I don't have a beef with Mr. Piquepalle anymore, but if suggest you dig through some of his early submissions for an answer. As of late, Mr. Piquepalle has been going the full-disclosure route--that is, he makes no secret of the fact that he's affiliated with the sites he submits to Slashdot. Early on, though, Mr. Piquepalle regularly pretended to be "just some guy" who found sites like Engadget interesting. That's not good; if you're affiliated with what you're plugging, you should be candid and open about that fact. Failure to provide full disclosure puts you in the same boat as the likes of Armstrong Williams, who conveniently forgot to mention that he was being paid off by the administration to plug No Child Left Behind in what were ostensibly opinion pieces. It's a dishonest and unethical practice, to say the least.
But like I said, he's cleaned up his act in recent months, so I no longer have a beef with him. Some folks, on the other hand, still hold this against him--which isn't an entirely unreasonable position to take.
"Shut Do..."? What the heck is that? Have they decided to bring Microsoft Bob back as a plucky caveman named "Shut" or something?
(On a serious note, it'd probably be a good idea to fix that--otherwise, grandma's gonna have a hard time figuring out what the "Shu..." button does on her large-text setup...)
There is nothing factually inaccurate in the article, and the finer points that you list are listed in the article itself. So what are you ranting about?
There's nothing wrong with the article. It's the writeup that irks me. I'm ranting about the fact that Taco is either:
Truly incapable of comprehending a very basic tenet of ownership rights, or
Putting on airs of befuddlement to make a perfectly innocuous transaction seem byzantine and threatening.
Either Taco has a dullard's grasp of one of the most important issues facing the geek community today, or he's trying to gin up a non-news item with a little fear, uncertainty and doubt. Which do you prefer?
That is what I'm ranting about. Slashdot has enough cheerleaders as it is; it'd be a much better news site if the editors constrained their opinions to op-ed pieces and the comments section.
I guess the point he tries to make is that the new corporate overloads can essentially have a free and non-free version of the code, and more or less orphan the free version. The problem of course is that if the non-free version gets good, others will simply fork.
Taco, please tell me you're not really having trouble wrapping your head around this one, and that you're just pretending to be staggeringly obtuse for the sake of, well, whatever reason you'd want people to think that you're staggeringly obtuse.
If I own a piece of code, I can do whatever the hell I want with it--including sell it to somebody else. It doesn't matter whether or not I've licensed it out under the GPL or other such Open Source license. Unless I surrender it to the public domain, I own that code, and I can license a GPL version, sell a closed version, offer a crippled demo, auction off a signed copy of the source code for a million dollars, and build an extra-shiny-and-nifty-for-my-eyes-only version--or whatever else I'd like to do with it.
How can this come as a surprise to anybody even remotely attuned to American politics? How does this differ from how they've been running everything else?
The current administration values loyalty over all else.
The current administration brooks no dissent.
The current administration carefully scripts, stages and choreographs virtually every major public event.
The current administration is unwavering in their conviction and utterly unapologetic for their actions.
This is par for the course, folks. If you want a seat at the table, you're going to toe the line, period.
If it really is that simple, then why haven't people been flocking in droves to OpenOffice?
This is an honest question. Why isn't OpenOffice experiencing the same explosive success as Firefox? What is keeping these same Firefox "switchers" from getting their hands on OpenOffice, as well?
Right you are--my clarification was a lousy one. I had meant to say that there was no mandatory national ID card like the one being proposed; rather that you're required to carry ID at all times, but that you may carry a form of ID other than the national ID card.
Le contrôle d'identité de police administrative vise toute personne se trouvant en France.
Police identity checks can be made of any person found in France.
Il est fait à titre de prévention d'une atteinte à l'ordre public.
This is to prevent disruptions to the public order.
Il a lieu dans des lieux publics: rue, gare....
This takes place in public places: on the street, in the station....
Des contrôles d'identité peuvent être pratiqués à l'égard des personnes dont un indice laisse penser qu'elles:
Identity checks may be performed on anybody whose actions suggest that:
ont commis ou tenté de commettre une infraction,
They have committed or attempted to commit an offence,
se préparent à commettre un crime ou un délit,
They are preparing to committ a crime or offence,
sont susceptibles de fournir des renseignements sur un crime ou un délit,
Could likely provide information pertaining to a crime or offence,
font l'objet de recherches ordonnées par une autorité judiciaire.
Are the subject of an search ordered by the judiciary.
[...]
Lors d'un contrôle, vous avez l'obligation de justifier de votre identité.
You are obligated to prove your identity at the time of an identification check.
