All companies from the dawn of time until right about now, have used the protected-property model to try their shot at making a living.
In the world of physical products, examine a calculator. Perfect commodity, now. Suppose someone adds a particular variety of limited-email so you can email calculation results.
For some quantity of limited time, they have a Feature. (Regardless of how sloppy it might be.)
Then when it comes time to make the building lease payment, they have to sell their calculator as "the only one with the Feature." To be the sole owner of the Feature long enough to make a month's lease payment, Company keeps it closed source.
The following month, someone has had time to replicate the Feature, then it becomes a race to see whether the sweatshop is cheaper in China or Argentina.
Though flawed, the RIAA is the poster citizen of this problem. "If the content is digital, and everyone has it, how do *I* make my rent *now*?
No one has thundered through with the Perfect Answer. The first companies to do so within each category will make a killing. Until then, we are debating "which flaw is the lesser of 4 evils".
I really can't say I trust the trend towards "online only" and that other trend, "document vaults". Borrowing functionality at the price of depending on a certain type of access disturbs me. I thought we learned about stuff vaporizing from 1999, as mentioned elsewhere.
Not counting special exports into MS office products, I don't do anything fancy with word processing. So I really have my eyes on Open Office Calc (and perhaps Thunderbird). Calc is in "Beta 2" as I recall. Let's say they're a year out from signing off on Version 2, and a year after that, doing Beta 3.
If these guys have downloadable real apps that *happen to connect online* then I'll give them a hard look. If nothing else, the privacy issues bother me with "work on my server!".
9 Open Source (cutting edge) companies... buried in a 1997 web model where the ads take 75% of the space. I can live with a few smoothly placed ads, but that was ridiculous.
I have this list stored, and I will research it later.
I'll add: When last I uninstalled AOL, it took core windows components with it that destroyed my Satellite ISP for 6 months until I could figure out what was missing.
The Slashdot preview word for this is Knotted. This is what AOL does. Knotware.
I think this could be the crux of the problem. Open source developers are at leisure to develop what they like, without the relentless drive for profits. However, the flow of benefit to them is much slower, and harder to pay rent/mortgage with.
Let's presume an OS, an Office suite, FireFox, and your choice of some drivers to make peripheral devices work take a certain quantity of time. Without the business driven financing to focus full time hours, these will be more unfocused, and the time required could swing all over the map depending upon the development power behind it.
I fall right in the midline class of users just barely at the edge, pondering a decision. After a little research and an extra case of soda, I dived into Firefox. Something is a little sour with flash,... but I'm still here - it's the Big Red Fox, and I support the theme behind it.
I support OpenOffice, and use it when I work on our remote accounting server... except Timberline doesn't export to OpenOffice. I support the theme behind it, so I try to use it.
I'll try out an experimental Linux box in the medium future, and see what happens. But I want the experience to be at least halfway to pleasant. I've seen just enough horrifying things here that I'm nervous. I'll take a "hybrid" Free core with Closed addons if that's what it takes to get me started when the pure alternative balks too badly. Then one by one, *starting with a usable system*, I can begin swapping towards purity, just as I begin swapping browsers and calc apps. I'm for the philosophy, but I have to achieve full functions first.
So far what I have seen is "people will be angry" arguments. However, modern business absolutely depends on the Net as it currently exists.
Not all, but many, posts liken the effects to websites being "slower". I think it could get even worse. Try "Page Not Found". Say for 3 second intervals a page gets "modded down", then TimesOut. Ivan Pavlov wrote a postcard from the grave. It says that we're now SO fast at recognizing page load errors that most people never try a second time "just to see if it's a glitch". Poof. Then people begin to think "oh, pity. That site doesn't exist anymore". Watch Site's traffic go through the floor in a month flat.
Now take businesses. Remember all the hype about thin clients, remote sites, "who needs an app on their PC?" I log into my Accounting server all day. My office is on one ISP. Accounting is on another. I don't want to BEGIN to think what would happen if bickering ISP's began playing hell with business data!! "We keep a temporary cache of data to allow you the best service possible. We monitor our cache to streamline our exciting enhanced content opportunities..... Due to an unfortunate error, our protocols were insufficiently secured. Data has become available to unknown parties."
Think I'm joking? Front page of Today's Boston Globe: "Glitch reveals too much on Education Dept. website... Nancy Newark, a Boston Lawyer, just wanted to change the phone number listed on the federal government website where she manages her student loans. But when she clicked 'update' on Monday Night, she saw someone else's SS#, D.O.Birth, and other personal info. She clicked three more times, each time getting a new person's information - and enough of it, she said, to commit identity theft."
