While I haven't tried Nautilus yet, I don't feel like gratifying this flamer with a response to his FUD, but I'll indulge him briefly: why does he want Gnome to work like Windows? Registry key?
This article is of a piece with the recent campaign ads, on both sides. Unfortunately, people are getting their "facts" about the candidates from their opponents' (heavily spun) ads. I hope people in corporate America will look past Petreley's bogus line and give Gnome a try so they can judge it on its own merits.
Ironically, the Gates Foundation has been on a dedicated mission to put more computers in libraries. Wouldn't it be great if we could take the machines Bill gave to the community over to Free (no quotes) software?
Yeah, or the automated doors in Hitchhiker's Guide. Though I must confess to thorough pleasure at Marvin's ability to get other machines to commit suicide.
Believe it or not, I actually knew that. I just didn't know how to spell it. I can tell already that my business will be a flop, since the advertising will reveal me as an insensitive American clod. Thanks though for the spelling tip; I'll stow that away for future retrieval.
We've all known, especially those of us with static IPs, that the Internet isn't so anonymous. Anyone who cares badly enough could probably find out who was hiding behind that IP address to download Britney's latest single (ooh! the scandal!). But the article isn't talking about/.ers; it's about Average Joe Canadian. Hey, since it's frickin' cold in Canada, does anybody want to go into business selling tinfoil-lined ski hats?
Friedman apparently spent a couple weeks in Bangalore recently. He's been writing about his experiences in his New York Times column (the tinfoil-hatted masses thank michael for linking to a mirror that doesn't require signing over your mortal soul). The gist of what he says is that the outsourcing of programming grunt work to India still leaves the creative work in America. This is not to say that Indians are uncreative people, good for nothing but code monkeys. Rather, the American firms choose not to outsource the creative work. Of course, the day may come (and given some of the driven, intelligent Indians I've known, I'm sure it will) where the Indian firms that began by doing outsourced code start developing ideas of their own to compete with the American firms. This may sound like Doomsday for some of you whose jobs hang in the balance, but I'm an optimist, and I believe that the American economy (and its workers) can adapt to the change. Goodness knows it's happened before.
I'm with you. Fittingly, learning another language made me a lot more patient with people who can't quite speak mine (with a degree in English, many people expect me to be intolerant of their less-than-perfect grammar).
I also learned the value of picking up local dialect. People in Copenhagen actually laughed at my accent when I first moved there from West Jutland. They thought I spoke good Danish; I just spoke it like a hick. The Copenhagen accent I subsequently picked up got me squinty looks when I returned to Jutland later. Ahh, fun stuff.
While I am naturally in favor of anything that promotes communication between human beings, I hope that advances like this won't stop people from learning other languages. For me, living in a foreign country and being compelled by necessity to learn the local language was the most profoundly educational experience of my life. Learning another language forces one to learn how other people think, how their cultural worldview differs from one's own. It offers perspective that can't be gained in any other way.
That said, to learn _every_ language is too much to ask. If the technology takes off, and airports, etc., start implementing it, these PDAs could become indispensible tools for travelers of all kinds.
At least we usually try to point to the original source, when it can be determined. Of course, that has no bearing on whether or not anyone actually RTFA...
Slippery slope arguments always make me suspicious. Garfinkel assumes that the use of flags to prevent high-quality recording of digital broadcasts will inevitably lead to a "in Soviet Russia, your TV watches you" scenario. Of course, if the RIAA provides an analagous case, Garfinkel may be right, and we'll have yet another battle fought between Orwellian copy protection schemes and geeks wielding magic markers. Come July 4, 2005, we'll read on Slashdot about how to build your own black box to get around the flags. The "Soviet Russia" scenario assumes we'll take this lying down, like the puppets of corporate America we are. Again, if the RIAA's efforts are any indication, I don't think that's a valid assumption.
Given a value of 6378.137 km for the Earth's radius, one would have to divert the asteroid 637,813,700 seconds, or about 20 years and 3 months, before the anticipated impact. Of course, under this scenario, the asteroid would brush Ecuador a little close for my taste, so I would recommend diverting the asteroid at least a few seconds earlier... This does not account for the earth's orbit or the continued trajectory of the asteroid. We would get pretty pissed at those scientists back in the 80's who diverted the asteroid so it wouldn't hit in 2004, only to have it hit in 2006 or whenever. On the other hand, the Reaganite politicians who arranged the diversion in the first place would be patting themselves on the back for making sure the asteroid wouldn't screw up GWB's reelection plans.
While I'm NOT saying the RIAA is a pinko organization, this article reminded me of their tactics. They squash Napster, and Audiogalaxy flourishes. They get Audiogalaxy, and Kazaa gets big. The internet users are always one step ahead. Unless you're Lu Xiaobo or that 12-year-old girl; the Chinese censors and the RIAA both leave a wake of human detritus, whom one can regard as heroes or infidels. Once again, it all comes down to free speech or free beer.
One can only wonder why it took them so long to get to Sojourner... This also explains why the government isn't bothering to haul it back to Earth, because Karl Rove and his cronies are obviously conspiring to hide the truth about the Martian government (and the treaty we broke that caused them to bust up Sojourner in the first place) from the American people.
