You are just a bunch of atoms. A pile of compost is also just a bunch of atoms. So you're no different than a pile of compost.
This is called reductionism. It is a fallacy.
It leaves out the essential question: just how are your atoms structured to make you different to a pile of compost? After all, piles of compost don't post to Slashdot........ No, don't say it! DON'T SAY IT!
That's the reason, and the only reason, IBM is into Linux.
Well, that and the fact that Linux runs on everything from watches to mainframes (one solution fits all sizes) AND also the fact that IBM can contribute code that STAYS open. Their competitors cannot distribute IBM code inside FOSS projects without revealing their own contributions -- so IBM is ensured of getting back the benefits of ther competitors' contributions to Open Source software. The GPL actually delivers benefits to corporations, it *forces* people to share.
And if something is broke in the goods as bought (ooh, say, security), then YOU get to pay for the replacement that fixes the problem ("That will be fixed in the next version of Windows").
He started out as a geek like most of us... I am glad to hear that your grandfather set up a million dollar trust for you when you were one year old (that's $1,000,000 in 1956 dollars - worth a bit more than that now). And you went to just about the only school in your city able to afford its own computer - personal computers didn't exist, not even the Altair 8800, but Gates's high school had a computer - go figure.
Yes, we were all geeks like that.
The guy was born filthy rich - and he competes ruthlessly - don't you get it yet? Next you'll be telling us that the Queen of England is just a normal middle-class mom.
When you are rich you can buy a "good" reputation.
He has about 80 billion dollars, and he gives away 20 million. That is like me earning $80,000 a year, and giving away 20 dollars of it. I earn less than $80,000 a year, and I give away (yes) much more than $20 *a week*. And I wouldn't be surprised if I pay much more tax than he does, pro rata, too.
But it is worth remembering: when Bill Gates and I both die, he will be no richer than I am.
Bill Gates paid for most of the building. Donald Trump didn't.
Um, no. The original post said:
The majority of the funds came from a group of Japanese companies.
Last I heard, neither Microsoft nor Bill Gates is a Japanese company. So Bill Gates was a *minority* contributor, but the building was still named after him.
If KDE and Gnome merged, what language would they use? Invent a semi-object-oriented language called C+? Oh, wait, Gtk+ *does* use a semi-object-oriented layer on top of C. Maybe we should call it "C one and a half plus". And what will they call the environment? Kdome?, Gne? And why would I care anyway? I use WindowMaker.
Forking is a form of routing around damage. X.org formed to route around the restrictions imposed in XFree86.
We've printed out so much garbage at our office that we have nearly run out of paper. Voila! The paperless office.
Seriously, computers have made it so much easier to print, reprint, cut and paste, run off a copy of someone's slideshow full of clip-art, etc. No wonder demand for paper hasn't died out - it is easier than ever to fill a page and print it.
Typing was hard work - so too writing all those pages by hand. And printed paper lasts longer than floppy disks. Ever seen a "bad sector" message from reading a piece of paper?
"If you have a plan for military intervention in North Korea that doesn't lead to the virtual annihilation of Seoul within hours of the start of the war, please, we're all ears."
Pussy Galore flies over them with an airplane armed with sleeping gas. She sprays it and it puts all the soldiers asleep. Then you march in and take over.
It worked in "Goldfinger". Oh, wait... they *were* North Koreans, and they did it to US troops guarding Fort Knox. Back to the drawing board...
Not to work less, but to work under my own terms (not the arbitrary ones set by my bosses) and to benefit from my work (not to make my bosses richer).
So you agree with Karl Marx that employment is all about the extraction of surplus value from the working class?
Now imagine that a whole group of people "go out on their own" together - i.e. form a co-operative (it is the only way a group of people can be self-employed together).
Presto - you now understand the whole point of the socialist idea of revolution ("not to work less, but to work under my own terms"). It is what you are doing... but on a bigger scale.
Just imagine if all the employees of General Motors elected the board of directors? Gee, just imagine if the employees of SCO were allowed to vote out THEIR board of directors!
Ah, Democracy - too radical to be tried in the cosy monied world we live in.
Leads to the next question...
on
Is IP Property?
·
· Score: 1
Is property property?
What is exclusively yours, what must be shared, and what can be taken by anybody (or by some other specific body) has always been socially defined. It is not something fixed by nature.
Consider the village commons, which was shared up until the time the British Parliament (a.k.a the representatives of the wealthy classes in Parliament assembled) decreed that the commons would be privatised... away from the villagers who had shared them for ages and into the hands of the nearby estate-owners ("rob from the wretch and give to the peer").
Taxation is another example of "property" changing hands without the owner's choice. Similarly, I "own" some land - but not the minerals that might exist in that land: someone else could get a licence to mine for gold on my "property". And any number of public sector agencies might decide they need my property for public purposes (a road, a railway station, a school, a hospital...)
