This is really starting to feel like Fahrenheight 451. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Remember 'The family'? With flat screen technologies coming out, and now flat-surface sound - you can build whole "entertainment rooms", for psuedo-3d viewing. There are also bud-earphones (compare to "sheashell" in Fahr.541), and less and less people are reading books nowadays. Robotic dog? they have a robotic fish now, how long before other animals start showing up? And finally, the culture we live in is starting to become more and more oversensitive. All people bow to the god of political correctness. The similarities are UNCANNY.
I'm not so sure about that. It all depends on the rate of vibrations in the screen, and wether that is percievable by the human eye. By the sound of the technical specifications of this thing, I'd say that visual interference from the vibrations would be very small, for all purposes, inconsequential.
How do you know you dont want something which you cant get, and havnt ever seen before? If everyone out there is competing on a level playing field, and customers knowingly choose MS Windows over other products, thats just fine, but the fact is, the playing field is severely skewed, due to MS's unfair business practicies. Personaly, I think this system (laizzes-faire capitalism) tends to create these kind of situations (monopoly). It might be that at one time, users actually chose MS products over others, this should not be a certificiate for MS to block the entire market from competitors. They are the quintessential bully, and when they get dragged into court, they say the things any bully says - "But we're just a small company", "we need to protect ourselves", etc. Sometimes when my Word tables fuck up on me (yes I use word.. I cant not use it), I feel like punching bill gates in the mouth, and say to him, "Why the fuck does your wordprocessor suck and change formatting on me when I dont want it to?". Shit, I'm rambling...
It might be immature, but I think this is pretty neat.. If they're going to play a prank on you, then by all means, apple should have the right to play a prank on them. Just because they're a company doesnt mean they have to be a cold humourless institution. I think it would really have been funny if they'd registered the domains of one of the teen's names (www.bob_newhart.com), and then filled it with pranks, or better yet, porn:)
Jezus, there are several valid reasons why US lost vietnam, and it would NOT hold true if the oh-so-evil government was trying to put you down. I'll list the reasons the US lost vietname:
1) Most soldiers did not want to fight in vietnam, they went there to "serve their country" 2) The US could not separate enemy from friend, so they started killing pretty much ALL of the "gooks" 3) They were trying to OCCUPY a land in an enviroment and climate which they were not used to at all. 4) guns and heavy artillery do not do well when you're fighting in thick forests 5) There was popular opposition to the war back home, and politicians had their votes staked on it.
now.. the reasons why these reasons DO NOT apply in the US.
1) the US population is for the most part, materialist lazy complacent slobs. They wouldnt really care if a military dictator came to power if they got their hot-pockets and prime-time teevee.
2) Hitler had popular support in germany when he came to power. He provided an easy solution to complicated problems. Jews were a minority, and they were discriminated against already. He raised it to a new level, and gave the people what they wanted - a "strong" germany. If something like nazi germany were to happen in the US, the people would be WITH the establishment for the most part, and the people who would be WITH them would include the "republicans" and "conservatives", gun lovers, etc.
The thing is, these kind of people come to power WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE. If the people dont support the regime, it wont stand. In Russia, the russians believed in the socialist system, so they kept Stalin up. In Germany, the people believed in Hitler, so they kept him up.
In cuba, the people DID NOT side with the establishment - a ragtag army of 100 managed to take power from Batista - even when they were opposed by the Unied States itself. Do you think the majority of people in Cuba during Batista's reign had firearms? (hint: answer = NO!) Castro's revolution was funded mainly from the oustide. They won because they had the popular support of the people.
Your hopelessly inane arguments against gun control are just that.
No, I'm not joking about this. I am against this rule from a start. No I'm not a spammer, and yes, I do anything in my power to keep my e-mail from getting outside my small circle of close friends. The reason this laws is bad is that it sets a precedent.
You are all being hypocrites when you scream and fit when congress passes the "CDA" or "COPA (CDAII)", but praise the fucking lord when it passes a law which does something equally illegal, but which you have support for. Spamming is communication. Unwanted communication? YES. Annoying communication? YES. Illegal communication? NO.. until now! While spamming might tick the socks off of you, it is still just an individual/company communicating with you. Set up a filter if you dont want your mail being bombarded. Ask for laws which safeguard your privacy, but not for those which restrict the freedoms of others.
