I have a Linux Fund mbna credit card that I got at LWE 3 years ago. It has a picture of tux on it. I'm not much of a linux advocate, and I have no idea if the fund is doing any well, but I like the credit card because about 20% of the time I make a face-to-face purchase I get this reaction:
"Oh, isn't that cute!"
So that doesn't necessarily make the logo cool, but it does make it somewhat attractive.
Okay, granted, Microsoft bad, blah blah blah, but I think O'Reilly really crossed the line with the comparison. Bill Gates may be a lot of things but to compare him to Hitler is just bad taste.
Being less famous, blue moose trilogy, et al.
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5 Novels
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· Score: 1
The most notable thing about Pinkwater to me has been his relative anonymity among those authors cherished by twenty-somethings. Everybody knows Dahl, Silverstein, Blume, etc. but whenever I've brought up pinkwater heretofore, I always seem to get blank stares. Huh. Wonder why he doesn't get the big draws. The appeal for me was more or less the same as the appeal to those other authors that everybody and his sister seems to love and cherish (and I do too, don't get me wrong). But whereas they frequently come up in school summer reading lists and suggested books, his don't. Heck, even Scott Adams' stuff gets mentioned more, even the dirk gently books (which, IMO, aren't really that great).
The review mentions the blue moose. Wasn't there a whole blue moose trilogy? I swear I've read more than one.
I was always confused by a book I read that was definately in the pinkwater style but was authored by a "Manus Pinkwater." But that's his middle name, right? I guess he just wrote under it for a while.
A good history & bibliography would be much appreciated, if anyone knows where to get one.
While the idea of a 3d window manager is neat, there isn't much use for it so long as we don't have any 3d software to run off of it. As the screen shots imply, a 3d wm basically is a really awkward way of organizing your windows. Make the manager 3d and you really shouldn't be storing windows anymore. (Maybe figurines?)
Or to put it another way, in the real world we keep our important documents on a desk top, not in a milk crate. Good idea guys, but a little too far ahead of its time at this point.
I have two words for you: U Force. Possibly the best idea / worst implementation of video game control ever. Theremins are durn good for music, though. Ever hear the Lothars? 4 theremins and a guitar. Rockin!
While we're sort of on-topic, does anybody know anything about Mind Drive? It was supposed to be a thought-based controller that detected electrochemical changes in your hand when you thought "left" or "right". I saw a demo of it once, but I couldn't tell if it was a hoax or not.
Disclaimer: I can't figure out how to post directly on a story, only on someone else's comment.
Directly under the story is your preferences bar (with your moderation level, how comments should be listed, etc). There is a "reply" button on the right of this bar. That replies to the story.
It confused me too, at first, since it's a different interface than the reply to comments hyperlink, which is much more numerous, of course
After you answer the same questions time and time again, it gets amazingly tedious (And I've been known to tell reporters to read the FAQ too)
For the longest time I've had this question about slashdot that seemed too obvious not to be mentioned on a faq or just plain as day to everyone out there. But I've done my homework and no dice, so here goes:
Why/.? What's the name mean (other than "the current directory")? My roommate suggested "./" since it's used a lot more often. Is there some meaning that I'm missing? Is it a joke? Does it just sound neat?
If someone could just point to a faq, that would be just as good.
Re:Fun facts? Sad facts if you ask me...
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ENIAC Story on NPR
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· Score: 1
I agree that gender/race/lifestyle/economic class variety is sorely needed in the computer community. But I'm not sure I agree that "it breeds a hostile environment for anyone who's not a white heterosexual male." It seems to be a self-fulfilling stereotype: white hetero male nerds see other white hetero male nerds using computers and realize they should use them. Since that makes up the majority of the population, the web sites, info, entertainment, interests, etc. tend to cater toward those who create them.
Of course, being a white hetero male myself, I guess I see the world through severely filtered eyes. Are there any good examples of this "hostile environment?"
The only thing that comes to me, regarding gender at least, is the notion that girls aren't any good in science and math. That sort of stereotype perpetuates through (at least American) schools, until it fulfills itself. Math and science closely relate to computers, and until pc video games were the only thing drawing kids to use them. So that would explain that.
This is not a new topic, so there must be some research or at least writings on this. Anybody know where?
Fun facts and ironies about the first programmers
on
ENIAC Story on NPR
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· Score: 1
ENIAC's programmers were all women, which seems especially ironic today.
Also, Turing, the (or a) father of computer science, was gay and depressed and eventually committed suicide. I dunno if that says anything about the biz, but it's something to think about.
