Slashdot Mirror
Final Call for Voting in Slashdot's Beanie Awards
With LinuxWorldExpo just around the corner, and thus the time that we'll actually give these awards away, I wanted to tell everyone to go out and vote for who you like. You can check out the initial story for more information on the awards. Vote early, and vote often...er. Scratch that last one. Anyway, voting goes until 8 PM EST tonight.
I was severely disappointed to not find my personal favorite comment poster on the list.
Had he been on the list, I would have voted for Dan Kaminsky (Effugas). I find his comments regularly insightful and well thought-out. I get the feeling he thinks about things a lot more than most posters before actually putting pen to paper, and this shows.
My Freakin Blog
Brett, if you say he's out to deny you a livelyhood fast enough, it might sound to you as if it makes sense, maybe. But I see no logic there at all.
If you don't like the GPL, all you need do is not use GPL code as part of your program. We are not forcing you to use it. You may license your own code any way you like.
I really take issue with your calling RMS unethical. RMS and I can have our arguments, but my experience is that he is among the most ethical people I have ever met and I trust him completely. There is also no questioning his dedication: I promote free software as I can, RMS dedicates his entire life to it.
If we were to compare RMS' achievements with yours, I'm afraid you'd not measure up. Not even in the same order of magnitude. Thus, that you should presume to judge him so harshly seems extremely inappropriate. Frankly, I'm disgusted.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
I'll admit it may not be as easy as in borland, but it's certainly there...
I hate dragging things like principles into jokes like this, but nevertheless, I abstained on principle from voting in this one-ballot election. Having only one choice turns the whole idea of an election into a joke (you hear me, a JOKE, Hemos!) and reminds me a bit too much of not-too-distant times in the CCCP where voter turnout for single-ballot elections was near 100% by fiat. I'm not saying Hemos is a bloody autocrat, just that he's a communistic socialist running dog of an autocrat. (Hmm, autocratic running dogs -- what will they think of next?) But hey, he's our hamster, so we love him just the same.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
I do not have blinders on about linux. Cross platform advice is important to many newbies who will likely have a foot in several OS camps for the foreseeable future. And, the linux HOWTO world is pretty screwed up: while once it was highly useful, it is now too far out of date for newbies (oh, for how long did I slavishly rebuild my kernel to get masquerading... years after RedHat built it in). But ignoring it all and have newbies hash out the "new" way is not a good idea.
Somebody, please convince me that I'm wrong about this.
RMS and Alan both have impressive beards, but I think Jon Hall might have the winning edge during the holiday season. Can you imagine Mr. Hall playing the role of Santa? hehehe....
Having Tom Christiansen as Best Newbie Helper is like having Bill Clinton as best family man.
Even if you have read the FAQ, the ORA books, look at the source code, hacked on the problem for days, the chances are that Tom or his side kick Abagail will cut your head off if you ask for help on the Perl Newsgroups.
And if you escape to comp.lang.python, he'll show up there to insult your choice of scripting languages.
Other than that he's a great guy! Love his writing.
Anyway, you can always vote for LiViD and Video4Linux.
See, that's the problem with you Libertarians, you expect Big Brotha to take care of your petrification needs. Anyone who has actually read through Steve Forbes' tax plan will see his clear vision of Ms. Portman, Ms. Barrymore, and even Ms. Neve Campbell. A flat tax for everybody, deductions only for home mortgages and petrification research. Give the public sector the incentive and let it flourish in petrification. By having no other loop holes, we can encourage companies to beef up the petrification research to such a point that we will have our goal accomplished before Ms. Portman reaches the dreaded age of 22.
Letting the government handle petrification of young girls would be like throwing pennies at a petrified Leonardo DiCaprio. Sure we wouldn't have him in every other movie there is, but to do away with the problem completely, you must use dynamite! So, to really get the job done, please put your support behind Steve Forbes and the Republican party, which is the only party to put petrification into their party's platform.
There's a lovely lady in my neighborhood with a beard to put RMS and Cox to shame. No hormone supplements -- it just naturally happened that way. I think she's more into tatoos than mallocs, but who knows what goes on behind closed doors....
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Just calm down man. It's just a slashdot thread. Remember, that this is the site that has people who fantasize about people naked and petrified. Don't take anything so seriously that you feel you need to give your 'papal indulgence' to those who transgress laws of etiquette.