Or then there's the recent AOL event. In short: Data anywhere is at risk.
The Purpose of Anti-Trust laws was to prevent large companies from Doing Mean Things. So just because a company is small enough not to trigger an Anti-Trust case, doesn't mean they aren't interested in Mean Things as they start approaching monolith sizes.
MS was the first, and poster case, and at least they have been slightly chastened, if not firmly disciplined. We just saw AOL perform an odd move with customer's search data which should have scared anyone cold. I had missed the official page for the Infinite Data at Google, but I'll take your word for it.
I distrust browser toolbars in general, and once when I tried to remove the PreInstall of Google Desktop from my colleague's work machine, it nuked Windows Explorer. (!!)
I *definitely* distrust the whole "let's operate remotely!" crusade this and other apps push. The flaw is of course that if you are incapable of doing any work unless someone else's server happens to be up, therefore you sign all control of your work away. And this is before the privacy issue arises. If someone is so interested in remote access of their work, then set up a remote to your PC. If you have to give someone else a copy, either load the copy to an encrypted server or email it to them.
Open Office is making thunderous improvements. Within 3 years I expect a solid update, and then everyone can be self sufficient for free.
"Upon being tipped off by a citizen, Authorities are investigating the potentials of Rocks to aid terrorism. As a consultant reported, 'Rocks can be dangerous. When applied with force to any person, that person sustains serious injuries.'.
Gravel contractors, who professionally sell Rocks by the ton, are being issued orders to suspend business for the duration of the investigation.
Once a declining subject in Universities, Geology has heated up, because its practitioners can distinguish real Rocks from compacted mud.
Update: Alehandro Balthasarriej has been arrested for the creation of a weapon suspected to be used for terrorism. From the initial hearing: 'Inspired by the recent news about the newfound powers of Rocks to be used to forment dissent, suspect has created a weapon that fires Rock Music CD's at seventy four feet per second.
The RIAA is assisting, because all the stock located consisted of copies of Rock Around the Clock, said to be a seminal influence on Rock in this country. Therefore, the suspect was violating copyrights while producing his Terrorist ammunition.'
--- Goodson Prowley, Washington MonkeyOrgan Tribune
I'll chime in with this thread, though it was tough... (why are there over one THOUSAND (obligatory caps usage) posts on this?
Let's rephrase the original parent topic into something more meaningful. Problem: User hates "aLL" the times Caps Lock gets in the way. Fine. Gather data about all keyboard annoyances. See above 1000/. posts.
All manner of utilities exist to either disable or remap keyboard keys. I disable both caps lock, and the non-control command keys under shift. I can't stand when trying to type Cap-F or Cap-E lands me in the file and edit menus, because further keystrokes do hysterical things.
Just disable, rekey, or even use those widgets that turn those keys into entire macros. Begone, CapsLock! Hello Print Automator!
Now I just need to find the utility that "locks"... *NumberLock* ( !! )... so everytime I reach for a 7 I don't get arrow keys dropping me into something from Dante's Inferno.
At least in the old non-medical literature there was a somewhat tolerant attitude towards "bright, eccentrics". Now modern medicine has seized upon some remarks by Dr. Asperger in the 1940's to medically penalize a class of attributes.
I have been tagged with Aspergers. It's relevant in a discussion about expertise, because expertise is about the top X percent in a field, and all the *non-social* hard work to do that. I breezed through B-plusses in all courses with a modest amount of work except Art and Calculus, (which I have "no talent for"),... and I dislike social situations.
There's a logic flaw in both admiring the expert from afar, while chiding him for the (lack of talent?) (lack of experience?) socializing because he was too busy... working on his (narrow) expertise.
--TaoPhoenix
Re: Penalizing a part of the spectrum
on
The Expert Mind
·
· Score: 1
I feel there's the makings of a major logic clash in here somewhere.
Andy Soltis of Chess Life remarked on something like the 8-year limit whereupon nearly infinite amounts of continued work produce *no* further gains. This presumably relates to where natural talent leaves off.
I have also done "offhand" experiments by giving five people $20 to learn something, and clearly one of the 5 proved "more talented" than the rest.
I feel the researchers are missing the correct item to correlate. For chess, it would be not memory, but perhaps "capacity for structure" or something. It's not enough to know that "Black plays Queen to c7 here somewhere", but that it's only good on moves 7, 9, and 12 and it drops a piece on move 11.
When you are calculating a position, you are building a logic exclusion tree. "Well, that Bishop is needed to block a check on b5 and guard a piece on c6, and those are both on the same diagonal, so that's okay, but I can't trust a Rook on c8 because d7-c8 is a different direction from d7-c6-b5". That's beyond memory. 50% of the mistakes I see myself and others making in chess are related to failure to follow a conclusion to all of the results.
