Yes, well, try to open an MS document in StarOffice, and it takes about 10 times longer, while you wait for it to translate it. Once it's done, sometimes there are formatting problems with tables, sometimes fonts are different, sometimes Macro functions in spreadsheets don't work as expected, you just never know. This is simply unacceptable to a user that does a majority of their work on documents from coworkers who use Office, and heavily use the special Microsoft-proprietary features.
This is even true for MS Office for Mac. Some formatting just doesn't make it across.
Personally, I think Adobe could step in and use a PDF based cross-platform (Win/Mac/Solaris/Linux) office suite to wipe Microsoft from the face of the Earth. But, apparently, they don't want to wipe out half their user base (Windows) by undermining the OS.
OS X will not overtake the desktop because it's too complicated. Still. Apple, IMO has failed to put an easy Macintosh GUI on Unix. Although there's still room for success, the current incarnation is GREAT as a high-end workstation or power-user OS, but it's still too complicated for grandma. They need to hide the Unix-ness better.
In fact, I think they need to offer a seperate tier, they need a Desktop OS, a Workstation OS, and a Server OS. OS X PB is the Workstation OS. OS 9, long-term, will not make it as the Desktop OS, because it does not support Cocoa. I think that the Desktop version should be identical - code-wise, to the Workstation OS, and a few checkboxes enabled to reveal all of the power-user stuff.
The other thing Apple needs; MUST have, in order to compete, sadly, is MS Office, including MS Access. Sad but true.
And finally, good high-end Server hardware. Stuff that competes on the level of Sun's high-end hardware. Then, they offer what MS offers, a platform to run Office on - Sun doesn't have that. They offer what Sun offers, high-end bulletproof Unix - and what Sun does not offer, an Office platform, a low-end grandma platform, and WebObjects, which could just be the Next Big Killer App, if only there was a killer platform for it to run on.
Not only that, but if IBM can "get" Linux accepted in the marketplace on as wide a scale, exactly as wide as their current marketshare for Intel/Windows machines, it then makes economic sense for them to stop kowtowing and sucking up to Intel, and selling PowerPC laptops running LinuxPPC. It would be a nearly seamless transition. They wouldn't even have to suck up to Apple or Motorola, because LinuxPPC wont' be dependent on AltiVec (like OS X's eye candy is), so IBM's chips won't need AltiVec. Wouldn't THAT be wicked if Intel shipped ThinkPads with 8hr battery life, running LinuxPPC, on an 800 MHz G3 or G4 sans AltiVec? With software toys that integrated with the rest of IBM's offerings, S/390 connectivity, AS/400, ADSM client? etc. At HALF the price of a PowerBook running OS X at 400MHz? Stevearoonie would have a SHIT fit.
I don't think they were talking specifically JUST about servers either. They were talking about vertical integration - Microsoft has proven that in order to effectively compete (in terms of world-domination) you have to have not only a good server, but a good client. Actually, it's not even that simple. Sun has a good server, and a good client, but that client does not fulfill the role of a low end client. Their client is better suited to the role of a high-end workstation, for power-users. There's really only one reason why they can't take over the desktop (low-end client) with Sunray, and that's because they don't have the dominant office suite, and that's a platform dominance issue that is unique to Microsoft. I think if Microsoft didn't exist, or if they only produced an OS, then Sun would have a much better chance at offering a complete solution that made sense to most businesses. But Microsoft owns the low-end to midrange desktop, because Microsoft owns Office. Apple might end up in the same rut all the Unixes are in - OS X is a great server (except they don't have any truly server-class hardware - yet), and it's a great power-user Workstation OS, but they're going to have to hold onto the Classic OS to keep the low-end people. Either that or do a LOT more work on the consumer version (they need to tier the OS three levels, not two). Microsoft doesn't understand this. They're trying to get rid of Win95/98/ME, and they don't understand that their customers still NEED it. NT is too high end, too complicated for normal low-end users. The basic problem is, as I see it, multi-user vs. single-user. Someone's got to figure out how to eliminate the multi-user complexity from a low-end OS, but still let it work well with it's multi-user big brother. I think the reason Windows works so well at this is because the Multi-user part of windows, NT, is just multi-user enough, to provide basic security, but not soooo multi-user that it prevents Win95/98/ME from interacting, and being managed, etc.
