Are AMD's patent licenses transferable?? If so, then the company has exit value to someone else, who could then continue making processors. If not, then the company has no value beyond salvage.
You are absolutely correct. And a lot of the problem with these blogs is that they're really diaries, not truly meant for public consumption, but many people don't quite get how thorough search engines are, or what trouble they can generate for themselves by writing in a publicly-readable blog what they would not say to someone's face.
As to the child predator issue, ISTM the simple solution is to default such spaces to "private, viewing allowed only by marked-friends and/or by invitation". If the account holder changes their profile to "public", the site could first display a warning message and ask "Do you really want to do this?" so it can't be done without at least a modicum of thought.
Perhaps making "friends and invites only" the only way these sites operate for kids under a certain age would relieve parents' fears, tho there you run into the problem that savvy kids will simply lie when they set up the account. And you can't very well demand a photo ID from each user; aside from the massive unwieldyness of doing that for millions of users, it runs into yet another privacy can of worms (and potential liability).
So... if these sites would simply default to "Private, visible to marked friends and to others by invitation only" ISTM a lot of the problem would go away. The most naive users, who most need protection, wouldn't know enough to turn on "public access", and no one else would have their rights compromised by such a policy.
True. In my experience, the elderly are a lot more naive about computer-related stuff, and far easier to scam, or frighten into buying something they don't really need, etc, etc. The real problem is that most are still rather mystified by and somewhat afraid of this newfangled computer and internet thingee, and are forced to trust whatever someone tells them -- anything to lead them out of the technical maze they find themselves lost in. And many believe that you MUST always put real and complete info on every web form you encounter, just like you would with forms in meatspace.
Whereas today's kids grew up with computers, and don't have that "fear of breaking the internet" just because they didn't put their real name in a form, or whatever. And they're quick to recognise something that's "not right", because they pretty much KNOW what's normal or not online. It's no mystery to them, because it's been part of their entire lives -- not something thrown at them late in life when it's harder to learn and adjust, as is the case with Seniors.
Note: I work with a PC user group that is almost entirely Seniors, so I speak from firsthand observation.
There have been a few studies that showed computers are a negative factor wrt learning in the classroom, and while there are other factors at work, one has to wonder if this eye/brain fatigue, especially in a young brain that is still LEARNING HOW TO LEARN, could cause long-term damage to the child's ability to comprehend and retain knowledge.
Programming, as you say, is almost purely learn-by-doing, which probably uses an entirely different set of brain pathways.
Also makes Spot The Typo easier -- cuz something just won't line up right. I use this when chasing the invisible bugaroo in HTML.
==========
Momentary weirdness: sometimes my fingers will type a homonym without bothering to consult my brain -- "one" and "won" being a common swaperoo here. But now it's gone a step too far -- I just tried to type "one't" instead of "won't"!!
I've noticed that people who prefer ebooks, as a rule are not *readers*, or at most are casual readers only of short material. Whereas people who are lifelong heavy readers, who are accustomed to long reading sessions, usually prefer paper books.
I think it's not the medium, it's the typeface fatigue factor on both brain and eyes. I go into that more somewhere above, where I expound on discovering that reading SCANNED ACTUAL PAGES online was exactly the same as reading a REAL BOOK, quite unlike how an eBook fatigues both mind and eyes.
Even so, the realbook is a whole lot more portable and flexible than pictures of its pages confined to a computer screen. And it's kinda tough to curl up with a CRT for an evening in front of the fire with a good book.;)
[laughing] Your "roll a ball between the letters" explanation not only makes sense, it took me from "I get it" to "Oh, now I *understand* it". Nice.
Good explanation from an engineering/layout POV, too. Very practical.
But what was so funny was applying it to the route to the bathroom... yeah, I grok that -- as I get older, I too have less and less tolerance for indirect routes, I just want point A to be adjacent to point B, with no side trips to 72 other points between! But I'm fortunate in that I don't need wider tolerances.;)
I think it's a skill that goes along with being naturally good at space relations (which in my observation tends to go along with a good sense of direction and of where you are in realspace).
Frex, I never get lost, I have good space relations, and can also eyeball something and be reasonably accurate. In meatspace, that means I can pack stuff tightly without measuring, get a 2x4 of the desired length from the scrap pile on the first try, pick a loose nut that will fit the random bolt w/o having to check size, etc. On a computer screen, I can crop two files to the same size by eyeball and not be more than one or two pixels off.
