I think that quoting from Slashdot about anything Microsoft is like going into a sportsbar after the home team loses a game on a bad call by the ref. You know exactly what you are going to hear from the folks in there. Personally, this is the kind of manipulation that sickens me about what we call 'objective journalism'. These guys know exactly where to look for the quotes they want so they can write a certain kind of story. And of course, that story is as controversial and conflict-filled as possible, since the goal is not to inform but to sell ad space...but I don't want to get off on a rant here...
I'm curious how exactly Unisys can determine exactly what tool was used to generate the GIF's on a site. And how are they going to tell whether that tool wasn't pirated?
I think that a 3D model for cyberspace is the easy to conceptualize for people, as that's how we perceive the real world. How we model the data of the net is completely arbitrary. I'm sure if someone wanted to write a visual portscan program that represented the data returned as a 3D brick wall with open ports being 'holes' in that wall they could. It's just we haven't quite reached the point where such visualization is very useful. As the amount of data increases, though, we'll have to find different methods of representing it efficiently.
Chewie should choke on one of his own hairballs. Then, when Han Solo needs sage advice, a magical vision of Chewbacca appears before him going 'ACK!' like Bill the Cat.
Or perhaps he should be poached for his pelt, and the whole Jedi crew can go on an anti-fur crusade...
I dunno. When was the last time you saw a revolutionary software product anywhere? Actually, I think part of the Mac's appeal to a lot of people is that they don't have to worry about rebooting^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H having to use some "revolutionary software product" de jour.
I don't think there have been any paradigm-busters like PageMaker was on the Mac platform (one I sadly left out) lately, but I guess what worries me about the Mac is that so little new development is happening at all. Without anything like 'killer apps' to differentiate the Mac from Windows, there's fewer and fewer reasons to stick with it.
Oh, but what's with the weird examples? I don't know what Premiere is, but I don't see how Photoshop or Excel could be viewed as innovative. (?) They had reputations as pretty good products, but was either of them something new?
Premiere - important video editing software. Photoshop - THE original killer app for the Mac. There's a reason why Photoshop benchmarks are what they use primarily to compare the PowerPPC and Pentium chips... Excel - Before Excel came around, everyone used something called Lotus 123. How many alternative spreadsheets have you seen lately?
BTW, I'm skeptical that this seguey into the topic of Mac desirability actually has anything to do with the recent price scandal... but I guess everyone (even Mac users) have to let off a little AppleSteam now and then. That company sure makes a lot of... interesting... decisions.
I guess for me, at least, it's relevant because folks are so willing to cheer or jeer Apple without considering the reasons why the Mac succeeded in the first place, and why it's still headed downhill. Whether it's Windows, Mac, Linux, or BE, a platform succeeds or fails ultimately because of the software you can run on it. Anyhow, it's not a jihad...it's a tool. Use whatever gets the job done (which is why I have boxes running NT, 98, Linux, *and* the Mac OS).
It's hard to cheer when a company basically tries to pull a fast one and reverses itself only when it gets called on it.
Anyhow, am I the only one that doesn't understand why folks are so bully on Apple these days? I used to be a Machead myself years ago, when it was a platform of innovation (with stuff like Photoshop, Premiere, Excel, etc. being born and raised on it). But what was the last revolutionary software product to come out first on the Mac platform? Sure, the hardware is much improved cost and feature-wise, but why bother with such poor software selection?
I think your friend is a step ahead of most folks in the US in that he actually attempted to construct a logical argument. It's always amazing to me how many people I can talk to who can't even begin to defend the positions they hold. Just another reason why our cherished democracy is built on a foundation of sand.
Heck, he could have done a musical number on the bongos....heh.
If you haven't read it, take a look at Genius by James Gleick. An excellent supplement to Feynman's own writings. He's truly one of the most fascinating folks of the 20th century.
Hey, if someone gets a video of Linus picking his nose and puts it online, should that be front-page news on Slashdot? I've got high bandwidth, too, but it doesn't make this video any more interesting.
And as for your comment about signal to noise, that's exactly my point. This story was nothing but noise.
Wow - this has to be the least insightful piece I've ever seen on posted on/. It's nothing that hasn't been said 10,000,000 times here before. It's just wrapped up in an unfunny, high-bandwidth package. I love Linux, but this is just silly...
