You know, that reminds me of George Bush and the economy. He kept talking about how great the economy was even though it wasn't. He kept saying it, as if saying it enough would just make it true. The economy still sucks. He also says every day that the was in Iraq is going so well, while pretty much everybody in his administration disagrees. Again, if he says it enough, maybe it'll happen. Do you, also, believe that if you say that "Linux is a credible alternative and very usable" enough that it'll just magically be true one day? Honestly, I'm curious. Are you kidding, perhaps? Or, as Occam's Razor suggests, are you just another clueless IT geek that's just incredibly out of touch with the real world?
You sell shoes. I give shoes away. How is that not "predatory" pricing? MS, Sun, and HP sell operating systems. Debian and Red Hat give away operating systems. I don't see the difference.
But, aslo, I'm curious, since you so adamantly support the DOJ, do you also support tough marijuana laws? Do you support prosecuting little old women with cancer for smoking pot? I mean, if the DOJ, according to you, is infallable, you gotta support that, huh?
Well, I've never worked for MS, but I've worked for plenty of other companies, and I own my own right now ($1mil+ in annual sales, 5 full time employees). What you call "unethical", I call standard business practices. And honestly, if you were to ask any other person that knows how business works, not IT, not programming, they'd tell you the same thing. So I still say, that your attitude comes out of naivete. If you understood how virtually everything you consume gets to you from a business standpoint, you'd understand that this happens daily, and that the MS trial was simply a witch hunt paid for by Netscape, Sun, etc. You and the other screaming geeks were simply suckered by Netscape, Sun, etc. and convinced that what MS was doing was unusual and/or unethical.
For example, a person who, instead of being a anti-MS, anti-trust person, was instead an anti-sweatshop person would probably feel pretty good buying all of their clothes from US manufacturers. Because, everybody knows that you can't have a sweatshop in the US, right? We have laws in the US about how workers have to be treated, right? Well, I happened to work in several textile factories in this country before they were moved to Mexico, and if I were to describe the conditions, you wouldn't believe it. People passing out from heat, OSHA violations that would make you ill (I saw one person get his face burned off with acid from an unmarked bucket), and accidents that you only see in movies. All of this happened in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. That's completely standard. Happens every day.
My point is that you were just a pawn of a fight between the big corporations, and you were manipulated by a false sense of "doing what is right". I feel bad for you, really, because if you ever realize it, well, I don't think you'll be too happy.
Actually, you forgot some other important companies that have slimy business practices... Red Hat? Debian? Pricing their products at *zero* certainly makes for a *Very* uncompetitive environment. In fact, these guys make Wal-Mart look friendly by comparison. At least Wal-Mart prices their products so that they make a profit. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see commerical OSS makes brought up on "predatory pricing" charges by the DOJ very soon.
If this is so, I'm devastated (but maybe I shouldn't be so surprised, as it is consistent conversations I have casually with friends and family).
Actually, I think the best way to describe you would be naive. Woefully naive if you really think that people give a flying shit about "anti-trust" stuff. That's really just legal-ese, and the only reason that geeks felt that they were anti-trust experts was because they knew of a high-profile computer company that was involved. Real people don't care. MS is the largest software company on the planet by a long shot because they make products that people like and they sell them at a reasonable price. Most people realize that the whole "anti-trust" thing was just a legal maneuver brought about by their competitors (via the DOJ). Only geeks have grabbed onto this court case for dear life as the prime example of what makes MS "eeeeevil". Nobody else really cares. Real people may have read about it, then they moved on with truly important things in their life. So, I guess the best that I can say is, "Grow up, kid. That's how the world works."
And do you honestly think that people shooting their own food, defending their property happens more often then somebody buying a gun with the intention of killing another person? That's great that you find so many uses for guns, but I've gotta say that overall, guns are a definite *bad* for society as a whole.
The article didn't say anything about "standards" compliance. You did. The whole "is a standard something that everybody actually uses, or is it something decided by an irrelevant committee?" question is another subject, altogether.
If a couple of Tivo nuts (and from what I understand, TIVO people are almost as bad as Apple people) even START a class action lawsuit, TIVO will cave. What company (especially a realtively new company) wants the expense and the bad PR of a class action lawsuit? Either that, or just dump the fucking TIVO. After all, it's really just TV. I've lived for 5 years with no TV at all and I'm still alive. It can be done.
Why would customers "fear" this? Is it just a case of extreme addition to this gadget? It's very simple. From what I understand, they signed a usage agreement/contract, and if Tivo violates it, they just sue. If I watched TV and had one of these recorder thingies, I'd do just that. I don't understand why there'd be "fear" over Tivo changing the contract mid-stream.
