I love interviewers who are intelligent about things and not just reading questions somebody else wrote down for them. This person has pretty much been the first exposure to anything to do with Linuxcare (except those badass recovery CD-business cards they gave out at Linuxworld) and I have much respect for them now. On a related note, Charlie Rose is another person who gives really good interviews and if you can catch his show on PBS I'd really recommend it.
I'm really surprised that the rabid Lego fans who read Slashdot haven't gone nuts over everybody saying 'Legos' instead of 'Lego bricks'. It seems every time there is a Lego story, at least a hundred people get all freaked out over saying 'Legos' or 'Lego bricks' or some such thing. It's almost as bad as the Java people in this story complaining about the 'best use of Java' comment in the story post. Lighten up.
Nobody said all geeks have autism or any other mental disorder. The article is pointing out a reason that many geeks/nerds seem to act in the same manner. Some people just like computers/technology/ham radio/etc. I am certainly a geek and while I do lack a few of the more relevant social graces, I also do not act in the same fashion as some of these people. Also, being "computer literate" does not make you a geek, it just makes you someone who can use a computer. I can use a car, but that does not make me a "car guy" by any means.
And you should try laughing a little, it's great.:)
Hard covers are not meant for anything but theory/text books. I hate having to pay extra for a useless hardcover on a book that should be paperback. I have plenty of 700+ page books that are softcover and survive perfectly well. O'Reilly's cover binding has always served me well (my severely abused Programming Perl, TCP/IP, and Essential System Admin books are excellent testemony of that).
Swiping the card is cool because it requires that you have the card, not just the number. I think it would only be worth it online if shops would say "We're only going to accept SmartCard transactions" so they could make sure you are who you say you are, or at least you have the credit card of the person you say you are. That would require mass acceptance of those cards though, which won't happen for awhile. Maybe if all the credit companies get on the SmartCard bandwagon as a way to increase security. Good possibilities here I think.
I doubt the voice recognition and analyzation software to do what they are talking about even exists, or will for awhile. 'Give a holler when it's lunch time'??? A small nitpick I know but pretty important. I wouldn't want to be fixing a leak or something when I tell the droid thingie to get me a wrench and it fetches a glass of Tang. It's definately a cool idea though.
I realize it's the same and it's only a matter of time to learn it but I learn better with a book to go through to look up concepts. When I just have to push buttons and see what happens, or look everything up in the Help everytime I need to use it, I quickly reach deadlines I have to meet and reboot to use Photoshop. This weekend though, I promise I'll try out the Gimp manuals and books people have recommended. Thanks to everybody for their pointers.
His name is Rodney (Rod) Brooks. Anybody interested in robotics should definately check out Mr. Brooks, he has some cool ideas for crowd behavior and teaching robots to think, not just process data.
I personally use Photoshop more only because it's better documented and it's what I know. I just haven't had the time to sit down and relearn all the stuff I know how to do in Photoshop. I think that's a major stumbling block that the Gimp people need to get over, how to convert old Photoshop guys like me. I'd love to be able to use Gimp for everything but it seems like a lot to learn over again. If I'm wrong and there are good tutorials and books out there, please let me know.
As someone who is a geek and very interested in computer history, I can tell you from first hand experience that most computer science people, even those of us who have the love for the discipline, don't know anything about the beginnings of the industry. The computer industry and culture is one of the most interesting and varied that there has ever been and it's a shame that nobody knows about it. I think a class on the History of Computing should be mandatory for all CS students and recomended for everybody else. I had the opprotunity to "teach" an Academic Decathlon team from my old high school about computer industry jargon and the thing most of them wanted when I was finished was more stories about the industry. Most non-geeks/nerds think computer history would be boring but that's before they hear about it. If you're interested, I'd recommend the following books and movies, please reply to this message with more if you have some ideas.
Triumph of the Nerds video Accidental Empires book that TotN was based on by Robert X. Cringley Hackers by Steven Levy Nerds 2.0 video and book
When the two people who created the Palm left 3com to form Handspring, part of the deal was that they got to use the PalmOS in their new project. They had originally said they were going to make PDAs for kids and teenagers, cheap and easy to use. I guess that plan went out the window with the prices on these Visors. At least that's what I heard, take it for whatever it's worth.
