Nice article there - it was to look over the pamphlet and retrospect about how far we've come communication-wise in the past few decades. We can communicate more effectively, work more productively, and get information faster.
But I cannot say the same for the improvement in social life that technology has brought about. Sure, we have IM now, I can videoconference with my folks back home halfway across the world without paying a penny, but has it really *improved* my social life? I don't think so.
IMHO, we communicate better with people we need to (at work) and family/friends, but we don't really end up making more friends (I won't go so far as to credit Orkut groups/etc as friends). If anything, we're spending more time in front of our screens sending and accessing messages (communicating) at the cost of social interaction.
Maybe it's just me, but I have a feeling it's true for a lot of folks especially those around here.
Google Zeitgeist graphs don't show an appreciable increase (ofcourse 1% would be hard to notice on that graph).
I remember an earlier story about browser stats tracked by some independent study using hits on their website. I would tend to go with Google on this one - their statistics probably tell the most accurate story.
Well, I was planning to be in NJ this weekend, and tried to sign up for the conference (at the very least to hear Mitnick and Wozniac speak), but looks like the preregistration period has closed:
From http://store.2600.com/2600hacker/
FIFTH HOPE TICKETS
NO LONGER AVAILABLE HERE!
Preregistration has CLOSED.
You can get tickets to the conference at the door.
On the other hand, maybe this is their idea of screening the attendees to weed out the chaff from the uber haxx0rs.
Each year, the Rainforest are responsible for over three thousand deaths from accidents, attacks or illnesses. There are over seven hundred things in the Rainforest that cause cancer. Join the fight now and help stop the Rainforest before it's too late."
And the problem is most people will believe this shit like the Senators who changed their vote did.
if you notice, I referred to a generic scheduler, not a process(or) or disk scheduler in particular.
Moreover, the elevator algorithm just means cycling through a sequence completely in one direction before changing direction. It need not be confined to just disk drive head motion. I can imagine cycling through PIDs in non-decreasing order before reverting to a non-increasing order.
An important property of a reliable backup device IMHO is a good/clean separation of the actual recording medium and the read/write mechanism.
Normal Harddrives fail pitifully on this point. The drive electronics, read write heads, etc is so tied in with the physical disks that it makes it difficult to remove the disks and pop them into a working device with the ease of tapes, CDs etc.
Tapes, CDs, floppies are very clean and hassle free from this standpoint. The cartridge/media is of a standard size and can usually be popped into any "player" for playback.
Further, hard disk manufacturers also haven't been able to reach an agreement on the size, error correction and other protocols to write to disk, (like an ISO, but not quite), which is one of the reasons for difficult/expensive error recovery on hard disks. Ofcourse, tapes are also more rugged than harddrives, but I think once these other issues are sorted out, HDDs could replace tapes as a "reliable" backup device.
whether the ISDN lines were really being used enough to justify the expense to the company. Or were they being mainly used for other purposes.
In my experience, a dialup connection works just as good for a plain text/shell connection - IMHO ISDN lines were overkill (ofcourse this depends on the actual environment context).
Broadband and Star Trek hmmm...
on
Planet Broadband
·
· Score: 1
[kirk voice]
Broadband - the final frontier.
These are the voyages of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Her five-year mission to explore strange new worms,
based on the sample space of 1 month, we can infer that "illegal downloads" by pirrates are actually increasing their profit margin.
I suggest *AA start paying pirates for downloads for the excellent job they're doing.
Arrr
While we're talking of blimps...
on
Broadband Blimps
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Anybody from the Boston area notice the blimp that was floating during the July 4th fireworks/concert show?
It caught my eye because it had an LCD type screen displaying graphics/advertisements and was pretty cool I thought - more versatile than the old-fashioned banners towed by aircraft.
They had the US flag, fireworks screensaver type graphic, etc. Once they have a functional display and controlling computer on board, it shouldn't be hard to beam up stuff from ground control.
Metrics like minutes viewed per month. Like ad revenue. Like click-through. Stickiness. I am not making this up.
