Not to troll, but it's still almost impossible to question the "science" behind various studies posted here on slashdot and similar sites. It's sad how gladly we will accept anything that is published as a scientific study, without question. Us nerds need to remember that science is a methodology steeped in scepticism; it's not a certification.
One concept that I've always given Brad Wardell (CEO of Stardock) kudos for is realizing that pirates are not your customers. They aren't even potential customers. You then have to keep that idea in mind when you do your market research to see if the price your customers are willing to pay are enough to justify your production costs.
I suppose you can't charge $xxx/hr as a consultant or book author merely by telling the boss to set up something like a medieval blacksmithing guild, gotta come up with some new twist on the old story.
Actually, writing about such an approach would likely sell like hot-cakes. Repackaging an old idea in new marketing is an age-old formula that works surprisingly well. (See recent references to Caveman diet) Plus, the time is ripe for the next fad to replace pair-programming.
His writing sounds like it came straight out of a USA Today puff piece. I guess he hasn't yet learned to change the tone of his writing when posting informally online. (See http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)
Things would have been a lot less tense if he had clarified.
If you ask me, this is a perfectly rational response to the current state of scientific "research". Today's science is much too expensive to be self-funded, even by a university. So you have science that is funded by grants and sponsorships. A scientist has all the freedom in the world to publish results that contradict the expectations of the sponsors, but that scientist will likely have to apply elsewhere for a grant for the next project.
The end result isn't that a scientist will deliberately doctor the results, but you will have a preponderance of research that only reaffirms original expectations.
If YouTube has contract agreements that allow 3rd parties to actively monitor and approve posts, doesn't that invalidate its safe harbor status?
???
Hate: (verb) to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest
Critical: (adj) inclined to find fault or to judge with severity, often too readily
Seriously? Hate is the more appropriate word? Extreme hostility and passionate dislike?
Me thinks that people on the internet exaggerate too much...
It's been going on for several years now, but I wonder in which year did critique become "hate"? Seems to me that it happened sometime in the 90's.
Are we seeing the birth of a new business phrase? I can't believe that anyone would just happen throw around the phrase "eminently suitable" several times unless it's ingrained. That is, all the suits at the office and VC meetings are throwing around the term so often that he just repeats it without thinking about how awkward it is.
Speaking for myself as a geek, I don't consider myself anti-intellectual. It's just that over the years I've come to discover that a lot of conventional "wisdom" is BS. Pert of being a geek is doing things a different way, experimenting, and seeing what happens. Well guess what? Some of those experiments actually pay off and you discover how ass-backward the rest of the world is doing things. Over time, these life experiences accumulate to form a general skepticism of all authority in general.
Agreed. The one thing I haven't seen visual languages address well is what happens when you have a program with several kilo-blocks. How do you find the block that you want to link to? Do you scroll through them all? Pick from a hierarchical menu? Zoom through a 3D representation?
Inevitably, you're forced to name the blocks, which means that you type the name of the block that want to link to. Tell me then, how is all that clicking and typing any easier than simply typing "foo = bar * baz" in a text editor?
Now, if they can only devise a less intrusive way to do subvocal recognition, UI's will be able to practically read our minds.
Am I the only one who immediately thought of Grim Fandango and sproutella darts?
Best solution to keeping your boss out of your personal stuff? Don't do personal stuff on company time.
If only the reverse was true. That is, the company doesn't expect me to do company stuff on personal time. I can't count the number of pagers, cell phones, pda's, laptops, and smart phones that I've had to lug around with me over the years.
Nothing happens.
