The single biggest obstacle to Linux's success is the number of distros. Can you imagine Joe Sixpack going into a store (or going to a website) and saying, "Oh I know exactly what I want. I want Linux distro #136.5." There might be room for another one in the server market, but linux developer community needs to come up with a rational selection of distributions. Something like: embedded, home, server; with perhaps developer, business, and education distros as well. The acceptable number of distributions is directly proportional to the technological competence of the intended user.
Going through the list the invention of rugs struck me. A thousand years later and my office has this cheap tacky shit on the floor. For all our modern technology, people had equivalent, if not better, substitutes for what we have now. My computer and phone are useful, but everything else is plastic crap that a thousand years ago was likely nicer. I think I'd take a fountain pen over all the crappy Bics laying around the cubicle.
+5 insightful -5 idiotic
Agreed, developed western society prevents otherwise undesirable genetic traits from being killed off. This is a good thing, what may have been a death sentence in a Hobbesian world may be perfectly suited for tomorrow; diversity == good.
While its fun to make cheap shots religious fanaticism and family planning skills are a matter of culture not genetics. You're mixing cultural evolution with genetic evolution, not that the way cultural evolution is going isn't scary as hell.
Also, keep in mind that intellect is culturally defined. Stick me into a community on the Mongolian steppe, "No I don't know how to ride a camel, but calculus anyone?" Suddenly, I'm dumber than a 4 year old.
The SA plan for pebblebed reactors seems ridiculous to me. If I heard right, they were going to spend $2 billion on them. Once built nuclear power plants provide very cheap electricity but they constitute a massive capital investment. SA is capital poor but rich in cheap labor. A distributed system of cheap locally produced wind turbines and solar panels would make a lot more sense.
I hate when people bring laptops to class. Its like having a woodpecker in class. I have enough trouble paying attention as it is. Besides, no class session requires more than a page or two of handwritten notes, yet somehow people manage to type all the way through the class. I don't know how they get anything from the lecture when they can't just listen. If you want a complete transcript of the lecture than bring a tape recorder and type it in after. good study/review method anyway
considering the rarity of ebola, what's the point of a vaccine? Who do you even give it to? From wikipedia: "Of the approximate 1,500 identified Ebola cases worldwide, over 80% of the patients have died." Maybe we should be working on a cure for fan death instead.
"Which is why an external regulatory agent is needed (even though that idea is apparently blasphemous to the US mindset)."
A failure of analysis--society's not yours. The idea that economics and politics are different spheres of life is fairly limited to the United States among Western nations. Europeans don't have "external regulatory agents," as they acknowledge that politics and economics are inseparable. See The Great Transformation, by Polanyi. Its like reading the entire API for political economists. Just as critical and just as boring.
Agreed. People piss me off when they say everything is equally valid, like that is insightful. Uhh sure, it might be valid, but how bout picking an ethos. Govt oppressing its people, that blows, but unless the dissidents ask for help its not my place (see: www.laogai.org). But if a neighbor/fellow citizen/friend/etc becomes an enabler, its time to crack some skulls. Fuckin fascists.
WALTER: Fucking Germans. Nothing changes. Fucking Nazis.
DONNY:They were Nazis, Dude?
WALTER:Come on, Donny, they were threatening castration!
DONNY:Uh-huh.
WALTER:Are you gonna split hairs?
DONNY:No--
WALTER:Am I wrong?
DONNY:Well--
DUDE:They're nihilists.
WALTER:Huh?
DUDE:They kept saying they believe in nothing.
WALTER:Nihilists! Jesus.
(Walter looks haunted.)
Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.
Slashdot Mirror
The single biggest obstacle to Linux's success is the number of distros. Can you imagine Joe Sixpack going into a store (or going to a website) and saying, "Oh I know exactly what I want. I want Linux distro #136.5." There might be room for another one in the server market, but linux developer community needs to come up with a rational selection of distributions. Something like: embedded, home, server; with perhaps developer, business, and education distros as well. The acceptable number of distributions is directly proportional to the technological competence of the intended user.
what? you didn't actually believe that "we the people" shit did you? You think this has been going on for 6 years?
15 minutes on hold for the LAPD, now that's great service. no, really. you're much safer without them.
To the barricades brothers and sisters!!! ...hmm, maybe just one more snark.
Going through the list the invention of rugs struck me. A thousand years later and my office has this cheap tacky shit on the floor. For all our modern technology, people had equivalent, if not better, substitutes for what we have now. My computer and phone are useful, but everything else is plastic crap that a thousand years ago was likely nicer. I think I'd take a fountain pen over all the crappy Bics laying around the cubicle.
+5 insightful -5 idiotic Agreed, developed western society prevents otherwise undesirable genetic traits from being killed off. This is a good thing, what may have been a death sentence in a Hobbesian world may be perfectly suited for tomorrow; diversity == good. While its fun to make cheap shots religious fanaticism and family planning skills are a matter of culture not genetics. You're mixing cultural evolution with genetic evolution, not that the way cultural evolution is going isn't scary as hell. Also, keep in mind that intellect is culturally defined. Stick me into a community on the Mongolian steppe, "No I don't know how to ride a camel, but calculus anyone?" Suddenly, I'm dumber than a 4 year old.
The SA plan for pebblebed reactors seems ridiculous to me. If I heard right, they were going to spend $2 billion on them. Once built nuclear power plants provide very cheap electricity but they constitute a massive capital investment. SA is capital poor but rich in cheap labor. A distributed system of cheap locally produced wind turbines and solar panels would make a lot more sense.
I hate when people bring laptops to class. Its like having a woodpecker in class. I have enough trouble paying attention as it is. Besides, no class session requires more than a page or two of handwritten notes, yet somehow people manage to type all the way through the class. I don't know how they get anything from the lecture when they can't just listen. If you want a complete transcript of the lecture than bring a tape recorder and type it in after. good study/review method anyway
considering the rarity of ebola, what's the point of a vaccine? Who do you even give it to? From wikipedia: "Of the approximate 1,500 identified Ebola cases worldwide, over 80% of the patients have died." Maybe we should be working on a cure for fan death instead.
"Which is why an external regulatory agent is needed (even though that idea is apparently blasphemous to the US mindset)."
A failure of analysis--society's not yours. The idea that economics and politics are different spheres of life is fairly limited to the United States among Western nations. Europeans don't have "external regulatory agents," as they acknowledge that politics and economics are inseparable. See The Great Transformation, by Polanyi. Its like reading the entire API for political economists. Just as critical and just as boring.
Agreed. People piss me off when they say everything is equally valid, like that is insightful. Uhh sure, it might be valid, but how bout picking an ethos. Govt oppressing its people, that blows, but unless the dissidents ask for help its not my place (see: www.laogai.org). But if a neighbor/fellow citizen/friend/etc becomes an enabler, its time to crack some skulls. Fuckin fascists. WALTER: Fucking Germans. Nothing changes. Fucking Nazis. DONNY:They were Nazis, Dude? WALTER:Come on, Donny, they were threatening castration! DONNY:Uh-huh. WALTER:Are you gonna split hairs? DONNY:No-- WALTER:Am I wrong? DONNY:Well-- DUDE:They're nihilists. WALTER:Huh? DUDE:They kept saying they believe in nothing. WALTER:Nihilists! Jesus. (Walter looks haunted.) Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.
DC has sensors that sound similar. They've also proven to be almost useless: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/10/18/tular emia/