I've talked to lots of windoze users who think having a free, stable OS would be amazing, but as soon as they hear that their favorite games wouldn't run, they're not interested.
Well sure, but once you get out of high school where they spell "Windows" as "windoze" and start talking to people who use their computers to run their business you'll find that lack of games is not likely to dampen interest....
We don't want to have to pay someone to tally all the votes.
Computerized collection and computerized tallying are not the same. Where I live, the ballots are paper and you have to use a marker to fill in the center section of an arrow. The paper gets fed into a scanner (not networked) that counts the votes fed to it. The scanners (complete with locked bins full of ballots) are then taken to another location where the counts are downloaded to a single database.
The volunteers at polling locations are there to make sure that nobody stuffs a ballot box and there are volunteers that ensure that boxes are transferred and downloaded without tampering as well.
You only have to pay if you want something more than the minimal name, address and phone #. If the book excludes anyone who doesn't pay it isn't considered comprehensive. There is quite a bit of ad revenue generated from the add-ons though.
I've been reading all of the geekoid, techno ways to bypass or disable this device with growing amusement. The bill would require truck disabling devices, global positioning or other 'location reporting systems' on all hazardous material haulers.
The hazardous material is in the tanker trailer. If I'm a terrorist bent on destruction I'll bring my own tractor without a disabling device. Pretty low tech, but so was flying fully fueled jetliners into buildings....
How, by whom, and most importantly why was "modifying source code" discredited?
I think he refers to the dark days when there was no commercial software and everybody basically had to roll their own. Then as commercial software became available and began to offer more and more features, meeting increasingly more of the customer's needs (and balooning to massive proportions), tinkering with the source became both less necessary and more of a problem. I think it's more a matter of falling into disfavor rather than being discredited.
He is right though that very few people tinker with the source, even when it's available.
For the most part he's right. There's a ton of bad open sourced software out there simply because anyone and everyone can submit code.
For some of the smaller projects that's true. Try submitting a bad kernel patch or something to a larger, managed project though and then hold your breath waiting for it to see life in the next release.
Furthermore, your assertion seems to be that closed source software won't be bad simply "because" programmers from outside the organization can't submit code. I've worked in several places where whole sections of code had to be replaced when somebody with better skills/knowledge was able to show massive problems in the existing tangle of tripe - written by a professional on the payroll.
The company I presently work for hired a major consulting firm to railroad us into the current multi-million dollar "solution" that requires that we hire a full-time employee at just under six figures to do nothing but patch the poorly cobbled enterprise software. There's a lot of slop in those numbers that could have paid the real price of "free" software and still given five grand several times over to various Nigerian hoaxes.
Actually, neither one is particularly hard if you're willing to discipline yourself. Both require discipline in the areas of exercise and diet.
If the skinny guy cranks away at the weights and has poor form and eats lots of junk food he's not going to gain weight. If you want to gain muscle mass you have to use the right raw materials, muscle just doesn't get built from carbs. Muscles burn carbs for fuel. You need a disciplined approach to the weight bench and high caloric intake with the bulk of the calories coming from protein. If you're a vegetarian that becomes even harder because you'll eat a ton of tofu.
If the tubby guy goes to the gym and does uninspired cardio and thinks he's ratcheting up his metabolism enough to make up for the twinkies and soft drinks, he's not going to lose weight. Build muscle to create the engines that burn fuel and work in intense cardio sessions. If you barely get your heart rate up, you're not burning anything but time.
These are both simplified but the data is in from peer reviewed studies on exercise and nutrition, so we don't have to rely on crazy diets. Atkins is beneficial short term, but should not be viewed as a long term solution.
If voting could really change things, it would be illegal
Looks like a.sig to me. Does that reflect the company's position? The employee's position? Maybe, it's simply a quotation pertinent to the division in which this employee worked. Maybe it's from a collection of quotes on voting.
