Maybe you should read through what they've been doing?
It wasn't/isn't an innuendo, it's an accusation and a statement of fact.
My name and website url is on the parent post and you have chosen to post anonymously too, I think that says it all.
We've had one of the proponents of yootles (I'm not going to embarrass him by name) on the International Journal of Community Currencies (ijccr) mailing list (on Yahoo).
All I see was/is an attempt to create a currency to monetize favours, which (IMHO) ought to be freely given in an elightened society anyway. This is probably an attempt to talk up something that is not to do with the 'wisdom of crowds' anyway.
For anyone interested in community currencies and with a little patience, I'd suggest the above list and http://www.le.ac.uk/ulmc/ijccr/ the journal itself.
I agree so much with this, and, I'm an ex-employee (resigned not fired, BTW!).
Citigroup have been involved with Enron, Parmalat and many other pieces of very substantial sleaze. They have a much ethical track record than Microsoft, roughly speaking. Have a look at:
http://www.innercitypress.org/citi.html and make your own mind up.
I'm 55 and spend some time teaching people from 50 and upwards to use computers. I agree wholeheartedly with this comment. The problem with law and politics is that it often depends on clever/slick arguments (sophistry, although that isn't the original meaning of sophistry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophism )whereas science and technology are (somewhat) 'truth' based.
It's hard for us (technologists/scientists) to tell someone something works when it doesn't but a politician can make some kind of capital or evasion out of its malfunction (Our NHS computer system is a great example http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3613220.stm).
I feel that we need more technical people within mainstream politics. The trouble is that most of them are repelled by it.
Yes, agree about this...we will normally lose any confrontations with 'government', so an interesting (and non-violent) approach is just to create more responsive/useful structures of our own until it becomes irrelevant (though I have no doubt that its final death throes will leave some mess, its continued existence satifies many, many vested interests).
In this spirit, I've decided to downsize and work less (admittedly I'm getting old as well!) so I pay less taxes. I explain to my friends that I've got Blair surrounded and now I'm starving him out.
Also, in the middle ages, one 'worked' about 90 days a year, now two people have to work 220 days + overtime etc. What is wrong with this picture?
Since the original post said 'understand' and 'other languages', I'd just say, I've started a project for untangling legacy Perl CGI and writing the call graphs (via dot etc.) out as svg diagrams. The code is young and messy but has started to work.
It's at http://sourceforge.net/projects/codewalker/.
Like many older people, I have a pay-as-you-go cellphone for emergencies and genuine need. I am able to make an appointment and keep it, without 7/8 intermediate cellphone conversations.
And, as the original post said, I'm not interested in being 'available' at all times or babbling every inconsequential thought as I 'think' it. I enjoy staring out of the bus window and it's cheaper too.
Some people get quite angry when I won't give them my cell number and I tell them that I don't use it.
I've also noticed that the internet is much more central to my life since broadband, I going to have to chase it back down to a reasonable level too.
I resigned from a highly paid job in a place I hated (Citigroup..) and started working for a charity. I removed one zero from my income. I'm a LOT happier now, code instead of filling in forms, no PHBs, teach, mess with small networks etc.
HOWEVER, I'm end of career, no young children, not much of a mortgage etc. so my personal circumstances (plus the fact that I'm not very 'life in the fast lane' anyway) permitted me to do this.
To me, that's an important part of it, in a different part of my life, I might have made a compromise and continued suffering for a while. So I think, creating the personal freedom to do this is an important part also.
There's no need for all this deep theoretical work and all these expensive detectors. I've got plenty of string at home in a jam jar. If they ask nicely, they can have some; it's in this dimension too (I think..).
I spent some years in an investment bank in the UK. They are pretty ope source minded. They have good technical skills and like the control and integration possibilities.
I wish with UK government, which wastes billions every year on failed projects from EDS, Accenture etc. would listen a little harder to this simple message!
