Not that letting Apple have a monopoly is good thing, but frankly I never minded the DRM. There is a huge "All DRM is evil" crowd here. Now there were some ways folks proposed DRM was evil, but I'm not against the concept per sue.(Rootkits come to mind), but Apple's system seem to me to be a fair balance. All DRM is evil because the software is now bound to the hardware and OS. The final straw was when I rented Rush Hour 3, popped in in my Linux box with DVI widescreen monitor and decent sound system and found that it wouldn't play due to the copy protection on it. The only devices that I could find that would play the damned thing were my PS2 (hooked up to an old TV, crappy sound) and my Windows XP laptop (screen too small and even crappier sound). Had to rip it (on my Windows XP box -- argh!) just to watch it on my Linux box. Point being, I don't want to run Windows. I only keep the laptop around for such annoyances. There's absoultely no warning on the DVD case to mention that it will only play on certain devices/OSes, so I was extremely disappointed. Worst part was, it was a lousy movie!
These arguments remind me of why everybody thought EMACS was so great -- don't run another program, just write tons of ELISP that EMACS already understands. Get your mail, news, IDE, file browser et al. in a single program. At some point, you're overusing the Web Browser. Why does everybody have their hate on for using separate, specialized programs to do various tasks? Last I checked, I can click on a.xls/.doc/.ppt link in my browser and have it open in *Office. I believe these programs also support document versioning. Agreed, modern computers can certainly handle gobs of JavaScript or Flash or what not, but that's just making excuses for inefficiency. I'd hate to see a 100 page document in a JavaScript word processor, or a workbook with multiple worksheets and lots of formulas in a JavaScript spreadsheet editor. Or are you going to tell me that it's great only for small documents? Too limited -- the fate of all inefficient programs.
Basically, employers don't need to know and don't care about the full breadth of your capabilities: they care about what you can do for them. Do not just shotgun a laundry list resume to a thousand different companies, make sure each resume you send out specifically addresses how you can fill the need the company has, as evidenced by their job posting. QFE. Took the words right out of my mouth.
If you are young and brilliant, I.T. hates you. Remember, most of them are 40+ people who know how to fix mainframes and how to hack Unix. They all have families and see people like you as competition. The fact that you are, in fact, better than them makes them feel stupid. Make sure you find a company with a future, and tailor your resume to suit your needs. Be prepared for a lot of humiliation as those above you try and make your life a living hell. I suck, I couldn't handle it. Best of luck to you.
I suppose they figure Linux people are used to working with unsupported hardware and software. However, the entire point of this exercise should be to make Linux a viable alternative on the business desktop, and producing Yet Another Unsupported Linux Product(TM) only reinforces the idea that Linux is only for power users who are capable of resolving every tiny problem themselves. Ubuntu was a big step forward for ease-of-use Linux, and I'm sorry to hear Dell doesn't think enough of it to offer hardware support. Why won't they hire a few Linux guys that can run diagnostics on their Linux box when they receive allegedly broken hardware? My experience is that Linux is better, albeit more obscure, when it comes to diagnosing hardware problems.
It depends on what you call a virus. Most spyware has viral qualities, usually with the exception that it doesn't use the host to propagate itself. Those are usually delivered through the web via the standard Punch-the-Monkey-type flashlets. Real virii are much worse, and I use the propagation property to decide what's 'real'. Propagation consumes resources on your PC and becomes a risk to anybody directly connected to your network. Spyware usually just, well, spys on you and reports back to a central server(s).
I don't have anything more than anecdotal evidence, but I've seen many more virii through infected warez (pirated commercial software) than any other method. Hint: Beware the Vista crack... I still see the odd spam mail that has a virus attachment, but I've not seen any web page that has attempted to infect my computer (IE7 on Vista, so I think I'm as vulnerable as you get these days). OTOH, I don't use the web for pr0n.
Everyone knows that OSS developers have been the catalyst for today's hi-tech society, but everybody expects that it will always be free, and so are the developers. I'll believe this sudden shift toward commercially supporting OSS when I see it. So far, non-profit organizations, volunteer donations and time are still what makes OSS work. Obviously something more important than money drives these selfless individuals, so making statements about money without a cheque doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Wake me up when being an OSS developer is actually a viable day job.
Yep, add me to the NetHackers. I've actually been as close to a desert island as I'll ever be (a month without Internet -- oh noes!) and only NetHack saved my sanity. I could easily while away the worst boredom for months on end staring at the curses-based dungeon (yep, text-based all the way!)
