Seeing a large number of replies so far, it appears that most people seem to see this as some kind of censorship.
I haven't read the article, but the name suggest they will do something similar to how pagerank works, not actually trimming the results, but re-ordering them. It doesn't hide any content, just displays the content that is more likely to be what you want, higher up.
Having read much of what people have to say about this, I think everyone appears to agree that the convoluted mess of packaging systems in linux is a major turn off for users. I know when I first started using linux (mandrake 9, and then RH9), that I was very confused about such things, I considered myself to be quite handy with a computer, but the large multitude of different types of packages, and the inconsistency with which types were available, was a complete nightmare.
What people (Joe Public) want, is to be able to find a piece of software on the internet, while they're searching for what they want. Download a file, run it, and then after that be able to use the software.
They don't want to piss around with dependancies, running scripts, configuring, building, or anything like that. They want to be presented with a few basic options, be able to click next a couple of times, and then its done.
Sysadmins/power users/dA 133735T H4X0RS don't need this, they can cope with./configure && make && make install, they're generally the only people who need different/complicated set ups.
The Joe Public perception of how computers work, isn't in depth enough to go into dependancies/librarys/System folders/etc. This is where I think Complete seperation of the Operating System, and the programs running on it, would be advantageous. Dare I say it, but Windows appears to be better in this area, (I can't compare to OS X, I've never been rich enough to own something that runs it) C:\Program Files\ and C:\Windows\ make sense. Admittedly Microsoft is not very at sticking to this, insisting that programs and the OS need to be locked together, and things that I would consider Applications, end up in the Windows Directory.
It should not be a strict definition between what is physically part of the OS and what is a standalone program, it should be down to the user's perception, of what is an application and what is not.
I think this is where the seperation between different package types would be beneficial. The OS/Distribution could use whatever package style it wanted for the componants of the main operating system. It could also include packages of popular programs, which the user can then choose to install seperately. Or they can download alternative packages which they can install instead.
This appears to be what autopackage is aiming for, I think they're getting it right.
What people who want linux on the desktop need to start pushing for, is something universal for programs to be distributed in, so people can download, click, and go. Without first having to dig through a repository to see if their distribution has a probably out of date copy. Yes, that works for OS bits and pieces, and perhaps services like httpd,ssh,etc. Maybe even hardware drivers. But this should be seperate from any repository for userland programs. So that users can see the distinction.
I started university this year, I took a year our between 6th form (rough UK equiv of High School) and I really enjoyed it, I spent the year working for a large multinational company in the eBusiness section, although much of the work wasn't technically very difficult at all, the experience of simply being in the workplace was fairly enlightening.
However, if you're thinking of taking this route (a year working) make sure you leave plenty of time to travel if you want to, make sure that the work is something related to your chosen area of study (it doesn't need to be that close, just to give you and idea of what kind of jobs you might be looking at, all you really need is a placement in IT somewhere, it will open your eyes enough - assuming you want to do a computing related job). I highly recommend you consider going straight to university however, if your chosen area of study is highly theoretical. I originally was due to study Maths and Computer Science at university, however, I have completely forgotton most of the maths, and consequently lost interest in it, so after the first year is over I will be doing computer science exclusively.
Whatever you do, enjoy yourself, and get some good experience. If you have work experience like that on your CV (an entire years worth in a relevant job) that will kick ass at job interviews, compared to all the straight line academics. You may even find the company you work for during your "studying break";) will ask you to return after uni, and you won't even have to job hunt!
I wish you the best of luck at university/in a job/whatever you choose.
CaptCanuk's Boss's Boss asks: I've been charged with finding a qualified employee to handle Human Resources Matters in our IT department. It appears that all our employees in this area have become to lazy/stupid to do their own job, and insist on outsourcing all of the actual work to India, and all of the research to Ask Slashdot. Help me, I'm too busy to spend 30 seconds looking up the answer.
I could only find a UK link for it, but it seems like it might serve what you want, although I'm not sure about watching TV...
