Bubba apologized to China for the embassy bombing. I think China is starting to get more adamant about this situation now that it's really looking like it was their fuck-up pilot who caused the whole thing. As far as the average Chinese person's point of view, they'll believe whatever their goverment-owned press and their government-filtered Intranet (I don't even consider them to have Internet access) tells them to believe, and they'll lap it up.
And you better believe that the Olympics are a huge deal to them. They've already been mailing members of the US Congress telling them not to interfere with China's chances of hosting a Beijing Olympics. This was going to be their big chance to prove that they weren't the backwater country that everyone thought them to be. Looks like they pissed that chance away now.
There's no evidence at all that it was the Americans' fault as opposed to the Chinese pilot. Without knowing any of the facts (which is pretty much the case now), why would anybody think that the U.S. pilots would decide to use a multimillion dollar, extremely technically sensitive, lumbering four-prop plane as a battering ram against a jet? Maybe evidence will come out showing which side was at fault, and it's okay for an apology then, but it's stupid for there to be one now. After the way China has handled the 24 men, I'd say they owe an apology for that if they want to join the rest of the top nations and host an Olympics.
One other thing... Those digital utopians that Jerry Everard slams in his book sound an awful lot like you, Mr. Katz.
Why does the Open Source Developer Network require you to install a closed source program to view the summit? Especially one with such an arduous install process, where most time is spent immediately afterward disabling spam and spyware features.
Sorry to rain on your little paranoia parade, but I haven't advocated PassPort here at all, or slammed any of its alternatives. Does trying to get an actual cogent argument against something count as FUD in your book? And trust me, all the infantile "Fuck you"s and "Bill Gates is a bonehead"s make your position look a lot worse than a whole team of Bartkos could manage. Maybe you should instead be asking if those posters know Bartko. I'd start by questioning that supposed "Linux advocate" who has a penchant for making the community look bad by running around in Obi-wan Kenobi garb.:)
I suggest using something that sends a message. I always use no_privacy_policy@<whatever their domain is>, or unacceptable_privacy_policy@<whatever>, or simply that_info_is_private@<whatever>. That way, the email isn't just bounced without an explanation, but there's a chance that someone at the company will see the objection and maybe even note it if it happens enough. Same with meatspace places like Radio Shack. When they ask for your name/address, don't waste everyone's time (especially your own) by giving out a made-up address, tell them flat out that you don't give that information out. Go further and tell them that you don't like being asked for it, if that's how you feel. At least someone there will know, and you eventually might never get asked again.
Phone companies don't need to do that, the information's right there in the phone book or online databases for the lifting — your name, your number, your address, and whether or not you live in a good part of town (read: have dough to spend). To some people, giving up the personal information has a net positive effect, because it's much easier for people to get hold of them, whereas a lot of single women or people with names ripe for the pranking, decide that it's not worth the benefit, so they keep their numbers unlisted. As for return addresses, there are certain locations to which I send mail that I don't want it made clear to everyone who will be handling the mail that it's coming from me. The rest of the time, I'll give up that personal info to gain the benefit of the mail being returned to me if something goes wrong along the way.
And I totally agree with the "don't want it, don't use it" idea. Microsoft's system, and any system that anyone else comes out with, is going to be much more convenient for people to use, but it's up to the users to decide whether or not they want certain personal information available through it. Don't want that copy of Nude Midget Jugglers to show up on your credit card? Pay cash. Don't want a similar purchase to go through PassPort? Don't use the PassPort Wallet feature to buy it online. If you're really paranoid about it (of course, it's going to be on your credit card, anyway, unless you plan on sending a cashier's check), log out of PassPort first. I've yet to see one of the PassPort partners requiring you to even have a PassPort account to buy things from them.
I couldn't care less if he thinks Gates is an asshole. I'm sure the recipients who've received hundreds of millions of his dollars for disease prevention don't think so. I'm sure a lot of the people with whom he's butted heads in his business dealings do. The point is that when it comes to business acumen, I'll put my money on Gates' "bonehed" ideas any day of the week before I'd bet on the AC's.
And if you don't want PassPort to have any of your personal information, don't sign up for an account — it's that easy. Somehow a whole lot of people don't understand that simple fact. As for the people who think that giving up some personal information to receive benefits is some crazy, evil idea, they must have never used a credit card, signed up for a discount club, bought anything online, owned a car, had their phone numbers listed in the white pages, etc. Screw that.
