Err, you do realise that the Sun is one of the UK's more disreputable tabloids. Its not as bad as, for instance, quoting the National Enquirer on the western side of the pond, but almost...
I'm curious as to which B-school Alan will be attending. Will it be in the Raleigh/Durham area?
Eh! Last time I looked Alan lived in Swansea, in Wales, you know the United Kingdom? Despite appearances to the contratry, we have not yet picked the country up and moved it across the Atlantic to become another State...
Damn it! I knew I should have kept tighter control over my mindless clone army while I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike and conquer the planet.
Hmm, maybe that ought to get added to the Evil Overlord list...
Not EVERYONE sits on whatever kernel version ships with their distribution.. In fact, only people w/o any idea of how to use Linux would do that.
I would tend to disagree. Alot of (academic) sites I deal with do just that, they want a "standard" desktop with minimal hassle. That means the kernel revision only gets upgraded when the rest of the distribution does.
Currently people create things (for the most part) to make a profit. If there is nothing to protect those profits (copyrights, patents, etc), what motivation is there to create something?
Why write perfectly good bits of general user software that could make you alot of money, and then turn around and just give it away? What motivation is there to create something?
Where will the money needed to fund the economy come from? Taxation on the purchase on materials needed to use the replicator?
To me this is the crucial question that isn't really sufficiently addressed in replicator based societies in science fiction. If everyone can have everything they want based on raw resources, what stops people making more and more stuff. There has to be a limiting factor to stop peole harming themselves and others (at least) and this has to be the availability of (access to?) raw resources.
Of course the very processes behind the technology we come up to do this sort of stuff could produce self-limiting factors such as the scale we're talking about. Perhaps large constructions will never be possible, conversely, perhaps automated construction of small devices won't be possible and self-forming will only work on the macro level.
I don't know, ask me in 200 years. With the current rate progress of various lines of research I'd be suprised if we haven't got the technology to do without centralised manufacturing sometime within that sort of time scale.
Which should be a clue that it's not a very useful question.
Well, yes and no. If they start off trying to actually write a linked list (or whatever boilerplate piece of code I just asked for) then they're probably not what I'm looking for anyway. I don't want to employ someone that thinks they have to write a bubble sort from scratch.
Of course if they give the right answer, which is "Gee, thats got to be lying around somewhere I'd never actually write it myself". You then ask what code they wouldn't rewrite. I'm an academic, in academia the correct answer is "Anything I can beg, borrow or steal that'll do the job".
Just the one that I can think of - use-based dynamic menus. Perhaps someone can point me to earlier cases of this, but I still like it and still find them useful.
Argh...
There appears to be a religious objection to them in the Linux world, I suspect primarily because the idea came from Microsoft. OK - so some people hate them, meaning that the feature should be configurable. Despite that, I'd like to see dynamic menus start making their way outside of the Windows world.
No, please, not that, I'll take the paper clip before having to use crappy dynamic menus that constantly move features around so I don't know where they are anymore. Please... *sob*
I recently had an interview where someone asked me to write code for a linked list. My response:
std::list<int> mylist;
They quickly got the message and the interview ended up being mostly pretty interesting...
The problem I always have with this sort of reponse is that I'm not sure whether the candidate is smart (knows not to reinvent the wheel), or dumb (doesn't know how the wheel works, its just this round thing they know how to use).
One of the most intelligent "simple" questions I was asked was, "What code would you never write?"
Yup, classic question after recieving such an answer to try and figure out whether the candidate is smart or dumb. Looks like you have a good interviewer.
OS/2... 1988-2002. This is shorter than Linux how?
Oh come on! OS/2 was dead in not long after Warp got released, which was what, '95 or '96? The banks still used it, but nobody else did, everybody knew it was on the way out.
Anyway, I doubt insubordination is a quality any employer is looking for...
So what? Being patronising is not a quality I'm looking for in an employer. It goes both ways, there are some people you just don't want to work for...
