20:21 Central While we scramble behind the scenes to put things back together, we'll share the slashdot love and
link to other sites where you can get more information about FOAF.
"Even food-processing corporations are very upset about this as well, because they know all you need is one shipment of corn flakes that has a contraceptive in it and there's a real problem, obviously," [Paul] Achitoff said.
Yes, well obviously... errr... yes, a condom in a shipment of corn flakes would cause a problem... not sure what that has to do with genetically engineered rice, but, well, errr... yes.
"The '80s were very dark for exploration," said Friedman. "We only started to see a resurgence in the '90s under (then NASA administrator) Dan Goldin."
Friedman attributed the Reagan administration's focus on manned spaceflight as the primary reason for the lack of planetary missions in the 1980s.
Interesting that this decade NASA seems to be focusing on both unmanned and manned missions.
Let's just hope there will be funds available for all these plans; although I personally would sacrifice manned projects in favor of unmanned ones if it came to that. We have plenty of time later to take such bold strides - for one thing, we really need better methods for entering orbit than the current, wasteful method of simply burning loads and loads of fuel that has been practised since the inception of space flight. This would, of course, benefit unmanned missions as well, but in my view it is absolutely crucial for the viability of manned missions.
The story doesn't say anything about breaking even, not in 2014 or at any other time.
All it says about the year 2014 is this:
And, a recent Oakland Tribune article reported that nuclear fusion experiments aren't expected to begin until 2014 - more than a decade later than originally planned.
This most likely means that 2014 is the year when fusion experiments using this particular method will begin.
Prof. MacHale also notes that subsequent to The Laws of Thought, Boole undertook to rewrite the Bible in his mathematical logic.
I'm very curious about this... how exactly would you go about representing text with mathematical logic? He must have needed to invent some ad-hoc method to do this, right?
The article is actually rather detailed and well-thought. The author makes some interesting arguments about why the Internet has not been as great a vessel for democratic progress as some hoped it would be.
One argument is that yes, geeks do not socialize. More specifically, the author argues that the Internet is inherently detrimental to social debate:
Another shortcoming of the Internet is that it lends itself to individual rather than communal activities. It "is about people sitting in front of a terminal, barely interacting," says one Laotian researcher. The Web is less well-suited to fostering political discussion and debate because, unlike radio or even television, it does not generally bring people together in one house or one room.
Another argument is that many governments have simply stifled the Internet completely, reducing its utility altogether:
But the Internet's inherent flaws as a political medium are only part of the reason for its failure to spread liberty. More significant has been the ease with which authoritarian regimes have controlled and, in some cases, subverted it. The most straightforward way governments have responded to opposition websites has been simply to shut them down.
It goes on to mention a great number of examples of such activities; including government policies in Singapore, China and Saudi Arabia, among other countries. I could not fail to be outraged at reading descriptions of such vile cencorship, which is unfortunately a fact of life for a great number of the world's Internet users.
Yet, despite its trendiness and high-tech appearance, the Internet joint conspicuously lacked one element usually associated with cafe life: any discussion of current events. Virtually no one in the cafe spoke with anyone else.
Geez - geeks not socializing! What is this world coming to ?!
Prothon is a new industrial-strength, interpreted, prototype-based, object-oriented language that gets rid of classes altogether in the way that the Self language does.
I have never understood.....when companies lie (or make questionable claims) about "fastest" or "first" people get all up-in-arms. But when companies lie about quality or other things people don't care.
Well, speed is a simple, measureable and quantifiable concept. Qualitity is much more elusive and ambiguous.
Since claims about speed can be verified, they are easy to criticise. They get you thinking "Hmmm - is this right?"; and then you can immediately start thinking of ways to verify them.
With quality and other non-quantifiable concepts, you just tend to shrug it off as just yet more business babble.
This particular quote from the story is quite interesting in this context:
"It's appalling," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. "It cannot be allowed to stand that another nation can impose its values on the U.S. and make it a trade issue."
OK, so when the U.S. imposes its values on other countries, they shouldn't complain, but when others try to do it to them, it's A Bad Thing? Talk about double standards...
The U.S. politicians (I hate it when they are equated with the U.S. itself - there is a big difference) need to learn that in order for maintain good relations with other nations, everyone must follow the same set of rules.
The big loser in this matter may be SCO, said Dion Cornett, an analyst with Decatur Jones Equity Partners LLC, an equity research firm based in Chicago. Having their first publicly announced customer express second thoughts over the deal so soon after its announcement may make it difficult for SCO to sign up other customers, he said.
Finally something positive concerning SCO on slashdot!
Like Python, Prothon uses indentation to control the block structure of the program instead of block/end or {}. However, Prothon only allows tabs for indentation. Any space in an indent will cause an error.
Classic bondage-and-discipline. Why oh why is this so ??
