Thanks for bringing the cocnept of Technological Singularity up. I'm a Vinge fan (just his SF stuff), and I've already drawn that parallel with China. It's striking.
Btw, I've been living in Shanghai for 5 months, and already the dychotomy between China's remaining tradition and the pace of change is awesome to behold. There's nothing like walking in the Old City and bargaining for live chicken while Bladerunner-like towers loom in the background.
The best example of the approach of the technological singularity is the Chinese space program... They are catching up very quickly, for reasons of their own, and they avowed goal is to bypass other nations in the race for Mars. (Well, I hope they make it, but it is awfully ambitious. Then again, everything about China today is ambitious.)
...that if you want to play multiplayer games that much, partition your disk and install Windows.
It's what most non-hypocritical Linux enthusiasts do... They realize Windows is still strongest in terms of available games. They use Linux where it's *better*, instead of settling for less in the name of misguided zeal.
And now China has a space program. Manned capsules in orbit. Clear proof that if they want to have ICBMs, they'll have them.
Eeeeeeeeer... I hate to break this to you now, but China HAS ICBMs, and they're all nicely aligned on the US.
Second, China is NOT tight on money, and not tight on food. They are growing at a monstrous rate, and thanks to espionnage, they have all the US technology they need up to at least 1996, as revealed by the CIA in 1999.
You have a weird vision of China, dude. You should, like, read up before trying to express an opinion about the world.
I wonder if it's possible to buy "dumb" controllers to hook up to it in order to play multiplayer games?
Yeah, it's already announced. I'm buying one as soon as it comes out, too. The second controller is a 'dummy' (i.e. no console inside) that hooks to the main controller via a 'controller hub'.
Up to 3 additionnal controllers can be hooked this way.
I live in China, where there is no movie industry to speak of. Why? Because everybody buys cheap DVDs off the streets for a dollar. These DVDs are not produced through hi-tech scam rings and screeners... They're made by people with camcorders getting inside the theater and shooting the thing in plain view.
And you know what? You get used to it. Sure, I still shell out $10 to go see Return of the King or Matrix Revolution (wish I hadn't on that one), but for 95% of the crap Hollywood puts out, the low quality camcorder DVD I buy on the streets is quite enough.
I even watched Kill Bill on such a DVD. The sound was atrocious and I had a 'Property of Miramax' across the top of the screen for the whole movie. But I enjoyed it nonetheless, and would have considered it a waste to watch it on the big screen.
Thank you moderators for showing how little you know of the world outside your basement bedroom. If you really think a North Korean could get on the Internet and write the above post, I have a bridge for sale.
Note to moderators: could you PLEASE stop moderating the following comments to +5:
- Any joke based on the fact that geeks have no life and/or sex - "You must be new to Slashdot." - "Make profit!" - "In communist Russia" - Any joke based on the fact the article was slashdotted
Really, we can make up these same jokes in our heads. They're not funny, and they're NOT +5 Funny.
Parody only works when the audience knows exactly what you're talking about with just the subtlest hints. The spoof didn't need to spell out what Linux is.
You'll notice Linux is invariably tied to IBM. I don't think the public or even MS sees Linux as a threat in itself... It's IBM that's the largest logo on the 'blue pill', and you don't need to spell out who THAT is.
Linux in itself probably doesn't prevent Gates from sleeping at night.
Why don't you just say, 'Hah hah, good one, Bill.' It was funny as hell seeing Gates and Ballmer play Morpheus and Neo. I even daresay it was cool, and the jab at Linux is certainly not worse than all the friggin' "MS Matrix" parodies out there.
Gates has just been funny poking fun at Linux, admit it, dammit.
What you guys are showing is an inability to laugh at yourself.
Many people, myself included, download movies. Very few people owning what is called 'a life' would rather download a crappy DivX rip of a movie off Usenet than rent it at Blockbuster's.
The music itself is free, but quality recordings on MP3s are still being sold only as CDs, and are NOT available online for free. Thus, if I want to find quality classical music, I need to find a good recording, and that implies either piracy or buying a CD.
