Slashdot Mirror

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...gets an masters...
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"An masters"?


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

He must have forgot. :>


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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(please stop using racist terms like "black" in this forum)
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Huh? Since when is that racist? Is it racist to refer to someone as being white?

Politeness is one thing, but this is the first time I've heard of anyone being offended over the term 'black' - even African Americans. And I've never heard anyone offended over the term 'white'. What's up with the overt political correctness?

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Check out Ralph Nader for President. He doesnt need a .com
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Huh? Yes he does.

http://www.votenader.com/


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

How is this guy anti-establishment? Maximum wage? Getting rid of SUVs? WTF?

Basically, he seems to advocate big government, telling people what they can and cannot have, and divvying up the proceeds. Sounds like an extreme version of what we already have to me.

This just reminds me that I've got to vote Browne this time around, if at the very least to keep kooks like this out of power...


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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That means that for the first time since well...as far back as my memory goes, we will have a SERIOUS 3rd-party candidate in the running.
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Your memory needs improving. Ross Perot - whatever you think of his politics - did pretty well. He didn't win, but he was definitely a non-trivial candidate.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Why? It's probably not as bad as you think.

http://www.grassroots.com/scripts/editorial.dll? bfromind=232&eeid=2768059&eetype=article&r ender=y&ck=&ver=2.11

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Lest you haven't noticed, there's a sizable number of us who don't want government supplies 'safety nets' or 'education', on the grounds that they are neither safe nor educational. And having seen a number of do-nothing idiots repairing perfectly good roads, I can't say much for the road maintainence either.

What we want - to opt out. We don't need a nanny government to tell us what to do or live our lives for us.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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But the flat tax doesn't really change anything about those.
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Sure it does. The tax system will be fair when it is either abolished (yeah, I'm a libertarian at heart), or comes down to this:

1. Enter earnings here: ____
2. Times above number by 15% (or whatever)
3. Pay that much.

And that's it. Make it so ridiculously simple that anyone and everyone can find out how much they owe, and pay it. It would be nearly rock solid, so loopholes are impossible to come by. Everyone saves money on accountants, and we can damn near get rid of the IRS (saving us all money).

Of course, this all assumes that such a flat tax would come with some serious cutting down of the tax system. Unless we can get rid of the loopholes, though, it by definition wouldn't be fair (just like our current system).


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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That's not a counterexample. A luxury yacht is not a bad thing: its production and sale does not negatively affect anyone in society. Thus luxury taxes are unrelated to the issue of taxing things that are bad for society.
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Neither is being rich. In many ways, it benefits society. And simply being rich does not mean that said rich-person stepped on a lot of people to get where they are. And yet, we have a completely unfair progressive tax system. Why?


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Unlike the collection of cells that I gather swiping a q-tip inside my cheek, however, a fetus can and will grow into a person unless forcibly prevented from doing so.
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Interesting metric. Where does it stop?

The same could be said about semen. Is a man who 'pulls out' or uses a condom committing mass genocide of millions of potential humans?

How about a woman who has the gall to have a period every month? That was a potential human being as well.

The debate, when you get down to it, is when does a human become a human...


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Which gives him two choices:

1 - Contribute to the well being of his family members directly, making sure that they get the full benefit of the money he provides.

...or...

2 - Give his money to the government, which takes most of it, and hands out the leftover scraps to the rest ... Not only his family, but those who may not even deserve the entitlement.

I think I know how best to spend my money in charity - better than the government, which is bloated, slow, and hardly a model of ethical behavior.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Especially, if getting better graphics would entail giving $500 to Sony, which Sony would then use to take away my freedom of speech.
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Out of curiosity, how exactly is the PSX or Sony infringing on your freedom of speech?

Please please please don't let this turn out to be some sort of "it's evil because it's proprietary" speech. If there's something substantive, I'm sure we'd love to know.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Last I checked, Slashdot wasn't some great single consciousness with One Opinion and One Voice.

Some of us are quite likely money grubbing, materialistic, capitalists. A share of those quite likely don't give a damn, as they don't see anyone doing anything wrong.

