Yeah, how would you like it if some other busybody thought athletics was so goodfor you that it should be part of the curriculum too? Mandatory little league, basketball, etc. Or another thinks religious education has to be taught at school.
Maybe for you Legos were great fun, but not every kid wants to spend 42+ hours building the 'Mega-Castle-Fortress-set-including-the-black-knig ht.' Creative kids will gravitate towards creative hobbies while other kids do other things. Forcing children to do something you approve of doesn't make them love it. If we listened to every faddish crackpot who knows what good for kids we'd have a curriculum that includes pyramid power, creationism, theraputic touch, etc.
This sounds a little too much like, "Makes your kids listen to Beethoven and they'll be smart!" Well smart people listen to classical music so they MUST be right. *BUZZ*
If anything, kids that choose to play with legos do so because they're inclined to be creative. Can we please end the brain-donor suggestions of 'legos should be part of the curiculum' crap, how would you like it if some busybodies took away your lego time because you HAVE to play little league.
Bad analogy of the year: But this notion of Lego technology is not just metaphorical. What is being learned in classic Lego construction is a kind of digital language. The use of block accumulations to create illusions of smoothness is not unlike the way discrete numbers become waves of sound in the playing of a CD.
Oh man, what a stretch. The guy who wrote this is the same kind of guy that gets his computer theories from GUIs in Hackers, Net, and ideas from way-out-there SF. The rest of the article is such a pedant mess its not worth reading. Would it kill the media to admit two things:
1. A majority of "computer people" are creative people. Because they're not pounding out power-chords or painting murals no one has seemed to make the connection.
2. Programming/Engineering etc. are creative professions that require lots of technical and analytic skills. The same way Jimi Hendrix would be a terrible guitar player if he didn't have an extended knowledge of music thoery.
Knowing this, it isn't such a surprise that IT types were lego kids. Then the NY Times can spare us their 'lego binary language' theories.
Well, I better get back to building my 'lego miniprogram' with my 'legolanguage compiler!' The 90's indeed!
Open-source hackers, organizing at hubs like Slashdot, are notorious for rushing en masse at new Web surveys and submitting their answers multiple times in brazen attempts to skew the data one way or another.
Media like THIS is bad for any movement. I never seen a link to a survey here, let alone received a secret handshake and told to *wink* vote early and often.
Maybe Andrew Leonard aleonard@salon.com doesn't think there really is so much open-source support out there, and it must all be propaganda. Feel free to mail his editor at letters@salon.com.
In an effort to bring more young people into Comdex, they've just announced a 'Comdex Jr.' convention. It'll consist of a fold-up poker table, virgin margaritas, and lots of promises starting with the phrase, "When I grow up..."
I was suspicious too when one Univeristy offered me 4 years for only, "acouple of pictures - you know what kind - of your hot sister." That's only 20 bucks for the polaroids! What a deal.
How apathetic siblings are about higher education.
Its pretty obvious to me that this patent is not an attempt to protect their work, but a very pig-headed attempt to start suing their competitors - including smaller upstarts.
Is anyone really suprised by this? I was counting the days until the lawsuit was announced. Amazon wasted not a precious second.
This and their last 'what your domain is buying?' fiasco shows you exactly what brain-donors are in charge there. I'm expecting a lot of intelligent consumers to start buying from B&N, then again I'm still waiting for everyone to leave Microsoft.
ScaryThought: With the right jury they might pull this off. Call Johnnie Cochran!
We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here. You can only do so much with an abacus. Joe could learn a lot from the afterY2K strip, you need more than one gag to make it work.
When Nixon left office did he take all of government corruption with him? Obviously not. Its called the establishment for a reason, there are many players and many followers. From the consensus of the lowest-common-denominator to the consensus among political parties, its there and elections don't seem to erase it. Think of the establishment as the personification of the legislation of tradition, be it right or left. Usually it refers to the right,as government is by its nature conservative, but you can argue that there definatly is a leftist establishment.
Sure, there's nothing more pretentious than college students with a cause, but this little social experiment, as stupid as it is and it is ECHELON-KEYWORD:STUPID, might just stir some minds.
The more I hear about echelon the more of a joke it sounds, but it is an attention grabber. A little bit ago the British government admited to having their own 'echelon' in the 60's which scanned voice phone transmission to Ireland looking for certain words. That was the 60's. Am I going to say how much more powerful technology is today. Nope. I just wanted to point out the lack of civil liberties in this situation and the case in point is not science fiction.
The main worry is that the government wants to monitor communications traffic. Remember FIDNET or that new proposal to block encryption? Only the very paranoid, pretentious, or criminal types think they're actually being watched. The rest of us should be worried enough to not let the government compromise our rights.
