yah, their stuff there rocks. not just the music tho, the graphics. and not just the phones either but so much other stuff.
after my brother showed me the video they shot, i thought Yamaha throwing a party like that was pretty cool. looked just like any other club goin off. sux to be us with the annoying nokia standard ringer i guess..
My brother lives in Tokyo and actually made some ring tones for Yamaha over there early this year. I thought it was weird cuz it seemed like such a big deal over there. Besides their phones being about 5-10 years ahead of ours (for real), they had a completely different attitude about it. They threw a huge party for the release there. He's a dj too, so they supported him spinning and had their ads and stuff all over - I guess kinda like a record release almost.
But it seems tho that since we're so behind here that that won't materialize like it has overseas - and not just Japan, but in a lot of other wireless countries. I dunno, our attitude and recording industry cartel just seems different here; hard to say what will happen..
I'm sure that'll get the RMS haters eyes rolling, but, dotGNU also deserves a mention. I know, cuz I'm a recent contributor to it. These guys have done a lot with fewer PR and resources than Ximian/Mono, but they're not as far along either.
They've actually done some stuff much different than Mono. For starters, their compiler is in C not C#. And it's able to general IL as well as Java bytecode and hs some other interesting approaches; not huge, but still very cool. One thing I find interesting with various OS vs. closed source projects - their approach.
From the code perspective, we read the Ecma spec and then crank out some code. If M$ has the entire spec patented as various 'processes' then I guess they could take the authors of Mono and dotGNU to court. It would be complicated tho and I'm sure there's already prior art out there for Strings, Input Buffers, Webservices, etc..
Frankly, I joined dotGNU because the Java tools are very mature and after working with them for the past 5 years, I'm really bored doing 'enterprise web apps'. There's much more fun, for me, in getting the foundation built; seeing how and if it will actually work. For me, all the top most layers are just fluff.
As far as ASP.NET goes, I'm actually thinking of something along the lines of a C# version of Java Servlets and JSPs. I've done ASP and I personally think it's pretty filthy. JSP can be just as much, but there are definitely more patterns applied to Servlets/JSPs than ASP. A C# implementation of the Servlet/JSP spec would be an interesting thing; and possible too! Altho, I obviously wouldn't be 'compliant', but could work the same with just a little different syntax.
Anyway, I finally realized that.NET can't be ignored. So if it's gonna be as big as J2EE (and it will) then there might as well be a some OS implementations out there for anyone and everyone to use. That will not really help M$ so much as it will make them work harder to justify using Windows as a platform when it can run just as well or better on others. Hats off to the Mono and dotGNU team for realizing this early on.
Look, first of all, this is total, albiet bad, sci-fi. The FSF might operate like PBS because they're both driven by contributions, grants, etc. Not by unending advertising.
There's nothing wrong at all with PBS. Granted, I'd rather see less Mobil or ADM 'sponsor ads', but where is the equivalent to Frontline, Nova, or the News Hour on regular tv? Right, there aren't any and never will be. Because quite a bit of the time, some of those shows might report on something that would conflict with one of their coporate owners. Oh no!
I could also say, where are the Emacs and vi/vim of the M$ world? Oh wait, right. You have to buy Visual Studio if you want to compile and code outside of notepad & cmd(which, will totally work).
The FSF provides people, who want it, a lot of stuff for free. Their annual operating budget is about $650k. Their sponsors can influence all they want, but 1) this would be self-defeating for them since there is no reason to do this, and 2) the code will always be available, sans some super govt. conspiracy to destroy every single copy of GPL code (which is pretty impossible); or people could stop using it.
The alternative for people in other countries, not just the good 'ol us of a, is high prices for shotty software. This is not plausible way for a lot of places, especially with a lower currency value than the us dollar, to use non-free software. It's a numbers game, plain and simple.
So, corporate sponsorship will continue to have little effect on the FSF (hasn't yet), PBS will still put out cool shows while Fox puts out another brain numbing "When bears attack, Six!", and the rest of the world will continue to use software (and organizations) they find value in.
Jesus, it's amazing! $10 a month!? Everyone bitches about M$ and Windows day in and day out. Yet I'm sure IE is prob/.'s biggest browser client. How do you get that? Uh, you have to have Windows (or CX Office/Wine:). So, short of pirating copies to install, you've all bought $100 of M$ crap! Possibly on a yearly or so basis. Then people whine about $10 for a foundation that, at least tries to help distribution of code instead of locking it all up for just a few people to benefit from!
