Reduced wage doesn't automagically translate into a pay cut. In California, if I am making $36,000/year, this is nothing IN CALIFORNIA. If I am in Louisiana and making $36,000/year, this is pretty good.
The cost of living in a location has to be taken into account before assuming a cut in pay is actually a pay cut. The standard of living changes from region to region based on a static income amount. In some locales, X dollars/year is crap but in others it is very good pay and provides a very good standard of living.
At least they're moving the call center to Tennesee rather than Mississippi or, (gasp!) Alabama.
It takes me no more than 5 to 10 minutes max to get spamassassin working. I don't know what kind of idiot the author is, but he sure is a full-blown member of the idiot species.
Hell, I just reinstalled a distro on my desktop and had spamassassin up and running within 15 minutes of booting up the first time.
"Master" and "Slave" is not obnoxious. It is absolutely descriptive. One CPU or harddrive is the master from which all other CPUs or drives are subservient to, controlled by, deferred to. One is the lead and all others are followers. One is top dog, the others aren't.
Master and slave has been around in human social forms for a LOT longer than the ole white master, black slave crap came along. Blacks in Africa have been both master and slave in their histories, as have virtually every other people through history. Greeks, Romans, Celts, Africans, Chinese, Japanese, etc, etc, have acted as master and been slaves at various points in their histories. At some/many times, the relationship was rather good (with the "slave" being something of a well-treated, though captive, guest of sorts).
I am offended that some crazy whites and blacks in the USA attempt to control the entire meaning and history of the terms "master" and "slave" so that it can ONLY refer to the specific form this relationship took in recent US history. As if there is only one meaning for the terms, as if they have a monopoly on their meaning and use.
History and simplicity are bigger than any minority group, be they crazy whites flagellating themselves, or over-sensitive blacks flagellating everyone around them over nonsense.
One should absolutely NOT have to pay for bug fixes or security fixes. These are, ultimately, coding mistakes from the developers/packagers.
Microsnot is prepping the stage to start requiring users to cough up for updates (bug fixes/security fixes). This is wrong and I doubt that it will go over well with users. It would be a mistake for any linux distro to go this route either. You imply that users should be willing to pay for fixes to broken software...
No, I am willing to pay for working software. If it turns out to be broken, then I am OWED a fix. YOU (developer/packager) f*cked up in the first place, so fix your mess. At YOUR cost.
No. It merely eliminates niceties like computer-aimed artillery, guided missiles, guided bombs. It does nothing at all to pistols, rifles, machine guns, grenades, manually aimed howitzers, ballistic missiles, etc.
Hmpf. Funny. These are the very tools being used to great effect in Iraq right now. An e-bomb wouldn't do squat against most of what is being used against occupyers and their supporters.
This sort of weapon is nice nonetheless, so long as you are up against a conventional force. You could take out SAMs, advanced tanks (not older models that rely on human aim), and other computer-heavy armaments. This reduces the relative effectiveness of a modern conventional force. It just doesn't do squat to unconventional forces.
There is already this ability out there using postfix (or whatever), procmail, and spamassassin (or whatever equivalent). You setup a white list for approved addresses. These will simply be delivered without hitch. Your mail client can pass the mail to whatever mail folder you want. Anything not on the white list gets passed through spamassassin and analyzed. Perhaps 90% of spam is eliminated in this manner. Anything that isn't spam or doesn't get properly identified as spam gets passed into your mailbox. Again, your client can separately direct these non-white list messages to a different folder (or folders).
On the broader issue, if open relays were to be squelched then you would eliminate a great many spams at the source. How about levying a tax on open relays?
Of course it should be noted that the Standard Model is a patch-work affair based on observation
And thus I propose we quit calling it a "model" as it is actually more like a quilt. We should henceforth call the "Standard Model" the "Patchwork Quilt" to be more descriptive of what it actually is.
I just upgraded from 9.1 to 9.2. First thing, it is still nice but there are some bugs in the system right off the bat, primarily concerning KDE. You will immediately want to download the updates to fix them. You will likely experience some problems with kmenu items. Updating fixes it. If you have an LG cdrom, download the fixes from the mandrake website. It apparently isn't mandrake's fault, this problem, but they have a fix.
There are a LOT of updates. If you have a modem connection...it's going to take a while. I downloaded all the updates to my laptop over my job's ethernet connection so they would be on hand immediately after installing 9.2 on both my laptop and desktop. I suggest something like this for others with modem connections at home.
