When you read this guy bio, you see that he is involved in "artificial reality" or "artificial intelligence" (errr. well whatever it means:-) ). I guess he doesn't mean a new image editor tool. He does mean something totally original. A totally new concept aimed at a totally new problem. So when you are a bit of a dreamer (see is favorite fields), the open source makes rarely news (IMHO).
If you aren't such a dreamer, you see why he is wrong. Open source applications are tools. New concepts are web services usually today. You build those new concepts with these tools.
Here in Belgium we have electronic vote for more than ten years. I've seen recently a study comparing paper and electronic machine costs.
I don't remember the figures precisly but it was something like:
The cost per vote on paper 2 US$ The cost per electronic vote 5 US$
I always been extremely suspicious about these electronic voting machine. Especially those running Windows (Desktop PC) with accessible serial ports like those we have here.
The good news is that the government plans to get rid of it (at least for a part of the country) and go back to the much safer (and cheaper) paper.
It looks like a step in the right direction (well structured human readable syntax). I can't wait Perl 6 anyway especially for their promising new Object oriented syntax (and static types).
I just bought a low end laptop with vista home premium. The only relatively expensive part is the 2GB Ram.
I have postponed its order due to all bad critics I have read on slashdot and amongst the Geek community. I stick to my old windows XP laptop (3 years old) until I heard a funny noise from the HD.
After two weeks of heavy use. Guess what...I like it:-). It works with my old Microsoft Visual studio 2003. It works with my Samba server (Suse 10.2). I just installed thunderbird, firefox, DivX player, torrent, Open office,etc..
All things I have read concerning the network configuration, [allow] or [cancel] stuffs were all grossly exagerated. I can agree only on their 3D interface and semi-transparent windows. It brings simply nothing to the user-friendliness. Something rarely mentionned is their gadget vertical bar. It will end up like Active Desktop. Anyway it looks more polished than windows XP.
Oh...solitaire has been updated! And notepad is still the same:-).
Devil's advocate would say: If Windows Servers are so insecure And microsoft.com is one of the busiest web sites in the world
Then one major security breach in (+)ten years would mean that there is a pretty good IT team behind. (Which was a Ddos attack if I remind well...It used to be lethal for any architecture at that time)
- readable (meaningful variable names & tabulation) - commented - pragmatic (using enum, and all) - basic design (classes and methods should have been designed prior to any coding (at least the biggest par of it). You feel it when you read a code.
For the rest...If a method needs 20 lines or 100...As long as I can understand it, I don't care.
I just watched a documentary over Senegalese farmers and it confirmed your point. They faced massive european import. One of the guy has a semi-industrial chicken farm. He couldn't face the the European dumping. They were ways below his cost of production.
The guy looked quite intelligent. his farm meant a lot of investment, even by western standard.
If subsidies are aimed at keeping a production in your country. I can accept it. I mean, food can be a "raison d'Etat" as the french say. But if you use subsidies to create unfair competition with emerging countries, it must stop.
FLASH 5 is maybe old but you can get the basic with. Frame, keyframe and all. There are still clips/graphics and button in the last release. I really think it is a good start. Last FLASH versions are quite complex to begin with.
Most webdesigners I know struggle with Actionscript (as a programmer I find more intuitive these days). Object oriented stuffs are totally misunderstood. I'm not talking about FLASH newbie, I'm talking about the "artists" making big money.
It looks to me that just like HTML, there are two different jobs now: - Artistic. - Technicians.
I make a relatively good earning as an Actionscript programmer. Most of the project involved are for big corporations. There are surprisingly very few capable programmer on the market. But don't ask me to make a nice layout/animation.
"At will" employment is the norm in America because litigation is also. As a small business owner, when I fire someone, I don't give a reason.
Being a small European business owner...I envy you:-). Anyway if it wouldn't be mandatory, I think morally you must give a reason. I agree that it is quite hard to explain it without hurting anybody sometimes.
More like blame the generals who shot spreadsheet "simulations" back and forth instead of large scale wargames to shake-out the technology. The networked battlefield went out untested with an expectation that it would work as promised. Which is a really dumb assumption for military hardware.
The real problem was the military mandate. They had to win a war (they did it) and they had to gain the occupied population hearts (they didn't).
They have the technologies needed to completely annihilate any resistance in the occupied country. A couple of carpet bombings, massive bombardments, massive exodus and problems solved. So the real problem isn't the technology IMHO.
