Most ISPs don't want their users hosting ANYTHING out of their living-room. That would use up bandwith which is directly linked to the pocketbook of your ISP. What ISPs want is home users paying a regular rate and using a minimal amount of bandwith (e.g. surfing the web, checking email). Not serving up their home movies or getting slashdotted.
Not to mention that by making dynamic IPs the industry standard, they can treat "static IP" as an extra feature and charge through the nose for it. (Much like text-messaging & ring-tones on cell phones.)
All of which is to say, ISPs see no profit from giving all their users static IPs. IPv4 is a blessing because it makes static IPs precious. Moving to IPv6 would just cut apart that revenue stream (at least in the short-run, which is all most companies seem to be concerned with).
-tom
just a little touchy, aren't we?
on
The Bender PC Case
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Wow, the OP musta hit a nerve. Take a deep breath, Seth, and try to relax. I think he was joking.
You know, the general consensus on this terminology is that the phrase "get a life" is synonymous with "there must be better things you could do with your time".
so the OP is not suggesting that these people go get a second job. He's just pointing out that on the list of things to do, making a "Bender" computer with a CD drive in its mouth is kinda low (though it does rank higher than replying to posts on Slashdot). Of course, all that's a judgement call, not a commandment from the heavens.
If this qualifies as an "interesting read", I weep for the future of humanity. You know it's bad when the Slashdot summary is just as informative as the actual article.
The central point seems to be that a company looking for an OSS product which is supported by a large company, will end up going with a large company's OSS product.
Should the EU block MS from selling their OSes, you can bet that the commodity machine market will quickly switch over to alternative OSes.
What's missing in wide-scale adoption of linux is a large commitment by retailers to sell and support Linux-based systems.
The average user doesn't care if he/she's running windows or linux or OSX or Commodore64. They don't care if their browser is IE or Mozilla. They just want the computer to provide the tools they need.
If they can browse the web, send emails, upload photos from their camera, and open files from work they'll be happy.
In the short-run, there might be some headaches for consumers. But in the long-run the result would be a huge install base for linux/OSX.
obviously, we'll need to redo the survey to include a low diagnostic score as the cause for the project's failure and then include that in the diagnostic.
my point is that for all the looking backwards at disasters and saying "if only..." we always end up walking into new, novel disasters.
I'm sure that they'll have tsunami warning systems in place throughout the Indian Ocean in short order. But the next disaster wont be a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. But it will be something we could have prevented "if only..."
It is interesting to postulate on future disasters (earthquake in a major metropolitan center/asteroid impact/drastic climate change). And considering how we could have prevented past disasters can be cathartic.
But it would be nice if we took equal time to contemplate the way we recover from disasters and the systems we have in place to deal with the aftermath.
You've entirely missed the point. You can't anticipate every possible occurence.
We can put tsunami warning systems on every coastline in the world and they wont do us any good when a huge meteor hits the earth.
Or we can dedicate the entire resources of the planet for the next 20 years to building a system that will protect us from earth destroying meteors. And then a series of catastrophic 9.0+ earthquakes at every major fault-line on the planet will wipe us out (only our super high-tech orbital defense satelites will remain)
Or something else will happen that we didn't and couldn't anticipate (Vogons).
The universe is wild and wooly. It doesn't knock, it doesn't ask politely. It does whatever it wants and the survivors (if there are any) pick up the pieces when its done.
"Why worry?" might be a little too strong. More like, "Don't panic."
Why was your entire post was written as a question? Is this that game where we can only talk in questions?
What makes you think I "instantly believed" anything? And is that worse than "instantly disbelieving" something?
Could these measly four students be right? Is it possible that there could be some irregularities in the untried, untested and uncheckable electronic voting machines?
Could something be news if it's not reported by the major press syndicates? Did you steal my tinfoil hat?
Where are these questions going?
Could it be that Kerry benefited from a couple hundred-thousand stolen/lost/miscounted votes in other parts of the country? Do you think it's possible that such chicanery by both parties tends to cancel each other out? Would it then be acceptable to just ignore it?
Doesn't it seem like that's the attitude the mainstream press has taken on this issues? Don't they say themselves that there ARE in fact some wacky things happening (4000 Bush votes in a county with ~900 voters) but that they're too small to affect the outcome?
Does this mean we shouldn't care about these things? Should we just ignore them, cover our ears and eyes and just trust our unelected election officials and the press?
Has the press ever let us down? Have they ever covered up a story or failed to persue a lead? Did someone say WMDs? Or was that Osama's Saudi ties?
