Do you trust the pdf? Why is it a pdf? Is Adobe in league with the NSA? could the acroread you installed to replace the KGhostgview default KDE PDF reader because "the rendering is better" be backdooring your linux box right now, after you were insufficiently paranoid by clicking on the pdf link? Oh you fool. You fool. You're not even wearing your tinfoil hat to stop Scalar/Longitudinal EM wave interference with your brain!
Tablets are nice if you're a computer artist. Since the line appears under the pen, it feels like drawing with light.
I want a linux tablet. I was considering getting a WinXP tablet, but having tried WinXP "tablet edition", it's definitely the usual MS-botched UI that lets the Tablet-PC down, not the hardware.
X, coming from a unix graphics workstation background, has long had good pressure-sensitive tablet support that things like the GIMP can use, and a linux tablet could rock.
Re:No Turkey is probably good (OT)
on
Eating in Space
·
· Score: 1
What the hell is brining? I've now got a hideous mental image of a shrivelled turkey floating in a large jar of saltwater....
Well, I'm a mechanical engineer:-). But engineering operates in anything but a free market. If you think software patents are bad, they're nothing on engineering patents. Basically, anything I try to do will be shot down or bought out by the old guard. Patents, not just software patents, have to go!
The problem is that if someone IS actually knowledgeable about computers, they sure as hell don't want to work in a call centre. While I'm currently out of a job, I'd rather be digging ditches than working in a bloody call centre talking to idiots who've poured hot grits into their cdrom drive or something and think it's my fault that their computer didn't come with a "do not pour hot grits into CDROM drive" warning.
I am fully aware of FPGAs, thanks. After all, I did link to opencores... But I've yet to see an FPGA CPU competitive with a dedicated silicon CPU. While one could argue that that's irrelevant, because with a few more FPGAs you could do a lot of the work that the CPU normally does, that would require a change of programming model, and overcoming the MHz myth, to actually get people to use the damn machines.
And that's unfortunate, because it's the CPU that Intel and AMD will be embedding their betrayware in, not the BIOS (which just needs to support the CPU-silicon betrayware).
People do care. But, unlike software development, a chip fab still requires significant initial capital investment to get started. And chip fabrication is tied up in hardware patents - just as stupid as software patenting, but much more entrenched.
I'm going to copy that point out of AC limbo, the AC parent said (correcting a minor spelling mistake):
This is horrendously bad security practice - even if you are using closed source stuff and think open source stuff is a load of politically-loaded garbage, you as a sys admin STILL NEED TO KNOW if your upstream source for that closed source stuff is compromised. Disclosure of compromised security to customers is VITAL for the security OF THE CUSTOMERS.
MS worry far more about their reputation for security (not that there's much left...) than security, and it's only because lots of customers are too uneducated to grasp the above that they still get away with it.
Security 101 - it's better to have the information as soon as possible, even if there's no fix, you can take the server offline until a fix is available.
Well, I've used a tablet PC. They're quite nice for certain things, but Windows XP Tablet Edition seemed clunky and buggy and spoiled it for me somewhat.
If you're doing 2D graphics work, it is VERY nice to be able to draw with the pen (get a pressure-sensitive one!) - and see what you're drawing in the "right" place, unlike normal computer graphics tablets. It's just nice to have the line appear naturally under the pen rather than somewhere off in the distance on a separate monitor - you feel like you're drawing with light (and you pretty much are, I guess...).
Personally, I would like a linux-based tablet PC, though I'm not going to get one while I have to pay a Windows Tax - X actually has quite mature graphics tablet support for arty work (handwriting recognition would be an application, and not part of X itself)
But it's not unique. People have been calling their pet experimental window systems things like Y, YY, Z, T and so on since the 80s. Hilariously original. Not.
Um no, Qtopia can run directly on top of the linux framebuffer. Personally, I make use of the network-transparent features of X all the time, so I wouldn't stop using it, but e.g. the new(ish) Sharp Zaurus line uses Qtopia directly.
