Fuck, the US economy is in the shitter! People are starting to figure out Bush is a fucking clown! Quick, look over there, America! Isn't the moon pretty!?! Hey, let's "go back" there! While we're there, we can remember to Fight Terrorism(TM), Support Democracy(R), and Be Free(TM)!
It's built-in because that's what their focus groups and useability surveys *tell them* that's what their customers want. They want a seamless, easy-to-use computing environment that is cohesive, ready-to-run, and doesn't require dicking about.
You and I may enjoy choosing which packages we want, and what office-like suite we'll use, but my 50-year old mother doesn't care. She wants her PC to just work. She does really well at taking pics with her camera, plugging it in, emailing it, etc. She's a damned smart lady, but the computer intimidates her a bit, so she likes it when things 'just work'.
I run Mandrake 9.2, Windows XP, RedHat 9, and FreeBSD 4.9 at home, but Mom is on Windows XP because it provides her with the experience she *wants* from her computer. Some simple games, some email, some web browsing.
We tend to forget here on/. that we're the minority - that most people don't care/can't understand the inner workings of their machines, and until we can provide a cohesive computing alternative that 'just works', Windows will be the flavor du jour.:) OS X may help make inroads here, but 'everyone knows Microsoft'. Let's all work to change that!
First off, I run Mandrake Linux 9.1 and Windows XP on my main computer, Mandrake 9.2rc2 on a dev station, and RedHat 9 on my firewall computer. Anyway. Your experience is *not* typical for Windows machines, no matter how much the Slashdot FUD engine is churning.
If you're having that many Windows problems, I would suspect incompetence on the part of the user or system administrator. Windows has the same options. User manuals, help files, tech support, web support all exist for Windows programs as well.
Yes, Linux is *sometimes* easier to fix if you fuck up the world. Yes, sometimes the best answer for a Windows problem is "fuck it, rebuild it" rather than dick with it for 6-7 hours because your client doesn't care why - they just need a working computer now, and they borked up the image with some random program they downloaded (yes, I know about how Windows lets anyone install... that's a related tangent, but not the thrust here).
If you're having that many problems with Windows, I would be presumptuous that you may have a great many unknown/offbeat programs installed, or that you've installed/uninstalled many times, leaving cruft in the registry. Yeah, all things that should WORK - but don't.:(
Anyway. Your comparison should be fair, not a regurgitation of the FUD you've read here.
"On a large scale, sure. But tell that to the kids who went to Columbine..."
As usual, somebody trots out a horrible example of some obviously mentally disturbed kids that used firearms to commit atrocities. Are you purposefully failing to mention the pipebombs in their bags? The knives and clubs they would have used in lieu of firearms? The car they would have driven into the gym at 100 mph?
The Columbine incident and all the bullshit press as a result of the incident is overdramatization of a terrible tragedy. I'm terribly sorry these children were taken from their families. Yes, it's horrible. But those two young men would have found a way to inflict damage upon those they detested using some other methods.
And *your* point about Columbine is simply there to generate a knee-jerk sympathy reaction. This fucking country is so concerned about sheltering and protecting children from reality that it's no wonder that we as a nation are completely incapable of dealing with each other, other countries, or anything resembling a hardship. Sheltering children from reality - be it Pro/Anti ANYTHING - will only result in parents' avoidance of their duties. "If I block it, I don't have to deal with it."
Yes, you have to choose to install the site-blocking section of Internet Security. Yes, parents SHOULD choose to have those conversations with their children. But many won't, instead opting to use technology as a panacea.
C'mon, you're not seriously suggesting that the same rules would apply in all cases, would they? *Grin*
You're absolutely right about testing patches/waiting. The same paranoia we approach MS with regarding patches, etc. should be used with ANY production-level system.
Yeah, funny that a company developing a FPS game for Windows would use the most common MS applications. "Oh, I'm sorry, Half-Life 2 doesn't run on a machine with Outlook installed; you'll need to switch to Mozilla, the open-source browser/email client."
