My experience of XP is that BSOD is very rare. Unfortunately, this is because XP just locks up and has to be forcibly rebooted at regular intervals. Not a great improvement but, technically, you're right: no BSOD.
Spoken like a man who's never been offered a job by Microsoft.
When they came sniffing around our Uni it was obvious that the only people going along to talk to them were those that had no interest in programming for its own sake. That is not the same as being only the talentless ones, but it's close.
but MS doesn't have any good hackers... even though they have offices, which attract good hackers, uh, what was it I was saying again?
MS does not attract good programmers because they have such a long record of releasing shitty, bug-ridden, unfinished software. No good programmer (or good anything) is going to be attracted to working in a company whose very name has come to mean "rip-off merchants". An office is not enough to compensate for that.
I mean, if you want to attract more women into linux, you're going to have to allow for conversations here to stray "off-topic" and across many areas including personal ones, it might be that only nerds like to regiment conversations in casual places into certain safe, technological areas, you know cutey?
Perhaps you should avoid moronic assertions such as being Catholic and/or Scottish has any bearing on how much you know about computers, if you don't want to get a negative reaction, you know, babe?
BTW: "emerge k3b" will install a good cd-burner under Gentoo.
Now I can get rid of my perfectly functioning, visually appealing operating system in order to install GNU/Linux with X-windows.
You could also just install OSX; I have yet to see a stable osX system and in fact I know several long term Mac users that have or are considering going over to Windows because they are/were fed up with the crashing.
Considering that you're more likely to trip over a siberian tiger in Manhattan than to find an OGG file,
I have several thousand.
the ability to play OGG is just an icing on the cake, and not really necessary in a portable music player.
Given the above, there's zero point in me buying one that doesn't play OGG. Frankly, it would not matter to me if it didn't play any other format.
Of course, if you're one of those overzealous people who compressed everything in their collection to ogg
I like my music to sound good without taking up the whole hard drive, if that's what you mean by "overzealous".
On the other hand, there's no way I'd pay more than 50 quid for a portable music player of any kind so I doubt that Apple are interested in my desires.
he is reading from a 2000 year old book written by a band of nomadic jews
Most of it's a lot more than 2000 years old and stolen from Egyptian and Sumerian mythology anyway, with a bit of "we don't know why but it seems to work" food-hygene rules thrown in. Very reliable guide to modern living (NOT).
Bill esentially said that his big mistake was to charge people on a one time per license basis.
One of Bill's long-term mistakes (and it's hard to take the richest man in the world seriously when talking about his "big mistake" - I should make such mistakes!) was believing that a product that can be duplicated for zero additional cost (after development) and which never wears out could be treated using the same economical models as cars and televisions.
There is an inherent difficulty in charging for "shrink-wrapped" software and that's why Bill wants EULA's to be enforced and all the rest of the crap that the non-OS industry generally are tryingto force on us through copyright changes and so on, they're trying to enforce their economic model through changes in the law. That's not going to work in the long term.
On the other hand, if Bill had an ounce of sense in him he'd be out enjoying his billions instead of being a arsehole and making everyone else's lives a misery by foisting crappy software and crappier laws on the rest of us.
If you seriously think that the size of the revenues of an industry is in any way a measure of how much money is being lost through copyright infringement, then your logical abilities are clearly limited to hardware and software, and you should leave economics and finance to others.
And if you think that the number of people watching pirated films is a guide to the number of lost sales at the cinema, you need to get out more and talk to real people instead of hanging around/.
Regardless, the point was not that there is nothing wrong with pirating, it was that there simply is no crisis within the industry on a scale that justifies the huge amount of lobbying for new laws which criminalise such mundane activities as recording off the television. Much if that is based on false assumptions such as "If you watch a pirated DVD you won't pay to see the movie in the cinema" and "If you watched a cheap pirate DVD then you would have forked over your six quid to see the movie on the big screen", neither of which is based in reality.
The fellow that wrote this lead-in story, nagora, has a glib attitude toward copyrights and so do several others that post here.
Actually, since you ask, I don't have a glib attitude to copyright at all. My point was that there is little need for the insane changes to copyright law that have been made and are still being pushed for, just as there was no need to get worked up about video recorders.
I'm all for sensible copyright laws. I'm against being forced to buy multiple copies of music, films, or software for my own use in different locations.
Would nagora write in the same manner if hundreds of thousands of people were stealing cars but the automobile industry was still doing record numbers (in a particular month no less! Great data point!)
Record breaking tends to be in the form of a single data point! To address your main argument: if the auto companies were claiming that the fact that people are stealing cars means that all cars should be hire-only by law, then I would be happy to tell them where to stick it. Two wrongs don't make a right (metaphorically or literally!)
Surely you would be protecting your business model too if it were in jeopardy.
Once that protection involves corrupt judges and bribes to have the law changed it's time to start asking questions, or do you have no scrupples about such actions?
I could point out that the government didn't do much for candle-makers when Swan invented the electric lightbulb, but that actually makes too much of the MPAA's argument. In fact, there is little evidence that they need the law changed. Which was the point of the post.
They should get on with the job of making movies and chasing major copyright-breakers just as they always did and leave us our fair-use rights.
Also, if your scruples are so loose as to agree with this poster, then ask yourself, "what if everyone did it?" before you choose your own path
I never said it was okay, I mearly poked some sarcasm at the Chicken-Little rantings of the MPAA in the face of the fact that their industry is healthier than ever.
And nearly everyone out there working the polls is politically active, meaning that they are generally either tied to conservatives or liberals.
Which is sort of why it's vital that outsiders can keep an eye on them. Which is the point. E-voting is not the problem, no paper trail is the problem and it would be regardless of the electronics.
nowadays massive fraud is relatively rare
And why do you think that is? Because modern people are just naturally upstanding citizens?