Hell, I posted my own "story" about both major free DVD copying software packages becoming unavailable THE SAME DAY because BOTH authors were hired by DIFFERENT DVD copy protection companies THE SAME DAY. Now, you can't download any new copies of either of the two major free DVD copying software. I kinda' thought that that was newsworthy, but nope. Slashdot is all about the clickthroughs. Bummer.
I disagree. Slashdot has about 6 different page layouts (at most). How tough could this be? And most of their pages are mostly the same. Now, I know that Slashcode is inherently badly written, but I've got to assume that it's still dynamically driven, making the actual amount of HTML across all of Slashdot tiny, actually.
What benefit would a company like Dell derive from spending marketing department time and money promoting OGG? They're interested in selling products that as many people as possible want to buy. They're not in the education business. If 95% of the market uses MP3 and 5% uses OGG, and they want to appear to the mass markets, then obviously, MP3 is the way to go.
They didn't add OGG because most non-geeks have never heard of OGG, so to even spend 40 man hours adding OGG would probably be a waste of time and money for Dell.
Too late for what, exactly? Are you trying to imply that "everybody who's anybody already owns an iPod?" If you are, you're terribly wrong. iPod is STILL in the "Early adopter" phase. iPod is still very much a yuppie device. "Normal" people such as myself that don't actually get hard-ons over Apple devices are still waiting for something reasonably priced and doesn't *require* that I buy all of my music from Apple. I will probably buy one of these things for myself and for my girlfriend.
Normally, I wouldn't respond to an AC, but you're an idiot. Yes, it's still Firefox's responsiblity to control the distribution. Saying, "Waaah, but you can't control the distribution when releasing open source stuff." doesn't cut it. It's still their problem to solve, regardless. Just because it's difficult, and yes, maybe impossible still doesn't abdicate them of responsibility of distribution of their own product. That's just ridiculous.
this doesn't seem like a problem/vulnerability with firefox per se, but a problem with their particular download page -- someone posted an infected file -- oops!
That's still a "problem with Firefox". Firefox is seen as being responsible for what people download whether it's true or not. That's like buying a new car, and a part inside causes the car to catch fire. Are you going to say that it's the car manufacturer's fault (since after all, that's who you're paying), or are you going to hunt down the part manufacturer? It's the car manufacturer's problem to make sure that the customer is happy in all aspects just like it's Firefox's responsiblity that its product is distributed properly.
So then are you saying that only security experts run Linux, or that all Linux users somehow magically learn about what "root" is upon installation? I'm not understanding what you're saying, since I've never met a non-IT person who knew that "root" had anything to do with computers.
Slashdot is pioneering a new type of advertising that actually is disguised to appear as if it's actually useful information or "news". I like to call it "info-tising"! It's been used on our TV news broadcasts in smaller, more subtle ways for years, but Slashdot takes it to a new level, whereas they just barely try to conceal the advertisement.
No employment contract should be able to take away free speech.
You're exactly right. He should be able to say whatever he'd like in full public view. Microsoft should also be able to fire him in full public view, as well.
And why would I even consider using this instead of Netflix? With Netflix, I have every DVD I could imagine one day away, and if there's something wrong with it, they'll send me a replacement. With this setup, I'm getting DVD's in who-knows-what condition, in who-knows-how-much time from who-knows-who. Oh yeah, and I'm still paying, possibly more than Netflix. Where do I sign up?
. Article is about a hotel that DOES this. Therefore, we're talking about it happening.
This is an article about somebody who *claims* to have seen it, but has no proof and won't even name the hotel chains. Therefore, we're talking about it *possibly* happening.
Actually, I'm going to need a good reason to switch in the first place, other than "I can". Unlike a lot of people, apparently, I have better things to do than to download and install web browsers. The excitement of doing that was over when I got Mosaic working back in '95.
There has been some suggestion that the Flynn Effect is mainly concentrated on the lower-half of the Bell Curve, but this is contested.
You horrible, horrible racist asshole! There IS NO BELL CURVE! You shouldn't even mention that. Facts that people don't like aren't facts! You should know that, you evil, evil bastard. As soon as somebody starts talking about a BELL CURVE, that instantly puts half of the population in the bottom half, which we all know, ISN'T FAIR!
And yes, I firmly believe that people are actually getting stupider as time goes by.
Actually, I was seriously wondering if Flash and Shockwave and Java stuff is all that widely accepted these days. I don't use new computers, so all of that crap, when I come across it in web advertising, slows my computer to an absolute crawl (and PDF's tend to lock my whole machine for a good 10-20 seconds). I just see these things as bloated bloat, and I was just curious if I'm the only one, or if I'm just insane.
