No, the real problem is that the ideal of the Olympics is health, not drugs. Doping is not good for your long-term health and that's the reason I am against it. Creatine, purportedly, makes you stronger without killing you in the long-run. Just like a healthy diet or plenty of exercise.
Where the people who are against doping run off the rails is when they start aguing that the use of performance-enhancing drugs somehow cheapens the competition. Twenty years ago they didn't know what we know now about nutrition. Does that mean we should disallow anyone on a special diet?
I have no problem with improving your performance through healthy means. It's when the methods start reducing life-span and having harmful side-effects that it becomes a problem.
one of the problems I have using Linux is that I grew up using Windowsy stuff. Linux is VERY different. You need to think about things differently because the OS operates in a very different way.
If kids start with Linux they will A) have no problem learning it and B) be more sophisticated about how computers work. And, most people would agree, they'll have no problem working in Windows. On top of this, Linux offers a sophisticated development environment where kids can learn about programming. Without paying $500 per seat for Visual C++
children learn new things very easily, regardless of how complex they are. Look at how quickly they pick up languages for an example.
What would be the point of a triangular window? This sounds like a gee whiz! wouldn't that be neato! kinda feature that no one would ever use.
Would you like to type a document in a triangular window? Or look at a list of files? Instead of being able to use the corners of the box, they'd be waste space on the desktop.
Honestly, unless there's a paradigm shift away from the desktop concept then I think the rectangles will be the only useful shape for windows.
Sweat
You know what's funny about this post and those people that agree with it (and modded it up to 5) is that you'd think from reading the post that no one's ever thought of rehabbing criminals. As though, through the perfect medium of the slashdot message board, they've created a brilliant breakthrough for our justice system.
Earth to hippy, these good-hearted, sooth-the-savage-beast programs usually fail. And the one's that work only work on the small scale. What usually happens is that some local, fluke success in rehabbing a dozen really motivated first-timers is blown up into a nation-wide mandated plan to rehab everyone. And it doesn't work, because there's no motivation on the part of the prisoners or the people in charge of rehabbing them.
Now, if they never went to prison in the first place, because they never committed a crime or had the need to... Say if we had better schools because we payed teachers what they're worth... Say if we decriminalized drugs and drug use...
And please stop saying that prison is cushy. Do not take freedom for granted. Only a nutter (and apparently some slashdotters) would commit a crime for the free education in prison. Not only are you not free and subject to whatever trauma the prison guards and your fellow inmates have in store for you, but your diploma says Penn State Prison on it and not Penn State.
"According to popular rumor, the "HomeStation" is Microsoft's 2nd generation XBox. This will provide television recording, internet surfing, games, kitchen sink, etc. How can the poor little PS2 and its successors keep up with that?"
[Snip]
Um, wouldn't this just be another computer. Actually a dumb computer with no keyboard and no apps. A neaderthal network terminal, perhaps? We know how well those did.
If Microsoft tries to do anything with their gaming consoles other than make them gaming consoles they'll find they're wasting their time.
Sony and Nintendo will blow any half-breed out of the box (sorry) because their consoles will be cheaper, smaller, and simpler.
Consoles will never grow into PCs. That's a dead end. More likely is that as PC processing and memory power becomes cheaper, the console will cease to be relevent and just fade away. Don't hold your breath for that either, though.
except that at least at some level our government is responsible to we the people. Whereas Microsoft or AT&T doesn't give a crap whether the labels on food are accurate, my government does.
There are many things that our government does that we could not rely on our corporations to do. Do you think you would be able to travel from NY to CA by car without paying hefty royalties to UPS or FedEx (or whoever would be responsible for the upkeep of the roads)?
"If we actually need a 'National ID system' to solve a specific problem (many Americans are unconvinced) then it should be designed and implemented in such a way as to solve the problem at hand, with inherent safeguards to prevent abuse, now or in the future."
We didn't have a problem with people hijacking airplanes and flying them into buildings. So we didn't design a system to prevent it. So that when it happened we were completely unprepared and once they were on board the plane there was nothing to prevent them.
Saying that there's no specific problem leaves us vulnerable to terrorists who think of new methods to destroy us.
"If we build a system that has the potential to be abused by individuals, by corporations, or by the state, then it will be abused."
Which is the argument that we should have no laws, no government, no institutions, no schools, no roads, etc...
However, I believe that once you are made aware of the copyright you must desist or else you are in violation. Looks like all of us/.ers have to get off the phone completely.
