As is mine. I wasn't attacking you, and I wasn't shitcanning your opinions nor suggesting that you wanted court to treat him any differently. All I was saying is that this case reminds me of a stupid TV show which actually made me think.
I was, in effect really replying to the whole thread, and your post seemed like a good place to enter the conversation. What I advocate, as I think you do as well, is somewhere between a tidy up and a complete overhaul of the western style legal systems (I'm in Australia, and our legal system sucks too). I think that when a prosecutor can't apply a law correctly to bring an asshat like Jason Smather to justice, the legal system needs a checkup (Either that or the incompetent prosecutor needs to be relieved of his duties).
Maybe take the adrenalin drip out of your neck. It's making you twitchy.;)
Reminds me of an episode of "The Practice" where a man was arrested with a dead body in his trunk. It turned out the man was "acting suspiciously" and for that a policeman (with no cause for actual suspicion of murder) drew his gun and ordered the man to open his trunk. He was arrested, and tried for murder.
HOWEVER: the judge ruled that the search was unwarranted because the policeman did not request the search, he bullied the suspect into it (ie the gun) with no knowledge of any crime being commited; "and the defendant, I am horrified to say, is free to go".
I guess the point of that episode is that people must be tried under very specific circumstances, and in this case not following specific procedure meant that the legal system failed to bring justice.
The legal system, IMHO, exists to rationally, unemotionally and most importantly uniformly dispense justice. We can't bend a law to fit someone that we know damn well is guilty, because it defeats the entire point of the justice system. I can appreciate that this guy is a scumbag, but if we start bending the law to nail him, we might as well just throw out the legal system althogether and go back to mob hangings.
When Microsoft were polishing^H^H^H^H finishing^H^H^H^H^H getting ready to release Windows 95, they were thinking to themselves that everything at MS should be centered around the Internet. To this end they were also thinking how do we get our browser to be the dominant standard? The obvious answer: strike a deal with one of the dominant (at that time) online services (no, not Internet Service Providers - Online Service (there's a difference)) to use our browser as their default, and then people will get used to the browser.
To that end they approached AOL and offered IE for free, and in return MS said that AOL could put an icon for signing up to AOL on every default (OEM, brand machine and normal end user retail) Windows 95 desktop.
AOL ummed and arred for a bit (as AOL considered MS the enemy), and in the end decided to go with it anyway, as it opened up a fantastically huge market. So AOL got their icons on the desktop and Microsoft got to get the IE browser to hundreds of thousands of AOL users.
As for Microsoft, they knew full well that their business decision was hurting MSN, but they really didn't care, because that very year Bill Gates had realised that the Internet was a fantastically huge market that he was determined to dominate.
The way to do that was to make IE a standard, and the AOL deal was the start of that. A few years later, the deal went sour, and the AOL icons disappeared.
I don't know this for a fact, but I would conjecture that Dells and Gateways have their own agreements with AOL nowadays.
I've been a field technician for over 5 years, and I can personally vouch for the fact that installing AOL puts your Windows installation at considerable risk.
It integrates so tightly with Windows and it has a hook into everything. I've seen almost as many problems caused by the AOL client as Bonzi Buddy.
Yes the rumors are true - in no uncertain terms, the AOL client can damage your Windows installation. You cannot expect a stable configuration with it installed.
This guy appears to have "superhuman" math ability, and I would imagine that it's just the way this guy's brain is wired that allows him to do that.
I always wonder if there is a condition that works in the opposite way, a bit like dyslexia for reading/writing for maths, a sort of "mathlexia" if you will. Just as dyslexia doesn't mean you're stupid, it's just that your particular model of brain doesn't comprehend words straight away, a person with "mathlexia" can't add up 137 and 48 in their head to save their life, let alone do anything complicated like division or factorisation.
