"A little retrospection shows that although many fine, useful software systems have been designed by committees and built as part of multipart project, those software systems that have excited passionate fans are those that are the products of one or a few designing minds, great designers. Consider Unix, APL, Pascal, Modula, the Smalltalk interface, even Fortran; and contrast them with Cobol, PL/I, Algore, MVS/370, and MS-DOS."
and you'll see how natural property rights are. Pre-industrial people definitely had hunting/grazing/farming territorial disputes. The idea is to settle it in a somewhat civilized manner where nobody gets hurt. If that fails you have war. Just watch robins in the spring guarding their worm territory. If you want to imagine a world with no possessions join a friggin monestary.
You go into a diner, put a nickle in the nickleodion - how's that paid for? Certainly the diner owner doesn't have to negotiate a licence for each and every recording in there.
a dialup & email account I had since 1994, from a small startup ISP, was recently sold to Earthlink, notorious for allowing spam - I prefer the local FreeBSD Mom&Pop shop (w/ roots going back to BBS days) anyway, wasn't using the dialup anymore, the email address was on many spam lists, all signs said CANCEL, and good riddance it was.
this should be taught to every child in school: it's much more dramatic, interesting and entertaining in today's service/entertainment economy to come up with a really innovative scheme to pass a math test than actually learning the material - heck anybody can do that with enough study, plus what use is what you learn? The point is that you passed, it doesn't matter HOW. The thrill of getting away with it is a priceless experience, and should you be stupid enough to get caught, the authorities will probably understand, as almost everyone has cheated and lied about it at some time - just look at the US prez and the richest man in the world. What great examples of how to succeed in life. Learning math, doing homework is for loosers.
[Bush|Gore] were elected prez and at the inaugeration refused to take the oath, state that USian politics had degenerated into a meaningless mudslinging $$ raising popularity contest and leave? Would he be arrested for doing it?
It is amazing how propaganda can take hold like this:)) An amazing meme, for sure. I'm sure the argument about 'airborn intoxicants' could easily be shot down by some credible controlled tests.
I've heard that big time, really famous song writers are instructed (by their legal eagles) to NOT LISTEN to compositions by amateur songwriters (for legal reasons) because they may accidentally unconsciously plagarize part of it and get hit with a lawsuit.
Hey, scroll down to my post (ch-ch)
on
Microsoft Cracked
·
· Score: 2
and read an account of the Windows upgrade that was behind the Kursk disaster.
Some new information has come to light over the Kursk disaster.
For those with short attention spans, the Kursk was the submarine that blew up and sank in the Artic Ocean killing all 118 on board. The Russians tried to blame the incident on a collision with an unidentified object. However, sonar tapes which recorded the blasts (a small one at first, then a much larger one two minutes later) cast doubt on these claims. A whistle blower within the Russian military has leaked that the crew of the Kursk was testing a new type of torpedo when the accident occurred. It seemed very likely that the test didn't go quite as planned.
While rescue efforts to save the survivors of the Kursk failed, salvage crews were able to recover a 'Black Box' from the submarine which contained detailed accounts of the events leading up to the explosion. As luck would have it, we got a copy of those tapes.
It turns out that the submarine crew was trying to load Microsoft Windows on their fire control computer. Their intent was to replace the aging CP/M operating system with the flashier Windows OS. Apparently, the Russians didn't know about the legendary stability problems exhibited by Windows. The log tapes make this painfully obvious:
Captain: Is the new fire control Windows OS installed yet?
Seaman: Almost Sir. We just need to finish filling out the registration
card.
Captain: Excellent. Soon we will be able to point and click our enemies
into oblivion.
[evil laughter in background]
Seaman: Captain! It is booting! Look, it says "Preparing to run Windows
for the first time".
[long pause]
Seaman: Arrgh! Sir, it wants me to reboot again. That makes the 27th time.
Captain: Hmmm. This is not encouraging. Go ahead and reboot again.
Seaman: Aye Sir.
[another long pause]
Seaman: Captain, it is up again. It says it found new hardware... A
CD-ROM drive and that it needs drivers.
Captain: Where are the drivers?
Seaman: On the CD-ROM.
Captain: You are joking, right?
Seaman: No Sir.