The real problem was the poor planning afterwards: Let's build a new country from scratch, with democratic institutions in a totally foreign culture with no democratic traditions.The US army will be in charged of that. It will maintain order and it will manage relationships with the local population.
You cannot blame an army for having difficulties to maintain peace...And to rebuild a country. An army isn't designed for such missions. it is known since the Napoleonic occupation of Spain (at least).
If a God exists then Intelligent Design makes him more stupid. I'm agnostic but I'm puzzled by their "arrogance" to make him dumb.
They say that there are things in this universe that are too complex. They couldn't be made randomly.
What if the most "intelligent" God? The one who created everything from day one. Nothing would ever evolve. Things will stay the same forever until the very last day.
The one who created an universe so complex that it can evolve. Something so complex that life can be created out of hazard. What is hazard? In god terms...Is there really anything that can be considered as hazard? A God mastering an infinite number of random variables isn't more intelligent that a God accepting none?
Until evolution and last scientific discoveries some believers could claim that they "understand" God. What annoy them is that God (if he exists) looks far more complex than they could ever imagine. They can't accept it.
I've watched an interview of the CEO of Electrabel/Suez (a big French/Belgian producer). He said nuclear "fuels" should be carefully managed because you need +/- 7 years between your order and the delivering. (he uses it as an argument to speed up approvals of new nuclear power plants in Belgium).
"his working microbial fuel cell takes C,H,O in as vinegar or cellulose, and outputs H2 and CO2! Do you really call that 'carbon neutral' as a fuel source?"
Vinegar and cellulose come from plants/trees (IMHO).
So I guess you need dedicated fields to produce these plants.
These fields will use the CO2 in the athmosphere to produce the required cellulose and ingredients for vinegar.
you've got a full CO2 cycle, it looks like it is carbon neutral to me (IMHO ?).
I'm belgian and my mother (born in 1941) always reminded me that the first orange she tasted came from US aid.
A lot of people over here are still extremely grateful for US behaviours after the war. She always reminded quite clearly some memories such as rains of chocolate bars each time she saw GIs.
The Marshall plan how all these little things are totally unique in history. At least it was the unique for Belgians who had their share of invasions...
I find your theory interesting on why the Chinese submarine even surfaced.
I know it will look stupid but anyway: Let's say that they have detected it. Why would you show them how fast you can eliminate them? In case of war, isn't it better to have an over confident enemy in front of you?
I find the analogy with Columbus quite interesting. The real problem of space exploration except satellites is that there is no business incentive. The goal of Columbus was simple: get a direct link to spice productors (India).
The route around Africa was a Portuguese monopoly or something. The silk route was a Venice/Arabs monopoly. So the only available path was through the Atlantic. Here you can see a risk worth the money.
But for space? What should you go "now" to space? What is the business on the moon or on mars? We put "human beings" in orbit for the glory currently. Glory and efficient business process are rarely good friends.
Json may be the right solution if you are web developpers working on javascript and all but for most projects it is just a tiny part of the development. For anything unrelated to this Ajax frenzy. It stinks.
Look at the relatively simple XML based solution provided by facebook...All you need is to look at the XML example and that's it, you get it. Then look at the rather complex solution provided by google for a similar service.
I had to choose between the yahoo API (xml based) and Google Json months ago. After days of struggling with this Json nightmare (server based application, not an HTML embedded script language), i left google and took the yahoo API instead.
Google is trying too hard to push is own agenda. It wants to be the only one proposing a real technologies. Third party developpers must use basic/vulnerable/volatile HTML script language.
In a way Google is doing the same than Microsoft web services (windows live or something)...They did their best to make it incompatible with non-windows technology.
Slashdot Mirror
When you read this guy bio, you see that he is involved in "artificial reality" or "artificial intelligence" (errr. well whatever it means
I guess he doesn't mean a new image editor tool. He does mean something totally original. A totally new concept aimed at a totally new problem.
So when you are a bit of a dreamer (see is favorite fields), the open source makes rarely news (IMHO).
If you aren't such a dreamer, you see why he is wrong. Open source applications are tools. New concepts are web services usually today. You build those new concepts with these tools.
"What is wrong with paper in the first place?"
Here in Belgium we have electronic vote for more than ten years. I've seen recently a study comparing paper and electronic machine costs.
I don't remember the figures precisly but it was something like:
The cost per vote on paper 2 US$
The cost per electronic vote 5 US$
I always been extremely suspicious about these electronic voting machine. Especially those running Windows (Desktop PC) with accessible serial ports like those we have here.
