I'd prefer a corporation if it was a real competitive environment
Our elections tend to swing on a bunch of tired old hyperbolic meme's which are trotted out election time after election time, catered to the lowest common denominator. Which is why we have to hear the boat people horse shit every four years - has *zero* effect on the quality of anyone's life here, but crucial in terms of election results. Meanwhile, issues with real effect like internet filtering, the environment, and, hell, the damn economy gets little to any play.
But let's disregard this, and, say that people actually did vote on the issues. Given the environment and the damn economy, how many people (slashdotters aside) would consider the internet filter to be a vote changing issue?
There are too many big issues - be the real issues or the fake ones contrived at election time - to ever hold the government accountable on a single issue unless they *really* fuck up. Which is why they can safely persist with the internet filtering shit.
A corporation, on the other hand, can be directly held accountable if real competition exists. Corporation A adds an internet filter you don't like? Switch to Corporation B.
Real competition is, of course, another story - but hell, I could start my own ISP and provide another option if an appropriate option did not exist.
You make it sound like quality is directly proportional to cost.
It is not, which is why 90% of commercial movies, bands, software, etc in the mainstream suck so bad.
To your video game example. How about interlaced advertising as a model? Works for TV.
My argument against copyright laws is this: if they disappeared overnight, movies would still be shot; musicians would still make music; software would still be written by programmers; and yes, video games would still be created. Because all of these things are fun to someone, somewhere. Those people tend to be the true artists, and will make these things, even if the cash incentive was removed completely. Which it does not need to be, but it could easily be *reduced*.
The only question then - are we willing to slash the amount of money? For me, the answer is yes - because I'm damn sick of this blockbuster mentality that pervades most of my entertainment. Give me the work product of an artist vs the work product of a corporation any day.
It could also be like going to a concert to listen to music, getting invited back stage because you're hot, and having a lecherous musician paw and grope you when you just accepted the invite because you were excited to meet someone you previously held in high regard. You have no idea.
Really? No idea?
That's one more tick in the "hot = stupid" column.
...but there's a lot of Christians that believe that abortion is only OK in the case of rape or incest.
And, of course, others still, who will question the very tenets of their faith for a rogering from the Assange-meister!
From the Gawker site:
One of the devout was the lovely daughter of a New Castle minister. At some point in my unintended wooing of her, she looked up, fluttered her eyelids and said 'Oh, you know so much! I hardly know anything!'. 'That is why you believe in God," I explained. This conversational brutality took her breath away and she swooned. I was exactly what she secretly longed for; a man willing to openly disagree with her father. All along she had needed a man to devote herself to. All along she had failed to find a man worthy of being called a man, failed to find a man who would not bow to gods, so she had chosen a god unworthy of being called a god, but who would not bow to a man.
If EULAs were written in plain language, and required that you sign them at the time of purchase, they'd be fine. But all of the "by opening this software" EULAs are bullshit by definition.
They don't do that anymore because people starting reconsidering the purchase when they hit the "first born child" and "immortal soul" clauses...
What's sad is that you think the answer to people who live in poor conditions is not to help them raise themselves out of those positions, but to vote for the hand puppet you approve of who will take from others to give to them. You're no better than those you criticize.
Exactly what do you think the social support programs are intended to do?
Clue (because it seems like you need one): read the portion of the your post that starts with "to help them...".
And I quitely wait in the wings to assert my own patent at the appropriate moment:
Patent Acquisition and Assertion of a Patent Acquisition and Assertion by a (Non-Inventor) First Party Against a Second Party by a (Dirt-bag, Warmonger-ing) Third Party.
Unfortunately what you said is only partially true.
