Could someone explain to me how the extra THOUSAND or so posts in this thread is "Offtopic"? I think it's kinda relevant.
It's nice to see people moderating posts again, but they still aren't doing it right. (hint: good posts... moderate up...) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, I saw it coming. I wrote an auto-first-posting script a while back, actually, but I never used it because of the extra load on Slashdot. (it's slow enough as it is, and the problem doesn't seem to be the bandwidth. I can ping it just fine, so...) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
First... oh darn, I have to stop using shrink-wrapped software...:)
This might have an impact for most users, but some of us are just weird.
Second... hey, we can enforce the GPL now, in the box.
This should be interesting. I don't mind if license agreements are binding, as long as they aren't the "Microsoft-style license agreement"...
"We don't claim that this is even software. It might be an old toaster that we just boxed up. But don't blame us when... um... if it doesn't work right..."
If they expect that to be seriously enforced, they can expect a lawsuit in a matter of nanoseconds. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Gee, it's possible that the most hated troll with the least karma on slashdot might be.... President Clinton. I guess that says something about the Slashdot community...:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Format them however you want, but don't start adding extra crap to the players *now*. I really don't want to find out that the DVD drive I bought last month doesn't have the extra laser it needs to view all the "new DVD's"...
I also don't want the media to control the format, but people tend to naturally shy away from the proprietary solutions that cost them. And I know if it did, I'd hear about it on Slashdot first. I hope this whole stupid DeCSS thing blows over so I can watch The Matrix on my new computer.:)
...and look into ORB drives. I don't have one, but that's what I'd get, at the moment. At the moment, they're 2.2GB removable media, and I'm eagerly awaiting whatever the next generation of this technology will bring. Anyone who does have one want to share their experiences? I've heard it can be set up under Linux, maybe I'll buy one in a few months, or wait for something bigger.:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
In any case, this had all better be over by the time I get my DVD drive in 6 months. (I wanna use it under Linux so bad...)
Oh well, this will suck. The same thing happened with CD-ROMs, except the media pushers weren't this scared before. Even then, it took us forever to get ATAPI... --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
No, and I don't think my post was *completely* off-topic. It's probably about as on-topic as a question like that will ever get on slashdot. Besides, I didn't find that narrow little topic to be too terribly interesting.:)
I'm not trying to be pro/con Gore, he's probably my favorite out of a whole bunch of rotten choices. But I still probably won't vote. If I did vote, it would be because he answered those questions correctly.
The only thing more dangerous than a technologically clueless president is a president who only thinks he has a clue... --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
What was Mr. Gore's involvement with ARPANet and MILNet? Also, does Bob Metcalfe know about this?
(for those who don't know, Bob Metcalfe also invented ethernet. Although lately, I think he might have really invented ether...)
Okay, okay, serious question. What is Mr. Gore's stance on cryptography now that the US has lessened their regulations on it? Does he consider the Clipper chip to be a mistake, and is he still in favor of that ridiculous key-escrow idea? --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
That's true. But there's nothing that says "If you patent it, you must make money off of it hand-over-fist". You could license your patents BSD or even GPL-style, or make them "free for free software use"...
LinuxOne will give you 50% of their holdings, which constitutes half a soapbox and 5,000 flames. And a t-shirt, if you're lucky.:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Now that there's an OpenLaw project, you can just look there for the plethora of patent issues and other legal crap that currently finds its way to slashdot. News for Lawyers, Stuff that makes you wanna say "IANAL"...
Then maybe we can get back to our roots. Microsoft VS DOJ is a good topic, a feature on DVD-DeCSS is okay once in a while. But "Is xxx patent good?" is about as much Slashdot as "xxx Kewl Game Now On Dreamcast!". I've actually been pretty happy with the resurgence of Linux/NT stories, and Transmeta articles.
In short, if you wanna see every "xxx patent" story ever, find a legal site. If you wanna see all the "Dreamcast r00lz" crap, find a gamer site. I like the First Amendment and Gauntlet:Legends as much as the next hacker ("Tan Patent-Lawyer needs fees badly!"), but enough is enough, people.