From what I know, Microsoft money is a standalone application for Windows. How, then would they measure minutes viewed, click-through, etc unless they secretly transfer these statistics when the computer is online?
I went to the Microsoft Money (TM) website, and they don't seem to have a web-based or online version of it, in which context these stats would make sense.
Does M$ track and report the amount of time each application was in use on a PC? Sounds improbable, but with a TFH on, it's hard to say.
Stallman visited India. I remembered this clearly when I read Stallman's story, but could not dig up relevant Slashdot stories for you. However, I have managed to find some other stories, which clearly show that the *first* time the Prez recommended Open Source publicly, it was back in May2003. Stallman paid him a visit only earlier this year Jan 2004 if I remember right.
Here's the proof: Article from the Times of India. A blurb
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2003 12:06:03 AM ]
PUNE: President A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday urged Indian IT professionals to develop and specialise in open source code software rather than use proprietary solutions based on systems such as Microsoft Windows.
Stallman's visit reported in The Hindu and elsewhere:
Kalam, Stallman discuss open source software
NEW DELHI, JAN. 31. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, last Thursday played host to two radically divergent poles of the global software industry.
Though the second link does not say 2004, I'm sure it was earlier this year, and a Google search should help you confirm that. Also the URL is dated 20040201.
The above information renders your argument incorrect and w/o H20.
...geeks make better politicians, because they're more inclined to think rationally/logically. I know this is a broad statement, but I've seen it hold true in most occassions.
Incidentally his official website runs Apache/2.0.42 (Unix) PHP/4.2.3.
A couple of brief excerpts from his bio here:
After a fairly secure childhood, during which he is said to have read as much as he could, he studied at the Madras Institute of Technology, where he specialised in Aero Engineering.
He has worked in leading defence and space organisations in research and managerial capacities. He contributed in a major way to the development of the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) III, which put the Rohini Satellite into orbit. He has also been chairperson to Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC).
A vegetarian, his interests include playing the veena and writing poetry. He has written two books, Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India and India 2020: Vision for the New Millennium.
Till now, Abdul Kalam has been best known for his key role in the nuclear tests at Pokharan in the Rajasthan desert on May 11 and 13, 1997. With most parties choosing him as their presidential candidate, he has become the 11th Indian to join a very select group.
What do the Gray areas on the World Map indicate? Most of Europe is gray, and the key does not explain the meaning of this color.
The page linked to from "under $1 a day" does not carry information/statistics about specific countries, but provides only an overview by continent. I'm a little skeptical about the "Percentage of population living below $1.00" - according to the map, only 5 countries: Nicaragua, India, Namibia, Ghana and Kenya qualify as "dark red". I would suspect this is not the case - Pakistan and other fareastern countries for example should be in this range, rather than the green (developed) range.
And again, I'm not sure how useful the "under $1.00 per day" statistic is, because it most certainly does not take into consideration, the standard of living - a loaf of bread costs about $2.00 in the US and 25c in other countries I know.
When I envision a high-tech future of mankind and earth, the thought of mega-rich, profiteering, monopolisitic corporations never enters my mind.
If we survive long enough to make the floating cities and flying cars a reality, it will be because inventors, software developers and corporations were open-minded and generous enough to give away their inventions/creations for the benefit of everybody, albeit in exchange of a reasonable amount of compensation, but above all the satisfaction of having done something good for the betterment of others.
The current trend seems to be headed in a completely opposite direction - profit (hate that word now) seems to be the only motivating factor (if not for individuals, atleast for the corporations binding creative humans by heavy handed employment contracts/etc) for any development we're seeing at all.
It's about time we got over this short-sightedness and moved towards a society which is not encumbered by flimsy lawsuits, overstepping patents, profit mindedness, or constant fear of the former two. Information should be free.
One potential fix: Poach VINs assigned to smaller countries such as Botswana, which don't mass produce vehicles.
Since the article wasn't clear on this, and a comparison with Y2K was made.
The current VIN system is local to the US (and probably Canada, not sure). Other countries do not share the VIN system/database/namespace. Sure, the manufacturers are located all over the world, and there's a unique ID for country of manufacture, but the VIN numbering is only mandatory for vehicles in the US.
