Thanks. I deliberately don't know my wife's SSN, although I would recognize it if I saw it, and I've purposely never even seen my kids'. We have _never_ given out their SSN's to anyone as far as I know. I'll have to ask my wife, because that unelected fourth branch of government, the insurance companies, may have forced our hand at some point.
Well, if you simply refuse to give out your SSN, most companies (banks and insurance companies excepted) will shrug and move on. They are collecting it simply because most people happily and blithely give it to anyone who asks.
The SSN is becoming so close to the mark of the Devil as described in Revelation that it's not funny. Even if you're a non-believer, it's gotta be pretty creepy to think that the U.S. government is acting in a way that was prophesied as a sign of the end times 2000 years ago. Not what the Founding Father's had in mind, I think.
Hey, automobile manufacturers should not be allowed to bundle stereos with their products because it put a huge crimp on the after-market stereo sales. The only people who are going to bother are the hard-core nerds who want a real high-end system that most people wouldn't care about.
Now replace "automobile manufacturers" with "Microsoft", "stereos" with "Internet browser", "high-end system" with "Mozilla" or "Opera", etc, and you have the government's argument in a nutshell.
I've always considered the articles in Slashdot as simply first posts in a new comment thread. C'mon, that's all they are, they are just done by the same people all the time, but the quality is rarely above the rest of the comments.
I saw this as an opportunity to read some good reviews submitted by readers, but rather, everyone is just bashing JonKatz, which to be honest, is about as unchallenging and unfulfilling as bashing Dan Quayle, except for that huy above who did some nice analysis of his sentences.
As long as the majority of people don't understand the issue (and there is almost no issue the majority of the people understand well), Congress will pass laws that _seem_ to do good from a casual and/or ignorant perspective. They will seldom do anything better.
I never doubted that there was a legitimate reason, but I hafta think there's a better way to handle it. Of course, since I don't have a suggestion, maybe I should just shut up.
...and there's a space embedded in yours. Slashdot does this on purpose forsome perverse reason that nobody including the guys at Slashdot knows. C'mon guys... this misfeature has been annoying us for years. Please get rid of it!
...but they won't let you change your mailbox color.
Some of my neighbors won a hard-fought victory to allow them to change their mailbox to a different color (green, very attractive). I think they did it just to see what it would take. Being retired and very thick-headed and taking amusement at the utter stupidity of the bureaucratic mentality was reason enough I guess. Anyhow, now almost all of us on the cul-de-sac now sport nice green mailboxes.
Score: -1 Off-topic
Re:Well, Katz has the guts to voice his opinion
on
Review: Final Fantasy
·
· Score: 2
I dunno, all Katz' detractors don't seem to have any problem with it.:-)
I love you!
You love me!
Let's all go and kill Barney!
With a nine-millimeter and a bullet to the head.
Aren't you glad that Barney's dead?
Where did I read about this little playground ditty? In the Washington Post several years ago. It was an article about the Barney "backlash" among kids that were a little older than than the show's intended audience. I guess the Lyons' piranhas with attack the Post now too (not to mention/.).
For the record, my kids watched Barney and I thought the show was fine (at least until the massive proliferation of nasal-talking puppets on the show; I have a violent hatred of nasal-talking puppets). Anyhow, my kids now primarily enjoy Thomas the Tank Engine and Peanuts.
You're the first person I've seen on/. to actually spell "mnemonic" correctly. When I read the horrible spelling and grammar on/. I fear for our future. Thanks for having a clue.
Well, thanks for your clarification. However, if I am using Microsoft development tools, I'm _going to_ be able to distribute what I build with them. We're not talking applications, we're talking development tools. zlib is a development tool, but under our hypothetical situation where it is GPL'ed, I cannot use it in a closed source program under that license. That's why I think it's actually _more_ in the spirit of Open Software to make something like that LGPL. It doesn't actually do anything useful _all by itself_. It can only be useful when linked with an application. The GIMP or Star Office or even Red Hat Linux _does_ stand alone, and while it could be added to an application, that doesn't change its nature as a full-blown piece of software that does a task.
>Contact the author of the library and arrange for a special license.
Then it's not GPL any more, is it?;)
>Release your application under the GPL.
When I'm running my own company, I just might do that, but in the real world, for me, that's just not an option.
>Don't use the library.
Bingo. Back to square 1.
