While there may be techniques where bandwidth is limited artificially, there may be other circumstances. With my Pacific Bell ADSL line the download speed they were willing to guarantee was 384K BPS. But, if you are close enough to the switching station, and the line ran nice and clean, and the moon was in the seventh house..., you could get more; in my case i was close enough, etc., and i get about 1.5 Meg BPS. So, it's possible that the 384K quoted is a minimum; if you get more, they don't care, but they can't tell if you'll get more until it's running.
This leads me to believe that proximity to phone switching stations will become a factor in house prices, creating areas of slightly higher prices, the same way that mass transit stations do. I know i wouldn't want to go back to anything less when i move...
I write software for a living, and have done so for (egad!) 10 years now. One of the rules that has seeped into my brain in that time is: "Engineers must stay in touch with reality."
Everyone else in a software organization can, and probably will, drift off into believing what they want to about the software a company sells. But the engineering team is the one that must make it actually happen, in the real world, with the tools at hand. They must listen to what users say.
I've written, among other things, a few small languages in my career so far. Not all of my users think that the languages i've written are really all that intuitive, and some get frustrated by them. Now, i'm a human being, so when i hear this, there are times when my dander goes up; "What? They don't like it? Well, they must be idiots! It's just like LISP, but with completely different commands, and specialized for the weird environment it runs in. What's so hard about that??"
Now, mind you, i NEVER say that out loud. I've known programmers who would say it out loud, and i never want to work with them again. I don't give them good recommendations when they're looking for work (unless i'm trying to get rid of them). I'll note that they tend to be somewhat lonely people. "My way or the highway" is not a good axiom for social graces. (I'll also note that Bill Gates seems to be this kind of person, but he can get away with it, via his accumulated power.)
No, when someone says, "This doesn't do what i want", i make every effort to listen. What are they really trying to do? Is there an approach that they're overlooking, and is this approach given the proper attention in the documentation (which i probably wrote). Did it not occur to me before that this function was needed? Given that the user, for whatever reason, expects the software to act in particular ways, can i provide that? Would doing so hurt other users the code has?
Now, this may sound like i'm bending over backwards for the user. I am. I want my work to be used. I'd hate having my code sitting somewhere in a source tree, never to be used again, because my users resisted it until they found something they liked better. Why did i bother sweating out the details in my algorithms, if the code never executes? Getting paid isn't enough; making my user's lives just slighter better is why i work. (This is why i like writing tools for my co-workers; the exchange is much more direct.) Users, as much as the hardware and the tools, are reality for an engineer.
So, if someone mentions a perceived problem with your favorite OS/editor/hardware, make every effort to empathize with them. See through their eyes what they are going through, understand that their needs are not identical to your needs. This is how excellent software is written.
If Linux vs. the world becomes a pissing contest, Linux will lose. If engineers lose touch with reality and start believing the hype about what they're products, that product will likely fail in the long run.
mahlen
Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not. --George Bernard Shaw
Burroughs wrote that probably 20 or 30 years before Laurie Anderson sang it. Anderson was someone who would very likely be familiar with his work. I think it was in Nova Express. I don't recall him particularly elaborating on the idea (his books are fiction, after all, and not terribly coherent fiction at that; don't get me wrong, i think he's great).
I'd try to find the relevant passage, but all my books are in storage:(.
mahlen
What's wrong with dropping out? To me, this is the whole point: one's right to withdraw from a social environment that offers no spiritual sustenance, and to mind one's own business. --William S. Burroughs
Well, driving is not that hard a skill, really, and you don't have to be a genius to make a nitrate bomb. After all, the men accused of bombing the World Trade Center in New York were caught because they tried to get the deposit back on the rented truck they blew up. Somehow, that doesn't strike me as the actions of someone who'd know enough to use 1024-bit encrypt.
mahlen
Property in the *geographical* sense.
on
Infinite Space
·
· Score: 1
An important distinction to make here is among the different meanings of the word 'property'. Clearly there are many things one can own that are solely bits on a drive somewhere (domain names, mutual funds).
