>Still it can be denied that the English spoken by the Flemish (Dutch) is better then that of the Walloons (French). But it's not their fault!
>English simply has some sounds that are not to be found in French. Hence it is difficult to
>learn the pronunciation and they often prefer not to speak English at all.
And you think it may have nothing to do with the fact that Flemish television mainly uses
sub-titles, and hardly ever dubs, so even children's cartoons are mostly in English? Where
as the French TV stations almost always dub the English language show into French, and therefore
get less exposure to English.
>A native English speaker can't pronounce French ether...
Oh, come on now. Sure there are sounds that are difficult, but you're going a bit too far.
Ok, I had to work hard on getting the correct 'r' sound in French, but I can now do it quite well.
It did take me 2 years, and my wife is a native French speaker.
He says that he's worked in Oracle, so he has some insight.... I really have to question that.
He only worked as an external, in the UK data center - that very far removed from the real
strategy and planning at Oracle. I worked for Oracle for 6 years, including working in their
HQ in Redwood Shores - and I can tell you, if you're not in the HQ, then you might as well
be working for a different company.
Really, this is just his personal belief, with no real basis. Not that I'm saying that one day
Oracle won't go open source, but there's no evidence for it at the moment.
My personal observations are that Oracle has moved on from focusing solely on the rdbms side
of things for their revenue, and they're putting more resource into building the applications side
of the business. Back in the early 90's, Larry saying (at least internally) that the database was
their main focus, and that their applications were only a side show. Recently, Larry has been
publically pushing Oracle's applications, focusing more of the company on sell apps.
So, I'd say that Oracle is making the core database less important, revenue wise, these days,
and maybe they could open source it in the long run, but I don't seem them changing anything for
many years to come.
>So the problem is that e-commerce will not and never will be the internet's true "killer app".
>Shipping costs and times are prohibitive compared to the convenience and experience of
>walking into a store and walking out with product, regardless of the extra availability
I have to disagree with you there. You're comming from your US perspective. Large markets for
e-commerce do exist, although they're not as large as most of these e-commerce companies hoped.
For exapmle, I live in Belgium. I like buying books in English, but as it's only a minor
language here, there's isn't alot of choice. My options are either fly to London, which I do, but
it is too expensive to do as often as I want, or I can use the Amazon (or bookpool, which I prefer).
Same thing goes for DVD's. I prefer region 1 DVD's - when I bought laserdiscs, I always
prefered the US editions. I have to get them specially imported, which almost doubled the
price. Now, I buy DVD's from kencranes, and even including shipping, it's cheaper than the local
region 2 discs.
The one killer thing the internet has done is create a truly global marketplace.
It may be easy for you to pop down to the local mall and be confronted by a vast range of goods.
Come over to Europe and try it. Ever heard of the term 'culture shock'?
I've been an Oracle DBA for more than 10 years, contracting for the last 5, and I can say all
the projects I've worked on have one thing in common - there're EXPENSIVE.
Without an expection, the cost of the support staff and developers has always exceeded the
the cost of the Oracle software and hardware combined.
If $100K is too expensive, then you probably can get by with a cheaper alternative. If you can
afford more than $500 k/year, then Oracle orDB2 (mainframe version) are probably the products
you want, with the features you need.
>Also, I really liked the way Vinge envisaged layer upon layer of computer architectures
>accumulating over thousands of years. I seem to recall that he implied that down in the deep
>depths file names were 8.3...
I read that bit in it a couple of days ago. It was actually a unix reference!
He says that the system timers count the number of seconds since man first landed on the moon, but
if you looked closer, you would find out that even that was not correct, as the timer counts the
number of seconds a few Msecs AFTER that event - which would make it around 01 Jan 1970!
>Other people living on the same continent (like Canadians and Mexians) can be referred to as
>"North Americans", but not "Americans", because the contintent they live on is "North America",
>not "America".
Wow. This comment has been moderated so high.
Ok, if I was moderating, I would have given it points, but it would have been +1 Funny.
It really says something about the moderators. Maybe they've been watching too many Mel Gibson
movies recently?
There's a nice mix of self-centeredness, ignorance of geography and jingoism.
So, there's a North American continent, and an 'American' continent. Strange, I always though
that is was things like continental plates and land masses which determined a continent,
but I must be wrong, as this poster and some moderators know that it's political boundries.
So, is there a Californian continent?
Hey, wow, now Belgium can be it's own continent!
(Aren't you other citizens of the US of A embarassed of people like that?)
> upon millions of people in this country. And yet some little schmoe from Asshole, Indiana thinks >that he is so important that the "gummint" has >got dozens of agents watching his every move and reading every little piece of mail that he gets.
But, it's these sorts of paranoid people that probably are being watched. The FBI does want to track those people, because those sorts of people are the same type of anti-"gummint" loonys that blow up FBI buildings, live in WACO style armed compounds.
