No, no, no, Slashdot _can't_ do this, for one because it would simply be illegal to copy random sites like that, secondly because it might imply that Slashdot is somehow responsible for a 'quality of service' and if their copy does not work, could be sued, and lastly because if this was done, we couldn't enjoy ourselves flaming people like yourself who think that this obvious, useful, and practical solution to a real and annoying problem is worthwhile. Anyhow, the principle of caching web sites has probably been patented by Google./irony
"Dead" is probably a little overstated, but open source burnout is a real problem for small teams. A product that becomes popular makes great demands on one's time, and when times are hard financially, this quickly turns into a losing situation.
Maybe I'll start a counselling centre for desperate OSS programmers...
Q. I feel inadequate, I have thousands of users asking for features, but I can't deliver _and_ keep my family fed. -- Frantic, IL
Dear Frantic, Even the best software companies take their time adding features. Don't believe everything you hear about "internet time". Good products of any kind take years to build. Relax. Take your time.
Q. I'm working all my free time on project X, but no-one seems to care. Sure, my users love it, but in job interviews, it's worth nothing. -- Pissed Off, CA
Dear Off (or should I call you Pissed?), Don't confuse art and business, and for that matter, don't mix them either. OSS is art, you do it because it makes you feel great. Only if you are a truly great artist will people appreciate your work, and you usually have to die first. Get a day job on other merits - perhaps a nice tie - and do your art when the inspiration takes you.
Q. how do I make money from my OSS project? -- Destidude, NY
Dear Destidude, Money? Did you start it for money? Nah. You started it because you thought "hey, I can do that?" Let me remind you of a basic rules of business: if you want to make money, find a group who have money to spend and make something they want. Who are you selling to? Do they have money? Right. Now stop complaining and change your CV to include "Open Source Migration Consultant".
The nanotech engine looks very far from production ready - two or three unclear images, and an interview, that's it. The video is mainly marketing for Birmingham Uni, AFAICS, and almost entirely void of technical details or facts.
I'll be impressed when I see a prototype actually working, or any kind of technical detail. This looks nothing more than an artist's impression and some smoke designed to drive funding.
There is also a very big hole in the design argument. Engines, OK. But engines do not produce electricity. They have to drive a generator. That is not 100% efficient. So, please, how is a nanoengine going to be more efficient than something like a fuel cell, which converts hydrocarbons into electricity directly?
Simply sticking a modern computer into an Atari 800 case is a little sad. Surely there are more fun mods to do... for example:
- mod a C64 disk drive to hold a full PC, with HDD, and talking IEE844 correctly to the C64.
- mod a C64 printer to become a network interface, allowing the vital print-to-slashdot function
- mod a game cartidge to hold a PC running Linux, then allow the original system to act as a console for the Linux box
Just modding hardware is skillfull, but modding software is true art.
Yes, for only $9.95, four hours of all the scenes cut out of movies for SLC. Sex, violence, bad languages, and religious mockery... it's all there, if you're sure you can handle it.
Coming soon: NSLC 2 Supreme (formerly called NSLC 1.1). $9.95 from the usual places.
Actually the answer is pretty simple: geeks can marry younger women who aren't turned on by brawn but by the fat porche and happy smile of a rich geek. And face it: if you've worked hard for 20 years and not spent your stash on girls and booze, you _should_ be able to afford a nice car and a happy smile.
Yeah, except it's been proven by mitochondrial DNA analysis that Europe was settled quite late from Asia and from the Middle East. If anything, existing variation in skin color meant that light-skinned people could do better in the north, and climate difference acted as a gradient filter as much as a force for evolutionary adaptation.
Uhm, let's keep it simple: if UV levels equals skin color, why are black skins found only in Africa and Australia? Is high UV somehow located only in these two continents? Skin color was, of course, initially biased by folate protection / vitamin D production, but what was initially a survival trait became a feature of desirability. Dark skin became sexy, initially because it meant healthier children, but later on its own merits. It's the same with hair color, facial features, and aspects of body shape. We have selectively bred ourselves like pedigree cats. Without the squashed faces, though.
