Not that big a deal because this stupid feature is disabled by default
If you don't like the idea of SmartTags, this should be of small consolation. I can think of a couple of Microsoft's "bad ideas" that were initially disabled by default:
Not that IBM doesn't do neato stuff, but it's a little hard to get excited about these kind of developments when it seems like everything they do has a 10-year-to-market period.
Microsoft is going to have a hell of a time convincing Congress that the GPL is bad news with all the recent GPL software releases from federal agencies.
all i have to say, is if/when tivo acts, you'll see *why* we didn't release the tools we have
I'm a huge fan of TiVo, and lurking in the AVS forum, I've noticed that exact opinion is very common among TiVo owners.
But why? This is an extremely useful tool, and it also certainly falls under the concept of 'fair use'. Are you guys really such pussies that you'd rather buckle under potential pressure than "fight the good fight".
It's that kind of bullshit that has got us where we are:
"The record companies are fucking me over? Oh well, I'll go buy more CDs anyway."
"The MPAA doesn't want me archiving things that I paid to watch? I guess I better sit down and shut up."
I don't mean to be rude to you personally, but this is ridiculous. When your rights are being tread upon, you don't cower in fear that you'll lose even more. You stand the fuck up and do something!!!
This whole thing can be attributed to a minor flaw in TiVo's business model. They never should have allowed TiVos to work without a subscription.
Everyone knows that TiVo is either losing money or barely breaking even on the sale of their boxes - subscriptions are their bread and butter. They therefore have nothing to gain by letting them operate at all without a subscription. In fact, those are essentially lost sources of revenue.
TiVo's plan is obviously to annoy non-subscribers into subscribing. Unfortunately, I know that if someone tried to do that to me, I'd kick that fuckin' box to the curb.
Oh well, I'm wasting my time on this post anyway. It's probably the 400th one by now.
I only take issue with one comment:
Get yourself off servers or services that aren't being paid for directly by you, otherwise you'll never have the control or authority that you need.
I think that if your site is being hosted by a university, the chances of you being sued by a third party for libel are greatly decreased. That lack of control is often made up for in protection.
Of course, the flip side is that the University will yank your site and kick you out. Especially if they find the content unsettling.
If you don't own any shares in Roxio -- and why you'd have held any after their announcement of the alliance with MSFT escapes me
Oh yeah, companies that associate with Microsoft do reeaaallly poorly.
There are business plans that end with - "get bought by Microsoft".
Re:Cross-platform thanks to Apple...
on
GIMP And OS X
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· Score: 1
If Apple had maintained reliance on OS9.x, then Gimp wouldn't have any opportunity for placement in front of "thousands of Mac-based graphic designers".
What do you mean? The GIMP runs on Win32 and that's about as far from *nix as you can get.
The same reason that minors aren't allowed to drink, drive automobiles, buy weapons, etc. Minors are basically shorter, dumber, versions of adults. There are certain hazards and risks that children need to be shielded from until they've developed an adequate understanding of the subject. Besides who the hell is going to want to play blackjack with an 8 year old?;-)
And if you don't think that gambling is dangerous - try standing in an elevator and overhearing a 20-something couple try to figure out what to do about losing $8000. It's a real eye-opener.
I've never had the balls (or boredom) to try it, but I know that water cooling, when done properly, is extremely quiet.
Or, if you have CPU speed to spare, you could do what I did with my cable modem router - just turn off the fans completely. It's a Pentium 166 underclocked to 120 Mhz with nothing but a big-ass heatsink on it. I also opened up the power supply and clipped one of the leads to the fan. I took before and after temperature readings and although the general temp is up, it's not a showstopper.
Of course, that's my router and I don't mind the CPU slowdown nearly as much as I would on my desktop.
True freedom is being able to do *anything* with the source, commercial, redistribution, or whatever.
You're right, the BSD offers more freedom than the GPL. But if total freedom is you're goal then why do you stop there? Why not release it to public domain? Because you want to put some restrictions on it? Oh my - that's not total freedom!
What it boils down to is the BSD is freedom for the software user, GPL is freedom for the software itself. The main problem that I have with the BSD is that it permits great software ideas to perish in some company's source code "vault".
I love computer science. I want my mediocre source code to be picked up and improved upon by someone smarter than me. I also want the rest of the world to benefit by this process. That's why I choose the GPL. If I wanted improvements to my code to be lost forever I would use the BSD.
I have to wonder how a flywheel UPS compares to a battery UPS regarding efficiency. I would think that it would lose it's charge a lot quicker than a battery does - and therefore take more power to keep charged.
I must be a friggin' loser. All you guys are sitting around contemplating the ramifications of this demonstration. Meanwhile, I could only dream that someone would go through this amount of trouble to see what I type.
