This is wonderful. I am not much of a gamer myself, but gaming has always been a major factor in the development and adoption of computer platforms. I have personally bought ID's packaged version of Quake II for Linux and Loki's CivCTP port (although I don't play them much, I am more than willing to put my money into companies that are pushing the comercial viability of Linux.)
With this many new games on the Market, Linux is quickly becoming a reasonable alternative for home users. After all, the most frequent reason for not converting to Linux is the lack of high-quality games. That is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Would an open source MacOS allow the APIs to be ported over to other platforms allowing Mac binaries to run, say, on Linux like Windows apps can when run under WINE? That would be a great bonus. Or would the architecture limit this (i.e. WINE only works on X86)?
I did not know that about Storm. Caldera takes a similar approach, but on my machine it appears to crap out, washing out the graphics from the splash screen in preference to the boot information.
I personally prefer all of the extraneous information, but believe that mainstream Linux is going to need a pretty splash screen to make people feel "modern."
I downloaded the ISO image for Corel's distribution and installed it on my laptop. Overall, things went very well and I didn't have any problems getting the system up and running.
I love the way Corel has configured SAMBA to allow their distro to immediately take part in Microsoft Networks. I work in an all NT shop, and I was happy to see that I was able to logon to our NT domain using my MS user id and password.
The only real problem I had with the distribution is my unfamiliarity with Debian. I am a Red Hat user, so most of my downloaded software is in the form of RPMs and of an incompatible GLIBC library. I had to go back to using Red Hat.
I would recommend Corel's distribution to Windows users looking at trying Linux. With it's streamlined installation, splash screen to "protect" users from all of those "unsightly" boot messages (I really missed them while running Corel) and the default KDE window manager (they did a great job customizing KDE for thier needs) it will make a good stepping stone into the world of Linux.
What about the moist towlette? Not only has it brought about world peace, but it has cleansed thousands upon thousands of "Finger-licking-bad" hands at Kentucky Fried Chicken (at least back when they weren't so cheap as to NOT give out moist towlettes. Certainly this device should be placed right next to the electic hand dryer.
I have always been facinated by the history of the early personal computer, especially during the period in which you developed the Apple I (The Homebrew Computer Club days.)
As someone from the generation in which computers have always been available on the mass market, I would love to build my own, simple, homebrew computer as a hobbie. Do you have any suggestions on how I might get started on such a project?
A country without vision?
on
Apocalypse Not
·
· Score: 1
Katz is wrong when he says that the celebration here in America (U.S.) was one without vision. He cites, of course, the dropping of the ball in Times Square. He should be reminded that Dick Clark does not have a monopoly on how we American's celebrated the transition to the year 2000.
There was another celebration, which took place in Washington DC. This celebration was continuously full of vision. There was much to be said about our nations past and the future that awaits us if we are willing to acheive it.
Come on, Jon, just because you were watching Dick Clark on New Year's, that doesn't mean that the rest of the nation didn't celebrate more appropriatly.
Remember, just because the celebration in Paris looked regal and full of splendor, that doesn't mean that the celebration in every city in France celebrated with equal dignity. I'm sure, somewhere, they did little else then get drunk and stand in the streets.
Sometimes it seems that Mr. Katz is not willing to cut America any slack at all in many of his writings. But life in these United States is not at all black and white. There are High Schools out there where poor little geeks don't feel like outsiders (I went to one.) And despite the failures of Disney, America does have a vision for it's technological future (albeit it is a vision based on Star Trek.) And, yes, Americans can celebrate the year 2000 in ways other then just dropping a glowing ball (although we do seem very good at dropping the ball from a historical context.)
Happy New Year. And that's all I have to say about that.
