Guess what? It was a pain in the gluteus maximus to find anything on the internet in 1996. So? What does that prove? Google does a heck of a better job than lycos or even altavista did back then. I'm guessing they'll get better...(Maybe that's my bias towards the Python folks unnatural intelligence shining through..).
Yes, there's more junk. But the bad news (which is what the poster is pointing to) is that it's become much more difficult to discern that it *is* junk before wasting a lot of time. Everyone and their granny has a cute sexy site.
On the other hand, the old "good" sites are still there (BBC, Rob Carroll's Skeptics Dictionary etc. etc.).
Personally, I *hope* the general public gets out of playing with the internet. Sorry to be elitist, but it would be far more pleasant to do anything whether it's academic or business related.
In terms of traffic, I'd guess that the amount of spam and ZombieBot (TM) nets out there is beginning to become a serious problem. I haven't seen any figures (% trafficwise) but I'd guess it's growing fast.
The answer is user education. Contrary to a lot of people I don't think that means "go use Linux" - because (donning asbestos butt plug) until someone manages to clone Windoze a la DR-DOS we will still be locked into a deadly embrace with the folks from Redmond...
It would be nice if some kind historian would point out what happened when that idiot Gutenberg made printing presses , and the reaction at the time...
No it doesn't. Even if it did you have to remember that there are a lot of astronomers out there and just like any "big science" instrument they have to queue up and wait for time (if they're lucky 3.a.m. on a Sunday which happens to be Dec 25).
Happiness is a scientist who gets a time slot which isn't so inconvenient. (So, 100 Hubbles wouldn't be out of order really).
On the earth we have this pesky stuff called weather too. If it's cloudy Dec 25 @ 3.a.m. then tough luck - no PhD, (or worse alpha-minus funding which (that's the old UK jargon) means that even though you had a great idea for research you don't get any money and have to go flip burgers).
I personally hope that our older (and often surprisingly wiser) friends get to live to 120. I'm a mere 45 year old.
Anyone who thinks that Martin Gardner went senile at age 60 is obviously brain dead. He's 90 now, and we hope he beats George Burns...
Don't trash older folk. I once used to help my father at the oldest continously running hospital in Europe (The Great Hospital Bishopsgate Norwich) and I can tell you that the worst thing you can do to an older person is dump them in a place for old people...
When I left university (Bristol UK), I spent a couple of years working in a company with a couple of guys pushing 70 who could do *TRUE* magic with their machine work (one was from British Aerospace and the other from Rolls Royce Aerospace).
Don't even think of criticizing concorde or anything else with people like that - they would rip your spine out and feed it to your rear end!
Bottom line, be humble and learn. It's a rough ride out there (nod to the sargent in Hill St Blues).
Hmm. Take that to it's logical endpoint and we wouldn't have anaesthesia and antibiotics. I guess you'd really like to understand why surgeons in the UK are called "Mr.". Speed surgery. With hacksaws. (No painkillers). Yuck. But seriously, we hold these guys in great regard. (and we love their passion for not being the quacks that couldn't fix things).
Things are *going* to get really interesting. Go read some 60's science fiction and that's where we are headed. Pretty weird really. But, since you are aware of it, you should be one of those who defines the ethics rather than waiting for others to define it for you. You don't get to opt out of society. Not ever.
You really think they want *anti* aging? Oh boy, just imagine nanites aging you because you don't support the prevailing political view. Live fast and die young baby....
Yuck.
I want some anti anti nano machines I can buy from the local kiosk...
This gets really weird if you think about it. Anything we thought was speculative goes out the window really fast. (and I've been watching the sci fi perspective for almost 30 years).
Sounds familiar. Always the media will pretend that a small number of "hooligans" are responsible for what happens, when in actuality, most people were minding their own damn business. I make a point of running away like hell when I see anything like a demo here in Athens GR. Don't want to end up with an oxygen mask in hospital...