During Margaret Thatcher's reign in the UK, she said 'there is no such thing as society'.
I find this to be very similar and flawed in the same way. Not everything is supply and demand, tooth and claw. There is room for altruism, generosity and openness too. I find all these in many of my contacts with 'open source' folks.
Or maybe I'm just and old hippy, past my sell-by date...
Yes agree...Host-Europe was taken over by Pipex about a year ago and the level of support, courtesy and everything has dropped.
I've been told recently by one of their 'customer care' (teehee) that I mustn't criticise them in my blog otherwise 'action will be taken against my domain'. The rest of their communications have been heavily influenced by Dilbert too.
It's notable that Pipex are in fact GMX Communications who have adopted the Pipex 'brand' but not (apparently) the Pipex ethos.
I've already dumped them for hosting and will dump them at home too.
This is really a another slant/use for mobile agents,
http://agents.umbc.edu/ has some good links in the mobile agents category.
However, some of the (intuited) graph theory looks good, they walk, rather than bouncing backwards and forward to make 'star' shapes and consume resources locally rather than continually use network bandwidth. But all the problems of authentication, permission, capability remain. Don't put one of these on your network at home, kids!
Actually to put on my tinfoil hat, for a moment, I believe that this is part of a pattern and I've complained (without result or reply) about it http://blog.bigwaveheuristics.com/index.php?p=62 on various occasions.
Thus, the 'irresponsible' post, re-editing, discussion, slashdotting is just a cynical attempt to create buzz. On this occasion, they've succeeded.
Yes, I think they are looking for new ways to fund after the current charter runs out. It's interesting that some BBC email now has a sig:
www - world wide wonderland!
As a Brit, I like what the BBC used to stand for, but currently its an alarming, expensive mixture of waste, arrogance and bias.
Also, it's sprawling into areas that need to be independent such as grass roots activism (BBC Ican). All these are arguments for a smaller, more responsive BBC, back to basics.
I wonder if this Microsoft 'initiative' is connected with the now official Microsoft bashing taking place in the UK education organisation BECTA: http://www.tes.co.uk/2094985
I agree with this approach which is non-violent and responds to a great many other problems, such as patent lobbying. The last thing that happened here was seizure of the indymedia servers in the UK based on a pretty secretive MLAT (mutual legal assistance treaty).
I don't hold a brief for this guy's actions (if proven) but the USA's extra-territorial 'legal' (synonym for money or influence peddling) actions are worse.
Agree.. In the UK I buy recycled, for example HP PIIs for about $60 US per piece and put Linux onto them. They come from offices and are cleaned back to
nothing but they have several years life left in them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_SmithHis stories are full of the underpeople, half-cat, half-turtle etc. They are mainly used as servants but often seek justice and equality.
I don't have a knee-jerk reaction against this, but it needs a GREAT deal of thinking about.
Yes, I believe the COTS versus build-it discussion misses the point in some places.
Here in the UK, we are about to spend between £2.3 and £18 billion for new IT infrastructure for our health service. One of my colleagues has already pointed out that the US went to the moon for less than this. This project is already in trouble because of issues around process and user acceptance, these are not COTS vs in-house issues.
What, on earth costs this kind of money? What on earth costs $170 million? Health service IT has already abandoned a £100 million email system leaving a £10 million tip on the table.
Keep it simple stupid, with good prototypes that model processes and provide good insight to the -real- problems and benefits are often very valuable. Also, I suspect that these spending figures can be reduced by a factor of 10.
Not in the interests of Accenture, Cap-Gemini, EDS etc. though.
Slashdot Mirror
Rise to the level of intelligence of our UK bureaucrats and politicians. Oh! wait a moment....
Maybe you should read through what they've been doing? It wasn't/isn't an innuendo, it's an accusation and a statement of fact. My name and website url is on the parent post and you have chosen to post anonymously too, I think that says it all.
