Sorry no mod points. I'm suprised that someone else has read this. I thought that awfull movie version would have insured that it was deligated to obscurity.
You underestimate the reputation of Dhalgren. I am curious about anyone who would recomend it, the book that few who start complete, and those that finish do so for bragging rights!
Language, writing, spelling, currency, the layout of your car, the dimensions of the equipment in the kitchen, building material, hardware ( nuts, bolts, etc). Every time man gets into doing somthing new, standards are developed. Even neolythic culturs had standards that their tools were based on. We all saw on Mars, what happened when standards were violated, i.e. ssszzzZZZZBANG.
Weather it would work or not is still up in the air. Air Traffic concerns cloud the issue. These current marketers appear to be filled with hot air. And if a project actully flies, I bet the company that hits the ground first will have a monopoly. They will see that the skys the limit on profits, and the rates they charge will ballon. I do believe that at least in the US, any real attempt to do this will become a lightning rod for counterversy.
First of all, this reliance on contractors thing is nor endemic to one specialty. Its use is spreading rapidly. Soon the only jobs available in ANY line of work is going to be contract, unless its so lowly that employee benifits are not an issue and employees can be treated like shit, e.g. restraunt work.
Second, I am not about to through away 25 years of experience in a profession that I love and am naturaly gifted in. Living on foodstamps and burger flipping while going to school and supporting my teenage son, does not sound at all appealing. As the result would be, a degree in a field that will by then be taken over by contracors. Only now, I would have zero years of experience.
Third, despite what I just wrote, I am going to get a degree in a different field. Its one were I can leverage my programming experience, and its something I already do as a hobby. Its also a field that will not likely become a contractors only domain. I've lived poor befor, I can do it again even though I'm now in my 40s. So life sucks:]
Well, my data is kinda old. But at one time they only had 500 actual programmers. The rest were contractors. Regardless, even today, most major new products were created by contractors. This does make sence, in a way. When MS wants a new OS, they contract out to an OS design expert. That way they don't need to payrole an OS expert when they arn't developing a new OS. But I find it funny that MS markets itself as "The Software Expert" when all the real experts are contractors. Unfortunatly, when they want grunt programmers, they contract Volt.
The limited engagment thing was a direct result of MS using contractors to skirt laws governing employment. They also treated the contractors like shit (and still do). A bunch of contractors got pissed, because they were in fact filling the positions of full time employees. When it became apparent that they would never become real employees, because MS basicly only hires through its on campas recruiting activity, they took action. In other words, your example does a good job of demonstrating my contention:P
Boy your ignorant. Now days, the only work available is through slave masters like Volt. Microsoft is one of the worst abusers of employment law. Its this type of abuse that caused unions to organize in the first place. And befor you go off hacked cocked again, I'm a life long Republican, and about as anti-union as one can get. The reason everyone hates Microsoft is because Microsoft is deserving of hate. It is a miss-conception that Microsoft develops software. What they actualy do is contract out to have it writen. Almost all code from Redmond was created by contractors. That is one reason that their code quality is so low and will always be low. Wana bet that Microsoft has controling interest in some employment agencies, or is represented on their BOD?
The problem is that THERE IS NO FULL TIME WORK. Many companies rarely if ever hire real employees. In theory, the only way to get employment is to start out as a contractor, then after some unspecified amount of time, a real job might be offered. Microsoft is one of the worst offenders. All of their programmers are contracters. They define jobs by projects each no longer in duration then necisary to skirt the law. It might take several such "projects" strung together to complete an actual task. Some companies started doing the contreactor thing to provide a buffer to fluctuations in buisness, but now, more companies are like Microsoft. Microsoft specificaly uses contracers to get passed the law. Contractors can be treated like shit and at Microsoft they are. As Microsoft basicaly owns Washington States ass, they can get away with whatever they want. How much do you want to bet that Microsoft has some major investment in some of these employment agencies. I would like to find out how much Volt stock Microsoft owns.