But I will tell you this - if anyone, it's you who is out of touch with the Slashdot populace. You attribute shame on Rob & Co. for being interested in something, but fail to recognize the scores of geeks who are just as excited as he is.

Either way, don't try to lay down some sort of defacto Slashdot policy - not everyone is interested in conforming to your personal opinions.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Oh, btw. while everyone is fighting for the PS2 i'll be watching DVD's in all glory on a full DTS compatible DVD player with digital outs as dvd's are meant to be.
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Oooh...

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I will also be playing PSX and Dreamcast and N64 games that everyone blindly forgets
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Ahhh...

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and oh, i'll have 400-500.00 left to buy christmas gifts for my friends.
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Wow. I sure wish someone would spend $500 bucks on a christmas gift for me.

*ahem*

Anyhow, there's a principle in consumer electronics that goes roughly like this (please store this in your long-term memory for the next time you feel like chastising people for what they like):

In short, different people want different things.

I personally don't need a super duper DVD player with all sorts of bells and whistles. The PS2 DVD player, which somewhat spartan in features, does exactly what I need it to do - play DVD movies. Assuming that there is an actual picture quality difference that isn't limited to the minds of self-possessed yuppies, it's quite unlikely to show up on my TV. Plus, this saves me from making yet another purchase and clogging up my entertainment center. Plus one for the Playstation 2.

I also have a somewhat decent sized library of (original) Playstation games that I'd like to keep, but I really don't want to have more consoles than necessary. I could get a Dreamcast and end up with _3_ consoles hooked up to my TV, or stick with a Playstation 2 and my N64. The latter is less cluttered. Score another for the Playstation 2.

Another reason is, quite simply, there are some games I like that will be coming out for the Playstation 2. Shortly. Some of the launch titles look pretty decent (and the few I bought recently I enjoy already), and before long Playstation development will be moving over to the new system. While the current crop may only be superficially better than the Dreamcast versions, that will change as developers get used to the system. Another bonus.

Speaking of Dreamcast, I'd rather not buy into a console whose developer has a tendency to screw up. Sure, they're not doing too bad right now (not great either), but Sega seems to be able to screw up a good thing with their consoles. Be it marketing or technology, they don't pick up a lot of games or are dropped. And to be honest, there are only a few games that I'm into on their console.

Last but not least, those of you who insist that people are "paying too much" need to understand that some of us don't consider $300-500 an ungodly sum for something that will provide loads of entertainment for a few years. I can understand some peoples' issues with the cost, but don't project it on everybody, okay?



- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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How much of it was due to parental assistance? Be honest - how much of you and your sister's education was paid for by your family?
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Most of my education was paid for by my employer at the time. That was a bit of a special case. My sister has a whole lot of student loans to pay off, but she's in a good position to do so as she now has access to a pick of decent jobs.

The initial part of my education was paid for by the state, out of funds that would have went to the local high school (I skipped out 2 years early). That funding, which would have been wasted on the pathetic high school I was attending, instead went to a fairly decent private community college where I actually learnt a few things.

If my parents didn't have the same tax burden, they could have done it directly.

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What's the effect of growing up in a middle class neighbourhood with good schools and no gun fights? That's luck.
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I didn't really grow up in a middle class neighborhood (go to Finley, WA and look around sometime - definitely a trailer park kind of place. We were comparitively wealthy, and crime wasn't all that horrible, but the local schools were worthless).

Either way, it's not luck. Nobody bought my mom's house for her, or bought the property on her behalf. Living in a somewhat rural setting makes things cheaper in many aspects, which was a decent reason to move there. Nobody is forcing anyone to live in a crime ridden inner city.

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I realize that you weren't replying directly to me, but I never advocated an maximum wage.
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I know, I wasn't really aiming at that (although I realize some people do advocate one, which is a vaguely fascist notion IMHO). I'm talking more about the undercurrent of class warfare that some people seem to ride on. A lot of people talk about others having 'enough' or 'too much' money, even though that's completely irrelevent. It's a matter of principle to me, I guess.