Whereas if I want H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, I am one click away from a quality MS Reader version of it.
Just browse through Amazon, you'll see they have a lot of ebooks already available. They're a tad more expensive than Fictionwise or EBooks.com, and I wish you had access to the book indefinitely instead of only 30 days, but they're still doing a lot of good to the ebook world.
As a matter of fact, when I considered buying a PDA because it was just too damn expensive for me to order real books to Shanghai, the availability of ebooks on Amazon convinced me it was the right thing to do.
I warmly welcome any initiative that makes more and more books, or parts thereof, available online.
I used to think, like many people, that ebooks just didn't work because 'I like the feel of paper under my fingers'. Since I bought a PDA and discovered the joys of Fictionwise, I just can't go back to these clumsy wood pulp apparels.
Amazon is pretty progressive in this regard, making a great number of their collection available electronically. It was probably fairly easy from there to make their stock searchable. And how I wish the MPAA and RIAA could work like the publishing industry...
The existence of ebooks is NOT threatening traditional books, because people see more value in a printed book over an electronic copy. This is clearly not the case with a CD and a DVD, since most people couldn't care less about the jacket if they have the goods on the CD/DVD. I wish the MPAA and RIAA would understand how to make traditional CDs and DVDs "value-added", and make people less inclined to getting a computer file instead of shelling out the money.
Then again, I guess the case with ebooks is that your typical DVD or CD pirate is just not interested in swapping files to get the latest Stephen King and read it on screen. Not only that, but most of History's greatest books are available for free, and one could probably read free books for the rest of their lives if they chose so.
You 'almost', but not quite, hear the book pirates, most probably because they don't formally exist. ebooks are widely available in unencrypted format, and the latest releases, while in secure formats such as Secure MS Reader or Adobe, are probably much easier to crack than creating a bot to collect a book online page by page.
ebooks are a pretty healthy alternative to normal books, but I don't see the publishers worrying too much about piracy. Perhaps it's because the average script kiddie who will spend 2 days downloading Matrix Reloaded from Usenet is just not the type to try and crack open a book, much less crack an ebook.
No, really, it is. Of course, it is much more to most of the tech-savvy crowds around, but to the general public, Linux is a fashion that went out of vogue around the Internet bust.
Remember all the companies going public on the sole strength of building some flavor-of-the-month distro by aggregating free stuff? Remember how ludicrous it was to see business models based on the GNU license?
Maybe Linux will become more in vogue again, but as far as the general public goes, Linux went the way of the WWF and roller skates : an off-the-wall idea that was intriguing at the time, but seems to be more hype than anything else thinking back.
Well; I realize the military and invention have been tied forever, but it kinda ruined my statement when I considered buttons or the flushing toilet...
I found CNET News.com to be rather biased towards Microsoft early on by running stories favorable towards the company. (often ignoring news critical of Microsoft)
Wow... That makes them the anti-Slashdot! If packets from Slashdot and CNet ever collide, the Internet will blow up in a huge blast of photons!
I was going to reply by quoting Oval, but yeah, Brinkmann does nicely.:)
For any techno artist, a new way of deforming 'known' sounds is always cool. It's a new sound filter. Now, just taking a known song and pouring beer on it, yeah, that sucks. But using this to produce something you never heard, and THEN integrating this in an artistic process... That makes total sense.
The guy who forgot beer on his CD is not an artist, but he created an interesting tool.
It's the same thing with Bullet Time, actually : in itself, it was just an annoying Gap ad. In the context of a creative process, it becomes a very useful tool.
Slashdot Mirror
Well; if mouse sample rate was the only consideration when choosing a platform, and not, say, availability of games, you might have a point.
Thanks for bringing the cocnept of Technological Singularity up. I'm a Vinge fan (just his SF stuff), and I've already drawn that parallel with China. It's striking.
Btw, I've been living in Shanghai for 5 months, and already the dychotomy between China's remaining tradition and the pace of change is awesome to behold. There's nothing like walking in the Old City and bargaining for live chicken while Bladerunner-like towers loom in the background.
