OSX can replace Windows only if Apple sells it as Microsoft does
That also means having to support as many different hardware configurations as Windows does, with the associated increase in likelihood of instability. For all we like to joke about the BSOD, XP hardly ever crashes on me and when it does, it's a hardware or driver issue.
Judging from the difficulties one of my co-workers has had (and is still having) getting one configured as per the client's requirements, I'd say they're made by the Devil.
That, or he's a Muppet; the jury's still out to be honest.
If Microsoft Windows were to let just any program write into the system folder... oh, wait, they do that
No more so than Linux allows any program to write in to/etc,/bin, or any other critical system directory.
It all depends on the permissions of the executing user and the directory in question. There is nothing in Windows that forces you to run as an admin, lazy third party developers notwithstanding.
I highly suspect that Apple, a company that used *nix as the basis for its entire operating system, isn't trying to screw Linux users.
I agree. I suspect they're trying to screw everyone who wants to use iPods without using iTunes, as doing so deprives them of the constant presence of the iTMS just a click or two away. Do not underestimate the power of impulse buying; I'd be willing to bet that a significant proportion of their sales arise from impulse buying due in part to the easy accessibility and "always there"ness of iTMS.
No, 50,000 copies of the text book have been downloaded. You can't say that a single kid learnt physics because of it.
As for the Britney Spears single example, who knows, maybe one of the people who downloaded was inspired to become the next Britney Spears, or Jimi Hendrix, or $musicianYouConsiderWorthy.
Entertainment is just as essential as science; without entertainment and enjoyment, what's the point of living?
(Oh, and disclaimer: I have a physics degree, so don't go thinking I just hate science)
It's kind of amusing to look at the history of FOSS, and a recurring theme has been that developers think that just because they have developed a complex piece of software over a long period of time (gcc comes to mind) that it's not open to being reimplimented in the future.
That's particularly amusing given how many of those pieces of software are themselves essentially reimplementations of other complex pieces of software.
Well, one way would be to load ads into an iframe, along with some javascript that makes a callback to the server. Block the frame, block the javascript, get blocked.
Alternatively, assuming adblock blocks the request, rather than simply stripping the object from the rendered page, if a given client fails to request too many ad items in a given session, block it. (That's a reasonable assumption I think - I don't know how it's implemented, but if it could be done that way, that's certainly the way I'd do it. Making a page look ugly is only one reason ads are annoying...)
As the server admin, you don't need to detect adblock, you need to detect a lack of requests for/viewing of ads. No method is perfect, but then neither is any method of blocking ads. It'll be an arms race.
Well your phones and calculators certainly do boot up, just not in the same way the OS does it.
Not in the same way in what sense? They load (part of) themselves up from permanent storage into temporary storage, initialise the hardware and make certain functionality available to the user - other than implementation details (ROM rather than HDD, etc) what's the difference?
Be careful what you wish for, as the same applies many, many times over to the web. The proportion of generally interesting, worthwhile websites is much smaller than that of generally interesting, worthwhile TV programs.
my VCR doesn't record TV shows in stand-by...my Sky+ box (essentially a PVR tied to the UK's Sky satellite service) does record shows in stand-by mode. However that makes sense - I don't want to have to leave it on full power all the time to record stuff I've set it to record while I'm out. The iPhone email thing is only in the same category if the automatic email download is normally a zero-cost thing. Otherwise, it's just wrong as a default.
With or without modifications, the GPL says (from memory) that if you distribute a binary you must distribute with it either an offer to provide source, details of how to obtain the source, or the source itself.
The GPL applies to everyone who distributes, not just those who also modify.
The same way you would remove a secretary who refused to deliver phone messages, or a janitor who refused sweep.
What if that refusal was due to the janitor having no broom and no budget to purchase one, or the secretary having no way of passing messages on or simply no time to answer the phone due to workload?
Rather than simply firing people who don't do what they're told when they're told, perhaps it would be better to work out *why* that is the case. Then of course if they're just be obstructive, then fire them.
