It seems JonKatz really does believe that a lack of Net access and RPG gaming is solely responsible for poor children's low education scores and their inability to break into higher-income jobs when they reach adulthood
Nowhere did Jon use the word "solely" - how come many of you are so quick to attempt to dwarf what one person is describing as a problem by talking about other problems in the world?
JonKatz never said that third-world countries and their social strife isn't a problem; he never said that inner-city schools' violence isn't a problem; he never said that the drug laws of our nation and the penalties that they impose are not a problem...
and most of all - he never said that computer are the panacea that will cure all our world's troubles. But his points were legitimate, and worth the read in my mind.
I am reminded of a comedian who i heard making light of people at parties who love to "one up" others' stories. A person might talk about their recent surgery to have two wisdom teeth removed, and someone else will invariable jump in and cut them off stating, "Well that's nothing... i had 3, no 4, not 6 removed! Yeah, yeah, six wisdom teeth... and they were all impacted, man... they were -like- comin' in backwards and stuff!"
Why are we so quick to bemoan someone else's complaints as unimportant in an effort to legitimize our own concerns in life?
JonKatz, cheers to you for writing even in the face of those who put you down. I, for one, will always look forward to reading your work.
very well put. it's a hard line to draw, and an even harder line to monitor, but overall i think we both are on the same page.
i just get really irritated when you see all these new copy-protection schemse that just confound users instead of seeing active searching and prosecution of whole companies who violate lisencing policies.
Not to totally throw a grenade out here, but i am strongly of the opinion that small deployments by home users of the Windows O/S should ALWAYS be free.
I have personally never paid so much as one dollar for any Windows O/S, eventhough I have used Win9x and every flavor of WinNT on countless machines. (I guess you could say that i paid once for a copy of Win98SE when i bought my Dell laptop.)
Overall, though, it makes no sense to me for home users to have to pay for software on the order of operating system software. Only commercial businesses should be subject to this cost structure. Making software free to home users would actually encourage that software to be recommended in offices.
Currently, more and more offices and businesses rely on computers. The number of machines used increases every day. Companies like MS will always have a dollar surplus, trust me.
The only real reason to not support free O/S deployment for home users currently is that it would make piracy very hard to track and pin on companies.
Of course, the part that really scares me in all of this is the aspect of tracking for marketing reasons. But then, i find solace in the fact that it's Windows Whistler we're talking about here - if Whistler is in any way the answer to WinME then i'll just laugh my ass off and walk right back to my BSD and Win2000 boxes.
Besides, I give the WareZ community three days after the commercial edition of Whistler is ready for them to release a crack that bypasses the entire copy protection scheme.
Good luck Razor, Paradigm, Class, Core, Blizzrd, Devotion, DSi, MaD, PGC, TNO, Twilight, PWA, phoenix rising, Prophecy, GLoW, Fate, AiR, and the entire rest of the scene!
I think we can now all relax in the satisfaction one might feel after throwing out one beer bottle while cleaning up after a 200-person new year's eve party. =)
Seriously, eventhough it's just a drop in the bucket, it is a great thing to read about when this happens.
now, if i could only get this damn local radio station's exec's thrown in jail for having an incompetent IT staff who can't get me off their mailing list.
Cracking is in no way wrong, under the following conditions:
1) Attempts to break security are done out of inquiry, not for misciveous or malicious purposes.
2) All activities do not disrupt the system or compromise data and/or resources to such a degree as to have negative effects on other users and/or legitimate system operation
3) All results that are discovered are disclosed publicly for the common good and knowledge of the community
Desires for cracking, reverse engineering, and general questioning of authority should be instilled in the back of everyone's mind at a young age and never forgotten. By constantly checking how things work and keeping the public aware of possible problems it prevents real issues from surfacing (and it prevents issues from being known only to a few persons privately.)
As for the argument that the mere act of intrusion can cause harm, even if there was no malicous intent, see statement #2 above... i'm sorry if i offend a bunch of people who until this point in my post agreed with me - but if you don't know what you're doing as you probe a system and you foul things up, you shouldn't have been there in the first place.
