I'll probably pick up a copy of this- it's an important issue. Frankly, we're probably getting to a point that time management needs to be addressed in early education, because we all need some principles just to get through the day.
I tend to agree with you, but I think it's a long ways off.
If you look at the economy, we're (potentially) on the verge of a 2nd great depression. That's because the people that ran companies around the great depression are now 1 or 2 generations removed from the people that run the things now. The new people just don't have any concept of the Great Depression, and just see ways to make money, and now we're winding up in a similar boat.
Right now Google is helmed by people that are incredibly smart and chant "don't be evil"... what happens in the 2nd or 3rd generation of management 40 years down the line? Will the montra still be there? I bet not.
This seems like more of a kids prank, really. Unless you have a network of people around the country / world doing the same thing, you're only going to effect a very small number of people. You can't do this to build a botnet, which seems to be the goal of most virus writers these days.
I don't know how they are creating this algae, but I think we'd run into a similar problem as ethanol, where you'd need to devote so much land to growing that actually using the algae as a replacement for petroleum isn't feasible, plus the question- are you actually getting more energy out than you are putting in?
And you'd still have lots of greenhouse gases, too.
I predict the system will be used to knock off a few thousand from the price of the car. Can't quite afford $30,000? well, take it for $25,000 and listen to messages.
Targeted advertising like that is big business. Toyota/Lexus could easily make back any discounts they give out.
I don't think you can blame anyone- it's a series of seperate systems that are just doing what they are designed to do. The problem is none of the systems are smart enough to have a check to them (and at this point, I'm not sure what kind of an automated check could have stopped this). No one system did anything wrong... if anything, everything worked just as it should have.
The scary thing here is just how complex things have gotten. Who could have seen this coming? I think we're really hitting a critical mass (The Subprime crisis is also part of this, and in some ways, global warming) where complexities have gotten beyond our control, and weird things like this will happen.
I do tech support for an older guy (he's about 80) who used to work as a garment importer. By all accounts, he's a progressive, open minded guy. We were talking one day and he said that China is portrayed incorrectly here- Yes, workers over there don't make as much as we do, but to live the good life, they don't really have to.
He said he had spent some time in China, and saw that the general public was actually living pretty well. Yes, there are human rights violations, and the government there is oppressive, but there are some things (I think Apple is probably a good example) that look bad at the outset, but from the point of view of the workers there, are OK.
Part of the problem, I think, is we are equating a dollar amount to life quality, and I don't think it is too simple- there's cultural differences here, and there is simply scale in general.... while we think working 15 hour days is ridiculous, let's keep in mind that a lot of people in China pray for any employment... remember that China's population is measured in BILLIONS- there's just not enough work to go around.
I think I would have done a closed, invite-only beta before going live with this thing... two of the four searches I just tried came back with nothing, and almost all the images that came back with the articles were not relevant.
What could be cool is the automatic synopsis they have going on... if they can make that work a little better, it could be a good place to go for some quick information on a topic.
That reminds me- in jr. high, we had a bonus question on a science test: "What will be the first country to land on Mars?" The teacher warned us it was a trick question. The correct answer was, of course "Multiple countries will have to work together."
However, one very special girl answered "Countries can't move." She never lived it down.
There's also the sheer money angle here. If you release it at a point where it's not going to bust any machines (which it didn't when it shipped, for the most part), then you ship it, start bringing in the money for it, and then continue to work on it while you still have a stream of income. Now Apple doesn't have to worry about this all that much, as OS X isn't a cash-cow for the company (honestly, I don't know why they charge for it at all). M
Also important in this case: Get the hot new OS (that kicks Vista's ass) into the marketplace well before Christmas, so the buzz can get out and those consumers that are on the fence between Mac and PC will have another point towards the Mac. ("Oh, both companies released a new OS this year, and the Mac one is getting better press...")
and I think your comment gets to the heart of what the OLPC is supposed to be- a liberating device that can bring the internet to everyone, regardless of geographic location... what if one of these kids turns out to have the brainpower of an Einstein or a Hawking? If they have internet access, the world may be able to recognize them in ways that it couldn't before.
Don't be so sure... A lot of other countries are eyeing the moon and beyond now, and the US isn't going to let the final frontier go. It would be a gigantic tactical mistake. Even if Orion doesn't do a lot, it's important to keep our foot in the door in case China makes some serious headway with their own program, which seems likely to me.
