This was bound to happen, and, unfortunately, will probably proliferate. As ridiculous as it may sound, look at the current state of our civil law system and you can see *exactly* where this mentality comes from.
A: Two boys go to a high school and proceed to shoot stuff up. Victims, demanding compensation, sue the gun manufacturers, althouth the gun manufacturers didn't pull the triggers. If you think that the gun manufacturers are liable, then you should also think that the manufacturers of computer components should also be sued, because computers are most certainly used to commit crimes.
That's just one that ought to be stuck in your heads. Everyone knows that the criminal should be liable for damages, but most criminals don't have anything. Desperate, people will rationalize anything and sue everybody and just hope for a settlement.
I'm waiting to see a class action lawsuit against Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Phoenix, Creative Labs, Matrox, etc, for being responsible for the ILOVEYOU email thingie. Forget the poor college kid who wrote it, he's poor. Let's get some real money....
Umm.. doesn't NetSol have to delete your domain name if you haven't paid for it? Like, they can't retain it in their database? If so, delete the thing, then go on over to Register.com, a company that by all accounts thus far aren't dedicated to making internet users lives miserable, and re-register.
It may finally kill off the career of John Travolta. Although this could be a bad thing, but hey, he does *some* good things (like when he gets wasted on Pulp Fiction...)
If anyone thought this was a representation of Scientology, they are most utterly repulsed by the idea of joining now.
(Did John Travolta even read the book?)
Serves as great advertising for the Harrier, as evidenced by the fact that they can lay around for 1000 years and still be perfectly functional. So there, you lousy third world nations!
It kept me from reading the increasing leftist drivel on slashdot for 3 hours one Friday afternoon.
I actually got out in the sun for awhile in the commute to the Santa Monica Promenade.
It gave me hope that if they could make that movie, I, too, can be a director/screenwriter/FX master and star.
I was reminded just how expensive movies are these days.
My roomate hasn't laughed that loudly since the last time someone tried to critique Ayn Rand.
/*The Atheos is a free GPL'ed operating system, using many of the popular GNU tools, and some opensource programs have been ported (Apache for instance).*/
Oh Great. RMS will be wanting to call it GNU/AtheOS soon.
That is entirely irrelevant. It doesn't matter what *you* view Napster to be in the future. It doesn't matter if the entire world can see a legitimate usage for Napster tomorrow. What matters is, today, downloading Metallisucks songs are just plain ILLEGAL and an infringement on THEIR rights as producers of said music. Sure, I can see where bands can profit from it. The only difference it makes is that when MY band is ready to release stuff, we'll take advantage of it. But, again, that's IRRELEVANT. Piracy is Piracy is Piracy, no matter how you rationalize it.
Okay, now we've got cell phone spamming. Imagine what will happen when people "network" their house? Forget the 5cR1p+ k1DD135. Imagine:
You go to your microwave. On the display it says "Why don't you cook a delicious X brand microwaveable lasagna?", which happens to be in your networked freezer, which happens to know what you just bought because you scanned your grocery savers' card at the store (and through the magic of "tight networked integration", the grocery stores and your fridge and cupboards talk to each other). A coupon spits out of the microwave advertising the latest X brand lasagna, begging you to shop and compare. You go to your fridge and get a happy "Wouldn't you like a refreshing Ice Cold Coke right now?" and when you close the door you hear a "Remember, you're almost out of Dairy Fresh Eggs, the Only Eggs for Me!" Combined with the scat analyzer in the can, the fridge, microwave, and stove can conspire to get you to eat healthier.
/* I went into CompUSA the other day, and counted six boxes on the shelves which carry my work, going for anywhere from $39.95 to $99.95...Someone is making money, hand over fist, off your work, and off my work. */
None of those companies, barring SuSe, is actually turning a profit. No one is making money, much less hand over fist.
/* I have a right to question why many of us remain uncompensated when theres money like that changing hands. */
Because, stimpy, you gave away your work, without expecting compensation. You, along with thousands of others, decided to use the GNU public license, or some variant thereof, that said "Hey, I love doing this and I don't want any money! You can do whatever you want to with this, including sell it, as long as you abide by whatever it is I decided to license with." RedHat, out of the kindess of its heart, decided to let people in the ground floor with their stock plan. Note that no one was getting paid BY RedHat, they just got to buy the stock cheap, and then were able to turn around and sell it when it went through the roof. If you start getting pissy about "not being compensated", I suggest you start charging for your work, ditch the GPL (or whatever license you use.. I've yet to see a license that comes with Propaganda tiles) and figure out a way to make money the old fashioned way: earn it. Propaganda does not the OS make. If anything, you guys serve as a great advertisement for The Gimp for potential to produce some really great looking stuff. However, I see no real value added to any Linux distro from the inclusion of your tiles, other than some neat eyecandy for a really horrible GUI.
