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Gates Nose-Dives at CES
Lots of submissions this morning about Bill Gates' performance at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. His Media Center PC presentation crashed. (The presentation is online.) He also gave an interview to CNET, where he described anyone who doesn't support ever-increasing intellectual property laws as "communists". Boingboing has some commentary on that interview as well.
someone provide a link to the video where Windows 98 crashed on Gates and former MS employee at Comdex in Chicago circa 1998.
Fly the flag with pride comrades!
boingboing.net/images/copyleftcommie.gif
HA HA!!
Friends don't let Friends use Internet Explorer.
Now there's a desperate man for ya. He's sweating the shareholders' realizing MSFT is not the great holding they thought it was.
Never show up at an event hosted by a comedian.
Using Windows.
Don't watch the presentation, it makes your PC crash, too ;)
www.weberseite.at
I always knew Gates was a robot. Now they installed SP2 on him, and LOOK WHAT HAPPENS! Increased security, my foot!
I am scientifically inaccurate.
"That's why we don't release Windows 95 yet"
oh wait...
I wish they'd stop developing new, useless BS out at Microsoft and get to work on bug fixes.
I'm going to accuse them of being modern day capitalists.
Sounds just as bad to me.
Say what you want about Microsoft, but if you watched Gates at Berkley or most of his appearances he's pretty level headed. Using one comment against him his just propoganda.
It sounds like Bill Gates may be infested with SpyWare, a typical memetic programming that took place in the 1950's in which everyone who was not a right-wing-christian-gun-loving-American was a communist. It sounds like it's causing his PR ability to crash. Should we help him out and format him and put linux on him? (Wait.. Put linux on him, linux is Tux, the mental image that is coming to mind is... DISTURBING!!!! ACK REBOOT REBOOT!)
It would *REALLY* be nice to see someone in the media finally get this right.
SB:
Head for the hills! The Commies are everywhere!
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Is it me or does Gates seem to be very out of touch with what is going on in the real world and mostly seems to be getting his current information from his "Human Search Engines". Not to mention the fact he is constantly doing little more then plugging Micro$oft products.
Just remember: If you don't buy from Micro$oft you are a Communist!
When I read that he nose-dived, I was hoping for a video of him tripping and flying off a stage or something. I am sorely disappointed!
I am scientifically inaccurate.
Gen. Jack D. Ripper: I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
free ipods
Gates, who was sitting next to O'Brien on a set staged to look like NBC's Late Night set, smiled dryly and continued with his discussion.
"Smiled dryly"?? I can see making a dry remark, but... Or is this meant to indicate that Mr. Gates was not drooling and/or foaming at the mouth? I'm not bashing Bill, btw - just assessing the article author's acumen. (Sorry to be a pain in the assonance.)
As an aside, when I read the headline I though Bill had done a faceplant on the stage or had been caught lip-synching or something. It turns out he was just a little embarrassed because his whizzy new products crashed twice in front of thousands of people.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Use his influence with the federal government to tie the open source effort with terrorism. Terrorism is the new communism. Cloak anything you don't like in terrorism and it gets done. Couple that with this administration's ability to be bought off by corporate interests and he can get what he wants. OK, mod me down now.......
From the interview, on the topic of search engines:
Oh, sure, everybody is working on those things, but just take the idea of finding your local pizza place and doing that right; search doesn't do that well today.
Sounds like someone needs to clue Bill in to using Sherlock under OS X -- that's exactly what I used it for yesterday.
--saint
Worlds largest blue screen of death here
Cruise TT
its kinda funny, the other guy does a good job removing the over-screen proyector (or whatever it is), while trie to find where to hide himself. He probaly is also trying to remember if he has got morining's newspaper to start looking for a new job... :-)
So does this make Gates a fascist capitalist pig?
I, for one, welcome our new copyleft communist masters (and logo).
[rant]
Seriously, Bill Gate and Co. continue to try and paint anyone who doesn't agree with their stance on IP as un-American. Who died and made him J. Edgar Hoover, Jr.?
America was NOT founded on the principles of IP but on freedom of choice (religious and otherwise) and the idea that everyone is supposed to contribute to the public good. The recent push to IP, patent, and copyright every little "innovation" (think one-click)is what is hurting our ability to produce something new and better without having to wade through a morass of legalities.
I will continue to support copyleft, OSS, and any other program that contributes to the dissemination of knowledge and ideas.
[/rant]
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
I find it pretty unusual that both cases caused the machine to stop responding completely. That hasn't happened to me since Windows 98/Me. 2000 and XP have generally been pretty stable theirselves. Individual programs still crash, but they don't usually take the system down with them. I wonder if there was some bad ram or other hardware failure as part of the cause. Still funny and I'm sure embarrassing all the same. :)
If the video still works, Conan O'Brian does some hilarious stand-up badmouthing Gates at minute 7. Skip the garbage before that.
he described anyone who doesn't support ever-increasing intellectual property laws as "communists".
But... doesn't sharing mean caring? At least that's what my parents always said.
In all seriousness, there's nothing wrong with a communial society, it's just really really hard to pull off because of human nature.
So, his media player presentation crashed, and the link to this is ... a .asx.
Kinda ironic don't you think ?
Ahahahahahahaha!!!! This is the most funniest thing I ever heard him say! Communists indeed... Oh Bill... you so craaaazy!
I'd rather be labelled a "communist" by a glorified software salesman than a "terrorist" by our government or a "fascist" by anyone else.
I'm sorry but I was unaware that "communists" were now the negative buzzword. He should have called them terrorists instead. He'd get a lot more press that way.
he described anyone who doesn't support ever-increasing intellectual property laws as "communists".
While this is generally laughed at by the slashdot community we still need to consider that Joe Sixpack pretty much sees it the same way. Not that he minds downloading free music and pr0n but ultimatly he does see it as theft.
And this could really bite at the community in the future. While most people here laugh at Joe Sixpack he's the one who helped Gates build an empire.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Ay tovarish... pass me that Windows XP key!
a) Calling free culture advocates commies shows a... slight misunderstanding of the two ideologies. At its best, Communism was never particularly concerned with the individual (possibly why it is so successful in the Confucian environment of China).
b) Arguing that "Communist" is not a pejorative is likely to go down like a lead balloon in much of America. The McCarthy witchhunts were ludicrous but they happened for a reason. Communists *were* the enemy - defending them carries the same overtones as defending Naziism to the French.
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
I wonder if the fathers of capitalism ever imagined the levels of marketing we would have today. I believe it really skews the whole idea of competition...
It didn't hurt Windows 98 sales after Gates got a blue screen during a demo, Ashlee Simpson is still selling albums even though we found out that she really, really, can't sing (SNL + Orange Bowl), and G. W. Bush got the presidency despite being a below average public speaker.
The american public really doesn't hold public figures to a very high standard anymore.
There are music geeks who hate Ashlee for taking away a spot at a record company that some talented band might have had, political geeks who know every single word GW has said wrong, and normular computer geeks who know the design flaws in Windows.
Still, the public doesn't seem to care, and prefer to be sheep following celebrity shepards rather than thinking humans supporting the most qualified public figures.
You have to be a really dedicated researcher if you want to get beyond the multi-million dollar marketing hype surrounding most products and people these days.
$8.95/mo web hosting
So this story is just a piece of evil propaganda.
Although he accepted guffaws from audience members in the theater, the technical hiccups didn't prompt Gates to engage in a hard-hitting analysis of computer reliability and security.
Doesn't that just sum up everything that's wrong with Microsoft?
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
... and I had thought he'd tripped for real and done a face plant on the stage.
Sooo.. only windows crashed on him, heck, that happens every day to (tens of)thousands every day.. that's not even news worthy anymore. People have got used to that... when you use windows anyway..
In Sovjet Russia, ever-increasing intellectual property laws are not supported by you!
Throwing words like comunist is very imature and unprofessional on Bills behalf IMHO.
Can anyone provide a http link of the wmv for those that don't want to spend all morning trying to jump through the mms:// hoop?
Because "beta" is for life, not just early releases.
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Slashdotted. Getting really slow. By the way, the forza motorsport part starts at about 71 minutes.
Fast forward to the interesting portion of this riveting presentation.
I got mine last week. I just wish it was water proof.
I can't think of a single anarchist government that's killed millions of people.
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
You know I was ready to call B.S. as I was reading the article because I got to here and read "There are fewer communists in the world today than there were". I thought man, saying that Bill called everyone communists was a bit of stretch but then I read a little further, "There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises."
Yep, he pretty much just said that if you don't support IP then your a Communist. What a douchebag. That statement is going to haunt him for a long time and rightly so. The world's richest man and still as greedy as ever. Again, what a douchebag. Oh btw for the 12 year olds among you who can't think like adults yet, yes you can still be a douchebag and be philanthropic at the same time.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
...demand free and open source code just like they demand a free and open society.
For those interested, the crash for this year's CES happens at about 26 minutes in.
Is there any reason that multi-billion-dollar company like Microsoft should be allowed to patent anything? Why does MS need patents? Do they need to get their foot in the door in the software industry? Perhaps they're struggling to survive without exclusive rights to concepts like 'buttons' and 'double-clicking'? MS has almost all of the desktop OS market, for christ sakes.
The purpose of patents is to protect unique, innovative ideas of inventors, not to provide a means for corporations to get legal rights on ubiquitous things that no one had bothered to patent yet.
To the barricades!
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Joe Sixpack pretty much sees it the same way. Not that he minds downloading free music and pr0n but ultimatly he does see it as theft.
So you're saying that most people believe that only communists steal?
We'd be supporting the idea of the government owning all intellectual property.
However, not to defend Mr. Gates (and surely to piss off a lot of the OSS community), but there is some small degree of validity to his statement, though he used the wrong word.
Many people who completely reject the idea of intellectual property (not all) aren't really communists as Mr. Gates would propose, but in fact, radical left-wing anarchists. They despise authority in any form that it comes in; that is why such things as IP and copyrights are hated so much. The idea of God introduces a supreme authority, so they hate him even more.
They wear the "communist" label with pride, not understanding who they really are, or what communism really is and what it has done to nearly every single society that has been foolish enough to try it.
They are the modern day hippy, when it comes right down to it. They stand for and oppose the same things and the same principles.
But God demonstrates his love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us - (Romans 5:8)
He has to say this sort of thing since he's bet the MS farm on DRM and the like. When you hear people making these kind of references though, you know they are concerned. That tells me the DRM plan isn't going as well as they thought it would.
Have you seen Ironstayn vs Supergovernment yet?
This is an obvious ploy by Gates to reawaken the seeds planted in the American psyche in the McCarthy-era, when it was used to imply "criminal, treacherous or anti-social behaviour. He's trying to get the average Joe to subconciously associate anyone who doesn't support Gates's greedy power-crazy megalomania with somehow being un-American.
Hey America, Communism is just a political ideal, its not dirty or perverted for someone to be a communist.
I see this as yet more Microsoft dirty tactics that will be so obvious to most modern-thinking people that they will backfire badly.
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In Korea, Bill Gates is only for Old People
Tim says: "please mod me up so my karma won't be terrible. Please?"
and was surprised, at first, to find that many people there actually believed that.
Best Slashdot Co
If not supporting Micro$oft and increasing their stranglehold on development and innovation makes us communists, what does it make those who support Micro$soft's dictatorship?
I think there's a name for those who consolidate power under themselves, and who keep the citizens in place through threats and violence (or in MS's case, through threats and lawsuits). Can you say "Totalitarianism"?
I agree with others sentiments... Gates seems to be as out of the loop on what consumers want out of their PC's, as Bush, who is totally out of the loop as far as how his actions make him and the USA appear to others.
I think ol' Billy Gates needs to get back to his roots and fast! MS's recent blatherings about IE not needing any updates until 2006/2007, as well as their Longhorn/Roadmap fiasco clearly show that they're no longer the leaders they once were. Instead, they're now riding the ever-decreasing wave of profit that their past performance has provided them with. Eventually this wave will die out (it'd last longer if they gave up on their XBox aspirations!), and then we'll see how Micro$oft can handle 21st century computing.
After Tiger comes out, and Apple rolls out their $500 computer (if rumors are true), there'll (hopefully/expectantly) be an ever increasing flow of fed up Windows users migrating to Linux and OSX. Firefox has proven that non-MS software is a good thing to the unwashed masses, and they're now starting to reconsider that Windows investment. Hopefully by the time Longhorn hits the streets, the business world will be waking up to cheaper, more reliable options as well (beyond just using Linux on their servers).
You're either very lucky or no longer regularly using a Microsoft operating system. I get blue screens on my 2000 and XP Pro boxes about once a month each.
Which is around 20x more reliable than my old 98SE workstations, granted.
Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
...when they can't even rig a demo properly?
Seriously, even when they're running through a script and avoiding the bits of code that they aren't 100% on, they still got two crashes. Maybe next time, they should just make a PowerPoint presentation that looks like an interactive Windows desktop and hope nobody notices that they're just mouse-syncing.
...reforming the IP laws to be fair to all people would hurt his pocketbook. The real problem as I see it is that the laws need to be reformed enough so that OPEN/FREE software can do anything that Closed/Commercial can. Right now some of the IP laws prevent this from happening, and some of the coming ones will tighten that even more. All I presonally want is a level playing field, and so long as we have "Trade secrets", Broadcast flags, CSS, etc that can never happen because IT locks out Open/Free which requires that those secrets begiven to everyone using the software and nothing be hidden. Thankfully we won the battle with the W3C and they dropped that whole RAND thing for web standards. A step in the right direction, but not the whole road.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Can anyone provide a http link of the wmv for those that don't want to spend all morning trying to jump through the mms:// hoop?
Unlikely to be available, as the mms stream will be hosted from a Windows Media Services server (or farm thereof).
That said, I can view the stream OK from here, but it's a bit sluggish to buffer.
Keep in mind that he is targeting US audience where a "communist" is something you should be afraid of. He simply tries to scare people as part of his "use linux and you will be sued" campaign. No doubt fear rules in the US
>Using one comment against him his just propoganda.
This is not one comment. This is him openly claiming:
1. The current IP system is what makes America great. Yes, that's what he's saying.
2. The current IP system doesn't need reform, except perhaps making better patent systems. Note Microsoft has been dealing with Eolas and others regarding patents so Bill is only seeing the light only when it serves his company.
3. He calls those who call for IP reform "new communists." That's just an insult and trivializes the real concerns many have with using the law (think DMCA and others) to maintain monopoly status and crack down on how one can use one's machine and software.
He spoke like a perfect monopolist. He knows IP laws help him and help maintain the status quo, thus creating a nice and healthy (for him) barrier to entry. He only diverged from the party-line when it came to patents and it should be obvious why.
Of course, he may be right about patent reform, but its soley in his interest and in the interest in his monopoly, comrade.
I will give MS credit, they are the perfect monopolists. Perfect. No wonder he uses such outdated and misused terms like "communism." MS has shown that ruthlessness pays off and Bill might be seeing himself as Ayn Rand, say versus Karl Marx, when he's just an old fashioned monopolist. Monopolies are of course, a symptom of a market failure or corruption. This is called irony.
I find this rhetoric to be common amongst the wealthy business class and conservatives in general. Such as: Commies! X makes America great! Sure there will always be a debate on Y, but lets not jump to conclusions! etc
I love the way "communist" is considered such a dirty word in America.
Perhaps it should be upgraded to full expletive status. e.g "It's totally comminised", "What a communist piece of software" or "Eat communism, motherfucker"
Gates and his people do threat assesments of new technology. They decide what to ignore, what to buy, what to compete with, etc...
He's not a technical guy who is going to give unbiased opinion. We shouldn't be surprised that he's going McCarthy on Lessig-types here. It's in his own best interest!
I'm glad he said it because it just gives more reason for those out there to fight and innovate.
[insert sig file here]
I for one welcome our new overlord
Gates quoted from the article:
"Well, no one invests more in security of their browser than what we do on IE. The key message we have for people is they should turn on auto update because if you turn on auto update, without you having to think about it and go through a bunch of user interface or know about this or that or the other thing, you can know that there are hundreds of very smart people who are constantly improving your browser and making sure that you're safe. And so with auto update and IE, you're getting the top security team and the quickest response team that there is anywhere."
If I understand the problem, it isn't so much that there are holes in IE, the problem is that you have to have IE set to allow others to execute code on your box if you wish to use Auto Update, and it is these settings which allow malware to be loaded.
Please correct me if I am wrong, or tell me if I am missing something.
So, Bill Gates makes the opening speech at the CES. What does slashdot report?
That his demo wasn't flawless.
Where's the much more sensible and deserving reportage of what Gates' speech contained? About how he's repositioning Microsoft as not just a PC software manufacturer, but is placing more and more emphasis on other devices like consoles (the Xbox), handhelds, personal organisers etc. because the desktop PC is becoming less important in the new, gadget-orientated technology market?
Bill even admitted this in the speech. But we don't talk about that.
We just witter on about how his demo didn't work in a pointless, rodomontade, article.
No, I'm not new here. I'm just fed up.
I think it is official. Gates has gone off the deep end. He must have early onset senile dementia.
I have a website. It's about Macs.
Is it me, or are his jokes totally falling flat here? This is a bit sad to watch, especially after enjoying his bizarre and hilarious skits.
There is communism (insane totalitarianism found in USSR and an earlier China) but they never achieved that Marx wrote about. No "government" ever has (In the '60's and '70's people had communes, but they always broke apart on the shoals of human nature). The people who started "communist" revolutions never completed the process. I don't call those insane assholes "communists", they are insane oligarchs, just like the Czarist regime before them.
There was a time when the new government in this continent did something that had not been done before or since: They *gave up power*, placing that power in the hands of people. Since then, the concept has fallen on hard times. Today, we have oligarchs like Mr. Gates trying to restore Traditional Values: Own and control access to *fucking everything*. And they have enough financial resources to buy off what passes for government these days. And the only people doing anything about it (in information technology, they are FOSS advocates) eschew government and political process. Too busy writing actual reliable code, I suppose...
I don't like arbitrary authority, so I don't like big centralized government. On the other hand, I cannot think of another way to slow down the assholes who want to charge me for the privilege of working (using "their" "intellectual" "property"). It's a dilemma that I don't know how to resolve.
What 'fathers of capitalism'? I hope you're not thinking that capitalism arrived somewhere around the late 18th century.
communism: the political theory or system in which all property and wealth is owned in a classless society by all the members of a community.
By definition, isn't Gates right to a certain extent? Why is it when someone uses the word communist slashbots everywhere hound on this word incessantly without stopping to even consider if it's used correctly or not? Bill Gates never said those who believe intellectual property to be bad for society and will do everything in their power to subvert the rights of copyright and patent holders want an entire political system based on communism, they simply want to communalize the expression of ideas. He's right for the most part, though obviously his choice of words is rather charged and he could have picked a better one. For a community whose ranks are supposed to be rather intelligent, there certainly are a rather large number of dumb fucks who speak for you.
Article: "During a demonstration of digital photography with a soon-to-be-released Nikon camera, a Windows Media Center PC froze"
See, it was an unreleased _camera_ that caused the problem. Nothing to do with Windows. Oh no. Of course not. Its perfect.
Expect Nikon shares to plummet...
And does this: "Bill Gates promised that Microsoft would help millions of consumers stay seamlessly plugged into a world of digital music, movies, video games and television shows." sound a bit too much like The Matrix to you?
Baz
"...what's good for the syndicate is good for the country."
Msft doesn't oppose *all* IP reform. For example, when it comes to restricting the rights that individuals have over their own media, msft is all for it.
It's typical msft. When msft speaks of "American Business" msft really means one particular American business. Anything good for msft is good for America, Anthing bad for msft is bad for America.
Who exactly were they? Since when have people not bought and sold? Even homo erectus probably traded spear points.
It seems that the person who "owns" the intellectual property is the person with the best lawyer in the court.
If two people claim a XYZ item is their's, they go to court, someone is going to lose. The loser is infringing on the winner's intellectual property.