This isn't amazing at all. It isn't even wondrous or frightening. It is merely the synthesis of enough DNA, duplicated in sequence from an extant bacteriophage, to paste together into a full phage genome. So what? Chemical DNA synthesis (as opposed to enzymatic/biological) is old news and an everyday occurrance. If you wish (and have the money) you could order "oligos" (short stretches of DNA sequence) of ANY sequence and paste them together into an ever lengthening string.
I have pasted together 6 complementary pairs of DNA oligos, each 120 bases in length and designed to have "complementary" ends. First anneal the DNA together (Heat the single strand DNAs to ~95 C in a nice buffer, paired with their complement, and then cool to just below the melting temperature of the base-paired oligos for about 30 seconds to a minute). Next, you mix together the annealed oligo pairs and incubate at room temp (or 16 C for slower reaction) with the addition of ligase (enzyme that glues DNAs together, end-to-end) for about 1 hour (or 4hrs to overnight at 16 C). If properly designed, you end up (as I did) with a long DNA sequence made up of end-to-end glued-together DNAs. In my case, the DNA sequence encoded the gene for HIV integrase, the enzyme that HIV uses to insert itself into and infected individual's DNA. Totally synthetic. Big whup.
What would have been interesting? If I had designed oligos to encode a new protein or enzyme of my own design, unique in the world, that actually functioned at doing something. All I did was produce a copy of a DNA sequence that exists already in nature. You do the same thing when you PCR DNA, fer gawd's sake. The difference is PCR is much easier and faster (yet it requires the chemical synthesis of "artificial" DNA oligos for use as primers). Now extending what I just said to the Ventner virus (phage), he didn't do anything woundrous, he did something difficult and that's it. It is difficult (more a pain in the ass) to synthesis long oligos, anneal them, ligate/glue them together, and in enough volume, to have something to work with. In my personal case, the amount of artificial gene (I changed the way the gene encodes the amino acids that make up integrase so the actual DNA sequence was ~40% different from natural HIV integrase sequence) was miniscule after the above-mentioned process. So I made lots of it by doing a...PCR on it. Simple. The PCR takes a VERY few complete, full-length sequences and copies it into a LOT of copies. At 7500 basepair, this would also be very doable with the "artificial" phage genome. You make what turns out to be very few complete genomes in a mix of mishmash and use PCR to generate lots of the complete genome. Stock molecular biology.
Do you want to know what would have been REALLY newsworthy? If the phage produced was truly artificial. That is, if it was not merely an exact copy of an already extant phage but a new, never before existing phage. Truly "life" generated artificially. As it is, they just did a lot of common molecular biology to generate a short, complete genome for a phage and, low and behold, since it is identical to the natural phage, it reproduces. Expecting otherwise would be like thinking that somehow synthetic vitamin C is different than natural vitamin C (it isn't). The chemical bonds are identical, the actual molecules in it are not different in any way, etc. Same for this phage example.
I could do something simpler. I could cut and paste a bunch of HIV DNA sequences (different strains if you wish) together into a full-length HIV DNA genome, suspend it in a buffer with DMSO and have you apply it to the skin on the inner side of either arm. There is a good chance that this will result in you contracting an HIV infection. MAGIC! If I wanted to spend the time and money to generate all the DNA oligos needed, I could anneal and paste them together and generate an HIV genome (10,000 basepairs of DNA) identical to whatever strain I chose and it would be infectious. Big deal.
But M$ consistently and repeatedly makes it a problem (this bundling of other apps with the OS). First off, let's require M$ accept the fact that an OS is NOT a webbrowser, media player, etc. An OS is like the linux kernel. Everything else (media player, browser, etc) are APPLICATIONS that work through the OS in some fashion. Period.
That FACT stated, M$ must simply be forced to quit integrating so many APPLICATIONS into the so-called OS and leave them as APPLICATIONS. That is the first and simple step. The next step: Make every app selectable or not by whoever is installing/preinstalling an OS. Maybe as a computer retailer I want to provide Windoze (why I would want to do this is beyond me) but with mozilla INSTEAD of IE. No, I do not want IE to be disabled, yet still installed, I want it NOT INSTALLED AT ALL. It is an app, not an os function so it doesn't belong.
Basically, force M$ to follow the Gnome/KDE path: all those nifty APPLICATIONS get bundled together and nicely integrate with each other but they are all selectable and removable. You are not required to use them nor even install them. You can install anything else you want without pain.
