I'd like to point out in a little foot-note that because this ruling class had nothing better to do, its favorite pass-time was using its slaves to beat up other members of the ruling class and take their stuff. Ahh boredom. So either we are in for some serious scaled up versions of "Robot Wars" or more likely since meat will be easier to replace, humans from one place will kill humans from another place, to take their stuff. Because at the end of the day there is only so much "stuff" in the world, and the distribution of it is quite uneven.
Not only that but Microsoft's "per processor" policy will quickly be changed to "per screen". Cos people are starting to use multiple screens, ya know.
Where you see pollution I see opportunity! A veritable Las Vegas Strip of interconnected, interlaced access points, all communicating with the net and also with themselves... Once again we will have free speech because no one will be able to monitor all that obfuscation - at least for a while.
My point exactly. I understand the concept of economic efficiency, and how inefficient jobs are replaced first - in theory. Etc. But if you think about the long term then every single job can eventually be replaced, because ultimately machines are more efficient than humans at everything except thinking - and eventually who knows, they might even become smarter than us. So where will that leave us?
they'll be able to cook and serve food, load and drive trucks, pick fruit, etc.
That can all be done by robots.
As for consumption, how can they consume if they don't have an income? I just can't believe we're working towards some sort of utopia where no one has to work and money no longer has use. Human nature tells me it's going to be a couple bastards in charge, and all the rest of us will be slaves.
Learn to read financial statements then maybe next time you won't be caught by surprise. See all that red ink at the bottom? That's not good no matter how pretty you want a balance sheet to look.
Your example is the exception because usually a new CPU means a new socket, which means a new motherboard. Besides last minute patches are usually to fix bugs that get discovered through having a large number of users, not to support new hardware. And your argument is irrelevant in the context of being able to update your BIOS through moving a jumper or even changing the physical chip like in the old days. What happens is that if you allow a company a path of least resistance, then management and employees will make sure to do the minimum effort required. Just like software patches were a rare thing before the prevalence of the internet. Now multi-hundred gigabyte release day patches are the norm. Why? Because companies are fucking lazy and sloppy and if you give them an inch they take a mile. I'm in favor of not giving them that inch.
But people wanted simple Windows based utilities to reflash the BIOS
People wanted? Or the industry thought it would be a cool marketing gimmick? Most people have no idea what BIOS stands for, much less what it does and how dangerous it can be for them if it gets subverted. The rest of the people who know should not be too bothered to have to move a jumper to re-flash the BIOS - I mean honestly how often do you do this? - when compared to the security risk. So I don't buy the "people wanted" argument.
I wish marketing people thought a little more about the decisions they make and held themselves to higher standards. I can't believe that no engineer turned around and said "hang on, if we can flash it from the OS, anyone can flash it from the OS..."
Because some congress-critter somewhere will scream "How can it be that the United States can no longer have its government space program" just like Nancy Pelosi silenced criticism of the GM bailout with a spurt of patriotism, and yet another excuse to print a few more hundred billion dollars will be found. By the way GM is losing money again - surprised? Don't you realize yet that budget caps are not limits, they are goals? Promises to reduce debt are never met.
And for only $30 billion, and with 50,000 kg LESS lift capacity than it had in 1969.
HEY IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.
Nope. Taking components from this project. Components from that project. Gluing them together. Hey maybe this is what they meant by "rocket surgery"...
Well if you take inflation into account, they're actually doing it for a lot, lot less. But yeah, it's easy to become mediocre when you are surrounded with mediocrity and it's very hard to excel in such an environment.
The only way to rapidly and cost-effectively devolve computer products is to know the composition of the products
Nope. If you increase the market value of the products you are after, that is another way to make the process cost effective. So it's not "the only way". It's perhaps the most rational way given current commodity prices. I do predict that today's landfills will become the mines of tomorrow.
I want the real game, not some fake pirate themed one.
Then pay, you cheap bastard. At least this way you can try the "fake" pirate one and if you like it then buy the non-pirate hat version. But it seems you just want everyone to do everything for you for free. Why don't you write your own damned game in that case, and we can all rip YOU off? This is a smart, sensible business model and I wish the devs the best.
No. "It can be" is not the same as "it always is". High functioning autism is a disorder that is wholly separate from standard autism and separate from Asperger's - which is described simply as a "mild form of autism". But autism includes mental retardation. High functioning autism does not. Ahh but see how the lines blur in psychology?
I can't figure how you confirmed your own bias from what I actually said.
