In an era where the average consumer has moved away from a "PC" in favour of garden wall devices, I am seeing Linux becoming increasingly irrelevant.
Also, I have to say, Linux is an EPIC fail. Linux was a OS the pretty much could run on anything with an IC in it however it has been pretty much shut-out of all current mobile platforms. This is extremely significant. While there may be variants of *nix in Android, iOS (and arguably Windows Mobile), pure Linux has failed to catch on both the desktop and now all mobile platforms.
I think the Linux crowd has to ask themselves one basic question: "What is the point of Linux". Once it was to create a good Windows (desktop/server) alternative, that failed. Now one could argue it is to create a free and open mobile/consumer electronic platform and that if failing. 20 years on and Linux is still a footnote in the history of operating systems without any core product to promote it.
Maybe Valve should become the Linux champion, pull it from the cloud of uncertainty and mediocrity and turn it into the best gaming OS platform known to mankind. Make a set top box that rivals game consoles and entertainment boxes putting Linux into every living room. Make it the ultimate choice for any future consumer electronic devices. What is necessary is for SOMEONE to guide Linux towards a vision and ultimately a GOAL! Linus Torvalds has failed to do this in almost every conceivable way.
Linux just exists, period. There seems to be no motivation to move it past existence and as the core platform it was created for dwindles its existence is greatly threatened.
Had to be the video of the astronauts opening up the space capsule with the required safety goggles and masks. If something failed and an astronaut got sucked into space I am sure his final words would have been "The goggles, they do nothing...".
Its great to see private enterprise enter the space race now, maybe NASA will stop billing $20k for a toilet seat and $30k for a hammer because SpaceX can get them at Walmart for $5 a piece.
Its really not about seeing individual pixels but better clarity for smaller text. Screens have not yet reached the visual clarity for printed media for text size vs clarity, so there is still room for improvement.
The goal of high res displays is to increase the amount of "visual information" available on a 4-5" display not about individual pixels. More is better.
Its Apple's dumb ass marketing spin on the idea of not seeing individual pixels that created a trend of idiots claiming "I cant' see individual pixels so its stupid to move forward". Of course Apple's problem is that in spite of increase pixel density they keep their text, icons, and UI the same size as the previous generation instead of putting more visual information on the screen so that all you achieve is slightly smoother edges.
It is tiresome to read the typical Slashdot comment template, "Innovation X has reach the "insert narrow-minded limitation" so we no longer need to innovate."
Yeah, soda is bad. A big container of sugar and chemicals that people assume is required to quench thirst.
But isolating one food product is not going to cure obesity.
So what, large soda drink sizes will be banned, but still allowed are mega-Venti 1 gallon sized quad-quad cream sugar extra foam and whip cream topped, caramel and chocolate syrup triple espresso infused coffees with a side of 10" radius cupcake and a oversized bagel with extra schmear is not a factor in obesity? And that is just a precursor to some street-meat based meal at noon and several pounds worth of ground beef and freedom-fries for supper.
Fatties will find their vices regardless of what form of unconstitutional bullshit a NYC mayor imposes
What is ruining this generation are chick flick's idealizing how men should be which cause women to have higher expectations in spite of the reality of what is offered to them for mates.
No really, I think it is obtuse to suggest that all men are consumed by porn and video games, to the point where they are no longer interested in (or worthy of) breeding. Its generalizations like that turn something into a non-issue that forces a social response that is not required.
The bottom line, is the birth rate dropping? No? Then move along because men are still finding ways of impregnating women in between long sessions of masturbation and gaming, and I am sure it from using turkey basters. Remember, sex is only consumes 2 - 4 minutes of a guys day, that still leaves a lot of time for gaming and porn.
Someone just moved out of his parents house and realized that electricity actually costs money. Spoiler alert, 40 minute long hot showers also costs a lot on the water and gas bills.
Its hilarious me when teens / early twenty-somethings leave the protected isolation of their parent's nest or university dorm and suddenly get a good ol' does of reality.
The bible was written by the men with a (limited) understanding of the known science 2000 years ago. If someone saw dinosaur bones it was a demon, and demon's are from Hell, and the bible describes demons from hell for bones of creatures not understood to have come from a lineage of millions of years of evolution that eventually became a mouse, deer or rabbit.
