Censorship in libraries, however, is absolutely abhorant. Censorship at the highschool level is also a Bad Idea.
It sounds like you don't want any kind of censorship or filtering. That is the real Bad Idea. Everything that exists in society or on the Internet is not appropriate for kids, especially at the high school level where maturity is in short supply.
Even at the grade school level, the best filter is teacher involvement in the web surfing experience.
I think this is not practical. A teacher trying to keep an eye on 30+ kids in a room is not a good filter.
You are assuming a slippery slope phenomenon that if anything gets banned, all will get banned. I don't think this is necessarily a danger. Libraries can still be an educational resource without providing porn to kids. Libraries can set up computers in a seperate area with no restrictions for adults to use.
Libraries are a public resource paid for by everyone. Those parents who don't want porn available to their kids have a valid concern and shouldn't be dismissed automatically.
The problem is, what can be done? Well, I believe it's time to start shutting out the troublemakers. Everyone can still have free speech, but we're not obligated to listen to them or provide them with a forum or encouragement.
You can't really stop people from sending flames, but the authors can stop posting their email addresses so they don't have to listen to it. It will be too bad if that happens because we won't be able to correct misinformed authors as easily.
His call for better quality is echoed by many/. readers and others who use computers. I think people were more willing to accept flaws in the OS in the past because the technology was new and under very rapid development. The OS producers were (and still are) exploring what they can do, and the market is still exploring what it wants.
As computers have now become more common in daily life, the importance of quality becomes more important. Would you accept the same type of failure rates in your car as you would your computer?
The software industry will produce the quality of product that the market will accept. It costs time and money for quality control, so the industry will generally not spend any more money than is necessary to satisfy the market. (insert rant about monopolies, lack of competition, etc)
Aside: Notice the big push in many other industries for ISO 9000 quality procedures?
As we demand more quality and vote with our checkbooks, the industry will be forced to do better.
Duh. Does any airplane go to Mir if you point it up?
What happens if I reach an altitude of 50000ft and then run out of fuel?
Duh^2 This thing may not be able to reach an altitude of 50,000 ft. I didn't see a service ceiling listed. If you run out of fuel, you do what any plane does: glide in as best you can.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software packages (for stress analysis) all have FORTRAN at thier core, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software also has FORTRAN at its core. I would dare say most hard core engineering simulation and analysis software has FORTRAN doing the heavy lifting. C/C++ is used for the user interfaces, but FORTRAN gets the job done.
I am a mechanical engineer and I took FORTRAN, but the university I went to just removed the requirement for mechanical engineers to take FORTRAN because of the maturity and availability of software like MathCAD and Matlab which will do a good job of crunching numbers for the everyday general engineering work that most people do. Writing programs in FORTRAN used to be your only option.
High schools are one of the worst inventions ever created. They foster horrible class structures based on the wrong criteria. I don't know a solution, but I do recognize a problem here.
I don't think it is the high school's fault that the "horrible class structures based on the wrong criteria" exist. High school is filled with large numbers of immature kids. Immature kids act immaturely and form the "horrible class structures based on the wrong criteria".
It takes the mature involvement of adults (parents & teachers) to to break up the "horrible class structures" and prevent things from getting out of hand. Sadly, mature involvement from adults is getting more rare every day.
VA and "professionalism"
on
VA on Upside
·
· Score: 1
Quoting from the article:
"I call it reputation capital," DiBona says. "People want to work for us, because they know we're the ones that have Leonard doing RAID development. They know Larry and how long he's been involved with Linux. Basically, they know we give a fuck."
Basically they know we give a fuck. Nice choice of words. Very professional image.
Somebody started posting those stupid 1,2,.... messages on the Slashdot notes story about the changes in moderation. It is really a waste of moderator points to have to bump down clearly stupid messages intended as moderator bait. Rob (or a chosen person) should have full access to remove those messages so moderator points don't have to be used.
One of the good things about the volunteers writing free software is that developers can come and go as their interest inspires them. A bug can be fixed or a new feature added by a newcomer just as well (?) as a member of the original core group.
