People are reading this wrong. It isn't really directed at students as advertising, it is directed at professors, academics, to explain the fundametal different between the ivory tower, research world they live in and the games industry. How can you teach students to go off and get jobs in the game industry if you don't understand it?
As far as tailoring programs towards game companies, it isn't evil at all, it is what the students want. I don't pay $30,000 a year to not get a job afterwards. I want a graduate program that knows how to help me get the jobs I want. Whatever you think about EA personally or based on what you've read, they are a place that makes games and hires people. For my friends who/do/ have a passion for getting into making games, this is a good thing, even if it isn't ideal.
I am of course well aware of who L0pht is but it wasn't until reading you post that they have been aquired by @stake. I hadn't heard of @stake as far as computer security goes, but I have heard of them, because their CEO just moved in next door to me a few weeks ago. I never realized what they did until now.
This summer I am working as a web coder. I was given several large projects that involved creating complex functionality in certain web tools. The solutions I came up with, both for the functionality of the tools, and the parser I wrote to hide the nasty parts of the code (cross-browser javascript is the boon of my existance), are ones that I could forsee using on personal project. This is sort of the opposite of what you suggest (my work assignments give me motivation to code things but generally enough so they will be useful to me later).
In relation to another project they asked me to sign an NDA. I read the details of it and it states that they would own any code I develope here. I discussed this and was told that really the just wanted me to sign the agreement so that I couldn't disclose the details of the product for which we were creating the website (like I know any anyway) but they didn't indend for it to cover the code (which had nothing to do with the product itself). However it was just the standard NDA form used in the company. I have gotten by not signing it and no one has noticed, and I think I won't end up having to, but I was wondering what kind of language is it that you have in your contract that protects your ownership of your code so that if I am ever presented with a simmilar situation I can suggest a modification.
Re:None, because Napster fucked it up for everyone
on
Helping Artists Online
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· Score: 1
Why would anyone use a client that charged money per download when a free alternative exists?
You said it yourself.
Guess how many of today's artists would exist if there was no way to get a return of their investment of time and talent in their music?
People realize this and precisely for this reason people would be willing to pay for mp3s (assuming the price is right) to support their favorite artists. I know that I generally try not to pirate. I want to patronize artists and companies that provide me with something I enjoy or find useful. I would be more than happy to pay for my mp3s but currently there isn't a way to buy a single song like that so I end up pirating them off napster until I realize I've download a significant portion of an album to warrent going out and buything the CD.
Yes there would still be piracy, but take the case of computer software. It is easy to pirate software and many people do but you dont see Microsoft, Adobe, ID, etc going out of buisness or sueing the world. Enough people still pay for the product to keep them in business. Essentially the record industry is creating their own problem because they haven't given people like me a alternative method of napster-like transactions where I can pay.
ok fine, it would probably be more than $1/song and I'd pay more it was just an example.
Why can't you make legal copies of something you own? That's what the MPAA is trying to stop you from doing, the RIAA just want you to stopping giving away copies to people who don't own it. They never said that they don't want you to rip your cds unless I missed something.
To sum things up, the industry thinks this is a big win and that they now have a chance to offer consumers music downloads on their own terms. This displays their current lack of understanding of the real problems that users are seeking to remedy with Napster and the other music/file trading options.
I have said and always will maintain that my problem with the RIAA is by inability to purchase single songs at a reasonable price. If they want to offer me downloadable music on a song-by-song basis for about $1 a song I'd be happy to pay. Until then piracy is the only option if you cant afford the whole CD for 1 song. You don't need to shut Napster down to convince me to switch and sharing still has its legitmate uses for unsigned bands and concert bootlegs.
Computing is not an art, it is a science governed by mathematical laws and logical premises. There is no creativity involved, merely a process of logical deduction and algorithmic optimization.
Have you ever heard the phrase, "creative problem solving?" While the goal of art and code may not be the same they both attempt to solve a problem. In the case of art, the problem is how to best express visually a certain message or how do I create a design such that people will want to look at it. With code the problem might be how do I decrypt CSS.