Captain: Reboot the damn thing again. I am starting not to like this
Windows.
[another long pause]
Seaman: Sir! It is back! It says it found the Gorby2000 Torpedo and is
looking for the device drivers. Do we have a driver disk?
Captain: I do not think so.
Seaman: I will tell it to use the default drivers.
[another long pause]
Seaman: Crap. It wants to reboot again.
Captain: How many times are we going to reboot today? This is taking
forever. Our hull is going to rust out before this works.
[another long pause]
Seaman: Sir! It is up and this time it is not asking for anything!
Captain: Really? No device drivers? No registration cards? No user profiles?
Seaman: No Sir. I think it is ready.
Captain: Good work. Now click on the fire control icon and let us see how
this works.
Seaman: Clicking now, Sir.
[another long pause]
Captain: Why does the fire control screen have a dancing paper clip on it?
Seaman: I have no idea Sir.
Captain: Hmmm, well try clicking on the menu.
Seaman: Aye Sir. Let us see;
Open E-mail, Spam a friend, Mail a Virus, Fire a Torpedo.
Captain: We will spam a friend later. Let us fire a torpedo.
Seaman: Aye Sir.
[another long pause]
Seaman: It is asking us to load the torpedo and to click when ready.
Captain: Torpedo room, load a torpedo in tube number 1!
[intercom:] This is the Torpedo room. The torpedo is loaded Sir.
Captain: Click on the continue button.
Seaman: Aye Sir.
[another long pause]
Seaman: It is asking for a target Sir.
Captain: Hmmm, target the Rainbow Warrior.
Seaman: Aye Sir. Damn! It says the torpedo is low on ink.
Captain: Click ignore. We will get some ink when we return to base.
Seaman: Aye Sir. We are ready to fire.
Captain: Very good. You may fire when ready.
Seaman: Firing torpedo Sir.
[another really long pause]
Captain: Well?
Seaman: I am trying Sir. Nothing is happening. Wait a minute....
[a loud explosion is heard in the background followed by screaming on intercom]
Captain: WTF was that?!?!?
Seaman: Captain! A new screen has appeared! Outlook Express Fire Control
has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. Click 'OK' to
continue.
Seaman: Oh my God! The paper clip has died! What should I do?
Captain: Shut it down! Shut it down!
Seaman: It is not responding Sir!
Captain: Try 'CTRL-ALT-DELETE'!
Seaman: Aye Sir. We are in luck! The task manager is still operating. I am
instructing the task manager to shut down Outlook Fire Control.
[another long pause]
Seaman: The task manager says that Outlook Fire Control is not responding.
Captain: Well no shit. Tell it to 'end task'.
Seaman: Nothing is happening Sir.
Captain: Try 'CTRL-ALT-DELETE' again.
Seaman: Aye Sir.
[sounds of frantic pecking on keyboard.]
Seaman: Oooh! What a pretty blue screen!
Captain: Holy Shit! Not the blue screen of dea....
[ KABLAM! A really big explosion. More screaming and the sound of rushing water.]
The tape ends at this point. During the week long rescue effort, divers
reported hearing tapping in the form of Morse code coming from survivors
inside the damaged sub. The rescuers couldn't understand why a group of
men would spend the last of their strength tapping out "Windows sucks" in
Morse code. The tapes of the last moments of the Kursk may offer some insight
into this.
Carol:... so we need everyone's support to keep this research station up in orbit, we need you to call in and pledge your support, 10, 50, 100 million rubles, whatever level you feel comfortable with, and, ok, for the next 10 callers, yes, the next ten callers will receive a FREE "Great MIR Accomplishments" CD, so pick up the phone and, oh yes, here's Ed with some news...
Ed: That's right Carol, this just in the Russian Government has pledged 750 - that's right 750 million Rubles to help keep MIR in orbit...
Carol: Wow!
Ed: Yes, but this will only help keep it going until February folks, so we can't stop now, our goal is 3 Billion Rubles....
Carol: Thanks Ed, a big show of thanks for the Russian Government for that tremendous pledge, wow [applause] now , ok, we challenge anybody out there, if you can match the Russian pledge we'll send you not only the CD BUT also this coffee table book "MIR Photography" so pick up that phone now, call 1-800-SAVE-MIR and make that pledge, is easy to do, operators are - yes, we have operators just waiting for your call, so do it now, we've only got another week and....
