I really fell bad about being so phenomonally unimpressed with guy's life's work. Granted, I am not publishing graphics software myself, but I don't post my grade school artwork either.
I feel almost the same when my three year old daughter brings me a picture she drew. "oh, sweetheart, that's beautiful! I love you! Now go stick that to the refrigerator with the other ones."
Did anyone else find it suspicious that the most recent "interview" was from September of last year? About a remarkably stupid sounding game? And the "demo" was billed as a way to view the island of nervana, even though it only vaguely resembled an island? The guy is 22 and designed the game, the graphics engine, and wrote the music for the game?
The best I can hope for here is that the reporter was a friend of his trying to help him out, or maybe just really, really, hard up for a story.
Jane's has always been the definitve source of military intelligence for the layman. Now that CyberTerrorism is approaching reality, Jane's will have to maintain their stanards in a new field.
I am personally delighted that Jane's refused to contribute to the general FUD campaign that the mainstream media. It is refreshing to be able to find a publication that is willing to go to the source (pun intended) tp get it's information.
I can only hope the Znet, Dvorak, CNN and [insert FUD factory here] take notice and try to make a new trend.
This is, of course, redundant; everything has already been said by this point...
What I find surprising about this is the similarity between this protest and that of all of the other ones that go on in America(possible in other places, I haven't been there:)). To Wit: Anti-Abortionists chant and yell and scream outside of abortion clinics. You don't want an abortion? Don't have one! Anti-fur activists chant and scream outside of a clothing store. You don't want to wear leather? Don't buy their products! Evolution got you down? Don't force other people to share your views.
This is a great big planet we are sitting on, with lots and lots of people. There is no unanimous opinion, ever, about anything!
It seems to me, and maybe I am wrong, that this article is simply trying to instigate more flame wars. We have the Apple-PC-Linux Zealots. There are Wordperfect-Word97 Zealots. Ford-Chevy Zealots. And or course, our favorite, Red Hat-Mandrake-Debian-SuSE-Caldera-Slackware-[insert distro here] Zealots. Have any of you ever heard of McMillian Linux? I have to admit I haven't, and I have installed at least three of the previously listed distributions. I hearby moderate this article as -1, Flamebait.
I fear the size of apps to come. Has anyone else out there had to install, say for instance, M$ Office 2000? It is huge, and for no apparent benefit in function or ease of use. Linux can fit an entire server and all the required apps on one CD(usually), but M$ Frontpage 2000 comes on two discs by itself! Remember before you had a HDD? Huge programs then ran on two, sometimes three, floppies. Remember the 640Kb RAM cap? Some very impressive software ran in a very limited space. All of these limits hae been effectively removed, allowing the mind-bending size of modern applications. I understand that the prices of RAM and HD space or plummeting, but does that require more crappy software to fill the void? Wouldn't you rather have 50Gb worth of useful stuff? Larger drives will inevitably lead to larger programs, but I'm not sure I want them.
I really don't think there are any COTS software apps dedicated to CT, (ie. MS LoopHole Exploiter 2000 or some such thing). There are, however, many, many people out there who devote their lives to finding ways around security. Many of them are all to proud to show off their newest exploits or workarounds. Astalavista and sister sites take great pride in allowing you to do things you shouldn't. However, most of these tricks, scripts, and cracks are relativly harmless compared to a single man placing a pipebomb at the nearest telephone switching station. There is no such thing as "security" as most people like to think about it. The best you can do is stop the incompetent (they weren't a threat anyway) and slow down the professionals (who you will never be able to stop).
CT can, and probably will be a problem, but I don't think we have reached that critical point yet.
After watching the animated.gif of the bridge building process I have a stupid question: What was the holding strength of the legos in the computer model? I believe them when they say that the end result was structurally sound, but, as someone who has played with a lot of legos, those expansion bits were simply too far away from the base to hold together. Unless they were glued, those legos would have fallen apart.