/* Red Hat is a 11 billion dollar company. Dont see them compensating the people who continue to make their distribution usable */
Red Hat's valuation is based upon some freaking ridiculous stock run-up. They have yet to turn a profit, see above. They do compensate quite a few people: they've hired them. Maybe you should submit your resume to Redhat? They'll probably tell you the same thing: Making tiles is nice, but why don't you go hack X or something?
Please, don't get me wrong. I've got every volume of Propaganda that's been issued. Nice stuff, especially the seamless tiles. I'd eventually like to try my hand at doing that, as well. But I would *never* try and claim I wasn't being compensated when I release the stuff for free.
Weren't things so much better when *everyone* was equally poor?:)
There is no moral justification of taxation, period. But rather than open that can of worms (yet again), consider this:
Many states don't have sales taxes, period. Don't like sales tax? Move to another state.
If you consider taxation of internet bought products, then you must also consider taxation of mail order products, as well. If you do not do this, all that will happen is that these internet companies will open up 1-800 lines and take phone orders, while using their website as an online catalog.
Furthermore, I doubt the future of CompUSA and the like is in jeopardy to online sales. I still buy 75% of my stuff from these places, even though I know I could get it less online. Why? 1) No shipping/waiting times. I go to the store, buy it, take it home and install. 2) Support. If the thingie breaks, I just take it back to the store. I may have to wait in line, but compare that to the wait times at some online customer service phones, well, it's no big deal. Chances are, I can swap on the spot, don't have to worry about being home when the UPS guy shows up, etc etc.
"George Lucas announces the usage of internet technology to create Star Wars Episodes II & III. Now, millions of geeks can participate by joining the distributed render-farm."
Imagine. High costs of video production are lowered. Geeks would do this for *free*. However, within a week someone would hack the client and set up a dummy site as a repository for all the completed images, from which everyone in the world would be able to see parts of the movie for free.. can you say "big time spoiler"? I knew you could. I doubt Lucas would ever do something like this (although a lesser studio or independent filmaker *might*. It's worth a look at), mainly because he'd lose some control over the process.
Um, no, AOL's product did exactly what they intended it to. It's not defective. Offensive, maybe, defective, no. Unless you count bugs, of course, but that's not what we're talking about. I use AOL 5.0 (using it right now). It's not set as my "default" internet connection (I don't give that kind of permission to anyone's software). Works great, for what it is.
I ended up with: Supermicro P6DBE mobo Adaptec Jumpered Slotkets w/433mhz Celerons & cooling fans (bought from computernerd.com) 128 meg SDRAM SBLIVE! several HD's, standard floppy Matrox Millenium G200 AGP 8megs
Installing RedHat 6.0 was problematic, it wouldn't recognize the dual celerons. 6.1, however, had no problems at all and I've been happy ever since. NT 4.0 also works well, recognizes both CPU's, etc, and BeOS has no problems either. Also note that the SBLive! driver for Linux is not available for the SMP kernel, which means if you want to use the audio, you'll have to boot NT or BeOS or select another card for now.
If I built a new system tomorrow, I'd use the Abit BP6 board, as it's more customizable in the realm of OC, etc. The benefit of the Supermicro is that you can upgrade to "real" PII's, if you get the urge. The only reason I didn't use the BP6 to begin with was the simple fact that the BP6 came out about a month after I bought my mobo. I'd also use the Matrox G400 for video, as I've always been happy with Matrox products.
I'm *very* pro-MS. I also am *very* pro-BSD, pro-BeOS, and somewhat pro-Linux. Linux *users* generally turn me off (when I converse with a Linux fan, it's rather disconcertingly similar to the religious banter I receive from several "hardcore" Christians at work.. I.E. Our Father, Richard Stallman, His Son, Linus Torvalds, and the Holy Ghost, Alan Cox and the holy book of the GPL). The only thing in the Linux universe that I even give a damn about is Enlightenment, and that runs on other things besides Linux, so...
Use what works for you. I like MS NT 4.0. I like other things, as well. If you judge a person's character by the OS they use, or if what OS a person uses actually MEANS something to you, you need to go outside more often. There's more to the world than MS, Linux, and Open Source software. Ask yourself this: If you meet a really nice girl and she will only use, say, MacOS or Windows 95, would you dump her? When will you figure out that 98% of the computing population doesn't care about what OS they use, much less what they can do with it, much like 98% of the population doesn't give a damn about how to change the oil in their car? Again, use what you like to get things done.
//However, how many Linux users do you know that want to install Windows on their Linux machine?//
Me. I had RH 6.1 (and previously 6.0) installed on my dual CPU machine and found that I needed an NT partition later to do some other work with. Trying to install NT with LILO already in the MBR had me completely nuts for awhile, as I've never tried deleting the MBR before (and people talk about MS being a "bully" on the MBR block. NT didn't *budge* LILO during install/setup). fdisk/mbr. Great tip from MS! Anyhow, I ended up getting around the LILO thingie by installing NT, reinstalling RH (nothing important there), and voila! LILO from the setup saw both and setup for NT and Linux. Now if I could only get Be's tool to work...
