You confuse meaningful, basic-research with mere productization, or development engineering.
My whole point was that the development of Boolean algebra or Fourier series wasn't "meaningful" at the time. It was just a curiosity. As far as the distinction between "basic" research and "development engineering", I'm not sure why you feel that's important. Many important problems get solved as special cases before some bright individual realizes that there is a more fundamental basic principle at work. A silly little beeping trinket may require the engineers to solve some new, very specialized problem. You never know if the lessons learned by solving that problem might carry over and provide insight or be applicable to another, not nearly so trivial technology.
I am sad that there isn't enough money going towards basic research. But there's no use crying about it. I knew a mathematican who worked at Honeywell. He was supposed to be solving a specific control problem but would often divert his energy towards playing with more general, but still related problems. When I asked him how he could get away with doing that, his response was "Well, my bosses have to put up with a little of that if they want me to work for them." Obviously, that was meant as a joke but I think his bosses probably realized that there is a healthy cross-fertilization between working on very applied problems and taking a step back and thinking about the bigger picture. It is my belief that effort expended on developing these yuppie trinkets can find application in other, more important areas.
I've always wondered what George Boole's fellow mathematicians must have thought about him speding so much time developing an algebra based on only two numbers. And I believe that when Joseph Fourier presented his work to the academy of sciences showing that any function could be represented as an infinite sum of sine and cosine functions, the result was a big yawn from everyone.
While I look at a lot of modern technology as useless yuppie crap, there's something to be said about the relentless pursuit of scientific and technological advancement.
C'mon guys! Look, I admit that Anna Paquin is pretty darn cute but talking about her privates in such a crude manner is really tasteless. Shame on all of you.
Okay, I guess this is pretty much guaranteed to rob me of karma, but how the hell did this submission get accepted? There is NOTHING here! NOTHING! You go to the website and it says NOTHING! It's just some guy asking a "did you hear that..." question. Shouldn't an article on "News for Nerds" contain a tiny smidgen of actual news or information?
I'm not going to castigate the poster for failing to do research because I tried a google search right now and couldn't find anything myself. But I don't see how this submission can be accepted as a YRO article or even an Ask Slashdot for that matter.
Maybe the fact that there is no available information about this hearing means that it's not really important.
I read this article (yeah, yeah, I know we're not supposed to actually read the articles here on slashdot before commenting) to see what possible reasons people were coming up with for why abadoning cursive was a tragedy. None of them really struck me as important. Sure, the ability to write things with pen/pencil and paper is important but I always use printing for that. I never write myself notes in cursive. The article goes on to say that cursive is important for beautiful handwritten letters. Bullshit. For me, reading cursive actually takes me longer than reading printed text even handwritten printed text so I prefer to receive letters and memos printed rather than in script. And if I want to hand write a letter, I always use print. If I want something beautiful, I'll use a word processor. And if it needs to be fancy, I'll use a script typeface!
As my subject line says, the important things in life will be kept and those that are useless will be discarded. It's the natural order of things. We're expecting our kids to learn more and more. I certainly wasn't required to learn computer skill stuff in third grade (don't get me started on computers in the classroom -- suffice to say that I'm not a fan). It's only natural that something is going to have to get dropped to make room for all this new stuff. Until I hear a very strong case for why abondoning cursive will have a profoundly negative effect on society, I'm not going to shed any tears over this.
What arguments have been used to sway the boss to use the super-cool home grown solution?
Well, for starters you had better stop thinking of your in-house solution as "super-cool" and start thinking in management terms. If you can replace "super-cool" with "cost-effective" or "easily-extendable" or "readily-supportable" without lying then you may be on to something. But from the brief description of the problem that you've given us, you didn't really make a strong case for why using the in-house solution makes good business sense. So I'm guessing you probably haven't made a real compelling sell to managment either. Maybe you feel that because you're talking to a bunch of "fellow nerds" that you can "talk frankly" with us. But if you really, truly, in your heart-of-hearts see the in-house solution as primarily "super-cool" then I would question whether the in-house solution is really the best choice here.