Coversely, I know several people with an abysmal sense of direction and location, and the other trait they all share is that they have absolutely no idea "how big" anything is, let alone whether it's aligned as desired or will fit into XX space. They're the epitome of "I cut it three times, and it's STILL too short!"
Occurs to me to wonder if this trait is what really separates engineers, designers, and people who successfully work with their hands, from other types of skills and professions.
Wired isn't and never has been interested in *readability*. They are interested in attracting eyeballs, and if spouting about how "readable" they are does it, that's what they'll do. (It worked, didn't it?:)
Magazines, online or otherwise, are seldom actually interested in their own content. Their true interest lies in attracting advertising dollars, and their only interest in their audience is what demographics that audience can present to potential advertisers.
I think you're absolutely right. Here are two examples:
==========
I just got done reading a long book as an eBook.
I then noticed a hardcopy at the library, checked it out, and started re-reading it -- and I definitely am getting more comprehension and retention out of it. In fact, it's almost as if I had not not read the book at all, rather than having just finished reading the book only one day before!!
Not to mention that the print copy is easier on the eyes. But it's not just because it's not on the computer screen:
===========
Couple weeks ago, at archive.org's new OpenLibrary project, I read an entire book online in one sitting. OpenLibrary shows you actual scanned pages as images, so you're seeing the exact same thing as you would if you held the paper book in your hands.
Amazingly, MY EYES *AND BRAIN* DID NOT GET TIRED the way they do with regular eBooks (and that's even tho I use an eBook reader that emulates a slightly yellowed paper book, and can use any font). As with any paper book, I could read as long as I wished. Conversely, with eBooks, I've found that after an hour or so I have *got* to go do something else.
After some thought, and a side-by-side comparison, I concluded that the entire reason was because the realbook's typeface was EFFORTLESS to read, whereas the computer font required work from both my eyes AND my brain (despite 13 years of experience with reading from computer screens). Compared to a visually-similar eBook display, the scanned actual pages were *restful* to read, and caused no eye or brain fatigue.
==========
So if I have a choice -- give me print from a real printing press. My eyes and brain will thank you.
One also has to wonder what computerized teaching is *failing* to get into kids' heads -- both by unduly fatiguing their eyes and brains, and by information not being as well comprehended and/or retained (which probably goes right along with the fatigue factor).
Even ancient word processing software could do kerning. (Frex, WordPerfect 5.1 and possibly before that.) But kerning tends to be proprietary to the *printer driver*, and can't be implemented if the actual file is plain text and the medium is not a printer. Good example -- my laser printer can print kerned text; my old inkjet could not, it came out the same as unkerned text.
I suppose kerning could be handled for the web *in the browser*, but I suspect would be very slow on most machines; however, that's probably the most reliable route, since it would behave the same with ALL text (and remember that what's rendered in the browser starts life mostly as plain text).
If it were done in the HTML (pretending for the moment that HTML could do kerning) each letter would have to be coded as if it were an image to be placed relative to those around it, and the browser would have to grok "text placement". Imagine how much larger an average webpage would become, or if done with something more "economical" like CSS, all the bazillion ways it could go worng due to variances in implementation!
I'm not a diehard Republican, I *will* vote for the best man regardless of party. But in general the *real* Republicans [tho not these new rightists] have been what I wanted: less gov't, lower taxes, do the things gov't really needs to do, otherwise stay the fuck out of my life. Not exactly libertarian, but certainly right next door.
Libertarians take this too far, IMO, but are certainly better than too much gov't control.
So a Republican with Libertarian roots sounds good to me. Especially one who is willing to set his heels and say NO to unconstitutional interests. While I suspect I would not like Ron Paul very much personally, I think he has genuine American interests at heart.
Conversely, in my experience most Democrats are quick to throw taxpayers' money at a problem, and quick to restrict who can do what, but don't see why that's part of the problem. I think they appeal to a lot of kids because of the commun^H^H^H^H idealism of tax the rich and share with the poor, but start your own business, try to hire a few blokes who really need jobs, and suddenly that purported idealism is pinching you out of business. As ex-Senator McCarthy said, that was a real eye opener.
That's a problem, all right -- either you are part of a groupthink (or more likely, of several groupthinks), or you are a minority of one. And the latter has no power unless all persons are similarly minorities of one. Which isn't really feasible humanly or socially -- there are too many of us and nothing would get done.
