Remember Vista activitation problems? WGA problems? All because some F***wit decided to go live w/o testing and having no plan b/c/d in place if it failed.
A question that I have is why in hell can I get a bog standard 56/33k dialup connection 30KM from the Colec on the POTS (plain old telephone system) yet can't get any DSL at all? To me the answer is damn obvious. Simply mandate that all Telco's offer a bog standard always on naked dls connection (64/64) would be fine for many folks still on dialup. This would force the needed upgrade of all infrastructure to DSLAM in all COLEC facilities and would go hand in hand with a transition from the switched phone system to the TCP/IP based of Recent FCC Request for Public Comments issue (Have filed my comment). Another point I just thought of is that by going the Naked DSL offering, the Telco's could still meet their Obligated 911 service standard to all phones without offering voice services. Hell for those who want the new DSL service, you get no gauranty that service is available during power outages, saving the Telco's money by not having to ensure the battery system can handle the load for the regulated 24 hours before generators are brought in. I'm hopeful that if we make the transition over to the IP Packet based from Switched based system that this requirement will be added to the upgrade.
It's even worse then that. The establishment has been pushing the fact that people are not responsible for their own actions for the last 2 generations. This in turn results in more government power as people expect the government to step in and control things instead of them having to do it themselves and it looks to me like the damn Blue Bloods have succeeded in corrupting the "Great Experiment of Democracy" and taken power back from "We the People" but I don't have any suggestions other then outright execution of All Political Leaders throughout the entire world. But to be effective, it would have to be all of them at one time, otherwise the only other option is to "Nuke it from Orbit" to be sure we get all of them.
The proper form of address for Stallman is "The Hippie Dictator". It's his vision and idealism that created the entire FOSS community and he is its one true patriot and defender and needs to be referred to as such. In this case, he does have a legitimate complaint because some Gnome folks have been discussing their employers closed source products without any comparison/contrast or even reference to any open source alternatives, making it seem as though their employers have the only solution to certain problems. Furthermore as the creator of the FOSS concept, he fills the same role as Linus Torvalds in defining what constitutes FOSS, yet unlike Linus, he is not an absolute dictator that accepts/rejects apps based on his beliefs only.
Another thing at stake here is the historical efforts by MS to Embrace/Extend/Extinguis that appears to be in play with the Moonlight project, which isn't based on a clean room reverse engineering of the dot net protocols or even abi's. If they were to use published API's to provide the functionality, then the issue would not be as severe but when someone decides to drink the "MS Coolade" and accept their reasoning as right while accepting a paycheck from them, it raises the question of "Conflict of Interest" and follows the Extend/Embrace/Extinguish path that MS has followed in the past.
From what I've seen of the Moonlight/Mono project, it is in the extend/embrace stage right now by getting the Gnome folks so dependant upon MS Patents, that they're running the real risk of being shut down due to patent violations, which is the final Extinguish stage and they're damn good at playing that game. Oblig Quote "Do you want to play a game?""It seems the only way to win is not to play at all."/Oblig Quote: That's the situatation as I see it, yet Stallman has been a very lenient dictator in this regards as he's only asking the fools to
Label Moonlight as Proprietary and not base their desktop efforts on it
Expand your discussion of the products to include their OSS alternatives, no matter what state they're in
neither of these seem to be an onerous request but if they continue to misuses the FOSS label, the only option that will remain is the removal of the Right to declare themselves a FOSS project, thus destroying them as independant from MS in the eyes of the community. To me the only benefit of this actually going to court would be getting the FOSS Foundation declared as the Authoritive Answer to usage of the FOSS Label and Status. If that happens, the final step taken would be the removal of the right to use FOSS project, thus destroying Gnome as a Community Project unless it's completely forked.
Think about that. If the FOSS foundation revoked the authorization of the Gnome Project to label themselves as a FOSS project, how many Distro's would quit using it? Damn near all of them and I can already hear the screams of rage from the Debian Folks in regards to Gnome because it violates their FREE SOFTWARE TENANTS and COMMITMENT. They might still offer Gnome but it couldn't be in the Base distro anylonger since it wouldn't meet their definition would it?
You anti-semetic. I'm not a christian so keep your christian references out of any discourse about the American Dream. Especially as we've finally gotten an Argument that is based strictly upon the constitution that is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme court. If it's validated, you can kiss your christmas vacation and holiday goodbye under Seperataion of State and Religion.
