I say we flood government servers with the Slashdot effect. When they ask us why we felt compelled to melt their servers just to prove a point or to make our voices heard, we can show them how such an act relates to our inability to access our email accounts in a reasonable manner.
I didn't check the box for my crappy, "no one has ever heard of this shitty web site" admin email account for a week and half. I had to wait for over an hour for 3000+ emails to download, erase, and expunge. Take a look at this screenshot from a while back: check the Evolution progress meter!
That buildup was from only 5 days worth of spam.
You speak the truth, sensei
on
Who Owns Science?
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Ain't that the truth. Just think about the legions of people that still think our Earth to be 6,000 years old, or do not understand the fundamentals of evolution, or who still harbor belief in scietific impossibilities like ghosts, or blatant myths like efreets and virgins giving birth to supermen that can walk on water. The world is suffering from a severe lack of scientific education and frankly, any little bit helps.
It's like that old saying "Anyone can experience and learn astronomy, all you have to do is look up". Well, not really, but you get the idea. Now all you have to do is hit the plos journals. This is tremendous news to me. As it stands now, I have to go downtown to the university library in order to read the latest Science journals. That, or pay way to much for my favorates, especially certain technology related journals. If this all pans out, the progression of man can be shared and enjoyed by all, not just by those with access ('$') to the "closed sources".
I went with DSL out of convienance. At the time of the broadband revolution, cable was light years from my area. However, there is a switching station litterally 250 feet from my apartment, so I went with DSL. At such a close proximity to the switch, I enjoy constant speeds in excess of what many of my cable-using friends get. Of course, in theory, they should be recieving much better performance then I with their cable, but that is hardly the case in my city for some reason.
I'm one of those people that didn't think that the space station was a good use of NASA funds to begin with. I am a space buff, having been inspired to promote the exploration of space by the late Carl Sagan, but I just think that the funding would have been better spent in different areas. Having a lab outside of the atmosphere has obvious advantages, true, but spending billions on robotic research, research drones to the outer planets, and/or manned missions to Mars instead would have been more fruitful, IMH-astronomy education coming from Barnes and Nobles-O.
I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but this doesn't suprise me. We go through cycles of how much personal freedom and individualism we enjoy. Right now, with all that has happened in the past decade (the past two years especially), we are at a point of increased privacy loss and nationalism. We as a people will tire of it, it will become unpopular in politics and business, and then we will enjoy another round of increased freedoms.
This country has only existed for a little over two hundred years, afterall. Time will tell how it will at play out. Let's just hope that we don't end up like SOVIET RUSSIA.
This sentiment can be compared to many open source initiatives, especially Linux.
I haven't worked in many companies (I'm only 23), but, there is an example here that I can draw from my tiny experience: web related technologies and their associated databases, and how that relates to Linux and open source.
In a large company like mine, database clients, the OSs to run them, and the databases that they serve are, together, big business indeed. To serve about 700 people of all manner of trade using one unified client system is tough. You have people that need to make hundreds of transactions a day, and people that need to use this data to connect to yet other clients to arrange services from yet other clients. You need increased IT staff that must manage it and use it themselves, and automation people that must keep it running and add needed and unforseen features. For such a solution, both my previous company and the one I work for now chooses PeopleSoft.
Companies like PeopleSoft and their associated vendors love Microsoft and other proprietary vendors. They push Win2k for the desktops,.NET for the developers, and SQL for the database. This is because with this combination, they can force you into a static model (predictable and simple for them) that is easy for them to control. The assured future upgrades of more Microsoft technologies will keep them involved, because their solution only works with it, and will "evolve" with it (I.E. they make their new products more efficient with future Microsoft technologies). They can also sell you these MS products and the consultation needed to implement them because they are vendors of them themselves. No need to go to the Microsoft salesman for "the latest and greatest" when PeopleSoft can just "throw it all in together".