The ability of each subpixel to produce the entire RGB gamute would more then triple effective resolution. That is because the effective resolution of a standard CRT is less then the pixle density. Subpixels of adjacent pixels will interact to form parasitic pixels. For many things this is not a problem and the phenomina can even be made use of. Just ask anyone who has experimented with icon design. The problem is that it severly limits textured colors. I use complicated textures of colors in my pastel art. There is no way to duplicate this on a monitor with a dotpitch of.22. This effect can be seen by watching "Star Wars II" in the theater. Then watching it on a HDTV. Depending on ones color accuity, there should be a noticable difference. A stacked subpixle display would allow me to do things that are impossible today.
You dont know a lot about the SCA, or at least what is was like 20 years ago. When I was in it you could find vinter, tailors, weavers, cooks, paper makers, glasiers, thatchers, bleachers, coopers, wheelwrights, leather workers, and yes even soap makers. Many of these could tell you the whole history of their art. I liked the SCA because I have a keen interest in the history of technolog. For me, history is all about how people lived and the tools they used. This is why I keep up with advances in the understanding of European Prehistory. Prehistory is all about tools and technology! I could care less about which king ruled when other then how it relates to these. Every one of my geeky friends a is also interessted in this stuff. Its funny that I have never corollated these two phenomina befor. Read/. and learn more about yourself??? Must be a fluke.
As a programmer and artist, I agree to an extent. Any software I release for consumer consumption will be OSI licenced. I plan on using simulare licencing for my art. The whole concept of plagerism exists in the context of copyright law. During my studies, I have become interested in the Chinese and Japanese art scenes. The attitude towards art is very different, yet art and artists florished. I did a long winded write-up on this subject under the nick, B.B.Wolf, a couple of years ago. If I had time I would try to find it. The point I am making here is that technology will favor the creators of art. My value as an artist ( or as a programmer for that matter) rests with my ability to create, not with the fact that I ahve created. The art I did in the past adds value only in that it exemplifies what I can do. Technology also allows the consumers of art to be more savay. Those that know me and know my work, will recognize plagerism. Word will get around at internet speed. In other words, plagerism is counteracted by being prolific. Technologies two edged gift is that not only does it enable the artist to be more prolific, it demands that the artist be prolfic. Plagerism has rarely hurt the artist, though it often pisses them off. Who it does hurt are the publishers and distributors. The very same group that created copywrite law in the first place. Thats enough for now. I need to get back to my resume so I can find a job that will pay the bills while I get my degree.
I'll pass on the beer. I've had enough already for one lifetime.
It is appearent that you did not get the gist of what Mr. Gibson was saying. People have an inborn drive to create. They have a capacity to project their imaginations and to interpret the creations of others. These characteristics can be traced back through the earliest artifact made by man. But more importantly, man can abstract reality through sybolism.A study of "cave painting" shows the skill and creative nature of some of our most distant ancestory. Some of this art actualy needs to be interpreted as if its a movie. What apears to be several individuals, in some cases is realy the same individual at different points in time, a moving picture. Now we have tools that can enable us to express ourselves unimaginable to our ancestors. Mankind will always find ways to use the cutting edge tech for self expresion. Our childrens childrens childrens will be doing things that today are just fantasy. And guess what, it will still be in the quest for self expresion
Not to insult your family or anything, but you guys seem to be completely lacking in imagination. The 10 year old that I babysit, was into putting jackel heads on his drawings ( influence of the mummy movies). He creates his own Pokemon and DBZ characters. Some can be rather bizzare. If your children do display some imagination, are you going to punish them? BTW, I've been doing anthropmorphic art since I was a kid. I have started retraining to become an animator. This is truley a great time to be alive. I am able to express myself in ways that I could only dream about as a kid. And I did dream. Only hope the MPAA and that other mafia controled organization don't totaly screw us over.
Electrical Test equipment. Agilent has several Linux based devises. They had plans to expand its use. But MS got a hold of them (from the inside) and convinced them to use WindowsXP for all new platforms, despite the failure of other Windows based instruments, and the advise of almost every firmware engineer in the company. When Agilent markets a Windows based instrument, they promote the fact that its Windows based. This does not sell the instrument, rather it is done to have a positive effect on stock prices. In reality, press releases that highlight Linux would be appealing to tech savy investors. And its tech savay investors that would be attracted to a company like Agilent. As it is, Agilent marketing has no incentive to do this. If antention was paid to Linux based T&M equipment, Agilent marketing might take notice. Probably not enough to countermand Microsofts wishes, but enough to make a dent.
