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If you'll look back into history, you'll quite likely find that it wasn't pagans burning Christians at the cross.

Moral absolutes, indeed.


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

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. All the guy had was a quote from a book. I hardly find that to be offensive.

If you have a problem with the religion itself, join the club. But if we censor fairly benign quotes, are we any better than the Catholic Church or any other historical oppressors?

Either way, a lot of crap goes into Slashdot that doesn't pertain to technology. Sigs in particular aren't really even meant to be 'on-topic' (otherwise, they wouldn't be universal to all topics).

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just because its a public forum doesen't mean I can say whatever i want
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Sure you can, as long as it's not illegal or against the rules of the place you're posting it. If you can point us to a guideline for the content of signatures on Slashdot, I'll be more than willing to concede this argument.


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

Be careful what you ask for, is all I say.

If simply making your beliefs known in a public forum is not tolerated, that can go both ways. If we don't allow those with Christian beliefs to have their opinions, we could very well be the next to be censored.

Yes, Christianity has a long history of suppressing those with dissenting views. That's precisely the reason why I don't care for people trying to suppress others like this. If you wish to undermine someone's beliefs, the best way is to provide a clear difference.

And no, Slashdot doesn't specifically say 'religious drivel here'. But it also doesn't say 'GPL proponent here' or 'pro-Mac sentiment here' - but that's all accepted. If you're going to censor someone for having religious views, you're opening up all sorts of other opinions.

In the end, only CmdrTaco and others can make that decision. Until they come up and state what can and can not be put in a sig, you should just ignore it.


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

Oh, don't get me wrong. I have no illusions that Apple was jumping toward Be offering any and all help they could give. I imagine Apple didn't really give a damn, or at best were mildly interested. Apple is a bit of a niche player, but Be was (and is) a niche player. I mean that in the nicest way possible. Cool things tend to come from niches.

But I just don't see Apple going out of their way to hurt Be. For the before mentioned reasons (they would profit at least a little bit), and because they had bigger fish to fry at the time.

That's probably what happened. Pre-Jobs Apple was spilling money all over the place. Random R&D with little market application potential, dead end projects, far too many product lines with little focus, shitty tech support, dampened product quality, and a whole lot of bad morale and press. It's quite likely that Be got a little extra help and special treatment early on, but in the end they had to be ignored due to budget constraints. Apple was losing far too much money to waste engineer times on only limited returns.

What would this have meant to Be? Apple wouldn't go out of their way to do anything, but they weren't going to bother documenting things as much or answering phone calls from frustrated Be employees. Be would have had to reverse-engineer the specs themselves. Apple wouldn't actively try to derail them, but they'd still be on their own.

Would that have killed Be? I don't think so. Others have been doing the reverse engineering thing and Apple has more or less ignored them. Be would have also benefitted from the more open nature of recent Apple hardware (believe it or not - a lot of proprietary crap has been thrown out from the B&W G3s onward).

It's also possible that they would have had a hell of a time reverse engineering Apple's hardware designs, and gotten their ass kicked by riding that platform. That may have been reason enough to switch to X86, but they shouldn't be saying Apple held out on them.

In the end, I think it's pretty apparent that X86 didn't do what they wanted it to do. Maybe switching over just delayed the inevitable, but whenever a company has so many 'focus shifts' it is usually a bad sign (Apple is a perfect example of this). With luck they may get lucky, but right now it just looks like they're getting desperate.


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

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Maybe I missed something, but isn't that what they _are_ doing right now?

(Tracker keeps getting better and better. 3D support is in. Security is next.)
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Having used the BeOS since DR8 and every major release since, I can say that while BeOS may be getting cooler, it's not getting cooler at any rate like it used to.

And much of its coolness is being pushed into the whole IA thing. I'm not sure how 'cool' that is though - most of the BeOS' main benefits are wasted on an internet appliance.

And really, if we haven't learned from Larry Ellison, this whole internet appliance thing isn't quite what it's cracked up to be...


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

150 million dollars of non-voting Apple stock it be no means "significant". It's a drop in the bucket.

And the real kicker is, Apple had Microsoft by the balls on that deal, not the other way around. Read up on it if you want to know the reason.


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

No we (if by 'macweenies' you mean Mac users) wouldn't. If a person signs an NDA and violates it, they deserve whatever comes down on them. They didn't have to sign it, did they?

