Astounding! Science, based on principles of falsification, experimentation and a culture of building on the work of others, continues to advance! Amazing! Each advance proves previous work wrong!
For science to *really* hit the nail on the head, it clearly needs to stagnate, thus ceasing to refine old works.
Okay, every registered user gets 1 vote on each wikipedia page version. If they like a particular version, they 'vote' for it. If they like an update, they move their vote to the new version (if they care).
That way, when a page is defaced, new users just don't update their vote, and the new page isn't seen.
Only people who care will ever vote, so the page versions will be voted for by people who love and care for the topic. Unpopular edits will simply never be seen.
In cases like this, where a problem is more groupwise than individual, it can be hard to solve. The situation is that the I.T. dept do not feel accountable, and prefer to pursue their own goals and practises, whatever they may be.
The best solution is new blood in the I.T. dept, preferably lots of it. If that can't be achieved, a hard line from management can help. Sometimes, even that's not enough. If the dept are still (somewhat) fulfilling their function, then it's hard to edge them out based on simple frustration. They just fall back on "we do what we can/should", which is exactly what they want.
I often deal with this kind of problem, and it's incredibly frustrating. As I have no real power in my org, I mostly have to just live with it, and do the best for myself. But if you have the backing, shining a light on the problem (preferably a light which reflects things in dollar terms, an unusual piece of the EM spectrum), may help.
Alternatively, there's the "just do it" approach. Buy a development server, do whatever the hell you want without asking, and wait for them to start screaming when the most important systems start to move outside their sphere of control. Wag the dog a bit.
Cheers,
-MP
I am also surprised to read this statistic. I wonder whether specific market areas are considered. At every place that I've worked in, there have been multiple linux boxes both in the server room and on the desktop. Granted, sometimes they were all mine, but they were still *there*.
The other alternative, of course, is that linux uptake in North America is actually *really high*. I wouldn't describe the Aus uptake as high, just as a significant minority. I've seen more linux boxes than Mac boxes, for example, but both are dominated by Windows.
We have a number of initiatives to promote open-source software, and governments actively encourage its use within its departments. Often not so much at a the middle-management level as the actual managers don't understand it, but at the state and federal policy levels.
Cheers,
-BM
There is no such word as Orangutang, that's why. The word is Orangutan. It comes from Indonesian / Malay, meaning man of the forest (I think it was forest). "Orang" means person, and utan means forest (or whatever it means).
Cheers,
-BM
This is a potential weakness for any wiki system -- how come it doesn't happen to wikipedia, or the one on my PC?
I've got two guesses : server-side smarts, and automation.
1) What do you think is easier when combating wiki spam? Rejecting edits faster than 1-per-minute, putting on a static front page and requiring registration to make edits, or alternatively, correcting all problems yourself?
2) What do you think is more likely - thousands of rampaging geeks will all be bothered inserting link referral schemes, or that one rampaging geek wrote a bot that your system is too dumb to stop?
Wikipedia seems to self-defend reasonably well, and my home system uses uncommon software, so isn't an easy victim to automation.
I think it's a shame to see it go down, myself. Isn't there anything us geeks could do to save it?
Cheers,
-BM
I think that if I could live and work on an Island paradise, I might enjoy doing just that. The idea of leaving the city, living in a small community of techno-geeks, hot tourists, great seafood, wireless access and my own thatched-roof bungalo sounds mighty attractive. If it paid well, I think it would be perfect!
Until the next Tsunami of course.
I could live beside the ocean
And leave this life behind
Swim out past the breakers
And watch the world die...
Cheers,
-T
This is clearly ridiculous. The GPL protects people selling derived IP, not things produced with GPL licensed tools.
If you sell a document, you are not profiting by selling the font or any derivative of that font.
Any suggestion that you are is like suggesting you can't write a commercial web page which is served by apache. Clearly this is just a stupid ploy by people who like to overstate the reach of the GPL.
The python-based ReportLab Free library looks like it can achieve anything that could be done with Acrobat writer. Someone, I'm sure, could create a clone, or even an improved version. I was considering using it serv-er-side to capture web documents distributed under creative commons, watermark it with the license and distribute them as discrete persistent documents as the basis for an online library.
But then lunch hour was over, and I never came back to it.
You know, I think Americans care way more about respect --- or at least authority than us Aussies do. I don't think the managers here in Australia are any less competent than the managers in the US, but let me tell you, nobody gives anyone who even *looks* like they are in a position of authority much respect round here.
If I see a young guy in a suit, I just think "photocopy jockey in a law firm", pat down my t-shirt and laugh. I have never seen one in a bank, because frankly, actually going to banks is something they did in old movies. If you want me to move off the couch (or off the tennis court!) then you'll need something better than a suit to make me do it.
One does need to command respect, but authority is not a guarantee. In fact, the few people in authority who I do respect, I respect all the more for managing to maintain integrity and competence in such a negative environment.