I think the biggest arrogance of men is in assuming they are worthy and clairvoyant enough that they could fully interpret and understand the voice of God to accurately describe it in written word. I believe that if God could actually talk to a person then I would imagine the event to be so incredibly awesome and overwhelming that our feeble brains could only absorb and understand a small fraction of his/her/it's words. The sooner people accept that the bible could never be a direct, accurate and literal transcription of God's word, and is only some feeble account of some schmuck's encounter with some heavenly force, then we could end these "debates". The bible is a moral compass, at best, and should not be interpreted as a scientific account of the history of mankind.
I like to think God made us in a way we could discover, rationalize and understand the natural world instead of holding a book in front of our faces and regurgitating verbatim the scientific ignorance from 2000 years ago.
Dismissing science and only accepting the "Written Word" as truth is an insult to the idea that God gave us a brain and didn't just make us a race of mindless zombies.
Seriously, a bunch of f*cking ignorant Luddites wanting to burn down anything they don't understand, bringing pitchforks and torches to the observatory because someone told them the world is round and not flat.
Born to every generation is a group of asshats that refuse to be educated and want to force their way of life on everyone else.
If they are actually looking into their own phone platform I think this would pretty much shake any remaining confidence investors have in Facebook and cause the stock to tank.
Microsoft is having significant trouble creating a competitive phone to iPhone/Android, who in their right mind thinks Facebook, with absolutely no physical real world presence, would be able to create their own phone platform? All they could possibly do is re-skin Android with embedded Facebook services, not like they are going to make their own OS or hardware platform.
I think Facebook should stick with the idea of making (start making that is) ubiquitous and rock solid web services so Facebook becomes a prevalent feature of any mobile device.
I fear a Facebook phone will become the Kobo of the cellphones, a half-assed Android incarnation lacking in almost every conceivable way.
Would suggest money is better spent curing cancer then finding intelligent life in the proverbial haystack that is the the galaxy.
While I would be fascinated by the idea we are not alone in the universe, ultimately I really don't care. While other "pure" scientific investigation might yield off-shoot technologies, having radio scanners record and computers process Fourier transforms trying to find some pattern to space noise pretty much has yielded about all the scientific discovery that is going to come out of the project. Nothing is going to be cured, improved, or evolve out of a continued dumping of money into Seti.
While I would love to live in a society that has the luxury of spending money on esoteric concepts like asking if we are alone in the universe, with the current crumbling of financial markets, looming crisis in Global Warming and loss of fossil fuel, and an increase in disease and cancer with an ageing and forever expanding world population suggests that wasting money scanning the heavens for alien life makes you an asshat.
Solve real problems today so we can sit back and paint pictures, weave baskets, and listen to white noise without guilt tomorrow.
This will not stop Sun Microsys... (ahem, sorry Oracle). Companies that choose to innovate in the courtroom will not let something like a dismissal of a single court case stop them from trying to leach on and suck innovation from other companies.
Release Xbox 720, just make sure you didn't rip off anyone else's patents on it.
However, all this shows is that Google is not all about "do no evil". The fact they paid 25 billion to buy a company only to turn around and use it as a vehicle to sue another competitor pretty much seals the fate that Google is about as cantankerous and vile as any other corporation.
Regardless of whether so.cl succeeds or fails, by having another "giant" enter the social networking arena will drive up innovation.
When Google released Google+, yes we can agree that its kind of stillborn and lacking, but if forced Facebook to innovate and provide additional features. Google+ then also followed suit by making its features better.
I have no doubt that Microsoft is capable of doing a few things better then the rest, so if those things are disruptive to the way the current "standards" deliver social networking, then it will be a win for everyone when social networking improves as a whole.
Lets put it this way, Google, Apple and Facebook are ALL paying close attention. Its the reason why the are billion dollar companies and you drive a used Corolla, they don't just say "Microsoft sucks" and move on, they made something better.
Sure its easy and safe to say that Microsoft does not have a chance to displace Facebook, or even Google+, but this is only a research project and I think a few ideas will most likely trickle their way into Facebook and Google+ and social networking in general. Its interesting to see their take on social networking and foolish to assume they are completely irrelevant.
