I disagree with the notion of placing a burden on the ISP's - they should just be treated as carriers.
Without having read through the bill I have no doubt that it's deeply flawed, but just speaking conceptually I like the idea of requiring ratings on websites if the requirements are reasonable (yeah, that's a big can of worms, I know).
It might ease some of the objections from parents (and I am one) about how easy it is for kids to access porn (and I'm especially concerned about younger kids who aren't emotionally ready to be exposed to that sort of thing).
It could also eliminate the current problem of content filters that are based upon secret blacklists of sites which may or may not contain actual porn - the blocking would be much more accurate.
For this to be done right it would have to be an internationally agreed-upon standard, and ideally a voluntary one, always keeping in mind that the ratings are only an extra bit of information placed somewhere on the web site and that it's completely up to the client (or client site) to do any filtering.
Of course, I'm not holding my breath for anything reasonable to happen.
Nah, the hypothetical scenario is that there is a God + heaven + hell, but that the Bible isn't meant to be taken literally (an argument that others have made here), and that God's pissed that the Fundies are basically distorting His message.
This is all, of course, hypothetical; I'm not even religious (I guess you could label me "agnostic", although I hate labels), it's that I hate know-it-alls who not only think they have the one-and-only Answer, but beat everyone else over the head with it!
What if it's a sin to deny the beautifully complex processes of the Universe that God set in motion, such as Physics and
Evolution, and to deny the use of the Intellect bestowed upon all sentient creatures (not just ourselves, but other non-terrestrial sentient life out there) to observe and analyse the Universe around us in order to fully appreciate His design?
Then perhaps it's the Fundies who have a big, unhappy surprise in store for themselves when they die.
Would that be irony, or poetic justice?
Meanwhile this kind of stupidity causes our once-great nation to die a little more each day.
After the Mach microkernel was considered insufficient, some developers decided to start a new project porting the Hurd on the more advanced L4 microkernel using cutting-edge operating system design, thus creating the Hurd/L4.
Hurd/L4 probably won't be ready for release before L4 is considered too old, and so it has to be ported, again, to whatever's current then.
Was the port really more important that actually releasing a finished kernel? How much did that set things back?
Remember then Netscape pissed away their lead over IE by rewriting the project from the ground up?
Geez, how many more versions of Star Wars do we need? God forbid that he use this technology to make an entirely new movie. I suppose the recently-released DVD set is now already considered "unfinished" in his mind.
I also wonder how he can "dimensionalize" the original films which, as far as I know, weren't shot in 3-D.
Everybody I know who likes motorcycles wants something with horsepower.
If industry really wants to get people interested in electric vehicles, they've got to produce something with balls. People want performance; for example, look at how popular the Ford Mustang is (and I'd love to have one of the new ones!) The potential is there; electric motors have great torque: check out the tzero.
There's been talk of building hybrid vehicles for performance, as an electric motor can provide a great boost in acceleration, but instead we have mostly wierd-looking, slow econo-boxes for hybrids.
Sure, what's out there now appeals to an environmentally-concious niche market who wishes to make a statement, and that's fine for them, but the appeal doesn't go beyond that and won't until there's something that gets people excited. That's when electric vehicles and hybrids will start making a difference.
What they do have is professional makeup, lighting and cinematography.
And (hopefully) a good director. Unfortunately, fan films are made by fans, not Hollywood pros (usually), so there's no experience directing actors. Look how bad the acting in Episodes One and Two was - those were good actors but they were directed by someone who has said that he doesn't like actors (Lucas). Compare to what someone who does like actors can do (Ron Howard, Rob Reiner). Good direction can make a world of difference.
For a while I was the webmaster for a large newspaper, when they were brought kicking and screaming onto the Web. Something that really stands out in my memory of those days was that they wouldn't make a move without determining what the other papers were doing first. The thinking seemed to be: "if others are doing it, then it's OK, otherwise it's too risky." Newspapers are very (fiscally) conservative organizations, and maybe they need to be.
If a few high-profile papers start charging for all online access to their news, that's when you can expect everyone else to follow suit. I think it's a gradual transition that's happening, though. The papers are well aware that once their customers are used to getting something for free, they resent having it taken away.
The best chance Linux has to replace Windows in under the guidance of a big commercial enterprise; they can advertise, consistancy can be dictated, and projects that no-one wants to do (like documentation, GUI integration, etc.) are ordered to be done.
In the past I would have predicted that it would come down to Red Hat and Suse (or maybe Mandrake) because they're the most polished and popular distros.
But now I don't think it's so clear. Redhat hurt themselves (and Linux in general in the U.S.) when they spun off their free version as "Fedora" and put a price on "Red Hat Linux". Fedora's quality has been inconsistant.
Suse was bought by Novell, which seems to have a knack for killing anything they touch. I do hope that won't be the case here, but still...
Mandrake seems to have the numbers (based on distrowatch anyway), but I never see it around any place of business - it's always Red Hat and Suse. Maybe things are better for them in Europe, but they've also had financial troubles in the past so businesses may be a little skittish.
