Of course, digital content management peddlers will disagree.
Check out the following story: a University of Southern California neurobiologist wanted to read the records of the Viking mission but couldn't read the data on the magnetic tapes. He had to find the paper records and pay people to type everything that was in them:
Photos are also stable if they weren't made with the new inkjet printers (all those fast photo services), but the old-fashioned way. They last for many decades, as we know from family photos and museums.
Reading your post I realized how amateurish the whole Linux "scene" is. I can't believe people are still dabbling in basic things like getting things to work.
It kind of reminds me of where I was, before I dumped Debian, then Ubuntu (because it still sucked, it still broke between upgrades and they still had no proper documentation), for FreeBSD and Mac OS X.
Just because a language has lambda or map does not make it functional. Not a bit. This is a huge misunderstanding of what constitutes FP. FP is about referential transparency.
Bull. An industry like software doesn't depend on talent alone. If all the engineering disciplines relied on talent, we'd be in the stone ages.
The real issue is that there are shitloads of people in the software business who either have grown up knowing nothing at all but the imperative paradigm or that know about FP but think it isn't really useful or think is just the stuff os masturbatory braniacs.
As to any claims somebody would make of being a supercoder, I would be highly skeptical. The software industry is plagued be delays and bugs. Security bugs in Linux and Windows have become the norm. People have grown up thinking it's as natural for a computer to get a "virus" as it is for you to catch a cold.
Many a good people have worked hard on theories and products to produce safer code, but they are largely ignored, except in industries where it is critical (military, aviation, etc.). The average developer is an ignoramus.
Last year (or was it more?) I looke at these things - because of this continuous non-stop brouhaha about them - for matrix computations and they looked very immature vis-a-vis Matlab.
There's a whole lot of speculation going on at Amazon.
Once, I bought a used book for $ 80. Then, the seller pulled it off and aborted the sale/shipment and basically said "sorry" no explanations given. When I demanded one they gave me a bullshit explanation (they didn't know what happened, the book wasn't even in stock anymore).
Then, sure as fuck, the book reappeared 2 days later by the same seller, with a price tag $ 180 more. The very same used copy, with the same defects.
Amazon couldn't care less.
Do I loose sleep and cry at mights if someone pirates this book (which, by the way, I found in a library). No, not at all. Speculating with books on a global market, IMHO, is what the unethical thing is. It's like speculating with the price of food. If there are scumbags specializing in it nowadays (and, apparently, there are), then I don't care if people pirate away. If it stops speculation and book hyperinflation then I suppose it can be considered a natural market regulation mechanism.
Who the fuck wants to sit hours by a scanner, if they can just click, click, click and buy it? I guess people do it out of need.
If the publisher refuses to care about an excellent work that has gone out of print for decades, say 2 or 3, and the author might be dead and will not receive a penny, like you said, then it is totally ethical to make an ebook.
It's much more important that the book be shared in electronic form and, therefore, be brought again to life, instead of be rotting away in some shelf.
It's called civil disobedience. In this case, the human need for knowledge takes precendece over stupid copyright laws. We must also press legislators to become aware of this "new" reality of the internet. When knowledge is shared, everyone benefits.
Gladly, they mentioned the inventor Abraham Katzir (a physicist at Tel Aviv University).
All too often, it''s the surgeon who gets all the credit when, in fact, all this wonderful medical technology is created by engineers and whole team - a lot more people than the guys who like to pose as heroes.
I can't believe you are replying to a person that is claiming that Linux is better than Mac OS X for compiling POSIX-targeted programs.
Lots and lots of software written for Linux tipically will be badly done, full of Linux-ism and GNU-ism and will present difficulties for any other Unix - because, somehow, some people don't understand they are supposed to be writing open source software for Unix. Ask anyone on BSDs.
Note to mention shit won't even compile amongst different Linux distros, because of Linux distro-hell.
M - the M language I - Iron Python for.NET C - C# R - R# coming soon... O - O# coming soon... S - Silverlight O - O# see above F - F# right here, right now T - T# real soon now...
Sure, agents have always had the right to go through stuff - but that doesn't include reading medical records, family pictures, job prospects, building blueprints, scientific research, you favorite mp3 collection of Hezbollah chants, or your gory collection of people exploded by terrorist bombs, does it?
I'm sort of joking, but a guy has a right to his collection of Hezbollah chants, if it pleases him, doesn't he? Suppose the guy's learning Arabic?
That it would be so absolutely fucking stupid to enter the U.S. with this material sort of proves my point.
Let's say someone works in a "sensible" area. Say, explosives. Say, a chemist. Should he go to the U.S. for a conference, even though he works, e.g., in a mining firm or in academia (I dunno - do people in academia research explosives?)
Do you really think it's so far fetched, under the current climate in the U.S.?
Maybe some specialties should really no go to the U.S. anymore. That's kind of sad for the human networking and the free exchange of ideas, don't you think?