I've been considering a vacation to PR for a few years, and seeing this thing is on my list of awesome things to try to see. Guess I should hurry;)
I was actually there in early 2006, and I have to say it was really well worth it. It's hard to put into words how HUGE it is. The attached Museum is also quite nice- it even includes a small sliver of the moon, which was a bonus for me.
unless there is some other technology that comes along and blows this telescope out of the water, it really is in our best interests to keep it running.
you know how antibiotics have a huge downside, in that the infection can evolve and become resistant? There's a similar downside to the RIAA's tactics with regard to torrents- now that everything is heading towards being encrypted, it's going to create a (somewhat) safe haven for child pornography to skip through undetected. If the traffic can't be monitored at all, then people you really are trafficking something terrible are going to be able to do it more easily.
I know that traditionally Apple has held onto it's OS because they are a hardware company, not a software company. In the past, I have understood that... they are not a company that is going head-to-head with MS.
However, in the same way that the iPod won over a lot of users to the Mac, what if they offered OS X for PC users with LIMITED support- meaning they only support specific hardware, and they will only sell OS X stand alone, not pre-installed through Dell or someone else. That would give people a taste of the OS, and for anyone other than the hobbiests, push them towards the hardware...
The Presentation tool isn't bad- simple interface, but there's a limited number of themes, and it looks like no way to create your own, other than uploading an existing PowerPoint deck. It also doesn't support transitions. However, the integrated sharing ability is what really make this a winner. If anyone is shaking in their boots, it should be WebEx, as this makes it much easier to view a deck than using their software.
Still, it seems that the adoption of Google's tools is pretty slow. Most people I talk to are still skeptical of them.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll probably pick up a copy of this- it's an important issue. Frankly, we're probably getting to a point that time management needs to be addressed in early education, because we all need some principles just to get through the day.
I tend to agree with you, but I think it's a long ways off.
If you look at the economy, we're (potentially) on the verge of a 2nd great depression. That's because the people that ran companies around the great depression are now 1 or 2 generations removed from the people that run the things now. The new people just don't have any concept of the Great Depression, and just see ways to make money, and now we're winding up in a similar boat.
Right now Google is helmed by people that are incredibly smart and chant "don't be evil"... what happens in the 2nd or 3rd generation of management 40 years down the line? Will the montra still be there? I bet not.
This seems like more of a kids prank, really. Unless you have a network of people around the country / world doing the same thing, you're only going to effect a very small number of people. You can't do this to build a botnet, which seems to be the goal of most virus writers these days.
And today I learned something!
I don't know how they are creating this algae, but I think we'd run into a similar problem as ethanol, where you'd need to devote so much land to growing that actually using the algae as a replacement for petroleum isn't feasible, plus the question- are you actually getting more energy out than you are putting in?
And you'd still have lots of greenhouse gases, too.
I predict the system will be used to knock off a few thousand from the price of the car. Can't quite afford $30,000? well, take it for $25,000 and listen to messages.
Targeted advertising like that is big business. Toyota/Lexus could easily make back any discounts they give out.
Actually, i got married about three weeks ago...
I don't.
...I don't use computers. They are too much of a security risk.
I don't think you can blame anyone- it's a series of seperate systems that are just doing what they are designed to do. The problem is none of the systems are smart enough to have a check to them (and at this point, I'm not sure what kind of an automated check could have stopped this). No one system did anything wrong... if anything, everything worked just as it should have.
The scary thing here is just how complex things have gotten. Who could have seen this coming? I think we're really hitting a critical mass (The Subprime crisis is also part of this, and in some ways, global warming) where complexities have gotten beyond our control, and weird things like this will happen.
KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid
I do tech support for an older guy (he's about 80) who used to work as a garment importer. By all accounts, he's a progressive, open minded guy. We were talking one day and he said that China is portrayed incorrectly here- Yes, workers over there don't make as much as we do, but to live the good life, they don't really have to.
He said he had spent some time in China, and saw that the general public was actually living pretty well. Yes, there are human rights violations, and the government there is oppressive, but there are some things (I think Apple is probably a good example) that look bad at the outset, but from the point of view of the workers there, are OK. Part of the problem, I think, is we are equating a dollar amount to life quality, and I don't think it is too simple- there's cultural differences here, and there is simply scale in general.... while we think working 15 hour days is ridiculous, let's keep in mind that a lot of people in China pray for any employment... remember that China's population is measured in BILLIONS- there's just not enough work to go around.