Next step, and something that should have been enforced/required a LONG time ago: open up ALL file formats and communication protocols. TCP isn't owned by anyone but is useable by everyone. HTTP isn't owned by company X, it is a TRUE standard that everyone can use and KNOW that if you use real HTTP your web pages will be viewable to ANYONE with ANY proper web browser. This should be the case with file formats and other communication protocols too.
If your software isn't strong enough in its own right to bring users, then it isn't OK to make up for this by making use of broken HTTP or using propriatory comm protocols and formats to take direct advantage of an illegally-gained monopoly position in the OS market in the first place.
There you have it. Merely force M$ to open up the formats, publish comm protocols and release them for STANDARDS BODY APPROVAL and then compete on the quality of your software ALONE. No punishment allowed for any vendor of any kind because they elect to use an alternative to a M$ offering. No threats, nothing. End of story. The end.
It's not as simple as all that. There are local (national) laws and international laws concerning land ownership that rule. Due to various international treaties, I do believe it would be difficult for anyone, even a nation, to claim "ownership" of ANY stellar body. No one can "own" the moon or phobos or Saturn. Just as no one can "own" Antarctica (treaties). You can control the very small parcel of territory that your base(s) sit upon, to control your real property (hardware and structures you have constructed according to international law) but you cannot carve up an area of moon or asteroid and simply say "Mine!". Not until international laws give that permission.
The guy's papers aren't worth the pulp their printed on.
I wont trust ANY voting machine that doesn't produce a long-term, auditable paper trail. Furthermore, NO voting machine should have ANY connection to any network by any means. It should be absolutely standalone. No wireless card, no ethernet, NO MODEMS. Nothing. At no time should there be any connection to any network...at least once the certification and voting process starts.
Unless you are using generic parts, rather than secret propriatory hardware, I still wouldn't even trust open source voteware (one of two major reasons for a requirement for a printed, auditable paper trail)...how do I know that the OS being audited/certified is TRULY the only software installed and involved in the vote process. Perhaps when you are doing a test or certification, you, the certifier, only has access to a fully OSS os. Perhaps there exists intentional backdoors built in to the hardware/software such that an actual vote gets altered while test votes don't.
Even if that isn't a real issue, bits DO get flipped no matter whether software is OSS or not. There ARE random glitches. There ARE bugs. A printout that can be checked against what the voter INTENDED and then used for recount sidesteps spurious data errors in volatile memory.
No more nonsense about secret ballot counting by corporations either. The vote doesn't belong to any company, no matter whether their software was used to collect the vote or not. The votes themselves, and the final tallies, belong to the PEOPLE. The PEOPLE (duly appointed representatives) should be the only people involved in vote tallying. It is unacceptable, for instance, that a Senator's vote machine company should be the sole entity to count votes, ESPECIALLY IN A CAMPAIGN IN WHICH THAT SENATOR WAS COMPETING!
There is too much wrong with e-voting to make a go of it. Until it is SUBSTANTIALLY altered and fixed, it has no place in elections in what is supposed to be the "model" democracy in the world (the late, great USA, pre-GWBush).
After I posted I realised I should have googled first...but never having heard of anyone mentioning the "coolness" of running linux on a PS2 I assumed it wasn't there.
Onward. I do not do consoles. To much Mortal Combat style GARBAGE. That being said, if the PS2 isn't so great and the Xbox is, then why is the PS2 so much stronger, sales-wise, than the Xbox? From the stuff I've seen, it has great graphics, no different really than what I've seen with the Xbox. Is the particular interest in the Xbox simply because running linux on it is a solid screwjob for M$?
OK, so where is the linux-running PS2? If the architecture (and who controls it) doesn't matter, then why aren't there PS2 boxes running linux or *BSD and being used for cool/cute tricks?
I don't want NASA destroyed, just trashed and trashed relentlessly. They have lost their way BIG TIME. In the 60s they had a solid path and they worked well. They were safe yet they still did dangerous stuff - and it worked. Now it is micromanaged to death, they can't focus in on a goal, certainly not a big and adventerous goal, and they can't do anything right.
I say trash them and chew them up until we get people in there in the same mold as those who got us to the moon.