I think that this article is pretty acurate in it's predictions that the "hysteria" around linux will slow down during the next year or so. Right now, part of the reason why linux is receiving so much hype and media attention has to do with the the Micro$oft DOJ trial and the fact that Linux is being touted as the only real rival to Microsoft right now. Corporate adoption of Linux is going to remain a slow road, mostly due to legacy applications that are still platform dependant. My organization could move to Linux right now, but we have so many third-party applications that we have to use in our particular end of the financial industry that we are stuck on Windows until the unforseeable future. This is why the future of Linux is tied to the Web Browser. More and more of our outside software vendors are dropping their proprietary dial-out software with web based applications on the internet. Internally, we are working with some of our smaller software vendors on converting our current document tracking software from a VB application to where it will run in a web browser. Once enough of our applications are running over the web browser, the need to run a proprietary operating system will be circumvented, and then (and only then) we will have the option of moving away from Windows. However, thanks to Samba, we do have the option of converting our servers from NT to Linux. We will be investigation this option over the comming year (although we will be simultaneously investigating the possibility of moving towards Windows 2000.) Linux has not reached the stage of World Domination quite yet, and it won't for quite a few years. What it will do is return the computing industry to the days when you could choose a platform that best suits your needs (and not just because it's the only thing available.)
The whole idea of releasing software under the GPL is to allow people to modify the source code. This is not cheating, it's programming. The obvious solution is to setup servers to allow people to run their hacked clients to their hearts content. This would allow the "cheaters" to play against others of their kind. The key competition on this kind of server would not be who has the most frags, but rather who has coded the most stunning "feature" into his/her client. Imagine a game of quake in which players have the abilities to alter reality much like in "The Matrix." Would't it be fun to play against other players who can walk on the ceilings/walls or jump 100 feet if your player were camelion like and could take on the texture map of your surroundings? Sure, these aren't cool cheats in a regular game of quake, but if you dedicate certain servers for nothing but hacked code, you will have one excellent competition running.
Always interesting to get feedback from RMS. This one is real good. Java is a major player in the future of alternative operating systems by giving programmers the ability to code once for many platforms. Java is good, but the license issue is a real problem. As long as the Java license does not conform to free software standards, we will never have a guarantee that we will still be able to use it freely tommorow.
I saw this thing when I was eight years old. I remember vividly being terribly disappointed by the whole thing. It was just AWFUL (even for an eight year old.) The review is absolutely right. I have repressed most of the memories from watching this horrid thing. I can't remember any of the cartoon sequences, and mostly remember Luke Skywalker performing an oil change on his X-Wing.
I had hoped, after all these years, that no one would ever bring this thing up again. It scarred my for life. Yes! Much worse than Jar Jar!
Re:Mapping the gene pool in iceland.
on
Planet Gattaca
·
· Score: 1
Actually, I was also being sacastic about the "Thorrablot Problem". I actually enjoyed being introduced to your wonderful tradition while I was there. And no, I didn't eat the shark. The brennivan was nice though.
Personally, I loved being in Iceland and I am looking forward to returning sometime as a tourist to show my wife some of the beautiful sites that I will always remember with great fondness.
As far as the adoption thing goes, I swear that is what they told us during our "indoctrination" upon first arriving at the base in your country. It would definately NOT be the first time that something they told us about Iceland was totally false. Such things often get repeated as hearsay. Thank you for the correction.
Enginn annar er sem Bake. (Sorry for the misspellings of Icelandic words. As an Icelandic gentleman once told me, "You had better learn to speak Icelandic, because it will be the only language spoken in Heaven.")
Mapping the gene pool in iceland.
on
Planet Gattaca
·
· Score: 1
The most interesting part of this article was the mention of the Human Genome Project wanting to map the gene pool in Iceland. I lived in that country for a year and a half during my eight years in the Navy. Iceland would make an excellent choice for such a project due to it's "stagnant" gene pool. Just about everyone in that country can trace their common ancestry to everyone else. The Icelandic government is so worried about their gene pool that they are encouraging families to adopt children from foreign countries (a lot of them from asia.)
Hopefully the Genome project can help Iceland to get a grip on their gene pool problem before some really serious health issues come up.
Now if someone could just take care of thier Thoroblot problem (yearly festival where they serve such wonderful cusine as fermented shark, blood pudding and goats heads, among other delicious foods.)
You are all making this way more difficult then it needs be. If you tell the computer "Remind me to take out the trash" the computer just needs to parse the sentence. "Remind me" tells the computer ro open up your appointment schedule. When the computer parses "Take out the trash" it doesn't need a reference to anything at all, it simply has to query for additional variables:
"When would you like me to remind you to 'take out the trash' Dave?"
