"Hackerdom is a ruthless meritocracy, dedicated to winnowing out bad code and spreading good."
I've often thought that the reason some companies like Msft churn out bad software is that: it's relatively easy to fool your supervisor - i.e., if you have a project deadline looming and you know some part isn't done or hasn't been tested enough, you can let it slide, the boss remains clueless, the customers and tech support have to deal with it - yet your boss may still be under the false impression that you've done a really swell job! Hidden deep in inscrutable code lies lots of opportunity for office politics and shifting blame that open source scientific peer review just doesn't tolerage, at least not for long!
But, the head of the MPAA thinks the Internet allows someone in their basement to distribute a DVD quality feature length motion picture to 4 billion people instantly!
Now, I'm a real bookworm, and spent LOTS of time as a kid in the brick&mortar library flexing the old imagination, and the advent of Hypertext was like a dream come true - there are so many times one is reading a book and come across a footnote that links you to another book, or a certain line makes you think, "hey, that's just like a line in another book - now where was that" so you start to see a body of knowledge as not just a stack of books on shelves but as a real intertwined web of cross linked referances woven into a larger tapestry, lines of influence and schools of thought.... the web was made for publishing research and refrenching and building upon prior research.
claiming that those new-fangled 'automobiles' will never replace the good old horse & buggy...
Of course, printed books *DO* have their charm, but going digital offers so much more - one advantage is that machine readable data is SEARCHABLE, and I love being able to have a computer slog thru tons of data looking for what I want to find. He should be thinking "books on demand".
One of the first binary systems
on
The Code Book
·
· Score: 2
an oldish article in Scientific American mentioned that a code Bacon used was one of the first uses of a binary numbering system -- it involved encoding a message using two slightly different fonts, distinguishable to those in the know, hidden in a open text letter. Every 5 characters in the open text would be one of two fonts (a or b, say), like "aabab (5-e) baaba (18-r) " etc.
Hmmm, usually batteries are rated in AmpHours, but I don't see why you can't just * by their rated V and use WattHours - a watthour is a unit of energy (why you electric bill is in WH), and batteries hold only so much energy. Power is energy / unit time. An amp = one coulumb / second. A stich in time saves nine. A nearby batt says 10.8V 4.05 Ah, or about 40Wh - it can crank out 10.8V at 8.1 Amp, 80Watts, for 1/2 hour = 40Wh; or it can pump 10.8V a 2.025Amps, 20Watts, for 2 hours again = 40Wh. Since the laptop can run about 2 hrs on this batt, it's drawing about 2 amps @ 10.8 V or about 20Watts, the solar panel can supply 13 watts so the battery only need to supply 7watts, or.7A at 10V to make up the diff, resulting in increased battery life of 5.7hrs, which is the same result gotten from: 40Wh / 7W = 5.7
of these - enough power for a notebook, wireless, and more. Solar may be neat but it just can't compete with burning refined dinosaur era hydrocarbons (sunlight energy from long ago locked up in chemical form). Of course, there's only a limited supply of it left....hmmmm.
in Electronics Tech class... cost, oh, $3.75 for the beginner plastic model (but calculators were soon to become ubiquitious).
Wow, a notebook/laptop in every knapsack - that's gonna be a whole lotta you know what OS bit-rot that's going to need maintenance ("Mommy! Word keeps giving me 'illegal operation' and I have a book report due tomorrow!! Waaaaaa!!!!")
Interesting they claim Roberts coined the term "personal computer" - and I wonder what they have to back this claim up. Describing it as a 'ham' (radio tinkerer) machine seems apropos - it helped to have assembled a few Heathkits! They required a lot of tinkering, fer sure.
Altair software recovery in progress... 8K basic games (Startrek, etc) available in MP3 format for the 88-ACR.
Well, in general it sounds neat-o, but on second though - how can you take a 'pill' of nanites and, 1st, have them survive the digestive system - it can get really acidic in there, and they'd have to pass thru the stomach or intestinal wall and - geez, I find it a little difficult to beleive that anyhing is able to do both THAT and do anything useful from a micromechanical perspective - like a sensor/transmitter nanite. I question the feasibility of this idea in terms of the bodily particulate-mobility and functionality, ie., a complex monitor/sensor is feasible as an fixed implant, but I find it hard to beleive one could just 'drift around' in the body - I guess there's a fine line between new highly complex molecular 'drugs' and 'micromechanical nanites'.
