I kinda liked the show, keeping in mind that its a pilot. It had a bunch of good qualities:
No universal translators-Hooray, a realistic look at meeting strangers...they're strange!
No ridiculous premise-phew...they haven't been warped to a far off dimension, a la the worst trek of all. They're just explorers, trying to prove themselves.
They aren't invincible-There doesn't need to be mind control or some wacky technology to disable the Enterprise ( like in STTNG) it gets pounded, because, frankly, it's not that good.
There is potential for some ongoing plot lines, like the best of DS9. If the show is done right, there will be diplomatic issues w/ the Klingons. (the whole encoded information in genes, conspiracy thing)
On the other hand, there are a few annoying bits:
I didn't like the vulcan. She wasn't even hot enough to fill the 7/9 spot. The just bugged me, like a really dumb spock. At least the original pointy ears respected the humans.
There wasn't a lot of character development, but hopefully that will come with time.
Anyway, I'd tune in to the next few episodes to see if the problems go away.
http://www.apple.com/scitech/stories/skycorp/
Small, off the shelf components...good future. I've already got my computer in a little space suit, looking forward to the day it will orbit this spinning hunk of rock and smelly stuff.
All the hubbub has sent me back to Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny, the best ID software games ever. I miss those wonderful grid-based levels, with their unflinching portrayal of Nazis at their evil utmost, and your good old american Joe going out to kill 'em. I reccomend digging up a copy of Wolfenstein 3D, First Encounter though it's not available for linux, if you want to feel some serious nostalgia.
Re:People will soon not be needed!
on
Robots Go To War
·
· Score: 1
No, it's definitely the Simpsons...the episode where Bart and Lisa go to military school, script found here: http://www.snpp.com/episodes/4F21
Re:People will soon not be needed!
on
Robots Go To War
·
· Score: 2
Actually, the Simpsons quote that applies is "The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots. Thank you."
On one hand, I sympathize with security concerns. This is a frightening time. On the other hand, is a congregation of nerds in Paris really much of a target? If the terrorists were going after intellectuals, they could have crashed into harvard or MIT (15 minutes into their flight from boston). If they want to damage the economy, damaging such a narrow (1 company+peripheral manufacturers) target wouldn't be nearly effective as hitting, for instance, the Stock exchange. It's like my school, where janitors were posted to make sure nobody bombed. Seems like a bit of paranoia to me, but on the other hand Apple didn't have much to say.
Hey, dumbass, try to read my comments before replying. did i insult islam? no, i insulted the ignorance that makes people commit acts in its name. Religion in its ideal form is a set of guidelines to help people live good lives, but in some places, it's used as an excuse for war. I don't give a shit what religion the militant ignorant is, in fact, the comments of the religious right in america blaming the nonconformists, pagans, and libertarians for the attack are just as aweful, but let's face it. Beyond the catholics in ireland, there aren't a whole lot of developed countries with religious based warfare going on. I concede that i misused the word jihad, but the Koran DOES say that the word of the prophet may be spread with the sword. Add that to some people who are pissed off cause they're poor, and uneducated cuz their government sucks, and there is a formula for disaster. That's all i wanted to say, and say that i believe that it is ok to regard those perpetuating the above conditions as enemies. Fuck it. i appriciate the reply.
Unfortunately, you let yourself forget one thing: the PC idea that just because a large group of people hold an idea, you can't dislike it is bullshit. My Muslim friend today was raging; he is of mixed race from Turkey and Syria, but has lived in the US since he was 10 years old. He made an interesting point: islam in some areas is at a stage like catholicism was in England in the 14-1500s. The Jihad (holy war) is just like the Crusades or inquisition, repugnant practices performed by ignorant people under the auspice of religion. I don't dislike Muslims, but I feel free to despise the state their religion is in in foriegn countries, and hate those engaging in a Jihad against the United States. The acts of those people may not represent a whole group, but it is because of the group they are commiting them. Knock out oppresive fundamentalist religions the world over, (taleban anyone?) and hate any group that insists on hating you. If they are completely irrational, they may be treated as...GASP...enemies.
