Maybe you're right. And if that doesn't get them, the "performance tax" from the MPAA for the "bigger than your house so your neighbors can see it and you can open a drive-in theater" screen will.
IPV4? You mean the internet protocol that everyone is still using because it still works and the internet hasn't ground to a halt like all the Chicken Littles predicted?. I find the newest tech inferior precisely because it breaks so blasted soon. You younguns can get all up in my $h!t because I'm so out of touch, but faster obsolescence is hardly progress. Well, maybe for the people that make stuff to sell, but not for people in general. For humanity things that work well for a long time are better, IMHO.
Of course you wouldn't get any guide features, but this worked quite well for years with people like my parents).
Or the millions of people who have an extra TV or two in the house and cable outlets in every room. Plug that sucker in, hook it up and you can at least watch CNN while exercising or whatever. The demographic extends well beyond "your parents". Admittedly, this will be less likely once people get rid of their CRT-based televisions that last for decades and only have LCD/Plasma sets that seem to crap out after a few years. At current prices, nobody can afford to have more than 1 TV since they have to be replaced ever other year.
Funny - people used to be all upset about planned obsolescence, but now that it's a reality you don't hear boo. Why is that, I wonder?
I don't htink I've ever met a single person that uses mc, everyone either uses real GUIs, or real CLI tools...
You're dancing at the edge of the flamebait precipice here, or maybe just showing your inexperience or limited world view. Orthodox file managers are as real as anything and they work quite well when one wants to, you know, manage files. Much better than the (to use your term) "real" variants that seem to make the managing of files an exercise in pain.
Funny you mention that no one you know uses mc, because my experience has been that few use it, but anybody that sees me use it has the same reaction: "Damn, I should really learn how to use that. I can't believe how quickly you did that". mc is a real CLI tool, and a good one. And if you are inclined to use a GUI, there's always Krusader, Total Commander and many others depending on your OS or windowmanager of choice. Hell, there's even a variant for android, though not quite as useful because of the tiny screen. Might kick ass on an android tablet with a big enough screen, though.
Vuescan (http://www.hamrick.com). Yes, it's a "commercial" product, but I'll confess that since I bought a license I haven't really paid attention to the state of scanning on Linux, because when I need to scan stuff it just works, works well, and the quality of the output is outstanding*. Sometimes the FLOSS approach doesn't produce the best solution. Go figure.
In my opinion, the Linux experience would be much better if small commercial software developers were encouraged a bit more to brave the dangers of this ecosystem rather than being vilified and completely excluded from the culture. Nothing focuses the mind like needing to buy groceries and pay the mortgage, which is the one motivation that an army of volunteers can't bring to the table (unless you are using a FLOSS project as part of making a living, but in that case the motivation still comes from outside the project itself). Under the right conditions, the result seems to be a better product than can be had by "scratching the itch" or noodling around because it's fun.
*The same goes for Turboprint (http://www.turboprint.info) - printing is a breeze and I don't have to think about it at all. ZEDOnet's licensing policy is a bit more assholish than Vuescan's, but their shit works, so I grudgingly have to admit it was worth the money).
My parents have absolutely no fucking clue if what they transmit across there WiFi is secure or not. They assume it is, but as long as the website opens up they are blissful and ignorant to it.
Right there is the problem. Blissful and ignorant is their choice and their problem. Did you even mention to them that Wi-Fi is notoriously insecure and not very private unless you really try? Maybe they would not be so ignorant then. But that would mean they ask you to make sure they are secure, and you wouldn't want the extra work, would you?
The ultimate lesson in all of this? Don't dabble in magic if you aren't prepared to understand it.
Not quite the same as "browser history" which normally just resides on the local disk and is intended for local consumption. Referral links aren't exactly history.
I am a techie. But how about my relatives who live two doors down? They use WiFi. They don't know what makes it all work, except that it lets their laptops "use the internet" without any wires. Read your wireless router's documentation. It most probably uses fancy words like WPA, encryption keys, etc. How many of the general public really understand it? Encryption is VERY difficult to get right and one of the main elements is educating the proper use of it.
Being willfully ignorant is hardly a compelling argument. Either your relatives are terminally stupid, deliberately unwilling to learn or you aren't very effective at teaching them what they need to know to keep themselves safe and secure. I don't buy this kind of argument at all. People aren't that stupid and they understand things of similar complexity in other contexts just fine. Stop making excuses for laziness.
