I would have guessed it was because he expected you to sell the guy a multi-hundred dollar real alarm system instead. But then.. why claim it was about cleanup time?
I miss resistive screens. Sure, multi-touch is nice but being able to draw or write with precision using a pointy stylus or even a finger nail was much more useful. Yeah, I know, there are so-called stylus for capacitive screens. They are so blunt though.. There just isn't any precision possible in a capacitive screen.
I thought it might be nice to combine capacitive and resistive sensors in the same screen. It could default to the resistive one for precision until it detects a second touch then the capacitive one would take over. It turns out there is a company out there with a patent on that. And yet... no products. Damn the patent trolls and the politicians that have supported them too!
>>So, in your view, the best expectation to promote in Africa is for them to let other countries tell them how to run their countries? What is that really teaching Africans?
Isn't it mainly African leaders setting these goals?
>>Western societies are still more stable and wealthy than societies in any other region.
And declining. If the decline continues roles will reverse. Go ahead, argue all day as to what the future will bring.
>> The unemployment in the West is largely a result of economic surplus and generous welfare systems.
Well, that's your take. Prove it.
>> The manufacturing jobs lost by the US were lost because the business climate in the US has become hostile.
People fought hard to get a fair wage for a fair days work. Before that living conditions in the US really weren't much better than in the East. The fact is a few business leaders will always take everything they can get and give as little as they can get away with. You can argue that the US has swung too far against business if you want but the fact is that it was the opening up of markets to imports from where people do NOT get paid a fair wage, where worker safety and health is not a concern of management and most people are pretty miserable. We do not want to live that way. Just look at FoxConn, their employees don't even want to LIVE! Nobody should live that way.
>> >>Also the US continues to waste over $600 billion/year on pointless military expenditures >> Opinions vary as to military uses and priorities >> All countries must provide for their own security either by maintaining an appropriate military...
I don't know what the author of the parent comment believes but he did not state that military expenditures are pointless. His statement doesn't even say that ALL US military expenditures are pointless. He only states that the US spends money on military expenditures that ARE pointless. From the perspective that what a government obtains from it's people should be spent to the benefit of those people I agree. Unless... I can expect a check in the mail from whoever is getting all that Iraqi oil now....
First off, what's with this you stuff? If you aren't a geek yourself then what are you doing on Slashdot?
Second, I understand that there is a huge market out there with a different set of priorities than geeks. I have two questions about that though;
1. Why, can't software cater to us both? If the masses don't want a feature that the geeks want just hide it in an advanced menu somewhere but don't remove it! 2. If #1 is unworkable, if the geeks and masses can't coexist then why can't we have a company or two that caters to us? Sure there is a larger market for the masses but there is a lot of competition for it too! Also, somebody floated a decent sized PC market for nearly 20 years before the internet made them mainstream. Surely there is still money in the geek market to be had!
What about Sailfish makes it a 'proper Linux'? What even IS a 'proper' Linux?
I ask because since the Sharp Zaurus days I have wanted a phone which runs 'proper' Linux, a Linux kernel with glibc, X-windows, GTK, QT, etc... I wanted something that I could easily 'port' desktop apps over just by recompiling. Better yet, applications could be written with two different view modes in the same executable like many Android apps do now when switched between phone and tablet modes only this would be desktop vs mobile.
Admitedly I wish for this less and less each day since Android has been getting apps that do the things I want to do however there are still gaps.
My very limited understanding of Sailfish is that it is just a Linux kernel with webkit dropped on top of it to run HTML5 apps not unlike Google Chrome. Was I mistaken?
That's not going to happen.. ever. Sorry, it's just human nature. Sometimes breakups are messy, people get emotional and emotion + human = stupid. Give those pic out and eventually one will get posted online somewhere. That's life.
Lucky for you I don't think angry ex's posting the pics is the underlying trend. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some girls used to give their guys polaroids but I doubt that was ever anywhere near as common as today's sexting. Technology has made it easier to share and it has made what is shared easier to re-share.
