Once again, I would like to point out the error in your arguments. In countries where people DO get their hands lopped off for theft there are remarkably few people who get punished -- but these people are the poor. In fact, I'm sure that there have been cases of embezzlement that have not been punished; one would like to think that larger theft would be of more concern, but often it is the people in power maintaining their power through fear. As far as drinking and driving is concerned, most people usually justify it in their minds, saying 'I'm in full control of myself, I've only had a few beers,' or something along those lines. While I don't drink and drive myself, I have friends who do, and they know that they shouldn't, but in a drunken state are unable to remember why, or even to decide that it is a bad idea.
I would also like to point out that it is untrue that people do things thinking that they will get away with it. I know of people that have been caught, arrested, and served jail time for crimes, only to go out and commit those exact same crimes once again. If you ask me, it would seem that there is an error somewhere either in their logic or in yours.
Unfortunately, it would seem that you missed the point of that comment. Anyone that has paid any amount of attention to the movie would realise that it is not the views of Michael Moore I was trying to express, but those of Marilyn Manson, as is shown in an interview in the movie. That interview, more than anything else in the documentary, has stuck to me. In fact, I am considering writing a thesis for my Economics degree to display the truths of the fear-consumption model. I am aware that it works both ways (i.e. the more we consume some things, the less others), but as a whole it is a true model with a few exceptions--just like there are exceptions to every law in economics. As an econ major I have thought about the theory and the practice of this concept and have found it to be without any more fault than some of the other economic principles I cover in classes.
Sony has actually decided to adopt this model with the (eventually) upcoming Playstation 3. The idea is that users will leave their PS3 running all the time, game or no, and Sony will use the extra processing power to do whatever it is they do...spy on us or something. Of course, in order for this to work to their advantage we'll all have to use our PS3s to connect to the Net or some similar service. The only thing I hope is that Sony actually has an option to turn off processor sharing, just in case us hapless users don't want to support whatever cause it is that they are studying at the moment.
Actually, the way SETI works allows for any workload over an extended period of time. The samples that your computer is analysing have been around for quite some time; they are transmitted from regions that are light years away! In addition, it is only once every year or so that they have a real chance to look for anything interesting that they find. As far as a cure for SARS goes, I have an elderly grandmother who was rushed to the hospital for unrelated reasons shortly after the start of the SARS scare in Ontario. She was taken into an ambulance by men and women wearing full environmental suits. She has since been released, quite possibly too early (they still don't know what was wrong with her), so I'm anxious for the world to just deal with SARS. This is a prime example of the Fear Consumption Model brought to us by Marilyn Manson and Michael Moore. The more we fear, the more we consume. As a whole our society has seen millions of dollars spent on research on a disease that has only killed 295 people out of over six billion. When diseases were feared in the past it was worth fearing them: Justinian's Plague (541-544AD) killed 40% of the population of Constantinople; In the 14th Century we saw as many as 800 people a day dying of the Bubonic Plague -- 30% of Normandy's population was decimated. By comparison, SARS has managed to destroy less than 0.0000005% of the world's population, infecting a mere 0.000077% of the population.
While Quicktime may not be bloatware it has one distinct disadvantage: It is a resource hog. I find that of the media I use (I don't use Real at all), QT is the slowest. It is also quite annoying in that it doesn't conform to the API that most Windows users have come to expect: I use both Mac and PC clients on a regular basis, and I have found that while QT runs well on MacOS it is very unstable and sluggish under a Windows environment.
I'm inclined to object to you on this point. While jaywalking is indeed illegal, it is not illegal to smoke. Many smokers started smoking far before they realized the negative effects (be it the social realization or personal realization). To further this point, nicoteine is ADDICTIVE and jaywalking is not. Should it be necessary, I could stop all jaywalking activities. I could stop all file swapping activities. Smoking, however, is physically addictive and is not quite so easy to stop. Sure it can be done, but it is not an easy process, painful for most. I could stop all music piracy in a second, if I thought there was a serious chance of going to jail for it, but realistically there is almost zero chance of that happening for me. I live in Canada where US copyright laws do not apply and Canadian copyright laws are only enforced on a corporate level. When was the last time you heard of an individual being thrown in jail or fined for copyright violation?