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I don't for a minute believe I got where I am because I'm smarter or work harder than people who didn't get here. I'm just lucky.
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You're largely where you are because of a combination of your intelligence and that of your parents. I don't really believe in luck, but I do believe in someone spotting opportunity and taking it.

In our society, I think it's common for some really smart people to not realize how bright they are, and lowering their own expectations as to what they can do. There are enough stories of people coming from near poverty to great success to prove that smart people CAN get somewhere - and enough untold stories of smart people who never get anywhere to show that some just don't get around to it.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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I find beliefs such as that so repugnant, mostly because I've never heard anyone spout that type of drivel at me unless they or their parents made at least $80-90k per year
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Let me be the first, then (be warned: this is a bit of a rambling narrative).

My grandmother grew up in a home with a dirt floor, two sisters, and a somewhat unsupportive family life. She was pretty poor overall.

She married my grandfather who, while not rich, wasn't quite as bad off. Once they got married they moved elsewhere for a job, and had two kids.

While their home certainly had a 'real' floor, there wasn't much extra cash to spare on entertainment or extravagant gifts. My grandparents were very loving and caring individuals, though, and raised a couple of pretty good kids. One of which is my mother.

My uncle got a little college in (and did pretty well, as he's a fairly bright guy), although my mom did not (I also consider her pretty bright as well). Cash wasn't the easiest thing to come by, and by the time she had her kids there was lots of other stuff to take care of.

My sister and I grew up comfortable - about as spoiled as any typical middle class kid might be. My parents spent a lot of their cash helping my sister get a college education, and some on me as well (I'm just a little ways off from a basic Associate's degree). They also bought me a computer at a young age - not a trivial purchase - which helped inspire me to continue on with my interests in computers and related stuff.

My sister just got her Master's degree, and has become a pretty successful teacher - and well liked at that. I'm a bit younger, but I have a great job at a company I like, make a pretty decent wage, and work from home with a company supplied laptop. :>

Note that almost none of this is due to governmental assistance.

While not rich by any means, I definitely don't have to sweep excess dirt off of a dirt floor every night. And I have those who preceded me to thank for that. I only put the pieces together in the end in making my relative success.

My point: There is no such thing as making 'too much'. Yes, luck has something to do with it. So does being in the right place at the right time (or putting yourself in the right place at the right time). There's nothing wrong with that - if there is a demand for certain skills or people, they should feel free to reap those rewards. It's not our place to tell people that they are 'too in demand' or aren't worth that much to someone else.

And no, I don't doubt one bit that your mother is a very hard worker and probably deserves more. And she has probably tried hard to raise you in such a way that you'll have it better than she did. BUT don't blame someone just because they have a lot of cash because she doesn't. Some people may be assholes, and maybe she got screwed over a few times or made bad choices, but don't blame the rich for that. Especially when they already take up a higher percentage burden of the taxes as is.

In the end, I hope that I can provide for my kid(s) in such a way that they do better than I. Please don't chastise or look down upon me if I end up being pretty successful at it...


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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But public money should not be used for vouchers, saying "I'm sorry, our public schools are crap, here, take this consolation gift".
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An important distinction needs to be made.

This is not a 'gift'. It is not being 'given'.

It is being returned.

If I can opt-out of funding the public school system, thus losing the right to send my kid there, I should be able to put them into what I feel is a better school (and frankly, if someone starts up a non-religious, non government funded school for the same price, it'll be much better).

It's not a gift. It's my money, let me decide how I want to use it to educate my kid.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Turn off the TV.

Despite popular left wing or right wing belief, TV is not an essential part of life - parents can feel free to turn it off - or even subscribe to channels that are mostly devoid of advertising. If there are none, they can take the initiative to find a good alternative revenue stream and start up their own TV channel.

Either way, this is not the purpose of government.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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And unlike Libertarians, I recognize that the government *is* the people.
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The problem is, it very much isn't. My government daily makes hundreds of decisions that in some way affect me, and I have no voice in the matter.

While I respect the Green party idea that you don't have to be stuck with the two main choices, the similarity ends there. A central government almost by definition can't represent the people - since we're not a "central" people, and have diverse needs.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

You're not throwing away your vote if you vote 3rd party (Browne, Nader, etc). You're making a statement.