The problem is people will patent something (Let's say virtual [3d] chat rooms). There is currently a patent on 3d chat rooms, but the company has not made any effort to create a working model.
If you create a 3d chat room (you got a wild hare one night)...you are in voliation of someone's intellectual property.
Why? Because the law/lawyers/courts say so.
The root problem is not some kid downloading mp3s from the internet. The problem is how the law regarding intellectual property kills innovation.
I'm not a doctor, but I play one in bed.
Note that capitalism is not about monopolies. In fact, capitalism relies on free market, and you can't have free market if one of the players controls a majority of it.
The basic ideas of capitalism work just insanely effective. When we had communism in Poland, most shops had empty shelves -- and within just months after the communism's fall any shortages were just gone, as if by a wave of a magic wand.
On the other hand, communism is based on monopoly. It's supposed to be a monopoly of the "working class", but in reality in all cases it turned out to be a monopoly of the Party. And then, if you can buy the Party's blessing -- you can have a monopoly in your sector, too!
Whatever you say, you can't ignore the fact that all real-life implementations of communism were based on the control the Party had on the citizens. In fact, it's the control what the communism is about.
So... we have a company who tries to gain the sole control of a sector of industry -- and it's them who dare to call their enemies communists.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Now Bill Gates is going to start refering to free software as the dangerous threat of WMDs (Weapons of Microsoft's Destruction). Communism is so 80s. Terrorism is thr 'ism for the 2000s.
Once, Bill Gates was a reasonable democratic guy.
He and his silly company are turning more and more into their "One OS" fascism corp cult.
A shame really.
Since Bill feels free to label anyone who disagrees with him as a communist, may we all feel free to label him a twat?
How deep did he have to dig to get a nose so brown?
He went on for minutes during his introducing Gates and MS about how cool, great, respected, inventfull and bla bla bla they both are.
I didn't watch the rest of it it. Couldn't bare it.
So, the people who wrote the US constitution
were communists too since they allowed
copyright for 10 years maximum !!!
Gates... you sad little man. I bet it takes
your wife a pair of tweezers and a an hour or two
to find your limp little bit of string.
strange that a socialist would call others a communist. pot, kettle, black.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
IP is more important to open sourcers rather than anybody else because all they have it the "Copyright (C)" in their code. If IP is not respected, open source can be stolen. The only thing these folks have is the credits for their work.
The problem is that -as usual- the people who are pushing the IP laws are also including small print along with the basic idea, which is bad laws. You can't say that a phrase like "threepeat", is IP!!! Sure, the ex-coach of cicago bulls can take credit for it but it's not god damn IP!
The objection, I think, is "what is IP and what isn't". Some things that are intellectual property indeed should definitelly be respected. Other things that aren't and that will fall into IP, will restrict scientists and pioneers.
well, I can assure you, I've crashed Windows 2000 (with and without service packs) MANY times. Same goes for Windows XP (not sure the exact version).# Windows_NT4.2F2000
Anyway, here's some picture about it.. though the ones I got had less text on them... and it rebooted automatically in ~5 seconds.
Yea here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_screen_of_death
where he described anyone who doesn't support ever-increasing intellectual property laws as "communists".
Does this make Bill Gates a communist? Xerox and Apple had windows before Microsoft. TCP was borrowed from Digital. Sun for RPCs and J#. Supercalc and other had spead sheets before Microsoft. Does work perect or others get roaylties rom Word for the word processor?
In fact, Linux uses X for it's windows which predates Microsoft. Maybe Microsoft should pay royalties to commercial UNIX and Linux for the RTU of Windows.
And look at Microsoft's legal track record.
This was obviously a hypocritical comment on Bill's part. A typical reaction to a monoplistic looser.
I wish I had mod points today, tovarich! let's burn some karma, for the revolution!
If Godwin's law allowed the use of Communists instead of Nazis would that mean he lost the argument?
"it's just really really hard to pull off because of human nature."
yeah, those pesky people just keep wanting to LIVE! dammit!!
They'll never learn...
I see laws as a kind of software for running a society, and as our society becomes more information based, we will need more sophisticated and nuanced rules to maximize freedom, the creative spirit, and the natural unfolding of life and desire. The current IP laws that we have are of a different time and world. We need new maps to guide us, that give us greater choice and freedom, while also providing a logical structure that an information based society can thrive on.
He's an imperialist!
irc.enterthegame.com #linux
Well you've pretty much proved you can be a 12 year old and use a dictionary...
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
does anybody know where there's a non-windowsmedia video of the keynote. windows media player for mac has yet to be able to effectively play a live stream for me.
Why is IE on those systems, Bill, oh that's right because you made it part of the OS and there was little way for it not to be on the system.
"...We need to keep IE the best. So no big problem; it's not that people have stopped using IE, it's just we've got lots of good ideas that can match and move ahead...."
I'm sure the Firefox is being downloaded, over and over, but it's not catching on... right? IE hasn't been the best in years.
And for the best (in terms of the IE talk)
Well, no one invests more in security of their browser than what we do on IE.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is correct. The part Bill seems to ignore is the fact that the $ is wasted is you base that on their track record of making things secure.
"Fly the [boing!boing! USSR/Copyleft] flag with pride comrades!"
NONONONONO!!! I know you're trying to be funny, but I'm not laughing... The last thing free software proponents need is to associate themselves with a failed economic ideology that has resulted in tens of millions of unnecessary deaths worldwide. Free Software has nothing to do with statist communism and everything to do with individual freedom of association and collaboration. When Bill Gates frames the debate between the capitalists on his side and communists on the other, the last thing to do is embrace the presuppositions of his frame! Down that road evokes an ideological wasteland of failure! Do copyleft supporters want to associate themnselves with that? --M
I think he's suffering from delusions of grandeur.
Anyone reading Slashdot for the first time could be forgiven for lumping together people who pirate music and films with those who support Free/Open Source software. But Bill Gates is bright enough to know the difference.
Most FOSS advocates respect others' intellecutal property, and rely on copyright law to make the GPL and other Open Source licences work. Most people who download pirated films and music off Kazaa and BitTorrent don't give a flip about IP or copyright, whatever excuse they give.
Download it using Flashget :)
It supports saving MMS streams
:: Andrea
Anime Wallpapers
Just so you don't have to watch the entire video (2 hours), the crash happens when they are trying to modify a car at around the 01:13:30 mark.
Havn't Steve Jobs been going on and on about the digital hub for the last several years? Nice to see that Microsoft is using their good old R&D-lab called Apple again.
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Haw Haw!
Bill Gates is great, he's really very great. He is so great
for me to poop on!
"There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises."
Yep, he pretty much just said that if you don't support IP then your a Communist. What a douchebag.
I like this new generic group: musicians, moviemakers and software makers. Thanks Bill, you make me feel like a rock and roll star!
It's typical PR spin. If you repeat something untrue often enough people may believe it. Rather than remove incentive for software makers, OSS makes the bar higher and requires software to be of a much higher caliber to provide value and make it worth paying for instead of using free software. Of course the maker of shoddy bug-ridden software is going to be frightened by this. Bill is still living in the 80s where software was so rare you paid through the nose for applications you needed no matter how poorly written. The world has moved on since then and he has been left behind.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Ok, so I'm going to go a little bit off topic here, but gates implies that if you support free software, then you are a communist, the thing of it is, I'm not sure how exactly this is a bad thing.
Capitalism and Communism are each at opposite ends of a scale of scarcity- that is to say, Capitalism works great when there is a limited amount of stuff to go around, relative to the population size. It encourages effeciency and results in a population as a whole getting the most of what it wants from a limited pool of resources. Communism on the other hand is ideal for a world where, relative to the population size, resources are unlimited, or at least nearly unlimited. In the perfect theoreticaly communist society, the only limit to how much of something that can be made is the number of people available to make it.
Socialism is basically just the name given to the middle ground.
Now, capitalism is great for a lot of things, because as a society/country/planet today in many areas our resources are still finite. For many aspects of our world, capitalism is still the best thing we've come up with to deal with the limited resources we have, relative to the world population.
In the world of software however, we have a situation which is more closely related to the communist ideal world. Once a program is written it can be copied over and over again essentially for free. In this case, the only limit to the software that can be developed is the amount of skilled people who are able to work on it.
Looking at it like that, what I see when gates says people who support free software are communists is really his admission that we are using a superior philosophy for our little section of reality.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
sob sob ..... oh this world just would'nt be the same without u bill .
football is football..but for you its a different football - jose mourinho
In that case, it is also inappropriate to call the CEOs of Enron et all capitalists, because what they did had nothing to do with Adam Smith's writings.
The irony of Bill Gates' anti-communist rhetoric in the wake of his recent crash and burn presentation on Windows Media Center is that Microsoft itself resembles a creaky Soviet-era state-run monopoly much more than a lean, mean emblem of free-trade capitalism.
In my opinion Microsoft is essentially a state-sponsored monopoly and, as such, represents, little more than a tweaked version of the classic communist state entity.
The rational for this position is the simple fact that although Microsoft has been found guilty of being a monopolistic barrier to free-trade in the software industry it was given tacit state sanction to operate as such when the courts and the DOJ failed to press for meaningful controls on their business practices.
From an objective perspective this is no more than a refined version of the classic communist state monopoly. Like Soviet era monopolies Microsoft must compete in the international market as a representative of the State economy while at home it is given tacit control of the market in exchange for loyalty to the political leadership. Also like Soviet era monopolies, state pressure for reform of business practices amounted to little reform but a large increase in the amount of money passed on to corrupt politicians. Take a look at Microsoft's political contributions post-trial and I think you'll see this pattern is quite obvious.
What's worse is that this "tweaked" form of state control can be conducted legally through Political Action Committees with little need to resort to passing money under the table as occurred in the old Soviet Union.
That's right folks, Microsoft's brand of communism is conducted right under your noses while real innovation and competition in the software industry is systematically squashed through monopolistic trade practices tacitly sanctioned by the state. It's high time that all you Democrats and Republicans out there swallow the blue pill and see things as they are, not how you want them to be. Either we believe in free trade or not and no matter how you dice it monopolies are antithetical to free trade. Those who acquire them will always attempt to redefine competition so that the rules don't apply to them. Ooogedy boogedy people! Look-out! International competition means we have to stick together and support our local monopoly. Oh no! Look over there people, those communist are trying to wreck our good capitalist monopoly. It's total nonsense if you just step back and take a look at it for what it really is.
Never show up at an event...using Windows.
As entertaining as Conan O'Brian is, how far into the keynote video in the crash? Watching Gates talk for too long makes me dry-heave.
God is real unless declared integer.
Bill Gates: "We need to keep IE the best." Funniest thing I've read in weeks... literally.
Article summary: Microsoft is a huge company with massive, crippling market share. We've got all sorts of different things going, but we can't really describe them specifically so that you can understand what we're doing. We intend to lock you in and control every aspect of your life, from the content on your hard drive to the content you see, hear, and use for entertainment to the content you send back and forth with friends and family. Don't worry, though, because we're huge and lots of other huge companies are partnering with us, so whatever we're doing must be good.
So no big problem; it's not that people have stopped using IE, it's just we've got lots of good ideas that can match and move ahead.
Translation: Microsoft no longer innovates. We have massive, crippling market share, so we don't have to innovate. We wait to see what cool things other people come up with, then we steal them and tell everyone we thought of them first. The general public is stupid and doesn't know any better, so they believe us.
In terms of our agility to do things on the browser, people who underestimated us there in the past lived to regret that.
Translation: Microsoft has massive, crippling market share. Competing with us is an exercise in futility, because we will crush you. Ask Netscape if you don't believe us.
All in all, 100% image and 0% substance in that interview. I have to ask: does Bill actually DO anything any more? Or is he just a gloating talking head?
Everyone here is so eager to bash on how "bad" Windows is, giving stupid misspellings and generally acting like jackasses. I use Windows at home, and I never plan to switch; I've never gotten a virus, never had a problem with spyware, and never had problems with random crashes. I restart about once a week to make sure I keep things running smoothly, and that's it. I don't know what you guys are doing to fuck your Windows boxes up so much, but I have no problem keeping mine up and running.
To me it seems that the extremes of capitalism and communism are BOTH dangerous. Combining them can provide a much more effective society.
I assume yoy are running Linux... net/
;)
Get a new Firefox
Get MPlayer http://www.mplayerhq.hu/
Get the Mplayer-Plugin
http://mplayerplug-in.sourceforge
Once compiled and installed properly, you will have in-brouwser wmv and mov movies, just like in Windows
What never ceases to amaze me is that these greedy SOB's always label communism as evil and bad. Not every communistic society was totalitarian/stalinistic/maoistic.
Much of the state of Israel survived the past 150 or so years by forming kibutzim, which were small communities that pooled resources much in a communistic manner. Granted, as the country prospered, the importance of the kibutzim has faded, and most kibutzim are more and more privatized every year.
I read somewhere that the Chinese had the technology for mechanical clocks and watches for several hundred years before they were "invented" and commonplace in society, and that the Chinese had created such a heavy, overpowering beauracracy (think: the current abuse of patents and copywrights as a parallel) that they stifled innovation and failed to truly advance their society after the Khans returned to Mongolia.
It is of my opinion that if you take out a patent or copyright anything non-artistic for the purposes of exerting a monopoly on said works, then it really needs to be controlled in a reasonable manner to not forsake the rights of society as a whole to advance. People and organizations have the right to earn a living, but not "steal" from the society that grants them their power.
At least you're pointing out things to people in your age group..
Oh, and douche bag is two words.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Communists? Come on, Bill, you can do better than that! Who cares about Communists anymore? Just look at all the business we're doing with Communist China these days. The word "Communism" has definitely lost its cache.
Here's some advice for your public relations folks: We're not communists, we're "software terrorists", Bill, and we're out to kill little babies and children in the name of FOSS. We hate freedom and the American way of life and we're out to destroy it.
Now, if you can get that message across and paint that picture to the American public, you'd kill FOSS forever. Hell, you could probably get the FBI to start raiding the homes of Linux users.
Good luck in your future endeavors, you Capitalist Pig.
---Technology will liberate us if it doesn't enslave us first.
Think about it.
Large body (who at least operates like a government), dictating to the masses, owning everything (even if its someone else's property), doing whats best for it/not the people. Sounds like communism to me...
"Je ne suis pas un Marxiste."
...sorry. I just couldn't resist.
When I suggested the flag, in jest, to Xeni, I never expected that she actually read email to address... I was just firing off a thought into space. Anyway, here's the full thought:
"Obviously, what we need is a large red flag with a gold copyleft in the upperleft, replacing the hammer and sickle...
But wait... I guess that's spoofing Sovietism, not Communism (or "communism"), which may have more in common with Microsoft.
Just a quick thought."
I think people have already gone-on in circles about there being a difference between Communism, communism, Sovietism, China's brand of stuff, Cuba's, and that a lot of these ideas are seen as economic or governmental organization theories... and when they get confused by either critics or practitioners, well, words and definitions get hijacked.
Me? I just liked the visual.
He's come up with a more entertaining/embarrasing quote than "640k ought to be enough for anybody"
I'm going to suggest that BG actually ment "Nazi's" instead of "communists" and apply Godwin's law to his argument.
:)
Luckily, the discussion is now over. We win.
coming to a highly visible website (aka slashdot) only to see:
503 Service Unavailable
The service is not available. Please try again later.
But I'll just add one more comment, trying to deconstruct what Gates says about communism and IP:
Closing your eyes to the world because you cannot comprehend it's vastness is pathetic.
Blar.
I think it's not that increasing intellectual property rights is good/bad but rather who owns them. I mean, should the individual or team who creates a new technology get the protection or the company that they work for get the protection? Of course, what deserves protection? Certainly not that I can make your shopping easier by including a "one-click" buy now type of button - that's simple code and shouldn't be protected. But it is now, isn't it? Ah, the whole thing's a mess and gates is being reactionary doesn't help anyone.
Keyword here; VIDEO. 99% of this is a slideshow with the occasional audio, and a whole lotta buffering. There has got to be a downloadable video of this. Reliable streaming video even in 2005 isn't here yet.
From the CNET article: "What's driving [intellectual property reform], and do you think intellectual-property laws need to be reformed?"
"No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were."
Notice how Mr. Gates immediately equates intellectual-property law reform with 'communism?' It appears that the anti-trust cases are finally starting to break him down; if calling intellectual property reform "communist" is the best argument he can make, then we know his logic and rationale beginning to break down to baseless assumptions and insults.
In other words, the reformists may be winning in Gates' view.
...a buddy of mine told me about this story and I was so excited to read it I came to slashdot.org and got:
503 Service Unavailable
The service is not available. Please try again later.
I guess that answers the age old question of Slashdot being able to Slashdot itself.
Yeah, but christianity added together has killed more people. After all, Hitler, Bush, the Inquisition and the european colonists were all christian.
Grandparents point was that such labels are meaningless, due to the point that it wasn't communism that made Stalin kill people, it wasn't capitalism that made the US kill people in Vietnam, it wasn't even christianity that made the Inquisition kill people: it was the people in power of the respective authorities that killed people. All ideologies can be abused; all fanatism is dangerous.
Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF, all my base are belong to you
Gates says everybody who uses FireFox has IE installed too, so he's not worried.
What a jerk! They wouldn't have IE installed if Microsoft didn't force everybody to install it!
But some people have left because of security issues.
Well, no one invests more in security of their browser than what we do on IE. The key message we have for people is they should turn on auto update because if you turn on auto update, without you having to think about it and go through a bunch of user interface or know about this or that or the other thing, you can know that there are hundreds of very smart people who are constantly improving your browser and making sure that you're safe. And so with auto update and IE, you're getting the top security team and the quickest response team that there is anywhere.
Does he live in an alternate reality where he really believes what he says to be true? And if it is true, doesn't that show a great measure of the level of incompetence of his company?
BSODs once a month? your system has issues - don't blame windows. dont buy crappy hardware - and/or have a professional look at it.
not that windows 2K/XP is flawless, but BSOD's are errors that usually have a distinct cause, such as buggy drivers, faulty hardware, etc.
serves him rgith to trust his product at a huge convention like this one. maybe he will realize that his product is crap and that he should upgrade it and fix it so this doesnt happen again
The US is generally mad at Cuba because they don't hold elections even though Fidel Castro has a huge approval rating.
,'Because I don't have to'.
,'I could have done a lot better, but overall I haven't done to bad'
When asked why he doesn't hold elections to stop the US going on about it he says
Castro is also well known for saying
Jews are also known for their 'communist' ways, and I'm sure if you looked around a thousand or so years ago you would find lots of communist type groups.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Or would you care to re-think your argument? (-:
A poor arguement. People were tortured and killed by the Inquisition because of their religious beliefs, while people were tortured and killed by Mao and Stalin because they were percieved as possible threats to their power.
This guy's right on the money.
At least they didn't confuse "loose" and "lose."
discreet:
1. Marked by, exercising, or showing prudence and wise self-restraint in speech and behavior; circumspect.
2. Free from ostentation or pretension; modest.
vs.
discrete
1. Constituting a separate thing.
2. Consisting of unconnected distinct parts.
3. Mathematics. Defined for a finite or countable set of values; not continuous.
I use Google Local (U.S. only; based on ZIP code). It's better than the phone book.
It really is rediculous all around. Bill neglects to carefully consider that the GPL and other open source licenses are simply gifts of intellectual property to the community at large. In no way does the GPL or BSD licenses "disrespect" commercial licenses, they just offer a better value than the commercial licenses, ie., our software is our gift to you.
BSOD's are errors that usually have a distinct cause, such as buggy drivers, faulty hardware, etc.
.VXD's. In both cases, they are default Win32 drivers.
Or badly designed/implemented kernels. These crashes are certainly driver related since I can trace them back to the
Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
No.
Most copyrights are owned by corporations, not the artists who make the works. Thus the long copyright terms - corporations live longer.
... the bug!!
All hail the bug!!!!
All laws are shallow.