>You're no worse than you would have been if the library had never existed.
Unless I happen to puruse the code and subconsciously incorporate some really good idea into my own application and suddenly get hauled into court for violating the GPL. Contrived? Yes. Possible? In theory, definitely.
Let's take zlib as an example. Let's pretend zlib, which is a really useful piece of code with a limited (albeit useful) range of functionality. Let's also pretend, for the sake of this argument, that zlib is GPL'ed, which I understand it is not. What that says is that if someone writes Windows XP, or even HAL9000, and uses this GPL'ed library, that the whole application (or OS!) must then be released under the GPL. Isn't that just a wee bit heavy-handed "Sure, we'll let you use our tool, but you have to give us everything you use it in." I won't go so far as to call ESR a communist or anything, but I think this is a crock. That's not a free license, that's an extortion license. Now I fully understand that I have the choice not to use it, and in the case of our hypothetical zlib, there are many alternatives, but it's not reasonable that one little piece of code should so radically affect anything it touches. In this case, I would consider the LGPL to be an optimal solution. I would be more than happy to contribute to any Open Source project I make use of, and since there's rarely a piece of code I use that I don't try to improve, when possible, this would be likely.
Now the GIMP, on the other is a huge application that does an incredible amount of stuff on its own, and I would have no philosophical problems with the GPL here, but in using the GIMP, you aren't so much adding the GIMP to your code, but adding your code to the GIMP. I may be splitting hairs, but this is they way I see it. zlib is not unimportant, nor less useful, but it doesn't do anything useful by _itself_, it's a tool that makes other applications work better.
NOw, I'm no apologist for Microsoft, and while the word "viral" is perjorative in its usage, and is probably also used in the hopes it will be confused with computer "viruses" by PHB's, I do think it is an accurate description of the GPL.
The GPL is an ideal. It's the perfect world we would all like to see and unlike communism (which has to rely on the fact that there is no evil to actually work as envisioned), it's an ideal that can actually work, but for most of us, we will never be able to fully embrace it, because at the end of day, we have to put food on the table, and since I have 11+ years of Windows programming experience, I can't throw it, and virtually-guaranteed good jobs for the forseeable future, away to try to live this ideal. It's great to be idealistic, but I have a wife and 4 kids, a house and two car payments. Besides, I like what I do.
I'm not defending Microsoft, although I do think they have a point: to wit, I work as a Windows developer on a closed-source application. I cannot use a GPL'ed library in my app. Period. So much for "free" software (as in beer or speech). (p.s. I think the GPL is fine for apps, but LGPL is much more appropriate for libraries), but I digress...
I just think the poster's bank analogy was really bad.
You seem to neglect the fact that we are talking about companies that sell _software_. An analogous situation for your bank would be to divulge all your investment strategies and business practices to your customers and competition. How long do you think any business is going to last when everything it does is common knowledge. The _only_ way you can make money in that situation is to have the capability of doing something no one else can do with the information you have. Banks certainly do not fall into that category.
You've hit the nail on the head. There are already many instances (not all recent) of popular media influencing the public perception of historical events (Paul Revere's ride for instance), but it has and will become much stronger given the dumbing down of society and especially popular culture, but more importantly, the incredible immersiveness of movies like "Pearl Harbor" and the blantant lack of any attempts to remain true to history only inasmuch as it affects the bottom line by the people who make these movies.
Because then Microsoft would have to give people an incentive to do so. By having it on by default, the incentive is built in because everyone will want it turned off.
Microsoft has some good lawyers, and I'm betting they are confident that this behavior, however, devious and malignant it is, will be upheld as legal. I think people are just going to have to deal with it and do what they can to let Microsoft know we won't accept they're heavy-handed tactics. I hate to say it, but I think the users and the Web in general lose again.
So what. It's a way of speaking. Does the fact that it is primarily associated with blacks somehow make it sacrosanct? Would you feel that talking about any of the following accents being racist?
Southern Drahwl, y'all!
Noo Yawk
Tayxis
Bahstahn (Pahk the Cah)
Valley Girl (fer sher!)
Swedish Chef (Bork!)
Comic-book Guy (Worst Post Ever!)
Slashdot Mirror
...and Gnutella bandwidth usage doubles.
