It is obvious that the Blog People read what they want to read rather than what is in front of them and judge me to be wrong on the basis of what they think rather than what I actually wrote.
On the subject of "the quality of writing," I must say that I've parsed this sentence several times, I've reread its context, reread all the referenced articles, and I still can barely guess what this sentence is supposed to mean.
Does he mean that bloggers self-select their reading materials to such a degree that they insulate themselves from opposing viewpoints and broader context, both of which are necessary for good scholarship? Maybe.
Perhaps he is complaining that many bloggers fail to RTFA? That could be it. If so, we welcome him to our party.
No, it seems to me that what he's really on about is the old debater's complaint, "But that's not what I said -- you're twisting my words and not listening to me." So, welcome to the public stage Mr. Gorman, where knee-jerk reaction and ill-considered opinion are the order of the day. Practice your sound bites. If you want to persuade this audience, it's going to take more than erudition.
. . . And now, I'm off to try to find some one who judges based on something other than what he thinks and who reads things that he doesn't, as some level, want to read.
gadget: an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty. Submit your suggestions here in no particular order:
screwdriver level slide rule ti scientific calculator telephone stapler corkscrew folding pocket knife pager modem scissors graphophone bicycl e abacus toaster electric mixer microwave mobile phone clock pocket watch digital watch eye glasses sandpaper video game dice and . ..
Keep in mind that this list was in Mobile PC magazine.
Had it been a list of the 100 best mobile computing gadgets, maybe. But that's not the list they tried to make -- they included can openers, for crying out loud.
At least a third of the list is utterly derivative and forgetable. (99. swingline 747 stapler, 97. mattel intellivision, 95. carl zeiss victory 8 x 42 t*fl binoculars, 92. popeil pocket fisherman, 84. ronco inside-the-shell egg scrambler, 80. fisher space pen, 76. hp omnibook 300, 68. nokia 5100 series cell phone, 66. iridium satellite phone, 65. mattel football ii, 62. sony wm-f5 sports walkman, 61. motorola bravo numeric pager, 58. panasonic toughbook 18, 55. super scissors, 52. sony cfs-5000 boom box, 49. casio cassiopeia e-10, 43. handspring visor, 41. rim interactive pager, 40. falcon dust-off, 37. jvc gr-c1 camcorder, 35. screwpull corkscrew, 33. bose quietcomfort headphones, 31. trek thumbdrive, 26. grid compass 1100, 25. nintendo game boy, 22. apple powerbook 500, 19. ibm thinkpad 701c, 8. diamond multimedia rio 300, 6. casio qv-10 digital camera, 4. motorola startac, 1. apple powerbook 100)
government can always undercut the opponent and hide the costs in taxes; few will ever complain.
Those books are open. And, in my experience, there is never any lack of picky people complaining. Private corps, by comparison, can hide any level of profit, gouging, or executive largess behind their closed books. And they can ignore any complaints.
If it's like any other government service, it will be poorly and insecurely run, slow to respond (for instance, blocking ports to stem the spread of viruses), and twice as expensive as anything else. (Amtrak, anyone?) If Amtrak tickets are more expensive than other modes, perhaps this is because there are fewer hidden tax dollars funding it. 2004 U.S. Department of Transportation 54.5 billion Aviation 13.8 billion (25%) Highways 33.9 billion (62%) Railroad 1.45 billion (2.7%) Other 5.35 (10%) This doesn't even begin to address the local and state monies that go into roads and airports.
Where governments have actually done broadband, the results have been good. All the reasons given to stop govts doing this smell of FUD.
. . . municipal internet access . . . is "cheap" or "free" because it is being subsidized by people who don't use it (those without computers), or who use it and are paying a disproportionate amount of the costs (the wealthy).
Most services provided by local government are only used by part of the population (e.g. roads for those who don't drive, schools for the childless, parks for troglodytes, libraries for the TV zombies, ball parks for the non-sports fans, recreation centers for the lazy). This is why unanimous agreement is seldom required for government to make decisions.
If these comunities want thier towns to provide broadband, that is their decision to make.
