For instance if you add the Debian repositories to a Mepis or Xandros system, you can break it quite badly.
Not really. MEPIS is Debian unstable plus a custom kernel and better hardware detection. First thing I did after installing MEPIS was build my own vanilla kernel, then apt-get upgrade from the standard Debian repositories. It all works fine.
And the answer to the obvious question of why I chose MEPIS if I was just going to end up using Debian packages anyway: it's a much nicer install than KNOPPIX or the Debian beta installer. Boot a CD, make sure everything works, double-click an icon, 10 minutes later you reboot into your MEPIS system.
Yes, I read the article, and the one it linked to.
As the interview explains quite clearly, what Flew believes in is a deity, as Deists believe in--i.e. some kind of higher power which has no interaction whatsoever with mankind.
That's so far from the conventional meaning of "god", let alone the capitalized "God" used by Christians, that to describe it as "God" is to engage in wilful deception.
Any serious media outlet will have an independent ombudsman who responds to complaints about inaccuracy and inappropriate reporting behavior, and either a TV slot or a column in which corrections and apologies are reported by the ombudsman.
The fact that many Americans don't seem to understand this is one reason why the US news media are such a pathetic joke.
At that point, they need proper, practical information which they can rely on and believe in, otherwise there's a whole new can of worms about to spill all over the family floor.
Like in "Eraserhead".
Re:Ob. Monty Python...(sorry)
on
Voom No More
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· Score: 1
"Mate, this satellite service wouldn't Voom if you put 10,000 volts through it. It's bleedin' demised."
"It's pining..."
"It's not pining, it's passed on. It's hopped the twig. It's shuffled off this mortal coil. It's run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibule. Vis-a-vis the metabolic processes, it's had its lot. All statements to the effect that this is an active satellite service, are henceforth inoperative. It's fuckin' snuffed it."
This leaves a big, gaping hole in the GPL: socket wrappers were a common "hack" to "get around" the GPL: just layer a RPC mechansism around the proprietary library, and a GPL wrapper to call it from the app, and you were all set.
Another way to get around the GPL is to have the code rely on a copyrighted, non-redistributable data file. Strangely, the FSF don't seem to be concerned about that hole. (I suggested it as something that ought to be closed up in GPL 3.)
As a MEPIS user, I'm wondering if anyone has any factual reasons why I should look at Ubuntu?
It seems to me that MEPIS has all the same advantages as Ubuntu--bootable live CD, ten minute install, Debian based, stuff just works, up to date.
The main reason I like MEPIS is that everything from vanilla debian-unstable just works, because MEPIS is really debian-unstable with a custom kernel and better hardware detection. I've read that Ubuntu isn't quite the same--it's further from Debian, hence you can't just add the Debian repositories and expect everything to work. True/False?
Most ThinkPad laptops have good support for Linux. My work T41p has open source drivers for every single piece of hardware from Bluetooth to WiFi. I just wish it was possible to buy one without paying for a useless Windows license.
Linux on laptops is like Linux on any other piece of PC hardware--you need to buy hardware that has drivers; if you get some crappy proprietary hardware with no drivers available you're out of luck.
Re:A blocklist isn't a "review," it's a credit bur
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Should You Trust MAPS?
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When people invented blocklists, this is how they intended them to be used.
I contend that it isn't. Now, do you have any argument other than mind-reading proof-by-repeated-assertion?
Why was Napster shut down? It wasn't because they directly wronged recording companies. It was because they vicariously did so and contributed to others doing so.
It was because they built a system designed to help me do something illegal. RBLs have built a system designed to let me block e-mail from you. My blocking e-mail from you is not illegal, because it's my goddamn server. Property rights trump your supposed right to have your message received, as the junk fax laws have shown.
It's irrelevant because the RBL operators know what's going to happen to people on their list. They know full well that nobody is going to manually review the blocklist.
They know nothing of the kind, because that's false. I manually review the e-mail rejected based on RBL information, and I'm sure many other people do as well. If there are people dumb enough to use RBL information to bounce e-mail and not review what's going on, well, that's their stupid fault--blame them.
Re:A blocklist isn't a "review," it's a credit bur
on
Should You Trust MAPS?
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· Score: 1
The reasons why bans on British and Canadian beef are legal in the places such bans are legal is not analogous to the way antispam blocklists operate, first of all.
Could you try again in English? And I didn't start this analogy stuff, it was the other guy. If you want to reject analogies, reject his restaurant analogy too.
Secondly, unlike restaurant reviews, blocklists are executed automatically.