The best example of the approach of the technological singularity is the Chinese space program... They are catching up very quickly, for reasons of their own, and they avowed goal is to bypass other nations in the race for Mars. (Well, I hope they make it, but it is awfully ambitious. Then again, everything about China today is ambitious.)
...that if you want to play multiplayer games that much, partition your disk and install Windows.
It's what most non-hypocritical Linux enthusiasts do... They realize Windows is still strongest in terms of available games. They use Linux where it's *better*, instead of settling for less in the name of misguided zeal.
And now China has a space program. Manned capsules in orbit. Clear proof that if they want to have ICBMs, they'll have them.
Eeeeeeeeer... I hate to break this to you now, but China HAS ICBMs, and they're all nicely aligned on the US.
Second, China is NOT tight on money, and not tight on food. They are growing at a monstrous rate, and thanks to espionnage, they have all the US technology they need up to at least 1996, as revealed by the CIA in 1999.
You have a weird vision of China, dude. You should, like, read up before trying to express an opinion about the world.
I wonder if it's possible to buy "dumb" controllers to hook up to it in order to play multiplayer games?
Yeah, it's already announced. I'm buying one as soon as it comes out, too. The second controller is a 'dummy' (i.e. no console inside) that hooks to the main controller via a 'controller hub'.
Up to 3 additionnal controllers can be hooked this way.
I live in China, where there is no movie industry to speak of. Why? Because everybody buys cheap DVDs off the streets for a dollar. These DVDs are not produced through hi-tech scam rings and screeners... They're made by people with camcorders getting inside the theater and shooting the thing in plain view.
And you know what? You get used to it. Sure, I still shell out $10 to go see Return of the King or Matrix Revolution (wish I hadn't on that one), but for 95% of the crap Hollywood puts out, the low quality camcorder DVD I buy on the streets is quite enough.
I even watched Kill Bill on such a DVD. The sound was atrocious and I had a 'Property of Miramax' across the top of the screen for the whole movie. But I enjoyed it nonetheless, and would have considered it a waste to watch it on the big screen.
Thank you moderators for showing how little you know of the world outside your basement bedroom. If you really think a North Korean could get on the Internet and write the above post, I have a bridge for sale.
Note to moderators: could you PLEASE stop moderating the following comments to +5:
- Any joke based on the fact that geeks have no life and/or sex
- "You must be new to Slashdot."
- "Make profit!"
- "In communist Russia"
- Any joke based on the fact the article was slashdotted
Really, we can make up these same jokes in our heads. They're not funny, and they're NOT +5 Funny.
There would be an enemy mole in the Fellowship, motivated by jealousy over somebody or another.
Oh yeah! His name could be Boromir and he would want to seize the Ring for himself to save his kingdom!
And he could die a honorable death and show everyone how sorry he is he betrayed them!
Heh heh, silly Hollywood!
I certainly don't see anybody holding back their criticism for lack of seeing it...
Parody only works when the audience knows exactly what you're talking about with just the subtlest hints. The spoof didn't need to spell out what Linux is.
You'll notice Linux is invariably tied to IBM. I don't think the public or even MS sees Linux as a threat in itself... It's IBM that's the largest logo on the 'blue pill', and you don't need to spell out who THAT is.
Linux in itself probably doesn't prevent Gates from sleeping at night.
Why don't you just say, 'Hah hah, good one, Bill.' It was funny as hell seeing Gates and Ballmer play Morpheus and Neo. I even daresay it was cool, and the jab at Linux is certainly not worse than all the friggin' "MS Matrix" parodies out there.
Gates has just been funny poking fun at Linux, admit it, dammit.
What you guys are showing is an inability to laugh at yourself.
He just trolled you all!
Many people, myself included, download movies. Very few people owning what is called 'a life' would rather download a crappy DivX rip of a movie off Usenet than rent it at Blockbuster's.
The music itself is free, but quality recordings on MP3s are still being sold only as CDs, and are NOT available online for free. Thus, if I want to find quality classical music, I need to find a good recording, and that implies either piracy or buying a CD.
