The Congressman has the title "Dr." in front of his name. People who earn that distinction do so primarily by writing clearly about the things they research and the things they think about. So, I'm not surprised that he can put words together.
Press release doesn't contain any surprises, just lists a bunch of stuff thats included with the dist. (Evolution, Mozilla, Apache)
Well thanks a lot, jerk. Some of us in California haven't even had a chance to read it yet, and you've given away the ending. Didn't the negative feedback from the Lone Gunmen snafu teach you anything?
God Forbid! Someone helping LSU students without permission of the school! We certainly can't have that!
You know as well as I that is not an issue. The issue is that the site looks very much like an official site, and the links add to that effect in the way they are used. So save your sarchasm.
The site doesn't pop right out as a criticism site. If he named the site lsulawsucks.com and put his criticisms on the front page, I'd say that LSU was being a bully. But, the front page of his site has all sorts of helpful links to admissions, grading scale conversions, etc. that one would EXPECT to find on an official university page. He doesn't even have a disclaimer on the front page. Based on that, I'd say that his site could definitely be confused with an official LSU site.
He should change his site to make it completely obvious that it's not an LSU site. If it's a criticism site, then he should drop the helpful links to various university departments.
Geez, I totally forgot to check out what Cassini uses. Sure enough, Cassini is carrying a solid state recorder all the way to Saturn! It's a 2 gigabit recorder, and it has enough spare memory cells and redundancy to guarantee 1.8 megabits after long exposure to radiation in space.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/spacecra ft / ommand.html
That's true, but solid state tape recorders are starting to be used in missions closer to home.
Hubble Tape deck replaced with solid state recorder in 1997, stores 12 gigabits. Old tape deck stored 1.2 gigabits: http://www.shuttlepresskit.com/STS-103/ payload52.h tm
The ESA is also tinkering with them: http://esapub.esrin.esa.it/pff/pffv5n2/maeu sli.htm
NEAR - Near Earth Asteroid Rendesvous - carried a 1.7 gigabit solid state recorder http://near.jhuapl.edu/spacecraft/
On the other hand, Galileo used a regular tape deck, and had some mechanical problems with it. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/mess38/TAPE.h tm
So, it's true that all missions past Mars have used a tape deck, it's also true that mechanical systems can break down pretty easily. I predict that the success of solid state recorders on several missions is going to lead to these devices being universally used everywhere in the solar system.
The music industry hasn't gotten a single fricking penny out of me since about 1994. Before that I bought album after album, only to discover that some record company/lazy artist bastard RIPPED ME OFF! Yes, that's right. I would buy a CD, listen to it, and then discover that out of the 10 songs on the CD, nine of them were complete stinkers.
So, I protect myself now. I just got a DSL line and installed Kazaa lite. I'm discovering that I've missed a lot in music since 1994, and that there's some pretty good stuff out there.
BUT I warn the record companies: I will check out every song on the record before I buy it. If there is more than one crappy song on the disk, I will keep my damn money. If the CD is filled with good songs, then MAYBE I will actually buy it.
That's the deal, Mr. Record Company, take it or leave it. I'm content to go back to just not buying any music at all. I did it for 8 years! You've sold me so much garbage in the past, that if I insist on previewing everything that I might buy from you, I think you ought to just sit down, shut up, and ask me nicely to please please buy your record.
The diffraction pattern is visible with a regular light source. I am guessing that a very dim regular light source could also be combined with a very insensitive emulsion on the screen to show a speckled pattern showing quanta.
The two slit experiments are the most beautiful. With a simple apparatus it can be shown that light is a wave. With the same apparatus, it can be shown tha light is a particle. And that's not all folks...
The experiment reveals that there's something very very weird happening with very small particles. It could be another universe, or maybe an infinite number of universes. Or maybe just one really weird one. Time itself doesn't seem to have any meaning - things happen for no reason at all, uncaused.
These experiments even seem to reveal something about ourselves. Philosophers and cranks are attracted to the results like moths, offering their own explanations for what is happening, ranging from the hand of god to the basis of intelligence.