So what? If I build a system that detonates a pipe bomb as soon as FOX news broadcasts "The O'Reilly Factor", does that make FOX liable for damages caused by the explosion? I think not--it's the person who sets up the automation that's liable.
Likewise, if you want to sue someone for blocking your e-mail based on RBL information, without any human review, sue the person who set up the automation--i.e. the owner of the mail server.
What if I operated a credit bureau, which purports to identify people who don't pay their bills. I know that when I make an entry about someone, it will have an automatic and unreviewed impact on that person -- such as loan denials, interest rate increases or demand loans being called in.
Guess what? Credit bureaus already report verifiable lies about people, and there's apparently not a damn thing the average joe can do about it. I know this, because I've been lied about by a credit bureau. I ended up having to convince the company that was using the inaccurate information that it was inaccurate.
To use your restaurant analogy: Any RBL is a publisher of reviews, reviews which some people use to determine which netblocks they are willing to accept SMTP traffic from, in the same way that people use restaurant reviews to determine which restaurant to attend. And publishing _inaccurate_ reviews of restaurants (saying the steak is tough and the service surly when neither is true, or that a particular IP address is originating spam when this is not the case) would be considered libel in most sane legal systems.
Ah, but what the RBL is publishing in this case is more like a newspaper reporting "There have been numerous instances of food poisoning in restaurants on 45th Street". If I refuse to patronize restaurants on that street as a result, good luck suing the newspaper.
Or to pick a real world example: it's like newspapers publishing that there have been many incidents of mad cow disease in the UK, and people banning all import of British beef as a result. And guess what? People did that, and it was legal.
If the statement is false, it is actionable as defamation.
The problem you would face would be that the RBLs are quite clear and up-front about the fact that not every IP address on a block list, is actually being used by a spammer. Furthermore, listing your IP in a block of addresses flagged by an RBL is not stating anything about you; it is stating something about your ISP.
As someone who uses RBLs, I am fully aware that not every IP address listed is that of a spammer, and I am fully aware that I risk false positives.
However, as I understood the scenario, the published statement was along the lines of "this BLOCK contains at least one IP address that sends spam so you should bounce anything from the BLOCK."
The second part of that sentence is your own invention. The RBLs do not tell you what to do with the information. You can use it as a scoring factor in spam heuristics, you can bounce the e-mail, you can greylist it--the action you take is entirely up to you.
What about your customers who expect to be able to receive email from anyone/anywhere?
If your ISP has made that claim and not lived up to it, you have a case against your ISP--not against third parties who may be providing information to your ISP. I also rather doubt that you have any case against my ISP, even if they are blocking e-mail against my wishes, because you have no contractual relationship with them.
If the company I work for disables incoming faxes that lack caller ID, and as a result you are unable to fax me some information, just how far do you think a lawsuit against the company would get? Not very far, I think. But hey, you're a lawyer, go ahead and prove me wrong.
I was thinking exactly the opposite: how the hell can it take 351 pages to describe how to use an object persistence library? Either the book is really padded, or the library must be really badly designed.
Interestingly enough, KFC no longer officially stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken. The 'f' word was making it increasingly hard to market, apparently. Hence they are gradually attempting to rewrite history to say that it stands for Kitchen Fresh Chicken.
If BitMover stated up front that all licenses would be withdrawn from all Linux developers in the event that any single Linux developer tried to reverse engineer BitKeeper, then Linus was a total idiot for agreeing to that license.
If BitMover did not state those conditions up front, then they are being evil and manipulative in yanking licenses from unrelated parties in a fit of pique over what one person is doing in his own time.
Is that balanced enough for you?
Personally, I'm struck by the audacity of a software company trying to control what someone uses a piece of software for, after giving it to him. If Microsoft said you were prohibited from using Windows to write articles critical of Microsoft and contrary to their interests, you would presumably have no problem with that?
Another example was IN CONTROL being bought by their main competitor, then the product killed with no migration path, leaving me with all my personal organization data in a dead application.
Or Adobe killing PageMill, without offering anything comparable my wife could use to update her web site.
Or Apple killing the Newton, leaving me with all my personal organizer data in a dead product.
Or Corel killing WordPerfect for the Mac, leaving people with thousands of documents and no easy way to convert them to a supported product.
Incidentally, stranded VB6 developers can get a free REALbasic license rather than being forced to migrate to.NET, and as an added bonus it'll let them make their code run on Mac and Linux too. (I submitted that to Slashdot as a story but it was rejected, I guess availability of RealBasic applications doesn't matter to Linux.)
