"By this logic, AMD should stop making x86 CPUs. BTW, it's not nice to call people dumb, especially when the evidence is overwhelmingly against it."
You know... AMD pretty much invented the 64 bit x86 you are using now. Intel was betting on Itanic and had to run to implement AMD64 before AMD took too much of the server market. AMD64 did wonders to AMD's balance sheet.
"To clarify, you are talking about Flash here, right? If there's another comparable alternative, please correct me."
I was more thinking about Ajax or the clever use of JavaScript to emulate desktop applications. Of course, it narrows the definition of "rich" (which is not well defined, anyway) as probably not to include audio or video and not much animation (mainly because animation tools for JavaScript are severely lacking and most JavaScript implementations also suck a lot).
"1) Don't use Silverlight, use Flash"
Never said that. However, I would prefer Macromedia's very narrow monopoly over an extension of Microsoft's any day. In fact, anyone with half a brain would prefer a small monopolist over a big one.
"2) Flash is worse than Silverlight."
That one I did. Flash is a kludge. Silverlight is a bit less ugly, but it's not a shining example of software architecture either.
"3) I hate Microsoft."
Not really. But they do everything within their reach to sabotage things I like (FLOSS is one example). They also have the nasty habit of breaking laws in the course of their daily business of competition-avoidance, which is definitely not nice. Not nice for anyone who participates in the IT market, including both consumers and providers. You probably enjoy higher prices and a slower pace of advancements most probably because MS, among other things, finds more important to augment search with an ugly dog than to enhance it with a smarter engine. Not to say FLOSS is the answer, but, as long as it provides the competition MS lacks (because they killed it) they at least have to work.
Do you think IE would bother to pass ACID tests if Safari didn't? Do you think IE would have tabs if Safari, Mozilla and Opera hadn't?
Yuck because it's not needed (there are other ways to build rich internet applications and using a semi-proprietary solution is not the way to foster development of an open one), not particularly elegant (Flash is much worse, but that's not the point here) and also because Microsoft controls it and is free to steer it any way they please (and that, probably, won't please me).
The erosion of civil liberties may come not from the increased efficiency collecting the data but how it is handled and preserved.
If someone is caught using his or her car without doing what the law written by the representatives you helped (frequently through inaction) elect, I would demand the data is anonymized after the person pays the fine and returns the car into compliance. It could be kept for statistical analysis purpose if anonymized enough.
Maybe the problem is not an efficient and effective police force, but that creepy DHS thing that demand more and more data that can be used in efficient ways against the increasingly broad group called "terrorists" (that now seem to even include mentally deranged British trespassers in one of its many shades of grey). Maybe even the DHS is not the problem, but the increasingly broad definition of "terrorist".
Your country survived a couple witch hunts (one against witches, other against communists) but you never before had these wonderful information processing machines that makes hunting witches all so more efficient.
You can still vote or campaign for someone who seeks to prevent this erosion of civil liberties. If that fails, you can still run for city and state positions based on limiting such erosion.
Saying this is "as bad as 1956 Russia" may sound clever, but excuses you and your fellow citizens from doing something against it based on the flawed assumption that, because '56 Russians couldn't you too can't.
Would you please take back your country? I like to visit it every now and then and would be very happy if it didn't turn into something that confuses people into including Franz Kafka among your Founding Fathers.
They need this in order to be able to subsidize the console. The solution to this closed ecosystem where console makers can dictate which publishers enter the market is to prevent the subsidies. If you prevent the subsidies, there is little to no reason to limit what the end user can do with the device or who can program for it.
But, if you are not in the US, under what authority are they acting?
Besides that, how the arrest, "for an unspecified period of time" of a laptop, phone, PDA or USB drive "without any suspicion of wrongdoing" can be called "reasonable" under 4th amendment terms?
What if some foreign citizen is so offended by this unreasonable behavior that insists his country stands by the principle of reciprocity and starts to arrest American citizens laptops, PDAs and phones and hold them until they leave the country?
