Your description of Pauline, is, well...interesting. I haven't spent enough time with him to know how true any of your description is, but I have met and worked with him, and during that time I found him to be very articulate, imaginitive, and entertaining. He seemed like a genuine good person.
Thanks, I guess, for saying that my description was interesting. When I was using words like "demented" and such I was describing the shows. Not the man himself! When I spoke to him back in '95 he was extremely nice and took the time to have a conversation with me (a complete stranger!). I was so uncomfortable to be speaking with someone that I had admired for a long time that I actually had to end the conversation. "Oops! Sorry! The cat ate some rocket fuel and is setting the curtains on fire by farting on them! Gotta go!" or somesuch after like a half an hour. He seemed perfectly willing to go on talking with me! The guy's totally aces in my book, and I never intended to portray him otherwise.
And yeah, it is a bummer that they keep getting closed down by local fire depts! Not sure if it's exactly a first amendment thing, but it certainly sucks and certainly is wrong that this goes down the way it does. And that fact alone has been a large deterrent for my flying across the country to see one of their shows. What's the odds that, assuming I get there, take time off of work, get my girlfriend to take time off, arrange for friends to do the same (cuz who wants to have an AWESEOME experience like that alone?) etc. that the show will actually happen?
Dude! This thing is AWESOME! The Am'rcan mil's very own version of SRL!!!
First off, let me just say that this is a very nice, and interesting use of technology. It's great to think that a bright five year old might see this lumbering heap o' tech and become inspired to think "how in the hell did they do that???" And ask his (or her) Dad, who fuels his curiosity and feeds him math and science until he can begin to make real decisions on where he want's to take his (or her) life based on a solid foundation of curiosity, intellectual stimulation and a self-motivated desire to learn.
Okay, now that the message from the "responsible adult" side of me (who never had the benefit of any of those things I mentioned -- but that shit is for my therapist, not for you trollish 'holes;) let me just have my inner kid say how freakin' cool I think this thing is.
But this stuff is old hat to Mark Pauline. In 1978, he "hijacked" (according to his description) a local gas station by (without permission) setting up an assembly line of chomping devices and (this was during an OPEC oil crunch) proceed to skewer, slice and dice a number of dead pigeons that he dressed up as "little arabs". When accosted by the employees, he tipped them to shut them up! His shows have grown and grown since that time and become more and more demented. His machines became larger, more imposing and insideous. He started attaching rocket launchers, flame throwers and grenade launchers and (yes folks) SOUND CANNONS that could blow apart large objects. He started re-animating the corpses of dead animals such as...horses! Basically, Survival Research Labs (as it's known) is what happens when an engineer (who comes from a broken home) wants to live as a gypsey for a little while and wreak a bit of havok along the way. by all accounts...these guys are...disturbed!
And absolutely fucking brilliant! They were wayyy ahead of the curve by letting some of their machines (as early as 1997, I spoke to Pauline about this as early as 1995 and he told me about this) be controlled over the internet. I highly encourage anyonw reading this to check them out and contribute your talents (if you have any and are local to them) in any way you can contribute.
I have never personally been lucky to see an SRL show. They were a very early indication/example of the "industrial culture". But I hope to see either one of theirs, or one of the things in the article, before I shuffle off this mortal coil! These guys are worth a slashdotting in their OWN damn right!
Theoretically, a person could be injected with this computer, and it would detect and treat any diseased cells at the earliest stages of development, perhaps preventing the disease altogether.
I wonder if this exact or sort of treatment could be used to treat nerve damage? This could range from tinnitus, ALS, or even paralytic debilitation of the type suffered by Christopher Reeves. Also, the story makes reference to treatment in the "earliest stages of the disease". I also would wonder about the eventual possibility of it helping those in the advanced stages of such diseases.
How favorably, I'm left to wonder, is this science center compared to the one that's practically in my back yard? I've been meaning to get there in the last five years that I've been living in Hudson County, NJ. An old geek friend I used to work with recommended it highly, stating emphatically to "bring your inner child" to this place.
