You're wrong about one thing...accessories. The Clie's accessories may seem a little light right now, but anyone who was at this year's ComDex can tell you just how much that is going to change. The biggest benefit of Sony's MemStick technology is that (unlike other memory card technologies) the interface is extremely robust and allows the MemStick slot to be used for more than just adding memory.
Sony has already developed a small digital camera that is about the size of a MemStick with a head on it. I got to play with one of these at ComDex in one of the B&W Clies that's available in this country. The resolution is kind of low right now, but it should be pretty obvious that more advanced models can and will follow. Other proposed MemStick devices include a GPS system, fingerprint scanner, radio receiver, MP3 player (kind of useless in the Clie, but may be useful in other MemStick capable devices), and whole host of other devices I can't remember from November.
Now the camera is the only device I'm aware of where there is an actual working prototype, but it's only a matter of time before Sony throws more development effort in this direction to make their Clies more competitive with devices like the HandSpring Visor (which I own and love). Sony looks to be loosening up on the licensing restrictions of their MemStick tech too which would draw more 3rd party developers to make more devices for the interface.
The devices haven't been fully realized yet, but I think in time the Clie's MemStick will put it on par with the Visor's Springboard modules. The physical size of the interface might be it's only real weakness, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if developers found a way around this limitation, and down the road it could even become a selling point (less bulky, lighter, no need for external batteries, etc.).
The RIAA is accusing Napster of A) breaking the law, and B) directly and intnetionally attacking the RIAA's business thru unethical means. The first claim is kind of sketchy, but the second claim is obviously a lie. Isn't that slander? How about libel? Can't Napster take legal action against such claims? Especially when there is so much evidence to prove them false?
Frankly, I'm wary of any design methodology that makes the claims that the XP method does. "Work more efficiently, more openly, get things done better and on time, blah blah blah blah," and worst of all, "works for everybody."
I think that most of the debates over which design method is better or worse or great or terrible are all pretty silly. Despite all of our efforts to define ourselves as a cohesive group of hackers who all have certain traits in common, the fact remains that software developers are all individuals. And as individuals, we all work a little differently.
Do you let other people tell you how to eat your food? Do you expect everyone to eat their food the same way you do? Of course not. The fact of the matter is that XP probably really works great for some people, and horribly fails for others. And the same goes for the traditional methods of programming. I've personally always believed that the waterfall method of development was the biggest load of bull I've ever heard in my life. That doesn't mean that it doesn't work for some people (who definitely aren't me).
What developers and software shops need to think about isn't "what great new method is turning heads and making news?". They should be asking "what software development method, new or old, is best for our team and our group dynamic?".
Books like this one that try to evangelize a certain method with tales of it's success in the wild just kind of piss me off. What they should do is write a set of books for each method that detail the greatest successes and the most horrible failures of each method. Then developers will be able to compare their groups to the winners/losers in the examples and determine which method works best for them and their situation.
There's more to this question than just what degre
on
CS vs CIS
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· Score: 1
What about the school you go to? What are their programs like? In my school, the CS program was pretty good. They got very in depth and technical. In our CIS program across campus (literally, we had a neat little rivalry with them), we had some really great profs who actually had real world development experience (one guy was a retired 2-time millionaire success who passed on some great knowledge about Software Engineering). CS majors took some of the CIS courses and vice versa and both departments were pretty good.
The CIS majors didn't have as much technical knowledge as we did, but they weren't too far behind and some of them took enough CS courses outside of their department that they were right up to speed with us.
And some people I've met (and worked with until I fired them) who got their CS degrees at other schools were complete morons. They knew less about CS than the CIS majors from my school. Maybe they were just a bad student from a still good school, but the fact is that different schools have different definitions of CS and CIS, and some school's CS departments are less technical than even the CIS departments of other schools.
