I believe the general fear is the disposal of the radioactive by-products. Given the half-life of the stuff, there's really no way that we currently can safely dispose of the crap without eventually affecting our food supplies short of shooting it into space.
I seem to remember hearing about a little war about 225 years ago(emphasis added) or such, where the founders of the US fought against a global superpower of superior numbers with superior technology, AND covert backing from other European nations, and *gasp* MANY died on both sides, but NOW they're free. What a deal!
Differences between then and now:
A) First: we had guns as well - not just pitchforks or sticks as many in the oppressed nations do now.
B) Time between continents was much longer. Start a revolution then and you had at least a few days, likely weeks before reinforcements could arrive. Start one now and you can see reinforcements flying in within 24 hours, perhaps less if they're stationed in a neighboring country. In our war, the superior numbers were limited by the Atlantic ocean.
C) Technology has changed. The superior technology you're speaking of had at best at 10:1 elimination ratio. These days you're dealing with 1000:1 or worse.
Face it, we're in a new time period and what worked before often won't work now.
I have tried _every_ replacement product (from OS X to Linux, from BeOS to more esoteric workstations OSes) and I have to say that the M$ product, while not the most stable, is still the most user friendly.
Tried an Amiga?
Windows is finally getting around to the level of UI sophistication that the Amiga owners were playing with before IBM had the word Pentium.
Had MS not used seriously anti-competitive methods to eliminate competition (eg DR-DOS, OEM agreements, BillG's parental relationship with IBM) then their may have been a healthy competition around the IBM platform. This competition *may* (BIG hypothetical) have allowed Amiga more of a window into the market. Probably not, but it's nice to dream.
However, it *undoubtedly* would have forced Microsoft to be a heck of a lot more innovative with their systems and we the people would have realized the benefits much sooner.
Only when the government finally DID become involved and Microsoft had to at least slow down it's anti-competitive practices as it was under the serious eye of the DoJ have we started to see some real competition developing around the IBM desktop (and it ain't here yet, I'll admit)
Sure, theoretically, every large corporation will either adapt to consumers or eventually collapse under its own weight. Given that corporations can live MUCH longer than any individual though, I don't want to be the poor shmuck waiting for market forces to kick in while a megalithic corporation bleeds out its huge amount of resources in a non-productive fight to stay on top, crushing better systems, technologies, and ideas as it does.
The popular media says that Osama is responsibile for the USS Cole bombings by providing funding to the suicide bombers. Is this true? I don't know.
While I don't know if he's actually claimed responsibility, from what the media showed of the "terrorist training videos", it does look like there's several shots of the USS Cole in it, followed by Osama saying something that I couldn't understand.
You're going to a house party at someplace you've never been before. You walk up to the likely house, you can hear music inside, and it looks like a party and you knock. They let you in. After looking around, you realize, "whoops.. wrong place" and go to leave..
Except they've locked all the doors and windows and won't let you go.. but hey.. it THEIR house.
Having been reading Slashdot for some time, I decided to throw a copy of Linux on my machine. So I hit the RedHat site, downloaded and set up their disks for the install. I then wiped and re-partitioned my hard drive, allocating half for Windows, half for Linux.
Windows installed fine and dandy, and after a couple stops and Microsoft for patches and even Nimda did me no harm. Then I threw in the Red Hat Linux disks, and basically hit the "Next" key a lot to let it auto-install. Worked great. Nifty bunch of stuff it comes with too.
One problem you might want to look out for. My machine only has a Winmodem which Redhat doesn't autoconfigure for apparantly. I've found some Winmodem drivers on the web, but I'm a bit hardware-shy, so I haven't ripped open my box yet to see what chipset I have on the modem or attempt to install the new drivers.
So as it stands, I still find I'm using Windows 90% of the time, and flipping to Linux more for the novelty than anything else. I imagine once I get the modem working properly on Linux, I'll probably spend more time using it and seeing what I can find.
The Redhat distro I got automatically comes with its own dual boot tool, and so far I've had absolutely no problems with either OS conflicting with each other or the boot tool.
Actually, the reason people didn't like the way Ford treated his employees was that beyond the basic material stuff he gave, the work situation was utter crap.
