I didn't have jack when I went to college. I spent $2200 of MY OWN MONEY on a PC, which was a 386DX-33. It wasn't for surfing the net, the net didn't exist yet. (unless you count FTP and Gopher). It was to compile programs so I didn't have to trek to the lab at 3am. I had a couple of friends who ran a BBS, but that was about it. Not to sound like an old fart, but I did it on my own. I worked my way through school, didn't sit on my ass and play on the internet all day, or go to raves, or spend hours in front of a game console. My parents didn't pay my way through school, and I am glad for it. They didn't give me a credit card to run up, I got my own - and I paid off the bills every month. I didn't have a pager, a cell-phone, or a PDA. And don't tell me that those things are necessary nowadays - they aren't. Stop friggin coddling kids, and let them do things on their own. Maybe then we wouldn't have so many whiney brats who expect the world to owe them, because they are used to getting everything they want. And this isn't because I am jealous, it will be better for them in the long run if they do it themselves. They will learn how to actually appreciate something, and the value of self-reliance.
BUT... if you really want to help her, get her some food. Good food. I lived on Ramen noodles, Little Debbie snack cakes, frozen pizzas, and Keystone Light. When you are living on the cheap, that is all you can afford. Give her a good, healthy, care-package of solid nutritious food-stuff. Don't give her food money, cause kids will spend it on crap they don't need and skimp on the food.
Hell, it makes you feel old when 512Mb is being bandied around as the standard memory size.
I hear you. I am sure there are those that have many more stories, but I remember shelling out over 2 grand for my 386DX-33 with 2 MB of RAM and 80MB hard drive. I now have more than 3x the amount of space in my RAM (256M) than I used to have in my hard drive. I must be sleeping - when did 512M become the standard memory size? Crap, I don't even have DDR memory. I am running just a piddly AMD Athlon 900 SLOT processor. I remember when the "internet" was Gopher and FTP. Hey you kids, get off my lawn!!:-)
For once, I'd like to see a well-researched statistic which actually compares the number of tickets sold rather than gross sales. Then, perhaps, you could point to a trend.
Yes, maybe then you could point to a trend - a trend that has no real meaning whatsoever. Since when do ticket sales mean anything to anyone, except for the terminally clueless sheep? It is all about bragging rights, and the only people that (should) care are the people who run the movie studios. If the average American consumer, who cannot think for themselves, would just simply pull their head out of their ass for one minute, stupid-ass statistics like ticket sales wouldn't mean a damn thing to anyone. It is pathetic that a movie studio can simply run a commercial with glowing praise from no-name critics, or known ones that they have purchased, and claim it to be "the year's most XXXXX movie", and the clueless hordes will rush out and see it. And even if it stunk, they will tell all their friends how good it was, because that is what they think they are supposed to think of it. The same thing happens with the music industry. People buy what they are told to buy.
So get in your SUV, little sheep, and go see the latest and greatest that Hollywood has to offer, so you can increase ticket sales, and perpetuate the myth just like you are told.
Your basic assumption is wrong (sellout !=spinoff)
on
The Empire Stumbles
·
· Score: 2
At first I agreed with you, but then I thought - wait a minute! Even though Lucas did a lot of spin-off marketing for the first Star Wars trilogy, it didn't seem to affect the movies all that much. With Episode I, the movie was ABOUT the marketing of crap, or at least an attempt at it. You know that the dreaded CG character, of whose name I dare not speak, was created solely for that purpose. The way that young Anakin was portrayed in EpI was clearly ONLY an attempt to gain favor with kids to boost market appeal. Did the pod race scene really need to be that long, or play out the way it did? No, Lucas wanted every kid in America to want to be a pod racer. At least in the original series, C3PO, R2D2, Chewbacca - they were all market-friendly, but that wasn't their SOLE PURPOSE.
So yes, Lucas did sell-out. Did he continue his ways in AOTC? I don't know, I haven't seen it yet. I am still debating whether or not to see it at all. I really want to see some good Jedi action though. At least if I wait for it to come out on rental, I can skip the lame crap.
The question is, which is worse: to have the kernel suffer because of the SCM used, or use a non-GPL package to improve the development of the kernel?
If there was something better out there under the GPL, Linus would have chosen to use it. Remember, there is a REASON why it was chosen, and that is to improve productivity. Should the development suffer because of the SCM? I have to say I don't think it should.
