Um, I'm amazed that this isn't blindingly obvious to every intelligent person on the planet, most of all Hemos, but...just because DreamWorks will be making the movies doesn't mean Spielberg himself will have anything at all to do with them. That's like saying that Mike Eisner directs Disney movies. Sure, he's the head of the company, but he has nothing to do with most of the movies themselves. Sheesh.
But CmdrTaco does have a rich uncle! His name, if I recall, is Andover Dotnet. Cool guy, although he tends to throw lots of money around for really silly things...
When I'm really thinking hard about something, I tend to forget to listen to music, but the majority of the time, I listen to a broad range of things while I code. A 3.74 gig range, to be exact.
My favorite coding music:
Nine Inch Nails (The Fragile is excellent)
Propellerheads
Chemical Brothers
Ben Folds Five
Garbage
Jim's Big Ego
Cibo Matto
Led Zeppelin
Fluke
Oddly enough, I've found that listening to NIN while I do my math homework actually makes me work faster and more accurately. Strange, strange, strange.
As far as sound setups go, I prefer speakers + sub to headphones, although a good set of headphones with nice bass will do when I'm at work or something and don't want to bother people. I like it a lot better when my sub shakes the paint off my wall though.
Also, I do the best code when I'm dead tired. Which means that I generally stay up all night coding, because I don't tend to get tired until around 4am. Once I get tired, I dip into my endless supply of Mountain Dew and keep right on coding until I feel satisfied that I've gotten something done. Then I sleep for an hour and go to school...
Nifty idea, but unless the fish also has a really good memory and we're able to come up with a way to extract that memory, this won't be happening anytime soon. The simple fact is, low-powered radio waves don't work underwater. You'd have to implant an ELF (extremely low frequency) transmitter in the fish in order to get anything, and even then, the fish would have to be about the size of a large office building. And the transmission rate would be reeeeaallly slow...like, say, that of a 1200 bps modem (although I'm no expert).
Hehe, maybe it's just me, but doesn't the idea of Bill Gates using Linux to run his home automation system seem just a little blasphemous? Sure, Bill uses Linux. Riiiiiiight....
from my experience with the beta 2000 builds it seems to be a severly dumbed-down version of NT.
Dumbed-down? Wherever did you get that from? I've been using Windows 2000 since it was NT5, and I'll testify that it's the most advanced OS I've seen. As much as I love Linux, and as bloated as Win2000 still is, on a good computer, Win2K is awesome. Yes, Microsoft added lots of silly wizards and stuff, but just because an advanced feature has a nice front-end and is simple to use doesn't make it "dumbed-down".
Perhaps this is just a by-product of today being National Techies Day, but I find that I absolutely can't stand the collective "Linux ego" that is being blown up like a hot air balloon here.
Read some of the comments being posted. A few of them are actually good, interesting comments that express valid criticisms of Microsoft and give Linux the same criticism when deserved. But just a few. All the other comments (and if you don't believe me, just look) are basically saying the same thing: something along the lines of, "This shows us that Microsoft is scared of Linux. That means Linux is cool. Microsoft software sucks and Linux rules and I'm too stubborn and thickheaded to admit that both have advantages and disadvantages over each other."
What kind of an attitude is this? Why do Linux devotees invariably find it necessary to scorn Microsoft? Microsoft's products may be buggy, but people, look around! All software is buggy, and honestly, the software that Microsoft has been pumping out recently is some of the best stuff I've seen produced by a software corporation. Maybe Linux is better. Maybe FreeBSD is more secure. They all claim to be more stable. But the truth is, competition is a Good Thing(tm)!
Instead of wanting Microsoft to simply go away, why doesn't the Linux community use the excellence of Linux to push Microsoft to make a better OS? Why don't we encourage Microsoft to make their code better, smaller, and less bloated? Perhaps even opene the source of portions of it? I don't know about anyone else, but I prefer to have a wide choice of operating systems. If Windows were to go away, I would hate being forced to use a UNIX-like OS (when I don't particularly like UNIX), or a MacOS (far too simplistic for my tastes). I want something in between. And right now, the best operating system that fits that category is Microsoft Windows, buggy as it may be.