For example:
OS/2: Originally Microsoft developed Windows NT as OS/2 - a microkernel which was OS/2 on the front backward compatible with DOS and Windows, and switched to Windows, only after IBM started to show less and less interest in coding, and more interest in their process.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT)
In what universe can you extrapolate *that* from your stated source wikipedia article (OS/2 related portion copied below):
Microsoft decided to create a portable operating system, compatible with OS/2 and POSIX support and with multiprocessing in October 1988.[11] When development started in November 1989, Windows NT was to be known as OS/2 3.0,[12] the third version of the operating system developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM. To ensure portability, initial development was targeted at the Intel i860XR RISC processor, switching to the MIPS R3000 in late 1989, and then the Intel i386 in 1990.[3] Microsoft also continued parallel development of the DOS-based and less resource-demanding Windows environment, resulting in the release of Windows 3.0 in May 1990. Windows 3 was eventually so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary application programming interface for the still unreleased NT OS/2 (as it was then known) from an extended OS/2 API to an extended Windows API. This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM and the collaboration ultimately fell apart. IBM continued OS/2 development alone while Microsoft continued work on the newly renamed Windows NT. Though neither operating system would immediately be as popular as Microsoft's MS-DOS or Windows products, Windows NT would eventually be far more successful than OS/2.
At first, I assumed that I must be missing something. So I checked the history. Nope. No changes since 19th August.
it's very hip to hit on MS on Slashdot...
It's also very hip to not bother to RTFA on Slashdot. But, bloody hell - when you *introduce* something as a source, please bother to at least check that it backs up whatever argument you are trying to impart.
In my opinion, the iPhone/iPad OS is the most closed software platform of, well, basically, any consumer device anywhere.
My basis for this statement: Can't install software that isn't "approved" for installation - a process which is not, mind you, intended to detect nefarious software, but rather to reduce competition with Apple software and impose an arbitrary set of moral values over it's users. Can't access the damn file system on the device. Can't share media files from device to device. And, from a hardware perspective, of course, can't change the operating system, if any of other points bother you.
Things that tipped the decision into "spend":
1. I'm going to Vegas. "Easy Vegas" app is good.
2. I'm going to Vegas and I'm going to watch movies on the flight.
3. Amplitube iPad Edition came out - and it's great.
4. Instant on. No need to boot to check weatheror news, or to look up something I'm curious about.
5. The Reuters app is awesome.
6. Camera connection kit deals properly with Nikon raw format.
7. The tools for photo management are really coming along beautifully. Photogene is a good tool for travel.
Since then I've discovered some new things.
1. The 10 hour battery life is both real, and awesome.
2. I have gone to a site that required flash exactly twice, and I found the same content elswehere in a format I could view.
3. I really like reading magazines on it (Maxim with Kaley Cuoco!)
4. On the most difficult setting, the Scrabble app kicks my ass.
5. I haven't turned my netbook on since I got it.
6. The screen gets dirty when I eat cheezies and surf porn.
7. There's a LOT of compatible porn.
8. I've been expecting to have to buy a wireless keyboard, but so far I haven't "needed" to.
Anybody want to buy a used netbook? It has crappy battery life and a screen that semi-sucks, but it has a keyboard.
Do I give a crap that a bunch of nerds online think that it's underpowered compared to stuff that's 18 months away? Not even slightly.
I'm as technical a guy as they come. My workdays are spent writing industrial scheduling and simulation software on Unix. But I'm past the age where I want to screw around with stuff when I get home. Give me something that works well and doesn't give me any grief.
All of these are great arguments for the iPad as a dedicated entertainment device.
But, as a laptop replacement, like the TFA suggests? Only if you only use your netbook for entertainment purposes only.
It's funny how so many/.'ers complain about people who believe the outrageous stories from [Glenn Beck, Fox New, whatever]. This is pretty much the same thing. The actual story is only about 1/10 what is implied in the headline, but now we have a forum full of people screaming about it
Personally, I defer to the beer methodology when evaluating such things. I decide whether I would want to have a beer with the person in question. If this is true, then I presume innocence, if it is false, then I assume guilt.
It's just easier this way.
If Apple is granted the patent they may license it or may not, and they may or may not charge royalties. Since you are an expert in this area you surly realize that the majority of these filings are defensive, right? That the primary purpose of most of these is so that when a patent troll comes after the deep pocket company like Apple that Apple can say we have patents in this area as well?
