Man, we help them out in their civil war and two world wars! You'd think they'd be a little more grateful! I mean, all we got in return was a stupid statue!
I'm more worried about how people will abuse technology rather than how technology will abuse people. Computers and technology will always serve people. Which people is open to debate.
Ghandi never wore shoes, so as a result, his feet became very tough and thick. In addition, he never ate very much which is why he was so frail. Also, his unusual diet gave him very bad breath. This is why he became know as the...
Super calloused fragile mystic plaiged with halatosis.
If you believe in global warming, let me ask you this question: do you know global warming is happening? How do you know? Where are you getting your information? From the media? Where are they getting their information? From... scientists? Which scientists? Are politicians involved somewhere? Ok, out of all of those involved people, from the lowly scientist to the news person reporting that news, is every one of them an altruist? Are they all 100% trustworthy with no hidden agendas? Maybe most are. But it's naive to assume that all of them are all of the time. Humans havn't changed in thousands of years. And propaganda is the first tool of opression.
For every scientist who says global warming is happening, I can show you one who says it isn't. So who wins? the one with the most scientists? How smart is that? 1700 scientists signed the Kyoto treaty. How many didn't? Why? You never hear about that because the media has chosen to tell you only certain, carefully selected pieces of information.
What about statistics! You can't argue with statistics! If I polled 1000 college students and asked who they will vote for, what will they say? 1000 retirement home residents? 1000 caucasian people in an affluent shopping mall? 1000 inner city residents? Take your pick. Ready made statistics to fit your agenda.
The point is that no one can ever know the 100% truth. And anyone who says they can are fooling themselves. Even scientists make mistakes. All you can do is look at all the evidence together, from as many sources as possible, and make your best guess.
People, especially the american people, are sheep. Nothing more. And, for the most part, they ask the questions they're told to ask, and believe what they're told to believe, and vote accordingly.
It seems silly to bitch about this - work at getting schools to use Free and free software instead.
While I agree that it would be ideal for k-12 schools to use Free software, I think it's highly unrealistic. First of all, the linux variants would get stiff resistance from the vast majority of students and teachers. This is partially because students/teachers will want the school computers to be behave in a very similar way (if not identically) to their home machines. No one wants to worry about whether or not the latest version of Star Office can decode microsoft's latest word file format. Only the truly enlightened will see it any other way.
This leads to the greater problem that virtually none of the people in k-12 schools, public or private, are capable of handling a unix variant (and even windows in many cases). If you have a computer teacher who can, you're greatly blessed. But I bet they're rare, and in high schools only.
Universities are a different story, obviously. And I bet Microsoft is far more willing to cut them a deal, since those students would be be trained in microsoft tools when they join the workforce, and since most universities have large enough budgets to purchase complete ibm, sun or hp hardware and service contracts.
Until Linux has a user interface as clean as the mac osx interface, it will never be mainstream. Not in the home, and therefore, not in schools.
OK, as an IT consultant and lego fan, I feel compelled to speak (type). I got into lego in 1976 and I'm now a hard-core collector, 300-400 sets. I've also run an online parts auction and bought and sold many sets on e-bay
In my opinion, lego has changed greatly over the years. Sets got more complicated, then a lot less complicated. But still, it's silly to go to the store and look at the shelves and only use that subset of available sets to develop an opinion as a whole. What's happened to town sets in the last few years is very sad. Buildings used to be made of many smaller bricks, now they're fewer, larger pieces. But that's just what's on the shelves. There's a complete line of very good train sets that are largely only available from lego shop at home. The same is also true for technic sets.
I've played with erector sets and I believe that they can't compare to lego technic. Lego technic has transmissions, differentials, crown gears, bicycle style chains, spring-loaded pieces, pneumatics, and electric lights and motors, as well as countless connectors in all shapes and sizes that can produce literally anything. As an example, I'm currently working on a motorized Lego gatling gun.
So to me, lego is easily more advanced than erector sets. As an example, have a look at set #8888, which is the black super car. It had a v8 with working pistons, a working transmission, 4 wheel steering, 4 wheel independant suspension, and 4 wheel drive through three differentials and constant velocity joints.