Talking about how "shocking" this particular piece of flotsam is smacks of tabloid journalism.
That seven percent number does sound incredibly high given that responses from direct mail campaigns generating less than half that are considered very successful. No wonder spammers are reluctant to withdraw, especially since the price of spamming is negligible when compared to the price of a direct mail ad.
I think that the reason why Sun's sinking is that they spent too much on R&D and not enough on marketing...
That may be true. Some companies, like IBM and AT&T, are engineering driven and may come up with some really good products (and lots of patents). Other companies are heavier marketeers than they are genuine innovators. Microsoft and Oracle are prime examples.
Look at the way Microsoft came from behind with an inferior product in both the browser and word processor categories. There are still many who think that WordPerfect is a better product than Word (I know I miss the ability to look directly at the codes and clean all the bloat out of your documents), but they no longer dominate the market.
I think one of the reasons Oracle gained so much market share is that they are very good at marketing their product. At one time it was inferior to Informix and some of the others but it soon surpassed them in market share. Their database is a very capable product these days, but their apps - which puts them in direct competition with the developers who helped them gain their marketshare - are dismal. Any time you have to hire a full time person just to apply patches to a vendor's product you know you picked a stinker!
Slashdot Mirror
Two outta three ain't bad. They can embrace and attempt to extend, but since they can't buy the IP they can't extinguish....
Whaddaya think ties them up in knots?
I've talked to lots of windoze users who think having a free, stable OS would be amazing, but as soon as they hear that their favorite games wouldn't run, they're not interested.
Well sure, but once you get out of high school where they spell "Windows" as "windoze" and start talking to people who use their computers to run their business you'll find that lack of games is not likely to dampen interest....
We don't want to have to pay someone to tally all the votes.
Computerized collection and computerized tallying are not the same. Where I live, the ballots are paper and you have to use a marker to fill in the center section of an arrow. The paper gets fed into a scanner (not networked) that counts the votes fed to it. The scanners (complete with locked bins full of ballots) are then taken to another location where the counts are downloaded to a single database.
The volunteers at polling locations are there to make sure that nobody stuffs a ballot box and there are volunteers that ensure that boxes are transferred and downloaded without tampering as well.
WHAT?!?!?!?!?
They destroy the ring?!?!?!?
Even funnier that you didn't pick up on the fact that he talks about saving Helm's "beep"....
Oh, yes. And you misspelled "spell".
...two people in a car drive around endlessly, inputting street information and landmarks into databases.
Gotta be Sisyphus, but who's his partner?
You only have to pay if you want something more than the minimal name, address and phone #. If the book excludes anyone who doesn't pay it isn't considered comprehensive. There is quite a bit of ad revenue generated from the add-ons though.
Besides, at least in California, those wanting smaller government could have voted for Gary Coleman but he was overlooked by most voters....
I'm guessing it'll be a Flash in the pan...
I've been reading all of the geekoid, techno ways to bypass or disable this device with growing amusement. The bill would require truck disabling devices, global positioning or other 'location reporting systems' on all hazardous material haulers.
The hazardous material is in the tanker trailer. If I'm a terrorist bent on destruction I'll bring my own tractor without a disabling device. Pretty low tech, but so was flying fully fueled jetliners into buildings....
Who's "we" and where's "here"?
The comment was obviously intended to be humorous. It being illegal to disable the device on a vehicle that was stolen, not just on the vehicle.
Yep. That was my thought - "signed with my real name and email address"...
How, by whom, and most importantly why was "modifying source code" discredited?
I think he refers to the dark days when there was no commercial software and everybody basically had to roll their own. Then as commercial software became available and began to offer more and more features, meeting increasingly more of the customer's needs (and balooning to massive proportions), tinkering with the source became both less necessary and more of a problem. I think it's more a matter of falling into disfavor rather than being discredited.
He is right though that very few people tinker with the source, even when it's available.
For the most part he's right.