Dropping the clone thing was only the latest in a long line of things that pissed off Motorola. I was unfortunatly in the middle of several of these while I was with SPS and again ( with the clone thing) when I was with MPC. What a nightmare. Apple never was a big enough revenue generator to justify the grief they caused. When they started demanding things that would gepardize the imbeded market, Motorola probably told them to get bent. I sure would have. What is hurting Motorola right now has nothing to do with Apple. It is that George Fisher and his idiot cronies read and BusinessWeek, etc, and follow its advice. Motorola is a perfect example of what happens to a company that is micro-managed by a boar of director who are more interested in stock performance then buisness performance. I also worked for Agilent. It is dieing from the same illness, except Agilent has a MS VP on its board that is trying to make over the company to benifit MS. That is why Agilent has layed off almost all of its UNIX expertice. Bitter? Naw, I'm not bitter.
This is all rather silly. Most likely, the violation was caused by a missunderstanding of the requirments of the GPL and ineffective communication, between the FSF and OpenTV and between buisness segments of OpenTV. If OpenTV openly adresses the issue, which they appear to be doing, then the issue is closed. The kingdom is at peace, and the knights can get back to programming.
Genetic taxonimy also suffers the same problem as statistic cladistic taxonimy. That is the analisis of the data can yield many trees. I have resently seen a number of proposed trees for the rosids ( plant kingdom, roses and their relatives). Genetic models are only relevent in relationship to the physicaly measurable characteristics of the organisms being modeled. Here is a prime example. In the Western US, is a family of fish called Catostomidae, the suckers. It arose from the minnow family (Cyprinidae) through a doubling of the genes. Most likely this happened in asia as there is a single relic species there. The wierd thing is, a number of asian minnow genera also display this mutation. Examples are the carp Cyprinus and the common fresh water aquarium fish called "sharks" of the genera Labeo, and Epalzeorhynchos. The chromosomal doubleing for these groups was independent of that which yeilded the suckers. The result however is morphilogicaly simulare. As an aside, the genus Cyprinus can no longer be the holotype for the family( its atypical). That is why it should be refered to as the minnow family and not the carp familiy. Here is an example of the common terminology being more acurate then the scientific. Anyways judging from the genetic information, one could conclude that the suckers and deep bodied asian minnows are related more closely then they actualy are.
Sorry but Canis lupus latrans is the old name for the Prankster known as the Coyote. The current accepted name is C.latrans. The domesticated dog is C. lupus familiaris. Previously it was considered the species C.familiaris. Modern genetic analisis indicates that the modern dog was developed independently by different peoples starting with different subspecies of C. lupus. As people moved around, the various tamed wolf populations interbred resulting in the diversity we have today. Regardless, domesticated dogs represent a special case.
The division of populations into genus, species, etc, has to be done pretty much on a case by case basis. The most important factors are what make sense for identification purposes, and what makes the groups easier to deal with. A good fishy example is the cichlid genus Tropheus. These fish live above sandbars. These sandbars shift, combine and split up. The fish populations combine and split up with the sandbars. Mate selection is based on color and pattern. This often means that two populations wich were split and then recombined will not interbreed because of changes in color pattern. Are they one species or two, or maybe subspecies of the same species?
Back to canids. The diversity in C. l. familiaris is due to the so called "plastic gene". It appears that C. lupus is not the only canid with this potential charachteristic. Several people have attempted to domesticat foxes, genus Vulpex. This has resulted in wierd color patterns, coat textures, and tail shape.
The Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah were originaly one book. From a historical perspective, they are important in that they provide information about a critical period in the middle east. The events chronicaled have reprocusions for the next 5 centuries, until the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. The culture of the post-exilic Nation of Isreal, was fundimental different from that of any period befor captivity. The last half of the narative ( Nehemiah) explains why these changes happened. And most importantly, documents the change in the World View of the Hebrew people, that underpinned their new culture.
These Books are also very well written from a liturary point of view. The style is clean and accesible, even in translation. The narrative is well paced, with plenty of action to prevent it from bogging down. There is also some subtle humor throughout. The story itself is engrosing with a lot of human drama.
