it seems to me, reading all the argument on whether or not it is a good idea to fool around with things like this, that we are completely, totally incapable of even simply _knowing_ whether or not it is a good idea. the whole thing should be moot.
as parts, even _functions_ of the ecosystem, we can see the whole no more than we can perceive things outside of the four dimensions we reside in. a chip cannot tell you about the computer it is in.
a human being is a wee little bit of the Earth-system. so are flies. we humans are just as poorly equipped to see the system (that we are a part of) from the sort of outside point of view that would be required to successfully understand, much less modify, that system. at least the flies haven't the hubris to try it anyway.
let's face it, people. we're all just a bunch of hairless fucking monkeys, and, as a rule, we're not all that bright. just look at the spelling on this site. (and many, many others) would you trust an entire ecosphere to a people that cannot even master their own language?
friend, check out the facts n' history n' stuff...
the USofA was never a democracy in the first place, it was originally a Republic (i think). Ergo, democracy really has no place at all in a discussion of USian politics, unless you are suggesting that it might be worth a try. don't let the G-men hear you say that, tho... look where it got fellas like Patrice Lumumba (assassinated) and the quarter-million or more Indonesians killed by the CIA-backed Suharto... and they didn't even live here
And with mobile devices, Nokia's Robert Hinden said, the inability to give each an IP number would be like having cell phones that could only make calls, not receive them.
... if i could get one like that, i might still have one...
although the idea of RedHat, et al. fixing on a de facto standard is viable and a Good idea, still i have nits to pick. besides, would KDE's (and, therefore, Mandrake's) apparent adoption of these packages not imply said standard?
s20451 : so you can edit/display/transmit your files to virtually any Windows user. emphasis mine.
the fact that virtually any Windows user can use the stuff i used Windows to produce != interoperability.
also, the 'virtually any' piece of your argument appears to me to have a couple of holes, itself. i have, in the past, had major, major hassles trying to coax M$APP9x to deal with the output of M$APP2000.
interoperability, this does not make.
interoperability is more (to my thinking) a cross-platform issue. ex: MySQL will work on just about any platform out there, AFAIK... never messed with the M$ versions thereof, but you get the idea...
is it just me, or do most of Douggie's answers tend towards "Ha! We here at M$ can kick your ass, and your little penguin's ass, too!"...
it seems to me as if Mr. Miller misconstrues our motives massively, mistaking me and mine for mere marketdroids. (Um, sorry for the alliteration) our strengths lie not in selling this crap, but making this crap work pretty darn well, and the obvious strength of a community where the primary drive is not to screw your neighbor over for a few bucks, rather to help her out pro bono.
i speak only for me own li'l self here, but i'd be interested to see if anyone else thinks similarly.
i don't see that the comparison as far as direct competition between our camp and Mr. Gates' is very valid. although it is nice to see non-hacker-types using linux or other *ahem* "Alternative" OS'es and i try to encourage folks that i am around to at least consider that there are other ways to do all this neat stuff than using M$ products, i really don't see linux as a "commercial OS" that would be going head to head with M$.
not to say that i don't do my fair share of M$ avoidance, as well as some bitching and moaning when i am asked to expose myself to that particular school of computing. in fact, i would be just happy as a pig in shit if M$ dropped right off the face of my time-space continuum. i just don't think it's up to open source to do this to them. at least not in their own area of expertise (fooling idjit consumers into paying them)
ok, kids, check this one out:
"Quarterstaff : the Tomb of Setmoth"
it's an infocom game, mostly text, but it has graphics for the automap stuff, and some of the rooms have pix that come up when you enter them. IIRC, it was only released for Mac, (back in the beige toaster days:) and seeing as how Infocom went buh-bye and all, i didn't really expect to find the sucker, but i had found the aforementioned toaster in a closet, and wanted to play the game again. had no luck. o, well...
Maybe every 50th ad check my email account and use the banner ad space to tell me if I have new mail. jeezie criminy, man! are you gonna give your email account info to the ad-men? i sure ain't....
*ahem*
(Article posted @ 8:02, above comment posted 8:00...you guys could at least throw a "first post!" in there when utilizing insider FP privileges...)
heh. it looks like the story was posted at 8:00 to me... mebbe Mr. Hemos changed it?
oh, uh, good story, nice post, uhm, all you hot grits belong to us?
ok, i have attempted to read the comments following this here post, and i have failed. too much bandying about of half-assed metaphor and trolling and whining and calling of names.
so, i wanted to get in on the fun too.
first of all, let's please quit with the "stupid moron LoseBlowzeME luser" crap. it's infantile at best. (correct, perhaps, but infantile.)
my Dumb Metaphor Of The Day:
i do not know how to drive a car in a safe, responsible manner. for that matter i do not know how to drive one at all. i tried to use a ride-on mower once and made the front page of the Boston Globe. it's scary.
