Group items tagged

"There is and always shall be order in the universe. All things have order of some form."

"The impact of technological change on culture, learning, and morality has long been the subject of intense debate, and every technological revolution brings out a fresh crop of both pessimists and pollyannas. Indeed, a familiar cycle has repeat itself throughout history whenever new modes of production (from mechanized agriculture to assembly-line production), means of transportation (water, rail, road, or air), energy production processes (steam, electric, nuclear), medical breakthroughs (vaccination, surgery, cloning), or communications techniques (telegraph, telephone, radio, television) have appeared on the scene. The cycle goes something like this. A new technology appears. Those who fear the sweeping changes brought about by this technology see a sky that is about to fall. These "techno-pessimists" predict the death of the old order (which, ironically, is often a previous generation's hotly-debated technology that others wanted slowed or stopped). Embracing this new technology, they fear, will result in the overthrow of traditions, beliefs, values, institutions, business models, and much else they hold sacred. The pollyannas, by contrast, look out at the unfolding landscape and see mostly rainbows in the air. Theirs is a rose-colored world in which the technological revolution du jour is seen as improving the general lot of mankind and bringing about a better order. If something has to give, then the old ways be damned! For such "techno-optimists," progress means some norms and institutions must adapt-perhaps even disappear-for society to continue its march forward. Our current Information Revolution is no different. It too has its share of techno-pessimists and techno-optimists. Indeed, before most of us had even heard of the Internet, people were already fighting about it-or at least debating what the rise of the Information Age meant for our culture, society, and economy."

does Kurtopia need someone to mow the lawn?

no, but we do need someone to take our throm-dib-u-lator apart though

"Building a social network isn't an easy task, let alone a successful one. As developers our job is to create, build, and bring to life the gears and functions of a social network. When it comes to marketing, well that's a different department in most cases. We build then later deploy, and in order to develop a highly efficient and functional social network we'll need to use a few tools."

"Building a social network isn't an easy task, let alone a successful one. As developers our job is to create, build, and bring to life the gears and functions of a social network. When it comes to marketing, well that's a different department in most cases. We build then later deploy, and in order to develop a highly efficient and functional social network we'll need to use a few tools."

"Summary: In an effort to trip each other up and in order to become the 'industry standard', Canonical and Red Hat hurt each other and alienate the media (what's left of it)"

"Summary: In an effort to trip each other up and in order to become the 'industry standard', Canonical and Red Hat hurt each other and alienate the media (what's left of it)"

"don | September 30, 2014 When asked by CRC Press to review a recently released book, Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Guide by Rafay Baloch, a closer look was in order before agreeing. The book description reads, "Requiring no prior hacking experience, Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Guide supplies a complete introduction to the steps required to complete a penetration test, or ethical hack, from beginning to end."

"don | September 30, 2014 When asked by CRC Press to review a recently released book, Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Guide by Rafay Baloch, a closer look was in order before agreeing. The book description reads, "Requiring no prior hacking experience, Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Guide supplies a complete introduction to the steps required to complete a penetration test, or ethical hack, from beginning to end."

"Sam Arbesman's newest book, Overcomplicated, looks at how many technological systems have grown so complex that they defy easy understanding. In the following lightly edited excerpt, he argues that we need to learn to think more like biologists in order to work with the technology we've created."

"It was in Russia that the word "oligarchs" was first used to denote very rich businessmen. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has adopted the term to refer to billionaires who create or take over media empires to serve their business or political interests. There is a worldwide trend towards increasingly concentrated ownership of conglomerates that combine media outlets (TV channels, radio stations, newspapers and news websites) with banks, telecoms, property firms and construction companies. All this suits the rulers of countries such as China that espoused capitalism in order to better suppress democracy. "

" By Andy on June 29, 2016 C: 19 Breaking Popular code repository GitHub has just published its transparency report for 2015. While receiving a relatively modest 12 subpoenas for user data last year, the site also handed seven gag orders. It also received large numbers of DMCA notices which took down more than 8,200 projects."

"In this article, I review some of the top open source business intelligence (BI) and reporting tools. In economies where the role of big data and open data are ever-increasing, where do we turn in order to have our data analysed and presented in a precise and readable format?"