Bill Gates started out very critical of software patentability, but now that microsoft are the dominant monopoly rather than the darling new industry players, he's switched sides. Patents are, and have always been, a way for industry incumbents to fight upstarts. The "rewarding inventors" line has always been pure propaganda - for every inventor they reward, many are crushed. That's why one of the first things Americans did when leaving the British Empire was stop honouring British patents.
That said, IBM are the largest software patenters, not microsoft.
No, copyright is not patent, but Microsoft holds both.
Re:Big problem: Press Access.
on
Back To SCO
·
· Score: 1
Well, at time of writing, SCO is definitely on their client list, anyway...
Re:Big problem: Press Access.
on
Back To SCO
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
No, thrse days you just have to pay someone to bug (and, mostly, bribe) the right people for you - I think (could be wrong) SCO is paying Schwartz PR to run their little black propaganda campaign for them.
X (Free86, anyway) has had keyboard control of the mouse cursor for a long time. Just press shift-Numlock until you hear a beep, and try the numeric keypad...
The problem with the cameras in my book is not that they exist, but that real-time access to their data is often limited to a select few (though theoretically one can request the footage under FoI, it usually takes months, and there's therefore plenty of time for the authorities to doctor the tapes)
If all the cameras were required to be public-access webcams, there would not be an inequality of information flow - it is the fact the authorities have so much more information than the man on the street that in part gives them the power. i.e. the watched can't watch the watchers. Remember, in big brother, big brother could see you, but you couldn't see it.
Er... And??? I surely didn't suggest doing away with the legal system as a whole!
However, most legal systems are mutable. Many countries' legal systems once said a man could own other men. Some still do, but now most don't. Imagine that, a whole class of property eliminated! The outrage! Heck, there was even a war that was (at least in part) about it!
IP as you know it could go the same way.
It's also 2:30 a.m. here, and I've got to go to bed, so I bid you good night.
I fully realise both are illusions of the legal system - however, I regard physical property as more worthy of support since if it is taken, I don't have it anymore. Even nonhumans recognise physical property to an extent and will defend it - try taking a bone from a dog some time. Then try imitating said dog's method of pissing and see if it sues you for IP infringement.
Your analogy with a car is fundamentally broken - if someone copied my information I'd still have it, and could still use it on an ongoing basis, so would not have lost the value of it*, but if someone took my car, I wouldn't have the use of it, and would have lost the value of it. Would you really begrudge someone a copy of your car?
(* The argument that I'd have lost value of charging for the copy under copyright law is a logical fallacy, as it is assumption of the result and thus circular, that value does not exist without copyright law)
You argument about drugs is still flawed - the countries wihout patents have lots of other problems, not particularly related. And speed of development is not necessarily useful - a lot of drugs today are pretty pointless, rushed to market and made for profit rather than to heal. Here on this side of the atlantic, a doctor was recently prosecuted for unnecessary prescription of drugs from a multinational pharma firm.
An open approach to drug design and discovery might yield more reliable results, who knows? Most of the really groundbreaking research is still done in publically-funded universities.
Of course open source office suites are mainly clones of MS Office - they define what an office suite is. But there are lots of other ways to do similar tasks to those people use office suites for in very different open source programs. I used to write papers in LaTeX. Scribus is a promising DTP program. For reasons I won't go into, I picked up a language called "APL" (which has open-source derivatives), which in some ways is useful for the same stuff a spreadsheet is. And would a slowdown be so bad? Most software these days seems to be unfinished, and with a stupid amount of bugs and trivial mistakes.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you trust the pdf? Why is it a pdf? Is Adobe in league with the NSA? could the acroread you installed to replace the KGhostgview default KDE PDF reader because "the rendering is better" be backdooring your linux box right now, after you were insufficiently paranoid by clicking on the pdf link? Oh you fool. You fool. You're not even wearing your tinfoil hat to stop Scalar/Longitudinal EM wave interference with your brain!
