Re:Honest comparison between Gnome and KDE?
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Gnome 2.2 Released
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· Score: 1
The only reason I use Gnome is for corner panels. I started out use KDE 1, and some friends were running Gnome with corner panels I I figured I'd give that a try. Despite the fact that gmc was a graphical front-end to sigsegv at the time, I never went back. Corner panels with auto-hide is like tabbed browsing in my opinion. Once you try, you don't go back.
I tried creating corner panels in KDE 2.2, but it just wasn't the same. It wasn't easy to setup and I never got farther than creating a single corner-type panel out of the main panel. KDE allows you to create more panels, but I couldn't figure out to make them act like the main panel (with auto-hide and what not).
I submitted a bug report to the KDE team about adding corner panels, but they terminated it and said to resize the panel. Maybe I'm missing something about panel creation. I'll try messing with 3.x once Debian gets it into unstable. Even so, I doubt I'd switch from Gnome. The apps I like all look nicer in Gnome (Gaim, Gnucash, etc) since they use the same toolkit at Gnome, but their integration isn't as tight.
Both desktops are great products but I just can't leave corner panels. I use apps from KDE every once in a while though.
Actually, AMD's "offical" line about their "model number" (performance rating) is that it is a comparison of their current processor to their previous offerings, not a comparison to equivalent P4's. Granted, we all know they're really comparing to a P4. I'm just stating their "offical" line.
Khyron
Re:Is there anything that WON'T be $1B by 2005?
on
Advergames
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· Score: 3, Funny
This just in:
Market Analysts predicting new business models will be $1 billion (or larger) industry by some date in the near future will be a $1 billion (or larger) industry sometime in the near future.
You have a great argument except for one thing. The US is NOT a democracy. It is a Republic, and there is a difference. It's not a difference that is relevant to your arugment, but the fact that you misrepresent what you are arguing against discredits you a little.
I hate to nitpick, but it really irritates me that most people on slashdot we quite willing to berate the US' type of government and complain that their government is failing/corrupt/whatever yet fail to spend the time to learn the type of government they are beratting. Yes, it doesn't really have a direct impact on the arguments, but it sure does make people look stupid. Is it too much to ask to take a history course and retain just a LITTLE bit of knowledge?
On a more interesting note, if you truely want to see where we could be headed, look at the Roman Republic. We are not the exact system, but the effects to starting to be a little similar.
While I agree this is probably an issue to many people, I would like to point out that some people CAN'T get satellite TV. I live an in apartment complex and my apartment faces north. Being on the second floor of a three floor building effectively means that I can't get satellite TV. Believe me, I tried. Apartment complexes tend to not be too keen on letting their tenants put things on the roof.:)
You also probably have to deal with the fact that people don't like to be roped in for a year on things and probably have a natural aversion to new technology and having someone put something on their roof. As for clarity, I've heard that satellite TV can have issues in bad storms where most cable TV doesn't. That isn't the case for my cable of course. Anything stronger than a small gust of wind causes it to go out of whack.;)
I constantly see people making all sorts of incorrect statements about WineX, and to those people I say try it before you speak. You don't have to install the games in Windows, and in fact, WineX tells you NOT to. You install it to a Linux partition and windows isn't needed for ANYTHING.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Transgaming to doing a very good service to Linux, and here's why. Many keep windows around to play games. If Transgaming can fully implement DirectX (still quite a while off), then that gives people one less reason to keep windows around. True, the games won't be native linuc games, but if you really want linux to succeed on the desktop, you people need to realize it'll take baby steps. First, you take away the reason for people to have windows. If they want windows to play games, then create complete compatibility with windows games. As people play windows games in linux, they stop having a MS OS to play games on. When this number of people hit critical mass, game developers can then start to write native Linux games and be assurred it has a large audience. It won't happen overnight, but it won't happen at ALL without full windows compatiblity first. Be patient.