"Uh, what?"
Right. "Hi, I'd like to return this game, it doesn't run on my computer."
Outlook !== BAD *if* you have good sysadmins and keep up on your patches. The buffer exploits in the preview pane have been patched for some time. Thanks for the typical Slashdot attitude, though. MS fucks up plenty, but don't blame them when the fix is readily available.
Because if you can't talk to your neighbor, your mom, your old high school buddy who lives in the next state, you can't plan anything unsavory. You can't share opinions. You can't find out what the news said in MN compared to TX. You'll only have the opinion that the telescreen^H^H^H^H^H^Hvision shows you. And we all should trust that.
Uh, I must be missing the reference. Wouldn't the RIAA *want* you to pay for something that you can get for free? Backwards I think you have it, young padawan.:)
Also: In your whole post, you omitted two (2) characters. "they look good on yr shelf"
Why, why, why, why do people do this? I hate it with a passion. Yeah, I know it's a stupid cell phone/IM thing. Call the person. Or, if you're going to say it, please take the time to say it right. I'm actually geniunely curious about why you use the little abbreviations. I use as many TLA's as the next person, when they're actually acronyms for real words. Recursive acronyms just confuse people.
The use of these little slang bits makes me automatically (and it's a prejudice, I admit) of discounting the apparent intelligence of the poster.
Especially when you took the time to use a great word like 'immutable'!
Fuck, I've become my Senior English teacher./em walks out back to scream in terror
Actually, I bet you could take this fubared text, pipe it to anagram, and then take the output back into perl and come up with some damned funny sentences...
"This does not mean there is not a critical purpose for GPS-based tracking devices (yes, even covertly deployed) and canvassing a region, for there certainly is. As uncomfortable as Patriot makes us, we cannot deny there are circumstances that indeed justify significantly more zealous investigation and prosecution."
Yes, I can deny it. We already had laws and systems and checklists and information IN PLACE to prevent the incidents of September 11, 2001. There is never a good excuse to begin random or covert surveillance of the civilian population. It's done anyway by several agencies, but that doesn't mean it's right.
The risk you take of living in a free country is that bad things sometimes happen to good people. 9/11 was a bad day. But let's put things into perspective: approximately 4,000 people died that day. How many cancer patients, terminally ill people, and other fatalities occured that day? Or every day thereafter? Or the day before?
The Patriot Act and Patriot Act II are horrible pieces of legislature only designed to further entrench an unpopular government by suppressing and silencing those who would oppose the opinion that you're supposed to have.
We failed in our "War on Terror", so we fired up the "War in Iraq". Now we've fucked that up, so the "War in Iraq" has become PART of the "War on Terror".
What will it take for the general populace to see the farce that their government and their elected officials have made of the country? We have soccer moms absolutely convinced that the Terrorists(TM) are coming to get us. All the while, our government becomes more and more the overlords - and we become the proles: unaware, unknowing, accepting whatever the telescreen tells us.
This is preventable! Vote! Talk to people! Explain *WHY* this is bad, instead of being "that damn privacy/liberty lunatic".
Y'know, that whole line of reasoning - if you're using it as a blanket excuse for the knee-jerk "won't someone think of the *children!*" reaction - is fucking bullshit. I was in the country that day, however, and after all the bullshit rhetoric about how "don't let the terrorists change the way we live" - nearly every aspect of our government is trying to change the way you live.
Bleh. NYC residents may have been closer to the impact point, but the shockwave encompasses the whole country.
Odd, I'd swear that there was no hard evidence that al Qaeda actually committed the WTC attack. The day after 9/11, we bombed Afghanistan. Al Qaeda put out a statement that said, in effect, "We did not do this. We applaud those who did, but we did not do this"(As reported on MSNBC on 9/12/2001). Strange, for a terrorist group usually gladly claims an attack as part of their glorious / "shocking and awesome" strike against their enemies.
