"proximity to the red planet not equaled in 59,619 years." and "Not until 2287 will the two worlds be so close again."
So it too 59,619 years to get this close, and it will be as close in 284 years, meaning Mars will crash into the Earth in 285.35 years!!! We're doomed!
"Who has more disposible income? A 12 year old boy, or a 21 year old girl?"
The 12 year old boy probably. Not because he's a boy and she's a girl, but when I was 21 me and most of my friends were broke-ass mofo's with student loans and Boston rent driving disposible income to the "Mario or food?" point.
Does anyone have any good links about this? It sounds like a scary crackpot idea, so of course I'm curious about it. If my interpretation of it based on the article is remotely correct it seems hypocritical of RMS/Perens to even consider this, as it would be a major freedom limiter. If I can't sue someone who actually did steal something from me for fear of losing my right to use a large amount of software out there, I don't have much freedom do I?
The key factor in usability is benefit/cost. How much can you do (benefit) in a certain amount of time (cost). How much strain (cost) does the software cause when using (benefit).
Familiarity and intuitiveness, which are fairly linked, are trainability issues, not usability.
Stick in a blank CD, OS X and Windows gives you a list of what you want to do with it, offering only valid choices. Stick a blank CD into a linux desktop and then you have to go find the program. Thats a usability issue. If that dialog box interferes with your work, and you prefer to find the program, then the ability to disable the dialog is a usability issue.
IMHO Windows surpasses Linux and OSX for usability for two distinct, but critical reasons.
Linux is just not consistent, and most apps and WMs offer only a thin layer of customizing before things get out of hand. You should NEVER have to edit a text file to make a legitimate adjustment to your system.
Mac OS X is the master of consistency right? Wrong. 2/3 of commands can only be done with the mouse, which is really really bad because the mouse is a poor command tool. What is worse is that the 1/3 you can do varies from program to program. And to top it all, a portion of those limited commands don't have any standard key commands.
As long as people continue to jam obscure features into software, a hallmark of open source, it will lag in usability.
Re:Excellent heat conductivity
on
The Diamond Age
·
· Score: 1
"it's how much debt you're willing to incur to show your love."
As true as it is funny and sad. So the question is, what will replace diamonds? Houses and cars are too transient, and when a diamond costs as much as a screwdriver it will be about as romantic (and not nearly as useful). Any ideas for the everlasting, debt-inducing commitment to your sweetie?
Well first, let's be honest with ourselves about how much jail time anyone at SCO will serve. That is, of course, none. Ranting and raving about jailtime/castration/public humiliation may be fun but it just makes it easy for people to tune out of the discussion.
Your point about setting a precedent is valid, but other companies wouldn't be making "equally" ridiculous claims. After all, SCO is the legitimate owner of Unix, and that's a rather unique position. All this hooey about licensing and not saying what was stolen aside, if IBM owned Unix they could put the whole damn thing in Linux if they wanted. If anyone is adept at identifying, capitalizing, and protecting intellectual property its IBM and SCO will either be crushed or settle/withdraw and effectively fade into oblivion. Also, IBM probably handles 10 new lawsuits every day regarding the thousands of patents they get every year, I doubt they are afraid of a few more.
All in all, it makes me grateful that Linux started before the whole business process/software patenting started in 98. If someone wanted to start it now they wouldn't get off the ground.
SCOs market cap is $141 million, IBM is $140 billion. That is 1000 times larger. IBM has $4 billion in cash. Hostile takeover anyone? A $300 million offer would probably tempt enough SCO shareholders to force a sale, and put an end to this nonsense for good. IBM would then own Unix and whatever other "ideas" SCO has, and could add that to its already monumental portfolio of IP.
Yeah, and this isn't just a "nice to have" thing either. This is a "got interrupted halfway through and knew I'd have to site through 15 minutes of stuff I just saw and didn't bother to come back to the site" thing.
Not to say I don't appreciate people dedicating themselves to their craft as these guys do, but just because you're an artist doesn't mean you don't have to pick the right technology.
Its simple. Every thousandth call or so, if someone actually listens to the pitch, they give the person $1000. Word would spread pretty fast and I think people would be scrambling to get themselves off the DNS list. This would make signing up for the list the equivalent of telling someone not to send you free lottery tickets, which I think most people would not do. This way if someone (like myself) really doesn't want to deal with them, they are still protected, but the industry remains a viable one.
Are you serious? Can you honestly tell me that Excel hasn't always been better than 123? It had to be, because 123 was the market leader and MS had an uphill battle.
Being closed-source doesn't make Excel better. Being better makes it better.
My point is that almost every open source project out there is just a clone of some closed source one. Fine with me, but the OSS community has yet to show any real innovation in professional software. Why? Simple economics. If someone isn't paying you for your program you have no real incentive other than ego to get them to use it.
So if you caught a guy with a gun hiding in the bushes outside your house, you don't think he should be punished? After all, he didn't DO anything, right?
