Nobody has voted on whether he or she wants to live in a world with only healthy, cheerful, smart and attractive inhabitants.
Great idea, Jon. Not everybody should be healthy, cheerful, smart and attractive? Are you saying that we should deliberately create sickly, miserable, idiotic, ugly people -- just to AMUSE the lucky ones? Are you saying that if we have the technology to make people's lives dramatically better, we should withhold it from some of them to add a little "flavor" for the rest of us?
I don't know who would resign their children to the fate of being the 21st century equivalent of circus freaks and court jesters -- but maybe you'd like those to be your kids, Jon.
Now this water has to be pushed at around 340 m/s too
The water doesn't have to be pushed at the same speed as the vessel. If the submarine were completely flat and sufficiently large in the front, then yes, it would need to push the water in front of it like a bulldozer, requiring an unfeasible amount of power. But water flows around a submarine or torpedo -- not in front of it -- and one that is designed with a minimum of drag (for this very reason) should leave the water it moves through relatively still.
Cheers, IT
Re:My $0.02 from my talks with pals who work at MS
on
The Myth Of The Borg
·
· Score: 2
As a result the feedback I get from them is almost one of childish wonder like: "why should the nasty big government be threatening us when all we want to do is make computing easier?"
If the attitude that free people should be generally left alone without government force or coercion is "childish" -- then so were Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, Patrick Henry, and the other "children" who said: "why should the nasty big government be threatening us when all we want to do is live freely?" If you want to attack laissez-faire, call it over-simplified, call it irresponsible even, but don't call it childish.
Because OPEC and the proprietors of the fuel-grid demand it.
There is no other explanation for 80+ MPG cars existing but not being marketed or alternative fuel vehicals existing but not being properly marketed, if at all.
Of course there's another explanation:
Fuel economy is not an important factor for many people buying cars. They like their 12 mpg SUV's (and even 20-30 mpg sedans) for a myriad of other reasons: style, comfort, performance, reliability, etc.
The people who do care a lot about fuel economy (i.e. the ones springing for the 80 mpg Geo Metros) do so most likely because they can't afford a gas guzzler. And these aren't the people who are going to pay for expensive alternate-fuel conversions, just like they aren't the ones buying the expensive EV1's.
Until alternative-fuel cars are as cheap, reliable, and powerful as gasoline cars -- and until there are enough filling/recharging stations to take a cross-country trip without thinking twice about it -- then alternative-fuel cars will be no more than novelty items for the wealthy and the environmentally concerned.
Is RMS really so arrogant as to think ICANN will create a TLD devoted to his organization? Let's be real: GNU is a brand, and if any other brand tried to pull this kind of stunt, we'd be screaming bloody murder about the Internet succumbing to private interests. Can you imagine the outrage if someone proposed.msft?.att?.sun?
So I say:.gnu -- not in a million years.
My prediction for the future: a "wonder box"
on
Movies Online?
·
· Score: 4
Imagine -- using an electronic device to download real-time programming directly to your home! We may not have the technology for such a magical box anytime soon, but here's what (I think) you might expect:
1. high-quality streaming audio and video through an already-existing connection in your home!
2. multiple "channels" showing many different programs at the same time -- including movies, comedy, drama, sports, and news!
3. ABSOLUTELY FREE -- thanks to occasional "commercials" during programming!
What an exciting future we have ahead of us!
(Warning: Do not attempt to adjust the sarcasm knob on your computer!)
I tried calculating God once ...
on
Calculating God
·
· Score: 4
... but I kept getting this stupid 216-digit error that crashed my computer. 1:39 pm, restate my assumptions: 1. Mathematics is the language of nature 2. Everything in nature can be understood through numbers. 3. If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge. 4. Therefore, there are patterns, everywhere in nature...
Oh crap, I've got another headache coming on... gotta go.
These high-level languages are just syntactical sugar! They can't do anything that I couldn't just write in binary!
Although you may be able to do without this "syntactical 'wish list," syntax is a big factor in what Microsoft is aiming for: namely, giving programmers an easy-to-use language that allows quick coding and limited debugging, letting them write and update quality software with short development cycles.
Whether they will actually deliver on that promise...
I bet it's only a matter of time till we get an open letter from Richie Stallman telling us why Plan 9 isn't really Open Source.
