Imagine if people were burnt at the stake for practicing natural remedies (middle-ages) or were hung for the color of their skin (American South), or burnt in ovens because they were racially impure (Nazi Germany), or starved to death in forced labour because they were educated middle-class (Cambodia). Crazy!
Yes - you are a tad "out of touch". Try picking up a history book. Our collective past is jam-packed full of shit like this. Most of it is caused by ignorance. And if you think we have evolved "past" this sort of behaviour in the "civilised" West - think again.
but I wonder if it will take $200M for each of the hundreds (if not thousands) of other cities' transit systems around your country which are now more viable targets. Of course next time they might not target transit systems at all...
You want to "stem the spiral of the US into a culture of anti-intellectualism"?
Try kicking religion out of the classroom and back into churches.
Oh and a having a president that doesn't want equal time for "intelligent design" aka creationism, is a good start too.
Which reminds me - I read recently about some professor making a comment about your fearless leader - something about the abiliity to get through an Ivy League education unscathed. Pissed myself.
You obviously haven't tried Mac OS X on a G4 or G5.
The difference in the experience is largely due to the vector processing support.
I'd take a PowerPC at half the clock-rate of an Intel, ANY day (specifically, the day that I can afford my own iMac G5, although earlier is acceptable if anyone is feeling particularly charitable).
The unrelenting inevitability with which companies that are initially taken to have a social conscience, eventually transform into soul-less behemoths never ceases to amaze me.
Time to dig up Michael Dell's autobiography. And recycle/compost it.
Reminds me of a place I once worked at as a VMS admin. Before I got there the users (who were running huge econometric models on ancient VAX 11/750), had granted themselves privileges so that they could bump up the priority of "their" processess. Unfortunately, everybody did this and the box just clagged up as non-RT processes were boosted and interfered with the running of the OS.
It took me quite a while to convince my boss that bumping up the priority was NOT giving him a free lunch, and letting the scheduler "do its thing" was actually the best way for their jobs to run.
I'm just waiting for the first major traffic accident which can be put down to these suckers. Then, whoever makes/sells them will be sued out of existence (or offshore).
However, in reality SCO will be crushed under IBM's boot. I just feel sorry for the clueless investors who bought shares in SCO. They will have absolutely no recourse. And I agree with the sentiments of an earlier poster that it is a shame Darl will never share a cell with a 20-to-lifer called "Bubba".
If anybody deserves to be ripped a new a**hole its sociopathic parasites like these.
About the only thing that gives me comfort is reading groklaw (thanks PJ).
The reality of course is that we don't want this outcome - for the GPL to be invalidated. But if SCO is raising this flag, and if the courts are dumb/corrupt enough to follow through, then surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
The law may be an ass but it has to be a blindfolded ass (ie apply equally to all).
If the GPL is unenforceable, then unless SCO got written permission to distribute the code by all the myriad other kernel contributors (and in fact the developers of every other bit of GPL'ed software that they are distributing in their own distr - still available via FTP) then they themselves are in breach of all those people's copyright over code they wrote.
Please, I beg ANY developers of GPL'ed code that is in SCOs distro on their FTP site. Please sue these bastards for breach of copyright. I am willing to pony up $100 to anybody about to do this.
Being an Australian, in the past I never understood the American obsession with guns.
Well, all I can say now is hold on to them because there will come a time when you will need them.
You will know when the time is, because the government will try and seriously curtail your freedom to bear arms under the rubric of "national security". At this point, know that they are afraid of you.
Of course, I could be wrong. The lack of response to this government's trampling of the Bill of Rights is so deafening that perhaps they feel safe enough to pull the curtain back without disarming you first.
Those interested may want to read Gore Vidal's "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" for an exposition on this subject.
Waco and Oklahoma were not the last events of their kind. No sir-ee.
Sorry if I put any noses out of joint here, but...
In essence this is no different to third-world tin-pot dictators ensuring "re-election".
Frank Zappa said it best: "The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."
Turn on the TV, open a newspaper, check it out. This phase transition is happening NOW, and its being covered "live".
The only thing that Frank got wrong (which no-one could have foreseen), was that its not the "expense of maintaining the illusion" that is why the curtains are being pulled back, it is because our elected leaders have discovered that the electorate is a lifeless corpse. First they insulted us, we showed no response. Then they slapped us around a bit, and we showed no response. Now that they've hogtied us and pulled our trousers down, they are busy pulling down their zip. And still we show no signs of life.
Someone else pointed out (in a different Slashdot story), that it's this kind of total disregard for the people being governed (the "masses") that caused the conditions where revolutionary sentiments are forged (eg US revolition, Russion revolution etc).