Things do seem to be foundering a bit; It's gonna take Novell not screwing up with Suse, or Red Hat calling Fedora "Red Hat" again to bring things back on track.
Non-computer people see the computer as a single entity - it's not quite Windows that crashes, it's "the computer" (but they do seem to know that Microsoft is to blame). They really don't give a crap about the distinction between the OS and the computer, so they may see it as more reasonable to get a whole new computer rather than perform what they perceive as "brain surgury" to put Linux on it (and which Linux should it be? Red Hat, Linspire, Gentoo, etc... kind of confusing for someone who doesn't follow this stuff and isn't quite sure what role Linux plays on their computer).
So here's the logic as I see it: now that a Macintosh can be had for a reasonable $500, and getting a new, "different kind" of computer seems like the best solution, the Mac Mini seems more likely to replace Windows on the average desktop than Linux. Everyone's heard of the Apple Macintosh, and Mac software does sometimes appear in retail stores (besides Apple stores). It seems to be selling well enough.
Now, we know that it's cheaper to install Linux on your existing hardware, but just try to put yourself in the shoes of average, don't-care-about-computers-they're-just-a-tool person and imagine how they see things.
While I believe in the right to privacy and in the freedom of the press, this seems to be about uncovering an NDA violation and not about punishing news sites. I think Apple has a right to know who's violating a contract with them.
As for the journalists, encouraging people to violate their agreements crosses a line, of good taste at least.
I'd feel the same way if it was Microsoft (though a little bit dirty about it:-)
I'm generally pessimistic about such grassroots efforts to save a show - they never seem to work. However, I'm pretty impressed by what this group has accomplished - maybe I should be more optimistic in this case?
I agree with everyone who said that the first couple of seasons sucked, although it had its moments; season three was sometimes pretty cool, definately an improvement. The lack of other good shows on TV (I hate reality TV) kept me watching.
Now that Coto's in charge, season four kicks ass! Too bad so many people already wrote the show off. I just saw an episide that explains beautifully why Klingons looked different in the original series, and even fits in with Worf's comment in the DS9 "tribbles" episode ("We don't talk about it"). That's the kind of thing they should have done from the get-go, rather than screwing around with that "tempral cold-war" crap.
.. that kids should wait to choose a career when they've finally figured out what they're interested in, probably during or post-college. Why the hell are people pushed at such a young age to choose a career?
Explore, try different things to see what you enjoy doing, then try to pursue a career in that. IT is drudgery, and nobody should go into it unless they really like computers.
The story summary should have said "Mini-PCI" instead of just "PCI". Yeah sure, you and I know what he meant, but it would have been clearer, and not invoked a mental image of someone trying in vain to cram a regular PCI card into a laptop.
Bill Gate does what's best for Bill Gates, or more accurately, whatever it takes for him to "win". Winning at all cost means forgetting your principals, or never having them in the first place.
When Microsoft was tiny, patents were bad for them; now they find them useful, simple as that.
Yeah, I guess get the association, but I doubt this is going to do anything to move Hurd further along; this is already running (apparently) well enough on Linux. I'm not holding my breath for it the Hurd.
Does Hurd have anything to do with this? (Can't get to the article). I don't see how this brings the Hurd closer to "release", any more that it does Duke Nukem Forever.
Slashdot Mirror
how may Volkswagens are required to hold each Library of Congess and how fast must they drive to achieve decent bandwidth?
Check out Xerox PARC's PolyBot; each segment contains its own motor and PowerPC processor. This was on Slashdot some time ago.
Perhaps I'm a little slow, but why did the parent get modded as a troll? Just curious.
Without having read through the bill I have no doubt that it's deeply flawed, but just speaking conceptually I like the idea of requiring ratings on websites if the requirements are reasonable (yeah, that's a big can of worms, I know).
It might ease some of the objections from parents (and I am one) about how easy it is for kids to access porn (and I'm especially concerned about younger kids who aren't emotionally ready to be exposed to that sort of thing).
It could also eliminate the current problem of content filters that are based upon secret blacklists of sites which may or may not contain actual porn - the blocking would be much more accurate.
For this to be done right it would have to be an internationally agreed-upon standard, and ideally a voluntary one, always keeping in mind that the ratings are only an extra bit of information placed somewhere on the web site and that it's completely up to the client (or client site) to do any filtering.
Of course, I'm not holding my breath for anything reasonable to happen.
This is all, of course, hypothetical; I'm not even religious (I guess you could label me "agnostic", although I hate labels), it's that I hate know-it-alls who not only think they have the one-and-only Answer, but beat everyone else over the head with it!
Then perhaps it's the Fundies who have a big, unhappy surprise in store for themselves when they die.
Would that be irony, or poetic justice?
Meanwhile this kind of stupidity causes our once-great nation to die a little more each day.
Ooooh, a hypospray! Another example reality catching up to science fiction.
