I face the same thing with color correction in digital video. Most people react positively when I up the saturation a skosh. It almost irritates me sometimes, but it's their baby. It's our nature--we like things "at eleven."
We don't need to "learn" from this, really. it's perfectly OK in our society to take pride in our achievements and to try to gain from them. Unless you're truly self-actualized (as another poster astutely pointed out), we're all subject to certain realities and desires. After all, monetary reward can enhance your ability to do more good. As Hunter S. Thompson once said, "feed the body or the head will die." There's no shame in that. I find it interesting though, that some artists and scientists seem to exist on another plane altogether.
True math genius and the desire for money (and fame and babes, etc.) seem to be mutually exclusive traits and I think that's rather inspiring (and damned practical).
Take the case of Paul Erdos who was essentially homeless, but published over 1500 papers and is considered one of the all time greats in the field.
Perelman just casually posted his solution out to the web in much the same way that some of the most brilliant posts on/. come form "anonymous cowards" sitting in their offices at MIT. What a god.
Not a surprise really. Oxford University recently announced that Beaker will be delivering the inaugural lecture for this year's Department of Biochemistry Distinguished Lecture Series. Rumor has it he will address "Neuro-imaging and Neuropathological Studies of Mood Disorders in Primates." Although not widely known, Beaker's contributions to science have far outweighed his achievements in the field of entertainment.
Oops--forgot to untick "anonymous." I've got 6 at the moment and I'd be happy to give 'em out to slashdotters. If you don't hear from me, then I ran out. I need a name and an e-mail address.
Indeed. Scotty is one personage who is worthy of posts on slashdot that contribute nothing more than a "me too." The character that he so vividly created is a part of every American geek's cultural heritage and even though he was an actor as opposed to a real engineer, I'll bet he inspired a great many of the older posters here in their formative years. The spirit of Scotty lives in every "can do" engineer, sysadmin, coder and rocket scientist out there.
Though his body may fail him, his personality, utter magnanimity and talent will live on forever. I salute him. He is truly a geek's geek.
Friends, geeks, slashdotters, lend me your bandwidth; I come to bury Netscape, not to praise it; The evil that AOL does lives after it, The good is oft interréd with their bones, So let it be with Netscape....
Bah. I'm underwhelmed. It actually looks pretty ungainly to me with that tall pedestal base (not exactly an ergonomic delight unless you're a giraffe). I'd prefer a mod of the Holiday model if anything, but I'm afraid I'm with the angry Predicta collectors on this one. Must make 'em wince to see Windows 2000 leering out at them when it should be Lucille Ball.
As "Torrents," the BSA Copyright Weasel sez, "even absurdly hobbled but copywritten, paid-for software is way cooler than that yucky pirate and OSS stuff, kids!"
Uh, sorry to double up, but BTW: LIVESTRONG is Lance Armstrong's Cancer Survivor non-profit. That yellow armband that you see on John Kerry's wrist--it's related to this. If you are a MAC (couldn't resist) fanboi, please give a few bucks in Steve's name.
Ha! I actually laughed aloud at the OS2 reference--and yeah, I predicted their demise then too and by all rights I should have been correct. I was an early and heavy user (through an employer), but that's another thread.
Having a sort of "dual" price structure though, I think, is a more serious crack in the dike even than making a foolish "vision" call (OS2).
I'm sure that MS will eventually shape-shift to fit a changing marketplace (MSLinux (TM) maybe), but clearly this kind of easy manipulation on the part of customers does not bode well for the status quo.
One small setback for Linux; one giant leap down the slippery slope for MS.
If this sort of thing isn't direct evidence of the sure eventual demise of the Business Model as Bill Knows It, then I don't know what is.
"Thank you for calling Microsoft Corporate Sales--in order to direct your call, please enter 1 on your touchtone phone if you are oblivious to Linux. Enter 2 if you have priced a Linux solution for your enterprise. Enter 3 if you have considered a Linux operating system..."
In the article, it was suggested that disk-based media players like the iPod aren't immediately threatened by this "death spiral" (unlike flash-based players which could rapidly become toast as phones eclipse their abilities) and that got me thinking about the root problem of customer expectations. The cell phone companies clearly blew an opportunity when they initially treated the hardware as a loss leader. It's hard to get that genie back in the bottle. People today will pay for a crap flash MP3 player or low-to-medium-end digital camera, but balk at paying a premium for a mobile phone with loads of features.
Perhaps a marketer like Apple can break through with an enhanced phone product that will create a demand that outweighs the current expectation on the part of consumers that phone hardware is free (as in beer) or nearly free. This is right up Apple's alley.
The Motorola deal may be a trial balloon for Apple. Imagine the full capacity and function of the mini iPod married to a full-featured phone. Add to this the stylish design that Apple would strive to achieve and I think you have something that can break this "death spiral."
I guess "cool hack" is in the eyes of the beholder. To me, this sounds like a kludge (the Pocket PC, gadget and iPod). And all for what? That tired old, barely useful remote control "hack."
I'm glad "sending a radio message back will take centuries," because I'm not sure that a response back of "humans on earth, eh? we'll be right over," is a Good Thing (TM).
Slashdot Mirror
Mod daddy up.
I face the same thing with color correction in digital video. Most people react positively when I up the saturation a skosh. It almost irritates me sometimes, but it's their baby. It's our nature--we like things "at eleven."
As Balzac said, "there goes another novel."
We don't need to "learn" from this, really. it's perfectly OK in our society to take pride in our achievements and to try to gain from them. Unless you're truly self-actualized (as another poster astutely pointed out), we're all subject to certain realities and desires. After all, monetary reward can enhance your ability to do more good. As Hunter S. Thompson once said, "feed the body or the head will die." There's no shame in that. I find it interesting though, that some artists and scientists seem to exist on another plane altogether.
