OK, maybe the architecture is still around... but I'd like to see some x86 machines still around from before the millenium. I've got a PPC from 1996 that's been on since 2003 when I bought it, running a very modern OS. Also, a half-dozen 68K machines from 1991-93 running various services on NetBSD 1.6.1 (albeit slowly).
Granted, I'm sure its not the architecture that prevented most x86 machines from surviving much beyond their warranty, but I wanted to throw it out there that there's likely a lot of other architectures that stick around even after the death of their marketability. Let us not forget the Amiga and the Video Toaster, and that crazy community of old game system emulator hackors.
The grading system as we know it today comes almost unchanged from its invention sometime during the Middle-Ages. A grade is not indicative of anything other than an individual's ability to earn a grade. If you got an 'A' and you think that means you're smart, then you'd be wrong. Grades do not reflect aptitude, but only how well you can earn a grade. Generally speaking, if you do everything a teacher tells you to do, give them just what they want, you should get an 'A.' If you are truly brilliant and creative, its likely the work needed to get the 'A' will not challenge you, you will learn all you need with as little work as possible (work smarter, not harder), and you will receive a mediocre, if not a failing, grade. It is very probable and likely that many who fail know as much or more of the course material than those who ace the course.
Its grades that suck, not the material of any given course. That students must pay, with their parents' monies, their self-esteem, and sometimes their sanity, to make it easier for prospective employers with an illusory and truly baseless method to sift the competition is anathema. College is stressful enough without the damaging effects grades have on all students. Grades should be abolished and replaced with true evaluations.
I've seen these "spectrum auction" stories before... and I just don't get it. Isn't this like auctioning off the ocean? or the atmosphere? Who claimed original ownership and who's getting these obscene amounts of moneys? If its the US goverment, and this auction is just for regulation, what part of gov't gets the money and what's it going to be spent on?
Seems to me everyone owns the spectrum, and the money should go to everyone.
Marketing of new technologies is incredibly potent. Case in point: Bluetooth 2.0. To this day there are those asking "when is suchinsuch going to suppot Bluetooth 2.0? I want to blahblah wirelessly," even though everyone who has actually fallen for it will post its failure to do anything even remotely similar to what it promised, i.e. wireless audio fidelity. But with a slick logo and media outlets jumping to reiterate the claims as though proven, the new tech is always seen as the only good solution even before its released.
Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate it seems is not without a sense of irony. The human body generates more bio-electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTU's of body heat. Combined with a form of fusion the machines have found all the energy they would ever need. There are fields, endless fields, where human beings are no longer born, we are grown. For the longest time I wouldn't believe it, and then I saw the fields with my own eyes. Watch them liquefy the dead so they could be fed intravenously to the living. And standing there, facing the pure horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of the truth. What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this.
True. But its worse than that. Forget the kiddie porn for a moment. When those in law enforcement or jurists actually break the law, they get off usually with a slap on the wrist, maybe lose their job, at worst probation and suspended sentences. Good luck if you're a victim. No one will believe you without video evidence.
I think you're being funny... but technically, 1.2 isn't released yet, afaik, not even to most Apple devs for beta testing. But what is most interesting about the whole thing is that Apple, undoubtedly, has a major leak (unless the whole thing is a ruse to promote viral marketing).
I can live with some of the abuses, but only if they would take them to their logical conclusions. They say a crystal-meth manufacturer is a terrorist? Fine... but what about McDonalds and the rest of the diabetic manufacturers, and Phillip-Morris, and for that matter, Colt? They kill far more Americans than any terrorist group ever dreamed... millions and millions.
Hey, that's all fine and well for UK residents (actually, absurd --TV signals can pass through your body, but if it hits a receiver, its charged-- they must blow half their net trying to enforce this), but the question was why can't the rest of the world watch, too, not "Why does it suck to be a TV viewer in the UK?"