Does Stallman own all GPL code? No. Do users get to keep copyright to the code they contribute? Yes. Are you free to use pretty much any GPL code in your application *and* sell it? Yes. Just include the source.
Oh, you're right, grandma and grandpa and mom and dad and Jim VC-less research Nerd down the street will wanna steal your trade secrets and compile your latest source for the coolest Mozilla plugin, therefore, screwing you out of a fortune. Get real! The reason M$ has switched from panic mode to embrace mode is because they see Linux server and desktop shipments are on the rise. Without the GPL, the computer industry would be in worse shape than it is now. If Quicken doesn't wanna write a client because they can't innovate some way to make money on Linux, then so be it. Where they fall, others will rise.
Everyone want's freedom when it's gone or don't care about it when it's there. Well, screw that. If you don't want an IE dominated web, use Mozilla or the OS equiv. If you want a M$-less domintate office, use Open Office. If you want to have control of your own audio or video content use a GPL OS or OS X. And if you want freedom in an industry that mostly doesn't care much about your freedom, then consider a piddly, measely, $10/mo. Something you probably wouldn't think twice about paying to the latest crappy blockbuster movie out there. Jeeze, 10$..
Come ON! This is such bs! Granted Stallman if pretty far out there, but so is Gates. And in fact, so is Jobs too! Linux will probably, definitely, outlive OS X (I forget where I read, but the Linux desktop it will outnumber OS X desktops by next year or somethin), or at least out nubmer it substantially.
Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with free software and I'd rather the public have access to code and ideas than just a few corporations via their rules. I think it takes two extremes to get people to find an acceptable medium. You sometimes need the extremes to wake people up for the long term. I have no problem with selling consulting services and contributing to the FSF not just with my pocketbook, but also with coding abilities. Like Lessig said "what have you contributed lately?"
As far as your 'unemployed' issue, it has absolutely nothing to do with Stallman. More to do with the banking industry over the past.con years and how they took the public on a ride off a cliff (which most went willingly I might add) and corporate America's insatiable appetite to gobble up more, pay their execs more, and lay off the average Joe more. But those are only a few reasons and frankly, it's not that simple.
Point really being, sell your brain power as services that you can dictate, or, punch a clock which someone else will dictate; the struggle of the worker since time began..
Exactly! Read the story and i think the prefer is kinda lame. He says in it he'll use whatever works and right now Linux works. How is that preferring? It's like saying Casio preferrs to use WinCE on their handheld XXX.
how when we really need regulation, like keeping all the cable companies out of the internet business (net control + content ownership = lost rights and caps) the gov is keen to look the other way?
We're not far off from more examples of Starbucks-taking-over-wifi-everywhere. R.I.P. free and open networks.
You are absolutely correct. However, politicians may steal as much as they can, but it's the people that still elect them. Only when the masses wake up will things change. And unfortunately, throughout history, this has rarely happened until after the point of no return.
What you list above is an admirable way to protect the 'homeland' but it still misses the main problem. Check out Usama's letter on what his reasoning is. We were founded on the premise of religious tolerance. However, there are elements linked to the government through the current administration that are now just as bad as Usama himself. Extremist conservtives drunk with intolerance of any religion other than Christianity and set on enforcing their view of morality on the rest of the world - just like Usama. Only difference is that they have the worlds largest military and corporations to back it up.
When and if we correct this problem, will there be no or little reason to monitor our borders and ports - except maybe to keep others away from prosperity (which sounds odd if you think about it). But for now, I fear you're correct and we are already starting to see ridiculous examples of democracy gone awry.
Good thing they didn't call it 'Outlook'. We'd probably not only never make it to the end of the movie but also at any time a long the way, our chairs would either fall apart or hot dog suddenly explode for no reason.
And what's wrong with a journey and an undefined destination?
I dunno, why does evey sci-fi or any film have to be this or that? It's like we can't look at something for what it is; we have to compare it to 2001 and Star Wars and what not. This makes me think that some people, who can't digest anything new, always need something else to compare it to in order for it to make 'sense'. Kinda nice that there is no big triumphant music and predictable ending. That all the effects don't overshadow a....., unusual story. I liked the fact that there were no opening credits and such. It's not the same 'ol same 'ol.
In a society where a few dictate foreign policy, we're bombarded left and right with what someone else says are the best products, and where a lot of people feel like they're just punching a clock, it's nice to have something once and a while not decided and ultimately in the end, left to us to interpret and to have it mean what it means to us as individuals. I found it somewhat Eastern and refreshing in the way it kinda just presented things and left me feeling like I can think about what it meant to me. Instead of 'yay, Yoda looks like a frog on crack with a laser sword'.