Give. Me. A. Break. SURE the lack of a space program is the fault of "liberals". Bullcrap. I don't see a single nazi Republican rightwing wackjob calling for more space. They call for dismantling anything and everything that in any way serves the greater good or humankind or society. You cannot do space exploration on charity, the Republinazi answer to everything.
There are those, liberal humans and rightwing wackjob nonhumans who all call for either spending elsewhere (on people or the military and church respectively) or no spending for anything at all because it is "theft".
Actually, I think your butterfly flapping its wings will only cancel out my butterfly if it is flapping 180 degrees out of phase with mine. Otherwise, me thinks that your butterfly and my butterfly may be additive, at least during various flapping cycles (if you are slightly out of phase with mine). YOU, with your flapping butterfly's wings, mis-timed in relation to mine is causing the drought in the Western USA and leading to the wildfire danger.
I had my butterfly timed so as to increase the precipitation this year and through the winter but you went and dicked it up in an attempt to cancel mine out (leading to a normal precip year). Instead, YOU are inducing an especially dry spell.
And how do you KNOW it works? How do you know the insubstantial bits in a memory chip are actually accurate? Without a paper printout that clearly identifies that your vote was counted exactly as you intended, how do you KNOW that every third, or fourth vote wasn't, in software sleight-of-hand, given to a particular candidate or pary? How do you KNOW?
How do you know that the hardware didn't burp somewhere and flip a bit, change a portion of the vote?
Clearly readable paper. It is the ONLY way to be sure. Can't be erased with a magnetic field, static wont change it, hackers can't alter it, nor can incompetent or criminal vote machine manufacturers.
Ah, but you DON'T boycott the voting process. You vote ABSENTEE. Absentee ballots are paper. It is what I have decided to do in all elections from this point onward - vote on paper absentee ballots until such time as there is a verifiable paper trail paper backup produced by every e-voting machine.
I have informed my congresscriminals of this fact and also informed them that I am encouraging everyone I meet/know to do the same and boycott e-voting machines lacking a paper trail.
I will start suing all broadcast companies for violating my private property and sending their radiation onto my property. If they want to restrict me from viewing it or copying it, then they damn well better keep it off my property.
Otherwise, I'll do whatever the hell I want with broadcast garbage that falls onto my property.
'Scuse me? The average secretary doesn't need to know how to deal with errors or other glitches. They never have, and most certainly don't know what to do with Windoze problems. It isn't just secretaries, it is virtually every user in school or business (leaving aside compsci students). At Purdue, the IT department sets up everyone's computer, be they secretary, grad student, or tech. They control what software (within reason) goes onto a system, what patches get applied, and when.
My wife has absolutely no control whatsoever over her desktop system. Her IT department is the absolute dictator. They apply patches, setup drivers, install software, etc. For me, I asked for and received a linux desktop. I can install some programs in my home directory but I have no control at all over anything else. I merely control my personal laptop when at the university. If there is a problem of any kind, my wife (or I) have to call the helpdesk and have them fix it.
In the military, the IT/Communications Squadron controls the networks and computers. They rule what software gets installed, what patches are applied. If there is a problem, you call the helpdesk and they fix it. This is true of most businesses.
Sure, all users (in most cases) have the power to either reboot or hit the power button (I can't Ctrl-Alt-Delete on my school-provided desktop, I can't do a "shutdown -r now" or "shutdown -h now". All I can do is hit reset or the power button...and then get in trouble).
The only place where it becomes an issue in any way is the private home system where the enduser is the system admin. For my father, sisters, brothers they are clueless on system admin so they rely on me or another family member who is part of an IT department with a corporation. They most assuredly do not know how to fix windoze errors (ctrl-alt-delete doesn't count as it is a pisspoor way to "administer" a system even though it is one of the primary windoze-administration tools). MOST generic computer users don't get the software or hardware and rely on someone else in their family or circle of friends who actually knows computers. This doesn't magically change just because you install linux rather than doze.
At the Univ. of Utah, the IT department actually provides a free service for students or employees to "setup" or fix their personal systems if they can't do it themselves. Thus, even there the end user is relying on someone who knows what they're doing rather than doing it themselves.
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But...but... Then why don't they show this on those Dell intern commercials?
Reduced wage doesn't automagically translate into a pay cut. In California, if I am making $36,000/year, this is nothing IN CALIFORNIA. If I am in Louisiana and making $36,000/year, this is pretty good.
