Only one person in the world has ever claimed to have met him - in the pressroom at Microsoft Devshed Conference in Boston complete with a Roland Pipaquelle badge - and described him as a fortyish reddish-blonde who giggled a lot.
Oh yeah? Wonder what cold crème he uses. Rolland Pipaquelle is a 61-year-old Jehovah's Witness who lives in a shabby genteel garden apartment in desperate need of an interior decorator on a heavily trafficked commercial road at nnnn XXXXXXXXX XXX. XXXXXX, New York. XXXXXX is in XXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXX is Microsoft territory.
[snip]
Stop that! This is silly! Really! There is no room for this kind of silliness on Slashdot! Now... go home! And stop it!;P
...of having Asperger's, but frankly I just don't get it. Sure, I have had the typical social problems that most "geeks" have had, but I'm not a geek, I'm an artist. I am also pretty singly obsessed with only a few non-social activities (computers and composing music). But I also happen to like sex a whole lot. So, to all those who think I lack social skills, get a grip. I just like being sarcastic and snarky and I don't like most people. If that gets me classified as having a disorder that needs to be treated, I think I'll go pos[tt]al.
I don't like story arcs. I like self contained sotries that I can jump in and out of without having to devote my life the watching the show. Of course, I didn't like B5 either. Most of it's fan base was too pretentious. I'm also not really into character based stuff. I want to see more focus on technology and the social effects. For example, the idea of nanotech eliminating all poverty but possibly causing new problems. That's intriguing.
But, but, but... Like one of the posters above said, never underestimate corporate greed. This will rise from the dead. Will those prisoners rise again? I see a movie in this somewhere...
Well played sir! And for your next act will you question my sexuality, make disparaging remarks about the female members of my family and threaten to challenge me to a pugilist's duel?
Ahhh.. but you make the mistake of thinking that the Cadbury site is an appropriate answer. I don't give a rat's ass about marketing or consumerism. I want a list of answers that might possibly provide me with EXACTLy what I'm looking for and Google does just that. If I WANTED to look at the Cadbury site, I'd just type http://www.cadbury.co.uk./ The worst search results are the ones peppered with links to related (or worse, unrelated) businesses that provide no useful info. A search engine is a research tool, not a marketing tool. At least Google repsects that and keeps the commerce links off to the side where they can be deservedly ignored.
Ahhh... but young grasshoppa!!! You forget. This is Slashdot where the masses of lonely and frustrated (sexually and otherwise) know-it-alls attempt to carve out a meager corner of the net in which they "rule". Take a step back and look at the big picture. How many times have you seen the gigantic flamewars that can be predictably started here on Slashdot by pointing out just a few basic topics. Here's an example:
1. Most people are terrible drivers. There is a lot of evidence to prove this including a recent studdy that shows that many people couldn't even pass the driving exam if they had to retake it. This is especially true of the younger 18-24 male demographic. They have this mistaken notion that "might makes right" and just because they have a bigger or faster vehicle, that they can do as they please on the roads. Speed limits? These people think that speed limits are a road hazard as are the people who follow them. Personally, I prefer to follow the rules of the road to a tee because they were created by people who know a thing or two about traffic. That means that I will go 55 MPH in a 55 zone and stay in the center or right lane depending on my needs. This means that these butt fucked morons have the ability to legally pass me on the left. But they insist on tail gating because they *think* they can make me go faster. What is that saying again? Misery loves company? Their driving records are probably so abyssmal and their insurance premiums so sky high that they want everyone else to be just like them. Sorry, but I'm happy following the law, keeping a clean driving record and paying reasonable insurance premiums due to my safe driver status.