There are many different types of creativity. What I'm assuming you're talking about is the artsy/desktop publishing type creativity (if I'm wrong about you, please let me know) that is popular among Mac people and is really the reason Apple exists as a company today. Linux may stifle that creativity because you have to learn commands and things that take away from the "art experience" but there is another type of creativity where not being able to get into the guts of the OS and play around is stifling. Programming under Windows (never done any Mac programming but I think it would be the same) is stifling to my coding creativity because of all the overhead involved. Macs with the MacOS will probably never appeal to people like me (and the majority of Slashdotters I suspect) because they want to keep the "fun" label and not get a "techie" label like Linux, which is unfortunate because I think one OS can easily be both (and I must confess I hope that OS is Linux!)
For the love of God, please stop saying fsck. If you don't want to use the real word, find another that will fit. I know it's a lame thing to harp on but jesus, I hate that.
I was hoping the adfu code would be released too. Maybe with the Andover deal the guys don't need the money they were getting from adfu (however much it was, probably not much) so they're not going to have it around anymore.
I'd just like to say Thanks to Andover for making this new setup possible. And of course, thanks to Rob and Co. for making Slashdot the kickass site it is.
I was under the impression that this had already been announced awhile ago. Maybe I heard it as a rumor and it fit with IBM's rush into Linux in recent times so I believed it.
What is the name of the company that you use? A company called Jato Communications is bringing DSL to Albuquerque and I'd like to see how their prices compare. Also, your URL in your info is "404 Not Found."
Saying teachers get 3 months to goof off is total bullshit. Both my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and now my cousin are all teachers and I can tell you from experience that pretty much all summer is to a teacher is 3 months of work without pay. Any teacher worth the paper his/her certificate was printed on works almost all summer on lesson plans, getting books, buying supplies (often with their own money), fixing up the classroom, and generally getting things going so when children of unthinking, ungrateful people like you get to school, they can start the teaching immediately and not have to wait a month for the teacher to do all the foundation work "on the clock."
I liked this story but mostly I was interested in the views of the journalists interviewed. My favorite was the derision of the stories because there is no editor to look things over and approve them. This shows a clear lack of understanding of the process of sites like Slashdot. A perfect example was the story on the 25th about the supposed "new" way the guy found to make the ipv4 address structure last longer. I don't really have the know-how to know if this was alright or not (beyond the horrible grammar) but within 30 minutes of reading the comments here, I knew it was crap because I had a hundred people way more knowledgeable than I am reading the story and picking it apart. There's no way to do something like that in a traditional news source. They expect us to trust our info to some editor we are completely unfamiliar with, no thanks. What made me laugh the most was the fact that the reporter talked about how Slashdot was unreliable, then she says she checks the site 5 times a day looking for news. I guess as soon as she reports it the news will be reliable?
I'm the webmaster/sysadmin for an ISP that has a few customers that all but demand ASP support and there is no way I want to setup and admin an NT box just for these people. I'm am awaiting anxiously the day I can run ASP pages on my lovely Apache box without paying through the nose for those ASP on Linux products.
I'm sure MS hasn't learned anything about customer service from their other numerous fiascos so they'll undoubtedly release Win2000 on December 31, 2000 so the name is right and then patch the hell out of it (I'm sorry, Service Pack the hell out of it) until Win2005 or whatever comes out. I just hope the bosses of the world will really get it into their heads that they don't have to always upgrade to the newest gift from the House of Gates.
Skipping all TV is for morons
on
Quack!
·
· Score: 1
Saying all TV is the same and harmful is ridiculous. While I completely agree that most TV is brain wasting garbage, there are lots of great programs on. I'm not just talking about well written fiction but channels like PBS, A&E, TLC, Discovery, etc, etc. I'll read a book over watch a show any day of the week but if I didn't even have a TV to take advantage of, I'd have missed out on a great deal of intellectual stimulation. Many people are visual learners and seeing a show like NOVA tackle a physics problem could be the key for a child who is having trouble with that subject. I'm just saying don't knock all television.
