Microsoft has made careful and deliberate strategic decisions about Windows 10.
"Look at Google, and Facebook... They're making a killing on all of that personal data and ad targeting info. We need to get in on that. Hmm... We control most of the home PCs, what if we just funnel that info back to our data centers. We make Windows an OS-as-a-Service, then no one can complain about all the telemetry we collect. We get the audio, the webcam, and every keystroke. That's even better than Facebook or Google can do."
"Man! What a jackpot! Let's do it! We have to make sure as many people as possible are running this new version. We can call it a free upgrade, people will sign up for anything if it's free. How can we get it on everyone's machine?..."
* All eyes turn toward Windows Update *
"Right."
----
This isn't an "oops, that was a bug", this is "you're going to take this 'upgrade' and like it you filthy little revenue stream."
Meh. I don't auto-install any updates on Windows. I require prompts.
Granted it is a major pain in the tuckus to find information about every single patch from non-Microsoft sources to be sure they're actually patches and not landing craft in camoflage. I also run GWX Control Panel, which has been a godsend for keeping Win10 off the machine (I was actually at the point where Win10 was trying to install itself and I hard-booted and did a system restore).
I'd have switched to Linux already if I weren't a Windows gamer.
I was under the impression that we're living amid a second generation of stars. Early-universe stars were very large, very bright, and have all died already, giving birth to the current generation of cooler, longer living stars we see in our night sky. Granted, I'm basing that off of reading the Xeelee sequence, so who knows.
Which makes this approach seem similar to that heavy breathing about black holes not existing due to quantum corrections. It's headline hyperbole. So mathematical singularities may not exist, and there is very likely a minimum length in the universe.
This paper seems to exchange one infinity (density) for another (time in the past). If there was no initial bang and no crunch to come what was the universe doing for that infinity in the past before it expanded?
The *potential* harm is that you buy Acme ThingMaker 5.0 and make great works of meaningful art, and Acme requires you to pay them more money for ThingMaker 6.0 to access the works you've created with tools you bought that have "expired". Intentional software obsolescence was a real problem 10 years ago. RMS is part of the reason it is less of a problem now.
I still think he's wrong about interop with LLVM for EMACS, but he wasn't wrong about the dangers of proprietary software and the need for someone to keep vendors honest.
And herein lies the rub. Richard is arguing in favor of restricting the functionality of GNU software in hopes of ensuring others don't get some unintended use out of it.
On principle, that flies in the face of everything he has built.
What point is there in pouring resources, be they money or sweat equity, into software that is less useful by design? (Again reminiscent of FSF's "Broken by Design" campaign.)
The trouble is you've forgotten who's sitting between you and the developers. The developers themselves often don't make the call between fixing a bug or adding a feature. Unhealthy Scrum practices often lead to "stakeholders" usually Product Management or Marketing prioritizing features over defects and technical debt.
I've seen the organizational vertical slice approach work very well in the past, but you have to have management team that enjoys responsibility. Once the company goes down the Matrix-Management path, it's more about spreading blame around and abrogating accountability.
That would make some sense if the projects themselves were intended for highly concurrent operation, thus the choice of language, thus the defects in that category because that's what the code is for.
I will say that the all of those languages have very particular models for concurrency, such that misunderstanding the models can lead to design errors in the code. Harder problems plus clever code often yields brutal bugs.
The mathematics of the problem of Ebola propagation are clear. So are reasonable responses to limit propagation chances. But we let politics decide against science. Who are the science-deniers now?
You forgot to mention that the Democrats had provisions that allowed the FCC to dictate "balance" for political opinion sites. They tried to sneak in censorship provisions, and a fast-lane (in the deal with Google), in the final version of "Net Neutrality".
There is zero correlation between the name of the proposed law and its effect in practice. If you draft legislation and call it "The Save the Babies Act", then include provisions for removing arsenic regulation in the water supply coupled with a gag order, the law is bad and should be struck down. This is especially true when one side blocks amendments that would fix it (*cough* Democrats). You'll have to suffer the opposition and the media trumpeting about how you "hate babies" and have investments in pitchfork factories, but you really should work to kill that proposed law.