so, i bought this nice, shiny new car. it has a *ahem* automatic transmission so, i don't need to know how to _really_ drive, now do i?
i take this death-machine and wrap it around a telephone pole, because i did not know how to operate it. noone got hurt, but i take out a neighborhood's power and fone for a few hours. who's fault is this? the guy who put the phone pole there? the guy who sold some no-license-having doofus a car? ESR? RMS? or, just maybe it was the guy using a tool he does not understand. it irks me to no end to see someone doing anything they don't know about without some assistance. f'r crap's sake, you can't even use a hammer effectively and safely if you do not know how!
blah. anyway, we're not changing anything by carping about it here. go outside.
notes: msuzio kinda has a point. also, automatic trannies are for sexless freaks that belong in the same phylum with nematodes. i need one coffee, one beer, and a better job.
a bud of mine took out his jenga set, and had everyone who was around write out a piece. we ended up with everything from "Drink 1" to "Obtain a mouthful of the strongest beverage in the room. Gargle 'God Save the Queen.'"
i do not remember too much more, as we played the game almost immediately. if i ever find out who wrote the one with the christmas lights...
while i s'pose that this technically qualifies as a (!0)-sum game, i don't know...
this sounds like it's basically the sort of thing that exists to teach one how to be a Good Capitalist, which, in my esteem, is exactly the mentality that perpetuates the unhealthy approach to competition that we deal with in our society.
Slashdot Mirror
Dipteran maggots are players in decomposition processes, and the flies themselves could be a major source of food for certain species of bird.
explain to me, please how that would not be, *ahem*, "Collateral Damage"
it looks to me like you refute your own argument, friend.
or something...
it seems to me, reading all the argument on whether or not it is a good idea to fool around with things like this, that we are completely, totally incapable of even simply _knowing_ whether or not it is a good idea. the whole thing should be moot.
as parts, even _functions_ of the ecosystem, we can see the whole no more than we can perceive things outside of the four dimensions we reside in. a chip cannot tell you about the computer it is in.
a human being is a wee little bit of the Earth-system. so are flies. we humans are just as poorly equipped to see the system (that we are a part of) from the sort of outside point of view that would be required to successfully understand, much less modify, that system.
at least the flies haven't the hubris to try it anyway.
let's face it, people. we're all just a bunch of hairless fucking monkeys, and, as a rule, we're not all that bright. just look at the spelling on this site. (and many, many others)
would you trust an entire ecosphere to a people that cannot even master their own language?
i wouldn't.
"Heh, heh... No one ~ever~ says 'Italy.'"
-Hank Scorpio
This wasn't a wale[sic] show,
uh, yeah, it was. it's a MOVIE!!!!
;)
that's pretty cute, Rob .. in a kinda weird, twisted, bizarre way
just kidding. seriously, congratulations and the best of luck. i think we all (or most) wish you every happiness.
peace.
friend, check out the facts n' history n' stuff...
the USofA was never a democracy in the first place, it was originally a Republic (i think). Ergo, democracy really has no place at all in a discussion of USian politics, unless you are suggesting that it might be worth a try. don't let the G-men hear you say that, tho... look where it got fellas like Patrice Lumumba (assassinated) and the quarter-million or more Indonesians killed by the CIA-backed Suharto... and they didn't even live here
reminded of Bush XLI?
.. or Bill Murray, for that matter:
"Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars,
If only you could bar wars, let this one stay..."
And with mobile devices, Nokia's Robert Hinden said, the inability to give each an IP number would be like having cell phones that could only make calls, not receive them.
... if i could get one like that, i might still have one...
sorry, but ...
;)
s/want/wont/
you used the wrong word
although the idea of RedHat, et al. fixing on a de facto standard is viable and a Good idea, still i have nits to pick. besides, would KDE's (and, therefore, Mandrake's) apparent adoption of these packages not imply said standard?
s20451 : so you can edit/display/transmit your files to virtually any Windows user.
emphasis mine.
the fact that virtually any Windows user can use the stuff i used Windows to produce != interoperability.
also, the 'virtually any' piece of your argument appears to me to have a couple of holes, itself. i have, in the past, had major, major hassles trying to coax M$APP9x to deal with the output of M$APP2000.
interoperability, this does not make.
interoperability is more (to my thinking) a cross-platform issue. ex: MySQL will work on just about any platform out there, AFAIK... never messed with the M$ versions thereof, but you get the idea...
is it just me, or do most of Douggie's answers tend towards "Ha! We here at M$ can kick your ass, and your little penguin's ass, too!" ...
it seems to me as if Mr. Miller misconstrues our motives massively, mistaking me and mine for mere marketdroids. (Um, sorry for the alliteration) our strengths lie not in selling this crap, but making this crap work pretty darn well, and the obvious strength of a community where the primary drive is not to screw your neighbor over for a few bucks, rather to help her out pro bono.