Now just because only a very small number of these paranoid loonys are dangerous, the FBI will track all of them, just to be sure.
So what if you're not doing anything illegal? So what if you have a legitimate reason to use encryption? If you do anything which they think is a bit sus, then let's track you just in case.
Yes, you have nothing to worry about. After all, no-one innocent has EVER been arrested, or ever been executed, have they?
I think the most important thing is that it has to be fun. People learn the best when they don't realize they are learning. You need something that is very involving.
My personal opinion is that you should try something which will give them some insight into how things work at a low level, along the lines of
- programmable controllers, (basic stamp etc...)
- Fred Martin's (et al) Handyboard http://el.www.media.mit.edu/projects/handy-board/
- Lego mindstorms (and use Not Quite C)
There's already alot of teachers using this approach, and you can find alot of material online which you can use.
These items may be a bit expensive, but if youhave project groups of 4 or so, then the cost of things like the Basic Stamp isn't too high.
You can find info on all most of these thing at www.robotbooks.com. From there you can find a massive number of useful links, including clubs and other teachers who are already doing this.
>American entertainment from music and movies to video games and television has left me stunned.
>PS; If you've ever lived in a neighborhood were you go to sleep hearing gunshots and wakeup to >sirens you'll know where I'm coming from. Lakewood, Atlanta, GA.
I agree with you, the amount of violence has made people in the US less sensitive than people from other countries (I'm not from the US).
I lived in San Mateo for a while (I had a nice view of SF international airport, and could see the planes take off).
A workmate lived just on the edge of East Palo Alto, really just 10 miles down El Camino from me. Almost every night of the week, she could hear gun shots and police cars. She was hardly concerned about it. I on the other hand was totally freaked out, and needless to say, I never visited.
Anything that can help to reduce to exposure to violence in the US, IMHO, is a good thing.
>They don't remember having to pay $100 per seat for a TCP/IP stack, or $200 per seat for database >driver licenses. Microsoft made all that stuff go away.
And I remember the days when the cheapest way to run Unix was to use Xenix, and that cost $3000 for a single user system.
Now we had Linux, GNU and *BSD, and now Unix is affordable. That had nothing to do with MS.
How about VMS? There was no way anyone could ever afford a VAX and run VMS. DEC (which is was still DEC and not Compaq) made VMS free for home use.
MS didn't make everything cheaper and better. What happened is that computer hardware got less expensive, making it more available to developers and then all of the software market had to react or die.
MS TCP/IP became free because there were other companies producing the same thing for less. Today, a teenager in their bedroom could write atcp/ip stack with a $500 computer.
Back in the early '80s, how many kids could have afforded a $10,000 PC in their bedroom?
If MS, and DEC, etc didn't lower their prices, then they would have died. Oh, hang on, DEC didn't lower their prices until too late, and they did die.
I was trying out DBI with Oracle before this book came out, and once I got my hands on it, I quickly devoured it in a matter of hours.
Overall, it was a good giude to get started, but I found that it was a bit short and could have had a bit more depth and advanced topics.
For example, I was having trouble with updates and building a sql statement with lots of quotes. The book didn't cover this enough, but I was finally able to work it out by reading through the perl dbi doc.
So, it's a good start, but the dbi perldoc is still needed for a more detailed examples.
>The theory about designer brands as sexual display does not, if I understood codemonkey_uk >correctly, attempt to explain the specific car-purchasing strategy of each individual >slashdotter, so it's not really _that_ in
My point is that these were broad sweeping statements. I showed that it does not hold true for at least one case, therefore, it does not hold true for all cases, thus, it is a simplification of a complex issue.
It seemed more to be a theory to fit personal and cultural bias, rather than an accepted theory backed up by independent research.
For exmaple, I could say that all people who drink bottled water do so to impress people and say "Look at me, I can afford this."
Sound reasonable? But what about people who don't have access to clean drinking water? What about places where the local water supply has many chemicals or metals dissolved in it?
>interesting how fast your car can do zero to sixty(unless for some reason you would like us to know).
Yes, I wanted you to know to help illustrate my point, to help show that there are *other* reasons than the one so strongly stated. You see, even by looking, you would have never have know, that was the point. Unless I told everyone I met, my sexual display / social rank display wouldn't be increased.
>When it comes to the depth of this explanation, I wonder at why you say that a psycological explanation is >deeper than a biological explanation. Wouldn't you say that behavior imposed on us by our instincts and >hormones is deeper rooted in our brains than behavior imposed on us by society?
Interesting point. It maybe, it may not be. It's a very complex issue. I'm sure for every point you bring up supporting one side, I could bring up a counter point for the other - regardless of which side you pick.
What does it actually prove? Nothing, really, does it?
(Anyway, I would say that the biological motive for our behaviour was initially the strongest drive, and is being replaced since the last century as food and shelter has become more available.)
