Well I wonder... What does my company care whether I waste time looking at photographs showing the landscape of Brazil - or at photographs showing nude women? Whether I'm reading a joke or looking at porn or writing comments on slashdot - I'm still not working, right?
Ideally of course a company would want employees not to waste their time at all - but of all the available distractions, what sense does it make to filter just one?
Well PR is not necessarily promoting KDE against Gnome or Gnome against KDE. It can just promote a Linux desktop.
For example some smaller countries are very much interested in having a desktop which is available in their language - it's very helpful when people there learn that KDE supports it. (Assuming it does.:^)
It could also help to promote Linux to people who aren't up to date on the quality of Linux desktops today.
* Small states and areas with low population density are not ignored
In return states where the outcome is clear are ignored.
* In the case that something awful happens [...] the electors don't HAVE to go with the people's vote...
Then again they *could* vote for the Anti-Christ which the people just threw out...
* It turns out that each person's vote is more powerful that way
Some peoples votes are less powerful - those who live in states where there is a clear majority.
If you are in the majority your vote doesn't make a difference anymore, if you're in the minority you can't be heard. Closely contested states have then obviously more power - every vote *there* counts. That's the problem here: It's not one man one vote - the votes are not equal.
* Finally, it's the only thing that prevents the presidential election from being a full-blown popularity contest.
I don't know why you think that, how does it prevent that?
Regarding bias: leading up to the election there was a lot of discussion about the electoral college. That this started after Gore received the popular vote is a distortion of facts. Fact however is: the current rules include the electoral college - that's how it works, and the results need to be accepted. However I don't see why you shouldn't discuss getting rid of the system when it proves unsatisfactory.
Of course there are discussions about this, now that the system *does* make a difference, otherwise it wouldn't matter, right?
Now I understand better where you're coming from, however I don't agree. Comparing the US with Europe, people in Europe complain about invasion of their privacy all the time - as a result they have significantly better privacy protection.
So empirically - you're strategy has been shown to fail.:(
The article is about a replacement for barcodes... get over it.
Yeah that's what the article is about.
So what? The tag are supposed to have considerable
range (they are supposed to prevent shoplifting).
That is a privacy concern. Is it possible to
handle this without affecting your privacy?
Maybe. But not if we accept everything without any complaint.
Sure there are many ways to invade your privacy
and spy on you already - but just because a situation is bad doesn't mean it can't get worse.
Week, by week, by week the great Gods of Slashdot deliver upon us editorialized half-rants about privacy concerns---and it just does not seem like that big a deal to me.
Alright... now they are going to tag you like some animal. Doesn't concern you? Fair enough, but I demand more respect from the places I buy goods from.
Well I think that depends what your work situation is. I have root access on my machine, so I know (more or less) what's going on, on it. However I don't control what's happening to my data on the way to yahoo or some other website. So encryption would help me. I don't spend all that much time on the net (and my boss is ok with it) but I'd still resent being spied on.
Well this may be just me being stupid (and I definately wouldn't rule that out) but I used to think that Yast2 wouldn't work on my machine. In fact it just sits there *really* long and while it does initialization/hardware detection etc and doesn't even re-act on the mouse anymore.
Well just thought I mention it, just in case you have a similar problem.
On the net you can meet people who are far away. I communicate with people who live in Serbia, in Croatia, in Austria, in Greece... You can get a very different view of what's happening in the world (e.g. in Serbia) when you have contacts like this. And on the internet, these sorts of contacts are easy (relatively so) to make.
Sure - they are people, too, but that's one thing which is a lot easier to forget when you just read newspapers and watch TV news. There *is* a different quality of these communities.
For example with the naming controversy over the republic of Macedonia - wouldn't it be interesting to ask a Greek friend or two what they think? And then maybe a Macedonian? How would anyone go about this *before* the internet?
> If you were an investor, would you really want
> to put in your hard earned money to a place who > (if you've seen the f*cked company website)
> almost declares its own upsoming downfall?
No - and that's what makes it legitimate to run
a website like this. As an investor would you like
companies which have performed badly to be able
to ban discussion or mockery of it?
Well... having those features is one thing - sure it should integrate a mail client and sure AIM is nice to have, but does this all have to be in the same program? When I click on a "mailto" link it could just start a seperate client - sure that client could be part of the mozilla project, or just some other client.
This would have the advantage that the browser crashing wouldn't take my 3 page email with it...