i speak only for me own li'l self here, but i'd be interested to see if anyone else thinks similarly.
i don't see that the comparison as far as direct competition between our camp and Mr. Gates' is very valid. although it is nice to see non-hacker-types using linux or other *ahem* "Alternative" OS'es and i try to encourage folks that i am around to at least consider that there are other ways to do all this neat stuff than using M$ products, i really don't see linux as a "commercial OS" that would be going head to head with M$.
not to say that i don't do my fair share of M$ avoidance, as well as some bitching and moaning when i am asked to expose myself to that particular school of computing. in fact, i would be just happy as a pig in shit if M$ dropped right off the face of my time-space continuum. i just don't think it's up to open source to do this to them. at least not in their own area of expertise (fooling idjit consumers into paying them)
IANAPOTEL (...Prof. of the English Language) but, does not the word "initiative" imply some degree of preemtion?
heh, maybe now i'll actually go to college...
'course, good bandwidth still ain't cheap..
so, if this ESR cat is all that smart n'stuff, how come he can't count?
[...] I've recruited three beautiful geekgirl assistants; Cathy and Amy. They will supply [...]
ok, kids, check this one out:
:) and seeing as how Infocom went buh-bye and all, i didn't really expect to find the sucker, but i had found the aforementioned toaster in a closet, and wanted to play the game again. had no luck. o, well...
"Quarterstaff : the Tomb of Setmoth"
it's an infocom game, mostly text, but it has graphics for the automap stuff, and some of the rooms have pix that come up when you enter them. IIRC, it was only released for Mac, (back in the beige toaster days
Maybe every 50th ad check my email account and use the banner ad space to tell me if I have new mail. ....
jeezie criminy, man! are you gonna give your email account info to the ad-men? i sure ain't
*ahem*
(Article posted @ 8:02, above comment posted 8:00...you guys could at least throw a "first post!" in there when utilizing insider FP privileges...)
heh. it looks like the story was posted at 8:00 to me... mebbe Mr. Hemos changed it?
oh, uh, good story, nice post, uhm, all you hot grits belong to us?
argh.
ok, i have attempted to read the comments following this here post, and i have failed. too much bandying about of half-assed metaphor and trolling and whining and calling of names.
so, i wanted to get in on the fun too.
first of all, let's please quit with the "stupid moron LoseBlowzeME luser" crap. it's infantile at best. (correct, perhaps, but infantile.)
my Dumb Metaphor Of The Day:
i do not know how to drive a car in a safe, responsible manner. for that matter i do not know how to drive one at all. i tried to use a ride-on mower once and made the front page of the Boston Globe. it's scary.
so, i bought this nice, shiny new car. it has a *ahem* automatic transmission so, i don't need to know how to _really_ drive, now do i?
i take this death-machine and wrap it around a telephone pole, because i did not know how to operate it. noone got hurt, but i take out a neighborhood's power and fone for a few hours. who's fault is this? the guy who put the phone pole there? the guy who sold some no-license-having doofus a car? ESR? RMS? or, just maybe it was the guy using a tool he does not understand. it irks me to no end to see someone doing anything they don't know about without some assistance. f'r crap's sake, you can't even use a hammer effectively and safely if you do not know how!
blah. anyway, we're not changing anything by carping about it here. go outside.
notes: msuzio kinda has a point. also, automatic trannies are for sexless freaks that belong in the same phylum with nematodes. i need one coffee, one beer, and a better job.
'cept, of course, the region garbage on the DVD don't break it.
But, but, but... then Phil would sue you!
one (1) phil-up to the first respondant who gets this.
http://www2.uclick.com/client/wpc/ft/
:)
...
or, look at most any major newspaper's website.
they make you accept a cookie, but so does Taco
anyhoo, i think i can deal with one stupid little cookie to read my strips for free...
at least it's not 'free registration'
...if you make a game boring (Everybody wins all the time! Don't even bother trying kids!) then you've lost the point of playing a game...
"Daddy says dice are wicked. We just move one space each turn." -Todd, or Rod, maybe
how about Drinking Jenga?
a bud of mine took out his jenga set, and had everyone who was around write out a piece. we ended up with everything from "Drink 1" to "Obtain a mouthful of the strongest beverage in the room. Gargle 'God Save the Queen.'"
i do not remember too much more, as we played the game almost immediately. if i ever find out who wrote the one with the christmas lights...
while i s'pose that this technically qualifies as a (!0)-sum game, i don't know...
this sounds like it's basically the sort of thing that exists to teach one how to be a Good Capitalist, which, in my esteem, is exactly the mentality that perpetuates the unhealthy approach to competition that we deal with in our society.
RL example:
Calvinball!
it's the most fun you can have with your clothes on.
'course, it don't hurt to have an imaginary tiger to play with.