What gets me is how my computer is consistently outperformed by these gaming consoles. How can a $150 gaming console with 64MB of memory and some 1Ghz Celeron outperform my $2000 powerhouse in graphics processing? There are only a few possible explainations for this paradox: 1) The consoles are very well engineered. Or as made apparent by my computer science teacher, "Just the Apple computers, they have control of the hardware, so they only have to focus on what hardware they allow." 2) The drivers are very well engineered and specifically optimized. In the words of my computer science teacher, "They can optimize the crap out of them." 3) The underlying operating system is far less bloated.
I'm all for extendibility and customization when it comes to our workstations, but if our operating systems, drivers, and 4Ghz Athlon FX, ATI Radeon X850 PCI Express powerhouses are being outperformed by gaming consoles, something has GOT to be wrong...
If anyone didn't notice, Linux is number 5 on tech stuff searches. If the same people who search for Britney Spears and Spongebob are searching for Linux, maybe it's making a dent.
High school students are beginning to feel they're being treated like kids. Sometime in the early 90s, some jackass came up with the idea of making everything they want teenages to do sound "cool." This simply no longer works for this generation. (As a side note, I can't wait to hear what they call my generation. "Made in the 80s," perhaps?) Just be honest with what you want to do, and people WILL begin to flock there...
I just created my schools first Computer Science Club at my school. Our first official meeting had 11 members and it's steadily increasing. We don't try to lie to anyone, or tell them that they're going to get to play games. We just tell them the truth, that they're going to learn about computer science theory and have fun at the same time. The most suprising of it all, however, is that our members are quite diverse. I won't go into our diversity, but believe me, CS isn't for the stereotypical pocket-protector, taped-glasses geek anymore!
I've been noticing a surge of interest in computers over the past few years. Some of the least likeliest people on earth you would ever consider to be into computers ARE. It's beginning to be cool to have a nerdy side, and this is clearly evidenced by all the pins girls are wearing these days that say things like, "Talk nerdy to me." It's quite a phenomenon, and definately PhD thesis material.
No joke, but I read this a year or two ago in the Austin American Statesman:
One weapon the Air Force has been developing propells a canister from space filled with unimaginably flammable liquid. The canister bursts at a specified height, sending the liquid into billions of tiny droplets covering a known radius. A small igniter in the middle of the resulting droplet sphere...well...ignites. A devistating chain reaction occurs and can turn sand into glass!
Let's hope the terrorist scum don't get ahold of that!
Isn't Mac OS X 10.4 kind of redundant? I mean, isn't "X" the roman numeral for 10? That's what I thought it meant, at least. Perhaps X.4 would do the trick?
American TV has become riddled with reality shows. It's quite discusting: * Wife Swap - Who watches this!? Some sick, twisted indiciduals, that's who. * Survivor - Isn't this like the 80th episode or something? How many different spins can they put on the challenges? * Big Brother - People tune in to this waiting, just anticipating two of the people boarded to have sex. * Extreme Makeover - The epitome of our obsession with aesthetic qualities. * Much, much more crap...
Please, turn it off! LOST, Adult Swim, and various Comedy Central programs are the only reason I watch TV anymore. They're the only reason I haven't lost all hope in American entertainment.
It doesn't matter what money they're making. If they really thought that movie pirating wasn't hurting them or imporving their profits, why would they pursue it? It doesn't make sense.
If you're really concerned about politics than vote at a local level. Local representatives can do a whole lot more to your life than the president can.
Umm. If I'm not mistaken The United States of America is the only country with "America" actually in it's name, so it's not too far-fetched to just call ourselves Americans.
This reminds me of a story:
I was in a speech class (no, not learning how to speak) and I mentioned a Mexican news station I had watched. Some girl turned around and tried to correct me, saying very matter-of-factly, "Hispanic news station." I paused a second and said, "No, Mexican news station. It was filmed IN Mexico, ABOUT Mexico, FOR the Mexican people. It was a freaking Mexican news station."
Ok, this is going to come from five weeks of education in my Intro. to Business and International Business courses, plus a video I watched on the success of Hong Kong:
There are three types of economic systems: Free market, command economy, and mixed market. The US is a mixed market, not quite command, and not quite free market. What this means is that our businesses aren't dictated to by our government, but there's still government influence in almost everything a government does. Todays businesses are riddled with regulations, laws, and restrictions to the point that our economy is no longer efficient.