As far as administration goes - from any NT Server box, you can remote start/stop services on another NT (server or workstation) box. It's not obvious, but neither is a lot of Unix stuff either. You use Server Manager. NET is suprisingly powerful, if you get to know it (and also unreliable as hell). NT's domain security model is a peice of crap for large networks - especially when trust breaks. It's replacement, MAD, is too new, and not supported with ubiquity, and eliminates the critical peice of the puzzle, Win95/98/ME.
Windows also has perl, and you can run sh and ksh with 3rd party packages. DOS scripting is pretty decent but like you say, nothing like Unix shell scripting, the lack of a built-in equivalent to telnet server on NT is what I feel is most crippling.
Personally, I feel that if Apple can fix their OS strategy (by creating a low-end version of OS X - as simple to use as Classic, but with all the features of Unix - but without the boggling permissions hassles that you and I take for granted, yet cause non technical people to pull their hair out for basic tasks) - AND if they can keep MS Office, acquire a database like MS Access (I know, but "the market" needs it for OS X to be taken seriously), AND a serious Exchange-compatible mail client (Outlook Express does not cut it in the workplace) - then also take care of their hardware problems with better high-end server offerings, then they have all the important peices of the puzzle, and will kick major, major ass in the marketplace, despite the overpriced hardware.
The more MS tries to cut-out Win95/98/ME (which they need, but don't want), the more that makes them just like Sun, only less effective in the server space - the only think MS would have then is Office, and the API marketshare.
Remember the criminal group from one of the first Tick episodes? (was it THE first?).
The "idea men".
Tick: "Hey, what's the big idea?"
IM1: "well, we thought we'd extort a whole bunch of money, then we'd be rich, and we wouldn't have to work anymore. .."
If Rambus folds, then their assets will be bought by someone else, and they'll enforce the patents, or realize that engineers work cheaper than lawyers, and just fuggetaboudit.
IIRC, an interesting fact about the U-2 is that since it cannot break the sound barrier, there's a specific altitude and speed it can fly at. If it flies higher, then there isn't enough air to provide lift, so it stalls. If it flies faster, it's supersonic, if it flies slower, again, not enough lift and it stalls, and the safty margin at it's maximum altitude between stalling and supersonic was like 1 mph. So it took a very skilled and precise pilot.
Many, many times in the past, there have been other slashdot posters that have provided very credible evidence, and even links, supporting the argument than internal Microsoft Application programmers have access to information, including APIs known only to Microsoft, that allow Microsoft applications to perform better, and integrate with the OS better, than any independent developer could ever hope to. Even if you ignore that, you have to admit that it's probably competitively advantageous to be INSIDE the same company that writes the compiler and API - you'd be privy to all the latest changes. Any questions that arise from poor documentation can be addressed to the author of the API directly. No consideration ever need be taken with whether your developer support contract is paid up, how long you'll wait on hold, or whether the support technician will give you a meaningful answer.
But Microsoft HAS been caught with their pants down on this issue MANY times; special code in beta version of Win95 that detects DR DOS and errors fatally on the detection alone. Changes to SMB and Kerberos specifically to prevent interoperability. Changes to Java to prevent interoperability and multiplatform operation. Hotmail blocking competing e-greeting card vendors. Changes to SMB (applied through service packs) that break Novell networking clients. Windows Media Player breaking the file-registration for multimedia file types so that subsequent installations of RealPlayer or Quicktime (specifically 4.0, Apple worked around this later) caused the file associations to be set to no app.
And still Microsoft apps crash.
Actually, most of the berating going on is against Microsoft's OS, not it's apps. The OS design and architecture itself is fundamentally flawed, that's the argument I hear most on slashdot.
And this is why I believe that splitting MS will do no good at all, unless Visual Studio stays with the OS team. If Visual Studio goes with the apps team, they still write the API that 99% of the Windows developing world writes, and they'll still have this advantage, though they won't be so tightly bound to the OS anymore. They'll just be bound to their ubiquitous framework.
. . . . AND, the Microsoft engineers had access to the "secret Windows API" that makes stuff run faster and better and not crash all the time. Mozilla dudes didn't.
If Bill Gates actually wrote this, I'd be very, very suprised. First of all, it belies too much detailed knowledge of the intricacies of GNOME vs. KDE. I doubt Bill Gates has spent the time to root down to that level of the conflict. It also uses the term FUD. Would Bill Gates actually, in a memo to his employees, use the term "FUD" like that?