[Two Neanderthals need a bow and some arrows. Grrmt can build a bow in 5 hours and arrows in 4 hours. Aaaargl can build a bow in 2 hours and arrows in 3 hours. Thus, in order to build what they need, Grrmt will take 5+ 4 = 9 hours, and Aaaargl will take 2 + 3 = 5 hours. 14 hours total will be spent by the both of them. ...]

""This is a deeply thought-provoking book about the dramatic changes we must make to save the planet from financial madness" - Naomi Klein. Opening with Oscar Wilde's observation that "nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing," Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. He reveals the hidden ecological and social costs of a hamburger (as much as $200), and asks how we came to have markets in the first place. Both the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis, Patel argues, are a result of our democratically bankrupt political system. If part one asks how we can rebalance society and limit markets, part two answers by showing how social organizations, in America and around the globe, are finding new ways to describe the world's worth. If we don't want the market to price every aspect of our lives, we need to learn how such organizations have discovered democratic ways in which people, and not simply governments, can play a crucial role in deciding how we might share our world and its resources in common. This short, timely and inspiring book reveals that our current crisis is not simply the result of too much of the wrong kind of economics. While we need to rethink our economic model, Patel argues that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them. The Value of Nothing offers a fresh and accessible way to think about economics and the choices we will all need to make in order to create a sustainable economy and society."

[ Book: Wolfgang Hoeschele. The Economics of Abundance: A Political Economy of Freedom, Equity, and Sustainability. Gower Publishing, 2010 Contents [hide] * 1 Description * 2 Contents * 3 Excerpts o 3.1 Introduction o 3.2 Oppressive Scarcities (pp. 19-20) o 3.3 Conclusions: Strategies for Change o 3.4 Table 9.1: Coalitions for change o 3.5 Resource Use and Property Rights to Minimize Scarcity + 3.5.1 Contributory resource uses + 3.5.2 Neutral resource uses + 3.5.3 Rivalrous resource uses + 3.5.4 Key References on resource use Description "The "economics of abundance" is based on a critique of our present economic system, which finds value only in scarce commodities - i.e., things which can be sold at a high price because demand exceeds supply. Because this economy depends on demand always outstripping supplies, it also depends on "scarcity-generating institutions" - institutions that either manipulate supply or demand in order to keep us in a constant state of need. An economy of abundance seeks to dismantle or reform these scarcity-generating institutions in such a way as to affirm our freedom to live life as art (self-expression to others), social equity (so that everyone can live life as art), and sustainability (so that all life can thrive into the future). Among other things, this implies a much greater role for various forms of shared property, individual and community-level self-reliance, and participatory decision-making." (http://shareable.net/blog/event-the-economics-of-abundance) ]

"by Cathleen O'Grady Nov 24 2014, 4:00am CET If you know how to do something and people around you start doing it differently, you have two options: stick to what you know, or change to use their strategy. If the new strategy is more efficient than yours, or gets better results, it's a no-brainer, so you switch. But if it's exactly as efficient and produces the same results, the decision to switch is based on another factor-conformity."

"by Cathleen O'Grady Nov 24 2014, 4:00am CET Share Tweet 24 If you know how to do something and people around you start doing it differently, you have two options: stick to what you know, or change to use their strategy. If the new strategy is more efficient than yours, or gets better results, it's a no-brainer, so you switch. But if it's exactly as efficient and produces the same results, the decision to switch is based on another factor-conformity."

[After years of delay, reformers say the time to act is now. ...]

[After years of delay, reformers say the time to act is now. ...]

"Summary: Microsoft continues its vicious patent war on anything resembling competition (however small), even the competition against which Microsoft previously committed competition abuses/crimes (subject of court cases) in order to attain total monopoly"

"Posted by Gary Newell | at 20:51 3 comments Introduction For the past couple of years I have been producing analysis guides for the top 10 Linux distributions as listed on Distrowatch. Click here for the guide for 2013 Click here for the guide for 2014 The point of this article is to look at the top 10 Linux distributions as listed on Distrowatch for the year 2015 and analyse their suitability for the average Joe. The criteria for an Everyday Linux distribution is as follows: Must be relatively easy to install Must have an intuitive desktop environment Must be easy to use Must have a standard set of applications pre-installed (i.e. web browser, audio player, media player) Must have a decent package manager in order to install further software Must be ready to use from the get go"

"This article is a part of our Linux Tricks and Tips series, in this article we will cover some basic usage of cat command (most frequently used command in Linux) and tac (reverse of cat command - print files in reverse order) with some practical examples"