Another that may finally be addressed is the Institution of Marriage as it's a Religious Institution. Many Religions allow Polygamous relationships, yet the only versions recognized by law are that of "A Man and Women" Singular. Main argument revolves around the Married Filing Seperately Tax Penalty. Personally I agree with the argument as there should be no special rate other then Head of Household. Otherwise, you've crossed the line into recognizing a religious institution as being equal under the law, yet refusing to accept under the law the relgious beliefs that regard polygamous relationships as common or even normal.
Lucky me, I've met a few women who'd be able to actually pull off a Polygamous Marriage with her having a harem of boy toys. Yes there's a few who might be able to do so. Of course there's also the fact that there are many men who are lucky enough to have multiple girls/wives and how about the folks who'd jump at the chance for a Line Marriage or even a contract marriage (isn't that what a prenuptial agreement is?).
I'm sure there are those who feel that Google should be willing to "stand up" to the Chinese Government, but when you boil it down to the basics, there is nothing obliging Google as a company to engage in this fight.
It's the corporate slogan "Don't Be Evil" that obligates them to stand up to China and tell em to go to F**ng Hell. Otherwise, that stated goal is worth nothing and Google has become as Evil as everyone fears.
Even if he isn't, unless they've got a contractual obligation with you either in writing or digitally Signed, you simply say "Thank You Very Much for the Free Gift" because under United States Commerce Laws, that's exactly what it would be and it's exactly what I've told many idiots who've sent me unsolicitated products.
FOCLMAO - Thankyou for the morning laugh. The reality is the fact that the United States isn't backed by Gold or anything other then wishful thinking. That's why in hell the credit crunch has been waiting to smack us upside the head with a clue stick. Only problem is, we need a clue truck to run congress over before they get the message.
If You've sold me a good/service based upon claims that
it's always on 24/7
I have this much bandwidth available to use
I have this many mailboxes available
then I fully expect to be able to use said good/service to it's limit when/how ever I want. I do not expect you to interfere with said good/service after I have purchased the right to use it as I want, otherwise I can/will nail you to the wall for false advertising and contract violation.
Higher Upfront Costs? Not the case any longer. You can now buy a Color Laser MFC for $120. This gets you a color copier, scanner, fax and printer for that price with a cost per page of $0.05 even on the starter cartridges good for only 1.5/3k pages. The nice thing about toner is it doesn't dry out like Ink does, plus even with the slightly higher price per cart, you get antyhing between 2-5x the amount of printing before needing replacements. I bought my color laser 3 yrs ago for $300 on sale and finally had to buy new toner for the thing. That's 3 yrs for the starter cartridges and the refills I bought, got damn lucky and picked up a pair of Quad Packs for $150 ea. Means the total cost for this printer has only now hit $600 and I expect the thing to be usable for at least 20 years, brining the cost per year down to $30. Can't buy any ink jets for that price today and get a 20 year lifespan plus Linux compatibility. Because of this, I see no reason to even bother looking at new printers. I've got one that meets my needs and has a useful lifespan without costing "Arm and Leg".
You mean you didn't know that the interstate highway system wasn't built for Joe Sixpack? Golly be. Why did Eisenhower push for it then? How about the fact that Nazi Germany was able to resist for so long because of their ability to quickly move troops and supplies to the fronts needed. That's what the Interstate Highway System was built for. the Movement of Commerce and Troops, not idiots like O.J. Simpson doing 35 on National T.V. supposedly with a gun to his head. Now get out of my pond you damn frog.
yet the current satelite images of the Polar caps show them growing, not shrinking. So who's Right? That is the damn question and in regards to the entire Global Warming Issue, I have questions about both the methodology, calculations and assumptions as they've not been properly debated with the flaws as pointed out being corrected to be more then mere hypothesis instead of the theory that each and everyone of the proponents claim to support. This is in direct contradiction of the Scientific Method and needs to be shot down right now. If needed, criminal charges need to be filed as Ethic Violations have appearently occurred. Just my 0.0000001% worth.