The picture I have in my mind is:
RMS (for the 100000th time): Why do people keep asking me about the Open Source movement? I'm a member of the Free Software movement! Aaaaagh! (RMS promptly bursts into flames)
Freshman? Funny, I always think of Katz as sophomoric.
And just to indulge you, Webster's dictionary defines the word 'sophomoric' as "conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature." Bull's-eye.
There's something not quite right about viewing Slashdot on a fast server... sort of like listening to old Beatles LPs on mp3, or seeing the Blair Witch Project in THX.
Before the blood even dried at Columbine, Jon Katz has been trying to tell us that the real victims were the geeks, goths, oddballs, etc. who had to undergo a little bit of extra hassling by school administrators. No, Jon: the real victims were the ones who died there a year ago today, who were robbed of their lives by 2 madmen (not just geeks "acting out" against their "oppressers"). 364 days a year, feel free to capitalize on their deaths however you see fit. But not today, not on the anniversary of that tragedy. Today, we should remember the victims.
It's a shame that Yahoo and Broadcast.com are replacing Real with MS, but frankly, I can't blame them. I worked at a large web site design company this past summer, and it was almost a matter of policy to avoid RealPlayer at all costs.
When you're trying to build a site with seamlessly integrated multimedia, what you want to happen is this: 1) Customer sees link 2) Customer clicks on link 3) Customer sees multimedia clip
What you get with RealPlayer is more like this: 1) Customer sees link 2) Customer clicks on link 3) 8 million pop-up menus: "REGISTER YOUR VERSION OF REALPLAYER!!!" or "DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION OF REALPLAYER!!!" or "CHECK OUT ALL THE NEW STUFF AT REAL.COM"
This is a Bad Thing for a number of reason: 1) It destroys branding, i.e. the customer thinks "Real.com" instead of "Broadcast.com" 2) Every one of those pop-up menus gives the customer a chance to leave your site -- and go to Real.com instead to register, download, etc. 3) It's a royal pain in the ass.
Until someone comes up with a better solution -- i.e. a widely supported, open standard for streaming media (hopefully without a plug-in) -- Microsoft is the best game in town.
Katz has it all wrong -- the Mosaic system will probably put an end to geek profiling.
Geek profiling happens when clueless administrators lump all of the "different" kids into the same category. The Mosaic system will (hopefully) expertly sort through these "different" kids -- separating out the kids who are truly dangerous from the harmless geeks.
This Guy Doesn't Know What a "Dimension" Is
on
Time Doesn't Exist
·
· Score: 1
For an "independent theoretical physicist", he sure doesn't know his math. "Dimension" is not necessarily synonymous with "number of coordinates". Triangle-land WOULD be 3-dimensional if it weren't for the "geometrical restrictions" that the author carelessly dismisses -- for example, (1, 2, 3) is not allowed in triangle-land.
In fact, 2 vectors are all we need to represent all possible triangle configurations. If we have 2 vectors, x and y, then one side has length ||x||, one has length ||y||, and the 3rd side has length ||x-y||. Therefore, triangle land is spanned by the vectors (1,0) and (0,1), and thus it has dimension 2.
Because of these pesky geometrical rules, the configuration space for a finite number of particles is not quite "hugely multidimensional", but is actually "3-dimensional".
Even the most ardent geeks complain that they can never be out of touch, never have time to think, never completely catch up. As the world is able to reach us more easily, it expects us to be always available and more or less instantly responsive. This rushes us and our responses. It makes us edgy, grumpy, impulsive. Technology becomes a means of harassing and pressuring us instead of improving our lives.
All geeks--including Jon Katz--should take a lesson in economics: if something doesn't improve your life (i.e. you're better off without it) you have 2 choices: 1) Demand more money 2) Don't do it
Slashdot Mirror
Nobody has voted on whether he or she wants to live in a world with only healthy, cheerful, smart and attractive inhabitants.
Great idea, Jon. Not everybody should be healthy, cheerful, smart and attractive? Are you saying that we should deliberately create sickly, miserable, idiotic, ugly people -- just to AMUSE the lucky ones? Are you saying that if we have the technology to make people's lives dramatically better, we should withhold it from some of them to add a little "flavor" for the rest of us?
