If I was sent on a mission out of the solar system, where it was just me and a bunch of machines around me to keep me alive, I'd be insisting it all ran Slackware. And taking a bunch of Slackware CDs with me.
I fully agree. The only other Operating System I would consider in that case would be OpenBSD.
Slackware used to be my favorite distribution back in the late 90s. I started with Redhat, what a mistake that was, and within a few weeks was using Slackware.
Ultimately, Slackware did not cut it for me so I went to Gentoo for several years.
Long story short, none of the distributions fit me now. I would go back to Slackware but try getting 32 bit wine to work on Slack64 or even try running/compiling any ncurses based programs.
Slackware does not "Just Work" for me and making it "Just Work" requires re-architecting the system.
All of that being said, Slackware or Linux Mint are the only two distributions I will consider until I create my own.
Unless Microsoft starts giving a damn about their customers and reverts back to a usable OS, I'll stay on Win7 until it's unusable and migrate to Linux Mint.
Unfortunately, Mint is based on Ubuntu. I enjoy the desktop experience but I get really annoyed at having to rebuild my EFI partition everytime something goes wrong (thank you SystemD).
I am considering building (architecting) my own distribution from source code. That is how bad things are these days. Does nobody value stability, security, and end-user control anymore? Even the major distributions do not appear to do any kernel performance tweaking.
The problem with this is you lose access to a ton of apps that rely on "SafetyNet".
I was going to moderate, as what you say is interesting; however, I should point out that you can do without those apps or you can ensure your phone is just a phone and use those apps on a small tablet or something where the constant barrage of advertisements does not directly affect your ability to communicate.
So even if you put those people on a treadmill they're not going to lose much weight, which makes your "delayed gratification" approach useless.
But delayed gratification is part of the Puritan ethic. Suffering and pain is good. The more suffering that you endure, the purer and closer to God you are. You do want to be close to God right? If not, you are a godless heathen who must be killed... wait, am I talking about Puritanism or Fundamental Islam?
Sorry. I got triggered there. Puritanism is fundamentally anti-human and I am unsure why the theme runs throughout our society.
You assume that the only people who eat stuff with artificial sweeteners are people who over-indulge.
Tell me this: How many friends do you have that are considered overweight? Amongst those friends, how many of them order two large fries with their Diet Coke?
I can see why a person might think that all overweight people overindulge because they lack the self discipline to fight off the cravings. I am certain that this is even true in some (many?) cases; however, humans are humans. If you see an overall increase in weight across all first world populations, it would be absurd to assume that it is because of those "fat lazy fuckers who can't stop shoveling shit in their mouths".
But, whatever. Keep on keeping on. You've got this shit figured out.;)
I say all this as a person who is not morbidly obese but know people who are.
As long as criminals have guns in this country, police officers will have guns too.
This seemingly simple statement is beyond utterly wrong and ridiculous on at least 3 levels:
Cops will ALWAYS carry the most powerful weapon possible until "the authorities" decide that overwhelming force is no longer the proper way to approach the situation.
The quoted statement implies that it is even possible to remove guns from criminals (one would assume it would be by passing laws that remove guns from all non-authority wielding people but maybe there are other ways that goal could be achieved...). This is impossible to do as long as someone (authorities or citizens will have their weapons stolen) has guns or the guy in the cube next to me has his machining equipment taken from him. Yes, he creates.50 cal rifles for recreation.
Crap, I got lost and forgot the third. Regardless, you live in a fantasy world if you think it is possible to live in a world with entirely one-sided balance of power. Any time there is a concentration of power in one area, it creates a balancing force. I think it may be related some of Newton's Laws: For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction.
Imagine how much more robust the Linux kernel would be if the competent guys were also using a language that caught more of their mistakes at compile-time, rather than leaving them to be discovered by testers, users or hackers at some later date.
Hm. Yeah...
Dunno if Rust is the language to do that, but it's hard to see how automatic coding-error detection wouldn't be a big improvement over the status quo.
To my knowledge, there are no "languages" that have the features you desire. All "safe" solutions appear to be around restricting the solution space. It is like cutting off everyone's hands because some people have touched a hot stove. Yes, it is now guaranteed that no hot stoves will be touched but... there are consequences.