Ford was a big follower of Taylor and Taylorism. This is the theory whereby every person is made the most 'efficient' they can possibly be by a statiscal system of measuring various ways a task can be done, and choosing the quickest. Then you train your employee over and over again until they get that one move down perfect. And then that's the ONLY thing they do. All day. Every day.
So yeah, your job consists of picking up a lug-nut, turning 30 degrees, and screwing it onto a tire all day long, you're going to hate the job, no matter what benefits your'e geting. Never mind the ergonomic nightmare we know that kind of work to be today.
I buy food from the local farmers market, and we actually get quite a variety of blue/purple potatoes. Some varieties have a purplish skin. Cut it in half and you'll find the flesh is like a normal potato with the exception of a ring of blue about a half inch in from the skin. This typically fades somewhat in the cooking.
Others have a much more bluish tint to the skin. These varieties also tend have the entire flesh colored a washed-out blue-purple. They keep their color when cooked.
As to the taste, well.. it's a potato. There's hardly any difference between the lighter ones and your normal red potatos that I can tell (I'm no gourmet, though). The darker bluish ones I tend to think taste a bit better than regular potatos. They have a more... potato-ey.. flavor. Not sure how to describe it. It's as if they have a bit more of the essence of potato in them. Quite good, especially cubed and fried with a little olive oil and sour-cream to dip.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/08/08/car ri er.windows.idg/
My personal worry is the landwarrior system. If windows bluescreens there from the rigors of combat, you may be left with a soldier completely out of the communications loop. Even worse, the system is designed so that the soldier can use an HUD to call in mortar fire. Any thoughts on what a slipped bit can do to targeting?
Short term, the stringent rules will cost people more money, no argument.
Long term, more competition gets going, more bright ideas come to the front, promising lines of research don't get quashed by the inferior but well-moneyed monopoly, consumers wind up getting better products for the same cost or cheaper than before, and get them sooner than they would if the monopoly was allowed unfettered freedoms.
Proof of what? That there were extra police on the streets on the day of the vote? That these police were specifically located in check-stops in the black neighborhoods on the way to the polls? That black people often feel (whether with reason or no) intimidated by white police officers and check-stops? That this intimidation factor is well known both among blacks and whites?
That it's quite likely, though impossible to prove, that a significant number of black voters simply turned away from going to the polls rather than run the gamut of check-stops?
All of these things were reported in Florida papers. Of course, none of them are actually illegal so there's not really anything anybody can actually do about it. The police forces were just doing their jobs. The government officials can claim extra concern about the vote seeing as how it was predicted to be so close. The black folks who turned away did so of their own free will (though I'm sure some regret it now). All in all, a very successful psych-war campaign.
So you're Joe User on the street and all of a sudden Microsoft is pushing you to buy its absolutely brand new operating system - one that has no relation to Windows (because if it did they'd have to disclose it, and failing to disclose it could see them put under even tighter controls) - but hey now you could get this completely unheard of "Doors" system, or you could get this Linux thing which you've been hearing a bit about in the news lately about it running some stock exchange or something.. hmm.. which to choose?
They can't just re-label, because contempt of court - especially now that they're a recognized monopoly - holds some serious consequences.. the break up would rear its ugly head again.
Robot Odyssey was a good educational game that gave the basics of designing circuits and logic using your various logic gates, flip-flops, etc. It gets very involved and awfully difficult near the end-levels.
I imagine just about any sports based game (other than the obvious wrestling/rugby) would work for meeting the non-violent criteria.
You might also consider the various Play by Mail games out there - especially those that have regular turns run. This also gives added negotiating power - do the homework, get to see their next turn, etc. Of course, that requires net access.
Unfortunately, they could probably only get Windows public domain, since it's the IP in question that was used to leverage the monopoly. Though if Sun were smart, they'd make a try for Office.
Heck.. Open Sourcing MS-Office would let Sun put full compatability into StarOffice.. and watch them make a pretty penny on selling support to corporations.
Except Microsoft already has a track record of completely ignoring conduct remedies..
Re:Pardon my excitement, but
on
HP Buys Compaq
·
· Score: 1
You're right about the Dell site of course, it's where I got this machine. But really it's only used by people who already have a computer and net-access. Not a lot of people are really comfortable with just picking up the phone to order their computer. Especially when they're not sure what they're getting and what it's good for.
