Maybe because it's the least commercialized of all the "holidays", so it feels like it still belongs to the people, so we don't have to be ashamed to be a part of it. Or maybe it's because geeks think their technical superiority extends to wit? Or maybe it's by virtue of the fact that AFD makes a perfect match for the medium and is accessible by all? *shrug*
Sorry, but trading off the freedom to post as an AC for a little extra "quality", isn't much of a deal IMO, especially when filtering is so damn easy. And besides, the true trolls simply register one crap account after another and end up just as unaccountable as an AC.
It's funny, but I have found that I only really visit 'community' sites where it is still possible to post anonymously. It just says a lot about the management that they aren't total control freaks. (Killing ACs would be bait-and-switch in my mind.)
Reminds me of a line that a boss of mine used to say, which went like: "Professionals are supposed to wear frowns." As if being human and having a lightheart is unproductive somewhow. We need more people on the cluetrain.
This is somewhat offtopic, but you ever notice how some people's brows are permanently furrowed--especially news anchors? They've etched the "looking busy" or "I'm a serious mofo" expression onto their face and probably consider it an asset... but all I can think is, "lighten up man!"
I think supply and demand still applies, but in a different way:
Instead of the supply being in the form of individually-wrapped-physical-data objects, or artificially-limited-digital-data instances, it's in the form of the ongoing production capability of the artists themselves (since reproduction is free). Basically, if society refuses to acknowledge an authors "temporary" monopoly on a copyrighted thing, then the supply changes from the copyrighted objects to the promise of new and original works in the future.
e.g.: If there's a huge demand for some NEW PORN WITH MIDGETS or some NEW MIDGET USABILITY STUDIES, the suppliers will produce it once the demanding consumers have financed their food & rent & production costs, etc. If the supply of new midget porn goes up, demand goes down...
(I realize I have kindof bastardized the strict definition of supply-and-demand.. and I'm not thinking too clearly at the moment either.)
C'mon, don't pretend to ignore the #1 application of a filesystem with built-in metadata support: PR0N.:)
[X] Asian
[] Blonde
[X] Blow
[] No Audio
[X] Quality: Great!
[] Quality: Average
[] Quality: Crap! I should delete it! ...
a filename can only encode so much...
I'm horrified by how insanely complicated it has all become in the past ten years.... Presumably the point of all this insane complexity is to create barriers to entry...
No, I'm sorry, but the increasing software complexity and software development complexity is one barrier-to-entry that almost certainly has no anti-competitive conspiracy theory behind it; it's just the march of progress':-)
Eventually the complexity will get so bad that the only way to manage it will be with artificial intelligence, 'adaptive solutions' with genetic programming, etc. Human programmers will one day wake up to find themselves an anachronism... much like basket weavers.
Over the course of the past two years I have moved all of my domains from NSOL over to Gandi (much cheaper & better terms), but Verisign continues to send me snailmail and spam renewal notices. Since I knew the domains no longer lived with them I just chalked it up to incompetence.
I never really figured that Verisign would stoop to being so slimy as to "slam" people with phony renewals... and anyway, most registrars require you to (A)cknowledge the transfer... just in case you forgot where your domains lived.:)
It's not just wireless either. Even if most of the planet was swimming in fat wideband, I'd still be bitching about the pathetic tiny displays - which would be enough for me to STILL be sitting behind a PC. For portable devices to really take off the interface needs to improve, the most important aspect of which is the display.
Maybe it's OLED, or e-paper, or Microvision's Retinal Scanning Display - all I know is that dinky LCD screens blow.
Yeah, shielding against radiation is a problem, but by the time these habitats are able to be built cheaply I suspect the technology will also be able to solve this problem in one of two ways (that are better than simple mass shielding):
2) No shielding; any damage to plants, animals, and structure could be repaired by virtue of the fact that everything is infested with "smart nanobots" - basically a artificial immune system for everything (which is also necessary to counter the threat of "terrorist nanobots" since good will outnumber evil:-).
