My guess is that companies figure if the linux crowd will spend all that time and energy making wine, winex, and figuring out how to make their games work under them, it's a good bet there's a market for ready-to-run-in-linux games.
I think the perception of macs, OTOH, is that they are used only/mostly for graphic design, video editing, and music production.
I'm not following you. For one thing, I don't subscribe, and I see the story. For another, the time stamp says 7:15am -- a time in the past (in this time zone, at any rate).
I couldn't agree more (re: Jordan's writing). I tried recently to reread the series so I could catch up to the end, but I got bored. It's hard to remain interested when you barely care if the characters live or die.
I'm going to recommend Jack Vance's Dying Earth books, and Gene Wolfe's New Sun books. They're so good I probably should have posted this in the main thread, but, whatever.
...starting a "best of" list, but I'll confine myself to stuff that I'm pretty sure is out of print... since that was the question.
The Worm Ouroborous by E.R.Eddison is an amazing story, though I suppose it leans a little more toward fantasy than science fiction.
Anything by Philip K. Dick is good, I include him only because it's sort of hit-or-miss whether or not you'll see his books in a "new book" bookstore.
Jack Vance has already been mentioned, but he deserves to be flogged again. If you are a fan of science fiction/fantasy and have not read his work, consider yourself chastised. Go find some. Most of it, if in print, is usually not on the shelf. Go find The Dying Earth in a used bookstore. Sit down and hold the book in your hands for a moment before opening it; there's magic inside.
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe is rarely on the shelf; I don't think it's "out of print", but I don't see it too often. A shame. It ought to be required reading.
I tried really hard to keep this on topic, but some prejudice slipped in. For more info on great works of fantasy and science fiction, check out greatsfandf.com. It has a bit of awkward html, but no blinking or marquee, thank god. There you will find some fine reviews of some little known works of speculative literature, as well as a few essays on fantasy and sf in general. A fine site.
it has been proven that 6 monkeys and 1 computer...
No, no, this isn't proof. We need to at least take another six monkeys and another computer and see if this happens again.
Although, I've always had the nagging suspicion that an infinite number of monkeys typing at an infinite number of typewriters would produce an infinite number of broken typewriters...
Probably many (well, at least some) of those here have read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, a comic book about comics. In it, he eventually get to the inevitable "can comics be art?" question. He has an interesting definition of art following this.
He presumes we narrow down humanity's basic drives to survival and reproduction. (I'm paraphrasing, here) Then, anything which we create or do which is not a direct result of these basic drives, what can it be, but art? From drawing in the dirt to flipping someone off: Art.
I'm not saying I share that idea completely, but it has its appeal.
Woops, my bad. I thought that the SFU code was proprietary, and it never occurred to me to check if they had used a license such as the GPL; that seemed ridiculous. The win at linuxworld seemed to me just to reflect that they had made a good tool for interoperability between windows and unix. I'm surprised to hear that it "includes" the GPL, but, oh well. I've been wrong before.
It's interesting to note that the GPL allows the user to change the source, while the EULA allows MicroSoft to change the EULA, and force the user to accept it. This comparison alone shows the breadth of the ideological gap between the two ways of licensing, and although I admit it seems like a Good Thing to note that free software will not necessarily "infect" proprietary software, I'm not certain it will change anything.
Do I really think that this will cause MicroSoft to release some of thier tools under a Free license, or that they will include Free Software in their products?
I suppose people who will take advantage of this will be smaller software companies, who can't afford to be as obstinate as MicroSoft, and want to speed development time by incorporating existing Free software...
I hope so... The main link in the post seems already to be slashdotted, so I can't read all about it, but if, as it seems, this is a New Game, coming with a linux port right off the starting block, it certainly seems that would be a Good Thing.
They should have called it something utilitarian, say, Internet Explorer. Wait... which name was retarded again? Does this mean I should call my OS `Open Source OS'(OSOS? we could abbreviate it `OS/2'... Too cutesy?), instead of the cutesy `Linux'?
...that just keeps gaining momentum. Linux/open source gets some press, some "hip" factor, PHBs start to look at the hip new thing (I can just hear some manager asking his newly minted MSCE, "Say, what would it take to switch to this Linux thing I read about in businessweek?"), the more the PHBs look at it, the more press it gets...
It's cool, but at the same time, a lot of the people writing about it clearly don't understand it -- the mutilated description of the GPL in the recent Businessweek article bears witness to that. Then at the same time (in that article, and elsewhere) there's the continued use of phrases like "a ragtag band of software geeks", which I don't consider pejorative or anything, but it begins to get a little old.
