Re:The hunt for lib files
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Ximian's Back
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· Score: 1
So what you are saying is we should look at some of the inovations of the past in order to progress *nix forward? I think you just proved my point quite nicely.
But so far, most of what they give us is "The Golden Girls" in a thousand different variants. Anything that lets someone know what I personally watch is a good thing.
Great, then they can collect the data on most popular 2nd time around shows and can use this market anal to create new shows like.
1. Golden Girls the next generation 2. Designing Babylon 5 3. Blanch the Vampire slayer 4. Delta Scape [yes, Suzanne Sugarbaker gets worm hole technology and is directly responcible for uniting the Scarins(sp) and PeaceKeepers on a holy war to destroy earth).
Re:The hunt for lib files
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Ximian's Back
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· Score: 1
'linux' is about cool Unix-like stuff. It's not a 'movement' to wage holy war on some perceived 'evile corporation.' Get over it.
While I agree the whole "evil software overlords" theme gets all my nerves, linux is a legitamate product, the likes of which that actually has a chance to suceed on the market place. It's not a holy script of madmen nor a new religion. It is a viable platform and should be considered that first.
I do look at linux as this cool *nix like software that has a lot of support and a viable alternative for those of us who are familar with that classic enviroment, but I also see it as being designed as a platform of choice.
It's a bit diffrent then the old os/2 retorical drum beating because people are starting to ask about it, and there are atleast a few power applications for it, though primarly server side.
And yes, there are those who run it just to thumb their noses at microsoft, which is fine really. I lack the same feelings that others do on this issue.
I consider it to be a movement not because of the holy war some isolated folks are playing, but because microsoft has decided to take steps preventing it's foothold in key markets. As we've seen in other/. articals microsoft has already tried lowering the price of their product in a few isolated cases. While this isn't *good* for users yet, it's damn good for businesses. "What if I consider linux.... oh I get a discount if I consider it, cool!"
Perhaps we'll actually start seeing some OEM level hardware support, or if nothing else at least some specifications so we can make our own drivers for the latest GO-GO gadget device.
While I'm by no means a fan of IBM, their whole microchannel experence has left a sour taste in my mouth, I must admit they are a big ass company, and when their business is supporting linux for large nations like India I see an increase in demand for drivers for cheeper hardware. Wether or not then will be release under some form of OSS license remains to be seen, but IBM at the very least has the mussle, they have the contacts, and they have the ability to get the job done.
This is exactly what I get from my newphew. He's using macs at school, and he complains about OS9 all the time, and not those logical i can agree with you sorta things. It's primarly the "why did they put that over there" sorta deal. I guess i'm somewhat old and grew up in a market of aspiring and dying platforms.
It's somewhat ironic the fact that while I've never been a big mac fan my self, I have always respected its relative ease of use, yet i'm finding more often then not, the kids are complaining cause it's not *windows*(tm) which I find to be an unacceptable complaint.
The hunt for lib files
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Ximian's Back
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· Score: 4, Interesting
One of the most annoying aspect of linux, for me anyway, is the hunt for a chain of dependencies. You want a particular application, it says you need such and such... you go and find such and such, and you find out you need something else... and so forth and so on.
For me, my choice to use Ximian way back when wasn't so much for the neeto eye candy, but because they had already collected all the libs I needed for some application I wanted to actually use. To that end, I found it to be most spiffy. One massive download later, I had a slew of applications all ready to go.
Now if you are a seasoned geek, it may not be your glass of tea. If you already know what you want to run or have no interest in eye candy, or are a typical control freak who wants to do things their own way, hey that cool.
But keep in mind that part of this linux movement is making an OS that your grandmother would be comfortable using. This is something that both apple and BeOS understood very well (engage flame retardent underpants)
While I have not studied the domestic gecho, I can already see an application releasing existing things we have from postit notes (you can't really clean them) to velcro. Not to speak of velvet padding based on the gecho material to help anchor something in the event of earthquake... this fall under the catagory of cool beans.
Presently, with the exception of that 3m postit stuff, the only thing we have close to a reuseable adheasive that I know about is spray glue. Per the instructions on the can you apply, let dry, and it in theory stays sticky. As long as you don't mind running the risk of having green goo stuck to places. Double stick tape is also a current product i've used to mount stuff with the intent of having it removable. It's only a soso solution.
