Let me tell you how it will be, There's one for you, nineteen for me, 'Cos I'm the Taxman, Yeah, I'm the Taxman. Should five per cent appear too small, Be thankful I don't take it all, 'Cos I'm the Taxman, Yeah, I'm the Taxman. If you drive a car, I'll tax the street, If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat, If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat, If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet. Taxman. 'Cos I'm the Taxman, Yeah, I'm the Taxman. Don't ask me what I want it for (Taxman Mister Wilson) If you don't want to pay some more (Taxman Mister Heath), 'Cos I'm the Taxman, Yeah, I'm the Taxman. Now my advice for those who die, Declare the pennies on your eyes, 'Cos I'm the Taxman, Yeah, I'm the Taxman. And you're working for no-one but me, Taxman.
"Hawkings describes their plans for deploying the weapons in the event of an imminent Soviet invasion as "somewhat theatrical". One problem was that the mines might not work in winter if they became too cold, so the army proposed wrapping them in fibreglass pillows.
In the end, the risk from radioactive fallout would have been "unacceptable", says Hawkings, and hiding nuclear weapons in an allied country was deemed "politically flawed". As a result, the Ministry of Defence cancelled Blue Peacock in February 1958. "-- New Scientist 16 July 03
The numbers I have seen behind terraforming mars are in the hundreds of years time (more like 300 years).
Given that none of us will be around to see the end of this, and that we have at least 100 years to gather the 'precious evidence' of life on mars, what is the big deal? Given the technology we have today, 100 years is plenty of time to find out everything we want to about the red planet (at least the interesting stuff).
What is next? Tattooing a barscan code on our butts and throwing us into a concentration camp?
I don't think this will become an issue, because people will start to be effected by it if it becomes pervasive. As we all know, until it gets on John Q. Public's radar, nothing will be done about it.
Someone will build machines that avoid this, rest assured. Certain critical industries and high performance and realtime computing environments can not allow a fault in the DRM module to shut down the machine indefinitely.
DRM and non-DRM machines will remain options, as a result.
Why not keep the window manager simple - and continue with C, and embed a scripting layer (like python) that allows you to extend it to create your applications? Python has an XML parser, and other things besides that you wouldn't need to implement inside of the window management engine.
This doesn't seem like brain surgery to me...but then again, I am perfectly happy running Zope and kicking out web apps - or throwing together a python/Tk app if I need a gui for something on my desktop. I know...I am in the minority.:(
Hmmmm - here in Texas, there are 'CD Recording' media, with the higher RIAA 'tax' added to the price - then there are the regular 'CD ROM' media...which strangely enough, while being cheaper, will also record an MP3 or a CD image in a pinch...
Guess which one I buy?
Is the Canadian 'Tax' similarly set up (with seperate 'data' versus 'recording' CDs)?
I anticipate some 'open firmware' being installed on these systems, either through a bios flash, or if that is disabled - unavailable, through aftermarket bios chips designed to bypass the DRM cruft.
The issue was after WWI we let military spending drop to practically nothing.
Our fleet was aging, our troops were poorly equipped and paid (generals during the war were reduced to permanent rank of colonel etc. rippling through the whole command - many of which left the service for more profitable civilian job market).
Then we got caught with our pants down in WWII. Thankfully we had the industrial power to out engineer and out build our enemies in various areas to make up the difference.
After that war, the powers that be said 'Never Again'. Never again would we not be prepared to fight a major action anywhere in the world - and that is what we have been doing since 1945 - under various guises (Mutual Assured Destruction - aka 'MAD' of the cold war, Special Operations forces guerilla warfare, and more recently the smart bombs, RPVs and light and fast armor of our modern warfare - as we realized Nukes, Special forces, and Heavy forces were not the one answer to every military problem).
