CopyLeft should now start producing other items of clothing... I can just see some crusty old lawyer holding up a pair of crothless panties with DeCSS printed on them to the jury... "Exhibit A, your honour!" Should garner even more press coverage...
"russ nelson, registered Libertarian " That's neat - how do I go about registering as a Taurean?:) You're right about the scariness of the masses, though... And to think - these people can not only vote, they can breed!!!
Or is it the twentysomethings and thritysomethings that were hacking on 300-baud modems back in the 80's? I don't see a lot of geek culture among the set that grew up with Windows 95... but I could be wrong about that.
Nope, I don't think you are. Plonking a few inActiveX components, drawing lines between primary & foreign key fields is _not_ hacking... The new generation doesn't have a clue - I had to explain what a register was to a CS graduate last year... Kinda like an auto mechanic that doesn't know what a piston is...
"Nark" - as in annoy. "She really narked me off" No, I don't know where it comes from either!:)
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Wrong, and for all the wrong reasons.
on
Selfish Society
·
· Score: 1
Hmmm, selfish? In my years as a nerd, I've been called far worse, but at least for a decent reason... This goes well beyond being a "tech elite" (or should that be tech 31337?:) The fact of the matter is your average nerd has grief growing up, for reasons Katz and others have explored ad infinitum. Then you get a job, and your worth to society goes up, at least in financial terms. In reality, you are being managed by an incompetant buffon, who was probably a good coder in her day, but can't budget, manage or run projects. So, you have a bunch of already alienated people getting paid good cash but with no respect from society. I earn more than my sister (a barrister, incidentally) who has defended and prosecuted cases at the Old Bailey, London (yes, _that_ Old Bailey). Yet who gets the most respect from society? Is processing the machinations of Law more important than processing the machinations of business, the results of which fund the legal system? On people to people things, I'd like to think I'm quite a generous and caring person. But just about any tech support job requires the patience of a saint. So if we come across as being brusque and intimidating when we're fixing your desktop PC after you've just run "ILOVEYOU.vbs" again, after all the times we've told you not to, then aren't we entitled to a loss of good humour? Think about it - if you get told by a barrister (say my sister, for instance) not to do something, how much more do you take those words as gospel, over the advice I've just given you?
"The tech culture is becoming a elitist society with no coherent political values," Elitist because we gain little or no respect from our users or corporate masters, yet we know our own worth. No political values - so does this mean that people who all like strawberry jam should all vote socialist? Just because we're involved in various tech communities does not mean we all think the same. And considering that most tech people I know are all quite intelligent, how does that explain our lack of interest in politics? Simple. It doesn't push our buttons the way tech does. And looking at the way politics is conducted today, do you wonder why? Politics is now soundbite orientated, opinion poll driven nonsense. When will we return to conviction politics? Because until then, politics holds no interest for us; it's all lies, deceit and clever manipulated statistics. I never thought I'd say it, but I miss Maggie Thatcher in politics. "Testosterone poisoned?" Yeah, that's right, blame the victim... Screwed over, ignored, bullied, disregarded and sometimes persecuted, now that I have more clout and am prepared to use it, I'm "poisoned". Well, I'm sorry, but I've reclaimed my balls, I feel great and I'm sure as hell not apologising for evening the score.
. If the developers lose interest in developing a piece of software, and move onto something else, this is just as detrimental to end users as Microsoft's planned obsolescence.
Except, with open source, you can hire a programmer to keep your system alive for long enough to either replace it/get it stable. I doubt if MS would be quite as accomodating, especially if the obselescence is due to WhizBangGizmo v2.0 being released... I really think that big business overlooks the emancipation from the upgrade cycle that OSS brings - I guess they're too entrenched in the hand-wad-of-cash-to-Gates-and-McNealy-every-two-ye ars to realise what OSS means... Even Apache & Perl seem to be employed because they work, rather than the freedom us coders like with them...
Interbase burns. I don't have any nice stats for you, but we run it on a fairly low power server, with a small user base. It is pretty solid - about every 3 months it falls over; recovery is a 15 minute job (for an 85Mb DB) and _nothing_ is lost. Comparable queries to a MS SQL server machine take about the same time, only the SQL server was running on a machine with twice as much RAM and twice as many processors. BTW, Delphi and C++ Builder (and Kylix, presumably) now support native Interbase DB components; this eliminates BDE/ODBC overhead, and provides better transaction isolation. Nice one, and thanks a lot, Borland!
Yeah, I've been worrying about that a lot recently... Where do electrons go to die? And why is the UN not getting involved? We should organise a "Free The Electrons" march...
