Okay, the subject's only half joking. But it's a good question - I'm not sure on the details of our (and by 'our', I'm referring to the Kernel developers, of which I am not a member) benevolent dictator's immigration status except that it was excruciatingly difficult to get him into the US. If he's on one of these sort of visas, we here in the states will have to bid him farewell in a few years.
Something tells me that neither Transmeta, nor Linus himself, will be pleased at this. I can imagine the sudden rash of letters to congressmen this might provoke. And it'd work, too, because the slashdotters have managed to get all sorts of things done by writing to their congresspeople, right?
Right?
Okay, plan B: Someone put Linus on Freenet -- and get 2600 to link to him, while we're at it!
Was I the only one who read "Science: UK Publishes Asteroid Armageddon Report" and thought "I bet it said 'We didn't think it was a very good movie, either'"?
The link in your signature is broken, it should lead to http://www.nader2000.net/issues/c orporations.html
As a side note, Nader's coming to my campus in about a week. I think this is the first time I've ever actually felt a bit of excitement for a candidate:)
Change of Pace for Slashdot Disturbing, Posters Find.
ASSOCIATED PRESS - Dozens were shocked today as popular website Slashdot posted a story that had nothing to do with a corporate or governmental conspiracy.
"I'm absolutely floored" one frequent poster commented. "I mean, I was all ready to get out one of my 'damn the man' rants for karma, but it turns out it's completely offtopic for this story. I mean, I'd actually have/lost/ karma! That was close. I have no clue why Slashdot would do this."
Many others were confused as well. Local trolls were dismayed, one going so far as to assert "I'm betting this is a slashdot conspiracy to try to lull us into a false sense of security."
Many contributors fell into the pattern of trying to form a Slashdot editorial conspiracy, but ultimately failed as the comments did not have nearly the manifesto-inspiring potential that the earlier front page stories had included.
"I was all ready to boycott this 'debian' thing they mentioned in the blurb," commented one disillusioned poster, "But then I went and read the article, and there was nothing about corporate conspiracy at all!"
While there was still theorizing by those who had not read the article, for the most part conversation was stilted and akward, with many participants struggling to figure out exactly what, if not governmental or corporate conspiracy, the article was actually about.
If I wanted fake news, I would go to Segfault.org and get it there.
Good point. Lately there's been quite a bit of flamage from folks who feel software releases don't belong on the front page. Many comments in such a story read "Slashdot is not Freshmeat".
I think a similar movement needs to be started for stories like this one:
It's saddening, to see what one day may happen to our own star.... Slowly aging and ebbing further away, more and more insignificant as time goes on. I mean, really, the Sun deserves a better ending than just wasting away, doesn't it? Our sun has done such good for us, I think the least we can do is pay it back by ensuring that its end is as spectacular as possible! Who's with me? All right! I'm going out right now and starting the Obliterate Sol Campaign!
5 billion years from now, there's gonna be a hell of a lightshow!
Segfault sues Slashdot posters over fake lawsuit posts
DISASSOCIATED PRESS - Dozens were shocked today as popular geek humor site Segfault sued numerous posters to popular geek new site Slashdot over posts which they claim "directly infringe upon our content".
"Segfault has long since been the home for parodies of lawsuits. Why, even recently we had to politely hint that we've been recieving too many!" commented resident Segfault PR hack Bymer Klairich, "As such, if others create their own lawsuit parodies, this will severely damage our ability to ship our own version of the product. Effective immediately, we're going to shut those freeloaders down!"
Aside from "firewalling ports", "using block lists", and various other technical-sounding terms of various feasability, Segfault plans to begin enforcing its patent on fake lawsuits.
"Patent INT_MAX - 4, 'Method for cheap laughter involving legal parody of the USPTO' is clearly in violation here. As soon as we end the current fake lawsuit we're facing over it, we plan to prosecute these posters to the fullest extent of the law."
That seemed like a pretty reasonable exchange, nothing too harsh, and everyone acted like adults.
People, that's just not going to work at all.
I mean, civilized debate is nice these days, but it's just not going to pull in the pageviews and generate the advertising money. What we need is something more like:
National Enquirer: "David Talbot, the 'D' in KDE, to join new GNDOME initiative!" Weekly World News:"9 out of 10 alien anal probe devices run KDE!" Jerry Springer:"My wife is cheating on me with a GNOME developer"
Then, and only then, will Slashdot get the attention and pageviews it deserves!