Three letters: H.T.C.
Jesus there are a lot of people out there that think they are freaking experts on this stuff.
...
Maybe it's because I haven't had my morning coffee yet, but there is something irritating about sitting down to read/. in the morning and first thing reading a bunch of posts by people that clearly haven't bothered to read the article (I know, this is/. and I shouldn't really expect anyone to read anything) and spouting off bullshit as if it were the gospel.
Go and have your morning coffee. Reflect on the kettle calling the pot black whilst making it.
In the article, they did say hetrosexual and homosexual participants.
Obviously, hilarity ensured during in the inevitable hookups in the mens. "Who's yo' daddy?" yelled in the throes of passion, followed by a chorus of Darth Vaders...
I think you are missing the point. If companies that do this get no reward, they will stop doing it. And there may never be a level of functionality and stability useful to you in a open source driver for that product as a result.
Obviously, Bruce is not asking you to buy something that is useless to you. Just, given a two choice, reward the manufacturer who does the right thing.
Hell, even if it is slightly "worse" than the alternative right now, I'd do so. But that's just me, obviously not everyone has such "lofty" ideals and forward thinking.
As a person who's breaking into the book market with my wife's new novel and seeking an eBook option, this is precisely the sort of crap that we're worried about, just all too easy through modern POD portals like Lulu.
As a person who's breaking into the book market with your wife's new novel and seeking an eBook option, this is precisely the sort of crap I'm relying on
Perhaps when you are finished stuffing the next fat burger down your oversized gullet, you could waddle down to the local educational institution and start that study.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd prefer a corporation if it was a real competitive environment
Our elections tend to swing on a bunch of tired old hyperbolic meme's which are trotted out election time after election time, catered to the lowest common denominator. Which is why we have to hear the boat people horse shit every four years - has *zero* effect on the quality of anyone's life here, but crucial in terms of election results. Meanwhile, issues with real effect like internet filtering, the environment, and, hell, the damn economy gets little to any play.
But let's disregard this, and, say that people actually did vote on the issues. Given the environment and the damn economy, how many people (slashdotters aside) would consider the internet filter to be a vote changing issue?
There are too many big issues - be the real issues or the fake ones contrived at election time - to ever hold the government accountable on a single issue unless they *really* fuck up. Which is why they can safely persist with the internet filtering shit.
A corporation, on the other hand, can be directly held accountable if real competition exists. Corporation A adds an internet filter you don't like? Switch to Corporation B.
Real competition is, of course, another story - but hell, I could start my own ISP and provide another option if an appropriate option did not exist.
Once they stop making political donations?
You make it sound like quality is directly proportional to cost.
It is not, which is why 90% of commercial movies, bands, software, etc in the mainstream suck so bad.
To your video game example. How about interlaced advertising as a model? Works for TV.
My argument against copyright laws is this: if they disappeared overnight, movies would still be shot; musicians would still make music; software would still be written by programmers; and yes, video games would still be created. Because all of these things are fun to someone, somewhere. Those people tend to be the true artists, and will make these things, even if the cash incentive was removed completely. Which it does not need to be, but it could easily be *reduced*.
The only question then - are we willing to slash the amount of money? For me, the answer is yes - because I'm damn sick of this blockbuster mentality that pervades most of my entertainment. Give me the work product of an artist vs the work product of a corporation any day.
It could also be like going to a concert to listen to music, getting invited back stage because you're hot, and having a lecherous musician paw and grope you when you just accepted the invite because you were excited to meet someone you previously held in high regard. You have no idea.
Really? No idea?
That's one more tick in the "hot = stupid" column.
...but there's a lot of Christians that believe that abortion is only OK in the case of rape or incest.
