Even if all open-source contributors would starve tomorrow, the software would still continue to exist, the servers would be humming along offering the same sources and binaries for download etc. It could never die as long as there are copies somewhere. All that could happen is that it wouldn't improve/progress/expand anymore. But more realistically it would just evolve at a slower pace, IF the guy's arguments had any merits, that is.
Remember how absolutely substandard and slow postal delivery was in most of the world? Then along came some global competitors (and competing technology in the form of email and faxes) and suddenly they've found Jesus and are all about improving quality and speed of services.
Except in Canada, that is. Boy, does this union-infested "company" that is Canada Post suck...
...you have or want to work with programs from Adobe's CS3 suite. They run only on XP. I was faithful to my Win2k machine until about two months ago when I decided they "got me".
I also remember the Spectrum well. I bought it for a steal at an electronics fair in Germany in the 80s and was amazed by it's capabilities. The one feature in it's BASIC that impressed me most was it's string interpreter: In your program, you could put a function together as a string variable (for example b$="a*a*a+0.5*a*a-3") and have the BASIC interpreter evaluate it during runtime (with VAL(b$)), causing it to apply the current values of BASIC variables (a) in the string! Which meant that you could dynamically alter a program's calculations in a self-modifying-code fashion without using any PEEK/POKE tricks. A continuously-running function plotter where you could change the function on-the-fly was just a few lines in BASIC.
After just two months of playing with it, my passion to change/modify/tweak/expand all electronic gadgets that I own got a hold of me and I tried to add an A/D converter to the expansion bus, using a modified stock PCB connector. Unfortunately, I fried something while trying with the result that my Spectrum was now dead and I couldn't afford a replacement. That was a sad day indeed but I'll always remember the nice, compact housing and the "feelgood" rubber keys.
> They'll just choose whatever is cheapest at the moment from brands that they know > (even if cheap), as long (and this is key) the quality is "good enough".
A typical US-american notion I might add. Not just for technology but everything else. The desire for quality and long-lastiness is way more prevalent in parts of Europe. Having grown up there, the cheapness and poor quality of the most basic products and items in the US drove me nuts at first.
> No, its not "their fault" - they're nuts. Still, how do we deal with it?
Take away their guns?
I don't get (US) America: Going crazy about people smoking weed or taking hard drugs (just peacefully killing themselves), having an outrage when Janet shows her nipple on TV, but allowing deadly weapons in private, resident homes by the millions. Just to defend your home in case disaster strikes?
We have known for years that they have been overselling bandwidth and then cutting you off when you use more than their "unlimited service" will permit without telling you any concrete numbers of what that is. Actually, Shaw Cable in Canada, another one of the companies accused of traffic shaping, does tell the exact limits in their product descriptions, for example in this overview.
Not that I am defending their traffic-shaping ways, but just to set the record straight.
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Even if all open-source contributors would starve tomorrow, the software would still continue to exist, the servers would be humming along offering the same sources and binaries for download etc. It could never die as long as there are copies somewhere. All that could happen is that it wouldn't improve/progress/expand anymore. But more realistically it would just evolve at a slower pace, IF the guy's arguments had any merits, that is.
Remember how absolutely substandard and slow postal delivery was in most of the world? Then along came some global competitors (and competing technology in the form of email and faxes) and suddenly they've found Jesus and are all about improving quality and speed of services.
Except in Canada, that is. Boy, does this union-infested "company" that is Canada Post suck...
...had it happened today, we would had their fingerprints!
...you have or want to work with programs from Adobe's CS3 suite. They run only on XP. I was faithful to my Win2k machine until about two months ago when I decided they "got me".
No, it won't be called at all unless the 'roaches learn how to talk by then.
After just two months of playing with it, my passion to change/modify/tweak/expand all electronic gadgets that I own got a hold of me and I tried to add an A/D converter to the expansion bus, using a modified stock PCB connector. Unfortunately, I fried something while trying with the result that my Spectrum was now dead and I couldn't afford a replacement. That was a sad day indeed but I'll always remember the nice, compact housing and the "feelgood" rubber keys.
> They'll just choose whatever is cheapest at the moment from brands that they know
> (even if cheap), as long (and this is key) the quality is "good enough".
A typical US-american notion I might add. Not just for technology but everything else. The desire for quality and long-lastiness is way more prevalent in parts of Europe. Having grown up there, the cheapness and poor quality of the most basic products and items in the US drove me nuts at first.
> No, its not "their fault" - they're nuts. Still, how do we deal with it?
Take away their guns?
I don't get (US) America: Going crazy about people smoking weed or taking hard drugs (just peacefully killing themselves), having an outrage when Janet shows her nipple on TV, but allowing deadly weapons in private, resident homes by the millions. Just to defend your home in case disaster strikes?
Thanks again, and keep up the good work! ;-)
Not that I am defending their traffic-shaping ways, but just to set the record straight.