I've used Mandrake 8.0, among many other flavors, and have yet to find one that is honestly less of a hassle than my trusty Win98 partition.
I still support Linux, and I'll be a fan for awhile, but it's still got a long ways to go. If I wasn't a full-time programmer who also likes to do a little coding at home I doubt I could even say that much. After all, the only real use I've found for linux is for development. Everything else is done better, faster, sooner and more reliable on windows and macOS.
The main reason I have a computer at home is for games anyway, and we've all seen what happens when a company attempts to deliver games on linux. (*cough*Loki*cough) Until a linux distribution is released with support for my immense library of windows games, it'll remain on my secondary partition and booted only when I feel like coding.
I believe the question was 'When will we be leaving someone there?' We have had manned stations in orbit for awhile now, so why can't we send someone to the moon for a few months? I'm still waiting for that moon base that I dreamed of as a kid...
I don't think you need to reply to someone with a -1 default score. I doubt he cares.
For the record, though, you're right about Islam, maybe more so than you think. Islam is actually one of the most tolerant religions out there, even towards Christianity and Judaism. Even their bible, the Qur'an, explicitly forbids violence against such people (the typical targets of 'Islamic' terrorists) There is a quote from Allah stating the He himself will damn anyone who harms a Christian or Jew. Muslims are forbidden from declaring Jihad, 'Holy War,' against Christans and Jews.
Islam is the only western religion that I know of which recognizes other religions as believers as well. Both Moses and Jesus are mentioned in the Qur'an, and while they name Mohammad as the prophet of God, they still recognize the wisdom of them.
In short, even true Muslims would agree that these terrorists are probably burning in hell right now. If I was the religious type, I would be proud to call myself a Muslim.
Well, once again I stand corrected. That was a Kubrick movie? Of course I haven't seen it since it was released on video, which has been quite awhile;-) Back that I never really paid much attention to details like who directed the movie, I just watched what looked good:)
Oh well, I guess I should change my stance to "I really hated some Kubrick films";-)
While I'm usually very much against turning to the judicial system except in extreme cases (I'd be a lot happier with about 5 lawyers per country, myself), this could very well be one of those cases.
US law in particuar has a pretty bad track record with high-tech issues, we could use as many favorable precedents as possible.
I'll definately follow this one a lot more closely than I usually do, I'll be crossing my fingers till we hear what happens;-)
Actually, you're right. Never saw it, though I have been meaning to for quite a while. I have the trailer for it, looks quite bizzare, and from what I hear it's quite a classic.
Is it out on DVD? I'll have to look for it, my roomate says it was great.
Now this is definately good news. Too bad I can't use quicktime here, I have to wait till I get home to watch the trailer.
I've always been big in AI, my first programming experiences were with modifying some of the simpler games on my old apple ][e;-)
It'd be interesting to see how deep into AI the movie goes; I doubt that it'll go into anything even remotely like what they teach in the AI intro classes, but hopefully they'll still keep it accurate enough to keep those who know what it's all about happy. Nothing's more annying than a movie that gets just about everything wrong, (*COUGH*Hackers*COUGH*The Net*COUGH*)
Also curious about what effect Spielburg's taking the reins will have on the overall outlook. I hated just about all of Kubrick's films, with the exceptions of 2001 and The Shining, but it's also hard to see a movie like this coming from Spielburg. It's definately got my attention...
Well, unles I'm totally confused, I've been using Star Office for quite a while now. It actually came with the Sun Solaris 2.5.8 distribution that I got, with detailed documentation and everything. Maybe it was something else, but I could've sworn it was Start Office.
Sounds nice, could it be that one day we will all have our own personal super-computer with a "Tux-Inside" sticker?;-)
Just tell me where the line forms. Until it becomes feasable for me, though, I'll just have to keep the Sun Blade on my wish list;-)
Well, good for you. However, the fact that your company is able to make a decent profit while being pirated does not justify the piracy.
Everyone has a different outlook on their own property, and if you don't mind someone taking something you put time and effort into without compensation then I certainly don't mind as well. OTOH, though, some people do mind, and want to protect their right to compensation. Some companies cannot survive blatant piracy of their work, and even if they could, they still have the right to compensation for their work. Now the movie industry would definately survive if a few people made illegal copies of movies, but that doesn't make it right.
