"the decline in CD sales may be partially attributable to MP3 downloading"
Sure is. I know that I haven't bought any CDs since napster went under. This whole MP3 downloading thing has killed my desire to buy CDs from people who call me a criminal when I download some music and then buy the CD. I bought everything I downloaded(and kept for more than a minute) from Nap. But now, I buy nothing. If I absolutely must have it, I go an extra mile and find the used CD store. But those bastards aren't ever getting another dollar out of me.
I probably would have bought the Star Wars AOTC soundtrack....but they copy protected it overseas. So even that one got on my list. I downloaded it and made copies for friends. F U RIAA.
I remember the real one. In 1984. When everyone who owned a computer tried to convince me that owning a mouse was immoral. "Don't turn a computer into a stupid toy" they said.
I remember people who insisted that Pine was a horrible disfigurement of unix mail.
I remember people who thought Windows95 destroyed windows. "How slow!" they said.
If you don't like tabs....well, fine Nerdosaurous. I don't think anybody should be forced to get with the present. Certainly not. Just remember that you Not liking something doesn't mean that it's flawed....or you can join all the fossils out there that are PROUD that they can't compute.
The majority comment here seems to be that all the bandwidth hogs should have to pay if they use. I'm all for that....personally I pay a 50% premium for DSL vs Cable because I like the difference in service. But what about the guy two blocks from me who cannot get DSL?
I don't think broadband ISPs should be allowed to make any restrictions on service or even unregulated pricing decisions unless there is viable competition from at least *TWO* other ISPs and open access for new competitors. I don't mind AT&T selling web-and-mail only internet service. Lots of people like that. But what about the doctors who I install VPNs for that want to perform telemedicine to save lives? One size fits all national service agreements with a "if you don't like it, don't buy it" attitude just don't work when there is no competition.
We need some regulation. Unfortunately the Bush FCC seems to be running the other way.
When this topic comes up, slashdot turns into a bad movie site. Ben Affleck had it right, "Sad, pathetic little bastards living in their parents' basement, downloading scripts and what they think is inside information about movies and actors they claim to despise, yet can't stop discussing."
I love Star Wars. All of it. I walked out of EP2 DYING to see EP3 and crying that soon it would be over, with no more movies coming. I don't know anyone who was upset with the way the movies turned out. But then again, I didn't go hoping that my dark dreams from my troubled teenage years would be fulfilled with a protagonist that was me in the tight leather from the crow having kinky sex with charlies angels. I went to see Star Wars. I got Star Wars.
I realize that not everyone is happy with how their life is turning out. But that's not Star Wars' fault. Really. And if you're insights into film are so penetrating and deep, then why don't you go make one. If you can out-gross a Star Wars film, I'll listen to you. Which means the only people I have to listen to _this year_ are Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi.
If I've been insulting you here, I'll try and leave you with a positive note. Read less rumor sites and commentary and instead go and just _watch_ the movies. They are so much more fun that way. It's not G.L.'s bad directing that makes you notice it....it's Carrie Fisher's snide interview rememberances. Over-analyzing ANYTHING will make it suck for you (I know. I watched Princess Bride 50 times in a row once for a class). So don't do that.
May the force be with you.
p.s. Why do the slashdot editors keep posting negative spin Star Wars stories when their entire Sourceforge ad campaign seems to derive from Star Wars? I don't get it.
I like rumor sites a lot. I read a number of the Mac rumor sites religiously because I'm constanly curious to find out what's next and when. But I support Apple in doing whatever it needs to to cut back on the flow of future info. Why?
Back when I was a mere bouncing boy I had this wonderful portable computer called an Osborne 1. 1mhz cpu. Two floppy drives, a 300 baud modem and a CRT all running CP/M (DOS without subdirectories for you youngins). All this in a portable case the size of a suitcase. I loved the thing and did much productive playing of infocom games on it. (I had DBase 2, but could never figure out why I'd want such a thing).