I am free to draw my own conclusions and post what I like. You may have your opinion of psychology. I have my own - not gleaned from reading newspapers but from having a medical degree and having had to study the subject. Psychology is a useful tool that shows promise, but it in no way approaches the accuracy of a scientific field and it lends itself to misinterpretation (willful or not) by both the press and the public. If you feel better about yourself thinking you have Asperger's then by all means you are entitled to do so if that makes you feel better about yourself. But personally from reading your comment, I doubt you have it at all because you're just not boring enough.
I mostly agree with you. Psychology can be full of shit. Their "scientific method" consists of trying to rationalize patterns of behavior with "disease". But real science goes further and says you have to actually test your hypotheses with an experiment. Very little testing is done in psychology because a) it's not ethical and b) the testing process itself can change the behavior, making it hard to draw valid conclusions. So a lot of it is rationalization, creativity and conjecture as well as a lot of navel contemplation.
There are far too many behaviors that can be "explained away" by including them into some "spectrum" or other. The "autistic spectrum" being one of the most loosely and poorly defined categories in the DSM-IV, it's so easy to include just about anyone in that group. Even you yourself claim to have traits. An important trait is mental retardation (sorry chronic non progressive encephalopathy), which I assume you don't have. People forget that. There are many publications that cite that "autistic spectrum" - especially Asperger's syndrome - is one of the most overdiagnosed disorders (possibly after bipolar disorder) and is the psychological equivalent to fibromyalgia: ie if you have no idea what is causing it and it doesn't show up on any tests, it's fibromyalgia.
Don't get me wrong I think psychoanalysis, group therapy, and the attempt at classification and organization of mental illness can be very useful. But sometimes psychologists are the first ones to rush to place a label on their patient without really trying to understand what's going on. The fact that a person is an ass does not necessarily mean he is sick. Otherwise we are all sick - because certainly ever one of us has been an idiot at one point or another. That's one of the things that makes us human.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd like to point out in a little foot-note that because this ruling class had nothing better to do, its favorite pass-time was using its slaves to beat up other members of the ruling class and take their stuff. Ahh boredom. So either we are in for some serious scaled up versions of "Robot Wars" or more likely since meat will be easier to replace, humans from one place will kill humans from another place, to take their stuff. Because at the end of the day there is only so much "stuff" in the world, and the distribution of it is quite uneven.
Not only that but Microsoft's "per processor" policy will quickly be changed to "per screen". Cos people are starting to use multiple screens, ya know.
We're really spamming the Windows 8 articles recently. Yeah no thanks, Windows 7 works just fine. It's the new XP - didn't you know?
But I thought Yoshihiko Noda had already been erected oh wait...
No you want the algorithm that tells lies badly.
Or Apple's "security flaws? We don't have any security flaws and shutthefuckup or we will sue you to oblivion" policy.
There's a rumor going around that the Department of Homeland Security has ordered 10 of these, for the 10 busiest airports.
Where you see pollution I see opportunity! A veritable Las Vegas Strip of interconnected, interlaced access points, all communicating with the net and also with themselves... Once again we will have free speech because no one will be able to monitor all that obfuscation - at least for a while.
My point exactly. I understand the concept of economic efficiency, and how inefficient jobs are replaced first - in theory. Etc. But if you think about the long term then every single job can eventually be replaced, because ultimately machines are more efficient than humans at everything except thinking - and eventually who knows, they might even become smarter than us. So where will that leave us?
they'll be able to cook and serve food, load and drive trucks, pick fruit, etc.
That can all be done by robots.
As for consumption, how can they consume if they don't have an income? I just can't believe we're working towards some sort of utopia where no one has to work and money no longer has use. Human nature tells me it's going to be a couple bastards in charge, and all the rest of us will be slaves.
I just wonder who is going to buy all those goods and services when we are all replaced by robots.
Oh god yes!
Learn to read financial statements then maybe next time you won't be caught by surprise. See all that red ink at the bottom? That's not good no matter how pretty you want a balance sheet to look.
Your example is the exception because usually a new CPU means a new socket, which means a new motherboard. Besides last minute patches are usually to fix bugs that get discovered through having a large number of users, not to support new hardware. And your argument is irrelevant in the context of being able to update your BIOS through moving a jumper or even changing the physical chip like in the old days. What happens is that if you allow a company a path of least resistance, then management and employees will make sure to do the minimum effort required. Just like software patches were a rare thing before the prevalence of the internet. Now multi-hundred gigabyte release day patches are the norm. Why? Because companies are fucking lazy and sloppy and if you give them an inch they take a mile. I'm in favor of not giving them that inch.