This is not real life. This is the internet. Repeat that until you believe it, because it's true.
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
I guess you didn't look at the picture.
--Brett
GNU does not force people to use their utilities, no matter how you feel about the issue. The vast majority of UNIXen ship with their own proprietary utilities that you are free to use in leiu of GNU utilities. Whether or not you'd trust your box to programs that you have no knowledge of whatsoever is really up to you though.
Do you *honestly* think that RMS is out to get you? Because that's how it sounds. It sounds like you're scared of the GNU bogeyman that's riding into town and forcing you to use free software. That sounds like a persecution complex to me. And comparing GNU to microsoft? Do you have any idea of the difference in scale between GNU and microsoft?
If *I* were RMS, and I was against people making money doing what they love to do, I wouldn't have made it possible to make money selling GPL'd software. But RMS went out of his way to make it possible to sell GPL'd software at a profit. He didn't have to do that. While it's recommended that you charge for the media, there's nothing stopping you from selling deluxe distributions of gcc for $2,500 a pop. He's not anti-profit or anti-capitalist, as much as the people who would like to discredit him would love to slap the "commie" label on him. He's just pro-ethics, and against profit where it comes at the expense of freedom.
When you refer to the 20 year grudge, would you be referring to the other MIT programmers being hired away at high salaries? If so, I would question whether or not that's a grudge...as one of the best programmers in the department, he probably could have gone that route whenever he chose, but he simply chose not to, for ethical reasons.
GNU is not Microsoft, part of the essence of freedom is that you don't even have to choose freedom when it's offered to you on a plate via GNU. Chill out and realize that it's OK to disagree with GNU and go your own way, it is not however OK to spread FUD based off of your misconceptions about what GNU is about.
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
That may be true in an extremely limited sense, but in general, it's not.
Set your threshold at -1, and post something pro-linux, and watch the flames of karma-whore, linux nazi, and the usual oatmeal/natalie portman BS fly.
There are other ways of teaching newbies to find stuff for themselves then cutting their heads off. Namely, "here's the resource, but more importantly, here's how I found it..."
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
You think that you should have a monopoly to make costly software, and anyone who makes less costly or free software is unfairly destroying your livelyhood. That's competition, Brett. If it happens that you lost, you weren't looking while we went by.
I know of three people who think more or less the way you do. One of them can actually program and seems to be a benefit to society sometimes. Two of them consider themselves hackers and bemoan that they are prevented from making a living by RMS and the GNU crowd, but try as I might I can't find any software that they've made. And this is at the same time that my own company is advertising a $100,000/year position for someone to do free software, and will advertise more. I call that making money. In fact, it's difficult to find good free software writers who aren't making something like that already, these days. Brett, how did we leave you behind? Don't you realize that these days, the way to make the most money is writing Linux and Free Software?
It sounds as if you're blaming us for your own failings. I'm sorry, but that's what I see here.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Irrelevant to the argument at hand. I prove my point above, and you respond ad hominem by calling me an anti-Semite or a racist!
You think that you should have a monopoly to make costly software,
Now another ad hominem attack: telling me what I "think" -- incorrectly -- and accusing me of being a monopolist.
and anyone who makes less costly or free software is unfairly destroying your livelyhood.
Another provably incorrect claim. As I've mentioned many times, it's the GPL that targets livelihoods. Other open source licenses, such as the MIT X license and BSD license, do not because they are not exclusionary.
That's competition, Brett.
No, it is anti-competitive. Just as Microsoft is, while all the time claiming that it is merely "competing aggressively."
If it happens that you lost, you weren't looking while we went by.
Another insult that does nothing to bolster any argument you might be trying to make. In fact, your entire message appears to be nothing but a series of attempts at personal attacks.
I know of three people who think more or less the way you do. One of them can actually program and seems to be a benefit to society sometimes. Two of them consider themselves hackers and bemoan that they are prevented from making a living by RMS and the GNU crowd, but try as I might I can't find any software that they've made. And this is at the same time that my own company is advertising a $100,000/year position for someone to do free software, and will advertise more.
All anecdotal and irrelevant to the point at hand. The fact is that the GPL is the instrument of a spiteful, malicious, and therefore unethical agenda -- a point which you cannot refute because there's ample proof. And you are actively supporting that agenda and thereby doing harm. If you are ethical, you should stop.