No I didn't RTFA, just the damn summary yet it looks as though Harvard's MBA's screwed up another investigation. Instead of looking for hospitals where patient care had been improved, they cut costs and screwed the entire study by looking at how computers helped save money. Stupid Gits. Even I know that if you look at how computers saved money, you aint going to get anything on how the computers improved patient care. As an example, my local hospital has dramatically upgraded their entire IT infrastructure and gone to E-records. My mothers primary care doc, is part of this system and has 24/7 access to all lab reports, X-Rays/MRI's/CatScans and anything else that's in the sytem, which has helped tremendously and this is an example of how computers and IT has improved patient care. Yes the evidence is ancedotal but it certainly has improved things for her.
As others have said, the systems are out there and it's just a matter of knowing who's got them. If we bother taking the time to really learn from those who've improved levels of care, we might finally be able to get some type of Universal health care that provides basic coverage in the United States, which should improve the overall health of the country. Yea I know, wishful thinking as to many people want access to those records.
an IT guy even though he makes a triple digit salary, gets a company vehicle and travels alot. What kind of work does he do you ask? Pretty simple really, he's a Service Tech for Printers/Copiers and yes He's in IT as IT refers to Information Tech and what is a Copier but a device for Copying Printed Information? Funny thing is, he actually makes more as a Service Tech then he would as a Service Engineer even though he'd get more respect from new customers.
Good points and in regards to the LSB, you are trully correct in the fact that it's a damn joke. I've tried Linux since 96 when I got a copy of Caldera 1.3 and was able to actually get my modem (USR hardware model) to work but in diving into the various versions of RH/Mandrake/Debian/Slack/Gentoo/LFS I discovered that the LSB was a joke for myself as there are to many Distro specific exceptions to the damn thing. RH is allowed to do things their way while Debian is allowed to do the same. Because of this, there really isn't any standard being enforced that's usable.
This is one of the biggest issues that faces Linux and is one reason that MS was able to take the market by storm. Sure MS couldn't care less about security in the early days but the did one thing that made it possible to take over like they did and that was develop a stable set of AP/ABI's that didn't change. This meant developers and companies could code in a stable manner and not have to worry about things breaking with every damn update unlike Linux and yes I do know what in hell I'm talking about. Although Windows had DLL hell that could give people real headaches, it was fairly easy for the coders to simply change the directory where the app located specific DLL version to it's installation folder though few did. In Linux though, unless you have a good package system and stick with strickly vanilla packages as offered by the Distro, you are screwed, blued and tattoo'd as soon as you step outside official repositories because of version specific library needs. Talk about DLL hell all you want, Linux suffers it's own version and becuase of the fragmentation, it isn't making the needed headway to take over the desktop. From where I sit right now, it'll be a cold day in Hell when Linux finally agrees on a standard and everyone follows it.
Actually, there needs to be an Antitrust suit against the "House of Lords" for anticompetitive behaviour since they disallow any competition with their rule.
You mean it's not a good idea for Joe Sixpack to write his own code? Damn. He can't be anyworse the MS over the last 20 years as far as crappy code goes. The really nice thing about it is that what actually works well will get improved and garbage will fall by the wayside as it should.
Everyone seems to forget that Corporations are Amoral and base all decisions on Legalities. Simply put, Morals have no place in a corporation as the decision goes like this. Is it Legal? Does it Offer a Competitive Advantage? If yes to both, Do it. It's that damn simple.
doesn't depend on Tech. Instead as The Foundation Series covered, it was the characters and the society that developed. The Tech was there to facilitate the telling of the story. It's the same with Star Wars. The tech existed but was not the focus of the story and that's what Sci-Fi has always covered. The social impact of technology. A classic that comes to mind is the Multiplex Man. Interesting and a good movie revolving around similar aspects was Johhny Mennomic.
How anyone can say that Sci-Fi is dead/dying is a mystery to me. Someone else mentioned David Webber (Honor Harrington Series) and even though it's Sci-Fi as a Genre, it's actually a damn good Action/Adventure series along the lines of the WWII Movies involving John Wayne and others. The same with David Drake (Hammer's Slammers) and any of the many Military Sci-Fi. None of them revolve around the Tech as the main element of the story. Instead the revolve around the action, character developments and social aspects and yes there's plenty of social commentary in the stories.
The First is the Exclusivity of the iPhone. Keep in mind that people could buy it from an Apple Store without the AT&T contract, which is one of the arguments in this case. All Other phones (Droid as example) can only be purchased from Verizon or an Authorized Retailer with Contract. No Ifs/Ands/Buts about it. You have to have the contract or Verizon wont send you the phone.