It's really nice to see this story on/. looking through the links, it looks like this is a legitimate, fairly unbiased analysis of not only the software itself, but the issues around Linux. Congrats.
I'm the president of the Simpson's club in my high school (or supreme dictator for life) and as a result of my position, I'd like to raise two points. First, the scripts for the show don't say d'oh or doh, they say "annoyed grunt" so this nonsense over its misspelling in the dictionary is futile. Second, Fox should have done the DVDs a long time ago, or at least made the videos suck less. They should be releasing entire seasons on DVD, or videos with more than 2 episodes. I have a tape with 28 full episodes!
I am a high school student, and completed an AP computer science course a year ago. The thing that you forget, when you suggest that multiple languages be emphasized, it that the students have approximately 4-5 hours of class time, and 4-5 hours of homework for a given subject in a week (at least in my school). I knew a bit of Java, a bit of C, and a lot of Basic before embarking on a mission to learn C++. By the end of the year, I wrote some games in which the computer had rudimentery intelligence, and could learn to beat me at Yachtzee. If I were forced to learn, as you suggest, the libraries for several different languages, and the quirks of themk as well, would it have been possible for me to write a progrm in any language with such a degree of sophistication? Not likely. When setting the AP curriculum, educators re trying to determine which language can best introduce the most sophisticated concepts in the least time. I like the idea of using Smalltalk, because from what I know of it, it would encourage this, however, my guess is that somebody on the AP board liked the idea of using a language that's used in real life. They saw it on the bottom edge of their web browser.
You know, I would compare this to the competition between Wal-mart and small mom-and-pop retailers. Mom and Pop sure are swell, and you like how friendly they are to you, but still, that *mart sure has low prices and a wide selection. They are providing a service that you distrust, because they're a big corporation, but goshdarn if they don't do a good job of it. So you, and everyone else in town, switches, and mom and pop close. They are victims of capitalism...they couldn't compete with a big company, because the big company benefited the consumer. Still, if people are willing to serve their communities, they may support the local store, which will, admittedly make smaller profits.
For those of you with AOL CDs instead of brains, (they must go somewhere) ZDnet planning to behave just like Walmart. They will try to *oh no* provide better service then the enthusiast run hardware sites. If they can manage, then I don't understand the beef. Tough shit Sharky. On the other hand, if they don't succeed (which I suspect will be the case) then they shall fall victim to corporate darwinism, and suffer an agonizing death by wall-street. However, if they succeed, like C-Net, then Everyboddy but Sharky and Tom win. CNet may not have the best reviews, but the mini hardware BBSs and price comparers are pretty damn useful. So what if they're a corporation, they help me.
If you've paid me to walk around normally for a couple of days, then sure you can follow me. I've surrendered my right to do things besides walk around normally in return for your money. Therefore, feel free to follow. I would reccomend that you do it unobtrusively as possible, though, since you don't want to interrupt my walking around normally.
This is one of those things that shouldn't bother you unless you're doing something wrong. An employee is hired to provide a specific service to a company. The company, under a capitalist system, tries to use the employee to earn money. The best way to do so is to have the employee providing their given service at peak efficiency. If that employee spends all day downloading prOn or trying to get first posts on/., the company should logically either pay the employee less, or punish them. Sure, it'll make work suck, but that's a fact of life. (Office Space, anyone?) If all employees were forced to work straight through their workday, they'd have mental breakdowns, and corporations would shorten the workday. In short, this is just a move by businesses to make more money, and if you already do good work, it won't effect you. If you don't work hard, it may force you to. If it's used to make unreasonable demands, productivity will fall, and business structure will change.