Over 50 million people voted for Kerry. It's really impressive that you can dismiss him as a dud. He didn't win the election, but he did win over many Americans.
You have a very novel perception of the electorate. Very few voters in this election could "connect personally" with any of the candidates. They're all wealthy, rich and detached from the rest of society. They are the upper crust, the top 1%.
a quick scan of the paper reveals that they're saying that there were 130,000 abberant (for lack of a better word) votes.
If you want to think those votes are ghost votes (perhaps they would have gone for Nader) then subtract 130,000 from Bush. If you want to think those votes should have gone to Kerry than subtract 130,000 from Bush and add 130,000 to Kerry.
If you don't buy into their statistical modeling, then don't do anything. But isn't it curious that the largest disparity between expected and actual e-voting results occurred in heavily democratic counties?
Your example with the sheet of paper presupposes an outside force that causes the objects on the paper to slide towards the depression. To wit, um, gravity.
Without the force of gravity all the objects would remain where they were, regardless of the deformation of the paper. They wouldn't even stay on the paper, they would just float.
I know there's real, valid science behind relativity. I just would like to request a better metaphor. Or a better explanation. Or maybe just a turkey sandwich.
The system doesn't work, so just deal? That's just great. Why even bother having elections?
How about this system:
We'll set up a "psychic" (nominated by each state congress) in the capital of each state. On Nov 2 the psychic will read the brainwaves of the people of the state. He or she will then decide who the winner of that state is based on "vibes". And that's who gets the electoral votes (of course we'll keep the Electoral College).
Does that system seem more or less error-prone than the current one? Or are they about the same to you?
Just because it can't be perfect doesn't mean it shouldn't be better.
Just because those materials wouldn't be quite as expensive (per MT) as they were, does not mean that they wouldn't remain just as valuable.
Valuable for processes, R&D, manufacturing... Not to mention that when "expensive" materials become cheap, it opens up whole new uses for those materials.
also deBeers can go suck an egg. nobody needs their dirty diamonds.
I think that MTV, while it may be biased towards the left, is mainly interested in motivating young voters.
The people that run this country are, by and large, over 50. "Out of touch" doesn't begin to cover it. Add to that, the fact that 20-somethings are notorious for not voting. (And for not really caring how the elections turn out.)
Politicians barely even pretend to listen to the concerns of "young people". If we were to turn out in record numbers in this election (regardless who we vote for) the political system would take notice. And they would speak and act towards the concerns of young people in this country (drugs, AIDS, poverty, student loans, unemployment...) rather than the concerns of older people (estate tax, social security, imprisoning everyone)
as the NY Times article points out, similar quality aluminum is found in tin cans and other commercial products. And the same material (with similar specs) was used to make rockets for the US Military.
If you RTFA it's very clear that the tubes would be completely useless in a nuclear program. And that the specs were consistent with the Iraqi army's requirements for these rockets.
And, as the article shows, all this was known to the current administration months before the Iraq war began.
Great reporting by the Times. Very eye-opening.
So the argument that Sadam was developing nuclear weapons was based on the discredited Yellowcake report from Niger. And on these aluminum tubes. Both of which were known to be suspect before the war began.
I don't get this incessant need to avoid stating the OBVIOUS TRUTH, which is that p2p is used for a shitload of outright piracy and avoiding paying for stuff. I'd say over 90%. You're being foolish and purposely stoic if you pretend otherwise.
That's funny. My polling shows that 92% of Kazza users purchase 25.34% of the music they download. They're 83.2% more likely on any given day to spend $12.45 more on music. And 45 out of 123 prefer boxers.
So, in conclusion: making up numbers to prove your point is not good.
It's a falacy that the law equals right and breaking the law equals wrong. There are rules that should never be enforced at all.
I understand you're playing devil's advocate, but history has shown that breaking the law is not neccesarily a criminal act. The laws of government are supposed to represent the will of the people. When they fail to do that, people will feel free to break them.
On the highway, any improvements in traffic monitoring technology should go towards detecting dangerous & DUI drivers. The people who cause accidents and make driving dangerous for everyone else. Speed doesn't kill, reckless driving kills.
And, similarly, improvements in copyright tracking technology should be focused on cracking down on professional pirates. The people who are actually leeching off the copyright holders (a category that strangely includes most of RIAA's members).
P2P file sharing is nothing more duplicitous than burning CDs for friends or taping off of a radio. And it has just about as serious an effect on the music industry.
Slashdot Mirror
Most ISPs don't want their users hosting ANYTHING out of their living-room. That would use up bandwith which is directly linked to the pocketbook of your ISP. What ISPs want is home users paying a regular rate and using a minimal amount of bandwith (e.g. surfing the web, checking email). Not serving up their home movies or getting slashdotted.