Tablets are nice if you're a computer artist. Since the line appears under the pen, it feels like drawing with light.
I want a linux tablet. I was considering getting a WinXP tablet, but having tried WinXP "tablet edition", it's definitely the usual MS-botched UI that lets the Tablet-PC down, not the hardware.
X, coming from a unix graphics workstation background, has long had good pressure-sensitive tablet support that things like the GIMP can use, and a linux tablet could rock.
What the hell is brining? I've now got a hideous mental image of a shrivelled turkey floating in a large jar of saltwater....
Well, I'm a mechanical engineer :-). But engineering operates in anything but a free market. If you think software patents are bad, they're nothing on engineering patents. Basically, anything I try to do will be shot down or bought out by the old guard. Patents, not just software patents, have to go!
The problem is that if someone IS actually knowledgeable about computers, they sure as hell don't want to work in a call centre. While I'm currently out of a job, I'd rather be digging ditches than working in a bloody call centre talking to idiots who've poured hot grits into their cdrom drive or something and think it's my fault that their computer didn't come with a "do not pour hot grits into CDROM drive" warning.
I am fully aware of FPGAs, thanks. After all, I did link to opencores... But I've yet to see an FPGA CPU competitive with a dedicated silicon CPU. While one could argue that that's irrelevant, because with a few more FPGAs you could do a lot of the work that the CPU normally does, that would require a change of programming model, and overcoming the MHz myth, to actually get people to use the damn machines.
And that's unfortunate, because it's the CPU that Intel and AMD will be embedding their betrayware in, not the BIOS (which just needs to support the CPU-silicon betrayware).
People do care. But, unlike software development, a chip fab still requires significant initial capital investment to get started. And chip fabrication is tied up in hardware patents - just as stupid as software patenting, but much more entrenched.
I'm going to copy that point out of AC limbo, the AC parent said (correcting a minor spelling mistake):
This is horrendously bad security practice - even if you are using closed source stuff and think open source stuff is a load of politically-loaded garbage, you as a sys admin STILL NEED TO KNOW if your upstream source for that closed source stuff is compromised. Disclosure of compromised security to customers is VITAL for the security OF THE CUSTOMERS.
MS worry far more about their reputation for security (not that there's much left...) than security, and it's only because lots of customers are too uneducated to grasp the above that they still get away with it.
Security 101 - it's better to have the information as soon as possible, even if there's no fix, you can take the server offline until a fix is available.
You appear to be confusing multitudes of different people with different opinions on /. with one hive mind. Life isn't really like that.
Well, I've used a tablet PC. They're quite nice for certain things, but Windows XP Tablet Edition seemed clunky and buggy and spoiled it for me somewhat.
If you're doing 2D graphics work, it is VERY nice to be able to draw with the pen (get a pressure-sensitive one!) - and see what you're drawing in the "right" place, unlike normal computer graphics tablets. It's just nice to have the line appear naturally under the pen rather than somewhere off in the distance on a separate monitor - you feel like you're drawing with light (and you pretty much are, I guess...).
Personally, I would like a linux-based tablet PC, though I'm not going to get one while I have to pay a Windows Tax - X actually has quite mature graphics tablet support for arty work (handwriting recognition would be an application, and not part of X itself)
Well, it was the first time I ever saw the Aurora Borealis over Dublin city, I can tell you that! Pretty bloody amazing if you ask me...
But it's not unique. People have been calling their pet experimental window systems things like Y, YY, Z, T and so on since the 80s. Hilariously original. Not.
Um no, Qtopia can run directly on top of the linux framebuffer. Personally, I make use of the network-transparent features of X all the time, so I wouldn't stop using it, but e.g. the new(ish) Sharp Zaurus line uses Qtopia directly.
Lots of people are in huge debt.
Here's a few MSFT software patents.
