I'm afraid that unless we meet the intergalactic equivalent of Vegans, we are in trouble. Your examples all deal with humans and other humans. Our ethics are different with other species. Let's supposed that the aliens are as far in advance of us intellectually as we are of the dolphins. SOME of us feel it is unethical to kill dolphins. Others of us do NOT.
Of course it is possible they will show up in the equivalent of a VW Microbus and host a big love-in (which has it's own brand of creepy potential), but the fact is unless they do show up, we won't know what they want. We very likely won't understand their motives in any event.
Even more likely is that their are hosts of species out there and it depends on which one finds us how it goes for us...
If they can get here from other stars I think it's a safe bet they have weapons of MASSIVE destruction. They would have to be far enough more advanced than us that we probably can't even imagine their capabilities (or understand them if we see them). Of course all they really need to do is tug a few astroids along and drop rocks on us, right?
A more insidious possibility is that they have weapons of mass control. Enslavement or genocide? There is also the "tasty treat" possiblility. Most likely is the "we don't really understand what they are doing" option.
The only way for them to be even close to our level of technology would be if they travel at speeds we could potentially travel at, right? In other words waaaay below lightspeed (discounting naturally occurring wormholes that happen to be conveniently placed - or the whole "ancients" idea of an earlier higher level civilization that left behind a transit system). In that case they would have ships we could see coming, possibly for years. Either they would have life-spans far, far longer than ours, they would be traveling in generation ships, or even possibly be cyborgs. If we don't see them coming, I'd say we can assume a level of technology we have zero chance of defending against. If we see them coming we might have a fighting chance.
I agree with what you are saying, but I think what Amazon fears is the marketing ability of Apple to convince a large number of people to adopt a form factor that has been around for years, but never really caught on in a mass market way.
A really sharp, clear LCD screen that has color and a fast refresh rate *could* make the eInk eReaders look quaint. Kindle and company will have the lock on battery life, but the various slates/tablets/netbooks will have the lock on versatility. I see Amazon trying to combat that perception.
My favorite part is the statement in the NYT about MS releasing a "Me-Too" device.
A "Me-Too" device that is one of a long line of such devices that have run their OS.
A "Me-Too" device that is announced before the Apple device.
A "Me-Too" device that is announced before the SUPPOSED Apple device that has not been confirmed by Apple.
Enough of the silly repetition. It is getting repetitive.
I can't say whether the MS device will be worth a spit. I can't say whether the Apple device will be worth a spit. I just like saying spit.
Can't really say if suddenly tablets are going to be cool and people will start buying them. Bill Gates thought so back in the early '90s. Hasn't happened yet. Steve Jobs killed tablet projects like he was playing whack-a-mole for years. Who knows?
I don't know if it is a cute joke or not, but I hope most folks recognize it as a joke...
I find it funny that the stated pronunication will forever make it sound to listeners like something it isn't (but something very closely related). Pronouncing the asterisk as "star" wouldn't be funny in any other context. Throwing "A" in there fairly guarantees that the speaker will have to explain, as in "Sagittarius A-Star which is not a star."
So whether or not you think it is cute is up to you since that is a subjective decision.
Now that I have dissected and explained it, we can all agree that it is a DEAD joke.
If I want to jump out of a second story window and break my leg, I can do that in the real world.
I don't want a perfect simulation of the real world. I want a simulation of the FUN world.
This is where games like Team Fortress and Left4Dead excel. They KNOW they are games and try to be fun games. If you simulate the real world too accurately, then I don't have any zombies to fight. And I have a broken leg anyway.
You could make the same argument for books or movies. You don't expect a novel to be 100% true and accurate. You expect it to be a work of fiction. There is a place for realism. There is a place for fantasy.
I think the "inflict damage" comment meant if a MAJORITY of news sources pulled out of Google, not just News Corp.
I didn't wriite it, I'm just trying to interpret...
The point of the article is that unless virtually ALL of the news sources leave at once, the result will really just be that those who are left will profit by the others voluntarily removing themselves from the competition.