What might be more likely than this safe sexting utopia you dream of is similar yet opposite. Girls keep taking those pics (and yes, guys do it sometimes too). Occasionaly they keep get posted online. Eventually, maybe, just maybe, people wake up and realize that sex is a natural thing, that people do stuff, and sometimes people take pictures. Maybe then a pic posted online won't result in "slut-shaming". Maybe then people will stop harassing someone whose pics were posted. Maybe instead they will think, man, that girls ex is a d1ck for posting that! Maybe somebody posting stuff about you online won't endanger your job anymore.
That might take a couple more generations though... Meanwhile a lot of people get hurt.
Really, what I mean isn't that it's ok to post somebody's nude pics without their permission. Nor do i think people should all want their pictures posted for the world to see. It's that the greatest damage comes from how this current society reacts to those pictures. Since the pictures aren't going away, maybe someday society can grow up a bit and respond better. Maybe then the posting of pictures will be a minor annoyance that is part of life rather than a major crisis.
Of course, the majority now, or in this possible future aren't thinking about the girl or the guy who posted her as they view those pics. They are just enjoying the view. That part will never change.
" it may seem rather inappropriate to launch space programs in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly 70% of the population still lives on less $2 a day"
Only to the fools.
A space program creates jobs, develops technology and gives people somethig to be proud of and aspire towards. It will always be easy to count the money that goes into any space program but the benefits and money coming out will outweigh the cost. It's harder to count that though so the fools will always be around holding manking back.
I don't care what you are working towards, wherever you set your goals you will almost always fall a little short. If their goal is just to provide everyone the minimal basics, food, clean water and shelter then they will fail to do even that. If their goal is to make continual progress and achieve great things the outcome will still be less than the goal but the basics will be more than covered.
We don't need to convert populations living off of $2 into populations living off of $3. We need to convert them to healthy, prosperous and advancing communities everywhere and in every way.
I think it has been a while since I have seen any new software that actually performed a task on new hardware that 10 year old hardware couldn't do just as well. It seems that only bloat and eye-candy take advantage of the latest hardware capabilities. (IMHO)
What I look forward to is being able to buy one set of good high-quality (as in built to last) computing devices and have them last me a decade or more without becoming terribly obsolete. I'm tired of buying new crap every couple of years. I'm also tired of getting cheap stuff that breaks just because I know that I won't want to use it long enough to get the value out of something better built anyway.
"*sigh* There is nothing particularly secret, questionable, harsh or abusive about Guantanamo"
So... you don't believe they are holding people prisoner indefinitely without trial and torturing them for confessions and/or names of more people to add to the collection? That's just lies told by our liberal teachers?
Or is it that you think they are catching would-be terrorists so the end justifies the means?
If it's the latter then I suppose you are quite thankful that all those witches were burned early in US history. You wouldn't want their descendants running around today would you? Afterall, I'm sure that testimony given under duress is totally trustworthy. No doubt all of those prisoners are gulty as are anyone whose name they give out.
And how many firstborn children would your company charge to print custom cable trays for an entire large office? Would all the babies of Rhode Island suffice?
Same question regarding printing and then using a casting to make the trays.
I find paper books to be easier to read. I use either an iPad and an Android phone (with lapdock). Unfortunately I don't have any eInk displays yet, that might make a difference. I also am concerned about paying for eBooks with DRM. Will I have access to them forever?
But....
Space is valuable. I have too much junk, and too many books. I almost always choose the eBook now because they take no space!
Also, I like having my books on my phone. When I find myself away from home and bored (for example: shopping trip with the wife) I can use that time to read. My paper books are all stuck at home, useless.
If I were job searching today I MIGHT consider putting that I am married and have a kid. Or.. at least try to mention it at some point.
At my first full-time programming the boss (and owner) was a real d1ck. He thought we were some sort of silicon valley startup and pretty much expected us all to have no lives outside of work and spend huge hours there making it pretty much impossible to have a life outside of the place. He gave us big talk about how we would all be rich one day but the only one that appeared to be doing that was himself.
One of my co-workers was married. The boss was always going on about what a dumb thing he thought marriange was. When the guys wife had their first kid the boss was all over what he thought about that.
It took a couple of years before we finally even got any vacation time. I immediately used that to find a better job. Here everyone is married and most have kids. They are extremely understanding if you need to take a day off for any sort of family issue.