Then came tell of a NEW Osborne coming out in, like, six months or so. And this one would run PC-DOS!!! Almost instantly Osborne went out of business. Their cashflow dies as people canceled their orders for "old" computers and planned on waiting for the new one. And along came this _other_ company selling their 'compaq' briefcase computers. I imagine Adam Osborne was pissed.
The moral of this story? Rumors can kill companies, and while Apple isn't small enoght for that to happen easily, I know for a fact that I've told people to "wait a month" to buy a mac based on rumor reporing of a new Powerbook coming real soon now. So, go Apple. Feel free to limit the rumor folks. And rumor guys, please keep working. I'd just die without my inside scoop.
As much zoom as possible, perception of every feasible EM spectrum, processing for environment issues (too much light, too little light, obscuring effects (fog), snow blindness, etc). All of those are pretty obvious.
Ones I haven't seen mentioned: 1) Organic maintenance. Keep the fluid in the eye clean and balanced. None of thos nasty contaminants that plague us as we grow old. 2) Three dimensional image manipulation. Want to read a piece of paper that is upside down and at a sharp angle to your field of view. Just double-blink on it and it looks like it's flat in front of you. 3) Screen saver. Nice relaxing repetative imagery, from white noise to flying toasters. 4) Ability to analyze a vibrating object to find the sound that's impacting or issuing from it. Laser microphone, anyone? 5) Frame rate adjusability. Ability to see more detail of fast-moving objects when possible. Ability to more smoothly (less irritatingly) percieve light sources that are too slow. No more flourescent light flicker, or blur at the theater when the 24fps isn't fast enough for your 30fps eyes. 6) Important object highlighting. Remember how they animated Dr. Katz? The 'live' objects kinda jittered. Still (distant?) objects that are significant (glass on the road, etc.) should shimmer or jitter so that they get noticed by our (motion oriented) visual centers in the brain. 7) Rose-tinted sunglasses. Virtual repainting of scenes to improve the psychological impact. Punched up color saturation. Areas of darkness in 'noisy' unimportant zones. Blurs for cruddy details. (see also 'Beer Goggle' effect) 7) Applet Sandbox. Once people have these cool things, there's going to be good ideas. Somebody's going to figure out how to watch a monitor by looking at the light reflected off a wall, etc. A secure code interface (NO SNOW CRASH!!!) should be included so the open source types can load code in. "Here, look at this bar-code! It'll make your eyes translate Japaneese!"
1) Buy software at evil corporate retailer. (Windows XP would be good...but any piece of software where you have a grudge against the EULA for would work).
2) Open up the package. Tear open nastily the EULA envelope. Sit on the box. Etc.
3) Attempt to return product to retailer citing the fact that you don't approve of the EULA.
4) Document their refusal. Write down the time and date. Address of the store. Name of the clerk. Speak to the manager. Write down his name.
5) Return home and violate the EULA in every possible offensive way. Put the binaries on your web page. Decompile the code and post it to newsgroups. Send CD copies to everyone in your Zip code. Publish unapproved benchmarks. Whatever.
6) Defend yourself in court. (IANAL) You should have plenty of grounds to prove that you never agreed to any sort of licensing and that the contract was void.
Other than the whole lawyer fees thing, I think it's the perfect solution. What do you think?
Ok. I've read the post. I've scanned (10 seconds) the linked site. I read my normal filtered comments (4+). And I have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE as to what the %$!# this is about. Is it cool? Does it suck? Is it going to do anything for me? Who knows. Who cares?
Can we please get a bit of a better post, eds? I mean, this isn't even as useful as a freshmeat posting, which at least tells you what the hell is being updated.
I'm probably interested, but I don't think a story saying click here or here or here or here is very useful.
I'm looking for a card with decent TV out. I want to watch all this cool video I've encoded on a real TV where the women in my life won't complain. Has anyone seen any sort of review coverage of the quality of TV outs on cards like the 8500 (or some nice Geforce?). I know the sharpness will never be great, but if geometry (trapezoid, pincushion) and scaling (overscan!) can work, that would be good enough for me.
