Right--what I was getting at is that I believe (I don't speak any Chinese language, so I can't vouch for this firsthand) is that Mandarin and say Cantonese are completely different languages, yet their writing system is mutually intelligible. Like how 1,2,3 means the same thing in French, German, English, etc. (or at least it USED to be this way--the Communist govt did simplify the script so that most PRC people today can only read simplified (at least the younger generations)
I don't think anyone REALLY cares about individual user's. It's true that some people would probably want you to buy an mp3 version, a cd version, another mp3 version,of a song etc etc...but at the bottom line is the fact that individual use is not what scares content owners. What scares content owners is Napster, Kazaa, DC, etc. That's why Apple was able to come out with their iMusic system which DOES allow for copying (with limits)
A correction--Chinese is the language spoken from BIRTH by the most people, but it is definitely not the world's most spoken language--that would be English.
Not to mention the different Chinese "dialects" (though the very usage of the word dialect is wrong because they aren't dialects but entirely differnet languages that use the same writing system) and the non-Mandarin/Cantonese languages in China, Uyghur, Mongolian, Korean, Tibetan, etc etc etc. So 1.2 billion is an overestimation.
Your point is well taken though--it's big market;) Too bad it's also one of the most piracy filled markets in the world.
Thanks for witty reference to The Hulk jamie. What I want to know is how can ANYONE think that the publisher asserting their rights in this situation is a bad thing?
The very foundation of much of the opensource movement, the GPL license is about respect for law. These people distributing the Harry Potter work are not respecting the law. We can't have opensource without these very same laws.
I remember in grade school that all the "smart" kids owned NES or PC games.
Possibly because all the families that had enough money to buy these toys were generally better off families. Families that are generally better off generally have parents who are smarter and more high energy. These are exactly the same kind of parents that are more likely to work with kids, talking, encouraging them to read, reading to them, etc from a very young age.
if we want to survive, we will (someday) have to get off this rock, and if the human race as a WHOLE doesn't work together on this goal, we are all doomed.
I'll keep that in mind...for 50 million years from now;)
Greek myth too. May have been Heracles but I'm not sure--anyway, the main character carried a newly born calf 20 miles every day, until eventually he was carrying a fully grown cow 20 miles.
Can you imagine an artist say "That's it. I'm burnt out. I've painted for three years professionally, and now I hate it."? If so, then maybe they never really were an artist.
Sure--plenty of famous authors, artists, etc have completely burned out from the amount of effort and spirit they put into their work. Champollion from his efforts suffered a nervous breakdown at an extremely young age and burned himself out. Goethe, Poe, and many many others "burned out"... I would consider them artists;) Not to mention that doing these things professionally is very different from doing things for fun.
Not to dispute your main point, but just because you can get burned out at an activity doesn't mean you're not a true partaker of that activity (or good at it, whatever).
Re:alternatives and cultural rant ahead...
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See my many other posts on this topic for my full opinion (in short, medication absoltuely fine and good for people who really do NEED it--like you--you say the same thing). I guess from your post you are right--I can't even begin to imagine killing myself NOW, and in 2nd grade--I don't think I even knew that I could kill myself back then.. I can't even begin to understand what could be so stressful about 2nd grade? If you don't mind my asking (and feel totally free to not answer) did you have a bad homelife?
Like I said--I'm not blaming YOU for your taking medicine, my problem is not specific with psychiatric treatments but with their extreme overuse in America today. 17% (is a figure I saw) of children on ritalin? ludicrous. Again, I really didn't mean to offend you, and I thank you for your perspectives.
Many psychiatric disorders begin to appear in or just following adolescence. Probably your friend is really sick. Maybe by listening to him you could help him with the circumstances he's trying to deal with. A girl? Of course. What else is worth getting depressed over? People matter.
I have listened. I've listened a lot (and he has NO idea about my opinions on depressions as well). He is in large part the reason for many of my opinions. His whole attitude today is "can't be helped, just need some new medicine".. it's been that way for two years, and they discovered countless other problems (like ADHD, sleep disorders etc) that also need medications.. I very strongly believe that a huge part of healing is wanting to heal and TRYING to heal. I really don't see how my friend sitting at home, alone, playing video games and not showering, waiting until they find the right medicine that makes him normal again is productive. Two years so far..
