Uh, let's see: "non-trivial", er no. "non-obvious", uh no again. "innovative", nope. Well, it fails all the tests for a patent, but their product "KICKS ASS", so what the heck -- let's give em the patent anyway.
Let me guess: you work for the US Patent office as an examiner?
Tivo was out in front on this technology and whether or not we like it, the only way that tech companies can innovate and still survive is to defend their intellectual property. They put a lot of work into their system and it's not fair for someone else to come along and steal their ideas.
So, you think that this is a valid patent? TiVo implements a mechanical tape VCR using digital storage and processing, and suddenly an old idea with loads of prior are is patent-worthy?
I like TiVo too, but I think your bias is clouding your reason. Whoever made the first VCR should own this patent, if anyone. Moving an old idea to a new implementation is not patent-worthy, IMHO.
The suit, filed in federal district court in Texas, alleges that EchoStar's DVR infringes TiVo's ``Time Warp'' patent, which includes the method used to allow viewers to record one program while watching another and the storage format that supports advanced ``TrickPlay'' capabilities such as pausing live television, rewinding and slow motion.
Huh? So I guess ReplayTV and Panasonic ShowStopper paid to license this "invention" from TiVo? I find that hard to believe, but I guess it's possible. Does anyone know for sure, or is ReplayTV (now owned by Denon&Marantz) next on the lawsuit target list? Seems odd that D&M would buy the flailing Replay without thier lawyers noting that their only product depends on an unlicensed patent owned by TiVo.
Of course, this also seems to indicate that TiVo isn't doing so well these days. I had thought they were doing OK.
Finally, I have to express my displeasure that such a patent was ever awarded. If anything, whoever patented the original VCR (assuming someone did) should hold this patent as well. Moving something from tape to digital storage and processing to provide the same features is not innovative enough to deserve a patent.
You certainly are sorry, at least at backing up that opening sentence. You utterly failed to show how I'm "full of crap", probably because you didn't understand my post. Besides failing to note my distinction between RTL coders and physical designers, you completely failed to back up your claim that "Companies are rapidly outsourcing their design and verification work to India and China." But I'd love to see some specs on the sorts of designs you're talking about being outsourced in your anecdotal case (lemme guess, 0.25um, 100k gate, 100MHz? Low-end, low-margin work I bet).
In fact, I said RTL coders were not in demand (Can you read? Try again: "Unfortunately, most of our applicants are CS majors with experience writing RTL (a fancy name for programming the behavior that hardware is supposed to do). We don't need them. "). In contrast, physical designers are in high demand.
Whether or not there's much RTL coding (or verification) work being outsourced I don't really know, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were, particularly low-end, low-cost designs. In my experience, however, there are plenty of RTL coders around doing the work, but too many average ones (and less and less need for armies of them given the increase in IP reuse and emergence of tools that can generate pretty good code), and the really good ones (who understand the physical implementation and system architecture as well and don't just churn out lines of verilog) are still paid quite well, and they need to be in the same time zone with the physical designers to keep the front-to-backend loop iterations fast. And the physical designers need to be near the customer -- that's why we have local design centers.
So, I guess when the bulk of system design companies who are buying the chips outsource or move their entire operations overseas we'll see the physical designers move there too. But I don't see that happening anytime soon.
So, your claim that "A job as a EE in anything resembling digital design is a dead-end" is complete unsubstantiated bullshit. Perhaps you don't understand the difference between coding RTL and physical design implementation. You can take an EE degree either way (or both, to some degree). If you focus on verilog/VHDL coding, you're in for a tough job search. But, as I said, if you know the device physics, understand deep-submicron signal integrity issues, and can create tools to manage half-terabyte design databases accurately and efficiently, you'll be in demand. Bonus points if you can fix broken RTL and/or manage an RTL-signoff desgin flow.
While power work may be more safe and secure (hasn't it always been?) it doesn't pay nearly as well (at least not when I looked 7-8 years ago) and IMHO is not nearly as fun as making chips.
So my (insightful and informative) post above gets a flamebait mod. What do I do? I read your post and note that why would I include the academic community in the open source community? Unless they're making open-source software, they're not in the open source community. Most of 'em aren't. Nyah.
