"But surely, computers are easy!" they retort. "The Web is therefore easy. Programming must be easy, too." This whole exchange really pisses them off. They've heard all this from millions of adverts, that anybody can do any of this, and that anybody can get rich quick without years of study. They've heard it so often that they're sure that those few of us who tell them otherwise must necessarily be lying to them. They saw it on TV, so it must be true, and we "professionals" (sorry, that's the old word; the new word is "elistist"; same thing) have to feeding them a line of bull to protect our own income streams
I think that another/.'er pointed out that you might be getting upset with other people "getting into your sandbox". I can't think of many computer nerds (myself included), that haven't at some point been a little protective of their favorite past-time when a person that they don't agree with has shown interest in it.
The point of my post, is that some people honestly think that computers, and computer programming is hard. hard to learn, hard to understand, and hard to do.
Bullshit!
There is nothing inherently difficult about these things if enough time is invested in learning how they work. Computer programming is largely the learning of a language syntax. So many problems have been worked out over the life of the language, that most solutions to them are freely available. System administration, while perhaps time-consuming, is not as bad as some would like you to think.
The main thing required for all of these things, is time, and a desire to learn them. There is nothing mysterious, or magical about the way that these things operate.
Computers are meant to work, some people just feel the need to complicate them with an aura of difficulty for the sake of their own egos.
And BTW, this is not to say that there aren't a lot of very talented computer people out there (Carmack), but they are as few and far between as the Hawkings of the physics world.
Want something difficult? Try physics. Oh, and troll me all you want, my karma can take it.
I work @ jpl (a sub-contractor for NASA) as a part-time student. We recently had a lecture here on a very related topic, of using atomic structures like "bucky-balls" (essentialy a chain of carbon atoms formed in the shaps of a soccer ball's black and white patches) to create near sci-fi materials. They could have conductive or insulating properties depending on the orientation of the atomic bonds. Arthur C. Clarke wrote a book (whose name escapes me right now), about a crystaline structure that was strong enough to support massive amounts of weight, but was so narrow, and light, it was nearly invisible. This material would have allowed for suspending things in geo-synchronous orbit with the earth, almost like an anchor, and one could move up and down these things just like an elevator. Cool thing is, this isn't nearly as impossible as it sounds, and with the development of nano-technology like that in this story, and that of the lecture, it really makes you realize that it's a great time to be alive.
Do geek-bois look @ hot girls? Do geek-gurls look @ hot guys?
sure they do! nothing wrong with that. In fact, trying to rail against evolution by deliberately looking bad will get you just as far as reading into every Cosmo sex questionaire. I have a wonderful geek-gurl. I'm a geek-boi... We're both aware of how we look, and we try to make an effort to look presentable to each other. At the same time though, I can't even think about going out with someone else based on looks alone, conversation would dry up in a second, and then what're you left with?
I work at JPL. THhe damned imperial system is so annoying for a person (me) that just came out of school where they're teaching a metric system (thank God). On top of that, buying parts from outside manuf's costs more if it's metric. Another hindrance in the changeover. Everyone talks in "mils" at work. Now, you tell me, WTF is a mil?!?! (of course I know, do you?)...
Dunno if anyone's actually read the article, but it gives little substance in the argument for either implementation. He bases his whole argument on what he's seen himself.
In the end, money-wise, cable is a better bet - it's just cheaper and easier to implement. Plus it has a history. Almost every xDSL service warns that it's providing semi-tested technology, and that there are risks.
But, you need to start looking at the specifics of reality. Cable companies are local monopolies, and that brings with it the generic problems of noncompetitiveness. xDSL service is a semi-monopoly when you think about it, 'cus even though there are various ISPs that may serve your area, they generally can only use one telephne provider (GTE in my case). So here, while you may luck out in finding a good ISP, the weakest part of the chain may just be the phone company, in which case you're back to the same place that cable users are. [personal opinion]I'm very happy with my ADSL connection...$100/month is a bit steep, but 384 reliably up/down, $2 for additional static IP's, and freedom to do commercial business/run servers are very lucatrive IMO.
ok, for those that don't know, Abe is enough of a "hacker" to know abotu alt.tv.road-rules, where he posted a whole lot of stuff under the name Aberoham. I was quickly put off by this front. He's not even close to a script kiddie...they had some discussions on the newsgroup RE just how much of a hacker he was. nothing special, he knows how to run linux. BFD
/. had some pics of a miniaturized linux pc here and here. These IMO look much better and are easier to make (no corners to align etc...).
plus just get yourself some allen bolts, drill through the panels at various places, and you've got yourself the mounts for the internals. break out the dremel, and round the edges (or a bandsaw if you have one), and dip it in a chemical like acetone to give it a frosted look. instead of static flourescent lights, hook 'em up to the hard drive, or scsi bus, so they blink on and off. you'll win the most-annoying prize for sure.
From my understanding of the US encryption laws, there are no regulations on how strong it can be within the borders of the US... That being the case, along with the fact that the FBI is only a national department (as opposed to the CIA et al., which are international), you can develop encryption methods that they would have large headaches trying to get past. Then outside the US, use weak encryption, seeing as the technically have no jurisdiction there...
Katz mentions that libertarianism is looking better and better...He's really missing the libertarian ideology in that case.
Unless there's something I don't know about, the MPAA (the group which rates movies) is not a gov't organization, it is a privately owned company that movie studios trust to rate their movies (well, trust is a bad term, but you get the idea).
Libertarianism wouldn't make this situation any better, as it is the *companies* right to turn away any business that they want, for any reason.
