Everybody has been saying that since he first appeared on the scene.
Is Tycho going to be the Ben Franklin of the internet where everything gets attributed to him?
So, basically, what they did was build a big sturdy door (UAC) and put the treasure (system settings) behind it. Normally you need magic keys (certificates) to enter the door. Then, they built a button that unlocks the door from the outside. Wow!
Nah.. it's the new Microsoft advertising slogan.. "Windows without walls"
Although it's not the best approach that could have been taken it is a good sign. If Microsoft can no longer ignore Firefox then all those sites that still require IE to function will begin to follow.
True.. now that IE only has about 70% of the usr base, they have to extend Firefox as well as IE. Something sounds vaguely familiar.
Not to mention the fact that if companies *did* start selling machines with their own flavors of Linux I'm sure they'd quickly spiral into garbage. Think of the crapware on budget PCs. Now imagine an entire OS bastardized, branded and sold to the highest bidder. I could see custom manufacturer Linux distros quickly becoming a total nightmare.
Well.. apart from the fact that unlike Windows, Linux is pretty much custom by design. A netbook Ubuntu is just a customised Ubuntu, a custom spin of Fedora can be done with tools that Fedora's makers provide free and clear. It doesn't have to be a Dell Linux, or a HP Linux where the OEM makes and supports the whole thing from the ground up. That I agree would be a bad idea, but a custom in the sense of branding and company colours etc, would be fine.
His ethics at throwing you under the bus, however, were not compromised. There is either somethign to this story you are neglecting to tell us or you were an abject retard. Got let yourself get expelled. At least you didn't claim he was your friend.
Were you home schooled by any chance?
I went to school in a small Irish town where everybody knew everybody else. No fear of serious violence, no gang culture beyond a bunch of friends hanging out together. So I would have been under no threat of serious retribution. I wouldn't have squealed either. No matter what the punishment. Nobody with two braincells would have. It would mean total and immediate misery for the rest of your school life, even if the other kid was a total dick head.
You found out who the guilty party was, and you settled it outside the influence of the teachers. Best case scenario, if it was a serious transgression, you got the other kid to own up by letting it be known that he did what he did, and he faced being ostracised by other kids if he didn't confess.
according to TFB, only her last-name was withheld. Maybe he decided to further obfuscate things, but if that's the case then he also lied about it.
And a good thing he lied too. Hopefully Karen was actually a male teacher to boot, so there is even less chance of their real identity coming out. Name changed to protect the ignorant/innocent party and Helios himself. Perfectly sensible and as shown by that girl who bought an Ubuntu Dell, very wise move.
"Karen" in the follow up story actually called Helios and they had a talk that cleared up some misconceptions on both sides. As is often the case, the story was not totally accurate at first. Had he used her real name, like the TV station used the Dell Ubuntu girl's real name, then the Ubuntu harpies would have torn her to bits too. Letters of complaint from self righteous gits to the school, her email and possibly even home address published on the net by some over enthusiastic tit, and general harassment that might even have caused him to face charges despite not being directly doing any harassment.
Teachers do need to be educated about computers in general, and open source in particular, but shrieking abuse at them is not going to do the job. Which definitely would have happened judging by the responses to the first blog entry.
Microsoft patched this and issued the fix through Windows Update a month before the worm was even in existence. It's only stupid fucks who don't update their OS that've got infected.
Ahh.. that's all right then.. So you are saying more than the thirty percent mentioned will be getting it..
If you only review one page a week, even taking into account an astronomical 1/2 of the people "working" on this as managers who do absolutely nothing, this should be cleared up well within the time frame that this has been going on.
So was Iraq at one time. And I seem to remember the US being in talks with the Taliban about a big oil pipeline going though their territory at one point Not to mention a few million in aid grants that America gave them for reducing the number of opium farmers. And wasn't Ho Chi Min fighting on the American side during WWII against Japan? Funny how you guys tend to change allies from time to time.
Here's the whole "Linux problem" in a nutshell. We've got a professional in marketing who's offering his services - and he gets insulted by an FOSS zealot because he's apparently not pure enough.
Or...
Advertising person makes a joke, and draws attention to the joke in the next paragraph, FOSS user gets, appreciates and plays along with joke, and the whooshing sound you hear is said joke going over your head..
I agree there is a point in here, if you google any howto for Ubuntu, most of them start with "open terminal and type..."
Newb reads that and says: "terminal?, wtf is that?"
The program called "Terminal" that pops up a description when you mouse over it. OR don't noobs wander around the menus seeing what has been installed anymore?
And sadly, the important words are "Late lamented". Not each and every single review source is crooked, but there are enough to not trust them any more. It's a sad reflection on the good reviewers who do the job properly, but the various marketing departments have way too much power and not enough scruples.