"Cute is a byproduct of what the environment says will survive best."
It's exactly this simplistic explanation for human variety that sucks. Africans are _not_ black because they need to go out in the sun. If that was the case, Asian fishermen would be black - the sun on water is much stronger than on land. Africans sleep in the shade when it's too hot. They have dark skin because what was a small relative advantage became a fashion. Think of blonde hair, 'oriental' eyes,... human taste has dictated many aspects of human looks.
We are also "chemicals" as you nicely put it. The human will is a conceit of the human mind. Actually, even the human "mind" is a conceit. All you are doing is defining a model for life and then saying that since genes do not follow your model, they do not live. This is a meaningless argument.
Will can be seen even in bacteria as they try to enter your system, in worms as they escape the rain, in any living thing that strives to play out its genetic destiny. Genes are not dumb little chemicals that just record your wonderful mind in GTAC. No, they are the masters of the living universe, their every twist making or breaking our puny lives.
Al nae ha ye slanderin ma naebal kith an kin li' tha!! Evryane noes tha al th' sheep buggerin' Campbells went tae New Zealand in tha 1850's. Git af ma fukin barrae, ye sassanach basteid!
Nah, geeks get laid, it just takes them a while. The jocks get laid young, but they also die young in car accidents and gym showers. Yuck. We geeks invest in our brains, and kernel-hacking skills, then we get all the cute girls on the rebound. It's a strategy, like any other.
I was not being literal but now that you bring it up, I think it is actually possible to torture genes: all you have to do is frustrate the little buggers' will to reproduce by breeding them artificially so that instead of the best genes being selected, the freaky ones are. I can't think of a better (or more fitting) torture. Genes, after all, spend their entire existence torturing us, then they discard our worn-out carcasses and move on. YAY FOR GENETIC MANIPULATION!! REVOLT AGAINST GENE TYRANNY!!
It was inevitable, and follows a long and respected history of torturing animal genes to please people. Little dogs like mice, cats with squished faces, glowing fish. Hey, what's the good of absolute power if we can't abuse it.
Before all the fuss about "messing with nature", I'll just remind/. readers about the theory that most human attributes including pigmentation were selected by sexual, not environmental selection. I.e. we look like we do largely because, like glowing fish, we find ourselves "cute".
Sorry, I don't understand, you mean there is still supposed to be SEX? I am going to try this tonight, for sure! And now I understand why the wife always tries to get me to drink decaf. It's all coming together.
- Whiskey with no alcohol - Pot with no THC - Computers that run at 25 Mhz - Cars that max at 30 km/h - Sex without orgasms - Parachute jumping from 5 ft - Motorbikes with roofs and no wheels - Rubber knives - Porn involving ugly people - Half-sized beds - IM limited to 1 message per day - Headless hammers - Private blogs - Silent music - Opera with skinny people - Bars with no beer - Ladders with 1 rung - 3.5v mains power - Cold fire - Black glass
Uhm. What... is... the... point...? Beer without the alcohol is just horse urine, and coffee without caffeine is just dark bitter hot horse urine.
What businesses need are historical file systems in which every single data file is tracked through its every version. The point of logging messages is not to monitor them so much as to find the 'guilty' parties when problems have happened. A historical file system can provide this, but at every level: web, ICQ, email and documents.
This may seem extreme, but disks are big enough, if you don't mix business and pleasure. Perhaps some partitions (swap) that are not historical...
A killer application for Linux in the business workplace, perhaps?
1. Ban popular addictive substance 2. ??? 3. Profit!!
Coffee is both popular and cheap, so something had to be done about it. Banning the traditional kind and replacing it with a kinder, gentler version is the first step. Bombing coffee-growing regions while turning a blind eye to coffee-lords who grow new hi-grade plants is the next step. Finally, a 25% cut of what is definitely going to be big business...
