There is mounting evidence cloning causes substantial problems. Dolly the cloned sheep is now arthretic. A recent article suggest the DNA is scrabbled in the cloning process. Burning kittens in microwaves may have advanced science but can we in any way validate the gross waste of resources to clone pets that may live in pain. This is deeply pathological. There is now ample evidence that the year 2050 can be set as a arbitrary deadline for turning around the harm being done to the environment and the threat of overpopulation. Somehow in the face of it all the idea of people growing obscenely rich by cloning animals to a life of potential suffering in the name of companionship is an apt swansong.
I read the article and a fair number of posts. What I took from the article none of the posts I read addressed. The.NET initiative is an attempt to implement improvement in areas of platform independence, abstraction, documentation and security. simple, n'est pas?
The monopolistic market grab is a different strategy implementing C# as a tactic. My reading of it goes something like... establish the C# standard to gardener a wide developer audience then pull them in with the tools for developing.NET. Can OS/FSF developers take the bait and not get hooked? Yes easily. But can they go toe to toe with MS in using the technology to win end users? End users don't care about OS wars or development platform niceties. End users want intuitive GUIs, stability, security, service. As long as the current desktop configuration remains the same old same old and the Standards provide a common ground from which to develop apps then OS/FSF will continue to close the gap until price alone becomes the prime criterion for the choice of end users. The question then arises will MS keep the initiative in the desktop GUI or can the OS/FSF communities look to steal the initiative?
Generally the posts have dismissed the premise of the article, albeit by pointing to the most obvious counterpoint in the person of Da Vinci whom Mr. Katz addressed. In addressing C.P. Snow and the idea of two cultures the article ties itself to popular culture and the era of the popularizers like Snow. Popular culture is of and for the masses and often, if not always draws, on vague general ideas in an exploitive manner. Putting aside the views of those who promote pop culture and looking at science and art one can readily see there has never been a distinction or cultural divide between the two as they both spring from the same source, that source being imagination. Bertrand Russel spoke of the transcendent bliss of new mathematical insights, Einstein spoke of seeing his theories first in images. Rigorousnes, robustness and elegance are the hallmarks of works of genius and are as much the markings of great science as great art. It is from the wellspring of imagination (whatever it may be ) that art and science grow. The popular view of the process and its products are just another bastardization replete in buzz words and catch phrases.
BTW can anyone point me to any material detailing the killing of Archemedies. I'm particularly interested in knowing if the soldier who killed him gave a detailed account and what if any punishment he suffered. Thnx in advance
Among the first lessons any entrepreneur must learn is never give up control of your business. This is fundamental. Never give up even partial control to your lawyer or your accountant. Venture capitalists are adventures, they are the modern equivalent of those who underwrote andventures in trade during the initial exploitation of the new world. Venture capitalists look to see a ship come in; not underwrite a warm fuzzy guild of craftsman. There appeared to be no business plan in effect here other than to be warm and open and trusting. And they got fucked then eaten. Darwinian principles score again!
The task of any lawyer or group of lawyers is to zealously protect the rights of their client. (I'm not a lawyer, but studied more contract law in Com/Econ than I wanted too and perused and signed a ton 'o contracts in the real world). The task of every lawyer is to write a bullet proof contract to enforce his/her client's rights. A bad lawyer will tell you they've given you a bullet proof contract. A good lawyer will tell you there's no such thing as a bullet proof contract. If you need the product use it. If you feel your rights have been abrogated sue... it's the American way (Canajen too).
I personally hate the idea of XP and thin client architecture and loosing control of my apps et al, but each to their own.
Hello Daniel
My latin isn't what it once was and what it once was wasn't much. I pulled the following definition: faber -bra -brum [ingenious , skillful]. M. as subst. faber -bri, [a worker, craftsman]; 'faber tignarius', [a carpenter]; 'ferrarius', [a blacksmith]; milit., 'fabri', [the engineers]; also [a fish], perhaps [dory]. Adv. fabre, [skillfully]. My understanding of the phrase "Homo Faber" goes to our species as tool maker. The subject line was a flippant reference to the making of a better mouse trap.
"Whata mak'n?"
"A mouse trap"
"But we already got a buncha mouse traps"
"Ya but this is a better mousetrap. It can catch all mice or any mice anywhere with no need for any other kinda mouse trap"
"Wow, uh why do ya wanna catch mice for anyway?"
