Heh. This Wasn't a setup. I actually agree with parent. The idea of my individuality being lost and joining some universal consciousness really freaks me out. I'm rather fond of me and would like me to be me for a good long time. Maybe there's some loop-hole where I can have both. Who knows.
IMHO...You have both now and you'll have both later, just not in the same way. Your personality varies from day to day, your physical composition varies from day to day...any idea of "yourself" seems to me nebulous at best, and in any means largely independant of any physical characteristics you could ascribe to it. I'm not saying that you don't have in individual existence, just that you might not have as much of an individual existence as it seems. You are, right now, a seething mass of energy masquerading as particles cooperatively working together to form the entity known as you. This energy and these particles are always changing, new ones coming, old ones going. And where do they come from and where do they go? Into this universal existence (dare I say consciousness?) known as the cosmos. You are yourself, but you are also part of the universe. Some day, the energy will decide to all go its seperate ways and you will cease to exist as you (a human on earth). It's not that you die, you just lose coherency. Does incoherency=non-existence? If everything that at one point in time existed as you still exists, do you still exist? I'd say, yes, just not in the same way. Either way, if the idea of your individuality being lost freaks you out, I would seek to reconcile the situation before death, becuase at the very least you're going to lose the individuality that you currently know.
This starts at an early age with most upon hearing that you cant have some toy/candy/etc becuase "we don't have money for that". This causes the kid to think, 'gee, when I grow up I'm going to have lots of money so I can buy anything I want'. Hang around the super market snack isle for a while to see this one in action.
That's a really interesting point. I work at a dollar store and it's both interesting and sad to see the way parents and children interact and to ponder what it might mean to the child in the grand scheme of things. It being a dollar store, many of the people are underpriveledged and undereducated and the things they tell their children... I'm constantly amazed that anybody grows up reasonably well-balanced with all the lies and deception they're fed as children. I saw a 30-something lady arguing with her 4-6 year old child over which coloring book the child wanted. "No, you don't want that one, you can draw pictures better than that, how about this one?" "I like this one" "Ugh, I give up" And I see every day, day after day, people neglecting their children, ignoring them, because they're too busy shopping for some $1 POS made by starving people in some foreign land to give a thought to their child. To interact with their child, to treat them kindly. "Shhh..momma's busy" "I SAID MOMMA'S BUSY, NOW BE QUEIT OR YOU AIN'T GETTIN' NOTHIN'" To the parents, it seems, the children are more a burden than a gift; what a great environment to develop in...but then again, I'm not a parent so I guess I shouldn't talk.
Now. If we could produce a society that would remove this fear, the entire system would collapse.
Agreed. But don't forget - there's two ways to remove fear. One is, as you mentioned, to get rid of the things that scare people. A more useful, but possibly more difficult one, is to get people to stop being scared. Sure, a plane might fall on your head, you might get hit by a car when you're crossing the street, or you might get fired and starve to death, but is it going to help anything to cause yourself suffering by fearing these things? Do you have any real control over whether they happen or not? Sometimes, bad stuff happens, and when it does, all you can do is deal with it as best you (and any other kind people willing to help you) can and hope it works out. Ultimately, there's always something that you can be afraid of, but there's never anything that you have to be afraid of.
My girlfriend once say somebody playing the trumpet while driving.
Unbelievably, I've seen this too. The person I saw had his sheet music on the steering wheel and he occasionally took both his hands off the wheel. I'm not quite sure how he was holding the music in place or steering. The times you wish you had your camera...
What's the legality of A/V mashups? Could people get in the same hot water Dangermouse did?
Yes. Negativland is a great example of this. They had a run-in with the RIAA over not clearing some samples in their 1998 release "OVER THE EDGE Volume 3 - The Weatherman's Dumb Stupid Come-Out Line". They only do mash-ups/collage as far as I know. They've also recently released (on BT as well as others) "The Mashin' of the Christ" which I don't think they've gotten in trouble for yet. They're a really cool band and do lots of activism with IP issues. Not only are they absolutely hilarious, they're really informative as well.
