I'm kind of confused about the slashdot crowd's hypocrisy by hating all these Big Brother and anti-free speech laws, and then cheering new laws that just turn the government into more Big Brother.
In my opinion, new laws like these are not needed and will just bring more overhead and telemarketers will just find loopholes around this. Why not just enforce the laws on the books against harassment?
This just sets a precedent for creating more National "do not do this" lists that threaten our rights as well as these "evil companies".
It's interesting to see recently how the editors and a lot of the readers are falling over themselves to get on the Apple bandwagon.
These same people who cry "Free as in Freedom" when cheering for Linux and hating Microsoft salivate at all the closed Mac hardware and beg for Apple' iron fist that is just as tight at MS's.
No matter who wins in the MS and Apple battle, Linux will lose if it loses the mindshare and support that it once had from the front running zealot.
I would take this story more seriously if it wasn't written with such breathless and hysterical overtones.
Michael is a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist. Any story that supports his conclusion that the government is out to get him is autmomatically posted.
BTW: This is not offtopic, it is a meta comment. And don't be a pussy by overrating this just because you don't like it.
As in all Michael Crichton novels, the heart of Prey is Crichton's fascinating scientific speculation--in this novel about the implications of Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is the science of manufacturing microscopic machines. This novel speculates about what might happen if this technology ran amok.
I've read nearly all of Crichton's books, and this one is remarkably different from the others as regards the writing style. This novel is not written with Crichton's usual detached, third-person style, moving periodically among characters. Instead, the narrative is in the first person--everything is seen from the perspective of one protagonist, who slowly, gradually, realizes the horror of the situation in which he finds himself. The overall effect of this change in style is that the book is a much easier read than most of Crichton's other work. In fact, it is fair to say that more than most of Crichton's other novels, this one is a real page-turner. Mostly he does not sacrifice depth for this, and he does achieve a higher degree of clarity than in some of his other novels, notably "Timeline."
Some of Crichton's scientific prognostications are (as usual for him) absolutely fascinating. He clearly and convincingly explains how nanotechnology may come together as a fusion between mechanical and genetic engineering, and computer science. Unfortunately, in my opinion in this novel he goes a bit too "far out" in that I did not find his speculation about the ultimate conclusion of the technology to be plausible. Most Crichton novels pass the "plausibility test"--even "Timeline" did an acceptable job of suggesting a convincing scenario in which time travel might be possible--a difficult task indeed. While I found some of Crichton's speculation about where nanotechnology might lead to be fascinating, some parts of this speculation seemed forced and ultimately not believable. This lack of plausibility dropped this one to three stars in my opinion.
The ending of the novel is also not very satisfying. Crichton could have done better. Spoilers omitted here.
Despite the flaws mentioned here, this book is a ripping good read and every Crichton fan or lover of science fiction will want to read this one.
So a couple of old, obscure games are being ported to Linux! Woo Hoo! Based on sales figures from more popular established games on Linux, I figure they will sell 10, maybe 20 copies.
Most people consider money a part of success. Looking at this project from a financial standpoint, I would hardly call it successful.
These guys don't make any money from it, they're basically working for free, and giving away their product for free. If you have something else going on like a job or studies, then that's great, but Free Software is not a good solution if you're trying to make money directly off of it.
Until I see the DoomIV as Free Software, I can't consider this movement a success.
I find the Internet is great for finding music that I already like, but nothing beats going out the bars, clubs, concerts or whatever venues you dig to discover something new.
Getting word of mouth from the live crowds, bands, and promotors certainly any systems you'll find online.
I don't think it's unreasonable that foreign students be restricted from participating. After all, it's my tax dollars paying for this, and I would expect my government to provide for their own citizens before some foreigners who presumably will take their knowledge back to their home countries.
Like it or not, their are things in this country we restrict non-U.S. citizens from doing, and that is a good thing. They can't work for many government agencies or contractors. They are our guests, and they shouldn't expect that we give them the keys and the kitchen sink.
This summary is just trolling by the submitter and michael to stir some shit up.
jamie, you guys have applied no consistency or reasoning with regards to this.
As my post here asks, why did you grandfather the ny times but nobody else like the washington post?