I don't normally reply to AC's, but I noticed your inane, vociferous post and thought I'd just say: you're totally full of shit yourself. Chip designers have to make stuff that works and do it under the constraints of real-world schedules -- something physicists could never manage. No offense to them, but physicists can't handle my schedules and cost constraints.
Yeah, so IHBT, but you're a peon HTML-typer with no real skills or you couldn't be outsourced or beaten out by fresh talent all that easily.
My title is "Senior ASIC Design Engineer" and I can prove it. In fact, with little effort you could confirm it yourself -- all the info about who I work for and in which office can be found in this thread and my profile. What's yours -- "associate fry chef"?
Good point. In my experience, your GPA is more important than the school you got it from (assuming the school is ABET accredited, of course). I graduated with a 4.0GPA from UF, and I started $20k higher than any of the people I know that went to MIT (granted they were all 3.5GPA or lower).
Do well wherever you go; learn as much as you can.
the technology career in the United States is fading
I'm sure you know that IT is not the only technology career, but I have to interject here and clarify the potential confusion.
IT and CS are flooded, yes. But, EE (as in, you know how to make hardware that works) is still desperate for fresh meat. Where I work (making ASICs for NEC), we have had 3-4 open requisitions throughout the IT slump and dot-bomb era. We just can't get qualified individuals, and starting pay in the Boston area (fresh grads) is still over US$75k plus $10k signing bonus and full relocation. It's a bit higher for Santa Clara, and a little lower for Dallas, Chicago, or North Carolina. We also start you off with 29 days of vacation per year (and you have to take it, like I am right now) that quickly gets up to 45 days. No stock options, but bonuses are still being paid in the 8-15% zone.
Unfortunately, most of our applicants are CS majors with experience writing RTL (a fancy name for programming the behavior that hardware is supposed to do). We don't need them. We do, however, need people who understand physics (particulary semiconductor device physics), analog and digital physical design, electromagnetic field theory (for signal integrity), and those who can code their own tools to get the job done (which means you get your choice of language and need pay no attention to GUIs or usability if you have the ability to make programs process data with perfect accuracy, quickly, and with small memory footprints).
If you have even a small interest in the hardware side of things, please consider crossing over. You can code here too, and no one except you needs to understand your code or even how to use your program:)
Of course, a lot of displaced CS/IT types have been hassling our HR staff with BS. If you're not more familiar with a transistor than you are your own thumb, please don't bother us.
This is good advice . . . for some (as you disclaimered yourself). I have a few friends that went this route, and for the most part it worked out swimmingly. However, for those of us who sometimes choose mind-altering substances (ganja) other than those sanctioned by the Man (alcohol, zanax, etc.) please note that the unannounced monthly-ish random pee-tastings continue throughout the entire enlistment time.
That is, they want surprise access to your pee until you are completely done with them, and if there's anything funny in that pee, you will be in a world of trouble (understandable yes, but unacceptable to me personally).
Nothing stopping you. Except of course the fact that the opensource community rarely comes up with a patentable idea before a commercial product makes for some nice prior art. If you can ignore that tiny little obstacle, feel free to patent away! Oh, but you know it costs money to try to patent, though, so that could be a problem too. Good luck!
You still haven't given one reasonable argument against fingerprinting and photographing immigrants and visitors. I do not "care to look around" (anymore) -- I've heard nothing but contrarian drivel posing as arguments against this. If so many good examples of why this policy is bad exist, please share them rather than suggesting I go look for them.
BTW, if your fingerprints are on a murder weapon, I for one would be glad that they are also on file. But you can relax about fingerprint false matches -- it just doesn't happen. Evidence to the contrary is welcomed, but I wouldn't waste my time if I were you. Also note that even a fingerprint match is rarely considered by a jury to eliminate all shadow of doubt, which is what would be needed to convict you. Besides the fact that the likelihood of a mismatch is near zero, you'd have plenty of chances to make it all go away via alibi or other doubt-inducing facts.
Did you know that if you are arrested in the US you will be fingerprinted and photographed even if you are never convicted or the charges are dropped? And some schools fingerprint and photograph children (with parental permission) to aid in identification if needed? This scares you too?
Not me. I think it's fine. My prints are on file (juvenille arrest). I haven't been accused of any crimes I didn't do because of that. And I am photographed all the time (see my passport). No problems there either. Anecdotes aside, I still don't see how either fingerprints or photographs could ever be a problem except in wildly contrived, fantastically improbable cases such as the one you described that would require winning-the-lottery style (bad) luck to be a problem.
