Bill Gates Puts Classic Feynman Lectures Online 338
theodp writes "Okay Tux fans, let's see how badly you want to see Feynman's Messenger Lectures on Physics. Bill Gates has the goods over at Microsoft Research's Project Tuva site. Also, CNET's Ina Fried has an interesting interview with Gates. He goes into why he spent his own money to make a series of classic physics lectures available free on the Web, talks about the possibility of Project Natal bringing gesture recognition to Windows, gives his thoughts on Google's Chrome OS, and discusses plans to patent 'cows that don't fart.' The last is a joke. I think."
gesture recognition (Score:3, Funny)
Here's what I want
Re:gesture recognition (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe it could learn to recognize someone throwing up their hands in disgust and slamming their fists on the desk...
Clippy: You appear to be royally pissed off at your computer. Would you like me to search for some humorous kitten videos on Bing?
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Just put a brick through the monitor and kick the tower over. Much better stress reliever, plus it gives you an excuse to buy a Mac.
Re:gesture recognition (Score:5, Funny)
Yup. Crash Different.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTqmFNTNgsU [youtube.com]
Re:My fanboi response (Score:5, Interesting)
Things are only funny to me when they're true, and sadly that video props up way too many fallacies, leaving the savvy viewer merely feeling that the ignorance of the average user is being abused.
Meh. I disagree. I've experienced all of that crap first hand. OSX has gotten better since then (you'll notice that the video used a crt imac, and a plastic g4 (g5)? tower.
And yeah, I've experienced the whole app window just closes and is gone with no error message crash.
I've experienced the stupid finder locking up when you put in a CD on SEVERAL macs (including new ones). Windows does it too on bad disks sometimes, but OSX does it more, and worse -- because on a PC you can generally eject the bad disk and the OS comes right back to life... on a mac, you pretty much need to mount the CD to be able to eject it... so if its locked up mounting the thing, you can't easily eject it, short of grabbing a paperclip...or rebooting with the space bar, neither of which is convenient.
And the undeleting thing? Yep, I've been there too, as have a lot of savvy 'switchers' (remember this was made during the switcher campaign), and it underscores the issue that a lot of windows users who switched face ... they found that they had to pay for a lot of utility type apps that they were used to getting for free on Windows.
The crack about the apple menu actually is in my opinion one of the biggest flaws in the OSX window manager. When you've got 2 24"+ screens, having to mouse over to the top of one screen to access a menu is demented.
The crack about Software Update hopping up and down like a terrier hits the mark too in my opinion. You can't just ignore it they way you can ignore "windows updates are ready" or the way the various linux distros notify you.
And my father's mac laptop wouldn't empty the trash recently for no apparent reason... everytime you tried finder restarted. I went through the forums, I went through Apple support, I'm a cross platform admin - comfortable with Windows, Linux, and OSX. I tried all the simple stuff, then the simple command line stuff, then the arcane command line stuff, then reinstalling OSX over top of the existing install, and finally I just threw in the towel and reinstalled OSX from scratch -- I've had lots of mac frustrations.
Oddly, he never touched on the rainbow pinwheel of death, which I've seen FAR TOO MUCH of, accessing network shares, external media and peripherals.
So, while I actually use and like OSX, and agree with your post. Macs have got plenty of its own little quirks that can drive you mad, and I really don't think much of that video was 'fallacious myths'. I have personally seen it all, and more.
Re:My fanboi response (Score:4, Informative)
Let me fix this for you.
Fact is, unless you've got bad RAM or other hardware issues, Windows "never" crashes.
Fact is, unless you've got bad RAM or other hardware issues, Linux "never" crashes.
Fact is, unless you've got bad RAM or other hardware issues, Unix "never" crashes.
Fact is, unless you've got bad RAM or other hardware issues, Solaris "never" crashes.
There...much better.
Re:My fanboi response (Score:4, Funny)
Any web developer worth his salt ought to have strong experience with the UNIX shell, shell scripting, and Apache configuration. Developers with broader interests should have Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash at their disposal. And every developer should have decent C/C++ skills.
And he should be able to dance, cook, be good in bed, know how to sail a boat, be good with kids and impress my parents.