Another topic that will bring the ire of these ignorant and lonely geeks is politics. Whooo boy, some of the flamefest that arise from these! Let's take the previous subject and link it with politics for a start:
2. You know what I've noticed? Every moronic driver on the road that insists on taligating me until he gets tired enough to swerve around me has a Bush/Cheney sticker or American flag sticker on his guzzlemobile. Why is that? I think it says a lot about the right-wing politics in this country. From what I can see, the neocon right is largely made of people who live in fear. They fear terrorism. They fear black people. They fear gays. They fear the tumbling of the U.S. into complete irrelevance on the world stage. Fear, fear, fear, fear,fear. So they buy these big cars in order to "protect" themselves from their own inabilities to deal with the road properly. How many times have you seen Kerry stickers on SUVs and Hummers? Now compare that with the frequency of any of the myriad of Bush/Cheney or right-wing propaganda. Startling, isn't it? A political party completely built upon fear. They are willing to believe any lies fed to them by the right-wing media. If Fox says it, it MUST be true!!! Who's looking out for you!!!??
Then we have the subject of suits vs. techies. That's alway sgood for a laugh:
3. The PHBs who read this site have little hope of ever really "getting it" when it comes to technology. Sure, they throw around the right buzzwords and talk about "visions" and "mission statements", but what do they really do all day? Meanwhile the techies are running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to implement these lame "visions" using junk technology like Flash, Dream Weaver, or (god forbid) Access. The techies actually "get" technology. And if given the chance, they could make the world shine. But the suits come in wherever there is money to be made and stamp down the people who do the real work. They only follow the market trends that will apparently lead to the most profit no matter how technologically flawed they are. This business isn't about money folks! It's about technology and making life easier for EVERYONE. Until people get that, we're going to be stuck in thie quagmire vicious cycle of "visioneering" and fixing stale shit software
I am sorry for that oversight. I've been around these imperial 'Muhricuhns for too long, they are starting to rot my brain and make me forget that people in the U.K. read Slashdot.
Since it's become "hip" to bash Google these days and support either MSN's search technology or Yahoo, I'm making a pre-emptive strike for the IT fashionistas:
"Duh!!! The best machine translator in the world already exists and there can be no improving upon it! Babblefish (thank you Altavista) has been doing this for well nigh a decade. All you Johnny-come-latelys are probably going to rave on with fanboy adoration of Google (the company that can do no wrong)!!! To top it all off, you lot apparently know nothing about Microsoft's language transtlation project which is slated to be deployed as part of Longhorny in 2010. Online language translation from Google will fail because Microsoft will have it built into the OS itself. Why send your document online for translation when the OS itself will not only translate it, but it will correct the grammar, punctuation and generate a WMA file in one of ten thousand gorgeously rendered synthetic voices. Google has lost. Google as been trolled. Google will have a nice day".
We now return you to your regularly scheduled pos[tt]en.
...SciFi persist in making these dreary, crappy, rehashed programs when there are already ton's of decent programs out there in the SciFi vein? Where is Doctor Who 2005 for example? If anything, there should be a presentation of that wonderful series here in the U.S. I've been watching it via eDonkey since no channels here seem to be enlightened enough to show it. A pox on SciFi because they also ruined and then killed off Sliders as well. That was one of the only other science fiction programs that the U.S. has made in recent decades that was worth anything.
But no... American SciFi audiences have been high jacked by the action/adventure crowd. Think about how lame most science fiction is today. Almost 100% of it is war stories or action movies set in the future with a bunch of lame CGI FX. It could be so much better if the focus was on speculative fiction which extrapolates REAL science with REAL social issues and shows us what COULD be if we all band together and work hard to make the future a better place for everyone regardless of who they are (except for the non-transhumanist troglodytes who should jus[tt] be evolved out of existence).
Every show that I've seen come out of the SciFi channel as an "original" has sucked ass. Every series that started out on another network with great promise has been ruined and then unceremoniously killed by SciFi (Sliders, SG-1, Andromeda, etc...). They also seem to be completely missing the boat where their audience is concerned. The channel should be split into two channels: SciFi Prime and SciFi Classic. SciFi Prime can show what they believe to be the best science fiction that they produce. SciFi Classic can show the best science fiction of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Why don't they show Night Stalker anymore? What about the original Outer Limits? What about Lost in Space? Where are all the greats of science fiction like "The Angry Red Planet", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers (50s)", "Forbidden Planet (or anything with Robby the Robot)", or even Have Rocket Will Travel??? There are tons of good science fiction films that are completely ignored by this stupid network. West World, Logan's Run (both the film and the series), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (both the Buster Crab and Gil Gerard vehicles), The Andromeda Strain, Woody Allen's Sleeper is even a better science fiction film than anything SciFi has ever originally made!!!