I think we all need to step back and take alook at the big picture here. The Ig Nobel's serve a very good purpose: They highlight the fact that there are people that are actually getting paid to do this sort of research! That is my kind of job! Person: "So, What do you do?" Hermetic: "I dunk biscuits, quite precisely, mind you, and determine what precentage of dunking produces the best taste." Person: "Are you hiring?" I find it amazing that any woman would think that the rotating birth accelerator is a good idea. Did you look at that thing? "Sweetie, I know it hurts, but I think if we strap you in and spin you around really, really fast that kid'll come shooting out of there in no time fast!" Please, Please don't let these people breed.
I have always been confused by the zealots of our geeky little world... How can you get that worked up just because someone says that they like to use a Mac? Or Windows? One the one hand you disdain someone that can use an "inferior" program(or OS, whatever, really), and on the other hand expect those products to improve to to suit your own needs and wants.
My dad uses AOL. I consider it a personal failure on my part. As much as AOL sucks, according to all of us, it does what he wants it to. It doesn't have the power of sendmail. It isn't open source. But it works.
Any moron can learn HTML. So why are there products like MS Frontpage? That mangle the code into something almost unrecognizable? Because it is easy. Our whole society is based on easy. TV, movies, fast food, and even software. Apple succeeds in the face of obsolecsence because it is easy to use. Windows exists because it's users don't have to know anything to type up a letter and print it out.
Linux is great, Linux is good, but it is a niche product (for now) that needs the dreaded "user friendliness" before it will ever become ubiquitous.
Modular is good right? In all things, right? Well Ikea has modular furniture. You get two uprights, couple of platforms, and there you go. If you need more (and we all do), there are 45 degree corner pieces, there is a keyboard mount that slides in and out, etc.
On my main level I have about ten linear feet wrapped around me at desk hieght, with either two or three shelves in each section. My monitor, keyboard and books go on a 6" (1.80m) high tower of shelves. There are more shelves to my right, with printer, scanner, more speakers, CDs, more books, board games, work, an antique 3 1/2" floppy collection...and more!
The whole contraption cost less than $300 American. It isn't the prettiest thing, but what do want?
Not that I don't trust our government or something, but who out there is positive that research on this has stopped? It stills sounds like an extremely effective weapon to me. Maybe submarine deployed?
Why would someone not want an implant? Other than the possibility of my eyes being hacked or something like that, I see no real problems.
I want my cellphone hardwired to my brain. I want to have Unreal sent directly to my optic nerves. I want maps, phone directories, news, even/. in my head anytime I need it. I want a health monitoring system that can e-mail my doctor when I am sick. I want(need) a blood alcohol checker.
I know some of you are thinking "Dear God, who am I going to let program something that goes INSIDE ME?" I ask you this: You run buggy software. You have workarounds for your hardware. You complain night and day about the companies that don't do what you want. Would you have it any other way?
No, of course not. You love the technology or would wouldn't be a geek. Implants are the future. I wish I had been born later, so that I would be able to see more...
I think the point of all of this is to copyright information that you might not want other people to use...
As a for instance: Most Non-Profit orginizations have "donor lists." In my fictional NPO, I don't want slashdot.org (for instance) to have my list of geeks./. my start sending them mailings or e-mails asking for money, cutting into my donor base. This is the equivilent of the lists junk mail companies sell to other junk mail companies.
If my NPO can prevent someone else from stealing my info, I can get more money...
Sony Computer Entertainment did not return phone calls.
Well, Duh. This isn't as bad as the mod chip addition, but Sony is probably planning some sort of portable MP3 player itself(MP3Man?). This is probably going to cut into whatever they were hoping to push out on that end.
About the Playstion2... I doubt it would work on the new system. Backwards compatible doesn't usually mean identical.
I think the consenses yesterday on/. was that this new "relaxation" is simply a concession on the part of the government. They know that our silly little laws aren't stopping anything from going anywhere, and are finally bowing to the pressure from all sides of the American computer industry.
