Peter Swire, a former top privacy official under President Clinton and now a professor at Ohio State University, says he hopes there would be public debate on any such proposal.
NYC already has the army. They're called "the homeless." They collect and sort not only deposit bottles and cans, but anything else that can be sold for recycling or otherwise.
For a selection of "pre-owned" books, shoes, hair dryers, dolls, pans, whatever-the-hell-that-thing-might-be, head over to 6th Ave around 22nd St. or better yet, stroll through what is affectionately known as "Slumingdale's" at 2nd Ave below St. Mark's at night. No, really.
I'm hoping that the extra votes that some will get based on money will be limited or capped. Unlike the extra votes based on work/help/debugging, the money votes require no other assistance than handing over cash, and the opinions could fork things quickly from what a majority are interested in to that which a minority with spare cash want.
Without some limiting method for money-based votes, 100 people giving $1000 each would have more say and effective control than 20,000 each signing up for $5. This is how Congress already works in the US.
For the last several years, Linux-based companies have been struggling
with the problem of how to make money from free software. The problem,
of course, is the difficulty of convincing users to pay for software
that can be downloaded and freely copied from the Internet. Instead
of paying for the software itself, Linux companies have followed several
different business models that amount to charging for ancillary products
and support that surround the core software, which remains free. The
reasons for the development of these models is clear: Linux, and the
majority of Open Source software is in economic terms a "free good",
and selling a free good makes about as much sense as charging for air.
At TransGaming, we believe that in order for Linux to succeed with
consumers in the long run, we need innovation not only in software development,
but also in the social sphere. We need to encourage more user participation
in the development process, and give users more responsibility, both
financially and otherwise, for the ultimate result. We view our work
on two levels: at the software level, we're creating a way for Windows
games to run on Linux. At the social level, we're running an experiment
in how to create a sustainable economic model for the development of
free software that also gives users the incentive to participate more
actively in the creative process.
One aspect of TransGaming's model is based on the
Street Performer Protocol. We are licensing some of our 3D code
under the Aladdin Free Public License, which
restricts certain forms of commercial redistribution. Users may freely
download and use the software, but will be encouraged to subscribe to
our subscription service. We will not
release that code under a less restrictive license (such as the Wine
license) unless and until we have a paying subscriber base of at least
20,000 users. This means that our work will not be fully incorporated
into the main Wine source base before that point. Further development
of our work will also be predicated on that subscriber base being sustained.
This gives our customers a direct incentive to stick with us - if our
subscription revenue dries out, so will our release of new code.
Our customers will have several direct means of guiding the work we
do. First and foremost, they will have the right to vote on which game
we work on next - giving them control over our development priorities.
Second, they can file bug reports to which we will respond within three
working days. Users who file high-quality bug reports will not only
see their bug report dealt with promptly, but will receive additional
voting status, making their votes count more. Users who believe that
we're doing a good job can 'tip' us, by subscribing at higher monthly
charges - those who do so will of course receive a higher voting status.
And finally, users who believe that we're not adequately addressing
their needs can tell us so by unsubscribing altogether.
Developers in the community who want to contribute code or bug fixes
to the project can do so under the Wine license, since their patches
can then be distributed within our current version, under the AFPL,
as well as eventually to the main WineHQ tree. Since we're always looking
for skilled developers, we may offer regular contributors contracts
to work on particular development areas, or games that our users have
requested.
Quit whining about whoring... I'm already capped from comments, not providing "mirroring" on Slashdot.
Because Chinese-speaking people can speak English but not many non-Chinese can speak Chinese. Hell, most Chinese can't talk to most other Chinese due to two primary written forms (old, simplified), 31 major dialects (Mandarin now primary, Cantonese losing place) and hundreds of "minor" dialects.
Spanish-speaking people can also speak English [1] but most English-speakers can't handle much beyond "Yo quiero Taco Bell".
All over the world, you see many people of different nationalities -- none of whom have English for a Mother Tongue -- talking in English to each other, albeit with accents and of varying quality. It is the de facto "lingua franca", which, incidentally, means "French language", which used to be the world-wide basis for talking. Hell, during the Napoleonic Wars, the British and Germans fighting the French often had to speak in French to each other.
English took over more than fifty years ago. Remember that English is a bastard language which came together a a mixture of many different languages (primarily Old Norse [like Icelandic], Old German and French). It is adaptable. It is easy to grasp the basics and communicate your intended meaning despite incredibly bad construction and grammar, unlike in most other languages. So lay off.
Nice try, and I wish it were so, but it ain't. You do more harm than good when you wrongly attribute things, because one error ruins your entire argument and strengthens your opponents'.
The space program did later help push technology to integrate circuits, but such advances were already underway, and TI was the leader (IBM was doing it's tech-stifle shuffle back then). Improved radio comms helped NASA, but NASA didn't drive it. You see this in Gene Kranz' book, "Failure Is Not An Option".
NASA was created after the Bell rocket planes did their thing. All jets used by NASA came from the Air Force, who got them all from contractors like Martin, Lochheed, Marietta, Boeing and others. Advances in aviation were fueled and funded by the COld War. NASA was a recipient, not a donor.
Microwave ovens came outta WWII, when some guys noticed a few weird effects of the microwave transmittors used for radar. That's also why the first microwave ovens were called "Radar-Range", an Amana trademark.