I hate the SciFi channel!!! They've ruined science fiction for the current generation. Ray Bradbury was the god of science fiction writing!!!! Long live Philip K. Dick!!!! Viva la Heinlein!!!!!!!!!
You are obviously completely without a clue. On the road to transhumanism, there will likely be mistakes just as there were with early medical sciences. However, considering the much more advanced technologies we have today in comparison to early doctors, the mistakes are less likely to be as widely spread. As our technology improves and the human animal is evolved forward in a synergy with machine, the small minded, like yourself, will be relegated to primitive 21st century lifestyles. The man/machine hybrid is the way of the future. We are simply augmenting both man and machine. Man will acquire perfection of thought, enhancement of intellect and senses and machine will acquire emotion, compassion and the most important force of all: LOVE. A machine that is capable of loving will be the ultimate expression of life. A man that is capable of being simultaneously throughout the universe is the ultimate expression of life. But your puny mind is too primitive to comprehend that. And that is the same for others who scoff at metaman. Remember that at one point there was a day when people scoffed at men flying. Today they do it by the billions. Transhumanists are simply doing what the most enlightened men of every age have always done: improving and augmenting the human animal. Without our machines we are nothing. Without us, our machines are nothing. Together we will expand throughout the universe on a mission of peace to help other races to evolve in the same way. Those who wish to not participate can lead their pedestrian lives with limited lifespans. Those who wisely choose to join with us will take the next step in the evolution of the entire universe!! Join us now!!! In the end we will be right!!!!! All those who scoffed will be dead matter in the ground, but se shall persist for the whole of time from the beginning of the universe to the end of existence!!!!!!!!!!! EXTERMINATE!!!!!! EXTERMINAAAAAAATE!!!!!!!!!! EXTERMINAAAAAAAAA[TT]E THE DOCK-TOR!!!!
Wow. You are the only other person I've ever run into who liked this movie for what appear to be the same exact reasons that I liked it. Everyone I know who has seen it tells me how depressing it is. A friend I showed it to told me to never show him a movie like that again. To this day, he still reponds to any movie I'm going to show him with, "it's not like A.I., is it"?
I thought it was a beautiful movie with a melancholy, poignant ending. Interestingly enough, I hadn't seen Pinnocchio since 1978, so I recently rewatched it (I just got a daughter in October 2004 and I'm building up a library of movies to show her) and I was amazed with how much of it was reproduced in A.I. Again, I would have to say this is probably Spielberg's best work on many levels (I'm sure the Kubrick portions really raised the bar a good deal too).
Anyway... just thought I'd echo your post since it's a rare person who "gets" the idea of machines with feeling.
What a great way to justify buying a copy of XP and not lose "cred" with the Linux crowd. For his next trick, he'll prove that Linux is Windows and get killed at the next buffer overflow.;P
The popularity myth is just not true. Apache is, by far, much more popular with web servers than IIS, and which server gets exploited more often without hope of a quick patch?
...take Netscape's LDAP in the whole iPlanet debacle?
I remember distinctly being told by iPlanet (now SunOne) support that iPlanet Messaging Server was a hybrid of Netscape's Directory Server, some components of it's MTA or IMAP/POP3 implementation and Sun's SIMS (sp?) messaging system. So who actually owns Netscape Directory Server at this point?
