I was referring to the companies, Apple and Hewlett-Packard. Since the article's main subject is Apple (the company), and what it would be like, that should have been evident.
As a company, "Hewlett-Packard, post-Carly Fiorinia", is a stable and well-respected producer of computers and computer gadgets. It makes solid products that people use. However, it is not known for its innovation (though it does innovate). It doesn't capture the awe and high respect that it did in its heyday, but it's ok.
Without Steve Jobs, Apple would be in a similar situation. Steve gives them the edge.
I chose Hewlett-Packard as the example not because of its past history, but because of what it is at this moment. I had to specify "post-Carly Fiorina" because before her reign, HP was in fact highly respected and loved by many users. And of course during her time HP was in a world of hurt unlike anything Apple has ever seen.
California Lottery tickets are indeed printed on thermal paper, and ironing them will turn them completely black in short order (as will leaving them in the sun for several months). That warning isn't wacky in the least.
The problem with Wikipedia is that it claims to be neutral when it clearly is not.
It does not make such a claim. It strives to be neutral. Most of Wikipedia's editors are aware that the goal can never be met, but that it is worth the effort anyway.
You might as well castigate scientists for trying to discover all knowledge, when they cannot hope to ever succeed.
There MAY be a problem with distribution rights, or with documenting how to load the firmware, but these are NOT what TFA described.
TFA:
The first challenge for operating system developers is obtaining the right to distribute the firmware file, which some manufacturers will not allow without significant restriction.
But after much complaint from contestants, Kenneth Krieg, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, approved the prize money.
No doubt the driving force behind this decision came from the folks at DARPA. First congress tells them to develop autonomous vehicles, then it proceeds to trip up their efforts with the "John Warner National Defense Authorization Act".
What I'd really like to know is why they're pushing this technology so hard and fast. Does it make sense to go straight to an urban environment when only four constestants even managed to finish the last challenge?
> It seems like a repudiation of the very heart of the open philosophy. > Isn't this move akin to someone taking Linux and "forking" it into closed source OS? > No matter how good the resulting OS could be, haven't you torpedoed the philosophical basis of Linux by doing so?
No. Because the primary purpose of Wikipedia is to be a great encyclopedia. If Larry's new experiment surpasses Wikipedia, true Wikipedians will rejoice.
Could this be the latest in the criminal world's security strategy? Can we expect to see Spectrums, Archimedes, and Atari STs turning up in police investigations soon?
The idea that you'd have to go to a remote snowy island, then find chocobos hanging out with specific monsters, in order to get one good enough to win at the races, is too obscure to reasonably expect people to figure out. On top of that is the amount of effort you have to put in to just figure out whether a chocobo is any good. That was pure strategy guide material. In the case of FFVII, I can't say for sure if it was laziness or straight guide promotion, but in any case the game itself is poorer.
Strategy guides could also contribute to laziness among game developers. It's hard to make a puzzle that is challenging, yet not too difficult. This is evident in all kinds of puzzle/adventure games. The Zork trilogy had some puzzles that even some very smart people I knew just couldn't crack. And in Final Fantasy VII, the developers made no attempt to put enough clues in the game to perform chocobo breeding. So if a game developer knows that a strategy guide is going to come out in a month or two, why put in the extra effort to tune all the puzzles? Someone else will release the guide, and players who are having trouble will just use it. It's a shame, though.
Thank you. I've been wondering why this guy didn't just insist on a reasonable price with Wal-Mart, instead of telling them "screw you guys I'm going home." Your explanation is the first one that makes sense. It's a little cynical, but believable.
There are two reasons to be afraid of someone: their ability to do harm, and their intent to do so. Now, Microsoft is pretty scary on both counts, having the ability to do damn near anything, and having actually performed evil and illegal anticompetitive acts on multiple occasions. So worrying about Google when Microsoft is around isn't especially rational.
I do have some sympathy for people who worry about Google, though. That's because they provoke fear of the unknown. Google's behavior so far has been so brilliant and successful that they almost appear like aliens from a superior culture. Predicting their next move seems nearly impossible. Microsoft on the other hand is a known quantity.
It's funny how different perspectives can make communication difficult. For example, take this casual comment from the article:
During the whole exercise, we only experienced one system crash...
To a Linux user, the idea of "only one crash" is bemusing. A modern Linux system, going down so easily? That's very serious. Surely the author isn't familiar with the territory.
Later, it becomes clearer, when the Mandriva review states:
...an accidental combination of keystrokes -- experimenting around Ctrl-Alt-E to try and get a euro symbol -- crashed the system and dumped us at a $-prompt command line, with no obvious route back to our unsaved work.
