Funny, I went the other way - I used to get everything on a PC if possible, but now I am starting to find myself choosing the console when a game is available on both. I just don't have time these days to deal with "maintaining" a decent PC for games.
Case in point - I just bought Dragon Age for the PC since I heard the gameplay was better - and in about 5 hours of playing on Saturday, it crashed a half dozen times and BSOD'ed twice. After manually downloading and applying the latest patch (why couldn't they have added an auto update system?) and *downgrading* my Nvidia graphics drivers, I got that down to 2 crashes in 3 hours on Sunday. If I had picked the XBox version, it would have autoupdated, and probably not crashed at all - but at the cost of a simplified/clunky RPG interface. Sigh.
But that would only happen if they sell MORE of the dumbed down games - which I admit would suck, but it will make more money for consoles, not less...
A tarball is a tarball, and if the tar is identical and the link is valid, then why isn't that sufficient? If the site goes down or the tar is removed, then I suppose they'd have an issue, but it shouldn't be any different from their own server going down and having to find a solution.
From the GPL FAQ:
Can I put the binaries on my Internet server and put the source on a different Internet site? Yes. Section 6(d) allows this. However, you must provide clear instructions people can follow to obtain the source, and you must take care to make sure that the source remains available for as long as you distribute the object code.
Sounds like as long as the source is available on "a different Internet site", it's ok. If it goes down, they need an alternate arrangement...
I don't think there was anything trolling about my post - sorry, but you are being a bit defensive.
Anyway, you are saying the media scrutiny made him realize he shouldn't have made everything public, so he made more photos private. Sure, that's a causal relation, which was my second proposed explanation.
In a broader context, you're welcome to argue that changing a user's privacy settings to something more permissive during an upgrade unless specifically overridden was acceptable behavior. But you're not going to have a lot of agreement with that position here or in any privacy or security forums.
I think one problem is that the best (and really, the only remotely convincing) argument I have heard in favor of these permissive defaults is one that Facebook is probably hesitant to use - true privacy on the Internet in general, and on Facebook in particular, is far less than most people think. So in a way with this change they are being more honest in that real privacy is kind of a sham, anyway. Unfortunately, that's not really a good advertisement for the service...
Well, what is even WORSE than this is that the "upgrade" involved a very vague and midleading page that by default encouraged users to CHANGE the privacy settings for many things that weren't necessarily public by default - like all of your photos.
Some of those things were possible to continue restricting, but they should have kept the same permissions during the "upgrade". IMO anything else is just dishonest.
Well, he originally had hundreds of photos on his public profile, and now there are about a dozen.
So either he was bitten by the profile privacy issue everyone is talking about, or he did it intentionally and then changed his mind. The first means he was confused by it, and the second means he doesn't think the default settings were appropriate after all. Which is is?
"again my proposed 3 year limit to bring it to market would protect these anyway."
Yeah, that's part of the problem. I'm not going to go bother looking it up examples right now, but most drugs take longer than 3 years from initial R&D, multiple phases of trials, FDA approval, and launch.
That process can cost many millions (or in some cases billions) of dollars, and require many years to recoup those development costs. Without patent protection, who in their right mind would invest that much in highly experimental drug development only to be undercut by others taking advantage their investment and making cheap generics?
RTFA (or even just the summary!) This is Quebec. They don't have nuclear missiles.
And we know this for a fact because if they did, they would have already nuked all English-speaking Canadian cities and declared independence years ago.
That's like saying "people who work in IT reside on the intelligence spectrum". Sure, there is a wide range of intellectual abilities, but there is a very clear difference from "not good at math" and "crippling mental retardation".
Autism is defined as a DISORDER, not a spectrum. Take the convenient wiki definition of "a disorder of neural development that is characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior."
Neither of your examples remotely resembles autism. Both are textbook examples of masters of social interaction and communication, which is of course the most important trait for someone of their business and marketing ability. I really don't think you understand what Autism is, and it doesn't really help to trivialize it like you are.
I'm not usually a grammar fascist, but - are you drunk, or really trying to make a serious argument with that incomprehensible run-on?
Funny thing is I actually AGREE with your second statement about producing a workable implementation, otherwise limiting the patent length. But I totally disagree (I think, it's hard to tell;) with your first, that patents inherently block innovation. I guarantee you that 90% of the modern drugs in use would not exist if they were not patentable. And most USEFUL patents in general are not trollable - just the obvious ones, which should never have passed the patent review in the first place.