Not to mention that by making dynamic IPs the industry standard, they can treat "static IP" as an extra feature and charge through the nose for it. (Much like text-messaging & ring-tones on cell phones.)
All of which is to say, ISPs see no profit from giving all their users static IPs. IPv4 is a blessing because it makes static IPs precious. Moving to IPv6 would just cut apart that revenue stream (at least in the short-run, which is all most companies seem to be concerned with).
-tom
Wow, the OP musta hit a nerve. Take a deep breath, Seth, and try to relax. I think he was joking.
You know, the general consensus on this terminology is that the phrase "get a life" is synonymous with "there must be better things you could do with your time".
so the OP is not suggesting that these people go get a second job. He's just pointing out that on the list of things to do, making a "Bender" computer with a CD drive in its mouth is kinda low (though it does rank higher than replying to posts on Slashdot). Of course, all that's a judgement call, not a commandment from the heavens.
If this qualifies as an "interesting read", I weep for the future of humanity. You know it's bad when the Slashdot summary is just as informative as the actual article.
The central point seems to be that a company looking for an OSS product which is supported by a large company, will end up going with a large company's OSS product.
Oh, wow. Insightful +1
Should the EU block MS from selling their OSes, you can bet that the commodity machine market will quickly switch over to alternative OSes.
What's missing in wide-scale adoption of linux is a large commitment by retailers to sell and support Linux-based systems.
The average user doesn't care if he/she's running windows or linux or OSX or Commodore64. They don't care if their browser is IE or Mozilla. They just want the computer to provide the tools they need.
If they can browse the web, send emails, upload photos from their camera, and open files from work they'll be happy.
In the short-run, there might be some headaches for consumers. But in the long-run the result would be a huge install base for linux/OSX.
err... you mean, like Cheese? In which case, this guy obviously doesn't have anything more important than generating more money for his coffers.
very nice. i haven't laughed at a slashdot comment in months. but maybe it's just 'cause it's friday and I'm tired.
obviously, we'll need to redo the survey to include a low diagnostic score as the cause for the project's failure and then include that in the diagnostic.
henna tattoos for cars
my point is that for all the looking backwards at disasters and saying "if only..." we always end up walking into new, novel disasters.
I'm sure that they'll have tsunami warning systems in place throughout the Indian Ocean in short order. But the next disaster wont be a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. But it will be something we could have prevented "if only..."
It is interesting to postulate on future disasters (earthquake in a major metropolitan center/asteroid impact/drastic climate change). And considering how we could have prevented past disasters can be cathartic.
But it would be nice if we took equal time to contemplate the way we recover from disasters and the systems we have in place to deal with the aftermath.
You've entirely missed the point. You can't anticipate every possible occurence.
We can put tsunami warning systems on every coastline in the world and they wont do us any good when a huge meteor hits the earth.
Or we can dedicate the entire resources of the planet for the next 20 years to building a system that will protect us from earth destroying meteors. And then a series of catastrophic 9.0+ earthquakes at every major fault-line on the planet will wipe us out (only our super high-tech orbital defense satelites will remain)
Or something else will happen that we didn't and couldn't anticipate (Vogons).
The universe is wild and wooly. It doesn't knock, it doesn't ask politely. It does whatever it wants and the survivors (if there are any) pick up the pieces when its done.
"Why worry?" might be a little too strong. More like, "Don't panic."
say wha?
+1 triple-secret mod point (funny)
Why was your entire post was written as a question? Is this that game where we can only talk in questions?
What makes you think I "instantly believed" anything? And is that worse than "instantly disbelieving" something?
Could these measly four students be right? Is it possible that there could be some irregularities in the untried, untested and uncheckable electronic voting machines?
Could something be news if it's not reported by the major press syndicates? Did you steal my tinfoil hat?
Where are these questions going?
Could it be that Kerry benefited from a couple hundred-thousand stolen/lost/miscounted votes in other parts of the country? Do you think it's possible that such chicanery by both parties tends to cancel each other out? Would it then be acceptable to just ignore it?
Doesn't it seem like that's the attitude the mainstream press has taken on this issues? Don't they say themselves that there ARE in fact some wacky things happening (4000 Bush votes in a county with ~900 voters) but that they're too small to affect the outcome?
Does this mean we shouldn't care about these things? Should we just ignore them, cover our ears and eyes and just trust our unelected election officials and the press?
Has the press ever let us down? Have they ever covered up a story or failed to persue a lead? Did someone say WMDs? Or was that Osama's Saudi ties?
