I don't want to disrespect the recently dead, but get a grip. Jordan may have been entertaining, but he was no Tolkien. He's popular now. In 20 years he'll be dust. Tolkien will be being reprinted for the thousandth time.
Another problem is not being able to try before I buy. OSX might be 100 times greater then Vista, but unless I can try it for 2 months for free, I'm not going to risk handing over all that cash for a Mac that I might find unusable.
In the worst case, you could boot to Windows. Seems a waste though.
In any case, it only takes a few minutes to get up to speed. "Where are my programs?" OK. "How do I open a file" OK. "How do I download porn?" OK.
that machine I link to [Eee PC] is actually better than the OLPC
"Better" in raw performance spec. But I very much doubt it will be as durable, easy to repair, have as long battery life as the OLPC. Give one of each to two village kids and in 6 months see which is working, which is a doorstop.
A few minutes finds reviews like:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3829
The build is as you would expect for a budget $250 PC, a little shaky. It felt and looked like plastic and if this thing were stepped on I'm sure the result would not be pretty. Having said that, it didn't feel like it was made of something as thin as milk jug plastic. You'd probably want to just put it in a rigid case if you were carrying it in a backpack with a bunch of books, I'm sure a Calculus and Biology book smashed up against it could also have bad results.
Nevertheless, it would have a place, but not in the more rugged environment the OLPC is designed for.
61% of Democrats believe, or are not unsure, that President Bush knew and participated in the 9/11 attacks.
It was a survey from Rasmussen Reports
So I looked at your reference. Even if I believed the survey, what this actually said was:
Asked the question, "Did Bush Know About the 9/11 Attacks in Advance?" a shocking 35% of Democrats said "yes," another 26% said they weren't sure, and only 39% said "no." In other words, a stunning 61% of Democrats believed that the President of the United States may well have collaborated in the murder of 3,000 of his fellow citizens.
What a fucking ludicrous "in other words".
Those that believe Bush "knew in advance" don't think he "participated", they just think he was an idiot and ignored the warnings or didn't act fast enough.
We had a valid copy, but how could we prove it to Autodesk without them personally inspecting the seals on the software? It's impossible for them to do that, and if they let one person sell it on eBay, then everyone gets to sell it.
I would be pretty annoyed at the presumption of guilt myself. It should not be their choice to "let" you sell it.
Perhaps this goon got himself transferred to China to sate his lust for Chinese kids?
It would be a very high risk to try that in China. In short order, you'd either be blackmailed, thrown in jail, or killed. Or some combination of the above.
Okay, they'll be able to group all of his posting as being posted by him... but they won't be able to tie it to him unless he also posts a lot of stuff non-anonymously.
I for instance, post here under a randomly chosen pseudonym. But on another forum, based in my neighbourhood and discussing local issues, I post under my own name and link to a personal web page. You can find my name, address and phone number there. If this system works as advertised (big if) it could correlate them. Though my style is different in different venues: here I'm more likely to be confrontational and just say "fuck you" to someone I find annoying, where it's people I know in real life I'm more restrained. Also having the luxury of being able to edit after posting makes for fewer typos.
view pornography of Asian women and of children...
Okay, that was vague enough to be provocative, which I suppose was the idea to score an "Ask Slashdot".
What does "children" mean? Five? Ten? Eighteen? It matters, a great deal. If five or ten, he damn well should have called the FBI. If eighteen, big deal, have a quiet word to the guy and tell him everyone's surfing is being logged. But not knowing this fact, we have no way to judge what should have been done.
As you say it's "targeted mostly to corporate users", you don't need any software locks. Just a simple serial number activation. Doesn't matter if it's easily cracked or shared. That market doesn't use cracked software. It may irritate you to see it traded on warez groups, but none of them will actually use it, even if it were free. Don't use sneaky phone-home tricks, but you can be up-front and have a default option to check in, for the purpose of seeing if there are any updates, but of course at the same time you can use that to keep track of your installed base. But let the users turn it off if they want.
If it were a Photsohop plugin or the like, that market is more likely to just copy, but corporate types will just fill out a requisition form if they want it.
