Rather, it's the failing of the educational system for not adequately educating people regarding technology, which still remains a set of magic boxes for the lay man.
I don't agree. I think having misconceptions is perfectly normal. You can't possible want that everyone is knowledgeble about everything. Have you ever tried to do something entirely new that you never did before? It will feel like when you started with computers, you're a complete newbie who thinks things are different than they really are. Try sailing, I bet you'll find out that it's actually harder than you thought it was and you'll see that you have a lot of misconceptions about it. Some of them will come from movies, some of them because of other experiences. But the thing is that your knowledge in the field is superficial. That's no reason for requiring students to take sailing lessons at school.
Another example (it ain't slashdot if we don't use a car analogy), my car is a magic box for me. I think that I understand some of the basics, but I probably have several misconceptions. It's even possible that I use it in some suboptimal way because of those misconceptions. I just don't feel like searching any deeper, though. If it runs and takes me places, I'm fine. If it breaks I call the guy and he will make it work again. Just because I'm the guy when it comes to computers, it doesn't mean that I feel that everyone must know as well.
but that just means that one hasn't been paying that much attention to technologies that aren't in your pocket or on your desk.
And why would they? Anything I have no access to is not distinguishable from science fiction. Life is a rather local thing. That's why dictatorships are able to stand. For the majority of the population it usually makes no difference, they keep doing their activities just the same.
The changes I've experienced in my lifetime were: cellphones and the Internet. If I was born in 1990 I would probably not even see those changes. Lately, for most of the people, changes have been to allow Internet use from the cellphones, make smaller cellphones and faster computers with some graphics. Websites have come and gone, but the basic idea behind almost all of them keeps the same of BBS, IRC, FTP and other tools from back then, only they give them a slightly new twist. So, as much as the media loves to point out, the changes in the last 26 years hasn't been all so drastic.
The only thing that makes me iffy is the requirement to pay the artist 15% of the increased value. I would appreciate it a lot more if it wasn't for that term.
(...) companies are supposed to tell the government "no" on their own? It's the people's responsibility (...)
Companies are run by people. Companies do what people in charge want. Companies are there to help the public, not the other way around. I think it is indeed up to companies to openly state their political views and to work towards them.
We (that being everybody except the USPTO) could agree not to take out any more software patents, and the industry would breathe a collective sigh of relief. Trouble is, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil that approach. It's the same reason Communism didn't work.
Right on! If everyone were just a bit more like Lenin...
I don't think it's interesting to google to make firefox disapear. They lose nothing by having firefox in the market. On the contrary, most firefox users are google users. In the end what google really wants is for people to use the internet, it doesn't matter if they use chrome, firefox or whatever. I think their goal with chrome is to provide people with more reasons for them to be connected, not to win the browser marketshare game. The partnership with mozilla benefits both parties with or without chrome browser.
I think that, from the user perspective, most of the details (if not all) that differ linux from windows can be ironed out. It's just a matter of writting a desktop environment that imitates windows. So it does seem to me a bit of a waste to write an entire new system instead of working on top of wine and linux (kernel, shells, X, etc).
If it was predictable that certain bugs would be found then a good Engineer would always fix it before it was found, making it not predictable anymore.
I don't agree with that definition. Predictable bugs pass by even a good programmer and world has more bad programmers.
Moreover, care to give us an example where testing wasn't predictable and monotonous? It always seemed like that to me. Programming for most companies is already very predictable and monotonous, testing is even worse. I never found a company with an interesting testing project.
That same rant applies to google. It keeps trying to redirect you to their local servers. Even if you don't even speak the language of the country from where you accessing it. So you end up getting a load of useless (unreadable) results.
An extension I'd really care for would be the ability of editing text areas on my favorite editor. Even console-based browsers support that, I never understood why it's not the default behaviour in browsers. That doesn't seem possible in chrome yet:-(.
dude, you MUST protect your precious search data, indeed. The way I see it, google cannot control _me_ if I understand how it works. It can control others who in turn may have power over me. But it's not me giving them no data that will prevent that. It'd be people educating themselves a little more.
