I'd pay just as much for my Open Source software, more even, than I would for my Mac OSX or Windows software... which I also have and paid for.
Should I take this to mean that you actually contribute (money, code submissions, bug reports, etc.) to the Open Source projects you find useful and the advocacy groups that make their work possible? Or do you just say you WOULD?
"We need to keep reminding people that what we're doing is trying to keep the freedom of ideas in the 21st century, in a world where there are guys with little paste-it labels with price tags on it who would stick it on every idea on earth if it would make value for the shareholders."
The difference between Free Software and Open Source is this: Open Source wants there to be no paste-it labels on the ideas. Free Software wants to put a paste-it label on every idea that reads "$0.00".
On Windows, you get media players battling it out for control of your media.
Unless you don't install Quicktime, RealPlayer, and the rest of the horribly behaved junk. The only player on my Windows system is WMP, and I changed all the file associations so playing a file launches the "classic" interface (mplayer2.exe) rather than the horribly misdesigned player/library/minibrowser interface.
Want to load clips into iMovie and assemble them? Sorry, no can do--pay a lot more $$$ to get the professional stuff.
So what you're saying isn't really "no can do", but rather "no can do for free". I don't think that's salient to the UI design discussion we're having here.
Rather than ranting, JWZ could try to improve things for a change
But by ranting, he IS trying to improve things. He's a well-known figure in the community; when he rants, people listen. Chances are good that some interface designer will take his complaints to heart and improvements will be made as a result.
how would you determine who gets a permit? Doesn't pass spam? Ok, how about sending unpopular political views or "dangerous" information.
This would be a non-issue, because the law would clearly state what criteria an admin needs to meet to operate a mail server. And obviously the law will have to avoid language like "unpopular political views" or it will be struck down as unconstitutional.
But your first point still stands -- email abuse is an international problem and a licensing plan that does not extend beyond national borders is all but useless.
What in God's name were they doing with all that computer hardware? It's a website with a database.
How do employees maintain that website and database? You need workstations. If you have workstation, you need a desk to put it on and a chair to place in front of the desk. And you need office space in which to place all of those.
And clearly, you need a Hummer to drive yourself from your home to that office! See how it all makes sense?
Kidding aside, I think you mis-estimate the scope of what is actually needed to run a service such as the one mp3.com used to be. It's not just "a website with a database", it's "a HUGE website with an ENORMOUS database". PHP and MySQL weren't going to cut it for the kind of performance they needed -- enterprise solutions WERE required.
I predict that a future version of windows will integrate sound and video into the interface. Making Media Player the new file-navigator, with animated talking program icons or some such.
In the article it states that many media content companies are making files and movies available only in Windows Media Formats, because its the only Media player they know thats going to be on the system.
WMP plays vanilla MPEG movies. As does just about every other media player on the planet.
Why wouldn't these mythical media content companies release their content in MPEG format, then?
when you are a convicted monopolist. the rules suddenly change.
As far as I know (IANAL, in either the EU nor the USA), being found guilty of monopolistic business practices (not 'convicted', that's for criminal matters) does not give the courts carte blanche to prescribe any remedies they wish.
The remedies should be related to the business practices through which anticompetetive behavior was leveraged; if the court's findings was that MS was a monopoly BECAUSE they bundled a default media player, they can compel them to unbundle it; if the media player wasn't a part of the court's findings, the remedies should not involve it.
Summary of parent comment: RAP IS CRAP AND ISNT EVEN MUSIC, ONLY ROCK IS REAL MUSIC.
You don't have to like the genre, dude, but don't spew nonsense like claiming you can replicate a hip-hop hitmaker's skill with a simple Java program and arbitrary input. You can't.
Someone who's more familiar with Eminem's music can answer this - but who has Eminem ripped off?
His single "Stan" contains a prominent sample from the Dido song "Thank You", as does his "Sing For The Moment" draw heavily from Aerosmith's "Dream On".
In both cases, though, he didn't "rip off" anyone. Eminem's record company obtained a license from the copyright holders to sample the music. It's a mutually agreed upon business contract.
Proper clearance of samples in hip hop music has been de rigeur for at least 10 years now, at least in the mainstream. There is still a lot of unauthorized sampling in the underground communities, simply because they haven't become popular enough to show up on the music business's radar yet.
It is routine, however, that the FBI or police seize computer equipment and never return it.
