I really can't see that a human is only half again as complex as a roundworm!
But with each additional gene, the number of interactions between its expression and the expressions of other genes rises exponentially, doesn't it? If I'm surprised by anything, it's that people actually thought there might be a "gene for foo".
I think that editorial commentst within the blurbs is part of the charm of the weblog phenomenon. More could be accomplished by raising the quality of the blurbs than by attempting to fake neutrality.
When you ask "who cares?" you are, tacitly, making a claim that you are indifferent. The tone of your post, however, contradicts this. Apparently you care, or you would not have been motivated to express yourself in this way.
Let me explain to you the way weblogs work: they link to other places for the purposes of discussion. The very domain name of the site indicates that they care, and the fact that slashdot linked to it indicates that at least one slashdot editor cares. The only other thing you need to know is that if you don't care you can refrain from participating. Is that so difficult to understand?
And, frankly, your hypocrisy is enough to make a stright fellow like me care. The sheer magnitude of hostility in here today makes me think a little exposure to the subject would be good medicine for many.
I don't find it surprising or difficult to believe at all. A lot of the best problems in mathematics and computer science are very easy to state while being difficult to solve.
As time goes on, the number of developers will become smaller while the users become larger,
I think you would be hard pressed to demonstrate that the developer base is shrinking, or will shrink at some time in the future. The most one can claim (with confidence) is that proportion of developers to users would decrease, but that is not really a relevant claim, since the cost of replication is free -- the many can be fed by the few. When I observe the progress of the community, I see newbies become knowledgeable users, and maybe even fledgling developers. Of course only a few rise to the top, but the absolute size of those who write applications that run on free platforms seems to be increasing.
My family is probably an odd case, but all four of us have our own machines in the same room, and they're all iMacs or G4s. One of the reasons that I went this way is that the CPUs don't need an additional cooling fan, which really adds up when you're talking about four boxes in a room with wood floors. All of these machines have both a Debian/PPC partition and a MacOS/9 partition. When MacOS X is released, we'll switch over, and keep the Debain partitions. I love my Sawmill environment too much to give it up, and FreeCIV hasn't been ported to MacOS X yet anyway. Even if it were, the real game is the computer, and it's more fun on freenix than anywhere else, IMO.
Re:Berlin: not going anywhere fast.
on
GTK+ without X!
·
· Score: 1
Berlin itself doesn't need backwards compatibility with X, it just needs someone to write an X server for Berlin.
I think this has already been done. If Berlin is still planning to use the GGI library, one could just run XGGI.
This has been an interesting thread to follow. I've noticed the tidal change that could be called a "cancer of disillusionment", but I also have hope that this could be a good thing in the long run. The Movement has been under such harsh spotlights for so long now that it might be time for a die-off. With luck, maybe the trolls will lose interest and we will be left with folk that take a more responsible, selective approach to the memes that they propagate. Well, there's always hope.
This response is actually a great illustration. People think that if one does not have blind faith in Capitalism, then one must be a Communist. As if they are mutually exclusive sets that we can divide all economic thinking into. It's just a model. Expect reality to diverge from it.
I'm also worried about this trend. Next we'll need a skin-format-manager that can simultaneously select different skins in all managed applications. Yuck. Now is the time to avert such a crisis, isn't it?
I find it annoying to switch from one editor to another, because I am most happy when my reflexes are correct. It speeds up my interaction with the machine. For this reason, I have chosen a single editor that I can use on any platform (emacs). Other choices might be reasonable, but this one was mine. Flitting from editor-to-editor is a waste of practice, IMHO.
This is a textbook case where the term FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) could be used correctly. Lately it seems as though people try to call any negativity "FUD" -- a careless use of the acronym. Here we have a major company attempting to frighten anyone who will listen uncritically about the uncertain future of linux, by planting the seed of doubt within their minds.
They are doing this by using the dreaded word "fragmentation", which is merely the negative spin for heterogeneity. "Strength through diversity" is the positive spin, and would be the appropriate dogma to respond with. 8^)
It turns out that even the tape is misleadingly described as "infinite". It is actually finite, but needs be unbounded in how large it can grow. Some people use "infinite tape" as a shorthand for this idea, even though only a finite amount of tape is ever used for any terminating computation.
You are not mistaken. "Begging the question" is a category of fallacy. What they mean is that it "raises an issue", which is an entirely different meaning, despite having a similar ring.
One of the grandparents of your post is an admission of the mistake. As for an apology, I don't see how you are in a position to demand one. Perhaps the author/publisher of the unattributed work, but not some random hostile slashdotter.
This whole situation reminds me of Pat Paulson: "If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve." Personally, I don't agree with you that the kid should forfeit his right to decline service merely because he ran. That's bogus.
The idea that the syntax can look like any language reminds me of the guile scheme interpreter. The idea was to have an engine for scripting languages that you can embed in applications -- without requiring that the extension language be a specific language. The author could, by embedding guile, simultaneously give the use the capability to script in scheme, tcl, python, perl, or whatever. Is this similar to what we can expect in Perl 6?