It's engineering, not software development. In engineering it's not very common to use agile development and it works. Perhaps, agile development is nothing but a hack around the fact that we suck at software development.
Of course if you try to limit population growth you will get screams of racism and classism and the PC police will put an end to that. So you get what we have now, the march of the morons, where the stupid breed like bunnies while the smart have few kids if at all. I wonder if in 500 years Idiocracy will be looked upon as a prophetic documentary?
It's not the stupid who breed, it's the poor. So no, that movie has nothing prophetic about it. What you're saying is actually very close to what Marx said, as I understand it. The upper class keep getting smaller and the lower classes keep getting larger and larger. Until, one day, the mass of poor people has to make a revolution.
The system has controlled that so far by getting inside of all of us and making us believe that we gotta work. That it's honorable. That we have what we deserve and that we only deserve good if we work for it. Also, it gives somethings to the poor so he can feel part of society and even consume stuff like people in upper classes. That way the system got to an equilibrium. At least thus far.
What would be the motivator for such a malicious act? There's no money to be gained, and if they were caught, they'd have the book thrown at them. Frankly, if someone tried this I wouldn't be surprised if the criminal community "policed itself" and put the poor bastard out of his misery out of fear of unwanted attention/legislation.
Dunno, man. Sounds like just fun vandalism. Sometimes you just do it for the lulz.
Leaving your kid alone online is the perfect equivalent of letting them wander around alone on Times Square - if you're dumb enough to do it, then at least prepare them for the inevitable bumps and bruises... or perhaps maybe not let your kid surf the thing unsupervised, eh?
So what you're saying is that you want your children to be your science project, not everyone in times square's science project?
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Rather, it's the failing of the educational system for not adequately educating people regarding technology, which still remains a set of magic boxes for the lay man.
I don't agree. I think having misconceptions is perfectly normal. You can't possible want that everyone is knowledgeble about everything. Have you ever tried to do something entirely new that you never did before? It will feel like when you started with computers, you're a complete newbie who thinks things are different than they really are. Try sailing, I bet you'll find out that it's actually harder than you thought it was and you'll see that you have a lot of misconceptions about it. Some of them will come from movies, some of them because of other experiences. But the thing is that your knowledge in the field is superficial. That's no reason for requiring students to take sailing lessons at school.
Another example (it ain't slashdot if we don't use a car analogy), my car is a magic box for me. I think that I understand some of the basics, but I probably have several misconceptions. It's even possible that I use it in some suboptimal way because of those misconceptions. I just don't feel like searching any deeper, though. If it runs and takes me places, I'm fine. If it breaks I call the guy and he will make it work again. Just because I'm the guy when it comes to computers, it doesn't mean that I feel that everyone must know as well.
but that just means that one hasn't been paying that much attention to technologies that aren't in your pocket or on your desk.
And why would they? Anything I have no access to is not distinguishable from science fiction. Life is a rather local thing. That's why dictatorships are able to stand. For the majority of the population it usually makes no difference, they keep doing their activities just the same.
The changes I've experienced in my lifetime were: cellphones and the Internet. If I was born in 1990 I would probably not even see those changes. Lately, for most of the people, changes have been to allow Internet use from the cellphones, make smaller cellphones and faster computers with some graphics. Websites have come and gone, but the basic idea behind almost all of them keeps the same of BBS, IRC, FTP and other tools from back then, only they give them a slightly new twist. So, as much as the media loves to point out, the changes in the last 26 years hasn't been all so drastic.
The only thing that makes me iffy is the requirement to pay the artist 15% of the increased value. I would appreciate it a lot more if it wasn't for that term.
(...) companies are supposed to tell the government "no" on their own? It's the people's responsibility (...)
Companies are run by people. Companies do what people in charge want. Companies are there to help the public, not the other way around. I think it is indeed up to companies to openly state their political views and to work towards them.
an artist.
