Obviously, in your case, that's less than nothing.
a) that's irrelevant — a project striving for dominance of a desktop must be usable by all and accept criticism from all; b) I have done quite a bit — as part of FreeBSD's ports team I've created and/or maintain dozens of ports, including, incidentally, devel/qmake (if you know, what that is); c) I've originated dozens of KDE bug-reports; d) see a).
This is the point, where you recant the "obviously" part and apologize profusely.
Oh, and a special for you: e) Kennedy, who coined that servitudish slogan, was a mafia-elected skirt-chasing scumbag, who is mostly beloved for getting shot.
If I say "I'm going to to A, B, and C" for this next release, and don't implement D, I've failed.
Yes, you have, if the missing D is what any sane software user and developer would expect from anything called release. If you bought a car without the wheels, would not you be upset, even if the absence of wheels were outlined in fine-print somewhere in the purchase agreement? (Where would we be without car-analogies!)
As far as your gripe about Plasma... well, it's new jackass!
Thanks, love you too, fellow Slashdotter.
New software has bugs.
Would you be as charitable towards Windows Vista? I don't think so... Why? They have marketing spin-doctors too...
"Plasma" may be a new product, but KDE is not — it's current version is 4.0.4. Since Plasma is not ready, then either it should not have been made part (the non-optional, affecting everyone part) of KDE4, or KDE4 should not have been released. End of story... No amount of spinning: "oh, we are fixing this in the upcoming versions," — is going to cover up the fact, that they "released" a year too early.
instead of just knee-jerk repairing the damage, it would get fixed.
Yes, it is all the users' fault, is not it... If I'm setting up a new computer for my mom, you bet I'm going with a "knee-jerk repairing the damage", instead of leaving her without a computer until the next release. And why did I install Kubuntu Hardy Heron for her? Because KDE-project lied to me by calling KDE-4 a release. That's why... Should've stuck with the good and trusted FreeBSD (with KDE-3.5.x), that she had on her old computer... I could've taken the hint from FreeBSD's KDE-team not updating to KDE-4, and from Ubuntu themselves not offering commercial support for KDE4, but I thought, those guys are just being overly conservative and sabotaging the progress of the wonderful project...
And yes, I have provided a bug-report to KDE. The response is: "yeah, we know, this is scheduled for 4.1" (or 4.2!) That's normal for a test-version, a pre-release. Not for 4.0.2 release of anything.
Wake up and have a little perspective.
First you call me a "jackass" and now you ask me for patience... Awesome. All I can say, once again, is that the much-derided Microsoft has not pulled anything like KDE4 upon their users in 15 years — and their Windows 3.1 was just as "ground-breaking". If I gave it to Microsoft then (until switching to Unix for good), then why should I hold the punches, that KDE is deserving today even more?
We only failed with KDE 4.0 if we measure the work based on others' criteria, not our clearly stated goals.
This particular line is especially pathetic — even if truthful. Yes, according to others, we royally screwed up, but, fortunately, we had our own definitions of the goals.
To see this guys try to wriggle out of this shame is as unpleasant as trying to use their software. They've "redefined" an alpha pre-release as a "4.0". They've followed up with several minor post-releases (it is at 4.0.4 right now, is not it?) — which continue to be both feature-incomplete and buggy. But, I guess, if none of that was among their "clearly stated goals", things are dandy...
To call release of Plasma — the "new development from the ground up" — a "success" by any definition is a bad joke. The software screws itself up every once in a while so badly, the Internet-forums are already full of of advises, like this "just delete.kde/share/config/plasmarc".
KDE appears to have grown a serious marketing department some time ago — I noticed this during their pre-release "tension build-up", which was not unlike that of a new X-Box or iPhone. Heck, their "release party" was Google-sponsored! Except the new X-Box and iPhone work (save, maybe, for a few glitches). KDE4, on the other hand, does not — by anybody's definition, except, maybe, their own.
This most recent "gracious" response is just another marketing spin-attempt...
Folks, the Attorney General's behavior is blatantly unethical.
