Gates said there was clearly a market for free software but this was mainly confined to relatively simple applications such as word processing and spreadsheets Uh... Its been a while since I would call Word or Excel "relatively simple" by any stretch of the phrase.
Modern browsers were far more sophisticated and could no longer be developed in a noncommercial environment. Guess he hasn't seen mozilla in a while. Furthermore, doesn't it seem that most of the "complexity" [read: badly implimented features] in browsers are due to Internet Explorer.
Gates said, for example, that there were five different windowing systems that run on Linux. Even if I agreed with him on his definition of "windowing systems", doesn't more = better?!
I guess the main thing we can garnish from comments from "The Man" like this one is that they are scared. Very scared. Now more than ever it is time to support GPLed projects for linux. If we can evolve quickly they won't even notice as we stride past them.
I see mp3s becoming much more pervasive then they are even now before they start to wane to other, better formats. Even quicktime is going to support it!
This link leads to an AppleInsider article with some pics of a late beta of QuickTime 4.0. Besides just looking really cool, the player is going to play mp3s. This is significant since quicktime ships with all macs (and is easily available for win32)!
Oh and for anyone interested, quicktime IS mpeg4... So look for Good Stuff down the road...
Despite the fact that your post screamed TROLL, I'm going to reply.
The iMac has features other than its "cuteness". For starters, its small. It has the same footprint as my 17inch monitor- maybe even less. Now I know that this isn't a priority for everyone, some people even like full size towers, but if you don't want/need alot of expandability or are short on space (read: live in a dorm room), smaller is better.
The iMac is cheeeeep. Maybe you don't think so if you have been building your own computers- but most people I know can't do that. Also, its price/feature ratio is probably better than most pc's of equal price (lets see if Dell can do better).
I must beg to differ with the claim that this thing you call "cuteness" is a paradigm shift. Lets try replacing the word "cuteness" with the word "coolness". Geeks have always been fascinated with cool things. And the iMac is very cool- from the clear case to the universal serial bus. And you can run linux on it ( Yellow Dog Linux). How cool is that!
I've been pondering late posting since the 'Expanded Moderation System' took effect. Some thoughts:
What happens to a late post? Like this one? Does it dry up like a rasin in the sun? I have the feeling that by now (some 10 hours after the origional story was posted) nearly all the moderators have moved on to other articles.
Back when posts were ordered oldest-first, (ahh the old days) late posters always got the bottom of the page. So there was incentive to post early. But at the same time I think that more people read further down the page because there could be some real jems down there.
Now days, readers have less reason to surf to the bottom (I'm assuming that most people view their comments by rank- I could be wrong about this). I guess I'm whining about something that can't be helped. What we really need are more moderators in Australia!
I'll check back tomorrow, but I don't think that this post will have any replys or be moderated. (Note: this is not a challenge! Please don't reply or moderate just to be contrary;) If you do reply I would be interested in discovering where geographically you are from.
One final thought: How cool would it be to have stats on stuff like how people choose to format their page (oldest 1st, highest score, etc) or what threshold most people prefer. Or which statboxes are most popular. Are you getting all this Rob?;)
Final thought two: Have you ever wondered if Rob has a page where he can view all the posts with his name in the body? Or even better- how cool would it be if you could easily search posts not just stories? Bah. Enough of this stream of consciousness. Im out.
Segregating moderation/judgement from participation is a standard (and good) measure used to enforce objectivity. This is the reason they screen jurors for trials, etc.
Im going to talk about jury selection for a moment-- please pardon the digression. It really does relate to/.
The court room inquisition of jurrors is called "voir dire" and we are made to think that it is a legitimate attempt to form an "impartial jury." This is not so.
The only purpose is to stack the jury with bias- to build the desired bias into the jury so that the jury can be controled by the court.
The Supreme Court has often commented upon this: "Tendencies, no matter how slight, toward the selection of jurors by any method other than a process which will insure a trial by a representative group are undermining...weakening the...jury...and should be strongly resisted." (Glasser V US, 315 US 60) Fairness "necessarily contemplates an impartial jury drawn from a cross section of the community; jurors shall be selected...without systematic and intentional exclusion" of any "stratum of society." (Thiel V So.Pac., 328 US 217, 1946).
How does this relate to/.? Good question. The moderation system, as it exists now, works. Quite well in my opinion and, judging from the posts I've read, many people agree and want to keep it like it is. It works because there are a (relatvely) small number of moderators and Rob is able to keep them in line.
