Exactly right. Interesting radio stations that I had listened to for decades were suddenly transformed into bland and boring once they were absorbed by Clear Channel. They became so desperate for ever increasing profits that the music-to-ad ratio has declined to barely above 50 percent. I don't know of anyone who listens to the radio for music any more. Except for the local classical music station that has minimal, announcer-read ads--they're still worth tuning into--and public radio for news, I rarely tune into an OTA radio station any more. All of the stations that have been bought up by these mega-corporations have turned to crap; playing the same corporate-mandated "hits" over and over and run by people who, apparently, really don't like music.
``Fedora users, for instance, will have to wait for a major OS upgrade for it to become available.''
Hmm... seems like something I might have expected to come from Microsoft: "You need to upgrade to Window XX to get this new interface". Since when did the user's choice of desktop become an operating system decision? Not that distribution packagers give a crap about what users want but, IMHO, the desktop software ought to get pulled out of the "/usr/..." tree and placed under "/opt/desktop/..." and be updatable on the user's schedule and not require a damned OS upgrade (except when there are underlying library dependencies).
I've been pushing for a return to mailing lists (listserv-type applications like Mailman, etc.) because of garbage like this. They ain't as fancy but the bells and whistles that Slack/Hipchat/etc. bring aren't really all that useful, are they? Emojis? Who gives a crap? You can't figure out what ":^)" or ":^(" means? Really?
Hmm... While my decision a while back to to begin transitioning away from Google for most searches was a good one, it may only be a temporary personal solution (or act of resistance) against a company that, frankly, already has way too much say about what is available on the 'net and how it's viewed. Isn't the explosion of ads and the gratuitous use of silly Javascript effects that litter every web page (hell... some sites' pages require Javascript just to implement anchors/links) one of the major reasons that web page loading has gotten slow? They don't really believe I'll be thrilled that ads and even more Javascript will be downloaded nearly instantaneously onto my phone, do they? (Or onto my desktop because, most assuredly, it won't be limited to just mobile.)
I'm beginning to think Richard Stallman's got the right idea about using/browsing the web. (See here) Probably time to begin adopting some of his practices.
That reminds me of the time, ages ago, when flying toasters ruled the screensaver world and a manager asked ``Wouldn't turning the monitor off be an even better way to save the screen? And keep our power usage down?'' as he looked out across the cubicle farm housing dozens and dozens of power-hungry CRT monitors all running screensavers.
...and, IMHO, it ought to get you written up by management. I've lost count of the sites I've pointed a browser at in recent weeks/months that were unavailable--for all intents and purposes, they may as well have been powered down if users can't access them--because someone screwed up and allowed certs to expire.
What did you expect people would do when they shell out upwards of $700 for a smartphone? Toss it after a year--maybe two--just so you can keep your shareholders and some financial industry analysts happy?
If I were a US corporation that just moved all my manufacturing over to China, I might be be a little worried that the new emperor, er, dictator might just say "Ours now". As you said, they have a billion customers. Would they need non-Chinese customers? Really?
I need to follow up on it but there are some stories going around about how fragile the Chinese economy really is and how close it might be to collapse. We may be close to living in those "interesting" times.
... over to China: That looks like it might not have been such a good idea now does it?
Think you'll have much bargaining power with some petty tyrant that wants to be dictator-for-life and whose first move is to ban letters of the alphabet?
On a similar note, LinkedIn jumped the shark shortly after falling under Microsoft's control and it began turning it into something Facebook-like. Ever notice how the default selection for your LI feed is "Top" posts (i.e., "popular")? Oh, you can change that to "Recent" but you cannot make that your default setting.
IMHO, LI stopped being a great place for finding jobs several years ago. But it's not bad if you don't mind your feed being inundated with useless crap that's somehow "Trending in Information Technology". That stuff is not why I joined years ago.
You might be able to receive a signal from 1-2 satellites through the aircraft window but that won't be enough for the receiver to form a position solution. You need at least three if your receiver clock is synchronized to GPS time or four if it isn't. And if you were lucky enough to "see" four satellites through the window, the position solution wouldn't be very good at all (like you'd care sitting in the window seat). Because of the awful SV configuration the resulting position would be wildy off (really poor PDOP).
...but fairly useless for anyone who has ever tried to do any sort of work on a flight using anything but the smallest netbook. It's been years since I last found that there was enough space in an airline seat to even open up a laptop. Time on the plane is better spent sleeping or listening to music---neither of which need wifi.
Is the ability to selectively clear cookies holding back Firefox development that you're making this function a 3rd-party add-on? Really? (An add-on that may not even exist for some time while it's being developed/debugged.)
What incentive do I have to switch back to Firefox from Chrome where I already have to rely on a external add-on to manage cookies? I'm thinking there isn't any reason to come back.
And how much has the cost of living gone up? There's a reason why families need two income earners to keep their heads above water or, hell, just to be able to save for that retirement that seems to be on the ever receding horizon (if the current crop of batshit insane millionaire politicians have anything to say about it). Increases in incomes have not kept pace with increases in productivity since the latter half of the 1970s.