You actually act like you think you're some kind of badass by saying "Fuck you" to Microsoft. I'd like you to seriously think about it and let me know why anyone there would care about the opinion of someone like you. Calling Bill Gates a "bonehed" was pretty entertaining, too. Yeah, that's telling him! It's always hilarious to see some young screwup who has never amounted to anything in his life go after one of the most successful businessmen of all time (yep, the kiddies will squeal loudly at that one; of course, they thought Linux related stock was a good idea, too) and tell 'em that they don't know what they're talking about. You, sir, are a true genius. Since you're an AC, I can only guess at the kind of salary a man of your worth must earn. You know and I know that you've never amounted to anything in your life. Suck on that.:)
Trading aspects of personal information in order to get a benefit is evil? You mean like using a credit card, putting a return address on an envelope, having yourself listed in the phone book (oops, this usually only applies to those of us not living with mommy)? You must either be incredibly clueless or live a pretty sad and paranoid little life. Who knows, maybe even both.
Come off it and don't even try to pretend that Europe (or anywhere else in the Universe) is better about this. Anybody can come up with a story where freedoms are curtailed depending on which country you're talking about. Have fun writing a book about the royal family in the UK, or selling WWII collectibles on the Internet as long as France is connected to it, or good luck going to the store and picking up a copy of Mein Kampf when you're in Germany.
The only truly interesting thing about this article was the following phrase from the report: "God, my testicles are like down to the floor . . you could really have a party with these . . . Use them like Bocci balls."
And lest we forget, good ol' Slashdot itself has removed some posts here. Not to mention some users that it didn't particularly care for, eh?
They recently changed their terms of service mandating that Juno can use its customers' computers for that very purpose. They can terminate your service if you don't leave your computer on 24x7 so that it can do the processing and dial in to Juno at whim for more data. The fun details are at www.byte.com/column/BYT20010222S0004.
Naturally they portray this as a benevolent thing and a chance to be part of their "Virtual Supercomputing Project," which claims to be completely voluntary, despite the fact that their Terms of Service directly contradict this:
2.5. You expressly permit and authorize Juno to (i) download to your computer one or more pieces of software (the "Computational Software") designed to perform computations, which may be unrelated to the operation of the Service, on behalf of Juno (or on behalf of such third parties as may be authorized by Juno, subject to the Privacy Statement), (ii) run the Computational Software on your computer to perform and store the results of such computations, and (iii) upload such results to Juno's central computers during a subsequent connection, whether initiated by you in the course of using the Service or by the Computational Software as further described below... you agree not to take any action to disable or interfere with the operation of... any component of the Computational Software.
[snip]
You acknowledge that your compliance with the requirements of this Section 2.5 may be considered by Juno to be an inseparable part of the Service, and that any interference with the operation of the Computational Software (including, but not limited to, any failure to leave your computer turned on at all times) may result in termination or limitation of your use of the Service.
Of course, the media also glorifies the words of teenagers and younger kids (or, likely, of their ghost-writing parents) when it suits their position, trying to glom onto a little of that "But think of the children!" mojo. How many times have you checked out the reader feedback to Newsweek or the like to see some vacuous letter starting out like, "As a thirteen year-old, I can't travel two miles without seeing a Joe Camel billboard and instantly wanting to go buy cigarettes. Why are tobacco companies so evil?" Or the good 'ol, "I'm 9 and a half years old and a student in Ms. Parson's 4th grade class. I don't understand why nuclear weapons exist." Break out the Kleenex.
I'm almost 5 years old, but even I can tell that the easy way to get your letter published is to identify yourself as being a youngster. As a 4 year-old, I (did I mention that I'm 4?) fully expect the moderators to mod this post up. Or I'll hold my breath until I turn blue, or something.
But what other gamemaker has come out with decent games using SDL? Maybe it's such a pain to wring good performance out of it that only its primary sponsor has had any success with it, while any newcomers are due for a rude awakening. I have no idea whether or not that's the case, but that's part of the reason why it was submitted to Ask Slashdot and why your grumbling was uncalled for. If a wide range of companies were succeeding with SDL, sure, but since there seems to be only one, it's a fair question.
