Look at Symantec -- their software constantly nags you with popup messages AND it makes sport of demanding money to protect your computer. Symantec is WORSE than getting a virus.
Does something like AVG or Clam provide perfect protection? No.
But, if the AV'ss going to miss the mark, it's nice to not have to pay ransom money to Symantec.
I call bullshit. By this standard, I should also support trying to improve violent, radical Islam.
"I don't see how calling it not science helps anything."
Well, it helps by ensuring that less energy is wasted pursuing it. See?
I mean, I have a theory that says a magical pony farted the universe out in the great fecal rainbow. Would you support my efforts by calling it science? Obviously we need to improve the theory, by fleshing out important flaws, such as determining by what mechanism do pony farts become rainbows.
"Pardon me for the semantics, but no science/scientific theory can be "proven" - even the theory of gravity can't be proven."
Well, if you want to be an ass about it, the word proven is just a word. Since "proof" is a cultural norm, all you have to do to eradicate any proof is eradicate the cultural norm of the proof itself. I mean, this is after all what evangelicals do every day when confronted with the Theory of Evolution. By your standard, Stephen Colbert is the greatest philosopher and scientist in human history.
"Proven" means that a theory has a predictable conclusion, and that the predicted conclusion occurs in a repeatable manner so that if a variance in the prediction does occur, that variance can be accounted for by observed conditions.
"If I take a rock and drop it on my desk a million times, that doesn't prove that it'll fall there again on the 1e6+1th time."
But, you're misconstruing the cultural concept of "falling" with the scientific concept of gravity. If your rock failed to fall, out Theory of Gravity is sufficient enough that when it failed to fall we could rapidly deduce why it failed to fall (planet went away, you forgot to open your hand, some smartass installed thrusters on the bottom of the rock, etc).
We can easily look at a problem like that and work our way through the observed event and tie it to our understanding of gravity.
Here's the thing: quantum mechanics is making predictions that can be proven or disproven. In fact, that's what Fermilab is doing every day, and what CERN swears it will be doing once they find the right adapter plate to mount the new carburetor on it.
String Theory is starting out at some wild conclusion (10 dimensional space) and trying to work its way back to the observable universe by saying, "Well, is you fold dimension 10 over to flap B attached to dimension 9, then fold dimension 9 over to slit C of dimnesion, etc... then you will be able to say the universe is ten dimensional, thereby providing a simple starting point for talking about the 20 dimensional universe! Tada!"
String Theory doesn't predict anything. Therefore, it should not be mentioned in the same sentence as quantum mechanics.
String Theory isn't even a proper theory in the scientific sense.
A proper theory has a testable conclusion. Yeah, sometimes we're not currently able to test those conclusions as much as we like, as is the case with something like the Theory of Relativity. But, Relativity is not as testable as we'd like mostly because we lack the technology to test it that well.
String Theory doesn't provide the basis for testing. Therefore, it is not science.
You see, there's a magical pony pony, represented by the variable P. And there's magic, represented by the variable M. And there's everything, represented by the variable E.
P + M = E
Ha, motherfucker! Magical pony theory beats all!! I have the math to prove it.
The problem with string theory is that exists in its own little world of mathematics. And you're allowed to relentlessly massage the mathematics until one day you can jump up and say, "Look, my math proves _________!"
And then when someone says, "Well what the hell does that have to do with the observed universe?" some jackass will come along and start rambling on about some crap like holographic representations of dimensions. "So, you see, you can represent five dimensions in a universe that appears four dimensional because the fifth dimension was tucked under your pillow by the tooth fairy. And the sixth dimension is under the pillow, tucked away in a fold in the sheet."
So, fuck it. I say the seventh dimension is tucked in the ass crack of the magical pony, the bringer of all things.
"The reason for MS's success (specifically, with Windows) is due to developers targeting the dominant system"
And how did MS become the dominant system?
Sometime way back in the foggy mists of history, a bunch of people made a bunch of operating systems. Someone would say, "Wow, Mac OS is awesome!" And if you ever tried to write something for Mac System 7, you ended up praying God would kill you soon.
For some incredibly strange reason, a whole bunch of programmers said, "Screw that!"
And then they did the same thing with a Windows-based system. Only, this time they could make it work without pulling their eyeballs out.
We got to this point because MS was the company whose OS was easiest to work with.
It's cute to say (in a later comment) "presently OS X is wicked super awesome jesus wowswers to work with". But, that is to be oblivious to how we got to this point. For waaaay too many years, Apple's OSes were criminally evil from a developer-friendliness standpoint.