I hope you've donned your asbestos longjohns. The flames from the Austrian economics adherents and others in favor of keeping the government out of all business decisions (like, based on his list of publications, Per Bylund) will be fierce. If/. was anything like Twitter, you'd likely already have 100s of nasty responses---mostly from Russian bots but responses just the same.
... is that it isn't removing humans from the risk of injuries while performing dangerous jobs. Everyone is thrilled that we no longer have to have people--or as many people--risking their lives swinging a pick in a mine. Those people were now free to pursue jobs that weren't life threatening. You could work in a store or an office--where the risk of being killed was minimal--and come home at night.
The problem now is that automation is taking those retail and office jobs away--hell, soon you won't even have the fallback of driving a cab--with no real plan in place to deal with how those displaced workers are going to do to earn a living even close to the levels they were pulling in prior to losing their job to automation. The U.S. has already gone from a situation where a single breadwinner was able to comfortably support a family to one where both parents have to be in the work force in order to support a family. I can't see where a family will turn if one--or both--parents wind up losing their jobs in some mad dash to automate everything. The only real beneficiaries after the elimination of jobs to automation are the business owners.
The ITIF ("A Champion for Innovation") web site claims that their work been relied on by the White House on various matters---including broadband policy. Well... which White House are we talking about? Depending the administration they claim to have worked with, they've either:
* advised the WH that Net Neutrality was best for innovation
* or they've advised the WH that allowing carriers to implement fast lanes is better for innovation.
I suspect most/. reader have strong opinions on which of these two options is the more innovative of the two. (Or maybe their input to the WH was merely that ``broadband==good''.)
Frankly, I suspect that the ITIF is all for AI everywhere and it's just tough cookies if you lose you job when that happens.
I don't want to talk to my speaker(s). I don't want or need for my speakers to order pizza for me or to tell me the capital of Montana. I don't need or want my speakers listening to me and sending data back to some monolithic infotech company who thinks what it's learned about me through eavesdropping on what takes place in my home is fair game to be sold to its business partners. All I want my speakers to do is faithfully reproduce the music I send to them. That's it.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly right. Interesting radio stations that I had listened to for decades were suddenly transformed into bland and boring once they were absorbed by Clear Channel. They became so desperate for ever increasing profits that the music-to-ad ratio has declined to barely above 50 percent. I don't know of anyone who listens to the radio for music any more. Except for the local classical music station that has minimal, announcer-read ads--they're still worth tuning into--and public radio for news, I rarely tune into an OTA radio station any more. All of the stations that have been bought up by these mega-corporations have turned to crap; playing the same corporate-mandated "hits" over and over and run by people who, apparently, really don't like music.
Hmm... seems like something I might have expected to come from Microsoft: "You need to upgrade to Window XX to get this new interface". Since when did the user's choice of desktop become an operating system decision? Not that distribution packagers give a crap about what users want but, IMHO, the desktop software ought to get pulled out of the "/usr/..." tree and placed under "/opt/desktop/..." and be updatable on the user's schedule and not require a damned OS upgrade (except when there are underlying library dependencies).
The idea behind this quote has been around for a while. A variation on this quote is often attributed to Mark Twain.
Another garden being walled off.
I've been pushing for a return to mailing lists (listserv-type applications like Mailman, etc.) because of garbage like this. They ain't as fancy but the bells and whistles that Slack/Hipchat/etc. bring aren't really all that useful, are they? Emojis? Who gives a crap? You can't figure out what ":^)" or ":^(" means? Really?
Hmm... While my decision a while back to to begin transitioning away from Google for most searches was a good one, it may only be a temporary personal solution (or act of resistance) against a company that, frankly, already has way too much say about what is available on the 'net and how it's viewed. Isn't the explosion of ads and the gratuitous use of silly Javascript effects that litter every web page (hell... some sites' pages require Javascript just to implement anchors/links) one of the major reasons that web page loading has gotten slow? They don't really believe I'll be thrilled that ads and even more Javascript will be downloaded nearly instantaneously onto my phone, do they? (Or onto my desktop because, most assuredly, it won't be limited to just mobile.)
I'm beginning to think Richard Stallman's got the right idea about using/browsing the web. (See here) Probably time to begin adopting some of his practices.
That reminds me of the time, ages ago, when flying toasters ruled the screensaver world and a manager asked ``Wouldn't turning the monitor off be an even better way to save the screen? And keep our power usage down?'' as he looked out across the cubicle farm housing dozens and dozens of power-hungry CRT monitors all running screensavers.
...and, IMHO, it ought to get you written up by management. I've lost count of the sites I've pointed a browser at in recent weeks/months that were unavailable--for all intents and purposes, they may as well have been powered down if users can't access them--because someone screwed up and allowed certs to expire.
You could get a rewarding job in a fast food "restaurant" as a "patty plopper". Do you have what it takes to keep up with Flippy?