Of course, he also said that if the company went under, BitKeeper would probably be GPL'd. Gotta think that RMS is hoping for that.:-)
Interesting. You feel that charging customers is wrong. Do you think Microsoft (or any manufacturer) should be required to furnish educational institutions their wares at no cost?
*sigh*
I do huh? Please, by all means, show me where I said that. But since you obviously have troubles with reading comprehension, allow me...
Original post I was responding to:
Could it be possible that the move towards "Free Software" is a result of its cost effectiveness rather than any particular sin of Microsoft?
To which I replied:
Um, Microsoft's cost prohibitiveness, and tendency to put the screws to their customers, is one of their particular sins. So no, I guess that isn't possible.
Let's break this down, for those simpletons out there. From dictionary.com:
prohibitive Pronunciation Key (pr-hb-tv) also prohibitory (-tôr, -tr)
adj.
So high or burdensome as to discourage purchase or use: prohibitive prices.
Now that would mean that they price their software such that the cost is too much for the schools (in this case) to afford. I am not talking about just the purchase price, you have to consider what it means to "afford" using Microsoft software. You have to be face their wrath if you don't behave the way they want you to. You have to sign on the dotted line for their licensing agreements, and bow to their will or they will audit you. That is putting the screws to their customers. Schools don't need that kind of pressure, they have enough trying to teach our future generations.
Now please, show me where I said that they should be required to furnish software at no cost to educational instutitions. Please read, then comprehend, then THINK before you post.
3. Vote with your dollar. If you rant, then continue to support these businesses, you have no one to blame but yourself. Just as politicians only respond to votes, most businesses only respond to money.
I have been thinking about this. If there was a boycott against the RIAA and the MPAA, and those boycotts were able to have some monetary effect, do you actually think the MPAA and RIAA would realize that? Hell no. They would say "See, pirates have stolen our profits!" How can the MPAA claim that pirated copies of Spider-man and AOTC took millions out of their pockets, when these movies had a couple of the largest opening weekends EVER?! Yeah, pirates cost the RIAA tons of money, which is why bands like N'Sync sell millions upon millions of albums, breaking sales records.
It is definitely a double-edged sword. If enough people boycott them, they will spin it to show that pirates have stolen their profits. If you don't boycott them, they will have no reason to change their ways.
The only way to F them, and F them HARD, is to have some kind of legal alternative that shows exactly where their lost business is going.
-you can have it play mp3's: it can also recognize people, combine those two and next time a skirt walks into your place it'll start playing your 70s-sweet-luvvin' mp3's (already did that, just clap my hands twice to start it)
From the overly misogynist tones of your post, I have a sneaking suspicion that your hands are sore - and I don't it is from too much "clapping".
Seriously, get a black Sharpie marker. The permanent kind. Take every one of your CDs, audio, data, etc., and black out the outside 1/2" of the whole CD on the shiny side. This will not only make sure that none of them are copy protected, it will allow you to write to them over and over. Even AUDIO CDs you buy in the store. It is like cutting out the notch on the old 5.25" floppy diskettes to make them double sided - ONLY BETTER! Free CDRWs! The DMCA doesn't want you to know about this, so pass it on.
Are you telling me that thousands of companies with a load of data are installing SQL Server without having a database admin to do the work?
Sure, Microsoft makes it so easy to install and administer a server, even a squirrel can do it!:-)
While that is very tongue-in-cheek, it is true. I was involved in a discussion recently about how MS is good at keeping the Total Operating Costs low by making their systems administerable by a common squirrel. [I know, the TOC argument is debatable, I was on the other side of it]
Could it be possible that the move towards "Free Software" is a result of its cost effectiveness rather than any particular sin of Microsoft?
Um, Microsoft's cost prohibitiveness, and tendency to put the screws to their customers, is one of their particular sins. So no, I guess that isn't possible.
Show me where it says it is a removable drive. Is it the size of a CD or a laserdisc? Is it rewritable? Can it interface with a PC? That's my point, you ASSume too much. The article had no details whatsoever, and was only a couple of paragraphs long. This is considered a front page story?
Really? How do you know? Did you read that in the article? I sure didn't. All it said was that it was an optical disc capable of storing 100GB of data. Nothing about size, rewrite capabilities, interface, portability, etc. The article didn't contain enough information to be considered a front page story, IMO. It was simply a blurb with nothing to back it up.
