I am a stoopid microbiologist who uses Firefox daily but is concerned about where it is heading. My stupid question is, since Firefox is open source, can the good coders of Slashdot fork the code and make a "new" browser along the lines of the old Firefox? If so, please do it. For humanity. I mean, I see all the pent-up anger in this thread. Surely some of you can band together and start a new project.
No, we are right to be concerned. These days, whenever a large company, open source or not put up something publically or semi-publically on their website, it means that they are going to implement it. It is a cheap way of product testing or to prepare users for the coming apocalypse, I mean, change. I am now starting to look around for other browsers to use. Mozilla has become what it was fighting when it started. I also blame female users for this (no, I'm serious). Look at the UI design of consumer products now days and you realise the over-simplified, over-cutesy, over-dumbed down design is catering for women and girly men who favours looks over function.
Wow. Just, wow. I got chills down my spine reading this thread. This must be what people in the middle ages must have felt during the height of the Catholic Inquisition. A mere accusation is enough to ruin your life. Suffer not the software pirate to live. For a small business, it is practically a death sentence. When God is Commerce, CEOs are Prophets and lawyers are the Priesthood, Copyright laws are worse than anything the Church can come up with.
I grew up in a traditional village in Malaysia during the early 80's. I know this is going to sound like one of those get off my lawn stories but my experiences while growing up there was very beneficial. At that time, my playground was the snake-infested semi-jungle around the village, the monitor lizard infested nearby river and the limestone quarry lake where they were blasting rocks with explosives. We kids will form roaming bands of 10 or more and play soldiers and communists (it was only 1 year after the communist insurgents surrendered), make our own "hand grenades" (got scars to prove it) out of firecracker fillings and spark plugs as detonators, even our own bamboo cannon filled with carbide. We will climb trees, slingshot monkeys, take a swim in the river and fish for tilapia and catfish in the quarry lake all the while explosives were going off nearby. On Eid days and the Chinese New Year, we will go to war with the kids from the neighbouring village, launching firecracker raids and ambushing the counterattack which will sometimes end up as fist fights. Looking back, I couldn't believe I lived that life now that I am living in a modern suburb where everything is gated and sanitised. Firecrackers are now banned in Malaysia. I look at my own two kids and see them playing video games, and the only time they can play outside is when I am supervising them out of fear of speeding cars or kidnappers (this is a real problem).
Now, everything revolves around the nuclear family. I could do all those risky things in the village because all the adults in the village will keep an eye on you, regardless if you are their kid or not. All adults may scold or cane any child in the village if they cross the line. Complaining about this to your parents will result in another round of caning. You could drop in on your friends house and their parents will serve you food and treat you like you are their own. Now get off my lawn.
It is easy to go after the French, especially since they initially lost WWII. What most USA,USA,USA Americans tend to forget was that the first World War was largely a French vs Germany affair, with France fielding the largest army and suffering the largest casualties, not to mention that the war was fought largely on French soil. It was no poetic license when they said that the "flower of Europe's youth" were killed during WWI. The UK and US on other hand had the luxury of fighting without serious consequences to their homeland,separated by the Channel or the Atlantic ocean. This was slightly less true for the Brits in WWII but still much the same for the US. If like some historians who argues that WWII was only a continuation of WWI, then you will see the reason for the rapid collapse of the French army at the start of WWII. And in case you Anglo-Americans/Brits tend to forget, the Normans were French with Viking blood in them. The English language that you speak today had been drastically modified by the Normans. So, in many ways, you are French too.
You know, what is more shocking is that clueless "security experts" still relying on passwords as their primary security measure. Passwords are bad because they are not natural. Humans are not computers, i.e. we are have not evolved to memorise random string of letters and numbers. Our brain has evolved to make the most of connecting and contextializing information, not memorizing 1 and 0s. This is the mistake you computer people always make, whether designing GUIs or security systems.