A government service, like the welfare department, could very well have orders from the Govt that all cases should be handled in English. You want financial assistance, you gotta talk English. You want to get a job? ditto. Gotta go.
Back in the olde days an immigrant came to the US who could speak no English except 'coffee doughnut'. Every day he went out for breakfast, lunch and dinner and all he could order was 'coffee doughnut'. He quickly got sick of this diet, and finally met with a fellow countryman who could speak his language. This friend taught him the word 'steak'. So next time he goes into a restaurant and when the waiter asked him what he wanted, the immigrant proudly says, 'Steak!'. The waiter askes, 'How would you like it, rare, medium or well done?'. The immigrant looks puzzled for a few seconds, and finally says, 'coffee doughnut'.
That point always bugs me, that something is illegal for falacious reasons, and you can't get any dialog going to enlighten folks because of the self reinforcing myth. A great example is the tomato. Once upon a time, quite intelligent folks beleived that tomato's were deadly poisonious! BION. It's not too hard to imagine our diligent politicritters out pandering to the unenlightened masses proposing even more stupid laws to protect our children from 'poisonous' plants and other fabricated issues to pump up the self esteem and importance of their otherwise useless existance, and further entangle us freedom loving citizens with yet another legal speciality. A democracy needs FACTS, not media control and manipulation. Idiots.
for $28 Million but remained on the Atari board. Don't know if anybody could have brought Atari out of the '84 crash, or the Tramiel rein; maybe a successful partnership with Nintendo, but it's all just speculation over what 'could have been' now.
Slashdot Mirror
"A little retrospection shows that although many fine, useful software systems have been designed by committees and built as part of multipart project, those software systems that have excited passionate fans are those that are the products of one or a few designing minds, great designers. Consider Unix, APL, Pascal, Modula, the Smalltalk interface, even Fortran; and contrast them with Cobol, PL/I, Algore, MVS/370, and MS-DOS."
the old folks home on 75mtrs :))
But that (paying BMI/ASCAP a flat fee) sounds like the compulsary license, and a jukebox would violate this qualification to get one:
"The user must not be able to choose and receive a particular recording: that is, no playing songs on demand."
and you'll see how natural property rights are. Pre-industrial people definitely had hunting/grazing/farming territorial disputes. The idea is to settle it in a somewhat civilized manner where nobody gets hurt. If that fails you have war. Just watch robins in the spring guarding their worm territory. If you want to imagine a world with no possessions join a friggin monestary.
:))
My information wants to be expensive
an earthquake jockey.
You go into a diner, put a nickle in the nickleodion - how's that paid for? Certainly the diner owner doesn't have to negotiate a licence for each and every recording in there.
just search bn.com for "crc math". They're still $100 tho.
about a hundred bucks in this case.
CRC Checksum Failure.
a dialup & email account I had since 1994, from a small startup ISP, was recently sold to Earthlink, notorious for allowing spam - I prefer the local FreeBSD Mom&Pop shop (w/ roots going back to BBS days) anyway, wasn't using the dialup anymore, the email address was on many spam lists, all signs said CANCEL, and good riddance it was.
this should be taught to every child in school: it's much more dramatic, interesting and entertaining in today's service/entertainment economy to come up with a really innovative scheme to pass a math test than actually learning the material - heck anybody can do that with enough study, plus what use is what you learn? The point is that you passed, it doesn't matter HOW. The thrill of getting away with it is a priceless experience, and should you be stupid enough to get caught, the authorities will probably understand, as almost everyone has cheated and lied about it at some time - just look at the US prez and the richest man in the world. What great examples of how to succeed in life. Learning math, doing homework is for loosers.
in 1814, according to none other than The Whitehouse itself.
[Bush|Gore] were elected prez and at the inaugeration refused to take the oath, state that USian politics had degenerated into a meaningless mudslinging $$ raising popularity contest and leave? Would he be arrested for doing it?
is too serious to be entertaining, and too frivolous to be taken seriously.
It is also the greatest waste of human intelligence found outside the advertising industry.