Second is the Doctrine of First Sale. If the exclusivity of the contract is invalidated due to the Apple Store selling them without AT&T contracts, then you can apply the Doctrine of First Sale to the purchase, which means the 1.1.1 update that bricked products is now called into question.
Third is the Sherman Anti-Trust issues which follows on the heels of the prior issues. WIthout a ruling on both them them in favor of the plaintiffs, you have no further case so I'm hopefull that the ruling goes in the plaintiffs favor as it means some expert will get to examine the 1.1.1 update source code and explain whether it did/not deliberately brick jailbroken phones. If the issue it suspposedly fixed was caused by the jail-breaking and there has been a decision that yes the arguments have standing (Exclusivity is not proven/Doctrine of First Sale) then you have a possible Anti-Trust decision against AT&T along with damages awarded to the Non-AT&T iPhone purchasers who's phones were bricked.
Then you simply use an Ablative layer that not only smokes when hit by a laser but the smoke helps dispate the beam before its able to do any further damage. Basic Sci-Fi here. Does it work? Quite well because the increased energy needs are any wheres between a factor of 10 to 20 for the originating laser, which is quite a step up in energy and might not be easily transportable. Note that the most effective level of protection will be from In Atmosphere instead of the vacuum of space where the effectiveness will only push the energy requirement up by a factor of 2 to 5, which is much easier to obtain.
I've got a friend who's still driving trucks over the road (long-haul) and he went with Verizon due to coverage. Although their customer service and contracts stink, they do have the widest coverage of all the wireless carriers and if you need service throughout the country, then they're pretty much the only choice.
Mainstream ATI competitor is the 4650, which is in current production and available for less then $80. That's what Nvidia is competing against. Specs are a DX10.1, 1GB of DDR3 and no external power needed. Very nice and I'm looking at one as an upgrade from a 7300GT, which is a meager DX9 card with only 256 onboard.
and don't forget to add the various advertisers into your hosts file since it'll speed up page loads. To many advertisers get overloaded, slowing down page loads plus I have no desire to waste bandwidth connecting to them in the first place.
Slashdot Mirror
Remember Vista activitation problems? WGA problems? All because some F***wit decided to go live w/o testing and having no plan b/c/d in place if it failed.
A question that I have is why in hell can I get a bog standard 56/33k dialup connection 30KM from the Colec on the POTS (plain old telephone system) yet can't get any DSL at all? To me the answer is damn obvious. Simply mandate that all Telco's offer a bog standard always on naked dls connection (64/64) would be fine for many folks still on dialup. This would force the needed upgrade of all infrastructure to DSLAM in all COLEC facilities and would go hand in hand with a transition from the switched phone system to the TCP/IP based of Recent FCC Request for Public Comments issue (Have filed my comment). Another point I just thought of is that by going the Naked DSL offering, the Telco's could still meet their Obligated 911 service standard to all phones without offering voice services. Hell for those who want the new DSL service, you get no gauranty that service is available during power outages, saving the Telco's money by not having to ensure the battery system can handle the load for the regulated 24 hours before generators are brought in. I'm hopeful that if we make the transition over to the IP Packet based from Switched based system that this requirement will be added to the upgrade.
It's even worse then that. The establishment has been pushing the fact that people are not responsible for their own actions for the last 2 generations. This in turn results in more government power as people expect the government to step in and control things instead of them having to do it themselves and it looks to me like the damn Blue Bloods have succeeded in corrupting the "Great Experiment of Democracy" and taken power back from "We the People" but I don't have any suggestions other then outright execution of All Political Leaders throughout the entire world. But to be effective, it would have to be all of them at one time, otherwise the only other option is to "Nuke it from Orbit" to be sure we get all of them.
The proper form of address for Stallman is "The Hippie Dictator". It's his vision and idealism that created the entire FOSS community and he is its one true patriot and defender and needs to be referred to as such. In this case, he does have a legitimate complaint because some Gnome folks have been discussing their employers closed source products without any comparison/contrast or even reference to any open source alternatives, making it seem as though their employers have the only solution to certain problems. Furthermore as the creator of the FOSS concept, he fills the same role as Linus Torvalds in defining what constitutes FOSS, yet unlike Linus, he is not an absolute dictator that accepts/rejects apps based on his beliefs only.