That's like saying that rape is allowed because of a lack of a chastity belt. Just because there are not security methods in place doesn't mean that you're authorized.
Oh please. If you're going to pull an analogy out of that dark place where the sun doesn't shine, at least try to come up with one that's even remotely applicable.
This is more like parking your car on a public road just outside the drive-in movie theater where you can see the screen and tuning your radio to receive the audio. The owners may not *want* you to do so, but if they have taken no measures to block the view or limit the signal they are broadcasting over the radio waves, enjoying the show from a nearby public location is fair game, IMHO. If something is meant to be private, make it private and don't require people to actively ignore something to protect your poorly secured private communications.
Here's another one: Posting stuff on a bulletin board in your front yard labeled "for my friends only" and getting upset when somebody drives by on the street and reads it, or maybe takes a picture to look at later. It's in plain view and visible from a public road. It's not private, even if you want it to be. Just because radio waves are invisible to our five senses doesn't mean they aren't equally visible to the surrounding public spaces.
If someone hast to actively ignore something in public view, it's not private.
I believe that something interesting is likely to slip through if only through oversight or incompetence. Even that would not be a possibility if nothing were declassified and released, so I say bring it on and make the odds more favorable.
What you describe as "ripping off" could be better viewed as exposing oneself to ideas that are actually relevant to people by, you know, interacting with them. Discard the bad or irrelevant ideas, keep the good ones and share them with others to make sure they continue to propagate. Combine some in the form of 'mash ups' to create something kind of new. And in addition, possibly process the ideas gathered from such activity such that something completely new and unique comes out.
Maybe you shouldn't focus so much on the ideas that clearly circulate as part of a wider conversation and try instead to filter those out so you can more easily identify the new ones. Then at least you could make a meaningful evaluation about how good Cory is as a source of new ideas compared to others.
The impulse you speak of probably comes from the same place in the human psyche that wants to keep every species from becoming extinct in perpetuity.
It could even be that the impulse to keep industries alive is a direct result of the "save everything" thinking that has been drummed into everyone's head since the 60s. Just as a species can be driven to extinction through the 'unnatural' acts of humans, proponents of this kind of thinking very likely view everything about the internet as "unnatural", so deep affected businesses worth preserving.
My feeling is that this will last just about a generation, until all the politicians have grown up and understand technology. After that, old business models will fade as they properly should.
What pem said. The original summary above is full of hyperbole and epic levels of FUD. A thread on a mailing list elevated to the status of News. Sheesh. Slashdot editors, please use some discretion.
For those Slashdotters who want the executive summary, go read the LWN thread from 4 days ago: http://lwn.net/Articles/388883/
True. But how many folks are likely to buy a 400+ page book at technical book prices that is out of date at purchase? At the very least they could have been smart enough to just call it "Django Testing and Debugging", keep most of the content the same and just mention that it covers both Django 1.1 and 1.2 but might be missing a few bits that apply to the latter. Given the pace at which OSS software moves, putting a version number in the title just indicates that the author does not understand that essential fact - raising the question of what else did they miss?
Most folks (not we nerds, but normal people) don't bother with anything more than plopping down on the couch, turning on the TV, and channel surfing. The internet isn't going to change that.
I'll ignore the condescension and just say that I'm a nerd *and* a normal person, and I know quite a few non-nerd normal folks too. My experience says different. Just plopping on the couch something people rarely do - more common is catching all the local info we've all been praising while getting breakfast/lunch/dinner ready for the family, catching up quickly on the way out to sports practice, etc. It's during those hands-free busy times that the local tv info is most useful, particularly around breakfast and dinner times. To be honest, any other time and I would not care if they weren't broadcasting.
Exactly. Local sports, weather, traffic and regional news are the main reasons we watch the local stations at home. While traveling, local TV is also quite useful. And it's free over the air. The content on the web won't stay free, I guarantee you.
Good lord, man. Of course I've had fun. I spent the summer riding around the country on a Greyhound bus when I was 16. Good times. I'm not sure today's 16 year old has the balls to do that (or the maturity). I grew up in the 70s. I probably had more "fun" than is legally allowed today.
Dude. I was already an elderly curmudgeon before I walked out of the high school doors for the last time. While my "friends" were out getting drunk, I was planning for the future. It's worked out well so far.
Slashdot Mirror
Your comment will go over the heads of many, but ...
Dude. Nice one.
Maybe you're right. And if that doesn't get them, the "performance tax" from the MPAA for the "bigger than your house so your neighbors can see it and you can open a drive-in theater" screen will.
