True, but he context of the conversation was American (US) McDonalds, and foreign mean "non-american". I wasn't claiming anything about non-american restaurants. (And appologies to non-US americans:)
1 - The article you linked says that McDonalds is testing imports of as much as 1% of its beef from down under. That's hardly a "considerable amount of foreign beef".
2 - The parent article claimed that McDonalds bought from the US except for a small amount from Australia. Your argumentative reply linked facts that exactly confirmed what he said.
So.. uh.. try again.
The "rumor emails" at the bottom of the link don't count - they are just made up chain letters. If you believe those, then you must also be waiting for your check from Bill Gates for forwarding those other chain letters that promised to give you money from him.
The headline is a little misleading. This isn't a working group to create some new standard for interoperability. This is a working group to evaluate and possibly improve Jabber's protocol.
In other words, this new group will ensure that Jabber's existing protocol is secure and has good support for localization. But it has nothing to do with AIM/ICQ, Yahoo Messanger, or anything like that. You can use XMPP today - it's called Jabber (and it's pretty cool).
Unlike the post says, this isn't an OS for the old Commodore computers. This is a reimplementation of that old OS for PowerPC machines. They are trying to maintain API compatibility so you can run the old programs right on a PowerPC box.
From the website: "Under the Quark kernel a PowerPC(TM) native reimplementation of the OS we know from the Commodore(TM) A1000, A500, A2000, A1200, A3000(T) and A4000(T) systems runs as a mixture of a virtual emulation and a driver. We call this OS driver from now on the A-Box."
I think you are missing a vital point. You can't just say "I'm getting into coding, is X or Y better?"
What is it exactly that you are writing? If you are writing a 3-D game, then the Java-Cocoa API is probably out. If you are porting your java-based massive application to Mac, than ObjC is probably out.
Basically, choose the one that fits your application's needs. If you just want to mess around though, go with Java-Cocoa just because it's more immediate.
You called your comment "The problem with Lessing (sic)" (It's "Lessig"). You said we shouldn't abolish copyrights, but instead just limit them to 20-30 years.
Lessig himself calls for limited copyrights, not abolishing them. You are actually in complete agreement with him.
For those of you who are too lazy to actually follow this, here's the quick summary of where we are at:
Remember that just because a law is "bad" and horribly unbalanced towards lobbists doesn't make it illegal unless there is some specific legal reason the law is unconstitutional.
Basically, Eldred is arguing that because we have a Constitution of enumerated powers (Congress can only do what the constitution specifically allows), that the power to extend copyright must be limited. In other words, the Constitution grants Congress specific powers. If Congress continually extends copyright, than it has unlimited power (which the Constitution doesn't give it).
So far it seems the court is buying this argument. The court seems to be unsure though if it has any power to do anything about it. This is good news to Lessig, because it means the court buys the limited power argument.
The case was also helped by a government bumble. The government argued that there is no constitutional limit on the ability of Congress to extend copyright, thus the extention was legal. This actually helped Eldred because the court did not like this view at all. The court did not support the idea that the constitution limits the powers of Congress, but that Congress gets to set what the limits are. In effect, the government proved Eldred's point themselves.
So there is a fighting chance that Eldred might win. Everyone say a big thanks to people like Lessig who are fighting hard for the public's right to the "creative commons".
While I'm glad someone is out their pushing back at all the video taping aimed at us, I don't see why this is such a huge problem. I agree everyone has a right to privacy. But when you enter a public place, you give up some of your rights of privacy. No one is putting cameras in your house or invading your privacy.
How is it invading anything to watch you where you are already watched anyway (by humans)?
The slashdot story cites a launch date of October, but the Business Line article says the real launch date is around May next year. I think that gives them plenty of time to fix the under-construction pages on their website.
Well, sort of. We need your help. TPJ is totally reader supported. To provide TPJ to you, we need 3,000 subscribers. Bean counters and suits being what they are, our bosses won't let us publish the e-zine if we don't have enough subscribers. It's as simple as that.
3,000 readers * $12.00 subscription = $36,000 yearly income before taxes and bandwidth costs.