The water cooler phenonemon is common everywhere. You probably haven't seen it because I'm not going to assume that someone visiting the US from the UK has seen a specific commercial, thus I wouldn't bring it up.
It's kind of sad that i had to scroll halfway down the page, even with mod threshold set at 2, to find the first post by someone with a clue (Goody). Spammers are not all dumb, and they figure if username at some domain works then they'll just add it to the list of other popular domains because at some point the person may have signed up.
Now I'm not sure if it would be a beneficial tactic for spammers, but the Cc: header means nothing, so they may not even have sent a mail to those users. Maybe they are hoping someone in cc list is a friend of yours and that will help it by pass spam filters? Or maybe some spam filters realized a while ago that Cc headers were not common in spam (not the case anymore) and used it as a flag for good mail?
Even more insidious is the spam where they send it to everyone at a domain with another valid user picked off the list at the same domain. Thus you might get a spam from your boss, or someone else you have on a whitelist.
Of course, maybe they did sell it, or someone cracked in, or an ex-employee did a select * from users. The moral of the story is that we just can't tell based on some zealot's single email.
This comment could very well be the killer feature for Slashdot. I think the Slashdot killer feature is comments in general, and I hope that the Post Comment Technology will play a strong part in that.
Yeah it really sucks that there are people doing what they love for a living making a measly 50-60k per year. I mean, come on, how will they eat? How will they occupy themselves for the dozens of weeks per year they have off?
Not to mention the fact that an SUV typically has bigger/wider tires which would mean greater weight distribution. Also, as someone else mentioned, pollution makes this whole excercise kind of moot.
Anyways, I drive an SUV, and I get half the mileage of my friends' sedans. I pay twice as many gas taxes. Sounds fair to me.
"SUVs are already getting a subsidy under the gas tax system, because they burn about 3 times as much fuel as a smaller car, but weight much more. "
Say what? If they burn 3 times as much fuel (an extreme ratio btw) then they are paying 3 times as many taxes per mile. I don't get a credit because my car is larger.
I'd also like to know where you get that crazy RW=AW^4 formula. What does more damage, 167 Volvos or 1 Expedition? Hmm, going to have to say the Volvos...
Slashdot Mirror
"proximity to the red planet not equaled in 59,619 years." and "Not until 2287 will the two worlds be so close again."
So it too 59,619 years to get this close, and it will be as close in 284 years, meaning Mars will crash into the Earth in 285.35 years!!! We're doomed!
"Who has more disposible income? A 12 year old boy, or a 21 year old girl?"
The 12 year old boy probably. Not because he's a boy and she's a girl, but when I was 21 me and most of my friends were broke-ass mofo's with student loans and Boston rent driving disposible income to the "Mario or food?" point.
I will put this post here as a placeholder for what you are thinking, but are afraid to post.
Does anyone have any good links about this? It sounds like a scary crackpot idea, so of course I'm curious about it. If my interpretation of it based on the article is remotely correct it seems hypocritical of RMS/Perens to even consider this, as it would be a major freedom limiter. If I can't sue someone who actually did steal something from me for fear of losing my right to use a large amount of software out there, I don't have much freedom do I?
The key factor in usability is benefit/cost. How much can you do (benefit) in a certain amount of time (cost). How much strain (cost) does the software cause when using (benefit).
Familiarity and intuitiveness, which are fairly linked, are trainability issues, not usability.
Stick in a blank CD, OS X and Windows gives you a list of what you want to do with it, offering only valid choices. Stick a blank CD into a linux desktop and then you have to go find the program. Thats a usability issue. If that dialog box interferes with your work, and you prefer to find the program, then the ability to disable the dialog is a usability issue.
IMHO Windows surpasses Linux and OSX for usability for two distinct, but critical reasons.
Linux is just not consistent, and most apps and WMs offer only a thin layer of customizing before things get out of hand. You should NEVER have to edit a text file to make a legitimate adjustment to your system.
Mac OS X is the master of consistency right? Wrong. 2/3 of commands can only be done with the mouse, which is really really bad because the mouse is a poor command tool. What is worse is that the 1/3 you can do varies from program to program. And to top it all, a portion of those limited commands don't have any standard key commands.
As long as people continue to jam obscure features into software, a hallmark of open source, it will lag in usability.
"it's how much debt you're willing to incur to show your love."
As true as it is funny and sad. So the question is, what will replace diamonds? Houses and cars are too transient, and when a diamond costs as much as a screwdriver it will be about as romantic (and not nearly as useful). Any ideas for the everlasting, debt-inducing commitment to your sweetie?
Well first, let's be honest with ourselves about how much jail time anyone at SCO will serve. That is, of course, none. Ranting and raving about jailtime/castration/public humiliation may be fun but it just makes it easy for people to tune out of the discussion.