// Most of them require a reboot because of BAD OS design
If you go back and reread my post, I mentioned that the OS has it's issues. The applications, however, are generally very well done. Office97 has never given me a crash qua Office97 (at least that I could tell), however I can't say the same for Win95. This is NOT an OS critique, but an *application* critique.
Then stop using Office97. Start manually filing all your forms from now on, go back to typewriters, and make those big foamboard presentations of the past. I don't know what problems *you* have with Office97, I just know that I know how to use what I need to get the job done and then I get to go home and watch TV.
I've bought many things from Amazon, usually CD's and tech books. I haven't used fatbrain yet, but..
So far, all of my experiences with amazon have been positive. Most of my orders have shipped the next day, prices are reasonable, and I'm generally satisfied with the books.
In Microsoft's case, it's especially easy to/suspect foul play, due to the inferior nature of their products. /
Pure FUD. MS makes quite a few QUALITY applications. The OS has issues, but Office97 was the best money I ever spent on software and Money99 has a better "feel" than Quicken, to me. You're just toeing up to the "party line" here. If the issue is WP vs. Word, I'll take Word everytime. I've had the "pleasure" of using both, I prefer Word (even though I started on WP). Plus I get the thrill of knowing that whenever I use Word that I'm using something Richard Stallman can't figure out. (see Linux Magazine interview)
/Why would any halfway intelligent entity sign away their productivity if some shady deal making weren't going on under the table? /
Office increases productivity at my job. I don't know *what* you're talking about.
/But then again, this is the government we're talking about. /
Agreed. The same government that found Microsoft guilty of monopoly. You can make your own inferences from that.
A bit off topic, but is there going to be an RC5 client for this sucker?
;)
Re:We don't need no stinking unions
on
GEEK Unions?
·
· Score: 1
/* This is a boom time for us. We should make the most of it. Perhaps not a union but a professional organization that accredits us like the Bar association, or the AMA, and forces tech workers to keep their skills current and ensures the quality of our work. From that we could gain lobbying forces and political power. Anti-organisation people are bitching about mediocratity and seniority set slary levels? Let me ask you something, a semi-literate auto worker who punches buttons on a machine all day should probably be making $7/hr, but the industry average is $22/hr, with nearly the *best* health benefits in the USA. Thats over 3x salary inflation. Think about what that would be like for organised technical labor. Do not know about you, but I would not mind making a minimum of $60/hr. */
And how much does the average automobile cost at the dealership these days? And how many automobile manufacturers have relocated *across* the border into Canada and Mexico to fight artificially inflated salaries? You don't get an increase in one area without an increase in the other.
Unions are nothing more than "legalized" extortion rings designed to rob a company/owner of his production. If you want to make $60/hour, I suggest you pick up some more skills or learn to market yourself better.
And finally, I don't think it's necessary. Highly skilled techs are in such demand that the industry will *always* be short-handed, thus ensuring higher across the board wages. I've worked at several companies where the hardware techs could barely manage to put together a computer, much less turn one on. The only reason the company used them is because they *couldn't find any one else*. With the shortage of trained Computer Science professionals, the situation only looks better for job security. And finally, with the public education system of the US cranking out half-wits and kids who still can't spell their name, much less configure/install something like RedHat Linux (hey, good argument why Microsoft succeeds is that 1) it's relatively easy to use and comes preinstalled on most boxes and 2) the typical user can't read the fucking manual to install another OS). Imagine them trying to master the math skills required in a credible compsci major. DOn't worry, your jobs are safe and if you aren't making the money you probably could be making, its because you haven't bothered to ask or walk.
>>It's not that the average user is stupid.... they are just too lazy to learn anything slightly technical.
It's not laziness, either. It's a matter of priorities. Most computer users don't give a rat's ass about what OS they use. They just want a way to type a quick email to grandma, write up letters, and play games with a minimum of hassle. Think of it this way: Say Ford Motors (used strictly metaphorically and not meant to be any kind of statement about the Ford Motor Company or its business practices in any form, shape, or fashion) sold you cars in kits. You pick out the parts, and they ship it to you. Ford doesn't guarantee compatibility with all the parts you get, in fact, you can buy the parts from any third-party vendor you want. So, you get this generic car kit and bolt it together, with your own little machine shop to make the parts to fit one another. In the end, you get a car that is built to your specs. You also gleened a great deal of knowledge about cars as you probably made quite a few mistakes along the way. That's like Linux. Now, say Chevy (same disclaimer as above)sells premanufactured cars. The only options are the basics, say A/C, power options, etc, but the car you get is what you drive home in and use immediately. That's the BeOS or Windows. Who do you think is going to win the marketshare battle? Sure, you'll have your small percentage of car nuts who go bonkers over their little kit cars, but most people look at their cars as just a tool to haul the kids to the soccer game, go to work in, or whatever. They don't care or even want to know what a fuel injector is and why they have one in the engine. This is not laziness. This is called priorities and interests. Take the package and use the tool. And that is how most people view their Operating Systems. They don't care about *why* or *how* an operating system does the things it does, they just want it to be the most painless experience possible. You make your own inferences. The time you spent editing a configuration file, they'd rather write a letter and get back to mowing the lawn.