That was a funny article. I'll tell you why it's not going to happen. Jobs. He's not gonna give up his dream, his baby, his wonderful little translucent-blue-goodness up to a bunch of hackers. Jobs' ego will keep linux far enough away from Macintosh. Look at the past. Apple threw Jobs out, so he said "fuck you, I'm going to go make me an os that kicks your OS' ass," and he did. NeXT rocks. Objective-C rocks. The NeXT UI rocks. Jobs has his agenda with macintosh - he has a plan for it, and I really dont think Linux is part of that plan. This does not necessarily mean that his plan for Mac is bad, but simply that it's his and his only.
The whole Idea of Open Source versus freedom is very important, and I think perens makes a very good point. Open source means you get to look at the source. WHOOP DE DOO! I can take my VCR apart also, but that doesnt mean Panasonic is Open Sourceing it. The great thing that GNU-ish open source allows us to do is not only look at the code, but make modifications and distribute it freely. That is one of the greatest boons of the FSF/GNU/OSS movement. Just selling the source does not count. Freedom of distribution has to go along with it.
People say that because now Linux is playing with the 'big boys', the whole game is different. I say it's not. It's still the same, and it's even more imperative that the Linux community stick to the roots that initially nourished it. I first started using Linux when I was 13, and I started using it because it was Free (as in $$$). It was a choice between a pirated version of Dos6.0/Win3.1 and Linux.
The 'big boys' are not someone you want to compromise you purient goals to. The only 3 things that companies care about is $, money, and greenbacks. Why does linux need to play with the big boys to succeed? has it needed to ever play with the 'big boys'? Was Linux created because Linus identified and acted on a need for the geek community to be linked to the yuppie (business) community? NO! The Free Software movement has not grown one inch because of so called business interests. It has grown because of the socialist-like culture of the geek community - contributing to the whole without expecting a selfish reward - a concept that his completely alien to the current System in the world. Look at it, you've got the american government handing out patents for everything under the sun. If you fart in a unique position, you can fucking go and patent it.
To conclude, Free Software means freedom in all respects, $$$ and source and distribution. Secondly, big business will eventually corrupt linux, and the whole OSS/Free software concept in general - and I believe that if this happens, linux to will become a shallow product not really worth anything, focusing more on bells and whisles to keep the sheep of the world at attention, than on good code.
-Laxative
Like a bird on the wire Like a drunk in a midnight choir - L. Cohen
lakhs/millins/crores have nothing to do with the currency. It is simply an outdated form of power-representation (lakh = 10^5) (crore = 10^7).
My conversion of (8000RS -> $300) was wrong because: a) I was doing it in my head b) I was using the currency exchange rate which was valid when I moved to the US (1RS == $25) It's now around $45 I think what's more, we cant get onions either.. thanks a lot for that embargo!
you people ALWAYS pounce on Katz whenever he writes an article. Jezus christ, whenever I read a katz article, I scroll down to the bottom to read all the immediate "Man, that sucks," "Katz, how stupid can you be," and "Another inane piece from Katz." It seems like you dont even read his articles, just scroll down to the bottom and start bashing.
Personally, I think katz's articles are, for the most part, pretty good. I've actually been convinced to see Rushmore because of this article. Why dont you people just chill out and give the guy (Katz) a break?
This is complete and utter crap. Some leftover hippie has let the crack go to his head. He is completely fucking naive.
While the "good village" future is indeed very nice, it is in NO WAY going to happen in the situation we are currently in. We live in a world that is essentially run by companies, and the one thing that companies really care for is $$$$$$$. They dont give a SHIT about courtesy, they dont give a SHIT about respect, the only thing that appears on their radar is profit.
Oh wouldnt it be wonderful if we could just all get along, respect each other! and live in peace and harmony. We can live in the fucking land of oz. And all of us would be safe because all of us would know everything about each other. THen we can be truly free. Go to a fucking nudist camp.