BTW, I read 1984. Several times. Thanks for the suggestion though. There's nothing about fingerprinting or photographing leading to opression in that tome that I recall. Perhaps you can refresh my memory on how the 1984 totalitarian government used fingerprinting or photography to further erode individual power or privacy?
Yep. Just as you can count on the US administration of believing what they say. (That is, you could if you weren't so gung-ho about being contrarian toward everything the US does or says).
As I said, I do believe it. And I don't think anyone with a wit of sense can call it expansionism, assuming you're referring to Iraq and Afghanistan. But I guess vociferous anti-US emotions can outweight all logic.
Your version sounds pretty good to me, except for your failure to capitalize American. See, since we Americans think we're doing the Right Thing, we view opposition to the Right Thing as the Wrong Thing. It's really pretty simple. In some cases, of course, there are several Right Things (such as what to eat for dinner), but these aren't the kinds of situations we're talking about. Some cases call for a clear distinction between Right and Wrong.
Why should those who are doing the Right Thing cooperate with those doing the Wrong Thing? Should we have cooperated with Hitler? Of course the current administration is not valuing agreement or diplomacy with people who want us to do the Wrong Thing. Why should it?
This whole "everyone is good, everything is good, every act is somehow defensible from some standpoint, who are we to judge"-type thinking is rather hypocritical. If you really believe cooperation is key, then please start cooperating with us in doing the Right Thing.
So? So did my wife. It hasn't hurt her yet. And I don't see how it will hurt you. On the contrary, it should reduce the number of false positive matches to known/wanted persons.
This new policy of fingerprinting and photographing immigrants and visitors to the US has gotten a lot of media play, but I have yet to see one blurb even try to explain any reason that it's a problem of any sort for any one. You sound like you have a problem with it, so tell me -- how does photography and fingerprinting make you less free?
Note: if you think photographs or fingerprints steal your soul or something, you could just not enter the US. Isn't it nice to have choices?
This will be taken as flamebait, but I don't care.
This "prediction" was wrong -- you're at +4 Insightful (of course). Feigning disregard for Karma is a well-known way to get it. Frankly, I found your post to be much more confusing than flaming. I don't think there's a single coherent, relevant thought in it. I think you have to make some sense to flame.
Freedom right now in the USA is only limited to what can make them more money, not other countries that might limit/threaten their freedom.
Who is "them"? Citizens of the US? You think we only want money? Then why do we spend so much on security and defense, much of which goes to help others in the world?
By this I DO NOT mean in a direct assault on freedom itself, but by affecting the standards of living in the USA.
Huh? Improving the standard of living in the USA is bad, why?
The recent exposed plan in the 70/80's to invade oil rich countries to protect their oil needs is only one example.
Who exposed this alleged plan how and when? Please share more on this exciting topic.
Need I mention DMCA and other laws to protect the corporate companies rather then the consumer.
Well, you did. But do you realize that consumers in the US are allowed to start "corporate companies"? And, as much as I dislike parts of the DMCA, the goal is reasonable. Corporations should have some legal protection against those who would steal from them. Dontcha think?
Also note this is not a reflection of the mass population in USA, but the direction the goverment and corporate pressures on them are steering USA into.
Huh? Doesn't something have to make sense to be "insightful"?
Pretty soon the USA will turn into a class based system where only the rich and influential can effect the government and freedom of it's population goes out the window.
Really?! So, how will this happen?
The scary part is most of it's citizens and for that matter the world will think the USA is still in a democracy, but it will be ruled by the rich and influential
Oh, that is scary. If you ask me, (or even by definition), the whole world is rules by the rich and influential (influential = having influence, after all). And why is this bad? To me, it serves as a nice way to encourage people to become rich and influential. Should we let the homeless and insane have the biggest say in what goes on so that we can encourage people to aspire to homelessness and insanity?
Majority vote is only effective if the votes are informed and heard, not when they are recounted and recounted to fit somebody elses view of how the results should have been (yes I do believe that was a direct alteration to change the outcome of the election).
Oh, I get it now. You're a Democrat. Given the silliness that was the debate yesterday I can understand how it has rubbed off on you. What is really amazing is that some mods gave you points for that nonsensical drivel.
