Part of it could be with the UNIX base though. I don't think X really likes you switching much on the fly. Sure, Apple might be able to work through it, but how often are you going to change them?
So whats the point of spam now? It isn't just a bunch of hackers wanting to proclaim that they managed to take control of a bunch of 0wn3d B0x3s. There has to be money involved, and even if it isn't the spammers getting the $ from the drugs, someone obviously has to have the money to pay the spammers to send spam messages.
Yes, its true that Flash does seem to use up an absurd amount of CPU, but upgrading (or downgrading) your Flash player usually remedies the problem. And the x86 requirement is something that a lot of proprietary software has, though if GNASH ever becomes usable it won't be a concern.
Honestly having used Flash on Windows it was by far the easiest programming I have ever done (other than messing around with Scratch but that doesn't count). Yes, if you aren't used to JavaScript it can be a pain, but honestly, if you are an artist Flash is going to make you decent programmer (unfortunately art isn't my strong point so my Flash ended up looking horrible)
No more than Java, AJAX or Silverlight does. Most of the problems with Flash are the exact same problems that would happen even with Super Open Ultra Stable Plugin's stable version. Also, Flash is supported by a lot of things, the Wii can view Flash files, and so can the largest three OSes (Mac, Linux and Windows), and so can a bunch of other things not to mention that GNASH is in development and is OSS.
I'm not using Google's Chrome because I hate change.
I don't see a reason to learn a new program when the one I have works.
That is true if you are switching operating systems, or desktop environments, IDEs, or word processors. But honestly, Chrome is a browser, if you can use either Netscape, IE, Firefox, Safari, Konqueror, etc. You can use Chrome.
If we had true free-market or minarchest/anarcho-capitalism it would work. However, like you said governments enforce monopolies by patents and copyrights. Take away patents and copyrights and we would see a huge booming computer market, but, alas, the government as seen it fit to protect monopolies.
You are absolutely right! We should just get rid of the concept of IP and eliminate personal benefit for all future innovations. That surely will motivate people to work harder and develop new products/processes so that others with better means will reap the rewards in their place!
There is no reason you can't make tons of money making IP without patenting it. If software can be so easily reverse engineered to make patenting it necessary, it isn't complex enough to be able to be patented. Yes, that does mean that most software is un-patentable, but we are in about 60 years into the computer industry. Think of all the disasters that would have happened if we would have let patents in the first 60 years of other major industries. Perhaps 150 years into the future when all the basics have been taken care of software patents will not be absurd, but today, in 2008 it is equivalence to allowing literary patents. It would be like giving a publisher the exclusive rights to publish books about something and when a great author such as Tolstoy, or Shakespeare, or Dickens wrote a book about it and the publisher rejected it there would be no way it could be published. That is very, very similar with software patents.
The reason for this is that televisions have no barrier to entry so users who find content objectionable have no course of action. (As opposed to cable, where they can choose to cancel it.)
Ummm... Don't watch it? For example, if I don't like Microsoft I can make a stand by not buying Windows, visiting MSN/Live, using Linux, etc. If I don't like a broadcaster I can do the same thing, not buying/watching movies made by them, not watching the TV station, writing in, organizing boycotts, etc. If enough people watch them, so be it, no one is making me watch TV.
Amidst the fact that most of the world is going through a major crisis, who in world could think that what we need to do is give the corporations even more power while limiting competition? Wasn't the lesson we learned was that large corporations were bad and that you should give more power to the people? Apparently not.
How is it "valid"?!?! Have you not read the bill of rights
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I believe that filters imposed by the government is abridging freedom of speech and the press and so do most other people. Unfortunately it seems like the government is as censor happy as China is.
The sooner people separate their devices, and stop trying to conduct business or deal with their finances on the same machine they use as a general toy the better.
No. No. No. Thats exactly what the software/hardware companies want us to do. For example, the TiVo is basically a computer, however, it cannot be modified to run whatever we want it to run unlike a computer. The hardware companies and software companies want us to have one device per purpous, that rather than just having 2 desktops and a laptop they want us to have an iPod for playing music, a TiVo to only record shows, a gaming PC only for playing games, a work PC only to work on, a cell phone only to make calls, a camera only to take pictures, etc.