Forcing errors into the higher layers of the abstraction can be useful, but placing limits is placing limits. Removing direct memory access will remove all errors associated with direct memory access but it also prevents all solutions that would be most efficiently created using direct memory access.
I would rather see a solution that does not utilize arbitrary restrictions to provide security.
I had the exact opposite experience! I have never had such a positive experience with a programming community of any sort as I have with the Rust community.
That is because their tight rules fit you. Think of the Community Rules as if they were clothes: What fits perfectly on you will not fit perfectly on your friend... even if they can wear the same clothes.
Put up a warning, fine, but don't break it. Idiots.
It sucks not being in control eh?
Most commercial software takes your needs into account LAST. What that means it that they figure out a need that you might have and write software to cover that need... but, while creating that software, the creator only takes their own needs into account. This is not a problem with Open Source software since you can change it to suit your needs. Commercial software on the other hand... let's just say source is not included so your needs will always be last and not able to be serviced by yourself.
When the banner ad showed up, I mentioned that my adblocker didn't work on it. Someone suggested uBlock Origin, which is what I now use. No ads anywhere.
I just use noscript. I am not allergic to advertising or anything and would love to support Slashdot and similar sites by not blocking their ads... so I do not block their ads.
But I will burn in hell before I allow anyone to run a script on my computer.
Since I do not allow scripts and the advertisers are not satisfied without using scripts to control my "experience", I do not see any ads.
On another note, I visited Slashdot the other day on a browser without noscript... Holy SHIT! The site is unreadable. It reminds me of a 48 year old whore with makeup caked on and smothered in perfume. Just wow. I am surprised this site is still alive. Is everyone else running noscript too or are you all willing to suffer the abuse to read this site?
We've elected a stupid, ignorant man simply because he is "different" and was on tv.
You have to admit that watching the previous Powers That Be get all worked up over this is quite entertaining. As bad as he is (can not be certain until it is all over), it can not be worse than the directed slide into concentrated power that a normal candidate would have continued.
I'd rather have a few drinks with Keith Richards....while we still have him.
Eh? What could kill Keith Richards other than Chuck Norris? The guy has bathed in chemicals that would kill a real human and is still as healthy as a horse.
I do agree. Keith Richards seems like a great guy to have a few drinks with. I just have doubts about him ever dying.
Ummm. I do not see Mark Zuckerberg as someone terribly special. He was in the right place at the right time and was able to capitalize on it. There is nothing terribly unique about any of it.
If you want people who can blow your mind, think more along the lines of E=MC^2, or people who can hack current groupthink like Thomas Jefferson.
Mark is no more amazing than Bill Gates. They would be more interesting if they had grown up in normal families with minimal resources. As it is, they are just normal people from abnormal circumstances who were very lucky to be in the right place at the right time with the right resources.
In other words, you can not really say with a straight face that Mark or Bill were poor businessmen, but by the same token, you also can not say that they were awesome or superior. Running a business competently is not THAT terribly unique.
Either this is the weakest commercial radio station in the world, or the "hacker" has access to a massive amplifier and antenna, or he's just overriding the station's frequency in a very small area. My money is on the last of those, and also that this story is of negligible significance.
Or, maybe the hacker is overriding the frequency the station uses to transmit its signal to its broadcast tower? That would require a lot less power.
At level 4 you could have it take you home while drunk, as long as the entire route is within the car's capabilities.
I am fairly certain that if it is possible for you to control the vehicle, regardless of the vehicles capabilities, you will still be given a DUI/DWI ticket. I mean, you can get a DUI/DWI ticket for being asleep in your car with the keys not in the ignition if you have been drinking. It is a real witch hunt (not commenting on whether that is good or bad).
Earth is not alive. It is life itself that matters, ultimately ending up in sentient life being what matters (what is beyond sentient life?).
We are not likely to survive this as species and it is arguable that sentient life will not have enough time to evolve again. It took roughly 2 billion years to get to where we are now from basic chemicals. In 2 billion years from now, the extent of the sun will be growing as it approaches its red giant phase. Furthermore, we have harvested all of the easily found energy resources except for wood.