So if you can't write a filter to recognize those song names, you expect humans to try all those different permutations just to find the song they're interested in? I don't effing think so. That's why all these name changing schemes are so braindead. Yeah, I can ROT13 all my song names and fool the RIAA!! Hee hee! Yeah, wonderful, too bad only 3 other people on earth can find the songs you're serving. You better believe the RIAA laughs each time a Slashbot comes up with a new scrambled naming system, because the scramblers are doing exactly what the RIAA wants to do, which is to kill Napster's mass market potential and reduce the users to a WaReZ kiddie-like subculture, one that everybody else looks at with derision like a gang of shoplifters who think that they're really living the high life.
Seeing as they prefer mooching off the work of others (w00t! Something for nothing!), most Napster users just figure that someone else will do the protesting for them.
Because they're generally immature, not very bright, haven't thought out the consequences of their actions, don't know what the real world is like because they're living off of mommy and daddy's money, et cetera, et cetera. Basically, I'd take such a group a little more seriously than a group of elementary school kids marching, but not all that much more.
...they'll soon have to hold a "Going Out Of Business" sale. Their stock hit another all-time low today, almost dropping below $2/share. On the bright side, ESR's 41 million dollars just dropped below 300,000 today.:)
All that you linked to are a list of sites which are capable of using Passport and its wallet feature. This means that if you have a Passport account, you can use it with those sites. That does not mean that you have to have a Passport account to buy things from them. I know this because I've bought things online from Buy.com, CDW, and Office Depot, all of whom are on that list, and none of them force you to use a Passport account to buy things from them.
So again, which non-Microsoft online businesses require you to have a Passport account? Are there even any at all (there may well be, but all the ones I've ever used don't require it), or are you and the original poster just blowing smoke up the readers' collective ass?
Jamie, out of curiosity, why didn't you ever try contacting Microsoft/Passport? Journalism is a little more than cutting and pasting a plagiarizing other people's comments about something. I saw eleven or twelve question marks in what you wrote, so is there any reason in particular why you didn't get off your ass and try to add something original to all those links you posted, like, say, a response from Microsoft?
Slashdot Mirror
Bubba apologized to China for the embassy bombing. I think China is starting to get more adamant about this situation now that it's really looking like it was their fuck-up pilot who caused the whole thing. As far as the average Chinese person's point of view, they'll believe whatever their goverment-owned press and their government-filtered Intranet (I don't even consider them to have Internet access) tells them to believe, and they'll lap it up.
And you better believe that the Olympics are a huge deal to them. They've already been mailing members of the US Congress telling them not to interfere with China's chances of hosting a Beijing Olympics. This was going to be their big chance to prove that they weren't the backwater country that everyone thought them to be. Looks like they pissed that chance away now.
Cheers,
There's no evidence at all that it was the Americans' fault as opposed to the Chinese pilot. Without knowing any of the facts (which is pretty much the case now), why would anybody think that the U.S. pilots would decide to use a multimillion dollar, extremely technically sensitive, lumbering four-prop plane as a battering ram against a jet? Maybe evidence will come out showing which side was at fault, and it's okay for an apology then, but it's stupid for there to be one now. After the way China has handled the 24 men, I'd say they owe an apology for that if they want to join the rest of the top nations and host an Olympics.
One other thing... Those digital utopians that Jerry Everard slams in his book sound an awful lot like you, Mr. Katz.
Cheers,
Heh, if Microsoft ever decided to do an ad campaign against Linux, they should use that picture. :)
Cheers,
Why does the Open Source Developer Network require you to install a closed source program to view the summit? Especially one with such an arduous install process, where most time is spent immediately afterward disabling spam and spyware features.
Cheers,
Apple is now cool for being the largest installed user base of a single Unix distribution.
Only problem: It isn't.
