My only worry about this is what happens if the data collected by the government falls into the wrong hands? If someone had enough information about you to know what places you went to on a regular basis, they'd have enough information to know when you're not at home
In light of current events, would "wrong hands" include government officials that twist intelligence data to further political aims?
Ah, this asks the question, "What is real: Bloat, or the perception of bloat?"
Internet Explorer is loaded with the rest of Windows whenever you start your PC. So that "less than a second" load time is actually much higher. When Linus throws Mozilla into the 2.6 kernel as a module, then your comment might have some merit....
Well, see, the difference is that our Brother is somewhat smaller, and much politer. Orwell was wrong about the oppression part -- it is much easier to give people what you tell them they want rather than take away what they know they should have.
Oceania was missing one crucial ingredient; the shopping mall!
I second your motion -- the Thinkpad T23 keyboard is the best found on a laptop, if not the best keyboard, period. I'm not old enough to remember the M keyboards......
....which was during the Great Depression. Families starved in absolute poverty while ton upon ton of food went up in flames at state lines. Curiously enough, the malnourished did not grow restless or discontent (perhaps they were too tired?); they simply blamed themselves for their inability find Work in the land of opportunity, and endured misery in relative silence.
I recall the 'laughing' stage was approximately 2 years ago, when Microsoft (perhaps Ballmer specifically?) was calling Linux "communist." I guess that didn't really have the effect they thought it would have...
Nonsense. Computers are now (and will continue to be if not grow) just as important as communication and analytical ability. As the generations progress, computer literacy is going to become more and more essential: I know of an employee who was politely fired for being too incompetent with a PC (could not even Ctrl-Alt-Delete simultaneously).
Learning computers very young is like learning English very young; you gain a high level of intuitive competence (the best kind!) in an extremely valuable ability.
Would you have sympathy for college students sued for creating sharing/search applications? And to veer into the pedantic, it's copyright infringement, not theft.
Prohibitionists were not incorporated. Neither is the DEA, but it's vast resources negate progress. Police departments are funded in part by property seized from drug users/traffickers. In both cases it is in their self-interest for the 'problem' to remain being a problem.
...falls into the realm that it well-loved here, IP. The Pantone color system is a closed-source standard, in the sense that a license is required to use '120F400' as a designation of 'red' (no, not accurate). Unforunately this is the only way to get around the immensely-complicated color variations from workspace to workspace.
Part of the license of Adobe products goes to pay for Pantone compatibility. Until someone creates an open standard for color, free software equivalents will have a very hard time matching utility value.
It's rather light fare. One of those glowing evangelicals you usually see in Wired, meant to grab the attention of the savvy rich and businesslike. If the "Sentient Office" and all is going to be accepted, people are going to have to want it first. Articles like this want only to start/stoke that desire, not actually explain them in any meaningful fashion.
Alot of companies are still struggling to make sense of technology acquired when budgets were fat. Snake-oil developers, lazy consultants, untrained contractors installed all kinds of magic CRM databases, black box server appliances, and NT networks. Half-installed or unproperly maintained, they are nothing but expensive deadweights. I think a greater pesimissim will affect the buying habits of corporations in the coming years, where demonstrable effects on the bottom line will be the order of the day. Where does the "Sentient Office" stand in such a scenario?
Well if Gates effectively wants to create Big Brother, would it not make sense that his words are actually Newspeak? "The future is not Big Brother" would actually mean the opposite. Someone in government understands this principle well, as you might have noticed....
I think you've touched upon the industry's little secret. The games are carefully designed to string you along for months if not years: player satisfaction is not as important as securing the revenue stream.
So if it takes 34 hours of play to go from level 20 to level 21, you can bet your @ss it's that way on purpose. Just enough sugar to make you come back for more...
I believe he is also referring to something we may see more of in the future -- commercial developers repacking open source software, or just taking the underlying design, and calling it their own. This is going to start happening in the American software industry, and likely in the far corners of the globe as well.
A relevant quote from Lawrence Lessig's blog: âoeWhat you donâ(TM)t understand, Lessig, is that your bullshit âopenâ(TM) or âfreeâ(TM) types will never â" NEVER â" be able to compete with corporate organization. Squabbles-about-egos-pretending-to-be-about-the-me rits can never be quashed. There is no one to say âenough, letâ(TM)s move on.â(TM) So every great idea that your type creates, weâ(TM)ll just wait, watch, and then take. Always.â paraphrased from a conversation with someone from within one of the (how many are there?) largest proprietary code companies.