Slashdot Mirror
Linux is a credible alternative and very usable
You know, that reminds me of George Bush and the economy. He kept talking about how great the economy was even though it wasn't. He kept saying it, as if saying it enough would just make it true. The economy still sucks. He also says every day that the was in Iraq is going so well, while pretty much everybody in his administration disagrees. Again, if he says it enough, maybe it'll happen. Do you, also, believe that if you say that "Linux is a credible alternative and very usable" enough that it'll just magically be true one day? Honestly, I'm curious. Are you kidding, perhaps? Or, as Occam's Razor suggests, are you just another clueless IT geek that's just incredibly out of touch with the real world?
You sell shoes. I give shoes away. How is that not "predatory" pricing? MS, Sun, and HP sell operating systems. Debian and Red Hat give away operating systems. I don't see the difference.
But, aslo, I'm curious, since you so adamantly support the DOJ, do you also support tough marijuana laws? Do you support prosecuting little old women with cancer for smoking pot? I mean, if the DOJ, according to you, is infallable, you gotta support that, huh?
Well, I've never worked for MS, but I've worked for plenty of other companies, and I own my own right now ($1mil+ in annual sales, 5 full time employees). What you call "unethical", I call standard business practices. And honestly, if you were to ask any other person that knows how business works, not IT, not programming, they'd tell you the same thing. So I still say, that your attitude comes out of naivete. If you understood how virtually everything you consume gets to you from a business standpoint, you'd understand that this happens daily, and that the MS trial was simply a witch hunt paid for by Netscape, Sun, etc. You and the other screaming geeks were simply suckered by Netscape, Sun, etc. and convinced that what MS was doing was unusual and/or unethical.
For example, a person who, instead of being a anti-MS, anti-trust person, was instead an anti-sweatshop person would probably feel pretty good buying all of their clothes from US manufacturers. Because, everybody knows that you can't have a sweatshop in the US, right? We have laws in the US about how workers have to be treated, right? Well, I happened to work in several textile factories in this country before they were moved to Mexico, and if I were to describe the conditions, you wouldn't believe it. People passing out from heat, OSHA violations that would make you ill (I saw one person get his face burned off with acid from an unmarked bucket), and accidents that you only see in movies. All of this happened in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. That's completely standard. Happens every day.
My point is that you were just a pawn of a fight between the big corporations, and you were manipulated by a false sense of "doing what is right". I feel bad for you, really, because if you ever realize it, well, I don't think you'll be too happy.
Actually, you forgot some other important companies that have slimy business practices... Red Hat? Debian? Pricing their products at *zero* certainly makes for a *Very* uncompetitive environment. In fact, these guys make Wal-Mart look friendly by comparison. At least Wal-Mart prices their products so that they make a profit. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see commerical OSS makes brought up on "predatory pricing" charges by the DOJ very soon.
If this is so, I'm devastated (but maybe I shouldn't be so surprised, as it is consistent conversations I have casually with friends and family).
Actually, I think the best way to describe you would be naive. Woefully naive if you really think that people give a flying shit about "anti-trust" stuff. That's really just legal-ese, and the only reason that geeks felt that they were anti-trust experts was because they knew of a high-profile computer company that was involved. Real people don't care. MS is the largest software company on the planet by a long shot because they make products that people like and they sell them at a reasonable price. Most people realize that the whole "anti-trust" thing was just a legal maneuver brought about by their competitors (via the DOJ). Only geeks have grabbed onto this court case for dear life as the prime example of what makes MS "eeeeevil". Nobody else really cares. Real people may have read about it, then they moved on with truly important things in their life. So, I guess the best that I can say is, "Grow up, kid. That's how the world works."
And do you honestly think that people shooting their own food, defending their property happens more often then somebody buying a gun with the intention of killing another person? That's great that you find so many uses for guns, but I've gotta say that overall, guns are a definite *bad* for society as a whole.
The article didn't say anything about "standards" compliance. You did. The whole "is a standard something that everybody actually uses, or is it something decided by an irrelevant committee?" question is another subject, altogether.
If a couple of Tivo nuts (and from what I understand, TIVO people are almost as bad as Apple people) even START a class action lawsuit, TIVO will cave. What company (especially a realtively new company) wants the expense and the bad PR of a class action lawsuit? Either that, or just dump the fucking TIVO. After all, it's really just TV. I've lived for 5 years with no TV at all and I'm still alive. It can be done.
Why would customers "fear" this? Is it just a case of extreme addition to this gadget? It's very simple. From what I understand, they signed a usage agreement/contract, and if Tivo violates it, they just sue. If I watched TV and had one of these recorder thingies, I'd do just that. I don't understand why there'd be "fear" over Tivo changing the contract mid-stream.