In yesterday's article on RReed someone posted a link to cnet which had at the bottom a link to this cnet item which states:
The story cited people close to the Microsoft case as saying the government is considering a proposal that would force Microsoft to grant royalty-free licenses to Internet Explorer, opening the programming code to customers and computer makers.
that Pinkerton is having sevear cash flow problems and are so desperate to keep stockholders happy that they are willing to try anything and that this is really a scheme to capitalize on school shootings to kidnap people for their Internet child pornography ring.
This week happens to be right before the annual spring meeting of the ABA Antitrust Section.
Long story - I had to dig out my old 'Wired' feature on "Oh, no, Mr. Bill!", The Fed's plan to reboot Microsoft - and they mentioned that, "Historically, the Supreme Court has timed its rare antitrust opinions right before this early spring antitrust powwow... so the bar can kind of chew on it at this spring meeting", which is, this weekend! (Apr. 5-7).
Of course we're talking about the software behemouth, but here's my take: once upon a time computer processing was limited to a corp/scholastic priesthood, then microprocessors embodied a 60ish "power to the people" type mentality, down w/ corporate domination, and suddenly hw hackers could, with some effort, own their own computer. Then commercial companies jumped in and you could buy a 'personal computer' to do with as you wish for the price of a good used car. Then, I think a turning point was reached in the early 90's when win3x for some reason make 'GPF's common on too many business desktops, and suddenly people HAD TO BE WinTel COMPUTER LITERATE to succeed or be hired. I.e., when it turned from "gee, I can own my own computer!" to "You mean I have to learn how to operate this damn thing just to get an office job??".
Agreed - however, I still see lot's of ppl have yet to be gyped, and are still buying Wintel boxes like "country bumpkins at a county fair". No free help from me, tho!
It's really amazing - you folks actually think a production studio is going to put $20 million (and that's SMALL budget!) into making a movie and that buy forking over $9.95 at T-Mart your 'buying' that production to do whatever you want with, heehee. Actually, you CAN buy the movie, setup a chain of theatres and other distribution - but you'll need big bucks, and unless you just like burning money, you'll probably want to make a little bit o' profit to pay the mortgage, buy the kids shoes, etc.
Actually, in a 'perfect' world (from the content producers point of view) if everybody DID honor the licensing, the producers wouldn't have to attempt to resort to fair use restricting, draconion techno-content control mechanisms (like having to have a licensed player) - but as it is, they feel that (even if it is wrong, there's that perception amongst publishers) hey, people are making and distributing unlicensed copies, we're losing money, we must do SOMETING. It the Gates "Open Letter to Hobbyists" all over again, whining about only 10% of BASIC users actually paid (which was TRUE), so NO MORE MR. NICE GUY, which gave us the Msft corp we know and loath today. QED: piracy ruins it for everybody, 'taint the producers fault! They're just protecting their own interests, even if they end up resorting to criminal means to do so.
I mean, to play devils advocate, there IS a lot of crap out there for parents and guardians to be concerned about - I'm about to the same point as with Msft and their pirate user base (Msft uses criminal mkting practices, yes, and a lot of their uses are criminal license violators, buy one copy and let everyone use it! Everybody does it!!) - those who want censorware are tossing out the baby w/ the bathwater, while those against it are a bunch of deranged perverts.
So, maybe what tax funded public Internet providers (pub libraries) should do is designate two areas: one for those under 16 to use with a list of approved or unapproved sites to browse (an 8 yr old probably isn't yet interested in researching therapy for breast cancer) - and an 'adult' section w/ unlimited browsing capability to research the psychology of deviant sexual practices if they so choose.
because they are (snicker) only 2 bits away from encapsulating these email attachments in a special armor piercing packet.
I wish they *would* innovate for a change
on
Microsoft Loses
·
· Score: 2
Face it, Msft is just an overblown code works that takes itself much to seriously. They have a long history of taking other people creations out of the obscure computing world and making X86 knock offs and marketing the heck out of it to people who have never seen a real, rock solid computer work. Win2k? - ohhhh, you can mount a drive on a directory! You have distributed file systems!! Wow! Look at THIS innovation - a network directory service!!!! Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.
According to WashP ost Msft is still going to build a web browser into the 'os' - (so thpppppt!! Take that you mean ol' judge) - whoppee. Clinton was impeached and still probably gets all the 'comfort girls' he wants in the office. You can't 'punish' a popular person, no matter what 'crimes' they committed, why that'd be a public outrage! Obviously the judge is at fault here, and Msft stock will eventually recover and soar on to new heights. Indeed, it may be a good time soon to buy msft stock!
Slashdot Mirror
"Hackerdom is a ruthless meritocracy, dedicated to winnowing out bad code and spreading good."