But Rob (understandably) does not want to have to keep a close eye on the moderators- especially when a new group is chosen. The obvious solution to this is to make the pool of moderators larger. But this attempt will be in vain if the moderators are chosen based on how they have been moderated in the past or even on how long they have read slashdot. When a large group is used it is essential that they form a cross-section of the population. If not, factions become more exagerated not less.
This is not to say that Rob and Co. should not reserve the right to stop abusers from moderating. To stretch the jury analogy even further- felons can't serve jury duty.
Maybe my ideas are misguided or are too big of a step for this old webpage to take. Please let me know. As I said I think the current system is working well. But if we increase the size of pool of moderators we need to make sure that the moderators are chosen fairly.
re not moderating posts that one is interested in
on
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I have mixed feelings about this- it does seem silly to not be able to moderate a topic that one is interested in. But at the same time this would keep someone from pushing his own agenda in both posts and in moderation. If you are a poster, post! If you are a moderator, moderate!
Assumedly, thiough, one could post as an AC and still moderate the thread. If this expanded moderation system hits prime time I think that AC's will be more usefull and important not less. That is to say, if you have something slightly caustic or unpopular to say you can say it as an AC and not worry about having your good name "tarnished" (your account downgraded) by an abusive moderator, and thus not be worthy of moderation.
Pardon the digression, but has anyone heard that win98 increases the size of its partition by a few bytes each time it reboots, eventually corrupting your no fat32 partitons.
Yes, I agree it sounds like an urban legend. But I got my swap space in between fat32 and linux. Just in case...
This guy seems to not like partitions or at least is using "ohmigosh linux is making me have three partitions" to further some FUD.
Its interesting that if he knew what he was doing he would have partitioned much more than that. I always make/tmp,/home,/var,/usr, their own partitions in addition to/. Much safer- divide and conquer! But im probably preaching to the chior...
I actually thought that these articles were kind of entertaining. They both tried soooo hard to look impartial and then threw in lots of subtle (and not so subtle) FUD. I think I'll call MS the next time I have some problems. "Start menu? I dont have a start menu!":)
Calling X a "pale and wan" version of windows was insulting at best. Just grit your teeth- its only a matter of time before Linux surpasses Win32 in all ways imagineable!
If Darwin is the core of OS X (everything below gui) then what is to stop someone making a Finder replacement? Maybe someone can port X11 to the mac in this form. Personally, I would love to be able to boot into my G3 and choose to boot into the Finder or not. How cool would e or gnome be on a mac??!! (or better yet sheepshaver!!)
worked for me! Custom/. is a GREAT feature. I hope it makes it into the Slash code, because it really makes it all come together and gives people a reason to login
Is it just me or does most of the CG in the trailer look a little weak? Take the first scene, where the tanks roll over the top of the hill. While I have seen worse in other movies, its poor for something coming from Lucas. Where is the famous its-the-future-but-it-looks-old look? I can only hope that the trailers feature partially rendered FX...
Also, yoda. He doesn't look like yoda. I could believe that he was yoda's brother, or another of yoda's race, but the look isnt quite right, even for a younger yoda..
This sounds Microsoft wants to take us back to the days of Ye Olde Mainframe. Funny. This was the computing model that he was up against in the early days of the PC. Yeah, it stands for Personal Computing. And now he wants a "Megaserver"? Lets look at Bill's other shining example of this kind of computing: WindowsNT. Trust everyones important data to an NT server? Riiiiight....
Of course it's in Mircosoft's interests to promote this kind of system:
No more worries about pirated software- nothing can hide from the megaserver!
Guess where your web cache is stored kiddies? "The better to taylor banner ads, um i mean content for you."
If they control the server, then they can control the communications protocol ("I know", they say, "we can make a new, better [TCPIP/HTTP/SMTP/etc]") that is used... and effectively exclude Mac, linux, all who dont use windows! "Welcome to Microsoft Internet 2000"
Furthermore, this silly scheme is the antithesis of all the the Internet is or aspires to be: it will not suffer such an attempt at centralization! I say when MS eventually looses the DoJ case, as part of the punishment they should be denied the Internet. Strip them of their domain, MSN, and IE!
Long distance is much cheaper with companies like 10-10-321, 10-10-120, and their ilk than it was back in the days of Ma Bell... The thing about networked systems is that the transport mechanism is often very very expensive (ie laying train track, gas lines, or fiberoptic cable)...
