So we have a program to do a conversion which still may not be 100%. Then you have a commercial solution to run an other commercial solutions... You might just be better off with windows, and office...
You are saying everyone in the organization should go threw hoops for an ideology... Even if your organization isn't even focused on that ideology...
These tools are good for the individual, but not for the organization.
"Intelligent Design is an attempt to absolve the scriptures of ever being wrong in their creation story and salvage what is possible when presented with fossil evidence and short-term evolution evidence in smaller celled organisms. Other religions have similar damage control, why do the Christians only get theirs mentioned in state schools? "
That is more creationism... Intelligent Design original point (however a lot of the Evangelical Christians groups twisted it back into Creationism) was to basically state that random elements that aided evolution were not random but controlled by a super natural force. Fossil Evidence, and Micro Evolution can still fit in that model... As you cannot predict a Random Element, Just as you cannot predict the actions of a being who is supposed to have infinite foresight.
Now does this make it science... No... We cannot prove or disprove God, nor if God does exist measure the level of evolvement God offers. So we shouldn't be using God as part of the equations. Creationism isn't science because we are bringing in variables that are unprovable or unmeasurable, we need to treat this unpredictable value as random.
This risk to bring in the "God Did it" into science is that it is an easy way to stop further investigation into the topic, which will stop the study which is harmful as there this a lot more to learn.
However the problem is if parents pull their kids out of school, as they figure they are being taught "devil talk", over all it might be better off to bite your tongue accept some of the more liberal versions of intelligent design vs. fighting it. Just so they don't pull their kids out of school and hinder themselves more. Fine they are idiots in Evolutionary Science however they still might make a good Engineer, or a Scientist in an other field.
That said your argument seems like the typical closed minded Atheists rant. First of all there are many different Religions out there and even in Christianity the difference sects have a huge interpretation on a lot of topics and often they are actually not blobbed into one value. Your topic of Linking Creationism with Slavery isn't very apt, as the Nazi who were for the most part an Atheist group used Evolution to advocate their actions. In short all groups of people can do evil things, or things to hinder real progress and will find a way to justify it in a religion a science, or philosophy.
I find life is full of tradeoffs if you try to base your life off of someone else's philosophy you will end up being hypocritical of yourself. Utopian world doesn't exist everything you do has a tradeoff. Sometimes you need to let things slide for the greater good.
Well you are more willing to let go and drop a book or a news paper then a piece of expensive electronics. If the plane is going in to a hard landing and you need to brace yourself you are more likely to drop a book or a paper and brace yourself... For a laptop or an expensive device you may put it away or keep it safe while you should be protecting your own neck.
The real problem is compatibility. And it is not technical compatibility but mind share in compatibility. So the product is 99.9% compatible. You get that one file that isn't. Now what is the price of that document, the information of that document may be worth more then the copy of Windows and Visio. The cost of going to the person and asking them to send it to you in a different format may be too high too, because that other company may think that you do not have the resources to do your job correctly. Or Vice Versa you send a document that isn't in the correct format or (because Linux Fonts suck) just isn't formatted nicely. Then you look a bit more unprofessional and you put your customer in a spot where they may need to ask you to send it in a different format. Causing them stress which you don't want to do with your customers.
Bit the bullet put your idealism aside and install Windows and Office and get your work done. Most companies don't care about the licensing... Google being Google can probably get away with it... But right now most other companies cannot. So keep a few windows and office licenses handy for the people who needs to use it.
However Scientist when talking to the public often fail to explain the areas of doubt in their theory. So to the public it sounds like a guy who is saying something different all the time, but each time explains it in a way that want you to take it as the solid truth... Religion does the same thing however they have a more consistent message...
I don't think the copy protection disks didn't succeed because people found ways around it. But more to the fact that the games were getting so complex that they couldn't fit on a single floppy disk, and people were getting hard drives... So they needed to stop copy protection just so the games will run on hard drives. Combined with the problems of creating backups, of the disk. I remember when copy protection was big on floppy disks and they stopped when they got beyond 2 disks of storage. Sure you can play Kings quest 4 and swap disk 1 of 8 with this 2 of 8 or whatever... However game maker want to make their games better. And swaping disks isn't as useful if it was a faster pase game.