If I asked someone to demonstrate a skill they listed on their resume and they acted as though this task was beneath them, I'd scratch them off my list immediately.
Depends what sort of job and what sort of skill, if I'm interviewing someone for a job that is primarily coding I'd never ask them to demonstrate their MS Office proficiency (listed on the resume or not). I'd be far more interested in figuring out if they knew how to code, and I wouldn't do this by asking they to write some C++, Java, Perl or whatever language we're looking for, I'd ask them to talk me through how they'd solve the problem. Perhaps I might ask if they had a free hand which lnaguage they'd attack the problem in...
Appropriate questions are the key, an employer asking in-appropriate questions, or demanding that you prove you know how to do something trivial or unrelated to the core of the skills you need for the job, suggests that you should run, not walk, towards the nearest exit.
I was sat down in front of a computer and told to do certain tasks. I had three menu clicks or hot-key presses before it would move to the next task.
Personally I'd just laugh, walk out and leave. You have no idea the frantic looks on the HR people faces if you do that, especially if you've been marked as a "promising candidate" in the pre-interview discussions at the company.
Are you thinking of "Melancholy Elephants" by Spider Robinson?
I don't think so, I don't read much Spider Robinson. You could be right though, it would explain why I haven't read it recently, I don't buy Robinson books so it'd would have been a Library copy...
Well it would certainly require reworking the laws about copyright. Assuming that copyrights don't become eternal...
Wasn't there a Heinlein story about this, damn I'm going to spend the entire evening pulling books off my shelves at home and trying to figure out what it was... something to do with artists could be creative anymore since everything had been "done", and it was depressing all the creative types...
Al.
Re:I assume it touches on copying
on
Altered Carbon
·
· Score: 1
If you can digitize and store, you can therefore copy. I wonder if the book goes into this possibility (or does it rule it out in some fashion, technical or otherwise).
You're going to have to read the book, the technology is so central to the plotline (and it is a murder mystery after all) that I can't comment (either for or against your assumption) without seriously spoiling the plot.
No it isn't. It changes from product to product (or between categories of products) and even from country to country.
For example, you only pay 5% on food. And your 17.5% in the UK is 18% in Greece, more than that in other places and 14-15 in others.
Odd, the reason the UK government gave for increasing the VAT rate from 15% to 17.5% a few years back to to harmonise with the rates being charged in the EU.
Oh, I guess they were lying to us again, not so odd...
I guess you need to ask yourself what you feel is more important: the well-being of the company (and your source of employment) or your personal pride?
Personal pride, if it was even a matter of pride, but it isn't, its self-respect. My self-respect is worth alot more to me than my lousy pay cheque.
...they want the courts to assign them OVERALL COPYRIGHT FOR LINUX.
Okay, that is indeed the worst case scenario. In which case the entire community drops Linux and we all start using BSD, and SCO get left with nothing. What's the problem exactly?
Classic example is text messages. I have more talk minutes than I can use for a flatrate, but SMS costs $.20 per message. Considering that speaking is easier, why the fuck would one ever use that? I've been told that the cost structure is exactly the opposite in the UK.
While most people have an allocated number of 'free' text messages if they're on contract, the vast bulk of the mobile phones in the UK are on a pay as you go plan (no contract, you pay for your outgoing calls only and you still get a heavily subsidised handset), and at that point an SMS costs around 5 to 10p (approx. 8 to 16c at current exchaneg rates). Not so different.
Having lived significant amounts of time in both places (US and Europe, Germany to be precise, and there until the end of 2002), I found cell phone usage in the US population, at least where I live, to be about the same as in Germany.
Hmm, maybe I mean changes in the UK culture then, rather than European culture in general, although the Italians are as mad about mobile phones as we Brits...
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, text messages. Must derided on the US side of the pond, here in the UK they have become a way of life, I know people who rarely actually use their phones for voice but send alot of SMS messages. Like email they are something which can be replied to at the reciever convenience (unlike a "proper" phone call) and are extrememly useful in noisy (or public) situtations (pubs, trains, in the car).