We have a lot of technology and improvements that were developed specifically for the space program. This is a good thing. But there was a reason we spent so much money: we were scared shitless of the Soviets, who were also scared of us. Pure research is a wonderful thing, but it's expensive as hell and we have other priorities. Almost every twit here who didn't pay taxes last year was complaining that he didn't get a refund cheque -- so not even the geeks are willing to pay higher taxes in the hope that some of that money will go toward NASA and other similarly geeky and way cool programs.
I have no problem with crappy logos on the shuttle, as long as the advertisers don't start trying to control missions, requiring X amount of airtime displaying their logo, renaming of items and anything that might in some way interfere with the actual science. I wouldn't even mind if they modified the already tedious and annoying end of countdown speech: "...three, two, one, and lift-off of the Atlantis Space Shuttle on its 43rd voyage in space to blah blah blah." It's so crappy now theat adding "sponsored by Roy Rogers Restaurants" after the word "shuttle" wouldn't make it worse. Adding a 30-second radio spot would be another matter.
It would be good to get this kind of cash infusion, but it could be the start of NASA becoming another agency that is supposed to be self-sufficient and run like a business instead of a governmental agency. Look what that's done to the Patent Orifice.
woof.
This post was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Official French Fry Pages, providers of information about certain cooked potato products, and by viewers like you.
"Designers were battling against the speed of light, which limits how fast signals can travel the cables."
Umm... no. Designers were battling against the speed of electrons though a cable, signal attenuation and noise. The speed of light is that limit on the gigaflops/sec acceleration or something.
woof.
I'm off to a bar only 18 kg from my apartment for a 9V glass of beer.
I know somewhere in there I wrote that I go right past the guys who earn minimum wage and can't do much to help me anyway. I've worked first-line support myself; I know how much life can suck. This guy is at the letter-writing stage. The letter ain't going to Tech Support, and if it is, it's wasted.
If he's still talking to Tech Support, he's not only wasting his time, he's showing what a mark he is. The guys in TechSupp may feel bad for him and may even go out of their way to try and help him, but that's not how things normally happen, because the TechSupp guys are too busy with the excessive workload from all the other first- and second-time callers who need help.
He's far beyond the "let's work together" stage. I'll be rational, calm and acquiescent at first, too. But he's on drive three. His data would be more secure walking through a Palestinian alley at 2am wearing a yarmulke, waving an Israeli flag and yelling that Muhammed had a thing for farm animals with cloven hooves.
It's slowly dawning on me (those Flamebait mods may have helped) that perhaps not everyone read what I wrote as intended. I thought it was pretty clear.
Like the tact of posting AC? I know I'm everyone's buddy because they all want to talk to me during the day, sit with me at lunch, go out to dinner or drinks with me at night and meet up on the weekend. No, I'm not the boss, nor anyone politically useful. I'm just that Doggie over there that gets along with everyone.
It was kinda weird at first, because I was thinking everyone had me mistaken for the popular guy who was class president in high school. I found out when I got called for the 20th reunion a couple months ago that the then-class pres still has 3 more years on a 10 year stretch for embezzlement, the vice pres is dead (along with more than a dozen other former classmates), the "treasurer" is living in Japan teaching English and can't go back to the US for tax reasons, and lots of other fun stuff. Meanwhile, the guy who couldn't have been more outside if he was skiing in Antarctica is top of everyone's party list. I think a "w00t" is appropriate.
I know exactly what you're talking about. Doesn't fit this time.
woof.
You better believe I worked on my people skills to get where I am today. But I don't get walked all over by companies who would happily foist crappy products on me. If you can't be a bulldog-like mean son-of-a-bitch when you're standing up for your rights, don't bother. No one won any rights of value just by asking nicely.
Which version of my post are you reading? I count only two bangs (quite a few question marks, though). I also wasn't talking about the poster's mother as an insult to her, I was slagging him as someone who needs his hand held and still has a binky and need clothing laid out for him each night, based on the tone of the letter he wrote to IBM.
Legal aid departments at a lot of colleges are there primarily to give the law students some real world 'sperience. They are happier helping you write effective letters to companies whose products are less than stellar than they are writing the usual begging letters to keep deadbeat students safe from eviction and bankruptcy hearings for another couple weeks.
The suggested topic/entry was, I admit, a bit exaggerated. Judging by the responses to the thread and my post, it made its point.
Abrasive blowhard? I like that. You wouldn't recognise me in person; I'm just about everybody's bestest buddy. However, when I get screwed over and need to take action against a person or company, I know the routine. I know how to jump over the first and second tier people (who, earning minimum wage, don't deserve my wrath) and go straight to the levels where something gets done. It's a fact of life and business. Being abrasive works. Whining does not. I am constantly asked for assistance in sorting out problems like these, and yes, I talk to friends like I wrote to a stranger, because most of these concepts should be painfully obvious. The lesson will be learned and not quickly forgotten.
Look at his letter and look at my response. Which of us will have a working drive delivered overnight at IBM's expense and an apology to go with it? And yes, I have had IBM, Seagate, WD and, if you remember them, Connor, make good at their cost.
I admit my tone was abrasive, perhaps more than was tactful. I can't help it. The poor kids brought up in the '80s were fed all kinds of feel-good crap and they are not equipped for reality. Not only did I provide good advice, I got people to respond. That's efficacy.
What really gets on my tits is the mod who tagged my post as "Funny". Grrrrr......
woof.
I ain't nobody's bitch (except when Mrs. BadDoggie has the special outfit on and we don't have to work the next day and... erm... never mind)
Nice letter. Who'd you send it to? Was it to the VP of Consumer Affairs? No? Didn't think so. That's generally where you go with escalation letters.