In either case there are certain rules, materials, and techniques used to accomplish the goal. An artist has a choice of medium -- paint, sculpture, video -- and a programmer has a choice of language. An artist knows the rule of paint mixing just as a programmer knows the syntax of the language. And an artist has knowledge of techniques that bring about certain responses from viewers similar to a programmer who knows algorithms to preform specific tasks.
In the end it is the creativity that the individual uses to combine these elements to create a whole work that is uniquely their own. Each person's solution may be different although with computers the comparison is more objective as to which is better, most of the time anyway.
I feel personally the creativity involved in coding as I started off my college career as a theater design major and will be switching to CS. Also in my job as a web coder I am often called upon to complete difficult programming tasks when the methods needed to solve the problem are not yet know. My bosses know that I have the ability to think and come up with a creative solution to seemingly unsolvable problem, compared to others' abilty simply to repeat learned patterns.
Coding is art, and I prefer to fill my canvas with 1's and 0's.
Because overlaying one image on top of another would most likely imploy layers which only work in IE and NN 4+ and aren't exactly compatible between the two. why do something difficult like that when you can do what they did.
IANAL but my step-dad is and according to him, telemarketers already are required by law to maintain an opt-out list of people who, when called tell the telemarketer, "we do not accept solicitations." If you do this telemarketers are required not to call you for at least 3 years.
Does this mean that Microsoft is liable if flaws in its software (namely Outlook and Word) allow viruses like Mellisa and ILOVEU to distribute themselves?
First of all I'd say you know your kids best and you should best be able to know what would interest them and what would turn them off. Also you can ask what they want to know or be able to do.
However, you can't always work that way. Before you can do the really exiciting things like writing games like the ones you play, you have to start with the basics.
All that being said I'll offer how I got started if that can be of any help. My first interest in programming was when a friend of mine made some program that did some calculation and showed the class in 5th grade. To put a time line on this I am 19 and a college sophmore now. Anyway, I asked my dad to teach me how to program (he is also a computer person). He started teaching me GW-BASIC from a book. We would go through the book together and do the exercises, I could ask him question, and I after writing something pretty much out of the book I might decide I want to make it do something else and we'd figure out how together. I still have the 5.25 floppy with all my first programs. They mostly printed my name repeatedly in random colors or drew stuff.
BASIC is a terrible language but it is meant to be a teaching language (*Begginers* all-purpose symbolic instruction code). I don't know if that is still a usefully way to start (with QBasic) because when I learned people still used DOS, but I think you have to start with text based stuff which is simple before you use graphics and Object-Oriented environments.
When I was in 7th grade I started working in QBasic and learned alot from a friend who was amazing at it. I read his code, tried to emulate some of the techniques. I got VB2 and learned a bit about how windows worked.
In High school I learned PASCAL and C++ but alot of what I learned an figured out had little to do with the teacher and more to do with my ability to take what I had previously learned and figured out about programming logic and use the Borland C++ help files to help me apply it to C. Eventually I replaced VB with BCB. A friend helped me get started with Linux but after a while of asking him questions all the time I became self-sufficent. I have taught myself Perl, PHP, MySQL, mantaining a linux system, and an Apache webserver all in the last year.
First of all I'd say you know your kids best and you should best be able to know what would interest them and what would turn them off. Also you can ask what they want to know or be able to do.
However, you can't always work that way. Before you can do the really exiciting things like writing games like the ones you play, you have to start with the basics.
All that being said I'll offer how I got started if that can be of any help. My first interest in programming was when a friend of mine made some program that did some calculation and showed the class in 5th grade. To put a time line on this I am 19 and a college sophmore now. Anyway, I asked my dad to teach me how to program (he is also a computer person). He started teaching me GW-BASIC from a book. We would go through the book together and do the exercises, I could ask him question, and I after writing something pretty much out of the book I might decide I want to make it do something else and we'd figure out how together. I still have the 5.25 floppy with all my first programs. They mostly printed my name repeatedly in random colors or drew stuff.
