Just be happy someone is using your beloved arcane OS to begin with.
You do bring up a good point though. I imagine that in the future a LOT of companies will be using Linux in their products. This will create two different factions.
1. Companies who publicly declare Linux is in their product and provide the source immediately (or sometimes after some prodding from the hairy bastard RMS)
2. Companies who covertly use Linux in their products without telling a soul. The only way we the public will discover this is due to the occasional goof or screwup that exposes the code for all to see. But that will be a rare occourance. These "parasite" companies will continue to feed off of the free development of Linux for as long as they can without contributing anything back to the project.
Personally I don't have a problem with group #2. I mean what can you honestly expect when you give away something for free? You think a silly license is going to stop anyone from using it inappropriately? Do proprietary EULA's stop software pirates? No they don't. So what power over the truly unscrupulous do you think the GPL will have?
Keep in mind that nothing is ever that simple. Both Nokia and Motorola may and DO have foreign investors. So no matter what you do at some point your money is goign to circle the globe.
Lets keep politics out of our technology purchasing decisions.
You don't need a tethered PC to Blog. All one need is a PDA. There is a LiveJournal client for both the PalmOS and PocketPC OS for example, and probably for the Zaraus as well. And since many of these PDA's have wireless capabilities you can literally blog from anywhere in the world you can get a cell phone signal.
Now I agree that you would have to be an ultimate loser to want to blog right after getting laid, or out in public after some mundane activity but hey, to each his own.
Ours is not to wonder why, ours is but to Blog and die.
First let me thank you for actually logging into the site and posting as a user instead of as an Anonymous Coward. This allows me to be sure you will see my reply and at least read it.
Now onto the Union issue. Unions are a horrible suggestion. And this is NOT because I think IT workers are a better class of people. No I'm against Unions because they wreck the economy. You HAVE to be able to fire someone at will. At will employment is good for both parties. It allows companies to dump dead weight quickly and save the company for productive workers, and it forces lazy workers to get off their asses and hustle for a living.
Americans value job availability over job security. What you don't mention about Europe are the high rates of unemployment. The people who DO have jobs over there have sweet ones for sure. Just tell the ones who can't even work for free how its supposed to be "good" for everyone.
Lastly, Europe is changing. The EU is brining strong reforms to the labor laws that are pro-employer and rightfully so. Europe is not an island. It has to compete with the US, Asia and the rest of the world. As a result over time you will see a reduction in the strength of labor in Europe as well as a reduction in social services once thought sacrosanct.
Your "observation" sounds more like arrogant, elitist wishful thinking to me. Do you think the US or Europe is the only place where high quality coding can be done?
If you really think that then you are in for a rude awakening.
1. Unlimited downloads were never a "right", just a geek wet dream. 2. A supermarket would never limit your purchasing in such a way. They like money you see. 3. There is nothing anti-capitalistic about this policy. If you want more bandwidth, you buy a commercial access plan.
Too early? No one in their right mind is thinking about 50 years from now. *I* wasn't talking about 50 years from now. The only reason to bring up such a long timespan is to say that "anything" can happen. I am talking about the past 15 years, now and the immediate (next 5 years) future. For THAT timeframe x86 has won. Seeing as how R&D budgets are dwindling for the alternative CPU's and the ever rising costs of fabrication plants I do not see that changing anytime soon either.
I understand how you feel. Everyone has something they want to be a "purist" about. But at some point you have to address the reality of the situation and just capitulate to way the world is.
x86 won.
Its not about the most technically elegant or efficient designs. Its about the last man standing after everyone's been thrown out of the ring.
x86 has defeated PPC, Sparc, Alpha, MIPS, PA-RISC, and it will soon defeat Itanium in the form of x86-64. No one is left to fight the good fight. They all went softly into that good night.
Conform. Comply. Collaborate. Resistance is futile. You will be recompiled.
A credit check should be mandatory for every CxO level officer in every public company in the US. An executive at that high up in the corporate chain of command has a very heavy responsibility to the company as a whole. The company in turn has an obligation to make sure any new hires for such a position has not already placed himself or has a habit of placing himself in a compromising position that could easily be exploited by an unscrupulous third party.
To put it simply, if a guy has extremly bad credit and is responsible for corporate accounts he may be tempted to steal from the company to cover his debt OR framed into doing so by one of his creditors. These type of executives are also the most likley to be "functional" drug users (and I'm not talking about weed) of hardcore stuff like crack, cocain, heroine....etc. At first their regular salary is enough to cover their habits but as their habits grow they need more and more money.....etc.
Why is it so important? These are the people who run companies that employ at times tens, hundreds or thousands of people. These are hardworking folks who deserve to have people in charge who are capable of managing their personal lives to the extent that it leaves their professional lives unaffected. Otherwise you end up with more Adelphia Cable companies, Enron's, Global Crossings, WorldCom's...etc.