I don't understand this fetishism with "natural selection" by salt of the earth types every time genetic engineering comes up. Natural selection is random, meaning you can equally get "desirable" traits as well as "undesirable" traits (from the point of view of humans). Genetic engineering increases the chances that you can produce "desirable" traits and with proper precautions, reduce the chances of undesirable traits. With Africanised bees, it is not even the fault of modern genetic engineering. It was the fault of "traditional" breeding of two bee strains. That's right. The same acceptable and ancient method used to breed modern cows,bananas, carrots etc. is also capable of creating Frankensteins. The fear of genetic engineering has been drummed into the public by certain Greenie groups with their own agenda. It is unwarranted. When you put safeties in place to prevent accidental cross breeding of GM animals/plants and wild animals/plants by making them infertile, you are accused of money grabbing and playing God. If you don't do it, then you are accused of endangering "natural" genetic populations.
No, you can start by getting rid of Israel. This is the root of all of your problems with the Muslim world. Stop supporting it, stop condoning its ethnic cleansing and genocide and maybe we will listen to you with a straight face when you preach about peace and democracy. And no. Various American talking heads, including your infamous Bush had declared victory before. The enemy is almooost defeated.It never will be. I do not support al-Qaeda. What it is doing is wrong and against my religion. I also do not like the American Government and its sometime ally and political master, Israel.
You Westerners are still in denial. Whether you like it or not, the balance of economic and political power is shifting to rapidly developing countries like China and India. No country will forever be "the richest". Your current experience proves this. Prosperity is like a wheel. Sometimes you are on top but almost certainly you won't stay there forever. Now its China's turn. Remember this the next time your nation arrogantly beat its chest about being the "sole superpower" and throw its weight around. What "remote evidence"?. China has the largest population in the world. If it chooses to, it can focus its economy inward and still come out on top. While the U.S. is busy invading countries, China has made strategic moves in Asia and Africa. Bubble? Sure the pace will slow down, but it will still grow none the less.
Thats funny because the only reason I don't hang up on sales/survey calls is to fuck with their database. I know, I have too much free time but it is fun. When they ask for my socio-economic info such as yearly income, age etc. I give false and bizarre answers. Once, I said I learnt of their product at a funeral (for a yogurt). Try it. It's fun. The survey taker don't give a damn because they still get paid while you get to introduce outliers in their database.
How does the tradition of individuality and private R&D investment" = open access and sharing? America was built on people being shameless opportunists who found a niche and quickly exploited it. Everyone for themselves, the defining characteristic of "individualist".
I was watching a Discovery channel program about taboos of the native peoples around the world. At first,my knee jerk reaction was that it is a lot of hokum! Then I realized that the laws surrounding the sharing of music and video in the Western world is the new form of taboo. Completely arbitary restrictictions with potentially disproportionate repercussions. You know, kill a totem animal and end up as a frog in the next life, share a song and end up broke and imprisoned.
No, YOU stop referring to "these people" as anything. The first step in character assasination/villification is to give your opponent a perjorative label. You know, nigger, towel head, hajji, gook, krauts, kike, etc. Such behavior has no place in scientific debate. Just because someone has a different interpretation of the data does not mean that they are on the same level as Nazi sympathisers. Face the facts. People on your side of the fence has lost all semblance of scientific method and decorum. You have become zealots, both by the secular and religious definitions. You could not tolerate heretical views and seek to discommunicate the unbelievers. Step back and re-examine your thoughts and actions.Are you really holding your views because you believe and truly understand the hard data or are you just a Believer.
What the frack are you fracking about? What is this "Mother Gaia" hippy bovine excrement? Anyone who thinks "Mother Gaia" is a loveey-dovey God only needs to spend a week or two alone and without supplies in a tropical rainforest or in the middle of the desert. Nature favors only the strong. The weak get eaten, starved or pushed out, never to pass their genes. Humanity is here today because we harness and exploit nature. What is this about the planet "striking back"? The planet had tried to kill us and all life many times over, even before the industrial revolution. Stop antrophomorphing the planet and stop reading hippy bullshit.
True. In their iphone and ipod fueled hubris, Apple has forgotten that the "cool buzz" around their products and image, whether deserving or not, originally emanated from power/professional users such as film companies and other artistic types using their products. Lose this endorsement and Apple becomes just another Microsoft.
