I have both. I have ADSL2+ at home with 802.11g wireless, and UMTS/HSDPA on the move. The ADSL2+ is faster, no question. UMTS/HSDPA is quite usable (up 2MB/s real-world speeds) and convenient because I can use it when I'm not at home.
Which just reinforces my point: when a Linux machine is marketed as ready for Joe n00b, he buys it. Too bad the eeePC isn't widely available in Australia yet.
I don't think the n00b sees it this way at all. To them, the OS/window manager is part of the computer. That's what they see when they turn it on, and that's all that matters. As they don't see Windows as separate from the computer, they won't see it as extra value. Linux may be ready for the masses at last, but until it's marketed as such in the stores they visit, they'll never know. I was at Harvey Norman the other day buying a new Wacom tablet. There was not one Linux PC in the building. Same goes for just about any other computer store. If your lucky, there might be one or two in a corner. Linux is a build-to-order option from Dell, but Joe n00b won't choose that - he'll just take what's recommended. Right now, you have to actively seek out Linux if you want it; that's perfect for techs, but no use for n00bs.
How is this a good idea? Sure, having headings suggests that the author may have gone to some trouble to structure the page, but it's no real indicator of quality. A script can easily crank out reasonable-looking headings. Same goes for HTML/XHTML compliance.
Punishing JavaScript will punish everyone using Ruby on Rails, Wordpress, or anything else that does AJAX stuff. Sure, JavaScript can be used to do bad things, but a lot of UI enhancement and "Web 2.0" stuff depends on it.
RSS feed? Only relevant for blogs/news/comics/etc. RSS feeds are not relevant or useful for reference material, or other relatively static content. And once again, they can be cranked out by a script. All those "TPG Feed" meta-porn sites have RSS feeds. That doesn't give any indication of quality.
Hyperlink directly after hyperlink will penalise all the sidebars on Slashdot, and on blogs. Penalising multi-word hyperlinks will penalise tables of contents in books and research papers.
As to your format snobbery, I have a default installation of Firefox on a Windows machine here at work. I have a default installation of Firefox on a Mac at home. Neither of them can play FLAC or Ogg/Vorbis. Why not reward standard formats like MPEG and 3GP? FLAC and Ogg/Vorbis may not be patent-encumbered, but they are developed in a closed way, by single entities. Real standards should be controlled by real standards bodies.
I'd say it falls into the same category as WGA: borderline malware. The name "Browser Error Redirector" doesn't make its purpose clear to a non-technical user; it sends information to a third party without user confirmation; it is installed without user consent. The information it sends to a third party may be innocuous, and it may be possible to uninstall, but it's still far from respectable.
First you say the cars are hydrogen-powered, then you say the carbon emissions will be trapped and disposed of when refuelling. Hydrogen doesn't contain carbon. Where do carbon emissions come from? This has to be the most contradictory Slashdot summary in a long time.
I know it's a joke, but IMHO it's a very lame joke. It was the kind of thing I was expecting from him, though. In fact, the humour comes almost entirely from the fact that it's RMS doing it, and we it's the kind of thing we'd expect from him. But I'm a geek; I'm reading Slashdot after all. I wouldn't expect a person who isn't a geek or involved in the "free" software scene to appreciate the humour at all. In fact, I would say that people who think it's very funny are the ones that are "humour-impaired".
How is that a troll? RMS may have some good ideas, and without him the FSF wouldn't exist. You could also argue that he's been a major driving force behind "free" software. But the way he presents himself is likely to make a lot of people think he's a looney. I saw him giving a presentation in Melbourne where he held an old twelve-inch hard disk platter above his head as a halo and declared that he was "Saint iGNUtius of the Divine Church of EMACS". That kind of thing makes him a liability. Geeks might think it's funny, but if someone who didn't know about the FSF and RMS walked in, they'd just think, "Who is this tosser?"
BD+ is bullshit copy protection that was devised after the BluRay standard was published. It's supposed to work with existing BluRay players, but it doesn't. BD+ discs violate the BluRay standard, in the same way that copy-protected CDs violate the relevant standard. Samsung hasn't failed to implement BD+ properly, and were in no position to since it hadn't been "invented" at the time this player went on sale. I think people should just avoid these defective BD+ discs, and if they're going to sue anyone, make it the people selling the defective discs with the BluRay logo on them.