The most effective way to strengthen our community for the future is to spread understanding of the value of freedom--to teach more people to recognize the moral unacceptability of non-free software. People who value freedom are, in the long term, its best and essential defense.
The current U.S. administration says (my paraphrasing):
The most effective way to strengthen the world for the future is to spread understanding of the value of freedom--to teach more people to recognize the moral unacceptability of non-free peoples. People who value freedom are, in the long term, its best and essential defense.
Isn't it odd that two apparently unrelated, or even diametrically opposed, groups can have such similar sentiments as their "mission statements"? I guess some will claim that my paraphrasing is optimistic or even naieve, but I believe it, and I believe a lot of others do as well.
So, we have now a view of Stallman working on free software as a microcosmic version of the U.S. working on world freedom. Discuss!
Seems like a start in the right direction, but don't expect something ready to roll (as I did until I checked the site):
Currently the code is very buggy and incomplete - a few widgets do not yet use the QT drawing code. However it is still perfectly usable. This theme is slightly slower than that of most native GTK themes, but the difference is hardly noticed on a fast machine.
Known bugs:
* Menus do not have borders
* The background colour doesn't change when text is highlighted
* Colours are incorrect when using certain styles (eg. Keramik)
* Buttons, and other widgets, may be the wrong size
* Scrollbars sometimes misbehave
This is a 0.x release - do don't expect it to work perfectly:)
I have had similar experience with every ATI card I've ever owned (flaky drivers, overheating, promised patches that never come, etc.).
In fact, I foolishly tried ATI again when building my nephews a new computer during my visit to Florida this Xmas. I picked up an ATI 9600 because it seemed like a good deal compared to the Nvidia's I saw in the stores around there. Plus, I had read so many/. posts over the last year or so saying how much better the Catalyst drivers were than the old ATI drivers, and how their support and quality had improved dramatically. And, if you look at the benchmarks, it does seem that ATI's offerings have more bang for the buck.
Two days of watsed misery later, I gave up, returned it, got a Ge4 5700, popped it in, and it worked fine. Zero hassle, excellent drivers, no overheating.
I still have an old ATI TV USB stitting around waiting for the WinXP drivers to be released. Years after promising them, all ATI has available is some non-WHQL "drivers" that crash every box I've tried them on). Never again ATI.
Hmm, I read it too (can I have that time back please?) and I have to agree with the troll. It is a fat load of shit. With extra corn chunks. Anything that the author doesn't personally like (or understand the uses for) is assaulted as completely useless to everyone. This is an incredibly vain (and ignorant) viewpoint, IMHO.
Have you ever seen one of those robosweepers, which you link as "useless technology", work? I have, and it seemed to work rather well (somewhat to my surprise). How is it useless to have an autonomous device clean my floors? Am I wrong for wanting clean floors? I mean, they are my floors, but I don't particularly enjoy spending my (limited) time cleaning them. I might (but haven't) spend some of my (less limited) money to have a device that cleans them for me. Your author (and presumably you as well) somehow think that's a bad thing, and I don't understand why.
Moroever, one of the many forms of entertainment I enjoy is playing online video games. In particular, FPS games. My enjoyment of these games is increased by having a suitably powerful video card to more quickly and beautifully render the images in which I immerse myself for a bit while I have some fun. How, exactly, is this "useless technology"? I use it to have fun. Therefore it has a use.
And, BTW, WTF is "h/er"? Do you mean "his/her"? How bout "his/her/its", just to cover all the bases?
Boy, you're almost as confused as you are vain. Wiki is in a whole different class than your silly little blog. 0 comments galore on that bleeding-heart liberal cry-rag of yours.
How embarrassed are you? However much, it's not enough.
This is neither troll nor flamebait: How do you know the background of the Brittanica article authors? What makes you think they're necessarily more qualified (or up-to-date) than Wikipedia article authors? Particularly with regard to very current (technological) issues, I'd give the edge to the Wiki gang.
Noting your use of the word "probably", you don't. So please just don't use it if you don't like it, and kindly condider S'ing TFU and stop trying to threadcrap.
Slashdot Mirror
Uh, let's see: "non-trivial", er no. "non-obvious", uh no again. "innovative", nope. Well, it fails all the tests for a patent, but their product "KICKS ASS", so what the heck -- let's give em the patent anyway.
Let me guess: you work for the US Patent office as an examiner?