If I were you, I would talk to my teachers (and maybe some advisors, but I never really trusted my advisor's judgement - the one weakness of my school's CS dept. IMHO), and I would talk to any professionals I know, and I would talk to some of the upper classmen in both departments. Ask them what they expect to do after graduation with their degrees. Ask them what they've gotten out of their education so far. These are the people that know the most about what your school offers in each department and what you can expect to get out of it. Anyone else's opinion is based on what they saw at their school which could be completely different.
You're exactly right. We can do both. We can do more than two. We can be as multi-discipline as we damn well please. I am. You are. A lot of people here are.
But there is still a problem.
Most people here will not willingly admit that software design is made up of multiple disciplines. Just because you can make a good web-based app does not mean you can make a good Windows-based app (or vice versa). Just because you're a great kernel hacker doesn't mean you are necesarily a great graphics programmer.
You can be both and more. But software design is not a single discipline. Some people are not good at everything. Some people specialize. And some people should. We should recognize that there are multiple disciplines within the field of software design. That doesn't mean that you and I can't still be multi-disciplinary designers, but treating them as different disciplines could lead us to a better understanding of what we are doing in each of those different disciplines and in software design as a whole.
Was there nobody to challenge this patent when it was filed? I mean, I know that the Amazon patents are hard to swallow, but this is downright ridiculous. How did this get through the patent office unnoticed?
I think this brings to light one of the primary problems with patenting software processes. There is no one around to present prior work even when it is right underneath our noses. Perhaps we should consider establishing some kind of watchdog organization that keeps tabs on the patent office and is ready to present evidence of prior work when it becomes necessary.
If we watch these things more closely, maybe some of these ludicrous patents won't get this far.
This may sound a bit strange, but do we really need IP laws at all? I personally think the idea of Intellectual Property is a little silly. Once you share an idea with others (by simply telling them about it), it's no longer yours. Ideas are not property. An idea that isn't shared is useless, and an idea that is shared is beneficial to everyone who shares it. The whole idea of protecting ideas seems counter-productive to me.
And the biggest problem with IP laws is beyond philosphical reasoning. There are definite disadvantages to removing IP laws. I'm not blind to the arguments in support of IP.
But I personally think the disadvantages of IP far outweigh the advantages. I would much rather live in a world without IP than live in a world where IP is visciously protected and heavily guarded, a world of pay-per-play textbooks and absurd copyright lawsuits, a world where I can't even think about taking my computer apart for fear of criminal prosecution.
If we had the ability to produce our own caffiene or any other chemical, that wouldn't really accomplish anything, since our bodies would just eventually build up a resistance to whatever our "PharmaGland(tm)" produces. The only way this could be practical is if we could limit what our PharmaGland(tm) produces, ie. you only get your medicine for a week and then it cuts off.
But controlling what our body produces would require either chemical controls (essentially more medicine) or constant genetic re-engineering of the PharmaGland(tm). And as any geneticist can tell you, you can only alter a set of genes so many times before they start to fall apart.
P.S. It's my name. I thought of it first. I'm filing the trademarks for PharmaGland(tm) right now. I have so little, don't take this away from me.
I've seen and experienced both block and burnout. Block is relatively easy to overcome and most of the suggestions I've read so far pretty much cover it.
But burnout is something different. About a year ago, I was fed up. I hated my job, my boss, my coworkers, computers, the web, everything. I was just sick and tired of the long hours and total lack of recognition. I couldn't code at all. I didn't even get two lines a day. I was lucky if I did anything at all for most of a week.
I was totally fried.
So I went away. I didn't just stop coding for a while to delve into C++ books or work on something else. I went totally away. Didn't look at or touch a computer for almost two weeks. Didn't check my email. Didn't browse the web. Didn't play games.
I read some good books (all non-technical), got some good exercise (Martial arts are the best for mental recovery), spent some time in the mountains, and just took a break from it all. When I went back, I was more productive than I had ever been before, and I'm still more productive than I used to be.
If you're suffering from block, just take a short break from the code, or try approaching the problem from a different angle.