Amen, brother. Municipal broadband is certainly less of a boondogle than some of the things communities do fund (e.g. sports stadiums) and will do at least as much for the enjoyment of citizens and the improvement of the local economy. I hope more communities choose their own best interests over those of the private industry would-be monopolists. Their greed is not our problem. Or rather, it is our problem, so let's solve it.
Isn't what we really want just more competition? Yes. That's exactly what we want. But, "private industry" isn't giving us competition. They're giving us de facto monopoly, and they're lobbying our representatives to enforce it.
I live on a street with exactly 1 cable company. This costs me 30% per month compared to neighborhoods 5 miles away. There is no sign of any other provider coming here any time soon (i.e. within 5 years).
If the only competitor willing to take on that cable company is my town government, so be it. Let there be no rules forbidding anyone (corporate, government, coop) from offering these services!
So, how much water are we talking about? This Martian block ice is 800-900 km in size, 45 m deep. If surface area = (800/2)^2*pi= 500000 km^2, then volume is 500000*(45/1000) = 23000 km^3 (using these very rough data). By comparison, these terrestrial lakes have similar volumes, areas, or depths.
Caspian Sea (Eurasia), vol 78200 km^3, area 374000 km^2, depth 209 m Lake Baikal (Eurasia), vol 23000 km^3, area 31500 km^2, depth 730 m Martian Block Ice (Mars), vol ~23000 km^3, area ~500000 km^2, depth 45 m Lakes Michigan and Huron (North America), vol 8,456 km^3, area 117318 km^2, depth 72 m Lake Victoria (Africa), vol 2750 km^3, area 68800 km^2, depth 40 m
See also http://home.comcast.net/~igpl/Lakes.html ht tp://www.gemswater.org/atlas-gwq/table7-e.html ht tp://www.epa.gov/glnpo/physfacts.html
Hell, when Apple publicly makes jokes like "Redmond: start your photocopiers" when previewing OS X, you know you're so far behind that you think you're coming first.
Apple has been saying that in one form or another for 20 years. (And they've been right for 20 years.) But it doesn't tell us anything new about Microsoft's corporated health tomorrow.
But I do know that when a guy has his eyes replaced to avoid surveillance, he shouldn't pay the surgeon with a credit card. I also know that if the bad guys are using surveillance to look for his eyes, they will have long since revoked the security credentials of his eyes to open any door whatsoever.
I guess I was too busy being unimpressed by the movie to be scared by it. Give me the Bourne Identity any day -- much lower mistakes quotient.
Quite right, the judge probably did this to insulate the (eventual) ruling for appeal.
And no, I don't think SCO has a case. However, neither the title nor the summary mentioned the ruling at all. I submit that the comments were quoted and the ruling ignored because the author wanted to bash SCO more than to report news.
That said, I'm ready to return to SCO bashing now.
Slashdot Mirror
From TFA: Of every 100 ninth-graders, only 68 graduate high school on time and only 18 make it through college on time . . . See National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
Are you _kidding_ me?!
It is obvious that the Blog People read what they want to read rather than what is in front of them and judge me to be wrong on the basis of what they think rather than what I actually wrote.
On the subject of "the quality of writing," I must say that I've parsed this sentence several times, I've reread its context, reread all the referenced articles, and I still can barely guess what this sentence is supposed to mean.
Does he mean that bloggers self-select their reading materials to such a degree that they insulate themselves from opposing viewpoints and broader context, both of which are necessary for good scholarship? Maybe.
Perhaps he is complaining that many bloggers fail to RTFA? That could be it. If so, we welcome him to our party.
No, it seems to me that what he's really on about is the old debater's complaint, "But that's not what I said -- you're twisting my words and not listening to me." So, welcome to the public stage Mr. Gorman, where knee-jerk reaction and ill-considered opinion are the order of the day. Practice your sound bites. If you want to persuade this audience, it's going to take more than erudition.
. . . And now, I'm off to try to find some one who judges based on something other than what he thinks and who reads things that he doesn't, as some level, want to read.