This article pisses me off. When I see crackheads like him get money for publishing regurgitated feces...
Sadly, I had hoped that European talking wigs were more intelligent than this, were a little bit less influenced by the talking-wallets of big business. I thought only the US made humongously idiotic deceisions like this, but I suppose even microsoft doesnt have a monopoly on that.
I think this is an idea that really needs to be thought about. While the OSS community has grown from a very "grassroots" (to use an overused term) movement, as it matures, it will need funding and a level of organization that it doesnt have now. Take the linux kernel. It has a sort of monarchical structure. With linus being the good king, and et al. being the aristocracy of development. If OSS wants to continue, it needs some way to evaluate which projects are really serious, and which deserve money. Someone to differentiate the serious development ventures from pet projects (somtimes there is a fine line between these), and fund the projects that really need the money. Many of you here rail against "bureaucracies", but that is what is needed if one wants to set up an efficient structure that works as intended. Individual funding is just too chaotic and dispersed to produce nearly as much bang for the buck as funding that is coordinated by one set of people. As for funding this structure, most, if not all, the people could be volunteers. One other small fact is that the organization should try to emulate one key characteristic of the software it represents - it should be open. None of that IOC business should ever happen. If you make the whole inner workings and process open, then abuse of power or embezzlement etc. will happen far less. I think this idea has a lot of merit, and that it would really be of use in this community, IF it is done right.
-Laxative my 2 canadian cents. 1.344 cents US as of 9:48AM Tue Feb 9 1999
I thought Linus's posting seemed very irritative. It's like he's sick of the whole thing (which I wouldnt be too surprised if he was, after working for a decade on the same code..) You know the saying: love->marriage->familiriaty->boredome
Personally, I dont think the kernel should have been released this early. Only worrying about the 'normal' people is for companies to do. I believe that if you're going to put a release date on it, it should be as polished as possible, but I dont work on the code, so I have no real say in this.
The final point is, it really doesnt matter what the kernel label is. If Linus took the 2.2pre9 kernel and re-labeled it 1.2.13, would it be any different of a kernel? I think people have been putting way too much pressure on the linux team to "deliver" on a "stable" version. The fact is, they're very stable already, so go ahead and use the 'pre'. I think Linus and perhaps the whole team is annoyed because of all the pressure on them to deliver an even release. In the end, I would consider it a lot worse if linux 2.2 came out with embarassing bugs today, than if it came out with very little or no bugs this day next year.
It's easy to contrast microsoft with other great "innovative" startup companies of the time. Let's take Apple as an example.
Microsoft never had innovation in it's products. What MS had was little tricks, doodads, and whizbangs (does it sound like a Roald Dahl book yet?). When steve and steve got together, they said to each other: hey, lets get together and make this really cool product. When microsoft started up, it went something more like: hey lets get together and make some money.
In it's 15 years in microcomputers, what has microsoft created that is new, something "innovative", to use an already overused term. The spreadsheet, the wordprocessor, multitasking, speech recognition, the intenet, or ANY of the new and old fields that made computing what it is today, did Microsoft ever contribute one iota to that? NO!
Microsoft will die, it will be slow, but it will happen. The average joe might be happy with running "CD player" and changeing his backgrounds to his favourite rock group every now and then, but as competing technologies and paradigms (such as OSS, and specifically, the zealous, nearly paranoid GNU community) the average consumer will become aware of better products at better values. When they realize that Microsoft doesnt offer anything new, but simply the old with a new slogan, the interest will slowly start dying.
On a side note, I think Apple will actually become a player in the computer industry again, now that Jobs is at the helm. Jobs might have a lot of ego problems, but he has something that businesspeople dont have, that spark of ingenuity. Whatever you want to say about the iMac, you have to admit that it looks cool, it will fit perfectly along with the nice new VW beetle (that is an AWESOME car).
anyway, those are my 1.25 cents (2 canadian cents)
Do you really think that the scientists actually have patents on the stuff they create? It's the companies which the scientists that own what's produced most of the time. The scientists dont get shit, and most of the time, they really dont care that much. Scientists are, for the most part, more concerned with research and development of concepts than trying to greedily milk every last penny out of an idea.