WTF?? I could climb Mt. Everest but not your ego.
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The video was made in 2001 and referring to OS9.
It was referring to OSX, which was released in spring 2001.
He mentions the 'mighty blue apple' in the top menu (OS9 still had the 'rainbow apple').
He also specifically mentions the dock and bouncing icons, which was OSX as well.
Re:gesture recognition (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, that's right. It couldn't be that you're not funny - someone is being paid to not laugh at you.
Wow.
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Haha is that anti-astro-turfing ?? :D
Clearly you don't play online poker (Score:2)
There are many reasons I would (assuming "flip"?) flick off my Windows pc - and MANY reasons why I would flick off my linux PC - for reasons that have nothing to do with an O/S failure. That wouldn't be practical.
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Guess the most easily reached UI element of XP Mode under Windows 7 which is basically hand crafted Virtual PC?
a button saying "ctrl-alt-delete" is right at its toolbar. Believe or not.
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I'll believe it, cause its the same for a lot of VM's, because hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del in the VM, is often sent to the host PC instead. SO you can either change the keystroke to Shift+Alt+Del or something, or... use the button.
I know why. (Score:5, Insightful)
He goes into why he spent his own money to make a series of classic physics lectures available free on the Web
That's easy. It's a good way to lure technically minded people into installing Silverlight. No sale here Gates, I'll wait until it's available by torrent.
Then Use Moonlight Instead (Score:4, Informative)
He goes into why he spent his own money to make a series of classic physics lectures available free on the Web
That's easy. It's a good way to lure technically minded people into installing Silverlight. No sale here Gates, I'll wait until it's available by torrent.
For the technically literate, Moonlight is open source. You should try it out [go-mono.com] to view these. Word of warning, it uses some of the same protocols so if you're concerned about violating Microsoft's copyright, better to avoid it. They are listed under the community promise now but you never know. And if you're RMS, you're probably going to rip this post apart.
Re:Then Use Moonlight Instead (Score:5, Insightful)
You don`t have to be RMS to reject Microsoft`s "me too" technologies cloned by their clowns.
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I don`t care, I use UNIX 03 aka OS X. Only good thing coming from MS are fonts which they purchased exclusive rights and Apple licensed them for me so I paid for them. No shadowy agreements etc.
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Isn't all tech "me too" tech of previous tech?
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Linux reimplemented Unix, thus joining tyhe family of the best operating systems ever created.
Moonlight tries to reimplement Silverlight, some piece of crap from Microsoft with no technical merit whatsoever.
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"Perhaps not, but why reject them completely out of hand? "
because of their business practices?
Re:Then Use Moonlight Instead (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm going to rip it apart for different reasons than RMS would.. I installed moonlight, but every time I tried to access a silverlight page it refused to even try to load, said I needed silverlight instead.
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Are you running the current Moonlight Preview? That's required for managed code support, and hence Smooth Streaming.
This definitely works in Moonlight. If you can see it, you've got it installed correctly.
http://www.iis.net/media/experiencesmoothstreaming [iis.net]
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Come over to the dark side Luke...
Read thinking machines instead (Score:5, Insightful)
What about some great reading in HTML instead? It tells about where the real IT World was while MS was monkeying with some clone of CP/M
http://www.longnow.org/views/essays/articles/ArtFeynman.php [longnow.org]
BTW, dear BillG: There is something called archive.org if you want to donate something to technical community. They offer standard MPEG and OGG files and Flash, which is current de-facto standard can stream them embedded if one is in hurry. Your attempt to kill Flash has failed, fire that team and target something else.
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Ah well, you're missing out. I watched two lectures last night and was impressed (my first silverlight experience). I use my cell phone as a modem and thus don't get a create connection speed, and watching videos usually requires me to buffer for some time... the lectures played fine and in decent quality. What impressed me, though, were the closed captions that were displayed below the video window.
Why the knee-jerk reactions to Silverlight? Is it because it doesn't have full Linux support yet? By that reg
Re:I know why. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why the knee-jerk reactions to Silverlight?
It's yet another attack vector. I already have a video player on my system, and Silverlight offers me nothing that I can't do without it. It does however potentially contain vulnerabilities that could compromise my system.