Personally I think it is a gutsy but stupid move...
Grandparents I agree with, 3rd World education I disagree with.
ChromeOS is ONLY useful with a fast, reliable internet connection. 3rd World means those can be hard to come by.
Heck, those can be hard to come by ANYwhere. Unless you are talking cell connection or wimax, this would be worthless in a car or anywhere else you can't get a wi-fi signal.
To me the benefit is the grandparents (or anyone else who has limited needs, but good net connection). Specifically anyone who is likely to call me about their virus infected, trojan-laden, "oh no we didn't click anything" system on which they have NO CLUE where they have saved documents. For them, I give ChromeOS a big thumbs-up.
The huge downside is the "might as well give Google a copy of my brain" problem. Even if you trust Google 100%, do you trust the government 100%? How about the government 20 years from now? How about governments of other large countries with whom Google wants to do business?
I HOPE that my paranoia is just that. I TOTALLY want a Droid phone from Verizon, but does anyone remember the furor over the Bush administration wanting to see which books you've checked out of the library? How about everything you've read, written, played, listened to, or VISITED (thanks to the Droid and/or ChromeOS sending GPS coords back to the servers...). Google is amazing at collating and aggregating ENORMOUS amounts of data and letting you "Google" it to find what you want. That could be true for dissadents in a specific area too.
Like everyone else I use the net without thinking much about it (well some). This very post will be available via Google search shortly. We will all have to live with the aggregation of information about us, I just hope we don't come to regret it.
Although you have been modded "Insightful," I truly hope you meant to be funny (which seems likely due to the wording of the post).
FOSS is about community as much as it is about code.
Although you can't tell someone's gender by the code they write, you sure can tell in a real community with potential "meat-space" interactions (conferences, etc.).
Saying that women won't be picked on in community interactions if they pretend to be male is ludicrous. There is absolutely no reason they should have to pretend anything to be treated with respect.
I'm afraid these kinds of attitudes will forever marginalize FOSS in the wider world if not addressed. It does not matter in the minds of the public at large if 90% of the FOSS developers are good people if 10% are so loud and so obnoxious that theirs are the only voices heard.
OK, now HERE's something fun. Watch that video again and pretend that instead of a Windows 7 launch party, they are talking about a wild and crazy sex party.
Also watch out for the side trip into racism at about 5:43 - 5:50...
No way will they give up ad money. Newspapers started depending on advertising in the late 1700s. They have traditionally made virtually all their profits from ads.
The problem with micropayments is not a technical one. The problem is that users hate them and the websites that implement them (really any form of payment-for-content). I work for a newspaper (in the IT dept) and we had to drop the requirement for free registration because people would rather go elsewhere than even register for free. Ask them to pay and I think you are setting up your own demise.
Absolutely will people pay for access to the Wall Street Journal. Because they have news? Heck no. Because they contain information useful to running a business and investing.
I have to be optimistic about the future of newspapers (job requirement number 7), but I do not think it will involve micropayments in any large scale way.
Slashdot Mirror
Both guys quit within 24 hours of each other. Veeeerrrry eeeeeeeenteresting!
Theories, people?
They come in threes! THEY COME IN THREES! OMG!!! WHO'S NEXT???
Don't underestimate ideology or the lengths to which a being might go for a tasty treat.
I'm afraid that unless we meet the intergalactic equivalent of Vegans, we are in trouble. Your examples all deal with humans and other humans. Our ethics are different with other species. Let's supposed that the aliens are as far in advance of us intellectually as we are of the dolphins. SOME of us feel it is unethical to kill dolphins. Others of us do NOT.
Of course it is possible they will show up in the equivalent of a VW Microbus and host a big love-in (which has it's own brand of creepy potential), but the fact is unless they do show up, we won't know what they want. We very likely won't understand their motives in any event.
Even more likely is that their are hosts of species out there and it depends on which one finds us how it goes for us...
If they can get here from other stars I think it's a safe bet they have weapons of MASSIVE destruction. They would have to be far enough more advanced than us that we probably can't even imagine their capabilities (or understand them if we see them). Of course all they really need to do is tug a few astroids along and drop rocks on us, right?