If I was working at IBM, I wouldn't be too concerned about your letter. You talk, but not very well. As long as you have your Swingline stapler, you're not dangerous.
You make slight, inoffensive, and -- most importantly -- ineffective threats. The world doesn't work like that. Your state has lemon laws? Exercise them! Contact your State Attorney General's office and get information or even get them working for you. Attach a copy of your correspondence with the AG.
"It seems to me that this is a scenario where a class action lawsuit..." -- I'm hearing an Andrew Dice Clay bit starting here. Put up or shut up. You think you have a legitimate case? Get your Lawyer to write to IBM. Can't afford a lawyer? You're a student. Your college has a legal aid department. Your school may even have a law department, and new lawyer grads are always looking for a way to make a name and would jump all over the chance to have this as their first big case.
No. You're an apologist, non-confrontational, don't-want-to-make-anyone-mad-here, whining loser who'll get walked all over. Don't sit there threatening to run off to Maxtor, SEND A FUCKING COPY OF YOUR MAXTOR DRIVE RECEIPT!
"Somehow right the wrongs?" Your mother still lays out your clothes each night, huh?
Some people are going to be mad at my tone. Fuck 'em. Either do things right or don't bother.
There's enough info on how to deal with big companies out there and here you are whining with an Ask Slashdot, when the story shoulda simply been "BadAss writes: The entire line of IBM 75GXP drives are defective. Avoid at all costs. I had a couple and here's how I dealt with IBM. If you have one, back up your data now and get your drive replaced."
woof.
If a mirrored drive dies in a Compaq DL360, the good drive continues the mirroring and dies as well. I know this now.
It was quite useful in an analog version. It was available for, and in use by, television no later than the mid-1970s. I remember all the flak when Richard Pryor went on the original Saturday Night Live, which wasn't going to be exactly live. NBC had a 7-second delay hooked up. They used it, too. A few times. Even though Rich tried hard to behave. They'd dump a second or so every time Rich said what he shouldn't, and they'd be at commercial often enough to reset and have another seven seconds.
You are correct. Despite it being a rant, I edited and rewrote that a couple dozen times before fimnally submitting it, and clearly misread what I had written. As mitigation, I am currently at home, sick, on enough medication to explain the error. Actually, I'm on enough that I shouldn't really be hit the correct keys more than 50% of the time, much less write coherently.
Thanks for the correctíon; the distinction is indeed important. However, you did know what I meant, and that was most important.
I never expected Joey G to hang around babelfish. As (former) Minister of Propaganda, you'd think he'd know that Reich is better translated as "Empire" than as "Realm".
However, English prefers the German word and the rseulting ramifications.
Also, while "fyoorer" is not the ideal pronounciation of "Führer", it is indeed the closest that most English-speakers are ever gonna get to the proper pronounciation. If I was you, I'd worry more about the mispronounciation of my name -- GER-blls (rhyming with gerbils or fur-balls), indeed! I think "Go-blls" (like "snow-balls") might be preferable,.
What a bunch of kooks, them Nazis. The ones saying blonde-and-blue-eyed is the elite of genetics all had brown hair and eyes. The one who preached euthanasia for all children born with birth defects (the "life not worth living") himself had a clubfoot. I could go on for hours. What a hoot!
Oh yeah, moderators: I took the "No Score +1 Bonus" already, so don't waste your points modding this down further. This thread looked rather whimsical already, and sometimes you just have to answer some nutbag, even if it's off-topic.
Free speech? How do you live with yourself? Put down that crack pipe!
Free speech is saying "George Bush (Jr or Sr, take your pick) has as much foreign policy ability as a small outcrop of granite in the eastern Afghan hills." It is NOT filling my mailbox at MY cost with YOUR shit.
You have all the right in the world to speak your mind, what little of it there may be. You don't have the right to make me pay for it. I have a domain (call it bullshit.de for the hell of it) and I route various mail through it. I don't care to make new accounts and aliases for slashdot@bullshit and k5@bullshit and register@bullshit and stileprojectmail@bullshit since the names alone tell me what I have, as is MY right to do with MY domain. In comes spam to postmaster, admin, webmaster, and a million fake names, many of which procmail can nail, many of which it can't. Why do MY rights to the use of MY property take second place to your "right" to advertise to me? Answer: They don't. You will lose.
Go crawl back under your bridge. You have me confused with a billy goat gruff.
woof.
I'll at least give you credit for posting from an account instead of being the usual AC troll, although an account's not really that difficult to set up.
See the Economist article (22SEP01 issue), "Atom Heart Father". It's available in your library or on-line either free for subscribers or for a $3 one-off reading -- not worth three bucks, if you ask me.
Basically, an artificial heart is being developed which works on the steam engine principle. Rather than water/steam, another solution is used which will boil around body temperature and, even more importantly, condense close to that temp as well, allowing for the return stroke.
Nice try, troll-boy. Opt-out is a scam. Spam comes to my private boxes -- despite a huge procmail recipe file -- as well as my public, through a variety of exploits. If it was legit, you'd think there'd at least be legitimate headers and return addresses.
The telephone system is also a public system, as is my business' 800-number. However, you will be held responsible for all solicitous calls made to that number, even if made "accidentally" with a demon-dialer, and you can't turn off ANI (Caller-ID) when calling 800 (and 877 and 866) numbers. If you call me, I know from which number and when. If it was a solicitation or other inappropriate call, you're gonna pay up. Two companies said the same thing you have about spam; one paid up $500 after I enlightened them, the other insisted on going to court and paid me $3K plus accumulated legal fees: $500, doubled for knowledge & intent, then triple indemnity for malicious and unethical practices.