Secondly, having spent large amounts of time abroad in countries where mobile phones haven't made such inroads into the population (like the States, and Germany), the concept of "I'll meet you at 7pm on Tuesday night in such and such a place, and we'll do this" has pretty much disappeared. Things like going down the pub, and other social interaction, have become much more fluid.
Also, meeting people in general has become easier, if you're due to meet someone you can send them a text (or even phone them) to say you'll be five minutes late, or could you meet them somewhere else other than the "planned" place. It sounds trivial, but the cultural change is actually quite profound when you come to think about it.
Secondly, mobile data, WAP was a dismal failure even in the UK with mobile phone addicted culture, but "real" mobile data over GPRS is starting to make significant headway, and MMS (multimedia messaging) is actually starting to take off (despite everyone saying it would be another WAP).
I have never even used a blue tooth enbable device.
Err...
It all seemed a little flakey to me.
If you've never used a bluetooth device, how can you comment?
Also I've had several friends on mac and windows say they simply couldn't get their device to work and if it did work it would crap out on them all the time.
Are these people vaguely technically literate? Basically you're assumption that "I never even knew it took off!" is seriously flawed. Come to Europe, look around. Then reevaluate your opinions.
I don't understand the reluctance of US cell phone carriers to offer Bluetooth-capable phones...
I don't understand US cell phone carriers in general, they don't actually seem to understand the capabilities of their own kit. They especially don't seem to understand why cell phone usage hasn't changed t he US culture as it has in Europe (and perhaps especially the UK).
The fact that any eight year old over here, who probably owns at least two cell phones if they're British, could tell them doesn't seem to sink in.
Oh well, until you guys finally catch up we can all make lots of money selling you five year old technology that we've all gotten bored of...
Slashdot Mirror
Err, you do realise that the Sun is one of the UK's more disreputable tabloids. Its not as bad as, for instance, quoting the National Enquirer on the western side of the pond, but almost...
Al.I'm curious as to which B-school Alan will be attending. Will it be in the Raleigh/Durham area?
Eh! Last time I looked Alan lived in Swansea, in Wales, you know the United Kingdom? Despite appearances to the contratry, we have not yet picked the country up and moved it across the Atlantic to become another State...
Al.Damn it! I knew I should have kept tighter control over my mindless clone army while I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike and conquer the planet.
Hmm, maybe that ought to get added to the Evil Overlord list...
Al.Firstly, why the hell would be want to make this micro-organisms extinct?
Personally I welcome out new iron eating overlords...
Al.Not EVERYONE sits on whatever kernel version ships with their distribution.. In fact, only people w/o any idea of how to use Linux would do that.
I would tend to disagree. Alot of (academic) sites I deal with do just that, they want a "standard" desktop with minimal hassle. That means the kernel revision only gets upgraded when the rest of the distribution does.
Al.They're claiming 2.4.18 and later is infringeing...
Cool, we just all go back to RH7.2 then...
Al.Currently people create things (for the most part) to make a profit. If there is nothing to protect those profits (copyrights, patents, etc), what motivation is there to create something?
Why write perfectly good bits of general user software that could make you alot of money, and then turn around and just give it away? What motivation is there to create something?
Where will the money needed to fund the economy come from? Taxation on the purchase on materials needed to use the replicator?
To me this is the crucial question that isn't really sufficiently addressed in replicator based societies in science fiction. If everyone can have everything they want based on raw resources, what stops people making more and more stuff. There has to be a limiting factor to stop peole harming themselves and others (at least) and this has to be the availability of (access to?) raw resources.
Of course the very processes behind the technology we come up to do this sort of stuff could produce self-limiting factors such as the scale we're talking about. Perhaps large constructions will never be possible, conversely, perhaps automated construction of small devices won't be possible and self-forming will only work on the macro level.
I don't know, ask me in 200 years. With the current rate progress of various lines of research I'd be suprised if we haven't got the technology to do without centralised manufacturing sometime within that sort of time scale.