How could they survive on that? You couldn't even pay one decent perl programmer to write articles. Who is paying all the "bean counters and suits"?
There is no law in the US against linking to DeCSS. News.com is a news organization and is reporting the news as they see fit. If the DVD-CCA decides to bring suit against News.com and got a judgement forcing them to to stop linking, then they would have to remove the links.
But it is unlikely that the DVD-CCA would try something like that. They already have enough bad press in the tech sector, the last thing they need is bad press in mainstream news channels.
This is the same reason slashdot doesn't get raided by some government agency everytime a poster puts a link to DeCSS in a comment. There is no "don't link DeCSS law" and there is no legal ruling (yet...) preventing slashdot from posting DeCSS links in discussions.
I'm sure people are going to reply saying that LFS is a niche product and not news that many people care about.
Well, though most of you are probably exposed to Linux through the desktop, Linux is winning it's in-roads in the industry through embedded systems and handheld devices (not desktop). Functional LFS installs can be as little as 5 megs or so and completely customized. Perfect to compete with several-thousand-dollar offerings from MS, Palm, etc.
So if embedded systems are driving commercial linux support, in a way LFS and systems like it are more important in the short term than Mandrake and SuSE.
So why not write your local LFS contributer and say thanks?
I'm a Georgia Tech student. I've even been a TA for these classes. And I turned in a huge number of students for cheating.
In basically every CS class after the two intro classes, there is a lot of group work. Many classes are entirely group work. BUT since there is such a large variation in experience and knowledge in intro CS students, you can't let people work in groups in the first class. They can't slouch on any of this. It's the foundation to everything to come.
Every student needs to know how to write a linked list. Every student needs to know how to write a for loop. This isn't hard stuff. There are TONS of undergraduate TAs available for PERSONAL scheduled help (students are even required to attend weekly one-on-one help time). Between those PERSONAL help sessions, there are TAs who answer posts on class newsgroups in a timely manner.
In short, Tech provides an army of help. Students just need to not be lazy and take advantage of it. And once you know how to write some basic code, then you can do all the group work you want in the following classes. Don't blame the school. These policies are explained clearly and repeatedly. It's not like they are saying "Hey, you have never written code. Now write a compilier with no outside help". It's more like "write a linked list based on lectures and if you have any questions, go to your TA for individual help or ask in review class".
Do you want to work in a group with someone who doesn't know what a while loop is? Do you want this person to -graduate with a degree-?
The US has laws limiting embryonic stem cell research. They don't care if use use cells from yourself (as they did with the 'bubble boy'). The issue is whether or not more break-throughs of this type could be made faster by using stem cells from all the frozen embroyos laying around (which are basically big clumps of stem cell:)
Not to troll, but does anyone actually like gnome over KDE? KDE is years ahead of gnome and advancing at a much faster pace. I know that you can update non-gnome software on redc arpet, but there primary selling point is getting the newest gnome immediately. The problem is, who wants to pay 9.95 to get a desktop interface that really isn't that good?
So everyone is posting that it is a conflict of interests that AMDZone is posting a -transmeta- review... Well if you read the article, at the end they say they (as in AMDZone) are taking pre-orders for the device. Pre-orders??? When was the last time Tom's Hardware or anandtech took personal preorders for the device at the end of the review.
Copy-protection has always been about keeping the average user from copying their cds easily. They know they aren't going to stop the guy in china with advanced equiptment that will press his own cd copys.
But the whole point of stoping joe listener from copying his cds is to make sure his friend buys a copy also. If the record industry produces CDs that joe listener can listen to in the first place, he will return it AND his friend won't buy a copy. And the retail store complains about the returns. In the end, the record company is much worse off than if they had done nothing. They are shooting themselves in the foot.
Almost every computer game used to come with annoying copy protection schemes. When legit buyers can't play their game, they complain. How many code wheels are still around? The companys learned it was worse overall if they used protection that caused problems for legit users.