To take an example: According to Wikipedia, Hong Kong [wikipedia.org] is the perfect example of a free market economy. "But wait," you might say. "Isn't Hong Kong in communist China?" And I would say to you, "Why, yes, it is." However, when Hong Kong began, about 50 years ago, it was agreed that "China's socialist economic system would not be practiced in Hong Kong and that Hong Kong would enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters" (Wikipedia). It's China's "little experiment" with capitalism. And, guess what? It's a thriving economy. People move from the US, Scotland, Japan, Australia, just to start a business in Hong Kong. It's success is due to it's limited government interaction. One paper is all one needs to start a business, and unlike in India where there is no guarantee your business will even be reviewed and approved, in Hong Kong, the paper is copied and stamped. Poof. Business started. There is a fixed tax for everything, only for government. There are no regulations. When did there ever need to be regulations, anyway?
It's a simple theory. If a business produces diseased food, nobody will eat from there any longer. The business will go bankrupt and another business will fill it's place, the peoples needs. It that business begins abusing it's power and begins to charge too much, another will arise and fill the need. If people aren't limited by work hours they can work longer and get more pay for that TV they've wanted. If people just want to deliver a flippin newspaper for $4.00 an hour, they aren't denied the job because the employer can't pay the $6.00 minimum wage. It JUST WORKS.
My question: What can the Green Party do to make this country more of a free market?
Ok, this is going to come from five weeks of education in my Intro. to Business and International Business courses, plus a video I watched on the success of Hong Kong:
There are three types of economic systems: Free market, command economy, and mixed market. The US is a mixed market, not quite command, and not quite free market. What this means is that our businesses aren't dictated to by our government, but there's still government influence in almost everything a government does. Todays businesses are riddled with regulations, laws, and restrictions to the point that our economy is no longer efficient.
To take an example: According to Wikipedia, Hong Kong is the perfect example of a free market economy. "But wait," you might say. "Isn't Hong Kong in communist China?" And I would say to you, "Why, yes, it is." However, when Hong Kong began, about 50 years ago, it was agreed that "China's socialist economic system would not be practiced in Hong Kong and that Hong Kong would enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters" (Wikipedia). It's China's "little experiment" with capitalism. And, guess what? It's a thriving economy. People move from the US, Scotland, Japan, Australia, just to start a business in Hong Kong. It's success is due to it's limited government interaction. One paper is all one needs to start a business, and unlike in India where there is no guarantee your business will even be reviewed and approved, in Hong Kong, the paper is copied and stamped. Poof. Business started. There is a fixed tax for everything, only for government. There are no regulations. When did there ever need to be regulations, anyway?
It's a simple theory. If a business produces diseased food, nobody will eat from there any longer. The business will go bankrupt and another business will fill it's place, the peoples needs. It that business begins abusing it's power and begins to charge too much, another will arise and fill the need. If people aren't limited by work hours they can work longer and get more pay for that TV they've wanted. If people just want to deliver a flippin newspaper for $4.00 an hour, they aren't denied the job because the employer can't pay the $6.00 minimum wage. It JUST WORKS.
I didn't know much about the libertarian philosophy before this article, but now I'm thoroughly convinced that I'll vote libertarian in 2008.
"What are you going to do to ensure that EVERY child in this country recieves a nominal education if their parents CAN'T afford private schooling"?
Since libertarians support minimal taxes, tax payers will begin to see money they never even thought existed. That amount will include money they will use to pay for the school of their choice for their children. If parents can't afford it, the minimal amount of taxes collected will be used to pay for the education of their children, much like college financial aid works.
Slashdot Mirror
What gets me is how my computer is consistently outperformed by these gaming consoles. How can a $150 gaming console with 64MB of memory and some 1Ghz Celeron outperform my $2000 powerhouse in graphics processing? There are only a few possible explainations for this paradox:
1) The consoles are very well engineered. Or as made apparent by my computer science teacher, "Just the Apple computers, they have control of the hardware, so they only have to focus on what hardware they allow."
2) The drivers are very well engineered and specifically optimized. In the words of my computer science teacher, "They can optimize the crap out of them."
3) The underlying operating system is far less bloated.