My previous company was ready to spend 1.5 million on PeopleSoft, 500k for Microsoft technologies needed to run it, and hire three programmers and admins to keep it all going for the next 3 years. I saved them about 500k by showing them how I could replace the PeopleSoft "solutions" to run on Linux terminals and simple PHP/mySQL clients that could be used from a web browser. Many Win2k licenses were avoided, many PeopleSoft licenses were avoided, many SQL licenses were avoided, and any 1rst year CS student could tailor my code in the future (I.E. out source a programmer for a week at a time).
The reason why I only saved them 500k and not the full 2 million (plus new staff)? Because the PeopleSoft salespeople have very slippery tongues, and talked the suits into using it at about a 60-65% distribution model (compared to the old 100% model). The local PeopleSoft guy still hates me for showing my old bosses that, with just a little know how and open source, you could replace their crap with highly efficient and simple tools at a fraction of the cost. In this case, nothing, since I didn't recieve any extra money for my time - only my usual salary.
My company is still very profitable, so my Christmas bonus remains the same: profit sharing into the 401k of about 5% your yearly salary, as well as a bonus check that equals your usual 2-week pay. I love my CEO - just not in that way.
The only moral objections against pornography comes from certain religious belief systems or cultural taboos. Humans procreate in order to further the species, there is nothing wrong with enjoying that act, partaking in it as much as possible (responsibly), or by glorifying it.
My statement excludes Japanese porn, of course. I don't mind watching an attractive and nimble Asian lady take it from behind while partially wearing a Catholic school girl's uniform, I just hate the part when the octopus demon slithers on screen and takes a dump on her forehead. There is something very wrong with that.
Before Nemesis, I had never seen an actual Star Trek movie. I have only seen an episode of the newest version, and as a kid I saw about 10 episodes of "The Next Generation". So, as someone without any pre-disposition to like or dislike the film, here goes:
I thought that over all, it was a good scifi movie. It had the visuals, cools toys, and special effects that looked good. The acting was actually far better then I thought it was going to be, especially the bad guy Shinwa (or however they were saying the name) and Picard. The way that the film makers made you think about origins and the way one turns out in life was cool. However, I had a hard time believing that a human that grew up with a bunch of aliens would have an English accent, but whatever. He was still a dark and ominous character.
I do remember some of the series plotlines and character relationships, so it was nice to see the way that some of them have evolved. This aspect seemed well done, especially when you consider that this is the last film. I also liked the way that Data went out, that was pretty suprising.
" Perhaps everyone's just switching to Linux and playing games on their console?"
Just another person saying "me too". I don't like the idea of having to pay an arm and a leg for an inferior operating system that I have no control over, have to worry about licenses on my fucking home computer, and start juggling anti-virus software and personal firewall applications, just to play games. I used to do just that (albiet shortly), with Windows 98 and Redhat.
But, I suppose I wised up. Now I just run RH 8 on my PC. No license fees, it was only $40 (yes, I do pay for my copies), and I don't need a bunch of other applications running on top of it just to keep me safe and running OK. As an added bonus, I get all of my productivity software for free or for much, much less.
I no longer buy PC games unless they are Linux ports. I don't like any game company that only develops or licenses for the Windows platform. I know that they have to make a living, but fuck 'em, that's just my opinion. I have turned down jobs that pay more (in some cases $5,000 more a year) then I make now because the job entailed using Microsoft technologies or furthering their monopoly. If I, the little guy, can win out with my concious and reject a few extra thousand to prevent evil from spreading, then so can they. For games I now have my GameCube and my Gameboy Advance, and I'm happy.
Food for thought: The GameCube with 2 games and the Gameboy Advance with a battery adaptor all together cost me far less then a copy of Microsoft Office and Windows XP would have - especially in the long run.
"I wonder how many other [projects] have been delayed because the developers didn't bother to ask anyone if there were already wheels out there while they tried to invent their own."
..to actually buy the Linux version once it hits shelves (or more then likely, the stock of your favorate online retailer). Without support for their efforts, Bioware won't throw money towards future ports.
...that porting the infinity engine would allow to rapidly make mods and expansions - Linux only expansions. Also, official expansion packs could easily be ported, probably very near to the actual date of the Windows release.