The good news is that the government plans to get rid of it (at least for a part of the country) and go back to the much safer (and cheaper) paper.
Tell her to open a bank account in another EU country. Like Luxembourg.
http://www.justlanded.com/english/luxembourg/tools/just_landed_guide/money/opening_an_account
During the last Tour de France the favorite was forced to quit the tour because of repetitive fail tests if I remind well.
It looks like a step in the right direction (well structured human readable syntax).
I can't wait Perl 6 anyway especially for their promising new Object oriented syntax (and static types).
So if I was sending an ODF file to someone I could include a link that would allow them to read the document online without installing software.
;-)
I'm sure our non-techie clients will love it
I guess it will a dumb question but:
:-)
Why a Java virtual machine can't take the burden of the multi-core adaptation?
They have promised "write once run anywhere"!
Lazy coder
I just bought a low end laptop with vista home premium. The only relatively expensive part is the 2GB Ram.
:-).
:-).
I have postponed its order due to all bad critics I have read on slashdot and amongst the Geek community. I stick to my old windows XP laptop (3 years old) until I heard a funny noise from the HD.
After two weeks of heavy use. Guess what...I like it
It works with my old Microsoft Visual studio 2003. It works with my Samba server (Suse 10.2). I just installed thunderbird, firefox, DivX player, torrent, Open office,etc..
All things I have read concerning the network configuration, [allow] or [cancel] stuffs were all grossly exagerated. I can agree only on their 3D interface and semi-transparent windows. It brings simply nothing to the user-friendliness. Something rarely mentionned is their gadget vertical bar. It will end up like Active Desktop. Anyway it looks more polished than windows XP.
Oh...solitaire has been updated! And notepad is still the same
"This guy is brainwashed."
He looks like a man enjoying his job to me.
"update.microsoft.com"
Devil's advocate would say:
If Windows Servers are so insecure
And microsoft.com is one of the busiest web sites in the world
Then one major security breach in (+)ten years would mean that there is a pretty good IT team behind. (Which was a Ddos attack if I remind well...It used to be lethal for any architecture at that time)
from the article:
:-).
"...At this point we still don't use firewalls for MS.COM..."
and then
"Router ACLs are in place to block unnecessary ports"
blocking unnecessary ports is a firewall feature (IMHO ?)
Anyway it looks quite impressive. I still don't understand how to handle 650 GB of logs
I don't know the right translation in English (French is my native tongue)
Raison d'Etat is when (for example) the state vetoes a company foreign takeover, because it jeopardizes its interests.
Personnally an elegant code is:
- readable (meaningful variable names & tabulation)
- commented
- pragmatic (using enum, and all)
- basic design (classes and methods should have been designed prior to any coding (at least the biggest par of it). You feel it when you read a code.
For the rest...If a method needs 20 lines or 100...As long as I can understand it, I don't care.
I just watched a documentary over Senegalese farmers and it confirmed your point. They faced massive european import. One of the guy has a semi-industrial chicken farm. He couldn't face the the European dumping. They were ways below his cost of production.
The guy looked quite intelligent. his farm meant a lot of investment, even by western standard.
If subsidies are aimed at keeping a production in your country. I can accept it. I mean, food can be a "raison d'Etat" as the french say. But if you use subsidies to create unfair competition with emerging countries, it must stop.
FLASH 5 is maybe old but you can get the basic with. Frame, keyframe and all. There are still clips/graphics and button in the last release. I really think it is a good start. Last FLASH versions are quite complex to begin with.
Most webdesigners I know struggle with Actionscript (as a programmer I find more intuitive these days). Object oriented stuffs are totally misunderstood.
I'm not talking about FLASH newbie, I'm talking about the "artists" making big money.
It looks to me that just like HTML, there are two different jobs now:
- Artistic.
- Technicians.
I make a relatively good earning as an Actionscript programmer. Most of the project involved are for big corporations. There are surprisingly very few capable programmer on the market.
But don't ask me to make a nice layout/animation.
IHMO: It didn't mean powerful, he meant simple.
Gimp with http://www.inkscape.org/ matches my basic need.
"At will" employment is the norm in America because litigation is also. As a small business owner, when I fire someone, I don't give a reason.
:-).
Being a small European business owner...I envy you
Anyway if it wouldn't be mandatory, I think morally you must give a reason. I agree that it is quite hard to explain it without hurting anybody sometimes.