Slashdot Mirror
While I haven't tried Nautilus yet, I don't feel like gratifying this flamer with a response to his FUD, but I'll indulge him briefly: why does he want Gnome to work like Windows? Registry key? This article is of a piece with the recent campaign ads, on both sides. Unfortunately, people are getting their "facts" about the candidates from their opponents' (heavily spun) ads. I hope people in corporate America will look past Petreley's bogus line and give Gnome a try so they can judge it on its own merits.
Ironically, the Gates Foundation has been on a dedicated mission to put more computers in libraries. Wouldn't it be great if we could take the machines Bill gave to the community over to Free (no quotes) software?
Yeah, or the automated doors in Hitchhiker's Guide. Though I must confess to thorough pleasure at Marvin's ability to get other machines to commit suicide.
Believe it or not, I actually knew that. I just didn't know how to spell it. I can tell already that my business will be a flop, since the advertising will reveal me as an insensitive American clod. Thanks though for the spelling tip; I'll stow that away for future retrieval.
We've all known, especially those of us with static IPs, that the Internet isn't so anonymous. Anyone who cares badly enough could probably find out who was hiding behind that IP address to download Britney's latest single (ooh! the scandal!). But the article isn't talking about /.ers; it's about Average Joe Canadian. Hey, since it's frickin' cold in Canada, does anybody want to go into business selling tinfoil-lined ski hats?
Friedman apparently spent a couple weeks in Bangalore recently. He's been writing about his experiences in his New York Times column (the tinfoil-hatted masses thank michael for linking to a mirror that doesn't require signing over your mortal soul). The gist of what he says is that the outsourcing of programming grunt work to India still leaves the creative work in America. This is not to say that Indians are uncreative people, good for nothing but code monkeys. Rather, the American firms choose not to outsource the creative work. Of course, the day may come (and given some of the driven, intelligent Indians I've known, I'm sure it will) where the Indian firms that began by doing outsourced code start developing ideas of their own to compete with the American firms. This may sound like Doomsday for some of you whose jobs hang in the balance, but I'm an optimist, and I believe that the American economy (and its workers) can adapt to the change. Goodness knows it's happened before.
I'm with you. Fittingly, learning another language made me a lot more patient with people who can't quite speak mine (with a degree in English, many people expect me to be intolerant of their less-than-perfect grammar).
I also learned the value of picking up local dialect. People in Copenhagen actually laughed at my accent when I first moved there from West Jutland. They thought I spoke good Danish; I just spoke it like a hick. The Copenhagen accent I subsequently picked up got me squinty looks when I returned to Jutland later. Ahh, fun stuff.
If you're interested in dying languages, there's a great article in this week's New York Times Magazine (sign over soul, etc.) about how and why languages die, and what can sometimes be done to save them.
While I am naturally in favor of anything that promotes communication between human beings, I hope that advances like this won't stop people from learning other languages. For me, living in a foreign country and being compelled by necessity to learn the local language was the most profoundly educational experience of my life. Learning another language forces one to learn how other people think, how their cultural worldview differs from one's own. It offers perspective that can't be gained in any other way.
That said, to learn _every_ language is too much to ask. If the technology takes off, and airports, etc., start implementing it, these PDAs could become indispensible tools for travelers of all kinds.
At least we usually try to point to the original source, when it can be determined. Of course, that has no bearing on whether or not anyone actually RTFA...
Slippery slope arguments always make me suspicious. Garfinkel assumes that the use of flags to prevent high-quality recording of digital broadcasts will inevitably lead to a "in Soviet Russia, your TV watches you" scenario. Of course, if the RIAA provides an analagous case, Garfinkel may be right, and we'll have yet another battle fought between Orwellian copy protection schemes and geeks wielding magic markers. Come July 4, 2005, we'll read on Slashdot about how to build your own black box to get around the flags. The "Soviet Russia" scenario assumes we'll take this lying down, like the puppets of corporate America we are. Again, if the RIAA's efforts are any indication, I don't think that's a valid assumption.
Given a value of 6378.137 km for the Earth's radius, one would have to divert the asteroid 637,813,700 seconds, or about 20 years and 3 months, before the anticipated impact. Of course, under this scenario, the asteroid would brush Ecuador a little close for my taste, so I would recommend diverting the asteroid at least a few seconds earlier... This does not account for the earth's orbit or the continued trajectory of the asteroid. We would get pretty pissed at those scientists back in the 80's who diverted the asteroid so it wouldn't hit in 2004, only to have it hit in 2006 or whenever. On the other hand, the Reaganite politicians who arranged the diversion in the first place would be patting themselves on the back for making sure the asteroid wouldn't screw up GWB's reelection plans.
And only 12-ish comments so far. Sigh...
Mea culpa. I should've looked it up.
While I'm NOT saying the RIAA is a pinko organization, this article reminded me of their tactics. They squash Napster, and Audiogalaxy flourishes. They get Audiogalaxy, and Kazaa gets big. The internet users are always one step ahead. Unless you're Lu Xiaobo or that 12-year-old girl; the Chinese censors and the RIAA both leave a wake of human detritus, whom one can regard as heroes or infidels. Once again, it all comes down to free speech or free beer.
I understand the value of modding and keeping stuff on-topic, but I don't care if this _was_ offtopic. It was funny as heck. Thanks for sharing.
Well, it could've been Windows ME...
One can only wonder why it took them so long to get to Sojourner... This also explains why the government isn't bothering to haul it back to Earth, because Karl Rove and his cronies are obviously conspiring to hide the truth about the Martian government (and the treaty we broke that caused them to bust up Sojourner in the first place) from the American people.