Here is the biggest argument I see from game development companies:
It is too much trouble to maintain multiple code bases for the same game - particularly for marginal markets (Linux)
They are interested, and one company I know did attempt a Linux version of my favorite game using OpenGL. For them, managing 3 versions of the code base (Windows DirectX, Mac OSX in OpenGL, and Linux OpenGL) was too much trouble. They opted to start with Windows only - the largest market, then more recently added Mac support. Linux support is not expected anytime soon - sadly (although you would think porting OSX to Linux would be trivial, as most of the legwork is done already).
I watched Speed Racer almost every day after school (late '70s early '80s). Before that, my mom would kick us kids outside to fend for ourselves - so we would go to the lake and fish, or grab a glove and ball and go play some pickup baseball at the elementary school.
Most of the time I was too busy doing things to sit down and watch TV. I also read alot and when I recieved my first computer as a Christmas present, I spent any time I would have spent in front of the TV writing programs. MTV came along when cable TV came out - but my parents never got cable while I was living with them.
Then I graduated HS and joined the military - and spent the next 4 years too damn busy to watch much (cold warrior) - was stationed in England and spent some time watching 'Benny Hill' reruns - at that time there was no cable in Englad - so you only had 3 or 4 channels to choose from. Again, I spent time reading - and was involved with a band, and recording music - and running around to clubs and pubs...not much time to sit infront of a boob-tube.
After that...well, more of the same...
Fast forward to today: I watch TV irregularly - mostly the History Channel - and then particular shows that interest me (Lee Ermy's military Q&A show is of particular interest to me), and sometimes catch 'King of the Hill' and 'The Simpsons' during dinner time. Most of my time is spent on my computer - either playing MMOGs or doing work (programming, writing, reading forums). I also continue to read paper books - histories, technical, novels....
How hard would it be to print out a receipt for the voter that states how they voted - so they could verify what they are indeed voting for before they hit the 'vote' switch. Similarly, how hard would it be to keep a paper printout inside of the voting machines that records each ballot without the personal information? The printout could be used to troubleshoot inconsistencies like this and determine where the problem lays.
Also - allowing a user or a poll worker to punch in the access number that says which precinct that ballot is tallied against is a bad thing. That is just asking for errors.
Each machine needs to be hard configured by the election board for its specific precinct location - so that users or poll workers can not tamper with it (this would be equivalent to a lock on the ballot box as we have with paper ballots).
Companies don't do that sort of stuff anyway - they lobby for laws that support their view, and let the federal government do all the dirty work:
Companies = lawyers + civil suits
Government = law enforcement (i.e. the raiding and confiscation activity) + criminal prosecution (judiciary and prosecutors)
Companies have no power to confiscate documents or subpeona witnesses - only the court can order these actions and will either depend upon the parties to provide said documentation or order federal agents to accomplish the confiscation via a search warrant (unless the crime is considered a 'homeland security' issue - at which point the U.S. Attorney General can bypass the courts and make that call - seizing evidence, tapping communications lines, and holding people indefinitely without recourse to habeas corpus).
200 mile course, at 10 hours = 20 MPH minimum speed to finish. Obstacles, of course, will slow down the vehicles, so the vehicle must be able to go much faster than this on 'clear' road to be competitive. The issue there is safetly - can an autonomous vehicle going 50 MPH stop in time when it detects another vehicle or an obstacle out to the maximum range of its sensors (I think a couple hundred meters)?
My working day is spent in a cubicle farm. All day long I hear multiple phone conversations going on all day around me.
I am a developer - which means I need to concentrate, very deeply at times. The background noise level is high enough that I can actually hear various conversations for cubes that are close to mine. This can be distracting particularly when you are trying to formulate an idea or write code, as you will find yourself start to listen to the conversations, instead of following your internal dialogue.
To combat this, I sometimes don headphones and get some music going to drown out the conversations (preferably music without any words).
Ideally, developers should have doors that close to block out these distractions - they would be much more productive. Unfortunately, management doesn't think that way...so productivity suffers.
I just want some silence so my mind can think. Until they make the 'cone of silence' generally available in cubicle farms, earphones and music will have to do.
I can see it now: thousands of these autos found dead along the roadside like a flock of dinosaurs...the engines having seized up from running out of oil...