You'll get no argument from me that the current public educational system is lacking when it comes to educating the best and the brightest, and I think that extends generally from elementary school to college. I spent a large amount of my time in school frustrated at the snail's pace and lack of challenge. But having now taught classes myself, I realize the primary problem teachers face - how do you address the needs of *all* students when their skills vary? If you have two or three extremely intelligent students who get it at once and twenty or thirty others who don't, how can you set a pace that everyone can learn by? And we all know what happens - in most cases you end up sacrificing the needs of the smart kids, because you can slow them down while you can't speed up the slow ones...
My point? Smart kids acting out on their boredom accomplishes nothing constructive (unless they find sitting in the principal's office to be more interesting than sitting in class).
"Given that the misbehaviour is almost always a function of their boredom at the school moving too slowly..."
As someone who was both a smart kid and bored in school, I still don't think that intelligence is any excuse for acting out. School is also about socialization - learning what behavior is acceptable when interacting with other people and what isn't, particularly at the elementary level. It's called 'impulse control.'
"Most evidence suggests Transmeta is inventing a new kind of microprocessor so fast that it'll make a Pentium III feel like an abacus soaked in Jell-O. "
Umm...what exactly does an abacus soaked in Jell-O feel like?
Re:"The Onion" had it right, of course...
on
On eBay Addiction
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· Score: 1
They nailed that one on the head - it's hard to imagine owning anything worse than that...yech!
I don't know what's scarier, that there are actually people that sell that kind of stuff or that people compete against each other to buy it.
I agree completely. The legal system works for large corporations because they have the $$$ to bend it to their will. This case is notable only because it's an exception to the general rule.
"It's the golden rule - he who has the gold makes the rule."
I agree wholeheartedly. It's more like C&C 1.5 - pretty disappointing stuff.
Starcraft is one of the few games that has had staying power around on the old hard drive. Blizzard is perhaps the only gaming company that I'd buy something from on their rep alone.
Almost Live should have been cancelled a long time ago. It hasn't been funny for many years. It was a cool concept, though, to have a locally produced comedy show that focused on what's funny here in the Sound...
The problem with represenative democracy in our country is that it is lacking one essential element - informed voters. Intelligent votes are literally washed away by a tidal wave of ignorance.
Slashdot Mirror
I think that quoting from Slashdot about anything Microsoft is like going into a sportsbar after the home team loses a game on a bad call by the ref. You know exactly what you are going to hear from the folks in there. Personally, this is the kind of manipulation that sickens me about what we call 'objective journalism'. These guys know exactly where to look for the quotes they want so they can write a certain kind of story. And of course, that story is as controversial and conflict-filled as possible, since the goal is not to inform but to sell ad space...but I don't want to get off on a rant here...
It wasn't released in Word format because the judge has a monopoly on releasing it...heh.
I'm curious how exactly Unisys can determine exactly what tool was used to generate the GIF's on a site. And how are they going to tell whether that tool wasn't pirated?
The generosity and goofiness of the whole Propaganda project is just one more reason to love the Linux community...
I think he should have been moderated down simply because he left his opening tag out...
I think that a 3D model for cyberspace is the easy to conceptualize for people, as that's how we perceive the real world. How we model the data of the net is completely arbitrary. I'm sure if someone wanted to write a visual portscan program that represented the data returned as a 3D brick wall with open ports being 'holes' in that wall they could. It's just we haven't quite reached the point where such visualization is very useful. As the amount of data increases, though, we'll have to find different methods of representing it efficiently.
I can't believe I left this one out...
Chewie gets crushed to death when a huge pile of unsold Phantom Menace merchandise falls on him...
Chewie should choke on one of his own hairballs. Then, when Han Solo needs sage advice, a magical vision of Chewbacca appears before him going 'ACK!' like Bill the Cat.
Or perhaps he should be poached for his pelt, and the whole Jedi crew can go on an anti-fur crusade...
I don't think there have been any paradigm-busters like PageMaker was on the Mac platform (one I sadly left out) lately, but I guess what worries me about the Mac is that so little new development is happening at all. Without anything like 'killer apps' to differentiate the Mac from Windows, there's fewer and fewer reasons to stick with it.
Oh, but what's with the weird examples? I don't know what Premiere is, but I don't see how Photoshop or Excel could be viewed as innovative. (?) They had reputations as pretty good products, but was either of them something new?
Premiere - important video editing software.