With a family, stuff will come up. It's a matter of practicality, you need an employer who is understanding about this. Don't get me wrong, if you are desparate enough and can't put food on the table then take what you can get. Until that point though, if letting potential employers know you have a family weeds out a few sh1tty jobs then so much the better!
But really, 1.2% Come on! That's tiny! 1.2% tells me Google is doing a pretty good job!
Repackaged versions of real apps? Oooooh... scary! If you see a second copy of an app, especially one with worse ratings, or a free app with a different author than the same paid app.. DON'T INSTALL IT. Duh!!
No, I'm not really advocating an ant-like society for humans, just trying to make the point that using biology as an answer to this question is silly. Out common, basic needs as biological entities do not require our society to use money. Our species specific human natures... maybe.
MAYBE more advanced aliens do have something better than radio. But... we have no reason to believe that. Sci Fi commonly uses better than radio communication as a plot device because it enables better stories. It's not because we have much evidence that with more technological development such a thing is possible. I think a lot of people discount the possiblities of RF Seti because thay have watched too many Sci Fi shows.
Don't get me wrong. As far as I know it is possible that there is something beyond radio. Maybe virtually every society with the intelligence to invent technology either quickly advances beyond radio or maybe even skips it altogether. But then again.. maybe not. Ultimately it comes down to unknown physics.
Yes, we do see some potential in quantum entanglement but we don't KNOW at this time that it is possible to build a real communications system that fully replaces radio with that.
Slashdot Mirror
I would have guessed it was because he expected you to sell the guy a multi-hundred dollar real alarm system instead. But then.. why claim it was about cleanup time?
I miss resistive screens. Sure, multi-touch is nice but being able to draw or write with precision using a pointy stylus or even a finger nail was much more useful. Yeah, I know, there are so-called stylus for capacitive screens. They are so blunt though.. There just isn't any precision possible in a capacitive screen.
I thought it might be nice to combine capacitive and resistive sensors in the same screen. It could default to the resistive one for precision until it detects a second touch then the capacitive one would take over. It turns out there is a company out there with a patent on that. And yet... no products. Damn the patent trolls and the politicians that have supported them too!
Nothing special but if you spit them out after the candy shell has disolved you will discover they are really both brown and squishy underneath.
>>So, in your view, the best expectation to promote in Africa is for them to let other countries tell them how to run their countries? What is that really teaching Africans?
Isn't it mainly African leaders setting these goals?
>>Western societies are still more stable and wealthy than societies in any other region.
And declining. If the decline continues roles will reverse. Go ahead, argue all day as to what the future will bring.
>> The unemployment in the West is largely a result of economic surplus and generous welfare systems.
Well, that's your take. Prove it.
>> The manufacturing jobs lost by the US were lost because the business climate in the US has become hostile.
People fought hard to get a fair wage for a fair days work. Before that living conditions in the US really weren't much better than in the East. The fact is a few business leaders will always take everything they can get and give as little as they can get away with. You can argue that the US has swung too far against business if you want but the fact is that it was the opening up of markets to imports from where people do NOT get paid a fair wage, where worker safety and health is not a concern of management and most people are pretty miserable. We do not want to live that way. Just look at FoxConn, their employees don't even want to LIVE! Nobody should live that way.
>> >>Also the US continues to waste over $600 billion/year on pointless military expenditures
>> Opinions vary as to military uses and priorities
>> All countries must provide for their own security either by maintaining an appropriate military...
I don't know what the author of the parent comment believes but he did not state that military expenditures are pointless. His statement doesn't even say that ALL US military expenditures are pointless. He only states that the US spends money on military expenditures that ARE pointless. From the perspective that what a government obtains from it's people should be spent to the benefit of those people I agree. Unless... I can expect a check in the mail from whoever is getting all that Iraqi oil now....
First off, what's with this you stuff? If you aren't a geek yourself then what are you doing on Slashdot?
Second, I understand that there is a huge market out there with a different set of priorities than geeks. I have two questions about that though;
1. Why, can't software cater to us both? If the masses don't want a feature that the geeks want just hide it in an advanced menu somewhere but don't remove it!