Is this the representative from Starbucks? Still, I support him in everything he does. And when he's up for re-election I'll vote for him. Everyone knows that Mayor McCheese is a crook.
Are we sure that the readings they were getting weren't just from the guys manning the sensor stations? They're pretty close to those machines, after all. A little hopping on their part would probably have more influence on the machine than people far away.
And they're probably big people, watching the seismometer doesn't exactly burn calories...
I think many users don't really know that there's another way. They call up Dell or Gateway and they get the Microsoft computer with Microsoft Office and MSN and they think that this is what a computer is. And that signing onto MSN and using Passport is how people use the internet. How else do you do it? With XP, Microsoft intends to make this implicit link stronger and more pervasive.
You can't blame people for not buying microsoft products because they're not really given an opportunity to do so. The average (and even above-average) user cannot deal with the packages and patches, file-permissions and command-line interfaces that are intrinsic to Linux. More importantly, they don't want to deal with these things. Windows is still way ahead of Linux as far as usability. And then there are those who use Windows at work, and thus use it at home because they want to be able to bring work home.
For a lot of people you can't walk away from MS because that would mean walking away from computers altogether. So if they shrug their shoulders and say "whatcha gonna do?" It's because they can't do anything. No one's presented them with a viable alternative.
But that's the point of this lawsuit, isn't it. Microsoft is using its pervasiveness to bully and steal information from its users.
how would you feel if someone came onto your lawn and tried your door. then they tried all your windows. then they went into the garage and looked for your keys. then they tried to get into the cellar. then they dug a hole. then they squeezed in through the chimney.
you want/.ers to read rather than to just have a knee-jerk reaction? Where's the fun in that?
The USPTO needs more computer techies and they need to be more careful about granting patents, but it seems like the Open Source community should be embracing the patent system.
Patents allow innovation, the information sharing and all that and people and companies can still hope to profit from their efforts.
Slashdot Mirror
oh, and here's CNN's little piece on it: Lights in the Sky
If you're really curious to know, here's the story on CNN.
a lk /index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/12/03/spacew
Half the time estimated. Maybe NASA's learning to double their estimates. It can only make them look better in the public's eye.
No, the real problem is that the ideal of the Olympics is health, not drugs. Doping is not good for your long-term health and that's the reason I am against it. Creatine, purportedly, makes you stronger without killing you in the long-run. Just like a healthy diet or plenty of exercise.
Where the people who are against doping run off the rails is when they start aguing that the use of performance-enhancing drugs somehow cheapens the competition. Twenty years ago they didn't know what we know now about nutrition. Does that mean we should disallow anyone on a special diet?
I have no problem with improving your performance through healthy means. It's when the methods start reducing life-span and having harmful side-effects that it becomes a problem.
one of the problems I have using Linux is that I grew up using Windowsy stuff. Linux is VERY different. You need to think about things differently because the OS operates in a very different way.
If kids start with Linux they will A) have no problem learning it and B) be more sophisticated about how computers work. And, most people would agree, they'll have no problem working in Windows. On top of this, Linux offers a sophisticated development environment where kids can learn about programming. Without paying $500 per seat for Visual C++
children learn new things very easily, regardless of how complex they are. Look at how quickly they pick up languages for an example.
What would be the point of a triangular window? This sounds like a gee whiz! wouldn't that be neato! kinda feature that no one would ever use.
Would you like to type a document in a triangular window? Or look at a list of files? Instead of being able to use the corners of the box, they'd be waste space on the desktop.
Honestly, unless there's a paradigm shift away from the desktop concept then I think the rectangles will be the only useful shape for windows.
Sweat
You know what's funny about this post and those people that agree with it (and modded it up to 5) is that you'd think from reading the post that no one's ever thought of rehabbing criminals. As though, through the perfect medium of the slashdot message board, they've created a brilliant breakthrough for our justice system.
Earth to hippy, these good-hearted, sooth-the-savage-beast programs usually fail. And the one's that work only work on the small scale. What usually happens is that some local, fluke success in rehabbing a dozen really motivated first-timers is blown up into a nation-wide mandated plan to rehab everyone. And it doesn't work, because there's no motivation on the part of the prisoners or the people in charge of rehabbing them.
Now, if they never went to prison in the first place, because they never committed a crime or had the need to... Say if we had better schools because we payed teachers what they're worth... Say if we decriminalized drugs and drug use...