If a user pokes around, exposes security flaws, doesn't break anything, and then tells others publicly after he's left the system... that, to me, is one of the most honnorable and valuable activities in which a user can endeavor.
That's just my opinion... i could be wrong. (And I'd welcome emails telling me i |am or I am not correct.)
Sorry to make such an inflamatory post, but you are absolutely nuts.
I have the exact same setup and i love it. I have a flat desktop mini case which i spray painted in metallic black (after removing all the LEDs, etc, then replacing them)
I have a Jaton 4 MB graphics card with S-video output - that cost me $30.00
I have a hollywood plus real magic DVD board with tv-out on another s-video channel. that was $90.00
and i have a soundblaster card that is spectacular for quality.
add to this a RealTek slimline 100 base nic and a few other incidentals... i came in well below $500.00.
all i want now is a good Infa-Red remote that i can program with macro magic, or that i can configure with other software.
it's quiet as hell, and the UPS in the bottom drawer of the TV cabinet will ensure that I can keep watching TV or movies or listening to MP3s even during a brown out or black out. (Hehe, for about 30 minutes, at least. =)
I, too, support the first amendment which gives me the right to tell you that you have no idea what you're talking about and that your whole statement is circular logic.
First of all, why would someone who aparently feels his time is wasted by reading JonKatz's posts still have enough time free to type up a reply in the forum?
As you said, the articles are titled "Part X of Y" they are not titled "Article One" "Article Two" etc etc. Nowhere are there claims that his articles are more numerous than they are. Too bad, though... if he padded the numbers enough he could win a set of steak knives. Oh, wait, no he couldn't - come to think of it, there is no reason at all that anyone would do that.
Overall, i feel that JonKatz offers a remarkable series of social views that make reading material on the slashdot site more diverse and informative. often you can learn more listening to a person who didn't grow up with the techy generation that you could by listening to an uber-nerd. It is my hope that JonKatz's material never stops.
Best regards,
Dixieland
P.S. - you may be happy to know that you don't actually have to go out and but a new and larger monitor each time there is an article that won't fit on your screen. use the scroll bar on the right side of your browser... see? it makes the page go up and down, thus turning even the longest article into something easily read, skimmed, or even skipped.
I recall a wise man once saying that swearing is a crutch for crippled conversationalists.
Thank you so very much for proving him right.
You call the congregation of slashdot readers morons, yet you obviously are a contributor here on the forums yourself. You chastise people for speaking off topic, yet your reply had virtually nothing to do with censorware. You criticize the physical development of computer users, which is totally childish and uncalled for.
You do this all... yet your whole post is of no value to the conversation.
I understand that people who are unknowledgeable about computer are consequently afraid of them on many levels. Such people are unhappy with the idea of involving computers and the Internet in many aspects of society... schools are often no exception.
But please try to be more reasonable... your type of person was making arguments against teaching theories of eveolution when Scopes was on trial. Your type of person is criticizing violent video games and media productions because of alleged connections to viewer's violent behaviors. These are not rational arguments but rather attempts to hold back the progress of a new generation for fear that you will be left behind.
I'm sorry if you are left in the dust as my generation advances to better and better times because of technology. I truly will extend my hand outward to all those who wish to hang on and keep up. (I taugh adults to learn computer skills late in their lives for two years before taking my present job.)
But all I would ask is that you not cry out against what is easily one of the greatest resources our population has access to today. The Internet and computing technology will continue to grow by leaps and bounds, and I want my children (if and when i have them) to be given the very best technology - without censorship or half-assed exposure to it - for the very beginning of their ability to learn.
i have been very impressed with its capabilities since i dropped it onto my office workstation.
i feel that there will be nothing but advancements in this type of technology.
and what about sites like slashdot? i severly doubt that legitimate sites will go to such lengths just testing how much garbage they can throw at users.
It's a
free download for students and other non-commercial users.
I completely agree.
Even when i don't use speed dial functions, i routinely punch in all 10 digits anyway. (Just a reflex from using my PCS phone... depending if i am picked up by a tower in my home area code or not I sometimes need the extra three digits for the call to go through.)