I was certain these books were in the public domain. You can download them off project gutenberg. Why is a studio paying good money to 'option' them? Perhaps they'd pay me for my permission to option Hamlet.....
Good note about the mainstream press being biased. I just want to add one other point for people to notice here....the bias here is honestly and openly given. CmdrTaco states clearly that this is his opinion and that he actually has an opinion. Compare this to the weasely lies the 'mainstream press' propogates under an 'objective' prose style that hides their bias and tries to make you believe that their opinions are fact. Keep it up Taco, at least we know where you stand.
On the SCSI v. IDE debate, I have to vote with the SCSI folks. As good as IDE has gotten, there are things which will just choke it, while a SCSI system will float along as if propelled by the wind.
But do we really want SCSI? Big expensive cables? Termination problems? All sorts of crazy complexity? I don't know if there is any reasonable way of comparing IEEE-1394 v. SCSI yet, but I sure think that if our friends at intel ever get on the wagon, we could probably get rid of both SCSI and IDE and be fast and free in the future.
Unfortunately for xig, I bought MetroX, but I will vouch for Xfree86 "falling over". It happens people. It may not happen to you but it does happen.
When I was running Xfree on my Matrox Mystique card, I would have daily system lockups where the keyboard, mouse, and network all went down. Interestingly, linux really didn't, as proven by my still-running cron jobs, but the system was all but unusable (a solipsistic turing machine). It wasn't until I saw xig's ad that I put two and two together. Once I installed MetroX, I had uptimes of a month or more. Just goes to show you that you really don't want a buggy X server, whoever makes it.
I now have a different graphics card, and I'm back on XF86 (those vmware accellerations are hard to beat), but I wouldn't hesitate to go to a commercial X server if I started having problems again. Nor should you.
It's not illegal for them to have a key. It's illegal for them to use a key. Prove that they've done it, and you could probably close them down, but how do you prove that?
I have no idea what milestone 5 means. 20 minutes on the mozilla site didn't help. I remember a good description of M1, but I haven't seen any since. I'd sure like to know if this is worth downloading, but I don't have a clue what's in it.
Does anybody know where they are going to have their linux support center? I didn't find any job postings for linux positions on their web site, which is a bit suspicious. Are they going to outsource this?
First off, let me say that I'm all in favor of the new moderator system. Having a reliable core of people who devote their time to making slashdot better without making it a popularity contest is the Right Way to do it. Unfortunately, those same folks just socked me one in the nose on a recent posting, so I want to know what do do when they are abusive.
I recently had a posting (on an apple topic) that had more replies than any other on the Topic, had replies rated up to 4. (Even had a reply scored at 1 calling me a twat) And yet, for quite a while, the post itself was scored at -1. Yes, Negative One. For an on topic, unoffensive post by a logged in user that happened to disagree with the premise of the topic.
So, What information exactly would you like me to collect for you before I use up your time emailing a complaint? Do you want an emailed complaint for a case such as mine? What are your criteria for taking action against a moderator?
I don't want to waste your time with a bunch of complaints (you're doing so much great work as it is, that I'd rather you spent your time on it). But I would like to have some course of action to make the moderation better so that moderators with heavy biases and no sense of impartiality don't stick people over and over again. (BTW, I really like the suggestion that there be trackable histories for anonymous, numbered moderators....that way I can do my homework before I appeal to you)
Well, folks, it looks like the moderation here does respond a bit to criticism. This thread is back up to a score of one which means that, once again, I can see it without -adjusting- my threshold down to the level of 'first' messages and four-letter word users.
So, thanks, guys.
I'm so ashamed--still ashamed.
on
RMS on APSL
·
· Score: 1
I've read through a bunch of replies here, and I wish I could say that I was convinced I was wrong. Heck, I like you people...that's why I hang around this joint. Unfortunately, nobody's really said anything new.
