Last year I predicted that the End was Nigh for the naive Internet based on trust and hope. The weak spot is the Windows DNA, the monoculture that exposes the majority of Internet users to a seething mass of hostile parasitic software programs.
Around the age of five, I asked my mum: "Mummy, I'm bored, what can I do...?" She gave me a cardboard box, glue, pair of scissors, and I became a cardboard box nerd.
I think that was the last time I was bored, except for a brief 8-year spell at school that my brain has consigned to the "incompatible disk partition, any attempt to fseek may cause physical harm" section of life.
I have this sneaking suspicion that Slashdot is inhabited by a small army of zealots who, lurking for years and now armed with moderator points, proceed to diminish comments that they don't like.
It's easy to spot these guys, they are the ones moderating down my insightful posts and calling me a zealot. The insult!
As I work through my CDs, I'm finding one or two that aren't registered in FreeDB. They're all pretty good, but I suspect you won't find them on Kazaa. Here is the list:
I went and did it. Joined the only club that would have me, despite Groucho's warnings. To be honest, sitting in that dim room, surrounded by malformed faces, unkempt and badly dressed, I felt truly at home. Yes, despite many attempts to be on the side of testosterone and rubgy, I came out of the closet and joined my local Mensa group. The psychologists doing the tests said I was smarter than 99.7% of my fellow humans. I apologised and told him I'd had a bad day, which was true. Little
I've decided to rescan my entire CD collection. This is a monstrous task: I spent much of 1996-9 ruthlessly spending the excessive amounts I earnt as an IT consultant on quality CDs, using the simple approach of reading the wonderfully sharp reviews of Q magazine and buying every CD that got 4 or 5 stars. There were a few duds - even Q magazine has its parochial tastes - but an incredible number of bullseye hits as well. Each month I listed about 15-20 CDs that I wanted to buy. It was har
We used to burn people at the stake for saying this kind of thing:
I have an idea for a secure email system. It is this. Every email sent to me will come on a new, unique, one-time email address. My email server will recognize the address, and the sender, and on that basis accept the email or reject it. The meta-negotiation process allows people to get an email address on which to contact me. In the simplest fashion, they simply copy the address from my website, where a form asks them to first enter their email address, then provides them with an email
Today's Jargon Entry (actually this is This Year's Jargon Entry unless sweet inspiration strikes me again soon)...
To Flush (v): to raze a system (spec. MS Windows) and reinstall a Joe Random Linux. Professional flushers can turn the virus-ridden carcinogenic carcass of a consumer Windows PC into a new, lean and mean Linux workstation in under 180 seconds.
I tried to set up RedHat 9.0 from the single CD that Mato gave me and have decided that these guys are so destined for the big time. No kidding, RedHat are going to be the Mainframe Boys of Linux. Their installation routine was designed by the same guy who wrote IBM's OS/400 operating system, paid according to how many commands he could invent. RedHot 9.0 boots into a menu that gives you a choice of intallation roadmaps. Choose one and you dive into solid retro installation chrome, hef
Microsoft Windows: "The Closest Thing To Real Software Money Can Buy!!"
-- Heironymouscoward, 11 December 2003
So we went and built a prototype. Beautifully simple: a Technics turntable, two optical mice, a Linux notebook and Sweep, an OSS package that lets you mix and scratch digital audio in realtime.
The two mice track the rotation speed/direction of the turntable, and the angle of the arm. With this one can calculate exactly where the music should be playing.
10 Things I'd Like To See In Slashdot. Perhaps some of these exist in the paid version. I'm too lazy to check:
1. Tradeable Karma: I give you karma, you sell me mod points.
2. Anonymous Slashdot credit cards: hey, my Karma is worth something, no?
3. Supercomment ratings - stopping at 5 gives excessive power to mod-down trolls. Allow comment ratings to go as high as they like.
4. Rolling karma: average of last twenty postings.
Work without a vision is slavery, Vision without work is a pipe dream, But vision with work is the hope of the world.
