There's nothing wrong with a criminal dying for henious crimes. It is such a waste of resources to kill a living thing for revenge. There are plenty of tasks a living thing can do to repay society for what it has done.
abortion I'm not pro-life, I'm pro-choice, but to say that you are not killing a potential life is denial.
Health care begins with personal responsiblity.
Only in america, and historically only recently.
No insurance company can stop you from having a procedure.At worse, they can refuse to pay for it. What if it is cancer? What if it is lung disease because you help find survivors of the WTC? If you don't have the money, and the insurance doesn't pay, you die.
Well, anyway, thanks for making my points for me. Ain't America great!
I was liking your projection of the future, but you lacked ambition in the end. Why couldn't the robot be your bread machine too?
LOL, there really is an answer to that one!!
Currently and in the near foreseeable future, robot interaction in the environment is limited to avoidance and non-specific movement. The idea that R2D2 could go to the flour bin and get 3 cups of flour, 1 tbs sugar, 1.5 tsp kosher salt, 2 tbs olive oil, 1 1/8 cups tepid water, and 1 1/2 tsp yeast and put them in a bread machine that is either built in to itself or on a table is too far away.
What I described is all 100% possible right now. The only issue is the work and investment to package and integrate it and engineer it down to a manageable cost and durability.
R2D2 is actually a perfect beginner home robot. About 15 years ago I was saying that a home robot would be the entertainment center with a projector and media player. It would be a phone, message center, wireless networking, vacuum, etc. etc.
In a few more years, I can really see apartments or dorm rooms with no stereo, no "computer," no TV, etc. You have one device, positioned so its charging booth is a good location for the projected screen. When it is not in use, it will roam the home vacuuming and taking the occasional picture for security.
When you are home, it will playback phone messages, music, project the TV, play a DVD search the web, etc. Maybe it will download a recipe for your bread machine.
Look at the accident and fatality rates with the masses and regular cars. I can't imagine how many deaths this would cause worldwide. A flying car is great in cheesy novels and movies, but horrible in reality.
Think about what it will do for healthcare? Rather than having society and insurance companies pay for those injured in car accidents, they'll just die in a plane crash. Freeing up their estate to help the economy.
I don't see any downside, do you? By having the death penalty, abortion, unprovoked wars, no universal health care, and insurance companies that can legally denying life saving procedures, it is clear that we as a nation regard death as nothing but an economic tool.
This combines all our buzzword political egos. Innovation, invention, reduced health care, greater freedom, etc.
This is yet another example of Microsoft illegally maintaining its monopoly.
DOJ, Europe, are you paying attention?
It is financially impossible for the "for profit" companies ASUS and Microsoft, to team up and replace a free component (Linux) and bring the cost of a product lower with a new component (Windows) UNLESS Microsoft is paying to keep Linux out of the hands of consumers. This is selling Windows below market value to eliminate competition. This is illegal in any nation that has anti-monopolist laws like U.S.A and the members of the European union.
Will the DOJ and the European agencies please do something about this!?! It harms the very fabric of the computer industry.
It sounds like a lot of money, but 90 days in bed will cause a lot of your body atrophy, heart, lungs, legs, etc. Not to mention a lack of vascular assistance in blood circulation could cause clots.
you don't "actually" believe any of that dribble do you? Google does not give a damn about yahoo and would happily destroy them to steal their market share in a heartbeat, there motives are all purely greed based.
"Believe" is a strong word, but it is an observation that fits the facts available. Yes, Google is in business to make money, and they do compete very well, but there is no evidence that they use illegal and unethical means to compete as Microsoft have been proven to do.
Solution: Install Linux. Recognize that when you "can't do something", like play DRM'ed games, it's a feature, not a bug.
Full time Linux user since 1996.
I switched to Linux because of an evaluation of multiple operating systems for an embedded system. I'll spare everyone the details of the project, but suffice to say, at least a couple times a week I'd come in in the morning and NT4.0 was blue screened.
Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and QNX would be just fine. NT, however, periodically blue screened. I decided enough was enough for me. I bought a new hard disk, formatted it with REDHAT, I think it was version 5 at the time, but it could have been 4, and aside from about a year of paranoia and fear, "Is this thing really stable?" I have never looked back. Linux *is* better than Windows on all but a very limited few classifications of tasks.
The more this kind of crap happens, the more I hate the software industry. It's MY computer damn it. If I buy software, I should be able to use it the way I want.
This is bogus. The problem with gamers is that they don't care about standing up for important principles and only care about shiny new games.
Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo should all be forced, by lack of customers, to open up their platform and allow people who bought these devices to actually control their property. Software vendors who do this crap should have every game that requires internet access returned to the store for a full refund. (More damaging than *not* buying it.)
The option to Undo should *always* be available for *every* action
I am sick and tired of this "training wheel" society where no one takes the responsibility to double check their actions and everyone wants to be protected from themselves.
I like "power tools" There is no "undo" for a drill or a saw. There is no undo for hammer. I HATE the idea that everything that I try to use doesn't do what its told because someone wants to protect me from myself.
If you are unsure, use Gnome or KDE, they use a trash can metaphor that allows undelete. Otherwise, grow a pair and just be careful.
Undelete might not be a problem for a lot of people. In fact some security-paranoid people might like it that way, but that's what 'shred' is for, isn't it?
The problem is that the actual definition of "delete" has been co-opted into meaning "remove from sight, and really delete later."
If you want to be able to recover from a mistake, don't use "rm" or at least double check before you press the enter key.
KDE and Gnome have trash cans, use the GUI or maybe someone can write a plugin replacement for "rm" that works with the trashcan metaphor.
I had and lost a first edition of AoE and it is by far the best book for understanding electronics. I have a later edition now as I have replaced the old one.
Don't forget, of course, your local library!!! Lots of great books on these sorts of subjects. Libraries are pretty lacking for the "latest and greatest" trends, but for the core science and technologies they are a fantastic resource.
As for soldering, there is but one way to learn it, by doing! Buy a soldering iron and some solder and start soldering some wire. Rosen core flux solder and some copper wire. Buy a cheap "do it yourself" electronics kit and wreck that, then fix it.
As for understanding basic "electricity" the best analogy I've ever seen is water. "Voltage" is the pressure. "Current" is volume. A bucket is a capacitor. A long hose is an inductor. The size of the hose (or lack of) is resistance. Almost any behavior you get from water varying these components works similarly to electricity (in low frequence DC of course.)
All the analysis I've read is just nonsense. Google knows something that Microsoft and business analysts don't have a clue about.
A thriving market place makes a lot of money for everyone, yourself included. You have a vested interest in maintaining the market place.
The loss of a major fair playing competitor and the introduction of a stronger destruction driven monopolist makes it harder for everyone, including Google, to make money.
Google wants yahoo in place. They make money from Yahoo. Yahoo wants google in place, they make money with google. Where their businesses do not conflict, they work together. Both Yahoo and Google aren't fighting to destroy one another, they are in business to make money. It is friendly and profitable competition. They way it should be. The that capitalism works best.
Microsoft on the other hand can not compete on a fair market. They never have and never will be able. They must capitalize on their illegally maintained windows and office monopoly to destroy competition and destroy the marketplace leaving only enough business for themselves.
Google is a strong competitor, I don't "trust" them per se'. for The time being, however, they've shown that they understand ethics and the phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats."
As Keith Olbermann reminds viewers of "Countdown" regularly, the technical definition of "insanity" is trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
That isn't really a very good definition, unless everyone is insane. Even though coined by Benjamin Franklin, it completely defines many "normal" behaviors.
Rolling dice Slot machines Voting Dating Software Debugging New Year's resolutions Answering the phone
The whole "undelete" thing is a DOS FAT stupidity. The *only* reason why people think that you *can* undelete is that the DOS FAT file system was designed in such a way that file changes could be recovered *IF* you managed not to change the file system too much. DOS being a mainly single tasker, with the exception of the standard "indos" flag games.
POSIX was not and should not be designed in such a way that "undelete" is reliably possible. That's like saying can I unlight that match. Can I unbreak that egg?