So, let's look at this: the CIA trained and set up Bin Laden, downplayed their knowledge of the 1993 attack at the World Trade Center, created somewhat tenous connections between al-Qaeda (whatever spelling, fuck it) and Hussein. We can't find any WMD's, so we begin to hunt for al-Qaeda again. Oh, and by the way, while we're at this, we're going to really fuck up overtime laws, but remember, You're Fighting Terrorism! The Department of Homeland Security (DepLuv) will let you know when it's safe to come out from under your bed.
Yeah, that's completely different from 1984's premise.
Hmm. I was tempted to say "Sorry, no." in response to your comment, but in a way, you are right. Even though the vast majority of English 'speakers' can barely communicate with each other with common vernacular, it's too bad that people try and make themselves seem smarter by using a word or phrase that they don't understand. In which case, you *should* crack the dictionary or thesaurus before committing your thoughts to paper/web/some sort of printed media.
Spoken language is pretty fast and loose with its rules and manners, but I prefer to have my written words not cause me to wince when I go back and re-read them.
Re:Changes to the Workplace from the Dot Com days
on
Dotcom Era Fads
·
· Score: 1
Hrmmm... You're employed as a subcontractor to Boeing... you can take 4 weeks of vacation, you're still in the technology sector, and you live in Colorado.
I should feel bad for you, why???:)
There are some of us who are just glad to be working and keeping a roof over our heads.
A very good point. If you dump a ten million people into unemployment, who buys your goods? The extreme rich? Sure, they make a lot of money, but can/will they support the entire economy? If you give millions of people $25,000 each, many will stuff it into their mattress - because you don't know if you'll be getting your same handout next year.
This model also assumes that we'd all be happy receiving this income, but ironically includes the tidbit about JK Rowling - that receiving public assistance was one of the low points in her life.
I know that I, for one, expect to be paid as a result of the quality of work I perform. Sure, winning a lottery or a slot payout is a nice little bonus, but would you want to receive a 25K handout every year just because you're drawing breath?
What if you want to buy a new car - sorry, your allocation may not allow for it. Yeah, you can drive a used car, but that's part of what our society allows - you want the big toys, work for 'em. Unless the robots want to just give me a new F250 Super Duty crew cab, that is...
Anyway. This is a fascinating article, with some interesting ideas, but I agree with the sentiment that robots will supplement our existing workforce, allowing dangerous or difficult work to be done more easily.
Robots also would have a tough time in a sales capacity - I doubt a robot can read body language, hear voice inflections, etc.
Of course, buying a car from a robot might be alright... !
User resentment. If you use Linux or Mac OS X at work, and your users use Windows at home, they're not going to like using a different OS. You'll have more training time, more users trying to make it work like their machine at home, etc., etc.
Conversely, those using Mac OS or Windows at home *won't* want to use Linux at work. It looks different, feels different, acts different, and is a 'close approximation' of Windows.
Woop! Yup, bring on the flames (not targeting anyone, just commenting). Anti-Aliased fonts work about 90% of the time, after much fucking about. Yeah, yeah, you can "apt-get install mscorefonts" and fuck with this config file, and dick with that X configuration; don't forget to update your NVidia binaries, make sure you're running the font-enabled build of Mozilla, etc. - or I can right click the desktop, select "Clear Type" - and have great fonts out of the box. Is this the be-all, end-all? NO. But does appearance affect the perception of usability? You bet. Apple gets it. Microsoft gets it. Eye candy or not, appearance is important.
IE on WinXP w/ ClearType is legible, consistent, and easy to follow. Mozilla on RedHat 9 or Mandrake 9 w/ TrueType fonts doesn't *suck*, but it ain't great.
StarOffice/OpenOffice are "close". Evolution is "close". Like many things GPL, close enough is good enough.
If you/we want to dominate the marketplace, begin by building a better product. 97% of the end-user community gives a flying rat fuck about uptime, etc. They turn their computer on the morning, and off at night to save electricity! They want to play a game here, watch a little porn there, email grandma, listen to some tunes, and not FUCK WITH STUPID SHIT that they don't care about.