I can't believe there are so many important people hanging out at Slashdot.;-)
Re:What can we do to stop this from happening agai
on
Mandrake Shakeup
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· Score: 1
Perhaps the answer is to finally admit that the GPL is designed to hurt businesses and programmers.
You're half right. Everybody knows that the GPL makes Linux a pretty tough sell for most business, but the notion that it hurts the programmers is just moronic.
For all intents and purposes, the BSD license is no better than closed source. There is nothing about the BSD license to keep a company from improving on BSD code and not releasing their source. Fuck - if it weren't for the government intervening with AT&T, BSD wouldn't even exist today!
I see a few other voices on Slashdot pointing out that the Emperor (Penguin?) has no clothes.
The Emperor isn't naked - you just don't get it. Most Linux advocates aren't about burying Microsoft and Friends, they're about having an OS that does exactly what they want. The goal has never been to be the biggest commercial distribution - the goal is to be the best. The GPL ensures that bright ideas don't die in some company's software vault.
Certainly hardware vendors benefit, but when it comes down to it you have to ask yourself, Do we really need all this speed?
No. If you do not want the functionality of your computers to increase, then you don't really need all this speed.
Every time Intel or AMD raises the bar, there is always a crowd asking this question. There were actually people who believed that anything more than a 386 was a waste.
Forget the fact that, historically, any excess in average CPU speed is almost instantly consumed by more feature rich software. The obstinate call this bloat, but most people recognize it for what it is - improvement.
So, although your 1.2 Ghz Athlon is certainly powerful enough for you now, I know that deep down you don't really believe it could last you for the next 10 years. Surely you're aware that by then every last cycle of your 100 Ghz CPU will be saturated with software more advanced and intelligent that you can even imagine.
Trollish as it may sound, overclocking doesn't get you anywhere and is a waste of time.
What you're saying doesn't sound as trollish as it does stupid.
I paid $240 for a 600 Mhz PIII and overclocked it to 800 Mhz, which at the time cost about $550 - stock cooling, no mods at all. All it took was bumping the FSB (Front Side Bus) from 100 Mhz to 133 Mhz, and the CPU temp only went up about 4 degrees.
So what, pray tell, was a waste of time about that?
I think most everybody here agrees that cheating in online games does indeed suck.
However, where are the people who scream bloody murder everytime a corporation forces an individual to end a project it doesn't "like"?
Napster was a cheat (quit kidding yourselves), but everybody balks at the notion of shutting them down. The same goes for Gnutella (and clones), iMesh, et al.
I say if Asus wants to be known as a bunch of assholes and release a driver that helps cheaters than so be it, but I certainly don't advocate "forcing" them to stop.
You've missed the point of free software. It isn't to destroy another company (e.g. Microsoft), for that matter, it really isn't even to compete with another company.
People write open source software because they can't accomplish what they want with existing software. Sometimes the software doesn't exist, sometimes it's prohibitively expensive, sometimes it's not modifiable, and sometimes people just don't like the license agreement. But it's the rare (and usually doomed) free software package that exists simply to compete with another offering.
And because of this, open source authors don't really have to care at all if a corporate entity declares war on them. If Microsoft decides to attack Linux with all the cash it has - who cares? You can't put volunteers out of business. The worst case scenario is that Windows keeps getting better while Linux chugs along in the background.
Of course, I think the future looks even better than that.
Re:Everybody's not above average!
on
IT Unions?
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· Score: 1
Well, guess what pal - the odds are somewhere around, say, 50-50 that you're below average. It reminds me of the stats that 80% or whatever of drivers say they are an "above average" driver...
The flaw in your logic is that you are talking about a fairly distinct cross-section of the IT sector - the Slashdot crowd.
I've noticed that people here *generally* have better IT skills than the average doofus that got a tech-school degree so he could get a "computer job that pays big bucks". So, I'd wager that the average Slashdotter probably does have above average IT skills.
Of course this is all just technicality nit-picking.;-)
Why? Is it a parody, scholarly work, or other protected derivative work? Is it a backup or time-shift of a broadcast signal? No. It's the use of the major melodic theme of a piece of music without paying for it. Please don't weaken the concept of fair use by trying to shoehorn obvious ripoffs into it.
By your logic, I should have to pay royalties to Barenaked Ladies everytime I whistle one of their songs. There is such a thing as "fair use" pal.
Want to read about bondage? Okay, they archive alt.sex.bondage... but not alt.sex.stories.bondage. Into animals? alt.sex.bestiality.hamster.duct-tape is yours for the browsing, but not alt.sex.hedgehog.ouch.ouch.ouch. alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk is okay, but alt.alien.visitors is no longer archived.
My very first contact with Linux (about 4 years ago) was with Slackware. I mainly did that because I wanted to learn Linux and I'd heard that Slackware was one of the truest, do-it-yourself distros out there. Slackware is a great distro, but once I learned the ropes I felt like I needed a distro a little more autonomous if I wanted to get anything done.