Maybe if Slashdot posted 20-30 stories, each with a story rating (based on the sheer number of "Is this really news" comments:), and I set my threshold higher, it'd be okay... --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yeah, I'm sure once they started using it they found other advantages.
It's nice that Linux supports so many platforms, just like NT was supposed to do.
...and I'm sure being able to easily modify the OS is essential to some of the work they were doing.
But I bet if they could just throw money at the problem instead, they wouldn't have necessarily looked at Linux. I bet you could customize a version of NT or BSDI or something into oblivion if you had the money.
But this is all just speculation on my part, of course.:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I actually found more info (of the sort *I* was looking for:) on their press releases page.
They expect production to start in the first quarter of 2001. Hey, if we've got cheap 140GB removable storage by 2002, I'll be pretty happy.:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Linux has already been in space, but it's nice to see NASA using it this much.
I just wish it wasn't just because their budget was cut so harshly... Poor NASA. However, now we can say that Linux is truely "Space-Age Technology"...:)
(Isn't that term getting old? Or am I just starting to believe that "Information Age" bulls**t?;) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
This technology sounds fascinating, and I firmly believe that we'll keep being able to store more information more cheaply for a long time.
But when can we expect this to happen? I didn't see a timeline or anything. Could someone who knows more about this technology speek up?
Sure, it'd be great if some new technology obviated the need for all this DVD madness, and it'd be wonderful if we didn't have to worry about commercial interests messing it all up. But how likely is that?
I was interested in buying an ORB drive, since they hold more than ZIP drives and are supposed to be pretty speedy. But I didn't, because I had a ZIP drive, and I didn't really need an ORB drive. I'll probably upgrade to a 30-40GB hard drive, and if I'm not storing full-motion video on it, I can't really conceive of needing much more right now. I'm sure the future will find a way to prove me wrong, though.:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
This isn't a problem with the merger, it makes sense. Now that AOL has what they wanted--open access to a cable company--their problems are solved.
What scares me more is that without AOL's support, the representatives don't care about the issue. Do we need someone to push a bill nowadays, or do politicians still have their own opinions?
I didn't think it had gotten this bad. Feel free to wail about how evil AOL is, but first wail about how evil lobbyists are, and wail more that politicians these days think they need them. I don't want the lobbyists telling the politicians what to think, I want the *people* telling them what to think. Are those days over? --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
But all the moderators are dead. I don't get it, he posted it at "2", the moderators should be able to see it. Oops, it wasn't part of the first 50 posts.
Is that in the moderator guidelines yet?
Oh well.
If you can read this, moderate the parent comment up! Sure, read it first, verify that it's really funny. But just do it, you freaks! --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yeah, but you think you're doing a great job too, when in fact you're probably not doing as well as you thought.
But yeah, that would scare the hell out of me. Four days on and three days off? Geez, how long can someone's body take punishment like that? --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Even if I don't need that much bandwidth, maybe prices will drop because of this. I'd love it if we had a link like that to my dorm, but it's not going to happen, I'm sure.:|
Oh, and... you reallly could build a beowulf cluster with this. Faster links help out much more than faster processors for many classes of problems. Sorry, but it's true!:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yeah, people who are comfortable with Windows will try to install something that looks like Windows, that's what they know, it makes sense.
But Microsoft was attempting to break into the enterprise market with NT. I'm sure a lot of people who try to use NT and are dissatisfied with it *might* try using Windows 2000, whereas before they would have switched to Linux.
However, the same problems apply. Windows 2000 is automatically in the "enterprise" market just because the real minimum-decent system is so beefy. And anyone who knows what they're doing will wait for the reviews of the first service pack to do any serious work. Buying the first release of anything Microsoft puts out is generally a waste of time and money, wait for a known stable version.
(the closest they have gotten to that is probably either Windows 3.1, or Windows '95 OSR2 ("the B version"), or Windows NT 3.1/3.51 (not NT4), depending on which Windows you like. Personally I think DOS 3.31 and DOS 5-6.22 were pretty good too, but that's about it.) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It seems to me that it was originally about preventing piracy, but now it's about CYA...