It's not all that hard to do and i refuse to believe that people are genuinely that lazy.
just my $0.02
Wow, you certainly must be glad right about now that Slashdot includes the author's name right at the top of the post.
It makes things so convenient for you the reader who, by your admission, dislikes JonKatz... you can just skip right along to another article, can't you?
Not to be blunt or rude, but unless you have some sort of financial obligation to contribute funding for archive space on the slashdot servers, please don't get in a twist about posts that you don't feel the desire to read.
In our world, televisions have "mute" buttons, radios come equipped with tuning dials, and there's no law against ignoring something that you're doesn't interest you. No one is forcing you to read JonKatz's words, just like no one forced me to read yours. It's all a matter of personal choice.
i personally downloaded tons of MP3s and warez when i was in college, but i still bought CDs... and i even paid for three pieces of software.
1) I registered my Winamp player, before it was freeware. (such was my respect for Justin and NullSoft)
2) I paid a $5.00 registration fee for a shareware tool authored by one guy (not written by a software corporation) since i found it to be a rather useful little app. (OK, it was a timer program that could count backwards. my friends and i used it to play the drinking game "Power Hour" in our dorm room.)
3) I downloaded the Razor release of Starcraft (and later Broodwar) but later was so impressed with the game that I went to the store and bought the boxed CDs. The discs still it on my shelf, unopened, but i sent an email to Blizzard alerting them that i was proud to pay for the real version of their product, even if i played a warez release.
So nothing is stopping people from being unfair to artists/copyright holders even now - and nothing will stop people in the future to any greater degree. It's all a matter of your personal opinion and how honest you choose to be.(There's also the undeniable fact that most products out there are crap anyway and shouldn't generate ANY revenue at all. =)
Slashdot Mirror
It seems JonKatz really does believe that a lack of Net access and RPG gaming is solely responsible for poor children's low education scores and their inability to break into higher-income jobs when they reach adulthood
Nowhere did Jon use the word "solely" - how come many of you are so quick to attempt to dwarf what one person is describing as a problem by talking about other problems in the world?
JonKatz never said that third-world countries and their social strife isn't a problem; he never said that inner-city schools' violence isn't a problem; he never said that the drug laws of our nation and the penalties that they impose are not a problem...
and most of all - he never said that computer are the panacea that will cure all our world's troubles. But his points were legitimate, and worth the read in my mind.
I am reminded of a comedian who i heard making light of people at parties who love to "one up" others' stories. A person might talk about their recent surgery to have two wisdom teeth removed, and someone else will invariable jump in and cut them off stating, "Well that's nothing... i had 3, no 4, not 6 removed! Yeah, yeah, six wisdom teeth... and they were all impacted, man... they were -like- comin' in backwards and stuff!"
Why are we so quick to bemoan someone else's complaints as unimportant in an effort to legitimize our own concerns in life?
JonKatz, cheers to you for writing even in the face of those who put you down. I, for one, will always look forward to reading your work.
very well put. it's a hard line to draw, and an even harder line to monitor, but overall i think we both are on the same page.
i just get really irritated when you see all these new copy-protection schemse that just confound users instead of seeing active searching and prosecution of whole companies who violate lisencing policies.
Not to totally throw a grenade out here, but i am strongly of the opinion that small deployments by home users of the Windows O/S should ALWAYS be free.
I have personally never paid so much as one dollar for any Windows O/S, eventhough I have used Win9x and every flavor of WinNT on countless machines. (I guess you could say that i paid once for a copy of Win98SE when i bought my Dell laptop.)
Overall, though, it makes no sense to me for home users to have to pay for software on the order of operating system software. Only commercial businesses should be subject to this cost structure. Making software free to home users would actually encourage that software to be recommended in offices.
Currently, more and more offices and businesses rely on computers. The number of machines used increases every day. Companies like MS will always have a dollar surplus, trust me.
The only real reason to not support free O/S deployment for home users currently is that it would make piracy very hard to track and pin on companies.
Of course, the part that really scares me in all of this is the aspect of tracking for marketing reasons. But then, i find solace in the fact that it's Windows Whistler we're talking about here - if Whistler is in any way the answer to WinME then i'll just laugh my ass off and walk right back to my BSD and Win2000 boxes.