Non lethal weapons. Yes. I see that. But non-lethal is a really broad brush to cover things that can do what you say (even water cannons can cause bad injury).
Best approach is to avoid doing anything and *talking* to the demonstrators. Normally, they're pretty reasonable people with a genuine grievance.
Underline this and frame it on the wall Policeman. It saves lives...
"elected politicians wouldn't hurt anyone". Obviously, you don't know about "Peterloo". I guess you're just being sarcastic here because at Peterloo in the early part of the 19th century, the army did something so horrid it started the foundation of the notion of a police force (sorry I mean in the uk)
(ironically by a very conservative guy called Peel). Hence, our police force (in kinder moments) are called "bobbies" after that stern victorian...
I question the idea that bureaucrats are human. I think our politicians are, but we get the ones we deserve. If we ask better questions, we can weed out the lusers quicker...
That said, there are exceptional people (both politicians and others), my favourite (and don't read anything about my politics into this) being Tony Benn in the UK.
Heck - even right wing tories *love* tony. Because he is an inspiration to anyone who wants to care about the people they are supposed to be servants of. True democracy lets you love your opponent (almost Klingon style) and yet want to savage them.
I would love to see this level of intelligence in US politics. What I see makes sesame street look like an M.Sc study course for those guys..
huh? Loud is bad for the police on the scene. Sorry, but I thought that was their job. Pepper balls? Oh right, you mean extreme agony in the eyes and lungs and potential need to hospitalize asthma sufferers (who might die). Youch. This isn't lightweight policing. This is stupid.
To put it into perspective: The US is about to elect a new president, who has almost world level government rights. (Even though most of us don't get to elect him). Somebody wants to protest, and they get *PEPPER SPRAY*. Sorry, I think you keep that for dogs that are threatening to chew a chunk of your leg.
Hmm. You don't need to be a libertarian to scream about this. It doesn't make sense... Mob mentality? Yeah, I bet the little girl who dad brought along has a mob mentality.
As for self-preservation, if you go study tapes of things you'll see that it's just a few guys that want to wind up the tension. Not like the intelligence community doesn't know their names (and their grandmother's names)....
Sadly, across the planet our "constabulary" (ok, canadians and englishmen know what I mean) or the "cops" for you US folks, *are* racist.
One of the prime reasons is that they aren't exactly the most intellectually endowed folks.
They can't help it. Without our help. Some are aware of this, but a lot aren't. Mostly, they don't get paid so well, and hence like anyone with not a lot of self esteem are easy to compromise (if you've got deep pockets).
I have a lot of sympathy for them. They see the dark underbelly of the world (24 hours a day).
So, it's difficult for them to have any affinity with the good things of the world.
In the old days in the UK, the policeman was as much a part of society as the baker or blacksmith or doctor.
Help them get this insight, and they will become better policeman. They are there to serve *us*, and we have to help them, not just trash them because they make horrible mistakes (my least favourite being that pour bast*rd in NY who is carrying his bowels around in a plastic bag).
Don't be lazy and assume "policing" is just *their* job. It's yours as well. We just rely on them for the truly yucky stuff (don't ever go to a lecture on forensic pathology with a full stomach).
Wait. The US isn't Germany. If somebody *did* wear a shirt with "Hitler was right" then you don't get the right to beat them up, or do anything except something passively non-violent.
OK. That's democracy. Hate it ok. Even Winston Churchill loathed it (and commented that it was the best worst system).
If enough people feel something, you should *notice*, and ask why. Not just trash them. Even if their views are repugnant...Just demonizing views you don't care for results in those views having credance. Good arguments against require good study.
Eh? I don't know the full details, but if you're even marginally right, then for sure according to the U.S constitution (which even as an Englishman I'm intimately familiar with) the word "first amendment rights" rings out...
Hey, I was born in Norfolk UK, and my soul bro Tom Paine was really heavily involved with that uh, revolution of yours...