The strangeness revealed by the two slit experiment could also form the basis of future computers, where all calculations happen at the same time, but you can't look at the result without destroying the entire computer.
If that whole mess isn't beautiful, I don't know what is.
I just sent off my complaint. It was politely but strongly worded. I suggest that anyone writing remember that you catch more flies with DDT laced honey than with just honey alone.
I think you're right. My sig now has the word "rag" linking to the Dallas News website. After a few dozen posts, maybe google will move the Dallas News to the top of the list for the search term "rag".
I encourage others to help me with this experiment.
For your redundant pleasure, here's the entire article in case it gets slashdotted. Or something like that.
From the opening pages of Scott Kelby's Macintosh... The Naked Truth , I was literally laughing out loud. I am a generally jovial character, so this is not the finest endorsement available, but it is typical of the experience the rest of the book offered me. Macintosh... The Naked Truth author Scott Kelby pages 219 publisher New Riders rating 7 out of 10 Macsbugs reviewer pudge ISBN 0-7357-1284-0 summary Funny, irreverent, but kinda bugged me in spots
The Naked Truth is a book about what it means to be a Macintosh user, in a world dominated by Windows. This should have tipped me off as to some troubles ahead, as I live as a Mac user in a predominantly Linux-dominated world. And I proudly use Linux (and, to a lesser extent, other forms of Unix, not even including Mac OS X) daily. As I write this, I have four terminal windows running in NiftyTelnet, connecting me to Linux boxes at work and at home. I am inserting a 700MB database dump into MySQL, scp'ing some MP3s, restarting some daemons, copying some source code for later porting, and monitoring disk space. I am a Macintosh devotee, and have been for more than 15 years, but I am a geek. A big, preemptively multitasking, geek.
But Kelly takes the perspective that Macintosh is not a computer for geeks, but for creative people who can't be bothered with geek-like things. So when he belittles those "PC users" who like to build their own computers, and I see the Linux box under my desk that I've recently been fiddling with, I just take it with a grain of salt. After all, geeks are allowed to like ease of use and a consistent and usable GUI, too.
This mischaracterization of some Mac users is also evident in his "definitive platform test." The questions, asking for things like a description of your own driving skills, are intended to tell you which platform you should use. On one end of the scale is the Macintosh user ("Average, I'm not a bad driver"), followed by borderline between Mac and PC user ("I'm an excellent driver, very cautious and alert") to obvious PC user ("I obey all posted traffic signs and don't exceed the speed limit"), to "militant" PC/DOS user ("I wish all those idiots would just get off the road!"). But clearly, any sane person would choose the latter response. I don't understand what the problem is. I selected the "Mac" and "DOS" answers evenly, which didn't do well for my overall score. I happily continue to use Mac OS nevertheless.
That said, Kelby is dead-on about many things, like how computer store personnel are mostly clueless (not that this is specific to Macintosh products, but it is more pronounced in that particular arena than in most); how most anti-Macintosh arguments by PC users either don't make sense any more or never made sense to begin with; how Apple has been the primary innovator of PC hardware and OS software; how Apple seems to succeed sometimes in spite of its own management. He tends to belabor his point on occasion (OK, we get it, CompUSA's Apple store-in-a-store is all the way in the back, we don't need you to spend two pages describing just how far back it is), but if taken in the good humor intended, it's a satisfying journey nevertheless.
His most interesting points, perhaps, have to do not with what it is like to be a Macintosh user in a foreign land -- I think everyone on Slashdot can understand these things, regardless of whatever non-Microsoft platform of choice they use -- but what it is like to be a Macintosh user in relation to Apple itself. He has some keen insights about where the passion comes from; why people love Apple; what's going on inside their heads.
But then again, reading his responses to letters written to Mac Today and Mac Design Magazine by PC users are just downright entertaining -- keenly insightful or not -- if you are the sort of individual who likes to see stupid people get smacked around. And who isn't?