They should test for a correlate a Murder Crime Logic puzzle from a pulp fun-digest with chess. "Oh yea, Mrs. J. had to be at the billiards hall, and the guy with the sweater was not married to anyone who played billiards.."
My career path has been fairly simple. I put more weight to "pick slowly and wisely" than "it's never too late to change".
Some high schools have a Mood. Ours was Pro Science, and somewhat disparaging to business. I did passably well in Freshman year in college, took one glance at the upcoming "only sophomore" Organic Chemistry book, and wilted. I learned I'd rather *read* Scientific American articles in a day than take a year to write one.
I set about good sharp DeepRead of the future, and picked Accounting as a base. Right out of school in 1999 the quick way to some basic experience was in temporary positions. I started well, got a couple basic years down, and ran afoul of the slow economy of 2002-2004. After a bumpy couple of years, my current position is half Accounting blended with half Entry-IT unsquirreling the silly glitches in the accounting software.Sure, I COULD have whipped through some masters classes straight out, but I now feel there are several problems with that approach.
First, Dilbert made famous the Manager Without a Clue. I think that's an easy trap for newly minted MBA's to fall into, because it's easy for that course material to drift into generalities, and wither away at the center. "Look, he thinks he's a hotshot, but he doesn't even know...." All the best Senior Team crews I ever worked for were the *best* in the office at the line position, and then grafted the managerial stuff on top of it.
Second, it will probably take some time just to grind your way to a solid position in a company somewhere. "6 months to pay off some bills, 6 months to try some stuff, 1 year of bad luck, 2 years getting the foot in the door, 2 years to start to rise."
I graduated with my B.S. in Accounting. My bad luck was a little extended; it's now 2006 and I'm nearing my 2 years of Foot-In-Door. Say a year to plan... Wouldn't a Masters Started in 2008 be worth so much more than one finished in 1999? Accounting is pretty stable, but CS... oh, the horrors of knowing More Than the Universe about Windows 98...
I picked well; I can and do read ravenously for recreation. But my Degree has to pay the rent. My B.S. in Accounting is plenty. I do not wish to be a CPA, or the CFO. Since my interest is slowly veering towards the Comp side of my duties, the ten years quiet delay means that when I finally pin down the perfect course set for a Masters of something, it will be FRESH.
I have several third party player devices, upon which I wish to play unlocked mp3s. Tracks purchased from iTunes do not permit this. When playing music on my computer, I use DeliPlayer, or WinMediaPlayer as a backup. I have no need to use an Apple player in a playing capacity without intent to buy from the iTunes Store.
As a matter of opinion to report in, I *don't* like ITunes.
Didn't we go through the whole suffering pain of being locked into a monopoly? The only format I am fairly sure will be a contender for a long haul is plain Mp3.
MS Dropping their PlaysForSure is typical of the kind of slap when companies act like little children, get bored with their new toy, and walk away. "Let's do Zune now!" No.
I bought my MustHaves from Tower Records, and that's that. At this time I am exploring free and independent music. There's plenty out there.
I am rather sad to see all the jokes-for-mods on this topic. This is such a fundamental project, with a critical head start (1985ish beginning). What Doug Lenat is trying to do is build the "ridiculously easy" base behind life. "If I put my fan on top of the counter, (unless it's out of balance and wiggles its way off) the fan will continue to stay there."
I understand the "6000 concepts" to be these "easy" ideas that we take for granted. Then anyone in the world can make "modules" for specific branches of knowledge. If there's an intelligent integration system, This could really grow within 10 more years.
"I want to read a fun Science Fiction story". ---> Do you like series? (Y)es / (N)o "No, I hate Star Wars and Star Trek" (Processing: User Emotional Matrix Mod Star Wars -3, Mod Star Trek -3) ---> Name an example of a Science Fiction story you found 'fun'. "I liked Cordwainer Smith 'Game of Rat and Dragon' " (Processing: Offer counterpoint potential example from same author) ---> Did you like 'Scanners Live in Vain' by the same author? "No. Too confined, too creepy." ---> Recommendation from Same Author? "Yes" (Processing: Characterization +2, Location-Scope +4, Language.Grandeur +1) ---> Try 'The Burning of the Brain'
Except attempts to "stump the bot", linked modular expert systems will eventually prove extremely competent, and force us to decide what abilities lie outside the range of expert systems.
That sounds like a comment aimed at end users, because by definition server admins have the training to make their own choice.
