Also known as Keyser Soze Syndrome. Does this make The Usual Suspects, or Fight Club, or Empire Strikes Back any less entertaining on subsequent viewings? No, because the filmmaker must have talent to pull off the plot twist in the first place, and that skill is what makes the movie entertaining.
Hmm. No good guys, no bad guys, no color, no explosions, no death, no shocking plot twists -- this movie should never have become popular. We should all watch End Of Days and Phantom Menace, and leave it at that.
Yes, despite the fact that it comes with a powerful virus, I mean scripting language, generates executables ten times the size of what I get with gcc, is based on an extremely half-assed language that couldn't qualify as a gimpy toy in its first dozen incarnations and can't do low- or high-level programming tasks better than any given language made for those purposes instead of cobbled together to give a sense of skill to people who can't be troubled to learn an actual programming language.
The vast majority of people run Windows 9{5,8}; does that make it a 'serious OS'?
It just goes to show that people will pass up steak once a week for crap every day. (Apologies to Tycho and Gabe.)
My brother is a netadmin and certified genius. He keeps trying to persuade me to play him in netquake. I suppose I'll just have to take him to school... though I'm much more interested in Final Fantasy than Quake 3, which I found nice to look at, but Not My Thing. Half-Life maybe, definitely not Q3A.
I hate the sun. Bad sun! Whenever I go outside, it tries to burn me. My job involves a basement with no windows. Damn skippy, no sun...
I'm an occasional gamer. (Currently addicted to Mario 64. Yum.) I also don't play team sports. I didn't like gym class. But I've taken martial arts for seven and a half years now. Why? Even when sparring, I'm only competing against myself. Yes, I know that Mario 64 doesn't really teach any particular skills, but damn is it fun.
The Jargon File said something like this, about geeks preferring self-competitive sports to team-based obliteration of the individual. (Apologies to the jocks reading, but I've never liked team sports. Whenever I have to do a group assignment, we all divvy up the work and come back the next day with it done. The sole exception was staying up all night with my lab group to finish coding the final project.)
On the contrary, the carrier-pigeon RFC etc. show that the process is not ossified and rigid. They are producing the standards and protocols that this whole 'internet' thingy works on, you know.
And at least academic 'ivory tower' standards are open. Usually. Sometimes. Occasionally. Feh.
Hmm. (Sorry about repeating you, -brazil-, I just hadn't refreshed before I replied.)
Our brains use glial cells as insulation. Therefore... it is blasphemous to insulate my wires! I'm monkeying with our lord's highest creation! Woe is me! (Oh, the arrogance.)
(Wow, thanks for pointing out that technological hubris is, in itself, arrogant. I would never have thought of that myself, ever!)
No, the problem is that the solution of most real-world problems requires the use of all that head cruft we accumulate by living in the real world. To have a machine solve these problems, they must either be reduced to an algorithm (like what's been done with chess) or emulated by emulating the human hardware, which no one's figured out how to do, which is why babelfish is so fscking hilarious.
Fear of new technology. Fear of people different from you. (Actually, it's fear that they might be the same as you.) Fear of change. Fear of anything you don't understand.
I suppose fear of your god must come pretty easily with all the fear.
You have a book that tells you how to live instead of figuring it out on your own, and I'm the brainwashed one?
Base imitation? Base imitation?! Well, that cuts out airplanes (imitating birds), clothing (fur), electric lights (the sun), not to mention the fricking wheel (feet).
If you're such a technophobe, why post to slashdot?
You can kick your fuel pump. Gasoline is not a pressurized gas -- would you want to drive around with one of those soda-fizz CO2 canisters under your car? Ka-pow! Now imagine the liability issues... brr.
Big Bang theory for children?! Pop science mags and texts have pretty much ensured that if you're old enough to read, you've heard of the Big Bang theory.
Besides, you haven't been paying attention... remember the/. story about the robots that tested themselves and evolved in a computer simulation, then synthesized the models they wanted?
Let's see... testing a design, modifying it slightly and figuring which one tests better, and repeating as necessary, is against God? Boy, does *he* ever suck!
Seriously, though... I can't believe I'm actually replying to this troll...