If there is such a thing as mathlexia, I'd say I've definately got it. The funny thing is, I love computers, I love programming (in C among other languages, though a mastering of assembly has persistently eluded my efforts), and I can understand even engineering diagrams and other geeky stuff. I kicked ass in English Literature at high school (even though I didn't particularly enjoy it and it's not where my passions lie); but I cannot do maths in my head if my life depended on it. Even with a calculator I get lost in the process of doing a complicated sum, but I would say I'm at least a half decent programmer. It's not that I have a problem with a logical process, it's the math part that throws me.
Is it just the way my brain is wired? Is there a big secret no-one's telling me that will make this all easy? Am I destined for a life of going "uh huh? righto..." when someone explains a (pure) math concept to me? Or is there some hope for a math dummy like me?
If anyone knows the answer(s) to any of this I would be eternally thankful.
Everyone RTFA. This is not domain hijacking. This is a rule that allows a registrar to transfer your domain to another registrar. So you don't have to worry about someone "stealing" control of your domain or replacing your website or engage in fantasies about gaining control of microsoft.com cause that's not gonna happen. Microsoft will still control the domain, but if the rule is invoked, it may be at a different registrar.
Stupid rule if you ask me. All this does is put more pressure on Registrars to respond to frivolous requests by other (unethical) registrars phishing for business.
I run Ubuntu Linux myself. Setting the "root" password to the first user's password is default behavior. Technically, there is no root in a default Ubuntu install, you must create it/turn it on.
I believe that Solaris no longer has a root user either (for security), and that you must sudo everything. Someone feel free to correct me (well this is/. I don't have to ask;)
Everything Centrelink does is web based anyway. All they need are some mid end desktops running and firefox and they'd be set.
When I dealt with them I was sitting there thinking: Hmmm Internet Explorer under Windows 2000. Fairly expensive and a waste of a software license if you ask me. I also remember thinking that this department would be the ideal place for a large linux rollout simply because they have no need for standard (read: Microsoft centric) apps like word and excel because everything they do is Web server/client based with all the heavy stuff on the backend servers.
Intent and ability to control will often be decisive. If you publish a site that casually happens to be read by a North Korean is one thing, if you put up what is basicly a "HOW-TO for NK", it is something completely different.
Of course. Intent always plays a huge role in the application of the law, and I agree that who's responsible is indeed a complex area. I guess my point is that what PGA is doing in Australia doesn't violate Australian law. That it violates US law if a person in the US decides of their own free will to download it shouldn't, and i believe cannot be the responsibility of PGA (or anyone else offering similar items for download).
No worries on the previous post. I read it and just went "Huh?":) (although knowing/. it'll probably get moderated score 5 insightful or something).
I would say the distinction would be that PG is simply making the text available. They are not "pushing" it to other countries per se, they are simply making it available to download. As someone mentioned above, you should be able to post Nazi related material on your website with no fear of action by French or German governments.
If on the other hand I emailed Nazi related material to a French or German person, perhaps there would be grounds for a cease and desist order. Just making it available to those users to ignore if they want to abide by the law in their own country shouldn't be.
I guess it is also comparable (although it's the other way round) to the posting of encryption technology on US websites. I would argue (although IANAL as mentioned previously) that it should not be the responsibility of the webmaster to enforce US export law in regards to countries like Syria and North Korea since this is almost impossible to do. If it was like this you would have to check everything you post just in case there was an obscure law relating to giving material to foreign nationals of any country (since every country on earth has the potential to read your site).
From the sounds of it the Stephens Mitchell Trusts sound like litigious bastards anyway.
Re:You know, we did word processing before...
on
How Cheap Can A PC Be?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
My first PC was also a 2-floppy Herc Mono XT. I had a 4.77MHz version with a turbo switch to get it to 7MHz. I remember running First Choice for word processing and Dr Halo for graphics. DOS 3.3 with NDos for long file names and other cool stuff. Ahhh the days.