Most people who are taking a programming class already know how to use a computer. About the only way that you would ever teach basic computer skills in a programming class is if it was required to graduate. Also, what level is this? Is this high school? College? If it is college is it mostly people who are fresh out of high school or people looking to get a pay raise by getting a degree? All those things will change how you need to work it.
Yes, but which kernel? The stable 1.0 version? The beta version? The.02 version? Put it this way, while a lot of Linux-centered publications say that Linux was written in 1991, I've read even computer textbooks that use the 1994 date of the 1.0 release to say when Linux was released.
The problem is, when do you call Linux "released"? Is it today when the original code was written, or when it became stable with a 1.0 release? Or would it be when the first major Linux distribution was released? As you see, there is a lot of dates you could call Linux as being "released".
You must be new-ish here. While it is true that a lot of/. articles are reputable, a lot of others are small blogs or websites that no one has any way of verifying if they are true or not. For all most people know, I could have made up an entire interview, added in a good domain name, and a decent layout and people might actually believe me.
On the other end though, there are tons of Mac rumor websites that paint Apple in a very favorable light, by saying all kinds of unverified things that could cause Apple's stock to skyrocket. Such as new models of iPods, Macs, new releases of iTunes, etc.
The only sad thing is that we have no legal recourse to do anything about these bastard liars except for to boycott them.
Have you never watched a cable news show in your life? (And honestly I would say that you were lucky if you haven't), there are tons of ways to make them look to facts. E-mail them, call in, tell rival news stations about their mistakes, etc. There is tons of ways you can ruin a journalist's reputation, and journalism isn't something that we have a total monopoly on (unlike, say, the operating system market).
Riiiight, much as how/. should have a big disclaimer saying that most things aren't 100% verified, or Engadget, or any other news site. People should be smart enough to figure out the fact from the fiction, and honestly, I don't see how Steve's death is going to make you want to sell your Apple stock, and absolutely not on simply a rumor, just as I won't go out and buy 1000 shares of Apple stock whenever there are "pictures" of the new iPod.
Still be available as in "you can still modify it" but not still available as in "I can demand source code for this". If he was the lead developer in a minor OSS project and the project's site closed down, it is still an open source project... the downside is no one can get the code. Whereas with the GPL you can more or less track down the developer and demand the code.
Not really. The problem lies within the BSD license. What they should do is quickly re-license the project under the GPL, and then work for the company. The company has the BSD licensed part, while the community has the GPL licensed part.
The problem is, you then get into the "one device for every app". Such things become later abused by hardware and software makers to the point that you can only have "one device for every app". Think of it this way, if they marketed a netbook as only useful for checking e-mail, they might as well leave out all the games, heck, why not take out the entire package manager! Then we get to the point where the OS is not usable as a computer but it becomes a one or two application device. Now, us geeks are of course going to quickly change the OS and have a good computer, but what about Joe Sixpack who looks at a netbook and thinks its just $400 to check e-mail and surf the web, something that his $250 iPod Touch can already do, so they ignore it. And so when Joe Sixpack ignores it, and when businessmen ignore it because it doesn't run Windows out of the box, nor have more applications installed on it than their smartphone, there's little market left over except for the/. crowd which isn't enough to have multiple competing brands and lower prices.
Myself, the EEE's keyboard is at least usable if not decent for typing out documents, etc. I can type close to full speed on it and not make any more typos then I would on a full sized keyboard. But, it could just be me, I have very small hands, so it would naturally be easier for me to type on it than someone who has larger hands. But the one thing that annoys me about the EEE's keyboard is the lack of a Caps Lock light, which, isn't much of a problem in Xandros as an icon shows up in the taskbar, it is a pain on any other OS as it doesn't have that built in.
