If you want to make the humanity safe, the best way is the colonisation of another planet. This way, the destruction of one planet will not destroy humanity. In the long run, this is the only way. Sooner or later, an asteroid gonna fail on our heads. Colonisation protects humanity against most major threat.
Of course, colonisation will not protect individual who will always face the same probability of asteroid, nuclear weapons, ect no matter how many planets we can colonise.
No longer than yesterday I had a discussion with a girl who said she wants censorship in movies and television.
Her main argument was about the "bad taste" of some movies and tv shows.
Who is good enough to decide what's good taste and what's bad taste for everyone? Who is good enough to decide what's appropriate and what's inappropriate for everyone?
A mindless computer program?
Some censorship comity that don't knows me/you and thinks it can decide what I/you can look at?
First 32 bits CPU: 386, 1985 First somewhat 32 bits OS: Windows 95, 1995
Hopefuly, it won't take so long for 64bits
Re:It takes insight to notice these things take ti
on
.Net:... 3 Years Later
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Archie was a protocol to contact search engine for FTP. Realy usefull at the time. Some Archie servers are still online but you need a special client to do your search. In fact, it ressembles something like Kazaa if you replace the P2P thing by standard FTP.
Veronica was a tool to do search in the gopher space.
Jughead stand for "Jonzy's Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation and Display". I don't have a clue of its purpose.
Because any FUD is a threat and Linux advocate must be aware of FUD to be able to dismiss it.
SCO is not the only one spreading FUD against the legality of the linux source code. Richard Stallman (the man behind GNU) did that, too, last year. He said:
The Linux sources themselves have an even more serious problem with non-free software: they actually contain some. Quite a few device drivers contain series of numbers that represent firmware programs to be installed in the device. These programs are not free software. A few numbers to be deposited into device registers are one thing; a substantial program in binary is another.
The presence of these binary-only programs in "source" files of Linux creates a secondary problem: it calls into question whether Linux binaries can legally be redistributed at all. The GPL requires "complete corresponding source code," and a sequence of integers is not the source code. By the same token, adding such a binary to the Linux sources violates the GPL.
I don't know if this make sense. Probably not. I feel like both the one-year-old article I quoted and the sco case are all crap. *BSD has a hard time proving it can be legally distributed under its license. Now it's Linux' turn. In the *BSD case, open source won. Let's hope this is the begginning of a trend.
Monitor man
on
Random Humor
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Why these guys remind me V if I remove the moniter on their head?
It will be cool, too, if we can read the weblog of the astronauts that will go to mars in n years.
Right now I'm reading Mars, by Ben Bova. This is a really great novel if space exploration and/or Mars exploration interrests you. BTW Ben Bova work[ed?] for the NASA so he knows what he talk about, from the technical point of view.
If China succeed with its space ambition to go to the moon one day (they are still very far from that goal, see various Slashdot articles in the last few weeks), it can be cool to read the weblog of this mission, too. This one maybe of less interrests because the Appolo mission was very well documented but the detail, expectation and goal of the mission will likely be somewhat different.
China have a huge population but now famillies are limited to 1 children. Chinesse prefer male child so there is a lack of female. If the plan of the autorities work, the chinesse population will drop very fast because the number of birth is proportional to the number of woman and the number of male have very few effect.
But there may be some side-effects to this scenario:
Do you think chinesse man will sit and say "Well, there is no girl available. Let's masturbate!"? Maybe some will do that. But they are more likely to search for female outside of china. In other asian countries, then in USA, EU, UK....
Nobody know what will happens....:S
[Sorry for my choices of words. I know some of them wasn't realy appropriate.]
You seem to think that OpenSource = GPL. This is not true. There is plenty of open and not-so-open source license. In fact the FSF try to distance itself from the open source movement. The GPL is probably the worse of these license. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to post a troll here. IANAL but I have some arguments who make me think GPL should never be used.
1- The text is too long. I know this is an overused argument but a license should merely say what you can do and can't do with the software the license cover. The GPL is much more a political manifest that a license: it don't only say WHAT it permits/forbid but also WHY. The text is bloated and that make it obscure.
2- The GPL claims it can be recursively modified by the FSF on the back of the copyright holder of a GPLed software. The GPL says:
"9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation"
Imagine this scenario: You wrote a great piece of code. As you wanted to share it with the community, you made it GPLed. Then the FSF create a new version of the GPL but you don't agree with it. What can you do? Nothing. Your software is now *free*. You must live with the new GPL no matter what.
You said: "If the GPL does change to define, say, execution of programs via CGI interface, as distribution, it's hard to fully imagine what the repercussions will be". I don't agree with you. It's easy to imagine the main repercussion. If the GPL do such a change, many people will feel betrayed and stop GPLing their software and they will stop using GPLed software too.