Cheers,
Sorry to rain on your little paranoia parade, but I haven't advocated PassPort here at all, or slammed any of its alternatives. Does trying to get an actual cogent argument against something count as FUD in your book? And trust me, all the infantile "Fuck you"s and "Bill Gates is a bonehead"s make your position look a lot worse than a whole team of Bartkos could manage. Maybe you should instead be asking if those posters know Bartko. I'd start by questioning that supposed "Linux advocate" who has a penchant for making the community look bad by running around in Obi-wan Kenobi garb. :)
Cheers,
I suggest using something that sends a message. I always use no_privacy_policy@<whatever their domain is>, or unacceptable_privacy_policy@<whatever>, or simply that_info_is_private@<whatever>. That way, the email isn't just bounced without an explanation, but there's a chance that someone at the company will see the objection and maybe even note it if it happens enough. Same with meatspace places like Radio Shack. When they ask for your name/address, don't waste everyone's time (especially your own) by giving out a made-up address, tell them flat out that you don't give that information out. Go further and tell them that you don't like being asked for it, if that's how you feel. At least someone there will know, and you eventually might never get asked again.
Cheers,
Phone companies don't need to do that, the information's right there in the phone book or online databases for the lifting — your name, your number, your address, and whether or not you live in a good part of town (read: have dough to spend). To some people, giving up the personal information has a net positive effect, because it's much easier for people to get hold of them, whereas a lot of single women or people with names ripe for the pranking, decide that it's not worth the benefit, so they keep their numbers unlisted. As for return addresses, there are certain locations to which I send mail that I don't want it made clear to everyone who will be handling the mail that it's coming from me. The rest of the time, I'll give up that personal info to gain the benefit of the mail being returned to me if something goes wrong along the way.
And I totally agree with the "don't want it, don't use it" idea. Microsoft's system, and any system that anyone else comes out with, is going to be much more convenient for people to use, but it's up to the users to decide whether or not they want certain personal information available through it. Don't want that copy of Nude Midget Jugglers to show up on your credit card? Pay cash. Don't want a similar purchase to go through PassPort? Don't use the PassPort Wallet feature to buy it online. If you're really paranoid about it (of course, it's going to be on your credit card, anyway, unless you plan on sending a cashier's check), log out of PassPort first. I've yet to see one of the PassPort partners requiring you to even have a PassPort account to buy things from them.
Cheers,
I couldn't care less if he thinks Gates is an asshole. I'm sure the recipients who've received hundreds of millions of his dollars for disease prevention don't think so. I'm sure a lot of the people with whom he's butted heads in his business dealings do. The point is that when it comes to business acumen, I'll put my money on Gates' "bonehed" ideas any day of the week before I'd bet on the AC's.
And if you don't want PassPort to have any of your personal information, don't sign up for an account — it's that easy. Somehow a whole lot of people don't understand that simple fact. As for the people who think that giving up some personal information to receive benefits is some crazy, evil idea, they must have never used a credit card, signed up for a discount club, bought anything online, owned a car, had their phone numbers listed in the white pages, etc. Screw that.
Cheers,
So in other words, you're a luddite. Want a reward or something?
Cheers,
You actually act like you think you're some kind of badass by saying "Fuck you" to Microsoft. I'd like you to seriously think about it and let me know why anyone there would care about the opinion of someone like you. Calling Bill Gates a "bonehed" was pretty entertaining, too. Yeah, that's telling him! It's always hilarious to see some young screwup who has never amounted to anything in his life go after one of the most successful businessmen of all time (yep, the kiddies will squeal loudly at that one; of course, they thought Linux related stock was a good idea, too) and tell 'em that they don't know what they're talking about. You, sir, are a true genius. Since you're an AC, I can only guess at the kind of salary a man of your worth must earn. You know and I know that you've never amounted to anything in your life. Suck on that. :)
Cheers,
Trading aspects of personal information in order to get a benefit is evil? You mean like using a credit card, putting a return address on an envelope, having yourself listed in the phone book (oops, this usually only applies to those of us not living with mommy)? You must either be incredibly clueless or live a pretty sad and paranoid little life. Who knows, maybe even both.
Cheers,
Makes me wonder which radio show will be the first to read excerpts from the report, naturally all in the name of reporting the news.
Cheers,
Come off it and don't even try to pretend that Europe (or anywhere else in the Universe) is better about this. Anybody can come up with a story where freedoms are curtailed depending on which country you're talking about. Have fun writing a book about the royal family in the UK, or selling WWII collectibles on the Internet as long as France is connected to it, or good luck going to the store and picking up a copy of Mein Kampf when you're in Germany.