A review site or magazine has to have advertising to pay for everything from bandwidth to staff wages. They have to have review samples of products to review, so they have to keep the manufacturers happy by giving good or at least neutral reviews.
A lone blogger might be able to be honest, but for every one who is, there are dozens who are paid to write good reviews. Remember the incident just before Vista coming out? where several bloggers got top of the range laptops with copies of Vista to use for reviews, and no specific instructions as to what to do with them? Why did Microsoft not get crucified for pulling a stunt like that?
Even forums are not to be fully trusted. How many times has there been a discussion about Vista, and someone has posted how wonderful it is on hardware that is below the spec of the Vista capable computers that actually spawned a class action? Or Apple stories where a bunch of the faithful have screamed down anybody who dares to be critical of the precious? Apple is the only manufacturer who has volunteer astroturfers.
And games are even worse. I can understand why. They have a huge development cost in relation to a short shelf life, so the publishers need to get them out as quickly as possible. They have to either be controversial like GTA and others, or get good reviews.
I'd love to be able to trust reviews, and it saddens me that so many are corrupted or coerced into writing what is basically PR copy. I know there are some that do give honest accounts of what they are testing, but it is getting increasingly hard to find them.
This bribery needs to be stopped in its tracks. It can get to the point at which all magazines and on line materials can be worthless as one never knows who gets paid to lie. I would expect that Belken will lose many thousands of sales due to this article. It sure makes me not wanting anything to do with their products.
CAN?? It has been so for decades!
I remember buying a game creation app from a game company in the early nineties which had a three page review in a magazine. Plenty of features that the reviewer raved about were not even in the app.
Any website/magazine that has advertising or sponsorship paying the bills can and will give favourable reviews. Even feedback on sites like Amazon and forum posts are suspect, as there is quite a bit of astroturfing going on. I doubt Belkin or any of the other companies doing this will lose any sleep over a/. article though. Even though we are their customers, there are still plenty of people who will never see this site or any similar sites, and never hear of it. And if we boycotted each and every offender, there would be nobody left to buy from.
That's all nice in the western world, but the whole "blame the parents" system fails miserably in less-fortunate (read: terminally fucked) regions of the world where the parents come from a long line of ethically bankrupt generations, largely the product of their dysfunctional war-mongering governments. How can you teach a child the "right way", when you've never known it yourself ?
Oy!!.. The article is referring to the UK. If anything we are only slightly fucked. And we have identified and isolated most of the ethically bankrupt members of society, and put them all in a controlled environment. The houses of parliament.
Campbell Soup is usually quite good and can be used with other foodstuffs to make a wide variety of tasty dishes.
When times get hard, people who spent discretionary income on boutique munchies can fall back on Campbell products and still enjoy the result.
If I hit the lottery I'd still buy their stuff, and of course Kraft mac'n'cheese. Paying more for chow does not make it taste better.
Or alternatively, learn how to cook, and make things even cheaper from raw ingredients. Radical I know, but worth it.
Aww.. English ISPs are nowhere near as entertaining.
Last time I called mine with a problem, when it came to the OS bit, being a Linux user allowed me to cut the usual support script nonsense and go straight to the ordering of the line check. They were even quite happy I was using my own router.
So all OS's operate the same now? No significant difference at all? Come on man, you know that just isn't true. There are some serious similarities, but you are kidding yourself if you don't think there is a learning curve.
What level of use are you referring to? Because that is a very important aspect, and very easy to twist to support either point of view if not defined.
For this discussion, we are referring to the basic level of knowledge that someone should have to operate a computer properly. So not maintenance, not servicing, not configuration, but using the computer as a means to an end. Anything outside basic everyday use is irrelevant for the purpose of this conversation. Because, if we are being honest, the aim is to create office workers, not sys admins or tech workers at school level. So when you confine computer use to everyday office tasks, my point is valid.
unless your into digital media, then its basically mandatory...
And if you are into making hand crafted woodcuts, it's entirely optional. If you narrow the specification enough, you can support just about any premise.
Slashdot Mirror
Everybody has been saying that since he first appeared on the scene. Is Tycho going to be the Ben Franklin of the internet where everything gets attributed to him?
Oh.. cool.. That's just what Tycho said?
So, basically, what they did was build a big sturdy door (UAC) and put the treasure (system settings) behind it. Normally you need magic keys (certificates) to enter the door. Then, they built a button that unlocks the door from the outside. Wow!
Nah.. it's the new Microsoft advertising slogan.. "Windows without walls"
Although it's not the best approach that could have been taken it is a good sign. If Microsoft can no longer ignore Firefox then all those sites that still require IE to function will begin to follow.