>there felt like their shit didn't stink, not due to their own merits, but due to the company's. It >was thought that working at IBM was a kind of Nirvana, unlike any work experience anywhere
Now that you mention that, I realise that there are alot of people at Oracle who think and act the same way.
I worked for Oracle for 6 years, started in the start of the '90s. Back then Ingress was about the same size and was a big threat, Oracle had a cash flow problem, and its share price had taken a big hit. People were on the whole, not full themselves.
Now, Oracle is huge and they dominate their market. Alot of the people who are working in their Support and Consulting divisions think that the sun shine out of thier backside and they are gods just because they work for Oracle.
The reality is that Oracle have some really good programmers (I have a friend in the database development group who is a extremely smart guy (G'day Wim, if you're reading this), but most of the people in support and consulting are not brightest people on the planet. On the whole, anyone who is good leaves, either to a compeditor or goes contracting.
If MS goes, that will leave Oracle as the bigest software company in the world..... I wonder if they will be next (not that I'm aware of them breaking any laws).
>The only reason to buy an expensive car or an SUV is for sexual display. No practical reason at all. >I am already married and have no need to impress the chicks or the neighbors.
The only reason? A bit over simplistic, don't you think?
I have a Lotus Elise (since it doesn't exist in the US - two seater, open top, 0-60mph in 5.0 sec, very small, no electronic windows, no air cond., no carpet, ). It's not hugely expensive, but alot more than the average car. I've spent more than 1/2 of the purchase price again on improvements (the standard model is 0-60 in 6.1 sec).
I bought this car AFTER being married for 2 years. So, it's not to pick up chicks (difficult in a 2 seater with your wife in the passanger seat).
I've just bought a house in an expensive area, most of my neighbours have nice cars, even a few porsche 911's (which are 2-3 the price of my car). So, while my car won't impress my neighbours. If I wanted to impress them, I should have bought the new 911 turbo (which I can afford, although I'd need a loan).
Ok, why did I buy it?
I enjoy driving it. Even though I don't get to work any faster than my previous car (a nissan), I have alot more fun doing it.
Tomorrow, I'm taking it to a racing track in the north of France. I won't be racing, just driving around it with other Lotus owners (as fast as I'm capable of going, though). The car has already cost me US$40,000, and I'll probably send another US$10,000 on it changing the breaks and suspension setup (and maybe a new gearbox).
Of course, even worse for your theory, no-one will ever know that my upgrades have doubled the cost of the car - it just looks the same as the unmodified version. If I really wanted to show off, I could have spend the same amount of money an bought a Merc CLK or a Porsche 911.
Re:Well there's only one solution to that..
on
EU Web Tax Proposed
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· Score: 1
As I import things from outside the EU all the time, I'll help clear some things up.
The VAT laws differ from country to country. Here in Belgium, I do get charged VAT for books.
There is also VAT on second hand things. I've bought a hp 9000-j210, sun sparc 20 both second hand from the US, and I've been charged VAT both times. VAT is even charged on the shipping costs, which really stings when you use DHL to recieve a 30kg HP 9000.
I was even charged VAT on a handy-board (a robot controller thingy) which was marked 'Education Use'.
Almost anything that physically enters the country here is looked at to see if VAT can be charged.
Now, trying to charge me for bits is going to interesting. I can't see how they will even know about some transactions, let alone charge me.
For example, I could download a c compiler for the handy-board. It's free, but limited. To turn it into a complete version, I just send them some money, and they will send back a key. If I don't tell anyone, how will they ever know that I'll have to pay VAT on the incomming bits?
>I am often considered part of the much maligned "intelligentsia"; I'm a professor at the most >famous Ivy League University (along with being
erk... he ain't one of us... he probably even reads books OTHER than sf (or anything from O'Reilly).... I better start getting defensive.
>achieved anywhere near the sublime greatness of ``Wild Strawberries'' (a better example for this
Ah, as I expected, there he goes, showing off, giving references to things we know knowthing about... he even typing in a superior and smug way.
>audience would probably be ``2001''). I do
oh, hold on, he did just mention 2001, so he must at least know a little of geek-dom. Of course, I personally prefer the sublime greatness of ``Battlestar Galatica''... if only that final series where they found Earth had never been made, and what was up with that Dr Z kid? I never really understood that.....
>I usually don't bash J. Katz,.....
See! I told you he wasn't one of us!
>...... but this post was aggressively stupid.
hmm, hang on, maybe I was a bit quick to judge...
>Katz often rants.....
Amen to that brother!
> I thought only geeks were allowed to disagree and have the right not to be stereotyped.
Well, duh. I'm glad you understand the two main priciples of the geek world -
1. Any stereotypical depiction of any group, in particular geeks, is offensive, unjustified and is a gross over simplification.
2. This does not hold true to jocks, suits, liberal arts type,......
>Katz you are full of contradictions. I wish that were the only problem that the post had
Hey, that was a pretty good roasting of Katz. Maybe this guy isn't so bad after all.