Another thing at stake here is the historical efforts by MS to Embrace/Extend/Extinguis that appears to be in play with the Moonlight project, which isn't based on a clean room reverse engineering of the dot net protocols or even abi's. If they were to use published API's to provide the functionality, then the issue would not be as severe but when someone decides to drink the "MS Coolade" and accept their reasoning as right while accepting a paycheck from them, it raises the question of "Conflict of Interest" and follows the Extend/Embrace/Extinguish path that MS has followed in the past.
From what I've seen of the Moonlight/Mono project, it is in the extend/embrace stage right now by getting the Gnome folks so dependant upon MS Patents, that they're running the real risk of being shut down due to patent violations, which is the final Extinguish stage and they're damn good at playing that game. Oblig Quote "Do you want to play a game?" "It seems the only way to win is not to play at all." /Oblig Quote: That's the situatation as I see it, yet Stallman has been a very lenient dictator in this regards as he's only asking the fools to
neither of these seem to be an onerous request but if they continue to misuses the FOSS label, the only option that will remain is the removal of the Right to declare themselves a FOSS project, thus destroying them as independant from MS in the eyes of the community. To me the only benefit of this actually going to court would be getting the FOSS Foundation declared as the Authoritive Answer to usage of the FOSS Label and Status. If that happens, the final step taken would be the removal of the right to use FOSS project, thus destroying Gnome as a Community Project unless it's completely forked.
Think about that. If the FOSS foundation revoked the authorization of the Gnome Project to label themselves as a FOSS project, how many Distro's would quit using it? Damn near all of them and I can already hear the screams of rage from the Debian Folks in regards to Gnome because it violates their FREE SOFTWARE TENANTS and COMMITMENT. They might still offer Gnome but it couldn't be in the Base distro anylonger since it wouldn't meet their definition would it?
For the love of christ
You anti-semetic. I'm not a christian so keep your christian references out of any discourse about the American Dream. Especially as we've finally gotten an Argument that is based strictly upon the constitution that is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme court. If it's validated, you can kiss your christmas vacation and holiday goodbye under Seperataion of State and Religion.
Another that may finally be addressed is the Institution of Marriage as it's a Religious Institution. Many Religions allow Polygamous relationships, yet the only versions recognized by law are that of "A Man and Women" Singular. Main argument revolves around the Married Filing Seperately Tax Penalty. Personally I agree with the argument as there should be no special rate other then Head of Household. Otherwise, you've crossed the line into recognizing a religious institution as being equal under the law, yet refusing to accept under the law the relgious beliefs that regard polygamous relationships as common or even normal.
Lucky me, I've met a few women who'd be able to actually pull off a Polygamous Marriage with her having a harem of boy toys. Yes there's a few who might be able to do so. Of course there's also the fact that there are many men who are lucky enough to have multiple girls/wives and how about the folks who'd jump at the chance for a Line Marriage or even a contract marriage (isn't that what a prenuptial agreement is?).
I'm sure there are those who feel that Google should be willing to "stand up" to the Chinese Government, but when you boil it down to the basics, there is nothing obliging Google as a company to engage in this fight.
It's the corporate slogan "Don't Be Evil" that obligates them to stand up to China and tell em to go to F**ng Hell. Otherwise, that stated goal is worth nothing and Google has become as Evil as everyone fears.
Even if he isn't, unless they've got a contractual obligation with you either in writing or digitally Signed, you simply say "Thank You Very Much for the Free Gift" because under United States Commerce Laws, that's exactly what it would be and it's exactly what I've told many idiots who've sent me unsolicitated products.
FOCLMAO - Thankyou for the morning laugh. The reality is the fact that the United States isn't backed by Gold or anything other then wishful thinking. That's why in hell the credit crunch has been waiting to smack us upside the head with a clue stick. Only problem is, we need a clue truck to run congress over before they get the message.
If You've sold me a good/service based upon claims that
then I fully expect to be able to use said good/service to it's limit when/how ever I want. I do not expect you to interfere with said good/service after I have purchased the right to use it as I want, otherwise I can/will nail you to the wall for false advertising and contract violation.
