Revolution OS is an historical document about the free software movement, which renamed itself open software and was able to raise a lot of money from investors who believed there was a difference. The main beneficiary, VA Linux Inc, had a spectacular IPO (its stock jumped from 30 to 250 on opening day and its CEO exclaims that he can't believe this is happening. It didn't really. As the closing credits start to roll, we find that the stock subsequently dropped to 2 and that VA Linux (now VA Software) has quit the Linux business. It would have been interesting to have watched their slide down, but the film makers apparently ran out of money too.
Hari Seldon's (OK, Isaac Asimov's) theory of Psychohistory has as it's base theorem that the behavior of individual humans is unpredictable, but the behavior of large groups of humans is predictable to within statistical limits
Another example of this is the information life insurance adjusters use. They can tell you with striking precision how many 30 year old males will die in a year out of 100,000. They just can't tell you which ones it will be.
Sounds like this kid is in way over his head, and maybe watched a few too many movies.
Plus, you can tell he is a UNIX geek, since he seems to think the indictment is case sensitive.
Re:20th Anniversary Mac, 5 years later
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iMac LCD Impostors
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· Score: 2
Don't forget that it also had a remote control for the TV tuner (with a leather slip case), and (my favorite) a pen and pencil set.
People who see mine still ooh and ahh over it. I'm wondering at what point do I stop using it and pack it up as a collector's item. It would be a shame to put it away though.
If you want to see enahnced perception in action, take one of your friends out to a club. Keep giving him well liquor until the enhanced perception kicks in. You will know it has arrived when he says "Dude, I think that stripper likes me."
I can't remember who said it now, but I remember someone said that the Roe v Wade decision was on a collision course with science. The rather arbitrary trimester standard that the courts set up in this decision was based on viability outside of the womb with the technology and science available back then. Things have steadily improved, and even without this aritficial womb, a fetus can be viable much earlier on than it was 29 years ago. This artificial womb just further muddies the water.
Note: This is not an anti-abortion post. I am simply speaking here to the judicial policymaking that was done by the Supreme Court in Roe v Wade.
I can't see folks going to this extent on a widespread basis. If thousands of people in one area do start doing this, it will no doubt become the new Silicon Valley, because it would mean there is a critical mass of sophisticated geeks there.
Make that sophisticated, motivated geeks. I'm sophisticated, but that is way too mch work for me.
Actually, when they announced the speed bumped towers a few weeks ago, they noted that the higher end ones included the GeForce4. Of course, nVidia had not announced the existence of such a product yet, leading to some speculation here on slashdot.
As far as Apple having a history of slow graphics cards, they have done pretty well in the towers for the last year or two. They were the first (by a couple of days) to have the GeForce 3 even.
"You see your honor, according to slashdot comments modded to 3 and above, 98% of posters believe the plantiff has no rights to our intellectual property. The other 2% believed this was somehow related to a beowolf cluster of Natalie Portmans."
Uh, yeah, we wouldn't want to have anyone who uses "intoxicating beverages to excess" to be on a space station with a bunch of Russians.
Well, someone needs to be sober enough to drive home.
Why is this so wrong?
on
AOL vs. Trillian
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· Score: 3, Interesting
No doubt the posts will soon start flowing in that AOL is evil for preventing this little company from accessing their network. My question is why is this wrong? Why should America Online not be the exclusive provider of America Online Instant Messaging functionality? Sure they do it to make money off of ads and exert some kind of institutional control. But do other companies have a right to be a part of this? Is it merely that AOL will have a monopoly on the instant messaging market? There certainly seem to be enough big competitors out there to prevent this. Just curious about why all the fuss.
Most plausible about it is the obsessive need by Microsoft to control the whole market and let no competition appear.
Well, the email seems to mainly focus on Linux making inroads into existing clients' installations. In that case, any good sales manager would want his people to be on top of it. This isn't about world domination, it is about keeping your customers (ie revenue stream) in place.
It also seemed to me that the mention of "Insiders" was merely a corporate designation for MS employees with a lot of specific product knowledge in those areas. The best way to beat your competition is to know it. A lot of big companies have experts on the competition that the sales force can involve when they need a heavy hitter for a presentation, or just sheer product knowledge when preparing a comparison. Its not evil, its good business.
Sadly, this seems like more Slashdot FUD. Microsoft does enough things that are evil (or so it would seem); this email is not one of them. Move along.
It seems that a visual password would make it much easier for someone across the room to see and learn. One would have a hard time looking at my keyboard if they were behind me, but the whole reason any password login puts bullets on screen is so someone looking at the screen can't see it. Does this system use a mouse or is there some way to pick out the pictures using a keyboard with no on screen indicator? Of course, if that's the case, then this system may not be as idiot proof as they hope.
