Sounds really nice. A good solution for cities.
Does it have a gateway to the net at large? If so, when is one coming to New York, and where do I sign up?
I'm not saying "delay the stories". But stories DO spend some time in the queue as it is, so why not let the readers who take active interest vote on them while they're there? That way, by the time an editor sees one, he has an indication how the slashdot crowd will react to the story. Might also give sites a warning that they're about to be slashdotted:)
Well, spelling is not really as big a problem. Stories still get understood, even if the spelling is off. After all, slashdot never tried to be a professional news agency. More of a forum, with all of its inherent flaws.
However public polling on posted stories is something i think that/. could use.
I agree... there should be something that lets users view post submissions, and vote on them.
One vote per submission, can't vote on your own submission, and a minimumkarma pre-requisite for a vote (so that new/inactive users and dummy accounts can't vote).
Then the editors can see what people want front-paged, and will be free to follow public opinion based on their own judgement.
By the way, Half-Empty has something of the sort, except they take it to the extreme of letting most anyone instant-post a story.
That's what I'm saying. For that kind of money you can get a half-decent desktop PC (minus the monitor, which they don't include anyway) which you could then network in with your notebook. Want storage? Share a drive. Want DVD? Share a drive.
Pretty simple.
Am I the only one to have forseen this?
I mean what were the chances that this thing was actually gonna get a thorough unbiased review? The best you could hope for in this situation was to get someone biased against Carnivore.
I think that anyone even interested in reviewing it would have to be biased one way or the other. And of course it's no surprise which side the FBI decided to go with.
I think that by breeding the strain of fungus that has the slashdot coloration (the #006666 strain), we can save a bunch of money on the painting costs. Just launch that succer in space, and let 'er mutate!
I know that a small set of tld's is a completely artificial and contrived concept, but I think that many people have gotten used to the limited choices when it comes to finishing that URL:
slashdot.org?
slashdot.com?
slashdot.net?
Now with all these new proposals (if they are accepted anyway), it seems like there will be a substantial period of confusion in waiting for the dust to settle.
Of course international users are more used to this with all the country code TLDs outthere...
Well, public kiosks WOULD decrease the entry cost, simply if you go on a "per-user" basis. One kiosk would be able to be used by many people (as is the case right now in libraries).
And the internet is not an idea that is strictly tied to any particular herdware/software combo, which is what made it so prevalent.
Ad for controlling the pipes, yes that is an issue. But one that I believe can be resolved, if an independent entity were in charge of such things, that would be funded by the government, but would not have their operational policies dictadet from above.
I think a future where citizenship entitles one to a shell account with 10 megs of hard drive is not all that impossible.
But you really can get on the 'net for free or
nearly free, even if you're homeless.
Was it a solar powered Mac SE/30 then?:)
I actually do agree that where there is a will there is a way, but i will insist that such accessible solutions offere a limited subset of what is available to, say, the slashdot croud.
Because there's only so much you can do with a hotmail account. And what about the talk to censor the libraries' terminals? Right now, the public terminals do offer a limited portions of the internet to the masses, but unfortunately due to privacy and security issues, the experience available at the library is a quite small subset of what slashdotters have come to take for granted.
Yes, but that's exactly the kind of community that internet claims not to be. The appeal of the internet is that both Bill Gates and Joe Shmo have an email address, and the ability to post on slashdot. (Though bill will probably be moderated down as a Troll by the zealots:)
Internet is lauded as a break from the old school of thought where exclusive clubs dominated. You are who you chose to be on the net, and once the entry barrier is breached, your financial snading matters not at all.
That is both the promise of the net to the masses and the threat to the established order of things.
This is a perfect example of the need for a site where people will be able to see pending patents and offer submitions that show examples of prior art for something that is obviously a bogus "innovation"
I can see it now. There can be a dedicated watchdog that would chack that site regularly and post whenever something ludicrous appears there. Then all slashdotters would go and swamp the site with outraged messages the PTO would find it difficult to plead ignorance then.
All true, but what chance do you think exists that someone who cannot affort anthing speedier than a 486 or a pentium will be able to set up Linux on that box (BEFORE having connected to the internet).
Also, I may be wrong on this, but isn't it rather tricky to find a free ISP that supports linux nowadays?
I think the entry cost associated with joining the "vitrual community" (I hate that buzzword) of the Internet, cannot really be held against it. In practice, yes, it does prevent the poor and the uneducated from participating in the life online.
However, this is not something that is inherent to the idea of the internet, rather it is a flaw that evolved during its implementation.