First, I'm going to assume that this works. While I have grave doubts about the effectiveness of this system (the company's stock is down, and they're trying to hype investors) a piggyback on civilian technology to widely distribute sensing equipment is probably the best way to detect stealth intruders. If the system is developed, and installed in...say...Iraq, (who doesn't have that many cel phones, but that's not the point) then they may be able to detect flights of B2s or F117s carrying bombs. So what? The tactical situation doesn't change unless there is some capacity to shoot down attackers. Most SAM technologies are pretty basic, and would need massive upgrades to integrate each projectile's radar with the entire cell phone network of a country. The more radio data is in transit, the easier it is to block, falsify, or jam. The place this could be useful is in defending extremely valuable targets. For instance, you could get an early warning of inbound bomber flights, and possibly, just possibly, scramble intercept fighters to defend Washington. Overall, I don't think this would change the tactical picture much at all. The Bombers are harder to hit when they're stealthy, the fighters need to be stealthy to attack each other, and there is a slight possibility that densely populated areas will be able to recognize the locations of stealth aircraft above them. The system is too unwieldy, vulnerable, and expensive for something that will effect the tactics of battle so little.
Somehow I don't see airports or hospitals installing special flourescent lamp networks when they could just throw together a simple radio or infrared system. The point of the system, as outlined in the article, is that it's cheaper, and easier to retrofit to a building than bluetooth (or some other wireless system.) For "incrementally more" than the 20 dollar cost per lamp of upgrading to nonflicker regulators, the network can be installed. Infrared isn't terribly efficient, because it's fairly focused line of site, slow, and expensive. Overall, this sounds like a VERY good option for retrofitting older facilities with networks. The only drawback is that they're one way...
Like with every new technology reviewed on slashdot, the real question about it is, what does this mean for Quake? Since it's resolution functions are nonexistant, wouldn't the Quake screen just shrink to about two square inches (maybe less)? In all reality, I don't really understand why such ultra-high resolution displays would ever take root in home consumer applications. Nobody has eyes good enough to utilize this invention. Maybe it comes with extremely high magnification glasses or eye gene manipulation tools! It could be useful for wearable technologies, though. The 1/4 inch display in your glasses would look a lot better with if it could display at a normal resolution. In current technology, the number of pixels aren't nearly as important as the refresh rate anyway. Unless you're a graphic pro, it's the headache-giving flicker that needs 200,000 research projects, not the number of tiny dots, and good LCDs take care of that anyway.
Sorry, maybe that wasn't clear enough for you. You may do whatever you want ram-wise, and apple encourages+tells you how. If you get the applecare warranty, they will pay to have RAM and PCI cards (from any source) installed for you. All I had to do when I found a VAIO somebody had tossed in the trash was pull out its PC100, open the door of my G4, push the ram into the slots, and close the door. no warrenty broken, nothing un-kosher about. The apple warrenty, in my opinion, is a really friendly one.
No it's not. The standard Apple warrenty does not apply to memory installation, though it does to PCI cards. The extended warrenty pays to have an apple service center install the memory+anything else you want put in.
There was a little confrontation out front with the guys from the Suncoast Linux Users' Group That's wonderful. Does anybody else envision the scene in westside story or Thriller with the dancing gangs? A grid of guys with windows symbols on their shirts snapping their fingers in sync, approaching another geometric array of grubby guys bearing pictures of Linus. They take turns chanting: Windows...KSD(or other linux flavor)...
Bah...more pseudo science. The placebo effect can do many things, but it can't stop aging and cell decay. I can't wait till the guy dies, wrapped with magnets and doohickys, complaining bitteryly that he's immortal.
Right now, we're looking at an early roll-out of a sophisticated service that has incompatibility problems with some of the enormous range of computers out there. Of course Microsoft made sure it was most compatible with their software first. Nobody should be surprised that the M$ programmers did a better job with their own product. Despite the usual sentiment that they're forcing conversion, there really hasn't been any reason to call foul yet. There should be wider support with time, and let's keep in mind that the Government isn't forcing citizens to use the service. Most people use IE anyway (let's face it...there aren't too many options) and the government, with Microsoft's help, and a minimum of expense, has just begun to offer an extremely nice service to those people. Maybe they should have written their own client, which was non-platform reliant, but they managed to release the service earlier and cheaper by using preexisting technology and cutting out a fairly small (though vocal) segment of computer users.