An unreliable system that may, on the odd chance that the file structure has not changed too much, recover files from a disk that have not been over-written yet is no replacement for NOT being an idiot and being careful when you delete something.
Anyone familiar with Yahoo must know that they (1) have a viable internet business model, a rarity to be sure. (2) have a lot of very competent staff, some are just brilliant. (I know some of them personally and have worked with a few in other companies.)
Microsoft, on the other hand, is a failure. Long gone are the 80s where they had interesting ideas and the ability to deliver. The irony is that the only reason Microsoft is so profitable is because of their monopoly that they has fighting so hard to maintain. If it weren't that they pre-installed on almost all consumer/commodity P.C. type computers, they would be nothing more than wordperfect, wordstar, or DRI are today.
That was a pretty good post and I agree with 99% of it. I would add only one thing to it and that is with regards to Java.
In general I don't think Java is bad given a known specific problem set, but one thing that somewhat bothers me is the treaded vs process model on *NIX platform.
I know this could start a flame war, but I prefer a process model more than a threaded model. Conceptually and in practice, they tend to be a bit more robust. Java is a threaded model and multiple Apache processes are served with threads. If your JVM gets screwed up, all the processing entities tend to as well.
MS going after that coveted impoverished 3rd world child demographic
No it is trying to lock in its monopoly in countries where they have no penetration. Hoping that when/if they become prosperous, they do not escape the Microsoft monopoly.
Slashdot Mirror
Will it be a pleasure model too?
The first practical use of novel technology is typically sex. So why not?
http://www.realdoll.com/
There's nothing wrong with a criminal dying for henious crimes.
It is such a waste of resources to kill a living thing for revenge. There are plenty of tasks a living thing can do to repay society for what it has done.
abortion
I'm not pro-life, I'm pro-choice, but to say that you are not killing a potential life is denial.
Health care begins with personal responsiblity.
Only in america, and historically only recently.
No insurance company can stop you from having a procedure.At worse, they can refuse to pay for it.
What if it is cancer? What if it is lung disease because you help find survivors of the WTC? If you don't have the money, and the insurance doesn't pay, you die.
Well, anyway, thanks for making my points for me. Ain't America great!
I was liking your projection of the future, but you lacked ambition in the end. Why couldn't the robot be your bread machine too?
LOL, there really is an answer to that one!!
Currently and in the near foreseeable future, robot interaction in the environment is limited to avoidance and non-specific movement. The idea that R2D2 could go to the flour bin and get 3 cups of flour, 1 tbs sugar, 1.5 tsp kosher salt, 2 tbs olive oil, 1 1/8 cups tepid water, and 1 1/2 tsp yeast and put them in a bread machine that is either built in to itself or on a table is too far away.
What I described is all 100% possible right now. The only issue is the work and investment to package and integrate it and engineer it down to a manageable cost and durability.
Different flavoured bread?
There are as many different types and flavors of bread as there are for cheese.
This is a HUGE step, by the way
R2D2 is actually a perfect beginner home robot. About 15 years ago I was saying that a home robot would be the entertainment center with a projector and media player. It would be a phone, message center, wireless networking, vacuum, etc. etc.
In a few more years, I can really see apartments or dorm rooms with no stereo, no "computer," no TV, etc. You have one device, positioned so its charging booth is a good location for the projected screen. When it is not in use, it will roam the home vacuuming and taking the occasional picture for security.
When you are home, it will playback phone messages, music, project the TV, play a DVD search the web, etc. Maybe it will download a recipe for your bread machine.
Straw man arguments are lies.
or noteworthy rhetorical hyperbole
Which product do you think is the safer bet and the better deal when you are buying in lots of 10,000?
I thought of that, but two things already contradict that line o thought:
(1) The eeePC was *already* access with Linux.
(2) They had to increase the unit cost to support Windows.
Look at the accident and fatality rates with the masses and regular cars. I can't imagine how many deaths this would cause worldwide. A flying car is great in cheesy novels and movies, but horrible in reality.