FTFA: A U.N.-sponsored panel aims to . . . propose solutions to problems such as cyber crime and email spam . .
So, they're saying that ICANN somehow failed to stop SPAM and cybercrime?? And they're going to do what, exactly, differently?
gadget: an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty. Submit your suggestions here in no particular order:
g pocket knifel e .
screwdriver
level
slide rule
ti scientific calculator
telephone
stapler
corkscrew
foldin
pager
modem
scissors
graphophone
bicyc
abacus
toaster
electric mixer
microwave
mobile phone
clock
pocket watch
digital watch
eye glasses
sandpaper
video game
dice
and . .
Keep in mind that this list was in Mobile PC magazine.
Had it been a list of the 100 best mobile computing gadgets, maybe. But that's not the list they tried to make -- they included can openers, for crying out loud.
At least a third of the list is utterly derivative and forgetable. (99. swingline 747 stapler, 97. mattel intellivision, 95. carl zeiss victory 8 x 42 t*fl binoculars, 92. popeil pocket fisherman, 84. ronco inside-the-shell egg scrambler, 80. fisher space pen, 76. hp omnibook 300, 68. nokia 5100 series cell phone, 66. iridium satellite phone, 65. mattel football ii, 62. sony wm-f5 sports walkman, 61. motorola bravo numeric pager, 58. panasonic toughbook 18, 55. super scissors, 52. sony cfs-5000 boom box, 49. casio cassiopeia e-10, 43. handspring visor, 41. rim interactive pager, 40. falcon dust-off, 37. jvc gr-c1 camcorder, 35. screwpull corkscrew, 33. bose quietcomfort headphones, 31. trek thumbdrive, 26. grid compass 1100, 25. nintendo game boy, 22. apple powerbook 500, 19. ibm thinkpad 701c, 8. diamond multimedia rio 300, 6. casio qv-10 digital camera, 4. motorola startac, 1. apple powerbook 100)
LOL
fewer trees
;-)
less pulp
This message brought to you by count and non-count nouns and the Profession of English Majors.
government can always undercut the opponent and hide the costs in taxes; few will ever complain.
Those books are open. And, in my experience, there is never any lack of picky people complaining. Private corps, by comparison, can hide any level of profit, gouging, or executive largess behind their closed books. And they can ignore any complaints.
If it's like any other government service, it will be poorly and insecurely run, slow to respond (for instance, blocking ports to stem the spread of viruses), and twice as expensive as anything else. (Amtrak, anyone?)
If Amtrak tickets are more expensive than other modes, perhaps this is because there are fewer hidden tax dollars funding it.
2004 U.S. Department of Transportation 54.5 billion
Aviation 13.8 billion (25%)
Highways 33.9 billion (62%)
Railroad 1.45 billion (2.7%)
Other 5.35 (10%)
This doesn't even begin to address the local and state monies that go into roads and airports.
Where governments have actually done broadband, the results have been good. All the reasons given to stop govts doing this smell of FUD.
. . . municipal internet access . . . is "cheap" or "free" because it is being subsidized by people who don't use it (those without computers), or who use it and are paying a disproportionate amount of the costs (the wealthy).
Most services provided by local government are only used by part of the population (e.g. roads for those who don't drive, schools for the childless, parks for troglodytes, libraries for the TV zombies, ball parks for the non-sports fans, recreation centers for the lazy). This is why unanimous agreement is seldom required for government to make decisions.
If these comunities want thier towns to provide broadband, that is their decision to make.
Amen, brother. Municipal broadband is certainly less of a boondogle than some of the things communities do fund (e.g. sports stadiums) and will do at least as much for the enjoyment of citizens and the improvement of the local economy. I hope more communities choose their own best interests over those of the private industry would-be monopolists. Their greed is not our problem. Or rather, it is our problem, so let's solve it.
Isn't what we really want just more competition?
Yes. That's exactly what we want. But, "private industry" isn't giving us competition. They're giving us de facto monopoly, and they're lobbying our representatives to enforce it.
I live on a street with exactly 1 cable company. This costs me 30% per month compared to neighborhoods 5 miles away. There is no sign of any other provider coming here any time soon (i.e. within 5 years).