To a point, for desktop End-Users, let's presume a simplified version of the Windows world where the company gave all the Win98 boxes to charity and all that's left is Win2000 and Win XP2.
With a very few exceptions, these two OS's are close cousins. "No, the media keyboard doesn't work as well with Win2000." But to a degree, once all the silliness goes away, there are relatively few OS level problems, and more user "I lost my file" problems.
From this viewpoint, having someone take away your Sloppy-But-Useable XP2 box and replace it with some brand of an OpenSource OS *WILL* cause pain. The terrified enduser will flee far, away, back to that comfy monopoly.
However, I am disturbed by the general reports of Vista. I think it will require significant work and adjustment for endusers. Suddenly, if the enduser *has* to struggle with something anyway, the choice changes.
"I'm going to be in for a storm anyway. Would I rather struggle with Vista, or take my best shot at a friendly development OS?" I'll freely admit I'll have a parallel XP box running as long as I can hold it together, while I slowly watch the market and see who solidifies as the Must-Have distro.
At first glance it seems to me that Open Source is indeed more difficult, because it is guided by different principles than Microsoft. Also, with less centralized money, individual variants have their own quirks.
"Jeff Reifman writes -- ' Last week, Windows columnist Paul Thurrott ripped into Microsoft for ignoring CSS standards with its upcoming Internet Explorer 7.0.... Many of these bugs aren't fixed in the currently available IE 7.0 Beta 1 release, Wilson noted. ' "
Why isn't anyone else complaining that all the dates are from 2005, and that IE7 is up to Beta 3 which Paul said had tons of improvements?
Quite clearly not a lie if you allow for the passage of considerable time. The original Apples appeared/became sufficiently available about 1985. Our first one was a Mac 512K from about 1986. Opposite to compare with was DOS, and Apple won hands down.
Thus began my Apple Fanboy period. It lasted all the way to 1998, though the last few years were spent stretching every last month out of a Classic II. That ended when the monitor caught fire. For the "official dates" of 1986-1994, Mac OS 5 through 8 had a clear progression, and I wasn't yet a power user.
I received a Free(Beer) Win98 machine in 1998, so down the road I went. Win98, Win2k twice, and I waited until the completion of Sp2 to get into XP. Last Christmas, I looked at Father's 10.x Laptop, and definitely did not care for the standard OS10 look.
Not a liar. Which is why you didn't append a name.
The Preview Word is "remorse", which I do not feel.
Combining a couple of threads, the problems that Microsoft risks with delays, is that they have to have something really ready to offer customers ready to upgrade.
XP is an aging workhorse. I peeked at my family's Apple laptops, and *definitely* disliked the entire feel. For better or worse, I developed my computer knowledge on the dominant platform of the day. "Yes, I know it's flawed, but it's time for mercenary business choices."
Now, All through the 95-98-2000-XP (after sufficiently repaired by SP's and driver updates) I was at least confident that each step improved on the last. Now I'm seeing many signals that Vista stands a real risk of failing mightily.
I know full well Paul has mixed objectives, but I don't think he's setting up for a thunderous "Go Microsoft" campaign. I think it's the "Little Heat" approach of explaining delays that internal experts at Microsoft already know.
A new OS shouldn't break everything alive. Paul's hinted three times that it very well might. This bad news is what directly leads to my decision to begin learning Linux in parallel to a Twilight Last-Of-Its-Breed XP machine as long as I can patch it together.
As an Ex-AppleFanboy, and a grudging MS user, they should be SERIOUSLY concerned if users like me have made the decision *NOW* to skip Vista. I'm not gifted in hardline IT, so Linux has given me pause. But both with this Vista news and the passage of time for improvements, it's looking like my next venture.
However light or fierce, or non-existent distribution protections are, I for one count upon being able to listen heavily to "workhorse" tunes, to make up for not being able to dabble like the Wild Days of '99.
I often have a single song playing for five hours solid, as a background to work or projects. I can't imagine what THAT would cost. : (
As for the post 1 level up, I tried to parody the "bad old" distribtution model. That other options NOW exist in the digital age was precisely what I hope to explore.
Slashdot Mirror
All companies from the dawn of time until right about now, have used the protected-property model to try their shot at making a living.
In the world of physical products, examine a calculator. Perfect commodity, now.
Suppose someone adds a particular variety of limited-email so you can email calculation results.
For some quantity of limited time, they have a Feature. (Regardless of how sloppy it might be.)
Then when it comes time to make the building lease payment, they have to sell their calculator as "the only one with the Feature." To be the sole owner of the Feature long enough to make a month's lease payment, Company keeps it closed source.