My geek friend, was not a scientist, by the way. But she did tell me about a rather fascinating fact. It'd been a childhood dream of mine to attend spacecamp (having been inspired by the schocky movie of the same name). And, yeah, I had the hotts for Lea Thompson! (hey, whaddya want? I was an 80's kid!). So, I wanted to go. It's my fave type of vacation...a learning vacation! BUT when I called, I was 16 years old. I was told (rather rudely, btw) that 15 was the cutoff age! NO SOUP FOR YOU!!! I was crestfallen.
But I was very glad when Camille (my geek friend's name) told me that SpaceCamp now has adult programs that you can attend either with or without the kids in tow. It tends to attract brighter than average, professional adults, I'm told. Once I learned that, this venture DEFINITELY made my adult "to-do list".
Has anyone had experience with either of these learning programs, or insights to offer? I would love to know how complete and erudite either/both are. I see from the website, that SpaceCamp now has an "advanced" spacecamp for the returning adult! (seemingly!) TOO COOL!
Awwwww.....ooogooo woogums! Who's the good widdle 'puter? yeah! yes! that's right! who's doze BAD men in da picturez? thaaaat's right! Big bad billy goat gates and Stevie blow...
It's bi-anual. Being lucky enough to work in NYC and commuting into Penn Station, which is right across 7th ave from the Hotel Pennsylvania, I first became aware of the banners in 2000. Saw some great events that year. 2001? No banners, no conference. H2K2 happened. It was greater than H2K. I surmise this means bi-annual.;)
IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) was a product of Gene's disenfranchisement with the show on season 3. According to Shatner's book on TOS. The budget for the show had steadily trickled down to a near halt over the span of 3 seasons. By the 3rd season, Roddenberry was so fed up with the studio's budget cuts that he said "HERE" with arms extended to Justman and essentially gave him the show to run. Roddenberry even moved his offices off the Desilu lot and to (I believe it was) Universal to devote all his time to a non sci-fi movie that was to star (again, I think, I read it about 10 years ago) Burt Reynolds. That movie never made it out of pre-production and was never made.
At some point during that 3rd season, realizing the rise in popularity of Sci-Fi cons he decided on a brazen marketing ploy: the IDIC. It was a schlocky imitation gold pin. When Roddenberry suddenly appeared on the set with this item (after having been AWOL all season) the actors realized what he was doing an initially refused to wear it. Roddenberry never liked Nimoy much to begin with, and threatened to fire him when Nimoy threatened to walk off the set before he wore it. Roddenberry thought he might have an easier time with Shatner (they were on slightly more friendlier terms...according to Shatner;) but he just said "NO WAY". Back to Nimoy, he stuck to his guns and Nimoy RELUCTANTLY acceeded to his request. Now, it's an example of accepted Trek lore. I still like the hippy-dippy concept of the IDIC, but my eyes were opened a bit by reading this part.
I read an interview with Braga where he states that the ending of Kirk in Gen was indeed inauspicious and aluded to the fact that it may in fact be rethought. Hey, this is sci-fi. If you can bring back Spock you can most certainly Bring back Kirk.
Of course, Shatner ain't the spring chicken he was. He's over 70 now and has been battling a wieght problem since he was in his 30's at least. You can see the poor guy ballooning with each movie sequel. And in his senior years he's portlier than ever, and most likely not up to the physicality of the job. But by the same token, how could you "prequel" Trek with other actors playing that inimitable cast? Certainly, I would concur that since Enterprise is still in production it wouldn't be likely to involve that cast. Unlesss...there's something we don't know about, yet.
Examples of TUIs on Linux include mutt, links, pine... I suppose emacs and vim. They're a little zany but their distinguishing feature is that they're all text and they aren't command-line.
Agreed. So, mutt, lynx, pine...all TUIs, but no mention of EMACS? egads! Wouldn't that be the best (or the worst, depending on your point of view) of both the TUI and CLI worlds? RMS would be appaled!;)
First off, I've been using the TUI since the old Commie 64 days (the ay-deez). But, for some reason in all my readings and various meanderings through computer sci I've NEVER heard a command line referred to as a TUI!
So, its stupid question time again. Is TUI pr. as the text equivalent of the GUI? ie goo-eee? Or is it more like a tea-you-eye?
As to the pro's and cons of using a GIU vs. a TUI, all I can say is "Read In the Beginning Was The Command Line by Neil Stephenson". He explains the pro's and cons of using GUI vs. the TUI much better than I ever could. and you could read it in an afternoon. It's more of an essay than an actual book.