Now, being a geek -- and a pedantic one at that -- I did take issue with him on some relatively minor issues, like claiming that Apple changed the name of Mac OS X to "OS 10.1" when it came time to do the first maintenance release; the fact is, the official name from day one was "Mac OS X 10.0," and that nothing has changed at all in that naming scheme. The current release is "Mac OS X 10.1.4." It's the same thing, with an incremented version number. He's absolutely right that this is a point of confusion, and in some ways poor marketing. For the next major release (Mac OS X 11.0? Mac OS 11? Mac OS XI?) there will surely be some more confusion, too. But nothing at all has changed in the naming scheme since the initial release. For now. I just want to make sure everyone is clear on this point. It is "Mac OS X, version 10.1.4," and "Mac OS, version 9.2.2." "Mac OS" and "Mac OS X" are OS names. "10.1.4" and "9.2.2" are version numbers. Got it?
Similarly, he bashes the Newton. Sure, the first release of Newton kinda stunk, but it was the first version. The last versions of the Newton MessagePad, aside from the size, were still by far the best PDAs around for the next several years. Newton still, to this day, has the best handwriting recognition in any consumer PDA, as well as the best (non-color) interface, and it was years ahead of its time in functionality. It was just too big. That was its only problem. Well, and too expensive. But maybe less so if it weren't so big.
And he also called Compaq's PDA an "iPac." And occasionally used poor punctuation. And I think I saw a run-on sentence in there.
But now I am getting worked up. I'll settle down. Deep breath, in, out, in, out. That's the thing about being a Mac user, Kelby points out: passion. Passion for Apple and its products, even the ones that stink, because Apple is more than just a company, it is an organization that changes our lives in important ways, by making products that make a difference to us.
OK, so maybe I am in the target audience after all.
Chapter List
1. Life after switching to Macintosh
Using a Mac is easy; being a Mac user sometimes isn't.
2. "I can't believe you actually use a Macintosh!" and other stupid things PC users say
Congress should rethink giving PC users freedom of speech.
3. Things Apple doesn't tell you about owning a Macintosh
Since Apple's not going to tell you, dontchathink somebody should?
4. The definitive platform test
Find out if you're really a Mac person, or just a PC person in cool clothing.
5. How to resist the overwhelming temptation to strangle Apple's management
Is "Apple Management" an oxymoron? And is "oxymoron" actually a synonym for a pimple cream for really dumb people?
6. CompUSA: Your own private hell
Tips for surviving the visualization of Apple's place in the world.
7. Why PC users need Apple
Heere's why they should be kissing Apple's butt (instead of Microsoft's)
8. "Don't pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel"
PC users write me nasty letters, and I give them the public flogging they so richly deserve
9. Pot shots at Microsoft, the media, and anything else that gets in our way
Nobody gets out of here alive!
10. The 20 most important things I've learned about being a Mac user
There were actually 22 things, but that made for a really clunky chapter title.
11. The secret of Macintosh
Here's a hint: it's not Apple's advertising.
Hmmm. Let me consider that again. Yup. I am quite sure that it WAS a troll. Besides the overused of the bold tag, the author used the word Berzerkeley. Definitely a troll.
In any case, a few security bugs can't kill an OS. Windows would be dead a hundred times if that were true.
I've got an Intel Celery 1100 board with everything integrated. The only thing I did was to disable the onboard video controller and add an Nvidia MX 400 card. It's hardly a crappy board. A better word for it would be inexpensive, and reliable. Probably the same applies to the Microstar board. Not everyone is interested in overclocking and tinkering with chip voltages.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought the talking sperm were a little unrealistic.
Favorite Scotty Line:
"The best diplomat I know is a fully-activated phaser-bank!"
The Congressman has the title "Dr." in front of his name. People who earn that distinction do so primarily by writing clearly about the things they research and the things they think about. So, I'm not surprised that he can put words together.
Press release doesn't contain any surprises, just lists a bunch of stuff thats included with the dist. (Evolution, Mozilla, Apache)
Well thanks a lot, jerk. Some of us in California haven't even had a chance to read it yet, and you've given away the ending. Didn't the negative feedback from the Lone Gunmen snafu teach you anything?
Sheesh!