What planet are you on? Sun Hardware was actually quite pricy... Their Balanced architecture made it hard to debate its real advantages during the Megahertz war, granted it was good hardware it made it a tough sale. Sun actually had really good software that did things that Linux can still only dream of. Of course I worked a lot with their High End stuff... and it sounds like you worked with their low end stuff. Having a big difference in useful ness of the software to the hardware.
That is the goal of Linux... The Linux Community meaning a lot of people who build Linux features or support and evangelize Linux goal is to replace Windows... Otherwise they will not be tollish to everything Microsoft does. You credit Linux to much for the downfall of Sun, The reason Linux kicked back in the early-mid 2000 was that sun got greedy killed a lot of their sales channels and tried selling direct... The sales channels who felt abandoned by Sun switched to Linux as it was Unix enough for less of a change to their business model, and started selling Linux consulting services...
Linux development from the community has been focused on replacing windows for the desktop and for the server.
Except for the fact that the Web Browser like it or not, is more then just a web browser it is an interface platform for applications. You can bitch and moan all you want. However the Web Apps are here and they are going to stay for a long time. Every time you try to block a security issue you close an other door for honest development. So the easy fix of saying you can cross script to other tabs or windows sounds like an easy fix... It really isn't.
Well the Embryonic Stem-Cell debate (which isn't what this is about) is what there is debate about, because in order to get these stem-cells you need to terminate the fetus, which is a valid moral debate without thumping the bible, because the PEOPLE who wrote the bible never even considered about thinking things to that detail. Terms of Patents just because they are protecting their patient it doesn't mean they are a Patent Troll. A lot of this type of stuff we really need a good debate on it, without finger pointing. We are blurring lines that use to be black and white. I don't think it is really going to the dark ages but more to a point we need really figure out the implementations of these problems.
Exactly, I don't think bullies are like that genetically, Because a lot of the bullies are the same kids who got bullied earlier... Environment really does count more then genetics. Using genetics as an excuse is really just a lame excuse to be lazy, and not fix yourself. Genetics at best will give you an instinct to do something or not. However we fight our instincts all the time, as we know it is better to do something else.
I think the real problem is there is so much mind washing in school, that makes sure that if you are defending yourself you get in just as much trouble if not more then the bully, as bullies rarely hit hard first.
I don't understand why the FSF would not pursue this with full vigor.
Actually it is a very simple concept... It is called pick the right battles. Right now there are lot of big violators who are breaking almost every point in the GPL. In terms of legally fighting each point they are violating is a weapon FSF can use on their end. The the company is breaking the spirit of the GPL or just a couple of points then it is much of a harder case, as there is little they can do to fight it. Especially if the opposing legal side finds loopholes for example they may argue that the firmware isn't software, it is hardware. Or the software for the firmware isn't needed for a full install of the gnu portions of the product. It is just a closed source tool to make editing the system easier so it is a lot like a Linux distribution that comes with closed source tool. In short it will be a tough battle.
If FSF goes after all violators with full vigor it could create a chilling effect that could scare a lot of companies away from GPL not because they don't want to play by the GPL code but it would be too scary if they missed or misinterpreted a point and get stuck in a legal battle, sometime if you violate the GPL you cannot just "release the source and make everyone happy" because it may mean that you are violating someone else's license, and they just make you pay more. Oddly enough I haven't seen a software development department where there is a full time lawyer reading the licenses of every 3rd party tool that you use, and make sure they are all in compliance.
Or lets think about it this way... Do you want to get Sued for sining "Happy Birthday" at a party for copyright infringement, as Time Warner owns the Copyright to "Happy Birthday". What will happen if Time Warner does... Well people will stop using Happy Birthday, and the Good Will value of the song will lesson. However if say Disney uses it without permission, that will give Time Warner a hand were they can sue for damages, or make a deal to share some of Disney's copyrighted material.
I think a lot of geeks don't understand when someone says something is needlessly hard, it doesn't mean they don't know how to do it or they can't. They mean there should/are exists easier ways to do the same tasks easier. When you do something over and over again, it becomes easy. So even the worst possible interface becomes easy once you get use to it... However most of the time you are learning how to do it the hard way by habit, you get threatened by an easier way.
Just because things are easier it doesn't mean they are any less useful, they are just better designed for the purpose they were designed for. I have a leather-man tool, I can do a lot of things with it. However while it does the job it doesn't replace having real versions of those tools... As using a screwdriver is much easier then a leather-man screwdriver. Often they can get the job done just as well, however one will be a bit easier to implement.