Hurd/L4 probably won't be ready for release before L4 is considered too old, and so it has to be ported, again, to whatever's current then.
Was the port really more important that actually releasing a finished kernel? How much did that set things back?
Remember then Netscape pissed away their lead over IE by rewriting the project from the ground up?
I also wonder how he can "dimensionalize" the original films which, as far as I know, weren't shot in 3-D.
OK, that's all I need to hear to like these guys!
There's been talk of building hybrid vehicles for performance, as an electric motor can provide a great boost in acceleration, but instead we have mostly wierd-looking, slow econo-boxes for hybrids. Sure, what's out there now appeals to an environmentally-concious niche market who wishes to make a statement, and that's fine for them, but the appeal doesn't go beyond that and won't until there's something that gets people excited. That's when electric vehicles and hybrids will start making a difference.
And (hopefully) a good director. Unfortunately, fan films are made by fans, not Hollywood pros (usually), so there's no experience directing actors. Look how bad the acting in Episodes One and Two was - those were good actors but they were directed by someone who has said that he doesn't like actors (Lucas). Compare to what someone who does like actors can do (Ron Howard, Rob Reiner). Good direction can make a world of difference.
If a few high-profile papers start charging for all online access to their news, that's when you can expect everyone else to follow suit. I think it's a gradual transition that's happening, though. The papers are well aware that once their customers are used to getting something for free, they resent having it taken away.
I wonder how this is working out for them; it may be a good example.
In the past I would have predicted that it would come down to Red Hat and Suse (or maybe Mandrake) because they're the most polished and popular distros.
But now I don't think it's so clear. Redhat hurt themselves (and Linux in general in the U.S.) when they spun off their free version as "Fedora" and put a price on "Red Hat Linux". Fedora's quality has been inconsistant.
Suse was bought by Novell, which seems to have a knack for killing anything they touch. I do hope that won't be the case here, but still...
Mandrake seems to have the numbers (based on distrowatch anyway), but I never see it around any place of business - it's always Red Hat and Suse. Maybe things are better for them in Europe, but they've also had financial troubles in the past so businesses may be a little skittish.
Things do seem to be foundering a bit; It's gonna take Novell not screwing up with Suse, or Red Hat calling Fedora "Red Hat" again to bring things back on track.
Non-computer people see the computer as a single entity - it's not quite Windows that crashes, it's "the computer" (but they do seem to know that Microsoft is to blame). They really don't give a crap about the distinction between the OS and the computer, so they may see it as more reasonable to get a whole new computer rather than perform what they perceive as "brain surgury" to put Linux on it (and which Linux should it be? Red Hat, Linspire, Gentoo, etc... kind of confusing for someone who doesn't follow this stuff and isn't quite sure what role Linux plays on their computer).
So here's the logic as I see it: now that a Macintosh can be had for a reasonable $500, and getting a new, "different kind" of computer seems like the best solution, the Mac Mini seems more likely to replace Windows on the average desktop than Linux. Everyone's heard of the Apple Macintosh, and Mac software does sometimes appear in retail stores (besides Apple stores). It seems to be selling well enough.
Now, we know that it's cheaper to install Linux on your existing hardware, but just try to put yourself in the shoes of average, don't-care-about-computers-they're-just-a-tool person and imagine how they see things.
As for the journalists, encouraging people to violate their agreements crosses a line, of good taste at least.
I'd feel the same way if it was Microsoft (though a little bit dirty about it :-)
I agree with everyone who said that the first couple of seasons sucked, although it had its moments; season three was sometimes pretty cool, definately an improvement. The lack of other good shows on TV (I hate reality TV) kept me watching.
Now that Coto's in charge, season four kicks ass! Too bad so many people already wrote the show off. I just saw an episide that explains beautifully why Klingons looked different in the original series, and even fits in with Worf's comment in the DS9 "tribbles" episode ("We don't talk about it"). That's the kind of thing they should have done from the get-go, rather than screwing around with that "tempral cold-war" crap.
Here's hoping the show can continue!
Explore, try different things to see what you enjoy doing, then try to pursue a career in that. IT is drudgery, and nobody should go into it unless they really like computers.
The story summary should have said "Mini-PCI" instead of just "PCI". Yeah sure, you and I know what he meant, but it would have been clearer, and not invoked a mental image of someone trying in vain to cram a regular PCI card into a laptop.
When Microsoft was tiny, patents were bad for them; now they find them useful, simple as that.
Now I find out about it (and I live in San Diego, too!), when it's over. That's me - always a day late and a dollar short.
I wonder how feasible it would be to put GNUstep on top of Darwin/X11? Has anybody tried this?
Yeah, I guess get the association, but I doubt this is going to do anything to move Hurd further along; this is already running (apparently) well enough on Linux. I'm not holding my breath for it the Hurd.
Does Hurd have anything to do with this? (Can't get to the article). I don't see how this brings the Hurd closer to "release", any more that it does Duke Nukem Forever.