Slashdot Mirror
What I meant to say was 'Eat this combinatorial explosion, bitch.'
I'm sorry, I meant "geometrically" in my post above, not "exponentially".
But with each additional gene, the number of interactions between its expression and the expressions of other genes rises exponentially, doesn't it? If I'm surprised by anything, it's that people actually thought there might be a "gene for foo".
Only if one defines "better workstation" to mean a workstation where clicking on the wrong thing can lead to infection. No thanks, I'll pass.
I think that editorial commentst within the blurbs is part of the charm of the weblog phenomenon. More could be accomplished by raising the quality of the blurbs than by attempting to fake neutrality.
Oh wait...microsoft made it? Booo! Hiss!!! Boo! it's not the vendor so much as the lock-in.
Let me explain to you the way weblogs work: they link to other places for the purposes of discussion. The very domain name of the site indicates that they care, and the fact that slashdot linked to it indicates that at least one slashdot editor cares. The only other thing you need to know is that if you don't care you can refrain from participating. Is that so difficult to understand?
And, frankly, your hypocrisy is enough to make a stright fellow like me care. The sheer magnitude of hostility in here today makes me think a little exposure to the subject would be good medicine for many.
+5 Insightful. Thank you for choosing to post! I'll be using this table-turning rhetoric around the office for a long time to come. 8^)
I don't find it surprising or difficult to believe at all. A lot of the best problems in mathematics and computer science are very easy to state while being difficult to solve.
I think you would be hard pressed to demonstrate that the developer base is shrinking, or will shrink at some time in the future. The most one can claim (with confidence) is that proportion of developers to users would decrease, but that is not really a relevant claim, since the cost of replication is free -- the many can be fed by the few. When I observe the progress of the community, I see newbies become knowledgeable users, and maybe even fledgling developers. Of course only a few rise to the top, but the absolute size of those who write applications that run on free platforms seems to be increasing.
My family is probably an odd case, but all four of us have our own machines in the same room, and they're all iMacs or G4s. One of the reasons that I went this way is that the CPUs don't need an additional cooling fan, which really adds up when you're talking about four boxes in a room with wood floors. All of these machines have both a Debian/PPC partition and a MacOS/9 partition. When MacOS X is released, we'll switch over, and keep the Debain partitions. I love my Sawmill environment too much to give it up, and FreeCIV hasn't been ported to MacOS X yet anyway. Even if it were, the real game is the computer, and it's more fun on freenix than anywhere else, IMO.
I think this has already been done. If Berlin is still planning to use the GGI library, one could just run XGGI.
This has been an interesting thread to follow. I've noticed the tidal change that could be called a "cancer of disillusionment", but I also have hope that this could be a good thing in the long run. The Movement has been under such harsh spotlights for so long now that it might be time for a die-off. With luck, maybe the trolls will lose interest and we will be left with folk that take a more responsible, selective approach to the memes that they propagate. Well, there's always hope.
This response is actually a great illustration. People think that if one does not have blind faith in Capitalism, then one must be a Communist. As if they are mutually exclusive sets that we can divide all economic thinking into. It's just a model. Expect reality to diverge from it.
I'm also worried about this trend. Next we'll need a skin-format-manager that can simultaneously select different skins in all managed applications. Yuck. Now is the time to avert such a crisis, isn't it?
I find it annoying to switch from one editor to another, because I am most happy when my reflexes are correct. It speeds up my interaction with the machine. For this reason, I have chosen a single editor that I can use on any platform (emacs). Other choices might be reasonable, but this one was mine. Flitting from editor-to-editor is a waste of practice, IMHO.
Another? I'm the original stupid pedant.
They are doing this by using the dreaded word "fragmentation", which is merely the negative spin for heterogeneity. "Strength through diversity" is the positive spin, and would be the appropriate dogma to respond with. 8^)
It turns out that even the tape is misleadingly described as "infinite". It is actually finite, but needs be unbounded in how large it can grow. Some people use "infinite tape" as a shorthand for this idea, even though only a finite amount of tape is ever used for any terminating computation.
You are not mistaken. "Begging the question" is a category of fallacy. What they mean is that it "raises an issue", which is an entirely different meaning, despite having a similar ring.
KFG wields a blessed +5 Insightful comment.
One of the grandparents of your post is an admission of the mistake. As for an apology, I don't see how you are in a position to demand one. Perhaps the author/publisher of the unattributed work, but not some random hostile slashdotter.
This whole situation reminds me of Pat Paulson: "If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve." Personally, I don't agree with you that the kid should forfeit his right to decline service merely because he ran. That's bogus.
The idea that the syntax can look like any language reminds me of the guile scheme interpreter. The idea was to have an engine for scripting languages that you can embed in applications -- without requiring that the extension language be a specific language. The author could, by embedding guile, simultaneously give the use the capability to script in scheme, tcl, python, perl, or whatever. Is this similar to what we can expect in Perl 6?
damn, just spent my last mod point.