(From Martin Gardiner's "Dr Matrix")
It is amazing how propaganda can take hold like this :)) An amazing meme, for sure. I'm sure the argument about 'airborn intoxicants' could easily be shot down by some credible controlled tests.
This guy's almost as bad as these people.
I've heard that big time, really famous song writers are instructed (by their legal eagles) to NOT LISTEN to compositions by amateur songwriters (for legal reasons) because they may accidentally unconsciously plagarize part of it and get hit with a lawsuit.
and read an account of the Windows upgrade that was behind the Kursk disaster.
Some new information has come to light over the Kursk disaster.
... A
For those with short attention spans, the Kursk was the submarine that blew up and sank in the Artic Ocean killing all 118 on board. The Russians tried to blame the incident on a collision with an unidentified object. However, sonar tapes which recorded the blasts (a small one at first, then a much larger one two minutes later) cast doubt on these claims. A whistle blower within the Russian military has leaked that the crew of the Kursk was testing a new type of torpedo when the accident occurred. It seemed very likely that the test didn't go quite as planned.
While rescue efforts to save the survivors of the Kursk failed, salvage crews were able to recover a 'Black Box' from the submarine which contained detailed accounts of the events leading up to the explosion. As luck would have it, we got a copy of those tapes.
It turns out that the submarine crew was trying to load Microsoft Windows on their fire control computer. Their intent was to replace the aging CP/M operating system with the flashier Windows OS. Apparently, the Russians didn't know about the legendary stability problems exhibited by Windows. The log tapes make this painfully obvious:
Captain: Is the new fire control Windows OS installed yet?
Seaman: Almost Sir. We just need to finish filling out the registration
card.
Captain: Excellent. Soon we will be able to point and click our enemies
into oblivion.
[evil laughter in background]
Seaman: Captain! It is booting! Look, it says "Preparing to run Windows
for the first time".
[long pause]
Seaman: Arrgh! Sir, it wants me to reboot again. That makes the 27th time.
Captain: Hmmm. This is not encouraging. Go ahead and reboot again.
Seaman: Aye Sir.
[another long pause]
Seaman: Captain, it is up again. It says it found new hardware
CD-ROM drive and that it needs drivers.
Captain: Where are the drivers?
Seaman: On the CD-ROM.
Captain: You are joking, right?
Seaman: No Sir.
Captain: Reboot the damn thing again. I am starting not to like this
Windows.
[another long pause]
Seaman: Sir! It is back! It says it found the Gorby2000 Torpedo and is
looking for the device drivers. Do we have a driver disk?
Captain: I do not think so.
Seaman: I will tell it to use the default drivers.
[another long pause]
Seaman: Crap. It wants to reboot again.
Captain: How many times are we going to reboot today? This is taking
forever. Our hull is going to rust out before this works.
[another long pause]
Seaman: Sir! It is up and this time it is not asking for anything!
Captain: Really? No device drivers? No registration cards? No user profiles?
Seaman: No Sir. I think it is ready.
Captain: Good work. Now click on the fire control icon and let us see how
this works.
Seaman: Clicking now, Sir.
[another long pause]
Captain: Why does the fire control screen have a dancing paper clip on it?
Seaman: I have no idea Sir.
Captain: Hmmm, well try clicking on the menu.
Seaman: Aye Sir. Let us see;
Open E-mail, Spam a friend, Mail a Virus, Fire a Torpedo.
Captain: We will spam a friend later. Let us fire a torpedo.
Seaman: Aye Sir.
[another long pause]
Seaman: It is asking us to load the torpedo and to click when ready.
Captain: Torpedo room, load a torpedo in tube number 1!
[intercom:] This is the Torpedo room. The torpedo is loaded Sir.
Captain: Click on the continue button.
Seaman: Aye Sir.
[another long pause]
Seaman: It is asking for a target Sir.
Captain: Hmmm, target the Rainbow Warrior.
Seaman: Aye Sir. Damn! It says the torpedo is low on ink.
Captain: Click ignore. We will get some ink when we return to base.
Seaman: Aye Sir. We are ready to fire.
Captain: Very good. You may fire when ready.
Seaman: Firing torpedo Sir.
[another really long pause]
Captain: Well?
Seaman: I am trying Sir. Nothing is happening. Wait a minute....