If you're suffering from burnout, get the hell away from your computer and cell phone for a while.
Let's start off by saying I like Apple. I like Macs. They are great machines for the needs of 90% of computer users in the world. I prefer a box that let's me play with the insides more, but I still like and respect Apple and the Mac.
I agree with most of what you said. But the Cube is not even remotely close to gorgeous.
I'm sick and tired of people telling me that the new iMac inspired translucent computers and assorted paraphenelia is cool-looking. I think the Cube looks like an oversized art-deco ashtray. The iMac looks idiotic and the G4s are no different looking from any other computer on earth.
Apple keeps telling us how they want to make the computer an attractive home appliance, but the best they can do is use colored plastic and make them a little rounder? That doesn't cut it in my book. As far as I'm concerned all these computers have the same "Toaster and TV set combo" look as any other computer that's out there.
I want a computer that really stretches the boundaries of industrial design. These clear plastic shells don't impress me one bit (having grown up in a machine shop full of plastic does that to you). There's nothing pretty or good looking about any of the new Macs. I want something really different. Not just the same old thing in a clear plastic box. That's just lazy design if you ask me.
Most of the best solutions to the problem (for cars at least) involve hydrogen in one way or another (fuel cells being the most widely known alternative). We have plenty of ways of storing, transporting and using the stuff, but where do we get hydrogen and how do we do it? That's the problem. You can get hydrogen from just about anything. You can extract it from dirt if you want to. The problem is that the amount of energy required to break the chemical bonds that hold hydrogen in most molecules is greater than the amount of energy you get back when you use hydrogen as a fuel.
It's this energy deficit that has stood in the way of the practical use of hydrogen. There is promising work going on that is trying to find a way to extract hydrogen using solar or other relatively free power sources to extract hydrogen from water (or whatever), but none of these projects have gotten to the "real world" stage yet.
As for hybrid gas/electric cars, they do exist, but most of the really great models are still concepts. The most mileage you can get from an actual street-variety hybrid (that I know of) is about 70mpg which isn't that big an improvement when you consider that they haven't made an SUV model yet that will appeal to the brainless masses.
Well duh. Of course it's a thousand times easier for them to do their job when they really need to do it if all involved parties are US companies. I'm all in favor of helping FBI agents catch "real" criminals, but they're going to have to face the reality that sooner or later, their jobs absolutely will get more difficult as the network starts to take over. Whether they like it or not, they will have to give up this foolish fight and just learn to do their jobs in a networked world. They might as well start now.
We need to focus our energies as a community instead of acting out as individuals. Right now, we control the internet. But we have no place where we can gather as a community to discuss our role in the world. We have no place where we can engage in intelligent, respectful serious dialogue about the ethical and political issues that are only just beginning to effect our day-to-day lives.
Once we engage in serious discussion, we can then focus our collective energy toward the issues that are most important to us. Right now, the internet community is so fractious, that there is never enough us involved in any one struggle to make a difference.
The EFF has made a good effort to provide us with this already, but their efforts have fallen short since they have focused so heavily on political matters alone. We need a place where politics and industry ethics can be discussed together.
Maybe our first issue should be a massive IDP of the major newspapers websites until they agree to stop using the term 'hacker' to refer to 'crackers' and let 'hacker' replace 'geek' (the way it used to be). If we want to be taken seriously by the rest of the world, we have to stop letting them define us. We have to tell them who we are, and what we want. I hate the term 'geek' because it takes this power away from us a community. We let people outside our community tell us who and what we are by accepting this term.
I practiced Aikido for several years before I graduated. I would love to get back to the dojo, but working for a start-up doesn't give that much free time anymore.
Anyway, back to the point: I was starting to develop carpal-tunnel pretty badly before taking Aikido, but now I find that my wrists are hardly ever sore (except when I play my Dreamcast too long).