Over 50 million people voted for Kerry. It's really impressive that you can dismiss him as a dud. He didn't win the election, but he did win over many Americans.
You have a very novel perception of the electorate. Very few voters in this election could "connect personally" with any of the candidates. They're all wealthy, rich and detached from the rest of society. They are the upper crust, the top 1%.
a quick scan of the paper reveals that they're saying that there were 130,000 abberant (for lack of a better word) votes.
If you want to think those votes are ghost votes (perhaps they would have gone for Nader) then subtract 130,000 from Bush. If you want to think those votes should have gone to Kerry than subtract 130,000 from Bush and add 130,000 to Kerry.
If you don't buy into their statistical modeling, then don't do anything. But isn't it curious that the largest disparity between expected and actual e-voting results occurred in heavily democratic counties?
Your example with the sheet of paper presupposes an outside force that causes the objects on the paper to slide towards the depression. To wit, um, gravity.
Without the force of gravity all the objects would remain where they were, regardless of the deformation of the paper. They wouldn't even stay on the paper, they would just float.
I know there's real, valid science behind relativity. I just would like to request a better metaphor. Or a better explanation. Or maybe just a turkey sandwich.
That is all
-tom
The system doesn't work, so just deal? That's just great. Why even bother having elections?
How about this system:
We'll set up a "psychic" (nominated by each state congress) in the capital of each state. On Nov 2 the psychic will read the brainwaves of the people of the state. He or she will then decide who the winner of that state is based on "vibes". And that's who gets the electoral votes (of course we'll keep the Electoral College).
Does that system seem more or less error-prone than the current one? Or are they about the same to you?
Just because it can't be perfect doesn't mean it shouldn't be better.
and it's modded information.
let's not confuse "cost" and "value".
Just because those materials wouldn't be quite as expensive (per MT) as they were, does not mean that they wouldn't remain just as valuable.
Valuable for processes, R&D, manufacturing... Not to mention that when "expensive" materials become cheap, it opens up whole new uses for those materials.
also deBeers can go suck an egg. nobody needs their dirty diamonds.
-tom
I think that MTV, while it may be biased towards the left, is mainly interested in motivating young voters.
The people that run this country are, by and large, over 50. "Out of touch" doesn't begin to cover it. Add to that, the fact that 20-somethings are notorious for not voting. (And for not really caring how the elections turn out.)
Politicians barely even pretend to listen to the concerns of "young people". If we were to turn out in record numbers in this election (regardless who we vote for) the political system would take notice. And they would speak and act towards the concerns of young people in this country (drugs, AIDS, poverty, student loans, unemployment...) rather than the concerns of older people (estate tax, social security, imprisoning everyone)
-tom
as the NY Times article points out, similar quality aluminum is found in tin cans and other commercial products. And the same material (with similar specs) was used to make rockets for the US Military.
If you RTFA it's very clear that the tubes would be completely useless in a nuclear program. And that the specs were consistent with the Iraqi army's requirements for these rockets.
And, as the article shows, all this was known to the current administration months before the Iraq war began.
Great reporting by the Times. Very eye-opening.
So the argument that Sadam was developing nuclear weapons was based on the discredited Yellowcake report from Niger. And on these aluminum tubes. Both of which were known to be suspect before the war began.
I don't get this incessant need to avoid stating the OBVIOUS TRUTH, which is that p2p is used for a shitload of outright piracy and avoiding paying for stuff. I'd say over 90%. You're being foolish and purposely stoic if you pretend otherwise.
That's funny. My polling shows that 92% of Kazza users purchase 25.34% of the music they download. They're 83.2% more likely on any given day to spend $12.45 more on music. And 45 out of 123 prefer boxers.
So, in conclusion: making up numbers to prove your point is not good.
It's a falacy that the law equals right and breaking the law equals wrong. There are rules that should never be enforced at all.
I understand you're playing devil's advocate, but history has shown that breaking the law is not neccesarily a criminal act. The laws of government are supposed to represent the will of the people. When they fail to do that, people will feel free to break them.
On the highway, any improvements in traffic monitoring technology should go towards detecting dangerous & DUI drivers. The people who cause accidents and make driving dangerous for everyone else. Speed doesn't kill, reckless driving kills.
And, similarly, improvements in copyright tracking technology should be focused on cracking down on professional pirates. The people who are actually leeching off the copyright holders (a category that strangely includes most of RIAA's members).
P2P file sharing is nothing more duplicitous than burning CDs for friends or taping off of a radio. And it has just about as serious an effect on the music industry.
one of the best posts I've ever read on Slashdot.
bravo.