Got any figures to back that assertion up? Or are you just going based on what you've read in Kevin Mitnick's biography and in other FUD submissions in Your Rights Online?
Interesting is that it comes in contradiction with the idea that communism as a system is unable to sustain its own people, if it took an artificial arms race to bankrupt it.
Not necessarily -- perhaps communist states are destined to fail anyway, and Cold War arms race merely accelerated the USSR's demise.
Now, if we reach the point where John Q. Malcontent can download and print the various parts of an AK-47 in the comfort of his own studio apartment in a matter of hours...
Don't worry. Photoshop will pop up an error dialog if you try to print something it thinks is a weapon part.
Nokia and Sony Ericsson [...] spec that they want Bluetooth in a phone series, and the chip will have Bluetooth.
Perhaps so, but if the chip manufacturers respond to the quote request with "none of our existing designs include Bluetooth functionality anymore, we can develop a design that does, but it will cost you $5 more per unit and add 9 months to your time-to-market", how likely is it that the Bluetooth requirement will be dropped?
Slashdot Mirror
the possibility of a printed version of Wikipedia
Perhaps they could bundle it with "People Who Miss The Point, Volume 1"...
I'd pay just as much for my Open Source software, more even, than I would for my Mac OSX or Windows software... which I also have and paid for.
Should I take this to mean that you actually contribute (money, code submissions, bug reports, etc.) to the Open Source projects you find useful and the advocacy groups that make their work possible? Or do you just say you WOULD?
"We need to keep reminding people that what we're doing is trying to keep the freedom of ideas in the 21st century, in a world where there are guys with little paste-it labels with price tags on it who would stick it on every idea on earth if it would make value for the shareholders."
The difference between Free Software and Open Source is this:
Open Source wants there to be no paste-it labels on the ideas.
Free Software wants to put a paste-it label on every idea that reads "$0.00".
aunt tillie's failure to read the dox, search the list, and otherwise be completely "luxuriously" ignorant.
Bullshit. Why should "she" have to do all of that? Why can't it "just work"?
Go buy windows.
That's exactly what most users will continue to do, as long as there are attitudes like yours in the Linux community.
OSS isn't really a fair proposition if you don't have something to contribute.... or at least meet the developer half-way.
If you don't think complaints about poor user interface are a valid contribution, you're a fool.
Good UI benefits everybody.
it's not because I'm trying to specifically exclude stupid users, it's just that it takes a hell of a lot more work to create a dumbed-down interface
You say "dumbed-down", I say "intuitive". Six of one, half dozen of the other?
On Windows, you get media players battling it out for control of your media.
Unless you don't install Quicktime, RealPlayer, and the rest of the horribly behaved junk. The only player on my Windows system is WMP, and I changed all the file associations so playing a file launches the "classic" interface (mplayer2.exe) rather than the horribly misdesigned player/library/minibrowser interface.
Want to load clips into iMovie and assemble them? Sorry, no can do--pay a lot more $$$ to get the professional stuff.
So what you're saying isn't really "no can do", but rather "no can do for free". I don't think that's salient to the UI design discussion we're having here.
Rather than ranting, JWZ could try to improve things for a change
But by ranting, he IS trying to improve things. He's a well-known figure in the community; when he rants, people listen. Chances are good that some interface designer will take his complaints to heart and improvements will be made as a result.
The trick to gettting dvdrecord to work is to know that it only supports "-dao" on most drives.
Funny, I don't need to know any obscure trivia like that to get DVD burning to work on my Windows or Mac systems.
how would you determine who gets a permit? Doesn't pass spam? Ok, how about sending unpopular political views or "dangerous" information.
This would be a non-issue, because the law would clearly state what criteria an admin needs to meet to operate a mail server. And obviously the law will have to avoid language like "unpopular political views" or it will be struck down as unconstitutional.
But your first point still stands -- email abuse is an international problem and a licensing plan that does not extend beyond national borders is all but useless.
I wouldnt be surprised if they merged the 64bit and 32bit code trees, or something of the sort.
Where am I gonna find a 48 bit CPU though?
Actually what I'm thrilled about (even if others say its horribly inefficient) is the 3D accelerated desktop that is supposed to be in Longhorn
Which will be another similarity between the next version of Windows and the Matrix movies -- gratuitous eye candy effects, rendered in slow motion...
I think "you got served" is a pretty good candidate myself.