Actually, I sometimes still find myself having to re-invent the wheel because all the open source wheels are square or weigh 3 tons. The basic idea is good, though...
I suggest that the guys from Perforce Software stop paying to run ads on Slashdot, as it's obviously going to be a long, long time before any open source developer touches a proprietary version control system again, even if it is free-as-in-beer...
As an Apple customer I've obviously seen some pretty user-hostile moves directed at me, but BitMover have taken user hostility to a whole new level. Way to go, guys!
Now, can we just fix the +silly!--filename requirements in Arch? Thanks...
You assume that switching version control systems is a trivial matter that will take no time.
If you gain a man-month from using BitKeeper, but it costs you two man-months of effort to switch your entire codebase and history to some other version control system, then BitKeeper has lost you productivity overall, even if it did let you work more effectively.
Slashdot Mirror
Not really. MEPIS is Debian unstable plus a custom kernel and better hardware detection. First thing I did after installing MEPIS was build my own vanilla kernel, then apt-get upgrade from the standard Debian repositories. It all works fine.
And the answer to the obvious question of why I chose MEPIS if I was just going to end up using Debian packages anyway: it's a much nicer install than KNOPPIX or the Debian beta installer. Boot a CD, make sure everything works, double-click an icon, 10 minutes later you reboot into your MEPIS system.
Yes, I read the article, and the one it linked to.
As the interview explains quite clearly, what Flew believes in is a deity, as Deists believe in--i.e. some kind of higher power which has no interaction whatsoever with mankind.
That's so far from the conventional meaning of "god", let alone the capitalized "God" used by Christians, that to describe it as "God" is to engage in wilful deception.
Any serious media outlet will have an independent ombudsman who responds to complaints about inaccuracy and inappropriate reporting behavior, and either a TV slot or a column in which corrections and apologies are reported by the ombudsman.
The fact that many Americans don't seem to understand this is one reason why the US news media are such a pathetic joke.
Revealing something true which you agreed not to reveal, is not libel, not even in the UK.
http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=138
.signature, after all, we wouldn't want to Bear False Witness would we?
Anthony Flew is still an atheist.
I trust you will amend your
Like in "Eraserhead".
"Mate, this satellite service wouldn't Voom if you put 10,000 volts through it. It's bleedin' demised."
"It's pining..."
"It's not pining, it's passed on. It's hopped the twig. It's shuffled off this mortal coil. It's run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibule. Vis-a-vis the metabolic processes, it's had its lot. All statements to the effect that this is an active satellite service, are henceforth inoperative. It's fuckin' snuffed it."
Another way to get around the GPL is to have the code rely on a copyrighted, non-redistributable data file. Strangely, the FSF don't seem to be concerned about that hole. (I suggested it as something that ought to be closed up in GPL 3.)
Because it's Wal-Mart?
As a MEPIS user, I'm wondering if anyone has any factual reasons why I should look at Ubuntu?
It seems to me that MEPIS has all the same advantages as Ubuntu--bootable live CD, ten minute install, Debian based, stuff just works, up to date.
The main reason I like MEPIS is that everything from vanilla debian-unstable just works, because MEPIS is really debian-unstable with a custom kernel and better hardware detection. I've read that Ubuntu isn't quite the same--it's further from Debian, hence you can't just add the Debian repositories and expect everything to work. True/False?
Most ThinkPad laptops have good support for Linux. My work T41p has open source drivers for every single piece of hardware from Bluetooth to WiFi. I just wish it was possible to buy one without paying for a useless Windows license.
Linux on laptops is like Linux on any other piece of PC hardware--you need to buy hardware that has drivers; if you get some crappy proprietary hardware with no drivers available you're out of luck.
I contend that it isn't. Now, do you have any argument other than mind-reading proof-by-repeated-assertion?
It was because they built a system designed to help me do something illegal. RBLs have built a system designed to let me block e-mail from you. My blocking e-mail from you is not illegal, because it's my goddamn server. Property rights trump your supposed right to have your message received, as the junk fax laws have shown.
They know nothing of the kind, because that's false. I manually review the e-mail rejected based on RBL information, and I'm sure many other people do as well. If there are people dumb enough to use RBL information to bounce e-mail and not review what's going on, well, that's their stupid fault--blame them.
Could you try again in English? And I didn't start this analogy stuff, it was the other guy. If you want to reject analogies, reject his restaurant analogy too.