CDs and DVDs don't explode when my computer does.
Mostly, my DVD collection defines me as a person. If I just wanted to watch them, I could rent them way cheaper. Apart from the imports, of course. Mostly I just want to express myself, and that means putting my DVDs on display so that other people can interpret me through my collection.
-BM
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?"
said Dr. Ferris.
"We want them broken....There's no way to rule innocent men. The only
power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well,
when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many
things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without
breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there
in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be
observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted -- and you create a
nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's
the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it,
you'll be much easier to deal with."
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Ch. III, "White Blackmail"
I run a blog, posting is daily when I'm feeling good, about 4 times a week when I'm being slack. I get no money from it, and haven't signed up to any spamvertising of any kind. It gives me the irits. I have a job job, and I don't think getting 25c for every thousand clicks is a very good deal myself. Hey, if I blot out all my content, maybe once a year I could buy myself lunch...
Interestingly, some people use spamvertising as a way to generate blog hits. The idea is that more people want wangler-tiddlers than want to read a blog, so you get hits by carrying text advertising that kind of stuff, especially if you're lucky enough to have a pageranking site.
But damn the man. This is my revolution, and damned if I'm going to televise it. If you decide you want to hear what I've got to say, you're just going to have to give up mind-numbing pop overtures, glitzy flashing text and feel-good instabuy pieces of impulse plastic. I do NOT come in installments.
Seems to be/.'ed before the first post even (which I'm sure I'm about to be pipped to).
I remember those awesome lego days of my childhood with huge displays in the big dept stores.... no longer. Seems to be pre-moulded crap these days. Good on him.
The thing about the IP laws is that none of our politicians seem to have noticed it. They're not saying things like "We fully support DMCA and extended copyright" or "It sucks balls, but it's less important than making more money selling exports" or holding any kind of position at all. I honestly don't think they noticed. And when we point it out to them, I think their eyes mostly just glaze over - it's just convention, right?
Sigh.
I wonder how this deals with issues of international law. I can actually see a kind of usefulness when proving copyright etc which might go beyond simple fascism, and be genuinely useful. It would be nice if it were optional though!
Slashdot Mirror
Astounding! Science, based on principles of falsification, experimentation and a culture of building on the work of others, continues to advance! Amazing! Each advance proves previous work wrong! For science to *really* hit the nail on the head, it clearly needs to stagnate, thus ceasing to refine old works.
Okay, every registered user gets 1 vote on each wikipedia page version. If they like a particular version, they 'vote' for it. If they like an update, they move their vote to the new version (if they care).
That way, when a page is defaced, new users just don't update their vote, and the new page isn't seen.
Only people who care will ever vote, so the page versions will be voted for by people who love and care for the topic. Unpopular edits will simply never be seen.
-BM
In cases like this, where a problem is more groupwise than individual, it can be hard to solve. The situation is that the I.T. dept do not feel accountable, and prefer to pursue their own goals and practises, whatever they may be. The best solution is new blood in the I.T. dept, preferably lots of it. If that can't be achieved, a hard line from management can help. Sometimes, even that's not enough. If the dept are still (somewhat) fulfilling their function, then it's hard to edge them out based on simple frustration. They just fall back on "we do what we can/should", which is exactly what they want. I often deal with this kind of problem, and it's incredibly frustrating. As I have no real power in my org, I mostly have to just live with it, and do the best for myself. But if you have the backing, shining a light on the problem (preferably a light which reflects things in dollar terms, an unusual piece of the EM spectrum), may help. Alternatively, there's the "just do it" approach. Buy a development server, do whatever the hell you want without asking, and wait for them to start screaming when the most important systems start to move outside their sphere of control. Wag the dog a bit. Cheers, -MP
I am also surprised to read this statistic. I wonder whether specific market areas are considered. At every place that I've worked in, there have been multiple linux boxes both in the server room and on the desktop. Granted, sometimes they were all mine, but they were still *there*. The other alternative, of course, is that linux uptake in North America is actually *really high*. I wouldn't describe the Aus uptake as high, just as a significant minority. I've seen more linux boxes than Mac boxes, for example, but both are dominated by Windows. We have a number of initiatives to promote open-source software, and governments actively encourage its use within its departments. Often not so much at a the middle-management level as the actual managers don't understand it, but at the state and federal policy levels. Cheers, -BM
Could someone please tell me *how* to disable ping? Cheers, -BM
Since when has AJAX been a Microsoft thing? It's simply not. You can have AJAX on any number of environments.