It's the companies who will benefit, and thus, the stockholders, and thus, the economy. If it benefits the economy, then how can it be illegal? It's really sad the way the world goes today, disregarding all considerations in pursuit of the sacred cow of economic prosperity. Oh well, I'm sure there'll be some revolution before it gets that bad.. and you just wait, heads will roll;)
Leftists, oh what a nasty word to call a person. What is going on is scary. It's true that the vast majority of people think that old people cant work as well as young people, and the new culture that is arising in US is favouring those 20-somethings that are willing to give up their social life, rather than the 35+ who have stayed the course and have experience, with problem solving, and life in general.
The new Culture's disrespect for Aged people for their vastly superiour experience is appalling. Being old is supposed to signify senility, being old-fashioned, conservative. The ageing in this country today desparately try to look and act young (plastic surgery, hair growth pills, viagra, etc.). While the young might have energy and vitality to do the grunt work, they need the experience of the aged to lead them.
FOr those of you who tell katz to "go back to russia you leftist", you are all naive fools. You will most defenitely change your policy when you find out that Social Security isnt going to pay shit for you when you retire, when you find out that you're $5K in debt with credit cards, when your kids think you're some senile old fool, and when nobody wants to hire you because you've got wrinkles on your face and your hair is going gray. You cant be young computer techies forever, what are you going to be? I can tell you that right now, you'll be a "has-been".
"He used to be a programmer" -"What is he now?" "Who the hell gives a shit? he's old"
You smug self-satisfied techies will eat your words.
Slashdot Mirror
This is really starting to feel like Fahrenheight 451. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Remember 'The family'? With flat screen technologies coming out, and now flat-surface sound - you can build whole "entertainment rooms", for psuedo-3d viewing. There are also bud-earphones (compare to "sheashell" in Fahr.541), and less and less people are reading books nowadays. Robotic dog? they have a robotic fish now, how long before other animals start showing up? And finally, the culture we live in is starting to become more and more oversensitive. All people bow to the god of political correctness. The similarities are UNCANNY.
-Laxitive
I'm not so sure about that. It all depends on the rate of vibrations in the screen, and wether that is percievable by the human eye. By the sound of the technical specifications of this thing, I'd say that visual interference from the vibrations would be very small, for all purposes, inconsequential.
-Laxative
How do you know you dont want something which you cant get, and havnt ever seen before? If everyone out there is competing on a level playing field, and customers knowingly choose MS Windows over other products, thats just fine, but the fact is, the playing field is severely skewed, due to MS's unfair business practicies. Personaly, I think this system (laizzes-faire capitalism) tends to create these kind of situations (monopoly). It might be that at one time, users actually chose MS products over others, this should not be a certificiate for MS to block the entire market from competitors. They are the quintessential bully, and when they get dragged into court, they say the things any bully says - "But we're just a small company", "we need to protect ourselves", etc. Sometimes when my Word tables fuck up on me (yes I use word.. I cant not use it), I feel like punching bill gates in the mouth, and say to him, "Why the fuck does your wordprocessor suck and change formatting on me when I dont want it to?". Shit, I'm rambling...
-Laxative
It might be immature, but I think this is pretty neat.. If they're going to play a prank on you, then by all means, apple should have the right to play a prank on them. Just because they're a company doesnt mean they have to be a cold humourless institution. I think it would really have been funny if they'd registered the domains of one of the teen's names (www.bob_newhart.com), and then filled it with pranks, or better yet, porn :)
-Laxitive
I'm glad I moved to Canada 6 months ago. The currency rate/economy might be bad, but this is worth it.
-Laxative
Jezus, there are several valid reasons why US lost vietnam, and it would NOT hold true if the oh-so-evil government was trying to put you down. I'll list the reasons the US lost vietname:
1) Most soldiers did not want to fight in vietnam, they went there to "serve their country"
2) The US could not separate enemy from friend, so they started killing pretty much ALL of the "gooks"
3) They were trying to OCCUPY a land in an enviroment and climate which they were not used to at all.