Other countries have their own numbering system (usually a chassis/SL No.), and their databases are built around their unique identifiers.
So yes, their proposed solution is feasible, because right now, there are Country codes assigned to countries which will most likely not export vehicles to the US in the near future. But the comparison with Y2K is off because of the fact that this problem is local to the US.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice article there - it was to look over the pamphlet and retrospect about how far we've come communication-wise in the past few decades. We can communicate more effectively, work more productively, and get information faster.
But I cannot say the same for the improvement in social life that technology has brought about. Sure, we have IM now, I can videoconference with my folks back home halfway across the world without paying a penny, but has it really *improved* my social life? I don't think so.
IMHO, we communicate better with people we need to (at work) and family/friends, but we don't really end up making more friends (I won't go so far as to credit Orkut groups/etc as friends). If anything, we're spending more time in front of our screens sending and accessing messages (communicating) at the cost of social interaction.
Maybe it's just me, but I have a feeling it's true for a lot of folks especially those around here.
I remember an earlier story about browser stats tracked by some independent study using hits on their website. I would tend to go with Google on this one - their statistics probably tell the most accurate story.
From http://store.2600.com/2600hacker/
FIFTH HOPE TICKETS
NO LONGER AVAILABLE HERE!
Preregistration has CLOSED.
You can get tickets to the conference at the door.
On the other hand, maybe this is their idea of screening the attendees to weed out the chaff from the uber haxx0rs.
am willing to take the responsibility of repeatedly kicking them in the nuts if it'll make them develop better code.
I didn't know they welcome the 'heated feedback'. Poor things...all they had to do was ask.
include a Free Continental breakfast, or I'm not going.
Each year, the Rainforest are responsible for over three thousand deaths from accidents, attacks or illnesses. There are over seven hundred things in the Rainforest that cause cancer. Join the fight now and help stop the Rainforest before it's too late."
And the problem is most people will believe this shit like the Senators who changed their vote did.
Moreover, the elevator algorithm just means cycling through a sequence completely in one direction before changing direction. It need not be confined to just disk drive head motion. I can imagine cycling through PIDs in non-decreasing order before reverting to a non-increasing order.
I see your FIFO scheduler and raise you my Elevator algorithm!
Normal Harddrives fail pitifully on this point. The drive electronics, read write heads, etc is so tied in with the physical disks that it makes it difficult to remove the disks and pop them into a working device with the ease of tapes, CDs etc.
Tapes, CDs, floppies are very clean and hassle free from this standpoint. The cartridge/media is of a standard size and can usually be popped into any "player" for playback.
Further, hard disk manufacturers also haven't been able to reach an agreement on the size, error correction and other protocols to write to disk, (like an ISO, but not quite), which is one of the reasons for difficult/expensive error recovery on hard disks. Ofcourse, tapes are also more rugged than harddrives, but I think once these other issues are sorted out, HDDs could replace tapes as a "reliable" backup device.
"The main purpose of my inventing is not to earn money," he says. "I want to render a service to my countrymen and to all people in the world."
Sadly a rapidly diminishing breed nowadays, what with overwhelming patenting and copyright laws and abuse. Hats of to this guy.
In my experience, a dialup connection works just as good for a plain text/shell connection - IMHO ISDN lines were overkill (ofcourse this depends on the actual environment context).
Broadband - the final frontier.
These are the voyages of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Her five-year mission to explore strange new worms,
to seek out new exploits,
to boldly go where no browser has gone before.
[/kirk voice]
I suggest *AA start paying pirates for downloads for the excellent job they're doing.
Arrr
It caught my eye because it had an LCD type screen displaying graphics/advertisements and was pretty cool I thought - more versatile than the old-fashioned banners towed by aircraft.
They had the US flag, fireworks screensaver type graphic, etc. Once they have a functional display and controlling computer on board, it shouldn't be hard to beam up stuff from ground control.
