For six years I lived at an apartment and never spent my pennies. Every time I came home I threw my change on a dresser or something. The silver would sometimes get picked up again, but not the pennies.
When I moved I lugged over $100 worth of pennies to Bank of Montreal. The guy I dealt with was more amused than upset. But I suspect his jokes were a way of covering his slight irritation. It took about a half hour to process.
Yes, actually, I do think that more than 1% of PCs run Linux. I have more evidence that they do than not. And this site's claim that Linux usage has doubled in the past year seems highly dubious to me. Why would that happen? What big event would have made twice as many people start using Linux all of a sudden? I'd say either that site wasn't counting correctly in the past, or they're not counting correctly now. Either way, I think their numbers are suspect.
It's true that the defendant's guilt or innocence involves a degree of certainty that has to be judged. The assertion that they are the one who committed a crime is something that might be true. But usually the fact that a crime did actually happen, regardless of who did it, is a 100% certainty.
"Your Honor, we the jury aren't sure if the plaintiff's widgets were stolen from his warehouse, or if the plaintiff ever even had a warehouse full of widgets in the first place. But if he did have them, and if they were stolen, we are sure the defendant is the one who stole them. So we find the defendant guilty"
What I wonder is, if she or her ISP had some kind of logger that magically recorded how much of what was uploaded and it was found that only, say, 3 songs had been uploaded to other people, would the fine still have been the same?
Did the guilty verdict and subsequent fine even require that some songs were uploaded? It seems like it, but the proof isn't there: The lawsuit, brought by the RIAA... claimed that Thomas distributed 1,702 digital audio files - many of them the plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings - from the KaZaA shared folder on her computer to potentially millions of other KaZaA users for free.
It's crazy to think that a trial can come to a decision and fine based on what could possibly have happened.
Heh, yeah. Maybe she could set up a business where she sells individual strands of her hair for $100/foot. If they can make up imaginary prices for their CDs surely she can name the price for her carefully grown hair. 2,200 hairs in an envelope and she's paid in full.
I read the article. It wasn't that interesting so I decided to rant about this saying instead.
The one that goes "If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn't". There are numerous examples of new developments that have come along in our lifetime that sounded to good to be true when they first came out. Just because you or I or some layman journalist can't get our heads around how something beneficial works doesn't make it "too good to be true". Flying machines, fireless light and free porn with just a few clicks on our keyboard were all once considered too good to be true.
Yeah but, to be fair, this is slashdot. Everything has an element of complaining. If I were just curious about grad school stats I'd ask in a grad forum. I'd only ask here if I wanted a bunch of cynical worst-case-scenario answers, some complaints about the American school system, and a side dish of thinly veiled racism/xenophobia.
Canadian and American coins have been of a similar size and colour for generations. In the 80's in Michigan they were pretty much interchangeable until the Canadian dollar's value dropped. Even vending machines and video games took Canadian coins back then.
Playing devil's advocate here: For a while, I believe, the average Canadian income in CDN has been "higher" than the average American income in USD. That is, the average Canadian income may be something like 40,000CDN while the average American income may be something like 30,000USD (I don't know the actual numbers but those sound vaguely familiar). When the loonie was low these would be more or less equal once the currency conversion is done. But now with the higher loonie, the average Canadian income really is higher.
So here's the point. Companies don't sell things at a fair price and strive to make prices equal to all people in all lands. They sell at the highest price they can. If goods cost more in Canada, that's just because Canadians make more and are willing to spend more. So it makes more sense to first look at the price of a car/computer/whatever as a percentage of the average income. If it's still higher, that just means the people there want it more.
I recently moved from Canada to the UK, and I'm starting to get sick of people here bitching about how much electronics cost compared to in America. Well, no shit they cost more here, you Brits make twice as much money as they do. Might as well complain about how rice in your country costs more than it does in some random 3rd world country.