They won't win, sure. But if you don't vote you have truly wasted your opportunity. If you vote for the lesser of the two evils, you just perpetuate the status quo.

Now, if you really truly believe in either of the two main people, vote for them. But don't let that limit you from learning about (and possibly voting for) the alternatives.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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I wouldn't want my kids going down to the library to research something on the Internet and...
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Good. Don't.

Case settled.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Taxation generally isn't robbery, its collecting on a debt.
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And the moment that the high income earners need social security, welfare, etc. then it will be a valid debt. Otherwise it's them paying for debts that others incur.

Robbery? Maybe not. It's still not something we should tolerate, IMHO.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

I think that's a euphemism for giving back extra money that was mistakenly taken from people to begin with.

Rich people pay, percentage wise, a proportionately high amount in taxes. Therefore, they probably have a lot more coming back to them.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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The number of people working for the federal government has gone DOWN under Clinton/Gore and went UP under Reagan/Bush and Bush/Quayle
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True, but the total spending (which is the important part) went the other way around.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

My guess is that they started contributing to the GOP _after_ the democrats started the anti-trust stuff.

Not to defend Microsoft, democrats, or Janet Reno, but...

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

I think he means from an intelligence point of view. If someone is willing to make the same stupid mistake (albeit minor) three times in a row when the result is long term imprisonment, it's quite likely that they are complete idiots and will only get worse later on.

I'm not sure I agree with it, but I don't think it's as simple as "a minor making three minor offenses".


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

*sigh*

Um, actually, the Libertarian party platform opens up US borders far more than they already are - basically letting anyone in.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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if Microsoft had posted an article explaining their security holes or in the same tone ("Yes it's stupid, but I wrote this code 3 years ago and had no clue", "it was never a problem!") then slashdotters worldwide would have been all over this complaining about the utter inability of Microsoft to do anything right
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...the difference being that Slashdot doesn't sell their code as if it were flawless - in fact, they don't even sell their software at all.

And I don't think Slashdot is indicative of most open source software projects. Slashdot started off a while back as a project for a guy who wanted to post articles on his web site. The Slashcode is just a side effect.

This is entirely different than, say, Linux or Apache (or Microsoft's stuff, even) where the main idea is the software itself.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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How is blocking napster punishing those who are partaking in legal activity? If you're not trading/downloading copyrighted works without permission, you SURELY can find another way to get your legal MP3s
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The point is, they shouldn't have to find some other way to trade legitimate MP3s.

Going back to my car example, if someone started cracking down on all car drivers because some of them were involved in hit-and-runs, should I say "oh well" and just ride a bike? I shouldn't have to - it's not my fault not everyone drives their car responsibly. I shouldn't be blamed.

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The legitimate uses (however small) are NOT specific to the Napster tool, they are simply facilitated by it. If you're getting legal MP3s, Napster is not your only outlet for such activities.
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"The legitimate uses (however small) are NOT specific to the email tool, they are simply facilitated by it. If you're getting legal correspondance, email is not your only outlet for such activities."

By your logic, we should feel lucky that we still have postal mail and carrier pigeons.

Napster is a useful tool for legitimate purposes. One of my favorite artists has no qualms with people getting his stuff off of Napster, as he claims to have received more exposure and as a result CD sales because of it. When I don't have my CDs around (which I bought, btw), I can grab copies of the songs or tell friends to check them out.

Could I do this without Napster? Sure, but not as easily. Now why exactly should I give up my legitimate use of this tool?

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Just as a handgun is a tool of crime, it also has legitimate uses. Are students allowed to carry guns on campus or keep them under their pillow at night? Hell no. Why should any other tool that is mostly used for criminal activity be allowed?
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Your gun argument just doesn't match up, and (no offense) just seems like an attempt to gain knee-jerk support from anyone who is pro gun-control. It's not even comparable.

First of all, there's a wide disparity between what can happen between both items. A single copy of Napster can at worst lose the recording industry a lot of sales (and recent sales stats contradict this). A single gun can potentially kill a large number of people.