... whereas catestrophic failures of nuclear plants are always going to happen and likely to be injurious to human health. In conclusion I don't think we can conclude that nuclear is safest, I think wind looks safer from those Forbes figures.
Baloney.
Fukushima: Built in the late 60s and early 70s. Chernobyl: Began operation in the 70s. Three Mile Island: Constructed in the late 60s and early 70s.
We have far newer designs for nuclear reactors for which it would be physically impossible for them to melt down or fail catastrophically. 40+ years experience in how to do something better can count for an awful lot. For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_modular_reactor
Section 1. Policy. The Federal Government must have the ability to communicate at all times and under all circumstances to carry out its most critical and time sensitive missions. Survivable, resilient, enduring, and effective communications, both domestic and international, are essential to enable the executive branch to communicate within itself and with: the legislative and judicial branches; State, local, territorial, and tribal governments; private sector entities; and the public, allies, and other nations. Such communications must be possible under all circumstances to ensure national security, effectively manage emergencies, and improve national resilience.
So government communication takes precedence over all other kinds of communication.
5.2(e) satisfy priority communications requirements through the use of commercial, Government, and privately owned communications resources, when appropriate;
They can "seize" when this new "committee" decides it's necessary.
He also revokes Reagan's EO which says this:
3.e.1. [the government must] Plan for and provide, operate and maintain telecommunications services and facilities adequate to support the National Command Authorities and to execute the responsibilities assigned by Executive Order No. 12333;
That EO says the government must maintain its own facilities, and outlines war powers and non-war emergency powers, but says the government has to make sure its own crap works in emergencies. This new order says the new "committee" has the authority to ensure that private communications assets work in emergencies so that the government can seize them when such an emergency is declared. The committee also has the authority to decide when such an emergency exists.
No tinfoil required, to see this as another power grab.
The problem with the usual derision surrounding this subject is that it's based on a standard interpretation of the English word "day". The actual ancient Hebrew (or Aramaic, I forget which) word in that particular text means "an indefinite period of time". The Bible merely indicates separate periods of time in which those creative acts took place, but gives no actual finite duration for those acts.
Believing the universe was created in 6 24-hour periods is incorrect. Believing that the Bible says the universe was created in 6 literal 24 hour periods is also incorrect.
The U.S. Constitution was designed to restrict what the government could do to those it governed. The Founding Fathers were more concerned with what people who held power could do when that power was arbitrary and unchecked.
The problems with government we have now are not a matter of not finding or identifying the right experts, because the system of government was originally designed to allow experts to function independently of government. The chief design flaw in such a republican democracy is that it depends almost entirely on the morality of its citizens. This system of government could never hope to control a selfish people out to "get theirs". It could never hope to maintain itself if the representatives were chosen for the bacon they brought home rather than the recognized desire to preserve the individual liberties of fellow citizens.
In selecting representatives it required only that we recognize forthrightness, honesty, and the prioritization of individual liberty over governmental power. But in order to recognize that in others, those same desires and convictions must be present in those doing the selection. When the majority no longer select along those lines, but select on popularity or out of some notion of personal gain, we get what we starting to see now; arbitrary power exercised by the capricious and corrupt.
We don't have a total loss yet, of course. We're not close to being the most corrupt country on Earth, but we're not the least corrupt anymore. Our education, in particular with regard to the notion of individual liberties as innate and not granted by government, is sadly lacking now. If we don't teach the importance of the system of government, and we have a complicit media that continues to deliver the message that the Constitution is just some piece of paper that is no longer useful (or worse, means what we decide it means today), then selection of representation will be poor.
Weisend, who is working on a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency programme to accelerate learning, has been using this form of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to cut the time it takes to train snipers.
...you've been able to trade real life money for ships, items,...
But you've been able to trade it for things other players made. Other players made those ships and items (or ran the missions or complexes to get the items). In effect, you were buying game time for someone else in exchange for their in-game efforts.