Nonsense. IIS has never served to anyone, except as a cautionary tale.
XML is handy, and it's a lovely big hammer. Ooo, look at all the nails!
For small and simple datasets XML is overkill -- like trying to use a sledgehammer to drive a millimeter-thick finishing nail.
What in God's name were they doing with all that computer hardware? It's a website with a database.
How do employees maintain that website and database? You need workstations. If you have workstation, you need a desk to put it on and a chair to place in front of the desk. And you need office space in which to place all of those.
And clearly, you need a Hummer to drive yourself from your home to that office! See how it all makes sense?
Kidding aside, I think you mis-estimate the scope of what is actually needed to run a service such as the one mp3.com used to be. It's not just "a website with a database", it's "a HUGE website with an ENORMOUS database". PHP and MySQL weren't going to cut it for the kind of performance they needed -- enterprise solutions WERE required.
those RFID tags will bury their way into your stomach lining and scream "LOOK AT ME, I AM A NUMBER!" forevermore.
This is FUD, pure and simple.
Everyone knows you don't BUY beer-RFID's, you just RENT Them.
I predict that a future version of windows will integrate sound and video into the interface. Making Media Player the new file-navigator, with animated talking program icons or some such.
Hmm... sounds like OS/2 Warp.
In the article it states that many media content companies are making files and movies available only in Windows Media Formats, because its the only Media player they know thats going to be on the system.
WMP plays vanilla MPEG movies. As does just about every other media player on the planet.
Why wouldn't these mythical media content companies release their content in MPEG format, then?
when you are a convicted monopolist. the rules suddenly change.
As far as I know (IANAL, in either the EU nor the USA), being found guilty of monopolistic business practices (not 'convicted', that's for criminal matters) does not give the courts carte blanche to prescribe any remedies they wish.
The remedies should be related to the business practices through which anticompetetive behavior was leveraged; if the court's findings was that MS was a monopoly BECAUSE they bundled a default media player, they can compel them to unbundle it; if the media player wasn't a part of the court's findings, the remedies should not involve it.
Summary of parent comment: RAP IS CRAP AND ISNT EVEN MUSIC, ONLY ROCK IS REAL MUSIC.
You don't have to like the genre, dude, but don't spew nonsense like claiming you can replicate a hip-hop hitmaker's skill with a simple Java program and arbitrary input. You can't.
Someone who's more familiar with Eminem's music can answer this - but who has Eminem ripped off?
His single "Stan" contains a prominent sample from the Dido song "Thank You", as does his "Sing For The Moment" draw heavily from Aerosmith's "Dream On".
In both cases, though, he didn't "rip off" anyone. Eminem's record company obtained a license from the copyright holders to sample the music. It's a mutually agreed upon business contract.
Proper clearance of samples in hip hop music has been de rigeur for at least 10 years now, at least in the mainstream. There is still a lot of unauthorized sampling in the underground communities, simply because they haven't become popular enough to show up on the music business's radar yet.
I hope no one ever buys that loser's albums ever again and he can go back to being poor white trash again.
Wait, so today Slashdot is AGAINST artists getting fair compensation for the use of their work? I'm confused.
I wonder what Shawn Fanning would make of it, as it was his nickname in the first place.
I asked Shawn for a comment, and his response was "I'm rich, biatch!"
It is routine, however, that the FBI or police seize computer equipment and never return it.
Got any figures to back that assertion up? Or are you just going based on what you've read in Kevin Mitnick's biography and in other FUD submissions in Your Rights Online?
Interesting is that it comes in contradiction with the idea that communism as a system is unable to sustain its own people, if it took an artificial arms race to bankrupt it.
Not necessarily -- perhaps communist states are destined to fail anyway, and Cold War arms race merely accelerated the USSR's demise.
Now, if we reach the point where John Q. Malcontent can download and print the various parts of an AK-47 in the comfort of his own studio apartment in a matter of hours...
Don't worry. Photoshop will pop up an error dialog if you try to print something it thinks is a weapon part.
Nokia and Sony Ericsson [...] spec that they want Bluetooth in a phone series, and the chip will have Bluetooth.
Perhaps so, but if the chip manufacturers respond to the quote request with "none of our existing designs include Bluetooth functionality anymore, we can develop a design that does, but it will cost you $5 more per unit and add 9 months to your time-to-market", how likely is it that the Bluetooth requirement will be dropped?