Richard Dawkins in his book "The selfish gene" introduced a concept of a meme. Meme is a replicator, just like gene, except that it represents an idea. It is copied by us, humans, either verbally or in writing, software, paintings, etc., and so on. Susan Blackmore in her book "The meme machine" expands on the idea.
Now, what does it have to with "Software Fashions". Both Dawkins and Blackmore present well-thought out argument that memes are subject to similar forces as genes. As a consequence, just like in a genetic world you can have outbreaks of viruses, in memetic environment there are outbursts of ideas. Some of them are as much use as a flu virus, and until our minds develop resistance to it, they will spread. Once memetic vaccine has been developed they die out.
Blaming software fashions on SFV is just like blaming flu outbreak on a SVV (stupid virus victim). Note that memetic fashions are common and not restricted to software. From bell-bottoms, through furbies to whatever the latest craze we have now.
I have a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Before starting work in industry I was working at a university for 2 years as an associated professor. Throughout those two years I was actively writing software. Still, when I started approaching companies, I found that a number of them was discouraged when they saw my resume: too many publications, not enough industry terms. It also did not help that I thought that my ability to do advanced research indicates that I can pick up other skills easily. This belief is apparently not shared by employers. They, often, want a person with very concrete skills. After a number of attempts I found a good company that employed me. And all of sudden things changed. Now having a Ph.D. and industry experience works to my advantage.
However much it sounds like a cliche, indeed, get a Ph.D. for yourself. Do it if you think that improving the complexity of an algorithm from O(n log log(n)) to O(n log*(n)) is a good thing, worth your time. If you don't, starting work after a masters degree gives you 3 or so years ahead start. And in the industry a person with 5 years experience is worth more than a person with 2 years experience, even if the second one has a Ph.D.
Yes, I have to agree with CausticWindow. Somehow the culture evolved so that a man getting raped or having his teeth smashed out to give another prisoner a blow job, is funny. Naturally, nobody would even dare to suggest that if the same happened to a woman that would be funny. But then again, one of the main sources of jokes on TV are men getting punched or kicked in the groin. Again, if a woman was... you get the picture. So before making another joke like that think how it would sound if you replaced "man" by "woman" and then by "human being"...
I'm glad finally somebody posted this. I, too, have been noticing considerable delays in accessing slashdot both from home and work. I'm using Galeon and Mozilla, respectivelly. And yes, it is a bit off-topic, but any explanation would be great!
Re:recommended related reading
on
The Red Queen
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I have read both books and would highly recommend them. Actually the Red Queen answers some questions left open by Selfish Gene. The basic thesis of Selfish Gene is that its gene's selfish desire to replicate that drives evolution. Dawkins explains it perfectly and I am not going to try to replicate his reasoning here. However this leads to a problem: why does sex exist? If you have 4 creatures, A, B, C and D, and A and B reproduce asexually while C and D need a partner, from a selfish point of view A and B are at an advantage. After X units of time necessary to produce an offspring A created A_1, B created B_1 while C and D created one, say, CD. Now if this pattern continues you can see that selfish genes of A and B can out-populate selfish genes of C and D. Here is where Red Queen comes into place. It states that the main reason for sex to exist is that you can mix genetic code, rendering it more immune to parasites. Simply put if a parasite P is fine tuned to attack A, it is also able to attack A_1. On the other hand if that same parasite is fine tuned to attack C, it might not be able to attack CD, due to the fact that it contains combination of genes of C and D, rather than a copy of the genetic material from its parent. So while in a parasite free environment asexual reproduction makes sense from a selfish gene point of view, in the Earth-like environment, with parasites, viruses and bacteria, it is not always a winner.
The article has nothing to do with Netscape, Mozilla or HTML standards. It is about some guy who had sex with a goat. Please do not mod something as informative just because it looks like it. Follow the link, damn it(!) and find out this is really a troll!
