> (lack of job opportunities for engineers despite a relatively high social status) I am sorry, but I think the author lives on a different planet to me:-(
1) Create an interesting sounding, topical URL 2) Fill the page with Ads. 3) Post the link on Slashdot 4) Wait for dozzy Slashdotters to click on link 5)... Profit !!
> Do you know that your great-grandparents, or their parents, probably had that many kids, right?
And if they had had fewer kids we would not now have an over-populated planet, and peak-oil would be centuries away. European countries would have had less need to expand into the Americas and Australasia, much to the benefit of those already lived they. Etc. Etc.
One thing I noticed when visiting a large European organisation for the first time over 15 years ago was that the Windows PC on the most critical network did have floppy drives but with a special lump of plastic locked in so that the casual user could not insert a floppy but tech. support could. The same place now has standard Windows PCs with USB ports but they not physically disabled.
> The proper solution is to make programmers aware of leap seconds. There are 86400 seconds in a normal day, however there is an additional second added once or twice a year to adjust for solar time.
You should have checked your favoured Wikipedia first (!!): leap seconds *can* be added in June or December but they are actually only needed every few years, and none have been added for some time. (When I studied Computer Studies I did not learn about Leap Seconds. But when I started in the space industry that required Leap Seconds to be accounted for I was told about them.)
Personally I agree with your sentiment, however many people get a new phone each year so an early Android phone could easily pushed to the back of a sock drawer by now and considered seriously old by now !
> Historically, there have been various definitions of "free market"
Exactly, except that the differences are not just historic, but also contemporary. IMHO the problem is you can not boil down complex economic situations with multiple actors to a juicy sound bite like "free markets".
Freedom for me the customer is different from freedom for a producer. In fact they are often opposing (they want me locked into their product, I want freedom to switch). IMHO this balance is what needs to be controlled sometimes by the government.
If you (the reader, not the parent poster) disagree then how far would you go ? : do you think that Company X should be allowed one definition of a kilogram and Company Y or Customer Z another. Or should standardization be forced on companies for the benefit of all ?
>> Some environmental groups have warned... > Why are environmentalists always negative focussing on the cables...
Why do some Slashdot poster exaggerate and try to discourage open debate ? The sentence you react against has words like "some" and "warned" and yet you widen it into all environmentalists and all situations ("always") and also there is no suggestion in the summary that it is the "focus" of the (some) environmental groups response.
Maybe we should listen to all sides, weigh up pros and cons and reach a conclusion ?
"The entire purpose of a business is to make money, so this is the measure of success. If this isn't your goal, then you shouldn't be in business."
Cycling is my hobby: if I owned a bike shop and I provided a good service and I enjoyed working there, and people enjoyed shopping there, and I just broke even, then I would definitely say it is a "success".
Slashdot Mirror
But I thought that mice were already the most intelligent life on Earth :-)
> (lack of job opportunities for engineers despite a relatively high social status) :-(
I am sorry, but I think the author lives on a different planet to me
You are correct: in fact I did just get a server not found message. My post was just an idea for a Slashdot Business Plan !
> http://www.atheistsearch.net/
1) Create an interesting sounding, topical URL ... Profit !!
2) Fill the page with Ads.
3) Post the link on Slashdot
4) Wait for dozzy Slashdotters to click on link
5)
> So one of us takes it into the back rigs the button to simply light up the turbu LED when you press it. He seemed pretty happy with the results.
I bet his amp goes up to 11 as well !
> (PDFs in English)
Ha ha, PDFs, nice try. You are not going to catch me out :-)
> The problem is that there is no monopoly here, no lock-in.
But monopoly is not the same as lock-in. (e.g. plenty of software packages with v. low market share will lock-in your data.)
Anyway AFAIK (and IANAL) the problem is not that a company *has* a monopoly: what is illegal is the *abuse* of that monopoly.
If you do not mind shelling out then this will wake them up Air Zound :-)
> Do you know that your great-grandparents, or their parents, probably had that many kids, right?
And if they had had fewer kids we would not now have an over-populated planet, and peak-oil would be centuries away. European countries would have had less need to expand into the Americas and Australasia, much to the benefit of those already lived they. Etc. Etc.
One thing I noticed when visiting a large European organisation for the first time over 15 years ago was that the Windows PC on the most critical network did have floppy drives but with a special lump of plastic locked in so that the casual user could not insert a floppy but tech. support could.
The same place now has standard Windows PCs with USB ports but they not physically disabled.
> The proper solution is to make programmers aware of leap seconds. There are 86400 seconds in a normal day, however there is an additional second added once or twice a year to adjust for solar time.
You should have checked your favoured Wikipedia first (!!): leap seconds *can* be added in June or December but they are actually only needed every few years, and none have been added for some time.
(When I studied Computer Studies I did not learn about Leap Seconds. But when I started in the space industry that required Leap Seconds to be accounted for I was told about them.)
This is great news for me: it means I will not have the lowest Friends count on Facebook :-)
Re-programming voting machines ? Call me back when they have worked out how to re-program the politicians :-)
> ...that the bike seats were designed to make you wear stupid pants.
Is that a summary of the Dilbert strip ? (IIRC: "Great Engineering Solutions". Problem: uncomfortable bike seats, solution: dorky pants.)
> Android is what, 22 months old?
Personally I agree with your sentiment, however many people get a new phone each year so an early Android phone could easily pushed to the back of a sock drawer by now and considered seriously old by now !
This story increases my suspicion that Murdoch has a William Randolph Hearst fixation.
> Will the customers of Apple and Microsoft in the USA also benefit from openness and interoperability?
No: you will still be controlled by the interests of BigCorps :-)
> Historically, there have been various definitions of "free market"
Exactly, except that the differences are not just historic, but also contemporary. IMHO the problem is you can not boil down complex economic situations with multiple actors to a juicy sound bite like "free markets".
Freedom for me the customer is different from freedom for a producer. In fact they are often opposing (they want me locked into their product, I want freedom to switch). IMHO this balance is what needs to be controlled sometimes by the government.
If you (the reader, not the parent poster) disagree then how far would you go ? : do you think that Company X should be allowed one definition of a kilogram and Company Y or Customer Z another. Or should standardization be forced on companies for the benefit of all ?
I am shocked, shocked to find a security flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
> That's some serious engineering precision.
If that is your cup of tea, then you will be interested in the in-development https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Gaia_probe : it will measure arcs of the order of the diameter of a hair from 1000 km away !!
>> Some environmental groups have warned...
> Why are environmentalists always negative focussing on the cables...
Why do some Slashdot poster exaggerate and try to discourage open debate ?
The sentence you react against has words like "some" and "warned" and yet you widen it into all environmentalists and all situations ("always") and also there is no suggestion in the summary that it is the "focus" of the (some) environmental groups response.
Maybe we should listen to all sides, weigh up pros and cons and reach a conclusion ?
I love these launches using converted Russian ICBMs: literally Swords into Ploughshares :-)
"The entire purpose of a business is to make money, so this is the measure of success. If this isn't your goal, then you shouldn't be in business."
Cycling is my hobby: if I owned a bike shop and I provided a good service and I enjoyed working there, and people enjoyed shopping there, and I just broke even, then I would definitely say it is a "success".
> If open source is such a success, why aren't there any billion-dollar turnover open source companies?
Because the making of money is not the only measure of "success".
> Except that red-light cameras do not have any effect on driver safety, but they do cause a *large* numbers of rear-end collisions.
I thought rear-end collisions are caused by driving too close ?
Also: there other matters to consider: not just *driver* safety: pedestrians and cyclist for example (jump a red light and hit a pedestrian).