Funny, I didn't see the word removable anywhere in the article. The article didn't have many details at all, that was my point. All it said was that it was an "optical disc" and it could store 100GB of data. Is it removable? How big is it? Does it even interface with a PC? Is it rewritable? See my point - the article gives no decent information.
Can someone explain why this is news, because the article sure didn't. It was only one or two sentences longer than the description. I just bought a 120GB IDE drive for $125. Tell me why it is so impressive that there is now a 100GB optical drive. Yeah, I know, optical is cool - now tell me again why I should care about this?
Save it for a Slashback at least. This is a front page story?
I use GnuCash, and it has the ability to import QIF files (Quicken). I don't use it, so I can't comment on how well it works.
But it sounds to me like you are looking for a convenience. If the only reason you aren't using GnuCash is because you can't directly link to all those sources (401k, bank, CC), then it would seem that you are just a little lazy. Can't you just manually enter it? Yeah, I know, computers make things easier, and once you get used to them (lazy) then it is harder to do things for yourself. But I suppose that is why Windows is so popular.
If *I* answered Katz's call...
on
Disconnecting
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· Score: 2
I would have said something like this:
Sir, are you sure that with the post-9/11 era, the era of the globalistic information superhighway, you can afford to not be connected to the internet? It is a place of free-thinking, an exchange of ideas between the "haves" and the "have nots", where one minute you can be ordering books from your favorite author (such as yourself) and the next you can be instantaneously connected to and annoying thousands of netizens. I don't know about you, sir, but I think this is an incredible time we live in, the age of the internet. Are you sure you would like to cancel your service? I don't know, maybe I can do that, maybe I can't. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
From the article: The failed student was a gun club marksman who used his training to shoot many of his 16 victims -- 13 teachers, two pupils and a police officer -- in the head at close range.
Now "close range" isn't really defined here, but I am guessing it isn't point blank. So yes, he had some training. But to play devil's advocate here, violent video games can feed an already unhealthy appetite. I am NOT saying they caused anything, but let's be honest. After all, many games, especially violent ones, become more popular because of their realism. It is easy to get caught up in the virtual world. Can it cause you to go out and shoot people - I don't think so. Can it help to twist the twisted a little further? I think so. But face it, the "virtual world", whether it be the internet or video games, DOES have an effect on people. I don't think it has been studied enough yet. People say that violent movies or music don't have an effect on the listener, but it does. If it didn't, then people wouldn't be interested in it. I am not suggesting banning anything, but something needs to be done to try and understand the effects that music/video games/movies, etc have on us as a populace. As long as people are up in arms about even trying to study and understand these things, we won't get anywhere as a society.
Was that in the post to Bugtraq, the author mentioned his URL http://jscript.dk/unpatched/. I checked it out, and he also lists bugs in Netscape/Mozilla. So he isn't just a MS basher, as some would have you believe. Of course, he also said that one of them was fixed within 24 hours.
Just because someone bashed MS, that doesn't mean that they are being unreasonable.
I use a mouse with back and forward buttons on it. Even faster than gentures.
Hmm, I doubt it is faster by much, if it is at all. And with your mouse fwd/back buttons, can you:
- open a new, blank window, in the foreground
- open a new, blank window in the background
- open a link in a new window, in the foreground
- open a link in a new window, in the background
- close a window
I love the gestures, even though when I first heard about them I thought they sounded cumbersome. They really rock. I get so used to them I find myself trying to gesture in other apps.:-)
You know, I never did read The Hitchhiker's Guide. I have the latest version/compilation, I got it last year for Xmas. I have been wanting to read it, just because it is famous. But every reference I read to it is just dumb. I have known people who have read it, and they seemed to make dumb references to dumb things. They don't even seem remotely funny. I guess I should read it before passing judgement, but I have a feeling that the book isn't that great, and that it is a cult classic because a few dorks found it entertaining.
Slashdot Mirror
BUT... if you really want to help her, get her some food. Good food. I lived on Ramen noodles, Little Debbie snack cakes, frozen pizzas, and Keystone Light. When you are living on the cheap, that is all you can afford. Give her a good, healthy, care-package of solid nutritious food-stuff. Don't give her food money, cause kids will spend it on crap they don't need and skimp on the food.
I wasn't referring to the kernel, I was referring to BitKeeper.