As to what my preferences are..a little Perl, a little Python and Apache! (guess you can see where I stand on this issue)
The place also comes with what are ostensibly regulars who hoot and holler each other on during marathon Halo sessions while a Hip-Hop soundtrack blares in the background and chow down on junkfood supplied by the establishment. An AWESEOME time passing establishment for any anorak!
"Rather than being integrated into society by being forced to take people as they come, the internet allows you to preselect whom you choose to fraternise with, based upon whether or not they share your specific interests."
If Chess has these implications, imagine what a good match of GO will do for you! Both man and computer alike! Simple to learn, arcane to master offering a lifetime of fulfillment.
I've read that while computers can offer a credible competition to even a Chessmater, there is no current "go" program that can challenge a true master of that game. Though it's been a while since I've read this, so this may have changed. But this has been a reason why computer logic enthusiasts have been enthralled with this game for many a year.
A little offtopic...but...by the way, while on the topic of Go: did you know that the original selling price of KPT Bryce was determined over a game of go? Eric Wenger (the original developer who based all of the fractal math on the work of Ken Musgrave, originally an aprentice of Dr. Mandelbrot himself) thought that Bryce should be a "Hollywood Tool" and cost over $7000 (back in the early 90's!). But Kai Krause thought it should be a tool to "empower the creativity of the average person" and said the pricepoint should be set at $99.00
So they decided to let a game of Go decide it. Thankfully, Kai won the game!
Hey, weren't African Amercians promised 40 acres and a mule at emancipation? And let's not even TALK about what the gov promised Native Americans. Yeah, yeah. They have casinos. blah blah. They still got a raw deal IMB.
Still, there is economic incentive for the feds to accomplish this. But 2007? I think I might as well ask the next black guy I meet where his mule is (as long as he's smaller than me and doesn't know kung-foo).
Hey, weren't African Amercians promised 40 acres and a mule at emancipation? And let's not even TALK about what the gov promised Native Americans. Yeah, yeah. They have casinos. blah blah. they still got a raw deal IMB.
Still, there is economic incentive for the feds to accomplish this. But 2007? I think I might as well ask the next black guy I meet where his mule is (as long as he's smaller than me and doesn't know kung-foo).
No no! It's true! I have a sign right here a guy I used to know grabbed right from the front door of One Infinite Loop!It reads "Going out of Business! Everything must go! Up to 50% off BRAND NEW INSTOCK Macintosh II, IIx, IIcx, Mac Plus, Mac 512, Apple II, Apple III cpus and the BRAND NEW IN STOCK Apple Laserwriter!" I didn't think to keep it mylar, and it's a little yellowed and the edges are curling up a bit, showing a bit of wear. At one point I think I might have spilled coffee on it.
Considering the 17 year cycle of this news, how did computer nerds find out about this kind of thing? Before there was news for nerds, what mattered to them?
Since we're talking about fiction here...
How about using this tool to draw the connections amongst characters in the Cryptnomicon/Baroque Cycle series? This guy makes some pretty headspinning connections! It took a little bit for me to realize/remember who was a "papist", who was a "barker" and who was an Anglican, etc etc etc in Quicksilver and what the ramifications were. No need to explain, I have it down but a tool like this to represent these things visually would've been helpful. Actually, he does include some diagrams as to how the characters connect! But it almost seems as if more might've been helpful at times! Snowcrash (one of my faves) was a bit of an easier go!
This new "MATRIX" sounds worse than the two sequels put together. And in the fictional and non-fictional sense, both matrixes were just plain bad for humanity!
A couple of years ago, I went to the H2k2 conference here in New York City. I saw a fascinating talk there where I first heard the term "deep web" and some of its ramifications for national security. National security was very much on our minds at the time being only roughly a mile and a half from what we call "Ground Zero" (never liked that term).
The guy giving the speech claimed that he was a retired FBI agent and seemed to have a great deal of insight into the inner workings of national intelligence. As pointed out in the article, the speaker made the same claim that search engines only gleaned about 1% of the total information on the web. He recommended a tool called Copernic (as well as one other one that I can't remember right now) that bills itself as a "deep web" search tool. But all it appears to do is assemble the results from a bunch of other search engines. I don't recall it ever returning anything significantly "deeper" than what your average google search can yield, however.