Cenario 2: you're a doctor. You go to a conference and you are randomly sampled to hand over your laptop. They probably do this. This sucks, doesn't it? It'll ruin your conference - and your reputation.
IMHO, as long as the US continues with its post 9/11 über-crazyness, just go somewhere else. Besides, Paris is so much better than Buffalo, Texas. The U.S. is not a fun place anymore.
Then, if Matlab is a luxury - even though you gladly pay for your computers and don't steal them form shops, I imagine - use something that has academic and industry backing, like Scilab - and is free software.
There's really no excuse to use Excel other than balance sheets. Solver? I don't think serious optimization folk will use that either, instead of CPlex, etc.
Now, who told you SPSS is crappy software? It's a widely used software for not only Social Science but for the Biology and Medical fields - in short, for anyone serious about statistics who's not a statistician.
Excel, OTOH, has a long track record of errors. Microsoft does not have the expertise for numerical and statistics software.
Which is not surprising, if you remind yourself that Microsoft did not even have security expertise for its own main product line...This software landscape is dominated by Matlab, Maple, SAS, S-Plus, R, Scilab, SPSS and Mathematica. This is what people in the field use. *Not* Excel.
People have got to stop thinking that what Microsoft does, it does always well. That just shows lack of analysis and reading.
Excel sucks for numerical routines. If you Google, you'll find papers about it.
Neither the numerics community nor the stats community trusts it. Even financial models are done in C++, Matlab or Maple, not Excel.
Excel is a good tool when you're into accounting and need 2 digits after the decimal point.
Stop promoting this tool as if it was reliable software. It's criminal. Even worse, medical researchers might end up believing it's software you can trust.
Slashdot Mirror
Long-Term Digital Dilemma
http://blog.longnow.org/2007/12/24/long-term-digital-dilemma/
Apparently, Hollywood is resorting to cellulose.
Hey, let's have those Super-8s reborn!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8_mm_film
Jpeg2000 supports lossless compression. Image won't degrade over time, as with normal jpegs, AFAIK.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2003/11/14/digphoto_ckbk.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_JPEG
Acid-free paper (used in all quality book, e.g., Springer Verlag) is a very durable medium.
In fact, Gartner research recommends paper if storage is supposed to last over 10 years.
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,64684,00.html
Of course, digital content management peddlers will disagree.
Check out the following story: a University of Southern California neurobiologist wanted to read the records of the Viking mission but couldn't read the data on the magnetic tapes. He had to find the paper records and pay people to type everything that was in them:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-17-digital_x.htm
Photos are also stable if they weren't made with the new inkjet printers (all those fast photo services), but the old-fashioned way. They last for many decades, as we know from family photos and museums.
Reading your post I realized how amateurish the whole Linux "scene" is. I can't believe people are still dabbling in basic things like getting things to work.
It kind of reminds me of where I was, before I dumped Debian, then Ubuntu (because it still sucked, it still broke between upgrades and they still had no proper documentation), for FreeBSD and Mac OS X.
...do it like most Linux developers do - ignore all the cool and advanced stuff available for Linux - and stick to the 1970s, programming in C.
It will guarantee you a life of fixing bugs.
When you put it all together like that in front of you, you sorta realize we are in a new era, whether developers know it or not.
"They're here..."
Just because a language has lambda or map does not make it functional. Not a bit. This is a huge misunderstanding of what constitutes FP. FP is about referential transparency.
Bull. An industry like software doesn't depend on talent alone. If all the engineering disciplines relied on talent, we'd be in the stone ages.
The real issue is that there are shitloads of people in the software business who either have grown up knowing nothing at all but the imperative paradigm or that know about FP but think it isn't really useful or think is just the stuff os masturbatory braniacs.
As to any claims somebody would make of being a supercoder, I would be highly skeptical. The software industry is plagued be delays and bugs. Security bugs in Linux and Windows have become the norm. People have grown up thinking it's as natural for a computer to get a "virus" as it is for you to catch a cold.
Many a good people have worked hard on theories and products to produce safer code, but they are largely ignored, except in industries where it is critical (military, aviation, etc.). The average developer is an ignoramus.
My guess is that Sun is the only game in town for really "getting along" in all platforms (Sun, Windows, Linux, Macs and BSDs).
Last year (or was it more?) I looke at these things - because of this continuous non-stop brouhaha about them - for matrix computations and they looked very immature vis-a-vis Matlab.
There's a whole lot of speculation going on at Amazon.
Once, I bought a used book for $ 80. Then, the seller pulled it off and aborted the sale/shipment and basically said "sorry" no explanations given. When I demanded one they gave me a bullshit explanation (they didn't know what happened, the book wasn't even in stock anymore).
Then, sure as fuck, the book reappeared 2 days later by the same seller, with a price tag $ 180 more. The very same used copy, with the same defects.
Amazon couldn't care less.