There is one major argument hanging around. Basically it says "if I can't have it all my way, I don't want any of it." I'm not saying that it's bad to critique the license or suggest improvements. But that's not what we're seing here, is it people? Be honest. No. It's a flamebath.
The truth of the license is that there are some weird points, but good people have stated it does the right thing. I dunno. I'm not a lawyer. But at the very worst, there's some doubt. Doubt isn't enought to send someone to the hangman. Doubt shouldn't even be enough to make you angry. Doubt only becomes a reason when you have a grudge....
Which a lot of you folks do. "the much hated 'look and feel lawsuit', 'Apple's litigous past while under Steve Jobs', '$1600 beef with Apple...a certain powerbook' It doesn't seem like you're giving this a fair chance...why not?
Of course, the core of my shame isn't just that there's a bunch of folks with opinions and a quick mouse aimed at the 'reply' button (trivia question: who popularized the mouse?). My real shame is that slashdot has been pushing an anti-Apple agenda which has been picked up by the outside, mainstream press as divisive and negative. (Thanks, to Bruce Perens for picking up on this, Above) We have a responsibility to put a reasoned face on things that are possible to deal with reasonably. I have no problem with a strong angry response to PIII ID numbers, or Kevin Mitnik's situation, but all you have done here is rub egg all over all of our faces and prove that the open source is a squabbling, infantile community that -most- corporations would save them a lot of headaches by staying away from. Like a married couple fighting in a restaurant.
Even more to point the finger at Slashdot, I blame the moderators. For posting the article so prominently in the first place, with the slant that they have placed on it AND for the incredibly lame and infantile scoring that has been done. My original articles has replies with a score of 4, yet it's own score was downgraded to ZERO. It has more replies than anything else on this thread, but the reply calling me a 'twat' has a higher score than the posting itself. I won't point a finger at an individual moderator, because who done it isn't as open source as the slashdot code, but who ever you are, you're a wanker. Thanks for being petty.
"I may not agree with the word you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it." -Voltaire
Here we are, one of the biggest computer companies around, the owner of one of only two mass marked operating systems, goes for open source, both by including open source software in it's products and by opening the source to some of it's products, and all I see is flaming.
I feel bad enough that there's a large group of people (obviously with personal grudges against Apple (what's the matter, honey? couldn't afford one?)) out there who have decided that this is a good place to do some kicking around of their favorite rag doll.
But what's worse it that Slashdot, who I've always respected as having a sence of Agnosticism equalled only by the old Byte magazine, has been a major instigator of this attack, posting derivitive article after article.
So, thanks, people. We've just sent the perfect message: Open source your software....it will earn you legal liability and the hatred of the technical community.
Just because someone is trying to make a dollar doesn't mean they are out to get you. Just because something is *inconvenient* to you doesn't mean it violates the open source ethic.
You want a free codec as good as sorenson? Go write one. Port it to quicktime. Give it away free to lucasfilm and everyone. But don't bitch because someone who -did- put in the effort didn't decide to give it to you for free.
Open source is about admirable people giving away stuff they worked hard on and cooperating. What I hear here is the same lame bitching the script kiddies do when they can't get Q3A on their favorite wAreZ servers.
Worst of all, CmdrTaco seems to have bought in on this one and posted a pretty editorially biased article.
Anyways. I support Apple for making great products, despite the odds. I support Troll Tech for making a great desktop environment possible (one that doesn't crash). I even support Larry Wall, despite the fact that his profit model means I have to buy lots of out-of-date books rather than getting good online documentation and tutorials. All these folks, and more, have given us great stuff, often for cheap or free. Sure, I want more....and if I rub this here lamp and the genie comes out........
Slashdot Mirror
"the decline in CD sales may be partially attributable to MP3 downloading"
Sure is. I know that I haven't bought any CDs since napster went under. This whole MP3 downloading thing has killed my desire to buy CDs from people who call me a criminal when I download some music and then buy the CD. I bought everything I downloaded(and kept for more than a minute) from Nap. But now, I buy nothing. If I absolutely must have it, I go an extra mile and find the used CD store. But those bastards aren't ever getting another dollar out of me.