Well, as to the comment about the evils of stealing, I don't see how this does not apply to wholly digital work. Someone who creates something, whether digital/analog/whatever, is entitled to be compensated for his effort. Although the work itself can be copied without destroying the original, the owner is being deprived of his compensation for that work. Taking something without paying for it is still stealing, it doesn't matter how the copy was made.
As for the licensing issue, I do not see how this is an arbitrary resrtiction on any freedom at all. If someone creates something and offers to let you use it under certain conditions, you can't complain that those conditions are restricting your personal freedoms. You have to freedom to say no, do not accept the conditions and do not use the work. If someone demanded my firstborn son as compensation for using their software, I would not use their software. The only power they have over me is that they can limit how I use something that they created. I don't think the ACLU would be too interested in fighting that battle.
Not sure what you're asking in the last line, about "free use," but if you mean what can someone ask as compensation for using their work, then I would have to say that they could ask for anything they want. Of course, they wouldn't be guarenteed to get it, but that's simply up to the market.
Murder is not larceny, running over a cat is not bank fraud, and removing the mattress tag is nowhere near as fun as bigamy.
Copyright infringment, however, is stealing. It has a different name, but the idea is the same. I'm not going by webseter's dictonary, though, but I am using common sense. The copywrited works are not given to you, rather, you are simply given the privledge of using them, as long as you agree to do so in certain permitted ways. Violating this agreement and acting as if you own the work and all rights therein is, at the core, the same thing as stealing. You aren't depriving them of anything physical, but you are challenging the idea of their ownership of their creations.
In all, maybe slightly different at most, but certainly far similar than any inflammatory analogies that I've seen in the past.
Well, you're obviously not a coder then. I do most of my development at work, for work, but I also do some little stuff at home. Nothing significant yet, but if that ever changes, I would certainly want to protect it. Copying without express permission is stealing. If someone goes to the effort to create something then they should be compensated for their time and effort.
If people aren't compensated for their effort, then they'll wise up and stop making that effort.
I myself like listening to music and watching movies. I'm sure the artists also enjoy making them, but if they can't support themselves from it, then they'll have to do something else. I sure wouldn't keep coming to work if I wasn't being paid. I like it here, but not that much. Besides, I'd have to find a job where I would get paid.
OTOH, if you ever do fnd such a magic ray, let me know, 'k?;-)
Well, my question is: how is an anti-stealing law unjust? If someone developed a method for breaking home security systems, and could just walk in and "liberate" all your personal belongings (since they want to be free after all, especially your beer...;-), I think we can all agree that that is not a Good Thing(tm).
Would it be unjust to say that I can't have your car if I can demenstrate the skill needed to hotwire it? Or is it just unjust to say that we shouldn't pay for anything we can steal?
Just noticed I was ranting, but this is something that really bothers me. I agree that the MPAA/RIAA/etc are all making tons of money, but that's the idea. They wouldn't be in the business if it wasn't profitable. Basically what I see is that people think their pricing methods are unjust, and that they can change this practice by stealing.
Well, it kinda sounds familiar to me, what with all the arguments about virtual violence in video games/movies/music whatever. If it's legal to go on a shooting spree and kill hunderends of unuarmed innocents in a video game, or root for the bad guy in a particularry gruesome movie, why should this be any different?
I'll be the first to argue that it's morraly wrong, and basically sick, but it's not my place to decide what people should do with their time. As long as it's purely virtual, then no one gets hurt and it's basically a private matter up to the individual.
Now it could lead to inspiring such acts agains real children, which is a totally different matter, but it could also give the crazies what they want in a harmless matter. The question, I guess, is would the virtual be better than the real thing?
Makes me glad I'm not a parent yet, but afraid of what times will be like when that changes...
Not a bad article, I always wanted to be a rocket scientist myself, just never followed through.:-)
I remember the challenger explosion pretty well, and while I hope that something like that will never happen again, space exploration is a pretty dangerous business. Accidents do and will happen, but as long as we try to minimize the known risks, I say keep going. (Not that I have any authority on the matter.)
I hear people complaining about NASA all the time, (we have a few contacts with nasa people here at work,) but I find it hard to speak against any group of people who are struggling to answer questions about our worlds. (Even though oftentimes they simply create new questions...) I know that individually they're all people just as annoying and full of quirks and bad habits as the rest of us, but they're doing a good job togethere.
