$100 is the right price point for an adequate tablet with Wifi or 3g. At $700, any pad is a bad joke, especially when a netbook is $300 and $150 readers can be rooted and made to function as tablets. $100 seems too low? Remember what laptops used to cost? Manufacturers will just have to get over it. The high margin time window just gets shorter and shorter.
...that cannot think beyond the next quarter's profits. And hasn't that worked out well for the economy? We used to be a country of inventors and innovators. Now we're a country of servants and finance dickheads who neither invent or implement new technology. We went from a country of Hewletts and Packards to a country run by the likes of Carly Fiona.
She works for the government. She should neither disparage nor encourage religious viewpoints. Preferably, she should not discuss the matter of religion at all. As for creationism, it's not science (i.e. not a falsifiable theory backed by evidence) and has no place in a public classroom. The right answer is, "don't discuss it there."
Mythic explanations for creation are a dime a dozen and popular ones can be heard every Sunday in the USA. Virtually all children are exposed to them. Some will recover. Others not.
Seriously. Most people are motivated by money. If corporate ownership of patents were outlawed tomorrow, and only individual flesh-and-blood humans could hold patents, you'd see a creativity explosion of "big" AND small ideas.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, but if, in order to work, my company forces me to sign a contract whereby it owns anything I think up, why bother? I'd go to another company, but they all do the same thing. I'd start my own company if I had the capital, but I don't. If I get the capital from someone else, I'm right back where I started from, signing away my patent rights.
And no offense, but I don't want to publish a $500 million idea and get a $5K bonus and a pat on the head for it. Fuck 'em.
I started on.net languages when I was 44. Now they are what I do all day long (Admittedly,.net makes things significantly easier than they used to.) I just bought an android with the specific intention of writing some real-estate apps.
Non-programming skill sets enhance your employability as well. These days, in addition to programming in.net, I design automated testing system frameworks and the VMWare virtual machine environments in which the system runs. One day, I'm coding. The next, I'm tearing down and rebuilding a server. After that, I'm developing and testing a virtual machine configuration for cloning and making sure the Oracle database is configured correctly. The day after that, I'm documenting some portion of the system and preparing a powerpoint presentation explaining the changes after doing the diagrams in Visio.
One of these days, I'll take a programming course. I promise.
So yes, you can learn, if you have the skill of self-teaching.
The only thing that might cause you a problem is physical. If you're older AND obese, have frequent insomnia, or chronically use medications with a cognitive hit (prescribed or not), you might as well find something else to do.
Legislation, even in a more dictatorial environment like China's is invariably slow and misinformed regarding technology. The delusion of those who think themselves in power can be stated in one sentence, "We think the internet is controllable."
And it is, sometimes, for a while.
More so in China where fewer wish to rock the boat (for the moment), but censorship is a complete fail in countries like the USA and Russia or the former Eastern Bloc countries. Too many unhappy, unemployed, poor engineers. Articles like this one point out just how futile and absurd such efforts are.
Information may not want to be free, but *people* sure are nosy bastards. You can bet they'll work around anything throw in their path, even if means going back to exchanging CDs, tapes or paper.
should rule them all. I get the distinct feeling from a lot of guys who cut their teeth on C++ that any other language is a cheat, vaguely sinful and one should wash one's hands after handling. I happily use my own.net applications to manage an automated testing system. It's quick, easy and the price is right (i.e. free). The advantages are much like those of (Horrors) VB6.
Look guys, the guy building a house doesn't have to know about optimal melting temperatures and cooling rates for the metal in the nails he pounds, or optimal pitch rates in the the screws he uses. Any box of nails screws has already had these details worked out by specialized engineers. That box represents a series of solved, and not very interesting problems.
The guy building a monitoring application doesn't need to know if the variables are passed by reference, whether a numeric type takes 16 bytes or 32, or what a pointer is or what happens to the memory when the application closes. Any decent modern language had these details worked out by specialized developers. That language, full of pre-made components, represents a series of solved, and not very interesting problems.