BASIC is a terrible language but it is meant to be a teaching language (*Begginers* all-purpose symbolic instruction code). I don't know if that is still a usefully way to start (with QBasic) because when I learned people still used DOS, but I think you have to start with text based stuff which is simple before you use graphics and Object-Oriented environments.
When I was in 7th grade I started working in QBasic and learned alot from a friend who was amazing at it. I read his code, tried to emulate some of the techniques. I got VB2 and learned a bit about how windows worked.
In High school I learned PASCAL and C++ but alot of what I learned an figured out had little to do with the teacher and more to do with my ability to take what I had previously learned and figured out about programming logic and use the Borland C++ help files to help me apply it to C. Eventually I replaced VB with BCB. A friend helped me get started with Linux but after a while of asking him questions all the time I became self-sufficent. I have taught myself Perl, PHP, MySQL, mantaining a linux system, and an Apache webserver all in the last year.
I believe there is enough information about people out on the web that you ought to be about to find people in lots of different ways. However, there isn't one big people search to do this. Most require certain fields that I dont have. Someone should create one big all encompasing, Master People Search, that draws data from all known people databases, maybe straight off the web, and maybe from its own database. This search shouldn't require you to have a last name. It should allow "like this" match phrases in the firstname, lastname, and email fields (example you know their email name but not hostname). It should allow you to look for phone numbers, email addresses, addresses, just a name, web pages, ICQ, AIM... I want to search on any info I know or might know.
It doesn't bother me that HelixCode doesn't have debian packages because from what I read, all it does it keep updated packages for gnome applications and simplify building of gnome. Debian already does this. How much more simple can it be than "apt-get install task-gnome-apps"?
I registered sparkyb.net for $15/year from doster.com. They were great and easy. You are on your own as far as DNS but I got Public DNS to work after a week of playing (www.granitecanyon.com). Doster has now raised their rates to $25/year. I'm glad I registered for 5 years in advance.
To address the comment about people not wanting Linux to be used by the masses. I can imagine the type of induhviduals that would say something like that and presume to talk for the Linux community. I would guess that they are just some nerd who feels cool because he can use linux and be on the edge, whatever. I can understand the contempt strong technical users have for ordinary and clueless users. I however think of it a little differently.
I think there are different types of people who require different things from a computer and therefor from the OS. I generally put people into 3 groups. Those that just need a computer to word process, check email, browse the web, and a few other minor tasks. They probably aren't very computer litterate and dont have patience for it. The second group of users is also focused on using the computer as a tool. They would be power users, the kind that actually learn to use the the shortcuts and advanced features in programs even if they dont care about how the computer works. This second group would probably want more control over what they can customize and would use addition applications such as high end games and graphics programs. The third class of users would be the experts that like to be able to customize everything. They can appreciate how GUI makes things easier but aren't afraid to use a console at times when the text is more important than the pretty decorations around it. They enjoy learning how things function on all levels and want almost complete control. They would use another complex superset of applications including compilers and server-type apps.
This is where I get to the bit about why someone would say they don't want the masses using linux. The 3 classes of users require different things from an OS, so that if you made a linux that the first class of users could use, the third likely wouldn't want to, so actually I believe those people saying I dont dont want class 1 users causing *my* linux to get watered down. To quote Murphy's Laws on Technology, "Make a computer that even an fool can use and only a fool will want to use it."
I've typically used Mac, Window, *nix as a metaphor for the three types of users. This isn't an entirely accurate picture of things, but it isnt so off. Mac is a very simple OS, doesn't give you much low level access but does a lot of stuff for you easily and quietly. Windows allows more control through more setting in the control panel and the registry if you dare, and generally the programs are more feature rich (or bloated depending on your point of view). Linux is definately difficult but I enjoy putting up with the difficulty because I am rewarded for my time and effort by the level of control I get and by how much I learn. However there are things that make Linux better than windows and macOS other than level of control (reliability perhaps?). I also think that there are plenty of improvements to linux that experts could benefit from. I definately think that regular users need a better OS because teaching them that software is supposed to be buggy and your OS is supposed to crash once a day will only serve to make them more computer wary.