Back to the topic of national security, he made mention that terrorist communities are thriving on the fact that only 1% of the total amount of information on the web is readily accessible. All kinds of information that would be beneficial for the NSA to know is just plain inaccessible.
He also faulted the intelligence communities for hiring "blonde haired pretty boy" college graduates, fresh out of school to analyze data in foreign languages instead of hiring local speakers. A 4.0 linguistics student will still miss out on a lot of the nuance to a conversation that a native, say Pashto, speaker will clue right into. Of course, the argument could be made that at least the "loyalties" of an American college graduate are almost guaranteed to be in the right place you can't ignore that he/she will be blind to much of the subtext of a conversation in a foreign language.
A little offtopic, but more alarmingly a point was made about the lack of digitization in the NSA of intelligence documents. Meaning that an agent will typically risk life and limb gaining access to a piece of information, who will then pass that info to a "runner" who places it in an "orange envelope" to signify its classified status. Then that same orange envelope goes into a locked filing cabinet where a good 7 or 8 times out of 10 it never sees the light of day and no attempt is made to analyze it.
But such is the challenge of the modern age. We are drowning in all of the information to produce. Vannevar Bush addressed this issue with astounding clarity right after world war II.
Quoth the Doctor:
"There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers--conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial."
...and...
The difficulty seems to be, not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record. The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.
We are dealing with this problem (access to the information we produce) to a far greater extent than at any time in human history. The web, which was at one point designed and intended to be a more effective way to deal with and disseminate the oceans of data produce, has little more than square rigged ships to skim its surface.
Slashdot Mirror
Your description of Pauline, is, well...interesting. I haven't spent enough time with him to know how true any of your description is, but I have met and worked with him, and during that time I found him to be very articulate, imaginitive, and entertaining. He seemed like a genuine good person.
Thanks, I guess, for saying that my description was interesting. When I was using words like "demented" and such I was describing the shows. Not the man himself! When I spoke to him back in '95 he was extremely nice and took the time to have a conversation with me (a complete stranger!). I was so uncomfortable to be speaking with someone that I had admired for a long time that I actually had to end the conversation. "Oops! Sorry! The cat ate some rocket fuel and is setting the curtains on fire by farting on them! Gotta go!" or somesuch after like a half an hour. He seemed perfectly willing to go on talking with me! The guy's totally aces in my book, and I never intended to portray him otherwise.
And yeah, it is a bummer that they keep getting closed down by local fire depts! Not sure if it's exactly a first amendment thing, but it certainly sucks and certainly is wrong that this goes down the way it does. And that fact alone has been a large deterrent for my flying across the country to see one of their shows. What's the odds that, assuming I get there, take time off of work, get my girlfriend to take time off, arrange for friends to do the same (cuz who wants to have an AWESEOME experience like that alone?) etc. that the show will actually happen?
Dude! This thing is AWESOME! The Am'rcan mil's very own version of SRL!!!
;) let me just have my inner kid say how freakin' cool I think this thing is.
First off, let me just say that this is a very nice, and interesting use of technology. It's great to think that a bright five year old might see this lumbering heap o' tech and become inspired to think "how in the hell did they do that???" And ask his (or her) Dad, who fuels his curiosity and feeds him math and science until he can begin to make real decisions on where he want's to take his (or her) life based on a solid foundation of curiosity, intellectual stimulation and a self-motivated desire to learn.
Okay, now that the message from the "responsible adult" side of me (who never had the benefit of any of those things I mentioned -- but that shit is for my therapist, not for you trollish 'holes
But this stuff is old hat to Mark Pauline. In 1978, he "hijacked" (according to his description) a local gas station by (without permission) setting up an assembly line of chomping devices and (this was during an OPEC oil crunch) proceed to skewer, slice and dice a number of dead pigeons that he dressed up as "little arabs". When accosted by the employees, he tipped them to shut them up! His shows have grown and grown since that time and become more and more demented. His machines became larger, more imposing and insideous. He started attaching rocket launchers, flame throwers and grenade launchers and (yes folks) SOUND CANNONS that could blow apart large objects. He started re-animating the corpses of dead animals such as...horses! Basically, Survival Research Labs (as it's known) is what happens when an engineer (who comes from a broken home) wants to live as a gypsey for a little while and wreak a bit of havok along the way. by all accounts...these guys are...disturbed!