The cost of living in a location has to be taken into account before assuming a cut in pay is actually a pay cut. The standard of living changes from region to region based on a static income amount. In some locales, X dollars/year is crap but in others it is very good pay and provides a very good standard of living.
At least they're moving the call center to Tennesee rather than Mississippi or, (gasp!) Alabama.
It takes me no more than 5 to 10 minutes max to get spamassassin working. I don't know what kind of idiot the author is, but he sure is a full-blown member of the idiot species.
Hell, I just reinstalled a distro on my desktop and had spamassassin up and running within 15 minutes of booting up the first time.
What. A. Tard.
"Master" and "Slave" is not obnoxious. It is absolutely descriptive. One CPU or harddrive is the master from which all other CPUs or drives are subservient to, controlled by, deferred to. One is the lead and all others are followers. One is top dog, the others aren't.
Master and slave has been around in human social forms for a LOT longer than the ole white master, black slave crap came along. Blacks in Africa have been both master and slave in their histories, as have virtually every other people through history. Greeks, Romans, Celts, Africans, Chinese, Japanese, etc, etc, have acted as master and been slaves at various points in their histories. At some/many times, the relationship was rather good (with the "slave" being something of a well-treated, though captive, guest of sorts).
I am offended that some crazy whites and blacks in the USA attempt to control the entire meaning and history of the terms "master" and "slave" so that it can ONLY refer to the specific form this relationship took in recent US history. As if there is only one meaning for the terms, as if they have a monopoly on their meaning and use.
History and simplicity are bigger than any minority group, be they crazy whites flagellating themselves, or over-sensitive blacks flagellating everyone around them over nonsense.
Get over it and get over yourselves.
One should absolutely NOT have to pay for bug fixes or security fixes. These are, ultimately, coding mistakes from the developers/packagers.
Microsnot is prepping the stage to start requiring users to cough up for updates (bug fixes/security fixes). This is wrong and I doubt that it will go over well with users. It would be a mistake for any linux distro to go this route either. You imply that users should be willing to pay for fixes to broken software...
No, I am willing to pay for working software. If it turns out to be broken, then I am OWED a fix. YOU (developer/packager) f*cked up in the first place, so fix your mess. At YOUR cost.
No. It merely eliminates niceties like computer-aimed artillery, guided missiles, guided bombs. It does nothing at all to pistols, rifles, machine guns, grenades, manually aimed howitzers, ballistic missiles, etc.
Hmpf. Funny. These are the very tools being used to great effect in Iraq right now. An e-bomb wouldn't do squat against most of what is being used against occupyers and their supporters.
This sort of weapon is nice nonetheless, so long as you are up against a conventional force. You could take out SAMs, advanced tanks (not older models that rely on human aim), and other computer-heavy armaments. This reduces the relative effectiveness of a modern conventional force. It just doesn't do squat to unconventional forces.
There is already this ability out there using postfix (or whatever), procmail, and spamassassin (or whatever equivalent). You setup a white list for approved addresses. These will simply be delivered without hitch. Your mail client can pass the mail to whatever mail folder you want. Anything not on the white list gets passed through spamassassin and analyzed. Perhaps 90% of spam is eliminated in this manner. Anything that isn't spam or doesn't get properly identified as spam gets passed into your mailbox. Again, your client can separately direct these non-white list messages to a different folder (or folders).
On the broader issue, if open relays were to be squelched then you would eliminate a great many spams at the source. How about levying a tax on open relays?
Of course it should be noted that the Standard Model is a patch-work affair based on observation
And thus I propose we quit calling it a "model" as it is actually more like a quilt. We should henceforth call the "Standard Model" the "Patchwork Quilt" to be more descriptive of what it actually is.
I just upgraded from 9.1 to 9.2. First thing, it is still nice but there are some bugs in the system right off the bat, primarily concerning KDE. You will immediately want to download the updates to fix them. You will likely experience some problems with kmenu items. Updating fixes it. If you have an LG cdrom, download the fixes from the mandrake website. It apparently isn't mandrake's fault, this problem, but they have a fix.
There are a LOT of updates. If you have a modem connection...it's going to take a while. I downloaded all the updates to my laptop over my job's ethernet connection so they would be on hand immediately after installing 9.2 on both my laptop and desktop. I suggest something like this for others with modem connections at home.
After the updates, no problems at all.