Could it be that my preconceived notions and bias against other, non-geek groups may not be correct?
Could my attempts to clasify everyone and everything into segments and label them be an unjust attempt to try to simplify soceity into concepts with which I can easily cope, and then give me a justification to be hypocritical and make sweeping generalizations of all things that are not geek?.....
Naaa....... Jon's a tosser, all liberal arts people are tossers, and geeks rule!
>It isn't quite "pure" flame-bait, as that is my honest opinion, but it surely is a flame-worthy >message.
Granted, it is an opinion, and anyone is entitled to voice their opinion here. I'd never object to that.
Positive moderation, on the other hand, should be reserved for on-topic items that actually fit into the category they're being assigned to.
If I was moderating that day, I would have just left it at its original +1. What really gets me is that two moderators thought it was worthy of their points. Surely there were better things (no offense intended to DragonHawk) to spend the point on that day (or 3 days - before the points expire).
I'd really be dissapointed if this post was ever moderated up, or down for that matter.
>You know, news like this is really depressing. I got on the internet in college before the web.
Yes, this is very sad, and very true. For all of us that have been using the internet for 10 years or more, what is happening these days is a real culture shock.
This is truly the age of the never ending September.
Having said that, I've also greatly benefited from these changes as well. I do the majority of my purchases on-line these days, and I have access to markets that I could have only dreamed of before (I'm in Belgium, not as big a marketplace as the US.)
Really, we should just accept that what we have now is a corperate corruption of our old academic utopia and stop dreaming of the past.
Then again, we also shouldn't just roll over and die. Let's fight the bastards tooth and nail and try to keep a little of the old spirit.
Come on, why the hell has this comment been moderated up to +3 insightful?
There's nothing insightful about it, it's just pure flame bait, nothing more, nothing less. All it says is, Unix good, VMS bad, I want Unix to have all the good things that everything else does.
I'm a diehard Unix fan myself, but this is really just showing up the bias of/.
Please, if you're ever willing to moderate, then read the VMS FAQ, and take note of the bit about 'Unix is better than VMS'... it describes this sort of post to the letter.
I hope I find this original comment in meta-moderation. These biased moderators are a shame to the commmunity.
>This is simply not true. When I was a little geek with my Amiga, me and my friends used to speculate >what this fabled UNIX, Internet and TCP/IP was all about. There was no way a small time >enthousiast could access a UNIX system outside of academia or business until Linux came along.
Almost.
There were Unix like operating systems around. While something like Xenix was rather expensive, it wasn't totally out of everyone's reach - but there were other alternatives.
There was (R.I.P) a version of Unix from Mark Williams Company called Coherent. It wasn't a complete implementation of Unix, alot of the networking side was missing, but what was there was extremely good. The manual was worth the cost alone - the best book on Unix I've ever seen.
It cost only US$200, and it existed before Linux. It had a good version of UUCP - the only way to get on to the internet via dialup in the old days.
For sure, it was the best version of Unix I ever ran on my '286 with 1M of RAM.
In fact, I only switched to Linux (about 10 disks with version 0.99) after Coherent was being dropped by MWC.
The video CD version, recorded in a cinema, and available in Europe months before the movie opens.
The CLV laser disc edition.
The CAV laser disc edition.
The CLV laser disc special edition.
The CAV laser disc special edition.
Someone, tell them to stop it all! I'm such a weak minded person that they all able to FORCE me to spend all of my money on Star Wars.
Quick, I better get on to the next article, so I can again complain there about how all of these evil empires are controlling my brain and telling me what to do.
Hey, and it also seems to be a good karma-whore device..... sheesh... +5 for the above.....
Yes. That's it. I think they might find themselves in alot of trouble over this.
If any of you students out there are victimized by your school due to wave, I am willing to assist in helping to pay to sue your school for violation of your civil rights. Hopefully other people here would be willing to do the same and all of the legal costs could be covered.
I can't even believe that this sort of thing could be legal.
Re:But is this really for the better?
on
Microsoft Loses
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· Score: 1
I'm also concerned about this. I'm very worried about the impact it will have on other segments of the industry, and other related industries.
For example, what will happen to Will Smith? He calls himself the Microsoft of the rap world.
Does thie mean Big Will is going to have to be broken up to form a lot of Small Willies ?
Re:We Are Heading To A Crisis In Trademark Law
on
Master Of Your Domain
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· Score: 1
I think that in most cases, there will be much of a conflict.
If it's a small company vs a large company, the small company will get squashed in an instant.
If it's a high profile non-profit vs large company, then the we may end up with etoy/etoys fight.
The most interesting one where there will cause a crisus, or at least alot of lawyers getting rich, will be large company vs large company - although I expect we will only see a few of these battles.
Slashdot Mirror
>too bad MS didn't think of a central network database of CD titles available over the
:-)
>internet...
Shhhh! We don't want to give M$ any more markets to invade.
If everyone things it's bad now, just wait until M$ gets into the business - then you'll really
start to see the lawsuites fly!