Besides: I don't want to use *their* email client, I want to use the client *I* like.
Ok - how about building a really safe reliable porn filter? All it would need to do, is look
for web pages which have text like "you must be over 18 to enter this page".
Ok it may not be perfect, but it would probably beat all of the filters out there. I'm serious about this. This story of "suddenly sexual content appears on my screen" is nothing but a legend, in my opinion.
Well I can tell you about the documentation and
translation teams:
- there are team leaders for each language
- there is a coordintator for translations in general
- there is an editorial team for the english docs
- there are contact people which interface with the developers
So in fact it's quite an elaborate structure.
I believe you are right that the management tasks (as well as any others) are usually taken by whoever volunteers.
However - and I think that's common for most of these projects - most of the positions are acquired by seniority, meaning that whoever started a language team is probably by default the team leader. I would think he'll typically just keep that position unless he gets bored with it.
It's imaginable that someone would end up in a position he's unsuitable for - or at least that someone else would be more suitable. He might then block progress on his task.
The reason this is not usually a problem, is likely the general spirit of cooperation, a certain common goal. I have doubts whether it's possible for a company to really emulate this...
Konqueror is a GPL browser. It renders a
lot faster than both Netscape and IE.
It supports Netscape plugins (e.g. for Flash)
and has a cool ftp client.
It allows you to set your own cookie policy:
you can make it ask whether you accept a cookie,
and then you can reject them by site. So no
more cookies from doubleclick - and I'll never
be asked about them either.
So definately: there is a serious competitor out
there. I admit it's still beta, but this is
something which can overtake IE. Go get it and
submit bug reports!
Ok, maybe they have a high workload, but he applied
for this "In the early 1990s"!
Only a total moron would grant a patent like that.
It's not enough that this patent needs to be
thrown out - the person handling this needs to
be fired, too. *sigh*
Yes if you had a fab plant, that would be feasible. And yes you can design *a* CPU, that's actually rather trivial, but that's not a CPU which could compete with Intel. To compete with these guys you need to design a 1 GHz CPU and manufacture it, too. The design, well they may be able to pull that of, but manufacturing? There are only a handful people who could do that. They'd need an alliance with one of those - just like Transmeta.
No actually chips are manufactured in completely
different ways depending on the functionality.
If you build a router chip you work on gate-level,
if you build a CPU you have to work on transistor-
level at least for a good part of the design.
To build a fast processor you need a physical
design team as well as a logical design team.
Software design and hardware design have almost
nothing to do with each other - you certainly
can not take a software engineer and tell him
to design a CPU. Not any more as he could design
a car-brake system. He can learn of course, but
it's a completely different field.
It's like saying because MS can design an OS
they can also build a highway. Sure the complexity
may be in similar ranges, but it's not a
comparable task in any other respect.
As for the statement that designing a PIII is
the same as designing a router chip: nope.
I am designing a router chip and can do this
without a fab with a variety of ASIC vendors -
I neither have the technology nor the training
to design a PIII.
Maybe this example will make it clearer:
In order to design a processor you need to be
involved with the geometries of a transistor,
you need to understand the various materials
of a transistor - if you design some router
chip you'd choose a standard ASIC process
which won't allow you to control either geometries
or materials.
It's not trivial to manufacture these devices
either - just to take a complete design from
the developers to the manufacturing lines
can take months. The people running these lines
have a lot of physics and material experience.
For a newcomer to acquire this experience would
not be trivial. Neither Intel nor anyone else
would be willing to give it away...
Not much detail about the kind of chips they are
planning to make. I think whether this impacts
their relationship with Intel will depend a lot
on the features these chips have.
It seems more than unlikely that someone without
their own manufacturing plants would consider
to go into the processor business - you need
to be very close to the technology. Transmeta
seems to be the only exception, and it's not
like they are shipping vast numbers.
Microsoft would have enough money to get into
this market, but it would be a major effort.
Designing some chips e.g. for TCP/IP routing and
the like is a completely different matter.
That wouldn't impact their relationship with Intel
either.
Of course no chips have actually been made yet,
and knowing Microsoft there is no guarantee
they will ever be made.
Slashdot Mirror
Well I wonder... What does my company care whether I waste time looking at photographs showing the landscape of Brazil - or at photographs showing nude women? Whether I'm reading a joke or looking at porn or writing comments on slashdot - I'm still not working, right?