Thanks. I deliberately don't know my wife's SSN, although I would recognize it if I saw it, and I've purposely never even seen my kids'. We have _never_ given out their SSN's to anyone as far as I know. I'll have to ask my wife, because that unelected fourth branch of government, the insurance companies, may have forced our hand at some point.
Well, if you simply refuse to give out your SSN, most companies (banks and insurance companies excepted) will shrug and move on. They are collecting it simply because most people happily and blithely give it to anyone who asks.
The SSN is becoming so close to the mark of the Devil as described in Revelation that it's not funny. Even if you're a non-believer, it's gotta be pretty creepy to think that the U.S. government is acting in a way that was prophesied as a sign of the end times 2000 years ago. Not what the Founding Father's had in mind, I think.
Hey, automobile manufacturers should not be allowed to bundle stereos with their products because it put a huge crimp on the after-market stereo sales. The only people who are going to bother are the hard-core nerds who want a real high-end system that most people wouldn't care about.
Now replace "automobile manufacturers" with "Microsoft", "stereos" with "Internet browser", "high-end system" with "Mozilla" or "Opera", etc, and you have the government's argument in a nutshell.
I've always considered the articles in Slashdot as simply first posts in a new comment thread. C'mon, that's all they are, they are just done by the same people all the time, but the quality is rarely above the rest of the comments.
I saw this as an opportunity to read some good reviews submitted by readers, but rather, everyone is just bashing JonKatz, which to be honest, is about as unchallenging and unfulfilling as bashing Dan Quayle, except for that huy above who did some nice analysis of his sentences.
As long as the majority of people don't understand the issue (and there is almost no issue the majority of the people understand well), Congress will pass laws that _seem_ to do good from a casual and/or ignorant perspective. They will seldom do anything better.
Think of the children!
I never doubted that there was a legitimate reason, but I hafta think there's a better way to handle it. Of course, since I don't have a suggestion, maybe I should just shut up.
...and there's a space embedded in yours. Slashdot does this on purpose forsome perverse reason that nobody including the guys at Slashdot knows. C'mon guys... this misfeature has been annoying us for years. Please get rid of it!
...but they won't let you change your mailbox color.
Some of my neighbors won a hard-fought victory to allow them to change their mailbox to a different color (green, very attractive). I think they did it just to see what it would take. Being retired and very thick-headed and taking amusement at the utter stupidity of the bureaucratic mentality was reason enough I guess. Anyhow, now almost all of us on the cul-de-sac now sport nice green mailboxes.
Score: -1 Off-topic
I dunno, all Katz' detractors don't seem to have any problem with it. :-)
For the record, my kids watched Barney and I thought the show was fine (at least until the massive proliferation of nasal-talking puppets on the show; I have a violent hatred of nasal-talking puppets). Anyhow, my kids now primarily enjoy Thomas the Tank Engine and Peanuts.
Steve:
/. to actually spell "mnemonic" correctly. When I read the horrible spelling and grammar on /. I fear for our future. Thanks for having a clue.
You're the first person I've seen on
Rick
Well, thanks for your clarification. However, if I am using Microsoft development tools, I'm _going to_ be able to distribute what I build with them. We're not talking applications, we're talking development tools. zlib is a development tool, but under our hypothetical situation where it is GPL'ed, I cannot use it in a closed source program under that license. That's why I think it's actually _more_ in the spirit of Open Software to make something like that LGPL. It doesn't actually do anything useful _all by itself_. It can only be useful when linked with an application. The GIMP or Star Office or even Red Hat Linux _does_ stand alone, and while it could be added to an application, that doesn't change its nature as a full-blown piece of software that does a task.
>That's not true. You have several choices:
;)
>Contact the author of the library and arrange for a special license.
Then it's not GPL any more, is it?
>Release your application under the GPL.
When I'm running my own company, I just might do that, but in the real world, for me, that's just not an option.
>Don't use the library.
Bingo. Back to square 1.
>You're no worse than you would have been if the library had never existed.
Unless I happen to puruse the code and subconsciously incorporate some really good idea into my own application and suddenly get hauled into court for violating the GPL. Contrived? Yes. Possible? In theory, definitely.