Bill Gates started out very critical of software patentability, but now that microsoft are the dominant monopoly rather than the darling new industry players, he's switched sides. Patents are, and have always been, a way for industry incumbents to fight upstarts. The "rewarding inventors" line has always been pure propaganda - for every inventor they reward, many are crushed. That's why one of the first things Americans did when leaving the British Empire was stop honouring British patents.
That said, IBM are the largest software patenters, not microsoft.
No, copyright is not patent, but Microsoft holds both.
Well, at time of writing, SCO is definitely on their client list, anyway...
No, thrse days you just have to pay someone to bug (and, mostly, bribe) the right people for you - I think (could be wrong) SCO is paying Schwartz PR to run their little black propaganda campaign for them.
X (Free86, anyway) has had keyboard control of the mouse cursor for a long time. Just press shift-Numlock until you hear a beep, and try the numeric keypad...
The problem with the cameras in my book is not that they exist, but that real-time access to their data is often limited to a select few (though theoretically one can request the footage under FoI, it usually takes months, and there's therefore plenty of time for the authorities to doctor the tapes)
If all the cameras were required to be public-access webcams, there would not be an inequality of information flow - it is the fact the authorities have so much more information than the man on the street that in part gives them the power. i.e. the watched can't watch the watchers. Remember, in big brother, big brother could see you, but you couldn't see it.
Actually, microsoft's monopoly is protected by US trademarks, copyrights and patents - textbook examples of government granted monopolies...
In the absence of the distortion of the free market produced by copyright and patent law, microsoft's monoply would rapidly dissolve...
Try the example tag. It works even in "plain old text" mode in slashcode.
Note also the "allowed html" notice at the bottom of the comment posting field...
He said buglars not burglars.
I'm not quite sure what a buglar is, but it sounds rather rude, and maybe one should shoot them on general principles.
Er... And??? I surely didn't suggest doing away with the legal system as a whole!
However, most legal systems are mutable. Many countries' legal systems once said a man could own other men. Some still do, but now most don't. Imagine that, a whole class of property eliminated! The outrage! Heck, there was even a war that was (at least in part) about it!
IP as you know it could go the same way.
It's also 2:30 a.m. here, and I've got to go to bed, so I bid you good night.
I fully realise both are illusions of the legal system - however, I regard physical property as more worthy of support since if it is taken, I don't have it anymore. Even nonhumans recognise physical property to an extent and will defend it - try taking a bone from a dog some time. Then try imitating said dog's method of pissing and see if it sues you for IP infringement.
Your analogy with a car is fundamentally broken - if someone copied my information I'd still have it, and could still use it on an ongoing basis, so would not have lost the value of it*, but if someone took my car, I wouldn't have the use of it, and would have lost the value of it. Would you really begrudge someone a copy of your car?
(* The argument that I'd have lost value of charging for the copy under copyright law is a logical fallacy, as it is assumption of the result and thus circular, that value does not exist without copyright law)
You argument about drugs is still flawed - the countries wihout patents have lots of other problems, not particularly related. And speed of development is not necessarily useful - a lot of drugs today are pretty pointless, rushed to market and made for profit rather than to heal. Here on this side of the atlantic, a doctor was recently prosecuted for unnecessary prescription of drugs from a multinational pharma firm.
An open approach to drug design and discovery might yield more reliable results, who knows? Most of the really groundbreaking research is still done in publically-funded universities.
Of course open source office suites are mainly clones of MS Office - they define what an office suite is. But there are lots of other ways to do similar tasks to those people use office suites for in very different open source programs. I used to write papers in LaTeX. Scribus is a promising DTP program. For reasons I won't go into, I picked up a language called "APL" (which has open-source derivatives), which in some ways is useful for the same stuff a spreadsheet is.
And would a slowdown be so bad? Most software these days seems to be unfinished, and with a stupid amount of bugs and trivial mistakes.