...chosen to port the infinity engine games. All of the games are basically the same in terms of design and what not, you port one you port them all. And obviously, most Linux users are the geeky kind: we like RPG's, and I would bet alot of money that half of the people reading Slashdot right now own an Infinity engine game.
This topic is on fire. While the embers cool on this wildly interesting and thought provoking story that has, in may ways, changed my life, take a look at some other related reading: Nintendo's corporate IP statement. Oodles of fun. Nintendo sues you, be it state side or Soviet Russia.
...take the little Cappuciono PC and fill it with top notch hardware, place nice USB ports on the front, make a memory card slot on the front to hold 128 meg chips for game saves, then market it as a "PC game console".
The 5 Reasons Why We Overeat: How to Develop a Long-Term Weight-Control Plan That's Right for You by Cynthia G. Last
Last's superb guide enables the reader to identify which "eating profile" they fall into, and thereby select the weight-loss strategy appropriate to them. With my wife, who really let herself go quite some time ago, "Remorseless Grazer" covers most of the angles - and to know this is to be prepared. I found it easy to read and well thought out, and we certainly need it after Marjorie ballooned massively over our two week Second Honeymoon.
I'll take the comments of anonymous idiots (like me) from around the world into consideration before buying a product. Considering that many people hinge a purchasing decision on just one or two comments from close friends, wouldn't it be wiser to take your friend's comments into consideration and then weigh them against the marketing hype and the legions of anonymous people out there? How many people have tried Linux because of Slashdot? How many people have bought a game because of words said in the Penny Arcade! forum?
My father bought one of these and I, of course, had to help him set it up. After configuring it and playing with it for about an hour and a half, I can say this: it is nothing more then a really big Palm Pilot with laptop hardware and the attrocious Windows XP OS. And like a Palm, it only appears to recognize what you're writing 85-90% of the time.
I don't know, I'm a Linux user that codes PHP as a hobby and still runs a P3 600, but my take on these tablet PCs is that they are for moms and dads that have money to blow and are easily drawn to shiny things.
""Free" is eventually replaced by a higher-quality paid service;
I bet Microsoft wishes that they lived in this magical, fantastic world that O'Reilly finds himself him. Then life would be easier for them. Fortunately, "free" usually becomes much better then paid for, marketing driven products.
I never bought into the whole "if it's a big name product, it much be far superior in quality" when buying simple home electronics (excluding Radio Shack hardware, of course). I have owned plenty of no-name TVs, an Apex DVD player, a few old no-name VCRs, "universal" remotes that I can't recall if they even had a brand name on the packaging, etc. None of it ever went bad, and many, like the Apex DVD player, actually offerred a ton more features then $200 Toshiba or Sony gear.
Alot of the electronics in a $75 DVD player is just as reliable as the components found in a $250, shiny silver deal with a great big animated LCD on it and a million buttons. The same goes for most electronics, be it the controller for a laser printer or some random PCB in a VCR.
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't check the box for my crappy, "no one has ever heard of this shitty web site" admin email account for a week and half. I had to wait for over an hour for 3000+ emails to download, erase, and expunge. Take a look at this screenshot from a while back: check the Evolution progress meter!
That buildup was from only 5 days worth of spam.
Ain't that the truth. Just think about the legions of people that still think our Earth to be 6,000 years old, or do not understand the fundamentals of evolution, or who still harbor belief in scietific impossibilities like ghosts, or blatant myths like efreets and virgins giving birth to supermen that can walk on water. The world is suffering from a severe lack of scientific education and frankly, any little bit helps.
It's like that old saying "Anyone can experience and learn astronomy, all you have to do is look up". Well, not really, but you get the idea. Now all you have to do is hit the plos journals. This is tremendous news to me. As it stands now, I have to go downtown to the university library in order to read the latest Science journals. That, or pay way to much for my favorates, especially certain technology related journals. If this all pans out, the progression of man can be shared and enjoyed by all, not just by those with access ('$') to the "closed sources".