So instead of laughing at Microsoft and pointing at them like we're small children playing soccer and Microsoft is the big fat kid that keeps tripping over his feet and getting all muddy, why don't we use our big strong Linux muscles to help the poor bloated Microsoft kid to his feet? Wipe some of the mud off him? Perhaps play as teammates?
And hasn't Microsoft constantly claimed that NT is not a desktop OS either? Aren't they coming out with an update to Windows 98 for just this reason?
Uh, no. I don't recall Microsoft ever claiming that WinNT 4.0 and Win2000 weren't desktop OSes. In fact, they're very desktop-oriented. Especially Win2000. In fact, I've been using Windows 2000 as my desktop *and* server OS since it was NT5, and it's very, very nice. I honestly haven't had a single problem with it, and considering that it's still beta software, this is a Very Good Thing(tm).
I know this is kinda' mean, but...er...this isn't such a big deal. I work for Chipzilla and people here were playing with processors over a year ago that did well over 1GHz without too much extra cooling. More than the usual amount, of course, but nothing supercooled. The systems were slightly unstable, though, and they were purely for testing new manufacturing processes. More than that I can't say, since I wasn't directly involved in the usage of the machines. All I know is, I'd have loved to put a distributed.net client on one of those babies...
My stepfather worked for the NSA from around 1980-1993. During that time, he was stationed in Germany and his job was to spy on the Russians. He worked in a very high-security complex with a lot of nifty spy gadgets and phone taps and bugs and things of that nature. According to his stories, the NSA actually did do a very small amount of dabbling in the secret agent type of thing, but not much, and nothing involving blowing things up or things of that nature.
Anyway, he also once told me that when the movie Sneakers came out in 1992, the NSA actually issued an order to all its employees stating that under no circumstances were they to comment to the press or anyone else on the movie's validity (the movie deals a lot with the NSA). Apparently, the movie was very, very accurate in its depiction of the NSA, and even included quite a few details that had been top secret. And aside from all that, it's a pretty good movie, too.:)
Very, very well-put, Mr. Mollusk. I couldn't agree more with your views.
As a high school student (senior), I have always been apalled at the pure outright uselessness and harmfulness of our educational system. I want to learn about things that interest me and about things related to my interests. If I'm not interested in chemistry (I'm not), I don't want to be force-fed chemistry lessons. I'd be perfectly happy to be taught the basics and perhaps spend a week taking a quick overview course, simply to broaden my knowledge, but taking an entire year or more in high school and more in college is a waste of my time.
My school is actually much better about many things than normal public schools. I attend Merlo Station High School in Beaverton, Oregon (near Portland). The school itself houses multiple programs, and I'm a student in the science program (Natural Resource Sciences and Technology, known as NRST). There are approximately 200 students in the entire program, and six teachers, so after four years you develop a very close relationship with all of your teachers. The courses are geared towards science and technology, but also include a wide range of humanities and other things. The program also offers internships, mentorships, and allows students with free time in their schedule to take on what's called an independent study, in which the student actually teaches him/herself about any topic under the sun and gives regular progress reports and a final exihibtion of knowledge to a teacher.
While the basic structure of the school is still fundamentally like any other American high school, and there's still lots of pointless required courses and unnecessary homework, the internships and independent study courses, as well as the small school environment and friendly atmosphere (students even call teachers by their first names), give many students something that they couldn't get anywhere else. Personally, if I hadn't enrolled at NRST after my freshman year of high school, I think I would've either become a failure in high school, dropped out, or just slacked off and floated through it with disinterest.
NRST certainly isn't perfect, and the program isn't right for everyone, but it's an option that a lot more cities/school districts should have. I also find it amusing that NRST alumni simply cannot stay away...they're always coming back to the school to visit their teachers, who've become their close friends, or to meet the newest batch of students, or just to sit through a few classes and relive the old days. I've never heard of another high school where alumni actually went out of their way to return to the school outside of a class reunion.