I think that with these contracting arrangements new developers will not wander along and help out. The original core group (or person) will work on it until it is done. I didn't see any mention of how to compensate someone who jumps in at the last minute and fixes a bug or adds the final feature. How would the latecomer be compensated? I would guess that the core group will not change for the life of the project.
If the projects span a few weeks or months, then the group size will not have time to change. I think of KDE or Gnome where developers are more likely to come and go and contribute widely varying amounts of code to the project.
The idea that all bugs are shallow given enough eyeballs doesn't say if the eyeball that found/fixed the bug was a member of the core group of developers. A newcomer could have found/fixed it.
I tend to think that non-monetary compensation will become extremely important for both companies.
For example, it would be awfully hard for me to write a driver for a piece of hardware without first owning it.
You could still accept money for the work, just require the company to give you a workstation for the duration of the project to be returned after completion.
I write my best code when I'm not under some kind of pressure to deliver the goods.
What to you mean by "pressure"? If someone is going to pay you money to do some work, they have every right to expect it to be done in a reasonable amount of time. Don't expect the employer to wait around until you feel like working on it. If you don't want a deadline, don't sign up for the work.
I disagree that/. has "sold its soul" to advertisers. I don't agree that because/. uses ads, its soul is sold. If/. only posts stories to satisfy its advertisers, then it has "sold out".
The fact that ads are displayed does not mean/. has sold its soul.
You can post an essay to the comments section as long as it is related to the topic at hand.
People have submitted essays to The Taco In Charge and if he thinks they are good enough, he will post them on the main page.
I suppose what you are looking for is a way to post essays that will get posted somewhere (like a new slashbox) with no editorial judgement to initial suitability. It could be useful, but it would need moderation as to how well it was written, as well as moderation of the comments.
Most of the CAD world runs on AutoCad, despite encroachment by some third parties
I wouldn't say most of the CAD world runs AutoCAD. AutoCAD is very popular, especially with smaller companies. Pro Engineer is also very popular and has more capabilities.
Boeing uses Catia, and I hear that automotive companies use Catia also.
much as it pains me every single time i realize it, i'm afraid that i have to report that once again you're picking value out of vapor and getting all excited about something that, as always, isn't exciting or new at all.
Picking value out of vapor, or at least greatly exaggerating the importance of something to the point of where it will "take over the world" or it will "change everything" seems to be his preferred method of finding something to write about. I think he is desperate to find the "next big earth shattering thing" and be renowned the world over as the first to see it, the only one smart enough to find it, the only one brilliant enough to recognize it.
It would be one thing to write the same editorial with the tone of "this is interesting, I wonder how far it could go". Jon seems to prefer the "Eureka! I've found it! I'll change the world!! I saw it first!!!" tone when he finds something interesting.
So how can you preclude the possibility of AI? The "soul" argument is rubbish. We ourselves are proof that intelligence can arise from inanimate matter. So why can't we create it ourselves?
The fact that we exist, and out bodies are made up of inanimate matter does not prove that intelligence can come from inanimate matter. Our existence does not prove how souls are created and "connected" to our bodies. Since you don't believe in souls, how can you explain the concept of the "mind", or self awareness, or the concept of "me" in relation to inanimate matter. At what point do you become self aware? How many cells have to be connected together before you can think?
These are very difficult questions that people wrestle with, but no definite secular answers are available. I believe this is because we are created, and we do not have the power to understand how it all works.
As to the question of why can't we create it ourselves? I don't think we will ever see true "artificial intelligence" as people imagine it. We don't have the power or ability to create it. We can create increasingly complex programs and "robots", but they will never be an "artificial" man created sentient being.
I believe you have got it exactly right. Somebody didn't expect this behavior, then said it must be "emergent"!! I didn't think of it first!!! How can it happen except by magic^H^H^H^H^Hemergence!!
NOT better performance by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 04, @03:16PM EDT I have the computerworld article, in print, and in both the text and in a little side box it says that the Linux Beowulf performs 80% as fast as the SP2. In other words, the SP2 is 125% faster then the 32 node Beowulf.