And btw, if fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate, why did Yoda get all pissed when he fought Dooku? Much contradiction i sense in these films..
Look, I'm sure the movie is cool. Has a lot of great symbolism, however I find the following (possible) bedfellows ironic:
1. Disney. Nuff said. 2. The oscars. like any other industry-circle-jerk awards show, gee..
who f**king cares if it wins the oscars!!!?!??? that seems more like a curse for any artistic endeavor. i dunno, i was bummed disney released it. like i need more of my money going to a shithole company bent on f**king up copyright laws and stealing from generations before, but not acknowledging it.
sorry but this article sux! i wish spirited away the best of luck, but i won't be seeing it...
Development methologies may have improved, and frankly, i believe that. however, most software is not just developed with the latest and best practices alone.
What really drives development, from my experience, is that grit that resides between the client (or target) and the developers: the management. And my experience more than not is that they:
1. don't care about best practices and just want it done 2. Care, but don't have budget or schedule - or so they say.
Bottom line is that everyone (or at least all managers) want it on time and under budget. But rarely can you get the two. This translates into cutting corners which produces shotty products which, in turn, makes the developers the scapegoat.
I was thinking the other day "what if more software was developed more the open source way - things usually don't get released until they're ready and where code is more peer-reviewed?" How would this affect the software industry? What would the upgrade cycle look like? What would the security landscape look like? Would there be a software industry today as we know it? Who knows?
You can release good products on time. But there has to be a orchestrated effort between management and development on what can and cannot be released in a reasonable schedule. Unfortunately, most of the shops I've worked with tend to ignore that and thusly, it doesn't matter what process or tools you're using since the integrity of the product is damaged from the onset in such a severe way that what ends up happening through the rest of the product lifetime is a catchup and patchup feedback loop.
*nix is what it is not because it needs a gui or anything like that, but because it's been put through the paces - years of research and dev - and not just constructed by people with a biz deadline in mind.
when people don't have version this or that or media this or upgrade thats hanging over their head constantly, then they produce different code.
plus, how many academic people work on win*? the *nix community has a good relationship with research institutions and the hacker (not cracker) community. these people ususally know what's up and don't care about the pretty aspect of it, which is all the biz, money making industry cares about. that is why you get something that's secure and works.
for systems that need to work, you want it as simple as possible. that means no guis, and text config files. why have some super-duper, encrypted, multiuser, proprietary, 64-bit reverse factored database just to store smb configurations or file system mappings? exactly. it's totally unnecessary and adds more complexity which adds more bugs which adds more security and other flaws.
simple and to the point - that's *nix is about. and that's why it just works.
i did. and, of course, it's very tough to find some fine print that says it requires a super drive.
i ended up spending around $600 for idvd and a dvd-r drive and firewire enclosure only to find out that idvd only supports superdives.
so in fact, apple's application of the dmca is not cool. in my case, i would have loved to have the patch for that and in fact i looked for quite a while and then just gave up.
apple has a nifty os & apps just to sell the hardware. just like m$ has a crappy os to sell office software..
Granted, times are lean, but during layoffs at my last company, I saw more top people still doing well. All us employees lost all our stock while the top execs got new stock and pay raises with the new company that bought us. My co-worker called it 'gift wrapping a turd'. How true.
I'm sure this is a very unpopular view, but I personally feel that if the belt needs to be tightened, we all need to do it. Not just a few.
My new company pays less and has me working more - like those in the article. I'm not sure how wise this is since this makes all of us here more stressed and burnt out. Sure, we're more productive, but people can only handle so much rhetoric, 50/60 hr weeks for 2/3 of the price before they just say 'screw this'.
One thing this has done for me is to galvanize my resolve to do something on my own. I personally still feel money is out there to be made. Epecially if you have good talents that Joe-first-year-college-dropout-100k-webmaster can't match. There will always be a need for people that know their stuff. Question is, will one be able to find it?
Having read the article thoroughly, this startling news shows the flaws in the brewing Open Source Zeitgeist that is gripping the software community.
You must be from some marketing camp or something. If you've ever developed software, then you would know that m$ only get's you so far: as far as you wallet can take you. OS on the other hand, as far as you mind wants to go.
And don't just think about China, think about India too or any other country coming to grips with expensive foreign software costs. How many people there can afford m$ licenses? Few.