Your point about setting a precedent is valid, but other companies wouldn't be making "equally" ridiculous claims. After all, SCO is the legitimate owner of Unix, and that's a rather unique position. All this hooey about licensing and not saying what was stolen aside, if IBM owned Unix they could put the whole damn thing in Linux if they wanted. If anyone is adept at identifying, capitalizing, and protecting intellectual property its IBM and SCO will either be crushed or settle/withdraw and effectively fade into oblivion. Also, IBM probably handles 10 new lawsuits every day regarding the thousands of patents they get every year, I doubt they are afraid of a few more.
All in all, it makes me grateful that Linux started before the whole business process/software patenting started in 98. If someone wanted to start it now they wouldn't get off the ground.
IANAFA (Financial Analyst) but...
SCOs market cap is $141 million, IBM is $140 billion. That is 1000 times larger. IBM has $4 billion in cash. Hostile takeover anyone? A $300 million offer would probably tempt enough SCO shareholders to force a sale, and put an end to this nonsense for good. IBM would then own Unix and whatever other "ideas" SCO has, and could add that to its already monumental portfolio of IP.
What is this "Survivor" and "American Idol" you speak of?
Yeah, and this isn't just a "nice to have" thing either. This is a "got interrupted halfway through and knew I'd have to site through 15 minutes of stuff I just saw and didn't bother to come back to the site" thing.
Not to say I don't appreciate people dedicating themselves to their craft as these guys do, but just because you're an artist doesn't mean you don't have to pick the right technology.
Its simple. Every thousandth call or so, if someone actually listens to the pitch, they give the person $1000. Word would spread pretty fast and I think people would be scrambling to get themselves off the DNS list. This would make signing up for the list the equivalent of telling someone not to send you free lottery tickets, which I think most people would not do. This way if someone (like myself) really doesn't want to deal with them, they are still protected, but the industry remains a viable one.
Are you serious? Can you honestly tell me that Excel hasn't always been better than 123? It had to be, because 123 was the market leader and MS had an uphill battle.
Being closed-source doesn't make Excel better. Being better makes it better.
My point is that almost every open source project out there is just a clone of some closed source one. Fine with me, but the OSS community has yet to show any real innovation in professional software. Why? Simple economics. If someone isn't paying you for your program you have no real incentive other than ego to get them to use it.
BTW, I have OO installed at home, and not Excel.
"New" meaning "not just an open source version of something already out there".
So if you caught a guy with a gun hiding in the bushes outside your house, you don't think he should be punished? After all, he didn't DO anything, right?
So now instead of writing your phone number on someone's hand, you can just print your whole vCard out on it.
The water cooler phenonemon is common everywhere. You probably haven't seen it because I'm not going to assume that someone visiting the US from the UK has seen a specific commercial, thus I wouldn't bring it up.
People with large pockets?
It's kind of sad that i had to scroll halfway down the page, even with mod threshold set at 2, to find the first post by someone with a clue (Goody). Spammers are not all dumb, and they figure if username at some domain works then they'll just add it to the list of other popular domains because at some point the person may have signed up.
Now I'm not sure if it would be a beneficial tactic for spammers, but the Cc: header means nothing, so they may not even have sent a mail to those users. Maybe they are hoping someone in cc list is a friend of yours and that will help it by pass spam filters? Or maybe some spam filters realized a while ago that Cc headers were not common in spam (not the case anymore) and used it as a flag for good mail?
Even more insidious is the spam where they send it to everyone at a domain with another valid user picked off the list at the same domain. Thus you might get a spam from your boss, or someone else you have on a whitelist.
Of course, maybe they did sell it, or someone cracked in, or an ex-employee did a select * from users. The moral of the story is that we just can't tell based on some zealot's single email.
This comment could very well be the killer feature for Slashdot. I think the Slashdot killer feature is comments in general, and I hope that the Post Comment Technology will play a strong part in that.
Yeah it sucks that you only get 100 hours out of a game :P
Almost every state has been using color coded (by month) inspection stickers for decades.
Yeah it really sucks that there are people doing what they love for a living making a measly 50-60k per year. I mean, come on, how will they eat? How will they occupy themselves for the dozens of weeks per year they have off?
Not to mention the fact that an SUV typically has bigger/wider tires which would mean greater weight distribution. Also, as someone else mentioned, pollution makes this whole excercise kind of moot.
Anyways, I drive an SUV, and I get half the mileage of my friends' sedans. I pay twice as many gas taxes. Sounds fair to me.
BTW IWFATE (I Was Formerly...)
There's being able to laugh at yourself, and then there's having such a large pole stuck up your ass that you need to post a reply.
"SUVs are already getting a subsidy under the gas tax system, because they burn about 3 times as much fuel as a smaller car, but weight much more. "
Say what? If they burn 3 times as much fuel (an extreme ratio btw) then they are paying 3 times as many taxes per mile. I don't get a credit because my car is larger.
I'd also like to know where you get that crazy RW=AW^4 formula. What does more damage, 167 Volvos or 1 Expedition? Hmm, going to have to say the Volvos...