2. If #1 is unworkable, if the geeks and masses can't coexist then why can't we have a company or two that caters to us? Sure there is a larger market for the masses but there is a lot of competition for it too! Also, somebody floated a decent sized PC market for nearly 20 years before the internet made them mainstream. Surely there is still money in the geek market to be had!
What about Sailfish makes it a 'proper Linux'? What even IS a 'proper' Linux?
I ask because since the Sharp Zaurus days I have wanted a phone which runs 'proper' Linux, a Linux kernel with glibc, X-windows, GTK, QT, etc... I wanted something that I could easily 'port' desktop apps over just by recompiling. Better yet, applications could be written with two different view modes in the same executable like many Android apps do now when switched between phone and tablet modes only this would be desktop vs mobile.
Admitedly I wish for this less and less each day since Android has been getting apps that do the things I want to do however there are still gaps.
My very limited understanding of Sailfish is that it is just a Linux kernel with webkit dropped on top of it to run HTML5 apps not unlike Google Chrome. Was I mistaken?
No! He was already traumatized when he realized his mom was IN his prized Playboy!
Sorry, couldn't resist!
That's not going to happen.. ever. Sorry, it's just human nature. Sometimes breakups are messy, people get emotional and emotion + human = stupid. Give those pic out and eventually one will get posted online somewhere. That's life.
Lucky for you I don't think angry ex's posting the pics is the underlying trend. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some girls used to give their guys polaroids but I doubt that was ever anywhere near as common as today's sexting. Technology has made it easier to share and it has made what is shared easier to re-share.
What might be more likely than this safe sexting utopia you dream of is similar yet opposite. Girls keep taking those pics (and yes, guys do it sometimes too). Occasionaly they keep get posted online. Eventually, maybe, just maybe, people wake up and realize that sex is a natural thing, that people do stuff, and sometimes people take pictures. Maybe then a pic posted online won't result in "slut-shaming". Maybe then people will stop harassing someone whose pics were posted. Maybe instead they will think, man, that girls ex is a d1ck for posting that! Maybe somebody posting stuff about you online won't endanger your job anymore.
That might take a couple more generations though... Meanwhile a lot of people get hurt.
Really, what I mean isn't that it's ok to post somebody's nude pics without their permission. Nor do i think people should all want their pictures posted for the world to see. It's that the greatest damage comes from how this current society reacts to those pictures. Since the pictures aren't going away, maybe someday society can grow up a bit and respond better. Maybe then the posting of pictures will be a minor annoyance that is part of life rather than a major crisis.
Of course, the majority now, or in this possible future aren't thinking about the girl or the guy who posted her as they view those pics. They are just enjoying the view. That part will never change.
" it may seem rather inappropriate to launch space programs in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly 70% of the population still lives on less $2 a day"
Only to the fools.
A space program creates jobs, develops technology and gives people somethig to be proud of and aspire towards. It will always be easy to count the money that goes into any space program but the benefits and money coming out will outweigh the cost. It's harder to count that though so the fools will always be around holding manking back.
I don't care what you are working towards, wherever you set your goals you will almost always fall a little short. If their goal is just to provide everyone the minimal basics, food, clean water and shelter then they will fail to do even that. If their goal is to make continual progress and achieve great things the outcome will still be less than the goal but the basics will be more than covered.
We don't need to convert populations living off of $2 into populations living off of $3. We need to convert them to healthy, prosperous and advancing communities everywhere and in every way.
I think it has been a while since I have seen any new software that actually performed a task on new hardware that 10 year old hardware couldn't do just as well. It seems that only bloat and eye-candy take advantage of the latest hardware capabilities. (IMHO)
What I look forward to is being able to buy one set of good high-quality (as in built to last) computing devices and have them last me a decade or more without becoming terribly obsolete. I'm tired of buying new crap every couple of years. I'm also tired of getting cheap stuff that breaks just because I know that I won't want to use it long enough to get the value out of something better built anyway.
Now.. if they were from some non-western culture and familiar with neither.. that might make sense.
What cultural heritage would explain being familiar with Robocop but not Frankenstien?