I certainly agree. Those arguing in favor of human umpires tend to say that replacing them with machines takes away "soemthing" special from the game. If you ask them what is that "something", they say, "I don't know; something human", but never come even close to defining it. Basically these are the people for whom moving the cheese (as is "Who moved my cheese") causes a distress. They want the old, traditional ways, even if they can't give exact and precise reasons why... I say, move on. The human factor is fun if it is in your favor or does not affect you. But if you lost a game because of a bad call, there is not much fun in it.
This seems to be beta quality code. Thus you might want to try Secure NFS via SSH Tunnel, which provides, accoding to the author Secure NFS (SNFS) via SSH2 tunneling of UDP datagrams, as suggested in the SSH
FAQ.
Somebody should tell MS marketing department that The Onion, that published the following eToilet article, is a satirical (as in "do not take this stuff seriously") magazine.
One thing that I find deeply disturbing is that people who oppose genetic enhancements frequently base it on the argument that we should not "play god". They reserve the privilege of changing our genes to a mystical deity that they believe exist. They also claim to be able to communicate with it and know its wishes. This ignores those who do not believe in any form of god. However the system, where majority rules, imposes those limitations on the atheists part of the population. While I am in favor of refraining from using technologies that we do not fully understand, once they are mastered we should not oppose them based on the fact that some of us believe in what is written in a book that is 2000 years old.
Isn't it possible that, say NVidia has developed some amazing way of compressing polygons to speed up data transfer to their card and do not with competitors to know about it?
At home I use Linux, and I am very happy with it. However I believe that some flexibility in the open source approach is good. If somebody wishes to reveal their code, great. If not, let them play, too. Live and let live, as they say. A lot of companies are worried that the R&D money they invested in designing costly software is lost the moment they go open source.
For ordinary people (i.e., non-geek types) Linux would be more appealing if it came pre-installed and cheaper than an equivallent Windows machine. Right now a person who purchased a PC already spent money on the operating system and possibly some applications. What incentive is there for that person to research various Linux flavors, go and buy a distro (no, Joe Average is not going to install it from sources available on the Internet) and then spend weeks tweaking it to meet his perferences? Take a look at the case of Mozilla and IE. A lot of people I know are envious of tabs and popup blocking, but yet they are too lazy to go, and get Mozilla installed on their computers. They are using IE because it mostly does the job and it was already there. And Mozilla is just one application not an entire operating system.
If your average home user could go and look at two PCs, one with Windows, MS Office, and some drawing program and the other with Linux, Open Office and Gimp and noticed $300 or so difference in price tag, Linux would be considered much more often. Average people do not care about technical details. They care about dollars and ease of use.
If, as you say, it irks you why don't you post comments to the Rex Baldazo? I did, first time when he reviewed Netscape 7 (claiming it cannot be run in parallel with Mozilla) and now after seeing the idiotic comment about not rendering IE specific sites. You can do this by following this link.
I, for one, am not surprised that a university professor knows little about software. I used to be a lecturer in computer science (algorithms, networks, etc.) and one of the reasons I quit was because there is so little interest among academics in non-esoteric subjects. I have witness a colleague, who taught algorithms for over 5 years, to enter our break room one morning and proudly declare that he just wrote his first program! Imagine that, a guy who teaches how to solve problems using code did not code himself. Generally the knowledge of compilers, IDEs and other tools is very poor among academics. Most of these people come from math, and are interested in solving hard issues, often irrelevant to the real world, like improving the complexity of an algorithm from O(n log log (n)) to O(n log*(n)). Finding a professor who complied a Linux kernel or wrote a program that was more than 1,000 lines of code is like looking for a proverbial needle in a hay stack.
As far as that MIT professor I would not be surprised if he was picked by MS as a guy who likes using Windows (PowerPoint, mostly I suspect), knows nothing about other operating systems and has enough clout to impress a non-technical judge.