I don't know where you were looking but there's actually quite a bit of information on him and his inventions. I was really into Tesla when I was younger (and still am for that matter) and as a result have done a few biographies/reports on him. One of the most interesting reads is his autobiography, which is available online at this place as well as a few others. Amazon also lists quite a few books and videos. There's a lot of wierd things surrounding his life and inventions, such as the FBI confiscating his papers after he died, reports of an electric car he mad that ran off a mysterious black box at up to 70mph, and numerous claims purporting him to have come from Atlantis and/or outer space.
Still, a hax0r kiddie who steals a copy of Autocad is no skin off of anyone's back, because he was never a potential customer to begin with. But if he learns it, and eventually ends up in the business world, then that's one more license sold for Autodesk.
A common rationalization not borne out by statistics or experience. As between the freeloader who wants to take software for free, and the software vendor who wants to sell software, I leave it to the latter to decide what is the best, most likely way for them to optimize the relationship.
What statistics and experiences are you referring to here? I don't see any links or any examples. I'll offer one for you. A friend of mine is a huge media whore. Half of the (illegally owned) media (songs, movies, software) that he has, he hasn't ever used. At one point he had a pirated version of every Adobe and Macromedia product made. He started doing web devloping and told me that he used, among other things, Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I asked him how using pirated versions of software to do commercial stuff worked out. He told me that he bought a version of everything he used and that although it came out to a couple thousand dollars, that was what he made from one website, so it was worth it to him to have the support and legality that came with official versions.
All things considered, why steal software that isn't yours? If they won't give it to you for free on your terms, make your own. if you can't, and can't human engineer yourself a legitimate copy, but nevertheless descide to steal from people without permission, please OH PLEASE, spare me the homily how you are doing the vendor (or society) a service by training the workforce.
This is a good question. I've "taken" software before and my reasoning went something like this: I don't have much money, I don't know the functionality of the product and I'm probably going to use it twice and never touch it again. I'd like to say that I paid for all the software I used and found useful, but I didn't. I usually looked until I could find a freeware alternative, but if I couldn't and I didn't think it was worth it (windows), I didn't buy a copy. Those were the windows days. After I started using FreeBSD, everything changed. I haven't even thought about "stealing" software since I've had it installed. Why bother when almost anything I want is a few commands away, and legally free? I have more respect for those who author software now, appreciation for those who give it away and an acknowledgement of the rights of authors to ask a price for their work. If I can't pay for it, well, I guess I better start learning to code. And if I pay for it with my own sweat and blood (well maybe not blood), then I hope I'll choose to exercise my right to give it away, and then I'll never have to worry about anyone stealing it or having to re-write it.
Alert! A new device, known as a "Briefcase" has been increasing in popularity in the workplace. While useful for ordinary business it brings with it some sinister baggage. This nefarious device serves to conceal a large amount of objects, such as sensitive data and staplers, in a small space, enabling employee theft and espionage. While it's true that file folders have been commonplace in corporate environments for years, this new product threatens to bring unforeseen and catastrophic results. Ban it before your company falls apart and you have to spend the rest of your life living in the street trying to support your starving family.
I do think it makes sense for companies that already employ policies like searching employee belongings and metal detectors to add USB storage devices (and any data storage medium for that matter) to the list of things they check for. If you really needed to bring one in, you could have some sort of approval/checking process. As far as most companies go, I think it makes sense to judge based on whether they seem to be causing problems in the workplace, and if so, banning them or finding some other way to fix the problems. I think it would be a good idea to do virus-checking on insertion of any removeable media.
I thought this was a particularly interesting quote: "Another potential danger is that the devices -- that typically make use of USB and FireWire -- could be used to steal large amounts of company data as they are faster to download to than CDs." I think they've been watching too many movies. I highly doubt that most downloading of corporate data happens in a down-to-the-second race against corporate security. I think it's much more likely that most data is stolen by those with official access and all the time in the world. And I may be naive, but I think a corporate spy would be able to think of a better way to export data than an iPod.