If the only competitor willing to take on that cable company is my town government, so be it. Let there be no rules forbidding anyone (corporate, government, coop) from offering these services!
U.S. App. No. 20040230959
Not that we have rules around here, but shouldn't there be a rule that no story about a patent gets posted without a link to the patent?
One bird in the hand is worth 1 billion birds in the bush.
;(
I _that_ what happened to the all those passenger pigeons we used to have?
So, how much water are we talking about? This Martian block ice is 800-900 km in size, 45 m deep. If surface area = (800/2)^2*pi= 500000 km^2, then volume is 500000*(45/1000) = 23000 km^3 (using these very rough data). By comparison, these terrestrial lakes have similar volumes, areas, or depths.
t tp://www.gemswater.org/atlas-gwq/table7-e.htmlt tp://www.epa.gov/glnpo/physfacts.html
Caspian Sea (Eurasia), vol 78200 km^3, area 374000 km^2, depth 209 m
Lake Baikal (Eurasia), vol 23000 km^3, area 31500 km^2, depth 730 m
Martian Block Ice (Mars), vol ~23000 km^3, area ~500000 km^2, depth 45 m
Lakes Michigan and Huron (North America), vol 8,456 km^3, area 117318 km^2, depth 72 m
Lake Victoria (Africa), vol 2750 km^3, area 68800 km^2, depth 40 m
See also
http://home.comcast.net/~igpl/Lakes.html
h
h
How quietly it happens!
GPS device(1): a device that tells you where it is
GPS device(2): a device that tells them where you are
It'd make a good "in Soviet Russia" joke if it were funny.
Or, is it
USA PATRIOT Act: Usurping Some Ancient Prerogatives And Terminating Rights to Inaugurate Oppression and Tyranny?
IIRC, Clothing had tabs before bars called tabs 'tabs'.
Hydroelectric isn't unlimited either: sooner or later you run out of damnable rivers.
Now, _there_ was a Freudian Slip.*
(*When you say one thing, but mean your mother.)
Hell, when Apple publicly makes jokes like "Redmond: start your photocopiers" when previewing OS X, you know you're so far behind that you think you're coming first.
Apple has been saying that in one form or another for 20 years. (And they've been right for 20 years.) But it doesn't tell us anything new about Microsoft's corporated health tomorrow.
what, can't you read?
No, not.
But I do know that when a guy has his eyes replaced to avoid surveillance, he shouldn't pay the surgeon with a credit card. I also know that if the bad guys are using surveillance to look for his eyes, they will have long since revoked the security credentials of his eyes to open any door whatsoever.
I guess I was too busy being unimpressed by the movie to be scared by it. Give me the Bourne Identity any day -- much lower mistakes quotient.
Quite right, the judge probably did this to insulate the (eventual) ruling for appeal.
And no, I don't think SCO has a case. However, neither the title nor the summary mentioned the ruling at all. I submit that the comments were quoted and the ruling ignored because the author wanted to bash SCO more than to report news.
That said, I'm ready to return to SCO bashing now.
Uh, it happened at least 20 years ago. In the mid 80's, one of the fun toys that I worked with for a while was an AT&T desktop computer.
Very interesting. It's amazing the stuff that gets developed, but not adopted.
Actually, I had in mind the additional service that the system would track down the individual for you whether at home, work, or mobile.
One of my favorite smart phone systems today is the one used by 1800Fandango. Very smart, very slick. Other companies, like Amtrak use them too.
What must be really depressing for her is that (as of this writing) HP's stock is up more than 11 percent in pre-market trading today.
Yeah, she'll be depressed all the way to the bank. She surely holds more than a little HP stock herself.
Since time immemorial, the govt has been building highways. Why not the 'information superhighway'?
Why do you hate America?
"How do you have patience for people who claim they love America but clearly can't stand Americans?"
--The American President, Aaron Sorkin
Am I the only slashdot user that thought that Minority Report qualified as a horror movie?
Did you say "horror movie" or "horrible movie"?