I like to label myself Human first and foremost -- my tribe is 6.2 billion strong.:)
As soon as your start proudly identifying yourself with some smaller 'special' group -- be it national, religious, sexual, whatever -- the stage for conflict is set, especially when you make the group-think the focal point of your life.
Trading one gravity well for another is a stupid thing to do (even assuming we had efficient space elevators built on both planets).
The best 'Case for Mars', IMO, is that it's a (hardly effective) motivator to get us off cradle Earth to secure our survival - people are just USED to living on planets and don't bother thinking outside the gravity well (box).
What we should be striving for is using the raw material in the asteroid belt to build large (rotating) space habitats which are much much much more efficient than the waste of space/material below your feet on Mars.
And hey, one day we'll probably disassemble Mars for its matter too -- we'll save Earth for last.:)
I know you're only joking, but don't confuse having a short attention span with wanting brevity in todays fast-paced world.
You really can't blame most people for only having the patience to absorb headlines and abstracts; too much information, too little time... and it'll only get "worse" as we progress exponetially...
Depends on what definition of the word "believe" you give precedence: 1) to blindly accept as true, or 2) to hold an opinion. McDonalds doesn't religiously _believe_ you need a break, but the Scientology freaks really _believe_ that we evolved from clams (or something).
Taking the middle ground definition, to "believe" would be to take a hardline stance on some issue. Like how atheists "believe" that there is zero possibility of any higher power (which is why I'm agnostic--sitt'n on a very comfortable fence).
I can cut the U.S. Federal Budget 5% without touching anything important.
Well, you'd probably give a few newly-unemployed government workers a heart attack - the shock of having to join a productive workfoce, doing actual work, is more stress than they can handle.:)
As long as you're dictator for 15 minutes, can you order NASA to stop throwing away perfectly good space station components?
I've got RR cable (2Mbps down / 384kbps up) - and as I approach my ~50K/s upload cap, my dl rate suffers a lot, since the ACK's are bottlenecked...
bearshare, edonkey, and other apps are aware of this problem, and allow you to 'cap your cap' by restricting the ul rate; BitTorrent should do the same.
You and "your kind" may find some kind of security in a "safe", phony, sterile, lowest common denominator workplace, but that kind of corporate inhumanity drives me mad.
Zero-tolerance makes baby George Carlin cry (I don't watch The Man Show).
(P.S. I've been self-employed for years, so I don't have to deal with inane office drone policies (anymore) so my "taste" and "sensibility" doesn't have to be watered down.)
Plenty of desktop wallpaper that would make a $5 whore blush.
Be honest; what you meant to say is that it would make you blush. A $5 whore would have already been around-the-world (hey, a pun!) and seen & done it all.:)
Can you say 'Sexual harassment in the workplace lawsuit'?
Can you say, "Can you say 'Sexual embarassment != Sexual harassment'?" There's a difference.
Ugly Bitter Bitch says: "Boss! I happened to watch Bob's computer booting up, and I was subjected to the most offensive double-penentration wallpaper imaginable! I'm going to sue you for... for 5 million dollars for failing to prevent me from being embarrased by Bob's human nature!"
Boss says: "Grow up - get back to work - quit yer bitch'n - you weren't assaulted - no free lawsuit money for you, you litigious wench! Haven't you heard lady? The politically correct backlash has finally begun, and we've imported the only good part of French culture."
The more we learn, the further away we realise they are.
This is true, but it's also true that there are major breakthroughs along the way - along the exponential curve of progress.
e.g. Before the Wright brothers, no one thought they'd live to see heavier-than-air flight, and before the X1, few thought the sound barrier was breakable, etc. So, sure, the bar keeps getting raised, but that's because we're pushing it... nanotech in particular is closer than you think.
I know it's a ways off, but in only a couple decades almost all software development will be done by vastly more efficient artificial intelligence. I wouldn't call this wild sci-fi speculation either.