4) guns and heavy artillery do not do well when you're fighting in thick forests
5) There was popular opposition to the war back home, and politicians had their votes staked on it.
now.. the reasons why these reasons DO NOT apply in the US.
1) the US population is for the most part, materialist lazy complacent slobs. They wouldnt really care if a military dictator came to power if they got their hot-pockets and prime-time teevee.
2) Hitler had popular support in germany when he came to power. He provided an easy solution to complicated problems. Jews were a minority, and they were discriminated against already. He raised it to a new level, and gave the people what they wanted - a "strong" germany. If something like nazi germany were to happen in the US, the people would be WITH the establishment for the most part, and the people who would be WITH them would include the "republicans" and "conservatives", gun lovers, etc.
The thing is, these kind of people come to power WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE. If the people dont support the regime, it wont stand. In Russia, the russians believed in the socialist system, so they kept Stalin up. In Germany, the people believed in Hitler, so they kept him up.
In cuba, the people DID NOT side with the establishment - a ragtag army of 100 managed to take power from Batista - even when they were opposed by the Unied States itself. Do you think the majority of people in Cuba during Batista's reign had firearms? (hint: answer = NO!) Castro's revolution was funded mainly from the oustide. They won because they had the popular support of the people.
Your hopelessly inane arguments against gun control are just that.
-Laxitive
No, I'm not joking about this. I am against this rule from a start. No I'm not a spammer, and yes, I do anything in my power to keep my e-mail from getting outside my small circle of close friends. The reason this laws is bad is that it sets a precedent.
You are all being hypocrites when you scream and fit when congress passes the "CDA" or "COPA (CDAII)", but praise the fucking lord when it passes a law which does something equally illegal, but which you have support for. Spamming is communication. Unwanted communication? YES. Annoying communication? YES. Illegal communication? NO.. until now! While spamming might tick the socks off of you, it is still just an individual/company communicating with you. Set up a filter if you dont want your mail being bombarded. Ask for laws which safeguard your privacy, but not for those which restrict the freedoms of others.
This is what always happens when things get privatized. God, how long will it take the US to learn...
on another note, is it possible to set up an entirely separate hierarchy of domain names - entirely bypassing all these tyrrainical abuses of power?
-Laxative
That was a funny article. I'll tell you why it's not going to happen. Jobs. He's not gonna give up his dream, his baby, his wonderful little translucent-blue-goodness up to a bunch of hackers. Jobs' ego will keep linux far enough away from Macintosh. Look at the past. Apple threw Jobs out, so he said "fuck you, I'm going to go make me an os that kicks your OS' ass," and he did. NeXT rocks. Objective-C rocks. The NeXT UI rocks. Jobs has his agenda with macintosh - he has a plan for it, and I really dont think Linux is part of that plan. This does not necessarily mean that his plan for Mac is bad, but simply that it's his and his only.
-Laxative
Title says it all. Perl might be cool, but python kicks ass :)
The whole Idea of Open Source versus freedom is very important, and I think perens makes a very good point. Open source means you get to look at the source. WHOOP DE DOO! I can take my VCR apart also, but that doesnt mean Panasonic is Open Sourceing it. The great thing that GNU-ish open source allows us to do is not only look at the code, but make modifications and distribute it freely. That is one of the greatest boons of the FSF/GNU/OSS movement. Just selling the source does not count. Freedom of distribution has to go along with it.
People say that because now Linux is playing with the 'big boys', the whole game is different. I say it's not. It's still the same, and it's even more imperative that the Linux community stick to the roots that initially nourished it. I first started using Linux when I was 13, and I started using it because it was Free (as in $$$). It was a choice between a pirated version of Dos6.0/Win3.1 and Linux.
The 'big boys' are not someone you want to compromise you purient goals to. The only 3 things that companies care about is $, money, and greenbacks. Why does linux need to play with the big boys to succeed? has it needed to ever play with the 'big boys'? Was Linux created because Linus identified and acted on a need for the geek community to be linked to the yuppie (business) community? NO! The Free Software movement has not grown one inch because of so called business interests. It has grown because of the socialist-like culture of the geek community - contributing to the whole without expecting a selfish reward - a concept that his completely alien to the current System in the world. Look at it, you've got the american government handing out patents for everything under the sun. If you fart in a unique position, you can fucking go and patent it.