As for me, I generally take the path of least resistance in computer use. I use the BeOS and Windows95, because they are, for the most part, hassle-free. I have Linux, I never use it, it doesn't have any appeal to me (well, e is the exception). When I find a use for it (i.e. internet gateway/firewall/etc), then I'll probably be thrilled to use it, as from what I can tell, Linux and the various BSD's are very secure and are constantly updated to fix security holes. For now, though, Linux remains a curiousity and I can imagine that 98% of the world's computer users are the same, if they even *care* about Linux.
Sure, the hacker/cracker misusage is widespread. My roomate, who knows better as I've done everything but Chinese Water Torture to educate him on the differences, STILL refuses to use the term cracker for "malicious system intruder". His reasoning? It's what he's always called it, it's what the media calls it, so that's what it is. What can you say? Screaming up and down will not change this fact. The media will continue to misuse the term, come hell or high water. I say its already a lost cause. The people offended by misuse of hacker are not an oppressed minority, so you're not likely to get any ACLU help if it is ever taken to legal extremes.
It also hurts that the crackers themselves refuse to refer to themselves as crackers, instead using the Hacker monikor. I guess this would lead to yet another miscommunication in which the overly Anglo-Saxon "cracker" population would not be taken seriously.
"SO, what are you?" "I'm a cracker." "I can see that, but being white has nothing to do with the conversation at hand.."
However, change that to:
"So, what are you?" "I'm a hacker" "Oh, that's cool. Go Cyber Cowboy."
and suddenly you have some basis for communication. Of course, you'd have to change that to "1m 4 h4x0r" or something equally inane and deserving of death, but that's another question to be dealt with in the Primary education system.
Now, if you're a kernel hacker and steadfastly refuse to yield to the fact that whenever you refer to yourself as a hacker that people immediately think of Matthew Broderick, well, why not just call yourself a "Programmer"? Everyone knows what a "Programmer" is (although there might be some confusion between a person who hacks Perl scripts and someone who determines what television shows to expose your kids' minds to) even though it's about a romatic a concept as, say, burger flipping. Consider it a job hazard. Like carpal tunnel syndrome or the sun.
Personally, why not just ignore it? The more you let it eat you up inside, the more it takes away from you doing something useful, like hacking. You know which usage I'm using. The sooner you realize that 99.9% of the rest of the world has no bearing on your happiness, the better for you.
Despite the media hoopla, Michael Milken was and is a financial genius whose methods of financing business were revolutionary at the time. Michael's biggest problem was that he stepped on too many toes and ruffled too many feathers on his way to the top, added to the fact that then prosecutor Guiliani (now mayor of New York City) was looking for "sure fire publicity", much like the guy that has it in for Kevin Mitnick. I'd suggest checking out a book called _Payback_ by Daniel Fischel for a more objective view on the entire Michael Milken story. It's out of print, but worth the find. You can find a brief description at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/088730757 4/qid=928252550/sr=1-2/002-5450756-3750419
Hmm.. that sounds vaguely familiar. A friend of mine's computer mysteriously powers on during lightning storms and come to think of it, it's an ATX mobo. Of course, he *should* unplug his computer from the outlet during these situations, and it could be the cause of his current computer woes (or maybe it's just Windows 95). Anyone else have this "problem" (strange powerups)?
I would like to acknowledge and give thanks to the other posters who pointed out that Roark was an architect, Rearden was the flawed steel man.
ARI is probably not on crack. Institutions can't take drugs, people can, though. I am not affiliated with ARI in any way and rarely peruse their website (slashdot is much much more informative and entertaining. ARI doesn't care about Star Wars). The best thing I ever read on ARI was it's moral defence of Microsoft and Kazan, which I wholeheartedly agree with, not because it's the ARI's official stance, but because they're well reasoned arguments.
Objectivism is not a cult, but if you feel it is, please feel free to send your life savings to me, via slashdot (feel free to keep any money this generates/. you earn it).
All comments by ME are MINE (read: I do not claim to speak for Objectivism, nor am I an official spokesman for the ARI, etc etc. I'm just a guy, eh?) If the so-called Powers that Be of Objectivism deem that all businesses will be honorable and never lie,cheat or steal, then I will no longer consider myself to be an Objectivist. I hope this clears up any confusion.
Slashdot Mirror
This was bound to happen, and, unfortunately, will probably proliferate. As ridiculous as it may sound, look at the current state of our civil law system and you can see *exactly* where this mentality comes from.
