If someone comes to me claiming to have cheap land in Florida, I insist on flying down and checking it out. When someone says they have written a great program that they are giving away for free, I look askance.
However, I think that the skeptical nickel has already been spent on UFO's. We are beyond the point where we should be doubting basic facts like the existence of these objects and we should instead be concentrating on figuring out what they are and what the occupants want with us.
Many abductees speak of messages of peace but these are strangely juxtaposed with rough treatment in the area of the rectum. Could it be that these are interstellar proponents of Open Source software, here to talk of love but then commit rape? I think the chances are good.
Not this old hokum again. Computers are a tool, people. They exist to solve problems and help us with our jobs. Comparing Macs to PCs is pointless and trollish. What you need to do is ask what task you need solved.
For instance, my mom needed a computer that she could use to check her email and maybe do a little web browsing. The iMac is perfect for her.
I need something that will let me run a quality office suite, a standard development environment and all the latest games but not cost me an arm and a leg. The only rational choice for any of those things is a PC running Windows XP.
Hams are changing America, and the world!
on
Field Day 2002
·
· Score: 0
For just a few hundred dollars in electronic equipment, you can hear voices from around the world. For just a few hundred more plus just a few months of intensive studying of such things as morse code and indian smoke signals, you can get a license that will let you talk as much as you want, right in the comfort of your own home. Compared to the Internet, which requires a computer and an expensive ISP hookup but rarely provides anything more than soccer information and spam about penis sizes, this is truly amazing. I will definitely be heading out this weekend to spend some time watching a guy with headphones operate what looks like a really big radio.
I found this book very helpful in building the database I'm working on but I was surprised at the vehemence the author displayed when discussing MySQL and PostgreSQL. I use those two workhorses all the time but the author said that they were "only good for crappy websites and e-commerce wannabees". I thought he was referring to the well-known stability issues but later on he goes into great detail on how each of them has broken the SQL standard pretty badly.
It came as news to me, but the author is a SQL god so I guess it must be true.
As a physicist I work with some of the most intensive and expensive software in the world. That's why, back in 1998, I chose Linux for all our simulation and embedded device needs. I was happy at my choice because Linux is flexible, powerful and cheap.
However, due to the possible weapons applications of our work, security is a big issue. So in 2001 the Feds came in to audit us. When they saw we were using Linux they almost shit a brick. Apparently the GAO (General Accounting Office) has done a lot of work checking the kernel code and has found many many security errors and is recommending that sensitive sites not use the bug-riddled OS.
I tried to tell these guys to have the GAO just submit patches to Linus, but they told me to install Windows 2000 instead. *shrug* What're ya gonna do?
I live in a small town. I use the Internet every day to telecommute to my office and it has been a godsend. The extra time I can spend at home makes me embrace the Internet with open arms, even though I'm tied to a dinky little 28.8 modem. But do I think fiber-optics are the way to go? I treasure my neighbors whether we having a cookout/yard-sale or whether all the kids are playing in our local park. I want to continue to deepen my relationship with these good, kind-hearted folk and I think laying down fiber-optic cabling could tear it asunder.
First, there's the cost. Fiber optics can cost anywhere from $50 to $500 per linear foot so a typical community will require something like $750,000 to wire it properly. That's money that could be spent on playground equipment or a safety officer to watch the kids.
Second is the issue of fresh air, exercise and family values. Which is better for Little Billy? Playing touch football with his friends outside? Or fragging monsters in one window while obsessively reloading porn sites in the other?
No, I'm afraid the Internet is tearing apart small-town America and I want no part of it.
This may seem like a far-fetched claim, but stick with me for a second.
First of all, complex electronic devices need software, do they not? And software on a device this small will have to be pretty compact, right? And what favorite OS of yours and mine has the tiniest footprint in the world?
Linux!
Linux is an obvious shoo-in for dental applications. By eschewing proprietary, legacy solutions based on M$ "wince" the manufacturers can even eliminate the need for RAM, which I understand Linux can emulate as of 2.4.23, which will save even more room.
All of society is an implied contract. Did you ever sign a piece of paper saying you weren't going to speed or murder anyone? No, you didn't--just by being born into society you are ipso facto agreeing to abide by the rules. And if you break the rules, you end up in jail. That's how the world works, deal with it--and stop stealing content.
So you're implying I steal television airtime if I go take a bathroom constitutional or head off to the fridge for a snack?
Your use of common, everyday items is supposed to indicate that "of course it isn't stealing". But what if I said "So you're implying that I'm 'speeding' just because I press a little pedal in my car through an angle of more than 10 degrees? How ridiculous!"