I just wish we could go back to the moon:-) Why stop doing something just because you proved it can be done?
About the 2010 reference, the Monoliths weren't gathering in space debris; rather, they were drawing in the light gasses in Jupiter's atmospher and converting them into heavier elements. This increased the density of the planent enough so that it collapsed into itself forming Lucifer, the morning star.
I'm not exactly sure what threories they're using to say what the maximum size for a planet is, but it's not like nature has ever listened to any of man's limiting theories anyway. We're just trying to come up with generalizations for things that we don't know everything about yet
What is wrong with you guys? The AT-AT's were government vehicles, so naturally they were programmed by the most incompetant lowest bidder they could find. The code probably looks like something microsoft would shun.
Does this mean that they haven't gotten enough pre-orders yet, or are they simply trying to build up some hype for the PS2?
I think I'll head to the mall when this things finally ships just to watch all the people get in line for something that hey're convinced that they just have to get. Maybe I'll buy one the next week when they're selling for $20US
Sounds cool. One of the guys here at work had a translator that converted normal documents into jive, now that was hilarious:)
I don't know about the author, but I always get a kick at the troll-biters. I really wish/. could be a forum for intelligent conversation, but until that happens, I can still get my fill of amusement out of the [flame-bait deleted] who haunt/.
Definately a troll. I'm mobidly curious about who modded it as 'insightfull.' Either he used a real account, and just wanted to make the post stand out, someone just gave it a point for being so long. (Yet more evidence that/. moderation is broken. Oh well)
As for his vocabulary, either this was generated by some poor dialog generator, or this guy knows the words but not the defenitions. I don't claim to know all of them myself, but I did recognize most of them, especially the ones that he totally blew. (And I was excited for a minute that this might be an intelligent post... I think he just typed a bunch of gibberish occasionally and let the spell checker make a word out of it...)
Anyway, I'd better get back to work, I was just hoping that the same moderator would give me an insightfull for this comment too. I'd like to buy a lottery ticket tonight, and I want to build up a bunch of karma first.
heh, I wish I was deluded, but unfortunately I'm about as cynical as they come.
However, corruption and for-profit organization are two different things. We live in a world where everything involving money is corrupt in some way or another. (Exceot microsoft. We all know Bill Gates, AKA G-Man, is a saint....)
What I was talking about was the IOC as a whole, not the indivuals who are living off of it. If they lost their 'legitimate' income, we'd be hard pressed to even have the olympics, unless they start charging an exorbinant entrance fee, basically limiting the possible participants to the handfull of countries with a GDP of more than 3 figures, or they go back to the old days (circa 1000 BC), when the only events are the most basic. I really doubt they'd support the olympics with money from under the table deals, bribes, etc.
As with just about all organizations, the IOC is a pretty decent idea, which would benefit greatly from some (violent) pruning of the upper 99% of it's leadership.
Well, it seems like the IOC is saying, "If you want to play our games, you have to go through us to talk to the public." Utter BS, but I didn't make the rules.
I'd really love to tear into them, but they are non-profit, and they're just trying to hold onto their 'funding.' It's just a shame that they couldn't think of a bettter way to handle it.
Well, I've been a consol gamer and pc gamer for the longest time, and there are plusses and minues to each of them.
IMO, the best thing about console games is the ease of use. No worries about compatablity, tweaking environemnt variables, installation nightmares. Just open the box and put in the (cartridge/CD/holo-cube), and play.
As for the display on a tv, the display may not alway be that great, but just think how much a 60" monitor would cost, then check out the same size tv... Of course, you could always hook up your tv to the computer, but that leads to my third point. With console games, you've got a joystick for control, no more, no less. No worries about where to put the keyboard/mouse/joystick/external drives/other misc hardware. If I tried to set up my computer in the living room, we wouldn't have room for much of anything else. However, I've got about 6 or so consoles hidden in the tv stand, and they rarely get in the way.
Don't take me wrong, I love PC games, and could give plenty of benefits for them as well, but being a pc gamer yourself, I don't need to.
Slashdot Mirror
I've used Mandrake 8.0, among many other flavors, and have yet to find one that is honestly less of a hassle than my trusty Win98 partition.