I call that making money. In fact, it's difficult to find good free software writers who aren't making something like that already, these days.
Actually, companies like your own -- and others, such as Red Hat -- are not making money. They're losing it. The money they spend on salaries was taken from stockholders, not earned.
Brett, how did we leave you behind?
You didn't. I've refused to participate in unethical activities. Writing GPLed software is unethical, because the GPL is designed to turn open source -- otherwise a good thing -- into a weapon against a specific group of people against whom Richard Stallman bears a grudge.
Don't you realize that these days, the way to make the most money is writing Linux and Free Software?
Maybe ethics matter more to me than to "make the most money."
The fact is, Bruce, that the companies to which you refer are not making money. They do not even own what they sell! This is not a good business proposition. I intend to make money off of sound and ethical activities. I will not contribute to any GPLed software -- ever. And I will use it only as a matter of necessity, until such time as I can avoid it altogether.
It sounds as if you're blaming us for your own failings.
Again, an ad hominem attack. I haven't "failed" at anything. What I am doing is sounding a warning which intelligent and ethical people should heed.
I'm surprised to see a message like yours from a person who is said to be a key evangelist for open source. Look what you're saying and doing! The way you're coming across, you seem to be so much in denial about the aims of the GPL that even after I've demonstrated irrefutably what they are, you feel the need to attack me personally instead of following the argument to its obvious and inescapable conclusion. We must face facts, Bruce: the GPL is an instrument of spite designed to hurt people. Honest people who want to make an honest living. It is therefore unethical to use or support it.
--Brett Glass
I'm happy to see Carmack on the list. Allthough I have no interest in his games, it is his type that occationally makes it worthwhile to read /. comments. There are basically three types of comment posters:
1) The flamers and off-topic posters.
2) The people who seem to have an opinion on everything, but insight in nothing.
3) The (rare) people some first hand knowledge about the topic being discussed.
I vote for Carmack as representing the third category. Those comment posters who makes it worth browsing through the first two categories.
you misinterpreted me a little. I was/am really interested in getting other people's opinions (about LinuxNewbie) so I wanted to let angry people know that I was still listening despite their best efforts to get me to stop. I meant what I said more as a parish priest than as a pope.
I am, however, infallible (ha ha, ok, too obvious a joke)
LinuxOne's fake distro was exposed a LLLLOOOOONNGGG time ago. You may be an old-timer on LinuxNewbie, but you clearly have not been reading Slashdot. Want to see what'll show up as the next LinuxNewbie expose'? Get a little taste of the future! Come read this! hee hee.
Brett,
We'd like to - but that's what the whole two-week nomination process was for. We've simply schelped what people nominated in the highest degree.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Sure, it's called M-x compile. Or if that's too hard, you can always try the little 'compile' button up at the top of Xemacs.
Ahhh however you have to edit the command line to take into account for the file you are editing unless you know of a nifty trick to make the buffer you are editing append itself to compile's command.
I'm not sure I see your problem. I do Java and C++ development in Emacs, and I have 2 windows open: Emacs, and a terminal for testing the program. You're not going to get any fewer windows no matter what you're doing. Now I
must admit, I'm rarely dealing with more than a handful of sources, so it's trivial to whip up a makefile and just M-x compile using the default command "make -k".
Or are you referring to something else?
Yes as I explain below.
*long sigh* Yes. I learned programming using things like the dos based borland products. You made a mistake in the program using the editor and when you tried to compile it you were given a list of errors. When you went to the error your cursor was taken to the exact area of the code that contained said error. You could set breakpoints in the code. You could easily open up windows that showed the cpu registers. You could setup things to look at variables. I have developed exactly one program that was fairly trivial (I actually figured most of it out in about 3 hours) and then I proceeded to code it.