Ummm.... Shouldn't you have said that the SP2 is 25% faster than the Beowulf? Where did you get 125%?
By my sample calculations, if the SP2 runs at a "speed" of 100, and the Beowulf at 80, then the Beowulf is 80% as fast as the SP2 (80/100)*100 = 80%
However, to see how much "faster" the SP2 is, do a percent difference calculation:
((100-80)/80)*100 = 25%
OTOH, 80*1.25 = 100, so the SP2 is 1.25 times as fast, but not 125% faster.
The software industry has gotten away with not being accountable for bugs other than the threat of someone not buying it anymore. I think it is a byproduct of the immaturity of the industry and probably won't last for long for important applications.
What's drawing everybody on Slashdot to this is just what's drawing the rest of us to it: It's a crack in the walls of reality. A month ago, you could've gone to 100 Americans and described these events in Colorado, and then described Martians landing in New Jersey. More people would have bought the story about Martians. This is not much less of an blow to our worldview than anti-gravity or extraterrestrials. Somebody instantiated a bad dream, and it's real. Those kids are really dead. Real blood, right there on TV, but without P. J. Soles and a Ramones soundtrack.
Are you saying that in your worldview death does not occur? Evil is non-existent? The unexplainable doesn't happen? Seems like a problem with your worldview (and you are not alone).
I think all the "how could it happen?" questions are a similar reaction to yours.
Sorry John, you are getting carried away again and making some clueless statements.
It starts with:
Each generation has the right to determine its own culture.
No it doesn't. You are confusing "rights" and "freedoms". A right is a specific type of political entity granted (in the case of the US) in the US Constitution. It is true that kids usually define their own culture, but it is not a "right". People generally tend to use the term "rights" because of the weighty connotations and implicit demand for acceptance it carries with it.
No generation has the right to dictate to another what its culture ought to be, or to degrade its choices as stupid and offensive.
This is nonsense! A cultures choices can be stupid and offensive and should be honestly labled as such. It could be said that "gang culture" accepts violence and death as acceptable. This should rightfully be labled as evil. You seem to imply that all cultures are equal. I don't agree. No culture has the "right" to exist.
And: freedom. Why does the First Amendment end at the school door, when many kids, especially geeks, have spent much of their lives in the freest part of American culture - the Internet? Online, people can speak about anything: dump on God, talk about sex, flame pundits, express themselves politically and rebelliously. In school, no one can.
The First Amendment doesn't end at the school door. First, you don't understand what the First Amendment means (and you aren't the only one). The First Amendment gives you the freedom to criticize and speak out about the government without fearing to be thrown in jail. It does not give you the freedom to say anything you want.
Finally: access to popular culture and to the Internet isn't a privilege. It's a right.
Total and utter nonsense. This type of statement may win fans from the high school crowd, but that doesn't make it true.
I do agree that there is some over-reacting, but it will fade as the hysteria fades. Life isn't perfect, get over it.
Your whole article seems to shout "I want to do what I want and the mean old people won't let me! Waaaaaaaah!!!!!!"
You can look different if you want, it is a freedom, but not a right. Learning is not always "fun" and just because you are learning math by a book and lecture, and not by pointing-and-clicking, this doesn't mean that books and teachers are useless or an invalid way of learning. Don't be so immature as to demand that everyone cater to your whims and make everything "fun and exciting" just for you.
I think your reasoning on these issues is very immature and worded to score points with high school kids. It doesn't really fly once you think about it past the surface. I'm 26 now, but I did think in similar selfish immature ways when I was in high school.
Here is a quote to ponder:
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Slashdot Mirror
You are assuming a slippery slope phenomenon that if anything gets banned, all will get banned. I don't think this is necessarily a danger. Libraries can still be an educational resource without providing porn to kids. Libraries can set up computers in a seperate area with no restrictions for adults to use.
Libraries are a public resource paid for by everyone. Those parents who don't want porn available to their kids have a valid concern and shouldn't be dismissed automatically.
