It is interesting to note that during the trial and settlement that some majority of Americans supported Microsoft.
I wonder how things would have turned out if the appeal happened in todays post-Enron environment. Americans don't think CEO's are the geniouses that they once did. They dont trust that companies are acting in the public's best interest.
Not necessarily true. The reason politicians do not seem to care about voter's views on issues is that on most issues, there is only a diffuse interest. A large group may have an opinion on the subject, but they don't follow through in a way that matters in an election. In these types of situations, a politician may be bought by corporations supporting a view contrary to majority opinion.
But lets not forget groups like the NRA, who do not represent the views of the majority. They are a group to be catered to by some politicians because they care deeply enough about their issue to follow through and cause some damage at the polls. To be successful without the deep pockets of a corporation, a successful strategy is to get organized as a group and get serious about applying some pressure. It is clear from discussions on Slashdot that there exists critical mass to make something happen. Now all that is required is some organization to pick strategic targets (politicians) who can be made aware that their stance on this issue will have an impact on their future career in politics.
"Don't use new technologies blindly. Don't use them just for the fun of it. Think about how all of your tools encourage certain behaviours and discourage other behaviours and make sensible judgements about whether you like those tendencies or need to be alert against their shaping your life in a way you're not happy about," he says.
As one who cannot afford all the new masturbatory gadgets that come out, I often wonder how much they actually contribute to productivity, rather than further encumbering their users.
Maybe if bosses valued results rather than just seeing your spin your wheels this wouldn't be so much of a problem. I don't see what is so much better about burning the midnight oil rather than getting stuff done early and leaving work early.
These seem like good techniques if you are on top of things and don't need any extra busywork thrown on top of you, but if your just using them to slack off and do nothing they will just make you look incompetent
"People need to understand that when Corporations are taxed they never loose money; they just charge us more. The only thing that may work is a tax incentive to companies that use American Software."
From economics, we know that both the supplier and consumer bear the costs of a tarriff. The elasticity of the demand curve determine the distribution of these costs.
That being said, im not sure i completely buy into all this economic mumbo-jumbo, especially as I am out of work and am happy to lay the blame on everyone but myself
It seems that they have assumed that everyone uses Windows only, and only addresses sector 0 issues from that point of view. Their study does not address any complications that their software may cause with alternative bootloaders, etc...
Has anyone experimented with TurboTax with GRUB or LILO? I'm interested in your results.
>> "My office is really messed up, I've got to fix it."
Even more asinine is the increasing use of the word "My" in front of every device/program/service/etc... in a computing environment. I think it all started with "My Computer" but im not sure, but I feel offended by this concept, not only because it encourages using baby-talk to refer to computing, but because it tends to reveal a lack of a clue on the part of the speaker. My mom was using pine as her mailer in an office she used to work in, and she would always refer to it as "My pine is messed up" etc... it was really annoying to me.
About the word "Windows," I think it is importaint to note that the word is not only generic in general usage, as in a physical window, but also it is also a generic concept in a GUI. The name is also retarded because even though the idea of having these window things on your PC screen might have been a futuristic comcept when windows was introduced (for a DOS user), now it is passe.
How do statements of the obvious get moderated up? sometimes i think, lets see if anything has any useful info to share in the comments section, and then all I find is a bunch of crap
I am curious why the article had to mention the street addresses of the accused. I don't understand how this information is relevant to anyone's understanding of the story. Maybe they should put their pictures in the newspaper with the caption, "Stone and Hiss if you see these men out on the street."
I realize that their addresses are probably part ot the public record, but I don't think that newspapers should make violating someone's privacy so simple. A person should have to at least be determined enough to get this info for himself.
It is wrong to pretend that the EULA and the GPL are equivalantly evil. Even if we accept your premise that agreeing to distribute your changes to code free of charge is just as bad as the right of a piece of software to make malicious use of your computer, at least the GPL offers the user the chance to obey or ignore the licence. In other words, it doesn't take the inititive for you and publish the contents of your harddrive on the internet automatically.
If this EULA were to be equivalent to the GPL by your reasoning, the EULA would basically be a chain letter asking the user to please be so kind as to forward this message do 3 of his friends. That would require the full cooperation of the user, in much the same way the GPL requires full cooperation of the developer. Of course, full cooperation means that the intent of the GPL is not a document that hides its intent from the user, hoping he will not read it. Quite the opposite, as some Slashdotters lament, proponents of free software are more than willing to discuss the GPL ad nauseum.
Even with a good idea, the possibility of going broke starting a new company is immense. If you release your idea gpl'd, you bear none of that liability and it will give you an opportunity to capitalize on your new found fame, in terms of high profile employment, etc... Also it will give you the opportunity to achieve more wide-spread adoption than would otherwise be possible.
That is of course, if your idea is all that you say. When reading the topic, I felt extremely ekeptical. I have always heard that those who understand the basics of cryptography are most likely to fool themselves in the way that the poster seems to be doing.
Learning a new programming language never hurt anyone. Once you know one imperative language, learning others is relatively easy. It is a good exercise and entertaining. Also, you will be in a better position to evaluate the pros and cons of Fortran if you actually know it, rather than listening to other zealots do the typical Fortran vs. some other language. Also, since there really isn't anything in Fortran that is different than your standard no-frills programming language, it isn't a mindf*ck to learn.
if you care about computers you should pick CS. if you care about having people time and dont want to put the effort into really knowing anything, pick CIS, which seems to be a real powder-puff major.
i guess the question really is, do you want to know how to write the programs, or do you want to be trained in how moving the mouse makes the little arrow on the screen move around and which menus to use if you want to do X.
damn, now that i think about cis people, i suddenly feel really angry.
