Web based forum software offer a lot more features than newsgroups.
Like "reading trough a web browser", "no threads" and "you remember what you have read, not your computer"?
Here's a good article on this subject. Even the worst of newsreaders -- say, OE -- still beat out the best of the web forums. I keep on thinking that it would be nice to write a Slashdot->news program, but I've never found time to do it.
With Subversion, how is it beneficial to have a file that hasn't changed have its revision number incremented on every check-in? Doesn't that make it very difficult to track changes to one source file?
The general idea is that in a given set of interrelated files, it does not make sense to think about revisions on the file level, as a change to one file is really a change to an entire project. Simply assigning revision numbers on a repository-wide basis simplifies the revision number system and does away with one bit of weirdness in CVS. It's a bit strange if you're coming from a system that works with per-file rather than per-repository versions, but it makes a lot of sense when you get used to it.
As to difficulty tracking the files -- no, it's not difficult. Finding the revisions associated with changing a file is easy, so tracking the changes is no more difficult than in CVS.
Would the launch costs neccesarily be as high as for repairing the current Hubble? It would seem to me that we are perfectly capable of sticking things in orbit (relatively) cheaply; it's going up there and fixing stuff after the fact that is really expensive.
For example, I once lost a day's worth of writing at my old job using MSoffice. It's automatic backup feature failed me so all my work was completely gone.
If you go for a full day without saving your work, you deserve at least a mild kick in the rear. I don't even trust vim to keep my work safe -- I save every ten minutes or so, and on occasion it's saved me big time.
Yeah, right. If Slashdot only posted about windows vulnerabilities once every three days -- or, for that matter, only posted about a vulnerability once instead of duping it four times -- we'd all completely forget that Microsoft is the evil empire.
You're right that it's pretty straightforward when you're talking about distributing a binary version of a typical user-level C program, but other situations it's not as cut-and-dried. For instance, programs written in most scripting languages don't get "linked" in the same sense, but they can use code from libraries in a similar manner. Opinions are varied on whether binary-only kernel modules are legitimate, and if they're not, whether you can get around the restriction by writing a small GPL'd wrapper around your module.
Now to apply that to the GPL/LGPL, any file that links to anything GPL _must_ be GPL according to the license.
This isn't true. You can link BSD-licensed or other similarly GPL-compatible code to GPL'ed libraries to your heart's content. (Source, note where they talk about license compatibility.)
Laser beams visible in space, FTL with preservation of causality and general relativity, completely naive view of human psychology, most aliens are humanoid...
The abovementioned Arthur C Clarke has committed all of these offenses, and worse, from time to time through his writing career. However, nobody questions that his work is science fiction. There's no hard line between science fiction and sf-themed fantasy. That's why we get the terms "hard SF" (which is what he seems to be equating with "real science fiction"), "soft SF" (which usually includes Star Trek), "science fantasy" (Star Wars), and all the other variations.
much open-source software is already signed by the creator / distributor, so you know that the binary you got was actually made by him.
Sure, you can sign binaries. But if you give that binary to someone, and he later demands the source code from you, you'd better include the private key along with it.
Doing this would, of course, completely nullify the point of signing binaries. Fortunately, nobody but you seems to be under the impression that this violates the GPL. I suggest that the first stop on your crusade against private keys should be these guys, who are not only signing packages, they are doing so to basic GNU software. Or maybe this organization, which is distributing signed binaries of GNU software!.
Frankly, if the GPL doesn't allow me to sign a binary, then the GPL is broken. However, I rather doubt that's the case -- much open-source software is already signed by the creator / distributor, so you know that the binary you got was actually made by him. Because hardware DRM relies on exactly the same idea -- guaranteeing that you got your binaries from a particular source -- from a practical standpoint, there's no difference between the two scenarios.
Like I said, it's not positive proof. It's just an indication that fansub may not neccesarily lead to increased sales, like so many people claim. When that forms a large part of people's rationale for fansubs -- and other forms of copyright infringement -- putting their hands over their ears and saying "LA LA LA I'M RIGHT YOU'RE WRONG" isn't going to cut it. (I'm not saying you're among those, so don't take it the wrong way.)
Also, I wasn't talking about the mediocre series in my post. Rather, I was talking about good series that aren't as mainstream. Nobody cares if the latest "magic girl with giant vampire robots" series tanks. However, the danger, especially with American viewers forming a larger and more essential part of the market, is that those less-popular gems will be shoved aside for more of big stuff. Remember when anime was a fringe thing? Fansubs may start killing off the fringes.
