Of course I don't have first hand information, but I'm under the impression that the term "hacker" was coined in the 60's at MIT when they were screwing around with PDP computers, and was used in (so-called) hacker circles to refer to what the Jargon file describes as hackers until the term was hijacked by mainstream media.
I know cracker technically only refers to a certain technique of security breaking (as opposed to say, phreaking) and was later broadened to security breakers in general, if that's what you meant.
The Washington Post calls them hackers and their activities hacking, while/. rightfully used the word cracker?
I emailed them a slightly different version of RMS' letter you can find in the Jargon file (Appendix C). I've got no illusions about how effective it'll be, but I still feel it's something we should do more.
My post wasn't flamebait, I was just saying I didn't like Halo and was expecting the Rare games.
And as far as the PS2 offering is concerned, of course Sony releases a ton of sequels, but SCE are the only ones who give a chance to new game designers to make a game like Ico. I don't see either Nintendo nor MS doing that.
imo Halo sucked, so Halo 2 won't get much of this guy's attention. I'm very much looking forward to the Rare games though.
The Nintendo and MS offerings seem similar in that they're only playing it safe and cashing in on their successful franchises, while we only see bold, innovative games coming from Sony.
Not mentioning the fact that this idea is old, I see a few problems. Some of us don't exclusively work with computers. Sure, a good half/two thirds of my desk is dedicated to computing space, but I also do stuff with paper and I need space to do that. Or, more importantly, store CD cases, Star Wars action figures, and pile empty pizza boxes. A work/computing environment without a foot of assorted junk piled on top isn't a true environment.
Besides, the system is too restrictive. I don't like my box shipping with the device. I want to choose what components I use. Similarily, until the quality on LCD displays matches that of CRTs, I'll keep using those. And unless I'm mistaken there's no switching system to allow you to hang a CRT from there.
I mean, it's an idea we've all had, and cherished for a while (I remember in UF Stef bought one to increase his Quaking skills, we all know how that worked out), but it's just not feasible that way.
As much as we would like to think it is, a Personal Computing Environment isn't 100% PC.
I always thought that if I was a musician, all my music would be GPL: you could get tabs, scores, MP3s, in short the music and everything that went into it online, since it's going to be there anyway.
But I also thought that since it would be GPL, any person sampling my music would have to make it GPL, right? So if an artist who samples one of my songs just uses normal copyright, I should sue him till he makes it GPL? The idea being that people wil want to sample *his* song and make it GPL, and so forth.
Of course, the implications of this are immense (how could GPL apply to music, etc. etc.), but it's just something I thought of and I feel it should be brought here. Hell, maybe an Ask/.?
In my day, I also programmed an app similar to Twin for DOS on my old comp. It was a pseudo-graphical app I used to login, launch programs, etc. it was basically my hub from which I did other things. Even had a screensaver (it was basically the date and time wandering accross the screen). Then I got a 286 with Windows 3.1 and forgot all about it (though I still used a different version of it whenever I got back to DOS, or during startup).
I basically forgot all about it when I got a Pentium with Win95 and Slack.
Maybe so, but it remains quite infortunate. Language is the means with which we think. If that deteriorates, thought deteriorates. Where would we be if programming errors were taken as lightly as grammar errors?
It is. Seriously, both as a Frenchman and as a (non-native) English speaker, I'm appaled by the poor quality of this article! The French are notorious for being bad at foreign languages but this is absurd. They should have at least one editor on their site to fix their syntax and grammar.
You know, usually when I read something in English I hear it in my head with a normal accent but when I read that I actually heard it with a French accent...
...are bad rips, but if you're a purist (like myself) you can rip CDs in mathematically loseless quality. Takes up more space, but you don't have to worry about quality, which is always an important issue.
Of course, that doesn't make the MP3's you get off KaZaA any better, but hey, if you don't like it, buy the CD.:p
I've had/. as my home page for some time now, but have constantly needed to resort to other game sites for my gaming information. This is great news, I was hoping for it.
