Hmm.. I could be wrong as well then. However, the reason why I brought it up was because a friend of mine who's had problems up the whazoo with computer hardware in general makes it his hobby to look up the designs or specifications and to his knowledge, yes, it is the same chipset and it is hooked to a PCI bus.
However, the difference is with the fact that on the motherboard, the circuit traces are shared with the other components on the board and in some cases, say UDMA, the interrupt signals are shared to conserve extra traces and interference with other component systems. So while the chipset may be the same, the implementation of the device controller is different and this causes problems. Not so much with the CPU, but rather, with itself.
In such a case, I'd rather just disable the onboard and go with a dedicated card with its own processor/brain so that it can work more efficiently.
But I admit that I might be off on this one.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Oops. ^_^; I actually had the answer to this and forgot to put it in with my post.
When testing the Iomega Buzz card for capturing a/v to my computer, I had been using a DVD player playing the most horribly encoded/macro-protected DVD I had ever seen. (Make that worst of DVD and VHS). It was I think the Batman movie where batgirl is introduced into the picture. Very very extreme dark and light transitions.
Anyways, the Buzz card recorded the data without the protection problems and the video was saved, in part, to the hard drive clear as day. This was an interesting revelation. However, whether or not the card has remained protection free since when I bought it about a year ago, is something of an issue.
As for turning the protection off, I could be mistaken, but I was under the impression that the macro-vision protection scheme, for dvds at least, was something which is added during the playback process. Ie, the player can choose not to do any fiddling with the signal. Just as the player can choose to ignore the zone encoding, if so convinced.
However, never found a way to do it with mine and didn't feel like bringing it to a "shop" and have the machine "repaired". I'd much prefer to visit a store like Hollytron or Superco to get my special player needs. They are both large consumer electronic stores with some imports which are universal in nature. There are other shops, which can probably be assumed that many people on this site already know about.:) Most are small little stores.
Once again, my post has been somewhat vague, but hope it has been of help. ^_^
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Getting the computer to record hi quality video is something I'm trying to setup as my collection of aging tapes of old shows deserves better than just being sent into the ethers as magnetic static.
The Iomega Buzz video card is nice, but it has conflicts with the video card I am using with it.(ATI pc to tv 3d pro)[very old card]. However, on the systems where I'm using a RivaTNT, it works fine. The problems I've had with this is that it tends to not work well with my hard drive setups be it scsi or udma. I keep getting dropped frames and other annoying problems.
I've also had the enjoyment of trying one of those WinTV cards by Haupauge. Rather nice and it worked on my Linux box fairly well, but flaked out on the Win98 box. Go figure.:) But getting it to capture 30fps + stereo 16bit sound on Linux was not quite possible. ^_^;; A friend suggested I do more tweaking, but the max resolution on that card wasn't enough for me. (3??x2??)
Which brings me to the current card I've pre-ordered and am waiting for. The All-In-Wonder 128GL(AGP) 16mb card. Figuring that it is an integrated card, there should be much fewer hassles and problems than I experienced with the other two. Plus, this card can both input and output, which is a godsend. Plus I can also use it for games.;)
But I don't know how well that card will perform, so it is a "wait and see" situation.
On the whole, the capturing of video will depend heavily on several factors, most of which you're probably aware of:
CPU Power: The CPU power is usually not too important, but with the All-In-Wonder 128GL, there is the option of real-time mpeg2 compression of the video. This happens to be cpu intensive and in my case, one of those Athlons looks like a real contender.;) Mpeg2 benefits you by providing a good deal of compression to save you drive space at the cost of some image quality.
Capture Card and Graphics Card (Power/Compat): The capture card will determine what is the maximum quality your recordings will ever have. Whether the capture card is compatible with your video card is another issue as it can cause intermittent errors or unexpected slow-downs or visual artifacts. One reason why I am choosing the ATI card.
Sound Card performance: Go for a good solid PCI sound card. However, as you are looking for the various sound format compatibility, you're probably better off checking with one of those studio sound cards or with TurtleBeach soundcards. They make some nice cards, however, I'm not sure if they support those extra sound formats.
Hard drive performance: This probably goes without saying, but something along the lines of at least 7MB/s sustained througput is a must. Though when I was using the Buzz, the amount of data moving was in the ballpark of 6-8MB/s, so the better the drives, the smoother the recording. AV or professional studio hard drives will go a long ways to keep the hiccups to a minimum. There is also the issue of UDMA vs SCSI. I'm not going to get into that. But if you plan on doing real-time compression of the video stream and want to go UDMA, avoid using the on-board chipset that comes with the motherboard and just get an expansion card. Anything which takes some load off the CPU is good. With SCSI, most controllers are off the board, so the main factor would be getting a rock solid card with good drivers.
But overall, for those special sound formats, it may be helpful to contact one of the studio quality sound card manufacturers and inquiring.
Sorry for the rambling, but hope it was informative to someone out there. ^_^;;
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Interesting that they chose leeches... don't they have regenerative abilities which other "higher order" animals lack?
Leeches, planarians, earthworms.. if they have the abilitity to regenerate, it might explain why the scientists chose leeches. Better ability to hold together and meld to form a cohesive computing unit.
Just a guess.:p
Though there are some odd ways of interpreting this. One being that the machine could in theory then meld with other machines of the same type, resulting in a possibly unpredictable end product and possible sentience... nah.
Still, can't wait to see where this is going to end up say 5-10 years from now.
Hey! Look! My computer still works if I slice and dice it and mush it back together again. And not a single file lost! It just regenerates...
Bad for tax evasion and shady deal folks though. Those files just keep coming back.;)
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
When I first heard about the Dreamcast, I flinched. It had been made and was distributed before Sony even announced the existence or confirmed the suspicions of the existence of a PSX2. So I resigned myself to buy a dreamcast.
But guess what? After seeing the screenshots, the games being played, and playing the games for myself on a dreamcast, I was horribly dissapointed. THIS was a next generation unit from Sega?? I mean.. come on.. nice polygons and all, but hardly worth $499 when it was released in Japan. I think the only reason why it will sell here in the States for $199 is a marketing ploy just to gain as much marketshare as possible before PSX2 appears on the scenes in Japan(and via import, in the States as well).
I don't think Sega is lowering the price for the benefit of their customers. They are probably doing it for the same reasons why a store lowers prices. Becaue they are worried that PSX2 WILL bury them. That they won't have enough software developers to write good games. That no one will buy their unit when compared to the PSX2.
But who knows, right?
I for one am waiting for the PSX2. I mean.. look at the N64. Another unit I've had the fine pleasure of playing, though also to my disappointment. While the graphics have definitely improved from the SNES, it is hardly fast. It is so slow! And it's polygon ratings are still below that of a PSX1. When it came out, people were wondering why they should wait for something from SEGA or SONY that wasn't real yet.
Well, more than anything, I think waiting is probably the best bet, unless you need to have the latest greatest unit of every moment, that is.
Just like how the Dreamcast is turning N64 into a bad memory and sending Nintendo to pick up the pace on a next generation unit, I think PSX2 will do the same to Sega's Dreamcast. Though probably not as severe, but still bad enough.
Backwards compatibility, btw, will make the PSX2 more atractive to buyers who don't want to feel like they will be losing all their old games. And the PSX2 suffers no slowdowns because of this backwards compatibility simply because the PSX1's compatibility is handled by an I/O chip which is basically a PSX1. Backwards compatibility at no cost to peak performance.
As for developers wanting to stick with PSX1 level code, I think that they would consider thinking about their future in the industry. Their products, games, are how people can see what great works they can do. And if they can create a masterpiece which will blow away the audience with great sound and graphics, they'd be fools not to make use of the better tools.
Look at the PC. Game companies are hardly writing games for a 8088/386/486 audience. They are writing for a P5/PII/PIII/K6-2+ audience. People who will be spending the money for an accelerator and a good sound card.
I think the same will follow suit with Sony's developers. I mean.. why make games that suck? That will just worsen their own image and let another game company get ahead of them. - Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
This is truly and utterly hopeless. Someone goes out and writes a piece of software which takes advantage of a bug in a system put in place by MS. MS has been warned of this. Users have been warned of this. But nothing, if anything, has been done.
People. *points to the cities* The people out there don't give a fuck. People are killed everyday and the news counts it off as a daily occurance. Accidents kill people. Drunk drivers kill people. Tobacco kills people. And yet nothing substantial is done. Why?
Why is the government so willing to step on peoples' rights to "bring the evil-doer to justice" when it comes to computer crimes but is so god-damned apathetic when it comes to drugs, rapes, murders, and theft?
