1) People don't get off doing that. They're actually saying something about what they don't like. Progress, as you should remember, is not about sitting silently and taking whatever is handed to you. Progress is made by telling someone what's wrong with what they've done. So what if his tone is nasty? His words are what's important, and his words equate to: "Why is this so hard. Make it consistant, make it easy."
Sorry, but there is a HUGE difference between saying "the interface sucks" and "the person who coded this was an idiot". You want to complain about mplayer, fine. You want to say it is the shittiest program you have ever used, fine. You want to say that whoever coded it is a fucktard - not cool.
The program is a thing, the coder is a person. Don't attack the person, attack the code if you don't like it. Maybe there are 50 reasons why it is the way it is. Maybe it is extremely powerful and customizable, but not very user friendly. So the coder had priorities about what is really important. Who knows?
I think it is fine to say a program sucks, but you should never blast the person(s) behind the program. For this reason alone, I don't feel sorry for jwz at all. I wouldn't listen to him either.
Include Linux drivers for all of the hardware and let the user install their own distro.
I prefer to build my own systems, but if Dell offered your option 1 for desktops as well as laptops, I would maybe go for one. Why not just offer a "blank machine" and include a CD of drivers (Linux and Windows) for all the hardware.
Even at work, our IT department installs what they want on a machine anyway before anyone gets it. I can't believe that it is easier for Dell to sell a machine with nothing installed instead of with nothing.
Gosh, who'd have thought it; a software company isn't fond of the competition.
I have a sneaky feeling that the Microsoft staff might have been told to expect a load of shit from fanatics.
Part of me wishes they would be chased out of there with torches and pitchforks, and the other part of me wishes that they would be completely ignored, with nobody even acknowledging they are there.
In the past two decades, every big label has been swept up into one of five major groups: Universal, Warner, Sony, BMG, and EMI, which together control about 75 percent of global recorded-music sales.
I more or less knew about this, but it was nice to see it put so well. Of course, they are blaming everything under the sun except themselves. I can't think of one conglomerate that didn't just suck the life out of everything it touched. The music industry is supposed to be about the art of music, but it has just turned into another lifeless business.
The playing field was level to begin with. MS won the market, and were subsequently penaized for business practices which would not be illegal, but for antitrust legislation.
That is like saying speeding would not be illegal, if it weren't for speed limits.
The playing field WAS level, and MS did win it. However, they used the OS market, which they held a monopoly on, to maintain that molopoly and to illegally push into other markets. That is what the DOJ found, and everyone else knew for a long time. What is ironic is that everyone who is pro-MS are saying "hey, that is fair", when in reality all that is wanted is a truly fair playing field.
It's ironic that you're ripping on MS for supposed IP theft, when no case has been won proving this, and meanwhile the article claims linux is guilty of the crimes that you infer makes MS evil.
They buddy up to small companies, promising them their "friendship", get on their board, run them into the ground (because they can), and buy up all of their assets. I call that stealing.
In short, the original poster is correct in pointing out how hypocritical slashdotters are, or at least how inconsistent their arguments are.
Well, yeah. But in this case, you can't compare the two things directly. In general, the/. crowd (and many others) don't like the idea of "intellectual property". MS uses that concept all the time to strangle whatever they feel like strangling at the time, and now that someone else is trying to play the IP card, it is just as unpopular. The fact that it comes from "within" makes it a little more disgusting.
You're even hypocritical enough to say "if you can't compete, sue"! Nevermind that Sun, Netscape, and the various states' attorneys lived by the same mantra when they went after Microsoft.
Ahh, the standard techique of misquoting and then using that as a basis for an argument. See, on a fair and level playing field, such as the Linux market, everyone should be able to compete on their own merits. However, when one company can leverage their monopoly power to maintain it illegally, it is a different story. That isn't fair, moral, or legal. You are simply showing your ignorance of the business model, and comparing apples to turds.
Where's my knife, I need to cut through the irony.
