I have a suspicion that a lot of them (even the ones here in Canada who were protesting against Western media bias last week) honestly don't know any different version of events. Therefore, they assume that we really are trying to hurt their national pride. They don't want to be told that their government is and has been lying to them. Sort of like how the Americans don't get why everyone hates them?
Unlike anyone else, except citizens of the Phillipines or Eritrea, United States citizens who leave the country still have to pay taxes.
Renouncing one's US citizenship is an extremely difficult process, thanks to legislation intended to combat rich tax dodgers. If one successfully does it, one may be forever afterward denied entry into the United States.
One thing that does separate the FBI and the cops, though, is that the "spooks" have always wanted not to be held accountable. Secrecy is necessary for our national security, don't you know. Or are you a commie, I mean terrorist?
More dangerous. The people who took back the plane from the hijackers on 9/11 showed what normal Americans are willing to do to fight terrorists. But if it's the government that's fighting democracy, nobody wants to fight back.
I talk about this with my family, and they're incredulous. They always mention all these cases where the cops had all this evidence that could lock the guy away, but they had to throw it all out on account of a technicality.
The problem is, we live in the world of the Internet, and they live in the world of TV shows like Law and Order.
Maybe the Slashdotters are against voting machines because they actually understand the machines' limitations, and potential for misuse without traces of tampering.
I think Linux is the OS that'll convert the "average web surfer."
We think of it as catering to the technical crowd, but that's only because techies are most likely to install a whole new OS. Once it's installed, Linux is incredibly easy and hassle-free to use, and I say this as one who first tried it less than a year ago.
So. Low price point, wide selection of applications, AND catering to the average web surfer. Or MySpace user. I think Linux just might have that covered (for better or worse).
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation only donates a small fraction of its holdings. In many ways it seems less like a charity and more like a tax dodge. Plus, many of its practices are questionable, such as investing in ethically irresponsible companies that actively cause harm to the people they're trying to help.
XP's not going anywhere anytime soon. MS can stop selling it, but they've already committed to supporting it through 2014, and with Vista the way it is many people and enterprises are exercising their downgrade rights, or keeping their old XP PCs.
And it's possible that MS would ship Windows 7 in 2009, but despite Mr. Gates' speech the official line is still that Windows 7 is shipping in 2010.
It's also corrupt and bent on controlling people and taking their rights away, just like all the other big industries which the politicians ignore at their peril.
What are the laws under which these ISPs operate, both in Canada and the United States? Are they anything like the other utilities, which actually are monopolies because they were legally granted the ability to operate without competition?
What about their political influence? Have they been able to get laws passed that would limit or hinder competitors?
In a geographical area with 20+ restaurants in seemingly every small city, what is it that makes these guys the only game in town? Because if we figure that out, we might be able to open the doors up for ISPs that would be more friendly to their customers. And if we don't, they're going to keep getting more powerful.
It sounds to me like you're saying you'd like the people in charge to know what they're doing. Which, in the case of a representative democracy, means you'd like the people who vote to know what they're doing.
People who know what they're doing seems to be the prerequisite to doing anything right. I'm not so sure even a tyranny would work, because if the tyrant knew what he was doing, he'd know that absolute power corrupts absolutely and would divest himself of it immediately.
Good, honest people can make a bad system work pretty well, but bad and corrupt people will make short work of even the best system.
Yes, I have; and yes, Linux works a heck of a lot better out of the box. But my Windows laptop came with XP drivers for its integrated graphics, and there are no Linux drivers for the SiS 660 chipset (I think it was). Please believe me when I say that I've spent hours on end searching.
No, but I've reinstalled XP on my own machine before. Fedora and Ubuntu both beat the daylights out of it when it comes to out-of-the-box hardware support, as well as preinstalled software. The thing is, my notebook PC didn't just come with a copy of Windows XP, it also came with a driver CD. The driver CD makes everything work.
Linux gets credit for making things as easy as possible, it really does. Most of the things that make installing Linux hard are beyond the developers' control. That's one reason why I think preinstalled Linux systems are going to change the game. Right now the primary way to get a Linux PC is to put Linux on a Windows PC, which is kind of like making a Hackintosh no matter how streamlined they try to make it. Buying a full-on Linux PC with hassle-free setup would be even easier. Plus, being able to use Linux frees hardware vendors from having to be tied to Microsoft.
I actually considered buying a Dell XPS Ubuntu notebook instead of a Macbook. But the hardware design of a Mac simply has to be seen to be believed, and their high resale value sealed the deal for me. Plus I can buy them refurbished, which means recycling a machine that would have been thrown out instead of buying a new machine that was made in China.
Speaking as a relative newb, I found that Linux (Fedora) was a bear to set up, but once I had help to get everything up and running it was really, really simple to maintain. Add/Remove Programs is like magic, and the built-in applications -- while often unpolished -- do what I want them to, with little fuss. If anything, Linux has spoiled me to the point where I don't like XP much anymore.
Linux definitely has its disadvantages, including lack of software and hardware support. But the migration of functionality to the Internet is helping to overcome the first barrier, and pre-installed Linux systems are overcoming the second.
Me? I'm hoping to switch to a Mac. It has been fun playing with Linux, and I'd rather set up a Linux PC for my less-savvy family members than try to help them with Windows. But it doesn't work with all of my hardware, and as long as I'm going to upgrade I might as well buy an awesome, shiny machine, that keeps most of its resale value. The fact that it comes with a stable, well-designed, UNIX-based OS with additional hardware and software support is a plus, and the fact that I can install Linux on a Mac means that I won't be tied into one vendor.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe it's like America, where nobody takes you seriously if you get your information from an alternate source ...
The middle class has the ability to shop at Walmart? Or just to believe in their ads?
