What parent's proposing is not impossible at all, and not in violation of the laws of thermodynamics. But it is very inefficient. The Matrix wouldn't work because we are inefficient, and it would take WAY more energy to keep us alive than we would be giving back. Most machines that we can conceive to turn some input into usable energy use the same principle: Some input is burned and the outputted energy captured using a variety of methods. Some energy is transformed into heat and some residues can't be burned. There are far more efficient machines than mammals from that point of view. Probably just burning the nutritious material to power some sort of steam engine would be more efficient than feeding an organism and trying to recover energy from that process.
I just had to try it out. I got scared they were going to screw it up. They are.
I just installed it (sudo apt-get install gnome-shell) and tested it (gnome-shell --replace). It's even more dumbed down than MacOSX. You can't customize the new shell. It's horrible. If they do this, I hope they keep the old shell around, or we'll surely see a fork of Gnome.
Here's what I currently use:
Ubuntu with Gnome + Compiz + Cairo Dock. I find myself using mostly expose + dock. It's the best way.
I had a hard time moving to this. I was historically a Slackware + KDE user (Since Slackware 3). I had a hard time getting used to X, even harder time moving to Gnome. Moving to Ubuntu was shocking. I am willing to modernize... but if this trend goes on I'll go back to Slackware with no X11.
Everyone is copying apple. That's good, in some ways, but it's getting all environments just as dumb as OSX. Damn you Steve.
My laptop runs Ubuntu. My business partner uses OSX. Both of our machines are configured to automatically connect to 3G as soon as a modem is plugged in. They are also configured to NAT that PPP connection over both Wireless and Ethernet. We use to travel together, and many times share a 3G connection either from his or my laptop. On both systems it only took a few clicks to configure (Ok, Ok, a few clicks on OSX, and some tweaking on Ubuntu, but in either case was hard to configure).
I live in Argentina. We have a pretty good 3G network, provided by 3 companies (Movistar, owned by Telefonica, Claro, owned by TelMEX and Personal, owned by Telecom). I have a small huawei 3G device, it's GNU/Linux and Mac OS friendly, and I only pay $31 (31 US Dollars) a month for unlimited access. It works almost everywhere. I travel a lot, and I even get signal on small towns, and even on the road (I have signal over the 400 km from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata). Speeds vary, but it's more than usabe (On my last trip I downloaded a Linux kernel 2.6.30-rc5 at a constant 60 kb/s while going 140 km/h).
Also, the unlimited access is REALLY unlimited, I keep my torrents open 24 hours a day, on the go. On the few spots I don't get 3G, it switches automatically to GPRS, which, while slower, is good enough for SSH access, and I don't pay a single extra cent for using it.
Also, the conspiracy nuts are missing the real conspiracy: The US Government is not going to stage the falling buildings at the tech level, it has been staged at the political level.
Creating the tense situation in certain countries that allows for terrorists groups to appear, and then training this guys, and fucking disabling NORAD the day they KNEW the attacks were going to take place.
Why stage a controlled demolition when you can get the real thing to be done for you???
Agreed. But you code your systems properly, and only openup through an IPSec tunnel. Then you drop any traffic that is not coming from one of the authorized IPSec endpoints. Period.
And, obviously, you don't run your system on top of Windows.
OpenBSD looks like a good choice.
And you give any employee that needs to connect to the system dedicated machines with fixed IP Addresses, and this machines run Unix and are locked down, just terminals, with no other access than to this system. And you audit this ttys from time to time and change keys and passwords every 30 days.
It's not about cutting functionality, it's about doing things properly.
Come on, we had this back in the time of adventure games!!
Virtual Theater, remember???
Download ScummVM and go back to Lure of the Temptress. We already passed this phase of evolution in 1992... MMORPGs clearly are adventure games + Role Playing... They are supposed to be an evolution of adventure games, not an involution.
I Consider that if the "vile creatures of the 3rd world" (That sounds like the title of a Z horror movie) that have been fucked over by the USA so many times, and that have contributed with their blood to make you rich, this people that is fighting to feed their families, can make a buck out of your fat ass that sits at home to play expensive games and is willing to exchange blood-covered dollars for virtual gold for a stupid game, well, that's just poetic justice.
This is not a 'mistake' Blizzard is making. It's part of their business model.