Tivo was out in front on this technology and whether or not we like it, the only way that tech companies can innovate and still survive is to defend their intellectual property. They put a lot of work into their system and it's not fair for someone else to come along and steal their ideas.
So, you think that this is a valid patent? TiVo implements a mechanical tape VCR using digital storage and processing, and suddenly an old idea with loads of prior are is patent-worthy?
I like TiVo too, but I think your bias is clouding your reason. Whoever made the first VCR should own this patent, if anyone. Moving an old idea to a new implementation is not patent-worthy, IMHO.
The suit, filed in federal district court in Texas, alleges that EchoStar's DVR infringes TiVo's ``Time Warp'' patent, which includes the method used to allow viewers to record one program while watching another and the storage format that supports advanced ``TrickPlay'' capabilities such as pausing live television, rewinding and slow motion.
Huh? So I guess ReplayTV and Panasonic ShowStopper paid to license this "invention" from TiVo? I find that hard to believe, but I guess it's possible. Does anyone know for sure, or is ReplayTV (now owned by Denon&Marantz) next on the lawsuit target list? Seems odd that D&M would buy the flailing Replay without thier lawyers noting that their only product depends on an unlicensed patent owned by TiVo.
Of course, this also seems to indicate that TiVo isn't doing so well these days. I had thought they were doing OK.
Finally, I have to express my displeasure that such a patent was ever awarded. If anything, whoever patented the original VCR (assuming someone did) should hold this patent as well. Moving something from tape to digital storage and processing to provide the same features is not innovative enough to deserve a patent.
You certainly are sorry, at least at backing up that opening sentence. You utterly failed to show how I'm "full of crap", probably because you didn't understand my post. Besides failing to note my distinction between RTL coders and physical designers, you completely failed to back up your claim that "Companies are rapidly outsourcing their design and verification work to India and China." But I'd love to see some specs on the sorts of designs you're talking about being outsourced in your anecdotal case (lemme guess, 0.25um, 100k gate, 100MHz? Low-end, low-margin work I bet).
In fact, I said RTL coders were not in demand (Can you read? Try again: "Unfortunately, most of our applicants are CS majors with experience writing RTL (a fancy name for programming the behavior that hardware is supposed to do). We don't need them. "). In contrast, physical designers are in high demand.
Whether or not there's much RTL coding (or verification) work being outsourced I don't really know, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were, particularly low-end, low-cost designs. In my experience, however, there are plenty of RTL coders around doing the work, but too many average ones (and less and less need for armies of them given the increase in IP reuse and emergence of tools that can generate pretty good code), and the really good ones (who understand the physical implementation and system architecture as well and don't just churn out lines of verilog) are still paid quite well, and they need to be in the same time zone with the physical designers to keep the front-to-backend loop iterations fast. And the physical designers need to be near the customer -- that's why we have local design centers.
So, I guess when the bulk of system design companies who are buying the chips outsource or move their entire operations overseas we'll see the physical designers move there too. But I don't see that happening anytime soon.
So, your claim that "A job as a EE in anything resembling digital design is a dead-end" is complete unsubstantiated bullshit. Perhaps you don't understand the difference between coding RTL and physical design implementation. You can take an EE degree either way (or both, to some degree). If you focus on verilog/VHDL coding, you're in for a tough job search. But, as I said, if you know the device physics, understand deep-submicron signal integrity issues, and can create tools to manage half-terabyte design databases accurately and efficiently, you'll be in demand. Bonus points if you can fix broken RTL and/or manage an RTL-signoff desgin flow.
While power work may be more safe and secure (hasn't it always been?) it doesn't pay nearly as well (at least not when I looked 7-8 years ago) and IMHO is not nearly as fun as making chips.
So my (insightful and informative) post above gets a flamebait mod. What do I do? I read your post and note that why would I include the academic community in the open source community? Unless they're making open-source software, they're not in the open source community. Most of 'em aren't. Nyah.
I don't normally reply to AC's, but I noticed your inane, vociferous post and thought I'd just say: you're totally full of shit yourself. Chip designers have to make stuff that works and do it under the constraints of real-world schedules -- something physicists could never manage. No offense to them, but physicists can't handle my schedules and cost constraints.
Yeah, so IHBT, but you're a peon HTML-typer with no real skills or you couldn't be outsourced or beaten out by fresh talent all that easily.