'I find this rhetoric to be common amongst the wealthy business class and conservatives in general'
How do you think they got wealthy? Buy being nice and promoting everyone else's product or sharing.
I'm not a Conservative but there mentality would appear to be, 'If I'm 1$ richer then the worlds 1$ richer' and a 'commie' would say, 'If I'm 1$ richer then I'm too rich'.
I haven't seen much trickle down to the war torn countries of Africa, well except for reduced licensing on Microsoft products.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
I suggest that someone with Windows machine download and share the file so that non-windows users can see it as well. Here neither MPlayer not Totem seem to be able to play the provided link or any of the URLs provided inside that file (it's text file). It looks like problem with being even able to start downloading (non-standard protocol?).
I'm not talking about re-encoding, just providing a link usable with normal HTTP-enabled client.
Plugging damn camera into your system shouldn't cause it to lock the ENTIRE system. if the camera has a problem, it should simply not work. It most certainly *is* a major knock on microsoftie's product when plugging a camera in causes the entire system to be rendered useless.
Well, people get confused about browsers. You can have as many browsers as you want on your PC, just like you can have tons of music players and things like that.
What the ... is that all about? I think the only person who is confused here is old Bill himself.
"They looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined"
Seriously, a fair bit of what he says really sits uncomfortably. For one thing what he says about IE and Firefox is, although perfectly true, not quite as clear-cut as he seems to be making it sound.
That's not exactly by choice in all cases. I am confident that were IE trivially uninstallable from a Windows setup then that point would be less valid.
I don't necessarily think that every FF user would uninstall IE if it were easily doable but I do think that in many of the cases where "IE is also on those systems" it's only because there's no simple way of remiving it.
As for his stance on IP rights then I think he hasn't got a clue.
However what I will say is that I'm no businessman and he runs a very successful business. So I freely admit that as much as I disagree with his points of view they obviously work in business. In fact I'd be pretty surprised if he didn't have views like that - many businesses seem to share the "IP Rights are Good" mentality.
Having said that I do think that what's good for business isn't always good for innovation and incentive. And that's why I personally think that the concept of "Intellectual Property" needs a major overhaul. Patents and non-terminating copyrights simply have too many drawbacks.
Like the main incentive for Patents that companies seem to have is that if they have a great idea then not only should they benefit from selling it but they shoudl benefit from anyone improving on it - as they'll have to pay to license it. Great from a business perspective but from a technical perspective this is dreadful because if someone's got great dieas to extend something but no money or Patents to bargain with then the new idea will be lost.
Obviously I find it a bit odd when Bill Gates (or anyone Microsoft spokeperson) talks about things "working together". Unless they're having a complete turnaround in their policies he probably means that when "devices work together" they will always be working via Windows.
Obviously this makes a great quote as he goes down as saying that interoperability is important - or something like that - but it just falls flat as more often than not he isn't tlaking about devices talking with non-Microsoft devices.
Tiggs
"120 chars should be enough for everyone..."
If current IP laws applied when Microsoft sold a license to "their" OS to IBM, they would not have been able to do so.
In fact, if current IP laws applied then like they apply today, some of us would still be using VisiCalc on a CP/M computer, but most of us would only dream of what people are doing now in the digital world.
Microsoft success was built entirely upon the lack of laws and care to protect the lawyers^Winventors of common computing concepts such as the operating system, the graphical interface, the software spreadsheet and the word processor.
By calling IP system critics communists, Bill is demonstrating capitalism is not protecting freedom anymore. It is very close to communism propaganda. He should get blacklisted fast.
We're not having the Red Scare anymore. Why didn't he label them terrorists? That's today's thing.
hey!
On the whole, religion has killed more people than all forms of revolution and all wars over money, gold or resources.
Learn something new.
Partership with SBC and BellSouth to deliver digital cable TV (codec, receiver) to consumers; Window Media Player 10 with DRM out the yin-yang (licenses which make it impossible to play content that I purchased a la DivX); partership with TiVo for content encoding; the PlaysForSure DRM.
Make no mistake -- MicroSoft is positioning itself to not need the Windows monopoly in the near future -- the licensing revenue from all the (mandatory) DRM embedded in every consumer device you touch will be sufficient to keep BillG and friends afloat for the next century.
Link to USA Today Interview
I hate to do this ... especially since the Crusades (which was a defensive war, contrary to popular belief - the Arabian leader sacked the holiest of Christian churches, which was basically without defense, making Europe mad - the first Crusade was retaliatory) were a reasonable example from the threads above. However, I have to.
The Inquisitions, also contrary to popular belief, did not kill people. It was the authority of Kings who didn't know theology who killed people. Inquisitions actually were set up to save people from death. Many people were being accused of heresy (a crime punishable by death according to the king's law at the time - anything that ran contrary to faith also undermined the King's God-appointed power, so it was treated like treason). However, the civilian lawyers and judges were not versed in theology enough to actually rule fairly on the subject. The Catholic Church set up Inquisitions in various European nations where the judge and lawyers were all theologians (usually priests). This cut the death rate to a mere fraction of what it was before the Inquisitions. The Inquisitions, especially the Spanish Inquisition, were the height of fair trials for the time period - in fact, much of our current court system is derived from the expertise of the Inquisitions.
That's not to say that the name of religions haven't been used as an excuse to kill people, just like the name of other ideologies (especially Naziism and Communism) have been used to kill people.
Arguably, however, some ideologies/theologies are more prone to violence than others. However, that's another debate for another day in another section of /. :-)
"So when people say Firefox is being downloaded onto people's systems, that's true, but IE is also on those systems."
Umm...there is no way to remove IE and it is installed by default. Of course there are systems with IE, it doesn't mean people want it or use it.
Ignoring, for the moment, that the Inquisition was set up to prevent torture and killing (see my earlier post) ... those who were tortured and/or killed despite the inquisition were so punished because of possible threats to the king's power (anyone undermining the Church's power implicitly undermined the king's power since the king's power was nominally based on the Church's power as an appointed leader).
I'd suggest it should be something like this:
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
A poor arguement. People were tortured and killed by the Inquisition because of their religious beliefs, while people were tortured and killed by Mao and Stalin because they were percieved as possible threats to their power.
... er.. The Inquisition itself was and is an office of the Catholic church, and it still exists today under a different name and is still tasked with charging and punishing heresy. Of course now it only has jurisdiction over its own clergy and the worst punishment it metes out is defrocking, so it's a somewhat different situation in this age.
Actually it was entire sects of Christians like the Cathars and the Waldenesians who were wiped out by Inquisitions because they were possible threats to the power of the Catholic Church.
The most famous inquisition would be the Spanish Inquisition of the late 1400's. Torquemada, hot irons, Fear, Surprise, and an almost fanatical devotion
I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
Hate to break it to you, Bill, but Communism won.
Could someone reply with the times of the crashes in that video? Some people are talking about multiple BSODs and other weird things happening. It would be nice to know when these happen so we could just skip to the good stuff.
Its not what it is, its something else.
I LOVE THIS COMMUNISM
http://www.ntk.net/ballmer/mirrors.html
he described anyone who doesn't support ever-increasing intellectual property laws as "communists".
No. He didn't say that anyone who doesn't support 'IP' laws is a communist. He said that communists don't support 'IP' laws. There's a difference.
Every dentist is a doctor. But every doctor is not a dentist.
where he described anyone who doesn't support ever-increasing intellectual property laws as "communists"
Communism is where everything is owned by the government and is distributed among the citizens. Intellectual property is where everything you've *payed* for is owned by a company after in your possession.
So we're not a communist state; we're far worse.
I am NOT a number! I am a - oh wait, I'm number 761710. Look! 761710!
anyone who doesn't support ever-increasing intellectual property laws as "communists"
Microsoft made such a business out of ripping off other's ideas that litigation has become one of their largest costs of business.
Now they've decided that intellectual property laws are part of the American way?
It's no surprise that the biggest capitalist ever, who switched his party bribery^Wdonation preferences to support the fascist (corporate government) presidential candidate in 2000 and 2004, thinks musicians who are motivated by something other than money are communists. FOSSers unite! You have nothing to lose but your proprietary toolchains!
--
make install -not war
When Bill Gates frames the debate between the capitalists on his side and communists on the other
...it only shows just how dated he is.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
The open * movement cannot accurately be called either capitalist or communist. It more accurately fits what was in the early 20th century been called distributism. Essentially, the idea was (and is, again) that a economic unit large enough to sway the market singlehandedly, whether a for-profit organization or a state bureau, will not actually succeed in serving the public interest. In other words, beyond a certain point, the private motives of those who manage large economic interests prevent potential economies of scale from actually being realized by the public.
A good starting treatise for the would-be distributist is G.K. Chesterton's What's Wrong with the World .
Amusing as Bill Gates is, I'm not sure he quite warrents a post in the games section. Although clearly the editors think he is fun for all the family :)
vnunet's CES blog has some photos. Yes, you can see Bill Gates waking up next to an Apple Powerbook.
Bill Gates talks about "new communists" as removing the incentive for people to make music or software, when really Bill Gates is projecting himself as the world. Making money is Bill Gates' incentive. Open Source coders are more numerous than profiteering coders, so the the incentive may not be as Bill Gates projects upon us.
Doubt Bill Gates is listening, but maybe one of his "human search engines" will let him know.
While you can argue about the "real" reasons people go to war, you should be able to see that some violence is a means of meting out justice while some violence is pure lack of regard for others (for instance, me beating you up so I can have your shoes).
Of course, you get into all sorts of mess when you have conflicting ideas of what actions are crimes, and what punishments are appropriate for what crimes; that's an area which causes much conflict and often even results in war.
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
Going out on a limb, here - you're Catholic, right?
Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
in capitalism, man exploits man. in communism, it's just the other way around.
About 33 minutes in and just after the second crash, Conan provides some filler and gives my favorite quote in the presentation:
... I got so drunk, I woke up with a hooker. Bill got so drunk, he woke up with an Apple computer."
"Last night
People should not fear what they do not understand; people should fear because they do not understand.
I am not advocating any unlawful behavior. I just think that when powerful individuals such as Gates (or CEOs of Big Corporations) make these kind of anti-egalitarian, neoliberal statements, they ought to be tried for treason in a court of law and if guilty, hung by their necks (publicly) until they are dead. We put marijuana smugglers in jail for life, but when ultra powerful creatures such as Gates are warring on us, we do nothing?
Try him for treason and HANG GATES!
Just my ever-humble opinion....
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Erm, minor nitpick: A king is appointed by an emperor, only an emperor is appointed by God. That little detail caused many a war.
Another great new meme : Hitler Tux. Ha ha!
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
"So you just plug it in, and Windows says 'hey- I've found a new device'. You'll notice that this scanner build *blue screen* whoa. Ummm... I guess this isn't why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet."
I wonder if that bug actually made it to production...
-M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
maybe if everybody on slashdot sued him for slander?
have you ever seen a st. bernard smile, you need to mop the floor afterwards.
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
I saw a funny thing on my way to vegas recently - not quite as big a BSOD, but the same one on dozens of machines in US customs. I tried to take a picture and nearly had my camera confiscated...
I could take a snapshot from the video of Gates amazed at the technical difficulties. Couldn't fix the colors, sorry if it looks a bit yellow.
First off: retaliation is not defense, no matter how many times national leaders claim it is. When it happens on a small scale people recognize this, I don't get why peoples brains stop working when we talk about religions and nations. There also was more than one, so stop talking about it in the singular.
Second: Where did you learn about the Inquistion? Torquemada's Revision of The Truth School for Retards? The mandate of the Inquisition was the exposure and punishment of heresy. Confession by torture was common place. There's been more than one (and in fact the order of the Inquisition still exists today) and it's not always been about blood and torture and burning but it absolutely DID happen and it WAS under the mandate of the Church and trying to claim that it was about creating fair trials for heretics is so ridiculous it makes my brain hurt. The fact that Church was very heavily involved in secular governments at the time does mean you can always claim it "wasn't about religion", but it's pedantic and silly nitpicking at best, dishonest at worst - you can just define any behavior you don't approve as not about religion, even when religiously motivated and done at the behest of religions authority. The Church was a major secular power in the Middle Ages, something that's hard for people to comprehend now - it had it's own armies, it's own banks, and it essentially ruled huge swaths of land even larger numbers of people. It had it's own courts (yes, of Inquisition) and would try and condemn people purely on it's own authority as well as that of the local rulers. Some rulers didn't allow the Inquisition into thier lands, those rulers faced excommunication. To claim that all this was done in the "name" of religion rather than "for" religion is missing the point.
Bodily fluids. People in southwest Utah, where I lived, considered Ronald Reagan to be far too liberal, and aren't completely convinced that GW Bush isn't a Democrat in Disguise.
Best Slashdot Co
*sigh*
Haa haa! ( Nelson )
Hmmmm this guy is starting to show his age! He and his company are sooooo 20th century
realkiwi
o/~ Join us now and share the software
Is Bill Gates starting his own reality distortion field? Heh...seems like his RDF doesn't work as well as Steve's.
I think it's funny that MS is starting to jump on the "Digital Hub/Digital Lifestyle" bandwagon that Steve Jobs was ranting about 3 years ago. We'll see which has the best Foo on the stage--so far It's 2-0 for Steve.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
The errors [...] prompted the celebrity host, NBC comedian Conan O'Brien, to quip, "Who's in charge of Microsoft, anyway?"
Gates, who was sitting next to O'Brien on a set staged to look like NBC's Late Night set, smiled dryly and continued with his discussion.
Look, Bill: It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time.
Seek to 1:13:25 in the video to watch the Xbox game Forza Motorsport blue screen with an "out of system memory" error.
image
What rot - this sort of crap is revisionism at its worst. I suggest you actually read up on events such as the Albigensian crusade, the Inquisition and the likes of Torquemada before making such ill-informed comments.
Worker ownership of the means of production and "from each according to their ability, to each according to their means" are perfectly compatible with competition, democracy, and what have you.
All small/home businesses are communistic, dumb Soviet purges of the scapegoat "kulaks" aside.
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
I've said for many years that Gates was just another mad fascist out for world domination at any cost.
How old was Hitler when he began gnawing carpets?
"Bill! Spit that out! The MSNvideo interview is about to begin!"
"But I LOVE chocolate brown shag! Mmmmmm...."
...but yeah, the Soviet Union WAS really practicing "real communism". Just like every other communist country is a dictatorship. That's the only way communism can be enforced. And I don't know about you, but my copy of the communist manifesto doesn't say much giving people a choice; it just makes an assumption that communism is a historical inevitability, and that you'd better learn to live with it.
The communism you're thinking of is a Utopian concept that can never exist when people have freedom and choice.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Stopped her from ever coding again, now didn't it? I say half his fortune is a small price to pay to ensure that!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
If you look at Mr Gates' sales of MSFT stock, it looks like he doesn't have a lot of confidence in it's future. He's been steadily selling his stake in the company. It's down to 10% now, and at the rate he was selling in 2004, will be down to nothing in about 7 years.
Now, Bill may be many things, but he's not stupid. If he's selling his stake in Microsoft, then he believes it's future prospects are below average. Anything he says publicly is likely
affected by his desire for the stock price to
stay up until he is done selling.
Daniel
Call it what it was: Mass Murder.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Now for the next question. What digital minion got canned as a result of the crashes? Do you think ol' Billy boy ordered his people to go through the code and find out which programmer put the fatal bug in? My guess is that the official Microsoft Gallows 2.0 is being prepared and some poor coder is walking the last mile with the priest reading bible verses to him. I don't recall Steve Jobs having the same problem at any MacWorld keynotes.
"..moving right along..."
Old news.
"Ooogedy boogedy people"
Don't ever say that again. B-)
I have 3656.9 Bogomips. How many Bogomips do you have?
If Apple has Sherlock will MS call theirs "Inspector Lestrade"?
Bill, baybe, listen. It's not that we're comunnists, it's that we don't like being ripped off. When your company stops helping the people who rip us off, and stops ripping us off itself by putting out buggy-ass operating systems, and stops trying to stomp the shit out of it's competition, then we might consider actually paying for your (non-game) products. But until then, Bill, you can kiss my ass.
Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
Now, I'm no CES keynote historian, but have past Gates keynotes been this much of a Microsoft product demonstration? I was expecting a State Of The Industry kind of presentation and instead just watched a seriously long marketing pitch.
that while Bill Gate's use of the work "Communist" was extreme, he's right in that without IP laws, there wouldn't be much incentive for people to create music, movies and software. However, as with any sort of property, "zoning" is an issue here, and free and open source software needs its space.
No data, no cry
A lot of the serious NRA nuts tend to start with the assumption that governments do kill people.
(That's why they need so many guns, remember?)
Good point, though.
How can this load of uninformed bullshit be modded informative?
. wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade
http://en
Where do I get this? From theologians. Sure, maybe there's some bias there - but at least they've studied actual real histories. The Vatican has recently opened up their vaults from these time periods to allow a full study of the Inquisitions... and the conclusion is that the Inquisitions were very enlightened for the time. By today's standards, they were cruel. But they were a huge jump in the right direction.
For example, James Hitchcock, a professor of history at St. Louis University.
I'm not claiming retaliation was a defense - if you'd read my post, I said it was a reasonable example of religion killing. There are mitigating circumstances (it wasn't an unprovoked war), but it's still religion killing.
And, if you can't have a calm discussion about history ... well, unfortunately, you seem to be in the majority here. <sigh>
When did that stop anybody from trying?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
When people talk of love and hate, they are telling you how they feel. Do you care?
When people talk of right and wrong, they are ready to take sides. Do you fight?
- Three Crows
As Bill Gates grows more isolated, the probability of everybody else being compared to communists approaches one.
...quicker, easier, more seductive the darkside is...but more powerful, it is not.
This is not the first time Mr Gates has used the dreaded C-word to attack an idea. During the early years of the commercial Web, when Microsoft was still developing its strategy for Internet Explorer, he used it plenty of times. From How the Web was won: Microsoft from Windows to the Web:
The irony is that Microsoft finally embraced a ''communist'' strategy when they started giving away IE 4 for free. Also, isn't Microsoft's ''shared source'' strategy an implicit acceptance of Open Source?.
You're bound to be unhappy if you optimize everything. --Donald Knuth
Fascist pap. Gates and friends (RIAA etc) have been busy subverting the Constitution and the freedoms that were specifically on the mind of the Founders. Many of our Founders were all too familiar with similar European "IP" practices, and supported laws for a social contract that drove information diffusion. Gates et al represents some of the very threats they warned about. Read your primary history sources.
Do not use XP. Bill Gates Should have used OS X and Keynote ;)
ago porro quod prospicio
I'm not claiming retaliation was a defense - if you'd read my post, I said it was a reasonable example of religion killing.
Actually, the way I read you post is that you are claiming retaliation is defense.
the Crusades (which was a defensive war [...] the first Crusade was retaliatory
If the first Crusade was retaliatory, and all Crusades(?) were defensive, then it certainly seems like you're claiming that retaliation is defense.
"the Crusades (which was a defensive war, contrary to popular belief - the Arabian leader sacked the holiest of Christian churches, which was basically without defense, making Europe mad - the first Crusade was retaliatory)"
Do you know why is contrary to popular belief that Crusades were a defensive war? Because we all know IT WAS NOT a defensive war from the Christianity side.
Yours is quite a curious case of "double-thinking" (I'm Spanish and haven't read Orwell's book "1984" in English, but I think that was the word): so you want to think Bush's attack to Afganistan and Irak were "deffensive"? Well, you can think it, but then, you must say other things like going almost to the other side of the known world to take out by force the land to their owners because you think you have some divine rigths over it is a deffensive war too.
isn't that kind of him, he called us all commies!
How many times are you going to submit the same post? How many times will the mods mark it up all the way?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I was ready to call B.S. until I started reading the Slashdot thread full of people explaining how Communism isn't so bad. I'll let them explain this to my girlfriend, who grew up in part of the former USSR (now Latvia). Funny thing - since we got together I've met many people who used to live in the Eastern Bloc - 100% of them (the ones I've met) think that Communism is about the worst thing to ever infect the planet. The scariest thing (at least to some of the posters in this thread) is that most of them now vote Republican.
