The shuttle was, and is, a dead end, and alot of the community argued against it. We should have stuck with disposables until we figured out how to build something that really was SSTO. Unfortunately we still haven't managed it...
sadly true. The shuttle could have been a prelude to something much better but thats never materialised. I think the problem deep down is that ever since the apollo program ended the adventurous spirit has gone out of space. Sure a lot of good science is still done but its not quiet, gently paced research that makes the world sit up and think.
I'd dare to suggest the only thing that would rekindle a worldwide interest in people going into space would be something extravagant. Mars perhaps, or at least back to the moon.
i'll probably get modded down to hell for saying this, but wouldn't the mind boggling amounts of money that get ploughed into the ISS be better spent on more, smaller, saner, more economical projects ones that do new/cool[tm] stuff? And what are the benefits (other than PR) of maintaining continuous presence in orbit anyway?
i've been seeing people claiming to have had data over mains working for years now. Its heartening to finally see it on the market. But with wireless becoming ubiquitous is it really worth it now?
nice idea... will probably return SONG BY BRITNEYSTEPSA-TEENSBRYANADAMSZONEMALFUNNNNNNNCTION ZZZZZT
definitely points toward non-watermarking: All that?s required is to hold a mobile phone to a radio?s speaker for three seconds ? long enough to record a digital fingerprint ? when a song is playing.
no watermark/fingerprint/anything in the music - just an algorithm that samples it, creates a small chunk of data describing it and looks that up against a database for matches. So no loss of quality involved, and if the algorithms as good as they say it'll cope with quite badly broken up music (AM radio? Noisy club?) as input.
"Microsoft Corp. and other companies are developing similar technology" -> 'Look ma, the neighbours done got dimselves some 133t new tech! Us'd better embrace and extend afore they makes it big!"
sure hope/. is just as available and searchable in 20 years time - its one of few very few repositories of opinion that'll give the geeks perspective on the society they helped make.
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 09:50:32 -0500
From: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda
To: oracle@gothicasfuck.co.uk
Subject: Re: whoosh: DVD Player Chipsets To Support Windows Media Files
Geezus, chill out, its scheduled to go up 15:01 GMT. I think someone slipped up and posted it and then moved it so there were a few comments posted. That occasionally happens.
boycotting is great from an individual, moral point of view but think about the people who make DVD's and their players. Who's their market? Fact of the matter is that video codecs and software monopolies go waaaay over the head of the average joe - can you really see the herds of western civilisation getting riled at this?
so boycott it, and I and half of slashdot will do the same until they've forgotten about it (should take about a week going by past experience) and we can all feel good but its not going to make a blind bit of difference.
MosesJones makes a damn good point (upto the last couple of paragraphs, theyre just flamebait). Perl is a scripting language - remember? Its great for knocking up odd bits of code to do simple (or even not-so-simple) tasks but anything greater than 100 lines rapidly becomes a headache to maintain. I don't even want to think about a team-based project writing in perl.
the author of the above post would like to apologise for his complete inability to format posts. You can pick up your e-apology card from www.myflyjusthadpuppies.com
> One thing I've noticed about Perl people is that
> they are often very open-minded about using other
> languages to solve a problem.
I think its a result of hackishness: a common trait amongst perl programmers is to want to solve a problem in the fastest, simplest way possible and most are mature enough to admit their favourite language isn't always the right tool for the job.
true, by 1990 standards... the point i'm making is that we could hack x11 around to do this sort of thing but ultimately its an ugly mess. The only really valuable thing about it is the network transparency and only ~5% of people ever seriously use it anyway. I think its time the unix world moved on, threw X out and went for something that doesn't take the performance hit imposed by such a level of abstraction.
and why exactly should we be drooling? Oh yes, because our venerable X11 can't. A few windowmanagers have hacks to enable something like it (enlightenment with Eterm for example) but its just painting a shaded section of the current wallpaper a window's background, not real, actual transparency.
And until we all get supercomputers on our desks, rewrite X or ditch it entirely for something that isn't old and bloated we're going to carry on losing on the eye candy front.
I wonder if this will embarass the US government into mounting another of its great space adventures... Wishful thinking i suppose, but my grandparents got to watch a moon landing with their kids and i want to watch a mars landing with mine. (when i find a geek-friendly woman that is)
Slashdot Mirror
The shuttle was, and is, a dead end, and alot of the community argued against it. We should have stuck with disposables until we figured out how to build something that really was SSTO. Unfortunately we still haven't managed it...
sadly true. The shuttle could have been a prelude to something much better but thats never materialised. I think the problem deep down is that ever since the apollo program ended the adventurous spirit has gone out of space. Sure a lot of good science is still done but its not quiet, gently paced research that makes the world sit up and think.