Never forget, though, that IT departments in many cases are overworked, understaffed and under-resourced. Also never forget that as (supposedly) experts in a field, sometimes it is their duty to say "no, we can't do that/do it this way because of this, but how about this instead?".
Well, if someone takes some BSD-licenced code, modifies it, and distributes the modified binaries without source, the original code is no less free for that.
It's great, except that the court just ordered them to make a copy of (or otherwise accurately preserve) that whiteboard.
They are not saying "produce the contents of the RAM from such-and-such a date", they're saying "this would have been evidence that could have been subpoenaed had it been preserved, so in future you will preserve it so that we can subpoena it if necessary".
In order to "store" RAM to a permanent medium, RAM will change to write itself to the medium.
But not the part of the RAM that pertains to the issue at hand, yes? Just like with "normal" records, copying the records changes the paper they're copied to, not that that they are copied from.
I never managed to convince the prosecutor. Clearly the legal system hasn't a clue about tech.
Or else, the prosecutor was doing in all his power to prevent your testimony from carrying too much weight with the court. They're not paid to stand there and say "Oh, I see what you mean - good point. Your honour, in light of this, I don't really see that I have a case..."
What if this is a critical business venture? (say a 7-9 figure transaction)
Then if for whatever reason it has to be email, rather than courier, fax, snail mail, in person, etc, you could always pick up the phone and ask for verbal confirmation of receipt, or assume that not getting a reply confirming receipt is evidence of non-delivery.
Anyone who blindly relies on email (or anything else) being delivered, received, understood and acted upon correctly for a critical business venture without some kind of confirmation process is a fool. For example, you won't get an NDR if the user's mail client binned it on receipt as spam, or filtered it off to the wrong folder...
So instead of getting the kids to take a IQ test of which they have no control over the results
That's not entirely true. You can improve your scores in IQ tests with practice. I'm not sure how much by, and it may well not be enough for any given person, but you can control your results to a degree.
On the other hand I personally think that using IQ test scores for that purpose is wrong, and agree that it should be based on actual performance in the classroom.
In addition to the comments from the other respondent, don't forget that Apple provides *everything* - hardware, OS and drivers. It's a much, much easier problem to solve when you control everything involved.
Windows, on the other hand, has to run on everything from carefully-engineered machines (which generally hibernate correctly) to jury-rigged, lashed together things like the one I'm typing this on (with a dodgy SATA drive and a temporary PSU that doesn't quite have enough juice to power an Audigy on top of everything else so I'm stuck with the onboard sound) and worse. It only takes one badly-written driver to kill waking from hibernate, and that's a whole lot less likely with a Mac or a well-designed, big-name Windows PC.
Actually, judging from what I've heard from people in real life, the reason Vista uptake is slow is because "it's crap because loads of stuff doesn't work with it". That's pretty-much the single reason I've heard - no-one has mentioned DRM, resource usage or anything. Everyone is saying that some essential piece of software or hardware doesn't work with it.
There is no doubt that parts of the world are getting warmer, but the warming is not global... When I listen to the public debates about climate change
That's why people stopped calling it "global warming" and started calling it "global climate change", as the former name gave people entirely the wrong impression. The point is that the world is apparently getting warmer globally on average. That does mean that some places will be getting cooler, while others won't be changing...
Well that, and all the stupid "I wouldn't mind a bit of global warming, it's bloody freezing here" jokes people kept making.
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OSX can replace Windows only if Apple sells it as Microsoft does
That also means having to support as many different hardware configurations as Windows does, with the associated increase in likelihood of instability. For all we like to joke about the BSOD, XP hardly ever crashes on me and when it does, it's a hardware or driver issue.
Judging from the difficulties one of my co-workers has had (and is still having) getting one configured as per the client's requirements, I'd say they're made by the Devil.
That, or he's a Muppet; the jury's still out to be honest.
