Why rebutt a perfectly good point? As he pointed out, only a miniscule minority of people give a damn about source code and "freedom".
No, only a minuscule minority of people are aware of issues surrounding source code and freedom (no quotes). I find that if I make people aware of the issues in terms they can understand, and explain the whole FS/OSS concept in terms that make sense from an enlightened self-interest point of view (and avoiding to seem like a zealot), people generally start caring.
Why has nobody realised yet that it doesn't say 1/3 of email recieved is spam, but that 1/3 of email sent in the US is spam. I'm not suprised at that in the slightest - most spammers don't want to bother with the legal risks involved in sending spam inside the US. Just send it through some open relay wherever you find one or operate from Russia, it's far easier.
Um, sending through an open relay (or, far more commonly these days, an open proxy) in another country doesn't magically make you operate from that country. It doesn't matter if you send through some 0wnz0red box in Timbuktu, if you're in the US while sending the mail then you are operating from the US and are therefore subject to US law. Same with any other country.
Now I see it coming that someone will claim that this is irrelevant because open proxies make spammers untracable, to which I have a simple reply: follow the money.
SPAM is a trademark for luncheon meat. Hormel requests that unsolicited commercial e-mail be referred to as spam, not SPAM. Since they are nice enough not to sue everyone's asses for diluting their trademark, I think the least we can do is comply with this simple request.
But the point is, if you aren't free to keep your changes private, you're still chained down.
Here we go again. Yes, under the GPL you are perfectly free to keep your changes private. It's only when you publish them that you have to publish the source code along with it.
I guess since the GPL "hampers innovation" as you say, all the innovation seen in e.g. Linux and KDE is a figment of our collective imagination.
Re:Once again, Babbage was thinking ahead...
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Which concept is that? GiGo? IMNSHO, anyone who even has to CONSIDER that question (thus assuming computers are somehow psychic) fully deserves all the nerdly contempt you can pile on them.
Well, thank you for proving my point.:)
Re:Once again, Babbage was thinking ahead...
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If anything Babbage's reaction to the question illustrates that nerds have always been prone to elitism and contempt for the non-nerd mind. The MEP in question asked a very good question (especially considering the century it was asked in), and the fact that he did ask it shows that far from being "confused", he was on the right track to understaning a fundamental computing concept.
Perhaps you confuse "statistical correlation" with "ironclad guarantee." You give two data points, yourself and the friend you were helping. That's not enough to do anything with.
True, my post was simply an expression of disbelief/skepticism and I did not bother trying to back it up. Then again, I don't feel I should have to bother since there is nothing to back up the claims in the Wired story. First it claims that autism rates are going up alarmingly in Silocon Valley, but then it goes on to say the same is happening in the rest of the world, after which it points out how subjective the diagnostic criteria are, thus reducing the significance of the numbers to exactly zero.
And there is the real cause of the worldwide "rise" - diagnosis. Until 10-15 years ago, only the severest cases were diagnosed as such, now even "high functioning" or "mild" cases get a diagnosis.
Unbelievable. I was sure this was a troll, but discovered that Wired Magazine [wired.com] ran a story in December 2001 called The Geek Syndrome [wired.com] addressing this phenomenon. Amazing.
It's a crock of shit. I happen to have Asperger's syndrome (i.e.: "high functioning" autism), diagnosed and all, and my parents are not particularly technical. There are also plenty of completely non-technical people who have autism and related conditions, I am helping one of them with his computer, he is as clue-resistant as my NT co-workers. The idea that autistic people are statistically better with computers and technology than the general population is a myth.
In addition, the idea mentioned in the grandparent post that you should not have children if you have a slightly elevated chance of having a child with a disability smacks of eugenics and is reprehensible. Even on the off chance that it does happen, a disability is not the end of the world, although it can be the beginning of a different world.
How can you think Esperanto is a neutral language?! It is compose solely of romanctic languages!
If that were true it might actually be easier to learn, at least for those speaking any language of European origin. In fact, there is a lot of Germanic and Slavic in there as well, but most of it is so unpredictably distorted it's hard to recognize. In addition, many frequent words as well as the grammatical structure are entirely contrived and bear no relation to any natural language.
For a more naturalistic language that's actually easier to understand as well as learn for those knowing English and/or any Romance language, try Interlingua.
Also forcing a culture to learn your language is not the way to make friends.
Anyone in the world who wants to mean something on an international level is currently forced to learn US English. It doesn't seem to disadvantage the US much. In fact it puts it at a significant advantage because native speakers are often preferred.
Should Trolltech have busted their ass for the last 7 years for for Free just out of the goodness of their hearts? Why do you begrudge someone who wants to support OSS but also wants to be able to make a living? Do you just dislike any company who wants to market a product and make money? Geez.