[a loud explosion is heard in the background followed by screaming on intercom]
Captain: WTF was that?!?!?
Seaman: Captain! A new screen has appeared! Outlook Express Fire Control
has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. Click 'OK' to
continue.
Seaman: Oh my God! The paper clip has died! What should I do?
Captain: Shut it down! Shut it down!
Seaman: It is not responding Sir!
Captain: Try 'CTRL-ALT-DELETE'!
Seaman: Aye Sir. We are in luck! The task manager is still operating. I am
instructing the task manager to shut down Outlook Fire Control.
[another long pause]
Seaman: The task manager says that Outlook Fire Control is not responding.
Captain: Well no shit. Tell it to 'end task'.
Seaman: Nothing is happening Sir.
Captain: Try 'CTRL-ALT-DELETE' again.
Seaman: Aye Sir.
[sounds of frantic pecking on keyboard.]
Seaman: Oooh! What a pretty blue screen!
Captain: Holy Shit! Not the blue screen of dea....
[ KABLAM! A really big explosion. More screaming and the sound of rushing water.]
The tape ends at this point. During the week long rescue effort, divers
reported hearing tapping in the form of Morse code coming from survivors
inside the damaged sub. The rescuers couldn't understand why a group of
men would spend the last of their strength tapping out "Windows sucks" in
Morse code. The tapes of the last moments of the Kursk may offer some insight
into this.
Carol: ... so we need everyone's support to keep this research station up in orbit, we need you to call in and pledge your support, 10, 50, 100 million rubles, whatever level you feel comfortable with, and, ok, for the next 10 callers, yes, the next ten callers will receive a FREE "Great MIR Accomplishments" CD, so pick up the phone and, oh yes, here's Ed with some news...
Ed: That's right Carol, this just in the Russian Government has pledged 750 - that's right 750 million Rubles to help keep MIR in orbit...
Carol: Wow!
Ed: Yes, but this will only help keep it going until February folks, so we can't stop now, our goal is 3 Billion Rubles....
Carol: Thanks Ed, a big show of thanks for the Russian Government for that tremendous pledge, wow [applause] now , ok, we challenge anybody out there, if you can match the Russian pledge we'll send you not only the CD BUT also this coffee table book "MIR Photography" so pick up that phone now, call 1-800-SAVE-MIR and make that pledge, is easy to do, operators are - yes, we have operators just waiting for your call, so do it now, we've only got another week and....
A government service, like the welfare department, could very well have orders from the Govt that all cases should be handled in English. You want financial assistance, you gotta talk English. You want to get a job? ditto. Gotta go.
Back in the olde days an immigrant came to the US who could speak no English except 'coffee doughnut'. Every day he went out for breakfast, lunch and dinner and all he could order was 'coffee doughnut'. He quickly got sick of this diet, and finally met with a fellow countryman who could speak his language. This friend taught him the word 'steak'. So next time he goes into a restaurant and when the waiter asked him what he wanted, the immigrant proudly says, 'Steak!'. The waiter askes, 'How would you like it, rare, medium or well done?'. The immigrant looks puzzled for a few seconds, and finally says, 'coffee doughnut'.
That point always bugs me, that something is illegal for falacious reasons, and you can't get any dialog going to enlighten folks because of the self reinforcing myth. A great example is the tomato. Once upon a time, quite intelligent folks beleived that tomato's were deadly poisonious! BION. It's not too hard to imagine our diligent politicritters out pandering to the unenlightened masses proposing even more stupid laws to protect our children from 'poisonous' plants and other fabricated issues to pump up the self esteem and importance of their otherwise useless existance, and further entangle us freedom loving citizens with yet another legal speciality. A democracy needs FACTS, not media control and manipulation. Idiots.
I'd vaguely heard about Higginbotham, and thought it was only a 'bouncing ball' gravity simulation. Interesting that Dave Ahl was influenced by it.
and here's a link with pictures of the "first video game" at BNL.
for $28 Million but remained on the Atari board. Don't know if anybody could have brought Atari out of the '84 crash, or the Tramiel rein; maybe a successful partnership with Nintendo, but it's all just speculation over what 'could have been' now.
as Kasparov is defending his title, currently Champ: 3 Challenger: 4.
Oh, was that offtopic?