I once opened a bunch of questionable programs and MS word documents on a friend's machine. Filled the screen. Then I copied the screen to the clipboard and saved it as a bitmap through paint. Then I set the wallpaper to that bitmap. He had a hell of a time trying to close all those windows.:-)
Forget computers, how about cars. A few years ago, my mother and aunt took turns driving my grandmother to miami from orlando. My mother drove a smaller car and drove rather fast. My aunt had a land-yacht station wagon and drove like an old lady. After a few trips, the three of them were together with my aunt driving to miami when my grandmother had an epiphany. She declared that the reason it took longer to get to miami when my aunt drives is because big cars go slower. You see, there's more wind resistance... so they're slower...
This is the same woman who said that the instruments in her ford tempo look just like an airplane.
It's ok. All interplay has to do is realize the truth: That there is no spoon. Then, you will see that it isn't them that breaches the contract, it's only yourself.
No other business would survive a month operating this way.
Don't bet on it. Customer service, over the last 10 to 20 years, has taken a nose dive in nearly every type of business I've come in contact with. I'm trying to refinance a second mortgage and keep having problems. 30-45 minute hold times only to be connected to truly clueless people. One woman heard my question and simply bounced me back into the hold queue. One person told me the underwriter wanted more info and that I needed to be transfered to another person. The person to whom I was transfer promptly informed me that the loan was declined. A call a couple days later revealed that my loan was still alive and well. The type of loan was wrong as was the duration. And the person I was talking to couldn't handle 3rd grade math without a calculator. No one will call me either. I have to chase them. Do they really want my business?
I'd say at least 30% of the bills we receive have errors in them serious enough for us to track them down. Especially health care-related bills where the health insurance company has lost it's mind. Our insurance company swears our perscription card works, but tell that to the pharmacist who says it doesn't. And they dropped my wife for no reason, without warning, and with no explanation. When we called and asked, they simply said they didn't know why and couldn't fix it.
Did you know that I have twelve aliases accoring to the credit reporting agencies? I do! They're all various misspellings of my name. (I have a very english name with an obvious spelling). And there's wrong/old information on my credit reports. Luckily, I've fixed 95% of it now. Have you ever tried calling a credit reporting agency?
Even the state of Indiana tried to claim that we hadn't paid our taxes last year. We sent them a copy of our return and a copy of the canceled check, return receipt of course. Then they claimed we never sent it. We faxed them the return receipt. They quit complaining.
I can't even get a person who speaks english at a fast food drive-thru anymore. Tomato != Mayo.
I saw a similar technology about five years ago. They were calling it holographic memory. The thingy that stored the data was about the size of a sugar cube. The hardware was about the size of a VCR.
you can actually build a rendering farm on the cheap!
But remember the game console pricing model! Lose money on the hardware, make money on the software. If people start snapping these up as cheap graphics workstations, something has to give, since those people aren't likely to buy anywhere near enough games to match the number of consoles. Sony either needs to charge for the linux software dvd or charge more for the hardware. I bet it's the former. Or pehaps charging a high price for the disk/ethernet add-on hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
If I could get one to vacuum my apartment...
You don't need to vacuum you're apartment, just do this:
http://www.milk.com/wall-o-shame/waterproof.html
if NASA would sell these as toys...
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
Ha! After the disaster with the Maginot Line, do you really think I'll use their distribution for my firewall!?
Man, we help them out in their civil war and two world wars! You'd think they'd be a little more grateful! I mean, all we got in return was a stupid statue!
Cockmasters
Maybe Terrance and Phillip shouldn't be our PR people.
Blame Canada!
I've seen that comercial! You're CANADIAN!!!!
Pick me up a double leg plate at the swiss chalet would you?
I'm more worried about how people will abuse technology rather than how technology will abuse people. Computers and technology will always serve people. Which people is open to debate.
ok, a bit OT, but I can't resist:
Ghandi never wore shoes, so as a result, his feet became very tough and thick. In addition, he never ate very much which is why he was so frail. Also, his unusual diet gave him very bad breath. This is why he became know as the...