I think a linux for Joe Computer-User is possible and still retaining the power expert users have because of the modularity of linux. I dont think that the current developement environment is capable of doing that. It is basically just a set experts programming for experts. The great thing about linux for me is that it has all the features I want and none that I don't (well not really but in theory...). This is the strength of the community developement environment, one not driven by requests from marketing for new features, be they frivolous, gimicks, or just plain useless. The people get what the people want. What would have to happen to the way linux is developed for an OS with a user scalable level of complexity/control? I dont know. But defining the problem is step 1.
PS. The note about require a linux expert friend to help you configure it, this is something that while I admit wouldn't work for a mainstream linux is important in an expert linux. Essential the arrangement is a mentorship. That is the way it worked with me, a friend told me about linux, helped me install it, and taught me some unix basics real quick. Whenver I had a problem I'd call him and just about the time he started getting sick of me I started to know enough to find the answers to my own problems. Now I have a couple of friend who turn to me for linux help and I'm happy to give it.
Here's my 2 cents, be it relevant or not. People wonder "where are the female hackers?" To use a refference to the Matrix, "Neo: I always thought that was a guy. Trinity: Most guys do." Hackers generally meet online where nicknames are often gender neutral. However since hacking is seen to be primarily as a man's field, men are more likely to belive that the people they speak to are men. Therefor they assume there are few women, so the belief is self-reinforcing.
It's like the common riddle "a man and his son are driving to a baseball game when their car stalls on the tracks. A train hits their car. The father is killed instantly and the boy is rushed to the hospital. The doctor enters the operating room and says 'I can't operate on this boy, he's my son.' How is this possible?" Often this stumps people who think of doctors as men, just as we do with hackers.
I dont know which was my favorite, but did anyone else notice how many lame.com commercials there were? Personally I'm getting sick of the corporate internet. However, if you want to relive all the great commercials, check out www.adcritic.com, where you can view commercials in Quicktime and rate them. Not just for the superbowl but always.
but a couple pages out of encarta doesn't fill the requirement for real research. I admit there is some good research you can do on the internet if you wanted to, but that isn't what is happening. Also, libraries contain books. Books are well thought out complete works of information that have been edited. Most information on the web is brief, unedited, and unverified. If there were an e-library, than ok, but but until you can get real books on the internet, the internet cannot completely replace libraries.
nice idea but I dont think it would work to have an optional GUI because people these days are getting lazy. they'd probably rather use the gui and then demand that everything is centered around it. There are certain people who are original and inquisitive who want to learn and understand thing, use logic and reason, and are mindless sheep in society. These are the ones who go on to be nerds, geeks, and hackers. People with brains. The number of these seems to be decreasing. I wonder why that is? Also I wonder if it is genetic or societal, and if societal what can we do to teach and promote thought, reasoning, and individuality?
I agree. People always seem to think computers are a quick fix for everything. The scary thing is kids are starting to believe that. Kids have forgotten the value of a library because they can just browse the internet. Everyone sees computers as so important and so they believe that the most computer educated kid will do the best. However, we forget some basic predicate knowledge that is neccessary.
Kids need to be taught how to learn and not just to be sheep. I saw it in high school in my programming classes. They couldn't learn C++ because they didn't understand logic. I give Woz major kudos for his statement that we need to start early teaching logic and the like on which learning higher skills are based. Give a man a fish he can eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he can eat his whole life. Teach a kid to use Word he can type a paper, teach a kid to use logic, to reason, and to learn and he can figure out whatever obstacles arise. I think I lost my train of thought so I'll stop rambling now.
Slashdot Mirror
People are reading this wrong. It isn't really directed at students as advertising, it is directed at professors, academics, to explain the fundametal different between the ivory tower, research world they live in and the games industry. How can you teach students to go off and get jobs in the game industry if you don't understand it?