I was wondering how viable would be to tap geothermal sources to desalinate ocean water. California, IIRC, has a fresh water supply problem and this could be an interesting solution.
"How hard is it to build a dome that blocks out all harmful cosmic radiation"
You don't build a dome. You dig a cave. You use nuclear or solar power to light lamps and let plants use that light instead of sunlight. You could also use mirrors, but you would need a lot of them because Mars is farther from the Sun than we are and Earth plants evolved for earthly amounts of light.
Alternatively, if you really want a dome, you could build two and fill them with water. Then, if you are really clever, you can build the two domes in a way that concentrates the sunlight in a smaller area giving the plants both light and radiation protection. Sounds like an interesting architectural project.
Governments have a lot of lethal weapons that are increasingly more precise and lethal. Most populations don't have weapons and those that do have the effectiveness and lethality of them severely limited. Governments have very little to be afraid of.
Slashdot Mirror
"By this logic, AMD should stop making x86 CPUs. BTW, it's not nice to call people dumb, especially when the evidence is overwhelmingly against it."
You know... AMD pretty much invented the 64 bit x86 you are using now. Intel was betting on Itanic and had to run to implement AMD64 before AMD took too much of the server market. AMD64 did wonders to AMD's balance sheet.
At least for a while.
They need a buzzword to replace WinFS.
"You know, I've got a pair of G5 macs that are still pretty decent machines and I can't get a new JVM for them and never will be able to"
You may want to look into the OpenJDK. IIRC, it's buildable and mostly work on PPC.
"To clarify, you are talking about Flash here, right? If there's another comparable alternative, please correct me."
I was more thinking about Ajax or the clever use of JavaScript to emulate desktop applications. Of course, it narrows the definition of "rich" (which is not well defined, anyway) as probably not to include audio or video and not much animation (mainly because animation tools for JavaScript are severely lacking and most JavaScript implementations also suck a lot).
"1) Don't use Silverlight, use Flash"
Never said that. However, I would prefer Macromedia's very narrow monopoly over an extension of Microsoft's any day. In fact, anyone with half a brain would prefer a small monopolist over a big one.
"2) Flash is worse than Silverlight."
That one I did. Flash is a kludge. Silverlight is a bit less ugly, but it's not a shining example of software architecture either.
"3) I hate Microsoft."
Not really. But they do everything within their reach to sabotage things I like (FLOSS is one example). They also have the nasty habit of breaking laws in the course of their daily business of competition-avoidance, which is definitely not nice. Not nice for anyone who participates in the IT market, including both consumers and providers. You probably enjoy higher prices and a slower pace of advancements most probably because MS, among other things, finds more important to augment search with an ugly dog than to enhance it with a smarter engine. Not to say FLOSS is the answer, but, as long as it provides the competition MS lacks (because they killed it) they at least have to work.
Do you think IE would bother to pass ACID tests if Safari didn't? Do you think IE would have tabs if Safari, Mozilla and Opera hadn't?
Yuck because it's not needed (there are other ways to build rich internet applications and using a semi-proprietary solution is not the way to foster development of an open one), not particularly elegant (Flash is much worse, but that's not the point here) and also because Microsoft controls it and is free to steer it any way they please (and that, probably, won't please me).
Yeah... I am just not very sure who's keeping who.
I just find it's terribly dumb to let both your specification and the reference implementation to be under the control of your worst enemy.
I love Gnome and I understand Mono is a somewhat simpler (than C++) way to build programs for it, but is it really necessary?
As for Silverlight... Yuck.
That's confusing - I always thought hieroglyphs were phonetic and that helped crack (not in the literal sense, obviously) the Rosetta stone.
Risking flamebait here, "make a system monkeys can use and monkeys will use it"
I think BillG has experience on that one.