*Breath*
Sorry, mod me off-topic/flamebait, but until Linux/Unix can outperform Windows in *all categories* - as rated by a -Typical End User (TM)- ; you have nothing but a hobbyist's OS.
Re:The Heart of the Matter, right here...
on
Saving the Net
·
· Score: 1
You've just proven the parent poster's argument. By leading off with your crudity, you've shown exactly the mindset that he was characterizing.
Your argument about IP, however, illustrates a very very good point: "...is completely dependant on what the user of said IP thinks its intrinsic value is".
Almost. It (the IP) has value in what a group of people thinks it's worth. If Britney Spears' latest CD isn't worth $17.99 to Joe/Jane Consumer, they won't buy it. That's the crux of the argument here, I think; if people didn't think it was worth something, they wouldn't buy it. Again, that could be why P2P networks have risen in popularity. "I kinda like that new 50 Cent song, but not enough to pay $17.99 for that and 16 other unknown songs. Micropayments, please! Let me *buy* the single in downloadable format! Yes, yes, I know - iTunes. It's a good start.
The pre-teen/teen segment notwithstanding (although they are one of the most powerful buying groups in America) - people generally don't buy things that don't have a perceived value.
I would agree with you on raising quality of what "they" push at us - but "they" won't as long as we keep buying en masse the stuff they produce. Until people start voting with their pocketbooks, there is no good reason for the content providers to change anything about their methods.
There are many things that need to change, but screaming the extreme viewpoints at the other camp isn't going to get it done. We need an effective way to calmly and clearly show the argument for better content to the 95% of the American population that doesn't read Slashdot.
You're very hot about this topic - there are several posts from you about how Real Life sucks so bad, and how people are stupid and materialistic, about how the human race is full of morons. If you hate your own life so much, why not do something to change it? If you think people in general are so stupid, why not work on a project to help change what you dislike?
You have a choice; either do something to positively impact your situation, or quit bitching. Bitching while doing nothing is truly lazy.
No harder than sorting g*. Or gk*app*. But WHY should it be that way? Just name the apps. Please. You can have it in Help/About, whatever - but just drop the funky names. Please?
What's more frightening is that this man is so adamant about taking information away from his customers and shareholders. This information has been public domain for several years - long enough for Mr. Gorman to do his research. If some so-called terrorist wanted to do some damage, the information is there. I doubt your ShadowyFigure(TM) will say, "Damn! Now that this is all correlated, I have the perfect spot to plan my attack!" Right. From the terrorist angle, hitting the World Trade Center was a high-profile, symoblic target. It also helped our current situation by inciting mass hysteria, civil liberties problems, and to help our slide into recession, since we're all afraid of going anywhere or spending money because the Terrorists may be hiding somewhere. Nobody knows for sure, mind you, but they're 'out there...'
The public should have every right to know what is in their neighborhoods. "Does all that openness still make sense?" Yup, sure does - as soon as you start hiding facts from the public, you start weakening the country. Our government supposedly couldn't stop the attacks in New York with advance information - now you expect them to police every supposed 'weak point' in the country, while classifying that information?
The less we know, the more hysteria and crap we can be fed.
Seriously, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it in more detail. Domino runs on Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, and the AS/400. The client is available for Windows and the MacOS currently, and runs very well under Wine. There's also iNotes, which is a web-based client for mobile workers or those on "non-standard" desktops.
Domino supports POP3, IMAP4 and LDAP V3.s MIME, S/MIME, HTML, NNTP, and X.509 certificates. With some work, you can tie the Domino Directory to your AD tree.
Also, the Outlook client can easily exist in the Domino network - you can use the Global Address Book, personal folders, etc.
No, it's not Open Source, and no, it's not free, either, but it's a damned good product nonetheless.
Slashdot Mirror
Or.......
Fuck, the US economy is in the shitter! People are starting to figure out Bush is a fucking clown! Quick, look over there, America! Isn't the moon pretty!?! Hey, let's "go back" there! While we're there, we can remember to Fight Terrorism(TM), Support Democracy(R), and Be Free(TM)!