"On Trash day."
"When is 'trash day', Dave?"
"Wednesday."
"When on Wednesday would you like me to remind you to 'take out the trash', Dave?
"At 6:45 AM."
"Okay, Dave, I have scheduled myself to remind you to 'take out the trash' at 6:45 AM on wednesday."
"You know, it is really disturbs me when you say my name after every sentense like that."
"I'm sorry, there was no action verb in that sentence, Dave. Would you mind stating that more clearly, Dave?"
Damn. You beat me to the punch. You are absolutely correct. Imagine a moon about the size of Saturn's Titan, with plenty of surface water and a decent atmosphere. You could, quite possibly, have life on such a planet. The problems arise when such a moon passes behind the gas giant and into total darkness. The water freezes over, and quite possibly, so would the atmosphere. That would not be a good situation for life (surface life, that is. Oceanic life just might have a better chance.) Of course, the universe is full of strange things. Take for instance the fact that our moon always keeps the same side facing the earth (it is in perfect rotation around the earth so as to do so.) So, it might be possible for one of these gas giants to have a moon that always stays between the planet and the star, keeping it always withen reach of the solar rays. Someone a bit more gifted in mathematics and planetary physics would have to figure that out to see if it would be possible. Lots of interesting concepts from this one. It's enough to make someone like myself (who believes in God and creation) to do some serious thinking.
Amiga is not dead quite yet. Sure, we may never see another computer with the "Amiga" name stamped on it, but Amiga lives on in a lot of other ways. Take my experience with the Amiga as an example. I used to have one of the old 512k Amiga 500s. When I got my first Wintel box in 1994, I knew there had to be something better then the monstrosity that was MS Windows. The Amiga directly led to my discovery of Linux. I'm not the only one either, there a lot of Linux users and developers out there who have migrated to Linux. The Amiga was one of the greatest products in the history of personal computers. Considering that there are people out there who still get real work done on their Commodore 64's I think that it is going to be a LONG time before the die hard Amiga fans give up the ghost on their wonder boxes.
On re-reading my post, I just wanted to make an additional note: I did not intend for the previous post to sound so abrasive and combative. You argument concerning AI in the use of Voice recognition and Synthesis is quite valid, I merely disagree with the level of AI required to accomplish the task on a level that could improve the man/machine interface.
As it will never be possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any AI is semi-conscious (my only proof that I am concious is that others believe themselves to be so, and so assume that since I am like them, that I must be conscious as well) your objections have little basis.
How do we know that current AIs are not "semi-conscious"? What is the definition of "semi-conscious"? For voice recognition, the computer simply needs to parse your sentence, place it in the context of the conversation and simply ask questions when a request is unclear. Voice synthesis is even simpler then that.
The only technological barrier right now is fast enough processors that will be able to accomplish these task in a time frame that won't leave the user "waiting for Godot."
I think that everyone needs to keep some perspective here. Slashdot is more of a forum than it is a "hard news" site. At the rate at which things get posted to Slashdot, it is easy for something like this to make it through.
In this case, Bruce posted something ONLINE which he never intended to have leaked to OUTSIDE world. How many of us have posted something ONLINE that we would never say in "the real world."
Most of us can "flame" someone on the internet, but we won't even return a sandwich that has mayonaise instead of the mustard we ordered.
Let's give both Corel and Bruce a break on this one.
Just wanted to let everyone know, I pointed netscape over to corel's linux site and guess what?? The html is there, but it brings up a blank page. I have a feeling that Corel is gearing up for an apology (or explanation) for their EULA.
This really puts us in a very odd position. Corel's EULA is likely to cause a boycott of it's product by us, the Linux community. But that would be a VERY bad thing for Linux' continued acceptance and integration into the coorporate mindset. I think we all need to be calm right now and don't jump Corel's case too quickly. Give them a day or two to get this rectified. I have faith (I hope well placed) that Corel will do the right thing here and recend this part of the language in their EULA. If not, Debian users still have, well... Debian. And Corel's version will never catch on (which will be bad for everyone, but may be necessary to protect the spirit and letter of the GPL.
