I think they have not removed the button, but rather removed the rest of the mouse, so to speak. So it's one big button, and when you press it, it should click just like a regular mouse button.
Your premise is wrong. Since bad patents hurt all companies, the pro-corporate stance would be to oppose them. So even if ESR is so one-dimensionally pro corporate as you say, it wouldn't mean what you think.
Besides, isn't ESRs opinions on patents well known? He's not usually coy about his opinions.
Without having read the article, it sounds like you could just show it in a local thatre once before you publish on the net, and then you'd be clean.
It happens. Apples famous "1984" commercial was actually shown once, on an obscure station once in the middle of the night, in late december 1983, so it would be eligeble for the award for that year.
Sorry, you need a pretty much world wide ocean in order to get tides. The Mars moons are tiny, but the sun causes a modest tide, so that's not the problem.
When Alexander the great reached the Indian Ocean while conquering the known world, his sailors had very big problems with the tide, since it does not exist even in the Mediterranean Sea, which is quite big, and has a connection to the Ocean.
The tides in a mud pool on a planet with much weaker tide forces would be a billion or so times smaller. (Not that I've made any calculations.)
Moving the seat of the company does not require moving all Seattle employees to Vancouver, just like the Banglaore Microsoft employees have to be in Seattle now. These are world wide companies.
You just move the upper managment, probably a few hundred people, and the rest of the company keeps running as usual. Ericsson moved it's HQ from Stockholm to London recently in this manner.
So I heard CmdrTaco plugging Lain some weeks ago, and bought the first DVD.
I found it real slow and weird. I'm fine with weird. Love Twin Peaks. But this was so slow and boring. In a way, it felt like it hadn't really started.
Am I just not Lain material, or does it pick up later in the series?
> Removing rent control won't build more apartments,
Here the argument falls apart. Of course higher rents will make building (or otherwise make availabe) apartments more profitable. Since we seem to agree that landlords are driven by profit, this should not be controversial.
An other effect is that higher rents will make more people share apartments, thus housing more people even if not a single new apartment is built.
The rest of the argument rests on this faulty premise, and can thus be dismissed.
You critizise people who just assert that supply and demand mechanisms apply. And that's a valid point. But just asserting that they don't work is no better. I'd even say it's worse, since those basic economic laws do apply quite well in most situations. So the burden of proof would seem to be on those claiming that housing is an exception.
1. I think you're right to some extent, but it's a problem that can be dealt with. It's not any worse than other fee-for-service operations run by governments. Ideally, the roads would be privately owned.
I would be happy to pay more if I could drive at full speed.
2. There is technology already in operation that allows metering a car in traffic without even having it slow down. Each car needs to install a gizmo for that to work.
> How many thousands of acres of top quality land in the Valley is tied up in freeways and roads?
One answer is "not nearly enough".
Don't confuse SV with LA. The powers here don't like automobiles, and won't build roads (or in SF, even parking). Instead they spend zillions on light rail etc that nobody ever uses.
Now, you are also right in a fashion.
The real and only traffic solution is to start charging for using the roads. That is, charging money for each time you drive on a road.
Right now it is completely free to drive on roads, a limited resource. As we know very well from all other areas in life, anything that is given away for free is overconsumed. Price is the only mechanism that can make supply and demand meet. As long as it is not used, traffic problems will continue.
I know that we pay for roads through several taxes. That is not the point. These taxes hit everybody driving on any road at any time and any place. For these taxes to clear up rush our, they would have to pretty much close down traffic in the rest of California. I'm talking about things like having one price at 9am and a much lower at 4am. It might cost $10 to cross the Bay Bridge at rush hour, but most rural roads would do fine with a few cents a day.
It's just normal capitalism. Why not give it a chance?
Regarding the other major SV problem, all I have to say is LEGALIZE HOUSING!!!
This discussion is so hopeless that we don't even have a word for what's being discussed.
Or perhaps we do have the word "copy", but it's hardly being used.
We're still using word from a physical world even in this virtual reality. Calling copying "theft" or "theft plain and simple" is objectively wrong. The difference from theft is that the owner doesn't lose his good if it gets copied, as he would if it gets stolen.
I don't mean to imply that copying is good, just that calling it "theft", "murder" or "speeding" does not help with a meaningful discussion. Using the same word for different things can only result in confusion.
So they demanded and got a verbatim transcript. Fine.
But is there anything stopping slashdot from putting up the interview as a sound file so we can hear it? I think it would be easier to follow if heard.
The principle behind it is that artists should be able to make as much money as they want from their product, while everyone else should be forced to pay for it.
This is way out in cuckoo-land. If artists could make as much money as they wanted, don't you think that
1. They'd want much more than what they make now? 2. Everybody would become an artist?
I thought it was an amazing book the first time. Changed my life. Last time I read it I wasn't as impressed. I thought he was plain wrong in some of what he said. I like to think I've grown.
I'm also thrilled by finding out how things work. I guess I just pick my battles differently than you. You remind me (probably unfairly) of the hippies who wanted to get back to basics and grow their own food, produce everything with their own hands etc. That can be fun, but it leads to a pretty primitive life. Advanced technology becomes impossible with this outlook. Again, that's probably not your personal outlook.