They make it look like they want to stop gold selling as much as Microsoft pretends to try to stop piracy, or as Hollywood pretends to avoid spoilers of their yet-unreleased movies.
When you are able to turn your product into a whole industry, the biggest the economy around your product, the better for you.
Microsoft sells windows, and around windows we see a lot of other new industries: anti-virus, reg-cleaners, optimizers, more and more powerful hardware, etc, etc. And, specially, MILLIONS of IT Jobs. So, It's the billions of dollars that other millions of people make on windows dependent industries that keeps windows on the market. Quid pro quo.
The same goes for the Hollywood example, it's free advertising. People release spoilers, and suddenly you have everyone talking about the upcoming movie. It doesn't matter if it's 'BAD' press. It still helps! If people weren't complaining so much about Vista, everyone would have just forgotten that it ever existed. Nobody would be using it. When you have one article saying it sucks, you are dead. When you have 50 articles around the world debating over how much it sucks or how much it rules, in the end, you have everyone talking about it, Suddenly a shitty product became very popular. People doesn't forget about it, and with a little push from m$ and the industry that makes a buck thanks to windows, everyone will eventually upgrade. When 50% of the people bitches about something, eventually, there will be a 25% of assholes and trolls that will love it just to get a good flamewar.
But, off course, in order to protect their business, they pretend to fight against all of this.
If the game were easier, there wouldn't be a place for gold selling, and people would get bored of the game eventually. If it were hard and they prevented gold selling (they can do it) people would get bored also and stop playing. By having this model, they have 400.000 hardcore supporters of the game (money talks) and people is investing money on the game, those that spent their dollars on virtual gold will surely continue to play the game for a loooong time to get the most out of their investment, eventually getting other people to play it to. People is paying for the game, for the service, and they they are paying for a PR department of 400.000 employees.
Did you even bother reading the article (Off course you didn't, this is Slashdot)
Australian blogger Long Zheng has found two patent applications made by Microsoft on 30 July for ideas it calls "Cleartracks" and "Inprivate".
The applications deal with methods of erasing data that browsing programs log, turning off features that record sites visited or notifying users of what sites are doing to log a visit.
I Respect them, and they Respect me. I Do my Job, and I do a Great Job.
I have nothing to hide, this are my Ideas. This is my lifestyle. It has nothing to do with my job. That's what being a professional is about: Your personal life doesn't interfere with your work.
Off course. Religion is domination. Those that use magical thoughts to dominate, would much rather have you believe in a different god that in no gods at all. Basically there is NO FUCKING DIFFERENCE between Jesus and other stupid delusions like Mohamed. Shit, I Don't even see the difference between Jesus and Astrology or Betting at Poker, they are just magical thoughts used to dominate the masses.
That's the only fact we have. We don't know shit about the nature of the universe, what we are, etc,etc. But we know that we are fucking here, whatever that means. All Animals evolve, but the human being is the only animal (that we are aware of) that has become self-aware, and has noticed that he IS, because things just happen, and they are the consequences of what happen before, and eventually that's all we are. And so, all human societies have praised that process, creating culture that celebrate evolution: The supreme beings/gods whatever love the fittest and strongest, we love ourselves and are amazed of what we are and what we can do, and so we respect our fathers and ancestors that got us where we are, and we love and care for our children since they are our biggest acomplishment.
All societies but one: Christians. For the last 2000 years, we have done everything that goes AGAINST evolution. "As long as it doesn't interfere with anyone else's right to live their life as they please" BULLSHIT. I'll live my life as I see fit, and everyone should do the same. Eventually, I'll take and do what I want. If we all do the same, the fittest and strongest will win, and so the next generation will be a better one.
Rights and Equality are MEDIOCRITY.
This is a sad realization. I had communist ideas all my life, I loved the Idea that everyone should be "equal" and we all should be "free". Now I'm an anarchist. I Realized that, even when it's a sad fact, we are not equal, and if we want the human being to continue to exist, we should let evolution continue.
Aristotle thought that Pity was a state of dangerous morbosity, that should be purged (The concept of Catharsis) from time to time.
There is a point when trying to fight the society with it's own rules is futile.
Think about what this sick society orders you: You have to believe in stupid jesus, you can't smoke pot, you can't have privacy, you can't listen to music, Save on your energy use so the big industries can have more oil for them, You can't say shit on tv, blah blah blah!!! B U L L S H I T.
