Rave reviews from numerous websites, stable products, loads of publicity and all of the squeeky-clean open-source development that the slashdotters demand. It sounds to good to be true. So what's the catch?:-)
'Comic books are what novels used to be -- an accessible, vernacular form with mass appeal... perfectly suited to our dumbed-down culture and collective attention deficit.'
Mass appeal and dumbed down? Whomever said that quote must not have read Pride and Prejudice, any of Dicken's works, or any major novels of the colonial era. Those books had required attentiveness, were widely popular and were sufficiently by many classes of society.
Have I misread or is this quote totally off-base when referring to novels?
... will that mean that we will always have the right to own computers? If so, that could be very cool. Actually, if we look at the internet as well, computers become an access point to the first ammendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
By using computers, we can create religions (see the Church of Google), create our own private press (see slashdot.org), assemble (see any IRC server from here to LA), and now be treated as weapons (see above post). The Use of Computers just might be the largest distillations of these amendments in the last 60 years.
Maybe we need to make a 28th Amendment - "The Right to Compute" just in case the first two aren't enough.:-)
Yeah, I'm kind of trolling.:-) Except that I really do want to know what people think they have to hide or is worth keeping secret. I personally strongly oppose letting the government look in my boxer drawer - because I think that a government without limits is a government of despotism. But surely people have to possess more depth in their arguements to feel so strongly about this right.
Btw, the US is a democratic republic - not a democracy. Anal semantics? Maybe. But the point is its a country run by a few chosen elite, except that those elite have been picked by the populace.
If I were to walk through your home and take all of the books, magazines and porn in your house and put them in piles outside of your home/apartment - you'd be embarrased. Thats tough and irritating. But ultimately, would there be anything that would be so terrible and destructive to you that hasn't been seen before? Probably not.
Anyways, aside from preventing 1984, What else do you believe is worth keeping the government out of your home?
:-) You'd be making a mistake and killing a supporter.
I'm just asking a question to see how people respond. I honestly do wonder what people have to hide or why they feel so strongly against intrusion. My own feelings are such that I agree with the idea of a minimalist government - one that does its job and lets us do ours without any more intervention than nessecary.
Maybe that makes my question flame bait, but what do people feel they have that is justified being hidden from others. Why do they justify it. How do they justify it. Thats what I'm seeking right now.
Hmmm... I think the right to bear arms is given to us so that we can protect ourselves. Above and beyond all dependency on any government or other group - we can still choose to rely on ourselves as that last line of defense.
The founders had a lot of faith in the individual working as part of a community though - something that's rather lost to modern american life.
I was really enthusiastic about the possibility of having a newer, cleaner language to program with for my new Windows applications. Most of the work I do is internal - helper applications, gui interfaces for various reasons - that require an effective way of performing RAD. So I used MS Visual C++ for most of the stuff I did. However, in the past year, a lot of people and new members have been moving to Linux. Initially, I was rather disappointed with having to write entirely new programs to make them work on the Linux boxes.
Then I learned about C# and Mono, gave a cheer and have since been watching Mono's development to see which utilities I can reimplement in C# for both the Linux and Window users. While it will be a long time before any major companies look into it as an option, for a small, part-time developer like myself who needs a quick, cross-platform utility, its great.
Hopefully, this competition between dotGNU and Mono will only result in a better final result for all of us, much like the way that the competition between the X Windows development teams has resulted in better features for both products.
From a 'customer' viewpoint, is that they all look so very different!
Ask anyone who's only used windows 98, 2k, XP to sit down and use a Linux Box. They'll sit down, twitch their mouse, then ask where the program bar is located and why there's no My Computer icon. Most end-users dont have the patience to actually take the time to "learn" what they would have to learn to convert over.
Consequentially, until there's a consistent way to create a Windows-esqe look and feel that user can relate to its going to take much longer to bring over the household Windows Mom.
Not that it cannot be done, but to my knowledge this hasn't been done. (If you know of some projects that have done this, please do let me know. )
The first 10 things you install probably say a lot about you as a person and developer.
A programmer will probably install their favoured editors where an artist will install photoshop/GIMP and their favourite peripherials.