I just want to point out that above all else cops are trained to PROTECT THEMSELVES. If bullets are flying and even if innocents are in danger, or worse, getting killed execution style, cops are trained to duck and cover. Firefighters, on the other hand, are still trained to put themselves in harms way to save lives; they still RUN INTO BURNING BUILDINGS when everyone else is running out. I guess you could say the same for those Swift Water Rescue crazies, or Coast Guard Rescue. I'm not saying cops are bad, or that there aren't true hero cops out there, nor that cops should gladly die protecting some scumbag, but in general, they care more about protecting themselves than they do innocents.
Also, doctors (and dentists) are in it for the money, period. And there is no Santa Clause.
And so as not to sound too cynical, I conceed that there are good people out there, there really are, and they pop up and save your ass when you least expect it.
Has anyone at/. heard of the iPhone dev-team or its spinoff the dev-team-elite? I ask because I've seen no mention of them in the comments. Its amazing how just the right constraints can foster (and nurture, even) a comradery among OSS strangers who hacked their way in and gave iPhones to those on other networks and in unsupported countries, propagated package management systems (Installer.app, and now Aptitude) long before Apple revealed their innovative invention, AppStore, at the Special Press Event. Forget waiting for June, hundreds of 3rd party apps are available now for those that are unafraid to tinker (the worst that can happen is you will have to restore the phone to factory defaults and start over). An estimated 1 million iPhones have been jailbroken. Get your heads out of the sand.
Must disagree with the crack about low self-esteem. Having never worked help desk, I say these troopers are surprisingly patient and well-balanced individuals. These troopers must be commended not only for their ability to abstract problems and processes, but also for their increasingly rare phone skills. They are good guys. Now... desktop support itself can get pretty dirty... as in when the PEBKAC is the sticky grime on the keyboard itself.
I am sorry, but a computer scientist has no business in IT. You are wasting your degree, which was not intendend for administration, but real computer science (research or architecture or modelling or informatics or, God forbid, development). Its because of slackers like you that we are now seeing jobs advertised such as " Wanted: Microsoft Windows Technologist, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science REQUIRED. $12/hr, part time, 5-days a week." Its one thing to take a job below your skills until you find something better, but to make a career out of it speaks volumes about character. By working in IT, a computer scientist devalues the entire discipline. These now all too common help
wanted ads are as absurd and anathema as a "Wanted: nurses assistant. M.D. REQUIRED." How about you stop dicking around and get SOMETHING done!
I am an Apple fanatic. However, after watching the press event, I couldn't help but notice how Steve Jobs seems to stongly imply that AppStore is a totally new concept in software distribution, as if nothing like it had ever been conceived, deigned and implemented for the last 35 years. And I can't help but sarcatically joke: "Thank the stars, Apple has invented package management!"
Off the subject, but one valid criticism of Mac OS X is that it lacks comprehensive package management. There's Software Update for the Apple OS and software suite, and MacPorts for cli stuff, but nothing like AppStore, or Aptitude, Apt-get, or (I wish!) pkgsrc pkg-get, where developers can list their applications and users can install/uninstall/update/track software with the freedom enjoyed by linux and other *nix users. Either the user runs an installer, with/without an uninstall option & with/without Receipt tracking (which is mildly arcane), or they drag an app to their Applications folder that we hope keeps track of its own updating schedule. I'd sure like to see a central repository on Mac OS X ala AppStore.
Ah hah!! The old "everything needs updates" argument. You, sir, are obviously a Microsoft engineer, shamed into posting anonymously because you've squandered the last 13 years opting for job security over honest IT work. After the lawyers, the bankers and the ad men, you and your smug cronies will be the next up against the wall facing the firing squad. HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT!! WE TRUSTED YOU!!!
Slashdot Mirror
OK, maybe the architecture is still around... but I'd like to see some x86 machines still around from before the millenium. I've got a PPC from 1996 that's been on since 2003 when I bought it, running a very modern OS. Also, a half-dozen 68K machines from 1991-93 running various services on NetBSD 1.6.1 (albeit slowly).
