IE got to that level of market share for two reasons:
1) It was bundled with Windows, starting from (iirc) Windows 95 SR2 (or whatever it was called) 2) Netscape 4 was shit
On point 2), before you write me off as a troll, understand this - I have never used IE as my browser, and never will. I only use it when I absolutely have to. However, IE4 wiped the floor with Netscape 4 in terms of speed and stability. It didn't stop me using Netscape, but even at the time I admitted it was shit, but "at least it's not IE".
Apparently it is common for underaged sex to be automatically considered "assault" or rape.
Yes; the reasoning runs something like this:
1) the girl is below the age of legal consent 2) as she is below the age of consent, she cannot (legally) consent 3) as she did not consent (because she can't), it's rape/an assault (delete as appropriate)
Obviously individual cases vary, but that's the gist of it.
It really depends upon the facts of the case, which currently are rather lacking. If she's the wide-eyed innocent that her mother is claiming (unlikely at 14, but not impossible) then you're right. If, as the OP clearly suspects/believes, she knew exactly what she was doing (eg leading the 19year old on with teh promise of sex in order to screw a night out out of him) and just took things further than she wanted/got caught by mummy/whatever, then he's right.
Either way, it doesn't excuse the assault (assuming it actually was an assault, which isn't proven yet). However, while I have sympathy for all victims of crime, I have more sympathy for an assault/rape victim who was grabbed on their way home, than I do for one who was prick-teasing and bit off more than they could handle. No, even in the latter case they didn't *deserve* it, but what the hell did they *expect*?
I think that's the point. Reading between the lines, this isn't about general-purpose CPU chips, this is about specialised signal processors. In other words, don't expect to be buying an Intel or AMD chip running at 30+GHz anytime soon.
The slashdot headline and summary both say GB, while the article clearly states gigabits. It's annoying enough when adverts, stores, etc mix up g/G, m/M, b/B, etc, but it's verging on unforgivable when slashdot mixes up bits and Bytes...
Looks like we have a difference in semantics then. I'm from the UK, and am assuming that you're from the US. Certainly, the dictionary I referenced is UK-based, while MW is US-based.
Here in the UK, I'd take "expected of you" to mean "someone is expecting something of you". Well, people can expect whatever they want, it doesn't mean that it's going to happen. Knowledge of that expectation may instill a feeling of obligation in the person concerned, but that's another matter entirely. In the context of the definition I referenced, the original phrase you quote would have a meaning of "If a 19 year old takes you to dinner and a movie and you agree to go back to his place certain (sexual) things are expected of you (the 19 year old hopes or believes that you will engage in these acts, but you are not necessarily obligated to do so)"
To my (UK) mind, an expectation is just a hope/belief, while an obligation is an expectation the non-fullfilment of which has consequences, including (as appropriate) the use of legal force to ensure the fullfilment and/or extract recompense for non-fulfilment.
Basically, me and the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary say that expectation is not the same as obligation. You and the Merriam-Webster dictionary disagree. It's a "two people separated by a common language" thing:)
Given that I also assume that the OP is American, I'll bow to your interpretation of his words, no matter how wrong it feels to me.
I think perhaps that "expectation" doesn't mean what you think it means. "Expect" is simply a stronger form of "hope" - you "hope" for something when you'd like it, but you're not convinced it'll happen. You "expect" something when you're pretty certain it'll happen or know that it will.
Neither hoping for something nor expecting it means that the thing is in any way obliged to happen. That is, in this case, the 19 year old can *expect* the girl to put out after the things he's done, but she is in no way *obliged* to do so.
So, calm down, deep breaths, he didn't mean what you thought he meant:) (Unless he is similarly mistaken about what the word means, in which case go ahead, rip him a new one)
As others have asked, where was the girl's mother when all of this was going on? Why the hell did she let her daughter go off with a strange boy unsupervised? Even if she didn't know how old he was it's utterly irresponsible of her.
You can argue that MySpace has a responsibilty to deter sexual predators, although for the life of me I can't think of a truly effective method; you don't have to be over 18 to rape someone. However, the girl's mother definitely has a responsibility to ensure the safety of her daughter, and nothing I've seen so far gives me any confidence that she attempted to do so.