My title is "Senior ASIC Design Engineer" and I can prove it. In fact, with little effort you could confirm it yourself -- all the info about who I work for and in which office can be found in this thread and my profile. What's yours -- "associate fry chef"?
Good point. In my experience, your GPA is more important than the school you got it from (assuming the school is ABET accredited, of course). I graduated with a 4.0GPA from UF, and I started $20k higher than any of the people I know that went to MIT (granted they were all 3.5GPA or lower).
Do well wherever you go; learn as much as you can.
the technology career in the United States is fading
:)
I'm sure you know that IT is not the only technology career, but I have to interject here and clarify the potential confusion.
IT and CS are flooded, yes. But, EE (as in, you know how to make hardware that works) is still desperate for fresh meat. Where I work (making ASICs for NEC), we have had 3-4 open requisitions throughout the IT slump and dot-bomb era. We just can't get qualified individuals, and starting pay in the Boston area (fresh grads) is still over US$75k plus $10k signing bonus and full relocation. It's a bit higher for Santa Clara, and a little lower for Dallas, Chicago, or North Carolina. We also start you off with 29 days of vacation per year (and you have to take it, like I am right now) that quickly gets up to 45 days. No stock options, but bonuses are still being paid in the 8-15% zone.
Unfortunately, most of our applicants are CS majors with experience writing RTL (a fancy name for programming the behavior that hardware is supposed to do). We don't need them. We do, however, need people who understand physics (particulary semiconductor device physics), analog and digital physical design, electromagnetic field theory (for signal integrity), and those who can code their own tools to get the job done (which means you get your choice of language and need pay no attention to GUIs or usability if you have the ability to make programs process data with perfect accuracy, quickly, and with small memory footprints).
If you have even a small interest in the hardware side of things, please consider crossing over. You can code here too, and no one except you needs to understand your code or even how to use your program
Of course, a lot of displaced CS/IT types have been hassling our HR staff with BS. If you're not more familiar with a transistor than you are your own thumb, please don't bother us.
This is good advice . . . for some (as you disclaimered yourself). I have a few friends that went this route, and for the most part it worked out swimmingly. However, for those of us who sometimes choose mind-altering substances (ganja) other than those sanctioned by the Man (alcohol, zanax, etc.) please note that the unannounced monthly-ish random pee-tastings continue throughout the entire enlistment time.
That is, they want surprise access to your pee until you are completely done with them, and if there's anything funny in that pee, you will be in a world of trouble (understandable yes, but unacceptable to me personally).
YHBW.
Nothing stopping you. Except of course the fact that the opensource community rarely comes up with a patentable idea before a commercial product makes for some nice prior art. If you can ignore that tiny little obstacle, feel free to patent away! Oh, but you know it costs money to try to patent, though, so that could be a problem too. Good luck!
You still haven't given one reasonable argument against fingerprinting and photographing immigrants and visitors. I do not "care to look around" (anymore) -- I've heard nothing but contrarian drivel posing as arguments against this. If so many good examples of why this policy is bad exist, please share them rather than suggesting I go look for them.
BTW, if your fingerprints are on a murder weapon, I for one would be glad that they are also on file. But you can relax about fingerprint false matches -- it just doesn't happen. Evidence to the contrary is welcomed, but I wouldn't waste my time if I were you. Also note that even a fingerprint match is rarely considered by a jury to eliminate all shadow of doubt, which is what would be needed to convict you. Besides the fact that the likelihood of a mismatch is near zero, you'd have plenty of chances to make it all go away via alibi or other doubt-inducing facts.
Did you know that if you are arrested in the US you will be fingerprinted and photographed even if you are never convicted or the charges are dropped? And some schools fingerprint and photograph children (with parental permission) to aid in identification if needed? This scares you too?
Not me. I think it's fine. My prints are on file (juvenille arrest). I haven't been accused of any crimes I didn't do because of that. And I am photographed all the time (see my passport). No problems there either. Anecdotes aside, I still don't see how either fingerprints or photographs could ever be a problem except in wildly contrived, fantastically improbable cases such as the one you described that would require winning-the-lottery style (bad) luck to be a problem.
BTW, I read 1984. Several times. Thanks for the suggestion though. There's nothing about fingerprinting or photographing leading to opression in that tome that I recall. Perhaps you can refresh my memory on how the 1984 totalitarian government used fingerprinting or photography to further erode individual power or privacy?