From what I know, Microsoft money is a standalone application for Windows. How, then would they measure minutes viewed, click-through, etc unless they secretly transfer these statistics when the computer is online?
I went to the Microsoft Money (TM) website, and they don't seem to have a web-based or online version of it, in which context these stats would make sense.
Does M$ track and report the amount of time each application was in use on a PC? Sounds improbable, but with a TFH on, it's hard to say.
Here's the proof:
Article from the Times of India. A blurb
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2003 12:06:03 AM ]
PUNE: President A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday urged Indian IT professionals to develop and specialise in open source code software rather than use proprietary solutions based on systems such as Microsoft Windows.
Stallman's visit reported in The Hindu and elsewhere:
Kalam, Stallman discuss open source software NEW DELHI, JAN. 31. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, last Thursday played host to two radically divergent poles of the global software industry.
Though the second link does not say 2004, I'm sure it was earlier this year, and a Google search should help you confirm that. Also the URL is dated 20040201.
The above information renders your argument incorrect and w/o H20.
Incidentally his official website runs Apache/2.0.42 (Unix) PHP/4.2.3. A couple of brief excerpts from his bio here:
After a fairly secure childhood, during which he is said to have read as much as he could, he studied at the Madras Institute of Technology, where he specialised in Aero Engineering.
He has worked in leading defence and space organisations in research and managerial capacities. He contributed in a major way to the development of the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) III, which put the Rohini Satellite into orbit. He has also been chairperson to Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC).
A vegetarian, his interests include playing the veena and writing poetry. He has written two books, Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India and India 2020: Vision for the New Millennium.
Till now, Abdul Kalam has been best known for his key role in the nuclear tests at Pokharan in the Rajasthan desert on May 11 and 13, 1997. With most parties choosing him as their presidential candidate, he has become the 11th Indian to join a very select group.
The page linked to from "under $1 a day" does not carry information/statistics about specific countries, but provides only an overview by continent. I'm a little skeptical about the "Percentage of population living below $1.00" - according to the map, only 5 countries: Nicaragua, India, Namibia, Ghana and Kenya qualify as "dark red". I would suspect this is not the case - Pakistan and other fareastern countries for example should be in this range, rather than the green (developed) range.
And again, I'm not sure how useful the "under $1.00 per day" statistic is, because it most certainly does not take into consideration, the standard of living - a loaf of bread costs about $2.00 in the US and 25c in other countries I know.
Just my vulcan $0.02.
This comment proudly posted through Firefox.
If we survive long enough to make the floating cities and flying cars a reality, it will be because inventors, software developers and corporations were open-minded and generous enough to give away their inventions/creations for the benefit of everybody, albeit in exchange of a reasonable amount of compensation, but above all the satisfaction of having done something good for the betterment of others.
The current trend seems to be headed in a completely opposite direction - profit (hate that word now) seems to be the only motivating factor (if not for individuals, atleast for the corporations binding creative humans by heavy handed employment contracts/etc) for any development we're seeing at all.
It's about time we got over this short-sightedness and moved towards a society which is not encumbered by flimsy lawsuits, overstepping patents, profit mindedness, or constant fear of the former two. Information should be free.
My Music
My Movies
My TV Shows
My Pictures
Settings
They forgot to include :
My MPAA lawsuits
My RIAA lawsuits
My upcoming jail terms
DirectPay (TM) money transfer
It's about time somebody came up with a Personal Lawsuit Origanizer.
Since the article wasn't clear on this, and a comparison with Y2K was made.
The current VIN system is local to the US (and probably Canada, not sure). Other countries do not share the VIN system/database/namespace. Sure, the manufacturers are located all over the world, and there's a unique ID for country of manufacture, but the VIN numbering is only mandatory for vehicles in the US.
Other countries have their own numbering system (usually a chassis/SL No.), and their databases are built around their unique identifiers.
So yes, their proposed solution is feasible, because right now, there are Country codes assigned to countries which will most likely not export vehicles to the US in the near future. But the comparison with Y2K is off because of the fact that this problem is local to the US.
till then I will have to browse all my l33t lunix websites from my windoze box.
ttyl, bbl