It is probably stuck in the backs of all the companies that Microsoft stole their "intellectual property" from, or ran out of business, or sabotaged. It amazes me that some people still defend their actions.
Serves him right, that loser downloaded Justin Timberlake's new CD. Can't do that without SOME kind of repercussions, and it's either the RIAA or Satan, right? I say choose the lesser evil.
I completely agree, but he didn't get the lesser of the two.
about your quake based on knoppix -- do you have a CLIENT based on knoppix? so i can avoid installing software on the office PCs and fire up a little hot-fragging action without too much fuss in the office?
No, I don't. My office has those ports firewalled off. Not that I have tried...:)
I have to say that I do prefer the Windows Quake client over the Linux one. I use the wheel on the mouse, and haven't been able to get it to work with Quake on Linux.
However, I don't think the client would need to write anything to disk, so you could probably burn it to a CD and just run it from CD. Provided of course you had all the maps, mdls, and sounds already on there. Before Knoppix came along, I did have a Windows Quake Server that ran (not booted) from a CD.
But if you really wanted one, you could download Knoppix and remaster it to have a Quake client on there. The remastering isn't too hard. There is a remastering HOWTO on www.knoppix.net .
I grew up with the rise of consoles - from the early ones like the atari and pong - through NES and its siblings to now, the ps2 xbox etc, just as many of us have. But I still do not own one.
I had a sega, I had NES and super NES and dreamcast. But I choose not to buy any new ones now.
I have played computer games religously ever since I was in 3rd grade. I play games on my PC and thats how I like it.
Yep. I had the Intellivision, Atari 2600, NES, and SNES (which I still have). No plans to buy another console. I am not a big gamer, but I do still play Quake online occasionally. (created a bootable Quake server too, based on Knoppix. - knoppixquake.)
But I also got into collecting arcade cabinets, and although my collection has dwindled over the years, my collection of ROMs has grown. I just purchased an X-Arcade joystick. Add MAME to your gaming PC, and one of these, and you should have a few thousand more games to keep you interested.
LEGAL NOTE: you should only acquire ROMs for games that you actually own.;-)
First, I gotta say "For Jebus' sake, stop reading the same genre over and over!" It is one thing to be a fan of something, but another to be a wee bit obsessed. How about reading anything else?
But if you want something that is interesting and will make you think a little, how about Douglas Hofstadter? (Amazon's selections)
I have read "Godel, Escher, Bach", "The Mind's I", and "Metamagical Themas". They are all fantastic. GEB is probably the best, Mind's I is a good collection of various pieces, and Metamagical Themas is quite daunting and will give you a brain freeze if you read it too fast. I have the Alan Turing biography, but haven't read it yet (Hofstadter does the foreword).
Apart from that, how about some philosophy? Classics? Can't beat Grapes of Wrath. Gulliver's Travels. Shakespeare. Once you release the reigns of SciFi, you should be able to come up with something else without much trouble.
What is your opinion of today's "hackers"?
on
Ask Kevin Mitnick
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· Score: 1
I have only one question for you... in 27 parts. (from the movie Back to School):-)
Things have changed quite a bit with regards to the internet since you have seen it. Everything from internet businesses, to eBay, to high speed access (DSL, cable), to the dot-com bust. Did you keep up with things by reading? What was your main source of info to keep up with technology? What is your opinion on some of the more famous "hackers" of today, or are you even up it? What are your thoughts on email viruses/scams that utilize a type of social engineering?
Since you have been kind of on the outside looking in, I think you would have a pretty fresh view on some of these things.
So this story finally made the light-bulb go off for me. Slashdot has a pretty solid following of geeks who like to figure things out. The editors post stories like this, various other hoaxes, lies, and half-truths, just to get the readership riled up.