- Built-in TV tuner for watching TV broadcasts
- Built-in MP3 player for downloading music
- Internet Radio for listening to radio stations
- Built-in video camera for taking still photos
- Built-in CCD camera
I'm guessing you know a fair amount about computing and how to use a computer, and that you use a computer at home?
Most children will show an interest in what their parents are doing, simply answer their question truthfully, and show them what you're doing and why. This should be enough to interest them. Perhaps find a simple game they can play. I remember when I was a child of that sort of age (not too long ago), my mum owned a BBC Micro, she showed me how to turn it on, and play some games. We were also introduced to them at school. Playing games like the letter drop (a typing test type program, I'm sure you remember it) and POD (a game which involved a rather bizarre circular creature, who you could instruct to do certain things, typing "POD can run" would cause POD to run across the screen. Rather disturbingly there was also the "POD can explode" command, the people who programmed that for small children were fairly sick!!)
After a while I became more interested, and my mum showed me how to write simple BASIC programs: 10 CLS 20 PRINT "Matthew smells of POO" 30 GOTO 20 (Matthew was my brother, and still being in nappies at the time, it was quite an accurate statement) She showed me how to run different programs, etc. I was about 5 at the time.
The important thing, was that I enjoyed it, had I not shown an interest, she wouldn't have shown me these things.
The best advice I can give (as someone who was recently a child, not someone who has their own!) is:
Wait until they are interested
Otherwise you will just bore them, and they will have no drive to learn about computing.
try a google search for palantir, it can handle multiple audio/video streams and display them all on one screen, there are clients for most platforms I think (but only servers for Linux), and you can show the Local stream on the screen as well. Its not too resource hungry (in my experience).
It doesn't offer any of the conferencing facilities you want, but you there's nothing to prevent you using it for video only, and something else for audio (which may have more control)
You may just want to have 3 different sounding buzzers, connected to the audio streams of each location, so that you can tell the difference between each one, rather than a lockout type system, and a PTT (push to talk) type system for the microphone (buzzer activated when button pushed?) so that you only get the audio stream when you want it.
Surely if you're dead, this is going to be the bit which causes most difficulty... Unless you start taking into account after-lifes and such. In which case you need to consider the fact that there's going to be at least one person (joining you in said after-life) who isn't going to be much of a friend, if/when they find out! I don't fancy spending eternity with someone who has a grudge against me!
You say you learnt most of this yourself? What makes you think your replacement won't be able to do the same?
I'm in a similar situation, I am leaving my job exactly a month from now, my replacement starts on Monday, so I have 1 month to pass over every bit of knowledge I can. However, there is only so much I can do, we are heavily reliant on my replacement being able to adapt and learn things themselves. Even with a crossover period, in support work, there is no guarrantee that you will be able to cover everything (unless you deliberately break things).
Originally I had to prepare for the fact that my replacement would not be starting while I was still working there, so I would have to document things, this is exceptionally difficult, you have no idea how much detail is required, as although they will be competant for the job (we are assuming that interviewing has taken place!), everybody learns in a different way.
You will only need to document things that are out of the ordinary. Think back to all those things where you'd wished there had been someone around to tell you what to do, and write down exactly what you did do. Hope that they pick up everything else themselves.
In preparation for when I leave, I have put together a 2 column table, in the first column I put "things I know" and in the second column I have put the name of the person within the company already who knows most about the tools/situation/problem/error message/process/etc. Hopefully this will help people out, rather than the new guy picking on one person to ask questions, and taking up too much of their time. It will help to spread out the burden of getting the new guy up to speed among everybody once I have left (there's more than 1 month's worth of stuff to learn). It also helps them to get to the right person almost straight away each time.
You think you know too much to document? Think about how you learnt it, can they learn it the same way?
I'm not entirely sure I agree, I think any language is the best language to start with, if it is the easiest language for a project you are interested in.
A couple of times I have just tried to pick up languages other than the ones I already know. Every time I find that I get bored too quickly if I haven't got something to work on which will have a tangiable useful outcome.
