You let me know what country takes care of their eldery to the tune of $2200 per month, because that's where I want to retire.
Last I checked, most of those "civilized parts of the world" are either reforming their State pension systems or are planning to.
Let me further refine that statement by saying "...what country takes care of their elderly to the tune of $2200 per month FOR ROBOTIC EXOSKELETON SUITS WITH WHICH TO DOMINATE THE YOUNG, ROBOTIC-EXOSKELETON-FREE KIDS ON THEIR LAWNS."
So was D-DAY landing at Normandy. You can TOTALLY see the pixelated artifacts around Tom Hanks.
And I'm supposed to believe he lead the invasion AND went to the moon? COme on! How naive do they think we are?
Zero cost... you mean you drew attention to his company name Voco for free?
I just assumed you were a paid promoter. You're the only way I noticed the company name... the internet really screws with me sometimes, I can't work out if the "bad publicity" is really bad or just to get more page impressions.
If I were a paid promoter I'd do a much, much better job of mentioning Mr. Hortop and his company, Voco as many times as possible.
How can you even imply that I might be a paid promoter when I only mentioned Hortop and Voco just ONE time?
Oh, well. Sorry if I sounded like a paid promoter.
Google Beta means "here is software we want you to use, but we don't want to support. By calling it beta we wash our hands of a great deal of responsibility."
This article was no more than a press release for Mr. Hortop to drum up more business for his company Voco.
If a microscopic fraction of the people who read the article contact him, then he had a successful zero-cost marketing campaign...
I thought that you were allowed by fair use to make copies for your personal use. You aren't violating copyright, since you purchased a DVD of Ghostbusters. The DMCA is another matter, though...
I won't violate their DRM because it is a pain in the ass to do so. I can think of no movie that is good enough that'd devote 5 minutes to copying - fair use or not...
Actually you could use the Agile/iterative approach to spacecraft. You'd have a lot of dead astronauts, but eventually you'd have some kick-ass spacecraft!
Maybe IBM might wish to consider throwing some money at someone developing those apps.
Or, the people with the skills to write software whose SOLE purpose is to make money for companies in a specific industry might prefer to not give away the source code and instead trade the binaries for really large amounts of cash directly from the companies who will make money with that software and leave IBM completely out of the picture.
This really isn't an argument about open source software. This is more an argument about a big company (IBM) who really, really wants to be able to sell software and services with the least amount of investment. Then complaining publicly that no one is providing them a free product they can peddle for big $$.
Open source software is ONE option. I fully support the right of anyone to release their code as open source. I love using open source software. I'm even willing to release some of my software as open source. But NOT software that a very large company is going to sell to other large companies so that all those companies can make tons of money.
As others have pointed out it is also difficult to get the people with the skills to write the software to put in the time and effort for what they consider boring software. I write mostly boring software for a living. I like doing it well enough that I'll do it for money, but when I code for fun, it is NOT the same kind of apps...
I agree with all your points, really, but one thing that would convince me to buy a Kindle soon would be if they worked a deal with SafariBooks to let me access my safari subscription via the kindle for no extra money. To be able to get all those technical books in a convenient format would be a game changer for me. I'd buy a Kindle in a heartbeat. O'Reilley has been trying to work something with them, but so far they are only offering certain books in PDF format if you buy the book. To be fair not all the problems are on the Amazon side. O'Reilley doesn't own all the books on safari, so they have to negotiate usage rights.
Also, if I were to design my own eBook reader, it would work like a Nintendo DS. One screen would be the eInk screen and the other would be an LCD touchscreen. That way I could navigate the safari site via the LCD, then read the books via the eInk. Here's a kinky thought... what if I used my cell phone for the LCD navigation and it sent commands to the eInk eBook reader? Hmm...
The thing the Kindle got right was the wireless data. I'd probably have gone with wi-fi, but I'll give them points anyway.
I love that game, and it is nothing but one big set of 3D puzzles woven masterfully into the story.
I've been playing video games pretty much since they became commercially available (the '70s), and I've always HATED the puzzles the article rhapsodizes. I think I feel about them the way I feel about musicals. You have a perfectly good story under way when everyone stops to sing a song. Or in this case solve an arbitrary puzzle.
A puzzle that wouldn't make sense in the real world doesn't make sense in a game world. When I want to get a Coke from the Coke machine I don't expect to have to solve a puzzle that has nothing to do with getting a Coke. I don't want to solve a puzzle in the shape of a Coke either. I just want a danged Coke.