I had a relative who resorted to marijuana. One day he showed up at my parent's house and stole my brother's car while high on drugs.We frantically went searching for him because we feared he might end up in a ditch or worse plough through pedestrians. Eventually we found him on the side of a road trying to fill the fuel tank with water! My point is, while the drug(s) itself might not be that harmful, the actions of the people on them usually are. This is the main reason why many people are opposed to any illegal drugs. I am a Muslim and I extend this to alcohol as well because it is a drug that is even worse than marijuana.
Wishful thinking much? Western economists have been predicting the death of China since the mid 90's. Everything from over heating to under heating, from over population to declining population have been bandied out as the potential causes. There is also blaming China for oil price spikes when it was American speculators who was manipulating the markets. If I am an American, I would not be rejoicing at this news. It means that China is maturing and moving up the tech tree. China also has an advantage that the US doesn't: an autocratic oligarchy, the best form of capitalist governance.
The US is following a well worn path of history for empires.
Stage 1: Rebellion/Founding phase
Stage 2: Idealistic phase
Stage 3: Consolidation phase
Stage 4: Expansion phase
Stage 5: Golden Age
Stage 6: Over expansion phase
Stage 7: Inward/Xenophobic phase
Stage 8: Repression/Autocratic phase
Stage 1: Rebellion/Founding phase
Anytime the ruling class treat their citizens as the enemy, rebellion will sooner or later follow. The Arab world proves this. Though, it seems that Americans have a high treshold for being repressed, probably due to the social opium of mass media and entertainment.
I had a hard time trying to understand what you wrote. I think you meant that the US can ignore all its debts to China by threatening to go to war. You forget, real wars cost money and it is hard to fight when you don't have it. You also forget that the moment the US defaults, its credit rating so to speak goes to hell and the US dollar will become worthless. So, go ahead. Keep borrowing from your future rival. I leave you with a quotation from Paul Muad'dib: He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing.
I know you're just being smug but remember, you might as well paint Nazi swastikas on all of your rockets since that is where you got most of your rocket tech. And considering the Chinese invented fricking rockets in the first place, you have no basis on being smug at all.
See, Slashdot is populated by a lot of computer geeks and nerds, who are traditionally loners and maybe only work with an immediate small group of people. Now, engineers can be many things in many fields, but they are on the whole more socially adjusted than computer geeks. In fact, judging from my younger brother who is a civil engineer, and my father whio is an aerospace engineer, they are downright cocky. Maybe it is because the stature and glamor attached to the engineering profession. Naturally, when a client meets and engineer, versus a "sales" rep, they tend to defer to their expertise.
My two cents on the matter is don't break the trust of your customers by mutating your engineers into sales people. If you do, then you will have the worst of both worlds when your customers won't trust your engineers AND won't buy your products. An ethical engineer will not hesitate to say that they can't do something a client wants if they think there are safety or technical issues. Train your salespeople better instead.
Yes, and remember citizens, if They do it, it is an act of war but if We do it, then it is cybersecurity and intelligence gathering.
Seriously, at this point, any country not training or hiring CyberWarriors(TM) is behind the times. Except of course American media likes to be jingoistic and xenophobic, what else is new?
My apologies if you are not;-) The only thing more insufferable than a born again Christian is a dyed in the wool atheist. Yes, these older Japanese citizens know the facts and have weighed the positives and negatives of their offer. Yes their decision is aided by scientific and medical facts. But, that does not diminish any of the heroism. Rather, it actually adds to it. What do you mean that they are risking nothing? They are offering the ultimate sacrifice any human being can make, i.e. to lose their life in service of humanity. That is more than many of us here could ever hope or dare to offer.
I dimly remember a documentary about a North Korean family living in an apartment block. Thay have a wall mounted radio that can't be turned off but could be dimmed a little. The radio plays propaganda 24 hours a day. Considering that in a capitalist society, advertisements are in a way, a form of propaganda,we are not that far off.