I'm sorry, but I have to take issue with everyone in the Linux gaming community continually saying that wine/winex is the wrong way to implement games. All wine/winex is doing is re-implementing windows' API on Linux. Linux has implemented SMB services for better compatibility with Windows, so why is this any different? It's not sacrificing anything, providing better compatiblity for Linux, and allowing Linux gamers to play many games sooner than would otherwise be possible (if at all). These people need to get off their high horses and realize that wine/winex is nothing but another API. If it makes gaming easier on Linux, great. If it gets gaming companies to realize that there is a Linux market, great; even if they are just using windows api calls. In the end, wine could become obsolete if companies code straight for Linux, but wine/winex isn't hurting ANYTHING now and only helping the future. If eventually companies want to code for only linux, they can do that and will be welcomed with open arms. Until that time, these companies wouldn't even recognize a Linux gaming market without wine/winex (granted it could be argued they don't now). In the mean time, wine/winex is providing a valuable service to Linux. Stop berating Transgaming's approach. Without them, I'd still have to boot to windows if I wanted to play Civ III or D2. Whether people like it or not, this is a good way to play games in Linux. Atleast for now.
Yes I'm a subscriber to Transgaming, but I truly don't play many games. The ones I'd want are available on Linux thanks to them. I haven't booted to windows to play a game in a long time. It's that the eventual goal? To play games on Linux and show there's a market for games on Linux? Who cares how?
What problems are you experiencing? I have a SCSI DVD drive and a SCSI CDRW drive and can run games. WineX 2.01 recognizes my DVD drive but the copy protection validation messes it up somehow. I can play games with my CDRW just fine, including copy protection validation. Admittedly I've only played Diablo II as that's about the only game I really play, but if it works for one game it would probably work for others. Are you sure it's not a config issue on your end?
Granted, I have to run the game as root for some odd reason, but that's relatively minor in the scheme of things. Although, I must be logged in as root and not su-ed to root for it to work. Go figure. I haven't messed with it enough to get a normal user account working. I have a working solution and too busy to fix it more.
They haven't cut out the Ents. I saw the teaser that was shown at the end of LotR:FotR and it shows an Ent, albeit for about 10 seconds. They are in the movie and from what I saw, they look incredible.
Seriously, what's so great about MMORPGs? Do people just like throwing money away? You have to pay to get the game on your system (whether it be PC or console) and then you have to pay a monthly fee to play the game. Let's take a normal rate of $10/month. That's $120/year just to PLAY a game you probably paid atleast $35 to get, plus the cost of an ISP. Does anyone realize that's just stupid? Do you REALLY need a game that never ends, sucks all your money out of the bank, and withdraws you from a real social life? Why are people happy this is coming to the console games?
I realize everyone's tastes are different, but online games seem extremely expensive to me. Diablo II was a game that never really ended and I just paid a one time flat fee to buy the game. Why would I want to spend even more money to play such a game online?
I've played almost every FF game since FF 1 on NES, and with the exception of FF8, I've largely enjoyed all of them. I am bummed that FFXI is a MMORPG game simply because I begin to wonder if they'll target all their future RPGs for onling play. I will not play online games with the current cost structure (I have a hard time justifying paying $50 for a game and usually wait until they become $20). Square has largely been a reliable source for great RPGs (with a few exceptions), and if they start making online games only, what's left to fill the void? I've always enjoyed RPG games and would be rather upset if they all went online and as such disappeared from my gaming life.
I for one am bummed. Anyone know if FFXII will be online also?
That helps explain my confusion. Since DMCA stands for Digital Millenium Copyright Act, I figured it was also included copyright rules and regulations. The rest of the actions in the bill (prevention of circumvention stuff) I knew about. I agree that I don't see how this law can be amended, and that it can only really be repealled.
This may have been brought up before, but why (besides the obvious part of legislation preventing circumvention) was the DMCA proposed in its current form?
Let me explain my question. A copyright holder is a copyright holder as far as I know (which admittingly isn't far), so why would there need to be a bill that deals with copyright material in a digital form? Why does the medium matter? Sure it's easier to transfer digital material than any other, but SO? It's still illegal.