What kills me is that the left-wingers who advocate communism (to call them Liberals would be an insult to, well, Liberals) so blindly ignore the fact that it has caused some of the worst environmental and human rights abuses in history. We go around villifying Hitler, and rightly so, but he was strictly junior-varsity when compared to Stalin. The most evil corporate polluters (and yes, I think that a few companies are actually evil in this regard) have nothing on Moscow's old five-year plans.
My suggestion to these wanna-be Commies is that they go live in an actual Communist country for awhile. Enjoy life in these workers' paradises full of happy people. Oh, what, these people have either thrown the Communists out, or would do so if they didn't have guns to their heads?
Yes, I know there are a few people screaming about why they can't mod this post -50 flamebait (feel free, I have karma to burn). I'm not saying everyone that supports Open Source, Creative Commons, etc. is a Communist. Far from it: I doubt that more than a tiny, tiny percentage of them actually are. I am, however, shocked at how many crawl out from under their rocks when a subject like this pops up.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
"While Microsoft's goal is to turn the PC into a superhub that does everything [...] they're running up against the fact that most people buy discreet components that do particular things."
Translation: MS has a solution in desperate need of a problem.
I think you know, deep in your heart, deep in the stillness of your own mind, that you're going down, Bill. The people have stated their intentions regarding you, and that statement has not been in your favour. You've probably heard the saying before...Stop struggling, and it won't hurt anywhere near as much.
You refer to us as Communists. My response to that is that while Communism was *not* a historical inevitability as Marx claimed, the annihilation of Microsoft *is*. You can pretend to be confident...you can wrap your oratory in the usual spin and doublespeak...but we know better. There has been enough evidence to the contrary of both a public and private nature in recent years for us to know better. We smell your fear, and we revel in it. Fear is an entirely appropriate emotional response for you to be experiencing at this time. The event which many in the computing world have long anticipated in earnest, Microsoft's impending burial, and my vengeance, is close at hand, and well you know it.
The Wall Street Journal may be on the wrong side of some things that I agree with, however they are on the correct side of presenting news that is real news. If you don't read the WSJ, then you are out of touch. For example they talked about Enron long before it was mentioned anywhere else. They talked about how shell companies bleed the health care industry. They were a driving force that exposed the massive acountting irregularities at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. You might not like a paper's point of view, but at least you can say that they do a fair attempt to present unbiased news. If you are not reading the WSJ, then you should. PS: The opinion section is a must read because if you stop listening to the things that people who disagree with your fervent beliefs than you are as given over to non-sense as Bill Gates. Bill Gates comments make him look like a total idiot. We don't need to say any more than just to read his crap. Also, you will get a lot of different points of view in the WSJ. I try and read the WSJ every day and I think that Gates is a total idiot.
Gates says: "We can make sure the software cost is never really holding things back--that it's a small-enough percentage." He is not meaning to collect 100$ for a copy of Windows with every computer sold, but you can be damn sure he is meaning to collect something with every computer sold. I bet if you offered MS a 10 year monopoly on operating system, it would agree to guarantee that the price would not exceed 5$ per copy. These guys are insane.
Similarly, the incentive for Gates is not the money, may be it was in the past, but now the incentive is clearly the power and the control, world domination, in other words. Scary guy.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Parent comment is fundamentally WRONG. Has either never really read up on the events that happened during the crusades and inquisition, or believes every word that spews forth from the Church's holy mouth.
I need to dig up my inquisition books to formally refute the comment, but the Crusades were initiated by the Church to capture the Holy Land from the infidels (This could possibly be mistaken as defensive AFTER they took Jerusalem and ruled it for years). And the Inquisition was most DEFINATELY about weeding out Heresy. Genecide was committed in God's name... There was a large group of French Christians whom I forget the name of which were eradicated by the Inquisition (and this is only but one example).
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You have posted the most awesome response to Mr. Gates BS! Maybe someone should call and have a pizza delivered to him complements of /.
Awesome, dude, very awesome!
To determine what turns into Bills Spruce Goose. I choose Longhorn.
I put up a torrent (177MB) just for you guys! :-)
/John Sjolander, project manager Contribio
"in fact, much of our current court system is derived from the expertise of the Inquisitions."
If you're living in the United States then your current court system is derived from the English Common Law system formalized under Henry II who famously opposed the separate church courts, (which were defended by Thomas Beckett, then Archbishop of Canterbury.)
The Inquisition did work in England under the Reign of Mary I (Bloody Mary). After Mary's death the state religion of England returned to a protestant form under Elizabeth I.
Am I the only one that finds Bill's logic and argument style to be extremely George Bush-esque in this interview? He's using the Bush administration tactic of reducing a real issue to good vs. evil and is simultaneously seating himself as leader of the good side. Instead of "If you're not with us you're unpatriotic!" he's flipped it to "If you're not with us you're a communist!" I don't know about everyone else but I've had about all I can take of these black/white and wrong/right world views. Why can't people see that most issues are complex, has the whole world gone stupid... er?
I find laziness to be an excellent motivator.
but I wouldn't call corporatism a "failed economic ideology".
Our mall had a Digital Joy kiosk selling the home media center. It was someone stealthy with the MicroSoft name in small print on the brochure and no where on the kiosk. Ironically, it was near the Apple store too.
I very much appreciate that you have shared your viewpoint on the crusades and inquisition. I had always wondered how such tragic events could come to be. But not knowing or studying the history, I feared the worst. If I could ever stop reading slashdot, I would probably have a lot of time for studying early Church history in greater depth with the hopes of separating facts from fiction. Learning and exploring alternate viewpoints is one step in the right direction in the search for truth.
Funny how stuff like this gets mentioned, yet Eric Raymond's assinine predictions (which obviously never came true) from last year are never thrown to the /. public.
Just an example.
Craig took over the Late Late Show. Maybe Conan can't deal with compeating with a Scotsman? Craig has been very funny, and I haven't watched Conan all week.
*Bangs head on desk* I'd refute bits of this individually, but since virtually the only thing you've got right is the existence of the Crusades and of the Catholic church I'll just agree with the guy who referred you to Wikipedia.
The guy who probably did most to initiate the First Crusade IMO - Alexios Komnenos.
I'd like to second this. The Albigensian Crusade was essentially the Catholic church not being able to peacably suppress the Cathar movement (not recognizing papal authority and opposing "get out of purgatory early" type-payments), and so instead just killing everyone.
The local bishoprics' authority in these regions were suspended, lords excommunicated, and entire villages wiped out, genocide-style. An appointed Papal legate during one of these "battles" was the one who originated the phrase "kill them all, let God sort them out".
The crusade wasn't defensive, and it wasn't even against (arguably) "non-christians". I might mention the later sacking of Constantinople wasn't defensive either, it was just there, and they even were christians, but maybe not christian "enough".
I hate responding to AC's ... google search on Torquemada, first result: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14783a.htm. Torquemada is claimed to be quite reasonable, compared to civil law at the time. In other words, enlightened. Cruelty, death - still possible. But more rare than before Torquemada.
The Inquisitions, also contrary to popular belief, did not kill people. It was the authority of Kings who didn't know theology who killed people. Inquisitions actually were set up to save people from death
These are just revisionist lies..
The Inquisitions, especially the Spanish Inquisition, were the height of fair trials for the time period - in fact, much of our current court system is derived from the expertise of the Inquisitions.
Fair, huh? Fair in what sense? Fair in determining the truth of a matter, or fair in exposing the depraved depths a person will go to coerce a person into admitting their non-belief in Catholic dogma? I think Galileo might have an opinion here.
You have to be a really dedicated researcher if you want to get beyond the multi-million dollar marketing hype surrounding most products and people these days.
It's a lifestyle, like eating healthy. Once you get into the habbit of ignoring propaganda, it's hard do imagine living otherwise.
The Gnostics
In case you don't want to watch the whole video (it happened at 1 hour 13 minutes), I have posted the picture on my website. You can see the BSD here.
x
http://www.doyousnap.com/portal/albums/7/24.asp
Apparently Communists steal software and music for their own use, while Capitalists like Bill steal technology, incorporate it into their own product, sell it, and settle the resulting lawsuit out of court.
The crusade defensive? If you are referring to the conquest of Jerusalem, well, they were over four hundred years late. In the intervening years, the muslim rulers encouraged a brisk trade in servicing Christian pilgrims; the Muslim empire was always more about wisely managing taxable resources, not religious conversion.
Now things changed when Urban II thought he saw a way of using this popular relious observance as a way of harnessing the unruly martial engergies of the barbaric northerners the Roman church had absorbed over the past several centuries. The crusade were supposed to sublimate those energies in a kind of military pilgramage. Like many excessively clever ideas, it succeeded, but not in the way he had hoped. Rather than christianizing the barbarians, it barbarized Christianity, for the knights understood this to be a kind of divinely licensed blood feud in which they could indulge in their traditional practices of pillage and slaugther. It sanctified not the warriors, but war itself.
Anybody who has trouble drawing a line between the teachings of a pacifist rabbi of two thousand years ago and the militant Christian politicians of today needn't look any further back than 1095.
The Inquisitions, as you pointed out, aren't really what people think they were. In general,the Inquisitions of the Middle Ages weren't the kind of ruthlessly efficient stiflers of independent thought that people imagine them to be, becuase while ruthlessness was never in short supply, efficiency was. No doubt they did in some cases manage to thwart the independence of local authorities, to the benefit of the populace. It was the rise of the modern state and the adoption of Christianity as an official state ideology that made the Spanish Inquisition what is was -- a modern institution.
It is safe to say that nobody expected that development.
However, I complete agree with you: the idea that religion is a barbarizer of human nature is simply not historically. It's actually the other way around.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
There are solutions to these problems. They aren't easy or without compromise, but I think it's the only potentially sucessful path we have.
Check out http://www.technocracy.ca/
Gates says "We need to keep IE the best." Has he ever tried other browsers? IE is not the best (anymore, and probably never was in the first place). Firefox, Konqueror, Safari, Opera, the more you look at it and the more it looks like IE is actually the worse browser around.
theefer
Actually, the first Crusade (only) was retaliation. And that I don't get from the Catholic Church. That I get from Islam. The rest of the Crusades were to convert infidels to Christianity (and they pretty much all failed, IIRC). They were all to capture the Holy Land - but the first one was to do so in retaliation. The Christians were more than willing to let Muslims rule the Holy Land, as long as the Christian churches were left unharrassed (which Muslims did - only the one leader did not want to leave the Christians out of his power struggle, and, IIRC, he did it against the advice of his court of advisors...).
The demo of whatever racing game they're plugging is roughly at 71 minutes.
The guy's showing off the fact that you can pick a car, then modify it... and it just goes blue. DOH!
A little further on, there's a bit where Conan and Bill are going head-to-head in a race and Conan has absolutely no idea what he's doing. And when the force feedback kicks in, he has no idea what the fuck's going on. :)
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. Always boom tomorrow. BOOM!
Patent reform is needed. This is not saying that patents should be done away with. People should benefit from what they create. But innovations should be real, and not just the product of a currupt patent system bestowing patents for trivial ideas. So I hope you don't think that we should do away with patents all together. I think we need a system that allows fair use of any idea. Patents should not be used as a way to prevent or prohibit competition. They should be a reward for work well done. And so when you have companies that patent triviality and then only enforce them when a competetor starts making money, that seems to me abuse. If anyone is making money on an idea of any kind no one should be allowed to say that they must go out of business because the idea belongs to someone else. And companies whose only business is patent mongering should be disallowed. Maybe once a patent is granted it should never be sold. Maybe the more patents a company has the more that they have to pay for the next patent. In any case I think that any system that sets up a class of privledged and connected people who fantasize about world domination from their town house and don't do anything more than harass and badger hardworking folks is a system that needs reform. (that was verbose!) We need to reform the patent system not do away with it. I don't know what we need to do, but clearly the people in charge aren't doing it. I think that what Mr. Benjamin Franklin did is the real model of heroic behavior. He invented the lightening rod and then gave it to the world as a gift. He saved thousands of lives. He is a hero.
Some thoughts on GNU and freedom
That job was offshored about a decade ago! Why pay for the poor English and Math skills of a US minimum wage worker when you can have 10 PhDs who would otherwise be driving a taxi?
Just look how well it works for their code base!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
From the last paragraph:
... we were amazed that such a thoroughly bad game could be co-authored by Microsoft's co-founder, and that he would actually want to take credit for it in the comments."
"Microsoft was founded by programmers and is still run by programmers, and the bias of programmers is that software can do anything"
From Donkey:
"We thought the concept of the game was as bad the crude graphics that it used. Since the game was written in BASIC, you could list it out and see how it was written. We were surprised to see that the comments at the top of the game proudly proclaimed the authors: Bill Gates and Neil Konzen
The problem isn't that Microsoft was founded by programmers. The problem is that it was founded by bad programmers.
Ah, Thanks. That is the name I was looking for.
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Why don't you post that a few more times, dickhead?
I've trained all my suits that demos have to be scripted only to show processes whose results are entirely repeatable.
Where we havent' got some necessary feature as repeatable as it needs to be for a demo, we don't show it. If you absolutely have to show it show it, you don't actually show it but hide the fact you aren't showing it with a little prestidigitation: e.g. you show a simulation with a carefully scripted narrative that avoids a strict literal lie while being, of course, unavoidably dishonest.
Of course Gates may be beyond that now, since the IT market more or less run on the herd mentality. If I run with the herd, then maybe the lion will sink its claws into the guy next to me instead of me.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
What Gates, and the rest of the content nazis want, is direct corporate control of police machinations to enforce their view of what is and isn't property, which is of course, fascist.
Given the fact that our nation has a better track record with communists than fascists, I'll take the red scare label.
What a fuckhead.
What is the incentive for a person to spend time and money to create a work if it will not be shared with the public (for profit probably)? Again, without copyright this person has no legal basis for recouping payment. So why would someone devot a lot of time and receive nothing (especially if it is their form of income)?
Obviously some limited protection is good for the ability of someone to gain reward from a work they spent time on.
But 75+ years? That is too excessive, and the worst thing of all is that it prevents derivative works until long after the creative value of a derivative work might come into play.
You can see a practical effect from this by Disney no longer doing animation of traditional stories and the like - any interesting stories left to cover are now under the copyright flood. So Disney makes attempts to make up stories from scratch - which in fact they are not at all good at, all really good creative story writers work elsewhere now.
You could say that Disney is the prime example of how great things can come from derivative works, for all of the great movies they have done based on traditional tales. So it serves both as an example and a warning.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Capitalists don't intentionally kill their customers. It's not profitable.
No, they kill their competitors!
(or the competitors of their customers; after all, the customer is always right!)
Kineska: Cinema, soapbox, music & musings
Just wait until the social retards start screaming that that wasn't "real" Communism and try to explain to you and your girlfriend why "real" (hint: imaginary, goes against human free will, never going to happen) Communism is a good thing. :D
Come on, the deaths caused by Communism were a result of Religious Fervor.
I'm really short on time so I can't fully reply to all of these messages, or even to you. But I'm really not debating the underlying ideologies of communism, capitalism, or even religious expression. I'm talking about a cultural taboo against communism which continues in western cultures today. Look at the success of the Swift Boat Vets red baiting the Kerry campaign as a prime example; McCarthyism continues fifteen years after the fall of the Soviet Union and fifty years after McCarthy's downfall.
If the Free Software movement willingly accepts Gate's frame as being inspired by communist utopian idealism, the debate is over. Gate's will have won by default. If any of those EFFers or Project GNU folks are listening here (right - *cough*) I would recommend framing project GNU and BSD ideals by referencing simple down-to-earth small town values like church bake sales, community volunteer firefighting, and the Salvation Army. These are examples of community cooperation everyone can understand. And when Gates (or his surrogates) compares writing free software to communist destruction of capitalist intellectual property rights, argue back that his argument is like destroying the church bake sale for the profit-rights of local restaurants. That is an frame which skewer his debate talking points.
This is not about communist or capitalist ideology, this is about manipulating public opinion in order to promote - long term - a specific political agenda in Washington. Realize that and all this ideological bullshit smoke disappears like evenscent fog clearing on a sunny day.
Cheers,
--Maynard
There is a torrent available of the entire video at this blog.
Many people have multiple TV's.
Ok that's not the main reason, but the end result is the same.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apparently, there is a Windows error screen photo-taking subculture
If by subculture he means that there are BSoD everywhere and that many people have the same thought, "I can't believe they are using Windoze for that, let me take a picture.", then sure, that's a subculture. I think it's a normal thought by people who are reasonably observant.
Google Images Score 902 of them. High on the list is this one from Delta. Now why would anyone have blamed M$ for Delta and Comair's Christmas cheer? I used to think these things were image manipulations, till I saw them live myself. Poor Bill Gates wishes his latest was a bad dream.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
And, from Richard Stallman:
Bill Gates is coherent, though, with his 1976 "Open Letter to Hobbysts". Back then he complained that he wasnt breaking even with investing in software develolment -- and thus that people should pay. Should we bring his words back to him and convince him that, since MS is making such absurds amounts of cash on software today, maybe he should bring prices down ? See the direct 1976 Gates quote:
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
It sucks that Economics is such a tool of political elites. But here is how I see it, and, of course, I might be wrong:
Communism is a perscription applied by envious people who don't have power and want power desperately.
Capitalism is a description of the way that people actually behave in the real world.
Unfortunately we don't really have capitialism as the description falls apart when people and organizations become super-powerful.
We have something else. Maybe we can call it
Corporate Fuedalism. Any other ideas on what to call this partially broken system that we currently have?
It seems to me that on the micro level Capitialism is a pretty good model for how people behave. But on the macro level we just have a lot of powerful people working for their own and other selfish interests.
I think that as long as we feed everyone and we don't have full-scale wars that the system will continue. But it seems to me that it isn't what we call the system that is the problem, but that there is too much power in too few hands.
I would anti-trust the government. This could be accomplished by decentralization. There is just too much power in too small a place.
And when you want to change the politicians you need to change their minds by enlightening them. The idea that Lenin had of killing then was wrong. That is why communism, the politics of envy, is a social and political failure.
>where he described anyone who doesn't support >ever-increasing intellectual property laws as >"communists"
2 5COPYR IGHT.html
Lawrence Lessig on The Tyranny of Copyright
"We are invoking ideas that should be central to the American tradition, such as that a free society is richer than a control society," he says. "But in the cultural sphere, big media wants to build a new Soviet empire where you need permission from the central party to do anything." He complains that Americans have been reduced to "an Oliver Twist-like position," in which they have to ask, "Please, sir, may I?" every time we want to use something under copyright -- and then only if we are fortunate enough to have the assistance of a high-priced lawyer."
NY Times Jan, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/
Gates: "There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist."
What is he talking about? What pathetic nonsense. People are talking about putting *limits* on the monopoly priviledges that governments provide to the creators of copyrighted works and to patents. Nobody is seriously talking about elminiating the incentives those monopoly priviledges provide. We need those incentives. They drive innovation and the economy.
But limits to copyright already exist in the form of such things as "fair use", and there are well-established legal precidents for other types of limits. For example, if I bought a CD full of music, I have the legal right to make a copy of it in order to play it on any device I please for my own personal use. If I bought a CD full of software, I have the legal right to make a copy for backup purposes, in case the original CD gets trashed or otherwise damaged. If I try to sell or widely distribute such copies, then I've crossed over the line, but Gates is living in a fantasy world if he thinks there should no or fewer limits to "IP rights", as they have come to be known.
The new challenge, and the one that is driving many honest people to speak out about the need for change, is the fact that copyright owners and patent owners are not merely asserting the rights granted to them by governments, but trying to technologically impose controls that go far beyond what copyright law implies. For example, companies install copyright protection techniques. It is well within their rights, but it also interferes with their customers' fair use rights. The implications can be as onerous as not being able to play a CD at all, or not being able to arrange your stereo and video equipment the way you want, because copy protection in a DVD title prevents you from piping the signal through some component without corrupting the signal (e.g., MacroVision). The point is, this happens even for *legitimate* uses that *do* respect copyright law.