Slashdot Mirror
I love interviewers who are intelligent about things and not just reading questions somebody else wrote down for them. This person has pretty much been the first exposure to anything to do with Linuxcare (except those badass recovery CD-business cards they gave out at Linuxworld) and I have much respect for them now. On a related note, Charlie Rose is another person who gives really good interviews and if you can catch his show on PBS I'd really recommend it.
I'm really surprised that the rabid Lego fans who read Slashdot haven't gone nuts over everybody saying 'Legos' instead of 'Lego bricks'. It seems every time there is a Lego story, at least a hundred people get all freaked out over saying 'Legos' or 'Lego bricks' or some such thing. It's almost as bad as the Java people in this story complaining about the 'best use of Java' comment in the story post. Lighten up.
:)
And in case of oncoming flame, this was a joke.
Nobody said all geeks have autism or any other mental disorder. The article is pointing out a reason that many geeks/nerds seem to act in the same manner. Some people just like computers/technology/ham radio/etc. I am certainly a geek and while I do lack a few of the more relevant social graces, I also do not act in the same fashion as some of these people. Also, being "computer literate" does not make you a geek, it just makes you someone who can use a computer. I can use a car, but that does not make me a "car guy" by any means.
:)
And you should try laughing a little, it's great.
Hard covers are not meant for anything but theory/text books. I hate having to pay extra for a useless hardcover on a book that should be paperback. I have plenty of 700+ page books that are softcover and survive perfectly well. O'Reilly's cover binding has always served me well (my severely abused Programming Perl, TCP/IP, and Essential System Admin books are excellent testemony of that).
Swiping the card is cool because it requires that you have the card, not just the number. I think it would only be worth it online if shops would say "We're only going to accept SmartCard transactions" so they could make sure you are who you say you are, or at least you have the credit card of the person you say you are. That would require mass acceptance of those cards though, which won't happen for awhile. Maybe if all the credit companies get on the SmartCard bandwagon as a way to increase security. Good possibilities here I think.
I doubt the voice recognition and analyzation software to do what they are talking about even exists, or will for awhile. 'Give a holler when it's lunch time'??? A small nitpick I know but pretty important. I wouldn't want to be fixing a leak or something when I tell the droid thingie to get me a wrench and it fetches a glass of Tang. It's definately a cool idea though.
I realize it's the same and it's only a matter of time to learn it but I learn better with a book to go through to look up concepts. When I just have to push buttons and see what happens, or look everything up in the Help everytime I need to use it, I quickly reach deadlines I have to meet and reboot to use Photoshop. This weekend though, I promise I'll try out the Gimp manuals and books people have recommended. Thanks to everybody for their pointers.
Seems I missed that one. Thanks a lot.
His name is Rodney (Rod) Brooks. Anybody interested in robotics should definately check out Mr. Brooks, he has some cool ideas for crowd behavior and teaching robots to think, not just process data.
I personally use Photoshop more only because it's better documented and it's what I know. I just haven't had the time to sit down and relearn all the stuff I know how to do in Photoshop. I think that's a major stumbling block that the Gimp people need to get over, how to convert old Photoshop guys like me. I'd love to be able to use Gimp for everything but it seems like a lot to learn over again. If I'm wrong and there are good tutorials and books out there, please let me know.
As someone who is a geek and very interested in computer history, I can tell you from first hand experience that most computer science people, even those of us who have the love for the discipline, don't know anything about the beginnings of the industry. The computer industry and culture is one of the most interesting and varied that there has ever been and it's a shame that nobody knows about it. I think a class on the History of Computing should be mandatory for all CS students and recomended for everybody else.
I had the opprotunity to "teach" an Academic Decathlon team from my old high school about computer industry jargon and the thing most of them wanted when I was finished was more stories about the industry. Most non-geeks/nerds think computer history would be boring but that's before they hear about it. If you're interested, I'd recommend the following books and movies, please reply to this message with more if you have some ideas.
Triumph of the Nerds video
Accidental Empires book that TotN was based on by Robert X. Cringley
Hackers by Steven Levy
Nerds 2.0 video and book
When the two people who created the Palm left 3com to form Handspring, part of the deal was that they got to use the PalmOS in their new project. They had originally said they were going to make PDAs for kids and teenagers, cheap and easy to use. I guess that plan went out the window with the prices on these Visors. At least that's what I heard, take it for whatever it's worth.