It's also true that my entire body hurt an awful lot for the first 8 or 9 months of training (some days I couldn't even carry my backpack without excruciating pain). The dojo I practiced in put a lot more emphasis on falling techniques at the early levels than most Ki-Aikido dojos do, and it showed in the way that the beginning students walked around the day after a class.
But after the initial painful introduction, my whole body felt much better than it ever did before. I use an old flat keyboard in a metal keyboard drawer with just a tiny metal bar for a wrist support. My trackball is on the desk in front of the monitor. Anyone familiar with ergonomics can tell you how bad my wrists should be hurting, but they don't. I still perform the stretches from time-to-time and I like to do weapons taigis in my back yard (does wonders for wrist strength). On the few days when my wrists do hurt (after particularly long coding sessions or Dreamcast tournaments), I like to find a fellow student (I still keep in touch with the dojo even though I don't have time to practice regularly) and have them give me a good working over and vice versa. It's worked wonders for me. I suggest trying it at least.
"We think it gets around what killed Divx," said Nabil Lawandy, Specra Science's CEO. "There's no phone line, no credit card transaction, no special player needed, and no Big Brother element to it."
Some people just don't get it do they? DIVX didn't die because of some "Big Brother" complex. It died because it was stupid. For the most part, people who own DVD players are "videophiles". They spend a great deal of money on DVD players and the home theatre to adequately showcase DVD movies. Then they go out and buy the movies they want to watch. Occasionally DVD owners rent movies, but the current lack of DVD title selection at most rental stores has really made DVD a buyer-preferred medium. DIVX failed because most of us DVD owners would rather buy DVD movies than rent them. We don't need a new rental scheme to make renting easier because we don't plan on doing a lot of renting.
If Spectra-Vision (or anybody else) wants these rental schemes to succeed, maybe they should wait a little while longer. DVD player prices may have dropped significantly in the last year, but since DVD is basically no better than VHS without a somewhat decent home theatre, the overall price of DVD is still pretty high for most consumers. Once the cost goes down a little further and DVD becomes more common, then Spectra Vision and whoever else can create nifty little rental schemes to appeal to a mainstream audience. I think they're jumping the gun on this one, and they'll probably go the way of DIVX unless they can get widespread studio support for the format.
If I'm not mistaken, there is such a thing as an IDP (Internet Death Penalty) that blocks *all* packets originating from the offending servers at a router level. As far as I know though, there has never been a mass IDP leveled against any company. Imagine what someone would have to do to get slapped with IDP by a large number of sysadmins.
The Jargon File stereotypes hackers and as a result, it is not always accurate. But of all the stereotypes of hackers that are out there, this one holds the most water. I think most of these personality researchers and journalists would do themselves a favor to at least browse the Jargon File before they go around spouting their psycho-babble about how all coders are either mal-adjusted losers or misunderstood eccentric creatvie geniouses. One has to remeber, not all coders are hackers. And people's definitions of hacker vary. I don't going around calling myself a hacker because I don't think I've reached that level of proficiency yet and I don't want to sound like a pompous SOB. I've been called a hacker by others, but I've always taken that with a grain of salt. You said something to the effect of, "It's self-congratulating to the point of being nauseous..." Apparently, you haven't read the whole thing or you'd know that this statement is false.
I don't agree with the Kansas School Board's decision (being of sound mind), but I hardly see this as something get upset about. I've always believed that education should be controlled (and funded entirely) by states, and not federal govt. If the people in Kansas (the ones who voted at least) want to eliminate evolution from their schools, that is their right.
They're foolish for doing so, but being foolish is their right too. If you don't live in Kansas, get over it. If you do live in Kansas and you don't like this decision, maybe you should vote the next time school board elections come around. The only reason this happened is because those 'backward', 'primitive', 'radical conservatives' were smart enough to take advantage of everyone else's political apathy. If the 'enlightened' people in Kansas had enough sense to vote, this wouldn't have happened. If you neglect your duty to participate in the system, you give up your right to bitch about it. It doesn't take a scientist to figure that one out.
