It's actually quite clever: it involves a fable about a little orphan boy(rather nordic looking;), whom, while having no true parents, is adopted by the whole world.
It's very interesting in that it doesn't mention technology at all, only some stuff about the "open" future.
I think George Santayana said it best when he defined a fanatic as "someone who loses sight of the goal, and consequently redoubles efforts to achieve it."
The first question that came to my mind (after wondering how Microsoft will screw this up for themselves) was who is the competition for this?
This is likely a high growth sector, as all industries are looking to make their distribution systems more efficient, and anyone who gets an early leed could have a large advantage, since interoperability between difference companies systems would be a big selling point.
Particularly, I wondered where was IBM, who once lost control of a large industry to microsoft.
Some quick googling showed that IBM doesn't plan to let this fish get away. See here and here.
That said, anyone know about open-source non-proprietary RFID solutions for businesses?
Certainly some sectors of third world economies will be able to afford Microsoft prices. That set of sectors will only grow as those countries become more developed and, thereby, richer.
Factor in the strong network effects regarding operating system dominance, and an early lead can result in long-term domination.
executives at IBM seem to be trying frantically to put a much milder spin on the story... I really can't imagine why they wouldn't be posting it on billboards.
Fact is, there is the perception that open source is as much an ideological movement as a practical one. IBM is a publicly traded company, and its appearance, to investors and to potential clients, is important to their success.
Appearing ideological would be a Bad Thing (TM) for IBM. It must appear to be motivated by profit and practicality, so any embrace of an ideological movement must be dulled and qualified with a mild and sober spin. Otherwise they might appear to have the zeal and excitement for a "new" technology that all those failed dot-coms.
This is of course irrespective of whether the move is good or not
these days, most unions are ridiculous beauracracies (sp, i know) that wince financial support from both employers and employees for their own gain, under the muse of taking care of both sides...
To me, the "problems" with unions is comparable to the "problems" with democracy: if your democratic nation/union is filled with apathetic ill-informed citizenry/members, corruption will not be a surprize. However, the solution is not to install fascism or anarchy, but rather to educate the citizenry and expunge any corruption.
I'm not going to say that all union organizations in existence are pure and good in everyway, but unions have as much a purpose today as they did in the thirties.
How is ensuring that one's members benefit from the profits of the company they work for out of date? Sure, some unions are corrupt, but generally unions fight to get good employment benefits for there members, like medical and pension, which I think most of us can appreciate.
Remember, business has a heavy interest in making people think that all unions are evil, corrupt, useless, or, god-forbid, anti-capitalist.
Ask yourself, what exactly is evil about a group of free people coming together to negotiate towards their common goals, using as bargaining chips nothing more than their fundamental rights and freedoms?
Where would these release notes be? Surely you don't refer to the cryptic changelog. Googling "linux 2.6 release notes" didn't turn up anything relevant. I tried one thing and I'm out of ideas(if it ain't in google, it don't exist;) !
So if you know of release notes that will clearly answer my question, please post a link.
Prisoners don't vote because it's believed they are very likely to vote against whatever govermnent presided over the conviction, without regard to good civic responsiblilty. There are those who believe this one wouldn't stand a Supreme Court challenge, but it's stood so far.
First, the area where technology might be useful but isn't being used much, as far as I can tell, is voter validation. This could be a pretty straightforward database application that simply ensures that people are who they say they are, and they only get to vote once.
Since Diebold is trying to gouge Maryland for the installation of printers, maybe some enterprising 3rd party could try to win the contract with a better offer?
Given the crappy security on the diebold machines, they couldn't be that hard to reverse engineer.
You are incorrect. There is no corresponding frequency of light for the color white, nor for many other colours. White is simply our perception when the red, green and blue photoreceptors in our eyes are equally stimulated. The only colours with corresponding light frequencies are those which you find in the colours of the rainbow.
If Michael Robertson really cared about the songs he should have made a binding contract for them on the moment he sold MP3.com.
Perhaps he just didn't expect Vivendi Universal to be completely insane and wasteful
He found selling mp3.com more important back then than retaining the songs for archive..
He was under attack from all the major labels and the RIAA at the time; he might have just figured that the only way mp3.com could survive was to be reborn under the care one of those major labels. Playing both sides against the middle, so to speak.
I'm disappointed to see a lack of any brain research in the list, considering how beneficial applications of neuroscience could be, and how much the field is maturing.
Why they would ignore such a field, I can only speculate: perhaps there is too much of a stigma of "mind altering" to neuroscience (though I do recall Bush senior declaring the 1990's to be the decade of the brain). Or perhaps the present administration has a vested interest in keeping the populous away from mind improving developments. Or perhaps they just don't think it's necessary; after all, you don't have to be a genius to become president these days.