Even when you did buy these things from other players, they didn't make it an "I win by credit card" situation. I say this as someone who has bought Plex and sold them for ISK.
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft has made careful and deliberate strategic decisions about Windows 10.
"Look at Google, and Facebook... They're making a killing on all of that personal data and ad targeting info. We need to get in on that. Hmm... We control most of the home PCs, what if we just funnel that info back to our data centers. We make Windows an OS-as-a-Service, then no one can complain about all the telemetry we collect. We get the audio, the webcam, and every keystroke. That's even better than Facebook or Google can do."
"Man! What a jackpot! Let's do it! We have to make sure as many people as possible are running this new version. We can call it a free upgrade, people will sign up for anything if it's free. How can we get it on everyone's machine?..."
* All eyes turn toward Windows Update *
"Right."
----
This isn't an "oops, that was a bug", this is "you're going to take this 'upgrade' and like it you filthy little revenue stream."
Meh. I don't auto-install any updates on Windows. I require prompts.
Granted it is a major pain in the tuckus to find information about every single patch from non-Microsoft sources to be sure they're actually patches and not landing craft in camoflage. I also run GWX Control Panel, which has been a godsend for keeping Win10 off the machine (I was actually at the point where Win10 was trying to install itself and I hard-booted and did a system restore).
I'd have switched to Linux already if I weren't a Windows gamer.
I was under the impression that we're living amid a second generation of stars. Early-universe stars were very large, very bright, and have all died already, giving birth to the current generation of cooler, longer living stars we see in our night sky. Granted, I'm basing that off of reading the Xeelee sequence, so who knows.
Which makes this approach seem similar to that heavy breathing about black holes not existing due to quantum corrections. It's headline hyperbole. So mathematical singularities may not exist, and there is very likely a minimum length in the universe.
This paper seems to exchange one infinity (density) for another (time in the past). If there was no initial bang and no crunch to come what was the universe doing for that infinity in the past before it expanded?
The *potential* harm is that you buy Acme ThingMaker 5.0 and make great works of meaningful art, and Acme requires you to pay them more money for ThingMaker 6.0 to access the works you've created with tools you bought that have "expired". Intentional software obsolescence was a real problem 10 years ago. RMS is part of the reason it is less of a problem now.
I still think he's wrong about interop with LLVM for EMACS, but he wasn't wrong about the dangers of proprietary software and the need for someone to keep vendors honest.
And herein lies the rub. Richard is arguing in favor of restricting the functionality of GNU software in hopes of ensuring others don't get some unintended use out of it.
On principle, that flies in the face of everything he has built.
What point is there in pouring resources, be they money or sweat equity, into software that is less useful by design? (Again reminiscent of FSF's "Broken by Design" campaign.)
The trouble is you've forgotten who's sitting between you and the developers. The developers themselves often don't make the call between fixing a bug or adding a feature. Unhealthy Scrum practices often lead to "stakeholders" usually Product Management or Marketing prioritizing features over defects and technical debt.
I've seen the organizational vertical slice approach work very well in the past, but you have to have management team that enjoys responsibility. Once the company goes down the Matrix-Management path, it's more about spreading blame around and abrogating accountability.
That would make some sense if the projects themselves were intended for highly concurrent operation, thus the choice of language, thus the defects in that category because that's what the code is for.
I will say that the all of those languages have very particular models for concurrency, such that misunderstanding the models can lead to design errors in the code. Harder problems plus clever code often yields brutal bugs.
Aye: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.c...
So which connector do I need to flush to get Google fiber?
Step one: corner the maple syrup market.
The mathematics of the problem of Ebola propagation are clear. So are reasonable responses to limit propagation chances. But we let politics decide against science. Who are the science-deniers now?
http://pjmedia.com/richardfern...
Needs a banana for scale.
"A giant steaming pile of awesome."
Nah... Noonian Hutt, Jabba's son.
You forgot to mention that the Democrats had provisions that allowed the FCC to dictate "balance" for political opinion sites. They tried to sneak in censorship provisions, and a fast-lane (in the deal with Google), in the final version of "Net Neutrality".