All of this was still okay until recently, because the law permitted circumvention for purposes of *legitimate* uses. That all changed with the DCMA, which has effectively (i.e. in a practical sense) allowed copyright holders to impose restrictions that intrude FAR into domains originally (and still technically) considered "fair use".
There are different, but somewhat parallel reasons why patents have experienced undesirable effects in recent years, but I'll leave them alone here.
The point is, I don't think Gates has any sense of why most people are so upset about what he would consider improvements to copyright and patents. That's because he isn't a customer who has had *their* legitimate use subsumed by laws such as the DCMA and indefinite extensions to copyright. All work is supposed to eventually pass into the public domain, remember? Whether patented or copyrighted, after some decades or a lifetime of profitable monopoly for the creator of the work, that monopoly ends. Gates and other people have forgotten the original bargain with the governments/public that make the laws. It is a balance. In the current situation the public is getting shafted by the technical and legal changes of the last several years, so, naturally, they are questioning the validity of the bargain, en masse. Some people are going too far, yes, but others are simply angry that even when they buy something and try to use it legitimately, they get caught. The solution is to put some things back to the way they were originally intended, not impose even more controls.
It is very disappointing to see someone as knowledgeable and influential as Gates misunderstand the situation so badly. When will it get through these people's heads that most people want the artists, software vendors, and other creators to get the money they ask for and deserve? The problem is when companies try to rest
Props to Conan for his good improv skills and ability to work a crowd, but doesn't it say something weird about our age that Microsoft itself can't keep its own product from going down at a major technology trade show, and that the crowd finds this acceptable, even funny? Remember, Microsoft's product is on warships these days. Would the crowd have also been yucking like a bunch of doped-up Amsterdam tourists if this had been wargames off the coast of England, and HMS Windows had given them a GPF when they tried to launch a missile? Please, boys: don't believe your own hype, and for God's sake, don't let anybody with a pulse take Ballmer seriously for a nanosecond.
ESR got furious on that documentary Revolution OS when asked if Open Source was like Communism.
There are music geeks who hate Ashlee for taking away a spot at a record company that some talented band might have had, political geeks who know every single word GW has said wrong, and normular computer geeks who know the design flaws in Windows.
Do you honestly think that the lack of Ashlee would have yielded a "spot" for another musician?
No, it's a position created by the music companies that if not filled by Ashlee, would be essentially similar.
I don't see how you can dislike Ashee any more than a box of Tide. Both are products.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Bill + USB = BSOD when demo-ing that technology in public in 1998.
The Inquisitions, also contrary to popular belief, did not kill people. It was the authority of Kings who didn't know theology who killed people. Inquisitions actually were set up to save people from death.
Yes, you know, in my Sephardic ancestory, the tale is passed down of how my frightened Jewish forebearers were terrified of the Spanish Crown, but, thank God Mother Church provided the Inquisition which shielded them from those horrors. I mean, if it wasn't for the Spanish Inquisition, they might not have had such a wonderful, peaceful life in medieval Spain. I mean, Isabella and Ferdinand expelled the Jews in 1492, but the Inquisition would have none of that, and vigorously defended them before the unjust actions of the Court. Truly, the Inquisition saved their lives and didn't torture or burn them at the stake by the thousands at all! I mean, a lesser religious authority might have abused the situation and coerced tens of thousands of Jews and Moslems to confess imagined transgressions and accept the Catholic faith on pain of excrutiating death, but this Inquisition was Nice and Pure and Good and was only put in place to protect the weak and heal the infirm. Truly, progressive thinking on the part of the always-forward-looking Catholic Church.
Was this the binary nividia/ati drivers, or an X configuration issue? What distro?
--
Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
The only sensible thing that can be said about "IP" is that it's a government granted exclusive franchise or monopoly. Copyrights, patents and trademark have about as much in common with each other as they do with the local electric utility. The most natural American thought is to limit all forms of exclusive franchises. This includes "IP" franchises.
It never ceases to amaze me that local, state and federal governments continue to purchase Microsoft. There are many alternatives that cost less and have fewer problems available.
The fact of the matter is that Microsoft would be in a tail spin right now if it were not for billions of dollars in government spending. Does anyone think they would have been able to make their "numbers" had the DoD not stepped up to the plate with ridiculous decade long exclusive purchases of software that has yet to be written? I think not and such purchases of inferior goods are the surest sign of state support.
The market, however, is not to be conned. There's only so much impact the government can have. When the limit hits, they will sink without a trace. It will not be a big deal either.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
the Guardian online section has an article on this speech. It doesn't mention communism though, concentrating mainly on the relationship between MS and Consumer electronics companies.
4 586,00.html
"Gates grins and bears it
The Microsoft boss endured a few jokes at the US gadget show, but the software giant is starting to overcome consumer mistrust, reports Jack Schofield"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,138
Memes don't exist. Spread the Word.
Gates was going to use Keynote for the presentation, but he didn't want to pay for that goddamn expensive Apple hardware.
Really? It's about as online as my toaster! My God, the fucking thing has to buffer every 30 seconds! This from the Nebekenezzer of the Net?
For an artist to make ANY profit at all off of an RIAA-backed album, the artist has to sell 500,000 copies of the album. The artist is ultimately responsible for covering all recording and various other production and distribution costs.
The RIAA, on the other hand, makes a profit off of each and every album that gets sold, whether it's one copy or a billion. Regardless of whether an artist makes a profit or not, they are still obligated to repay the money loaned by the label at contract signing time.
Less than 1% of RIAA artists will ever sell over 500,000 copies of an album, so while that 1% does bring in an enormous amount of money, it's not like the other 99% are bleeding the industry as bad as the RIAA tries to make us all believe. That 99% however has managed to make themselves a major part of the RIAA's income.
Even if an artist doesn't sell a single copy of an album, the labels still get that loan money back, and you can be sure that there's interest added into the mix there too.
To answer your question: the artists are always on the losing end of the deal in this situation, and by most of the facts and figures I've read recently, that's an overwhelming percentage of signed artists.
Ignoring, for the moment, that the Inquisition was set up to prevent torture and killing (see my earlier post)
I'll continue to ignore it until it becomes true.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
And the fucking POS crashed. Right there in the boardroom. The shareholders were aghast. Linux was supposed to make their business more reliable? The web server went completely tits-up and had to be rebooted. an hour later it still wasn't running and we were clueless as to what the hell had happened. A call to RootHat proved useless, futile and expensive, so we threw in the towel and the shareholders voted to give Microsoft all of their money. And it was a damn good thing, too, because Linux is like a snarling little feral beast, running around pissing on everything and making bastard puppies of itself here and there, each version just a little more annoying and unstable than the last one. Yup, a shotgun the size of Texas would take care of that Linux infestation problem you got there, Ma'am. And the web server that went tits-up under Linux, you ask? We installed Microsoft Windows Server 2003 on it, and it's still running to this day.
As an economic system, monopoly and communism are the same thing. It's all about top-down central control of everything.
Conversely, there is nothing communistic about eliminating a lot of outmoded IP laws relating to copyrights and such. Doing so wouldn't eliminate incentives for creative people but it would eliminate gouging by record companies and publishers who want to control distribution of content and collect tolls.
No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.
I guess the part where everyone should be offended is: "There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises". I happen to agree with him though. In essence what he is saying is that people are expecting goods and services for free. This is a fundamental pillar of socialism.
He already tried that but it backfired. M$ tried to blame windoze viruses and worms on FOSS. It was easy to show that the worms were written on Windoze by people who know about Windoze. All the accusation did was admit that there was a worm problem and give a good example of blame shifting. It also highlighted the relative security of free software.
Concentrated efforts by real Communists against free software have failed. No automated worms have emerged, despite the majority use of free software in typical targets of such efforts: high profile corporate webserves.
Microsoft themselves have engaged in such activities against previous competitive threats. There are court documented cases of them breaking code for DrDOS, Netscape and a host of others. It would be interesting indeed if they were to try to classify such activity as "terrorist".
If there is a software terrorist threat, it's dependence on Windows. Windows systems, including large banks, have continued to be trashed and this has an effect on public moral and institutional confidence.
Mojo, free software's got it, M$ don't.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
...too subtle for Slashdot.
"People who want software that works are communist"
;-)
-- Bill Gates
Yeah, I know this is not what Free Software is about but it just sums up his case so good...
On the whole, religion has killed more people than all forms of revolution and all wars over money, gold or resources.
I've always took issue with statements like this, but would really love to hear a good counter argument. It seems to me that, in actuality, wars are really about resources, be it land, money, power in the region, etc. Religion certainly plays a role in that it is an enabler - it is something that those in power can weild to control the masses, and not even have to give anything to them in the present for their troubles (at least in Christianity, eternal wealth and happiness will be delivered to you post mortem, apparently... go figure).
Has there ever really been a war that was truly about one religion fighting another? In order to answer "yes" to that question, that would mean that these two groups would still go to war even if they were on entirely seperate parts of the earth, and had absolutely no ties to each other (culturally, economically, etc).
One easy example of this is the current Israel-Palestine conflict. Would there still be conflict if the Jews were magically relocated to Alaska? How come Israel and/or the Palestinians are not interested in fighting the Chinese? In the end, doesn't it always come down to land and power in the region? I realize that religion is certainly playing an enabler role in this conflict - but it is not the source of it. I tend to think that close proximity, racism, and very unbalanced levels of wealth are the real reasons they are fighting.
Again, I am no expert and I would truly love to hear a good counter argument to this, but the notion that wars have been simply religions fighting each other always seemed simplistic to me. Now if you want to say that more people have been killed in the *name* of religion than in any other name, that is something I would not take issue with.
my religion lies somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball - pamphlet?
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
The above is of course what Mr. Gates supposedly says whenever he is presented with an idea, concept, or proposal that he doesn't like or agree with. The idea that his product crashes during a KEYNOTE speech he is giving at a major show would certainly be worthy of such a description.
Does anyone know how many MS employees have been fired so far as a result of this incident? At most companies heads would certainly roll. What is particularly mystifying to me is that this would happen to Gates now in light of the fact that this has happened to him before.
This also reminds me of a photo from another show a few years ago where Steve Jobs is shown standing on a stage while behind him is an enormous screen with Gates' big giant head framing Jobs. I laughed and laughed....
Slightly offtopic but speaking of MS crashes, at my company a few years ago I upgraded to Office XP and my machine started crashing regularly. In a rage, I fired off a complaint to billg@microsoft.com to complain. Of course, I never expected a response given that he supposedly has a "bozo" filter and teams of flunkies but I actually got a sincere response email from somone at MS who was at a fairly high level. Go figure...
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
It's often noted that their biggest customer is the U.S. Government (including military).
"At the other end of the spectrum is the U.S. Army, which is Microsoft's largest customer."
--Microsoft VP Robert McDowell, Redmond, Wash., Dec. 28, 2004
http://www.microsoft.com/indonesia/news/12-28mcdow ell.asp
Is Gates suggesting that China resist the increasing IP laws? I'm pretty sure that they won't take "Communist" as an insult, anyway....
Free software is software that is freely given by the authors, usually out of pure goodwill, with the programmers choosing to do so; or at least their employers, the actual owner of the software in either case. This is a good thing.
Communism, and I am talking about the idealized Marxist communism here, not the even worse real-world examples, is about the poor stealing from the rich, simply because the poor outnumber the rich. This is not voluntary on the part of the rich, but rather their property is taken against their will, and this robbery is justified by the greed of the poor.
Free software is not communism, but instead is better described as Christian, in line with Christ's command to give of yourself freely; however, since many of the people who develop free software are of other religions, perhaps a better phrase would be just "being a really nice person."
The idea that most closely relates to Marxist communism in the realm of software would instead be the software and music pirates, who justify stealing software from Microsoft and music from the companies in the RIAA because Microsoft and the RIAA have a lot of money, and the pirates don't, as if it somehow isn't theft then.
Best Slashdot comment ever
I slapped the flag on my livejournal with a link to the article. The point of flying it is not to link myself or free software to communism, but to point out the hate-mongering spread by billy G. Most of us have probably already made the comparisons you suggest, or something similar.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
when has MS ever had one of these presentations that did NOT crash?
I've been using Windows 2000 regularly for the past 4 or 5 years, and I can only recall seeing one BSOD in that time. It was related to a buggy NIC driver. After I got around that issue, it's been rock solid.
The only time it's ever gotten frozen was when I was playing UT2k4 during a storm and lightning struck closeby. Probably not a smart thing to do regardless of operating system. And I have it set to display the BSOD rather than rebooting, so I would see any BSOD's. Even if it rebooted, I would obviously be able to tell that it did reboot. I haven't ever had it reboot on me.
I do video capturing and editing (VirtualDub), heavy gaming (UT2k4, Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Splinter Cell series), and pretty much anything else you can think of.
I use Internet Explorer exclusively and have only had one virus and zero spyware. The one virus was due to stupidity on my part (not virus scanning and running an unknown executable). I have the free Grisoft AV program and AdAware and am behind a hardware router.
The point is, if you are savvy enough you can run Windows (at least Windows 2000) safely and reliably. The only negative thing is that after about 5 days of uptime and heavy use it starts to get a little flaky. No stability issues, but things start to slow down a lot. Rebooting fixes this, but it's still annoying.
My install is just over 2 years old; I don't reinstall every 6 months because I don't have to. Unfortunately, most people are "dumb users" and running Windows 98, which is, relatively speaking, a piece of shit. The thing I hate the most is how fucking fragmented my hard drive gets.
Overall, Windows 2000 just works for me and I like it a lot. A good hardware router and some education could go a long way. Alas, most people just don't give a fuck.
Typical. Having 'growed up' during the sixties when everyone who didn't go along with the status quo was labled a 'communist', and having tolerated the nineties when everyone who didn't go along with the status quo was labeled a 'liberal' I'd have expected something more creative.
But then considering the source...
In and of itself, it's not going to be a big source of a profit because there will be lots of people with stores out there, but then in terms of making it simple, having it work on all the devices, work with all the stores--that is important to us. The Windows ecosystem provides variety.
Yes, I can have Weatherbug, Gator, GAIN Networks, Alexia...the choices are endless with our friendly, Internet Explorer!
The stream has been slashdotted
This may be a subtle point, the but Commandment is "don't commit murder" not "don't kill". There's actually a very important non-trivial difference there.
Subtle enough to depend on which Bible you read. My old King James says "Thou shalt not kill"
Anyway this is all beside the point as these people call themselves Christians, ie followers of Christ and the New Testament, not Jews and followers of the Old Testament, and Christ had a very different message.
Billy Boy is REALLY showing his age. This century, the correct term for your opposition is "terrorists".
Sheesh.
Thank you for the torrent, stream has been slashdotted.
Currently getting 75-100 kBytes per second down
Yep, he pretty much just said that if you don't support IP then your a Communist.
No, he pretty much just said that if you think that everyone should be able to copy anyone else's work just because they think that it's their right to do so, that you're a Communist.
Kind of the same thing, but let's be explicit here.
The world's richest man and still as greedy as ever
Hmmm... I agree with him... yet I'm certainly not rich. I don't think that expecting to be paid for my work makes me greedy. I think that others expecting to get my work for free makes them freeloaders though.
Coming soon - pyrogyra
The government supports Harvard? I thought US universities were all privately run. I live in Canada, so I'm not terribly familiar with the US education system.
especially since the Crusades (which was a defensive war, contrary to popular belief - the Arabian leader sacked the holiest of Christian churches, which was basically without defense, making Europe mad - the first Crusade was retaliatory)
Hahah. Like the crusaders weren't above sacking a christian city themselves. Take Constantinople for example.
The crusades were the barest pretext to rape and pillage the rich east.
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
My brother just got one and it seemed pretty like a pretty neat computer. Since I was also on the lookout for a new PC, I bought one days after he did.
AMD-64 3400
1.8G FSB
512M RAM
200G Hard Drive
128Meg AGP Video Card (Quoted on the documentation)
Now for the fun part.
First, the video board is really a PCI card (not to be confused with PCI-Express). I've yet to resolve this issue as I didn't realize this until just the other day.
Now for the Operating System: Windows XP - Media Center Edition. Windows ME's big brother.
Applications suddenly terminate - not all the time, but enough.
Premiere 6.0 is a nightmare on this system - crashes repetedly on the same project within seconds after starting up. If I place a video on a timeline and resize the edit window the app crashes. No other OS (WinXP, Win2K or Win98) crashes.
Windows Messenger - Where to start. First-off, you can not uninstall Windows Messenger (at least without uninstalling The Media Center)!
Running the media center to listen to the radio (which is a cool idea) causes Windows Messenger to run. That particular PC is not connected to the Internet therefore I don't have to worry about it nor can I report it's behaviour after the Windows Messenger comes up. Maybe someone can fill in those details.
On the subject of the Windows Firewall and Anti-virus detection schemes: Oi! (Remember, now, that this system is NOT connected to the internet.) I uninstalled the pre-packaged Norton AV and Norton Internet Security because of it's constant whining about connecting to the net to get updates. It just would not stop prompting me - so I uninstalled it. That's when SP2's problem reared it's very ugly head.
I thought, "OK, I'll just 'change the way Security Center alerts me.'"
I checked the requesite check-boxes in the security center (4 check-boxes total (two under 'Change the way Security Center alerts me and one each under the firewall and AV recommedation buttons). After two restarts, the checkboxes miracouslty (-2 sp) un-check themselves and the Security Center continues to nag me to death. ( I imagine there is some other procedure to effectively (permenently) turn off this mis-feature; but, I haven't found it, yet.)
Anyway, I give 4 'drives down' on WinXP-MC.
Bill Gates is coming to your living room, whether you like it or not.
You spelled that wrong. It should read, "Bill Gates is coming to the living room..." It'll be a cold day in hell before he gets into mine.
Disclaimer: This comment was generated by a Flock of Trained Microsoft Programmers for Aqua_Geek.
United Soviet Socialist Republic.
The path to comunisim is (whatever)->Socialisim->Comunisim. No government to date has made the last step. Communisim is what you would have *after* you dismantled the socialist "commities" (e.g. soviets) that "fairly re-apportioned" the labor.
There has yet to be an actually communist government enacted (disassembeled?) on the world stage.
The fact that true communisim was always a five-year-plan away, and that the communist ideals were being force-fed down the throat of the populace didn't mean it ever existed.
Communisim would be a _great_ system, if only there weren't any humans involved. It requires absolue honesty and self-effacement in the form of the individuals ability to recognize and respond to the needs of the populice. _THAT_ is just not human nature...
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
After seeing Bill Gates speak at the Microsoft Developers Conference in Redmond last year, I was convinced the man is a dinasour in the industry. He's a relic and an icon for the company but it seems for the most part completely irrelevent.
During the Conference many of the Microsoft presentors and developers spent a good deal of their presentations talking about embracing the open source community. This wasn't a suprise as Microsoft's gobbled up a great many open source developers during the IT slump of the past five years. From SOAP to app server design and so forth every speaker during the conference made some point about having open APIs and working with Linux and UNIX in general.
Then, during Gates' closing statements/keynot about the third sentence out of his mouth was something along the lines of "We will CRUSH LINUX.... and we will CRUSH open source." This was an interesting message given his troops speeches over the previous three days.
If I'd had some balls I would have called his ass on this. Most people just asked questions along the lines of "Can I get my picture taken with you?" But just being in the same room as him made me have trouble breathing. I felt like I was in the presence of Darth Vader or something (goes to show you how warped I am by being in this industry). But in any case, I think Bill should stick with his philanthropy and stop giving technical demos. He's no Steve Jobs.
Kim Polese was using it a week or so ago to announce her new job at SpikeSource.
The Flash animation starts out with a supervillain saying, "We were negotiating with the Pentagon and we had a blue screen of death. That was the last straw."
