If you've read *Atlas Shrugged* and didn't catch anything about Kantianism, you either don't know anything about Kant or didn't read too carefully.
On every major issue, Objectivism is diametrically oposed to Kantianism. Leonard Peikoff's book, "Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand" effectively validates Rand's philosophy on all fundamental issues.
Kant's philosophical "musing" is far more important than you think. By endorsing something other than "pure" reason as a means to knowledge, one entirely invalides all of one's knowledge. Reason is the faculty that keeps one's thoughts connected to reality -- without it, one cannot justify any claims or even survive.
On ethics, Kant proceeds by his "categorial imperative" -- essentially codified ignoring of context which results in cognative disaster -- allowing him to construct his "duty" ethics without grounding it in reality or reason (which he disavows anyway).
Yes, most philosophers since Aristotle have been lousy. Kant stands out as the worst -- in terms of his ideas and their detrimental impact on the world.
No "convoluted" defense is necessary. Everybody who bought Microsoft products (from OEMs and partners to end users) did so by their own choice. If no one wanted microsoft products, no one is forced to buy them. The fact that windows is so prevalant in the market underscores the fact that it has been the prefered choice of most users and businesses. I (like every other slashdotter) have been free to use Linux, BeOS, MacOS, DR-DOS, or whatever other software and applications we select as a best value for our desires.
Contrast Microsoft's agreements with customers (which occur by the voluntary censent of both parties) with the tactics used by the government -- if you don't want a government product (such as anti-trust, or a particular use of your tax dollars), Janet Reno's henchmen come after you with guns. I certainly haven't heard stories of troups marching from Redmond, storming the houses of people who didn't use windows!
You can still use and prefer linux for yourself, while defending Microsoft's right to produce products it chooses to and sell them to people who are willing to buy them!
I'd like to see the Microsoft case in front of the supreme court today. I think the justices we have there are much more reasonable than Judge Thomas Pinhead Jackson -- perhaps Microsoft would stand a decent chance of being exonerated, as they should be.
Today is a sad day for the freedom of individuals and companies to pursue their goals in a free market.
It's a sad day for anyone who has hopes of developing an innovative company with vast customers.
The most successful company in all of history -- the company whose products are more widely used by people all over the world in many different industries has been attacked because of its success.
Yes, I use linux. Yes, I still defend Microsoft. No, that's not a contradiction.
But these regulations are completely inappropriate. They violate the right of AOL to provide the services it wishes to provide at rates it likes to consumers who freely agree to AOL's terms.
The proper defense (and yes, a defense is proper) of AOL here is moral. AOL (like other businesses operating in free markets) operates freely making agreements with potential customers to provide servies at an agreed-upon cost. If one party (AOL or a consumer) does not find it in his interest to accept the other's terms, then there is no agreement -- no single party may force the other to accept his terms.
The ADA, and this lawsuit in particular, is an attack on freedom. The plaintiffs are attempting to short-circuit the market, short-circuit AOL's freedom to provide the services it chooses at the rates it chooses to customers who like these offerings by forcing AOL (by means of Government intervention, backed by the use of physical force) to coerce AOL to meet the demands of a particular group of consumers.
The fact that some people are blind, unable to fully access media that most people are able to does not constitute a claim on the time, money, and energy of producers. Arguing that AOL should be forced to develop and provide special services to any group that claims to need them effectively destroys the company. When the government begins making business decisions for a firm, the firm essentially becomes a new wing of the federal government.
This is the text used for ECE-240 at Carnegie Mellon. Hard to say whether it's a good book or not -- I'm taking the course now, but have found that I only needed to open the book once.
Carnegie Mellon is a great place to be for undergraduate Computer Science, if you're willing to work really hard.
Before I was at CMU, I don't think I really knew what CS was all about, even though I was handy with Javascript, Perl, ASP, etc. Although the courses I've taken have had little emphasis on specific development situations or web-oriented development, I'm certainly a much better programmer than I was before.
One of my favorite things about CS at CMU is the kind of homework problems that are assigned. Rarely do assignments require you to work with different technologies or learn a new langauge (e.g. web stuff, database stuff), but instead are genuinely challenging problems, regardless of what language is used to attack the problem.
Check out www.discretemath.com, the web page for "Great Theoretical Ideas of Computer Science," my favorite CS course at CMU (at least so far!)
Of course, downsides of CMU (as someone else mentioned) are 1) cost 2) Pittsburgh. But it's worth it, in my estimation:)
It's actually not nearly as bad as you think. Real uses Linux almost exclusively for their own media and file servers (www.real.com uses ROXEN, play.rbn.com/go.rbn.com is Apache)
The alpha/beta player truly is a new build. Go to help->about and look at the build numbers. The latest (released) build is 6.0.4.433, which was build on 092899.
I'd say kudos to RN for building (and using) great Linux server tools. Perhaps if they get some positive feedback (and excitment about a better product), we can get a really great G2 player for linux.