La carte d'identité n'est pas obligatoire, vous pouvez justifier de votre identité par tout autre moyen:
An identity card is not obligatory, you can prove your identity by any of these other means:
passeport ou permis de conduire,
Passport or driver's license,
livret de famille, livret militaire, extrait d'acte de naissance avec filiation complète, carte d'électeur ou de sécurité sociale..,
Family record, military record, official birth record, voter card or social security card..,
appel à témoignage.
Call for testimony.
[...]
La police ou la gendarmerie peuvent vous retenir sur place ou dans leurs locaux pour établir votre identité.
[If you cannot prove your identity on the spot,] the police may retain you where you are or at their station to establish your identity.
...so, as evidenced by your own link, a police officer can demand ID if he thinks you might know something about a crime (and you can be sure that this equates to "at his discretion",) and if you cannot prove your identity, you can be detained for an "identity check".
Citizens haven't been forced to carry ID cards since 1955
This is misleading. While there is no "National ID Card", You're required by law to carry ID at all times in France, and the police may ask to see it at their discretion.
A less confusing way of putting it would have been, "While a national ID card hasn't existed in France since 1955, French people are required carry some form of valid ID with them."
Most exercise is boring, therefore kids don't do it.
Gah! Most exercise is incredibly fun! The problem is that we've gone and transformed our perception of "exercise" from running around, jumping, dodging, throwing things, rolling around in the dirt and climbing trees into getting on a freakin' treadmill in a stuffy room and running in place for thirty minutes. Wheeeeee...
Exercise is supposed to be incredibly fun. Somehow, though, we've managed to make it one of the most monotonous, sterile, and mundane activities out there...
Heh. Actually, I used to admin a server that lived in that NJ Exodus datacenter. It was decent enough for what we needed, but there were some issues in administration which I had no control over but made the task a living hell.
Namely, that I had to access the machine using PC Anywhere.
Through a VPN.
Over the transatlantic link.
On a Windows 98 box.
Equipped with only a 28.8k modem.
I would, quite literally, type a command, stand up, take the elevator 35 stories down to the cafe, enjoy a quick shot of coffee, go back up to the office, wait five minutes, and see the results of my action. Pair this with the fact that I had a roughly four hour support call "window" (where our office and the support center were both open) and you've got digital molasses on a stick.
180,000 addresses is roughly equivalent to only three Class B blocks. It looks like a big number, but it's a fairly narrow target. It's all of 0.004% of the theoretical IP address space.
You've discovered the joys of running a site on the modern Internet. These kinds of things will happen; there is very, very little you can do to prevent it. Your best defense against this sort of thing is a general outage contingency plan; whether by thunderstorm, fire, hardware failure, power outage, vengeful backhoe, blacklisting, or stupid admin trick, an extended service outage is an eventuality, not a possibility.
My advice to you? Take some time to lay out an outage response plan, or learn to be satisfied with three nines availability. Don't waste your time getting 'em in a bunch over MAPS and prepare for the next time something like this hits.
Well gosh, Sparky, you sure showed me! Heck, I wasn't even aware of the recent acceleration of decades-old tensions between France and her rapidly expanding population of immigrants from the DOM-TOM and former colonies like Algeria and Tunisia! Why, I didn't even realize that there were racists, bigots, criminals and poor people there, either! Whoa! This just turns my entire worldview around three hundred and sixty degrees! I'm stunned! I suppose had this coming, though, as I spent every waking second of my time in France sipping fine wines and munching hors d'oeuvres at grand museum unveilings amidst the rich and elite. Sheesh, what a rube I am!
And here I thought that France was a pretty great place--and you've managed to completely repudiate that atrociously fallacious belief with a single news clipping! Amazing! Astounding!
I...I just don't know what to believe anymore. Guide me, Anonymous Coward, guide me through this dark and cruel world!
And even though it 'performed extremely well' by your definition, it still didn't make back its budget or make any profit, hence it IS A BOMB.
Y'know, if you're gonna troll, at least take the time to make sure your claims aren't completely wrong.
Released in US: May 25, 2001
Total US Gross: $198,539,855
Production Budget: $135,000,000
Prints and Advertising Budget:$45,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $450,500,000
Assume that roughly 50% of gross goes back to the studio, factor in things like DVD/Video sales and merchandise, and you've got a seriously profitable movie.
The headline is confusing--it has very little to do with the thrust of the summary. It should read "mr_don't Says 'Michael Bay Sucks!'"