I really wonder how much innovation can be ascribed to people's love of pr0n. Stuff that was made _really_ popular, because it made pr0n access easy... Just thinking quickly, here's some starting points...
Hah!!! There you have it hten!!! I am obviously a crack whore, who can't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning... [OT]Blueyonder are allegedly coming to my area (Stoke Newington, London) at the end of the year, with a cable modem type thing. Are they any good? I'm sick of getting whupped at Unreal Tournament by the bloody europeans with 60ms pings, while I'm crawling along at 130...
I think it was Sony who you can thank for this. IIRC (which I probably don't, but hey this _is_ slashdot:) Sony dropped their prices so low that they were losing money hand over fist, but nobody bought the more expensive Betamax (which was by Phillips, I believe)... Once Sony had killed Betamax, then they could start making money back on the hardware, and I think they were making a lot of cash on the video tape distribution. Kind of like giving away the razor but charging for the shaving foam. It was undoubtedly one of the business coups of the century - the CEO at the time must have had balls of steel.
"31337 h4xx0r" josh1 has made a quantum leap in online computing!!! Allegedly, on 20th July 2000, the slashdot troll and compulsive masturbator discovered an amazing new feature on his new Windows 3.1 computer - that of "cut and paste". "17'5 4m4z1n6!!!!" he might have commented "1 c4n b3 a t0t4l W4nK3R 0nl1n3 w17h 3v3n l355 3ff0r7!!!" "1 c4n7 w417 t00 5h0w m1 31337 AOL fr13nd5 - 7h3y w1ll b0w 70 m1 31337n355!!!:@~@~@:~@:~@:~@:~@:~###:~~##:~::::@@@:@~~~~~~::::"
This is the most important step in the consumerisation of the net. What businesses need online is a quick, easy way of getting hard cash from your pocket. Some netizens don't mind putting their credit card details into a form on the web, some don't. Myself, I can tell if the website is secure enough, but a lot of places redirect you 5 times before you can actually put your details in. I though about this a while back, and it's not the work of a cheeky little dotcom startup (damn, better cancel the order for that Ferrari!:). Let's call this deeferbank.com. Because of the global nature of the net, currency variations will kill this idea quickly. Say I put money into my deeferbank, in UK pounds. When I buy something, I can quote my bank details & do the encryption dance. The website I have just bought stuff from then gets sent the money in local currency from deeferbank. This is necessary for the small business who don't want to have to accept 10 different currencies online - deeferbank takes care of it all. So, at deeferbank, I am now exposed to the various vagaries of the currency markets. That is not the area for a dotcom to be in. So I am shocked that some of the major banks haven't jumped on this already.
The world needs a new currency, which for the sake of argument I will call the eQuid. You buy eQuids at the prevailing exchange rate, similar to the Euro. Online, everyone is therefore equal, small business are insulated from the worst swings in currency speculation, and consumers get to pay the price that the website stated, without any weird FX shift stuff when the bill finally arrives. Every site knows what an eQuid is, and where they are brokered. So, there we have it. Introduce a new currency for online trading; it's the only way to ensure a level playing field for small and big business alike.
So, it's an online mag about dotcom failures... And it's a dotcom startup... I'm sure this isn't lost on the readers of/.... [OT] what's up with hackernews.com the last two days?
Heh! I remember having some fun based on the fact MSDOS used to execute same-named files in the following order:.bat,.com, then.exe. So a directory in which there were 2 files, foo.exe and foo.bat, if you type foo, it would run the.bat by default... Had to run foo.exe to override this... Wonder if NT still carries this?:)
I'm with you on this one... If only I hadn't spanked my mod points that I had this morning... [OT] I wonder if CT holds stats on moderators? Like, how long they hold on to them for, on average - do people splash all 5 on one story, a few stories, or eke them out until they would expire anyway? Is that a poll, or what? Where is PollMastuh when you need him?:)
So, I'll just sit here with my Mac, running Eudora, and wait for this new worm to come out, as it inevitably will, and not affect me. Whilst it may not _directly_ affect you, don't you think your internet connection & mail delivery will be a tad slower, as a virus emails itself 2000 times from each infected machine, simultaneously? Routers, switches, firewalls... A certain sort of virus could, in effect, be aimed at one whole massive DoS, and not targeted at any particular site/piece of hardware. The fact is, if a massive net intensive virus decided at one point to start generating internet traffic internationally, with enough infected machines, you'd be lucky to see the internet again for at least a week...