Photoshop - THE original killer app for the Mac. There's a reason why Photoshop benchmarks are what they use primarily to compare the PowerPPC and Pentium chips...
Excel - Before Excel came around, everyone used something called Lotus 123. How many alternative spreadsheets have you seen lately?
BTW, I'm skeptical that this seguey into the topic of Mac desirability actually has anything to do with the recent price scandal... but I guess everyone (even Mac users) have to let off a little AppleSteam now and then. That company sure makes a lot of ... interesting ... decisions.
I guess for me, at least, it's relevant because folks are so willing to cheer or jeer Apple without considering the reasons why the Mac succeeded in the first place, and why it's still headed downhill. Whether it's Windows, Mac, Linux, or BE, a platform succeeds or fails ultimately because of the software you can run on it. Anyhow, it's not a jihad...it's a tool. Use whatever gets the job done (which is why I have boxes running NT, 98, Linux, *and* the Mac OS).
It's hard to cheer when a company basically tries to pull a fast one and reverses itself only when it gets called on it.
Anyhow, am I the only one that doesn't understand why folks are so bully on Apple these days? I used to be a Machead myself years ago, when it was a platform of innovation (with stuff like Photoshop, Premiere, Excel, etc. being born and raised on it). But what was the last revolutionary software product to come out first on the Mac platform? Sure, the hardware is much improved cost and feature-wise, but why bother with such poor software selection?
I think your friend is a step ahead of most folks in the US in that he actually attempted to construct a logical argument. It's always amazing to me how many people I can talk to who can't even begin to defend the positions they hold. Just another reason why our cherished democracy is built on a foundation of sand.
The Slashdot Prize should be your nickname added in a derogatory fashion to the bottom of every poll. Heh.
Heck, he could have done a musical number on the bongos....heh.
If you haven't read it, take a look at Genius by James Gleick. An excellent supplement to Feynman's own writings. He's truly one of the most fascinating folks of the 20th century.
Hey, if someone gets a video of Linus picking his nose and puts it online, should that be front-page news on Slashdot? I've got high bandwidth, too, but it doesn't make this video any more interesting.
And as for your comment about signal to noise, that's exactly my point. This story was nothing but noise.
Wow - this has to be the least insightful piece I've ever seen on posted on /. It's nothing that hasn't been said 10,000,000 times here before. It's just wrapped up in an unfunny, high-bandwidth package. I love Linux, but this is just silly...
You'll get no argument from me that the current public educational system is lacking when it comes to educating the best and the brightest, and I think that extends generally from elementary school to college. I spent a large amount of my time in school frustrated at the snail's pace and lack of challenge. But having now taught classes myself, I realize the primary problem teachers face - how do you address the needs of *all* students when their skills vary? If you have two or three extremely intelligent students who get it at once and twenty or thirty others who don't, how can you set a pace that everyone can learn by? And we all know what happens - in most cases you end up sacrificing the needs of the smart kids, because you can slow them down while you can't speed up the slow ones...
My point? Smart kids acting out on their boredom accomplishes nothing constructive (unless they find sitting in the principal's office to be more interesting than sitting in class).
"Given that the misbehaviour is almost always a function of their boredom at the school moving too slowly..."
As someone who was both a smart kid and bored in school, I still don't think that intelligence is any excuse for acting out. School is also about socialization - learning what behavior is acceptable when interacting with other people and what isn't, particularly at the elementary level. It's called 'impulse control.'
Umm...what exactly does an abacus soaked in Jell-O feel like?
They nailed that one on the head - it's hard to imagine owning anything worse than that...yech!
I don't know what's scarier, that there are actually people that sell that kind of stuff or that people compete against each other to buy it.
I bet these guys have some terrible withdrawal symptoms when EBay goes offline for a day or two at a time...
You can have the best box in the world but if you're on a slow connection it doesn't mean much...
"It's the golden rule - he who has the gold makes the rule."
I agree wholeheartedly. It's more like C&C 1.5 - pretty disappointing stuff.
Starcraft is one of the few games that has had staying power around on the old hard drive. Blizzard is perhaps the only gaming company that I'd buy something from on their rep alone.
Almost Live should have been cancelled a long time ago. It hasn't been funny for many years. It was a cool concept, though, to have a locally produced comedy show that focused on what's funny here in the Sound...
The problem with represenative democracy in our country is that it is lacking one essential element - informed voters. Intelligent votes are literally washed away by a tidal wave of ignorance.