I think 'lack of' seems a lot more likely.
"*sigh* There is nothing particularly secret, questionable, harsh or abusive about Guantanamo"
So... you don't believe they are holding people prisoner indefinitely without trial and torturing them for confessions and/or names of more people to add to the collection? That's just lies told by our liberal teachers?
Or is it that you think they are catching would-be terrorists so the end justifies the means?
If it's the latter then I suppose you are quite thankful that all those witches were burned early in US history. You wouldn't want their descendants running around today would you? Afterall, I'm sure that testimony given under duress is totally trustworthy. No doubt all of those prisoners are gulty as are anyone whose name they give out.
Right.
And how many firstborn children would your company charge to print custom cable trays for an entire large office? Would all the babies of Rhode Island suffice?
Same question regarding printing and then using a casting to make the trays.
I find paper books to be easier to read. I use either an iPad and an Android phone (with lapdock). Unfortunately I don't have any eInk displays yet, that might make a difference. I also am concerned about paying for eBooks with DRM. Will I have access to them forever?
But....
Space is valuable. I have too much junk, and too many books. I almost always choose the eBook now because they take no space!
Also, I like having my books on my phone. When I find myself away from home and bored (for example: shopping trip with the wife) I can use that time to read. My paper books are all stuck at home, useless.
"Of course, there are also licensed users who have "community sense" who often will fix other people's problems for free"
Funny, I was thinking the opposite due to the opposite of your example:
Try getting a cable company with leaky coax to stop interfering with ham radio! Good luck!
Sure, it wouldn't ever leave the landfil, it wouldn't ever start eating our non-trash items... right?
If I were job searching today I MIGHT consider putting that I am married and have a kid. Or.. at least try to mention it at some point.
At my first full-time programming the boss (and owner) was a real d1ck. He thought we were some sort of silicon valley startup and pretty much expected us all to have no lives outside of work and spend huge hours there making it pretty much impossible to have a life outside of the place. He gave us big talk about how we would all be rich one day but the only one that appeared to be doing that was himself.
One of my co-workers was married. The boss was always going on about what a dumb thing he thought marriange was. When the guys wife had their first kid the boss was all over what he thought about that.
It took a couple of years before we finally even got any vacation time. I immediately used that to find a better job. Here everyone is married and most have kids. They are extremely understanding if you need to take a day off for any sort of family issue.
With a family, stuff will come up. It's a matter of practicality, you need an employer who is understanding about this. Don't get me wrong, if you are desparate enough and can't put food on the table then take what you can get. Until that point though, if letting potential employers know you have a family weeds out a few sh1tty jobs then so much the better!
OK, OK We will get off your lawn now!
Funny, people's cellphone use doesn't really seem that annoying on a train...
How about data allowed, voice not. That would probably make more sense as a rule of the airline, not something for the FCC to mandate.
Would that be the Ubuntu or Debian edition of Mint?
From the tone of the article this sounds scary!
But really, 1.2% Come on! That's tiny! 1.2% tells me Google is doing a pretty good job!
Repackaged versions of real apps? Oooooh... scary! If you see a second copy of an app, especially one with worse ratings, or a free app with a different author than the same paid app.. DON'T INSTALL IT. Duh!!
Ants are biological.
No, I'm not really advocating an ant-like society for humans, just trying to make the point that using biology as an answer to this question is silly. Out common, basic needs as biological entities do not require our society to use money. Our species specific human natures... maybe.
MAYBE more advanced aliens do have something better than radio. But... we have no reason to believe that. Sci Fi commonly uses better than radio communication as a plot device because it enables better stories. It's not because we have much evidence that with more technological development such a thing is possible. I think a lot of people discount the possiblities of RF Seti because thay have watched too many Sci Fi shows.
Don't get me wrong. As far as I know it is possible that there is something beyond radio. Maybe virtually every society with the intelligence to invent technology either quickly advances beyond radio or maybe even skips it altogether. But then again.. maybe not. Ultimately it comes down to unknown physics.
Yes, we do see some potential in quantum entanglement but we don't KNOW at this time that it is possible to build a real communications system that fully replaces radio with that.