When I was in Japan a few years ago, I ordered a cheesy reseller system(because they would mail it to me and they financed over the phone). They would not send me MS office 97 Home Edition because of the encryption in MONEY! The stupid thing is, I could go buy an American version(the one the wouldn't send me) from various places throughout Asia, and not only from pirate shops.
With the advent of incredibly secure encryption schemes that are so easy to download(PGP, et al.), American export laws are silly at best.
Is it possible to get an IP ban on the morons who keep posting the insert moron's name here) is hated by...? They are just wasting moderation points, AFAIK. That, or don't make moderating them cost any points...
What I am saying, poorly I know, is that many of the technologies we use in the usa, while adequate, are the not the best solutions. They are often simply the easiest and quickest to produce, thus creating profit sooner.
The specs on the I2 are very impressive, but I fear that it is being implemented more for corporate reasons than altruistic ones.
see http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/09/16/002823 7&mode=thread for world opinions of US standards. The story is about broadband access in Canada, but many world wide/.ers have chimed in about how good their lives are. Most of the world has much better stuff than the US does, because they adopt the best technologies instead of the ones that are cheapest to implement, such as widespread Asain use of HDTV. The European standards for broadband cabling are superior to th US versions, as well.
Will I2 be a "good" thing? Or is it simply the easiest and cheapest solution right now?
With all of the other goings-on involving encryption, do you think the Justice Department will like this? It sounds like a very good way to keep law enforcement types from looking at your transmissions.
Has anyone out there run in to any real problems while doing Y2K testing? Did anyone fail at the April 9th date? What about at 9/9/99 (barring the tandy(?))?
There is more to fear from people than there is from the computers...
Slashdot Mirror
I really fell bad about being so phenomonally unimpressed with guy's life's work. Granted, I am not publishing graphics software myself, but I don't post my grade school artwork either.
I feel almost the same when my three year old daughter brings me a picture she drew. "oh, sweetheart, that's beautiful! I love you! Now go stick that to the refrigerator with the other ones."
Did anyone else find it suspicious that the most recent "interview" was from September of last year? About a remarkably stupid sounding game? And the "demo" was billed as a way to view the island of nervana, even though it only vaguely resembled an island? The guy is 22 and designed the game, the graphics engine, and wrote the music for the game?
The best I can hope for here is that the reporter was a friend of his trying to help him out, or maybe just really, really, hard up for a story.
Jane's has always been the definitve source of military intelligence for the layman. Now that CyberTerrorism is approaching reality, Jane's will have to maintain their stanards in a new field.
I am personally delighted that Jane's refused to contribute to the general FUD campaign that the mainstream media. It is refreshing to be able to find a publication that is willing to go to the source (pun intended) tp get it's information.
I can only hope the Znet, Dvorak, CNN and [insert FUD factory here] take notice and try to make a new trend.
This is, of course, redundant; everything has already been said by this point...
:)).
What I find surprising about this is the similarity between this protest and that of all of the other ones that go on in America(possible in other places, I haven't been there
To Wit: Anti-Abortionists chant and yell and scream outside of abortion clinics. You don't want an abortion? Don't have one!
Anti-fur activists chant and scream outside of a clothing store. You don't want to wear leather? Don't buy their products!
Evolution got you down? Don't force other people to share your views.
This is a great big planet we are sitting on, with lots and lots of people. There is no unanimous opinion, ever, about anything!
Just leave me alone.
It seems to me, and maybe I am wrong, that this article is simply trying to instigate more flame wars.t distro here] Zealots.
We have the Apple-PC-Linux Zealots. There are Wordperfect-Word97 Zealots. Ford-Chevy Zealots. And or course, our favorite, Red Hat-Mandrake-Debian-SuSE-Caldera-Slackware-[inser
Have any of you ever heard of McMillian Linux?
I have to admit I haven't, and I have installed at least three of the previously listed distributions.
I hearby moderate this article as -1, Flamebait.
