Nancy Kress' "Beggars in Spain" (handy, this Google thing) deals with "genetically-bred humans vs. natural humans " and how changing a gene involves other changes in genes and finally in society. __
The way I see it is that we have substituted genetic evolution by memetic evolution (= culture).
Just as hardware is less flexible that software (hence the names), genes are less adaptable than memes.
Science and culture have taken the human species to the Moon and other interesting niches. No species has genetically evolved to reach this (well, some species have evolved to parasite/symbiotize humans (rats, lice, seagulls), and so they follow humankind in our evolution __
Browsing Jakob Nielsen's UseIt.com, I found a link (2000-06-01) to a Flash-oriented site warning about bad uses of Flash, A Cancer on the Web called Flash . This warns about gurus starting to think that all Flash is evil. __
This is a guy who puts his dreams, resume, and personal stories up on his website.
Maybe it's all made up, if you read something from his public CV, it's less probable you are going to check it elsewhere, and then dicover the horrible truth. __
In the next 2-3 years we expect those users to have upgraded
That's not what I was told. In the coming years, expect people trying to access your pages from mobile phones and TV sets ("What do you mean "my TV Internet box is old"? It's only 5 years old!") and exotic countries with bad connections. Of course, you may not be interested in them. But for a general-purpose site you should have in mind slow connections and crude interfaces.
As far as I know, private organizations can't do checks this deep. Probably governments can. But every adult but the British has a personal ID, don't they? __
Isn't something similar happening aboutthe inclusion of ReiserFS in the 2.4 kernel?
Reiser want the advantage of being the first journaling file system in Linux. If they don't make it for 2.4, IBM's JFS and ext3fs (?) will catch up and be competition. __
If you thought you were cool because you were no brands, in this Salon piece "Consumed by consumption" you will learn that you are just telling "I am so rich that I don't have to buy class with brands" __
So, if all you can do to make your product to stand over a competitor's cheap one is to stick a logo on it, you are quite bad at your business, aren't you?
If somebody does business with you, which country/tribunal does the contract fall under? What can a customer do if they feel you are not playing fair? Or do they have to simply trust you? __
An enemy wants to force you to do something you don't want (revealing a customer's name, data, removing customer's data,...) by threatening your off-Sealand staff, family, property,..., legally or illegally (see Salman Rushdie).
How long will you go to comply with your clients? __
Sealand (heavy electronics, off populated places,...) seems the best place for an attack with an ElectroMagnetic Pulse.
The best known source of EMPs are nuclear blasts in the high atmosphere. But I don't doubt that our governments are researching this "for our security"? Can your facilities stand an EMP? __
Bank paradises (Bahamas, Panama, Switzerland) have a reputation of being a haven for thief dictators, drug bosses, and generally everybody powerful who won't pay taxes like you and me, not as a haven for the oppressed individual.
Do you think that your haven will develop a similar misreputation? Do you care? __
Other than because it's bad business, how can you make certain that some Sealand force (teh government, the People's Revolutionary Socialist United Islamic Free Open-Source Front of Sealand, a distant cousin of the Royal family) won't decide to deprive you from access to your equipment? I mean, they have no guaanteed stability?
Of course, you'll have country redundancy. But, are you ready to launch a coup to control Sealand? __
All this was predicted in the 70s by Alv in Toffler in his best-seller "Future Shock", about how people and cultures deal with faster change everywhere.
I know Amazon ain't kosher. You got better URLs on Toffler?
What about a Slashdot interview with Mr. Toffler? __
You have to start to think about foreigners as people.
The Golden Rule is "do unto people (as in human) as you want people to do unto you", isn't it? Not "Do unto Americans, as you want people to do unto you". __
Slashdot Mirror
Nancy Kress' "Beggars in Spain" (handy, this Google thing) deals with "genetically-bred humans vs. natural humans " and how changing a gene involves other changes in genes and finally in society.
__
The way I see it is that we have substituted genetic evolution by memetic evolution (= culture).
Just as hardware is less flexible that software (hence the names), genes are less adaptable than memes.
Science and culture have taken the human species to the Moon and other interesting niches. No species has genetically evolved to reach this (well, some species have evolved to parasite/symbiotize humans (rats, lice, seagulls), and so they follow humankind in our evolution
__
Of course, average IQ is always 100 by definition.