A more insidious possibility is that they have weapons of mass control. Enslavement or genocide? There is also the "tasty treat" possiblility. Most likely is the "we don't really understand what they are doing" option.
The only way for them to be even close to our level of technology would be if they travel at speeds we could potentially travel at, right? In other words waaaay below lightspeed (discounting naturally occurring wormholes that happen to be conveniently placed - or the whole "ancients" idea of an earlier higher level civilization that left behind a transit system). In that case they would have ships we could see coming, possibly for years. Either they would have life-spans far, far longer than ours, they would be traveling in generation ships, or even possibly be cyborgs. If we don't see them coming, I'd say we can assume a level of technology we have zero chance of defending against. If we see them coming we might have a fighting chance.
@LWATCDR *
I make no judgements on your logic or argument. In fact I haven't decided exactly with which side of this argument I agree.
But...
Having said that...
I have to give you +5 Funny for this one line:
"Frankly it sounds like something Col Hogan would talk Col Clink into doing!"
All I can say is, "Hooogggggaaaaaaaan!!!!"
* I know this isn't Twitter, but the construct is handy.
I use that reference occassionally. I find it hysterically funny, but people rarely get it. Bravo!
One of the best running gags in a movie ever. Should have caught on like "Show me the money" or "You can't HANDLE the truth"...
What if the internet is caused by depression?
I agree.
I could only manage to read about half the story before I was so overcome with dispair that I... I can't even finish this
I agree with what you are saying, but I think what Amazon fears is the marketing ability of Apple to convince a large number of people to adopt a form factor that has been around for years, but never really caught on in a mass market way.
A really sharp, clear LCD screen that has color and a fast refresh rate *could* make the eInk eReaders look quaint. Kindle and company will have the lock on battery life, but the various slates/tablets/netbooks will have the lock on versatility. I see Amazon trying to combat that perception.
My favorite part is the statement in the NYT about MS releasing a "Me-Too" device.
A "Me-Too" device that is one of a long line of such devices that have run their OS.
A "Me-Too" device that is announced before the Apple device.
A "Me-Too" device that is announced before the SUPPOSED Apple device that has not been confirmed by Apple.
Enough of the silly repetition. It is getting repetitive.
I can't say whether the MS device will be worth a spit. I can't say whether the Apple device will be worth a spit. I just like saying spit.
Can't really say if suddenly tablets are going to be cool and people will start buying them. Bill Gates thought so back in the early '90s. Hasn't happened yet. Steve Jobs killed tablet projects like he was playing whack-a-mole for years. Who knows?
I don't know if it is a cute joke or not, but I hope most folks recognize it as a joke...
I find it funny that the stated pronunication will forever make it sound to listeners like something it isn't (but something very closely related). Pronouncing the asterisk as "star" wouldn't be funny in any other context. Throwing "A" in there fairly guarantees that the speaker will have to explain, as in "Sagittarius A-Star which is not a star."
So whether or not you think it is cute is up to you since that is a subjective decision.
Now that I have dissected and explained it, we can all agree that it is a DEAD joke.
>"Sagittarius A* (pronounced 'Sagittarius A-Star')"
So... it isn't a star but they call it A-Star?
Perhaps "The Saggitarius Object Formerly Known As A-Star"...
Found a link to the opening video for MechWarrior 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X3GD0UnBCk that I mentioned in the previous post.
GREAT POST.
The MW2 of which you speak is one of my favorites of all time.
I loved the opening video for that one with the Timberwolves on patrol on an airless moon.
"He's got a lock on me! He's got a lock on me!"
The two games I miss most from DOS are MW2 and X-Wing. Yes I could probably get them working, but I don't want to spoil my memories...
If I want to jump out of a second story window and break my leg, I can do that in the real world.
I don't want a perfect simulation of the real world. I want a simulation of the FUN world.