Though, if it's videogames that make you guys believe purple on white is a good colour scheme, then maybe videogames truly *are* bad.
I'm sorry about all the factual mistakes in that post that you guys pointed out, I was just drawing from old memories, but my point was really this: with the way societies evolve, inventions sometimes appear at the same time for reasons we really don't know and would be quite interesting to explore (psychohistory, anyone?).
Apparently some people came up with the idea of something that would lead to the computer at the same time in the US, Russia, Germany, who knows elsewhere, and I think that is really interesting. Hence the example about guitars, which comes from a friend who's a guitar teacher and really researched this issue, and assures me the guitar popped up in all those places at the same time in a way that makes us pretty sure it wasn't just an invention that spread (like the zero). Or how in each major civilisational area (Europe, Mid-East, India and the Far East) of the globe philosophy appeared within a span of 50 years.
Besides the guitar, it's interesting to note that philosophy and computers are arguably the two most important things humanity came up with (definitely a top 5, along with art, religion and the hole in doughnuts), and both share this characteristic.
I think the first computer was invented in 1936 by a German scientist, Konrad Zuse, who later had to flee to Switzerland because of the war... At least that't About.com claims.
You know, it's really funny how things can be invented in several places at the same time... Like the modern guitar as we know it was come up with in China, the Middle East and Spain at the exact same times (and not chronologically, implying that the invention would have traveled)... Or how Pythagores, Zarathustra, Buddha and Lao-Tse, who each pioneered philosophy in their own continent, were contemporaries.
A hobby of mine is writing SF, and when I read how this guy came to do this accidentally (reading his roomate's socio books, and letter getting a math book he didn't order), I just feel like people have traveled back in time and planted those things so he could start those studies, eventually foster "psychomathematics" that will later be evolved in psychohistory when we have computers fast enough (quantum) to handle the mathematical load.
The truth is out there.
Also, I'll remember what he said next time I have a fight with my wife.
There are a few simple answers to Apple's success. I don't use Macs personally, but I know quite a number of Macheads and I've come up with my theory.
Most people who use Apples are designers or artists who learned to do their thang on Apples, and more importantly, use Apples in the workplace, and buying a $1,500 PowerMac doesn't mean that much to a company. Besides, it's not true anymore, but until say six months or a year back, Apple really *was* the choice if you wanted to do any serious video editing, photoshopping, etc. because the software they use to do that was optimized for Mac, and it really was better and faster. It'll take some time for that community to adapt.
Now as for those who use Macs in the home... Well sometimes people are just stupid AND rich.
Not to toot my own horn, but I knew about the GP32 long ago. They've been selling it on Lik Sang for a while now.
The site is great because they offer all kinds of unusual gaming-oriented Asian stuff and, like TG it's always a blast to go there and check out the weird/interesting stuff they have to offer. I know I sound like an advertising bot, but it's a really great site (you may have heard of them because they got their ass sued to the moon by MS a little while ago for selling X-Box modchips).
...UDO is its own standard of blue laser technology. The other great thing about Blu-Ray was that it was one standard: no DVD-R/RAM/-RW/+RW/ARGH! and now people come out with their own blue laser technologies? I want a 5.25 Blu-Ray drive that I can use to read Blu-Ray movies, make ISOs of them, backup my data, and not a billion standards.
Then ban every FPS except System Shock and Deus Ex, every RTS, 80% RPG's...
In France we have a pretty fucked up ratings system, but we know the only reason we do is because no shopkeeper would ever abide to it. Doom III will probably be banned for minors, but you'll be able to buy it from any shop if you're over ten. And you so rightly should.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course I don't have first hand information, but I'm under the impression that the term "hacker" was coined in the 60's at MIT when they were screwing around with PDP computers, and was used in (so-called) hacker circles to refer to what the Jargon file describes as hackers until the term was hijacked by mainstream media.
I know cracker technically only refers to a certain technique of security breaking (as opposed to say, phreaking) and was later broadened to security breakers in general, if that's what you meant.
