It seems to me that a site set up like/. (although it would be updated with much less frequency) would be the perfect forum for this type of thing. The layout would need some tweaking (they'd want a spell checker;P and some way to keep those pesky goatse.cx punks off, they'd also probably get rid of the anonymous coward option;.sigs could be changed into useful identifying information such as where the poster worked or something like that) but the basic idea behind slashcode would work well. Scientists who wanted to publish their work could put up a short intro on the main page, give more info under the "read more..." section and then post a.pdf for anyone to download. Peers could post reviews in.pdf files as replies and so on and so forth. Anyone else thought of something along these lines?
In other news, CNN is reporting that temperatures in Hell have reached record lows and its moisture rich atmosphere is beginning to freeze over.
Wow, lawyers doing something against a horrible law... we haven't seen that sort of thing since the founding of this country (because those guys were almost _all_ lawyers).
With Microsoft getting (overly)aggressive again, what is the outlook for Linux as an OS for servers? In other words, do you see Linux usage in this field going up or down?
I know! Evidence to back up its claims! I hate big media as much as the next guy but Katz never did give a good example of a big media corp killing off a new media effort. All he does do is offer an utterly depressing and abismal look at the US. Oooh, now there's something that takes skill and wit.
That's really all I have to say. I mean, now when we do it by being decadent and wasteful it's horrible, but back then it was just their time to go. So much for the thought that humans used to live in harmony with nature I guess. We've always been a plague to other species, but to some extent, it is our right.
How long is it before some politician makes internet pr0n on airplanes a big deal? They already tried to make access illegal in libraries to the objection of the librarians (now was that for free speech or pr0n, that's the question). Which of you would still be willing to surf the net for pr0n with someone right next to you? Albeit they'll probably never see you again.
After a certain point on the promotion ladder getting a promotion will put you in charge of other people (at very least others will be reporting to you). If you don't want that in a job an MBA is a waste of time. If that is something that you are looking for or it is something that you are willing to do an MBA will be a great asset to your career. Your bosses will be much more likely to promote you to a postition in which management skills are required if you have an MBA. One would also help you understand exactly what your company wants you to do. Any new degree you get is going to make you much more attractive to a company, it all depends on what your goals are.
I know a guy who had a degree in biology and was doing research for a company in that field. The project he was working on was nearing completion and he had a feeling that he was on the way out. However, for some time he had already been pursuing an MBA (just because he knew it would be good for his career, not to keep his job). When he completed it and his company learned about it he was offered a huge promotion with a starting salary of $60,000 a year. His situation is different from what a programmer's is, but bear in mind that biology and business are even more unrelated than programming and business are; he still benefitted greatly from getting his MBA and he's never regretted getting it one bit.
Oh yeah, MIT and Caltech have never done anything usefull. Sounds like someone is a little bitter about being rejected from a big-name school, eh? I'm sorry, usually I try to keep myself polite on/. but this is too much. YOU ARE PATHETIC. *thank you*
In order to create AI we must first understand our own "I" (as it were). I am studying in the field of cognitive neuroscience right now and let me make it clear that we know jack about the brain. When I do detailed research on physiological psychology I feel like a vet. A lot of people have said that if it weren't for Minsky being so against neural networks that AI would already be here. That's funny. It's also the biggest load of junk I've heard since last time I heard Bush speak, but I digress. The point is that until we know what's going on in our own heads and how we learn we don't have a chance in hell of getting the same process on a computer.
Is there a programmers or a technical personal union? There ought to be, can you think of a group of workers that need it more with the important skills that we have? A couple big names in the tech industry that don't own companies and aren't owned by them either should set one up. I'd join, wouldn't you?
I won't be really happy until I see an organic screen for a desktop system at say... 19 inches. Than I'll get all hot and bothered and buy one. Until then there's no reason for a gamer to care, it's just cool for laptop users. A 19-21 inch OLED with that awesome resolution they say it has plus less power consumption and friggin weight than my current moniter (big-ass CRT) mmmmmmmm *drools* that would be perfect for a desktop system; that's what I'm waiting for as far as monitors go.
Wait a second, Jupiter is gaseous isn't it? I mean, they think that there might be a solid core in the middle but they're not sure. Even if there is a solid core how does that allow for a manned mission. They can't land there, if there is a core and they went there they'd get crushed. What can people orbiting Jupiter do that machines controlled by people and/or computers orbiting Jupiter can't? People say that the manned trip was a scientific waste but at least we actually go there. I'll be impressed when we land on Mars or build large enough space stations that normal people can live in for prolonged periods of time. The anti-matter propulsion system would be great but only for greater speeds in space travel. I'd say that after Mars manned missions within our own solar system are pretty useless (with the possible exception of Pluto) as even an ego booster for the country. I also wonder how many billions (trillions maybe?) could get spent on us getting to Jupiter that we could have used for purposes to benefit people rather than ultralong-term science. By the way I do support NASA, just playing devils advocate here.