In the Greek revolution of 1821 (overthrowing the Ottoman rulers), the revolutionaries were called "kleftes" which means "robbers". These days they would be called terrorists.
Ballmer's "just be quiet" response seems to be on a par with what I see as a growing trend in this industry and others. Instead of dealing with issues, it is now fashionable to stick your head in the sand and then to threaten, litigate or legislate against anybody who tells you you've left your arse is exposed. This is very disturbing. We are talking about the security of a significant part of our civil and military infrastructure. Imagine if someone pointed out a flaw in the Golden Gate bridge - jump up and down at the right frequency on a certain spot and it will collapse. I don't think we would want the response to be to tell this peson to "shut up". We might just want to get the bridge fixed before it collapses and we fall into the bay.
I don't know. I just find it unbelievable that people aren't screaming in the streets demanding that vendors fix their products.
"You know Windows has flaws that could allow a hacker to take control of your PC" "Err, you don't say? umm..." "Yeah and they could steal your identity and do all sorts of nasty things in your name that you could be liable for" "Um, really, um that's very, um interesting..." "Yeah, and did you hear some guy found that the Golden Gate bridge is ready to collapse and they haven't done a thing about it". "WHAT! This is TERRIBLE! God-damned government! Something has got to be DONE!" etc etc
Slashdot Mirror
Great. My keyboard is now covered in nasally recycled coca-cola.
That was the funniest thing I've read in ages. And for some reason I "heard" it in Billy Crystal's voice.
I agree - how insane!
Imagine if people were burnt at the stake for practicing natural remedies (middle-ages) or were hung for the color of their skin (American South), or burnt in ovens because they were racially impure (Nazi Germany), or starved to death in forced labour because they were educated middle-class (Cambodia). Crazy!
Yes - you are a tad "out of touch". Try picking up a history book. Our collective past is jam-packed full of shit like this. Most of it is caused by ignorance. And if you think we have evolved "past" this sort of behaviour in the "civilised" West - think again.
but I wonder if it will take $200M for each of the hundreds (if not thousands) of other cities' transit systems around your country which are now more viable targets.
Of course next time they might not target transit systems at all...
THIS is why its called ASYMMETRIC warfare.
You folks might want to check out Bruce Schneier's book "Beyond Fear", or back issues of Crypto-Gram (http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram.html).
Still, if the customer feels good - does it matter if its just a placebo? And shareholders of Lockheed Martin - woo hoo!
--
My slant on global affairs.
http://newtonsthirdlaw.blogspot.com/
...to Fox News Network.
...please leave your brain at the door.
You want to "stem the spiral of the US into a culture of anti-intellectualism"?
Try kicking religion out of the classroom and back into churches.
Oh and a having a president that doesn't want equal time for "intelligent design" aka creationism, is a good start too.
Which reminds me - I read recently about some professor making a comment about your fearless leader - something about the abiliity to get through an Ivy League education unscathed. Pissed myself.
> Who the fuck says "in-built"?????????
Yoda.
"That is how capitalism works. Either deal with it, or move to a non-capitalist country."
.sig was added automatically.
Oh the delicious irony! I presume your
Alternatively you can edit your Slashdot preferences to only view stories on the subjects you like.
> you can't (usefully) reduce every issue to a binary problem
Don't be silly.
There's only:
US = god fearing, freedom lovers
THEM = evildoers
OK - bottom line.
Will my girls (aged 7, 5 who loved Toy Story, Nemo etc) like it or am I about to waste $15?
You obviously haven't tried Mac OS X on a G4 or G5.
The difference in the experience is largely due to the vector processing support.
I'd take a PowerPC at half the clock-rate of an Intel, ANY day (specifically, the day that I can afford my own iMac G5, although earlier is acceptable if anyone is feeling particularly charitable).
"... reminds me of that Real Life DDoS schtuff ..."
It's called "war".
- Lack of drive to read those important backups you made a few years ago.
Sorry dude, you had better pony-up the license fee quick!
Sorry dude. You better pony-up the license fee quick!
The unrelenting inevitability with which companies that are initially taken to have a social conscience, eventually transform into soul-less behemoths never ceases to amaze me.
Time to dig up Michael Dell's autobiography. And recycle/compost it.
This decision will be interesting as many people have lost faith in the "system" thinking that laws are made by and for those with money.
A good decision here could go a way to help restoring people's faith in the law.
Of course a bad decision will confirm everybody's worst fears.
Reminds me of a place I once worked at as a VMS admin. Before I got there the users (who were running huge econometric models on ancient VAX 11/750), had granted themselves privileges so that they could bump up the priority of "their" processess. Unfortunately, everybody did this and the box just clagged up as non-RT processes were boosted and interfered with the running of the OS.