Why is registration to horribly horribly bad, except for one newspaper site?
This policy of yours has no backbone at all when the one of the biggest sites you link to is reg-required, and it makes reeks of favoritism and hypocracy.
The LA Times has a story about animating Gollum which we can't link to because it requires registration.
Please editors, explain this because you never have seemed to provide a clear one on this subject.
You have no problem linking to ny times registration required articles, I think because you said you grandfathered them in before it was policy to not link to reg-required sites.
But you don't apply this to almost any other places, like the washington post that went recently to registration.
So why is ny times articles (which take a significant amount of slashdot stories) have any exception? Just because you like their stories? I agree that it's an excellent paper but you look like utter hypocrites and not enforcing this policy across the board.
simple as that. maybe if you slashdotters would put your money where your mouths are then you might be able to get the industries to change its ways. This one looks pretty easy to avoid, as you can buy PCs from any other vendor which doesn't contain these things.
But when it comes to movies, DVDs, CDs you people will bend over and take it up the ass and still scream blood murder? Gotta love the hypocrisy.
don't forget the most important part of managing them: have lots of Lysol and air fresheners on hand to combat the smell of curry and incense from those dot heads.
the world needs to be rid of terrorist and I applaud the Pentagon's efforts in this war against terrorism.
here on slashdot, the pinko sympathizers will make some excuses for why this is a bad idea, but I believe their motives are only in bashing the great nation in the world.
flamebait? this is an honest comment. why does a criticism of the editors always have to get modded to oblivion? this is just another abuse of absolute power by michael.
somebody with mod points please restore the balance here.
Looks like there just playing the old game of "no publicity is bad publicity". All this whining and discussion of this "vandalism" (how's running around times square vandalism?) just raises more awareness for MSN which is exactly what they're trying to do.
I would expect slashdot to show some common sense, but with michael sims at the helm, any opportunity to bash microsoft can never be turned down.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm kind of confused about the slashdot crowd's hypocrisy by hating all these Big Brother and anti-free speech laws, and then cheering new laws that just turn the government into more Big Brother.
In my opinion, new laws like these are not needed and will just bring more overhead and telemarketers will just find loopholes around this. Why not just enforce the laws on the books against harassment?
This just sets a precedent for creating more National "do not do this" lists that threaten our rights as well as these "evil companies".
It's interesting to see recently how the editors and a lot of the readers are falling over themselves to get on the Apple bandwagon.
These same people who cry "Free as in Freedom" when cheering for Linux and hating Microsoft salivate at all the closed Mac hardware and beg for Apple' iron fist that is just as tight at MS's.
No matter who wins in the MS and Apple battle, Linux will lose if it loses the mindshare and support that it once had from the front running zealot.
this sounds more like a plan to pirate cable tv feeds and "share" it with the rest of the world.
call it what it really is: theft.
I would take this story more seriously if it wasn't written with such breathless and hysterical overtones.
Michael is a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist. Any story that supports his conclusion that the government is out to get him is autmomatically posted.
BTW: This is not offtopic, it is a meta comment. And don't be a pussy by overrating this just because you don't like it.
They didn't include the episode where Homer goes back to college (one of the ones from the early 90s). One of the best ever.
The Simpsons now suck really hard. It's all pop culture crap now.
As in all Michael Crichton novels, the heart of Prey is Crichton's fascinating scientific speculation--in this novel about the implications of Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is the science of manufacturing microscopic machines. This novel speculates about what might happen if this technology ran amok.
I've read nearly all of Crichton's books, and this one is remarkably different from the others as regards the writing style. This novel is not written with Crichton's usual detached, third-person style, moving periodically among characters. Instead, the narrative is in the first person--everything is seen from the perspective of one protagonist, who slowly, gradually, realizes the horror of the situation in which he finds himself. The overall effect of this change in style is that the book is a much easier read than most of Crichton's other work. In fact, it is fair to say that more than most of Crichton's other novels, this one is a real page-turner. Mostly he does not sacrifice depth for this, and he does achieve a higher degree of clarity than in some of his other novels, notably "Timeline."