Al.That doesn't mean it's the best beer...
After all the Yanks drink Bud, and thats not even beer... *shudder*
Al.Which should be a clue that it's not a very useful question.
Well, yes and no. If they start off trying to actually write a linked list (or whatever boilerplate piece of code I just asked for) then they're probably not what I'm looking for anyway. I don't want to employ someone that thinks they have to write a bubble sort from scratch.
Of course if they give the right answer, which is "Gee, thats got to be lying around somewhere I'd never actually write it myself". You then ask what code they wouldn't rewrite. I'm an academic, in academia the correct answer is "Anything I can beg, borrow or steal that'll do the job".
Al.Just the one that I can think of - use-based dynamic menus. Perhaps someone can point me to earlier cases of this, but I still like it and still find them useful.
Argh...
There appears to be a religious objection to them in the Linux world, I suspect primarily because the idea came from Microsoft. OK - so some people hate them, meaning that the feature should be configurable. Despite that, I'd like to see dynamic menus start making their way outside of the Windows world.
No, please, not that, I'll take the paper clip before having to use crappy dynamic menus that constantly move features around so I don't know where they are anymore. Please... *sob*
Al.I recently had an interview where someone asked me to write code for a linked list. My response:
They quickly got the message and the interview ended up being mostly pretty interesting...
The problem I always have with this sort of reponse is that I'm not sure whether the candidate is smart (knows not to reinvent the wheel), or dumb (doesn't know how the wheel works, its just this round thing they know how to use).
One of the most intelligent "simple" questions I was asked was, "What code would you never write?"
Yup, classic question after recieving such an answer to try and figure out whether the candidate is smart or dumb. Looks like you have a good interviewer.
Al.OS/2... 1988-2002. This is shorter than Linux how?
Oh come on! OS/2 was dead in not long after Warp got released, which was what, '95 or '96? The banks still used it, but nobody else did, everybody knew it was on the way out.
Al.Anyway, I doubt insubordination is a quality any employer is looking for...
So what? Being patronising is not a quality I'm looking for in an employer. It goes both ways, there are some people you just don't want to work for...
If I asked someone to demonstrate a skill they listed on their resume and they acted as though this task was beneath them, I'd scratch them off my list immediately.
Depends what sort of job and what sort of skill, if I'm interviewing someone for a job that is primarily coding I'd never ask them to demonstrate their MS Office proficiency (listed on the resume or not). I'd be far more interested in figuring out if they knew how to code, and I wouldn't do this by asking they to write some C++, Java, Perl or whatever language we're looking for, I'd ask them to talk me through how they'd solve the problem. Perhaps I might ask if they had a free hand which lnaguage they'd attack the problem in...
Appropriate questions are the key, an employer asking in-appropriate questions, or demanding that you prove you know how to do something trivial or unrelated to the core of the skills you need for the job, suggests that you should run, not walk, towards the nearest exit.
Al.I was sat down in front of a computer and told to do certain tasks. I had three menu clicks or hot-key presses before it would move to the next task.
Personally I'd just laugh, walk out and leave. You have no idea the frantic looks on the HR people faces if you do that, especially if you've been marked as a "promising candidate" in the pre-interview discussions at the company.
Al.Are you thinking of "Melancholy Elephants" by Spider Robinson?
I don't think so, I don't read much Spider Robinson. You could be right though, it would explain why I haven't read it recently, I don't buy Robinson books so it'd would have been a Library copy...
Al.Well it would certainly require reworking the laws about copyright. Assuming that copyrights don't become eternal...
Wasn't there a Heinlein story about this, damn I'm going to spend the entire evening pulling books off my shelves at home and trying to figure out what it was... something to do with artists could be creative anymore since everything had been "done", and it was depressing all the creative types...
Al.If you can digitize and store, you can therefore copy. I wonder if the book goes into this possibility (or does it rule it out in some fashion, technical or otherwise).
You're going to have to read the book, the technology is so central to the plotline (and it is a murder mystery after all) that I can't comment (either for or against your assumption) without seriously spoiling the plot.