After some thought, I am inclined to agree with you. Still,/. has a distinct feel of tech. I'm sure there are similar sites for engineers and the like, a place where engineering marvels can be discussed. And if there isn't, why doesn't someone start one using the slashdot engine?
Isn't it great that we have a company like Apple Computer that will publish (freely, I might add) trailers for movies? In a time when we see an increasing push to capitalize on every possible stream of revenue it makes me happy to see a single company that puts something on the market for free...of course, if you don't have their proprietary software, you're screwed...
While I found the article incredibly interesting, it is not really/. material. That said, I enjoyed looking through the piece; it was well thought-out and I certainly thought the pictures were a nice touch. The end result was a spiffy-looking frame (for those of you who didn't bother to follow the link) lacking only in luxuries...as long as you're used to riding a horse and buggy. The final product seemed to be overly square and didn't really strike me as the speed demon it was purported to be.
Of course, this could just be all my imagination, I am crazy, after all.
I certainly find mathematics interesting. As a high school student I calculated (by hand) trig values for various angles just to keep myself amused in a grade twelve math class. Of course, it only took a few days, and after that I had to come up with something new to figure out...but that's the life of intelligent nerds. If only there was some way to combine the wasted time of all nerds into one super-project...maybe we could figure out the exact odds of Bush or Blair getting another term in office!
I wrote a review of Blade II for my school paper, and I gave it a stellar review. I did mention the fact that it wasn't for physics buffs, but it was a very good action film that deserves quite a bit of credit.
The special effects were incredible and truly designed for those of us who are able to understand just why such effects are used. I personally think that this movie was targetted at college students and young people. It was designed for people who enjoy movies simply for the action and the effects, not at serious movie-goers who want a deep plot and extreme character development. The effects made this movie, and I think it was worth my $19.00 (I took a fried) plus popcorn.
You know, in my experience Windows never worked. I have only ever bought one new PC with an OS installed, the system I currently own. It came with Windows ME and it crashes on average once every three hours. I've counted. That doesn't sound like a working OS. The worst part is that I can't even install Linux. The installers don't seem to want to work for me. (This is probably a problem on my end, though...I'm no Linux expert. My certs are all for Windows.) Regardless, when an OS can't run for more than three hours without a crash I see that as a problem. I've installed OS/2 on some of my other systems and it rarely crashed. I've also had Linux on a few of my systems and I don't recall it ever crashing on me. Windows seems to be prone to crashes and as a result I don't like to use it. It's most definitely not a working OS, every version of Windows that has masqueraded as an OS has been so buggy as to be unusable.
Well, I for one don't care about the quality of the movie. I'm a Star Wars fan, and like many Star Wars fans before me and the many that will come after me, I just want to see what hare-brained scheme Lucas has come up with to sell more merchandise. I own three full copies of the Star Wars Trilogy (the original trilogy box set, the Special Edition and the re-release of the special edition) as well as two out of the three movies from the THX Enhanced version. I also was among the many people that pre-ordered my copy of Episode I when it came out on VHS. It doesn't matter what quality or theatre it comes out in, I'll go to see the movie. Saint John, New Brunswick, where I live, is known across Canada by theatre executives as having the worst cinema in the country. Even if they were to put it on a screen in that theatre I would still go to see the movie several times. It's just the way a Star Wars fan thinks.
If you ask me, which I noticed that Steve Jobs didni't, computers should be green-and-black monitors sitting on top of a large, blocky beige box with a bunch of obtrusive cables coming out of the back. Either that, or we should all devote a room in our houses to computers that are comprised of millions upon millions of vacuum tubes. I don't worry about things like size, just functionality. Computer marketers should be focusing on the nostalgic computer users, since we're the only ones that really count!