It is ridiculus.
I don't think it's _just_ MS's fault or _just_ the end-users' fault, or _just_ the programmer of the virus's fault. It is everyone's fault. For being apathetic to problems. For running companies and BLINDLY trusting a company even when they know better. For writing programs with known bugs and not taking the time to go back and fix it. For accepting these problems as "normal".
THESE PROBLEMS ARE NOT FUCKING NORMAL!
My god.. if a car you bought broke down every day, you'd be pissed as hell, but you accept the fucking fact that when your computer crashes, that it's just life. That is plain stupid. ANYONE who goes through life just accepting that has something wrong with them. Either it was forced upon them or it was something they came to accept, but they should seriously consider looking over their lives again. Because there IS something wrong when our society has such a screwed up system where punishment and action no longer coincides with the actual threat.
Someone else posted that there is a real underlying threat. That this one macro virus which _can_ be discovered, was. But what about those which can't be discovered?
We have a REAL problem. And all the authorities can think of doing is either covering it up, getting rid of the people who are trying to do it, or profiting off of it. Whatever happened to fixing the problem?
Solve the fundamental problem. A simple directive. But no one seems to want to do it. Complaining about costs and corporate image and all that crap. Here's some news: Someone being able to get into the corporate computers is pretty freaking bad for the corporate image.
People are worrying about another world war with the current bombing situation. I think people should be more worried about an internal war in America with information.
Just my two cents.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Interesting article. Just the kind that kinda makes me wish I was doing research work. Oh well, need more money first.:)
But this "eye", with its peripheral sense and high definition central vision, would seem to make a good auto-targetting weapon system. You know, like the type normally seen in sci-fi films?
But thanks to the on-chip processing and because it behaves very much like an organic eye element, it would be much faster. The mobile gun could easily make out motion and determine the expected path of the target and aim/fire appropriately. Would make for more deadly sentries.
A more positive use of this would be perhaps for remote vision applications? While it is hardly an eye-replacement, it can serve to be a much better "camera" replacement. Especially if one is using it for flight AI purposes. By being able to determine relative motion and figure out what objects are doing around it, it can make for much higher accuracey self-navigated crafts. (Airlines, remote data gathering drones, etc..)
Of course, I think a cool use would be for use in AI automatons.. a spider-like robot with object detection/reaction built into the optics.. it would behave more realistically since it can sense when something is approaching it and much more quickly. (I doubt this will lead to killer robots though.. they are only as deadly as we make it.. but then again, guess the argument can be that since we are basically copying nature in silicon, we really don't know exactly what it will do past a certain level of complexity, huh?)
But cool.. just wonder when fully self-adaptive neural proccessor technology will mature. But it just might be that like this eye element, there is a much simpler path which won't seem intelligent at first. Who knows, right?
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
There is a message, but one has to wonder whether or not that anger is also part of the message as well.
For everything and everyone, their time will come at some point, but one can't help but wonder whether or not Linux's penetration into the more general populace is moving more quickly than people can adopt to it. One might wonder whether or not it would really matter.
But the frustration the article radiates seems to echo what others are feeling when dealig with something like Linux which is so different from their previous OS. In most cases, this would be Windows.
But the ironic bit is the tone the writer had towards learning. Combined with the lack of thought and re-reading before posting, I think it conveys a sadder message, one which has little to do with Linux itself, but more with the current attitude that seems to pervade many people.
The attitude of, "Why should I have to learn this? Shouldn't it be done for me? What a bother.".
Dealing with that anger and that attitude might help that guy alot in the long run.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Yeah, painful events in life are often times deterrents. It _might_ deter some rapists, but for those who have already committed rape and are castrated, there is no guarantee that it will prevent them from raping again. I guess some nice punishments for a rapist could be: - You commit rape, your right hand will be blown off via shotgun and then cauterized by red hot steel. - You repeat offense, you will have your left hand ground off and partially cauterized with red hot metal and finished off with salt. (Grinding is achieved via a belt sander applied in no less than 100 applications.) - You repeat offense yet again, you will then be treated to honey and red ants in the privates region until castration, death, or 8 hours. Whichever is longer or results in death. I'm pretty sure the above punishments should deter crimes in most any cases once word gets around. - Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
It's great if that's what you intend. You write code, you place it under the GPL license believing and knowing that you are giving it over to the FSF under the GPL. So long as it is understood as such, I've personally no problems with it.
BUT, and a big but here. But, if someone writes code and GPL's it believing that they are giving it to the world, but was not under the impression that it meant their code will be placed under the banner of FSF, then that is a problem. Yes, they should read the GPL.
I'm not saying that everyone is mistaken. You are obviously not. If that is your intention, then that is great. But for the time being, my intention is not to give code over to the FSF. Just as it is not my intention to give code over to a large corporation.
Thanks for listening,
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
First off, I seriously hope that Kira will be able to recover from her ordeal and be able to live her life fully.
I'm male and throughout high school, I never really understood Rape. I mean, I had gone for years believing that it was nothing more than someone who was sexually out of control. And I never understood why my female friends either avoided the subject like a I was screaming and dying from ebola or why they got extremely upset.
But luckily, I had a good many friends who took the time to explain a few things to me. For that, I am grateful.
It isn't the sex, it is the power and control. Power.. control. To control and manipulate another human being, to be able to use them as one pleased. To unleash the full of one's darker side onto another human being.
Why would people want to do that to another person? Why would ANYONE want to do that to another person? Why would you, do that?
I think alot of people avoid that line of thought. The consideration that they might have that kind of personality within themselves.
I mean.. your "basic rapist" is like anyone else. Nevermind the internet. But he or she can be anyone.. your next door neighbor, the teacher at your school, your old friend of years and years, parents, and even children.
What made them step over that line and continue doing what so many people consider to be so horribly bad?
I personally don't have an answer to that. And I don't think many people do either.
To the persons who think murder is worse than rape, I beg to disagree. I think Rape is worse. Rape has all the characteristics of murder, but the victom often survives at a cost. The friends and family are affect like in a murder, but must not only deal with their grief, but that of the victom's. A long path to healing takes place, one where the victom must work through the questions I asked above. The Why? Was it something I did? Why would someone do this to me? Why? Why?
I think it is very true though, when women say that men don't understand. Alot of men don't understand. Many do, but there are still so many who don't. And to be truthful, I don't feel that even understanding really stops rape. Rape happens because an individual, a human being, decided that they will do this for their own personal reasons. They are convinced in their mind that the person who will be the victom deserves what they will be getting.
I don't know.. the net isn't the problem, it has only dredged up into the open what has always been a problem. People will disagree, but that is their choice.
As for castration, castration does no good. Hormone treatment does no good. Rape IS about CONTROL and POWER. Just because you remove one tool, doesn't mean a person can't commit rape. Rape. To take from another human being what they have refused, what society has refused the rapist. No, removing an organ or dampening the effects of a hormone does little good.
A person can rape as effectively with their hand, a broom stick, a candle, a bottle, rope, whipes, whatever. Just as equally effective as with their own organs.
On the topic of men being raped by woman, another topic which my friends were kind enough to share their thoughts on. Because rape IS about control, it doesn't matter what gender the rapist is. Male, female, neutor, old or young. The point is to have power and control over another.
For a man, to be used and had in any way his captor would have him, it is in every way as demeaning, humiliating, and traumatising as it is for a woman. No more, no less. With one difference.
The support structure and the mental association is there for women. But for men, it is something which either is rare, or not available. There is no sanctuary for men.
And I highly doubt that traumatized women would enjoy sharing the facilities with traumatized men.
Maybe I'm in the wrong when I think that rapists should probably be dragged into the streets and shot. The media would like that. Sensationalism and a message to other would be rapists.
But that would be inhumane. I just wish the rapist had wondered whether it would be humane to rape his or her victom.
My two cents.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Was just thinking.. GPL'd code is basically open code, yes? Then by that token, code that is freely released would say.. contain the credits and names of authors and what they contributed in the various notes files and source code files?
Isn't credit being giving where it is due? In the source code? The past is not lost, but preserved with every copy of every utility being used and installed. What more can one ask than one's name and credit in every copy of source code?
A thousand names in a thousand places and yet, the one which everyone fights over is the title.
If we were talking about something Microsoft made, I'd agree, that maybe more effort should be made to determine where credit is due.
But with Linux and with the GNU portions of the distributions, and a variety of components from various developer groups, isn't enough credit given where it is due? In the code?