I also remember getting my first hard drive fitted to that thing. Connor Peripherals 30Mb and I thought that was all the space in the world. I thought it was way cool that I could boot off the drive and install all my favourite games - F15 Strike Eagle II, Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF), and Zeliard. (Not to mention all the other small games like spacewar, elevator, frogger, yahtzee and boulder dash). I also coded in Turbo Pascal 6.
Like you I was in love with that machine, and that machine taught me most of the basics of computing. It worries me somewhat that the technicians who are coming through the ranks now are not even aware of the heritage of computing, and have no inkling of anything past a GUI and a mouse pointer. Obviously the older readers will point out that before the XT there were things like TRS-80 and CP/M (neither of which I've had the privilege of using (although I would dearly of loved to have had that experience)) but all I'm saying is that computing around that time in the early to mid eighties (and before that of course) was raw and unfettered by the masses of clueless gumbies and spyware and spam.
I for one feel very privileged to have seen that era of computing and I can only hope that some of todays young geeks may stumble across an old dinosaur and decide to play with it to further their knowledge.
Cisco hasn't really done anything for networking in their entire history. Oh except for Standby Router Protocol, and IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol). They also innovated on their own design with EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) Oh they also did Spanning Tree Protocol, VLAN Trunking Protocol, Skinny (a VoIP standard) and Hot Standby Routing Protocol.
Not to mention Multiple Spanning Tree (MST), a new IEEE standard that grew from Cisco's proprietary Multiple Instances Spanning Tree Protocol (MISTP) implementation.
They also invented NetFlow and WCCP (Web Cache Control Protocol).
So yeah! No innovation at all from this company that has become the baseline in security and reliability for networking.
Show some respect, because that Internet connection you're on at the moment is probably brought to you courtesy of Cisco innovation.
Reminds me of any of Michael Marshall Smith's stories with the intelligent machines. I remember one memorable quote about how the main character got rid of his coffee machine.
"I used to have a coffeemaker like everybody else. You tell them where the coffee beans are, and how to use the tap, and it's ready whenever you want it. But through a design error the hole the coffee comes out of is rather closer to the machine's posterior than you would hope, and after seeing the little biomachine squatting over a cup, grunting with effort, I tend to sour on the idea of a hot beverage. When it goes wrong, as they invariably do, the result tastes very strong indeed."
"So long as illegitimate peer-to-peer services hijack a positive technology and intentionally offload their legal liability to America's kids, legislation will be a priority for the creative community," Bainwol said.
I know plenty of "grown-ups" (40 and 50 year olds) who ride the mule all the time.
Of course these young-uns don't know any better and don't know that "stealing" music and movies is wrong.
Right on brother. I can't help but think that old laptops die for a reason. Resurrecting a laptop with a 100MB hard drive is the quintessential act of flogging a dead horse. Let it RIP.
Technically, the Earth's moon is called "Luna". People just call it "the moon" because that's the particular solar system planetary satellite you're probably referring to (as opposed to another planet's satellite). It's just laziness really.
"I'm very proud of the fact that my son has started a small business in his 20s and I get a real buzz out of the fact that he's prepared to have a go in small business," Mr Howard said.
"That is what the future of this country is all about."
This from a man who has made it harder than ever in the history of this country to start and run small business through legislation, taxes, and new paperwork requirements.
In addition he has announced tax cuts for the middle to higher income earners and no help at all for lower income earners. Small business in Australia is treated like nothing, even though close to half of Australia's economy runs on the back of it.
The average small business owner is crushed by the weight of ever increasing government reporting requirements and he thinks that small business is the future of the country.
Which is precisely the reason he states in the article:
Microsoft now faces a different kind of sloth. University of Baltimore law professor Robert Lande says, "Microsoft, like almost all monopolies, has become fat and lazy. Monopolies do not engage in innovation with the same urgency because they don't have to innovate to stay in business."
Not to be rude but did you RTFA? Seems redundant to me...