Of course it doesn't exist anymore, being so large and taking up so much valuable space. A common EE project at Penn is to make ENIAC on a chip.
Interestingly enough, the space ENIAC once occupied is now taken up by the Engineering department's servers, also called eniac (as well as many other things).
Did anyone else notice that "mp3", the source of everything related to the lawsuit, was not mentioned once? Kind of reminds me of how nobody ever said "mafia" in The Godfather.
When it comes down to it, EULA's really don't do anything. Neither does any agreement when you sign your life away. If a 747 uses NT (well, they're asking for it) and for no apparent reason the plane "blue-screens" (ie, crashes into the ocean) you can bet your bippy Microsoft's gonna have to shell out some mad hush money.
Seems to me like freedom from a chain of responsibility is just what we need. Besides, it's not so radical a concept to have nobody to blame. Think "act of god." When an unexpected blizzard stops business, damages property, and takes lives, you don't see a whole rash of lawsuits against meteorologists for not warning of the danger, or the state and local authorities for not providing enough emergency support to prevent catastrophes. Nobody sued the builders of I-880 for building on sand that could liquify in an earthquake.
I know that's not exactly analogous to open-source, which is much more human-implemented. But it's useful to think of open-source software as a sort of natural resource, like sunlight. For Joe User, it might as well be the same thing, cause there's no ownership attached and it's infinitely renewable. And, much like the sun, you have to be careful when you use it. Test things out. Extensively. Convince your (suable) corporation/hospital that the product is sound. Then use it. And if it fails? Yeah, they can sue you for not testing it more thoroughly.
Here's a still different analogy that may work. Let's say all the tobacco manufacturers are being sued for giving people cancer caused by their cigarettes (I'm ignoring the whole adding-addictivs-and-carcinogenic-chemicals-with-f ull-knowledge argument for the moment). The tobacco companies can't turn around and sue the tobacco. They knew there were risks associated with using it. But they marketed cigarettes as a safe product. So the burden of error is on their shoulders.
Man, you would think MSNBC would be professional enough to copy edit its articles.
"right as the Internal began to reach critical mass"
and
"students enamored of with the coming information explosion"
in the opening 3 paragraphs, no less!?! I suppose it's only a matter of time before we start seeing possessive "its" with the apostrophes, in obvious homage to our Commander's prose style of choice.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a Linux Fund mbna credit card that I got at LWE 3 years ago. It has a picture of tux on it. I'm not much of a linux advocate, and I have no idea if the fund is doing any well, but I like the credit card because about 20% of the time I make a face-to-face purchase I get this reaction:
"Oh, isn't that cute!"
So that doesn't necessarily make the logo cool, but it does make it somewhat attractive.
Only once have I gotten this reaction:
"Oh, cool, linux!"
Okay, granted, Microsoft bad, blah blah blah, but I think O'Reilly really crossed the line with the comparison. Bill Gates may be a lot of things but to compare him to Hitler is just bad taste.
The most notable thing about Pinkwater to me has been his relative anonymity among those authors cherished by twenty-somethings. Everybody knows Dahl, Silverstein, Blume, etc. but whenever I've brought up pinkwater heretofore, I always seem to get blank stares. Huh. Wonder why he doesn't get the big draws. The appeal for me was more or less the same as the appeal to those other authors that everybody and his sister seems to love and cherish (and I do too, don't get me wrong). But whereas they frequently come up in school summer reading lists and suggested books, his don't. Heck, even Scott Adams' stuff gets mentioned more, even the dirk gently books (which, IMO, aren't really that great).
The review mentions the blue moose. Wasn't there a whole blue moose trilogy? I swear I've read more than one.
I was always confused by a book I read that was definately in the pinkwater style but was authored by a "Manus Pinkwater." But that's his middle name, right? I guess he just wrote under it for a while.
A good history & bibliography would be much appreciated, if anyone knows where to get one.
grazie,
Jon
As the screen shots imply, a 3d wm basically is a really awkward way of organizing your windows. Make the manager 3d and you really shouldn't be storing windows anymore. (Maybe figurines?)
Or to put it another way, in the real world we keep our important documents on a desk top, not in a milk crate.
Good idea guys, but a little too far ahead of its time at this point.
Theremins are durn good for music, though. Ever hear the Lothars? 4 theremins and a guitar. Rockin!
While we're sort of on-topic, does anybody know anything about Mind Drive? It was supposed to be a thought-based controller that detected electrochemical changes in your hand when you thought "left" or "right". I saw a demo of it once, but I couldn't tell if it was a hoax or not.