I just bought a CD burner yesterday! Now I get to use it for something. I was actually hoping that Woody would be finalized, but this will do for now.
God Forbid! Someone helping LSU students without permission of the school! We certainly can't have that!
You know as well as I that is not an issue. The issue is that the site looks very much like an official site, and the links add to that effect in the way they are used. So save your sarchasm.
The site doesn't pop right out as a criticism site. If he named the site lsulawsucks.com and put his criticisms on the front page, I'd say that LSU was being a bully. But, the front page of his site has all sorts of helpful links to admissions, grading scale conversions, etc. that one would EXPECT to find on an official university page. He doesn't even have a disclaimer on the front page. Based on that, I'd say that his site could definitely be confused with an official LSU site.
He should change his site to make it completely obvious that it's not an LSU site. If it's a criticism site, then he should drop the helpful links to various university departments.
LINK
Ugh. Following up to myself twice...
That address should work better. Had to put it into a real link.
Geez, I totally forgot to check out what Cassini uses. Sure enough, Cassini is carrying a solid state recorder all the way to Saturn! It's a 2 gigabit recorder, and it has enough spare memory cells and redundancy to guarantee 1.8 megabits after long exposure to radiation in space.
a ft / ommand.html
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/spacecr
That's true, but solid state tape recorders are starting to be used in missions closer to home.
/ payload52.h tm
u sli.htm
h tm
Hubble Tape deck replaced with solid state recorder in 1997, stores 12 gigabits. Old tape deck stored 1.2 gigabits:
http://www.shuttlepresskit.com/STS-103
The ESA is also tinkering with them:
http://esapub.esrin.esa.it/pff/pffv5n2/mae
NEAR - Near Earth Asteroid Rendesvous - carried a 1.7 gigabit solid state recorder
http://near.jhuapl.edu/spacecraft/
On the other hand, Galileo used a regular tape deck, and had some mechanical problems with it.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/mess38/TAPE.
So, it's true that all missions past Mars have used a tape deck, it's also true that mechanical systems can break down pretty easily. I predict that the success of solid state recorders on several missions is going to lead to these devices being universally used everywhere in the solar system.
Also in Texas, if you're in the intersection when the light is yellow, you own that intersection until you exit, even if the light turns red.
The music industry hasn't gotten a single fricking penny out of me since about 1994. Before that I bought album after album, only to discover that some record company/lazy artist bastard RIPPED ME OFF! Yes, that's right. I would buy a CD, listen to it, and then discover that out of the 10 songs on the CD, nine of them were complete stinkers.
So, I protect myself now. I just got a DSL line and installed Kazaa lite. I'm discovering that I've missed a lot in music since 1994, and that there's some pretty good stuff out there.
BUT I warn the record companies: I will check out every song on the record before I buy it. If there is more than one crappy song on the disk, I will keep my damn money. If the CD is filled with good songs, then MAYBE I will actually buy it.
That's the deal, Mr. Record Company, take it or leave it. I'm content to go back to just not buying any music at all. I did it for 8 years! You've sold me so much garbage in the past, that if I insist on previewing everything that I might buy from you, I think you ought to just sit down, shut up, and ask me nicely to please please buy your record.
The diffraction pattern is visible with a regular light source. I am guessing that a very dim regular light source could also be combined with a very insensitive emulsion on the screen to show a speckled pattern showing quanta.
The two slit experiments are the most beautiful. With a simple apparatus it can be shown that light is a wave. With the same apparatus, it can be shown tha light is a particle. And that's not all folks...
The experiment reveals that there's something very very weird happening with very small particles. It could be another universe, or maybe an infinite number of universes. Or maybe just one really weird one. Time itself doesn't seem to have any meaning - things happen for no reason at all, uncaused.
These experiments even seem to reveal something about ourselves. Philosophers and cranks are attracted to the results like moths, offering their own explanations for what is happening, ranging from the hand of god to the basis of intelligence.
The strangeness revealed by the two slit experiment could also form the basis of future computers, where all calculations happen at the same time, but you can't look at the result without destroying the entire computer.