I probably would have bought the Star Wars AOTC soundtrack....but they copy protected it overseas. So even that one got on my list. I downloaded it and made copies for friends. F U RIAA.
Tabbed browsing, huh?
I remember the real one. In 1984. When everyone who owned a computer tried to convince me that owning a mouse was immoral. "Don't turn a computer into a stupid toy" they said.
I remember people who insisted that Pine was a horrible disfigurement of unix mail.
I remember people who thought Windows95 destroyed windows. "How slow!" they said.
If you don't like tabs....well, fine Nerdosaurous. I don't think anybody should be forced to get with the present. Certainly not. Just remember that you Not liking something doesn't mean that it's flawed....or you can join all the fossils out there that are PROUD that they can't compute.
Sigh.
The majority comment here seems to be that all the bandwidth hogs should have to pay if they use. I'm all for that....personally I pay a 50% premium for DSL vs Cable because I like the difference in service. But what about the guy two blocks from me who cannot get DSL?
I don't think broadband ISPs should be allowed to make any restrictions on service or even unregulated pricing decisions unless there is viable competition from at least *TWO* other ISPs and open access for new competitors. I don't mind AT&T selling web-and-mail only internet service. Lots of people like that. But what about the doctors who I install VPNs for that want to perform telemedicine to save lives? One size fits all national service agreements with a "if you don't like it, don't buy it" attitude just don't work when there is no competition.
We need some regulation. Unfortunately the Bush FCC seems to be running the other way.
When this topic comes up, slashdot turns into a bad movie site. Ben Affleck had it right, "Sad, pathetic little bastards living in their parents' basement, downloading scripts and what they think is inside information about movies and actors they claim to despise, yet can't stop discussing."
I love Star Wars. All of it. I walked out of EP2 DYING to see EP3 and crying that soon it would be over, with no more movies coming. I don't know anyone who was upset with the way the movies turned out. But then again, I didn't go hoping that my dark dreams from my troubled teenage years would be fulfilled with a protagonist that was me in the tight leather from the crow having kinky sex with charlies angels. I went to see Star Wars. I got Star Wars.
I realize that not everyone is happy with how their life is turning out. But that's not Star Wars' fault. Really. And if you're insights into film are so penetrating and deep, then why don't you go make one. If you can out-gross a Star Wars film, I'll listen to you. Which means the only people I have to listen to _this year_ are Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi.
If I've been insulting you here, I'll try and leave you with a positive note. Read less rumor sites and commentary and instead go and just _watch_ the movies. They are so much more fun that way. It's not G.L.'s bad directing that makes you notice it....it's Carrie Fisher's snide interview rememberances. Over-analyzing ANYTHING will make it suck for you (I know. I watched Princess Bride 50 times in a row once for a class). So don't do that.
May the force be with you.
p.s. Why do the slashdot editors keep posting negative spin Star Wars stories when their entire Sourceforge ad campaign seems to derive from Star Wars? I don't get it.
I like rumor sites a lot. I read a number of the Mac rumor sites religiously because I'm constanly curious to find out what's next and when. But I support Apple in doing whatever it needs to to cut back on the flow of future info. Why?
Back when I was a mere bouncing boy I had this wonderful portable computer called an Osborne 1. 1mhz cpu. Two floppy drives, a 300 baud modem and a CRT all running CP/M (DOS without subdirectories for you youngins). All this in a portable case the size of a suitcase. I loved the thing and did much productive playing of infocom games on it. (I had DBase 2, but could never figure out why I'd want such a thing).
Then came tell of a NEW Osborne coming out in, like, six months or so. And this one would run PC-DOS!!! Almost instantly Osborne went out of business. Their cashflow dies as people canceled their orders for "old" computers and planned on waiting for the new one. And along came this _other_ company selling their 'compaq' briefcase computers. I imagine Adam Osborne was pissed.