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I already have a video player on my system, and Silverlight offers me nothing that I can't do without it.
Sure it can. Check out the player experience, and its navigation, commentary, captioning, etcetera. And it uses Smooth Streaming to provide proxy-cachable video at multiple bitrates.
http://alexzambelli.com/blog/2009/03/27/smooth-streaming-white-paper/ [alexzambelli.com]
It does however potentially contain vulnerabilities that could compromise my system
FWIW, Silverlight so far has had 0 exploits over three versions. It's done well compared to other media players in the same period. One advantage of a relatively recent technology is that it was designed for security from the get-go, after the web had shifted
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FWIW, Silverlight so far has had 0 exploits over three versions. It's done well compared to other media players in the same period. One advantage of a relatively recent technology is that it was designed for security from the get-go, after the web had shifted to its current "presumed hostile" state.
A reasonable track record so far. It makes a nice point. However, exactly when did the 'web shift to a "presumed hostile" state?
I ask because by my count, we've been in a hostile environment for years. And throughout those years, Microsoft has either introduced some very disturbing implementations or promised secure implementations that later fall short of these grand claims.
I don't want to completely discount Microsoft's improved attitude towards security. But there isn't an entirely solid track record
Re:I know why. (Score:4, Interesting)
However, exactly when did the 'web shift to a "presumed hostile" state?
2000 or so? Probably when always-on broadband become common.
I ask because by my count, we've been in a hostile environment for years. And throughout those years, Microsoft has either introduced some very disturbing implementations or promised secure implementations that later fall short of these grand claims
Certainly XP as released was way too trusting. But I think Microsoft's track record has been quite positive since XPSP2. I wasn't around for that period, but it definitely got people VERY focused on security as something that has to be baked into product design from the inception of the product. Vista, IE 7/8, Silverlight, Office 2003/2007 all have had much better security records than their predecessors.
Lots of complaints about Microsoft products, most notably Vista, are on areas where Microsoft prioritized security over simplicity or backwards compatibility. And that's a problem for everybody, including Mac and Linux, with years of regular security updates ahead of us.
It's been easier in Silverlight since there wasn't anything to be backwards comaptible to. But there are defintley features that have been cut, delayed, or reduced in scope due to the test cost of verifying security. Every feature gets a threat model and security test plan before it gets approved.
We're really serious about it. On the media side, for example, there's a lot of fuzz testing of malformed bitstreams to make sure there's no way to cause a crash that could then lead to an exploit.
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Yep, right there in my email address.
My blog: http://on10.net/blogs/benwagg [on10.net]
For about 3.5 years now, I'd hit the karma cap here will before then :).
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Very rarely. When I do, I use any one of a number of available tools that fetch the .flv and watch it with mplayer. A simple http:/// [http] link to a video file is superior in every imaginable way to this embedded garbage.
Re:I know why. (Score:5, Insightful)
Because requiring Silverlight (and therefore Windows) severely dilutes the notion that Gate's action is altruistic. The content is only kinda free.
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Look at it this way: assume for a moment that he wants to be altruistic. The technologies available to him to do this the way he wants are Silverlight and Flash. He's a Microsoft fan, he naturally chooses Silverlight - or more likely, the Microsoft lackey he gives the job to chooses it out of fear of being berated for choosing something "inferior".
So, looking from the outside, the altruistic explanation looks exactly the same as the conniving one.
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Um, wait. Mono is said to be a free as in speech implementation of C#, but aren't the codecs, which are what really matters for watching video, still proprietary? (Not a rhetorical question; I'd really like to know.)
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The problem with Microsoft is that they gave a 50% community promise, expect the next 50% to come soon. In three years Intellectual Ventures, their patent troll could sent you a letter...
Re:I know why. (Score:5, Insightful)
Because requiring Silverlight (and therefore Windows) severely dilutes the notion that Gate's action is altruistic. The content is only kinda free.
Wrong. Choose to use it or not as you wish but dont spread incorrect information.