I was more talking about the retail markets. Dell doesn't do those. Which is too bad as they seem to be pretty good machines. I haven't had any complaints yet anyway.
Kwil
Re:Pardon my excitement, but
on
HP Buys Compaq
·
· Score: 1
Somebody in this thread mentioned how IBM has a few in CompUSA, but you're thinking too local. Up here in Canada the Office Supply stores, which most of the small "mom&pop" businesses get their machines from, sell either HP or Compaq. That's it. You get into the bigger electronic type stores (Future Shop, recently bought out by some American Company) and they're selling the same thing. The only other offerings are their own in-house unknown brands. They don't even bother with IBM because the price tag makes it not worth shipping in a computer they know won't sell.
Gateway Country doesn't exist up here, and Gateway doesn't do Canadian orders. Dell will do direct sales, but duty is a kick in the teeth.
So other than small specialty shops, HP has effectively just eliminated their only competition in Canada.
What's all this talk about enslavement? Hawking didn't mention that in either article. I don't follow how "take over the world" == "enslave the human race"
It could just as easily mean destroy the human race, or it could simply mean to take control of the world, as in, computers running everything, leaving us humans to sit back on our asses and enjoy the fruits of their labours.
Hell, humanity might become the equivalent of the computers' pets, and as far as I'm concerned, that's not a bad thing. All my cat does is eat sleep, and play - how often I wished I had that lifestyle.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe the general fear is the disposal of the radioactive by-products. Given the half-life of the stuff, there's really no way that we currently can safely dispose of the crap without eventually affecting our food supplies short of shooting it into space.
I seem to remember hearing about a little war about 225 years ago (emphasis added) or such, where the founders of the US fought against a global superpower of superior numbers with superior technology, AND covert backing from other European nations, and *gasp* MANY died on both sides, but NOW they're free. What a deal!
Differences between then and now:
A) First: we had guns as well - not just pitchforks or sticks as many in the oppressed nations do now.
B) Time between continents was much longer. Start a revolution then and you had at least a few days, likely weeks before reinforcements could arrive. Start one now and you can see reinforcements flying in within 24 hours, perhaps less if they're stationed in a neighboring country. In our war, the superior numbers were limited by the Atlantic ocean.
C) Technology has changed. The superior technology you're speaking of had at best at 10:1 elimination ratio. These days you're dealing with 1000:1 or worse.
Face it, we're in a new time period and what worked before often won't work now.
I have tried _every_ replacement product (from OS X to Linux, from BeOS to more esoteric workstations OSes) and I have to say that the M$ product, while not the most stable, is still the most user friendly.
Tried an Amiga?
Windows is finally getting around to the level of UI sophistication that the Amiga owners were playing with before IBM had the word Pentium.
Had MS not used seriously anti-competitive methods to eliminate competition (eg DR-DOS, OEM agreements, BillG's parental relationship with IBM) then their may have been a healthy competition around the IBM platform. This competition *may* (BIG hypothetical) have allowed Amiga more of a window into the market. Probably not, but it's nice to dream.
However, it *undoubtedly* would have forced Microsoft to be a heck of a lot more innovative with their systems and we the people would have realized the benefits much sooner.
Only when the government finally DID become involved and Microsoft had to at least slow down it's anti-competitive practices as it was under the serious eye of the DoJ have we started to see some real competition developing around the IBM desktop (and it ain't here yet, I'll admit)
Sure, theoretically, every large corporation will either adapt to consumers or eventually collapse under its own weight. Given that corporations can live MUCH longer than any individual though, I don't want to be the poor shmuck waiting for market forces to kick in while a megalithic corporation bleeds out its huge amount of resources in a non-productive fight to stay on top, crushing better systems, technologies, and ideas as it does.
Well.. at least we can until they start using SecureAudio and those other non-copyable CD's.
The popular media says that Osama is responsibile for the USS Cole bombings by providing funding to the suicide bombers. Is this true? I don't know.
While I don't know if he's actually claimed responsibility, from what the media showed of the "terrorist training videos", it does look like there's several shots of the USS Cole in it, followed by Osama saying something that I couldn't understand.
