99% of the "developers" making these bikini girl apps are actually chinese or indian app sweatshops churning out sub-standard crap on a quantity over quality basis. I feel sorry for the other 1% but I think this is Apple doing a preemptive strike against these crApp Factories ahead of the iPad launch.
It shuts out free software. Where there are royalties there can be no freedom. I don't pay for air and I don't buy bottled water, I'm not going to pay for codecs.
Hope you never go deep sea diving (or to a third world country) !
I just use Firefox Portable with IETab for the internal POS (not talking about point of sale folks) applications that won't work in anything but internet exploder. Oh and Hidetab comes in handy from time to time too.
Don't know why you were modded down for that, it's exactly right. It's not exactly bad news either: we own our own means of production (both soft and hardware) and have access to the marketplace. Basically the first time in history this has happened since medieval peasants were able to augment their income by producing handicrafts on their own looms. Ideologies have been formed and revolutions fought to put the means of production back into the hands of the people and here we are in that very position. People can keep their victorian megalomaniacal "engineer" titles, I'm more excited to be part of the new tradesmen class.
That's where the problems start. Good people have to be willing to ignore and break bad laws en masse, not doing so is to participate in your own oppression. (And participate in the political process to abolish those laws of course.)
Odd how they decided to rip off some icons for the interface but not others. And some of the ones they did rip off were used for unrelated apps like the Safari browser icon for an app named "Compass." Strange.
I still don't see why it would be discriminatory. Everyone is banned from building minarets, not just a specific religious group, and as far as I know it's not a religious requirement for a mosque to have these minarets nor for the towers to be of a certain type. I guess whether or not it is discriminatory depends on how you define minaret: as a type of building based on external physical characteristics or as a type of building based on religious/cultural usage. I looked up the wording of the referendum but it seems like it just said minaret without further explanation. The muslims could put it to the test and build a watchtower (or christian church-like spire) on top of the mosque instead of the typical spire-and-crown tower. At least if the watchtower is banned they can call in the help of the Jehova's witnesses:-)
It's not forbidden because it's a tower, it's forbidden because it is a specific religious construction.
Seems to me that it is forbidden because it is a tower of a certain type (minaret) that residents feel wouldn't fit in with the rest of the environment. I live in country where in certain areas zoning laws prohibit buildings that don't fit in with the "rural nature" of the community (such as high-rises), etc. Prohibiting the building of a middle eastern type structure in a traditional swiss town isn't that far fetched to me and certainly NOT immediately evidence of discrimination.
The minarets have nothing to do with the *prayer* itself, but the *call to prayer*. (I'm not a muslim neither but at least I try to get informed about it)
I was being sarcastic. The call to prayer is obsolete, you can broadcast it to every household that wants it over the radio. Of course that won't stop muslims trying to get their minarets to blast out the call to prayer (article in dutch) even over predominantly western populations, calling discrimination every time they don't get their way.
Switzerland has very little regard for free speech. Very little regard for things that are unpopular or disliked and has an aging, reactionary voter base. Frankly, I got far more worked up over the ban on minarets that they enacted last year. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/world/europe/30swiss.html That was a much more serious violation of basic rights. This? This is small potatoes.
How's not being allowed to build a tower (or four) a violation of human rights ? God won't listen if you've got a flat roof ? This is much more serious since these games are played in the confines of your own home by adults not bothering anyone else.
If we're assuming technology capable of interstellar travel why would we have to go ourselves ? Simply send a ship capable of growing a human body from stem cells and imprinting it with a personality once you get there. The ship itself could then stay mostly inert with a small core active to preserve the biological materials, containment could be done with a living biological "seal" instead of rubber and plastics. To avoid mutation in the biological components you could coat the outside of the ship with a "shield" of a 100m or so of good old H2O.
That's pretty damned slow when it comes to interstellar travel. Alpha Centauri (or is it Proxima?) would take a four year journey one way, and that's the second closest star to the earth.
Four years isn't that long, the voyages of the great seafaring explorers of old took that long too. Of course they could stop along the way but I think that if people can survive 20 years locked up in a prison cell they can probably handle a 10 year round trip.
I was going for "funny". Since you want to take the argument seriously though, because Linus is indeed an expert but in an unrelated field like you say attaching importance to what he has to say about this gadget is an example of an "Appeal to Misleading Authority."
Oh, and I think you meant "ease of use".
Touchy... I mean touché. On second thought touchy is probably right.
Slashdot Mirror
iTunes U is the education section of the iTunes store.
99% of the "developers" making these bikini girl apps are actually chinese or indian app sweatshops churning out sub-standard crap on a quantity over quality basis. I feel sorry for the other 1% but I think this is Apple doing a preemptive strike against these crApp Factories ahead of the iPad launch.
iServices.A is a mac only botnet that is distributed with pirated copies of iwork.
Oooh, scary ! A botnet with literally DOZENS of hosts :
"Threat Assessment
Wild
* Wild Level: Low
* Number of Infections: 0 - 49
* Number of Sites: 0 - 2
* Geographical Distribution: Low
* Threat Containment: Easy
* Removal: Easy"
I pity the fool who doesn't like gold. You better stop your jibba jabba, sucka.