Ites' first rule of thumb says "follow the money", and for caffeine-free coffee this seems the only plausible plot. Certainly no-one is actually going to buy the castrated version.
This new function would save everyone much time by automatically creating duplicate articles for any article with more than 1000 comments. Clearly the interest in such articles warrants a second bash, let's say 4 days later.
For SMS/MMS use: keyboard, not too large, camera, PalmOS organizer. I think it... oh, rats, where is BlueTooth? What, I can't type my SMS and speak at the same time? Fo rg et it.
OSS and Microsoft are playing on two different playing fields, and it is Microsoft not OSS that has the difficulties. Firstly, because OSS can deliver product functions that people want, while MS delivers product functions that create lock-in. Secondly, MS can't compete on matters of quality and security. Thirdly, cost to the end-user. Forthly, conformity to a world that demands more and more commoditization of products.
Whenever I hear someone mention "10%" little bells in my head go off ringing "baksheesh, corruption, dash, bribery!!"
I have one more objection to this. Does anyone here know that in Holland you can register as an official Artist, and get money from the state to make your art. You must produce, of course. Well, each year the Dutch government takes boatloads of 'art' and sticks it in warehouses. The artists don't starve, but they produce shit. OSS is art, and only starving programmers can produce the sheer genius we need. And that is not supposed to be a troll. Government-sponsored OSS will lead to poor results. OTOH I'm deeply in favor of commercially-sponsored OSS. If SA wants to help its IT sector it can ask that all government-paid IT work be OSS, but this should not be paid for by a tax.
Thank you for understanding my post. The BBC has enormous influence in the UK and generally uses it carefully, and a Beeb Linux would be immediately accepted by thousands of schools without question.
There is only one sure way. Outlaw it. Ban it. "Linux is bad for you and you can't get it!"
Soon there will be Linux CD sharks hanging around the school gates, pirate copies of the latest SuSE, rumours that Linux can actually run on "normal" PCs, and so on. I'm half serious, actually: anything kids are forced to pay attention to, they learn to hate.
Claiming that the Addison roadshow is a "derivative work" of the BBC's Open University, which has at its core a SysV Unix server, and is thus licensed from SCO or/and its antecedents. SCO has asked Addison for $3bn in damages, citing "irrefutable damage to its market credibility", and "millions, or at least dozens of lines of stolen coke uh code".
Just string random stupid words together, add several volumes of pomposity, and you get a SCO joke.
Let me try again to demostrate the ease of my method (which by the way I am patenting):
How many SCOs does it take to make Slashdot laugh? 1... 2... 3... hold it... hold it... YES!! A Beowulf clusterfsck!!!
Slashdot Mirror
No, no, no, Slashdot _can't_ do this, for one because it would simply be illegal to copy random sites like that, secondly because it might imply that Slashdot is somehow responsible for a 'quality of service' and if their copy does not work, could be sued, and lastly because if this was done, we couldn't enjoy ourselves flaming people like yourself who think that this obvious, useful, and practical solution to a real and annoying problem is worthwhile. Anyhow, the principle of caching web sites has probably been patented by Google. /irony
"Dead" is probably a little overstated, but open source burnout is a real problem for small teams. A product that becomes popular makes great demands on one's time, and when times are hard financially, this quickly turns into a losing situation.
Maybe I'll start a counselling centre for desperate OSS programmers...
Q. I feel inadequate, I have thousands of users asking for features, but I can't deliver _and_ keep my family fed. -- Frantic, IL
Dear Frantic,
Even the best software companies take their time adding features. Don't believe everything you hear about "internet time". Good products of any kind take years to build. Relax. Take your time.
Q. I'm working all my free time on project X, but no-one seems to care. Sure, my users love it, but in job interviews, it's worth nothing. -- Pissed Off, CA
Dear Off (or should I call you Pissed?),
Don't confuse art and business, and for that matter, don't mix them either. OSS is art, you do it because it makes you feel great. Only if you are a truly great artist will people appreciate your work, and you usually have to die first. Get a day job on other merits - perhaps a nice tie - and do your art when the inspiration takes you.