Capitalism however is proving that things like these don't last...for example, when I found out that blockbuster censors their movies, I went immediately to Hollywood Video (plus 5 night movie rentals are nice too;). If you don't like the theatre because of their strict rules with age-ratings, use your power as a consumer, and find a theatre that will let you in - they DO exist.
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"But surely, computers are easy!" they retort. "The Web is therefore easy. Programming must be easy, too." This whole exchange really pisses them off. They've heard all this from millions of adverts, that anybody can do any of this, and that anybody can get rich quick without years of study. They've heard it so often that they're sure that those few of us who tell them otherwise must necessarily be lying to them. They saw it on TV, so it must be true, and we "professionals" (sorry, that's the old word; the new word is "elistist"; same thing) have to feeding them a line of bull to protect our own income streams
/.'er pointed out that you might be getting upset with other people "getting into your sandbox". I can't think of many computer nerds (myself included), that haven't at some point been a little protective of their favorite past-time when a person that they don't agree with has shown interest in it.
I think that another
The point of my post, is that some people honestly think that computers, and computer programming is hard. hard to learn, hard to understand, and hard to do.
Bullshit!
There is nothing inherently difficult about these things if enough time is invested in learning how they work. Computer programming is largely the learning of a language syntax. So many problems have been worked out over the life of the language, that most solutions to them are freely available.
System administration, while perhaps time-consuming, is not as bad as some would like you to think.
The main thing required for all of these things, is time, and a desire to learn them. There is nothing mysterious, or magical about the way that these things operate.
Computers are meant to work, some people just feel the need to complicate them with an aura of difficulty for the sake of their own egos.
And BTW, this is not to say that there aren't a lot of very talented computer people out there (Carmack), but they are as few and far between as the Hawkings of the physics world.
Want something difficult? Try physics. Oh, and troll me all you want, my karma can take it.
I work @ jpl (a sub-contractor for NASA) as a part-time student. We recently had a lecture here on a very related topic, of using atomic structures like "bucky-balls" (essentialy a chain of carbon atoms formed in the shaps of a soccer ball's black and white patches) to create near sci-fi materials. They could have conductive or insulating properties depending on the orientation of the atomic bonds.
Arthur C. Clarke wrote a book (whose name escapes me right now), about a crystaline structure that was strong enough to support massive amounts of weight, but was so narrow, and light, it was nearly invisible. This material would have allowed for suspending things in geo-synchronous orbit with the earth, almost like an anchor, and one could move up and down these things just like an elevator.
Cool thing is, this isn't nearly as impossible as it sounds, and with the development of nano-technology like that in this story, and that of the lecture, it really makes you realize that it's a great time to be alive.
Do geek-bois look @ hot girls?
Do geek-gurls look @ hot guys?
sure they do! nothing wrong with that. In fact, trying to rail against evolution by deliberately looking bad will get you just as far as reading into every Cosmo sex questionaire.
I have a wonderful geek-gurl. I'm a geek-boi... We're both aware of how we look, and we try to make an effort to look presentable to each other. At the same time though, I can't even think about going out with someone else based on looks alone, conversation would dry up in a second, and then what're you left with?
attractive meat.
I work at JPL. THhe damned imperial system is so annoying for a person (me) that just came out of school where they're teaching a metric system (thank God). On top of that, buying parts from outside manuf's costs more if it's metric. Another hindrance in the changeover. Everyone talks in "mils" at work. Now, you tell me, WTF is a mil?!?! (of course I know, do you?)...
In the end, money-wise, cable is a better bet - it's just cheaper and easier to implement. Plus it has a history. Almost every xDSL service warns that it's providing semi-tested technology, and that there are risks.
But, you need to start looking at the specifics of reality. Cable companies are local monopolies, and that brings with it the generic problems of noncompetitiveness. xDSL service is a semi-monopoly when you think about it, 'cus even though there are various ISPs that may serve your area, they generally can only use one telephne provider (GTE in my case). So here, while you may luck out in finding a good ISP, the weakest part of the chain may just be the phone company, in which case you're back to the same place that cable users are.
[personal opinion]I'm very happy with my ADSL connection...$100/month is a bit steep, but 384 reliably up/down, $2 for additional static IP's, and freedom to do commercial business/run servers are very lucatrive IMO.
-lev
plus just get yourself some allen bolts, drill through the panels at various places, and you've got yourself the mounts for the internals. break out the dremel, and round the edges (or a bandsaw if you have one), and dip it in a chemical like acetone to give it a frosted look. instead of static flourescent lights, hook 'em up to the hard drive, or scsi bus, so they blink on and off. you'll win the most-annoying prize for sure.
hrm...I think I have my next case.
-lev
From my understanding of the US encryption laws, there are no regulations on how strong it can be within the borders of the US...
That being the case, along with the fact that the FBI is only a national department (as opposed to the CIA et al., which are international), you can develop encryption methods that they would have large headaches trying to get past. Then outside the US, use weak encryption, seeing as the technically have no jurisdiction there...
-lev
Katz mentions that libertarianism is looking better and better...He's really missing the libertarian ideology in that case.
;). If you don't like the theatre because of their strict rules with age-ratings, use your power as a consumer, and find a theatre that will let you in - they DO exist.
Unless there's something I don't know about, the MPAA (the group which rates movies) is not a gov't organization, it is a privately owned company that movie studios trust to rate their movies (well, trust is a bad term, but you get the idea).
Libertarianism wouldn't make this situation any better, as it is the *companies* right to turn away any business that they want, for any reason.
Capitalism however is proving that things like these don't last...for example, when I found out that blockbuster censors their movies, I went immediately to Hollywood Video (plus 5 night movie rentals are nice too
a libertarian
-lev