"iTunes doesn't give you your music back if you buy the songs and lose the original copy"
You said:
This is exactly why I won't participate. Just because a product is digital doesn't mean I'm willing to rent what I previously could own for less dough.
I say:
Good luck getting a free replacement of a CD if you lose that, too.
1. What's this got to do with Gates? It's *Jobs* who's said he wants a flat $9.99 per film pricing model.
2. I can only assume that when you speak of a non-DRM encumbered hardcopy, you're not talking about DVDs. Just because you can circumvent the DRM doesn't mean it isn't there.
To be fair, their entire business so far has been based on selling software, something that's exceptionally hard to do with OSS. Even assuming that they wanted to move to a more OSS-type business model, I can imagine that it would take a significant amount of time to work out how to actually make the sort of money they're used to making out of it - I can't imagine that that many of their customers (especially home users) would be willing to shell out for support contracts or customisation...
While that's true, I can count the number of people I know who run Linux on the desktop on the fingers of one hand.
I know that it's hugely popular here (I spent a couple of years running it as my only desktop OS at work, before going back to Windows), but in terms of the general population of computer users, it's tiny.
Yes, in the server space it's an entirely different matter, but then the interoperability requirements in that space are similarly entirely different (who cares if your servers can't open Word docs? They can serve them up just as well)
The main difference being, of course, that they're already in the grocery business, and so have no problems with perishables. In fact, I ordered my groceries online from Tesco earlier; it's so much quicker and more convenient than actually going there. Of course, you have no control over the quality of the fresh items that are picked (although I generally have no complaints). Also, if they don't have something you ordered they'll substitute something similar, which isn't necessarily to your taste. You're entitled (expected, really) to refuse anything you don't want though if that does happen.
There's a charge for the service, of course (about 5 pounds), but it saves so much time and hassle it's generally worth it (not to mention that it massively cuts down on the temptation to impulse buy).
If you assume that there's no correlation between people who want to be monitored and TV preference, then it's fine.
I wonder if it could be argued that people who enjoy sci-fi are more likely to object to being monitored? A lot of sci-fi is rather dystopian, portraying the sinister side of that sort of thing...
You know what? They're right. As long as the signals end up in analogue, there's not a damn thing that can be done to prevent them from being recorded. If I can hear something, so can a microphone. If I can see something, so can a camera.
Sure, the quality won't be as good as a digital copy (although with expensive equipment and a lot of time and skill, it can be pretty damn close), but it'll be good enough. As you well know, it only takes one person to do it, for it to be available to everyone.
Now that's not to say that it's ok, or that the problems with DRM aren't real. I'm just pointing out that we potentially face a very inconvenient future, rather than a dire one, where content is concerned.
Perhaps I'm cynical, but it's my experience that companies don't want to think of any of their employees as anythng but resources. That makes dealing with them so much easier - if you think of them as people, you might actually feel a little empathy or even guilt when you make them redundant just to make a small cost saving, or refuse bonuses and pay rises while the senior management award themselves both.
I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that "Personnel" departments all got renamed to "Human Resources".
How was this even posted without a link? I know it's a running joke here that noone reads the articles before commenting, but at least give people a chance!
I appreciate that the editors don't (edit, that is), but really...
If they win in court (a very big [i]if[/i], given that this has been tried before but it's always failed)
Got any links for that?
then they'll claim ownership over all of the Linux codebase and that will be that.
Claim ownership on what grounds? If the GPL is invalid, then the original copyright holders still retain copyright - there's nothing in the GPL giving up their claim to ownership, and even if there was, the GPL was just (hypothetically) ruled invalid, remember?
If the GPL were ever ruled invalid, no-one could suddenly claim ownership of any GPLed code (other than the original authors). What would happen, however, is that no-one (other than the original authors) would be able to distribute GPLed code; it would shut down every distro in the jurisdiction in which the ruling was made overnight.
Your description of WMP applies equally-well to iTunes; for that matter, you can't install iTunes (on a Windows PC) without also installing Quicktime and two services. (One of which is for iPod connectivity, which is installed and set to startup automatically whether you have an iPod or not)
iTunes uses up resources even when it isn't running; how's that for bloated?