It took me quite a while to convince my boss that bumping up the priority was NOT giving him a free lunch, and letting the scheduler "do its thing" was actually the best way for their jobs to run.
I'm just waiting for the first major traffic accident which can be put down to these suckers. Then, whoever makes/sells them will be sued out of existence (or offshore).
Absolutely, totally agree.
However, in reality SCO will be crushed under IBM's boot. I just feel sorry for the clueless investors who bought shares in SCO. They will have absolutely no recourse. And I agree with the sentiments of an earlier poster that it is a shame Darl will never share a cell with a 20-to-lifer called "Bubba".
If anybody deserves to be ripped a new a**hole its sociopathic parasites like these.
About the only thing that gives me comfort is reading groklaw (thanks PJ).
Yes, brilliant.
The reality of course is that we don't want this outcome - for the GPL to be invalidated. But if SCO is raising this flag, and if the courts are dumb/corrupt enough to follow through, then surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
The law may be an ass but it has to be a blindfolded ass (ie apply equally to all).
If the GPL is unenforceable, then unless SCO got written permission to distribute the code by all the myriad other kernel contributors (and in fact the developers of every other bit of GPL'ed software that they are distributing in their own distr - still available via FTP) then they themselves are in breach of all those people's copyright over code they wrote.
Please, I beg ANY developers of GPL'ed code that is in SCOs distro on their FTP site. Please sue these bastards for breach of copyright. I am willing to pony up $100 to anybody about to do this.
This madness has just got to end.
One more thing...
Being an Australian, in the past I never understood the American obsession with guns.
Well, all I can say now is hold on to them because there will come a time when you will need them.
You will know when the time is, because the government will try and seriously curtail your freedom to bear arms under the rubric of "national security". At this point, know that they are afraid of you.
Of course, I could be wrong. The lack of response to this government's trampling of the Bill of Rights is so deafening that perhaps they feel safe enough to pull the curtain back without disarming you first.
Those interested may want to read Gore Vidal's "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" for an exposition on this subject.
Waco and Oklahoma were not the last events of their kind. No sir-ee.
Sorry if I put any noses out of joint here, but...
.
In essence this is no different to third-world tin-pot dictators ensuring "re-election".
Frank Zappa said it best:
"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."
Turn on the TV, open a newspaper, check it out. This phase transition is happening NOW, and its being covered "live".
The only thing that Frank got wrong (which no-one could have foreseen), was that its not the "expense of maintaining the illusion" that is why the curtains are being pulled back, it is because our elected leaders have discovered that the electorate is a lifeless corpse
First they insulted us, we showed no response.
Then they slapped us around a bit, and we showed no response.
Now that they've hogtied us and pulled our trousers down, they are busy pulling down their zip. And still we show no signs of life.
Someone else pointed out (in a different Slashdot story), that it's this kind of total disregard for the people being governed (the "masses") that caused the conditions where revolutionary sentiments are forged (eg US revolition, Russion revolution etc).
In the Greek revolution of 1821 (overthrowing the Ottoman rulers), the revolutionaries were called "kleftes" which means "robbers". These days they would be called terrorists.
Welcome to the New World Order.
Ballmer's "just be quiet" response seems to be on a par with what I see as a growing trend in this industry and others. Instead of dealing with issues, it is now fashionable to stick your head in the sand and then to threaten, litigate or legislate against anybody who tells you you've left your arse is exposed.
This is very disturbing. We are talking about the security of a significant part of our civil and military infrastructure.
Imagine if someone pointed out a flaw in the Golden Gate bridge - jump up and down at the right frequency on a certain spot and it will collapse. I don't think we would want the response to be to tell this peson to "shut up". We might just want to get the bridge fixed before it collapses and we fall into the bay.
I don't know. I just find it unbelievable that people aren't screaming in the streets demanding that vendors fix their products.
"You know Windows has flaws that could allow a hacker to take control of your PC"
"Err, you don't say? umm..."
"Yeah and they could steal your identity and do all sorts of nasty things in your name that you could be liable for"
"Um, really, um that's very, um interesting..."
"Yeah, and did you hear some guy found that the Golden Gate bridge is ready to collapse and they haven't done a thing about it".
"WHAT! This is TERRIBLE! God-damned government! Something has got to be DONE!" etc etc
The only innovation here is in the Owellian doublespeak that transforms bad into good and complaints into crimes.
... oh no, wait, I think there may already be prior art...
Perhaps Verisign should patent THAT
OTOH, maybe this will spur TRUE innovation by encouraging people onto alternative networks (eg Freenet).