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Gates is plugging the new IRiver in this picture :)
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
"But they were a huge jump in the right But they were a huge jump in the right direction."
Oh, for their orderly pursuit of torture and stacking the decks entirely against the accused?
I guess it must be the systematic, methodical approach that meets your approval. Also pleased with the methodical recordkeeping at Nazi Concentration camps?
Finally, citing anonymous "theologians" and the Vatican (slight bias there? hmm...) is in no way helping your case. If you want to publish bullshit online with nary a fact inbetween to even remotely bulk up your case, then you get what you deserve.
"sigh" my ass. Your smugness reeks. Go confess your sins and have your limbs dislocated, asshole. Torequemada surely would approve.
Copyright and patents are neither capitalist nor communist.
Patents come from an older economic system - namely mercantilism. In this case the government rewards industrial enterprise with monopolies. Copyright is similar in that the government also creates (by its enforcement) a monopoly.
Mercantilism itself involves a bit more, e.g., having more exports than imports. However the patent system comes out of it.
Yoghurt
It really is rediculous all around. Bill neglects to carefully consider that the GPL and other open source licenses are simply gifts of intellectual property to the community at large. In no way does the GPL or BSD licenses "disrespect" commercial licenses, they just offer a better value than the commercial licenses, ie., our software is our gift to you.
Gifts don't typically come with strings attached.
The BSD license doesn't - but the GPL certainly does. Big fat chains, if you will.
Coming soon - pyrogyra
Yes, and, Mr. Gates, the operating system is not a product of the future. So let it go, you made your money, now its time for the public to benefit. Get a new idea if you want to exploit the IP system.
SpamapS -- Undernet #Linuxhelp
Is money the only reason you do what you do? Are you that much of a materialistic propertarian lame-wad? Is the promise of more money the only reason you learn new things, experiment, play? Is the only reason that Einstein learned physics so that he could get a bigger crib or the latest car and lord it over his neighbors; or was it 'to know the mind of God'?
You sir are a sniveling grasping avarist with a tiny shiveled soul and an intellect that I'm sure reflects same. And I for one am glad you are not my doctor.
"What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?"
Linus Torvalds!
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Bill, hoist yet again with his own petard!
(Of course, Linus was a student at the time...but Bill made no exceptions. And that criticism is irrelevent anyway, since a dozen hobbyists putting in 1/12th man-years can do the same - and are - well, maybe except for the documentation part, which still sucks...)
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
People like you love to put up the fact that Microsoft was convicted of being a monopoly by the government every time it suits you (or you run out of arguments) and then you turn around and claim that the thing that holds up the monopoly is the government. Way great logic.
Why not? Both things are proved by published documents from a trusted source. Nasty details of Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior were published in the finding of facts. You can go and read sworn testimony by tech industry leaders. Public spending and laws are also published. It's not my fault my government can document abuse and encourage it at the same time.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Isn't it nice to know what you say always comes out perfect and your words are never paraphrased and rearranged to sound as bad as possible.
Why don't you just start a mass chain eemail and clog up everyone's inbox with this vitriol.
What a bunch of whiny hypocrites we've become.
And isn't it sad to think I'll probably be accused of being a M$ employee or Bill's gimp or some Luddite for DARE even SOUNDNG like I'm defending Bill Gates.
I ask you: Who's the communists?
Why don't you just grab a camcorder and a bandana and film yourselves burning Bill in effigy. Post it on the internet to claim your 15 minutes and get it all over with. In the unlikely event an OS, or some large succesful softweare corporation, is ever perfected "enough", what wil you cry foul about then? That the sky isn't blue enough or the grass isn't green enough?
How 'bout we shut our mouths and let our actions do the talking by supporting & promoting ANY exceptional software whether it's Open Source or not?!
So I we Firefox and they put a 2-page ad in a big newspaper. So we use Linux and despise Windows. Whoop-dee-freakin'-doo! So what?!
We act like that's gonna CHANGE the WORLD! Like some starving kid in Rwanda is going to sleep better tonight knowing Linux MAY have a 10% market share in 10 years.
Empty altruitic rantings aside, where's the beef, people?! *phew...*
Christianity...ah no. Roman Catholicism, sure. Don't get the two confused, they are very different faiths. The Christian belives in salvation by faith alone, the Catholic doctrines (councils, specifically Vatican II) as are still written would still burn a Christian for that single belief. Don't know what Hilter said that he was and don't really care, he wasn't a Christian by any reasonable standard. Bush...Catholic. Inquisitions...very Catholic. I'm not saying that Christians(anity) are blameless but your examples don't fly.
You're mostly right, in that religion is an enabler. The point I think you're missing is that this is why religion is a Bad Thing. All wars really are over power, land, resources, etc., but to fight wars, you need soldiers willing to die for your cause, and usually a public that supports the war effort. It's not easy to get the general public incensed against another country just because their leader likes wars, wants more land, etc. Leaders have to appeal to something greater, and somehow make the enemy seem deserving of death. Religion is great for this, because it's completely fabricated, and requires no proof at all.
Time and time again throughout history, religion has been used as a tool to get people to do horrible things they normally would not have done had they remained rational. This is why I think it's dangerous and should be shunned.
Doh. Religion hasn't killed anyone. I've never heard of someone deciding to follow a religion, then promptly falling dead because religion killed them.
People kill people. Not religion. People abuse religion, and use that as an excuse to kill people, but that does not mean that religion has actually killed them.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
Bill Gates loves to talk about intelectual property and so do all the rest ofthe loosers of the world. However, the sad an bitter for them truth is that intelectual property exists only as bragging right and not something that you earn money from. What Gates refuses to admit or maybe even realize is that OSS is not about abolishing intelectual property. Everyone that creates any OSS has his/her name qutomatically stamped on it. OSS is about freedom to know everything about the software that you use and the way it was created. After all if it wasn't for all the scientist that discovered/created things described in textbooks Bill Gates would have had no chance to even turn a computer on. So is OSS communism? I think not. Closed sorce is the philosophy that resemble the communistic *control of information* and I really do not see Mr. Gates' point. I guess that's what happens when you flunck out of college.
10s of millions of deaths from communism sounds like an exageration.
Anyway, we should state our position is anti-merchantilist (merchantilism is a non-free market economic system, which is popular with fascist regimes, and is capitalist in structure, but has strong elements of governemt control and distortion/hinderence of free markets) and that the intellectual "property" laws are pro-merchantilist and hence anti-capitalist, as they unlevel the playing field and rig the economic system to make someone succeed who might not otherwise.
Don't make it us/communists versus them/capitalists. Make it us/capitalists versus them/merchantilists. Do it right and you can get both conservatives and liberals on your side.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
I don't think I said anything to disagree with you there. You might say that I am getting caught up on a technicality, but I like arguments to be precise, and the common argument that "different religions kill each other" just seems to be missing half the picture.
I agree completely with what you said. I just think the distinction that I made is important as well.
my religion lies somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball - pamphlet?
Who needs Bugs Bunny and Foghorn Leghorn?
---------
The Windows ecosystem provides variety.
So Media Center PC and Xbox become totally complementary.
So no big problem; it's not that people have stopped using IE, it's just we've got lots of good ideas that can match and move ahead.
Well, no one invests more in security of their browser than what we do on IE.
So most of the results people get back today are irrelevant results. Deep analysis can take us much further, and that's why we're investing a lot, and you'll see us more very rapidly.
When people want to manage a project with many companies involved--keeping data confidential, tracking and knowing what's going on--that's very crummy today compared to what it can be.
I downloaded and watched it (the feed was crap so I used Net Transport to capture), and Bill seemed pretty cool. The "wry smile" he gave Conan was just a smile as he focused on the something else, and I thought he handled himself well. Anyone who has ever supported a large presentation knows the pitfalls and problems. Technology'll get ya every time. Nothing at all villainous came out of that video when I watched it, nor was there any sense of failure -- just technology barfing up a little. This news blurb is pejorative.
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
I remember a comedian who mocked us for thinking IM was so great when the telephone had already been around for a hundred years.
i would like to watch it, anyone have a video mirror?
failing that, anyone have any hot porn?
1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
"You have the freedom to do anything but deny freedom to others" are not big fat chains, and are only strings to the sociopathically greedy.
The enemies of Democracy are
I have the non-streaming version but I have no where to host it (I'm at work). Where do people normally toss things up for slashdot mirroring? It is about 180MB for the whole thing. I couldn't bare to sit through the streaming (if you call that streaming) from that overloaded server. I kept missing the good part!
Sleep is for the weak!
You have no idea what you're talking about.
The fact that 90% of "first-world" countries are socialist and not communist (including Canada, pretty much all of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and more) pretty much blows apart your theory that socialism and communism are inseperable.
Idiot.
well, for me, it is usually easier to use the laptop. i rarely carry the yellow pages around, neither in my backpack nor through the house. though easily enough, the only pizza place here is Leonardo's.
Christian nations were one by one taken over by muslims. The pope called for an army to take back the success of muslim armies.
Does anyone hear lay blame on the American Indian for resisting the expansion of the "White Man?" Their resistance (what resistance there was) is understandable. So were Crusades I to III.
"nor was there any sense of failure -- just technology barfing up a little."
An ingrown hair is acute. It will eventually pass. Genetal Herpes simplex-B, on the other penis, is chronic. It's going to be there for awhile.
Windows has been barfing, for awhile. I suspect colorectal cancer.
Your statement is true from the standpoint that there are people that use the guise of religion as a reason for violence. But there are those also that use atheism for exact same purpose and reason.
So is concept of religion the problem or is it man's falable nature the problem?
Does a person's convictions and beliefs in "loving their neighbor" cause them to attack their neighbor? Or is it really the opposite, that they in fact do not have a true religion and actually desire to not obey commands like "thou shalt not kill".
Muslems, Jews and Christians all claim they are religious, all claim the same roots (Abraham) yet, if they do not obey their own religious doctrines, how can their actions be blaimed on religion?
Those that choose to be an atheist decide for themselves what is right and wrong, without a basis of a higher power directing them. But if you look at what is naturally considered "good", you will find these ideas mirror closely what is considered "good" by the standards of the root (Abraham) of the 3 major religions. Perhaps this is just a coincidence, but loving your neighbor or not loving your neighbor is a personal choice that if not done cannot be blamed on the concept, but only on a person's actions.
"It was the rise of the modern state and the adoption of Christianity as an official state ideology that made the Spanish Inquisition what is was -- a modern institution."
Christianity was the official state ideology of the Roman Empire, by decree of Constantine.
"Christendom" was the religious result of the Roman Empire and the Catholic church the remains of the Western Roman Empire.
The rise of nation states marked the end of Christendom, the weakening of the power of the Catholic church as national secular law became superior to canon law.
He wants it to be a Microsoft search thing.
emt 377 emt 4
I slapped the flag on my livejournal with a link to the article. The point of flying it is not to link myself or free software to communism, but to point out the hate-mongering spread by billy G. Most of us have probably already made the comparisons you suggest, or something similar.
Well, first of all, it's your blog. So take what I write in the spirit of friendly advice. Basically, yeah - most of the FS community understands what I'm writing. But don't think for a minute that Gates has the FS/geek movement in mind when he speaks to reporters. His words are to set the tone for columnists and other press, the business community elite, government officials, and finally what little public may be paying attention. He doesn't care what we think, he cares about setting a frame of reference for the press to repeat.
With repetition ion the press comes popular belief, leading finally to general consensus opinion. It doesn't matter how rational or irrational the statement, if a statement is repeated enough the population as a whole will usually accept it as fact. And once so, it is the general population who will look at geeks running this flag and misinterpret it as a stand in solidarity for communism. You could even directly state your opposition to communism and it wouldn't matter, because the image evokes such an emotionally powerful taboo. There is nothing rational about this process, but people (as a population) do react in this manner - particularly when an assertion, factual or not, is linked to an emotionally powerful image. --M
Actually, isn't a government granted monopoly (copyright) and "incentives" more communist than capitalist?
Patents, copyrights and trademarks are are quite ANTI-communist because part of what they do is allow one to claim ownership of ideas, and Communists do not like anyone other than the state to own anything. They are a capitalist in a sense for the same reason--they create a legal "thing" that can be given a monetary value and owned.
However, the above-mentioned IP instruments (especially as they exist today) would make Adam Smith roll in his grave. They do NOT make for an unhindered free-market economy. Heavy-handed IP laws could in fact be applied towards creating a Soviet-like centrally-planned economy: Think of it--a government agency has the power to grant and revoke exclusive rights to inventions, media, software, etc. It could play a central role in a government run by an elite band of old cronies. The result would be a money-driven, privately-owned (by an elite classs) economy--highly capitalist but very restrictive, with high barriers to participation.
In short, IP laws that are excessive in creating artificial "things" to own and granting too much exclusive power to these things would contribute greatly to the emergence of Economic Fascism. Bill Gates is, in essence, an Economic Fascist to a degree. Someone like Jack Valenti or Darl McBride are extremely fascist from an economic standpoint.
I think that the whole left-right single-axis spectrum oversimplifies reality, and I'm suprised someone as smart as Gates doesn't express that in his interview. He brands IP-rights reformers as "Communists" when not all of them are. I'd venture to say most in the US are Economic Libertarians (ie. want less government interference) and have no problem with making money at all.
I hold a fairly libertarian view on things--leave people alone to innovate, and let people be free to compete. There needs to be some level of IP rights in the interest of fairness, to ensure creators are free to chose how their works are used (GNU is unenforceable without a copyright law for example), but such things are privliges, not fundamental rights, and as such the more power you are granted the more RESPONSIBILITY you have. In other words, if you want to patent, copyright, trademark and DRM your works to death feel free to try...HOWEVER it is YOUR responsibility to enforce those conditions---you should not make the government responsible to do your work for you.
There's a wonderful little program for downloading mms: streams called mimms. Get the .asx, find the .wmv link, fire mimms at is, and watch your drive whirr.
it's in debian unstable for sure, a quick google will find it for distros without it.
Sure, but there were a couple of years between the fall of the western Roman empire and the final reconquest of Spain in 1492.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The speaker was holding an Xbox controller but I bet what was seen was a video played on a Windows computer.
Remember, technologies have changed
Yes, technologies have changed.
But that does not imply that laws should be changed to create artificial markets.
Technology exists now to record every instance of a person learning or expressing an idea in public. Eg, I sit in a lecture hall and learn about electronic circuit design.
Does that mean that a marketplace should be setup to exact a toll on each of those transmissions of information by changing the laws?
Before dismissing the idea because "it doesn't compare to current situation", consider that people have invested millions of dollars and much of their time coming up with these ideas - it would be "unfair" to let those valuable ideas flow from one person to another without compensating the originators/funders of the original idea, eh?
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Yes, like defending newfound territories against the pagans that lived there before in the Northern Crusades.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
The selectable skins, background pics, etc is pretty cool. BTW: did you write that essay? --M
I wonder why this was moderated off-topic. Don't we all want to see the video? Unfortunately I suspect mac doesn't work with mplayer (.dll codecs are most likely 80x86 only), but for some Linux users the following may work. Get the .asx file. With mplayer, you could start playing this.
mplayer -playlist ms_ces_20050105_300.asx
But what is more interesting to the parent, it that the stream can be captured:
mplayer -dumpstream -dumpfile x.dump -playlist ms_ces_20050105_300.asx
I think the resulting file is a .wmv, so you should rename x.dump to something.wmv to allow it to play.
I don't have the bandwidth, but this way I'm sure someone could put up a mirror. Extra bonus points for who does!
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
Seriously, mod this guy up you god damn commies.
Religion hasn't killed anyone. I've never heard of someone deciding to follow a religion, then promptly falling dead because religion killed them.
You're just begging for it.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
There are a number of things in the Gates interview that I take exception to, but to cover the communist slur first, any American businessman who wants to get his way is going to call any opposition to that desire a "communist". It's your classic syllogism: "they" want to restrict me = communists want to restrict me = "they" are communists. Add to that the perennial canard that left-wing=communist and you've got a winner. This goes back to Henry Ford to whom Bill more than resembles these days (shudder).
No prizes for guessing that Bill still wants to be the centre of attention, but do you really want targeted advertising that you can't avoid? Do you want the centre of your home controlled by Microsoft DRM? And there's that horrible word 'ecosystem' again. And the Xbox vampire marches on..
What to make of the Firefox comments? At once complacent (like much of the interview's tone), but also threatening, just CEO-speak for 'I still keep up to date'? To say nothing of his IE security bravado.
Now WTF is the Office 'franchise'? How can a software product be a franchise? What does Bill want us to believe when he calls it that?
Finally, if it wasn't obvious before, Bill spells it out: Microsoft WANTS everyone on broadband. Probably because it makes XP look more productive.
insecurity asks the wrong question irritation gives the wrong answer
You can not use atheism to justify murder, because there are no rules to enforce unlike in (most) religions.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
who noticed that Gates likes to use the word "rich"??
You call it excessive, I call it ambitious.
What about the Crusade against the peace loving Cathars?
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
... Score one for Microsoft Public Relations*.
* Imagine a "buhh-ZING!" noise here.
Actually, Galileo made much of his own problems with the Catholic Church. A better example of abuse of a man of science by the church would be Giordano Bruno...he didn't get house arrest for his ideas...
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
Allow me to summarize about 90% of the comments for you: M$.
News flash, folks: Gates is not the devil incarnate, nor does he have some mad scheme to become the ruler of all existence. Take the tin foil off.
In a more on-topic vein: it is poetic justice to watch Gates suffer through the same bugs that all his consumers must endure.
Only louzy commies wipe their own, those who sincerely worry about prospering of market economy buy this service after organizing an ouction for lowest price.
There being no rules is exactly why you _can_ use it as a way to justify murder. Having no rules vs having rules is not a logical reason to say one belief system causes violence and another doesn't.
The question arises then, what law or belief in atheism says murder is wrong? There is a natural understanding that murder is wrong, but a violent anarchist, or other such forms of belief that support violence, has no moral restrictions and no other person of atheistic beliefs has a right, under their own chosen belief system, to tell another atheist that murder is wrong.
So is it better for society to have at least moral ground work that at the least maintains a social preasure to be non-violent versuses a belief system that by it's own nature cannot hold another person accountable for their actions?
At the very least if a "Christian" commits a violent crime it can be called against him that he violated his own beliefs and is guilty based on a community standard of what it means to be "Christian".
I do not disagree that religion has been the justification for war (by Christians, Jews and Moslems), but it was not done by the followers of Christ it was done by those that merely claimed they followed him. And for the sake of argument, even if a Christian did commit murder (as is recorded in the Bible for sure), the whole point of this religion is that the believers are supposed to feel sorry for their actions and repent. There is no requirement of repentance of any kind in atheism.
So if you had to choose between living in Soviet Russia (an atheistic society) vs the USA (mainly Christian/Jewish society), which would you choose? (setting aside the fact that many people may not act on their professed belief systems)
"The Inquisition" - History of the World, Part I
Slashdot needs more posts like this
Keeps the community spirit alive...
my sig could kick your sig's arse...
Last I told my shiny new Win Media Center (which banished my Tivo to the kids room upstairs..) to record Alias. It puts a big red dot on the listing and appears to dutifully record. Off to bed I go safe in the knowledge Billium's trusty device will have it glorious quality the following afternoon when I can watch it with the missus. No lost sleep.
... nothing. A couple of PBS Mars NOVA programs from the day before so recording are working - no Alias. No explanation - probably some MS DRM bullsh!t. Thankfully I check the TIVO which has saved me - Yep Syd (ok Jenffr ) in her nighty fighting for truth and justice! I had a set up a season pass last year and luckily its still finding the goodies.
When I check this afternoon
First thing I'm setting up a Fedora/MythTV box with a couple of pcHDTV-3000 cards that still ignore the broadcast flag and pipe my programs to whereever in the house.