The best thing to do, is find a project that she is interested in, and then give her a kick start in the right direction. Show her the language, point at the manuals. Makes sure she starts simple, but still useful. Web scripting is great for this, because it can be really simple, like a quick guestbook script, retrieving and storing some information, or it can be very advanced.
I started out with just some basic web scripting. I was authoring a site and mostly where some kind of dynamic system was necessary I was just using Perl scripts from a free scripts archive. However, my curiosity led me to wonder how these things worked, and I built upon that. I still have lots to learn, and now is the time for me to move away from web based programming/scritping and into something different. All I need is a project, which is both simple and challenging at the same time. I will wait until I get to university for this, and I have some more spare time...
Live action works in some situations, but I'm not sure it will for the Simpsons. The simpsons works really well as a cartoon, as did the flintstones, which was turned into quite a good movie. I am sure there are other examples.
1. Opera
2. Winamp
3. Trillian
4. Nero
5. Open Office Draw
6. MS Office Word and Excel (sorry but, until I get to uni, I don't have time to learn something different)
7. EyeBrowse
8. DOSbox (DOS emulator, for all those old games!!)
9. Worms Armageddon (for wasting time)
10. Norton Antivirus.
The fact that something like this has been reported in "The Sun" really isn't a justifiable reason to believe that it is at all likely to happen. I used to read quite a lot of UK newspapers (I live there) and I have seen this or a very similar story published before, and nothing has ever happened about it. I fully expect the same thing to happen this time.
I am actually in favour of cracking down on people who recklessly break the law, but I think monitoring people's speed this way is not the way to go. For example, I know many people who would not think twice before doing speeds in excess of 50mph in a 30mph limit zone, these people could do with receiving punishment for such a thing. But IMO there is nothing wrong with doing 80/90mph along a country lane in the dark (the safest time - you can see traffic a long way off - and there is much less of it) providing, you, the car and the road can all handle that sort of speed. I would never consider doing speeds in excess of the limit in heavily populated areas. [for those of you who are not aware the speed limit on such roads is 60mph].
If this kind of technology is going to be introduced into vehicles in this country, then fair enough, thats the way its going to be, I think it would certainly take away some of the fun of driving, but in some ways I would rather know that I am being 'watched' constantly rather than having to keep looking to see where the speed camera is hidden.
BTW, WTF!!! is this colour scheme, its kind of maroon and puke yellow. its making me feel quite ill!!!!!
FYI I didn't RTFA - its the sun, there's nothing to read in the sun.
The MOT is a basic roadworthiness test that all UK vehicles have to go through every year (unless they are less than three years old)
I haven't RTFA but my judgement would be that registration infomation would simply be the same as the registration plate displayed on the outside of the car. It would just mean that the car could be indentified in the same way as it can be now, just without the use of complicated number recognition equipment.
There would be exactly the same incentive to keep the registration information up to date, as there is now, and no doubt the process will be exactly the same. You will be required to be the registered owner of the vehicle in order to purchase road tax.
The 33Mhz 486DX you talk about was my introduction to computing at home; I had seen, and used, computers at school (BBC Micro's with BASIC and the good old Acorn) and also seen one at a mates house, but my fascination only really started to grow once I was unleashed on a home system, I still remember when my dad bought a computer game for my mum's birthday, and we had to go out and by some more ram to get it to work, my dad shelled out for 4MB of ram at a price of 125. All this took place when I was just on the underside of 10 years old. Since then I have progressed from someone who just uses computers to play a few games, perhaps write a piece of homework on it. To someone who has a much deeper and more connected experience with computers, with a bit more knowledge of whats going on, and someone who does quite a bit of web-based coding. I have no intention of stopping there either, I fully intend to go on to learn much more about computing and push myself closer to the development side of computing, and such I am going off to university in a years time to study Maths and Computer Science.
Anyway, on to the point of this post, really I intend to give you an insight into the way I envisage computers and the way they fit into our lives in the future. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how I would LIKE computers to fit into my life in the future.