Actually I agree with you, but that doesn't change my point. I think that if people saw the DMCA they would want to get rid of it. To tell you the truth I don't really believe in a system of government; I believe that the people have the power but it is individual people who wield it because they are the ones who influence the masses. As for how I was brought up... let's just say it wasn't typical of America, I'm moving to Germany as soon as the opportunity presents itself. (I still say that the DMCA would be destroyed if enough people found out about it and we had a good leader.)
We are misplacing our hate and anger. The RIAA is made up of corporations, the sole point of a corp is to make money for its shareholders. If they think that they're losing money because of something and figure out a way that they could stop it from happening they're going to try it. If their method of halting this loss of money violates the rights that individuals (should) have that won't mean a thing to them. The only responsibility that they really have is to shareholders; they are not beholden to us in any way except sales, and I don't see a boycott of all music published by corps in the RIAA on the horizon. We do have a recourse though (did you really think this was going to be a pro RIAA post?), politicians. (a horrible recourse but one nonetheless) They *are* dependent on us for jobs, and don't tell me that the companies have enough money to keep the politicians on their side. Votes get a candidate elected, not money. If enough people became educated about the cancer that is the DMCA it would be thrown out of the books. As people who know about the DMCA and other such injustices it is your duty as well as to your benefit to let people know what's going on. When was the last time you dismissed a question from a non/. type person about this stuff because you decided they were too stupid to be bothered with? Or even got out from in front of your computer to tell people about this stuff? I did it today, but I can't be the only one. Stop flaming corporations for trying to squeeze every last drop of money out of the consumer; it's what they do. Instead start sending mail to your congressmen and telling regular people about what's going on. If you won't do that than you don't have a leg to stand on in this issue. Politicians (sadly) are the key to getting our rights back. Oh by the way, I'm downloading copyrighted music off of Aimster as I type this:)
If the American people (dear God, I sound like Bush!) knew about half of the crap the NSA and the government in general does, there would be an immense public outcry. Sadly, the only way for Americans to become aware of these things is through the news. CNN did a story on this but let's face it, Jo Shmoe doesn't get his news from CNN or NPR. Fox news and other such concentrations of stupidity in the media are dumbing us down and keeping us unaware of important goings on. The number of people I know that don't follow the news or get it from, "Fox News Special Reports," is appalling. Not only that, media monopolies, the worst type of a monopoly, have come into existance and are stamping out news sources that compete with them and therefore knocking out journalists and reporters with agendas that differ from their own. *cough AOL Time Warner cough* Back on topic... I think what the NSA does and what it stands for is disgusting. Something has to be done to protect the rights of the individual. The NSA is the antithesis of what I stand for politically and philosophically. The NSA cannot be allowed to continue on in this fashion. It's almost a good thing that I can't really do too much about it, I'm sure that I'd disappear from society within the next few days if I could. Oh and I declare shenanigans of the most serious order.
I don't see why Westwood seems to think that the Dune series would make a good set of games, Especially not strategy games. Dune and its sequals were incredible books, some of the best I've ever read, but I really don't see a good game coming out of them without Westwood being, shall we say, "creative," with the license. There just isn't enough there from the RTS perspective (that assumption is based on RTS's that are already out, maybe I'll be suprised). A game that were true to the Dune series would not fit in any genre or combinations thereof. It would be incredibly complex and I don't think that anyone has the skill (yet) to make a game that would truely live up to such a great name. I'm a little biased I guess, look at the second word in my screen name. Oh yeah, I'd just like to say that Miles Teg was an Ubermensch, thank you.
I wouldn't be able to believe that ASUS is using the fact that you can cheat with their GPUs as marketing material if crap like this weren't so common. ASUS's job isn't making the games we play fun it's selling their cards. That means until gamers get together and collectively do something to punish companies that pull shit like this they're just gonna keep on doing it. There is a petition to ASUS up:
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http://www.petitiononline.com/badasus/petition.htm l
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That is a start but there will be people who aren't good enough at games to play well without cheating and don't have the moral integrity to keep themselves from buying these products. Here is a better solution
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http://www.punkbuster.com/news.html
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Punkbuster is a program that keeps cheaters from cheating, if it got popular maybe we could get rid of cheating almost completely. Anyway, I hate it when companies figure out ways to make money that screw the communities that they sell to. Blah.