I don't care how big a lego castle you build, it's not going to become sentient. Routers aren't smart. Even these are extremely special-purpose. It doesn't even get input from the world. (As far as I can tell, it doesn *not* read packets aside from the headers. Neural networks can do dull, repetitive tasks, too.
Wishful thinking is nice, but this one's just not meant to be.
ASCII? You, of course, mean ASCII without Microsoft?s ?innovation?, right?
Hardware standards are much easier to get acceptance for -- who ever heard of someone baking their own hdd, electronics and all, and coming up with a gimpy version of ATA?
JPEG? Sure, but not JPEG2000 -- Unisys redux, much?
MPEG: everyone and their mother has refused to use MPEG and created a competing 'standard'. ASF, RM, AVI (all 10**10 flavors) and whatever comes out *next* week.
Standards are a rat's nest. The only thing that can even try to enforce compatibility is the requirement of strict adherence. HTML will read in most browsers even if it's not perfect. And look what happened to that!
Because it comes with development tools, and without a clear dividing line between what the user makes and what's handed down from on high.
Because I like a text-based web browser.
Because rpm whips the crap out of InstallShield.
Because it's *free*, as in beer, and I don't have two hundred bucks or what-have-you for an academically discounted version of Photoshop, and Gimp has a nifty mascot to boot.
Because it's elegant.
Note: Yes, I know I can probably use cygwin to run lynx or whatever under Windows. But *why*?
I don't know about that ten-to-one thing -- there were four people living in my dorm room, including me. Three of us pirated music. I was the only one too cheap to buy the CDs. It makes no sense to me, but apparently people like to buy the things. Weirdos.
Then again, I'm from a different age -- one guy on my floor was amazed to hear that there were non-Napster methods to get music. I'm getting old...
Grendel Drago
Re:The new century is in for some nastiness
on
Fahrenheit 451
·
· Score: 1
Wasn't l0pht Heavy Industries working on a feasible, easy to construct from scratch, wireless network? The article mentioned something about returning to the original principle of fault-redundancy over the internet.
I agree. In addition, most indie/small-label music isn't even available on Napster. It's only good for fetching the prechewed pap you hear on the radio already. Search for 'Jaco Pastorias' and one, maybe two hits will come up on an opennap server with 700k songs on it. But query a server with 500 songs for 'Dave Matthews', and your result list will fill up like nothin'.
Maybe we should have "not before [...]" instead of "by [...]", hm?
Re:CNN has a report on this.
on
Protesting DMCA
·
· Score: 1
I believe the "licesned player" he mentions is also known as... Microsoft Windows. Ah. So if I want to play a DVD on my Sparc/Sparc64/StrongARM/IBM S390/etc? (Assuming there exist drives.)
I think that some of the readers see this from a different angle than I do. We *are* the AI, or will be.
Who's to say that we won't be able to hook various foreign I/O devices (extra 'eyes', remote robot, tank, whatever) into our nervous systems, and our consciousness into a symbol-cruncher (from 'number-cruncher') to associate on a grander scale, to think better, faster, stronger? And, eventually, to outgrow this rather cheesy wetware platform nature has provided us with. (Think Asimov/'The Last Question'.)
The term 'cyber' comes from a word meaning 'helmsman'. If you look at it from that angle, it's a much different road.
Damn straight, this guy _reeks_ of 'digerati'. Remember (Bob Metcalfe, was it?) who stopped thinking and started writing commentary?
The worst part is that this guy tries to build up some kind of rep for having been a 'real hacker', (not a _real hacker_, I mean it in the poser way) thus implying that he's better than all of them. Then again, the crackers actually _do_ something, for good or ill, while he loots the <RANT>STUPID SHORT-SIGHTED MORON MASSES WHO BUY ANYTHING 'DIGITAL' AND THINK THAT 'WIRED' IS IN TUNE WITH _ANYTHING_ OTHER THAN ITS OWN INFLATED SELF-IMPORTANCE! </RANT> 'hem. Whew.
Crackers may be bad folks, but at least they don't work for Wired, whice I'm sure has referred to formatting HTML as 'coding' at least once.
The GNU has recently shown themselves to be _very_ holier-than-thou when it comes to their software. Read the 'Good Coding Practices' on man pages. I _like_ man pages. (sniffle.) And notice how they only acknowledge the existence of Linux as some sort of special case that some fools might use, but only as an interim measure before they migrate to the HURD, which will be competitive any year now...