It's built-in because that's what their focus groups and useability surveys *tell them* that's what their customers want. They want a seamless, easy-to-use computing environment that is cohesive, ready-to-run, and doesn't require dicking about.
/. that we're the minority - that most people don't care/can't understand the inner workings of their machines, and until we can provide a cohesive computing alternative that 'just works', Windows will be the flavor du jour. :) OS X may help make inroads here, but 'everyone knows Microsoft'. Let's all work to change that!
You and I may enjoy choosing which packages we want, and what office-like suite we'll use, but my 50-year old mother doesn't care. She wants her PC to just work. She does really well at taking pics with her camera, plugging it in, emailing it, etc. She's a damned smart lady, but the computer intimidates her a bit, so she likes it when things 'just work'.
I run Mandrake 9.2, Windows XP, RedHat 9, and FreeBSD 4.9 at home, but Mom is on Windows XP because it provides her with the experience she *wants* from her computer. Some simple games, some email, some web browsing.
We tend to forget here on
First off, I run Mandrake Linux 9.1 and Windows XP on my main computer, Mandrake 9.2rc2 on a dev station, and RedHat 9 on my firewall computer. Anyway. Your experience is *not* typical for Windows machines, no matter how much the Slashdot FUD engine is churning.
:(
If you're having that many Windows problems, I would suspect incompetence on the part of the user or system administrator. Windows has the same options. User manuals, help files, tech support, web support all exist for Windows programs as well.
Yes, Linux is *sometimes* easier to fix if you fuck up the world. Yes, sometimes the best answer for a Windows problem is "fuck it, rebuild it" rather than dick with it for 6-7 hours because your client doesn't care why - they just need a working computer now, and they borked up the image with some random program they downloaded (yes, I know about how Windows lets anyone install... that's a related tangent, but not the thrust here).
If you're having that many problems with Windows, I would be presumptuous that you may have a great many unknown/offbeat programs installed, or that you've installed/uninstalled many times, leaving cruft in the registry. Yeah, all things that should WORK - but don't.
Anyway. Your comparison should be fair, not a regurgitation of the FUD you've read here.
"On a large scale, sure. But tell that to the kids who went to Columbine..."
As usual, somebody trots out a horrible example of some obviously mentally disturbed kids that used firearms to commit atrocities. Are you purposefully failing to mention the pipebombs in their bags? The knives and clubs they would have used in lieu of firearms? The car they would have driven into the gym at 100 mph?
The Columbine incident and all the bullshit press as a result of the incident is overdramatization of a terrible tragedy. I'm terribly sorry these children were taken from their families. Yes, it's horrible. But those two young men would have found a way to inflict damage upon those they detested using some other methods.
And *your* point about Columbine is simply there to generate a knee-jerk sympathy reaction. This fucking country is so concerned about sheltering and protecting children from reality that it's no wonder that we as a nation are completely incapable of dealing with each other, other countries, or anything resembling a hardship. Sheltering children from reality - be it Pro/Anti ANYTHING - will only result in parents' avoidance of their duties. "If I block it, I don't have to deal with it."
Yes, you have to choose to install the site-blocking section of Internet Security. Yes, parents SHOULD choose to have those conversations with their children. But many won't, instead opting to use technology as a panacea.
C'mon, you're not seriously suggesting that the same rules would apply in all cases, would they? *Grin*
You're absolutely right about testing patches/waiting. The same paranoia we approach MS with regarding patches, etc. should be used with ANY production-level system.
Yay! A new catch phrase! Thank you!
Yeah, funny that a company developing a FPS game for Windows would use the most common MS applications. "Oh, I'm sorry, Half-Life 2 doesn't run on a machine with Outlook installed; you'll need to switch to Mozilla, the open-source browser/email client."
"Uh, what?"
Right. "Hi, I'd like to return this game, it doesn't run on my computer."