It is like professional wrestling - people love to hate the bad guy, and around here the editors are the bad guys. They post crap like this story, knowing full well that the readership will debug it to death. The headline draws people in, and gets the real scoop from the comments. I know that is what happens to me. I usually read the first few highest rated comments, and then check out the linked article. In the example of this story, I knew it was probably a hoax article, but read the first few comments before clicking on the link because I knew the/. crowd wouldn't let a bad story slip by. I am betting the editors know this as well. There seems to be much more of this type of thing happening in the last few weeks.
This is exactly what is happening, whether it is intentional or not. After all, the ads are on the comments page, not on the front pages. That is what they want you to read.
The US is only 5% of the population of the world. The rest of the world will be unencumbered by that silly decision; and the creative work will continue unhindered elsewhere in the world, and no one will notice. After all, there aren't very much creative stuff coming from the USA, most especially from Disney...
While this may rile up some Americans, I agree. But that doesn't mean the verdict pisses me off any less. Surely you can see *why* it would make us upset. If anything, the fact that the rest of the world hasn't embraced stupid regulations like this should be an indicator of how silly it really is. Of course, for the rest of the world, I just hope they don't look at US companies, see how much money and power they hold over the population, and try to emulate that.
Re:As any gearhead will tell you..
on
SAUNAAB
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· Score: 1
As any true gearhead will tell you, Saabs are superbly engineered cars. I have been working on cars my whole life, and I haven't had any car that will still run as good as it did the day it was new except my old 900 with 212,000 miles on it (and it doesn't use a drop of oil!). Saab pioneered the useful turbo, leading the renaissance of the european sport sedan ( more horsepower than any comparable Bimmer or Merc, minus the "M" and AMG versions). There are plenty of cars that i can think of that don't come anywhere near the quality, driveability, and uniqueness of a Saab.
OK, plus 10 points to you for using the word Bimmer correctly!:-) (hint to others: beemer is a BMW motorcycle, bimmer is a BMW automobile)
I hope you know my comments were meant in jest. But.... I own two BMWs, an 88 528e, and an 88 M3. I think it can be argued that Bimmers are one of, if not the best engineered cars on the planet. As a car company, BMW is the best of them all, IMO. They have small fun cars, big luxury cars, midsized sedans and coupes, and touring (wagons). On the downside, they do have an SUV. Oh, and they also have high-performance cars. The newest M5 is truly in a class of it's own, and the M cars of yesteryear are still impressive. And you can get all BMWs (save the 7) in a manual transmission. I consider that a huge plus.
And you should know better than to claim that horsepower makes the car. Horsepower is only one small portion of performance. Bimmers don't come with turbos, they don't need it. My 88 M3 came with 198 HP stock, out of a 2.3 litre 4-cyl. Naturally aspirated. And that was back in the late 80s. I think BMW stands alone because they don't make primarily sports cars (Porsche) or luxury cars (Merc). They cover the entire range, and cover it quite well.
Even if people complain about the content of his answers, at least he didn't "Shatner" the questions. Granted, they were two totally different types of interviews, but he answered the questions, expanded on them, gave opinion and fact, and even a little humor thrown in. Even though I am not much more comfortable with the whole idea, I liked the interview.
Oh yes, I will voluntarily buy a cell phone that zaps me. . . sure. . .
These features may be great for the people standing around the caller, but no one, other than perhaps a sadistic corporate purchasing department, would buy one of these.
Dear Mr Knee-jerk,
Just as it is common courtesy to not behave like an ass on a cell-phone, it is also common courtesy to read an article before commenting on it.
At least right now what type of applications would this be good for? Do we really need that much storage? Perhaps if programmers wrote better code........... Then again remember when 2megs of memory was "the bomb" ?
Yes, it is important. Because applications won't grow to fit the need if there is no room to grow. Yeah, I do remember when 2MB of memory was the bomb, I paid an extra $200 for that extra MB when I bought my 386DX-33. I had the best hard drive too, 80MB. Now I have 3x+ that in memory.