This isn't amazing at all. It isn't even wondrous or frightening. It is merely the synthesis of enough DNA, duplicated in sequence from an extant bacteriophage, to paste together into a full phage genome. So what? Chemical DNA synthesis (as opposed to enzymatic/biological) is old news and an everyday occurrance. If you wish (and have the money) you could order "oligos" (short stretches of DNA sequence) of ANY sequence and paste them together into an ever lengthening string.
I have pasted together 6 complementary pairs of DNA oligos, each 120 bases in length and designed to have "complementary" ends. First anneal the DNA together (Heat the single strand DNAs to ~95 C in a nice buffer, paired with their complement, and then cool to just below the melting temperature of the base-paired oligos for about 30 seconds to a minute). Next, you mix together the annealed oligo pairs and incubate at room temp (or 16 C for slower reaction) with the addition of ligase (enzyme that glues DNAs together, end-to-end) for about 1 hour (or 4hrs to overnight at 16 C). If properly designed, you end up (as I did) with a long DNA sequence made up of end-to-end glued-together DNAs. In my case, the DNA sequence encoded the gene for HIV integrase, the enzyme that HIV uses to insert itself into and infected individual's DNA. Totally synthetic. Big whup.
What would have been interesting? If I had designed oligos to encode a new protein or enzyme of my own design, unique in the world, that actually functioned at doing something. All I did was produce a copy of a DNA sequence that exists already in nature. You do the same thing when you PCR DNA, fer gawd's sake. The difference is PCR is much easier and faster (yet it requires the chemical synthesis of "artificial" DNA oligos for use as primers). Now extending what I just said to the Ventner virus (phage), he didn't do anything woundrous, he did something difficult and that's it. It is difficult (more a pain in the ass) to synthesis long oligos, anneal them, ligate/glue them together, and in enough volume, to have something to work with. In my personal case, the amount of artificial gene (I changed the way the gene encodes the amino acids that make up integrase so the actual DNA sequence was ~40% different from natural HIV integrase sequence) was miniscule after the above-mentioned process. So I made lots of it by doing a...PCR on it. Simple. The PCR takes a VERY few complete, full-length sequences and copies it into a LOT of copies. At 7500 basepair, this would also be very doable with the "artificial" phage genome. You make what turns out to be very few complete genomes in a mix of mishmash and use PCR to generate lots of the complete genome. Stock molecular biology.
Do you want to know what would have been REALLY newsworthy? If the phage produced was truly artificial. That is, if it was not merely an exact copy of an already extant phage but a new, never before existing phage. Truly "life" generated artificially. As it is, they just did a lot of common molecular biology to generate a short, complete genome for a phage and, low and behold, since it is identical to the natural phage, it reproduces. Expecting otherwise would be like thinking that somehow synthetic vitamin C is different than natural vitamin C (it isn't). The chemical bonds are identical, the actual molecules in it are not different in any way, etc. Same for this phage example.
I could do something simpler. I could cut and paste a bunch of HIV DNA sequences (different strains if you wish) together into a full-length HIV DNA genome, suspend it in a buffer with DMSO and have you apply it to the skin on the inner side of either arm. There is a good chance that this will result in you contracting an HIV infection. MAGIC! If I wanted to spend the time and money to generate all the DNA oligos needed, I could anneal and paste them together and generate an HIV genome (10,000 basepairs of DNA) identical to whatever strain I chose and it would be infectious. Big deal.
But M$ consistently and repeatedly makes it a problem (this bundling of other apps with the OS). First off, let's require M$ accept the fact that an OS is NOT a webbrowser, media player, etc. An OS is like the linux kernel. Everything else (media player, browser, etc) are APPLICATIONS that work through the OS in some fashion. Period.
That FACT stated, M$ must simply be forced to quit integrating so many APPLICATIONS into the so-called OS and leave them as APPLICATIONS. That is the first and simple step. The next step: Make every app selectable or not by whoever is installing/preinstalling an OS. Maybe as a computer retailer I want to provide Windoze (why I would want to do this is beyond me) but with mozilla INSTEAD of IE. No, I do not want IE to be disabled, yet still installed, I want it NOT INSTALLED AT ALL. It is an app, not an os function so it doesn't belong.
Basically, force M$ to follow the Gnome/KDE path: all those nifty APPLICATIONS get bundled together and nicely integrate with each other but they are all selectable and removable. You are not required to use them nor even install them. You can install anything else you want without pain.