Linux finally brings free software to _scads_ more than the GNU envisioned, and since it's not in the _exact_ way that the GNU wanted, Linux is treated as some sort of bastard son.
This is not to say that I don't like the GNU. If I didn't have my bash-with-tab-completion, I'd go insane. I'm aware that we'd all have nothing without gcc. I love the software, I could do without the attitude.
Slashdot Mirror
Also known as Keyser Soze Syndrome. Does this make The Usual Suspects, or Fight Club, or Empire Strikes Back any less entertaining on subsequent viewings? No, because the filmmaker must have talent to pull off the plot twist in the first place, and that skill is what makes the movie entertaining.
-Grendel Drago
So where does this put Clerks?
Hmm. No good guys, no bad guys, no color, no explosions, no death, no shocking plot twists -- this movie should never have become popular. We should all watch End Of Days and Phantom Menace, and leave it at that.
Thppt.
-Grendel Drago
Yes, despite the fact that it comes with a powerful virus, I mean scripting language, generates executables ten times the size of what I get with gcc, is based on an extremely half-assed language that couldn't qualify as a gimpy toy in its first dozen incarnations and can't do low- or high-level programming tasks better than any given language made for those purposes instead of cobbled together to give a sense of skill to people who can't be troubled to learn an actual programming language.
The vast majority of people run Windows 9{5,8}; does that make it a 'serious OS'?
It just goes to show that people will pass up steak once a week for crap every day. (Apologies to Tycho and Gabe.)
-Grendel Drago
My brother is a netadmin and certified genius. He keeps trying to persuade me to play him in netquake. I suppose I'll just have to take him to school... though I'm much more interested in Final Fantasy than Quake 3, which I found nice to look at, but Not My Thing. Half-Life maybe, definitely not Q3A.
I hate the sun. Bad sun! Whenever I go outside, it tries to burn me. My job involves a basement with no windows. Damn skippy, no sun...
-Grendel Drago
I'm an occasional gamer. (Currently addicted to Mario 64. Yum.) I also don't play team sports. I didn't like gym class. But I've taken martial arts for seven and a half years now. Why? Even when sparring, I'm only competing against myself. Yes, I know that Mario 64 doesn't really teach any particular skills, but damn is it fun.
The Jargon File said something like this, about geeks preferring self-competitive sports to team-based obliteration of the individual. (Apologies to the jocks reading, but I've never liked team sports. Whenever I have to do a group assignment, we all divvy up the work and come back the next day with it done. The sole exception was staying up all night with my lab group to finish coding the final project.)
-Grendel Drago
On the contrary, the carrier-pigeon RFC etc. show that the process is not ossified and rigid. They are producing the standards and protocols that this whole 'internet' thingy works on, you know.
And at least academic 'ivory tower' standards are open. Usually. Sometimes. Occasionally. Feh.
-Grendel Drago
Hmm. (Sorry about repeating you, -brazil-, I just hadn't refreshed before I replied.)
Our brains use glial cells as insulation. Therefore... it is blasphemous to insulate my wires! I'm monkeying with our lord's highest creation! Woe is me! (Oh, the arrogance.)
(Wow, thanks for pointing out that technological hubris is, in itself, arrogant. I would never have thought of that myself, ever!)
-Grendel Drago
-Grendel Drago
I suppose fear of your god must come pretty easily with all the fear.
You have a book that tells you how to live instead of figuring it out on your own, and I'm the brainwashed one?
Base imitation? Base imitation?! Well, that cuts out airplanes (imitating birds), clothing (fur), electric lights (the sun), not to mention the fricking wheel (feet).
If you're such a technophobe, why post to slashdot?
-Grendel Drago
-Grendel Drago
Besides, you haven't been paying attention... remember the /. story about the robots that tested themselves and evolved in a computer simulation, then synthesized the models they wanted?
Let's see... testing a design, modifying it slightly and figuring which one tests better, and repeating as necessary, is against God? Boy, does *he* ever suck!
Seriously, though... I can't believe I'm actually replying to this troll...
-Grendel Drago
Wishful thinking is nice, but this one's just not meant to be.