Free Electronic Version of This Book?
on
Samba 3 By Example
·
· Score: 1
On the Samba website they mention:
The PDF and HTML versions Samba-3 by Example (The Samba Guide) will appear on the Samba web site by April 14th under the documenation page.
As far as I can tell this hasn't happened. Am I missing something or have they not posted it yet?
Macs aren't popular because A) they cost a lot, B) people perceive, rightly or wrongly, that the software market isn't as large as for PC's, C) they cost a lot, D) they cost a lot and lastly, rightly or wrongly, the upgrade path for your new costly Mac is more expensive and not as large as for a PC.
I generally take ESR's rantings with a pinch of salt. I understand where he is coming from but I think sometimes he has a tendency to go over the top. However in this piece he is right on.
I am a geek. Not only do I know a shitload about computers I actually work in the industry as a field troubleshooter technician. I have to say though, that although I use Linux on a daily basis on my work PC as my main OS, it still throws me for a loop sometimes when I go through what ESR went through with whatever piece of technologically advanced, functional but ultimately borked UI software I happen to be trying to set up at the time.
He is right - this IS keeping Microsoft in business. Case in point - I get customers constantly asking me if there is a better alternative to Windows. There is of course, but I would NEVER recommend Linux to an end user who just needs to get on with the business of running a business simply because of the lack of intuitive UI's for Linux apps.
There are great, shining examples - K3B, Firefox, Thunderbird, Mozilla, Openoffice, Evolution, KDE control centre etc. Let these apps serve as an example to UI designers for other projects.
It's one thing to have all the functionality in the world, but that amounts to sweet FA in the eyes of a gumby user that would rather give money to Microsoft than learn what/etc/rc0.d is for.
Slashdot Mirror
all my ire is directed at the stupid law
;)
As is mine. I wasn't attacking you, and I wasn't shitcanning your opinions nor suggesting that you wanted court to treat him any differently. All I was saying is that this case reminds me of a stupid TV show which actually made me think.
I was, in effect really replying to the whole thread, and your post seemed like a good place to enter the conversation. What I advocate, as I think you do as well, is somewhere between a tidy up and a complete overhaul of the western style legal systems (I'm in Australia, and our legal system sucks too). I think that when a prosecutor can't apply a law correctly to bring an asshat like Jason Smather to justice, the legal system needs a checkup (Either that or the incompetent prosecutor needs to be relieved of his duties).
Maybe take the adrenalin drip out of your neck. It's making you twitchy.
Reminds me of an episode of "The Practice" where a man was arrested with a dead body in his trunk. It turned out the man was "acting suspiciously" and for that a policeman (with no cause for actual suspicion of murder) drew his gun and ordered the man to open his trunk. He was arrested, and tried for murder.
HOWEVER: the judge ruled that the search was unwarranted because the policeman did not request the search, he bullied the suspect into it (ie the gun) with no knowledge of any crime being commited; "and the defendant, I am horrified to say, is free to go".
I guess the point of that episode is that people must be tried under very specific circumstances, and in this case not following specific procedure meant that the legal system failed to bring justice.
The legal system, IMHO, exists to rationally, unemotionally and most importantly uniformly dispense justice. We can't bend a law to fit someone that we know damn well is guilty, because it defeats the entire point of the justice system. I can appreciate that this guy is a scumbag, but if we start bending the law to nail him, we might as well just throw out the legal system althogether and go back to mob hangings.
He's half right.
When Microsoft were polishing^H^H^H^H finishing^H^H^H^H^H getting ready to release Windows 95, they were thinking to themselves that everything at MS should be centered around the Internet. To this end they were also thinking how do we get our browser to be the dominant standard? The obvious answer: strike a deal with one of the dominant (at that time) online services (no, not Internet Service Providers - Online Service (there's a difference)) to use our browser as their default, and then people will get used to the browser.