The sad thing is that such medication often curbs great talent that could be channeled through other means.
That's SUCH a great point. You know, if I look back at all the famous painters, writesr, poets...even leaders, inventors, etc and other creative geniuses, I see a HUGE number who could be labelled as some kind of Attention Deficit...especially since the criteria are so damn vague ("has trouble sitting still...", "has trouble concentrating on some tasks sometimes"). It would be really sad if many of our cultural heros had been drugged to mediocrity.
To clarify my position please read some of my later responses to these threads--I don't really want to have to write the story of one of my friends again...
But anyway in short--I have no problem with such medications if they really are needed. You're obviously someone who has really tried and have perhaps run up against some real barrier. It's of course your choice what you do with your body (and mind) and I wouldn't change that for the world--if it works for you then it really does make me happy. I just see this stuff being WAY overdone, and I've seen the chilling effect over medication has had on multiple friends.
I do think it's interesting that we have little to no idea how the brain works yet we apply chemical fixes to it all the time.
One thing I'm curious about, and maybe you can answer (a bit off topic)...as I understand it, when I laugh at a joke, if you instrumentation monitoring my brain, you could tell that I was happy. Likewise if I just found out that a friend died, you could tell I was sad. In these cases there is a clear indication of cause->reaction. Does that exist for something like depression? How do we know that it's a misbalance of chemicals in the brain that is causing the person to be unhappy, rather than a person being unhappy (or whatever) that causes a misbalance in the brain?
Re:alternatives and cultural rant ahead...
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Turn on the AC, it's too hot! Turn on the AC, it's too cold! I'm tired, i just wanna watch tv. Let's go to mcdonalds I'm hungry!
People today ARE damn wimps compared to what people have (succesfully!) dealt with for thousands of years. I'll say that straight out.
Now, to be clear, I have NO problem with medications that can really help people, I've simply seen too many people that I know have their problems medicated away...and it changes them, and if you think they "don't have any negative side effect" you're simply being naive and foolish.
The way I see it, our culture of avoidance of responsibility in America only FURTHERS things like depression. Oh, don't feel good? Ok, well take some medicine. Oh, you didn't do your homework? Must be ADHD, it's not your fault, juts sit back and pop some pills.. Hell, if I was being told that my life boiled down to what pill of the week is taking *I* would be depressed.
"To address your analogy: There are people who can't hit a baseball worth a damn.They can practice, but they won't ever be good at it."
That's simple nonsense. I believe in the old agage that practice makes perfect. I mean what, do you seriously believe that everyone who is good at anything is just naturally so? That is bullshit.
You believed you were just lazy? If you live a lazy lifestyle how do you know you're NOT just lazy? It seems awfully convenient to me when all these smart people who simply fail to achieve realize that it's not their fault they couldn't work harder, that it's not their fault they didn't do their homework, etc etc. Avoidance of blame, and avoidance of responsibility. Typically american in my view (and I've seen it in some of my best friends). (As I said before, I don't know you, so I could be way off--I really don't mean to offend YOU in particular)
To be clear, I have no specific problem with psychiatric drugs. What I have a big problem with is the excuse culture and, imho, extreme overuse of drugs.
One of my best friends that I've literally known since about 5th grade is currently taking time off from college. Though he was a great student in highschool, and a good student for 1.5 years (before depression hit) at college, once he got depressed and started seeing doctors he suddenly had every problem in the book. He was ADHD. He had a sleeping disorder. He had depression. He had mood swings--every single condition he had also warranted medication. Now, 2 years into trying every prescription in the book he's a totally different person that I knew before.
And you know the bitch of it...what precipitated his depression? A girl.
"That explains why i had a 2.0x GPA at tech, yet know more than 90% of my colleagues....
i could NEVER do homework. period. you try going to college without doing ANY homework...'tis not easy, and you retake LOTS of classes."
I don't know you, so I don't want to judge you or anything, but that's an awful easy explanation. I also apologize in advance because I'm sure I'm going to offend you..sorry.