And absolutely fucking brilliant! They were wayyy ahead of the curve by letting some of their machines (as early as 1997, I spoke to Pauline about this as early as 1995 and he told me about this) be controlled over the internet. I highly encourage anyonw reading this to check them out and contribute your talents (if you have any and are local to them) in any way you can contribute.
I have never personally been lucky to see an SRL show. They were a very early indication/example of the "industrial culture". But I hope to see either one of theirs, or one of the things in the article, before I shuffle off this mortal coil! These guys are worth a slashdotting in their OWN damn right!
Theoretically, a person could be injected with this computer, and it would detect and treat any diseased cells at the earliest stages of development, perhaps preventing the disease altogether.
I wonder if this exact or sort of treatment could be used to treat nerve damage? This could range from tinnitus, ALS, or even paralytic debilitation of the type suffered by Christopher Reeves. Also, the story makes reference to treatment in the "earliest stages of the disease". I also would wonder about the eventual possibility of it helping those in the advanced stages of such diseases.
How favorably, I'm left to wonder, is this science center compared to the one that's practically in my back yard? I've been meaning to get there in the last five years that I've been living in Hudson County, NJ. An old geek friend I used to work with recommended it highly, stating emphatically to "bring your inner child" to this place.
My geek friend, was not a scientist, by the way. But she did tell me about a rather fascinating fact. It'd been a childhood dream of mine to attend spacecamp (having been inspired by the schocky movie of the same name). And, yeah, I had the hotts for Lea Thompson! (hey, whaddya want? I was an 80's kid!). So, I wanted to go. It's my fave type of vacation...a learning vacation! BUT when I called, I was 16 years old. I was told (rather rudely, btw) that 15 was the cutoff age! NO SOUP FOR YOU!!! I was crestfallen.
But I was very glad when Camille (my geek friend's name) told me that SpaceCamp now has adult programs that you can attend either with or without the kids in tow. It tends to attract brighter than average, professional adults, I'm told. Once I learned that, this venture DEFINITELY made my adult "to-do list".
Has anyone had experience with either of these learning programs, or insights to offer? I would love to know how complete and erudite either/both are. I see from the website, that SpaceCamp now has an "advanced" spacecamp for the returning adult! (seemingly!) TOO COOL!
Fine and good for the pooches in the study to be so calm. For me, though, it's Klonopin that actually seems to do the trick (note from your zoo-keeper required).
Every night before I go to sleep:
Awwwww.....ooogooo woogums! Who's the good widdle 'puter? yeah! yes! that's right! who's doze BAD men in da picturez? thaaaat's right! Big bad billy goat gates and Stevie blow...
It's bi-anual. Being lucky enough to work in NYC and commuting into Penn Station, which is right across 7th ave from the Hotel Pennsylvania, I first became aware of the banners in 2000. Saw some great events that year. 2001? No banners, no conference. H2K2 happened. It was greater than H2K. I surmise this means bi-annual. ;)
(whatever happened to IDIC?)
;) but he just said "NO WAY". Back to Nimoy, he stuck to his guns and Nimoy RELUCTANTLY acceeded to his request. Now, it's an example of accepted Trek lore. I still like the hippy-dippy concept of the IDIC, but my eyes were opened a bit by reading this part.
IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) was a product of Gene's disenfranchisement with the show on season 3. According to Shatner's book on TOS. The budget for the show had steadily trickled down to a near halt over the span of 3 seasons. By the 3rd season, Roddenberry was so fed up with the studio's budget cuts that he said "HERE" with arms extended to Justman and essentially gave him the show to run. Roddenberry even moved his offices off the Desilu lot and to (I believe it was) Universal to devote all his time to a non sci-fi movie that was to star (again, I think, I read it about 10 years ago) Burt Reynolds. That movie never made it out of pre-production and was never made.
