Very true. Politics has become more like gambling.
I would say more like sports. It's very WWF: people making strange noises into the camera, grappling with issues, applying pressure at wierd angles, and ultimately leaving the viewer with the impression of having viewed a staged farce.
Now, that sounds snarky and cynical.
I challenge leadership to:
Point out where the opposition has been correct
Admit uncertainty and mistakes where obvious
Give speeches that are written for an educated audience. If the nintendo generation finds itself feeling disadvantaged by coherent speech, it's simply going to have to take a hint and learn something for a change. Edify me, leadership.
Consider a planning horizon beyond 2008. Notwithstanding the apocalyptic wishes of some, there may be a sunrise beyond the next election. Really.
Yeah, but if you can manage not to get caught, the ROI is staggering.
In any case, half a megabuck isn't much of a cost deterrent.
One might ask oneself, "Wouldn't it be more democratic to work on lowering the barriers to entry?"
In theory, perhaps, but, considering that most/. readers couldn't lead two nuns in one minute of silent prayer[1], do you really want it easy for these twits to gain office?
If it's not about the implementation, then perhaps you could explore the difference between "method" and "algorithm".
Algorithms cannot be patented, right?
Maybe this MS/Novell thing will be the darkness before the dawn, when the utter farce of software patents and "intellectual property" are laid too bare for even the emperor's new clothes to cover.
It's not that paying companies for good work is even an issue. It's the fact that companies insist on perverting the legal system to effect the information age equivalent of highway robbery that is particularly disgusting.
Ballmer's meat puppet McBride couldn't win in court on the specious SCO claims about foreign code polluting the Linux kernel.
Not clear how, if Windows code had been magically grafted into the Linux kernel, that such Frankencode would a) work and b) go unnoticed. Linus himself is the ulitmate commiter to the kernel.org sources, no?
As a society, we need to stigmatize people who say such wrongheaded things in public, and clueless publications that circulate such tripe.
Because Microsoft wants to turn Linux into a platform for its products
Between multi-core CPU chips and virtualization, Windows is looking like a big loser in the enterprise. Why not shrink the server "farm" to a "garden", run Linux, and stick it to the man?
Linx on the desktop and OpenOffice remain tomorrow's threat, but the fact that XP is Vista's chief competition is undeniable. And what about the costs of developing Vista? It would be interesting to see how much the profit margin has really shrunk for the OS.
MS Office remains the cash cow for Redmond. Now that Mono is mature enough that Gnome desktop applications are cropping up, e.g. F-Spot(which hasn't really been touted for Windows, but should run readily, right?) look for Redmond to start pushing MS Office assemblies that "just happen to work real fine" on SuSE.
If the XBox were the only game in town, it might be more acceptable.
Competitors are then encouraged, like the PS3 to offer the Linux kit overtly.
One might wish that the companies had enough circulation above the neck to respect the freedom of the user because its Teh Right Thing To Do. But hey, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, no?
Say you want to transfer those pictures you took on your camera to your computer. I'm betting after a while camera companies and MS will get in bed so they can charge you for that.
That seems really stupid, but think about it: a video recorder that compresses the movie to an insane level. It probably does work to pull the movie off the hardware and decompress it locally, but you (purportedly) save a lot of time if you ship it upstream to a vendor site for decompression/storage/editing, then (maybe) pull it down locally, or just have it mailed as a DVD.
The trick to the model is that the odious lock-in isn't foisted on the user by itself, but comes in a nice wrapper.
I guess I could have phrased that differently, but the double entendre is apropos.
No, Vista is going to bring to a head the whole conflict between:
a) sheepish, complacent unwillingness to explore alternatives, and
b) childish demand for instant gratification.
My bet is on b), due to the entropy of the human soul. Once the hatred of the lock-in reaches bloom, the amount of cygwin, dual boot, live CD, and flat out migration will pick up steam.
It takes time to realize that there is a world beyond Redmond.
Oh, I daresay that fakery isn't limited to Colbert acolytes.
Over the long term, wouldn't exposure to "incorrect thought" tend to trigger some questioning in the minds of censors?
One hopes that this plays a tiny, yet helpful part in the demise of the authoritarian regime in the long term.
How to get some unfiltered information into North Korea would be the next challenge.
What would be the point of a GPL hardware implementation to the individual user?
Who would have the skill (to say nothing of the fab) to make a change to the hardware, and then distribute it?
Somewhere in between living in a police state where everyone installs a revolving door on their house to save maintenance time from government visits,
and total chaos, where the civilian death toll climbs as extremists snuff themselves for <cause> on a continuous basis,
is a "reasonable" world.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, that sounds snarky and cynical.