Some of the things that are said are very true, fragmentation and competition DO have some serious negative effects in terms of dilution of resources, but what is the alternative? Monopoly. That also slows down progress. Yeah, I'd like to see Mozilla develop into a stable, non-bloated, fast browser at a MUCH higher rate, but the mere fact that it's a free alternative that cannot be destroyed by any denizen of the business world, be it a marketing department, lazy sales person, or hostile takeover, THAT is worth far more in my opinion, than a corporate-sponsored, closed-source, untrustworthy, non-standards-compliant peice of software designed as a weapon in a trade-war that IE is.
So whoever you were who wrote that document, BOO! I can't see who's underneath that cheap rubber mask, but you're not fooling us.
Actually, I'm seeing less and less devices under (or on top as the case may be) of my TV.
For instance, I returned my TiVo (because it wasn't recording stuff I told it to - and because that damn To Do list was too hard to get to, bad UI design, could probably be very easily fixed tho - also because it didn't work very well with my DISH sat box). I got DISH network's DISH Player system, (now my old DISH box is a second receiver in another room). The DISH player has games (Solitaire, You Don't Know Jack, and Doom?! which is kind of painful to play with an IR remote), records like TiVo (only it doesn't take the unnecessary step of decoding to analog, and recoding to digital to record, like my old setup did). So, I'm seeing a consolidation in settop boxes. The functions are aggregating. The DISH player even has WebTV (I don't subscribe to the service) - one of the evil things about it; because even if you don't subscribe, there's WebTV logos all over the place. Obnoxious. But this thing is so great, I see it as a trend.
Plus, DISH player has the much coveted "jump-30-seconds-forward" button that TiVo lacks - and you have no idea how great this is.
I don't know how hackable this is, but it's got 12 hours (no quality selection), and I've never stored more than 6.5 at a time.
If these guys got together and incorporated a decent game console/DVD player, and a less proprietary approach to web access, they'd have a winner - no wait, they're still dead in the water without local TV station access. I guess the sat players don't need better technology, they need better lobbyists.
1) War on Drugs
Well, drugs certainly are popular with young people today, especially Slashdot readers, though many have agreed that "pot makes you stupid" - despite many links to solid research done by those in support of decriminalization. I believe that as long as this controversy exists, we should seek out more articles on this topic, because they generate a LOT of hits. Unfortunately, unless it's about Carl Sagan, it's hard to find any drug articles that have anything to do with Nerds.
2) Minority Religions...
Though Christians and Wiccans seem to be the majority readership here, the Athiests seem to have the most support from the moderators. I support the discussion of all religions, because when you get down to it, religion is a very Nerdy topic, especially for anthropologists, angst-ridden philosophy majors, and of course those hard-core Darwinist/Athiests.
3) Why give a tax cut?
I get a LOT of email. Most of my email lately is on the so-called Karma Tax, whereby if a skilled troll previously earned 70, 80, 100 or even more karma points, they were just hording them, and kept posting inane drivel that got modded up anyway. Now, we've enacted the Karma Tax, where all accounts with more than 50 karma can no longer accumulate more karma points. This spreads the wealth to our less fortunate members, the First Posters, and especially, the rare, and endangered Penis Birds. Some argue that capping karma at 50 points takes away anyone's incentive to earn more karma by posting thoughtful comments. This is patently untrue, because nobody needs more than 20 karma anyway, to get the +2 bonus. That's already capped. If we didn't apply caps to these values, the discussions would be dominated by people like Signal 11, posting at +20 - even though people can set their thresholds lower, they just don't. Some people say that this is simply a failure of the moderation and metamoderation system, that the moderators simply aren't doing a quality job. Well, what should we do then, hire a subcontractor to do moderation? Turning it over to the private sector isn't the answer. The answer is meta moderation. Anyone can meta moderate, but nobody is doing it. If you have a problem with a moderator, metamoderate, and let's bitchslap that ho.
4) electoral reform
This ties in nicely to the last issue. The way moderators are chosen is well documented in the FAQ, if you don't like it, go to post on Kuro5hin with the other 3 people. Changing the rules at this point of the game is silly.
5)How Do You Feel About Intellectual Property?