And please stop saying that prison is cushy. Do not take freedom for granted. Only a nutter (and apparently some slashdotters) would commit a crime for the free education in prison. Not only are you not free and subject to whatever trauma the prison guards and your fellow inmates have in store for you, but your diploma says Penn State Prison on it and not Penn State.
Sweat
[Snip]
"According to popular rumor, the "HomeStation" is Microsoft's 2nd generation XBox. This will provide television recording, internet surfing, games, kitchen sink, etc. How can the poor little PS2 and its successors keep up with that?"
[Snip]
Um, wouldn't this just be another computer. Actually a dumb computer with no keyboard and no apps. A neaderthal network terminal, perhaps? We know how well those did.
If Microsoft tries to do anything with their gaming consoles other than make them gaming consoles they'll find they're wasting their time.
Sony and Nintendo will blow any half-breed out of the box (sorry) because their consoles will be cheaper, smaller, and simpler.
Consoles will never grow into PCs. That's a dead end. More likely is that as PC processing and memory power becomes cheaper, the console will cease to be relevent and just fade away. Don't hold your breath for that either, though.
Sweat
except that at least at some level our government is responsible to we the people. Whereas Microsoft or AT&T doesn't give a crap whether the labels on food are accurate, my government does.
There are many things that our government does that we could not rely on our corporations to do. Do you think you would be able to travel from NY to CA by car without paying hefty royalties to UPS or FedEx (or whoever would be responsible for the upkeep of the roads)?
Corporations != Federal Government
Sweat
"If we actually need a 'National ID system' to solve a specific problem (many Americans are unconvinced) then it should be designed and implemented in such a way as to solve the problem at hand, with inherent safeguards to prevent abuse, now or in the future."
We didn't have a problem with people hijacking airplanes and flying them into buildings. So we didn't design a system to prevent it. So that when it happened we were completely unprepared and once they were on board the plane there was nothing to prevent them.
Saying that there's no specific problem leaves us vulnerable to terrorists who think of new methods to destroy us.
"If we build a system that has the potential to be abused by individuals, by corporations, or by the state, then it will be abused."
Which is the argument that we should have no laws, no government, no institutions, no schools, no roads, etc...
And nothing ever gets done.
Sweat
However, I believe that once you are made aware of the copyright you must desist or else you are in violation. Looks like all of us /.ers have to get off the phone completely.
Pardon me? Did you say 3001?
Not that I disagree, but if the United States (or any country that currently exists) is still around in 3001 I'll be a monkey's uncle.
Once the corporations get there hand on the nukes, it's bye bye time.
Even primordial ooze wont survive.
Sweat
P.S. I'm just kidding. Who cares what happens in 3001? I'm gonna be long dead.
Is this the representative from Starbucks? Still, I support him in everything he does. And when he's up for re-election I'll vote for him. Everyone knows that Mayor McCheese is a crook.
Sweat
Are we sure that the readings they were getting weren't just from the guys manning the sensor stations? They're pretty close to those machines, after all. A little hopping on their part would probably have more influence on the machine than people far away.
And they're probably big people, watching the seismometer doesn't exactly burn calories...
or maybe not
Really now. I don't recall needing a PDA to play "Ghost in the Graveyard" or "Capture the Flag".
K.I.S.S. applies in this situation.
You can't blame people for not buying microsoft products because they're not really given an opportunity to do so. The average (and even above-average) user cannot deal with the packages and patches, file-permissions and command-line interfaces that are intrinsic to Linux. More importantly, they don't want to deal with these things. Windows is still way ahead of Linux as far as usability. And then there are those who use Windows at work, and thus use it at home because they want to be able to bring work home. For a lot of people you can't walk away from MS because that would mean walking away from computers altogether. So if they shrug their shoulders and say "whatcha gonna do?" It's because they can't do anything. No one's presented them with a viable alternative.
But that's the point of this lawsuit, isn't it. Microsoft is using its pervasiveness to bully and steal information from its users.
Sweat
actually...
how would you feel if someone came onto your lawn and tried your door. then they tried all your windows. then they went into the garage and looked for your keys. then they tried to get into the cellar. then they dug a hole. then they squeezed in through the chimney.
at some point I think this is tresspassing.
Sweat
you want /.ers to read rather than to just have a knee-jerk reaction? Where's the fun in that?
The USPTO needs more computer techies and they need to be more careful about granting patents, but it seems like the Open Source community should be embracing the patent system.
Patents allow innovation, the information sharing and all that and people and companies can still hope to profit from their efforts.
Gasp! Did he say profit?
Flame away,
Sweaty