This is basically the SAME solution Comcast, etc. has been proposing for their cable systems, and the consensus is that it's "pure evil". Now it's informative/insightful??
Let's be consistent, people!
Though I in fact AGREE with the poster's basic idea, and that the key problem is their statement of "unlimited" usage, their inability to provide it, and then their claims that anyone using it beyond their ability to provide is an "abuser". Set a flat rate, state the usage limits CLEARLY in the contract, and then charge a CLEAR set price when that usage is exceeded. It may be a crappy plan, but at least it's honest that way.
He also said "hundreds of thousands" - so, with the amazingly precise math this thread is employing, "hundreds of thousands" divided by "a few" therefore does equal exactly 100,000!
A real writing instrument isn't mechanical. It requires the human hand to function, it lives and breathes the soul of a person, revealing their character and mood with every stroke.
I agree with your point 100%. Cormac McCarthy should be auctioning off his hand!
Heh, I think he means "red meat". Poultry isn't REAL meat;)
Anyway, I don't think white meat counts... cook and eat a boneless, skinless chicken breast with nothing but a bit of salt. Anyone who thinks that's the best way to eat chicken should just switch to processed vegetable protein...
Umm, you know a porthouse is basically a T-bone with the tenderloin (ie. filet) attached, right?
Actually, both the T-bone and the porterhouse contain a NY strip on one side and the tenderloin on the other. The porterhouse is just cut from the larger rear part of the loin, so it has a bigger tenderloin than a T-bone.
Hey, you can have "Suzuran's Rule"... (which I may note, sounds like a variant of the Dave Barry school of arguments) - but Godwin gets to define his own Law as he likes;)
That's because you only invoke Godwin if the comparison to Hitler/Nazis is unwarranted and/or unjustified.
Not true, this was Godwin's Law at it's finest!
From Wikipedia, which is of course the canonical explanation for pointless memes on the Internet:
"The rule does not make any statement about whether any particular reference or comparison to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis might be appropriate, but only asserts that the likelihood of such a reference or comparison arising increases as the discussion progresses. It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact."
For you, maybe. But you are obviously a dying breed. It's been primarily a fashion accessory for years already, and has already been replaced in the younger generation. Informal survey of ~15 people in the office (and many of these people are NOT under 30):
number with cellphones in pocket: 13 number with watches: 3
Completely eliminate the watch? Of course not. Replace the watch? Yup, done deal.
Well... this would be "informative" if he actually fixed the translation to be readable, ie "As usual, only the users of a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch are at risk." If the mis-translation was actually interesting, you could mod it funny, I guess...
Now to be fair, I do agree 100% with the conclusion and would gladly mod "insightful" - calling something a "worm" when the attack vector is "tries default password on idiotic 'secure shell' software that even allows one" is a real stretch. IMO this is more a "works as designed" - install a shell that anyone can log into, and anyone will...
Computers were supposed to get rid of paper and they didn't.
Yet. Anyone with the smallest foresight can see the trend is towards paper-thin, low power electronic displays. It may be 20+ years before they cost marginally more than paper and start to replace the more mundane uses, but it will. And before anyone starts... of course it will never *completely* replace paper - there will always be some uses that are just more convenient. But look at checks - 15 years ago I was writing 8+ paper checks a month. Now I probably write that many a year. Still a game changer.
Gaming on a phone is awful.
Don't have an iPhone, do you? I have a lot of friends addicted to iPhone games, and there are even a few I have played more than I would like to admit.
If I am going to do work during my commute it will be on a laptop or netbook, not a mobile. I suspect a lot of people feel the same way.
If I am going to do work on my commute I will DEFINITELY use a laptop. The article only mentioned netbooks, which would be insanely painful for programming. Anyone pretending to do "work" on a netbook probably works in marketing and sends emails for a living...
Decent cameras will never go away because a phone will never be able to match the feature set of the camera....even compact ones, imo.
Well, the article only mentioned compacts, not "decent" cameras (though compacts are pretty decent these days!) Again, progression of technology... look at phones now, vs phones of 10+ years ago. If you don't think all of the features of a compact camera can't be added to phones in the near future, you should delete your/. account.