So I tried RedHat. RedHat was interesting because installation was so painless. Although as someone else here mentioned - if the installer doesn't recognize all of your hardware, you're screwed. But RedHat just didn't feel quite right.
After reading countless posts about the joy of "apt-get" I decided to test drive Debian. I've found Debian to be absolutely perfect for servers, but it makes a shitty GUI workstation out-of-the-box. You really can't beat running "apt-get upgrade" to keep your machine up to date. However, it ends up being like Slackware if you decide you need to run X-Windows - you have to tweak too much shit by hand just to make it run.
So I ended up where I am now - Mandrake. I tried Mandrake 7.? and I was floored. The installation went beautiful - very polished and very comprehensive. Everything worked with the default settings and it's got a package system that comes pretty close to apt-get for staying up to date. Downloaded version 8 last weekend and it's gotten even better.
I'm not sure how long I'll stay with Mandrake, but it was the first distro that I can actually recommend to someone who isn't a hard-core tweaker.
And no, I don't work for Mandrake. But hey Mandrake, if you're listening, I'd like to.;-)
Slashdot Mirror
If you don't like the idea of SmartTags, this should be of small consolation. I can think of a couple of Microsoft's "bad ideas" that were initially disabled by default:
Just an observation.
NSA, NASA, Sandia, etc.
TiVo is finally making the right decision. Selling the box and allowing people to use it without a subscription was a bad idea from the start.
Everyone knows that the hardware was a loss-leader. Every unsubscribed box out there is lost money.
TiVo rightfully doesn't really give a damn if you want the box but no subscription.
I'm a huge fan of TiVo, and lurking in the AVS forum, I've noticed that exact opinion is very common among TiVo owners.
But why? This is an extremely useful tool, and it also certainly falls under the concept of 'fair use'. Are you guys really such pussies that you'd rather buckle under potential pressure than "fight the good fight".
It's that kind of bullshit that has got us where we are:
"The record companies are fucking me over? Oh well, I'll go buy more CDs anyway."
"The MPAA doesn't want me archiving things that I paid to watch? I guess I better sit down and shut up."
I don't mean to be rude to you personally, but this is ridiculous. When your rights are being tread upon, you don't cower in fear that you'll lose even more. You stand the fuck up and do something!!!
Sheesh.
I'm kidding of course, that actually makes me feel "cooler". ;-)
Everyone knows that TiVo is either losing money or barely breaking even on the sale of their boxes - subscriptions are their bread and butter. They therefore have nothing to gain by letting them operate at all without a subscription. In fact, those are essentially lost sources of revenue.
TiVo's plan is obviously to annoy non-subscribers into subscribing. Unfortunately, I know that if someone tried to do that to me, I'd kick that fuckin' box to the curb.
Oh well, I'm wasting my time on this post anyway. It's probably the 400th one by now.
I only take issue with one comment:
Get yourself off servers or services that aren't being paid for directly by you, otherwise you'll never have the control or authority that you need.
I think that if your site is being hosted by a university, the chances of you being sued by a third party for libel are greatly decreased. That lack of control is often made up for in protection.
Of course, the flip side is that the University will yank your site and kick you out. Especially if they find the content unsettling.
Oh well, you gotta pick your battles I guess.
Oh yeah, companies that associate with Microsoft do reeaaallly poorly.
There are business plans that end with - "get bought by Microsoft".
What do you mean? The GIMP runs on Win32 and that's about as far from *nix as you can get.
If that's what your saying.
The same reason that minors aren't allowed to drink, drive automobiles, buy weapons, etc. Minors are basically shorter, dumber, versions of adults. There are certain hazards and risks that children need to be shielded from until they've developed an adequate understanding of the subject. Besides who the hell is going to want to play blackjack with an 8 year old? ;-)
And if you don't think that gambling is dangerous - try standing in an elevator and overhearing a 20-something couple try to figure out what to do about losing $8000. It's a real eye-opener.
Or, if you have CPU speed to spare, you could do what I did with my cable modem router - just turn off the fans completely. It's a Pentium 166 underclocked to 120 Mhz with nothing but a big-ass heatsink on it. I also opened up the power supply and clipped one of the leads to the fan. I took before and after temperature readings and although the general temp is up, it's not a showstopper.
Of course, that's my router and I don't mind the CPU slowdown nearly as much as I would on my desktop.
You're right, the BSD offers more freedom than the GPL. But if total freedom is you're goal then why do you stop there? Why not release it to public domain? Because you want to put some restrictions on it? Oh my - that's not total freedom!
What it boils down to is the BSD is freedom for the software user, GPL is freedom for the software itself. The main problem that I have with the BSD is that it permits great software ideas to perish in some company's source code "vault".