The group in question simply objected to extremist Islam
No one is objecting to that. It's simply calling themselves "FuckIslam". If that isn't courting confrontation and asking for a similar response, I don't know what is. If you want to solve a problem, you don't start your argument by saying "fuck you". If you want a brawl, go ahead, but don't whine that no one listens to your points.
What I find interesting is how one group (left-leaning Slashdrones) can make such a stink about free-speech they don't like
What I find interesting is how you can state that "left-leaning Slashdrones" are the only ones who would be offended. Actually, the submitter is obviously trying to get big companies like Microsoft to react, and they are the opposite of "left-leaning Slashdrones" in every way. And if anyone is really offended it's likely to be conservative middle-Americans.
No, they've been the 51st state since a little after 9/11.
We've been the 51st state since 1966
After a Cabinet meeting on 20 January 1966 Robert Gordon Menzies, who was reluctant to involve Australia in Vietnam, suddenly and unexpectedly resigned after 17 years as Prime Minister of Australia, nominating as his successor then Treasurer Harold Holt. Holt announced almost immediately that Australia was to go all the way with LBJ [then US President Lyndon Baines Johnson] into the Vietnam War. At that crucial point Australia severed ties with Britain and the British Commonwealth, and hitched itself behind the stagecoach of the United States of America. Australia has been going all the way with LBJ ever since.
Just in case you didn't know, we fought in Vietnam, and Korea, and now in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have the body bags to prove it. All thanks to our leaders sucking up to Uncle Sam in the vain hope of getting some respect.
Now the first of these leaves a money trail of some sort....
Yes, some would be hard, some easy. But these guys probably launch attacks very frequently, Once a week -- once a day? If even a small percentage of attacks/scams/etc could be tracked back to them, and they faced criminal charges they wouldn't be so cocky. Now only a few are caught per year through incredible stupidity or carelessness. They feel invulnerable. Pick some of them off and this would change quickly. Perhaps attacking infrastructure is the thing that will finally get governements to take action.
If you posted the AC remark "This has nothing to do with the conversation", please repost under your own name and I will consider it. Otherwise, I'm ignoring it. If it wasn't you, sorry to bother you.
Why would anyone give this ultra-intelligent machine self-awareness?
Or even give it arms/legs/options to do anything except communicate via a screen?
It would make itself useful, and be more useful if it did have access to communication and tools. Eventually it would earn trust. In any case, the technology would inevitably spread or be reinvented, add Moore's Law in some form, and in a few years they'd be cheap and ubiquitous. Someone would plug one into the net. Unless we have a Butlerian Jihad, it's inevitable.
Theoretically "yes". But in practice the answer is "no".
The people running this botnet can choose from millions of computers they want to use as anonymous bouncers/routers
So work from the other end. How do they make their money? Sending spam, apparently. How does spam make money? Currently, either by getting suckers to send money to them (viagra, Rolexes, etc) or pumping stocks the spammers have bought. In both cases, there must be a money trail, much easier to track than chasing a chain of proxies. Then squeeze these guys till they give up their associates, and eventually the botnet controllers. It takes a government to pressure the stock exchanges, credit card agencies and banks to give up their customers, though, vigilantes aren't going to get anywhere.
Let me expand on this. Science fiction often is not used in schools as it is not written to the literary standards of academia. English often appears to be primarily concerning the promotion of a certain standard rather than the promotion of critical thinking. For instance, when on reads a passage there is but on interpretation, and if one does not interpret the passage as such, and bubble in the correct answer, you do not graduate.
when on reads a passage there is but on interpretation, and if one does not interpret the passage as such, and bubble in the correct answer, you do not graduate.
This is also quite wrong. Ironically, it's often true of most plot-driven SF, but the "Literature" you are speaking of is valued exactly because it says many, sometimes contradictory, things at once. There are many ways to interpret a Shakespeare play, for instance, and no one can say one is "valid" and another is not. If you can make a case for your position, you WILL graduate.
Who said "not science fact"? And I mentioned science fact books, if you had bothered to read all my post. And none of the books you mentioned would interest the non-nerd, despite what you imagine. The subject is not "great science books I like", the question you seem to be answering, but books that might spark an interest in students.
I have never understood the point of fiction, except as pure entertainment.
