I'm waiting for LainOS to take off. While I suspect that these folks have bitten off more than they can chew, if it works, it will be awesome. Basically, they're modifying FreeBSD 4.5 to resemble the computers in Serial Experiments: Lain. They're planning to have built-in voice recognition.
For some people, the construction of the equipment is the whole point. And while I'm sure some DIY hobbies are in decline, others have absolutely taken off in recent years.
I never got into building electronic stuff, but I'm interested in building guitars. Lately, I've been itching to build my own guitar amp. There is even a website devoted to it. Thanks to the numerous webresources out there, I can learn to build all sorts of crazy things that I never could have figured out on my own.
I suspect that the people that like soldering electronic gizmos together in their garage are still around, just doing different things. A surprising number of the amatuer guitar builders are techies, for instance. There's a whole lot of awesome stuff left to build, so I don't think that people are hanging up their soldering irons yet.
On one hand, I've never heard anyone say anything nice about Java. While languages like Perl, Python, PHP, etc attracted a following because they're good (or at least because programmers think they are), people seem to be pretty ambivilent (sp?) about Java, and I think a lot of folks would gladly jump ship if they came across something else.
On the other hand, it seems that most CS students have to learn Java in college these days. I don't know how many schools use it in their courses, but I suspect it's enough to ensure that Java has a decent following for a long time. Furthermore, I have very little faith in open source efforts to bring C# to UNIX. C# will probably remain a Windows-only language. Also, remember the backlash when Miguel announced that parts of GNOME should eventually be developed in.NET? Even if an implementation of C# for UNIX were ever completed, I think UNIX geeks would look down their noses at it.
Anyway, I think that C# will have a sizeable impact on the Java community, but I doubt that it will kill the language altogether. We'll see.
"We should go after Hollings by encouraging the geeks of South Carolina to hold him accountable for these bills in every public forum they can find."
Going after Hollings is going to be more difficult than you guys think. Hollings and Thurmond have been Senators here in SC since before I was born. He's a legacy and a tradition in a State where tradition is important (that's why Thurmond has been reelected all these years when he can't even go to the bathroom by himself anymore). Furthermore, he's very well connected and has all the right people supporting him. While it's certainly possible that he could be defeated, I think it's unlikely.
Sadly, South Carolina has one of the most poorly educated pool of voters in the union. They don't really pay attention to the news or anything, and the issues that become election issues are usually petty and stupid. If you try to tell Joe Sixpack in SC that the Entertainment industry is lobbying to require digital rights management built into all consumer electronic devices, not only will Mr. Sixpack not understand a word of what you're saying, he won't care anyway.
As for the geeks, well, there aren't very many. South Carolina doesn't have any big population centers like Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee do, so we don't have a huge tech sector. Most of the geeks that do live here are fairly apolitical. They're like the geeks you see on Slashdot who talk about boycotting the MPAA and then go out and buy shitloads of DVDs.
I'm not trying to rain on your parades. Yeah, Hollings should go, and I might be willing to live with the slimebag who takes his place. Y'all just need to understand that voting out Fritz Hollings is a pretty sizeable task.
Hollings was last relected in 1998, which means that he won't be up for reelection again until 2004. I think the other Senate seat is up for grabs in the upcoming election, since Thurmond is retiring.
Steve
Re:Will the US suffer from geek emigration?
on
GeekPAC
·
· Score: 2
"Well, you can move to sweden. =)"
I, for one, would give my immortal soul to move to Sweden. I could totally live without all the American things that I wouldn't be able to find in Europe. While Sweden has it's problems, I have a lot of admiration for the country and it's people, and would love a chance to live there.
As an American, though, it would be hard to pull it off. First of all, while I'm competant, I'm not a Linus Torvalds, and I can't do anything that a Swede couldn't do. I expect that it would be hard for me to get a job in Sweden, even doing IT stuff. No job offer, no work permit.
Second, I don't speak any Scandenavian languages. I'm guessing that a Swedish business wouldn't offer a job to someone who can't speak a word of Swedish. While the Europeans that I've met speak English well, it's not proper for me to go off to some country and require everyone to speak English simply because I'm around.
However, I haven't given up hope that one day I'll end up somewhere in Europe. It's worth a shot, at least....
I actually like ads in games, whether they're spoofs or real, so long as they fit the context of the game.
I thought it was cool that, in Metal Gear Solid 2, you could pick up copies of FHM magazine and leave them in strategic places to distract guards.
What I wish they had done is to leave some White Castle hamburgers laying around. If Snake eats them, he loses some health and gets bad gas, which naturally alerts the guards to his presence.