I'd dare to suggest the only thing that would rekindle a worldwide interest in people going into space would be something extravagant. Mars perhaps, or at least back to the moon.
i'll probably get modded down to hell for saying this, but wouldn't the mind boggling amounts of money that get ploughed into the ISS be better spent on more, smaller, saner, more economical projects ones that do new/cool[tm] stuff? And what are the benefits (other than PR) of maintaining continuous presence in orbit anyway?
i've been seeing people claiming to have had data over mains working for years now. Its heartening to finally see it on the market. But with wireless becoming ubiquitous is it really worth it now?
;)
N ZZZZZT
nice idea... will probably return SONG BY BRITNEYSTEPSA-TEENSBRYANADAMSZONEMALFUNNNNNNNCTIO
definitely points toward non-watermarking:
All that?s required is to hold a mobile phone to a radio?s speaker for three seconds ? long enough to record a digital fingerprint ? when a song is playing.
no watermark/fingerprint/anything in the music - just an algorithm that samples it, creates a small chunk of data describing it and looks that up against a database for matches. So no loss of quality involved, and if the algorithms as good as they say it'll cope with quite badly broken up music (AM radio? Noisy club?) as input.
"Microsoft Corp. and other companies are developing similar technology" -> 'Look ma, the neighbours done got dimselves some 133t new tech! Us'd better embrace and extend afore they makes it big!"
and where would be the geek kudos in that? :)
you're right of course. Hence Magic Lantern.
fair point... okay, the perspective the early 21st century rabid peer-compliant geek.
how come this got modded down?
sure hope /. is just as available and searchable in 20 years time - its one of few very few repositories of opinion that'll give the geeks perspective on the society they helped make.
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 09:50:32 -0500
From: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda
To: oracle@gothicasfuck.co.uk
Subject: Re: whoosh: DVD Player Chipsets To Support Windows Media Files
Geezus, chill out, its scheduled to go up 15:01 GMT. I think someone slipped up and posted it and then moved it so there were a few comments posted. That occasionally happens.
yeah, i got my first first post ever and some bastard hosed the story
Rob, if you do that again i'll stop talking crap on slashdot and take it elsewhere!
boycotting is great from an individual, moral point of view but think about the people who make DVD's and their players. Who's their market? Fact of the matter is that video codecs and software monopolies go waaaay over the head of the average joe - can you really see the herds of western civilisation getting riled at this?
so boycott it, and I and half of slashdot will do the same until they've forgotten about it (should take about a week going by past experience) and we can all feel good but its not going to make a blind bit of difference.
sorry to play the pessimist
neat - that a modern compression format (post-mpeg2) will be supported on DVD hardware
sad - that its not an open one
this isn't a troll!
MosesJones makes a damn good point (upto the last couple of paragraphs, theyre just flamebait). Perl is a scripting language - remember? Its great for knocking up odd bits of code to do simple (or even not-so-simple) tasks but anything greater than 100 lines rapidly becomes a headache to maintain. I don't even want to think about a team-based project writing in perl.
the author of the above post would like to apologise for his complete inability to format posts. You can pick up your e-apology card from www.myflyjusthadpuppies.com
> One thing I've noticed about Perl people is that > they are often very open-minded about using other > languages to solve a problem. I think its a result of hackishness: a common trait amongst perl programmers is to want to solve a problem in the fastest, simplest way possible and most are mature enough to admit their favourite language isn't always the right tool for the job.
i don't know the answer but it sure is an impressive question
true... i should have said first time a high profile/sentimental value machine has been knocked out by vandals. But you get the idea
this is sad - for the first time the 133t cyber d00dz have won. Freedom->abuse of freedom.
you poor gets, i really feel for you. For some people (read: us) having a net connection is second only to having food, water and beer
can only be a good thing. But how much energy? And can this take us closer to being a sustainable culture?
true, by 1990 standards... the point i'm making is that we could hack x11 around to do this sort of thing but ultimately its an ugly mess. The only really valuable thing about it is the network transparency and only ~5% of people ever seriously use it anyway. I think its time the unix world moved on, threw X out and went for something that doesn't take the performance hit imposed by such a level of abstraction.
and why exactly should we be drooling? Oh yes, because our venerable X11 can't. A few windowmanagers have hacks to enable something like it (enlightenment with Eterm for example) but its just painting a shaded section of the current wallpaper a window's background, not real, actual transparency.
And until we all get supercomputers on our desks, rewrite X or ditch it entirely for something that isn't old and bloated we're going to carry on losing on the eye candy front.
absolutely (from another brit)
I wonder if this will embarass the US government into mounting another of its great space adventures... Wishful thinking i suppose, but my grandparents got to watch a moon landing with their kids and i want to watch a mars landing with mine. (when i find a geek-friendly woman that is)