"I could NEVER do homework"... what do you mean you couldn't. Was it SUPPOSED to be easy? Was it SUPPOSED to be something you liked to do? That's not the point! I've never been able to understand it whne people say stuff like that...Concentration and studying and doing homework are not magical fairies that anyone can just pick off the magic tree, they're learned abilities that must be worked on and honed with practice. If you can't hit a baseball do you just quit and take some handeye coordination enhancing drug? No...you would practice. Geeks typically (myself included;)) like the analogy of the brain as a muscle, so what's so hard to understand that you need to practice with it too?
again, I apologize if I offend you, and I would be interested in the perspectives of someone like yourself.
thanks
Re:alternatives and cultural rant ahead...
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Exactly, you said that so well!
"Oh, I just can't focus in this class..I must have ADHD"
F*CKING SIT DOWN AND CONCENTRATE. No one ever said stuff was supposed to be easy..Jesus. Irritates me to no end.
One of my friends got depressed and dropped out of college. He's since been to sleep doctors, psychiatrists, diagnosed with ADHD, put on like 10 different medicines, valium etc, it's like...wtf. I knew him since middle school..the drugs changed him.. when all he should be doing is DEALING with his problems.
Don't agree with the overall theme of your message--Quark f*cked up bigtime, they got lazy with their near monopoly of desktop publishing software and is a bad spot now. But to say it "has effectively gobbled up all of the old Quark marketshare" is absolutely false. Totally disregarding the huge number of shops that don't change because they don't have to (unlike computers geeks who upgrade for fun) the vast number of Quark XTensions are a huge factor too. Is there a replacement for www.kytek.com's AutoPage, for instance?
I think for the non-professional Adobe has probably done an amazing job of dominating quark--but there is a large portion of the market that hasn't switched, and isn't able to.
Youâ(TM)re arguments are full of so much doggerel that Iâ(TM)ll have to tackle them bit-by-bit.
Sure thing:)
Youâ(TM)re a fool to begin with if you think thereâ(TM)s such a thing as a âoemiddle class
~Shrug~ Then I guess I think I'm a fool. India is an interesting case because, as you so aptly point out poverty is rampant (CIA factbook says 25% below poverty line--that sounds too low to me), while a brief search on the internet lists the "middle class" as 300 million. I was fortunate enough to have talked with someone very high in the India census bureau (North Indian though as a CS member he was relocated to Kerala) last year and he cited around a 300 million middle class--bigger than the united states he said (he also spoke a lot of the growing literacy in India--big improvements these last years if you're interested).
Youâ(TM)re very definition of enslavement is flawed. If you donâ(TM)t own your own company, then youâ(TM)re enslaved. Yep, itâ(TM)s true. That may be a mouthful for you to swallow, but let me try to shed some light
I simply don't agree with this. I have a feeling there is no use disputing it as it has become ever more clear that we are just totally different in belief but in short, I don't see how you can claim to be enslaved if you have choices to make and freedom to live? Andrew Carneghie by your definition was "enslaved" as the poorest of the poor, and he managed to do ok. I'm sure you don't admire Carneghie any more than you admire Gates though, so we don't need to discuss that point further:)
Tell me, would you like to own a high-end sports car? Maybe a mansion or a ranch? Or maybe something else that costs a lot. Perhaps you own these things and more, congratulations if you do. But most of us will never be able to own any of these. Because why? Because unless youâ(TM)re a master, i.e. owner of a company, youâ(TM)ll never earn enough to own any of this stuff or anything else youâ(TM)ve always wanted.
I don't have any particular desire to own any of those things you list--though to be fair in other ways I do have many luxuries--computers, time to sit reading and writing long answers on slashdot;) etc. I would like to point out that there are PLENTY of people who aren't your narrow definition of "masters"--doctors, lawyers, musicians, actors, sports players, computer experts, managers, to name a few (not saying these people are ALWAYS rich but you can easily find tons of examples for each) who can make huge amounts of money without owning a company. No one is guaranteed success. Not to mention that there are plenty of people who have proven that one not must start life as a "master" to do well (I use your terms but I reject their application and validity).
When he donates 1 million to a charity in Africa, that does real, TANGIBLE good--I could care less if it's just his PR campaign, or to try to trick people into using windows, whatever.
You seem to think that one can purchase their way through salvation. Itâ(TM)s the same people like you that think money can solve everything.
I could care less about "salvation"... what's salvation? I don't know! I'm not a particularly religious person if you were wondering. I'm rather utilitarian. If Bill Gates does some good (and his money does do a lot of good in the third world) in my view he can't be ALL bad. We clearly differ on this point though.