To that end they approached AOL and offered IE for free, and in return MS said that AOL could put an icon for signing up to AOL on every default (OEM, brand machine and normal end user retail) Windows 95 desktop.
AOL ummed and arred for a bit (as AOL considered MS the enemy), and in the end decided to go with it anyway, as it opened up a fantastically huge market. So AOL got their icons on the desktop and Microsoft got to get the IE browser to hundreds of thousands of AOL users.
As for Microsoft, they knew full well that their business decision was hurting MSN, but they really didn't care, because that very year Bill Gates had realised that the Internet was a fantastically huge market that he was determined to dominate.
The way to do that was to make IE a standard, and the AOL deal was the start of that. A few years later, the deal went sour, and the AOL icons disappeared.
I don't know this for a fact, but I would conjecture that Dells and Gateways have their own agreements with AOL nowadays.
I've been a field technician for over 5 years, and I can personally vouch for the fact that installing AOL puts your Windows installation at considerable risk.
It integrates so tightly with Windows and it has a hook into everything. I've seen almost as many problems caused by the AOL client as Bonzi Buddy.
Yes the rumors are true - in no uncertain terms, the AOL client can damage your Windows installation. You cannot expect a stable configuration with it installed.
This guy appears to have "superhuman" math ability, and I would imagine that it's just the way this guy's brain is wired that allows him to do that.
I always wonder if there is a condition that works in the opposite way, a bit like dyslexia for reading/writing for maths, a sort of "mathlexia" if you will. Just as dyslexia doesn't mean you're stupid, it's just that your particular model of brain doesn't comprehend words straight away, a person with "mathlexia" can't add up 137 and 48 in their head to save their life, let alone do anything complicated like division or factorisation.
If there is such a thing as mathlexia, I'd say I've definately got it. The funny thing is, I love computers, I love programming (in C among other languages, though a mastering of assembly has persistently eluded my efforts), and I can understand even engineering diagrams and other geeky stuff. I kicked ass in English Literature at high school (even though I didn't particularly enjoy it and it's not where my passions lie); but I cannot do maths in my head if my life depended on it. Even with a calculator I get lost in the process of doing a complicated sum, but I would say I'm at least a half decent programmer. It's not that I have a problem with a logical process, it's the math part that throws me.
Is it just the way my brain is wired? Is there a big secret no-one's telling me that will make this all easy? Am I destined for a life of going "uh huh? righto..." when someone explains a (pure) math concept to me? Or is there some hope for a math dummy like me?
If anyone knows the answer(s) to any of this I would be eternally thankful.
Everyone RTFA. This is not domain hijacking. This is a rule that allows a registrar to transfer your domain to another registrar. So you don't have to worry about someone "stealing" control of your domain or replacing your website or engage in fantasies about gaining control of microsoft.com cause that's not gonna happen. Microsoft will still control the domain, but if the rule is invoked, it may be at a different registrar.
Stupid rule if you ask me. All this does is put more pressure on Registrars to respond to frivolous requests by other (unethical) registrars phishing for business.
I run Ubuntu Linux myself. Setting the "root" password to the first user's password is default behavior. Technically, there is no root in a default Ubuntu install, you must create it/turn it on.
/. I don't have to ask ;)
I believe that Solaris no longer has a root user either (for security), and that you must sudo everything. Someone feel free to correct me (well this is
Argh! I want to go to Titan!
ME TOO!!
>>ME TOO!
>>>ME TOO!
>>ME TOO!
>>>>ME TOO!
>ME TOO!
>>>>ME TOO!
>>>>>>ME TOO!
>>>>>>ME TOO!
etc...
Everything Centrelink does is web based anyway. All they need are some mid end desktops running and firefox and they'd be set.
When I dealt with them I was sitting there thinking: Hmmm Internet Explorer under Windows 2000. Fairly expensive and a waste of a software license if you ask me. I also remember thinking that this department would be the ideal place for a large linux rollout simply because they have no need for standard (read: Microsoft centric) apps like word and excel because everything they do is Web server/client based with all the heavy stuff on the backend servers.