At some point during that 3rd season, realizing the rise in popularity of Sci-Fi cons he decided on a brazen marketing ploy: the IDIC. It was a schlocky imitation gold pin. When Roddenberry suddenly appeared on the set with this item (after having been AWOL all season) the actors realized what he was doing an initially refused to wear it. Roddenberry never liked Nimoy much to begin with, and threatened to fire him when Nimoy threatened to walk off the set before he wore it. Roddenberry thought he might have an easier time with Shatner (they were on slightly more friendlier terms...according to Shatner
I read an interview with Braga where he states that the ending of Kirk in Gen was indeed inauspicious and aluded to the fact that it may in fact be rethought. Hey, this is sci-fi. If you can bring back Spock you can most certainly Bring back Kirk.
Of course, Shatner ain't the spring chicken he was. He's over 70 now and has been battling a wieght problem since he was in his 30's at least. You can see the poor guy ballooning with each movie sequel. And in his senior years he's portlier than ever, and most likely not up to the physicality of the job. But by the same token, how could you "prequel" Trek with other actors playing that inimitable cast? Certainly, I would concur that since Enterprise is still in production it wouldn't be likely to involve that cast. Unlesss...there's something we don't know about, yet.
Examples of TUIs on Linux include mutt, links, pine... I suppose emacs and vim. They're a little zany but their distinguishing feature is that they're all text and they aren't command-line.
;)
Agreed. So, mutt, lynx, pine...all TUIs, but no mention of EMACS? egads! Wouldn't that be the best (or the worst, depending on your point of view) of both the TUI and CLI worlds? RMS would be appaled!
Okay, guess I'm left to ask the dumb questions.
First off, I've been using the TUI since the old Commie 64 days (the ay-deez). But, for some reason in all my readings and various meanderings through computer sci I've NEVER heard a command line referred to as a TUI!
So, its stupid question time again. Is TUI pr. as the text equivalent of the GUI? ie goo-eee? Or is it more like a tea-you-eye ?
As to the pro's and cons of using a GIU vs. a TUI, all I can say is "Read In the Beginning Was The Command Line by Neil Stephenson". He explains the pro's and cons of using GUI vs. the TUI much better than I ever could. and you could read it in an afternoon. It's more of an essay than an actual book.
As to what my preferences are..a little Perl, a little Python and Apache! (guess you can see where I stand on this issue)
Is this the one you meant in Manhattan? Flat screen TVs, networked PS2s and Xboxen, Game Time Nation is on 12th between 3rd and 4th avenues. Walking distance to a couple of fine eateries sure to please the geek pallate, also very near to Forbidden PLanet, almost just across the avenue from some NYU dorms and several very nice movie theaters.
The place also comes with what are ostensibly regulars who hoot and holler each other on during marathon Halo sessions while a Hip-Hop soundtrack blares in the background and chow down on junkfood supplied by the establishment. An AWESEOME time passing establishment for any anorak!
Will these new "brain chips" be called "microsofts" and plug directly into the back of your skull, coming in all kinds of fashionable colors?
"Rather than being integrated into society by being forced to take people as they come, the internet allows you to preselect whom you choose to fraternise with, based upon whether or not they share your specific interests."
:D
That's why I browse at -1.
If Chess has these implications, imagine what a good match of GO will do for you! Both man and computer alike! Simple to learn, arcane to master offering a lifetime of fulfillment.
I've read that while computers can offer a credible competition to even a Chessmater, there is no current "go" program that can challenge a true master of that game. Though it's been a while since I've read this, so this may have changed. But this has been a reason why computer logic enthusiasts have been enthralled with this game for many a year.
A little offtopic...but...by the way, while on the topic of Go: did you know that the original selling price of KPT Bryce was determined over a game of go? Eric Wenger (the original developer who based all of the fractal math on the work of Ken Musgrave, originally an aprentice of Dr. Mandelbrot himself) thought that Bryce should be a "Hollywood Tool" and cost over $7000 (back in the early 90's!). But Kai Krause thought it should be a tool to "empower the creativity of the average person" and said the pricepoint should be set at $99.00
So they decided to let a game of Go decide it. Thankfully, Kai won the game!
Hey, weren't African Amercians promised 40 acres and a mule at emancipation? And let's not even TALK about what the gov promised Native Americans. Yeah, yeah. They have casinos. blah blah. They still got a raw deal IMB.
Still, there is economic incentive for the feds to accomplish this. But 2007? I think I might as well ask the next black guy I meet where his mule is (as long as he's smaller than me and doesn't know kung-foo).
whoopsie! sorry for the double post. thought I was posting here. not sure what brand of crack I was smoking, but I wouldn't recommend it if I could!