I love computer science. I want my mediocre source code to be picked up and improved upon by someone smarter than me. I also want the rest of the world to benefit by this process. That's why I choose the GPL. If I wanted improvements to my code to be lost forever I would use the BSD.
"Why waste effort developing a new packet filter? Just use ipf." I guess it's not wasted effort anymore. ;-)
But then, what do I know?
I can't believe there are so many important people hanging out at Slashdot. ;-)
You're half right. Everybody knows that the GPL makes Linux a pretty tough sell for most business, but the notion that it hurts the programmers is just moronic.
For all intents and purposes, the BSD license is no better than closed source. There is nothing about the BSD license to keep a company from improving on BSD code and not releasing their source. Fuck - if it weren't for the government intervening with AT&T, BSD wouldn't even exist today!
I see a few other voices on Slashdot pointing out that the Emperor (Penguin?) has no clothes.
The Emperor isn't naked - you just don't get it. Most Linux advocates aren't about burying Microsoft and Friends, they're about having an OS that does exactly what they want. The goal has never been to be the biggest commercial distribution - the goal is to be the best. The GPL ensures that bright ideas don't die in some company's software vault.
No. If you do not want the functionality of your computers to increase, then you don't really need all this speed.
Every time Intel or AMD raises the bar, there is always a crowd asking this question. There were actually people who believed that anything more than a 386 was a waste.
Forget the fact that, historically, any excess in average CPU speed is almost instantly consumed by more feature rich software. The obstinate call this bloat, but most people recognize it for what it is - improvement.
So, although your 1.2 Ghz Athlon is certainly powerful enough for you now, I know that deep down you don't really believe it could last you for the next 10 years. Surely you're aware that by then every last cycle of your 100 Ghz CPU will be saturated with software more advanced and intelligent that you can even imagine.
What you're saying doesn't sound as trollish as it does stupid.
I paid $240 for a 600 Mhz PIII and overclocked it to 800 Mhz, which at the time cost about $550 - stock cooling, no mods at all. All it took was bumping the FSB (Front Side Bus) from 100 Mhz to 133 Mhz, and the CPU temp only went up about 4 degrees.
So what, pray tell, was a waste of time about that?
However, where are the people who scream bloody murder everytime a corporation forces an individual to end a project it doesn't "like"?
Napster was a cheat (quit kidding yourselves), but everybody balks at the notion of shutting them down. The same goes for Gnutella (and clones), iMesh, et al.
I say if Asus wants to be known as a bunch of assholes and release a driver that helps cheaters than so be it, but I certainly don't advocate "forcing" them to stop.
Make up your mind.
People write open source software because they can't accomplish what they want with existing software. Sometimes the software doesn't exist, sometimes it's prohibitively expensive, sometimes it's not modifiable, and sometimes people just don't like the license agreement. But it's the rare (and usually doomed) free software package that exists simply to compete with another offering.
And because of this, open source authors don't really have to care at all if a corporate entity declares war on them. If Microsoft decides to attack Linux with all the cash it has - who cares? You can't put volunteers out of business. The worst case scenario is that Windows keeps getting better while Linux chugs along in the background.
Of course, I think the future looks even better than that.
The flaw in your logic is that you are talking about a fairly distinct cross-section of the IT sector - the Slashdot crowd.
I've noticed that people here *generally* have better IT skills than the average doofus that got a tech-school degree so he could get a "computer job that pays big bucks". So, I'd wager that the average Slashdotter probably does have above average IT skills.
Of course this is all just technicality nit-picking. ;-)
By your logic, I should have to pay royalties to Barenaked Ladies everytime I whistle one of their songs. There is such a thing as "fair use" pal.
Wow, you read some weird shit. ;-)
So I tried RedHat. RedHat was interesting because installation was so painless. Although as someone else here mentioned - if the installer doesn't recognize all of your hardware, you're screwed. But RedHat just didn't feel quite right.
After reading countless posts about the joy of "apt-get" I decided to test drive Debian. I've found Debian to be absolutely perfect for servers, but it makes a shitty GUI workstation out-of-the-box. You really can't beat running "apt-get upgrade" to keep your machine up to date. However, it ends up being like Slackware if you decide you need to run X-Windows - you have to tweak too much shit by hand just to make it run.
So I ended up where I am now - Mandrake. I tried Mandrake 7.? and I was floored. The installation went beautiful - very polished and very comprehensive. Everything worked with the default settings and it's got a package system that comes pretty close to apt-get for staying up to date. Downloaded version 8 last weekend and it's gotten even better.
I'm not sure how long I'll stay with Mandrake, but it was the first distro that I can actually recommend to someone who isn't a hard-core tweaker.
And no, I don't work for Mandrake. But hey Mandrake, if you're listening, I'd like to. ;-)