It will probably serve them well because they are going to try and make it look like Windows can do everything. The more I look at this whole Microsoft Windows vs. Everything Else mentality, the more it becomes clear to me that there are really two broad groups at war here:
The first group of people are the technological wannabees. They are the people who can assemble a PC fairly well from components they bought at the store. The system might be a little glitchy but it works well enough for them to consider it a success. They throw on Windows XP and every driver and utilitiy known to man. Burn a CD? Easy. Just pop it in the drive and Nero Burning ROM or Roxio will automatically determine the kind of disc and start doign it's thing. Check the weather? Easy. Just download and install Weatherbug or any of a large variety of weather apps that sit in the task tray. Don't forget to install Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy as well! (While forgetting to upgrade to SP2) This kind of person considers themselves pretty knowledgable about Windows. They have "passion". They also have very little ability to do much else with their machines in the way of writing their own apps, or even scripting something more complex than a BAT file for copying files and folders around. This person is NOT "into computers" no matter how much they think they are. They also might try a few alternative OSes, and save for the live CD versions, they conclude that the OSes are too hard to deal with and therefore "suck". They might actually get something like SuSE or Redhat installed, but when they can't find the same abundance of utilities that pop up tons of splash screens at boot/login, they assume the OS sucks because no one writes software for it. They are usually really into pirated software or elese they spend a ton of money on every app they can get their hands on. This is their "passion". There are LOTS of this type of person out there.
The other group is the group of people who actually know computers extremely well. They know that *IF* you must run Windows, you're better off doing it plain vanilla with only the addition of the latest SP and all critical updates. They can also build a PC, but they know to research the combination of hardware they are going to get for the application that box will serve (video editing, music production, web serving, etc...). If required, their hardware set up will usually work well with ANY OS because they are going to be smart enough to choose hardware that works with alternate OSes. If the system is going to be running Windows, they will know how to tweak the OS for the purpose the system was built for. They also tend to know how to write their own apps and are highly frustrated by Microsoft's omission of a built-in compiler since all OSes should allow the users to write apps. They also know CMD and VBscript inside and out so that many tasks can be automated and dumbed down for the other users in the house. They also know how to use alternate OSes to fix the problems that Windows may run into. One way you can tell this kind of person apart from the one above, is that he's going to have a lot more hardware because he knows that there is no point in spending much money on software. Especially if you run an alternet OS. He'll have more RAM, HD space and a faster CPU because he didn't need to spend thousands of dollars on all the extra software. And his systems will always be virus/trojan/malware free. He won't get his system infected with trojans or viruses from pirated apps.
Microsoft prefers the first kind of user to the second one. The second one is rarely a fan of Windows or has the kind of "passion" that Microsoft is looking for. This is simply more of the major wave of dumb that is sweeping over the entire world. Take the fools and morons that abound and make them feel like they are the cream of the crop and visionary. Make those who are more intelligent/knowledgeable/experienced out to be the villians or "stuck in the past". Expect to see a lot
...to come up with good and memorable passwords. Especially if you love music or movies. Just pick your favorites and take a phrase or quote from them. Wayyyyy back in the past at another job (servers have probably been nuked by now), I had a really good one from the Blade Runner: The line was "Good Evening JF"! as said by his replicant toys. So my password became, 'goodeveningj.f.' Long, easy to remember and complex enough to never be guessed. Simple.
...and be all of client side scripting. There is another...
BLEACH (Bloatware + Leanware + Emacs + (x86) Assembly + C + Heroine) has been working wonders for my development. I usually start the day by shooting up in my office, then I start up all of the Office apps (bloatware) on my co-worker's PC to slwo him down. After that, I load up ACIDWARP.EXE (leanware. No DLLs, libs, nothing, jst one EXE and it's small for what it does) on my boss' PC which stuns him for a few hours so he can't keep track of what's going on in the office (usually play Purple Haze in the background). I then open up Emacs on my box and set to work redesigning everything (Screw WYSIWYG. It's overrated.) I also write a lot of my CGI in assembly language to keep the resource usage low and the code tight. C, when it's needed, which is almost never because of how well I can do things in assembly. And finally, another serving of heroine to keep the Jedi Mind tricks fresh. So far, this plan has worked so well, that I've been shuffled through about 70 different companies this year alone. My talents are in demand!
...the engineer/artist type? I've got a daughter and I'm the rare melding of artist and engineer. My wife is a librarian. I think the research is flawed because it only focuses on what normally happens and mentions nothing about the exceptions which are far more interesting.
Slashdot Mirror
Only one person in the world has ever claimed to have met him - in the pressroom at Microsoft Devshed Conference in Boston complete with a Roland Pipaquelle badge - and described him as a fortyish reddish-blonde who giggled a lot.