They deserve credit for stating something that has long frustrated me with non-MS systems: they're not developer-friendly. If Google is to accomplish anything with this, the solution has to include an easy-to-access system. Microsoft is where it is today because it is the easiest OS for third parties to work with.
All those violent games are full of explosions!! Explosions that emit tons of greenhouses gases. Do the frakkin math! If there are 700,000,000 explosions in video games today (a conservative number) and each explosion emits 300 tons of CO2 . . . JESUS H CHRIST!!! We're all dead. Now. By 2 pm if we don't stop it. NOW!!
And I'll tell ya the truth from years of business: nothing makes me want to throw up more than listening to people pimp the big bag with dollar signs on it that's hiding out in the future.
Frankly, if all the folks who complain feel they have a better business model than the networks, then welcome to America, land of opportunity.
Linux for desktop is not and will not ever be about general users. Linux + desktop is for every geek who thinks Windows was best in the days of DOS + Windows 3.1. Geeks like having access to the configuration files. Geeks like loading the shell and running commands.
Linux will never exceed its inputs. Linux is a geeky OS built for geeks by geeks so we can sit around geeking out on the geektitude of the whole geek-damned thing.
We Americans really don't understand how the rest of the world works. We're dumb enough to think this will make a dent.
This is Guatemala we're talking about. Every friggin faction in Guatemala makes sport of screwing the other guys. Go review the case of one Rigoberta Menchu before you get too wild about believing anyone's testimony about anything in Guatemala.
Guatemalans have been jerked around so many times by both the left and the right that their default presumption is that everyone is at least embellishing, if not completely lying.
Maybe the video game industry needs an equivalent to Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who publish basically every film that's too controversial for anyone else to distribute.
Slashdot Mirror
Look at Symantec -- their software constantly nags you with popup messages AND it makes sport of demanding money to protect your computer. Symantec is WORSE than getting a virus.
Does something like AVG or Clam provide perfect protection? No.
But, if the AV'ss going to miss the mark, it's nice to not have to pay ransom money to Symantec.
Send Chuck Norris. He will present the aliens with a subpoena demanding that they allow us to bug their spaceships.
And as Chuck Norris departs the meeting, we will have Keyboard Cat on a jumbotron with really big speakers playing to send him off.
It's only fair that we let the aliens know what they're up against.
Why do I never have mod points when I read a deserving post?
I call bullshit. By this standard, I should also support trying to improve violent, radical Islam.
"I don't see how calling it not science helps anything."
Well, it helps by ensuring that less energy is wasted pursuing it. See?
I mean, I have a theory that says a magical pony farted the universe out in the great fecal rainbow. Would you support my efforts by calling it science? Obviously we need to improve the theory, by fleshing out important flaws, such as determining by what mechanism do pony farts become rainbows.
You gonna help me out with that?
"Pardon me for the semantics, but no science/scientific theory can be "proven" - even the theory of gravity can't be proven."
Well, if you want to be an ass about it, the word proven is just a word. Since "proof" is a cultural norm, all you have to do to eradicate any proof is eradicate the cultural norm of the proof itself. I mean, this is after all what evangelicals do every day when confronted with the Theory of Evolution. By your standard, Stephen Colbert is the greatest philosopher and scientist in human history.
"Proven" means that a theory has a predictable conclusion, and that the predicted conclusion occurs in a repeatable manner so that if a variance in the prediction does occur, that variance can be accounted for by observed conditions.
"If I take a rock and drop it on my desk a million times, that doesn't prove that it'll fall there again on the 1e6+1th time."
But, you're misconstruing the cultural concept of "falling" with the scientific concept of gravity. If your rock failed to fall, out Theory of Gravity is sufficient enough that when it failed to fall we could rapidly deduce why it failed to fall (planet went away, you forgot to open your hand, some smartass installed thrusters on the bottom of the rock, etc).
We can easily look at a problem like that and work our way through the observed event and tie it to our understanding of gravity.
Here's the thing: quantum mechanics is making predictions that can be proven or disproven. In fact, that's what Fermilab is doing every day, and what CERN swears it will be doing once they find the right adapter plate to mount the new carburetor on it.
String Theory is starting out at some wild conclusion (10 dimensional space) and trying to work its way back to the observable universe by saying, "Well, is you fold dimension 10 over to flap B attached to dimension 9, then fold dimension 9 over to slit C of dimnesion, etc ... then you will be able to say the universe is ten dimensional, thereby providing a simple starting point for talking about the 20 dimensional universe! Tada!"
String Theory doesn't predict anything. Therefore, it should not be mentioned in the same sentence as quantum mechanics.
String Theory isn't even a proper theory in the scientific sense.