That's exactly what I meant. The longer the economy isn't full of venture capitalists with money to burn the more "professional" distos for open source projects will suffer. I could really see M$ trying to profit from this but then again I'm really paranoid when it comes to big corporations (and the government for that matter, but I don't suspect the government of anything in this instance).
You know, as much as all companies hate a recession I betcha M$ is loooving this one. So many open source efforts have closed their doors and you know they're all about that. In fact (for a little bit of conspiracy theory funtime), I wonder if M$ would use their sway in the economy to keep it from recovering for a while to kill off all open source and smaller company competition? Just a little paranoid thought...
Put Transcendentalism as your religion. The whole Jedi system is a direct rip off (not that it's a bad thing) of Transcendentalism. Some may argue that Transcendentalism isn't a religion (I agree with them) but hey it's as close as you can come to putting Jedi. Seriously, read "Self Reliance" by Ralph Waldon Emerson, it's a great read and you'll start seeing the references there are to it everywhere in society. "The Force" is really the "Oversoul," and then there's the whole, "evil is simply a lack of good," thing. I could go on for hours, but I did that for English class already, so I'll spare you.
Actually you may be suprised when it comes to speaking the native language. While living there would be much more enjoyable if you could communicate with others, working there doesn't require great foreign language skills depending on what you want to do. In Germany at least, the official spoken language for a laboratory is English. (Oder sollte ich "Englisch" sprechen?:) English really is beginning to become the international business language, they use it for all air-traffic control too. I'm not sure I like that trend because there are a lot of beautiful languages that are shrinking in usage, but hey, it's good for an American who wants to work in Europe I guess.
Can you imagine what would happen if the RIAA said, "Hey, we basically wrote the DCMA and then lobbied Congress into passing it. It's our law now, nobody can post it anywhere online or publish it except for the Government and us"? We'd all be screwed! The only chance we've got to get the DCMA overturned is if enough people read about it. If they can make distributing copies of it illegal... well, let's just say that this is a scary precedent. How can anyone prohibit the distribution of written law in a democratic republic?
He may think that the GPL is ineffective but as long as he wants to develope something better to further the open source effort I'm all for it. Getting stuck on one way of combating big corporations is stupid, we have to constantly evolve to combat tyranny where ever it pops up.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems to me that a site set up like /. (although it would be updated with much less frequency) would be the perfect forum for this type of thing. The layout would need some tweaking (they'd want a spell checker ;P and some way to keep those pesky goatse.cx punks off, they'd also probably get rid of the anonymous coward option; .sigs could be changed into useful identifying information such as where the poster worked or something like that) but the basic idea behind slashcode would work well. Scientists who wanted to publish their work could put up a short intro on the main page, give more info under the "read more..." section and then post a .pdf for anyone to download. Peers could post reviews in .pdf files as replies and so on and so forth. Anyone else thought of something along these lines?
With Microsoft getting (overly)aggressive again, what is the outlook for Linux as an OS for servers? In other words, do you see Linux usage in this field going up or down?
I know! Evidence to back up its claims! I hate big media as much as the next guy but Katz never did give a good example of a big media corp killing off a new media effort. All he does do is offer an utterly depressing and abismal look at the US. Oooh, now there's something that takes skill and wit.
That's really all I have to say. I mean, now when we do it by being decadent and wasteful it's horrible, but back then it was just their time to go. So much for the thought that humans used to live in harmony with nature I guess. We've always been a plague to other species, but to some extent, it is our right.
How long is it before some politician makes internet pr0n on airplanes a big deal? They already tried to make access illegal in libraries to the objection of the librarians (now was that for free speech or pr0n, that's the question). Which of you would still be willing to surf the net for pr0n with someone right next to you? Albeit they'll probably never see you again.
After a certain point on the promotion ladder getting a promotion will put you in charge of other people (at very least others will be reporting to you). If you don't want that in a job an MBA is a waste of time. If that is something that you are looking for or it is something that you are willing to do an MBA will be a great asset to your career. Your bosses will be much more likely to promote you to a postition in which management skills are required if you have an MBA. One would also help you understand exactly what your company wants you to do. Any new degree you get is going to make you much more attractive to a company, it all depends on what your goals are. I know a guy who had a degree in biology and was doing research for a company in that field. The project he was working on was nearing completion and he had a feeling that he was on the way out. However, for some time he had already been pursuing an MBA (just because he knew it would be good for his career, not to keep his job). When he completed it and his company learned about it he was offered a huge promotion with a starting salary of $60,000 a year. His situation is different from what a programmer's is, but bear in mind that biology and business are even more unrelated than programming and business are; he still benefitted greatly from getting his MBA and he's never regretted getting it one bit.