It's also noteworthy that Vista requires OEMs to have some kind of networking ability. While this is a given by today's standards, I find it very curious that an operating system REQUIRES me to have it.
Well, Vista Beta 2 works perfectly well with it. Good job really, as I've been utterly unable to get my damn wireless connection working...
Besides, the OS does not require a network connection. Microsoft require it of their "Vista Premium" OEM partners, as (to them) networking is at the core of a modern PC's uses, and so people whose machines don't have built-in network support are going to be missing out on functionality that really should be available.
Yes, no doubt Urge has a lot to do with it, but so will Automatic Updates, online help and support, etc. To be honest, I had serious problems with my ADSL connection half a year ago or so - I was unable to connect for hours on end. I always felt at a bit of a loose end, like my PC wasn't working properly. There was plenty I could do that didn't require a net connection, but I couldn't shake the feeling that my PC was somehow useless.
Unless a merchant has proof that you made the transaction on your credit card
Almost - I don't know about the terms of your card, but mine has language in it along the lines of anything that I buy, or that someone I allow to use my card buys, I'm liable for. That is, if I tell my girlfriend "sure, use my card" and she runs up a huge bill, tough on me.
That doesn't apply in this situation, of course, but it's worth remembering that you can't exploit the apparent loophole (at least, not without getting the person in a world of trouble, and ending up there yourself if you're not careful)
The cynical part of me wonders why the feds would care whether they can win the war on piracy or not. The crime is essentially a harmless one as far as Society is concerned; meanwhile, those new laws and iniatives that the MPAA/RIAA keep buying themselves don't come cheap...
How so? Surely the net effect is zero - whether people spent their money on the movies in question or on other things, the same amount of money is moving around, its just the eventual destinations that differ.
That's an excellent suggestion, but from my admittedly limited research into the subject, there seems to be an awful lot of people with completely unrealistic expectations of how much to offer as a bounty. That's probably fine for students and people in a similar position of having a lot of free time, but not so good for the 9 to 5ers amongst us. I've seen projects that are easily a couple of weeks work with bounties offered of $100 or less.
That said, it might be worth a person's while if they truly have nothing better to do.
Slashdot Mirror
IE got to that level of market share for two reasons:
1) It was bundled with Windows, starting from (iirc) Windows 95 SR2 (or whatever it was called)
2) Netscape 4 was shit
On point 2), before you write me off as a troll, understand this - I have never used IE as my browser, and never will. I only use it when I absolutely have to. However, IE4 wiped the floor with Netscape 4 in terms of speed and stability. It didn't stop me using Netscape, but even at the time I admitted it was shit, but "at least it's not IE".
Apparently it is common for underaged sex to be automatically considered "assault" or rape.
Yes; the reasoning runs something like this:
1) the girl is below the age of legal consent
2) as she is below the age of consent, she cannot (legally) consent
3) as she did not consent (because she can't), it's rape/an assault (delete as appropriate)
Obviously individual cases vary, but that's the gist of it.
It really depends upon the facts of the case, which currently are rather lacking. If she's the wide-eyed innocent that her mother is claiming (unlikely at 14, but not impossible) then you're right. If, as the OP clearly suspects/believes, she knew exactly what she was doing (eg leading the 19year old on with teh promise of sex in order to screw a night out out of him) and just took things further than she wanted/got caught by mummy/whatever, then he's right.
Either way, it doesn't excuse the assault (assuming it actually was an assault, which isn't proven yet). However, while I have sympathy for all victims of crime, I have more sympathy for an assault/rape victim who was grabbed on their way home, than I do for one who was prick-teasing and bit off more than they could handle. No, even in the latter case they didn't *deserve* it, but what the hell did they *expect*?
I think that's the point. Reading between the lines, this isn't about general-purpose CPU chips, this is about specialised signal processors. In other words, don't expect to be buying an Intel or AMD chip running at 30+GHz anytime soon.
The slashdot headline and summary both say GB, while the article clearly states gigabits. It's annoying enough when adverts, stores, etc mix up g/G, m/M, b/B, etc, but it's verging on unforgivable when slashdot mixes up bits and Bytes...
Looks like we have a difference in semantics then. I'm from the UK, and am assuming that you're from the US. Certainly, the dictionary I referenced is UK-based, while MW is US-based.