To conclude, Free Software means freedom in all respects, $$$ and source and distribution. Secondly, big business will eventually corrupt linux, and the whole OSS/Free software concept in general - and I believe that if this happens, linux to will become a shallow product not really worth anything, focusing more on bells and whisles to keep the sheep of the world at attention, than on good code.
-Laxative
Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
- L. Cohen
lakhs/millins/crores have nothing to do with the currency. It is simply an outdated form of power-representation (lakh = 10^5) (crore = 10^7).
My conversion of (8000RS -> $300) was wrong because:
a) I was doing it in my head
b) I was using the currency exchange rate which was valid when I moved to the US (1RS == $25) It's now around $45 I think
what's more, we cant get onions either.. thanks a lot for that embargo!
-Laxative
down w/ the BJP
this might be nitpicking, but it's not spelled Rupies. The correct spelling is - Rupee(s). :)
(8 thousand? that would be about $300 wouldnt it?
-Laxative
you people ALWAYS pounce on Katz whenever he writes an article. Jezus christ, whenever I read a katz article, I scroll down to the bottom to read all the immediate "Man, that sucks," "Katz, how stupid can you be," and "Another inane piece from Katz." It seems like you dont even read his articles, just scroll down to the bottom and start bashing.
::= katz-bashers
Personally, I think katz's articles are, for the most part, pretty good. I've actually been convinced to see Rushmore because of this article. Why dont you people just chill out and give the guy (Katz) a break?
you people
-Laxative
This is complete and utter crap. Some leftover hippie has let the crack go to his head. He is completely fucking naive.
While the "good village" future is indeed very nice, it is in NO WAY going to happen in the situation we are currently in. We live in a world that is essentially run by companies, and the one thing that companies really care for is $$$$$$$. They dont give a SHIT about courtesy, they dont give a SHIT about respect, the only thing that appears on their radar is profit.
Oh wouldnt it be wonderful if we could just all get along, respect each other! and live in peace and harmony. We can live in the fucking land of oz. And all of us would be safe because all of us would know everything about each other. THen we can be truly free. Go to a fucking nudist camp.
This article pisses me off. When I see crackheads like him get money for publishing regurgitated feces...
-Laxative
Sadly, I had hoped that European talking wigs were more intelligent than this, were a little bit less influenced by the talking-wallets of big business. I thought only the US made humongously idiotic deceisions like this, but I suppose even microsoft doesnt have a monopoly on that.
-Laxative
I think this is an idea that really needs to be thought about. While the OSS community has grown from a very "grassroots" (to use an overused term) movement, as it matures, it will need funding and a level of organization that it doesnt have now.
Take the linux kernel. It has a sort of monarchical structure. With linus being the good king, and et al. being the aristocracy of development.
If OSS wants to continue, it needs some way to evaluate which projects are really serious, and which deserve money. Someone to differentiate the serious development ventures from pet projects (somtimes there is a fine line between these), and fund the projects that really need the money.
Many of you here rail against "bureaucracies", but that is what is needed if one wants to set up an efficient structure that works as intended. Individual funding is just too chaotic and dispersed to produce nearly as much bang for the buck as funding that is coordinated by one set of people. As for funding this structure, most, if not all, the people could be volunteers. One other small fact is that the organization should try to emulate one key characteristic of the software it represents - it should be open. None of that IOC business should ever happen. If you make the whole inner workings and process open, then abuse of power or embezzlement etc. will happen far less.
I think this idea has a lot of merit, and that it would really be of use in this community, IF it is done right.
-Laxative
my 2 canadian cents.
1.344 cents US as of 9:48AM Tue Feb 9 1999
The parser generator makefile is configured
by default to use "XLC" as it's compiler. What
is it?
Jus curious
-laxative
I thought Linus's posting seemed very irritative.