Do I loose sleep and cry at mights if someone pirates this book (which, by the way, I found in a library). No, not at all. Speculating with books on a global market, IMHO, is what the unethical thing is. It's like speculating with the price of food. If there are scumbags specializing in it nowadays (and, apparently, there are), then I don't care if people pirate away. If it stops speculation and book hyperinflation then I suppose it can be considered a natural market regulation mechanism.
Who the fuck wants to sit hours by a scanner, if they can just click, click, click and buy it? I guess people do it out of need.
So what's the point of these laws that no one will abide by? Terrorize people?
If the publisher refuses to care about an excellent work that has gone out of print for decades, say 2 or 3, and the author might be dead and will not receive a penny, like you said, then it is totally ethical to make an ebook.
It's much more important that the book be shared in electronic form and, therefore, be brought again to life, instead of be rotting away in some shelf.
It's called civil disobedience. In this case, the human need for knowledge takes precendece over stupid copyright laws. We must also press legislators to become aware of this "new" reality of the internet. When knowledge is shared, everyone benefits.
Gladly, they mentioned the inventor Abraham Katzir (a physicist at Tel Aviv University).
All too often, it''s the surgeon who gets all the credit when, in fact, all this wonderful medical technology is created by engineers and whole team - a lot more people than the guys who like to pose as heroes.
I agree. There's definitely an issue with Mac OS X regarding swap.
Yeah, for fuck's sake, upgrading X11 on Linux and BSDs can be worlds of pain!
At least on Mac OS X, the Apple developers take care of the pain for me, and I can get on with my work stuff.
I can't believe you are replying to a person that is claiming that Linux is better than Mac OS X for compiling POSIX-targeted programs.
Lots and lots of software written for Linux tipically will be badly done, full of Linux-ism and GNU-ism and will present difficulties for any other Unix - because, somehow, some people don't understand they are supposed to be writing open source software for Unix. Ask anyone on BSDs.
Note to mention shit won't even compile amongst different Linux distros, because of Linux distro-hell.
Were you ever able to watch these lectures? Because I always get connection problems with their server. And I tried it a couple of months ago, too.
It's fucking awful when people choose proprietary medium for this stuff...
M - the M language .NET
I - Iron Python for
C - C#
R - R# coming soon...
O - O# coming soon...
S - Silverlight
O - O# see above
F - F# right here, right now
T - T# real soon now...
Sure, agents have always had the right to go through stuff - but that doesn't include reading medical records, family pictures, job prospects, building blueprints, scientific research, you favorite mp3 collection of Hezbollah chants, or your gory collection of people exploded by terrorist bombs, does it?
I'm sort of joking, but a guy has a right to his collection of Hezbollah chants, if it pleases him, doesn't he? Suppose the guy's learning Arabic?
That it would be so absolutely fucking stupid to enter the U.S. with this material sort of proves my point.
Do you really think people are off on a tangent?
Let's say someone works in a "sensible" area. Say, explosives. Say, a chemist. Should he go to the U.S. for a conference, even though he works, e.g., in a mining firm or in academia (I dunno - do people in academia research explosives?)
Do you really think it's so far fetched, under the current climate in the U.S.?
Maybe some specialties should really no go to the U.S. anymore. That's kind of sad for the human networking and the free exchange of ideas, don't you think?
Cenario 2: you're a doctor. You go to a conference and you are randomly sampled to hand over your laptop. They probably do this. This sucks, doesn't it? It'll ruin your conference - and your reputation.
IMHO, as long as the US continues with its post 9/11 über-crazyness, just go somewhere else. Besides, Paris is so much better than Buffalo, Texas. The U.S. is not a fun place anymore.
Just please don't make the argument Python is inherently more readable.
It's not
http://algebraicthunk.net/~dburrows/blog/entry/attachments/debsudoku.py
http://www.blott-online.com/sudoku/sudoku-solver
Then, if Matlab is a luxury - even though you gladly pay for your computers and don't steal them form shops, I imagine - use something that has academic and industry backing, like Scilab - and is free software.
There's really no excuse to use Excel other than balance sheets. Solver? I don't think serious optimization folk will use that either, instead of CPlex, etc.
Now, who told you SPSS is crappy software? It's a widely used software for not only Social Science but for the Biology and Medical fields - in short, for anyone serious about statistics who's not a statistician.
Excel, OTOH, has a long track record of errors. Microsoft does not have the expertise for numerical and statistics software.
Which is not surprising, if you remind yourself that Microsoft did not even have security expertise for its own main product line...This software landscape is dominated by Matlab, Maple, SAS, S-Plus, R, Scilab, SPSS and Mathematica. This is what people in the field use. *Not* Excel.
People have got to stop thinking that what Microsoft does, it does always well. That just shows lack of analysis and reading.
Excel sucks for numerical routines. If you Google, you'll find papers about it.
Neither the numerics community nor the stats community trusts it. Even financial models are done in C++, Matlab or Maple, not Excel.
Excel is a good tool when you're into accounting and need 2 digits after the decimal point.
Stop promoting this tool as if it was reliable software. It's criminal. Even worse, medical researchers might end up believing it's software you can trust.