Outlook !== BAD *if* you have good sysadmins and keep up on your patches. The buffer exploits in the preview pane have been patched for some time. Thanks for the typical Slashdot attitude, though. MS fucks up plenty, but don't blame them when the fix is readily available.
Because if you can't talk to your neighbor, your mom, your old high school buddy who lives in the next state, you can't plan anything unsavory. You can't share opinions. You can't find out what the news said in MN compared to TX. You'll only have the opinion that the telescreen^H^H^H^H^H^Hvision shows you. And we all should trust that.
Do you work for the RIAA or something?
:)
/em walks out back to scream in terror
Uh, I must be missing the reference. Wouldn't the RIAA *want* you to pay for something that you can get for free? Backwards I think you have it, young padawan.
Also: In your whole post, you omitted two (2) characters. "they look good on yr shelf"
Why, why, why, why do people do this? I hate it with a passion. Yeah, I know it's a stupid cell phone/IM thing. Call the person. Or, if you're going to say it, please take the time to say it right. I'm actually geniunely curious about why you use the little abbreviations. I use as many TLA's as the next person, when they're actually acronyms for real words. Recursive acronyms just confuse people.
The use of these little slang bits makes me automatically (and it's a prejudice, I admit) of discounting the apparent intelligence of the poster.
Especially when you took the time to use a great word like 'immutable'!
Fuck, I've become my Senior English teacher.
:)
Actually, I bet you could take this fubared text, pipe it to anagram, and then take the output back into perl and come up with some damned funny sentences...
"This does not mean there is not a critical purpose for GPS-based tracking devices (yes, even covertly deployed) and canvassing a region, for there certainly is. As uncomfortable as Patriot makes us, we cannot deny there are circumstances that indeed justify significantly more zealous investigation and prosecution."
Yes, I can deny it. We already had laws and systems and checklists and information IN PLACE to prevent the incidents of September 11, 2001. There is never a good excuse to begin random or covert surveillance of the civilian population. It's done anyway by several agencies, but that doesn't mean it's right.
The risk you take of living in a free country is that bad things sometimes happen to good people. 9/11 was a bad day. But let's put things into perspective: approximately 4,000 people died that day. How many cancer patients, terminally ill people, and other fatalities occured that day? Or every day thereafter? Or the day before?
The Patriot Act and Patriot Act II are horrible pieces of legislature only designed to further entrench an unpopular government by suppressing and silencing those who would oppose the opinion that you're supposed to have.
We failed in our "War on Terror", so we fired up the "War in Iraq". Now we've fucked that up, so the "War in Iraq" has become PART of the "War on Terror".
What will it take for the general populace to see the farce that their government and their elected officials have made of the country? We have soccer moms absolutely convinced that the Terrorists(TM) are coming to get us. All the while, our government becomes more and more the overlords - and we become the proles: unaware, unknowing, accepting whatever the telescreen tells us.
This is preventable! Vote! Talk to people! Explain *WHY* this is bad, instead of being "that damn privacy/liberty lunatic".
Y'know, that whole line of reasoning - if you're using it as a blanket excuse for the knee-jerk "won't someone think of the *children!*" reaction - is fucking bullshit. I was in the country that day, however, and after all the bullshit rhetoric about how "don't let the terrorists change the way we live" - nearly every aspect of our government is trying to change the way you live.
Bleh. NYC residents may have been closer to the impact point, but the shockwave encompasses the whole country.
Odd, I'd swear that there was no hard evidence that al Qaeda actually committed the WTC attack. The day after 9/11, we bombed Afghanistan. Al Qaeda put out a statement that said, in effect, "We did not do this. We applaud those who did, but we did not do this"(As reported on MSNBC on 9/12/2001). Strange, for a terrorist group usually gladly claims an attack as part of their glorious / "shocking and awesome" strike against their enemies.
So, let's look at this: the CIA trained and set up Bin Laden, downplayed their knowledge of the 1993 attack at the World Trade Center, created somewhat tenous connections between al-Qaeda (whatever spelling, fuck it) and Hussein. We can't find any WMD's, so we begin to hunt for al-Qaeda again. Oh, and by the way, while we're at this, we're going to really fuck up overtime laws, but remember, You're Fighting Terrorism! The Department of Homeland Security (DepLuv) will let you know when it's safe to come out from under your bed.