Your typical "Mom and Pops ISP" doesnt have to lay the T3, just lease it...
The box im writing this on right now is a Celeron 300a clocked up to 450. And thats just with a regular fan, nothing extra-special cooling wise. Im sure with a three fan "polar bear" I could get get it higher but im not going to press the issue, a 450 for $100 is fine by me.
course, i'd love to be running a G3 but its all about finances, sigh.
Slashdot Mirror
Go here to find quake3 servers for all your gaming needs.
Gates said there was clearly a market for free software but this was mainly confined to relatively simple applications such as word processing and spreadsheets
Uh... Its been a while since I would call Word or Excel "relatively simple" by any stretch of the phrase.
Modern browsers were far more sophisticated and could no longer be developed in a noncommercial environment.
Guess he hasn't seen mozilla in a while. Furthermore, doesn't it seem that most of the "complexity" [read: badly implimented features] in browsers are due to Internet Explorer.
Gates said, for example, that there were five different windowing systems that run on Linux.
Even if I agreed with him on his definition of "windowing systems", doesn't more = better?!
I guess the main thing we can garnish from comments from "The Man" like this one is that they are scared. Very scared. Now more than ever it is time to support GPLed projects for linux. If we can evolve quickly they won't even notice as we stride past them.
I see mp3s becoming much more pervasive then they are even now before they start to wane to other, better formats. Even quicktime is going to support it!
This link leads to an AppleInsider article with some pics of a late beta of QuickTime 4.0. Besides just looking really cool, the player is going to play mp3s. This is significant since quicktime ships with all macs (and is easily available for win32)!
Oh and for anyone interested, quicktime IS mpeg4... So look for Good Stuff down the road...
Despite the fact that your post screamed TROLL, I'm going to reply.
I've been pondering late posting since the 'Expanded Moderation System' took effect. Some thoughts:
What happens to a late post? Like this one? Does it dry up like a rasin in the sun? I have the feeling that by now (some 10 hours after the origional story was posted) nearly all the moderators have moved on to other articles.
Back when posts were ordered oldest-first, (ahh the old days) late posters always got the bottom of the page. So there was incentive to post early. But at the same time I think that more people read further down the page because there could be some real jems down there.
Now days, readers have less reason to surf to the bottom (I'm assuming that most people view their comments by rank- I could be wrong about this). I guess I'm whining about something that can't be helped. What we really need are more moderators in Australia!
I'll check back tomorrow, but I don't think that this post will have any replys or be moderated. (Note: this is not a challenge! Please don't reply or moderate just to be contrary ;) If you do reply I would be interested in discovering where geographically you are from.
One final thought: How cool would it be to have stats on stuff like how people choose to format their page (oldest 1st, highest score, etc) or what threshold most people prefer. Or which statboxes are most popular. Are you getting all this Rob? ;)
Final thought two: Have you ever wondered if Rob has a page where he can view all the posts with his name in the body? Or even better- how cool would it be if you could easily search posts not just stories? Bah. Enough of this stream of consciousness. Im out.
ok lets see what we got
If the rumors are to be believed, the current iMac is to be discontinued soon with a new model (code named "8-ball") to replace it.
Segregating moderation/judgement from participation is a standard (and good) measure used to enforce objectivity. This is the reason they screen jurors for trials, etc.
Im going to talk about jury selection for a moment-- please pardon the digression. It really does relate to /.
The court room inquisition of jurrors is called "voir dire" and we are made to think that it is a legitimate attempt to form an "impartial jury." This is not so.
The only purpose is to stack the jury with bias- to build the desired bias into the jury so that the jury can be controled by the court.
The Supreme Court has often commented upon this: "Tendencies, no matter how slight, toward the selection of jurors by any method other than a process which will insure a trial by a representative group are undermining...weakening the...jury...and should be strongly resisted." (Glasser V US, 315 US 60) Fairness "necessarily contemplates an impartial jury drawn from a cross section of the community; jurors shall be selected...without systematic and intentional exclusion" of any "stratum of society." (Thiel V So.Pac., 328 US 217, 1946).
How does this relate to /.? Good question. The moderation system, as it exists now, works. Quite well in my opinion and, judging from the posts I've read, many people agree and want to keep it like it is. It works because there are a (relatvely) small number of moderators and Rob is able to keep them in line.