Let's take zlib as an example. Let's pretend zlib, which is a really useful piece of code with a limited (albeit useful) range of functionality. Let's also pretend, for the sake of this argument, that zlib is GPL'ed, which I understand it is not. What that says is that if someone writes Windows XP, or even HAL9000, and uses this GPL'ed library, that the whole application (or OS!) must then be released under the GPL. Isn't that just a wee bit heavy-handed "Sure, we'll let you use our tool, but you have to give us everything you use it in." I won't go so far as to call ESR a communist or anything, but I think this is a crock. That's not a free license, that's an extortion license. Now I fully understand that I have the choice not to use it, and in the case of our hypothetical zlib, there are many alternatives, but it's not reasonable that one little piece of code should so radically affect anything it touches. In this case, I would consider the LGPL to be an optimal solution. I would be more than happy to contribute to any Open Source project I make use of, and since there's rarely a piece of code I use that I don't try to improve, when possible, this would be likely.
Now the GIMP, on the other is a huge application that does an incredible amount of stuff on its own, and I would have no philosophical problems with the GPL here, but in using the GIMP, you aren't so much adding the GIMP to your code, but adding your code to the GIMP. I may be splitting hairs, but this is they way I see it. zlib is not unimportant, nor less useful, but it doesn't do anything useful by _itself_, it's a tool that makes other applications work better.
NOw, I'm no apologist for Microsoft, and while the word "viral" is perjorative in its usage, and is probably also used in the hopes it will be confused with computer "viruses" by PHB's, I do think it is an accurate description of the GPL.
The GPL is an ideal. It's the perfect world we would all like to see and unlike communism (which has to rely on the fact that there is no evil to actually work as envisioned), it's an ideal that can actually work, but for most of us, we will never be able to fully embrace it, because at the end of day, we have to put food on the table, and since I have 11+ years of Windows programming experience, I can't throw it, and virtually-guaranteed good jobs for the forseeable future, away to try to live this ideal. It's great to be idealistic, but I have a wife and 4 kids, a house and two car payments. Besides, I like what I do.
A half an hour to an hour? More like about 5 minutes, if we're lucky.
I could have done with about 3 hours less of the pod race and a little bit more story. The whole Jedi Council thing was too rushed.
I'm not defending Microsoft, although I do think they have a point: to wit, I work as a Windows developer on a closed-source application. I cannot use a GPL'ed library in my app. Period. So much for "free" software (as in beer or speech). (p.s. I think the GPL is fine for apps, but LGPL is much more appropriate for libraries), but I digress...
I just think the poster's bank analogy was really bad.
Microsoft is just trying to spread FUD.
You seem to neglect the fact that we are talking about companies that sell _software_. An analogous situation for your bank would be to divulge all your investment strategies and business practices to your customers and competition. How long do you think any business is going to last when everything it does is common knowledge. The _only_ way you can make money in that situation is to have the capability of doing something no one else can do with the information you have. Banks certainly do not fall into that category.
...by the RIAA to force us all to upgrade to the next format they're going to distribute music on.
I'm sure in 5 more years they will "discover" a fungus that eats that, too.
You mean someone whose biggest claim to fame is plagarism?
You've hit the nail on the head. There are already many instances (not all recent) of popular media influencing the public perception of historical events (Paul Revere's ride for instance), but it has and will become much stronger given the dumbing down of society and especially popular culture, but more importantly, the incredible immersiveness of movies like "Pearl Harbor" and the blantant lack of any attempts to remain true to history only inasmuch as it affects the bottom line by the people who make these movies.
They were only protecting their shipping interests by attacking the U.S. It was all our fault. Hollywood would _never_ alter a historical story.
Rick
Because then Microsoft would have to give people an incentive to do so. By having it on by default, the incentive is built in because everyone will want it turned off.
Microsoft has some good lawyers, and I'm betting they are confident that this behavior, however, devious and malignant it is, will be upheld as legal. I think people are just going to have to deal with it and do what they can to let Microsoft know we won't accept they're heavy-handed tactics. I hate to say it, but I think the users and the Web in general lose again.
Sorry, dude, I've lived in Virginia most of my life. :)
So what. It's a way of speaking. Does the fact that it is primarily associated with blacks somehow make it sacrosanct? Would you feel that talking about any of the following accents being racist?
Southern Drahwl, y'all!
Noo Yawk
Tayxis
Bahstahn (Pahk the Cah)
Valley Girl (fer sher!)
Swedish Chef (Bork!)
Comic-book Guy (Worst Post Ever!)
It's a harmless joke. Get over it.
"racist"? Who were you talking about, Crotoboltslovians?