"KDE is no longer just a library that you need to run. While there are kde libraries, there is also a dcop server that handles interconnections between programs. Running a KDE2.0 program requires you to have an active instance of the dcop server, or else the application will bomb."
You put this in a list of features, but it is a bug, AFAIAC. It was bad enough when the kdelibs were required, but now I have to run (and probably configure) servers? Total nonsense.
For instance, let's say I don't use KDE. But occasionally I find an interesting "kprogram" on freshmeat. For KDE 1.x, I could have the libs installed and then that k-l33t prog would work OK. Now even that (extremely lame) option is closed to me.
And don't bother answering "but you only have to do it one time" because that "one time" is the first time--meaning it will never be done. The only other alternative is for distros to auto-start this dcop crap for ALL installations--a spectre so grim that it doesn't bear thinking about.
By adding this one "feature" KDE is isolating itself from the rest of the software world. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
First, this isn't an example of egregious EULA--it's an example of egregious PRICING. The EULA itself is, as you point out, entirely fair.
In any case, there is a way around this (at least there was 2 years ago, when I was doing something similar). Use MS Transaction Server (or whatever they are calling it nowadays). It "multiplexes" connections to various entities (COM objects, SQL servers, etc). At the time the licensing was as you expected: Multiple clients to MSTS are considered one connection to SQL. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
The virus keeps a counter. It kills DUN after 10 (or 100 or 500) more connections (reboots, etc). Or it mails itself, Melissa-style, to the addressbook and then kills DUN. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
Debian is a non-profit trying to promote free software. They are only providing non-free software as a convenience. They should stop providing if at least one of two conditions are met:
1) The user's need reduces. For instance, as free packages replace non-free ones (Mozilla for Netscape, let's say). If the user wants the non-free alternative, let them get it themselves.
2) If the task of providing becomes too onerous. For instance, disk space. There must be GIGABYTES of non-free Linux software out there, even if you only count the items that have debian packages.
Remember, Debian IS running a charity here. Why should a charity promote (in the money-making sense) other people's software? -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
1) Get modem and NIC manufacturers to modify the ports on their products so that they can eject a connecting wire under program control.
2) Write a virus that does one thing and one thing only: Triggers the wire eject on the NIC and/or modem.
This automatically removes virus-running morons from the 'net.
...you know, I wrote that in a (probably vain) attempt to be funny. But then I thought: you could actually do this. How about a virus that disabled Dialup Networking (yeah, yeah "it's called AOL 5.0")? Sure, they could just reinstall Windows, but maybe they'll learn something in the process. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
I don't see what everyone is so worked up about. We already know you can't run DrDos with Windows. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
I've never heard that called a "web tax". I have heard it called an internet tax. When I heard "web tax" I immediately thought of "sales tax on web purchases" which this EU thing is very much like. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"...a value-added tax on goods and services, sold over the Internet by non-EU businesses, to customers inside the EU in order to level the playing field for EU-based companies that already have to charge a value-added tax.It is not, in the usual meaning of the word, a "web tax." Now you know."
So it is:
1) Money 2) Given to the gov't 3) By the citizens (either directly or indirectly) 4) For purchases on the web 5) Called a tax
But it's not a web tax. That's pretty damn amazing all right.
As for your "level playing field" phrasing--so what? ALL taxes are for the good of SOMEBODY. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"...my objection is to being coerced into wearing what consitutes an advertisement, especially if I also have to pay a premium price..."
"Coerced"? "have to"? These words must not mean what I think they mean.
No one is forcing you to wear Tommy. In fact, you note this yourself when you say you don't wear branded clothing. So what are these words supposed to mean? This argument is beginning to sound a lot like the "there's too nudity/violence/crap on TV". So don't watch. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
What EXACTLY is the objection to, for instance, people wearing brand names?
The cliqueishness? Because Slashdot has got that in spades. In fact, EVERY community has this property.
The customer exploitation? They make Nike seem cool so you want the stuff and then charging you up the wazoo? But surely the problem here is not Nike, but the purchaser, yes? We're not talking about a monopoly situation: there is more than one show manufacturer.
The ubiquity of advertisements? I can understand this objection, but writing a book or even starting a boycott against a company is pointless. Advertising works. More advertising (than you competitors) works better. Therefore companies are in an arms race to each do more advertising than everyone else.