I still think RMS could benefit greatly from perhaps a more gentler approach to spreading his beliefs, but then again, every one has their own way of doing things. The fruits of his work are continually rippening and spreading. The GPL license is spread far and wide.
And yet, there is the complaint of not enough visibility, of no credit where credit is due.
What one calls their OS hardly depreciates any value from the beliefs behind it.. except perhaps in the case of MS Linux.. that would just plain suck.
All this fighting over a title and credit, I think, is pretty petty. And the two major persons who shines above it all because they are doing what they do best, coding and working with people to continue improving code, would be Alan Cox and Linus Torvalds.
I don't mention their names because I worship them. I pretty much don't worship anyone. No one deserves worship. But people do deserve respect.
I call my box a Linux box. I refer to the OS by the term Linux. When referring to distributions, I refer to them by the groups who put them out. Redhat, Debian, Caldera, Slackware, etc. I don't use the GNU portion of the name because it is already a given that GNU is there. The presence of GNU/FSF code in most distributions cannot be denied. But the works of so many others who have contributed work can't be denied either. That while they have GPL'd their code doesn't make their work a part of the GNU project. I am sure that at least a few people did not expect an organization to take credit for their work when they GPL'd their code.
I mean.. when John Doe writes code XYZ and GPL'd it, I'm sure he didn't mean to say, "I give this code to the GNU and FSF folks."
Because if that's what GPL means, then maybe it might be time to look for another licensing agreement.
Just my two cents.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Hey Anonymous Coward, First off, most, if not all, of my friends who are still in college paid their own way by working. Not sure about you, but some of us here in the real world do actually get off our asses and work for our education. Second, economics is only the model which people work with in hopes of understanding the complex dynamics that exists in the market due to peoples' interest in a product or desire to sell a product. It in NO way determines whether something will continue to exist or not. For instance, MP3 is a nearly worthless technology to the Labels because most of their existing equipment and business models are not well suited to it. Actually, MP3 is almost like a pestilence to the Labels. For us, the consumers, however, it is a boon. We can listen to high quality music in a stable format which won't degrade in quality and will easily play on our hardware(PC's/Mac's/Sparc/etc). But yes, Economics plays an important role.. but its role is below that of the interest and efforts of the consumers. And right now, the pool of consumers for the MP3 market is strong. One may even say it is Legion upon Legion. Having worked at several jobs, my own realization has been that economics isn't king. When one get's right down to it, PEOPLE are. Desire drives the market. Money is only the medium. But hey, if they come out with a more powerful audio format with better quality, smaller size, and no encryption techniques, self-correction/error checking would be nice though.;) In case memory get's "scratched". - Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Don't know about you, but when the authorities are on you, you cooperate. Period. I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but people do get busted for something as "stupid" as ignoring a police officer. Guess it must depend on the mood of the officer.
On the topic of "probable cause", the officer's probable cause is what he or she believes may have been a crime committed recently or if there is the posibility of a crime being committed. If they think you robbed a store, they'll question you. If they think you're resisting them, prepare for a bad day.
And yes, it DOES suck that "hacker" has been poisoned by the media, by that stupid movie, and by people who don't understand. But it IS poisoned. And if for those who want to go out there and fight the mob effect, go right ahead. Chances are, you're better off looking for a new banner to ride under in the public eye.
Just because you think you have rights, doesn't mean you will always have access to them. Your right to freedom, to live, to life. It can all be taken away as easily as someone getting shot. Mistaken. Stabbed in the back. Or just thanks to ill-meant clerical errors.
Yeah, people have rights. But unless you believe 100% that whomever it is who's denying you your rights will respect you, be they cops, thugs, or the media, you will be up for a fight.
If you're the kind of person who fights for their beliefs and rights, my hat goes off to you. That is by far a much braver thing than I can afford to do.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Sony is a big company and they realise what they are getting into.
From the Next Generation article, it appears that Linux's involvement at this point is for a development platform. Whether or not it is used as the OS for the PSX is another matter completely.
At most, if Sony does make use of Linux and adheres to the GPL, they would only need to release the source code for the subsystems that they modified. If they make use of the Linux OS and use it as a development platform and not modify anything, but code up the development tools, then they will not have to release anything. Period.
Using an OS for development and actually using the OS itself as the foundation for a console is very different. In this case, what's being reported is what the Next Generation reporters are getting from insiders and from questioning Sony staff. Nothing is set in stone yet and until it is, getting excited and pounding your table demanding source being released is no help.
If/when it is announced that Sony has chosen to use Linux in an official capacity, then sure, break out the champagne and celebrate and start demanding source for what they used. Just be prepared for a nasty shock since what they release could well be worthless in terms of letting people code on the PSX2 without the special hardware level libraries.
And if in their good heart they decide to release the source, even better. Break out the banquet tables and feasts.
On a related note, Sony supporting Linux for their game console, if it happens, is a BIG step. Perhaps even bigger than IBM. Entertainment drives the Internet and has driven it to become as big as it has been. Games make money and the entertainment industry makes money. Linux being used by Sony is a big step.
Whether or not it will be a positive step which will help promote freedom of source and information is still something left to be seen.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Cheers to you for introducing your children to Linux.:)
Myself, I've been installing and setting up Linux boxes at home as well for the past couple of years to slowly phase out the windows boxes. So far.. three out of five systems are Linux, and two are Windows. The windows systems are mainly to interface with the Buzz video capture card which currently, I can't find support for under Linux. (No fault of the Linux community if the folks @ iomega aren't forthcoming with info, right?) That and games.
But I can completely understand about the crashing. Win95/98/NT(yes, I've tried all of them, so as far as reliability goes, they are all the same in my eyes: not reliable) all crashes for unknown reasons on our systems despite following instructions to the letter and installing based on our experience. It just defies logic. Maybe my friend was right and you really do need to do some blood sacrifice before the system will run Windows.
Anyways, Linux has proven reliable on our systems, though thanks to some careless testing, we'll likely be doing a complete re-install. Fun! ^_^;
Time to upgrade to KDE 1.1 and see what cool apps I can put on the system to make it better.
For some odd reason.. it feels good to run Linux and oddly enough, when windows boots up, a dark feeling falls over the room like a shadow. I've always wondered about that... - Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Yes, it is understandable and sad that someone who has done so much is remembered so little.
But while GNU has done much for Linux, Linux has likewise done a good deal for GNU. By providing a working kernel, Linux made it into something practical and usable.
No, he does not owe anyone to be normal.. except in this case, where he would like some credit due and visibility for his cause, belief, and him self, he would owe it to himself.
Your average guy who doesn't think much of his bad breath, sweat and grime and the need for baths would have a hard time finding a date or his dream girl.
While Stallman is nothing like the extreme picture, his personality might be likened to it. And accolades of the public nature can be likened to the girl of his dreams.
Yes, you will get due awards and credit for your hard work from agencies and groups who see's your work for what it is outside of who you are. But the public would like just a bit more.
More than anyone, it can be said that he owes it to himself. No one else.
To comment on your final point.. isn't every living thing on this planet?
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
A man of little responsibility.
on
Wired on RMS
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They may not be gods, but eyes are on them. They may not be divinity, but hope from the people are with them.
It can probably be said that what they say has an impact on the groups they represent. They should take responsibility for that. And in many senses, they do and they don't. Out of no fault of their own. A good deal lies with the people.
Myself for instance. I read an article posted by an e-zine. From this, I have a mental picture. I make a post. People who disagree, are negatively affected, make their posts. They make their voice heard and say what they feel or just say something.
If I had made no post and kept silent, there would not have been these posts. But they might have come out elsewhere...
Stallman makes comments and remarks and whether or not he is aware of his presence in the public eye, his comments do paint a picture of himself. And if continued on, the picture painted can be associated with the movement itself.
Responsibility comes from maintaining and knowing the repercussions of one's actions. He started GNU and continues with it. But his persona could become a shadow over it.
I'm not saying he should kiss ass. That would be a compromise of his ideals. But being friendly doesn't hurt and is not a sign of weakness.
As I said in another post, one can have respect for an ideal, and an organization. But one can have a lack of respect for the person behind the same. Hard work does a great job of earning respect. An abrasive personality directed at people does an equally good job of destroying that same respect.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
I am an individual in this world. And I had not intended to bash RMS. (Yes, upon re-reading my post, it DID sound like and feel like bashing. I'm sorry for that.)
But if an individual like myself see's that from one article posted by an e-zine, what does the myriad of computer users who are keen to the issues see?