A: Two boys go to a high school and proceed to shoot stuff up. Victims, demanding compensation, sue the gun manufacturers, althouth the gun manufacturers didn't pull the triggers. If you think that the gun manufacturers are liable, then you should also think that the manufacturers of computer components should also be sued, because computers are most certainly used to commit crimes.
That's just one that ought to be stuck in your heads. Everyone knows that the criminal should be liable for damages, but most criminals don't have anything. Desperate, people will rationalize anything and sue everybody and just hope for a settlement.
I'm waiting to see a class action lawsuit against Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Phoenix, Creative Labs, Matrox, etc, for being responsible for the ILOVEYOU email thingie. Forget the poor college kid who wrote it, he's poor. Let's get some real money....
Umm.. doesn't NetSol have to delete your domain name if you haven't paid for it? Like, they can't retain it in their database? If so, delete the thing, then go on over to Register.com, a company that by all accounts thus far aren't dedicated to making internet users lives miserable, and re-register.
It made Mission to Mars look good.
It may finally kill off the career of John Travolta. Although this could be a bad thing, but hey, he does *some* good things (like when he gets wasted on Pulp Fiction...)
If anyone thought this was a representation of Scientology, they are most utterly repulsed by the idea of joining now.
(Did John Travolta even read the book?)
Serves as great advertising for the Harrier, as evidenced by the fact that they can lay around for 1000 years and still be perfectly functional. So there, you lousy third world nations!
It kept me from reading the increasing leftist drivel on slashdot for 3 hours one Friday afternoon.
I actually got out in the sun for awhile in the commute to the Santa Monica Promenade.
It gave me hope that if they could make that movie, I, too, can be a director/screenwriter/FX master and star.
I was reminded just how expensive movies are these days.
My roomate hasn't laughed that loudly since the last time someone tried to critique Ayn Rand.
Um, can you change your oil? your timing belt? Give yourself a brake job? Hmm?
/*The Atheos is a free GPL'ed operating system, using many of the popular GNU tools, and some opensource programs have been ported (Apache for instance).*/
Oh Great. RMS will be wanting to call it GNU/AtheOS soon.
That is entirely irrelevant. It doesn't matter what *you* view Napster to be in the future. It doesn't matter if the entire world can see a legitimate usage for Napster tomorrow. What matters is, today, downloading Metallisucks songs are just plain ILLEGAL and an infringement on THEIR rights as producers of said music. Sure, I can see where bands can profit from it. The only difference it makes is that when MY band is ready to release stuff, we'll take advantage of it. But, again, that's IRRELEVANT. Piracy is Piracy is Piracy, no matter how you rationalize it.
Okay, now we've got cell phone spamming. Imagine what will happen when people "network" their house? Forget the 5cR1p+ k1DD135. Imagine:
You go to your microwave. On the display it says "Why don't you cook a delicious X brand microwaveable lasagna?", which happens to be in your networked freezer, which happens to know what you just bought because you scanned your grocery savers' card at the store (and through the magic of "tight networked integration", the grocery stores and your fridge and cupboards talk to each other). A coupon spits out of the microwave advertising the latest X brand lasagna, begging you to shop and compare. You go to your fridge and get a happy "Wouldn't you like a refreshing Ice Cold Coke right now?" and when you close the door you hear a "Remember, you're almost out of Dairy Fresh Eggs, the Only Eggs for Me!" Combined with the scat analyzer in the can, the fridge, microwave, and stove can conspire to get you to eat healthier.
Hmm.
I bet I can get venture funding for this.
/* I went into CompUSA the other day, and counted six boxes on the shelves which carry my work, going for anywhere from $39.95 to $99.95...Someone is making money, hand over fist, off your work, and off my work. */
:)
None of those companies, barring SuSe, is actually turning a profit. No one is making money, much less hand over fist.
/* I have a right to question why many of us remain uncompensated when theres money like that changing hands. */
Because, stimpy, you gave away your work, without expecting compensation. You, along with thousands of others, decided to use the GNU public license, or some variant thereof, that said "Hey, I love doing this and I don't want any money! You can do whatever you want to with this, including sell it, as long as you abide by whatever it is I decided to license with." RedHat, out of the kindess of its heart, decided to let people in the ground floor with their stock plan. Note that no one was getting paid BY RedHat, they just got to buy the stock cheap, and then were able to turn around and sell it when it went through the roof. If you start getting pissy about "not being compensated", I suggest you start charging for your work, ditch the GPL (or whatever license you use.. I've yet to see a license that comes with Propaganda tiles) and figure out a way to make money the old fashioned way: earn it. Propaganda does not the OS make. If anything, you guys serve as a great advertisement for The Gimp for potential to produce some really great looking stuff. However, I see no real value added to any Linux distro from the inclusion of your tiles, other than some neat eyecandy for a really horrible GUI.