Of course, all posts become the property of Slasdot, and BenDover.net. Got a problem with that? Don't post. If you post someone else's intellectual property, and they try to sue us, well, we'll try and fight it, but of course in reality, we're not going down for your silly little cause.
6) Encryption....
Since we're not really banned anywhere yet, there's really no reason for encryption. But someday soon, since we nerds and hackers seem to be becoming a persecuted minority, we'll probably have to encrypt the whole damn site soon. When that happens, we'll have to post a story and we'll let the readers decide on an implementation. I'm guessing we'll end up using the NP-HG (Natalie Portman-Hot Grits) algorithm. It's not GPL-ed yet. But if we whine enough it will be.
7) Rising Political Protests
Also another very popular topic, but difficult to rationalize it's relationship to "News for Nerds". Luckily, the Slashdot readership has become more mainstream over the years, and accepts this kind of thing. Good thing article submissions themselves don't get moderated. Otherwise we'd post only discussions on Linux and x86 hardware, and we'd have NO traffic.
8) Asteroid Defenses
There's really nothing we can do about this except make sure we've got good offsite backup.
9) The Future of the Country, and of Humanity
Well, hopefully, the incessant whining about the moderation system will stop, because it was a pain in the ass coming up with the system we have, and it works well enough to keep generating banner revenue, so it's not going to change. Like I said before, if you don't like it, go read Kuro5hit.
John McCain lost due to some dirty tricks specifically funded by "soft money". Some right-wing christian looneys (Falwell and freinds) got together in a key state (Michigan), and spammed phone calls out to the electorate saying that John McCain cut funding for breast cancer research - which was true, but it was simply that he voted against a bill that had a ton of unacceptable riders, He's not "pro breast cancer", as the phone calls said.
I believe that without serious campaign finance reform, this sort of crap is going to continue to ruin our country. Who's for campaign finance reform? Not the guy who's winning because he's getting financed by these special interests. So, it's not just the big corporations that are buying this election, it's George Bush's rich golfing buddies, and the freinds of the republican party who are counting on him to make abortion illegal. Yes, that's the outcome of democracy in a nation of sheep. But stampeding voters with expensive lies is more at the root of how this nation works. The majority of voters don't think like you because the majority of voters don't think.
Personally, I'm voting for Nader. I sure as hell wouldn't want him being elected, and I wouldn't want a Green-run United States, but this country needs a third party, because some of these issues NEED discussion, and their being ignored.
Mars has no magnetic field, therefore no protection in the atmosphere from solar radiation that will take a water vapor molecule, make that molecule it's bitch, and split it wide open into oxygen and hydrogen, the hydrogen floats into space, and the oxygen combines with iron in the soil to make iron oxide, giving the planet it's rich amber hue.
Personally, I'm 100% convinced that successful traders don't "figure it out".
I've watched stocks. I've carefully monitored news, earnings reports, economic reports, and I've seen some stocks, in some cases, fluctuate significantly without rhyme or reason. Even my own company's stock behaves this way. Often I'll see huge jumps or dips, not knowing why. I'm informed. Well informed. Then, a day or so later, I'll hear some scuttlebutt about sales figures or a strategic partnership. Clearly, someone better informed than I is selling or buying huge chunks of stock based on this information. Someone better informed than I, and I am considered an "insider", therefore, under legal limits not to trade my company's stock - especially within the blackout periods (where I see this activity happening most frequently), someone "outside" of the definition, not in possession of material information, has made decisions on buying and selling, and made huge amounts of money based on this - yet those lucky bastards, they guessed that the stock would go up or down.
Either that, or insider trading is hugely widespread, and unenforced.
These people aren't speculating, they're breaking the law and getting away with it. The SEC is a joke. And so is the notion that those poor, poor stock speculators are taking so much risk.
ah, but speculation is NOT taxed at a higher rate than honest hard work.
In other words, you can get taxed less by holding stock for at least 12 months, than you can by working. In other words, hard work is to be discouraged. Don't earn your money. Invest daddy's money. Don't build anything real, build paper.
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Yes, well, try to open an MS document in StarOffice, and it takes about 10 times longer, while you wait for it to translate it. Once it's done, sometimes there are formatting problems with tables, sometimes fonts are different, sometimes Macro functions in spreadsheets don't work as expected, you just never know. This is simply unacceptable to a user that does a majority of their work on documents from coworkers who use Office, and heavily use the special Microsoft-proprietary features.