... show themselves only to some moonshine-swigging hicks.....
If you assume that "they" are unimaginably advanced, then interstellar travel may be trivial for them. If you continue to build your big assumption tree, at some point such travel becomes available to the masses. Has it ever occurred to you that "they" may in fact BE the moonshine-swigging hicks of their species? Perhaps their livestock-mutilating, crop-circle-making, anal-probing ways don't seem so odd if they are in fact intoxicated attempts to relieve boredom.
Perhaps instead of moonshine-swigging hicks, they are the interstellar equivalent of frat-boys (who can only be distinguished from moonshine-swigging hicks by economic indicators such as clothing and poison of preference).
Further, what if the non-hick/non-frat-boy members of their species ARE very careful about not revealing themselves? Perhaps the ones we do see have simply forgotten to flip the cloaking switch in their inebriated state?
In that light, the incident in Roswell becomes less of a "prelude to an invasion" and more of a "DUI caused accident".
Slashdot Mirror
PLEASE tell my you meant Win-shiFt-tab...
how many chain smoking senior citizens are around?
Fewer every day.
You let me know what country takes care of their eldery to the tune of $2200 per month, because that's where I want to retire.
Last I checked, most of those "civilized parts of the world" are either reforming their State pension systems or are planning to.
Let me further refine that statement by saying "...what country takes care of their elderly to the tune of $2200 per month FOR ROBOTIC EXOSKELETON SUITS WITH WHICH TO DOMINATE THE YOUNG, ROBOTIC-EXOSKELETON-FREE KIDS ON THEIR LAWNS."
So was D-DAY landing at Normandy. You can TOTALLY see the pixelated artifacts around Tom Hanks. And I'm supposed to believe he lead the invasion AND went to the moon? COme on! How naive do they think we are?
Zero cost ... you mean you drew attention to his company name Voco for free?
I just assumed you were a paid promoter. You're the only way I noticed the company name ... the internet really screws with me sometimes, I can't work out if the "bad publicity" is really bad or just to get more page impressions.
If I were a paid promoter I'd do a much, much better job of mentioning Mr. Hortop and his company, Voco as many times as possible.
How can you even imply that I might be a paid promoter when I only mentioned Hortop and Voco just ONE time?
Oh, well. Sorry if I sounded like a paid promoter.
Google Beta means "here is software we want you to use, but we don't want to support. By calling it beta we wash our hands of a great deal of responsibility."
This article was no more than a press release for Mr. Hortop to drum up more business for his company Voco. If a microscopic fraction of the people who read the article contact him, then he had a successful zero-cost marketing campaign...
They are already here, and in positions of power around the world. Their reinforcements, however, will be late.
So this is our chance! W00t! Get them!
Of course, nuking them from orbit is the only way to be sure. And we thought the real estate market was bad now...
Handyman Special! Nice view, very low rads... Guaranteed to be the last home you ever buy!
Bill has way more technical skill than most. He certainly has more than Jobs.
And WAAAAAYYY more than Seinfeld.
holy flamebait summary, batman!
OK, I have to say I thought both the commercial and the summary were very funny.
Mind you I cannot for the life of me imagine how these ads will translate into sales of Microsoft products, but this one was very funny.
You know. Maybe I should give Vista another try... because Gates and Seinfeld are funny. Um, yeah.
There's no use crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake.
What would you do if your girlfriend came up to you with that preference?
I'd dongle the living crap out of her.
I thought that you were allowed by fair use to make copies for your personal use. You aren't violating copyright, since you purchased a DVD of Ghostbusters. The DMCA is another matter, though...
I won't violate their DRM because it is a pain in the ass to do so. I can think of no movie that is good enough that'd devote 5 minutes to copying - fair use or not...
hey hollywood, until you offer me something that is NOT DRM encumbered I aint' buyin' it! I'll violate your copyright instead...
I'll just do neither. I'll never, ever buy a movie that requires a specific USB drive be installed before I can watch the movie. That's stupid.
Hey, hollywood! I've seen Ghostbusters. Um, 20 some years ago...
Actually you could use the Agile/iterative approach to spacecraft. You'd have a lot of dead astronauts, but eventually you'd have some kick-ass spacecraft!
You know that comments on Slashdot can be replies to other comments, right?
I see what happened. The comment you replied to was below my threshold so I didn't see it.
You know that comments on Slashdot can be replies to other comments, right?