Slashdot Mirror
It is interesting to note that during the trial and settlement that some majority of Americans supported Microsoft.
I wonder how things would have turned out if the appeal happened in todays post-Enron environment. Americans don't think CEO's are the geniouses that they once did. They dont trust that companies are acting in the public's best interest.
By stupid, you mean the type of people who play slot machines?
Not necessarily true. The reason politicians do not seem to care about voter's views on issues is that on most issues, there is only a diffuse interest. A large group may have an opinion on the subject, but they don't follow through in a way that matters in an election. In these types of situations, a politician may be bought by corporations supporting a view contrary to majority opinion.
But lets not forget groups like the NRA, who do not represent the views of the majority. They are a group to be catered to by some politicians because they care deeply enough about their issue to follow through and cause some damage at the polls. To be successful without the deep pockets of a corporation, a successful strategy is to get organized as a group and get serious about applying some pressure. It is clear from discussions on Slashdot that there exists critical mass to make something happen. Now all that is required is some organization to pick strategic targets (politicians) who can be made aware that their stance on this issue will have an impact on their future career in politics.
As one who cannot afford all the new masturbatory gadgets that come out, I often wonder how much they actually contribute to productivity, rather than further encumbering their users.
Reminds me of the ant motif used in the movie PI.
Maybe if bosses valued results rather than just seeing your spin your wheels this wouldn't be so much of a problem. I don't see what is so much better about burning the midnight oil rather than getting stuff done early and leaving work early.
These seem like good techniques if you are on top of things and don't need any extra busywork thrown on top of you, but if your just using them to slack off and do nothing they will just make you look incompetent
"People need to understand that when Corporations are taxed they never loose money; they just charge us more. The only thing that may work is a tax incentive to companies that use American Software."
From economics, we know that both the supplier and consumer bear the costs of a tarriff. The elasticity of the demand curve determine the distribution of these costs.
That being said, im not sure i completely buy into all this economic mumbo-jumbo, especially as I am out of work and am happy to lay the blame on everyone but myself
It seems that they have assumed that everyone uses Windows only, and only addresses sector 0 issues from that point of view. Their study does not address any complications that their software may cause with alternative bootloaders, etc...
Has anyone experimented with TurboTax with GRUB or LILO? I'm interested in your results.
>> "My office is really messed up, I've got to fix it."
Even more asinine is the increasing use of the word "My" in front of every device/program/service/etc... in a computing environment. I think it all started with "My Computer" but im not sure, but I feel offended by this concept, not only because it encourages using baby-talk to refer to computing, but because it tends to reveal a lack of a clue on the part of the speaker. My mom was using pine as her mailer in an office she used to work in, and she would always refer to it as "My pine is messed up" etc... it was really annoying to me.
About the word "Windows," I think it is importaint to note that the word is not only generic in general usage, as in a physical window, but also it is also a generic concept in a GUI. The name is also retarded because even though the idea of having these window things on your PC screen might have been a futuristic comcept when windows was introduced (for a DOS user), now it is passe.
How do statements of the obvious get moderated up? sometimes i think, lets see if anything has any useful info to share in the comments section, and then all I find is a bunch of crap
I am curious why the article had to mention the street addresses of the accused. I don't understand how this information is relevant to anyone's understanding of the story. Maybe they should put their pictures in the newspaper with the caption, "Stone and Hiss if you see these men out on the street."
I realize that their addresses are probably part ot the public record, but I don't think that newspapers should make violating someone's privacy so simple. A person should have to at least be determined enough to get this info for himself.
It is wrong to pretend that the EULA and the GPL are equivalantly evil. Even if we accept your premise that agreeing to distribute your changes to code free of charge is just as bad as the right of a piece of software to make malicious use of your computer, at least the GPL offers the user the chance to obey or ignore the licence. In other words, it doesn't take the inititive for you and publish the contents of your harddrive on the internet automatically.
If this EULA were to be equivalent to the GPL by your reasoning, the EULA would basically be a chain letter asking the user to please be so kind as to forward this message do 3 of his friends. That would require the full cooperation of the user, in much the same way the GPL requires full cooperation of the developer. Of course, full cooperation means that the intent of the GPL is not a document that hides its intent from the user, hoping he will not read it. Quite the opposite, as some Slashdotters lament, proponents of free software are more than willing to discuss the GPL ad nauseum.
Even with a good idea, the possibility of going broke starting a new company is immense. If you release your idea gpl'd, you bear none of that liability and it will give you an opportunity to capitalize on your new found fame, in terms of high profile employment, etc... Also it will give you the opportunity to achieve more wide-spread adoption than would otherwise be possible.
That is of course, if your idea is all that you say. When reading the topic, I felt extremely ekeptical. I have always heard that those who understand the basics of cryptography are most likely to fool themselves in the way that the poster seems to be doing.
Learning a new programming language never hurt anyone. Once you know one imperative language, learning others is relatively easy. It is a good exercise and entertaining. Also, you will be in a better position to evaluate the pros and cons of Fortran if you actually know it, rather than listening to other zealots do the typical Fortran vs. some other language. Also, since there really isn't anything in Fortran that is different than your standard no-frills programming language, it isn't a mindf*ck to learn.
if you care about computers you should pick CS. if you care about having people time and dont want to put the effort into really knowing anything, pick CIS, which seems to be a real powder-puff major.
i guess the question really is, do you want to know how to write the programs, or do you want to be trained in how moving the mouse makes the little arrow on the screen move around and which menus to use if you want to do X.
damn, now that i think about cis people, i suddenly feel really angry.