Watches will always exist, if anything, as a fashion accessory.
Yeah, so will codpieces, it doesn't mean they are still useful.
Agreed - and in the future please consider adding to your trend in story summaries recently... "by the inimitable kdawson"... it's my new adjective in lieu of half a dozen others I could use for his awful, AWFUL posts...
I was inclined to agree with you at first - my initial reaction to the inimitable kdawson's comment was "how can you complain about ads on a free ad supported site!?!"
But then I tried to read TFA. And it is definitely one of the most ad-heavy sites I have read in recent memory - it's WAY over the top. Go look at it, and then come back and claim it doesn't deserve ridicule, even by the inimitable kdawson;)
HERE ARE THE TWO WHOLE RELEVANT PARAGRAPHS FROM THE ARTICLE:
Earth will pass through one of the denser debris streams at around 4 a.m. EST (1 a.m. PST) Tuesday. If you have only an hour or less to watch, center it around this time. Leo will be high in the sky for East Coast skywatchers, putting more meteors into view. In the West, Leo will be low in the eastern sky at this time, so fewer shooting stars will be above the horizon, and therefore Western skywatchers should also try to stick it out until daybreak.
Across Europe, the best bet is to watch anytime between 1 a.m. and daybreak local time.
Key non-ambiguous facts: 1. It's on Tuesday morning 2. The peak is at 4AM EST aka 1AM PST (aka 0900 UTC - just because they don't state UTC doesn't mean it's ambiguous, 4AM EST is the same as 0900 UTC by simple arithmetic). 3. In Europe, try 1AM to daybreak LOCAL TIME. They are not trying to tell you when the peak is - they already did, it's at 0900 UTC. They are trying to tell you when your "best bet" is. To figure out when 1AM LOCAL TIME is, I might recommend getting a watch or other device that tells time. And daybreak... well, I'll leave that to you to figure out, but here's a hint: watch for a REALLY bright thing rising in the sky.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny, I went the other way - I used to get everything on a PC if possible, but now I am starting to find myself choosing the console when a game is available on both. I just don't have time these days to deal with "maintaining" a decent PC for games.
Case in point - I just bought Dragon Age for the PC since I heard the gameplay was better - and in about 5 hours of playing on Saturday, it crashed a half dozen times and BSOD'ed twice. After manually downloading and applying the latest patch (why couldn't they have added an auto update system?) and *downgrading* my Nvidia graphics drivers, I got that down to 2 crashes in 3 hours on Sunday. If I had picked the XBox version, it would have autoupdated, and probably not crashed at all - but at the cost of a simplified/clunky RPG interface. Sigh.
But that would only happen if they sell MORE of the dumbed down games - which I admit would suck, but it will make more money for consoles, not less...
Except that http://busybox.net/downloads contains every busybox release in the last 10 years...
A tarball is a tarball, and if the tar is identical and the link is valid, then why isn't that sufficient? If the site goes down or the tar is removed, then I suppose they'd have an issue, but it shouldn't be any different from their own server going down and having to find a solution.
From the GPL FAQ:
Can I put the binaries on my Internet server and put the source on a different Internet site?
Yes. Section 6(d) allows this. However, you must provide clear instructions people can follow to obtain the source, and you must take care to make sure that the source remains available for as long as you distribute the object code.
Sounds like as long as the source is available on "a different Internet site", it's ok. If it goes down, they need an alternate arrangement...
I don't think there was anything trolling about my post - sorry, but you are being a bit defensive.
Anyway, you are saying the media scrutiny made him realize he shouldn't have made everything public, so he made more photos private. Sure, that's a causal relation, which was my second proposed explanation.
In a broader context, you're welcome to argue that changing a user's privacy settings to something more permissive during an upgrade unless specifically overridden was acceptable behavior. But you're not going to have a lot of agreement with that position here or in any privacy or security forums.
I think one problem is that the best (and really, the only remotely convincing) argument I have heard in favor of these permissive defaults is one that Facebook is probably hesitant to use - true privacy on the Internet in general, and on Facebook in particular, is far less than most people think. So in a way with this change they are being more honest in that real privacy is kind of a sham, anyway. Unfortunately, that's not really a good advertisement for the service...