If he has problems with BD+ discs, why doesn't he sue the people selling and distributing these defective discs? If the discs are being sold as BluRay discs, they should play in a BluRay Profile 1.0 player. It isn't the manufacturers fault that some crappy new copy protection doesn't work with their player. Would you sue the manufacturer of a CD player because some copy protected discs won't play, or would you go for the people selling the dodgy copy-protected discs but still calling them CDs? I know I'd go after the people purveying the misrepresented discs.
I don't see the problem. It's a Profile 1.0 player, and it gives the user all Profile 1.0 features. It does what it says on the box. It will play Profile 1.1 discs - you can still see the video and hear the audio. Since Profile 1.1 requires additional hardware (like the 256MB local storage), it isn't possible to update a Profile 1.0 player with new firmware.
Think of this another way: I have a MacBook with a Core Duo CPU. It's a 32-bit x86 processor with SSE3. It will run OSX 10.5 Leopard in 32-bit mode, but 64-bit features won't work, and 64-bit only applications won't run. Should I go and sue Apple for selling me a defective product? Should I demand they give me an update? It's not like a new EFI ROM will turn a 32-bit chip into a 64-bit one, either.
The government can't monitor what I'm saying to my co-workers at this moment, either. Maybe terrorists will plot things in our work environment, too. They can't monitor what I say to my friends on the street. Better make going outside illegal. Who pays these people to say stupid stuff? Oh, I forgot - that's where taxes go. Maybe Ron Paul really is onto something with his talk about cutting unnecessary parts of the government (I'm Australian, so I can't vote for him).
Well you only need to exceed Vbe (and the concept of Vbe only exists) if you have bipolar switching transistors. They're using IGFETs of some kind. I'm guessing that the way they do this is by making the channel and the gate insulation really thin, so you only need a tiny electrical field to switch it. I bet the noise immunity and rejection of external electrical and/or magnetic fields is really poor.
No, not the Internet as we know it. TCP/IP was built 26 years ago. But there was UUCP, BBS and other stuff, so it's possible that he's telling the truth. But if he is telling the truth, he and his wife must both be total nerds. Only nerds were online that long ago.
Not really. You could meet up with someone you met online without giving them any personal info. Use an alias, don't tell them your address or anything. Just say where to meet and what you'll be wearing. But it's kinda weird that parents think that their kids will be prudent enough to play the game carefully like that. If a kid was meeting a stranger that they got acquainted with online, I expect they probably would've given out personal info at some time. But what do I know? I'm just an out-of-touch adult and Slashdot reader.
Stupid pigopolists. Aren't they supposed to be on the artists' side? This blatant money-grab is just one more nail in their coffin. More artists will find ways to sell directly to the public, or form their own collectives with their own interests at heart. Of course, that's how the RIAA started, but it is well past its usefulness and needs to be replaced.
Well the major infection vector for AIDS is sex. In Africa, it's primarily heterosexual sex; in Australia it's primarily homosexual sex; in Vietnam it's primarily heterosexual sex. Either way, AIDS is primarily spread by people having sex. Drug addicts and dirty needles is just a tiny blip on the radar for AIDS.
I didn't say that Google lacks a privacy policy. I was implying that their privacy policy doesn't protect your privacy: it basically says, "You don't pay us, so we'll do what we want with your data." Considering this, I think "lack of privacy policy" is a better term for it than "privacy policy" since under its terms, you have no privacy. But I guess it just went over your head, didn't it?
Either they're preparing for war or the conspiracy theories about the NSA installing wiretaps are true... Or maybe there's a design flaw in modern submarine cables that's just causing things to fail now, but that's probably just wishful thinking.
I hope this is just a bizarre coincidence. I really don't want to see World War III. I wish the US would stop trying to impose themselves on the rest of the world. It's cost too many lives already. I was hoping that within the year Bush would be out of office and someone more reasonable would be in (Obama maybe?) but if this escalates, I expect Bush will just declare emergency wartime powers to hold on to his throne for as long as possible.
I think Google's (lack of) privacy policy is obnoxious. They basically say, "You don't pay us, so you agree we can do anything with your data." I use Google Search and Google Talk, but you won't catch me using GMail or Google Docs (or Google Apps or whatever it's called). Also, Google Maps is pretty much useless for Australia - WhereIs does a far better job, so I don't use Google Maps.
Well, they obviously don't believe the share price represents the value of the company. No-one accepts a takeover at the current market price for shares. But think about it this way: suppose you had shares in Yahoo: you could take $31 for them now, or hold on to them so you can profit from shareholder dividends, and possibly sell them for much more later, too.
Slashdot Mirror
I have both. I have ADSL2+ at home with 802.11g wireless, and UMTS/HSDPA on the move. The ADSL2+ is faster, no question. UMTS/HSDPA is quite usable (up 2MB/s real-world speeds) and convenient because I can use it when I'm not at home.