The Washington Post calls them hackers and their activities hacking, while /. rightfully used the word cracker?
I emailed them a slightly different version of RMS' letter you can find in the Jargon file (Appendix C). I've got no illusions about how effective it'll be, but I still feel it's something we should do more.
My post wasn't flamebait, I was just saying I didn't like Halo and was expecting the Rare games.
And as far as the PS2 offering is concerned, of course Sony releases a ton of sequels, but SCE are the only ones who give a chance to new game designers to make a game like Ico. I don't see either Nintendo nor MS doing that.
Oh and for the record, I don't own a PS2.
imo Halo sucked, so Halo 2 won't get much of this guy's attention. I'm very much looking forward to the Rare games though.
The Nintendo and MS offerings seem similar in that they're only playing it safe and cashing in on their successful franchises, while we only see bold, innovative games coming from Sony.
It's something I've grown accustomed to.
Not mentioning the fact that this idea is old, I see a few problems. Some of us don't exclusively work with computers. Sure, a good half/two thirds of my desk is dedicated to computing space, but I also do stuff with paper and I need space to do that. Or, more importantly, store CD cases, Star Wars action figures, and pile empty pizza boxes. A work/computing environment without a foot of assorted junk piled on top isn't a true environment.
Besides, the system is too restrictive. I don't like my box shipping with the device. I want to choose what components I use. Similarily, until the quality on LCD displays matches that of CRTs, I'll keep using those. And unless I'm mistaken there's no switching system to allow you to hang a CRT from there.
I mean, it's an idea we've all had, and cherished for a while (I remember in UF Stef bought one to increase his Quaking skills, we all know how that worked out), but it's just not feasible that way.
As much as we would like to think it is, a Personal Computing Environment isn't 100% PC.
I always thought that if I was a musician, all my music would be GPL: you could get tabs, scores, MP3s, in short the music and everything that went into it online, since it's going to be there anyway.
/.?
But I also thought that since it would be GPL, any person sampling my music would have to make it GPL, right? So if an artist who samples one of my songs just uses normal copyright, I should sue him till he makes it GPL? The idea being that people wil want to sample *his* song and make it GPL, and so forth.
Of course, the implications of this are immense (how could GPL apply to music, etc. etc.), but it's just something I thought of and I feel it should be brought here. Hell, maybe an Ask
In my day, I also programmed an app similar to Twin for DOS on my old comp. It was a pseudo-graphical app I used to login, launch programs, etc. it was basically my hub from which I did other things. Even had a screensaver (it was basically the date and time wandering accross the screen). Then I got a 286 with Windows 3.1 and forgot all about it (though I still used a different version of it whenever I got back to DOS, or during startup).
I basically forgot all about it when I got a Pentium with Win95 and Slack.
Maybe so, but it remains quite infortunate. Language is the means with which we think. If that deteriorates, thought deteriorates. Where would we be if programming errors were taken as lightly as grammar errors?
http://everything2.com/?node_id=969638
It is. Seriously, both as a Frenchman and as a (non-native) English speaker, I'm appaled by the poor quality of this article! The French are notorious for being bad at foreign languages but this is absurd. They should have at least one editor on their site to fix their syntax and grammar.
You know, usually when I read something in English I hear it in my head with a normal accent but when I read that I actually heard it with a French accent...
Two paragraphs and already three grammar/syntax mistakes. Are those French unable of speaking a foreign language?
(I is French)
...are bad rips, but if you're a purist (like myself) you can rip CDs in mathematically loseless quality. Takes up more space, but you don't have to worry about quality, which is always an important issue.
:p
Of course, that doesn't make the MP3's you get off KaZaA any better, but hey, if you don't like it, buy the CD.
I've had /. as my home page for some time now, but have constantly needed to resort to other game sites for my gaming information. This is great news, I was hoping for it.
Though, if it's videogames that make you guys believe purple on white is a good colour scheme, then maybe videogames truly *are* bad.