What MIPS mailing list had info about booting Linux on a MIPS-PDA ? I'm part of the linuxCE project, working on getting Linux up on teh Philips Nino (PR31700-based, which is based on the MIPS R3000) There is a bootloader now for the Vr2xxx, I believe, but no working bootloader for the Nino. I suggest you check out the linuxce project's mailing lists archives (see www.linuxce.org and go to 'developers'). Also, there is the PocketBSD project, which has a bootloader for Everex Freestyle and NEC MobileGear devices. I don't know the URL for that project right off -- it's based in Japan. You might also be interested in checking out Warner's MIPS-based PDA Info Center. Cheers, Routecoder (bscholl+@cmu.edu)
Slashdot Mirror
If you've read *Atlas Shrugged* and didn't catch anything about Kantianism, you either don't know anything about Kant or didn't read too carefully. On every major issue, Objectivism is diametrically oposed to Kantianism. Leonard Peikoff's book, "Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand" effectively validates Rand's philosophy on all fundamental issues. Kant's philosophical "musing" is far more important than you think. By endorsing something other than "pure" reason as a means to knowledge, one entirely invalides all of one's knowledge. Reason is the faculty that keeps one's thoughts connected to reality -- without it, one cannot justify any claims or even survive. On ethics, Kant proceeds by his "categorial imperative" -- essentially codified ignoring of context which results in cognative disaster -- allowing him to construct his "duty" ethics without grounding it in reality or reason (which he disavows anyway). Yes, most philosophers since Aristotle have been lousy. Kant stands out as the worst -- in terms of his ideas and their detrimental impact on the world.
No "convoluted" defense is necessary. Everybody who bought Microsoft products (from OEMs and partners to end users) did so by their own choice. If no one wanted microsoft products, no one is forced to buy them. The fact that windows is so prevalant in the market underscores the fact that it has been the prefered choice of most users and businesses. I (like every other slashdotter) have been free to use Linux, BeOS, MacOS, DR-DOS, or whatever other software and applications we select as a best value for our desires.
Contrast Microsoft's agreements with customers (which occur by the voluntary censent of both parties) with the tactics used by the government -- if you don't want a government product (such as anti-trust, or a particular use of your tax dollars), Janet Reno's henchmen come after you with guns. I certainly haven't heard stories of troups marching from Redmond, storming the houses of people who didn't use windows!
Check out www.defendmicrosoft.org for some good links on this topic.
You can still use and prefer linux for yourself, while defending Microsoft's right to produce products it chooses to and sell them to people who are willing to buy them!
I'd like to see the Microsoft case in front of the supreme court today. I think the justices we have there are much more reasonable than Judge Thomas Pinhead Jackson -- perhaps Microsoft would stand a decent chance of being exonerated, as they should be.
Visit my page at www.defendmicrosoft.rog for reasons why.
--Blake
Today is a sad day for the freedom of individuals and companies to pursue their goals in a free market.
It's a sad day for anyone who has hopes of developing an innovative company with vast customers.
The most successful company in all of history -- the company whose products are more widely used by people all over the world in many different industries has been attacked because of its success.
Yes, I use linux. Yes, I still defend Microsoft. No, that's not a contradiction.
See www.moraldefense.com and microsoft.aynrand.org if you want to know why.
See www.moraldefense.com for a moral defense of companies like AOL.
The ADA, and this lawsuit in particular, is an attack on freedom. The plaintiffs are attempting to short-circuit the market, short-circuit AOL's freedom to provide the services it chooses at the rates it chooses to customers who like these offerings by forcing AOL (by means of Government intervention, backed by the use of physical force) to coerce AOL to meet the demands of a particular group of consumers.
The fact that some people are blind, unable to fully access media that most people are able to does not constitute a claim on the time, money, and energy of producers. Arguing that AOL should be forced to develop and provide special services to any group that claims to need them effectively destroys the company. When the government begins making business decisions for a firm, the firm essentially becomes a new wing of the federal government.
For more on the moral defense of producers and innovators like AOL, see www.moraldefense.com. For a moral defense of Microsoft, see microsoft.aynrand.org. --Blake
I'm CS too, but haven't really learned all that much in 240 yet... is Thomas really all that great a prof?
This is the text used for ECE-240 at Carnegie Mellon. Hard to say whether it's a good book or not -- I'm taking the course now, but have found that I only needed to open the book once.
Carnegie Mellon is a great place to be for undergraduate Computer Science, if you're willing to work really hard.
:)
Before I was at CMU, I don't think I really knew what CS was all about, even though I was handy with Javascript, Perl, ASP, etc. Although the courses I've taken have had little emphasis on specific development situations or web-oriented development, I'm certainly a much better programmer than I was before.
One of my favorite things about CS at CMU is the kind of homework problems that are assigned. Rarely do assignments require you to work with different technologies or learn a new langauge (e.g. web stuff, database stuff), but instead are genuinely challenging problems, regardless of what language is used to attack the problem.
Check out www.discretemath.com, the web page for "Great Theoretical Ideas of Computer Science," my favorite CS course at CMU (at least so far!)
Of course, downsides of CMU (as someone else mentioned) are 1) cost 2) Pittsburgh. But it's worth it, in my estimation
It's actually not nearly as bad as you think. Real uses Linux almost exclusively for their own media and file servers (www.real.com uses ROXEN, play.rbn.com/go.rbn.com is Apache)
The alpha/beta player truly is a new build. Go to help->about and look at the build numbers. The latest (released) build is 6.0.4.433, which was build on 092899.
I'd say kudos to RN for building (and using) great Linux server tools. Perhaps if they get some positive feedback (and excitment about a better product), we can get a really great G2 player for linux.
What MIPS mailing list had info about booting Linux on a MIPS-PDA ? I'm part of the linuxCE project, working on getting Linux up on teh Philips Nino (PR31700-based, which is based on the MIPS R3000) There is a bootloader now for the Vr2xxx, I believe, but no working bootloader for the Nino. I suggest you check out the linuxce project's mailing lists archives (see www.linuxce.org and go to 'developers'). Also, there is the PocketBSD project, which has a bootloader for Everex Freestyle and NEC MobileGear devices. I don't know the URL for that project right off -- it's based in Japan. You might also be interested in checking out Warner's MIPS-based PDA Info Center. Cheers, Routecoder (bscholl+@cmu.edu)