Consolation prize? Nanotechnology; it should be maturing alongside AI, so no more starving artists/programmers thanks to an insanely low cost of living (in this theoretical uptopia)!:)
Too bad there's not much money to be made in the nanotech revolution either... because I'm not buying my "free lunch" when I can instead "warez" the "molecular blueprint" of a GREAT slice of open OR closed-source pizza (where 'pizza' can be anything imaginable - as long as you have enough molecular feedstock & energy to replicate it).
warning: this post has been a useless excersize in mental masturbation.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe because it's the least commercialized of all the "holidays", so it feels like it still belongs to the people, so we don't have to be ashamed to be a part of it. Or maybe it's because geeks think their technical superiority extends to wit? Or maybe it's by virtue of the fact that AFD makes a perfect match for the medium and is accessible by all? *shrug*
--
I can hide behind my keyboard with the best of them!
Viva la anonymity!
(just felt like burning some karma as a pseudo-AC since I can't get away with it as a true AC at the moment :)
--
It's funny, but I have found that I only really visit 'community' sites where it is still possible to post anonymously. It just says a lot about the management that they aren't total control freaks. (Killing ACs would be bait-and-switch in my mind.)
--
This is somewhat offtopic, but you ever notice how some people's brows are permanently furrowed--especially news anchors? They've etched the "looking busy" or "I'm a serious mofo" expression onto their face and probably consider it an asset... but all I can think is, "lighten up man!"
--
I think supply and demand still applies, but in a different way:
Instead of the supply being in the form of individually-wrapped-physical-data objects, or artificially-limited-digital-data instances, it's in the form of the ongoing production capability of the artists themselves (since reproduction is free). Basically, if society refuses to acknowledge an authors "temporary" monopoly on a copyrighted thing, then the supply changes from the copyrighted objects to the promise of new and original works in the future.
e.g.: If there's a huge demand for some NEW PORN WITH MIDGETS or some NEW MIDGET USABILITY STUDIES, the suppliers will produce it once the demanding consumers have financed their food & rent & production costs, etc. If the supply of new midget porn goes up, demand goes down...
(I realize I have kindof bastardized the strict definition of supply-and-demand.. and I'm not thinking too clearly at the moment either.)
--
C'mon, don't pretend to ignore the #1 application of a filesystem with built-in metadata support: PR0N. :)
[X] Asian
...
[] Blonde
[X] Blow
[] No Audio
[X] Quality: Great!
[] Quality: Average
[] Quality: Crap! I should delete it!
a filename can only encode so much...
--
No, I'm sorry, but the increasing software complexity and software development complexity is one barrier-to-entry that almost certainly has no anti-competitive conspiracy theory behind it; it's just the march of progress' :-)
Eventually the complexity will get so bad that the only way to manage it will be with artificial intelligence, 'adaptive solutions' with genetic programming, etc. Human programmers will one day wake up to find themselves an anachronism... much like basket weavers.
25 years tops.
--
Old abandoned buildings creep me out.
--
I can remember a few specific movies that still get my heart pounding though:
I never really figured that Verisign would stoop to being so slimy as to "slam" people with phony renewals... and anyway, most registrars require you to (A)cknowledge the transfer... just in case you forgot where your domains lived. :)
--
Maybe it's OLED, or e-paper, or Microvision's Retinal Scanning Display - all I know is that dinky LCD screens blow.
--
1) Magnetic shielding
2) No shielding; any damage to plants, animals, and structure could be repaired by virtue of the fact that everything is infested with "smart nanobots" - basically a artificial immune system for everything (which is also necessary to counter the threat of "terrorist nanobots" since good will outnumber evil :-).
--
As soon as your start proudly identifying yourself with some smaller 'special' group -- be it national, religious, sexual, whatever -- the stage for conflict is set, especially when you make the group-think the focal point of your life.