So what? If I build a system that detonates a pipe bomb as soon as FOX news broadcasts "The O'Reilly Factor", does that make FOX liable for damages caused by the explosion? I think not--it's the person who sets up the automation that's liable.
Likewise, if you want to sue someone for blocking your e-mail based on RBL information, without any human review, sue the person who set up the automation--i.e. the owner of the mail server.
Guess what? Credit bureaus already report verifiable lies about people, and there's apparently not a damn thing the average joe can do about it. I know this, because I've been lied about by a credit bureau. I ended up having to convince the company that was using the inaccurate information that it was inaccurate.
Ah, but what the RBL is publishing in this case is more like a newspaper reporting "There have been numerous instances of food poisoning in restaurants on 45th Street". If I refuse to patronize restaurants on that street as a result, good luck suing the newspaper.
Or to pick a real world example: it's like newspapers publishing that there have been many incidents of mad cow disease in the UK, and people banning all import of British beef as a result. And guess what? People did that, and it was legal.
The problem you would face would be that the RBLs are quite clear and up-front about the fact that not every IP address on a block list, is actually being used by a spammer. Furthermore, listing your IP in a block of addresses flagged by an RBL is not stating anything about you; it is stating something about your ISP.
As someone who uses RBLs, I am fully aware that not every IP address listed is that of a spammer, and I am fully aware that I risk false positives.
The second part of that sentence is your own invention. The RBLs do not tell you what to do with the information. You can use it as a scoring factor in spam heuristics, you can bounce the e-mail, you can greylist it--the action you take is entirely up to you.
If your ISP has made that claim and not lived up to it, you have a case against your ISP--not against third parties who may be providing information to your ISP. I also rather doubt that you have any case against my ISP, even if they are blocking e-mail against my wishes, because you have no contractual relationship with them.
If the company I work for disables incoming faxes that lack caller ID, and as a result you are unable to fax me some information, just how far do you think a lawsuit against the company would get? Not very far, I think. But hey, you're a lawyer, go ahead and prove me wrong.
You're right. I wonder how I missed that?
http://www.kfc.com/about/facts.htm
I was thinking exactly the opposite: how the hell can it take 351 pages to describe how to use an object persistence library? Either the book is really padded, or the library must be really badly designed.
(Or both, of course.)
Interestingly enough, KFC no longer officially stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken. The 'f' word was making it increasingly hard to market, apparently. Hence they are gradually attempting to rewrite history to say that it stands for Kitchen Fresh Chicken.
If BitMover stated up front that all licenses would be withdrawn from all Linux developers in the event that any single Linux developer tried to reverse engineer BitKeeper, then Linus was a total idiot for agreeing to that license.
If BitMover did not state those conditions up front, then they are being evil and manipulative in yanking licenses from unrelated parties in a fit of pique over what one person is doing in his own time.
Is that balanced enough for you?
Personally, I'm struck by the audacity of a software company trying to control what someone uses a piece of software for, after giving it to him. If Microsoft said you were prohibited from using Windows to write articles critical of Microsoft and contrary to their interests, you would presumably have no problem with that?
Another example was IN CONTROL being bought by their main competitor, then the product killed with no migration path, leaving me with all my personal organization data in a dead application.
.NET, and as an added bonus it'll let them make their code run on Mac and Linux too. (I submitted that to Slashdot as a story but it was rejected, I guess availability of RealBasic applications doesn't matter to Linux.)
Or Adobe killing PageMill, without offering anything comparable my wife could use to update her web site.
Or Apple killing the Newton, leaving me with all my personal organizer data in a dead product.
Or Corel killing WordPerfect for the Mac, leaving people with thousands of documents and no easy way to convert them to a supported product.
Incidentally, stranded VB6 developers can get a free REALbasic license rather than being forced to migrate to
Actually, I sometimes still find myself having to re-invent the wheel because all the open source wheels are square or weigh 3 tons. The basic idea is good, though...
I suggest that the guys from Perforce Software stop paying to run ads on Slashdot, as it's obviously going to be a long, long time before any open source developer touches a proprietary version control system again, even if it is free-as-in-beer...
As an Apple customer I've obviously seen some pretty user-hostile moves directed at me, but BitMover have taken user hostility to a whole new level. Way to go, guys!
Now, can we just fix the +silly!--filename requirements in Arch? Thanks...
You assume that switching version control systems is a trivial matter that will take no time.
If you gain a man-month from using BitKeeper, but it costs you two man-months of effort to switch your entire codebase and history to some other version control system, then BitKeeper has lost you productivity overall, even if it did let you work more effectively.