You have an implied contract with the television studio. You watch the commercials and they'll show you programming. When you break your end of the contract, you are breaking the law.
but I just don't feel justified in buying one. It's not that I don't need it--my wife's locked herself out of the car more times than I count, sometimes leaving a baby inside. Also, I'm on the road a lot attending conferences and whatnot and I like to keep in touch. The trouble is, none of the cellphones on the market provide source-code for the binaries that run on the phones. While I may feel a modicum of temporary relief over the safety of my family, I know that in the larger picture I'd just harming them trading away their freedom.
While under Windows you are pretty much tied to Creative Labs and compatibles, under Linux you can use the full selection from the 36 DACs to the 85 Hz mono/stereo switchers. Last month I even got MIDI working on my cutting-edge test machine which is more than I can say for W2k at the moment.
These kind of features will allow a much greater range of expression in video game music, if only the RIAA would release the injunction on developers not to write music for the Linux platform.
I note the article is hosted at "EVWorld" a site devoted to the misguided[1] attempt to convert the world to electric vehicles.
They undoubtedly would like to believe that the Earth's core is nuclear in an attempt to show how the only safe place for radioactivity is far beneath the ground, not up here where we can use it. Fortunately nobody in any kind of position of power listens to pseudoscientists like those in the "alternative" energy movment. I would no more use "alternative" energy than I would take herbal medicine.
[1]I say "misguided" because electric power cannot provide the torque or turning radius that gas engines can--keep in mind that 1 hp = 744 watts so your typical 200 hp gas engine will have to be replaced by a 150kW electric engine. Yeah right.
Software sucks because it is spewed out by corpo$ation$ that aren't dedicted to the principle of engineering excellence. They have no hacker (not cracker, dammit!) ethic. That's why Open Source software is so great--it's by hackers, for hackers. When you use Open Source software like Linux or Mozilla, you know you are getting something that has been worked on and worked on and worked on to get it exactly right no matter how long it takes and you don't get the creeping featuritis that seems to infect everything involved with Microsoft.
Great, AudioGalaxy is legal now. So what? If you consider their peering model, wherein clients act like sub-servers in an availability matrix you'll find that their network capacity and bandwidth redudancy weren't all that great to begin with. Now, with reduced storage load and increased end-user demand it will only get worse. Good bye, AudioGalaxy.
I was very impressed with this book. A lot of solid information on threads and the IO interface in particular. It now has a place of honor on my shelf and I recommend it to all my friends.
I was also pleased with the introduction wherein he warns new programmers of the pitfalls of Java. He rightly points out that object oriented programming is prone to bloat and Java especially is very slow by it's nature. I think his advice that new programmers should choose C# instead of legacy Java is spot on.
This kind of behavior is absolutely atrocious and I simply won't stand for it. I think the only solution is to let these companies know how we feel about their unscrupulous practices. Perhaps a boycott is in order. I'll certainly be writing a letter to my congressman to ask him to drop everything and immediately investigate virus manufacturers deceitful practices. This is easily the most important issue facing America today.
We had our legal department look over this "LKML License" thing and it seemed pretty obvious even to me that it was just a way for Roger Stallman to try to steal our IP.
But even if that weren't true (and trust me, the entire physics community is well aware of the dangers of open source software licenses) then there would still be the fact that protected source programs are still much more reliable than warez downloaded from a P2P. For instance, when our accelerator goes down (which it does about 3 times a week) who are we going call for tech support?
I'm sorry, but physicists have more important (to humanity) things to do with their time than correct the random keyboard stabbings of some know-nothing OS programmer.
Please, Palm, don't listen to this raving lunatic! We have man-decades of work that depend on the reliability and low-cost of PalmOS. Opening the source will require us to make all that hard-won scientific knowledge available for free to the public. How are we supposed to feed our families if Palm opens the source to PalmOS? With atoms?
For those that don't know, PalmOS has more uses than just running on your handheld. It is the premier embedded OS on the market. It runs everything from your Palm to lab experiments to heart monitors. In fact, we have a (somewhat modified, of course) version installed on our synchrotron. The low-profile but high-performance engineering fits well with our high-availability needs.
First of all, the Sun is obviously unrelated to global warming.
Second, carbon dioxide isn't the cause of global warming either. That's just a smokescreen (ha!) to
cover our USian asses.
Think about it, CO2 is perfectly transparent. But the real kicker is
that even if CO2 was human-caused and even if CO2 caused warming, it
would be dwarfed by the real problem: profligate energy
consumption.
Burning a (metric) ton of coal produces about 3 kilograms of CO2.
According to the DOE (I can't find the link) those three kilograms of
CO2 will cause about 30 kilojoules of energy to be trapped on the
planet. But how much energy does a metric ton of coal contain? About
30 gigajoules. That's where all the heat is coming
from.
So cutting carbon emissions, even if that was related, won't work.