We've had one of the proponents of yootles (I'm not going to embarrass him by name) on the International Journal of Community Currencies (ijccr) mailing list (on Yahoo).
All I see was/is an attempt to create a currency to monetize favours, which (IMHO) ought to be freely given in an elightened society anyway. This is probably an attempt to talk up something that is not to do with the 'wisdom of crowds' anyway.
For anyone interested in community currencies and with a little patience, I'd suggest the above list and http://www.le.ac.uk/ulmc/ijccr/ the journal itself.
I agree so much with this, and, I'm an ex-employee (resigned not fired, BTW!). Citigroup have been involved with Enron, Parmalat and many other pieces of very substantial sleaze. They have a much ethical track record than Microsoft, roughly speaking. Have a look at: http://www.innercitypress.org/citi.html and make your own mind up.
I'm 55 and spend some time teaching people from 50 and upwards to use computers. I agree wholeheartedly with this comment. The problem with law and politics is that it often depends on clever/slick arguments (sophistry, although that isn't the original meaning of sophistry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophism )whereas science and technology are (somewhat) 'truth' based.
It's hard for us (technologists/scientists) to tell someone something works when it doesn't but a politician can make some kind of capital or evasion out of its malfunction (Our NHS computer system is a great example http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3613220.stm).
I feel that we need more technical people within mainstream politics. The trouble is that most of them are repelled by it.
Yes, agree about this...we will normally lose any confrontations with 'government', so an interesting (and non-violent) approach is just to create more responsive/useful structures of our own until it becomes irrelevant (though I have no doubt that its final death throes will leave some mess, its continued existence satifies many, many vested interests).
In this spirit, I've decided to downsize and work less (admittedly I'm getting old as well!) so I pay less taxes. I explain to my friends that I've got Blair surrounded and now I'm starving him out.
Also, in the middle ages, one 'worked' about 90 days a year, now two people have to work 220 days + overtime etc. What is wrong with this picture?
Since the original post said 'understand' and 'other languages', I'd just say, I've started a project for untangling legacy Perl CGI and writing the call graphs (via dot etc.) out as svg diagrams. The code is young and messy but has started to work. It's at http://sourceforge.net/projects/codewalker/.
Prof. Gangreen in the Return of the Killer Tomatoes, which also features a young George Clooney...
Like many older people, I have a pay-as-you-go cellphone for emergencies and genuine need. I am able to make an appointment and keep it, without 7/8 intermediate cellphone conversations. And, as the original post said, I'm not interested in being 'available' at all times or babbling every inconsequential thought as I 'think' it. I enjoy staring out of the bus window and it's cheaper too. Some people get quite angry when I won't give them my cell number and I tell them that I don't use it. I've also noticed that the internet is much more central to my life since broadband, I going to have to chase it back down to a reasonable level too.
I resigned from a highly paid job in a place I hated (Citigroup..) and started working for a charity. I removed one zero from my income. I'm a LOT happier now, code instead of filling in forms, no PHBs, teach, mess with small networks etc.
HOWEVER, I'm end of career, no young children, not much of a mortgage etc. so my personal circumstances (plus the fact that I'm not very 'life in the fast lane' anyway) permitted me to do this.
To me, that's an important part of it, in a different part of my life, I might have made a compromise and continued suffering for a while. So I think, creating the personal freedom to do this is an important part also.
There's no need for all this deep theoretical work and all these expensive detectors. I've got plenty of string at home in a jam jar. If they ask nicely, they can have some; it's in this dimension too (I think..).
I spent some years in an investment bank in the UK. They are pretty ope source minded. They have good technical skills and like the control and integration possibilities.
I wish with UK government, which wastes billions every year on failed projects from EDS, Accenture etc. would listen a little harder to this simple message!