Sharman executives say the new system is well worth bundling inside their software, but they say it can be easily removed if users don't wish to participate.
"Altnet's Peer Points is like the spell checker in Microsoft's Word," said Phil Morle, director of technology for Sharman Networks. "It's an integral part of the program that you can choose to use or not."
And it's not like Sharman and Brilliant Digital would ever try to pull a fast one on their users, would they?
I will never again in my life program in Assembly (Too much peeking and poking for my tastes.)
Too bad we can't get some of those Japanese subway molesters to follow your example. From what I've heard, these guys spend the entire ride peeking up girls' skirts and poking them in naughty places.
Bonzi will not pay damages but will be required to stop using fake user interface (FUI) style error messages to trick users into clicking on their banners. This is a big win for the community...
A big win? What are you smoking? Bonzai duped countless users for years and completely got away with it. They didn't have to pay anything. A big win would be if they got slapped with such a huge fine that it would serve as a lesson to other companies contemplating the same sort of "business model".
The price for this thing is quoted in the KRON TV story as being between $3,600 - $5,100. Porky Pig's insurance won't buy it for him either.
Why the hell should someone expect that medical insurance would cover something like this? I have no doubt that people who stutter face prejudice but this isn't really something that insurance should be required to pay for. Insurance doesn't pay for my eyeglasses and I need that a hell of a lot more than someone needs an anti-stuttering device.
I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone and I want to stress that I do feel sympathy for those afflicted with this condition. However, I do not approve of this mindset where people assume that insurance ought to pay for any tiny little medical-related thing they want. The cost of insurance is already pretty outrageous. And things are so bad that people who have serious illnesses can't afford coverage. The last thing we need is for insurance to start shelling out 1000s of dollars for stuff like this. Next thing you know, people will want cosmetic surgery like breast implants or LASIK to be covered because they feel these proceedures will contribute to their "well being".
I agree. You can't go to a movie with a pretty girl and still call yourself a geek. You have three choices: (a) go with a bunch of geek friends, (b) go alone and make sure to still close enough to the popular kids that they can throw popcorn and candy at you, or (c) go see it with your mommy, again making sure that all the cool kids with dates notice that you're there with your parents.
David Blunkett will attempt to introduce "entitlement cards" after the next general election in the UK. This is despite an overwhelming response against the idea through stand.org.uk.
And not too long ago the UK went to war with Iraq despite the overwhelming response against the idea. I guess the US isn't the only "democracy" (or representative republic) that ignores the will of the people. I don't know whether to feel sorry for the British or feel relieved that we in the US will have company "at the bottom".
People have been pooh-pooing this revolution in communication and sensors in the press, but I think there is an assumption of rapid technology adpotion in the private sector that just doesn't happen in the military, but as militaries go the United States is adopting at a revolutionary rate.
Maybe I'm not reading the same press that you are but I haven't seen anything that would be described as pooh-pooing. However, what I did see was a lot of retired generals claiming that relying on the new technology was awfully gutsy. I think a lot of people were mortified that Rumsfeld insisted on using the Iraqi war as a testbed for the lighter, more maneuverable force paradigm rather than letting the military planners have the heavy equipment they wanted. There's no doubt that communication technology is playing a larger role in military operations and will continue to do so for the foreseable future. I think people just wanted these concepts tested a bit more before using them in battle.
No, no, you've got it all wrong. Don't say you're declaring war. Say that you're "liberating" them from their miserable existance scurring around in the walls and such. Then you're morally justified in bombing the holy beejesus out of them and they'll be eternally grateful just like the Iraqis.
Anyone ever see Donnie Darko??? That's about all you need to say about Jake Gyllenhaal.