I fear the size of apps to come.
Has anyone else out there had to install, say for instance, M$ Office 2000? It is huge, and for no apparent benefit in function or ease of use. Linux can fit an entire server and all the required apps on one CD(usually), but M$ Frontpage 2000 comes on two discs by itself!
Remember before you had a HDD? Huge programs then ran on two, sometimes three, floppies. Remember the 640Kb RAM cap? Some very impressive software ran in a very limited space. All of these limits hae been effectively removed, allowing the mind-bending size of modern applications.
I understand that the prices of RAM and HD space or plummeting, but does that require more crappy software to fill the void? Wouldn't you rather have 50Gb worth of useful stuff?
Larger drives will inevitably lead to larger programs, but I'm not sure I want them.
I really don't think there are any COTS software apps dedicated to CT, (ie. MS LoopHole Exploiter 2000 or some such thing). There are, however, many, many people out there who devote their lives to finding ways around security. Many of them are all to proud to show off their newest exploits or workarounds.
Astalavista and sister sites take great pride in allowing you to do things you shouldn't. However, most of these tricks, scripts, and cracks are relativly harmless compared to a single man placing a pipebomb at the nearest telephone switching station.
There is no such thing as "security" as most people like to think about it. The best you can do is stop the incompetent (they weren't a threat anyway) and slow down the professionals (who you will never be able to stop).
CT can, and probably will be a problem, but I don't think we have reached that critical point yet.
After watching the animated .gif of the bridge building process I have a stupid question: What was the holding strength of the legos in the computer model?
I believe them when they say that the end result was structurally sound, but, as someone who has played with a lot of legos, those expansion bits were simply too far away from the base to hold together.
Unless they were glued, those legos would have fallen apart.
I think we all need to step back and take alook at the big picture here. The Ig Nobel's serve a very good purpose: They highlight the fact that there are people that are actually getting paid to do this sort of research! That is my kind of job! Person: "So, What do you do?" Hermetic: "I dunk biscuits, quite precisely, mind you, and determine what precentage of dunking produces the best taste." Person: "Are you hiring?" I find it amazing that any woman would think that the rotating birth accelerator is a good idea. Did you look at that thing? "Sweetie, I know it hurts, but I think if we strap you in and spin you around really, really fast that kid'll come shooting out of there in no time fast!" Please, Please don't let these people breed.
I have always been confused by the zealots of our geeky little world...
How can you get that worked up just because someone says that they like to use a Mac? Or Windows? One the one hand you disdain someone that can use an "inferior" program(or OS, whatever, really), and on the other hand expect those products to improve to to suit your own needs and wants.
My dad uses AOL. I consider it a personal failure on my part. As much as AOL sucks, according to all of us, it does what he wants it to. It doesn't have the power of sendmail. It isn't open source. But it works.
Any moron can learn HTML. So why are there products like MS Frontpage? That mangle the code into something almost unrecognizable? Because it is easy. Our whole society is based on easy. TV, movies, fast food, and even software. Apple succeeds in the face of obsolecsence because it is easy to use. Windows exists because it's users don't have to know anything to type up a letter and print it out.
Linux is great, Linux is good, but it is a niche product (for now) that needs the dreaded "user friendliness" before it will ever become ubiquitous.
Modular is good right? In all things, right?
Well Ikea has modular furniture. You get two uprights, couple of platforms, and there you go. If you need more (and we all do), there are 45 degree corner pieces, there is a keyboard mount that slides in and out, etc.
On my main level I have about ten linear feet wrapped around me at desk hieght, with either two or three shelves in each section. My monitor, keyboard and books go on a 6" (1.80m) high tower of shelves. There are more shelves to my right, with printer, scanner, more speakers, CDs, more books, board games, work, an antique 3 1/2" floppy collection...and more!
The whole contraption cost less than $300 American. It isn't the prettiest thing, but what do want?
Not that I don't trust our government or something, but who out there is positive that research on this has stopped?