It's surreal hearing that. It's amazing that it someone would even consider something like O.B.O. being owned by someone... It's something so simple that any idiot could come up with it, yet doing it with a computer is probably illegial...
Ahh, but the key diffrence in OBO technology is the fact that it's been documented in a vast number of newspapers. If "I" decided to put a patent on "buy it now" computer technology, someone could research the orgins with relative ease, and find the oldest reference they can for this term. I would argue that since there is hard copy proof out there of "obo" using a "telecommunications device" that anyone attempting to consider it their own IP is freaking stupid.
Rather then use "buy it now" technology, perhaps e-bay would move tward "end it now" technology, where users who are trully interested in an item can select to buy it, rather then the seller selling it. This way it should resolve the trivial issues of the IP of "buy it now".
Now if that sounds fucking stupid, it's no more stupid then someone claiming they hold the IP to "buy it now".
Near as I'm aware... OBO [or best offer] technology has been in use for as long as I can remember, employed by a vast amount of private citizens when selling things via news paper classifieds.
For those "unfamilar" with OBO technology... basicly a person is selling goods or services and lists an ideal price under the terms that you can buy it for that price, otherwise the selling will accept the highest offer they recieve. What we forget is offers can be higher or lower then the asking price.
For example, I was selling a 486 overdrive some years back. I put it up for sale for like $50 OBO, and I got offers higher then what I posted it for. Basicly I explained to all involved that my best offer was like $75 but a higher offer would be accepted and sold. Needless to say this pissed people off, dispite the fact I was trying to conduct the transation in a fair and honest fasion, and taking the "best" offer.
I would have taken $50 for it, but someone was willing to pay me more money in order to assure that they got it, as well as some assurance that it worked.
Now... I am not the inventor of OBO technology, in fact i'm not sure who is, I would *THINK* it's in the public domain, the fact that it's in common use.
Well, it's not like there wasn't history for the Hover then known as the Bolder Dam. The Anasazi people were known to dwell in that region. There is some speculation that the Anasazi were pretty impressive as far as their achievements go, but alas we thought it was a good idea to flood that area all but destroying that evidence.
Now typicaly i'm actually a fan of hydro power. It's better then chemical fuel because of that pesky issue of waste gases and having extract and bring in stuff to burn. It's better then nuclear because of the fact that it doesn't have the same issues with waste, and should let's say a dam fail, the area can be habitable soon after the water has washed away. You can't really say the same thing about nuclear. I would very much prefer china experiment with dam power rather then resorting to more toxic methods.
But it does have a sad side effect of reaking havic with fish and wildlife populations. And the lost of history is most tragic.
While I'm a big fan of what the Hover Land Reclamation project has done for america, I can not dismiss the negative impact that it has caused. You have regions like Phoenix and Los Angles who's enviroment doesn't naturally support humans, creating a dependence on these rivers that, in some cases, no longer flow into the sea. I'm not a fan of foolishness like in pheonix requring home owners to have a grass lawn visiable, which sorta increases demand on the water supply for something not really bloody useful.
But also i'm for the freedom of choice, and the inteligence of a people to weigh in the good and the bad. While I don't know the specifics, i'm willing to wager that these were taken into account. China has a population issue. Part of their immidate need is the ability to provide water, power, and food for these people. Dams can be great for this if properly managed. I'm sure they have issues with polution, dams are good for this too. Unforutnatly I feel that a dam is a good idea.
Actually you are very much correct. Edison made a business out of invention, which can be, arguably, be associated with software. Bill Gates made a business out of software, something back in the 1980's was joked about.
"How the hell can you make a profit out of something you can so easily copy" was a common statement regarding MS dos which was released with no form of copy protection. Before microsoft, operating systems were typicaly made by the respective hardware companies, and were practicaly impossible to pirate as physical ownership of the hardware granted you a license for a copy. Microsoft was considered to be doomed to failure for that reason, why pay $50-$100 for a product when you could get a copy from a friend. Apple them selves didn't start charging for their operating system till after system 7 [or was it 7.5]. Why should they, their product was physical after all.
Just like Edison, Microsoft's major product is basicly intelecutal property. Something created from thought to copy and reproduced for a fee to the inventors (programers). And yes, Gates will be credited by making software big business.
Call me silly
on
Alien Case Mod
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Ok, I have to admit, that case looks kinda cool, but is something i'd expect a 14 year old kid to own.