What is new here is that we are talking about the ownership of something that is primarily experienced as 2-dimensional, the same way that land is (yes, i know that buildings are three dimensional, but property rights are generally owned for a 2D patch of land, then extended along the vertical dimension). That fact, as Stephenson's "Snow Crash" makes abundantly clear, changes the way that property is valued. Unlike domain names, there is distance between properties (i.e., it takes longer to go from A to B than from A to C.)
Such an environment will then create local hotspots where there are lots of people, and thus property where things can be sold or done are more valuable. For example, no one would pay money to participate in a virtual Sahara, cause there'd be nothing to do. But people are paying for eProperty (you heard it here first!) where there are things to do, where you have neighbors to adventure with, traders to buy from, and so forth. This works even if there were no scarcity of property in UO.
The popularity of cities is a testament to this aspect of human life. We are not evenly distributed over the world's land.
So, when will the first corporation buy a piece of eProperty and put an real-world ad ("Have a Coke while you play!" or "Got ADSL?") on the space?
mahlen
When I read a story, I skip the explanations; yet the moment I begin to write one, I find that I must have an explanation. --Anthony Hope, "The Prisoner of Zenda"
This morning's New York Times had an article that got it right (http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/042299col o-school-suspects.html). It mentions Quake (apparently Harris even made a few Quake levels), but then points out, "Yet computer games like Doom and the Goth style are popular among even the best-behaved young students." The point is, that Internet usage and playing FPS games are too common to be indicators of future behavior.
OK, an example. About 90 years ago, researchers interviewed people who were in prison for a variety of crimes, and found out that %95 of them had masturbated. Oh my God, masturbation turns you into a criminal! This "fact" was taken as a given for decades, and kids and adults were given many stern warnings about it. It was only in the 60's that Kinsey asked the population at large about masturbation, only to find that, oops, %95 percent of the country does it. Previous conclusion is useless, due to faulty statistical thinking.
I do think our culture glorifies violence, but i don't really mean movies, TV, and video games. I mean the fact that we study wars in school, but not negotiation. That generals get statues or elected President. That any gunplay will get news coverage, but anything that does not result in violence doesn't get covered (this has been faulted as why the protests of the 60's and 70's got progressively more violent; non-violent protests stopped getting covered in the media).
That WINNING is all that matters.
Our culture really only gives attention to that which causes death; escalation or capitulation seem like the only options. See Deborah Tannen's _The_Argument_Culture_ for more on this idea.
Peace, y'all.
mahlen
The Beatles know in the same sense that the subconsciousness knows. --Charles Manson, ca. 1968
There is a standard format being worked on right now, with most, if not all, tablet companies participating (along with, oddly, Microsoft). It's known as the Open eBook format, and looks to be, thankfully, XML based. More on it at http://www.openebook.org/.
mahlen
A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
I've owned a Rocket since December, and i've been meaning to write a review of it, but since it's on topic, here's my "executive summary". The hardware just plain works, the details are largely thought through well. Using it i discovered disadvantages to regular books i'd never noticed before; both my wife and i wish that most of the books we buy could be eBooks. The batteries last forever, you can read in bed with no other light on, crisp display (106 dpi). Books take up almost no physical space, which is key in our crowded apartment in no-rent-is-too-high San Francisco. It supports hyperlinks within a document. (All right, not really short enough for an executive summary).
Downside is content; while the Rocket is way ahead of SoftBook in number of titles, that's still only 421 titles as of today. The word is that publishers are slow to convert (compared to what the tech world would expect) and prices are (as pointed out by SuperKendall above) sometimes more than printed prices, which is insane. This must change ASAP.
This drawback will be somewhat alleviated by the software release that allows HTML imports. I expect this to be released any day now, since the Beta test for this feature was mid-March. That opens up all of the Gutenberg Project texts (http://www.gutenberg.net), along with any Web page(s), of course.