The only truly interesting thing about this article was the following phrase from the report: "God, my testicles are like down to the floor . . you could really have a party with these . . . Use them like Bocci balls."
And lest we forget, good ol' Slashdot itself has removed some posts here. Not to mention some users that it didn't particularly care for, eh?
Cheers,
They recently changed their terms of service mandating that Juno can use its customers' computers for that very purpose. They can terminate your service if you don't leave your computer on 24x7 so that it can do the processing and dial in to Juno at whim for more data. The fun details are at www.byte.com/column/BYT20010222S0004.
Naturally they portray this as a benevolent thing and a chance to be part of their "Virtual Supercomputing Project," which claims to be completely voluntary, despite the fact that their Terms of Service directly contradict this:
Happy computing! :)
Cheers,
Of course, the media also glorifies the words of teenagers and younger kids (or, likely, of their ghost-writing parents) when it suits their position, trying to glom onto a little of that "But think of the children!" mojo. How many times have you checked out the reader feedback to Newsweek or the like to see some vacuous letter starting out like, "As a thirteen year-old, I can't travel two miles without seeing a Joe Camel billboard and instantly wanting to go buy cigarettes. Why are tobacco companies so evil?" Or the good 'ol, "I'm 9 and a half years old and a student in Ms. Parson's 4th grade class. I don't understand why nuclear weapons exist." Break out the Kleenex.
I'm almost 5 years old, but even I can tell that the easy way to get your letter published is to identify yourself as being a youngster. As a 4 year-old, I (did I mention that I'm 4?) fully expect the moderators to mod this post up. Or I'll hold my breath until I turn blue, or something.
Cheers,
But what other gamemaker has come out with decent games using SDL? Maybe it's such a pain to wring good performance out of it that only its primary sponsor has had any success with it, while any newcomers are due for a rude awakening. I have no idea whether or not that's the case, but that's part of the reason why it was submitted to Ask Slashdot and why your grumbling was uncalled for. If a wide range of companies were succeeding with SDL, sure, but since there seems to be only one, it's a fair question.
Cheers,
So if you can't write a filter to recognize those song names, you expect humans to try all those different permutations just to find the song they're interested in? I don't effing think so. That's why all these name changing schemes are so braindead. Yeah, I can ROT13 all my song names and fool the RIAA!! Hee hee! Yeah, wonderful, too bad only 3 other people on earth can find the songs you're serving. You better believe the RIAA laughs each time a Slashbot comes up with a new scrambled naming system, because the scramblers are doing exactly what the RIAA wants to do, which is to kill Napster's mass market potential and reduce the users to a WaReZ kiddie-like subculture, one that everybody else looks at with derision like a gang of shoplifters who think that they're really living the high life.
Cheers,
Seeing as they prefer mooching off the work of others (w00t! Something for nothing!), most Napster users just figure that someone else will do the protesting for them.
Cheers,
Because they're generally immature, not very bright, haven't thought out the consequences of their actions, don't know what the real world is like because they're living off of mommy and daddy's money, et cetera, et cetera. Basically, I'd take such a group a little more seriously than a group of elementary school kids marching, but not all that much more.
Cheers,
Cheers,
they broke even in the last quarter
No, they lost money last quarter. Just because someone rounds up to zero doesn't mean that the number isn't negative.
Cheers,
All that you linked to are a list of sites which are capable of using Passport and its wallet feature. This means that if you have a Passport account, you can use it with those sites. That does not mean that you have to have a Passport account to buy things from them. I know this because I've bought things online from Buy.com, CDW, and Office Depot, all of whom are on that list, and none of them force you to use a Passport account to buy things from them.
So again, which non-Microsoft online businesses require you to have a Passport account? Are there even any at all (there may well be, but all the ones I've ever used don't require it), or are you and the original poster just blowing smoke up the readers' collective ass?
Cheers,
Jamie, out of curiosity, why didn't you ever try contacting Microsoft/Passport? Journalism is a little more than cutting and pasting a plagiarizing other people's comments about something. I saw eleven or twelve question marks in what you wrote, so is there any reason in particular why you didn't get off your ass and try to add something original to all those links you posted, like, say, a response from Microsoft?
Cheers,
Which non-Microsoft online businesses require you to have a Passport account?
Cheers,