This is where games like Team Fortress and Left4Dead excel. They KNOW they are games and try to be fun games. If you simulate the real world too accurately, then I don't have any zombies to fight. And I have a broken leg anyway.
You could make the same argument for books or movies. You don't expect a novel to be 100% true and accurate. You expect it to be a work of fiction. There is a place for realism. There is a place for fantasy.
I would say that C# and Java are more alike that either is like Javascript.
I think the "inflict damage" comment meant if a MAJORITY of news sources pulled out of Google, not just News Corp.
I didn't wriite it, I'm just trying to interpret...
The point of the article is that unless virtually ALL of the news sources leave at once, the result will really just be that those who are left will profit by the others voluntarily removing themselves from the competition.
Personally I think it is a gutsy but stupid move...
Grandparents I agree with, 3rd World education I disagree with.
ChromeOS is ONLY useful with a fast, reliable internet connection. 3rd World means those can be hard to come by.
Heck, those can be hard to come by ANYwhere. Unless you are talking cell connection or wimax, this would be worthless in a car or anywhere else you can't get a wi-fi signal.
To me the benefit is the grandparents (or anyone else who has limited needs, but good net connection). Specifically anyone who is likely to call me about their virus infected, trojan-laden, "oh no we didn't click anything" system on which they have NO CLUE where they have saved documents. For them, I give ChromeOS a big thumbs-up.
The huge downside is the "might as well give Google a copy of my brain" problem. Even if you trust Google 100%, do you trust the government 100%? How about the government 20 years from now? How about governments of other large countries with whom Google wants to do business?
I HOPE that my paranoia is just that. I TOTALLY want a Droid phone from Verizon, but does anyone remember the furor over the Bush administration wanting to see which books you've checked out of the library? How about everything you've read, written, played, listened to, or VISITED (thanks to the Droid and/or ChromeOS sending GPS coords back to the servers...). Google is amazing at collating and aggregating ENORMOUS amounts of data and letting you "Google" it to find what you want. That could be true for dissadents in a specific area too.
Like everyone else I use the net without thinking much about it (well some). This very post will be available via Google search shortly. We will all have to live with the aggregation of information about us, I just hope we don't come to regret it.
Xenophon? Sounds like a foreigner...
Although you have been modded "Insightful," I truly hope you meant to be funny (which seems likely due to the wording of the post).
FOSS is about community as much as it is about code.
Although you can't tell someone's gender by the code they write, you sure can tell in a real community with potential "meat-space" interactions (conferences, etc.).
Saying that women won't be picked on in community interactions if they pretend to be male is ludicrous. There is absolutely no reason they should have to pretend anything to be treated with respect.
I'm afraid these kinds of attitudes will forever marginalize FOSS in the wider world if not addressed. It does not matter in the minds of the public at large if 90% of the FOSS developers are good people if 10% are so loud and so obnoxious that theirs are the only voices heard.
OK, now HERE's something fun. Watch that video again and pretend that instead of a Windows 7 launch party, they are talking about a wild and crazy sex party.
Also watch out for the side trip into racism at about 5:43 - 5:50...
NOW THAT's entertainment!
It really struck me like a bunch of the "I'm a PC" guys throwing a party.
p>Now, what about the camera being on the wrong side? Would anybody want that knowing they're screwed with Skype?
That TOTALLY depends on who you are talking to and what you want to show them...
"Developer Exposes Copyright Infringers In My Pants on Twitter"
That's what SHE said!
No way will they give up ad money. Newspapers started depending on advertising in the late 1700s. They have traditionally made virtually all their profits from ads.
The problem with micropayments is not a technical one. The problem is that users hate them and the websites that implement them (really any form of payment-for-content). I work for a newspaper (in the IT dept) and we had to drop the requirement for free registration because people would rather go elsewhere than even register for free. Ask them to pay and I think you are setting up your own demise.
Absolutely will people pay for access to the Wall Street Journal. Because they have news? Heck no. Because they contain information useful to running a business and investing.
I have to be optimistic about the future of newspapers (job requirement number 7), but I do not think it will involve micropayments in any large scale way.