I went with DSL out of convienance. At the time of the broadband revolution, cable was light years from my area. However, there is a switching station litterally 250 feet from my apartment, so I went with DSL. At such a close proximity to the switch, I enjoy constant speeds in excess of what many of my cable-using friends get. Of course, in theory, they should be recieving much better performance then I with their cable, but that is hardly the case in my city for some reason.
I'm one of those people that didn't think that the space station was a good use of NASA funds to begin with. I am a space buff, having been inspired to promote the exploration of space by the late Carl Sagan, but I just think that the funding would have been better spent in different areas. Having a lab outside of the atmosphere has obvious advantages, true, but spending billions on robotic research, research drones to the outer planets, and/or manned missions to Mars instead would have been more fruitful, IMH-astronomy education coming from Barnes and Nobles-O.
This country has only existed for a little over two hundred years, afterall. Time will tell how it will at play out. Let's just hope that we don't end up like SOVIET RUSSIA.
I haven't worked in many companies (I'm only 23), but, there is an example here that I can draw from my tiny experience: web related technologies and their associated databases, and how that relates to Linux and open source.
In a large company like mine, database clients, the OSs to run them, and the databases that they serve are, together, big business indeed. To serve about 700 people of all manner of trade using one unified client system is tough. You have people that need to make hundreds of transactions a day, and people that need to use this data to connect to yet other clients to arrange services from yet other clients. You need increased IT staff that must manage it and use it themselves, and automation people that must keep it running and add needed and unforseen features. For such a solution, both my previous company and the one I work for now chooses PeopleSoft.
Companies like PeopleSoft and their associated vendors love Microsoft and other proprietary vendors. They push Win2k for the desktops, .NET for the developers, and SQL for the database. This is because with this combination, they can force you into a static model (predictable and simple for them) that is easy for them to control. The assured future upgrades of more Microsoft technologies will keep them involved, because their solution only works with it, and will "evolve" with it (I.E. they make their new products more efficient with future Microsoft technologies). They can also sell you these MS products and the consultation needed to implement them because they are vendors of them themselves. No need to go to the Microsoft salesman for "the latest and greatest" when PeopleSoft can just "throw it all in together".
My previous company was ready to spend 1.5 million on PeopleSoft, 500k for Microsoft technologies needed to run it, and hire three programmers and admins to keep it all going for the next 3 years. I saved them about 500k by showing them how I could replace the PeopleSoft "solutions" to run on Linux terminals and simple PHP/mySQL clients that could be used from a web browser. Many Win2k licenses were avoided, many PeopleSoft licenses were avoided, many SQL licenses were avoided, and any 1rst year CS student could tailor my code in the future (I.E. out source a programmer for a week at a time).
The reason why I only saved them 500k and not the full 2 million (plus new staff)? Because the PeopleSoft salespeople have very slippery tongues, and talked the suits into using it at about a 60-65% distribution model (compared to the old 100% model). The local PeopleSoft guy still hates me for showing my old bosses that, with just a little know how and open source, you could replace their crap with highly efficient and simple tools at a fraction of the cost. In this case, nothing, since I didn't recieve any extra money for my time - only my usual salary.
Such is life.
My company is still very profitable, so my Christmas bonus remains the same: profit sharing into the 401k of about 5% your yearly salary, as well as a bonus check that equals your usual 2-week pay. I love my CEO - just not in that way.
My statement excludes Japanese porn, of course. I don't mind watching an attractive and nimble Asian lady take it from behind while partially wearing a Catholic school girl's uniform, I just hate the part when the octopus demon slithers on screen and takes a dump on her forehead. There is something very wrong with that.
I thought that over all, it was a good scifi movie. It had the visuals, cools toys, and special effects that looked good. The acting was actually far better then I thought it was going to be, especially the bad guy Shinwa (or however they were saying the name) and Picard. The way that the film makers made you think about origins and the way one turns out in life was cool. However, I had a hard time believing that a human that grew up with a bunch of aliens would have an English accent, but whatever. He was still a dark and ominous character. I do remember some of the series plotlines and character relationships, so it was nice to see the way that some of them have evolved. This aspect seemed well done, especially when you consider that this is the last film. I also liked the way that Data went out, that was pretty suprising.