Obviously, this is not what a Linux user would call a "system crash". I suppose it's just as well that Windows users would be asked to review Linux distros for the desktop, though. A Linux user might regard this as a minor problem, forgetting that to most people, this is indeed a show-stopper.
You've mixed apples and oranges here. Let me reorganize that a bit for you.
A lawyer comes out of law school knowing law, but is not an expert in copyright law.
A medical doctor comes out of medical school with medical knowledge, but is not a podiatrist nor a neurosurgeon.
A computer science graduate comes out of school with a knowledge of computer architecture, but is (probably) not a z/OS expert.
Why shouldn't a computer technician come out knowing z/OS? What you're suggesting is a course of study that covers every environment that's at least as popular as z/OS... which would take several decades. That would be utterly absurd, since people don't live to be 200 years old. You might as well suggest that every lawyer learn maritime law, patent law, criminal law and a dozen other specialties before leaving school.
You do that. I'll continue to spend more time on movies that are good. You know, the ones that provide insight into the sort of internal struggles that humans face daily. Such as whether to be selfish, or to take a risk for the greater good (Han Solo, before Lucas decided that personal growth was too difficult for general audiences to comprenehd). Or whether to help people you love, when doing so may sacrifice the greater good (Luke). Try to find similar lessons in Star Wars episodes I, II, III, or VI and you'll be disappointed.
Your suggestion is ok if modified: "Some Effects-laden and mindless SF films may still be enjoyed if taken with a heavy grain of salt." By applying this principle, I was able to enjoy all of the Star Wars and Matrix films. But three of those movies are profoundly better than the rest and should not be discounted because of the shallow ones.
Who knows, people may be smarter than the entertainment industry gives them credit for. Illegal copying isn't theft, and insisting that it is does nothing but alienate people and foster mistrust.
What's sadder is that the BBC is going along with this campaign of misinformation. They imply that there are only two viewpoints: It's theft, or it isn't a crime at all. Way to inform your readers... not.
"Slashdot has one of the best moderating systems out there"? Can I have some of what you're smoking? To paraphrase Paul Graham, "A bored undergraduate could write a better one on his soggy beer napkin."
Slashdot Mirror
These Internet pages, are they something I'd need an Internet browser to enjoy?
I was referring to the companies, Apple and Hewlett-Packard. Since the article's main subject is Apple (the company), and what it would be like, that should have been evident.
As a company, "Hewlett-Packard, post-Carly Fiorinia", is a stable and well-respected producer of computers and computer gadgets. It makes solid products that people use. However, it is not known for its innovation (though it does innovate). It doesn't capture the awe and high respect that it did in its heyday, but it's ok.
Without Steve Jobs, Apple would be in a similar situation. Steve gives them the edge.
I chose Hewlett-Packard as the example not because of its past history, but because of what it is at this moment. I had to specify "post-Carly Fiorina" because before her reign, HP was in fact highly respected and loved by many users. And of course during her time HP was in a world of hurt unlike anything Apple has ever seen.
California Lottery tickets are indeed printed on thermal paper, and ironing them will turn them completely black in short order (as will leaving them in the sun for several months). That warning isn't wacky in the least.
It does not make such a claim. It strives to be neutral. Most of Wikipedia's editors are aware that the goal can never be met, but that it is worth the effort anyway.
You might as well castigate scientists for trying to discover all knowledge, when they cannot hope to ever succeed.
Sigh. This gets "insightful"?
Anne Thwacks:
TFA:
Please read before you rant.But after much complaint from contestants, Kenneth Krieg, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, approved the prize money.
No doubt the driving force behind this decision came from the folks at DARPA. First congress tells them to develop autonomous vehicles, then it proceeds to trip up their efforts with the "John Warner National Defense Authorization Act".
What I'd really like to know is why they're pushing this technology so hard and fast. Does it make sense to go straight to an urban environment when only four constestants even managed to finish the last challenge?
> It seems like a repudiation of the very heart of the open philosophy.
> Isn't this move akin to someone taking Linux and "forking" it into closed source OS?
> No matter how good the resulting OS could be, haven't you torpedoed the philosophical basis of Linux by doing so?
No. Because the primary purpose of Wikipedia is to be a great encyclopedia. If Larry's new experiment surpasses Wikipedia, true Wikipedians will rejoice.
John C. Dvorak? Is that you?