Super calloused fragile mystic plaiged with halatosis.
More apologies to Julie Andrews
Dr. Kai-Uwe upholsterer
Well, I'm certainly pleased to know that there's now a Free solution for all my upholstery needs.
If you believe in global warming, let me ask you this question: do you know global warming is happening? How do you know? Where are you getting your information? From the media? Where are they getting their information? From... scientists? Which scientists? Are politicians involved somewhere? Ok, out of all of those involved people, from the lowly scientist to the news person reporting that news, is every one of them an altruist? Are they all 100% trustworthy with no hidden agendas? Maybe most are. But it's naive to assume that all of them are all of the time. Humans havn't changed in thousands of years. And propaganda is the first tool of opression.
For every scientist who says global warming is happening, I can show you one who says it isn't. So who wins? the one with the most scientists? How smart is that? 1700 scientists signed the Kyoto treaty. How many didn't? Why? You never hear about that because the media has chosen to tell you only certain, carefully selected pieces of information.
What about statistics! You can't argue with statistics! If I polled 1000 college students and asked who they will vote for, what will they say? 1000 retirement home residents? 1000 caucasian people in an affluent shopping mall? 1000 inner city residents? Take your pick. Ready made statistics to fit your agenda.
The point is that no one can ever know the 100% truth. And anyone who says they can are fooling themselves. Even scientists make mistakes. All you can do is look at all the evidence together, from as many sources as possible, and make your best guess.
People, especially the american people, are sheep. Nothing more. And, for the most part, they ask the questions they're told to ask, and believe what they're told to believe, and vote accordingly.
Don't be a sheep.
It seems silly to bitch about this - work at getting schools to use Free and free software instead.
While I agree that it would be ideal for k-12 schools to use Free software, I think it's highly unrealistic. First of all, the linux variants would get stiff resistance from the vast majority of students and teachers. This is partially because students/teachers will want the school computers to be behave in a very similar way (if not identically) to their home machines. No one wants to worry about whether or not the latest version of Star Office can decode microsoft's latest word file format. Only the truly enlightened will see it any other way.
This leads to the greater problem that virtually none of the people in k-12 schools, public or private, are capable of handling a unix variant (and even windows in many cases). If you have a computer teacher who can, you're greatly blessed. But I bet they're rare, and in high schools only.
Universities are a different story, obviously. And I bet Microsoft is far more willing to cut them a deal, since those students would be be trained in microsoft tools when they join the workforce, and since most universities have large enough budgets to purchase complete ibm, sun or hp hardware and service contracts.
Until Linux has a user interface as clean as the mac osx interface, it will never be mainstream. Not in the home, and therefore, not in schools.
4 billion US dollars worth of budget over-runs
If Carl Sagan were here, he'd say we need billions and billions of dollars.
OK, as an IT consultant and lego fan, I feel compelled to speak (type). I got into lego in 1976 and I'm now a hard-core collector, 300-400 sets. I've also run an online parts auction and bought and sold many sets on e-bay
In my opinion, lego has changed greatly over the years. Sets got more complicated, then a lot less complicated. But still, it's silly to go to the store and look at the shelves and only use that subset of available sets to develop an opinion as a whole. What's happened to town sets in the last few years is very sad. Buildings used to be made of many smaller bricks, now they're fewer, larger pieces. But that's just what's on the shelves. There's a complete line of very good train sets that are largely only available from lego shop at home. The same is also true for technic sets.
I've played with erector sets and I believe that they can't compare to lego technic. Lego technic has transmissions, differentials, crown gears, bicycle style chains, spring-loaded pieces, pneumatics, and electric lights and motors, as well as countless connectors in all shapes and sizes that can produce literally anything. As an example, I'm currently working on a motorized Lego gatling gun.
So to me, lego is easily more advanced than erector sets. As an example, have a look at set #8888, which is the black super car. It had a v8 with working pistons, a working transmission, 4 wheel steering, 4 wheel independant suspension, and 4 wheel drive through three differentials and constant velocity joints.