/* Red Hat is a 11 billion dollar company. Dont see them compensating the people who continue to make their distribution usable */
Red Hat's valuation is based upon some freaking ridiculous stock run-up. They have yet to turn a profit, see above. They do compensate quite a few people: they've hired them. Maybe you should submit your resume to Redhat? They'll probably tell you the same thing: Making tiles is nice, but why don't you go hack X or something?
Please, don't get me wrong. I've got every volume of Propaganda that's been issued. Nice stuff, especially the seamless tiles. I'd eventually like to try my hand at doing that, as well. But I would *never* try and claim I wasn't being compensated when I release the stuff for free.
Weren't things so much better when *everyone* was equally poor?
There is no moral justification of taxation, period. But rather than open that can of worms (yet again), consider this:
Many states don't have sales taxes, period. Don't like sales tax? Move to another state.
If you consider taxation of internet bought products, then you must also consider taxation of mail order products, as well. If you do not do this, all that will happen is that these internet companies will open up 1-800 lines and take phone orders, while using their website as an online catalog.
Furthermore, I doubt the future of CompUSA and the like is in jeopardy to online sales. I still buy 75% of my stuff from these places, even though I know I could get it less online. Why?
1) No shipping/waiting times. I go to the store, buy it, take it home and install.
2) Support. If the thingie breaks, I just take it back to the store. I may have to wait in line, but compare that to the wait times at some online customer service phones, well, it's no big deal. Chances are, I can swap on the spot, don't have to worry about being home when the UPS guy shows up, etc etc.
I'm sure there are others with the same view.
Taxation is *never* the answer.
Jesus.
"George Lucas announces the usage of internet technology to create Star Wars Episodes II & III. Now, millions of geeks can participate by joining the distributed render-farm."
Imagine. High costs of video production are lowered. Geeks would do this for *free*. However, within a week someone would hack the client and set up a dummy site as a repository for all the completed images, from which everyone in the world would be able to see parts of the movie for free.. can you say "big time spoiler"? I knew you could. I doubt Lucas would ever do something like this (although a lesser studio or independent filmaker *might*. It's worth a look at), mainly because he'd lose some control over the process.
// AOL made an arguably defective product
Um, no, AOL's product did exactly what they intended it to. It's not defective. Offensive, maybe, defective, no. Unless you count bugs, of course, but that's not what we're talking about. I use AOL 5.0 (using it right now). It's not set as my "default" internet connection (I don't give that kind of permission to anyone's software). Works great, for what it is.
I was in your same boat just last year.
I ended up with:
Supermicro P6DBE mobo
Adaptec Jumpered Slotkets w/433mhz Celerons & cooling fans (bought from computernerd.com)
128 meg SDRAM
SBLIVE!
several HD's, standard floppy
Matrox Millenium G200 AGP 8megs
Installing RedHat 6.0 was problematic, it wouldn't recognize the dual celerons. 6.1, however, had no problems at all and I've been happy ever since. NT 4.0 also works well, recognizes both CPU's, etc, and BeOS has no problems either. Also note that the SBLive! driver for Linux is not available for the SMP kernel, which means if you want to use the audio, you'll have to boot NT or BeOS or select another card for now.
If I built a new system tomorrow, I'd use the Abit BP6 board, as it's more customizable in the realm of OC, etc. The benefit of the Supermicro is that you can upgrade to "real" PII's, if you get the urge. The only reason I didn't use the BP6 to begin with was the simple fact that the BP6 came out about a month after I bought my mobo. I'd also use the Matrox G400 for video, as I've always been happy with Matrox products.
Best of luck to you,
Rinikusu
I'm *very* pro-MS. I also am *very* pro-BSD, pro-BeOS, and somewhat pro-Linux. Linux *users* generally turn me off (when I converse with a Linux fan, it's rather disconcertingly similar to the religious banter I receive from several "hardcore" Christians at work.. I.E. Our Father, Richard Stallman, His Son, Linus Torvalds, and the Holy Ghost, Alan Cox and the holy book of the GPL). The only thing in the Linux universe that I even give a damn about is Enlightenment, and that runs on other things besides Linux, so...
Use what works for you. I like MS NT 4.0. I like other things, as well. If you judge a person's character by the OS they use, or if what OS a person uses actually MEANS something to you, you need to go outside more often. There's more to the world than MS, Linux, and Open Source software. Ask yourself this: If you meet a really nice girl and she will only use, say, MacOS or Windows 95, would you dump her? When will you figure out that 98% of the computing population doesn't care about what OS they use, much less what they can do with it, much like 98% of the population doesn't give a damn about how to change the oil in their car? Again, use what you like to get things done.
//However, how many Linux users do you know that want to install Windows on their Linux machine? //
/mbr. Great tip from MS! Anyhow, I ended up getting around the LILO thingie by installing NT, reinstalling RH (nothing important there), and voila! LILO from the setup saw both and setup for NT and Linux. Now if I could only get Be's tool to work...
