I think there would be a similar interest (in science TV) from the American public.
I think he is vastly overrating the American public. In this day and age, most people generally don't want to learn. They want to be entertained (hence gobbling down fish semen on Fear Factor). I'm not saying it's a bad idea, though. They could grab a niche market. I like the Discovery and History channels (and TLC), but too often they have "stupid" programming (weddings, babies, interior designers, etc). Also, they are not very technically oriented. You never hear anything except horsepower on most of the "good" shows. I would love it if this new deal had much more technical details in its programming, or at least went into more depth about how stuff works rather than "Look at this cool gizmo!"
I've come to the conclusion that due to the diversity of Linux (which is one of its so called strengths), in terms of things like GUIs, DEs, distros, etc..., the lack of standardization makes it virtually impossible for a company to provide a product, along with support, for Linux users. There's just too many inconsistencies from one distro and desktop to the next. And I think it's likely that even if Apple did release a version of iTunes that relied on, say, Qt, then you'd hear griping from the GTK+ community as to why Apple didn't support GTK+.
Bingo! You are the first Linux user with a clue! You win a free trolling!
OMG vorpal^ IS ON TEH SPOKE!!!!11oneone!!11!!!!
On a side note, I think it's kind of ironic that Linux users always talk about open standards, but the absolute lack of a standard way of doing things across multiple distributions of Linux is the very thing that is hurting it the most! In fact, I would venture as far to say that the competition between different open source solutions is harsher than that between open source (in general) and commercial products. I mean Microsoft vs Linux is BORING. Qt vs GTK+, or even better KDE vs Gnome, is EXCITING!
Recently I was googling for neat tricks or hacks with Perl. This directory listing on Yahoo has some links to some REALLY good sites. Looking at the code of some of them, there are a lot of nifty things going on. I didn't quite figure out a few of them at first, until reading the author's comments. I reccommend it for any and all Perl programmers. It will really get you thinking!
When I said "these people" I was specifically referring to the suicide bombers, not Muslims in general. It does have a lot to do with fundamentalism, though. I can't remember any comparable suicide attacks in history, but I'm sure a few have happened. I'd be interested in reading something about that.
The problem is the lack of food for regular people. The warlord (or whatever) steals all their livestock, seed, equipment, etc. and keeps it for himself and his thugs. This openness of technology will not help these people. They will continue to die in the streets. And we will let them. Because politics is more important than human life.
I was watching some show recently (I forget which), and they were discussing how we Westerners (the media especially) get so caught up in that 72 virgins thing. This is not the sole "reward", nor is it the greatest. It is just a side dish. Suicide bombings would continue to happen even if no virgins were promised in the afterlife. The ONLY reason these people do what they do is because they have no army and they BELIEVE that Allah will love and cherish them in the afterlife. Allah's love is their reason, their purpose. That is MUCH more of an incentive than a bunch of virgins. They serve as the physical reward, a reward of the flesh. But to be loved by Allah is the greatest hope anyone could have. It is worth fighting for. It is worth dying for. Belief is a much stronger weapon than any machine.
But we are not ready for this today. Third world countries are starving to death by the hundreds of thousands. How will gene therapy on plant/seed help when the farmers can't even get any regular plant/seed in the first place? You have to have bio-something before biotechnology becomes useful! Maybe once they get some farms up and running this could be useful. Until then, I think this is just a pipe dream. A step in the right direction, though.
What is going on with Slashdot lately? First, it was no posting when browsing at -1. Now it seems no Anonymous posting at all. What the fuck are your code monkeys trying to do?
Slashdot Mirror
The obligatory link.
I think there would be a similar interest (in science TV) from the American public.
I think he is vastly overrating the American public. In this day and age, most people generally don't want to learn. They want to be entertained (hence gobbling down fish semen on Fear Factor). I'm not saying it's a bad idea, though. They could grab a niche market. I like the Discovery and History channels (and TLC), but too often they have "stupid" programming (weddings, babies, interior designers, etc). Also, they are not very technically oriented. You never hear anything except horsepower on most of the "good" shows. I would love it if this new deal had much more technical details in its programming, or at least went into more depth about how stuff works rather than "Look at this cool gizmo!"
I've come to the conclusion that due to the diversity of Linux (which is one of its so called strengths), in terms of things like GUIs, DEs, distros, etc..., the lack of standardization makes it virtually impossible for a company to provide a product, along with support, for Linux users. There's just too many inconsistencies from one distro and desktop to the next. And I think it's likely that even if Apple did release a version of iTunes that relied on, say, Qt, then you'd hear griping from the GTK+ community as to why Apple didn't support GTK+.
Bingo! You are the first Linux user with a clue! You win a free trolling!
OMG vorpal^ IS ON TEH SPOKE!!!!11oneone!!11!!!!
On a side note, I think it's kind of ironic that Linux users always talk about open standards, but the absolute lack of a standard way of doing things across multiple distributions of Linux is the very thing that is hurting it the most! In fact, I would venture as far to say that the competition between different open source solutions is harsher than that between open source (in general) and commercial products. I mean Microsoft vs Linux is BORING. Qt vs GTK+, or even better KDE vs Gnome, is EXCITING!
Recently I was googling for neat tricks or hacks with Perl. This directory listing on Yahoo has some links to some REALLY good sites. Looking at the code of some of them, there are a lot of nifty things going on. I didn't quite figure out a few of them at first, until reading the author's comments. I reccommend it for any and all Perl programmers. It will really get you thinking!
When I said "these people" I was specifically referring to the suicide bombers, not Muslims in general. It does have a lot to do with fundamentalism, though. I can't remember any comparable suicide attacks in history, but I'm sure a few have happened. I'd be interested in reading something about that.
The problem is the lack of food for regular people. The warlord (or whatever) steals all their livestock, seed, equipment, etc. and keeps it for himself and his thugs. This openness of technology will not help these people. They will continue to die in the streets. And we will let them. Because politics is more important than human life.
I was watching some show recently (I forget which), and they were discussing how we Westerners (the media especially) get so caught up in that 72 virgins thing. This is not the sole "reward", nor is it the greatest. It is just a side dish. Suicide bombings would continue to happen even if no virgins were promised in the afterlife. The ONLY reason these people do what they do is because they have no army and they BELIEVE that Allah will love and cherish them in the afterlife. Allah's love is their reason, their purpose. That is MUCH more of an incentive than a bunch of virgins. They serve as the physical reward, a reward of the flesh. But to be loved by Allah is the greatest hope anyone could have. It is worth fighting for. It is worth dying for. Belief is a much stronger weapon than any machine.
But we are not ready for this today. Third world countries are starving to death by the hundreds of thousands. How will gene therapy on plant/seed help when the farmers can't even get any regular plant/seed in the first place? You have to have bio-something before biotechnology becomes useful! Maybe once they get some farms up and running this could be useful. Until then, I think this is just a pipe dream. A step in the right direction, though.
What is going on with Slashdot lately? First, it was no posting when browsing at -1. Now it seems no Anonymous posting at all. What the fuck are your code monkeys trying to do?
For details and evidence, go here. Please post your comments in my journal area to let me know what you think.
For details and evidence, go here. Please post your comments in my journal area to let me know what you think.