Your ability to abuse a public system will NOT deny me the right to use it as it was designed and intended. I have no problem with commercial E-Mail sent to those who want it (opt-in). I find it hard to believe there are people who want in, but they really exist. However, you have no right to make ME shoulder the cost of your pathetic attempts to sell me anything, whether I want it or not. Post Offices around the world agree and make you, the sender, pay for the stamp. Wonder why?
This is what I get for feeding trolls, I know, but I will not stop until there is effective legislation in place with equally effective remedies. I spent three years hollering and knocking on doors and annoying every politician possible and resending all the junk faxes I received to my representatives' fax machines and it finally worked. Junk faxes illegal, because the cost is borne by the recipient. I will continue to do the same with UCE until I am successful or until I die.
woof.
I didn't spend 18 days straight without a break back in 1986 trying to make my university's computers reconnect to DoD'S just so some asswipe could fill my disk telling me how horny Russian wives are waiting for me to get rich quick so I can buy Viagra by the carton and watch HOT YOUNG TEENS with them when I retire before I'm 40.
What ever happened until "innocent until proven guilty"?
What happened was a govenrment elected by an increasingly disinterested populace. Officials placed by a minority of eligible voters who gave themselves the ability to be influenced by money (PACs, soft money, junkets, etc.).
More importantly, it was able to remain in place thanks to the load of sheep who continue to do nothing as long as they get their X-Boxes and Game Boys and Star Trek The Lamest Generation on the Dubba-Ya-Bee.
Not willing to fight for your rights? Then this is what you get. Even if you are willing to(in the US, anyway), not enough of your fellow non-voters are, so give up. You are consumers and will be treated as such. Hell, most of your countrymen are begging to be given the ability to trash a few more articles in the Bill of Rights in the vain hope that there'll never ever ever be another terrorist attack in the US ever again.
Don't like it? You're gonna have to give up more than your DreamCast, 187 channels and Double-half-decaf mocha-choco-frappaccinos now.
Experience says you won't.
woof.
Not only was I at "Ground Zero" NYC, I was near the Pentagon that Tuesday morning as well. Lost friends at both sites. Had to wait an extra week to get a guaranteed ticket back to Europe.
No, you should NOT be able to E-Mail me directly about it unless I have explicitly asked you to do so. Your sending me (and 10M others) that advertisement drops costs on everyone except you, which is the reasoning that made junk faxes illegal in most parts of the US and all of Europe.
My costs include my ISP's bandwidth and disk space (which are passed on to me in higher charges), my own bandwidth, my mail server's diskspace, my employees' diskspace and their phone costs when they dial in and are forced to grab your unwanted ad along with their work mail.
It's not just in Europe that you pay per minute for phone calls, but also from US business offices, on airplanes, at hotels, etc.
Making spam illegal is not overkill, it's overdue.
woof.
I wrote this a while ago, but some/. POST method wasn't working and submissions were being rejected as "illegal for the index.shtml page".
Foo Fighters, too. Lyrics and tabs. Of course, this wasn't these guys' first band;' they'd already learned how to deal with record companies and to first get a lawyer before signing a contract.
woof.
Wasn't "Learn to Fly" on that list of banned songs from some lame Net-radio group? Great tune, amusing video.
The original lyrics.ch was beaten out of existence years ago, thanks, in great part, to US legislation, written by and for you-know-who. See this page at IASPM.
It was killed because the big companies had already realised (pre-Napster) that in order to continue spewing the silliness they tried to allege in courts, they had to control every aspect of the music they published and take every case of "infringement" seriously. US law requires this to some extent, but Sony, Warner and Bertelsmann are willing to go that extra mile.
The spread of lyrics for any song -- even from this week's latest gyrating girl or cool neat-o boy group -- enhances sales. However, in order to control the copyrights, the publishers will not even license rights to reproduce these lyrics. Instead, you must go to the band's official site (usually within the record company's domain), where you can not only see the lyrics (if you provide enough personal information), but you also have the "opportunity" to buy lots more merchandise. You are a "consumer".
So forget something sensible, like the centralised, optimised and simplified lyrics.ch database. Give up on ideas that make life a little easier for "consumers" but might deny a copyright holder a possible extra $0.00013 from a banner impression.
Of course, you can always search Google for "<band name> AND <song title> AND (lyrics OR text OR words)" and find the lyrics elsewhere. Works for finding guitar tabs, too. But the centralised database which was organised to provide you with the information you wanted -- how you wanted it -- instead of advertising and enticement to further purchase is history.
I already mourned the loss of this site almost four years ago. What HFA did to it once they got control made it unusable. I haven't been there since.
woof.
If I had a penny for every Goth girl Web page with Cure lyrics, I'd have $89,317.74
Some browsers don't support JS, and cannot download images...
Correct.
I very much believe that these users have more of a right to keep this off than an advertizer has to force you to look at an ad.
Also correct, but not in the you mean it. The page owners and creators -- as well as the advertisers -- can't force you to do anything. You go to a Web site by choice... most of the time, anyway.
However, you do not have some intrinsic or inalienable right to view the content of any site out there. Some sites you have to pay for (like Westlaw), some you just need to have a free membership, and some sites (like mine) don't care.
It galls me that so many people here piss and moan about having to register to read a NYT article. For fuck's sake, it's free! It takes a minute to do and, if you allow a cookie, you'll never have to bother with it again. In exchange for this, you get access to current stories in what is arguably one of the better US print journals (it's certainly referenced often enough here!).