Just another person saying "me too". I don't like the idea of having to pay an arm and a leg for an inferior operating system that I have no control over, have to worry about licenses on my fucking home computer, and start juggling anti-virus software and personal firewall applications, just to play games. I used to do just that (albiet shortly), with Windows 98 and Redhat.
But, I suppose I wised up. Now I just run RH 8 on my PC. No license fees, it was only $40 (yes, I do pay for my copies), and I don't need a bunch of other applications running on top of it just to keep me safe and running OK. As an added bonus, I get all of my productivity software for free or for much, much less.
I no longer buy PC games unless they are Linux ports. I don't like any game company that only develops or licenses for the Windows platform. I know that they have to make a living, but fuck 'em, that's just my opinion. I have turned down jobs that pay more (in some cases $5,000 more a year) then I make now because the job entailed using Microsoft technologies or furthering their monopoly. If I, the little guy, can win out with my concious and reject a few extra thousand to prevent evil from spreading, then so can they. For games I now have my GameCube and my Gameboy Advance, and I'm happy.
Food for thought: The GameCube with 2 games and the Gameboy Advance with a battery adaptor all together cost me far less then a copy of Microsoft Office and Windows XP would have - especially in the long run.
Happens at my company once every month or so.
..to actually buy the Linux version once it hits shelves (or more then likely, the stock of your favorate online retailer). Without support for their efforts, Bioware won't throw money towards future ports.
...that porting the infinity engine would allow to rapidly make mods and expansions - Linux only expansions. Also, official expansion packs could easily be ported, probably very near to the actual date of the Windows release.
...chosen to port the infinity engine games. All of the games are basically the same in terms of design and what not, you port one you port them all. And obviously, most Linux users are the geeky kind: we like RPG's, and I would bet alot of money that half of the people reading Slashdot right now own an Infinity engine game.
In communist Korea the trial updates YOU!
This topic is on fire. While the embers cool on this wildly interesting and thought provoking story that has, in may ways, changed my life, take a look at some other related reading: Nintendo's corporate IP statement. Oodles of fun. Nintendo sues you, be it state side or Soviet Russia.
...take the little Cappuciono PC and fill it with top notch hardware, place nice USB ports on the front, make a memory card slot on the front to hold 128 meg chips for game saves, then market it as a "PC game console".
The 5 Reasons Why We Overeat: How to Develop a Long-Term Weight-Control Plan That's Right for You by Cynthia G. Last
Last's superb guide enables the reader to identify which "eating profile" they fall into, and thereby select the weight-loss strategy appropriate to them. With my wife, who really let herself go quite some time ago, "Remorseless Grazer" covers most of the angles - and to know this is to be prepared. I found it easy to read and well thought out, and we certainly need it after Marjorie ballooned massively over our two week Second Honeymoon.
I'll take the comments of anonymous idiots (like me) from around the world into consideration before buying a product. Considering that many people hinge a purchasing decision on just one or two comments from close friends, wouldn't it be wiser to take your friend's comments into consideration and then weigh them against the marketing hype and the legions of anonymous people out there? How many people have tried Linux because of Slashdot? How many people have bought a game because of words said in the Penny Arcade! forum?
I don't know, I'm a Linux user that codes PHP as a hobby and still runs a P3 600, but my take on these tablet PCs is that they are for moms and dads that have money to blow and are easily drawn to shiny things.
I bet Microsoft wishes that they lived in this magical, fantastic world that O'Reilly finds himself him. Then life would be easier for them. Fortunately, "free" usually becomes much better then paid for, marketing driven products.
Microsoft is going about this "taking over the world" thing all wrong. Why don't they just offer Linus 10 billion dollars for the rights to Linux?
Alot of the electronics in a $75 DVD player is just as reliable as the components found in a $250, shiny silver deal with a great big animated LCD on it and a million buttons. The same goes for most electronics, be it the controller for a laser printer or some random PCB in a VCR.
A better, more profitable idea would be to make a cheap-o, 2 GB iPod for $99. Here is the price list: iPod prices. Customer engraving is $19.95.