They could have at least used a user-replaceable pack.
IEEE must take the blame for the lack of standard though. That's their job in theory, if they weren't a bunch of sold out assholes that don't care about technical matters anymore, just money.
It isn't just about apple. It's about standards for batteries.
IEEE.... WAKE UP!
BTW- a little door and two metal contacts would be trivial to add. You make it sounds like some impossible feat of engineering. Tiny digital cameras manage user-servicable batteries all the time.
Then you are basically supporting the tyranny of the majority, ironically!
If I had a business, especially one that would be likely to have disabled or elderly customers, I'd damn sure put in a wheelchair ramp, or large type on price tags, or whatever was necessary.
I'm really not a person that likes to see people struggling. I used to tutor a nearly blind guy with computers, I know how some people have a real hard time using a computer.
I don't think the current level of legal requirements are particularly heavy or burdonsome, but it's just another thing a small business owner must cut through just to operate, even if there isn't a disabled person for miles around.
Legislation doesn't take the place of empathy or courtesy. If a disabled guy is having trouble navigating my store, I'd probably rearrange things to help him. It's that personal level that's lost, and resentment fostered isntead, when the federal and state governments hand down regulations that everyone must deal with.
There's absolutely no reason there can't be standard battery sizes that are user-servicable.
Yes, Lithium Ion batteries can be dangerous if charged improperly, that's why you make them a different (standardized) size so they only fit Lithium Ion chargers, and you have standards for construction as far as inherent short circuit protection.
There are plenty of other consumer items that can be dangerous if misused or abused, so the safety argument doesn't go far.
Companies that use proprietary sizes, or much worse, don't even let the user change their own battery, are asking to be sued.
Using proprietary battery sizes that aren't interchangable, or in this case, are not even user servicable, sounds like a scam to me for someone looking to make a quick buck.
Our current condition in the US is more aptly described as a Tyranny of the Minorities.
I recommend another book, I forget the name, since I haven't read it since I was 7 or 8. It was about a mother making soup, and as each family member passed by, each asked her not to use a certain ingrediant they didn't like. The family wound up having warm water for dinner that night.
Maybe not as intellectual a book, but the message is clear enough.
What I am against is a sense of entitlement (which I was getting from the original post), and any government interference and legislation that forces the majority to do things to accmodate a tiny minority.
I'm all for businesses and projects keeping accessibility in mind. Good UI design and accessibility go hand in hand often.
I work at a company that indirectly supplies stuff that ends up on Wal-Mart shelves. I can tell you without a doubt, that I am in the USA, that Wal-Mart has never asked to look at our private accounting information, and that most of the above accusations are lies.
Wal-Mart may buy from suppliers that have those practices, but it's erroneous to say that they somehow force their suppliers to act that way.
I don't speak for my unnamed employer. The views here are my own.
Do you think people have an entitlement to work in the USA? Hell fucking no. In most states, employment is at will, and can be terminated by other side for whatever reason they want (except for a few very specific reasons).
You are a fucking idiot. If I were pro-union, I'd be pissed that someone as stupid as you was advocating my position.
So, if I am a partially deaf or blind kernel developer, why should I have to wait for fucntionaility everyone else already has?
Maybe because you are partially deaf or blind? You'll never have the functionality everyone else has.
It's irrational to think that someone in a tiny minority should be able to dictate how the majority behaves.
If that were true, then cars should accomodate both midgets and huge basketball players. They generally don't, not very well at least.
People with special needs have to pay more, because special needs cost more.
In this case, it's a little different since it's open source software, and people are free to work on whatever floats their boat. I do think that the desktop environments should try to get the level of GUI consistancy that Windows has, with regard to keyboard shortcuts though. That would be the biggest accessibility feature.
MrSid is kinda a proprietary format though, which is unfortunate. When I needed to extract a MrSid file under Linux to a JPG format, I had to run the free (beer) DOS binary version of the MrSid converter that they provide, inside of Wine.
I seem to recall them offering some sort of binary-only Linux version, that didn't work or something. I know I couldn't get a JPG of the whole image out of it.
It's more like a communal water tank. One with a sign that say "take all the water you want!". And then they ban you from using it when you take a lot of water.
In your first case, it seems clear cut. You don't need a GPLed web browser to use a GPLed web server. I don't see how there could be any confusion at all.