But I might also note that "corporate pigs" are not the only offenders in these regards. For instance, next time you are outside count the number of "DARE to keep kids off drugs" bumper stickers, t-shirts, painted minivans, etc you see. Many non-profit organizations (or even non-organizations) do the same thing. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
Is this standard operating procedure for games nowadays? If so, it's just about the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Say I'm playing along great and suddenly the AI sidekick does something dumb and gets killed. There goes my game. Who's skill are we testing here, anyway? If I wanted to pit AI vs AI, I'd hook Eliza up to NetHack. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
I agree that I was exaggerating with the NT example. But not with Win95.
Have you ever tried running the "progman" shell on 95? Try it and then tell me how different they are. About the only non-UI change from Win31 to Win95 is "true" multi-tasking--and even that is pretty weak. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"...the weirdness and unpredictability of quantum mechanics is simply unreconcilable with relativity, given our current formulation of both theories. Of course, such a state cannot continue forever."
I think you should substitute the word "probably" for "of course". Not because scientists aren't clever enough to reconcile the two (although that may turn out to be the case) but because they may simple BE both true AND irreconcilable.
How can that be? Some of you may be familiar with the analogy of 20 Questions. In 20 Questions, someone thinks of an item and the player(s) ask yes/no questions to determine the item.
There is a variant of 20 questions, though, where the person who is supposed to be thinking of an item, only PRETENDS to. He then answers the players unsuspecting questions in such a way as to meet only one condition: his answers must be self-consistent. Sometimes the answerer follows some algorithm for deciding whether to say "yes" or "no" such as checking for a vowel or consonant at the end of the question.
For example, I pretend to think of an item. You ask "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" X is consonant so I say "no". You ask "Is it blue", which ends with a vowel so I say yes. You ask "does it use a mushroom for a house", another vowel, I say yes. You ask "is it a smurf", consonant, no. At this point you would be confused and I would be chuckling.
What if nature is playing this game? What if attributes and values literally don't exist until we ask about them the first time? Like the bafflement above, quantum weirdness may be the only resolution between Newtonian physics and electromagnetic theory.
All of the above is not original to me. It also still allows the "of course" in the original statement" because nature is still required to be self-consistent, like our 20 Questions Answerer. But why have such a requirement? Or what if the requirement can't be met? For instance, what if your questions had told you that I was thinking of a blue creature, 3 apples high, lives in a forest, chased by Azrael, etc but it was NOT a smurf? What if the collision between relativity and QM end up the same way?
Science generally assumes that there is a reality "out there" that it is describing. But note that this is an assumption only. Any philosophy student can tell you that it's impossible to prove there is an objective reality, but if relativity and QM turn out to be both true AND contradictory, we could end up disproving an objective reality. -- Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
I'm not an Irish artist, but I don't think you have to physically live there to reap the benefits.
In any case, many corporations register in foreign countries for the same reason--but don't move operations to that location. Ships do the same thing. -- Have Exchange users? Want to run Linux? Can't afford OpenMail?
Are you going to deride the UI of their OS: "It should highlight viruses in yellow." Are you going to lambast the software maker for 'poor security': "It should auto-delete attachments" Are you going to install virus detection software: "THAT'S taken care of--until I need to upgrade"
Or are you going to address the real problem: "Listen you knuckleheads, don't run programs unless you know what they do and who they are from".
I am very sympathetic to people who don't know how to use computers--I just gave my mom some of her first lessons on "using the Internet" this weekend. I am NOT sympathetic to people who don't listen or think. -- Have Exchange users? Want to run Linux? Can't afford OpenMail?
Maybe I don't understand gnutella...
on
Gnutella VBS Worm
·
· Score: 1
...but why is this a bad thing?
Isn't file-sharing the POINT of gnutella? So when the guy says "I can get any file I want" isn't the response "Help yourself"? Surely anyone can change anyone else's gnutella.ini by just downloading it, modifying it and copying it back up?
Of course, if gnutella is only supposed to make certain files available (in a sandbox, say) then this would be a problem--although a relatively minor one, yes?
And so what if he's uploading viruses? People upload viruses to BBSs and FTP sites, too--that's why you have to be careful what you download and run. It's the "auto-run" aspect that makes a worm/virus dangerous. -- Have Exchange users? Want to run Linux? Can't afford OpenMail?
Slashdot Mirror
"KDE is no longer just a library that you need to run. While there are kde libraries, there is also a dcop server that handles interconnections between programs. Running a KDE2.0 program requires you to have an active instance of the dcop server, or else the application will bomb."
You put this in a list of features, but it is a bug, AFAIAC. It was bad enough when the kdelibs were required, but now I have to run (and probably configure) servers? Total nonsense.
For instance, let's say I don't use KDE. But occasionally I find an interesting "kprogram" on freshmeat. For KDE 1.x, I could have the libs installed and then that k-l33t prog would work OK. Now even that (extremely lame) option is closed to me.