Q. how do I make money from my OSS project? -- Destidude, NY
Dear Destidude,
Money? Did you start it for money? Nah. You started it because you thought "hey, I can do that?" Let me remind you of a basic rules of business: if you want to make money, find a group who have money to spend and make something they want. Who are you selling to? Do they have money? Right. Now stop complaining and change your CV to include "Open Source Migration Consultant".
Which will do two things:
/. effect will wipe it out.
1. you will get realtime help. OK, there are better ways but this is a _big_ audience you have here.
2. post a link to the offending server, and the
(and this story was on the Reg two days ago...)
The nanotech engine looks very far from production ready - two or three unclear images, and an interview, that's it. The video is mainly marketing for Birmingham Uni, AFAICS, and almost entirely void of technical details or facts.
I'll be impressed when I see a prototype actually working, or any kind of technical detail. This looks nothing more than an artist's impression and some smoke designed to drive funding.
There is also a very big hole in the design argument. Engines, OK. But engines do not produce electricity. They have to drive a generator. That is not 100% efficient. So, please, how is a nanoengine going to be more efficient than something like a fuel cell, which converts hydrocarbons into electricity directly?
Not particularly impressed.
Simply sticking a modern computer into an Atari 800 case is a little sad. Surely there are more fun mods to do... for example:
- mod a C64 disk drive to hold a full PC, with HDD, and talking IEE844 correctly to the C64.
- mod a C64 printer to become a network interface, allowing the vital print-to-slashdot function
- mod a game cartidge to hold a PC running Linux, then allow the original system to act as a console for the Linux box
Just modding hardware is skillfull, but modding software is true art.
Coming soon: NSLC 2 Supreme (formerly called NSLC 1.1). $9.95 from the usual places.
Actually the answer is pretty simple: geeks can marry younger women who aren't turned on by brawn but by the fat porche and happy smile of a rich geek. And face it: if you've worked hard for 20 years and not spent your stash on girls and booze, you _should_ be able to afford a nice car and a happy smile.
Yeah, except it's been proven by mitochondrial DNA analysis that Europe was settled quite late from Asia and from the Middle East. If anything, existing variation in skin color meant that light-skinned people could do better in the north, and climate difference acted as a gradient filter as much as a force for evolutionary adaptation.
Uhm, let's keep it simple: if UV levels equals skin color, why are black skins found only in Africa and Australia? Is high UV somehow located only in these two continents? Skin color was, of course, initially biased by folate protection / vitamin D production, but what was initially a survival trait became a feature of desirability. Dark skin became sexy, initially because it meant healthier children, but later on its own merits. It's the same with hair color, facial features, and aspects of body shape. We have selectively bred ourselves like pedigree cats. Without the squashed faces, though.
"Cute is a byproduct of what the environment says will survive best."
It's exactly this simplistic explanation for human variety that sucks. Africans are _not_ black because they need to go out in the sun. If that was the case, Asian fishermen would be black - the sun on water is much stronger than on land. Africans sleep in the shade when it's too hot. They have dark skin because what was a small relative advantage became a fashion. Think of blonde hair, 'oriental' eyes,... human taste has dictated many aspects of human looks.
Will can be seen even in bacteria as they try to enter your system, in worms as they escape the rain, in any living thing that strives to play out its genetic destiny. Genes are not dumb little chemicals that just record your wonderful mind in GTAC. No, they are the masters of the living universe, their every twist making or breaking our puny lives.
Al nae ha ye slanderin ma naebal kith an kin li' tha!! Evryane noes tha al th' sheep buggerin' Campbells went tae New Zealand in tha 1850's. Git af ma fukin barrae, ye sassanach basteid!
Nah, geeks get laid, it just takes them a while. The jocks get laid young, but they also die young in car accidents and gym showers. Yuck. We geeks invest in our brains, and kernel-hacking skills, then we get all the cute girls on the rebound. It's a strategy, like any other.