Slashdot Mirror
I kinda liked the show, keeping in mind that its a pilot. It had a bunch of good qualities:
No universal translators-Hooray, a realistic look at meeting strangers...they're strange!
No ridiculous premise-phew...they haven't been warped to a far off dimension, a la the worst trek of all. They're just explorers, trying to prove themselves.
They aren't invincible-There doesn't need to be mind control or some wacky technology to disable the Enterprise ( like in STTNG) it gets pounded, because, frankly, it's not that good.
There is potential for some ongoing plot lines, like the best of DS9. If the show is done right, there will be diplomatic issues w/ the Klingons. (the whole encoded information in genes, conspiracy thing)
On the other hand, there are a few annoying bits:
I didn't like the vulcan. She wasn't even hot enough to fill the 7/9 spot. The just bugged me, like a really dumb spock. At least the original pointy ears respected the humans.
There wasn't a lot of character development, but hopefully that will come with time.
Anyway, I'd tune in to the next few episodes to see if the problems go away.
http://www.apple.com/scitech/stories/skycorp/
Small, off the shelf components...good future. I've already got my computer in a little space suit, looking forward to the day it will orbit this spinning hunk of rock and smelly stuff.
All the hubbub has sent me back to Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny, the best ID software games ever. I miss those wonderful grid-based levels, with their unflinching portrayal of Nazis at their evil utmost, and your good old american Joe going out to kill 'em. I reccomend digging up a copy of Wolfenstein 3D, First Encounter though it's not available for linux, if you want to feel some serious nostalgia.
No, it's definitely the Simpsons...the episode where Bart and Lisa go to military school, script found here: http://www.snpp.com/episodes/4F21
Actually, the Simpsons quote that applies is "The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots. Thank you."
We still haven't seen the original trilogy that didn't suck on DVD, and there is no plan to release it. I find it somewhat ridickulous.
On one hand, I sympathize with security concerns. This is a frightening time. On the other hand, is a congregation of nerds in Paris really much of a target? If the terrorists were going after intellectuals, they could have crashed into harvard or MIT (15 minutes into their flight from boston). If they want to damage the economy, damaging such a narrow (1 company+peripheral manufacturers) target wouldn't be nearly effective as hitting, for instance, the Stock exchange. It's like my school, where janitors were posted to make sure nobody bombed. Seems like a bit of paranoia to me, but on the other hand Apple didn't have much to say.
Hey, dumbass, try to read my comments before replying. did i insult islam? no, i insulted the ignorance that makes people commit acts in its name. Religion in its ideal form is a set of guidelines to help people live good lives, but in some places, it's used as an excuse for war. I don't give a shit what religion the militant ignorant is, in fact, the comments of the religious right in america blaming the nonconformists, pagans, and libertarians for the attack are just as aweful, but let's face it. Beyond the catholics in ireland, there aren't a whole lot of developed countries with religious based warfare going on. I concede that i misused the word jihad, but the Koran DOES say that the word of the prophet may be spread with the sword. Add that to some people who are pissed off cause they're poor, and uneducated cuz their government sucks, and there is a formula for disaster. That's all i wanted to say, and say that i believe that it is ok to regard those perpetuating the above conditions as enemies. Fuck it. i appriciate the reply.
Unfortunately, you let yourself forget one thing: the PC idea that just because a large group of people hold an idea, you can't dislike it is bullshit. My Muslim friend today was raging; he is of mixed race from Turkey and Syria, but has lived in the US since he was 10 years old. He made an interesting point: islam in some areas is at a stage like catholicism was in England in the 14-1500s. The Jihad (holy war) is just like the Crusades or inquisition, repugnant practices performed by ignorant people under the auspice of religion. I don't dislike Muslims, but I feel free to despise the state their religion is in in foriegn countries, and hate those engaging in a Jihad against the United States. The acts of those people may not represent a whole group, but it is because of the group they are commiting them. Knock out oppresive fundamentalist religions the world over, (taleban anyone?) and hate any group that insists on hating you. If they are completely irrational, they may be treated as...GASP...enemies.