IPV4? You mean the internet protocol that everyone is still using because it still works and the internet hasn't ground to a halt like all the Chicken Littles predicted?. I find the newest tech inferior precisely because it breaks so blasted soon. You younguns can get all up in my $h!t because I'm so out of touch, but faster obsolescence is hardly progress. Well, maybe for the people that make stuff to sell, but not for people in general. For humanity things that work well for a long time are better, IMHO.
The question on the table is which people are being helped when the money is moved around. Those people may not be who you think they are.
What about family planning? Experienced any sudden growth in offspring?
Mod parent insightful, please.
Of course you wouldn't get any guide features, but this worked quite well for years with people like my parents).
Or the millions of people who have an extra TV or two in the house and cable outlets in every room. Plug that sucker in, hook it up and you can at least watch CNN while exercising or whatever. The demographic extends well beyond "your parents". Admittedly, this will be less likely once people get rid of their CRT-based televisions that last for decades and only have LCD/Plasma sets that seem to crap out after a few years. At current prices, nobody can afford to have more than 1 TV since they have to be replaced ever other year.
Funny - people used to be all upset about planned obsolescence, but now that it's a reality you don't hear boo. Why is that, I wonder?
I don't htink I've ever met a single person that uses mc, everyone either uses real GUIs, or real CLI tools...
You're dancing at the edge of the flamebait precipice here, or maybe just showing your inexperience or limited world view. Orthodox file managers are as real as anything and they work quite well when one wants to, you know, manage files. Much better than the (to use your term) "real" variants that seem to make the managing of files an exercise in pain.
Funny you mention that no one you know uses mc, because my experience has been that few use it, but anybody that sees me use it has the same reaction: "Damn, I should really learn how to use that. I can't believe how quickly you did that". mc is a real CLI tool, and a good one. And if you are inclined to use a GUI, there's always Krusader, Total Commander and many others depending on your OS or windowmanager of choice. Hell, there's even a variant for android, though not quite as useful because of the tiny screen. Might kick ass on an android tablet with a big enough screen, though.
Vuescan (http://www.hamrick.com). Yes, it's a "commercial" product, but I'll confess that since I bought a license I haven't really paid attention to the state of scanning on Linux, because when I need to scan stuff it just works, works well, and the quality of the output is outstanding*. Sometimes the FLOSS approach doesn't produce the best solution. Go figure.
In my opinion, the Linux experience would be much better if small commercial software developers were encouraged a bit more to brave the dangers of this ecosystem rather than being vilified and completely excluded from the culture. Nothing focuses the mind like needing to buy groceries and pay the mortgage, which is the one motivation that an army of volunteers can't bring to the table (unless you are using a FLOSS project as part of making a living, but in that case the motivation still comes from outside the project itself). Under the right conditions, the result seems to be a better product than can be had by "scratching the itch" or noodling around because it's fun.
*The same goes for Turboprint (http://www.turboprint.info) - printing is a breeze and I don't have to think about it at all. ZEDOnet's licensing policy is a bit more assholish than Vuescan's, but their shit works, so I grudgingly have to admit it was worth the money).
My parents have absolutely no fucking clue if what they transmit across there WiFi is secure or not. They assume it is, but as long as the website opens up they are blissful and ignorant to it.
Right there is the problem. Blissful and ignorant is their choice and their problem. Did you even mention to them that Wi-Fi is notoriously insecure and not very private unless you really try? Maybe they would not be so ignorant then. But that would mean they ask you to make sure they are secure, and you wouldn't want the extra work, would you?
The ultimate lesson in all of this? Don't dabble in magic if you aren't prepared to understand it.
Not quite the same as "browser history" which normally just resides on the local disk and is intended for local consumption. Referral links aren't exactly history.
I am a techie. But how about my relatives who live two doors down? They use WiFi. They don't know what makes it all work, except that it lets their laptops "use the internet" without any wires. Read your wireless router's documentation. It most probably uses fancy words like WPA, encryption keys, etc. How many of the general public really understand it? Encryption is VERY difficult to get right and one of the main elements is educating the proper use of it.
Being willfully ignorant is hardly a compelling argument. Either your relatives are terminally stupid, deliberately unwilling to learn or you aren't very effective at teaching them what they need to know to keep themselves safe and secure. I don't buy this kind of argument at all. People aren't that stupid and they understand things of similar complexity in other contexts just fine. Stop making excuses for laziness.