Serves Bill right - Is it that his minions for millions can't program their way out of a wet sack or his aim's for 'my stuff' are some evil DRM lacky's wet dream? Either way stick him and his flying monkey boy.
The question arises then, what law or belief in atheism says murder is wrong?
The law of the land says that murder is wrong, and that is all you need.
but a violent anarchist, or other such forms of belief that support violence, has no moral restrictions and no other person of atheistic beliefs has a right, under their own chosen belief system, to tell another atheist that murder is wrong.
Again, the law of the land dictates that it is illegal to murder someone. Atheism may not "bestow" that fact in the same way that a religion may dictate it, but that is irrelevant. There are other, secular and logical sources of what is right and wrong in a society. I think one of the easiest to understand examples of this came from the comedian Robin Williams. It was during the recent church-pedophila scandals, and there was all this talk about whether the church would act and remove the priests from their duty. Williams joked that that was ridiculous, and said "remember, its not only a sin... its also a felony." There was no need to consult the church or take their input at all - we have the laws and the understanding, and the moral, correct choice of action can be administered purely from a legal standpoint.
So if you had to choose between living in Soviet Russia (an atheistic society) vs the USA (mainly Christian/Jewish society), which would you choose?
That is a loaded question, because there are many other factors that seperate the two... A better question would be an Athiest USA and a Christian USA.
my religion lies somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball - pamphlet?
You, and LOTS of people here are defending communism. For people that supposedly love freedom so much, how the hell can you all defend communism? And you ARE defending it, when you say "Oh, the USSR wasn't really communist. Real communism is better". Have any of you people actually read the manifesto? Christ Almighty, Marx advocates horrible things. He brags about how communism will demolish the family, as it's just another device to create free labor. He advocates violent bloodshed on a massive scale. He disavows any kind of property rights. Communism, wherever it is, has failed, and always WILL fail eventually, because it's EVIL. Mankind will not forever tolerate it, no matter where it is. It can only take root and hold on by force of arms and oppression. Communism, whether under Russian, East German, or Chinese rule is a dictarship, and any attempt to start a communist government, no matter how pure in intent, will always BECOME a dictatorship. Because individual choice will always end at the tip of a bullet in the back of those that decide to no longer participate. Lenin knew communism was unworkable any other way.
Throw Godwin's Law around all you want, but Communism of any form is just as evil as Nazism ever was. Put aside your intellectual arrogance and you'll see that. You shame yourselves when you say "communism isn't that bad". Tell that to the people of Eastern Europe, tell that to the citizens of Taiwan, tell that to the Cubans that risk their lives to escape Castro.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
He's great PR for Apple.
Funny thing - since we got together I've met many people who used to live in the Eastern Bloc - 100% of them (the ones I've met) think that Communism is about the worst thing to ever infect the planet. The scariest thing (at least to some of the posters in this thread) is that most of them now vote Republican.
Yup, I know a bunch of immagrints to the US from Eastern Block states and Russia proper, and you're right: just about all of them hate Communism. And you're also right that many of them tend to vote Republican. I think that while they may oppose the ideological system that brought them so much personal grief, they're still - at heart - statist authoritarians. They want a powerful government and leader to run things, which explains the success of both Putin and Bush pretty well. That both Putin's and Bush's policies focus on centralization of state power in no way hinders their popularity to these folks, primarily because they carefully use polling and focus groups to avoid public relations disasters. So, make sure not to call it "communist" and the population, to busy surviving to care, will put up with most anything. Feh. In this regard, Russians are no smarter or stupider than Americans; all populations of people are too dumb to notice. --M
I am surprised by Bill's use of antiquated 'communists' instead of much more modern and scary 'terrorists'. Maybe American government got monopoly on it.
Well, I could be undead.
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
Before I start on my real comment, I have to say that Gates comment, "...no one invests more in security of their browser than what we do on IE," is horrifyingly funny. They must be throwing good money after bad over there at MS! If they spend so much, where is it going? It sure isn't solving anything.
Anyway, the commentary from Gates on IP laws is exactly what we would expect from any big business involved in media of any type. They think the system works because it makes them rich while our ability to actually enjoy the copies we legally bought in any manner we choose is hamstrung. So, the end result is that YES, we do need to reform our IP laws. As has been mentioned so very many times before, the big media companies complained when the tape player came out, claiming the death of the industry was at hand. Oh how I wish that were so with what they have wrought on us now! So they keep complaining with each new technology that makes it easier for the legitimate owner of a proper copy of the media to move it around in anyway s/he sees fit. Hey, big news to the media giants: It's called Legitimate Use! I can make a copy of any music, movie, or even book I want for my own, personal use! Just as long as I don't make money from it or give it to people who would otherwise buy it elsewhere, it's fine and legal. Therefore, Gates' comment on those of us who wish to see the IP laws reformed being communists is way out of line. What we are is what we have always been: Freedom Loving Americans (and English, Scottish, German, Russian, Pakistani, ect...)! Here in the Good Old USofA, we are suffering from the slow erosion of many of our rights, and this is yet another one to slowly be taken away.
And, no, I am not some anarchist or militant. I'm just a regular Joe who votes his mind, not the parties' minds.
I agree that our current laws set a standard, but this debate did not start from a perspective of law vs religion, it's about the claim that religion causes war/violence, where as non-relgion (atheism) does not. Whether or not we have laws is irrelevant in this regard. The Law I was refering to was religious or belief based laws, not public governmental laws.
There was no need to consult the church or take their input at all
I agree, this is quite ridiculous to consider from even a basic level of reasoning. Though keep in mind that if the people of the Catholic Church really believed and followed that Bible those preists (the ones not thrown in jail) would have no parishioners to speak to on Sunday. So is seems that any "Christian" that supports a preist like that would then be a party to their deeds.
But, an atheist has no moral ground to accuse the preist of wrong doing outside of law, which from a society perspective is a deeper issue.
A better question would be an Athiest USA and a Christian USA
Yes, perhaps it was loaded, but viewed strictly from the sense that Russia actively persecuted religion vs the US which has actively promoted it, from a religious stand point (and even for the athiest) it would be better to live in the US, purely on the basis of religious freedom. (And all the societal benefits that come from that freedom.)
Whoa... no self-respecting programmer uses Bondi Blue as their development machine...
When the 75 year issue comes up I almost hate hearing Disney being brought up as an example. While Mickey has been around for a long time, its not like Walt did Steamboat Willie and that was it. Most of the Disney property has continued to be promoted, refined, added (and yes, a lot of the added is crap), but the point is that they continue to invest and promote the "product" and it didn't just sit in a can all this time.
I agree that some of the updates they have done have been fine, it's mostly just the very newest stuff I take issue with. I am not exactly a Disney fan per se but for some reason I end up at DisneyWorld at least once a year...
However I also think that the 75 year cap has stopped some potentially very cool things from being developed by people outside Disney. Imagine the interesting Mickey products we would have if they were not limted to the imagination of Disney employees. From the other angle it seems like there is some cool stuff Disney could do with things that should be in the public domain but are not (though that case is rarer since all Disney has to do is pay for rights, and few people will refuse Disney).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
Torrent please, the link is tead (some music and "please stand by as we cut out the embarassment" :/)
Go grab those torrents.
I have lived in the Soviet Union (drop the 'Soviet Russia', it's wrong) and I can tell you that it certainly wasn't atheistic nor were all believers actively persecuted (as far as I know it was only Stalin doing that). The societies are largely similar in their moral values.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
Funny, you seem to have read thar wrong. From your post:
... high-minded and enlightened indeed.
The Inquisitions, also contrary to popular belief, did not kill people. It was the authority of Kings who didn't know theology who killed people.
From your link:
Some traditional Catholic apologetics about the Inquisition is untenable, for example, the claim that the Church did not put heretics to death, the state did. Yes, but the Church urged the state to do so, and churchmen hardly escaped responsibility through this legal maneuver.
The inquisitorial statements on the Cathars also make for an interesting read
Also, about your assumption on the first Crusade being retaliatory. Of course, the Pope could claim all the way to Heaven's gate (see the speech of Urban II) that it was the plea brought forth by Peter the Hermit from Jerusalem that was the sole motive (and for some of those who fought the preachers actually had been the reason for enrolling) but that does not make it true. The Byzantyne Empire seemed unable to stop the Turks and, once it fell, what was next? Towards the West, Hungary, Germany, Italy? Heck, the Ottoman Empire eventually sieged Wien at one point, so any fears would have been founded. By this argument, it was more of a preemptive strike. Not to mention economical reasons (trade routes anyone?) and political ones. The Byzantine Empire itself asked for help - how often is it that your opponent, in this case the Eastern Church, asks you for help? Remember, this was immediately after the Eastern and Roman Churches excomunicated and anathemaed each other in 1054 (under Patriarch Caerularius and Pope Leo IX) So a move to delay the Turks and expand the political and economical influence of the Pope in the East is hardly a retaliatory strike.
Better:
Gate's argument is like destroying the church bake sale for the profit-rights of McDonalds.
Or some other NON-local restaurant.
You restart your machine once a week? Tell that to these guys:
. jpg i f
http://print.squat.net/docs/affiches/print-uptime
http://pietila.info/muuta/screenshots/uptime.png
http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~jean/BILLY/uptime.g
http://www.arpa.net/console.jpg - *1000 DAYS*
http://www.beeck.nl/uptime.png
Kill them with kindness!
We substituted the coffee Slashdot normally drinks with "Sandoz Crystals", Lets see if they notice the difference
As I recall, a similiar event occurred almost seven years ago when a preview version of Windows 98 blue screened during a presentation.
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
--ThoraX695
I don't like arbitrary authority, so I don't like big centralized government. On the other hand, I cannot think of another way to slow down the assholes who want to charge me for the privilege of working (using "their" "intellectual" "property"). It's a dilemma that I don't know how to resolve.
I too have faced this dilemma, and believe the solution is simple (though of course, hard to impliment in the face of all the powerful people who would oppose it). Just remove one artificial construct from the economic system: corporations.
Corporations are not people and do not exist in nature. They are like patents or trademarks: a license granting certain extra rights to certain people and removing rights from others. Remove the concept of corporations and keep the rest of the American economy the same, and I imagine you'd see a much more fair market place.
You could still have "companies", but ultimately at the head of each company would be it's sole proprietor, who would be ultimately responsible for the actions of the company (although, of course, not for individual employees acting outside company policy). In effect, you would have an economy based strictly on people working for other people, with no artificial 'people' (corporations) involved; the most efficient organization of who-works-for-who would provide for the most efficient "company".
True, if a large company of people all working directly for one man was extremely successful, he would be a very wealthy man, but in such a case, I'd say such a phenominally successful manager would deserve it. He would have to make the company that successful using all the same above-the-law, clean-cut rules as everyone else, and take legal and financial responsibility for any screwups made under his watch. Thus you'd see much less underhanded illegitimate activity *coughENRONcough*, and you'd probably also see much less conglomeration under a single entity, and more cooperation between smaller, independant companies, to disperse the risk and responsibility around.
Think of it as the democratization of economy and the abolishment of the old corporate monarchies.
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
GPL does, but BSD doesn't. GPL and BSD are very different licenses, you should check them out before giving a lesson to Bill Gates. GPL says everything out there should be free, whereas BSD respects that. That's why Bill Gates do not say anything against BSD, they target GPL though, because GPL is a direct attack to Microsoft and other commercial software vendors, well except Apple of course, since Slashdot loves Apple.
It would seem that Apple has been more successful then M$ in implementing convergence technologies into its operating system. OSX is virtually crash free and easy to use and is extremely extensible due to it's modular architecture. I would really like to see Apple releasing software however to allow easy storage and playback of TV and Movies. (it is possible to do this but the technologies that enable it need to be integrated into a nice clean iApp) What good is the software that does it for if its not reliable and unreasonably limited by DRM technology Mr Gates?
411 Y0UR 8453 4R3 8310NG 70 U5!! -NSA
"Well, no one invests more in security of their browser than what we do on IE."
Bwhahahahahahahah
Roses are red
Violets are blue
In Soviet Russia
Poems write you!
Some religions prohibit certain medical treatments for one reason or another; this has most certainly led to otherwise-preventable deaths of both adherents and children under their "care".
Notable examples are Christian "Scientists" and Jehovah's Witnesses
What I find sad is that there are so many people out there that actually believe in these 'ivory tower liberals.'
What I find scary is that the United States, as a whole, is so rabidly anti-intellectual. Mention any remotely intellectual activity to an 'uneducated' person (bridge, LUGs, discussion groups), and they'll immediately assume you're a snob.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
Because they start at version 1 how often?
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
Here is a link to the transcript of the interview with Bil and Conan. I'm a link!
Windows has detected an undetectable error.
The rich don't say "screw the poor" because there's no money in screwing the poor. Even if you do it in large numbers, there's still no money in it. Now, if you give the poor people factory jobs making your widgets to sell to the middle class people who have some money, now you're talking.
My other first post is car post.
I for one am glad that there are more people that think like the AC and fewer people who think like you. That, combined with democracy, makes the world a better place.
My other first post is car post.
About "communists":Silly logic, if you ask me.
Very few people (that I know of, anyway) are actually in favor of abolishing all intellectual property. Rather, most seem to advocate more moderate limits.
Let's drop this statement on the floor and see if the cat sniffs at it. Change "intellectual property" to "privacy" and see if it holds together.
Very few people (that I know of, anyway) are actually in favor of abolishing all privacy. Rather, most seem to advocate more moderate limits.
Oops. That doesn't sound right at all, does it?
Rights are rights. You can't pick and choose which ones you think are worth protecting.
Gifts? No. The GPL is not a gift; it's an allegedly binding contract that drastically abbreviates the rights of all recipients.
The BSD "license" is a gift. The GPL is not.
Of course, even the BSD "license" is patently unnecessary. It's just silliness designed to make people feel good about themselves. The correct term for what people usually refer to as the "BSD license" is "public domain."
Please...?
Do you honestly think the events of the last four years have made any part of the world a better place for anyone?
Wait, it has gotten a lot better for the wealthy, so you must be among them.
If you have nothing constructive to offer, stay silent.
There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
Wait, it has gotten a lot better for the wealthy, so you must be among them.
No, I'm not, but I'd like to be. So I'd rather live in a society where that is possible than one where it is impossible or dependant on who you know in the Party. Also, I'm sure the average wealthy person loses far more money when the economy tanks than the average poor person. The last four years were like any other four years. Stuff happens. Overall though, I know that dispite evil dictators and tragic events, the general state of humanity is definately improving on a worldwide scale. The rising tide does lift all boats, as they say.
Anyway, I'm saying three things: You're wrong. You're outnumbered. I'm glad about this.
Good day.
My other first post is car post.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Women are like buses.
"Communism" hasn't killed any more people that "capitalism" has.
Properly executed (no pun intended), communism would kill a lot less people than capitalism.
The wealthy may lose more when the economy tanks, but then, they have more to lose. The average wealthy person will still come out well-off, so that point is moot.
The last four years were nothing like the previous eight, and there are so many reasons why this is so that I couln't possibly scratch the surface here. I'll just offer you one word: deficit.
Okay, three more words: war of aggression.
Anyway, I'm saying three things: You're wrong. You're outnumbered. I'm glad about this.
This ridiculous statement tells me all I need to know about your manner of thinking.
Oh, and one more thing: I'd rather that no one be poor than for myself to be rich.
There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
Speaking of communists... A little self-satirizing parody (n.b.: This pic was made on a current-model iBook running Mac OS X, using The GIMP): http://jlb.twu.net/tmp/ThinkDifferent.png
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
You've got it about right.
The most dangerous place in the world seems to
be standing between a capitalist and money he doesn't yet own, but is compelled to believe is rightfully his or that he thinks can be his with judicious use of a number of well worn tools 1) monopoly power, 2) bribing the morally bankrupt but nonetheless self-righteous political class, or as last resort 3) simply killing anyone who stands in his way (but in the name of the State, the Lord, Democracy, or whatever is convenient to whipping up the mob). The rest either gleefully stand in line, hoping to feed from the crumbs that fall from the table or are crushed by capitalists pushing each other out of the few seats at the table.
Unfortunately, "Power to the People" is a lousy slogan to combat such a menace, as those who attain it eventually shoot themselves in the foot or succumb to the greed Jesus warned us of.
Its time to face the reality that we have no choice but to turn the world over to the cockroaches and the bacteria. They will out compete or outlast humanity in the long run anyway. Humans are just neophyte usurpationists.
The meek will inherit the earth, its just that the meek won't be human.
Jesus was right. No rich man will every enter the gates of heaven.
See, they got this saying here in Tennessee... The got this saying in Texas, I assmume they got it in Tennessee... Fool me once, shame... shame. You see, fool and his foolishness - I won't be a fool again.
Now, you see, our whole stategery is to have the NSA anal-ize the code, the stuff what tells the computer what to do and all, and then remove the parts that threaten our way of life, our freedom. Those that say the NSA can't secure us from this terroristic threat are misunderestimating this administration.
Right, Dick?
For a good example of how the Soviet Union protected the environemnt for the benefit of the people, google on "Aral Sea". Formerly the world's 4th largest inland sea, it is now a salt water desert which no longer supports life.
u to motorusse9-I(Trabant).htm
If you don't like that example, consider the Trabant in East Germany. A car with a two stroke engine that spewed smoke and no pollution control technology at all up until the fall of the Berlin Wall... the car body was made primarily from a non-recycleable resin called Duraplast which continues to be an environmental nightmare..
http://digilander.libero.it/cuoccimix/ENGLISH-a
Final 2006 "Proof of Global Warming" US Hurricane Count -> 0
Slashdot headline: "Gates nosedives at CES"
MS internal website headline today: "BillG Outlines Digital Lifestyle Vision"
Gotta love it.
--An AC in redmond
Today China announced their 1.3 billionth person.
Someday soon, the world will announce its 15 billionth person. However, because each of these folks consume resources and produce wastes, food and essential resources will be in short supply and wastes will be in overabundance. So we will fight wars for the limited life-supporting resources that remain. Larger and larger portions of the earth will be degraded to the point where it can no longer sustain human life and life as we know it will end.
Even if they were all angelic programmers or just users with a browser doing what they love, just all that code and code use alone will eventually consume more energy and produce more heat than the planet can sustain (ignoring all the other sources of environmental devastation attendant with such technology). Outer space is too inhospitable for human life, so humanity faces certain extinction simply by temporarily being too "successful".
Your example of technology producing a farm that can feed 1000 people is a bit misleading, because it doesn't include the costs associated with such technology. Yes we have this temporary capability, but its only because we choose to pollute the Gulf of Mexico to the point there is a large and growing dead zone (now about 1/4 the size of the Gulf in the summer due primarily to agricultural runoff from pesticides/herbicides/perchlorates) and because we choose to consume huge amounts of petroleum distillates for which we must now wage war to maintain supplies and dig for in the last of the wildlife refuges, that when burned increase the average temperature of the planet. This creates massive/rapid (rapid enough along with other anthropogenic effects to place about 80% of plants and animals now on the planet at near term risk of extinction in the next 50 years)/irreversible environmental change. Take the future jobs/$$/biodiversity lost because of such costs and you really haven't fed 1000 at the touch of a button at all, you have merely created a cascade of unforeseen problems whose costs will be paid by someone "downstream" or in one of the few future generations that remain. Now, continue to ignore such issues as does our current government and this only buys less time in the long run before the system collapses.
it's the red hat scare. the cold war wasn't that long ago, there's likely residual prejudice towards the color red (in association), so bill might just like to tap into this. hey, it can't hurt.
When I was a kid, we only had one Darth.
Right, and person X didn't die because of being shot, but because his heart stopped beating. One can always draw meaningless distinctions of causality.
If Lisa McPherson (to pick one example) had not joined Scientology, she would probably be alive today. The people culpable for her death would not have treated her as they did were it not for their "religion". Therefore we can reasonably say that it killed her.
Should be: continues in the USA today. For better of worse, in most of the the rest of the 'west' i.e. Europe, there are still a lot of people that refer to themselves by that label, and while that doesn't go down well in all (most?) circles, and is a frequent point of actual honest-to-God debate, the word taboo is much too strong.