For me:
1. Replace NotePad with EditPad
2. Firefox/T-bird
3. Trillian
4. 3d Studio Max
5. GIMP
6. Visual Studio.NET 2003
7. TortoiseSVN
8. Cygwin
9. WinDVD
10. WS_FTP
This is the end of the Gentoo monarchy.
I fear as its greatness shall plummet without the guidance of its great ruler, and become engulfed in the powers of beaurocracy.
-Alex
Slashdot Mirror
Awesome. They couldn't have picked a better voice actor.
I think you mean accesses you.
I guess this is their way of saying... "We don't understand these things either!"
Must be that microsoft decided to change their mind and unleashed the fury of the swarm. :-)
How long until I can get Gentoo for my Xbox?
What does it take for a guy who is clearly exceptionally brilliant to fall into a life of globe wandering and legal evasion?
Rave reviews from numerous websites, stable products, loads of publicity and all of the squeeky-clean open-source development that the slashdotters demand. It sounds to good to be true. So what's the catch? :-)
Mass appeal and dumbed down? Whomever said that quote must not have read Pride and Prejudice, any of Dicken's works, or any major novels of the colonial era. Those books had required attentiveness, were widely popular and were sufficiently by many classes of society.
Have I misread or is this quote totally off-base when referring to novels?
-Alex
However, if you're still up for the shooting, stop by one of the RIT CS servers, I'm sure you'll get a chance. ;)
-Alex
Maybe we need to make a 28th Amendment - "The Right to Compute" just in case the first two aren't enough. :-)
-Alex
Btw, the US is a democratic republic - not a democracy. Anal semantics? Maybe. But the point is its a country run by a few chosen elite, except that those elite have been picked by the populace.
-Alex
Anyways, aside from preventing 1984, What else do you believe is worth keeping the government out of your home?
-Alex
I'm just asking a question to see how people respond. I honestly do wonder what people have to hide or why they feel so strongly against intrusion. My own feelings are such that I agree with the idea of a minimalist government - one that does its job and lets us do ours without any more intervention than nessecary.
Maybe that makes my question flame bait, but what do people feel they have that is justified being hidden from others. Why do they justify it. How do they justify it. Thats what I'm seeking right now.
So tell me - why do you want me dead?
-Alex
The founders had a lot of faith in the individual working as part of a community though - something that's rather lost to modern american life.
-Alex
-Alex
Yeah, that's a big problem! We can't risk hiring people to sit on rockets who may explode on a moment's notice.
-Alex
So now everytime I try to group my Peons together in Warcraft 3, I don't hurt my fingers!
-Alex
Then I learned about C# and Mono, gave a cheer and have since been watching Mono's development to see which utilities I can reimplement in C# for both the Linux and Window users. While it will be a long time before any major companies look into it as an option, for a small, part-time developer like myself who needs a quick, cross-platform utility, its great.
Hopefully, this competition between dotGNU and Mono will only result in a better final result for all of us, much like the way that the competition between the X Windows development teams has resulted in better features for both products.
-Alex
-Alex
... will that mean that we have no choice but to commit technological seppuku? -Alex
Ask anyone who's only used windows 98, 2k, XP to sit down and use a Linux Box. They'll sit down, twitch their mouse, then ask where the program bar is located and why there's no My Computer icon. Most end-users dont have the patience to actually take the time to "learn" what they would have to learn to convert over.
Consequentially, until there's a consistent way to create a Windows-esqe look and feel that user can relate to its going to take much longer to bring over the household Windows Mom.
Not that it cannot be done, but to my knowledge this hasn't been done. (If you know of some projects that have done this, please do let me know. )
-Alex
Calculus, Probablility and Statistics, Discrete Math And the prereqs for it.
The first 10 things you install probably say a lot about you as a person and developer. A programmer will probably install their favoured editors where an artist will install photoshop/GIMP and their favourite peripherials. For me: 1. Replace NotePad with EditPad 2. Firefox/T-bird 3. Trillian 4. 3d Studio Max 5. GIMP 6. Visual Studio .NET 2003
7. TortoiseSVN
8. Cygwin
9. WinDVD
10. WS_FTP
This is the end of the Gentoo monarchy. I fear as its greatness shall plummet without the guidance of its great ruler, and become engulfed in the powers of beaurocracy. -Alex