I think it's something akin to the people who don't read the articles but have something to post. Sometimes this is caused by the slashdotting of the articles. Other times, and I think this is the majority of times, it's simply due to lack of time. Slashdot has so many contributors that, if someone did take the time to review the product in question (or, for that matter, read the article), they would be hard-pressed to be noticed underneath the hundreds of other posts.
That's one of the reasons I miss K5 - a smaller userbase generally meant more, and better, discussion. I still like it here, but it's hard to get a word in edgewise.
One of the first things I did when I got my mindstorms kit was to go out and buy the Unofficial Guide to Lego Mindstorms (O'Reilly, no less). It starts nicely with the system that the Lego people give you to program in, then talks about NQC and pbForth - along with instructions on how to get these for whatever operating system you want.
Sure, it's nice to have an online resource, but I find a printed book easier to use. That, and the pictures in the book for assembly of lego monsters take no time to transfer over the wire!
I stayed up all night downloading Debian, and my computer crashed at the end. I had to spend the next day downloading it again!
Those Debian bastards made me pay twice for their free product -- I had no money to begin with, and I had to spend twice that much just to get an OS! It's an outrage!
I have a similar philosophy to yours. While I realize that the conventional wisdom is "Release early, release often", there's one problem with that: I don't want to release lousy code. Right now I'm working on a game that, when it's playable, will be released under the GPL. I even have a sourceforge page ready for it (so I can learn how to use the sourceforge utilities once it's complete). Why am I not releasing the code right now? A few reasons:
The code's incomplete. By which I mean that you can't tell what my design is by the code. Which means that, if I were to release now, I might get patches from people that, while probably being very high quality, do not mesh at all with how I wanted the game to evolve. This'll be a problem anyway, but once the design is clear, it'll at least be a little easier to tell what kinds of additions need to be made to the code.
No documentation. I don't mean API documentation, I've been javadoc-style commenting my code since I started. I just don't have any design documentation online. It's all on paper in a three-ring binder. I simply design better when I can draw diagrams and such on paper.
It's not playable! Right now you've got the title screen, and a dialog where you can select plugins. Everything else is infrastructure. I imagine someone who might want to contribute to the project would like to have something at least marginally playable - the contributor would otherwise have to work for quite some time before any results were visible.
I might not finish. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to do this, but it might take me a while. I've seen open-source game projects start up with an announcement akin to "Hey everyone, I've got a great game I want to make, with a website! All we need are some artists and coders, come and sign up!" -- and they're never heard from again. I don't want to end up like that. It'll be a disappointment not only to myself, but also to any other developers, and anyone who was interested in the game.
So yes, I think there are good reasons to keep a project to yourself until it's ready to be given to the world. You just have to know when to let go:)
I found a fairly complete set on the openlaw page - they've got all of the trial testimony (including the last day's), as well as links to news stories covering the trial.
This isn't news - anyone can go inside echelon. They give you these little badges, and an honor guard escorts you around, walking backward the whole way and talking about the places you visit. Then you can go to the Echelon gift shop and pick up a T-shirt. Wait, no, I'm thinking "Pentagon" again....
I'm all for the Seti@home client, but they really need to have the mother of all security audits done on their code. Think about it! I mean, if there's a buffer overflow, we could be executing arbitrary commands sent to us from outer space! Okay, that's a bit paranoid, I'll admit. I mean, I've been running my Seti@home client for a while now and nothing bad has haAa24#@$!va
YOU SHALL BE AS GODS YOU SHALL BE AS GODS YOU SHALL BE AS GODS
YOU SHALL BE AS GODS YOU SHALL BE AS GODS YOU SHALL BE AS GODS YOU SHALL BE AS GODS YOU SHALL BE AS GODS YOU SHALL BE AS GODS
Actually, I used Napster for this very purpose the other day. I wanted to listen to "What's this life for", a song I have on CD. I usually keep my CD collection in my car, for use on long trips. Could I have gone down to the car and got the CD, then ripped it? Yes, but:
I'd have to climb stairs
I keep forgetting where my car keys are
I might forget to bring the CD back to the car, and miss it on my next trip
It was raining, and
I'm damn lazy.
Do I feel like an evil theif because I used napster to get a song I already have? No, not really. I'm proud, in fact, to have been using Napster in a legitimate fasion.
Voice recognition at last! Finally, when I talk to my computer, it'll realize who I am! From now on, whenever I ask it to open the pod bay doors, it'll say "I'm sorry Denor, I'm afraid I can't do that". It just ticks me off when the computer mistakes me with Dave, is all.