More like blame the generals who shot spreadsheet "simulations" back and forth instead of large scale wargames to shake-out the technology. The networked battlefield went out untested with an expectation that it would work as promised. Which is a really dumb assumption for military hardware.
The real problem was the military mandate. They had to win a war (they did it) and they had to gain the occupied population hearts (they didn't).
They have the technologies needed to completely annihilate any resistance in the occupied country. A couple of carpet bombings, massive bombardments, massive exodus and problems solved. So the real problem isn't the technology IMHO.
The real problem was the poor planning afterwards: Let's build a new country from scratch, with democratic institutions in a totally foreign culture with no democratic traditions.The US army will be in charged of that. It will maintain order and it will manage relationships with the local population.
You cannot blame an army for having difficulties to maintain peace...And to rebuild a country. An army isn't designed for such missions. it is known since the Napoleonic occupation of Spain (at least).
I agree too :-).
If a God exists then Intelligent Design makes him more stupid.
I'm agnostic but I'm puzzled by their "arrogance" to make him dumb.
They say that there are things in this universe that are too complex. They couldn't be made randomly.
What if the most "intelligent" God?
The one who created everything from day one. Nothing would ever evolve. Things will stay the same forever until the very last day.
The one who created an universe so complex that it can evolve. Something so complex that life can be created out of hazard. What is hazard? In god terms...Is there really anything that can be considered as hazard? A God mastering an infinite number of random variables isn't more intelligent that a God accepting none?
Until evolution and last scientific discoveries some believers could claim that they "understand" God. What annoy them is that God (if he exists) looks far more complex than they could ever imagine. They can't accept it.
To see a drawing of this beast (Nigersaurus taqueti)
http://dino.lm.com/images/display.php?id=1065
I've watched an interview of the CEO of Electrabel/Suez (a big French/Belgian producer). He said nuclear "fuels" should be carefully managed because you need +/- 7 years between your order and the delivering. (he uses it as an argument to speed up approvals of new nuclear power plants in Belgium).
"his working microbial fuel cell takes C,H,O in as vinegar or cellulose, and outputs H2 and CO2! Do you really call that 'carbon neutral' as a fuel source?"
Vinegar and cellulose come from plants/trees (IMHO).
So I guess you need dedicated fields to produce these plants.
These fields will use the CO2 in the athmosphere to produce the required cellulose and ingredients for vinegar.
you've got a full CO2 cycle, it looks like it is carbon neutral to me (IMHO ?).
Precisly.
I'm belgian and my mother (born in 1941) always reminded me that the first orange she tasted came from US aid.
A lot of people over here are still extremely grateful for US behaviours after the war. She always reminded quite clearly some memories such as rains of chocolate bars each time she saw GIs.
The Marshall plan how all these little things are totally unique in history. At least it was the unique for Belgians who had their share of invasions...
I find your theory interesting on why the Chinese submarine even surfaced.
I know it will look stupid but anyway:
Let's say that they have detected it. Why would you show them how fast you can eliminate them?
In case of war, isn't it better to have an over confident enemy in front of you?
Just wondering.
I find the analogy with Columbus quite interesting.
The real problem of space exploration except satellites is that there is no business incentive.
The goal of Columbus was simple: get a direct link to spice productors (India).
The route around Africa was a Portuguese monopoly or something. The silk route was a Venice/Arabs monopoly. So the only available path was through the Atlantic. Here you can see a risk worth the money.
But for space? What should you go "now" to space? What is the business on the moon or on mars?
We put "human beings" in orbit for the glory currently. Glory and efficient business process are rarely good friends.
I tend to agree with microsoft developpers.
Json may be the right solution if you are web developpers working on javascript and all but for most projects it is just a tiny part of the development. For anything unrelated to this Ajax frenzy. It stinks.
Look at the relatively simple XML based solution provided by facebook...All you need is to look at the XML example and that's it, you get it. Then look at the rather complex solution provided by google for a similar service.
I had to choose between the yahoo API (xml based) and Google Json months ago. After days of struggling with this Json nightmare (server based application, not an HTML embedded script language), i left google and took the yahoo API instead.
Google is trying too hard to push is own agenda. It wants to be the only one proposing a real technologies. Third party developpers must use basic/vulnerable/volatile HTML script language.
In a way Google is doing the same than Microsoft web services (windows live or something)...They did their best to make it incompatible with non-windows technology.