Besides, I give the WareZ community three days after the commercial edition of Whistler is ready for them to release a crack that bypasses the entire copy protection scheme.
Good luck Razor, Paradigm, Class, Core, Blizzrd, Devotion, DSi, MaD, PGC, TNO, Twilight, PWA, phoenix rising, Prophecy, GLoW, Fate, AiR, and the entire rest of the scene!
I agree completely, ahknight,
I think we can now all relax in the satisfaction one might feel after throwing out one beer bottle while cleaning up after a 200-person new year's eve party. =)
Seriously, eventhough it's just a drop in the bucket, it is a great thing to read about when this happens.
now, if i could only get this damn local radio station's exec's thrown in jail for having an incompetent IT staff who can't get me off their mailing list.
- Dixieland
a wonderful thought... too bad i doubt we'd ever see such a verdict.
=[ Question Authority ]=
Cracking is in no way wrong, under the following conditions:
1) Attempts to break security are done out of inquiry, not for misciveous or malicious purposes.
2) All activities do not disrupt the system or compromise data and/or resources to such a degree as to have negative effects on other users and/or legitimate system operation
3) All results that are discovered are disclosed publicly for the common good and knowledge of the community
Desires for cracking, reverse engineering, and general questioning of authority should be instilled in the back of everyone's mind at a young age and never forgotten. By constantly checking how things work and keeping the public aware of possible problems it prevents real issues from surfacing (and it prevents issues from being known only to a few persons privately.)
As for the argument that the mere act of intrusion can cause harm, even if there was no malicous intent, see statement #2 above... i'm sorry if i offend a bunch of people who until this point in my post agreed with me - but if you don't know what you're doing as you probe a system and you foul things up, you shouldn't have been there in the first place.
If a user pokes around, exposes security flaws, doesn't break anything, and then tells others publicly after he's left the system... that, to me, is one of the most honnorable and valuable activities in which a user can endeavor.
That's just my opinion... i could be wrong. (And I'd welcome emails telling me i |am or I am not correct.)
i overclocked all my 233's to 266 =)
Sorry to make such an inflamatory post, but you are absolutely nuts.
I have the exact same setup and i love it. I have a flat desktop mini case which i spray painted in metallic black (after removing all the LEDs, etc, then replacing them)
I have a Jaton 4 MB graphics card with S-video output - that cost me $30.00
I have a hollywood plus real magic DVD board with tv-out on another s-video channel. that was $90.00
and i have a soundblaster card that is spectacular for quality.
add to this a RealTek slimline 100 base nic and a few other incidentals... i came in well below $500.00.
all i want now is a good Infa-Red remote that i can program with macro magic, or that i can configure with other software.
it's quiet as hell, and the UPS in the bottom drawer of the TV cabinet will ensure that I can keep watching TV or movies or listening to MP3s even during a brown out or black out. (Hehe, for about 30 minutes, at least. =)
- Dixieland
I, too, support the first amendment which gives me the right to tell you that you have no idea what you're talking about and that your whole statement is circular logic.
First of all, why would someone who aparently feels his time is wasted by reading JonKatz's posts still have enough time free to type up a reply in the forum?
As you said, the articles are titled "Part X of Y" they are not titled "Article One" "Article Two" etc etc. Nowhere are there claims that his articles are more numerous than they are. Too bad, though... if he padded the numbers enough he could win a set of steak knives. Oh, wait, no he couldn't - come to think of it, there is no reason at all that anyone would do that.
Overall, i feel that JonKatz offers a remarkable series of social views that make reading material on the slashdot site more diverse and informative. often you can learn more listening to a person who didn't grow up with the techy generation that you could by listening to an uber-nerd. It is my hope that JonKatz's material never stops.
Best regards,
Dixieland
P.S. - you may be happy to know that you don't actually have to go out and but a new and larger monitor each time there is an article that won't fit on your screen. use the scroll bar on the right side of your browser... see? it makes the page go up and down, thus turning even the longest article into something easily read, skimmed, or even skipped.