Screw them, most of what we do daily to maintain some level of freedom in our lives is illegal. If you really abide by all the rules, pay all the taxes, and stick to stupid society's moral rules, YOU ARE NOT ALIVE, you become a Zombie.
I'll sniff, drink, believe, take, download, copy, share, do, read, write, think, say, modify, film and build WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT.
You are using MacOSX that is based on BSD, and using GNU/Linux also.
Learn to code, and write a good wrapper for aspell so it can do spell check on any QT/GTK app.
Give back to the community that has given you so much.
Or place a bounty for someone to write that code for you.
Or stop complaining about your free ride, you are not contributing ANYTHING back. Not even the simplest contribution of NOT USING PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE. That's how this works, we all give our 2 cents. You don't.
It shouldn't be hard to implement such a thing on GNU/Linux, since as soon as a text is selected it goes to the clipboard. Actually, there is a service for KDE that opens a context menu when you select a URL, for example. Adding this functionality to this shouldn't be hard, considering we already have good spell checkers.
I figured you had another account, that's why I said "your account is not enabled to" and not "you are not enabled to". I was bashing groupthink as a concept, and the whole concept of geek of this or geek of that. I wasn't bashing you.
Also, a Nerd, a Geek and a Hacker are three way different things.
I Don't fall into the first two categories, and many slashdoters don't fall in those groups either. I posted because when you said "us" it sounded like "slashdoters" while implicitly stating that a slashdoter is also a geek or a hacker or any other thing by definition.
Slashdot Mirror
Best. Comment. Ever
What parent's proposing is not impossible at all, and not in violation of the laws of thermodynamics. But it is very inefficient. The Matrix wouldn't work because we are inefficient, and it would take WAY more energy to keep us alive than we would be giving back. Most machines that we can conceive to turn some input into usable energy use the same principle: Some input is burned and the outputted energy captured using a variety of methods. Some energy is transformed into heat and some residues can't be burned. There are far more efficient machines than mammals from that point of view. Probably just burning the nutritious material to power some sort of steam engine would be more efficient than feeding an organism and trying to recover energy from that process.
Totally agreed!
I just had to try it out. I got scared they were going to screw it up. They are.
I just installed it (sudo apt-get install gnome-shell) and tested it (gnome-shell --replace). It's even more dumbed down than MacOSX. You can't customize the new shell. It's horrible. If they do this, I hope they keep the old shell around, or we'll surely see a fork of Gnome.
Here's what I currently use:
Ubuntu with Gnome + Compiz + Cairo Dock. I find myself using mostly expose + dock. It's the best way.
I had a hard time moving to this. I was historically a Slackware + KDE user (Since Slackware 3). I had a hard time getting used to X, even harder time moving to Gnome. Moving to Ubuntu was shocking. I am willing to modernize ... but if this trend goes on I'll go back to Slackware with no X11.
Everyone is copying apple. That's good, in some ways, but it's getting all environments just as dumb as OSX. Damn you Steve.
My laptop runs Ubuntu. My business partner uses OSX. Both of our machines are configured to automatically connect to 3G as soon as a modem is plugged in. They are also configured to NAT that PPP connection over both Wireless and Ethernet. We use to travel together, and many times share a 3G connection either from his or my laptop. On both systems it only took a few clicks to configure (Ok, Ok, a few clicks on OSX, and some tweaking on Ubuntu, but in either case was hard to configure).
So, how is this news?
I live in Argentina. We have a pretty good 3G network, provided by 3 companies (Movistar, owned by Telefonica, Claro, owned by TelMEX and Personal, owned by Telecom). I have a small huawei 3G device, it's GNU/Linux and Mac OS friendly, and I only pay $31 (31 US Dollars) a month for unlimited access. It works almost everywhere. I travel a lot, and I even get signal on small towns, and even on the road (I have signal over the 400 km from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata). Speeds vary, but it's more than usabe (On my last trip I downloaded a Linux kernel 2.6.30-rc5 at a constant 60 kb/s while going 140 km/h).
Also, the unlimited access is REALLY unlimited, I keep my torrents open 24 hours a day, on the go.