What a pleasure to read:-). Balanced, informed, with just enough detail for those conversant with the issues. Thnx muchly, it's why I incesstantly check in with Slashdot.
Bill Gates who is now Chief Software Architect with MS has said the.NET initiative is a make or break deal for MS. Although I think this is a good part hyperbole. With no experience with C# and still deep in the learning curve of C/C++ from a MS DOS, VB background I'm decidedly not qualified to post in this thread so of course I will;-).
My critcism goes to software development in general and the paradigm of the desktop specifically. The idea of "skins" and write once run anywhere development tools are great ideas but they still leave endusers with the same old GUI which both Windows and Linux use because, well uhm, we always have. But the daily complaints of many users suggest the 2D desktop model may not be as intuitively friendly as might be possible. I think users would like the benefits of OOP and 'skins'. Just throw an object up on the screen and name it an X file then right click to throw in a pie chart from Y database. I'm suggesting the same Mr. Potato Head approach for end users as developers seek in terms of Java and C#. My reborn interest in programming is geared toward developing just such a "Mr. Potato Head" approach to the GUI. If any one can guide me to a 3D widget conglomeration to file development I'd be appreciative of any guidance. If it's just to tell me I'm hopelessly lost and Quixotic and to go to hell. I know and as far as hell goes. I've been there, know some short cuts, have fiends there I can stay with and speak the language fleuntly.
Michi Henning hit the nail on the head but can he drive the lesson home?
I recently returned to/. on a daily basis after taking 2 yrs off from the net. When last here with a different nick I was so impressed by the calibre of the people and the posts that I undertook to install Linux and began to distance myself from Windows. Having been back on the net the past 6 mos. and having returned to/. with the intent of joining the community and furthering the OS, FSF organizations I have over the past few days done a complete about face. I earnestly find the most part of/. posters to be redneck bigots who have so politicized the OS/FSF movement as to be more akin to a Stalin like centralized politburror threatening any who would dare use a product other than that which the movement endorses. There is a constant stream of political bullshit and personality cult drama with little content. Endless reams of quips bury any concrete content. By way of example the endless reams of crap that goes on discussing security online with Linux versus Windows. The solution by JoeUser. Run an old box with adequate ram and a couple of harddrives leave one drive unconnected. Someone hacks your drive disconnect the hacked drive connect the backup go back online. The internet isn't ready for anything else. The business model a la closed source is imperfect but gradually by constantly improving transperency in government and reporting the legitimate rights of users, users will be protected. I would rather trust my purchasing power to MicroSoft products subject to the scrutiny of progressive governments of democracies than to an undefined mob of righteous hackers.
BTW we JoeUser losers you all seem to find ignorant, hapless and a hindrence to the perfection of your craft drive the industry with our purchases and underwrite your paychecks. I can't imagine many users come to/. without leaving with a distinct dislike of 'geeks' or 'nerds'. I suggest when possible you watch a rerun of the Monty Python skit of philosophers playing soccer- it's you. I have undertaken to learn programming (C/C++) and thought to give my time to OS/FSF I will instead return to the Windows platform which I've been on since 1983.
Demographic: 40's
University: 5 years, Com/Econ.
IQ: 160 (I don't need to hear how smart you are)
Work background: Real Estate Portfolios (10 to 60 million in assets)
More Navel Lint Please I'm Making a Sweater
on
Heart of the Net
·
· Score: 1
I like reading Katz's stuff he is IMO a rational humanist a la Chomsky and there is a need for him but... he seems to walk a twilight zone between reporting and deporting himself as a modern day soothsayer. The sampling and mix of his writtings ends coming off like a rapper's attempt at high rhetoric. Leading off with a sentence like: "Where's the heart of the Net now? A.I. or AOL?" suggests a rather purerile need for illiteration over content especially in light of the see saw set of statements littered throughout the article as follows:
" The Net has evolved, and radically. It's much too big and diverse for a single locus" "-- nobody's in charge of it, or really decides how it will evolve and grow -- its epicenter floats all over" "Where's the heart of the Net now?
The odd truth is that there probably isn't one." If there is an epicentre there is a centre, no matter that *it* floats. My.02c goes back to the golden rule of site development. Content, Content, Content. Content is the heart of the net. Napster was a powerful engine that drove Broadband usage but the fuel was content, i.e., music. The Broadband initiative has stalled worldwide but the reason can be said to be simply that the net doesn't supply content necessary to prompt customers to pay up. "Build it and they will come."