My homebuilt 2200+ box's got thermal grease on the CPU. Who else is it too late for? I wonder if this measure is retroactive...
...when Amazon, Microsoft and Walt Disney have to unite to defend freedom.
I'm sorry about all the factual mistakes in that post that you guys pointed out, I was just drawing from old memories, but my point was really this: with the way societies evolve, inventions sometimes appear at the same time for reasons we really don't know and would be quite interesting to explore (psychohistory, anyone?).
Apparently some people came up with the idea of something that would lead to the computer at the same time in the US, Russia, Germany, who knows elsewhere, and I think that is really interesting. Hence the example about guitars, which comes from a friend who's a guitar teacher and really researched this issue, and assures me the guitar popped up in all those places at the same time in a way that makes us pretty sure it wasn't just an invention that spread (like the zero). Or how in each major civilisational area (Europe, Mid-East, India and the Far East) of the globe philosophy appeared within a span of 50 years.
Besides the guitar, it's interesting to note that philosophy and computers are arguably the two most important things humanity came up with (definitely a top 5, along with art, religion and the hole in doughnuts), and both share this characteristic.
I think the first computer was invented in 1936 by a German scientist, Konrad Zuse, who later had to flee to Switzerland because of the war... At least that't About.com claims.
You know, it's really funny how things can be invented in several places at the same time... Like the modern guitar as we know it was come up with in China, the Middle East and Spain at the exact same times (and not chronologically, implying that the invention would have traveled)... Or how Pythagores, Zarathustra, Buddha and Lao-Tse, who each pioneered philosophy in their own continent, were contemporaries.
Dude, geek jargon stopped being gramatically correct fourty years ago. Should we stop saying things like "ad-hockery"?
Pretty innovative and daring if you ask me.
*How* *much*?
A hobby of mine is writing SF, and when I read how this guy came to do this accidentally (reading his roomate's socio books, and letter getting a math book he didn't order), I just feel like people have traveled back in time and planted those things so he could start those studies, eventually foster "psychomathematics" that will later be evolved in psychohistory when we have computers fast enough (quantum) to handle the mathematical load.
The truth is out there.
Also, I'll remember what he said next time I have a fight with my wife.
There are a few simple answers to Apple's success. I don't use Macs personally, but I know quite a number of Macheads and I've come up with my theory.
Most people who use Apples are designers or artists who learned to do their thang on Apples, and more importantly, use Apples in the workplace, and buying a $1,500 PowerMac doesn't mean that much to a company. Besides, it's not true anymore, but until say six months or a year back, Apple really *was* the choice if you wanted to do any serious video editing, photoshopping, etc. because the software they use to do that was optimized for Mac, and it really was better and faster. It'll take some time for that community to adapt.
Now as for those who use Macs in the home... Well sometimes people are just stupid AND rich.
Not to toot my own horn, but I knew about the GP32 long ago. They've been selling it on Lik Sang for a while now.
The site is great because they offer all kinds of unusual gaming-oriented Asian stuff and, like TG it's always a blast to go there and check out the weird/interesting stuff they have to offer. I know I sound like an advertising bot, but it's a really great site (you may have heard of them because they got their ass sued to the moon by MS a little while ago for selling X-Box modchips).
...UDO is its own standard of blue laser technology. The other great thing about Blu-Ray was that it was one standard: no DVD-R/RAM/-RW/+RW/ARGH! and now people come out with their own blue laser technologies? I want a 5.25 Blu-Ray drive that I can use to read Blu-Ray movies, make ISOs of them, backup my data, and not a billion standards.
*grumbles and walks off*
Then ban every FPS except System Shock and Deus Ex, every RTS, 80% RPG's...
In France we have a pretty fucked up ratings system, but we know the only reason we do is because no shopkeeper would ever abide to it. Doom III will probably be banned for minors, but you'll be able to buy it from any shop if you're over ten. And you so rightly should.
It probably is, be it only for the Monty Python foot. But, it's not really a very good one. :s