I may be an old fart about this, but I think many of the slower more thoughtful strategy games are more fun than the twitchers. These games will always be on the PC side. I can see the migration where FPS's will tend toward the console.
I think you are right about the strategy games; the 'serious' gamers who play a lot of slower games don't usually buy consoles; and I'm not sure that there's a big incentive for the console developers to push into that market; except perhaps in Japan, where there seems to be a market for everything.
FPS's might and might not gravitate towards consoles; that will, however, only happen with better controls for the consoles - playing FPS's on anything other than a keyboard/mouse is an exercise in frustration and futility. Consoles will either need provide these, or come up with something better - if that's even possible...
The patch model for Internet security has failed spectacularly. To remedy this, there have been a number of suggestions for ways to try to shoehorn end users into becoming security experts, including making them financially liable for the consequences of their computers being hijacked by malware or miscreants.
Who the he** suggested this? This is a frankly ridiculous idea. What about the responsibility of the programmers (or the firm they work for) who introduced the exploitable bug into the software in the first place? Why should the end user bear sole responsibility, simply because he failed to apply a patch? An interesting concept indeed...
SpamHaus probably won't have many hurdles from a technical stability standpoint. The organisation is tapping VeriSign, which has more experience operating TLDs than any other company, to provide the back-end infrastructure.
Be thankful; $2000 is VeriSign cutting-their-own-throats:-)
Slashdot Mirror
20:21 Central
While we scramble behind the scenes to put things back together, we'll share the slashdot love and link to other sites where you can get more information about FOAF.
FOAF Info:
FOAF Tools:
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
19:14 Central
Oh hell. We got slashdotted. And the main site wasn't even running the current code revision. Back in a bit.
From the article:
"Even food-processing corporations are very upset about this as well, because they know all you need is one shipment of corn flakes that has a contraceptive in it and there's a real problem, obviously," [Paul] Achitoff said.
Yes, well obviously ... errr ... yes, a condom in a shipment of corn flakes would cause a problem... not sure what that has to do with genetically engineered rice, but, well, errr ... yes.
Someone give the man a cigar!
No, on second thought it isn't ...
Phew - false alarm; saw the .cx and red lights flashed.
I'll let you know next time I see a real one - for sure. Remember: I Am Here For You!
Nah, sorry (again)
I remembered in wrong :P
Sorry, this one is irresistable:
Looks like someone DID carry coals to Manchester!
So when will the Millenium Falcon be flown then?
We already have Windows ME, so where is the MF ??
"The '80s were very dark for exploration," said Friedman. "We only started to see a resurgence in the '90s under (then NASA administrator) Dan Goldin."
Friedman attributed the Reagan administration's focus on manned spaceflight as the primary reason for the lack of planetary missions in the 1980s.
Interesting that this decade NASA seems to be focusing on both unmanned and manned missions.
Let's just hope there will be funds available for all these plans; although I personally would sacrifice manned projects in favor of unmanned ones if it came to that. We have plenty of time later to take such bold strides - for one thing, we really need better methods for entering orbit than the current, wasteful method of simply burning loads and loads of fuel that has been practised since the inception of space flight. This would, of course, benefit unmanned missions as well, but in my view it is absolutely crucial for the viability of manned missions.
Pop-up and pop-under ads of any variety haven't been around long ... ???
They've been around TOO long. More specifically, they have been around, period.
Heh - not unfair at all. After all, Every internet address starts with 'dubya'!
Where does this break even talk come from?
The story doesn't say anything about breaking even, not in 2014 or at any other time.
All it says about the year 2014 is this:
And, a recent Oakland Tribune article reported that nuclear fusion experiments aren't expected to begin until 2014 - more than a decade later than originally planned.
This most likely means that 2014 is the year when fusion experiments using this particular method will begin.
Allow me to fill in the blanks:
Change businessmodel from:
1. Do stuff
2. Sell it
3. Profit!
To:
1. Do stuff
2. Give it away for free
3. Sell services.
4. Profit!
Right?
Prof. MacHale also notes that subsequent to The Laws of Thought, Boole undertook to rewrite the Bible in his mathematical logic.
I'm very curious about this ... how exactly would you go about representing text with mathematical logic? He must have needed to invent some ad-hoc method to do this, right?
Anyone know anything about this?
The article is actually rather detailed and well-thought. The author makes some interesting arguments about why the Internet has not been as great a vessel for democratic progress as some hoped it would be.
One argument is that yes, geeks do not socialize. More specifically, the author argues that the Internet is inherently detrimental to social debate:
Another shortcoming of the Internet is that it lends itself to individual rather than communal activities. It "is about people sitting in front of a terminal, barely interacting," says one Laotian researcher. The Web is less well-suited to fostering political discussion and debate because, unlike radio or even television, it does not generally bring people together in one house or one room.