You're going to a house party at someplace you've never been before. You walk up to the likely house, you can hear music inside, and it looks like a party and you knock. They let you in. After looking around, you realize, "whoops.. wrong place" and go to leave..
Except they've locked all the doors and windows and won't let you go.. but hey.. it THEIR house.
Yeah right.
Kwil
Having been reading Slashdot for some time, I decided to throw a copy of Linux on my machine. So I hit the RedHat site, downloaded and set up their disks for the install. I then wiped and re-partitioned my hard drive, allocating half for Windows, half for Linux.
Windows installed fine and dandy, and after a couple stops and Microsoft for patches and even Nimda did me no harm. Then I threw in the Red Hat Linux disks, and basically hit the "Next" key a lot to let it auto-install. Worked great. Nifty bunch of stuff it comes with too.
One problem you might want to look out for. My machine only has a Winmodem which Redhat doesn't autoconfigure for apparantly. I've found some Winmodem drivers on the web, but I'm a bit hardware-shy, so I haven't ripped open my box yet to see what chipset I have on the modem or attempt to install the new drivers.
So as it stands, I still find I'm using Windows 90% of the time, and flipping to Linux more for the novelty than anything else. I imagine once I get the modem working properly on Linux, I'll probably spend more time using it and seeing what I can find.
The Redhat distro I got automatically comes with its own dual boot tool, and so far I've had absolutely no problems with either OS conflicting with each other or the boot tool.
Actually, the reason people didn't like the way Ford treated his employees was that beyond the basic material stuff he gave, the work situation was utter crap.
Ford was a big follower of Taylor and Taylorism. This is the theory whereby every person is made the most 'efficient' they can possibly be by a statiscal system of measuring various ways a task can be done, and choosing the quickest. Then you train your employee over and over again until they get that one move down perfect. And then that's the ONLY thing they do. All day. Every day.
So yeah, your job consists of picking up a lug-nut, turning 30 degrees, and screwing it onto a tire all day long, you're going to hate the job, no matter what benefits your'e geting. Never mind the ergonomic nightmare we know that kind of work to be today.
KWiL
Depends on the variety.
I buy food from the local farmers market, and we actually get quite a variety of blue/purple potatoes. Some varieties have a purplish skin. Cut it in half and you'll find the flesh is like a normal potato with the exception of a ring of blue about a half inch in from the skin. This typically fades somewhat in the cooking.
Others have a much more bluish tint to the skin. These varieties also tend have the entire flesh colored a washed-out blue-purple. They keep their color when cooked.
As to the taste, well.. it's a potato. There's hardly any difference between the lighter ones and your normal red potatos that I can tell (I'm no gourmet, though). The darker bluish ones I tend to think taste a bit better than regular potatos. They have a more... potato-ey.. flavor. Not sure how to describe it. It's as if they have a bit more of the essence of potato in them. Quite good, especially cubed and fried with a little olive oil and sour-cream to dip.
The upcoming Land Warrior System using Windows 2K:
a re .htm
8 7, 00.html
r ri er.windows.idg/
http://www.sbccom.army.mil/programs/lw/LW_Softw
http://www-tradoc.army.mil/pao/landwarrior.htm
Problems using Windows NT in the Navy (not sure if they carried through with it on this probject):
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,139
Windows on the next generation Aircraft Carrier:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/08/08/ca
My personal worry is the landwarrior system. If windows bluescreens there from the rigors of combat, you may be left with a soldier completely out of the communications loop. Even worse, the system is designed so that the soldier can use an HUD to call in mortar fire. Any thoughts on what a slipped bit can do to targeting?
After a while, you start noticing the machinery at work, the old manipulation, as if the naked facts aren't enough.
If enough people start to pick up on the machinery, then maybe news addiction is a good thing.
Looking at the picture, these fans seem to be surrounded on all sides with building. Any possibility that might reduce the amount of airflow noise?
After all, they're just going to HAVE to fight this one..
Are you thinking short term or long term?
Short term, the stringent rules will cost people more money, no argument.
Long term, more competition gets going, more bright ideas come to the front, promising lines of research don't get quashed by the inferior but well-moneyed monopoly, consumers wind up getting better products for the same cost or cheaper than before, and get them sooner than they would if the monopoly was allowed unfettered freedoms.