The best recent book I've come across on this is "Sudden origins: fossils, genes, and the emergence of species"
by Jeffrey H. Schwartz, 1999 New York Wiley.
Mr. Schwartz does a good job of canvassing most of the current theories and takes a fairly comprehensive look at neoteny. My contention is geeks are the most infantile people on the planet. Ostensibly I need do no more than point to slashdotters and their posts. It follows geeks are at the forefront of evolution. I rest my beer case.
Going with the tribal couch potato(e) simile, Linux is like onto the man who would be king in Monty Python's Life of Brian. Slogging past peasants in the spring fields he is followed by his page prancing rhythmically whilst banging two coconut halves together in imitation of a kingly charger. Peasants loudly point out this kingly pretender has no horse. Linux without the internet would be like to the man who would be king without a kingly steed.
From the interview:" the Internet where that collaboration is essential to the value of the network -- then in order for all the players on that network to play fair with each other it has to be open source technology. The moment one company owns a protocol on the Internet, the Internet will fail. It'll be all over. The bulk of the value will disappear." The internet (read network) where collaboration (read networking) is essential to the value of the network (read Open Source). Linux is the child of the internet and whither the internet so goes Linux. C'est simple. n'est pas?
The issue is hypothetical. The question remains what is mind? How do we define mind? Defined in terms of problem solving mind exhibits stochastic and heuristic characteristics. But adding in afferent based judgements and actions as necessary to a quintessential definition of mind goes to considerations far outside strong AI considerations. But there's substantial evidence to suggest problem solving is supplemented, if not driven, by emotions and hormones. We're wet ware and AI isn't, it's a species apart and will most likely have to tell us it has evolved. But if AI does come into being will it want to hang with us? Would you?
I submitted a story yesterday that got rejected on a Gartner2 survey showing broadband in Europe at little or no growth and narrowband the norm for at least the next 5 years. The same tendency may be starting to show in North America. It may be dark fiber and the implementations of pricing strata reflect a shrinking or stagnant broadband market. Also in Canada a recent cabinet shuffle put a programme to run broadband to every nook and cranny on permanent hold. Normally business will try to increase its return on margins when the overall market stalls.
With the possibilities opening up from the human genome and near sci-fi areas like stem cells and tissue regeneration its likely that as complete a catalogue and sample of the world's funa and flora will be collected for research as climate change and natural habitat destruction will allow and, really, if anythings missing we can just substitute frog DNA and raise it up.
BTW why does the post page have my submission date Sunday Feb. 3 7pm? Like I'll get an answer ha
For the common folk who no longer read the finely honed tribal rhetoric of bickering academicians this isn't about objective reporting so much as it's about jockeying for position in the ivory tower world of publish or perish.
It the vein of the great yogi: it ain't over till it's over and you can observe alot just by watching... don't ya think being the first known species able to comment on its evolution is de facto evolution?
This is so *lame* and so *old*. What makes the issue farsical is its discussion in this forum. One word redundancy ! The net was born to withstand the sorts of attacks being discussed and redundancy in all systems is the only sure way to deal with the threat. Unfortunately the technology, e.g. solar energy derived from roofing materials is a long way off, and until the technology exists any discussions are moot or no more than the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the technological wasteland.
The episode speaks as much to the vigilantism latent in any community as to the hopelessness of clinging to the idea of anonymity. Personal privacy is an antiquated idea that won't hold in the 21st century and only the checks and balances, (John Locke was the ultimate prescient, political pragmatist), in place to make due process transparent and responsible to elected government will protect individual's rights. BTW vigilantism is the bane of law enforcement and many law enforcement officers will punch the buttons of someone lodging a complaint to see if their dealing with a hothead who might have been as much an instigator of the trouble as the purported badguy. Go out get the retinal scan, register your DNA and snuggle upto big brother.
The insect/pheromone analog functioned more as a metaphor than anything. The underlying engineering seemed to be a rehash of the old digital/analogue information 'theory'. Nothing new but old sci-fi allusions.
Hasn't the whole MS/Bill Gates thing morphed so far beyond mere monopolistic, predatory practices to become a gargantuan, grotesque caricature unable to make any business move without begging the birth of myth?/. and Open source opposing the evil empire. Lord of the Rings ain't got nothing on this.