This is even true for MS Office for Mac. Some formatting just doesn't make it across.
Personally, I think Adobe could step in and use a PDF based cross-platform (Win/Mac/Solaris/Linux) office suite to wipe Microsoft from the face of the Earth. But, apparently, they don't want to wipe out half their user base (Windows) by undermining the OS.
OS X will not overtake the desktop because it's too complicated. Still. Apple, IMO has failed to put an easy Macintosh GUI on Unix. Although there's still room for success, the current incarnation is GREAT as a high-end workstation or power-user OS, but it's still too complicated for grandma. They need to hide the Unix-ness better.
In fact, I think they need to offer a seperate tier, they need a Desktop OS, a Workstation OS, and a Server OS. OS X PB is the Workstation OS. OS 9, long-term, will not make it as the Desktop OS, because it does not support Cocoa. I think that the Desktop version should be identical - code-wise, to the Workstation OS, and a few checkboxes enabled to reveal all of the power-user stuff.
The other thing Apple needs; MUST have, in order to compete, sadly, is MS Office, including MS Access. Sad but true.
And finally, good high-end Server hardware. Stuff that competes on the level of Sun's high-end hardware. Then, they offer what MS offers, a platform to run Office on - Sun doesn't have that. They offer what Sun offers, high-end bulletproof Unix - and what Sun does not offer, an Office platform, a low-end grandma platform, and WebObjects, which could just be the Next Big Killer App, if only there was a killer platform for it to run on.
Not only that, but if IBM can "get" Linux accepted in the marketplace on as wide a scale, exactly as wide as their current marketshare for Intel/Windows machines, it then makes economic sense for them to stop kowtowing and sucking up to Intel, and selling PowerPC laptops running LinuxPPC. It would be a nearly seamless transition. They wouldn't even have to suck up to Apple or Motorola, because LinuxPPC wont' be dependent on AltiVec (like OS X's eye candy is), so IBM's chips won't need AltiVec. Wouldn't THAT be wicked if Intel shipped ThinkPads with 8hr battery life, running LinuxPPC, on an 800 MHz G3 or G4 sans AltiVec? With software toys that integrated with the rest of IBM's offerings, S/390 connectivity, AS/400, ADSM client? etc. At HALF the price of a PowerBook running OS X at 400MHz? Stevearoonie would have a SHIT fit.
I don't think they were talking specifically JUST about servers either. They were talking about vertical integration - Microsoft has proven that in order to effectively compete (in terms of world-domination) you have to have not only a good server, but a good client. Actually, it's not even that simple. Sun has a good server, and a good client, but that client does not fulfill the role of a low end client. Their client is better suited to the role of a high-end workstation, for power-users. There's really only one reason why they can't take over the desktop (low-end client) with Sunray, and that's because they don't have the dominant office suite, and that's a platform dominance issue that is unique to Microsoft. I think if Microsoft didn't exist, or if they only produced an OS, then Sun would have a much better chance at offering a complete solution that made sense to most businesses. But Microsoft owns the low-end to midrange desktop, because Microsoft owns Office. Apple might end up in the same rut all the Unixes are in - OS X is a great server (except they don't have any truly server-class hardware - yet), and it's a great power-user Workstation OS, but they're going to have to hold onto the Classic OS to keep the low-end people. Either that or do a LOT more work on the consumer version (they need to tier the OS three levels, not two). Microsoft doesn't understand this. They're trying to get rid of Win95/98/ME, and they don't understand that their customers still NEED it. NT is too high end, too complicated for normal low-end users. The basic problem is, as I see it, multi-user vs. single-user. Someone's got to figure out how to eliminate the multi-user complexity from a low-end OS, but still let it work well with it's multi-user big brother. I think the reason Windows works so well at this is because the Multi-user part of windows, NT, is just multi-user enough, to provide basic security, but not soooo multi-user that it prevents Win95/98/ME from interacting, and being managed, etc.
As far as administration goes - from any NT Server box, you can remote start/stop services on another NT (server or workstation) box. It's not obvious, but neither is a lot of Unix stuff either. You use Server Manager. NET is suprisingly powerful, if you get to know it (and also unreliable as hell). NT's domain security model is a peice of crap for large networks - especially when trust breaks. It's replacement, MAD, is too new, and not supported with ubiquity, and eliminates the critical peice of the puzzle, Win95/98/ME.