I, for one, would have loved to see Gyllenhaal be Spiderman and beat the crap out of that demonic bunny rabbit that tormented him all during Donnie Darko. Hey, that sadistic rabbit would make a more evil-looking villian that the Green Goblin did!
Where the hell do you come off opening with a line like that? What makes you think that "many" of us are unemployeed. I work my fucking ass off. I'm sorry to hear about your problems but don't assume that there are scores of slashdot readers in your same situation.
You want some suggestions on what do to? How about volunteering some of your over-abundant free time to a needy charity?
GMD
So what's new/unique about this book?
on
Dancing Barefoot
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
What a content-free review. We're told time and time again that we will find this book facinating but never how this book provides something that books written by other Trek actors or other genXers doesn't. Are we supposed to find this 'better' than other books because of Wil's supposedly candor in his writing style? It's not clear to me.
It sounds like this book is only directed towards Wheaton fans. This review doesn't suggest that this book will view already familiar subject matter from a fresh perspective. Maybe it does. Hell, I certainly don't know. But this review is terrible. The review also states that the book is comprised of four vingettes. Well, are these things actually related? Or is it just a collection of stuff? Again, the review doesn't say.
Seriously, my time is pretty valuable. I only read stuff that I think will provide me with something fresh and new. This review does not tell me whether this book does such a thing.
Slashdot Mirror
You confuse meaningful, basic-research with mere productization, or development engineering.
My whole point was that the development of Boolean algebra or Fourier series wasn't "meaningful" at the time. It was just a curiosity. As far as the distinction between "basic" research and "development engineering", I'm not sure why you feel that's important. Many important problems get solved as special cases before some bright individual realizes that there is a more fundamental basic principle at work. A silly little beeping trinket may require the engineers to solve some new, very specialized problem. You never know if the lessons learned by solving that problem might carry over and provide insight or be applicable to another, not nearly so trivial technology.
I am sad that there isn't enough money going towards basic research. But there's no use crying about it. I knew a mathematican who worked at Honeywell. He was supposed to be solving a specific control problem but would often divert his energy towards playing with more general, but still related problems. When I asked him how he could get away with doing that, his response was "Well, my bosses have to put up with a little of that if they want me to work for them." Obviously, that was meant as a joke but I think his bosses probably realized that there is a healthy cross-fertilization between working on very applied problems and taking a step back and thinking about the bigger picture. It is my belief that effort expended on developing these yuppie trinkets can find application in other, more important areas.
GMD
I've always wondered what George Boole's fellow mathematicians must have thought about him speding so much time developing an algebra based on only two numbers. And I believe that when Joseph Fourier presented his work to the academy of sciences showing that any function could be represented as an infinite sum of sine and cosine functions, the result was a big yawn from everyone.
While I look at a lot of modern technology as useless yuppie crap, there's something to be said about the relentless pursuit of scientific and technological advancement.
GMD
Not all Japanese porn is tentacle rape stuff. Just take a look at this fine video for an example of refined Japanese taste.
GMD
Don't you mean a "vaguely Freedom accent?" What kind of commie, american-hating, french-loving hippie are you? :)
GMD
C'mon guys! Look, I admit that Anna Paquin is pretty darn cute but talking about her privates in such a crude manner is really tasteless. Shame on all of you.
GMD
Okay, I guess this is pretty much guaranteed to rob me of karma, but how the hell did this submission get accepted? There is NOTHING here! NOTHING! You go to the website and it says NOTHING! It's just some guy asking a "did you hear that..." question. Shouldn't an article on "News for Nerds" contain a tiny smidgen of actual news or information?
I'm not going to castigate the poster for failing to do research because I tried a google search right now and couldn't find anything myself. But I don't see how this submission can be accepted as a YRO article or even an Ask Slashdot for that matter.
Maybe the fact that there is no available information about this hearing means that it's not really important.
Mods, I await your wrath...