Just as his predecessor Mr. Spitzer's — also known as "fucking steamroller" — was in prosecuting activity, in which he himself engaged for years (his other unethical traits could fill a book). I wouldn't be surprised, if Mr. Cuomo gets caught with child porn in the next few years...
Yes, it is the the default for the product called KUbuntu Hardy Heron. Version, mind you, 8.04.1 at the moment — not "beta" or "pre-release", not even a x.0, which we've learned to be wary of by now.
And yet, the beta-versions of the much-derided Windows are a lot more stable and feature-complete than this. And it is not even Ubuntu — their only fault is attempting to "turn shit into chicken salad". KDE-4 remains a poor ingredient — it was "released" a year too early, evidently, because even 4.1 (still in beta right now) is not offering the same features, that KDE-3.x has.
If you don't like it, deinstall it
Same can be said about all free software — are you suggesting, all criticism of it is "baseless"?
So you had less problems with FreeBSD on the desktop than Ubuntu?
Yes, as a matter of fact. Although I admit, that most of the frustration was with the switch — for some reason, Ubuntu considers most single-byte encodings (such as KOI8-U) to be "obsolete" and forces UTF8 upon you.
This is a major pain for someone, who already has many files in the "obsolete" encoding and/or whose names contain it. Yes, you can add more encodings, but if you start using them, the GUI breaks and other things get subtly messed up.
On top of that you have Aaron Segio now suggesting that users should have less control over configuration, fewer choices, and saying that end users are dumb.
Of course, we are dumb... We want KMail to preserve the HTML-layout of the original, when we are replying to or forwarding it. The enlightened developers have been telling us for years, how stupid it is, but we continue to foolishly insist.
If that's not valid grounds for contempt towards users, I don't know, what is.
will avoid the problems that plagued KDE 4.0's release.
I made the folly of installing KDE-4 on my mom's new computer (she had KDE-3.5.x before). There were no "problems". There was a total disaster.
The amount of features available in KDE-3 for years, that did not make it into KDE-4 is staggering... Add bugs to that.
And I was not entirely unprepared — I knew better, than to try KDE-4.0, when it came out with the enormous (and Google-sponsored) hoopla. I waited for 4.0.2... You can't even move widgets around on your task-bar yet — that's "scheduled" for version 4.1!
The all-new "plasma"-desktop can't show you the contents of files in ~/Desktop/ — that's still "in the works". Showing the list of files themselves is buggy — every time you login, a new set of icons (one for each of your files) is added to the desktop.
And to think, that I was getting impatient with FreeBSD KDE-team for not upgrading the KDE-ports! These guys were simply protecting me, but no, I wouldn't listen... I installed the much tauted Kubuntu and paid the price (don't even get me started on Ubuntu itself)...
how is calling slashdot a "crazy left wing/communist propaganda den" not flamebait?
I did not, actually, call Slashdot that — I just, such was an impression. I even said, the impression is now wearing off ever since John Katz stopped posting.
Just because someone or some place is left of you does not make them left wing or communist.
No, that alone does not. However, Slashdot is doing just that with the other side — the poster I replied to mentioned "crazy [emphasis mine -mi] right wing/libertartian conspiracy theories" and achieved a "5-star" rating. My mere suggestion, that Slashdot may have — in the past — given an impression of being left-wing (not even "crazy"), doomed me to a "-1".
To argue, as you do, that there is no pro-Left (or, perhaps, an anti-Right) bias here, is ridiculous... Sorry, but I'm not participating any further...
Why is Slashdot posting links to crazy right wing/libertartian conspiracy theories?
Either to fight off the long-developing impression, that they are crazy left wing/communist propaganda den (that impression started to wear off slowly ever since John Katz disappeared), or to make that same propaganda a bit more subtle, by picking only the worst from among the right wing/libertarian sources...
George Bush has raised the claiming of state secrets to an artform. A very ugly, thuggish and anti-American art form. May he and Dick Cheney rot in hell.
And you are not condemning Harry Truman and Alben Barkley to same for starting this non-sense — not to defend the country, mind you, but simply to cover-up their government's fuck-up — because?.. Oh, right, they were Democrats and thus could do no wrong...
the case highlights the consequence of having online commons controlled by private corporations.