With the rise of the internet and the need for worldwide communication, I can see computers drifting towards much more of a communication tool than anything else, very network based. Computers will replace the phone and postal services (Couriers taking over for packedges and very important hard copys of documents) Having a central message center for the house, which will collect your e-mails and voice calls in one place, probably with the addition of video calling. And the computer offering and answer phone service as well. However, I envisage this being no more than just simply a server for this information, with many applications around the house displaying this information. I can imagine every household member having a PDA type device which will interface with this "data-centre" (wirelessly - of course) and provide everyone with their own personal connection. This *could* also work when people are out of the house, as mobile phones seem to be moving closer to PDAs nowadays.
I can see Computers as mostly as an information device, with nothing more than a simple screen and possibly a keyboard/mouse in each room. Personally I think the mouse will die out and we will move more to touch screens, and gestures for doing things. I think there will be a place for voice recognition, but only for simple commands. Why Dictate and E-mail when just as easily the computer will call the other person up and you can have a face to face (possibly video) conversation.
I think that, although they would/could run though the same screen/Input devices gaming would shift more to consoles. I think that many thinks will be centralised. With more than one system in one place delivering content to multiple places. There would be a primary communications machine, and then possibly one (or more - depending on the usage levels) gaming systems which would all be able to deliver their services to any where in the house.
I can also envisage home automation becoming much more popular. Lighting/appliances/heating/etc. being controlled by computer, imagine sitting watching TV and realising you may have left the oven on, or forgotten to flush the toilet, then just doing it right from your seat. Some things even becoming automatic, ligthing being a good example already in use, but these things would ultimately be entirely controllable by a UI interface (or indeed command line - if you like that sort of thing)
I don't see computers ever talking back to us, I know features will always rule supreme, without bug fixing ever being top priority, but this is the way things go. I can see security becoming a much bigger issue than it is at the moment.
...it was because it can, should there be any use for cursive then it should survive, if there is no use for it, it will die.
People should not be worried about it dying, we will get around the problem, and probably become more efficient at the same time
Nearly two years ago I gave up writing cursive, and started writing in block capitals, a few of my teachers at the time questioned this move, they all said that it would slow me down, and dissadvantage me in exams. Admittedly it was slower to start with, but now I write just as fast as I used to cursively, and it never dissadvanteged me at all, I am quick in exams anyway, and it actually made my writing MUCH easier to read, I was fairly illegible before.
Providing kids can produce something legible on paper, during a power cut, I see no problems.
Geeks are often very uncomfortable in situations where they don't have any idea what the outcome will be (me included), they are often used to a situation where there is an Option labled "Save" or "Save as..." so that risky situations are not quite as risky any more, as there is a fallback to a position where there is no record of the mistake other than in the mind of the geek themself.
Geeks are generally looking much more for a relationship, and not just a quick shag on the backseat of a car. This (as far as I can work out) is also more preferable to women. Unfortunately many women are scared of the whole geek stereotype of very poor interpersonal skills, which is quite frequently not the case. True, most geeks are not very good at communicating face to face with other people, particularly people they do not know very well, but most are excellent at communicating though other means.
I have now been going out with my girlfriend just over a week (doesn't sound like long, but it has only been 'official' for a week, we have been really close for a couple of months. She knew I was a geek and I have a feeling that it had something to do with her orginally talking to me. I have since (orignally meeting her) discovered that she too is a geek and that we have a LOT in common.
Just because you are a geek it does not necessarily mean you will find it harder to find a partner. Just remember that In order to get anywhere there has to be a certain amount of risk, and you should probably take it if you think you have a chance! What's the worst that can happen?
Slashdot Mirror
Seeing a large number of replies so far, it appears that most people seem to see this as some kind of censorship.
I haven't read the article, but the name suggest they will do something similar to how pagerank works, not actually trimming the results, but re-ordering them. It doesn't hide any content, just displays the content that is more likely to be what you want, higher up.
Or am I the confused one here?
Wow, I'll cancel the subscription of P3N1S enlarging pills, and just move out there for a while. I never knew it would be so easy!