You can't really stop people from sending flames, but the authors can stop posting their email addresses so they don't have to listen to it. It will be too bad if that happens because we won't be able to correct misinformed authors as easily.
His call for better quality is echoed by many /. readers and others who use computers. I think people were more willing to accept flaws in the OS in the past because the technology was new and under very rapid development. The OS producers were (and still are) exploring what they can do, and the market is still exploring what it wants.
As computers have now become more common in daily life, the importance of quality becomes more important. Would you accept the same type of failure rates in your car as you would your computer?
The software industry will produce the quality of product that the market will accept. It costs time and money for quality control, so the industry will generally not spend any more money than is necessary to satisfy the market. (insert rant about monopolies, lack of competition, etc)
Aside: Notice the big push in many other industries for ISO 9000 quality procedures?
As we demand more quality and vote with our checkbooks, the industry will be forced to do better.
Duh. Does any airplane go to Mir if you point it up?
What happens if I reach an altitude of 50000ft and then run out of fuel?
Duh^2 This thing may not be able to reach an altitude of 50,000 ft. I didn't see a service ceiling listed. If you run out of fuel, you do what any plane does: glide in as best you can.
If cops get surface-to-air missiles, then they may have to offer a stealth option.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software packages (for stress analysis) all have FORTRAN at thier core, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software also has FORTRAN at its core. I would dare say most hard core engineering simulation and analysis software has FORTRAN doing the heavy lifting. C/C++ is used for the user interfaces, but FORTRAN gets the job done.
I am a mechanical engineer and I took FORTRAN, but the university I went to just removed the requirement for mechanical engineers to take FORTRAN because of the maturity and availability of software like MathCAD and Matlab which will do a good job of crunching numbers for the everyday general engineering work that most people do. Writing programs in FORTRAN used to be your only option.
It takes the mature involvement of adults (parents & teachers) to to break up the "horrible class structures" and prevent things from getting out of hand. Sadly, mature involvement from adults is getting more rare every day.
Basically they know we give a fuck. Nice choice of words. Very professional image.
Somebody started posting those stupid 1,2,.... messages on the Slashdot notes story about the changes in moderation. It is really a waste of moderator points to have to bump down clearly stupid messages intended as moderator bait. Rob (or a chosen person) should have full access to remove those messages so moderator points don't have to be used.
One of the good things about the volunteers writing free software is that developers can come and go as their interest inspires them. A bug can be fixed or a new feature added by a newcomer just as well (?) as a member of the original core group.
I think that with these contracting arrangements new developers will not wander along and help out. The original core group (or person) will work on it until it is done. I didn't see any mention of how to compensate someone who jumps in at the last minute and fixes a bug or adds the final feature. How would the latecomer be compensated? I would guess that the core group will not change for the life of the project.
If the projects span a few weeks or months, then the group size will not have time to change. I think of KDE or Gnome where developers are more likely to come and go and contribute widely varying amounts of code to the project.
The idea that all bugs are shallow given enough eyeballs doesn't say if the eyeball that found/fixed the bug was a member of the core group of developers. A newcomer could have found/fixed it.
This may not even be a big deal, I don't know.
You could still accept money for the work, just require the company to give you a workstation for the duration of the project to be returned after completion.
What to you mean by "pressure"? If someone is going to pay you money to do some work, they have every right to expect it to be done in a reasonable amount of time. Don't expect the employer to wait around until you feel like working on it. If you don't want a deadline, don't sign up for the work.
I disagree that /. has "sold its soul" to advertisers. I don't agree that because /. uses ads, its soul is sold. If /. only posts stories to satisfy its advertisers, then it has "sold out".
/. has sold its soul.
The fact that ads are displayed does not mean
You can post an essay to the comments section as long as it is related to the topic at hand.
People have submitted essays to The Taco In Charge and if he thinks they are good enough, he will post them on the main page.