I don't know who would resign their children to the fate of being the 21st century equivalent of circus freaks and court jesters -- but maybe you'd like those to be your kids, Jon.
-IT
Combining the two results gives us 250 GW of power required to move our submarine.
Wow, and it only takes 1.28 GW to travel through time! That is, if you can find an engine powerful enough to accelerate you to 88 mph. Doc, look out!
Cheers,
IT
Now this water has to be pushed at around 340 m/s too
The water doesn't have to be pushed at the same speed as the vessel. If the submarine were completely flat and sufficiently large in the front, then yes, it would need to push the water in front of it like a bulldozer, requiring an unfeasible amount of power. But water flows around a submarine or torpedo -- not in front of it -- and one that is designed with a minimum of drag (for this very reason) should leave the water it moves through relatively still.
Cheers,
IT
As a result the feedback I get from them is almost one of childish wonder like: "why should the nasty big government be threatening us when all we want to do is make computing easier?"
If the attitude that free people should be generally left alone without government force or coercion is "childish" -- then so were Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, Patrick Henry, and the other "children" who said: "why should the nasty big government be threatening us when all we want to do is live freely?" If you want to attack laissez-faire, call it over-simplified, call it irresponsible even, but don't call it childish.
-IT
Because OPEC and the proprietors of the fuel-grid demand it.
;-)
There is no other explanation for 80+ MPG cars existing but not being marketed or alternative fuel vehicals existing but not being properly marketed, if at all.
Of course there's another explanation:
Fuel economy is not an important factor for many people buying cars. They like their 12 mpg SUV's (and even 20-30 mpg sedans) for a myriad of other reasons: style, comfort, performance, reliability, etc.
The people who do care a lot about fuel economy (i.e. the ones springing for the 80 mpg Geo Metros) do so most likely because they can't afford a gas guzzler. And these aren't the people who are going to pay for expensive alternate-fuel conversions, just like they aren't the ones buying the expensive EV1's.
Until alternative-fuel cars are as cheap, reliable, and powerful as gasoline cars -- and until there are enough filling/recharging stations to take a cross-country trip without thinking twice about it -- then alternative-fuel cars will be no more than novelty items for the wealthy and the environmentally concerned.
Either that, or it's a conspiracy.
Cheers,
IT
- brandspankin.gnu
- out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the.gnu
- spiro-a.gnu
Cheers,IT
Is RMS really so arrogant as to think ICANN will create a TLD devoted to his organization? Let's be real: GNU is a brand, and if any other brand tried to pull this kind of stunt, we'd be screaming bloody murder about the Internet succumbing to private interests. Can you imagine the outrage if someone proposed .msft? .att? .sun?
.gnu -- not in a million years.
So I say:
Imagine -- using an electronic device to download real-time programming directly to your home! We may not have the technology for such a magical box anytime soon, but here's what (I think) you might expect:
1. high-quality streaming audio and video through an already-existing connection in your home!
2. multiple "channels" showing many different programs at the same time -- including movies, comedy, drama, sports, and news!
3. ABSOLUTELY FREE -- thanks to occasional "commercials" during programming!
What an exciting future we have ahead of us!
(Warning: Do not attempt to adjust the sarcasm knob on your computer!)
... but I kept getting this stupid 216-digit error that crashed my computer. 1:39 pm, restate my assumptions: ...
... gotta go.
1. Mathematics is the language of nature
2. Everything in nature can be understood through numbers.
3. If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge.
4. Therefore, there are patterns, everywhere in nature
Oh crap, I've got another headache coming on
These high-level languages are just syntactical sugar! They can't do anything that I couldn't just write in binary!
...
Although you may be able to do without this "syntactical 'wish list," syntax is a big factor in what Microsoft is aiming for: namely, giving programmers an easy-to-use language that allows quick coding and limited debugging, letting them write and update quality software with short development cycles.
Whether they will actually deliver on that promise
... a little blurry, but pretty nonetheless.
Speaking of which, did this guy get any decent photos? Could you post those?
Mazel Tov! Wish I could be there to dance the hora with you.
Shalom,
IT
I bet it's only a matter of time till we get an open letter from Richie Stallman telling us why Plan 9 isn't really Open Source.