Having read much of what people have to say about this, I think everyone appears to agree that the convoluted mess of packaging systems in linux is a major turn off for users. I know when I first started using linux (mandrake 9, and then RH9), that I was very confused about such things, I considered myself to be quite handy with a computer, but the large multitude of different types of packages, and the inconsistency with which types were available, was a complete nightmare.
./configure && make && make install, they're generally the only people who need different/complicated set ups.
What people (Joe Public) want, is to be able to find a piece of software on the internet, while they're searching for what they want. Download a file, run it, and then after that be able to use the software.
They don't want to piss around with dependancies, running scripts, configuring, building, or anything like that. They want to be presented with a few basic options, be able to click next a couple of times, and then its done.
Sysadmins/power users/dA 133735T H4X0RS don't need this, they can cope with
The Joe Public perception of how computers work, isn't in depth enough to go into dependancies/librarys/System folders/etc. This is where I think Complete seperation of the Operating System, and the programs running on it, would be advantageous. Dare I say it, but Windows appears to be better in this area, (I can't compare to OS X, I've never been rich enough to own something that runs it) C:\Program Files\ and C:\Windows\ make sense. Admittedly Microsoft is not very at sticking to this, insisting that programs and the OS need to be locked together, and things that I would consider Applications, end up in the Windows Directory.
It should not be a strict definition between what is physically part of the OS and what is a standalone program, it should be down to the user's perception, of what is an application and what is not.
I think this is where the seperation between different package types would be beneficial. The OS/Distribution could use whatever package style it wanted for the componants of the main operating system. It could also include packages of popular programs, which the user can then choose to install seperately. Or they can download alternative packages which they can install instead.
This appears to be what autopackage is aiming for, I think they're getting it right.
What people who want linux on the desktop need to start pushing for, is something universal for programs to be distributed in, so people can download, click, and go. Without first having to dig through a repository to see if their distribution has a probably out of date copy. Yes, that works for OS bits and pieces, and perhaps services like httpd,ssh,etc. Maybe even hardware drivers. But this should be seperate from any repository for userland programs. So that users can see the distinction.
My 2 cents.
I started university this year, I took a year our between 6th form (rough UK equiv of High School) and I really enjoyed it, I spent the year working for a large multinational company in the eBusiness section, although much of the work wasn't technically very difficult at all, the experience of simply being in the workplace was fairly enlightening.
;) will ask you to return after uni, and you won't even have to job hunt!
However, if you're thinking of taking this route (a year working) make sure you leave plenty of time to travel if you want to, make sure that the work is something related to your chosen area of study (it doesn't need to be that close, just to give you and idea of what kind of jobs you might be looking at, all you really need is a placement in IT somewhere, it will open your eyes enough - assuming you want to do a computing related job). I highly recommend you consider going straight to university however, if your chosen area of study is highly theoretical. I originally was due to study Maths and Computer Science at university, however, I have completely forgotton most of the maths, and consequently lost interest in it, so after the first year is over I will be doing computer science exclusively.
Whatever you do, enjoy yourself, and get some good experience. If you have work experience like that on your CV (an entire years worth in a relevant job) that will kick ass at job interviews, compared to all the straight line academics. You may even find the company you work for during your "studying break"
I wish you the best of luck at university/in a job/whatever you choose.
So how long until you're watching a film and a BSOD appears? Or clippy pops up:
"you appear to be watching an adult movie, would you like an irritating paper clip to jump about the screen and obscure all the good bits?"
CaptCanuk's Boss's Boss asks: I've been charged with finding a qualified employee to handle Human Resources Matters in our IT department. It appears that all our employees in this area have become to lazy/stupid to do their own job, and insist on outsourcing all of the actual work to India, and all of the research to Ask Slashdot. Help me, I'm too busy to spend 30 seconds looking up the answer.
This is slashdot, he's probably reading this...
ON the other hand perhaps he just drove 400 miles so that they wouldn't track where he got the severed finger from...
No, seriously:
http://www.lginternetfamily.co.uk/fridge.asp
I could only find a UK link for it, but it seems like it might serve what you want, although I'm not sure about watching TV...