You'r right, there was no protection against this kind of stuff. Anybody willing to do this today must be able to deal with bad zip files. A system that stop unzipping a file that grow larger than, say, 100mo should work well.
I don't want to look at cute picture. I want to see the real one, in false color if the picture show something not in the visible spectrum with a scale saying what's the meaning of each color.
10 years ago, on BBS (bulletin board system), every time someone uploaded something, the system automatically unpacked the { zip | rar | arj } on a temp directory. Then the content of the archive were automatically checked for virii with *MANY* anti-virus like MacAfee, FProt and MSAV (if the BBS were DOS-based). If the archive passed the test, it was made available to download by other user. Then, the temp directory was cleaned.
All these fee came from the war that were going on before the peace. To be peaceful is cheap, but engage in a x years war and you'll pay for 10x years.
Even if Hamas, Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad and the Israels all sat down, smoked the peace pipe and buried the M-16s there would be people not satisfied and they would conduct terrorist operations.
Have you ever read the bible? Israel is at war with its neighbour since hundreds of years. That book is about this never-ending war to a large extend. You can't stop such a tradition with some party involving cannabis. On the other hand, it's is a good idea to stop investing in war and trying to do some constructing stuff.
Even if the United States hadn't Tomahawked the Sudan and Afghanistan following the Embassy bombings and played the Peace card to the Taliban there still would have been terror.
There is terror anyway. Why add the cost of more destruction by sending some exploding toys over the head of poor people?
I don't understand all this. Ok, Microsoft will not support NT4 anymore. But many people will continue to use it as usual. This *WILL NOT* kill it. There is no small monkeys running in coax cables to erase each NT4 copies from the surface of earth!
My gf still use Windows 3.11, I saw business using Windows 95 everyday and I know at least one who still use NT3.51.
Many people continue to use an OS well after all support for it was killed. In 10 years, you'll still see NT4 boxes and server.
Qbasic si obsolete. It is a DOS-based programming language and DOS is almost dead. The only people still using it is people that still need vintage software/hardware and they probably don't need new software. So, programming in Qbasic look useless.
I Started programming at age 8 or 9 with BASICA. That was the old day. When Qbasic came out, I find it REALY hot. I discovered SUB and FUNCTION and the great CALL INTERRUPTX. I said: "what a powerful language it's far better than these stupid GOTO and line number"!
But now.... Begginner don't have the chance to deal with a easy to use programming language and it's a shame.
newbie Windows user: there is no programming language that come with windows. I think it's because Microsoft consider programming as a professional activity and consider that a end-user should not be programming.
newbie Linux user: Linux default install is bloated with different programming languages. But this don't help newbie who don't know with wich one to begin with. Since computer commonly have GUI, new user commonly reject the console as "too difficult". Most (all?) programming language work with with the console so most newbie and child will not have the reflex to learn to code. There is no easy-to-code-with IDE.
I think of this like a normal evolution. When my grandfather and father was young, cars was simple and everybody was able to fix them. Now cars are incrasingly complex and it take a qualified mechanician to fix them when it's broken. The same thing happens with computer. Now that everybody have a computer, it take a specialist to program them. Soon, it will be impossible for someone to build his own computer or upgrade it. You'll see a sticker on the back on your computer: "Do not remove this cover. Parts not user serviceable.".
Could you please post your source (URL, bibliography, ect)? While I can't say this is totally impossible, it sound, well, a bit exagerated. If this is true, I'm much interrested in the actual paper.
This is *only* pain from electric shock. I see two drawbacks.
1-The pain is real. This is not game anymore even if it's not dangerous.
2-This is real poor simulation. You get you're leg chopped and you receive an electric shock in the hand and not in your pseudo-injuried leg. Ok, i admit it's already better than juste vibration.
But imagine a device that directly stimulate the nerves (or the brain) to simulate pain. You receive a shotgun hit in your back, you REALY feel the exact pain. At first you feel nothing. Then a small itching. Soon after, you feel an extreme feeling of burn in your back. Not just a plain vibration or shock in your hand. You'll regret you were born in the first place. Two advantages:
1- No real pain
2- Very good simulation
Something like that could be used in a virtual reality game, with head mounted display, force feedback devices, and motion trackers and you end up with a game real close to reality, like in the movie eXistenZ
I want one to play to DOOM:D !!!!!!!
Remember the pain device of the Reverend Mother, in Dune? Look like a pretty good simulation of pain! Maybe i should patent this, too;)
20 000 volt shock in my hand.... nothing new under the sun. Pavlov did this to his dog.
Slashdot Mirror
Actualy, I saw people camp in front of a Sears store on boxing day (dec 26).
To exchange anime DivX, me and my friends used to unplug hd from one's computer and plug it on the other's computer.