I once opened a bunch of questionable programs and MS word documents on a friend's machine. Filled the screen. Then I copied the screen to the clipboard and saved it as a bitmap through paint. Then I set the wallpaper to that bitmap. He had a hell of a time trying to close all those windows. :-)
Nobody called the program Kadobe!
That's because George Lucas threatened to sue.
I'm not sure if making Quake look like that Aha's Take on Me video is an idea that will make quake playable...
Hey, now there's a mod idea! Of course, you'll have to create that pipe-wrench weapon the motorcycle dude tried to use on the lead singer.
Quakedude was fragged by Meat-Beater's pipe wrench
while I'm driving or engaged in other hand-occupying activities
You can view pr0n on PDAs?! Maybe I need to get one!
Forget computers, how about cars. A few years ago, my mother and aunt took turns driving my grandmother to miami from orlando. My mother drove a smaller car and drove rather fast. My aunt had a land-yacht station wagon and drove like an old lady. After a few trips, the three of them were together with my aunt driving to miami when my grandmother had an epiphany. She declared that the reason it took longer to get to miami when my aunt drives is because big cars go slower. You see, there's more wind resistance... so they're slower...
This is the same woman who said that the instruments in her ford tempo look just like an airplane.
It's ok. All interplay has to do is realize the truth: That there is no spoon. Then, you will see that it isn't them that breaches the contract, it's only yourself.
No other business would survive a month operating this way.
Don't bet on it. Customer service, over the last 10 to 20 years, has taken a nose dive in nearly every type of business I've come in contact with. I'm trying to refinance a second mortgage and keep having problems. 30-45 minute hold times only to be connected to truly clueless people. One woman heard my question and simply bounced me back into the hold queue. One person told me the underwriter wanted more info and that I needed to be transfered to another person. The person to whom I was transfer promptly informed me that the loan was declined. A call a couple days later revealed that my loan was still alive and well. The type of loan was wrong as was the duration. And the person I was talking to couldn't handle 3rd grade math without a calculator. No one will call me either. I have to chase them. Do they really want my business?
I'd say at least 30% of the bills we receive have errors in them serious enough for us to track them down. Especially health care-related bills where the health insurance company has lost it's mind. Our insurance company swears our perscription card works, but tell that to the pharmacist who says it doesn't. And they dropped my wife for no reason, without warning, and with no explanation. When we called and asked, they simply said they didn't know why and couldn't fix it.
Did you know that I have twelve aliases accoring to the credit reporting agencies? I do! They're all various misspellings of my name. (I have a very english name with an obvious spelling). And there's wrong/old information on my credit reports. Luckily, I've fixed 95% of it now. Have you ever tried calling a credit reporting agency?
Even the state of Indiana tried to claim that we hadn't paid our taxes last year. We sent them a copy of our return and a copy of the canceled check, return receipt of course. Then they claimed we never sent it. We faxed them the return receipt. They quit complaining.
I can't even get a person who speaks english at a fast food drive-thru anymore. Tomato != Mayo.
I want ketchup. Que? Ketchup. Que? Ketchup!
Another application for the above product would be as a language translator for the tourist going abroad in other countries.
Yeah, but who want's to hear everyone speaking like babblefish?
BTW: How do you do abroad in this country?
they don't mention the size of the equipment
I saw a similar technology about five years ago. They were calling it holographic memory. The thingy that stored the data was about the size of a sugar cube. The hardware was about the size of a VCR.
you can actually build a rendering farm on the cheap!
But remember the game console pricing model! Lose money on the hardware, make money on the software. If people start snapping these up as cheap graphics workstations, something has to give, since those people aren't likely to buy anywhere near enough games to match the number of consoles. Sony either needs to charge for the linux software dvd or charge more for the hardware. I bet it's the former. Or pehaps charging a high price for the disk/ethernet add-on hardware.
musicians could stand to learn as well. I guess the scientists are faster learners
That's fer sure. No matter how loud I yell, the guy with the tuba upstairs never learns.
we will need to start finding ways to finance the cost of running the site
Well, judging by the lifespan of some dotcoms lately, I'd say 90 days same-as-cash ought to do it.