What does this tell us? First of all, Microsoft has already beaten Linux in the newbie market. This clueless Microsoft employee obviously didn't have any trouble using Windows. But Linux isn't at all newbie-friendly. When one considers that the vast majority of computer-users are newbies, the truth becomes painfully clear: Linux won't take over any markets until it's as easy to use as Windows (props to Corel).
On another note: regarding the kick-arse computer this clueless user had, it's pitiful, but another painful truth is that the newbies, for some reason, always get the best boxen. I'm a developer for Intel (yes, spawn of Satan), and I work on a Pentium Pro 200. Meanwhile, the marketing guy next to me who has to call tech support and pay someone to come out and install his shareware for him, has a PIII-550 with gobs of RAM and a monitor the size of my cubicle wall. Go figure. And you'd think Intel wouldn't have any problem supplying the cool chips to its employees...heh, yeah, right. I'm sure Microsoft is much the same way...
To date, I have yet to talk to a single religious "official" (i.e., pastor, priest, bishop, pope, whatever) who agrees with me on this, but here's my take on things:
if (religion==true){ if (science==true){ everything='groovy' } else { self='delusioned' } } else { science=true }
(yeah, so it's not really any specific programming language, but it looks enough like one to fool someone)
Well, bacteria may or may not have a soul, but the Old Testament commands respect and kindness towards every living thing (which of course doesn't preclude killing and eating certain living things, so there you go).
Where does it say this in the Old Testament? I don't remember reading that. In the New Testament, we are commanded to love one another, but I don't recall reading anything in the Bible implying that we should have respect and kindness towards every living thing. Indeed, in Genesis I do believe God told Adam that he was dominant over every other living thing and could do pretty much as he pleased...
Er...there currently isn't a usable Linux kernel for any device that runs WinCE. This being the case, I don't really think you can say Linux is providing WinCE with competition. I wish it were, though...WinCE is a real piece of crap when it comes to small devices. We need more people working on the LinuxCE effort!
Theme music makes for a better read!
on
Wired on Slashdot
·
· Score: 1
Woah. I clicked on the link to visit the Wired article, and just as I did so, the MP3 playing in my playlist ended and the next one started...and it just happened to be Toto's Main Title theme from the movie Dune.
I read the entire Wired article with the Dune Title Theme playing in the background, and got this weird feeling...as if Slashdot and Slashdot-like sites were (much like the Fremen) inciting a revolution and about to take over the planet. Hmm. I suggest everyone get that MP3 and go read the article again while listening to it. Wow, that was unnerving.
I'm referring to a minimal installation of RedHat 6.0. By default, Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment, and some services and other accessories are installed. In the case of Windows, one has to keep in mind that a zillion accessories get installed along with the OS. Oh, and I meant Windows 2000 Server, not Professional, and IIS is installed. (Apache was not installed on the RedHat box)
It's nice to see so many people don't have a clue what they're talking about...
From what I see, my Linux installation is using quite a bit more hard drive space than my Windows 2000 installation, and my Windows 98 installation doesn't come anywhere near the size of Linux. This would seem to imply that Linux would be the one to take advantage of the extra terabytes, wouldn't it?
Why is this news? I know of a few high schools and clubs in Texas and elsewhere that have been doing this sort of thing for years. It wasn't televised or anything, but it was the same thing.
I think everyone needs to go re-read the article. And then read what the other sources have to say...this is a big news item; all the major online news sites have reported it. In fact, it's a few days old now. The issue here is not that some stupid Microsoft employee impersonated someone else and bashed AOL. The point is that the stupid Microsoft employee was right. AOL is exploiting a buffer-overrun backdoor in its Instant Messenger client which causes the client to automatically execute any source code that comes down the line from the server.
This is such a huge security issue it's revolting. But of course, nobody noticed that part of the story, because everyone was too busy laughing at how Microsoft made this information known...
Alrighty guys, here we go again. Instead of letting the media (you remember them, right?) dictate to us what's happening, let's use our brains, okay? All we know for sure, as a fact, is that teachers in Kansas are no longer required to test students on the Theory of Evolution. Despite what that very opinionated and badly-informed MSNBC article said, there is no rule disallowing the mention of evolution in Kansas schools, nor is there any requirement that Creationism or any other religious doctrine be taught. Simply put, this is not a Big Deal(tm).