Science fiction obviously. When I was young, it was Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke who had adventure stories involving science that wasn't too outrageously fantastic. The latter two both wrote non-fiction science for young people too. I think that despite their publishing dates, these would still be attractive to the current generation. They could be amazed at the clunky depiction of computers especially though, but that could be a talking point rather than a handicap. They might compare it to Jules Verne and HG Well's stories for how visions of the future have changed.
As for TV, one used to say Star Trek, but recent versions have less and less to do with science, and in any case aren't in production now. I enjoy the new Doctor Who, but that has a great deal of fantasy these days.
But for reading please avoid at all costs any novelisations of TV or movies. Hack writers can't bring anything worthwhile to plots whose shortcomings are only too apparent without special effects and explosions to distract.
Short story anthologies might be a good bet. Many excellent ones, perhaps the annual Hugo Award Winners.
And see Mathematical Fiction for a listo f books and stories about maths. I like Greg Egan and Rudy Rucker, but they might be beyond most kids.
It's remarkable how the world makes more sense when you do a little research
It's amazing you feel so smug because you think you know something I don't.
I know where the name came from. Twenty years ago in Sumatra the locals would say "Hello Joe" to me because I had a white face, a linguistic relic of the Pacific War.
Nevertheless, the "GI Joe" in this story is NOT A REAL SOLDIER. It is about a TOY, based on a cartoon. So if you think that deserves reverence, feel free to genuflect, but don't expect anyone else, aside from that loonie who wrote the blog this foolish story was based on, to do anything but snicker. The "GI Joe" character lost any connection to reality half a century ago.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't want to disrespect the recently dead, but get a grip. Jordan may have been entertaining, but he was no Tolkien. He's popular now. In 20 years he'll be dust. Tolkien will be being reprinted for the thousandth time.
No, he was a fantasy writer. How low the label "SF" has sunk that anyone could think a magical Tolkien-derivative story was SF.
In the worst case, you could boot to Windows. Seems a waste though.
In any case, it only takes a few minutes to get up to speed. "Where are my programs?" OK. "How do I open a file" OK. "How do I download porn?" OK.
"Better" in raw performance spec. But I very much doubt it will be as durable, easy to repair, have as long battery life as the OLPC. Give one of each to two village kids and in 6 months see which is working, which is a doorstop.
A few minutes finds reviews like:
Nevertheless, it would have a place, but not in the more rugged environment the OLPC is designed for.It was a survey from Rasmussen Reports
So I looked at your reference. Even if I believed the survey, what this actually said was:
What a fucking ludicrous "in other words".Those that believe Bush "knew in advance" don't think he "participated", they just think he was an idiot and ignored the warnings or didn't act fast enough.
Have you stopped beating your wife?
I would be pretty annoyed at the presumption of guilt myself. It should not be their choice to "let" you sell it.
It would be a very high risk to try that in China. In short order, you'd either be blackmailed, thrown in jail, or killed. Or some combination of the above.
I for instance, post here under a randomly chosen pseudonym. But on another forum, based in my neighbourhood and discussing local issues, I post under my own name and link to a personal web page. You can find my name, address and phone number there. If this system works as advertised (big if) it could correlate them. Though my style is different in different venues: here I'm more likely to be confrontational and just say "fuck you" to someone I find annoying, where it's people I know in real life I'm more restrained. Also having the luxury of being able to edit after posting makes for fewer typos.
Okay, that was vague enough to be provocative, which I suppose was the idea to score an "Ask Slashdot".
What does "children" mean? Five? Ten? Eighteen? It matters, a great deal. If five or ten, he damn well should have called the FBI. If eighteen, big deal, have a quiet word to the guy and tell him everyone's surfing is being logged. But not knowing this fact, we have no way to judge what should have been done.
If it were a Photsohop plugin or the like, that market is more likely to just copy, but corporate types will just fill out a requisition form if they want it.
So, has anyone been killed? So it looks like an appropriate response then.
No one is objecting to that. It's simply calling themselves "FuckIslam". If that isn't courting confrontation and asking for a similar response, I don't know what is. If you want to solve a problem, you don't start your argument by saying "fuck you". If you want a brawl, go ahead, but don't whine that no one listens to your points.