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You're wrong about one thing...accessories. The Clie's accessories may seem a little light right now, but anyone who was at this year's ComDex can tell you just how much that is going to change. The biggest benefit of Sony's MemStick technology is that (unlike other memory card technologies) the interface is extremely robust and allows the MemStick slot to be used for more than just adding memory.
Sony has already developed a small digital camera that is about the size of a MemStick with a head on it. I got to play with one of these at ComDex in one of the B&W Clies that's available in this country. The resolution is kind of low right now, but it should be pretty obvious that more advanced models can and will follow. Other proposed MemStick devices include a GPS system, fingerprint scanner, radio receiver, MP3 player (kind of useless in the Clie, but may be useful in other MemStick capable devices), and whole host of other devices I can't remember from November.
Now the camera is the only device I'm aware of where there is an actual working prototype, but it's only a matter of time before Sony throws more development effort in this direction to make their Clies more competitive with devices like the HandSpring Visor (which I own and love). Sony looks to be loosening up on the licensing restrictions of their MemStick tech too which would draw more 3rd party developers to make more devices for the interface.
The devices haven't been fully realized yet, but I think in time the Clie's MemStick will put it on par with the Visor's Springboard modules. The physical size of the interface might be it's only real weakness, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if developers found a way around this limitation, and down the road it could even become a selling point (less bulky, lighter, no need for external batteries, etc.).
The RIAA is accusing Napster of A) breaking the law, and B) directly and intnetionally attacking the RIAA's business thru unethical means. The first claim is kind of sketchy, but the second claim is obviously a lie. Isn't that slander? How about libel? Can't Napster take legal action against such claims? Especially when there is so much evidence to prove them false?
I think there should be a counter-suit.
Frankly, I'm wary of any design methodology that makes the claims that the XP method does. "Work more efficiently, more openly, get things done better and on time, blah blah blah blah," and worst of all, "works for everybody."
I think that most of the debates over which design method is better or worse or great or terrible are all pretty silly. Despite all of our efforts to define ourselves as a cohesive group of hackers who all have certain traits in common, the fact remains that software developers are all individuals. And as individuals, we all work a little differently.
Do you let other people tell you how to eat your food? Do you expect everyone to eat their food the same way you do? Of course not. The fact of the matter is that XP probably really works great for some people, and horribly fails for others. And the same goes for the traditional methods of programming. I've personally always believed that the waterfall method of development was the biggest load of bull I've ever heard in my life. That doesn't mean that it doesn't work for some people (who definitely aren't me).
What developers and software shops need to think about isn't "what great new method is turning heads and making news?". They should be asking "what software development method, new or old, is best for our team and our group dynamic?".
Books like this one that try to evangelize a certain method with tales of it's success in the wild just kind of piss me off. What they should do is write a set of books for each method that detail the greatest successes and the most horrible failures of each method. Then developers will be able to compare their groups to the winners/losers in the examples and determine which method works best for them and their situation.
What about the school you go to? What are their programs like? In my school, the CS program was pretty good. They got very in depth and technical. In our CIS program across campus (literally, we had a neat little rivalry with them), we had some really great profs who actually had real world development experience (one guy was a retired 2-time millionaire success who passed on some great knowledge about Software Engineering). CS majors took some of the CIS courses and vice versa and both departments were pretty good.
The CIS majors didn't have as much technical knowledge as we did, but they weren't too far behind and some of them took enough CS courses outside of their department that they were right up to speed with us.
And some people I've met (and worked with until I fired them) who got their CS degrees at other schools were complete morons. They knew less about CS than the CIS majors from my school. Maybe they were just a bad student from a still good school, but the fact is that different schools have different definitions of CS and CIS, and some school's CS departments are less technical than even the CIS departments of other schools.