Whereas if I want H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, I am one click away from a quality MS Reader version of it.
Just browse through Amazon, you'll see they have a lot of ebooks already available. They're a tad more expensive than Fictionwise or EBooks.com, and I wish you had access to the book indefinitely instead of only 30 days, but they're still doing a lot of good to the ebook world.
As a matter of fact, when I considered buying a PDA because it was just too damn expensive for me to order real books to Shanghai, the availability of ebooks on Amazon convinced me it was the right thing to do.
I warmly welcome any initiative that makes more and more books, or parts thereof, available online.
I used to think, like many people, that ebooks just didn't work because 'I like the feel of paper under my fingers'. Since I bought a PDA and discovered the joys of Fictionwise, I just can't go back to these clumsy wood pulp apparels.
Amazon is pretty progressive in this regard, making a great number of their collection available electronically. It was probably fairly easy from there to make their stock searchable. And how I wish the MPAA and RIAA could work like the publishing industry...
The existence of ebooks is NOT threatening traditional books, because people see more value in a printed book over an electronic copy. This is clearly not the case with a CD and a DVD, since most people couldn't care less about the jacket if they have the goods on the CD/DVD. I wish the MPAA and RIAA would understand how to make traditional CDs and DVDs "value-added", and make people less inclined to getting a computer file instead of shelling out the money.
Then again, I guess the case with ebooks is that your typical DVD or CD pirate is just not interested in swapping files to get the latest Stephen King and read it on screen. Not only that, but most of History's greatest books are available for free, and one could probably read free books for the rest of their lives if they chose so.
You 'almost', but not quite, hear the book pirates, most probably because they don't formally exist. ebooks are widely available in unencrypted format, and the latest releases, while in secure formats such as Secure MS Reader or Adobe, are probably much easier to crack than creating a bot to collect a book online page by page.
ebooks are a pretty healthy alternative to normal books, but I don't see the publishers worrying too much about piracy. Perhaps it's because the average script kiddie who will spend 2 days downloading Matrix Reloaded from Usenet is just not the type to try and crack open a book, much less crack an ebook.
I would even go so far as to say that standing up to the United States, the most powerful country in the world, is quite an un-weaselish thing to do.
No, really, it is. Of course, it is much more to most of the tech-savvy crowds around, but to the general public, Linux is a fashion that went out of vogue around the Internet bust.
Remember all the companies going public on the sole strength of building some flavor-of-the-month distro by aggregating free stuff? Remember how ludicrous it was to see business models based on the GNU license?
Maybe Linux will become more in vogue again, but as far as the general public goes, Linux went the way of the WWF and roller skates : an off-the-wall idea that was intriguing at the time, but seems to be more hype than anything else thinking back.
Well; I realize the military and invention have been tied forever, but it kinda ruined my statement when I considered buttons or the flushing toilet...
Why is it that nowadays, any new cool thing is invented either for military or advertising use?
The day advertising and the military merge, we'll be in a world of hurt. They'll end up creating a pop-up that kills, I tell ya.
It's simple, really: they got bought out by VA Lin... What? You said CNet? Oops. Heh heh.
I found CNET News.com to be rather biased towards Microsoft early on by running stories favorable towards the company. (often ignoring news critical of Microsoft)
Wow... That makes them the anti-Slashdot! If packets from Slashdot and CNet ever collide, the Internet will blow up in a huge blast of photons!
I was going to reply by quoting Oval, but yeah, Brinkmann does nicely. :)
For any techno artist, a new way of deforming 'known' sounds is always cool. It's a new sound filter. Now, just taking a known song and pouring beer on it, yeah, that sucks. But using this to produce something you never heard, and THEN integrating this in an artistic process... That makes total sense.
The guy who forgot beer on his CD is not an artist, but he created an interesting tool.
It's the same thing with Bullet Time, actually : in itself, it was just an annoying Gap ad. In the context of a creative process, it becomes a very useful tool.