Christians should read this book ( along with the rest of the Bible). It illustrates some important spitual concepts. Learning these concepts will help a Christian to get past the first rest stop on their walk with Jesus. Reading Nehemiah will also benifit non-Christian people of Faith, anyone with an interest in Spiritual matters.
One does not need to be a Jew or a Christian to get a lot out of these books. They are well worth the effort from a liturary or historic perspective. That they also are powerfull in guiding the Spiritual walk of those of Faith, is an added bonus.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry no mod points. I'm suprised that someone else has read this. I thought that awfull movie version would have insured that it was deligated to obscurity.
You underestimate the reputation of Dhalgren. I am curious about anyone who would recomend it, the book that few who start complete, and those that finish do so for bragging rights!
by Lee Killogh (sp?), a SF mystery in a Credit Card society. Should keep you entertained for a day or two.
"Your System may have aquired a virus. Click below to check"
with a button saying:
"CHECK".
... DirectX9 becomes a real standard and available for Linux. Na, thats a lie. Even if this was so, I still would'nt give a shit.
Language, writing, spelling, currency, the layout of your car, the dimensions of the equipment in the kitchen, building material, hardware ( nuts, bolts, etc). Every time man gets into doing somthing new, standards are developed. Even neolythic culturs had standards that their tools were based on. We all saw on Mars, what happened when standards were violated, i.e. ssszzzZZZZBANG.
Weather it would work or not is still up in the air. Air Traffic concerns cloud the issue. These current marketers appear to be filled with hot air. And if a project actully flies, I bet the company that hits the ground first will have a monopoly. They will see that the skys the limit on profits, and the rates they charge will ballon. I do believe that at least in the US, any real attempt to do this will become a lightning rod for counterversy.
Third, despite what I just wrote, I am going to get a degree in a different field. Its one were I can leverage my programming experience, and its something I already do as a hobby. Its also a field that will not likely become a contractors only domain. I've lived poor befor, I can do it again even though I'm now in my 40s. So life sucks :]
The limited engagment thing was a direct result of MS using contractors to skirt laws governing employment. They also treated the contractors like shit (and still do). A bunch of contractors got pissed, because they were in fact filling the positions of full time employees. When it became apparent that they would never become real employees, because MS basicly only hires through its on campas recruiting activity, they took action. In other words, your example does a good job of demonstrating my contention :P
Boy your ignorant. Now days, the only work available is through slave masters like Volt. Microsoft is one of the worst abusers of employment law. Its this type of abuse that caused unions to organize in the first place. And befor you go off hacked cocked again, I'm a life long Republican, and about as anti-union as one can get. The reason everyone hates Microsoft is because Microsoft is deserving of hate. It is a miss-conception that Microsoft develops software. What they actualy do is contract out to have it writen. Almost all code from Redmond was created by contractors. That is one reason that their code quality is so low and will always be low. Wana bet that Microsoft has controling interest in some employment agencies, or is represented on their BOD?
The problem is that THERE IS NO FULL TIME WORK. Many companies rarely if ever hire real employees. In theory, the only way to get employment is to start out as a contractor, then after some unspecified amount of time, a real job might be offered. Microsoft is one of the worst offenders. All of their programmers are contracters. They define jobs by projects each no longer in duration then necisary to skirt the law. It might take several such "projects" strung together to complete an actual task. Some companies started doing the contreactor thing to provide a buffer to fluctuations in buisness, but now, more companies are like Microsoft. Microsoft specificaly uses contracers to get passed the law. Contractors can be treated like shit and at Microsoft they are. As Microsoft basicaly owns Washington States ass, they can get away with whatever they want. How much do you want to bet that Microsoft has some major investment in some of these employment agencies. I would like to find out how much Volt stock Microsoft owns.
If I remember correctly, PDF is compressed EPS. EPS is Encapsulated Postscript.
The ability of each subpixel to produce the entire RGB gamute would more then triple effective resolution. That is because the effective resolution of a standard CRT is less then the pixle density. Subpixels of adjacent pixels will interact to form parasitic pixels. For many things this is not a problem and the phenomina can even be made use of. Just ask anyone who has experimented with icon design. The problem is that it severly limits textured colors. I use complicated textures of colors in my pastel art. There is no way to duplicate this on a monitor with a dotpitch of .22. This effect can be seen by watching "Star Wars II" in the theater. Then watching it on a HDTV. Depending on ones color accuity, there should be a noticable difference. A stacked subpixle display would allow me to do things that are impossible today.