P.S. Pearl Harbor wasn't a "bomb"--it was a bad movie that did very well at the box office. To suggest that it was a bomb is just plain silly. Pearl Harbor was a plodding movie with a trite script and stilted acting that performed extremely well at the box office thanks to aggressive marketing and some pretty good technical work. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean you can go around claiming it failed miserably.)
After seeing first hand the memorial to the berlin wall, and the destruction all across east germany (like how none of it was rebuilt during the pre-unification years), i vowed that the next time i heard some fucking _IDIOT_ saying something positive about communisim/socialism, or trying to compare whats happening in the US to what transpired in eastern europe and the soviet union, id be sure and make my token attempt to set them straight.
I'll happily say something positive about socialism. I lived in a socialist state for a year. Health care was excellent and available to all. The rail system and mass transit were heavily subsidized by the state; they boasted the fastest trains in the world, and the mass transit was so good that I only rode in a car a handful of times while there. Public space was safe and surprisingly clean for the size of the city I lived in; you could walk through acres of parks free of charge and free of fear for your personal safety. The workweek was heavily regulated by the government; as a result, I actually got a chance to discover what it was like to actually enjoy life. Taxes were astronomically high, but the funny thing was that you didn't really mind because life was good--you could lead an immensely satisfying and fulfilling life without having to burn through mounds of money. There were problems--there always are--but on balance, they had a much better grasp of what it means to live a good life as part of a society than the typical American does.
This country was, of course, France--a socialist state through and through.
Don't make the mistake of assuming that socialism equates to Soviet-style autocracy. Socialism can and does work, when joined with the principles of a free people and the democratic process.
Slashdot Mirror
But like I said, he's cleaned up his act in recent months, so I no longer have a beef with him. Some folks, on the other hand, still hold this against him--which isn't an entirely unreasonable position to take.
Like that's possible.
Pssh. Atari already had theirs in the ring in 1985.
(On a serious note, it'd probably be a good idea to fix that--otherwise, grandma's gonna have a hard time figuring out what the "Shu..." button does on her large-text setup...)
There's nothing wrong with the article. It's the writeup that irks me. I'm ranting about the fact that Taco is either:
- Truly incapable of comprehending a very basic tenet of ownership rights, or
- Putting on airs of befuddlement to make a perfectly innocuous transaction seem byzantine and threatening.
Either Taco has a dullard's grasp of one of the most important issues facing the geek community today, or he's trying to gin up a non-news item with a little fear, uncertainty and doubt. Which do you prefer?That is what I'm ranting about. Slashdot has enough cheerleaders as it is; it'd be a much better news site if the editors constrained their opinions to op-ed pieces and the comments section.
Taco, please tell me you're not really having trouble wrapping your head around this one, and that you're just pretending to be staggeringly obtuse for the sake of, well, whatever reason you'd want people to think that you're staggeringly obtuse.
If I own a piece of code, I can do whatever the hell I want with it--including sell it to somebody else. It doesn't matter whether or not I've licensed it out under the GPL or other such Open Source license. Unless I surrender it to the public domain, I own that code, and I can license a GPL version, sell a closed version, offer a crippled demo, auction off a signed copy of the source code for a million dollars, and build an extra-shiny-and-nifty-for-my-eyes-only version--or whatever else I'd like to do with it.
The current administration values loyalty over all else.
The current administration brooks no dissent.
The current administration carefully scripts, stages and choreographs virtually every major public event.
The current administration is unwavering in their conviction and utterly unapologetic for their actions.
This is par for the course, folks. If you want a seat at the table, you're going to toe the line, period.
This is an honest question. Why isn't OpenOffice experiencing the same explosive success as Firefox? What is keeping these same Firefox "switchers" from getting their hands on OpenOffice, as well?
A Guide For Linux Users
- Save up $500.
- Buy a Mac.
- There is no step three! *sniff*
flame offPanic.
Right you are--my clarification was a lousy one. I had meant to say that there was no mandatory national ID card like the one being proposed; rather that you're required to carry ID at all times, but that you may carry a form of ID other than the national ID card.
Police identity checks can be made of any person found in France.
Il est fait à titre de prévention d'une atteinte à l'ordre public.
This is to prevent disruptions to the public order.
Il a lieu dans des lieux publics: rue, gare....
This takes place in public places: on the street, in the station....
Des contrôles d'identité peuvent être pratiqués à l'égard des personnes dont un indice laisse penser qu'elles:
Identity checks may be performed on anybody whose actions suggest that:
They have committed or attempted to commit an offence,
They are preparing to committ a crime or offence,
Could likely provide information pertaining to a crime or offence,
Are the subject of an search ordered by the judiciary.
[...]
Lors d'un contrôle, vous avez l'obligation de justifier de votre identité.