The idea that you'd have to go to a remote snowy island, then find chocobos hanging out with specific monsters, in order to get one good enough to win at the races, is too obscure to reasonably expect people to figure out. On top of that is the amount of effort you have to put in to just figure out whether a chocobo is any good. That was pure strategy guide material. In the case of FFVII, I can't say for sure if it was laziness or straight guide promotion, but in any case the game itself is poorer.
Game designers can hardly create static content, and you suggest procedurally generated plots? Sounds nice, now go do it.
Strategy guides could also contribute to laziness among game developers. It's hard to make a puzzle that is challenging, yet not too difficult. This is evident in all kinds of puzzle/adventure games. The Zork trilogy had some puzzles that even some very smart people I knew just couldn't crack. And in Final Fantasy VII, the developers made no attempt to put enough clues in the game to perform chocobo breeding. So if a game developer knows that a strategy guide is going to come out in a month or two, why put in the extra effort to tune all the puzzles? Someone else will release the guide, and players who are having trouble will just use it. It's a shame, though.
Thank you. I've been wondering why this guy didn't just insist on a reasonable price with Wal-Mart, instead of telling them "screw you guys I'm going home." Your explanation is the first one that makes sense. It's a little cynical, but believable.
I do have some sympathy for people who worry about Google, though. That's because they provoke fear of the unknown. Google's behavior so far has been so brilliant and successful that they almost appear like aliens from a superior culture. Predicting their next move seems nearly impossible. Microsoft on the other hand is a known quantity.
It's funny how different perspectives can make communication difficult. For example, take this casual comment from the article:
During the whole exercise, we only experienced one system crash...
To a Linux user, the idea of "only one crash" is bemusing. A modern Linux system, going down so easily? That's very serious. Surely the author isn't familiar with the territory.
Later, it becomes clearer, when the Mandriva review states:
Obviously, this is not what a Linux user would call a "system crash". I suppose it's just as well that Windows users would be asked to review Linux distros for the desktop, though. A Linux user might regard this as a minor problem, forgetting that to most people, this is indeed a show-stopper.
You've mixed apples and oranges here. Let me reorganize that a bit for you.
A lawyer comes out of law school knowing law, but is not an expert in copyright law.
A medical doctor comes out of medical school with medical knowledge, but is not a podiatrist nor a neurosurgeon.
A computer science graduate comes out of school with a knowledge of computer architecture, but is (probably) not a z/OS expert.
Why shouldn't a computer technician come out knowing z/OS? What you're suggesting is a course of study that covers every environment that's at least as popular as z/OS... which would take several decades. That would be utterly absurd, since people don't live to be 200 years old. You might as well suggest that every lawyer learn maritime law, patent law, criminal law and a dozen other specialties before leaving school.
Since it says something about removing tags, I'd guess that the reviewer's angle brackets got removed by Slashcode. It's probably something like:
s#<(.*)>#$1#g;
Which is indeed a good example of a bad regex.
Can you explain why? It looks like a pretty straightforward criticism to me.
You do that. I'll continue to spend more time on movies that are good. You know, the ones that provide insight into the sort of internal struggles that humans face daily. Such as whether to be selfish, or to take a risk for the greater good (Han Solo, before Lucas decided that personal growth was too difficult for general audiences to comprenehd). Or whether to help people you love, when doing so may sacrifice the greater good (Luke). Try to find similar lessons in Star Wars episodes I, II, III, or VI and you'll be disappointed.
Your suggestion is ok if modified: "Some
Effects-laden and mindless SF films may still be enjoyed if taken with a heavy grain of salt." By applying this principle, I was able to enjoy all of the Star Wars and Matrix films. But three of those movies are profoundly better than the rest and should not be discounted because of the shallow ones.
I am too young to remember the age of freedom before the commercial world took over software.
What are you talking about? The heady days of freely-traded AT&T Unix tapes? Free software had little impact before BSD and GNU.
What's sadder is that the BBC is going along with this campaign of misinformation. They imply that there are only two viewpoints: It's theft, or it isn't a crime at all. Way to inform your readers... not.
Google makes it extremely clear that they won't be violating copyrights. So what more do these publishers want?
Perhaps they just want to cast a pall of doubt over something that (quite legally) diminishes their reasons for existing.
Sounds like an error, perhaps you should file a bug report?
Why would you do "rm -fr ./" instead of "rm -fr ."?
"Slashdot has one of the best moderating systems out there"? Can I have some of what you're smoking? To paraphrase Paul Graham, "A bored undergraduate could write a better one on his soggy beer napkin."