Ideally of course a company would want employees not to waste their time at all - but of all the available distractions, what sense does it make to filter just one?
Well PR is not necessarily promoting KDE against Gnome or Gnome against KDE. It can just promote a Linux desktop.
:^)
For example some smaller countries are very much interested in having a desktop which is available in their language - it's very helpful when people there learn that KDE supports it. (Assuming it does.
It could also help to promote Linux to people who aren't up to date on the quality of Linux desktops today.
In return states where the outcome is clear are ignored.
* In the case that something awful happens [...] the electors don't HAVE to go with the people's vote...
Then again they *could* vote for the Anti-Christ which the people just threw out...
* It turns out that each person's vote is more powerful that way
Some peoples votes are less powerful - those who live in states where there is a clear majority. If you are in the majority your vote doesn't make a difference anymore, if you're in the minority you can't be heard. Closely contested states have then obviously more power - every vote *there* counts. That's the problem here: It's not one man one vote - the votes are not equal.
* Finally, it's the only thing that prevents the presidential election from being a full-blown popularity contest.
I don't know why you think that, how does it prevent that?
Regarding bias: leading up to the election there was a lot of discussion about the electoral college. That this started after Gore received the popular vote is a distortion of facts. Fact however is: the current rules include the electoral college - that's how it works, and the results need to be accepted. However I don't see why you shouldn't discuss getting rid of the system when it proves unsatisfactory.
Of course there are discussions about this, now that the system *does* make a difference, otherwise it wouldn't matter, right?
Now I understand better where you're coming from, however I don't agree. Comparing the US with Europe, people in Europe complain about invasion of their privacy all the time - as a result they have significantly better privacy protection.
:(
So empirically - you're strategy has been shown to fail.
BTW - Read the article again... one of the applications mentioned is protection from shoplifters.
Yeah that's what the article is about. So what? The tag are supposed to have considerable range (they are supposed to prevent shoplifting). That is a privacy concern. Is it possible to handle this without affecting your privacy? Maybe. But not if we accept everything without any complaint.
Sure there are many ways to invade your privacy and spy on you already - but just because a situation is bad doesn't mean it can't get worse.
Why should we not complain about it?
Alright... now they are going to tag you like some animal. Doesn't concern you? Fair enough, but I demand more respect from the places I buy goods from.
Well I think that depends what your work situation is. I have root access on my machine, so I know (more or less) what's going on, on it. However I don't control what's happening to my data on the way to yahoo or some other website. So encryption would help me. I don't spend all that much time on the net (and my boss is ok with it) but I'd still resent being spied on.
Well this may be just me being stupid (and I definately wouldn't rule that out) but I used to think that Yast2 wouldn't work on my machine. In fact it just sits there *really* long and while it does initialization/hardware detection etc and doesn't even re-act on the mouse anymore.
Well just thought I mention it, just in case you have a similar problem.
On the net you can meet people who are far away. I communicate with people who live in Serbia, in Croatia, in Austria, in Greece... You can get a very different view of what's happening in the world (e.g. in Serbia) when you have contacts like this. And on the internet, these sorts of contacts are easy (relatively so) to make.
Sure - they are people, too, but that's one thing which is a lot easier to forget when you just read newspapers and watch TV news. There *is* a different quality of these communities.
For example with the naming controversy over the republic of Macedonia - wouldn't it be interesting to ask a Greek friend or two what they think? And then maybe a Macedonian? How would anyone go about this *before* the internet?
Sorry - now I understand your post. :^)
> If you were an investor, would you really want
> to put in your hard earned money to a place who > (if you've seen the f*cked company website)
> almost declares its own upsoming downfall?
No - and that's what makes it legitimate to run
a website like this. As an investor would you like
companies which have performed badly to be able
to ban discussion or mockery of it?
Uhm... that article isn't comparing X-Server performance... at all.
It does speak of difficulties when
- using DeXtop with XFree
- using it with popular distributions
- using it with other non-Motif software
Sorry, I checked the article again, but I just
don't see where you're coming from.
Apologies if I missed something obvious...
This would have the advantage that the browser crashing wouldn't take my 3 page email with it...
Besides: I don't want to use *their* email client, I want to use the client *I* like.
Konqueror works this way already.
No - it's important *not* to respect their wishes.
If you don't uphold your rights you loose them.
"However, in the long term, Sun expects to move Cobalt's products over to
Sun's UltraSparc CPUs and its Solaris operating system, Schwartz said."