Well that was surely a value add to the forum. Thanks for posting that, Anonymous Coward.
JonKatz: thanks as always for you unending stream of interesting social commentary.
I recall a wise man once saying that swearing is a crutch for crippled conversationalists.
Thank you so very much for proving him right.
You call the congregation of slashdot readers morons, yet you obviously are a contributor here on the forums yourself. You chastise people for speaking off topic, yet your reply had virtually nothing to do with censorware. You criticize the physical development of computer users, which is totally childish and uncalled for.
You do this all... yet your whole post is of no value to the conversation.
I understand that people who are unknowledgeable about computer are consequently afraid of them on many levels. Such people are unhappy with the idea of involving computers and the Internet in many aspects of society... schools are often no exception.
But please try to be more reasonable... your type of person was making arguments against teaching theories of eveolution when Scopes was on trial. Your type of person is criticizing violent video games and media productions because of alleged connections to viewer's violent behaviors. These are not rational arguments but rather attempts to hold back the progress of a new generation for fear that you will be left behind.
I'm sorry if you are left in the dust as my generation advances to better and better times because of technology. I truly will extend my hand outward to all those who wish to hang on and keep up. (I taugh adults to learn computer skills late in their lives for two years before taking my present job.)
But all I would ask is that you not cry out against what is easily one of the greatest resources our population has access to today. The Internet and computing technology will continue to grow by leaps and bounds, and I want my children (if and when i have them) to be given the very best technology - without censorship or half-assed exposure to it - for the very beginning of their ability to learn.
But that's just my opinion, i could be wrong.
Webwasher owns.
=)
i have been very impressed with its capabilities since i dropped it onto my office workstation.
i feel that there will be nothing but advancements in this type of technology.
and what about sites like slashdot? i severly doubt that legitimate sites will go to such lengths just testing how much garbage they can throw at users.
It's a free download for students and other non-commercial users.
I completely agree. Even when i don't use speed dial functions, i routinely punch in all 10 digits anyway. (Just a reflex from using my PCS phone... depending if i am picked up by a tower in my home area code or not I sometimes need the extra three digits for the call to go through.) It's not all that hard to do and i refuse to believe that people are genuinely that lazy. just my $0.02
Wow, you certainly must be glad right about now that Slashdot includes the author's name right at the top of the post.
It makes things so convenient for you the reader who, by your admission, dislikes JonKatz... you can just skip right along to another article, can't you?
Not to be blunt or rude, but unless you have some sort of financial obligation to contribute funding for archive space on the slashdot servers, please don't get in a twist about posts that you don't feel the desire to read.
In our world, televisions have "mute" buttons, radios come equipped with tuning dials, and there's no law against ignoring something that you're doesn't interest you. No one is forcing you to read JonKatz's words, just like no one forced me to read yours. It's all a matter of personal choice.
a brilliant and eloquent reply to an ignorant and worthless statement... cheers to you, that's a hard task to accomplish.
=)
- Dixieland
what about respect for the artist?
i personally downloaded tons of MP3s and warez when i was in college, but i still bought CDs... and i even paid for three pieces of software.
1) I registered my Winamp player, before it was freeware. (such was my respect for Justin and NullSoft)
2) I paid a $5.00 registration fee for a shareware tool authored by one guy (not written by a software corporation) since i found it to be a rather useful little app. (OK, it was a timer program that could count backwards. my friends and i used it to play the drinking game "Power Hour" in our dorm room.)
3) I downloaded the Razor release of Starcraft (and later Broodwar) but later was so impressed with the game that I went to the store and bought the boxed CDs. The discs still it on my shelf, unopened, but i sent an email to Blizzard alerting them that i was proud to pay for the real version of their product, even if i played a warez release.
So nothing is stopping people from being unfair to artists/copyright holders even now - and nothing will stop people in the future to any greater degree. It's all a matter of your personal opinion and how honest you choose to be.(There's also the undeniable fact that most products out there are crap anyway and shouldn't generate ANY revenue at all. =)
JonKatz, always a pleasure to read your writing.
- Dixieland