- Built-in TV tuner for watching TV broadcasts
- Built-in MP3 player for downloading music
- Internet Radio for listening to radio stations
- Built-in video camera for taking still photos
- Built-in CCD camera
I'm guessing you know a fair amount about computing and how to use a computer, and that you use a computer at home?
Most children will show an interest in what their parents are doing, simply answer their question truthfully, and show them what you're doing and why. This should be enough to interest them. Perhaps find a simple game they can play. I remember when I was a child of that sort of age (not too long ago), my mum owned a BBC Micro, she showed me how to turn it on, and play some games. We were also introduced to them at school. Playing games like the letter drop (a typing test type program, I'm sure you remember it) and POD (a game which involved a rather bizarre circular creature, who you could instruct to do certain things, typing "POD can run" would cause POD to run across the screen. Rather disturbingly there was also the "POD can explode" command, the people who programmed that for small children were fairly sick!!)
After a while I became more interested, and my mum showed me how to write simple BASIC programs:
10 CLS
20 PRINT "Matthew smells of POO"
30 GOTO 20
(Matthew was my brother, and still being in nappies at the time, it was quite an accurate statement)
She showed me how to run different programs, etc. I was about 5 at the time.
The important thing, was that I enjoyed it, had I not shown an interest, she wouldn't have shown me these things.
The best advice I can give (as someone who was recently a child, not someone who has their own!) is:
Wait until they are interested
Otherwise you will just bore them, and they will have no drive to learn about computing.
Harry
try a google search for palantir, it can handle multiple audio/video streams and display them all on one screen, there are clients for most platforms I think (but only servers for Linux), and you can show the Local stream on the screen as well. Its not too resource hungry (in my experience).
It doesn't offer any of the conferencing facilities you want, but you there's nothing to prevent you using it for video only, and something else for audio (which may have more control)
You may just want to have 3 different sounding buzzers, connected to the audio streams of each location, so that you can tell the difference between each one, rather than a lockout type system, and a PTT (push to talk) type system for the microphone (buzzer activated when button pushed?) so that you only get the audio stream when you want it.
Watch the hilarity ensue
Surely if you're dead, this is going to be the bit which causes most difficulty... Unless you start taking into account after-lifes and such. In which case you need to consider the fact that there's going to be at least one person (joining you in said after-life) who isn't going to be much of a friend, if/when they find out! I don't fancy spending eternity with someone who has a grudge against me!
Did you?
And how much did you learn from screwing it up compared with how much you learnt when you didn't!?
You say you learnt most of this yourself? What makes you think your replacement won't be able to do the same?
I'm in a similar situation, I am leaving my job exactly a month from now, my replacement starts on Monday, so I have 1 month to pass over every bit of knowledge I can. However, there is only so much I can do, we are heavily reliant on my replacement being able to adapt and learn things themselves. Even with a crossover period, in support work, there is no guarrantee that you will be able to cover everything (unless you deliberately break things).
Originally I had to prepare for the fact that my replacement would not be starting while I was still working there, so I would have to document things, this is exceptionally difficult, you have no idea how much detail is required, as although they will be competant for the job (we are assuming that interviewing has taken place!), everybody learns in a different way.
You will only need to document things that are out of the ordinary. Think back to all those things where you'd wished there had been someone around to tell you what to do, and write down exactly what you did do. Hope that they pick up everything else themselves.
In preparation for when I leave, I have put together a 2 column table, in the first column I put "things I know" and in the second column I have put the name of the person within the company already who knows most about the tools/situation/problem/error message/process/etc. Hopefully this will help people out, rather than the new guy picking on one person to ask questions, and taking up too much of their time. It will help to spread out the burden of getting the new guy up to speed among everybody once I have left (there's more than 1 month's worth of stuff to learn). It also helps them to get to the right person almost straight away each time.
You think you know too much to document? Think about how you learnt it, can they learn it the same way?
I'm not entirely sure I agree, I think any language is the best language to start with, if it is the easiest language for a project you are interested in.