Silverlight for Mac-> download [microsoft.com]
And of course you can choose the Mono implementation if you want FOSS versions instead Mono-> download [mono-project.com]
I'll give you 3 reasons to not use Silverlight, even the Mono implementation:
Re:I know why. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because requiring Silverlight (and therefore Windows) severely dilutes the notion that Gate's action is altruistic. The content is only kinda free
Silverlight does not require Windows. It is available for Mac, also, where it runs flawlessly. Windows + Mac covers around 99% of personal computers.
But here at Slashdot, Windows + Mac only only 50% of users.
--
Written from Lynx
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But here at Slashdot, Windows + Mac only only 50% of users.
Why is that modded insightful? It would be informative, but there is only a claim being presented with no supporting evidence.
Re:I know why. (Score:5, Informative)
I saw 4 feynman lectures put online here [vega.org.uk], he became my hero instantly. He was a great man.
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Why the knee-jerk reactions to Silverlight?
It might have something to do with the knee-jerk reactions to Linux from Microsoft's CEO. When one starts rattling sabers, it's not entirely unfair to think that there might be a willingness to follow through.
Re:I know why. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why the knee-jerk reactions to Silverlight?
What makes you think it's a knee-jerk reaction rather than a well reasoned reaction from years of experience dealing with Microsoft?
For most users, Silverlight doesn't provide any real benefits. The whole thing was invented, not to fill a need, but to push Microsoft's vendor lock-in.
Sure, they support OSX. For now. They also used to release IE for OSX, but they stopped updating it, letting it fall behind IE for Windows, and then killed it off. They also used to sell Outlook for OSX, before killing it and replacing it with a substandard version that didn't support Exchange servers. Their broadness of support only seems to last as long as it takes them to dominate that particular market, and then they drop support in order to drive everyone back to Windows.
So now, tell me, except for Microsoft putting up content like this on their own site and requiring Silverlight, what reason do I have to install the thing at all? What reason did Microsoft have for using Silverlight instead of just letting people play the video files?
Re:I know why. (Score:4, Informative)
It's the first video I've watched with silverlight, and I didn't mind it at all. The extras it offered allowed me to get a better grasp on certain topics he was covering.
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That's easy. It's a good way to lure technically minded people into installing Silverlight.
Yes -- it would save me the walk over to the bookshelf to get the dead-tree version.
Chrome OS is Linux with a New UI (Score:5, Interesting)
Ballmer and Gates also echoed the note Business Division President Stephen Elop sounded in an interview with CNET News last week--that Microsoft really doesn't know what Chrome OS will look like.
"Who knows what this thing is?" Ballmer said.
It's the Linux kernel with a new UI. Probably will have some other beefed up parts (security or graphics) along with better hardware support on select devices as they throw their weight around. Judging by the name, it will most likely have a windowing look a lot like the browser [pcworld.com]. Could be different but I'll bet they build it with real estate in mind like the Chrome browser for netbooks.
I'm also guessing that you know a hell of a lot more about Chrome OS than many of Google's own employees as you've never been entirely stupid when it comes to keeping tabs on your enemies. So either you're letting your own personal ego get in the way of your business sense while underestimating Google or you are asking a rhetorical question to spread uncertainty of what Chrome OS could be. Either way it's pretty childish. I may not know exactly what Chrome OS is but I definitely know what Windows Vista is and I do not want.
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>> Ballmer and Gates also echoed the note Business Division President Stephen Elop sounded in an interview with CNET News last week--that Microsoft really doesn't know what Chrome OS will look like. "Who knows what this thing is?" Ballmer said.
> It's the Linux kernel with a new UI. Probably will have some other beefed up parts (security or graphics) along with better hardware support on select devices as they throw their weight around.
Maybe Ballmer just sucks at explaining things? [xkcd.com]
:-)
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Either way it's pretty childish
No more childish than requiring Silverlight to read some lectures. No more childish than Windows. No more childish than Microsoft's advertising. No more childish than Ballmer's chair throwing and his "DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!"
"Childish" is par for the course with Microsoft.
What if it is really only new UI? (Score:2)
OS X is NeXT/BSD Lite/Carbon/FreeBSD with a new UI and collection of frameworks. That almost schizoid mix of things is being chosen instead of Windows by 70 year old ladies because it is easier to use!