Intent and ability to control will often be decisive. If you publish a site that casually happens to be read by a North Korean is one thing, if you put up what is basicly a "HOW-TO for NK", it is something completely different.
:) (although knowing /. it'll probably get moderated score 5 insightful or something).
Of course. Intent always plays a huge role in the application of the law, and I agree that who's responsible is indeed a complex area. I guess my point is that what PGA is doing in Australia doesn't violate Australian law. That it violates US law if a person in the US decides of their own free will to download it shouldn't, and i believe cannot be the responsibility of PGA (or anyone else offering similar items for download).
No worries on the previous post. I read it and just went "Huh?"
I would say the distinction would be that PG is simply making the text available. They are not "pushing" it to other countries per se, they are simply making it available to download. As someone mentioned above, you should be able to post Nazi related material on your website with no fear of action by French or German governments.
If on the other hand I emailed Nazi related material to a French or German person, perhaps there would be grounds for a cease and desist order. Just making it available to those users to ignore if they want to abide by the law in their own country shouldn't be.
I guess it is also comparable (although it's the other way round) to the posting of encryption technology on US websites. I would argue (although IANAL as mentioned previously) that it should not be the responsibility of the webmaster to enforce US export law in regards to countries like Syria and North Korea since this is almost impossible to do. If it was like this you would have to check everything you post just in case there was an obscure law relating to giving material to foreign nationals of any country (since every country on earth has the potential to read your site).
From the sounds of it the Stephens Mitchell Trusts sound like litigious bastards anyway.
My first PC was also a 2-floppy Herc Mono XT. I had a 4.77MHz version with a turbo switch to get it to 7MHz. I remember running First Choice for word processing and Dr Halo for graphics. DOS 3.3 with NDos for long file names and other cool stuff. Ahhh the days.
I also remember getting my first hard drive fitted to that thing. Connor Peripherals 30Mb and I thought that was all the space in the world. I thought it was way cool that I could boot off the drive and install all my favourite games - F15 Strike Eagle II, Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF), and Zeliard. (Not to mention all the other small games like spacewar, elevator, frogger, yahtzee and boulder dash). I also coded in Turbo Pascal 6.
Like you I was in love with that machine, and that machine taught me most of the basics of computing.
It worries me somewhat that the technicians who are coming through the ranks now are not even aware of the heritage of computing, and have no inkling of anything past a GUI and a mouse pointer. Obviously the older readers will point out that before the XT there were things like TRS-80 and CP/M (neither of which I've had the privilege of using (although I would dearly of loved to have had that experience)) but all I'm saying is that computing around that time in the early to mid eighties (and before that of course) was raw and unfettered by the masses of clueless gumbies and spyware and spam.
I for one feel very privileged to have seen that era of computing and I can only hope that some of todays young geeks may stumble across an old dinosaur and decide to play with it to further their knowledge.
I doubt it - they've got more bandwidth than god.
Yeah absolutely!
Cisco hasn't really done anything for networking in their entire history. Oh except for Standby Router Protocol, and IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol). They also innovated on their own design with EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) Oh they also did Spanning Tree Protocol, VLAN Trunking Protocol, Skinny (a VoIP standard) and Hot Standby Routing Protocol.
Not to mention Multiple Spanning Tree (MST), a new IEEE standard that grew from Cisco's proprietary
Multiple Instances Spanning Tree Protocol (MISTP) implementation.
They also invented NetFlow and WCCP (Web Cache Control Protocol).
So yeah! No innovation at all from this company that has become the baseline in security and reliability for networking.
Show some respect, because that Internet connection you're on at the moment is probably brought to you courtesy of Cisco innovation.
Reminds me of any of Michael Marshall Smith's stories with the intelligent machines. I remember one memorable quote about how the main character got rid of his coffee machine.