Yeah, that's completely different from 1984's premise.
"He who controls the past, controls the present and the future..."
How long before SCO sues because of an "invalid" cache of a copyrighted work?
38 pairs of fairly nice (~$130) hiking boots
a decent used car and the tank of gas
:)
Or.......
A nice used motorcycle that can go way faster than 12.5 mph!
Nope, don't know the guy, just getting an example...
Hmm. I was tempted to say "Sorry, no." in response to your comment, but in a way, you are right. Even though the vast majority of English 'speakers' can barely communicate with each other with common vernacular, it's too bad that people try and make themselves seem smarter by using a word or phrase that they don't understand. In which case, you *should* crack the dictionary or thesaurus before committing your thoughts to paper/web/some sort of printed media.
Spoken language is pretty fast and loose with its rules and manners, but I prefer to have my written words not cause me to wince when I go back and re-read them.
Hrmmm... You're employed as a subcontractor to Boeing... you can take 4 weeks of vacation, you're still in the technology sector, and you live in Colorado.
:)
I should feel bad for you, why???
There are some of us who are just glad to be working and keeping a roof over our heads.
A very good point. If you dump a ten million people into unemployment, who buys your goods? The extreme rich? Sure, they make a lot of money, but can/will they support the entire economy? If you give millions of people $25,000 each, many will stuff it into their mattress - because you don't know if you'll be getting your same handout next year.
This model also assumes that we'd all be happy receiving this income, but ironically includes the tidbit about JK Rowling - that receiving public assistance was one of the low points in her life.
I know that I, for one, expect to be paid as a result of the quality of work I perform. Sure, winning a lottery or a slot payout is a nice little bonus, but would you want to receive a 25K handout every year just because you're drawing breath?
What if you want to buy a new car - sorry, your allocation may not allow for it. Yeah, you can drive a used car, but that's part of what our society allows - you want the big toys, work for 'em. Unless the robots want to just give me a new F250 Super Duty crew cab, that is...
Anyway. This is a fascinating article, with some interesting ideas, but I agree with the sentiment that robots will supplement our existing workforce, allowing dangerous or difficult work to be done more easily.
Robots also would have a tough time in a sales capacity - I doubt a robot can read body language, hear voice inflections, etc.
Of course, buying a car from a robot might be alright... !
Except that, as has been pointed out numerous times, not everyone has access to another provider. Many rural areas have exactly *one* provider.
Oh yeah, fuck them if they don't have a 'real provider', eh? Guess everyone doesn't need internet access.
Dick.
User resentment. If you use Linux or Mac OS X at work, and your users use Windows at home, they're not going to like using a different OS. You'll have more training time, more users trying to make it work like their machine at home, etc., etc.
Conversely, those using Mac OS or Windows at home *won't* want to use Linux at work. It looks different, feels different, acts different, and is a 'close approximation' of Windows.
Woop! Yup, bring on the flames (not targeting anyone, just commenting). Anti-Aliased fonts work about 90% of the time, after much fucking about. Yeah, yeah, you can "apt-get install mscorefonts" and fuck with this config file, and dick with that X configuration; don't forget to update your NVidia binaries, make sure you're running the font-enabled build of Mozilla, etc. - or I can right click the desktop, select "Clear Type" - and have great fonts out of the box. Is this the be-all, end-all? NO. But does appearance affect the perception of usability? You bet. Apple gets it. Microsoft gets it. Eye candy or not, appearance is important.
IE on WinXP w/ ClearType is legible, consistent, and easy to follow. Mozilla on RedHat 9 or Mandrake 9 w/ TrueType fonts doesn't *suck*, but it ain't great.
StarOffice/OpenOffice are "close". Evolution is "close". Like many things GPL, close enough is good enough.