I hear you. I am sure there are those that have many more stories, but I remember shelling out over 2 grand for my 386DX-33 with 2 MB of RAM and 80MB hard drive. I now have more than 3x the amount of space in my RAM (256M) than I used to have in my hard drive. I must be sleeping - when did 512M become the standard memory size? Crap, I don't even have DDR memory. I am running just a piddly AMD Athlon 900 SLOT processor. I remember when the "internet" was Gopher and FTP. Hey you kids, get off my lawn!! :-)
Yes, maybe then you could point to a trend - a trend that has no real meaning whatsoever. Since when do ticket sales mean anything to anyone, except for the terminally clueless sheep? It is all about bragging rights, and the only people that (should) care are the people who run the movie studios. If the average American consumer, who cannot think for themselves, would just simply pull their head out of their ass for one minute, stupid-ass statistics like ticket sales wouldn't mean a damn thing to anyone. It is pathetic that a movie studio can simply run a commercial with glowing praise from no-name critics, or known ones that they have purchased, and claim it to be "the year's most XXXXX movie", and the clueless hordes will rush out and see it. And even if it stunk, they will tell all their friends how good it was, because that is what they think they are supposed to think of it. The same thing happens with the music industry. People buy what they are told to buy.
So get in your SUV, little sheep, and go see the latest and greatest that Hollywood has to offer, so you can increase ticket sales, and perpetuate the myth just like you are told.
So yes, Lucas did sell-out. Did he continue his ways in AOTC? I don't know, I haven't seen it yet. I am still debating whether or not to see it at all. I really want to see some good Jedi action though. At least if I wait for it to come out on rental, I can skip the lame crap.
If there was something better out there under the GPL, Linus would have chosen to use it. Remember, there is a REASON why it was chosen, and that is to improve productivity. Should the development suffer because of the SCM? I have to say I don't think it should.
Of course, he also said that if the company went under, BitKeeper would probably be GPL'd. Gotta think that RMS is hoping for that. :-)
*sigh*
I do huh? Please, by all means, show me where I said that. But since you obviously have troubles with reading comprehension, allow me...
Original post I was responding to:
Could it be possible that the move towards "Free Software" is a result of its cost effectiveness rather than any particular sin of Microsoft?
To which I replied:
Um, Microsoft's cost prohibitiveness, and tendency to put the screws to their customers, is one of their particular sins. So no, I guess that isn't possible.
Let's break this down, for those simpletons out there. From dictionary.com:
prohibitive Pronunciation Key (pr-hb-tv) also prohibitory (-tôr, -tr) adj.
So high or burdensome as to discourage purchase or use: prohibitive prices.
Now that would mean that they price their software such that the cost is too much for the schools (in this case) to afford. I am not talking about just the purchase price, you have to consider what it means to "afford" using Microsoft software. You have to be face their wrath if you don't behave the way they want you to. You have to sign on the dotted line for their licensing agreements, and bow to their will or they will audit you. That is putting the screws to their customers. Schools don't need that kind of pressure, they have enough trying to teach our future generations.
Now please, show me where I said that they should be required to furnish software at no cost to educational instutitions. Please read, then comprehend, then THINK before you post.
I have been thinking about this. If there was a boycott against the RIAA and the MPAA, and those boycotts were able to have some monetary effect, do you actually think the MPAA and RIAA would realize that? Hell no. They would say "See, pirates have stolen our profits!" How can the MPAA claim that pirated copies of Spider-man and AOTC took millions out of their pockets, when these movies had a couple of the largest opening weekends EVER?! Yeah, pirates cost the RIAA tons of money, which is why bands like N'Sync sell millions upon millions of albums, breaking sales records.
It is definitely a double-edged sword. If enough people boycott them, they will spin it to show that pirates have stolen their profits. If you don't boycott them, they will have no reason to change their ways.
The only way to F them, and F them HARD, is to have some kind of legal alternative that shows exactly where their lost business is going.
From the overly misogynist tones of your post, I have a sneaking suspicion that your hands are sore - and I don't it is from too much "clapping".
Seriously, get a black Sharpie marker. The permanent kind. Take every one of your CDs, audio, data, etc., and black out the outside 1/2" of the whole CD on the shiny side. This will not only make sure that none of them are copy protected, it will allow you to write to them over and over. Even AUDIO CDs you buy in the store. It is like cutting out the notch on the old 5.25" floppy diskettes to make them double sided - ONLY BETTER! Free CDRWs! The DMCA doesn't want you to know about this, so pass it on.