You dont know a lot about the SCA, or at least what is was like 20 years ago. When I was in it you could find vinter, tailors, weavers, cooks, paper makers, glasiers, thatchers, bleachers, coopers, wheelwrights, leather workers, and yes even soap makers. Many of these could tell you the whole history of their art. I liked the SCA because I have a keen interest in the history of technolog. For me, history is all about how people lived and the tools they used. This is why I keep up with advances in the understanding of European Prehistory. Prehistory is all about tools and technology! I could care less about which king ruled when other then how it relates to these. Every one of my geeky friends a is also interessted in this stuff. Its funny that I have never corollated these two phenomina befor. Read /. and learn more about yourself??? Must be a fluke.
As a programmer and artist, I agree to an extent. Any software I release for consumer consumption will be OSI licenced. I plan on using simulare licencing for my art. The whole concept of plagerism exists in the context of copyright law. During my studies, I have become interested in the Chinese and Japanese art scenes. The attitude towards art is very different, yet art and artists florished. I did a long winded write-up on this subject under the nick, B.B.Wolf, a couple of years ago. If I had time I would try to find it. The point I am making here is that technology will favor the creators of art. My value as an artist ( or as a programmer for that matter) rests with my ability to create, not with the fact that I ahve created. The art I did in the past adds value only in that it exemplifies what I can do. Technology also allows the consumers of art to be more savay. Those that know me and know my work, will recognize plagerism. Word will get around at internet speed. In other words, plagerism is counteracted by being prolific. Technologies two edged gift is that not only does it enable the artist to be more prolific, it demands that the artist be prolfic. Plagerism has rarely hurt the artist, though it often pisses them off. Who it does hurt are the publishers and distributors. The very same group that created copywrite law in the first place. Thats enough for now. I need to get back to my resume so I can find a job that will pay the bills while I get my degree.
It is appearent that you did not get the gist of what Mr. Gibson was saying. People have an inborn drive to create. They have a capacity to project their imaginations and to interpret the creations of others. These characteristics can be traced back through the earliest artifact made by man. But more importantly, man can abstract reality through sybolism.A study of "cave painting" shows the skill and creative nature of some of our most distant ancestory. Some of this art actualy needs to be interpreted as if its a movie. What apears to be several individuals, in some cases is realy the same individual at different points in time, a moving picture. Now we have tools that can enable us to express ourselves unimaginable to our ancestors. Mankind will always find ways to use the cutting edge tech for self expresion. Our childrens childrens childrens will be doing things that today are just fantasy. And guess what, it will still be in the quest for self expresion
Not to insult your family or anything, but you guys seem to be completely lacking in imagination. The 10 year old that I babysit, was into putting jackel heads on his drawings ( influence of the mummy movies). He creates his own Pokemon and DBZ characters. Some can be rather bizzare. If your children do display some imagination, are you going to punish them? BTW, I've been doing anthropmorphic art since I was a kid. I have started retraining to become an animator. This is truley a great time to be alive. I am able to express myself in ways that I could only dream about as a kid. And I did dream. Only hope the MPAA and that other mafia controled organization don't totaly screw us over.
Electrical Test equipment. Agilent has several Linux based devises. They had plans to expand its use. But MS got a hold of them (from the inside) and convinced them to use WindowsXP for all new platforms, despite the failure of other Windows based instruments, and the advise of almost every firmware engineer in the company. When Agilent markets a Windows based instrument, they promote the fact that its Windows based. This does not sell the instrument, rather it is done to have a positive effect on stock prices. In reality, press releases that highlight Linux would be appealing to tech savy investors. And its tech savay investors that would be attracted to a company like Agilent. As it is, Agilent marketing has no incentive to do this. If antention was paid to Linux based T&M equipment, Agilent marketing might take notice. Probably not enough to countermand Microsofts wishes, but enough to make a dent.