You clearly enjoy your way of doing things, and I enjoy mine. Fine.
I don't think I'm in the minority on/., but we'll never know.
Actually horses are very complicated. And humans are even more complex both than horses (or Linux for that matter). Still most people have relatively few problems interfacing to humans.
So it's clear that regular people can interact with very complex entities, if the interface is right.
A simple phone call that your retarded uncle has no problems completing can get routed across any number of systems in different continents, run by many differenet companies. The signal can travel across copper wire, optic fibre, radio, satellite link or trans oceanic cables, in both analog and digital form, using several protocols.
The system he accesses has cost several thousand billions to build, and employs millions of people.
Complexity wise, a personal computer is just a pet rock in comparision.
Would you be comfortable driving around in something which you didn't have the first clue about how it worked?
Yes, and I do this every day. I'm into software, not hardware.
I wouldn't drive your supercar if it meant I couldn't look under the hood.
That's pretty absurd to me. Do you apply the same standard to your TV, dishwasher, plumbing, vacuum cleaner, radio, alarm clock, etc? I don't know how to fix any of these, and I happily use them all the time. I have no idea when I would sleep if I tried to learn how all that stuff works.
I live to get things done, not learn miniscule details about every every object in my environment. If you do, fine, I hope you have good time. Really.
But don't think you speak for all/. geeks. Coz you just plain don't.
Funny enough, I've read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 4 times.
You could have life that spent most of it's time as spores or seeds, and only got active and reproducing when the temperature got just right.
And that's just one idea I got in a second. Imagine what evolution could come up with after billions of years.
I think (and correct me somebody if I'm wrong) that here on earth we find that wherever there is the slightest chance for life to exist, it has found some crazy way to make use of an environment.
Yeah, nothings gonna live IN the lava itself obviously. It doesn't on earth either, and we do pretty well.
The article states that temperatures go down to -160, so there is every temperatur in between available. Sounds great for life, if perhaps not for building cities.
Slashdot Mirror
So what I hear here is that girls forsake highly paid careers in fields they are well suited for, just to avoid being around me and my likes?
I see. At least we now have a use for nanotechnology: Examining my self esteem!
I think they have not removed the button, but rather removed the rest of the mouse, so to speak. So it's one big button, and when you press it, it should click just like a regular mouse button.
But we shall see.
For chissakes, the G3 gets by on 5 anyway, but the Apple does not have significantly more battery life than a comprable P3.
You're kinda right, but they do get to use the same processors in the laptops as in the desktops, so where this shows is in the laptop performance.
You just have to buy them yourself. I use the M$ optical mouse with a wheel. Love it, except that's it died last week.
OK, it's $40-50 more to spend.
Your premise is wrong. Since bad patents hurt all companies, the pro-corporate stance would be to oppose them. So even if ESR is so one-dimensionally pro corporate as you say, it wouldn't mean what you think.
Besides, isn't ESRs opinions on patents well known? He's not usually coy about his opinions.
Without having read the article, it sounds like you could just show it in a local thatre once before you publish on the net, and then you'd be clean.
It happens. Apples famous "1984" commercial was actually shown once, on an obscure station once in the middle of the night, in late december 1983, so it would be eligeble for the award for that year.
It looks pretty odd.
Sorry, you need a pretty much world wide ocean in order to get tides. The Mars moons are tiny, but the sun causes a modest tide, so that's not the problem.
When Alexander the great reached the Indian Ocean while conquering the known world, his sailors had very big problems with the tide, since it does not exist even in the Mediterranean Sea, which is quite big, and has a connection to the Ocean.
The tides in a mud pool on a planet with much weaker tide forces would be a billion or so times smaller. (Not that I've made any calculations.)
Moving the seat of the company does not require moving all Seattle employees to Vancouver, just like the Banglaore Microsoft employees have to be in Seattle now. These are world wide companies.
You just move the upper managment, probably a few hundred people, and the rest of the company keeps running as usual. Ericsson moved it's HQ from Stockholm to London recently in this manner.
So I heard CmdrTaco plugging Lain some weeks ago, and bought the first DVD.
I found it real slow and weird. I'm fine with weird. Love Twin Peaks. But this was so slow and boring. In a way, it felt like it hadn't really started.
Am I just not Lain material, or does it pick up later in the series?
> Landlords will demand whatever they can get.
Yes.
> Removing rent control won't build more apartments,
Here the argument falls apart. Of course higher rents will make building (or otherwise make availabe) apartments more profitable. Since we seem to agree that landlords are driven by profit, this should not be controversial.
An other effect is that higher rents will make more people share apartments, thus housing more people even if not a single new apartment is built.
The rest of the argument rests on this faulty premise, and can thus be dismissed.
You critizise people who just assert that supply and demand mechanisms apply. And that's a valid point. But just asserting that they don't work is no better. I'd even say it's worse, since those basic economic laws do apply quite well in most situations. So the burden of proof would seem to be on those claiming that housing is an exception.
My comments...
1. I think you're right to some extent, but it's a problem that can be dealt with. It's not any worse than other fee-for-service operations run by governments. Ideally, the roads would be privately owned.