Next step, and something that should have been enforced/required a LONG time ago: open up ALL file formats and communication protocols. TCP isn't owned by anyone but is useable by everyone. HTTP isn't owned by company X, it is a TRUE standard that everyone can use and KNOW that if you use real HTTP your web pages will be viewable to ANYONE with ANY proper web browser. This should be the case with file formats and other communication protocols too.
If your software isn't strong enough in its own right to bring users, then it isn't OK to make up for this by making use of broken HTTP or using propriatory comm protocols and formats to take direct advantage of an illegally-gained monopoly position in the OS market in the first place.
There you have it. Merely force M$ to open up the formats, publish comm protocols and release them for STANDARDS BODY APPROVAL and then compete on the quality of your software ALONE. No punishment allowed for any vendor of any kind because they elect to use an alternative to a M$ offering. No threats, nothing. End of story. The end.
It's not as simple as all that. There are local (national) laws and international laws concerning land ownership that rule. Due to various international treaties, I do believe it would be difficult for anyone, even a nation, to claim "ownership" of ANY stellar body. No one can "own" the moon or phobos or Saturn. Just as no one can "own" Antarctica (treaties). You can control the very small parcel of territory that your base(s) sit upon, to control your real property (hardware and structures you have constructed according to international law) but you cannot carve up an area of moon or asteroid and simply say "Mine!". Not until international laws give that permission.
The guy's papers aren't worth the pulp their printed on.
I wont trust ANY voting machine that doesn't produce a long-term, auditable paper trail. Furthermore, NO voting machine should have ANY connection to any network by any means. It should be absolutely standalone. No wireless card, no ethernet, NO MODEMS. Nothing. At no time should there be any connection to any network...at least once the certification and voting process starts.
Unless you are using generic parts, rather than secret propriatory hardware, I still wouldn't even trust open source voteware (one of two major reasons for a requirement for a printed, auditable paper trail)...how do I know that the OS being audited/certified is TRULY the only software installed and involved in the vote process. Perhaps when you are doing a test or certification, you, the certifier, only has access to a fully OSS os. Perhaps there exists intentional backdoors built in to the hardware/software such that an actual vote gets altered while test votes don't.
Even if that isn't a real issue, bits DO get flipped no matter whether software is OSS or not. There ARE random glitches. There ARE bugs. A printout that can be checked against what the voter INTENDED and then used for recount sidesteps spurious data errors in volatile memory.
No more nonsense about secret ballot counting by corporations either. The vote doesn't belong to any company, no matter whether their software was used to collect the vote or not. The votes themselves, and the final tallies, belong to the PEOPLE. The PEOPLE (duly appointed representatives) should be the only people involved in vote tallying. It is unacceptable, for instance, that a Senator's vote machine company should be the sole entity to count votes, ESPECIALLY IN A CAMPAIGN IN WHICH THAT SENATOR WAS COMPETING!
There is too much wrong with e-voting to make a go of it. Until it is SUBSTANTIALLY altered and fixed, it has no place in elections in what is supposed to be the "model" democracy in the world (the late, great USA, pre-GWBush).
I happen to like the taste of my foot.
After I posted I realised I should have googled first...but never having heard of anyone mentioning the "coolness" of running linux on a PS2 I assumed it wasn't there.
Onward. I do not do consoles. To much Mortal Combat style GARBAGE. That being said, if the PS2 isn't so great and the Xbox is, then why is the PS2 so much stronger, sales-wise, than the Xbox? From the stuff I've seen, it has great graphics, no different really than what I've seen with the Xbox. Is the particular interest in the Xbox simply because running linux on it is a solid screwjob for M$?
OK, so where is the linux-running PS2? If the architecture (and who controls it) doesn't matter, then why aren't there PS2 boxes running linux or *BSD and being used for cool/cute tricks?
I don't want NASA destroyed, just trashed and trashed relentlessly. They have lost their way BIG TIME. In the 60s they had a solid path and they worked well. They were safe yet they still did dangerous stuff - and it worked. Now it is micromanaged to death, they can't focus in on a goal, certainly not a big and adventerous goal, and they can't do anything right.
I say trash them and chew them up until we get people in there in the same mold as those who got us to the moon.
Yes, but at least the incumbent loser gets trashed. That alone almost makes it worth it.
Give. Me. A. Break. SURE the lack of a space program is the fault of "liberals". Bullcrap. I don't see a single nazi Republican rightwing wackjob calling for more space. They call for dismantling anything and everything that in any way serves the greater good or humankind or society. You cannot do space exploration on charity, the Republinazi answer to everything.