Since they intend to use this as an ATM machine security system, its worth noting that since the beginning of ATM machines, generally three wrong PIN number entries in a row will cause it to eat your card. I suppose one could try a couple passwords, cancel the transaction and get the card back and repeat ad infinitum, but this seriously hampers the brute force effort.
One of the arguments (which I consider fallacious) against Macs in the schools is that kids need to be prepared for the "real world," one that involves a Microsoft OS and Microsoft applications. As Linux has yet to be embraced on the desktop to a great extent in the business world (still largely relegated to server duties), does Open Source hinder their abilities to function in the business world? Furthermore, are the support people in these schools equipped to deal with the support issues of a new platform? Linux may indeed be easier to support than its windows counterpart, but without the appropriate training (which is always hard to come by when delaing with public school funding) it may be difficult.
Ideally, schools would shift their software budget to a training budget to bring their support gurus up to speed. And the children would gain a comfort level with technology, though not necessarily the technology they will be using in the real world. Unfortunately, I have more questions than answers here.
I'd be interested in hearing a reasoned response to my questions. Dogmatic zealots need not apply.
I never pay attention to the pictures next to the headlines, except when it has to do with a new palmtop device. Then I always look at the picture and momentarily think to myself "What the hell? That looks just like a palm III."
the dreamcast can also play games. Lots of them in fact. So much has been made of its usage as an internet appliance, a linux box, etc., but it is also an excellent gaming console. Soul Caliber is still one of the best looking titles on any console IMO. And the price of dreamcast titles continues to drop, making it even eaiser to amass a decent collection of games.
A while back Apple posted this to their web site. It seems they are against RAND licensing fees. I assume that would also include their own technology, but I am really not sure how all this fits together.
This seems like one of those combinations of products made because they can, not because there is or will be a need for it. I remember a combination mouse pad/label printer a few years ago that seemed equally odd. Just because we have the technology doesn't mean it is a good idea. The role of technology should be to give consumers what they want; this seems to be the opposite of that.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a really funny synopsis...
Revolution OS is an historical document about the free software movement, which renamed itself open software and was able to raise a lot of money from investors who believed there was a difference. The main beneficiary, VA Linux Inc, had a spectacular IPO (its stock jumped from 30 to 250 on opening day and its CEO exclaims that he can't believe this is happening. It didn't really. As the closing credits start to roll, we find that the stock subsequently dropped to 2 and that VA Linux (now VA Software) has quit the Linux business. It would have been interesting to have watched their slide down, but the film makers apparently ran out of money too.
Hari Seldon's (OK, Isaac Asimov's) theory of Psychohistory has as it's base theorem that the behavior of individual humans is unpredictable, but the behavior of large groups of humans is predictable to within statistical limits
Another example of this is the information life insurance adjusters use. They can tell you with striking precision how many 30 year old males will die in a year out of 100,000. They just can't tell you which ones it will be.
Sounds like this kid is in way over his head, and maybe watched a few too many movies.
Plus, you can tell he is a UNIX geek, since he seems to think the indictment is case sensitive.
Don't forget that it also had a remote control for the TV tuner (with a leather slip case), and (my favorite) a pen and pencil set.
People who see mine still ooh and ahh over it. I'm wondering at what point do I stop using it and pack it up as a collector's item. It would be a shame to put it away though.
If you want to see enahnced perception in action, take one of your friends out to a club. Keep giving him well liquor until the enhanced perception kicks in. You will know it has arrived when he says "Dude, I think that stripper likes me."
I can't remember who said it now, but I remember someone said that the Roe v Wade decision was on a collision course with science. The rather arbitrary trimester standard that the courts set up in this decision was based on viability outside of the womb with the technology and science available back then. Things have steadily improved, and even without this aritficial womb, a fetus can be viable much earlier on than it was 29 years ago. This artificial womb just further muddies the water.
Note: This is not an anti-abortion post. I am simply speaking here to the judicial policymaking that was done by the Supreme Court in Roe v Wade.
I can't see folks going to this extent on a widespread basis. If thousands of people in one area do start doing this, it will no doubt become the new Silicon Valley, because it would mean there is a critical mass of sophisticated geeks there.
Make that sophisticated, motivated geeks. I'm sophisticated, but that is way too mch work for me.
I just figured their next big mod would be removing the heat sink from your processor so you could watch it work.
Of course they will probably tell you to wrap it in Saran Wrap so that you don't lose any of the smoke that is inside the processor.
Actually, when they announced the speed bumped towers a few weeks ago, they noted that the higher end ones included the GeForce4. Of course, nVidia had not announced the existence of such a product yet, leading to some speculation here on slashdot.