One gotta be afraid of "new UI" things especially when they are released by some company almost same size as them. Funny thing is, Google can lose billions with no harm (just like MS silverlight) and say "oh well, it didn`t work" and continue their regular business. In fact they don`t even have to cancel it as
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//It's the Linux kernel with a new UI.//
You seem to be suggesting that a new interface for linux is passe- but look at what Apple did with BSD.
Beginning of gOS FUD (Score:2)
He's just laying the groundwork for their coming marketing campaign, centered around "trust" and "stability" messages to soothe the Windows 7 buying soul. It will probably work on the older baby boomers, but everyone else will yawn and go back to tooling around on Facebook and watching Hulu, on whatever operating system they like.
If Google creates a framework where you can locally host Google Apps that automatically sync with low horsepower terminals connected to the local network, Microsoft will be in a wo
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It wouldn`t take too much time if they relied on a 40 year old way of doing things instead of re-inventing wheel.
It is like attempting to re-invent door lock and failing over and over while people happily use their thousands years old "old technology" which was tested to the limit.
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Here's Your Answer (Score:4, Interesting)
...how did you come up with all this conclusions?
I was merely repeating the details from last week when this was announced [slashdot.org] on Google's blog [blogspot.com]. I've never known them to lie about what they discuss on that blog so I take it on good faith that they plan on releasing a new GUI ontop of Linux with all of it being open source. They also put up a FAQ [blogspot.com] about it. The fact that they are planning to release it for ARM also indicates it will be aimed at netbooks. They flat out say that Android was never supposed to be for netbooks.
Because from what I imagine to be most likely, you know close to nothing about Bill Gates's thoughts, Microsoft internals, Google internals, etc. So I can only guess you have no idea what you are talking about and in typical pundit fashion, pull things out of your ass, that support your p.o.v.
No one but Bill Gates knows what Bill Gates is thinking. No one but employees of Microsoft know their internals. No one but employees of Google know their internals. So judging by your assumptions, no one could possibly fill those conditions to make a statement about Chrome OS or say what a business man must be thinking. Thanks for calling me a "typical pundit." I thought my statements were well informed and informed readers. Nice to know that I "have no idea what I am talking about" and am "pulling things out of my ass." I note that you provided no specific details of anything nor do you provide anything worth reading about the discussion at hand. If these are guesses, prove me wrong with facts.
I really hope I am totally wrong with my guesses,
You also save yourself from being a complete troll by offering me this trivial gem of "hope." How this was moderated insightful is beyond me.
and that you have some special insight. But if, then why did you not base your arguments on it by stating it? So correct me if I'm wrong, and I will thank you for having learned something.
:)
But if I am right, please just shut up.
Please, Hurricane78, do me a favor--go here [slashdot.org] and mark me as a Foe. Then go here [slashdot.org] and find the section called "People Modifier" and set Foes to be -6 so you never have to read my uninformed guesses. Really, it would be a huge favor to me not to have to read your responses to my comments.
Well I can think of one reason why... (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, one reason I can say for sure is that he happens to have billions of dollars in his bank account. So the cost of doing this is amounts to a rounding error in his checking account. Let's not ascribe too much a sense of moral duty to him for doing this.
When people sing the praises of the ultra-wealthy who donate a bit of money to this or that, it makes me annoyed a little bit. On the one
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however much we dislike Gates and M$, we must recognize that he is a serious philantropist and has a record on donations to charity, particularly towards serious world problems like malaria, measles, etc. That is something good I can say about him. Silverlight, on the other hand, is not :(
Re:Well I can think of one reason why... (Score:5, Insightful)
But on the other hand, they usually do not donate anything close to being something that they would actually feel. Some do, but most don't.
Well I think Bill Gates, when you add up a lot of the things he's done, has donated more than what would be a rounding error. Still, you can look at all these things in the sense that it's no more generous for Gates to give away a few billion dollars than it is courageous for Superman to jump in front of a bullet. The hurt isn't large. It's not as though Gates is going to cease to live an extremely comfortable lifestyle. What's more, you could argue that something like this is just robbing Peter to pay Paul. Gates is screwing society out of billions of dollars through underhanded business tactics, only to give back a portion of the money through charitable donations.