I see your point, but look where things have gone in the last... damn, has it been 12 years already?! I don't think you can blame programmers for writing worse code. Look at what the code of today is capable of, versus the code of 1991. Wolfenstein 3d vs Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
No, we don't need the space right now, but we will find new and interesting ways to fill it if it is there. Imagine not having to uninstall your OS, just create a new 100GB partition, install the new OS to it, and boot to that one instead of the old one. We have gotten used to having to uninstall software because we have limited space to deal with. Think of all the things we wouldn't have to do if we had "unlimited" nearly instant-access disk space.
This is a guy who (with his wife) is in the process of donating $24 Billion to good causes.
1. Yes, it is a good thing that he is doing with his money.
2. It is a pittance, compared to what he is worth.
3. Are you suggesting we forgive him his transgressions simply because he donates a tiny portion of it to charity?
4. He is, and from what I have read has always been, an unethical businessman. The fact that he has succeeded doesn't make that any less true. Why should his charity be run any more ethically?
I am not accusing him of anything, just that he is who he is, and that person is 0-1 in running ethical businesses.
5. I could give a rat's ass how much money he has, money hasn't made him any less of a dufus. There are other people out there who effectively have the same amount of money (more than they could ever spend) yet people don't quote how much they give to charity.
6. It is EASY for him to give away money. Just because he gives away more than I'll ever see in my life doesn't mean I should be impressed. Money means nothing to him. Although the sheer amount of money is impressive, his "charity" is not.
Bust a Move and Puzzle Bobble are essentially the same game. One is Neo-Geo, the other is not. Both say copyright 1994, but the stat sheet says Bust a Move was released in 1993. For more info, check out KLOV.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, but there is a HUGE difference between saying "the interface sucks" and "the person who coded this was an idiot". You want to complain about mplayer, fine. You want to say it is the shittiest program you have ever used, fine. You want to say that whoever coded it is a fucktard - not cool.
The program is a thing, the coder is a person. Don't attack the person, attack the code if you don't like it. Maybe there are 50 reasons why it is the way it is. Maybe it is extremely powerful and customizable, but not very user friendly. So the coder had priorities about what is really important. Who knows?
I think it is fine to say a program sucks, but you should never blast the person(s) behind the program. For this reason alone, I don't feel sorry for jwz at all. I wouldn't listen to him either.
I prefer to build my own systems, but if Dell offered your option 1 for desktops as well as laptops, I would maybe go for one. Why not just offer a "blank machine" and include a CD of drivers (Linux and Windows) for all the hardware.
Even at work, our IT department installs what they want on a machine anyway before anyone gets it. I can't believe that it is easier for Dell to sell a machine with nothing installed instead of with nothing.
Part of me wishes they would be chased out of there with torches and pitchforks, and the other part of me wishes that they would be completely ignored, with nobody even acknowledging they are there.
I more or less knew about this, but it was nice to see it put so well. Of course, they are blaming everything under the sun except themselves. I can't think of one conglomerate that didn't just suck the life out of everything it touched. The music industry is supposed to be about the art of music, but it has just turned into another lifeless business.
That is like saying speeding would not be illegal, if it weren't for speed limits.
The playing field WAS level, and MS did win it. However, they used the OS market, which they held a monopoly on, to maintain that molopoly and to illegally push into other markets. That is what the DOJ found, and everyone else knew for a long time. What is ironic is that everyone who is pro-MS are saying "hey, that is fair", when in reality all that is wanted is a truly fair playing field.
It's ironic that you're ripping on MS for supposed IP theft, when no case has been won proving this, and meanwhile the article claims linux is guilty of the crimes that you infer makes MS evil.
They buddy up to small companies, promising them their "friendship", get on their board, run them into the ground (because they can), and buy up all of their assets. I call that stealing.
In short, the original poster is correct in pointing out how hypocritical slashdotters are, or at least how inconsistent their arguments are.
Well, yeah. But in this case, you can't compare the two things directly. In general, the /. crowd (and many others) don't like the idea of "intellectual property". MS uses that concept all the time to strangle whatever they feel like strangling at the time, and now that someone else is trying to play the IP card, it is just as unpopular. The fact that it comes from "within" makes it a little more disgusting.