:)
Here in the UK, I'd take "expected of you" to mean "someone is expecting something of you". Well, people can expect whatever they want, it doesn't mean that it's going to happen. Knowledge of that expectation may instill a feeling of obligation in the person concerned, but that's another matter entirely. In the context of the definition I referenced, the original phrase you quote would have a meaning of "If a 19 year old takes you to dinner and a movie and you agree to go back to his place certain (sexual) things are expected of you (the 19 year old hopes or believes that you will engage in these acts, but you are not necessarily obligated to do so)"
To my (UK) mind, an expectation is just a hope/belief, while an obligation is an expectation the non-fullfilment of which has consequences, including (as appropriate) the use of legal force to ensure the fullfilment and/or extract recompense for non-fulfilment.
Basically, me and the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary say that expectation is not the same as obligation. You and the Merriam-Webster dictionary disagree. It's a "two people separated by a common language" thing
Given that I also assume that the OP is American, I'll bow to your interpretation of his words, no matter how wrong it feels to me.
I think perhaps that "expectation" doesn't mean what you think it means. "Expect" is simply a stronger form of "hope" - you "hope" for something when you'd like it, but you're not convinced it'll happen. You "expect" something when you're pretty certain it'll happen or know that it will.
:) (Unless he is similarly mistaken about what the word means, in which case go ahead, rip him a new one)
Neither hoping for something nor expecting it means that the thing is in any way obliged to happen. That is, in this case, the 19 year old can *expect* the girl to put out after the things he's done, but she is in no way *obliged* to do so.
Change "expectation" in your post for "obligation" and you're spot on.
So, calm down, deep breaths, he didn't mean what you thought he meant
As others have asked, where was the girl's mother when all of this was going on? Why the hell did she let her daughter go off with a strange boy unsupervised? Even if she didn't know how old he was it's utterly irresponsible of her.
You can argue that MySpace has a responsibilty to deter sexual predators, although for the life of me I can't think of a truly effective method; you don't have to be over 18 to rape someone. However, the girl's mother definitely has a responsibility to ensure the safety of her daughter, and nothing I've seen so far gives me any confidence that she attempted to do so.
You said:
I say:
Good luck getting a free replacement of a CD if you lose that, too.
Two things:
1. What's this got to do with Gates? It's *Jobs* who's said he wants a flat $9.99 per film pricing model.
2. I can only assume that when you speak of a non-DRM encumbered hardcopy, you're not talking about DVDs. Just because you can circumvent the DRM doesn't mean it isn't there.
To be fair, their entire business so far has been based on selling software, something that's exceptionally hard to do with OSS. Even assuming that they wanted to move to a more OSS-type business model, I can imagine that it would take a significant amount of time to work out how to actually make the sort of money they're used to making out of it - I can't imagine that that many of their customers (especially home users) would be willing to shell out for support contracts or customisation...
While that's true, I can count the number of people I know who run Linux on the desktop on the fingers of one hand.
I know that it's hugely popular here (I spent a couple of years running it as my only desktop OS at work, before going back to Windows), but in terms of the general population of computer users, it's tiny.
Yes, in the server space it's an entirely different matter, but then the interoperability requirements in that space are similarly entirely different (who cares if your servers can't open Word docs? They can serve them up just as well)
Well, based on that one match as that's what we're using, the US should be ranked around 12th if they were so evenly matched against Italy...
The main difference being, of course, that they're already in the grocery business, and so have no problems with perishables. In fact, I ordered my groceries online from Tesco earlier; it's so much quicker and more convenient than actually going there. Of course, you have no control over the quality of the fresh items that are picked (although I generally have no complaints). Also, if they don't have something you ordered they'll substitute something similar, which isn't necessarily to your taste. You're entitled (expected, really) to refuse anything you don't want though if that does happen.
There's a charge for the service, of course (about 5 pounds), but it saves so much time and hassle it's generally worth it (not to mention that it massively cuts down on the temptation to impulse buy).
If you assume that there's no correlation between people who want to be monitored and TV preference, then it's fine.
I wonder if it could be argued that people who enjoy sci-fi are more likely to object to being monitored? A lot of sci-fi is rather dystopian, portraying the sinister side of that sort of thing...