Why? Because all sources of power produce heat. Nuclear power
is only about 30% efficient--the other 70% of E=mc^2 is dumped to the
environment. Fusion is even worse. Hell, I wouldn't be at all
surprised just burning the 2000 Cal/day for 6 billion humans wasn't
enough to cause the effects we're seeing.
The only solution is a massive program of eliminating energy waste by
halting all computer use (computers use 25% of all energy in the US)
and anyone who burns more than their allotted share of
calories should be put on an enforced diet.
I remember reading about Cyc and Dr Lenat in Discover magazine back when I was in high school (late 80's). He was trotting out the ol' "Cyc asked if it was human" line then, too and I haven't seen much progress in the intervening 15 years. I've mentioned this previously on/. (because for some reason the/. editors seem entranced with this non-story) and every single time I've been modded down as a troll.
I guess that's what I get for questioning the dogma of a slashbot.
Linux is all about rebellion against the status quo[1]. The SciFic channel[2] is all about individuals triumphing with and over technology. These shows reflect those ideals and are thus perfectly suited towards raising a New Generation (ha!) of Linux users who can carry on the fight against Microsoft.
[1]That and proving to the world that you are smarter, stronger and reproductively more fit than some dimwit who doesn't know what the -q flag to gcc does.
[2]Together with Disney and Warner Bros Entertainment
who follow my work know that I'm all about freedom and acquiring knowledge regardless of merit. I feel it is our inherent duty to fight against the corportization of the internet.
However, even I am glad at this development. For too long, anti-social computer users have been using their meager skills to act in a condescending fashion to the more legitimate disciplines such as sociology, art history and communications.
Hopefully these departments will put some much-needed brakes on wild proliferation of dangerous computer science tricks employed by vandals.
Slashdot Mirror
However, I think that the skeptical nickel has already been spent on UFO's. We are beyond the point where we should be doubting basic facts like the existence of these objects and we should instead be concentrating on figuring out what they are and what the occupants want with us.
Many abductees speak of messages of peace but these are strangely juxtaposed with rough treatment in the area of the rectum. Could it be that these are interstellar proponents of Open Source software, here to talk of love but then commit rape? I think the chances are good.
For instance, my mom needed a computer that she could use to check her email and maybe do a little web browsing. The iMac is perfect for her.
I need something that will let me run a quality office suite, a standard development environment and all the latest games but not cost me an arm and a leg. The only rational choice for any of those things is a PC running Windows XP.
The future is now.
It came as news to me, but the author is a SQL god so I guess it must be true.
However, due to the possible weapons applications of our work, security is a big issue. So in 2001 the Feds came in to audit us. When they saw we were using Linux they almost shit a brick. Apparently the GAO (General Accounting Office) has done a lot of work checking the kernel code and has found many many security errors and is recommending that sensitive sites not use the bug-riddled OS.
I tried to tell these guys to have the GAO just submit patches to Linus, but they told me to install Windows 2000 instead. *shrug* What're ya gonna do?
First, there's the cost. Fiber optics can cost anywhere from $50 to $500 per linear foot so a typical community will require something like $750,000 to wire it properly. That's money that could be spent on playground equipment or a safety officer to watch the kids.
Second is the issue of fresh air, exercise and family values. Which is better for Little Billy? Playing touch football with his friends outside? Or fragging monsters in one window while obsessively reloading porn sites in the other?
No, I'm afraid the Internet is tearing apart small-town America and I want no part of it.
First of all, complex electronic devices need software, do they not? And software on a device this small will have to be pretty compact, right? And what favorite OS of yours and mine has the tiniest footprint in the world?
Linux!
Linux is an obvious shoo-in for dental applications. By eschewing proprietary, legacy solutions based on M$ "wince" the manufacturers can even eliminate the need for RAM, which I understand Linux can emulate as of 2.4.23, which will save even more room.
Another win for Linux!
All of society is an implied contract. Did you ever sign a piece of paper saying you weren't going to speed or murder anyone? No, you didn't--just by being born into society you are ipso facto agreeing to abide by the rules. And if you break the rules, you end up in jail. That's how the world works, deal with it--and stop stealing content.
Your use of common, everyday items is supposed to indicate that "of course it isn't stealing". But what if I said "So you're implying that I'm 'speeding' just because I press a little pedal in my car through an angle of more than 10 degrees? How ridiculous!"
You have an implied contract with the television studio. You watch the commercials and they'll show you programming. When you break your end of the contract, you are breaking the law.
Once the MPAA gets a load of how much money they can make by using Linux, maybe they'll get off our backs for stealing their content.
but I just don't feel justified in buying one. It's not that I don't need it--my wife's locked herself out of the car more times than I count, sometimes leaving a baby inside. Also, I'm on the road a lot attending conferences and whatnot and I like to keep in touch. The trouble is, none of the cellphones on the market provide source-code for the binaries that run on the phones. While I may feel a modicum of temporary relief over the safety of my family, I know that in the larger picture I'd just harming them trading away their freedom.