Many of us have to write some software. NOT everyone aspires to be a C++ alpha-geek, the best programmer in the shop, or anything else. Most of us are trying to make a living. Software is a means to an end, NOT an end in itself.
Thinking ahead that is. Something capitalist enterprises have shown themselves ill-equipped to accomplish. Everything in life is not about what's going on at this moment in time. That's the thinking of a cat, or bacteria, or an executive or CEO thinking about their bonus. Thinking ahead is what's needed here.
You think you have problems. I miss Carter, an engineer who may have been the last actual truthful president we ever had. Truth, however, doesn't win elections. We preferred the happytalk mythology of a has-been B-Actor in the beginning stages of Alzheimers who was little more than a shill for the financial industry in the person of Don Regan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Regan.
by various governments. Many of them will fail due to excessive lameness and other obvious tell-tale signs. A few will succeed. Some will be double-agents and information will flow both ways. Some will be discovered by hacks. All of this this is pretty darned obvious.
I don't doubt for a second that ethical behaviors result directly from the evolutionary advantages they convey. Ethical behaviors, however, are not the same thing as "ethics." My objection is treating ethics as if it were some sort of thing external to the human nervous system as it was constructed via self-replicators (i.e. DNA). My objection is putting humans at the center of the universe. We aren't. Ask your local dolphin.
Ethics as often discussed, is both anthrocentric and subjective. I can no longer make myself believe in the importance of the former, or the validity of the latter.
Slashdot Mirror
If they can make it faster, I'd be pretty impressed. That dang light speed limit really bugs me.
$100 is the right price point for an adequate tablet with Wifi or 3g. At $700, any pad is a bad joke, especially when a netbook is $300 and $150 readers can be rooted and made to function as tablets. $100 seems too low? Remember what laptops used to cost? Manufacturers will just have to get over it. The high margin time window just gets shorter and shorter.
Just move to another, or go to sourceforge. Who needs this crap?
...that cannot think beyond the next quarter's profits. And hasn't that worked out well for the economy? We used to be a country of inventors and innovators. Now we're a country of servants and finance dickheads who neither invent or implement new technology. We went from a country of Hewletts and Packards to a country run by the likes of Carly Fiona.
She works for the government. She should neither disparage nor encourage religious viewpoints. Preferably, she should not discuss the matter of religion at all. As for creationism, it's not science (i.e. not a falsifiable theory backed by evidence) and has no place in a public classroom. The right answer is, "don't discuss it there."
Mythic explanations for creation are a dime a dozen and popular ones can be heard every Sunday in the USA. Virtually all children are exposed to them. Some will recover. Others not.
That's an insult to honest, hard working, LSD users everywhere, you insensitive clod!
Seriously. Most people are motivated by money. If corporate ownership of patents were outlawed tomorrow, and only individual flesh-and-blood humans could hold patents, you'd see a creativity explosion of "big" AND small ideas.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, but if, in order to work, my company forces me to sign a contract whereby it owns anything I think up, why bother? I'd go to another company, but they all do the same thing. I'd start my own company if I had the capital, but I don't. If I get the capital from someone else, I'm right back where I started from, signing away my patent rights.
And no offense, but I don't want to publish a $500 million idea and get a $5K bonus and a pat on the head for it. Fuck 'em.
Will NASA *ever* put at least one sound sensor on probes they send into atmospheric environments? If they have done it, why is it never published?
I started on .net languages when I was 44. Now they are what I do all day long (Admittedly, .net makes things significantly easier than they used to.) I just bought an android with the specific intention of writing some real-estate apps.
Non-programming skill sets enhance your employability as well. These days, in addition to programming in .net, I design automated testing system frameworks and the VMWare virtual machine environments in which the system runs. One day, I'm coding. The next, I'm tearing down and rebuilding a server. After that, I'm developing and testing a virtual machine configuration for cloning and making sure the Oracle database is configured correctly. The day after that, I'm documenting some portion of the system and preparing a powerpoint presentation explaining the changes after doing the diagrams in Visio.