Hopefully the stir from from this will show people that their privacy is in jeopardy and the fight to keep these rights is going on in congress right now. Most people's actions may be irrelevant, but their rights certainly aren't so.
If we're ending with quotes here, how's this one grab you? "The price of freedom is eternal vigilence."
I just got pre-approved credit for my own Mammoth. Sure its costly, but I'm going to recoop the cost by taking him on a circus-like tour along with one other elephant. Our first stop? A meeting of the Kansas school board. See how even an elephant looks graceful compared to this archaic beast? Its called evolution people. And if some Mammoth poop happens to cover all the cars of the fundies all the better. All proceeds go towards the purchase of brand new science books which teach evolution and my mammoth spends the rest of his days in the zoo.
Sometimes it takes a 20,000 year old extinct mammoth to teach people how not to be stupid.
The author didn't say unecrypting your email is impossible, he/she/it said unecrypting everyone's email would be impossible, defeating this supposed big-ass packet sniffer. I'm sure 1024-bit ecryption is worthless against an organization with almost unlimited computing power/budget who's job it is to break codes. The trick is to hide the blow in the baby powder.
If this posed a real threat to echelon, you'd think someone would make it ignore this list:
FBI CIA NSA IRS ATF BATF DOD WACO RUBY RIDGE OKC OKLAHOMA CITY MILITIA GUN HANDGUN MILGOV ASSAULT RIFLE TERRORISM BOMB DRUG HORIUCHI KORESH DAVIDIAN KAHL POSSE COMITATUS RANDY WEAVER VICKIE WEAVER SPECIAL FORCES LINDA THOMPSON SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUP SOG SOF DELTA FORCE CONSTITUTION BILL OF RIGHTS WHITEWATER POM PARK ON METER ARKANSIDE IRAN CONTRAS OLIVER NORTH VINCE FOSTER PROMIS MOSSAD NASA MI5 ONI CID AK47 M16 C4 MALCOLM X REVOLUTION CHEROKEE HILLARY BILL CLINTON GORE GEORGE BUSH WACKENHUT TERRORIST TASK FORCE 160 SPECIAL OPS 12TH GROUP 5TH GROUP SF
Take a look at this list, not exactly national security here. If echelon does exist I'm sure its busy scanning for words that would be a lot more trivial/classified than 'HILLARY BILL CLINTON GORE.' Or if the government is really lazy it'll ignore all keywords in capitals like this while real 'subversive' email is written by people smart enough to leave the caps off.
Now I'll just sit and wait until someone calls me from a payphone reading off this list...
This is exactly what PC manufacturers should be working on because this is most effective solution for most end-users. It isn't that little HD that's putting a perma-grin on my face, its the philosophy that your average PC is way too much for the average user and people should take micro and net pc's seriously.
Dont worry, hardware and software development will go on until Mama_Cass_Asteriod smacks us upside our big primate heads, but for the market of the lowest-common-denominator a simple, slow(compared to desktops), and integrated micro PC is what the doctor ordered. How many computers do nothing but pretend to be a big ass web-tv box? 70% Maybe 80%? How many of them will actually replace a card or drive before tossing it out? 5% 10%? How long do you want Microsoft getting rich off making a bloated OS designed for the readers of Win95 for dummies?
These microPCs could be carried around, plugged into different TVs in the house and running almost completely propriety software. This market group wouldn't know source code if you hit them in the head with a 'C++ for dummies' book. It'll be a neat Browser/WordP/GameMachine. Heck make it store your playstation saved games, its portable. Make it pretend its one of those VCR+ devices and make it program your VCR after you typed in the word, 'friends' and pointed its IR at your VCR. Man, I'm not kidding VCR programing is not just a joke its a reality.
The difference between this type of simple net-pc and an up to date desktop is the difference between a Honda and a Ferrari. Leave the big ass desktops for your advanced serious PC user, let Microsoft do what its always wanted to do- make toys for tots. Soon the 'micro pc-kiddies' will be swooning when you say you own a desktop and know how to use it.
I don't buy this, "...we don't treat Mac users like 2nd class citizens" spiel one bit. Here's a little quote from the URL:
However, as we got closer to shipping the product and reality set in, it was increasingly obvious that in order for us to break even on the Mac version, much less be profitable, we were going to have to cut some corners.
Essentialy, its a profit - cost over market_share equation. I'm sure the modern busines model promptly said 'cut' and there goes HL. The next step is the 'spin.' Here's another little snippet from Valve.
They are happy because we do our best for them, and that's what they expect from us in the future. -SNIP- I would much rather we just eat the money we've spent so far than take money from Mac customers and short-change them.
Now they're suggesting that they're a responsible company and trying to keep up a decent reputation by 'eating up' the cost. When in reality the could not sell such a shabby product, if they wanted to or not, without a larger loss of revenue.