The following month, someone has had time to replicate the Feature, then it becomes a race to see whether the sweatshop is cheaper in China or Argentina.
Though flawed, the RIAA is the poster citizen of this problem. "If the content is digital, and everyone has it, how do *I* make my rent *now*?
No one has thundered through with the Perfect Answer. The first companies to do so within each category will make a killing. Until then, we are debating "which flaw is the lesser of 4 evils".
--TaoPhoenix
If this thing is 264K, and it (mostly) works, where are the other X megs of other browsers?
Someone chime in with a Acid report.
I was in plenty of time to get a F. P. ... if I could get there.
When I went to "read more" I got a "not found".
Meanwhile, I like the fact that this little app can cruise all by itself. I am a fan of De-Bloated Apps.
The Preview word is "Memory", which this Browzar apparently doesn't have.
I really can't say I trust the trend towards "online only" and that other trend, "document vaults". Borrowing functionality at the price of depending on a certain type of access disturbs me. I thought we learned about stuff vaporizing from 1999, as mentioned elsewhere.
Not counting special exports into MS office products, I don't do anything fancy with word processing. So I really have my eyes on Open Office Calc (and perhaps Thunderbird). Calc is in "Beta 2" as I recall. Let's say they're a year out from signing off on Version 2, and a year after that, doing Beta 3.
If these guys have downloadable real apps that *happen to connect online* then I'll give them a hard look. If nothing else, the privacy issues bother me with "work on my server!".
--TaoPhoenix
THANK YOU!
9 Open Source (cutting edge) companies... buried in a 1997 web model where the ads take 75% of the space. I can live with a few smoothly placed ads, but that was ridiculous.
I have this list stored, and I will research it later.
"Fails to uninstall correctly"
I'll add: When last I uninstalled AOL, it took core windows components with it that destroyed my Satellite ISP for 6 months until I could figure out what was missing.
The Slashdot preview word for this is Knotted. This is what AOL does. Knotware.
I think this could be the crux of the problem. Open source developers are at leisure to develop what they like, without the relentless drive for profits. However, the flow of benefit to them is much slower, and harder to pay rent/mortgage with.
... but I'm still here - it's the Big Red Fox, and I support the theme behind it.
Let's presume an OS, an Office suite, FireFox, and your choice of some drivers to make peripheral devices work take a certain quantity of time. Without the business driven financing to focus full time hours, these will be more unfocused, and the time required could swing all over the map depending upon the development power behind it.
I fall right in the midline class of users just barely at the edge, pondering a decision. After a little research and an extra case of soda, I dived into Firefox. Something is a little sour with flash,
I support OpenOffice, and use it when I work on our remote accounting server... except Timberline doesn't export to OpenOffice. I support the theme behind it, so I try to use it.
I'll try out an experimental Linux box in the medium future, and see what happens. But I want the experience to be at least halfway to pleasant. I've seen just enough horrifying things here that I'm nervous. I'll take a "hybrid" Free core with Closed addons if that's what it takes to get me started when the pure alternative balks too badly. Then one by one, *starting with a usable system*, I can begin swapping towards purity, just as I begin swapping browsers and calc apps. I'm for the philosophy, but I have to achieve full functions first.
--TaoPhoenix
Not enough, folks. The threat is far worse.
.... Due to an unfortunate error, our protocols were insufficiently secured. Data has become available to unknown parties."
So far what I have seen is "people will be angry" arguments. However, modern business absolutely depends on the Net as it currently exists.
Not all, but many, posts liken the effects to websites being "slower". I think it could get even worse. Try "Page Not Found". Say for 3 second intervals a page gets "modded down", then TimesOut. Ivan Pavlov wrote a postcard from the grave. It says that we're now SO fast at recognizing page load errors that most people never try a second time "just to see if it's a glitch". Poof. Then people begin to think "oh, pity. That site doesn't exist anymore". Watch Site's traffic go through the floor in a month flat.
Now take businesses. Remember all the hype about thin clients, remote sites, "who needs an app on their PC?" I log into my Accounting server all day. My office is on one ISP. Accounting is on another. I don't want to BEGIN to think what would happen if bickering ISP's began playing hell with business data!! "We keep a temporary cache of data to allow you the best service possible. We monitor our cache to streamline our exciting enhanced content opportunities.
Think I'm joking? Front page of Today's Boston Globe:
"Glitch reveals too much on Education Dept. website...
Nancy Newark, a Boston Lawyer, just wanted to change the phone number listed on the federal government website where she manages her student loans. But when she clicked 'update' on Monday Night, she saw someone else's SS#, D.O.Birth, and other personal info. She clicked three more times, each time getting a new person's information - and enough of it, she said, to commit identity theft."