I used the traditional method that a great deal of people use currently. I took tty1 and got that read for compiling with the command line. Next I opened tty2 with the source in ae. I wrote code in ae and then went to tty1 and compiled it by hand. When an error was generated I had to manually count the lines of code down from the top look at the error message and then fix the problem. This was preformed at least 40 times to get the whole thing to work. Now I thought to myself I guess this little thing called linux could at least make this process a little easier on me. Now is there a good way to do this? I mean they have something for java called JDE however that works for java and the JDK and not for C++. Since I really can't easily learn all the intricies of emacs lisp while simulstaneously trying to learn C++ in an educational environment I thought that there was at least a little more formal system in place to do such a thing. Or do people just gloss over difficult subject matter or just secretly design their own.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
I know this sounds like a rant, but I mean it in all sincerity: The lack of good voting options for software in this poll worries me. KDE still comes across as a Windows wannabe (all the frittery details and nonsense, but no real advance). Gnome is the great unfinished project. The Gimp is up for best graphical interface? Okay, it has a lot of interface with a lot of frills, but *yuck*, no would should ever design a user interface like this one--ugh.
I guess my real point is that this could have been a poll from 1998. Has nothing changed?
I know a lot of people like the Hellmouth series, but it read to me as this incredibly self-indulgent therapy session by Katz trying to exorcise his own demons.
I mean, my high school experience sucked too, but I just don't feel this big need to cast blame everywhere. My inability to fit in was because of my own social limitations. When I worked to overcome them, suddenly life started improving a lot.
Unfortunately, Katz' story is just another symptom of blaming everything in society except yourself for your own problems.
--
However, my nominations were made during that two-week period, and several of the same people or projects were also made by others. Therefore, I cannot understand why they were omitted from the ballot. There was certainly room for more choices!
Among the people to whom I've spoken, there seems to be general disappointment with the selection on the ballot. Some have accused Slashdot of favoring "the usual suspects" -- Stallman, the FSF, etc. -- because the Slashdot crew may feel that it owes its new-found wealth to the hordes of "Linux faithful." I don't think that's so, but the ballot choices certainly would support that assertion! I'd still encourage you to open up the voting -- and perhaps to circulate ballots at the show. (When's your awards ceremony?)
--Brett Glass
I was a little concerned when I noticed who the nominees for 'Favorite Slashdot Poster' were. Only one (boredatwork) was a 'real' slashdot poster. The others are very public personalities who just happen to have slashdot accounts. Name recognition plays a big part, just like any popularity contest. My opinion is that there are at least 10 slashdot posters who are more deserving of the award, whose aliases just aren't very memorable. I find myself recognizing posters by their signatures, for example.
..And if we're going to nominate 'personalities' where the fsck is Alan Cox? His posts have all the qualities I look for in a significant contributor to this community. First and foremost; terseness, but he's well informed and interesting as well.
Compare this to Tom "I know what I want. It's not that, that or that. Come to think of it, I know what you want too" Christianson, and Bruce "Everything I know I learned in 8th grade debate class" Perens.
-nme!
PS Yes, I am a bitch.
And I am stopping, but ya gotta do me a favor and get LinuxNewbie to change at least this line from their credo page [italics added] :) :) :)
just a joke, folks, anybody can make a typo! ...see you all, around.
Damn, that was a hard choice.
:-(
I couldn't decide - I checked hemos, then i decided he's not worthy, since hemos is much better.
So naturally i changed my vote to hemos, but hell - hemos was still a better choice!
So again i rechecked the hemos box,
but then I understood that the best hemos isn't hemos nor is it hemos, so i checked hemos instead.
Then I doubted my choices and decided to go back to Hemos.
After an hour or so I realized that such a desicion can take me days!
So eventualy I absained.
---
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck,
---
I'm going to live forever, or die in the attempt.
Oh well, maybe next year.
Never knock on Death's door:
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
OpenBSD, for example, was left out of the "most improved" category, despite the security audit that made them the most secure OS in existence. Tim O'Reilly was left out of the advocacy category. Brian Behlendorf, whose Apache project has the distinction of achieving the largest market share of any open source project, was left out of the "unsung hero" category. And what's this about Richard Stallman for "Best dressed?" Unless the intent is to make a sarcastic joke at his expense, this is silly. The FreeBSD Daemon Girl (see http://www.gci-net.com/~u sers/f/fluke/comdex/bsdgirl1.jpg) got my nomination. But she wasn't included on the ballot, even though I both mentioned her in the discussion and entered her into the form.
When I e-mailed Rob Malda asking why none of these folks appeared on the ballot, he said that nominations had been closed and that it was "too late." However, I did mention these candidates in plenty of time in the nomination discussions, and entered all of them on the nomination Web form! Other people also recommended them in the discussions.