The same thing with software we get all emotional about it but all in all it is just a tool. Sometimes people try to make the tool too general purpose and keep its full power and creates something that is too hard to be useful. I think in terms of this Google API they marketed it as something easier then it actually is, and tried to make it a tool for things that really isn't a good fit for it.
I Graduated from my Undergrad about 9 years ago too. The people who actually used their laptops during class were considered arrogant rich snobs. Who just wanted to show off their bling. Most students didn't have laptops, it was only reserved for either the Arrogant Rich Snobs or the people who live so far away from the college that they need to fly to school so they have a small computer to bring. The really techie people of the time had the huge desktop towers 2 feet tall minimum. Loaded with CD Rom and CD-RW Drivers (you needed 2 because the CD ROMS were 8x while the CD-RW were 2x) 3 1/2 Floppy Drives, 17"-19" CRT displays...
Now I am working on my Masters things have changed... Everyone has a Laptop and you look like you are Old-School if you don't have one for class. Class assignments expect you to use your laptop and tests are even done by laptop just so it is easier for the professor to read your work.
Also a big change in the past decade was the expansion err umm infestation of PowerPoint. When I was in Undergrad professors used the Overhead Projector with the dry erase markers. Digital projectors were limited for classes that really needed them. Like a CS class that needed to show real examples. Today every class has a powerpoint.
Problem with Copyrights and Patent are not the fact that they wrong however their punishment for breaking is no longer just. Back in the old days Copyright Violators were really Corporations because in order to break the copyrights you needed an infrastructure to do this. So the fines for violations should be high, as someone made a lot of money with using someone elses IP without permission.
However today it is too easy to violate Copyrights and Patents we no longer need a huge infrastructure to do such just a PC at a cost of one weeks salary (Or less) and Internet access. And lot of the violaters are not doing this for money they are doing this to get the content in the way they want it. So the fines are way to high for the crime.
For someone caught illegaly downloading MP3s etc... I think it would be fair for the penality would be $1 per song up to 500 songs. then $750 for 500-1000 songs, $1,000 for 1000-5000 songs. $1,500 for 5000-10,000 songs...
So if someone was caught breaking the law they should pay a fine to prevent them from doing it again... However they shouldn't have to go bankrupt for life for some fun that they had in a week.
The same thing with pattents... I think they really need to crunch down on stopping obvious patents and restrict software patents to the advanced stuff... Like data compression during the 80's, or Speach and Visual detection algorithms. But not a lot of this crazy stuff where they show a box that you talk to and it does what it says, there should be some real code and math behind the patent.
No, That really isn't true. They tent to think for themselves about as much as conservatives do. If they were really free thinkers then we wouldn't have liberal political parties... As everyone wouldn't be able to make a good consensus on a lot of the party platforms. There is just about the same amount of redirect and identical ideas going back and forth all the time. If liberals were really free thinkers you would expect a lot of them to agree with the DNA test too.
Well I am not saying it is impossible. But water has a lot of really unique chemical properties that makes randomly evolving life more likely. Being that it devolves a lot of chemicals, as well as it is sticky could come in handy in making life processes, Oh lets get rid of those pieces and glue these together while their bonds are week they stick together for a while then split. While silicon my have a lot of life giving properties for it to occur naturally/randomly you would need some medium to try to create random combination. Otherwise Sand/Silicon will be quite happy in sand like state.
The point is. Linux has a lot of problems that most people excuse and overlook or blame elsewhere, vs actually trying to fix them. Windows has problems too but even for smaller problems they will get hounded for being such a horrible system. Sure lets discuss windows problems, we should demand that Microsoft keeps their product at high quality, but I am tired of this "well I use Linux so I am so much better off" nonsense. Wow they are two different systems with different code bases and they have different bugs... Duh! You like Linux and you use it and you are happy that is all well and good... However bragging that your OS doesn't suffer from That particular vulnerability is just silly and not actually useful. If this was a Ubuntu reported bug and you state that it doesn't happen in an other Linux Distribution it would be more useful as you are talking about a similar codebase and that it seems there is a unique Ubuntu problem. But comparing Windows and Linux is just a wast of time. And if you are going to pretend that Linux is a flawless OS and Superior then windows you are just fooling yourself. Linux is not Superior to windows it may be better overall but not the God OS.