If that whole mess isn't beautiful, I don't know what is.
The Mariott Hotel in Dallas (can't remember which one exactly) already does this. Your configuration matters not a bit. Just plug it in and go.
Give them a call and find out what they are running, and who provided the solution.
Latency is different than speed. My 2400 baud modem had excellent latency, but viewing a page of text took a long time.
This will be the exact opposite. A page of text will appear instantly, but each keystroke will take a second to turn around.
So, think the OPPOSITE of a 2400 baud modem.
I'm certain there are some people who would think these are Great Ideas ®
I think they are wonderful. By the way, do you know where I can get a good chairdog?
I just sent off my complaint. It was politely but strongly worded. I suggest that anyone writing remember that you catch more flies with DDT laced honey than with just honey alone.
I think you're right. My sig now has the word "rag" linking to the Dallas News website. After a few dozen posts, maybe google will move the Dallas News to the top of the list for the search term "rag".
I encourage others to help me with this experiment.
For your redundant pleasure, here's the entire article in case it gets slashdotted. Or something like that.
From the opening pages of Scott Kelby's Macintosh... The Naked Truth , I was literally laughing out loud. I am a generally jovial character, so this is not the finest endorsement available, but it is typical of the experience the rest of the book offered me.
Macintosh... The Naked Truth
author Scott Kelby
pages 219
publisher New Riders
rating 7 out of 10 Macsbugs
reviewer pudge
ISBN 0-7357-1284-0
summary Funny, irreverent, but kinda bugged me in spots
The Naked Truth is a book about what it means to be a Macintosh user, in a world dominated by Windows. This should have tipped me off as to some troubles ahead, as I live as a Mac user in a predominantly Linux-dominated world. And I proudly use Linux (and, to a lesser extent, other forms of Unix, not even including Mac OS X) daily. As I write this, I have four terminal windows running in NiftyTelnet, connecting me to Linux boxes at work and at home. I am inserting a 700MB database dump into MySQL, scp'ing some MP3s, restarting some daemons, copying some source code for later porting, and monitoring disk space. I am a Macintosh devotee, and have been for more than 15 years, but I am a geek. A big, preemptively multitasking, geek.
But Kelly takes the perspective that Macintosh is not a computer for geeks, but for creative people who can't be bothered with geek-like things. So when he belittles those "PC users" who like to build their own computers, and I see the Linux box under my desk that I've recently been fiddling with, I just take it with a grain of salt. After all, geeks are allowed to like ease of use and a consistent and usable GUI, too.
This mischaracterization of some Mac users is also evident in his "definitive platform test." The questions, asking for things like a description of your own driving skills, are intended to tell you which platform you should use. On one end of the scale is the Macintosh user ("Average, I'm not a bad driver"), followed by borderline between Mac and PC user ("I'm an excellent driver, very cautious and alert") to obvious PC user ("I obey all posted traffic signs and don't exceed the speed limit"), to "militant" PC/DOS user ("I wish all those idiots would just get off the road!"). But clearly, any sane person would choose the latter response. I don't understand what the problem is. I selected the "Mac" and "DOS" answers evenly, which didn't do well for my overall score. I happily continue to use Mac OS nevertheless.
That said, Kelby is dead-on about many things, like how computer store personnel are mostly clueless (not that this is specific to Macintosh products, but it is more pronounced in that particular arena than in most); how most anti-Macintosh arguments by PC users either don't make sense any more or never made sense to begin with; how Apple has been the primary innovator of PC hardware and OS software; how Apple seems to succeed sometimes in spite of its own management. He tends to belabor his point on occasion (OK, we get it, CompUSA's Apple store-in-a-store is all the way in the back, we don't need you to spend two pages describing just how far back it is), but if taken in the good humor intended, it's a satisfying journey nevertheless.
His most interesting points, perhaps, have to do not with what it is like to be a Macintosh user in a foreign land -- I think everyone on Slashdot can understand these things, regardless of whatever non-Microsoft platform of choice they use -- but what it is like to be a Macintosh user in relation to Apple itself. He has some keen insights about where the passion comes from; why people love Apple; what's going on inside their heads.
