Distributing proprietary codecs (especially encoders under a "you can do everything" license like GPL or BSDL) is illegal. Now we can bicker about where exactly etc., but the US is a pretty influential part of the world (together with Japan, and soon the EU if things keep going as they are).
While VLC can get away with their "screw the US, Japan, France,..." attitude, most Free OSs can't.
*Certain* Free OSs and browsers cannot distribute proprietary codecs without having paid for them, and distributing them wrapped up in VLC is no different.
Yes, they can (and do) call external applications if the user happens to have them installed (thus shifting the illegal part to the single user).
Works OK, but I hope you see the problem lies in distribution.
Also, isn't fighting this dismal state of things the only logical action to take?
You sound quite confused. I think those people you mentioned disagreeing with you were not evolutionists, and/or probably trolling you. Otherwise they wouldn't haggle over such straightforward stuff like what you listed (which pretty much everyone with a basic biology education understands).
Either that or you are trolling yourself. Really, presenting "clear" evidence and then claiming the contrary (e.g. Earth's age) sounds a bit schizophrenic.
As an aside: maybe you're not aware of it, but a lot of your wording is a bit "blurry" and thus inviting contradiction.
I never really understood what is with this invisibility cloak obsession anyway.
It's not like research like depicted in the article enables true invisibility... it only filters a comparatively small band, so no (radar+infrared+visible light) invisible planes, tanks etc.
Also, no project so far has shown even the hint of the possibility to have angle independant cloaking. So that's no inivisible soldiers either, unless they don' t turn and all enemies are looking at them from one narrow perspective.
Well, having a browser with a feature that no one else used (for a short time span, until others started using it) was great many times before, so why not now? One has to be the first.
Whoa, someone with an axe to grind...
Are you seriously saying we shouldn't thank them for supporting the people of a nation because they don't host mirrors for something completely unrelated?
And tell me, have you any proof that it's not possible to donate money to Wikileaks via Google Checkout? Last time I looked, there was no indicator to this...
And I'm not even going to ask you what gives you the higher moral ground to attack a company that does more than any other tech giant and (presumably) more than you...
While my experiences are very similar to yours, keep in mind that they're not representative... I'm pretty sure the vast majority of users would not choose the blend, bare version.
Two weeks ago, I knew next to nothing about mail administration. I do however have enough experience as generic sysadmin.
Took me about 3-4 hours reading into documentation for smtp, imap, exim (+addons), then about half an hour of configuration and now our working group (30 people) has a nicely working public facing mail server, all with aliases, mailing lists, synchronisation,...
Slashdot Mirror
Your post is right out false.
..." attitude, most Free OSs can't.
Distributing proprietary codecs (especially encoders under a "you can do everything" license like GPL or BSDL) is illegal. Now we can bicker about where exactly etc., but the US is a pretty influential part of the world (together with Japan, and soon the EU if things keep going as they are).
While VLC can get away with their "screw the US, Japan, France,
*Certain* Free OSs and browsers cannot distribute proprietary codecs without having paid for them, and distributing them wrapped up in VLC is no different. Yes, they can (and do) call external applications if the user happens to have them installed (thus shifting the illegal part to the single user).
Works OK, but I hope you see the problem lies in distribution.
Also, isn't fighting this dismal state of things the only logical action to take?
You sound quite confused. I think those people you mentioned disagreeing with you were not evolutionists, and/or probably trolling you. Otherwise they wouldn't haggle over such straightforward stuff like what you listed (which pretty much everyone with a basic biology education understands). Either that or you are trolling yourself. Really, presenting "clear" evidence and then claiming the contrary (e.g. Earth's age) sounds a bit schizophrenic. As an aside: maybe you're not aware of it, but a lot of your wording is a bit "blurry" and thus inviting contradiction.
Those people running the site behind the "make people think more about data" link should be made to think more about server capacity
I never really understood what is with this invisibility cloak obsession anyway. It's not like research like depicted in the article enables true invisibility... it only filters a comparatively small band, so no (radar+infrared+visible light) invisible planes, tanks etc. Also, no project so far has shown even the hint of the possibility to have angle independant cloaking. So that's no inivisible soldiers either, unless they don' t turn and all enemies are looking at them from one narrow perspective.
Well, having a browser with a feature that no one else used (for a short time span, until others started using it) was great many times before, so why not now? One has to be the first.
Whoa, someone with an axe to grind... Are you seriously saying we shouldn't thank them for supporting the people of a nation because they don't host mirrors for something completely unrelated? And tell me, have you any proof that it's not possible to donate money to Wikileaks via Google Checkout? Last time I looked, there was no indicator to this... And I'm not even going to ask you what gives you the higher moral ground to attack a company that does more than any other tech giant and (presumably) more than you...
While my experiences are very similar to yours, keep in mind that they're not representative... I'm pretty sure the vast majority of users would not choose the blend, bare version.
Two weeks ago, I knew next to nothing about mail administration. I do however have enough experience as generic sysadmin. Took me about 3-4 hours reading into documentation for smtp, imap, exim (+addons), then about half an hour of configuration and now our working group (30 people) has a nicely working public facing mail server, all with aliases, mailing lists, synchronisation,...