It stills sounds like an extremely effective weapon to me. Maybe submarine deployed?
Why would someone not want an implant? Other than the possibility of my eyes being hacked or something like that, I see no real problems.
/. in my head anytime I need it.
I want my cellphone hardwired to my brain.
I want to have Unreal sent directly to my optic nerves.
I want maps, phone directories, news, even
I want a health monitoring system that can e-mail my doctor when I am sick.
I want(need) a blood alcohol checker.
I know some of you are thinking "Dear God, who am I going to let program something that goes INSIDE ME?"
I ask you this: You run buggy software. You have workarounds for your hardware. You complain night and day about the companies that don't do what you want. Would you have it any other way?
No, of course not. You love the technology or would wouldn't be a geek.
Implants are the future.
I wish I had been born later, so that I would be able to see more...
I think the point of all of this is to copyright information that you might not want other people to use...
/. my start sending them mailings or e-mails asking for money, cutting into my donor base. This is the equivilent of the lists junk mail companies sell to other junk mail companies.
As a for instance: Most Non-Profit orginizations have "donor lists." In my fictional NPO, I don't want slashdot.org (for instance) to have my list of geeks.
If my NPO can prevent someone else from stealing my info, I can get more money...
This was actually on Fox's Guiness book of record(?) show. It was really spectacular to see him get hit by a truck and going flying...
Seems kind of bitter though, huh?
Sony Computer Entertainment did not return phone calls.
Well, Duh.
This isn't as bad as the mod chip addition, but Sony is probably planning some sort of portable MP3 player itself(MP3Man?). This is probably going to cut into whatever they were hoping to push out on that end.
About the Playstion2... I doubt it would work on the new system. Backwards compatible doesn't usually mean identical.
I think the consenses yesterday on /. was that this new "relaxation" is simply a concession on the part of the government. They know that our silly little laws aren't stopping anything from going anywhere, and are finally bowing to the pressure from all sides of the American computer industry.
When I was in Japan a few years ago, I ordered a cheesy reseller system(because they would mail it to me and they financed over the phone). They would not send me MS office 97 Home Edition because of the encryption in MONEY! The stupid thing is, I could go buy an American version(the one the wouldn't send me) from various places throughout Asia, and not only from pirate shops.
With the advent of incredibly secure encryption schemes that are so easy to download(PGP, et al.), American export laws are silly at best.
The 128-bit 4.6 is buggy too.
Our assitant net admin is a female. As geeky as they come. She plays games with the rest of us on the network.
Of course, now I know why I don't date geeks...
Is it possible to get an IP ban on the morons who keep posting the insert moron's name here) is hated by...? They are just wasting moderation points, AFAIK. That, or don't make moderating them cost any points...
my two cents.
What I am saying, poorly I know, is that many of the technologies we use in the usa, while adequate, are the not the best solutions. They are often simply the easiest and quickest to produce, thus creating profit sooner.
The specs on the I2 are very impressive, but I fear that it is being implemented more for corporate reasons than altruistic ones.
Sorry about the link...
see http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/09/16/002823 7&mode=thread for world opinions of US standards. The story is about broadband access in Canada, but many world wide /.ers have chimed in about how good their lives are. Most of the world has much better stuff than the US does, because they adopt the best technologies instead of the ones that are cheapest to implement, such as widespread Asain use of HDTV. The European standards for broadband cabling are superior to th US versions, as well.
Will I2 be a "good" thing? Or is it simply the easiest and cheapest solution right now?
With all of the other goings-on involving encryption, do you think the Justice Department will like this? It sounds like a very good way to keep law enforcement types from looking at your transmissions.
April 9th was the 99th day of 99, ie. 9999 using a modified georgian calendar, which the military often does.
Has anyone out there run in to any real problems while doing Y2K testing?
Did anyone fail at the April 9th date?
What about at 9/9/99 (barring the tandy(?))?
There is more to fear from people than there is from the computers...