You can argue those things, but on the other hand, it's not always worth looking a gift horse in the mouth. He's donating more than he's required to, and doing it of his own free will. May as well be pleased about that.
Mirror, please? (Score:3, Funny)
"Click here to download. Needs no restart".
The Goddamned site requires suilverlight. Now why would lectures need silverlight? Damn it, I just want to read the paper, not play some goofy game.
I see why Gates put these on the net, he wants more Silverlight penetration. Evil bastard will rot in hell when he dies.
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I wonder if I should grab the videos, repack it in a mp4 file and publish it to pirate bay as in torrent?
The only issue would be installing Silverlight and being another number in MS statistics. I don`t have tripwire on this partition too and I have no time to review .pkg.
I bet someone else who got experience in these things is already on it.
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That's because your UID is so high. Us oldsters can do that sort of thing in our sleep.
Sheesh. Kids these days.
The bigger problem... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't care that it's MS Research. The irritating part is that my "browser is not compatible" because I don't use silverlight.
Oh, and regarding Bill's comments on it being a bad idea for Google to have two OS's (Chrome and Android)... MS HAS MORE THAN ONE OS, DUMBSHIT! Is Gates so out of touch that he thinks that win mobiles run Vista?
but you gotta know what project tuva is (Score:4, Insightful)
Funny is Tuva is really close to word Truva in Turkish which is basically the city of Troy. Installing some silverlight clone to be able to watch them really reminds "trojan". :)
ALERT: Silverlight Trojan (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:ALERT: Silverlight Trojan (Score:4, Funny)
won't load in firefox on linux (Score:3, Informative)
Apparently my browser is incompatible with the "web app." One wonders what standards their web is based on.
Youtube links for non-sliverlighters (Score:5, Informative)
List all lectures [youtube.com]
Richard Feynman - The Relation of Mathematics & Physics [youtube.com]
Richard Feynman - The Law of Gravitation [youtube.com]
Feynman: Quantum Electrodynamics. [youtube.com]
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That post alone explains the reason of Silverlight and its trojan clone.
For example, not just Linux users, Symbian users can also view them as well as anything supporting Flash video. Or, they can easily change the container as it is completely documented and watch in their multimedia device.
Man Flash must be really bugging them.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#Commemorations [wikipedia.org]
The main building for the Computing Division at Fermilab, the FCC, is named in his honor: The "Feynman Computing Center".[42]
Thanks for the links!
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Looks like Bill couldn't give something to the world without including a self-serving requirement.
Feynman + Gates + Silverlight (Score:3, Interesting)
A leopard can't change its spots?
Bill Gates has a monopoly on these lectures, and he leverages that monopoly for the benefit of Silverlight. Always a self-serving monopolist, I guess.
One wonders if the rest of the world has to sign a EULA to get access to his malaria treatments.
Trying to keep an open mind... (Score:5, Insightful)
...but this guy still makes me facepalm.
"It just shows the word browser has become a truly meaningless word," Gates said. "What's a browser? What's not a browser? If you're playing a movie, is that a browser or not a browser? If you're doing annotations, is that a browser? If you're editing text, is that a browser or not a browser? In large part, it's more an abuse of terminology than a real change."
Editing text has been part of browsing ever since HTML forms were introduced. Playing movies has been part of browsers since QuickTime and RealPlayer -- so, could easily be 10 years.
And of course, he's playing dumb about the real difference here. It seems like he's trying to suggest that it shouldn't be called a "browser", but rather, we should be talking about text editors and movie players.
No, see, the difference is whether I can just watch stuff on YouTube, edit text on Google Docs, pretty much do whatever I want on the Internet, without downloading anything other than a browser update. It means I get a fat client to some very cool services -- one that auto-updates the next time I refresh, yet one that's sufficiently sandboxed as not to be able to touch anything else in my OS.
It also means that when developing such applications, not only are they automatically cross-platform, but I can develop most of the logic as part of the server, and on the server side, I can use whatever technologies and languages I want.
And this reality is something Microsoft has been fighting since day 1, with the bastardization of web technology that is IE, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Gates doesn't get it. I guess I gave him the benefit of the doubt...