A proper theory has a testable conclusion. Yeah, sometimes we're not currently able to test those conclusions as much as we like, as is the case with something like the Theory of Relativity. But, Relativity is not as testable as we'd like mostly because we lack the technology to test it that well.
String Theory doesn't provide the basis for testing. Therefore, it is not science.
You see, there's a magical pony pony, represented by the variable P. And there's magic, represented by the variable M. And there's everything, represented by the variable E.
P + M = E
Ha, motherfucker! Magical pony theory beats all!! I have the math to prove it.
The problem with string theory is that exists in its own little world of mathematics. And you're allowed to relentlessly massage the mathematics until one day you can jump up and say, "Look, my math proves _________!"
And then when someone says, "Well what the hell does that have to do with the observed universe?" some jackass will come along and start rambling on about some crap like holographic representations of dimensions. "So, you see, you can represent five dimensions in a universe that appears four dimensional because the fifth dimension was tucked under your pillow by the tooth fairy. And the sixth dimension is under the pillow, tucked away in a fold in the sheet."
So, fuck it. I say the seventh dimension is tucked in the ass crack of the magical pony, the bringer of all things.
Does anyone on Slashdot ever feel just the slightest bit retarded for being reflexively anti-Microsoft?
"The reason for MS's success (specifically, with Windows) is due to developers targeting the dominant system"
And how did MS become the dominant system?
Sometime way back in the foggy mists of history, a bunch of people made a bunch of operating systems. Someone would say, "Wow, Mac OS is awesome!" And if you ever tried to write something for Mac System 7, you ended up praying God would kill you soon.
For some incredibly strange reason, a whole bunch of programmers said, "Screw that!"
And then they did the same thing with a Windows-based system. Only, this time they could make it work without pulling their eyeballs out.
We got to this point because MS was the company whose OS was easiest to work with.
It's cute to say (in a later comment) "presently OS X is wicked super awesome jesus wowswers to work with". But, that is to be oblivious to how we got to this point. For waaaay too many years, Apple's OSes were criminally evil from a developer-friendliness standpoint.
Now we know.
They deserve credit for stating something that has long frustrated me with non-MS systems: they're not developer-friendly. If Google is to accomplish anything with this, the solution has to include an easy-to-access system. Microsoft is where it is today because it is the easiest OS for third parties to work with.
All those violent games are full of explosions!! Explosions that emit tons of greenhouses gases. Do the frakkin math! If there are 700,000,000 explosions in video games today (a conservative number) and each explosion emits 300 tons of CO2 . . . JESUS H CHRIST!!! We're all dead. Now. By 2 pm if we don't stop it. NOW!!
But it is going to be a looong time before BIOS chips are big enough to store all the code for asking you if you really want to take this action.
Most human decisions favor the near term.
And I'll tell ya the truth from years of business: nothing makes me want to throw up more than listening to people pimp the big bag with dollar signs on it that's hiding out in the future.
Frankly, if all the folks who complain feel they have a better business model than the networks, then welcome to America, land of opportunity.
Not true. The vast majority of TV shows turn a profit. The case is more that Fox feels they can make more money with a different show.
Anyone using the exploit is prompted repeatedly about whether they really, really want to do it.
Geez. Don't you people know anything about Windows security?
Linux for desktop is not and will not ever be about general users. Linux + desktop is for every geek who thinks Windows was best in the days of DOS + Windows 3.1. Geeks like having access to the configuration files. Geeks like loading the shell and running commands.
Linux will never exceed its inputs. Linux is a geeky OS built for geeks by geeks so we can sit around geeking out on the geektitude of the whole geek-damned thing.
Failing that, a drill, electrical tape and a coping saw.
We Americans really don't understand how the rest of the world works. We're dumb enough to think this will make a dent.
This is Guatemala we're talking about. Every friggin faction in Guatemala makes sport of screwing the other guys. Go review the case of one Rigoberta Menchu before you get too wild about believing anyone's testimony about anything in Guatemala.
Guatemalans have been jerked around so many times by both the left and the right that their default presumption is that everyone is at least embellishing, if not completely lying.
Two guys pitching a feasibility study? Sounds like the monorail episode of the Simpsons.
I don't recall the 95 successive scenes in the film where E.T. fell into a friggin canyon.
Maybe we try calling it, wishfully, The Flu to End All Flus? Fluzilla? Dead Human Flu? More Living Than Dead Flu? Best. Flu. Ever.?
Maybe the video game industry needs an equivalent to Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who publish basically every film that's too controversial for anyone else to distribute.
My pricing options are: Verizon DSL Comcast 6 Mb Dial-up