Exactly right. And yet there are so many who call the GPL "anti-commerce"! Amazing.
The way I see it, we're talking, assuming we believe you (we don't), an Apple track record of 2 to 15. That totally blows huge chunks.
This was not about Apple's "track record", this was about Apple driving the adoption of USB. Whether or not they failed at other things is irrelevant to whether or not they drove the adoption of USB.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought that was called "copyright". The whole idea with patents is to monopolize ideas, not specific products which is copyright's domain.
CNN is a bit late to catch up with this...
No, only a minuscule minority of people are aware of issues surrounding source code and freedom (no quotes). I find that if I make people aware of the issues in terms they can understand, and explain the whole FS/OSS concept in terms that make sense from an enlightened self-interest point of view (and avoiding to seem like a zealot), people generally start caring.
So how does this come at the cost of standardization? Are the forked versions somehow unable to talk to each other?
Um, sending through an open relay (or, far more commonly these days, an open proxy) in another country doesn't magically make you operate from that country. It doesn't matter if you send through some 0wnz0red box in Timbuktu, if you're in the US while sending the mail then you are operating from the US and are therefore subject to US law. Same with any other country.
Now I see it coming that someone will claim that this is irrelevant because open proxies make spammers untracable, to which I have a simple reply: follow the money.
What's more, it sounds exactly like the Finder in the Mac's System 1, from 1984. Now that's some "innovation"!
SPAM is a trademark for luncheon meat. Hormel requests that unsolicited commercial e-mail be referred to as spam, not SPAM. Since they are nice enough not to sue everyone's asses for diluting their trademark, I think the least we can do is comply with this simple request.
Yeah. The truth hurts, doesn't it?
Here we go again. Yes, under the GPL you are perfectly free to keep your changes private. It's only when you publish them that you have to publish the source code along with it.
I guess since the GPL "hampers innovation" as you say, all the innovation seen in e.g. Linux and KDE is a figment of our collective imagination.
That distinction is academic at best. Interpretation is one form of execution, with largely the same security risks.
Did you use the link in the grand-grandparent post? It still works for me. The form tag used there is:
which is current.
Whoa... searching with it works!
This is, indeed, yet another Final Ultimate Solution to the Spam Problem.
Well, thank you for proving my point. :)
If anything Babbage's reaction to the question illustrates that nerds have always been prone to elitism and contempt for the non-nerd mind. The MEP in question asked a very good question (especially considering the century it was asked in), and the fact that he did ask it shows that far from being "confused", he was on the right track to understaning a fundamental computing concept.
True, my post was simply an expression of disbelief/skepticism and I did not bother trying to back it up. Then again, I don't feel I should have to bother since there is nothing to back up the claims in the Wired story. First it claims that autism rates are going up alarmingly in Silocon Valley, but then it goes on to say the same is happening in the rest of the world, after which it points out how subjective the diagnostic criteria are, thus reducing the significance of the numbers to exactly zero.
And there is the real cause of the worldwide "rise" - diagnosis. Until 10-15 years ago, only the severest cases were diagnosed as such, now even "high functioning" or "mild" cases get a diagnosis.
It's a crock of shit. I happen to have Asperger's syndrome (i.e.: "high functioning" autism), diagnosed and all, and my parents are not particularly technical. There are also plenty of completely non-technical people who have autism and related conditions, I am helping one of them with his computer, he is as clue-resistant as my NT co-workers. The idea that autistic people are statistically better with computers and technology than the general population is a myth.
In addition, the idea mentioned in the grandparent post that you should not have children if you have a slightly elevated chance of having a child with a disability smacks of eugenics and is reprehensible. Even on the off chance that it does happen, a disability is not the end of the world, although it can be the beginning of a different world.
If that were true it might actually be easier to learn, at least for those speaking any language of European origin. In fact, there is a lot of Germanic and Slavic in there as well, but most of it is so unpredictably distorted it's hard to recognize. In addition, many frequent words as well as the grammatical structure are entirely contrived and bear no relation to any natural language.
For a more naturalistic language that's actually easier to understand as well as learn for those knowing English and/or any Romance language, try Interlingua.
Anyone in the world who wants to mean something on an international level is currently forced to learn US English. It doesn't seem to disadvantage the US much. In fact it puts it at a significant advantage because native speakers are often preferred.
True. Unfortunately, in the United States, you don't scrap weapons.
Exactly right. And yet there are so many who call the GPL "anti-commerce"! Amazing.
This was not about Apple's "track record", this was about Apple driving the adoption of USB. Whether or not they failed at other things is irrelevant to whether or not they drove the adoption of USB.