There are those, liberal humans and rightwing wackjob nonhumans who all call for either spending elsewhere (on people or the military and church respectively) or no spending for anything at all because it is "theft".
Ah, this brings back memories. Ya know, I really miss the "*BSD is dying" posts that popped up like clockwork regardless of story.
Where have those days gone, that "*BSD is dying" Golden Age?
Actually, I think your butterfly flapping its wings will only cancel out my butterfly if it is flapping 180 degrees out of phase with mine. Otherwise, me thinks that your butterfly and my butterfly may be additive, at least during various flapping cycles (if you are slightly out of phase with mine). YOU, with your flapping butterfly's wings, mis-timed in relation to mine is causing the drought in the Western USA and leading to the wildfire danger.
I had my butterfly timed so as to increase the precipitation this year and through the winter but you went and dicked it up in an attempt to cancel mine out (leading to a normal precip year). Instead, YOU are inducing an especially dry spell.
Shut down your butterfly dickweed!
I'll hold onto my very old 1976 Chevy Blazer. No computer to get fried by EMP, no GPS gizmo, no way in hell to stop it via satellite.
The expense of keeping it up and running is almost coming even with the costs (police state wise) of getting a new car.
And how do you KNOW it works? How do you know the insubstantial bits in a memory chip are actually accurate? Without a paper printout that clearly identifies that your vote was counted exactly as you intended, how do you KNOW that every third, or fourth vote wasn't, in software sleight-of-hand, given to a particular candidate or pary? How do you KNOW?
How do you know that the hardware didn't burp somewhere and flip a bit, change a portion of the vote?
Clearly readable paper. It is the ONLY way to be sure. Can't be erased with a magnetic field, static wont change it, hackers can't alter it, nor can incompetent or criminal vote machine manufacturers.
Ah, but you DON'T boycott the voting process. You vote ABSENTEE. Absentee ballots are paper. It is what I have decided to do in all elections from this point onward - vote on paper absentee ballots until such time as there is a verifiable paper trail paper backup produced by every e-voting machine.
I have informed my congresscriminals of this fact and also informed them that I am encouraging everyone I meet/know to do the same and boycott e-voting machines lacking a paper trail.
I will start suing all broadcast companies for violating my private property and sending their radiation onto my property. If they want to restrict me from viewing it or copying it, then they damn well better keep it off my property.
Otherwise, I'll do whatever the hell I want with broadcast garbage that falls onto my property.
'Scuse me? The average secretary doesn't need to know how to deal with errors or other glitches. They never have, and most certainly don't know what to do with Windoze problems. It isn't just secretaries, it is virtually every user in school or business (leaving aside compsci students). At Purdue, the IT department sets up everyone's computer, be they secretary, grad student, or tech. They control what software (within reason) goes onto a system, what patches get applied, and when.
My wife has absolutely no control whatsoever over her desktop system. Her IT department is the absolute dictator. They apply patches, setup drivers, install software, etc. For me, I asked for and received a linux desktop. I can install some programs in my home directory but I have no control at all over anything else. I merely control my personal laptop when at the university. If there is a problem of any kind, my wife (or I) have to call the helpdesk and have them fix it.
In the military, the IT/Communications Squadron controls the networks and computers. They rule what software gets installed, what patches are applied. If there is a problem, you call the helpdesk and they fix it. This is true of most businesses.
Sure, all users (in most cases) have the power to either reboot or hit the power button (I can't Ctrl-Alt-Delete on my school-provided desktop, I can't do a "shutdown -r now" or "shutdown -h now". All I can do is hit reset or the power button...and then get in trouble).
The only place where it becomes an issue in any way is the private home system where the enduser is the system admin. For my father, sisters, brothers they are clueless on system admin so they rely on me or another family member who is part of an IT department with a corporation. They most assuredly do not know how to fix windoze errors (ctrl-alt-delete doesn't count as it is a pisspoor way to "administer" a system even though it is one of the primary windoze-administration tools). MOST generic computer users don't get the software or hardware and rely on someone else in their family or circle of friends who actually knows computers. This doesn't magically change just because you install linux rather than doze.
At the Univ. of Utah, the IT department actually provides a free service for students or employees to "setup" or fix their personal systems if they can't do it themselves. Thus, even there the end user is relying on someone who knows what they're doing rather than doing it themselves.