The big landlords have always desired that the commons belong to their estates. Changing the property rules and definitions is just the means. In the end, property is a form of power (not simply power over an object but power over other people) - and some people and groups have a lot more of it than others.
There is no way I could explain to my Mom over the phone how to install.
Open synaptic. Scroll down to mozilla-firefox. Right click and select "install". Now click on the "Apply" button at the top of the screen.
Don't worry - it will get the software from the web, and all else it needs, install and ready to use.
Need a database? An office suite? Frozen Bubble? You don't even need to go to a shop or pay money or register for a lifetime's supply of SPAM - just follow the same instructions. It is SO MUCH EASIER than Windows, it is not funny.
So that the sales assistant had to put the $6,000 in the cash register and ring up the one dollar change.
I was told that prices are odd amounts so that the customer always waits for the sales assistant to register the sale and print out the change required on the cash register. If the cost were an even $6,000, the customer would just give the assistant the money and walk away, leaving the sales assistant to decide whether to register the sale... or pocket the cash.
Back in late 1976, I used less than $AU 2,500 to buy over $US 3,000 in traveller's cheques. Shortly afterward, the Australian govt devalued the $AU, and it was roughly at parity with the $US. By early 1977, the $AU had drifted back up and was worth about $US 1.10. And it wasn't that long ago that the $AU was worth less than 60 US cents.
Moral of the story: currencies are volatile - don't use current exchange rates for prices long ago.
Just tell them you don't want root access at all, you just want them to set up a program called sudo and then, you promise you'll never bother them again.
Slashdot Mirror
Shouldn't that be "A mathematician, a psychologist and an economist commissioned by British Gas went into a bar..."
You are just a bunch of atoms. A pile of compost is also just a bunch of atoms. So you're no different than a pile of compost.
........ No, don't say it! DON'T SAY IT!
This is called reductionism. It is a fallacy.
It leaves out the essential question: just how are your atoms structured to make you different to a pile of compost? After all, piles of compost don't post to Slashdot
"Open source users do it in public."
Open Source users want to see how others did it.
That's the reason, and the only reason, IBM is into Linux.
Well, that and the fact that Linux runs on everything from watches to mainframes (one solution fits all sizes) AND also the fact that IBM can contribute code that STAYS open. Their competitors cannot distribute IBM code inside FOSS projects without revealing their own contributions -- so IBM is ensured of getting back the benefits of ther competitors' contributions to Open Source software. The GPL actually delivers benefits to corporations, it *forces* people to share.
Open Source: it keeps your competitors honest.
And if something is broke in the goods as bought (ooh, say, security), then YOU get to pay for the replacement that fixes the problem ("That will be fixed in the next version of Windows").
You're right: you don't *see* many BSODs any more. Microsoft has hidden the BSOD so that Windows XP can reboot "silently" without changing the screen.
Great way to fool people that the OS is more stable.
He started out as a geek like most of us... I am glad to hear that your grandfather set up a million dollar trust for you when you were one year old (that's $1,000,000 in 1956 dollars - worth a bit more than that now). And you went to just about the only school in your city able to afford its own computer - personal computers didn't exist, not even the Altair 8800, but Gates's high school had a computer - go figure.
Yes, we were all geeks like that.
The guy was born filthy rich - and he competes ruthlessly - don't you get it yet? Next you'll be telling us that the Queen of England is just a normal middle-class mom.
When you are rich you can buy a "good" reputation.
He has about 80 billion dollars, and he gives away 20 million. That is like me earning $80,000 a year, and giving away 20 dollars of it. I earn less than $80,000 a year, and I give away (yes) much more than $20 *a week*. And I wouldn't be surprised if I pay much more tax than he does, pro rata, too.
But it is worth remembering: when Bill Gates and I both die, he will be no richer than I am.
Bill Gates paid for most of the building. Donald Trump didn't.
Um, no. The original post said:
The majority of the funds came from a group of Japanese companies.
Last I heard, neither Microsoft nor Bill Gates is a Japanese company. So Bill Gates was a *minority* contributor, but the building was still named after him.
If KDE and Gnome merged, what language would they use? Invent a semi-object-oriented language called C+? Oh, wait, Gtk+ *does* use a semi-object-oriented layer on top of C. Maybe we should call it "C one and a half plus". And what will they call the environment? Kdome?, Gne? And why would I care anyway? I use WindowMaker.
Forking is a form of routing around damage. X.org formed to route around the restrictions imposed in XFree86.
We've printed out so much garbage at our office that we have nearly run out of paper. Voila! The paperless office.
Seriously, computers have made it so much easier to print, reprint, cut and paste, run off a copy of someone's slideshow full of clip-art, etc. No wonder demand for paper hasn't died out - it is easier than ever to fill a page and print it.
Typing was hard work - so too writing all those pages by hand. And printed paper lasts longer than floppy disks. Ever seen a "bad sector" message from reading a piece of paper?