Ahh, the standard techique of misquoting and then using that as a basis for an argument. See, on a fair and level playing field, such as the Linux market, everyone should be able to compete on their own merits. However, when one company can leverage their monopoly power to maintain it illegally, it is a different story. That isn't fair, moral, or legal. You are simply showing your ignorance of the business model, and comparing apples to turds.
Where's my knife, I need to cut through the irony.
It is probably stuck in the backs of all the companies that Microsoft stole their "intellectual property" from, or ran out of business, or sabotaged. It amazes me that some people still defend their actions.
I completely agree, but he didn't get the lesser of the two.
No, I don't. My office has those ports firewalled off. Not that I have tried... :)
I have to say that I do prefer the Windows Quake client over the Linux one. I use the wheel on the mouse, and haven't been able to get it to work with Quake on Linux.
However, I don't think the client would need to write anything to disk, so you could probably burn it to a CD and just run it from CD. Provided of course you had all the maps, mdls, and sounds already on there. Before Knoppix came along, I did have a Windows Quake Server that ran (not booted) from a CD.
But if you really wanted one, you could download Knoppix and remaster it to have a Quake client on there. The remastering isn't too hard. There is a remastering HOWTO on www.knoppix.net .
Yep. I had the Intellivision, Atari 2600, NES, and SNES (which I still have). No plans to buy another console. I am not a big gamer, but I do still play Quake online occasionally. (created a bootable Quake server too, based on Knoppix. - knoppixquake .)
But I also got into collecting arcade cabinets, and although my collection has dwindled over the years, my collection of ROMs has grown. I just purchased an X-Arcade joystick. Add MAME to your gaming PC, and one of these, and you should have a few thousand more games to keep you interested.
LEGAL NOTE: you should only acquire ROMs for games that you actually own. ;-)
Or goatse
Or think of it this way: in ten years time, what will have more fatalities in the water, boats or roller blades?
But if you want something that is interesting and will make you think a little, how about Douglas Hofstadter? (Amazon's selections)
I have read "Godel, Escher, Bach", "The Mind's I", and "Metamagical Themas". They are all fantastic. GEB is probably the best, Mind's I is a good collection of various pieces, and Metamagical Themas is quite daunting and will give you a brain freeze if you read it too fast. I have the Alan Turing biography, but haven't read it yet (Hofstadter does the foreword).
Apart from that, how about some philosophy? Classics? Can't beat Grapes of Wrath. Gulliver's Travels. Shakespeare. Once you release the reigns of SciFi, you should be able to come up with something else without much trouble.
Things have changed quite a bit with regards to the internet since you have seen it. Everything from internet businesses, to eBay, to high speed access (DSL, cable), to the dot-com bust. Did you keep up with things by reading? What was your main source of info to keep up with technology? What is your opinion on some of the more famous "hackers" of today, or are you even up it? What are your thoughts on email viruses/scams that utilize a type of social engineering?
Since you have been kind of on the outside looking in, I think you would have a pretty fresh view on some of these things.
It is like professional wrestling - people love to hate the bad guy, and around here the editors are the bad guys. They post crap like this story, knowing full well that the readership will debug it to death. The headline draws people in, and gets the real scoop from the comments. I know that is what happens to me. I usually read the first few highest rated comments, and then check out the linked article. In the example of this story, I knew it was probably a hoax article, but read the first few comments before clicking on the link because I knew the /. crowd wouldn't let a bad story slip by. I am betting the editors know this as well. There seems to be much more of this type of thing happening in the last few weeks.
This is exactly what is happening, whether it is intentional or not. After all, the ads are on the comments page, not on the front pages. That is what they want you to read.
While this may rile up some Americans, I agree. But that doesn't mean the verdict pisses me off any less. Surely you can see *why* it would make us upset. If anything, the fact that the rest of the world hasn't embraced stupid regulations like this should be an indicator of how silly it really is. Of course, for the rest of the world, I just hope they don't look at US companies, see how much money and power they hold over the population, and try to emulate that.