/do/ have a passion for getting into making games, this is a good thing, even if it isn't ideal.
As far as tailoring programs towards game companies, it isn't evil at all, it is what the students want. I don't pay $30,000 a year to not get a job afterwards. I want a graduate program that knows how to help me get the jobs I want. Whatever you think about EA personally or based on what you've read, they are a place that makes games and hires people. For my friends who
That server must be a floppy robot doling out bits one by one.
call me a troll, but over the internet bits *are* sent one by one, it's a serial connection.
What about the Pinkertons? I know that isn't what the previous poster meant, but couldn't they sue for slander?
I am of course well aware of who L0pht is but it wasn't until reading you post that they have been aquired by @stake. I hadn't heard of @stake as far as computer security goes, but I have heard of them, because their CEO just moved in next door to me a few weeks ago. I never realized what they did until now.
This summer I am working as a web coder. I was given several large projects that involved creating complex functionality in certain web tools. The solutions I came up with, both for the functionality of the tools, and the parser I wrote to hide the nasty parts of the code (cross-browser javascript is the boon of my existance), are ones that I could forsee using on personal project. This is sort of the opposite of what you suggest (my work assignments give me motivation to code things but generally enough so they will be useful to me later).
In relation to another project they asked me to sign an NDA. I read the details of it and it states that they would own any code I develope here. I discussed this and was told that really the just wanted me to sign the agreement so that I couldn't disclose the details of the product for which we were creating the website (like I know any anyway) but they didn't indend for it to cover the code (which had nothing to do with the product itself). However it was just the standard NDA form used in the company. I have gotten by not signing it and no one has noticed, and I think I won't end up having to, but I was wondering what kind of language is it that you have in your contract that protects your ownership of your code so that if I am ever presented with a simmilar situation I can suggest a modification.
Why would anyone use a client that charged money per download when a free alternative exists?
You said it yourself.
Guess how many of today's artists would exist if there was no way to get a return of their investment of time and talent in their music?
People realize this and precisely for this reason people would be willing to pay for mp3s (assuming the price is right) to support their favorite artists. I know that I generally try not to pirate. I want to patronize artists and companies that provide me with something I enjoy or find useful. I would be more than happy to pay for my mp3s but currently there isn't a way to buy a single song like that so I end up pirating them off napster until I realize I've download a significant portion of an album to warrent going out and buything the CD.
Yes there would still be piracy, but take the case of computer software. It is easy to pirate software and many people do but you dont see Microsoft, Adobe, ID, etc going out of buisness or sueing the world. Enough people still pay for the product to keep them in business. Essentially the record industry is creating their own problem because they haven't given people like me a alternative method of napster-like transactions where I can pay.
that I haven't heard of.
ok fine, it would probably be more than $1/song and I'd pay more it was just an example.
Why can't you make legal copies of something you own? That's what the MPAA is trying to stop you from doing, the RIAA just want you to stopping giving away copies to people who don't own it. They never said that they don't want you to rip your cds unless I missed something.
To sum things up, the industry thinks this is a big win and that they now have a chance to offer consumers music downloads on their own terms. This displays their current lack of understanding of the real problems that users are seeking to remedy with Napster and the other music/file trading options.
I have said and always will maintain that my problem with the RIAA is by inability to purchase single songs at a reasonable price. If they want to offer me downloadable music on a song-by-song basis for about $1 a song I'd be happy to pay. Until then piracy is the only option if you cant afford the whole CD for 1 song. You don't need to shut Napster down to convince me to switch and sharing still has its legitmate uses for unsigned bands and concert bootlegs.
Computing is not an art, it is a science governed by mathematical laws and logical premises. There is no creativity involved, merely a process of logical deduction and algorithmic optimization.
Have you ever heard the phrase, "creative problem solving?" While the goal of art and code may not be the same they both attempt to solve a problem. In the case of art, the problem is how to best express visually a certain message or how do I create a design such that people will want to look at it. With code the problem might be how do I decrypt CSS.