Me. I had RH 6.1 (and previously 6.0) installed on my dual CPU machine and found that I needed an NT partition later to do some other work with. Trying to install NT with LILO already in the MBR had me completely nuts for awhile, as I've never tried deleting the MBR before (and people talk about MS being a "bully" on the MBR block. NT didn't *budge* LILO during install/setup). fdisk
// Most of them require a reboot because of BAD OS design
If you go back and reread my post, I mentioned that the OS has it's issues. The applications, however, are generally very well done. Office97 has never given me a crash qua Office97 (at least that I could tell), however I can't say the same for Win95. This is NOT an OS critique, but an *application* critique.
Then stop using Office97. Start manually filing all your forms from now on, go back to typewriters, and make those big foamboard presentations of the past. I don't know what problems *you* have with Office97, I just know that I know how to use what I need to get the job done and then I get to go home and watch TV.
I've bought many things from Amazon, usually CD's and tech books. I haven't used fatbrain yet, but..
So far, all of my experiences with amazon have been positive. Most of my orders have shipped the next day, prices are reasonable, and I'm generally satisfied with the books.
In Microsoft's case, it's especially easy to /suspect foul play, due to the inferior nature of their products. /
Pure FUD. MS makes quite a few QUALITY applications. The OS has issues, but Office97 was the best money I ever spent on software and Money99 has a better "feel" than Quicken, to me. You're just toeing up to the "party line" here. If the issue is WP vs. Word, I'll take Word everytime. I've had the "pleasure" of using both, I prefer Word (even though I started on WP). Plus I get the thrill of knowing that whenever I use Word that I'm using something Richard Stallman can't figure out. (see Linux Magazine interview)
/Why would any
halfway intelligent entity sign away their productivity if some shady deal making weren't going on under the table? /
Office increases productivity at my job. I don't know *what* you're talking about.
/But then
again, this is the government we're talking about. /
Agreed. The same government that found Microsoft guilty of monopoly. You can make your own inferences from that.
A bit off topic, but is there going to be an RC5 client for this sucker?
;)
/* This is a boom time for us. We should make the most of it. Perhaps not a union but a professional organization that
accredits us like the Bar association, or the AMA, and forces tech workers to keep their skills current and ensures
the quality of our work. From that we could gain lobbying forces and political power.
Anti-organisation people are bitching about mediocratity and seniority set slary levels?
Let me ask you something, a semi-literate auto worker who punches buttons on a machine all day should probably
be making $7/hr, but the industry average is $22/hr, with nearly the *best* health benefits in the USA. Thats over
3x salary inflation. Think about what that would be like for organised technical labor. Do not know about you, but I
would not mind making a minimum of $60/hr. */
And how much does the average automobile cost at the dealership these days? And how many automobile manufacturers have relocated *across* the border into Canada and Mexico to fight artificially inflated salaries? You don't get an increase in one area without an increase in the other.
Unions are nothing more than "legalized" extortion rings designed to rob a company/owner of his production. If you want to make $60/hour, I suggest you pick up some more skills or learn to market yourself better.
And finally, I don't think it's necessary. Highly skilled techs are in such demand that the industry will *always* be short-handed, thus ensuring higher across the board wages. I've worked at several companies where the hardware techs could barely manage to put together a computer, much less turn one on. The only reason the company used them is because they *couldn't find any one else*. With the shortage of trained Computer Science professionals, the situation only looks better for job security. And finally, with the public education system of the US cranking out half-wits and kids who still can't spell their name, much less configure/install something like RedHat Linux (hey, good argument why Microsoft succeeds is that 1) it's relatively easy to use and comes preinstalled on most boxes and 2) the typical user can't read the fucking manual to install another OS). Imagine them trying to master the math skills required in a credible compsci major. DOn't worry, your jobs are safe and if you aren't making the money you probably could be making, its because you haven't bothered to ask or walk.
Thanks for listening!
>>It's not that the average user is stupid.... they are just too lazy to learn anything slightly technical.
It's not laziness, either. It's a matter of priorities. Most computer users don't give a rat's ass about what OS they use. They just want a way to type a quick email to grandma, write up letters, and play games with a minimum of hassle.
Think of it this way: Say Ford Motors (used strictly metaphorically and not meant to be any kind of statement about the Ford Motor Company or its business practices in any form, shape, or fashion) sold you cars in kits. You pick out the parts, and they ship it to you. Ford doesn't guarantee compatibility with all the parts you get, in fact, you can buy the parts from any third-party vendor you want. So, you get this generic car kit and bolt it together, with your own little machine shop to make the parts to fit one another. In the end, you get a car that is built to your specs. You also gleened a great deal of knowledge about cars as you probably made quite a few mistakes along the way. That's like Linux. Now, say Chevy (same disclaimer as above)sells premanufactured cars. The only options are the basics, say A/C, power options, etc, but the car you get is what you drive home in and use immediately. That's the BeOS or Windows. Who do you think is going to win the marketshare battle? Sure, you'll have your small percentage of car nuts who go bonkers over their little kit cars, but most people look at their cars as just a tool to haul the kids to the soccer game, go to work in, or whatever. They don't care or even want to know what a fuel injector is and why they have one in the engine. This is not laziness. This is called priorities and interests. Take the package and use the tool. And that is how most people view their Operating Systems. They don't care about *why* or *how* an operating system does the things it does, they just want it to be the most painless experience possible. You make your own inferences.