And that nagging single point of failure; a company that isn't particularly financially sound running the whole circus.
Because the OS is mostly closed, and controlled by one company, and even worse, the hardware is, there's an extremely high risk of something happening like what happened to all the work that went into BeOS apps.
A fully open source platform, on hardware offered by more than one vendor, is the only way to produce software that has a strong chance of remaining viable.
There is a grey area, as to what constitutes "part of the original GPL source" and what isn't.
If you take some GPL webboard lets say, and put it on only your server, make some changes to it, etc... is that distribution, or just use? It's sending out parts of its source code, if you consider HTML/CSS part of the source code, which the author likely does.
The FSF claims to be looking into adding a clause to clarify some of these situations.
I've never heard RMS say that software should cost nothing.
He constantly argues the complete opposite, that the GPL has nothing to do with cost, and the FSF selling the deluxe GNU collection for several thousand bucks seems to be proof.
What do you mean "contacts" GPL code? You mean like taking GPL code and copy-paste into the closed source??? It's not like it will jump like a louse.
Its design is to give exclusive advantages to other devlopers of GPL software, that aren't available to closed software development.
The goal isn't to trick people into "infecting" their closed software with GPL, it's to encourage open development by offering an advantage to other open developers; the right to use and distribute GPL code freely mixed with their own.
I agree with both you and the previous poster to a degree. I think that it is hard to accidentally mix in GPL code, unless you totally didn't pay attention, but at the same time, you need to be aware of the licenses of the things you are linking to.
Maybe the MS "click the EULA without reading it" mentality might train people to not think about licenses, but I think anyone with a minimum of care could avoid such "accidents".
Slashdot Mirror
Dropping something with a spinning hard disk in it can cause much larger problems.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
They could have at least used a user-replaceable pack.
IEEE must take the blame for the lack of standard though. That's their job in theory, if they weren't a bunch of sold out assholes that don't care about technical matters anymore, just money.
I'm not talking about cylinder cells. I'm talking about a standardized flat pack.
It isn't just about apple. It's about standards for batteries.
IEEE.... WAKE UP!
BTW- a little door and two metal contacts would be trivial to add. You make it sounds like some impossible feat of engineering. Tiny digital cameras manage user-servicable batteries all the time.
Then you are basically supporting the tyranny of the majority, ironically!
If I had a business, especially one that would be likely to have disabled or elderly customers, I'd damn sure put in a wheelchair ramp, or large type on price tags, or whatever was necessary.
I'm really not a person that likes to see people struggling. I used to tutor a nearly blind guy with computers, I know how some people have a real hard time using a computer.
I don't think the current level of legal requirements are particularly heavy or burdonsome, but it's just another thing a small business owner must cut through just to operate, even if there isn't a disabled person for miles around.
Legislation doesn't take the place of empathy or courtesy. If a disabled guy is having trouble navigating my store, I'd probably rearrange things to help him. It's that personal level that's lost, and resentment fostered isntead, when the federal and state governments hand down regulations that everyone must deal with.
No, the specific reasons are race, gender, age, color, religion,
national origin, disability or veteran status.
No more no less.
If I want to fire you because you are a liberal, you are history.
How would you feel if you owned your own business, and hired someone only later to find out he was an active KKK member?
What right does the government have to tell you who you can or can't have work for you?
There's absolutely no reason there can't be standard battery sizes that are user-servicable.
Yes, Lithium Ion batteries can be dangerous if charged improperly, that's why you make them a different (standardized) size so they only fit Lithium Ion chargers, and you have standards for construction as far as inherent short circuit protection.
There are plenty of other consumer items that can be dangerous if misused or abused, so the safety argument doesn't go far.
Companies that use proprietary sizes, or much worse, don't even let the user change their own battery, are asking to be sued.
Using proprietary battery sizes that aren't interchangable, or in this case, are not even user servicable, sounds like a scam to me for someone looking to make a quick buck.
Stefans law: Never release between thanksgiving and Jan1.
Most likely no one thought to ever test it, or file a bug!
It's probably been set that way since before 'drake forked from RH.
Our current condition in the US is more aptly described as a Tyranny of the Minorities.
I recommend another book, I forget the name, since I haven't read it since I was 7 or 8. It was about a mother making soup, and as each family member passed by, each asked her not to use a certain ingrediant they didn't like. The family wound up having warm water for dinner that night.