I respect GNU & FSF and what it represents. I see the FSF & GNU as an important factor in the development of the computer software and hardware industry in the years to come. A positive factor.
I agree with your reminders that without GNU, Linux would never have gotten as far as it has now. But isn't it equally true that GNU would not have spread as quickly or gained as much establishment in systems without Linux?
Without the Linux kernel, I doubt my GNU equiped system would do much in the way of running. Likewise, without Linux, I doubt GNU would have even gotten onto my computer in the first place. Both sides have credit due to them. But an abrasive personality goes a long way and an individual who is aware of the ideals involved may find it less agreeable to stand beside someone like that. That is where respect for an individual fails. While the good that one person does is noted, the connection may not be made.
What I posted is the image I got from the Wired article. But in response to your post, respect for an ideal and respect for a person are two different things. I can hold the utmost respect for one and little for the other. I use GNU software with my Linux systems. But I doubt I'd be calling Linux GNU/Linux anytime soon.
Just because I don't use the prefix in the name shouldn't have to mean I don't hold the ideals or understand them.
And despite the numerous posts about personality not mattering, it does. Not just for business purposes, but for interaction as well. You can be respected for your work. You can be respected for your skill. Your determination. Your fighting to the last breath and giving up the things you might hold dear. Those perspectives of respect, now that I've seen posts countering my own post, I believe are due to RMS and I am sorry for not having seen it before.
However, an abrasive personality goes a long way towards souring the views of people who see him. The slip in feelings for RMS, at least for me, lies not so much in what he says, but rather, how he says it. And that is something which can be found to be important both in organizations and out of them.
If I've drawn flames, my apologies. I was just sharing my thoughts on a Wired Post.
RMS definitely has a sense of responsibility. But his reported persona does an equally good job of convincing me otherwise.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Both are important. But issues of what the name should be due to how much a group contributes.. sounds sad and rather lame. It isn't like due credit isn't given in the various source files and documentations.
What's in a name? A Linux distribution by any other name would run just as well.:)
I like the Linux name. So what? Should we call the Redhat distributions: GNU RedHat Linux? Xfree86 Linux? GNU Xfree86 RedHat Caldera contributed People of (list states)(list cities)(list denomination)(list choice of keyboard and bath soap) Linux (list year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, etc..)
I don't see Linux as Linus owning the whole thing. It is more like a flag.. a banner.. an image and a symbol that the community can stand behind.
America has a flag.. doesn't mean the one who made the flag(martha something or other?) rules the US.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
A man of little responsibility.
on
Wired on RMS
·
· Score: 1
When I first started reading the article, I thought: "Hey.. he got short changed!".
But then, his life is described as a chain of avoidance of responsibilities or so the article notes. He doesn't want children because he doesn't want to work to make enough to support them. He doesn't own a computer of his own, he just uses the foundation's. He charges people high costs for his services. He lives in a rented home.
And he is advocating free software? Maybe he should live his life like his claimed ideal before he goes out and make statements against a man, Linux Torvalds, who not only took the time to work on a critical piece of software, work with others on it, share his work openly, and MAKE the time and put in the EFFORT to be responsible to the public.
Linux takes his position seriously and because of that, he will be taken seriously.
From the article, it looks like Stallman wants no responsibility, not even for his own statements, yet wants the accolade for a project which is used with Linux, not what makes Linux.
I agree with the final note in the article. That Stallman's abrasive personality does little to help him become better noticed. No one wants to spend time with or on someone who seems to condemn the world and at the same time, show utter apathy towards it and himself and his own life.
Just my two cents.
(On a side note, Stallman, if he had taken the time to work with people instead of, as the article suggests, bitch about things, he might be more respected on a personal level. Many a contributing members of society have gone unnoticed despite their hard work simply because they decide to seclude themselves and communicate with no one but an elite few.)
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
I mean... does every troll post have to have some inanity about that F*cking Bill Gates ramming Sh*t down every two bit computer user's throat and a hard whatchamacallit up their *ss's?
Probably not.
The obviously superior OS, and I do mean OS as in "Outdated Software", Win-whatever, runs circles around unix stuff. Yeah, sure.
I mean.. we are talking about windows which runs on today's desktop PC's compared to the unixes which require those large and expensive computing units, right? Can't WE SEE that unix is outdatted?
Probably not.. not with all that sh*t all over the place.
Not only that, but just imagine the benefits of running a truly superior OS like win-something-or-other. You'd never need a UPS(because it wouldn't help you), you wouldn't need an administrator(because anyone can crash it just as easily), you wouldn't need powerful hardware(You'd need EXPENSIVE and VERY VERY Powerful hardware to squeeze ANY performance out of it), and best of all, it's like an STD. Once you've got it, you've pretty much got it for life... and probably where it really hurts.
Now.. compare this to those crufy old useless unix systems. You'll need lot's of backup and UPS's because you'll always have important stuff on those machines. You'd need an administrator who's trained and knowledgable because unix is a software that requires someone who can think behind that keyboard. And you'd better save those pennies, because with only a fraction of the money needed to buy a unix-capable piece of hardware which can outperform win-blows anyday of the week(can't say month since Win-dump won't last that long).
But hey.. go with that unix or linux. Sure as hell won't piss off Billy "boy" gates. But you'll probably make your customers happy. And as any "good"(as defined by MS) knows, that's the LAST thing you should do.
[maybe.. just maybe.. this will get a passing grade.:p]
Disclaimer:
Btw, the above rant does not represent mine or anyone's(as far as I know) perspective about computers, OS's, and the industry. The characters are fictional and any resemblence to real life individuals would be sad.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
or "A day in the life of a terrorist palm pilot program."
6:30am [palm-auto-signal bomb-net to attention] 6:45am Wake up alarm 7:00am [palm-auto-signal check house perimeter logs] 7:15am Show latest horse race results. 7:30am Activate lawn sprinklers. 8:00am [palm-auto-signal internet-email-threat send to predetermined list of people] 8:15am [palm-auto-signal check bomb-net readiness] 8:20am Send page to "boss" signalling readiness. 8:30am [palm-auto-signal respond to email's with demands] 9:00am Analyse response emails for lack of belief. 9:05am Detonate bombs in areas lacking belief. 9:10am Re-send threats and demands. 9:30am Record all emails and analyse for straggling believers. 10:00am Page "boss" with new updated status. 10:30am Send page to dry cleaner to have suits delivered to suite. 10:45am Phone local florist to deliver flowers to address. 11:00am Re-send threats and give instructions on how, where, and when to deliver on demands. 11:30am Send page to "boss" about results. 12:00pm Order out for pizza. 12:05pm "Boss" returns home. 12:10pm "Boss" receives pizza. 12:30pm "Boss" recieves dry cleaning. 01:00pm incoming call for "boss" from "girlfriend". Flowers recieved. 01:30pm Funds transfer detected. Routing funds to private account. 01:45pm Funds retransferred to seperate accounts. 02:00pm Previous funds transactions deleted. 02:15pm Make reservation for limmo. Reserve seats for movie/show. 03:00pm display reservation dates/times for "boss". 03:15pm send page to "boss"'s girlfriend. 04:00pm Girlfriend arrives. 04:05pm Reservations printed out. 04:15pm Limmo arrives. 04:20pm House empty. Turn on porch lights. 05:00pm Sync discs. Explode remaining bombs. Send thank-you emails to threat targets. Erase dummy transaction fund accounts. 05:05pm power-down/recharge.
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Support may be shuffled off to a third party, which in this case is LinuxCare. However, they may not have puzzled out how to support Linux.:)
But it is cheaper to hire people are know than to retrain people in your employment again. Plus, given that people are trained for windoze, doesn't seem worthwhile to retrain them to Linux, considering how expensive those Win-train sessions are.
But the important note is that Linux IS getting shipped out there. That it get's exposure. So they buy support from a third party. They are still offering a token gesture.. even if it does show just how scared companies are of MS that they are hedging their bets and not really committing as much money into the projects.
Seriously though, it is cheaper and easier to have a third party do the support. Especially when Linux isn't their expertise.
But then again, who knows.. maybe they are just screwing around and making claims to get their stock prices up and make some money without violating any of their contracts or stepping on toes. Guess we'll just see, won't we?
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm.. I could be wrong as well then. However, the reason why I brought it up was because a friend of mine who's had problems up the whazoo with computer hardware in general makes it his hobby to look up the designs or specifications and to his knowledge, yes, it is the same chipset and it is hooked to a PCI bus.