You know what? They're right. As long as the signals end up in analogue, there's not a damn thing that can be done to prevent them from being recorded. If I can hear something, so can a microphone. If I can see something, so can a camera.
Sure, the quality won't be as good as a digital copy (although with expensive equipment and a lot of time and skill, it can be pretty damn close), but it'll be good enough. As you well know, it only takes one person to do it, for it to be available to everyone.
Now that's not to say that it's ok, or that the problems with DRM aren't real. I'm just pointing out that we potentially face a very inconvenient future, rather than a dire one, where content is concerned.
Perhaps I'm cynical, but it's my experience that companies don't want to think of any of their employees as anythng but resources. That makes dealing with them so much easier - if you think of them as people, you might actually feel a little empathy or even guilt when you make them redundant just to make a small cost saving, or refuse bonuses and pay rises while the senior management award themselves both.
I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that "Personnel" departments all got renamed to "Human Resources".
How was this even posted without a link? I know it's a running joke here that noone reads the articles before commenting, but at least give people a chance!
I appreciate that the editors don't (edit, that is), but really...
If they win in court (a very big [i]if[/i], given that this has been tried before but it's always failed)
Got any links for that?
then they'll claim ownership over all of the Linux codebase and that will be that.
Claim ownership on what grounds? If the GPL is invalid, then the original copyright holders still retain copyright - there's nothing in the GPL giving up their claim to ownership, and even if there was, the GPL was just (hypothetically) ruled invalid, remember?
If the GPL were ever ruled invalid, no-one could suddenly claim ownership of any GPLed code (other than the original authors). What would happen, however, is that no-one (other than the original authors) would be able to distribute GPLed code; it would shut down every distro in the jurisdiction in which the ruling was made overnight.
Your description of WMP applies equally-well to iTunes; for that matter, you can't install iTunes (on a Windows PC) without also installing Quicktime and two services. (One of which is for iPod connectivity, which is installed and set to startup automatically whether you have an iPod or not)
iTunes uses up resources even when it isn't running; how's that for bloated?
It's also noteworthy that Vista requires OEMs to have some kind of networking ability. While this is a given by today's standards, I find it very curious that an operating system REQUIRES me to have it.
Well, Vista Beta 2 works perfectly well with it. Good job really, as I've been utterly unable to get my damn wireless connection working...
Besides, the OS does not require a network connection. Microsoft require it of their "Vista Premium" OEM partners, as (to them) networking is at the core of a modern PC's uses, and so people whose machines don't have built-in network support are going to be missing out on functionality that really should be available.
Yes, no doubt Urge has a lot to do with it, but so will Automatic Updates, online help and support, etc. To be honest, I had serious problems with my ADSL connection half a year ago or so - I was unable to connect for hours on end. I always felt at a bit of a loose end, like my PC wasn't working properly. There was plenty I could do that didn't require a net connection, but I couldn't shake the feeling that my PC was somehow useless.
Unless a merchant has proof that you made the transaction on your credit card
Almost - I don't know about the terms of your card, but mine has language in it along the lines of anything that I buy, or that someone I allow to use my card buys, I'm liable for. That is, if I tell my girlfriend "sure, use my card" and she runs up a huge bill, tough on me.
That doesn't apply in this situation, of course, but it's worth remembering that you can't exploit the apparent loophole (at least, not without getting the person in a world of trouble, and ending up there yourself if you're not careful)
The cynical part of me wonders why the feds would care whether they can win the war on piracy or not. The crime is essentially a harmless one as far as Society is concerned; meanwhile, those new laws and iniatives that the MPAA/RIAA keep buying themselves don't come cheap...
How so? Surely the net effect is zero - whether people spent their money on the movies in question or on other things, the same amount of money is moving around, its just the eventual destinations that differ.
That's an excellent suggestion, but from my admittedly limited research into the subject, there seems to be an awful lot of people with completely unrealistic expectations of how much to offer as a bounty. That's probably fine for students and people in a similar position of having a lot of free time, but not so good for the 9 to 5ers amongst us. I've seen projects that are easily a couple of weeks work with bounties offered of $100 or less.
That said, it might be worth a person's while if they truly have nothing better to do.