;P
Oh yeah? Wonder what cold crème he uses. Rolland Pipaquelle is a 61-year-old Jehovah's Witness who lives in a shabby genteel garden apartment in desperate need of an interior decorator on a heavily trafficked commercial road at nnnn XXXXXXXXX XXX. XXXXXX, New York. XXXXXX is in XXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXX is Microsoft territory.
[snip]
Stop that! This is silly! Really! There is no room for this kind of silliness on Slashdot! Now... go home! And stop it!
...and the martians in "Mars Attacks!" said they weren't going to invade Earth ad nauseum. Should we have believed them? Uhhhh... no. ;P
Are you questioning my sexuality? ;P
...of having Asperger's, but frankly I just don't get it. Sure, I have had the typical social problems that most "geeks" have had, but I'm not a geek, I'm an artist. I am also pretty singly obsessed with only a few non-social activities (computers and composing music). But I also happen to like sex a whole lot. So, to all those who think I lack social skills, get a grip. I just like being sarcastic and snarky and I don't like most people. If that gets me classified as having a disorder that needs to be treated, I think I'll go pos[tt]al.
I don't like story arcs. I like self contained sotries that I can jump in and out of without having to devote my life the watching the show. Of course, I didn't like B5 either. Most of it's fan base was too pretentious. I'm also not really into character based stuff. I want to see more focus on technology and the social effects. For example, the idea of nanotech eliminating all poverty but possibly causing new problems. That's intriguing.
You have apparently never seen my classic:
"This is literally the proverbial rock and a hard place".
That one got lots of raves like yours.
But, but, but... Like one of the posters above said, never underestimate corporate greed. This will rise from the dead. Will those prisoners rise again? I see a movie in this somewhere...
...thanks for the link there tiger. [ROWR!!!] The birds on the Cadbury splash page are hott!!
Well played sir! And for your next act will you question my sexuality, make disparaging remarks about the female members of my family and threaten to challenge me to a pugilist's duel?
Ahhh.. but you make the mistake of thinking that the Cadbury site is an appropriate answer. I don't give a rat's ass about marketing or consumerism. I want a list of answers that might possibly provide me with EXACTLy what I'm looking for and Google does just that. If I WANTED to look at the Cadbury site, I'd just type http://www.cadbury.co.uk./ The worst search results are the ones peppered with links to related (or worse, unrelated) businesses that provide no useful info. A search engine is a research tool, not a marketing tool. At least Google repsects that and keeps the commerce links off to the side where they can be deservedly ignored.
I'm sorry if you have the attention span of a flea. I really am. LOL!!!! ;P
Ahhh... but young grasshoppa!!! You forget. This is Slashdot where the masses of lonely and frustrated (sexually and otherwise) know-it-alls attempt to carve out a meager corner of the net in which they "rule". Take a step back and look at the big picture. How many times have you seen the gigantic flamewars that can be predictably started here on Slashdot by pointing out just a few basic topics. Here's an example:
,fear. So they buy these big cars in order to "protect" themselves from their own inabilities to deal with the road properly. How many times have you seen Kerry stickers on SUVs and Hummers? Now compare that with the frequency of any of the myriad of Bush/Cheney or right-wing propaganda. Startling, isn't it? A political party completely built upon fear. They are willing to believe any lies fed to them by the right-wing media. If Fox says it, it MUST be true!!! Who's looking out for you!!!??
1. Most people are terrible drivers. There is a lot of evidence to prove this including a recent studdy that shows that many people couldn't even pass the driving exam if they had to retake it. This is especially true of the younger 18-24 male demographic. They have this mistaken notion that "might makes right" and just because they have a bigger or faster vehicle, that they can do as they please on the roads. Speed limits? These people think that speed limits are a road hazard as are the people who follow them. Personally, I prefer to follow the rules of the road to a tee because they were created by people who know a thing or two about traffic. That means that I will go 55 MPH in a 55 zone and stay in the center or right lane depending on my needs. This means that these butt fucked morons have the ability to legally pass me on the left. But they insist on tail gating because they *think* they can make me go faster. What is that saying again? Misery loves company? Their driving records are probably so abyssmal and their insurance premiums so sky high that they want everyone else to be just like them. Sorry, but I'm happy following the law, keeping a clean driving record and paying reasonable insurance premiums due to my safe driver status.