If I were you, I would talk to my teachers (and maybe some advisors, but I never really trusted my advisor's judgement - the one weakness of my school's CS dept. IMHO), and I would talk to any professionals I know, and I would talk to some of the upper classmen in both departments. Ask them what they expect to do after graduation with their degrees. Ask them what they've gotten out of their education so far. These are the people that know the most about what your school offers in each department and what you can expect to get out of it. Anyone else's opinion is based on what they saw at their school which could be completely different.
You're exactly right. We can do both. We can do more than two. We can be as multi-discipline as we damn well please. I am. You are. A lot of people here are.
But there is still a problem.
Most people here will not willingly admit that software design is made up of multiple disciplines. Just because you can make a good web-based app does not mean you can make a good Windows-based app (or vice versa). Just because you're a great kernel hacker doesn't mean you are necesarily a great graphics programmer.
You can be both and more. But software design is not a single discipline. Some people are not good at everything. Some people specialize. And some people should. We should recognize that there are multiple disciplines within the field of software design. That doesn't mean that you and I can't still be multi-disciplinary designers, but treating them as different disciplines could lead us to a better understanding of what we are doing in each of those different disciplines and in software design as a whole.
Was there nobody to challenge this patent when it was filed? I mean, I know that the Amazon patents are hard to swallow, but this is downright ridiculous. How did this get through the patent office unnoticed?
I think this brings to light one of the primary problems with patenting software processes. There is no one around to present prior work even when it is right underneath our noses. Perhaps we should consider establishing some kind of watchdog organization that keeps tabs on the patent office and is ready to present evidence of prior work when it becomes necessary.
If we watch these things more closely, maybe some of these ludicrous patents won't get this far.
This may sound a bit strange, but do we really need IP laws at all? I personally think the idea of Intellectual Property is a little silly. Once you share an idea with others (by simply telling them about it), it's no longer yours. Ideas are not property. An idea that isn't shared is useless, and an idea that is shared is beneficial to everyone who shares it. The whole idea of protecting ideas seems counter-productive to me.
And the biggest problem with IP laws is beyond philosphical reasoning. There are definite disadvantages to removing IP laws. I'm not blind to the arguments in support of IP.
But I personally think the disadvantages of IP far outweigh the advantages. I would much rather live in a world without IP than live in a world where IP is visciously protected and heavily guarded, a world of pay-per-play textbooks and absurd copyright lawsuits, a world where I can't even think about taking my computer apart for fear of criminal prosecution.
If we had the ability to produce our own caffiene or any other chemical, that wouldn't really accomplish anything, since our bodies would just eventually build up a resistance to whatever our "PharmaGland(tm)" produces. The only way this could be practical is if we could limit what our PharmaGland(tm) produces, ie. you only get your medicine for a week and then it cuts off.
But controlling what our body produces would require either chemical controls (essentially more medicine) or constant genetic re-engineering of the PharmaGland(tm). And as any geneticist can tell you, you can only alter a set of genes so many times before they start to fall apart.
P.S. It's my name. I thought of it first. I'm filing the trademarks for PharmaGland(tm) right now. I have so little, don't take this away from me.
I've seen and experienced both block and burnout. Block is relatively easy to overcome and most of the suggestions I've read so far pretty much cover it.
But burnout is something different. About a year ago, I was fed up. I hated my job, my boss, my coworkers, computers, the web, everything. I was just sick and tired of the long hours and total lack of recognition. I couldn't code at all. I didn't even get two lines a day. I was lucky if I did anything at all for most of a week.
I was totally fried.
So I went away. I didn't just stop coding for a while to delve into C++ books or work on something else. I went totally away. Didn't look at or touch a computer for almost two weeks. Didn't check my email. Didn't browse the web. Didn't play games.
I read some good books (all non-technical), got some good exercise (Martial arts are the best for mental recovery), spent some time in the mountains, and just took a break from it all. When I went back, I was more productive than I had ever been before, and I'm still more productive than I used to be.
If you're suffering from block, just take a short break from the code, or try approaching the problem from a different angle.