Your being able to use even a public road for driving is not a right, but a privilege. This is the doctrine, which justifies licensing access to the public roads. Because if it is a right, only a judge can take it away, but if it is a privilege, than the Executive branch has complete discretion.
Wearing objectionable clothing on public commons is even more difficult, and protests/demonstrations on public land also require government's permits, while private property can still be used for any (political) speech.
That said, I'm alarmed, that my predictions for (even if only implicit for now) calls to nationalize Internet-businesses is getting fulfilled so soon...
I'm surprised, these attempts by the Executive to ease their lives gets so much attention, when far grosser violations of the Executive/Judiciary powers have been accepted/condoned for decades.
The most glaring example is "licensing" in general, and licensing the drivers — taxpayers wishing to use the tax-payed public roads — in particular. The Executive government gives the licenses and is free to take them away — without any Judicial oversight and without having to convict the accused of any sort of wrongdoing. Even if in most locales a traffic citation can be disputed in front of a judge, it is only because the Executive does not want to bother with their own procedures. And in New York they do — you only get to argue in a "traffic court", which is part of the Executive branch.
Why does not it shock anybody, that more and more activities require a license, and thus the Executive Branch has more and more ways to make more and more people's lives miserable without even obtaining any sort of conviction (civil or criminal)?
I'm not saying, the government's ability to monitor foreign phone-calls is a complete non-issue. But far more important impediments to freedom — taxpayer has no right (which can only be taken away by a court) to use a public road, only a privilege (which police can withdraw) to do so — have existed for decades with nary a whisper of outrage...
Similarly, why do we accept, that operating a business (or renovating one's own house!) is not a right (the sacred pursuit of pursuit of happiness), but a mere privilege, exercising which requires paying fees and, quite often, jumping through significant hoops and accepting serious limitations?
What's next? Having only automotive engineers be the only people who can run the automated air quality tests you have to do in your respective states?
On a similar note, New York's government has recently tried to pass a law requiring licensing for the people operating air-quality monitoring devices:
Our mutual goal is to prevent false alarms and unnecessary public concern by making sure that we know where these detectors are located and that they conform to standards of quality and reliability.
See? It is all for our own good. Don't you worry your pretty little head and let the (licensed) professionals do their jobs. And when/if the Executive government decides to withdraw a license of some of the operators, it can do that — without the hurdles of going through the Judiciary — just as it can already do with the drivers' licenses. (What an invention that was!)
A century ago price of gasoline worried very few people. Today there are calls to nationalize oil-companies as "vital businesses" — somehow, they believe, nationalization improves things...
How long until these same Commies (or whatever they'll choose to call themselves, when the label-du-jour gets just as discredited) call for nationalization of Google or Amazon?
The nation can not exist without reliable search-engine, can it? We must nationalize Google to ensure fair and equal access to knowledge for all.
Or: our least-privileged can least-afford to buy the expensive books they need to get ahead. To help the poor with readily affordable knowledge we must have the government take over book distribution by nationalizing Amazon and other book-sellers, whose obscene profits the such-such's Administration refuses to tax!
Can this be used for transferring information over significant distances without the recipient having any special receiving device — other than their own scull?
Would not it be terrific — to be able to communicate (even if only one way) securely and over a distance greater than than practical with simple sound-waves?
Good forensic evidence doesn't leave the type of wiggle room you talk about
There is still a need for "good" forensic experts to perform experiments and testify. Those people aren't gods — they can be manipulated, lie, or just make an honest mistake. It happened before, and it will happen again — these people almost always either work directly for the (Executive) government — together with the prosecutors — or count the government as major clients.
Their testimony is important, but it can not be taken as absolute proof. Otherwise, why bother with judge and jury — a forensic expert knows it all, does not he?
Also, perhaps, you've watched a bit too much "Law and Order", if you think, "good forensic evidence" is all, that's needed for all convictions. There are plenty of crimes, where forensic evidence will be inconclusive (even assuming, that the expert is above all suspicions — a big stretch).