But then again, reading his responses to letters written to Mac Today and Mac Design Magazine by PC users are just downright entertaining -- keenly insightful or not -- if you are the sort of individual who likes to see stupid people get smacked around. And who isn't?
Now, being a geek -- and a pedantic one at that -- I did take issue with him on some relatively minor issues, like claiming that Apple changed the name of Mac OS X to "OS 10.1" when it came time to do the first maintenance release; the fact is, the official name from day one was "Mac OS X 10.0," and that nothing has changed at all in that naming scheme. The current release is "Mac OS X 10.1.4." It's the same thing, with an incremented version number. He's absolutely right that this is a point of confusion, and in some ways poor marketing. For the next major release (Mac OS X 11.0? Mac OS 11? Mac OS XI?) there will surely be some more confusion, too. But nothing at all has changed in the naming scheme since the initial release. For now. I just want to make sure everyone is clear on this point. It is "Mac OS X, version 10.1.4," and "Mac OS, version 9.2.2." "Mac OS" and "Mac OS X" are OS names. "10.1.4" and "9.2.2" are version numbers. Got it?
Similarly, he bashes the Newton. Sure, the first release of Newton kinda stunk, but it was the first version. The last versions of the Newton MessagePad, aside from the size, were still by far the best PDAs around for the next several years. Newton still, to this day, has the best handwriting recognition in any consumer PDA, as well as the best (non-color) interface, and it was years ahead of its time in functionality. It was just too big. That was its only problem. Well, and too expensive. But maybe less so if it weren't so big.
And he also called Compaq's PDA an "iPac." And occasionally used poor punctuation. And I think I saw a run-on sentence in there.
But now I am getting worked up. I'll settle down. Deep breath, in, out, in, out. That's the thing about being a Mac user, Kelby points out: passion. Passion for Apple and its products, even the ones that stink, because Apple is more than just a company, it is an organization that changes our lives in important ways, by making products that make a difference to us.
OK, so maybe I am in the target audience after all.
Chapter List
1. Life after switching to Macintosh
Using a Mac is easy; being a Mac user sometimes isn't.
2. "I can't believe you actually use a Macintosh!" and other stupid things PC users say
Congress should rethink giving PC users freedom of speech.
3. Things Apple doesn't tell you about owning a Macintosh
Since Apple's not going to tell you, dontchathink somebody should?
4. The definitive platform test
Find out if you're really a Mac person, or just a PC person in cool clothing.
5. How to resist the overwhelming temptation to strangle Apple's management
Is "Apple Management" an oxymoron? And is "oxymoron" actually a synonym for a pimple cream for really dumb people?
6. CompUSA: Your own private hell
Tips for surviving the visualization of Apple's place in the world.
7. Why PC users need Apple
Heere's why they should be kissing Apple's butt (instead of Microsoft's)
8. "Don't pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel"
PC users write me nasty letters, and I give them the public flogging they so richly deserve
9. Pot shots at Microsoft, the media, and anything else that gets in our way
Nobody gets out of here alive!
10. The 20 most important things I've learned about being a Mac user
There were actually 22 things, but that made for a really clunky chapter title.
11. The secret of Macintosh
Here's a hint: it's not Apple's advertising.
Hmmm. Let me consider that again. Yup. I am quite sure that it WAS a troll. Besides the overused of the bold tag, the author used the word Berzerkeley. Definitely a troll.
In any case, a few security bugs can't kill an OS. Windows would be dead a hundred times if that were true.
I've got an Intel Celery 1100 board with everything integrated. The only thing I did was to disable the onboard video controller and add an Nvidia MX 400 card. It's hardly a crappy board. A better word for it would be inexpensive, and reliable. Probably the same applies to the Microstar board. Not everyone is interested in overclocking and tinkering with chip voltages.
Obviously the moderator doesn't know a damn thing about UNIX. I suggest that he or she get thee to a command prompt and type my comment in verbatim.
He must be thinking of phrenology.
yes "fuck you"