I still support Linux, and I'll be a fan for awhile, but it's still got a long ways to go. If I wasn't a full-time programmer who also likes to do a little coding at home I doubt I could even say that much. After all, the only real use I've found for linux is for development. Everything else is done better, faster, sooner and more reliable on windows and macOS.
The main reason I have a computer at home is for games anyway, and we've all seen what happens when a company attempts to deliver games on linux. (*cough*Loki*cough) Until a linux distribution is released with support for my immense library of windows games, it'll remain on my secondary partition and booted only when I feel like coding.
I believe the question was 'When will we be leaving someone there?' We have had manned stations in orbit for awhile now, so why can't we send someone to the moon for a few months? I'm still waiting for that moon base that I dreamed of as a kid...
I don't think you need to reply to someone with a -1 default score. I doubt he cares.
For the record, though, you're right about Islam, maybe more so than you think. Islam is actually one of the most tolerant religions out there, even towards Christianity and Judaism. Even their bible, the Qur'an, explicitly forbids violence against such people (the typical targets of 'Islamic' terrorists) There is a quote from Allah stating the He himself will damn anyone who harms a Christian or Jew. Muslims are forbidden from declaring Jihad, 'Holy War,' against Christans and Jews.
Islam is the only western religion that I know of which recognizes other religions as believers as well. Both Moses and Jesus are mentioned in the Qur'an, and while they name Mohammad as the prophet of God, they still recognize the wisdom of them.
In short, even true Muslims would agree that these terrorists are probably burning in hell right now. If I was the religious type, I would be proud to call myself a Muslim.
Well, once again I stand corrected. That was a Kubrick movie? Of course I haven't seen it since it was released on video, which has been quite awhile ;-) Back that I never really paid much attention to details like who directed the movie, I just watched what looked good :)
;-)
Oh well, I guess I should change my stance to "I really hated some Kubrick films"
While I'm usually very much against turning to the judicial system except in extreme cases (I'd be a lot happier with about 5 lawyers per country, myself), this could very well be one of those cases. ;-)
US law in particuar has a pretty bad track record with high-tech issues, we could use as many favorable precedents as possible.
I'll definately follow this one a lot more closely than I usually do, I'll be crossing my fingers till we hear what happens
Actually, you're right. Never saw it, though I have been meaning to for quite a while. I have the trailer for it, looks quite bizzare, and from what I hear it's quite a classic.
Is it out on DVD? I'll have to look for it, my roomate says it was great.
Now this is definately good news. Too bad I can't use quicktime here, I have to wait till I get home to watch the trailer. ;-)
I've always been big in AI, my first programming experiences were with modifying some of the simpler games on my old apple ][e
It'd be interesting to see how deep into AI the movie goes; I doubt that it'll go into anything even remotely like what they teach in the AI intro classes, but hopefully they'll still keep it accurate enough to keep those who know what it's all about happy. Nothing's more annying than a movie that gets just about everything wrong, (*COUGH*Hackers*COUGH*The Net*COUGH*)
Also curious about what effect Spielburg's taking the reins will have on the overall outlook. I hated just about all of Kubrick's films, with the exceptions of 2001 and The Shining, but it's also hard to see a movie like this coming from Spielburg. It's definately got my attention...
Well, unles I'm totally confused, I've been using Star Office for quite a while now. It actually came with the Sun Solaris 2.5.8 distribution that I got, with detailed documentation and everything. Maybe it was something else, but I could've sworn it was Start Office.
Sounds nice, could it be that one day we will all have our own personal super-computer with a "Tux-Inside" sticker? ;-)
;-)
Just tell me where the line forms. Until it becomes feasable for me, though, I'll just have to keep the Sun Blade on my wish list
Well, good for you. However, the fact that your company is able to make a decent profit while being pirated does not justify the piracy.
Everyone has a different outlook on their own property, and if you don't mind someone taking something you put time and effort into without compensation then I certainly don't mind as well. OTOH, though, some people do mind, and want to protect their right to compensation. Some companies cannot survive blatant piracy of their work, and even if they could, they still have the right to compensation for their work. Now the movie industry would definately survive if a few people made illegal copies of movies, but that doesn't make it right.