Al.No it isn't. It changes from product to product (or between categories of products) and even from country to country. For example, you only pay 5% on food. And your 17.5% in the UK is 18% in Greece, more than that in other places and 14-15 in others.
Odd, the reason the UK government gave for increasing the VAT rate from 15% to 17.5% a few years back to to harmonise with the rates being charged in the EU.
Oh, I guess they were lying to us again, not so odd...
Al.I guess you need to ask yourself what you feel is more important: the well-being of the company (and your source of employment) or your personal pride?
Personal pride, if it was even a matter of pride, but it isn't, its self-respect. My self-respect is worth alot more to me than my lousy pay cheque.
Al.Can U.S. Internet taxation be far behind if we have to start collecting and reporting 15 different VAT taxes?
Not 15 different rates, just a single rate. The VAT rate is uniform across the EU at 17.5%.
Al.Okay, that is indeed the worst case scenario. In which case the entire community drops Linux and we all start using BSD, and SCO get left with nothing. What's the problem exactly?
Al.Classic example is text messages. I have more talk minutes than I can use for a flatrate, but SMS costs $.20 per message. Considering that speaking is easier, why the fuck would one ever use that? I've been told that the cost structure is exactly the opposite in the UK.
While most people have an allocated number of 'free' text messages if they're on contract, the vast bulk of the mobile phones in the UK are on a pay as you go plan (no contract, you pay for your outgoing calls only and you still get a heavily subsidised handset), and at that point an SMS costs around 5 to 10p (approx. 8 to 16c at current exchaneg rates). Not so different.
Al.Having lived significant amounts of time in both places (US and Europe, Germany to be precise, and there until the end of 2002), I found cell phone usage in the US population, at least where I live, to be about the same as in Germany.
Hmm, maybe I mean changes in the UK culture then, rather than European culture in general, although the Italians are as mad about mobile phones as we Brits...
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, text messages. Must derided on the US side of the pond, here in the UK they have become a way of life, I know people who rarely actually use their phones for voice but send alot of SMS messages. Like email they are something which can be replied to at the reciever convenience (unlike a "proper" phone call) and are extrememly useful in noisy (or public) situtations (pubs, trains, in the car).
Secondly, having spent large amounts of time abroad in countries where mobile phones haven't made such inroads into the population (like the States, and Germany), the concept of "I'll meet you at 7pm on Tuesday night in such and such a place, and we'll do this" has pretty much disappeared. Things like going down the pub, and other social interaction, have become much more fluid.
Also, meeting people in general has become easier, if you're due to meet someone you can send them a text (or even phone them) to say you'll be five minutes late, or could you meet them somewhere else other than the "planned" place. It sounds trivial, but the cultural change is actually quite profound when you come to think about it.
Secondly, mobile data, WAP was a dismal failure even in the UK with mobile phone addicted culture, but "real" mobile data over GPRS is starting to make significant headway, and MMS (multimedia messaging) is actually starting to take off (despite everyone saying it would be another WAP).
Al.I have never even used a blue tooth enbable device.
Err...
It all seemed a little flakey to me.
If you've never used a bluetooth device, how can you comment?
Also I've had several friends on mac and windows say they simply couldn't get their device to work and if it did work it would crap out on them all the time.
Are these people vaguely technically literate? Basically you're assumption that "I never even knew it took off!" is seriously flawed. Come to Europe, look around. Then reevaluate your opinions.
Al.I don't understand the reluctance of US cell phone carriers to offer Bluetooth-capable phones...
I don't understand US cell phone carriers in general, they don't actually seem to understand the capabilities of their own kit. They especially don't seem to understand why cell phone usage hasn't changed t he US culture as it has in Europe (and perhaps especially the UK).
The fact that any eight year old over here, who probably owns at least two cell phones if they're British, could tell them doesn't seem to sink in.
Oh well, until you guys finally catch up we can all make lots of money selling you five year old technology that we've all gotten bored of...
Al.