Well, I've been using Ubuntu for some 4 years now, I installied in on a bunch of machines (desktops and notebooks) ranging from AMD K6-2-based to current multicore systems, updating to new versions of Ubuntu almost ever with dist-upgrades, and just ONCE did it break the system. And that was an old Pentium3 notebook with a video card that wasn't properly set up by the new X windows system. Editing the xorg.conf with the correct values solved that problem in about 5 minutes.
In the same timespan I had Windows installed on most of these systems as well, and more than once I had to fix broken systems due to poor drivers (especially video drivers), aggressive applications or the like.
So what's the conclusion? You can not assume that your experiences are typical, just like mine are not.
I'm not against the protection of children and I'm all for hunting down child molesters, but I am against the way this law is supposed to happen:
- secret block list - no oversight by judges - sites are blocked using technology that can be easyly circumvented (hell, as I'm using OpenDNS I *already* went around it, before there where any talks about this law) - paedophils still get access to blocked sites - as those illegal sites are "blocked" the police has litte reason to actually do something to take them down - similar lists in Australia, Denmark and Sweden have shown that those lists tend to contain many sites that aren't illegal - the systems used to block pages containing child pornography can easyly be used to censor other content (the German RIAA already said they would like to use it to block torrent trackers and such, others talked about censoring other kind of information)
So: This system is not effective, it does nothing to protect the children, but it creates a system that is a first step to censoring the internet.
But at least it is highly questionable that von Leyen will be in the next cabinet with the SPD definitely getting a severe smack on the head.
I hate to correct you (na, I'm loving it *g*), but Frau [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen]von der Leyen[/url] is a member of the CDU.
That doesn't mean that the SPD doesn't have members that are similary out of check with reality.
The German government already banned a couple of small parties from taking part in the upcoming elections, thus impeding the right to vote. But people are still free to bitch about the results. Freedom enough, don't you think?
First of, it's not the government that banned those parties but the comitee overseeing the election.
And that's normal procedure. A party needs a certain number of supporters before it is allowed to participate in an election. All parties where aware of that fact, all parties hat time to collect signatures from supporters. Some didn't get enough signatures in time, so they are out. Some didn't manage to provide the paperwork in time. Some don't follow the rules there are for organising a party.
If I tell you that parties who get less than 5% of the votes won't enter the Bundestag (parlament) at all, you''' probably see that too as a sing of the government fixing the result of the election. Even though that is part of the laws for elections for some 60 years.
(And just in case you want to know why there is that 5% limit: Ever seen a parlament with lots of small parties in it? It's damn near impossible to get work done.)
What give them the right to mod me down? Just a few minutes ago, a fellow slashdotter responded to me, and used the word "fuck" in his reply!
You know, censorship is funny that way... in Germany, there are no rules stopping people from saying four letter words (or the German equivalents) on TV, and the rules against showing naked breasts or sex scences are much more relaxed. And we're allowed to drink alcohol on the streets and show the bottles and stuff.
There isn't really more censorship in Germany then there is in America. It just affects different aspects of life.
And that's because, you know, censorship is often based on moral standards that differ depending on historic and cultural backgrounds.
Randall should try creating a document on a Mac, editing it on an MS Windows PC, and opening it on a Linux machine. Let's see, MS Office, N/A, SoftMaker, N/A, OpenOffice... we have a winner.
now throw in Windows Mobile for good measure: - MS Office: pretends to be able to edit office files, but loses a lot of formation along the way - OOo: not aviable on Windows Mobile - Softmaker Office: fully featured mobile version that can actualy be used to do something (an yes, it cost's extra)
In the end it always depends on the specific user. I don't use a Mac, so I don't care whether my office supports Mac OS X or not. You probably don't use a Windows Mobile device, so you don't care about that.
But never assume that what's good for you is good for everyone.
How about you read posts, think about what they are trying to tell you and then, maybe, post a reply?
In any windowsmanager I know you can hold down the ALT key, and drag the windows by drag-clicking ANYWHERE within the window. GPs tip to click the bottom didn't mean the exact bottom of the window, but rather the lower part of the windows (so that you have enough space to move the window far enough up.
The browser is eclectic, with too many preferences, too complicated preferences, too many customisation options. Features not everybody needs, or wants.
I'd rather have a browser that provides functionality that I do not (yet) need than a browser that's slimmed down so much it doesn't offer functionality that I do need.
If you don't like Opera -- fine, don't use it. But please remember that not all people are like you, and some may like, want or even need what you despise. If we would only write software with features that everybody or at least a majority of people would need, we wouldn't have any progress.