I'm hearing more and more of this stuff both in the US, and increasingly in the UK. For the latter, I'm sufficiently pissed about it to not want to live at home anymore. I'll stay here in Greece. Arguments, meaningless arguments maybe, but no way it gets to violate the right to protest.. (except about computer games). Perhaps Lord Byron had the right idea...
Right. You've hit on social networking, but it wasn't just for geeks. Most of my AD+D friends were blue collar, (and on the side jazz rock musicians).
There's a long tradition of having a boring day job and thinking outside the usual football (soccer) loop.
Yes, this stuff *is* evil. Just like Scientific American, James Randi, Martin Gardner and all those other wicked "freethinkers". (Hint: I'm from Norfolk UK although in Athens GR and my hero from there is Tom Paine). I'm all in favour of it. Get enough of them, and it'll be the death of organized cults (no names mentioned). Remember - the 36th triangle number is 666...
It's very sad really. But it isn't John Carmacks fault. You know, we always associate one guy with everything good and bad about a project or game, whereas it's always a team effort.
Doom 3, *almost* defined a new genre of game. A game which could have been an heir to those wonderful movies by John Carpenter. Unfortunately, it blew it. Totally. Up until you start on that mindless
LOOP
enter_room()
lights_go_out()
monster_jumps_out_behind_you()
switch_to_gun()// too slowly
kill_monster() END;
stuff, it's almost superb...
I hope he stops playing with those goddammn amateur rockets (in the worst sense of amateur) and focusses on doing what he's good at... (But, a warning to those who are complacent. He just might make a new games engine that the other John.C could make horror movies with).
I for one await Quake 4 with baited breath... (This time, Raven doesn't have any excuses...).
Re:Fixing fundamental design mistakes?
on
Linus Interviewed
·
· Score: 1
Eh? The kernel very definitely should mind it's own business!
(Even on a non microkernel architecture the kernel's responsibilities shouldn't be to be a nanny).
Linux *is* mostly based on a classic UNIX architecture and hence exploits can still happen if admins are dumb enough not to grok security -
UNIX has a discretionary security policy (you get to
be as stupid as you are), whereas what you're asking
for is a mandatory security policy (we won't let you
do anything without sacrificing goats to our deity).
Guess which one performs better? Mostly, human
societies and technologies are based on the former.
I sort of don't like the latter. Like a hitech version of Burma or North Korea...
The real answer is to focus on solving the criminal issues associated with these things trans-nationally, not getting more paranoid every
time we go to sleep. (I've seen where that leads and the word xenophobia pops into my head unbidden).
Re:Sounds like a great guy!
on
Linus Interviewed
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Yep. But, you see, he never realised what a hurricane he'd unleashed on the world. It was just a guy (like any one of us) trying to solve a problem. Just that he was at exactly the right point in history and spatially to start that hurricane.
Agree with your post Dante. Hands up you guys who *don't* know about Ramanujan? Most Asian cultures treat education and self-improvement as a *must* for their kids. Code monkeys? Huh? if the poster that wrote that really believes that he deserves to go the way of the trilobites...
Bit sad really. Same complacency that lost my country (the UK) a tech lead in almost everything.
... But should they be getting $100K?? I don't know what constitutes good money in the US, but here in Greece 1000 euros/month is considered fair. You'd get better money selling your rear end.
(But, in truth, there aren't a hell of a lot of uber hackers of any sort here). Still, the fringe benefits (great food, really sexy cute ladies) make this a lot more pleasant than many countries.
Smart and talented usually means self taught a la Mike Faraday...Not many of those anywhere. You want to drop out, and outsource from here? Weathers great (unlike my home country = UK).
But, you can always train a non maths/cs body especially if they have a science/engineering background. Heck, when I think over 20+years in this industry, most of us are chemists, physicists and psychologists. Not maths/cs. Maths/cs people have been mistaught and intellectually abused too badly to train in good engineering. Good engineers are eternal students...