"Democracy: that ultimate triumph of quantity over quality." -- Peter H. Peel
Football's concession to geektech is radios in the helmets and the occasional helmetcam. You won't see HUDs in football, ever -- things happen too fast and people need to be fully aware in realtime. You won't see any player toting gear that's not directly useful to that -- it's not worth the weight and the consequent speed hit.
While I'm all for meat hunting, do remember that even if the hunter wastes most of the kill by leaving it lie in the field, there are a whole bunch of critters who'll come along afterward and think, "Cool, free lunch!"
Speaking of disconnected, I've met two people here in SoCal who did not grok that beef comes from cows!!
My 11th grade American History teacher loved to, uh, "gossip" about historical figures. One of the little tidbits she told us was that in his day, Lincoln was regarded as a weak personality who couldn't make up his own mind, and who was therefore easily led by his advisors. In short, a century of hero worship was largely generated by his assassination, not by his own good works. (Sound familiar?)
Also, freeing the slaves wasn't done out of pure love of his fellow mankind. It was done to disrupt the South's economic base. But that unromantic fact brings no recruits into the Union army!
A good many of those cruise missiles and strategic bombers call Montana "home".
The parent makes a very good point, tho -- if the state gets no money back from the feds, why should they pay any in the first place? Which would probably be a very good trend, since it's clear that gov't is out of control, and the only leash it understands is the one with $$$$$$$$$$$ printed on it. Take away its money and you take away its power to run amuck, too.
Speaking as a lifelong Republican, Ron Paul is the first candidate I've seen in some time that I feel enthused about. Not for what he'll DO, but for what he WON'T do.
I'd guess that in Montana, the requirement to have a RealID to enter a federal building would be blithely ignored -- after all, the people working there are going to be primarily *Montana* citizens.
Does make for an interesting situation wrt the military reserves, tho -- especially since Malmstrom AFB is (or was, I don't know now) NORAD's backup HQ.
Slashdot Mirror
Probably the most insightful post of the day; thanks!
Are AMD's patent licenses transferable?? If so, then the company has exit value to someone else, who could then continue making processors. If not, then the company has no value beyond salvage.
And hey, if some leet hacker pervert wants to have sex with my profile, go for it. I'm sure my profile is bored, since I almost never use it. :)
You are absolutely correct. And a lot of the problem with these blogs is that they're really diaries, not truly meant for public consumption, but many people don't quite get how thorough search engines are, or what trouble they can generate for themselves by writing in a publicly-readable blog what they would not say to someone's face.
As to the child predator issue, ISTM the simple solution is to default such spaces to "private, viewing allowed only by marked-friends and/or by invitation". If the account holder changes their profile to "public", the site could first display a warning message and ask "Do you really want to do this?" so it can't be done without at least a modicum of thought.
Perhaps making "friends and invites only" the only way these sites operate for kids under a certain age would relieve parents' fears, tho there you run into the problem that savvy kids will simply lie when they set up the account. And you can't very well demand a photo ID from each user; aside from the massive unwieldyness of doing that for millions of users, it runs into yet another privacy can of worms (and potential liability).
So... if these sites would simply default to "Private, visible to marked friends and to others by invitation only" ISTM a lot of the problem would go away. The most naive users, who most need protection, wouldn't know enough to turn on "public access", and no one else would have their rights compromised by such a policy.
And best of all -- no legislation required.
True. In my experience, the elderly are a lot more naive about computer-related stuff, and far easier to scam, or frighten into buying something they don't really need, etc, etc. The real problem is that most are still rather mystified by and somewhat afraid of this newfangled computer and internet thingee, and are forced to trust whatever someone tells them -- anything to lead them out of the technical maze they find themselves lost in. And many believe that you MUST always put real and complete info on every web form you encounter, just like you would with forms in meatspace.
Whereas today's kids grew up with computers, and don't have that "fear of breaking the internet" just because they didn't put their real name in a form, or whatever. And they're quick to recognise something that's "not right", because they pretty much KNOW what's normal or not online. It's no mystery to them, because it's been part of their entire lives -- not something thrown at them late in life when it's harder to learn and adjust, as is the case with Seniors.
Note: I work with a PC user group that is almost entirely Seniors, so I speak from firsthand observation.
There have been a few studies that showed computers are a negative factor wrt learning in the classroom, and while there are other factors at work, one has to wonder if this eye/brain fatigue, especially in a young brain that is still LEARNING HOW TO LEARN, could cause long-term damage to the child's ability to comprehend and retain knowledge.