This belongs in a museum !
It's random folders all the way down.
It shuts out free software. Where there are royalties there can be no freedom. I don't pay for air and I don't buy bottled water, I'm not going to pay for codecs.
Hope you never go deep sea diving (or to a third world country) !
I just use Firefox Portable with IETab for the internal POS (not talking about point of sale folks) applications that won't work in anything but internet exploder. Oh and Hidetab comes in handy from time to time too.
Don't know why you were modded down for that, it's exactly right. It's not exactly bad news either: we own our own means of production (both soft and hardware) and have access to the marketplace. Basically the first time in history this has happened since medieval peasants were able to augment their income by producing handicrafts on their own looms. Ideologies have been formed and revolutions fought to put the means of production back into the hands of the people and here we are in that very position. People can keep their victorian megalomaniacal "engineer" titles, I'm more excited to be part of the new tradesmen class.
Pshaw, if you really had balls you'd search for "HD CP stripper".
BRB, FBI.
People who are willing to obey the law
That's where the problems start. Good people have to be willing to ignore and break bad laws en masse, not doing so is to participate in your own oppression. (And participate in the political process to abolish those laws of course.)
Odd how they decided to rip off some icons for the interface but not others. And some of the ones they did rip off were used for unrelated apps like the Safari browser icon for an app named "Compass." Strange.
Never forget - computers do what you tell them to do, not what you meant them to do
I have a mac you insensitive clod, it does what His Steveness (peace be upon him) meant it to do.
I still don't see why it would be discriminatory. Everyone is banned from building minarets, not just a specific religious group, and as far as I know it's not a religious requirement for a mosque to have these minarets nor for the towers to be of a certain type. I guess whether or not it is discriminatory depends on how you define minaret: as a type of building based on external physical characteristics or as a type of building based on religious/cultural usage. I looked up the wording of the referendum but it seems like it just said minaret without further explanation. The muslims could put it to the test and build a watchtower (or christian church-like spire) on top of the mosque instead of the typical spire-and-crown tower. At least if the watchtower is banned they can call in the help of the Jehova's witnesses :-)
It's not forbidden because it's a tower, it's forbidden because it is a specific religious construction.
Seems to me that it is forbidden because it is a tower of a certain type (minaret) that residents feel wouldn't fit in with the rest of the environment. I live in country where in certain areas zoning laws prohibit buildings that don't fit in with the "rural nature" of the community (such as high-rises), etc. Prohibiting the building of a middle eastern type structure in a traditional swiss town isn't that far fetched to me and certainly NOT immediately evidence of discrimination.
The minarets have nothing to do with the *prayer* itself, but the *call to prayer*. (I'm not a muslim neither but at least I try to get informed about it)
I was being sarcastic. The call to prayer is obsolete, you can broadcast it to every household that wants it over the radio. Of course that won't stop muslims trying to get their minarets to blast out the call to prayer (article in dutch) even over predominantly western populations, calling discrimination every time they don't get their way.
Oh video games, is there any crisis you can't solve ?
Well it is tucked away pretty far "down under" there.
Switzerland has very little regard for free speech. Very little regard for things that are unpopular or disliked and has an aging, reactionary voter base. Frankly, I got far more worked up over the ban on minarets that they enacted last year. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/world/europe/30swiss.html That was a much more serious violation of basic rights. This? This is small potatoes.
How's not being allowed to build a tower (or four) a violation of human rights ? God won't listen if you've got a flat roof ? This is much more serious since these games are played in the confines of your own home by adults not bothering anyone else.
If we're assuming technology capable of interstellar travel why would we have to go ourselves ? Simply send a ship capable of growing a human body from stem cells and imprinting it with a personality once you get there. The ship itself could then stay mostly inert with a small core active to preserve the biological materials, containment could be done with a living biological "seal" instead of rubber and plastics. To avoid mutation in the biological components you could coat the outside of the ship with a "shield" of a 100m or so of good old H2O.
That's pretty damned slow when it comes to interstellar travel. Alpha Centauri (or is it Proxima?) would take a four year journey one way, and that's the second closest star to the earth.
Four years isn't that long, the voyages of the great seafaring explorers of old took that long too. Of course they could stop along the way but I think that if people can survive 20 years locked up in a prison cell they can probably handle a 10 year round trip.
And not the wrong kind, either.
Hey don't knock it. If more people wanted some panda-burger, there'd be a lot more of them.
Linus wrote a kernel not a GUI.
I was going for "funny". Since you want to take the argument seriously though, because Linus is indeed an expert but in an unrelated field like you say attaching importance to what he has to say about this gadget is an example of an "Appeal to Misleading Authority."
Oh, and I think you meant "ease of use".
Touchy ... I mean touché. On second thought touchy is probably right.
Other than that, great post!
Gee, thanks ;-)
That's actually high praise coming from the genius that brought you the OS that's legendary for its interface design and easy of use ... oh, wait.
I have no clue in what country you life but I assure that everything in the Benelux + Germany is locked.
You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Over here in Belgium selling phones locked was illegal until very recently.
There ought to be a file-sharers union with a legal defense fund. I'd donate to that.