It's really nice to see this story on /. looking through the links, it looks like this is a legitimate, fairly unbiased analysis of not only the software itself, but the issues around Linux. Congrats.
I'm the president of the Simpson's club in my high school (or supreme dictator for life) and as a result of my position, I'd like to raise two points. First, the scripts for the show don't say d'oh or doh, they say "annoyed grunt" so this nonsense over its misspelling in the dictionary is futile. Second, Fox should have done the DVDs a long time ago, or at least made the videos suck less. They should be releasing entire seasons on DVD, or videos with more than 2 episodes. I have a tape with 28 full episodes!
I am a high school student, and completed an AP computer science course a year ago. The thing that you forget, when you suggest that multiple languages be emphasized, it that the students have approximately 4-5 hours of class time, and 4-5 hours of homework for a given subject in a week (at least in my school). I knew a bit of Java, a bit of C, and a lot of Basic before embarking on a mission to learn C++. By the end of the year, I wrote some games in which the computer had rudimentery intelligence, and could learn to beat me at Yachtzee. If I were forced to learn, as you suggest, the libraries for several different languages, and the quirks of themk as well, would it have been possible for me to write a progrm in any language with such a degree of sophistication? Not likely. When setting the AP curriculum, educators re trying to determine which language can best introduce the most sophisticated concepts in the least time. I like the idea of using Smalltalk, because from what I know of it, it would encourage this, however, my guess is that somebody on the AP board liked the idea of using a language that's used in real life. They saw it on the bottom edge of their web browser.
You know, I would compare this to the competition between Wal-mart and small mom-and-pop retailers. Mom and Pop sure are swell, and you like how friendly they are to you, but still, that *mart sure has low prices and a wide selection. They are providing a service that you distrust, because they're a big corporation, but goshdarn if they don't do a good job of it. So you, and everyone else in town, switches, and mom and pop close. They are victims of capitalism...they couldn't compete with a big company, because the big company benefited the consumer. Still, if people are willing to serve their communities, they may support the local store, which will, admittedly make smaller profits. For those of you with AOL CDs instead of brains, (they must go somewhere) ZDnet planning to behave just like Walmart. They will try to *oh no* provide better service then the enthusiast run hardware sites. If they can manage, then I don't understand the beef. Tough shit Sharky. On the other hand, if they don't succeed (which I suspect will be the case) then they shall fall victim to corporate darwinism, and suffer an agonizing death by wall-street. However, if they succeed, like C-Net, then Everyboddy but Sharky and Tom win. CNet may not have the best reviews, but the mini hardware BBSs and price comparers are pretty damn useful. So what if they're a corporation, they help me.
If you've paid me to walk around normally for a couple of days, then sure you can follow me. I've surrendered my right to do things besides walk around normally in return for your money. Therefore, feel free to follow. I would reccomend that you do it unobtrusively as possible, though, since you don't want to interrupt my walking around normally.
This is one of those things that shouldn't bother you unless you're doing something wrong. An employee is hired to provide a specific service to a company. The company, under a capitalist system, tries to use the employee to earn money. The best way to do so is to have the employee providing their given service at peak efficiency. If that employee spends all day downloading prOn or trying to get first posts on /., the company should logically either pay the employee less, or punish them. Sure, it'll make work suck, but that's a fact of life. (Office Space, anyone?) If all employees were forced to work straight through their workday, they'd have mental breakdowns, and corporations would shorten the workday. In short, this is just a move by businesses to make more money, and if you already do good work, it won't effect you. If you don't work hard, it may force you to. If it's used to make unreasonable demands, productivity will fall, and business structure will change.