Slashdot had some truly nasty things to say recently about US customs poking through data on travelers' laptops.
I wonder, how often does that happen, and whether people just losing their hardware (and the data) to complete strangers is not a far scarier problem...
Slashdot Mirror
a) that's irrelevant — a project striving for dominance of a desktop must be usable by all and accept criticism from all; b) I have done quite a bit — as part of FreeBSD's ports team I've created and/or maintain dozens of ports, including, incidentally, devel/qmake (if you know, what that is); c) I've originated dozens of KDE bug-reports; d) see a).
This is the point, where you recant the "obviously" part and apologize profusely.
Oh, and a special for you: e) Kennedy, who coined that servitudish slogan, was a mafia-elected skirt-chasing scumbag, who is mostly beloved for getting shot.
That's just what the copyright-violators are doing — or are you not reading slashdot?
Awful, is not it? What's next — prosecutors siding with the victims?
Yes, you have, if the missing D is what any sane software user and developer would expect from anything called release. If you bought a car without the wheels, would not you be upset, even if the absence of wheels were outlined in fine-print somewhere in the purchase agreement? (Where would we be without car-analogies!)
Thanks, love you too, fellow Slashdotter.
Would you be as charitable towards Windows Vista? I don't think so... Why? They have marketing spin-doctors too...
"Plasma" may be a new product, but KDE is not — it's current version is 4.0.4. Since Plasma is not ready, then either it should not have been made part (the non-optional, affecting everyone part) of KDE4, or KDE4 should not have been released. End of story... No amount of spinning: "oh, we are fixing this in the upcoming versions," — is going to cover up the fact, that they "released" a year too early.
Yes, it is all the users' fault, is not it... If I'm setting up a new computer for my mom, you bet I'm going with a "knee-jerk repairing the damage", instead of leaving her without a computer until the next release. And why did I install Kubuntu Hardy Heron for her? Because KDE-project lied to me by calling KDE-4 a release. That's why... Should've stuck with the good and trusted FreeBSD (with KDE-3.5.x), that she had on her old computer... I could've taken the hint from FreeBSD's KDE-team not updating to KDE-4, and from Ubuntu themselves not offering commercial support for KDE4, but I thought, those guys are just being overly conservative and sabotaging the progress of the wonderful project...
And yes, I have provided a bug-report to KDE. The response is: "yeah, we know, this is scheduled for 4.1" (or 4.2!) That's normal for a test-version, a pre-release. Not for 4.0.2 release of anything.
First you call me a "jackass" and now you ask me for patience... Awesome. All I can say, once again, is that the much-derided Microsoft has not pulled anything like KDE4 upon their users in 15 years — and their Windows 3.1 was just as "ground-breaking". If I gave it to Microsoft then (until switching to Unix for good), then why should I hold the punches, that KDE is deserving today even more?
This particular line is especially pathetic — even if truthful. Yes, according to others, we royally screwed up, but, fortunately, we had our own definitions of the goals.
To see this guys try to wriggle out of this shame is as unpleasant as trying to use their software. They've "redefined" an alpha pre-release as a "4.0". They've followed up with several minor post-releases (it is at 4.0.4 right now, is not it?) — which continue to be both feature-incomplete and buggy. But, I guess, if none of that was among their "clearly stated goals", things are dandy...
To call release of Plasma — the "new development from the ground up" — a "success" by any definition is a bad joke. The software screws itself up every once in a while so badly, the Internet-forums are already full of of advises, like this "just delete .kde/share/config/plasmarc".
KDE appears to have grown a serious marketing department some time ago — I noticed this during their pre-release "tension build-up", which was not unlike that of a new X-Box or iPhone. Heck, their "release party" was Google-sponsored! Except the new X-Box and iPhone work (save, maybe, for a few glitches). KDE4, on the other hand, does not — by anybody's definition, except, maybe, their own.
This most recent "gracious" response is just another marketing spin-attempt...