Really? Perhaps youâ(TM)ll like to know that these programmers work many more hours than American programmers and STILL only get paid a fraction of the salary they deserve. I guess thatâ(TM)s justified by thoughts like âoebetter that than nothingâ. Of course, they are at least getting something, but are they getting what
Success? You call enslaving millions of people from third world countries to do the same job or better than American programmers do and yet paying them a fraction of what they should be earning a ?successful? way to make money? And then to further justify that you?re telling me that by taking all the money he saved from that gig (and many others) and spreading it around the US like manure a ?successful? way to ?donate? money around the world and a way to ? save more lives in a second than most can do in a lifetime?? I think he could save even more lives by being fair and giving them the pay and benefits they deserve instead of manipulating already suffering people.
I REALLY hate this argument. You know what--if the thousands in India and elsewhere didn't have programming jobs, or call center jobs, they probably WOULDN'T have jobs. What this "enslaving" as you melodramatically put it has done is create a middle class in India that's HUGE. Believe me, I've been to India, and I can't think of any reason why you would begrudge these people their educations and employment. I'm sorry, but imho, if you think he's enslaving these people, you really should travel around the world and see how things are. I guess this argument just bothers me a lot more than most, because having travelled a lot I've seen what many people have to deal with. The view that hiring international programmers is enslaving them is just terribly insular. Incidentally, you're wrong on another point--the Gates have given a TON of money to Africa, and to India, especially in AIDS prevention--money that has nothing to do with either software contributions or windows.
When he gives away a ?billion? dollars worth of software, you actually think that it?s coming from his heart? You?re telling me that none of that is a business scheme and that it?s charity? RMS would agree with you even less. And another point, if a person makes a lot of money by selling questionable software and using monopolistic marketing tactics and then donates some of it back, that doesn?t make them a saint. These assertions are not limited to just Bill Gates; they go for anyone who tries to exploit others and then try to use the media to their (spelled right this time) advantage.
One, I don't think Bill Gates is a saint and if it's not coming from his heart quite frankly I don't care where the hell it comes from. When he donates 1 million to a charity in Africa, that does real, TANGIBLE good--I could care less if it's just his PR campaign, or to try to trick people into using windows, whatever. I think he is an extremely smart person and an excellent businessman. I admire him for these traits. This doesn't mean that I think he or microsoft is morally a great thing. If I were in charge I would have broken up Microsoft's monopoly. Of course when he gives away software he has an ulterior motive. And when I talk about his charities donation etc, often hardware is donated (locks the poor into the wintel monopoly? whatever.. donate macintoshes or linux if you want to help out) and huge amounts of money have nothing to do with computers at all. I forget the name, but the Gates manage one huge charity that deals with Africa primarily and other 3rd world medicine issues. I'll dig up the name and amounts of money we're talking about if you're interested.
spelling mistake on successful--I appreciate you pointing it..and I can see I touched a nerve with my first post about your mistake. I'll apologize now a third time--I really shouldn't have grammar trolled, and I REALLY do apologize for that. Thanks for calling me on it:/ If it makes you feel any better, I mark mistakes in books I read all the time, it's just a nit I have:)
You couldn?t even begin to understand my political and social beliefs, which are based on the equal distribution of wealth, not the selfish, egoistic ways of capitalism and those that support it, which seem like yours.
Ok, thanks for the links, but what is the point? You've given a pertinent terms but how does this affect the issue at hand? The central question is did Nullsoft ever have the right to release the software they did under the gpl?
I'm more than willing to change my mind if there is some evidence that they DID have this right, but I have yet to see any. Are you saying that Frenkel's authority was only apparent and that he overstepped his authority by releasing the code without approval? If you are, that's been the exact point that I've been arguing, so I don't see how we differ:)
Slashdot Mirror
Right--what I was getting at is that I believe (I don't speak any Chinese language, so I can't vouch for this firsthand) is that Mandarin and say Cantonese are completely different languages, yet their writing system is mutually intelligible. Like how 1,2,3 means the same thing in French, German, English, etc. (or at least it USED to be this way--the Communist govt did simplify the script so that most PRC people today can only read simplified (at least the younger generations)
Haha, funny pedantic comment ^^
;)
If you would really like for me to clarifly I will do so:
"Chinese is the language most taught, from birth, as the child's first language"
happy?