True.. now that IE only has about 70% of the usr base, they have to extend Firefox as well as IE. Something sounds vaguely familiar.
Then why do I keep finding more whenever I open my garage door? Although they don't tend to be very healthy.
Because you have a very very naughty car.
Yes, but if you buy it at a bookstore the checkout clerk will be able to judge you for your terrible taste.
Only a problem for those insecure enough to care.
Where on earth would people get such crazy ideas?
From defensive Windows users who tried Linux for a weekend a few years ago, and got scared when it wasn't a direct drop in replacement.
Not to mention the fact that if companies *did* start selling machines with their own flavors of Linux I'm sure they'd quickly spiral into garbage. Think of the crapware on budget PCs. Now imagine an entire OS bastardized, branded and sold to the highest bidder. I could see custom manufacturer Linux distros quickly becoming a total nightmare.
Well.. apart from the fact that unlike Windows, Linux is pretty much custom by design. A netbook Ubuntu is just a customised Ubuntu, a custom spin of Fedora can be done with tools that Fedora's makers provide free and clear. It doesn't have to be a Dell Linux, or a HP Linux where the OEM makes and supports the whole thing from the ground up. That I agree would be a bad idea, but a custom in the sense of branding and company colours etc, would be fine.
His ethics at throwing you under the bus, however, were not compromised. There is either somethign to this story you are neglecting to tell us or you were an abject retard. Got let yourself get expelled. At least you didn't claim he was your friend.
Were you home schooled by any chance?
I went to school in a small Irish town where everybody knew everybody else. No fear of serious violence, no gang culture beyond a bunch of friends hanging out together. So I would have been under no threat of serious retribution. I wouldn't have squealed either. No matter what the punishment. Nobody with two braincells would have. It would mean total and immediate misery for the rest of your school life, even if the other kid was a total dick
head.
You found out who the guilty party was, and you settled it outside the influence of the teachers. Best case scenario, if it was a serious transgression, you got the other kid to own up by letting it be known that he did what he did, and he faced being ostracised by other kids if he didn't confess.
according to TFB, only her last-name was withheld. Maybe he decided to further obfuscate things, but if that's the case then he also lied about it.
And a good thing he lied too. Hopefully Karen was actually a male teacher to boot, so there is even less chance of their real identity coming out. Name changed to protect the ignorant/innocent party and Helios himself. Perfectly sensible and as shown by that girl who bought an Ubuntu Dell, very wise move. "Karen" in the follow up story actually called Helios and they had a talk that cleared up some misconceptions on both sides. As is often the case, the story was not totally accurate at first. Had he used her real name, like the TV station used the Dell Ubuntu girl's real name, then the Ubuntu harpies would have torn her to bits too. Letters of complaint from self righteous gits to the school, her email and possibly even home address published on the net by some over enthusiastic tit, and general harassment that might even have caused him to face charges despite not being directly doing any harassment. Teachers do need to be educated about computers in general, and open source in particular, but shrieking abuse at them is not going to do the job. Which definitely would have happened judging by the responses to the first blog entry.
Then why are they using a Mac?
Cost the coffee spills wipe off the glossy screens easier.
The whole "Embrace, Extend and Extinguish" thing is sure taking a lot longer these days...
Shh.... We don't want them finding out that the "extend" bit only works when you can keep all your code secret.
But whose browser goes at the top of the list of the package manager?
Which browser on the list do you think your average Joe will pick?
Randomise it. Then a different browser would be on top every time.
Microsoft patched this and issued the fix through Windows Update a month before the worm was even in existence. It's only stupid fucks who don't update their OS that've got infected.
Ahh.. that's all right then.. So you are saying more than the thirty percent mentioned will be getting it..
If you only review one page a week, even taking into account an astronomical 1/2 of the people "working" on this as managers who do absolutely nothing, this should be cleared up well within the time frame that this has been going on.
They keep having to try to get rid of clippy.
But but their our allies...we can trust them.
So was Iraq at one time. And I seem to remember the US being in talks with the Taliban about a big oil pipeline going though their territory at one point Not to mention a few million in aid grants that America gave them for reducing the number of opium farmers. And wasn't Ho Chi Min fighting on the American side during WWII against Japan? Funny how you guys tend to change allies from time to time.
Here's the whole "Linux problem" in a nutshell. We've got a professional in marketing who's offering his services - and he gets insulted by an FOSS zealot because he's apparently not pure enough.
Or...
Advertising person makes a joke, and draws attention to the joke in the next paragraph, FOSS user gets, appreciates and plays along with joke, and the whooshing sound you hear is said joke going over your head..