One of these days, I'll take a programming course. I promise.
So yes, you can learn, if you have the skill of self-teaching.
The only thing that might cause you a problem is physical. If you're older AND obese, have frequent insomnia, or chronically use medications with a cognitive hit (prescribed or not), you might as well find something else to do.
Just sayin.
Legislation, even in a more dictatorial environment like China's is invariably slow and misinformed regarding technology. The delusion of those who think themselves in power can be stated in one sentence, "We think the internet is controllable."
And it is, sometimes, for a while.
More so in China where fewer wish to rock the boat (for the moment), but censorship is a complete fail in countries like the USA and Russia or the former Eastern Bloc countries. Too many unhappy, unemployed, poor engineers. Articles like this one point out just how futile and absurd such efforts are.
Information may not want to be free, but *people* sure are nosy bastards. You can bet they'll work around anything throw in their path, even if means going back to exchanging CDs, tapes or paper.
Something previously thought impossible, since nothing like it exists on Earth.
should rule them all. I get the distinct feeling from a lot of guys who cut their teeth on C++ that any other language is a cheat, vaguely sinful and one should wash one's hands after handling. I happily use my own .net applications to manage an automated testing system. It's quick, easy and the price is right (i.e. free). The advantages are much like those of (Horrors) VB6.
Look guys, the guy building a house doesn't have to know about optimal melting temperatures and cooling rates for the metal in the nails he pounds, or optimal pitch rates in the the screws he uses. Any box of nails screws has already had these details worked out by specialized engineers. That box represents a series of solved, and not very interesting problems.
The guy building a monitoring application doesn't need to know if the variables are passed by reference, whether a numeric type takes 16 bytes or 32, or what a pointer is or what happens to the memory when the application closes. Any decent modern language had these details worked out by specialized developers. That language, full of pre-made components, represents a series of solved, and not very interesting problems.
Many of us have to write some software. NOT everyone aspires to be a C++ alpha-geek, the best programmer in the shop, or anything else. Most of us are trying to make a living. Software is a means to an end, NOT an end in itself.
I build mine in a rented garage, like all right-thinking people. It's right by the death ray and the free energy machines.
Where can I get software to defeat it? Or a clear enough description that would allow me to write that software?
Thinking ahead that is. Something capitalist enterprises have shown themselves ill-equipped to accomplish. Everything in life is not about what's going on at this moment in time. That's the thinking of a cat, or bacteria, or an executive or CEO thinking about their bonus. Thinking ahead is what's needed here.
You mean, would they pay the price of a Prius? They're on back order.
You think you have problems. I miss Carter, an engineer who may have been the last actual truthful president we ever had. Truth, however, doesn't win elections. We preferred the happytalk mythology of a has-been B-Actor in the beginning stages of Alzheimers who was little more than a shill for the financial industry in the person of Don Regan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Regan.
Me? Bitter?
by various governments. Many of them will fail due to excessive lameness and other obvious tell-tale signs. A few will succeed. Some will be double-agents and information will flow both ways. Some will be discovered by hacks. All of this this is pretty darned obvious.
on both money AND technology, and as a culture we get a little closer to growing up.
Don't worry. It'll pass.
May the Good Lord bless all eight and may God protect us from the willfully ignorant, the spiritually smug, and the theologically arrogant.
Oh, and from Justin Beiber too.
Amen.
I want to make informed choices about preventive treatments and eventually self-termination. For that, I need to know.
I don't doubt for a second that ethical behaviors result directly from the evolutionary advantages they convey. Ethical behaviors, however, are not the same thing as "ethics." My objection is treating ethics as if it were some sort of thing external to the human nervous system as it was constructed via self-replicators (i.e. DNA). My objection is putting humans at the center of the universe. We aren't. Ask your local dolphin.
Ethics as often discussed, is both anthrocentric and subjective. I can no longer make myself believe in the importance of the former, or the validity of the latter.
No doubt they're protesting their brutal living conditions and depressed economy.
No, wait....