These kind of features will allow a much greater range of expression in video game music, if only the RIAA would release the injunction on developers not to write music for the Linux platform.
They undoubtedly would like to believe that the Earth's core is nuclear in an attempt to show how the only safe place for radioactivity is far beneath the ground, not up here where we can use it. Fortunately nobody in any kind of position of power listens to pseudoscientists like those in the "alternative" energy movment. I would no more use "alternative" energy than I would take herbal medicine.
[1]I say "misguided" because electric power cannot provide the torque or turning radius that gas engines can--keep in mind that 1 hp = 744 watts so your typical 200 hp gas engine will have to be replaced by a 150kW electric engine. Yeah right.
Software sucks because it is spewed out by corpo$ation$ that aren't dedicted to the principle of engineering excellence. They have no hacker (not cracker, dammit!) ethic. That's why Open Source software is so great--it's by hackers, for hackers. When you use Open Source software like Linux or Mozilla, you know you are getting something that has been worked on and worked on and worked on to get it exactly right no matter how long it takes and you don't get the creeping featuritis that seems to infect everything involved with Microsoft.
Great, AudioGalaxy is legal now. So what? If you consider their peering model, wherein clients act like sub-servers in an availability matrix you'll find that their network capacity and bandwidth redudancy weren't all that great to begin with. Now, with reduced storage load and increased end-user demand it will only get worse. Good bye, AudioGalaxy.
I was also pleased with the introduction wherein he warns new programmers of the pitfalls of Java. He rightly points out that object oriented programming is prone to bloat and Java especially is very slow by it's nature. I think his advice that new programmers should choose C# instead of legacy Java is spot on.
This kind of behavior is absolutely atrocious and I simply won't stand for it. I think the only solution is to let these companies know how we feel about their unscrupulous practices. Perhaps a boycott is in order. I'll certainly be writing a letter to my congressman to ask him to drop everything and immediately investigate virus manufacturers deceitful practices. This is easily the most important issue facing America today.
But even if that weren't true (and trust me, the entire physics community is well aware of the dangers of open source software licenses) then there would still be the fact that protected source programs are still much more reliable than warez downloaded from a P2P. For instance, when our accelerator goes down (which it does about 3 times a week) who are we going call for tech support?
I'm sorry, but physicists have more important (to humanity) things to do with their time than correct the random keyboard stabbings of some know-nothing OS programmer.
Please, Palm, don't listen to this raving lunatic! We have man-decades of work that depend on the reliability and low-cost of PalmOS. Opening the source will require us to make all that hard-won scientific knowledge available for free to the public. How are we supposed to feed our families if Palm opens the source to PalmOS? With atoms?
For those that don't know, PalmOS has more uses than just running on your handheld. It is the premier embedded OS on the market. It runs everything from your Palm to lab experiments to heart monitors. In fact, we have a (somewhat modified, of course) version installed on our synchrotron. The low-profile but high-performance engineering fits well with our high-availability needs.
Second, carbon dioxide isn't the cause of global warming either. That's just a smokescreen (ha!) to cover our USian asses.
Think about it, CO2 is perfectly transparent. But the real kicker is that even if CO2 was human-caused and even if CO2 caused warming, it would be dwarfed by the real problem: profligate energy consumption.
Burning a (metric) ton of coal produces about 3 kilograms of CO2. According to the DOE (I can't find the link) those three kilograms of CO2 will cause about 30 kilojoules of energy to be trapped on the planet. But how much energy does a metric ton of coal contain? About 30 gigajoules. That's where all the heat is coming from.
So cutting carbon emissions, even if that was related, won't work. Why? Because all sources of power produce heat. Nuclear power is only about 30% efficient--the other 70% of E=mc^2 is dumped to the environment. Fusion is even worse. Hell, I wouldn't be at all surprised just burning the 2000 Cal/day for 6 billion humans wasn't enough to cause the effects we're seeing.
The only solution is a massive program of eliminating energy waste by halting all computer use (computers use 25% of all energy in the US) and anyone who burns more than their allotted share of calories should be put on an enforced diet.
I guess that's what I get for questioning the dogma of a slashbot.
[1]That and proving to the world that you are smarter, stronger and reproductively more fit than some dimwit who doesn't know what the -q flag to gcc does.
[2]Together with Disney and Warner Bros Entertainment
However, even I am glad at this development. For too long, anti-social computer users have been using their meager skills to act in a condescending fashion to the more legitimate disciplines such as sociology, art history and communications.
Hopefully these departments will put some much-needed brakes on wild proliferation of dangerous computer science tricks employed by vandals.