The best part is that I could easily port it to whatever flavour of Linux runs on the solar-powered computer that I'll make out of palm trees, fishing line and a giant piece of plastic:)
It's a third state. We can interpret only in context. Heck, not everything can even be expressed as having 3 states. (On, off, no power?) And many can be expressed as having more.
Ultimately it's just another set of physics which can represent a state machine. It seems that the progress made is that a quantum 'gate' can be created. However, lacking any kind of timing mechanism (anyone know a periodic oscillater than can produce microwave radiation?), it seems that it's a while before we'll see a self-contained quantum 'gate array'.
I'm sure IBM has some good people, but I'd have to say I'd be swinging the axe too if my company got to this point. That's very possibly the main reason to do such a thing. It's been a while since I've worked with ex-IBMers, but all the ones I met were very, very good at their job. And not just at one thing. Of course, those were the consultants. Your comment about IBM using too many people is probably noteworthy too, but they've always used too many people.
Yeah, ditching the cruft when you're worried about your reputation seems like a good business move to me. I just didn't know that IBM had earned a bad one recently.
Why is it that you have more years of education than me, yet can't get anything accomplished without calling my help desk at least twice? No, I will not teach you how to use your computer no matter how incompetent you pretend to be. The only thing worse than stupid people is smart people who pretend to be stupid. Didn't you learn anything for yourself in school, or did you just 'delegate' all your homework to the more naive but technically superior classmates you had? You can't live without me, but I can certainly live without you. Get your fucking nose out of the air and start working with me instead of pushing me around.
Well, I definitely have as much a struggle with myself as with my opponent when I play Chess. I usually lose the game myself, and don't really have much to get angry at my opponent about anything except taking advantage of my blunders. I can certainly see that Chess could lead to very heated arguments, and yet I rarely see things like this happening.
The study in TFA basically compares the way players of Myst and Wolf 3-D treat each other. Amazing! In a game that deliberately increases adrenaline through various means (play Wolf 3D if you haven't, you'll jump out of your skin in some places even though the graphics are really low-tech), players show aggressive behaviour toward one another. I bet we'd see this effect in other competitions that are heavy on the adrenaline, such as football or hockey.
Myst, on the other hand, does not involve anything of the sort, focusing instead on intellectual puzzles. There's no real time pressure except for the other players. An RL analogue I suppose would be Chess. Not surprisingly, highly intellectual activities where the players are not directly competing with each other leads to a more patient sort of competitive behaviour. Less adrenaline means more reasonable discourse.
The question, of course, is whether activities that cause high adrenaline actually do cause violence. I'd say yes, though in many cases the violence is contained to a particular activity, say sacking the quarterback. I'd say I'm a violent, aggressive person. However, I'd also add that I try to keep those tendencies away from places where it's not appropriate. I love a good adrenaline rush, and I'd rather not take cocaine or meth to get one. Just because WoW and football bring out my overly dominant tendancies doesn't mean that WoW and football are bad, nor WoW players and football players.
For some real news, try finding a causal link between people who have high-adrenaline outlets (don't forget competitive sports!) and violent criminals (as determined by conviction rate). I doubt that we'll find anything significant there.
In theory, your idea would work well. You would install an OS and a command shell from a vendor and get everything else from somewhere else. That's what DOS and early Linux distros were like.
However, a key piece to overall system stability is integration testing. Debian does TONS of integration testing. Hence, stable is stable. The problem with leaving the integration testing to the user is that you turn a simple "poke-me" appliance into one of those annoying machines that geeks are always tinkering with. There's nothing wrong with providing pre-compiled software packages with an OS: it means that whoever is distributing your OS has saved you the trouble of verifying that your choice of web browser will run on the specific kernel and system libraries you've installed.
The problem, however, is that integration testing turned into vertical marketing. Great, wonderful, you've tested IE to work with Windows (well, ok that's a stretch...), but in the meantime, you've also ensured that no other browser will work with your OS. That's the abusive monopoly being anti-competitive again. While there's no reason to distribute more than the kernel and a command shell with an OS, there's stuff that I need as soon as I get to my first desktop. I need a web browser installed, else I have to download and install one myself (using what program?) Mail client? check. Media player? nice to have.
Providing packages that work with your OS is not a real problem. There being only one distributor that has packages that work with your OS is a huge problem.