A couple of times I have just tried to pick up languages other than the ones I already know. Every time I find that I get bored too quickly if I haven't got something to work on which will have a tangiable useful outcome.
The best thing to do, is find a project that she is interested in, and then give her a kick start in the right direction. Show her the language, point at the manuals. Makes sure she starts simple, but still useful. Web scripting is great for this, because it can be really simple, like a quick guestbook script, retrieving and storing some information, or it can be very advanced.
I started out with just some basic web scripting. I was authoring a site and mostly where some kind of dynamic system was necessary I was just using Perl scripts from a free scripts archive. However, my curiosity led me to wonder how these things worked, and I built upon that. I still have lots to learn, and now is the time for me to move away from web based programming/scritping and into something different. All I need is a project, which is both simple and challenging at the same time. I will wait until I get to university for this, and I have some more spare time...
Live action works in some situations, but I'm not sure it will for the Simpsons. The simpsons works really well as a cartoon, as did the flintstones, which was turned into quite a good movie. I am sure there are other examples.
If you could take the day off from work and so could he (or school or whatever) Isn't valentines day as saturday this year?
1. Opera
2. Winamp
3. Trillian
4. Nero
5. Open Office Draw
6. MS Office Word and Excel (sorry but, until I get to uni, I don't have time to learn something different)
7. EyeBrowse
8. DOSbox (DOS emulator, for all those old games!!)
9. Worms Armageddon (for wasting time)
10. Norton Antivirus.
The fact that something like this has been reported in "The Sun" really isn't a justifiable reason to believe that it is at all likely to happen. I used to read quite a lot of UK newspapers (I live there) and I have seen this or a very similar story published before, and nothing has ever happened about it. I fully expect the same thing to happen this time.
I am actually in favour of cracking down on people who recklessly break the law, but I think monitoring people's speed this way is not the way to go. For example, I know many people who would not think twice before doing speeds in excess of 50mph in a 30mph limit zone, these people could do with receiving punishment for such a thing. But IMO there is nothing wrong with doing 80/90mph along a country lane in the dark (the safest time - you can see traffic a long way off - and there is much less of it) providing, you, the car and the road can all handle that sort of speed. I would never consider doing speeds in excess of the limit in heavily populated areas. [for those of you who are not aware the speed limit on such roads is 60mph].
If this kind of technology is going to be introduced into vehicles in this country, then fair enough, thats the way its going to be, I think it would certainly take away some of the fun of driving, but in some ways I would rather know that I am being 'watched' constantly rather than having to keep looking to see where the speed camera is hidden.
BTW, WTF!!! is this colour scheme, its kind of maroon and puke yellow. its making me feel quite ill!!!!!
FYI I didn't RTFA - its the sun, there's nothing to read in the sun.
/me puts hand up (and I live in the UK!!)
WTF is an 'MOT'?
The MOT is a basic roadworthiness test that all UK vehicles have to go through every year (unless they are less than three years old) I haven't RTFA but my judgement would be that registration infomation would simply be the same as the registration plate displayed on the outside of the car. It would just mean that the car could be indentified in the same way as it can be now, just without the use of complicated number recognition equipment.
There would be exactly the same incentive to keep the registration information up to date, as there is now, and no doubt the process will be exactly the same. You will be required to be the registered owner of the vehicle in order to purchase road tax.
Surely if the movie wasn't crap, people wouldn't send text messages saying it was.
The solution is to create good movies.
Hmm
The 33Mhz 486DX you talk about was my introduction to computing at home; I had seen, and used, computers at school (BBC Micro's with BASIC and the good old Acorn) and also seen one at a mates house, but my fascination only really started to grow once I was unleashed on a home system, I still remember when my dad bought a computer game for my mum's birthday, and we had to go out and by some more ram to get it to work, my dad shelled out for 4MB of ram at a price of 125. All this took place when I was just on the underside of 10 years old. Since then I have progressed from someone who just uses computers to play a few games, perhaps write a piece of homework on it. To someone who has a much deeper and more connected experience with computers, with a bit more knowledge of whats going on, and someone who does quite a bit of web-based coding. I have no intention of stopping there either, I fully intend to go on to learn much more about computing and push myself closer to the development side of computing, and such I am going off to university in a years time to study Maths and Computer Science.