Given that history teaches us that small teams of really motivated smart folk make the real breakthroughs, why is it that management always goes for the mongolian horde approach?
I don't see adaptive programming/engineering/science people dying as a breed ever. It's just that you have to accept doing more of the dirty jobs (firefighting) than coding. After all, coding isn't really your life's goal is it? is it? (In any case, coding was always the least element)
Foo. If you're lucky (as I've been) you get to design/implement a shrink wrap product *and* get locked into that "typecasting" a la Tom Baker as Dr.Who until you jump ship.
Right now, I'm pseudo self employed and get to consider researching weird insect repellents for one of my partners, ASP.NET for another, and deworming computers for another. Heck, it's a lot more fun than being a small cog in a big wheel.
Just less money. Downlifeing I think they call it. Yoda name not is.
Yes. A friend of mine in the early 80's had the idea of re-broadcasting a rolling stones concert (live in Bristol from Ashton Gate football ground). He commisioned a good friend from the MoD (popularly called the Ministry Of Death:->) to design a transmitter, and stereo encoder. Beautiful design. Better spec than the BBC. I almost built the thing.
One night, at 3.a.m. he climbed one of the 120ft lighting towers and set up his (small) FM transmitter. His plan was to send the signal to a line of sight apartment and mix it down onto his Revox.
Unfortunately, 10W was a *lot* more audible than just LOS. 1/3rd of Bristol (c.a. 100,000 people) got to hear the stone's live for free!
There's more to this story, but I won't bore anyone with it...
Don't underestimate how far a low power (QRP) signal can travel...
AgniTheSane? Eh? I live in Athens GR, and Smart car users rank as the most insane inept, and generally stupid drivers in Athens (which is saying something). Not only do they park *on the sidewalk* (translated for our bro's in the states), but thanks to our City Mothers (tm) the railings put in to stop us being foolish enough to risk becoming road pizza block us from getting past the damn things..
So, a simple journey of 100m on foot becomes something akin to a Drunkard's walk. (I could mention the sad "moggy" (cat) which got road pizzaed live last easter, but I'd rather not).
A while back I stood in absolute astonishment while a "smart car loser" tried to park one of those little Mercedes/Swatch things in a space which would have been ample for a stretch limo. 15 minutes later, the guy selling motorcycles (Ag. Dmitri Ambelokipi Athens) was almost at the same risk of emptying his bladder into his jeans. (The person (sex deleted) parked 1m away from the kerb). Never mind it's a local traffic bottleneck.
AARRGGH!
Beware smart car users. They are short on neural nets and *real* stupid. Pedestrians don't exist. The best thing you can do to a smart car user is to borrow a military friend's flamethrower and incinerate it.
They are almost, but not quite as horrid as Reliant Robins...
Tinpot military types *always* recur. I don't know enough of the context to know if seti@home etc. was put on the server out of sheer bloody-mindedness or out of ignorance of company policy, so it's difficult to know how to call it. In general, anyone stuck with the miserable job of being firefighter and sysadmin ought to at least *try* to have a sense of humour and defuse incidents without screaming to the PHB. Humour works. People really really won't do it again (if you describe what *might* happen to them). Would I work for them. Uh. Heck no. I wouldn't even work for myself (cough). Like "networkBoy" I use (esp the old seti@home cmd line client) to burn the hell out of new machines.
Every time I hear a story like this I'm glad I chose to work in small outfits (or even for twilight zone ones halfway to heaven or hell).
Slashdot Mirror
.. and so it's a safe guess that the parent poster is writing scripts for Chris Carter's next blockbuster on TV right?
(or maybe it's Coppola).
Guess what? It was a pain in the gluteus maximus to find anything on the internet in 1996. So? What does that prove? Google does a heck of a better job than lycos or even altavista did back then.
I'm guessing they'll get better...(Maybe that's
my bias towards the Python folks unnatural intelligence shining through..).