As far as Apple having a history of slow graphics cards, they have done pretty well in the towers for the last year or two. They were the first (by a couple of days) to have the GeForce 3 even.
"You see your honor, according to slashdot comments modded to 3 and above, 98% of posters believe the plantiff has no rights to our intellectual property. The other 2% believed this was somehow related to a beowolf cluster of Natalie Portmans."
Uh, yeah, we wouldn't want to have anyone who uses "intoxicating beverages to excess" to be on a space station with a bunch of Russians.
Well, someone needs to be sober enough to drive home.
No doubt the posts will soon start flowing in that AOL is evil for preventing this little company from accessing their network. My question is why is this wrong? Why should America Online not be the exclusive provider of America Online Instant Messaging functionality? Sure they do it to make money off of ads and exert some kind of institutional control. But do other companies have a right to be a part of this? Is it merely that AOL will have a monopoly on the instant messaging market? There certainly seem to be enough big competitors out there to prevent this. Just curious about why all the fuss.
It is possible that the company had made a simpler structure that could still produce urine, he said.
At least now we can reduce our dependency on foreign urine.
I hear there will be no giant balls, but an enlarged prostate is a sure bet.
Most plausible about it is the obsessive need by Microsoft to control the whole market and let no competition appear.
Well, the email seems to mainly focus on Linux making inroads into existing clients' installations. In that case, any good sales manager would want his people to be on top of it. This isn't about world domination, it is about keeping your customers (ie revenue stream) in place.
It also seemed to me that the mention of "Insiders" was merely a corporate designation for MS employees with a lot of specific product knowledge in those areas. The best way to beat your competition is to know it. A lot of big companies have experts on the competition that the sales force can involve when they need a heavy hitter for a presentation, or just sheer product knowledge when preparing a comparison. Its not evil, its good business.
Sadly, this seems like more Slashdot FUD. Microsoft does enough things that are evil (or so it would seem); this email is not one of them. Move along.
It seems that a visual password would make it much easier for someone across the room to see and learn. One would have a hard time looking at my keyboard if they were behind me, but the whole reason any password login puts bullets on screen is so someone looking at the screen can't see it. Does this system use a mouse or is there some way to pick out the pictures using a keyboard with no on screen indicator? Of course, if that's the case, then this system may not be as idiot proof as they hope.
Since they intend to use this as an ATM machine security system, its worth noting that since the beginning of ATM machines, generally three wrong PIN number entries in a row will cause it to eat your card. I suppose one could try a couple passwords, cancel the transaction and get the card back and repeat ad infinitum, but this seriously hampers the brute force effort.
For those who don't know, chomosome is actually the genetic code that makes one more or less like Noam Chomsky.
One of the arguments (which I consider fallacious) against Macs in the schools is that kids need to be prepared for the "real world," one that involves a Microsoft OS and Microsoft applications. As Linux has yet to be embraced on the desktop to a great extent in the business world (still largely relegated to server duties), does Open Source hinder their abilities to function in the business world? Furthermore, are the support people in these schools equipped to deal with the support issues of a new platform? Linux may indeed be easier to support than its windows counterpart, but without the appropriate training (which is always hard to come by when delaing with public school funding) it may be difficult.
Ideally, schools would shift their software budget to a training budget to bring their support gurus up to speed. And the children would gain a comfort level with technology, though not necessarily the technology they will be using in the real world. Unfortunately, I have more questions than answers here.
I'd be interested in hearing a reasoned response to my questions. Dogmatic zealots need not apply.
I never pay attention to the pictures next to the headlines, except when it has to do with a new palmtop device. Then I always look at the picture and momentarily think to myself "What the hell? That looks just like a palm III."
the dreamcast can also play games. Lots of them in fact. So much has been made of its usage as an internet appliance, a linux box, etc., but it is also an excellent gaming console. Soul Caliber is still one of the best looking titles on any console IMO. And the price of dreamcast titles continues to drop, making it even eaiser to amass a decent collection of games.
A while back Apple posted this to their web site. It seems they are against RAND licensing fees. I assume that would also include their own technology, but I am really not sure how all this fits together.
I tell my employees that, albeit worded a bit differently...
"Don't shit where you eat"
Office friendships are fine, office relationships (of the romantic type) are strongly discouraged.
This seems like one of those combinations of products made because they can, not because there is or will be a need for it. I remember a combination mouse pad/label printer a few years ago that seemed equally odd. Just because we have the technology doesn't mean it is a good idea. The role of technology should be to give consumers what they want; this seems to be the opposite of that.
I'm just waiting for him to declare Windows XP to be "unsafe at any speed."