"Basically what I think works in a wikis is to trust people to do the right thing, and trust them as much as you can possibly stand it, until it hurts your head and makes you scared for what they're going to break. Because that is what works."
What the man said. It's become more and more difficult to trust anything on the net, with all the people trying to make a fast buck and all the endless scams, all the media stories about people taking advantage.
But somewhere between the
Pollyanna attitudes of the pre-boom (and during-boom) years, and the more recent/current attitudes of cynical distrust and ironic distance -- somewhere remains the truth, that the net still remains a new place where good people can sometimes invest their hopes, and give some good honest work to genuinely help other people. Where good new resources can still arise.
Bravo to Jimmy Wales and all volunteers of the various Wiki projects. They're earning back the trust they give, and all of us are better for it.
-madmagic
Let's see if I've got this straight... since one of the telecom/ net giants is in major trouble and soon may not be able to provide reliable services to their customers -- the wisest decision those poor customers can make to protect themselves, is to make sure they purchase alternative bandwidth.
What an amazing way to promote sales. My hat's off to the spin doctor who came up with this one.:)
Patrick
p.s. Gotta love that 'Act of God' mention in the article too. "It wasn't due to any human error -- it was all a supernatural manifestation!!"
Interesting to see that only one of the above five words -- or perhaps two of five, depending on your opinions of hanukkah:) -- is a traditional English language word.
It's beginning to look a lot more like an international net. Will Cantonese words top the list by '05? '10?
Although it's not an OSS/FS coding project, iComm has always run on GNU software, operates on a strictly volunteer basis, accepts charitable donations -- and most important, exists only to give nonprofit groups free webspace, email addresses and majordomo mailing lists.
Their charitable receipts are only good in Canada (pity, eh?) but they help lots of US-based NPOs, including Amnesty USA.
So here's my question: what science-fiction novels have had a particularly noticeable effect on the development of technology? I'm mainly interested in books that have been written since World War II. The line of inquiry is not limited to computers; any kind of link between sci-fi and hard tech will do (e.g. Cap'n Kirk's communicator == prototype mobile phone). Books that have lent a name to a technology are also interesting (like the 'Little-Endian, Big-Endian' terms which were lifted from Gulliver's Travels, or 'Babel Fish' from Douglas Adams)."
Despite your post-WWI and hard-tech parameters, I'd advise looking at Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World.' The social engineering themes in the novel tend to get the most attention, but he also had some early visions of biotech -- bottle babies, pre-'birth' physical manipulation of embryos for intelligence, character and physical attributes -- and the widespread use of approved mood-altering drugs. It's a short line of descent from those ideas to birth technologies now in use -- and from Soma to Prozac. [TM]
BNW was also much closer than Orwell's 1984 at predicting the future, IMO. Like the best of Gibson's and John Brunner's dystopic novels, BNW has both the social and technical threads needed to weave the believable fabric of a future world.
-Patrick
"We haven't any use for old things here." - Aldous Huxley, ibid.
Slashdot Mirror
"Basically what I think works in a wikis is to trust people to do the right thing, and trust them as much as you can possibly stand it, until it hurts your head and makes you scared for what they're going to break. Because that is what works."
What the man said. It's become more and more difficult to trust anything on the net, with all the people trying to make a fast buck and all the endless scams, all the media stories about people taking advantage.
But somewhere between the Pollyanna attitudes of the pre-boom (and during-boom) years, and the more recent/current attitudes of cynical distrust and ironic distance -- somewhere remains the truth, that the net still remains a new place where good people can sometimes invest their hopes, and give some good honest work to genuinely help other people. Where good new resources can still arise.
Bravo to Jimmy Wales and all volunteers of the various Wiki projects. They're earning back the trust they give, and all of us are better for it.
-madmagic
The presumption of expletive F isn't quite correct.
Expanding the acronym I used: "I have no joke here, I just feel like saying"
Both the version you looked up, and the one I used, date back to Usenet in the mid-90s.
-mm
The article at the Register says:
"Mike told us that when an email from Microsoft's Canadian lawyers Smart & Biggar arrived on 19 November..."
IHNJH, IJFLS "Microsoft's Canadian lawyers Smart & Biggar"
-mm
charles dickens couldn't have written it better
What an amazing way to promote sales. My hat's off to the spin doctor who came up with this one. :)
Patrick
p.s. Gotta love that 'Act of God' mention in the article too. "It wasn't due to any human error -- it was all a supernatural manifestation!!"
The answer is obvious if you're looking for the best way to secure an onboard system: hide the ship.
-mm
obscurity mon ami
Top Holiday Searches 2001:
:) -- is a traditional English language word.
1. christmas
2. navidad
3. hanukkah
4. weihnachtskarten
5. adventskalender
Interesting to see that only one of the above five words -- or perhaps two of five, depending on your opinions of hanukkah
It's beginning to look a lot more like an international net. Will Cantonese words top the list by '05? '10?
-Patrick
Although it's not an OSS/FS coding project, iComm has always run on GNU software, operates on a strictly volunteer basis, accepts charitable donations -- and most important, exists only to give nonprofit groups free webspace, email addresses and majordomo mailing lists.
Their charitable receipts are only good in Canada (pity, eh?) but they help lots of US-based NPOs, including Amnesty USA.
-Patrick
disclaimer: iComm founder, but no longer involved
Despite your post-WWI and hard-tech parameters, I'd advise looking at Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World.' The social engineering themes in the novel tend to get the most attention, but he also had some early visions of biotech -- bottle babies, pre-'birth' physical manipulation of embryos for intelligence, character and physical attributes -- and the widespread use of approved mood-altering drugs. It's a short line of descent from those ideas to birth technologies now in use -- and from Soma to Prozac. [TM]
BNW was also much closer than Orwell's 1984 at predicting the future, IMO. Like the best of Gibson's and John Brunner's dystopic novels, BNW has both the social and technical threads needed to weave the believable fabric of a future world.
-Patrick
"We haven't any use for old things here." - Aldous Huxley, ibid.