There is no such word as Orangutang, that's why. The word is Orangutan. It comes from Indonesian / Malay, meaning man of the forest (I think it was forest). "Orang" means person, and utan means forest (or whatever it means). Cheers, -BM
This is a potential weakness for any wiki system -- how come it doesn't happen to wikipedia, or the one on my PC? I've got two guesses : server-side smarts, and automation. 1) What do you think is easier when combating wiki spam? Rejecting edits faster than 1-per-minute, putting on a static front page and requiring registration to make edits, or alternatively, correcting all problems yourself? 2) What do you think is more likely - thousands of rampaging geeks will all be bothered inserting link referral schemes, or that one rampaging geek wrote a bot that your system is too dumb to stop? Wikipedia seems to self-defend reasonably well, and my home system uses uncommon software, so isn't an easy victim to automation. I think it's a shame to see it go down, myself. Isn't there anything us geeks could do to save it? Cheers, -BM
I think that if I could live and work on an Island paradise, I might enjoy doing just that. The idea of leaving the city, living in a small community of techno-geeks, hot tourists, great seafood, wireless access and my own thatched-roof bungalo sounds mighty attractive. If it paid well, I think it would be perfect! Until the next Tsunami of course. I could live beside the ocean And leave this life behind Swim out past the breakers And watch the world die... Cheers, -T
This is clearly ridiculous. The GPL protects people selling derived IP, not things produced with GPL licensed tools. If you sell a document, you are not profiting by selling the font or any derivative of that font. Any suggestion that you are is like suggesting you can't write a commercial web page which is served by apache. Clearly this is just a stupid ploy by people who like to overstate the reach of the GPL.
The python-based ReportLab Free library looks like it can achieve anything that could be done with Acrobat writer. Someone, I'm sure, could create a clone, or even an improved version. I was considering using it serv-er-side to capture web documents distributed under creative commons, watermark it with the license and distribute them as discrete persistent documents as the basis for an online library. But then lunch hour was over, and I never came back to it.
You know, I think Americans care way more about respect --- or at least authority than us Aussies do. I don't think the managers here in Australia are any less competent than the managers in the US, but let me tell you, nobody gives anyone who even *looks* like they are in a position of authority much respect round here. If I see a young guy in a suit, I just think "photocopy jockey in a law firm", pat down my t-shirt and laugh. I have never seen one in a bank, because frankly, actually going to banks is something they did in old movies. If you want me to move off the couch (or off the tennis court!) then you'll need something better than a suit to make me do it. One does need to command respect, but authority is not a guarantee. In fact, the few people in authority who I do respect, I respect all the more for managing to maintain integrity and competence in such a negative environment.
I'd love to see one, and also to know more about the structural statistics of this thing...
CDs and DVDs don't explode when my computer does. Mostly, my DVD collection defines me as a person. If I just wanted to watch them, I could rent them way cheaper. Apart from the imports, of course. Mostly I just want to express myself, and that means putting my DVDs on display so that other people can interpret me through my collection. -BM
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?"
said Dr. Ferris.
"We want them broken....There's no way to rule innocent men. The only
power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well,
when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many
things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without
breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there
in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be
observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted -- and you create a
nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's
the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it,
you'll be much easier to deal with."
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Ch. III, "White Blackmail"
AR har har har. Okay, so I actually laughed, but it was still a lame joke!
Can they give me my own country code? I'm from Australia...
I run a blog, posting is daily when I'm feeling good, about 4 times a week when I'm being slack. I get no money from it, and haven't signed up to any spamvertising of any kind. It gives me the irits. I have a job job, and I don't think getting 25c for every thousand clicks is a very good deal myself. Hey, if I blot out all my content, maybe once a year I could buy myself lunch... Interestingly, some people use spamvertising as a way to generate blog hits. The idea is that more people want wangler-tiddlers than want to read a blog, so you get hits by carrying text advertising that kind of stuff, especially if you're lucky enough to have a pageranking site. But damn the man. This is my revolution, and damned if I'm going to televise it. If you decide you want to hear what I've got to say, you're just going to have to give up mind-numbing pop overtures, glitzy flashing text and feel-good instabuy pieces of impulse plastic. I do NOT come in installments.
Seems to be /.'ed before the first post even (which I'm sure I'm about to be pipped to).
I remember those awesome lego days of my childhood with huge displays in the big dept stores.... no longer. Seems to be pre-moulded crap these days. Good on him.
The thing about the IP laws is that none of our politicians seem to have noticed it. They're not saying things like "We fully support DMCA and extended copyright" or "It sucks balls, but it's less important than making more money selling exports" or holding any kind of position at all. I honestly don't think they noticed. And when we point it out to them, I think their eyes mostly just glaze over - it's just convention, right? Sigh.
Ah. Excellent point, thanks for explaining. That I can understand...
What part of the word wire do I not understand? My keyboard is attached to my PC with a wire. Don't know about yours...
All your prints are belong to us
I wonder how this deals with issues of international law. I can actually see a kind of usefulness when proving copyright etc which might go beyond simple fascism, and be genuinely useful. It would be nice if it were optional though!
That just has to break some kind of privacy law ... just has to!
fp?