... then Linux will be a fine alternative to the average user.
I sure hope so. The average user really pisses me off. The sooner we can do without them, the better. Though I have many doubts as to whether linux will be able to replace certain features of the average user which I quite enjoy.
Slashdot Mirror
It's very interesting in that it doesn't mention technology at all, only some stuff about the "open" future.
You can watch it here.
I think George Santayana said it best when he defined a fanatic as "someone who loses sight of the goal, and consequently redoubles efforts to achieve it."
Rail Guns
It was in Red Mars that it's first mentioned.
This is likely a high growth sector, as all industries are looking to make their distribution systems more efficient, and anyone who gets an early leed could have a large advantage, since interoperability between difference companies systems would be a big selling point.
Particularly, I wondered where was IBM, who once lost control of a large industry to microsoft.
Some quick googling showed that IBM doesn't plan to let this fish get away. See here and here.
That said, anyone know about open-source non-proprietary RFID solutions for businesses?
Factor in the strong network effects regarding operating system dominance, and an early lead can result in long-term domination.
You'd just walk into any store or restaurant you like, and take whatever you want.
This could cause a greater disconnect between the mentalities of the rich and the poor.
And so a new piece of slang, is born.
Fact is, there is the perception that open source is as much an ideological movement as a practical one. IBM is a publicly traded company, and its appearance, to investors and to potential clients, is important to their success.
Appearing ideological would be a Bad Thing (TM) for IBM. It must appear to be motivated by profit and practicality, so any embrace of an ideological movement must be dulled and qualified with a mild and sober spin. Otherwise they might appear to have the zeal and excitement for a "new" technology that all those failed dot-coms.
This is of course irrespective of whether the move is good or not
To me, the "problems" with unions is comparable to the "problems" with democracy: if your democratic nation/union is filled with apathetic ill-informed citizenry/members, corruption will not be a surprize. However, the solution is not to install fascism or anarchy, but rather to educate the citizenry and expunge any corruption.
I'm not going to say that all union organizations in existence are pure and good in everyway, but unions have as much a purpose today as they did in the thirties.
How is ensuring that one's members benefit from the profits of the company they work for out of date? Sure, some unions are corrupt, but generally unions fight to get good employment benefits for there members, like medical and pension, which I think most of us can appreciate.
Remember, business has a heavy interest in making people think that all unions are evil, corrupt, useless, or, god-forbid, anti-capitalist.
Ask yourself, what exactly is evil about a group of free people coming together to negotiate towards their common goals, using as bargaining chips nothing more than their fundamental rights and freedoms?
Actually, it's worse: gasoline at least has resale value.
Actually, when one puts it that way, it doesn't sound too bad ...
So if you know of release notes that will clearly answer my question, please post a link.
I run linux as my desktop at home, and I also run it at work in a scientific computing cluster.
I'd like to know what benefits I could expect from the new kernel in each area in which I use linux.
Actually, it didn't
Actually, this has been implemented, in the 2000 Presidential election to disenfranchise thousands of florida voters(most of whom were likely voting for Gore) http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/12/ 04/voter_file/print.html
Sure it can. I think a few thousand nuclear warheads exploding would stop progress quite effectively.
Given the crappy security on the diebold machines, they couldn't be that hard to reverse engineer.
You are incorrect. There is no corresponding frequency of light for the color white, nor for many other colours. White is simply our perception when the red, green and blue photoreceptors in our eyes are equally stimulated. The only colours with corresponding light frequencies are those which you find in the colours of the rainbow.
Actually, members of the empty set can have any property you want them to.
Like, say, Germany?
Perhaps he just didn't expect Vivendi Universal to be completely insane and wasteful
He found selling mp3.com more important back then than retaining the songs for archive..
He was under attack from all the major labels and the RIAA at the time; he might have just figured that the only way mp3.com could survive was to be reborn under the care one of those major labels. Playing both sides against the middle, so to speak.
Why they would ignore such a field, I can only speculate: perhaps there is too much of a stigma of "mind altering" to neuroscience (though I do recall Bush senior declaring the 1990's to be the decade of the brain). Or perhaps the present administration has a vested interest in keeping the populous away from mind improving developments. Or perhaps they just don't think it's necessary; after all, you don't have to be a genius to become president these days.
Here's a thread discussing the ep on bad astronomy.com
I sure hope so. The average user really pisses me off. The sooner we can do without them, the better. Though I have many doubts as to whether linux will be able to replace certain features of the average user which I quite enjoy.