I found it odd that Fidler disdained the Rocket on the grounds that you can't do large page displays. I read the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal in print, and neither of these are exactly Ray-Gun or WallPaper; they are mostly just long blobs of text. I might not want a reference book with lots of diagrams, but then such books are usually read by the computer, not lying on the couch. I read a lot of fiction or narrative, where page design is a non-issue, and the Rocket excels at that. In fact, one of the top sellers for the Rocket is the online edition of the Wall Street Journal. I foresee a lot of potential for eBook ditributed periodicals.
Most controversial (for the/. crowd, at least) is the fact that the platform is completely proprietary, and content is majorly encrypted. This is, of course the only reason why publishers even consider using it, and i have to say, i don't blame them. I wouldn't put a year's worth of work, with which i was hoping to pay my bills, in any electronic venue in a non-encrypted form. This is why laptops and such are really not in the same league.
I really think this is the birth of a new medium; instant widespread distribution via the Internet, plus writers can get paid. Won't wipe out paper, to be sure, but so what?
mahlen
I defend myself by saying that, although this seemed immoral to me, it also seemed as though it wouldn't ever work anyway. --Fred Pohl, "The Coming of the Quantum Cats", ca. 1985
In the print version of _Triumph_of_The_Nerds_, Robert Cringely posits the following metaphor that often echoes my experience; a company's growth is like an invasion.
The first wave of people are commandoes, doing whatever they can to acquire a beach-head, with very little beaurocratic (sp?) overhead, running fast and loose to do whatever is needed to establish themselves.
In the next step, the workers are more like soldiers, still working to expand market share and maintain what they have, but less chaotically than before, and it's vital to maintain what territory you already have.
At some point (if the previous stages succeeded), the potential for growth is curtailed, so the company is more like a police force, just maintaining order and making sure that no problems develop.
Commandoes, soldiers, and cops are very different kinds of jobs, and almost no one doesn't have a preference as to the kind of work they prefer. I also expect that the preference changes over time. When you're young and don't have mortgage payments or a spouse who'd like you around, being a commando is very fun, very exciting. Get a family and other responsibilities, and the long work hours and worries about where the next sale will come from lose their charm.
It may seem sad to some (particularly when you're young) that both companies and people change their ways over time, but they're both really acting according to what's appropriate for them at that point in their lives. I'm recently married and working at a startup (http://www.perspecta.com/), and as one of my married co-workers said to me, "When you have two major responsibilities, you feel like you aren't doing either well." That's exactly how i feel some days, but i love what we're doing here too much to give it up just yet. But i'm also working hard not to blow my marriage; no amount of stock options or killer code would make up for doing that.
So it's not surprising that company founders leave when the company gets big; commandos aren't happy in a squad car, pulling people over for busted tailights. But it's also unrealistic to think that this is a failing of Netscape; it's VERY hard to maintain that startup fever (though sometimes possible, with skunkworks and small spun-off companies.)
mahlen
We don't need no indirection We don't need no flow control No data typing or declarations Did you leave the lists alone? Hey! Hacker! Leave those lists alone! Chorus: All in all, it's just a pure-LISP function call. (Repeat) --"Another Glitch in the Call" (to the tune of a Pink Floyd song)
I'm not clear on the intended purpose of limited periods for moderator eligibility (aka Jury Duty). Are some people moderating too much? Then i'd just reduce the rate at which people accumulate moderator points. It feels like an impediment to action to have to check my "On Jury Duty" status when i note a bad/good comment.
Or is this an effort to spread responsibility around to a larger group, so that more people can participate as moderators? I can see the value of that. It may help prevent an Us vs. Them feeling among
So far i'm quite impressed with the moderation as it stands. "Many hands on the tiller make light work." (Mao, I think)
Just don't post the "how often i read Slashdot" info. That's the last thing i want my VP of Engineering to know!
mahlen
We may not return the affection of those who like us, but we always respect their good judgement.