As for Microsoft, given that most of their ideas comes from other companies, an NDA there would seem a bit redundant. I guess they could protect implementations, but you usually get a strong whiff of their vapor long before any actual product ships.

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

How exactly do you handle tracking down someone with a subpeona 'internally'? If you can't track the person down, how exactly are you going to reprimand them?

Apple had to go to the courts just to find out who the guy was.


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

And you expect Apple just to sit back and let rogue employees blab on?

The guy didn't have to post that stuff to rumor sites. He did, and knew full well what would happen if he didn't. He should take responsibility for his actions.


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

Not all sigs have to be related to technology. The whole point of a sig is to put something interesting as it relates to you - a quote or something. Maybe even a link to your web site. I don't recall seeing any guidelines on what you can and can't put in your sig on Slashdot. Perhaps you'd like to point them out for us?

Until then, he can keep his sig.

For the record, I think religion is pure BS. But that doesn't mean I should tell him what he can have on his sig.


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

Oh, and another thing:

Why would Apple mind if Be made their OS for Mac hardware?

Think about it:

1. A MacOS user buys a Macintosh so they can run their OS of choice. Apple gets $XXX.XX for the computer and a copy of the MacOS.

2. A BeOS user buys a Macintosh so they can run their OS of choice. Apple gets $XXX.XX for the computer and a copy of the MacOS. User buys BeOS as well.

See those X's up there? They'd be equal. Apple loses no money in the deal, and it's quite likely BeOS users would gravitate to the more powerful (read: more profitable for Apple) hardware anyhow.

The only thing Apple might lose is a little 3rd party support. Big deal. It's not likely they'd have lost, and probably would have gained more in additional profits if it came to that to deal with it.

Face it - Be did what it did because they wanted to do it anyhow. They were lured by the siren cry of Wintel's market penetration, but have basically lost themselves in a sea of mediocracy in trying to keep up with drivers. Bad mistake, but don't blame it on Apple. Instead of coding millions of drivers Be could have been making the BeOS even cooler.

(and yes, the BeOS was/is really really cool, but that's not what this is about...)


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

No. Basically Be just got pissed because Apple wasn't subsidizing them. It's no coincidence that Intel made their big investment around then.

Once again - explain:

LinuxPPC
Yellow Dog Linux
Darwin
MkLinux
*BSD (a few variaties I believe)
Debian
SUSE

...all having, or announcing, PowerMac distributions.


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

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Sure, Jake Lloyd did a pretty poor acting job in the original, but Mark Hamill sucked pretty bad in Star Wars as well (and only became tolerable in the last two films).
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Erm, by original I mean 'Episode 1'.

Damn prequel/sequel confusion. :>


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

It just comes with the movie, I think. Episode 1 was basically just a setup for the entire series. Not a lot was supposed to happen, I don't think. Not until Anakin turns over a new leaf (so to speak).

Also, a lot of it probably does have to do with expectation. Many of us saw the original trilogy when we were little kids, and willing to overlook the original problems. Sure, Jake Lloyd did a pretty poor acting job in the original, but Mark Hamill sucked pretty bad in Star Wars as well (and only became tolerable in the last two films).

Yeah, the CGI wasn't perfect, but neither were the effects in the first Star Wars. They got better with time, as I expect them to in the later films of this trilogy.

I don't know. I actually have higher expectations for the next two movies, and I enjoyed the first despite its several semi-major flaws. It was fun.

Not to mention it included Natalie Portman, but I'd hate to feel the trolls... :>


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

You can pick any UI apart if you focus on one of its more obvious flaws.

But the trick totally backfires when you have your facts all wrong.

1. Open/Save dialog boxes: Look for information on 'Navigation Services'. In my opinion it is superior than most others (no sideways scrolling, Finder style hierarchy arrows, etc).

2. Contextual menus: The only thing haphazard about it is that Mac mice only have one mouse button. The contextual menu API is quite clear, and any 3rd party mouse I know of can use it.

3. Context switching: Command-tab works like your alt-tab, and the toolbar argument is clearly a subjective argument. In my opinion, there's nothing user friendly about seeing the first 3 characters of each open window. It's a poor use of screen real estate.

For the record, you CAN turn the Application pallette into a taskbar-like bar at the bottom of the screen, but it's not terribly useful IMHO. And while it's not fair to bring up 3rd party apps, GoMac pretty much replicates the taskbar if it's such a big deal.

