Typical attitude of an IT worker. All of you seem to forget that you serve the company you work for, the company doesn't serve you.
Why do we have to sacrifice a cow and lick your toes to get the tools we need 3 months from the time we need it? If you even listen at all.
I work for a 12,000 person company and they give us all administrator accounts for our machines (Windows, of course) and we haven't seen the sky fall yet.
Now when current users access their Hotmail account, thye get a message telling them "Your next email will be ready soon, but Outlook subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!"
It seems to me that this causes a leak in the argument that Microsoft apologists use when talking about viruses and spyware. You know the "Your OS would be just as insecure if you had 90% marketshare" argument.
Perhaps we can all agree that iTunes and the iPod currently enjoy a much, much larger share of the purchased digital music (and thus DRM) market than all of the Windows Media players combined. Yet as far as I know (and somebody may prove me wrong) but the DRM Apple uses hasn't been hijacked to carry malware. I'm not glorifying Apple, since they license Fairplay DRM from another company, but just pointing out that, market share being irrelevant, Microsoft seems rather incapable of writing any secure code whatsoever.
Ugh. Does everything that comes out of that behemoth have to be a complete piece of shit?
I'm thinking that, while a nice picture, an upside-down phallic mushroom with mud on the end of its stem is...well let's just say there are less subliminal options presented.
Personally, I like Firefox a little better right now. Why? Built in functionality for RSS feeds and better "Find" interface/functionality. I know Safari is supposed to be faster but I've been using an optimized build for my PowerBook's CPU and I don't see any difference. In fact, Firefox seems faster because it doesn't wait for the whole page to render like Safari, which is significant if you're on dialup like myself. The non-native widgets don't bother me so much - it's not like they look like Motif widgets.
When Safari 2.0 comes out with Tiger, perhaps I'll switch back but for now, Firefox holds the edge for me.
I'm not saying you're lying but my iPod's library is entirely searchable with non-random file names. The file names on my iPod are in the thisisthesongname.mp3 format.
Just mount the iPod in firewire disk mode go searching via the terminal or make sure you set hidden files as viewable in Finder/Explorer.
Or download the handful of GUI apps that will do it for you. Apple disabled an iTunes plugin - not the ability to move files from your iPod.
Really, why was this story even posted? The barrier for entry to Windows is already lower on Intel than PPC. 99% of people buy PPC to get MacOS and have made a decision to stay away from Windows. Maybe for some obscure server configuration or something - I don't know. Ewww. I think I just felt my PowerBook shudder.
It's like going to church and asking the congregation if, next week, they would like to hold a Satanic mass and worship the devil rather than the usual Sunday drill.
It is my belief that most Americans hold generally moderate/centrist political viewpoints. Yet it appears that both parties are moving toward thier extremes. Wedge issues that affect only a few such as gay marriage seem to be taking center stage over issues like the federal deficit that affect every American. Since those that hold more extreme viewpoints are also the most active politically and financially, I can understand the temptation of parties and candidates to move in these directions. Unfortunately, politicians with moderate views are coming under attack more and more from within thier own parties. To folks like me, it is a disturbing trend as each party becomes less and less appealing.
My question is this, Can you tell me if and why there is room in your party for moderates/centrists?
When Ken Lay transferred all of that money from one account to another, it was done electronically so no actual paper dollars were involved. In your world, that wasn't theft apparently.
Copyright laws are there to protect thievery of non-tangibles such as music, graphic designs, an author's story, etc. Ideas when it comes down to it. Just because you can't hold it, doesn't mean you can't steal it. If you would have copyright laws go away, then the effects would go well beyond the RIAA - it would destroy advertising agencies, the film industry and book and magazine publishing to name just a few.
I guess you have to limit your sphere of awareness in order to feel your violation of copyright laws is justified.
Don't talk to me about some high-falutin' ideal that "copyright should be abolished because information should be free" crap. It's about getting music you don't have to pay for and that's that.
I can't believe you placed laws against stealing music in the same category as slavery. The suffering you incur buy paying $9.99 for an album doesn't even begin to encroach on the suffering slaves endured.
I'm continually amazed how the average person's sphere of awareness drops off dramatically roughly where his nose ends.
Mod me down now, since I haven't defended stealing music. Where this topic is concerned, opposing thought at Slashdot is quickly quashed.
To many, college or university is a fancy trade school. You pick a career you make money in and those that don't are fools.