I must admit that although I wouldn't hesitate to spend hours looking through a place like this, I can see how some people would consider it somewhat...boring. I think the large majority of people have no idea where these machines fit in history, what their purpose was, their place in the evolution of computers, and how they work. Maybe if the machines were up and running, so people could diddle with them (excluding the extremely rare/fragile ones) and some explanation was provided as to their place in history (which I assume is already there) and where they are in comparison to modern machines (perhaps even with a side-by-side comparison of two machines doing the same task), it may be more interesting to the average person. Or if they were at least running demos of some sort showing off their technical prowess (not sure if this is the case). It seems most people are so far removed from what these machines do, how they work, that any extra eyecandy would add greatly to their appeal. Interactivity adds a lot of draw to exhibits. I used to work for a museum (www.discoveryworld.org warning: too much flash) that had all interactive exhibits. People had lots of fun just exploring the properties of levers and pulleys, believe it or not. That being said, it does seem that it's hard enough to get people to go into a museum with myriad different subjects, let alone a musem focusing on one fairly obfuscated one. All in all, I wish you much luck. I saw the President on here - are you guys looking for donations of any sort? I saw http://www.acms.org.au/ACMS%20Prospectus%20rec%20o n%2005Feb2003.htm included a form to donate, but as most geeks, I would much prefer an online payment to mailing a printed form to australia.
You could look for apps under various headings, and install them by clicking a link.
While we're wishing, how about a consistant interface for help? Base it on XML (Docbook?) and make it possible to import info and man pages, and make it auto-update from the net with bugfixes, changes, and news.
What I think would be especially interesting is if these ideas could be merged with the aforementioned request for a gui for everything. Although this would take some time, I don't think it would be especially difficult. Most of the important utilities are there, we've just got to put them together. This is really vague ATM, but I think it serves it's purpose as an idea to be expanded upon. Since I am obsessed with recursive naming, I came up with some ideas for recursive names, as well.
1. Local gui-based help: HELP Everyone Learn Proficiently 2. Website with copies of all available HELP information 3. GUI editor for configuration files: CONF: Order Numerous Files
Here's how I would envision it working (note: based on FreeBSD, because it's what I know): User want to share files with windows computers on his/her network. User either goes to website, or goes to menu-based help, searches for "file sharing" which results in information on NFS/Samba/* with brief description of software's purpose (e.g. "Sharing files with a windows computer"). The amount/type of information given could be adjusted by a beginner/advanced selection. They'd click on it, and it would bring them to a longer description and an option to install. If they chose to install, it would prompt for a root PW & install type (default, specify options), then run the installation (cd/usr/ports/net/samba && make install clean). It would then prompt whether the user wanted to use the default config file. If so, it would find it, rename it, change any other relevant confs and start the service.
It would work something like this: for any given program, HELP would know: 1. Program name, associated files, dependencies (gotten from pkg_info/rpm/*) 2. Options for compilation/installation (gotten from README/man/INSTALL/*) 3. Usage information/links to more information 4. Reference to CONF information for said program.
CONF would know: 1. Conf options with possible values 2. Configuration file default names 3. Configuration file local names 4. Local conf file values All gotten from man pages/author docs/user submission/local polling.
It seems to me, all you'd need is: format for storing HELP/CONF information. People to input information. Some sort of porting system/auto-installing system. And writing of HELP/CONF programs. Is this do-able? Am I Crazy?
For a good example of this, I'd suggest checking into the Debian GNU/FreeBSD project: "There are currently two separate efforts for building a Debian distribution based on FreeBSD's kernel. Both are work in progress in experimental stage, and we have not fully decided yet which of them will become the official Debian GNU/FreeBSD."