Now that the major manufacturers know that the "protection scheme" is completely useless, and only impedes the legitimate users of their products, (the other ones have other, better ways to copy / rip DVD's) they have two options.
1) Rail against the MPAA, admit their wrongdoing, and create a new, open spec. 2) Trust the MPAA to protect their interests, and not make them all look like fools.
Which one do you think they'll pick?
If this came to court, and the issue was presented correctly, I'm sure the MPAA would lose, as a free-speech and reverse engineering issue. But when "dangerous hackers" are concerned, the US Legal System turns into a kangaroo court.
I've believed this ever since RTM was unfairly convicted, and I'll believe it until I hear clueful presentation of the issues without that "dangerous hacker" crap tossed around. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Windows 2000 is not a "formidable challenge" to Unix, just as Windows NT is not a Unix-alternative.
Linux is an alternative Unix, though.:)
Windows 2000 might have fixed some things that were originally broken in Windows....and the Start Menu fades in.
All of the big advances consist of reinventing Unix, and attempting to implement open standards.
We'll see how long this takes. Let me know when they really implement libraries, symlinks, file systems, and namespaces decently. (or even the Unix way.:)
Not a flame. Technical replies welcome. Your rights may be different in some states. Offer expires while you wait. Bah Weep Grah Na Weep Ni Ni Bong.
Slashdot Mirror
Could someone explain to me how the extra THOUSAND or so posts in this thread is "Offtopic"? I think it's kinda relevant.
It's nice to see people moderating posts again, but they still aren't doing it right. (hint: good posts... moderate up...)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, I saw it coming. I wrote an auto-first-posting script a while back, actually, but I never used it because of the extra load on Slashdot. (it's slow enough as it is, and the problem doesn't seem to be the bandwidth. I can ping it just fine, so...)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
First... oh darn, I have to stop using shrink-wrapped software... :)
This might have an impact for most users, but some of us are just weird.
Second... hey, we can enforce the GPL now, in the box.
This should be interesting. I don't mind if license agreements are binding, as long as they aren't the "Microsoft-style license agreement"...
"We don't claim that this is even software. It might be an old toaster that we just boxed up. But don't blame us when... um... if it doesn't work right..."
If they expect that to be seriously enforced, they can expect a lawsuit in a matter of nanoseconds.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Gee, it's possible that the most hated troll with the least karma on slashdot might be.... President Clinton. :)
I guess that says something about the Slashdot community...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Format them however you want, but don't start adding extra crap to the players *now*. I really don't want to find out that the DVD drive I bought last month doesn't have the extra laser it needs to view all the "new DVD's"...
:)
:)
I also don't want the media to control the format, but people tend to naturally shy away from the proprietary solutions that cost them. And I know if it did, I'd hear about it on Slashdot first. I hope this whole stupid DeCSS thing blows over so I can watch The Matrix on my new computer.
...and look into ORB drives. I don't have one, but that's what I'd get, at the moment. At the moment, they're 2.2GB removable media, and I'm eagerly awaiting whatever the next generation of this technology will bring. Anyone who does have one want to share their experiences? I've heard it can be set up under Linux, maybe I'll buy one in a few months, or wait for something bigger.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Damn, I was gonna say that! :)
:)
Oh well. I'll try for something else.
"Screw throwing flowers, I've got a grenade launcher!"
Wedding gifts: Chainsaw? (Doom II style, baby!)
Oh well, it's an appropriate Valentine's Day topic, I guess. If "Valentine's Day" makes you think of "Valentine's Day Massacre", that is.
...and it's kinda sad that FPS (first person shooters) are the best VR (virtual reality) environments we have, here in the year 2000.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
The last thing we need is another "standard".
In any case, this had all better be over by the time I get my DVD drive in 6 months. (I wanna use it under Linux so bad...)