I think this will be a Good Thing. As long as the "trend" lasts long enough for people to figure out how to use it(Linux, etc); if they just abandon it the first time they're prompted to fsck their filesystem, it could stop rolling. But hopefully by that time the this-could-be-more-user-friendly-dept. will have worked some more magic...
was actually written a long time ago, and has nothing in particular to do with the book. Apparently since he had taken over the jargon.txt file he was getting a lot of "How do I become a hacker?" email. Yeah, it's a little cheesy, but that's esr, I guess. I think the only reason it's there is because O'reilly's trying to "liberate" the hacker moniker from being associated with cracking.
I remember coming across the hacker-howto years ago, when I was a windows-only newbie, and it actually inspired me to start to learn to program, and figure things out. That's what it was intended for; not for a server hack intro. Hence, that's probably why it seemed so out-of-place.
is the default on all the win2k/xp boxes that I've installed. So, in that sense, the `default' password is on the list.
Of course, no one in their right mind should leave a password blank.
On the other hand, it reminds me of the story that rms used the null string as his password at MIT so that people who couldn't otherwise get an account could still learn to use the computers. No one was really (AFAIK) spreading malicious code, at that time, either. How times change....
Okay, this post was completely off-topic; not only in a nethack thread, but probably anywhere in/., barring the unlikely event that we see an `ask-slashdot-to-entreat-the-deity-of-their-choice -to-intervene-in -world-events' thread....
Attacking someone's beliefs as `mythical' just because they don't know when and where to post them doesn't impress me, somehow. Call it offtopic and leave it at that.
is a great book by Douglas Hofstadter, primarily about Godel's Incompleteness Theorem and it's applications (or implications?) to AI, and to Logic and math in general.
This isn't exactly what I'd call `practical' computer math, but I would by all means try to expose people to it. I first heard of it when our Computer Science teacher (12th grade; language was Pascal, to give an idea when this was) read some of it to us, to try and illustrate the concept of recursion and recursive algorithms...
Reading this book, years ago, first gave me the inkling that mathematics and computer programming could be interesting and cool in and of themselves, and eventually this grew into the impetus to learn more.
Of course, when you tell people that you really became interested in Computer Science because you were interested in Godel's Theorem, they think you're pretty strange. But, from a learning standpoint, it's easier to learn if you have a genuine interest in something; and for me, it's these strange, paradoxical-seeming branches of math that don't necessarily seem to have any practical applications (like Godel's Theorem, or Cantor's countable and uncountable infinities, or Quine's Paradox) that made the rest of math come alive.
I'm sure this is a little off topic, because I'm speaking of make I like, not math I use. I just couldn't resist plugging the book that got me interested in math in the first place...
A good review can be found here, Google will find a lot more. Oh, what the heck, I'll save you a few keystrokes: here.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the perception of macs, OTOH, is that they are used only/mostly for graphic design, video editing, and music production.
Oh, now it's blue.
#3300CC
Oh well.
It could happen to anyone.
I'm going to recommend Jack Vance's Dying Earth books, and Gene Wolfe's New Sun books. They're so good I probably should have posted this in the main thread, but, whatever.
I think the Church of the Subgenius might have an issue with that. Would naming a mere browser "Bob" be some sort of blasphemy?
...in which you shoot yourself in a reference to your foot, and pass a message back to your foot informing it to behave as though it has been shot.
The Worm Ouroborous by E.R.Eddison is an amazing story, though I suppose it leans a little more toward fantasy than science fiction.
Anything by Philip K. Dick is good, I include him only because it's sort of hit-or-miss whether or not you'll see his books in a "new book" bookstore.
Jack Vance has already been mentioned, but he deserves to be flogged again. If you are a fan of science fiction/fantasy and have not read his work, consider yourself chastised. Go find some. Most of it, if in print, is usually not on the shelf. Go find The Dying Earth in a used bookstore. Sit down and hold the book in your hands for a moment before opening it; there's magic inside.
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe is rarely on the shelf; I don't think it's "out of print", but I don't see it too often. A shame. It ought to be required reading.
I tried really hard to keep this on topic, but some prejudice slipped in. For more info on great works of fantasy and science fiction, check out greatsfandf.com. It has a bit of awkward html, but no blinking or marquee, thank god. There you will find some fine reviews of some little known works of speculative literature, as well as a few essays on fantasy and sf in general. A fine site.
No, no, this isn't proof. We need to at least take another six monkeys and another computer and see if this happens again.