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Heh. This Wasn't a setup. I actually agree with parent. The idea of my individuality being lost and joining some universal consciousness really freaks me out. I'm rather fond of me and would like me to be me for a good long time. Maybe there's some loop-hole where I can have both. Who knows.
IMHO...You have both now and you'll have both later, just not in the same way. Your personality varies from day to day, your physical composition varies from day to day...any idea of "yourself" seems to me nebulous at best, and in any means largely independant of any physical characteristics you could ascribe to it. I'm not saying that you don't have in individual existence, just that you might not have as much of an individual existence as it seems. You are, right now, a seething mass of energy masquerading as particles cooperatively working together to form the entity known as you. This energy and these particles are always changing, new ones coming, old ones going. And where do they come from and where do they go? Into this universal existence (dare I say consciousness?) known as the cosmos. You are yourself, but you are also part of the universe. Some day, the energy will decide to all go its seperate ways and you will cease to exist as you (a human on earth). It's not that you die, you just lose coherency. Does incoherency=non-existence? If everything that at one point in time existed as you still exists, do you still exist? I'd say, yes, just not in the same way. Either way, if the idea of your individuality being lost freaks you out, I would seek to reconcile the situation before death, becuase at the very least you're going to lose the individuality that you currently know.
This starts at an early age with most upon hearing that you cant have some toy/candy/etc becuase "we don't have money for that". This causes the kid to think, 'gee, when I grow up I'm going to have lots of money so I can buy anything I want'. Hang around the super market snack isle for a while to see this one in action.
That's a really interesting point. I work at a dollar store and it's both interesting and sad to see the way parents and children interact and to ponder what it might mean to the child in the grand scheme of things. It being a dollar store, many of the people are underpriveledged and undereducated and the things they tell their children... I'm constantly amazed that anybody grows up reasonably well-balanced with all the lies and deception they're fed as children. I saw a 30-something lady arguing with her 4-6 year old child over which coloring book the child wanted. "No, you don't want that one, you can draw pictures better than that, how about this one?" "I like this one" "Ugh, I give up" And I see every day, day after day, people neglecting their children, ignoring them, because they're too busy shopping for some $1 POS made by starving people in some foreign land to give a thought to their child. To interact with their child, to treat them kindly. "Shhh..momma's busy" "I SAID MOMMA'S BUSY, NOW BE QUEIT OR YOU AIN'T GETTIN' NOTHIN'" To the parents, it seems, the children are more a burden than a gift; what a great environment to develop in...but then again, I'm not a parent so I guess I shouldn't talk.
Now. If we could produce a society that would remove this fear, the entire system would collapse.
Agreed. But don't forget - there's two ways to remove fear. One is, as you mentioned, to get rid of the things that scare people. A more useful, but possibly more difficult one, is to get people to stop being scared. Sure, a plane might fall on your head, you might get hit by a car when you're crossing the street, or you might get fired and starve to death, but is it going to help anything to cause yourself suffering by fearing these things? Do you have any real control over whether they happen or not? Sometimes, bad stuff happens, and when it does, all you can do is deal with it as best you (and any other kind people willing to help you) can and hope it works out. Ultimately, there's always something that you can be afraid of, but there's never anything that you have to be afraid of.
My girlfriend once say somebody playing the trumpet while driving.
Unbelievably, I've seen this too. The person I saw had his sheet music on the steering wheel and he occasionally took both his hands off the wheel. I'm not quite sure how he was holding the music in place or steering. The times you wish you had your camera...
What's the legality of A/V mashups? Could people get in the same hot water Dangermouse did?
Yes. Negativland is a great example of this. They had a run-in with the RIAA over not clearing some samples in their 1998 release "OVER THE EDGE Volume 3 - The Weatherman's Dumb Stupid Come-Out Line". They only do mash-ups/collage as far as I know. They've also recently released (on BT as well as others) "The Mashin' of the Christ" which I don't think they've gotten in trouble for yet. They're a really cool band and do lots of activism with IP issues. Not only are they absolutely hilarious, they're really informative as well.