Someone please mod the above post down to -1 so no-one every gets to see it.
>Still it can be denied that the English spoken by the Flemish (Dutch) is better then that of the Walloons (French). But it's not their fault!
>English simply has some sounds that are not to be found in French. Hence it is difficult to
>learn the pronunciation and they often prefer not to speak English at all.
And you think it may have nothing to do with the fact that Flemish television mainly uses
sub-titles, and hardly ever dubs, so even children's cartoons are mostly in English? Where
as the French TV stations almost always dub the English language show into French, and therefore
get less exposure to English.
>A native English speaker can't pronounce French ether...
Oh, come on now. Sure there are sounds that are difficult, but you're going a bit too far.
Ok, I had to work hard on getting the correct 'r' sound in French, but I can now do it quite well.
It did take me 2 years, and my wife is a native French speaker.
He says that he's worked in Oracle, so he has some insight.... I really have to question that.
He only worked as an external, in the UK data center - that very far removed from the real
strategy and planning at Oracle. I worked for Oracle for 6 years, including working in their
HQ in Redwood Shores - and I can tell you, if you're not in the HQ, then you might as well
be working for a different company.
Really, this is just his personal belief, with no real basis. Not that I'm saying that one day
Oracle won't go open source, but there's no evidence for it at the moment.
My personal observations are that Oracle has moved on from focusing solely on the rdbms side
of things for their revenue, and they're putting more resource into building the applications side
of the business. Back in the early 90's, Larry saying (at least internally) that the database was
their main focus, and that their applications were only a side show. Recently, Larry has been
publically pushing Oracle's applications, focusing more of the company on sell apps.
So, I'd say that Oracle is making the core database less important, revenue wise, these days,
and maybe they could open source it in the long run, but I don't seem them changing anything for
many years to come.
>So the problem is that e-commerce will not and never will be the internet's true "killer app".
>Shipping costs and times are prohibitive compared to the convenience and experience of
>walking into a store and walking out with product, regardless of the extra availability
I have to disagree with you there. You're comming from your US perspective. Large markets for
e-commerce do exist, although they're not as large as most of these e-commerce companies hoped.
For exapmle, I live in Belgium. I like buying books in English, but as it's only a minor
language here, there's isn't alot of choice. My options are either fly to London, which I do, but
it is too expensive to do as often as I want, or I can use the Amazon (or bookpool, which I prefer).
Same thing goes for DVD's. I prefer region 1 DVD's - when I bought laserdiscs, I always
prefered the US editions. I have to get them specially imported, which almost doubled the
price. Now, I buy DVD's from kencranes, and even including shipping, it's cheaper than the local
region 2 discs.
The one killer thing the internet has done is create a truly global marketplace.
It may be easy for you to pop down to the local mall and be confronted by a vast range of goods.
Come over to Europe and try it. Ever heard of the term 'culture shock'?
I've been an Oracle DBA for more than 10 years, contracting for the last 5, and I can say all
the projects I've worked on have one thing in common - there're EXPENSIVE.
Without an expection, the cost of the support staff and developers has always exceeded the
the cost of the Oracle software and hardware combined.
If $100K is too expensive, then you probably can get by with a cheaper alternative. If you can
afford more than $500 k/year, then Oracle orDB2 (mainframe version) are probably the products
you want, with the features you need.
>Also, I really liked the way Vinge envisaged layer upon layer of computer architectures
>accumulating over thousands of years. I seem to recall that he implied that down in the deep
>depths file names were 8.3...
I read that bit in it a couple of days ago. It was actually a unix reference!
He says that the system timers count the number of seconds since man first landed on the moon, but
if you looked closer, you would find out that even that was not correct, as the timer counts the
number of seconds a few Msecs AFTER that event - which would make it around 01 Jan 1970!
>Other people living on the same continent (like Canadians and Mexians) can be referred to as
>"North Americans", but not "Americans", because the contintent they live on is "North America",
>not "America".
Wow. This comment has been moderated so high.
Ok, if I was moderating, I would have given it points, but it would have been +1 Funny.
It really says something about the moderators. Maybe they've been watching too many Mel Gibson
movies recently?
There's a nice mix of self-centeredness, ignorance of geography and jingoism.
So, there's a North American continent, and an 'American' continent. Strange, I always though
that is was things like continental plates and land masses which determined a continent,
but I must be wrong, as this poster and some moderators know that it's political boundries.
So, is there a Californian continent?
Hey, wow, now Belgium can be it's own continent!
(Aren't you other citizens of the US of A embarassed of people like that?)
> upon millions of people in this country. And yet some little schmoe from Asshole, Indiana thinks
>that he is so important that the "gummint" has
>got dozens of agents watching his every move and reading every little piece of mail that he gets.
But, it's these sorts of paranoid people that probably are being watched. The FBI does want to
track those people, because those sorts of people are the same type of anti-"gummint" loonys that
blow up FBI buildings, live in WACO style armed compounds.