OK, plus 10 points to you for using the word Bimmer correctly! :-) (hint to others: beemer is a BMW motorcycle, bimmer is a BMW automobile)
I hope you know my comments were meant in jest.
But.... I own two BMWs, an 88 528e, and an 88 M3. I think it can be argued that Bimmers are one of, if not the best engineered cars on the planet. As a car company, BMW is the best of them all, IMO. They have small fun cars, big luxury cars, midsized sedans and coupes, and touring (wagons). On the downside, they do have an SUV. Oh, and they also have high-performance cars. The newest M5 is truly in a class of it's own, and the M cars of yesteryear are still impressive. And you can get all BMWs (save the 7) in a manual transmission. I consider that a huge plus.
And you should know better than to claim that horsepower makes the car. Horsepower is only one small portion of performance. Bimmers don't come with turbos, they don't need it. My 88 M3 came with 198 HP stock, out of a 2.3 litre 4-cyl. Naturally aspirated. And that was back in the late 80s. I think BMW stands alone because they don't make primarily sports cars (Porsche) or luxury cars (Merc). They cover the entire range, and cover it quite well.
Yes, be we want OSs to get LESS bloated, not more.
Even if people complain about the content of his answers, at least he didn't "Shatner" the questions. Granted, they were two totally different types of interviews, but he answered the questions, expanded on them, gave opinion and fact, and even a little humor thrown in. Even though I am not much more comfortable with the whole idea, I liked the interview.
Dear Mr Knee-jerk,
Just as it is common courtesy to not behave like an ass on a cell-phone, it is also common courtesy to read an article before commenting on it.
note the + sign. In some of my machines I have only 256.
Yes, it is important. Because applications won't grow to fit the need if there is no room to grow. Yeah, I do remember when 2MB of memory was the bomb, I paid an extra $200 for that extra MB when I bought my 386DX-33. I had the best hard drive too, 80MB. Now I have 3x+ that in memory.
I see your point, but look where things have gone in the last ... damn, has it been 12 years already?! I don't think you can blame programmers for writing worse code. Look at what the code of today is capable of, versus the code of 1991. Wolfenstein 3d vs Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
No, we don't need the space right now, but we will find new and interesting ways to fill it if it is there. Imagine not having to uninstall your OS, just create a new 100GB partition, install the new OS to it, and boot to that one instead of the old one. We have gotten used to having to uninstall software because we have limited space to deal with. Think of all the things we wouldn't have to do if we had "unlimited" nearly instant-access disk space.
1. Yes, it is a good thing that he is doing with his money.
2. It is a pittance, compared to what he is worth.
3. Are you suggesting we forgive him his transgressions simply because he donates a tiny portion of it to charity?
4. He is, and from what I have read has always been, an unethical businessman. The fact that he has succeeded doesn't make that any less true. Why should his charity be run any more ethically? I am not accusing him of anything, just that he is who he is, and that person is 0-1 in running ethical businesses.
5. I could give a rat's ass how much money he has, money hasn't made him any less of a dufus. There are other people out there who effectively have the same amount of money (more than they could ever spend) yet people don't quote how much they give to charity.
6. It is EASY for him to give away money. Just because he gives away more than I'll ever see in my life doesn't mean I should be impressed. Money means nothing to him. Although the sheer amount of money is impressive, his "charity" is not.
KLOV rocks.
Wow, so someone will know I'm wearing Timberland boots, Dockers pants, Oakley sunglasses, and an Izod shirt.
You mean velcro closure Reeboks, sweatpants, prescription glasses, a Slashdot shirt, and a Members Only jacket.
They won't know my name, address, phone number, age, social security number, sexual preference, number of pets, or marital status.
Who cares, your parent's house, your parent's phone number, 16-40, who cares, who knows, 3 cats, and single.