However, the difference is with the fact that on the motherboard, the circuit traces are shared with the other components on the board and in some cases, say UDMA, the interrupt signals are shared to conserve extra traces and interference with other component systems. So while the chipset may be the same, the implementation of the device controller is different and this causes problems. Not so much with the CPU, but rather, with itself.
In such a case, I'd rather just disable the onboard and go with a dedicated card with its own processor/brain so that it can work more efficiently.
But I admit that I might be off on this one.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Hi Plankeye,
Oops. ^_^; I actually had the answer to this and forgot to put it in with my post.
When testing the Iomega Buzz card for capturing a/v to my computer, I had been using a DVD player playing the most horribly encoded/macro-protected DVD I had ever seen. (Make that worst of DVD and VHS). It was I think the Batman movie where batgirl is introduced into the picture. Very very extreme dark and light transitions.
Anyways, the Buzz card recorded the data without the protection problems and the video was saved, in part, to the hard drive clear as day. This was an interesting revelation. However, whether or not the card has remained protection free since when I bought it about a year ago, is something of an issue.
As for turning the protection off, I could be mistaken, but I was under the impression that the macro-vision protection scheme, for dvds at least, was something which is added during the playback process. Ie, the player can choose not to do any fiddling with the signal. Just as the player can choose to ignore the zone encoding, if so convinced.
However, never found a way to do it with mine and didn't feel like bringing it to a "shop" and have the machine "repaired". I'd much prefer to visit a store like Hollytron or Superco to get my special player needs. They are both large consumer electronic stores with some imports which are universal in nature. There are other shops, which can probably be assumed that many people on this site already know about. :) Most are small little stores.
Once again, my post has been somewhat vague, but hope it has been of help. ^_^
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Hi All,
Getting the computer to record hi quality video is something I'm trying to setup as my collection of aging tapes of old shows deserves better than just being sent into the ethers as magnetic static.
The Iomega Buzz video card is nice, but it has conflicts with the video card I am using with it.(ATI pc to tv 3d pro)[very old card]. However, on the systems where I'm using a RivaTNT, it works fine. The problems I've had with this is that it tends to not work well with my hard drive setups be it scsi or udma. I keep getting dropped frames and other annoying problems.
I've also had the enjoyment of trying one of those WinTV cards by Haupauge. Rather nice and it worked on my Linux box fairly well, but flaked out on the Win98 box. Go figure. :) But getting it to capture 30fps + stereo 16bit sound on Linux was not quite possible. ^_^;; A friend suggested I do more tweaking, but the max resolution on that card wasn't enough for me. (3??x2??)
Which brings me to the current card I've pre-ordered and am waiting for. The All-In-Wonder 128GL(AGP) 16mb card. Figuring that it is an integrated card, there should be much fewer hassles and problems than I experienced with the other two. Plus, this card can both input and output, which is a godsend. Plus I can also use it for games. ;)
But I don't know how well that card will perform, so it is a "wait and see" situation.
On the whole, the capturing of video will depend heavily on several factors, most of which you're probably aware of:
CPU Power: ;) Mpeg2 benefits you by providing a good deal of compression to save you drive space at the cost of some image quality.
The CPU power is usually not too important, but with the All-In-Wonder 128GL, there is the option of real-time mpeg2 compression of the video. This happens to be cpu intensive and in my case, one of those Athlons looks like a real contender.
Capture Card and Graphics Card (Power/Compat):
The capture card will determine what is the maximum quality your recordings will ever have. Whether the capture card is compatible with your video card is another issue as it can cause intermittent errors or unexpected slow-downs or visual artifacts. One reason why I am choosing the ATI card.
Sound Card performance:
Go for a good solid PCI sound card. However, as you are looking for the various sound format compatibility, you're probably better off checking with one of those studio sound cards or with TurtleBeach soundcards. They make some nice cards, however, I'm not sure if they support those extra sound formats.
Hard drive performance:
This probably goes without saying, but something along the lines of at least 7MB/s sustained througput is a must. Though when I was using the Buzz, the amount of data moving was in the ballpark of 6-8MB/s, so the better the drives, the smoother the recording. AV or professional studio hard drives will go a long ways to keep the hiccups to a minimum. There is also the issue of UDMA vs SCSI. I'm not going to get into that. But if you plan on doing real-time compression of the video stream and want to go UDMA, avoid using the on-board chipset that comes with the motherboard and just get an expansion card. Anything which takes some load off the CPU is good. With SCSI, most controllers are off the board, so the main factor would be getting a rock solid card with good drivers.
But overall, for those special sound formats, it may be helpful to contact one of the studio quality sound card manufacturers and inquiring.
Sorry for the rambling, but hope it was informative to someone out there. ^_^;;
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Hi all,
:p
;)
Interesting that they chose leeches... don't they
have regenerative abilities which other "higher order" animals lack?
Leeches, planarians, earthworms.. if they have the
abilitity to regenerate, it might explain why the
scientists chose leeches. Better ability to hold
together and meld to form a cohesive computing
unit.
Just a guess.
Though there are some odd ways of interpreting
this. One being that the machine could in theory
then meld with other machines of the same type,
resulting in a possibly unpredictable end product
and possible sentience... nah.
Still, can't wait to see where this is going to
end up say 5-10 years from now.
Hey! Look! My computer still works if I slice and
dice it and mush it back together again. And not
a single file lost! It just regenerates...
Bad for tax evasion and shady deal folks though.
Those files just keep coming back.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
When I first heard about the Dreamcast, I flinched. It had been made and was distributed before Sony even announced the existence or confirmed the suspicions of the existence of a PSX2. So I resigned myself to buy a dreamcast.
But guess what? After seeing the screenshots, the games being played, and playing the games for myself on a dreamcast, I was horribly dissapointed. THIS was a next generation unit from Sega?? I mean.. come on.. nice polygons and all, but hardly worth $499 when it was released in Japan. I think the only reason why it will sell here in the States for $199 is a marketing ploy just to gain as much marketshare as possible before PSX2 appears on the scenes in Japan(and via import, in the States as well).
I don't think Sega is lowering the price for the benefit of their customers. They are probably doing it for the same reasons why a store lowers prices. Becaue they are worried that PSX2 WILL bury them. That they won't have enough software developers to write good games. That no one will buy their unit when compared to the PSX2.
But who knows, right?
I for one am waiting for the PSX2. I mean.. look at the N64. Another unit I've had the fine pleasure of playing, though also to my disappointment. While the graphics have definitely improved from the SNES, it is hardly fast. It is so slow! And it's polygon ratings are still below that of a PSX1. When it came out, people were wondering why they should wait for something from SEGA or SONY that wasn't real yet.
Well, more than anything, I think waiting is probably the best bet, unless you need to have the latest greatest unit of every moment, that is.
Just like how the Dreamcast is turning N64 into a bad memory and sending Nintendo to pick up the pace on a next generation unit, I think PSX2 will do the same to Sega's Dreamcast. Though probably not as severe, but still bad enough.
Backwards compatibility, btw, will make the PSX2 more atractive to buyers who don't want to feel like they will be losing all their old games. And the PSX2 suffers no slowdowns because of this backwards compatibility simply because the PSX1's compatibility is handled by an I/O chip which is basically a PSX1. Backwards compatibility at no cost to peak performance.
As for developers wanting to stick with PSX1 level code, I think that they would consider thinking about their future in the industry. Their products, games, are how people can see what great works they can do. And if they can create a masterpiece which will blow away the audience with great sound and graphics, they'd be fools not to make use of the better tools.
Look at the PC. Game companies are hardly writing games for a 8088/386/486 audience. They are writing for a P5/PII/PIII/K6-2+ audience. People who will be spending the money for an accelerator and a good sound card.
I think the same will follow suit with Sony's developers. I mean.. why make games that suck? That will just worsen their own image and let another game company get ahead of them.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
This is truly and utterly hopeless. Someone goes out and writes a piece of software which takes advantage of a bug in a system put in place by MS. MS has been warned of this. Users have been warned of this. But nothing, if anything, has been done.
People. *points to the cities* The people out there don't give a fuck. People are killed everyday and the news counts it off as a daily occurance. Accidents kill people. Drunk drivers kill people. Tobacco kills people. And yet nothing substantial is done. Why?
Why is the government so willing to step on peoples' rights to "bring the evil-doer to justice" when it comes to computer crimes but is so god-damned apathetic when it comes to drugs, rapes, murders, and theft?
It is ridiculus.