Last year, the HD of my friend sliped from my pocket and hit the floor. Guess what happened...
If you want to make the humanity safe, the best way is the colonisation of another planet. This way, the destruction of one planet will not destroy humanity. In the long run, this is the only way. Sooner or later, an asteroid gonna fail on our heads. Colonisation protects humanity against most major threat.
Of course, colonisation will not protect individual who will always face the same probability of asteroid, nuclear weapons, ect no matter how many planets we can colonise.
If you don't bother bidding on auction, you can have one for even less.
No longer than yesterday I had a discussion with a girl who said she wants censorship in movies and television.
Her main argument was about the "bad taste" of some movies and tv shows.
Who is good enough to decide what's good taste and what's bad taste for everyone?
Who is good enough to decide what's appropriate and what's inappropriate for everyone?
A mindless computer program?
Some censorship comity that don't knows me/you and thinks it can decide what I/you can look at?
Censorship = Abuse
On the PC scene:
First 32 bits CPU: 386, 1985
First somewhat 32 bits OS: Windows 95, 1995
Hopefuly, it won't take so long for 64bits
Archie was a protocol to contact search engine for FTP. Realy usefull at the time. Some Archie servers are still online but you need a special client to do your search. In fact, it ressembles something like Kazaa if you replace the P2P thing by standard FTP.
Veronica was a tool to do search in the gopher space.
Jughead stand for "Jonzy's Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation and Display". I don't have a clue of its purpose.
Hey!!! My link did not work!!!!
Try this one instead: Linux, GNU, and freedom - Richard Stallman responds to Joe Barr's account of the FSF's dealings with the Austin Linux users group, May 20, 2002
SCO is not the only one spreading FUD against the legality of the linux source code. Richard Stallman (the man behind GNU) did that, too, last year. He said:
The Linux sources themselves have an even more serious problem with non-free software: they actually contain some. Quite a few device drivers contain series of numbers that represent firmware programs to be installed in the device. These programs are not free software. A few numbers to be deposited into device registers are one thing; a substantial program in binary is another.
The presence of these binary-only programs in "source" files of Linux creates a secondary problem: it calls into question whether Linux binaries can legally be redistributed at all. The GPL requires "complete corresponding source code," and a sequence of integers is not the source code. By the same token, adding such a binary to the Linux sources violates the GPL.
I don't know if this make sense. Probably not. I feel like both the one-year-old article I quoted and the sco case are all crap. *BSD has a hard time proving it can be legally distributed under its license. Now it's Linux' turn. In the *BSD case, open source won. Let's hope this is the begginning of a trend.
Why these guys remind me V if I remove the moniter on their head?
Hum.... I need to sleep
It will be cool, too, if we can read the weblog of the astronauts that will go to mars in n years.
Right now I'm reading Mars, by Ben Bova. This is a really great novel if space exploration and/or Mars exploration interrests you. BTW Ben Bova work[ed?] for the NASA so he knows what he talk about, from the technical point of view.
If China succeed with its space ambition to go to the moon one day (they are still very far from that goal, see various Slashdot articles in the last few weeks), it can be cool to read the weblog of this mission, too. This one maybe of less interrests because the Appolo mission was very well documented but the detail, expectation and goal of the mission will likely be somewhat different.
China have a huge population but now famillies are limited to 1 children. Chinesse prefer male child so there is a lack of female. If the plan of the autorities work, the chinesse population will drop very fast because the number of birth is proportional to the number of woman and the number of male have very few effect.
:S
But there may be some side-effects to this scenario:
Do you think chinesse man will sit and say "Well, there is no girl available. Let's masturbate!"? Maybe some will do that. But they are more likely to search for female outside of china. In other asian countries, then in USA, EU, UK....
Nobody know what will happens....
[Sorry for my choices of words. I know some of them wasn't realy appropriate.]
You seem to think that OpenSource = GPL. This is not true. There is plenty of open and not-so-open source license. In fact the FSF try to distance itself from the open source movement. The GPL is probably the worse of these license. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to post a troll here. IANAL but I have some arguments who make me think GPL should never be used.
1- The text is too long. I know this is an overused argument but a license should merely say what you can do and can't do with the software the license cover. The GPL is much more a political manifest that a license: it don't only say WHAT it permits/forbid but also WHY. The text is bloated and that make it obscure.
2- The GPL claims it can be recursively modified by the FSF on the back of the copyright holder of a GPLed software. The GPL says:
"9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation"
Imagine this scenario: You wrote a great piece of code. As you wanted to share it with the community, you made it GPLed. Then the FSF create a new version of the GPL but you don't agree with it. What can you do? Nothing. Your software is now *free*. You must live with the new GPL no matter what.