But Rob (understandably) does not want to have to keep a close eye on the moderators- especially when a new group is chosen. The obvious solution to this is to make the pool of moderators larger. But this attempt will be in vain if the moderators are chosen based on how they have been moderated in the past or even on how long they have read slashdot. When a large group is used it is essential that they form a cross-section of the population. If not, factions become more exagerated not less.
This is not to say that Rob and Co. should not reserve the right to stop abusers from moderating. To stretch the jury analogy even further- felons can't serve jury duty.
Maybe my ideas are misguided or are too big of a step for this old webpage to take. Please let me know. As I said I think the current system is working well. But if we increase the size of pool of moderators we need to make sure that the moderators are chosen fairly.
I have mixed feelings about this- it does seem silly to not be able to moderate a topic that one is interested in. But at the same time this would keep someone from pushing his own agenda in both posts and in moderation. If you are a poster, post! If you are a moderator, moderate!
Assumedly, thiough, one could post as an AC and still moderate the thread. If this expanded moderation system hits prime time I think that AC's will be more usefull and important not less. That is to say, if you have something slightly caustic or unpopular to say you can say it as an AC and not worry about having your good name "tarnished" (your account downgraded) by an abusive moderator, and thus not be worthy of moderation.
Pardon the digression, but has anyone heard that win98 increases the size of its partition by a few bytes each time it reboots, eventually corrupting your no fat32 partitons.
Yes, I agree it sounds like an urban legend. But I got my swap space in between fat32 and linux. Just in case...
This guy seems to not like partitions or at least is using "ohmigosh linux is making me have three partitions" to further some FUD.
Its interesting that if he knew what he was doing he would have partitioned much more than that. I always make /tmp, /home, /var, /usr, their own partitions in addition to /. Much safer- divide and conquer! But im probably preaching to the chior...
I actually thought that these articles were kind of entertaining. They both tried soooo hard to look impartial and then threw in lots of subtle (and not so subtle) FUD. I think I'll call MS the next time I have some problems. "Start menu? I dont have a start menu!" :)
Calling X a "pale and wan" version of windows was insulting at best. Just grit your teeth- its only a matter of time before Linux surpasses Win32 in all ways imagineable!
If Darwin is the core of OS X (everything below gui) then what is to stop someone making a Finder replacement? Maybe someone can port X11 to the mac in this form. Personally, I would love to be able to boot into my G3 and choose to boot into the Finder or not. How cool would e or gnome be on a mac??!! (or better yet sheepshaver!!)
We want a ZD filter!
worked for me! Custom /. is a GREAT feature. I hope it makes it into the Slash code, because it really makes it all come together and gives people a reason to login
/. just became my homepage! Good Work Rob!
wizard??! now that one is insulting...
now we just need to get Albert to stick out his tongue!
Is it just me or does most of the CG in the trailer look a little weak? Take the first scene, where the tanks roll over the top of the hill. While I have seen worse in other movies, its poor for something coming from Lucas. Where is the famous its-the-future-but-it-looks-old look? I can only hope that the trailers feature partially rendered FX...
Also, yoda. He doesn't look like yoda. I could believe that he was yoda's brother, or another of yoda's race, but the look isnt quite right, even for a younger yoda..
sigh... rant mode off...
This sounds Microsoft wants to take us back to the days of Ye Olde Mainframe. Funny. This was the computing model that he was up against in the early days of the PC. Yeah, it stands for Personal Computing. And now he wants a "Megaserver"? Lets look at Bill's other shining example of this kind of computing: WindowsNT. Trust everyones important data to an NT server? Riiiiight....
Of course it's in Mircosoft's interests to promote this kind of system:
Furthermore, this silly scheme is the antithesis of all the the Internet is or aspires to be: it will not suffer such an attempt at centralization! I say when MS eventually looses the DoJ case, as part of the punishment they should be denied the Internet. Strip them of their domain, MSN, and IE!
Long distance is much cheaper with companies like 10-10-321, 10-10-120, and their ilk than it was back in the days of Ma Bell... The thing about networked systems is that the transport mechanism is often very very expensive (ie laying train track, gas lines, or fiberoptic cable)...
Your typical "Mom and Pops ISP" doesnt have to lay the T3, just lease it...
speaking of which... this is a damn funny site......
The box im writing this on right now is a Celeron 300a clocked up to 450. And thats just with a regular fan, nothing extra-special cooling wise. Im sure with a three fan "polar bear" I could get get it higher but im not going to press the issue, a 450 for $100 is fine by me.
course, i'd love to be running a G3 but its all about finances, sigh.