There are many different types of creativity. What I'm assuming you're talking about is the artsy/desktop publishing type creativity (if I'm wrong about you, please let me know) that is popular among Mac people and is really the reason Apple exists as a company today. Linux may stifle that creativity because you have to learn commands and things that take away from the "art experience" but there is another type of creativity where not being able to get into the guts of the OS and play around is stifling. Programming under Windows (never done any Mac programming but I think it would be the same) is stifling to my coding creativity because of all the overhead involved. Macs with the MacOS will probably never appeal to people like me (and the majority of Slashdotters I suspect) because they want to keep the "fun" label and not get a "techie" label like Linux, which is unfortunate because I think one OS can easily be both (and I must confess I hope that OS is Linux!)
It's listed on your "member page" or whatever the page is called when you click on your name in the header.
For the love of God, please stop saying fsck. If you don't want to use the real word, find another that will fit. I know it's a lame thing to harp on but jesus, I hate that.
I was hoping the adfu code would be released too. Maybe with the Andover deal the guys don't need the money they were getting from adfu (however much it was, probably not much) so they're not going to have it around anymore.
I'd just like to say Thanks to Andover for making this new setup possible. And of course, thanks to Rob and Co. for making Slashdot the kickass site it is.
I was under the impression that this had already been announced awhile ago. Maybe I heard it as a rumor and it fit with IBM's rush into Linux in recent times so I believed it.
What is the name of the company that you use? A company called Jato Communications is bringing DSL to Albuquerque and I'd like to see how their prices compare.
Also, your URL in your info is "404 Not Found."
Saying teachers get 3 months to goof off is total bullshit. Both my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and now my cousin are all teachers and I can tell you from experience that pretty much all summer is to a teacher is 3 months of work without pay. Any teacher worth the paper his/her certificate was printed on works almost all summer on lesson plans, getting books, buying supplies (often with their own money), fixing up the classroom, and generally getting things going so when children of unthinking, ungrateful people like you get to school, they can start the teaching immediately and not have to wait a month for the teacher to do all the foundation work "on the clock."
I liked this story but mostly I was interested in the views of the journalists interviewed. My favorite was the derision of the stories because there is no editor to look things over and approve them. This shows a clear lack of understanding of the process of sites like Slashdot. A perfect example was the story on the 25th about the supposed "new" way the guy found to make the ipv4 address structure last longer. I don't really have the know-how to know if this was alright or not (beyond the horrible grammar) but within 30 minutes of reading the comments here, I knew it was crap because I had a hundred people way more knowledgeable than I am reading the story and picking it apart. There's no way to do something like that in a traditional news source. They expect us to trust our info to some editor we are completely unfamiliar with, no thanks. What made me laugh the most was the fact that the reporter talked about how Slashdot was unreliable, then she says she checks the site 5 times a day looking for news. I guess as soon as she reports it the news will be reliable?
I'm the webmaster/sysadmin for an ISP that has a few customers that all but demand ASP support and there is no way I want to setup and admin an NT box just for these people. I'm am awaiting anxiously the day I can run ASP pages on my lovely Apache box without paying through the nose for those ASP on Linux products.
So you don't care what they say but they're full of crap? No matter what they say they are wrong? Nice logic.
I'm sure MS hasn't learned anything about customer service from their other numerous fiascos so they'll undoubtedly release Win2000 on December 31, 2000 so the name is right and then patch the hell out of it (I'm sorry, Service Pack the hell out of it) until Win2005 or whatever comes out. I just hope the bosses of the world will really get it into their heads that they don't have to always upgrade to the newest gift from the House of Gates.
Saying all TV is the same and harmful is ridiculous. While I completely agree that most TV is brain wasting garbage, there are lots of great programs on. I'm not just talking about well written fiction but channels like PBS, A&E, TLC, Discovery, etc, etc. I'll read a book over watch a show any day of the week but if I didn't even have a TV to take advantage of, I'd have missed out on a great deal of intellectual stimulation. Many people are visual learners and seeing a show like NOVA tackle a physics problem could be the key for a child who is having trouble with that subject. I'm just saying don't knock all television.