The time you spent editing a configuration file, they'd rather write a letter and get back to mowing the lawn.
As for me, I generally take the path of least resistance in computer use. I use the BeOS and Windows95, because they are, for the most part, hassle-free. I have Linux, I never use it, it doesn't have any appeal to me (well, e is the exception). When I find a use for it (i.e. internet gateway/firewall/etc), then I'll probably be thrilled to use it, as from what I can tell, Linux and the various BSD's are very secure and are constantly updated to fix security holes. For now, though, Linux remains a curiousity and I can imagine that 98% of the world's computer users are the same, if they even *care* about Linux.
Sure, the hacker/cracker misusage is widespread. My roomate, who knows better as I've done everything but Chinese Water Torture to educate him on the differences, STILL refuses to use the term cracker for "malicious system intruder". His reasoning? It's what he's always called it, it's what the media calls it, so that's what it is. What can you say? Screaming up and down will not change this fact. The media will continue to misuse the term, come hell or high water. I say its already a lost cause. The people offended by misuse of hacker are not an oppressed minority, so you're not likely to get any ACLU help if it is ever taken to legal extremes.
It also hurts that the crackers themselves refuse to refer to themselves as crackers, instead using the Hacker monikor. I guess this would lead to yet another miscommunication in which the overly Anglo-Saxon "cracker" population would not be taken seriously.
"SO, what are you?"
"I'm a cracker."
"I can see that, but being white has nothing to do with the conversation at hand.."
However, change that to:
"So, what are you?"
"I'm a hacker"
"Oh, that's cool. Go Cyber Cowboy."
and suddenly you have some basis for communication. Of course, you'd have to change that to "1m 4 h4x0r" or something equally inane and deserving of death, but that's another question to be dealt with in the Primary education system.
Now, if you're a kernel hacker and steadfastly refuse to yield to the fact that whenever you
refer to yourself as a hacker that people immediately think of Matthew Broderick, well, why not just call yourself a "Programmer"? Everyone knows what a "Programmer" is (although there might be some confusion between a person who hacks Perl scripts and someone who determines what television shows to expose your kids' minds to) even though it's about a romatic a concept as, say, burger flipping. Consider it a job hazard. Like carpal tunnel syndrome or the sun.
Personally, why not just ignore it? The more you let it eat you up inside, the more it takes away from you doing something useful, like hacking. You know which usage I'm using. The sooner you realize that 99.9% of the rest of the world has no bearing on your happiness, the better for you.
Have a great day!
Despite the media hoopla, Michael Milken was and is a financial genius whose methods of financing business were revolutionary at the time. Michael's biggest problem was that he stepped on too many toes and ruffled too many feathers on his way to the top, added to the fact that then prosecutor Guiliani (now mayor of New York City) was looking for "sure fire publicity", much like the guy that has it in for Kevin Mitnick. I'd suggest checking out a book called _Payback_ by Daniel Fischel for a more objective view on the entire Michael Milken story. It's out of print, but worth the find. You can find a brief description at:7 4/qid=928252550/sr=1-2/002-5450756-3750419
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/08873075
Thanks and have a great day
Hmm.. that sounds vaguely familiar. A friend of mine's computer mysteriously powers on during lightning storms and come to think of it, it's an ATX mobo. Of course, he *should* unplug his computer from the outlet during these situations, and it could be the cause of his current computer woes (or maybe it's just Windows 95). Anyone else have this "problem" (strange powerups)?
I would like to acknowledge and give thanks to the other posters who pointed out that Roark was an architect, Rearden was the flawed steel man.
/. you earn it).
ARI is probably not on crack. Institutions can't take drugs, people can, though. I am not affiliated with ARI in any way and rarely peruse their website (slashdot is much much more informative and entertaining. ARI doesn't care about Star Wars). The best thing I ever read on ARI was it's moral defence of Microsoft and Kazan, which I wholeheartedly agree with, not because it's the ARI's official stance, but because they're well reasoned arguments.
Objectivism is not a cult, but if you feel it is, please feel free to send your life savings to me, via slashdot (feel free to keep any money this generates
All comments by ME are MINE (read: I do not claim to speak for Objectivism, nor am I an official spokesman for the ARI, etc etc. I'm just a guy, eh?) If the so-called Powers that Be of Objectivism deem that all businesses will be honorable and never lie,cheat or steal, then I will no longer consider myself to be an Objectivist. I hope this clears up any confusion.
Thank you and good day.