All right people, this is the time to band together! It's not long until we'll go from this to our ultimate goal - 1.21 Gigawatts! Only then can we inadvertantly prevent our parents from getting together!
Slashdot Mirror
Okay, the subject's only half joking. But it's a good question - I'm not sure on the details of our (and by 'our', I'm referring to the Kernel developers, of which I am not a member) benevolent dictator's immigration status except that it was excruciatingly difficult to get him into the US. If he's on one of these sort of visas, we here in the states will have to bid him farewell in a few years.
Something tells me that neither Transmeta, nor Linus himself, will be pleased at this. I can imagine the sudden rash of letters to congressmen this might provoke. And it'd work, too, because the slashdotters have managed to get all sorts of things done by writing to their congresspeople, right?
Right?
Okay, plan B: Someone put Linus on Freenet -- and get 2600 to link to him, while we're at it!
Was I the only one who read "Science: UK Publishes Asteroid Armageddon Report" and thought "I bet it said 'We didn't think it was a very good movie, either'"?
I need to get out more.
Hello,
:)
The link in your signature is broken, it should lead to http://www.nader2000.net/issues/c orporations.html
As a side note, Nader's coming to my campus in about a week. I think this is the first time I've ever actually felt a bit of excitement for a candidate
Change of Pace for Slashdot Disturbing, Posters Find.
/lost/ karma! That was close. I have no clue why Slashdot would do this."
ASSOCIATED PRESS - Dozens were shocked today as popular website Slashdot posted a story that had nothing to do with a corporate or governmental conspiracy.
"I'm absolutely floored" one frequent poster commented. "I mean, I was all ready to get out one of my 'damn the man' rants for karma, but it turns out it's completely offtopic for this story. I mean, I'd actually have
Many others were confused as well. Local trolls were dismayed, one going so far as to assert "I'm betting this is a slashdot conspiracy to try to lull us into a false sense of security."
Many contributors fell into the pattern of trying to form a Slashdot editorial conspiracy, but ultimately failed as the comments did not have nearly the manifesto-inspiring potential that the earlier front page stories had included.
"I was all ready to boycott this 'debian' thing they mentioned in the blurb," commented one disillusioned poster, "But then I went and read the article, and there was nothing about corporate conspiracy at all!"
While there was still theorizing by those who had not read the article, for the most part conversation was stilted and akward, with many participants struggling to figure out exactly what, if not governmental or corporate conspiracy, the article was actually about.
I think a similar movement needs to be started for stories like this one:
It's saddening, to see what one day may happen to our own star.... Slowly aging and ebbing further away, more and more insignificant as time goes on. I mean, really, the Sun deserves a better ending than just wasting away, doesn't it? Our sun has done such good for us, I think the least we can do is pay it back by ensuring that its end is as spectacular as possible! Who's with me? All right! I'm going out right now and starting the
Obliterate Sol Campaign!
5 billion years from now, there's gonna be a hell of a lightshow!
Agreed! I have, in the past, considered releasing works under the No problem, bugroff license. :)
Essentially, it's everything we're looking for
Segfault sues Slashdot posters over fake lawsuit posts
DISASSOCIATED PRESS - Dozens were shocked today as popular geek humor site Segfault sued numerous posters to popular geek new site Slashdot over posts which they claim "directly infringe upon our content".
"Segfault has long since been the home for parodies of lawsuits. Why, even recently we had to politely hint that we've been recieving too many!" commented resident Segfault PR hack Bymer Klairich, "As such, if others create their own lawsuit parodies, this will severely damage our ability to ship our own version of the product. Effective immediately, we're going to shut those freeloaders down!"
Aside from "firewalling ports", "using block lists", and various other technical-sounding terms of various feasability, Segfault plans to begin enforcing its patent on fake lawsuits.
"Patent INT_MAX - 4, 'Method for cheap laughter involving legal parody of the USPTO' is clearly in violation here. As soon as we end the current fake lawsuit we're facing over it, we plan to prosecute these posters to the fullest extent of the law."
That seemed like a pretty reasonable exchange, nothing too harsh, and everyone acted like adults.
People, that's just not going to work at all.
I mean, civilized debate is nice these days, but it's just not going to pull in the pageviews and generate the advertising money. What we need is something more like:
National Enquirer: "David Talbot, the 'D' in KDE, to join new GNDOME initiative!"
Weekly World News:"9 out of 10 alien anal probe devices run KDE!"