People will always do questionable things with software and that's not the point. The point is the freedom to do whatever you want. When people have true freedom and are not burdend by the few, the rich, then there will be no need for MySQL db's on dissenters and the like.
While your point is taken, I think it is irrelevant. No one complains about m$ software on missile friggits that crashes the entire ship. What would happen if some people got control of that ship, after the crash, rebooted, and then launched some nukes or weapons or whatever? Stupid, huh? Yah, about as lame as your idea.
OS is good for all and in time, economies will change and we'll all reap the rewards of it.
The whole point of the web - from the beginning - was platform independence. However, it has now been relegated to the platform for one company.
Even tho there are other browsers, the critical mass is over and there will probably never be a non-m$ browser grip That being said and being that the OS might be obsolete some day, you can count on the powers that be to try to wrestle control of whatever the 3d info app will be.
It's sad really because I really believed in the platform/OS independent 'viewer'. But with the way things have gone in round one of data for everyone, I don't have much hope for future revisions.
However, I will always pledge to code 'correctly' and to standards. Of course, I/we are probably doomed to forever be the minority. Sigh..
Unlikely!
on
Halloween VII
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· Score: 2, Informative
First off, she was placed - no nevermind. No point in debating the fact that she was not qualified to sit on this case.
Anyway, even if she did care, nothing can be done about it now. It's over. The US has shown its' love for the almighty dollar once more. As asshcroft said - it was a victory for the American consumer.
All one can hope for is that m$ will fall by its' own hand. With substantial world unhappiness this can happen soon. I mean, really, how can poorer countries be expected to shell out >=$75 ever other year for stupid upgrades and fixes? Economically, their business is not sustainable.
Unfortunately, we're gonna have to wait for that to happen - which is the worst! Ugh, waiting...
"Oh well, if you use Winodws [insert >XP version here], then this won't be an issue because the new uber protocol solves this. Unfortunately, you're only entitled to an upgrade and not a service pack."
This will of course break Samba, but hey, all in the name of the freedom to innovate.
second, very few people care about this kinda thing. m$ knows that. there will be a small underground thing that will exist for this stuff, but it'll never hit critical mass as long as people buy products that contain these ridiculous eulas. i mean, how fscked up is that?! only to use and not tinker with!?
along with the copyright and patent systems that need to be reformed, we have to get rid of eulas. they do nothing but tie our hands and are the most ridiculous thing ever!
when bill was getting his house built, the contractors should have made him sign some ridiculous eula stating that he could not sue or call for repairs if anyone (including the contractors themselves) broke in; if something in the house went wrong; or if he wanted something in the house changed (i.e. customized). instead he would have to wait until the contractor (or any contractor for that matter) decided that they *might* wanna fix something. Oh, and the contractor would be able to come back at any time and hang out there. better yet, kick bill out and take over for an undetermined time. all the while touting expensive upgrades that won't work and take years to complete and are never delivered on time and to spec.
but sadly, we don't live in that world. anyway, i specifically will not buy an xbox because of stupid crap like this. if i buy a machine of any kind, i expect to 100% own it. and i don't want *anyone* telling me what i can and can't do with it. because after all, it's mine! down with the dmca - for real. and quit buying these things until they change this sort of stuff! jeeze..
unfortunately, most people really don't care. honestly, we're a thoughtful bunch, but if u go to the corner of say, times sq, and set up a booth asking people about this here's some of the likely responses you'll get:
1. "i don't care as long as i can watch/listen to my stuff" 2. "hmm, yah that sucks. but if i have to use it i will"
there's gonna have to be a major shift in the 'herd' mentality to actually think for itself and vote with the pocketbook.
i dunno, i'll fight it all the way, forever maybe, but realistically, people don't change and once something or someone is in power, unless it's life threatening, people won't rise up to change it.
Dump Limewire! Go to xlife. They have a cocoa interface and *no* spyware/assware/crapware/loserware or excuses at all. I'm really pissed about this. Geeze, I mean, how ridiculous will this whole p2p thing get? Like someone else mentioned, with vendors like this, who needs enemies or the riaa, etc.? In the end, if p2p does fail, it will be because, as usualy, of the blatant greed of a few (or many) companies.
A while back I actually bought Limewire pro thinking i was supporting a 'developer community' and all that crap. Oh well, guess everything else goes into the toilet at some point.
Slashdot Mirror
yah, their stuff there rocks. not just the music tho, the graphics. and not just the phones either but so much other stuff.
after my brother showed me the video they shot, i thought Yamaha throwing a party like that was pretty cool. looked just like any other club goin off. sux to be us with the annoying nokia standard ringer i guess..