I don't know where you were looking but there's actually quite a bit of information on him and his inventions. I was really into Tesla when I was younger (and still am for that matter) and as a result have done a few biographies/reports on him. One of the most interesting reads is his autobiography, which is available online at this place as well as a few others. Amazon also lists quite a few books and videos. There's a lot of wierd things surrounding his life and inventions, such as the FBI confiscating his papers after he died, reports of an electric car he mad that ran off a mysterious black box at up to 70mph, and numerous claims purporting him to have come from Atlantis and/or outer space.
Still, a hax0r kiddie who steals a copy of Autocad is no skin off of anyone's back, because he was never a potential customer to begin with. But if he learns it, and eventually ends up in the business world, then that's one more license sold for Autodesk.
A common rationalization not borne out by statistics or experience. As between the freeloader who wants to take software for free, and the software vendor who wants to sell software, I leave it to the latter to decide what is the best, most likely way for them to optimize the relationship.
What statistics and experiences are you referring to here? I don't see any links or any examples. I'll offer one for you. A friend of mine is a huge media whore. Half of the (illegally owned) media (songs, movies, software) that he has, he hasn't ever used. At one point he had a pirated version of every Adobe and Macromedia product made. He started doing web devloping and told me that he used, among other things, Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I asked him how using pirated versions of software to do commercial stuff worked out. He told me that he bought a version of everything he used and that although it came out to a couple thousand dollars, that was what he made from one website, so it was worth it to him to have the support and legality that came with official versions.
All things considered, why steal software that isn't yours? If they won't give it to you for free on your terms, make your own. if you can't, and can't human engineer yourself a legitimate copy, but nevertheless descide to steal from people without permission, please OH PLEASE, spare me the homily how you are doing the vendor (or society) a service by training the workforce.
This is a good question. I've "taken" software before and my reasoning went something like this: I don't have much money, I don't know the functionality of the product and I'm probably going to use it twice and never touch it again. I'd like to say that I paid for all the software I used and found useful, but I didn't. I usually looked until I could find a freeware alternative, but if I couldn't and I didn't think it was worth it (windows), I didn't buy a copy. Those were the windows days. After I started using FreeBSD, everything changed. I haven't even thought about "stealing" software since I've had it installed. Why bother when almost anything I want is a few commands away, and legally free? I have more respect for those who author software now, appreciation for those who give it away and an acknowledgement of the rights of authors to ask a price for their work. If I can't pay for it, well, I guess I better start learning to code. And if I pay for it with my own sweat and blood (well maybe not blood), then I hope I'll choose to exercise my right to give it away, and then I'll never have to worry about anyone stealing it or having to re-write it.
Alert! A new device, known as a "Briefcase" has been increasing in popularity in the workplace. While useful for ordinary business it brings with it some sinister baggage. This nefarious device serves to conceal a large amount of objects, such as sensitive data and staplers, in a small space, enabling employee theft and espionage. While it's true that file folders have been commonplace in corporate environments for years, this new product threatens to bring unforeseen and catastrophic results. Ban it before your company falls apart and you have to spend the rest of your life living in the street trying to support your starving family.
I do think it makes sense for companies that already employ policies like searching employee belongings and metal detectors to add USB storage devices (and any data storage medium for that matter) to the list of things they check for. If you really needed to bring one in, you could have some sort of approval/checking process. As far as most companies go, I think it makes sense to judge based on whether they seem to be causing problems in the workplace, and if so, banning them or finding some other way to fix the problems. I think it would be a good idea to do virus-checking on insertion of any removeable media.
I thought this was a particularly interesting quote:
"Another potential danger is that the devices -- that typically make use of USB and FireWire -- could be used to steal large amounts of company data as they are faster to download to than CDs."
