Well, hey, we could determine how accurate Wikipedia is! We could just compare it to another encyclopedia, whose accuracy we could determine by comparing it to...oh, wait...
BUZZ! You used an MTV metaphor in reference to an attempt to qualitatively determine the accuracy of encyclopedias. Please stop now before you cause an Irony Anomaly.
How could I possibly be against access to the world's knowledge? Of course, like most sane people, I am not against it and, after more than 40 years of working in libraries, am rather for it. I have spent a lot of my long professional life working on aspects of the noble aim of Universal Bibliographic Control--a mechanism by which all the world's recorded knowledge would be known, and available, to the people of the world. My sin against bloggery is that I do not believe this particular project will give us anything that comes anywhere near access to the world's knowledge.
He's incensed because the world isn't waiting for his Perfect Solution. Somehow I can cry no tears for a Perfect Solution that isn't actually functional yet.
Well, I think his claim is wrong. It sounds great, but it is inaccurate and even the intention -- that Perl is effectively a stumbling block, a well-intentioned bad idea, is incorrect. Makeshifts are important; prototypes are important. Mistakes, too, are important. Even if Perl is all three, it is vital merely in the sense that the void is fills would exist if it did not.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning...men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay for all they get.
Of course, he goes on:
Basically, a lot of the problems that computing has had in the last 25 years comes from systems where the designers were trying to fix some short-term thing and didn't think about whether the idea would scale if it were adopted.
This is also a truism; most of the problems in anything stem from shortsightedness. Unfortunately, most progress also results from shortsightedness.
Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term.
Ah, like English. Or, for that matter, everything else ever invented or discovered, accidentally or otherwise. Fire burns down houses. Wheels are attached to cars that run people over and pollute the environment. Light bulbs enable light pollution.
The quote is another example of stating something obvious in a way that seems profound.
If I'm not mistaken, a vaccine is something you give a person before infection. This requires both the dendrites and HIV of the patient who is already infected.
How on earth is that a vaccine? I mean, it may be the first step towards one, but that's not something that fits my definition of the word.
Is my definition wrong, or is this a poorly-named treatment?
It's like the media is trying to report on real technology news! That's the media, always trying! They're dumber than paint chips, but you have to love them for trying.
This is a good example of un-news. "Google has a thing that if you install it on a computer you'll be able to know what files are on it...! Um. Be worried! Yes, that's it! PANIC!"
I wonder, honestly, what chowderheaded hairdo caused this lemming-like reporting. "It's something on GOOGLE?!" the reporters all say as they snuffle around like cattle. "Oooh, we'll report it! Whatever it is! We show that people pay attention to the word GOOGLE!"
Re:When did mediocrity become something to shoot f
on
Kamikaze Novel Writing
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· Score: 2, Informative
There's another month for getting it right. NaNoWriMo is for getting it written.
I heard that the Swedish government's going to tax everybody's email! It won't matter, though, because Bill Gates is shutting down the Interweb anyway.
Well, with Novell now throwing its substantial patent portfolio behind open source, and Microsoft having promised they won't use their patents to crush open source, I don't see what all the fuss is about.
The fuss, friend, is that Microsoft is probably lying.
Perhaps if slashdotters relied on a software patent as their primary source of income, as I do, they wouldn't be so critical of them.
Perhaps if you didn't rely on them you'd understand their flaws.
It won't matter. The FCC will claim it's being used for "terror" purposes, and the FBI will step in with vans sweeping the cities to detect radio transmissions, and there will be the necessary committees to determine whether people have the necessary soldering skills.
HAVE YOU OR HAVE YOU EVER KNOWN SOMEONE WHO PURCHASED ITEMS FROM RADIO SHACK?!
You characterized him as "a religious extremist." That's just flat wrong.
That is a fine and wonderful statement, and I agree with you that he's a poor example of a Christian. The problem is that he disagrees, and where you and I are mere U.S. citizens, he is President.
As a result, his opinion carries a little more weight, despite being based in a cocaine-addled, liquor-pickled brain.
Slashdot Mirror
The Bible contradicts itself!?!?
Say it ain't so!
...or, like any other system *cough*communism*cough*, it can be subverted by the stupidly greedy agents within that system.
Nah, that couldn't be it. Capitalism must be evil.
Google search is people, it's made of people!
Intarweb + thinking = correct answers
Intarweb + not thinking = getting the wrong century
Well, hey, we could determine how accurate Wikipedia is! We could just compare it to another encyclopedia, whose accuracy we could determine by comparing it to...oh, wait...
BUZZ! You used an MTV metaphor in reference to an attempt to qualitatively determine the accuracy of encyclopedias. Please stop now before you cause an Irony Anomaly.
The only problem is that it's not actually fair. Other than that, no problem.
I believe prime numbers are of some tangential use in a little-known field called cryptography.
He's incensed because the world isn't waiting for his Perfect Solution. Somehow I can cry no tears for a Perfect Solution that isn't actually functional yet.
Of course, he goes on:
This is also a truism; most of the problems in anything stem from shortsightedness. Unfortunately, most progress also results from shortsightedness.
Ah, like English. Or, for that matter, everything else ever invented or discovered, accidentally or otherwise. Fire burns down houses. Wheels are attached to cars that run people over and pollute the environment. Light bulbs enable light pollution.
The quote is another example of stating something obvious in a way that seems profound.
Mark my words -- the first time someone hooks up an FPS AI to one of these things, there's going to be mayhem. Not on the battlefield, either.
If I'm not mistaken, a vaccine is something you give a person before infection. This requires both the dendrites and HIV of the patient who is already infected.
How on earth is that a vaccine? I mean, it may be the first step towards one, but that's not something that fits my definition of the word.
Is my definition wrong, or is this a poorly-named treatment?
Yeah, and once they've appropriated all the decent backbones due to "national security", there won't be a problem with people being overly informed.
Also, that pesky filesharing problem they were having will seem to just disappear...
It's like the media is trying to report on real technology news! That's the media, always trying! They're dumber than paint chips, but you have to love them for trying.
This is a good example of un-news. "Google has a thing that if you install it on a computer you'll be able to know what files are on it...! Um. Be worried! Yes, that's it! PANIC!"
I wonder, honestly, what chowderheaded hairdo caused this lemming-like reporting. "It's something on GOOGLE?!" the reporters all say as they snuffle around like cattle. "Oooh, we'll report it! Whatever it is! We show that people pay attention to the word GOOGLE!"
There's another month for getting it right. NaNoWriMo is for getting it written.
I heard that the Swedish government's going to tax everybody's email! It won't matter, though, because Bill Gates is shutting down the Interweb anyway.
Actually, I believe it's called "pure capitalism". You're forgetting that money, in and of itself, can be viewed as a code of ethics.
Didn't he drop some tracks with DRM and the D-bomb?
HAVE YOU OR HAVE YOU EVER KNOWN SOMEONE WHO PURCHASED ITEMS FROM RADIO SHACK?!
That is a fine and wonderful statement, and I agree with you that he's a poor example of a Christian. The problem is that he disagrees, and where you and I are mere U.S. citizens, he is President.
As a result, his opinion carries a little more weight, despite being based in a cocaine-addled, liquor-pickled brain.
As opposed to the current system, where you know that the election results have been changed.
...which just proves you're more of a geek than Dilbert. :)