On the other hand... his twitter gaffes do, sometimes anyway, provide a little comic relief from the onslaught of bad news coming out of DC.
Now back to my morning covfefe.
... fail to shed any tears for these companies.
What did you expect people would do when they shell out upwards of $700 for a smartphone? Toss it after a year--maybe two--just so you can keep your shareholders and some financial industry analysts happy?
If I were a US corporation that just moved all my manufacturing over to China, I might be be a little worried that the new emperor, er, dictator might just say "Ours now". As you said, they have a billion customers. Would they need non-Chinese customers? Really?
I need to follow up on it but there are some stories going around about how fragile the Chinese economy really is and how close it might be to collapse. We may be close to living in those "interesting" times.
OK... second move.
... over to China: That looks like it might not have been such a good idea now does it?
Think you'll have much bargaining power with some petty tyrant that wants to be dictator-for-life and whose first move is to ban letters of the alphabet?
On a similar note, LinkedIn jumped the shark shortly after falling under Microsoft's control and it began turning it into something Facebook-like. Ever notice how the default selection for your LI feed is "Top" posts (i.e., "popular")? Oh, you can change that to "Recent" but you cannot make that your default setting.
IMHO, LI stopped being a great place for finding jobs several years ago. But it's not bad if you don't mind your feed being inundated with useless crap that's somehow "Trending in Information Technology". That stuff is not why I joined years ago.
You might be able to receive a signal from 1-2 satellites through the aircraft window but that won't be enough for the receiver to form a position solution. You need at least three if your receiver clock is synchronized to GPS time or four if it isn't. And if you were lucky enough to "see" four satellites through the window, the position solution wouldn't be very good at all (like you'd care sitting in the window seat). Because of the awful SV configuration the resulting position would be wildy off (really poor PDOP).
...but fairly useless for anyone who has ever tried to do any sort of work on a flight using anything but the smallest netbook. It's been years since I last found that there was enough space in an airline seat to even open up a laptop. Time on the plane is better spent sleeping or listening to music---neither of which need wifi.
Is the ability to selectively clear cookies holding back Firefox development that you're making this function a 3rd-party add-on? Really? (An add-on that may not even exist for some time while it's being developed/debugged.)
What incentive do I have to switch back to Firefox from Chrome where I already have to rely on a external add-on to manage cookies? I'm thinking there isn't any reason to come back.
How do people who are not shilling for major corporations with nothing but a profit motive band together to address silly-assed arguments like this?
Are there groups that won't be merely waved off as a bunch of insignificant cranks because they don't have lobbyists?
EFF? Are they chiming in on this?
I see all sort of attempts to login through my firewall---even attempts via telnet, of all things.
Damn. Here I am with no mod points.
And how much has the cost of living gone up? There's a reason why families need two income earners to keep their heads above water or, hell, just to be able to save for that retirement that seems to be on the ever receding horizon (if the current crop of batshit insane millionaire politicians have anything to say about it). Increases in incomes have not kept pace with increases in productivity since the latter half of the 1970s.
I hope you've donned your asbestos longjohns. The flames from the Austrian economics adherents and others in favor of keeping the government out of all business decisions (like, based on his list of publications, Per Bylund) will be fierce. If /. was anything like Twitter, you'd likely already have 100s of nasty responses---mostly from Russian bots but responses just the same.
... is that it isn't removing humans from the risk of injuries while performing dangerous jobs. Everyone is thrilled that we no longer have to have people--or as many people--risking their lives swinging a pick in a mine. Those people were now free to pursue jobs that weren't life threatening. You could work in a store or an office--where the risk of being killed was minimal--and come home at night.
The problem now is that automation is taking those retail and office jobs away--hell, soon you won't even have the fallback of driving a cab--with no real plan in place to deal with how those displaced workers are going to do to earn a living even close to the levels they were pulling in prior to losing their job to automation. The U.S. has already gone from a situation where a single breadwinner was able to comfortably support a family to one where both parents have to be in the work force in order to support a family. I can't see where a family will turn if one--or both--parents wind up losing their jobs in some mad dash to automate everything. The only real beneficiaries after the elimination of jobs to automation are the business owners.
The ITIF ("A Champion for Innovation") web site claims that their work been relied on by the White House on various matters---including broadband policy. Well... which White House are we talking about? Depending the administration they claim to have worked with, they've either:
I suspect most /. reader have strong opinions on which of these two options is the more innovative of the two. (Or maybe their input to the WH was merely that ``broadband==good''.)
Frankly, I suspect that the ITIF is all for AI everywhere and it's just tough cookies if you lose you job when that happens.
I don't want to talk to my speaker(s). I don't want or need for my speakers to order pizza for me or to tell me the capital of Montana. I don't need or want my speakers listening to me and sending data back to some monolithic infotech company who thinks what it's learned about me through eavesdropping on what takes place in my home is fair game to be sold to its business partners. All I want my speakers to do is faithfully reproduce the music I send to them. That's it.