I don't think anyone REALLY cares about individual user's. It's true that some people would probably want you to buy an mp3 version, a cd version, another mp3 version,of a song etc etc...but at the bottom line is the fact that individual use is not what scares content owners. What scares content owners is Napster, Kazaa, DC, etc. That's why Apple was able to come out with their iMusic system which DOES allow for copying (with limits)
A correction--Chinese is the language spoken from BIRTH by the most people, but it is definitely not the world's most spoken language--that would be English.
;) Too bad it's also one of the most piracy filled markets in the world.
Not to mention the different Chinese "dialects" (though the very usage of the word dialect is wrong because they aren't dialects but entirely differnet languages that use the same writing system) and the non-Mandarin/Cantonese languages in China, Uyghur, Mongolian, Korean, Tibetan, etc etc etc. So 1.2 billion is an overestimation.
Your point is well taken though--it's big market
Thanks for witty reference to The Hulk jamie. What I want to know is how can ANYONE think that the publisher asserting their rights in this situation is a bad thing?
The very foundation of much of the opensource movement, the GPL license is about respect for law. These people distributing the Harry Potter work are not respecting the law. We can't have opensource without these very same laws.
I remember in grade school that all the "smart" kids owned NES or PC games.
Possibly because all the families that had enough money to buy these toys were generally better off families. Families that are generally better off generally have parents who are smarter and more high energy. These are exactly the same kind of parents that are more likely to work with kids, talking, encouraging them to read, reading to them, etc from a very young age.
if we want to survive, we will (someday) have to get off this rock, and if the human race as a WHOLE doesn't work together on this goal, we are all doomed.
I'll keep that in mind...for 50 million years from now ;)
Greek myth too. May have been Heracles but I'm not sure--anyway, the main character carried a newly born calf 20 miles every day, until eventually he was carrying a fully grown cow 20 miles.
heh, free healthcare? You really think it's free? :p
Not to mention, it's not the GOVERNMENT buying guns (well, they DO buy guns, but I don't hink you're commenting on the military)
Can you imagine an artist say "That's it. I'm burnt out. I've painted for three years professionally, and now I hate it."? If so, then maybe they never really were an artist.
Sure--plenty of famous authors, artists, etc have completely burned out from the amount of effort and spirit they put into their work. Champollion from his efforts suffered a nervous breakdown at an extremely young age and burned himself out. Goethe, Poe, and many many others "burned out"... I would consider them artists ;) Not to mention that doing these things professionally is very different from doing things for fun.
Not to dispute your main point, but just because you can get burned out at an activity doesn't mean you're not a true partaker of that activity (or good at it, whatever).
See my many other posts on this topic for my full opinion (in short, medication absoltuely fine and good for people who really do NEED it--like you--you say the same thing). I guess from your post you are right--I can't even begin to imagine killing myself NOW, and in 2nd grade--I don't think I even knew that I could kill myself back then.. I can't even begin to understand what could be so stressful about 2nd grade? If you don't mind my asking (and feel totally free to not answer) did you have a bad homelife?
Like I said--I'm not blaming YOU for your taking medicine, my problem is not specific with psychiatric treatments but with their extreme overuse in America today. 17% (is a figure I saw) of children on ritalin? ludicrous. Again, I really didn't mean to offend you, and I thank you for your perspectives.
Many psychiatric disorders begin to appear in or just following adolescence. Probably your friend is really sick. Maybe by listening to him you could help him with the circumstances he's trying to deal with. A girl? Of course. What else is worth getting depressed over? People matter.
I have listened. I've listened a lot (and he has NO idea about my opinions on depressions as well). He is in large part the reason for many of my opinions. His whole attitude today is "can't be helped, just need some new medicine" .. it's been that way for two years, and they discovered countless other problems (like ADHD, sleep disorders etc) that also need medications.. I very strongly believe that a huge part of healing is wanting to heal and TRYING to heal. I really don't see how my friend sitting at home, alone, playing video games and not showering, waiting until they find the right medicine that makes him normal again is productive. Two years so far..
The sad thing is that such medication often curbs great talent that could be channeled through other means.