Yes, there's more junk. But the bad news (which is what the poster is pointing to) is that it's become much more difficult to discern that it *is* junk before wasting a lot of time. Everyone and
their granny has a cute sexy site.
On the other hand, the old "good" sites are still there (BBC, Rob Carroll's Skeptics Dictionary etc.
etc.).
Personally, I *hope* the general public gets out of playing with the internet. Sorry to be elitist, but it would be far more pleasant to do anything whether it's academic or business related.
In terms of traffic, I'd guess that the amount of spam and ZombieBot (TM) nets out there is beginning to become a serious problem. I haven't seen any figures (% trafficwise) but I'd guess it's growing fast.
The answer is user education. Contrary to a lot of people I don't think that means "go use Linux" - because (donning asbestos butt plug) until someone
manages to clone Windoze a la DR-DOS we will still
be locked into a deadly embrace with the folks from Redmond...
It would be nice if some kind historian would point out what happened when that idiot Gutenberg
made printing presses , and the reaction at the
time...
(I wish I could conjure up AJP at this point...)
No it doesn't. Even if it did you have to remember that there are a lot of astronomers out there and just like any "big science" instrument they have to
queue up and wait for time (if they're lucky 3.a.m.
on a Sunday which happens to be Dec 25).
Happiness is a scientist who gets a time slot which isn't so inconvenient. (So, 100 Hubbles
wouldn't be out of order really).
On the earth we have this pesky stuff called weather too. If it's cloudy Dec 25 @ 3.a.m. then
tough luck - no PhD, (or worse alpha-minus funding
which (that's the old UK jargon) means that even
though you had a great idea for research you don't
get any money and have to go flip burgers).
I'll try not to laugh too much. But, imagine being a kid able to say that you have piece of something from space (worth lot's of karma)....
Sigh. All I had in my day was a measly Death's head hawk moth...
(and we hadn't seen Silence of the Lambs - 20 years too early).
I personally hope that our older (and often surprisingly wiser) friends get to live to 120.
I'm a mere 45 year old.
Anyone who thinks that Martin Gardner went senile at age 60 is obviously brain dead. He's 90 now, and we hope he beats George Burns...
Don't trash older folk. I once used to help my father at the oldest continously running hospital in Europe (The Great Hospital Bishopsgate Norwich) and I can tell you that the worst thing you can do to an older person is dump them in a place for old people...
When I left university (Bristol UK), I spent a couple of years working in a company with a couple
of guys pushing 70 who could do *TRUE* magic with
their machine work (one was from British Aerospace and the other from Rolls Royce Aerospace).
Don't even think of criticizing concorde or anything else with people like that - they would
rip your spine out and feed it to your rear end!
Bottom line, be humble and learn. It's a rough ride out there (nod to the sargent in Hill St Blues).
Those guys are still unsung heroes in my dreams.
Hmm. Take that to it's logical endpoint and we wouldn't have anaesthesia and antibiotics. I guess you'd really like to understand why surgeons in the UK are called "Mr.". Speed surgery. With hacksaws. (No painkillers). Yuck. But seriously, we hold these
guys in great regard. (and we love their passion for
not being the quacks that couldn't fix things).
Things are *going* to get really interesting. Go read some 60's science fiction and that's where we
are headed. Pretty weird really. But, since you are aware of it, you should be one of those who defines the ethics rather than waiting for others to define it for you. You don't get to opt out of society. Not ever.
Wow. Not my problem. OK, so don't complain.
You really think they want *anti* aging? Oh boy, just imagine nanites aging you because you don't support the prevailing political view. Live fast and die young baby....
Yuck.
I want some anti anti nano machines I can buy from the local kiosk...
This gets really weird if you think about it.
Anything we thought was speculative goes out the window really fast. (and I've been watching the
sci fi perspective for almost 30 years).
Sounds familiar. Always the media will pretend that a small number of "hooligans" are responsible for what happens, when in actuality, most people were minding their own damn business. I make a point of
running away like hell when I see anything like a demo here in Athens GR. Don't want to end up with an oxygen mask in hospital...
