Ok, well, my previous post got labeled "troll" because I made a remark about watches getting infected with viruses.
But I guess that my joke was part of another point that I didn't really elaborate: at what point do we really need to incorporate trivial features into *every* single electronic device. I mean, do we really need stock tickers or generic weather reports in our *watches*? Why do our microwaves need an IP address?
In all seriousness, MS gets bashed for BSODs, viruses, and general instability. A great deal of that comes from trying to make one thing do EVERYthing. Why can't a watch just be... a watch? I think rather than pack gadgets into everything, elegance sometimes comes from finding the right balance between simplicity and functionality.
Seems like there's a lot of potential for abuse with this, especially given that right now you have to manually edit the prefs file to turn it off. What's to stop a page from tagging a really huge file, hosted on someone *else's* server as a "prefetch" item. Everyone who goes to page A starts "prefetching" from page B in the background - enough people do this and you've got a DOS going on.
Even if that scenario is not likely, I think it's still an odd choice for Mozilla - the philosophy behind the idea seems to be "the browser knows best and will think for you behind the scenes." On the one hand that sounds great: the browser will anticipate my next move. On the other, that doesn't sound so great... My cable modem starts blinking when I think I'm not grabbing anything and I get suspicious.
I'll say at the outset that I don't know what these scores count for in Comp Sci grad school.
However, as a former Humanities grad school slave (yeah, do you want fries with that?), I can tell you that the subject test in English for the GRE counts for EVERYTHING in the grad school application for English. Went to a shoddy undergrad? Have a 2.4 gpa? Aced the GRE subject test? NO problems. Welcome to Columbia, Yale, etc.
I had signed up for $39.95/month service about 3 months ago. After I read this story, I checked my bill and sure enough they had chaged me $49.95 for this month. I emailed customer service, and got this reply:
Hello GeorgePBurdell,
Thank you for contacting Earthlink Customer Service.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
According to our information, this was an error in the billing of your account. We have credited back the charges and we are doing everything
within our power to prevent this from happening again.
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you,
ECS Representative
EarthLink Customer Service
As a grad student in English, I think I can solve this little puzzle:
You can pretty much bet that any "English" person who claims to suddenly "discover" a puzzle, riddle, or crypto doesn't know anything at all about puzzles, riddles, or especially crypto. English professors get paid to publish *any*thing new. If they can find a supposed "unsolvable" puzzle, it means a potential theory book for them, and a lecutre tour. Don't believe the hype.
It's always interesting to equate "free" movements of the past with debates about freedoms in the present. If one looks carefully into the meaning and usage of the word "free" one finds that the enlightenment (just to use the example by Mr. Katz) tends to use the word "free" to essentially mean "proprietary." This usage is part of a historical legacy of property ownership which equated "freedom" with "exclusive rights to a thing". To be "free" (Libertas) in latin conveys the idea of rights of exclusion - the right to exclude others from your proprety, your monopoly, your franchise. To be "free" of a town meant that you had trade rights in that town or city - a privilege to be inherited, bought or bribed. To own land in "freehold" meant that you had exclusive rights to that land (as opposed to other more awkward rent-models of ownership, like "copyhold"). The "Liberties of the House of Commons" in England were particular priviliges accorded to a very minority membership of the very wealthy: immunity from arrest, and the right to uncensored discussion.
I think sometimes we have a tendency to romanticize the past's own sense of freedoms - especially as they relate to the foundation of the "free" republic of America. To look back to the "freedoms" of the Enlightenment and then say "where are we compared to THAT sense of freedom" is a fiction of freedom. Humans have always had a tendency to grab and hold on - fortunately we also have a tendency to break down and destroy barriers. These forces working in tandem form a pretty complex human dialogue and perhaps it's too simple to look to a small part of the rhetoric of the "Enlightenment" or the "Renaissance" (both loaded terms stressing an artificial sense of advance or progression) for a vision of our present.
Interestingly enough, with all the recent hubub over "millennium capsules," the proposals for the NYTimes capsule wrestled with this very question of data loss. One group came up with a pretty impressive solution: genetically splice/embed data into the DNA of a cockroach - then reproduce it and set them in the wild.
I can't really see the distinction between "educational" and "non-educational" use. Personally, I learned more about computers because I became addicted to my ATARI2600 in Jr. High and hung out at the video arcade at the mall too much (Missile Command, anyone?). These days, being a Quake playa is to the computing world what golf is to the medical profession. Sure, you don't *have* to do it, but you meet lots more folks if you do. Hard-core mudders sometimes pick up C just to make their own muds. I did. Before mudding, I had never programmed before.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, after December you *have* to upgrade if you enjoy things like security and bug fixes for anything older than RedHat 9.0.
Link: http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/errata/
Ok, well, my previous post got labeled "troll" because I made a remark about watches getting infected with viruses.