Yep. Just as you can count on the US administration of believing what they say. (That is, you could if you weren't so gung-ho about being contrarian toward everything the US does or says).
Is that supposed to be a bad thing? I mean, it is pretty irresponsible to be poor, what with all the opportunity to (and benefits of) not be.
As I said, I do believe it. And I don't think anyone with a wit of sense can call it expansionism, assuming you're referring to Iraq and Afghanistan. But I guess vociferous anti-US emotions can outweight all logic.
Your version sounds pretty good to me, except for your failure to capitalize American. See, since we Americans think we're doing the Right Thing, we view opposition to the Right Thing as the Wrong Thing. It's really pretty simple. In some cases, of course, there are several Right Things (such as what to eat for dinner), but these aren't the kinds of situations we're talking about. Some cases call for a clear distinction between Right and Wrong.
Why should those who are doing the Right Thing cooperate with those doing the Wrong Thing? Should we have cooperated with Hitler? Of course the current administration is not valuing agreement or diplomacy with people who want us to do the Wrong Thing. Why should it?
This whole "everyone is good, everything is good, every act is somehow defensible from some standpoint, who are we to judge"-type thinking is rather hypocritical. If you really believe cooperation is key, then please start cooperating with us in doing the Right Thing.
I got fingerprinted and photographed.
So? So did my wife. It hasn't hurt her yet. And I don't see how it will hurt you. On the contrary, it should reduce the number of false positive matches to known/wanted persons.
This new policy of fingerprinting and photographing immigrants and visitors to the US has gotten a lot of media play, but I have yet to see one blurb even try to explain any reason that it's a problem of any sort for any one. You sound like you have a problem with it, so tell me -- how does photography and fingerprinting make you less free?
Note: if you think photographs or fingerprints steal your soul or something, you could just not enter the US. Isn't it nice to have choices?
This will be taken as flamebait, but I don't care.
This "prediction" was wrong -- you're at +4 Insightful (of course). Feigning disregard for Karma is a well-known way to get it. Frankly, I found your post to be much more confusing than flaming. I don't think there's a single coherent, relevant thought in it. I think you have to make some sense to flame.
Freedom right now in the USA is only limited to what can make them more money, not other countries that might limit/threaten their freedom.
Who is "them"? Citizens of the US? You think we only want money? Then why do we spend so much on security and defense, much of which goes to help others in the world?
By this I DO NOT mean in a direct assault on freedom itself, but by affecting the standards of living in the USA.
Huh? Improving the standard of living in the USA is bad, why?
The recent exposed plan in the 70/80's to invade oil rich countries to protect their oil needs is only one example.
Who exposed this alleged plan how and when? Please share more on this exciting topic.
Need I mention DMCA and other laws to protect the corporate companies rather then the consumer.
Well, you did. But do you realize that consumers in the US are allowed to start "corporate companies"? And, as much as I dislike parts of the DMCA, the goal is reasonable. Corporations should have some legal protection against those who would steal from them. Dontcha think?
Also note this is not a reflection of the mass population in USA, but the direction the goverment and corporate pressures on them are steering USA into.
Huh? Doesn't something have to make sense to be "insightful"?
Pretty soon the USA will turn into a class based system where only the rich and influential can effect the government and freedom of it's population goes out the window.
Really?! So, how will this happen?
The scary part is most of it's citizens and for that matter the world will think the USA is still in a democracy, but it will be ruled by the rich and influential
Oh, that is scary. If you ask me, (or even by definition), the whole world is rules by the rich and influential (influential = having influence, after all). And why is this bad? To me, it serves as a nice way to encourage people to become rich and influential. Should we let the homeless and insane have the biggest say in what goes on so that we can encourage people to aspire to homelessness and insanity?
Majority vote is only effective if the votes are informed and heard, not when they are recounted and recounted to fit somebody elses view of how the results should have been (yes I do believe that was a direct alteration to change the outcome of the election).
Oh, I get it now. You're a Democrat. Given the silliness that was the debate yesterday I can understand how it has rubbed off on you. What is really amazing is that some mods gave you points for that nonsensical drivel.
Now, this will be taken as flamebait. Just watch!