I'm all for extendibility and customization when it comes to our workstations, but if our operating systems, drivers, and 4Ghz Athlon FX, ATI Radeon X850 PCI Express powerhouses are being outperformed by gaming consoles, something has GOT to be wrong...
If anyone didn't notice, Linux is number 5 on tech stuff searches. If the same people who search for Britney Spears and Spongebob are searching for Linux, maybe it's making a dent.
Except XFree86 isn't developed under the GPL...
Disgruntled XFree86 developer, are we?
High school students are beginning to feel they're being treated like kids. Sometime in the early 90s, some jackass came up with the idea of making everything they want teenages to do sound "cool." This simply no longer works for this generation. (As a side note, I can't wait to hear what they call my generation. "Made in the 80s," perhaps?) Just be honest with what you want to do, and people WILL begin to flock there...
I just created my schools first Computer Science Club at my school. Our first official meeting had 11 members and it's steadily increasing. We don't try to lie to anyone, or tell them that they're going to get to play games. We just tell them the truth, that they're going to learn about computer science theory and have fun at the same time. The most suprising of it all, however, is that our members are quite diverse. I won't go into our diversity, but believe me, CS isn't for the stereotypical pocket-protector, taped-glasses geek anymore!
I've been noticing a surge of interest in computers over the past few years. Some of the least likeliest people on earth you would ever consider to be into computers ARE. It's beginning to be cool to have a nerdy side, and this is clearly evidenced by all the pins girls are wearing these days that say things like, "Talk nerdy to me." It's quite a phenomenon, and definately PhD thesis material.
Long story short: Geek out, man... Geek out...
Heard at the White House earlier today:
"Oh no! We're about to lose a whole group of voters when the Nascar dads hear about this..."
He got a defree in both English and Computer Science you bafoon. He can't have gotten a degree in CS without at least hearing about Linux.
No joke, but I read this a year or two ago in the Austin American Statesman:
One weapon the Air Force has been developing propells a canister from space filled with unimaginably flammable liquid. The canister bursts at a specified height, sending the liquid into billions of tiny droplets covering a known radius. A small igniter in the middle of the resulting droplet sphere...well...ignites. A devistating chain reaction occurs and can turn sand into glass!
Let's hope the terrorist scum don't get ahold of that!
Isn't Mac OS X 10.4 kind of redundant? I mean, isn't "X" the roman numeral for 10? That's what I thought it meant, at least. Perhaps X.4 would do the trick?
Thunderbird 0.9 is out now... :-(
American TV has become riddled with reality shows. It's quite discusting:
* Wife Swap - Who watches this!? Some sick, twisted indiciduals, that's who.
* Survivor - Isn't this like the 80th episode or something? How many different spins can they put on the challenges?
* Big Brother - People tune in to this waiting, just anticipating two of the people boarded to have sex.
* Extreme Makeover - The epitome of our obsession with aesthetic qualities.
* Much, much more crap...
Please, turn it off!
LOST, Adult Swim, and various Comedy Central programs are the only reason I watch TV anymore. They're the only reason I haven't lost all hope in American entertainment.
It doesn't matter what money they're making. If they really thought that movie pirating wasn't hurting them or imporving their profits, why would they pursue it? It doesn't make sense.
If you're really concerned about politics than vote at a local level. Local representatives can do a whole lot more to your life than the president can.
The parent is the most insightful comment I've ever read on Slashdot...
Bravo...
The best part is that now it'll be immortalized -- ON THE INTERNET!!1
Mwahahahhahahahahaha!
Imagine...
RFID has so many uses, but we all know it's ultimate purpose is to be used as the Mark of the Beast as soon as the Antichrist appears.
You first heard it from me.
I, for one, welcome our new rat neuron overlords.
...chickpeas, lentils and mohair...
...peanut subsidy...
...pork in the robes...
Anybody else get hungry after reading this...?
Umm. If I'm not mistaken The United States of America is the only country with "America" actually in it's name, so it's not too far-fetched to just call ourselves Americans.
This reminds me of a story:
I was in a speech class (no, not learning how to speak) and I mentioned a Mexican news station I had watched. Some girl turned around and tried to correct me, saying very matter-of-factly, "Hispanic news station." I paused a second and said, "No, Mexican news station. It was filmed IN Mexico, ABOUT Mexico, FOR the Mexican people. It was a freaking Mexican news station."