Another topic that will bring the ire of these ignorant and lonely geeks is politics. Whooo boy, some of the flamefest that arise from these! Let's take the previous subject and link it with politics for a start:
2. You know what I've noticed? Every moronic driver on the road that insists on taligating me until he gets tired enough to swerve around me has a Bush/Cheney sticker or American flag sticker on his guzzlemobile. Why is that? I think it says a lot about the right-wing politics in this country. From what I can see, the neocon right is largely made of people who live in fear. They fear terrorism. They fear black people. They fear gays. They fear the tumbling of the U.S. into complete irrelevance on the world stage. Fear, fear, fear, fear
Then we have the subject of suits vs. techies. That's alway sgood for a laugh:
3. The PHBs who read this site have little hope of ever really "getting it" when it comes to technology. Sure, they throw around the right buzzwords and talk about "visions" and "mission statements", but what do they really do all day? Meanwhile the techies are running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to implement these lame "visions" using junk technology like Flash, Dream Weaver, or (god forbid) Access. The techies actually "get" technology. And if given the chance, they could make the world shine. But the suits come in wherever there is money to be made and stamp down the people who do the real work. They only follow the market trends that will apparently lead to the most profit no matter how technologically flawed they are. This business isn't about money folks! It's about technology and making life easier for EVERYONE. Until people get that, we're going to be stuck in thie quagmire vicious cycle of "visioneering" and fixing stale shit software
I am sorry for that oversight. I've been around these imperial 'Muhricuhns for too long, they are starting to rot my brain and make me forget that people in the U.K. read Slashdot.
Since it's become "hip" to bash Google these days and support either MSN's search technology or Yahoo, I'm making a pre-emptive strike for the IT fashionistas:
"Duh!!! The best machine translator in the world already exists and there can be no improving upon it! Babblefish (thank you Altavista) has been doing this for well nigh a decade. All you Johnny-come-latelys are probably going to rave on with fanboy adoration of Google (the company that can do no wrong)!!! To top it all off, you lot apparently know nothing about Microsoft's language transtlation project which is slated to be deployed as part of Longhorny in 2010. Online language translation from Google will fail because Microsoft will have it built into the OS itself. Why send your document online for translation when the OS itself will not only translate it, but it will correct the grammar, punctuation and generate a WMA file in one of ten thousand gorgeously rendered synthetic voices. Google has lost. Google as been trolled. Google will have a nice day".
We now return you to your regularly scheduled pos[tt]en.
...SciFi persist in making these dreary, crappy, rehashed programs when there are already ton's of decent programs out there in the SciFi vein? Where is Doctor Who 2005 for example? If anything, there should be a presentation of that wonderful series here in the U.S. I've been watching it via eDonkey since no channels here seem to be enlightened enough to show it. A pox on SciFi because they also ruined and then killed off Sliders as well. That was one of the only other science fiction programs that the U.S. has made in recent decades that was worth anything.
But no... American SciFi audiences have been high jacked by the action/adventure crowd. Think about how lame most science fiction is today. Almost 100% of it is war stories or action movies set in the future with a bunch of lame CGI FX. It could be so much better if the focus was on speculative fiction which extrapolates REAL science with REAL social issues and shows us what COULD be if we all band together and work hard to make the future a better place for everyone regardless of who they are (except for the non-transhumanist troglodytes who should jus[tt] be evolved out of existence).
Every show that I've seen come out of the SciFi channel as an "original" has sucked ass. Every series that started out on another network with great promise has been ruined and then unceremoniously killed by SciFi (Sliders, SG-1, Andromeda, etc...). They also seem to be completely missing the boat where their audience is concerned. The channel should be split into two channels: SciFi Prime and SciFi Classic. SciFi Prime can show what they believe to be the best science fiction that they produce. SciFi Classic can show the best science fiction of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Why don't they show Night Stalker anymore? What about the original Outer Limits? What about Lost in Space? Where are all the greats of science fiction like "The Angry Red Planet", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers (50s)", "Forbidden Planet (or anything with Robby the Robot)", or even Have Rocket Will Travel??? There are tons of good science fiction films that are completely ignored by this stupid network. West World, Logan's Run (both the film and the series), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (both the Buster Crab and Gil Gerard vehicles), The Andromeda Strain, Woody Allen's Sleeper is even a better science fiction film than anything SciFi has ever originally made!!!