There shouldn't be a list of BANNED calls, there should be a list of safe ALLOWED calls. I think this is similar to the GCC concept of hiding symbols. The only real issue is when compiling legacy code which links directly to those hidden symbols, linking will fail. Obviously, that's the point. I think, then, that the Microsoft approach is lazy: they're more worried about "legitimate" legacy code no longer working well with later compilers than they are about actually hiding the offending API calls from userspace all together.
I'm all for shutting down the ridiculous tactics of the RIAA, but this hardly qualifies -- the reporting is sensationalistic and misleading. You must be new here...
Don't bother worrying about sensationalism and deception on/. about the MAFIAA; that's pretty much the only media that'll even take a stance against them.
Oh, you wanted the truth? That's a foreign concept to a MAFIAAoso. It would be of no consequence if/. was enlightened about such matters. Commonly-held beliefs will be smeared in mainstream media until the MAFIAA has won. Better to give them a straw man to attack.
If I had the power to Make It So, I'd purge 90% of the online linux discussion, because most of it is crap. I'd agree with you today. However, until about 5 years ago 90% of the online Linux discussion was very good and helpful, and people didn't mind devoting some of their time. Then the trolls showed up. It turns out that the guy who warns you about gaspulating the thingamajigger is often just a troll, and you probably should have typed that scary looking command at the third prompt.
Why? Because Linux is a threat to Microsoft. Organized and disorganized fanbois all decide that if they can pollute the Linux community with enough trolls, the dedicated will leave and you will make the observation that "90% of all online Linux discussion needs to be purged." So, yes, you are right. Just remember that it wasn't always that way: I used to enjoy giving Linux advice before the trolls. It's not Linux's failing; it's a concerted propaganda effort that originates from Redmond.
Unless you've got a really weird contract where you work 24x7 and you're simply not allowed to have independent ideas at all, the advice I was given about a similar clause should apply: if you have an idea that you don't want to include in your contract, do not develop it at work in any way. Write it down on a PDA. Develop the software at home. Do everything you can to avoid thinking about it at work, because if you're being paid, it's their idea.
It's probably not as enforceable as the really ominous wording, but the thing I was most concerned about was the company commercializing anything that I may have GPLed while I was employed there. It's much more effective to have a non-compete clause if they're worried about you going to a competitor. That makes even talking to competitors suspicious activity while owning your code only prevents you from making them a gift of that code. Lastly, I guess this clause allows them to develop your code further without paying royalties after you've left.
Indeed. My experience with Sun vs. Microsoft politics is that Sun was clearly willing to sink to Microsoft's level. They played heavily with vendor lock-in, trashing of un-(Sun)-certified techies and various other tactics that I had only really associated with Microsoft. I found these politics to be most like something you'd hear on a primary school playground.
"You don't want to switch to a.NET deployment. Java programmers are only slightly more cultured than cavemen, and Solaris SysAdmins are known to hang out at Furry parties. Besides, where are you going to find parts for all those Ultra-2s in your basement?"
"Oh yeah? Well James Gosling is a poo-poo head!"
No one wins in these dealings except Microsoft. Let me jump on the "good to see Sun doing something constructive" bandwagon.
...so ANYONE that writes an essay, a story, a letter, draws a picture, makes a movie, makes a comment that could possibly lead to violence down the line... The writing would not lead to violence were the urge to commit violence not there in the first place. That's the reasoning people use when they blame Marilyn Manson and company for Columbine and basically any other tragedy involving kids wearing trench coats. You can't start a revolution when everyone is happy.
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These arguments remind me of why everybody thought EMACS was so great -- don't run another program, just write tons of ELISP that EMACS already understands. Get your mail, news, IDE, file browser et al. in a single program. At some point, you're overusing the Web Browser. Why does everybody have their hate on for using separate, specialized programs to do various tasks? Last I checked, I can click on a .xls/.doc/.ppt link in my browser and have it open in *Office. I believe these programs also support document versioning. Agreed, modern computers can certainly handle gobs of JavaScript or Flash or what not, but that's just making excuses for inefficiency. I'd hate to see a 100 page document in a JavaScript word processor, or a workbook with multiple worksheets and lots of formulas in a JavaScript spreadsheet editor. Or are you going to tell me that it's great only for small documents? Too limited -- the fate of all inefficient programs.