Just as his predecessor Mr. Spitzer's — also known as "fucking steamroller" — was in prosecuting activity, in which he himself engaged for years (his other unethical traits could fill a book). I wouldn't be surprised, if Mr. Cuomo gets caught with child porn in the next few years...
Yes, it is the the default for the product called KUbuntu Hardy Heron. Version, mind you, 8.04.1 at the moment — not "beta" or "pre-release", not even a x.0, which we've learned to be wary of by now.
And yet, the beta-versions of the much-derided Windows are a lot more stable and feature-complete than this. And it is not even Ubuntu — their only fault is attempting to "turn shit into chicken salad". KDE-4 remains a poor ingredient — it was "released" a year too early, evidently, because even 4.1 (still in beta right now) is not offering the same features, that KDE-3.x has.
Same can be said about all free software — are you suggesting, all criticism of it is "baseless"?
What exactly are you referring to as "baseless"?
To my complaint, that a piece of software with release number of 4.0.x is woefully incomplete and bug-ridden?
Or to a complaint, that a release of a major distribution packages such incomplete and bug-ridden software?
Oh, yes. Full agreement here. I just wish, this was more obvious — such as from the release name: "4.0-prealpha" or something...
Seriously, Vista must be an engineering marvel in comparison...
Yes, as a matter of fact. Although I admit, that most of the frustration was with the switch — for some reason, Ubuntu considers most single-byte encodings (such as KOI8-U) to be "obsolete" and forces UTF8 upon you.
This is a major pain for someone, who already has many files in the "obsolete" encoding and/or whose names contain it. Yes, you can add more encodings, but if you start using them, the GUI breaks and other things get subtly messed up.
Of course, we are dumb... We want KMail to preserve the HTML-layout of the original, when we are replying to or forwarding it. The enlightened developers have been telling us for years, how stupid it is, but we continue to foolishly insist.
If that's not valid grounds for contempt towards users, I don't know, what is.
... then, maybe, you can explain the job-description of Community Organizer to me?
I made the folly of installing KDE-4 on my mom's new computer (she had KDE-3.5.x before). There were no "problems". There was a total disaster.
The amount of features available in KDE-3 for years, that did not make it into KDE-4 is staggering... Add bugs to that.
And I was not entirely unprepared — I knew better, than to try KDE-4.0, when it came out with the enormous (and Google-sponsored) hoopla. I waited for 4.0.2... You can't even move widgets around on your task-bar yet — that's "scheduled" for version 4.1!
The all-new "plasma"-desktop can't show you the contents of files in ~/Desktop/ — that's still "in the works". Showing the list of files themselves is buggy — every time you login, a new set of icons (one for each of your files) is added to the desktop.
And to think, that I was getting impatient with FreeBSD KDE-team for not upgrading the KDE-ports! These guys were simply protecting me, but no, I wouldn't listen... I installed the much tauted Kubuntu and paid the price (don't even get me started on Ubuntu itself)...
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.
--Tanenbaum, Andrew S. (1996).
I did not, actually, call Slashdot that — I just, such was an impression. I even said, the impression is now wearing off ever since John Katz stopped posting.
No, that alone does not. However, Slashdot is doing just that with the other side — the poster I replied to mentioned "crazy [emphasis mine -mi] right wing/libertartian conspiracy theories" and achieved a "5-star" rating. My mere suggestion, that Slashdot may have — in the past — given an impression of being left-wing (not even "crazy"), doomed me to a "-1".
To argue, as you do, that there is no pro-Left (or, perhaps, an anti-Right) bias here, is ridiculous... Sorry, but I'm not participating any further...
John Katz — a long-time Slashdot "editor" — was farther to the left than Gorbachev...
Well, look at the moderation for instant rebuttal of your comment. You are already at 4 "insightful" (my ass), and I'm at 1 "flamebait"...
The term is "jerk-off", and it applies to you.
Either to fight off the long-developing impression, that they are crazy left wing/communist propaganda den (that impression started to wear off slowly ever since John Katz disappeared), or to make that same propaganda a bit more subtle, by picking only the worst from among the right wing/libertarian sources...