I would be happy to pay more if I could drive at full speed.
2. There is technology already in operation that allows metering a car in traffic without even having it slow down. Each car needs to install a gizmo for that to work.
3. Ideally all roads would be tolled.
> How many thousands of acres of top quality land in the Valley is tied up in freeways and roads?
One answer is "not nearly enough".
Don't confuse SV with LA. The powers here don't like automobiles, and won't build roads (or in SF, even parking). Instead they spend zillions on light rail etc that nobody ever uses.
Now, you are also right in a fashion.
The real and only traffic solution is to start charging for using the roads. That is, charging money for each time you drive on a road.
Right now it is completely free to drive on roads, a limited resource. As we know very well from all other areas in life, anything that is given away for free is overconsumed. Price is the only mechanism that can make supply and demand meet. As long as it is not used, traffic problems will continue.
I know that we pay for roads through several taxes. That is not the point. These taxes hit everybody driving on any road at any time and any place. For these taxes to clear up rush our, they would have to pretty much close down traffic in the rest of California. I'm talking about things like having one price at 9am and a much lower at 4am. It might cost $10 to cross the Bay Bridge at rush hour, but most rural roads would do fine with a few cents a day.
It's just normal capitalism. Why not give it a chance?
Regarding the other major SV problem, all I have to say is LEGALIZE HOUSING!!!
This discussion is so hopeless that we don't even have a word for what's being discussed.
Or perhaps we do have the word "copy", but it's hardly being used.
We're still using word from a physical world even in this virtual reality. Calling copying "theft" or "theft plain and simple" is objectively wrong. The difference from theft is that the owner doesn't lose his good if it gets copied, as he would if it gets stolen.
I don't mean to imply that copying is good, just that calling it "theft", "murder" or "speeding" does not help with a meaningful discussion. Using the same word for different things can only result in confusion.
So they demanded and got a verbatim transcript. Fine.
.mp3 file.
But is there anything stopping slashdot from putting up the interview as a sound file so we can hear it? I think it would be easier to follow if heard.
You don't have to make it an
But that's OK when it's this extremely Funny!
The principle behind it is that artists should be able to make as much money as they want from their product, while everyone else should be forced to pay for it.
This is way out in cuckoo-land. If artists could make as much money as they wanted, don't you think that
1. They'd want much more than what they make now?
2. Everybody would become an artist?
I thought it was an amazing book the first time. Changed my life. Last time I read it I wasn't as impressed. I thought he was plain wrong in some of what he said. I like to think I've grown.
/., but we'll never know.
I'm also thrilled by finding out how things work. I guess I just pick my battles differently than you. You remind me (probably unfairly) of the hippies who wanted to get back to basics and grow their own food, produce everything with their own hands etc. That can be fun, but it leads to a pretty primitive life. Advanced technology becomes impossible with this outlook. Again, that's probably not your personal outlook.
You clearly enjoy your way of doing things, and I enjoy mine. Fine.
I don't think I'm in the minority on
I'm impressed. Didn't think the technology was that good.
...in you sleep.
It could happen!
Actually horses are very complicated. And humans are even more complex both than horses (or Linux for that matter). Still most people have relatively few problems interfacing to humans.
So it's clear that regular people can interact with very complex entities, if the interface is right.
A simple phone call that your retarded uncle has no problems completing can get routed across any number of systems in different continents, run by many differenet companies. The signal can travel across copper wire, optic fibre, radio, satellite link or trans oceanic cables, in both analog and digital form, using several protocols.
The system he accesses has cost several thousand billions to build, and employs millions of people.
Complexity wise, a personal computer is just a pet rock in comparision.
Would you be comfortable driving around in something which you didn't have the first clue about how it worked?
/. geeks. Coz you just plain don't.
Yes, and I do this every day. I'm into software, not hardware.
I wouldn't drive your supercar if it meant I couldn't look under the hood.
That's pretty absurd to me. Do you apply the same standard to your TV, dishwasher, plumbing, vacuum cleaner, radio, alarm clock, etc? I don't know how to fix any of these, and I happily use them all the time. I have no idea when I would sleep if I tried to learn how all that stuff works.
I live to get things done, not learn miniscule details about every every object in my environment. If you do, fine, I hope you have good time. Really.
But don't think you speak for all
Funny enough, I've read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 4 times.
If we look around at the non-computing world, do we see any simple AND powerful products in the hands of Average Joe?
Sure. They're everywhere, you just don't think of them as powerful since they'e got the UI worked out so well.
Obvious examples are the car and the phone system.
You could have life that spent most of it's time as spores or seeds, and only got active and reproducing when the temperature got just right.
And that's just one idea I got in a second. Imagine what evolution could come up with after billions of years.
I think (and correct me somebody if I'm wrong) that here on earth we find that wherever there is the slightest chance for life to exist, it has found some crazy way to make use of an environment.
Yeah, nothings gonna live IN the lava itself obviously. It doesn't on earth either, and we do pretty well.
The article states that temperatures go down to -160, so there is every temperatur in between available. Sounds great for life, if perhaps not for building cities.