...

If you want to get in a full-on debate over true user interface issues, let me know. The examples you cite are poor (and largely untrue), but I hate to think of how many thousands of hours of combined human productivity have been lost due to how Windows handles menus. It's enough to give a guy Fitts.

The Mac doesn't have a perfect UI. Far from it. But you've got to be kidding if you think Windows is better.


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

The problem is that you neglected to let anyone know this guy was a kook before you quoted his theory.


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

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no physical evidence? go look in the mirror, if that isn't enough evidence for you that God exists, i don't know what is.
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That's like saying, "Look at that rock over there. If that's not evidence that a purple three legged midget put it there, I don't know what is".

Logic doesn't look like that. Along with your chosen form of mythology, there are a number of other people willing to provide their own explainations. In fact, there are hundreds of billions of 'potential' origins for the human race. A proponent of any one could say what you said above and make just about as much sense.

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

Then it's okay if I kick my cat, because I am (supposedly) a 'superior being'?

Didn't think so.

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

Maybe, but it's definately not for people with very short attention spans.


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

You're missing the point. This is like having a story saying that someone is suing some public official, but never mentioning for what reason.

"Foo version X.Y.Z has been released" isn't nearly as useful or informative as "Foo version X.Y.Z has been released, adding this feature and that bug fix".

If all we wanted to know was that a new version of X has been released, you can fit it into maybe 3-4 words.

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

Huh? I guess you've had the pleasure to never have seen 'America's Funniest Home Videos'.

You can't get through an episode without someone getting smashed in the crotch by something. Baseball bat, a baseball, etc. At least once per episode, usually more. The worst thing is that the show, or some derivitive thereof, has been running for YEARS.

And people wonder why I don't watch much TV.


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

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I guess this explains the 95% Windows's/PC marketshare then?
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Probably. Remember, we're not talking about technical merit at all. We're talking about individuals - it's hard to say Jobs is a moron, given that iMacs are selling like crazy. Gates isn't a moron either, at least when it comes to business. Bankrupt morals and poor product quality? Sure, but we weren't talking about that were we?

Anyhow, just so you know, Windows is the majority OS outside of the US as well. Kind of blows your 'Americans suck' theory out of the water (not to say that we don't suck overall, but I think it's an issue with the human race in general).

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

Yes. My time is valuable - is yours?


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

Maybe, maybe not. Putting your nationalism aside, though, can you say that it's a dumb person who knows how to sell to those 'morons'?

I don't see anyone else doing it, at least not at the same scale.

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

What about your network provider, whose bandwidth is stolen well before the user ever retrieves that email? They incur the costs, and pass it down to their customers ... Meaning that you already paid for your bandwidth, at least partially.

While each letter is short, it's a matter of scale. Spam contributes a non-trivial amount of load on the 'net, and technological solutions have only helped to a certain degree.

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

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hate furrinurs, private religeous schools paid for tax dollars.....oops I mean vouchers, fuck you. C'mon admit it.
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You're obviously confused.

Read this and this. Then, you'll see that your impression of libertarianism is quite misguided.

In short (in case you'd rather not follow those links), Libertarians are for open borders and privatizing the educational system. The former is pretty much self explanatory, and the latter would ensure that my money won't go to churches if I don't want it to (and I don't).

Perhaps you were thinking of these guys instead?


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

Another thing - given our unfair tax system, a decent chunk of their output is going to the masses already (albeit with half or so being spent on keeping big government running, lining pockets, etc).

If people didn't work 3-4 months every year as a slave to their government, perhaps they would feel more up to donating.

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

Exactly. Open-source isn't Communism, it is a gift culture. This is a very libertarian idea. Nobody is being forced to give away their code, but they do it anyway.


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

Actually, something tells me that if Bill Gates DID fart on Linus' face, that would be news. I bet most of the major media outlets would take it as well.

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

Keeping people alive is society's responsibility, but making sure they have 'a life' is not.

In short, keep them alive long enough so that they can take over, and eventually make a life for themselves.

People need to have at least some culpability for their position in life. As a society we can give people a boost, but like any crutch if it is relied upon too long people won't stand up on their own. We shouldn't be responsible for people who choose not to even try.


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

Perhaps, but for stuff not to be deleted, it is imperitive to hide the password - no?