Wow, so the goal to be Green in the future is to introduce more bugs into hardware to save power. While I am sure there are limited uses of this kind of "math" in general I don't believe these chips will have widespread adoption because mathematical accuracy, at least for integer values, is kind of critical for most applications. Its hard enough for developers to predict the random an idiotic nature of the users of their software, now they have to build protection against hardware throwing them random results.
This instantly reminded me of a developer that claimed a 1200% improvement in performance after he optimized some code. The developer wasn't particularly skilled and some senior level guys had already optimized the performance about as far as it could be taken, so we were dubious. We found after a code review that basically this developer has improved the efficiency of the software by skipping some critical intensive calculations that was the point of the software.
Sure you could claim that this optimization is greener then the original code because the CPU is not working as hard, but if you are not going to get the expected results, f*ck being green.
My exit strategy away from IT/Software development is to pick up a trade. Electrician, plumber, carpenter, cabinet maker, home inspector, etc.
When I found that I have had a good run in IT and have not been able to build my own company or write some mobile "app" that I can sit back and retire on, then its off to trade school for me.
Houses are always going to be built or need a'fixin. Shit's always a'flowin. People are always buying houses they can't afford.
I am hearing continuously (at least here in Canada), that there are not enough people in trades and there will be high demand for more tradespeople in 10 years. That means ample work and lucrative wages. Becoming a handyman for hire, setting your own schedule, and pretty much making a good chunk of change fixing up or remodelling homes is going to be pretty attractive after a few decades of 12 hour bullshit days in front of a workstation making other assholes rich. Build up a small team of IT ex-pats turn hammer jocks and you can set up a pretty lucrative post-IT business.
Currently I would love to program until I drop dead, but I'm starting to see that the career path of a middle aged developer either moves towards management (I'm too competent for management), or starting your own company (become the rich asshole). I am thinking about becoming the later but barring that being able to work with my hands and build or fix something "real" is also sounding more appealing year to year.
Marketing team should be fired. It was designed to be "vincible", it's the primary selling point of the product. But I guess they mean that Vincibility is In the product.
If Siri is going to be a useful agnostic search/information/assistant tool, then keep it so.
If Siri is going to become a company shill towing the party line, then we don't need more of that. Otherwise just call Siri Justin Long and be done with it.
While I don't care about Nokia and their whining about what Siri returns as a search result for "best smartphone", the bottom line is that if Apple is going to start filtering and biasing search results then this is just bad business. Apple deserves whatever pending lawsuits are lying in wait for corrupting what should have been a useful feature.
A typical 2000 calorie a day diet should cost roughly $20 if obtained from processed foods or restaurants. That means the typical 4000+ calorie a day diet from eating at fast food restaurants or processed food would be $40/day or roughly $15k a year, or $60k for a family of 4, which is far too expensive for most people.
"Good" food, such as fruits and vegetables and non-processed food would be nearly free as farmers should be subsidized by taxes on the fast food/packaged food industry. This would encourage people who want to eat cheap to get their food energy from nutritious sources. Fast food restaurants can reduce their taxation by offering cheap "nutritious" options on their menu with produce bought directly from farmers at non-subsidized prices.
Salt and Sugar should cost as much as gold/oz forcing fast/packaged food industries to reduce the use of salt and sugar as cheap flavouring agents.
Looking back in history, only rich people could afford to be fat. Today the 99% are fat because they are eating like kings and queens and the 1% can afford liposuction and tummy tucks and trendy organic food.
Rush mobile OS to market full of flaws in V1. Marginalize their OS on thousands of cheap and crappy hardware models to gain market share Confuse developers by releasing new versions several times a year, changing SDK dramatically between each version so apps are hard to develop and rarely work between updates. Allow cellular carriers and manufactures to control updates so that no two people on the planet have the same OS version or update. Sit back and reap in the money generated knowing there is a large market of people that hate Apple who will buy whatever else...
Yup, Google pretty much ripped this plan straight from Microsoft.
Re:Hate to put a damper on the celebration
on
Diablo III Released
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Yes, by virtue that I am not poor and can afford the game and have access to constant broadband internet. Also 10 - 15 years from now, Diablo 4 will be out requiring probes stuck in various orifices to play so why would you want to play a 10 - 15 year old game that doesn't use probes?
Slashdot Mirror
In an era where the average consumer has moved away from a "PC" in favour of garden wall devices, I am seeing Linux becoming increasingly irrelevant.