Some of Crichton's scientific prognostications are (as usual for him) absolutely fascinating. He clearly and convincingly explains how nanotechnology may come together as a fusion between mechanical and genetic engineering, and computer science. Unfortunately, in my opinion in this novel he goes a bit too "far out" in that I did not find his speculation about the ultimate conclusion of the technology to be plausible. Most Crichton novels pass the "plausibility test"--even "Timeline" did an acceptable job of suggesting a convincing scenario in which time travel might be possible--a difficult task indeed. While I found some of Crichton's speculation about where nanotechnology might lead to be fascinating, some parts of this speculation seemed forced and ultimately not believable. This lack of plausibility dropped this one to three stars in my opinion.
The ending of the novel is also not very satisfying. Crichton could have done better. Spoilers omitted here.
Despite the flaws mentioned here, this book is a ripping good read and every Crichton fan or lover of science fiction will want to read this one.
A must read for any band about to sign a contract with a label, and an interesting look behind the curtain from an insider.
Anyone smell a clever product placement here?
.
These guys don't make any money from it, they're basically working for free, and giving away their product for free. If you have something else going on like a job or studies, then that's great, but Free Software is not a good solution if you're trying to make money directly off of it.
Until I see the DoomIV as Free Software, I can't consider this movement a success.
So will the principled slashdotters put their money with their mouths are and not buy a PS3?
Just curious.
It would make things a little easier for them and us.
Just tired of seeing stories that aren't reachable by the time i click them.
This statement is slashdot idiocy at its finest. GPL'd software isn't "free", it comes with strings attached. What's wrong with pointing that out?
Microsoft doesn't really need to any help to make OSS advocates look stupid, the overeager religious zealots do that job just fine.
I find the Internet is great for finding music that I already like, but nothing beats going out the bars, clubs, concerts or whatever venues you dig to discover something new.
Getting word of mouth from the live crowds, bands, and promotors certainly any systems you'll find online.
I don't think it's unreasonable that foreign students be restricted from participating. After all, it's my tax dollars paying for this, and I would expect my government to provide for their own citizens before some foreigners who presumably will take their knowledge back to their home countries.
Like it or not, their are things in this country we restrict non-U.S. citizens from doing, and that is a good thing. They can't work for many government agencies or contractors. They are our guests, and they shouldn't expect that we give them the keys and the kitchen sink.
This summary is just trolling by the submitter and michael to stir some shit up.
As my post here asks, why did you grandfather the ny times but nobody else like the washington post?
Why is registration to horribly horribly bad, except for one newspaper site?
This policy of yours has no backbone at all when the one of the biggest sites you link to is reg-required, and it makes reeks of favoritism and hypocracy.
Not a big surprise I guess.
Please editors, explain this because you never have seemed to provide a clear one on this subject.
You have no problem linking to ny times registration required articles, I think because you said you grandfathered them in before it was policy to not link to reg-required sites.
But you don't apply this to almost any other places, like the washington post that went recently to registration.
So why is ny times articles (which take a significant amount of slashdot stories) have any exception? Just because you like their stories? I agree that it's an excellent paper but you look like utter hypocrites and not enforcing this policy across the board.
But when it comes to movies, DVDs, CDs you people will bend over and take it up the ass and still scream blood murder? Gotta love the hypocrisy.
.
While this might be interesting to some, it certainly isn't normally slashdot's realm of coverage.
Stick to news for nerds, not news for liberal wannabes.
Seriously, If i write the kind of headline that michael put here, I'd be modded to -1 in 2 seconds.
Can someone with some common sense at slashdot put an end to Michael's idiocy? stop this madness now!
seriously, indian people reek.
you could have saved us the trouble of looking for it on kazaa.
here on slashdot, the pinko sympathizers will make some excuses for why this is a bad idea, but I believe their motives are only in bashing the great nation in the world.
go USA!
somebody with mod points please restore the balance here.
I would expect slashdot to show some common sense, but with michael sims at the helm, any opportunity to bash microsoft can never be turned down.
what a surprise, another 'US is bad' article is posted by Michael.
slashdot ranks last in Freedom of users, according to me. Editor modbombin, secret blasting and such. can you post that as news?