My brother lives in Tokyo and actually made some ring tones for Yamaha over there early this year. I thought it was weird cuz it seemed like such a big deal over there. Besides their phones being about 5-10 years ahead of ours (for real), they had a completely different attitude about it. They threw a huge party for the release there. He's a dj too, so they supported him spinning and had their ads and stuff all over - I guess kinda like a record release almost.
But it seems tho that since we're so behind here that that won't materialize like it has overseas - and not just Japan, but in a lot of other wireless countries. I dunno, our attitude and recording industry cartel just seems different here; hard to say what will happen..
I'm sure that'll get the RMS haters eyes rolling, but, dotGNU also deserves a mention. I know, cuz I'm a recent contributor to it. These guys have done a lot with fewer PR and resources than Ximian/Mono, but they're not as far along either.
.NET can't be ignored. So if it's gonna be as big as J2EE (and it will) then there might as well be a some OS implementations out there for anyone and everyone to use. That will not really help M$ so much as it will make them work harder to justify using Windows as a platform when it can run just as well or better on others. Hats off to the Mono and dotGNU team for realizing this early on.
They've actually done some stuff much different than Mono. For starters, their compiler is in C not C#. And it's able to general IL as well as Java bytecode and hs some other interesting approaches; not huge, but still very cool. One thing I find interesting with various OS vs. closed source projects - their approach.
From the code perspective, we read the Ecma spec and then crank out some code. If M$ has the entire spec patented as various 'processes' then I guess they could take the authors of Mono and dotGNU to court. It would be complicated tho and I'm sure there's already prior art out there for Strings, Input Buffers, Webservices, etc..
Frankly, I joined dotGNU because the Java tools are very mature and after working with them for the past 5 years, I'm really bored doing 'enterprise web apps'. There's much more fun, for me, in getting the foundation built; seeing how and if it will actually work. For me, all the top most layers are just fluff.
As far as ASP.NET goes, I'm actually thinking of something along the lines of a C# version of Java Servlets and JSPs. I've done ASP and I personally think it's pretty filthy. JSP can be just as much, but there are definitely more patterns applied to Servlets/JSPs than ASP. A C# implementation of the Servlet/JSP spec would be an interesting thing; and possible too! Altho, I obviously wouldn't be 'compliant', but could work the same with just a little different syntax.
Anyway, I finally realized that
Look, first of all, this is total, albiet bad, sci-fi. The FSF might operate like PBS because they're both driven by contributions, grants, etc. Not by unending advertising.
There's nothing wrong at all with PBS. Granted, I'd rather see less Mobil or ADM 'sponsor ads', but where is the equivalent to Frontline, Nova, or the News Hour on regular tv? Right, there aren't any and never will be. Because quite a bit of the time, some of those shows might report on something that would conflict with one of their coporate owners. Oh no!
I could also say, where are the Emacs and vi/vim of the M$ world? Oh wait, right. You have to buy Visual Studio if you want to compile and code outside of notepad & cmd(which, will totally work).
The FSF provides people, who want it, a lot of stuff for free. Their annual operating budget is about $650k. Their sponsors can influence all they want, but 1) this would be self-defeating for them since there is no reason to do this, and 2) the code will always be available, sans some super govt. conspiracy to destroy every single copy of GPL code (which is pretty impossible); or people could stop using it.
The alternative for people in other countries, not just the good 'ol us of a, is high prices for shotty software. This is not plausible way for a lot of places, especially with a lower currency value than the us dollar, to use non-free software. It's a numbers game, plain and simple.
So, corporate sponsorship will continue to have little effect on the FSF (hasn't yet), PBS will still put out cool shows while Fox puts out another brain numbing "When bears attack, Six!", and the rest of the world will continue to use software (and organizations) they find value in.
Jesus, it's amazing! $10 a month!? Everyone bitches about M$ and Windows day in and day out. Yet I'm sure IE is prob /.'s biggest browser client. How do you get that? Uh, you have to have Windows (or CX Office/Wine :). So, short of pirating copies to install, you've all bought $100 of M$ crap! Possibly on a yearly or so basis. Then people whine about $10 for a foundation that, at least tries to help distribution of code instead of locking it all up for just a few people to benefit from!
Does Stallman own all GPL code? No. Do users get to keep copyright to the code they contribute? Yes. Are you free to use pretty much any GPL code in your application *and* sell it? Yes. Just include the source.
