The fact that Google, M$, and Yahoo! have free speech rights under the first amendment is the source of the problem.
Then I guess you'll be really upset to learn that they have even MORE rights: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
See that little "of the press" part? They can publish (or not publish) what they like - so long as they aren't violating the law. Editorial decisions have significant protections under the US Constitution.
Actually, they can publish or not publish whatever they want, and congress is not allowed to make it illegal. The way you worded it is almost a catch-22. Of course, congress had passed many laws that do abridge those freedoms, but they are largely tolerated as being reasonable. (libel and slander laws, copyright, etc.)
Remote-controlled implants probably will not improve an animal's ability to get past a fence. Anything small enough to crawl through gaps in a chain-link fence will probably not have the range to get in and out of a base. And I would guess that the native bird population near Area 51 stays away pretty well. Any bird getting too close could be shot down. I think the "better countermeasures" you are looking for have been around a very long time. Great Wall of China, anybody?
Yeah. I'm pretty sure the hardware supports it, but the design doesn't lend itself well to that. But then, the only time I have had a problem with that is when playing Uru.
And that is why OS X is so cool most of the time. Just when you think you've found something it can't do, you accidentally discover that they added that feature in the most natural and logical way. It reminds me of the good old days of HP calculators with perfect keyboard layouts for the job.
If you have a desktop, getting a Mighty Mouse is worth every penny. I like it more than my Logitech cordless MX mouse. Expose with a mouse button is the best way of switching between windows that I have come across. It is almost as efficient as tabbed browsing.
You seem to have the opinion that OS X is not widely usable as a productive environment. What specific tasks have you found to be significantly more difficult on a Mac? I would bet that if the task is not very simple, then your difficulties stem entirely from a lack of experience and knowledge of the platform.
There is a big difference between controlling a teenager and preventing a toddler from going on a joy ride in an SUV. "Control" is a very strong word, and anybody who seriously uses it in terms of child-rearing is scary.
The only way to guarantee that your child won't copycat something - say, get into a car with a stranger because he might take you to the beach - is to make sure your child never sees it in the first place. True, that is the only 100% foolproof way to prevent a kid from making a bad decision: don't give them the chance. But even for a toddler, you need to show a little bit of trust, if only for the sake of the parent's sanity. If you can't take your eyes off the kid, you are in a bad situation.
Even for somebody too young to have anything but a self-centered view of the world and an incomplete set of reasoning skills, controlling their life is not the only way to keep them out of trouble. Being so protective that your kid never sees anything bad is probably worse than being a drill-sergeant style of parent.
It's not a pro-eugenics stance. It's a pro-evolution Darwinist stance. That's even less acceptable in today's political climate. These days, the smart exist to keep the dumb from dying before they can breed.
Thanks for pointing that out. I was not aware of that. However, it seems to be a purely defensive measure, and so will not be very useful in forcing Microsoft's hand.
I agree that bringing a libel suit to completion would be nearly impossible. But it could hit Microsoft with some court orders and would probably be a good opportunity for exposing some embarrasing evidence (TCO studies, anyone?). However, Linus and the other people who could sue are not likely to bother.
Trademarks can suffer from abandonment, but copyrighted and patented code cannot. However, if Microsoft keeps talking publicly about the existence of infringing code without revealing what it is, they are very vulnerable to libel suits. A big libel suit between Microsoft and FSF of EFF could be interesting, anc could be very costly for Microsoft.
The problem is that ISPs are not charging what they need to charge to provide they connection they are advertising. It really is false advertising when ISPs know they cannot provide the full service, as advertised, to even a small fraction of their users. Costs are going up, and ISPs have chosen to lie and cheat rather than play capitalism. This is a prolblem that is entirely of their own creation, and they deserve no pity for it.
When you buy a consumer-oriented connection, it is a "best effort" connection. Any deliberate throttling when the overall usage is below the stated bandwidth qualifies as breach of contract, because it is clearly the opposit of "best effort". The ISP is not allowed to put any speed barriers in place until you reach the bandwidth they have sold you.