The moral of this story? Rumors can kill companies, and while Apple isn't small enoght for that to happen easily, I know for a fact that I've told people to "wait a month" to buy a mac based on rumor reporing of a new Powerbook coming real soon now. So, go Apple. Feel free to limit the rumor folks. And rumor guys, please keep working. I'd just die without my inside scoop.
As much zoom as possible, perception of every feasible EM spectrum, processing for environment issues (too much light, too little light, obscuring effects (fog), snow blindness, etc). All of those are pretty obvious.
Ones I haven't seen mentioned:
1) Organic maintenance. Keep the fluid in the eye clean and balanced. None of thos nasty contaminants that plague us as we grow old.
2) Three dimensional image manipulation. Want to read a piece of paper that is upside down and at a sharp angle to your field of view. Just double-blink on it and it looks like it's flat in front of you.
3) Screen saver. Nice relaxing repetative imagery, from white noise to flying toasters.
4) Ability to analyze a vibrating object to find the sound that's impacting or issuing from it. Laser microphone, anyone?
5) Frame rate adjusability. Ability to see more detail of fast-moving objects when possible. Ability to more smoothly (less irritatingly) percieve light sources that are too slow. No more flourescent light flicker, or blur at the theater when the 24fps isn't fast enough for your 30fps eyes.
6) Important object highlighting. Remember how they animated Dr. Katz? The 'live' objects kinda jittered. Still (distant?) objects that are significant (glass on the road, etc.) should shimmer or jitter so that they get noticed by our (motion oriented) visual centers in the brain.
7) Rose-tinted sunglasses. Virtual repainting of scenes to improve the psychological impact. Punched up color saturation. Areas of darkness in 'noisy' unimportant zones. Blurs for cruddy details. (see also 'Beer Goggle' effect)
7) Applet Sandbox. Once people have these cool things, there's going to be good ideas. Somebody's going to figure out how to watch a monitor by looking at the light reflected off a wall, etc. A secure code interface (NO SNOW CRASH!!!) should be included so the open source types can load code in. "Here, look at this bar-code! It'll make your eyes translate Japaneese!"
Damn. Where can I buy a set of these?
My (glib) solution to this whole EULA thing.
1) Buy software at evil corporate retailer. (Windows XP would be good...but any piece of software where you have a grudge against the EULA for would work).
2) Open up the package. Tear open nastily the EULA envelope. Sit on the box. Etc.
3) Attempt to return product to retailer citing the fact that you don't approve of the EULA.
4) Document their refusal. Write down the time and date. Address of the store. Name of the clerk. Speak to the manager. Write down his name.
5) Return home and violate the EULA in every possible offensive way. Put the binaries on your web page. Decompile the code and post it to newsgroups. Send CD copies to everyone in your Zip code. Publish unapproved benchmarks. Whatever.
6) Defend yourself in court. (IANAL) You should have plenty of grounds to prove that you never agreed to any sort of licensing and that the contract was void.
Other than the whole lawyer fees thing, I think it's the perfect solution. What do you think?
Good reply. If I had some mod points today, I'd give em to you.
I actually thought the thing was some sort of OpenGL software emulator before I gave up.
Ok. I've read the post. I've scanned (10 seconds) the linked site. I read my normal filtered comments (4+). And I have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE as to what the %$!# this is about. Is it cool? Does it suck? Is it going to do anything for me? Who knows. Who cares?
Can we please get a bit of a better post, eds? I mean, this isn't even as useful as a freshmeat posting, which at least tells you what the hell is being updated.
I'm probably interested, but I don't think a story saying click here or here or here or here is very useful.
I'm looking for a card with decent TV out. I want to watch all this cool video I've encoded on a real TV where the women in my life won't complain. Has anyone seen any sort of review coverage of the quality of TV outs on cards like the 8500 (or some nice Geforce?). I know the sharpness will never be great, but if geometry (trapezoid, pincushion) and scaling (overscan!) can work, that would be good enough for me.