In either case there are certain rules, materials, and techniques used to accomplish the goal. An artist has a choice of medium -- paint, sculpture, video -- and a programmer has a choice of language. An artist knows the rule of paint mixing just as a programmer knows the syntax of the language. And an artist has knowledge of techniques that bring about certain responses from viewers similar to a programmer who knows algorithms to preform specific tasks.
In the end it is the creativity that the individual uses to combine these elements to create a whole work that is uniquely their own. Each person's solution may be different although with computers the comparison is more objective as to which is better, most of the time anyway.
I feel personally the creativity involved in coding as I started off my college career as a theater design major and will be switching to CS. Also in my job as a web coder I am often called upon to complete difficult programming tasks when the methods needed to solve the problem are not yet know. My bosses know that I have the ability to think and come up with a creative solution to seemingly unsolvable problem, compared to others' abilty simply to repeat learned patterns.
Coding is art, and I prefer to fill my canvas with 1's and 0's.
Because overlaying one image on top of another would most likely imploy layers which only work in IE and NN 4+ and aren't exactly compatible between the two. why do something difficult like that when you can do what they did.
IANAL but my step-dad is and according to him, telemarketers already are required by law to maintain an opt-out list of people who, when called tell the telemarketer, "we do not accept solicitations." If you do this telemarketers are required not to call you for at least 3 years.
Does anyone have this software? I have this scanner at work but we dont have that software
Does this mean that Microsoft is liable if flaws in its software (namely Outlook and Word) allow viruses like Mellisa and ILOVEU to distribute themselves?
First of all I'd say you know your kids best and you should best be able to know what would interest them and what would turn them off. Also you can ask what they want to know or be able to do.
However, you can't always work that way. Before you can do the really exiciting things like writing games like the ones you play, you have to start with the basics.
All that being said I'll offer how I got started if that can be of any help. My first interest in programming was when a friend of mine made some program that did some calculation and showed the class in 5th grade. To put a time line on this I am 19 and a college sophmore now. Anyway, I asked my dad to teach me how to program (he is also a computer person). He started teaching me GW-BASIC from a book. We would go through the book together and do the exercises, I could ask him question, and I after writing something pretty much out of the book I might decide I want to make it do something else and we'd figure out how together. I still have the 5.25 floppy with all my first programs. They mostly printed my name repeatedly in random colors or drew stuff.
BASIC is a terrible language but it is meant to be a teaching language (*Begginers* all-purpose symbolic instruction code). I don't know if that is still a usefully way to start (with QBasic) because when I learned people still used DOS, but I think you have to start with text based stuff which is simple before you use graphics and Object-Oriented environments.
When I was in 7th grade I started working in QBasic and learned alot from a friend who was amazing at it. I read his code, tried to emulate some of the techniques. I got VB2 and learned a bit about how windows worked.
In High school I learned PASCAL and C++ but alot of what I learned an figured out had little to do with the teacher and more to do with my ability to take what I had previously learned and figured out about programming logic and use the Borland C++ help files to help me apply it to C. Eventually I replaced VB with BCB. A friend helped me get started with Linux but after a while of asking him questions all the time I became self-sufficent. I have taught myself Perl, PHP, MySQL, mantaining a linux system, and an Apache webserver all in the last year.
First of all I'd say you know your kids best and you should best be able to know what would interest them and what would turn them off. Also you can ask what they want to know or be able to do.
However, you can't always work that way. Before you can do the really exiciting things like writing games like the ones you play, you have to start with the basics.
All that being said I'll offer how I got started if that can be of any help. My first interest in programming was when a friend of mine made some program that did some calculation and showed the class in 5th grade. To put a time line on this I am 19 and a college sophmore now. Anyway, I asked my dad to teach me how to program (he is also a computer person). He started teaching me GW-BASIC from a book. We would go through the book together and do the exercises, I could ask him question, and I after writing something pretty much out of the book I might decide I want to make it do something else and we'd figure out how together. I still have the 5.25 floppy with all my first programs. They mostly printed my name repeatedly in random colors or drew stuff.