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I am a stoopid microbiologist who uses Firefox daily but is concerned about where it is heading. My stupid question is, since Firefox is open source, can the good coders of Slashdot fork the code and make a "new" browser along the lines of the old Firefox? If so, please do it. For humanity. I mean, I see all the pent-up anger in this thread. Surely some of you can band together and start a new project.
No, we are right to be concerned. These days, whenever a large company, open source or not put up something publically or semi-publically on their website, it means that they are going to implement it. It is a cheap way of product testing or to prepare users for the coming apocalypse, I mean, change. I am now starting to look around for other browsers to use. Mozilla has become what it was fighting when it started. I also blame female users for this (no, I'm serious). Look at the UI design of consumer products now days and you realise the over-simplified, over-cutesy, over-dumbed down design is catering for women and girly men who favours looks over function.
Wow. Just, wow. I got chills down my spine reading this thread. This must be what people in the middle ages must have felt during the height of the Catholic Inquisition. A mere accusation is enough to ruin your life. Suffer not the software pirate to live. For a small business, it is practically a death sentence. When God is Commerce, CEOs are Prophets and lawyers are the Priesthood, Copyright laws are worse than anything the Church can come up with.
I grew up in a traditional village in Malaysia during the early 80's. I know this is going to sound like one of those get off my lawn stories but my experiences while growing up there was very beneficial. At that time, my playground was the snake-infested semi-jungle around the village, the monitor lizard infested nearby river and the limestone quarry lake where they were blasting rocks with explosives. We kids will form roaming bands of 10 or more and play soldiers and communists (it was only 1 year after the communist insurgents surrendered), make our own "hand grenades" (got scars to prove it) out of firecracker fillings and spark plugs as detonators, even our own bamboo cannon filled with carbide. We will climb trees, slingshot monkeys, take a swim in the river and fish for tilapia and catfish in the quarry lake all the while explosives were going off nearby. On Eid days and the Chinese New Year, we will go to war with the kids from the neighbouring village, launching firecracker raids and ambushing the counterattack which will sometimes end up as fist fights. Looking back, I couldn't believe I lived that life now that I am living in a modern suburb where everything is gated and sanitised. Firecrackers are now banned in Malaysia. I look at my own two kids and see them playing video games, and the only time they can play outside is when I am supervising them out of fear of speeding cars or kidnappers (this is a real problem).
Now, everything revolves around the nuclear family. I could do all those risky things in the village because all the adults in the village will keep an eye on you, regardless if you are their kid or not. All adults may scold or cane any child in the village if they cross the line. Complaining about this to your parents will result in another round of caning. You could drop in on your friends house and their parents will serve you food and treat you like you are their own. Now get off my lawn.
It is easy to go after the French, especially since they initially lost WWII. What most USA,USA,USA Americans tend to forget was that the first World War was largely a French vs Germany affair, with France fielding the largest army and suffering the largest casualties, not to mention that the war was fought largely on French soil. It was no poetic license when they said that the "flower of Europe's youth" were killed during WWI. The UK and US on other hand had the luxury of fighting without serious consequences to their homeland,separated by the Channel or the Atlantic ocean. This was slightly less true for the Brits in WWII but still much the same for the US. If like some historians who argues that WWII was only a continuation of WWI, then you will see the reason for the rapid collapse of the French army at the start of WWII. And in case you Anglo-Americans/Brits tend to forget, the Normans were French with Viking blood in them. The English language that you speak today had been drastically modified by the Normans. So, in many ways, you are French too.
You know, what is more shocking is that clueless "security experts" still relying on passwords as their primary security measure. Passwords are bad because they are not natural. Humans are not computers, i.e. we are have not evolved to memorise random string of letters and numbers. Our brain has evolved to make the most of connecting and contextializing information, not memorizing 1 and 0s. This is the mistake you computer people always make, whether designing GUIs or security systems.