Hey, weren't African Amercians promised 40 acres and a mule at emancipation? And let's not even TALK about what the gov promised Native Americans. Yeah, yeah. They have casinos. blah blah. they still got a raw deal IMB.
Still, there is economic incentive for the feds to accomplish this. But 2007? I think I might as well ask the next black guy I meet where his mule is (as long as he's smaller than me and doesn't know kung-foo).
No no! It's true! I have a sign right here a guy I used to know grabbed right from the front door of One Infinite Loop!It reads "Going out of Business! Everything must go! Up to 50% off BRAND NEW INSTOCK Macintosh II, IIx, IIcx, Mac Plus, Mac 512, Apple II, Apple III cpus and the BRAND NEW IN STOCK Apple Laserwriter!" I didn't think to keep it mylar, and it's a little yellowed and the edges are curling up a bit, showing a bit of wear. At one point I think I might have spilled coffee on it.
Considering the 17 year cycle of this news, how did computer nerds find out about this kind of thing? Before there was news for nerds, what mattered to them?
What Differentiates Linux from Windows?...Common sense. ;)
Since we're talking about fiction here... How about using this tool to draw the connections amongst characters in the Cryptnomicon/Baroque Cycle series? This guy makes some pretty headspinning connections! It took a little bit for me to realize/remember who was a "papist", who was a "barker" and who was an Anglican, etc etc etc in Quicksilver and what the ramifications were. No need to explain, I have it down but a tool like this to represent these things visually would've been helpful. Actually, he does include some diagrams as to how the characters connect! But it almost seems as if more might've been helpful at times! Snowcrash (one of my faves) was a bit of an easier go!
This new "MATRIX" sounds worse than the two sequels put together. And in the fictional and non-fictional sense, both matrixes were just plain bad for humanity!
A couple of years ago, I went to the H2k2 conference here in New York City. I saw a fascinating talk there where I first heard the term "deep web" and some of its ramifications for national security. National security was very much on our minds at the time being only roughly a mile and a half from what we call "Ground Zero" (never liked that term).
...and...
The guy giving the speech claimed that he was a retired FBI agent and seemed to have a great deal of insight into the inner workings of national intelligence. As pointed out in the article, the speaker made the same claim that search engines only gleaned about 1% of the total information on the web. He recommended a tool called Copernic (as well as one other one that I can't remember right now) that bills itself as a "deep web" search tool. But all it appears to do is assemble the results from a bunch of other search engines. I don't recall it ever returning anything significantly "deeper" than what your average google search can yield, however.
Back to the topic of national security, he made mention that terrorist communities are thriving on the fact that only 1% of the total amount of information on the web is readily accessible. All kinds of information that would be beneficial for the NSA to know is just plain inaccessible.
He also faulted the intelligence communities for hiring "blonde haired pretty boy" college graduates, fresh out of school to analyze data in foreign languages instead of hiring local speakers. A 4.0 linguistics student will still miss out on a lot of the nuance to a conversation that a native, say Pashto, speaker will clue right into. Of course, the argument could be made that at least the "loyalties" of an American college graduate are almost guaranteed to be in the right place you can't ignore that he/she will be blind to much of the subtext of a conversation in a foreign language.
A little offtopic, but more alarmingly a point was made about the lack of digitization in the NSA of intelligence documents. Meaning that an agent will typically risk life and limb gaining access to a piece of information, who will then pass that info to a "runner" who places it in an "orange envelope" to signify its classified status. Then that same orange envelope goes into a locked filing cabinet where a good 7 or 8 times out of 10 it never sees the light of day and no attempt is made to analyze it.
But such is the challenge of the modern age. We are drowning in all of the information to produce. Vannevar Bush addressed this issue with astounding clarity right after world war II.
Quoth the Doctor:
"There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers--conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial."
The difficulty seems to be, not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record. The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.
We are dealing with this problem (access to the information we produce) to a far greater extent than at any time in human history. The web, which was at one point designed and intended to be a more effective way to deal with and disseminate the oceans of data produce, has little more than square rigged ships to skim its surface.
But if there is a figleaf over port 25 and tassles over ports 21 and 21 and a gstring covering 80...I'll go pick up a girlie magazine instead.