Modern aircraft still use dipsticks, because sensors don't always work.
You can know about something on a superficial level and know if it interests you or not - enough, in fact, to determine if you want to devote more time gaining indepth knowledge on the subject or not.
There is too much in the world to know - and the more you know and understand about the world, the more, you also realize, will escape your grasp.
So, you have to pick and choose based on incomplete information. That is just the way it is - and given one lifetime - you are not going to make a dent in that in any significant way.
The idealism of youth - that you can be all things - is a fallacy. Eventually, the grimreaper will cut your time short.
So, my statement stands: I do prefer to remain ignorant of things that don't interest me.
Also, I was not saying that TV was inherently evil (you are putting words in my mouth). My beef with TV is that it is a passive medium - you are the receptacle for whatever the networks decide to program. You do not control it, nor can you interact with it. Finally, if you use TV to fill your empty life, rather than being the creative force you were designed to be, then you should think about doing something else (get up, take a walk, post on slashdot, develop your personal philosophy etc). TV is not evil, but centering your life around it is.
I don't watch TV - unless we rent a DVD - or do a movie marathon with a selection of DVDs that we own... (I have an extensive collection of war movies).
So, for me, a Tivo or similar technology is useless.
On the other hand, it might be useful for my wife and kids - but then again, I am trying to get them to watch less TV, rather than more...so I don't think I will introduce this technology to them.
The more you learn, the less you know. I prefer to remain ignorant of things that don't interest me.
I spend enough time multitasking at work. I would prefer to do less with my free time - not more...
Stop and smell the roses...sit in one place and daydream...meditate...lay in the sun streaming in through the screen door on a warm day and take a nap...watch an ant mound...observe the wind through the trees, and the fall of leaves.
I was far more creative and energetic when I spent more time doing those things than I am now, every waking moment crammed with some activity - either work or family oriented.
It is not the quantity, but the quality of the life you live that counts.
Slashdot Mirror
In the immortal lyrics of The Beatles:
Let me tell you how it will be,
There's one for you, nineteen for me,
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all,
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat,
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Taxman.
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
Don't ask me what I want it for
(Taxman Mister Wilson)
If you don't want to pay some more
(Taxman Mister Heath),
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
Now my advice for those who die,
Declare the pennies on your eyes,
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
And you're working for no-one but me,
Taxman.
"Hawkings describes their plans for deploying the weapons in the event of an imminent Soviet invasion as "somewhat theatrical". One problem was that the mines might not work in winter if they became too cold, so the army proposed wrapping them in fibreglass pillows.
In the end, the risk from radioactive fallout would have been "unacceptable", says Hawkings, and hiding nuclear weapons in an allied country was deemed "politically flawed". As a result, the Ministry of Defence cancelled Blue Peacock in February 1958. " -- New Scientist 16 July 03
The numbers I have seen behind terraforming mars are in the hundreds of years time (more like 300 years).
Given that none of us will be around to see the end of this, and that we have at least 100 years to gather the 'precious evidence' of life on mars, what is the big deal? Given the technology we have today, 100 years is plenty of time to find out everything we want to about the red planet (at least the interesting stuff).
What is next? Tattooing a barscan code on our butts and throwing us into a concentration camp?
I don't think this will become an issue, because people will start to be effected by it if it becomes pervasive. As we all know, until it gets on John Q. Public's radar, nothing will be done about it.
Quit your job. You obviously work for a clueless organization.
Someone will build machines that avoid this, rest assured. Certain critical industries and high performance and realtime computing environments can not allow a fault in the DRM module to shut down the machine indefinitely.
DRM and non-DRM machines will remain options, as a result.
Sorry to hear that. :(
Sounds like the MPAA and RIAA has your government by the cajones...
Why not keep the window manager simple - and continue with C, and embed a scripting layer (like python) that allows you to extend it to create your applications? Python has an XML parser, and other things besides that you wouldn't need to implement inside of the window management engine.