I've no problem with your main point though, and very much like your analogy with the bake sale (even though it's interesting to note that that wouldn't work in most places in Europe either). Bill is trying to blow smoke up your collective arses. It's interesting to note that it won't work as part of his European campagin. And that if this is the sort of rethoric he has to resort to, he must be scared.
Stefan Axelsson
Atheists also manipulate people to support war and violence. It's harder to see because it's spread out over many areas and not given one name, but abortion is one example of this. "Get your rosaries off my ovaries!","Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate". Only the target of the violence is far less able to defend themselves.
These chants and protests are no different from a logical perspective. They are to induce agreement from other people.
Just because the religious influence has been recorded more thoroughly in history does not negate secular influences we have today that are atheistic.
It was said by another poster that Robin Williams pointed out that the sins of the preists were felonies. The same is true about abortion, it's the death of a human being (murder), which is illegal, though the law seems quite distorted at this point (why the double standard?). But from an atheistic perspective you can define life how ever you want to justify the behavior. Once an idea is created, mass education to the public to support this idea is spread by secular groups in an evangelical, and often extremely zealous, manner.
So what is the difference between a pretend religious leader calling for violence against a group of people and an atheist calling for violence against a group of people?
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
you were not assured that the module was freely available because in order to be a lazy programmer you had to page past the GPL to get to the code you were interested in.
When I was a kid, we only had one Darth.
I'm a liberal (AKA libertarian in the USA), but still: could you name one communist country, past or present, that has existed? USSR? China? North-Korea? Perverted dictatorships that were "communist" in name only. Just because they said they were communists, were they really? USSR was an "Union of Republics", was it really that? You can call yourself whatever you want, but that doesn't mean that you really are what you say you are.
Really, saying "communism doesn't work and it's evil!" is rather pointless, since we haven't had _real_ communist country on this planet. AFAIK the communist manifesto doesn't say one thing about one-party rule or sending people to gulaks. Neither does it say anything about state owning the means of production. Those things were something that Russian revolutionaries and Stalin thought up. Instead of really giving the power to the people, they decided that The Party represents the people and it can have all the power and the means of production. And the fact was that The Party did not in fact represent the people, it represented The Party.
Hell, it's just as pointless to say "capitalism and free-market are the greatest thing since sliced bread!" since we haven't had any pure capitalist or free-market-systems in this planet! USA? Sorry, government interferes in business, you have to think of something else! We can't know for certain that would pure capitalism be all that good, since we haven't had a system that implements it. Same thing with communism. We had one attempt (Russia) that got perverted in it's infancy, and it then spread elsewhere (China, Cuba etc.). Your comment of "Communism sucks, and as proof, I present my girlfriend from Latvia!" misses the mark 100%, since Latvia had very little to do with communism.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
But, an atheist has no moral ground to accuse the preist of wrong doing outside of law, which from a society perspective is a deeper issue.
:)
That is not true. One can determine that an adult using a position of power over someone of lesser age is immoral on a purely logical basis, just as it is logical that stealing or killing hurts society. You make it sound as though, without religious guidelines, it would be "anything goes" and complete anarchy - as if any sense of civilization would vanish. That is, frankly, silly. All the basic and important tenets of modern civilization can be determined on a purely logical basis, and they have existed in the past without the aid of Christianity.
Though keep in mind that if the people of the Catholic Church really believed and followed that Bible those preists (the ones not thrown in jail) would have no parishioners to speak to on Sunday. So is seems that any "Christian" that supports a preist like that would then be a party to their deeds.
In theory, sure, I agree with you. But in reality, these less-than-perfect Christians have a big affect on our society. To say that religion does not affect our society only because the general populous does not flawlessly follow the guidelines bestowed on them is crazy. Look at Bush supporters... if they were truly Christian, why would they vote for capital punishment and foreign wars? If Jesus' word were followed in any real manner, we would live in a utopia, probably resembling some sort of socialist ideal society. But we are a long way from that, and excusing any ill effects of religion on the basis that the people were simply not following it correctly only emphasizes my point.
Yes, perhaps it was loaded, but viewed strictly from the sense that Russia actively persecuted religion vs the US which has actively promoted it, from a religious stand point (and even for the athiest) it would be better to live in the US, purely on the basis of religious freedom. (And all the societal benefits that come from that freedom.)
Thats why it was a loaded question. If you want a fair comparison, you need to compare things that are otherwise similar except for the trait that you are testing. The two nations that you were comparing could not be more different, and hence your comparison is completely unfair and ultimately worthless. Maybe you should apply for a position at Fox News
my religion lies somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball - pamphlet?
Most wars are about resources. Whether it's land for farming or population growth, slaves, gold, or oil.
Oh... you meant why do the people agree to go to war when they aren't going to be seeing much if any benefit assuming they even come back alive? Then yes, religious fundamentalism is probably number one. Nationalism or racism are also popular.
The enemies of Democracy are
I know this is completely off topic, I just wish you used an example that didn't involve drivers.
:-)
This is a rant about drivers in Linux so make what you will of it
Yet here at work, I can't even insmod a damn module for 10 Gb Ethernet in my SuSE distro
Hate to be a troll, but would the equivilent drivers in Windows XP have been reverse engineered by a Polish University Student in his free time? Even if, in the unlikely case that the driver was made in-house or even sponsored by the manufacturer, would the Windows drivers have been written as an after-thought using programmer/QA resources that are just a fraction of the size used in the mainstream drivers?
If Windows XP only crashed due to driver problems, I'd be out of a job. As it is, I clear about 8-12 jobs a day at a MS-based PC/server support shop. Of all actual faults (BSOD, freezing, resets, explorer crash, hanging apps) - I'd say less than 25% are due to defective drivers/firmware (that's being quite conservative) and less than 25% are due to defective hardware.
Not to mention the pain in the arse it is to diagnose a driver fault, if there is one: Linux in my experience has been a LOT more verbose in helping me diagnose WHICH driver is at fault. In Windows, sometimes, I can use pstat, driver verifier, and dumpchk all day long and still not have a farking clue what the hell is going on. If I have an elusive intermittent fault I have to play the time-consuming, frustrating "process of elimination" game. Did removing NAV fix it? I don't know. Was it the ACPI updates in the BIOS I just flashed? I don't know. Was it the drivers I just tried? I don't know. Was it the windows updates I did? I don't know. Was it the hotfix I got? I don't know. You just can't. Even a simple failing HDD controller can bring Server 2003 to its knees without so much as another cryptic BSOD code and yet in Linux, on that same machine, I can check dmesg and see a whole lot of "IDE reset timeout" messages for a clue.
You're used to drivers that "just work" in Windows. Considering most manufacturers release their windows driver and leave it at that, I am continuously amazed that so much stuff works at all in Linux. The dedication required by an unsupported outsider to perform to the tedious and boring task of developing unsupported drivers for a piece of (possibly unsupported) hardware on an unsupported operating system is incredible. Especially if documentation is unavailable and reverse-engineering is involved.
Anyway. Drivers suck. I fix far more MS-based stuff than Linux, but IMHO Linux either works or it doesn't.
Perhaps this is because the user-hacked, reverse-engineered drivers are written more defensively in a much cleaner driver API than windows (speaking as someone who wrote a USB device driver in Linux but couldn't even get started with the Windows DDK).
On the other hand it could be that vendor supplied Windows drivers take full (or any) advantage of advanced accelerated features which are more prone to faults in "slightly" defective machines that otherwise workin Linux or are simply more prone to bugs due to the more complex nature of the driver.
Ahhh. I love it when evenescent fog clears on a sunny day.
together: when they need to interact with each other
eg. TV+VCR
MP3's + dowloading (PC)
phone+digital audio player
separate: when they dont need to be together
eg. game console (usually for non-multiplayer and simple games)
dvd player (not recorder)
just a phone (if you want)
the consumer should have alot of choices so that he/she can choose what type of integration is needed.
--- widget evolution: enhanced, plus, super, ultra, extreme, exxxtreme, ultra-extreme,
What's wrong with that video? It only shows "Please stand by" while some piano music is playing... If the link is dead, why don't they just remove the file instead of this?
The GPL does deny freedoms to others - the freedom to choose the licensing of their choice for the code THEY wrote.
A free society is one where all beliefs are respected, not one where one group forces their beliefs onto another.
No, it's a contradiction.
An oxymoron is something slightly different.
Atheism _is_ a religion too. You have no proof that God doesn't exist, you have to have faith that there is no God. So perhaps I should clarify the question, what is the difference between promoting violence/war from the perspective of the atheism religion vs the Christian/Jewish/Moslem religions?
War is war and violence is violence, how can one instigator and brainwashing method be better/worse than another if the end result is identical?
Not true. The GPL only denies them that freedom where they are including GPL'd code in their derivative work. Would it be fair to lock up that GPL'd code within a a different license?
That was classic intercourse!
Libertarians on the extreme side use their own logic to say otherwise. So on what core basis can you make a logical determination that a particular act is immoral? Using the Bible as a standard is one way to determine right vs wrong, what other method would you suggest? Keep in mind, you'd have to enforce your method on others for it to be universally accepted, otherwise you do have anarchy. So why should anyone follow your definition or whatever popular definition of morality exhists when it's just based on another persons' perspective?
Look at Bush supporters... if they were truly Christian, why would they vote for capital punishment and foreign wars?
This is _exactly_ my point, is it the fact that they claim to be Christians the _cause_ of the problem? Or is it the fact that these people simply do not do what they should? Blaiming the religion of Christianity for their problems seems absurd considering they aren't practicing it.
If you want a fair comparison, you need to compare things that are otherwise similar except for the trait that you are testing.
The comparison was fair, based on religious freedom. Would you rather live in a country that has and honors this freedom or one that does not.
Aye right. Capitalism has led to such gross overconsumption that 10% of the population use 90% of the world's resources.
Please do not forget that without capitalism, there would be no cash crops forced on farmers in underdeveloped regions and no multinational corporations buying up all the viable land in these regions.
Without capitalism, people would be able to feed themselves properly instead of suffering acute malnutrition.
HAL
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Absolutely and completely false at every level.
The author of code that is released under the GPL still retains the copyright, and thus is perfectly free to release their own code under any license they want.
However if they wish to incorporate GPL code into their own code, or vice versa, then they must distribute the combination under the GPL.
So they absolutely have the choice -- use the GPL code and therefore release their own modifications under the GPL. Or don't.
The enemies of Democracy are
It's quite possible that Bill's statements are the biggest piece of flamebait in history.
Don't feed the troll. Maybe if we ignore him, he'll go away.
"When I give food to the poor they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist"
So you like playing the "redefinition game"?
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
It's not a redifinition, it's simply a fact. If you have a belief system for which you have no scientific basis for believing in, then it's a form of religion.
Besides, you've debated me on a number of points, but here's the original point I brought out that no one so far has been able to dispute. Religion doesn't kill people. Here's the original quote I replied to.
On the whole, religion has killed more people than all forms of revolution and all wars over money, gold or resources
Do you agree with this? If so, what evidence can you provide to support the claim that a method of believing in a God causes death?
How can you account for the fact that there are far more recorded attrocities caused by non-Christians than "Christians"? (or at least those that act under the guise of Christianity...)
original post against athesism's support of war and attrocities
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
Does a belief system kill people? ( atheism as not religion (from your definition) versus religion)
I appreciate the perspective, but i disagree.
The population will not reach 15 billion. Go to google, and search for world population growth. The experts agree on a rough number of 9 billion being the peak of a growth in population. It seems that worldwide population growth rate has been declining from the earlier worrisome numbers (that created the 15 billion dollar figure) and is now at around 1.2% and falling rapidly. It seems that the explosion was due to women having traditional numbers of children, expecting a high mortality rate, but due to our increased medical knowledge, infant mortality has dropped. The birth rate has now declined in tandem, which is why rates are on the way down.
Heat from my laptop? I'm sorry i don't see where this is going... My aparment has a hot-water heater that generates more heat in an hour than my laptop does in 2 weeks.
To be honest, i don't know about the problems in the gulf of mexico, but certainly don't assume that humanity is going to use petroleum for our extended future, it seems there are many more techs being developed (fusion, etc) that will support our needs.
People on LewRockwell.com give Chomsky his due because they are on the same side; they agree with him. Of course, when I refer to the same "side," I am not talking about the typical Left/Right divide that most people like to believe characterises all political differences.
CafePress makes it trivial.
The image is too simple to be worth stealing anyway, but if you want a copy of the XCF and my blessing to use and abuse it, drop me an email to my nick (above) within the cyberknights.com.au domain and it shall be done.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
If the result of your genius was a genuine innovation able to measurably benefit the population of the world (or any large non-exclusive area) as a whole, I would be torn between giving society the full, immediate and unfettered benefit of the idea, and rewarding you for presenting it. If there was a way of making space for you to exclusively develop a tangible product from the idea and so profit from the intangible "product" without discouraging further development of the idea by others, then I'd go for it full tilt.
Under no circumstances would I allow your idea to be nailed down for more than ten years, and I'd want to see a good reason before nailing it down any longer than five. Five years is more than enough of a head-start in almost any market.
The purpose of research is not to exterminate your competition, but to make your own products better. I would not be happy about a rival "templating" your tangibles and simply duplicating them, but I would be happy about them designing their own products based on the same principles. And next time they make a breakthrough, remember that you're going to be able to benefit from that as well, even if they get it to market first.
And if after ten years someone else can make Coke better and cheaper than CocaCola-Amatil, then I say good on 'em. Time CCA got off their butts and genuinely improved their product again.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Gates said:
"No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist."
It seems to me that he's calling copyleft supporters "modern-day sort of communists" and then distorting their philosopy to his own ends. I'd say that the grandparent post is more accurate than yours.
God is imaginary
Given that the Goan Inquisition, a branch of the Portugese Inquisition was responsible for the deaths of at least one million people, but that nobody today (least of all the Goans) is really aware of their existence (or for that matter, even of the Portugese branch), I have to wonder how much else has been swept under the carpet over the centuries.
Since Cardinal Ratzinger, its current head, is one of the next in line for Pope, who knows, we could be in for some interesting times.
If it's any consolation, the disappearance of the Goan Inquisition is more or less typical. Although the natives can be trained even as far as crying out thanks to Mary for their light punishment while they're being whipped for their sins, that training dissolves within a very short time after the authority inflicting it is removed.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
On the one hand, the Inquisition was busy wiping out political threats to the Church (which at times included itself!). Typical of this would be the Ti Ping Revolution, where they incited the Chinese government to attack the Ti Ping as political enemies, resulting in the destruction of a 70-million-strong Christian cult.
On the other hand, Mao and Stalin (and others) were busy wiping out political threats to their power bases, and Christianity as she is written is by definition a political threat to any despot, exhortations to avoid politics (e.g. "render unto Caesar...") notwithstanding. They were essentially treating God as a political enemy and murdering his sympathisers. The absence of a designer was necessary for their political ends. This means that Atheism was necessary for their political ends so they set about murdering non-Atheists.
Whether that's really a religious attack as well or not, I can't really judge. But I think so.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
However, the grandparent has a problem: (s)he's 100% flat wrong about the statistics. Communism alone has killed more people than the upper-range estimates for religion's biggest killer, the Roman Catholic Church. Stalin alone killed over 40 million people, two thirds of the lower serious estimates for the RCC (the most extreme go to 100M).
If you factor in random assholes like Idi Amin, the picture gets even worse. "It is several times the 38,000,000 battle-dead that have been killed in all this century's international and domestic wars. Yet the probable number of murders by the Soviet Union alone - one communist country - well surpasses this cost of war. And those murders of communist China almost equal it." And I think that this author has the key; see if any of this sounds familiar:
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I suspect that once you get that distinction straight in your head, you'll be right.
Belief in the nonexistence of any or all deities is still a belief, and an existential one at that. It is by definition a religious position.
If by "religion" you mean the organised religion iconified in Gothic cathedrals and Papal processions, then you need to make that distinction, else any debate you engage in is going to be constantly cross-threaded.
And if you do make that distinction, you also have to confess that Communist regimes such as Mao's and Stalin's are examples of organised Atheism.
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...is where they think they've proven something, but haven't even come close. At that point, their mind is closed, the emperor's new clothes are not going to be retailored, thank you very much, and all of similarly similarly blind mates agree and reinforce the problem.
/. queue, the whole conversation's often hit the archives. )-:
Actually, there's another thing I hate and that's seldom having enough time to corner the buggers and beat them down with sheer weight of evidence. I have to make do with cornering the occasional one and quickly glancing off the obvious errors and it's very unsatisfying. By the time I get back to my
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it's this fabulous thing which appears to be a great mystery to you: plain English.
Atheism is a religious choice. Same as any other.
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- One who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods.
a.the.ism, n-
- Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
- The doctrine that there is no God or gods.
- Godlessness; immorality.
What word appears in every single definition?Go argue with the dictionary authors, turkey. Your problem is with them, not with me. Well, really, your problem is with you.
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I don't like arbitrary authority, so I don't like big centralized government. On the other hand, I cannot think of another way to slow down the assholes who want to charge me for the privilege of working (using "their" "intellectual" "property"). It's a dilemma that I don't know how to resolve.
I understand your dilemma and frustration. I also understand the solution to your problem, and why it is hard to see it. Many people say if it was't for (big) government who would protect us from the corporations. It's a valid concern. Fortunately, the solution involves finishing what you intellectually started.
What is a corporation? It is a charter granted *by government* to provide immunities that actual people do not get. If the government did not grant these charters, these immunities from otherwise criminal or actionable actions then the would-be corporation is far less likely to get away with things.
Further, most of the truly bug corporations got that way and stay that way from government contracts and favors. The sheer size and financial power of the US government is a massive unbalancing factor in the natural growth of companies. By removing this unnatural factor, companies will not get quite as large and as powerful.
The "intellectual property" is a fiction created at the behest of the massive corporations (an extension of government) to further extend their unnatural advantages over natural persons and competitors. Thus if one were to eliminate big government and in so doing eliminated the corporate charter and onerous "IP" laws, your dilemma is resolved.
My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
First of all, what you refer to is called advertising. yes, it is different than marketing.
Second, needing to research things intensively has nothing to do with marketing OR advertising. It is a result of choice. Advertsising is makign commercials. marketign is figuring out how to best *market* your product. Marketing does not even require advertising. Nor does advertising require marketing.
Increased choice leads to a larger field of research. If there are only two cars, then what you need to research is a small sample compared to say a thousand different cars.
Marketing at it's core is about making the research less intensive, not more. Advertising well that's about product awareness and really nothing more and often fails to help you in your research at best and hinders it at worst.
An example in cars again. Lending your new sports car model to various car magazines to play with, run tests on and so on is an example of good marketing. It provides the prospective consumer with information useful for their decision such as handling capability, crash tests, performance characteristics, etc.. Some advertisiements do similar.
Specifically, an ad for a Honda that talks about the safety features and crash testing results is good marketing. It is minimally informative (consider the time slot) and demonstrates the understanding that to likely Honda buyers safety is a primary cosideration. Contrast that with Chevy's new Cobalt commercials. That is advertising. It simply gets the name out there and attempts to associate the new model with a perception. Personally, I feel it is a thinly disguised Corvette commercial.
And for many things, you don't have to be a dedicated researcher. You just need to actually look. The more options you have, the more digging you may need to do.
My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
Every single one of the definitions is related to God. All of them. The relationship is a rejection of God in every case - which is a religious position. Even if your position was as decoupled as "I don't care whether there is a God or not" it would still be a religious position because the position is always based on (is always in relation to) God.
In order to state that you do not believe in the supernatural, you first have to define the supernatural. Even if you wish to state only that you believe in natural, or more accurately material, events you still have to define those in terms of what they are not: nature is (badly) defined using words that amount to "not supernatural"; material implies an immaterial; the very act of drawing a line implies that there's something on the other side of it.
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