Unlike anyone else, except citizens of the Phillipines or Eritrea, United States citizens who leave the country still have to pay taxes.
Renouncing one's US citizenship is an extremely difficult process, thanks to legislation intended to combat rich tax dodgers. If one successfully does it, one may be forever afterward denied entry into the United States.
We're never encouraged to think about the motivations of people in power who want to keep all their funding. Which is why we need to.
One thing that does separate the FBI and the cops, though, is that the "spooks" have always wanted not to be held accountable. Secrecy is necessary for our national security, don't you know. Or are you a commie, I mean terrorist?
More dangerous. The people who took back the plane from the hijackers on 9/11 showed what normal Americans are willing to do to fight terrorists. But if it's the government that's fighting democracy, nobody wants to fight back.
I talk about this with my family, and they're incredulous. They always mention all these cases where the cops had all this evidence that could lock the guy away, but they had to throw it all out on account of a technicality.
The problem is, we live in the world of the Internet, and they live in the world of TV shows like Law and Order.
Maybe the Slashdotters are against voting machines because they actually understand the machines' limitations, and potential for misuse without traces of tampering.
I think Linux is the OS that'll convert the "average web surfer."
We think of it as catering to the technical crowd, but that's only because techies are most likely to install a whole new OS. Once it's installed, Linux is incredibly easy and hassle-free to use, and I say this as one who first tried it less than a year ago.
So. Low price point, wide selection of applications, AND catering to the average web surfer. Or MySpace user. I think Linux just might have that covered (for better or worse).
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation only donates a small fraction of its holdings. In many ways it seems less like a charity and more like a tax dodge. Plus, many of its practices are questionable, such as investing in ethically irresponsible companies that actively cause harm to the people they're trying to help.
XP's not going anywhere anytime soon. MS can stop selling it, but they've already committed to supporting it through 2014, and with Vista the way it is many people and enterprises are exercising their downgrade rights, or keeping their old XP PCs.
And it's possible that MS would ship Windows 7 in 2009, but despite Mr. Gates' speech the official line is still that Windows 7 is shipping in 2010.
It's also corrupt and bent on controlling people and taking their rights away, just like all the other big industries which the politicians ignore at their peril.
What are the laws under which these ISPs operate, both in Canada and the United States? Are they anything like the other utilities, which actually are monopolies because they were legally granted the ability to operate without competition?
What about their political influence? Have they been able to get laws passed that would limit or hinder competitors?
In a geographical area with 20+ restaurants in seemingly every small city, what is it that makes these guys the only game in town? Because if we figure that out, we might be able to open the doors up for ISPs that would be more friendly to their customers. And if we don't, they're going to keep getting more powerful.
All hands abandon ship!
If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?
It sounds to me like you're saying you'd like the people in charge to know what they're doing. Which, in the case of a representative democracy, means you'd like the people who vote to know what they're doing.
People who know what they're doing seems to be the prerequisite to doing anything right. I'm not so sure even a tyranny would work, because if the tyrant knew what he was doing, he'd know that absolute power corrupts absolutely and would divest himself of it immediately.
Good, honest people can make a bad system work pretty well, but bad and corrupt people will make short work of even the best system.
Oh ... oops, you meant him, sorry. My bad.
Yes, I have; and yes, Linux works a heck of a lot better out of the box. But my Windows laptop came with XP drivers for its integrated graphics, and there are no Linux drivers for the SiS 660 chipset (I think it was). Please believe me when I say that I've spent hours on end searching.
O RLY?
It was a black and white world. And in that world, the government, too, was pure and good. They defended our freedom against the evil
Terrorists!
No, but I've reinstalled XP on my own machine before. Fedora and Ubuntu both beat the daylights out of it when it comes to out-of-the-box hardware support, as well as preinstalled software. The thing is, my notebook PC didn't just come with a copy of Windows XP, it also came with a driver CD. The driver CD makes everything work.
Linux gets credit for making things as easy as possible, it really does. Most of the things that make installing Linux hard are beyond the developers' control. That's one reason why I think preinstalled Linux systems are going to change the game. Right now the primary way to get a Linux PC is to put Linux on a Windows PC, which is kind of like making a Hackintosh no matter how streamlined they try to make it. Buying a full-on Linux PC with hassle-free setup would be even easier. Plus, being able to use Linux frees hardware vendors from having to be tied to Microsoft.
I actually considered buying a Dell XPS Ubuntu notebook instead of a Macbook. But the hardware design of a Mac simply has to be seen to be believed, and their high resale value sealed the deal for me. Plus I can buy them refurbished, which means recycling a machine that would have been thrown out instead of buying a new machine that was made in China.
Speaking as a relative newb, I found that Linux (Fedora) was a bear to set up, but once I had help to get everything up and running it was really, really simple to maintain. Add/Remove Programs is like magic, and the built-in applications -- while often unpolished -- do what I want them to, with little fuss. If anything, Linux has spoiled me to the point where I don't like XP much anymore.
Linux definitely has its disadvantages, including lack of software and hardware support. But the migration of functionality to the Internet is helping to overcome the first barrier, and pre-installed Linux systems are overcoming the second.
Me? I'm hoping to switch to a Mac. It has been fun playing with Linux, and I'd rather set up a Linux PC for my less-savvy family members than try to help them with Windows. But it doesn't work with all of my hardware, and as long as I'm going to upgrade I might as well buy an awesome, shiny machine, that keeps most of its resale value. The fact that it comes with a stable, well-designed, UNIX-based OS with additional hardware and software support is a plus, and the fact that I can install Linux on a Mac means that I won't be tied into one vendor.
You think education comes from a school?
You are aware that psychotropic medication has really bad withdrawal, right?