If internet was accessible through public kiosks throughout the world, and everyone would be allocated personal space to use as their own hard drive, the idea of the internet would not be changed. Just becasue currently you must have your own computer to participate, does not mean that the principles of open communications have failed to provide uniform access to the underpriveleged. Rather, it can be said that no scheme has been developed yet to tap the full potential of the equality offered by the open information system that is the internet.
Ok. So being able to read the first part of a book online does have its charms. There are many arguments along the lines of knowing what your're getting into before paying for getting into it.
But releasing the whole book in PDF? That seems kind of self defeating. I think even the most hardcore slashdotters will agree that most of the charm of books is that you can put one in your bag and carry it anywhere, and that you can hold it, and physically flip the pages.
PDF is for spec sheets and boring manuals (though i personally prefer HTML in those instances). But regardless, i think that the electronic book format is cool as a supplement, say if you wanted to search for something, etc. But needing a decent speed PC with you should not be a prerequisite to reading a book. Nor is printing out a good solution if you ask me.
After all, you can't put a PDF file on a shelf with the proud satisfaction of having finished it, so it can stand there until you recommend it to your kids or lend it to a friend.
If it's that good, I really hope they decide to publish it old-school.
The way i see it, apple is missing the point. OK, i can see why someone would do one click shopping in a huge book store with a large return rate of customers. When I signed up for amazon, it wasn't just to buy a copy of hitchhiker's guide, it was because i knew that i'd be coming back to buy more books. In this case the convenience of a one-click purchase makes sense: I may not want to come back and log in every time, and then go through checkout. Or at least if i'm my mom i don't wanna do that.
But here you have a place to buy computers. I mean how realistic is it that i, when buying an iMac will forsee the need for more iMacs at a frequency that would warrant me not wanting to put in my login name and password?
"Listed potential
applications include roll-up keyboards (hey, I have news for them: it's already been done)"
I don't think the redundancy should really worry anyone on Slashdot...
Hey, I heard there's a CNET news article about a wireless device by Sony called the airboard. It's not completely flat though, so it's probably a counter-top appliance, rather than a knee-top...
Digital Convergence, a firm specializing in the manufacture and distribution of 'barcode' scanners called the "Cue Cat", has sent out cease and decist letters to the manufacturers of convinience and grocery store equipment. A 'barcode' is a series of parallel lines of various thickness that Digital Convergence has developed for the use of uniquely identifying an item.
"We have spent five years coming up with the idea of letting people identify an item by a 'bar code' printed on it", said the company's Vice President of Technology, "And now, these costly years of research are in danger of being wasted because of all these companies trying to profit from our great idea"
The official further noted that by allowing the scanning of these 'barcodes' by third party hardware, the manufacturers of these machines are effectively undermining Digital Convergence's revenue stream, and "stealing away [our] market share".
No comment could be obtained from the companies that received the Cease and Desist letters, and no request for an interview was answered by press time."
As awlays, the media finds the dumbest possible way to explain the technology news...
make it legal to create a digital
copy of a recording, known as an MP3 file, after first proving ownership of the
music. Consumers would then be able to send that file over the Internet and listen
to the digital copy from a remote location.
Isn't it the archiving of music that the bill will make legal? And isn't the whole point that a business will create and store the digital copy instead of a consumer? And upon proof of ownership, won't the consumer be able to access the file, rather than send it?
Great job dumbing it down, CNN. Perhaps you can tell us about an extremely dangerous program called DeCSS that allows vicious pirates to make illegal copies of DVDs?
Slashdot Mirror
So what about all those irridium sattelites? Or have they burned up already? :)
If not, well, this may be a good "cheap" network in the sky.
Sounds really nice. A good solution for cities. Does it have a gateway to the net at large? If so, when is one coming to New York, and where do I sign up?
I'm not saying "delay the stories". But stories DO spend some time in the queue as it is, so why not let the readers who take active interest vote on them while they're there? That way, by the time an editor sees one, he has an indication how the slashdot crowd will react to the story. Might also give sites a warning that they're about to be slashdotted :)
However public polling on posted stories is something i think that /. could use.
Is there a chance that people have been secretly exploiting this for some time? Can it be used to gain unfair advantage in trading?
By the way, Half-Empty has something of the sort, except they take it to the extreme of letting most anyone instant-post a story.
That's what I'm saying. For that kind of money you can get a half-decent desktop PC (minus the monitor, which they don't include anyway) which you could then network in with your notebook. Want storage? Share a drive. Want DVD? Share a drive. Pretty simple.