Programming, as you say, is almost purely learn-by-doing, which probably uses an entirely different set of brain pathways.
Also makes Spot The Typo easier -- cuz something just won't line up right. I use this when chasing the invisible bugaroo in HTML.
==========
Momentary weirdness: sometimes my fingers will type a homonym without bothering to consult my brain -- "one" and "won" being a common swaperoo here. But now it's gone a step too far -- I just tried to type "one't" instead of "won't"!!
I've noticed that people who prefer ebooks, as a rule are not *readers*, or at most are casual readers only of short material. Whereas people who are lifelong heavy readers, who are accustomed to long reading sessions, usually prefer paper books.
;)
I think it's not the medium, it's the typeface fatigue factor on both brain and eyes. I go into that more somewhere above, where I expound on discovering that reading SCANNED ACTUAL PAGES online was exactly the same as reading a REAL BOOK, quite unlike how an eBook fatigues both mind and eyes.
Even so, the realbook is a whole lot more portable and flexible than pictures of its pages confined to a computer screen. And it's kinda tough to curl up with a CRT for an evening in front of the fire with a good book.
[laughing] Your "roll a ball between the letters" explanation not only makes sense, it took me from "I get it" to "Oh, now I *understand* it". Nice.
;)
Good explanation from an engineering/layout POV, too. Very practical.
But what was so funny was applying it to the route to the bathroom... yeah, I grok that -- as I get older, I too have less and less tolerance for indirect routes, I just want point A to be adjacent to point B, with no side trips to 72 other points between! But I'm fortunate in that I don't need wider tolerances.
I think it's a skill that goes along with being naturally good at space relations (which in my observation tends to go along with a good sense of direction and of where you are in realspace).
Frex, I never get lost, I have good space relations, and can also eyeball something and be reasonably accurate. In meatspace, that means I can pack stuff tightly without measuring, get a 2x4 of the desired length from the scrap pile on the first try, pick a loose nut that will fit the random bolt w/o having to check size, etc. On a computer screen, I can crop two files to the same size by eyeball and not be more than one or two pixels off.
Coversely, I know several people with an abysmal sense of direction and location, and the other trait they all share is that they have absolutely no idea "how big" anything is, let alone whether it's aligned as desired or will fit into XX space. They're the epitome of "I cut it three times, and it's STILL too short!"
Occurs to me to wonder if this trait is what really separates engineers, designers, and people who successfully work with their hands, from other types of skills and professions.
Wired isn't and never has been interested in *readability*. They are interested in attracting eyeballs, and if spouting about how "readable" they are does it, that's what they'll do. (It worked, didn't it? :)
Magazines, online or otherwise, are seldom actually interested in their own content. Their true interest lies in attracting advertising dollars, and their only interest in their audience is what demographics that audience can present to potential advertisers.
I think you're absolutely right. Here are two examples:
==========
I just got done reading a long book as an eBook.
I then noticed a hardcopy at the library, checked it out, and started re-reading it -- and I definitely am getting more comprehension and retention out of it. In fact, it's almost as if I had not not read the book at all, rather than having just finished reading the book only one day before!!
Not to mention that the print copy is easier on the eyes. But it's not just because it's not on the computer screen:
===========
Couple weeks ago, at archive.org's new OpenLibrary project, I read an entire book online in one sitting. OpenLibrary shows you actual scanned pages as images, so you're seeing the exact same thing as you would if you held the paper book in your hands.
Amazingly, MY EYES *AND BRAIN* DID NOT GET TIRED the way they do with regular eBooks (and that's even tho I use an eBook reader that emulates a slightly yellowed paper book, and can use any font). As with any paper book, I could read as long as I wished. Conversely, with eBooks, I've found that after an hour or so I have *got* to go do something else.
After some thought, and a side-by-side comparison, I concluded that the entire reason was because the realbook's typeface was EFFORTLESS to read, whereas the computer font required work from both my eyes AND my brain (despite 13 years of experience with reading from computer screens). Compared to a visually-similar eBook display, the scanned actual pages were *restful* to read, and caused no eye or brain fatigue.
==========
So if I have a choice -- give me print from a real printing press. My eyes and brain will thank you.
One also has to wonder what computerized teaching is *failing* to get into kids' heads -- both by unduly fatiguing their eyes and brains, and by information not being as well comprehended and/or retained (which probably goes right along with the fatigue factor).