I actually do believe all of what I just wrote. The reason why I calling it playing devil's advocate is that, despite what I just wrote, I too will be complaining if electronics and books still cost more in Canada by the time I move back there:)
This article sent me on a reading binge about all these different specs and ways to connect and yeah, it seems like eSATA would be the obvious choice. Maybe SATA is only for hard drives and not for things like flash sticks? I don't know.
I don't have a problem with him criticizing these issues and saying the average user shouldn't have to deal with him. He's right on that point. The problem I have is that he assumes that an average user who can't configure a few things and download some codecs can find the appropriate anti-virus software, configure it and keep their machine from becoming part of a virus supercomputer.
If he had just recommended OSX over Linux for average users I could have bought that, but we all know what happens to most Windows boxes in the hands of an average user. They turn into a malware infested piece of crap. And this is what he's recommending over Ubuntu.
It's not just a changing of a non-public API, it's encryption, which is much worse and much harder to get around. They're not just refusing to help other software interact with ipods (no public-API), they are actively hindering the effort. Reverse-engineering is what the Rockbox devs have to do with most players and it takes some time but is still do-able. But this encryption is probably similar to the encryption Apple did with the 2nd gen nano. Which is why there's still no Rockbox for that player. And why there will be no other apps to manage these new ipods for some time, if ever.
No, I suppose that doesn't break the rules of any OSI licence, but it sure as hell breaks the spirit. If using open source and occasionally submitting something as open source means embracing it, well hell, microsoft has done that too.
I bought the nano when it first came out, before the Rockbox devs knew that they wouldn't be able to port Rockbox to it. So no, the webpage didn't say the 2nd gen nano wasn't supported.
And the reason I bought it was because it was the cheapest 8gb I could get my hands on at the time. There was only one other 8gb flash player at the time (a Sandisk), but I couldn't get one in my location.
Sometimes, rarely actually, I get the disturbing feeling that the whole world, except for me, is crazy, stupid, or both. And it's a terrible feeling because even if I know that I'm not the crazy/stupid one, I know that everyone else will think I'm the one with the problems.
The fact that so many people seem to like iTunes gives me that feeling. Within 15 minutes of using that thing it made my top 5 list of aggravating software. And now it's supposed to be so good that Apple feels they can lock people into it and they won't mind? I just don't understand. I feel so alone. Thank god for you nerds around here.
But enough with the melodrama. Could it be (man, I hope so) that Apple just made a really stupid decision here? It's happened with bigger and better companies. Look at what Sony did with their mp3 players; forced their users to use their POS Sonicstage software for years until we all just stopped caring how sexy their players were. Maybe someone at Apple just went retarded or something.
And despite this, you'll still get told how good Apple is for open source in a few days in the next OSX vs Linux flame war.
Anyway, this just makes it easier to say no to them IMO. I was already pissed off enough that my 2nd gen Nano couldn't load Rockbox, but now this.
In TFA they make it clear they are going to try to get around this, and they probably will, but part of me just wants to say why bother? Fuck Apple. They don't want my money, good, they won't get it.
Well, I'm Canadian too, but I honestly can't think of how limiting campaign financing by corporations, trying to legalize marijuana, and legalizing gay marriages ever cost me money in taxes.
Well, I did make that up but... Isn't the puritanical streak what the northeast US is known for? And the rest of the US only to a slightly lesser extent? If the US is less puritanical than England, well that just shows how bad England is in that respect, I'd say.
Anyway, if there's anything I'm certain of, it's that a geek in Montreal can be debauched in ways that his American counterpart could only dream of. Of course, you still have to convince the geek to get out from behind the terminal and onto St. Catherines...
Even slashdotters, if they're Canadian (especially Quebecois), know what peelers are. With a drinking age of 18 and a lack of bullshit anglo-puritan anti-sex "values", even nerds here have some fun with the opposite sex.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly.
For six years I lived at an apartment and never spent my pennies. Every time I came home I threw my change on a dresser or something. The silver would sometimes get picked up again, but not the pennies.
When I moved I lugged over $100 worth of pennies to Bank of Montreal. The guy I dealt with was more amused than upset. But I suspect his jokes were a way of covering his slight irritation. It took about a half hour to process.