Well, as to the comment about the evils of stealing, I don't see how this does not apply to wholly digital work. Someone who creates something, whether digital/analog/whatever, is entitled to be compensated for his effort. Although the work itself can be copied without destroying the original, the owner is being deprived of his compensation for that work. Taking something without paying for it is still stealing, it doesn't matter how the copy was made.
As for the licensing issue, I do not see how this is an arbitrary resrtiction on any freedom at all. If someone creates something and offers to let you use it under certain conditions, you can't complain that those conditions are restricting your personal freedoms. You have to freedom to say no, do not accept the conditions and do not use the work. If someone demanded my firstborn son as compensation for using their software, I would not use their software. The only power they have over me is that they can limit how I use something that they created. I don't think the ACLU would be too interested in fighting that battle.
Not sure what you're asking in the last line, about "free use," but if you mean what can someone ask as compensation for using their work, then I would have to say that they could ask for anything they want. Of course, they wouldn't be guarenteed to get it, but that's simply up to the market.
Murder is not larceny, running over a cat is not bank fraud, and removing the mattress tag is nowhere near as fun as bigamy.
Copyright infringment, however, is stealing. It has a different name, but the idea is the same. I'm not going by webseter's dictonary, though, but I am using common sense. The copywrited works are not given to you, rather, you are simply given the privledge of using them, as long as you agree to do so in certain permitted ways. Violating this agreement and acting as if you own the work and all rights therein is, at the core, the same thing as stealing. You aren't depriving them of anything physical, but you are challenging the idea of their ownership of their creations.
In all, maybe slightly different at most, but certainly far similar than any inflammatory analogies that I've seen in the past.
Well, you're obviously not a coder then. I do most of my development at work, for work, but I also do some little stuff at home. Nothing significant yet, but if that ever changes, I would certainly want to protect it. Copying without express permission is stealing. If someone goes to the effort to create something then they should be compensated for their time and effort. ;-)
If people aren't compensated for their effort, then they'll wise up and stop making that effort. I myself like listening to music and watching movies. I'm sure the artists also enjoy making them, but if they can't support themselves from it, then they'll have to do something else. I sure wouldn't keep coming to work if I wasn't being paid. I like it here, but not that much. Besides, I'd have to find a job where I would get paid.
OTOH, if you ever do fnd such a magic ray, let me know, 'k?
Well, my question is: how is an anti-stealing law unjust? If someone developed a method for breaking home security systems, and could just walk in and "liberate" all your personal belongings (since they want to be free after all, especially your beer... ;-), I think we can all agree that that is not a Good Thing(tm).
Would it be unjust to say that I can't have your car if I can demenstrate the skill needed to hotwire it? Or is it just unjust to say that we shouldn't pay for anything we can steal?
Just noticed I was ranting, but this is something that really bothers me. I agree that the MPAA/RIAA/etc are all making tons of money, but that's the idea. They wouldn't be in the business if it wasn't profitable. Basically what I see is that people think their pricing methods are unjust, and that they can change this practice by stealing.
Well, it kinda sounds familiar to me, what with all the arguments about virtual violence in video games/movies/music whatever. If it's legal to go on a shooting spree and kill hunderends of unuarmed innocents in a video game, or root for the bad guy in a particularry gruesome movie, why should this be any different?
I'll be the first to argue that it's morraly wrong, and basically sick, but it's not my place to decide what people should do with their time. As long as it's purely virtual, then no one gets hurt and it's basically a private matter up to the individual.
Now it could lead to inspiring such acts agains real children, which is a totally different matter, but it could also give the crazies what they want in a harmless matter. The question, I guess, is would the virtual be better than the real thing?
Makes me glad I'm not a parent yet, but afraid of what times will be like when that changes...
Not a bad article, I always wanted to be a rocket scientist myself, just never followed through. :-)
:-) Why stop doing something just because you proved it can be done?
I remember the challenger explosion pretty well, and while I hope that something like that will never happen again, space exploration is a pretty dangerous business. Accidents do and will happen, but as long as we try to minimize the known risks, I say keep going. (Not that I have any authority on the matter.)
I hear people complaining about NASA all the time, (we have a few contacts with nasa people here at work,) but I find it hard to speak against any group of people who are struggling to answer questions about our worlds. (Even though oftentimes they simply create new questions...) I know that individually they're all people just as annoying and full of quirks and bad habits as the rest of us, but they're doing a good job togethere.