Think about what it will do for healthcare? Rather than having society and insurance companies pay for those injured in car accidents, they'll just die in a plane crash. Freeing up their estate to help the economy.
I don't see any downside, do you? By having the death penalty, abortion, unprovoked wars, no universal health care, and insurance companies that can legally denying life saving procedures, it is clear that we as a nation regard death as nothing but an economic tool.
This combines all our buzzword political egos. Innovation, invention, reduced health care, greater freedom, etc.
Yea! America!
This is yet another example of Microsoft illegally maintaining its monopoly.
DOJ, Europe, are you paying attention?
It is financially impossible for the "for profit" companies ASUS and Microsoft, to team up and replace a free component (Linux) and bring the cost of a product lower with a new component (Windows) UNLESS Microsoft is paying to keep Linux out of the hands of consumers. This is selling Windows below market value to eliminate competition. This is illegal in any nation that has anti-monopolist laws like U.S.A and the members of the European union.
Will the DOJ and the European agencies please do something about this!?! It harms the very fabric of the computer industry.
It sounds like a lot of money, but 90 days in bed will cause a lot of your body atrophy, heart, lungs, legs, etc. Not to mention a lack of vascular assistance in blood circulation could cause clots.
Have you ever played multiplayer games where people cheat online?
I have no use for computer games, the game makers make DRM media seem benign.
you don't "actually" believe any of that dribble do you? Google does not give a damn about yahoo and would happily destroy them to steal their market share in a heartbeat, there motives are all purely greed based.
"Believe" is a strong word, but it is an observation that fits the facts available. Yes, Google is in business to make money, and they do compete very well, but there is no evidence that they use illegal and unethical means to compete as Microsoft have been proven to do.
Solution: Install Linux. Recognize that when you "can't do something", like play DRM'ed games, it's a feature, not a bug.
Full time Linux user since 1996.
I switched to Linux because of an evaluation of multiple operating systems for an embedded system. I'll spare everyone the details of the project, but suffice to say, at least a couple times a week I'd come in in the morning and NT4.0 was blue screened.
Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and QNX would be just fine. NT, however, periodically blue screened. I decided enough was enough for me. I bought a new hard disk, formatted it with REDHAT, I think it was version 5 at the time, but it could have been 4, and aside from about a year of paranoia and fear, "Is this thing really stable?" I have never looked back. Linux *is* better than Windows on all but a very limited few classifications of tasks.
Seriously, stop playing legal and cracked versions of the game. If people won't play a game because of this stuff, it won't happen.
Stop being sheep and put principles ahead of self gratification. The world would be a better place all around.
Sheesh
95% won't care that they have to use it to verify their legal software is in fact legal.
So, guilt before innocence, you must prove you are not a criminal. It is unamerican and, sorry for the language, bullshit.
People who take this abuse deserve it.
The more this kind of crap happens, the more I hate the software industry. It's MY computer damn it. If I buy software, I should be able to use it the way I want.
This is bogus. The problem with gamers is that they don't care about standing up for important principles and only care about shiny new games.
Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo should all be forced, by lack of customers, to open up their platform and allow people who bought these devices to actually control their property. Software vendors who do this crap should have every game that requires internet access returned to the store for a full refund. (More damaging than *not* buying it.)
The option to Undo should *always* be available for *every* action
I am sick and tired of this "training wheel" society where no one takes the responsibility to double check their actions and everyone wants to be protected from themselves.
I like "power tools" There is no "undo" for a drill or a saw. There is no undo for hammer. I HATE the idea that everything that I try to use doesn't do what its told because someone wants to protect me from myself.
If you are unsure, use Gnome or KDE, they use a trash can metaphor that allows undelete. Otherwise, grow a pair and just be careful.
Undelete might not be a problem for a lot of people. In fact some security-paranoid people might like it that way, but that's what 'shred' is for, isn't it?
The problem is that the actual definition of "delete" has been co-opted into meaning "remove from sight, and really delete later."
If you want to be able to recover from a mistake, don't use "rm" or at least double check before you press the enter key.