Higher Upfront Costs? Not the case any longer. You can now buy a Color Laser MFC for $120. This gets you a color copier, scanner, fax and printer for that price with a cost per page of $0.05 even on the starter cartridges good for only 1.5/3k pages. The nice thing about toner is it doesn't dry out like Ink does, plus even with the slightly higher price per cart, you get antyhing between 2-5x the amount of printing before needing replacements. I bought my color laser 3 yrs ago for $300 on sale and finally had to buy new toner for the thing. That's 3 yrs for the starter cartridges and the refills I bought, got damn lucky and picked up a pair of Quad Packs for $150 ea. Means the total cost for this printer has only now hit $600 and I expect the thing to be usable for at least 20 years, brining the cost per year down to $30. Can't buy any ink jets for that price today and get a 20 year lifespan plus Linux compatibility. Because of this, I see no reason to even bother looking at new printers. I've got one that meets my needs and has a useful lifespan without costing "Arm and Leg".
You mean you didn't know that the interstate highway system wasn't built for Joe Sixpack? Golly be. Why did Eisenhower push for it then? How about the fact that Nazi Germany was able to resist for so long because of their ability to quickly move troops and supplies to the fronts needed. That's what the Interstate Highway System was built for. the Movement of Commerce and Troops, not idiots like O.J. Simpson doing 35 on National T.V. supposedly with a gun to his head. Now get out of my pond you damn frog.
yet the current satelite images of the Polar caps show them growing, not shrinking. So who's Right? That is the damn question and in regards to the entire Global Warming Issue, I have questions about both the methodology, calculations and assumptions as they've not been properly debated with the flaws as pointed out being corrected to be more then mere hypothesis instead of the theory that each and everyone of the proponents claim to support. This is in direct contradiction of the Scientific Method and needs to be shot down right now. If needed, criminal charges need to be filed as Ethic Violations have appearently occurred. Just my 0.0000001% worth.
No I didn't RTFA, just the damn summary yet it looks as though Harvard's MBA's screwed up another investigation. Instead of looking for hospitals where patient care had been improved, they cut costs and screwed the entire study by looking at how computers helped save money. Stupid Gits. Even I know that if you look at how computers saved money, you aint going to get anything on how the computers improved patient care. As an example, my local hospital has dramatically upgraded their entire IT infrastructure and gone to E-records. My mothers primary care doc, is part of this system and has 24/7 access to all lab reports, X-Rays/MRI's/CatScans and anything else that's in the sytem, which has helped tremendously and this is an example of how computers and IT has improved patient care. Yes the evidence is ancedotal but it certainly has improved things for her.
As others have said, the systems are out there and it's just a matter of knowing who's got them. If we bother taking the time to really learn from those who've improved levels of care, we might finally be able to get some type of Universal health care that provides basic coverage in the United States, which should improve the overall health of the country. Yea I know, wishful thinking as to many people want access to those records.
an IT guy even though he makes a triple digit salary, gets a company vehicle and travels alot. What kind of work does he do you ask? Pretty simple really, he's a Service Tech for Printers/Copiers and yes He's in IT as IT refers to Information Tech and what is a Copier but a device for Copying Printed Information? Funny thing is, he actually makes more as a Service Tech then he would as a Service Engineer even though he'd get more respect from new customers.
Good points and in regards to the LSB, you are trully correct in the fact that it's a damn joke. I've tried Linux since 96 when I got a copy of Caldera 1.3 and was able to actually get my modem (USR hardware model) to work but in diving into the various versions of RH/Mandrake/Debian/Slack/Gentoo/LFS I discovered that the LSB was a joke for myself as there are to many Distro specific exceptions to the damn thing. RH is allowed to do things their way while Debian is allowed to do the same. Because of this, there really isn't any standard being enforced that's usable.
This is one of the biggest issues that faces Linux and is one reason that MS was able to take the market by storm. Sure MS couldn't care less about security in the early days but the did one thing that made it possible to take over like they did and that was develop a stable set of AP/ABI's that didn't change. This meant developers and companies could code in a stable manner and not have to worry about things breaking with every damn update unlike Linux and yes I do know what in hell I'm talking about. Although Windows had DLL hell that could give people real headaches, it was fairly easy for the coders to simply change the directory where the app located specific DLL version to it's installation folder though few did. In Linux though, unless you have a good package system and stick with strickly vanilla packages as offered by the Distro, you are screwed, blued and tattoo'd as soon as you step outside official repositories because of version specific library needs. Talk about DLL hell all you want, Linux suffers it's own version and becuase of the fragmentation, it isn't making the needed headway to take over the desktop. From where I sit right now, it'll be a cold day in Hell when Linux finally agrees on a standard and everyone follows it.