I'm a Political Science major working in the Civil Engineering field of all things. Unknowingly, people around me have made fun of the "idiots that went into poli sci". They can't comprehend that I went into it because I found it fascinating. In fact, if I won the lottery, I'd quit my job and go back to school to get an advanced degree in Poli Sci.
Personally, I can't fathom throwing away your one opportunity to study something you love before you have to enter the spirit-crushing and time-eating world of day-to-day employment. Lord, if I had spent that time studying Civil Engineering I would have considered that time wasted. Kudos for studying a field that you are truly interested in.
I'm curious, why do linux distributions typically have PowerPC releases always up to a generation behind when it would seem that HPPA and SPARC are likely a smaller installed base?
Is it that there are relatively few of the PPC base demand a Linux distribution when compared to what are mostly server-class CPU's and more likely to be running a Linux distro?
Perhaps a printout from Outlook conspicously placed on the ocean floor that reads "J3llyF1sh, Squ1d - 1ncr3ase your t3ntacle s1ze by at l3ast one f0ot."
I remember using Word 5.1 on a daily basis when I interned at the Ohio House of Representatives. It was truly brain-dead easy to use, simple, streamlined and elegant. If I were one of the smaller, Mac-only word processor vendors (Mellel, Mariner Write, Nisus) I would target the Word 5.1 feature set and look-and-feel as a goal to meet. I've tried all of the above, and while quite good, they all missed the target one way or the other by missing basic features, or missing the mark with simplicity or workflow. I think MS, and OpenOffice are to far gone in the bloaty slow space to ever return a word processor that rivals Word 5.1.
This article is proof enough that Word 5.1 should be their target. If you build it, they will come.
Did anybody else out there like WordPerfect for the Mac? That was my second-favorite word processor ever.
A. Windows has always been a kludgy knockoff of the Mac OS.
B. Ethically, I cannot support their business practices.
C. Although the security foundation has begun to show some cracks from a Mac perspective, the security of a Windows machine would be the laughingstock of the industry if it weren't so pathetic.
D. Mac plays better with industry standards - not try and co-opt them.
E. I've never been unable to do what I wanted on a Mac that I could accomplish with Windows.
F. Apple is still and always has been the leader in innovation on the desktop - bar none.
G. I like the Power PC architecture better than the x86 architecture if for nothing else than reduced power consumption. I use laptops.
If Apple weren't around, I'd have a Linux machine. Granted, Linux is at this point a Windows knockoff but I can't bring myself to give Microsoft one red cent of my income.
The best part about this is the rant about how poor the grasp Americans have with grammar and spelling (see 3-learn the lingo) and then spell whining as "whinging" (see 7-get a shrink).
Okay, everybody. I work for Apple Computer and I'm here to do some marketing research for the iPod. Is everybody happy with the MP3, VBR MP3, WAV, AAC, Protected AAC, Apple Lossless, and AIFF codecs? Yes ma'am, we do have Britney Spears latest CD on our store. Next. Yes sir, in the t-shirt that says "ESR is my God". Okay, I have 1 down for Ogg...what was that?...Speets? Sorry Speeks. 1 for Ogg Speeks. Anybody else? Anybody?
Beuhler. Beuhler. Buehler.
*tumbleweed blows by* *crickets begin to chirp*
Okey dokey. Apple thanks you all for your feedback. Have a nice day.
Personally, I don't beleive the 1-seater car is so far-fetched. It won't come from want but from necessity.
Our current highway infrastructure is aging quite radidly and in many areas, is failing because of current capacity exceeding design capacity. I don't have to tell that to anyone that drives in a major metropolitan area.
If you live in one of these areas, look around on your drive home. What do you see? Developed land. Where is it? Abutted right next to the highway. Given this, to meet future capacity projections, DOT's would need to:
a) Build out. Of course, this means buying up acres of very expensive land and end up in courts for years. Not feasible in urban areas. b) Build up. Begin building teired highways. Again, expensive. Structures don't come cheap. c) Build down. Just look at Boston's Big Dig to see how economically feasible that was. d) Shift traffic to mass transit systems. It would require a major shift in thinking, at least for the American driver, as trains and buses are viewed as a second rate method of getting around. Their beloved auto gives them the most (percieved) freedom.