I think you missed the point of Mr. Moore's comments concerning the future of user interfaces. Let's say that we had a "revolutionary" change that takes us away from the current "desktop" paradigm. You have issues of the new system not being compliant with current APIs. With this, and the fact that programs might be displayed differently, you are going to loose tons of applications that currently run under X, KDE and GNOME.
An evolutionary change allows everybody to gradually move their applications and interfaces to new standards.
I agree that the "desktop" leaves much to be desired, but I think that it will be several more years before the average computer user's hardware will be ready for the next standard (which will probably be three dimensional with integrated voice recognition and synthesis.)
Who are you to tell me what I *must* believe? Simply because my views are different from yours you consider that I am brainwashed? According to you Billy Graham is a mad man? Did you think before you began to type?
Your allegation about the "sacred sperm" is obviously taken directly from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (great skit, great song.)
A sperm has NO potential to become a human being. The sperm MUST be combined with an egg to form anything resembling a human being. Likewise, the ordinary human cell CANNOT become a human being on its own without genetic engineering.
Now. You make a great case about the killing of a sentient being vs the prevention of one. At what point does a fetus become sentient? Is it some magical point in time when the baby sticks it's head out? That, sir, is crazy. Sentience logically must begin at some point withen the womb. Can you tell me when that occurs? NO! I can't either. But until you can, then even by your logic, killing the unborn is taking a chance of killing a sentient being.
You say you would not let me near children? Why? Because I esteemed them as human beings before they were born? Because I cared more for them while they were in the womb then you did? How does that make me a sociopath? Do you understand the definition of the term?
Murder is murder. Whether it is for the sake of convenience or racial purification they are the same.
If you can permit the execution of unborn simply because "they MIGHT not be sentient YET" then who here is the sociopath?
I am wondering if the problem is actually mearly with coffee and not caffiene. Prilosec's web site (www.acidcontrol.com) says nothing about avoiding caffiene, simply avoiding coffee, caffinated OR decaffinated.
Slashdot Mirror
This is wonderful. I am not much of a gamer myself, but gaming has always been a major factor in the development and adoption of computer platforms. I have personally bought ID's packaged version of Quake II for Linux and Loki's CivCTP port (although I don't play them much, I am more than willing to put my money into companies that are pushing the comercial viability of Linux.)
With this many new games on the Market, Linux is quickly becoming a reasonable alternative for home users. After all, the most frequent reason for not converting to Linux is the lack of high-quality games. That is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Would an open source MacOS allow the APIs to be ported over to other platforms allowing Mac binaries to run, say, on Linux like Windows apps can when run under WINE? That would be a great bonus. Or would the architecture limit this (i.e. WINE only works on X86)?
I did not know that about Storm. Caldera takes a similar approach, but on my machine it appears to crap out, washing out the graphics from the splash screen in preference to the boot information.
I personally prefer all of the extraneous information, but believe that mainstream Linux is going to need a pretty splash screen to make people feel "modern."
I downloaded the ISO image for Corel's distribution and installed it on my laptop. Overall, things went very well and I didn't have any problems getting the system up and running.
I love the way Corel has configured SAMBA to allow their distro to immediately take part in Microsoft Networks. I work in an all NT shop, and I was happy to see that I was able to logon to our NT domain using my MS user id and password.
The only real problem I had with the distribution is my unfamiliarity with Debian. I am a Red Hat user, so most of my downloaded software is in the form of RPMs and of an incompatible GLIBC library. I had to go back to using Red Hat.
I would recommend Corel's distribution to Windows users looking at trying Linux. With it's streamlined installation, splash screen to "protect" users from all of those "unsightly" boot messages (I really missed them while running Corel) and the default KDE window manager (they did a great job customizing KDE for thier needs) it will make a good stepping stone into the world of Linux.
What about the moist towlette? Not only has it brought about world peace, but it has cleansed thousands upon thousands of "Finger-licking-bad" hands at Kentucky Fried Chicken (at least back when they weren't so cheap as to NOT give out moist towlettes. Certainly this device should be placed right next to the electic hand dryer.