Even ancient word processing software could do kerning. (Frex, WordPerfect 5.1 and possibly before that.) But kerning tends to be proprietary to the *printer driver*, and can't be implemented if the actual file is plain text and the medium is not a printer. Good example -- my laser printer can print kerned text; my old inkjet could not, it came out the same as unkerned text.
I suppose kerning could be handled for the web *in the browser*, but I suspect would be very slow on most machines; however, that's probably the most reliable route, since it would behave the same with ALL text (and remember that what's rendered in the browser starts life mostly as plain text).
If it were done in the HTML (pretending for the moment that HTML could do kerning) each letter would have to be coded as if it were an image to be placed relative to those around it, and the browser would have to grok "text placement". Imagine how much larger an average webpage would become, or if done with something more "economical" like CSS, all the bazillion ways it could go worng due to variances in implementation!
It's an interesting problem, regardless.
Hot damn, these cookies DO taste like Girl Scouts!!
I'm not a diehard Republican, I *will* vote for the best man regardless of party. But in general the *real* Republicans [tho not these new rightists] have been what I wanted: less gov't, lower taxes, do the things gov't really needs to do, otherwise stay the fuck out of my life. Not exactly libertarian, but certainly right next door.
Libertarians take this too far, IMO, but are certainly better than too much gov't control.
So a Republican with Libertarian roots sounds good to me. Especially one who is willing to set his heels and say NO to unconstitutional interests. While I suspect I would not like Ron Paul very much personally, I think he has genuine American interests at heart.
Conversely, in my experience most Democrats are quick to throw taxpayers' money at a problem, and quick to restrict who can do what, but don't see why that's part of the problem. I think they appeal to a lot of kids because of the commun^H^H^H^H idealism of tax the rich and share with the poor, but start your own business, try to hire a few blokes who really need jobs, and suddenly that purported idealism is pinching you out of business. As ex-Senator McCarthy said, that was a real eye opener.
That's a problem, all right -- either you are part of a groupthink (or more likely, of several groupthinks), or you are a minority of one. And the latter has no power unless all persons are similarly minorities of one. Which isn't really feasible humanly or socially -- there are too many of us and nothing would get done.
"Democracy: that ultimate triumph of quantity over quality." -- Peter H. Peel
What you say reminds me of football.
Football's concession to geektech is radios in the helmets and the occasional helmetcam. You won't see HUDs in football, ever -- things happen too fast and people need to be fully aware in realtime. You won't see any player toting gear that's not directly useful to that -- it's not worth the weight and the consequent speed hit.
Nonsense! All you need is an endless supply of Ewoks.
While I'm all for meat hunting, do remember that even if the hunter wastes most of the kill by leaving it lie in the field, there are a whole bunch of critters who'll come along afterward and think, "Cool, free lunch!"
Speaking of disconnected, I've met two people here in SoCal who did not grok that beef comes from cows!!
It's because so many of us are from Montana.
My 11th grade American History teacher loved to, uh, "gossip" about historical figures. One of the little tidbits she told us was that in his day, Lincoln was regarded as a weak personality who couldn't make up his own mind, and who was therefore easily led by his advisors. In short, a century of hero worship was largely generated by his assassination, not by his own good works. (Sound familiar?)
Also, freeing the slaves wasn't done out of pure love of his fellow mankind. It was done to disrupt the South's economic base. But that unromantic fact brings no recruits into the Union army!
A good many of those cruise missiles and strategic bombers call Montana "home".
The parent makes a very good point, tho -- if the state gets no money back from the feds, why should they pay any in the first place? Which would probably be a very good trend, since it's clear that gov't is out of control, and the only leash it understands is the one with $$$$$$$$$$$ printed on it. Take away its money and you take away its power to run amuck, too.
I don't care WHAT they *plan* to do with this knowledge -- it's still NONE OF THEIR DAMNED BUSINESS!!
Speaking as a lifelong Republican, Ron Paul is the first candidate I've seen in some time that I feel enthused about. Not for what he'll DO, but for what he WON'T do.
We need more "WON'T do" in our gov't.
[Once and future Montanan here]
I'd guess that in Montana, the requirement to have a RealID to enter a federal building would be blithely ignored -- after all, the people working there are going to be primarily *Montana* citizens.
Does make for an interesting situation wrt the military reserves, tho -- especially since Malmstrom AFB is (or was, I don't know now) NORAD's backup HQ.