You are obligated to prove your identity at the time of an identification check.
La carte d'identité n'est pas obligatoire, vous pouvez justifier de votre identité par tout autre moyen:
An identity card is not obligatory, you can prove your identity by any of these other means:
Passport or driver's license,
Family record, military record, official birth record, voter card or social security card..,
Call for testimony.
[...]
La police ou la gendarmerie peuvent vous retenir sur place ou dans leurs locaux pour établir votre identité.
[If you cannot prove your identity on the spot,] the police may retain you where you are or at their station to establish your identity.
This is misleading. While there is no "National ID Card", You're required by law to carry ID at all times in France, and the police may ask to see it at their discretion.
A less confusing way of putting it would have been, "While a national ID card hasn't existed in France since 1955, French people are required carry some form of valid ID with them."
Misspelling and vulgarity aside, I'd love to know how you can play HL2 with only one hand free.
"Increased difficulty", indeed.
Gah! Most exercise is incredibly fun! The problem is that we've gone and transformed our perception of "exercise" from running around, jumping, dodging, throwing things, rolling around in the dirt and climbing trees into getting on a freakin' treadmill in a stuffy room and running in place for thirty minutes. Wheeeeee...
Exercise is supposed to be incredibly fun. Somehow, though, we've managed to make it one of the most monotonous, sterile, and mundane activities out there...
Well, yeah. I'd rather wrestle a jellyfish than watch that movie.
Heh. Actually, I used to admin a server that lived in that NJ Exodus datacenter. It was decent enough for what we needed, but there were some issues in administration which I had no control over but made the task a living hell.
Namely, that I had to access the machine using PC Anywhere.
Through a VPN.
Over the transatlantic link.
On a Windows 98 box.
Equipped with only a 28.8k modem.
I would, quite literally, type a command, stand up, take the elevator 35 stories down to the cafe, enjoy a quick shot of coffee, go back up to the office, wait five minutes, and see the results of my action. Pair this with the fact that I had a roughly four hour support call "window" (where our office and the support center were both open) and you've got digital molasses on a stick.
You've discovered the joys of running a site on the modern Internet. These kinds of things will happen; there is very, very little you can do to prevent it. Your best defense against this sort of thing is a general outage contingency plan; whether by thunderstorm, fire, hardware failure, power outage, vengeful backhoe, blacklisting, or stupid admin trick, an extended service outage is an eventuality, not a possibility.
My advice to you? Take some time to lay out an outage response plan, or learn to be satisfied with three nines availability. Don't waste your time getting 'em in a bunch over MAPS and prepare for the next time something like this hits.
And here I thought that France was a pretty great place--and you've managed to completely repudiate that atrociously fallacious belief with a single news clipping! Amazing! Astounding!
I...I just don't know what to believe anymore. Guide me, Anonymous Coward, guide me through this dark and cruel world!
*faint*
Y'know, if you're gonna troll, at least take the time to make sure your claims aren't completely wrong.
Released in US: May 25, 2001 :$45,000,000
Total US Gross: $198,539,855
Production Budget: $135,000,000
Prints and Advertising Budget
Worldwide Gross: $450,500,000
Assume that roughly 50% of gross goes back to the studio, factor in things like DVD/Video sales and merchandise, and you've got a seriously profitable movie.
P.S. Pearl Harbor wasn't a "bomb"--it was a bad movie that did very well at the box office. To suggest that it was a bomb is just plain silly. Pearl Harbor was a plodding movie with a trite script and stilted acting that performed extremely well at the box office thanks to aggressive marketing and some pretty good technical work. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean you can go around claiming it failed miserably.)
I'll happily say something positive about socialism. I lived in a socialist state for a year. Health care was excellent and available to all. The rail system and mass transit were heavily subsidized by the state; they boasted the fastest trains in the world, and the mass transit was so good that I only rode in a car a handful of times while there. Public space was safe and surprisingly clean for the size of the city I lived in; you could walk through acres of parks free of charge and free of fear for your personal safety. The workweek was heavily regulated by the government; as a result, I actually got a chance to discover what it was like to actually enjoy life. Taxes were astronomically high, but the funny thing was that you didn't really mind because life was good--you could lead an immensely satisfying and fulfilling life without having to burn through mounds of money. There were problems--there always are--but on balance, they had a much better grasp of what it means to live a good life as part of a society than the typical American does.
This country was, of course, France--a socialist state through and through.
Don't make the mistake of assuming that socialism equates to Soviet-style autocracy. Socialism can and does work, when joined with the principles of a free people and the democratic process.