Dropping the clone thing was only the latest in a long line of things that pissed off Motorola. I was unfortunatly in the middle of several of these while I was with SPS and again ( with the clone thing) when I was with MPC. What a nightmare. Apple never was a big enough revenue generator to justify the grief they caused. When they started demanding things that would gepardize the imbeded market, Motorola probably told them to get bent. I sure would have. What is hurting Motorola right now has nothing to do with Apple. It is that George Fisher and his idiot cronies read and BusinessWeek, etc, and follow its advice. Motorola is a perfect example of what happens to a company that is micro-managed by a boar of director who are more interested in stock performance then buisness performance. I also worked for Agilent. It is dieing from the same illness, except Agilent has a MS VP on its board that is trying to make over the company to benifit MS. That is why Agilent has layed off almost all of its UNIX expertice. Bitter? Naw, I'm not bitter.
This is all rather silly. Most likely, the violation was caused by a missunderstanding of the requirments of the GPL and ineffective communication, between the FSF and OpenTV and between buisness segments of OpenTV. If OpenTV openly adresses the issue, which they appear to be doing, then the issue is closed. The kingdom is at peace, and the knights can get back to programming.
Genetic taxonimy also suffers the same problem as statistic cladistic taxonimy. That is the analisis of the data can yield many trees. I have resently seen a number of proposed trees for the rosids ( plant kingdom, roses and their relatives). Genetic models are only relevent in relationship to the physicaly measurable characteristics of the organisms being modeled. Here is a prime example. In the Western US, is a family of fish called Catostomidae, the suckers. It arose from the minnow family (Cyprinidae) through a doubling of the genes. Most likely this happened in asia as there is a single relic species there. The wierd thing is, a number of asian minnow genera also display this mutation. Examples are the carp Cyprinus and the common fresh water aquarium fish called "sharks" of the genera Labeo, and Epalzeorhynchos. The chromosomal doubleing for these groups was independent of that which yeilded the suckers. The result however is morphilogicaly simulare. As an aside, the genus Cyprinus can no longer be the holotype for the family( its atypical). That is why it should be refered to as the minnow family and not the carp familiy. Here is an example of the common terminology being more acurate then the scientific. Anyways judging from the genetic information, one could conclude that the suckers and deep bodied asian minnows are related more closely then they actualy are.
No its the democrats that like the tax thing. The republicans like the 50 million more consumers in a new untapped demographic.
That should have been Vulpes not Vulpex.
The division of populations into genus, species, etc, has to be done pretty much on a case by case basis. The most important factors are what make sense for identification purposes, and what makes the groups easier to deal with. A good fishy example is the cichlid genus Tropheus. These fish live above sandbars. These sandbars shift, combine and split up. The fish populations combine and split up with the sandbars. Mate selection is based on color and pattern. This often means that two populations wich were split and then recombined will not interbreed because of changes in color pattern. Are they one species or two, or maybe subspecies of the same species?
Back to canids. The diversity in C. l. familiaris is due to the so called "plastic gene". It appears that C. lupus is not the only canid with this potential charachteristic. Several people have attempted to domesticat foxes, genus Vulpex. This has resulted in wierd color patterns, coat textures, and tail shape.
The Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah were originaly one book. From a historical perspective, they are important in that they provide information about a critical period in the middle east. The events chronicaled have reprocusions for the next 5 centuries, until the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. The culture of the post-exilic Nation of Isreal, was fundimental different from that of any period befor captivity. The last half of the narative ( Nehemiah) explains why these changes happened. And most importantly, documents the change in the World View of the Hebrew people, that underpinned their new culture.
These Books are also very well written from a liturary point of view. The style is clean and accesible, even in translation. The narrative is well paced, with plenty of action to prevent it from bogging down. There is also some subtle humor throughout. The story itself is engrosing with a lot of human drama.
Christians should read this book ( along with the rest of the Bible). It illustrates some important spitual concepts. Learning these concepts will help a Christian to get past the first rest stop on their walk with Jesus. Reading Nehemiah will also benifit non-Christian people of Faith, anyone with an interest in Spiritual matters.
One does not need to be a Jew or a Christian to get a lot out of these books. They are well worth the effort from a liturary or historic perspective. That they also are powerfull in guiding the Spiritual walk of those of Faith, is an added bonus.
Hmm, I seem to remember that the solution to fermats last theorom involved advances in both topology and number theory :P