It should also be pointed out that it is perfectly normal for a school board to choose not to teach a particular theory to students. Note the word 'theory'...the idea that lower life-forms evolved into more advanced and on-the-whole different species is still very much classified as theory. As such, I don't believe there should be any requirement that it be taught in schools. It's optional, yes, but because it's only a theory, it should not by any means be required learning. On the other hand, gene mutation and other such forms of "intra-species" evolution (for lack of a better term) have been proven by scientific means, and therefore should most definitely be taught; unsurprisingly, you'll notice that this type of evolution will still be taught in Kansas schools.
I'm not one to say that there weren't hidden agendas behind this whole thing, and yeah, I'm sure there were. Creationists will always try to gain a stronger hold on schools -- thus is the nature of religion and politics. But in spite of the reasons behind the new curriculum, you have to admit that the media is going way overboard in their representation of the event. It's not nearly as much of a Big Deal(tm) as it's being made out to be.
(On a sidenote, one could argue that, for the same reasons non-religious parents have gained a victory in disallowing prayer in school due to a conflict of beliefs, religious parents should be given the same treatment in selecting what teachings their children are subjected to.)
Slashdot Mirror
Um, I'm amazed that this isn't blindingly obvious to every intelligent person on the planet, most of all Hemos, but...just because DreamWorks will be making the movies doesn't mean Spielberg himself will have anything at all to do with them. That's like saying that Mike Eisner directs Disney movies. Sure, he's the head of the company, but he has nothing to do with most of the movies themselves. Sheesh.
But CmdrTaco does have a rich uncle! His name, if I recall, is Andover Dotnet. Cool guy, although he tends to throw lots of money around for really silly things...
My favorite coding music:
Nine Inch Nails (The Fragile is excellent)
Propellerheads
Chemical Brothers
Ben Folds Five
Garbage
Jim's Big Ego
Cibo Matto
Led Zeppelin
Fluke
Oddly enough, I've found that listening to NIN while I do my math homework actually makes me work faster and more accurately. Strange, strange, strange.
As far as sound setups go, I prefer speakers + sub to headphones, although a good set of headphones with nice bass will do when I'm at work or something and don't want to bother people. I like it a lot better when my sub shakes the paint off my wall though.
Also, I do the best code when I'm dead tired. Which means that I generally stay up all night coding, because I don't tend to get tired until around 4am. Once I get tired, I dip into my endless supply of Mountain Dew and keep right on coding until I feel satisfied that I've gotten something done. Then I sleep for an hour and go to school...
Intel does put resources into developing better compilers. But, hehe, guess who uses them? Intel. They're not released to the public.
Nifty idea, but unless the fish also has a really good memory and we're able to come up with a way to extract that memory, this won't be happening anytime soon. The simple fact is, low-powered radio waves don't work underwater. You'd have to implant an ELF (extremely low frequency) transmitter in the fish in order to get anything, and even then, the fish would have to be about the size of a large office building. And the transmission rate would be reeeeaallly slow...like, say, that of a 1200 bps modem (although I'm no expert).
Hehe, maybe it's just me, but doesn't the idea of Bill Gates using Linux to run his home automation system seem just a little blasphemous? Sure, Bill uses Linux. Riiiiiiight....
Dumbed-down? Wherever did you get that from? I've been using Windows 2000 since it was NT5, and I'll testify that it's the most advanced OS I've seen. As much as I love Linux, and as bloated as Win2000 still is, on a good computer, Win2K is awesome. Yes, Microsoft added lots of silly wizards and stuff, but just because an advanced feature has a nice front-end and is simple to use doesn't make it "dumbed-down".
Read some of the comments being posted. A few of them are actually good, interesting comments that express valid criticisms of Microsoft and give Linux the same criticism when deserved. But just a few. All the other comments (and if you don't believe me, just look) are basically saying the same thing: something along the lines of, "This shows us that Microsoft is scared of Linux. That means Linux is cool. Microsoft software sucks and Linux rules and I'm too stubborn and thickheaded to admit that both have advantages and disadvantages over each other."