Now just because only a very small number of these paranoid loonys are dangerous, the FBI will track
all of them, just to be sure.
So what if you're not doing anything illegal? So what if you have a legitimate reason to use
encryption? If you do anything which they think is a bit sus, then let's track you just in case.
Yes, you have nothing to worry about. After all, no-one innocent has EVER been arrested, or ever
been executed, have they?
I think the most important thing is that it has to be fun. People learn the best when they don't
realize they are learning. You need something that is very involving.
My personal opinion is that you should try something which will give them some insight into
how things work at a low level, along the lines of
- programmable controllers, (basic stamp etc...)
- Fred Martin's (et al) Handyboard
http://el.www.media.mit.edu/projects/handy-board/
- Lego mindstorms
(and use Not Quite C)
There's already alot of teachers using this approach, and you can find alot of material online
which you can use.
These items may be a bit expensive, but if youhave project groups of 4 or so, then the cost of
things like the Basic Stamp isn't too high.
You can find info on all most of these thing at www.robotbooks.com. From there you can find
a massive number of useful links, including clubs and other teachers who are already doing this.
>American entertainment from music and movies to video games and television has left me stunned.
>PS; If you've ever lived in a neighborhood were you go to sleep hearing gunshots and wakeup to
>sirens you'll know where I'm coming from. Lakewood, Atlanta, GA.
I agree with you, the amount of violence has made people in the US less sensitive than people from other countries (I'm not from the US).
I lived in San Mateo for a while (I had a nice view of SF international airport, and could see
the planes take off).
A workmate lived just on the edge of East Palo Alto, really just 10 miles down El Camino from me.
Almost every night of the week, she could hear gun shots and police cars. She was hardly concerned
about it. I on the other hand was totally freaked out, and needless to say, I never visited.
Anything that can help to reduce to exposure to violence in the US, IMHO, is a good thing.
>They don't remember having to pay $100 per seat for a TCP/IP stack, or $200 per seat for database
>driver licenses. Microsoft made all that stuff go away.
And I remember the days when the cheapest way to run Unix was to use Xenix, and that cost $3000 for
a single user system.
Now we had Linux, GNU and *BSD, and now Unix is affordable. That had nothing to do with MS.
How about VMS? There was no way anyone could ever afford a VAX and run VMS. DEC (which is was still
DEC and not Compaq) made VMS free for home use.
MS didn't make everything cheaper and better. What happened is that computer hardware got less
expensive, making it more available to developers and then all of the software market had to react or die.
MS TCP/IP became free because there were other companies producing the same thing for less.
Today, a teenager in their bedroom could write atcp/ip stack with a $500 computer.
Back in the early '80s, how many kids could have afforded a $10,000 PC in their bedroom?
If MS, and DEC, etc didn't lower their prices, then they would have died. Oh, hang on, DEC didn't
lower their prices until too late, and they did die.
I was trying out DBI with Oracle before this book came out, and once I got my hands on it, I
quickly devoured it in a matter of hours.
Overall, it was a good giude to get started, but I found that it was a bit short and could have had
a bit more depth and advanced topics.
For example, I was having trouble with updates and building a sql statement with lots of quotes. The
book didn't cover this enough, but I was finally able to work it out by reading through the perl dbi doc.
So, it's a good start, but the dbi perldoc is still needed for a more detailed examples.
>The theory about designer brands as sexual display does not, if I understood codemonkey_uk
>correctly, attempt to explain the specific car-purchasing strategy of each individual
>slashdotter, so it's not really _that_ in
My point is that these were broad sweeping statements. I showed that it does not hold true
for at least one case, therefore, it does not hold true for all cases, thus, it is a simplification
of a complex issue.
It seemed more to be a theory to fit personal and cultural bias, rather than an accepted theory
backed up by independent research.
For exmaple, I could say that all people who drink bottled water do so to impress people and say
"Look at me, I can afford this."
Sound reasonable? But what about people who don't have access to clean drinking water? What about places where the local water supply has many chemicals or metals dissolved in it?
>interesting how fast your car can do zero to sixty(unless for some reason you would like us to know).
Yes, I wanted you to know to help illustrate my point, to help show that there are *other* reasons
than the one so strongly stated. You see, even by looking, you would have never have know, that was
the point. Unless I told everyone I met, my sexual display / social rank display wouldn't be increased.
>When it comes to the depth of this explanation, I wonder at why you say that a psycological explanation is
>deeper than a biological explanation. Wouldn't you say that behavior imposed on us by our instincts and
>hormones is deeper rooted in our brains than behavior imposed on us by society?
Interesting point. It maybe, it may not be. It's a very complex issue. I'm sure for every point you bring up supporting one side, I could bring up a counter point for the other - regardless of which
side you pick.
What does it actually prove? Nothing, really, does it?