KDE and Gnome have trash cans, use the GUI or maybe someone can write a plugin replacement for "rm" that works with the trashcan metaphor.
I had and lost a first edition of AoE and it is by far the best book for understanding electronics. I have a later edition now as I have replaced the old one.
Don't forget, of course, your local library!!! Lots of great books on these sorts of subjects. Libraries are pretty lacking for the "latest and greatest" trends, but for the core science and technologies they are a fantastic resource.
As for soldering, there is but one way to learn it, by doing! Buy a soldering iron and some solder and start soldering some wire. Rosen core flux solder and some copper wire. Buy a cheap "do it yourself" electronics kit and wreck that, then fix it.
As for understanding basic "electricity" the best analogy I've ever seen is water. "Voltage" is the pressure. "Current" is volume. A bucket is a capacitor. A long hose is an inductor. The size of the hose (or lack of) is resistance. Almost any behavior you get from water varying these components works similarly to electricity (in low frequence DC of course.)
All the analysis I've read is just nonsense. Google knows something that Microsoft and business analysts don't have a clue about.
A thriving market place makes a lot of money for everyone, yourself included. You have a vested interest in maintaining the market place.
The loss of a major fair playing competitor and the introduction of a stronger destruction driven monopolist makes it harder for everyone, including Google, to make money.
Google wants yahoo in place. They make money from Yahoo. Yahoo wants google in place, they make money with google. Where their businesses do not conflict, they work together. Both Yahoo and Google aren't fighting to destroy one another, they are in business to make money. It is friendly and profitable competition. They way it should be. The that capitalism works best.
Microsoft on the other hand can not compete on a fair market. They never have and never will be able. They must capitalize on their illegally maintained windows and office monopoly to destroy competition and destroy the marketplace leaving only enough business for themselves.
Google is a strong competitor, I don't "trust" them per se'. for The time being, however, they've shown that they understand ethics and the phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats."
As Keith Olbermann reminds viewers of "Countdown" regularly, the technical definition of "insanity" is trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
That isn't really a very good definition, unless everyone is insane. Even though coined by Benjamin Franklin, it completely defines many "normal" behaviors.
Rolling dice
Slot machines
Voting
Dating
Software Debugging
New Year's resolutions
Answering the phone
The whole "undelete" thing is a DOS FAT stupidity. The *only* reason why people think that you *can* undelete is that the DOS FAT file system was designed in such a way that file changes could be recovered *IF* you managed not to change the file system too much. DOS being a mainly single tasker, with the exception of the standard "indos" flag games.
POSIX was not and should not be designed in such a way that "undelete" is reliably possible. That's like saying can I unlight that match. Can I unbreak that egg?
An unreliable system that may, on the odd chance that the file structure has not changed too much, recover files from a disk that have not been over-written yet is no replacement for NOT being an idiot and being careful when you delete something.
Anyone familiar with Yahoo must know that they (1) have a viable internet business model, a rarity to be sure. (2) have a lot of very competent staff, some are just brilliant. (I know some of them personally and have worked with a few in other companies.)
Microsoft, on the other hand, is a failure. Long gone are the 80s where they had interesting ideas and the ability to deliver. The irony is that the only reason Microsoft is so profitable is because of their monopoly that they has fighting so hard to maintain. If it weren't that they pre-installed on almost all consumer/commodity P.C. type computers, they would be nothing more than wordperfect, wordstar, or DRI are today.
That was a pretty good post and I agree with 99% of it. I would add only one thing to it and that is with regards to Java.
In general I don't think Java is bad given a known specific problem set, but one thing that somewhat bothers me is the treaded vs process model on *NIX platform.
I know this could start a flame war, but I prefer a process model more than a threaded model. Conceptually and in practice, they tend to be a bit more robust. Java is a threaded model and multiple Apache processes are served with threads. If your JVM gets screwed up, all the processing entities tend to as well.
MS going after that coveted impoverished 3rd world child demographic
No it is trying to lock in its monopoly in countries where they have no penetration. Hoping that when/if they become prosperous, they do not escape the Microsoft monopoly.