I have always been facinated by the history of the early personal computer, especially during the period in which you developed the Apple I (The Homebrew Computer Club days.)
As someone from the generation in which computers have always been available on the mass market, I would love to build my own, simple, homebrew computer as a hobbie. Do you have any suggestions on how I might get started on such a project?
Katz is wrong when he says that the celebration here in America (U.S.) was one without vision. He cites, of course, the dropping of the ball in Times Square. He should be reminded that Dick Clark does not have a monopoly on how we American's celebrated the transition to the year 2000.
There was another celebration, which took place in Washington DC. This celebration was continuously full of vision. There was much to be said about our nations past and the future that awaits us if we are willing to acheive it.
Come on, Jon, just because you were watching Dick Clark on New Year's, that doesn't mean that the rest of the nation didn't celebrate more appropriatly.
Remember, just because the celebration in Paris looked regal and full of splendor, that doesn't mean that the celebration in every city in France celebrated with equal dignity. I'm sure, somewhere, they did little else then get drunk and stand in the streets.
Sometimes it seems that Mr. Katz is not willing to cut America any slack at all in many of his writings. But life in these United States is not at all black and white. There are High Schools out there where poor little geeks don't feel like outsiders (I went to one.) And despite the failures of Disney, America does have a vision for it's technological future (albeit it is a vision based on Star Trek.) And, yes, Americans can celebrate the year 2000 in ways other then just dropping a glowing ball (although we do seem very good at dropping the ball from a historical context.)
Happy New Year. And that's all I have to say about that.
I think that this article is pretty acurate in it's predictions that the "hysteria" around linux will slow down during the next year or so. Right now, part of the reason why linux is receiving so much hype and media attention has to do with the the Micro$oft DOJ trial and the fact that Linux is being touted as the only real rival to Microsoft right now. Corporate adoption of Linux is going to remain a slow road, mostly due to legacy applications that are still platform dependant. My organization could move to Linux right now, but we have so many third-party applications that we have to use in our particular end of the financial industry that we are stuck on Windows until the unforseeable future. This is why the future of Linux is tied to the Web Browser. More and more of our outside software vendors are dropping their proprietary dial-out software with web based applications on the internet. Internally, we are working with some of our smaller software vendors on converting our current document tracking software from a VB application to where it will run in a web browser. Once enough of our applications are running over the web browser, the need to run a proprietary operating system will be circumvented, and then (and only then) we will have the option of moving away from Windows. However, thanks to Samba, we do have the option of converting our servers from NT to Linux. We will be investigation this option over the comming year (although we will be simultaneously investigating the possibility of moving towards Windows 2000.) Linux has not reached the stage of World Domination quite yet, and it won't for quite a few years. What it will do is return the computing industry to the days when you could choose a platform that best suits your needs (and not just because it's the only thing available.)
The whole idea of releasing software under the GPL is to allow people to modify the source code. This is not cheating, it's programming. The obvious solution is to setup servers to allow people to run their hacked clients to their hearts content. This would allow the "cheaters" to play against others of their kind. The key competition on this kind of server would not be who has the most frags, but rather who has coded the most stunning "feature" into his/her client. Imagine a game of quake in which players have the abilities to alter reality much like in "The Matrix." Would't it be fun to play against other players who can walk on the ceilings/walls or jump 100 feet if your player were camelion like and could take on the texture map of your surroundings? Sure, these aren't cool cheats in a regular game of quake, but if you dedicate certain servers for nothing but hacked code, you will have one excellent competition running.
Always interesting to get feedback from RMS. This one is real good. Java is a major player in the future of alternative operating systems by giving programmers the ability to code once for many platforms. Java is good, but the license issue is a real problem. As long as the Java license does not conform to free software standards, we will never have a guarantee that we will still be able to use it freely tommorow.
First Toast
I saw this thing when I was eight years old. I remember vividly being terribly disappointed by the whole thing. It was just AWFUL (even for an eight year old.) The review is absolutely right. I have repressed most of the memories from watching this horrid thing. I can't remember any of the cartoon sequences, and mostly remember Luke Skywalker performing an oil change on his X-Wing.