Non lethal weapons. Yes. I see that. But non-lethal
is a really broad brush to cover things that can do
what you say (even water cannons can cause bad injury).
Best approach is to avoid doing anything and *talking* to the demonstrators. Normally, they're pretty reasonable people with a genuine grievance.
Underline this and frame it on the wall Policeman.
It saves lives...
"elected politicians wouldn't hurt anyone".
Obviously, you don't know about "Peterloo".
I guess you're just being sarcastic here because
at Peterloo in the early part of the 19th century,
the army did something so horrid it started the
foundation of the notion of a police force
(sorry I mean in the uk)
(ironically by a very conservative guy called Peel).
Hence, our police force (in kinder moments) are called "bobbies" after that stern victorian...
I question the idea that bureaucrats are human. I think our politicians are, but we get the ones we deserve. If we ask better questions, we can weed out the lusers quicker...
That said, there are exceptional people (both politicians and others), my favourite (and don't read anything about my politics into this) being
Tony Benn in the UK.
Heck - even right wing tories *love* tony. Because
he is an inspiration to anyone who wants to care about the people they are supposed to be servants of. True democracy lets you love your opponent (almost Klingon style) and yet want to savage them.
I would love to see this level of intelligence in US politics. What I see makes sesame street look like an M.Sc study course for those guys..
huh? Loud is bad for the police on the scene. Sorry,
but I thought that was their job. Pepper balls? Oh right, you mean extreme agony in the eyes and lungs
and potential need to hospitalize asthma sufferers
(who might die). Youch. This isn't lightweight policing. This is stupid.
To put it into perspective: The US is about to elect a new president, who has almost world level government rights. (Even though most of us don't get to elect him). Somebody wants to protest, and they get *PEPPER SPRAY*. Sorry, I think you keep that for dogs that are threatening to chew a chunk of your leg.
Hmm. You don't need to be a libertarian to scream about this. It doesn't make sense... Mob mentality? Yeah, I bet the little girl who dad brought along has a mob mentality.
As for self-preservation, if you go study tapes of
things you'll see that it's just a few guys that want to wind up the tension. Not like the intelligence community doesn't know their names (and their grandmother's names)....
Get real.
Sadly, across the planet our "constabulary" (ok, canadians and englishmen know what I mean) or the "cops" for you US folks, *are* racist.
One of the prime reasons is that they aren't exactly
the most intellectually endowed folks.
They can't help it. Without our help. Some are aware of this, but a lot aren't. Mostly, they don't get paid so well, and hence like anyone with not a lot of self esteem are easy to compromise (if you've got deep pockets).
I have a lot of sympathy for them. They see the dark underbelly of the world (24 hours a day).
So, it's difficult for them to have any affinity with the good things of the world.
In the old days in the UK, the policeman was as much a part of society as the baker or blacksmith
or doctor.
Help them get this insight, and they will become
better policeman. They are there to serve *us*, and we have to help them, not just trash them because they make horrible mistakes (my least favourite being that pour bast*rd in NY who
is carrying his bowels around in a plastic bag).
Don't be lazy and assume "policing" is just *their* job. It's yours as well. We just rely on
them for the truly yucky stuff (don't ever go to
a lecture on forensic pathology with a full stomach).
Wait. The US isn't Germany. If somebody *did* wear
a shirt with "Hitler was right" then you don't get
the right to beat them up, or do anything except
something passively non-violent.
OK. That's democracy. Hate it ok. Even Winston Churchill loathed it (and commented that it was the
best worst system).
If enough people feel something, you should *notice*, and ask why. Not just trash them. Even if
their views are repugnant...Just demonizing views you don't care for results in those views having credance. Good arguments against require good study.
Eh? I don't know the full details, but if you're
even marginally right, then for sure according to
the U.S constitution (which even as an Englishman I'm intimately familiar with) the word "first amendment rights" rings out...