Slashdot Mirror
Yes.
TWW
TWW
When they came sniffing around our Uni it was obvious that the only people going along to talk to them were those that had no interest in programming for its own sake. That is not the same as being only the talentless ones, but it's close.
TWW
MS does not attract good programmers because they have such a long record of releasing shitty, bug-ridden, unfinished software. No good programmer (or good anything) is going to be attracted to working in a company whose very name has come to mean "rip-off merchants". An office is not enough to compensate for that.
TWW
Perhaps you should avoid moronic assertions such as being Catholic and/or Scottish has any bearing on how much you know about computers, if you don't want to get a negative reaction, you know, babe?
BTW: "emerge k3b" will install a good cd-burner under Gentoo.
TWW
This is /. - you're not allowed to use sarcasm.
TWW
You could also just install OSX; I have yet to see a stable osX system and in fact I know several long term Mac users that have or are considering going over to Windows because they are/were fed up with the crashing.
TWW
On Slashdot?! He must have faked his ID or something.
TWW
I have several thousand.
the ability to play OGG is just an icing on the cake, and not really necessary in a portable music player.
Given the above, there's zero point in me buying one that doesn't play OGG. Frankly, it would not matter to me if it didn't play any other format.
Of course, if you're one of those overzealous people who compressed everything in their collection to ogg
I like my music to sound good without taking up the whole hard drive, if that's what you mean by "overzealous".
On the other hand, there's no way I'd pay more than 50 quid for a portable music player of any kind so I doubt that Apple are interested in my desires.
TWW
Hey! Same here. I never did meet anyone with the 4k model.
TWW
Most of it's a lot more than 2000 years old and stolen from Egyptian and Sumerian mythology anyway, with a bit of "we don't know why but it seems to work" food-hygene rules thrown in. Very reliable guide to modern living (NOT).
TWW
The remake was boring, but still a roller-coaster of excitement on an unimaginable scale compared to the original.
TWW
Ah, so you say you've never seen the original version of Solaris?
TWW
One of Bill's long-term mistakes (and it's hard to take the richest man in the world seriously when talking about his "big mistake" - I should make such mistakes!) was believing that a product that can be duplicated for zero additional cost (after development) and which never wears out could be treated using the same economical models as cars and televisions.
There is an inherent difficulty in charging for "shrink-wrapped" software and that's why Bill wants EULA's to be enforced and all the rest of the crap that the non-OS industry generally are tryingto force on us through copyright changes and so on, they're trying to enforce their economic model through changes in the law. That's not going to work in the long term.
On the other hand, if Bill had an ounce of sense in him he'd be out enjoying his billions instead of being a arsehole and making everyone else's lives a misery by foisting crappy software and crappier laws on the rest of us.
TWW
Assume what you like, guv'.
And if you think that the number of people watching pirated films is a guide to the number of lost sales at the cinema, you need to get out more and talk to real people instead of hanging around /.
Regardless, the point was not that there is nothing wrong with pirating, it was that there simply is no crisis within the industry on a scale that justifies the huge amount of lobbying for new laws which criminalise such mundane activities as recording off the television. Much if that is based on false assumptions such as "If you watch a pirated DVD you won't pay to see the movie in the cinema" and "If you watched a cheap pirate DVD then you would have forked over your six quid to see the movie on the big screen", neither of which is based in reality.
TWW
Well, duh! That was sort of the point...
Actually, since you ask, I don't have a glib attitude to copyright at all. My point was that there is little need for the insane changes to copyright law that have been made and are still being pushed for, just as there was no need to get worked up about video recorders.
I'm all for sensible copyright laws. I'm against being forced to buy multiple copies of music, films, or software for my own use in different locations.
Would nagora write in the same manner if hundreds of thousands of people were stealing cars but the automobile industry was still doing record numbers (in a particular month no less! Great data point!)
Record breaking tends to be in the form of a single data point! To address your main argument: if the auto companies were claiming that the fact that people are stealing cars means that all cars should be hire-only by law, then I would be happy to tell them where to stick it. Two wrongs don't make a right (metaphorically or literally!)
Surely you would be protecting your business model too if it were in jeopardy.
Once that protection involves corrupt judges and bribes to have the law changed it's time to start asking questions, or do you have no scrupples about such actions?
I could point out that the government didn't do much for candle-makers when Swan invented the electric lightbulb, but that actually makes too much of the MPAA's argument. In fact, there is little evidence that they need the law changed. Which was the point of the post.
They should get on with the job of making movies and chasing major copyright-breakers just as they always did and leave us our fair-use rights.
Also, if your scruples are so loose as to agree with this poster, then ask yourself, "what if everyone did it?" before you choose your own path
I never said it was okay, I mearly poked some sarcasm at the Chicken-Little rantings of the MPAA in the face of the fact that their industry is healthier than ever.
TWW
Well, thanks. It's nice to know someone got the gag...
TWW
I was joking! Lighten up.
TWW
Which is sort of why it's vital that outsiders can keep an eye on them. Which is the point. E-voting is not the problem, no paper trail is the problem and it would be regardless of the electronics.
nowadays massive fraud is relatively rare
And why do you think that is? Because modern people are just naturally upstanding citizens?
TWW
TWW
Try Opera. Even if there were no fast browsers available only a mug would still be using IE. Who wants FAST security holes?
TWW
He made that nice black NeXT cube way back when. Nobody much bought it so perhaps he reckons it's bad luck!
TWW
There's a lot more now that know "MP3" as the only way to listen to downloaded or ripped music - that's why iPod supports it.
Cheaper than the iPod,
80% of the price for 50% of the capacity?
This product is a dead duck.
TWW