A single passenger car would allow for a more narrow travel lane. Instantly, existing highways gain increased capacity at the cost of restriping the road. Paint is sinfully cheap compared the other alternatives. Will we still have a need for multi-passenger vehicles and trucks and the corresponding lanes for them? Of course, but they may end up paying a tax or some other penalty for their luxuriously-spaced vehicle. Under such a scenario, it may be more cost effictive to have two or three single passenger vehicles than one multi-passenger vehicle.
Besides, how many people drive more than themselves in their 4 to 8 passenger vehicle as it stand now? Few. Outside of the U.S. space comes at an even higher premium. I don't think Toyota is that far off at all.
Think again. I work for a civil engineering firm that designs highways for the Ohio Department of Transportation. There was a short stint where the DOT required all plans to be in metric. The contractors complained and started inflating their bids on projects that were designed in metric.
We had completed design on 2/3rds of a $150m dollar interchange project that was done in metric and the DOT asked us if it would be too much trouble to convert the project to english (about 6 yrs. worth of design work). It was going to be outrageously expensive to convert the project- simply multpying everything by 0.3048 and be done was not a solution.
So we ended up completing the project in metric and it's under construction now but the pushback from the contractors was too much and it was costing them real money.
Personally, I like the metric system but people hate change and change cost money in this case because stupid contractors were unwilling to learn a new system.
I saw a usenet post from Jordan (of FreeBSD fame and maintainer of the BSD subsystem in OS X) saying he wanted to call the next release of OS X "Feral Tabby".
I like it. Not that I think a feral tabby can take down a tiger but by golly the tiger may lose an eye before he gulps down an alley tom with an unpleasant disposition.
I picture the box somewhat like Jaguar where the 'X' looks covered in Jaguar fur - except that the fur it all crusty and matted with a few fleas thrown in for good measure.
Slashdot Mirror
Typical attitude of an IT worker. All of you seem to forget that you serve the company you work for, the company doesn't serve you.
Why do we have to sacrifice a cow and lick your toes to get the tools we need 3 months from the time we need it? If you even listen at all.
I work for a 12,000 person company and they give us all administrator accounts for our machines (Windows, of course) and we haven't seen the sky fall yet.
Now when current users access their Hotmail account, thye get a message telling them "Your next email will be ready soon, but Outlook subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!"
It seems to me that this causes a leak in the argument that Microsoft apologists use when talking about viruses and spyware. You know the "Your OS would be just as insecure if you had 90% marketshare" argument.
Perhaps we can all agree that iTunes and the iPod currently enjoy a much, much larger share of the purchased digital music (and thus DRM) market than all of the Windows Media players combined. Yet as far as I know (and somebody may prove me wrong) but the DRM Apple uses hasn't been hijacked to carry malware. I'm not glorifying Apple, since they license Fairplay DRM from another company, but just pointing out that, market share being irrelevant, Microsoft seems rather incapable of writing any secure code whatsoever.
Ugh. Does everything that comes out of that behemoth have to be a complete piece of shit?
I'm thinking that, while a nice picture, an upside-down phallic mushroom with mud on the end of its stem is...well let's just say there are less subliminal options presented.
Personally, I like Firefox a little better right now. Why? Built in functionality for RSS feeds and better "Find" interface/functionality. I know Safari is supposed to be faster but I've been using an optimized build for my PowerBook's CPU and I don't see any difference. In fact, Firefox seems faster because it doesn't wait for the whole page to render like Safari, which is significant if you're on dialup like myself. The non-native widgets don't bother me so much - it's not like they look like Motif widgets.
When Safari 2.0 comes out with Tiger, perhaps I'll switch back but for now, Firefox holds the edge for me.
I'm not saying you're lying but my iPod's library is entirely searchable with non-random file names. The file names on my iPod are in the thisisthesongname.mp3 format.
Just mount the iPod in firewire disk mode go searching via the terminal or make sure you set hidden files as viewable in Finder/Explorer.
Or download the handful of GUI apps that will do it for you. Apple disabled an iTunes plugin - not the ability to move files from your iPod.
Why?
Really, why was this story even posted? The barrier for entry to Windows is already lower on Intel than PPC. 99% of people buy PPC to get MacOS and have made a decision to stay away from Windows. Maybe for some obscure server configuration or something - I don't know. Ewww. I think I just felt my PowerBook shudder.
It's like going to church and asking the congregation if, next week, they would like to hold a Satanic mass and worship the devil rather than the usual Sunday drill.