Like any politician, Newt panders to the desires of his constituents, saying anything that sounds good. It's easy to say, "everyone should have a fat pipe", but does he say what programs he'd cut or taxes he'd raise to pay for installing and maintaining them? No. I could say, "Everybody should be a millionaire!", but that doesn't quite pass for sound policy decisions.
(BTW, for everyone confused about Newt's status, he left the House leadership because the Republicans have lost seats in both the House and Senate in the last two elections.)
Having just had an ADSL line installed (thanks, Pac Bell!), i'd speculate that the limiting factor in the adaption of high speed lines is the number of people who can install them. The two people who put in my line had been flown up from San Diego and working 14 hour days just to deal with the crush of demand here in San Francisco. Good line of work to enter?
I agree that taxing Internet commerce needs to be considered. I really don't think it would put much of a damper on it at this point. Just a flat 3% tax across the board, distributed to the counties the buyer resides in. All eCommerce companies benefit from the stability our local governments provide; they can help pay for them.
mahlen
His lordship is in the enjoyment of very low spirits, owing to his inexplicable inability to bend Providence to his own designs. --Dorothy Sayers
Many of Seymour Cray's patents are in cooling systems. I believe the guts of his latest machine actually sat immersed in a fast moving bath of liquid coolant. Would not surprise me if some element of this landed on the desktop someday.
To those who think this is a waste of time, recall that a hobby is something that you intentionally pay more attention to than it really deserves, simply for the joy of doing so.
mahlen
He spent half his money on wine, women, and song, and like a fool he squandered the rest. --Benny Hill
Remember 1st generation Star Trek, where people on the ship would hand each other little orange plastic rectangles and say, "Here's the data on the reptile beings of Satyricon IV."? Admittedly, you'd think the Enterprise would have enough networking to avoid "sneaker-net" entirely. I wonder if these drives are the precursor to that. Note to IBM marketing: Use bright colors!
Finally, I fell in a heap on the ground. I've no idea who left it there. --Neddie Segoon [Harry Secombe], The Goons: "Dishonoured"
Slashdot Mirror
While there may be techniques where bandwidth is limited artificially, there may be other circumstances. With my Pacific Bell ADSL line the download speed they were willing to guarantee was 384K BPS. But, if you are close enough to the switching station, and the line ran nice and clean, and the moon was in the seventh house..., you could get more; in my case i was close enough, etc., and i get about 1.5 Meg BPS. So, it's possible that the 384K quoted is a minimum; if you get more, they don't care, but they can't tell if you'll get more until it's running.
This leads me to believe that proximity to phone switching stations will become a factor in house prices, creating areas of slightly higher prices, the same way that mass transit stations do. I know i wouldn't want to go back to anything less when i move...
mahlen
Why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
I write software for a living, and have done so for (egad!) 10 years now. One of the rules that has seeped into my brain in that time is: "Engineers must stay in touch with reality."
Everyone else in a software organization can, and probably will, drift off into believing what they want to about the software a company sells. But the engineering team is the one that must make it actually happen, in the real world, with the tools at hand. They must listen to what users say.
I've written, among other things, a few small languages in my career so far. Not all of my users think that the languages i've written are really all that intuitive, and some get frustrated by them. Now, i'm a human being, so when i hear this, there are times when my dander goes up; "What? They don't like it? Well, they must be idiots! It's just like LISP, but with completely different commands, and specialized for the weird environment it runs in. What's so hard about that??"
Now, mind you, i NEVER say that out loud. I've known programmers who would say it out loud, and i never want to work with them again. I don't give them good recommendations when they're looking for work (unless i'm trying to get rid of them). I'll note that they tend to be somewhat lonely people. "My way or the highway" is not a good axiom for social graces. (I'll also note that Bill Gates seems to be this kind of person, but he can get away with it, via his accumulated power.)
No, when someone says, "This doesn't do what i want", i make every effort to listen. What are they really trying to do? Is there an approach that they're overlooking, and is this approach given the proper attention in the documentation (which i probably wrote). Did it not occur to me before that this function was needed? Given that the user, for whatever reason, expects the software to act in particular ways, can i provide that? Would doing so hurt other users the code has?