No chances are your XWindows will lockup stopping all keyboard and mouse input and output to the computer, and any security issue from this will be blamed on those EVIL Video Card makers who will not offer their drivers as open source... So the fault is on them.
Remember if the Problem is in Linux then you blame someone else or the user for using the only but unsupported driver they can use.
If it is for Windows then it is the bumbeling Microsoft who can't make anything work.
You probably haven't had much experience with these older computer systems. They did what they need to do and that is it. The hardware was wired to do what it needs to do. Every bit had a purpose If that bit failed you knew that something was wrong. Making it fairly easy to find the bit that was bad.
1K can be represented in a 32x32 square. these systems had only a few k of memory to view. And millions of dollars for funding Finding a missing bit is actually very easy. Especially if you go threw the design specs and see what bit does what.
General Purpose Computing, was a tradeoff that I think for the most part has better benefitted us. If every computer needed to be made bit level specialized to do one/few thing(s) and do them well, we will have a lot of very secure and extremely reliable computers... However only a few large organizations would be able to afford them as they will need a full custom design of their processes. And in terms of power they will be a lot less then they are today.
The General Purpose computers while are very complex and can cause a lot of problems.
It doesn't matter how fast it flies you spend more time in the terminal then in the air. Affordable supersonic is really only really useful if your flight is over 12 hours. Otherwise You will spend you whole day in the airport/flying anyways.
I think is more to the case that you are being respectful to the police officer however your language is questionable. For example if he asked you what happened and you state that guy did a f*ing this and and a f*ing that... He is not being abusive to the officer and is respectful of the officers position... However his language is full profane words. Were some Cops would in essence arrest the person just because of his language.
If you start telling off the cop and you are hostile to him he will arrest you... Not because of the words you say but the way you say it... It would be the same as if you stated... "No Way!" to a legal request. He could arrest you for not obaying his orders.
Slashdot Mirror
So we have a program to do a conversion which still may not be 100%. Then you have a commercial solution to run an other commercial solutions... You might just be better off with windows, and office...
You are saying everyone in the organization should go threw hoops for an ideology... Even if your organization isn't even focused on that ideology...
These tools are good for the individual, but not for the organization.
"Intelligent Design is an attempt to absolve the scriptures of ever being wrong in their creation story and salvage what is possible when presented with fossil evidence and short-term evolution evidence in smaller celled organisms. Other religions have similar damage control, why do the Christians only get theirs mentioned in state schools? "
That is more creationism... Intelligent Design original point (however a lot of the Evangelical Christians groups twisted it back into Creationism) was to basically state that random elements that aided evolution were not random but controlled by a super natural force. Fossil Evidence, and Micro Evolution can still fit in that model... As you cannot predict a Random Element, Just as you cannot predict the actions of a being who is supposed to have infinite foresight.
Now does this make it science... No... We cannot prove or disprove God, nor if God does exist measure the level of evolvement God offers. So we shouldn't be using God as part of the equations. Creationism isn't science because we are bringing in variables that are unprovable or unmeasurable, we need to treat this unpredictable value as random.
This risk to bring in the "God Did it" into science is that it is an easy way to stop further investigation into the topic, which will stop the study which is harmful as there this a lot more to learn.
However the problem is if parents pull their kids out of school, as they figure they are being taught "devil talk", over all it might be better off to bite your tongue accept some of the more liberal versions of intelligent design vs. fighting it. Just so they don't pull their kids out of school and hinder themselves more. Fine they are idiots in Evolutionary Science however they still might make a good Engineer, or a Scientist in an other field.
That said your argument seems like the typical closed minded Atheists rant. First of all there are many different Religions out there and even in Christianity the difference sects have a huge interpretation on a lot of topics and often they are actually not blobbed into one value. Your topic of Linking Creationism with Slavery isn't very apt, as the Nazi who were for the most part an Atheist group used Evolution to advocate their actions. In short all groups of people can do evil things, or things to hinder real progress and will find a way to justify it in a religion a science, or philosophy.
I find life is full of tradeoffs if you try to base your life off of someone else's philosophy you will end up being hypocritical of yourself. Utopian world doesn't exist everything you do has a tradeoff. Sometimes you need to let things slide for the greater good.