I can remember when virus writing used to be _hard_. You had to be a bit 1337 to be able to write a TSR, or a boot block virus. Now look at the state of the virus world - ILOVEYOU.vbs (OK, it's a trojan, but still replicates like a virus) and the damage it caused. I'm not talking about the x billion the media claim it cost, just the panic in my IT department when virused email couldn't be deleted fast enough. Look at the code for ILOVEYOU.vbs - it is a doddle. No real inspiration involved - just patch 4 entries out off bugtraq together, and there you go. What we have now is a state of play where the entry level in writing malicious code is dropping rapidly as more and more people get into computers. Don't want to spend a few years learning to code? Hah, our whizbang COMActiveXCORBA plugin gives you the power on your desktop!!! Don't worry that your soft underbelly is now exposed because we can't give you the ease of use you want, without you knowing what you're doing!!! And you're too stupid to realise!!! So now that the learning curve has been removed, you will have people all over the net trying to write and run viruses, without a clue of the repercussions it may cause. Because they don't really understand what they are doing.
And with all those fumes around, there will be an instant reduction in road rage!!! I can see it now - "oh, man, I'm _really_ sorry about cutting you off like that..." "Hey - s'okay!"
Slashdot Mirror
"Exhibit A, your honour!"
Should garner even more press coverage...
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
That's neat - how do I go about registering as a Taurean?
You're right about the scariness of the masses, though... And to think - these people can not only vote, they can breed!!!
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Nope, I don't think you are. Plonking a few inActiveX components, drawing lines between primary & foreign key fields is _not_ hacking... The new generation doesn't have a clue - I had to explain what a register was to a CS graduate last year... Kinda like an auto mechanic that doesn't know what a piston is...
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
No, I don't know where it comes from either!
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
In my years as a nerd, I've been called far worse, but at least for a decent reason...
This goes well beyond being a "tech elite" (or should that be tech 31337?
The fact of the matter is your average nerd has grief growing up, for reasons Katz and others have explored ad infinitum.
Then you get a job, and your worth to society goes up, at least in financial terms. In reality, you are being managed by an incompetant buffon, who was probably a good coder in her day, but can't budget, manage or run projects. So, you have a bunch of already alienated people getting paid good cash but with no respect from society. I earn more than my sister (a barrister, incidentally) who has defended and prosecuted cases at the Old Bailey, London (yes, _that_ Old Bailey). Yet who gets the most respect from society? Is processing the machinations of Law more important than processing the machinations of business, the results of which fund the legal system?
On people to people things, I'd like to think I'm quite a generous and caring person. But just about any tech support job requires the patience of a saint. So if we come across as being brusque and intimidating when we're fixing your desktop PC after you've just run "ILOVEYOU.vbs" again, after all the times we've told you not to, then aren't we entitled to a loss of good humour? Think about it - if you get told by a barrister (say my sister, for instance) not to do something, how much more do you take those words as gospel, over the advice I've just given you?
"The tech culture is becoming a elitist society with no coherent political values,"
Elitist because we gain little or no respect from our users or corporate masters, yet we know our own worth. No political values - so does this mean that people who all like strawberry jam should all vote socialist? Just because we're involved in various tech communities does not mean we all think the same.
And considering that most tech people I know are all quite intelligent, how does that explain our lack of interest in politics? Simple. It doesn't push our buttons the way tech does. And looking at the way politics is conducted today, do you wonder why? Politics is now soundbite orientated, opinion poll driven nonsense. When will we return to conviction politics? Because until then, politics holds no interest for us; it's all lies, deceit and clever manipulated statistics.
I never thought I'd say it, but I miss Maggie Thatcher in politics.
"Testosterone poisoned?"
Yeah, that's right, blame the victim... Screwed over, ignored, bullied, disregarded and sometimes persecuted, now that I have more clout and am prepared to use it, I'm "poisoned". Well, I'm sorry, but I've reclaimed my balls, I feel great and I'm sure as hell not apologising for evening the score.
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Tapster
And this one goes up to eleven!!!
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
An interesting writeup on digital music can be found here
Moderators - follow the link before twiddling your buttons...
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Posting at +2 because I want more people to see it... Yes it's OT, but I can afford the karma...
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Except, with open source, you can hire a programmer to keep your system alive for long enough to either replace it/get it stable. I doubt if MS would be quite as accomodating, especially if the obselescence is due to WhizBangGizmo v2.0 being released...
I really think that big business overlooks the emancipation from the upgrade cycle that OSS brings - I guess they're too entrenched in the hand-wad-of-cash-to-Gates-and-McNealy-every-two-y
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
I don't have any nice stats for you, but we run it on a fairly low power server, with a small user base. It is pretty solid - about every 3 months it falls over; recovery is a 15 minute job (for an 85Mb DB) and _nothing_ is lost. Comparable queries to a MS SQL server machine take about the same time, only the SQL server was running on a machine with twice as much RAM and twice as many processors.