Is the NYT in cahoots with the CIA, NSA and the Illuminati? Who cares?! As far as the NYT knows, my name is Mr. Potato Salad, I'm an 83 years old labourer and I live at 123 Happy-Go-Lucky Lane in East Timor. All the NYT cares about is being able to show advertisers unique visits/impressions so that the advertisers can pay instead of you and me. How fucking hard is that?
I draw the line when the ads become intrusive. Pop-unders, JavaScript, Flash, new windows, onOpen/onClose, etc., as well as any ad over 30K (if I'm on a dial-up) or more than half the data size of the page I want. This kind of crap has a tendency to crash my browser, disrupt or destroy work in another window. It also costs me a lot of money when I'm using a modem in Europe.
It's because people went ballistic at even the most innocuous of ads and started an arms race that we have the sorts of intrusive ads and methods we're now facing.
If you keep blocking the ads, then the advertisers will give up and you will get to pay for the content. It's that simple.
It doesn't take a lot of effort to hack the binaries and change a couple of spellings so that new instances can't be forced open, scrolling can't be blocked, etc. Now I just need to know how to stop the lame animated GIFs -- can anyone please tell me if there's a way to halt them in Konqueror the way I can by hitting ESC in Mozilla/Opera/IE? Maybe there's a way to display them only as static or disable the LOOP command.
My guess is that soon, content will be served only through the advertising locations, so that blocking the ads will block your receiving the content, as well. There will be a way around it, but it'll be a lot more complicated than adding a couple lines to the hosts file.
woof.
If the ad is condescending or annoying, I avoid the product. If it's informative, I pay attention.
Slashdot Mirror
He hopes for public debate? We already know there won't be.
woof.
For a selection of "pre-owned" books, shoes, hair dryers, dolls, pans, whatever-the-hell-that-thing-might-be, head over to 6th Ave around 22nd St. or better yet, stroll through what is affectionately known as "Slumingdale's" at 2nd Ave below St. Mark's at night. No, really.
woof.
Without some limiting method for money-based votes, 100 people giving $1000 each would have more say and effective control than 20,000 each signing up for $5. This is how Congress already works in the US.
woof.
For the last several years, Linux-based companies have been struggling with the problem of how to make money from free software. The problem, of course, is the difficulty of convincing users to pay for software that can be downloaded and freely copied from the Internet. Instead of paying for the software itself, Linux companies have followed several different business models that amount to charging for ancillary products and support that surround the core software, which remains free. The reasons for the development of these models is clear: Linux, and the majority of Open Source software is in economic terms a "free good", and selling a free good makes about as much sense as charging for air.
At TransGaming, we believe that in order for Linux to succeed with consumers in the long run, we need innovation not only in software development, but also in the social sphere. We need to encourage more user participation in the development process, and give users more responsibility, both financially and otherwise, for the ultimate result. We view our work on two levels: at the software level, we're creating a way for Windows games to run on Linux. At the social level, we're running an experiment in how to create a sustainable economic model for the development of free software that also gives users the incentive to participate more actively in the creative process.
One aspect of TransGaming's model is based on the Street Performer Protocol. We are licensing some of our 3D code under the Aladdin Free Public License, which restricts certain forms of commercial redistribution. Users may freely download and use the software, but will be encouraged to subscribe to our subscription service. We will not release that code under a less restrictive license (such as the Wine license) unless and until we have a paying subscriber base of at least 20,000 users. This means that our work will not be fully incorporated into the main Wine source base before that point. Further development of our work will also be predicated on that subscriber base being sustained. This gives our customers a direct incentive to stick with us - if our subscription revenue dries out, so will our release of new code.
Our customers will have several direct means of guiding the work we do. First and foremost, they will have the right to vote on which game we work on next - giving them control over our development priorities. Second, they can file bug reports to which we will respond within three working days. Users who file high-quality bug reports will not only see their bug report dealt with promptly, but will receive additional voting status, making their votes count more. Users who believe that we're doing a good job can 'tip' us, by subscribing at higher monthly charges - those who do so will of course receive a higher voting status. And finally, users who believe that we're not adequately addressing their needs can tell us so by unsubscribing altogether.
Developers in the community who want to contribute code or bug fixes to the project can do so under the Wine license, since their patches can then be distributed within our current version, under the AFPL, as well as eventually to the main WineHQ tree. Since we're always looking for skilled developers, we may offer regular contributors contracts to work on particular development areas, or games that our users have requested.
Quit whining about whoring... I'm already capped from comments, not providing "mirroring" on Slashdot.woof.
Because Chinese-speaking people can speak English but not many non-Chinese can speak Chinese. Hell, most Chinese can't talk to most other Chinese due to two primary written forms (old, simplified), 31 major dialects (Mandarin now primary, Cantonese losing place) and hundreds of "minor" dialects.
Spanish-speaking people can also speak English [1] but most English-speakers can't handle much beyond "Yo quiero Taco Bell".
All over the world, you see many people of different nationalities -- none of whom have English for a Mother Tongue -- talking in English to each other, albeit with accents and of varying quality. It is the de facto "lingua franca", which, incidentally, means "French language", which used to be the world-wide basis for talking. Hell, during the Napoleonic Wars, the British and Germans fighting the French often had to speak in French to each other.
English took over more than fifty years ago. Remember that English is a bastard language which came together a a mixture of many different languages (primarily Old Norse [like Icelandic], Old German and French). It is adaptable. It is easy to grasp the basics and communicate your intended meaning despite incredibly bad construction and grammar, unlike in most other languages. So lay off.
woof.