I certainly hope that these folks were not excluded from the ballot because the awards were actually intended to go to specific people or only people from certain organizations. (With only one or two exceptions, only people involved with Linux or FSF projects appear on the ballot.) Since Andover is spending enough to buy a house on these awards ($100,000 for the awards themselves and probably about $50,000 on space at the convention, advertising, etc.), they should include candidates such as these. Currently, my ballot mostly says "Abstain" -- and I bet I'm not the only one!
Since this is the Web, it's never too late to add candidates or allow write-ins. How about it, guys? It's sure better than winding up with people who aren't the readers' choices.
--Brett Glass
I just found linuxnewbie.org yesterday and can say with 100% confidence that you have not a clue what you are talking about. I found the site to be most informative. Yes, I found a problem with one of the articles there, and I wrote to the guy who wrote the article and let him know what the problem was. If you find a problem someplace why don't you write to the author and let them know? After all, that is why HOWTO authors put their email addresses in there - so people can comment on their work and they can fix what needs fixing - just like they do on linuxnewbie.org.
Making such idiotic comments such as you have made about this site does nobody any good. It misleads those who could benefit from its content yet now will not visit and it just makes you look like a fool.
Or someone else? This isn't a vote, though I'm looking for suggestions and rationale.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
I can't believe no one hasn't nominated that guy that always posts under the name "Anonymous Coward". He always posts so MANY comments in every discussion (he's almost super human in how it seems he never even goes to sleep. A new story can be posted at 3 AM EST, and there he his, going "first post!" and plays a very important role around here in encouraging slashdot to add features (witness: Moderation and then meta-moderation, thresholds, etc...).
Yep. Anonymous Coward should take the grand prize...
:)
Maybe people don't know it even exists, but I LOVE lpe. http://cdsmith.twu.net/lpe/ It's like joe or pico, but I think it has better keyboard commands, and best of all it, has syntax highlighting for java, c, perl, c++ and html. So, lpe is all I ever use for my ediitng purposes. It combines the syntax highlighting of things like vim with an even easier to use interface than joe or pico. I suggest you all check it out(especially you debian maintainers, I want a deb of it!)
I didn't realize the voting was still going on--it's been how long, two weeks?
Yes, that was the plan. The voting was to be counted in two weeks after it was announced. That means the contest is about up. If you haven't voted, please do it now.
"Best Open Source Developer Beard Award!"?
...
Doesn't that exclude most of the female technogeeks? For example, my neighbour, Micosoftie that she is, is one heck of a technogeek, and if I could just sway her over from the Dark Side (TM), she could be in the running for this, except - she's blond and has no beard. But brains, yup, tons of those
Will in Seattle
Sometimes insults, flames and having your head cut off are good learning experience.
You can have as many friendly, helpful and cheerful helpers as you want to carefully guide and correct the newbie, but there has to be at least one person doing the weaning. At some point the newbie has to learn that he can and should try to find out stuff himself.
"Spare the flame and spoil the newbie"
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
I'm serious. I understand completely that if you feel insulted or passionately about something it is natural to lash out. I've done it myself. But I think this is a serious topic and worth pursuing so I'm ignoring all the noise.
Respond, if you'd like, to the actual details of what I posted (hint: it would make you look more credible if you admit which parts you might agree with and separately which parts you disagree with) and we can talk about it. Helping newbies is a noble cause and worth getting right, which I suspect is the reason the award is being given.
Come on folks! How could you forget the "Best Open Source Developer Beard Award!". Sheesh! My vote goes to RMS with Mr. Cox coming in a close second.
I prefer to think of award money as just a way of making things interesting. The award itself is a means to recognize an accoplishment. Money is iceing on the cake. If you were to win an award, the recognition would be grand, but money would make it so much sweeter.
Don't let money get in the way.
--
--
Just lurking, thanks!
The LinuxNewbie discussion groups permit everybody to post questions as well as advice.
I didn't criticize the discussions groups, in this post. In the other post I criticized just the discussion about switching to NT. I thought that whole thread was a little strange on a site whose name is "linuxnewbie", a site that carried an editorial criticizing LinuxOne (rightfully) for riding on the linux name.
Due to this, there is good probablity that SOME advice given may not be the right advice.
I think my critique was pretty comprehensive, and not focused on random erroneous info.