I joined as a simple expression of my support for a company that provides an alternative to Windows. Recent settlement talks between DOJ and MS proved that the US government is not willing to or capable of support of diversity in software. The alternative is for ordinary people to express such support. The trouble with monopolies such as MS is that there is a very high treshold of getting into the market. Thus initially a company such as Mandrake may have to resort to unorthodox methods of staying in buisiness. Once a decent foothold is established they (hopefully) can be profitable, using good old capitalistic methods.
The CNet article mentioned the next version of P4 architecture. However it says nothing about progression of clock speed on the current P4. Does anybody have any information about it. Some sort of release schedule (2.4GHz in...? 2.6GHz in..., etc. and so on).
Slashdot Mirror
Richard Dawkins in his book "The selfish gene" introduced a concept of a meme. Meme is a replicator, just like gene, except that it represents an idea. It is copied by us, humans, either verbally or in writing, software, paintings, etc., and so on. Susan Blackmore in her book "The meme machine" expands on the idea.
Now, what does it have to with "Software Fashions". Both Dawkins and Blackmore present well-thought out argument that memes are subject to similar forces as genes. As a consequence, just like in a genetic world you can have outbreaks of viruses, in memetic environment there are outbursts of ideas. Some of them are as much use as a flu virus, and until our minds develop resistance to it, they will spread. Once memetic vaccine has been developed they die out.
Blaming software fashions on SFV is just like blaming flu outbreak on a SVV (stupid virus victim). Note that memetic fashions are common and not restricted to software. From bell-bottoms, through furbies to whatever the latest craze we have now.
I have a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Before starting work in industry I was working at a university for 2 years as an associated professor. Throughout those two years I was actively writing software. Still, when I started approaching companies, I found that a number of them was discouraged when they saw my resume: too many publications, not enough industry terms. It also did not help that I thought that my ability to do advanced research indicates that I can pick up other skills easily. This belief is apparently not shared by employers. They, often, want a person with very concrete skills. After a number of attempts I found a good company that employed me. And all of sudden things changed. Now having a Ph.D. and industry experience works to my advantage.
However much it sounds like a cliche, indeed, get a Ph.D. for yourself. Do it if you think that improving the complexity of an algorithm from O(n log log(n)) to O(n log*(n)) is a good thing, worth your time. If you don't, starting work after a masters degree gives you 3 or so years ahead start. And in the industry a person with 5 years experience is worth more than a person with 2 years experience, even if the second one has a Ph.D.
Yes, I have to agree with CausticWindow. Somehow the culture evolved so that a man getting raped or having his teeth smashed out to give another prisoner a blow job, is funny. Naturally, nobody would even dare to suggest that if the same happened to a woman that would be funny. But then again, one of the main sources of jokes on TV are men getting punched or kicked in the groin. Again, if a woman was ... you get the picture. So before making another joke like that think how it would sound if you replaced "man" by "woman" and then by "human being" ...
I'm glad finally somebody posted this. I, too, have been noticing considerable delays in accessing slashdot both from home and work. I'm using Galeon and Mozilla, respectivelly. And yes, it is a bit off-topic, but any explanation would be great!
I have read both books and would highly recommend them. Actually the Red Queen answers some questions left open by Selfish Gene. The basic thesis of Selfish Gene is that its gene's selfish desire to replicate that drives evolution. Dawkins explains it perfectly and I am not going to try to replicate his reasoning here. However this leads to a problem: why does sex exist? If you have 4 creatures, A, B, C and D, and A and B reproduce asexually while C and D need a partner, from a selfish point of view A and B are at an advantage. After X units of time necessary to produce an offspring A created A_1, B created B_1 while C and D created one, say, CD. Now if this pattern continues you can see that selfish genes of A and B can out-populate selfish genes of C and D. Here is where Red Queen comes into place. It states that the main reason for sex to exist is that you can mix genetic code, rendering it more immune to parasites. Simply put if a parasite P is fine tuned to attack A, it is also able to attack A_1. On the other hand if that same parasite is fine tuned to attack C, it might not be able to attack CD, due to the fact that it contains combination of genes of C and D, rather than a copy of the genetic material from its parent. So while in a parasite free environment asexual reproduction makes sense from a selfish gene point of view, in the Earth-like environment, with parasites, viruses and bacteria, it is not always a winner.