And you are not condemning Harry Truman and Alben Barkley to same for starting this non-sense — not to defend the country, mind you, but simply to cover-up their government's fuck-up — because?.. Oh, right, they were Democrats and thus could do no wrong...
Your being able to use even a public road for driving is not a right, but a privilege. This is the doctrine, which justifies licensing access to the public roads. Because if it is a right, only a judge can take it away, but if it is a privilege, than the Executive branch has complete discretion.
Wearing objectionable clothing on public commons is even more difficult, and protests/demonstrations on public land also require government's permits, while private property can still be used for any (political) speech.
That said, I'm alarmed, that my predictions for (even if only implicit for now) calls to nationalize Internet-businesses is getting fulfilled so soon...
I'm surprised, these attempts by the Executive to ease their lives gets so much attention, when far grosser violations of the Executive/Judiciary powers have been accepted/condoned for decades.
The most glaring example is "licensing" in general, and licensing the drivers — taxpayers wishing to use the tax-payed public roads — in particular. The Executive government gives the licenses and is free to take them away — without any Judicial oversight and without having to convict the accused of any sort of wrongdoing. Even if in most locales a traffic citation can be disputed in front of a judge, it is only because the Executive does not want to bother with their own procedures. And in New York they do — you only get to argue in a "traffic court", which is part of the Executive branch.
Why does not it shock anybody, that more and more activities require a license, and thus the Executive Branch has more and more ways to make more and more people's lives miserable without even obtaining any sort of conviction (civil or criminal)?
I'm not saying, the government's ability to monitor foreign phone-calls is a complete non-issue. But far more important impediments to freedom — taxpayer has no right (which can only be taken away by a court) to use a public road, only a privilege (which police can withdraw) to do so — have existed for decades with nary a whisper of outrage...
Similarly, why do we accept, that operating a business (or renovating one's own house!) is not a right (the sacred pursuit of pursuit of happiness), but a mere privilege, exercising which requires paying fees and, quite often, jumping through significant hoops and accepting serious limitations?
On a similar note, New York's government has recently tried to pass a law requiring licensing for the people operating air-quality monitoring devices:
See? It is all for our own good. Don't you worry your pretty little head and let the (licensed) professionals do their jobs. And when/if the Executive government decides to withdraw a license of some of the operators, it can do that — without the hurdles of going through the Judiciary — just as it can already do with the drivers' licenses. (What an invention that was!)
A century ago price of gasoline worried very few people. Today there are calls to nationalize oil-companies as "vital businesses" — somehow, they believe, nationalization improves things...
How long until these same Commies (or whatever they'll choose to call themselves, when the label-du-jour gets just as discredited) call for nationalization of Google or Amazon?
The nation can not exist without reliable search-engine, can it? We must nationalize Google to ensure fair and equal access to knowledge for all.
Or: our least-privileged can least-afford to buy the expensive books they need to get ahead. To help the poor with readily affordable knowledge we must have the government take over book distribution by nationalizing Amazon and other book-sellers, whose obscene profits the such-such's Administration refuses to tax!
Can this be used for transferring information over significant distances without the recipient having any special receiving device — other than their own scull?
Would not it be terrific — to be able to communicate (even if only one way) securely and over a distance greater than than practical with simple sound-waves?
It certainly did. That's the point.
There is still a need for "good" forensic experts to perform experiments and testify. Those people aren't gods — they can be manipulated, lie, or just make an honest mistake. It happened before, and it will happen again — these people almost always either work directly for the (Executive) government — together with the prosecutors — or count the government as major clients.
Their testimony is important, but it can not be taken as absolute proof. Otherwise, why bother with judge and jury — a forensic expert knows it all, does not he?
Also, perhaps, you've watched a bit too much "Law and Order", if you think, "good forensic evidence" is all, that's needed for all convictions. There are plenty of crimes, where forensic evidence will be inconclusive (even assuming, that the expert is above all suspicions — a big stretch).
Slashdot had some truly nasty things to say recently about US customs poking through data on travelers' laptops.
I wonder, how often does that happen, and whether people just losing their hardware (and the data) to complete strangers is not a far scarier problem...