Maybe not as intellectual a book, but the message is clear enough.
I'm by no means against accessibility tools.
What I am against is a sense of entitlement (which I was getting from the original post), and any government interference and legislation that forces the majority to do things to accmodate a tiny minority.
I'm all for businesses and projects keeping accessibility in mind. Good UI design and accessibility go hand in hand often.
I work at a company that indirectly supplies stuff that ends up on Wal-Mart shelves. I can tell you without a doubt, that I am in the USA, that Wal-Mart has never asked to look at our private accounting information, and that most of the above accusations are lies.
Wal-Mart may buy from suppliers that have those practices, but it's erroneous to say that they somehow force their suppliers to act that way.
I don't speak for my unnamed employer. The views here are my own.
What the hell kind of idiot are you?
Do you think people have an entitlement to work in the USA? Hell fucking no. In most states, employment is at will, and can be terminated by other side for whatever reason they want (except for a few very specific reasons).
You are a fucking idiot. If I were pro-union, I'd be pissed that someone as stupid as you was advocating my position.
So, if I am a partially deaf or blind kernel developer, why should I have to wait for fucntionaility everyone else already has?
Maybe because you are partially deaf or blind? You'll never have the functionality everyone else has.
It's irrational to think that someone in a tiny minority should be able to dictate how the majority behaves.
If that were true, then cars should accomodate both midgets and huge basketball players. They generally don't, not very well at least.
People with special needs have to pay more, because special needs cost more.
In this case, it's a little different since it's open source software, and people are free to work on whatever floats their boat. I do think that the desktop environments should try to get the level of GUI consistancy that Windows has, with regard to keyboard shortcuts though. That would be the biggest accessibility feature.
That's really neat, but the cursor moves SO SLOW!
It'd be a real bitch to do anything with this. I mean it takes a full 2 minutes to cross the screen.
Online presence....
If you mean propaganda/brochureware sites, sure. But making real things happen on the web still hasn't happened for most companies.
There's plenty left to do.
MrSid is kinda a proprietary format though, which is unfortunate. When I needed to extract a MrSid file under Linux to a JPG format, I had to run the free (beer) DOS binary version of the MrSid converter that they provide, inside of Wine.
I seem to recall them offering some sort of binary-only Linux version, that didn't work or something. I know I couldn't get a JPG of the whole image out of it.
It's more like a communal water tank. One with a sign that say "take all the water you want!". And then they ban you from using it when you take a lot of water.
In your first case, it seems clear cut. You don't need a GPLed web browser to use a GPLed web server. I don't see how there could be any confusion at all.
According to Red Hat, selling box sets and support for their regular distro was profitable. Apparently not as profitable as other markets though.
And that nagging single point of failure; a company that isn't particularly financially sound running the whole circus.
Because the OS is mostly closed, and controlled by one company, and even worse, the hardware is, there's an extremely high risk of something happening like what happened to all the work that went into BeOS apps.
A fully open source platform, on hardware offered by more than one vendor, is the only way to produce software that has a strong chance of remaining viable.
You make a valid point, in a way.
There is a grey area, as to what constitutes "part of the original GPL source" and what isn't.
If you take some GPL webboard lets say, and put it on only your server, make some changes to it, etc... is that distribution, or just use? It's sending out parts of its source code, if you consider HTML/CSS part of the source code, which the author likely does.
The FSF claims to be looking into adding a clause to clarify some of these situations.
I've never heard RMS say that software should cost nothing.
He constantly argues the complete opposite, that the GPL has nothing to do with cost, and the FSF selling the deluxe GNU collection for several thousand bucks seems to be proof.
What do you mean "contacts" GPL code? You mean like taking GPL code and copy-paste into the closed source??? It's not like it will jump like a louse.
I'd still object to calling it viral.
Its design is to give exclusive advantages to other devlopers of GPL software, that aren't available to closed software development.
The goal isn't to trick people into "infecting" their closed software with GPL, it's to encourage open development by offering an advantage to other open developers; the right to use and distribute GPL code freely mixed with their own.
I agree with both you and the previous poster to a degree. I think that it is hard to accidentally mix in GPL code, unless you totally didn't pay attention, but at the same time, you need to be aware of the licenses of the things you are linking to.
Maybe the MS "click the EULA without reading it" mentality might train people to not think about licenses, but I think anyone with a minimum of care could avoid such "accidents".