Obviously the first thing posted on slashdot would be jokes about some weird lesbian relationship between Scully and Lawless, probably because, well, look who reads slashdot. BUT, about 3 days ago I saw a story on MSN or CNN or some other "reliable" source that honestly said they producers were considering a lesbian side-story for Scully. I'm pretty sure this was "CNN Headlines News" on cable. Now it's announced Lawless is going to be playing a few episodes. I honestly don't think the jokes are far off from the truth.
Your whole argument assumes all computer users are home/soho desktop users. Linux can do many things that windows can't do, but most of those things are in the realm of research, serving, and business.
Most day-to-day computer users don't have a clue and they don't particularily want to get a clue. Thats fine, but thats hardly an argument for linux being useless. Home/end users are unimportant in the grand scheme of computing anyway. They will eventually just be using thin computers or some such derivative anyway.
As far as your quote "I'm going to make a bold statement now...There isn't one thing that I can do in Linux that can't be done in Windows." - Thats laughable. Try again when you have used computers for something besides writing email and browsing the web. Desktops aren't the entire world, only a small part. If you don't care to do anything other than read your email, than windows has probably got you covered, as does linux. If you want to run mathematic simulations, write your own sound processing interfaces, attach custom hardware to your computer, or whatever other crazy thing than you probably would be much better off with linux. Some of us just do more with our computers than the average desktop.
I've got a cheap acoustic guitar and a custom-cut and finished strat with custom electronics sitting right here. Sure, the strat can't play any notes the acoustic can't, but thats no reason to claim it's not a better guitar. It just takes someone knowledgable and skilled to use it to it's full potential.
I'll take a moment to plug my (ad-free) site. FightingPenguin was something I set up exactly for the purpose of helping windows users trasition to linux. It's there for no other reason.
I spend more time helping new linux users find replacement applications than anything else. To help alleviate this, I have set up an easy to use linux software index that works a little different than most. Just choose the task you need to do and the index tells you the single best program to do it in linux and advice on common pitfalls with it. You used photoshop? Ok, choose Graphics -> High-end Editing and it will tell you all about getting and installing the Gimp. And so on.
There is some other general help stuff, but I feel that applications are what hold most people back. They surely aren't sticking with windows for the OS itself. The link is in my sig if you are interested.
I go to a college where a large number of students use linux. It's just as common to see linux on someone's laptop as the "other" OS. But even here, there is a "holier than thou" attitude about linux in general. The people who use it (myself included) tend to think they are somehow better because of it. When people ask simple questions because everything in linux is new to them, the common reply is "RTFM!" or "go learn it yourself!". This attitude even extends to certain professors (who are probably reading this:) that would rather force you to buy a book than just tell you to do "ls -la" instead of "ls".
While I think that's fine if you are taking a class as a CS Major, the average user just can't put up with that crap. Their lives don't revolve around this stuff like ours do. The user ends up resentful because you made them feel stupid for asking. Why not try to help out your fellow users instead of shunning them just because they are lost? You aren't a BETTER PERSON because you installed your OS off of a debian CD than a windows CD. You are a BETTER PERSON because you took the time to help out someone.
I'm trying to put this whole philosophy into action. That's why I've set up the site in my sig. I don't want users to have to search for hours to find a program that gets the job done or find the command listed in some obscure man page. Most of the documentation avaliable for linux is useless to them because they don't understand the terminology involved. It's like telling someone to read a technical journal when what they want is the Popular Science version, because they aren't a professional like you and I.
I'm all for people setting up their own off the cuff wireless nets in their neighborhoods and such, but wireless will only get you so far.
If you have a clear line of sight and a amplifier/directional antennae you can get your little wireless cards to go for miles. That serves as a good way to link different nets, but there are some other good ways to connect you and your friends at higher speed.
- Get an unused pair of copper from the phone copany that connects you and your friend, get two old ADSL modems off of ebay, and hook it all up for a cheap, reasonably fast link. You can also do the same with just bulk copper wire you run yourself (or so I hear, never tried it). String a few of these together and you could get your own psuedo-backbone for your town and add wireless access points off of it in different locations.
- If you are really old school, you can do the 300/1200bd HAM packet-radio thing. Pretty good distances, but not much good for anything except checking a couple text emails.