I've often thought that the reason some companies like Msft churn out bad software is that: it's relatively easy to fool your supervisor - i.e., if you have a project deadline looming and you know some part isn't done or hasn't been tested enough, you can let it slide, the boss remains clueless, the customers and tech support have to deal with it - yet your boss may still be under the false impression that you've done a really swell job! Hidden deep in inscrutable code lies lots of opportunity for office politics and shifting blame that open source scientific peer review just doesn't tolerage, at least not for long!
The internet is not for movies, yet,
But, the head of the MPAA thinks the Internet allows someone in their basement to distribute a DVD quality feature length motion picture to 4 billion people instantly!
Now, I'm a real bookworm, and spent LOTS of time as a kid in the brick&mortar library flexing the old imagination, and the advent of Hypertext was like a dream come true - there are so many times one is reading a book and come across a footnote that links you to another book, or a certain line makes you think, "hey, that's just like a line in another book - now where was that" so you start to see a body of knowledge as not just a stack of books on shelves but as a real intertwined web of cross linked referances woven into a larger tapestry, lines of influence and schools of thought .... the web was made for publishing research and refrenching and building upon prior research.
claiming that those new-fangled 'automobiles' will never replace the good old horse & buggy...
Of course, printed books *DO* have their charm, but going digital offers so much more - one advantage is that machine readable data is SEARCHABLE, and I love being able to have a computer slog thru tons of data looking for what I want to find. He should be thinking "books on demand".
an oldish article in Scientific American mentioned that a code Bacon used was one of the first uses of a binary numbering system -- it involved encoding a message using two slightly different fonts, distinguishable to those in the know, hidden in a open text letter. Every 5 characters in the open text would be one of two fonts (a or b, say), like "aabab (5-e) baaba (18-r) " etc.
Hmmm, usually batteries are rated in AmpHours, but I don't see why you can't just * by their rated V and use WattHours - a watthour is a unit of energy (why you electric bill is in WH), and batteries hold only so much energy. Power is energy / unit time. An amp = one coulumb / second. A stich in time saves nine. A nearby batt says 10.8V 4.05 Ah, or about 40Wh - it can crank out 10.8V at 8.1 Amp, 80Watts, for 1/2 hour = 40Wh; or it can pump 10.8V a 2.025Amps, 20Watts, for 2 hours again = 40Wh. Since the laptop can run about 2 hrs on this batt, it's drawing about 2 amps @ 10.8 V or about 20Watts, the solar panel can supply 13 watts so the battery only need to supply 7watts, or .7A at 10V to make up the diff, resulting in increased battery life of 5.7hrs, which is the same result gotten from: 40Wh / 7W = 5.7
YMMV
of these - enough power for a notebook, wireless, and more. Solar may be neat but it just can't compete with burning refined dinosaur era hydrocarbons (sunlight energy from long ago locked up in chemical form). Of course, there's only a limited supply of it left....hmmmm.
in Electronics Tech class... cost, oh, $3.75 for the beginner plastic model (but calculators were soon to become ubiquitious).
Wow, a notebook/laptop in every knapsack - that's gonna be a whole lotta you know what OS bit-rot that's going to need maintenance ("Mommy! Word keeps giving me 'illegal operation' and I have a book report due tomorrow!! Waaaaaa!!!!")
Interesting they claim Roberts coined the term "personal computer" - and I wonder what they have to back this claim up. Describing it as a 'ham' (radio tinkerer) machine seems apropos - it helped to have assembled a few Heathkits! They required a lot of tinkering, fer sure.
Altair software recovery in progress...
8K basic games (Startrek, etc) available in MP3 format for the 88-ACR.
Well, in general it sounds neat-o, but on second though - how can you take a 'pill' of nanites and, 1st, have them survive the digestive system - it can get really acidic in there, and they'd have to pass thru the stomach or intestinal wall and - geez, I find it a little difficult to beleive that anyhing is able to do both THAT and do anything useful from a micromechanical perspective - like a sensor/transmitter nanite. I question the feasibility of this idea in terms of the bodily particulate-mobility and functionality, ie., a complex monitor/sensor is feasible as an fixed implant, but I find it hard to beleive one could just 'drift around' in the body - I guess there's a fine line between new highly complex molecular 'drugs' and 'micromechanical nanites'.
In yesterday's article on RReed someone posted a link to cnet which had at the bottom a link to this cnet item which states:
The story cited people close to the Microsoft case as saying the government is considering a proposal that would force Microsoft to grant royalty-free licenses to Internet Explorer, opening the programming code to customers and computer makers.
