I have to disagree. As theorems become more complicated, proving them becomes anything but mechanical: one must choose between an infinite variety of approaches, many of which are equally valid.
I just read the Wikipedia entry for his views on woman. There's an interesting part at the end:
After the elderly Schopenhauer sat for a sculpture portrait by Elisabet Ney, he told Richard Wagner's friend Malwida von Meysenbug, "I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man."
He might be a misogynist, but at least he recognised exceptions.
It's also interesting (in the context of his time) to note that he was a strong supporter of abolitionism and animal rights.
There's also the small matter of whether they should be using tax payers dollars to fund the development of a proprietary product. I realise that most people use Windows but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And I'm not even American!
I'm a high school student presently. The Math is trivial.
The only way to learn anything is to read by myself and audit university courses.
I'm actually trying to write a math textbook that will actually teach math. If you're interested email me at [email protected] and I'll email you a copy. Please include `math textbook' in you subject (I get lots of emails).
But 27.1 says:
Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
Which is directly in opposition to copyright. UDHR seems to stand on the fence on this issue.
I've thought pi is horrible... and adopted using a loopy pi as 2pi. I loop the first vertical line over the horizontal, right, and then make it the horizontal, and so on. If that makes any sense.
I'm thinking of making a LaTeX package containing it... (and also some other personal conventions)
Also, to strengthen your point, 2pi makes the radian system a lot more natural.
They might be real entries, that doens't mean they're randomly chosen. MS probably selected a bunch that made them look good, and then threw in a few that were somewhat neutral to make it look fair (I'm thinking the downloading, what are the new features one)...
My opinion is that crackers and hackers are to distinct sets, but there is an intersection (though I think it isn't overly big). Hacking needs to be creative, nothing about that says it can't be malicious.
That isn't to say that I approve of hacking in that context, merely than it can exist.
Speaking of Copenhagen, UNICEF is having a contest for high school students from various countries to go to Copenhagen. It was a written/Youtube video contest.
Some friends and I made an entry, though we don't expect to win (we didn't have a proper video camera, proper editing, or any experience). Personally, I'm inclined to say that the Youtube video part is a poorly thought out attempt to ``get in touch with the youth of today.''
EDIT: Because it is very difficult to not select for the team with the best video camera, audio, etc. Maybe UNICEF employees can sort through this, somehow...
> To say software patents are invalid or software can't be patented really puts software programmers at a
disadvantage relative to other fields of science and
innovation. Why should pharmaceutical companies, civil
engineers, mechanical engineers, and all other disciplines
have the right to patent their inventions -- but not
software engineers?
One thing to keep in mind is that, say, mechanical engineers works aren't covered by copyright. They need to apply, pay, and only get it for a short period of time. The advantage they get is that it's general...
Right now, software developers have both, which doesn't seem fair to me.
Besides, right now copyright is way stronger than patents... Though I don't think this should be the case (I'd like to have, say, 5-10 year copyright).
The Magma stuff sounds nasty. All the more reason to avoid proprietary software.