I don't understand this fetishism with "natural selection" by salt of the earth types every time genetic engineering comes up. Natural selection is random, meaning you can equally get "desirable" traits as well as "undesirable" traits (from the point of view of humans). Genetic engineering increases the chances that you can produce "desirable" traits and with proper precautions, reduce the chances of undesirable traits. With Africanised bees, it is not even the fault of modern genetic engineering. It was the fault of "traditional" breeding of two bee strains. That's right. The same acceptable and ancient method used to breed modern cows,bananas, carrots etc. is also capable of creating Frankensteins. The fear of genetic engineering has been drummed into the public by certain Greenie groups with their own agenda. It is unwarranted. When you put safeties in place to prevent accidental cross breeding of GM animals/plants and wild animals/plants by making them infertile, you are accused of money grabbing and playing God. If you don't do it, then you are accused of endangering "natural" genetic populations.
No, you can start by getting rid of Israel. This is the root of all of your problems with the Muslim world. Stop supporting it, stop condoning its ethnic cleansing and genocide and maybe we will listen to you with a straight face when you preach about peace and democracy. And no. Various American talking heads, including your infamous Bush had declared victory before. The enemy is almooost defeated.It never will be. I do not support al-Qaeda. What it is doing is wrong and against my religion. I also do not like the American Government and its sometime ally and political master, Israel.
You Westerners are still in denial. Whether you like it or not, the balance of economic and political power is shifting to rapidly developing countries like China and India. No country will forever be "the richest". Your current experience proves this. Prosperity is like a wheel. Sometimes you are on top but almost certainly you won't stay there forever. Now its China's turn. Remember this the next time your nation arrogantly beat its chest about being the "sole superpower" and throw its weight around. What "remote evidence"?. China has the largest population in the world. If it chooses to, it can focus its economy inward and still come out on top. While the U.S. is busy invading countries, China has made strategic moves in Asia and Africa. Bubble? Sure the pace will slow down, but it will still grow none the less.
Thats funny because the only reason I don't hang up on sales/survey calls is to fuck with their database. I know, I have too much free time but it is fun. When they ask for my socio-economic info such as yearly income, age etc. I give false and bizarre answers. Once, I said I learnt of their product at a funeral (for a yogurt). Try it. It's fun. The survey taker don't give a damn because they still get paid while you get to introduce outliers in their database.
How does the tradition of individuality and private R&D investment" = open access and sharing? America was built on people being shameless opportunists who found a niche and quickly exploited it. Everyone for themselves, the defining characteristic of "individualist".
I was watching a Discovery channel program about taboos of the native peoples around the world. At first,my knee jerk reaction was that it is a lot of hokum! Then I realized that the laws surrounding the sharing of music and video in the Western world is the new form of taboo. Completely arbitary restrictictions with potentially disproportionate repercussions. You know, kill a totem animal and end up as a frog in the next life, share a song and end up broke and imprisoned.
No, YOU stop referring to "these people" as anything. The first step in character assasination/villification is to give your opponent a perjorative label. You know, nigger, towel head, hajji, gook, krauts, kike, etc. Such behavior has no place in scientific debate. Just because someone has a different interpretation of the data does not mean that they are on the same level as Nazi sympathisers. Face the facts. People on your side of the fence has lost all semblance of scientific method and decorum. You have become zealots, both by the secular and religious definitions. You could not tolerate heretical views and seek to discommunicate the unbelievers. Step back and re-examine your thoughts and actions.Are you really holding your views because you believe and truly understand the hard data or are you just a Believer.
What the frack are you fracking about? What is this "Mother Gaia" hippy bovine excrement? Anyone who thinks "Mother Gaia" is a loveey-dovey God only needs to spend a week or two alone and without supplies in a tropical rainforest or in the middle of the desert. Nature favors only the strong. The weak get eaten, starved or pushed out, never to pass their genes. Humanity is here today because we harness and exploit nature. What is this about the planet "striking back"? The planet had tried to kill us and all life many times over, even before the industrial revolution. Stop antrophomorphing the planet and stop reading hippy bullshit.
True. In their iphone and ipod fueled hubris, Apple has forgotten that the "cool buzz" around their products and image, whether deserving or not, originally emanated from power/professional users such as film companies and other artistic types using their products. Lose this endorsement and Apple becomes just another Microsoft.