Windows also has perl, and you can run sh and ksh with 3rd party packages. DOS scripting is pretty decent but like you say, nothing like Unix shell scripting, the lack of a built-in equivalent to telnet server on NT is what I feel is most crippling.
Personally, I feel that if Apple can fix their OS strategy (by creating a low-end version of OS X - as simple to use as Classic, but with all the features of Unix - but without the boggling permissions hassles that you and I take for granted, yet cause non technical people to pull their hair out for basic tasks) - AND if they can keep MS Office, acquire a database like MS Access (I know, but "the market" needs it for OS X to be taken seriously), AND a serious Exchange-compatible mail client (Outlook Express does not cut it in the workplace) - then also take care of their hardware problems with better high-end server offerings, then they have all the important peices of the puzzle, and will kick major, major ass in the marketplace, despite the overpriced hardware.
The more MS tries to cut-out Win95/98/ME (which they need, but don't want), the more that makes them just like Sun, only less effective in the server space - the only think MS would have then is Office, and the API marketshare.
Remember the criminal group from one of the first Tick episodes? (was it THE first?).
."
The "idea men".
Tick: "Hey, what's the big idea?"
IM1: "well, we thought we'd extort a whole bunch of money, then we'd be rich, and we wouldn't have to work anymore. .
If Rambus folds, then their assets will be bought by someone else, and they'll enforce the patents, or realize that engineers work cheaper than lawyers, and just fuggetaboudit.
IIRC, an interesting fact about the U-2 is that since it cannot break the sound barrier, there's a specific altitude and speed it can fly at. If it flies higher, then there isn't enough air to provide lift, so it stalls. If it flies faster, it's supersonic, if it flies slower, again, not enough lift and it stalls, and the safty margin at it's maximum altitude between stalling and supersonic was like 1 mph. So it took a very skilled and precise pilot.
80,000 or so. Doesn't necessarily mean he bailed out that high.
but is she hot?
the sound of one bitch slapping
static electricity from air friction.
.)
(that may actually be a problem. .
damn, hope she doesn't hit a bird. . .
My quotes mean I'm only half-joking.
Many, many times in the past, there have been other slashdot posters that have provided very credible evidence, and even links, supporting the argument than internal Microsoft Application programmers have access to information, including APIs known only to Microsoft, that allow Microsoft applications to perform better, and integrate with the OS better, than any independent developer could ever hope to. Even if you ignore that, you have to admit that it's probably competitively advantageous to be INSIDE the same company that writes the compiler and API - you'd be privy to all the latest changes. Any questions that arise from poor documentation can be addressed to the author of the API directly. No consideration ever need be taken with whether your developer support contract is paid up, how long you'll wait on hold, or whether the support technician will give you a meaningful answer.
But Microsoft HAS been caught with their pants down on this issue MANY times; special code in beta version of Win95 that detects DR DOS and errors fatally on the detection alone. Changes to SMB and Kerberos specifically to prevent interoperability. Changes to Java to prevent interoperability and multiplatform operation. Hotmail blocking competing e-greeting card vendors. Changes to SMB (applied through service packs) that break Novell networking clients. Windows Media Player breaking the file-registration for multimedia file types so that subsequent installations of RealPlayer or Quicktime (specifically 4.0, Apple worked around this later) caused the file associations to be set to no app.
And still Microsoft apps crash.
Actually, most of the berating going on is against Microsoft's OS, not it's apps. The OS design and architecture itself is fundamentally flawed, that's the argument I hear most on slashdot.
And this is why I believe that splitting MS will do no good at all, unless Visual Studio stays with the OS team. If Visual Studio goes with the apps team, they still write the API that 99% of the Windows developing world writes, and they'll still have this advantage, though they won't be so tightly bound to the OS anymore. They'll just be bound to their ubiquitous framework.
. . . . AND, the Microsoft engineers had access to the "secret Windows API" that makes stuff run faster and better and not crash all the time. Mozilla dudes didn't.
Not only that, but Microsoft BOUGHT Internet Explorer from Spyglass anyway.
If Bill Gates actually wrote this, I'd be very, very suprised. First of all, it belies too much detailed knowledge of the intricacies of GNOME vs. KDE. I doubt Bill Gates has spent the time to root down to that level of the conflict. It also uses the term FUD. Would Bill Gates actually, in a memo to his employees, use the term "FUD" like that?