Second, guns as a general rule are allowed on private property. A university can allow firearms if they want, assuming they are a private organization (there may be some rules if they receive state funding, but that's another story). As Napster is currently legal - just as a number of guns are currently legal - nobody has a right to force private entities to stop allowing said items on campus.

I'm not saying universities don't have a right to ban Napster. It's their network, and it could impede on the primary function of that network. But until the Napster software is illegal (in which case, we should get rid of email, FTP, and HTTP since they can be used in similar ways) they have every right to keep it up.

If Napster were anything else - a car, a baseball bat, a paper manufacturer - they would be going after the actual perpetrator of the crime. It's not my fault that it's not economically feasible to sue everyone who pirates Metallica songs from Napster.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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I don't deny that this sort of thing happens. I am curious, though, how you are so sure that's why she got the job.
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Trust me, it was pretty obvious. It wasn't because of the way in which her skills fit the job at hand (not that she was without skills, but you'd expect a minimal amount of knowledge - imagine a Windows tech not knowing where to find the Start Menu without being told ... It was that sort of thing).

I hesitate to go into too much detail because she is a nice enough person, but the fact is that she had absolutely no skills to justify the position she was given. It's not her fault, I suppose.

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What about compensating for an unnatural disadvantage?
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Depends on what you mean by compensation. If an employer is breaking current laws on discrimination, that's one thing. But it's quite another to promote people. For one, people who may never have had the unnatural disadvantage are rewarded, while people who were not responsible for those kinds of disadvantages are punished. That's like punishing someone for a crime they did not commit, so that you feel better for not catching the criminal.

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And while we're at it, am I to assume that you favor 100% taxation of all inheritence?
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No. I believe that whenever possible, people should be left alone and allowed to maintain responsibility for their own lives. If I work my entire life and save my money intelligently, I should be able to decide where to put my money. If it's to fund the education/lifestyle of my kid, that's a good thing. I shouldn't be penalized. I would hope in turn that they would do that for their own kid.

I'm just annoyed at the idea that it's society's responsibility to equalize people. In this country you have freedom to make a better life for yourself, but you don't have any sort of guarantee that it will be given to you. If someone goes out of their way to harm someone we should step in, but otherwise refrain from promoting or demoting people based on anything other than their merit.

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As a matter of fact, I am. Every stat I have ever seen indicates that within each of the black, white, and latino demographics, drug users/sellers make up the same percentage.
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If this is true, then it should be stopped. But the answer is to punish ONLY the bad cops/lawyers responsible and say "Start punishing people based on their crimes", not say "You need to start arresting more white people so it doesn't look so bad". When you do that, how is it morally any different than what they're (supposedly) already doing? What kind of message does that send?

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I just have a hard time with the idea that white males are at a disadvantage in the US.
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Depends on how you look at it. Are we as a group living in poverty? No. But are we as a group being unfairly blamed for the actions of very few and being told that merit is second only to political correctness? Seems that way.

Racism is racism. It sucks either way. It's even worse when one type is villified, while another type is actively encouraged.

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Of course, none of this has anything to do with Universities banning Napster....
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Nope, I guess it doesn't. :>



- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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have you ever been denied a position, promotion, or raise for no reason other than because you are a white male?
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Nope. Although I have seen someone hired in for a higher position who clearly did not have the skills necessary to do the job. I know - I had to train her.

Despite the fact that I liked her as a person, the main reason she got her job was because she was a hispanic female.

Racism is racism - giving someone an unnatural advantage is just as bad as pushing someone else down.

I understand that white males are underrepresented in the penal system, but are you so sure that's just because we're also underrepresented in the drug using/selling and violent crime communities?

Of course, that's not a politically correct thing to say, but so be it.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

You make one fatal flaw - you assume we're all big believers in the GPL.

Remember, not all of Slashdot follows a single 'party line'. Some of us have diverging opinions. I personally have some issues with the GPL.

And regardless of one's beliefs in the GPL, it's one thing not to sanction illegal activity, it's quite another to punish legal activity in trying to root out illegal activity.