Don't quote me as either good or bad here, this is just business as usual.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe for you Legos were great fun, but not every kid wants to spend 42+ hours building the 'Mega-Castle-Fortress-set-including-the-black-knig ht.' Creative kids will gravitate towards creative hobbies while other kids do other things. Forcing children to do something you approve of doesn't make them love it. If we listened to every faddish crackpot who knows what good for kids we'd have a curriculum that includes pyramid power, creationism, theraputic touch, etc.
If anything, kids that choose to play with legos do so because they're inclined to be creative. Can we please end the brain-donor suggestions of 'legos should be part of the curiculum' crap, how would you like it if some busybodies took away your lego time because you HAVE to play little league.
Bad analogy of the year:
But this notion of Lego technology is not just metaphorical. What is being learned in classic Lego construction is a kind of digital language. The use of block accumulations to create illusions of smoothness is not unlike the way discrete numbers become waves of sound in the playing of a CD.
Oh man, what a stretch. The guy who wrote this is the same kind of guy that gets his computer theories from GUIs in Hackers, Net, and ideas from way-out-there SF. The rest of the article is such a pedant mess its not worth reading. Would it kill the media to admit two things:
1. A majority of "computer people" are creative people. Because they're not pounding out power-chords or painting murals no one has seemed to make the connection.
2. Programming/Engineering etc. are creative professions that require lots of technical and analytic skills. The same way Jimi Hendrix would be a terrible guitar player if he didn't have an extended knowledge of music thoery.
Knowing this, it isn't such a surprise that IT types were lego kids. Then the NY Times can spare us their 'lego binary language' theories.
Well, I better get back to building my 'lego miniprogram' with my 'legolanguage compiler!' The 90's indeed!
The last sentance should be spoken just like 'Go speed racer go!'
Media like THIS is bad for any movement. I never seen a link to a survey here, let alone received a secret handshake and told to *wink* vote early and often.
Maybe Andrew Leonard aleonard@salon.com doesn't think there really is so much open-source support out there, and it must all be propaganda. Feel free to mail his editor at letters@salon.com.
In an effort to bring more young people into Comdex, they've just announced a 'Comdex Jr.' convention. It'll consist of a fold-up poker table, virgin margaritas, and lots of promises starting with the phrase, "When I grow up..."
Downtime: about 45 seconds before he could plug in new keyboard.
Damages: A $20 keyboard and a slightly burned lap.
How apathetic siblings are about higher education.
Is anyone really suprised by this? I was counting the days until the lawsuit was announced. Amazon wasted not a precious second.
This and their last 'what your domain is buying?' fiasco shows you exactly what brain-donors are in charge there. I'm expecting a lot of intelligent consumers to start buying from B&N, then again I'm still waiting for everyone to leave Microsoft.
ScaryThought: With the right jury they might pull this off. Call Johnnie Cochran!
When it does go belly up Marc can always go back to hocking Miller Lite with Norm Macdonald.
.company .completely sucked!
Marc: My last company didn't do so well, Norm.
Norm: I guess you can say your
*Canned Laughter*
1. Linux Winmodem Driver
Oh, this is going to be fun.
Oh, its not new in the way that they've been trying to get to it for a while, but the Martha Stewart and Pauly Shore section had priority.
I'm copywriting these before he does it again.
.massmailachusetts - cyber promotions.
.TandAssachusetts - porn domain.
.sundaymassachusetts - for catholics.
.ACHOOsetts - local clarin distributor.
.yahoochusetts - no explanation needed.
.sadomassachusetts - Local S&M forum.
.criticalmassachusetts - Nuclear Regalutory Board.
.gasachusetts - Amoco domain.
Ah, Noble and Proud Massachusetts, land of many names.
New car owner approaches her Saturn2000 car.
CAR: 'Please slide your ID card through, madam.'
Suddenly a red light blinks.
CAR: 'IQ Under 120 - Sorry, you'll have to take the bus.'
How do you spot a hacker in the year 2000? His car never gets the red light. Oh I'm looking forward to this.
FreeBSDCon Cookies
Not that I'm complaining.
The rest of this issue is State Law, something no one is going to change for a long long time.
Bottom's up.
We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here. You can only do so much with an abacus. Joe could learn a lot from the afterY2K strip, you need more than one gag to make it work.
When Nixon left office did he take all of government corruption with him? Obviously not. Its called the establishment for a reason, there are many players and many followers. From the consensus of the lowest-common-denominator to the consensus among political parties, its there and elections don't seem to erase it. Think of the establishment as the personification of the legislation of tradition, be it right or left. Usually it refers to the right,as government is by its nature conservative, but you can argue that there definatly is a leftist establishment.