On the few spots I don't get 3G, it switches automatically to GPRS, which, while slower, is good enough for SSH access, and I don't pay a single extra cent for using it.
I have virtually forgot about 802.11
Best. Reference. Ever.
Agreed.
Also, the conspiracy nuts are missing the real conspiracy: The US Government is not going to stage the falling buildings at the tech level, it has been staged at the political level.
Creating the tense situation in certain countries that allows for terrorists groups to appear, and then training this guys, and fucking disabling NORAD the day they KNEW the attacks were going to take place.
Why stage a controlled demolition when you can get the real thing to be done for you???
Agreed. But you code your systems properly, and only openup through an IPSec tunnel. Then you drop any traffic that is not coming from one of the authorized IPSec endpoints. Period.
And, obviously, you don't run your system on top of Windows.
OpenBSD looks like a good choice.
And you give any employee that needs to connect to the system dedicated machines with fixed IP Addresses, and this machines run Unix and are locked down, just terminals, with no other access than to this system. And you audit this ttys from time to time and change keys and passwords every 30 days.
It's not about cutting functionality, it's about doing things properly.
Come on, we had this back in the time of adventure games!!
Virtual Theater, remember???
Download ScummVM and go back to Lure of the Temptress. We already passed this phase of evolution in 1992 ... MMORPGs clearly are adventure games + Role Playing ... They are supposed to be an evolution of adventure games, not an involution.
Less graphics, more gameplay.
Jolt Cola? Get the real thing.
Sniff.
I'm no Star Wars fun, but I love my r2d2
I Consider that if the "vile creatures of the 3rd world" (That sounds like the title of a Z horror movie) that have been fucked over by the USA so many times, and that have contributed with their blood to make you rich, this people that is fighting to feed their families, can make a buck out of your fat ass that sits at home to play expensive games and is willing to exchange blood-covered dollars for virtual gold for a stupid game, well, that's just poetic justice.
This is not a 'mistake' Blizzard is making. It's part of their business model.
They make it look like they want to stop gold selling as much as Microsoft pretends to try to stop piracy, or as Hollywood pretends to avoid spoilers of their yet-unreleased movies.
When you are able to turn your product into a whole industry, the biggest the economy around your product, the better for you.
Microsoft sells windows, and around windows we see a lot of other new industries: anti-virus, reg-cleaners, optimizers, more and more powerful hardware, etc, etc. And, specially, MILLIONS of IT Jobs.
So, It's the billions of dollars that other millions of people make on windows dependent industries that keeps windows on the market.
Quid pro quo.
The same goes for the Hollywood example, it's free advertising. People release spoilers, and suddenly you have everyone talking about the upcoming movie. It doesn't matter if it's 'BAD' press. It still helps!
If people weren't complaining so much about Vista, everyone would have just forgotten that it ever existed. Nobody would be using it. When you have one article saying it sucks, you are dead. When you have 50 articles around the world debating over how much it sucks or how much it rules, in the end, you have everyone talking about it, Suddenly a shitty product became very popular. People doesn't forget about it, and with a little push from m$ and the industry that makes a buck thanks to windows, everyone will eventually upgrade. When 50% of the people bitches about something, eventually, there will be a 25% of assholes and trolls that will love it just to get a good flamewar.
But, off course, in order to protect their business, they pretend to fight against all of this.
If the game were easier, there wouldn't be a place for gold selling, and people would get bored of the game eventually. If it were hard and they prevented gold selling (they can do it) people would get bored also and stop playing.
By having this model, they have 400.000 hardcore supporters of the game (money talks) and people is investing money on the game, those that spent their dollars on virtual gold will surely continue to play the game for a loooong time to get the most out of their investment, eventually getting other people to play it to.
People is paying for the game, for the service, and they they are paying for a PR department of 400.000 employees.
Are you crazy?
I know it's a joke on the Java logo, but really, I wouldn't rely on a Java developer for anything critical.
And we know that the most critical task in any IT department is coffee.
What are you talking about???
RTFA!
It IS TALKING about BLOODY PATENTS
Actually, you DON'T RTFA
Karma-whore
BULLSHIT.
Did you even bother reading the article (Off course you didn't, this is Slashdot)
Australian blogger Long Zheng has found two patent applications made by Microsoft on 30 July for ideas it calls "Cleartracks" and "Inprivate".