--
The best 'Case for Mars', IMO, is that it's a (hardly effective) motivator to get us off cradle Earth to secure our survival - people are just USED to living on planets and don't bother thinking outside the gravity well (box).
What we should be striving for is using the raw material in the asteroid belt to build large (rotating) space habitats which are much much much more efficient than the waste of space/material below your feet on Mars.
And hey, one day we'll probably disassemble Mars for its matter too -- we'll save Earth for last. :)
--
Well, hey, Isn't Vinnie Falco -- the slimy BearShare programmer -- from Florda? I think he is. :)
Location really is losing relevence though... and it won't mean a damn once we've got AI directing molecular manufacturing in Bumfuck, Iowa.
--
Heh... you read like a weblog. :)
You really can't blame most people for only having the patience to absorb headlines and abstracts; too much information, too little time... and it'll only get "worse" as we progress exponetially...
--
Taking the middle ground definition, to "believe" would be to take a hardline stance on some issue. Like how atheists "believe" that there is zero possibility of any higher power (which is why I'm agnostic--sitt'n on a very comfortable fence).
--
Well, you'd probably give a few newly-unemployed government workers a heart attack - the shock of having to join a productive workfoce, doing actual work, is more stress than they can handle. :)
As long as you're dictator for 15 minutes, can you order NASA to stop throwing away perfectly good space station components?
--
(If I could cap that 50K to 30K, my dl speed would jump to 240K - allowing others to grab a greater selection of file chunks from me (ala edonkey2k))
--
Same problem here.
I've got RR cable (2Mbps down / 384kbps up) - and as I approach my ~50K/s upload cap, my dl rate suffers a lot, since the ACK's are bottlenecked...
bearshare, edonkey, and other apps are aware of this problem, and allow you to 'cap your cap' by restricting the ul rate; BitTorrent should do the same.
--
You and "your kind" may find some kind of security in a "safe", phony, sterile, lowest common denominator workplace, but that kind of corporate inhumanity drives me mad.
Zero-tolerance makes baby George Carlin cry (I don't watch The Man Show).
(P.S. I've been self-employed for years, so I don't have to deal with inane office drone policies (anymore) so my "taste" and "sensibility" doesn't have to be watered down.)
--
Be honest; what you meant to say is that it would make you blush. A $5 whore would have already been around-the-world (hey, a pun!) and seen & done it all. :)
Can you say 'Sexual harassment in the workplace lawsuit'?
Can you say, "Can you say 'Sexual embarassment != Sexual harassment'?" There's a difference.
Ugly Bitter Bitch says: "Boss! I happened to watch Bob's computer booting up, and I was subjected to the most offensive double-penentration wallpaper imaginable! I'm going to sue you for... for 5 million dollars for failing to prevent me from being embarrased by Bob's human nature!"
Boss says: "Grow up - get back to work - quit yer bitch'n - you weren't assaulted - no free lawsuit money for you, you litigious wench! Haven't you heard lady? The politically correct backlash has finally begun, and we've imported the only good part of French culture."
Okay... I can dream can't I? :)
--
This is true, but it's also true that there are major breakthroughs along the way - along the exponential curve of progress.
e.g. Before the Wright brothers, no one thought they'd live to see heavier-than-air flight, and before the X1, few thought the sound barrier was breakable, etc. So, sure, the bar keeps getting raised, but that's because we're pushing it... nanotech in particular is closer than you think.
--
Consolation prize? Nanotechnology; it should be maturing alongside AI, so no more starving artists/programmers thanks to an insanely low cost of living (in this theoretical uptopia)! :)
Too bad there's not much money to be made in the nanotech revolution either... because I'm not buying my "free lunch" when I can instead "warez" the "molecular blueprint" of a GREAT slice of open OR closed-source pizza (where 'pizza' can be anything imaginable - as long as you have enough molecular feedstock & energy to replicate it).
warning: this post has been a useless excersize in mental masturbation. :)
--