All of this culminates in this: We are the last shot at sentience and beyond in this little corner of the Cosmos.
Wasting it seems such a shame; however, life is arbitrary and ultimately, wasting it is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. There are likely countless other areas in the Cosmos where life is blossoming. Evolution does not care about the individual or the species or the location of that species.;)
Why don't we fix the real problem here: massive corporations.
Because you have not proven that big corporations are a priori (really Firefox? You do not know what a priori is and flag it as incorrect? I get so tired of this crap.) bad.
This is a country based on the idea of freedom, not dictatorial mandates. It would behoove you to change your perspective... or go live in another country that supports ideals such as prior intervention.
Maybe the best lesson is once you let regulatory capture happen and monopolies form, it's nearly impossible to undo it, so enact aggressive government regulations before that point.
There is a way to undo it. The people who created this country even enshrined the way to do it within its founding documents: Voting, or, in the worst case, overthrowing the current implementation of government itself. Please note that even if you do overthrow the government, the new government had better still be based on the US Constitution though or I will likely be against you.
I am still waiting on a founding document that is superior to the US Constitution... and it has been 200+ years. What is the deal people?
I am all out of mod points and your comment is one of the most important on this article. Ah well, +4 should still be visible under most filters. Good luck bro. Keep fighting the good fight for rational thinking.:)
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If I was sent on a mission out of the solar system, where it was just me and a bunch of machines around me to keep me alive, I'd be insisting it all ran Slackware. And taking a bunch of Slackware CDs with me.
I fully agree. The only other Operating System I would consider in that case would be OpenBSD.
Slackware used to be my favorite distribution back in the late 90s. I started with Redhat, what a mistake that was, and within a few weeks was using Slackware.
Ultimately, Slackware did not cut it for me so I went to Gentoo for several years.
Long story short, none of the distributions fit me now. I would go back to Slackware but try getting 32 bit wine to work on Slack64 or even try running/compiling any ncurses based programs.
Slackware does not "Just Work" for me and making it "Just Work" requires re-architecting the system.
All of that being said, Slackware or Linux Mint are the only two distributions I will consider until I create my own.
Unless Microsoft starts giving a damn about their customers and reverts back to a usable OS, I'll stay on Win7 until it's unusable and migrate to Linux Mint.
Unfortunately, Mint is based on Ubuntu. I enjoy the desktop experience but I get really annoyed at having to rebuild my EFI partition everytime something goes wrong (thank you SystemD).
I am considering building (architecting) my own distribution from source code. That is how bad things are these days. Does nobody value stability, security, and end-user control anymore? Even the major distributions do not appear to do any kernel performance tweaking.
The problem with this is you lose access to a ton of apps that rely on "SafetyNet".
I was going to moderate, as what you say is interesting; however, I should point out that you can do without those apps or you can ensure your phone is just a phone and use those apps on a small tablet or something where the constant barrage of advertisements does not directly affect your ability to communicate.
So even if you put those people on a treadmill they're not going to lose much weight, which makes your "delayed gratification" approach useless.
But delayed gratification is part of the Puritan ethic. Suffering and pain is good. The more suffering that you endure, the purer and closer to God you are. You do want to be close to God right? If not, you are a godless heathen who must be killed... wait, am I talking about Puritanism or Fundamental Islam?
Sorry. I got triggered there. Puritanism is fundamentally anti-human and I am unsure why the theme runs throughout our society.
LOL. So many assumptions in your words.
You assume that the only people who eat stuff with artificial sweeteners are people who over-indulge.
Tell me this: How many friends do you have that are considered overweight? Amongst those friends, how many of them order two large fries with their Diet Coke?
I can see why a person might think that all overweight people overindulge because they lack the self discipline to fight off the cravings. I am certain that this is even true in some (many?) cases; however, humans are humans. If you see an overall increase in weight across all first world populations, it would be absurd to assume that it is because of those "fat lazy fuckers who can't stop shoveling shit in their mouths".