What kind of an attitude is this? Why do Linux devotees invariably find it necessary to scorn Microsoft? Microsoft's products may be buggy, but people, look around! All software is buggy, and honestly, the software that Microsoft has been pumping out recently is some of the best stuff I've seen produced by a software corporation. Maybe Linux is better. Maybe FreeBSD is more secure. They all claim to be more stable. But the truth is, competition is a Good Thing(tm)!
Instead of wanting Microsoft to simply go away, why doesn't the Linux community use the excellence of Linux to push Microsoft to make a better OS? Why don't we encourage Microsoft to make their code better, smaller, and less bloated? Perhaps even opene the source of portions of it? I don't know about anyone else, but I prefer to have a wide choice of operating systems. If Windows were to go away, I would hate being forced to use a UNIX-like OS (when I don't particularly like UNIX), or a MacOS (far too simplistic for my tastes). I want something in between. And right now, the best operating system that fits that category is Microsoft Windows, buggy as it may be.
So instead of laughing at Microsoft and pointing at them like we're small children playing soccer and Microsoft is the big fat kid that keeps tripping over his feet and getting all muddy, why don't we use our big strong Linux muscles to help the poor bloated Microsoft kid to his feet? Wipe some of the mud off him? Perhaps play as teammates?
NT 4.0 does PnP, and Windows 2000 has full PnP and USB support.
Uh, no. I don't recall Microsoft ever claiming that WinNT 4.0 and Win2000 weren't desktop OSes. In fact, they're very desktop-oriented. Especially Win2000. In fact, I've been using Windows 2000 as my desktop *and* server OS since it was NT5, and it's very, very nice. I honestly haven't had a single problem with it, and considering that it's still beta software, this is a Very Good Thing(tm).
I know this is kinda' mean, but...er...this isn't such a big deal. I work for Chipzilla and people here were playing with processors over a year ago that did well over 1GHz without too much extra cooling. More than the usual amount, of course, but nothing supercooled. The systems were slightly unstable, though, and they were purely for testing new manufacturing processes. More than that I can't say, since I wasn't directly involved in the usage of the machines. All I know is, I'd have loved to put a distributed.net client on one of those babies...
Anyway, he also once told me that when the movie Sneakers came out in 1992, the NSA actually issued an order to all its employees stating that under no circumstances were they to comment to the press or anyone else on the movie's validity (the movie deals a lot with the NSA). Apparently, the movie was very, very accurate in its depiction of the NSA, and even included quite a few details that had been top secret. And aside from all that, it's a pretty good movie, too. :)
As a high school student (senior), I have always been apalled at the pure outright uselessness and harmfulness of our educational system. I want to learn about things that interest me and about things related to my interests. If I'm not interested in chemistry (I'm not), I don't want to be force-fed chemistry lessons. I'd be perfectly happy to be taught the basics and perhaps spend a week taking a quick overview course, simply to broaden my knowledge, but taking an entire year or more in high school and more in college is a waste of my time.
My school is actually much better about many things than normal public schools. I attend Merlo Station High School in Beaverton, Oregon (near Portland). The school itself houses multiple programs, and I'm a student in the science program (Natural Resource Sciences and Technology, known as NRST). There are approximately 200 students in the entire program, and six teachers, so after four years you develop a very close relationship with all of your teachers. The courses are geared towards science and technology, but also include a wide range of humanities and other things. The program also offers internships, mentorships, and allows students with free time in their schedule to take on what's called an independent study, in which the student actually teaches him/herself about any topic under the sun and gives regular progress reports and a final exihibtion of knowledge to a teacher.
While the basic structure of the school is still fundamentally like any other American high school, and there's still lots of pointless required courses and unnecessary homework, the internships and independent study courses, as well as the small school environment and friendly atmosphere (students even call teachers by their first names), give many students something that they couldn't get anywhere else. Personally, if I hadn't enrolled at NRST after my freshman year of high school, I think I would've either become a failure in high school, dropped out, or just slacked off and floated through it with disinterest.