During Margaret Thatcher's reign in the UK, she said 'there is no such thing as society'. I find this to be very similar and flawed in the same way. Not everything is supply and demand, tooth and claw. There is room for altruism, generosity and openness too. I find all these in many of my contacts with 'open source' folks. Or maybe I'm just and old hippy, past my sell-by date...
Yes agree...Host-Europe was taken over by Pipex about a year ago and the level of support, courtesy and everything has dropped.
I've been told recently by one of their 'customer care' (teehee) that I mustn't criticise them in my blog otherwise 'action will be taken against my domain'. The rest of their communications have been heavily influenced by Dilbert too.
It's notable that Pipex are in fact GMX Communications who have adopted the Pipex 'brand' but not (apparently) the Pipex ethos.
I've already dumped them for hosting and will dump them at home too.
This is really a another slant/use for mobile agents, http://agents.umbc.edu/ has some good links in the mobile agents category.
However, some of the (intuited) graph theory looks good, they walk, rather than bouncing backwards and forward to make 'star' shapes and consume resources locally rather than continually use network bandwidth. But all the problems of authentication, permission, capability remain. Don't put one of these on your network at home, kids!
Sorry to be a pedant (qv) but I see this too often, editors please edit. Eats, shoots and leaves...
Actually to put on my tinfoil hat, for a moment, I believe that this is part of a pattern and I've complained (without result or reply) about it
http://blog.bigwaveheuristics.com/index.php?p=62
on various occasions.
Thus, the 'irresponsible' post, re-editing, discussion, slashdotting is just a cynical attempt to create buzz. On this occasion, they've succeeded.
Yes, I think they are looking for new ways to fund after the current charter runs out. It's interesting that some BBC email now has a sig: www - world wide wonderland! As a Brit, I like what the BBC used to stand for, but currently its an alarming, expensive mixture of waste, arrogance and bias. Also, it's sprawling into areas that need to be independent such as grass roots activism (BBC Ican). All these are arguments for a smaller, more responsive BBC, back to basics.
The BBC has a very left leaning liberal agenda and Newswatch is a vapid farce.
I don't mind either of these using private money but unfortunately we Brits go to jail if we don't pay for it.
As someone said recently, Murdoch is a (expleted deleted) but we do have a choice about whether we read/listen to/watch his products.
I wonder if this Microsoft 'initiative' is connected with the now official Microsoft bashing taking place
in the UK education organisation BECTA: http://www.tes.co.uk/2094985
And here's some lists of products: http://www.stopusa.org/who.htm to boycott.
I agree with this approach which is non-violent and responds to a great many other problems, such as patent lobbying. The last thing that happened here was seizure of the indymedia servers in the UK based on a pretty secretive MLAT (mutual legal assistance treaty).
I don't hold a brief for this guy's actions (if proven) but the USA's extra-territorial 'legal' (synonym for money or influence peddling) actions are worse.
Fighting the forking FUD?
Agree.. In the UK I buy recycled, for example HP PIIs for about $60 US per piece and put Linux onto them. They come from offices and are cleaned back to nothing but they have several years life left in them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_SmithHis stories are full of the underpeople, half-cat, half-turtle etc. They are mainly used as servants but often seek justice and equality. I don't have a knee-jerk reaction against this, but it needs a GREAT deal of thinking about.
Yes, I believe the COTS versus build-it discussion misses the point in some places.
Here in the UK, we are about to spend between £2.3 and £18 billion for new IT infrastructure for our health service. One of my colleagues has already pointed out that the US went to the moon for less than this. This project is already in trouble because of issues around process and user acceptance, these are not COTS vs in-house issues.
What, on earth costs this kind of money? What on earth costs $170 million? Health service IT has already abandoned a £100 million email system leaving a £10 million tip on the table.
Keep it simple stupid, with good prototypes that model processes and provide good insight to the -real- problems and benefits are often very valuable. Also, I suspect that these spending figures can be reduced by a factor of 10.
Not in the interests of Accenture, Cap-Gemini, EDS etc. though.