I wish I had some sort of computer terminal in the kitchen that was somehow attached to a recipe database. This product would work except for two problems. First, it looks really hard to program -- I'm guessing that you'd need special drivers for it. Second of all, it doesn't appear to have a touch screen on it. I don't think I'd want to leave a keyboard sitting around the kitchen. It would get dirty quickly, and it would get in the way.
I want a simple X-terminal with a flat-panel touch screen that mounts under the cabinets like this one does. I could then write a graphical application that interfaced with the recipe database and control it by touching the buttons on the screen. This is close, but probably not what I want. Grrr....
I fly in and out of MSP a lot. On my most recent visit to the airport, they had an area with carrels set up so that you could sit down, plug in your laptop and work. The carrels were even equipped with payphones that had little jacks in the side so you could plug your laptop modem into it and dial into your ISP. It looked new -- at least I hadn't noticed it in previous visits.
But yeah, electrical outlets are generally few and far between in airports.
Wow...I didn't realize that, for so many people, the price of renting a DVD is the same as VHS. Most of my movie renting was done in Bumblefuck, Minnesota, where I went to college for a couple of years. Up there, they didn't have many DVD's, and they did cost a bit more. But I suppose we were an exception.
DVDs are more prone to deterioration (being very vulnerable to scratches) and so will not allow as many rentals before requiring replacement.
That's interesting -- I would have guessed that DVD's last longer. VHS tapes are vulnerable to being chewed up by the VCR, and on some old videos that I have the magnetic tape is just wearing out. DVD's avoid both of those problems, but I suppose you're right about the scratching.
I'm not arguing with you -- I suspect you're correct. I'm just curious....
This ruling probably won't benefit consumers because, as someone else has already pointed out, DVD's will cost more to rent than VHS tapes regardless of how expensive it is for the rental chains to purchase them. However, I think it's gratifying anytime someone manages to beat the film industry in court.
Do people actually rent DVD's? Because of the higher cost of renting them, I've found that it's usually best just to buy the movie outright. In most cases, I find that a movie worth watching is worth watching again. So I think it would be kind of nice to have a movie library.
Since I can still get 7 more Karma points, I decided to post my letter. Anyone who likes it is free to use parts of it in theirs.
=====
To whomever this concerns,
I understand that I have the ability to comment on the proposed settlement between the Justice Department and Microsoft.
I have been using computers daily since the mid-eighties, when my father brought home an early portable IBM computer. I hope to earn my livelihood by working in the computing industry. Consequently, this issue is centrally relevant to my life.
It is widely believed by those familiar with the case that the proposed settlement is completely inadequate. It will do little to punish Microsoft for it's plainly illegal conduct in the past, and virtually nothing whatsoever to prevent future violations of antitrust law. As a consumer, it infuriates me to be forced to pay for increasingly expensive software that diminishes in quality with each release. I applauded the Clinton administration's investigation of Microsoft. Their case was an effort to protect consumers and promote economic growth by restoring fairness and competition to the computer industry. Now that the DOJ is under new management, it has essentially abandoned it's pursuit of Microsoft, suggesting that the DOJ no longer has any concern for either economic growth or the public good.
The United States is a successful nation because its free markets encourage firms to compete for customers by producing high-quality, low-cost goods. This system needs to be protected from monopolists who gain so much power that they can destroy the competitive nature of the markets in which they participate.
I urge all parties involved to reconsider the proposed settlement. Microsoft deserves more than a slap on the wrist for it's destructive abuse of it's monopoly power. More importantly, American consumers need to be protected against future abuses.
I certainly hope that this never comes to pass. Sometimes it's OK, like when Konsole allows you to have multiple shells in the same window and select them via tab-like buttons. But the GUI design of KDevelop and other apps like it is bad enough to ensure that I never use them. Why? Because I use a laptop for all my computing stuff, and the laptop only has a 800x600 display. I can't have all these tiled and paneled windows screwing up my workspace. When space is tight, it's nice to control exactly where you want your stuff to be displayed on the screen.
Can't y'all find someone better to interview? The only insightful thing this guy could share with us is how he managed to rip off the patent system. And we already know how that works.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm waiting for LainOS to take off. While I suspect that these folks have bitten off more than they can chew, if it works, it will be awesome. Basically, they're modifying FreeBSD 4.5 to resemble the computers in Serial Experiments: Lain. They're planning to have built-in voice recognition.
Steve
Site's already /. ed
It turns out the webserver was written in Perl, too.
For some people, the construction of the equipment is the whole point. And while I'm sure some DIY hobbies are in decline, others have absolutely taken off in recent years.
I never got into building electronic stuff, but I'm interested in building guitars. Lately, I've been itching to build my own guitar amp. There is even a website devoted to it. Thanks to the numerous web resources out there, I can learn to build all sorts of crazy things that I never could have figured out on my own.