Also, I have to say, Linux is an EPIC fail. Linux was a OS the pretty much could run on anything with an IC in it however it has been pretty much shut-out of all current mobile platforms. This is extremely significant. While there may be variants of *nix in Android, iOS (and arguably Windows Mobile), pure Linux has failed to catch on both the desktop and now all mobile platforms.
I think the Linux crowd has to ask themselves one basic question: "What is the point of Linux". Once it was to create a good Windows (desktop/server) alternative, that failed. Now one could argue it is to create a free and open mobile/consumer electronic platform and that if failing. 20 years on and Linux is still a footnote in the history of operating systems without any core product to promote it.
Maybe Valve should become the Linux champion, pull it from the cloud of uncertainty and mediocrity and turn it into the best gaming OS platform known to mankind. Make a set top box that rivals game consoles and entertainment boxes putting Linux into every living room. Make it the ultimate choice for any future consumer electronic devices. What is necessary is for SOMEONE to guide Linux towards a vision and ultimately a GOAL! Linus Torvalds has failed to do this in almost every conceivable way.
Linux just exists, period. There seems to be no motivation to move it past existence and as the core platform it was created for dwindles its existence is greatly threatened.
Re:Sound just became the most hated "non-profit".
Honestly, the Mythbusters need to do as an episode and end this "debate" once and for all.
They don't have any coastline so therefore they cannot use retarded politics when making future planning decisions.
This is the first question you need to answer, most likely the answer is the latter.
Had to be the video of the astronauts opening up the space capsule with the required safety goggles and masks. If something failed and an astronaut got sucked into space I am sure his final words would have been "The goggles, they do nothing...".
Its great to see private enterprise enter the space race now, maybe NASA will stop billing $20k for a toilet seat and $30k for a hammer because SpaceX can get them at Walmart for $5 a piece.
Its really not about seeing individual pixels but better clarity for smaller text. Screens have not yet reached the visual clarity for printed media for text size vs clarity, so there is still room for improvement.
The goal of high res displays is to increase the amount of "visual information" available on a 4-5" display not about individual pixels. More is better.
Its Apple's dumb ass marketing spin on the idea of not seeing individual pixels that created a trend of idiots claiming "I cant' see individual pixels so its stupid to move forward". Of course Apple's problem is that in spite of increase pixel density they keep their text, icons, and UI the same size as the previous generation instead of putting more visual information on the screen so that all you achieve is slightly smoother edges.
It is tiresome to read the typical Slashdot comment template, "Innovation X has reach the "insert narrow-minded limitation" so we no longer need to innovate."
Yeah, soda is bad. A big container of sugar and chemicals that people assume is required to quench thirst.
But isolating one food product is not going to cure obesity.
So what, large soda drink sizes will be banned, but still allowed are mega-Venti 1 gallon sized quad-quad cream sugar extra foam and whip cream topped, caramel and chocolate syrup triple espresso infused coffees with a side of 10" radius cupcake and a oversized bagel with extra schmear is not a factor in obesity? And that is just a precursor to some street-meat based meal at noon and several pounds worth of ground beef and freedom-fries for supper.
Fatties will find their vices regardless of what form of unconstitutional bullshit a NYC mayor imposes
What is ruining this generation are chick flick's idealizing how men should be which cause women to have higher expectations in spite of the reality of what is offered to them for mates.
No really, I think it is obtuse to suggest that all men are consumed by porn and video games, to the point where they are no longer interested in (or worthy of) breeding. Its generalizations like that turn something into a non-issue that forces a social response that is not required.
The bottom line, is the birth rate dropping? No? Then move along because men are still finding ways of impregnating women in between long sessions of masturbation and gaming, and I am sure it from using turkey basters. Remember, sex is only consumes 2 - 4 minutes of a guys day, that still leaves a lot of time for gaming and porn.
...if you are Dutch.
Someone just moved out of his parents house and realized that electricity actually costs money. Spoiler alert, 40 minute long hot showers also costs a lot on the water and gas bills.
Its hilarious me when teens / early twenty-somethings leave the protected isolation of their parent's nest or university dorm and suddenly get a good ol' does of reality.
The bible was written by the men with a (limited) understanding of the known science 2000 years ago. If someone saw dinosaur bones it was a demon, and demon's are from Hell, and the bible describes demons from hell for bones of creatures not understood to have come from a lineage of millions of years of evolution that eventually became a mouse, deer or rabbit.