If Microsoft Windows were to let just any program write into the system folder... oh, wait, they do that
/etc, /bin, or any other critical system directory.
No more so than Linux allows any program to write in to
It all depends on the permissions of the executing user and the directory in question. There is nothing in Windows that forces you to run as an admin, lazy third party developers notwithstanding.
I highly suspect that Apple, a company that used *nix as the basis for its entire operating system, isn't trying to screw Linux users.
I agree. I suspect they're trying to screw everyone who wants to use iPods without using iTunes, as doing so deprives them of the constant presence of the iTMS just a click or two away. Do not underestimate the power of impulse buying; I'd be willing to bet that a significant proportion of their sales arise from impulse buying due in part to the easy accessibility and "always there"ness of iTMS.
Sick people will do sick things regardless of external stimulus, likewise stupid people, unwise people, good people, bad people, and so on.
The ones that try to reenact porn in real life are the ones that would be doing that sort of thing whether they saw it in a film or not.
Because as we all know, it's just that easy! Nothing that worked at one scale ever proved impractical or impossible to do at another!
In the second, 50,000 kids learn physics
No, 50,000 copies of the text book have been downloaded. You can't say that a single kid learnt physics because of it.
As for the Britney Spears single example, who knows, maybe one of the people who downloaded was inspired to become the next Britney Spears, or Jimi Hendrix, or $musicianYouConsiderWorthy.
Entertainment is just as essential as science; without entertainment and enjoyment, what's the point of living?
(Oh, and disclaimer: I have a physics degree, so don't go thinking I just hate science)
Ah, so it's ok to be disingenuous as long as everyone else is doing it too?
It's kind of amusing to look at the history of FOSS, and a recurring theme has been that developers think that just because they have developed a complex piece of software over a long period of time (gcc comes to mind) that it's not open to being reimplimented in the future.
That's particularly amusing given how many of those pieces of software are themselves essentially reimplementations of other complex pieces of software.
Well, one way would be to load ads into an iframe, along with some javascript that makes a callback to the server. Block the frame, block the javascript, get blocked.
Alternatively, assuming adblock blocks the request, rather than simply stripping the object from the rendered page, if a given client fails to request too many ad items in a given session, block it. (That's a reasonable assumption I think - I don't know how it's implemented, but if it could be done that way, that's certainly the way I'd do it. Making a page look ugly is only one reason ads are annoying...)
As the server admin, you don't need to detect adblock, you need to detect a lack of requests for/viewing of ads. No method is perfect, but then neither is any method of blocking ads. It'll be an arms race.
Well your phones and calculators certainly do boot up, just not in the same way the OS does it.
Not in the same way in what sense? They load (part of) themselves up from permanent storage into temporary storage, initialise the hardware and make certain functionality available to the user - other than implementation details (ROM rather than HDD, etc) what's the difference?
Be careful what you wish for, as the same applies many, many times over to the web. The proportion of generally interesting, worthwhile websites is much smaller than that of generally interesting, worthwhile TV programs.
If you're going to be pedantic, it cracks 99% of passwords used on the systems on which it has been used and data is available.
While I broadly agree with your real point...
...my Sky+ box (essentially a PVR tied to the UK's Sky satellite service) does record shows in stand-by mode. However that makes sense - I don't want to have to leave it on full power all the time to record stuff I've set it to record while I'm out. The iPhone email thing is only in the same category if the automatic email download is normally a zero-cost thing. Otherwise, it's just wrong as a default.
my VCR doesn't record TV shows in stand-by
With or without modifications, the GPL says (from memory) that if you distribute a binary you must distribute with it either an offer to provide source, details of how to obtain the source, or the source itself.
The GPL applies to everyone who distributes, not just those who also modify.
The same way you would remove a secretary who refused to deliver phone messages, or a janitor who refused sweep.
What if that refusal was due to the janitor having no broom and no budget to purchase one, or the secretary having no way of passing messages on or simply no time to answer the phone due to workload?