I hate the SciFi channel!!! They've ruined science fiction for the current generation. Ray Bradbury was the god of science fiction writing!!!! Long live Philip K. Dick!!!! Viva la Heinlein!!!!!!!!!
You are obviously completely without a clue. On the road to transhumanism, there will likely be mistakes just as there were with early medical sciences. However, considering the much more advanced technologies we have today in comparison to early doctors, the mistakes are less likely to be as widely spread. As our technology improves and the human animal is evolved forward in a synergy with machine, the small minded, like yourself, will be relegated to primitive 21st century lifestyles. The man/machine hybrid is the way of the future. We are simply augmenting both man and machine. Man will acquire perfection of thought, enhancement of intellect and senses and machine will acquire emotion, compassion and the most important force of all: LOVE. A machine that is capable of loving will be the ultimate expression of life. A man that is capable of being simultaneously throughout the universe is the ultimate expression of life. But your puny mind is too primitive to comprehend that. And that is the same for others who scoff at metaman. Remember that at one point there was a day when people scoffed at men flying. Today they do it by the billions. Transhumanists are simply doing what the most enlightened men of every age have always done: improving and augmenting the human animal. Without our machines we are nothing. Without us, our machines are nothing. Together we will expand throughout the universe on a mission of peace to help other races to evolve in the same way. Those who wish to not participate can lead their pedestrian lives with limited lifespans. Those who wisely choose to join with us will take the next step in the evolution of the entire universe!! Join us now!!! In the end we will be right!!!!! All those who scoffed will be dead matter in the ground, but se shall persist for the whole of time from the beginning of the universe to the end of existence!!!!!!!!!!! EXTERMINATE!!!!!! EXTERMINAAAAAAATE!!!!!!!!!! EXTERMINAAAAAAAAA[TT]E THE DOCK-TOR!!!!
Wow. You are the only other person I've ever run into who liked this movie for what appear to be the same exact reasons that I liked it. Everyone I know who has seen it tells me how depressing it is. A friend I showed it to told me to never show him a movie like that again. To this day, he still reponds to any movie I'm going to show him with, "it's not like A.I., is it"?
I thought it was a beautiful movie with a melancholy, poignant ending. Interestingly enough, I hadn't seen Pinnocchio since 1978, so I recently rewatched it (I just got a daughter in October 2004 and I'm building up a library of movies to show her) and I was amazed with how much of it was reproduced in A.I. Again, I would have to say this is probably Spielberg's best work on many levels (I'm sure the Kubrick portions really raised the bar a good deal too).
Anyway... just thought I'd echo your post since it's a rare person who "gets" the idea of machines with feeling.
Apparently, you just don't get it.
:P
Ahhhhh!!! I've just gone recursive on your ass now. What are you going to do about it?
What a great way to justify buying a copy of XP and not lose "cred" with the Linux crowd. For his next trick, he'll prove that Linux is Windows and get killed at the next buffer overflow. ;P
The popularity myth is just not true. Apache is, by far, much more popular with web servers than IIS, and which server gets exploited more often without hope of a quick patch?
...take Netscape's LDAP in the whole iPlanet debacle?
I remember distinctly being told by iPlanet (now SunOne) support that iPlanet Messaging Server was a hybrid of Netscape's Directory Server, some components of it's MTA or IMAP/POP3 implementation and Sun's SIMS (sp?) messaging system. So who actually owns Netscape Directory Server at this point?