Seems like a good solution to me.
Proof of what? That there were extra police on the streets on the day of the vote? That these police were specifically located in check-stops in the black neighborhoods on the way to the polls? That black people often feel (whether with reason or no) intimidated by white police officers and check-stops? That this intimidation factor is well known both among blacks and whites?
That it's quite likely, though impossible to prove, that a significant number of black voters simply turned away from going to the polls rather than run the gamut of check-stops?
All of these things were reported in Florida papers. Of course, none of them are actually illegal so there's not really anything anybody can actually do about it. The police forces were just doing their jobs. The government officials can claim extra concern about the vote seeing as how it was predicted to be so close. The black folks who turned away did so of their own free will (though I'm sure some regret it now). All in all, a very successful psych-war campaign.
One difference here is that in the one instance it's the government telling a recognized monopoly what to do so as to allow competitiveness.
In the other, it's the government telling the whole INDUSTRY what to do, thereby limiting competitiveness.
So you're Joe User on the street and all of a sudden Microsoft is pushing you to buy its absolutely brand new operating system - one that has no relation to Windows (because if it did they'd have to disclose it, and failing to disclose it could see them put under even tighter controls) - but hey now you could get this completely unheard of "Doors" system, or you could get this Linux thing which you've been hearing a bit about in the news lately about it running some stock exchange or something.. hmm.. which to choose?
They can't just re-label, because contempt of court - especially now that they're a recognized monopoly - holds some serious consequences.. the break up would rear its ugly head again.
Whoops! Skip the mobygames.com link. They don't actually have the software (the perils of not deep searching).
Instead, go to http://www.droidquest.com for the Apple version + emulator, or for his freeware Java version.
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~lex/ro.html
Enjoy!
Robot Odyssey was a good educational game that gave the basics of designing circuits and logic using your various logic gates, flip-flops, etc. It gets very involved and awfully difficult near the end-levels.
I imagine just about any sports based game (other than the obvious wrestling/rugby) would work for meeting the non-violent criteria.
You might also consider the various Play by Mail games out there - especially those that have regular turns run. This also gives added negotiating power - do the homework, get to see their next turn, etc. Of course, that requires net access.
Unfortunately, they could probably only get Windows public domain, since it's the IP in question that was used to leverage the monopoly. Though if Sun were smart, they'd make a try for Office.
Heck.. Open Sourcing MS-Office would let Sun put full compatability into StarOffice.. and watch them make a pretty penny on selling support to corporations.
It'd kill Linux though.
Kwil
Except Microsoft already has a track record of completely ignoring conduct remedies..
You're right about the Dell site of course, it's where I got this machine. But really it's only used by people who already have a computer and net-access. Not a lot of people are really comfortable with just picking up the phone to order their computer. Especially when they're not sure what they're getting and what it's good for.
I was more talking about the retail markets. Dell doesn't do those. Which is too bad as they seem to be pretty good machines. I haven't had any complaints yet anyway.
Kwil
Somebody in this thread mentioned how IBM has a few in CompUSA, but you're thinking too local. Up here in Canada the Office Supply stores, which most of the small "mom&pop" businesses get their machines from, sell either HP or Compaq. That's it. You get into the bigger electronic type stores (Future Shop, recently bought out by some American Company) and they're selling the same thing. The only other offerings are their own in-house unknown brands. They don't even bother with IBM because the price tag makes it not worth shipping in a computer they know won't sell.
Gateway Country doesn't exist up here, and Gateway doesn't do Canadian orders. Dell will do direct sales, but duty is a kick in the teeth.
So other than small specialty shops, HP has effectively just eliminated their only competition in Canada.
Not too shabby.
Kwil
What's all this talk about enslavement? Hawking didn't mention that in either article. I don't follow how "take over the world" == "enslave the human race"
It could just as easily mean destroy the human race, or it could simply mean to take control of the world, as in, computers running everything, leaving us humans to sit back on our asses and enjoy the fruits of their labours.
Hell, humanity might become the equivalent of the computers' pets, and as far as I'm concerned, that's not a bad thing. All my cat does is eat sleep, and play - how often I wished I had that lifestyle.
Kwil