First, I'm going to assume that this works. While I have grave doubts about the effectiveness of this system (the company's stock is down, and they're trying to hype investors) a piggyback on civilian technology to widely distribute sensing equipment is probably the best way to detect stealth intruders. If the system is developed, and installed in...say...Iraq, (who doesn't have that many cel phones, but that's not the point) then they may be able to detect flights of B2s or F117s carrying bombs. So what? The tactical situation doesn't change unless there is some capacity to shoot down attackers. Most SAM technologies are pretty basic, and would need massive upgrades to integrate each projectile's radar with the entire cell phone network of a country. The more radio data is in transit, the easier it is to block, falsify, or jam. The place this could be useful is in defending extremely valuable targets. For instance, you could get an early warning of inbound bomber flights, and possibly, just possibly, scramble intercept fighters to defend Washington. Overall, I don't think this would change the tactical picture much at all. The Bombers are harder to hit when they're stealthy, the fighters need to be stealthy to attack each other, and there is a slight possibility that densely populated areas will be able to recognize the locations of stealth aircraft above them. The system is too unwieldy, vulnerable, and expensive for something that will effect the tactics of battle so little.
Somehow I don't see airports or hospitals installing special flourescent lamp networks when they could just throw together a simple radio or infrared system.
The point of the system, as outlined in the article, is that it's cheaper, and easier to retrofit to a building than bluetooth (or some other wireless system.) For "incrementally more" than the 20 dollar cost per lamp of upgrading to nonflicker regulators, the network can be installed. Infrared isn't terribly efficient, because it's fairly focused line of site, slow, and expensive. Overall, this sounds like a VERY good option for retrofitting older facilities with networks. The only drawback is that they're one way...
Like with every new technology reviewed on slashdot, the real question about it is, what does this mean for Quake? Since it's resolution functions are nonexistant, wouldn't the Quake screen just shrink to about two square inches (maybe less)? In all reality, I don't really understand why such ultra-high resolution displays would ever take root in home consumer applications. Nobody has eyes good enough to utilize this invention. Maybe it comes with extremely high magnification glasses or eye gene manipulation tools! It could be useful for wearable technologies, though. The 1/4 inch display in your glasses would look a lot better with if it could display at a normal resolution. In current technology, the number of pixels aren't nearly as important as the refresh rate anyway. Unless you're a graphic pro, it's the headache-giving flicker that needs 200,000 research projects, not the number of tiny dots, and good LCDs take care of that anyway.
Sorry, maybe that wasn't clear enough for you. You may do whatever you want ram-wise, and apple encourages+tells you how. If you get the applecare warranty, they will pay to have RAM and PCI cards (from any source) installed for you. All I had to do when I found a VAIO somebody had tossed in the trash was pull out its PC100, open the door of my G4, push the ram into the slots, and close the door. no warrenty broken, nothing un-kosher about. The apple warrenty, in my opinion, is a really friendly one.
No it's not. The standard Apple warrenty does not apply to memory installation, though it does to PCI cards. The extended warrenty pays to have an apple service center install the memory+anything else you want put in.
you're right. don't post drunk kids. Insert whatever flavor you want. I actually use LinuxPPC, but everyone but me hates it.
Shit. brainfart/typo. BSD. sorry, flame away.
There was a little confrontation out front with the guys from the Suncoast Linux Users' Group That's wonderful. Does anybody else envision the scene in westside story or Thriller with the dancing gangs? A grid of guys with windows symbols on their shirts snapping their fingers in sync, approaching another geometric array of grubby guys bearing pictures of Linus. They take turns chanting: Windows...KSD(or other linux flavor)...
Bah...more pseudo science. The placebo effect can do many things, but it can't stop aging and cell decay. I can't wait till the guy dies, wrapped with magnets and doohickys, complaining bitteryly that he's immortal.
Right now, we're looking at an early roll-out of a sophisticated service that has incompatibility problems with some of the enormous range of computers out there. Of course Microsoft made sure it was most compatible with their software first. Nobody should be surprised that the M$ programmers did a better job with their own product. Despite the usual sentiment that they're forcing conversion, there really hasn't been any reason to call foul yet. There should be wider support with time, and let's keep in mind that the Government isn't forcing citizens to use the service. Most people use IE anyway (let's face it...there aren't too many options) and the government, with Microsoft's help, and a minimum of expense, has just begun to offer an extremely nice service to those people. Maybe they should have written their own client, which was non-platform reliant, but they managed to release the service earlier and cheaper by using preexisting technology and cutting out a fairly small (though vocal) segment of computer users.