BTW, Delphi and C++ Builder (and Kylix, presumably) now support native Interbase DB components; this eliminates BDE/ODBC overhead, and provides better transaction isolation.
Nice one, and thanks a lot, Borland!
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
And why is the UN not getting involved? We should organise a "Free The Electrons" march...
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
It fits, hey?
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Or somehting like that...
1st on topic N&P post?
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Home projectors.
gif/jpg
mpeg
fast home dialup
VHS
Any more?
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
[OT]Blueyonder are allegedly coming to my area (Stoke Newington, London) at the end of the year, with a cable modem type thing. Are they any good? I'm sick of getting whupped at Unreal Tournament by the bloody europeans with 60ms pings, while I'm crawling along at 130...
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Once Sony had killed Betamax, then they could start making money back on the hardware, and I think they were making a lot of cash on the video tape distribution. Kind of like giving away the razor but charging for the shaving foam.
It was undoubtedly one of the business coups of the century - the CEO at the time must have had balls of steel.
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
"31337 h4xx0r" josh1 has made a quantum leap in online computing!!!
Allegedly, on 20th July 2000, the slashdot troll and compulsive masturbator discovered an amazing new feature on his new Windows 3.1 computer - that of "cut and paste".
"17'5 4m4z1n6!!!!" he might have commented "1 c4n b3 a t0t4l W4nK3R 0nl1n3 w17h 3v3n l355 3ff0r7!!!"
"1 c4n7 w417 t00 5h0w m1 31337 AOL fr13nd5 - 7h3y w1ll b0w 70 m1 31337n355!!!
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Because of the global nature of the net, currency variations will kill this idea quickly. Say I put money into my deeferbank, in UK pounds. When I buy something, I can quote my bank details & do the encryption dance. The website I have just bought stuff from then gets sent the money in local currency from deeferbank. This is necessary for the small business who don't want to have to accept 10 different currencies online - deeferbank takes care of it all. So, at deeferbank, I am now exposed to the various vagaries of the currency markets. That is not the area for a dotcom to be in.
So I am shocked that some of the major banks haven't jumped on this already.
The world needs a new currency, which for the sake of argument I will call the eQuid.
You buy eQuids at the prevailing exchange rate, similar to the Euro. Online, everyone is therefore equal, small business are insulated from the worst swings in currency speculation, and consumers get to pay the price that the website stated, without any weird FX shift stuff when the bill finally arrives. Every site knows what an eQuid is, and where they are brokered.
So, there we have it. Introduce a new currency for online trading; it's the only way to ensure a level playing field for small and big business alike.
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
And it's a dotcom startup...
I'm sure this isn't lost on the readers of
[OT] what's up with hackernews.com the last two days?
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
So a directory in which there were 2 files, foo.exe and foo.bat, if you type foo, it would run the
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
If only I hadn't spanked my mod points that I had this morning...
[OT] I wonder if CT holds stats on moderators? Like, how long they hold on to them for, on average - do people splash all 5 on one story, a few stories, or eke them out until they would expire anyway? Is that a poll, or what? Where is PollMastuh when you need him?
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Whilst it may not _directly_ affect you, don't you think your internet connection & mail delivery will be a tad slower, as a virus emails itself 2000 times from each infected machine, simultaneously? Routers, switches, firewalls... A certain sort of virus could, in effect, be aimed at one whole massive DoS, and not targeted at any particular site/piece of hardware. The fact is, if a massive net intensive virus decided at one point to start generating internet traffic internationally, with enough infected machines, you'd be lucky to see the internet again for at least a week...
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
Now look at the state of the virus world - ILOVEYOU.vbs (OK, it's a trojan, but still replicates like a virus) and the damage it caused. I'm not talking about the x billion the media claim it cost, just the panic in my IT department when virused email couldn't be deleted fast enough. Look at the code for ILOVEYOU.vbs - it is a doddle. No real inspiration involved - just patch 4 entries out off bugtraq together, and there you go.
What we have now is a state of play where the entry level in writing malicious code is dropping rapidly as more and more people get into computers. Don't want to spend a few years learning to code? Hah, our whizbang COMActiveXCORBA plugin gives you the power on your desktop!!!
Don't worry that your soft underbelly is now exposed because we can't give you the ease of use you want, without you knowing what you're doing!!! And you're too stupid to realise!!!
So now that the learning curve has been removed, you will have people all over the net trying to write and run viruses, without a clue of the repercussions it may cause. Because they don't really understand what they are doing.
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
I can see it now - "oh, man, I'm _really_ sorry about cutting you off like that..."
"Hey - s'okay!"
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.