I don't think it's _just_ MS's fault or _just_ the end-users' fault, or _just_ the programmer of the virus's fault. It is everyone's fault. For being apathetic to problems. For running companies and BLINDLY trusting a company even when they know better. For writing programs with known bugs and not taking the time to go back and fix it. For accepting these problems as "normal".
THESE PROBLEMS ARE NOT FUCKING NORMAL!
My god.. if a car you bought broke down every day, you'd be pissed as hell, but you accept the fucking fact that when your computer crashes, that it's just life. That is plain stupid. ANYONE who goes through life just accepting that has something wrong with them. Either it was forced upon them or it was something they came to accept, but they should seriously consider looking over their lives again. Because there IS something wrong when our society has such a screwed up system where punishment and action no longer coincides with the actual threat.
Someone else posted that there is a real underlying threat. That this one macro virus which _can_ be discovered, was. But what about those which can't be discovered?
We have a REAL problem. And all the authorities can think of doing is either covering it up, getting rid of the people who are trying to do it, or profiting off of it. Whatever happened to fixing the problem?
Solve the fundamental problem. A simple directive. But no one seems to want to do it. Complaining about costs and corporate image and all that crap. Here's some news: Someone being able to get into the corporate computers is pretty freaking bad for the corporate image.
People are worrying about another world war with the current bombing situation. I think people should be more worried about an internal war in America with information.
Just my two cents.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Interesting article. Just the kind that kinda makes me wish I was doing research work. Oh well, need more money first. :)
But this "eye", with its peripheral sense and high definition central vision, would seem to make a good auto-targetting weapon system. You know, like the type normally seen in sci-fi films?
But thanks to the on-chip processing and because it behaves very much like an organic eye element, it would be much faster. The mobile gun could easily make out motion and determine the expected path of the target and aim/fire appropriately. Would make for more deadly sentries.
A more positive use of this would be perhaps for remote vision applications? While it is hardly an eye-replacement, it can serve to be a much better "camera" replacement. Especially if one is using it for flight AI purposes. By being able to determine relative motion and figure out what objects are doing around it, it can make for much higher accuracey self-navigated crafts. (Airlines, remote data gathering drones, etc..)
Of course, I think a cool use would be for use in AI automatons.. a spider-like robot with object detection/reaction built into the optics.. it would behave more realistically since it can sense when something is approaching it and much more quickly. (I doubt this will lead to killer robots though.. they are only as deadly as we make it.. but then again, guess the argument can be that since we are basically copying nature in silicon, we really don't know exactly what it will do past a certain level of complexity, huh?)
But cool.. just wonder when fully self-adaptive neural proccessor technology will mature. But it just might be that like this eye element, there is a much simpler path which won't seem intelligent at first. Who knows, right?
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
There is a message, but one has to wonder whether or not that anger is also part of the message as well.
For everything and everyone, their time will come at some point, but one can't help but wonder whether or not Linux's penetration into the more general populace is moving more quickly than people can adopt to it. One might wonder whether or not it would really matter.
But the frustration the article radiates seems to echo what others are feeling when dealig with something like Linux which is so different from their previous OS. In most cases, this would be Windows.
But the ironic bit is the tone the writer had towards learning. Combined with the lack of thought and re-reading before posting, I think it conveys a sadder message, one which has little to do with Linux itself, but more with the current attitude that seems to pervade many people.
The attitude of, "Why should I have to learn this? Shouldn't it be done for me? What a bother.".
Dealing with that anger and that attitude might help that guy alot in the long run.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Yeah, painful events in life are often times deterrents. It _might_ deter some rapists, but for those who have already committed rape and are castrated, there is no guarantee that it will prevent them from raping again. I guess some nice punishments for a rapist could be: - You commit rape, your right hand will be blown off via shotgun and then cauterized by red hot steel. - You repeat offense, you will have your left hand ground off and partially cauterized with red hot metal and finished off with salt. (Grinding is achieved via a belt sander applied in no less than 100 applications.) - You repeat offense yet again, you will then be treated to honey and red ants in the privates region until castration, death, or 8 hours. Whichever is longer or results in death. I'm pretty sure the above punishments should deter crimes in most any cases once word gets around.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Hey dvdeug,
It's great if that's what you intend. You write code, you place it under the GPL license believing and knowing that you are giving it over to the FSF under the GPL. So long as it is understood as such, I've personally no problems with it.
BUT, and a big but here. But, if someone writes code and GPL's it believing that they are giving it to the world, but was not under the impression that it meant their code will be placed under the banner of FSF, then that is a problem. Yes, they should read the GPL.
I'm not saying that everyone is mistaken. You are obviously not. If that is your intention, then that is great. But for the time being, my intention is not to give code over to the FSF. Just as it is not my intention to give code over to a large corporation.
Thanks for listening,
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
First off, I seriously hope that Kira will be able to recover from her ordeal and be able to live her life fully.
I'm male and throughout high school, I never really understood Rape. I mean, I had gone for years believing that it was nothing more than someone who was sexually out of control. And I never understood why my female friends either avoided the subject like a I was screaming and dying from ebola or why they got extremely upset.
But luckily, I had a good many friends who took the time to explain a few things to me. For that, I am grateful.
It isn't the sex, it is the power and control. Power.. control. To control and manipulate another human being, to be able to use them as one pleased. To unleash the full of one's darker side onto another human being.
Why would people want to do that to another person? Why would ANYONE want to do that to another person? Why would you, do that?
I think alot of people avoid that line of thought. The consideration that they might have that kind of personality within themselves.
I mean.. your "basic rapist" is like anyone else. Nevermind the internet. But he or she can be anyone.. your next door neighbor, the teacher at your school, your old friend of years and years, parents, and even children.
What made them step over that line and continue doing what so many people consider to be so horribly bad?
I personally don't have an answer to that. And I don't think many people do either.
To the persons who think murder is worse than rape, I beg to disagree. I think Rape is worse. Rape has all the characteristics of murder, but the victom often survives at a cost. The friends and family are affect like in a murder, but must not only deal with their grief, but that of the victom's. A long path to healing takes place, one where the victom must work through the questions I asked above. The Why? Was it something I did? Why would someone do this to me? Why? Why?
I think it is very true though, when women say that men don't understand. Alot of men don't understand. Many do, but there are still so many who don't. And to be truthful, I don't feel that even understanding really stops rape. Rape happens because an individual, a human being, decided that they will do this for their own personal reasons. They are convinced in their mind that the person who will be the victom deserves what they will be getting.
I don't know.. the net isn't the problem, it has only dredged up into the open what has always been a problem. People will disagree, but that is their choice.
As for castration, castration does no good. Hormone treatment does no good. Rape IS about CONTROL and POWER. Just because you remove one tool, doesn't mean a person can't commit rape. Rape. To take from another human being what they have refused, what society has refused the rapist. No, removing an organ or dampening the effects of a hormone does little good.
A person can rape as effectively with their hand, a broom stick, a candle, a bottle, rope, whipes, whatever. Just as equally effective as with their own organs.
On the topic of men being raped by woman, another topic which my friends were kind enough to share their thoughts on. Because rape IS about control, it doesn't matter what gender the rapist is. Male, female, neutor, old or young. The point is to have power and control over another.
For a man, to be used and had in any way his captor would have him, it is in every way as demeaning, humiliating, and traumatising as it is for a woman. No more, no less. With one difference.
The support structure and the mental association is there for women. But for men, it is something which either is rare, or not available. There is no sanctuary for men.
And I highly doubt that traumatized women would enjoy sharing the facilities with traumatized men.
Maybe I'm in the wrong when I think that rapists should probably be dragged into the streets and shot. The media would like that. Sensationalism and a message to other would be rapists.
But that would be inhumane. I just wish the rapist had wondered whether it would be humane to rape his or her victom.
My two cents.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Was just thinking.. GPL'd code is basically open code, yes? Then by that token, code that is freely released would say.. contain the credits and names of authors and what they contributed in the various notes files and source code files?
Isn't credit being giving where it is due? In the source code? The past is not lost, but preserved with every copy of every utility being used and installed. What more can one ask than one's name and credit in every copy of source code?
A thousand names in a thousand places and yet, the one which everyone fights over is the title.
If we were talking about something Microsoft made, I'd agree, that maybe more effort should be made to determine where credit is due.
But with Linux and with the GNU portions of the distributions, and a variety of components from various developer groups, isn't enough credit given where it is due? In the code?
I still think RMS could benefit greatly from perhaps a more gentler approach to spreading his beliefs, but then again, every one has their own way of doing things. The fruits of his work are continually rippening and spreading. The GPL license is spread far and wide.
