.
Now the police can focus on busting those drivers who are on one end of the bell curve, not everyone who is under the fattest part. (And people who hang out with aliens, of course.;-)
Number of accidents are at their lowest when everyone travels at more or less the same speed.
I've had run-ins with other thin client architectures including Java, HTML and Citrix Win/MetaFrame/ICA type solutions.
It really depends if your application is in a closed environment such as a corporate intranet, or if it needs universal client compatibility.
In the closed environment, you have a lot more control over the client hardware specs. In this situation, if you can build a case around return on investment you may be able to find some takers.
I think that your best bet, though, is to stick with HTML. There may be some pains in maintaining application context but all in all the form/submit metaphor generally matches well with database access applications. It's really not much different from 3270/5250 type terminals. Furthermore, getting too tricky with GUI elements tends to limit usability rather than enhance it.
Ultimately, if you stick with HTML you'll have the widest range of client devices to choose from. Everything from big, fat, PC workstations to small, skinny, fixed function "internet appliances."
Even PDA's and cell phones become potential clients in this "everything's got a browser" age.
Yes, stick with HTML. Do all the harder stuff at the application tier.
Escape velocity is seven miles per second or 25,200 miles per hour. I ve often wondered if it's possible to use the same construction techniques that were used to build the "Chunnel" across the English Channel to build a LONG undersea tunnel with it s mouth at the surface.
Then, using a combination of magnetic acceleration and pneumatic pressure, accelerate a payload to escape velocity without ANY rocket fuel.
Of course the thing would be hugely expensive to build. But once built, throwing payloads into space would be cheap, cheap, cheap.
(A variation of this was used by the lunar revolutionaries in _The_Moon_is_a_Harsh_Mistress_.)
It would seem that the exit velocity of this device is only limited by it's length. (Okay, length, air resistance, and C.)
trichard
p.s. Someone do the math to see how long this tunnel would have to be to accelerate an object from rest to 7mps at 1G, 2G and 5G's.
Actually, having this kind of attention from MS just proves that they take Linux seriously as a competitor.
If I were ever faced with this from a customer using it to justify not using Linux, I'd pull up all of the other sections showing "MS is better than x" where x=other commercially accepted products.
How fun would it be to visit an Oracle shop thinking about Linux, being faced with this propaganda, and pulling out the "MS/SQL is better than Oracle" document?
Slashdot Mirror
People that are very wealthy pay other people to be smart for them, i.e. the wealthy don't have to do anything because they have money.
Seems like "paying other people to be smart for them" is doing something. (Btw It's probably the best one-sentence description of Capitalism I've seen!) Rather than this being the opposite of doing something, it's the best possible thing they can be doing! For example, all the programmers on Slashdot (are there still any?) :-) are most likely benefiting from being paid to be smarter at programming than the person/organization doing the paying.
Paying others to be smarter causes investment in businesses and ventures that generate more jobs and grow the economy. Even the stereotypical "rich d-bag" with a gawdawful big, tacky mansion, provides jobs for construction, plumbing, electrical, architects, interior designers, furniture builders, artists, landscapers, etc. (Paying each for being smarter in their respective trades.) i.e. It benefits people at every tier of society.
This system has produced the most innovative society ever! Technology miracles happen so often now we take them for granted, because of this system. The overall standard of living is much higher for everyone in societies that adopt this approach.
Please, please encourage the wealthy to pay others for their smarts!
Why would she have those names? The CIA isn't part of the State Department. If the CIA (or anyone else) is emailing operative's names, the security flaw isn't Clinton's choice of email server, but the emails in the first place.
The CIA is part of the State department. It's the part authorized to do clandestine operations outside the borders of the US.
Gosh I hope this is an ironic reference to how far things have dropped here since the excellent threads/discussions here after the Columbine School shootings.
That's what I get for trying to make a point about how Slashdot seems to be pushing more political stories but then also letting my opinions in to the mix. Human nature, though... I can't help but take up your comment. (Damn it, trolled again!)