The more I hear about echelon the more of a joke it sounds, but it is an attention grabber. A little bit ago the British government admited to having their own 'echelon' in the 60's which scanned voice phone transmission to Ireland looking for certain words. That was the 60's. Am I going to say how much more powerful technology is today. Nope. I just wanted to point out the lack of civil liberties in this situation and the case in point is not science fiction.
The main worry is that the government wants to monitor communications traffic. Remember FIDNET or that new proposal to block encryption? Only the very paranoid, pretentious, or criminal types think they're actually being watched. The rest of us should be worried enough to not let the government compromise our rights.
Hopefully the stir from from this will show people that their privacy is in jeopardy and the fight to keep these rights is going on in congress right now. Most people's actions may be irrelevant, but their rights certainly aren't so.
If we're ending with quotes here, how's this one grab you? "The price of freedom is eternal vigilence."
Sometimes it takes a 20,000 year old extinct mammoth to teach people how not to be stupid.
The author didn't say unecrypting your email is impossible, he/she/it said unecrypting everyone's email would be impossible, defeating this supposed big-ass packet sniffer. I'm sure 1024-bit ecryption is worthless against an organization with almost unlimited computing power/budget who's job it is to break codes. The trick is to hide the blow in the baby powder.
FBI CIA NSA IRS ATF BATF DOD WACO
RUBY RIDGE OKC OKLAHOMA CITY
MILITIA GUN HANDGUN MILGOV ASSAULT
RIFLE TERRORISM BOMB DRUG HORIUCHI
KORESH DAVIDIAN KAHL POSSE
COMITATUS RANDY WEAVER VICKIE
WEAVER SPECIAL FORCES LINDA
THOMPSON SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUP
SOG SOF DELTA FORCE CONSTITUTION
BILL OF RIGHTS WHITEWATER POM PARK
ON METER ARKANSIDE IRAN CONTRAS
OLIVER NORTH VINCE FOSTER PROMIS
MOSSAD NASA MI5 ONI CID AK47 M16 C4
MALCOLM X REVOLUTION CHEROKEE
HILLARY BILL CLINTON GORE GEORGE
BUSH WACKENHUT TERRORIST TASK
FORCE 160 SPECIAL OPS 12TH GROUP
5TH GROUP SF
Take a look at this list, not exactly national security here. If echelon does exist I'm sure its busy scanning for words that would be a lot more trivial/classified than 'HILLARY BILL CLINTON GORE.' Or if the government is really lazy it'll ignore all keywords in capitals like this while real 'subversive' email is written by people smart enough to leave the caps off.
Now I'll just sit and wait until someone calls me from a payphone reading off this list...
Dont worry, hardware and software development will go on until Mama_Cass_Asteriod smacks us upside our big primate heads, but for the market of the lowest-common-denominator a simple, slow(compared to desktops), and integrated micro PC is what the doctor ordered. How many computers do nothing but pretend to be a big ass web-tv box? 70% Maybe 80%? How many of them will actually replace a card or drive before tossing it out? 5% 10%? How long do you want Microsoft getting rich off making a bloated OS designed for the readers of Win95 for dummies?
These microPCs could be carried around, plugged into different TVs in the house and running almost completely propriety software. This market group wouldn't know source code if you hit them in the head with a 'C++ for dummies' book. It'll be a neat Browser/WordP/GameMachine. Heck make it store your playstation saved games, its portable. Make it pretend its one of those VCR+ devices and make it program your VCR after you typed in the word, 'friends' and pointed its IR at your VCR. Man, I'm not kidding VCR programing is not just a joke its a reality.
The difference between this type of simple net-pc and an up to date desktop is the difference between a Honda and a Ferrari. Leave the big ass desktops for your advanced serious PC user, let Microsoft do what its always wanted to do- make toys for tots. Soon the 'micro pc-kiddies' will be swooning when you say you own a desktop and know how to use it.
or the the future of all those Ricky Martin CDs
However, as we got closer to shipping the product and reality set in, it was increasingly obvious that in order for us to break even
on the Mac version, much less be profitable, we were going to have to cut some corners.
Essentialy, its a profit - cost over market_share equation. I'm sure the modern busines model promptly said 'cut' and there goes HL. The next step is the 'spin.' Here's another little snippet from Valve.
They are happy because we do our best for them, and that's what they expect from us in the future. -SNIP- I would much rather we just eat the money we've spent so far than take money from Mac customers and short-change them.
Now they're suggesting that they're a responsible company and trying to keep up a decent reputation by 'eating up' the cost. When in reality the could not sell such a shabby product, if they wanted to or not, without a larger loss of revenue.
Don't quote me as either good or bad here, this is just business as usual.
At least spin is portable and multi-platform.
I'm not kidding it keeps happening and its annoying.