I had a relative who resorted to marijuana. One day he showed up at my parent's house and stole my brother's car while high on drugs.We frantically went searching for him because we feared he might end up in a ditch or worse plough through pedestrians. Eventually we found him on the side of a road trying to fill the fuel tank with water! My point is, while the drug(s) itself might not be that harmful, the actions of the people on them usually are. This is the main reason why many people are opposed to any illegal drugs. I am a Muslim and I extend this to alcohol as well because it is a drug that is even worse than marijuana.
Wishful thinking much? Western economists have been predicting the death of China since the mid 90's. Everything from over heating to under heating, from over population to declining population have been bandied out as the potential causes. There is also blaming China for oil price spikes when it was American speculators who was manipulating the markets. If I am an American, I would not be rejoicing at this news. It means that China is maturing and moving up the tech tree. China also has an advantage that the US doesn't: an autocratic oligarchy, the best form of capitalist governance.
The US is following a well worn path of history for empires.
Stage 1: Rebellion/Founding phase
Stage 2: Idealistic phase
Stage 3: Consolidation phase
Stage 4: Expansion phase
Stage 5: Golden Age
Stage 6: Over expansion phase
Stage 7: Inward/Xenophobic phase
Stage 8: Repression/Autocratic phase
Stage 1: Rebellion/Founding phase
Anytime the ruling class treat their citizens as the enemy, rebellion will sooner or later follow. The Arab world proves this. Though, it seems that Americans have a high treshold for being repressed, probably due to the social opium of mass media and entertainment.
I had a hard time trying to understand what you wrote. I think you meant that the US can ignore all its debts to China by threatening to go to war. You forget, real wars cost money and it is hard to fight when you don't have it. You also forget that the moment the US defaults, its credit rating so to speak goes to hell and the US dollar will become worthless. So, go ahead. Keep borrowing from your future rival. I leave you with a quotation from Paul Muad'dib: He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing.
I know you're just being smug but remember, you might as well paint Nazi swastikas on all of your rockets since that is where you got most of your rocket tech. And considering the Chinese invented fricking rockets in the first place, you have no basis on being smug at all.
See, Slashdot is populated by a lot of computer geeks and nerds, who are traditionally loners and maybe only work with an immediate small group of people. Now, engineers can be many things in many fields, but they are on the whole more socially adjusted than computer geeks. In fact, judging from my younger brother who is a civil engineer, and my father whio is an aerospace engineer, they are downright cocky. Maybe it is because the stature and glamor attached to the engineering profession. Naturally, when a client meets and engineer, versus a "sales" rep, they tend to defer to their expertise.
My two cents on the matter is don't break the trust of your customers by mutating your engineers into sales people. If you do, then you will have the worst of both worlds when your customers won't trust your engineers AND won't buy your products. An ethical engineer will not hesitate to say that they can't do something a client wants if they think there are safety or technical issues. Train your salespeople better instead.
Dude, thats so gross. Rule 34 in effect? But whatever floats your boat. Just don't use it as a fridge magnet later.
Yes, and remember citizens, if They do it, it is an act of war but if We do it, then it is cybersecurity and intelligence gathering.
Seriously, at this point, any country not training or hiring CyberWarriors(TM) is behind the times. Except of course American media likes to be jingoistic and xenophobic, what else is new?
My apologies if you are not ;-) The only thing more insufferable than a born again Christian is a dyed in the wool atheist. Yes, these older Japanese citizens know the facts and have weighed the positives and negatives of their offer. Yes their decision is aided by scientific and medical facts. But, that does not diminish any of the heroism. Rather, it actually adds to it. What do you mean that they are risking nothing? They are offering the ultimate sacrifice any human being can make, i.e. to lose their life in service of humanity. That is more than many of us here could ever hope or dare to offer.
I dimly remember a documentary about a North Korean family living in an apartment block. Thay have a wall mounted radio that can't be turned off but could be dimmed a little. The radio plays propaganda 24 hours a day. Considering that in a capitalist society, advertisements are in a way, a form of propaganda,we are not that far off.