I had hoped, after all these years, that no one would ever bring this thing up again. It scarred my for life. Yes! Much worse than Jar Jar!
Actually, I was also being sacastic about the "Thorrablot Problem". I actually enjoyed being introduced to your wonderful tradition while I was there. And no, I didn't eat the shark. The brennivan was nice though.
Personally, I loved being in Iceland and I am looking forward to returning sometime as a tourist to show my wife some of the beautiful sites that I will always remember with great fondness.
As far as the adoption thing goes, I swear that is what they told us during our "indoctrination" upon first arriving at the base in your country. It would definately NOT be the first time that something they told us about Iceland was totally false. Such things often get repeated as hearsay. Thank you for the correction.
Enginn annar er sem Bake. (Sorry for the misspellings of Icelandic words. As an Icelandic gentleman once told me, "You had better learn to speak Icelandic, because it will be the only language spoken in Heaven.")
The most interesting part of this article was the mention of the Human Genome Project wanting to map the gene pool in Iceland. I lived in that country for a year and a half during my eight years in the Navy. Iceland would make an excellent choice for such a project due to it's "stagnant" gene pool. Just about everyone in that country can trace their common ancestry to everyone else. The Icelandic government is so worried about their gene pool that they are encouraging families to adopt children from foreign countries (a lot of them from asia.)
Hopefully the Genome project can help Iceland to get a grip on their gene pool problem before some really serious health issues come up.
Now if someone could just take care of thier Thoroblot problem (yearly festival where they serve such wonderful cusine as fermented shark, blood pudding and goats heads, among other delicious foods.)
You are all making this way more difficult then it needs be. If you tell the computer "Remind me to take out the trash" the computer just needs to parse the sentence. "Remind me" tells the computer ro open up your appointment schedule. When the computer parses "Take out the trash" it doesn't need a reference to anything at all, it simply has to query for additional variables:
- -
"When would you like me to remind you to 'take out the trash' Dave?"
"On Trash day."
"When is 'trash day', Dave?"
"Wednesday."
"When on Wednesday would you like me to remind you to 'take out the trash', Dave?
"At 6:45 AM."
"Okay, Dave, I have scheduled myself to remind you to 'take out the trash' at 6:45 AM on wednesday."
"You know, it is really disturbs me when you say my name after every sentense like that."
"I'm sorry, there was no action verb in that sentence, Dave. Would you mind stating that more clearly, Dave?"
-----------------------------------------------
The computer does not need to know what "trash" is to remind you to "Take it out".
Damn. You beat me to the punch. You are absolutely correct. Imagine a moon about the size of Saturn's Titan, with plenty of surface water and a decent atmosphere. You could, quite possibly, have life on such a planet. The problems arise when such a moon passes behind the gas giant and into total darkness. The water freezes over, and quite possibly, so would the atmosphere. That would not be a good situation for life (surface life, that is. Oceanic life just might have a better chance.) Of course, the universe is full of strange things. Take for instance the fact that our moon always keeps the same side facing the earth (it is in perfect rotation around the earth so as to do so.) So, it might be possible for one of these gas giants to have a moon that always stays between the planet and the star, keeping it always withen reach of the solar rays. Someone a bit more gifted in mathematics and planetary physics would have to figure that out to see if it would be possible. Lots of interesting concepts from this one. It's enough to make someone like myself (who believes in God and creation) to do some serious thinking.
Amiga is not dead quite yet. Sure, we may never see another computer with the "Amiga" name stamped on it, but Amiga lives on in a lot of other ways.
Take my experience with the Amiga as an example. I used to have one of the old 512k Amiga 500s. When I got my first Wintel box in 1994, I knew there had to be something better then the monstrosity that was MS Windows. The Amiga directly led to my discovery of Linux. I'm not the only one either, there a lot of Linux users and developers out there who have migrated to Linux.
The Amiga was one of the greatest products in the history of personal computers. Considering that there are people out there who still get real work done on their Commodore 64's I think that it is going to be a LONG time before the die hard Amiga fans give up the ghost on their wonder boxes.