Well, what is even WORSE than this is that the "upgrade" involved a very vague and midleading page that by default encouraged users to CHANGE the privacy settings for many things that weren't necessarily public by default - like all of your photos.
Some of those things were possible to continue restricting, but they should have kept the same permissions during the "upgrade". IMO anything else is just dishonest.
Well, he originally had hundreds of photos on his public profile, and now there are about a dozen.
So either he was bitten by the profile privacy issue everyone is talking about, or he did it intentionally and then changed his mind. The first means he was confused by it, and the second means he doesn't think the default settings were appropriate after all. Which is is?
"again my proposed 3 year limit to bring it to market would protect these anyway."
Yeah, that's part of the problem. I'm not going to go bother looking it up examples right now, but most drugs take longer than 3 years from initial R&D, multiple phases of trials, FDA approval, and launch.
That process can cost many millions (or in some cases billions) of dollars, and require many years to recoup those development costs. Without patent protection, who in their right mind would invest that much in highly experimental drug development only to be undercut by others taking advantage their investment and making cheap generics?
RTFA (or even just the summary!) This is Quebec. They don't have nuclear missiles.
And we know this for a fact because if they did, they would have already nuked all English-speaking Canadian cities and declared independence years ago.
That's like saying "people who work in IT reside on the intelligence spectrum". Sure, there is a wide range of intellectual abilities, but there is a very clear difference from "not good at math" and "crippling mental retardation".
Autism is defined as a DISORDER, not a spectrum. Take the convenient wiki definition of "a disorder of neural development that is characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior."
Neither of your examples remotely resembles autism. Both are textbook examples of masters of social interaction and communication, which is of course the most important trait for someone of their business and marketing ability. I really don't think you understand what Autism is, and it doesn't really help to trivialize it like you are.
I'm not usually a grammar fascist, but - are you drunk, or really trying to make a serious argument with that incomprehensible run-on?
Funny thing is I actually AGREE with your second statement about producing a workable implementation, otherwise limiting the patent length. But I totally disagree (I think, it's hard to tell ;) with your first, that patents inherently block innovation. I guarantee you that 90% of the modern drugs in use would not exist if they were not patentable. And most USEFUL patents in general are not trollable - just the obvious ones, which should never have passed the patent review in the first place.
Amazing what gets modded what on slashdot...
This is basically the SAME solution Comcast, etc. has been proposing for their cable systems, and the consensus is that it's "pure evil". Now it's informative/insightful??
Let's be consistent, people!
Though I in fact AGREE with the poster's basic idea, and that the key problem is their statement of "unlimited" usage, their inability to provide it, and then their claims that anyone using it beyond their ability to provide is an "abuser". Set a flat rate, state the usage limits CLEARLY in the contract, and then charge a CLEAR set price when that usage is exceeded. It may be a crappy plan, but at least it's honest that way.
He also said "hundreds of thousands" - so, with the amazingly precise math this thread is employing, "hundreds of thousands" divided by "a few" therefore does equal exactly 100,000!
A real writing instrument isn't mechanical. It requires the human hand to function, it lives and breathes the soul of a person, revealing their character and mood with every stroke.
I agree with your point 100%. Cormac McCarthy should be auctioning off his hand!
That's ok, this whole thread is a digression. And makes me want to BBQ...
Heh, I think he means "red meat". Poultry isn't REAL meat ;)
Anyway, I don't think white meat counts... cook and eat a boneless, skinless chicken breast with nothing but a bit of salt. Anyone who thinks that's the best way to eat chicken should just switch to processed vegetable protein...
Umm, you know a porthouse is basically a T-bone with the tenderloin (ie. filet) attached, right?
Actually, both the T-bone and the porterhouse contain a NY strip on one side and the tenderloin on the other. The porterhouse is just cut from the larger rear part of the loin, so it has a bigger tenderloin than a T-bone.
Hey, you can have "Suzuran's Rule"... (which I may note, sounds like a variant of the Dave Barry school of arguments) - but Godwin gets to define his own Law as he likes ;)
That's because you only invoke Godwin if the comparison to Hitler/Nazis is unwarranted and/or unjustified.
Not true, this was Godwin's Law at it's finest!
From Wikipedia, which is of course the canonical explanation for pointless memes on the Internet:
"The rule does not make any statement about whether any particular reference or comparison to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis might be appropriate, but only asserts that the likelihood of such a reference or comparison arising increases as the discussion progresses. It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact."