Although, I've always had the nagging suspicion that an infinite number of monkeys typing at an infinite number of typewriters would produce an infinite number of broken typewriters...
He presumes we narrow down humanity's basic drives to survival and reproduction. (I'm paraphrasing, here) Then, anything which we create or do which is not a direct result of these basic drives, what can it be, but art? From drawing in the dirt to flipping someone off: Art.
I'm not saying I share that idea completely, but it has its appeal.
Woops, my bad. I thought that the SFU code was proprietary, and it never occurred to me to check if they had used a license such as the GPL; that seemed ridiculous. The win at linuxworld seemed to me just to reflect that they had made a good tool for interoperability between windows and unix. I'm surprised to hear that it "includes" the GPL, but, oh well. I've been wrong before.
Do I really think that this will cause MicroSoft to release some of thier tools under a Free license, or that they will include Free Software in their products?
I suppose people who will take advantage of this will be smaller software companies, who can't afford to be as obstinate as MicroSoft, and want to speed development time by incorporating existing Free software...
I hope so... The main link in the post seems already to be slashdotted, so I can't read all about it, but if, as it seems, this is a New Game, coming with a linux port right off the starting block, it certainly seems that would be a Good Thing.
... as long as it isn't called `warp' or anything. That would be cutesy.
They should have called it something utilitarian, say, Internet Explorer. Wait... which name was retarded again?
Does this mean I should call my OS `Open Source OS'(OSOS? we could abbreviate it `OS/2'... Too cutesy?), instead of the cutesy `Linux'?
....whoa
...whoa
...that just keeps gaining momentum. Linux/open source gets some press, some "hip" factor, PHBs start to look at the hip new thing (I can just hear some manager asking his newly minted MSCE, "Say, what would it take to switch to this Linux thing I read about in businessweek?"), the more the PHBs look at it, the more press it gets...
It's cool, but at the same time, a lot of the people writing about it clearly don't understand it -- the mutilated description of the GPL in the recent Businessweek article bears witness to that. Then at the same time (in that article, and elsewhere) there's the continued use of phrases like "a ragtag band of software geeks", which I don't consider pejorative or anything, but it begins to get a little old.
I think this will be a Good Thing. As long as the "trend" lasts long enough for people to figure out how to use it(Linux, etc); if they just abandon it the first time they're prompted to fsck their filesystem, it could stop rolling. But hopefully by that time the this-could-be-more-user-friendly-dept. will have worked some more magic...
... oh, never mind.
I remember coming across the hacker-howto years ago, when I was a windows-only newbie, and it actually inspired me to start to learn to program, and figure things out. That's what it was intended for; not for a server hack intro. Hence, that's probably why it seemed so out-of-place.
and your keyboard freezes, how do you press CTRL-ALT-DEL?
Of course, no one in their right mind should leave a password blank.
On the other hand, it reminds me of the story that rms used the null string as his password at MIT so that people who couldn't otherwise get an account could still learn to use the computers. No one was really (AFAIK) spreading malicious code, at that time, either. How times change....
Okay, this post was completely off-topic; not only in a nethack thread, but probably anywhere in /., barring the unlikely event that we see an `ask-slashdot-to-entreat-the-deity-of-their-choice -to-intervene-in -world-events' thread....
Attacking someone's beliefs as `mythical' just because they don't know when and where to post them doesn't impress me, somehow. Call it offtopic and leave it at that.
This isn't exactly what I'd call `practical' computer math, but I would by all means try to expose people to it. I first heard of it when our Computer Science teacher (12th grade; language was Pascal, to give an idea when this was) read some of it to us, to try and illustrate the concept of recursion and recursive algorithms...
Reading this book, years ago, first gave me the inkling that mathematics and computer programming could be interesting and cool in and of themselves, and eventually this grew into the impetus to learn more.
Of course, when you tell people that you really became interested in Computer Science because you were interested in Godel's Theorem, they think you're pretty strange. But, from a learning standpoint, it's easier to learn if you have a genuine interest in something; and for me, it's these strange, paradoxical-seeming branches of math that don't necessarily seem to have any practical applications (like Godel's Theorem, or Cantor's countable and uncountable infinities, or Quine's Paradox) that made the rest of math come alive.
I'm sure this is a little off topic, because I'm speaking of make I like, not math I use. I just couldn't resist plugging the book that got me interested in math in the first place... A good review can be found here, Google will find a lot more. Oh, what the heck, I'll save you a few keystrokes: here.
How many IT Support people does it take to change a light bulb?
None; every time they show up, it works fine.