Seven Wonders of the IT World 170
C.G. Lynch writes "The computer closest to the North Pole. The most intriguing data center. The biggest scientific computing grid. The little kernel that rocked the world. CIO.com has compiled a list of Seven Wonders of the IT World, some of the most impressive and unusual systems on the planet (and beyond)."
Small computer running Vista (Score:3, Insightful)
WOW! A small really small computer runs Vista! This is groundbreaking!
Seriously, though, the only "wonderous" things on there were the Voyager and the supercomputer. Most of the other stuff is not the most groundbreaking or superlative for its kind out there. I thought the idea of a "wonder" was something that we can only try and imagine how they managed to do it or how they came up with the idea.
Re:120F in North Pole? (Score:3, Insightful)
Biggest Paradigm Change (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong: I love Linus and I love Linux. But don't forget what RMS likes to remind us at every opportunity: Linux is part of the GNU system. And GNU predated Linux by a long shot.
Stallman started the GNU project in 1983 and founded the Free Software Foundation in 1985. The Linux kernel appeared in 1991. Where did Torvalds get his compiler? Where did Torvalds get his editor? Where did Torvalds find people to work on his kernel? I understand that it can be pedantic to argue about big, abstract ideas like ``When did the paradigm shift really happen?'' Maybe the paradigm didn't ``shift'' until the Linux kernel came out. But Torvalds wasn't out to change paradigms. Stallman was. If we're going to hail the concept of free software, we should acknowledge the alphabet soup of RMS, the FSF, GNU, ETC. that gave it legs to stand on.
the biggest wonder (Score:3, Insightful)
-I'm just sayin...
Re:Biggest Paradigm Change (Score:4, Insightful)
Community development was Torvalds' innovation, not Stallman's. Prior to Linux, the FSF was a GPL cathedral cranking out utilities to run on Sun OS.
Google at the "end of the Oregon Trail"? (Score:3, Insightful)
TFA: "Pioneers knew The Dalles as the end of the Oregon trail."
I was just in Seaside this weekend, and they had a big sign next to a statue of Lewis and Clark proclaiming that that was the end of the Oregon Trail... The oceanside makes more sense IMO.
Re:Biggest Paradigm Change (Score:3, Insightful)
But it's still the straw that broke the camel's back. The first straw didn't, the straw just before the last straw didn't, just the one straw. The last straw.
Thats the straw that gets remembered.
How many people attempted to fly solo transatlantic before Charles? Can you name any, and if so, do you consider it an acheivement or a matter of 'everyone knows that'?
That isn't to belittle RMS or his works, but for all he put into it, it would have come to naught if Linus or someone else hadn't come along and given the final push.
Re:Biggest Paradigm Change (Score:2, Insightful)
I guess I didn't make my point clear enough. Why was Linus even pushing at all? The FSF did more than write software. It fostered a community. It created a public license so folks wouldn't have to write their own. It established a list of goals: software that the GNU system sorely needed. Torvalds didn't come up with the paradigm of using open source software nor did he establish the basic rules by which open source projects would operate. The fact that his kernel was the last component to be written before the GNU/Linux system could stand alone isn't at issue here. The question is whether he was responsible for founding a paradigm.
Try this instead: Go out into the street and ask people to name a piece of free software. Odds are, they'll name Firefox. Firefox is the first piece of open source software to attract a userbase of that many non-technical people. Firefox drew the public's eye to OSS in a way that no other software has. But would you say that the Mozilla Foundation was responsible for a paradigm shift? Of course not! They just exposed a larger number of people to the concept. As fine as their software is, it's just software. And right now we're looking for paradigms. The Linux kernel is no more foundational in this respect than is Firefox.
Re:Slightly Dissapointed (Score:3, Insightful)
Agreed: (Score:5, Insightful)
OQO? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:More than you might suspect... (Score:3, Insightful)
You can't claim Google was funded by the CIA in its start up days without some kind of source. Seriously. You're just mongering. If you can't back up sensational claims like "Google was funded by the CIA", then don't make them. You're cheapening Slashdot.
Re:More than you might suspect... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know much about the history of Google, but Keyhole was a company independent of Google for quite years. I worked for a company that subscribed to its service. Google bought Keyhole years later.
Your original post is completely worthless, with a bunch of home page links pretending to be citations. Lemme take a shot at your style of online journalism:
Google is a company owned by the Dairy Queen [dairyqueen.com] corporation with the stated goal of infiltrating homes worldwide Radio Shack microphones and transmitters. They are carrying out this nefarious deed at the behest of the Queen of England [royal.gov.uk], and the president of Mexico [www.gob.mx].
There. I'm just as factual as you are. And my references are just as good.
People like you are the reason smart people don't trust the internet.
New 7 Wonders (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:More than you might suspect... (Score:2, Insightful)
What about the web? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:More than you might suspect... (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, don't assume that having an ID number of 871695 makes me a Slashdot rookie. I've been here almost since the beginning, but under a different ID that I abandoned years ago. Further, the claim (again unsubstantiated) that you have a doctorate doesn't impress me or anyone else.