I have NOT done much in the way of aesthetical modifications with the exceptions of spraypaint, but I have done much in the way of internal case modifiction. I'm really no stranger to the hacksaw, hammer, and blowtorch upgrade.
Part of my belief is that a computer case is much like a piece of furnature. It is what you see after all. And in many cases i'm willing to put in a little elbow greese in order to achive a pleasing mellow effect. While I would give this alien case some serious points, it would be the first thing i'd toss out in case I saw it.
One of the things I'd enjoy seeing in the computer case world is the old black and silver look. It was a style that was most popular pre 1982 before we switched to that awful fleshtone. There was a time when the high tech look was brushed metal face, accented with black plastic.
I'll agree that the 21st century may prove to be most interesting. We have this delightful computer revolution, but do people expect time traveling historians to pop out of the woodwork and say, "hi, i'm a time traveler, how the hell are you". Even if you met someone who said that, chances are you'd they they were nuts.
My point is the fact the people who use this as an argument suffer from a self importance complex. For example, let's say you were in africa, and never saw monkey. This does not mean they don't exist... either you were not were the monkeys were, or the monkey's just were not interested enough to say hello.
This also may explain why time travel seems impossible: we dont meet visitors from the future since only the present is being simulated."
Space, if not infinate, is certainly a big ass place. Time, also, if not infinate, is pretty damn vast, atleast by human standards.
Assuming time travel is possible, why the hell do you think any one from the future would bother to visit you? What the hell would you have to offer a time traveler? If they wanted vintage shit, they would buy it on e-bay.
With the ability to manipluate time, you can go just about anywhere and not have to worry about that pesky issue of distance being vast, you could get on your god damed moped and speed off to alpha centuri... sure it'll take 130 billion years, but hell just tweek time a little bit, and you wouldn't have aged a day.
So why the hell would anyone want to visit 21 century earth? This isn't star trek.
Actually.. back in the day of the traditional pirates, many were given the letter of marque(sp) by one nation... to attack another nations ships. the letter of marque made piracy perfectly legal, much in the same way that america considers the liberation of iraq legal.
Canada does give the what I would term a letter of marque to video pirates, basicly stating that anything in the air is in the public domain.
Application #1: With current issues regarding DMCA laws and a whole bunch of bogusness... I'm rather shocked someone isn't considering buying such a beast in order to start up an off shore server in international waters. Pirate telivision / radio would also be a logical application.
Application #2: Organizations such as Green Peace need boats in order to get around and block access. This is a big boat.
Application #3: Off shore power plant. Production of things like hydrogen or other fuels.
Very funny! However, I don't think that most techies feel comfortable with drive letters and Windows look & feel.
Afterall, wasn't MS-DOS designed to emulate the look an feel of a terminal talking to a mainframe?
I guess this is honestly a preference... but it's really a small point wether or not your drives are prepresented as a "a: b: c:" a 1> 2> 3> (spartados by ICD), df0: dh0: [amiga] or/mnt/floppy/dev/hda. Personaly I don't really give that much of a shit to really care all that much, this is a small point.
a larger point would be for microsoft to actually switch to the freaking/... in order to stop confusing people.
Re:Reparenting window managers are for wimps
on
fvwm Turns Ten
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· Score: 4, Funny
Real men eat pancakes in the morning, fart in bed, dress in women's clothing, and hang around in bars.
You're from washington usa, so I'll share this little bit of info with you.
according to http://www.dol.wa.gov/vs/tr-replacement.htm it refers us to (RCW 46.16.240)
[http://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/index.cfm?fuseaction= se ction§ion=46.16.240]
"It is unlawful to use any holders, frames, or any materials that in any manner change, alter, or make the vehicle license number plates illegible. It shall be unlawful for any person to operate any vehicle unless there shall be displayed thereon valid vehicle license number plates attached as herein provided."
Get copy from Hong Kong
on
A Tour of Pixar
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· Score: 5, Insightful
What what I understand, it's not a problem going to a movie with a video camera in hong kong. Piracy is common place, can buy films on the street or see them in the theater.
While you can sorta impose these rules in america, you can't always impose these rules in other parts of the world. Besides, I have never thought it was a serious threat with a cam corder as they look crapy anyway. A cam edition of a film atleast here in america has NO comercial value what so ever.