BASIC is a terrible language but it is meant to be a teaching language (*Begginers* all-purpose symbolic instruction code). I don't know if that is still a usefully way to start (with QBasic) because when I learned people still used DOS, but I think you have to start with text based stuff which is simple before you use graphics and Object-Oriented environments.
When I was in 7th grade I started working in QBasic and learned alot from a friend who was amazing at it. I read his code, tried to emulate some of the techniques. I got VB2 and learned a bit about how windows worked.
In High school I learned PASCAL and C++ but alot of what I learned an figured out had little to do with the teacher and more to do with my ability to take what I had previously learned and figured out about programming logic and use the Borland C++ help files to help me apply it to C. Eventually I replaced VB with BCB. A friend helped me get started with Linux but after a while of asking him questions all the time I became self-sufficent. I have taught myself Perl, PHP, MySQL, mantaining a linux system, and an Apache webserver all in the last year.
I believe there is enough information about people out on the web that you ought to be about to find people in lots of different ways. However, there isn't one big people search to do this. Most require certain fields that I dont have. Someone should create one big all encompasing, Master People Search, that draws data from all known people databases, maybe straight off the web, and maybe from its own database. This search shouldn't require you to have a last name. It should allow "like this" match phrases in the firstname, lastname, and email fields (example you know their email name but not hostname). It should allow you to look for phone numbers, email addresses, addresses, just a name, web pages, ICQ, AIM... I want to search on any info I know or might know.
It doesn't bother me that HelixCode doesn't have debian packages because from what I read, all it does it keep updated packages for gnome applications and simplify building of gnome. Debian already does this. How much more simple can it be than "apt-get install task-gnome-apps"?
I registered sparkyb.net for $15/year from doster.com. They were great and easy. You are on your own as far as DNS but I got Public DNS to work after a week of playing (www.granitecanyon.com). Doster has now raised their rates to $25/year. I'm glad I registered for 5 years in advance.
To address the comment about people not wanting Linux to be used by the masses. I can imagine the type of induhviduals that would say something like that and presume to talk for the Linux community. I would guess that they are just some nerd who feels cool because he can use linux and be on the edge, whatever. I can understand the contempt strong technical users have for ordinary and clueless users. I however think of it a little differently.
I think there are different types of people who require different things from a computer and therefor from the OS. I generally put people into 3 groups. Those that just need a computer to word process, check email, browse the web, and a few other minor tasks. They probably aren't very computer litterate and dont have patience for it. The second group of users is also focused on using the computer as a tool. They would be power users, the kind that actually learn to use the the shortcuts and advanced features in programs even if they dont care about how the computer works. This second group would probably want more control over what they can customize and would use addition applications such as high end games and graphics programs. The third class of users would be the experts that like to be able to customize everything. They can appreciate how GUI makes things easier but aren't afraid to use a console at times when the text is more important than the pretty decorations around it. They enjoy learning how things function on all levels and want almost complete control. They would use another complex superset of applications including compilers and server-type apps.
This is where I get to the bit about why someone would say they don't want the masses using linux. The 3 classes of users require different things from an OS, so that if you made a linux that the first class of users could use, the third likely wouldn't want to, so actually I believe those people saying I dont dont want class 1 users causing *my* linux to get watered down. To quote Murphy's Laws on Technology, "Make a computer that even an fool can use and only a fool will want to use it."
I've typically used Mac, Window, *nix as a metaphor for the three types of users. This isn't an entirely accurate picture of things, but it isnt so off. Mac is a very simple OS, doesn't give you much low level access but does a lot of stuff for you easily and quietly. Windows allows more control through more setting in the control panel and the registry if you dare, and generally the programs are more feature rich (or bloated depending on your point of view). Linux is definately difficult but I enjoy putting up with the difficulty because I am rewarded for my time and effort by the level of control I get and by how much I learn. However there are things that make Linux better than windows and macOS other than level of control (reliability perhaps?). I also think that there are plenty of improvements to linux that experts could benefit from. I definately think that regular users need a better OS because teaching them that software is supposed to be buggy and your OS is supposed to crash once a day will only serve to make them more computer wary.