I suspect that the people that like soldering electronic gizmos together in their garage are still around, just doing different things. A surprising number of the amatuer guitar builders are techies, for instance. There's a whole lot of awesome stuff left to build, so I don't think that people are hanging up their soldering irons yet.
Steve
Bill Joy?
Since it takes about 2.5 years to learn to use vi, I would support this hypothesis.
Steve
On one hand, I've never heard anyone say anything nice about Java. While languages like Perl, Python, PHP, etc attracted a following because they're good (or at least because programmers think they are), people seem to be pretty ambivilent (sp?) about Java, and I think a lot of folks would gladly jump ship if they came across something else.
.NET? Even if an implementation of C# for UNIX were ever completed, I think UNIX geeks would look down their noses at it.
On the other hand, it seems that most CS students have to learn Java in college these days. I don't know how many schools use it in their courses, but I suspect it's enough to ensure that Java has a decent following for a long time. Furthermore, I have very little faith in open source efforts to bring C# to UNIX. C# will probably remain a Windows-only language. Also, remember the backlash when Miguel announced that parts of GNOME should eventually be developed in
Anyway, I think that C# will have a sizeable impact on the Java community, but I doubt that it will kill the language altogether. We'll see.
http://www.themonopolystore.com/
I'm surprised this URL doesn't point to the White House. After all, they're the ones in the business of selling monopolies.
"We should go after Hollings by encouraging the geeks of South Carolina to hold him accountable for these bills in every public forum they can find."
Going after Hollings is going to be more difficult than you guys think. Hollings and Thurmond have been Senators here in SC since before I was born. He's a legacy and a tradition in a State where tradition is important (that's why Thurmond has been reelected all these years when he can't even go to the bathroom by himself anymore). Furthermore, he's very well connected and has all the right people supporting him. While it's certainly possible that he could be defeated, I think it's unlikely.
Sadly, South Carolina has one of the most poorly educated pool of voters in the union. They don't really pay attention to the news or anything, and the issues that become election issues are usually petty and stupid. If you try to tell Joe Sixpack in SC that the Entertainment industry is lobbying to require digital rights management built into all consumer electronic devices, not only will Mr. Sixpack not understand a word of what you're saying, he won't care anyway.
As for the geeks, well, there aren't very many. South Carolina doesn't have any big population centers like Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee do, so we don't have a huge tech sector. Most of the geeks that do live here are fairly apolitical. They're like the geeks you see on Slashdot who talk about boycotting the MPAA and then go out and buy shitloads of DVDs.
I'm not trying to rain on your parades. Yeah, Hollings should go, and I might be willing to live with the slimebag who takes his place. Y'all just need to understand that voting out Fritz Hollings is a pretty sizeable task.
Steve
Hollings was last relected in 1998, which means that he won't be up for reelection again until 2004. I think the other Senate seat is up for grabs in the upcoming election, since Thurmond is retiring.
Steve
"Well, you can move to sweden. =)"
I, for one, would give my immortal soul to move to Sweden. I could totally live without all the American things that I wouldn't be able to find in Europe. While Sweden has it's problems, I have a lot of admiration for the country and it's people, and would love a chance to live there.
As an American, though, it would be hard to pull it off. First of all, while I'm competant, I'm not a Linus Torvalds, and I can't do anything that a Swede couldn't do. I expect that it would be hard for me to get a job in Sweden, even doing IT stuff. No job offer, no work permit.
Second, I don't speak any Scandenavian languages. I'm guessing that a Swedish business wouldn't offer a job to someone who can't speak a word of Swedish. While the Europeans that I've met speak English well, it's not proper for me to go off to some country and require everyone to speak English simply because I'm around.
However, I haven't given up hope that one day I'll end up somewhere in Europe. It's worth a shot, at least....
Steve
Actually, a better idea would be blackmail. CmdrTaco should demand that we either pay up or suffer the wrath of the X-10 advertisers.
What does this mean to open source software...
buh bye sendmail!
And wu-ftpd.
that things with names that begin with the letter V are out to get us...
:-)
Yeah, so don't mess with me!!
-Steve VanDahm
I actually like ads in games, whether they're spoofs or real, so long as they fit the context of the game.
I thought it was cool that, in Metal Gear Solid 2, you could pick up copies of FHM magazine and leave them in strategic places to distract guards.
What I wish they had done is to leave some White Castle hamburgers laying around. If Snake eats them, he loses some health and gets bad gas, which naturally alerts the guards to his presence.
Oh well, there's always MGS3 to look forward to.