Actually, only Windows XP Home does not support a remote desktop connection. In Windows XP Prof. you just have to change one single registry setting (HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Terminal Server/fDenyTSConnections set to 0)
I'm quite disappointed. The quote says that Vista SP2 "the safest, most reliable OS we've ever built". "we" as in Microsoft. Since when is Microsoft "the world"?
The search protocol names "distribution of porn" (AFAIK not a crime) as the reason.
Well, distribution of porn to underaged people is a crime. And since Wikileaks has no system of age verification in place (AFAIK) there is atleast some kind of reason. Plus, child pornography is illegal as well.
Btw, the search was warrantless, citing "Gefahr im Verzug" (an immedeate danger).
And you know that for a fact? I'm asking because elsewehere in this discussion somebody posted a link to an article that mentions a warrant...
It might be wise to check the facts instead of just claiming something to be true.
The black list in question is the list used by the Australian government, not a German lists.
Second, the problem with taking those sites down is that most of them reside in other countries, often even countries where child pornography and the like are not illegal.
So what you're saying is basically: Since you didn't know whether they had a warrant or not you just said that they didn't as if you knew that for a fact?
Why is Windows Update depending on IE? Because MS never had any reason to make Windows Update run on any other browser. It would be possible without much of a problem. (The most easy solution: Windows update becomes a real program rather than a website service.)
This is one more sign that MS is forcing IE on the Windows users.
> * A lot of times when you "pay online" or get a subscription, you give the vendor the explicit > ability to WITHDRAW money from your checking account
Technically true.
But you forgot to mention that unlike the US, Germany actually has (mostly) working consumer protection laws.
Amongst them is one that FORCES your Bank to correct any withdrawal from your bank account that was done in that matter (Bankeinzug/Lastschrift) without your consent. Meaning: There is practically no risk for you.
> * Unlike in the US, credit collectors will come to your home with a court order and TAKE your things;-)
Yeah, right. Bullshit.
No credit collector is allowed to just take stuff from you. But there are officials who will collect, but a) not without a court order, and before that is given you will be given the chance to state your point of view and b) they don't just take you're stuff but they talk with you, you can arrange payback schemes etc., and c) they don't take anything that's considered nessecary (sp?) to maintain a minimum quality of life. And the definitions of bare minimum are quite high...
> * Fighting fraudulent charges is as cost-prohibitive as it's here in the US. Meaning it's > cheaper to pay up than to fight the fraudulent charge
Once again: Consumer protection
It is actually much more easy to stand up and fight fraudulent charges, as there a re a bunch of organisations that will take your side and you can get (financial) support for fighting for your right and, most importantly: Companies that try to frack you don't dare to actually go to court, 'cause they know they have little to no chance to win.
(And no, just by viewing a site you do NOT enter a legal contract in Germany. Please, please, get some proper information before make statements that just don't hold up.)
These schemes usually work a little bit differently. The invoice isn't for the software itself but rather a subscription fee for the website.
But still, I would suggest to just ignore the invoice and everything following it until she get's some mail from court.
Those schemes rely on people guillable (sp?) enough to not only agree to such involuntary subscriptions but also to pay up due to fear of more trouble.
But actually, it's the company that doesn't dare to bring the situation to court, because then they would most probably be told tu shut up and sack their subscription system. Consumer protection luckily does actually exist in Germany and the EU.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, right.
That's why the EU fined German company E.On and some French company (Gaz de France or suchlike) a few hundred millions a few weeks ago...
The photo doesn't "stay around forever". You can ask Google to remove photographs that portray you in a bad light.
Why should I have to ask Google to remove a picture of me?
They should have to ask before publishing it in the first place.
Well, I've been using Ubuntu for some 4 years now, I installied in on a bunch of machines (desktops and notebooks) ranging from AMD K6-2-based to current multicore systems, updating to new versions of Ubuntu almost ever with dist-upgrades, and just ONCE did it break the system.
And that was an old Pentium3 notebook with a video card that wasn't properly set up by the new X windows system.
Editing the xorg.conf with the correct values solved that problem in about 5 minutes.
In the same timespan I had Windows installed on most of these systems as well, and more than once I had to fix broken systems due to poor drivers (especially video drivers), aggressive applications or the like.
So what's the conclusion?
You can not assume that your experiences are typical, just like mine are not.