Regardless of the product or its originality, a patent is of no use unless the patent holder knows how to successfully market it. My uncle holds the patent for the Wax Whiz, an automatic floor waxing device and a few variants. This machine waxes floors a lot faster than competing devices, but sine he's an inventor and not a marketer, he hasn't been able to capitalize on the patent. It's in the best interests of patent-owners to sell their patents to marketers, rather than keep them for themselves. Based on this, why would anyone want to apply for a useless patent? What good is owning the right to a 3d pie chart if you can't sell it to the general public? I mean, stupidity aside, if your product is the best on the market you still won't be able to sell it if the only people that know about it are related to you. This may be a specific case, but I would think that all patents are the same. Most of the useless patents are held by companies and individuals that we've never heard of. If these uselss patents were marketed correctly, boom! Instant millionaires! Isn't that the way it's really supposed to work?!?
And what would you suggest as an alternative? There's always a Microsoft product, if you don't mind rebooting every ten minutes and having to perform countless daily updates to prevent crackers from taking down your system...at least Linux is stable and relatively hack-proof.
You may be able to build it, but who would market it? And then, who would provide the service? The applications? The support? It all boils down to a situation of economies of scale. Big business has the money and size to unertake any project they like, and to crush anything that looks like it could compete with them. We are just too small to successfuly pull something off. Not only do we not have the size, but we don't have the time either. It would take years to get a technology of that magnitude into something that would be acceptable to have sitting in your living room if just a few people were working on it. Of course, if Microsoft put their team of professionals on the job, it could be done inside a year. I'm not defending big business here, but I'm recognizing that there really isn't any way to compete against them.
There's a guy in my area that sells security systems along the line of your webcam ideas. He's got his own OS and is connecting it to a broadband (cable) connection so it can be viewed remotely. The images are stored on the hard drive, and can be retrieved at any point. Check out his web page at http://www.eagleeyedvr.com/
Uhh...does anyone else find this as frightening as I do? Just think of the ramifications of evolving computers...think, oh, I don't know, the Matrix or something...
Slashdot Mirror
Once again, I would like to point out the error in your arguments. In countries where people DO get their hands lopped off for theft there are remarkably few people who get punished -- but these people are the poor. In fact, I'm sure that there have been cases of embezzlement that have not been punished; one would like to think that larger theft would be of more concern, but often it is the people in power maintaining their power through fear. As far as drinking and driving is concerned, most people usually justify it in their minds, saying 'I'm in full control of myself, I've only had a few beers,' or something along those lines. While I don't drink and drive myself, I have friends who do, and they know that they shouldn't, but in a drunken state are unable to remember why, or even to decide that it is a bad idea.
I would also like to point out that it is untrue that people do things thinking that they will get away with it. I know of people that have been caught, arrested, and served jail time for crimes, only to go out and commit those exact same crimes once again. If you ask me, it would seem that there is an error somewhere either in their logic or in yours.
Thank you for clarifiying that for me. In the future, I will try to ensure that all references are transparent, so as not to confuse anyone.
Unfortunately, it would seem that you missed the point of that comment. Anyone that has paid any amount of attention to the movie would realise that it is not the views of Michael Moore I was trying to express, but those of Marilyn Manson, as is shown in an interview in the movie. That interview, more than anything else in the documentary, has stuck to me. In fact, I am considering writing a thesis for my Economics degree to display the truths of the fear-consumption model. I am aware that it works both ways (i.e. the more we consume some things, the less others), but as a whole it is a true model with a few exceptions--just like there are exceptions to every law in economics. As an econ major I have thought about the theory and the practice of this concept and have found it to be without any more fault than some of the other economic principles I cover in classes.
Sony has actually decided to adopt this model with the (eventually) upcoming Playstation 3. The idea is that users will leave their PS3 running all the time, game or no, and Sony will use the extra processing power to do whatever it is they do...spy on us or something. Of course, in order for this to work to their advantage we'll all have to use our PS3s to connect to the Net or some similar service. The only thing I hope is that Sony actually has an option to turn off processor sharing, just in case us hapless users don't want to support whatever cause it is that they are studying at the moment.