Another solution is to make sure your BIOS is bug free when you ship. That involves paying your coders slightly more than minimum Chinese wage.
But people wanted simple Windows based utilities to reflash the BIOS
People wanted? Or the industry thought it would be a cool marketing gimmick? Most people have no idea what BIOS stands for, much less what it does and how dangerous it can be for them if it gets subverted. The rest of the people who know should not be too bothered to have to move a jumper to re-flash the BIOS - I mean honestly how often do you do this? - when compared to the security risk. So I don't buy the "people wanted" argument.
I wish marketing people thought a little more about the decisions they make and held themselves to higher standards. I can't believe that no engineer turned around and said "hang on, if we can flash it from the OS, anyone can flash it from the OS..."
Why not use that instead.
Because some congress-critter somewhere will scream "How can it be that the United States can no longer have its government space program" just like Nancy Pelosi silenced criticism of the GM bailout with a spurt of patriotism, and yet another excuse to print a few more hundred billion dollars will be found. By the way GM is losing money again - surprised? Don't you realize yet that budget caps are not limits, they are goals? Promises to reduce debt are never met.
HEY IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.
Nope. Taking components from this project. Components from that project. Gluing them together. Hey maybe this is what they meant by "rocket surgery"...
Well if you take inflation into account, they're actually doing it for a lot, lot less. But yeah, it's easy to become mediocre when you are surrounded with mediocrity and it's very hard to excel in such an environment.
Don't forget silver and copper, too! While not at $1800/troy oz, there's a lot more of it on boards.
The only way to rapidly and cost-effectively devolve computer products is to know the composition of the products
Nope. If you increase the market value of the products you are after, that is another way to make the process cost effective. So it's not "the only way". It's perhaps the most rational way given current commodity prices. I do predict that today's landfills will become the mines of tomorrow.
I want the real game, not some fake pirate themed one.
Then pay, you cheap bastard. At least this way you can try the "fake" pirate one and if you like it then buy the non-pirate hat version. But it seems you just want everyone to do everything for you for free. Why don't you write your own damned game in that case, and we can all rip YOU off? This is a smart, sensible business model and I wish the devs the best.
It's a high functioning condition
No. "It can be" is not the same as "it always is". High functioning autism is a disorder that is wholly separate from standard autism and separate from Asperger's - which is described simply as a "mild form of autism". But autism includes mental retardation. High functioning autism does not. Ahh but see how the lines blur in psychology?
I can't figure how you confirmed your own bias from what I actually said.
I am free to draw my own conclusions and post what I like. You may have your opinion of psychology. I have my own - not gleaned from reading newspapers but from having a medical degree and having had to study the subject. Psychology is a useful tool that shows promise, but it in no way approaches the accuracy of a scientific field and it lends itself to misinterpretation (willful or not) by both the press and the public. If you feel better about yourself thinking you have Asperger's then by all means you are entitled to do so if that makes you feel better about yourself. But personally from reading your comment, I doubt you have it at all because you're just not boring enough.
the autistic spectrum
I mostly agree with you. Psychology can be full of shit. Their "scientific method" consists of trying to rationalize patterns of behavior with "disease". But real science goes further and says you have to actually test your hypotheses with an experiment. Very little testing is done in psychology because a) it's not ethical and b) the testing process itself can change the behavior, making it hard to draw valid conclusions. So a lot of it is rationalization, creativity and conjecture as well as a lot of navel contemplation.
There are far too many behaviors that can be "explained away" by including them into some "spectrum" or other. The "autistic spectrum" being one of the most loosely and poorly defined categories in the DSM-IV, it's so easy to include just about anyone in that group. Even you yourself claim to have traits. An important trait is mental retardation (sorry chronic non progressive encephalopathy), which I assume you don't have. People forget that. There are many publications that cite that "autistic spectrum" - especially Asperger's syndrome - is one of the most overdiagnosed disorders (possibly after bipolar disorder) and is the psychological equivalent to fibromyalgia: ie if you have no idea what is causing it and it doesn't show up on any tests, it's fibromyalgia.
Don't get me wrong I think psychoanalysis, group therapy, and the attempt at classification and organization of mental illness can be very useful. But sometimes psychologists are the first ones to rush to place a label on their patient without really trying to understand what's going on. The fact that a person is an ass does not necessarily mean he is sick. Otherwise we are all sick - because certainly ever one of us has been an idiot at one point or another. That's one of the things that makes us human.
I see the Rule of Law is making good progress on Airstrip One.