If you're suffering from burnout, get the hell away from your computer and cell phone for a while.
Let's start off by saying I like Apple. I like Macs. They are great machines for the needs of 90% of computer users in the world. I prefer a box that let's me play with the insides more, but I still like and respect Apple and the Mac.
I agree with most of what you said. But the Cube is not even remotely close to gorgeous.
I'm sick and tired of people telling me that the new iMac inspired translucent computers and assorted paraphenelia is cool-looking. I think the Cube looks like an oversized art-deco ashtray. The iMac looks idiotic and the G4s are no different looking from any other computer on earth.
Apple keeps telling us how they want to make the computer an attractive home appliance, but the best they can do is use colored plastic and make them a little rounder? That doesn't cut it in my book. As far as I'm concerned all these computers have the same "Toaster and TV set combo" look as any other computer that's out there.
I want a computer that really stretches the boundaries of industrial design. These clear plastic shells don't impress me one bit (having grown up in a machine shop full of plastic does that to you). There's nothing pretty or good looking about any of the new Macs. I want something really different. Not just the same old thing in a clear plastic box. That's just lazy design if you ask me.
Most of the best solutions to the problem (for cars at least) involve hydrogen in one way or another (fuel cells being the most widely known alternative). We have plenty of ways of storing, transporting and using the stuff, but where do we get hydrogen and how do we do it? That's the problem. You can get hydrogen from just about anything. You can extract it from dirt if you want to. The problem is that the amount of energy required to break the chemical bonds that hold hydrogen in most molecules is greater than the amount of energy you get back when you use hydrogen as a fuel.
It's this energy deficit that has stood in the way of the practical use of hydrogen. There is promising work going on that is trying to find a way to extract hydrogen using solar or other relatively free power sources to extract hydrogen from water (or whatever), but none of these projects have gotten to the "real world" stage yet.
As for hybrid gas/electric cars, they do exist, but most of the really great models are still concepts. The most mileage you can get from an actual street-variety hybrid (that I know of) is about 70mpg which isn't that big an improvement when you consider that they haven't made an SUV model yet that will appeal to the brainless masses.
Well duh. Of course it's a thousand times easier for them to do their job when they really need to do it if all involved parties are US companies. I'm all in favor of helping FBI agents catch "real" criminals, but they're going to have to face the reality that sooner or later, their jobs absolutely will get more difficult as the network starts to take over. Whether they like it or not, they will have to give up this foolish fight and just learn to do their jobs in a networked world. They might as well start now.
We need to focus our energies as a community instead of acting out as individuals. Right now, we control the internet. But we have no place where we can gather as a community to discuss our role in the world. We have no place where we can engage in intelligent, respectful serious dialogue about the ethical and political issues that are only just beginning to effect our day-to-day lives.
Once we engage in serious discussion, we can then focus our collective energy toward the issues that are most important to us. Right now, the internet community is so fractious, that there is never enough us involved in any one struggle to make a difference.
The EFF has made a good effort to provide us with this already, but their efforts have fallen short since they have focused so heavily on political matters alone. We need a place where politics and industry ethics can be discussed together.
Maybe our first issue should be a massive IDP of the major newspapers websites until they agree to stop using the term 'hacker' to refer to 'crackers' and let 'hacker' replace 'geek' (the way it used to be). If we want to be taken seriously by the rest of the world, we have to stop letting them define us. We have to tell them who we are, and what we want. I hate the term 'geek' because it takes this power away from us a community. We let people outside our community tell us who and what we are by accepting this term.
I practiced Aikido for several years before I graduated. I would love to get back to the dojo, but working for a start-up doesn't give that much free time anymore.
Anyway, back to the point: I was starting to develop carpal-tunnel pretty badly before taking Aikido, but now I find that my wrists are hardly ever sore (except when I play my Dreamcast too long).