Granted, I'm sure its not the architecture that prevented most x86 machines from surviving much beyond their warranty, but I wanted to throw it out there that there's likely a lot of other architectures that stick around even after the death of their marketability. Let us not forget the Amiga and the Video Toaster, and that crazy community of old game system emulator hackors.
No worries, mate! No one is going to steal your virginity. And don't call me 'Shirley'.
The grading system as we know it today comes almost unchanged from its invention sometime during the Middle-Ages. A grade is not indicative of anything other than an individual's ability to earn a grade. If you got an 'A' and you think that means you're smart, then you'd be wrong. Grades do not reflect aptitude, but only how well you can earn a grade. Generally speaking, if you do everything a teacher tells you to do, give them just what they want, you should get an 'A.' If you are truly brilliant and creative, its likely the work needed to get the 'A' will not challenge you, you will learn all you need with as little work as possible (work smarter, not harder), and you will receive a mediocre, if not a failing, grade. It is very probable and likely that many who fail know as much or more of the course material than those who ace the course.
Its grades that suck, not the material of any given course. That students must pay, with their parents' monies, their self-esteem, and sometimes their sanity, to make it easier for prospective employers with an illusory and truly baseless method to sift the competition is anathema. College is stressful enough without the damaging effects grades have on all students. Grades should be abolished and replaced with true evaluations.
I've seen these "spectrum auction" stories before... and I just don't get it. Isn't this like auctioning off the ocean? or the atmosphere? Who claimed original ownership and who's getting these obscene amounts of moneys? If its the US goverment, and this auction is just for regulation, what part of gov't gets the money and what's it going to be spent on?
Seems to me everyone owns the spectrum, and the money should go to everyone.
True. And if they're so worried about it, they can restrict Google to only search their root page..
Marketing of new technologies is incredibly potent. Case in point: Bluetooth 2.0. To this day there are those asking "when is suchinsuch going to suppot Bluetooth 2.0? I want to blahblah wirelessly," even though everyone who has actually fallen for it will post its failure to do anything even remotely similar to what it promised, i.e. wireless audio fidelity. But with a slick logo and media outlets jumping to reiterate the claims as though proven, the new tech is always seen as the only good solution even before its released.
Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate it seems is not without a sense of irony. The human body generates more bio-electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTU's of body heat. Combined with a form of fusion the machines have found all the energy they would ever need. There are fields, endless fields, where human beings are no longer born, we are grown. For the longest time I wouldn't believe it, and then I saw the fields with my own eyes. Watch them liquefy the dead so they could be fed intravenously to the living. And standing there, facing the pure horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of the truth. What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this.
True. But its worse than that. Forget the kiddie porn for a moment. When those in law enforcement or jurists actually break the law, they get off usually with a slap on the wrist, maybe lose their job, at worst probation and suspended sentences. Good luck if you're a victim. No one will believe you without video evidence.
I believe this is known as a natural monopoly
ergo, I am seeing things
I think you're being funny... but technically, 1.2 isn't released yet, afaik, not even to most Apple devs for beta testing. But what is most interesting about the whole thing is that Apple, undoubtedly, has a major leak (unless the whole thing is a ruse to promote viral marketing).
Slashdot got the story late, you'd think they'd get it right. The leaked firmare that dev team has hacked is firmware 1.2
There's no iTunes in the UK?
I can live with some of the abuses, but only if they would take them to their logical conclusions. They say a crystal-meth manufacturer is a terrorist? Fine... but what about McDonalds and the rest of the diabetic manufacturers, and Phillip-Morris, and for that matter, Colt? They kill far more Americans than any terrorist group ever dreamed... millions and millions.
Hey, that's all fine and well for UK residents (actually, absurd --TV signals can pass through your body, but if it hits a receiver, its charged-- they must blow half their net trying to enforce this), but the question was why can't the rest of the world watch, too, not "Why does it suck to be a TV viewer in the UK?"