The me-too college kids and music industry types have had their ideas fail. Those looking for a quick buck aren't investing money anymore. That is the real reason mp3.com's summit attendance is down from the insane attendance a year or two ago.
But that is a good thing.
The revolution is well underway by those who aren't jumping on this week's stock bandwagon. Much like the death of much commercial online "content", the people who are REALLY revolutionary are increasing in popularity while the pets.com's of the world are withering away. Witness slashdot.
Much like people who dump stocks when the markets are low, business stay away from technologies until everyone is already doing it. In reality, the BEST time to invest is when the marekts are low. Likewise, the best chance for a real revolution is when the market isn't crowded with every MBA starting an online "audio delivery" service.
This is the best time in the short history of recorded sound to be in the audio business. The difference between Joe Blow record exec and the next revolutionary is that the revolutionary understands that and seizes the opportunity.
Slashdot Mirror
True, but he context of the conversation was American (US) McDonalds, and foreign mean "non-american". I wasn't claiming anything about non-american restaurants. (And appologies to non-US americans :)
1 - The article you linked says that McDonalds is testing imports of as much as 1% of its beef from down under. That's hardly a "considerable amount of foreign beef".
2 - The parent article claimed that McDonalds bought from the US except for a small amount from Australia. Your argumentative reply linked facts that exactly confirmed what he said.
So.. uh.. try again.
The "rumor emails" at the bottom of the link don't count - they are just made up chain letters. If you believe those, then you must also be waiting for your check from Bill Gates for forwarding those other chain letters that promised to give you money from him.
The headline is a little misleading. This isn't a working group to create some new standard for interoperability. This is a working group to evaluate and possibly improve Jabber's protocol.
In other words, this new group will ensure that Jabber's existing protocol is secure and has good support for localization. But it has nothing to do with AIM/ICQ, Yahoo Messanger, or anything like that. You can use XMPP today - it's called Jabber (and it's pretty cool).
Unlike the post says, this isn't an OS for the old Commodore computers. This is a reimplementation of that old OS for PowerPC machines. They are trying to maintain API compatibility so you can run the old programs right on a PowerPC box.
From the website:
"Under the Quark kernel a PowerPC(TM) native reimplementation of the OS we know from the Commodore(TM) A1000, A500, A2000, A1200, A3000(T) and A4000(T) systems runs as a mixture of a virtual emulation and a driver. We call this OS driver from now on the A-Box."
I think you are missing a vital point. You can't just say "I'm getting into coding, is X or Y better?"
What is it exactly that you are writing? If you are writing a 3-D game, then the Java-Cocoa API is probably out. If you are porting your java-based massive application to Mac, than ObjC is probably out.
Basically, choose the one that fits your application's needs. If you just want to mess around though, go with Java-Cocoa just because it's more immediate.
You called your comment "The problem with Lessing (sic)" (It's "Lessig"). You said we shouldn't abolish copyrights, but instead just limit them to 20-30 years.
Lessig himself calls for limited copyrights, not abolishing them. You are actually in complete agreement with him.
So what again is the problem with Lessig?
For those of you who are too lazy to actually follow this, here's the quick summary of where we are at:
Remember that just because a law is "bad" and horribly unbalanced towards lobbists doesn't make it illegal unless there is some specific legal reason the law is unconstitutional.
Basically, Eldred is arguing that because we have a Constitution of enumerated powers (Congress can only do what the constitution specifically allows), that the power to extend copyright must be limited. In other words, the Constitution grants Congress specific powers. If Congress continually extends copyright, than it has unlimited power (which the Constitution doesn't give it).
So far it seems the court is buying this argument. The court seems to be unsure though if it has any power to do anything about it. This is good news to Lessig, because it means the court buys the limited power argument.
The case was also helped by a government bumble. The government argued that there is no constitutional limit on the ability of Congress to extend copyright, thus the extention was legal. This actually helped Eldred because the court did not like this view at all. The court did not support the idea that the constitution limits the powers of Congress, but that Congress gets to set what the limits are. In effect, the government proved Eldred's point themselves.
So there is a fighting chance that Eldred might win. Everyone say a big thanks to people like Lessig who are fighting hard for the public's right to the "creative commons".