EOT
Haha - Will have to make badtech part of my daily routine :))
less incentive to write/compose/produce, at least as far as financial rewards go. The things that ppl will do for a home in Beverly Hills!
So how's everything in ol' Morgantown?
maybe someone could wear a webcam, notebook & cell phone so the rest of us can participate virtually.
part of it still works http://apps.cyrix.com/, course all the pics from the www. are broken.
that Pinkerton is having sevear cash flow problems and are so desperate to keep stockholders happy that they are willing to try anything and that this is really a scheme to capitalize on school shootings to kidnap people for their Internet child pornography ring.
This week happens to be right before the annual spring meeting of the ABA Antitrust Section.
... so the bar can kind of chew on it at this spring meeting", which is, this weekend! (Apr. 5-7).
Long story - I had to dig out my old 'Wired' feature on "Oh, no, Mr. Bill!", The Fed's plan to reboot Microsoft - and they mentioned that, "Historically, the Supreme Court has timed its rare antitrust opinions right before this early spring antitrust powwow
Of course we're talking about the software behemouth, but here's my take: once upon a time computer processing was limited to a corp/scholastic priesthood, then microprocessors embodied a 60ish "power to the people" type mentality, down w/ corporate domination, and suddenly hw hackers could, with some effort, own their own computer. Then commercial companies jumped in and you could buy a 'personal computer' to do with as you wish for the price of a good used car. Then, I think a turning point was reached in the early 90's when win3x for some reason make 'GPF's common on too many business desktops, and suddenly people HAD TO BE WinTel COMPUTER LITERATE to succeed or be hired. I.e., when it turned from "gee, I can own my own computer!" to "You mean I have to learn how to operate this damn thing just to get an office job??".
Agreed - however, I still see lot's of ppl have yet to be gyped, and are still buying Wintel boxes like "country bumpkins at a county fair". No free help from me, tho!
It's really amazing - you folks actually think a production studio is going to put $20 million (and that's SMALL budget!) into making a movie and that buy forking over $9.95 at T-Mart your 'buying' that production to do whatever you want with, heehee. Actually, you CAN buy the movie, setup a chain of theatres and other distribution - but you'll need big bucks, and unless you just like burning money, you'll probably want to make a little bit o' profit to pay the mortgage, buy the kids shoes, etc.
Actually, in a 'perfect' world (from the content producers point of view) if everybody DID honor the licensing, the producers wouldn't have to attempt to resort to fair use restricting, draconion techno-content control mechanisms (like having to have a licensed player) - but as it is, they feel that (even if it is wrong, there's that perception amongst publishers) hey, people are making and distributing unlicensed copies, we're losing money, we must do SOMETING. It the Gates "Open Letter to Hobbyists" all over again, whining about only 10% of BASIC users actually paid (which was TRUE), so NO MORE MR. NICE GUY, which gave us the Msft corp we know and loath today. QED: piracy ruins it for everybody, 'taint the producers fault! They're just protecting their own interests, even if they end up resorting to criminal means to do so.
I mean, to play devils advocate, there IS a lot of crap out there for parents and guardians to be concerned about - I'm about to the same point as with Msft and their pirate user base (Msft uses criminal mkting practices, yes, and a lot of their uses are criminal license violators, buy one copy and let everyone use it! Everybody does it!!) - those who want censorware are tossing out the baby w/ the bathwater, while those against it are a bunch of deranged perverts.
So, maybe what tax funded public Internet providers (pub libraries) should do is designate two areas: one for those under 16 to use with a list of approved or unapproved sites to browse (an 8 yr old probably isn't yet interested in researching therapy for breast cancer) - and an 'adult' section w/ unlimited browsing capability to research the psychology of deviant sexual practices if they so choose.
because they are (snicker) only 2 bits away from encapsulating these email attachments in a special armor piercing packet.
Face it, Msft is just an overblown code works that takes itself much to seriously. They have a long history of taking other people creations out of the obscure computing world and making X86 knock offs and marketing the heck out of it to people who have never seen a real, rock solid computer work. Win2k? - ohhhh, you can mount a drive on a directory! You have distributed file systems!! Wow! Look at THIS innovation - a network directory service!!!! Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.
According to WashP ost Msft is still going to build a web browser into the 'os' - (so thpppppt!! Take that you mean ol' judge) - whoppee. Clinton was impeached and still probably gets all the 'comfort girls' he wants in the office. You can't 'punish' a popular person, no matter what 'crimes' they committed, why that'd be a public outrage! Obviously the judge is at fault here, and Msft stock will eventually recover and soar on to new heights. Indeed, it may be a good time soon to buy msft stock!