Now, this may sound like i'm bending over backwards for the user. I am. I want my work to be used. I'd hate having my code sitting somewhere in a source tree, never to be used again, because my users resisted it until they found something they liked better. Why did i bother sweating out the details in my algorithms, if the code never executes? Getting paid isn't enough; making my user's lives just slighter better is why i work. (This is why i like writing tools for my co-workers; the exchange is much more direct.) Users, as much as the hardware and the tools, are reality for an engineer.
So, if someone mentions a perceived problem with your favorite OS/editor/hardware, make every effort to empathize with them. See through their eyes what they are going through, understand that their needs are not identical to your needs. This is how excellent software is written.
If Linux vs. the world becomes a pissing contest, Linux will lose. If engineers lose touch with reality and start believing the hype about what they're products, that product will likely fail in the long run.
mahlen
Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.
--George Bernard Shaw
Burroughs wrote that probably 20 or 30 years before Laurie Anderson sang it. Anderson was someone who would very likely be familiar with his work. I think it was in Nova Express. I don't recall him particularly elaborating on the idea (his books are fiction, after all, and not terribly coherent fiction at that; don't get me wrong, i think he's great).
:(.
I'd try to find the relevant passage, but all my books are in storage
mahlen
What's wrong with dropping out? To me, this is the whole point: one's right
to withdraw from a social environment that offers no spiritual sustenance, and
to mind one's own business.
--William S. Burroughs
Well, driving is not that hard a skill, really, and you don't have to be a genius to make a nitrate bomb. After all, the men accused of bombing the World Trade Center in New York were caught because they tried to get the deposit back on the rented truck they blew up. Somehow, that doesn't strike me as the actions of someone who'd know enough to use 1024-bit encrypt.
mahlen
An important distinction to make here is among the different meanings of the word 'property'. Clearly there are many things one can own that are solely bits on a drive somewhere (domain names, mutual funds).
What is new here is that we are talking about the ownership of something that is primarily experienced as 2-dimensional, the same way that land is (yes, i know that buildings are three dimensional, but property rights are generally owned for a 2D patch of land, then extended along the vertical dimension). That fact, as Stephenson's "Snow Crash" makes abundantly clear, changes the way that property is valued. Unlike domain names, there is distance between properties (i.e., it takes longer to go from A to B than from A to C.)
Such an environment will then create local hotspots where there are lots of people, and thus property where things can be sold or done are more valuable. For example, no one would pay money to participate in a virtual Sahara, cause there'd be nothing to do. But people are paying for eProperty (you heard it here first!) where there are things to do, where you have neighbors to adventure with, traders to buy from, and so forth. This works even if there were no scarcity of property in UO.
The popularity of cities is a testament to this aspect of human life. We are not evenly distributed over the world's land.
So, when will the first corporation buy a piece of eProperty and put an real-world ad ("Have a Coke while you play!" or "Got ADSL?") on the space?
mahlen
When I read a story, I skip the explanations; yet the moment I begin to write
one, I find that I must have an explanation.
--Anthony Hope, "The Prisoner of Zenda"
This morning's New York Times had an article that got it right (http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/042299col o-school-suspects.html). It mentions Quake (apparently Harris even made a few Quake levels), but then points out, "Yet computer games like Doom and the Goth style are popular among even the best-behaved young students." The point is, that Internet usage and playing FPS games are too common to be indicators of future behavior.
OK, an example. About 90 years ago, researchers interviewed people who were in prison for a variety of crimes, and found out that %95 of them had masturbated. Oh my God, masturbation turns you into a criminal! This "fact" was taken as a given for decades, and kids and adults were given many stern warnings about it. It was only in the 60's that Kinsey asked the population at large about masturbation, only to find that, oops, %95 percent of the country does it. Previous conclusion is useless, due to faulty statistical thinking.