Which just reinforces my point: when a Linux machine is marketed as ready for Joe n00b, he buys it. Too bad the eeePC isn't widely available in Australia yet.
I don't think the n00b sees it this way at all. To them, the OS/window manager is part of the computer. That's what they see when they turn it on, and that's all that matters. As they don't see Windows as separate from the computer, they won't see it as extra value. Linux may be ready for the masses at last, but until it's marketed as such in the stores they visit, they'll never know. I was at Harvey Norman the other day buying a new Wacom tablet. There was not one Linux PC in the building. Same goes for just about any other computer store. If your lucky, there might be one or two in a corner. Linux is a build-to-order option from Dell, but Joe n00b won't choose that - he'll just take what's recommended. Right now, you have to actively seek out Linux if you want it; that's perfect for techs, but no use for n00bs.
How is this a good idea? Sure, having headings suggests that the author may have gone to some trouble to structure the page, but it's no real indicator of quality. A script can easily crank out reasonable-looking headings. Same goes for HTML/XHTML compliance.
Punishing JavaScript will punish everyone using Ruby on Rails, Wordpress, or anything else that does AJAX stuff. Sure, JavaScript can be used to do bad things, but a lot of UI enhancement and "Web 2.0" stuff depends on it.
RSS feed? Only relevant for blogs/news/comics/etc. RSS feeds are not relevant or useful for reference material, or other relatively static content. And once again, they can be cranked out by a script. All those "TPG Feed" meta-porn sites have RSS feeds. That doesn't give any indication of quality.
Hyperlink directly after hyperlink will penalise all the sidebars on Slashdot, and on blogs. Penalising multi-word hyperlinks will penalise tables of contents in books and research papers.
As to your format snobbery, I have a default installation of Firefox on a Windows machine here at work. I have a default installation of Firefox on a Mac at home. Neither of them can play FLAC or Ogg/Vorbis. Why not reward standard formats like MPEG and 3GP? FLAC and Ogg/Vorbis may not be patent-encumbered, but they are developed in a closed way, by single entities. Real standards should be controlled by real standards bodies.
I'd say it falls into the same category as WGA: borderline malware. The name "Browser Error Redirector" doesn't make its purpose clear to a non-technical user; it sends information to a third party without user confirmation; it is installed without user consent. The information it sends to a third party may be innocuous, and it may be possible to uninstall, but it's still far from respectable.
First you say the cars are hydrogen-powered, then you say the carbon emissions will be trapped and disposed of when refuelling. Hydrogen doesn't contain carbon. Where do carbon emissions come from? This has to be the most contradictory Slashdot summary in a long time.
Where can I get some background or read more about this?
I know it's a joke, but IMHO it's a very lame joke. It was the kind of thing I was expecting from him, though. In fact, the humour comes almost entirely from the fact that it's RMS doing it, and we it's the kind of thing we'd expect from him. But I'm a geek; I'm reading Slashdot after all. I wouldn't expect a person who isn't a geek or involved in the "free" software scene to appreciate the humour at all. In fact, I would say that people who think it's very funny are the ones that are "humour-impaired".
and guns
How is that a troll? RMS may have some good ideas, and without him the FSF wouldn't exist. You could also argue that he's been a major driving force behind "free" software. But the way he presents himself is likely to make a lot of people think he's a looney. I saw him giving a presentation in Melbourne where he held an old twelve-inch hard disk platter above his head as a halo and declared that he was "Saint iGNUtius of the Divine Church of EMACS". That kind of thing makes him a liability. Geeks might think it's funny, but if someone who didn't know about the FSF and RMS walked in, they'd just think, "Who is this tosser?"
BD+ is bullshit copy protection that was devised after the BluRay standard was published. It's supposed to work with existing BluRay players, but it doesn't. BD+ discs violate the BluRay standard, in the same way that copy-protected CDs violate the relevant standard. Samsung hasn't failed to implement BD+ properly, and were in no position to since it hadn't been "invented" at the time this player went on sale. I think people should just avoid these defective BD+ discs, and if they're going to sue anyone, make it the people selling the defective discs with the BluRay logo on them.
If he has problems with BD+ discs, why doesn't he sue the people selling and distributing these defective discs? If the discs are being sold as BluRay discs, they should play in a BluRay Profile 1.0 player. It isn't the manufacturers fault that some crappy new copy protection doesn't work with their player. Would you sue the manufacturer of a CD player because some copy protected discs won't play, or would you go for the people selling the dodgy copy-protected discs but still calling them CDs? I know I'd go after the people purveying the misrepresented discs.