The reason I bring this up is that IF the DMCA is ammended to allow fair use (which unfortunately I highly doubt will happen), we end up with ANOTHER set of copyright laws that will just add confusion. Why wasn't the DMCA a bill simply to deal with illegal distribution/reproduction of copyrighted material instead of an additional copyright bill? It would've achieved the same purpose and included wording that would conflict with fair-use just as easily.
I don't know much about why certain bills are written they way they are, nor am I especially strong in copyright knowledge. I've tried to read the DMCA, but get lost in the legalesse speech. I'm just kinda curious why our Congress felt the need to create another set of copyright laws (albeit inspired by industry) when all that appears to truely be wanted was more strict laws against reproduction and illegal use.
My point is that this is a negative to the IT dept. If I'm trying to get Linux as a desktop instead of Windows, the fact that it's much lower cost in licensing is mooted by the site licenses. IT depts like uniformity, and if you're trying to go against the grain you have to show them they get something positive out of it. The biggest positive would be the cost savings, but because of site licensing using Linux is an ADDED cost instead of lowering costs. Since you add an non-uniform OS, it increases their support costs too. Therefore, such a plugin isn't going to help get Linux on desktops. The only thing that will truly help is 100% compatible applications that don't require MS licenses.
I think this is a great product none the less, but it's not going to help in the push for Linux on the desktop. You're adding additional cost to get compatibility you'd have if you just stayed with windows. $40 (assuming volume discount) * 500 machines = $20000 in addition to MS licensing fees.
There's a major problem I see with things like this. Most large companies have site wide licenses for MS products. This allows them to install Office or Windows on as many machines as they like with no licensing problems. Seeing as how this product (and the Crossover Plugin) require the MS products, all this does is add cost to the IT department. I say this because I'm trying to get our soon to be windows boxes converted to Linux boxes (or atleast with a Linux partition), and all options to ensure 100% compatibility increase costs. OpenOffice is a great product, but it's word filter doesn't work 100% and that's what is needed. 100% compatibility. My companies reliance on windows is a whole other issue.
Ya know, I got sick of telemarketers in college one semester and had a rather odd friend who was quite good at talking about odd topics for long periods of time, so I decided to let him talk to the next telemarker I got when he was in my room. He talked to the telemarketer for half an hour about jello and fish. The telemarketer (a credit card company) kept trying to change the subject to the offer, and he'd change it back to fish or jello. My roommate and I were rolling on the floor trying not to laugh out loud. The telemarketer actually had to stop the conversation and hang up. I didn't receive another call from a telemarketer all year.
Probably wouldn't work on spammers though. The very technology that allows us to get rid of spam easily (IE filters) would be able to be used by the spammers. Assuming they knew how.:)
I have actually gotten Debian onto a similiar system only it was a 386 with 16 meg of ram. Man was the installation SLOW. However, I was originally able to get it onto a 60 meg disk with some room to spare. The original configuration I tried was of Debian 2.0 and it fit onto the 40 meg of HD space left after I configured swap with some removing of standard install packages. I don't know how small Slack can get, but Debian's install can be trimmed quite a bit.
Actually, I've been in the work force for a year or so and I know exactly what you mean. However, I'm more fortunate in that I work with people who all work hrad, even if some aren't as technically gifted as others. However, the team atmospheres that I delt with in college are COMPLETELY different from the ones I have experienced in the real world. For one, there's far more beauracracy in real world decisions and very rarely do you start from scratch. Usually you're bandaiding some crappy piece of software that management won't let you re-write. That is not the situation you run into in college groups. Therefore, college groups teach you very little about the "real world" group.