GMD
I read this article (yeah, yeah, I know we're not supposed to actually read the articles here on slashdot before commenting) to see what possible reasons people were coming up with for why abadoning cursive was a tragedy. None of them really struck me as important. Sure, the ability to write things with pen/pencil and paper is important but I always use printing for that. I never write myself notes in cursive. The article goes on to say that cursive is important for beautiful handwritten letters. Bullshit. For me, reading cursive actually takes me longer than reading printed text even handwritten printed text so I prefer to receive letters and memos printed rather than in script. And if I want to hand write a letter, I always use print. If I want something beautiful, I'll use a word processor. And if it needs to be fancy, I'll use a script typeface!
As my subject line says, the important things in life will be kept and those that are useless will be discarded. It's the natural order of things. We're expecting our kids to learn more and more. I certainly wasn't required to learn computer skill stuff in third grade (don't get me started on computers in the classroom -- suffice to say that I'm not a fan). It's only natural that something is going to have to get dropped to make room for all this new stuff. Until I hear a very strong case for why abondoning cursive will have a profoundly negative effect on society, I'm not going to shed any tears over this.
GMD
What arguments have been used to sway the boss to use the super-cool home grown solution?
Well, for starters you had better stop thinking of your in-house solution as "super-cool" and start thinking in management terms. If you can replace "super-cool" with "cost-effective" or "easily-extendable" or "readily-supportable" without lying then you may be on to something. But from the brief description of the problem that you've given us, you didn't really make a strong case for why using the in-house solution makes good business sense. So I'm guessing you probably haven't made a real compelling sell to managment either. Maybe you feel that because you're talking to a bunch of "fellow nerds" that you can "talk frankly" with us. But if you really, truly, in your heart-of-hearts see the in-house solution as primarily "super-cool" then I would question whether the in-house solution is really the best choice here.
GMD
Sharman executives say the new system is well worth bundling inside their software, but they say it can be easily removed if users don't wish to participate.
"Altnet's Peer Points is like the spell checker in Microsoft's Word," said Phil Morle, director of technology for Sharman Networks. "It's an integral part of the program that you can choose to use or not."
And it's not like Sharman and Brilliant Digital would ever try to pull a fast one on their users, would they?
GMD
I will never again in my life program in Assembly (Too much peeking and poking for my tastes.)
Too bad we can't get some of those Japanese subway molesters to follow your example. From what I've heard, these guys spend the entire ride peeking up girls' skirts and poking them in naughty places.
GMD
Interesting points. Thanks for your feedback.
GMD
Bonzi will not pay damages but will be required to stop using fake user interface (FUI) style error messages to trick users into clicking on their banners. This is a big win for the community ...
A big win? What are you smoking? Bonzai duped countless users for years and completely got away with it. They didn't have to pay anything. A big win would be if they got slapped with such a huge fine that it would serve as a lesson to other companies contemplating the same sort of "business model".
GMD
The price for this thing is quoted in the KRON TV story as being between $3,600 - $5,100. Porky Pig's insurance won't buy it for him either.
Why the hell should someone expect that medical insurance would cover something like this? I have no doubt that people who stutter face prejudice but this isn't really something that insurance should be required to pay for. Insurance doesn't pay for my eyeglasses and I need that a hell of a lot more than someone needs an anti-stuttering device.
I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone and I want to stress that I do feel sympathy for those afflicted with this condition. However, I do not approve of this mindset where people assume that insurance ought to pay for any tiny little medical-related thing they want. The cost of insurance is already pretty outrageous. And things are so bad that people who have serious illnesses can't afford coverage. The last thing we need is for insurance to start shelling out 1000s of dollars for stuff like this. Next thing you know, people will want cosmetic surgery like breast implants or LASIK to be covered because they feel these proceedures will contribute to their "well being".
GMD
Then I think you need to watch it alone.