NRST certainly isn't perfect, and the program isn't right for everyone, but it's an option that a lot more cities/school districts should have. I also find it amusing that NRST alumni simply cannot stay away...they're always coming back to the school to visit their teachers, who've become their close friends, or to meet the newest batch of students, or just to sit through a few classes and relive the old days. I've never heard of another high school where alumni actually went out of their way to return to the school outside of a class reunion.
On another note: regarding the kick-arse computer this clueless user had, it's pitiful, but another painful truth is that the newbies, for some reason, always get the best boxen. I'm a developer for Intel (yes, spawn of Satan), and I work on a Pentium Pro 200. Meanwhile, the marketing guy next to me who has to call tech support and pay someone to come out and install his shareware for him, has a PIII-550 with gobs of RAM and a monitor the size of my cubicle wall. Go figure. And you'd think Intel wouldn't have any problem supplying the cool chips to its employees...heh, yeah, right. I'm sure Microsoft is much the same way...
if (religion==true){
if (science==true){
everything='groovy'
}
else {
self='delusioned'
}
}
else {
science=true
}
(yeah, so it's not really any specific programming language, but it looks enough like one to fool someone)
Where does it say this in the Old Testament? I don't remember reading that. In the New Testament, we are commanded to love one another, but I don't recall reading anything in the Bible implying that we should have respect and kindness towards every living thing. Indeed, in Genesis I do believe God told Adam that he was dominant over every other living thing and could do pretty much as he pleased...
Er...there currently isn't a usable Linux kernel for any device that runs WinCE. This being the case, I don't really think you can say Linux is providing WinCE with competition. I wish it were, though...WinCE is a real piece of crap when it comes to small devices. We need more people working on the LinuxCE effort!
I read the entire Wired article with the Dune Title Theme playing in the background, and got this weird feeling...as if Slashdot and Slashdot-like sites were (much like the Fremen) inciting a revolution and about to take over the planet. Hmm. I suggest everyone get that MP3 and go read the article again while listening to it. Wow, that was unnerving.
I'm referring to a minimal installation of RedHat 6.0. By default, Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment, and some services and other accessories are installed. In the case of Windows, one has to keep in mind that a zillion accessories get installed along with the OS. Oh, and I meant Windows 2000 Server, not Professional, and IIS is installed. (Apache was not installed on the RedHat box)
From what I see, my Linux installation is using quite a bit more hard drive space than my Windows 2000 installation, and my Windows 98 installation doesn't come anywhere near the size of Linux. This would seem to imply that Linux would be the one to take advantage of the extra terabytes, wouldn't it?
--
Wonko the Sane
--
Wonko the Sane
This is such a huge security issue it's revolting. But of course, nobody noticed that part of the story, because everyone was too busy laughing at how Microsoft made this information known...
--
Wonko the Sane
It should also be pointed out that it is perfectly normal for a school board to choose not to teach a particular theory to students. Note the word 'theory'...the idea that lower life-forms evolved into more advanced and on-the-whole different species is still very much classified as theory. As such, I don't believe there should be any requirement that it be taught in schools. It's optional, yes, but because it's only a theory, it should not by any means be required learning. On the other hand, gene mutation and other such forms of "intra-species" evolution (for lack of a better term) have been proven by scientific means, and therefore should most definitely be taught; unsurprisingly, you'll notice that this type of evolution will still be taught in Kansas schools.
I'm not one to say that there weren't hidden agendas behind this whole thing, and yeah, I'm sure there were. Creationists will always try to gain a stronger hold on schools -- thus is the nature of religion and politics. But in spite of the reasons behind the new curriculum, you have to admit that the media is going way overboard in their representation of the event. It's not nearly as much of a Big Deal(tm) as it's being made out to be.
(On a sidenote, one could argue that, for the same reasons non-religious parents have gained a victory in disallowing prayer in school due to a conflict of beliefs, religious parents should be given the same treatment in selecting what teachings their children are subjected to.)
--
Wonko the Sane
--
Wonko the Sane