Or then there's the recent AOL event. In short: Data anywhere is at risk.
--TaoPhoenix
The Purpose of Anti-Trust laws was to prevent large companies from Doing Mean Things. So just because a company is small enough not to trigger an Anti-Trust case, doesn't mean they aren't interested in Mean Things as they start approaching monolith sizes.
MS was the first, and poster case, and at least they have been slightly chastened, if not firmly disciplined. We just saw AOL perform an odd move with customer's search data which should have scared anyone cold. I had missed the official page for the Infinite Data at Google, but I'll take your word for it.
I distrust browser toolbars in general, and once when I tried to remove the PreInstall of Google Desktop from my colleague's work machine, it nuked Windows Explorer. (!!)
I *definitely* distrust the whole "let's operate remotely!" crusade this and other apps push. The flaw is of course that if you are incapable of doing any work unless someone else's server happens to be up, therefore you sign all control of your work away. And this is before the privacy issue arises. If someone is so interested in remote access of their work, then set up a remote to your PC. If you have to give someone else a copy, either load the copy to an encrypted server or email it to them.
Open Office is making thunderous improvements. Within 3 years I expect a solid update, and then everyone can be self sufficient for free.
Early Edition, Washington:
"Upon being tipped off by a citizen, Authorities are investigating the potentials of Rocks to aid terrorism. As a consultant reported, 'Rocks can be dangerous. When applied with force to any person, that person sustains serious injuries.'.
Gravel contractors, who professionally sell Rocks by the ton, are being issued orders to suspend business for the duration of the investigation.
Once a declining subject in Universities, Geology has heated up, because its practitioners can distinguish real Rocks from compacted mud.
Update: Alehandro Balthasarriej has been arrested for the creation of a weapon suspected to be used for terrorism. From the initial hearing: 'Inspired by the recent news about the newfound powers of Rocks to be used to forment dissent, suspect has created a weapon that fires Rock Music CD's at seventy four feet per second.
The RIAA is assisting, because all the stock located consisted of copies of Rock Around the Clock, said to be a seminal influence on Rock in this country. Therefore, the suspect was violating copyrights while producing his Terrorist ammunition.'
--- Goodson Prowley, Washington MonkeyOrgan Tribune
I'll chime in with this thread, though it was tough ... (why are there over one THOUSAND (obligatory caps usage) posts on this?
/. posts.
... *NumberLock* ( !! ) ... so everytime I reach for a 7 I don't get arrow keys dropping me into something from Dante's Inferno.
Let's rephrase the original parent topic into something more meaningful.
Problem: User hates "aLL" the times Caps Lock gets in the way. Fine. Gather data about all keyboard annoyances. See above 1000
All manner of utilities exist to either disable or remap keyboard keys. I disable both caps lock, and the non-control command keys under shift. I can't stand when trying to type Cap-F or Cap-E lands me in the file and edit menus, because further keystrokes do hysterical things.
Just disable, rekey, or even use those widgets that turn those keys into entire macros. Begone, CapsLock! Hello Print Automator!
Now I just need to find the utility that "locks"
---TaoPhoenix
At least in the old non-medical literature there was a somewhat tolerant attitude towards "bright, eccentrics". Now modern medicine has seized upon some remarks by Dr. Asperger in the 1940's to medically penalize a class of attributes.
... and I dislike social situations.
... working on his (narrow) expertise.
I have been tagged with Aspergers. It's relevant in a discussion about expertise, because expertise is about the top X percent in a field, and all the *non-social* hard work to do that. I breezed through B-plusses in all courses with a modest amount of work except Art and Calculus, (which I have "no talent for"),
There's a logic flaw in both admiring the expert from afar, while chiding him for the (lack of talent?) (lack of experience?) socializing because he was too busy
--TaoPhoenix
I feel there's the makings of a major logic clash in here somewhere.
Andy Soltis of Chess Life remarked on something like the 8-year limit whereupon nearly infinite amounts of continued work produce *no* further gains. This presumably relates to where natural talent leaves off.
I have also done "offhand" experiments by giving five people $20 to learn something, and clearly one of the 5 proved "more talented" than the rest.
I feel the researchers are missing the correct item to correlate. For chess, it would be not memory, but perhaps "capacity for structure" or something. It's not enough to know that "Black plays Queen to c7 here somewhere", but that it's only good on moves 7, 9, and 12 and it drops a piece on move 11.