To quote Lessig:
"Peace, quiet, and may terms be limited."
While I'm glad someone is out their pushing back at all the video taping aimed at us, I don't see why this is such a huge problem. I agree everyone has a right to privacy. But when you enter a public place, you give up some of your rights of privacy. No one is putting cameras in your house or invading your privacy.
How is it invading anything to watch you where you are already watched anyway (by humans)?
The slashdot story cites a launch date of October, but the Business Line article says the real launch date is around May next year. I think that gives them plenty of time to fix the under-construction pages on their website.
From the website:
Well, sort of. We need your help. TPJ is totally reader supported. To provide TPJ to you, we need 3,000 subscribers. Bean counters and suits being what they are, our bosses won't let us publish the e-zine if we don't have enough subscribers. It's as simple as that.
3,000 readers * $12.00 subscription = $36,000 yearly income before taxes and bandwidth costs.
How could they survive on that? You couldn't even pay one decent perl programmer to write articles. Who is paying all the "bean counters and suits"?
There is no law in the US against linking to DeCSS. News.com is a news organization and is reporting the news as they see fit. If the DVD-CCA decides to bring suit against News.com and got a judgement forcing them to to stop linking, then they would have to remove the links.
But it is unlikely that the DVD-CCA would try something like that. They already have enough bad press in the tech sector, the last thing they need is bad press in mainstream news channels.
This is the same reason slashdot doesn't get raided by some government agency everytime a poster puts a link to DeCSS in a comment. There is no "don't link DeCSS law" and there is no legal ruling (yet...) preventing slashdot from posting DeCSS links in discussions.
I'm sure people are going to reply saying that LFS is a niche product and not news that many people care about.
Well, though most of you are probably exposed to Linux through the desktop, Linux is winning it's in-roads in the industry through embedded systems and handheld devices (not desktop). Functional LFS installs can be as little as 5 megs or so and completely customized. Perfect to compete with several-thousand-dollar offerings from MS, Palm, etc.
So if embedded systems are driving commercial linux support, in a way LFS and systems like it are more important in the short term than Mandrake and SuSE.
So why not write your local LFS contributer and say thanks?
I'm a Georgia Tech student. I've even been a TA for these classes. And I turned in a huge number of students for cheating.
In basically every CS class after the two intro classes, there is a lot of group work. Many classes are entirely group work. BUT since there is such a large variation in experience and knowledge in intro CS students, you can't let people work in groups in the first class. They can't slouch on any of this. It's the foundation to everything to come.
Every student needs to know how to write a linked list. Every student needs to know how to write a for loop. This isn't hard stuff. There are TONS of undergraduate TAs available for PERSONAL scheduled help (students are even required to attend weekly one-on-one help time). Between those PERSONAL help sessions, there are TAs who answer posts on class newsgroups in a timely manner.
In short, Tech provides an army of help. Students just need to not be lazy and take advantage of it. And once you know how to write some basic code, then you can do all the group work you want in the following classes. Don't blame the school. These policies are explained clearly and repeatedly. It's not like they are saying "Hey, you have never written code. Now write a compilier with no outside help". It's more like "write a linked list based on lectures and if you have any questions, go to your TA for individual help or ask in review class".
Do you want to work in a group with someone who doesn't know what a while loop is? Do you want this person to -graduate with a degree-?
The US has laws limiting embryonic stem cell research. They don't care if use use cells from yourself (as they did with the 'bubble boy'). The issue is whether or not more break-throughs of this type could be made faster by using stem cells from all the frozen embroyos laying around (which are basically big clumps of stem cell :)
funny stuff...
I can already stick a cdrw in my pocket
But the whole point of stoping joe listener from copying his cds is to make sure his friend buys a copy also. If the record industry produces CDs that joe listener can listen to in the first place, he will return it AND his friend won't buy a copy. And the retail store complains about the returns. In the end, the record company is much worse off than if they had done nothing. They are shooting themselves in the foot.
Almost every computer game used to come with annoying copy protection schemes. When legit buyers can't play their game, they complain. How many code wheels are still around? The companys learned it was worse overall if they used protection that caused problems for legit users.