Maybe he didn't have anything to hide, but I kind of doubt it was for any reason other than the info he needed to hide wasn't on the system in question. Would he be as open with his home, where bills and such might be located?

I understand the story behind it, and from what I could remember the reasoning behind the lack of passwords had little to do with privacy, and more to do with providing the least amount of challenge for fellow hackers to play around with peoples' stuff. After all, if there are no passwords, what fun is it to access someone's account?


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

Actually, I've heard that none other than Steve Jobs spent about a year in India, where he chose not to bathe (or perhaps he was still in the states). Eventually some of his friends convinced him it was a good idea. I can see why.

This was before founding Apple, of course. Since then he has paid much more attention to aesthetics. :>


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

The point is, he obviously did. Sounds like he didn't like his stuff deleted.


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

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It's not stupid for a girl to be really into a good band.
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No, it's not. But you were talking about N'Sync, right?

Seriously, N'Sync is not a band. What it is, though, is a brand. It's a pretty picture for record company executives to slap onto lunchpails, peechees, stickers, bed sheets, and any number of other forms of merchandise.

The music itself is secondary - sure, each bandmember needs to be able to remain on key in order to pass the most basic prerequisite of a boy band. I'll grant them that. But the most important thing is that they are all clean cut and marketable. They were chosen nor for talent, but in order to fit into a specific well defined niche that allows record and merchandise sales to be maximized.

The fact that hormonal teenage girls swoon over these guys doesn't hurt either, as peer pressure will force those girls that don't to emulate their friends.

But don't kid yourself. N'Sync sounds like any other boy band out there - these guys aren't expanding the realm of musical experimentation (do they even play instruments?), nor are they particularly inspired (how many songs about love and sexual innuendo can these bands make?).

You can like them if you like, but the guy's analogy still stands - liking a musician for their talent is one thing (I for one respect a number of musicians - Chris Randall, Trent Reznor, Ed Kowalczyk, Raymond Watts, etc), but they aren't gods or dieties. They are humans, and you don't need to scream or express your undying love at their mere appearance. If you do, well, you're creating a stereotype, and people will notice - just as the above poster did. You can't complain about it if it is true.

And no, I didn't/don't care much for Nirvana, but that's besides the point.


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

Why? Because neither Pokémon or cigarettes are necessary for existance. The only reason you give to these people is so that they don't die - if they want the finer things in life (Pokémon?), they should pay for it like us taxpayers.

That said, I agree with you on the second point - McDonalds? Ech.


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

Perhaps you should reconsider the idea that 'we' are a single coherant group. Many of us have differing opinions, and are capable of thinking for ourselves rather than jumping on whichever trendy boycott is en vogue any given month.

Slashdot: Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians, Socialists, Atheists, Christians, etc. We are diverse - don't pigeonhole people into holes they don't fit in.

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

Forget that, Nader is even more pro big government than Gore & company.

Just because you feel the urge to run away from the encroaching arms of the corporate world, doesn't mean you have to run into the arms of a nanny government. You won't be in a better place.

Vote libertarian, or at least demand the right to choose how you live your life from those who you do vote for. Fight any attempt to take away your constitutional rights, and don't allow the burdensome and unfair tax system to remain.

(mods: feel free to moderate this Offtopic as needed)

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

Hrm. I guess that's a pretty subjective thing though - I'm typing this on a G3 Lombard and I actually like the track pad. It's something that grows on you, and doesn't accumulate lots of cruft like a trackball does.

It'd be kind of neat if input devices could be modular though. :>


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

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...and boned up one your reading skills...
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'one'?

The irony is killing me.


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

Relatively speaking? Compared to what?

The iMac was the top selling personal computer for a number of months, and is still holding its own.

Just because a single company doesn't put the dozens of companies supplying machines for the 'other' platform out of business does not mean they failed at anything. Apple has lots of cash, growing marketshare, a high stock price, and so on. By what measure do you consider Apple's marketing a failure? Seems like it has worked to me.


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

Ah, so I take it you have used the new mouse...?


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

Note that it's dual processor.

Still not cheap, but I'd buy one.

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

At some point you pry fucked up your QuickTime install, or uninstalled QT VR. It works fine for me (Powerbook G3 Lombard).