To put it another way, while I'm very much against running over pedestrians with my car (and believe those who run over people on purpose should be arrested), I'm not going to blame Mitsubishi if someone uses their product to run me over. Blame the copyright infringer, not Napster or the people actually using the service for legal purposes (yes, there are legal purposes).


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Some time in childhood I bet you wet your bed or something. Should we still judge you for that?

Apple has enough sins now. Don't blame the current administration for the actions of others.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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So... this "story" consists of... Kuro5hin added 10 lines of text to their website... Great story!
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Maybe not, but it's not your place to judge. If you don't like it, you can feel free to leave. That doesn't mean you should posting offtopic messages.

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Aaaah, my mistake - you must be American!
Obviously, with your retarded attention span, you must be riveted with the action gong on here!
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Ah, yes. And you say they bred tact out of Americans, right? The nationalism you're exhibiting reaks with the stench of 2 month old eggs.

Lucky for we 'retarded' Americans, most British folk are quite pleasant. It would appear you are the exception, not the rule. Unfortunately, all it takes is one big mouth to create an unfair stereotype about the British.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Why does OS X require these vast resources?
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Classic. Basically, you're booting two seperate operating systems at once. If you don't use Classic, your resource usage will be a lot lower.

At least, that's how it worked in DP4.

Apple probably expects everyone to be using Classic for a while, so they're inflating the requirements somewhat. I didn't use Classic much, and 96 MB ram in this PowerBook worked fine.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

I've ordered a copy of the beta, and will be providing plenty of feedback when it arrives.

I've also spent lots of quality time with DP3 and DP4, but at this point I'm going to be a bit more focused on giving detailed feedback. It's now or never, after all. :>


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

I believe the reason the amphitheater may have been full is because they had to switch due to the - erm - water damage.

Is that true?

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

"Why back in my day, we had web pages with gray backgrounds and no graphics, with 10,000 word essays about esoteric computer science topics - and we LIKED IT!

In fact, we didn't even use bookmarks. We memorized IP addresses - no sissy domain names for us - and typed them in manually. Why, back in my day we didn't even have web pages, we had web paragraphs, because our computers didn't have enough memory. And we LIKED IT!"

...

I'm all for responsible use of HTML and sticking close to standards. But there is value in an aesthetically pleasing site as well. And the sad fact is, recent versions of IE (for the Mac at least) are more standards compliant than anything Netscape is shipping to date.

And while I can already hear the chants of 'Mozilla! Mozilla! Mozilla!', let me remind you that Mozilla defies some equally important standards - intra-platform user interface consistancy.

Barring that, it's still not released. And it's very, very late.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Sure. But the whole point was to give apple users a different option of UI on the hardware they liked.
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I know, and I'm cool with that. As mentioned, I use LinuxPPC as well. But what I'm saying is that crowing about having SMP would be a lot more impressive if they had the other stuff Apple has been working on as well.

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Why is tackeling SMP stupid?
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I think I must have misrepresented myself. Tackling SMP is not stupid. Making a big deal over the fact that LinuxPPC has it first is what I think is kind of stupid. LinuxPPC is lacking some very important things as well - and Apple isn't crowing at them about it.

Plus, I imagine OSX's SMP implementation has had more thorough testing just within Apple itself than LinuxPPC's has. They can call it 'released' as much as they want, but so far I haven't seen a lot of people relying on it yet.

Maybe my problem is more with Slashdot thinking this was an actual story.

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But why complain at all? You want to talk about 'oddities?' When was the last time you used Win2K?
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If you want to set that as your optimal user interface benchmark, then Apple has nothing to worry about. :>

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I'm sure that these people are smart and resourceful enough to find and work out 'oddities.'
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My main concern may not be 'oddities' in the traditional sense - this has little to do with bugs. I'm confident that Apple will come up with lots of bug fixes. It's the intentional stuff that gets me. Dropping the Apple menu and replacing it with the dock is not a 'bug' according to Apple, it's a feature. Despite the fact that multiple folders in it look identical and you have to wave your mouse around like a ouija board just to get file names. That's an example of the main fundamental flaw in the OSX design goals: look cool first, usability second.

