The new GPL (beta)
Saturday, January 21, 2006, 06:07 PM - Copyfight
The Free Software Foundation has finally released the draft for the third version of the famous GPL license. As Neco points out there is:
1. This website lists a wdiff -the find-the-seven-differences tool- between the old and the prospective new version.
2. Uwe Hermann also linked a wiki and a comment site where users can give feedback.
3. There is also a rationale document which explains the changes and the contents.
And some more: Linux Pipeline, Proposed GPL Update Open For Business
9 comments the apple fairytale of the twice-as-fast Intel chip
Saturday, January 21, 2006, 03:30 PM - Media
DesScorp writes "In Tom Yager's Enterprise Mac column at InfoWorld, he says that "Apple has bought itself another controversy, and once again, needlessly". In a nutshell, he says Apple used multi-processor benchmarks to skew performance comparisons between the new Intel Macs and the PowerPC versions.
Apple uses SPEC*_rate2000 tests as a foundation for claims that Intel-based Macs outperform PowerPC G4 and G5 by a factor of 2 to 5. Well, yeah. A dual-core anything outperforms a single-core anything else by a factor of 2 to 5 in benchmark tests that make use of multiple threads or processes, tests crafted specifically for the purpose of stressing SMP-based systems.
Now please, all at once: dooooodgy...
Root Cause Analysis for Beginners
Saturday, January 21, 2006, 01:38 AM - Howto
A PDF. That is.
Thanks, once again, Adminfoo for making my life so much easier.
The Semantics Differentiation of Minds and Machines
Saturday, January 21, 2006, 12:52 AM - Theory
In Slashdot today:"In Dr David Ellerman's book Intellectual Trespassing as a Way of Life there are a number of interesting essays. But there is one particular essay, entitled "The Semantics Differentiation of Minds and Machines" that caught my attention and which should be of interest to Slashdot readers. In that essay Dr Ellerman claims that "after several decades of debate, a definitive differentiation between minds and machines seems to be emerging into view." In particular, Dr Ellerman argues that the distinction between minds and machines is that while machines (i.e., computers) make excellent symbol manipulation devices, only minds have the additional capacity to ascribe semantics to symbols." Read the rest of John's review.
Isn't that the difference between intelligence and memory? Read the rest of the review by John David Funge
The Nature of Code
Saturday, January 21, 2006, 12:27 AM - Beautiful Code
Can we capture the unpredictable evolutionary and emergent properties of nature in software? Can understanding the mathematical principles behind our physical world world help us to create digital worlds? This class will focus on the programming strategies and techniques behind computer simulations of natural systems. We’ll explore topics ranging from basic mathematics and physics concepts to more advanced simulations of complex systems. Subjects covered will include forces, trigonometry, fractals, cellular automata, self-organization, and genetic algorithms. Examples will be demonstrated using Processing with a focus on object oriented programming.
Learn the way of the code with Daniel Shiffman. First week already online!
Blink!
Pornographic Coding
Friday, January 20, 2006, 11:09 PM - Theory
Program code is like pornography. It has linear logic, but no meaning. There is an accumulation of things already known. The focus is always on the same explicit facts. Repetition and boredom rule.
(Adapted from a Neoist slogan)
Art is sanctioned pornography.
(Neoist slogan)we demand a shamanic pornography. Capitalist ``progress'' destroys the imagination through a frenzy of the visible. What we see we no longer need to imagine. A a famous zero from the popsicle academy was once moved to write that every time a man had an erection it was a triumph of the imagination. Power to the imagination, and to sex - for they are one and the same thing. Pornographers of the world close your eyes. You have nothing to lose but your bodily fluids! It is time to decondition ourselves by going beyond the known world.
The shamans of old ingested psychedelic mushrooms, and today we are further armed with a battery of chemically synthesised drugs including ecstasy and LSD. These psychedelics are psychic elevators that can power us through the seven levels of human consciousness. The first four levels of consciousness can be reached in ordinary everyday life. Level Five requires either chemical assistance or long hours of arduous interaction with your computer, and when you hit this level sexual activity is vastly enhanced. Once you go above Level Five consciousness you don't necessarily need coitus. Indeed, at Level Six you are telepathic and sexually combined with your fellow hackers, and this integration is even greater at Level Seven (aka total fucking zero and one pornography).
Drugs and code are the ancient and modern tools with which we can investigate our own minds while turning our bodies into one vast erogenous zone. Our message to purveyours of representational porn is HANDS OFF (OUR) EJACULATIONS (both male and female). WE WANT TO CUM IN ALL THE COLOURS OF ALL THE FLAGS OF ALL THE CONSULATES. As an initiated shaman Jean Cocteau was able to come through the sheer power of his imagination, he could do this without using his hands to manipulate his genitals. Let's keep our hands free to imput date on our computer terminals and use the convulsive power of codes to bring us to orgasm.
Florian Cramer and Stewart Home, Crash conference paper, Feb. 11, 2005
Link
SPOTS media facade berlin
Friday, January 20, 2006, 09:28 PM - Beautiful Code
Well, this is one of those things that make this city so desperately awsome isn't it. The SPOTS media facade opened today at 17:00 on the frozen Park Kolonnaden building. As you can see in the pics, a few series of curated art projects will be delivered for free to a hopefully delighted walking audience for 18 months. You can also buy little postcards with changing images on them. The installation was designed by Realities:United, a Berlin-based architecture studio, also responsible for the amazing BIX facade at the Kunsthaus (Graz).
This selection was curated by Andreas Broeckmann, the big man at the Transmediale, but will include works by Jim Campbell, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Carsten Nicolai and Realities:United in collaboration with John Dekron. Visitors to Transmediale 06 will have a chance to see them all together, one per day, in a special show.
via generatorx
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