And don't bother answering "but you only have to do it one time" because that "one time" is the first time--meaning it will never be done. The only other alternative is for distros to auto-start this dcop crap for ALL installations--a spectre so grim that it doesn't bear thinking about.
By adding this one "feature" KDE is isolating itself from the rest of the software world.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
First, this isn't an example of egregious EULA--it's an example of egregious PRICING. The EULA itself is, as you point out, entirely fair.
In any case, there is a way around this (at least there was 2 years ago, when I was doing something similar). Use MS Transaction Server (or whatever they are calling it nowadays). It "multiplexes" connections to various entities (COM objects, SQL servers, etc). At the time the licensing was as you expected: Multiple clients to MSTS are considered one connection to SQL.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
The virus keeps a counter. It kills DUN after 10 (or 100 or 500) more connections (reboots, etc). Or it mails itself, Melissa-style, to the addressbook and then kills DUN.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
Debian is a non-profit trying to promote free software. They are only providing non-free software as a convenience. They should stop providing if at least one of two conditions are met:
1) The user's need reduces. For instance, as free packages replace non-free ones (Mozilla for Netscape, let's say). If the user wants the non-free alternative, let them get it themselves.
2) If the task of providing becomes too onerous. For instance, disk space. There must be GIGABYTES of non-free Linux software out there, even if you only count the items that have debian packages.
Remember, Debian IS running a charity here. Why should a charity promote (in the money-making sense) other people's software?
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
Two step attack:
...you know, I wrote that in a (probably vain) attempt to be funny. But then I thought: you could actually do this. How about a virus that disabled Dialup Networking (yeah, yeah "it's called AOL 5.0")? Sure, they could just reinstall Windows, but maybe they'll learn something in the process.
1) Get modem and NIC manufacturers to modify the ports on their products so that they can eject a connecting wire under program control.
2) Write a virus that does one thing and one thing only: Triggers the wire eject on the NIC and/or modem.
This automatically removes virus-running morons from the 'net.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
I don't see what everyone is so worked up about. We already know you can't run DrDos with Windows.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
I've never heard that called a "web tax". I have heard it called an internet tax. When I heard "web tax" I immediately thought of "sales tax on web purchases" which this EU thing is very much like.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
First they put internet connections in microwaves, then vice versa. It's always the same.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"...a value-added tax on goods and services, sold over the Internet by non-EU businesses, to customers inside the EU in order to level the playing field for EU-based companies that already have to charge a value-added tax.It is not, in the usual meaning of the word, a "web tax." Now you know."
So it is:
1) Money
2) Given to the gov't
3) By the citizens (either directly or indirectly)
4) For purchases on the web
5) Called a tax
But it's not a web tax. That's pretty damn amazing all right.
As for your "level playing field" phrasing--so what? ALL taxes are for the good of SOMEBODY.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
I know of at least two:
1) Rapid oxidation. Place cricket in an oxygen rich atmosphere. Apply heat. Soon an exothermic reaction will begin.
2) E=mc^2. Details are left to the reader.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"...my objection is to being coerced into wearing what consitutes an advertisement, especially if I also have to pay a premium price..."
"Coerced"? "have to"? These words must not mean what I think they mean.
No one is forcing you to wear Tommy. In fact, you note this yourself when you say you don't wear branded clothing. So what are these words supposed to mean? This argument is beginning to sound a lot like the "there's too nudity/violence/crap on TV". So don't watch.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
What EXACTLY is the objection to, for instance, people wearing brand names?
The cliqueishness? Because Slashdot has got that in spades. In fact, EVERY community has this property.
The customer exploitation? They make Nike seem cool so you want the stuff and then charging you up the wazoo? But surely the problem here is not Nike, but the purchaser, yes? We're not talking about a monopoly situation: there is more than one show manufacturer.
The ubiquity of advertisements? I can understand this objection, but writing a book or even starting a boycott against a company is pointless. Advertising works. More advertising (than you competitors) works better. Therefore companies are in an arms race to each do more advertising than everyone else.
But I might also note that "corporate pigs" are not the only offenders in these regards. For instance, next time you are outside count the number of "DARE to keep kids off drugs" bumper stickers, t-shirts, painted minivans, etc you see. Many non-profit organizations (or even non-organizations) do the same thing.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
...you can still play PocketPool with your palm...
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"Most of it's written, I just have to finish it.
While you're at it, go back and finish all the others, too.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
That's something a lot of /. haiku-sters miss.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"Slashdot will suck just as much as always..."