...and typically the consumer *does* want to buy the media (and yes, some of them even want to support the production companies)
In the article, they mention that sales of not-as-mainstream anime are struggling. Which is exactly what would be expected if people are downloading the fansubs of everything, and then only buying or renting the blockbusters.
Again, it's perfectly possible to make a profit out of media which most people have already seen. Ask Lucas. And if you doubt their wisdom, look at the size of your company (or most anime companies) compared to Lucas.
I wasn't aware that making illegal copies of Star Wars was encouraged by the creators. If you really wanted the anime companies to take a leaf out of Lucas' book, they'd start filing lawsuits instead of sending letters.
Maybe. Or maybe the fansubs generate more interest for the eventual release.
If you RTFA, you'll note that they cover this. Apparently sales for everything except the really big-name series are either flat or decreasing. Although it's not cut-and-dried proof that fansubs cut into sales, it's at least interesting that it seems so coincide with the dramatic increase of online fansub distribution over the last couple years.
Is that actually illegal? What is the actual law thats being broken.
ColdGrits didn't claim that the action he described was illegal; he just pointed out that the original analogy was a bad one. Of course, his analogy wasn't perfect either, but that's how it goes.
I still keep some hope in my heart that sometime in the future, Slashdotters will finally realize that argument via analogy is one of the weakest arguments that they can make.
A commercial place means that you cannot deny someone because you don't like them.
Try walking in the door of practically any store. They generally have a sign that says "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, for any reason." (Or something along those lines.) If I want to tell you to get out of my store because I don't like you, that's my right on my property.
As a customer you should be concerned that they may terminate your service on short notice based on political content.
As a customer, he should keep an eye on the situation rather than jumping to conclusions on the reason for the termination based on a Slashdot article.
This is exactly my problem with XMMS. It was designed to look and feel like Winamp. However, the developers failed to notice that Winamp had one of the most horrible interfaces ever designed. The icons were cryptic, and the widgets didn't work anything like the standard ones. Far from being a "clean player," Winamp (and XMMS) have an exceedingly annoying, difficult-to-use UI.
I suppose it appeals to those who cut their teeth on Winamp, and so are used to its ideosyncracies. However, some of the rest of us would like something that is less flashy and more functional.
Re:Linux Desktop Thoughts...
on
Linux, Inc.
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· Score: 1
I think you're missing the target slightly on this one when you blame X Windows for the lack of a windows/mac -equivalent GUI. X just handles the basic graphical capabilities, and there's absolutely no reason why a desktop environment what works just like windows explorer or whatever they call it on OSX by build on top of X. (There are a few things that may require extensions, but they don't form the core of the system, and many of them have been added to X already.)
That's why none of the other window systems that pop up have really gone anywhere. They don't offer enough beyond X to make using them worth it, and even after you go through the huge expenditure of rewriting the entire window system, you haven't made any real progress towards the so-called "modern desktop environment."
The programs that you really want to target are the window manager, the GUI toolkit, and the other things that make up a desktop environment. (Gathered together by Gnome, or KDE, or one of the smaller players.) However, truth be told, the new environments can almost completely mimic the look and feel of Windows already. In fact, I bet that if somebody put their mind to it, altering graphics, menus, and so forth to the point where the typical user cannot tell the difference between a Windows and a Gnome/KDE system would only take a single person a few months.
The real differences between the systems tend to show up in configuration (setting up and configuring a Linux system is much different than a Windows system) and software support (you're not going to find plug-in replacements for internet explorer, Word, games, etc.), neither of which would be addressed by rewriting the window system or manager.
...from the looks of it, Apple Inc. is trying to restrict Freedom of Speech.
Only if you accept that a nondisclosure agreement -- a contract willingly entered into by two parties -- is a restriction on freedom of speech. You might can probably argue that's true, by defining your terms broadly enough. But in any case, there's no reason to think that this would apply to anything but NDAs, and saying that "Apple is trying to restrict freedom of speech" is a misleading overgeneralization.
So now, your sources tell you nothing.
I don't see how this logically follows. Logically, your sources don't tell you anything that's covered under their nondisclosure agreements. It doesn't follow that they won't talk to you about anything.
The United States citizenry, by allowing this civil suit to stand, would unfairly restrict First Amendment Rights granted to the People of the United States by themselves for perpetuity.