Oh yeah, MIT and Caltech have never done anything usefull. Sounds like someone is a little bitter about being rejected from a big-name school, eh? I'm sorry, usually I try to keep myself polite on /. but this is too much. YOU ARE PATHETIC. *thank you*
In order to create AI we must first understand our own "I" (as it were). I am studying in the field of cognitive neuroscience right now and let me make it clear that we know jack about the brain. When I do detailed research on physiological psychology I feel like a vet. A lot of people have said that if it weren't for Minsky being so against neural networks that AI would already be here. That's funny. It's also the biggest load of junk I've heard since last time I heard Bush speak, but I digress. The point is that until we know what's going on in our own heads and how we learn we don't have a chance in hell of getting the same process on a computer.
Is there a programmers or a technical personal union? There ought to be, can you think of a group of workers that need it more with the important skills that we have? A couple big names in the tech industry that don't own companies and aren't owned by them either should set one up. I'd join, wouldn't you?
I won't be really happy until I see an organic screen for a desktop system at say... 19 inches. Than I'll get all hot and bothered and buy one. Until then there's no reason for a gamer to care, it's just cool for laptop users. A 19-21 inch OLED with that awesome resolution they say it has plus less power consumption and friggin weight than my current moniter (big-ass CRT) mmmmmmmm *drools* that would be perfect for a desktop system; that's what I'm waiting for as far as monitors go.
Ahh yes, indeed. *Goes off into corner by hisself and feels stupid.*
Wait a second, Jupiter is gaseous isn't it? I mean, they think that there might be a solid core in the middle but they're not sure. Even if there is a solid core how does that allow for a manned mission. They can't land there, if there is a core and they went there they'd get crushed. What can people orbiting Jupiter do that machines controlled by people and/or computers orbiting Jupiter can't? People say that the manned trip was a scientific waste but at least we actually go there. I'll be impressed when we land on Mars or build large enough space stations that normal people can live in for prolonged periods of time. The anti-matter propulsion system would be great but only for greater speeds in space travel. I'd say that after Mars manned missions within our own solar system are pretty useless (with the possible exception of Pluto) as even an ego booster for the country. I also wonder how many billions (trillions maybe?) could get spent on us getting to Jupiter that we could have used for purposes to benefit people rather than ultralong-term science. By the way I do support NASA, just playing devils advocate here.
Actually I agree with you, but that doesn't change my point. I think that if people saw the DMCA they would want to get rid of it. To tell you the truth I don't really believe in a system of government; I believe that the people have the power but it is individual people who wield it because they are the ones who influence the masses. As for how I was brought up... let's just say it wasn't typical of America, I'm moving to Germany as soon as the opportunity presents itself. (I still say that the DMCA would be destroyed if enough people found out about it and we had a good leader.)
We are misplacing our hate and anger. The RIAA is made up of corporations, the sole point of a corp is to make money for its shareholders. If they think that they're losing money because of something and figure out a way that they could stop it from happening they're going to try it. If their method of halting this loss of money violates the rights that individuals (should) have that won't mean a thing to them. The only responsibility that they really have is to shareholders; they are not beholden to us in any way except sales, and I don't see a boycott of all music published by corps in the RIAA on the horizon. We do have a recourse though (did you really think this was going to be a pro RIAA post?), politicians. (a horrible recourse but one nonetheless) They *are* dependent on us for jobs, and don't tell me that the companies have enough money to keep the politicians on their side. Votes get a candidate elected, not money. If enough people became educated about the cancer that is the DMCA it would be thrown out of the books. As people who know about the DMCA and other such injustices it is your duty as well as to your benefit to let people know what's going on. When was the last time you dismissed a question from a non /. type person about this stuff because you decided they were too stupid to be bothered with? Or even got out from in front of your computer to tell people about this stuff? I did it today, but I can't be the only one. Stop flaming corporations for trying to squeeze every last drop of money out of the consumer; it's what they do. Instead start sending mail to your congressmen and telling regular people about what's going on. If you won't do that than you don't have a leg to stand on in this issue. Politicians (sadly) are the key to getting our rights back. Oh by the way, I'm downloading copyrighted music off of Aimster as I type this :)
If the American people (dear God, I sound like Bush!) knew about half of the crap the NSA and the government in general does, there would be an immense public outcry. Sadly, the only way for Americans to become aware of these things is through the news. CNN did a story on this but let's face it, Jo Shmoe doesn't get his news from CNN or NPR. Fox news and other such concentrations of stupidity in the media are dumbing us down and keeping us unaware of important goings on. The number of people I know that don't follow the news or get it from, "Fox News Special Reports," is appalling. Not only that, media monopolies, the worst type of a monopoly, have come into existance and are stamping out news sources that compete with them and therefore knocking out journalists and reporters with agendas that differ from their own. *cough AOL Time Warner cough* Back on topic... I think what the NSA does and what it stands for is disgusting. Something has to be done to protect the rights of the individual. The NSA is the antithesis of what I stand for politically and philosophically. The NSA cannot be allowed to continue on in this fashion. It's almost a good thing that I can't really do too much about it, I'm sure that I'd disappear from society within the next few days if I could. Oh and I declare shenanigans of the most serious order.