I was certain these books were in the public domain. You can download them off project gutenberg. Why is a studio paying good money to 'option' them? Perhaps they'd pay me for my permission to option Hamlet.....
Taco,
Good note about the mainstream press being biased. I just want to add one other point for people to notice here....the bias here is honestly and openly given. CmdrTaco states clearly that this is his opinion and that he actually has an opinion. Compare this to the weasely lies the 'mainstream press' propogates under an 'objective' prose style that hides their bias and tries to make you believe that their opinions are fact. Keep it up Taco, at least we know where you stand.
Josh
On the SCSI v. IDE debate, I have to vote with the SCSI folks. As good as IDE has gotten, there are things which will just choke it, while a SCSI system will float along as if propelled by the wind.
But do we really want SCSI? Big expensive cables? Termination problems? All sorts of crazy complexity? I don't know if there is any reasonable way of comparing IEEE-1394 v. SCSI yet, but I sure think that if our friends at intel ever get on the wagon, we could probably get rid of both SCSI and IDE and be fast and free in the future.
Unfortunately for xig, I bought MetroX, but I will vouch for Xfree86 "falling over". It happens people. It may not happen to you but it does happen.
When I was running Xfree on my Matrox Mystique card, I would have daily system lockups where the keyboard, mouse, and network all went down. Interestingly, linux really didn't, as proven by my still-running cron jobs, but the system was all but unusable (a solipsistic turing machine). It wasn't until I saw xig's ad that I put two and two together. Once I installed MetroX, I had uptimes of a month or more. Just goes to show you that you really don't want a buggy X server, whoever makes it.
I now have a different graphics card, and I'm back on XF86 (those vmware accellerations are hard to beat), but I wouldn't hesitate to go to a commercial X server if I started having problems again. Nor should you.
It's not illegal for them to have a key. It's illegal for them to use a key. Prove that they've done it, and you could probably close them down, but how do you prove that?
I have no idea what milestone 5 means. 20 minutes on the mozilla site didn't help. I remember a good description of M1, but I haven't seen any since. I'd sure like to know if this is worth downloading, but I don't have a clue what's in it.
Anyone?
You can get yours at my mirror. Limited time only. Get it while it's up.
Does anybody know where they are going to have their linux support center? I didn't find any job postings for linux positions on their web site, which is a bit suspicious. Are they going to outsource this?
-Jobs- canned the Intel Port of the mac os in -1990-?
Perhaps you should go read some timelines.
Hey folks. I noticed this in the title of the original post, but it wasn't commented on.
The APSL has been changed to eliminate the termination clause that caused so much whining. It looks to be a whole lot more similar to the NPL now.
So much for Apple not listening.
CmdrTaco, I have some questions.
First off, let me say that I'm all in favor of the new moderator system. Having a reliable core of people who devote their time to making slashdot better without making it a popularity contest is the Right Way to do it. Unfortunately, those same folks just socked me one in the nose on a recent posting, so I want to know what do do when they are abusive.
I recently had a posting (on an apple topic) that had more replies than any other on the Topic, had replies rated up to 4. (Even had a reply scored at 1 calling me a twat) And yet, for quite a while, the post itself was scored at -1. Yes, Negative One. For an on topic, unoffensive post by a logged in user that happened to disagree with the premise of the topic.
So, What information exactly would you like me to collect for you before I use up your time emailing a complaint? Do you want an emailed complaint for a case such as mine? What are your criteria for taking action against a moderator?
I don't want to waste your time with a bunch of complaints (you're doing so much great work as it is, that I'd rather you spent your time on it). But I would like to have some course of action to make the moderation better so that moderators with heavy biases and no sense of impartiality don't stick people over and over again. (BTW, I really like the suggestion that there be trackable histories for anonymous, numbered moderators....that way I can do my homework before I appeal to you)
So let me know how to help slashdot.
Thanks,
Josh
Well, folks, it looks like the moderation here does respond a bit to criticism. This thread is back up to a score of one which means that, once again, I can see it without -adjusting- my threshold down to the level of 'first' messages and four-letter word users.