I think a linux for Joe Computer-User is possible and still retaining the power expert users have because of the modularity of linux. I dont think that the current developement environment is capable of doing that. It is basically just a set experts programming for experts. The great thing about linux for me is that it has all the features I want and none that I don't (well not really but in theory...). This is the strength of the community developement environment, one not driven by requests from marketing for new features, be they frivolous, gimicks, or just plain useless. The people get what the people want. What would have to happen to the way linux is developed for an OS with a user scalable level of complexity/control? I dont know. But defining the problem is step 1.
PS. The note about require a linux expert friend to help you configure it, this is something that while I admit wouldn't work for a mainstream linux is important in an expert linux. Essential the arrangement is a mentorship. That is the way it worked with me, a friend told me about linux, helped me install it, and taught me some unix basics real quick. Whenver I had a problem I'd call him and just about the time he started getting sick of me I started to know enough to find the answers to my own problems. Now I have a couple of friend who turn to me for linux help and I'm happy to give it.
Ben "JonKatz" Buchwald
Here's my 2 cents, be it relevant or not. People wonder "where are the female hackers?" To use a refference to the Matrix, "Neo: I always thought that was a guy. Trinity: Most guys do." Hackers generally meet online where nicknames are often gender neutral. However since hacking is seen to be primarily as a man's field, men are more likely to belive that the people they speak to are men. Therefor they assume there are few women, so the belief is self-reinforcing.
It's like the common riddle "a man and his son are driving to a baseball game when their car stalls on the tracks. A train hits their car. The father is killed instantly and the boy is rushed to the hospital. The doctor enters the operating room and says 'I can't operate on this boy, he's my son.' How is this possible?" Often this stumps people who think of doctors as men, just as we do with hackers.
I dont know which was my favorite, but did anyone else notice how many lame .com commercials there were? Personally I'm getting sick of the corporate internet. However, if you want to relive all the great commercials, check out www.adcritic.com, where you can view commercials in Quicktime and rate them. Not just for the superbowl but always.
but a couple pages out of encarta doesn't fill the requirement for real research. I admit there is some good research you can do on the internet if you wanted to, but that isn't what is happening. Also, libraries contain books. Books are well thought out complete works of information that have been edited. Most information on the web is brief, unedited, and unverified. If there were an e-library, than ok, but but until you can get real books on the internet, the internet cannot completely replace libraries.
nice idea but I dont think it would work to have an optional GUI because people these days are getting lazy. they'd probably rather use the gui and then demand that everything is centered around it. There are certain people who are original and inquisitive who want to learn and understand thing, use logic and reason, and are mindless sheep in society. These are the ones who go on to be nerds, geeks, and hackers. People with brains. The number of these seems to be decreasing. I wonder why that is? Also I wonder if it is genetic or societal, and if societal what can we do to teach and promote thought, reasoning, and individuality?
I agree. People always seem to think computers are a quick fix for everything. The scary thing is kids are starting to believe that. Kids have forgotten the value of a library because they can just browse the internet. Everyone sees computers as so important and so they believe that the most computer educated kid will do the best. However, we forget some basic predicate knowledge that is neccessary.
Kids need to be taught how to learn and not just to be sheep. I saw it in high school in my programming classes. They couldn't learn C++ because they didn't understand logic. I give Woz major kudos for his statement that we need to start early teaching logic and the like on which learning higher skills are based. Give a man a fish he can eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he can eat his whole life. Teach a kid to use Word he can type a paper, teach a kid to use logic, to reason, and to learn and he can figure out whatever obstacles arise. I think I lost my train of thought so I'll stop rambling now.