[1] excludes New York, Texas, California, Florida
The space program did later help push technology to integrate circuits, but such advances were already underway, and TI was the leader (IBM was doing it's tech-stifle shuffle back then). Improved radio comms helped NASA, but NASA didn't drive it. You see this in Gene Kranz' book, "Failure Is Not An Option".
NASA was created after the Bell rocket planes did their thing. All jets used by NASA came from the Air Force, who got them all from contractors like Martin, Lochheed, Marietta, Boeing and others. Advances in aviation were fueled and funded by the COld War. NASA was a recipient, not a donor.
Microwave ovens came outta WWII, when some guys noticed a few weird effects of the microwave transmittors used for radar. That's also why the first microwave ovens were called "Radar-Range", an Amana trademark.
We have a lot of technology and improvements that were developed specifically for the space program. This is a good thing. But there was a reason we spent so much money: we were scared shitless of the Soviets, who were also scared of us. Pure research is a wonderful thing, but it's expensive as hell and we have other priorities. Almost every twit here who didn't pay taxes last year was complaining that he didn't get a refund cheque -- so not even the geeks are willing to pay higher taxes in the hope that some of that money will go toward NASA and other similarly geeky and way cool programs.
I have no problem with crappy logos on the shuttle, as long as the advertisers don't start trying to control missions, requiring X amount of airtime displaying their logo, renaming of items and anything that might in some way interfere with the actual science. I wouldn't even mind if they modified the already tedious and annoying end of countdown speech: "...three, two, one, and lift-off of the Atlantis Space Shuttle on its 43rd voyage in space to blah blah blah." It's so crappy now theat adding "sponsored by Roy Rogers Restaurants" after the word "shuttle" wouldn't make it worse. Adding a 30-second radio spot would be another matter.
It would be good to get this kind of cash infusion, but it could be the start of NASA becoming another agency that is supposed to be self-sufficient and run like a business instead of a governmental agency. Look what that's done to the Patent Orifice.
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This post was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Official French Fry Pages, providers of information about certain cooked potato products, and by viewers like you.
Umm... no. Designers were battling against the speed of electrons though a cable, signal attenuation and noise. The speed of light is that limit on the gigaflops/sec acceleration or something.
woof.
I'm off to a bar only 18 kg from my apartment for a 9V glass of beer.
woof.
If he's still talking to Tech Support, he's not only wasting his time, he's showing what a mark he is. The guys in TechSupp may feel bad for him and may even go out of their way to try and help him, but that's not how things normally happen, because the TechSupp guys are too busy with the excessive workload from all the other first- and second-time callers who need help.
He's far beyond the "let's work together" stage. I'll be rational, calm and acquiescent at first, too. But he's on drive three. His data would be more secure walking through a Palestinian alley at 2am wearing a yarmulke, waving an Israeli flag and yelling that Muhammed had a thing for farm animals with cloven hooves.
It's slowly dawning on me (those Flamebait mods may have helped) that perhaps not everyone read what I wrote as intended. I thought it was pretty clear.
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It was kinda weird at first, because I was thinking everyone had me mistaken for the popular guy who was class president in high school. I found out when I got called for the 20th reunion a couple months ago that the then-class pres still has 3 more years on a 10 year stretch for embezzlement, the vice pres is dead (along with more than a dozen other former classmates), the "treasurer" is living in Japan teaching English and can't go back to the US for tax reasons, and lots of other fun stuff. Meanwhile, the guy who couldn't have been more outside if he was skiing in Antarctica is top of everyone's party list. I think a "w00t" is appropriate.
I know exactly what you're talking about. Doesn't fit this time.
woof.
You better believe I worked on my people skills to get where I am today. But I don't get walked all over by companies who would happily foist crappy products on me. If you can't be a bulldog-like mean son-of-a-bitch when you're standing up for your rights, don't bother. No one won any rights of value just by asking nicely.
Legal aid departments at a lot of colleges are there primarily to give the law students some real world 'sperience. They are happier helping you write effective letters to companies whose products are less than stellar than they are writing the usual begging letters to keep deadbeat students safe from eviction and bankruptcy hearings for another couple weeks.
The suggested topic/entry was, I admit, a bit exaggerated. Judging by the responses to the thread and my post, it made its point.
Abrasive blowhard? I like that. You wouldn't recognise me in person; I'm just about everybody's bestest buddy. However, when I get screwed over and need to take action against a person or company, I know the routine. I know how to jump over the first and second tier people (who, earning minimum wage, don't deserve my wrath) and go straight to the levels where something gets done. It's a fact of life and business. Being abrasive works. Whining does not. I am constantly asked for assistance in sorting out problems like these, and yes, I talk to friends like I wrote to a stranger, because most of these concepts should be painfully obvious. The lesson will be learned and not quickly forgotten.
Look at his letter and look at my response. Which of us will have a working drive delivered overnight at IBM's expense and an apology to go with it? And yes, I have had IBM, Seagate, WD and, if you remember them, Connor, make good at their cost.
I admit my tone was abrasive, perhaps more than was tactful. I can't help it. The poor kids brought up in the '80s were fed all kinds of feel-good crap and they are not equipped for reality. Not only did I provide good advice, I got people to respond. That's efficacy.
What really gets on my tits is the mod who tagged my post as "Funny". Grrrrr......
woof.