The applications deal with methods of erasing data that browsing programs log, turning off features that record sites visited or notifying users of what sites are doing to log a visit.
My Suggestion: Stop being a karma-whore
I'm not. I work for a company. So what?
I Respect them, and they Respect me. I Do my Job, and I do a Great Job.
I have nothing to hide, this are my Ideas. This is my lifestyle. It has nothing to do with my job. That's what being a professional is about: Your personal life doesn't interfere with your work.
I Think Microsoft got that one years ago.
Off course. Religion is domination. Those that use magical thoughts to dominate, would much rather have you believe in a different god that in no gods at all. Basically there is NO FUCKING DIFFERENCE between Jesus and other stupid delusions like Mohamed. Shit, I Don't even see the difference between Jesus and Astrology or Betting at Poker, they are just magical thoughts used to dominate the masses.
Off course.
You have to understand this:
Evolution is the only fact.
That's the only fact we have. We don't know shit about the nature of the universe, what we are, etc,etc. But we know that we are fucking here, whatever that means. All Animals evolve, but the human being is the only animal (that we are aware of) that has become self-aware, and has noticed that he IS, because things just happen, and they are the consequences of what happen before, and eventually that's all we are. And so, all human societies have praised that process, creating culture that celebrate evolution: The supreme beings/gods whatever love the fittest and strongest, we love ourselves and are amazed of what we are and what we can do, and so we respect our fathers and ancestors that got us where we are, and we love and care for our children since they are our biggest acomplishment.
All societies but one: Christians. For the last 2000 years, we have done everything that goes AGAINST evolution. "As long as it doesn't interfere with anyone else's right to live their life as they please" BULLSHIT. I'll live my life as I see fit, and everyone should do the same. Eventually, I'll take and do what I want. If we all do the same, the fittest and strongest will win, and so the next generation will be a better one.
Rights and Equality are MEDIOCRITY.
This is a sad realization. I had communist ideas all my life, I loved the Idea that everyone should be "equal" and we all should be "free". Now I'm an anarchist. I Realized that, even when it's a sad fact, we are not equal, and if we want the human being to continue to exist, we should let evolution continue.
Aristotle thought that Pity was a state of dangerous morbosity, that should be purged (The concept of Catharsis) from time to time.
There is a point when trying to fight the society with it's own rules is futile.
Think about what this sick society orders you: You have to believe in stupid jesus, you can't smoke pot, you can't have privacy, you can't listen to music, Save on your energy use so the big industries can have more oil for them, You can't say shit on tv, blah blah blah!!!
B U L L S H I T.
Screw them, most of what we do daily to maintain some level of freedom in our lives is illegal. If you really abide by all the rules, pay all the taxes, and stick to stupid society's moral rules, YOU ARE NOT ALIVE, you become a Zombie.
I'll sniff, drink, believe, take, download, copy, share, do, read, write, think, say, modify, film and build WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT.
Ok, the solution to that problem is easy:
You are using MacOSX that is based on BSD, and using GNU/Linux also.
Learn to code, and write a good wrapper for aspell so it can do spell check on any QT/GTK app.
Give back to the community that has given you so much.
Or place a bounty for someone to write that code for you.
Or stop complaining about your free ride, you are not contributing ANYTHING back. Not even the simplest contribution of NOT USING PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE. That's how this works, we all give our 2 cents. You don't.
It shouldn't be hard to implement such a thing on GNU/Linux, since as soon as a text is selected it goes to the clipboard. Actually, there is a service for KDE that opens a context menu when you select a URL, for example. Adding this functionality to this shouldn't be hard, considering we already have good spell checkers.
And, I can install slashcode ANYWHERE and create my own slashdot like forum, even using it's skin.
And, you can have a site like barrapunto, barra=slash punto=dot in spanish.
I figured you had another account, that's why I said "your account is not enabled to" and not "you are not enabled to".
I was bashing groupthink as a concept, and the whole concept of geek of this or geek of that. I wasn't bashing you.
Also, a Nerd, a Geek and a Hacker are three way different things.
I Don't fall into the first two categories, and many slashdoters don't fall in those groups either. I posted because when you said "us" it sounded like "slashdoters" while implicitly stating that a slashdoter is also a geek or a hacker or any other thing by definition.