You said: "If the GPL does change to define, say, execution of programs via CGI interface, as distribution, it's hard to fully imagine what the repercussions will be". I don't agree with you. It's easy to imagine the main repercussion. If the GPL do such a change, many people will feel betrayed and stop GPLing their software and they will stop using GPLed software too.
You'r right, there was no protection against this kind of stuff. Anybody willing to do this today must be able to deal with bad zip files. A system that stop unzipping a file that grow larger than, say, 100mo should work well.
I don't want to look at cute picture. I want to see the real one, in false color if the picture show something not in the visible spectrum with a scale saying what's the meaning of each color.
10 years ago, on BBS (bulletin board system), every time someone uploaded something, the system automatically unpacked the { zip | rar | arj } on a temp directory. Then the content of the archive were automatically checked for virii with *MANY* anti-virus like MacAfee, FProt and MSAV (if the BBS were DOS-based). If the archive passed the test, it was made available to download by other user. Then, the temp directory was cleaned.
Have you ever read the bible? Israel is at war with its neighbour since hundreds of years. That book is about this never-ending war to a large extend. You can't stop such a tradition with some party involving cannabis. On the other hand, it's is a good idea to stop investing in war and trying to do some constructing stuff.
There is terror anyway. Why add the cost of more destruction by sending some exploding toys over the head of poor people?
Now BSOD can really kill you
...was used by Taliban in their anti-aircraft missile defense system. (click here!)
I don't understand all this. Ok, Microsoft will not support NT4 anymore. But many people will continue to use it as usual. This *WILL NOT* kill it. There is no small monkeys running in coax cables to erase each NT4 copies from the surface of earth!
My gf still use Windows 3.11, I saw business using Windows 95 everyday and I know at least one who still use NT3.51.
Many people continue to use an OS well after all support for it was killed. In 10 years, you'll still see NT4 boxes and server.
Look like the other possibility (loading from the top) had been considered but was not retained.
There is Yabasic. Dunno if it's 100$ compatible with qbasic code.
There is qb2c that *claims* translating Qbasic source in C. Probably incomplete.
BTW, what is the purpose of your code?
Qbasic si obsolete. It is a DOS-based programming language and DOS is almost dead. The only people still using it is people that still need vintage software/hardware and they probably don't need new software. So, programming in Qbasic look useless.
I Started programming at age 8 or 9 with BASICA. That was the old day. When Qbasic came out, I find it REALY hot. I discovered SUB and FUNCTION and the great CALL INTERRUPTX. I said: "what a powerful language it's far better than these stupid GOTO and line number"!
But now.... Begginner don't have the chance to deal with a easy to use programming language and it's a shame.
newbie Windows user: there is no programming language that come with windows. I think it's because Microsoft consider programming as a professional activity and consider that a end-user should not be programming.
newbie Linux user: Linux default install is bloated with different programming languages. But this don't help newbie who don't know with wich one to begin with. Since computer commonly have GUI, new user commonly reject the console as "too difficult". Most (all?) programming language work with with the console so most newbie and child will not have the reflex to learn to code. There is no easy-to-code-with IDE.
I think of this like a normal evolution. When my grandfather and father was young, cars was simple and everybody was able to fix them. Now cars are incrasingly complex and it take a qualified mechanician to fix them when it's broken. The same thing happens with computer. Now that everybody have a computer, it take a specialist to program them. Soon, it will be impossible for someone to build his own computer or upgrade it. You'll see a sticker on the back on your computer: "Do not remove this cover. Parts not user serviceable.".
Could you please post your source (URL, bibliography, ect)? While I can't say this is totally impossible, it sound, well, a bit exagerated. If this is true, I'm much interrested in the actual paper.
This is *only* pain from electric shock. I see two drawbacks. 1-The pain is real. This is not game anymore even if it's not dangerous. 2-This is real poor simulation. You get you're leg chopped and you receive an electric shock in the hand and not in your pseudo-injuried leg. Ok, i admit it's already better than juste vibration. But imagine a device that directly stimulate the nerves (or the brain) to simulate pain. You receive a shotgun hit in your back, you REALY feel the exact pain. At first you feel nothing. Then a small itching. Soon after, you feel an extreme feeling of burn in your back. Not just a plain vibration or shock in your hand. You'll regret you were born in the first place. Two advantages: 1- No real pain 2- Very good simulation Something like that could be used in a virtual reality game, with head mounted display, force feedback devices, and motion trackers and you end up with a game real close to reality, like in the movie eXistenZ I want one to play to DOOM :D !!!!!!!
Remember the pain device of the Reverend Mother, in Dune? Look like a pretty good simulation of pain! Maybe i should patent this, too ;)
20 000 volt shock in my hand.... nothing new under the sun. Pavlov did this to his dog.