Only a thought.
And what's wrong with networking your laptop to your Desktop? All the drives and services like printing can be shared through ethernet...
This device sounds like that lollypop watch invention on "The Simpsons".
I think that anyone even interested in reviewing it would have to be biased one way or the other. And of course it's no surprise which side the FBI decided to go with.
I think that by breeding the strain of fungus that has the slashdot coloration (the #006666 strain), we can save a bunch of money on the painting costs. Just launch that succer in space, and let 'er mutate!
Of course international users are more used to this with all the country code TLDs outthere...
Just my two cents.
And the internet is not an idea that is strictly tied to any particular herdware/software combo, which is what made it so prevalent.
Ad for controlling the pipes, yes that is an issue. But one that I believe can be resolved, if an independent entity were in charge of such things, that would be funded by the government, but would not have their operational policies dictadet from above.
I think a future where citizenship entitles one to a shell account with 10 megs of hard drive is not all that impossible.
Was it a solar powered Mac SE/30 then? :)
I actually do agree that where there is a will there is a way, but i will insist that such accessible solutions offere a limited subset of what is available to, say, the slashdot croud.
Because there's only so much you can do with a hotmail account. And what about the talk to censor the libraries' terminals? Right now, the public terminals do offer a limited portions of the internet to the masses, but unfortunately due to privacy and security issues, the experience available at the library is a quite small subset of what slashdotters have come to take for granted.
Internet is lauded as a break from the old school of thought where exclusive clubs dominated. You are who you chose to be on the net, and once the entry barrier is breached, your financial snading matters not at all.
That is both the promise of the net to the masses and the threat to the established order of things.
I can see it now. There can be a dedicated watchdog that would chack that site regularly and post whenever something ludicrous appears there. Then all slashdotters would go and swamp the site with outraged messages the PTO would find it difficult to plead ignorance then.
Also, I may be wrong on this, but isn't it rather tricky to find a free ISP that supports linux nowadays?
However, this is not something that is inherent to the idea of the internet, rather it is a flaw that evolved during its implementation.
If internet was accessible through public kiosks throughout the world, and everyone would be allocated personal space to use as their own hard drive, the idea of the internet would not be changed. Just becasue currently you must have your own computer to participate, does not mean that the principles of open communications have failed to provide uniform access to the underpriveleged. Rather, it can be said that no scheme has been developed yet to tap the full potential of the equality offered by the open information system that is the internet.
But releasing the whole book in PDF? That seems kind of self defeating. I think even the most hardcore slashdotters will agree that most of the charm of books is that you can put one in your bag and carry it anywhere, and that you can hold it, and physically flip the pages.
PDF is for spec sheets and boring manuals (though i personally prefer HTML in those instances). But regardless, i think that the electronic book format is cool as a supplement, say if you wanted to search for something, etc. But needing a decent speed PC with you should not be a prerequisite to reading a book. Nor is printing out a good solution if you ask me.
After all, you can't put a PDF file on a shelf with the proud satisfaction of having finished it, so it can stand there until you recommend it to your kids or lend it to a friend.
If it's that good, I really hope they decide to publish it old-school.
But here you have a place to buy computers. I mean how realistic is it that i, when buying an iMac will forsee the need for more iMacs at a frequency that would warrant me not wanting to put in my login name and password?
Not very likely...
I don't think the redundancy should really worry anyone on Slashdot...
Hey, I heard there's a CNET news article about a wireless device by Sony called the airboard. It's not completely flat though, so it's probably a counter-top appliance, rather than a knee-top...
"New York, Sept. 28, 2000
Digital Convergence, a firm specializing in the manufacture and distribution of 'barcode' scanners called the "Cue Cat", has sent out cease and decist letters to the manufacturers of convinience and grocery store equipment. A 'barcode' is a series of parallel lines of various thickness that Digital Convergence has developed for the use of uniquely identifying an item.
"We have spent five years coming up with the idea of letting people identify an item by a 'bar code' printed on it", said the company's Vice President of Technology, "And now, these costly years of research are in danger of being wasted because of all these companies trying to profit from our great idea"
The official further noted that by allowing the scanning of these 'barcodes' by third party hardware, the manufacturers of these machines are effectively undermining Digital Convergence's revenue stream, and "stealing away [our] market share".
No comment could be obtained from the companies that received the Cease and Desist letters, and no request for an interview was answered by press time."
Great job dumbing it down, CNN. Perhaps you can tell us about an extremely dangerous program called DeCSS that allows vicious pirates to make illegal copies of DVDs?