I ain't nobody's bitch (except when Mrs. BadDoggie has the special outfit on and we don't have to work the next day and... erm... never mind)
If I was working at IBM, I wouldn't be too concerned about your letter. You talk, but not very well. As long as you have your Swingline stapler, you're not dangerous.
You make slight, inoffensive, and -- most importantly -- ineffective threats. The world doesn't work like that. Your state has lemon laws? Exercise them! Contact your State Attorney General's office and get information or even get them working for you. Attach a copy of your correspondence with the AG.
"It seems to me that this is a scenario where a class action lawsuit..." -- I'm hearing an Andrew Dice Clay bit starting here. Put up or shut up. You think you have a legitimate case? Get your Lawyer to write to IBM. Can't afford a lawyer? You're a student. Your college has a legal aid department. Your school may even have a law department, and new lawyer grads are always looking for a way to make a name and would jump all over the chance to have this as their first big case.
No. You're an apologist, non-confrontational, don't-want-to-make-anyone-mad-here, whining loser who'll get walked all over. Don't sit there threatening to run off to Maxtor, SEND A FUCKING COPY OF YOUR MAXTOR DRIVE RECEIPT!
"Somehow right the wrongs?" Your mother still lays out your clothes each night, huh?
Some people are going to be mad at my tone. Fuck 'em. Either do things right or don't bother.
There's enough info on how to deal with big companies out there and here you are whining with an Ask Slashdot, when the story shoulda simply been "BadAss writes: The entire line of IBM 75GXP drives are defective. Avoid at all costs. I had a couple and here's how I dealt with IBM. If you have one, back up your data now and get your drive replaced."
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If a mirrored drive dies in a Compaq DL360, the good drive continues the mirroring and dies as well. I know this now.
Wouldn't want to have to violate one bad law while violating some Amendment by adding them to certain .db files, right?
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Thanks for the correctíon; the distinction is indeed important. However, you did know what I meant, and that was most important.
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However, English prefers the German word and the rseulting ramifications.
Also, while "fyoorer" is not the ideal pronounciation of "Führer", it is indeed the closest that most English-speakers are ever gonna get to the proper pronounciation. If I was you, I'd worry more about the mispronounciation of my name -- GER-blls (rhyming with gerbils or fur-balls), indeed! I think "Go-blls" (like "snow-balls") might be preferable,.
What a bunch of kooks, them Nazis. The ones saying blonde-and-blue-eyed is the elite of genetics all had brown hair and eyes. The one who preached euthanasia for all children born with birth defects (the "life not worth living") himself had a clubfoot. I could go on for hours. What a hoot!
Oh yeah, moderators: I took the "No Score +1 Bonus" already, so don't waste your points modding this down further. This thread looked rather whimsical already, and sometimes you just have to answer some nutbag, even if it's off-topic.
woof.
"Dressing up like Hitler is not cool, Cartman!"
Free speech is saying "George Bush (Jr or Sr, take your pick) has as much foreign policy ability as a small outcrop of granite in the eastern Afghan hills." It is NOT filling my mailbox at MY cost with YOUR shit.
You have all the right in the world to speak your mind, what little of it there may be. You don't have the right to make me pay for it. I have a domain (call it bullshit.de for the hell of it) and I route various mail through it. I don't care to make new accounts and aliases for slashdot@bullshit and k5@bullshit and register@bullshit and stileprojectmail@bullshit since the names alone tell me what I have, as is MY right to do with MY domain. In comes spam to postmaster, admin, webmaster, and a million fake names, many of which procmail can nail, many of which it can't. Why do MY rights to the use of MY property take second place to your "right" to advertise to me? Answer: They don't. You will lose.
Go crawl back under your bridge. You have me confused with a billy goat gruff.
woof.
I'll at least give you credit for posting from an account instead of being the usual AC troll, although an account's not really that difficult to set up.
Basically, an artificial heart is being developed which works on the steam engine principle. Rather than water/steam, another solution is used which will boil around body temperature and, even more importantly, condense close to that temp as well, allowing for the return stroke.
Neat stuff. Too bad it's "premium content" only.
woof.
The telephone system is also a public system, as is my business' 800-number. However, you will be held responsible for all solicitous calls made to that number, even if made "accidentally" with a demon-dialer, and you can't turn off ANI (Caller-ID) when calling 800 (and 877 and 866) numbers. If you call me, I know from which number and when. If it was a solicitation or other inappropriate call, you're gonna pay up. Two companies said the same thing you have about spam; one paid up $500 after I enlightened them, the other insisted on going to court and paid me $3K plus accumulated legal fees: $500, doubled for knowledge & intent, then triple indemnity for malicious and unethical practices.
Your ability to abuse a public system will NOT deny me the right to use it as it was designed and intended. I have no problem with commercial E-Mail sent to those who want it (opt-in). I find it hard to believe there are people who want in, but they really exist. However, you have no right to make ME shoulder the cost of your pathetic attempts to sell me anything, whether I want it or not. Post Offices around the world agree and make you, the sender, pay for the stamp. Wonder why?
This is what I get for feeding trolls, I know, but I will not stop until there is effective legislation in place with equally effective remedies. I spent three years hollering and knocking on doors and annoying every politician possible and resending all the junk faxes I received to my representatives' fax machines and it finally worked. Junk faxes illegal, because the cost is borne by the recipient. I will continue to do the same with UCE until I am successful or until I die.
woof.
I didn't spend 18 days straight without a break back in 1986 trying to make my university's computers reconnect to DoD'S just so some asswipe could fill my disk telling me how horny Russian wives are waiting for me to get rich quick so I can buy Viagra by the carton and watch HOT YOUNG TEENS with them when I retire before I'm 40.