I don't see why Westwood seems to think that the Dune series would make a good set of games, Especially not strategy games. Dune and its sequals were incredible books, some of the best I've ever read, but I really don't see a good game coming out of them without Westwood being, shall we say, "creative," with the license. There just isn't enough there from the RTS perspective (that assumption is based on RTS's that are already out, maybe I'll be suprised). A game that were true to the Dune series would not fit in any genre or combinations thereof. It would be incredibly complex and I don't think that anyone has the skill (yet) to make a game that would truely live up to such a great name. I'm a little biased I guess, look at the second word in my screen name. Oh yeah, I'd just like to say that Miles Teg was an Ubermensch, thank you.
I wouldn't be able to believe that ASUS is using the fact that you can cheat with their GPUs as marketing material if crap like this weren't so common. ASUS's job isn't making the games we play fun it's selling their cards. That means until gamers get together and collectively do something to punish companies that pull shit like this they're just gonna keep on doing it. There is a petition to ASUS up: ------------ http://www.petitiononline.com/badasus/petition.htm l
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That is a start but there will be people who aren't good enough at games to play well without cheating and don't have the moral integrity to keep themselves from buying these products. Here is a better solution
------------
http://www.punkbuster.com/news.html
------------
Punkbuster is a program that keeps cheaters from cheating, if it got popular maybe we could get rid of cheating almost completely. Anyway, I hate it when companies figure out ways to make money that screw the communities that they sell to. Blah.
I agree completely. Did it seem like I was saying anything contrary to that?
That's exactly what I meant. The longer the economy isn't full of venture capitalists with money to burn the more "professional" distos for open source projects will suffer. I could really see M$ trying to profit from this but then again I'm really paranoid when it comes to big corporations (and the government for that matter, but I don't suspect the government of anything in this instance).
You know, as much as all companies hate a recession I betcha M$ is loooving this one. So many open source efforts have closed their doors and you know they're all about that. In fact (for a little bit of conspiracy theory funtime), I wonder if M$ would use their sway in the economy to keep it from recovering for a while to kill off all open source and smaller company competition? Just a little paranoid thought...
Put Transcendentalism as your religion. The whole Jedi system is a direct rip off (not that it's a bad thing) of Transcendentalism. Some may argue that Transcendentalism isn't a religion (I agree with them) but hey it's as close as you can come to putting Jedi. Seriously, read "Self Reliance" by Ralph Waldon Emerson, it's a great read and you'll start seeing the references there are to it everywhere in society. "The Force" is really the "Oversoul," and then there's the whole, "evil is simply a lack of good," thing. I could go on for hours, but I did that for English class already, so I'll spare you.
Actually you may be suprised when it comes to speaking the native language. While living there would be much more enjoyable if you could communicate with others, working there doesn't require great foreign language skills depending on what you want to do. In Germany at least, the official spoken language for a laboratory is English. (Oder sollte ich "Englisch" sprechen? :) English really is beginning to become the international business language, they use it for all air-traffic control too. I'm not sure I like that trend because there are a lot of beautiful languages that are shrinking in usage, but hey, it's good for an American who wants to work in Europe I guess.
Can you imagine what would happen if the RIAA said, "Hey, we basically wrote the DCMA and then lobbied Congress into passing it. It's our law now, nobody can post it anywhere online or publish it except for the Government and us"? We'd all be screwed! The only chance we've got to get the DCMA overturned is if enough people read about it. If they can make distributing copies of it illegal... well, let's just say that this is a scary precedent. How can anyone prohibit the distribution of written law in a democratic republic?
He may think that the GPL is ineffective but as long as he wants to develope something better to further the open source effort I'm all for it. Getting stuck on one way of combating big corporations is stupid, we have to constantly evolve to combat tyranny where ever it pops up.