Actually, there needs to be an Antitrust suit against the "House of Lords" for anticompetitive behaviour since they disallow any competition with their rule.
You mean it's not a good idea for Joe Sixpack to write his own code? Damn. He can't be anyworse the MS over the last 20 years as far as crappy code goes. The really nice thing about it is that what actually works well will get improved and garbage will fall by the wayside as it should.
Everyone seems to forget that Corporations are Amoral and base all decisions on Legalities. Simply put, Morals have no place in a corporation as the decision goes like this. Is it Legal? Does it Offer a Competitive Advantage? If yes to both, Do it. It's that damn simple.
doesn't depend on Tech. Instead as The Foundation Series covered, it was the characters and the society that developed. The Tech was there to facilitate the telling of the story. It's the same with Star Wars. The tech existed but was not the focus of the story and that's what Sci-Fi has always covered. The social impact of technology. A classic that comes to mind is the Multiplex Man. Interesting and a good movie revolving around similar aspects was Johhny Mennomic.
How anyone can say that Sci-Fi is dead/dying is a mystery to me. Someone else mentioned David Webber (Honor Harrington Series) and even though it's Sci-Fi as a Genre, it's actually a damn good Action/Adventure series along the lines of the WWII Movies involving John Wayne and others. The same with David Drake (Hammer's Slammers) and any of the many Military Sci-Fi. None of them revolve around the Tech as the main element of the story. Instead the revolve around the action, character developments and social aspects and yes there's plenty of social commentary in the stories.
The First is the Exclusivity of the iPhone. Keep in mind that people could buy it from an Apple Store without the AT&T contract, which is one of the arguments in this case. All Other phones (Droid as example) can only be purchased from Verizon or an Authorized Retailer with Contract. No Ifs/Ands/Buts about it. You have to have the contract or Verizon wont send you the phone.
Second is the Doctrine of First Sale. If the exclusivity of the contract is invalidated due to the Apple Store selling them without AT&T contracts, then you can apply the Doctrine of First Sale to the purchase, which means the 1.1.1 update that bricked products is now called into question.
Third is the Sherman Anti-Trust issues which follows on the heels of the prior issues. WIthout a ruling on both them them in favor of the plaintiffs, you have no further case so I'm hopefull that the ruling goes in the plaintiffs favor as it means some expert will get to examine the 1.1.1 update source code and explain whether it did/not deliberately brick jailbroken phones. If the issue it suspposedly fixed was caused by the jail-breaking and there has been a decision that yes the arguments have standing (Exclusivity is not proven/Doctrine of First Sale) then you have a possible Anti-Trust decision against AT&T along with damages awarded to the Non-AT&T iPhone purchasers who's phones were bricked.
Then you simply use an Ablative layer that not only smokes when hit by a laser but the smoke helps dispate the beam before its able to do any further damage. Basic Sci-Fi here. Does it work? Quite well because the increased energy needs are any wheres between a factor of 10 to 20 for the originating laser, which is quite a step up in energy and might not be easily transportable. Note that the most effective level of protection will be from In Atmosphere instead of the vacuum of space where the effectiveness will only push the energy requirement up by a factor of 2 to 5, which is much easier to obtain.
I've got a friend who's still driving trucks over the road (long-haul) and he went with Verizon due to coverage. Although their customer service and contracts stink, they do have the widest coverage of all the wireless carriers and if you need service throughout the country, then they're pretty much the only choice.
Mainstream ATI competitor is the 4650, which is in current production and available for less then $80. That's what Nvidia is competing against. Specs are a DX10.1, 1GB of DDR3 and no external power needed. Very nice and I'm looking at one as an upgrade from a 7300GT, which is a meager DX9 card with only 256 onboard.
and the Linux Kernel SMB support? If it does, we've got a major problem as they now have a method of taking a whole batch of sites down.
Defeat the evil:
and don't forget to add the various advertisers into your hosts file since it'll speed up page loads. To many advertisers get overloaded, slowing down page loads plus I have no desire to waste bandwidth connecting to them in the first place.