I think they've been watching too many movies. I highly doubt that most downloading of corporate data happens in a down-to-the-second race against corporate security. I think it's much more likely that most data is stolen by those with official access and all the time in the world. And I may be naive, but I think a corporate spy would be able to think of a better way to export data than an iPod.
I must admit that although I wouldn't hesitate to spend hours looking through a place like this, I can see how some people would consider it somewhat...boring. I think the large majority of people have no idea where these machines fit in history, what their purpose was, their place in the evolution of computers, and how they work. Maybe if the machines were up and running, so people could diddle with them (excluding the extremely rare/fragile ones) and some explanation was provided as to their place in history (which I assume is already there) and where they are in comparison to modern machines (perhaps even with a side-by-side comparison of two machines doing the same task), it may be more interesting to the average person. Or if they were at least running demos of some sort showing off their technical prowess (not sure if this is the case). It seems most people are so far removed from what these machines do, how they work, that any extra eyecandy would add greatly to their appeal. Interactivity adds a lot of draw to exhibits. I used to work for a museum (www.discoveryworld.org warning: too much flash) that had all interactive exhibits. People had lots of fun just exploring the properties of levers and pulleys, believe it or not. That being said, it does seem that it's hard enough to get people to go into a museum with myriad different subjects, let alone a musem focusing on one fairly obfuscated one.o n%2005Feb2003.htm included a form to donate, but as most geeks, I would much prefer an online payment to mailing a printed form to australia.
All in all, I wish you much luck. I saw the President on here - are you guys looking for donations of any sort?
I saw http://www.acms.org.au/ACMS%20Prospectus%20rec%20
You could look for apps under various headings, and install them by clicking a link.
/usr/ports/net/samba && make install clean). It would then prompt whether the user wanted to use the default config file. If so, it would find it, rename it, change any other relevant confs and start the service.
While we're wishing, how about a consistant interface for help? Base it on XML (Docbook?) and make it possible to import info and man pages, and make it auto-update from the net with bugfixes, changes, and news.
What I think would be especially interesting is if these ideas could be merged with the aforementioned request for a gui for everything. Although this would take some time, I don't think it would be especially difficult. Most of the important utilities are there, we've just got to put them together. This is really vague ATM, but I think it serves it's purpose as an idea to be expanded upon. Since I am obsessed with recursive naming, I came up with some ideas for recursive names, as well.
1. Local gui-based help: HELP Everyone Learn Proficiently
2. Website with copies of all available HELP information
3. GUI editor for configuration files: CONF: Order Numerous Files
Here's how I would envision it working (note: based on FreeBSD, because it's what I know):
User want to share files with windows computers on his/her network. User either goes to website, or goes to menu-based help, searches for "file sharing" which results in information on NFS/Samba/* with brief description of software's purpose (e.g. "Sharing files with a windows computer"). The amount/type of information given could be adjusted by a beginner/advanced selection. They'd click on it, and it would bring them to a longer description and an option to install. If they chose to install, it would prompt for a root PW & install type (default, specify options), then run the installation (cd
It would work something like this: for any given program, HELP would know:
1. Program name, associated files, dependencies (gotten from pkg_info/rpm/*)
2. Options for compilation/installation (gotten from README/man/INSTALL/*)
3. Usage information/links to more information
4. Reference to CONF information for said program.
CONF would know:
1. Conf options with possible values
2. Configuration file default names
3. Configuration file local names
4. Local conf file values
All gotten from man pages/author docs/user submission/local polling.
It seems to me, all you'd need is: format for storing HELP/CONF information. People to input information. Some sort of porting system/auto-installing system. And writing of HELP/CONF programs. Is this do-able? Am I Crazy?
For a good example of this, I'd suggest checking into the Debian GNU/FreeBSD project:
"There are currently two separate efforts for building a Debian distribution based on FreeBSD's kernel. Both are work in progress in experimental stage, and we have not fully decided yet which of them will become the official Debian GNU/FreeBSD."
-http://www.debian.org/ports/freebsd/index