Just thought I'd share.
Yes, actually, I do think that more than 1% of PCs run Linux. I have more evidence that they do than not. And this site's claim that Linux usage has doubled in the past year seems highly dubious to me. Why would that happen? What big event would have made twice as many people start using Linux all of a sudden? I'd say either that site wasn't counting correctly in the past, or they're not counting correctly now. Either way, I think their numbers are suspect.
Also, there's this.
It's true that the defendant's guilt or innocence involves a degree of certainty that has to be judged. The assertion that they are the one who committed a crime is something that might be true. But usually the fact that a crime did actually happen, regardless of who did it, is a 100% certainty.
"Your Honor, we the jury aren't sure if the plaintiff's widgets were stolen from his warehouse, or if the plaintiff ever even had a warehouse full of widgets in the first place. But if he did have them, and if they were stolen, we are sure the defendant is the one who stole them. So we find the defendant guilty"
What I wonder is, if she or her ISP had some kind of logger that magically recorded how much of what was uploaded and it was found that only, say, 3 songs had been uploaded to other people, would the fine still have been the same?
Did the guilty verdict and subsequent fine even require that some songs were uploaded? It seems like it, but the proof isn't there:
The lawsuit, brought by the RIAA... claimed that Thomas distributed 1,702 digital audio files - many of them the plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings - from the KaZaA shared folder on her computer to potentially millions of other KaZaA users for free.
It's crazy to think that a trial can come to a decision and fine based on what could possibly have happened.
Heh, yeah. Maybe she could set up a business where she sells individual strands of her hair for $100/foot. If they can make up imaginary prices for their CDs surely she can name the price for her carefully grown hair. 2,200 hairs in an envelope and she's paid in full.
I read the article. It wasn't that interesting so I decided to rant about this saying instead.
The one that goes "If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn't". There are numerous examples of new developments that have come along in our lifetime that sounded to good to be true when they first came out. Just because you or I or some layman journalist can't get our heads around how something beneficial works doesn't make it "too good to be true". Flying machines, fireless light and free porn with just a few clicks on our keyboard were all once considered too good to be true.
Yeah but, to be fair, this is slashdot. Everything has an element of complaining. If I were just curious about grad school stats I'd ask in a grad forum. I'd only ask here if I wanted a bunch of cynical worst-case-scenario answers, some complaints about the American school system, and a side dish of thinly veiled racism/xenophobia.
The Aussie PC World has a current article about Red Hat's profits which are also up heavily since last year.
So maybe Novell and Red Hat's recent success is independent of the MS deal.
Administrator: How can we get these nerds to socialize better so that more girls will take CS?
Nerd: Well, you could maybe stop calling us nerds?
Administrator: Dweeb, wonk, spaz -- it's all good.
Canadian and American coins have been of a similar size and colour for generations. In the 80's in Michigan they were pretty much interchangeable until the Canadian dollar's value dropped. Even vending machines and video games took Canadian coins back then.
Playing devil's advocate here: For a while, I believe, the average Canadian income in CDN has been "higher" than the average American income in USD. That is, the average Canadian income may be something like 40,000CDN while the average American income may be something like 30,000USD (I don't know the actual numbers but those sound vaguely familiar). When the loonie was low these would be more or less equal once the currency conversion is done. But now with the higher loonie, the average Canadian income really is higher.
:)
So here's the point. Companies don't sell things at a fair price and strive to make prices equal to all people in all lands. They sell at the highest price they can. If goods cost more in Canada, that's just because Canadians make more and are willing to spend more. So it makes more sense to first look at the price of a car/computer/whatever as a percentage of the average income. If it's still higher, that just means the people there want it more.
I recently moved from Canada to the UK, and I'm starting to get sick of people here bitching about how much electronics cost compared to in America. Well, no shit they cost more here, you Brits make twice as much money as they do. Might as well complain about how rice in your country costs more than it does in some random 3rd world country.