Now a DVD screener on the other hand, will why bother buying the DVD if you download the screener, that's something they should actually be concerned about. Fortunatly for Hollywood the equipment required to copy films onto the small screen is pretty costly and not something typical home users own.
Firefly was a series on fox that was cancled after one season. A sorta space fronteer western style show. One thing people asked, "what's with all the chinese people are speaking".
Not having much of a clue my self I had two possible answers.
1. The chinese influence on western expantion. Plenty of jobs on the railroad for people immigrating to america from china.
2. China has the greatest population in the world.
#2 I think is the important factor, the fact that china's population 1,284,303,705 people in 2002 according to http://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/wfb2002/china/c hina_people.html. That is a a hell of alot of people even for something the size of china. To put into perspective, that's roughly 1 billion people more then america.
It makes the most sence for china to explore a lunar program. Perhaps resources, perhaps testing the ground for habitations, or perhaps taking advantage of the fact that it indeed has a tremdious amount of manpower.
I guess it's up to you who to blame, the Patriarch, the Emperor, or Omar. But yes, I did forget about Caliph Omar who is eledged to have also caused have had issues with the content of the Library being in conflict with Moslems. My bad...
The point is this... we can research this (somewhat, burning of books reeks havic with our history). We have the net to show published work of other people, and in conjuction with published books, often times more reliable, we can corilate information. It's history, something that no one has the right to claim as IP, there is no copyright protection. We have the ability to dispute facts and site sources without having to do visit a centralized archive. In fact, decentralizing this archive should help to preserve this information in the event of fire, flood, natural disaster, or war. DRM doesn't take into account the natural expiration of copyrights and creates a dependancy on corporations to give us the ability access this information.
Let's say History Inc bought up all the books and published them in their own propriority format that required authorization and a license fee. Could this be done? There are not near as I'm aware laws on burning books, nor purchacing lots of them. This would be most concievable. While the words might be public domain, the license to read the published format. And there are laws on circumventing encryption, and this licensed format could have a EULA preventing copy.
This would suck huge rocks if History Inc business failed, closed it's doors in come ecconomic bubble burst. Don't have the books no more, they bought them all. Can't pay a fee to read their e-books, they are closed. You can't de-encrypt the book your self, for in liquidation some other bugger bought the rights to the E-books IP and isn't doing jack about granting you a code to read the E-book you bought, after all they were only interested in the technology afterall, not the content, the rights to use the medium. And in a couple of millenia, it's going to be a similar debate as to who's fault it really was.
And you couldn't dispute a historical point.
Is this far fetched? Evidence of the DMCA being enforced sugests not. The intent of people violating this is never the issue... sue, jail, dispose of, perfectly acceptable.
Would buying all the books and publishing them electronicly dispite them being public domain be a successful business model? Talk to any lit major. I know of one book I should scan... can't think of the title, but it was the most commonly referenced book on Chief Seattle... published by some obscure Idaho company that is very much out of print, and pretty much have to fly to an ivy league university to see a copy. Commonly referenced difficult to find, that's what the net should be for.
Basic Field support job... basicly a business where time tied to a desk was lost money.
Most of my best work was done from home. My computers were faster, my connection was faster, I had software the boss wouldn't buy, and saved a 4hour commuite from hell. It wasn't every day I was at home, but about 1/2 the work week was done from the home office, well till eventually I gave up on the whole going to the office.
The boss didn't really approve though... basicly under the old impression of, "if I can't see you working, you are not working", but at the very least had server logs, VPN access, database access to somewhat justify why I wasn't in the office. Simple answer, "I was working" It was honestly a case where it was pointless to hit traffic go to the office, just to check my e-mail to see what projects were schedualed for the day, then drive back home to complete them.
But eventually there was an argument over paying me for work done in my home office, basicly a documented claim in e-mail about how he doesn't pay for what I do on my own time, which was fine by me, so I just billed the clients directly rather then going through him, and made more money. He wasn't happy, but it was his choice.
But the point is that telecommuting can work, provided you don't have an employer who's a total bozo. In my case simple call forwarding to my mobile, or mobile to my land line, gave the illusion of a tradidational office setting. Phone the office, need to talk to the staff, the staff answers. (Little diffrence in America being the cell holder pays for the air time, never the caller, but the office switchboard should accomplish this illusion quite well). I know also that the network known now as t-mobile supported fax to mobile services, where the subscriber who recieved a fax on the mobile could route it to any number of their choosing, again making it easy for the staff not to be near the physical office fax.