:(
This doesn't seem like brain surgery to me...but then again, I am perfectly happy running Zope and kicking out web apps - or throwing together a python/Tk app if I need a gui for something on my desktop. I know...I am in the minority.
An exageration to make a point or tell a story (or both) is not the same as lieing to gain some political end.
Hmmmm - here in Texas, there are 'CD Recording' media, with the higher RIAA 'tax' added to the price - then there are the regular 'CD ROM' media...which strangely enough, while being cheaper, will also record an MP3 or a CD image in a pinch...
Guess which one I buy?
Is the Canadian 'Tax' similarly set up (with seperate 'data' versus 'recording' CDs)?
I anticipate some 'open firmware' being installed on these systems, either through a bios flash, or if that is disabled - unavailable, through aftermarket bios chips designed to bypass the DRM cruft.
The issue was after WWI we let military spending drop to practically nothing.
Our fleet was aging, our troops were poorly equipped and paid (generals during the war were reduced to permanent rank of colonel etc. rippling through the whole command - many of which left the service for more profitable civilian job market).
Then we got caught with our pants down in WWII. Thankfully we had the industrial power to out engineer and out build our enemies in various areas to make up the difference.
After that war, the powers that be said 'Never Again'. Never again would we not be prepared to fight a major action anywhere in the world - and that is what we have been doing since 1945 - under various guises (Mutual Assured Destruction - aka 'MAD' of the cold war, Special Operations forces guerilla warfare, and more recently the smart bombs, RPVs and light and fast armor of our modern warfare - as we realized Nukes, Special forces, and Heavy forces were not the one answer to every military problem).
Here is the biggest argument I see from game development companies:
It is too much trouble to maintain multiple code bases for the same game - particularly for marginal markets (Linux)
They are interested, and one company I know did attempt a Linux version of my favorite game using OpenGL. For them, managing 3 versions of the code base (Windows DirectX, Mac OSX in OpenGL, and Linux OpenGL) was too much trouble. They opted to start with Windows only - the largest market, then more recently added Mac support. Linux support is not expected anytime soon - sadly (although you would think porting OSX to Linux would be trivial, as most of the legwork is done already).
We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before.
The idea is not merely to copy, but to expand the scope - to look at old ideas from new perspectives. This is invention at its best.
I watched Speed Racer almost every day after school (late '70s early '80s). Before that, my mom would kick us kids outside to fend for ourselves - so we would go to the lake and fish, or grab a glove and ball and go play some pickup baseball at the elementary school.
Most of the time I was too busy doing things to sit down and watch TV. I also read alot and when I recieved my first computer as a Christmas present, I spent any time I would have spent in front of the TV writing programs. MTV came along when cable TV came out - but my parents never got cable while I was living with them.
Then I graduated HS and joined the military - and spent the next 4 years too damn busy to watch much (cold warrior) - was stationed in England and spent some time watching 'Benny Hill' reruns - at that time there was no cable in Englad - so you only had 3 or 4 channels to choose from. Again, I spent time reading - and was involved with a band, and recording music - and running around to clubs and pubs...not much time to sit infront of a boob-tube.
After that...well, more of the same...
Fast forward to today: I watch TV irregularly - mostly the History Channel - and then particular shows that interest me (Lee Ermy's military Q&A show is of particular interest to me), and sometimes catch 'King of the Hill' and 'The Simpsons' during dinner time. Most of my time is spent on my computer - either playing MMOGs or doing work (programming, writing, reading forums). I also continue to read paper books - histories, technical, novels....
What happened to the first law of robotics? (a robot shall harm no human being)
How hard would it be to print out a receipt for the voter that states how they voted - so they could verify what they are indeed voting for before they hit the 'vote' switch. Similarly, how hard would it be to keep a paper printout inside of the voting machines that records each ballot without the personal information? The printout could be used to troubleshoot inconsistencies like this and determine where the problem lays.
Also - allowing a user or a poll worker to punch in the access number that says which precinct that ballot is tallied against is a bad thing. That is just asking for errors.