But, whatever. Keep on keeping on. You've got this shit figured out. ;)
I say all this as a person who is not morbidly obese but know people who are.
As long as criminals have guns in this country, police officers will have guns too.
This seemingly simple statement is beyond utterly wrong and ridiculous on at least 3 levels:
Cops will ALWAYS carry the most powerful weapon possible until "the authorities" decide that overwhelming force is no longer the proper way to approach the situation.
The quoted statement implies that it is even possible to remove guns from criminals (one would assume it would be by passing laws that remove guns from all non-authority wielding people but maybe there are other ways that goal could be achieved...). This is impossible to do as long as someone (authorities or citizens will have their weapons stolen) has guns or the guy in the cube next to me has his machining equipment taken from him. Yes, he creates .50 cal rifles for recreation.
Crap, I got lost and forgot the third. Regardless, you live in a fantasy world if you think it is possible to live in a world with entirely one-sided balance of power. Any time there is a concentration of power in one area, it creates a balancing force. I think it may be related some of Newton's Laws: For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction.
Imagine how much more robust the Linux kernel would be if the competent guys were also using a language that caught more of their mistakes at compile-time, rather than leaving them to be discovered by testers, users or hackers at some later date.
Hm. Yeah...
Dunno if Rust is the language to do that, but it's hard to see how automatic coding-error detection wouldn't be a big improvement over the status quo.
To my knowledge, there are no "languages" that have the features you desire. All "safe" solutions appear to be around restricting the solution space. It is like cutting off everyone's hands because some people have touched a hot stove. Yes, it is now guaranteed that no hot stoves will be touched but ... there are consequences.
Forcing errors into the higher layers of the abstraction can be useful, but placing limits is placing limits. Removing direct memory access will remove all errors associated with direct memory access but it also prevents all solutions that would be most efficiently created using direct memory access.
I would rather see a solution that does not utilize arbitrary restrictions to provide security.
I had the exact opposite experience! I have never had such a positive experience with a programming community of any sort as I have with the Rust community.
That is because their tight rules fit you. Think of the Community Rules as if they were clothes: What fits perfectly on you will not fit perfectly on your friend... even if they can wear the same clothes.
Put up a warning, fine, but don't break it. Idiots.
It sucks not being in control eh?
Most commercial software takes your needs into account LAST. What that means it that they figure out a need that you might have and write software to cover that need... but, while creating that software, the creator only takes their own needs into account. This is not a problem with Open Source software since you can change it to suit your needs. Commercial software on the other hand... let's just say source is not included so your needs will always be last and not able to be serviced by yourself.
When the banner ad showed up, I mentioned that my adblocker didn't work on it. Someone suggested uBlock Origin, which is what I now use. No ads anywhere.
I just use noscript. I am not allergic to advertising or anything and would love to support Slashdot and similar sites by not blocking their ads... so I do not block their ads.
But I will burn in hell before I allow anyone to run a script on my computer.
Since I do not allow scripts and the advertisers are not satisfied without using scripts to control my "experience", I do not see any ads.
On another note, I visited Slashdot the other day on a browser without noscript... Holy SHIT! The site is unreadable. It reminds me of a 48 year old whore with makeup caked on and smothered in perfume. Just wow. I am surprised this site is still alive. Is everyone else running noscript too or are you all willing to suffer the abuse to read this site?
If everybody uses ad-blockers, what we're all going to get is one giant paywall.
That is fine.
The price is too high (losing control of my hardware/software), so that means no commerce at all.
That is fine with me. I do not need them but they do need my money or some way to monetize me. They will die and I will live. Am I supposed to cry?
Perhaps if they lowered their price we would do business of some sort but they want it all and will not compromise. Fine. Die.
In other words, this is all about Trump and will likely be written so as to effect the rest of us not at all.
Hm. Pretty much all laws start out targeting one thing and one thing only but then get expanded to be used in ways not originally declared.
Be careful of your dismissals when it comes to Laws.
We've elected a stupid, ignorant man simply because he is "different" and was on tv.
You have to admit that watching the previous Powers That Be get all worked up over this is quite entertaining. As bad as he is (can not be certain until it is all over), it can not be worse than the directed slide into concentrated power that a normal candidate would have continued.