The address bar also gives you a pretty good hint.
I'd copy a car if I had a matter duplicator, though.
We (that being everybody except the USPTO) could agree not to take out any more software patents, and the industry would breathe a collective sigh of relief. Trouble is, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil that approach. It's the same reason Communism didn't work.
Right on! If everyone were just a bit more like Lenin...
I don't think it's interesting to google to make firefox disapear. They lose nothing by having firefox in the market. On the contrary, most firefox users are google users. In the end what google really wants is for people to use the internet, it doesn't matter if they use chrome, firefox or whatever. I think their goal with chrome is to provide people with more reasons for them to be connected, not to win the browser marketshare game. The partnership with mozilla benefits both parties with or without chrome browser.
I think that, from the user perspective, most of the details (if not all) that differ linux from windows can be ironed out. It's just a matter of writting a desktop environment that imitates windows. So it does seem to me a bit of a waste to write an entire new system instead of working on top of wine and linux (kernel, shells, X, etc).
It could be my chance to move out of my mom's basement!
Do those clauses even have any legal validity?
If it was predictable that certain bugs would be found then a good Engineer would always fix it before it was found, making it not predictable anymore.
I don't agree with that definition. Predictable bugs pass by even a good programmer and world has more bad programmers.
Moreover, care to give us an example where testing wasn't predictable and monotonous? It always seemed like that to me. Programming for most companies is already very predictable and monotonous, testing is even worse. I never found a company with an interesting testing project.
That same rant applies to google. It keeps trying to redirect you to their local servers. Even if you don't even speak the language of the country from where you accessing it. So you end up getting a load of useless (unreadable) results.
An extension I'd really care for would be the ability of editing text areas on my favorite editor. Even console-based browsers support that, I never understood why it's not the default behaviour in browsers. That doesn't seem possible in chrome yet :-(.
What sort of kinkness are we talking about here?
Think the issue is more likely to be between the monitor and the keyboard
The pop can?
dude, you MUST protect your precious search data, indeed. The way I see it, google cannot control _me_ if I understand how it works. It can control others who in turn may have power over me. But it's not me giving them no data that will prevent that. It'd be people educating themselves a little more.
Until everyone has a sonar in their cellphones the cloak will work just fine.
Better yet, just spray it with napalm and anyone, visible or not, will die. So no need to even detecting.
You forgot one response: "google it".
It's engineering, not software development. In engineering it's not very common to use agile development and it works. Perhaps, agile development is nothing but a hack around the fact that we suck at software development.
Of course if you try to limit population growth you will get screams of racism and classism and the PC police will put an end to that. So you get what we have now, the march of the morons, where the stupid breed like bunnies while the smart have few kids if at all. I wonder if in 500 years Idiocracy will be looked upon as a prophetic documentary?
It's not the stupid who breed, it's the poor. So no, that movie has nothing prophetic about it. What you're saying is actually very close to what Marx said, as I understand it. The upper class keep getting smaller and the lower classes keep getting larger and larger. Until, one day, the mass of poor people has to make a revolution.
The system has controlled that so far by getting inside of all of us and making us believe that we gotta work. That it's honorable. That we have what we deserve and that we only deserve good if we work for it. Also, it gives somethings to the poor so he can feel part of society and even consume stuff like people in upper classes. That way the system got to an equilibrium. At least thus far.
What would be the motivator for such a malicious act? There's no money to be gained, and if they were caught, they'd have the book thrown at them. Frankly, if someone tried this I wouldn't be surprised if the criminal community "policed itself" and put the poor bastard out of his misery out of fear of unwanted attention/legislation.
Dunno, man. Sounds like just fun vandalism. Sometimes you just do it for the lulz.
Leaving your kid alone online is the perfect equivalent of letting them wander around alone on Times Square - if you're dumb enough to do it, then at least prepare them for the inevitable bumps and bruises... or perhaps maybe not let your kid surf the thing unsupervised, eh?
So what you're saying is that you want your children to be your science project, not everyone in times square's science project?