Have faith, guys. I'm sure you'll suck much better from now on.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
Well, I generally don't need to clap either. I'm just nostalgiasizing about 1st grade.
I agree that your version is more correct and scans much better, but how about:
New adserver method
Our privacy disappears
Spring comes to e-snow
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"I*clap* see*clap* my*clap* pri*clap*va*clap*cy*clap dis*clap*a*clap*ppear*clap*"
That's 9 claps. You should only have 7 syllables on the second line of a haiku.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"If [the AI sidekicks] die, the game ends."
Is this standard operating procedure for games nowadays? If so, it's just about the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Say I'm playing along great and suddenly the AI sidekick does something dumb and gets killed. There goes my game. Who's skill are we testing here, anyway? If I wanted to pit AI vs AI, I'd hook Eliza up to NetHack.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
A crime against humanity!.
Oh wait, he sent this to AOL. Give him 6 months, suspended.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
I agree that I was exaggerating with the NT example. But not with Win95.
Have you ever tried running the "progman" shell on 95? Try it and then tell me how different they are. About the only non-UI change from Win31 to Win95 is "true" multi-tasking--and even that is pretty weak.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
"...the weirdness and unpredictability of quantum mechanics is simply unreconcilable with relativity, given our current formulation of both theories. Of course, such a state cannot continue forever."
I think you should substitute the word "probably" for "of course". Not because scientists aren't clever enough to reconcile the two (although that may turn out to be the case) but because they may simple BE both true AND irreconcilable.
How can that be? Some of you may be familiar with the analogy of 20 Questions. In 20 Questions, someone thinks of an item and the player(s) ask yes/no questions to determine the item.
There is a variant of 20 questions, though, where the person who is supposed to be thinking of an item, only PRETENDS to. He then answers the players unsuspecting questions in such a way as to meet only one condition: his answers must be self-consistent. Sometimes the answerer follows some algorithm for deciding whether to say "yes" or "no" such as checking for a vowel or consonant at the end of the question.
For example, I pretend to think of an item. You ask "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" X is consonant so I say "no". You ask "Is it blue", which ends with a vowel so I say yes. You ask "does it use a mushroom for a house", another vowel, I say yes. You ask "is it a smurf", consonant, no. At this point you would be confused and I would be chuckling.
What if nature is playing this game? What if attributes and values literally don't exist until we ask about them the first time? Like the bafflement above, quantum weirdness may be the only resolution between Newtonian physics and electromagnetic theory.
All of the above is not original to me. It also still allows the "of course" in the original statement" because nature is still required to be self-consistent, like our 20 Questions Answerer. But why have such a requirement? Or what if the requirement can't be met? For instance, what if your questions had told you that I was thinking of a blue creature, 3 apples high, lives in a forest, chased by Azrael, etc but it was NOT a smurf? What if the collision between relativity and QM end up the same way?
Science generally assumes that there is a reality "out there" that it is describing. But note that this is an assumption only. Any philosophy student can tell you that it's impossible to prove there is an objective reality, but if relativity and QM turn out to be both true AND contradictory, we could end up disproving an objective reality.
--
Wanna hook MAPI clients to your Tru64/AIX/Linux server?
I'm not an Irish artist, but I don't think you have to physically live there to reap the benefits.
In any case, many corporations register in foreign countries for the same reason--but don't move operations to that location. Ships do the same thing.
--
Have Exchange users? Want to run Linux? Can't afford OpenMail?
Are you going to deride the UI of their OS: "It should highlight viruses in yellow."
Are you going to lambast the software maker for 'poor security': "It should auto-delete attachments"
Are you going to install virus detection software: "THAT'S taken care of--until I need to upgrade"
Or are you going to address the real problem: "Listen you knuckleheads, don't run programs unless you know what they do and who they are from".
I am very sympathetic to people who don't know how to use computers--I just gave my mom some of her first lessons on "using the Internet" this weekend. I am NOT sympathetic to people who don't listen or think.
--
Have Exchange users? Want to run Linux? Can't afford OpenMail?
...but why is this a bad thing?
Isn't file-sharing the POINT of gnutella? So when the guy says "I can get any file I want" isn't the response "Help yourself"? Surely anyone can change anyone else's gnutella.ini by just downloading it, modifying it and copying it back up?
Of course, if gnutella is only supposed to make certain files available (in a sandbox, say) then this would be a problem--although a relatively minor one, yes?
And so what if he's uploading viruses? People upload viruses to BBSs and FTP sites, too--that's why you have to be careful what you download and run. It's the "auto-run" aspect that makes a worm/virus dangerous.
--
Have Exchange users? Want to run Linux? Can't afford OpenMail?