âoeWhat you donâ(TM)t understand, Lessig, is that your bullshit âopenâ(TM) or âfreeâ(TM) types will never â" NEVER â" be able to compete with corporate organization. Squabbles-about-egos-pretending-to-be-about-the-me rits can never be quashed. There is no one to say âenough, letâ(TM)s move on.â(TM) So every great idea that your type creates, weâ(TM)ll just wait, watch, and then take. Always.â -- paraphrased from a conversation with someone from within one of the (how many are there?) largest proprietary code companies -snip-
Microsoft? Oracle? Doesn't matter, really. Hell, even game developers are beginning to exploit game communities and user modifications as features to market the game -- before said things exist. I fear a burnout at some point down the road...
The service area is about a square mile. So if you are wealthy enough to live in Grammercy Park or Murray Hill, then you are priviledged enough to use Fetchaflick. Just like FreshDirect -- six-figure-income neighborhoods only, please!
Cities, college towns, and many other places have venerable used-CD stores. Before the Internet, the RIAA of old would occasionally shut down a few of the more..."liberal" operations (I recall a few in NYC) that sold somewhat unauthorized recordings. CDs in these sorts of stores are 6 - 10 dollars each, which is very fair for real-world economics.
I would distingush these stores from 1. for the sheer fact of selection. Wal-Mart and friends are very conservative when they stock their shelves, and they even have the clout to force album edits and art redesigns.
The only problem I can see developing down the road is if these kinds of movie-modifications become the norm. What happens when Loews Cineplex declines the studio release of The Matrix IV for the sanitized, in-house mod?
Or what about movies that deal with controversial topics, like abortion, racism, politics, and society (as few movies like that as there are....)? Something like this can't be limited to simple 'sex' and 'violence' you know....
I suspect that as of yet, the AS-400 side of IBM is vastly more powerful that the Linux side. IBM has it's fair share of hard-core commercial enterprise applications, too.
But on the plus side, that foul sorceress, Martha Stewart, will pay for her crimes against society! All the pensioners she bankrupted will have their vengence, and the stock market will shoot past 12000 the day after she is sentenced.
So if KDE/Qt were to swamp GNOME for the Linux desktop, would Canopy be able to swoop in, take a controlling interest in Trolltech, and then shake down Linux users?
Slashdot Mirror
In light of current events, would "wrong hands" include government officials that twist intelligence data to further political aims?
Internet Explorer is loaded with the rest of Windows whenever you start your PC. So that "less than a second" load time is actually much higher. When Linus throws Mozilla into the 2.6 kernel as a module, then your comment might have some merit....
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Oceania was missing one crucial ingredient; the shopping mall!
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Learning computers very young is like learning English very young; you gain a high level of intuitive competence (the best kind!) in an extremely valuable ability.
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Part of the license of Adobe products goes to pay for Pantone compatibility. Until someone creates an open standard for color, free software equivalents will have a very hard time matching utility value.
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Alot of companies are still struggling to make sense of technology acquired when budgets were fat. Snake-oil developers, lazy consultants, untrained contractors installed all kinds of magic CRM databases, black box server appliances, and NT networks. Half-installed or unproperly maintained, they are nothing but expensive deadweights. I think a greater pesimissim will affect the buying habits of corporations in the coming years, where demonstrable effects on the bottom line will be the order of the day. Where does the "Sentient Office" stand in such a scenario?
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So if it takes 34 hours of play to go from level 20 to level 21, you can bet your @ss it's that way on purpose. Just enough sugar to make you come back for more...
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A relevant quote from Lawrence Lessig's blog:e rits can never be quashed. There is no one to say âenough, letâ(TM)s move on.â(TM) So every great idea that your type creates, weâ(TM)ll just wait, watch, and then take. Always.â paraphrased from a conversation with someone from within one of the (how many are there?) largest proprietary code companies.
âoeWhat you donâ(TM)t understand, Lessig, is that your bullshit âopenâ(TM) or âfreeâ(TM) types will never â" NEVER â" be able to compete with corporate organization. Squabbles-about-egos-pretending-to-be-about-the-m
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-snip-
Microsoft? Oracle? Doesn't matter, really. Hell, even game developers are beginning to exploit game communities and user modifications as features to market the game -- before said things exist. I fear a burnout at some point down the road...
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Protesting against Big Government is Leftist now? Someone better go tell the libertarians...
I would distingush these stores from 1. for the sheer fact of selection. Wal-Mart and friends are very conservative when they stock their shelves, and they even have the clout to force album edits and art redesigns.
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Or what about movies that deal with controversial topics, like abortion, racism, politics, and society (as few movies like that as there are....)? Something like this can't be limited to simple 'sex' and 'violence' you know....
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I suspect that as of yet, the AS-400 side of IBM is vastly more powerful that the Linux side. IBM has it's fair share of hard-core commercial enterprise applications, too.
Err.....right?
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Just a cheerful supposition.
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