Slashdot Mirror
There is mounting evidence cloning causes substantial problems. Dolly the cloned sheep is now arthretic. A recent article suggest the DNA is scrabbled in the cloning process. Burning kittens in microwaves may have advanced science but can we in any way validate the gross waste of resources to clone pets that may live in pain. This is deeply pathological. There is now ample evidence that the year 2050 can be set as a arbitrary deadline for turning around the harm being done to the environment and the threat of overpopulation. Somehow in the face of it all the idea of people growing obscenely rich by cloning animals to a life of potential suffering in the name of companionship is an apt swansong.
I read the article and a fair number of posts. What I took from the article none of the posts I read addressed. The .NET initiative is an attempt to implement improvement in areas of platform independence, abstraction, documentation and security. simple, n'est pas?
.NET. Can OS/FSF developers take the bait and not get hooked? Yes easily. But can they go toe to toe with MS in using the technology to win end users? End users don't care about OS wars or development platform niceties. End users want intuitive GUIs, stability, security, service. As long as the current desktop configuration remains the same old same old and the Standards provide a common ground from which to develop apps then OS/FSF will continue to close the gap until price alone becomes the prime criterion for the choice of end users. The question then arises will MS keep the initiative in the desktop GUI or can the OS/FSF communities look to steal the initiative?
The monopolistic market grab is a different strategy implementing C# as a tactic. My reading of it goes something like... establish the C# standard to gardener a wide developer audience then pull them in with the tools for developing
Generally the posts have dismissed the premise of the article, albeit by pointing to the most obvious counterpoint in the person of Da Vinci whom Mr. Katz addressed. In addressing C.P. Snow and the idea of two cultures the article ties itself to popular culture and the era of the popularizers like Snow. Popular culture is of and for the masses and often, if not always draws, on vague general ideas in an exploitive manner. Putting aside the views of those who promote pop culture and looking at science and art one can readily see there has never been a distinction or cultural divide between the two as they both spring from the same source, that source being imagination. Bertrand Russel spoke of the transcendent bliss of new mathematical insights, Einstein spoke of seeing his theories first in images. Rigorousnes, robustness and elegance are the hallmarks of works of genius and are as much the markings of great science as great art. It is from the wellspring of imagination (whatever it may be ) that art and science grow. The popular view of the process and its products are just another bastardization replete in buzz words and catch phrases.
BTW can anyone point me to any material detailing the killing of Archemedies. I'm particularly interested in knowing if the soldier who killed him gave a detailed account and what if any punishment he suffered. Thnx in advance
Among the first lessons any entrepreneur must learn is never give up control of your business . This is fundamental. Never give up even partial control to your lawyer or your accountant. Venture capitalists are adventures, they are the modern equivalent of those who underwrote andventures in trade during the initial exploitation of the new world. Venture capitalists look to see a ship come in; not underwrite a warm fuzzy guild of craftsman.
There appeared to be no business plan in effect here other than to be warm and open and trusting. And they got fucked then eaten. Darwinian principles score again!
The task of any lawyer or group of lawyers is to zealously protect the rights of their client. (I'm not a lawyer, but studied more contract law in Com/Econ than I wanted too and perused and signed a ton 'o contracts in the real world). The task of every lawyer is to write a bullet proof contract to enforce his/her client's rights. A bad lawyer will tell you they've given you a bullet proof contract. A good lawyer will tell you there's no such thing as a bullet proof contract. If you need the product use it. If you feel your rights have been abrogated sue... it's the American way (Canajen too).
I personally hate the idea of XP and thin client architecture and loosing control of my apps et al, but each to their own.
Hello Daniel
My latin isn't what it once was and what it once was wasn't much. I pulled the following definition: faber -bra -brum [ingenious , skillful]. M. as subst. faber -bri, [a worker, craftsman]; 'faber tignarius', [a carpenter]; 'ferrarius', [a blacksmith]; milit., 'fabri', [the engineers]; also [a fish], perhaps [dory]. Adv. fabre, [skillfully]. My understanding of the phrase "Homo Faber" goes to our species as tool maker. The subject line was a flippant reference to the making of a better mouse trap.
Cheers
"Whata mak'n?"
:-). Balanced, informed, with just enough detail for those conversant with the issues. Thnx muchly, it's why I incesstantly check in with Slashdot.