I think I would have done a closed, invite-only beta before going live with this thing... two of the four searches I just tried came back with nothing, and almost all the images that came back with the articles were not relevant.
What could be cool is the automatic synopsis they have going on... if they can make that work a little better, it could be a good place to go for some quick information on a topic.
They still have a long way to go, though.
this time, it's with "One Infinite Loop"
That reminds me- in jr. high, we had a bonus question on a science test: "What will be the first country to land on Mars?" The teacher warned us it was a trick question. The correct answer was, of course "Multiple countries will have to work together."
However, one very special girl answered "Countries can't move." She never lived it down.
There's also the sheer money angle here. If you release it at a point where it's not going to bust any machines (which it didn't when it shipped, for the most part), then you ship it, start bringing in the money for it, and then continue to work on it while you still have a stream of income. Now Apple doesn't have to worry about this all that much, as OS X isn't a cash-cow for the company (honestly, I don't know why they charge for it at all).
M
Also important in this case: Get the hot new OS (that kicks Vista's ass) into the marketplace well before Christmas, so the buzz can get out and those consumers that are on the fence between Mac and PC will have another point towards the Mac. ("Oh, both companies released a new OS this year, and the Mac one is getting better press...")
and I think your comment gets to the heart of what the OLPC is supposed to be- a liberating device that can bring the internet to everyone, regardless of geographic location... what if one of these kids turns out to have the brainpower of an Einstein or a Hawking? If they have internet access, the world may be able to recognize them in ways that it couldn't before.
Don't be so sure... A lot of other countries are eyeing the moon and beyond now, and the US isn't going to let the final frontier go. It would be a gigantic tactical mistake. Even if Orion doesn't do a lot, it's important to keep our foot in the door in case China makes some serious headway with their own program, which seems likely to me.
I've been considering a vacation to PR for a few years, and seeing this thing is on my list of awesome things to try to see. Guess I should hurry ;)
I was actually there in early 2006, and I have to say it was really well worth it. It's hard to put into words how HUGE it is. The attached Museum is also quite nice- it even includes a small sliver of the moon, which was a bonus for me.
unless there is some other technology that comes along and blows this telescope out of the water, it really is in our best interests to keep it running.
No, the whole thing is a prank... did you see the name of the thing? "Jaekelopterus rhenania" that's not far from "Jackelope".
Something tells me there's a paleontologist that woke up one day and said "oh fuck it- they'll believe anything we say."
you know how antibiotics have a huge downside, in that the infection can evolve and become resistant? There's a similar downside to the RIAA's tactics with regard to torrents- now that everything is heading towards being encrypted, it's going to create a (somewhat) safe haven for child pornography to skip through undetected. If the traffic can't be monitored at all, then people you really are trafficking something terrible are going to be able to do it more easily.
"If anyone feels a super villain coming on"
Like in a bar? should I be worried about getting touched by evil people? Are genetically modified mice really my only line of defense?
I know that traditionally Apple has held onto it's OS because they are a hardware company, not a software company. In the past, I have understood that... they are not a company that is going head-to-head with MS.
However, in the same way that the iPod won over a lot of users to the Mac, what if they offered OS X for PC users with LIMITED support- meaning they only support specific hardware, and they will only sell OS X stand alone, not pre-installed through Dell or someone else. That would give people a taste of the OS, and for anyone other than the hobbiests, push them towards the hardware...
I really hope they continue this series somehow....
Did you play through Ep2 yet? I'd say there's a 99% chance Gordon winds up with a portal gun in Ep3.
replying because I meant to mod you "insightful" but hit "Redundant" by mistake...
The Presentation tool isn't bad- simple interface, but there's a limited number of themes, and it looks like no way to create your own, other than uploading an existing PowerPoint deck. It also doesn't support transitions. However, the integrated sharing ability is what really make this a winner. If anyone is shaking in their boots, it should be WebEx, as this makes it much easier to view a deck than using their software.
Still, it seems that the adoption of Google's tools is pretty slow. Most people I talk to are still skeptical of them.