Slashdot Mirror
So what you are saying is we should look at some of the inovations of the past in order to progress *nix forward? I think you just proved my point quite nicely.
But so far, most of what they give us is "The Golden Girls" in a thousand different variants. Anything that lets someone know what I personally watch is a good thing.
Great, then they can collect the data on most popular 2nd time around shows and can use this market anal to create new shows like.
1. Golden Girls the next generation
2. Designing Babylon 5
3. Blanch the Vampire slayer
4. Delta Scape [yes, Suzanne Sugarbaker gets worm hole technology and is directly responcible for uniting the Scarins(sp) and PeaceKeepers on a holy war to destroy earth).
'linux' is about cool Unix-like stuff. It's not a 'movement' to wage holy war on some perceived 'evile corporation.' Get over it.
/. articals microsoft has already tried lowering the price of their product in a few isolated cases. While this isn't *good* for users yet, it's damn good for businesses. "What if I consider linux.... oh I get a discount if I consider it, cool!"
While I agree the whole "evil software overlords" theme gets all my nerves, linux is a legitamate product, the likes of which that actually has a chance to suceed on the market place. It's not a holy script of madmen nor a new religion. It is a viable platform and should be considered that first.
I do look at linux as this cool *nix like software that has a lot of support and a viable alternative for those of us who are familar with that classic enviroment, but I also see it as being designed as a platform of choice.
It's a bit diffrent then the old os/2 retorical drum beating because people are starting to ask about it, and there are atleast a few power applications for it, though primarly server side.
And yes, there are those who run it just to thumb their noses at microsoft, which is fine really. I lack the same feelings that others do on this issue.
I consider it to be a movement not because of the holy war some isolated folks are playing, but because microsoft has decided to take steps preventing it's foothold in key markets. As we've seen in other
Perhaps we'll actually start seeing some OEM level hardware support, or if nothing else at least some specifications so we can make our own drivers for the latest GO-GO gadget device.
While I'm by no means a fan of IBM, their whole microchannel experence has left a sour taste in my mouth, I must admit they are a big ass company, and when their business is supporting linux for large nations like India I see an increase in demand for drivers for cheeper hardware. Wether or not then will be release under some form of OSS license remains to be seen, but IBM at the very least has the mussle, they have the contacts, and they have the ability to get the job done.
This is exactly what I get from my newphew. He's using macs at school, and he complains about OS9 all the time, and not those logical i can agree with you sorta things. It's primarly the "why did they put that over there" sorta deal. I guess i'm somewhat old and grew up in a market of aspiring and dying platforms.
It's somewhat ironic the fact that while I've never been a big mac fan my self, I have always respected its relative ease of use, yet i'm finding more often then not, the kids are complaining cause it's not *windows*(tm) which I find to be an unacceptable complaint.
One of the most annoying aspect of linux, for me anyway, is the hunt for a chain of dependencies. You want a particular application, it says you need such and such... you go and find such and such, and you find out you need something else... and so forth and so on.
For me, my choice to use Ximian way back when wasn't so much for the neeto eye candy, but because they had already collected all the libs I needed for some application I wanted to actually use. To that end, I found it to be most spiffy. One massive download later, I had a slew of applications all ready to go.
Now if you are a seasoned geek, it may not be your glass of tea. If you already know what you want to run or have no interest in eye candy, or are a typical control freak who wants to do things their own way, hey that cool.
But keep in mind that part of this linux movement is making an OS that your grandmother would be comfortable using. This is something that both apple and BeOS understood very well (engage flame retardent underpants)
How easy it is to forget that goal.
While I have not studied the domestic gecho, I can already see an application releasing existing things we have from postit notes (you can't really clean them) to velcro. Not to speak of velvet padding based on the gecho material to help anchor something in the event of earthquake... this fall under the catagory of cool beans.
Presently, with the exception of that 3m postit stuff, the only thing we have close to a reuseable adheasive that I know about is spray glue. Per the instructions on the can you apply, let dry, and it in theory stays sticky. As long as you don't mind running the risk of having green goo stuck to places. Double stick tape is also a current product i've used to mount stuff with the intent of having it removable. It's only a soso solution.
I'd be hip to a gecho solution.
It's surreal hearing that. It's amazing that it someone would even consider something like O.B.O. being owned by someone... It's something so simple that any idiot could come up with it, yet doing it with a computer is probably illegial...