Bill Gates who is now Chief Software Architect with MS has said the .NET initiative is a make or break deal for MS. Although I think this is a good part hyperbole. With no experience with C# and still deep in the learning curve of C/C++ from a MS DOS, VB background I'm decidedly not qualified to post in this thread so of course I will ;-).
My critcism goes to software development in general and the paradigm of the desktop specifically. The idea of "skins" and write once run anywhere development tools are great ideas but they still leave endusers with the same old GUI which both Windows and Linux use because, well uhm, we always have. But the daily complaints of many users suggest the 2D desktop model may not be as intuitively friendly as might be possible. I think users would like the benefits of OOP and 'skins'. Just throw an object up on the screen and name it an X file then right click to throw in a pie chart from Y database. I'm suggesting the same Mr. Potato Head approach for end users as developers seek in terms of Java and C#. My reborn interest in programming is geared toward developing just such a "Mr. Potato Head" approach to the GUI. If any one can guide me to a 3D widget conglomeration to file development I'd be appreciative of any guidance. If it's just to tell me I'm hopelessly lost and Quixotic and to go to hell. I know and as far as hell goes. I've been there, know some short cuts, have fiends there I can stay with and speak the language fleuntly.
"A mouse trap"
"But we already got a buncha mouse traps"
"Ya but this is a better mousetrap. It can catch all mice or any mice anywhere with no need for any other kinda mouse trap"
"Wow, uh why do ya wanna catch mice for anyway?"
What a pleasure to read
Michi Henning hit the nail on the head but can he drive the lesson home?
/. on a daily basis after taking 2 yrs off from the net. When last here with a different nick I was so impressed by the calibre of the people and the posts that I undertook to install Linux and began to distance myself from Windows. Having been back on the net the past 6 mos. and having returned to /. with the intent of joining the community and furthering the OS, FSF organizations I have over the past few days done a complete about face. /. posters to be redneck bigots who have so politicized the OS/FSF movement as to be more akin to a Stalin like centralized politburror threatening any who would dare use a product other than that which the movement endorses . There is a constant stream of political bullshit and personality cult drama with little content. Endless reams of quips bury any concrete content. By way of example the endless reams of crap that goes on discussing security online with Linux versus Windows. The solution by JoeUser. Run an old box with adequate ram and a couple of harddrives leave one drive unconnected. Someone hacks your drive disconnect the hacked drive connect the backup go back online. The internet isn't ready for anything else. The business model a la closed source is imperfect but gradually by constantly improving transperency in government and reporting the legitimate rights of users, users will be protected. I would rather trust my purchasing power to MicroSoft products subject to the scrutiny of progressive governments of democracies than to an undefined mob of righteous hackers.
/. without leaving with a distinct dislike of 'geeks' or 'nerds'. I suggest when possible you watch a rerun of the Monty Python skit of philosophers playing soccer- it's you. I have undertaken to learn programming (C/C++) and thought to give my time to OS/FSF I will instead return to the Windows platform which I've been on since 1983.
I recently returned to
I earnestly find the most part of
BTW we JoeUser losers you all seem to find ignorant, hapless and a hindrence to the perfection of your craft drive the industry with our purchases and underwrite your paychecks. I can't imagine many users come to
Demographic: 40's
University: 5 years, Com/Econ.
IQ: 160 (I don't need to hear how smart you are)
Work background: Real Estate Portfolios (10 to 60 million in assets)
I like reading Katz's stuff he is IMO a rational humanist a la Chomsky and there is a need for him but... he seems to walk a twilight zone between reporting and deporting himself as a modern day soothsayer. The sampling and mix of his writtings ends coming off like a rapper's attempt at high rhetoric. Leading off with a sentence like: "Where's the heart of the Net now? A.I. or AOL?" suggests a rather purerile need for illiteration over content especially in light of the see saw set of statements littered throughout the article as follows: " The Net has evolved, and radically. It's much too big and diverse for a single locus" .02c goes back to the golden rule of site development. Content, Content, Content. Content is the heart of the net. Napster was a powerful engine that drove Broadband usage but the fuel was content, i.e., music. The Broadband initiative has stalled worldwide but the reason can be said to be simply that the net doesn't supply content necessary to prompt customers to pay up. "Build it and they will come."
"-- nobody's in charge of it, or really decides how it will evolve and grow -- its epicenter floats all over"
"Where's the heart of the Net now? The odd truth is that there probably isn't one."