I challenge leadership to:
- Point out where the opposition has been correct
- Admit uncertainty and mistakes where obvious
- Give speeches that are written for an educated audience. If the nintendo generation finds itself feeling disadvantaged by coherent speech, it's simply going to have to take a hint and learn something for a change. Edify me, leadership.
- Consider a planning horizon beyond 2008. Notwithstanding the apocalyptic wishes of some, there may be a sunrise beyond the next election. Really.
OK, back to being snarky.Yeah, but if you can manage not to get caught, the ROI is staggering. /. readers couldn't lead two nuns in one minute of silent prayer[1], do you really want it easy for these twits to gain office?
In any case, half a megabuck isn't much of a cost deterrent.
One might ask oneself, "Wouldn't it be more democratic to work on lowering the barriers to entry?"
In theory, perhaps, but, considering that most
[1] I am up to 47 seconds.
If it's not about the implementation, then perhaps you could explore the difference between "method" and "algorithm".
Algorithms cannot be patented, right?
Maybe this MS/Novell thing will be the darkness before the dawn, when the utter farce of software patents and "intellectual property" are laid too bare for even the emperor's new clothes to cover.
It's not that paying companies for good work is even an issue. It's the fact that companies insist on perverting the legal system to effect the information age equivalent of highway robbery that is particularly disgusting.
Not clear how, if Windows code had been magically grafted into the Linux kernel, that such Frankencode would a) work and b) go unnoticed. Linus himself is the ulitmate commiter to the kernel.org sources, no?
As a society, we need to stigmatize people who say such wrongheaded things in public, and clueless publications that circulate such tripe.
Hassan chop!
Who says Bill Gates is offtopic with this first post claim?
He nose slashdot like he nose computers!
Linx on the desktop and OpenOffice remain tomorrow's threat, but the fact that XP is Vista's chief competition is undeniable. And what about the costs of developing Vista? It would be interesting to see how much the profit margin has really shrunk for the OS.
MS Office remains the cash cow for Redmond. Now that Mono is mature enough that Gnome desktop applications are cropping up, e.g. F-Spot(which hasn't really been touted for Windows, but should run readily, right?) look for Redmond to start pushing MS Office assemblies that "just happen to work real fine" on SuSE.
Exactly. All those mounds of frogskins.
Keep your eye on the mutant: your thought will hold true for 99% of the gestapo, but there's always that 1%...
If the XBox were the only game in town, it might be more acceptable.
Competitors are then encouraged, like the PS3 to offer the Linux kit overtly.
One might wish that the companies had enough circulation above the neck to respect the freedom of the user because its Teh Right Thing To Do.
But hey, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, no?
The trick to the model is that the odious lock-in isn't foisted on the user by itself, but comes in a nice wrapper.
I guess I could have phrased that differently, but the double entendre is apropos.
No, Vista is going to bring to a head the whole conflict between:
a) sheepish, complacent unwillingness to explore alternatives, and
b) childish demand for instant gratification.
My bet is on b), due to the entropy of the human soul. Once the hatred of the lock-in reaches bloom, the amount of cygwin, dual boot, live CD, and flat out migration will pick up steam.
It takes time to realize that there is a world beyond Redmond.
Oh, I daresay that fakery isn't limited to Colbert acolytes.
Over the long term, wouldn't exposure to "incorrect thought" tend to trigger some questioning in the minds of censors?
One hopes that this plays a tiny, yet helpful part in the demise of the authoritarian regime in the long term.
How to get some unfiltered information into North Korea would be the next challenge.
What would be the point of a GPL hardware implementation to the individual user?
Who would have the skill (to say nothing of the fab) to make a change to the hardware, and then distribute it?
Windows troll?
Obvious. Droll.
Redmond tops neither
The IRS hole
Or a clean and sparkling soul.
Burma Shave
Magnetic umbrellas?
Listen, fellas.
Stop the rays
Or so they tell us:
Burma Shave
Compatibility freak?
Retro chic
Tweak the hardware
Old-school sleek
Burma Shave
Firefox, or IE7?
Which way finds one
The phish-free heaven?
Let browser, like foam
Be lynx: sans leaven
Burma Shave
New Quad Core?
Earth warming more.
Or so says
The junior Gore.
Coolness to your every pore:
Burma Shave
Spit painkiller?
Nifty thriller.
Better still,
The no-blood spiller.
Burma Shave
Probably knighted or something. No, wait: that's been done.
Nitshiz to da byotchiz, dog.
Somewhere in between living in a police state where everyone installs a revolving door on their house to save maintenance time from government visits,
and total chaos, where the civilian death toll climbs as extremists snuff themselves for <cause> on a continuous basis,
is a "reasonable" world.