That's SUCH a great point. You know, if I look back at all the famous painters, writesr, poets...even leaders, inventors, etc and other creative geniuses, I see a HUGE number who could be labelled as some kind of Attention Deficit...especially since the criteria are so damn vague ("has trouble sitting still...", "has trouble concentrating on some tasks sometimes"). It would be really sad if many of our cultural heros had been drugged to mediocrity.
To clarify my position please read some of my later responses to these threads--I don't really want to have to write the story of one of my friends again...
But anyway in short--I have no problem with such medications if they really are needed. You're obviously someone who has really tried and have perhaps run up against some real barrier. It's of course your choice what you do with your body (and mind) and I wouldn't change that for the world--if it works for you then it really does make me happy. I just see this stuff being WAY overdone, and I've seen the chilling effect over medication has had on multiple friends.
I do think it's interesting that we have little to no idea how the brain works yet we apply chemical fixes to it all the time.
One thing I'm curious about, and maybe you can answer (a bit off topic)...as I understand it, when I laugh at a joke, if you instrumentation monitoring my brain, you could tell that I was happy. Likewise if I just found out that a friend died, you could tell I was sad. In these cases there is a clear indication of cause->reaction. Does that exist for something like depression? How do we know that it's a misbalance of chemicals in the brain that is causing the person to be unhappy, rather than a person being unhappy (or whatever) that causes a misbalance in the brain?
Turn on the AC, it's too hot! Turn on the AC, it's too cold! I'm tired, i just wanna watch tv. Let's go to mcdonalds I'm hungry!
People today ARE damn wimps compared to what people have (succesfully!) dealt with for thousands of years. I'll say that straight out.
Now, to be clear, I have NO problem with medications that can really help people, I've simply seen too many people that I know have their problems medicated away...and it changes them, and if you think they "don't have any negative side effect" you're simply being naive and foolish.
The way I see it, our culture of avoidance of responsibility in America only FURTHERS things like depression. Oh, don't feel good? Ok, well take some medicine. Oh, you didn't do your homework? Must be ADHD, it's not your fault, juts sit back and pop some pills.. Hell, if I was being told that my life boiled down to what pill of the week is taking *I* would be depressed.
"To address your analogy: There are people who can't hit a baseball worth a damn.They can practice, but they won't ever be good at it."
That's simple nonsense. I believe in the old agage that practice makes perfect. I mean what, do you seriously believe that everyone who is good at anything is just naturally so? That is bullshit.
You believed you were just lazy? If you live a lazy lifestyle how do you know you're NOT just lazy? It seems awfully convenient to me when all these smart people who simply fail to achieve realize that it's not their fault they couldn't work harder, that it's not their fault they didn't do their homework, etc etc. Avoidance of blame, and avoidance of responsibility. Typically american in my view (and I've seen it in some of my best friends). (As I said before, I don't know you, so I could be way off--I really don't mean to offend YOU in particular)
To be clear, I have no specific problem with psychiatric drugs. What I have a big problem with is the excuse culture and, imho, extreme overuse of drugs.
One of my best friends that I've literally known since about 5th grade is currently taking time off from college. Though he was a great student in highschool, and a good student for 1.5 years (before depression hit) at college, once he got depressed and started seeing doctors he suddenly had every problem in the book. He was ADHD. He had a sleeping disorder. He had depression. He had mood swings--every single condition he had also warranted medication. Now, 2 years into trying every prescription in the book he's a totally different person that I knew before.
And you know the bitch of it...what precipitated his depression? A girl.
"That explains why i had a 2.0x GPA at tech, yet know more than 90% of my colleagues....
... what do you mean you couldn't. Was it SUPPOSED to be easy? Was it SUPPOSED to be something you liked to do? That's not the point! I've never been able to understand it whne people say stuff like that...Concentration and studying and doing homework are not magical fairies that anyone can just pick off the magic tree, they're learned abilities that must be worked on and honed with practice. If you can't hit a baseball do you just quit and take some handeye coordination enhancing drug? No...you would practice. Geeks typically (myself included ;)) like the analogy of the brain as a muscle, so what's so hard to understand that you need to practice with it too?
i could NEVER do homework. period. you try going to college without doing ANY homework...'tis not easy, and you retake LOTS of classes."