Slashdot Mirror
Part of it could be with the UNIX base though. I don't think X really likes you switching much on the fly. Sure, Apple might be able to work through it, but how often are you going to change them?
So whats the point of spam now? It isn't just a bunch of hackers wanting to proclaim that they managed to take control of a bunch of 0wn3d B0x3s. There has to be money involved, and even if it isn't the spammers getting the $ from the drugs, someone obviously has to have the money to pay the spammers to send spam messages.
Yes, its true that Flash does seem to use up an absurd amount of CPU, but upgrading (or downgrading) your Flash player usually remedies the problem. And the x86 requirement is something that a lot of proprietary software has, though if GNASH ever becomes usable it won't be a concern.
Honestly having used Flash on Windows it was by far the easiest programming I have ever done (other than messing around with Scratch but that doesn't count). Yes, if you aren't used to JavaScript it can be a pain, but honestly, if you are an artist Flash is going to make you decent programmer (unfortunately art isn't my strong point so my Flash ended up looking horrible)
Flash sucks, a lot
No more than Java, AJAX or Silverlight does. Most of the problems with Flash are the exact same problems that would happen even with Super Open Ultra Stable Plugin's stable version. Also, Flash is supported by a lot of things, the Wii can view Flash files, and so can the largest three OSes (Mac, Linux and Windows), and so can a bunch of other things not to mention that GNASH is in development and is OSS.
I'm not using Google's Chrome because I hate change. I don't see a reason to learn a new program when the one I have works.
That is true if you are switching operating systems, or desktop environments, IDEs, or word processors. But honestly, Chrome is a browser, if you can use either Netscape, IE, Firefox, Safari, Konqueror, etc. You can use Chrome.
If we had true free-market or minarchest/anarcho-capitalism it would work. However, like you said governments enforce monopolies by patents and copyrights. Take away patents and copyrights and we would see a huge booming computer market, but, alas, the government as seen it fit to protect monopolies.
You are absolutely right! We should just get rid of the concept of IP and eliminate personal benefit for all future innovations. That surely will motivate people to work harder and develop new products/processes so that others with better means will reap the rewards in their place!
There is no reason you can't make tons of money making IP without patenting it. If software can be so easily reverse engineered to make patenting it necessary, it isn't complex enough to be able to be patented. Yes, that does mean that most software is un-patentable, but we are in about 60 years into the computer industry. Think of all the disasters that would have happened if we would have let patents in the first 60 years of other major industries. Perhaps 150 years into the future when all the basics have been taken care of software patents will not be absurd, but today, in 2008 it is equivalence to allowing literary patents. It would be like giving a publisher the exclusive rights to publish books about something and when a great author such as Tolstoy, or Shakespeare, or Dickens wrote a book about it and the publisher rejected it there would be no way it could be published. That is very, very similar with software patents.
The reason for this is that televisions have no barrier to entry so users who find content objectionable have no course of action. (As opposed to cable, where they can choose to cancel it.)
Ummm... Don't watch it? For example, if I don't like Microsoft I can make a stand by not buying Windows, visiting MSN/Live, using Linux, etc. If I don't like a broadcaster I can do the same thing, not buying/watching movies made by them, not watching the TV station, writing in, organizing boycotts, etc. If enough people watch them, so be it, no one is making me watch TV.
Amidst the fact that most of the world is going through a major crisis, who in world could think that what we need to do is give the corporations even more power while limiting competition? Wasn't the lesson we learned was that large corporations were bad and that you should give more power to the people? Apparently not.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I believe that filters imposed by the government is abridging freedom of speech and the press and so do most other people. Unfortunately it seems like the government is as censor happy as China is.
The sooner people separate their devices, and stop trying to conduct business or deal with their finances on the same machine they use as a general toy the better.
No. No. No. Thats exactly what the software/hardware companies want us to do. For example, the TiVo is basically a computer, however, it cannot be modified to run whatever we want it to run unlike a computer. The hardware companies and software companies want us to have one device per purpous, that rather than just having 2 desktops and a laptop they want us to have an iPod for playing music, a TiVo to only record shows, a gaming PC only for playing games, a work PC only to work on, a cell phone only to make calls, a camera only to take pictures, etc.