Some of the things that are said are very true, fragmentation and competition DO have some serious negative effects in terms of dilution of resources, but what is the alternative? Monopoly. That also slows down progress. Yeah, I'd like to see Mozilla develop into a stable, non-bloated, fast browser at a MUCH higher rate, but the mere fact that it's a free alternative that cannot be destroyed by any denizen of the business world, be it a marketing department, lazy sales person, or hostile takeover, THAT is worth far more in my opinion, than a corporate-sponsored, closed-source, untrustworthy, non-standards-compliant peice of software designed as a weapon in a trade-war that IE is.
So whoever you were who wrote that document, BOO! I can't see who's underneath that cheap rubber mask, but you're not fooling us.
Actually, I'm seeing less and less devices under (or on top as the case may be) of my TV.
For instance, I returned my TiVo (because it wasn't recording stuff I told it to - and because that damn To Do list was too hard to get to, bad UI design, could probably be very easily fixed tho - also because it didn't work very well with my DISH sat box). I got DISH network's DISH Player system, (now my old DISH box is a second receiver in another room). The DISH player has games (Solitaire, You Don't Know Jack, and Doom?! which is kind of painful to play with an IR remote), records like TiVo (only it doesn't take the unnecessary step of decoding to analog, and recoding to digital to record, like my old setup did). So, I'm seeing a consolidation in settop boxes. The functions are aggregating. The DISH player even has WebTV (I don't subscribe to the service) - one of the evil things about it; because even if you don't subscribe, there's WebTV logos all over the place. Obnoxious. But this thing is so great, I see it as a trend.
Plus, DISH player has the much coveted "jump-30-seconds-forward" button that TiVo lacks - and you have no idea how great this is.
I don't know how hackable this is, but it's got 12 hours (no quality selection), and I've never stored more than 6.5 at a time.
If these guys got together and incorporated a decent game console/DVD player, and a less proprietary approach to web access, they'd have a winner - no wait, they're still dead in the water without local TV station access. I guess the sat players don't need better technology, they need better lobbyists.
"Napster totally bent over and took it up the ass here."
yeah, and then they squatted over their user-base and expelled the ejaculate.
benevolent dictatorship.
Know any benevolent dictators?
Holding a stock for 2 days is a long-term commitment compared to 1 day.
It used to be that holding a stock for 30 years was considered a long-term commitment. Now they're allowed to speculate on it for a mere 12 months.
1) War on Drugs
Well, drugs certainly are popular with young people today, especially Slashdot readers, though many have agreed that "pot makes you stupid" - despite many links to solid research done by those in support of decriminalization. I believe that as long as this controversy exists, we should seek out more articles on this topic, because they generate a LOT of hits. Unfortunately, unless it's about Carl Sagan, it's hard to find any drug articles that have anything to do with Nerds.
2) Minority Religions...
Though Christians and Wiccans seem to be the majority readership here, the Athiests seem to have the most support from the moderators. I support the discussion of all religions, because when you get down to it, religion is a very Nerdy topic, especially for anthropologists, angst-ridden philosophy majors, and of course those hard-core Darwinist/Athiests.
3) Why give a tax cut?
I get a LOT of email. Most of my email lately is on the so-called Karma Tax, whereby if a skilled troll previously earned 70, 80, 100 or even more karma points, they were just hording them, and kept posting inane drivel that got modded up anyway. Now, we've enacted the Karma Tax, where all accounts with more than 50 karma can no longer accumulate more karma points. This spreads the wealth to our less fortunate members, the First Posters, and especially, the rare, and endangered Penis Birds. Some argue that capping karma at 50 points takes away anyone's incentive to earn more karma by posting thoughtful comments. This is patently untrue, because nobody needs more than 20 karma anyway, to get the +2 bonus. That's already capped. If we didn't apply caps to these values, the discussions would be dominated by people like Signal 11, posting at +20 - even though people can set their thresholds lower, they just don't. Some people say that this is simply a failure of the moderation and metamoderation system, that the moderators simply aren't doing a quality job. Well, what should we do then, hire a subcontractor to do moderation? Turning it over to the private sector isn't the answer. The answer is meta moderation. Anyone can meta moderate, but nobody is doing it. If you have a problem with a moderator, metamoderate, and let's bitchslap that ho.