Ballmer and Gates also stressed the fact that Google now has two operating systems--Chrome OS and Android. Ballmer noted that Microsoft learned with the separate Windows 95 for consumers and Windows NT for businesses that having two operating systems isn't necessarily a positive thing.
*facepalm*
Ok, leaving aside the fact that you've got, what, five or six versions of Vista, and it looks as though there will be even more versions of Win7 -- just what does Gates think runs on Windows Mobile? It's not Vista, and it's not Win7.
Sure, Chrome OS and Android are closer to each other than Windows Mobile and Vista, but they're still directed at different markets -- Chrome OS is meant for netbooks, while Android was meant for mobile phones. Android runs on netbooks, but serves an entirely different purpose -- while NT and Win95 look exactly the same -- oh, and as he pointed out, Android has a browser, meaning anything Chrome OS can do, Android can do -- meaning it's more like comparing Vista Starter with Vista Ultimate, whereas NT and Win95 actually had mutually incompatible software.
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Gates's assertion is that the ideology of a browser is being warped and abused because the technology driving it is being intermingled with the notion of being able to see and search for stuff. While this is somewhat critical with Google's approach of centralizing the browser in the OS, it's also kind of sidestepping the question.
See, in the beginning, when communication was simple and numbers were small, browsers were used to do just that --- browse the contents
Browser results ... (Score:2)
Obviously, requires you to have Silverlight installed. I'm using Windows, so I don't have a chance to try it with Moonlight. Somewhat disappointing that Moonlight isn't aimed at Windows. Could probably pick up some more users for those of us, who aren't fans of IE or Firefox
IE 8 - works (duh)
Firefox 3 - works (surprise)
Opera 9/10 - doesn't work
Chrome 2 - doesn't work
Safari 4 - doesn't work
Lecture in MKV, MPEG4? (Score:4, Insightful)
The site need Silverlight to view the lectures, so one has to wonder whether Microsoft was looking for a 'killer application' to make people want to install the plug-in.
On a more optimistic note, does anyone have these lectures in MKV or MPEG4 format, or at least something using a more open format?
the virtual machine is your friend (Score:2)
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> It installs and plays on XP in a virtual machine.
Only if one has a copy of XP.
Fenyman Lectures at the University of Auckland (Score:3, Informative)
These are very interesting: http://vega.org.uk/video/subseries/8
They're what I thought this slashdot article was about when I read the headline.
Education begins where vocational focus ends. (Score:5, Insightful)
That all goes to show that the sources are there, and are very easy to access. You don't even need an account to access nearly the same material as MIT students do! However, Gates was absolutely right in that motivation is a really strong factor in wanting to find that stuff. I think that a source of that waning motivation comes from the desire to find a job, especially "in this economy."
So many people see school solely as a "means to an end," and many schools set themselves up to be precisely this. When one's goal is simply to graduate, there's "no time" to bother with learning the extra stuff; it's all about the grade in that paradigm.
I don't want to make this longer than it already is, but what I think would be awesome is to let students "create a major" at the college level. Some schools, like RPI and RIT, already practice this, but it should be practiced much more heavily, especially in the sciences and engineering. As a finishing Computer Engineering student, I'll be the first to say that it kind of sucks that I have to take a ton of classes that will have no practical OR educational use for me, just so that I can graduate under the guidelines of a program. However, that rant is for another time.
It's on YouTube (Score:4, Insightful)
Why did Bill Gates have to pay to buy the rights? (Score:4, Insightful)
So let me get this straight: an employee of a public institution (Cal Tech) gave some speeches that were recorded by a government-funded entity (the BBC), and in order to release those recordings to the public, a private individual (Bill Gates) had to purchase the rights? And rather than release in them in a standards-based format, we instead have to to download and install proprietary software (Silverlight) that we may not want on our computers?
Re:Why did Bill Gates have to pay to buy the right (Score:5, Informative)
Caltech (not Cal Tech) is a private university, though it receives significant public funding like any research university. However, I don't believe the development of these lectures was publicly funded.
ALREADY ONLINE FOR FREE (Score:3, Informative)
I'll simply say (Score:3, Insightful)
Bill Gates, thank you!