I think the biggest arrogance of men is in assuming they are worthy and clairvoyant enough that they could fully interpret and understand the voice of God to accurately describe it in written word. I believe that if God could actually talk to a person then I would imagine the event to be so incredibly awesome and overwhelming that our feeble brains could only absorb and understand a small fraction of his/her/it's words. The sooner people accept that the bible could never be a direct, accurate and literal transcription of God's word, and is only some feeble account of some schmuck's encounter with some heavenly force, then we could end these "debates". The bible is a moral compass, at best, and should not be interpreted as a scientific account of the history of mankind.
I like to think God made us in a way we could discover, rationalize and understand the natural world instead of holding a book in front of our faces and regurgitating verbatim the scientific ignorance from 2000 years ago.
Dismissing science and only accepting the "Written Word" as truth is an insult to the idea that God gave us a brain and didn't just make us a race of mindless zombies.
Seriously, a bunch of f*cking ignorant Luddites wanting to burn down anything they don't understand, bringing pitchforks and torches to the observatory because someone told them the world is round and not flat.
Born to every generation is a group of asshats that refuse to be educated and want to force their way of life on everyone else.
What is their mailing address?
If they are actually looking into their own phone platform I think this would pretty much shake any remaining confidence investors have in Facebook and cause the stock to tank.
Microsoft is having significant trouble creating a competitive phone to iPhone/Android, who in their right mind thinks Facebook, with absolutely no physical real world presence, would be able to create their own phone platform? All they could possibly do is re-skin Android with embedded Facebook services, not like they are going to make their own OS or hardware platform.
I think Facebook should stick with the idea of making (start making that is) ubiquitous and rock solid web services so Facebook becomes a prevalent feature of any mobile device.
I fear a Facebook phone will become the Kobo of the cellphones, a half-assed Android incarnation lacking in almost every conceivable way.
Would suggest money is better spent curing cancer then finding intelligent life in the proverbial haystack that is the the galaxy.
While I would be fascinated by the idea we are not alone in the universe, ultimately I really don't care. While other "pure" scientific investigation might yield off-shoot technologies, having radio scanners record and computers process Fourier transforms trying to find some pattern to space noise pretty much has yielded about all the scientific discovery that is going to come out of the project. Nothing is going to be cured, improved, or evolve out of a continued dumping of money into Seti.
While I would love to live in a society that has the luxury of spending money on esoteric concepts like asking if we are alone in the universe, with the current crumbling of financial markets, looming crisis in Global Warming and loss of fossil fuel, and an increase in disease and cancer with an ageing and forever expanding world population suggests that wasting money scanning the heavens for alien life makes you an asshat.
Solve real problems today so we can sit back and paint pictures, weave baskets, and listen to white noise without guilt tomorrow.
This will not stop Sun Microsys... (ahem, sorry Oracle). Companies that choose to innovate in the courtroom will not let something like a dismissal of a single court case stop them from trying to leach on and suck innovation from other companies.
Release Xbox 720, just make sure you didn't rip off anyone else's patents on it.
However, all this shows is that Google is not all about "do no evil". The fact they paid 25 billion to buy a company only to turn around and use it as a vehicle to sue another competitor pretty much seals the fate that Google is about as cantankerous and vile as any other corporation.
Insert generic "Microsoft sucks" comment.
Seriously guys?
Regardless of whether so.cl succeeds or fails, by having another "giant" enter the social networking arena will drive up innovation.
When Google released Google+, yes we can agree that its kind of stillborn and lacking, but if forced Facebook to innovate and provide additional features. Google+ then also followed suit by making its features better.
I have no doubt that Microsoft is capable of doing a few things better then the rest, so if those things are disruptive to the way the current "standards" deliver social networking, then it will be a win for everyone when social networking improves as a whole.
Lets put it this way, Google, Apple and Facebook are ALL paying close attention. Its the reason why the are billion dollar companies and you drive a used Corolla, they don't just say "Microsoft sucks" and move on, they made something better.
Sure its easy and safe to say that Microsoft does not have a chance to displace Facebook, or even Google+, but this is only a research project and I think a few ideas will most likely trickle their way into Facebook and Google+ and social networking in general. Its interesting to see their take on social networking and foolish to assume they are completely irrelevant.