Anyway, on to the point of this post, really I intend to give you an insight into the way I envisage computers and the way they fit into our lives in the future. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how I would LIKE computers to fit into my life in the future.
With the rise of the internet and the need for worldwide communication, I can see computers drifting towards much more of a communication tool than anything else, very network based. Computers will replace the phone and postal services (Couriers taking over for packedges and very important hard copys of documents) Having a central message center for the house, which will collect your e-mails and voice calls in one place, probably with the addition of video calling. And the computer offering and answer phone service as well. However, I envisage this being no more than just simply a server for this information, with many applications around the house displaying this information. I can imagine every household member having a PDA type device which will interface with this "data-centre" (wirelessly - of course) and provide everyone with their own personal connection. This *could* also work when people are out of the house, as mobile phones seem to be moving closer to PDAs nowadays.
I can see Computers as mostly as an information device, with nothing more than a simple screen and possibly a keyboard/mouse in each room. Personally I think the mouse will die out and we will move more to touch screens, and gestures for doing things. I think there will be a place for voice recognition, but only for simple commands. Why Dictate and E-mail when just as easily the computer will call the other person up and you can have a face to face (possibly video) conversation.
I think that, although they would/could run though the same screen/Input devices gaming would shift more to consoles. I think that many thinks will be centralised. With more than one system in one place delivering content to multiple places. There would be a primary communications machine, and then possibly one (or more - depending on the usage levels) gaming systems which would all be able to deliver their services to any where in the house.
I can also envisage home automation becoming much more popular. Lighting/appliances/heating/etc. being controlled by computer, imagine sitting watching TV and realising you may have left the oven on, or forgotten to flush the toilet, then just doing it right from your seat. Some things even becoming automatic, ligthing being a good example already in use, but these things would ultimately be entirely controllable by a UI interface (or indeed command line - if you like that sort of thing)
I don't see computers ever talking back to us, I know features will always rule supreme, without bug fixing ever being top priority, but this is the way things go. I can see security becoming a much bigger issue than it is at the moment.
...it was because it can, should there be any use for cursive then it should survive, if there is no use for it, it will die. People should not be worried about it dying, we will get around the problem, and probably become more efficient at the same time
Nearly two years ago I gave up writing cursive, and started writing in block capitals, a few of my teachers at the time questioned this move, they all said that it would slow me down, and dissadvantage me in exams. Admittedly it was slower to start with, but now I write just as fast as I used to cursively, and it never dissadvanteged me at all, I am quick in exams anyway, and it actually made my writing MUCH easier to read, I was fairly illegible before. Providing kids can produce something legible on paper, during a power cut, I see no problems.
Geeks are often very uncomfortable in situations where they don't have any idea what the outcome will be (me included), they are often used to a situation where there is an Option labled "Save" or "Save as..." so that risky situations are not quite as risky any more, as there is a fallback to a position where there is no record of the mistake other than in the mind of the geek themself. Geeks are generally looking much more for a relationship, and not just a quick shag on the backseat of a car. This (as far as I can work out) is also more preferable to women. Unfortunately many women are scared of the whole geek stereotype of very poor interpersonal skills, which is quite frequently not the case. True, most geeks are not very good at communicating face to face with other people, particularly people they do not know very well, but most are excellent at communicating though other means. I have now been going out with my girlfriend just over a week (doesn't sound like long, but it has only been 'official' for a week, we have been really close for a couple of months. She knew I was a geek and I have a feeling that it had something to do with her orginally talking to me. I have since (orignally meeting her) discovered that she too is a geek and that we have a LOT in common. Just because you are a geek it does not necessarily mean you will find it harder to find a partner. Just remember that In order to get anywhere there has to be a certain amount of risk, and you should probably take it if you think you have a chance! What's the worst that can happen?