I suppose they figure Linux people are used to working with unsupported hardware and software. However, the entire point of this exercise should be to make Linux a viable alternative on the business desktop, and producing Yet Another Unsupported Linux Product(TM) only reinforces the idea that Linux is only for power users who are capable of resolving every tiny problem themselves. Ubuntu was a big step forward for ease-of-use Linux, and I'm sorry to hear Dell doesn't think enough of it to offer hardware support. Why won't they hire a few Linux guys that can run diagnostics on their Linux box when they receive allegedly broken hardware? My experience is that Linux is better, albeit more obscure, when it comes to diagnosing hardware problems.
Nah. They'll just use Tor. Everyone else can be anonymous on teh intarwebs, why not Google?
It depends on what you call a virus. Most spyware has viral qualities, usually with the exception that it doesn't use the host to propagate itself. Those are usually delivered through the web via the standard Punch-the-Monkey-type flashlets. Real virii are much worse, and I use the propagation property to decide what's 'real'. Propagation consumes resources on your PC and becomes a risk to anybody directly connected to your network. Spyware usually just, well, spys on you and reports back to a central server(s).
I don't have anything more than anecdotal evidence, but I've seen many more virii through infected warez (pirated commercial software) than any other method. Hint: Beware the Vista crack... I still see the odd spam mail that has a virus attachment, but I've not seen any web page that has attempted to infect my computer (IE7 on Vista, so I think I'm as vulnerable as you get these days). OTOH, I don't use the web for pr0n.
Everyone knows that OSS developers have been the catalyst for today's hi-tech society, but everybody expects that it will always be free, and so are the developers. I'll believe this sudden shift toward commercially supporting OSS when I see it. So far, non-profit organizations, volunteer donations and time are still what makes OSS work. Obviously something more important than money drives these selfless individuals, so making statements about money without a cheque doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Wake me up when being an OSS developer is actually a viable day job.
I haven't watched conventional television in over a year. All fed by RSS now: Thank you EZTV for the advertising killing service :)
Yep, add me to the NetHackers. I've actually been as close to a desert island as I'll ever be (a month without Internet -- oh noes!) and only NetHack saved my sanity. I could easily while away the worst boredom for months on end staring at the curses-based dungeon (yep, text-based all the way!)
:)
The best part is that I could easily port it to whatever flavour of Linux runs on the solar-powered computer that I'll make out of palm trees, fishing line and a giant piece of plastic
Or Red, Green, and Blue.
Or Yes, No, Cancel.
A, B, Both.
It's a third state. We can interpret only in context. Heck, not everything can even be expressed as having 3 states. (On, off, no power?) And many can be expressed as having more.
Ultimately it's just another set of physics which can represent a state machine. It seems that the progress made is that a quantum 'gate' can be created. However, lacking any kind of timing mechanism (anyone know a periodic oscillater than can produce microwave radiation?), it seems that it's a while before we'll see a self-contained quantum 'gate array'.
Yeah, ditching the cruft when you're worried about your reputation seems like a good business move to me. I just didn't know that IBM had earned a bad one recently.
...I'll keep cracking software that my boss installs pirated for me. That's just company policy, and I don't have any say in that.
Dear Mr. Academic,
Why is it that you have more years of education than me, yet can't get anything accomplished without calling my help desk at least twice? No, I will not teach you how to use your computer no matter how incompetent you pretend to be. The only thing worse than stupid people is smart people who pretend to be stupid. Didn't you learn anything for yourself in school, or did you just 'delegate' all your homework to the more naive but technically superior classmates you had? You can't live without me, but I can certainly live without you. Get your fucking nose out of the air and start working with me instead of pushing me around.
Sincerely,
Mr. Hacker
Well, I definitely have as much a struggle with myself as with my opponent when I play Chess. I usually lose the game myself, and don't really have much to get angry at my opponent about anything except taking advantage of my blunders. I can certainly see that Chess could lead to very heated arguments, and yet I rarely see things like this happening.
The study in TFA basically compares the way players of Myst and Wolf 3-D treat each other. Amazing! In a game that deliberately increases adrenaline through various means (play Wolf 3D if you haven't, you'll jump out of your skin in some places even though the graphics are really low-tech), players show aggressive behaviour toward one another. I bet we'd see this effect in other competitions that are heavy on the adrenaline, such as football or hockey.
Myst, on the other hand, does not involve anything of the sort, focusing instead on intellectual puzzles. There's no real time pressure except for the other players. An RL analogue I suppose would be Chess. Not surprisingly, highly intellectual activities where the players are not directly competing with each other leads to a more patient sort of competitive behaviour. Less adrenaline means more reasonable discourse.