That's like saying that rape is allowed because of a lack of a chastity belt. Just because there are not security methods in place doesn't mean that you're authorized.
Oh please. If you're going to pull an analogy out of that dark place where the sun doesn't shine, at least try to come up with one that's even remotely applicable.
This is more like parking your car on a public road just outside the drive-in movie theater where you can see the screen and tuning your radio to receive the audio. The owners may not *want* you to do so, but if they have taken no measures to block the view or limit the signal they are broadcasting over the radio waves, enjoying the show from a nearby public location is fair game, IMHO. If something is meant to be private, make it private and don't require people to actively ignore something to protect your poorly secured private communications.
Here's another one: Posting stuff on a bulletin board in your front yard labeled "for my friends only" and getting upset when somebody drives by on the street and reads it, or maybe takes a picture to look at later. It's in plain view and visible from a public road. It's not private, even if you want it to be. Just because radio waves are invisible to our five senses doesn't mean they aren't equally visible to the surrounding public spaces.
If someone hast to actively ignore something in public view, it's not private.
I believe that something interesting is likely to slip through if only through oversight or incompetence. Even that would not be a possibility if nothing were declassified and released, so I say bring it on and make the odds more favorable.
To provide another perspective:
What you describe as "ripping off" could be better viewed as exposing oneself to ideas that are actually relevant to people by, you know, interacting with them. Discard the bad or irrelevant ideas, keep the good ones and share them with others to make sure they continue to propagate. Combine some in the form of 'mash ups' to create something kind of new. And in addition, possibly process the ideas gathered from such activity such that something completely new and unique comes out.
Maybe you shouldn't focus so much on the ideas that clearly circulate as part of a wider conversation and try instead to filter those out so you can more easily identify the new ones. Then at least you could make a meaningful evaluation about how good Cory is as a source of new ideas compared to others.
The impulse you speak of probably comes from the same place in the human psyche that wants to keep every species from becoming extinct in perpetuity.
It could even be that the impulse to keep industries alive is a direct result of the "save everything" thinking that has been drummed into everyone's head since the 60s. Just as a species can be driven to extinction through the 'unnatural' acts of humans, proponents of this kind of thinking very likely view everything about the internet as "unnatural", so deep affected businesses worth preserving.
My feeling is that this will last just about a generation, until all the politicians have grown up and understand technology. After that, old business models will fade as they properly should.
Whoops. Wrong article. Here you go: http://lwn.net/Articles/389611/
What pem said. The original summary above is full of hyperbole and epic levels of FUD. A thread on a mailing list elevated to the status of News. Sheesh. Slashdot editors, please use some discretion.
For those Slashdotters who want the executive summary, go read the LWN thread from 4 days ago: http://lwn.net/Articles/388883/
True. But how many folks are likely to buy a 400+ page book at technical book prices that is out of date at purchase? At the very least they could have been smart enough to just call it "Django Testing and Debugging", keep most of the content the same and just mention that it covers both Django 1.1 and 1.2 but might be missing a few bits that apply to the latter. Given the pace at which OSS software moves, putting a version number in the title just indicates that the author does not understand that essential fact - raising the question of what else did they miss?
IP is pants.
Most folks (not we nerds, but normal people) don't bother with anything more than plopping down on the couch, turning on the TV, and channel surfing. The internet isn't going to change that.
I'll ignore the condescension and just say that I'm a nerd *and* a normal person, and I know quite a few non-nerd normal folks too. My experience says different. Just plopping on the couch something people rarely do - more common is catching all the local info we've all been praising while getting breakfast/lunch/dinner ready for the family, catching up quickly on the way out to sports practice, etc. It's during those hands-free busy times that the local tv info is most useful, particularly around breakfast and dinner times. To be honest, any other time and I would not care if they weren't broadcasting.
Exactly. Local sports, weather, traffic and regional news are the main reasons we watch the local stations at home. While traveling, local TV is also quite useful. And it's free over the air. The content on the web won't stay free, I guarantee you.
Good lord, man. Of course I've had fun. I spent the summer riding around the country on a Greyhound bus when I was 16. Good times. I'm not sure today's 16 year old has the balls to do that (or the maturity). I grew up in the 70s. I probably had more "fun" than is legally allowed today.
Dude. I was already an elderly curmudgeon before I walked out of the high school doors for the last time. While my "friends" were out getting drunk, I was planning for the future. It's worked out well so far.
I still have the box ... and the card itself.