I do think our culture glorifies violence, but i don't really mean movies, TV, and video games. I mean the fact that we study wars in school, but not negotiation. That generals get statues or elected President. That any gunplay will get news coverage, but anything that does not result in violence doesn't get covered (this has been faulted as why the protests of the 60's and 70's got progressively more violent; non-violent protests stopped getting covered in the media).
That WINNING is all that matters.
Our culture really only gives attention to that which causes death; escalation or capitulation seem like the only options. See Deborah Tannen's _The_Argument_Culture_ for more on this idea.
Peace, y'all.
mahlen
The Beatles know in the same sense that the subconsciousness knows.
--Charles Manson, ca. 1968
There is a standard format being worked on right now, with most, if not all, tablet companies participating (along with, oddly, Microsoft). It's known as the Open eBook format, and looks to be, thankfully, XML based. More on it at http://www.openebook.org/.
mahlen
A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.
I've owned a Rocket since December, and i've been meaning to write a review of it, but since it's on topic, here's my "executive summary". The hardware just plain works, the details are largely thought through well. Using it i discovered disadvantages to regular books i'd never noticed before; both my wife and i wish that most of the books we buy could be eBooks. The batteries last forever, you can read in bed with no other light on, crisp display (106 dpi). Books take up almost no physical space, which is key in our crowded apartment in no-rent-is-too-high San Francisco. It supports hyperlinks within a document. (All right, not really short enough for an executive summary).
/. crowd, at least) is the fact that the platform is completely proprietary, and content is majorly encrypted. This is, of course the only reason why publishers even consider using it, and i have to say, i don't blame them. I wouldn't put a year's worth of work, with which i was hoping to pay my bills, in any electronic venue in a non-encrypted form. This is why laptops and such are really not in the same league.
Downside is content; while the Rocket is way ahead of SoftBook in number of titles, that's still only 421 titles as of today. The word is that publishers are slow to convert (compared to what the tech world would expect) and prices are (as pointed out by SuperKendall above) sometimes more than printed prices, which is insane. This must change ASAP.
This drawback will be somewhat alleviated by the software release that allows HTML imports. I expect this to be released any day now, since the Beta test for this feature was mid-March. That opens up all of the Gutenberg Project texts (http://www.gutenberg.net), along with any Web page(s), of course.
I found it odd that Fidler disdained the Rocket on the grounds that you can't do large page displays. I read the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal in print, and neither of these are exactly Ray-Gun or WallPaper; they are mostly just long blobs of text. I might not want a reference book with lots of diagrams, but then such books are usually read by the computer, not lying on the couch. I read a lot of fiction or narrative, where page design is a non-issue, and the Rocket excels at that. In fact, one of the top sellers for the Rocket is the online edition of the Wall Street Journal. I foresee a lot of potential for eBook ditributed periodicals.
Most controversial (for the
I really think this is the birth of a new medium; instant widespread distribution via the Internet, plus writers can get paid. Won't wipe out paper, to be sure, but so what?
mahlen
I defend myself by saying that, although this seemed immoral to me, it also seemed as though it wouldn't ever work anyway.
--Fred Pohl, "The Coming of the Quantum Cats", ca. 1985
In the print version of _Triumph_of_The_Nerds_, Robert Cringely posits the following metaphor that often echoes my experience; a company's growth is like an invasion.
The first wave of people are commandoes, doing whatever they can to acquire a beach-head, with very little beaurocratic (sp?) overhead, running fast and loose to do whatever is needed to establish themselves.
In the next step, the workers are more like soldiers, still working to expand market share and maintain what they have, but less chaotically than before, and it's vital to maintain what territory you already have.
At some point (if the previous stages succeeded), the potential for growth is curtailed, so the company is more like a police force, just maintaining order and making sure that no problems develop.
Commandoes, soldiers, and cops are very different kinds of jobs, and almost no one doesn't have a preference as to the kind of work they prefer. I also expect that the preference changes over time. When you're young and don't have mortgage payments or a spouse who'd like you around, being a commando is very fun, very exciting. Get a family and other responsibilities, and the long work hours and worries about where the next sale will come from lose their charm.