Ahh, but the key diffrence in OBO technology is the fact that it's been documented in a vast number of newspapers. If "I" decided to put a patent on "buy it now" computer technology, someone could research the orgins with relative ease, and find the oldest reference they can for this term. I would argue that since there is hard copy proof out there of "obo" using a "telecommunications device" that anyone attempting to consider it their own IP is freaking stupid.
Rather then use "buy it now" technology, perhaps e-bay would move tward "end it now" technology, where users who are trully interested in an item can select to buy it, rather then the seller selling it. This way it should resolve the trivial issues of the IP of "buy it now".
Now if that sounds fucking stupid, it's no more stupid then someone claiming they hold the IP to "buy it now".
Near as I'm aware... OBO [or best offer] technology has been in use for as long as I can remember, employed by a vast amount of private citizens when selling things via news paper classifieds.
For those "unfamilar" with OBO technology... basicly a person is selling goods or services and lists an ideal price under the terms that you can buy it for that price, otherwise the selling will accept the highest offer they recieve. What we forget is offers can be higher or lower then the asking price.
For example, I was selling a 486 overdrive some years back. I put it up for sale for like $50 OBO, and I got offers higher then what I posted it for. Basicly I explained to all involved that my best offer was like $75 but a higher offer would be accepted and sold. Needless to say this pissed people off, dispite the fact I was trying to conduct the transation in a fair and honest fasion, and taking the "best" offer.
I would have taken $50 for it, but someone was willing to pay me more money in order to assure that they got it, as well as some assurance that it worked.
Now... I am not the inventor of OBO technology, in fact i'm not sure who is, I would *THINK* it's in the public domain, the fact that it's in common use.
Well, it's not like there wasn't history for the Hover then known as the Bolder Dam. The Anasazi people were known to dwell in that region. There is some speculation that the Anasazi were pretty impressive as far as their achievements go, but alas we thought it was a good idea to flood that area all but destroying that evidence.
Now typicaly i'm actually a fan of hydro power. It's better then chemical fuel because of that pesky issue of waste gases and having extract and bring in stuff to burn. It's better then nuclear because of the fact that it doesn't have the same issues with waste, and should let's say a dam fail, the area can be habitable soon after the water has washed away. You can't really say the same thing about nuclear. I would very much prefer china experiment with dam power rather then resorting to more toxic methods.
But it does have a sad side effect of reaking havic with fish and wildlife populations. And the lost of history is most tragic.
While I'm a big fan of what the Hover Land Reclamation project has done for america, I can not dismiss the negative impact that it has caused. You have regions like Phoenix and Los Angles who's enviroment doesn't naturally support humans, creating a dependence on these rivers that, in some cases, no longer flow into the sea. I'm not a fan of foolishness like in pheonix requring home owners to have a grass lawn visiable, which sorta increases demand on the water supply for something not really bloody useful.
But also i'm for the freedom of choice, and the inteligence of a people to weigh in the good and the bad. While I don't know the specifics, i'm willing to wager that these were taken into account. China has a population issue. Part of their immidate need is the ability to provide water, power, and food for these people. Dams can be great for this if properly managed. I'm sure they have issues with polution, dams are good for this too. Unforutnatly I feel that a dam is a good idea.
Actually you are very much correct. Edison made a business out of invention, which can be, arguably, be associated with software. Bill Gates made a business out of software, something back in the 1980's was joked about.
"How the hell can you make a profit out of something you can so easily copy" was a common statement regarding MS dos which was released with no form of copy protection. Before microsoft, operating systems were typicaly made by the respective hardware companies, and were practicaly impossible to pirate as physical ownership of the hardware granted you a license for a copy. Microsoft was considered to be doomed to failure for that reason, why pay $50-$100 for a product when you could get a copy from a friend. Apple them selves didn't start charging for their operating system till after system 7 [or was it 7.5]. Why should they, their product was physical after all.
Just like Edison, Microsoft's major product is basicly intelecutal property. Something created from thought to copy and reproduced for a fee to the inventors (programers). And yes, Gates will be credited by making software big business.
Ok, I have to admit, that case looks kinda cool, but is something i'd expect a 14 year old kid to own.
I have NOT done much in the way of aesthetical modifications with the exceptions of spraypaint, but I have done much in the way of internal case modifiction. I'm really no stranger to the hacksaw, hammer, and blowtorch upgrade.