Do you realize how unreasonable it is to ask that ALL people be educated in order to prevent a very rare situation instead of just the network administrators? Are you so into computers that you cannot see how insane that is?
Never say never. Computers WILL be simple to use someday and the wailing and crying of geeks suddenly made irrelevant will be loud indeed.
You sound like a frustrated geek who is absolutely outraged that the unwashed masses do not take the time to properly learn how to use the tools that go along with your personal hobby, computers.
As has been said many times before, for most people a computer is a tool not a toy. It is a failing on the part of the software developer not the consumer if the technology is not used to its fullest potential.
Yes you have to take classes to drive. Thats because a car can kill people. When was the last time you heard of not knowing how to print your MS Word document leading to a 41 car pileup on the highway?
When the day arrives that Artificial Intelligence is good enough to allow anyone to get what they want and need out of their computer without taking one class or reading one tiny word in their manual will you still be angry at these people? When AI lowers the status of the average geek to that of a cockroach what will your snobbery have gained you? Will you still look down on everyone as if you are better then them just because you are a computer obsessed geek?
The fact that you believe this phenomenon is limited to Americans further reinforces how close-minded and unaware of your global surroundings you are. Its kind of funny that a tool you spend so much time with, the Internet, has failed to properly broaden your horizons and help you mature into the mature person we all have the potential to be.
Here is the unofficial standard. Anyone who makes at least $1 million a year and/or has $10 million in assets is rich. Anything less and your not, you may think you are but you are not.
Look, I used to make less than you do and I still thought that 200k wasn't "rich". Just because its more than what you or some people make doesn't make it rich. Heck there are some folks who think that 50k a year is rich.
How can you be so sure that leading a materialistic life is a trivial way to live your life. What makes you so right and those who are materialistic so wrong?
Slashdot Mirror
At the rate of losing money of $2 Billion a year, you may not have a Sun to go to for much longer.
Relax. As more and more devices come out the prices of the existing ones will go down.
Just be happy someone is using your beloved arcane OS to begin with.
You do bring up a good point though. I imagine that in the future a LOT of companies will be using Linux in their products. This will create two different factions.
1. Companies who publicly declare Linux is in their product and provide the source immediately (or sometimes after some prodding from the hairy bastard RMS)
2. Companies who covertly use Linux in their products without telling a soul. The only way we the public will discover this is due to the occasional goof or screwup that exposes the code for all to see. But that will be a rare occourance. These "parasite" companies will continue to feed off of the free development of Linux for as long as they can without contributing anything back to the project.
Personally I don't have a problem with group #2. I mean what can you honestly expect when you give away something for free? You think a silly license is going to stop anyone from using it inappropriately? Do proprietary EULA's stop software pirates? No they don't. So what power over the truly unscrupulous do you think the GPL will have?
Keep in mind that nothing is ever that simple. Both Nokia and Motorola may and DO have foreign investors. So no matter what you do at some point your money is goign to circle the globe.
Lets keep politics out of our technology purchasing decisions.
First Rule of Open Source Club is: You Do Not Tell Other Open Sourcers What to Code.
Second Rule of Open Source Club is: You Do Not Tell Other Open Sourcers What to Code.
You don't need a tethered PC to Blog. All one need is a PDA. There is a LiveJournal client for both the PalmOS and PocketPC OS for example, and probably for the Zaraus as well. And since many of these PDA's have wireless capabilities you can literally blog from anywhere in the world you can get a cell phone signal.
Now I agree that you would have to be an ultimate loser to want to blog right after getting laid, or out in public after some mundane activity but hey, to each his own.
Ours is not to wonder why, ours is but to Blog and die.
First let me thank you for actually logging into the site and posting as a user instead of as an Anonymous Coward. This allows me to be sure you will see my reply and at least read it.
Now onto the Union issue. Unions are a horrible suggestion. And this is NOT because I think IT workers are a better class of people. No I'm against Unions because they wreck the economy. You HAVE to be able to fire someone at will. At will employment is good for both parties. It allows companies to dump dead weight quickly and save the company for productive workers, and it forces lazy workers to get off their asses and hustle for a living.
Americans value job availability over job security. What you don't mention about Europe are the high rates of unemployment. The people who DO have jobs over there have sweet ones for sure. Just tell the ones who can't even work for free how its supposed to be "good" for everyone.
Lastly, Europe is changing. The EU is brining strong reforms to the labor laws that are pro-employer and rightfully so. Europe is not an island. It has to compete with the US, Asia and the rest of the world. As a result over time you will see a reduction in the strength of labor in Europe as well as a reduction in social services once thought sacrosanct.
Your "observation" sounds more like arrogant, elitist wishful thinking to me. Do you think the US or Europe is the only place where high quality coding can be done?
