Parent is modded troll - despite the fact that we see both parties working hard to extend draconian copyright laws?
The "rights holders" have carte blanche in treaty negotiations, as evidenced with ACTA and NPP. These so-called "rights holders" work around the clock to write ever more restrictive treaties, that will trump national laws around the world. Nations with reasonable laws will be bullied into signing these treaties, then be required to enforce the measures in the treaties.
Troll? If Mozumber's post is a troll, then I'm a troll as well.
The GOP cannot claim innocence in any aspect of what is going on in the copyright/patent wars.
Uh-huh - that's pretty accurate, I think. Except, you left out the corruption bit. Corrupt bastards, both rich and not-so-rich, are very happy to do crazy shit like poisoning the milk that they sell to children, in the name of profit.
Most all of them should have been executed.
I don't really think they are executing people just for being rich. They have to do something in addition to becoming wealthy.
The clause is unenforceable. It has been established time and again that a person cannot sign his rights away with a contract. Whether there is an actual contract, or a TOS, a verbal agreement, or whatever - if you otherwise qualify as a member of a class that sues the company, then you remain qualified despite the language in the contract.
The only useful (or useless) purpose of the language is to confuse people who might qualify as part of a class. If people don't believe they qualify, then they may not pursue and enforce their rights.
Maybe you haven't been paying attention to world events. Communism is a dead end. The Soviet went belly-up, and China is rapidly reworking their own government. Today, China is becoming a world leader, but not by exporting communism. Instead, they are buying into a modified capitalistic society.
Our unrestrained capitalistic world sucks, but communism sucks harder.
How 'bout we try to build something that doesn't suck so bad?
Charles Darwin would probably have something to say about people who pull out in front of a semi. It has often been noted that as tools, equipment, and vehicles grow more idiot-proof, the world just produces better idiots.
Personally, I ride a little 1/4 ton vehicle, that gets about 53 mpg, as opposed to some two-ton hulk that gets maybe 20 mpg.
Motorcycles have a way of thinning the herd some. Fools don't last very long on two wheels. Pulling out in front of tractor trailers is one sure way of becoming a statistic, on a bike, in a car, or even in another tractor trailer.
I think that GP was attempting to explain that Google has filed suit in self defense.
You don't walk around downtown shooting everyone who gets in your way - that's murder. But, if you're assaulted while downtown, by some deranged fool who is trying to kill you - then you have the right to shoot him, in self defense.
It's never "right" to shoot someone, but in some cases, it's not "wrong" either.
It's sad that what you say is true. It's even sadder that people just accept the status quo.
That said, you'll not find a lot of companies that have sunk as low as Microsoft. Yeah, there are companies that have done worse things, but you don't find them on every Main Street in America.
Under educate consumers will be duped from time to time. It's the stupid ones who keep coming back, time and time again, to buy whatever Megacorp tells them they need to buy this year.
Telephones, for instance. There are a couple of camps that just HAVE TO HAVE the latest and greatest offering from their chosen Megacorp. Why? Ten year old phones do most of what the newest megadollar phones do. And, the extras that come with those phones are worth - a couple dollars. Certainly not hundreds of dollars.
There are few phones on the market that are actually "worth" two hundred dollars. And, NONE of them are worth being locked into a contract for two years or more to pay them off.
That's rather naive, I think. Google is a corporation, one which people agree to certain conditions in order to use the corporation's services.
On the other hand, the government is supposed to work for the people. In fact, we have a constitution that was meant to limit government's powers and authority. That constitution granted us rights, and limited government's rights.
You can fight against Google's snooping without worrying about prison time. Fighting government snooping may very well land you in prison.
I'm just visiting here from 2008. I picked up the paper this morning, to learn that Herr Bush and his deregulation policies had enabled the biggest banks in America and the world to magically lose millions of people's investments. Retirement funds, gone - homes devalued - people are being laid off - things look grim.
I hope that funny looking black guy that just got elected can put a lid on things before everything goes up in smoke!
I believe that what you're complaining about, is exactly what separates excellent teachers from mediocrities who are looking for tenure. A teacher who is incapable of making up his/her own exercises probably doesn't understand the content that they are teaching well enough to be teaching!
To be fair, it may take a lot of time to create an exercise. So - a good, motivated teacher does two or three such exercises this year, and saves them. Next year, two or three more - and saves those for future use as well. In five years, Teacher has all the textbook examples, plus a library of his own to draw on. Teach isn't restricted to the material that the students find in their textbooks, he has tools at his disposal to help him find the cheats.
The textbooks and workbooks are only aids for a good teacher, not the crutches that most mediocre teachers rely on.
"Not when the entire populace already knows how to think in one and not the other."
I think you nailed the problem. We're failures at math. If you can count to ten, you can master the SI system, but far to many Americans are incapable of counting or multiplying by ten.