If an ISP is not willing to upgrade their equipment to handle the amount of traffic that they are getting, they are not making any effort to hold up their end of the bargain. If an ISP cannot afford to provide all the connections they are selling, they have all the excuse they ever need to jack up the prices to a fair market value.
Your attitude can best be summarized as "We don't want any switchers!" You are part of a shrinking minority of free software users. I recommend you keep that in mind.
And if you use email? And communicate with other people? Eventually, somebody will try to send you an MS Office document. Less common than opening your own documents, but still too common to ignore.
The internet is all about interoperability! World domination ambitions aside, Microsoft doesn't give a hoot about that. And their world domination ambitions definitely give them an incentive to prevent interoperability whenever possible.
Enter "I'm a terrorist" in Google Apps 5000 times: Advertisments for cheap explosives show up in the margin the next time you open the document. If you click on one of the links, Google gets paid a few cents.
Enter "I'm a terrorist" in MS Office 5000 times: Clippy offers to show you how to look up synonyms for "terrorist". He then proceeds to reformat your list as he pleases.
What about my data? If I agree to a "pay as you go" software model, will you allow me to create documents, data, etc., in an open format guaranteeing me free access at anytime I decide not to continue the subscription?
You could always get MSs free word viewer... or their free PowerPoint viewer... or their free excel viewer. And for those of us not running Windows? Being able to use a viewer doesn't remove the vendor lock-in anymore than running 'strings' on a.doc does. Free PDF viewers work because few users have any reason to edit the PDFs - thats why they are made into PDFs in the first place. You can never assume that a user will not want to change or update one of their own documents. Free access to your own files means being able to do things with them beyond just looking at them.
And the idea of a spreadsheet where you can't update the data and recalculate is absurd.
Obviously, from you blog, you are not in a very technical department. I have found that in math and computer science dapartments, unix and linux workstations typically outnumber grad students 2 to 1.
I have to wonder how much in the way of Office your department really needs. Google Apps should be great for your department and probably the general sutdent body. However, I find it disturbing that grad students need to use powerpoint and photoshop regularly. When writing a thesis, all you really need is a web browser and LaTeX. And if the students actually need to do number crunching or statistics, you should be able to get the money out of the department, especially if you stop buying powerpoint and photoshop.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, my mom does like coding in BASIC. My grandmother was more of a punch-card woman, though.
Perhaps because aquiring Ubuntu is not a financial transaction?
Then I guess you'll be really upset to learn that they have even MORE rights: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
See that little "of the press" part? They can publish (or not publish) what they like - so long as they aren't violating the law. Editorial decisions have significant protections under the US Constitution.
Actually, they can publish or not publish whatever they want, and congress is not allowed to make it illegal. The way you worded it is almost a catch-22. Of course, congress had passed many laws that do abridge those freedoms, but they are largely tolerated as being reasonable. (libel and slander laws, copyright, etc.)Remote-controlled implants probably will not improve an animal's ability to get past a fence. Anything small enough to crawl through gaps in a chain-link fence will probably not have the range to get in and out of a base. And I would guess that the native bird population near Area 51 stays away pretty well. Any bird getting too close could be shot down. I think the "better countermeasures" you are looking for have been around a very long time. Great Wall of China, anybody?
Yeah. I'm pretty sure the hardware supports it, but the design doesn't lend itself well to that. But then, the only time I have had a problem with that is when playing Uru.
And that is why OS X is so cool most of the time. Just when you think you've found something it can't do, you accidentally discover that they added that feature in the most natural and logical way. It reminds me of the good old days of HP calculators with perfect keyboard layouts for the job.
If you have a desktop, getting a Mighty Mouse is worth every penny. I like it more than my Logitech cordless MX mouse. Expose with a mouse button is the best way of switching between windows that I have come across. It is almost as efficient as tabbed browsing.