Well you are more willing to let go and drop a book or a news paper then a piece of expensive electronics. If the plane is going in to a hard landing and you need to brace yourself you are more likely to drop a book or a paper and brace yourself... For a laptop or an expensive device you may put it away or keep it safe while you should be protecting your own neck.
The real problem is compatibility. And it is not technical compatibility but mind share in compatibility. So the product is 99.9% compatible. You get that one file that isn't. Now what is the price of that document, the information of that document may be worth more then the copy of Windows and Visio. The cost of going to the person and asking them to send it to you in a different format may be too high too, because that other company may think that you do not have the resources to do your job correctly.
Or Vice Versa you send a document that isn't in the correct format or (because Linux Fonts suck) just isn't formatted nicely. Then you look a bit more unprofessional and you put your customer in a spot where they may need to ask you to send it in a different format. Causing them stress which you don't want to do with your customers.
Bit the bullet put your idealism aside and install Windows and Office and get your work done. Most companies don't care about the licensing... Google being Google can probably get away with it... But right now most other companies cannot. So keep a few windows and office licenses handy for the people who needs to use it.
However Scientist when talking to the public often fail to explain the areas of doubt in their theory. So to the public it sounds like a guy who is saying something different all the time, but each time explains it in a way that want you to take it as the solid truth... Religion does the same thing however they have a more consistent message...
I don't think the copy protection disks didn't succeed because people found ways around it. But more to the fact that the games were getting so complex that they couldn't fit on a single floppy disk, and people were getting hard drives... So they needed to stop copy protection just so the games will run on hard drives. Combined with the problems of creating backups, of the disk. I remember when copy protection was big on floppy disks and they stopped when they got beyond 2 disks of storage. Sure you can play Kings quest 4 and swap disk 1 of 8 with this 2 of 8 or whatever... However game maker want to make their games better. And swaping disks isn't as useful if it was a faster pase game.
I would like to see a comparison with a mechanical drive doing the same thing in parallel.
While the Solid Sate has a theoretical Limited number of writes vs. the mechanical drive, it would be interesting to see what real world has to offer.
Which is oddly enough The inverse relation applies to Emacs.
What planet are you on?
Sun Hardware was actually quite pricy... Their Balanced architecture made it hard to debate its real advantages during the Megahertz war, granted it was good hardware it made it a tough sale.
Sun actually had really good software that did things that Linux can still only dream of.
Of course I worked a lot with their High End stuff... and it sounds like you worked with their low end stuff. Having a big difference in useful ness of the software to the hardware.
That is the goal of Linux... The Linux Community meaning a lot of people who build Linux features or support and evangelize Linux goal is to replace Windows... Otherwise they will not be tollish to everything Microsoft does. You credit Linux to much for the downfall of Sun, The reason Linux kicked back in the early-mid 2000 was that sun got greedy killed a lot of their sales channels and tried selling direct... The sales channels who felt abandoned by Sun switched to Linux as it was Unix enough for less of a change to their business model, and started selling Linux consulting services...
Linux development from the community has been focused on replacing windows for the desktop and for the server.
Except for the fact that the Web Browser like it or not, is more then just a web browser it is an interface platform for applications. You can bitch and moan all you want. However the Web Apps are here and they are going to stay for a long time. Every time you try to block a security issue you close an other door for honest development. So the easy fix of saying you can cross script to other tabs or windows sounds like an easy fix... It really isn't.
Except I think the site is near death. The last update was some april fools jokes... 6 months paternity leave is excessive.
Well the Embryonic Stem-Cell debate (which isn't what this is about) is what there is debate about, because in order to get these stem-cells you need to terminate the fetus, which is a valid moral debate without thumping the bible, because the PEOPLE who wrote the bible never even considered about thinking things to that detail. Terms of Patents just because they are protecting their patient it doesn't mean they are a Patent Troll. A lot of this type of stuff we really need a good debate on it, without finger pointing. We are blurring lines that use to be black and white. I don't think it is really going to the dark ages but more to a point we need really figure out the implementations of these problems.
Exactly, I don't think bullies are like that genetically, Because a lot of the bullies are the same kids who got bullied earlier... Environment really does count more then genetics. Using genetics as an excuse is really just a lame excuse to be lazy, and not fix yourself. Genetics at best will give you an instinct to do something or not. However we fight our instincts all the time, as we know it is better to do something else.