I will watch them all.
Use Vega Science Trust site, avoid silverlight (Score:3, Informative)
You can get the lectures here:
http://vega.org.uk/video/subseries/8 [vega.org.uk]
And avoid the silverlight embrace, extend, extinguish, scam.
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I wrestled with the idea for a minute or two and decided I would bite the bullet and take silverlight if I get to see the Feynman (I have been trying to find these videos for a long time, the DVD's are something like $800 if I remember correctly). However when I click the install thing I get "Sorry, your browser is not compatible".
I thought silverlight was supposed to be microsoft's answer to flash but I guess it will never be more than a curiosity/minor annoyance if they can't even be bothered to support
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I thought silverlight was supposed to be microsoft's answer to flash but I guess it will never be more than a curiosity/minor annoyance if they can't even be bothered to support firefox. Oh well, as someone above pointed out, torrents are undoubtedly on the way so I'll just have to wait a bit more.
-Buck
I'm running the latest release version of Firefox with Silverlight 3 installed and it seems to be loading fine. I did, however, get that message with Chrome (I'm not too surprised, Silverlight 2 kinda worked and kinda didn't when Chrome released and it took them a while to get it going.. I'm not sure if it was ever as seamless as it was on IE or Firefox).
Make sure Silverlight and Firefox are both up-to-date. I haven't gotten into the video lectures yet but I must say, they're making improvements on their
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The fact that is isn't real is the joke. Kind of like Gates' operating system.
Sorry, I'm having a real bad day today.
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Yeah! Feynman's getting the shaft here! Never mind the fact that he's been dead for 21 years...
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Some MS products are cool.
I wouldn't say it's "cool", but I like Excel better than any other spreadsheet I've tried. Their mouse is pretty good, and my daughter (who works at Gamestop) likes her X-box.
Some are awful.
Yes, about every other MS product I've had the displeasure to use, including some (e.g. FoxPro) that I use to love that MS ganked up to utter unuseability.
But I do have to say that Gates doesn't usually appear to be a stupid little upstart that got lucky or something like that.
He's not stupid by
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You can get rich while being an idiot, but that rich? He had to have some brains somewhere.
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He had to have some brains somewhere.
In a jar marked Abby something...
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But I do have to say that Gates doesn't usually appear to be a stupid little upstart that got lucky or something like that.
I don't think many people believe that Gates is stupid and merely got lucky. The criticism more likely to be leveled at him is that he got where he is more through business acumen than through producing high-quality products.
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But I do have to say that Gates doesn't usually appear to be a stupid little upstart that got lucky or something like that.
I don't think many people believe that Gates is stupid and merely got lucky. The criticism more likely to be leveled at him is that he got where he is more through business acumen than through producing high-quality products.
But I do have to say that Gates doesn't usually appear to be a stupid little upstart that got lucky or something like that.
I don't think many people believe that Gates is stupid and merely got lucky. The criticism more likely to be leveled at him is that he got where he is more through business acumen than through producing high-quality products.
Business acumen, and through inherited money and influence: he had enough money to risk dropping out to start a business, and a few years later his business got a huge boost when they got the contract to supply DOS to IBM, the decision to award that contract being taken by a man who knew BIll Gates; mother.
He is undoubtedly smart (lots of people start by inheriting millions, very few of them turn it into billions), but he he would never have made the same amount of money if he came from an average family h
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Cows that don't fart (or at least not fart as much) is possibly feasable. Stopping hurricanes isn't by any stretch.
Re:How badly do I want to see it? (Score:5, Insightful)
If your bank requires Silverlight while 98% of Planet has Flash installed, they are desperate for MS money or donation of servers which is not a good thing for banks. It also means there is some MS technology involved in process as opposed to AIX/UNIX/zOS which are "rolls royce" of servers and chosen by banks who prefers reliability to price.
Same goes for anyone "subscribing" to media outlets for a long time which requires Silverlight . It probably means they are easily bought out.
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So Billy G wants to bring "...[the wonders of science to everyone]..." except for those of us not using Internet Explorer...ahhh...so refreshing!
The site works fine in both Firefox and Safari, on my Mac.