Holy crap, I hope nobody really tries that...
Sure, Microsoft makes it so easy to install and administer a server, even a squirrel can do it! :-)
While that is very tongue-in-cheek, it is true. I was involved in a discussion recently about how MS is good at keeping the Total Operating Costs low by making their systems administerable by a common squirrel. [I know, the TOC argument is debatable, I was on the other side of it]
Um, Microsoft's cost prohibitiveness, and tendency to put the screws to their customers, is one of their particular sins. So no, I guess that isn't possible.
Easy solution, just build your own coaster in your back yard. :-)
Show me where it says it is a removable drive. Is it the size of a CD or a laserdisc? Is it rewritable? Can it interface with a PC? That's my point, you ASSume too much. The article had no details whatsoever, and was only a couple of paragraphs long. This is considered a front page story?
Really? How do you know? Did you read that in the article? I sure didn't. All it said was that it was an optical disc capable of storing 100GB of data. Nothing about size, rewrite capabilities, interface, portability, etc. The article didn't contain enough information to be considered a front page story, IMO. It was simply a blurb with nothing to back it up.
Funny, I didn't see the word removable anywhere in the article. The article didn't have many details at all, that was my point. All it said was that it was an "optical disc" and it could store 100GB of data. Is it removable? How big is it? Does it even interface with a PC? Is it rewritable? See my point - the article gives no decent information.
Save it for a Slashback at least. This is a front page story?
I use GnuCash, and it has the ability to import QIF files (Quicken). I don't use it, so I can't comment on how well it works.
But it sounds to me like you are looking for a convenience. If the only reason you aren't using GnuCash is because you can't directly link to all those sources (401k, bank, CC), then it would seem that you are just a little lazy. Can't you just manually enter it? Yeah, I know, computers make things easier, and once you get used to them (lazy) then it is harder to do things for yourself. But I suppose that is why Windows is so popular.
I would have said something like this:
Sir, are you sure that with the post-9/11 era, the era of the globalistic information superhighway, you can afford to not be connected to the internet? It is a place of free-thinking, an exchange of ideas between the "haves" and the "have nots", where one minute you can be ordering books from your favorite author (such as yourself) and the next you can be instantaneously connected to and annoying thousands of netizens. I don't know about you, sir, but I think this is an incredible time we live in, the age of the internet. Are you sure you would like to cancel your service? I don't know, maybe I can do that, maybe I can't. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
On the back it says "NIETZSCHE IS DEAD." -God
Cracks me up.
The failed student was a gun club marksman who used his training to shoot many of his 16 victims -- 13 teachers, two pupils and a police officer -- in the head at close range.
Now "close range" isn't really defined here, but I am guessing it isn't point blank. So yes, he had some training. But to play devil's advocate here, violent video games can feed an already unhealthy appetite. I am NOT saying they caused anything, but let's be honest. After all, many games, especially violent ones, become more popular because of their realism. It is easy to get caught up in the virtual world. Can it cause you to go out and shoot people - I don't think so. Can it help to twist the twisted a little further? I think so. But face it, the "virtual world", whether it be the internet or video games, DOES have an effect on people. I don't think it has been studied enough yet. People say that violent movies or music don't have an effect on the listener, but it does. If it didn't, then people wouldn't be interested in it. I am not suggesting banning anything, but something needs to be done to try and understand the effects that music/video games/movies, etc have on us as a populace. As long as people are up in arms about even trying to study and understand these things, we won't get anywhere as a society.
Just because someone bashed MS, that doesn't mean that they are being unreasonable.
Hmm, I doubt it is faster by much, if it is at all. And with your mouse fwd/back buttons, can you:
- open a new, blank window, in the foreground
- open a new, blank window in the background
- open a link in a new window, in the foreground
- open a link in a new window, in the background
- close a window
I love the gestures, even though when I first heard about them I thought they sounded cumbersome. They really rock. I get so used to them I find myself trying to gesture in other apps. :-)
Exept they would charge $29.99 for it. :-)
You know, I never did read The Hitchhiker's Guide. I have the latest version/compilation, I got it last year for Xmas. I have been wanting to read it, just because it is famous. But every reference I read to it is just dumb. I have known people who have read it, and they seemed to make dumb references to dumb things. They don't even seem remotely funny. I guess I should read it before passing judgement, but I have a feeling that the book isn't that great, and that it is a cult classic because a few dorks found it entertaining.