There is zero correlation between the name of the proposed law and its effect in practice. If you draft legislation and call it "The Save the Babies Act", then include provisions for removing arsenic regulation in the water supply coupled with a gag order, the law is bad and should be struck down. This is especially true when one side blocks amendments that would fix it (*cough* Democrats). You'll have to suffer the opposition and the media trumpeting about how you "hate babies" and have investments in pitchfork factories, but you really should work to kill that proposed law.
... whereas catestrophic failures of nuclear plants are always going to happen and likely to be injurious to human health. In conclusion I don't think we can conclude that nuclear is safest, I think wind looks safer from those Forbes figures.
Baloney.
Fukushima: Built in the late 60s and early 70s.
Chernobyl: Began operation in the 70s.
Three Mile Island: Constructed in the late 60s and early 70s.
We have far newer designs for nuclear reactors for which it would be physically impossible for them to melt down or fail catastrophically. 40+ years experience in how to do something better can count for an awful lot. For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_modular_reactor
They'll just select the reality where the necessary language is still spoken. Those guys are lazy that way.
Anathem is an awesome work.
From the EO:
So government communication takes precedence over all other kinds of communication.
They can "seize" when this new "committee" decides it's necessary.
He also revokes Reagan's EO which says this:
That EO says the government must maintain its own facilities, and outlines war powers and non-war emergency powers, but says the government has to make sure its own crap works in emergencies. This new order says the new "committee" has the authority to ensure that private communications assets work in emergencies so that the government can seize them when such an emergency is declared. The committee also has the authority to decide when such an emergency exists.
No tinfoil required, to see this as another power grab.
If a technocrat really was operating on evidence, then they'd have to eliminate OSHA for not moving the needle on workplace safety.
Evidence: http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb105-36.html
The problem with the usual derision surrounding this subject is that it's based on a standard interpretation of the English word "day". The actual ancient Hebrew (or Aramaic, I forget which) word in that particular text means "an indefinite period of time". The Bible merely indicates separate periods of time in which those creative acts took place, but gives no actual finite duration for those acts.
Believing the universe was created in 6 24-hour periods is incorrect. Believing that the Bible says the universe was created in 6 literal 24 hour periods is also incorrect.
The U.S. Constitution was designed to restrict what the government could do to those it governed. The Founding Fathers were more concerned with what people who held power could do when that power was arbitrary and unchecked.
The problems with government we have now are not a matter of not finding or identifying the right experts, because the system of government was originally designed to allow experts to function independently of government. The chief design flaw in such a republican democracy is that it depends almost entirely on the morality of its citizens. This system of government could never hope to control a selfish people out to "get theirs". It could never hope to maintain itself if the representatives were chosen for the bacon they brought home rather than the recognized desire to preserve the individual liberties of fellow citizens.
In selecting representatives it required only that we recognize forthrightness, honesty, and the prioritization of individual liberty over governmental power. But in order to recognize that in others, those same desires and convictions must be present in those doing the selection. When the majority no longer select along those lines, but select on popularity or out of some notion of personal gain, we get what we starting to see now; arbitrary power exercised by the capricious and corrupt.
We don't have a total loss yet, of course. We're not close to being the most corrupt country on Earth, but we're not the least corrupt anymore. Our education, in particular with regard to the notion of individual liberties as innate and not granted by government, is sadly lacking now. If we don't teach the importance of the system of government, and we have a complicit media that continues to deliver the message that the Constitution is just some piece of paper that is no longer useful (or worse, means what we decide it means today), then selection of representation will be poor.
From TFA:
That's from page 2. Do more than skim.
So that's how you spell that. I will use that from now on, well done.
But you've been able to trade it for things other players made. Other players made those ships and items (or ran the missions or complexes to get the items). In effect, you were buying game time for someone else in exchange for their in-game efforts.
Even when you did buy these things from other players, they didn't make it an "I win by credit card" situation. I say this as someone who has bought Plex and sold them for ISK.