Oh well, this will suck. The same thing happened with CD-ROMs, except the media pushers weren't this scared before. Even then, it took us forever to get ATAPI...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
No, and I don't think my post was *completely* off-topic. It's probably about as on-topic as a question like that will ever get on slashdot. Besides, I didn't find that narrow little topic to be too terribly interesting. :)
I'm not trying to be pro/con Gore, he's probably my favorite out of a whole bunch of rotten choices. But I still probably won't vote. If I did vote, it would be because he answered those questions correctly.
The only thing more dangerous than a technologically clueless president is a president who only thinks he has a clue...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
What was Mr. Gore's involvement with ARPANet and MILNet? Also, does Bob Metcalfe know about this?
(for those who don't know, Bob Metcalfe also invented ethernet. Although lately, I think he might have really invented ether...)
Okay, okay, serious question. What is Mr. Gore's stance on cryptography now that the US has lessened their regulations on it? Does he consider the Clipper chip to be a mistake, and is he still in favor of that ridiculous key-escrow idea?
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
That's true. But there's nothing that says "If you patent it, you must make money off of it hand-over-fist". You could license your patents BSD or even GPL-style, or make them "free for free software use"...
:)
LinuxOne will give you 50% of their holdings, which constitutes half a soapbox and 5,000 flames. And a t-shirt, if you're lucky.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Now that there's an OpenLaw project, you can just look there for the plethora of patent issues and other legal crap that currently finds its way to slashdot. News for Lawyers, Stuff that makes you wanna say "IANAL"...
:), and I set my threshold higher, it'd be okay...
Then maybe we can get back to our roots. Microsoft VS DOJ is a good topic, a feature on DVD-DeCSS is okay once in a while. But "Is xxx patent good?" is about as much Slashdot as "xxx Kewl Game Now On Dreamcast!". I've actually been pretty happy with the resurgence of Linux/NT stories, and Transmeta articles.
In short, if you wanna see every "xxx patent" story ever, find a legal site. If you wanna see all the "Dreamcast r00lz" crap, find a gamer site. I like the First Amendment and Gauntlet:Legends as much as the next hacker ("Tan Patent-Lawyer needs fees badly!"), but enough is enough, people.
Maybe if Slashdot posted 20-30 stories, each with a story rating (based on the sheer number of "Is this really news" comments
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yeah, I'm sure once they started using it they found other advantages.
:)
It's nice that Linux supports so many platforms, just like NT was supposed to do.
...and I'm sure being able to easily modify the OS is essential to some of the work they were doing.
But I bet if they could just throw money at the problem instead, they wouldn't have necessarily looked at Linux. I bet you could customize a version of NT or BSDI or something into oblivion if you had the money.
But this is all just speculation on my part, of course.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I actually found more info (of the sort *I* was looking for :) on their press releases page.
:)
They expect production to start in the first quarter of 2001. Hey, if we've got cheap 140GB removable storage by 2002, I'll be pretty happy.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Linux has already been in space, but it's nice to see NASA using it this much.
:)
;)
I just wish it wasn't just because their budget was cut so harshly... Poor NASA. However, now we can say that Linux is truely "Space-Age Technology"...
(Isn't that term getting old? Or am I just starting to believe that "Information Age" bulls**t?
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
This technology sounds fascinating, and I firmly believe that we'll keep being able to store more information more cheaply for a long time.
:)
But when can we expect this to happen? I didn't see a timeline or anything. Could someone who knows more about this technology speek up?
Sure, it'd be great if some new technology obviated the need for all this DVD madness, and it'd be wonderful if we didn't have to worry about commercial interests messing it all up. But how likely is that?
I was interested in buying an ORB drive, since they hold more than ZIP drives and are supposed to be pretty speedy. But I didn't, because I had a ZIP drive, and I didn't really need an ORB drive. I'll probably upgrade to a 30-40GB hard drive, and if I'm not storing full-motion video on it, I can't really conceive of needing much more right now. I'm sure the future will find a way to prove me wrong, though.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
An there be any moderators left, moderate this up.