What happened was a govenrment elected by an increasingly disinterested populace. Officials placed by a minority of eligible voters who gave themselves the ability to be influenced by money (PACs, soft money, junkets, etc.).
More importantly, it was able to remain in place thanks to the load of sheep who continue to do nothing as long as they get their X-Boxes and Game Boys and Star Trek The Lamest Generation on the Dubba-Ya-Bee.
Not willing to fight for your rights? Then this is what you get. Even if you are willing to(in the US, anyway), not enough of your fellow non-voters are, so give up. You are consumers and will be treated as such. Hell, most of your countrymen are begging to be given the ability to trash a few more articles in the Bill of Rights in the vain hope that there'll never ever ever be another terrorist attack in the US ever again.
Don't like it? You're gonna have to give up more than your DreamCast, 187 channels and Double-half-decaf mocha-choco-frappaccinos now.
Experience says you won't.
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Not only was I at "Ground Zero" NYC, I was near the Pentagon that Tuesday morning as well. Lost friends at both sites. Had to wait an extra week to get a guaranteed ticket back to Europe.
My costs include my ISP's bandwidth and disk space (which are passed on to me in higher charges), my own bandwidth, my mail server's diskspace, my employees' diskspace and their phone costs when they dial in and are forced to grab your unwanted ad along with their work mail.
It's not just in Europe that you pay per minute for phone calls, but also from US business offices, on airplanes, at hotels, etc.
Making spam illegal is not overkill, it's overdue.
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I wrote this a while ago, but some /. POST method wasn't working and submissions were being rejected as "illegal for the index.shtml page".
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Wasn't "Learn to Fly" on that list of banned songs from some lame Net-radio group? Great tune, amusing video.
It was killed because the big companies had already realised (pre-Napster) that in order to continue spewing the silliness they tried to allege in courts, they had to control every aspect of the music they published and take every case of "infringement" seriously. US law requires this to some extent, but Sony, Warner and Bertelsmann are willing to go that extra mile.
The spread of lyrics for any song -- even from this week's latest gyrating girl or cool neat-o boy group -- enhances sales. However, in order to control the copyrights, the publishers will not even license rights to reproduce these lyrics. Instead, you must go to the band's official site (usually within the record company's domain), where you can not only see the lyrics (if you provide enough personal information), but you also have the "opportunity" to buy lots more merchandise. You are a "consumer".
So forget something sensible, like the centralised, optimised and simplified lyrics.ch database. Give up on ideas that make life a little easier for "consumers" but might deny a copyright holder a possible extra $0.00013 from a banner impression.
Of course, you can always search Google for "<band name> AND <song title> AND (lyrics OR text OR words)" and find the lyrics elsewhere. Works for finding guitar tabs, too. But the centralised database which was organised to provide you with the information you wanted -- how you wanted it -- instead of advertising and enticement to further purchase is history.
I already mourned the loss of this site almost four years ago. What HFA did to it once they got control made it unusable. I haven't been there since.
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If I had a penny for every Goth girl Web page with Cure lyrics, I'd have $89,317.74
Correct.
I very much believe that these users have more of a right to keep this off than an advertizer has to force you to look at an ad.
Also correct, but not in the you mean it. The page owners and creators -- as well as the advertisers -- can't force you to do anything. You go to a Web site by choice... most of the time, anyway.
However, you do not have some intrinsic or inalienable right to view the content of any site out there. Some sites you have to pay for (like Westlaw), some you just need to have a free membership, and some sites (like mine) don't care.
It galls me that so many people here piss and moan about having to register to read a NYT article. For fuck's sake, it's free! It takes a minute to do and, if you allow a cookie, you'll never have to bother with it again. In exchange for this, you get access to current stories in what is arguably one of the better US print journals (it's certainly referenced often enough here!).
Is the NYT in cahoots with the CIA, NSA and the Illuminati? Who cares?! As far as the NYT knows, my name is Mr. Potato Salad, I'm an 83 years old labourer and I live at 123 Happy-Go-Lucky Lane in East Timor. All the NYT cares about is being able to show advertisers unique visits/impressions so that the advertisers can pay instead of you and me. How fucking hard is that?
I draw the line when the ads become intrusive. Pop-unders, JavaScript, Flash, new windows, onOpen/onClose, etc., as well as any ad over 30K (if I'm on a dial-up) or more than half the data size of the page I want. This kind of crap has a tendency to crash my browser, disrupt or destroy work in another window. It also costs me a lot of money when I'm using a modem in Europe.
It's because people went ballistic at even the most innocuous of ads and started an arms race that we have the sorts of intrusive ads and methods we're now facing.
If you keep blocking the ads, then the advertisers will give up and you will get to pay for the content. It's that simple.
It doesn't take a lot of effort to hack the binaries and change a couple of spellings so that new instances can't be forced open, scrolling can't be blocked, etc. Now I just need to know how to stop the lame animated GIFs -- can anyone please tell me if there's a way to halt them in Konqueror the way I can by hitting ESC in Mozilla/Opera/IE? Maybe there's a way to display them only as static or disable the LOOP command.
My guess is that soon, content will be served only through the advertising locations, so that blocking the ads will block your receiving the content, as well. There will be a way around it, but it'll be a lot more complicated than adding a couple lines to the hosts file.
woof.
If the ad is condescending or annoying, I avoid the product. If it's informative, I pay attention.
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