And, of course, others still, who will question the very tenets of their faith for a rogering from the Assange-meister! From the Gawker site:
One of the devout was the lovely daughter of a New Castle minister. At some point in my unintended wooing of her, she looked up, fluttered her eyelids and said 'Oh, you know so much! I hardly know anything!'. 'That is why you believe in God," I explained. This conversational brutality took her breath away and she swooned. I was exactly what she secretly longed for; a man willing to openly disagree with her father. All along she had needed a man to devote herself to. All along she had failed to find a man worthy of being called a man, failed to find a man who would not bow to gods, so she had chosen a god unworthy of being called a god, but who would not bow to a man.
My toilet has a killer suit against Burger King for damages and gross (really gross) negligence
I have a killer suit against Burger King for damages to my toilet.
If EULAs were written in plain language, and required that you sign them at the time of purchase, they'd be fine. But all of the "by opening this software" EULAs are bullshit by definition.
They don't do that anymore because people starting reconsidering the purchase when they hit the "first born child" and "immortal soul" clauses...
Modded: 'troll/flamebait'...
Why? Because you disagree?
The arguments above were all valid. If you disagree, you are welcome to make your case.
Religion does NOT get a free pass here. This is NOT the government.
What's sad is that you think the answer to people who live in poor conditions is not to help them raise themselves out of those positions, but to vote for the hand puppet you approve of who will take from others to give to them. You're no better than those you criticize.
Exactly what do you think the social support programs are intended to do?
Clue (because it seems like you need one): read the portion of the your post that starts with "to help them...".
Further SQL has nothing to do with ACID. AT ALL!
Mr Begin Transaction and Mrs Commit Transaction called for you. They aren't happy.
And I quitely wait in the wings to assert my own patent at the appropriate moment:
Patent Acquisition and Assertion of a Patent Acquisition and Assertion by a (Non-Inventor) First Party Against a Second Party by a (Dirt-bag, Warmonger-ing) Third Party.
Unfortunately what you said is only partially true.
For example:
OS/2: Originally Microsoft developed Windows NT as OS/2 - a microkernel which was OS/2 on the front backward compatible with DOS and Windows, and switched to Windows, only after IBM started to show less and less interest in coding, and more interest in their process. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT)
In what universe can you extrapolate *that* from your stated source wikipedia article (OS/2 related portion copied below):
Microsoft decided to create a portable operating system, compatible with OS/2 and POSIX support and with multiprocessing in October 1988.[11] When development started in November 1989, Windows NT was to be known as OS/2 3.0,[12] the third version of the operating system developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM. To ensure portability, initial development was targeted at the Intel i860XR RISC processor, switching to the MIPS R3000 in late 1989, and then the Intel i386 in 1990.[3] Microsoft also continued parallel development of the DOS-based and less resource-demanding Windows environment, resulting in the release of Windows 3.0 in May 1990. Windows 3 was eventually so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary application programming interface for the still unreleased NT OS/2 (as it was then known) from an extended OS/2 API to an extended Windows API. This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM and the collaboration ultimately fell apart. IBM continued OS/2 development alone while Microsoft continued work on the newly renamed Windows NT. Though neither operating system would immediately be as popular as Microsoft's MS-DOS or Windows products, Windows NT would eventually be far more successful than OS/2.
At first, I assumed that I must be missing something. So I checked the history. Nope. No changes since 19th August.
it's very hip to hit on MS on Slashdot...
It's also very hip to not bother to RTFA on Slashdot. But, bloody hell - when you *introduce* something as a source, please bother to at least check that it backs up whatever argument you are trying to impart.
Their software platform is reasonably open
On what basis is this statement made?
In my opinion, the iPhone/iPad OS is the most closed software platform of, well, basically, any consumer device anywhere.
My basis for this statement: Can't install software that isn't "approved" for installation - a process which is not, mind you, intended to detect nefarious software, but rather to reduce competition with Apple software and impose an arbitrary set of moral values over it's users. Can't access the damn file system on the device. Can't share media files from device to device. And, from a hardware perspective, of course, can't change the operating system, if any of other points bother you.