If you really think that then you are in for a rude awakening.
1. Unlimited downloads were never a "right", just a geek wet dream.
2. A supermarket would never limit your purchasing in such a way. They like money you see.
3. There is nothing anti-capitalistic about this policy. If you want more bandwidth, you buy a commercial access plan.
Too early? No one in their right mind is thinking about 50 years from now. *I* wasn't talking about 50 years from now. The only reason to bring up such a long timespan is to say that "anything" can happen. I am talking about the past 15 years, now and the immediate (next 5 years) future. For THAT timeframe x86 has won. Seeing as how R&D budgets are dwindling for the alternative CPU's and the ever rising costs of fabrication plants I do not see that changing anytime soon either.
Incorrect. FreeBSD, the most advanced BSD has had piss poor SMP support until the release of 5.0.
I understand how you feel. Everyone has something they want to be a "purist" about. But at some point you have to address the reality of the situation and just capitulate to way the world is.
x86 won.
Its not about the most technically elegant or efficient designs. Its about the last man standing after everyone's been thrown out of the ring.
x86 has defeated PPC, Sparc, Alpha, MIPS, PA-RISC, and it will soon defeat Itanium in the form of x86-64. No one is left to fight the good fight. They all went softly into that good night.
Conform. Comply. Collaborate. Resistance is futile. You will be recompiled.
If the professionals didn't act like children they wouldn't be treated as such.
Anyone remember ping pong tables, video game consloles and nerf guns just a few years ago in offices?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A324 11-2003Feb5.html
This frustration and hatred also applies to Free Software projects/products, probably even moreso.
A credit check should be mandatory for every CxO level officer in every public company in the US.
An executive at that high up in the corporate chain of command has a very heavy responsibility to the company as a whole. The company in turn has an obligation to make sure any new hires for such a position has not already placed himself or has a habit of placing himself in a compromising position that could easily be exploited by an unscrupulous third party.
To put it simply, if a guy has extremly bad credit and is responsible for corporate accounts he may be tempted to steal from the company to cover his debt OR framed into doing so by one of his creditors. These type of executives are also the most likley to be "functional" drug users (and I'm not talking about weed) of hardcore stuff like crack, cocain, heroine....etc. At first their regular salary is enough to cover their habits but as their habits grow they need more and more money.....etc.
Why is it so important? These are the people who run companies that employ at times tens, hundreds or thousands of people. These are hardworking folks who deserve to have people in charge who are capable of managing their personal lives to the extent that it leaves their professional lives unaffected. Otherwise you end up with more Adelphia Cable companies, Enron's, Global Crossings, WorldCom's...etc.
Does anyone else think that RMS looks exactly like the Comic Book Guy? Especially in how annoyingly pedantic they both can get.
Do you realize how unreasonable it is to ask that ALL people be educated in order to prevent a very rare situation instead of just the network administrators? Are you so into computers that you cannot see how insane that is?
Never say never. Computers WILL be simple to use someday and the wailing and crying of geeks suddenly made irrelevant will be loud indeed.
You blame the idiots who made a critical 911 service reachable from the public internet.
You sound like a frustrated geek who is absolutely outraged that the unwashed masses do not take the time to properly learn how to use the tools that go along with your personal hobby, computers.
As has been said many times before, for most people a computer is a tool not a toy. It is a failing on the part of the software developer not the consumer if the technology is not used to its fullest potential.
Yes you have to take classes to drive. Thats because a car can kill people. When was the last time you heard of not knowing how to print your MS Word document leading to a 41 car pileup on the highway?
When the day arrives that Artificial Intelligence is good enough to allow anyone to get what they want and need out of their computer without taking one class or reading one tiny word in their manual will you still be angry at these people? When AI lowers the status of the average geek to that of a cockroach what will your snobbery have gained you?
Will you still look down on everyone as if you are better then them just because you are a computer obsessed geek?
The fact that you believe this phenomenon is limited to Americans further reinforces how close-minded and unaware of your global surroundings you are. Its kind of funny that a tool you spend so much time with, the Internet, has failed to properly broaden your horizons and help you mature into the mature person we all have the potential to be.
Here is the unofficial standard. Anyone who makes at least $1 million a year and/or has $10 million in assets is rich. Anything less and your not, you may think you are but you are not.
I limit my comparisons of myself to that of my fellow country men, and to other Westerners.
2nd and 3rd worlders need not apply.
Look, I used to make less than you do and I still thought that 200k wasn't "rich". Just because its more than what you or some people make doesn't make it rich. Heck there are some folks who think that 50k a year is rich.
The quality of life that a family can bring you vastly outweighs the obligations you must take on to support them.
How can you be so sure that leading a materialistic life is a trivial way to live your life. What makes you so right and those who are materialistic so wrong?