4) electoral reform
This ties in nicely to the last issue. The way moderators are chosen is well documented in the FAQ, if you don't like it, go to post on Kuro5hin with the other 3 people. Changing the rules at this point of the game is silly.
5)How Do You Feel About Intellectual Property?
Of course, all posts become the property of Slasdot, and BenDover.net. Got a problem with that? Don't post. If you post someone else's intellectual property, and they try to sue us, well, we'll try and fight it, but of course in reality, we're not going down for your silly little cause.
6) Encryption....
Since we're not really banned anywhere yet, there's really no reason for encryption. But someday soon, since we nerds and hackers seem to be becoming a persecuted minority, we'll probably have to encrypt the whole damn site soon. When that happens, we'll have to post a story and we'll let the readers decide on an implementation. I'm guessing we'll end up using the NP-HG (Natalie Portman-Hot Grits) algorithm. It's not GPL-ed yet. But if we whine enough it will be.
7) Rising Political Protests
Also another very popular topic, but difficult to rationalize it's relationship to "News for Nerds". Luckily, the Slashdot readership has become more mainstream over the years, and accepts this kind of thing. Good thing article submissions themselves don't get moderated. Otherwise we'd post only discussions on Linux and x86 hardware, and we'd have NO traffic.
8) Asteroid Defenses
There's really nothing we can do about this except make sure we've got good offsite backup.
9) The Future of the Country, and of Humanity
Well, hopefully, the incessant whining about the moderation system will stop, because it was a pain in the ass coming up with the system we have, and it works well enough to keep generating banner revenue, so it's not going to change. Like I said before, if you don't like it, go read Kuro5hit.
John McCain lost due to some dirty tricks specifically funded by "soft money". Some right-wing christian looneys (Falwell and freinds) got together in a key state (Michigan), and spammed phone calls out to the electorate saying that John McCain cut funding for breast cancer research - which was true, but it was simply that he voted against a bill that had a ton of unacceptable riders, He's not "pro breast cancer", as the phone calls said.
I believe that without serious campaign finance reform, this sort of crap is going to continue to ruin our country. Who's for campaign finance reform? Not the guy who's winning because he's getting financed by these special interests. So, it's not just the big corporations that are buying this election, it's George Bush's rich golfing buddies, and the freinds of the republican party who are counting on him to make abortion illegal. Yes, that's the outcome of democracy in a nation of sheep. But stampeding voters with expensive lies is more at the root of how this nation works. The majority of voters don't think like you because the majority of voters don't think.
Personally, I'm voting for Nader. I sure as hell wouldn't want him being elected, and I wouldn't want a Green-run United States, but this country needs a third party, because some of these issues NEED discussion, and their being ignored.
Mars has no magnetic field, therefore no protection in the atmosphere from solar radiation that will take a water vapor molecule, make that molecule it's bitch, and split it wide open into oxygen and hydrogen, the hydrogen floats into space, and the oxygen combines with iron in the soil to make iron oxide, giving the planet it's rich amber hue.
Personally, I'm 100% convinced that successful traders don't "figure it out".
I've watched stocks. I've carefully monitored news, earnings reports, economic reports, and I've seen some stocks, in some cases, fluctuate significantly without rhyme or reason. Even my own company's stock behaves this way. Often I'll see huge jumps or dips, not knowing why. I'm informed. Well informed. Then, a day or so later, I'll hear some scuttlebutt about sales figures or a strategic partnership. Clearly, someone better informed than I is selling or buying huge chunks of stock based on this information. Someone better informed than I, and I am considered an "insider", therefore, under legal limits not to trade my company's stock - especially within the blackout periods (where I see this activity happening most frequently), someone "outside" of the definition, not in possession of material information, has made decisions on buying and selling, and made huge amounts of money based on this - yet those lucky bastards, they guessed that the stock would go up or down.
Either that, or insider trading is hugely widespread, and unenforced.
These people aren't speculating, they're breaking the law and getting away with it. The SEC is a joke. And so is the notion that those poor, poor stock speculators are taking so much risk.
ah, but speculation is NOT taxed at a higher rate than honest hard work.
In other words, you can get taxed less by holding stock for at least 12 months, than you can by working. In other words, hard work is to be discouraged. Don't earn your money. Invest daddy's money. Don't build anything real, build paper.