Oh, you're right, grandma and grandpa and mom and dad and Jim VC-less research Nerd down the street will wanna steal your trade secrets and compile your latest source for the coolest Mozilla plugin, therefore, screwing you out of a fortune. Get real! The reason M$ has switched from panic mode to embrace mode is because they see Linux server and desktop shipments are on the rise. Without the GPL, the computer industry would be in worse shape than it is now. If Quicken doesn't wanna write a client because they can't innovate some way to make money on Linux, then so be it. Where they fall, others will rise.
Everyone want's freedom when it's gone or don't care about it when it's there. Well, screw that. If you don't want an IE dominated web, use Mozilla or the OS equiv. If you want a M$-less domintate office, use Open Office. If you want to have control of your own audio or video content use a GPL OS or OS X. And if you want freedom in an industry that mostly doesn't care much about your freedom, then consider a piddly, measely, $10/mo. Something you probably wouldn't think twice about paying to the latest crappy blockbuster movie out there. Jeeze, 10$..
Come ON! This is such bs! Granted Stallman if pretty far out there, but so is Gates. And in fact, so is Jobs too! Linux will probably, definitely, outlive OS X (I forget where I read, but the Linux desktop it will outnumber OS X desktops by next year or somethin), or at least out nubmer it substantially.
.con years and how they took the public on a ride off a cliff (which most went willingly I might add) and corporate America's insatiable appetite to gobble up more, pay their execs more, and lay off the average Joe more. But those are only a few reasons and frankly, it's not that simple.
Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with free software and I'd rather the public have access to code and ideas than just a few corporations via their rules. I think it takes two extremes to get people to find an acceptable medium. You sometimes need the extremes to wake people up for the long term. I have no problem with selling consulting services and contributing to the FSF not just with my pocketbook, but also with coding abilities. Like Lessig said "what have you contributed lately?"
As far as your 'unemployed' issue, it has absolutely nothing to do with Stallman. More to do with the banking industry over the past
Point really being, sell your brain power as services that you can dictate, or, punch a clock which someone else will dictate; the struggle of the worker since time began..
Exactly! Read the story and i think the prefer is kinda lame. He says in it he'll use whatever works and right now Linux works. How is that preferring? It's like saying Casio preferrs to use WinCE on their handheld XXX.
how when we really need regulation, like keeping all the cable companies out of the internet business (net control + content ownership = lost rights and caps) the gov is keen to look the other way?
We're not far off from more examples of Starbucks-taking-over-wifi-everywhere. R.I.P. free and open networks.
You are absolutely correct. However, politicians may steal as much as they can, but it's the people that still elect them. Only when the masses wake up will things change. And unfortunately, throughout history, this has rarely happened until after the point of no return.
What you list above is an admirable way to protect the 'homeland' but it still misses the main problem. Check out Usama's letter on what his reasoning is. We were founded on the premise of religious tolerance. However, there are elements linked to the government through the current administration that are now just as bad as Usama himself. Extremist conservtives drunk with intolerance of any religion other than Christianity and set on enforcing their view of morality on the rest of the world - just like Usama. Only difference is that they have the worlds largest military and corporations to back it up.
When and if we correct this problem, will there be no or little reason to monitor our borders and ports - except maybe to keep others away from prosperity (which sounds odd if you think about it). But for now, I fear you're correct and we are already starting to see ridiculous examples of democracy gone awry.
Good thing they didn't call it 'Outlook'. We'd probably not only never make it to the end of the movie but also at any time a long the way, our chairs would either fall apart or hot dog suddenly explode for no reason.
Sure and while we're at it, we'll keep tanks rolling, helicopters dispensing missles and killing kids on both side. Both are to blame, not just one!
And what's wrong with a journey and an undefined destination?
I dunno, why does evey sci-fi or any film have to be this or that? It's like we can't look at something for what it is; we have to compare it to 2001 and Star Wars and what not. This makes me think that some people, who can't digest anything new, always need something else to compare it to in order for it to make 'sense'. Kinda nice that there is no big triumphant music and predictable ending. That all the effects don't overshadow a....., unusual story. I liked the fact that there were no opening credits and such. It's not the same 'ol same 'ol.
In a society where a few dictate foreign policy, we're bombarded left and right with what someone else says are the best products, and where a lot of people feel like they're just punching a clock, it's nice to have something once and a while not decided and ultimately in the end, left to us to interpret and to have it mean what it means to us as individuals. I found it somewhat Eastern and refreshing in the way it kinda just presented things and left me feeling like I can think about what it meant to me. Instead of 'yay, Yoda looks like a frog on crack with a laser sword'.