I was not being literal but now that you bring it up, I think it is actually possible to torture genes: all you have to do is frustrate the little buggers' will to reproduce by breeding them artificially so that instead of the best genes being selected, the freaky ones are. I can't think of a better (or more fitting) torture. Genes, after all, spend their entire existence torturing us, then they discard our worn-out carcasses and move on. YAY FOR GENETIC MANIPULATION!! REVOLT AGAINST GENE TYRANNY!!
Before all the fuss about "messing with nature", I'll just remind /. readers about the theory that most human attributes including pigmentation were selected by sexual, not environmental selection. I.e. we look like we do largely because, like glowing fish, we find ourselves "cute".
Sorry, I don't understand, you mean there is still supposed to be SEX? I am going to try this tonight, for sure! And now I understand why the wife always tries to get me to drink decaf. It's all coming together.
- Whiskey with no alcohol
- Pot with no THC
- Computers that run at 25 Mhz
- Cars that max at 30 km/h
- Sex without orgasms
- Parachute jumping from 5 ft
- Motorbikes with roofs and no wheels
- Rubber knives
- Porn involving ugly people
- Half-sized beds
- IM limited to 1 message per day
- Headless hammers
- Private blogs
- Silent music
- Opera with skinny people
- Bars with no beer
- Ladders with 1 rung
- 3.5v mains power
- Cold fire
- Black glass
Uhm. What... is... the... point...? Beer without the alcohol is just horse urine, and coffee without caffeine is just dark bitter hot horse urine.
This may seem extreme, but disks are big enough, if you don't mix business and pleasure. Perhaps some partitions (swap) that are not historical...
A killer application for Linux in the business workplace, perhaps?
1. Ban popular addictive substance
2. ???
3. Profit!!
Coffee is both popular and cheap, so something had to be done about it. Banning the traditional kind and replacing it with a kinder, gentler version is the first step. Bombing coffee-growing regions while turning a blind eye to coffee-lords who grow new hi-grade plants is the next step. Finally, a 25% cut of what is definitely going to be big business...
Ites' first rule of thumb says "follow the money", and for caffeine-free coffee this seems the only plausible plot. Certainly no-one is actually going to buy the castrated version.
This new function would save everyone much time by automatically creating duplicate articles for any article with more than 1000 comments. Clearly the interest in such articles warrants a second bash, let's say 4 days later.
For SMS/MMS use: keyboard, not too large, camera, PalmOS organizer. I think it... oh, rats, where is BlueTooth? What, I can't type my SMS and speak at the same time? Fo rg et it.
Whenever I hear someone mention "10%" little bells in my head go off ringing "baksheesh, corruption, dash, bribery!!"
I have one more objection to this. Does anyone here know that in Holland you can register as an official Artist, and get money from the state to make your art. You must produce, of course. Well, each year the Dutch government takes boatloads of 'art' and sticks it in warehouses. The artists don't starve, but they produce shit. OSS is art, and only starving programmers can produce the sheer genius we need. And that is not supposed to be a troll. Government-sponsored OSS will lead to poor results. OTOH I'm deeply in favor of commercially-sponsored OSS. If SA wants to help its IT sector it can ask that all government-paid IT work be OSS, but this should not be paid for by a tax.
Thank you for understanding my post. The BBC has enormous influence in the UK and generally uses it carefully, and a Beeb Linux would be immediately accepted by thousands of schools without question.
Soon there will be Linux CD sharks hanging around the school gates, pirate copies of the latest SuSE, rumours that Linux can actually run on "normal" PCs, and so on. I'm half serious, actually: anything kids are forced to pay attention to, they learn to hate.
Just string random stupid words together, add several volumes of pomposity, and you get a SCO joke.
Let me try again to demostrate the ease of my method (which by the way I am patenting): How many SCOs does it take to make Slashdot laugh? 1... 2... 3... hold it... hold it... YES!! A Beowulf clusterfsck!!!