"I used to have a coffeemaker like everybody else. You tell them where the coffee beans are, and how to use the tap, and it's ready whenever you want it. But through a design error the hole the coffee comes out of is rather closer to the machine's posterior than you would hope, and after seeing the little biomachine squatting over a cup, grunting with effort, I tend to sour on the idea of a hot beverage. When it goes wrong, as they invariably do, the result tastes very strong indeed."
Sorry you must have missed my sarc tags...
From the Newsday Article:
"So long as illegitimate peer-to-peer services hijack a positive technology and intentionally offload their legal liability to America's kids, legislation will be a priority for the creative community," Bainwol said.
I know plenty of "grown-ups" (40 and 50 year olds) who ride the mule all the time.
Of course these young-uns don't know any better and don't know that "stealing" music and movies is wrong.
Right on brother. I can't help but think that old laptops die for a reason. Resurrecting a laptop with a 100MB hard drive is the quintessential act of flogging a dead horse. Let it RIP.
I would have said that the Earth is not Luna's moon simply because the Earth does not orbit Luna, it's the other way around.
Technically, the Earth's moon is called "Luna". People just call it "the moon" because that's the particular solar system planetary satellite you're probably referring to (as opposed to another planet's satellite). It's just laziness really.
Deimos is spelled correctly in your post btw.
"I'm very proud of the fact that my son has started a small business in his 20s and I get a real buzz out of the fact that he's prepared to have a go in small business," Mr Howard said.
"That is what the future of this country is all about."
This from a man who has made it harder than ever in the history of this country to start and run small business through legislation, taxes, and new paperwork requirements.
In addition he has announced tax cuts for the middle to higher income earners and no help at all for lower income earners. Small business in Australia is treated like nothing, even though close to half of Australia's economy runs on the back of it.
The average small business owner is crushed by the weight of ever increasing government reporting requirements and he thinks that small business is the future of the country.
Yeah, right...
Which is precisely the reason he states in the article:
Microsoft now faces a different kind of sloth. University of Baltimore law professor Robert Lande says, "Microsoft, like almost all monopolies, has become fat and lazy. Monopolies do not engage in innovation with the same urgency because they don't have to innovate to stay in business."
Not to be rude but did you RTFA? Seems redundant to me...
On the Samba website they mention:
The PDF and HTML versions Samba-3 by Example (The Samba Guide) will appear on the Samba web site by April 14th under the documenation page.
As far as I can tell this hasn't happened. Am I missing something or have they not posted it yet?
Macs aren't popular because A) they cost a lot, B) people perceive, rightly or wrongly, that the software market isn't as large as for PC's, C) they cost a lot, D) they cost a lot and lastly, rightly or wrongly, the upgrade path for your new costly Mac is more expensive and not as large as for a PC.
Oh yeah and they cost a lot.
I generally take ESR's rantings with a pinch of salt. I understand where he is coming from but I think sometimes he has a tendency to go over the top. However in this piece he is right on.
/etc/rc0.d is for.
I am a geek. Not only do I know a shitload about computers I actually work in the industry as a field troubleshooter technician. I have to say though, that although I use Linux on a daily basis on my work PC as my main OS, it still throws me for a loop sometimes when I go through what ESR went through with whatever piece of technologically advanced, functional but ultimately borked UI software I happen to be trying to set up at the time.
He is right - this IS keeping Microsoft in business. Case in point - I get customers constantly asking me if there is a better alternative to Windows. There is of course, but I would NEVER recommend Linux to an end user who just needs to get on with the business of running a business simply because of the lack of intuitive UI's for Linux apps.
There are great, shining examples - K3B, Firefox, Thunderbird, Mozilla, Openoffice, Evolution, KDE control centre etc. Let these apps serve as an example to UI designers for other projects.
It's one thing to have all the functionality in the world, but that amounts to sweet FA in the eyes of a gumby user that would rather give money to Microsoft than learn what