I just want to point out that above all else cops are trained to PROTECT THEMSELVES. If bullets are flying and even if innocents are in danger, or worse, getting killed execution style, cops are trained to duck and cover. Firefighters, on the other hand, are still trained to put themselves in harms way to save lives; they still RUN INTO BURNING BUILDINGS when everyone else is running out. I guess you could say the same for those Swift Water Rescue crazies, or Coast Guard Rescue. I'm not saying cops are bad, or that there aren't true hero cops out there, nor that cops should gladly die protecting some scumbag, but in general, they care more about protecting themselves than they do innocents.
Also, doctors (and dentists) are in it for the money, period. And there is no Santa Clause.
And so as not to sound too cynical, I conceed that there are good people out there, there really are, and they pop up and save your ass when you least expect it.
Perhaps they'll re-host the content so the rest of the world can watch, too. (Why, exactly, is this all UK only?!!)
Has anyone at /. heard of the iPhone dev-team or its spinoff the dev-team-elite? I ask because I've seen no mention of them in the comments. Its amazing how just the right constraints can foster (and nurture, even) a comradery among OSS strangers who hacked their way in and gave iPhones to those on other networks and in unsupported countries, propagated package management systems (Installer.app, and now Aptitude) long before Apple revealed their innovative invention, AppStore, at the Special Press Event. Forget waiting for June, hundreds of 3rd party apps are available now for those that are unafraid to tinker (the worst that can happen is you will have to restore the phone to factory defaults and start over). An estimated 1 million iPhones have been jailbroken. Get your heads out of the sand.
Must disagree with the crack about low self-esteem. Having never worked help desk, I say these troopers are surprisingly patient and well-balanced individuals. These troopers must be commended not only for their ability to abstract problems and processes, but also for their increasingly rare phone skills. They are good guys. Now... desktop support itself can get pretty dirty... as in when the PEBKAC is the sticky grime on the keyboard itself.
apologies for being belligerent... uncalled for
I am sorry, but a computer scientist has no business in IT. You are wasting your degree, which was not intendend for administration, but real computer science (research or architecture or modelling or informatics or, God forbid, development). Its because of slackers like you that we are now seeing jobs advertised such as " Wanted: Microsoft Windows Technologist, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science REQUIRED. $12/hr, part time, 5-days a week." Its one thing to take a job below your skills until you find something better, but to make a career out of it speaks volumes about character. By working in IT, a computer scientist devalues the entire discipline. These now all too common help wanted ads are as absurd and anathema as a "Wanted: nurses assistant. M.D. REQUIRED." How about you stop dicking around and get SOMETHING done!
I am an Apple fanatic. However, after watching the press event, I couldn't help but notice how Steve Jobs seems to stongly imply that AppStore is a totally new concept in software distribution, as if nothing like it had ever been conceived, deigned and implemented for the last 35 years. And I can't help but sarcatically joke: "Thank the stars, Apple has invented package management!"
Off the subject, but one valid criticism of Mac OS X is that it lacks comprehensive package management. There's Software Update for the Apple OS and software suite, and MacPorts for cli stuff, but nothing like AppStore, or Aptitude, Apt-get, or (I wish!) pkgsrc pkg-get, where developers can list their applications and users can install/uninstall/update/track software with the freedom enjoyed by linux and other *nix users. Either the user runs an installer, with/without an uninstall option & with/without Receipt tracking (which is mildly arcane), or they drag an app to their Applications folder that we hope keeps track of its own updating schedule. I'd sure like to see a central repository on Mac OS X ala AppStore.
uh, that's not Verizon... that's Ohio.
I gotta get me one of them fake Japanese REAL IDs. (Lets just say I like small feet).
Ah hah!! The old "everything needs updates" argument. You, sir, are obviously a Microsoft engineer, shamed into posting anonymously because you've squandered the last 13 years opting for job security over honest IT work. After the lawyers, the bankers and the ad men, you and your smug cronies will be the next up against the wall facing the firing squad. HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT!! WE TRUSTED YOU!!!