The picture I have in my mind is:
RMS (for the 100000th time): Why do people keep asking me about the Open Source movement? I'm a member of the Free Software movement! Aaaaagh! (RMS promptly bursts into flames)
Freshman? Funny, I always think of Katz as sophomoric.
And just to indulge you, Webster's dictionary defines the word 'sophomoric' as "conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature." Bull's-eye.
Damn. I guess I'm going to have to remove that sticker from my pickup truck that has Calvin peeing on the Apogee logo.
Now I can block Jon Katz articles even faster!
There's something not quite right about viewing Slashdot on a fast server ... sort of like listening to old Beatles LPs on mp3, or seeing the Blair Witch Project in THX.
Before the blood even dried at Columbine, Jon Katz has been trying to tell us that the real victims were the geeks, goths, oddballs, etc. who had to undergo a little bit of extra hassling by school administrators. No, Jon: the real victims were the ones who died there a year ago today, who were robbed of their lives by 2 madmen (not just geeks "acting out" against their "oppressers"). 364 days a year, feel free to capitalize on their deaths however you see fit. But not today, not on the anniversary of that tragedy. Today, we should remember the victims.
It's a shame that Yahoo and Broadcast.com are replacing Real with MS, but frankly, I can't blame them. I worked at a large web site design company this past summer, and it was almost a matter of policy to avoid RealPlayer at all costs.
When you're trying to build a site with seamlessly integrated multimedia, what you want to happen is this:
1) Customer sees link
2) Customer clicks on link
3) Customer sees multimedia clip
What you get with RealPlayer is more like this:
1) Customer sees link
2) Customer clicks on link
3) 8 million pop-up menus: "REGISTER YOUR VERSION OF REALPLAYER!!!" or "DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION OF REALPLAYER!!!" or "CHECK OUT ALL THE NEW STUFF AT REAL.COM"
This is a Bad Thing for a number of reason:
1) It destroys branding, i.e. the customer thinks "Real.com" instead of "Broadcast.com"
2) Every one of those pop-up menus gives the customer a chance to leave your site -- and go to Real.com instead to register, download, etc.
3) It's a royal pain in the ass.
Until someone comes up with a better solution -- i.e. a widely supported, open standard for streaming media (hopefully without a plug-in) -- Microsoft is the best game in town.
Robert Elz has walked away from a fortune, wanting no part of the second-biggest Internet float after Kerry Packer's ecorp.
Wow, what a schmuck!
Sorry, it had to be said.
Product Info From Sharp
Funny that they would write about in the UK when it's supposedly only available in the US.
Katz has it all wrong -- the Mosaic system will probably put an end to geek profiling.
Geek profiling happens when clueless administrators lump all of the "different" kids into the same category. The Mosaic system will (hopefully) expertly sort through these "different" kids -- separating out the kids who are truly dangerous from the harmless geeks.
'Nuff said.
For an "independent theoretical physicist", he sure doesn't know his math. "Dimension" is not necessarily synonymous with "number of coordinates". Triangle-land WOULD be 3-dimensional if it weren't for the "geometrical restrictions" that the author carelessly dismisses -- for example, (1, 2, 3) is not allowed in triangle-land.
In fact, 2 vectors are all we need to represent all possible triangle configurations. If we have 2 vectors, x and y, then one side has length ||x||, one has length ||y||, and the 3rd side has length ||x-y||. Therefore, triangle land is spanned by the vectors (1,0) and (0,1), and thus it has dimension 2.
Because of these pesky geometrical rules, the configuration space for a finite number of particles is not quite "hugely multidimensional", but is actually "3-dimensional".
Even the most ardent geeks complain that they can never be out of touch, never have time to think, never completely catch up. As the world is able to reach us more easily, it expects us to be always available and more or less instantly responsive. This rushes us and our responses. It makes us edgy, grumpy, impulsive. Technology becomes a means of harassing and pressuring us instead of improving our lives.
All geeks--including Jon Katz--should take a lesson in economics: if something doesn't improve your life (i.e. you're better off without it) you have 2 choices:
1) Demand more money
2) Don't do it
Now iMacs are even more attractive to newbies: they won't make the embarrassing mistake of confusing the CD-ROM tray with a cupholder.
Tech-support professionals, rejoice!