... a watch? I think rather than pack gadgets into everything, elegance sometimes comes from finding the right balance between simplicity and functionality.
But I guess that my joke was part of another point that I didn't really elaborate: at what point do we really need to incorporate trivial features into *every* single electronic device. I mean, do we really need stock tickers or generic weather reports in our *watches*? Why do our microwaves need an IP address?
In all seriousness, MS gets bashed for BSODs, viruses, and general instability. A great deal of that comes from trying to make one thing do EVERYthing. Why can't a watch just be
How long before the "I love you, watch" virus?
Or maybe "I very excite watch".
Perhaps "I send you this watch to ask your opinion".
Maybe they can pack an IIS implementation in there as well. Will there be "Windows Udate" for watches?
Seems like there's a lot of potential for abuse with this, especially given that right now you have to manually edit the prefs file to turn it off. What's to stop a page from tagging a really huge file, hosted on someone *else's* server as a "prefetch" item. Everyone who goes to page A starts "prefetching" from page B in the background - enough people do this and you've got a DOS going on.
Even if that scenario is not likely, I think it's still an odd choice for Mozilla - the philosophy behind the idea seems to be "the browser knows best and will think for you behind the scenes." On the one hand that sounds great: the browser will anticipate my next move. On the other, that doesn't sound so great... My cable modem starts blinking when I think I'm not grabbing anything and I get suspicious.
I'll say at the outset that I don't know what these scores count for in Comp Sci grad school.
However, as a former Humanities grad school slave (yeah, do you want fries with that?), I can tell you that the subject test in English for the GRE counts for EVERYTHING in the grad school application for English. Went to a shoddy undergrad? Have a 2.4 gpa? Aced the GRE subject test? NO problems. Welcome to Columbia, Yale, etc.
I had signed up for $39.95/month service about 3 months ago. After I read this story, I checked my bill and sure enough they had chaged me $49.95 for this month. I emailed customer service, and got this reply:
Hello GeorgePBurdell,
Thank you for contacting Earthlink Customer Service.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
According to our information, this was an error in the billing of your account. We have credited back the charges and we are doing everything
within our power to prevent this from happening again.
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you,
ECS Representative
EarthLink Customer Service
Hey gang,
As a grad student in English, I think I can solve this little puzzle:
You can pretty much bet that any "English" person who claims to suddenly "discover" a puzzle, riddle, or crypto doesn't know anything at all about puzzles, riddles, or especially crypto. English professors get paid to publish *any*thing new. If they can find a supposed "unsolvable" puzzle, it means a potential theory book for them, and a lecutre tour. Don't believe the hype.
GPB
It's always interesting to equate "free" movements of the past with debates about freedoms in the present. If one looks carefully into the meaning and usage of the word "free" one finds that the enlightenment (just to use the example by Mr. Katz) tends to use the word "free" to essentially mean "proprietary." This usage is part of a historical legacy of property ownership which equated "freedom" with "exclusive rights to a thing". To be "free" (Libertas) in latin conveys the idea of rights of exclusion - the right to exclude others from your proprety, your monopoly, your franchise. To be "free" of a town meant that you had trade rights in that town or city - a privilege to be inherited, bought or bribed. To own land in "freehold" meant that you had exclusive rights to that land (as opposed to other more awkward rent-models of ownership, like "copyhold"). The "Liberties of the House of Commons" in England were particular priviliges accorded to a very minority membership of the very wealthy: immunity from arrest, and the right to uncensored discussion.
I think sometimes we have a tendency to romanticize the past's own sense of freedoms - especially as they relate to the foundation of the "free" republic of America. To look back to the "freedoms" of the Enlightenment and then say "where are we compared to THAT sense of freedom" is a fiction of freedom. Humans have always had a tendency to grab and hold on - fortunately we also have a tendency to break down and destroy barriers. These forces working in tandem form a pretty complex human dialogue and perhaps it's too simple to look to a small part of the rhetoric of the "Enlightenment" or the "Renaissance" (both loaded terms stressing an artificial sense of advance or progression) for a vision of our present.
GPB
Interestingly enough, with all the recent hubub over "millennium capsules," the proposals for the NYTimes capsule wrestled with this very question of data loss. One group came up with a pretty impressive solution: genetically splice/embed data into the DNA of a cockroach - then reproduce it and set them in the wild.
i um/m6/design-lanier.html
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/millenn
That data will survive everything.
I can't really see the distinction between "educational" and "non-educational" use. Personally, I learned more about computers because I became addicted to my ATARI2600 in Jr. High and hung out at the video arcade at the mall too much (Missile Command, anyone?). These days, being a Quake playa is to the computing world what golf is to the medical profession. Sure, you don't *have* to do it, but you meet lots more folks if you do. Hard-core mudders sometimes pick up C just to make their own muds. I did. Before mudding, I had never programmed before.
GPB