So, I'll admit, I know what a pound is. I can estimate a pound, ten pounds, fifty pounds, pretty closely just by hefting it. Kilos? I'm a little lost. I've never picked up weights measured in kilos. But, that wouldn't stop me for long - I'd just start hefting those 500 gram bags of flour to see what a 1/2 kilo feels like, and kilo bags of corn meal, etc. I mean, it wouldn't take a lifetime to adapt - except for a few retarded holdouts who simply cannot adapt.
You make some pretty good points there - but - I do have machinery and equipment at work such as you describe. Now, putting myself into the OP's shoes, if I were to come to slashdot, I would spell out what type of machinery I was running, and what was required to make that machinery run. Some of our machinery is over thirty years old, quite a lot of it over twenty. Most of our stuff runs on Linux. Machinery that is older than Linux is slowly being phased out - the last of it should be gone in another three years.
So, you see, I actually gave your points a couple of thoughts as I was browsing. OP makes no mention of such requirements, so I dismissed those thoughts.
You will note that he seeming #1 priority is access to more than 4 gig of memory, not meeting any special requirements of dinosaur machines and/or laws.;)
I've scrolled down the page, and read a lot of good answers. With a little consideration, I have to agree with those who suggest, "It's time to upgrade your software!" As has already been pointed out, 16 bit software was on it's way out when the 386 processor came of the manufacturing lines. 16 bit software was carried by sneakernet on floppy drives - both 5 and 3 inch. 16 bit software predates Windows 3.1. Dump that shit, and pay some zit-faced intern to code something to do what you need. The intern can give you something at least as reliable as the crap that was written to run on a 286 or earlier processor.
If you need something more reliable than zit-face can offer, then hire a programmer. Any job that was done once, can be done again. Your software is replaceable.
Start over, choose an operating system, tell the programmer what you need to do, let him choose a language, then get the hell out of his way. He'll call you when he has questions, or needs you to test something.
You only THINK that you're sick of hearing that. Got any idea how much gold it took to buy a barrel of oil in 1970? Got any idea how much it takes to buy the same barrel of oil today? It's about the same. It may fluctuate a little, now and then, but the exchange of gold and oil has stayed very stable for the last forty years.
How many dollars does it take to buy that same oil in 1970, and today?
Don't believe me, Pal, go check it out yourself.
You dollar bill has zero intrinsic value. It is tied to nothing. Laugh all you care to laugh today, but if/when China starts calling in debts, when international markets move to Chinese yuan instead of US dollars, you won't be laughing.
Fiat money. Look it up in the history books. See how many governments have fallen when their worthless currency failed.
Hmmm - I don't know enough about Apple to argue your comparison. I sort of thought they actually offered some new stuff from time to time, like the iPhone 5. I could be wrong though. I'm not an Apple fanbois though, so I'll let you slide with your comparison.
Unsupported systems in the public domain? I'll agree. Unfortunately, congress seems to have been bought off by the likes of Disney, and both copyright and patent protection are slated for eternal protections. If time were to end, the parasites would be scrambling to extend those laws into whatever passes for time.
That federal reserve note has zero value anyway. Each of the states could run out and print anything they like, or they could jointly print monopoly dollars, and that new currency would be just as viable as the US dollar. Fiat money is fiat money. You are familiar with the term, fiat?
Or, did you think that the world would still honor the valueless dollar when the union begins to unravel?
Texas' hands are tied by the federal government. Not to mention Arizona.
And, what makes you think that those two states don't have plenty of military equipment of their own? As has already been noted, Texas gives more than it receives from the federal government. They already have a huge National Guard. They have their own hardware. They can secure their southern border, with little advance preparation. Given plenty of lead time and advance preparation, they could almost certainly move into Mexico, and start wiping out some of the cartels.
So long as Texas is a member of the union, the union won't permit them to make a move that would get drug cartels under control, let alone the illegal alien problem.
I see ignorance on both sides of this question. Your ignorance involves what Texas contributes to the national defense.
Solution: don't buy from the big studios. Send them an email telling them that you aren't buying, and tell them why. Inform them that the indies are supplying your needs, with OpenGL compatible games. Problem solved.
"The OS should be independent of and separate from apps. App developers should be able to package their application once and distribute those packages any way they like rather than being forced to persuade distributions to integrate, then deal with all the pain that entails."
I have to agree. How else can we introduce vulnerabilities into a system, whereby blackhats can compromise your system with ease?
Slashdot Mirror
Parent is modded troll - despite the fact that we see both parties working hard to extend draconian copyright laws?
The "rights holders" have carte blanche in treaty negotiations, as evidenced with ACTA and NPP. These so-called "rights holders" work around the clock to write ever more restrictive treaties, that will trump national laws around the world. Nations with reasonable laws will be bullied into signing these treaties, then be required to enforce the measures in the treaties.