The phone will never replace the watch.
For you, maybe. But you are obviously a dying breed. It's been primarily a fashion accessory for years already, and has already been replaced in the younger generation. Informal survey of ~15 people in the office (and many of these people are NOT under 30):
number with cellphones in pocket: 13
number with watches: 3
Completely eliminate the watch? Of course not. Replace the watch? Yup, done deal.
Well... this would be "informative" if he actually fixed the translation to be readable, ie "As usual, only the users of a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch are at risk." If the mis-translation was actually interesting, you could mod it funny, I guess...
Now to be fair, I do agree 100% with the conclusion and would gladly mod "insightful" - calling something a "worm" when the attack vector is "tries default password on idiotic 'secure shell' software that even allows one" is a real stretch. IMO this is more a "works as designed" - install a shell that anyone can log into, and anyone will...
Computers were supposed to get rid of paper and they didn't.
Yet. Anyone with the smallest foresight can see the trend is towards paper-thin, low power electronic displays. It may be 20+ years before they cost marginally more than paper and start to replace the more mundane uses, but it will. And before anyone starts... of course it will never *completely* replace paper - there will always be some uses that are just more convenient. But look at checks - 15 years ago I was writing 8+ paper checks a month. Now I probably write that many a year. Still a game changer.
Gaming on a phone is awful.
Don't have an iPhone, do you? I have a lot of friends addicted to iPhone games, and there are even a few I have played more than I would like to admit.
If I am going to do work during my commute it will be on a laptop or netbook, not a mobile. I suspect a lot of people feel the same way.
If I am going to do work on my commute I will DEFINITELY use a laptop. The article only mentioned netbooks, which would be insanely painful for programming. Anyone pretending to do "work" on a netbook probably works in marketing and sends emails for a living...
Decent cameras will never go away because a phone will never be able to match the feature set of the camera....even compact ones, imo.
Well, the article only mentioned compacts, not "decent" cameras (though compacts are pretty decent these days!) Again, progression of technology... look at phones now, vs phones of 10+ years ago. If you don't think all of the features of a compact camera can't be added to phones in the near future, you should delete your /. account.
Watches will always exist, if anything, as a fashion accessory.
Yeah, so will codpieces, it doesn't mean they are still useful.
Must have been a while since you last checked ;)
Very few if any network services are enabled/started by default when installed on Fedora. Probably because as you said it is a fairly bad practice...
Agreed - and in the future please consider adding to your trend in story summaries recently... "by the inimitable kdawson"... it's my new adjective in lieu of half a dozen others I could use for his awful, AWFUL posts...
I was inclined to agree with you at first - my initial reaction to the inimitable kdawson's comment was "how can you complain about ads on a free ad supported site!?!"
But then I tried to read TFA. And it is definitely one of the most ad-heavy sites I have read in recent memory - it's WAY over the top. Go look at it, and then come back and claim it doesn't deserve ridicule, even by the inimitable kdawson ;)
Not sure why I am still bothering, but...
HERE ARE THE TWO WHOLE RELEVANT PARAGRAPHS FROM THE ARTICLE:
Earth will pass through one of the denser debris streams at around 4 a.m. EST (1 a.m. PST) Tuesday. If you have only an hour or less to watch, center it around this time. Leo will be high in the sky for East Coast skywatchers, putting more meteors into view. In the West, Leo will be low in the eastern sky at this time, so fewer shooting stars will be above the horizon, and therefore Western skywatchers should also try to stick it out until daybreak.
Across Europe, the best bet is to watch anytime between 1 a.m. and daybreak local time.
Key non-ambiguous facts:
1. It's on Tuesday morning
2. The peak is at 4AM EST aka 1AM PST (aka 0900 UTC - just because they don't state UTC doesn't mean it's ambiguous, 4AM EST is the same as 0900 UTC by simple arithmetic).
3. In Europe, try 1AM to daybreak LOCAL TIME. They are not trying to tell you when the peak is - they already did, it's at 0900 UTC. They are trying to tell you when your "best bet" is. To figure out when 1AM LOCAL TIME is, I might recommend getting a watch or other device that tells time. And daybreak... well, I'll leave that to you to figure out, but here's a hint: watch for a REALLY bright thing rising in the sky.