Rumor has it there are still a few native americans around. ;)
But I might be wrong here
I'm not against the protection of children and I'm all for hunting down child molesters, but I am against the way this law is supposed to happen:
- secret block list
- no oversight by judges
- sites are blocked using technology that can be easyly circumvented (hell, as I'm using OpenDNS I *already* went around it, before there where any talks about this law)
- paedophils still get access to blocked sites
- as those illegal sites are "blocked" the police has litte reason to actually do something to take them down
- similar lists in Australia, Denmark and Sweden have shown that those lists tend to contain many sites that aren't illegal
- the systems used to block pages containing child pornography can easyly be used to censor other content (the German RIAA already said they would like to use it to block torrent trackers and such, others talked about censoring other kind of information)
So: This system is not effective, it does nothing to protect the children, but it creates a system that is a first step to censoring the internet.
But at least it is highly questionable that von Leyen will be in the next cabinet with the SPD definitely getting a severe smack on the head.
I hate to correct you (na, I'm loving it *g*), but Frau [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen]von der Leyen[/url] is a member of the CDU.
That doesn't mean that the SPD doesn't have members that are similary out of check with reality.
The German government already banned a couple of small parties from taking part in the upcoming elections, thus impeding the right to vote. But people are still free to bitch about the results. Freedom enough, don't you think?
First of, it's not the government that banned those parties but the comitee overseeing the election.
And that's normal procedure.
A party needs a certain number of supporters before it is allowed to participate in an election. All parties where aware of that fact, all parties hat time to collect signatures from supporters.
Some didn't get enough signatures in time, so they are out.
Some didn't manage to provide the paperwork in time.
Some don't follow the rules there are for organising a party.
If I tell you that parties who get less than 5% of the votes won't enter the Bundestag (parlament) at all, you''' probably see that too as a sing of the government fixing the result of the election. Even though that is part of the laws for elections for some 60 years.
(And just in case you want to know why there is that 5% limit: Ever seen a parlament with lots of small parties in it? It's damn near impossible to get work done.)
What give them the right to mod me down? Just a few minutes ago, a fellow slashdotter responded to me, and used the word "fuck" in his reply!
You know, censorship is funny that way... in Germany, there are no rules stopping people from saying four letter words (or the German equivalents) on TV, and the rules against showing naked breasts or sex scences are much more relaxed.
And we're allowed to drink alcohol on the streets and show the bottles and stuff.
There isn't really more censorship in Germany then there is in America.
It just affects different aspects of life.
And that's because, you know, censorship is often based on moral standards that differ depending on historic and cultural backgrounds.
What you forget, is that that much optimizing of the code, takes a multiple of the time, that the whole game making usually takes.
Usually, optimizing just 5-10% of the program can result in significant improvements in terms of memory usage, size, execution speed.
About the file size: I don't think anybody cares for the size. I downloaded a 33 GB torrent (65 GB unpacked) a week ago.
Good for you.
But, you know, there are people who care about download size.
Me, for instance.
I'll agree with previous posts. This is nothing more than an add for a new app
This 'new app' has been around for 10+ years.
BTW: I still recommend OO to everyone. You can't beat free and it seems like a pretty solid office app on every platform.
I tried to work with OOo, but it's just so damn slow...
Randall should try creating a document on a Mac, editing it on an MS Windows PC, and opening it on a Linux machine. Let's see, MS Office, N/A, SoftMaker, N/A, OpenOffice ... we have a winner.
now throw in Windows Mobile for good measure:
- MS Office: pretends to be able to edit office files, but loses a lot of formation along the way
- OOo: not aviable on Windows Mobile
- Softmaker Office: fully featured mobile version that can actualy be used to do something (an yes, it cost's extra)
In the end it always depends on the specific user.
I don't use a Mac, so I don't care whether my office supports Mac OS X or not.
You probably don't use a Windows Mobile device, so you don't care about that.
But never assume that what's good for you is good for everyone.
How about you read posts, think about what they are trying to tell you and then, maybe, post a reply?
In any windowsmanager I know you can hold down the ALT key, and drag the windows by drag-clicking ANYWHERE within the window.
GPs tip to click the bottom didn't mean the exact bottom of the window, but rather the lower part of the windows (so that you have enough space to move the window far enough up.
If Opera had equivalents of [...] Flashblock, and Adblock... I would switch.
You may want to check out http://www.adsweep.org/ and http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/46673.
The browser is eclectic, with too many preferences, too complicated preferences, too many customisation options. Features not everybody needs, or wants.
I'd rather have a browser that provides functionality that I do not (yet) need than a browser that's slimmed down so much it doesn't offer functionality that I do need.