So, thanks, guys.
I've read through a bunch of replies here, and I wish I could say that I was convinced I was wrong. Heck, I like you people...that's why I hang around this joint. Unfortunately, nobody's really said anything new.
There is one major argument hanging around. Basically it says "if I can't have it all my way, I don't want any of it." I'm not saying that it's bad to critique the license or suggest improvements. But that's not what we're seing here, is it people? Be honest. No. It's a flamebath.
The truth of the license is that there are some weird points, but good people have stated it does the right thing. I dunno. I'm not a lawyer. But at the very worst, there's some doubt. Doubt isn't enought to send someone to the hangman. Doubt shouldn't even be enough to make you angry. Doubt only becomes a reason when you have a grudge....
Which a lot of you folks do. "the much hated 'look and feel lawsuit', 'Apple's litigous past while under Steve Jobs', '$1600 beef with Apple...a certain powerbook' It doesn't seem like you're giving this a fair chance...why not?
Of course, the core of my shame isn't just that there's a bunch of folks with opinions and a quick mouse aimed at the 'reply' button (trivia question: who popularized the mouse?). My real shame is that slashdot has been pushing an anti-Apple agenda which has been picked up by the outside, mainstream press as divisive and negative. (Thanks, to Bruce Perens for picking up on this, Above) We have a responsibility to put a reasoned face on things that are possible to deal with reasonably. I have no problem with a strong angry response to PIII ID numbers, or Kevin Mitnik's situation, but all you have done here is rub egg all over all of our faces and prove that the open source is a squabbling, infantile community that -most- corporations would save them a lot of headaches by staying away from. Like a married couple fighting in a restaurant.
Even more to point the finger at Slashdot, I blame the moderators. For posting the article so prominently in the first place, with the slant that they have placed on it AND for the incredibly lame and infantile scoring that has been done. My original articles has replies with a score of 4, yet it's own score was downgraded to ZERO. It has more replies than anything else on this thread, but the reply calling me a 'twat' has a higher score than the posting itself. I won't point a finger at an individual moderator, because who done it isn't as open source as the slashdot code, but who ever you are, you're a wanker. Thanks for being petty.
"I may not agree with the word you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it." -Voltaire
Here we are, one of the biggest computer companies around, the owner of one of only two mass marked operating systems, goes for open source, both by including open source software in it's products and by opening the source to some of it's products, and all I see is flaming.
I feel bad enough that there's a large group of people (obviously with personal grudges against Apple (what's the matter, honey? couldn't afford one?)) out there who have decided that this is a good place to do some kicking around of their favorite rag doll.
But what's worse it that Slashdot, who I've always respected as having a sence of Agnosticism equalled only by the old Byte magazine, has been a major instigator of this attack, posting derivitive article after article.
So, thanks, people. We've just sent the perfect message:
Open source your software....it will earn you legal liability and the hatred of the technical community.
Way to go.
Just because someone is trying to make a dollar doesn't mean they are out to get you. Just because something is *inconvenient* to you doesn't mean it violates the open source ethic.
You want a free codec as good as sorenson? Go write one. Port it to quicktime. Give it away free to lucasfilm and everyone. But don't bitch because someone who -did- put in the effort didn't decide to give it to you for free.
Open source is about admirable people giving away stuff they worked hard on and cooperating. What I hear here is the same lame bitching the script kiddies do when they can't get Q3A on their favorite wAreZ servers.
Worst of all, CmdrTaco seems to have bought in on this one and posted a pretty editorially biased article.
Anyways. I support Apple for making great products, despite the odds. I support Troll Tech for making a great desktop environment possible (one that doesn't crash). I even support Larry Wall, despite the fact that his profit model means I have to buy lots of out-of-date books rather than getting good online documentation and tutorials. All these folks, and more, have given us great stuff, often for cheap or free. Sure, I want more....and if I rub this here lamp and the genie comes out........
Please folks, stop being lame.