...and moderate all that Jesus / Satan crap down, dammit.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
This isn't a problem with the merger, it makes sense. Now that AOL has what they wanted--open access to a cable company--their problems are solved.
What scares me more is that without AOL's support, the representatives don't care about the issue. Do we need someone to push a bill nowadays, or do politicians still have their own opinions?
I didn't think it had gotten this bad. Feel free to wail about how evil AOL is, but first wail about how evil lobbyists are, and wail more that politicians these days think they need them. I don't want the lobbyists telling the politicians what to think, I want the *people* telling them what to think. Are those days over?
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I agree, that was really funny.
But all the moderators are dead. I don't get it, he posted it at "2", the moderators should be able to see it. Oops, it wasn't part of the first 50 posts.
Is that in the moderator guidelines yet?
Oh well.
If you can read this, moderate the parent comment up! Sure, read it first, verify that it's really funny. But just do it, you freaks!
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
60 hours of no sleep, 6 hours of sleep, and another 60 hours of no sleep...
I was trying to stay awake for the whole week, and failed. But I had a lot of fun, anyhow...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yeah, but you think you're doing a great job too, when in fact you're probably not doing as well as you thought.
But yeah, that would scare the hell out of me. Four days on and three days off? Geez, how long can someone's body take punishment like that?
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Sleep deprivation also causes hallucinations.
Severe sleep deprivation resembles an acid trip.
More brain activity is not always a good thing, unless you like having your neurons cross-linked.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I want it, I want it, I want it!
:|
:)
Even if I don't need that much bandwidth, maybe prices will drop because of this. I'd love it if we had a link like that to my dorm, but it's not going to happen, I'm sure.
Oh, and... you reallly could build a beowulf cluster with this. Faster links help out much more than faster processors for many classes of problems. Sorry, but it's true!
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yeah, people who are comfortable with Windows will try to install something that looks like Windows, that's what they know, it makes sense.
But Microsoft was attempting to break into the enterprise market with NT. I'm sure a lot of people who try to use NT and are dissatisfied with it *might* try using Windows 2000, whereas before they would have switched to Linux.
However, the same problems apply. Windows 2000 is automatically in the "enterprise" market just because the real minimum-decent system is so beefy. And anyone who knows what they're doing will wait for the reviews of the first service pack to do any serious work. Buying the first release of anything Microsoft puts out is generally a waste of time and money, wait for a known stable version.
(the closest they have gotten to that is probably either Windows 3.1, or Windows '95 OSR2 ("the B version"), or Windows NT 3.1/3.51 (not NT4), depending on which Windows you like. Personally I think DOS 3.31 and DOS 5-6.22 were pretty good too, but that's about it.)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It seems to me that it was originally about preventing piracy, but now it's about CYA...
Now that the major manufacturers know that the "protection scheme" is completely useless, and only impedes the legitimate users of their products, (the other ones have other, better ways to copy / rip DVD's) they have two options.
1) Rail against the MPAA, admit their wrongdoing, and create a new, open spec.
2) Trust the MPAA to protect their interests, and not make them all look like fools.
Which one do you think they'll pick?
If this came to court, and the issue was presented correctly, I'm sure the MPAA would lose, as a free-speech and reverse engineering issue. But when "dangerous hackers" are concerned, the US Legal System turns into a kangaroo court.
I've believed this ever since RTM was unfairly convicted, and I'll believe it until I hear clueful presentation of the issues without that "dangerous hacker" crap tossed around.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Windows 2000 is not a "formidable challenge" to Unix, just as Windows NT is not a Unix-alternative.
Linux is an alternative Unix, though.
Windows 2000 might have fixed some things that were originally broken in Windows.
All of the big advances consist of reinventing Unix, and attempting to implement open standards.
We'll see how long this takes. Let me know when they really implement libraries, symlinks, file systems, and namespaces decently. (or even the Unix way.
Not a flame. Technical replies welcome. Your rights may be different in some states. Offer expires while you wait. Bah Weep Grah Na Weep Ni Ni Bong.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.