Do you really have evidence that the quantity of intelligence measured by IQ 100 is actually decreasing? I don't think so.
__
She became Mrs. Heller shortly after that
C++? I was told that you should woo her with Perls!
__
Browsing Jakob Nielsen's UseIt.com, I found a link (2000-06-01) to a Flash-oriented site warning about bad uses of Flash, A Cancer on the Web called Flash . This warns about gurus starting to think that all Flash is evil.
__
This is a guy who puts his dreams, resume, and personal stories up on his website.
Maybe it's all made up, if you read something from his public CV, it's less probable you are going to check it elsewhere, and then dicover the horrible truth.
__
Better. You can drop it in the aquarium and wait for the poli-eyed fishes to develop
__
Another point I forgot:
HTML is indexable. Flash and Java are not, PDF could be, I guess.
How will your targets find you in the enormous web if your pages don't appear in search engines?
__
In the next 2-3 years we expect those users to have upgraded
That's not what I was told. In the coming years, expect people trying to access your pages from mobile phones and TV sets ("What do you mean "my TV Internet box is old"? It's only 5 years old!") and exotic countries with bad connections. Of course, you may not be interested in them.
But for a general-purpose site you should have in mind slow connections and crude interfaces.
Beware of the Boo.com.
__
And there are lots of puns by PGN. (But I don't know if that's a reason for or against)
__
How is the situation in Europe?
As far as I know, private organizations can't do checks this deep. Probably governments can.
But every adult but the British has a personal ID, don't they?
__
Isn't something similar happening aboutthe inclusion of ReiserFS in the 2.4 kernel?
Reiser want the advantage of being the first journaling file system in Linux. If they don't make it for 2.4, IBM's JFS and ext3fs (?) will catch up and be competition.
__
If you thought you were cool because you were no brands, in this Salon piece "Consumed by consumption" you will learn that you are just telling "I am so rich that I don't have to buy class with brands"
__
First this article promoting languages like Python, Visual Basic, Alice, for kids, and now this!
Why is Slashdot against Seymour Papert's language Logo?
__
So, if all you can do to make your product to stand over a competitor's cheap one is to stick a logo on it, you are quite bad at your business, aren't you?
"Look and feel suits" anyone?
__
You claim to be a few millseconds by optical fiber from London. I recall some talk about satellite links.
If your link to London falls, can you still give good connectivity (latency and bandwidth)?
__
If somebody does business with you, which country/tribunal does the contract fall under? What can a customer do if they feel you are not playing fair? Or do they have to simply trust you?
__
An enemy wants to force you to do something you don't want (revealing a customer's name, data, removing customer's data,...) by threatening your off-Sealand staff, family, property,..., legally or illegally (see Salman Rushdie).
How long will you go to comply with your clients?
__
Sealand (heavy electronics, off populated places,...) seems the best place for an attack with an ElectroMagnetic Pulse.
The best known source of EMPs are nuclear blasts in the high atmosphere. But I don't doubt that our governments are researching this "for our security"? Can your facilities stand an EMP?
__
Sealand is obviously in the sea.
I didn't find in the Sealand site geographical information.
How safe is Sealand against sea storms and rust caused by salt water?
__
Bank paradises (Bahamas, Panama, Switzerland) have a reputation of being a haven for thief dictators, drug bosses, and generally everybody powerful who won't pay taxes like you and me, not as a haven for the oppressed individual.
Do you think that your haven will develop a similar misreputation? Do you care?
__
Other than because it's bad business, how can you make certain that some Sealand force (teh government, the People's Revolutionary Socialist United Islamic Free Open-Source Front of Sealand, a distant cousin of the Royal family) won't decide to deprive you from access to your equipment? I mean, they have no guaanteed stability?
Of course, you'll have country redundancy. But, are you ready to launch a coup to control Sealand?
__
All this was predicted in the 70s by Alv in Toffler in his best-seller "Future Shock", about how people and cultures deal with faster change everywhere.
I know Amazon ain't kosher. You got better URLs on Toffler?
What about a Slashdot interview with Mr. Toffler?
__
The next phase is a worm that posts flamebait to Slashdot from your account.
(Wouldn't be so hard. The difficult part is finding the URLs for actual stories.)
__
You have to start to think about foreigners as people.
The Golden Rule is "do unto people (as in human) as you want people to do unto you", isn't it? Not "Do unto Americans, as you want people to do unto you".
__