And yet, there is the complaint of not enough visibility, of no credit where credit is due.
What one calls their OS hardly depreciates any value from the beliefs behind it.. except perhaps in the case of MS Linux.. that would just plain suck.
All this fighting over a title and credit, I think, is pretty petty. And the two major persons who shines above it all because they are doing what they do best, coding and working with people to continue improving code, would be Alan Cox and Linus Torvalds.
I don't mention their names because I worship them. I pretty much don't worship anyone. No one deserves worship. But people do deserve respect.
I call my box a Linux box. I refer to the OS by the term Linux. When referring to distributions, I refer to them by the groups who put them out. Redhat, Debian, Caldera, Slackware, etc. I don't use the GNU portion of the name because it is already a given that GNU is there. The presence of GNU/FSF code in most distributions cannot be denied. But the works of so many others who have contributed work can't be denied either. That while they have GPL'd their code doesn't make their work a part of the GNU project. I am sure that at least a few people did not expect an organization to take credit for their work when they GPL'd their code.
I mean.. when John Doe writes code XYZ and GPL'd it, I'm sure he didn't mean to say, "I give this code to the GNU and FSF folks."
Because if that's what GPL means, then maybe it might be time to look for another licensing agreement.
Just my two cents.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Hey Anonymous Coward, First off, most, if not all, of my friends who are still in college paid their own way by working. Not sure about you, but some of us here in the real world do actually get off our asses and work for our education. Second, economics is only the model which people work with in hopes of understanding the complex dynamics that exists in the market due to peoples' interest in a product or desire to sell a product. It in NO way determines whether something will continue to exist or not. For instance, MP3 is a nearly worthless technology to the Labels because most of their existing equipment and business models are not well suited to it. Actually, MP3 is almost like a pestilence to the Labels. For us, the consumers, however, it is a boon. We can listen to high quality music in a stable format which won't degrade in quality and will easily play on our hardware(PC's/Mac's/Sparc/etc). But yes, Economics plays an important role.. but its role is below that of the interest and efforts of the consumers. And right now, the pool of consumers for the MP3 market is strong. One may even say it is Legion upon Legion. Having worked at several jobs, my own realization has been that economics isn't king. When one get's right down to it, PEOPLE are. Desire drives the market. Money is only the medium. But hey, if they come out with a more powerful audio format with better quality, smaller size, and no encryption techniques, self-correction/error checking would be nice though. ;) In case memory get's "scratched".
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Hey dude,
Don't know about you, but when the authorities are on you, you cooperate. Period. I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but people do get busted for something as "stupid" as ignoring a police officer. Guess it must depend on the mood of the officer.
On the topic of "probable cause", the officer's probable cause is what he or she believes may have been a crime committed recently or if there is the posibility of a crime being committed. If they think you robbed a store, they'll question you. If they think you're resisting them, prepare for a bad day.
And yes, it DOES suck that "hacker" has been poisoned by the media, by that stupid movie, and by people who don't understand. But it IS poisoned. And if for those who want to go out there and fight the mob effect, go right ahead. Chances are, you're better off looking for a new banner to ride under in the public eye.
Just because you think you have rights, doesn't mean you will always have access to them. Your right to freedom, to live, to life. It can all be taken away as easily as someone getting shot. Mistaken. Stabbed in the back. Or just thanks to ill-meant clerical errors.
Yeah, people have rights. But unless you believe 100% that whomever it is who's denying you your rights will respect you, be they cops, thugs, or the media, you will be up for a fight.
If you're the kind of person who fights for their beliefs and rights, my hat goes off to you. That is by far a much braver thing than I can afford to do.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Sony is a big company and they realise what they are getting into.
From the Next Generation article, it appears that Linux's involvement at this point is for a development platform. Whether or not it is used as the OS for the PSX is another matter completely.
At most, if Sony does make use of Linux and adheres to the GPL, they would only need to release the source code for the subsystems that they modified. If they make use of the Linux OS and use it as a development platform and not modify anything, but code up the development tools, then they will not have to release anything. Period.
Using an OS for development and actually using the OS itself as the foundation for a console is very different. In this case, what's being reported is what the Next Generation reporters are getting from insiders and from questioning Sony staff. Nothing is set in stone yet and until it is, getting excited and pounding your table demanding source being released is no help.
If/when it is announced that Sony has chosen to use Linux in an official capacity, then sure, break out the champagne and celebrate and start demanding source for what they used. Just be prepared for a nasty shock since what they release could well be worthless in terms of letting people code on the PSX2 without the special hardware level libraries.
And if in their good heart they decide to release the source, even better. Break out the banquet tables and feasts.
On a related note, Sony supporting Linux for their game console, if it happens, is a BIG step. Perhaps even bigger than IBM. Entertainment drives the Internet and has driven it to become as big as it has been. Games make money and the entertainment industry makes money. Linux being used by Sony is a big step.
Whether or not it will be a positive step which will help promote freedom of source and information is still something left to be seen.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Cheers to you for introducing your children to Linux. :)
Myself, I've been installing and setting up Linux boxes at home as well for the past couple of years to slowly phase out the windows boxes. So far.. three out of five systems are Linux, and two are Windows. The windows systems are mainly to interface with the Buzz video capture card which currently, I can't find support for under Linux. (No fault of the Linux community if the folks @ iomega aren't forthcoming with info, right?) That and games.
But I can completely understand about the crashing. Win95/98/NT(yes, I've tried all of them, so as far as reliability goes, they are all the same in my eyes: not reliable) all crashes for unknown reasons on our systems despite following instructions to the letter and installing based on our experience. It just defies logic. Maybe my friend was right and you really do need to do some blood sacrifice before the system will run Windows.
Anyways, Linux has proven reliable on our systems, though thanks to some careless testing, we'll likely be doing a complete re-install. Fun! ^_^;
Time to upgrade to KDE 1.1 and see what cool apps I can put on the system to make it better.
For some odd reason.. it feels good to run Linux and oddly enough, when windows boots up, a dark feeling falls over the room like a shadow. I've always wondered about that...
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Yes, it is understandable and sad that someone who has done so much is remembered so little.
But while GNU has done much for Linux, Linux has likewise done a good deal for GNU. By providing a working kernel, Linux made it into something practical and usable.
No, he does not owe anyone to be normal.. except in this case, where he would like some credit due and visibility for his cause, belief, and him self, he would owe it to himself.
Your average guy who doesn't think much of his bad breath, sweat and grime and the need for baths would have a hard time finding a date or his dream girl.
While Stallman is nothing like the extreme picture, his personality might be likened to it. And accolades of the public nature can be likened to the girl of his dreams.
Yes, you will get due awards and credit for your hard work from agencies and groups who see's your work for what it is outside of who you are. But the public would like just a bit more.
More than anyone, it can be said that he owes it to himself. No one else.
To comment on your final point.. isn't every living thing on this planet?
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
They may not be gods, but eyes are on them. They may not be divinity, but hope from the people are with them.
It can probably be said that what they say has an impact on the groups they represent. They should take responsibility for that. And in many senses, they do and they don't. Out of no fault of their own. A good deal lies with the people.
Myself for instance. I read an article posted by an e-zine. From this, I have a mental picture. I make a post. People who disagree, are negatively affected, make their posts. They make their voice heard and say what they feel or just say something.
If I had made no post and kept silent, there would not have been these posts. But they might have come out elsewhere...
Stallman makes comments and remarks and whether or not he is aware of his presence in the public eye, his comments do paint a picture of himself. And if continued on, the picture painted can be associated with the movement itself.
Responsibility comes from maintaining and knowing the repercussions of one's actions. He started GNU and continues with it. But his persona could become a shadow over it.
I'm not saying he should kiss ass. That would be a compromise of his ideals. But being friendly doesn't hurt and is not a sign of weakness.
As I said in another post, one can have respect for an ideal, and an organization. But one can have a lack of respect for the person behind the same. Hard work does a great job of earning respect. An abrasive personality directed at people does an equally good job of destroying that same respect.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Who the fuck am I?
I am an individual in this world. And I had not intended to bash RMS. (Yes, upon re-reading my post, it DID sound like and feel like bashing. I'm sorry for that.)
But if an individual like myself see's that from one article posted by an e-zine, what does the myriad of computer users who are keen to the issues see?
I respect GNU & FSF and what it represents. I see the FSF & GNU as an important factor in the development of the computer software and hardware industry in the years to come. A positive factor.
I agree with your reminders that without GNU, Linux would never have gotten as far as it has now. But isn't it equally true that GNU would not have spread as quickly or gained as much establishment in systems without Linux?