Actually, the way SETI works allows for any workload over an extended period of time. The samples that your computer is analysing have been around for quite some time; they are transmitted from regions that are light years away! In addition, it is only once every year or so that they have a real chance to look for anything interesting that they find. As far as a cure for SARS goes, I have an elderly grandmother who was rushed to the hospital for unrelated reasons shortly after the start of the SARS scare in Ontario. She was taken into an ambulance by men and women wearing full environmental suits. She has since been released, quite possibly too early (they still don't know what was wrong with her), so I'm anxious for the world to just deal with SARS. This is a prime example of the Fear Consumption Model brought to us by Marilyn Manson and Michael Moore. The more we fear, the more we consume. As a whole our society has seen millions of dollars spent on research on a disease that has only killed 295 people out of over six billion. When diseases were feared in the past it was worth fearing them: Justinian's Plague (541-544AD) killed 40% of the population of Constantinople; In the 14th Century we saw as many as 800 people a day dying of the Bubonic Plague -- 30% of Normandy's population was decimated. By comparison, SARS has managed to destroy less than 0.0000005% of the world's population, infecting a mere 0.000077% of the population.
While Quicktime may not be bloatware it has one distinct disadvantage: It is a resource hog. I find that of the media I use (I don't use Real at all), QT is the slowest. It is also quite annoying in that it doesn't conform to the API that most Windows users have come to expect: I use both Mac and PC clients on a regular basis, and I have found that while QT runs well on MacOS it is very unstable and sluggish under a Windows environment.
I'm inclined to object to you on this point. While jaywalking is indeed illegal, it is not illegal to smoke. Many smokers started smoking far before they realized the negative effects (be it the social realization or personal realization). To further this point, nicoteine is ADDICTIVE and jaywalking is not. Should it be necessary, I could stop all jaywalking activities. I could stop all file swapping activities. Smoking, however, is physically addictive and is not quite so easy to stop. Sure it can be done, but it is not an easy process, painful for most. I could stop all music piracy in a second, if I thought there was a serious chance of going to jail for it, but realistically there is almost zero chance of that happening for me. I live in Canada where US copyright laws do not apply and Canadian copyright laws are only enforced on a corporate level. When was the last time you heard of an individual being thrown in jail or fined for copyright violation?
After some thought, I am inclined to agree with you. Still, /. has a distinct feel of tech. I'm sure there are similar sites for engineers and the like, a place where engineering marvels can be discussed. And if there isn't, why doesn't someone start one using the slashdot engine?
Isn't it great that we have a company like Apple Computer that will publish (freely, I might add) trailers for movies? In a time when we see an increasing push to capitalize on every possible stream of revenue it makes me happy to see a single company that puts something on the market for free...of course, if you don't have their proprietary software, you're screwed...
While I found the article incredibly interesting, it is not really /. material. That said, I enjoyed looking through the piece; it was well thought-out and I certainly thought the pictures were a nice touch. The end result was a spiffy-looking frame (for those of you who didn't bother to follow the link) lacking only in luxuries...as long as you're used to riding a horse and buggy. The final product seemed to be overly square and didn't really strike me as the speed demon it was purported to be.
Of course, this could just be all my imagination, I am crazy, after all.
I certainly find mathematics interesting. As a high school student I calculated (by hand) trig values for various angles just to keep myself amused in a grade twelve math class. Of course, it only took a few days, and after that I had to come up with something new to figure out...but that's the life of intelligent nerds. If only there was some way to combine the wasted time of all nerds into one super-project...maybe we could figure out the exact odds of Bush or Blair getting another term in office!
I wrote a review of Blade II for my school paper, and I gave it a stellar review. I did mention the fact that it wasn't for physics buffs, but it was a very good action film that deserves quite a bit of credit.
The special effects were incredible and truly designed for those of us who are able to understand just why such effects are used. I personally think that this movie was targetted at college students and young people. It was designed for people who enjoy movies simply for the action and the effects, not at serious movie-goers who want a deep plot and extreme character development. The effects made this movie, and I think it was worth my $19.00 (I took a fried) plus popcorn.