(Anyway, I would say that the biological motive for our behaviour was initially the strongest
drive, and is being replaced since the last century as food and shelter has become more
available.)
>there felt like their shit didn't stink, not due to their own merits, but due to the company's. It
>was thought that working at IBM was a kind of Nirvana, unlike any work experience anywhere
Now that you mention that, I realise that there are alot of people at Oracle who think and act
the same way.
I worked for Oracle for 6 years, started in the start of the '90s. Back then Ingress was about
the same size and was a big threat, Oracle had a cash flow problem, and its share price had taken
a big hit. People were on the whole, not full themselves.
Now, Oracle is huge and they dominate their market. Alot of the people who are working in
their Support and Consulting divisions think that the sun shine out of thier backside and they are
gods just because they work for Oracle.
The reality is that Oracle have some really good programmers (I have a friend in the database
development group who is a extremely smart guy (G'day Wim, if you're reading this), but most of
the people in support and consulting are not brightest people on the planet. On the whole,
anyone who is good leaves, either to a compeditor or goes contracting.
If MS goes, that will leave Oracle as the bigest software company in the world..... I wonder if
they will be next (not that I'm aware of them breaking any laws).
>The only reason to buy an expensive car or an SUV is for sexual display. No practical reason at all.
>I am already married and have no need to impress the chicks or the neighbors.
The only reason? A bit over simplistic, don't you think?
I have a Lotus Elise (since it doesn't exist in the US - two seater, open top, 0-60mph in 5.0
sec, very small, no electronic windows, no air cond., no carpet, ). It's not hugely expensive, but alot more than the average car. I've spent more than 1/2 of the purchase price again on
improvements (the standard model is 0-60 in 6.1 sec).
I bought this car AFTER being married for 2 years. So, it's not to pick up chicks (difficult in a 2
seater with your wife in the passanger seat).
I've just bought a house in an expensive area, most of my neighbours have nice cars, even a few
porsche 911's (which are 2-3 the price of my car). So, while my car won't impress my neighbours. If I
wanted to impress them, I should have bought the new 911 turbo (which I can afford, although I'd
need a loan).
Ok, why did I buy it?
I enjoy driving it. Even though I don't get to work any faster than my previous car (a nissan), I
have alot more fun doing it.
Tomorrow, I'm taking it to a racing track in the north of France. I won't be racing, just driving
around it with other Lotus owners (as fast as I'm capable of going, though). The car has already
cost me US$40,000, and I'll probably send another US$10,000 on it changing the breaks and
suspension setup (and maybe a new gearbox).
Of course, even worse for your theory, no-one will ever know that my upgrades have doubled the cost
of the car - it just looks the same as the unmodified version. If I really wanted to show
off, I could have spend the same amount of money an bought a Merc CLK or a Porsche 911.
As I import things from outside the EU all the time, I'll help clear some things up.
The VAT laws differ from country to country. Here in Belgium, I do get charged VAT for books.
There is also VAT on second hand things. I've bought a hp 9000-j210, sun sparc 20 both second
hand from the US, and I've been charged VAT both times. VAT is even charged on the shipping costs,
which really stings when you use DHL to recieve a 30kg HP 9000.
I was even charged VAT on a handy-board (a robot controller thingy) which was marked 'Education Use'.
Almost anything that physically enters the country here is looked at to see if VAT can be charged.
Now, trying to charge me for bits is going to interesting. I can't see how they will even know
about some transactions, let alone charge me.
For example, I could download a c compiler for the handy-board. It's free, but limited. To turn it
into a complete version, I just send them some money, and they will send back a key. If I don't
tell anyone, how will they ever know that I'll have to pay VAT on the incomming bits?
Hmm... what have we got in this post then.....
.....
...... but this post was aggressively stupid.
.....
......
>I am often considered part of the much maligned "intelligentsia"; I'm a professor at the most
>famous Ivy League University (along with being
erk... he ain't one of us... he probably even reads books OTHER than sf (or anything from
O'Reilly).... I better start getting defensive.
>achieved anywhere near the sublime greatness of ``Wild Strawberries'' (a better example for this
Ah, as I expected, there he goes, showing off, giving references to things we know knowthing
about... he even typing in a superior and smug way.
>audience would probably be ``2001''). I do
oh, hold on, he did just mention 2001, so he must at least know a little of geek-dom. Of course, I
personally prefer the sublime greatness of ``Battlestar Galatica''... if only that final
series where they found Earth had never been made, and what was up with that Dr Z kid? I never really
understood that.....
>I usually don't bash J. Katz,
See! I told you he wasn't one of us!
>
hmm, hang on, maybe I was a bit quick to judge...
>Katz often rants
Amen to that brother!
> I thought only geeks were allowed to disagree and have the right not to be stereotyped.
Well, duh. I'm glad you understand the two main priciples of the geek world -
1. Any stereotypical depiction of any group, in particular geeks, is offensive, unjustified and
is a gross over simplification.