I don't know you, so I don't want to judge you or anything, but that's an awful easy explanation. I also apologize in advance because I'm sure I'm going to offend you..sorry.
"I could NEVER do homework"
again, I apologize if I offend you, and I would be interested in the perspectives of someone like yourself.
thanks
Exactly, you said that so well!
"Oh, I just can't focus in this class..I must have ADHD"
F*CKING SIT DOWN AND CONCENTRATE. No one ever said stuff was supposed to be easy..Jesus. Irritates me to no end.
One of my friends got depressed and dropped out of college. He's since been to sleep doctors, psychiatrists, diagnosed with ADHD, put on like 10 different medicines, valium etc, it's like...wtf. I knew him since middle school..the drugs changed him.. when all he should be doing is DEALING with his problems.
Maybe not quite what you're looking for, but I like Chick Corea a lot. Return to Forever.
'What Game Shall We Play' today is one of my favorites. Nice vocals.
Sorry, mistyped--I *DO* agree with the overall theme of your message--just not that Adobe has completely killed of Quark. My mistake.
Don't agree with the overall theme of your message--Quark f*cked up bigtime, they got lazy with their near monopoly of desktop publishing software and is a bad spot now. But to say it "has effectively gobbled up all of the old Quark marketshare" is absolutely false. Totally disregarding the huge number of shops that don't change because they don't have to (unlike computers geeks who upgrade for fun) the vast number of Quark XTensions are a huge factor too. Is there a replacement for www.kytek.com's AutoPage, for instance?
I think for the non-professional Adobe has probably done an amazing job of dominating quark--but there is a large portion of the market that hasn't switched, and isn't able to.
Hope this clears it up:
1) www.ebay.com
2) search for: dvd
3) 122,325 results found (i know a lot of them aren't american dvds actually)
More slashdot hysteria I'm afraid.. If selling dvd's WAS illegal I think we would have heard about it.
Youâ(TM)re arguments are full of so much doggerel that Iâ(TM)ll have to tackle them bit-by-bit.
Sure thing :)
Youâ(TM)re a fool to begin with if you think thereâ(TM)s such a thing as a âoemiddle class
~Shrug~ Then I guess I think I'm a fool. India is an interesting case because, as you so aptly point out poverty is rampant (CIA factbook says 25% below poverty line--that sounds too low to me), while a brief search on the internet lists the "middle class" as 300 million. I was fortunate enough to have talked with someone very high in the India census bureau (North Indian though as a CS member he was relocated to Kerala) last year and he cited around a 300 million middle class--bigger than the united states he said (he also spoke a lot of the growing literacy in India--big improvements these last years if you're interested).
Youâ(TM)re very definition of enslavement is flawed. If you donâ(TM)t own your own company, then youâ(TM)re enslaved. Yep, itâ(TM)s true. That may be a mouthful for you to swallow, but let me try to shed some light
I simply don't agree with this. I have a feeling there is no use disputing it as it has become ever more clear that we are just totally different in belief but in short, I don't see how you can claim to be enslaved if you have choices to make and freedom to live? Andrew Carneghie by your definition was "enslaved" as the poorest of the poor, and he managed to do ok. I'm sure you don't admire Carneghie any more than you admire Gates though, so we don't need to discuss that point further :)
Tell me, would you like to own a high-end sports car? Maybe a mansion or a ranch? Or maybe something else that costs a lot. Perhaps you own these things and more, congratulations if you do. But most of us will never be able to own any of these. Because why? Because unless youâ(TM)re a master, i.e. owner of a company, youâ(TM)ll never earn enough to own any of this stuff or anything else youâ(TM)ve always wanted.
I don't have any particular desire to own any of those things you list--though to be fair in other ways I do have many luxuries--computers, time to sit reading and writing long answers on slashdot ;) etc. I would like to point out that there are PLENTY of people who aren't your narrow definition of "masters"--doctors, lawyers, musicians, actors, sports players, computer experts, managers, to name a few (not saying these people are ALWAYS rich but you can easily find tons of examples for each) who can make huge amounts of money without owning a company. No one is guaranteed success. Not to mention that there are plenty of people who have proven that one not must start life as a "master" to do well (I use your terms but I reject their application and validity).