Stallman says:
The most effective way to strengthen our community for the future is to spread understanding of the value of freedom--to teach more people to recognize the moral unacceptability of non-free software. People who value freedom are, in the long term, its best and essential defense.
The current U.S. administration says (my paraphrasing):
The most effective way to strengthen the world for the future is to spread understanding of the value of freedom--to teach more people to recognize the moral unacceptability of non-free peoples. People who value freedom are, in the long term, its best and essential defense.
Isn't it odd that two apparently unrelated, or even diametrically opposed, groups can have such similar sentiments as their "mission statements"? I guess some will claim that my paraphrasing is optimistic or even naieve, but I believe it, and I believe a lot of others do as well.
So, we have now a view of Stallman working on free software as a microcosmic version of the U.S. working on world freedom. Discuss!
Seems like a start in the right direction, but don't expect something ready to roll (as I did until I checked the site):
:)
Currently the code is very buggy and incomplete - a few widgets do not yet use the QT drawing code. However it is still perfectly usable. This theme is slightly slower than that of most native GTK themes, but the difference is hardly noticed on a fast machine.
Known bugs: * Menus do not have borders
* The background colour doesn't change when text is highlighted
* Colours are incorrect when using certain styles (eg. Keramik)
* Buttons, and other widgets, may be the wrong size
* Scrollbars sometimes misbehave
This is a 0.x release - do don't expect it to work perfectly
I have had similar experience with every ATI card I've ever owned (flaky drivers, overheating, promised patches that never come, etc.).
/. posts over the last year or so saying how much better the Catalyst drivers were than the old ATI drivers, and how their support and quality had improved dramatically. And, if you look at the benchmarks, it does seem that ATI's offerings have more bang for the buck.
In fact, I foolishly tried ATI again when building my nephews a new computer during my visit to Florida this Xmas. I picked up an ATI 9600 because it seemed like a good deal compared to the Nvidia's I saw in the stores around there. Plus, I had read so many
Two days of watsed misery later, I gave up, returned it, got a Ge4 5700, popped it in, and it worked fine. Zero hassle, excellent drivers, no overheating.
I still have an old ATI TV USB stitting around waiting for the WinXP drivers to be released. Years after promising them, all ATI has available is some non-WHQL "drivers" that crash every box I've tried them on). Never again ATI.
+5 FATALITY
Good one. I wonder if he will reply and eat his crow in public or not?
Hmm, I read it too (can I have that time back please?) and I have to agree with the troll. It is a fat load of shit. With extra corn chunks. Anything that the author doesn't personally like (or understand the uses for) is assaulted as completely useless to everyone. This is an incredibly vain (and ignorant) viewpoint, IMHO.
Have you ever seen one of those robosweepers, which you link as "useless technology", work? I have, and it seemed to work rather well (somewhat to my surprise). How is it useless to have an autonomous device clean my floors? Am I wrong for wanting clean floors? I mean, they are my floors, but I don't particularly enjoy spending my (limited) time cleaning them. I might (but haven't) spend some of my (less limited) money to have a device that cleans them for me. Your author (and presumably you as well) somehow think that's a bad thing, and I don't understand why.
Moroever, one of the many forms of entertainment I enjoy is playing online video games. In particular, FPS games. My enjoyment of these games is increased by having a suitably powerful video card to more quickly and beautifully render the images in which I immerse myself for a bit while I have some fun. How, exactly, is this "useless technology"? I use it to have fun. Therefore it has a use.
And, BTW, WTF is "h/er"? Do you mean "his/her"? How bout "his/her/its", just to cover all the bases?
Boy, you're almost as confused as you are vain. Wiki is in a whole different class than your silly little blog. 0 comments galore on that bleeding-heart liberal cry-rag of yours.
How embarrassed are you? However much, it's not enough.
Note that the same rough edges often exist in free software projects.
. . . and in commerical software projects, newsmedia reports, magazine articles, encyclopedias, books, and even peer-reviewed trade journals.
What was your point again?
This is neither troll nor flamebait: How do you know the background of the Brittanica article authors? What makes you think they're necessarily more qualified (or up-to-date) than Wikipedia article authors? Particularly with regard to very current (technological) issues, I'd give the edge to the Wiki gang.
Noting your use of the word "probably", you don't. So please just don't use it if you don't like it, and kindly condider S'ing TFU and stop trying to threadcrap.