Today's Headline - A Security Bug In Mozilla - The Human Perspective
;o)
Tomorrow's Headline - A Security Bug in IE - Sweet Jesus, Microsoft Fucking Sucks Yet Again
Don't worry, I hate Microsoft too
It is my belief that most Americans hold generally moderate/centrist political viewpoints. Yet it appears that both parties are moving toward thier extremes. Wedge issues that affect only a few such as gay marriage seem to be taking center stage over issues like the federal deficit that affect every American. Since those that hold more extreme viewpoints are also the most active politically and financially, I can understand the temptation of parties and candidates to move in these directions. Unfortunately, politicians with moderate views are coming under attack more and more from within thier own parties. To folks like me, it is a disturbing trend as each party becomes less and less appealing.
My question is this, Can you tell me if and why there is room in your party for moderates/centrists?
religion.slashdot.org!
Then Slashdot's transformation to "concentrated usenet" will be complete. Where Godwin's Law reigns supreme and everybody is an asshat!
So theft is limited to the realm of the physical?
When Ken Lay transferred all of that money from one account to another, it was done electronically so no actual paper dollars were involved. In your world, that wasn't theft apparently.
Copyright laws are there to protect thievery of non-tangibles such as music, graphic designs, an author's story, etc. Ideas when it comes down to it. Just because you can't hold it, doesn't mean you can't steal it. If you would have copyright laws go away, then the effects would go well beyond the RIAA - it would destroy advertising agencies, the film industry and book and magazine publishing to name just a few.
I guess you have to limit your sphere of awareness in order to feel your violation of copyright laws is justified.
Don't talk to me about some high-falutin' ideal that "copyright should be abolished because information should be free" crap. It's about getting music you don't have to pay for and that's that.
I can't believe you placed laws against stealing music in the same category as slavery. The suffering you incur buy paying $9.99 for an album doesn't even begin to encroach on the suffering slaves endured.
I'm continually amazed how the average person's sphere of awareness drops off dramatically roughly where his nose ends.
Mod me down now, since I haven't defended stealing music. Where this topic is concerned, opposing thought at Slashdot is quickly quashed.
Awesome. I've been led to eternal salvation and forgiveness from Christ the Lord by a man that goes by the name "Enlarge Your Penis".
Now I know what an altarboy feels like.
Wait. I didn't mean it like that.
To many, college or university is a fancy trade school. You pick a career you make money in and those that don't are fools.
I'm a Political Science major working in the Civil Engineering field of all things. Unknowingly, people around me have made fun of the "idiots that went into poli sci". They can't comprehend that I went into it because I found it fascinating. In fact, if I won the lottery, I'd quit my job and go back to school to get an advanced degree in Poli Sci.
Personally, I can't fathom throwing away your one opportunity to study something you love before you have to enter the spirit-crushing and time-eating world of day-to-day employment. Lord, if I had spent that time studying Civil Engineering I would have considered that time wasted. Kudos for studying a field that you are truly interested in.
I'm curious, why do linux distributions typically have PowerPC releases always up to a generation behind when it would seem that HPPA and SPARC are likely a smaller installed base?
Is it that there are relatively few of the PPC base demand a Linux distribution when compared to what are mostly server-class CPU's and more likely to be running a Linux distro?
Just wondering out loud.
I wish I could play a good practical joke on these guys a la the Dino the Dinosaur placed in front of a webcam at some New Zealand volcano.
Perhaps a printout from Outlook conspicously placed on the ocean floor that reads "J3llyF1sh, Squ1d - 1ncr3ase your t3ntacle s1ze by at l3ast one f0ot."
I remember using Word 5.1 on a daily basis when I interned at the Ohio House of Representatives. It was truly brain-dead easy to use, simple, streamlined and elegant. If I were one of the smaller, Mac-only word processor vendors (Mellel, Mariner Write, Nisus) I would target the Word 5.1 feature set and look-and-feel as a goal to meet. I've tried all of the above, and while quite good, they all missed the target one way or the other by missing basic features, or missing the mark with simplicity or workflow. I think MS, and OpenOffice are to far gone in the bloaty slow space to ever return a word processor that rivals Word 5.1.
This article is proof enough that Word 5.1 should be their target. If you build it, they will come.
Did anybody else out there like WordPerfect for the Mac? That was my second-favorite word processor ever.
For most of my life I've used a Mac because:
A. Windows has always been a kludgy knockoff of the Mac OS.
B. Ethically, I cannot support their business practices.
C. Although the security foundation has begun to show some cracks from a Mac perspective, the security of a Windows machine would be the laughingstock of the industry if it weren't so pathetic.