And no, I have no problems with the dock concept. I have problems with that dock. For instance, the BeOS implementation of the same concept is actually quite nice from a usability perspective.

It just seems sadly ironic that Apple risks going from the most usable consumer OS with the worst core foundation to the consumer OS with the best core foundation and the worst usability.

I hope they make some major changes between now and final release - but we've already hit beta and only minor interface fixes have been made. I try to have faith, but this is the same company that sold a puck mouse and chiclit keyboard for two years and is waiting until OSX to fix some major interface fuckups with QT4 and Sherlock...

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Yep.

(telnet is off by default though)

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Ooo! Ooo! First nonsensical Mac Zealot Interface Post!
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You make a lot of assumptions based on lack of information. You have no clue about my opinions and experiences of Apple's operating systems or that of others.

Now, if the definition of a 'Mac Zealot' is a person who uses a Mac and doesn't agree with all of your opinions, then I guess I fit the bill. Otherwise, you're pretty far off the mark.

To put it short, my only bitch with OSX is in the interface. A zealot would just take what Apple gives them and not question it - I have ... erm ... some issues with what they are doing (and most of it revolves around the dock).

Zealot indeed.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Yup. And it will stay, as an optional download (they don't want developers asking users to drop to a CLI to install stuff, for example).

And yeah, it's pretty much as you'd expect. I think tcsh is by default, or maybe bash. Not sure.

You'll be happy though. :>


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Apple beats LinuxPPC to a halfway usable user interface by around 16-17 years.

*yawn*

I'm impressed by LinuxPPC. I order each release they put out, and it's not bad given their marketshare. But bragging about SMP support when Apple has a lot more fish to fry is kind of stupid.

Other people have beaten Apple to the punch in other stuff. It's not really that big of a deal. I'm more concerned at this point that Apple isn't going to fix some of the ... erm ... interface oddities in the OSX release.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Don't confuse this kind of censorship with the kind 'we' (that ever nebulous term - are we a collective now or something?) are fighting against.

Censoring one's self can be considered basic tact, or sticking to editorial guidelines. That's fine.

A third party stepping in to censor you without your consent is another matter entirely.

The first is fine. The latter is very much not fine.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Netzero, in truth, uses a Java interface which forces the user to...
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There is where your complaint falls flat. They're not forcing anyone to do anything. It's basically whole point. If a user wants a quality ISP, they'll go elsewhere. If they're cheap, they'll go through these guys.

It's not like anyone is forced to give money to them. If it's too annoying, you just stop using it.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

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Faulty wiring in a washing machine, don't buy it or you'll zap yourself. Email from a known spammer? Filter it.
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Right. But if you buy a few duds from a given manufacturer, you'll quite often never buy from that manufacturer again. If I get a lot of spam from a certain provider, it's my right to never receive their email again.

Filters are a half-assed solution to spam anyhow. My bandwidth and CPU time is still being eaten away. When you report spam (or report something to MAPS), there's nothing stopping a given ISP from still doing what they want. MAPS just provides a tool that you can choose to use or not use - basically using the experience of others as an easy way to sample to 'product' of a whole bunch of ISPs.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Why should they? They've already given a lot back to the people who developed Perl by helping immensely in the spread of the language. This allows the coders to spend less time worrying about documentation and more time coding.

I haven't exactly seen Larry Wall or anyone else complaining about it - it would appear they are at worst neutral on the issue, and quite likely very appreciative. Wall in particular seems to be above jealousy over someone else *gasp* making money by writing about Perl.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

That's like saying Mitsubishi would be monopolistic if they only ship Eclipses with their own stock stereo.

Apple considers their product a combination of OS and hardware. Big deal. You can delete the contents of your Mac's hard-drive and install Linux if you'd prefer. Heaven forbid they decide what is in their own product.

- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)

Really? That's funny - I know a lot of people who 'got into Perl' by reading those books... Myself included.

Someone has to write good documentation and tutorials. Without it, not as many people would learn the language.


- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)