You're absolutely right, it's been much too long =) So much so, I think I'm going to try and find a copy to reread... I was fairly young when I first read it. Chorizo
In the novel people weren't genetically engineered, but stunted with salt water solutions while being incubated before birth. This caused some to develop as "Stupid" -- to work in the lower class of jobs and be content with it.
In the first episode of the TV show Futurama, it's said that all people in the future have their genes scanned and it is determined what they are best suited for... then they imprint this into you and you're stuck with it for life.
The debate and fantasy on the subject has been going on for a very, very long time, since about 5 minutes after someone realized that there was some scientific backing to genes and DNA. It's been looked at from a moral/ethical/religious point of view, and from a technological/scientific point of view.
I'm a very religious person, but I'm also very technical by trade, and scientific by nature. I recognize the fact that there is little to no difference between engineering a chemical to apply to your hair to make it red, and engineering a chemical to apply to your future children to make their hair red.
In the end, as a species we've always done everything we could do. We've built everything that we could conceive, we've used everything we've created, and we pour money into inventing new things to build and use. There's no indication that when the time comes due, when the opportunity is presented to engineer a better person, that we're going to say no.
I've been using linux for about 6 years... I'm no expert at it, certainly not in this circle, but it is what I develop on, and use for 10+ hours a day. I've built and installed linux on many boxes, and I've had trouble more times than not.
The point is, the author is correct, to the average computer user, this is not the easiest task. The installation DOES requier that you know what hardware you have installed. But more than that... my generic ethernet card installs as ne2k-pci, my adaptec scsi card as aic-7000... what's that all about... my tnt2 is a riva 128..
Point is, getting linux up and running is a headache to more than a few people. Installation programs bail out with cryptic error messages, package and program descriptions read like a foreign lanugage textbook. It's not about cramming features in anymore. The platform is well ahead of the next best thing, the software can do anything, and it's getting better every day. The problem is that the audience is expanding.
My mother can't tell the difference between the TI typewriter and her PC, but I've seen her install windows, ms office, type up a report and print it out in under a few hours. I shudder to think what decisions she'd have to make configuring the printer port to use a postscript filter, or configuring the sound card.
So the suggestion I humbly offer is that the error messages be decoded into normal speech, the installation programs given detailed descriptions to each of their options (not only what the choice is, but when to pick it, when not to pick it, and what happens after you do). Also, programs need to behave in a more intelligent manner when dealing with errors. Instead of bombing out to the console when my X server can't find one font server or font, it should move on, make a substitution, etc.
And if all of this can be done already, that's great, but it should be done by default, or it should be made perfectly clear up front which button to push to get it.
--Chorizo
Now if someone can tell me how i can get ssh and ncftp3 to appear back as options in my debian package manager, i can continue work... one day they were there, the next day, gone...
I too have never used python, but now I'm interested. After learning some basic concepts in C, the first language I can say I studied and developed on is Java. I found it to be an excellent example of what an object oriented language should behave like. The undergraduate program at Cornell University is now completely in Java for their "non CS major how to code" classes (Dylan is used for the CS majors in one class). They switched from C/C++ 4 years ago, and from Pascal a few years before that. Regardless of any media slant that Java is a "web lanugage," I find that as an educational tool, it works well in teaching the basics of inheritance, interfaces, and other oop concepts. Chorizo
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Don't they work in a similar manner? I'm not sure, but I'd suspect it would be hard to collect seeds from your harvest of seedless grapes to replant.
You're absolutely right, it's been much too long =) So much so, I think I'm going to try and find a copy to reread... I was fairly young when I first read it. Chorizo
In the first episode of the TV show Futurama, it's said that all people in the future have their genes scanned and it is determined what they are best suited for... then they imprint this into you and you're stuck with it for life.
The debate and fantasy on the subject has been going on for a very, very long time, since about 5 minutes after someone realized that there was some scientific backing to genes and DNA. It's been looked at from a moral/ethical/religious point of view, and from a technological/scientific point of view.
I'm a very religious person, but I'm also very technical by trade, and scientific by nature. I recognize the fact that there is little to no difference between engineering a chemical to apply to your hair to make it red, and engineering a chemical to apply to your future children to make their hair red.
In the end, as a species we've always done everything we could do. We've built everything that we could conceive, we've used everything we've created, and we pour money into inventing new things to build and use. There's no indication that when the time comes due, when the opportunity is presented to engineer a better person, that we're going to say no.
The point is, the author is correct, to the average computer user, this is not the easiest task. The installation DOES requier that you know what hardware you have installed. But more than that... my generic ethernet card installs as ne2k-pci, my adaptec scsi card as aic-7000... what's that all about... my tnt2 is a riva 128..
Point is, getting linux up and running is a headache to more than a few people. Installation programs bail out with cryptic error messages, package and program descriptions read like a foreign lanugage textbook. It's not about cramming features in anymore. The platform is well ahead of the next best thing, the software can do anything, and it's getting better every day. The problem is that the audience is expanding.
My mother can't tell the difference between the TI typewriter and her PC, but I've seen her install windows, ms office, type up a report and print it out in under a few hours. I shudder to think what decisions she'd have to make configuring the printer port to use a postscript filter, or configuring the sound card.
So the suggestion I humbly offer is that the error messages be decoded into normal speech, the installation programs given detailed descriptions to each of their options (not only what the choice is, but when to pick it, when not to pick it, and what happens after you do). Also, programs need to behave in a more intelligent manner when dealing with errors. Instead of bombing out to the console when my X server can't find one font server or font, it should move on, make a substitution, etc.
And if all of this can be done already, that's great, but it should be done by default, or it should be made perfectly clear up front which button to push to get it.
--Chorizo
Now if someone can tell me how i can get ssh and ncftp3 to appear back as options in my debian package manager, i can continue work... one day they were there, the next day, gone...
I too have never used python, but now I'm interested. After learning some basic concepts in C, the first language I can say I studied and developed on is Java. I found it to be an excellent example of what an object oriented language should behave like. The undergraduate program at Cornell University is now completely in Java for their "non CS major how to code" classes (Dylan is used for the CS majors in one class). They switched from C/C++ 4 years ago, and from Pascal a few years before that. Regardless of any media slant that Java is a "web lanugage," I find that as an educational tool, it works well in teaching the basics of inheritance, interfaces, and other oop concepts. Chorizo