I don't see the problem. It's a Profile 1.0 player, and it gives the user all Profile 1.0 features. It does what it says on the box. It will play Profile 1.1 discs - you can still see the video and hear the audio. Since Profile 1.1 requires additional hardware (like the 256MB local storage), it isn't possible to update a Profile 1.0 player with new firmware.
Think of this another way: I have a MacBook with a Core Duo CPU. It's a 32-bit x86 processor with SSE3. It will run OSX 10.5 Leopard in 32-bit mode, but 64-bit features won't work, and 64-bit only applications won't run. Should I go and sue Apple for selling me a defective product? Should I demand they give me an update? It's not like a new EFI ROM will turn a 32-bit chip into a 64-bit one, either.
I read that book (in the form of a paperback), and I would strongly recommend it. It's informative, balanced and a good read to boot.
I hope you're being sarcastic. It's not like government bodies to ever admit mistakes. Unless it's mistakes of their predecessors, of course.
The government can't monitor what I'm saying to my co-workers at this moment, either. Maybe terrorists will plot things in our work environment, too. They can't monitor what I say to my friends on the street. Better make going outside illegal. Who pays these people to say stupid stuff? Oh, I forgot - that's where taxes go. Maybe Ron Paul really is onto something with his talk about cutting unnecessary parts of the government (I'm Australian, so I can't vote for him).
Well you only need to exceed Vbe (and the concept of Vbe only exists) if you have bipolar switching transistors. They're using IGFETs of some kind. I'm guessing that the way they do this is by making the channel and the gate insulation really thin, so you only need a tiny electrical field to switch it. I bet the noise immunity and rejection of external electrical and/or magnetic fields is really poor.
No, not the Internet as we know it. TCP/IP was built 26 years ago. But there was UUCP, BBS and other stuff, so it's possible that he's telling the truth. But if he is telling the truth, he and his wife must both be total nerds. Only nerds were online that long ago.
Not really. You could meet up with someone you met online without giving them any personal info. Use an alias, don't tell them your address or anything. Just say where to meet and what you'll be wearing. But it's kinda weird that parents think that their kids will be prudent enough to play the game carefully like that. If a kid was meeting a stranger that they got acquainted with online, I expect they probably would've given out personal info at some time. But what do I know? I'm just an out-of-touch adult and Slashdot reader.
Stupid pigopolists. Aren't they supposed to be on the artists' side? This blatant money-grab is just one more nail in their coffin. More artists will find ways to sell directly to the public, or form their own collectives with their own interests at heart. Of course, that's how the RIAA started, but it is well past its usefulness and needs to be replaced.
Well the major infection vector for AIDS is sex. In Africa, it's primarily heterosexual sex; in Australia it's primarily homosexual sex; in Vietnam it's primarily heterosexual sex. Either way, AIDS is primarily spread by people having sex. Drug addicts and dirty needles is just a tiny blip on the radar for AIDS.
I didn't say that Google lacks a privacy policy. I was implying that their privacy policy doesn't protect your privacy: it basically says, "You don't pay us, so we'll do what we want with your data." Considering this, I think "lack of privacy policy" is a better term for it than "privacy policy" since under its terms, you have no privacy. But I guess it just went over your head, didn't it?
Either they're preparing for war or the conspiracy theories about the NSA installing wiretaps are true... Or maybe there's a design flaw in modern submarine cables that's just causing things to fail now, but that's probably just wishful thinking.
I hope this is just a bizarre coincidence. I really don't want to see World War III. I wish the US would stop trying to impose themselves on the rest of the world. It's cost too many lives already. I was hoping that within the year Bush would be out of office and someone more reasonable would be in (Obama maybe?) but if this escalates, I expect Bush will just declare emergency wartime powers to hold on to his throne for as long as possible.
I think Google's (lack of) privacy policy is obnoxious. They basically say, "You don't pay us, so you agree we can do anything with your data." I use Google Search and Google Talk, but you won't catch me using GMail or Google Docs (or Google Apps or whatever it's called). Also, Google Maps is pretty much useless for Australia - WhereIs does a far better job, so I don't use Google Maps.
Well, they obviously don't believe the share price represents the value of the company. No-one accepts a takeover at the current market price for shares. But think about it this way: suppose you had shares in Yahoo: you could take $31 for them now, or hold on to them so you can profit from shareholder dividends, and possibly sell them for much more later, too.