It's like he's sick of the whole thing (which I wouldnt be too surprised if he was, after working for a decade on the same code..) You know the saying: love->marriage->familiriaty->boredome
Personally, I dont think the kernel should have been released this early. Only worrying about the 'normal' people is for companies to do. I believe that if you're going to put a release date on it, it should be as polished as possible, but I dont work on the code, so I have no real say in this.
The final point is, it really doesnt matter what the kernel label is. If Linus took the 2.2pre9 kernel and re-labeled it 1.2.13, would it be any different of a kernel? I think people have been putting way too much pressure on the linux team to "deliver" on a "stable" version. The fact is, they're very stable already, so go ahead and use the 'pre'. I think Linus and perhaps the whole team is annoyed because of all the pressure on them to deliver an even release. In the end, I would consider it a lot worse if linux 2.2 came out with embarassing bugs today, than if it came out with very little or no bugs this day next year.
That's my rant.
-Laxative
It's easy to contrast microsoft with other great "innovative" startup companies of the time. Let's take Apple as an example.
Microsoft never had innovation in it's products. What MS had was little tricks, doodads, and whizbangs (does it sound like a Roald Dahl book yet?). When steve and steve got together, they said to each other: hey, lets get together and make this really cool product. When microsoft started up, it went something more like: hey lets get together and make some money.
In it's 15 years in microcomputers, what has microsoft created that is new, something "innovative", to use an already overused term. The spreadsheet, the wordprocessor, multitasking, speech recognition, the intenet, or ANY of the new and old fields that made computing what it is today, did Microsoft ever contribute one iota to that? NO!
Microsoft will die, it will be slow, but it will happen. The average joe might be happy with running "CD player" and changeing his backgrounds to his favourite rock group every now and then, but as competing technologies and paradigms (such as OSS, and specifically, the zealous, nearly paranoid GNU community) the average consumer will become aware of better products at better values. When they realize that Microsoft doesnt offer anything new, but simply the old with a new slogan, the interest will slowly start dying.
On a side note, I think Apple will actually become a player in the computer industry again, now that Jobs is at the helm. Jobs might have a lot of ego problems, but he has something that businesspeople dont have, that spark of ingenuity. Whatever you want to say about the iMac, you have to admit that it looks cool, it will fit perfectly along with the nice new VW beetle (that is an AWESOME car).
anyway, those are my 1.25 cents (2 canadian cents)
-Laxative
Do you really think that the scientists actually have patents on the stuff they create? It's the companies which the scientists that own what's produced most of the time. The scientists dont get shit, and most of the time, they really dont care that much. Scientists are, for the most part, more concerned with research and development of concepts than trying to greedily milk every last penny out of an idea.
;)
It's the companies who will benefit, and thus, the stockholders, and thus, the economy. If it benefits the economy, then how can it be illegal? It's really sad the way the world goes today, disregarding all considerations in pursuit of the sacred cow of economic prosperity. Oh well, I'm sure there'll be some revolution before it gets that bad.. and you just wait, heads will roll
- Laxitive
Leftists, oh what a nasty word to call a person. What is going on is scary. It's true that the vast majority of people think that old people cant work as well as young people, and the new culture that is arising in US is favouring those 20-somethings that are willing to give up their social life, rather than the 35+ who have stayed the course and have experience, with problem solving, and life in general.
The new Culture's disrespect for Aged people for their vastly superiour experience is appalling. Being old is supposed to signify senility, being old-fashioned, conservative. The ageing in this country today desparately try to look and act young (plastic surgery, hair growth pills, viagra, etc.). While the young might have energy and vitality to do the grunt work, they need the experience of the aged to lead them.
FOr those of you who tell katz to "go back to russia you leftist", you are all naive fools. You will most defenitely change your policy when you find out that Social Security isnt going to pay shit for you when you retire, when you find out that you're $5K in debt with credit cards, when your kids think you're some senile old fool, and when nobody wants to hire you because you've got wrinkles on your face and your hair is going gray. You cant be young computer techies forever, what are you going to be? I can tell you that right now, you'll be a "has-been".
"He used to be a programmer"
-"What is he now?"
"Who the hell gives a shit? he's old"
You smug self-satisfied techies will eat your words.
Katz is cool.
and no, I'm not old, I'm 17
-Laxitive