I suppose what you are looking for is a way to post essays that will get posted somewhere (like a new slashbox) with no editorial judgement to initial suitability. It could be useful, but it would need moderation as to how well it was written, as well as moderation of the comments.
Most of the CAD world runs on AutoCad, despite encroachment by some third parties
I wouldn't say most of the CAD world runs AutoCAD. AutoCAD is very popular, especially with smaller companies. Pro Engineer is also very popular and has more capabilities.
Boeing uses Catia, and I hear that automotive companies use Catia also.
It would be one thing to write the same editorial with the tone of "this is interesting, I wonder how far it could go". Jon seems to prefer the "Eureka! I've found it! I'll change the world!! I saw it first!!!" tone when he finds something interesting.
These are very difficult questions that people wrestle with, but no definite secular answers are available. I believe this is because we are created, and we do not have the power to understand how it all works.
As to the question of why can't we create it ourselves? I don't think we will ever see true "artificial intelligence" as people imagine it. We don't have the power or ability to create it. We can create increasingly complex programs and "robots", but they will never be an "artificial" man created sentient being.
I believe you have got it exactly right. Somebody didn't expect this behavior, then said it must be "emergent"!! I didn't think of it first!!! How can it happen except by magic^H^H^H^H^Hemergence!!
Ummm.... Shouldn't you have said that the SP2 is 25% faster than the Beowulf? Where did you get 125%?
By my sample calculations, if the SP2 runs at a "speed" of 100, and the Beowulf at 80, then the Beowulf is 80% as fast as the SP2 (80/100)*100 = 80%
However, to see how much "faster" the SP2 is, do a percent difference calculation:
((100-80)/80)*100 = 25%
OTOH, 80*1.25 = 100, so the SP2 is 1.25 times as fast, but not 125% faster.
The software industry has gotten away with not being accountable for bugs other than the threat of someone not buying it anymore. I think it is a byproduct of the immaturity of the industry and probably won't last for long for important applications.
It is good to see some sanity and maturity in this debate.
. ......ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
I would write a long message, but I'm getting bored.....the...world.....must....entertain....me
Are you saying that in your worldview death does not occur? Evil is non-existent? The unexplainable doesn't happen? Seems like a problem with your worldview (and you are not alone).
I think all the "how could it happen?" questions are a similar reaction to yours.
Sorry dude, it is a national hobby. Lawyers and "victims" get rich off of it every day. They are just practicing for payday.
It starts with:
No it doesn't. You are confusing "rights" and "freedoms". A right is a specific type of political entity granted (in the case of the US) in the US Constitution. It is true that kids usually define their own culture, but it is not a "right". People generally tend to use the term "rights" because of the weighty connotations and implicit demand for acceptance it carries with it.
This is nonsense! A cultures choices can be stupid and offensive and should be honestly labled as such. It could be said that "gang culture" accepts violence and death as acceptable. This should rightfully be labled as evil. You seem to imply that all cultures are equal. I don't agree. No culture has the "right" to exist.
The First Amendment doesn't end at the school door. First, you don't understand what the First Amendment means (and you aren't the only one). The First Amendment gives you the freedom to criticize and speak out about the government without fearing to be thrown in jail. It does not give you the freedom to say anything you want.Total and utter nonsense. This type of statement may win fans from the high school crowd, but that doesn't make it true.
I do agree that there is some over-reacting, but it will fade as the hysteria fades. Life isn't perfect, get over it.
Your whole article seems to shout "I want to do what I want and the mean old people won't let me! Waaaaaaaah!!!!!!"
You can look different if you want, it is a freedom, but not a right. Learning is not always "fun" and just because you are learning math by a book and lecture, and not by pointing-and-clicking, this doesn't mean that books and teachers are useless or an invalid way of learning. Don't be so immature as to demand that everyone cater to your whims and make everything "fun and exciting" just for you.
I think your reasoning on these issues is very immature and worded to score points with high school kids. It doesn't really fly once you think about it past the surface. I'm 26 now, but I did think in similar selfish immature ways when I was in high school.
Here is a quote to ponder:
1 Corinthians 13:11