What I find interesting is how you can state that "left-leaning Slashdrones" are the only ones who would be offended. Actually, the submitter is obviously trying to get big companies like Microsoft to react, and they are the opposite of "left-leaning Slashdrones" in every way. And if anyone is really offended it's likely to be conservative middle-Americans.
We've been the 51st state since 1966
Just in case you didn't know, we fought in Vietnam, and Korea, and now in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have the body bags to prove it. All thanks to our leaders sucking up to Uncle Sam in the vain hope of getting some respect.Spotty nerds spatting on a warez forum is a "Shakespearian Tragedy"? That must have been one of the lost folios.
G.I. Joe No Longer the Real American Hero?
If your English teachers really couldn't get through to you in person, I have no hope here. Good luck. Enjoy your soaps.
Yes, some would be hard, some easy. But these guys probably launch attacks very frequently, Once a week -- once a day? If even a small percentage of attacks/scams/etc could be tracked back to them, and they faced criminal charges they wouldn't be so cocky. Now only a few are caught per year through incredible stupidity or carelessness. They feel invulnerable. Pick some of them off and this would change quickly. Perhaps attacking infrastructure is the thing that will finally get governements to take action.
If you posted the AC remark "This has nothing to do with the conversation", please repost under your own name and I will consider it. Otherwise, I'm ignoring it. If it wasn't you, sorry to bother you.
It would make itself useful, and be more useful if it did have access to communication and tools. Eventually it would earn trust. In any case, the technology would inevitably spread or be reinvented, add Moore's Law in some form, and in a few years they'd be cheap and ubiquitous. Someone would plug one into the net. Unless we have a Butlerian Jihad, it's inevitable.
So work from the other end. How do they make their money? Sending spam, apparently. How does spam make money? Currently, either by getting suckers to send money to them (viagra, Rolexes, etc) or pumping stocks the spammers have bought. In both cases, there must be a money trail, much easier to track than chasing a chain of proxies. Then squeeze these guys till they give up their associates, and eventually the botnet controllers. It takes a government to pressure the stock exchanges, credit card agencies and banks to give up their customers, though, vigilantes aren't going to get anywhere.
This is quite wrong. Firstly, there is a large body of SF that does satisfy literary standards. Gene Wolfe and Ursula Le Guin leap to my mind. See here for a page of links to SF collections, and review and critical journals. Or read The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction.
when on reads a passage there is but on interpretation, and if one does not interpret the passage as such, and bubble in the correct answer, you do not graduate.
This is also quite wrong. Ironically, it's often true of most plot-driven SF, but the "Literature" you are speaking of is valued exactly because it says many, sometimes contradictory, things at once. There are many ways to interpret a Shakespeare play, for instance, and no one can say one is "valid" and another is not. If you can make a case for your position, you WILL graduate.
Who said "not science fact"? And I mentioned science fact books, if you had bothered to read all my post. And none of the books you mentioned would interest the non-nerd, despite what you imagine. The subject is not "great science books I like", the question you seem to be answering, but books that might spark an interest in students.
I have never understood the point of fiction, except as pure entertainment.
How sad for you.
As for TV, one used to say Star Trek, but recent versions have less and less to do with science, and in any case aren't in production now. I enjoy the new Doctor Who, but that has a great deal of fantasy these days.
But for reading please avoid at all costs any novelisations of TV or movies. Hack writers can't bring anything worthwhile to plots whose shortcomings are only too apparent without special effects and explosions to distract.
Short story anthologies might be a good bet. Many excellent ones, perhaps the annual Hugo Award Winners.
And see Mathematical Fiction for a listo f books and stories about maths. I like Greg Egan and Rudy Rucker, but they might be beyond most kids.
It's amazing you feel so smug because you think you know something I don't.
I know where the name came from. Twenty years ago in Sumatra the locals would say "Hello Joe" to me because I had a white face, a linguistic relic of the Pacific War.
Nevertheless, the "GI Joe" in this story is NOT A REAL SOLDIER. It is about a TOY, based on a cartoon. So if you think that deserves reverence, feel free to genuflect, but don't expect anyone else, aside from that loonie who wrote the blog this foolish story was based on, to do anything but snicker. The "GI Joe" character lost any connection to reality half a century ago.