Troll? If Mozumber's post is a troll, then I'm a troll as well.
The GOP cannot claim innocence in any aspect of what is going on in the copyright/patent wars.
Obviously, we need to explore stupidity further, so that we can develop better theories!!
Mixing socialism into capitalism doesn't qualify as communism. For one thing - where are the communes?
Uh-huh - that's pretty accurate, I think. Except, you left out the corruption bit. Corrupt bastards, both rich and not-so-rich, are very happy to do crazy shit like poisoning the milk that they sell to children, in the name of profit.
Most all of them should have been executed.
I don't really think they are executing people just for being rich. They have to do something in addition to becoming wealthy.
But - is it legitimate rape, or illegitimate rape?
The clause is unenforceable. It has been established time and again that a person cannot sign his rights away with a contract. Whether there is an actual contract, or a TOS, a verbal agreement, or whatever - if you otherwise qualify as a member of a class that sues the company, then you remain qualified despite the language in the contract.
The only useful (or useless) purpose of the language is to confuse people who might qualify as part of a class. If people don't believe they qualify, then they may not pursue and enforce their rights.
Maybe you haven't been paying attention to world events. Communism is a dead end. The Soviet went belly-up, and China is rapidly reworking their own government. Today, China is becoming a world leader, but not by exporting communism. Instead, they are buying into a modified capitalistic society.
Our unrestrained capitalistic world sucks, but communism sucks harder.
How 'bout we try to build something that doesn't suck so bad?
Charles Darwin would probably have something to say about people who pull out in front of a semi. It has often been noted that as tools, equipment, and vehicles grow more idiot-proof, the world just produces better idiots.
Personally, I ride a little 1/4 ton vehicle, that gets about 53 mpg, as opposed to some two-ton hulk that gets maybe 20 mpg.
This one is almost exactly like mine: http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx50/StrayyDog/fontannacemetarypost.jpg
Or, you can browse what members are riding, to find one more to your taste:
http://cx500forum.com/index.php?/topic/96-members-bikes/
Motorcycles have a way of thinning the herd some. Fools don't last very long on two wheels. Pulling out in front of tractor trailers is one sure way of becoming a statistic, on a bike, in a car, or even in another tractor trailer.
I think that GP was attempting to explain that Google has filed suit in self defense.
You don't walk around downtown shooting everyone who gets in your way - that's murder. But, if you're assaulted while downtown, by some deranged fool who is trying to kill you - then you have the right to shoot him, in self defense.
It's never "right" to shoot someone, but in some cases, it's not "wrong" either.
It's sad that what you say is true. It's even sadder that people just accept the status quo.
That said, you'll not find a lot of companies that have sunk as low as Microsoft. Yeah, there are companies that have done worse things, but you don't find them on every Main Street in America.
Under educate consumers will be duped from time to time. It's the stupid ones who keep coming back, time and time again, to buy whatever Megacorp tells them they need to buy this year.
Telephones, for instance. There are a couple of camps that just HAVE TO HAVE the latest and greatest offering from their chosen Megacorp. Why? Ten year old phones do most of what the newest megadollar phones do. And, the extras that come with those phones are worth - a couple dollars. Certainly not hundreds of dollars.
There are few phones on the market that are actually "worth" two hundred dollars. And, NONE of them are worth being locked into a contract for two years or more to pay them off.
I'll just hop on my 'Back to the future' skateboard, and go fetch a printer. This shouldn't take long . . . .
That's rather naive, I think. Google is a corporation, one which people agree to certain conditions in order to use the corporation's services.
On the other hand, the government is supposed to work for the people. In fact, we have a constitution that was meant to limit government's powers and authority. That constitution granted us rights, and limited government's rights.
You can fight against Google's snooping without worrying about prison time. Fighting government snooping may very well land you in prison.
Just think about it.
I'm just visiting here from 2008. I picked up the paper this morning, to learn that Herr Bush and his deregulation policies had enabled the biggest banks in America and the world to magically lose millions of people's investments. Retirement funds, gone - homes devalued - people are being laid off - things look grim.
I hope that funny looking black guy that just got elected can put a lid on things before everything goes up in smoke!
I believe that what you're complaining about, is exactly what separates excellent teachers from mediocrities who are looking for tenure. A teacher who is incapable of making up his/her own exercises probably doesn't understand the content that they are teaching well enough to be teaching!
To be fair, it may take a lot of time to create an exercise. So - a good, motivated teacher does two or three such exercises this year, and saves them. Next year, two or three more - and saves those for future use as well. In five years, Teacher has all the textbook examples, plus a library of his own to draw on. Teach isn't restricted to the material that the students find in their textbooks, he has tools at his disposal to help him find the cheats.
The textbooks and workbooks are only aids for a good teacher, not the crutches that most mediocre teachers rely on.