-Devin Torres
If anybody knows anything about sticky situations, it's gonna be this guy.
Ok, this is going to come from five weeks of education in my Intro. to Business and International Business courses, plus a video I watched on the success of Hong Kong:
There are three types of economic systems: Free market, command economy, and mixed market. The US is a mixed market, not quite command, and not quite free market. What this means is that our businesses aren't dictated to by our government, but there's still government influence in almost everything a government does. Todays businesses are riddled with regulations, laws, and restrictions to the point that our economy is no longer efficient.
To take an example: According to Wikipedia, Hong Kong [wikipedia.org] is the perfect example of a free market economy. "But wait," you might say. "Isn't Hong Kong in communist China?" And I would say to you, "Why, yes, it is." However, when Hong Kong began, about 50 years ago, it was agreed that "China's socialist economic system would not be practiced in Hong Kong and that Hong Kong would enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters" (Wikipedia). It's China's "little experiment" with capitalism. And, guess what? It's a thriving economy. People move from the US, Scotland, Japan, Australia, just to start a business in Hong Kong. It's success is due to it's limited government interaction. One paper is all one needs to start a business, and unlike in India where there is no guarantee your business will even be reviewed and approved, in Hong Kong, the paper is copied and stamped. Poof. Business started. There is a fixed tax for everything, only for government. There are no regulations. When did there ever need to be regulations, anyway?
It's a simple theory. If a business produces diseased food, nobody will eat from there any longer. The business will go bankrupt and another business will fill it's place, the peoples needs. It that business begins abusing it's power and begins to charge too much, another will arise and fill the need. If people aren't limited by work hours they can work longer and get more pay for that TV they've wanted. If people just want to deliver a flippin newspaper for $4.00 an hour, they aren't denied the job because the employer can't pay the $6.00 minimum wage. It JUST WORKS.
My question: What can the Green Party do to make this country more of a free market?
Ok, this is going to come from five weeks of education in my Intro. to Business and International Business courses, plus a video I watched on the success of Hong Kong:
There are three types of economic systems: Free market, command economy, and mixed market. The US is a mixed market, not quite command, and not quite free market. What this means is that our businesses aren't dictated to by our government, but there's still government influence in almost everything a government does. Todays businesses are riddled with regulations, laws, and restrictions to the point that our economy is no longer efficient.
To take an example: According to Wikipedia, Hong Kong is the perfect example of a free market economy. "But wait," you might say. "Isn't Hong Kong in communist China?" And I would say to you, "Why, yes, it is." However, when Hong Kong began, about 50 years ago, it was agreed that "China's socialist economic system would not be practiced in Hong Kong and that Hong Kong would enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters" (Wikipedia). It's China's "little experiment" with capitalism. And, guess what? It's a thriving economy. People move from the US, Scotland, Japan, Australia, just to start a business in Hong Kong. It's success is due to it's limited government interaction. One paper is all one needs to start a business, and unlike in India where there is no guarantee your business will even be reviewed and approved, in Hong Kong, the paper is copied and stamped. Poof. Business started. There is a fixed tax for everything, only for government. There are no regulations. When did there ever need to be regulations, anyway?
It's a simple theory. If a business produces diseased food, nobody will eat from there any longer. The business will go bankrupt and another business will fill it's place, the peoples needs. It that business begins abusing it's power and begins to charge too much, another will arise and fill the need. If people aren't limited by work hours they can work longer and get more pay for that TV they've wanted. If people just want to deliver a flippin newspaper for $4.00 an hour, they aren't denied the job because the employer can't pay the $6.00 minimum wage. It JUST WORKS.
I didn't know much about the libertarian philosophy before this article, but now I'm thoroughly convinced that I'll vote libertarian in 2008.
"What are you going to do to ensure that EVERY child in this country recieves a nominal education if their parents CAN'T afford private schooling"?
Since libertarians support minimal taxes, tax payers will begin to see money they never even thought existed. That amount will include money they will use to pay for the school of their choice for their children. If parents can't afford it, the minimal amount of taxes collected will be used to pay for the education of their children, much like college financial aid works.
Now that it's announced on slashdot, it's going to take another month just to download it...
If I had any mod points I would mod you up.