When he donates 1 million to a charity in Africa, that does real, TANGIBLE good--I could care less if it's just his PR campaign, or to try to trick people into using windows, whatever.
You seem to think that one can purchase their way through salvation. Itâ(TM)s the same people like you that think money can solve everything.
I could care less about "salvation" ... what's salvation? I don't know! I'm not a particularly religious person if you were wondering. I'm rather utilitarian. If Bill Gates does some good (and his money does do a lot of good in the third world) in my view he can't be ALL bad. We clearly differ on this point though.
Really? Perhaps youâ(TM)ll like to know that these programmers work many more hours than American programmers and STILL only get paid a fraction of the salary they deserve. I guess thatâ(TM)s justified by thoughts like âoebetter that than nothingâ. Of course, they are at least getting something, but are they getting what
Success? You call enslaving millions of people from third world countries to do the same job or better than American programmers do and yet paying them a fraction of what they should be earning a ?successful? way to make money? And then to further justify that you?re telling me that by taking all the money he saved from that gig (and many others) and spreading it around the US like manure a ?successful? way to ?donate? money around the world and a way to ? save more lives in a second than most can do in a lifetime?? I think he could save even more lives by being fair and giving them the pay and benefits they deserve instead of manipulating already suffering people.
I REALLY hate this argument. You know what--if the thousands in India and elsewhere didn't have programming jobs, or call center jobs, they probably WOULDN'T have jobs. What this "enslaving" as you melodramatically put it has done is create a middle class in India that's HUGE. Believe me, I've been to India, and I can't think of any reason why you would begrudge these people their educations and employment. I'm sorry, but imho, if you think he's enslaving these people, you really should travel around the world and see how things are. I guess this argument just bothers me a lot more than most, because having travelled a lot I've seen what many people have to deal with. The view that hiring international programmers is enslaving them is just terribly insular. Incidentally, you're wrong on another point--the Gates have given a TON of money to Africa, and to India, especially in AIDS prevention--money that has nothing to do with either software contributions or windows.
When he gives away a ?billion? dollars worth of software, you actually think that it?s coming from his heart? You?re telling me that none of that is a business scheme and that it?s charity? RMS would agree with you even less. And another point, if a person makes a lot of money by selling questionable software and using monopolistic marketing tactics and then donates some of it back, that doesn?t make them a saint. These assertions are not limited to just Bill Gates; they go for anyone who tries to exploit others and then try to use the media to their (spelled right this time) advantage.
One, I don't think Bill Gates is a saint and if it's not coming from his heart quite frankly I don't care where the hell it comes from. When he donates 1 million to a charity in Africa, that does real, TANGIBLE good--I could care less if it's just his PR campaign, or to try to trick people into using windows, whatever. I think he is an extremely smart person and an excellent businessman. I admire him for these traits. This doesn't mean that I think he or microsoft is morally a great thing. If I were in charge I would have broken up Microsoft's monopoly. Of course when he gives away software he has an ulterior motive. And when I talk about his charities donation etc, often hardware is donated (locks the poor into the wintel monopoly? whatever.. donate macintoshes or linux if you want to help out) and huge amounts of money have nothing to do with computers at all. I forget the name, but the Gates manage one huge charity that deals with Africa primarily and other 3rd world medicine issues. I'll dig up the name and amounts of money we're talking about if you're interested.
spelling mistake on successful--I appreciate you pointing it..and I can see I touched a nerve with my first post about your mistake. I'll apologize now a third time--I really shouldn't have grammar trolled, and I REALLY do apologize for that. Thanks for calling me on it :/ If it makes you feel any better, I mark mistakes in books I read all the time, it's just a nit I have :)
You couldn?t even begin to understand my political and social beliefs, which are based on the equal distribution of wealth, not the selfish, egoistic ways of capitalism and those that support it, which seem like yours.
Ok, thanks for the links, but what is the point? You've given a pertinent terms but how does this affect the issue at hand? The central question is did Nullsoft ever have the right to release the software they did under the gpl?
:)
I'm more than willing to change my mind if there is some evidence that they DID have this right, but I have yet to see any. Are you saying that Frenkel's authority was only apparent and that he overstepped his authority by releasing the code without approval? If you are, that's been the exact point that I've been arguing, so I don't see how we differ