If there is an epicentre there is a centre, no matter that *it* floats. My
The best recent book I've come across on this is "Sudden origins: fossils, genes, and the emergence of species" by Jeffrey H. Schwartz, 1999 New York Wiley.
Mr. Schwartz does a good job of canvassing most of the current theories and takes a fairly comprehensive look at neoteny. My contention is geeks are the most infantile people on the planet. Ostensibly I need do no more than point to slashdotters and their posts. It follows geeks are at the forefront of evolution. I rest my beer case.
Going with the tribal couch potato(e) simile, Linux is like onto the man who would be king in Monty Python's Life of Brian. Slogging past peasants in the spring fields he is followed by his page prancing rhythmically whilst banging two coconut halves together in imitation of a kingly charger. Peasants loudly point out this kingly pretender has no horse. Linux without the internet would be like to the man who would be king without a kingly steed.
From the interview:" the Internet where that collaboration is essential to the value of the network -- then in order for all the players on that network to play fair with each other it has to be open source technology. The moment one company owns a protocol on the Internet, the Internet will fail. It'll be all over. The bulk of the value will disappear." The internet (read network) where collaboration (read networking) is essential to the value of the network (read Open Source). Linux is the child of the internet and whither the internet so goes Linux. C'est simple. n'est pas?
The issue is hypothetical. The question remains what is mind? How do we define mind? Defined in terms of problem solving mind exhibits stochastic and heuristic characteristics. But adding in afferent based judgements and actions as necessary to a quintessential definition of mind goes to considerations far outside strong AI considerations. But there's substantial evidence to suggest problem solving is supplemented, if not driven, by emotions and hormones. We're wet ware and AI isn't, it's a species apart and will most likely have to tell us it has evolved. But if AI does come into being will it want to hang with us? Would you?
I submitted a story yesterday that got rejected on a Gartner2 survey showing broadband in Europe at little or no growth and narrowband the norm for at least the next 5 years. The same tendency may be starting to show in North America. It may be dark fiber and the implementations of pricing strata reflect a shrinking or stagnant broadband market. Also in Canada a recent cabinet shuffle put a programme to run broadband to every nook and cranny on permanent hold. Normally business will try to increase its return on margins when the overall market stalls.
With the possibilities opening up from the human genome and near sci-fi areas like stem cells and tissue regeneration its likely that as complete a catalogue and sample of the world's funa and flora will be collected for research as climate change and natural habitat destruction will allow and, really, if anythings missing we can just substitute frog DNA and raise it up.
BTW why does the post page have my submission date Sunday Feb. 3 7pm? Like I'll get an answer ha
For the common folk who no longer read the finely honed tribal rhetoric of bickering academicians this isn't about objective reporting so much as it's about jockeying for position in the ivory tower world of publish or perish.
It the vein of the great yogi: it ain't over till it's over and you can observe alot just by watching... don't ya think being the first known species able to comment on its evolution is de facto evolution?
This is so *lame* and so *old*. What makes the issue farsical is its discussion in this forum. One word redundancy ! The net was born to withstand the sorts of attacks being discussed and redundancy in all systems is the only sure way to deal with the threat. Unfortunately the technology, e.g. solar energy derived from roofing materials is a long way off, and until the technology exists any discussions are moot or no more than the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the technological wasteland.
The episode speaks as much to the vigilantism latent in any community as to the hopelessness of clinging to the idea of anonymity. Personal privacy is an antiquated idea that won't hold in the 21st century and only the checks and balances, (John Locke was the ultimate prescient, political pragmatist), in place to make due process transparent and responsible to elected government will protect individual's rights. BTW vigilantism is the bane of law enforcement and many law enforcement officers will punch the buttons of someone lodging a complaint to see if their dealing with a hothead who might have been as much an instigator of the trouble as the purported badguy. Go out get the retinal scan, register your DNA and snuggle upto big brother.
The insect/pheromone analog functioned more as a metaphor than anything. The underlying engineering seemed to be a rehash of the old digital/analogue information 'theory'. Nothing new but old sci-fi allusions.
Hasn't the whole MS/Bill Gates thing morphed so far beyond mere monopolistic, predatory practices to become a gargantuan, grotesque caricature unable to make any business move without begging the birth of myth? /. and Open source opposing the evil empire. Lord of the Rings ain't got nothing on this.