When you are calculating a position, you are building a logic exclusion tree. "Well, that Bishop is needed to block a check on b5 and guard a piece on c6, and those are both on the same diagonal, so that's okay, but I can't trust a Rook on c8 because d7-c8 is a different direction from d7-c6-b5". That's beyond memory. 50% of the mistakes I see myself and others making in chess are related to failure to follow a conclusion to all of the results.
They should test for a correlate a Murder Crime Logic puzzle from a pulp fun-digest with chess. "Oh yea, Mrs. J. had to be at the billiards hall, and the guy with the sweater was not married to anyone who played billiards.."
--TaoPhoenix
My career path has been fairly simple. I put more weight to "pick slowly and wisely" than "it's never too late to change".
...." All the best Senior Team crews I ever worked for were the *best* in the office at the line position, and then grafted the managerial stuff on top of it.
Some high schools have a Mood. Ours was Pro Science, and somewhat disparaging to business. I did passably well in Freshman year in college, took one glance at the upcoming "only sophomore" Organic Chemistry book, and wilted. I learned I'd rather *read* Scientific American articles in a day than take a year to write one.
I set about good sharp DeepRead of the future, and picked Accounting as a base. Right out of school in 1999 the quick way to some basic experience was in temporary positions. I started well, got a couple basic years down, and ran afoul of the slow economy of 2002-2004. After a bumpy couple of years, my current position is half Accounting blended with half Entry-IT unsquirreling the silly glitches in the accounting software.Sure, I COULD have whipped through some masters classes straight out, but I now feel there are several problems with that approach.
First, Dilbert made famous the Manager Without a Clue. I think that's an easy trap for newly minted MBA's to fall into, because it's easy for that course material to drift into generalities, and wither away at the center. "Look, he thinks he's a hotshot, but he doesn't even know
Second, it will probably take some time just to grind your way to a solid position in a company somewhere. "6 months to pay off some bills, 6 months to try some stuff, 1 year of bad luck, 2 years getting the foot in the door, 2 years to start to rise."
I graduated with my B.S. in Accounting. My bad luck was a little extended; it's now 2006 and I'm nearing my 2 years of Foot-In-Door. Say a year to plan... Wouldn't a Masters Started in 2008 be worth so much more than one finished in 1999? Accounting is pretty stable, but CS... oh, the horrors of knowing More Than the Universe about Windows 98...
I picked well; I can and do read ravenously for recreation. But my Degree has to pay the rent. My B.S. in Accounting is plenty. I do not wish to be a CPA, or the CFO. Since my interest is slowly veering towards the Comp side of my duties, the ten years quiet delay means that when I finally pin down the perfect course set for a Masters of something, it will be FRESH.
--TaoPhoenix
By iTunes I refer to the songs purchased there.
I have several third party player devices, upon which I wish to play unlocked mp3s. Tracks purchased from iTunes do not permit this. When playing music on my computer, I use DeliPlayer, or WinMediaPlayer as a backup. I have no need to use an Apple player in a playing capacity without intent to buy from the iTunes Store.
--TaoPhoenix
As a matter of opinion to report in, I *don't* like ITunes.
Didn't we go through the whole suffering pain of being locked into a monopoly? The only format I am fairly sure will be a contender for a long haul is plain Mp3.
MS Dropping their PlaysForSure is typical of the kind of slap when companies act like little children, get bored with their new toy, and walk away. "Let's do Zune now!" No.
I bought my MustHaves from Tower Records, and that's that. At this time I am exploring free and independent music. There's plenty out there.
--TaoPhoenix
I am rather sad to see all the jokes-for-mods on this topic. This is such a fundamental project, with a critical head start (1985ish beginning). What Doug Lenat is trying to do is build the "ridiculously easy" base behind life. "If I put my fan on top of the counter, (unless it's out of balance and wiggles its way off) the fan will continue to stay there."
I understand the "6000 concepts" to be these "easy" ideas that we take for granted. Then anyone in the world can make "modules" for specific branches of knowledge. If there's an intelligent integration system, This could really grow within 10 more years.
"I want to read a fun Science Fiction story".
---> Do you like series? (Y)es / (N)o
"No, I hate Star Wars and Star Trek"
(Processing: User Emotional Matrix Mod Star Wars -3, Mod Star Trek -3)
---> Name an example of a Science Fiction story you found 'fun'.
"I liked Cordwainer Smith 'Game of Rat and Dragon' "
(Processing: Offer counterpoint potential example from same author)
---> Did you like 'Scanners Live in Vain' by the same author?
"No. Too confined, too creepy."
---> Recommendation from Same Author?
"Yes"
(Processing: Characterization +2, Location-Scope +4, Language.Grandeur +1)
---> Try 'The Burning of the Brain'
Except attempts to "stump the bot", linked modular expert systems will eventually prove extremely competent, and force us to decide what abilities lie outside the range of expert systems.