All correct except one:
* Ramp up R&D to own all the IP around the tech: Check
I am not aware of them respecting any IP agreements to a regularly enforceable extent; therefore, "owning IP" is likely not a huge concern for them.
I agree that China has the qualities that you describe. I also admire them for those qualities and can see how much good those qualities can bring.
Ultimately, their methods of running a country are barbaric and primitive so I would NOT like to live in a country that emulates them.
But yeah, good on them for being able to smack the shit out of the corrupt, morally bankrupt, and unethical capitalists. ;)
Just writing this message to say that I like your .sig
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
I'd rather have a few drinks with Keith Richards....while we still have him.
Eh? What could kill Keith Richards other than Chuck Norris? The guy has bathed in chemicals that would kill a real human and is still as healthy as a horse.
I do agree. Keith Richards seems like a great guy to have a few drinks with. I just have doubts about him ever dying.
Ummm. I do not see Mark Zuckerberg as someone terribly special. He was in the right place at the right time and was able to capitalize on it. There is nothing terribly unique about any of it.
If you want people who can blow your mind, think more along the lines of E=MC^2, or people who can hack current groupthink like Thomas Jefferson.
Mark is no more amazing than Bill Gates. They would be more interesting if they had grown up in normal families with minimal resources. As it is, they are just normal people from abnormal circumstances who were very lucky to be in the right place at the right time with the right resources.
In other words, you can not really say with a straight face that Mark or Bill were poor businessmen, but by the same token, you also can not say that they were awesome or superior. Running a business competently is not THAT terribly unique.
Either this is the weakest commercial radio station in the world, or the "hacker" has access to a massive amplifier and antenna, or he's just overriding the station's frequency in a very small area. My money is on the last of those, and also that this story is of negligible significance.
Or, maybe the hacker is overriding the frequency the station uses to transmit its signal to its broadcast tower? That would require a lot less power.
At level 4 you could have it take you home while drunk, as long as the entire route is within the car's capabilities.
I am fairly certain that if it is possible for you to control the vehicle, regardless of the vehicles capabilities, you will still be given a DUI/DWI ticket. I mean, you can get a DUI/DWI ticket for being asleep in your car with the keys not in the ignition if you have been drinking. It is a real witch hunt (not commenting on whether that is good or bad).
Earth is not alive. It is life itself that matters, ultimately ending up in sentient life being what matters (what is beyond sentient life?).
We are not likely to survive this as species and it is arguable that sentient life will not have enough time to evolve again. It took roughly 2 billion years to get to where we are now from basic chemicals. In 2 billion years from now, the extent of the sun will be growing as it approaches its red giant phase. Furthermore, we have harvested all of the easily found energy resources except for wood.
All of this culminates in this: We are the last shot at sentience and beyond in this little corner of the Cosmos.
Wasting it seems such a shame; however, life is arbitrary and ultimately, wasting it is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. There are likely countless other areas in the Cosmos where life is blossoming. Evolution does not care about the individual or the species or the location of that species. ;)
Why don't we fix the real problem here: massive corporations.
Because you have not proven that big corporations are a priori (really Firefox? You do not know what a priori is and flag it as incorrect? I get so tired of this crap.) bad.
This is a country based on the idea of freedom, not dictatorial mandates. It would behoove you to change your perspective... or go live in another country that supports ideals such as prior intervention.
Maybe the best lesson is once you let regulatory capture happen and monopolies form, it's nearly impossible to undo it, so enact aggressive government regulations before that point.
There is a way to undo it. The people who created this country even enshrined the way to do it within its founding documents: Voting, or, in the worst case, overthrowing the current implementation of government itself. Please note that even if you do overthrow the government, the new government had better still be based on the US Constitution though or I will likely be against you.
I am still waiting on a founding document that is superior to the US Constitution... and it has been 200+ years. What is the deal people?
I am all out of mod points and your comment is one of the most important on this article. Ah well, +4 should still be visible under most filters. Good luck bro. Keep fighting the good fight for rational thinking. :)