In full disclosure, I don't know where you're from or the details of your system and I admit my comment was extremely general. It may be better than ours in many ways, if not every way, but it may also not be apples to apples. You may have all the elements I describe below and if so, I leave the educated one.
In our system, if you get high marks in secondary education, you generally already receive highly subsidized higher education through things like government grants or scholarships funded by the private or personal sector. (Yes, even from the dreaded 1%.) Students who can afford it or who's family can afford it are generally restricted from these, so there's already a distributive element built in to the system.
If you don't receive those marks at that time, you still have higher-ed options and choices. If you mature at a different rate from your peers or find that your interests don't align with your abilities at the same time to meet the specific criteria needed in your system, you can still find many options for college. You just have to decide personally whether the benefits that you'll receive from the degree outweigh the costs.
I believe that we under-value vocational education in this country and tell kids that the only way to be successful is through higher ed. We do a bad job of helping kids and families do the cost/benefit analysis but since the government took over much of the student loan business, it's kind of hard not to see them as beneficiaries and thus complicit in this. (There I go, showing my stripes again.)
Your system seems rather unforgiving to us "anything goes" yanks but I also kind of feel that ours maximizes personal freedom at the expense of allowing people to make choices that aren't in their best interests.
So to take it all the way back to the techie discussions I'd rather be having, it's kind of like when the manager wants you to keep putting more VMs on the same VM host instead of buying new hardware. The raw computing resources are still limited and have a real cost. When you start thinking of the underlying layer as free and unlimited, things will break.
There are several methods/theories on how to best ration a limited resource and far fewer are actually evil than get credited as such in Slashdot these days.
Actually, I vehemently agree with you. I'd MUCH rather be talking about tech than topics which require using classifications like left or right-wing to discuss. I feel like many of the recent stories lately were picked or positioned to do just that. I'm not sure if I'm the troll here or just being trolled but there seems to me more of a political agenda in the stories themselves which just catalyzes a bunch of, "if you don't agree with me, you're not just wrong, you're evil" kinds of comment bouts. (Case in point.)
I hardy ever post comments so I don't get to enjoy being called stupid very often, but I'm pretty sure I can differentiate a basic left vs right-wing approach to a issue, rather than just self-identifying with right and thus anything I disagree with is automatically left. (Believe me, both sides have their strengths and weaknesses.) Yeah, I let my stripes show a bit but the bigger point is: "Hey story approvers, stop posting stories that try to stir up all the political BS and get back to what we came here for, heated, political debates about stuff like init vs systemd."
Maybe your last point was that I'm the stupid one for still coming back hoping that this wasn't the case. As I wrap up this comment, I certainly feel a little more stupid than when I started so you may just be right.
I totally agree. Not only are there more political stories, they're decidedly left-leaning. It's getting even worse in the comments. I remember when government was "the man"' and hackers were mostly libertarian. Now every Slashdot issue seems to end up as a fight for who can hand government more power and control. (Don't like big corporations? Why do you think big government is better? Maybe small both is best. Bernie Sanders? Give me a break. Do you know how other countries provide college for free? They pick the people who are allowed to go.)
The more Slashdot becomes a hang out for privleged young lefties to tell everyone how to think, the more I just want to chuck the whole thing. And fwiw, I've been a daily visitor since I downloaded Debian onto floppies with my 28.8 modem.
This will really mess with my obsessive/compulsiveness. I'll never miss a day again!
I too go back to the very early days. I started reading about the same time that I did my first Debian install, using FTP over dial-up! In many ways I owe my technology career to Slashdot and by extension to Rob and Jeff.
So many things along the way, but the one that really sticks out was the Columbine thread. Every news/blog/comment site that exists today owes it to Slashdot for pioneering the form. That DEC alpha should be in the Smithsonian!
Thanks for everything!!!