It may seem sad to some (particularly when you're young) that both companies and people change their ways over time, but they're both really acting according to what's appropriate for them at that point in their lives. I'm recently married and working at a startup (http://www.perspecta.com/), and as one of my married co-workers said to me, "When you have two major responsibilities, you feel like you aren't doing either well." That's exactly how i feel some days, but i love what we're doing here too much to give it up just yet. But i'm also working hard not to blow my marriage; no amount of stock options or killer code would make up for doing that.
So it's not surprising that company founders leave when the company gets big; commandos aren't happy in a squad car, pulling people over for busted tailights. But it's also unrealistic to think that this is a failing of Netscape; it's VERY hard to maintain that startup fever (though sometimes possible, with skunkworks and small spun-off companies.)
mahlen
We don't need no indirection
We don't need no flow control
No data typing or declarations
Did you leave the lists alone?
Hey! Hacker! Leave those lists alone!
Chorus: All in all, it's just a pure-LISP function call. (Repeat)
--"Another Glitch in the Call" (to the tune of a Pink Floyd song)
I'm not clear on the intended purpose of limited periods for moderator eligibility (aka Jury Duty). Are some people moderating too much? Then i'd just reduce the rate at which people accumulate moderator points. It feels like an impediment to action to have to check my "On Jury Duty" status when i note a bad/good comment.
Or is this an effort to spread responsibility around to a larger group, so that more people can participate as moderators? I can see the value of that. It may help prevent an Us vs. Them feeling among
So far i'm quite impressed with the moderation as it stands. "Many hands on the tiller make light work." (Mao, I think)
Just don't post the "how often i read Slashdot" info. That's the last thing i want my VP of Engineering to know!
mahlen
We may not return the affection of those who like us, but we always respect their good judgement.
Like any politician, Newt panders to the desires of his constituents, saying anything that sounds good. It's easy to say, "everyone should have a fat pipe", but does he say what programs he'd cut or taxes he'd raise to pay for installing and maintaining them? No. I could say, "Everybody should be a millionaire!", but that doesn't quite pass for sound policy decisions.
(BTW, for everyone confused about Newt's status, he left the House leadership because the Republicans have lost seats in both the House and Senate in the last two elections.)
Having just had an ADSL line installed (thanks, Pac Bell!), i'd speculate that the limiting factor in the adaption of high speed lines is the number of people who can install them. The two people who put in my line had been flown up from San Diego and working 14 hour days just to deal with the crush of demand here in San Francisco. Good line of work to enter?
I agree that taxing Internet commerce needs to be considered. I really don't think it would put much of a damper on it at this point. Just a flat 3% tax across the board, distributed to the counties the buyer resides in. All eCommerce companies benefit from the stability our local governments provide; they can help pay for them.
mahlen
His lordship is in the enjoyment of very low spirits, owing to his inexplicable inability to bend Providence to his own designs.
--Dorothy Sayers
Many of Seymour Cray's patents are in cooling systems. I believe the guts of his latest machine actually sat immersed in a fast moving bath of liquid coolant. Would not surprise me if some element of this landed on the desktop someday.
To those who think this is a waste of time, recall that a hobby is something that you intentionally pay more attention to than it really deserves, simply for the joy of doing so.
mahlen
He spent half his money on wine, women, and song, and like a fool he squandered the rest.
--Benny Hill
Remember 1st generation Star Trek, where people on the ship would hand each other little orange plastic rectangles and say, "Here's the data on the reptile beings of Satyricon IV."? Admittedly, you'd think the Enterprise would have enough networking to avoid "sneaker-net" entirely. I wonder if these drives are the precursor to that. Note to IBM marketing: Use bright colors!
Finally, I fell in a heap on the ground. I've no idea who left it there.
--Neddie Segoon [Harry Secombe], The Goons: "Dishonoured"