Steve
I wish I had some sort of computer terminal in the kitchen that was somehow attached to a recipe database. This product would work except for two problems. First, it looks really hard to program -- I'm guessing that you'd need special drivers for it. Second of all, it doesn't appear to have a touch screen on it. I don't think I'd want to leave a keyboard sitting around the kitchen. It would get dirty quickly, and it would get in the way.
I want a simple X-terminal with a flat-panel touch screen that mounts under the cabinets like this one does. I could then write a graphical application that interfaced with the recipe database and control it by touching the buttons on the screen. This is close, but probably not what I want. Grrr....
...until someone ports NetBSD to this thing?
I fly in and out of MSP a lot. On my most recent visit to the airport, they had an area with carrels set up so that you could sit down, plug in your laptop and work. The carrels were even equipped with payphones that had little jacks in the side so you could plug your laptop modem into it and dial into your ISP. It looked new -- at least I hadn't noticed it in previous visits.
But yeah, electrical outlets are generally few and far between in airports.
Steve
Wow...I didn't realize that, for so many people, the price of renting a DVD is the same as VHS. Most of my movie renting was done in Bumblefuck, Minnesota, where I went to college for a couple of years. Up there, they didn't have many DVD's, and they did cost a bit more. But I suppose we were an exception.
I hereby stand corrected.
Steve
DVDs are more prone to deterioration (being very vulnerable to scratches) and so will not allow as many rentals before requiring replacement.
That's interesting -- I would have guessed that DVD's last longer. VHS tapes are vulnerable to being chewed up by the VCR, and on some old videos that I have the magnetic tape is just wearing out. DVD's avoid both of those problems, but I suppose you're right about the scratching.
I'm not arguing with you -- I suspect you're correct. I'm just curious....
Steve
This ruling probably won't benefit consumers because, as someone else has already pointed out, DVD's will cost more to rent than VHS tapes regardless of how expensive it is for the rental chains to purchase them. However, I think it's gratifying anytime someone manages to beat the film industry in court.
Do people actually rent DVD's? Because of the higher cost of renting them, I've found that it's usually best just to buy the movie outright. In most cases, I find that a movie worth watching is worth watching again. So I think it would be kind of nice to have a movie library.
Since I can still get 7 more Karma points, I decided to post my letter. Anyone who likes it is free to use parts of it in theirs.
=====
To whomever this concerns,
I understand that I have the ability to comment on the proposed settlement between the Justice Department and Microsoft.
I have been using computers daily since the mid-eighties, when my father brought home an early portable IBM computer. I hope to earn my livelihood by working in the computing industry. Consequently, this issue is centrally relevant to my life.
It is widely believed by those familiar with the case that the proposed settlement is completely inadequate. It will do little to punish Microsoft for it's plainly illegal conduct in the past, and virtually nothing whatsoever to prevent future violations of antitrust law. As a consumer, it infuriates me to be forced to pay for increasingly expensive software that diminishes in quality with each release. I applauded the Clinton administration's investigation of Microsoft. Their case was an effort to protect consumers and promote economic growth by restoring fairness and competition to the computer industry. Now that the DOJ is under new management, it has essentially abandoned it's pursuit of Microsoft, suggesting that the DOJ no longer has any concern for either economic growth or the public good.
The United States is a successful nation because its free markets encourage firms to compete for customers by producing high-quality, low-cost goods. This system needs to be protected from monopolists who gain so much power that they can destroy the competitive nature of the markets in which they participate.
I urge all parties involved to reconsider the proposed settlement. Microsoft deserves more than a slap on the wrist for it's destructive abuse of it's monopoly power. More importantly, American consumers need to be protected against future abuses.
Thank you for your time,
Stephen C. VanDahm
Spartanburg, SC.
I certainly hope that this never comes to pass. Sometimes it's OK, like when Konsole allows you to have multiple shells in the same window and select them via tab-like buttons. But the GUI design of KDevelop and other apps like it is bad enough to ensure that I never use them. Why? Because I use a laptop for all my computing stuff, and the laptop only has a 800x600 display. I can't have all these tiled and paneled windows screwing up my workspace. When space is tight, it's nice to control exactly where you want your stuff to be displayed on the screen.
Steve
People where I work are fond of mailing around single-table Access databases. WHY?? grrr....
That's not so hard to spell. ;)
:-)
Dude, there's a reason why CmdrTaco majored in CS and not English.
I bet VA's founder wishes he'd stayed with his buddies when they were starting Yahoo.
========
Stephen C. VanDahm
Can't y'all find someone better to interview? The only insightful thing this guy could share with us is how he managed to rip off the patent system. And we already know how that works.
Have y'all been h4x0r3d again?
========
Stephen C. VanDahm