"WHen applying the rules how do they: 1) Know exactly when I parked and when I left? 2) Know that if my car was there the"
Then you will have to surrender your GPS data to prove you did nothing wrong ;-)
The erosion of civil liberties may come not from the increased efficiency collecting the data but how it is handled and preserved.
If someone is caught using his or her car without doing what the law written by the representatives you helped (frequently through inaction) elect, I would demand the data is anonymized after the person pays the fine and returns the car into compliance. It could be kept for statistical analysis purpose if anonymized enough.
Maybe the problem is not an efficient and effective police force, but that creepy DHS thing that demand more and more data that can be used in efficient ways against the increasingly broad group called "terrorists" (that now seem to even include mentally deranged British trespassers in one of its many shades of grey). Maybe even the DHS is not the problem, but the increasingly broad definition of "terrorist".
Your country survived a couple witch hunts (one against witches, other against communists) but you never before had these wonderful information processing machines that makes hunting witches all so more efficient.
"sucks as bad as 1956 Russia"
You can still vote or campaign for someone who seeks to prevent this erosion of civil liberties. If that fails, you can still run for city and state positions based on limiting such erosion.
Saying this is "as bad as 1956 Russia" may sound clever, but excuses you and your fellow citizens from doing something against it based on the flawed assumption that, because '56 Russians couldn't you too can't.
Would you please take back your country? I like to visit it every now and then and would be very happy if it didn't turn into something that confuses people into including Franz Kafka among your Founding Fathers.
No, but science has far better mechanisms to defend itself than religion.
In fact, many of the worst religion practitioners actively exploit that lack of self-correction in their own benefit.
You know... Carl Sagan even taught that on TV. There is no need not to know it even if someone feels threatened by books.
Why not GMT-8 or something like it?
"the manufacturer gets a cut out of your profits"
They need this in order to be able to subsidize the console. The solution to this closed ecosystem where console makers can dictate which publishers enter the market is to prevent the subsidies. If you prevent the subsidies, there is little to no reason to limit what the end user can do with the device or who can program for it.
Loved it. Really good.
But, if you are not in the US, under what authority are they acting?
Besides that, how the arrest, "for an unspecified period of time" of a laptop, phone, PDA or USB drive "without any suspicion of wrongdoing" can be called "reasonable" under 4th amendment terms?
What if some foreign citizen is so offended by this unreasonable behavior that insists his country stands by the principle of reciprocity and starts to arrest American citizens laptops, PDAs and phones and hold them until they leave the country?
Folks... This is going too far. Way too far.
I was wondering how viable would be to tap geothermal sources to desalinate ocean water. California, IIRC, has a fresh water supply problem and this could be an interesting solution.
"How hard is it to build a dome that blocks out all harmful cosmic radiation"
You don't build a dome. You dig a cave. You use nuclear or solar power to light lamps and let plants use that light instead of sunlight. You could also use mirrors, but you would need a lot of them because Mars is farther from the Sun than we are and Earth plants evolved for earthly amounts of light.
Alternatively, if you really want a dome, you could build two and fill them with water. Then, if you are really clever, you can build the two domes in a way that concentrates the sunlight in a smaller area giving the plants both light and radiation protection. Sounds like an interesting architectural project.
"No it won't"
The Martians of the future may disagree with you.
Obviously, they will have to exist, before they disagree. But water makes it a lot more likely.
Must... resist... Iraq... comparison...
Governments have a lot of lethal weapons that are increasingly more precise and lethal. Most populations don't have weapons and those that do have the effectiveness and lethality of them severely limited. Governments have very little to be afraid of.
Let's just hope that somebody is lighter than the viscous liquid he plans to surf on or the rescue mission will be somewhat problematic.
"you could pipe water down an enclosed pipe."
Better. You could pump sea water down and get back water vapor (and saltier water you could pump back to the sea).
But that would mean a whole lot of piping involved.
Any volcanoes near California?