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

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Gravity is related to mass, and electromagnetic forces on charge. How can someone compare the mass of the earth with the charge in the atoms in a magnet? They are totally different things.
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Exactly. A person could make the opposite argument - that you can place a rock on the ground and it will stay there, and yet remain stationary when you move a magnet over it.

Or even plop down a 2 ton chunk of solid iron. It's a lot easier to keep it on the ground than to lift it with a magnet.

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

Addendum - I made a mistake. you don't report to the RBL, you report to MAPS. The RBL is a list they keep. There are a number of similar lists that network providers can use to decide who they should and should not accept connections from.

Of course, it's all voluntary. You don't need to use these blacklists if you don't want to...

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

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If an online 'White Power' organization were to be established, that posted lists of Websites they objected to, for itemized specific reasons, would that be considered legitimate?
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Sure. I may not agree with it, but if they want to rally the rest of their white trash bretheren, then they should be allowed to do so. Free speech is funny that way...

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

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First off, 'spam' is a subjective term used to describe a lot of different things.
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While some people use it incorrectly, the generally accepted definition of spam is 'unsolicited bulk email' - commercial in nature or not.

Regardless, the RBL focuses on open relays - those aren't subjective at all. It's either open or it's not.

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Companies shouldn't be deciding much of anything for their customers where it comes to filtering the content they receive.
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Sure they can, as long as they are open about it. That's why an open marketplace is so vital - you as a consumer can choose who you want to work with. If a given ISP filters stuff based on known spam sources and you don't like it, there are a number of competing ISPs that would be more than happy to take your business away from them.

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They're certainly no longer a 'common carrier' once they've started applying filters....
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Hrm.

If I block incoming mail from a given ISP due to their listing on the RBL, should that lose me common carrier status? It's not really being 'published' in a public space, and you're not really censoring existing _content_, so it's hard to say.

Where does it stop? If I apply a block to a certain IP range due to a denial of service attack, does that lose me the common carrier status? If so, that needs to change. I consider spam to be the equivelent to an attack of sorts, so I'm not sure why there would be a difference. In either case it's the hijacking of 3rd party computing resources for an insidious purpose.


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

It seems to me that you need to read up on what the RBL is, then, before you pass judgement.

This is how it works:

1. People report open relays and the like to the RBL.
2. RBL puts that on a list.
3. Various ISPs receive a copy of that list, and make it so that email from those sources is not received.

Note that step 3 is 100% consensual. As the owner of an ISP, you can choose to receive mail from those on the RBL. You can even ignore the list entirely. Each ISP gets to choose if they want to use the list or not, and by virtue its customers get to choose whether or not to use that ISP. Basically, it's a way for people to ignore known spam sources if they want to.

It's not a 'big brother' type organization as you don't have to use their list of spam sources if you don't want to. They simply provide a service to those who trust them to root out spam sources (and they are very open on their criteria for putting people on the list, as well as providing proof of their actions).

Now, my guess is that you spoke before doing your research - and that you ARE a true libertarian. However, saying that the RBL doesn't have the right to publish a list of spammers (that your ISP can and can not choose as a commercial organization to filter) is antithetical to libertarian thought. Yeah, there are variations on the same theme, but this is basically a free speech issue. They're not forcing anyone to use it, after all.


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

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I dunno. I'm just a stupid libertarian
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No you're not. You're seriously suggesting that companies shouldn't be able to choose what they can and cannot do to stop their customers from receiving spam. That's not libertarian at all.

Like any industry, you will find some companies use the RBL, and others don't. It's no more censorship than a private corporation not allowing someone to shout obscenities within their building.

A libertarian (which is what I generally consider myself) would laud the RBL for providing a service - a list of confirmed offenders - to the public. The public can choose if they want to use the list or not. It's that simple. If you'd rather receive mail from known spam sources, then you can switch to a competing company.


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

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Or the fact that their documented interfaces are wildly different than those used by the majority of other OSes, making it a real PITA to code for them?
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I've got news for you - in terms of marketshare, they are the majority of OSes.

By your logic. Unix/Linux should conform to the market leader. Didn't think so.

Don't blame the platform leaders if someone else doesn't develop a new file system. I don't know so much about Microsoft, but Apple hasn't significantly changed the manner in which you can access the filesystem. There have been a few file-system wide encryption tools out there already.

Hell, recent versions of MacOS include basic encryption features already - built into the OS.

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