Part of my belief is that a computer case is much like a piece of furnature. It is what you see after all. And in many cases i'm willing to put in a little elbow greese in order to achive a pleasing mellow effect. While I would give this alien case some serious points, it would be the first thing i'd toss out in case I saw it.
One of the things I'd enjoy seeing in the computer case world is the old black and silver look. It was a style that was most popular pre 1982 before we switched to that awful fleshtone. There was a time when the high tech look was brushed metal face, accented with black plastic.
I'll agree that the 21st century may prove to be most interesting. We have this delightful computer revolution, but do people expect time traveling historians to pop out of the woodwork and say, "hi, i'm a time traveler, how the hell are you". Even if you met someone who said that, chances are you'd they they were nuts.
My point is the fact the people who use this as an argument suffer from a self importance complex. For example, let's say you were in africa, and never saw monkey. This does not mean they don't exist... either you were not were the monkeys were, or the monkey's just were not interested enough to say hello.
This also may explain why time travel seems impossible: we dont meet visitors from the future since only the present is being simulated."
Space, if not infinate, is certainly a big ass place. Time, also, if not infinate, is pretty damn vast, atleast by human standards.
Assuming time travel is possible, why the hell do you think any one from the future would bother to visit you? What the hell would you have to offer a time traveler? If they wanted vintage shit, they would buy it on e-bay.
With the ability to manipluate time, you can go just about anywhere and not have to worry about that pesky issue of distance being vast, you could get on your god damed moped and speed off to alpha centuri... sure it'll take 130 billion years, but hell just tweek time a little bit, and you wouldn't have aged a day.
So why the hell would anyone want to visit 21 century earth? This isn't star trek.
Actually.. back in the day of the traditional pirates, many were given the letter of marque(sp) by one nation... to attack another nations ships. the letter of marque made piracy perfectly legal, much in the same way that america considers the liberation of iraq legal.
Canada does give the what I would term a letter of marque to video pirates, basicly stating that anything in the air is in the public domain.
Application #1: With current issues regarding DMCA laws and a whole bunch of bogusness... I'm rather shocked someone isn't considering buying such a beast in order to start up an off shore server in international waters. Pirate telivision / radio would also be a logical application.
Application #2: Organizations such as Green Peace need boats in order to get around and block access. This is a big boat.
Application #3: Off shore power plant. Production of things like hydrogen or other fuels.
Is it *that* obvious that all computer geeks computers less valuable then their automobiles?
Very funny! However, I don't think that most techies feel comfortable with drive letters and Windows look & feel.
/mnt/floppy /dev/hda. Personaly I don't really give that much of a shit to really care all that much, this is a small point.
/... in order to stop confusing people.
Afterall, wasn't MS-DOS designed to emulate the look an feel of a terminal talking to a mainframe?
I guess this is honestly a preference... but it's really a small point wether or not your drives are prepresented as a "a: b: c:" a 1> 2> 3> (spartados by ICD), df0: dh0: [amiga] or
a larger point would be for microsoft to actually switch to the freaking
Real men eat pancakes in the morning, fart in bed, dress in women's clothing, and hang around in bars.
Ummmm, by creating a product that doesn't crash at a drop of a hat?
You're from washington usa, so I'll share this little bit of info with you.
= se ction§ion=46.16.240]
according to http://www.dol.wa.gov/vs/tr-replacement.htm it refers us to (RCW 46.16.240)
[http://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/index.cfm?fuseaction
"It is unlawful to use any holders, frames, or any materials that in any manner change, alter, or make the vehicle license number plates illegible. It shall be unlawful for any person to operate any vehicle unless there shall be displayed thereon valid vehicle license number plates attached as herein provided."
What what I understand, it's not a problem going to a movie with a video camera in hong kong. Piracy is common place, can buy films on the street or see them in the theater.
While you can sorta impose these rules in america, you can't always impose these rules in other parts of the world. Besides, I have never thought it was a serious threat with a cam corder as they look crapy anyway. A cam edition of a film atleast here in america has NO comercial value what so ever.
Now a DVD screener on the other hand, will why bother buying the DVD if you download the screener, that's something they should actually be concerned about. Fortunatly for Hollywood the equipment required to copy films onto the small screen is pretty costly and not something typical home users own.