I think the real problem is there is so much mind washing in school, that makes sure that if you are defending yourself you get in just as much trouble if not more then the bully, as bullies rarely hit hard first.
I don't understand why the FSF would not pursue this with full vigor.
Actually it is a very simple concept... It is called pick the right battles. Right now there are lot of big violators who are breaking almost every point in the GPL. In terms of legally fighting each point they are violating is a weapon FSF can use on their end. The the company is breaking the spirit of the GPL or just a couple of points then it is much of a harder case, as there is little they can do to fight it. Especially if the opposing legal side finds loopholes for example they may argue that the firmware isn't software, it is hardware. Or the software for the firmware isn't needed for a full install of the gnu portions of the product. It is just a closed source tool to make editing the system easier so it is a lot like a Linux distribution that comes with closed source tool. In short it will be a tough battle.
If FSF goes after all violators with full vigor it could create a chilling effect that could scare a lot of companies away from GPL not because they don't want to play by the GPL code but it would be too scary if they missed or misinterpreted a point and get stuck in a legal battle, sometime if you violate the GPL you cannot just "release the source and make everyone happy" because it may mean that you are violating someone else's license, and they just make you pay more. Oddly enough I haven't seen a software development department where there is a full time lawyer reading the licenses of every 3rd party tool that you use, and make sure they are all in compliance.
Or lets think about it this way...
Do you want to get Sued for sining "Happy Birthday" at a party for copyright infringement, as Time Warner owns the Copyright to "Happy Birthday". What will happen if Time Warner does... Well people will stop using Happy Birthday, and the Good Will value of the song will lesson. However if say Disney uses it without permission, that will give Time Warner a hand were they can sue for damages, or make a deal to share some of Disney's copyrighted material.
I think a lot of geeks don't understand when someone says something is needlessly hard, it doesn't mean they don't know how to do it or they can't. They mean there should/are exists easier ways to do the same tasks easier. When you do something over and over again, it becomes easy. So even the worst possible interface becomes easy once you get use to it... However most of the time you are learning how to do it the hard way by habit, you get threatened by an easier way.
Just because things are easier it doesn't mean they are any less useful, they are just better designed for the purpose they were designed for. I have a leather-man tool, I can do a lot of things with it. However while it does the job it doesn't replace having real versions of those tools... As using a screwdriver is much easier then a leather-man screwdriver. Often they can get the job done just as well, however one will be a bit easier to implement.
The same thing with software we get all emotional about it but all in all it is just a tool. Sometimes people try to make the tool too general purpose and keep its full power and creates something that is too hard to be useful. I think in terms of this Google API they marketed it as something easier then it actually is, and tried to make it a tool for things that really isn't a good fit for it.
It is far more common now...
I Graduated from my Undergrad about 9 years ago too. The people who actually used their laptops during class were considered arrogant rich snobs. Who just wanted to show off their bling. Most students didn't have laptops, it was only reserved for either the Arrogant Rich Snobs or the people who live so far away from the college that they need to fly to school so they have a small computer to bring. The really techie people of the time had the huge desktop towers 2 feet tall minimum. Loaded with CD Rom and CD-RW Drivers (you needed 2 because the CD ROMS were 8x while the CD-RW were 2x) 3 1/2 Floppy Drives, 17"-19" CRT displays...
Now I am working on my Masters things have changed... Everyone has a Laptop and you look like you are Old-School if you don't have one for class. Class assignments expect you to use your laptop and tests are even done by laptop just so it is easier for the professor to read your work.
Also a big change in the past decade was the expansion err umm infestation of PowerPoint. When I was in Undergrad professors used the Overhead Projector with the dry erase markers. Digital projectors were limited for classes that really needed them. Like a CS class that needed to show real examples. Today every class has a powerpoint.
Problem with Copyrights and Patent are not the fact that they wrong however their punishment for breaking is no longer just.
Back in the old days Copyright Violators were really Corporations because in order to break the copyrights you needed an infrastructure to do this. So the fines for violations should be high, as someone made a lot of money with using someone elses IP without permission.
However today it is too easy to violate Copyrights and Patents we no longer need a huge infrastructure to do such just a PC at a cost of one weeks salary (Or less) and Internet access. And lot of the violaters are not doing this for money they are doing this to get the content in the way they want it. So the fines are way to high for the crime.