It will probably serve them well because they are going to try and make it look like Windows can do everything. The more I look at this whole Microsoft Windows vs. Everything Else mentality, the more it becomes clear to me that there are really two broad groups at war here:
The first group of people are the technological wannabees. They are the people who can assemble a PC fairly well from components they bought at the store. The system might be a little glitchy but it works well enough for them to consider it a success. They throw on Windows XP and every driver and utilitiy known to man. Burn a CD? Easy. Just pop it in the drive and Nero Burning ROM or Roxio will automatically determine the kind of disc and start doign it's thing. Check the weather? Easy. Just download and install Weatherbug or any of a large variety of weather apps that sit in the task tray. Don't forget to install Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy as well! (While forgetting to upgrade to SP2) This kind of person considers themselves pretty knowledgable about Windows. They have "passion". They also have very little ability to do much else with their machines in the way of writing their own apps, or even scripting something more complex than a BAT file for copying files and folders around. This person is NOT "into computers" no matter how much they think they are. They also might try a few alternative OSes, and save for the live CD versions, they conclude that the OSes are too hard to deal with and therefore "suck". They might actually get something like SuSE or Redhat installed, but when they can't find the same abundance of utilities that pop up tons of splash screens at boot/login, they assume the OS sucks because no one writes software for it. They are usually really into pirated software or elese they spend a ton of money on every app they can get their hands on. This is their "passion". There are LOTS of this type of person out there.
The other group is the group of people who actually know computers extremely well. They know that *IF* you must run Windows, you're better off doing it plain vanilla with only the addition of the latest SP and all critical updates. They can also build a PC, but they know to research the combination of hardware they are going to get for the application that box will serve (video editing, music production, web serving, etc...). If required, their hardware set up will usually work well with ANY OS because they are going to be smart enough to choose hardware that works with alternate OSes. If the system is going to be running Windows, they will know how to tweak the OS for the purpose the system was built for. They also tend to know how to write their own apps and are highly frustrated by Microsoft's omission of a built-in compiler since all OSes should allow the users to write apps. They also know CMD and VBscript inside and out so that many tasks can be automated and dumbed down for the other users in the house. They also know how to use alternate OSes to fix the problems that Windows may run into. One way you can tell this kind of person apart from the one above, is that he's going to have a lot more hardware because he knows that there is no point in spending much money on software. Especially if you run an alternet OS. He'll have more RAM, HD space and a faster CPU because he didn't need to spend thousands of dollars on all the extra software. And his systems will always be virus/trojan/malware free. He won't get his system infected with trojans or viruses from pirated apps.
Microsoft prefers the first kind of user to the second one. The second one is rarely a fan of Windows or has the kind of "passion" that Microsoft is looking for. This is simply more of the major wave of dumb that is sweeping over the entire world. Take the fools and morons that abound and make them feel like they are the cream of the crop and visionary. Make those who are more intelligent/knowledgeable/experienced out to be the villians or "stuck in the past". Expect to see a lot
...to come up with good and memorable passwords. Especially if you love music or movies. Just pick your favorites and take a phrase or quote from them. Wayyyyy back in the past at another job (servers have probably been nuked by now), I had a really good one from the Blade Runner: The line was "Good Evening JF"! as said by his replicant toys. So my password became, 'goodeveningj.f.' Long, easy to remember and complex enough to never be guessed. Simple.
...and be all of client side scripting. There is another...
BLEACH (Bloatware + Leanware + Emacs + (x86) Assembly + C + Heroine) has been working wonders for my development. I usually start the day by shooting up in my office, then I start up all of the Office apps (bloatware) on my co-worker's PC to slwo him down. After that, I load up ACIDWARP.EXE (leanware. No DLLs, libs, nothing, jst one EXE and it's small for what it does) on my boss' PC which stuns him for a few hours so he can't keep track of what's going on in the office (usually play Purple Haze in the background). I then open up Emacs on my box and set to work redesigning everything (Screw WYSIWYG. It's overrated.) I also write a lot of my CGI in assembly language to keep the resource usage low and the code tight. C, when it's needed, which is almost never because of how well I can do things in assembly. And finally, another serving of heroine to keep the Jedi Mind tricks fresh. So far, this plan has worked so well, that I've been shuffled through about 70 different companies this year alone. My talents are in demand!
...the engineer/artist type? I've got a daughter and I'm the rare melding of artist and engineer. My wife is a librarian. I think the research is flawed because it only focuses on what normally happens and mentions nothing about the exceptions which are far more interesting.