Firefly was a series on fox that was cancled after one season. A sorta space fronteer western style show. One thing people asked, "what's with all the chinese people are speaking".
c hina_people.html. That is a a hell of alot of people even for something the size of china. To put into perspective, that's roughly 1 billion people more then america.
Not having much of a clue my self I had two possible answers.
1. The chinese influence on western expantion. Plenty of jobs on the railroad for people immigrating to america from china.
2. China has the greatest population in the world.
#2 I think is the important factor, the fact that china's population 1,284,303,705 people in 2002 according to http://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/wfb2002/china/
It makes the most sence for china to explore a lunar program. Perhaps resources, perhaps testing the ground for habitations, or perhaps taking advantage of the fact that it indeed has a tremdious amount of manpower.
http://web.genie.it/utenti/i/inanna/livello2-i/edi tti-teodosio-i.htm
I guess it's up to you who to blame, the Patriarch, the Emperor, or Omar. But yes, I did forget about Caliph Omar who is eledged to have also caused have had issues with the content of the Library being in conflict with Moslems. My bad...
The point is this... we can research this (somewhat, burning of books reeks havic with our history). We have the net to show published work of other people, and in conjuction with published books, often times more reliable, we can corilate information. It's history, something that no one has the right to claim as IP, there is no copyright protection. We have the ability to dispute facts and site sources without having to do visit a centralized archive. In fact, decentralizing this archive should help to preserve this information in the event of fire, flood, natural disaster, or war. DRM doesn't take into account the natural expiration of copyrights and creates a dependancy on corporations to give us the ability access this information.
Let's say History Inc bought up all the books and published them in their own propriority format that required authorization and a license fee. Could this be done? There are not near as I'm aware laws on burning books, nor purchacing lots of them. This would be most concievable. While the words might be public domain, the license to read the published format. And there are laws on circumventing encryption, and this licensed format could have a EULA preventing copy.
This would suck huge rocks if History Inc business failed, closed it's doors in come ecconomic bubble burst. Don't have the books no more, they bought them all. Can't pay a fee to read their e-books, they are closed. You can't de-encrypt the book your self, for in liquidation some other bugger bought the rights to the E-books IP and isn't doing jack about granting you a code to read the E-book you bought, after all they were only interested in the technology afterall, not the content, the rights to use the medium. And in a couple of millenia, it's going to be a similar debate as to who's fault it really was.
And you couldn't dispute a historical point.
Is this far fetched? Evidence of the DMCA being enforced sugests not. The intent of people violating this is never the issue... sue, jail, dispose of, perfectly acceptable.
Would buying all the books and publishing them electronicly dispite them being public domain be a successful business model? Talk to any lit major. I know of one book I should scan... can't think of the title, but it was the most commonly referenced book on Chief Seattle... published by some obscure Idaho company that is very much out of print, and pretty much have to fly to an ivy league university to see a copy. Commonly referenced difficult to find, that's what the net should be for.
Basic Field support job... basicly a business where time tied to a desk was lost money.
Most of my best work was done from home. My computers were faster, my connection was faster, I had software the boss wouldn't buy, and saved a 4hour commuite from hell. It wasn't every day I was at home, but about 1/2 the work week was done from the home office, well till eventually I gave up on the whole going to the office.
The boss didn't really approve though... basicly under the old impression of, "if I can't see you working, you are not working", but at the very least had server logs, VPN access, database access to somewhat justify why I wasn't in the office. Simple answer, "I was working" It was honestly a case where it was pointless to hit traffic go to the office, just to check my e-mail to see what projects were schedualed for the day, then drive back home to complete them.
But eventually there was an argument over paying me for work done in my home office, basicly a documented claim in e-mail about how he doesn't pay for what I do on my own time, which was fine by me, so I just billed the clients directly rather then going through him, and made more money. He wasn't happy, but it was his choice.
But the point is that telecommuting can work, provided you don't have an employer who's a total bozo. In my case simple call forwarding to my mobile, or mobile to my land line, gave the illusion of a tradidational office setting. Phone the office, need to talk to the staff, the staff answers. (Little diffrence in America being the cell holder pays for the air time, never the caller, but the office switchboard should accomplish this illusion quite well). I know also that the network known now as t-mobile supported fax to mobile services, where the subscriber who recieved a fax on the mobile could route it to any number of their choosing, again making it easy for the staff not to be near the physical office fax.