The question, of course, is whether activities that cause high adrenaline actually do cause violence. I'd say yes, though in many cases the violence is contained to a particular activity, say sacking the quarterback. I'd say I'm a violent, aggressive person. However, I'd also add that I try to keep those tendencies away from places where it's not appropriate. I love a good adrenaline rush, and I'd rather not take cocaine or meth to get one. Just because WoW and football bring out my overly dominant tendancies doesn't mean that WoW and football are bad, nor WoW players and football players.
For some real news, try finding a causal link between people who have high-adrenaline outlets (don't forget competitive sports!) and violent criminals (as determined by conviction rate). I doubt that we'll find anything significant there.
In theory, your idea would work well. You would install an OS and a command shell from a vendor and get everything else from somewhere else. That's what DOS and early Linux distros were like.
However, a key piece to overall system stability is integration testing. Debian does TONS of integration testing. Hence, stable is stable. The problem with leaving the integration testing to the user is that you turn a simple "poke-me" appliance into one of those annoying machines that geeks are always tinkering with. There's nothing wrong with providing pre-compiled software packages with an OS: it means that whoever is distributing your OS has saved you the trouble of verifying that your choice of web browser will run on the specific kernel and system libraries you've installed.
The problem, however, is that integration testing turned into vertical marketing. Great, wonderful, you've tested IE to work with Windows (well, ok that's a stretch...), but in the meantime, you've also ensured that no other browser will work with your OS. That's the abusive monopoly being anti-competitive again. While there's no reason to distribute more than the kernel and a command shell with an OS, there's stuff that I need as soon as I get to my first desktop. I need a web browser installed, else I have to download and install one myself (using what program?) Mail client? check. Media player? nice to have.
Providing packages that work with your OS is not a real problem. There being only one distributor that has packages that work with your OS is a huge problem.
Don't bother worrying about sensationalism and deception on
Oh, you wanted the truth? That's a foreign concept to a MAFIAAoso. It would be of no consequence if
Why? Because Linux is a threat to Microsoft. Organized and disorganized fanbois all decide that if they can pollute the Linux community with enough trolls, the dedicated will leave and you will make the observation that "90% of all online Linux discussion needs to be purged." So, yes, you are right. Just remember that it wasn't always that way: I used to enjoy giving Linux advice before the trolls. It's not Linux's failing; it's a concerted propaganda effort that originates from Redmond.
Unless you've got a really weird contract where you work 24x7 and you're simply not allowed to have independent ideas at all, the advice I was given about a similar clause should apply: if you have an idea that you don't want to include in your contract, do not develop it at work in any way. Write it down on a PDA. Develop the software at home. Do everything you can to avoid thinking about it at work, because if you're being paid, it's their idea.
It's probably not as enforceable as the really ominous wording, but the thing I was most concerned about was the company commercializing anything that I may have GPLed while I was employed there. It's much more effective to have a non-compete clause if they're worried about you going to a competitor. That makes even talking to competitors suspicious activity while owning your code only prevents you from making them a gift of that code. Lastly, I guess this clause allows them to develop your code further without paying royalties after you've left.
Arrgh. I suck at being funny. I got the trash-talking backwards :(
Indeed. My experience with Sun vs. Microsoft politics is that Sun was clearly willing to sink to Microsoft's level. They played heavily with vendor lock-in, trashing of un-(Sun)-certified techies and various other tactics that I had only really associated with Microsoft. I found these politics to be most like something you'd hear on a primary school playground.
.NET deployment. Java programmers are only slightly more cultured than cavemen, and Solaris SysAdmins are known to hang out at Furry parties. Besides, where are you going to find parts for all those Ultra-2s in your basement?"
"You don't want to switch to a
"Oh yeah? Well James Gosling is a poo-poo head!"
No one wins in these dealings except Microsoft. Let me jump on the "good to see Sun doing something constructive" bandwagon.
...so ANYONE that writes an essay, a story, a letter, draws a picture, makes a movie, makes a comment that could possibly lead to violence down the line... The writing would not lead to violence were the urge to commit violence not there in the first place. That's the reasoning people use when they blame Marilyn Manson and company for Columbine and basically any other tragedy involving kids wearing trench coats. You can't start a revolution when everyone is happy.Errrr. I play Civ4 on Linux. What seems to be the problem?
Only if you say it at the top of your lungs in a single breath!