And btw, if fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate, why did Yoda get all pissed when he fought Dooku? Much contradiction i sense in these films..
Look, I'm sure the movie is cool. Has a lot of great symbolism, however I find the following (possible) bedfellows ironic:
1. Disney. Nuff said.
2. The oscars. like any other industry-circle-jerk awards show, gee..
who f**king cares if it wins the oscars!!!?!??? that seems more like a curse for any artistic endeavor. i dunno, i was bummed disney released it. like i need more of my money going to a shithole company bent on f**king up copyright laws and stealing from generations before, but not acknowledging it.
sorry but this article sux! i wish spirited away the best of luck, but i won't be seeing it...
Development methologies may have improved, and frankly, i believe that. however, most software is not just developed with the latest and best practices alone.
What really drives development, from my experience, is that grit that resides between the client (or target) and the developers: the management. And my experience more than not is that they:
1. don't care about best practices and just want it done
2. Care, but don't have budget or schedule - or so they say.
Bottom line is that everyone (or at least all managers) want it on time and under budget. But rarely can you get the two. This translates into cutting corners which produces shotty products which, in turn, makes the developers the scapegoat.
I was thinking the other day "what if more software was developed more the open source way - things usually don't get released until they're ready and where code is more peer-reviewed?" How would this affect the software industry? What would the upgrade cycle look like? What would the security landscape look like? Would there be a software industry today as we know it? Who knows?
You can release good products on time. But there has to be a orchestrated effort between management and development on what can and cannot be released in a reasonable schedule. Unfortunately, most of the shops I've worked with tend to ignore that and thusly, it doesn't matter what process or tools you're using since the integrity of the product is damaged from the onset in such a severe way that what ends up happening through the rest of the product lifetime is a catchup and patchup feedback loop.
*nix is what it is not because it needs a gui or anything like that, but because it's been put through the paces - years of research and dev - and not just constructed by people with a biz deadline in mind.
when people don't have version this or that or media this or upgrade thats hanging over their head constantly, then they produce different code.
plus, how many academic people work on win*? the *nix community has a good relationship with research institutions and the hacker (not cracker) community. these people ususally know what's up and don't care about the pretty aspect of it, which is all the biz, money making industry cares about. that is why you get something that's secure and works.
for systems that need to work, you want it as simple as possible. that means no guis, and text config files. why have some super-duper, encrypted, multiuser, proprietary, 64-bit reverse factored database just to store smb configurations or file system mappings? exactly. it's totally unnecessary and adds more complexity which adds more bugs which adds more security and other flaws.
simple and to the point - that's *nix is about. and that's why it just works.
i did. and, of course, it's very tough to find some fine print that says it requires a super drive.
i ended up spending around $600 for idvd and a dvd-r drive and firewire enclosure only to find out that idvd only supports superdives.
so in fact, apple's application of the dmca is not cool. in my case, i would have loved to have the patch for that and in fact i looked for quite a while and then just gave up.
apple has a nifty os & apps just to sell the hardware. just like m$ has a crappy os to sell office software..
is top executive pay. What else is new...
Granted, times are lean, but during layoffs at my last company, I saw more top people still doing well. All us employees lost all our stock while the top execs got new stock and pay raises with the new company that bought us. My co-worker called it 'gift wrapping a turd'. How true.
I'm sure this is a very unpopular view, but I personally feel that if the belt needs to be tightened, we all need to do it. Not just a few.
My new company pays less and has me working more - like those in the article. I'm not sure how wise this is since this makes all of us here more stressed and burnt out. Sure, we're more productive, but people can only handle so much rhetoric, 50/60 hr weeks for 2/3 of the price before they just say 'screw this'.
One thing this has done for me is to galvanize my resolve to do something on my own. I personally still feel money is out there to be made. Epecially if you have good talents that Joe-first-year-college-dropout-100k-webmaster can't match. There will always be a need for people that know their stuff. Question is, will one be able to find it?
Meh. I noticed a decent difference on my tibook when i added in 256mb more to the ram. I don't have many probs at 512.
I do programming, movie editing and the usual stuff. The biggest problem is the speed of the disk. All notebooks at 4200rpm drives suck.
Other than that, I've used slower and crappier..
Having read the article thoroughly, this startling news shows the flaws in the brewing Open Source Zeitgeist that is gripping the software community.
You must be from some marketing camp or something. If you've ever developed software, then you would know that m$ only get's you so far: as far as you wallet can take you. OS on the other hand, as far as you mind wants to go.