I guess a better translation would be:
:^)
"Trust no statistic which you haven't faked yourself".
This is indeed a common German phrase.
Ok - how about building a really safe reliable porn filter? All it would need to do, is look
for web pages which have text like "you must be over 18 to enter this page".
Ok it may not be perfect, but it would probably beat all of the filters out there. I'm serious about this. This story of "suddenly sexual content appears on my screen" is nothing but a legend, in my opinion.
Well I can tell you about the documentation and
translation teams:
- there are team leaders for each language
- there is a coordintator for translations in general
- there is an editorial team for the english docs
- there are contact people which interface with the developers
So in fact it's quite an elaborate structure.
I believe you are right that the management tasks (as well as any others) are usually taken by whoever volunteers.
However - and I think that's common for most of these projects - most of the positions are acquired by seniority, meaning that whoever started a language team is probably by default the team leader. I would think he'll typically just keep that position unless he gets bored with it.
It's imaginable that someone would end up in a position he's unsuitable for - or at least that someone else would be more suitable. He might then block progress on his task.
The reason this is not usually a problem, is likely the general spirit of cooperation, a certain common goal. I have doubts whether it's possible for a company to really emulate this...
Check out the latest KDE2 beta at www.kde.org or konqueror's own web site (with screenshots) at www.konqueror.org
Konqueror is a GPL browser. It renders a
lot faster than both Netscape and IE.
It supports Netscape plugins (e.g. for Flash)
and has a cool ftp client.
It allows you to set your own cookie policy:
you can make it ask whether you accept a cookie,
and then you can reject them by site. So no
more cookies from doubleclick - and I'll never
be asked about them either.
So definately: there is a serious competitor out
there. I admit it's still beta, but this is
something which can overtake IE. Go get it and
submit bug reports!
Ok, maybe they have a high workload, but he applied
for this "In the early 1990s"!
Only a total moron would grant a patent like that.
It's not enough that this patent needs to be
thrown out - the person handling this needs to
be fired, too. *sigh*
Didn't phrase this very well, I guess.
Yes if you had a fab plant, that would be feasible. And yes you can design *a* CPU, that's actually rather trivial, but that's not a CPU which could compete with Intel. To compete with these guys you need to design a 1 GHz CPU and manufacture it, too. The design, well they may be able to pull that of, but manufacturing? There are only a handful people who could do that. They'd need an alliance with one of those - just like Transmeta.
No actually chips are manufactured in completely
different ways depending on the functionality.
If you build a router chip you work on gate-level,
if you build a CPU you have to work on transistor-
level at least for a good part of the design.
To build a fast processor you need a physical
design team as well as a logical design team.
Software design and hardware design have almost
nothing to do with each other - you certainly
can not take a software engineer and tell him
to design a CPU. Not any more as he could design
a car-brake system. He can learn of course, but
it's a completely different field.
It's like saying because MS can design an OS
they can also build a highway. Sure the complexity
may be in similar ranges, but it's not a
comparable task in any other respect.
As for the statement that designing a PIII is
the same as designing a router chip: nope.
I am designing a router chip and can do this
without a fab with a variety of ASIC vendors -
I neither have the technology nor the training
to design a PIII.
Maybe this example will make it clearer:
In order to design a processor you need to be
involved with the geometries of a transistor,
you need to understand the various materials
of a transistor - if you design some router
chip you'd choose a standard ASIC process
which won't allow you to control either geometries
or materials.
It's not trivial to manufacture these devices
either - just to take a complete design from
the developers to the manufacturing lines
can take months. The people running these lines
have a lot of physics and material experience.
For a newcomer to acquire this experience would
not be trivial. Neither Intel nor anyone else
would be willing to give it away...
I design chips for a living btw.
Not much detail about the kind of chips they are
planning to make. I think whether this impacts
their relationship with Intel will depend a lot
on the features these chips have.
It seems more than unlikely that someone without
their own manufacturing plants would consider
to go into the processor business - you need
to be very close to the technology. Transmeta
seems to be the only exception, and it's not
like they are shipping vast numbers.
Microsoft would have enough money to get into
this market, but it would be a major effort.
Designing some chips e.g. for TCP/IP routing and
the like is a completely different matter.
That wouldn't impact their relationship with Intel
either.
Of course no chips have actually been made yet,
and knowing Microsoft there is no guarantee
they will ever be made.