You seem to have the opinion that OS X is not widely usable as a productive environment. What specific tasks have you found to be significantly more difficult on a Mac? I would bet that if the task is not very simple, then your difficulties stem entirely from a lack of experience and knowledge of the platform.
Yep. The complex numbers are not an ordered field.
I think you answered your own question. Anyways, lookup Copernicus.
Even for somebody too young to have anything but a self-centered view of the world and an incomplete set of reasoning skills, controlling their life is not the only way to keep them out of trouble. Being so protective that your kid never sees anything bad is probably worse than being a drill-sergeant style of parent.
uClinux does have a fork() on the platforms that do have an MMU, such as x86 and some ARM.
It's not a pro-eugenics stance. It's a pro-evolution Darwinist stance. That's even less acceptable in today's political climate. These days, the smart exist to keep the dumb from dying before they can breed.
I really hope that is sarcasm. In most renditions, the Wiked Witch of the West looks nicer.
Thanks for pointing that out. I was not aware of that. However, it seems to be a purely defensive measure, and so will not be very useful in forcing Microsoft's hand.
I agree that bringing a libel suit to completion would be nearly impossible. But it could hit Microsoft with some court orders and would probably be a good opportunity for exposing some embarrasing evidence (TCO studies, anyone?). However, Linus and the other people who could sue are not likely to bother.
Trademarks can suffer from abandonment, but copyrighted and patented code cannot. However, if Microsoft keeps talking publicly about the existence of infringing code without revealing what it is, they are very vulnerable to libel suits. A big libel suit between Microsoft and FSF of EFF could be interesting, anc could be very costly for Microsoft.
The problem is that ISPs are not charging what they need to charge to provide they connection they are advertising. It really is false advertising when ISPs know they cannot provide the full service, as advertised, to even a small fraction of their users. Costs are going up, and ISPs have chosen to lie and cheat rather than play capitalism. This is a prolblem that is entirely of their own creation, and they deserve no pity for it.
When you buy a consumer-oriented connection, it is a "best effort" connection. Any deliberate throttling when the overall usage is below the stated bandwidth qualifies as breach of contract, because it is clearly the opposit of "best effort". The ISP is not allowed to put any speed barriers in place until you reach the bandwidth they have sold you.
If an ISP is not willing to upgrade their equipment to handle the amount of traffic that they are getting, they are not making any effort to hold up their end of the bargain. If an ISP cannot afford to provide all the connections they are selling, they have all the excuse they ever need to jack up the prices to a fair market value.
There is no uncertainty or doubt about IIS being overall less secure than LAMP. What he was saying may be exaggerated, but it is not FUD.
Your attitude can best be summarized as "We don't want any switchers!" You are part of a shrinking minority of free software users. I recommend you keep that in mind.
And if you use email? And communicate with other people? Eventually, somebody will try to send you an MS Office document. Less common than opening your own documents, but still too common to ignore.
The internet is all about interoperability! World domination ambitions aside, Microsoft doesn't give a hoot about that. And their world domination ambitions definitely give them an incentive to prevent interoperability whenever possible.
Enter "I'm a terrorist" in Google Apps 5000 times:
Advertisments for cheap explosives show up in the margin the next time you open the document. If you click on one of the links, Google gets paid a few cents.
Enter "I'm a terrorist" in MS Office 5000 times:
Clippy offers to show you how to look up synonyms for "terrorist". He then proceeds to reformat your list as he pleases.
So?
And the idea of a spreadsheet where you can't update the data and recalculate is absurd.
Obviously, from you blog, you are not in a very technical department. I have found that in math and computer science dapartments, unix and linux workstations typically outnumber grad students 2 to 1.
I have to wonder how much in the way of Office your department really needs. Google Apps should be great for your department and probably the general sutdent body. However, I find it disturbing that grad students need to use powerpoint and photoshop regularly. When writing a thesis, all you really need is a web browser and LaTeX. And if the students actually need to do number crunching or statistics, you should be able to get the money out of the department, especially if you stop buying powerpoint and photoshop.