Things that tipped the decision into "spend": 1. I'm going to Vegas. "Easy Vegas" app is good. 2. I'm going to Vegas and I'm going to watch movies on the flight. 3. Amplitube iPad Edition came out - and it's great. 4. Instant on. No need to boot to check weatheror news, or to look up something I'm curious about. 5. The Reuters app is awesome. 6. Camera connection kit deals properly with Nikon raw format. 7. The tools for photo management are really coming along beautifully. Photogene is a good tool for travel. Since then I've discovered some new things. 1. The 10 hour battery life is both real, and awesome. 2. I have gone to a site that required flash exactly twice, and I found the same content elswehere in a format I could view. 3. I really like reading magazines on it (Maxim with Kaley Cuoco!) 4. On the most difficult setting, the Scrabble app kicks my ass. 5. I haven't turned my netbook on since I got it. 6. The screen gets dirty when I eat cheezies and surf porn. 7. There's a LOT of compatible porn. 8. I've been expecting to have to buy a wireless keyboard, but so far I haven't "needed" to. Anybody want to buy a used netbook? It has crappy battery life and a screen that semi-sucks, but it has a keyboard. Do I give a crap that a bunch of nerds online think that it's underpowered compared to stuff that's 18 months away? Not even slightly. I'm as technical a guy as they come. My workdays are spent writing industrial scheduling and simulation software on Unix. But I'm past the age where I want to screw around with stuff when I get home. Give me something that works well and doesn't give me any grief.
All of these are great arguments for the iPad as a dedicated entertainment device.
But, as a laptop replacement, like the TFA suggests? Only if you only use your netbook for entertainment purposes only.
It's funny how so many /.'ers complain about people who believe the outrageous stories from [Glenn Beck, Fox New, whatever]. This is pretty much the same thing. The actual story is only about 1/10 what is implied in the headline, but now we have a forum full of people screaming about it
What, our addiction offends you?
$3M Lawsuit pending.
Personally, I defer to the beer methodology when evaluating such things. I decide whether I would want to have a beer with the person in question. If this is true, then I presume innocence, if it is false, then I assume guilt.
It's just easier this way.
The US could stand on it's head trying to avoid civilian casualties
If Wikileaks has shown us one thing - it's that they don't.
If Apple is granted the patent they may license it or may not, and they may or may not charge royalties. Since you are an expert in this area you surly realize that the majority of these filings are defensive, right? That the primary purpose of most of these is so that when a patent troll comes after the deep pocket company like Apple that Apple can say we have patents in this area as well?
Three letters: H.T.C.
Jesus there are a lot of people out there that think they are freaking experts on this stuff.
...
/. in the morning and first thing reading a bunch of posts by people that clearly haven't bothered to read the article (I know, this is /. and I shouldn't really expect anyone to read anything) and spouting off bullshit as if it were the gospel.
Maybe it's because I haven't had my morning coffee yet, but there is something irritating about sitting down to read
Go and have your morning coffee. Reflect on the kettle calling the pot black whilst making it.
Sack up, precious - you wouldn't want to get any tears on that pretty little Retina Display now, would you...
In the article, they did say hetrosexual and homosexual participants. Obviously, hilarity ensured during in the inevitable hookups in the mens. "Who's yo' daddy?" yelled in the throes of passion, followed by a chorus of Darth Vaders...
I think you are missing the point. If companies that do this get no reward, they will stop doing it. And there may never be a level of functionality and stability useful to you in a open source driver for that product as a result. Obviously, Bruce is not asking you to buy something that is useless to you. Just, given a two choice, reward the manufacturer who does the right thing. Hell, even if it is slightly "worse" than the alternative right now, I'd do so. But that's just me, obviously not everyone has such "lofty" ideals and forward thinking.
As a person who's breaking into the book market with my wife's new novel and seeking an eBook option, this is precisely the sort of crap that we're worried about, just all too easy through modern POD portals like Lulu.
As a person who's breaking into the book market with your wife's new novel and seeking an eBook option, this is precisely the sort of crap I'm relying on
Perhaps when you are finished stuffing the next fat burger down your oversized gullet, you could waddle down to the local educational institution and start that study.
I no u fink Amerikans are dum, but @least we speek inglish.