And don't just think about China, think about India too or any other country coming to grips with expensive foreign software costs. How many people there can afford m$ licenses? Few.
People will always do questionable things with software and that's not the point. The point is the freedom to do whatever you want. When people have true freedom and are not burdend by the few, the rich, then there will be no need for MySQL db's on dissenters and the like.
While your point is taken, I think it is irrelevant. No one complains about m$ software on missile friggits that crashes the entire ship. What would happen if some people got control of that ship, after the crash, rebooted, and then launched some nukes or weapons or whatever? Stupid, huh? Yah, about as lame as your idea.
OS is good for all and in time, economies will change and we'll all reap the rewards of it.
The whole point of the web - from the beginning - was platform independence. However, it has now been relegated to the platform for one company.
Even tho there are other browsers, the critical mass is over and there will probably never be a non-m$ browser grip
That being said and being that the OS might be obsolete some day, you can count on the powers that be to try to wrestle control of whatever the 3d info app will be.
It's sad really because I really believed in the platform/OS independent 'viewer'. But with the way things have gone in round one of data for everyone, I don't have much hope for future revisions.
However, I will always pledge to code 'correctly' and to standards. Of course, I/we are probably doomed to forever be the minority. Sigh..
First off, she was placed - no nevermind. No point in debating the fact that she was not qualified to sit on this case.
Anyway, even if she did care, nothing can be done about it now. It's over. The US has shown its' love for the almighty dollar once more. As asshcroft said - it was a victory for the American consumer.
All one can hope for is that m$ will fall by its' own hand. With substantial world unhappiness this can happen soon. I mean, really, how can poorer countries be expected to shell out >=$75 ever other year for stupid upgrades and fixes? Economically, their business is not sustainable.
Unfortunately, we're gonna have to wait for that to happen - which is the worst! Ugh, waiting...
Yet another tool in the m$ security arsenal.
"Oh well, if you use Winodws [insert >XP version here], then this won't be an issue because the new uber protocol solves this. Unfortunately, you're only entitled to an upgrade and not a service pack."
This will of course break Samba, but hey, all in the name of the freedom to innovate.
first, shame on you.
second, very few people care about this kinda thing. m$ knows that. there will be a small underground thing that will exist for this stuff, but it'll never hit critical mass as long as people buy products that contain these ridiculous eulas. i mean, how fscked up is that?! only to use and not tinker with!?
along with the copyright and patent systems that need to be reformed, we have to get rid of eulas. they do nothing but tie our hands and are the most ridiculous thing ever!
when bill was getting his house built, the contractors should have made him sign some ridiculous eula stating that he could not sue or call for repairs if anyone (including the contractors themselves) broke in; if something in the house went wrong; or if he wanted something in the house changed (i.e. customized). instead he would have to wait until the contractor (or any contractor for that matter) decided that they *might* wanna fix something.
Oh, and the contractor would be able to come back at any time and hang out there. better yet, kick bill out and take over for an undetermined time. all the while touting expensive upgrades that won't work and take years to complete and are never delivered on time and to spec.
but sadly, we don't live in that world. anyway, i specifically will not buy an xbox because of stupid crap like this. if i buy a machine of any kind, i expect to 100% own it. and i don't want *anyone* telling me what i can and can't do with it. because after all, it's mine! down with the dmca - for real. and quit buying these things until they change this sort of stuff! jeeze..
unfortunately, most people really don't care. honestly, we're a thoughtful bunch, but if u go to the corner of say, times sq, and set up a booth asking people about this here's some of the likely responses you'll get:
1. "i don't care as long as i can watch/listen to my stuff"
2. "hmm, yah that sucks. but if i have to use it i will"
there's gonna have to be a major shift in the 'herd' mentality to actually think for itself and vote with the pocketbook.
i dunno, i'll fight it all the way, forever maybe, but realistically, people don't change and once something or someone is in power, unless it's life threatening, people won't rise up to change it.
i know, the spoil, huh?
Dump Limewire! Go to xlife. They have a cocoa interface and *no* spyware/assware/crapware/loserware or excuses at all. I'm really pissed about this. Geeze, I mean, how ridiculous will this whole p2p thing get? Like someone else mentioned, with vendors like this, who needs enemies or the riaa, etc.? In the end, if p2p does fail, it will be because, as usualy, of the blatant greed of a few (or many) companies.
A while back I actually bought Limewire pro thinking i was supporting a 'developer community' and all that crap. Oh well, guess everything else goes into the toilet at some point.