I actually do believe all of what I just wrote. The reason why I calling it playing devil's advocate is that, despite what I just wrote, I too will be complaining if electronics and books still cost more in Canada by the time I move back there
This article sent me on a reading binge about all these different specs and ways to connect and yeah, it seems like eSATA would be the obvious choice. Maybe SATA is only for hard drives and not for things like flash sticks? I don't know.
I don't have a problem with him criticizing these issues and saying the average user shouldn't have to deal with him. He's right on that point. The problem I have is that he assumes that an average user who can't configure a few things and download some codecs can find the appropriate anti-virus software, configure it and keep their machine from becoming part of a virus supercomputer.
If he had just recommended OSX over Linux for average users I could have bought that, but we all know what happens to most Windows boxes in the hands of an average user. They turn into a malware infested piece of crap. And this is what he's recommending over Ubuntu.
The iPod, if not the best sounding music player,...
LOL
It's not just a changing of a non-public API, it's encryption, which is much worse and much harder to get around. They're not just refusing to help other software interact with ipods (no public-API), they are actively hindering the effort. Reverse-engineering is what the Rockbox devs have to do with most players and it takes some time but is still do-able. But this encryption is probably similar to the encryption Apple did with the 2nd gen nano. Which is why there's still no Rockbox for that player. And why there will be no other apps to manage these new ipods for some time, if ever.
No, I suppose that doesn't break the rules of any OSI licence, but it sure as hell breaks the spirit. If using open source and occasionally submitting something as open source means embracing it, well hell, microsoft has done that too.
I bought the nano when it first came out, before the Rockbox devs knew that they wouldn't be able to port Rockbox to it. So no, the webpage didn't say the 2nd gen nano wasn't supported.
And the reason I bought it was because it was the cheapest 8gb I could get my hands on at the time. There was only one other 8gb flash player at the time (a Sandisk), but I couldn't get one in my location.
Don't Fuck With Tux
Sometimes, rarely actually, I get the disturbing feeling that the whole world, except for me, is crazy, stupid, or both. And it's a terrible feeling because even if I know that I'm not the crazy/stupid one, I know that everyone else will think I'm the one with the problems.
The fact that so many people seem to like iTunes gives me that feeling. Within 15 minutes of using that thing it made my top 5 list of aggravating software. And now it's supposed to be so good that Apple feels they can lock people into it and they won't mind? I just don't understand. I feel so alone. Thank god for you nerds around here.
But enough with the melodrama. Could it be (man, I hope so) that Apple just made a really stupid decision here? It's happened with bigger and better companies. Look at what Sony did with their mp3 players; forced their users to use their POS Sonicstage software for years until we all just stopped caring how sexy their players were. Maybe someone at Apple just went retarded or something.
And despite this, you'll still get told how good Apple is for open source in a few days in the next OSX vs Linux flame war.
Anyway, this just makes it easier to say no to them IMO. I was already pissed off enough that my 2nd gen Nano couldn't load Rockbox, but now this.
In TFA they make it clear they are going to try to get around this, and they probably will, but part of me just wants to say why bother? Fuck Apple. They don't want my money, good, they won't get it.
Well, I'm Canadian too, but I honestly can't think of how limiting campaign financing by corporations, trying to legalize marijuana, and legalizing gay marriages ever cost me money in taxes.
Well, I did make that up but... Isn't the puritanical streak what the northeast US is known for? And the rest of the US only to a slightly lesser extent? If the US is less puritanical than England, well that just shows how bad England is in that respect, I'd say.
Anyway, if there's anything I'm certain of, it's that a geek in Montreal can be debauched in ways that his American counterpart could only dream of. Of course, you still have to convince the geek to get out from behind the terminal and onto St. Catherines...
Unless they're in the closet about it.
Even slashdotters, if they're Canadian (especially Quebecois), know what peelers are. With a drinking age of 18 and a lack of bullshit anglo-puritan anti-sex "values", even nerds here have some fun with the opposite sex.