On re-reading my post, I just wanted to make an additional note: I did not intend for the previous post to sound so abrasive and combative. You argument concerning AI in the use of Voice recognition and Synthesis is quite valid, I merely disagree with the level of AI required to accomplish the task on a level that could improve the man/machine interface.
As it will never be possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any AI is semi-conscious (my only proof that I am concious is that others believe themselves to be so, and so assume that since I am like them, that I must be conscious as well) your objections have little basis.
How do we know that current AIs are not "semi-conscious"? What is the definition of "semi-conscious"? For voice recognition, the computer simply needs to parse your sentence, place it in the context of the conversation and simply ask questions when a request is unclear. Voice synthesis is even simpler then that.
The only technological barrier right now is fast enough processors that will be able to accomplish these task in a time frame that won't leave the user "waiting for Godot."
I think that everyone needs to keep some perspective here. Slashdot is more of a forum than it is a "hard news" site. At the rate at which things get posted to Slashdot, it is easy for something like this to make it through.
In this case, Bruce posted something ONLINE which he never intended to have leaked to OUTSIDE world. How many of us have posted something ONLINE that we would never say in "the real world."
Most of us can "flame" someone on the internet, but we won't even return a sandwich that has mayonaise instead of the mustard we ordered.
Let's give both Corel and Bruce a break on this one.
Okay. I was wrong.
Just wanted to let everyone know, I pointed netscape over to corel's linux site and guess what?? The html is there, but it brings up a blank page. I have a feeling that Corel is gearing up for an apology (or explanation) for their EULA.
This really puts us in a very odd position. Corel's EULA is likely to cause a boycott of it's product by us, the Linux community. But that would be a VERY bad thing for Linux' continued acceptance and integration into the coorporate mindset.
I think we all need to be calm right now and don't jump Corel's case too quickly. Give them a day or two to get this rectified. I have faith (I hope well placed) that Corel will do the right thing here and recend this part of the language in their EULA.
If not, Debian users still have, well... Debian. And Corel's version will never catch on (which will be bad for everyone, but may be necessary to protect the spirit and letter of the GPL.
I think you missed the point of Mr. Moore's comments concerning the future of user interfaces. Let's say that we had a "revolutionary" change that takes us away from the current "desktop" paradigm. You have issues of the new system not being compliant with current APIs. With this, and the fact that programs might be displayed differently, you are going to loose tons of applications that currently run under X, KDE and GNOME.
An evolutionary change allows everybody to gradually move their applications and interfaces to new standards.
I agree that the "desktop" leaves much to be desired, but I think that it will be several more years before the average computer user's hardware will be ready for the next standard (which will probably be three dimensional with integrated voice recognition and synthesis.)
Who are you to tell me what I *must* believe? Simply because my views are different from yours you consider that I am brainwashed? According to you Billy Graham is a mad man? Did you think before you began to type?
Your allegation about the "sacred sperm" is obviously taken directly from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (great skit, great song.)
A sperm has NO potential to become a human being. The sperm MUST be combined with an egg to form anything resembling a human being. Likewise, the ordinary human cell CANNOT become a human being on its own without genetic engineering.
Now. You make a great case about the killing of a sentient being vs the prevention of one. At what point does a fetus become sentient? Is it some magical point in time when the baby sticks it's head out? That, sir, is crazy. Sentience logically must begin at some point withen the womb. Can you tell me when that occurs? NO! I can't either. But until you can, then even by your logic, killing the unborn is taking a chance of killing a sentient being.
You say you would not let me near children? Why? Because I esteemed them as human beings before they were born? Because I cared more for them while they were in the womb then you did? How does that make me a sociopath? Do you understand the definition of the term?
Murder is murder. Whether it is for the sake of convenience or racial purification they are the same.
If you can permit the execution of unborn simply because "they MIGHT not be sentient YET" then who here is the sociopath?
I am wondering if the problem is actually mearly with coffee and not caffiene. Prilosec's web site (www.acidcontrol.com) says nothing about avoiding caffiene, simply avoiding coffee, caffinated OR decaffinated.