D. Mac plays better with industry standards - not try and co-opt them.
E. I've never been unable to do what I wanted on a Mac that I could accomplish with Windows.
F. Apple is still and always has been the leader in innovation on the desktop - bar none.
G. I like the Power PC architecture better than the x86 architecture if for nothing else than reduced power consumption. I use laptops.
If Apple weren't around, I'd have a Linux machine. Granted, Linux is at this point a Windows knockoff but I can't bring myself to give Microsoft one red cent of my income.
The best part about this is the rant about how poor the grasp Americans have with grammar and spelling (see 3-learn the lingo) and then spell whining as "whinging" (see 7-get a shrink).
Moron.
Okay, everybody. I work for Apple Computer and I'm here to do some marketing research for the iPod. Is everybody happy with the MP3, VBR MP3, WAV, AAC, Protected AAC, Apple Lossless, and AIFF codecs? Yes ma'am, we do have Britney Spears latest CD on our store. Next. Yes sir, in the t-shirt that says "ESR is my God". Okay, I have 1 down for Ogg...what was that?...Speets? Sorry Speeks. 1 for Ogg Speeks. Anybody else? Anybody?
Beuhler. Beuhler. Buehler.
*tumbleweed blows by* *crickets begin to chirp*
Okey dokey. Apple thanks you all for your feedback. Have a nice day.
Personally, I don't beleive the 1-seater car is so far-fetched. It won't come from want but from necessity.
Our current highway infrastructure is aging quite radidly and in many areas, is failing because of current capacity exceeding design capacity. I don't have to tell that to anyone that drives in a major metropolitan area.
If you live in one of these areas, look around on your drive home. What do you see? Developed land. Where is it? Abutted right next to the highway. Given this, to meet future capacity projections, DOT's would need to:
a) Build out. Of course, this means buying up acres of very expensive land and end up in courts for years. Not feasible in urban areas.
b) Build up. Begin building teired highways. Again, expensive. Structures don't come cheap.
c) Build down. Just look at Boston's Big Dig to see how economically feasible that was.
d) Shift traffic to mass transit systems. It would require a major shift in thinking, at least for the American driver, as trains and buses are viewed as a second rate method of getting around. Their beloved auto gives them the most (percieved) freedom.
A single passenger car would allow for a more narrow travel lane. Instantly, existing highways gain increased capacity at the cost of restriping the road. Paint is sinfully cheap compared the other alternatives. Will we still have a need for multi-passenger vehicles and trucks and the corresponding lanes for them? Of course, but they may end up paying a tax or some other penalty for their luxuriously-spaced vehicle. Under such a scenario, it may be more cost effictive to have two or three single passenger vehicles than one multi-passenger vehicle.
Besides, how many people drive more than themselves in their 4 to 8 passenger vehicle as it stand now? Few. Outside of the U.S. space comes at an even higher premium. I don't think Toyota is that far off at all.
All this time I thought defragging my hard drive meant removing my copy of Quake from it.
Live and learn.
Think again. I work for a civil engineering firm that designs highways for the Ohio Department of Transportation. There was a short stint where the DOT required all plans to be in metric. The contractors complained and started inflating their bids on projects that were designed in metric.
We had completed design on 2/3rds of a $150m dollar interchange project that was done in metric and the DOT asked us if it would be too much trouble to convert the project to english (about 6 yrs. worth of design work). It was going to be outrageously expensive to convert the project- simply multpying everything by 0.3048 and be done was not a solution.
So we ended up completing the project in metric and it's under construction now but the pushback from the contractors was too much and it was costing them real money.
Personally, I like the metric system but people hate change and change cost money in this case because stupid contractors were unwilling to learn a new system.
I saw a usenet post from Jordan (of FreeBSD fame and maintainer of the BSD subsystem in OS X) saying he wanted to call the next release of OS X "Feral Tabby".
I like it. Not that I think a feral tabby can take down a tiger but by golly the tiger may lose an eye before he gulps down an alley tom with an unpleasant disposition.
I picture the box somewhat like Jaguar where the 'X' looks covered in Jaguar fur - except that the fur it all crusty and matted with a few fleas thrown in for good measure.
or does the NY Times photo of Glazer make him look like he lives in a van down by the river?
;o)
And hitting the government cheese pretty hard as well