There's a ton of bad open sourced software out there simply because anyone and everyone can submit code.
For some of the smaller projects that's true. Try submitting a bad kernel patch or something to a larger, managed project though and then hold your breath waiting for it to see life in the next release.
Furthermore, your assertion seems to be that closed source software won't be bad simply "because" programmers from outside the organization can't submit code. I've worked in several places where whole sections of code had to be replaced when somebody with better skills/knowledge was able to show massive problems in the existing tangle of tripe - written by a professional on the payroll.
The company I presently work for hired a major consulting firm to railroad us into the current multi-million dollar "solution" that requires that we hire a full-time employee at just under six figures to do nothing but patch the poorly cobbled enterprise software. There's a lot of slop in those numbers that could have paid the real price of "free" software and still given five grand several times over to various Nigerian hoaxes.
That must be why he used the subject line calling it an E-mail....
...if Novell makes Ximian port their products to KDE, it might make RedHat fork the last version of Evolution.
Port? Fork? I run Evolution in a KDE desktop with no problems now.
Actually, neither one is particularly hard if you're willing to discipline yourself. Both require discipline in the areas of exercise and diet.
If the skinny guy cranks away at the weights and has poor form and eats lots of junk food he's not going to gain weight. If you want to gain muscle mass you have to use the right raw materials, muscle just doesn't get built from carbs. Muscles burn carbs for fuel. You need a disciplined approach to the weight bench and high caloric intake with the bulk of the calories coming from protein. If you're a vegetarian that becomes even harder because you'll eat a ton of tofu.
If the tubby guy goes to the gym and does uninspired cardio and thinks he's ratcheting up his metabolism enough to make up for the twinkies and soft drinks, he's not going to lose weight. Build muscle to create the engines that burn fuel and work in intense cardio sessions. If you barely get your heart rate up, you're not burning anything but time.
These are both simplified but the data is in from peer reviewed studies on exercise and nutrition, so we don't have to rely on crazy diets. Atkins is beneficial short term, but should not be viewed as a long term solution.
If voting could really change things, it would be illegal
.sig to me. Does that reflect the company's position? The employee's position? Maybe, it's simply a quotation pertinent to the division in which this employee worked. Maybe it's from a collection of quotes on voting.
Looks like a
Talking about how "shocking" this particular piece of flotsam is smacks of tabloid journalism.
Right. I was thinking from the perspective of the spammer, but this number was derived from recipients. Good point.
I welcome your optimism, but judging from what my non-techie friends send me in forwarded emails I don't hold out much hope....
That seven percent number does sound incredibly high given that responses from direct mail campaigns generating less than half that are considered very successful. No wonder spammers are reluctant to withdraw, especially since the price of spamming is negligible when compared to the price of a direct mail ad.
Already been tried. On atheists.
And on Christians....
And on Bahai....
And on Muslims.....
And on and on.....
Um. What was your point again?
I think that the reason why Sun's sinking is that they spent too much on R&D and not enough on marketing...
That may be true. Some companies, like IBM and AT&T, are engineering driven and may come up with some really good products (and lots of patents). Other companies are heavier marketeers than they are genuine innovators. Microsoft and Oracle are prime examples.
Look at the way Microsoft came from behind with an inferior product in both the browser and word processor categories. There are still many who think that WordPerfect is a better product than Word (I know I miss the ability to look directly at the codes and clean all the bloat out of your documents), but they no longer dominate the market.
I think one of the reasons Oracle gained so much market share is that they are very good at marketing their product. At one time it was inferior to Informix and some of the others but it soon surpassed them in market share. Their database is a very capable product these days, but their apps - which puts them in direct competition with the developers who helped them gain their marketshare - are dismal. Any time you have to hire a full time person just to apply patches to a vendor's product you know you picked a stinker!
Are you saying that crayons are prohibitively expensive? I think the barriers to art are much lower than those imposed by a computer.