Hey, I was born in Norfolk UK, and my soul bro Tom Paine was really heavily involved with that uh, revolution of yours...
I'm hearing more and more of this stuff both in the US, and increasingly in the UK. For the latter, I'm sufficiently pissed about it to not want to live at home anymore. I'll stay here in Greece. Arguments, meaningless arguments maybe, but no way it gets to violate the right to protest.. (except about computer games). Perhaps
Lord Byron had the right idea...
Right. You've hit on social networking, but it wasn't just for geeks. Most of my AD+D friends were blue collar, (and on the side jazz rock musicians).
There's a long tradition of having a boring day job and thinking outside the usual football (soccer) loop.
Yes, this stuff *is* evil. Just like Scientific American, James Randi, Martin Gardner and all those
other wicked "freethinkers". (Hint: I'm from Norfolk UK although in Athens GR and my hero from
there is Tom Paine). I'm all in favour of it. Get enough of them, and it'll be the death of organized cults (no names mentioned).
Remember - the 36th triangle number is 666...
Cough. Splutter. Nice collective noun. I always like
a "charm of goldfinches" myself...
Sigh. Lorenz Butterfly. OK, try Ray Bradbury stories if you don't understand that.
It's very sad really. But it isn't John Carmacks fault. You know, we always associate one guy with
// too slowly
everything good and bad about a project or game, whereas it's always a team effort.
Doom 3, *almost* defined a new genre of game. A game
which could have been an heir to those wonderful movies by John Carpenter. Unfortunately, it blew it.
Totally. Up until you start on that mindless
LOOP
enter_room()
lights_go_out()
monster_jumps_out_behind_you()
switch_to_gun()
kill_monster()
END;
stuff, it's almost superb...
I hope he stops playing with those goddammn amateur rockets (in the worst sense of amateur)
and focusses on doing what he's good at...
(But, a warning to those who are complacent. He
just might make a new games engine that the other John.C could make horror movies with).
I for one await Quake 4 with baited breath...
(This time, Raven doesn't have any excuses...).
Eh? The kernel very definitely should mind it's own business! (Even on a non microkernel architecture the kernel's responsibilities shouldn't be to be a nanny). Linux *is* mostly based on a classic UNIX architecture and hence exploits can still happen if admins are dumb enough not to grok security - UNIX has a discretionary security policy (you get to be as stupid as you are), whereas what you're asking for is a mandatory security policy (we won't let you do anything without sacrificing goats to our deity). Guess which one performs better? Mostly, human societies and technologies are based on the former. I sort of don't like the latter. Like a hitech version of Burma or North Korea... The real answer is to focus on solving the criminal issues associated with these things trans-nationally, not getting more paranoid every time we go to sleep. (I've seen where that leads and the word xenophobia pops into my head unbidden).
Yep. But, you see, he never realised what a hurricane he'd unleashed on the world. It was just
a guy (like any one of us) trying to solve a problem. Just that he was at exactly the right point
in history and spatially to start that hurricane.
Linus as a butterfly. I sort of like that.
Agree with your post Dante. Hands up you guys who
*don't* know about Ramanujan? Most Asian cultures
treat education and self-improvement as a *must*
for their kids. Code monkeys? Huh? if the poster
that wrote that really believes that he deserves
to go the way of the trilobites...
Bit sad really. Same complacency that lost my country (the UK) a tech lead in almost everything.
... But should they be getting $100K?? I don't know what constitutes good money in the US, but here in Greece 1000 euros/month is considered fair. You'd get better money selling your rear end.
(But, in truth, there aren't a hell of a lot of uber hackers of any sort here). Still, the fringe
benefits (great food, really sexy cute ladies) make this a lot more pleasant than many countries.
Smart and talented usually means self taught a la Mike Faraday...Not many of those anywhere.
You want to drop out, and outsource from here?