Hmmmm. Is your IP 18.72.0.3?
True math genius and the desire for money (and fame and babes, etc.) seem to be mutually exclusive traits and I think that's rather inspiring (and damned practical).
/. come form "anonymous cowards" sitting in their offices at MIT. What a god.
Take the case of Paul Erdos who was essentially homeless, but published over 1500 papers and is considered one of the all time greats in the field.
Perelman just casually posted his solution out to the web in much the same way that some of the most brilliant posts on
Not a surprise really. Oxford University recently announced that Beaker will be delivering the inaugural lecture for this year's Department of Biochemistry Distinguished Lecture Series. Rumor has it he will address "Neuro-imaging and Neuropathological Studies of Mood Disorders in Primates." Although not widely known, Beaker's contributions to science have far outweighed his achievements in the field of entertainment.
Oops--forgot to untick "anonymous." I've got 6 at the moment and I'd be happy to give 'em out to slashdotters. If you don't hear from me, then I ran out. I need a name and an e-mail address.
Indeed. Scotty is one personage who is worthy of posts on slashdot that contribute nothing more than a "me too." The character that he so vividly created is a part of every American geek's cultural heritage and even though he was an actor as opposed to a real engineer, I'll bet he inspired a great many of the older posters here in their formative years. The spirit of Scotty lives in every "can do" engineer, sysadmin, coder and rocket scientist out there.
Though his body may fail him, his personality, utter magnanimity and talent will live on forever. I salute him. He is truly a geek's geek.
Apparently so.
Yepper. That was one of the best responses I've ever read on slashdot.
Friends, geeks, slashdotters, lend me your bandwidth;
I come to bury Netscape, not to praise it;
The evil that AOL does lives after it,
The good is oft interréd with their bones,
So let it be with Netscape....
Luxury! In my day we used Windows 2000 on a lame Predicta vintage TV casemod!
Bah. I'm underwhelmed. It actually looks pretty ungainly to me with that tall pedestal base (not exactly an ergonomic delight unless you're a giraffe). I'd prefer a mod of the Holiday model if anything, but I'm afraid I'm with the angry Predicta collectors on this one. Must make 'em wince to see Windows 2000 leering out at them when it should be Lucille Ball.
Mmmmmm. Apparently, monkeys aren't just for breakfast anymore!
As "Torrents," the BSA Copyright Weasel sez, "even absurdly hobbled but copywritten, paid-for software is way cooler than that yucky pirate and OSS stuff, kids!"
And IMO, it's unlikely we'll see it there 5 years from now either.
That's the joke I "couldn't resist," moron.
Uh, sorry to double up, but BTW: LIVESTRONG is Lance Armstrong's Cancer Survivor non-profit. That yellow armband that you see on John Kerry's wrist--it's related to this. If you are a MAC (couldn't resist) fanboi, please give a few bucks in Steve's name.
Your virus definitions (DAT files) were last updated June 09, 2004, and may be out of date. Please download and install new ones as soon as possible.
/Users/steve/pancreas/* /Users/steve/pancreas/cells.org...
/Users/steve/pancreas/* ... 50 ... 49 ... 0 ... 1
Your virus definitions were last updated on July 21, 2004, and appear to be up to date.
Cleaning Scan started at 2004-08-01 20:04:43 -0700Scanning
Scanning file
Summary report on
File(s)
Total files:
Clean:
Not scanned:
Cleaned:
Congratulations, Steve jobs! Huzzah! LiveSTRONG!
Ha! I actually laughed aloud at the OS2 reference--and yeah, I predicted their demise then too and by all rights I should have been correct. I was an early and heavy user (through an employer), but that's another thread.
Having a sort of "dual" price structure though, I think, is a more serious crack in the dike even than making a foolish "vision" call (OS2).
I'm sure that MS will eventually shape-shift to fit a changing marketplace (MSLinux (TM) maybe), but clearly this kind of easy manipulation on the part of customers does not bode well for the status quo.
One small setback for Linux; one giant leap down the slippery slope for MS.
If this sort of thing isn't direct evidence of the sure eventual demise of the Business Model as Bill Knows It, then I don't know what is.
"Thank you for calling Microsoft Corporate Sales--in order to direct your call, please enter 1 on your touchtone phone if you are oblivious to Linux. Enter 2 if you have priced a Linux solution for your enterprise. Enter 3 if you have considered a Linux operating system..."
In the article, it was suggested that disk-based media players like the iPod aren't immediately threatened by this "death spiral" (unlike flash-based players which could rapidly become toast as phones eclipse their abilities) and that got me thinking about the root problem of customer expectations. The cell phone companies clearly blew an opportunity when they initially treated the hardware as a loss leader. It's hard to get that genie back in the bottle. People today will pay for a crap flash MP3 player or low-to-medium-end digital camera, but balk at paying a premium for a mobile phone with loads of features.
Perhaps a marketer like Apple can break through with an enhanced phone product that will create a demand that outweighs the current expectation on the part of consumers that phone hardware is free (as in beer) or nearly free. This is right up Apple's alley.
The Motorola deal may be a trial balloon for Apple. Imagine the full capacity and function of the mini iPod married to a full-featured phone. Add to this the stylish design that Apple would strive to achieve and I think you have something that can break this "death spiral."
I guess "cool hack" is in the eyes of the beholder. To me, this sounds like a kludge (the Pocket PC, gadget and iPod). And all for what? That tired old, barely useful remote control "hack."
This would be a boon for HD video workflows. I should think it would be attractive to companies like Pixar and the like.
I'm glad "sending a radio message back will take centuries," because I'm not sure that a response back of "humans on earth, eh? we'll be right over," is a Good Thing (TM).