Without the Linux kernel, I doubt my GNU equiped system would do much in the way of running. Likewise, without Linux, I doubt GNU would have even gotten onto my computer in the first place. Both sides have credit due to them. But an abrasive personality goes a long way and an individual who is aware of the ideals involved may find it less agreeable to stand beside someone like that. That is where respect for an individual fails. While the good that one person does is noted, the connection may not be made.
What I posted is the image I got from the Wired article. But in response to your post, respect for an ideal and respect for a person are two different things. I can hold the utmost respect for one and little for the other. I use GNU software with my Linux systems. But I doubt I'd be calling Linux GNU/Linux anytime soon.
Just because I don't use the prefix in the name shouldn't have to mean I don't hold the ideals or understand them.
And despite the numerous posts about personality not mattering, it does. Not just for business purposes, but for interaction as well. You can be respected for your work. You can be respected for your skill. Your determination. Your fighting to the last breath and giving up the things you might hold dear. Those perspectives of respect, now that I've seen posts countering my own post, I believe are due to RMS and I am sorry for not having seen it before.
However, an abrasive personality goes a long way towards souring the views of people who see him. The slip in feelings for RMS, at least for me, lies not so much in what he says, but rather, how he says it. And that is something which can be found to be important both in organizations and out of them.
If I've drawn flames, my apologies. I was just sharing my thoughts on a Wired Post.
RMS definitely has a sense of responsibility. But his reported persona does an equally good job of convincing me otherwise.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Seems like GNU had a body of tools and functions.
:)
But Linus had the heart. Linux.
Both are important. But issues of what the name should be due to how much a group contributes.. sounds sad and rather lame. It isn't like due credit isn't given in the various source files and documentations.
What's in a name? A Linux distribution by any other name would run just as well.
I like the Linux name. So what? Should we call the Redhat distributions: GNU RedHat Linux? Xfree86 Linux? GNU Xfree86 RedHat Caldera contributed People of (list states)(list cities)(list denomination)(list choice of keyboard and bath soap) Linux (list year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, etc..)
I don't see Linux as Linus owning the whole thing. It is more like a flag.. a banner.. an image and a symbol that the community can stand behind.
America has a flag.. doesn't mean the one who made the flag(martha something or other?) rules the US.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
When I first started reading the article, I thought: "Hey.. he got short changed!".
But then, his life is described as a chain of avoidance of responsibilities or so the article notes. He doesn't want children because he doesn't want to work to make enough to support them. He doesn't own a computer of his own, he just uses the foundation's. He charges people high costs for his services. He lives in a rented home.
And he is advocating free software? Maybe he should live his life like his claimed ideal before he goes out and make statements against a man, Linux Torvalds, who not only took the time to work on a critical piece of software, work with others on it, share his work openly, and MAKE the time and put in the EFFORT to be responsible to the public.
Linux takes his position seriously and because of that, he will be taken seriously.
From the article, it looks like Stallman wants no responsibility, not even for his own statements, yet wants the accolade for a project which is used with Linux, not what makes Linux.
I agree with the final note in the article. That Stallman's abrasive personality does little to help him become better noticed. No one wants to spend time with or on someone who seems to condemn the world and at the same time, show utter apathy towards it and himself and his own life.
Just my two cents.
(On a side note, Stallman, if he had taken the time to work with people instead of, as the article suggests, bitch about things, he might be more respected on a personal level. Many a contributing members of society have gone unnoticed despite their hard work simply because they decide to seclude themselves and communicate with no one but an elite few.)
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
who get's in where...
Sounds like segretation to me.
What? You use Intel's crap? Get lost!
Heh? What's that? You a AMD user? Go somewhere else.
Huh? Cyrix? Stop taking up server bandwidth!
It would be so simple to turn the PIII id code into an ANTI-PIII screening process. The irony might just be a web message to PIII users:
Error: Insufficient Processing Power to access this web page.
Please upgrade upgrade to AMD K7 or better.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
I mean... does every troll post have to have some inanity about that F*cking Bill Gates ramming Sh*t down every two bit computer user's throat and a hard whatchamacallit up their *ss's?
Probably not.
The obviously superior OS, and I do mean OS as in "Outdated Software", Win-whatever, runs circles around unix stuff. Yeah, sure.
I mean.. we are talking about windows which runs on today's desktop PC's compared to the unixes which require those large and expensive computing units, right? Can't WE SEE that unix is outdatted?
Probably not.. not with all that sh*t all over the place.
Not only that, but just imagine the benefits of running a truly superior OS like win-something-or-other. You'd never need a UPS(because it wouldn't help you), you wouldn't need an administrator(because anyone can crash it just as easily), you wouldn't need powerful hardware(You'd need EXPENSIVE and VERY VERY Powerful hardware to squeeze ANY performance out of it), and best of all, it's like an STD. Once you've got it, you've pretty much got it for life... and probably where it really hurts.
Now.. compare this to those crufy old useless unix systems. You'll need lot's of backup and UPS's because you'll always have important stuff on those machines. You'd need an administrator who's trained and knowledgable because unix is a software that requires someone who can think behind that keyboard. And you'd better save those pennies, because with only a fraction of the money needed to buy a unix-capable piece of hardware which can outperform win-blows anyday of the week(can't say month since Win-dump won't last that long).
But hey.. go with that unix or linux. Sure as hell won't piss off Billy "boy" gates. But you'll probably make your customers happy. And as any "good"(as defined by MS) knows, that's the LAST thing you should do.
[maybe.. just maybe.. this will get a passing grade. :p]
Disclaimer:
Btw, the above rant does not represent mine or anyone's(as far as I know) perspective about computers, OS's, and the industry. The characters are fictional and any resemblence to real life individuals would be sad.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Hmm... how about..
[Palm Pilot scheduler/program log]
or "A day in the life of a terrorist palm pilot program."
6:30am [palm-auto-signal bomb-net to attention]
6:45am Wake up alarm
7:00am [palm-auto-signal check house perimeter logs]
7:15am Show latest horse race results.
7:30am Activate lawn sprinklers.
8:00am [palm-auto-signal internet-email-threat send to predetermined list of people]
8:15am [palm-auto-signal check bomb-net readiness]
8:20am Send page to "boss" signalling readiness.
8:30am [palm-auto-signal respond to email's with demands]
9:00am Analyse response emails for lack of belief.
9:05am Detonate bombs in areas lacking belief.
9:10am Re-send threats and demands.
9:30am Record all emails and analyse for straggling believers.
10:00am Page "boss" with new updated status.
10:30am Send page to dry cleaner to have suits delivered to suite.
10:45am Phone local florist to deliver flowers to address.
11:00am Re-send threats and give instructions on how, where, and when to deliver on demands.
11:30am Send page to "boss" about results.
12:00pm Order out for pizza.
12:05pm "Boss" returns home.
12:10pm "Boss" receives pizza.
12:30pm "Boss" recieves dry cleaning.
01:00pm incoming call for "boss" from "girlfriend". Flowers recieved.
01:30pm Funds transfer detected. Routing funds to private account.
01:45pm Funds retransferred to seperate accounts.
02:00pm Previous funds transactions deleted.
02:15pm Make reservation for limmo. Reserve seats for movie/show.
03:00pm display reservation dates/times for "boss".
03:15pm send page to "boss"'s girlfriend.
04:00pm Girlfriend arrives.
04:05pm Reservations printed out.
04:15pm Limmo arrives.
04:20pm House empty. Turn on porch lights.
05:00pm Sync discs. Explode remaining bombs. Send thank-you emails to threat targets. Erase dummy transaction fund accounts.
05:05pm power-down/recharge.
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Support may be shuffled off to a third party, :)
which in this case is LinuxCare. However, they
may not have puzzled out how to support Linux.
But it is cheaper to hire people are know than to
retrain people in your employment again. Plus,
given that people are trained for windoze, doesn't
seem worthwhile to retrain them to Linux, considering
how expensive those Win-train sessions are.
But the important note is that Linux IS getting
shipped out there. That it get's exposure. So they
buy support from a third party. They are still
offering a token gesture.. even if it does show
just how scared companies are of MS that they
are hedging their bets and not really committing
as much money into the projects.
Seriously though, it is cheaper and easier to have
a third party do the support. Especially when
Linux isn't their expertise.
But then again, who knows.. maybe they are just
screwing around and making claims to get their
stock prices up and make some money without
violating any of their contracts or stepping on
toes. Guess we'll just see, won't we?
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.