Another argument is that many governments have simply stifled the Internet completely, reducing its utility altogether:
But the Internet's inherent flaws as a political medium are only part of the reason for its failure to spread liberty. More significant has been the ease with which authoritarian regimes have controlled and, in some cases, subverted it. The most straightforward way governments have responded to opposition websites has been simply to shut them down.
It goes on to mention a great number of examples of such activities; including government policies in Singapore, China and Saudi Arabia, among other countries. I could not fail to be outraged at reading descriptions of such vile cencorship, which is unfortunately a fact of life for a great number of the world's Internet users.
From the article (on an Internet Cafe in Laos):
Yet, despite its trendiness and high-tech appearance, the Internet joint conspicuously lacked one element usually associated with cafe life: any discussion of current events. Virtually no one in the cafe spoke with anyone else.
Geez - geeks not socializing! What is this world coming to ?!
Slate is a prototype-based object-oriented programming language based on Self, CLOS, and Smalltalk.
From a recent post:
Prothon is a new industrial-strength, interpreted, prototype-based, object-oriented language that gets rid of classes altogether in the way that the Self language does.
Does this point to a trend in language design?
I have never understood.....when companies lie (or make questionable claims) about "fastest" or "first" people get all up-in-arms. But when companies lie about quality or other things people don't care.
Well, speed is a simple, measureable and quantifiable concept. Qualitity is much more elusive and ambiguous.
Since claims about speed can be verified, they are easy to criticise. They get you thinking "Hmmm - is this right?"; and then you can immediately start thinking of ways to verify them.
With quality and other non-quantifiable concepts, you just tend to shrug it off as just yet more business babble.
Hear, hear
This particular quote from the story is quite interesting in this context:
"It's appalling," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. "It cannot be allowed to stand that another nation can impose its values on the U.S. and make it a trade issue."
OK, so when the U.S. imposes its values on other countries, they shouldn't complain, but when others try to do it to them, it's A Bad Thing? Talk about double standards...
The U.S. politicians (I hate it when they are equated with the U.S. itself - there is a big difference) need to learn that in order for maintain good relations with other nations, everyone must follow the same set of rules.
Yup, admirable; not at least because of this:
The big loser in this matter may be SCO, said Dion Cornett, an analyst with Decatur Jones Equity Partners LLC, an equity research firm based in Chicago. Having their first publicly announced customer express second thoughts over the deal so soon after its announcement may make it difficult for SCO to sign up other customers, he said.
Finally something positive concerning SCO on slashdot!
Finally the two most important elements of the good life are combined in two:
1) gadgets
2) pr0n
This is taken from the Prothon Description
Like Python, Prothon uses indentation to control the block structure of the program instead of block/end or {}. However, Prothon only allows tabs for indentation. Any space in an indent will cause an error.
Classic bondage-and-discipline. Why oh why is this so ??
The article starts off with this:
The space agency's dogged pursuit of extreme speed, officials hope, will ultimately make space flight easier to accomplish.
OK, so exactly how is this supposed to aid space flight efforts? There is no mention made of that in the article at all.
I would have thought that the ability to reach incredible speeds in horizontal flight inside the atmosphere is unrelated to both:
1) Entering orbit (horizontal flight).
2) Flying in vaccum (different conditions than in atmosphere).
I'm confused ... any thoughts?
Uhh - isn't that because everyone already has a desktop computer? :-)
Geeks always need gadgets; the smaller devices are just what they (and others) are buying right now ...
I may be an old fart about this, but I think many of the slower more thoughtful strategy games are more fun than the twitchers. These games will always be on the PC side. I can see the migration where FPS's will tend toward the console.
I think you are right about the strategy games; the 'serious' gamers who play a lot of slower games don't usually buy consoles; and I'm not sure that there's a big incentive for the console developers to push into that market; except perhaps in Japan, where there seems to be a market for everything.
FPS's might and might not gravitate towards consoles; that will, however, only happen with better controls for the consoles - playing FPS's on anything other than a keyboard/mouse is an exercise in frustration and futility. Consoles will either need provide these, or come up with something better - if that's even possible ...
The patch model for Internet security has failed spectacularly. To remedy this, there have been a number of suggestions for ways to try to shoehorn end users into becoming security experts, including making them financially liable for the consequences of their computers being hijacked by malware or miscreants.
Who the he** suggested this? This is a frankly ridiculous idea. What about the responsibility of the programmers (or the firm they work for) who introduced the exploitable bug into the software in the first place? Why should the end user bear sole responsibility, simply because he failed to apply a patch? An interesting concept indeed ...
From the article:
SpamHaus probably won't have many hurdles from a technical stability standpoint. The organisation is tapping VeriSign, which has more experience operating TLDs than any other company, to provide the back-end infrastructure.
Be thankful; $2000 is VeriSign cutting-their-own-throats :-)