Are you serious?
Why doesn't someone TELL me these things???
This will lead to ANARCHY I tell you!
The point of TFA is not that the code is flawed or imperfect, but rather that the BUSINESS practice described in the fine print is disturbing at best.
Basically Google is saying "All your base are belong to us."
Good thing they aren't evil. An evil company could do bad things with all that info they are storing about us...
Ok, Agent Mulder, settle down.
I Want To Believe...
<quote>
<quote><p>WOOKIES DONT LIVE ON ENDOR!</p></quote>
<p>Actually, this is another quote from South Park. The Halloween episode, where everyone dresses as Chewbacca.</p></quote>
DIGITALGIBLET DOESN'T WATCH MUCH SOUTH PARK!
I'll have to check out that episode now that they are all online...
<quote>WOOKIES DONT LIVE ON ENDOR!</quote>
XPUPPYKICKERX DOESN'T WATCH SOUTH PARK!
Maybe IBM might wish to consider throwing some money at someone developing those apps.
Or, the people with the skills to write software whose SOLE purpose is to make money for companies in a specific industry might prefer to not give away the source code and instead trade the binaries for really large amounts of cash directly from the companies who will make money with that software and leave IBM completely out of the picture.
This really isn't an argument about open source software. This is more an argument about a big company (IBM) who really, really wants to be able to sell software and services with the least amount of investment. Then complaining publicly that no one is providing them a free product they can peddle for big $$.
Open source software is ONE option. I fully support the right of anyone to release their code as open source. I love using open source software. I'm even willing to release some of my software as open source. But NOT software that a very large company is going to sell to other large companies so that all those companies can make tons of money.
As others have pointed out it is also difficult to get the people with the skills to write the software to put in the time and effort for what they consider boring software. I write mostly boring software for a living. I like doing it well enough that I'll do it for money, but when I code for fun, it is NOT the same kind of apps...
I agree with all your points, really, but one thing that would convince me to buy a Kindle soon would be if they worked a deal with SafariBooks to let me access my safari subscription via the kindle for no extra money. To be able to get all those technical books in a convenient format would be a game changer for me. I'd buy a Kindle in a heartbeat. O'Reilley has been trying to work something with them, but so far they are only offering certain books in PDF format if you buy the book. To be fair not all the problems are on the Amazon side. O'Reilley doesn't own all the books on safari, so they have to negotiate usage rights.
Also, if I were to design my own eBook reader, it would work like a Nintendo DS. One screen would be the eInk screen and the other would be an LCD touchscreen. That way I could navigate the safari site via the LCD, then read the books via the eInk. Here's a kinky thought... what if I used my cell phone for the LCD navigation and it sent commands to the eInk eBook reader? Hmm...
The thing the Kindle got right was the wireless data. I'd probably have gone with wi-fi, but I'll give them points anyway.
Total agreement. One word: Portal.
I love that game, and it is nothing but one big set of 3D puzzles woven masterfully into the story.
I've been playing video games pretty much since they became commercially available (the '70s), and I've always HATED the puzzles the article rhapsodizes. I think I feel about them the way I feel about musicals. You have a perfectly good story under way when everyone stops to sing a song. Or in this case solve an arbitrary puzzle.
A puzzle that wouldn't make sense in the real world doesn't make sense in a game world. When I want to get a Coke from the Coke machine I don't expect to have to solve a puzzle that has nothing to do with getting a Coke. I don't want to solve a puzzle in the shape of a Coke either. I just want a danged Coke.
... show themselves only to some moonshine-swigging hicks. ....
If you assume that "they" are unimaginably advanced, then interstellar travel may be trivial for them. If you continue to build your big assumption tree, at some point such travel becomes available to the masses. Has it ever occurred to you that "they" may in fact BE the moonshine-swigging hicks of their species? Perhaps their livestock-mutilating, crop-circle-making, anal-probing ways don't seem so odd if they are in fact intoxicated attempts to relieve boredom.
Perhaps instead of moonshine-swigging hicks, they are the interstellar equivalent of frat-boys (who can only be distinguished from moonshine-swigging hicks by economic indicators such as clothing and poison of preference).
Further, what if the non-hick/non-frat-boy members of their species ARE very careful about not revealing themselves? Perhaps the ones we do see have simply forgotten to flip the cloaking switch in their inebriated state?
In that light, the incident in Roswell becomes less of a "prelude to an invasion" and more of a "DUI caused accident".