If you don't like Opera -- fine, don't use it.
But please remember that not all people are like you, and some may like, want or even need what you despise.
If we would only write software with features that everybody or at least a majority of people would need, we wouldn't have any progress.
Actually, only Windows XP Home does not support a remote desktop connection.
In Windows XP Prof. you just have to change one single registry setting
(HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Terminal Server/fDenyTSConnections set to 0)
Well, if these two people are Feargus Urquhart and Chris Avellone, then that's good enough for me to put "Fallout - New Vegas" on my wishlist.
I'm quite disappointed.
The quote says that Vista SP2 "the safest, most reliable OS we've ever built". "we" as in Microsoft.
Since when is Microsoft "the world"?
The search protocol names "distribution of porn" (AFAIK not a crime) as the reason.
Well, distribution of porn to underaged people is a crime.
And since Wikileaks has no system of age verification in place (AFAIK) there is atleast some kind of reason.
Plus, child pornography is illegal as well.
Btw, the search was warrantless, citing "Gefahr im Verzug" (an immedeate danger).
And you know that for a fact?
I'm asking because elsewehere in this discussion somebody posted a link to an article that mentions a warrant...
It might be wise to check the facts instead of just claiming something to be true.
Two thing:
The black list in question is the list used by the Australian government, not a German lists.
Second, the problem with taking those sites down is that most of them reside in other countries, often even countries where child pornography and the like are not illegal.
So what you're saying is basically:
Since you didn't know whether they had a warrant or not you just said that they didn't as if you knew that for a fact?
And you're accusing them of improper process?
Why is Windows Update depending on IE?
Because MS never had any reason to make Windows Update run on any other browser.
It would be possible without much of a problem.
(The most easy solution: Windows update becomes a real program rather than a website service.)
This is one more sign that MS is forcing IE on the Windows users.
Do the following on a newly installed Windows:
- click on the Start button
- click on "Run"
- type in "cmd", click "ok"
- in the black Window that opens, type "ftp", press the Enter key
Now please tell me, what Programm you just started?
Yes, an FTP client independent from IE, but available on EVERY standard Windows installation since Windows 95.
(Ok,I haven't done that on Vista or Windows 7, but I don't expect MS to have removed the FTP client.)
I lived in Germany from 1975 up until now.
Saying: I am German.
So: STFU
> * A lot of times when you "pay online" or get a subscription, you give the vendor the explicit
> ability to WITHDRAW money from your checking account
Technically true.
But you forgot to mention that unlike the US, Germany actually has (mostly) working consumer protection laws.
Amongst them is one that FORCES your Bank to correct any withdrawal from your bank account that was done in that matter (Bankeinzug/Lastschrift) without your consent.
Meaning: There is practically no risk for you.
> * Unlike in the US, credit collectors will come to your home with a court order and TAKE your things ;-)
Yeah, right. Bullshit.
No credit collector is allowed to just take stuff from you.
But there are officials who will collect, but a) not without a court order, and before that is given you will be given the chance to state your point of view and b) they don't just take you're stuff but they talk with you, you can arrange payback schemes etc., and c) they don't take anything that's considered nessecary (sp?) to maintain a minimum quality of life.
And the definitions of bare minimum are quite high...
> * Fighting fraudulent charges is as cost-prohibitive as it's here in the US. Meaning it's
> cheaper to pay up than to fight the fraudulent charge
Once again: Consumer protection
It is actually much more easy to stand up and fight fraudulent charges, as there a re a bunch of organisations that will take your side and you can get (financial) support for fighting for your right and, most importantly: Companies that try to frack you don't dare to actually go to court, 'cause they know they have little to no chance to win.
(And no, just by viewing a site you do NOT enter a legal contract in Germany. Please, please, get some proper information before make statements that just don't hold up.)
These schemes usually work a little bit differently.
The invoice isn't for the software itself but rather a subscription fee for the website.
But still, I would suggest to just ignore the invoice and everything following it until she get's some mail from court.
Those schemes rely on people guillable (sp?) enough to not only agree to such involuntary subscriptions but also to pay up due to fear of more trouble.
But actually, it's the company that doesn't dare to bring the situation to court, because then they would most probably be told tu shut up and sack their subscription system.
Consumer protection luckily does actually exist in Germany and the EU.
More reading matter (German):
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Abofallen-Betreiber-werden-dreister--/meldung/116244
http://www.computerbetrug.de/nachrichten/newsdetails/amtsgericht-wiesbaden-widerspricht-mahnungen-von-katja-guenther-080915/