Each machine needs to be hard configured by the election board for its specific precinct location - so that users or poll workers can not tamper with it (this would be equivalent to a lock on the ballot box as we have with paper ballots).
Companies don't do that sort of stuff anyway - they lobby for laws that support their view, and let the federal government do all the dirty work:
Companies = lawyers + civil suits
Government = law enforcement (i.e. the raiding and confiscation activity) + criminal prosecution (judiciary and prosecutors)
Companies have no power to confiscate documents or subpeona witnesses - only the court can order these actions and will either depend upon the parties to provide said documentation or order federal agents to accomplish the confiscation via a search warrant (unless the crime is considered a 'homeland security' issue - at which point the U.S. Attorney General can bypass the courts and make that call - seizing evidence, tapping communications lines, and holding people indefinitely without recourse to habeas corpus).
200 mile course, at 10 hours = 20 MPH minimum speed to finish. Obstacles, of course, will slow down the vehicles, so the vehicle must be able to go much faster than this on 'clear' road to be competitive. The issue there is safetly - can an autonomous vehicle going 50 MPH stop in time when it detects another vehicle or an obstacle out to the maximum range of its sensors (I think a couple hundred meters)?
I have been meaning to add a computer lab/server room to my house - THIS IS PERFECT!!
My working day is spent in a cubicle farm. All day long I hear multiple phone conversations going on all day around me.
I am a developer - which means I need to concentrate, very deeply at times. The background noise level is high enough that I can actually hear various conversations for cubes that are close to mine. This can be distracting particularly when you are trying to formulate an idea or write code, as you will find yourself start to listen to the conversations, instead of following your internal dialogue.
To combat this, I sometimes don headphones and get some music going to drown out the conversations (preferably music without any words).
Ideally, developers should have doors that close to block out these distractions - they would be much more productive. Unfortunately, management doesn't think that way...so productivity suffers.
I just want some silence so my mind can think. Until they make the 'cone of silence' generally available in cubicle farms, earphones and music will have to do.
I can see it now: thousands of these autos found dead along the roadside like a flock of dinosaurs...the engines having seized up from running out of oil...
Modern aircraft still use dipsticks, because sensors don't always work.
You can know about something on a superficial level and know if it interests you or not - enough, in fact, to determine if you want to devote more time gaining indepth knowledge on the subject or not.
There is too much in the world to know - and the more you know and understand about the world, the more, you also realize, will escape your grasp.
So, you have to pick and choose based on incomplete information. That is just the way it is - and given one lifetime - you are not going to make a dent in that in any significant way.
The idealism of youth - that you can be all things - is a fallacy. Eventually, the grimreaper will cut your time short.
So, my statement stands: I do prefer to remain ignorant of things that don't interest me.
Also, I was not saying that TV was inherently evil (you are putting words in my mouth). My beef with TV is that it is a passive medium - you are the receptacle for whatever the networks decide to program. You do not control it, nor can you interact with it. Finally, if you use TV to fill your empty life, rather than being the creative force you were designed to be, then you should think about doing something else (get up, take a walk, post on slashdot, develop your personal philosophy etc). TV is not evil, but centering your life around it is.
I don't watch TV - unless we rent a DVD - or do a movie marathon with a selection of DVDs that we own... (I have an extensive collection of war movies).
So, for me, a Tivo or similar technology is useless.
On the other hand, it might be useful for my wife and kids - but then again, I am trying to get them to watch less TV, rather than more...so I don't think I will introduce this technology to them.
The more you learn, the less you know. I prefer to remain ignorant of things that don't interest me.
I spend enough time multitasking at work. I would prefer to do less with my free time - not more...
Stop and smell the roses...sit in one place and daydream...meditate...lay in the sun streaming in through the screen door on a warm day and take a nap...watch an ant mound...observe the wind through the trees, and the fall of leaves.
I was far more creative and energetic when I spent more time doing those things than I am now, every waking moment crammed with some activity - either work or family oriented.
It is not the quantity, but the quality of the life you live that counts.