Hell, I posted my own "story" about both major free DVD copying software packages becoming unavailable THE SAME DAY because BOTH authors were hired by DIFFERENT DVD copy protection companies THE SAME DAY. Now, you can't download any new copies of either of the two major free DVD copying software. I kinda' thought that that was newsworthy, but nope. Slashdot is all about the clickthroughs. Bummer.
I disagree. Slashdot has about 6 different page layouts (at most). How tough could this be? And most of their pages are mostly the same. Now, I know that Slashcode is inherently badly written, but I've got to assume that it's still dynamically driven, making the actual amount of HTML across all of Slashdot tiny, actually.
What benefit would a company like Dell derive from spending marketing department time and money promoting OGG? They're interested in selling products that as many people as possible want to buy. They're not in the education business. If 95% of the market uses MP3 and 5% uses OGG, and they want to appear to the mass markets, then obviously, MP3 is the way to go.
They didn't add OGG because most non-geeks have never heard of OGG, so to even spend 40 man hours adding OGG would probably be a waste of time and money for Dell.
Too late for what, exactly? Are you trying to imply that "everybody who's anybody already owns an iPod?" If you are, you're terribly wrong. iPod is STILL in the "Early adopter" phase. iPod is still very much a yuppie device. "Normal" people such as myself that don't actually get hard-ons over Apple devices are still waiting for something reasonably priced and doesn't *require* that I buy all of my music from Apple. I will probably buy one of these things for myself and for my girlfriend.
But the current amount of "innovation" makes Linux unusable for many application developers and users without some kind of standards.
Normally, I wouldn't respond to an AC, but you're an idiot. Yes, it's still Firefox's responsiblity to control the distribution. Saying, "Waaah, but you can't control the distribution when releasing open source stuff." doesn't cut it. It's still their problem to solve, regardless. Just because it's difficult, and yes, maybe impossible still doesn't abdicate them of responsibility of distribution of their own product. That's just ridiculous.
this doesn't seem like a problem/vulnerability with firefox per se, but a problem with their particular download page -- someone posted an infected file -- oops!
That's still a "problem with Firefox". Firefox is seen as being responsible for what people download whether it's true or not. That's like buying a new car, and a part inside causes the car to catch fire. Are you going to say that it's the car manufacturer's fault (since after all, that's who you're paying), or are you going to hunt down the part manufacturer? It's the car manufacturer's problem to make sure that the customer is happy in all aspects just like it's Firefox's responsiblity that its product is distributed properly.
So then are you saying that only security experts run Linux, or that all Linux users somehow magically learn about what "root" is upon installation? I'm not understanding what you're saying, since I've never met a non-IT person who knew that "root" had anything to do with computers.
Slashdot is pioneering a new type of advertising that actually is disguised to appear as if it's actually useful information or "news". I like to call it "info-tising"! It's been used on our TV news broadcasts in smaller, more subtle ways for years, but Slashdot takes it to a new level, whereas they just barely try to conceal the advertisement.
No employment contract should be able to take away free speech.
You're exactly right. He should be able to say whatever he'd like in full public view. Microsoft should also be able to fire him in full public view, as well.
And why would I even consider using this instead of Netflix? With Netflix, I have every DVD I could imagine one day away, and if there's something wrong with it, they'll send me a replacement. With this setup, I'm getting DVD's in who-knows-what condition, in who-knows-how-much time from who-knows-who. Oh yeah, and I'm still paying, possibly more than Netflix. Where do I sign up?
. Article is about a hotel that DOES this. Therefore, we're talking about it happening.
This is an article about somebody who *claims* to have seen it, but has no proof and won't even name the hotel chains. Therefore, we're talking about it *possibly* happening.
Actually, I'm going to need a good reason to switch in the first place, other than "I can". Unlike a lot of people, apparently, I have better things to do than to download and install web browsers. The excitement of doing that was over when I got Mosaic working back in '95.
There has been some suggestion that the Flynn Effect is mainly concentrated on the lower-half of the Bell Curve, but this is contested.
You horrible, horrible racist asshole! There IS NO BELL CURVE! You shouldn't even mention that. Facts that people don't like aren't facts! You should know that, you evil, evil bastard. As soon as somebody starts talking about a BELL CURVE, that instantly puts half of the population in the bottom half, which we all know, ISN'T FAIR!
And yes, I firmly believe that people are actually getting stupider as time goes by.
Actually, I was seriously wondering if Flash and Shockwave and Java stuff is all that widely accepted these days. I don't use new computers, so all of that crap, when I come across it in web advertising, slows my computer to an absolute crawl (and PDF's tend to lock my whole machine for a good 10-20 seconds). I just see these things as bloated bloat, and I was just curious if I'm the only one, or if I'm just insane.