It's also true that my entire body hurt an awful lot for the first 8 or 9 months of training (some days I couldn't even carry my backpack without excruciating pain). The dojo I practiced in put a lot more emphasis on falling techniques at the early levels than most Ki-Aikido dojos do, and it showed in the way that the beginning students walked around the day after a class.
But after the initial painful introduction, my whole body felt much better than it ever did before. I use an old flat keyboard in a metal keyboard drawer with just a tiny metal bar for a wrist support. My trackball is on the desk in front of the monitor. Anyone familiar with ergonomics can tell you how bad my wrists should be hurting, but they don't. I still perform the stretches from time-to-time and I like to do weapons taigis in my back yard (does wonders for wrist strength). On the few days when my wrists do hurt (after particularly long coding sessions or Dreamcast tournaments), I like to find a fellow student (I still keep in touch with the dojo even though I don't have time to practice regularly) and have them give me a good working over and vice versa. It's worked wonders for me. I suggest trying it at least.
"We think it gets around what killed Divx," said Nabil Lawandy, Specra Science's CEO. "There's no phone line, no credit card transaction, no special player needed, and no Big Brother element to it."
Some people just don't get it do they? DIVX didn't die because of some "Big Brother" complex. It died because it was stupid. For the most part, people who own DVD players are "videophiles". They spend a great deal of money on DVD players and the home theatre to adequately showcase DVD movies. Then they go out and buy the movies they want to watch. Occasionally DVD owners rent movies, but the current lack of DVD title selection at most rental stores has really made DVD a buyer-preferred medium. DIVX failed because most of us DVD owners would rather buy DVD movies than rent them. We don't need a new rental scheme to make renting easier because we don't plan on doing a lot of renting.
If Spectra-Vision (or anybody else) wants these rental schemes to succeed, maybe they should wait a little while longer. DVD player prices may have dropped significantly in the last year, but since DVD is basically no better than VHS without a somewhat decent home theatre, the overall price of DVD is still pretty high for most consumers. Once the cost goes down a little further and DVD becomes more common, then Spectra Vision and whoever else can create nifty little rental schemes to appeal to a mainstream audience. I think they're jumping the gun on this one, and they'll probably go the way of DIVX unless they can get widespread studio support for the format.
If I'm not mistaken, there is such a thing as an IDP (Internet Death Penalty) that blocks *all* packets originating from the offending servers at a router level. As far as I know though, there has never been a mass IDP leveled against any company. Imagine what someone would have to do to get slapped with IDP by a large number of sysadmins.
The Jargon File stereotypes hackers and as a result, it is not always accurate. But of all the stereotypes of hackers that are out there, this one holds the most water. I think most of these personality researchers and journalists would do themselves a favor to at least browse the Jargon File before they go around spouting their psycho-babble about how all coders are either mal-adjusted losers or misunderstood eccentric creatvie geniouses. One has to remeber, not all coders are hackers. And people's definitions of hacker vary. I don't going around calling myself a hacker because I don't think I've reached that level of proficiency yet and I don't want to sound like a pompous SOB. I've been called a hacker by others, but I've always taken that with a grain of salt. You said something to the effect of, "It's self-congratulating to the point of being nauseous..." Apparently, you haven't read the whole thing or you'd know that this statement is false.
I don't agree with the Kansas School Board's decision (being of sound mind), but I hardly see this as something get upset about. I've always believed that education should be controlled (and funded entirely) by states, and not federal govt. If the people in Kansas (the ones who voted at least) want to eliminate evolution from their schools, that is their right.
They're foolish for doing so, but being foolish is their right too. If you don't live in Kansas, get over it. If you do live in Kansas and you don't like this decision, maybe you should vote the next time school board elections come around. The only reason this happened is because those 'backward', 'primitive', 'radical conservatives' were smart enough to take advantage of everyone else's political apathy. If the 'enlightened' people in Kansas had enough sense to vote, this wouldn't have happened. If you neglect your duty to participate in the system, you give up your right to bitch about it. It doesn't take a scientist to figure that one out.