Weathers great (unlike my home country = UK).
But, you can always train a non maths/cs body especially if they have a science/engineering background. Heck, when I think over 20+years in this industry, most of us are chemists, physicists and psychologists. Not maths/cs. Maths/cs people
have been mistaught and intellectually abused too
badly to train in good engineering. Good engineers
are eternal students...
Given that history teaches us that small teams of
really motivated smart folk make the real breakthroughs, why is it that management always
goes for the mongolian horde approach?
I don't see adaptive programming/engineering/science people dying as a breed ever. It's just that you have to accept doing more of the dirty jobs (firefighting) than coding. After all, coding isn't really your life's goal is it? is it?
(In any case, coding was always the least element)
Foo. If you're lucky (as I've been) you get to design/implement a shrink wrap product *and*
get locked into that "typecasting" a la Tom Baker
as Dr.Who until you jump ship.
Right now, I'm pseudo self employed and get to
consider researching weird insect repellents for
one of my partners, ASP.NET for another, and
deworming computers for another. Heck, it's a lot
more fun than being a small cog in a big wheel.
Just less money. Downlifeing I think they call it.
Yoda name not is.
Yes. A friend of mine in the early 80's had the idea :->) to design a transmitter, and stereo encoder. Beautiful design. Better spec than the BBC. I almost built the thing.
of re-broadcasting a rolling stones concert (live in Bristol from Ashton Gate football ground). He commisioned a good friend from the MoD (popularly called the Ministry Of Death
One night, at 3.a.m. he climbed one of the 120ft lighting towers and set up his (small) FM transmitter. His plan was to send the signal to a line of sight apartment and mix it down onto his Revox.
Unfortunately, 10W was a *lot* more audible than just LOS. 1/3rd of Bristol (c.a. 100,000 people) got to hear the stone's live for free!
There's more to this story, but I won't bore anyone with it...
Don't underestimate how far a low power (QRP) signal can travel...
AgniTheSane? Eh? I live in Athens GR, and Smart car
users rank as the most insane inept, and generally
stupid drivers in Athens (which is saying something). Not only do they park *on the sidewalk*
(translated for our bro's in the states), but thanks
to our City Mothers (tm) the railings put in to
stop us being foolish enough to risk becoming road
pizza block us from getting past the damn things..
So, a simple journey of 100m on foot becomes something akin to a Drunkard's walk. (I could
mention the sad "moggy" (cat) which got road
pizzaed live last easter, but I'd rather not).
A while back I stood in absolute astonishment while a "smart car loser" tried to park one of those little Mercedes/Swatch things in a space
which would have been ample for a stretch limo.
15 minutes later, the guy selling motorcycles
(Ag. Dmitri Ambelokipi Athens) was almost at the
same risk of emptying his bladder into his jeans.
(The person (sex deleted) parked 1m away from the
kerb). Never mind it's a local traffic bottleneck.
AARRGGH!
Beware smart car users. They are short on neural
nets and *real* stupid. Pedestrians don't exist.
The best thing you can do to a smart car user is
to borrow a military friend's flamethrower and
incinerate it.
They are almost, but not quite as horrid as Reliant Robins...
Tinpot military types *always* recur. I don't know
enough of the context to know if seti@home etc. was
put on the server out of sheer bloody-mindedness or
out of ignorance of company policy, so it's difficult to know how to call it. In general, anyone
stuck with the miserable job of being firefighter and sysadmin ought to at least *try* to have a sense of humour and defuse incidents without screaming to
the PHB. Humour works. People really really won't do
it again (if you describe what *might* happen to them).
Would I work for them. Uh. Heck no. I wouldn't even work for myself (cough).
Like "networkBoy" I use (esp the old seti@home
cmd line client) to burn the hell out of new
machines.
Every time I hear a story like this I'm glad I chose to work in small outfits (or even for
twilight zone ones halfway to heaven or hell).
Not good job security. Just good job interest.