I too have a Samsung laser printer (ML-1440, IIRC, though I don't have it in front of me), and have been very happy with it. However, black-and-white lasers target a rather different market than inkjets; I find that most people like to print out stuff with colorful graphics, and so they end up with inkjets.
On the other hand, for those who print a lot of text documents, you'll save yourself a lot of money and frustration over time by going with a laser printer.
CAN SPAM does not make it illegal for an ISP to block spammers, even if the spam complies with the act. Although the article doesn't give any real details, it's likely that the company was violating the ISP's terms of use. Nobody's "infringing on their rights" here.
I was really hoping for it to continue, season 4 is by far the best.
I don't see how it could last. They've already done the one about the genetically enhanced fugitives that get their hands on a starship and a superweapon, and the one where the Enterprise goes back into the mid 20th century to avert disaster in the present, and one about carrying someone's katra... how many movies are left?
On the upside, they'll hopefully retain the stripping-communications-officer scene when they redo star trek v.
referring to it as a "study" at any point is disingenuous at best.
Even better is Hemos' "from the interesting-data-points dept." line. Admittedly, at this point I know that it's too much to hope that the editors would actually read the articles they post, but is it too much to ask for them to at least click on the link and glance at it for five seconds first?
Slashdot Mirror
The general idea is that in a given set of interrelated files, it does not make sense to think about revisions on the file level, as a change to one file is really a change to an entire project. Simply assigning revision numbers on a repository-wide basis simplifies the revision number system and does away with one bit of weirdness in CVS. It's a bit strange if you're coming from a system that works with per-file rather than per-repository versions, but it makes a lot of sense when you get used to it.
As to difficulty tracking the files -- no, it's not difficult. Finding the revisions associated with changing a file is easy, so tracking the changes is no more difficult than in CVS.
Would the launch costs neccesarily be as high as for repairing the current Hubble? It would seem to me that we are perfectly capable of sticking things in orbit (relatively) cheaply; it's going up there and fixing stuff after the fact that is really expensive.
Yeah, right. If Slashdot only posted about windows vulnerabilities once every three days -- or, for that matter, only posted about a vulnerability once instead of duping it four times -- we'd all completely forget that Microsoft is the evil empire.
Frankly, if the GPL doesn't allow me to sign a binary, then the GPL is broken. However, I rather doubt that's the case -- much open-source software is already signed by the creator / distributor, so you know that the binary you got was actually made by him. Because hardware DRM relies on exactly the same idea -- guaranteeing that you got your binaries from a particular source -- from a practical standpoint, there's no difference between the two scenarios.
Also, I wasn't talking about the mediocre series in my post. Rather, I was talking about good series that aren't as mainstream. Nobody cares if the latest "magic girl with giant vampire robots" series tanks. However, the danger, especially with American viewers forming a larger and more essential part of the market, is that those less-popular gems will be shoved aside for more of big stuff. Remember when anime was a fringe thing? Fansubs may start killing off the fringes.
I still keep some hope in my heart that sometime in the future, Slashdotters will finally realize that argument via analogy is one of the weakest arguments that they can make.
If you don't like it, then use your "lots of money" to buy hosting for them somewhere else. Or are you only generous with other people's money?
I suppose it appeals to those who cut their teeth on Winamp, and so are used to its ideosyncracies. However, some of the rest of us would like something that is less flashy and more functional.
That's why none of the other window systems that pop up have really gone anywhere. They don't offer enough beyond X to make using them worth it, and even after you go through the huge expenditure of rewriting the entire window system, you haven't made any real progress towards the so-called "modern desktop environment."
The programs that you really want to target are the window manager, the GUI toolkit, and the other things that make up a desktop environment. (Gathered together by Gnome, or KDE, or one of the smaller players.) However, truth be told, the new environments can almost completely mimic the look and feel of Windows already. In fact, I bet that if somebody put their mind to it, altering graphics, menus, and so forth to the point where the typical user cannot tell the difference between a Windows and a Gnome/KDE system would only take a single person a few months.
The real differences between the systems tend to show up in configuration (setting up and configuring a Linux system is much different than a Windows system) and software support (you're not going to find plug-in replacements for internet explorer, Word, games, etc.), neither of which would be addressed by rewriting the window system or manager.
On the other hand, for those who print a lot of text documents, you'll save yourself a lot of money and frustration over time by going with a laser printer.
On the upside, they'll hopefully retain the stripping-communications-officer scene when they redo star trek v.
Perhaps you could try borrowing a little punctuation from the guy who wrote the article; he seems to have too much.