You know, in my experience Windows never worked. I have only ever bought one new PC with an OS installed, the system I currently own. It came with Windows ME and it crashes on average once every three hours. I've counted. That doesn't sound like a working OS. The worst part is that I can't even install Linux. The installers don't seem to want to work for me. (This is probably a problem on my end, though...I'm no Linux expert. My certs are all for Windows.) Regardless, when an OS can't run for more than three hours without a crash I see that as a problem. I've installed OS/2 on some of my other systems and it rarely crashed. I've also had Linux on a few of my systems and I don't recall it ever crashing on me. Windows seems to be prone to crashes and as a result I don't like to use it. It's most definitely not a working OS, every version of Windows that has masqueraded as an OS has been so buggy as to be unusable.
Well, I for one don't care about the quality of the movie. I'm a Star Wars fan, and like many Star Wars fans before me and the many that will come after me, I just want to see what hare-brained scheme Lucas has come up with to sell more merchandise. I own three full copies of the Star Wars Trilogy (the original trilogy box set, the Special Edition and the re-release of the special edition) as well as two out of the three movies from the THX Enhanced version. I also was among the many people that pre-ordered my copy of Episode I when it came out on VHS. It doesn't matter what quality or theatre it comes out in, I'll go to see the movie. Saint John, New Brunswick, where I live, is known across Canada by theatre executives as having the worst cinema in the country. Even if they were to put it on a screen in that theatre I would still go to see the movie several times. It's just the way a Star Wars fan thinks.
If you ask me, which I noticed that Steve Jobs didni't, computers should be green-and-black monitors sitting on top of a large, blocky beige box with a bunch of obtrusive cables coming out of the back. Either that, or we should all devote a room in our houses to computers that are comprised of millions upon millions of vacuum tubes. I don't worry about things like size, just functionality. Computer marketers should be focusing on the nostalgic computer users, since we're the only ones that really count!
Regardless of the product or its originality, a patent is of no use unless the patent holder knows how to successfully market it. My uncle holds the patent for the Wax Whiz, an automatic floor waxing device and a few variants. This machine waxes floors a lot faster than competing devices, but sine he's an inventor and not a marketer, he hasn't been able to capitalize on the patent. It's in the best interests of patent-owners to sell their patents to marketers, rather than keep them for themselves. Based on this, why would anyone want to apply for a useless patent? What good is owning the right to a 3d pie chart if you can't sell it to the general public? I mean, stupidity aside, if your product is the best on the market you still won't be able to sell it if the only people that know about it are related to you. This may be a specific case, but I would think that all patents are the same. Most of the useless patents are held by companies and individuals that we've never heard of. If these uselss patents were marketed correctly, boom! Instant millionaires! Isn't that the way it's really supposed to work?!?
And what would you suggest as an alternative? There's always a Microsoft product, if you don't mind rebooting every ten minutes and having to perform countless daily updates to prevent crackers from taking down your system...at least Linux is stable and relatively hack-proof.
You may be able to build it, but who would market it? And then, who would provide the service? The applications? The support? It all boils down to a situation of economies of scale. Big business has the money and size to unertake any project they like, and to crush anything that looks like it could compete with them. We are just too small to successfuly pull something off. Not only do we not have the size, but we don't have the time either. It would take years to get a technology of that magnitude into something that would be acceptable to have sitting in your living room if just a few people were working on it. Of course, if Microsoft put their team of professionals on the job, it could be done inside a year. I'm not defending big business here, but I'm recognizing that there really isn't any way to compete against them.
There's a guy in my area that sells security systems along the line of your webcam ideas. He's got his own OS and is connecting it to a broadband (cable) connection so it can be viewed remotely. The images are stored on the hard drive, and can be retrieved at any point. Check out his web page at http://www.eagleeyedvr.com/
Hmm...I wonder if it would stand up in court... Some of those DOJ hacks are pretty dense...
Uhh...does anyone else find this as frightening as I do? Just think of the ramifications of evolving computers...think, oh, I don't know, the Matrix or something...
Hey, did anyone notice that WinCE spells wince, the same thing I do every time I use Windows?