I agree there is a point in here, if you google any howto for Ubuntu, most of them start with "open terminal and type ..."
Newb reads that and says: "terminal?, wtf is that?"
The program called "Terminal" that pops up a description when you mouse over it. OR don't noobs wander around the menus seeing what has been installed anymore?
And sadly, the important words are "Late lamented". Not each and every single review source is crooked, but there are enough to not trust them any more. It's a sad reflection on the good reviewers who do the job properly, but the various marketing departments have way too much power and not enough scruples.
A review site or magazine has to have advertising to pay for everything from bandwidth to staff wages. They have to have review samples of products to review, so they have to keep the manufacturers happy by giving good or at least neutral reviews.
A lone blogger might be able to be honest, but for every one who is, there are dozens who are paid to write good reviews. Remember the incident just before Vista coming out? where several bloggers got top of the range laptops with copies of Vista to use for reviews, and no specific instructions as to what to do with them? Why did Microsoft not get crucified for pulling a stunt like that?
Even forums are not to be fully trusted. How many times has there been a discussion about Vista, and someone has posted how wonderful it is on hardware that is below the spec of the Vista capable computers that actually spawned a class action? Or Apple stories where a bunch of the faithful have screamed down anybody who dares to be critical of the precious? Apple is the only manufacturer who has volunteer astroturfers.
And games are even worse. I can understand why. They have a huge development cost in relation to a short shelf life, so the publishers need to get them out as quickly as possible. They have to either be controversial like GTA and others, or get good reviews.
I'd love to be able to trust reviews, and it saddens me that so many are corrupted or coerced into writing what is basically PR copy. I know there are some that do give honest accounts of what they are testing, but it is getting increasingly hard to find them.
This bribery needs to be stopped in its tracks. It can get to the point at which all magazines and on line materials can be worthless as one never knows who gets paid to lie. I would expect that Belken will lose many thousands of sales due to this article. It sure makes me not wanting anything to do with their products.
CAN?? It has been so for decades!
I remember buying a game creation app from a game company in the early nineties which had a three page review in a magazine. Plenty of features that the reviewer raved about were not even in the app.
Any website/magazine that has advertising or sponsorship paying the bills can and will give favourable reviews. Even feedback on sites like Amazon and forum posts are suspect, as there is quite a bit of astroturfing going on. I doubt Belkin or any of the other companies doing this will lose any sleep over a /. article though. Even though we are their customers, there are still plenty of people who will never see this site or any similar sites, and never hear of it. And if we boycotted each and every offender, there would be nobody left to buy from.
That's all nice in the western world, but the whole "blame the parents" system fails miserably in less-fortunate (read: terminally fucked) regions of the world where the parents come from a long line of ethically bankrupt generations, largely the product of their dysfunctional war-mongering governments. How can you teach a child the "right way", when you've never known it yourself ?
Oy!!.. The article is referring to the UK. If anything we are only slightly fucked. And we have identified and isolated most of the ethically bankrupt members of society, and put them all in a controlled environment. The houses of parliament.
Campbell Soup is usually quite good and can be used with other foodstuffs to make a wide variety of tasty dishes. When times get hard, people who spent discretionary income on boutique munchies can fall back on Campbell products and still enjoy the result. If I hit the lottery I'd still buy their stuff, and of course Kraft mac'n'cheese. Paying more for chow does not make it taste better.
Or alternatively, learn how to cook, and make things even cheaper from raw ingredients. Radical I know, but worth it.
Aww.. English ISPs are nowhere near as entertaining. Last time I called mine with a problem, when it came to the OS bit, being a Linux user allowed me to cut the usual support script nonsense and go straight to the ordering of the line check. They were even quite happy I was using my own router.
So all OS's operate the same now? No significant difference at all? Come on man, you know that just isn't true. There are some serious similarities, but you are kidding yourself if you don't think there is a learning curve.
What level of use are you referring to? Because that is a very important aspect, and very easy to twist to support either point of view if not defined.
For this discussion, we are referring to the basic level of knowledge that someone should have to operate a computer properly. So not maintenance, not servicing, not configuration, but using the computer as a means to an end. Anything outside basic everyday use is irrelevant for the purpose of this conversation. Because, if we are being honest, the aim is to create office workers, not sys admins or tech workers at school level. So when you confine computer use to everyday office tasks, my point is valid.
That's the crux of the matter here.
The relevant computing skills can be taught with Apple II's.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Teach someone Office, and they learn Office. Teach them word processing, and they can learn any word processor.
unless your into digital media, then its basically mandatory...
And if you are into making hand crafted woodcuts, it's entirely optional. If you narrow the specification enough, you can support just about any premise.