How scary would a combo Wireshark + root kit or botnet be? A lot of companies download Wireshark, stick it on old laptops, park them on various parts of their network, and remote desktop into it as a cheap troubleshooting solution. Get malware on those boxes and the bad guys now can see inside everything that crosses the network, inside all the firewalls. Yikes!!
Isn't that what Ruby on Rails is for?
http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/CRUD
trichard
Regardless of the debatable benefits to the recording companies, doesn't this approach do the most damage to the artist by reducing the public's perception of that artist's overall quality?
Most corporations would never allow low-quality reproduction of their branding, even for legitimate business use. To do so would undermine the value of the brand because of the association with lower quality.
An artist's professional reputation is based on the public's perception of their quality. Seeding the market with poor quality content only causes the public to associate that artist with poor quality.
Ultimately, this will drive consumers toward artists that fight to protect the quality of their on-line body of work.
Personally, I feel that the recording industry can keep people buying their product if they enhance the music with liner notes, album art, and other forms of content that are harder to distribute in its original format.
Don't through out the artist with the bathwater.
trichard
> Seems like the company is almost as much at fault as the cracker.
Are you as guilty as the guy who steals your stereo? How about if you leave your front door unlocked?
Lego Alpha Team is a game that makes the player solve spatial puzzles to continue to the next level. The puzzles require the player to place special blocks that change the direction of movement of the on-screen characters.
In effect, you "program" the movement to accomplish a specific goal. In fact, the playing process reminds me a great deal of programming. Kind of an edit-run-debug sort of process. You have unlimited time and lives to complete the puzzles (unlike actual programming, I guess).
All of this is wrapped up in a action/adventure story-line which keep it engaging. My eight-year-old son loves this game and I enjoy playing it too.
Check out the game's home page and a review at Kid's Domain.
trichard
Let's also not confuse with Sisco, the food distributor.
Although I heard that they were trying to cash in on all of the Internet hype by developing a line of snackable network switches.
I realize this guy has no "legal defense fund." However, if the FBI's actions end up puting him out of business (or even harming his busness in any way), wouldn't he legitimately have a case aginst the FBI?
If so, is this the kind of case a lawyer might take on contingency?
It seems that the FBI's actions here are not unlike a certain software company that uses its size and power instead of legal means to get the results it wants.
FINAL EXAM
Name: _Coward, Anonymous_
Question #11 - Answer:
Step One - Do a Google search for Beowulf-HOWTO.
Step Two - Make a big freakin' Beowulf cluster out of the air-dropped computers!
Step Three - Now you're such a d00d that the army will bring food to you!
(Actually, the questions are interesting. #11 challenges us to define how universal communication can catalize mass cultural change. Hmmmm.)
I agree wholeheartedly that the availability of a quality browser will help attract and keep new desktop users. But I also agree with those that say that we should put some pressure on the creators of the websites that use non-standard features.
;-)
To this end, here is a template of a letter that you can use. It puts this issue in terms that a VP of Marketing, or other non-technical executive can understand, that of market restriction and ROI.
If you come across sites that aren't compatible, find the highest level executive of the offending firm and send this letter. Every bit helps.
*** Begin Letter ***
Dear {insert executive name here}:
To introduce myself, I am a user of the Internet and a potential customer.
I would like to inform you of an issue that prevents you from realizing the maximum benefit from your Internet marketing investment.
When I attempt to visit your web site, I am unable to use the site's features. This is due to portions of its design that render it incompatible with many types of software, including the very popular Netscape browser and the quickly growing Linux operating system. This incompatibility is caused by the use of non-standard, proprietary methods of web programming.
This problem limits the reach of your site and limits the potential market for your service. The result of this is your investment in the web has less overall probability of success than the more compatible sites of your competitors.
Compatibility with these types of systems becomes even more of an issue when you look at the types of people who use this combination of software.
These are the technically astute, early adopters of web based services. These are the people most likely to use the Web for the services that your site offers. This is the last group of users that you should be alienating.
Thankfully, the solution is an easy one. Please see to it that your web features are only implemented with standards based methods. Additionally, please make sure that these features are properly tested on many different combinations of operating systems and web browsers.