Most people who are taking a programming class already know how to use a computer. About the only way that you would ever teach basic computer skills in a programming class is if it was required to graduate. Also, what level is this? Is this high school? College? If it is college is it mostly people who are fresh out of high school or people looking to get a pay raise by getting a degree? All those things will change how you need to work it.
I think this one is actually observable, or at least the summery makes it seem that way.
Yes, but which kernel? The stable 1.0 version? The beta version? The .02 version? Put it this way, while a lot of Linux-centered publications say that Linux was written in 1991, I've read even computer textbooks that use the 1994 date of the 1.0 release to say when Linux was released.
The problem is, when do you call Linux "released"? Is it today when the original code was written, or when it became stable with a 1.0 release? Or would it be when the first major Linux distribution was released? As you see, there is a lot of dates you could call Linux as being "released".
You must be new-ish here. While it is true that a lot of /. articles are reputable, a lot of others are small blogs or websites that no one has any way of verifying if they are true or not. For all most people know, I could have made up an entire interview, added in a good domain name, and a decent layout and people might actually believe me.
On the other end though, there are tons of Mac rumor websites that paint Apple in a very favorable light, by saying all kinds of unverified things that could cause Apple's stock to skyrocket. Such as new models of iPods, Macs, new releases of iTunes, etc.
The only sad thing is that we have no legal recourse to do anything about these bastard liars except for to boycott them.
Have you never watched a cable news show in your life? (And honestly I would say that you were lucky if you haven't), there are tons of ways to make them look to facts. E-mail them, call in, tell rival news stations about their mistakes, etc. There is tons of ways you can ruin a journalist's reputation, and journalism isn't something that we have a total monopoly on (unlike, say, the operating system market).
Riiiight, much as how /. should have a big disclaimer saying that most things aren't 100% verified, or Engadget, or any other news site. People should be smart enough to figure out the fact from the fiction, and honestly, I don't see how Steve's death is going to make you want to sell your Apple stock, and absolutely not on simply a rumor, just as I won't go out and buy 1000 shares of Apple stock whenever there are "pictures" of the new iPod.
Still be available as in "you can still modify it" but not still available as in "I can demand source code for this". If he was the lead developer in a minor OSS project and the project's site closed down, it is still an open source project... the downside is no one can get the code. Whereas with the GPL you can more or less track down the developer and demand the code.
Not really. The problem lies within the BSD license. What they should do is quickly re-license the project under the GPL, and then work for the company. The company has the BSD licensed part, while the community has the GPL licensed part.
The problem is, you then get into the "one device for every app". Such things become later abused by hardware and software makers to the point that you can only have "one device for every app". Think of it this way, if they marketed a netbook as only useful for checking e-mail, they might as well leave out all the games, heck, why not take out the entire package manager! Then we get to the point where the OS is not usable as a computer but it becomes a one or two application device. Now, us geeks are of course going to quickly change the OS and have a good computer, but what about Joe Sixpack who looks at a netbook and thinks its just $400 to check e-mail and surf the web, something that his $250 iPod Touch can already do, so they ignore it. And so when Joe Sixpack ignores it, and when businessmen ignore it because it doesn't run Windows out of the box, nor have more applications installed on it than their smartphone, there's little market left over except for the /. crowd which isn't enough to have multiple competing brands and lower prices.
But most aren't as cheap as the $300 701 though. A lot of people who don't know much about computers may just go for the cheapest laptop.
Myself, the EEE's keyboard is at least usable if not decent for typing out documents, etc. I can type close to full speed on it and not make any more typos then I would on a full sized keyboard. But, it could just be me, I have very small hands, so it would naturally be easier for me to type on it than someone who has larger hands. But the one thing that annoys me about the EEE's keyboard is the lack of a Caps Lock light, which, isn't much of a problem in Xandros as an icon shows up in the taskbar, it is a pain on any other OS as it doesn't have that built in.