I agree. You can't go to a movie with a pretty girl and still call yourself a geek. You have three choices: (a) go with a bunch of geek friends, (b) go alone and make sure to still close enough to the popular kids that they can throw popcorn and candy at you, or (c) go see it with your mommy, again making sure that all the cool kids with dates notice that you're there with your parents.
GMD
David Blunkett will attempt to introduce "entitlement cards" after the next general election in the UK. This is despite an overwhelming response against the idea through stand.org.uk.
And not too long ago the UK went to war with Iraq despite the overwhelming response against the idea. I guess the US isn't the only "democracy" (or representative republic) that ignores the will of the people. I don't know whether to feel sorry for the British or feel relieved that we in the US will have company "at the bottom".
GMD
People have been pooh-pooing this revolution in communication and sensors in the press, but I think there is an assumption of rapid technology adpotion in the private sector that just doesn't happen in the military, but as militaries go the United States is adopting at a revolutionary rate.
Maybe I'm not reading the same press that you are but I haven't seen anything that would be described as pooh-pooing. However, what I did see was a lot of retired generals claiming that relying on the new technology was awfully gutsy. I think a lot of people were mortified that Rumsfeld insisted on using the Iraqi war as a testbed for the lighter, more maneuverable force paradigm rather than letting the military planners have the heavy equipment they wanted. There's no doubt that communication technology is playing a larger role in military operations and will continue to do so for the foreseable future. I think people just wanted these concepts tested a bit more before using them in battle.
GMD
They also need an MP3 player to torture those poor captured representatives of the former Iraqi regime with heavy metal and children's songs.
You mean like this?
GMD
They even use puffs of compressed air to separate sticky pages!
I'm glad they didn't go with the design where it licked its thumb before turning each page. I hate that!
Actually, I was thinking this would be a godsend for those who spend their free time scanning in pictures from porno mags!
GMD
There was a guy at a nursing home I worked at that would throw poop at the staff.
What's less humorous is the fact that far too many nursing homes treat their residents like animals.
GMD
I'm glad someone pointed this out. You may remember the study published last September from a Caltech researcher that concluded that the match between humans and chimps was LOWER than previously thought -- not higher. All depends on which genes you want to consider in the counting.
GMD
I have declared war on the pests in my house.
No, no, you've got it all wrong. Don't say you're declaring war. Say that you're "liberating" them from their miserable existance scurring around in the walls and such. Then you're morally justified in bombing the holy beejesus out of them and they'll be eternally grateful just like the Iraqis.
Oh wait...
GMD
Anyone ever see Donnie Darko??? That's about all you need to say about Jake Gyllenhaal.
I, for one, would have loved to see Gyllenhaal be Spiderman and beat the crap out of that demonic bunny rabbit that tormented him all during Donnie Darko. Hey, that sadistic rabbit would make a more evil-looking villian that the Green Goblin did!
GMD
Like many of you I'm recently laid off.
Where the hell do you come off opening with a line like that? What makes you think that "many" of us are unemployeed. I work my fucking ass off. I'm sorry to hear about your problems but don't assume that there are scores of slashdot readers in your same situation.
You want some suggestions on what do to? How about volunteering some of your over-abundant free time to a needy charity?
GMD
What a content-free review. We're told time and time again that we will find this book facinating but never how this book provides something that books written by other Trek actors or other genXers doesn't. Are we supposed to find this 'better' than other books because of Wil's supposedly candor in his writing style? It's not clear to me.
It sounds like this book is only directed towards Wheaton fans. This review doesn't suggest that this book will view already familiar subject matter from a fresh perspective. Maybe it does. Hell, I certainly don't know. But this review is terrible. The review also states that the book is comprised of four vingettes. Well, are these things actually related? Or is it just a collection of stuff? Again, the review doesn't say.
Seriously, my time is pretty valuable. I only read stuff that I think will provide me with something fresh and new. This review does not tell me whether this book does such a thing.
GMD
Marge: "See all that stuff in there, Homer? That's why your robot never worked!"
GMD