I just wish we could go back to the moon
About the 2010 reference, the Monoliths weren't gathering in space debris; rather, they were drawing in the light gasses in Jupiter's atmospher and converting them into heavier elements. This increased the density of the planent enough so that it collapsed into itself forming Lucifer, the morning star.
I'm not exactly sure what threories they're using to say what the maximum size for a planet is, but it's not like nature has ever listened to any of man's limiting theories anyway. We're just trying to come up with generalizations for things that we don't know everything about yet
What is wrong with you guys? The AT-AT's were government vehicles, so naturally they were programmed by the most incompetant lowest bidder they could find. The code probably looks like something microsoft would shun.
/end sarcasm
10 REM AT-AT DRIVER
20 GOTO 10
I asked my boss for one. he said I might get a sparc 20 if I was good. (not even an ultra...)
Does this mean that they haven't gotten enough pre-orders yet, or are they simply trying to build up some hype for the PS2?
I think I'll head to the mall when this things finally ships just to watch all the people get in line for something that hey're convinced that they just have to get. Maybe I'll buy one the next week when they're selling for $20US
Sounds cool. One of the guys here at work had a translator that converted normal documents into jive, now that was hilarious :)
/. could be a forum for intelligent conversation, but until that happens, I can still get my fill of amusement out of the [flame-bait deleted] who haunt /.
I don't know about the author, but I always get a kick at the troll-biters. I really wish
Definately a troll. I'm mobidly curious about who modded it as 'insightfull.' Either he used a real account, and just wanted to make the post stand out, someone just gave it a point for being so long. (Yet more evidence that /. moderation is broken. Oh well)
As for his vocabulary, either this was generated by some poor dialog generator, or this guy knows the words but not the defenitions. I don't claim to know all of them myself, but I did recognize most of them, especially the ones that he totally blew. (And I was excited for a minute that this might be an intelligent post... I think he just typed a bunch of gibberish occasionally and let the spell checker make a word out of it...)
Anyway, I'd better get back to work, I was just hoping that the same moderator would give me an insightfull for this comment too. I'd like to buy a lottery ticket tonight, and I want to build up a bunch of karma first.
heh, I wish I was deluded, but unfortunately I'm about as cynical as they come.
However, corruption and for-profit organization are two different things. We live in a world where everything involving money is corrupt in some way or another. (Exceot microsoft. We all know Bill Gates, AKA G-Man, is a saint....)
What I was talking about was the IOC as a whole, not the indivuals who are living off of it. If they lost their 'legitimate' income, we'd be hard pressed to even have the olympics, unless they start charging an exorbinant entrance fee, basically limiting the possible participants to the handfull of countries with a GDP of more than 3 figures, or they go back to the old days (circa 1000 BC), when the only events are the most basic. I really doubt they'd support the olympics with money from under the table deals, bribes, etc.
As with just about all organizations, the IOC is a pretty decent idea, which would benefit greatly from some (violent) pruning of the upper 99% of it's leadership.
Well, it seems like the IOC is saying, "If you want to play our games, you have to go through us to talk to the public." Utter BS, but I didn't make the rules.
I'd really love to tear into them, but they are non-profit, and they're just trying to hold onto their 'funding.' It's just a shame that they couldn't think of a bettter way to handle it.
Well, I've been a consol gamer and pc gamer for the longest time, and there are plusses and minues to each of them.
IMO, the best thing about console games is the ease of use. No worries about compatablity, tweaking environemnt variables, installation nightmares. Just open the box and put in the (cartridge/CD/holo-cube), and play.
As for the display on a tv, the display may not alway be that great, but just think how much a 60" monitor would cost, then check out the same size tv... Of course, you could always hook up your tv to the computer, but that leads to my third point. With console games, you've got a joystick for control, no more, no less. No worries about where to put the keyboard/mouse/joystick/external drives/other misc hardware. If I tried to set up my computer in the living room, we wouldn't have room for much of anything else. However, I've got about 6 or so consoles hidden in the tv stand, and they rarely get in the way.
Don't take me wrong, I love PC games, and could give plenty of benefits for them as well, but being a pc gamer yourself, I don't need to.