"If you have a plan for military intervention in North Korea that doesn't lead to the virtual annihilation of Seoul within hours of the start of the war, please, we're all ears."
... they *were* North Koreans, and they did it to US troops guarding Fort Knox. Back to the drawing board...
Pussy Galore flies over them with an airplane armed with sleeping gas. She sprays it and it puts all the soldiers asleep. Then you march in and take over.
It worked in "Goldfinger". Oh, wait
Not to work less, but to work under my own terms (not the arbitrary ones set by my bosses) and to benefit from my work (not to make my bosses richer).
So you agree with Karl Marx that employment is all about the extraction of surplus value from the working class?
Now imagine that a whole group of people "go out on their own" together - i.e. form a co-operative (it is the only way a group of people can be self-employed together).
Presto - you now understand the whole point of the socialist idea of revolution ("not to work less, but to work under my own terms"). It is what you are doing ... but on a bigger scale.
Just imagine if all the employees of General Motors elected the board of directors? Gee, just imagine if the employees of SCO were allowed to vote out THEIR board of directors!
Ah, Democracy - too radical to be tried in the cosy monied world we live in.
Is property property?
... away from the villagers who had shared them for ages and into the hands of the nearby estate-owners ("rob from the wretch and give to the peer").
...)
What is exclusively yours, what must be shared, and what can be taken by anybody (or by some other specific body) has always been socially defined. It is not something fixed by nature.
Consider the village commons, which was shared up until the time the British Parliament (a.k.a the representatives of the wealthy classes in Parliament assembled) decreed that the commons would be privatised
Taxation is another example of "property" changing hands without the owner's choice. Similarly, I "own" some land - but not the minerals that might exist in that land: someone else could get a licence to mine for gold on my "property". And any number of public sector agencies might decide they need my property for public purposes (a road, a railway station, a school, a hospital
The big landlords have always desired that the commons belong to their estates. Changing the property rules and definitions is just the means. In the end, property is a form of power (not simply power over an object but power over other people) - and some people and groups have a lot more of it than others.
fiat - (Latin) "let it be" as in the command "fiat lux" = "let there be light"
"fiat" is not connected with the Latin word "fides" (faith), but it is IIRC distantly connected with the English word "be".
"fiat money" presumably is some class of object at which the government points and says, "let it be [serve as] money".
It has to do with how many runs an individual happens to score in cricket before he gets out. Here it is in a nice logical sequence:
Zero = duck's egg (look at the shape)
to get out for zero = to get out for a duck's egg
shortened to: to get out for a duck
Hence to be playing with a score of zero puts you in danger of getting out for a duck
So finally: to score your first run "breaks the duck" - you are no longer sitting on a score of zero worrying about getting out for a duck.
An already running admin process that accepts requests from user processes ... um, isn't that an operating system?
Gee, Mr OS would you open this file for me?
Um, isn't "up" the same as "away from the centre of the Earth"?
If I point "up", I am pointing in a totally different direction to you (assuming you are a Northern Hemispherean). It isn't arbitrary, it is relative.
Like "summer" and "winter" - it depends on where you are.
There is no way I could explain to my Mom over the phone how to install .
Open synaptic. Scroll down to mozilla-firefox. Right click and select "install". Now click on the "Apply" button at the top of the screen.
Don't worry - it will get the software from the web, and all else it needs, install and ready to use.
Need a database? An office suite? Frozen Bubble? You don't even need to go to a shop or pay money or register for a lifetime's supply of SPAM - just follow the same instructions. It is SO MUCH EASIER than Windows, it is not funny.
So that the sales assistant had to put the $6,000 in the cash register and ring up the one dollar change.
... or pocket the cash.
I was told that prices are odd amounts so that the customer always waits for the sales assistant to register the sale and print out the change required on the cash register. If the cost were an even $6,000, the customer would just give the assistant the money and walk away, leaving the sales assistant to decide whether to register the sale
Definitely NOT.
Back in late 1976, I used less than $AU 2,500 to buy over $US 3,000 in traveller's cheques. Shortly afterward, the Australian govt devalued the $AU, and it was roughly at parity with the $US. By early 1977, the $AU had drifted back up and was worth about $US 1.10. And it wasn't that long ago that the $AU was worth less than 60 US cents.
Moral of the story: currencies are volatile - don't use current exchange rates for prices long ago.
If most people don't vote, is it still a democracy?
McDonald's pointed out that those foreign Chinese restaurants are undermining our American way of life.
Gee whizz. There ought to be a law against such blatant self-interest. Oh, I forgot, it's the politicians who make the laws. Silly me.
Just tell them you don't want root access at all, you just want them to set up a program called sudo and then, you promise you'll never bother them again.
One solution would be really easy - well, ignoring the fact that it is politically impossible.
... the customers.
The boards of directors of all big media companies (and why stop there?) should be elected (hmmm, sounds too democratic) by
But yes, break them up (and Microsoft too) by all means.