-Grendel Drago
(Of course, I use 'had it hooked up' in the involuntary sense...)
-Grendel Drago
Hardware standards are much easier to get acceptance for -- who ever heard of someone baking their own hdd, electronics and all, and coming up with a gimpy version of ATA?
JPEG? Sure, but not JPEG2000 -- Unisys redux, much?
MPEG: everyone and their mother has refused to use MPEG and created a competing 'standard'. ASF, RM, AVI (all 10**10 flavors) and whatever comes out *next* week.
Standards are a rat's nest. The only thing that can even try to enforce compatibility is the requirement of strict adherence. HTML will read in most browsers even if it's not perfect. And look what happened to that!
-Grendel Drago
Because it comes with development tools, and without a clear dividing line between what the user makes and what's handed down from on high.
Because I like a text-based web browser.
Because rpm whips the crap out of InstallShield.
Because it's *free*, as in beer, and I don't have two hundred bucks or what-have-you for an academically discounted version of Photoshop, and Gimp has a nifty mascot to boot.
Because it's elegant.
Note: Yes, I know I can probably use cygwin to run lynx or whatever under Windows. But *why*?
-Grendel Drago
Then again, I'm from a different age -- one guy on my floor was amazed to hear that there were non-Napster methods to get music. I'm getting old...
Grendel Drago
-grendel drago
-Grendel Drago
[righteous anger is the best anger!]
Maybe we should have "not before [...]" instead of "by [...]", hm?
I believe the "licesned player" he mentions is also known as ... Microsoft Windows. Ah. So if I want to play a DVD on my Sparc/Sparc64/StrongARM/IBM S390/etc? (Assuming there exist drives.)
'IF I EVER MEET THE "IF I EVER MEET YOU I WILL KICK YOUR ASS" GUY, I WILL KICK HIS ASS'
Hey, that's *almost* a quine! And in Flamebait's clothing!
I think that some of the readers see this from a different angle than I do. We *are* the AI, or will be.
Who's to say that we won't be able to hook various foreign I/O devices (extra 'eyes', remote robot, tank, whatever) into our nervous systems, and our consciousness into a symbol-cruncher (from 'number-cruncher') to associate on a grander scale, to think better, faster, stronger? And, eventually, to outgrow this rather cheesy wetware platform nature has provided us with. (Think Asimov/'The Last Question'.)
The term 'cyber' comes from a word meaning 'helmsman'. If you look at it from that angle, it's a much different road.
-grendel drago
Damn straight, this guy _reeks_ of 'digerati'. Remember (Bob Metcalfe, was it?) who stopped thinking and started writing commentary?
The worst part is that this guy tries to build up some kind of rep for having been a 'real hacker', (not a _real hacker_, I mean it in the poser way) thus implying that he's better than all of them. Then again, the crackers actually _do_ something, for good or ill, while he loots the <RANT>STUPID SHORT-SIGHTED MORON MASSES WHO BUY ANYTHING 'DIGITAL' AND THINK THAT 'WIRED' IS IN TUNE WITH _ANYTHING_ OTHER THAN ITS OWN INFLATED SELF-IMPORTANCE! </RANT> 'hem. Whew.
Crackers may be bad folks, but at least they don't work for Wired, whice I'm sure has referred to formatting HTML as 'coding' at least once.
-grendel drago
CORDWAINER SMITH! He wrote a wtory about people on some prison world who used as organ factories, Don't remember the name...
And why not? Can you see getting your second kidney growing back inside you after it fails? The applications are ENDLESS!
-grendeldrago
Then again, there's another problem.
The GNU has recently shown themselves to be _very_ holier-than-thou when it comes to their software. Read the 'Good Coding Practices' on man pages. I _like_ man pages. (sniffle.) And notice how they only acknowledge the existence of Linux as some sort of special case that some fools might use, but only as an interim measure before they migrate to the HURD, which will be competitive any year now...
Linux finally brings free software to _scads_ more than the GNU envisioned, and since it's not in the _exact_ way that the GNU wanted, Linux is treated as some sort of bastard son.
This is not to say that I don't like the GNU. If I didn't have my bash-with-tab-completion, I'd go insane. I'm aware that we'd all have nothing without gcc. I love the software, I could do without the attitude.
-grendel drago