Rather than simply firing people who don't do what they're told when they're told, perhaps it would be better to work out *why* that is the case. Then of course if they're just be obstructive, then fire them.
Never forget, though, that IT departments in many cases are overworked, understaffed and under-resourced. Also never forget that as (supposedly) experts in a field, sometimes it is their duty to say "no, we can't do that/do it this way because of this, but how about this instead?".
You do realise that the constitution applies to the government and government agencies and not to companies, don't you?
If your ISP is owned by the government then no, it can't block your porn access. Otherwise, it's free to block whatever it wants.
Well, if someone takes some BSD-licenced code, modifies it, and distributes the modified binaries without source, the original code is no less free for that.
It's great, except that the court just ordered them to make a copy of (or otherwise accurately preserve) that whiteboard.
They are not saying "produce the contents of the RAM from such-and-such a date", they're saying "this would have been evidence that could have been subpoenaed had it been preserved, so in future you will preserve it so that we can subpoena it if necessary".
In order to "store" RAM to a permanent medium, RAM will change to write itself to the medium.
But not the part of the RAM that pertains to the issue at hand, yes? Just like with "normal" records, copying the records changes the paper they're copied to, not that that they are copied from.
I never managed to convince the prosecutor. Clearly the legal system hasn't a clue about tech.
Or else, the prosecutor was doing in all his power to prevent your testimony from carrying too much weight with the court. They're not paid to stand there and say "Oh, I see what you mean - good point. Your honour, in light of this, I don't really see that I have a case..."
What if this is a critical business venture? (say a 7-9 figure transaction)
Then if for whatever reason it has to be email, rather than courier, fax, snail mail, in person, etc, you could always pick up the phone and ask for verbal confirmation of receipt, or assume that not getting a reply confirming receipt is evidence of non-delivery.
Anyone who blindly relies on email (or anything else) being delivered, received, understood and acted upon correctly for a critical business venture without some kind of confirmation process is a fool. For example, you won't get an NDR if the user's mail client binned it on receipt as spam, or filtered it off to the wrong folder...
I hope the reason this article was used was that you knew it'd result in a lot of sparks and smoke in the discussion
Which basically means lots of comments, which means lots of page views, which means lots of ad impressions.
Do not forget that slashdot is a for-profit business.
So instead of getting the kids to take a IQ test of which they have no control over the results
That's not entirely true. You can improve your scores in IQ tests with practice. I'm not sure how much by, and it may well not be enough for any given person, but you can control your results to a degree.
On the other hand I personally think that using IQ test scores for that purpose is wrong, and agree that it should be based on actual performance in the classroom.
In addition to the comments from the other respondent, don't forget that Apple provides *everything* - hardware, OS and drivers. It's a much, much easier problem to solve when you control everything involved.
Windows, on the other hand, has to run on everything from carefully-engineered machines (which generally hibernate correctly) to jury-rigged, lashed together things like the one I'm typing this on (with a dodgy SATA drive and a temporary PSU that doesn't quite have enough juice to power an Audigy on top of everything else so I'm stuck with the onboard sound) and worse. It only takes one badly-written driver to kill waking from hibernate, and that's a whole lot less likely with a Mac or a well-designed, big-name Windows PC.
Actually, judging from what I've heard from people in real life, the reason Vista uptake is slow is because "it's crap because loads of stuff doesn't work with it". That's pretty-much the single reason I've heard - no-one has mentioned DRM, resource usage or anything. Everyone is saying that some essential piece of software or hardware doesn't work with it.
There is no doubt that parts of the world are getting warmer, but the warming is not global ... When I listen to the public debates about climate change
That's why people stopped calling it "global warming" and started calling it "global climate change", as the former name gave people entirely the wrong impression. The point is that the world is apparently getting warmer globally on average. That does mean that some places will be getting cooler, while others won't be changing...
Well that, and all the stupid "I wouldn't mind a bit of global warming, it's bloody freezing here" jokes people kept making.