The article has nothing to do with Netscape, Mozilla or HTML standards. It is about some guy who had sex with a goat. Please do not mod something as informative just because it looks like it. Follow the link, damn it(!) and find out this is really a troll!
I certainly agree. Those arguing in favor of human umpires tend to say that replacing them with machines takes away "soemthing" special from the game. If you ask them what is that "something", they say, "I don't know; something human", but never come even close to defining it. Basically these are the people for whom moving the cheese (as is "Who moved my cheese") causes a distress. They want the old, traditional ways, even if they can't give exact and precise reasons why ... I say, move on. The human factor is fun if it is in your favor or does not affect you. But if you lost a game because of a bad call, there is not much fun in it.
And we should not forget the Spookyfish episode and what it did to Kenny.
This seems to be beta quality code. Thus you might want to try Secure NFS via SSH Tunnel, which provides, accoding to the author Secure NFS (SNFS) via SSH2 tunneling of UDP datagrams, as suggested in the SSH FAQ.
Somebody should tell MS marketing department that The Onion, that published the following eToilet article, is a satirical (as in "do not take this stuff seriously") magazine.
One thing that I find deeply disturbing is that people who oppose genetic enhancements frequently base it on the argument that we should not "play god". They reserve the privilege of changing our genes to a mystical deity that they believe exist. They also claim to be able to communicate with it and know its wishes. This ignores those who do not believe in any form of god. However the system, where majority rules, imposes those limitations on the atheists part of the population. While I am in favor of refraining from using technologies that we do not fully understand, once they are mastered we should not oppose them based on the fact that some of us believe in what is written in a book that is 2000 years old.
Isn't it possible that, say NVidia has developed some amazing way of compressing polygons to speed up data transfer to their card and do not with competitors to know about it?
At home I use Linux, and I am very happy with it. However I believe that some flexibility in the open source approach is good. If somebody wishes to reveal their code, great. If not, let them play, too. Live and let live, as they say. A lot of companies are worried that the R&D money they invested in designing costly software is lost the moment they go open source.
If your average home user could go and look at two PCs, one with Windows, MS Office, and some drawing program and the other with Linux, Open Office and Gimp and noticed $300 or so difference in price tag, Linux would be considered much more often. Average people do not care about technical details. They care about dollars and ease of use.
C'mon the first penguin was not holding a phone and a briefcase. So it's not quite a dupe, right???
consider this. If a bug that crashes the network is in the code you wrote, it might cost you an arm and a leg ... literally
If, as you say, it irks you why don't you post comments to the Rex Baldazo? I did, first time when he reviewed Netscape 7 (claiming it cannot be run in parallel with Mozilla) and now after seeing the idiotic comment about not rendering IE specific sites. You can do this by following this link.
As far as that MIT professor I would not be surprised if he was picked by MS as a guy who likes using Windows (PowerPoint, mostly I suspect), knows nothing about other operating systems and has enough clout to impress a non-technical judge.
I joined as a simple expression of my support for a company that provides an alternative to Windows. Recent settlement talks between DOJ and MS proved that the US government is not willing to or capable of support of diversity in software. The alternative is for ordinary people to express such support. The trouble with monopolies such as MS is that there is a very high treshold of getting into the market. Thus initially a company such as Mandrake may have to resort to unorthodox methods of staying in buisiness. Once a decent foothold is established they (hopefully) can be profitable, using good old capitalistic methods.
The CNet article mentioned the next version of P4 architecture. However it says nothing about progression of clock speed on the current P4. Does anybody have any information about it. Some sort of release schedule (2.4GHz in ...? 2.6GHz in ..., etc. and so on).
Well, damn, my first post and I screw up. It is section 12. Audit that is unchanged.
I just checked the JBuilder 6 Enterprise edition and the section 13. Audit is still there, unchanged.