By ensuring 100% browser compatibility, you can realize the greatest return on your investment, and millions of previously unreachable users will be able to benefit from your site.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
{insert name here}
*** end Letter ***
Good Luck!
p.s. This letter is fully GPL'd, of course!
Not sci-fi but how about Caddyshack II?
I remember a study regarding the speed limits. It showed that for the most part, people find 70-75mph a "comfortable" speed to drive.
;-)
When the speed limits were maxed at 55mph in the US, the majority of people still drove 70mph or so on the interstates. Now that the limits are 70mph in most places, people haven't increased their speed to 90mph (as many critics of rasing the limit said would happen) but rather kept in the 70-75 range.
Of course, there are still a small minority who drive 90 but they would do that regardless of lower limtis.
Now the police can focus on busting those drivers who are on one end of the bell curve, not everyone who is under the fattest part. (And people who hang out with aliens, of course.
Number of accidents are at their lowest when everyone travels at more or less the same speed.
Don't forget one of the most addictive drugs of all, Nitrozac!
A server named Nitrozac won't need booted often, but oh, those boots!
I've had run-ins with other thin client architectures including Java, HTML and Citrix Win/MetaFrame/ICA type solutions.
It really depends if your application is in a closed environment such as a corporate intranet, or if it needs universal client compatibility.
In the closed environment, you have a lot more control over the client hardware specs. In this situation, if you can build a case around return on investment you may be able to find some takers.
I think that your best bet, though, is to stick with HTML. There may be some pains in maintaining application context but all in all the form/submit metaphor generally matches well with database access applications. It's really not much different from 3270/5250 type terminals. Furthermore, getting too tricky with GUI elements tends to limit usability rather than enhance it.
Ultimately, if you stick with HTML you'll have the widest range of client devices to choose from. Everything from big, fat, PC workstations to small, skinny, fixed function "internet appliances."
Even PDA's and cell phones become potential clients in this "everything's got a browser" age.
Yes, stick with HTML. Do all the harder stuff at the application tier.
Good Luck!
The closer to the equator, the better. Launch to the east at the equator and you pick up about 1000 miles per hour from the rotation of the Earth.
Escape velocity is just one big vector sum, you know.
Escape velocity is seven miles per second or 25,200 miles per hour. I ve often wondered if it's possible to use the same construction techniques that were used to build the "Chunnel" across the English Channel to build a LONG undersea tunnel with it s mouth at the surface.
Then, using a combination of magnetic acceleration and pneumatic pressure, accelerate a
payload to escape velocity without ANY rocket fuel.
Of course the thing would be hugely expensive to build. But once built, throwing payloads
into space would be cheap, cheap, cheap.
(A variation of this was used by the lunar revolutionaries in _The_Moon_is_a_Harsh_Mistress_.)
It would seem that the exit velocity of this device is only limited by it's length. (Okay,
length, air resistance, and C.)
trichard
p.s. Someone do the math to see how long this tunnel would have to be to accelerate
an object from rest to 7mps at 1G, 2G and 5G's.
Actually, having this kind of attention from MS just proves that they take Linux seriously as a competitor.
If I were ever faced with this from a customer using it to justify not using Linux, I'd pull up all of the other sections showing "MS is better than x" where x=other commercially accepted products.
How fun would it be to visit an Oracle shop thinking about Linux, being faced with this propaganda, and pulling out the "MS/SQL is better than Oracle" document?
Instant loss of credibility.
I wouln't be so sure about people not finding their way to this site...
What's to keep Microsoft from paying off the search engines to list this page when people do an inquisitive search for "linux" or "linux vs NT"?
All part of a well-orchestrated propaganda campaign.
If I recall, Nitrozac refers to the combination of Nitro Glycerin and Prozac. Something explosive combined with something soothing.
Oxymoron? Yes. Intriguing? Yes, again.
Where can I get a prescription filled?