For someone caught illegaly downloading MP3s etc... I think it would be fair for the penality would be $1 per song up to 500 songs. then $750 for 500-1000 songs, $1,000 for 1000-5000 songs. $1,500 for 5000-10,000 songs...
So if someone was caught breaking the law they should pay a fine to prevent them from doing it again... However they shouldn't have to go bankrupt for life for some fun that they had in a week.
The same thing with pattents... I think they really need to crunch down on stopping obvious patents and restrict software patents to the advanced stuff... Like data compression during the 80's, or Speach and Visual detection algorithms. But not a lot of this crazy stuff where they show a box that you talk to and it does what it says, there should be some real code and math behind the patent.
No, That really isn't true. They tent to think for themselves about as much as conservatives do. If they were really free thinkers then we wouldn't have liberal political parties... As everyone wouldn't be able to make a good consensus on a lot of the party platforms. There is just about the same amount of redirect and identical ideas going back and forth all the time. If liberals were really free thinkers you would expect a lot of them to agree with the DNA test too.
Well I am not saying it is impossible. But water has a lot of really unique chemical properties that makes randomly evolving life more likely. Being that it devolves a lot of chemicals, as well as it is sticky could come in handy in making life processes, Oh lets get rid of those pieces and glue these together while their bonds are week they stick together for a while then split. While silicon my have a lot of life giving properties for it to occur naturally/randomly you would need some medium to try to create random combination. Otherwise Sand/Silicon will be quite happy in sand like state.
The point is. Linux has a lot of problems that most people excuse and overlook or blame elsewhere, vs actually trying to fix them. Windows has problems too but even for smaller problems they will get hounded for being such a horrible system. Sure lets discuss windows problems, we should demand that Microsoft keeps their product at high quality, but I am tired of this "well I use Linux so I am so much better off" nonsense. Wow they are two different systems with different code bases and they have different bugs... Duh! You like Linux and you use it and you are happy that is all well and good... However bragging that your OS doesn't suffer from That particular vulnerability is just silly and not actually useful. If this was a Ubuntu reported bug and you state that it doesn't happen in an other Linux Distribution it would be more useful as you are talking about a similar codebase and that it seems there is a unique Ubuntu problem. But comparing Windows and Linux is just a wast of time. And if you are going to pretend that Linux is a flawless OS and Superior then windows you are just fooling yourself. Linux is not Superior to windows it may be better overall but not the God OS.
No chances are your XWindows will lockup stopping all keyboard and mouse input and output to the computer, and any security issue from this will be blamed on those EVIL Video Card makers who will not offer their drivers as open source... So the fault is on them.
Remember if the Problem is in Linux then you blame someone else or the user for using the only but unsupported driver they can use.
If it is for Windows then it is the bumbeling Microsoft who can't make anything work.
You probably haven't had much experience with these older computer systems. They did what they need to do and that is it. The hardware was wired to do what it needs to do. Every bit had a purpose If that bit failed you knew that something was wrong. Making it fairly easy to find the bit that was bad.
1K can be represented in a 32x32 square. these systems had only a few k of memory to view. And millions of dollars for funding Finding a missing bit is actually very easy. Especially if you go threw the design specs and see what bit does what.
General Purpose Computing, was a tradeoff that I think for the most part has better benefitted us. If every computer needed to be made bit level specialized to do one/few thing(s) and do them well, we will have a lot of very secure and extremely reliable computers... However only a few large organizations would be able to afford them as they will need a full custom design of their processes. And in terms of power they will be a lot less then they are today.
The General Purpose computers while are very complex and can cause a lot of problems.
It doesn't matter how fast it flies you spend more time in the terminal then in the air. Affordable supersonic is really only really useful if your flight is over 12 hours. Otherwise You will spend you whole day in the airport/flying anyways.
I think is more to the case that you are being respectful to the police officer however your language is questionable. For example if he asked you what happened and you state that guy did a f*ing this and and a f*ing that... He is not being abusive to the officer and is respectful of the officers position... However his language is full profane words. Were some Cops would in essence arrest the person just because of his language.
If you start telling off the cop and you are hostile to him he will arrest you... Not because of the words you say but the way you say it... It would be the same as if you stated... "No Way!" to a legal request. He could arrest you for not obaying his orders.