If you/we want to dominate the marketplace, begin by building a better product. 97% of the end-user community gives a flying rat fuck about uptime, etc. They turn their computer on the morning, and off at night to save electricity! They want to play a game here, watch a little porn there, email grandma, listen to some tunes, and not FUCK WITH STUPID SHIT that they don't care about.
*Breath*
Sorry, mod me off-topic/flamebait, but until Linux/Unix can outperform Windows in *all categories* - as rated by a -Typical End User (TM)- ; you have nothing but a hobbyist's OS.
You've just proven the parent poster's argument. By leading off with your crudity, you've shown exactly the mindset that he was characterizing.
Your argument about IP, however, illustrates a very very good point: "...is completely dependant on what the user of said IP thinks its intrinsic value is".
Almost. It (the IP) has value in what a group of people thinks it's worth. If Britney Spears' latest CD isn't worth $17.99 to Joe/Jane Consumer, they won't buy it. That's the crux of the argument here, I think; if people didn't think it was worth something, they wouldn't buy it. Again, that could be why P2P networks have risen in popularity.
"I kinda like that new 50 Cent song, but not enough to pay $17.99 for that and 16 other unknown songs.
Micropayments, please! Let me *buy* the single in downloadable format! Yes, yes, I know - iTunes. It's a good start.
The pre-teen/teen segment notwithstanding (although they are one of the most powerful buying groups in America) - people generally don't buy things that don't have a perceived value.
I would agree with you on raising quality of what "they" push at us - but "they" won't as long as we keep buying en masse the stuff they produce. Until people start voting with their pocketbooks, there is no good reason for the content providers to change anything about their methods.
There are many things that need to change, but screaming the extreme viewpoints at the other camp isn't going to get it done. We need an effective way to calmly and clearly show the argument for better content to the 95% of the American population that doesn't read Slashdot.
You're very hot about this topic - there are several posts from you about how Real Life sucks so bad, and how people are stupid and materialistic, about how the human race is full of morons. If you hate your own life so much, why not do something to change it? If you think people in general are so stupid, why not work on a project to help change what you dislike?
You have a choice; either do something to positively impact your situation, or quit bitching. Bitching while doing nothing is truly lazy.
No harder than sorting g*. Or gk*app*. But WHY should it be that way? Just name the apps. Please. You can have it in Help/About, whatever - but just drop the funky names. Please?
What's more frightening is that this man is so adamant about taking information away from his customers and shareholders. This information has been public domain for several years - long enough for Mr. Gorman to do his research. If some so-called terrorist wanted to do some damage, the information is there. I doubt your ShadowyFigure(TM) will say, "Damn! Now that this is all correlated, I have the perfect spot to plan my attack!" Right. From the terrorist angle, hitting the World Trade Center was a high-profile, symoblic target. It also helped our current situation by inciting mass hysteria, civil liberties problems, and to help our slide into recession, since we're all afraid of going anywhere or spending money because the Terrorists may be hiding somewhere. Nobody knows for sure, mind you, but they're 'out there...'
The public should have every right to know what is in their neighborhoods. "Does all that openness still make sense?" Yup, sure does - as soon as you start hiding facts from the public, you start weakening the country. Our government supposedly couldn't stop the attacks in New York with advance information - now you expect them to police every supposed 'weak point' in the country, while classifying that information?
The less we know, the more hysteria and crap we can be fed.
Seriously, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it in more detail. Domino runs on Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, and the AS/400. The client is available for Windows and the MacOS currently, and runs very well under Wine. There's also iNotes, which is a web-based client for mobile workers or those on "non-standard" desktops.
Domino supports POP3, IMAP4 and LDAP V3.s MIME, S/MIME, HTML, NNTP, and X.509 certificates. With some work, you can tie the Domino Directory to your AD tree.
Also, the Outlook client can easily exist in the Domino network - you can use the Global Address Book, personal folders, etc.
No, it's not Open Source, and no, it's not free, either, but it's a damned good product nonetheless.
http://www.lotus.com/notes