"Not when the entire populace already knows how to think in one and not the other."
I think you nailed the problem. We're failures at math. If you can count to ten, you can master the SI system, but far to many Americans are incapable of counting or multiplying by ten.
So, I'll admit, I know what a pound is. I can estimate a pound, ten pounds, fifty pounds, pretty closely just by hefting it. Kilos? I'm a little lost. I've never picked up weights measured in kilos. But, that wouldn't stop me for long - I'd just start hefting those 500 gram bags of flour to see what a 1/2 kilo feels like, and kilo bags of corn meal, etc. I mean, it wouldn't take a lifetime to adapt - except for a few retarded holdouts who simply cannot adapt.
Wonder what Darwin would have to say about them?
You make some pretty good points there - but - I do have machinery and equipment at work such as you describe. Now, putting myself into the OP's shoes, if I were to come to slashdot, I would spell out what type of machinery I was running, and what was required to make that machinery run. Some of our machinery is over thirty years old, quite a lot of it over twenty. Most of our stuff runs on Linux. Machinery that is older than Linux is slowly being phased out - the last of it should be gone in another three years.
So, you see, I actually gave your points a couple of thoughts as I was browsing. OP makes no mention of such requirements, so I dismissed those thoughts.
You will note that he seeming #1 priority is access to more than 4 gig of memory, not meeting any special requirements of dinosaur machines and/or laws. ;)
I've scrolled down the page, and read a lot of good answers. With a little consideration, I have to agree with those who suggest, "It's time to upgrade your software!" As has already been pointed out, 16 bit software was on it's way out when the 386 processor came of the manufacturing lines. 16 bit software was carried by sneakernet on floppy drives - both 5 and 3 inch. 16 bit software predates Windows 3.1. Dump that shit, and pay some zit-faced intern to code something to do what you need. The intern can give you something at least as reliable as the crap that was written to run on a 286 or earlier processor.
If you need something more reliable than zit-face can offer, then hire a programmer. Any job that was done once, can be done again. Your software is replaceable.
Start over, choose an operating system, tell the programmer what you need to do, let him choose a language, then get the hell out of his way. He'll call you when he has questions, or needs you to test something.
You only THINK that you're sick of hearing that. Got any idea how much gold it took to buy a barrel of oil in 1970? Got any idea how much it takes to buy the same barrel of oil today? It's about the same. It may fluctuate a little, now and then, but the exchange of gold and oil has stayed very stable for the last forty years.
How many dollars does it take to buy that same oil in 1970, and today?
Don't believe me, Pal, go check it out yourself.
You dollar bill has zero intrinsic value. It is tied to nothing. Laugh all you care to laugh today, but if/when China starts calling in debts, when international markets move to Chinese yuan instead of US dollars, you won't be laughing.
Fiat money. Look it up in the history books. See how many governments have fallen when their worthless currency failed.
Hmmm - I don't know enough about Apple to argue your comparison. I sort of thought they actually offered some new stuff from time to time, like the iPhone 5. I could be wrong though. I'm not an Apple fanbois though, so I'll let you slide with your comparison.
Unsupported systems in the public domain? I'll agree. Unfortunately, congress seems to have been bought off by the likes of Disney, and both copyright and patent protection are slated for eternal protections. If time were to end, the parasites would be scrambling to extend those laws into whatever passes for time.
That federal reserve note has zero value anyway. Each of the states could run out and print anything they like, or they could jointly print monopoly dollars, and that new currency would be just as viable as the US dollar. Fiat money is fiat money. You are familiar with the term, fiat?
Or, did you think that the world would still honor the valueless dollar when the union begins to unravel?
Texas' hands are tied by the federal government. Not to mention Arizona.
And, what makes you think that those two states don't have plenty of military equipment of their own? As has already been noted, Texas gives more than it receives from the federal government. They already have a huge National Guard. They have their own hardware. They can secure their southern border, with little advance preparation. Given plenty of lead time and advance preparation, they could almost certainly move into Mexico, and start wiping out some of the cartels.
So long as Texas is a member of the union, the union won't permit them to make a move that would get drug cartels under control, let alone the illegal alien problem.
I see ignorance on both sides of this question. Your ignorance involves what Texas contributes to the national defense.
Windows hasn't released a "new product" in about a decade now. All they have released are "upgrades". And, they charge for every upgrade.
Solution: don't buy from the big studios. Send them an email telling them that you aren't buying, and tell them why. Inform them that the indies are supplying your needs, with OpenGL compatible games. Problem solved.
"The OS should be independent of and separate from apps. App developers should be able to package their application once and distribute those packages any way they like rather than being forced to persuade distributions to integrate, then deal with all the pain that entails."
I have to agree. How else can we introduce vulnerabilities into a system, whereby blackhats can compromise your system with ease?