Wow, so the goal to be Green in the future is to introduce more bugs into hardware to save power. While I am sure there are limited uses of this kind of "math" in general I don't believe these chips will have widespread adoption because mathematical accuracy, at least for integer values, is kind of critical for most applications. Its hard enough for developers to predict the random an idiotic nature of the users of their software, now they have to build protection against hardware throwing them random results.
This instantly reminded me of a developer that claimed a 1200% improvement in performance after he optimized some code. The developer wasn't particularly skilled and some senior level guys had already optimized the performance about as far as it could be taken, so we were dubious. We found after a code review that basically this developer has improved the efficiency of the software by skipping some critical intensive calculations that was the point of the software.
Sure you could claim that this optimization is greener then the original code because the CPU is not working as hard, but if you are not going to get the expected results, f*ck being green.
My exit strategy away from IT/Software development is to pick up a trade. Electrician, plumber, carpenter, cabinet maker, home inspector, etc.
When I found that I have had a good run in IT and have not been able to build my own company or write some mobile "app" that I can sit back and retire on, then its off to trade school for me.
Houses are always going to be built or need a'fixin. Shit's always a'flowin. People are always buying houses they can't afford.
I am hearing continuously (at least here in Canada), that there are not enough people in trades and there will be high demand for more tradespeople in 10 years. That means ample work and lucrative wages. Becoming a handyman for hire, setting your own schedule, and pretty much making a good chunk of change fixing up or remodelling homes is going to be pretty attractive after a few decades of 12 hour bullshit days in front of a workstation making other assholes rich. Build up a small team of IT ex-pats turn hammer jocks and you can set up a pretty lucrative post-IT business.
Currently I would love to program until I drop dead, but I'm starting to see that the career path of a middle aged developer either moves towards management (I'm too competent for management), or starting your own company (become the rich asshole). I am thinking about becoming the later but barring that being able to work with my hands and build or fix something "real" is also sounding more appealing year to year.
Marketing team should be fired. It was designed to be "vincible", it's the primary selling point of the product. But I guess they mean that Vincibility is In the product.
If Siri is going to be a useful agnostic search/information/assistant tool, then keep it so.
If Siri is going to become a company shill towing the party line, then we don't need more of that. Otherwise just call Siri Justin Long and be done with it.
While I don't care about Nokia and their whining about what Siri returns as a search result for "best smartphone", the bottom line is that if Apple is going to start filtering and biasing search results then this is just bad business. Apple deserves whatever pending lawsuits are lying in wait for corrupting what should have been a useful feature.
Food should be priced per calorie.
A typical 2000 calorie a day diet should cost roughly $20 if obtained from processed foods or restaurants. That means the typical 4000+ calorie a day diet from eating at fast food restaurants or processed food would be $40/day or roughly $15k a year, or $60k for a family of 4, which is far too expensive for most people.
"Good" food, such as fruits and vegetables and non-processed food would be nearly free as farmers should be subsidized by taxes on the fast food/packaged food industry. This would encourage people who want to eat cheap to get their food energy from nutritious sources. Fast food restaurants can reduce their taxation by offering cheap "nutritious" options on their menu with produce bought directly from farmers at non-subsidized prices.
Salt and Sugar should cost as much as gold/oz forcing fast/packaged food industries to reduce the use of salt and sugar as cheap flavouring agents.
Looking back in history, only rich people could afford to be fat. Today the 99% are fat because they are eating like kings and queens and the 1% can afford liposuction and tummy tucks and trendy organic food.
Rush mobile OS to market full of flaws in V1.
Marginalize their OS on thousands of cheap and crappy hardware models to gain market share
Confuse developers by releasing new versions several times a year, changing SDK dramatically between each version so apps are hard to develop and rarely work between updates.
Allow cellular carriers and manufactures to control updates so that no two people on the planet have the same OS version or update.
Sit back and reap in the money generated knowing there is a large market of people that hate Apple who will buy whatever else...
Yup, Google pretty much ripped this plan straight from Microsoft.
Yes, by virtue that I am not poor and can afford the game and have access to constant broadband internet. Also 10 - 15 years from now, Diablo 4 will be out requiring probes stuck in various orifices to play so why would you want to play a 10 - 15 year old game that doesn't use probes?