Jerry Springer:"My wife is cheating on me with a GNOME developer"
Then, and only then, will Slashdot get the attention and pageviews it deserves!
I think it's something akin to the people who don't read the articles but have something to post. Sometimes this is caused by the slashdotting of the articles. Other times, and I think this is the majority of times, it's simply due to lack of time. Slashdot has so many contributors that, if someone did take the time to review the product in question (or, for that matter, read the article), they would be hard-pressed to be noticed underneath the hundreds of other posts.
That's one of the reasons I miss K5 - a smaller userbase generally meant more, and better, discussion. I still like it here, but it's hard to get a word in edgewise.
One of the first things I did when I got my mindstorms kit was to go out and buy the Unofficial Guide to Lego Mindstorms (O'Reilly, no less). It starts nicely with the system that the Lego people give you to program in, then talks about NQC and pbForth - along with instructions on how to get these for whatever operating system you want.
Sure, it's nice to have an online resource, but I find a printed book easier to use. That, and the pictures in the book for assembly of lego monsters take no time to transfer over the wire!
I stayed up all night downloading Debian, and my computer crashed at the end. I had to spend the next day downloading it again!
Those Debian bastards made me pay twice for their free product -- I had no money to begin with, and I had to spend twice that much just to get an OS! It's an outrage!
I don't want to release lousy code.
Right now I'm working on a game that, when it's playable, will be released under the GPL. I even have a sourceforge page ready for it (so I can learn how to use the sourceforge utilities once it's complete). Why am I not releasing the code right now? A few reasons:
- The code's incomplete. By which I mean that you can't tell what my design is by the code. Which means that, if I were to release now, I might get patches from people that, while probably being very high quality, do not mesh at all with how I wanted the game to evolve. This'll be a problem anyway, but once the design is clear, it'll at least be a little easier to tell what kinds of additions need to be made to the code.
- No documentation. I don't mean API documentation, I've been javadoc-style commenting my code since I started. I just don't have any design documentation online. It's all on paper in a three-ring binder. I simply design better when I can draw diagrams and such on paper.
- It's not playable! Right now you've got the title screen, and a dialog where you can select plugins. Everything else is infrastructure. I imagine someone who might want to contribute to the project would like to have something at least marginally playable - the contributor would otherwise have to work for quite some time before any results were visible.
- I might not finish. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to do this, but it might take me a while. I've seen open-source game projects start up with an announcement akin to "Hey everyone, I've got a great game I want to make, with a website! All we need are some artists and coders, come and sign up!" -- and they're never heard from again. I don't want to end up like that. It'll be a disappointment not only to myself, but also to any other developers, and anyone who was interested in the game.
So yes, I think there are good reasons to keep a project to yourself until it's ready to be given to the world. You just have to know when to let goGE Toasters forever!
I found a fairly complete set on the openlaw page - they've got all of the trial testimony (including the last day's), as well as links to news stories covering the trial.
This isn't news - anyone can go inside echelon. They give you these little badges, and an honor guard escorts you around, walking backward the whole way and talking about the places you visit. Then you can go to the Echelon gift shop and pick up a T-shirt.
Wait, no, I'm thinking "Pentagon" again....
Think about it! I mean, if there's a buffer overflow, we could be executing arbitrary commands sent to us from outer space!
Okay, that's a bit paranoid, I'll admit. I mean, I've been running my Seti@home client for a while now and nothing bad has haAa24#@$!va
If I absolutely positively must have an AI censoring the internet for me, I think I'd choose... Bender!
Beer and robotic porn for everybody!
Ah well, maybe I'll be luckier next time the 'Retro Slashdot' wave hits in 2007. I'd love to flame Microsoft again!
- I'd have to climb stairs
- I keep forgetting where my car keys are
- I might forget to bring the CD back to the car, and miss it on my next trip
- It was raining, and
- I'm damn lazy.
Do I feel like an evil theif because I used napster to get a song I already have? No, not really. I'm proud, in fact, to have been using Napster in a legitimate fasion.Voice recognition at last! Finally, when I talk to my computer, it'll realize who I am! From now on, whenever I ask it to open the pod bay doors, it'll say "I'm sorry Denor, I'm afraid I can't do that".
It just ticks me off when the computer mistakes me with Dave, is all.
All right people, this is the time to band together! It's not long until we'll go from this to our ultimate goal - 1.21 Gigawatts!
Only then can we inadvertantly prevent our parents from getting together!