Directly under the story is your preferences bar (with your moderation level, how comments should be listed, etc). There is a "reply" button on the right of this bar. That replies to the story.
It confused me too, at first, since it's a different interface than the reply to comments hyperlink, which is much more numerous, of course
my best guess is "I am not a lawyer"
For the longest time I've had this question about slashdot that seemed too obvious not to be mentioned on a faq or just plain as day to everyone out there. But I've done my homework and no dice, so here goes:
Why /.? What's the name mean (other than "the current directory")? My roommate suggested "./" since it's used a lot more often. Is there some meaning that I'm missing? Is it a joke? Does it just sound neat?
If someone could just point to a faq, that would be just as good.
I agree that gender/race/lifestyle/economic class variety is sorely needed in the computer community. But I'm not sure I agree that "it breeds a hostile environment for anyone who's not a white heterosexual male." It seems to be a self-fulfilling stereotype: white hetero male nerds see other white hetero male nerds using computers and realize they should use them. Since that makes up the majority of the population, the web sites, info, entertainment, interests, etc. tend to cater toward those who create them.
Of course, being a white hetero male myself, I guess I see the world through severely filtered eyes. Are there any good examples of this "hostile environment?"
The only thing that comes to me, regarding gender at least, is the notion that girls aren't any good in science and math. That sort of stereotype perpetuates through (at least American) schools, until it fulfills itself. Math and science closely relate to computers, and until pc video games were the only thing drawing kids to use them. So that would explain that.
This is not a new topic, so there must be some research or at least writings on this. Anybody know where?
ENIAC's programmers were all women, which seems especially ironic today.
Also, Turing, the (or a) father of computer science, was gay and depressed and eventually committed suicide. I dunno if that says anything about the biz, but it's something to think about.
Of course it doesn't exist anymore, being so large and taking up so much valuable space. A common EE project at Penn is to make ENIAC on a chip.
Interestingly enough, the space ENIAC once occupied is now taken up by the Engineering department's servers, also called eniac (as well as many other things).
Why is guinness the best beer?
Only beer you can chew.
Spreads on toast.
You can't make Guinness & Cider without it!
(There's a better name for guinness & cider...anyone know what it is?)
Did anyone else notice that "mp3", the source of everything related to the lawsuit, was not mentioned once? Kind of reminds me of how nobody ever said "mafia" in The Godfather.
When it comes down to it, EULA's really don't do anything. Neither does any agreement when you sign your life away. If a 747 uses NT (well, they're asking for it) and for no apparent reason the plane "blue-screens" (ie, crashes into the ocean) you can bet your bippy Microsoft's gonna have to shell out some mad hush money.
Seems to me like freedom from a chain of responsibility is just what we need. Besides, it's not so radical a concept to have nobody to blame. Think "act of god." When an unexpected blizzard stops business, damages property, and takes lives, you don't see a whole rash of lawsuits against meteorologists for not warning of the danger, or the state and local authorities for not providing enough emergency support to prevent catastrophes. Nobody sued the builders of I-880 for building on sand that could liquify in an earthquake.
I know that's not exactly analogous to open-source, which is much more human-implemented. But it's useful to think of open-source software as a sort of natural resource, like sunlight. For Joe User, it might as well be the same thing, cause there's no ownership attached and it's infinitely renewable. And, much like the sun, you have to be careful when you use it. Test things out. Extensively. Convince your (suable) corporation/hospital that the product is sound. Then use it. And if it fails? Yeah, they can sue you for not testing it more thoroughly.
Here's a still different analogy that may work. Let's say all the tobacco manufacturers are being sued for giving people cancer caused by their cigarettes (I'm ignoring the whole adding-addictivs-and-carcinogenic-chemicals-with-f ull-knowledge argument for the moment). The tobacco companies can't turn around and sue the tobacco. They knew there were risks associated with using it. But they marketed cigarettes as a safe product. So the burden of error is on their shoulders.
Man, you would think MSNBC would be professional enough to copy edit its articles.
"right as the Internal began to reach critical mass"
and
"students enamored of with the coming information explosion"
in the opening 3 paragraphs, no less!?! I suppose it's only a matter of time before we start seeing possessive "its" with the apostrophes, in obvious homage to our Commander's prose style of choice.
I imagine the discussion over how much memory an IBM PC would ever need went something like this:
1k = 1024 bytes
640k = 655360 bytes
But it's not like we'll ever have to render graphics or anything...