--TaoPhoenix
That sounds like a comment aimed at end users, because by definition server admins have the training to make their own choice.
To a point, for desktop End-Users, let's presume a simplified version of the Windows world where the company gave all the Win98 boxes to charity and all that's left is Win2000 and Win XP2.
With a very few exceptions, these two OS's are close cousins. "No, the media keyboard doesn't work as well with Win2000." But to a degree, once all the silliness goes away, there are relatively few OS level problems, and more user "I lost my file" problems.
From this viewpoint, having someone take away your Sloppy-But-Useable XP2 box and replace it with some brand of an OpenSource OS *WILL* cause pain. The terrified enduser will flee far, away, back to that comfy monopoly.
However, I am disturbed by the general reports of Vista. I think it will require significant work and adjustment for endusers. Suddenly, if the enduser *has* to struggle with something anyway, the choice changes.
"I'm going to be in for a storm anyway. Would I rather struggle with Vista, or take my best shot at a friendly development OS?" I'll freely admit I'll have a parallel XP box running as long as I can hold it together, while I slowly watch the market and see who solidifies as the Must-Have distro.
At first glance it seems to me that Open Source is indeed more difficult, because it is guided by different principles than Microsoft. Also, with less centralized money, individual variants have their own quirks.
"Jeff Reifman writes -- ' Last week, Windows columnist Paul Thurrott ripped into Microsoft for ignoring CSS standards with its upcoming Internet Explorer 7.0. ... Many of these bugs aren't fixed in the currently available IE 7.0 Beta 1 release, Wilson noted. ' "
Why isn't anyone else complaining that all the dates are from 2005, and that IE7 is up to Beta 3 which Paul said had tons of improvements?
The news event behind this article does seem familiar, though. But I can't recall where else it appeared. Still, great stuff.
Quite clearly not a lie if you allow for the passage of considerable time.
The original Apples appeared/became sufficiently available about 1985. Our first one was a Mac 512K from about 1986. Opposite to compare with was DOS, and Apple won hands down.
Thus began my Apple Fanboy period. It lasted all the way to 1998, though the last few years were spent stretching every last month out of a Classic II. That ended when the monitor caught fire. For the "official dates" of 1986-1994, Mac OS 5 through 8 had a clear progression, and I wasn't yet a power user.
I received a Free(Beer) Win98 machine in 1998, so down the road I went. Win98, Win2k twice, and I waited until the completion of Sp2 to get into XP. Last Christmas, I looked at Father's 10.x Laptop, and definitely did not care for the standard OS10 look.
Not a liar. Which is why you didn't append a name.
The Preview Word is "remorse", which I do not feel.
Combining a couple of threads, the problems that Microsoft risks with delays, is that they have to have something really ready to offer customers ready to upgrade.
XP is an aging workhorse. I peeked at my family's Apple laptops, and *definitely* disliked the entire feel. For better or worse, I developed my computer knowledge on the dominant platform of the day. "Yes, I know it's flawed, but it's time for mercenary business choices."
Now, All through the 95-98-2000-XP (after sufficiently repaired by SP's and driver updates) I was at least confident that each step improved on the last. Now I'm seeing many signals that Vista stands a real risk of failing mightily.
I know full well Paul has mixed objectives, but I don't think he's setting up for a thunderous "Go Microsoft" campaign. I think it's the "Little Heat" approach of explaining delays that internal experts at Microsoft already know.
A new OS shouldn't break everything alive. Paul's hinted three times that it very well might. This bad news is what directly leads to my decision to begin learning Linux in parallel to a Twilight Last-Of-Its-Breed XP machine as long as I can patch it together.
As an Ex-AppleFanboy, and a grudging MS user, they should be SERIOUSLY concerned if users like me have made the decision *NOW* to skip Vista. I'm not gifted in hardline IT, so Linux has given me pause. But both with this Vista news and the passage of time for improvements, it's looking like my next venture.
--TaoPhoenix
Blue Skies, no.
However light or fierce, or non-existent distribution protections are, I for one count upon being able to listen heavily to "workhorse" tunes, to make up for not being able to dabble like the Wild Days of '99.
I often have a single song playing for five hours solid, as a background to work or projects. I can't imagine what THAT would cost. : (
As for the post 1 level up, I tried to parody the "bad old" distribtution model. That other options NOW exist in the digital age was precisely what I hope to explore.
--TaoPhoenix
Maybe he's Fair and Balanced. After all, we had all kinds of opinions about his WGA reporting.