WILL SCULLY PAIR UP WITH A GIRL NEXT YEAR? (ny post staff)
I guess the obvious solution for Fox is to replace the now-finished storyline with some lesbians. They sure are desperate for ratings.
Ok, enough gossip, back to the real world.
Most day-to-day computer users don't have a clue and they don't particularily want to get a clue. Thats fine, but thats hardly an argument for linux being useless. Home/end users are unimportant in the grand scheme of computing anyway. They will eventually just be using thin computers or some such derivative anyway.
As far as your quote "I'm going to make a bold statement now...There isn't one thing that I can do in Linux that can't be done in Windows." - Thats laughable. Try again when you have used computers for something besides writing email and browsing the web. Desktops aren't the entire world, only a small part. If you don't care to do anything other than read your email, than windows has probably got you covered, as does linux. If you want to run mathematic simulations, write your own sound processing interfaces, attach custom hardware to your computer, or whatever other crazy thing than you probably would be much better off with linux. Some of us just do more with our computers than the average desktop.
I've got a cheap acoustic guitar and a custom-cut and finished strat with custom electronics sitting right here. Sure, the strat can't play any notes the acoustic can't, but thats no reason to claim it's not a better guitar. It just takes someone knowledgable and skilled to use it to it's full potential.
I spend more time helping new linux users find replacement applications than anything else. To help alleviate this, I have set up an easy to use linux software index that works a little different than most. Just choose the task you need to do and the index tells you the single best program to do it in linux and advice on common pitfalls with it. You used photoshop? Ok, choose Graphics -> High-end Editing and it will tell you all about getting and installing the Gimp. And so on.
There is some other general help stuff, but I feel that applications are what hold most people back. They surely aren't sticking with windows for the OS itself. The link is in my sig if you are interested.
While I think that's fine if you are taking a class as a CS Major, the average user just can't put up with that crap. Their lives don't revolve around this stuff like ours do. The user ends up resentful because you made them feel stupid for asking. Why not try to help out your fellow users instead of shunning them just because they are lost? You aren't a BETTER PERSON because you installed your OS off of a debian CD than a windows CD. You are a BETTER PERSON because you took the time to help out someone.
I'm trying to put this whole philosophy into action. That's why I've set up the site in my sig. I don't want users to have to search for hours to find a program that gets the job done or find the command listed in some obscure man page. Most of the documentation avaliable for linux is useless to them because they don't understand the terminology involved. It's like telling someone to read a technical journal when what they want is the Popular Science version, because they aren't a professional like you and I.
If you have a clear line of sight and a amplifier/directional antennae you can get your little wireless cards to go for miles. That serves as a good way to link different nets, but there are some other good ways to connect you and your friends at higher speed.
- Get an unused pair of copper from the phone copany that connects you and your friend, get two old ADSL modems off of ebay, and hook it all up for a cheap, reasonably fast link. You can also do the same with just bulk copper wire you run yourself (or so I hear, never tried it). String a few of these together and you could get your own psuedo-backbone for your town and add wireless access points off of it in different locations.
- If you are really old school, you can do the 300/1200bd HAM packet-radio thing. Pretty good distances, but not much good for anything except checking a couple text emails.
Anyone got any other good ideas?
The me-too college kids and music industry types have had their ideas fail. Those looking for a quick buck aren't investing money anymore. That is the real reason mp3.com's summit attendance is down from the insane attendance a year or two ago.
But that is a good thing.
The revolution is well underway by those who aren't jumping on this week's stock bandwagon. Much like the death of much commercial online "content", the people who are REALLY revolutionary are increasing in popularity while the pets.com's of the world are withering away. Witness slashdot.
Much like people who dump stocks when the markets are low, business stay away from technologies until everyone is already doing it. In reality, the BEST time to invest is when the marekts are low. Likewise, the best chance for a real revolution is when the market isn't crowded with every MBA starting an online "audio delivery" service.
This is the best time in the short history of recorded sound to be in the audio business. The difference between Joe Blow record exec and the next revolutionary is that the revolutionary understands that and seizes the opportunity.