2. This does not hold true to jocks, suits, liberal arts type,
>Katz you are full of contradictions. I wish that were the only problem that the post had
Hey, that was a pretty good roasting of Katz. Maybe this guy isn't so bad after all.
Could it be that my preconceived notions and bias against other, non-geek groups may not be correct?
Could my attempts to clasify everyone and everything into segments and label them be an
unjust attempt to try to simplify soceity into concepts with which I can easily cope, and then
give me a justification to be hypocritical and make sweeping generalizations of all things that
are not geek?.....
Naaa....... Jon's a tosser, all liberal arts people are tossers, and geeks rule!
>It isn't quite "pure" flame-bait, as that is my honest opinion, but it surely is a flame-worthy
>message.
Granted, it is an opinion, and anyone is entitled to voice their opinion here. I'd never object to
that.
Positive moderation, on the other hand, should be reserved for on-topic items that actually fit
into the category they're being assigned to.
If I was moderating that day, I would have just left it at its original +1. What really gets me
is that two moderators thought it was worthy of their points. Surely there were better things
(no offense intended to DragonHawk) to spend the point on that day (or 3 days - before the points
expire).
I'd really be dissapointed if this post was ever moderated up, or down for that matter.
>You know, news like this is really depressing. I got on the internet in college before the web.
./
Yes, this is very sad, and very true. For all of us that have been using the internet for 10 years
or more, what is happening these days is a real culture shock.
This is truly the age of the never ending September.
Having said that, I've also greatly benefited from these changes as well. I do the majority of my
purchases on-line these days, and I have access to markets that I could have only dreamed of before
(I'm in Belgium, not as big a marketplace as the US.)
Really, we should just accept that what we have now is a corperate corruption of our old academic
utopia and stop dreaming of the past.
Then again, we also shouldn't just roll over and die. Let's fight the bastards tooth and nail and
try to keep a little of the old spirit.
Long live
Come on, why the hell has this comment been moderated up to +3 insightful?
/.
There's nothing insightful about it, it's just pure flame bait, nothing more, nothing less. All
it says is, Unix good, VMS bad, I want Unix to have all the good things that everything else
does.
I'm a diehard Unix fan myself, but this is really just showing up the bias of
Please, if you're ever willing to moderate, then read the VMS FAQ, and take note of the bit about
'Unix is better than VMS'... it describes this sort of post to the letter.
I hope I find this original comment in meta-moderation. These biased moderators are a shame to the commmunity.
>This is simply not true. When I was a little geek with my Amiga, me and my friends used to speculate
>what this fabled UNIX, Internet and TCP/IP was all about. There was no way a small time
>enthousiast could access a UNIX system outside of academia or business until Linux came along.
Almost.
There were Unix like operating systems around. While something like Xenix was rather expensive,
it wasn't totally out of everyone's reach - but there were other alternatives.
There was (R.I.P) a version of Unix from Mark Williams Company called Coherent. It wasn't a
complete implementation of Unix, alot of the networking side was missing, but what was there
was extremely good. The manual was worth the cost alone - the best book on Unix I've ever seen.
It cost only US$200, and it existed before Linux. It had a good version of UUCP - the only way to
get on to the internet via dialup in the old days.
For sure, it was the best version of Unix I ever ran on my '286 with 1M of RAM.
In fact, I only switched to Linux (about 10 disks with version 0.99) after Coherent was being
dropped by MWC.
It's even worse than that! You forgot to count -
The video CD version, recorded in a cinema, and available in Europe months before the movie opens.
The CLV laser disc edition.
The CAV laser disc edition.
The CLV laser disc special edition.
The CAV laser disc special edition.
Someone, tell them to stop it all! I'm such a weak minded person that they all able to FORCE me
to spend all of my money on Star Wars.
Quick, I better get on to the next article, so I can again complain there about how all of these evil empires are controlling my brain and telling me what to do.
Hey, and it also seems to be a good karma-whore device..... sheesh... +5 for the above.....
>use the words "legal liability"
Yes. That's it. I think they might find themselves in alot of trouble over this.
If any of you students out there are victimized by your school due to wave, I am willing to assist in helping to pay to sue your school for violation of your civil rights. Hopefully other people here
would be willing to do the same and all of the legal costs could be covered.
I can't even believe that this sort of thing could be legal.
I'm also concerned about this. I'm very worried about the impact it will have on other segments
of the industry, and other related industries.
For example, what will happen to Will Smith? He calls himself the Microsoft of the rap world.
Does thie mean Big Will is going to have to be broken up to form a lot of Small Willies ?
I think that in most cases, there will be much of a conflict.
If it's a small company vs a large company, the small company will get squashed in an instant.
If it's a high profile non-profit vs large company, then the we may end up with etoy/etoys
fight.
The most interesting one where there will cause a crisus, or at least alot of lawyers getting rich,
will be large company vs large company - although I expect we will only see a few of these battles.