But if you have someone in your group who isn't as talented (but tries hard) as others, how do you handle that? You have to let them do something or it's not fair to that student. On the other hand, letting him do something may not be fair to the group because he A) May not be able to do it or B) Might not do it well. If he does do something and the other group members re-implement it better, that's not his fault either but it covers up his work. There are all sorts of situations like this that can't be solved fairly to all people. Not to mention most people don't have the guts to tell someone else they stink at X. Afterall, everyone in the group is a student and to say person X is better than person Y is rather arrogant. Or seems that way anyway.
Why would this get struck down? If the technology existed but only network studios used it and someone comes up with a way to use that same technology in the common realm (live TV), why is that patent not valid? It may be an old technology, but it is a new usage of that technology. It has never been in the common realm before, and therefore new. Patents are indeed supposed to be about an implementation so if time delayed techniques are used in broadcasting it doesn't mean that someone can't come up with an alternative method of doing the same thing and patent it. They just can't use the same method in their patent. I've seen no evidence that this company copied network studios technology, so it should be valid.
The big question is whether TiVo used this specific rendition of the technology.
I agree completely. In fact, there is a guy (can't remember his name) who became VERY wealthy by "patent squatting". He would think of ideas and patent them and then sue companies that would implement the ideas many years later. There are supposedly laws against this sort of behavior now, but they don't seem to be in effect for companies. I should have mentioned that the timing of the whole afair seemed shakey, but the patent itself seems valid.
Having relatively recently graduated from college, I don't really see a way that this can be done. Most of my group experiences involved maybe half of the group caring about their grade, and the other half being ok with a C. You then end up with an extremely unbalanced work load as the ones who care the most do the most and produce the better product. Then they usually have to go around and fix up the people's work who really didn't care as much. All in all, it rarely leads to a produtive group and doesn't teach you much about the work force.
That being said, I have been involved in good groups, and those have been fun. When the work is divided evenly and everyone wants to do well, you end up with a higher quality product for less work per person. They have lately attempted a rating system of teammates, but I really haven't seen much come out of that. That could work, but unless you see everyone's grades (and since I was a student I didn't) you can't know for sure.
Bottom line is you can't ever differientiate any one person's work in a group effort. In the terms of code, if a module is crap and buggy, I'd rather rewrite it correctly than fix crappy code. That "hides", so to speak, the original authors work. Group work really isn't the way to evaluate individual people.
Personally, I think the beginning years should be individual work as you learn the basics, and the later years group work. You'll have to find a way to account for each person's abliity though, which isn't easy.
People on slashdot have a tendency to speak badly of technology patents, and for the most part I agree, but this one seems valid. Look at when it was filed. 1992. Very very few people were even thinking about the idea of pausing live TV back then. Just because it is a simple idea (especially now) does not mean the patent isn't valid when it was filed for. That's the nature of technology. You could make a case of "patent squatting" since the company doesn't appear to have done anything with the patent, but that's a whole other can of worms.
The company could be an "idea" company like Rambus, which I can't really say I like the idea of, but they've been around for a long time. I guess they add value somewhere.
Wouldn't building your own computer be legal since all the hardware you'll be able to buy will have the copy controls embedded in them? If you used parts that didn't have these controls in place after the bill is passed I'd agree, but I doubt that would be possible. All places making/sell non-compliant hardware would be sued into submission. Or am I missing something?
Um....What crack pipe were you smoking when you wrote this? It seems to have completely disconnected you from reality.
I'm not saying the US is perfect in it's dealings with other nations, but NOTHING can justify this. This violence is very real to all Americans, and that fact that you would suggest otherwise tells me you have no idea what the hell you are talking about. You've obviously never been affiliated with a country that has this massive an attack against it. Pearl Harbor was bad, and this is worse.
The people who have committed these violent acts of terror are cowards who refuse to fight for themselves. Anyone can die, it takes real people to live and fight for their cause. America is criticised by people and nations all the time (many people on slashdot do so daily), so to say these people had to resort to this sort of violence is stupid. In fact, since no one has taken credit for it, they can't be making much of a statement now can they? And when did killing tens of thousands of people help anyone's cause in ANY way? The answer is it doesn't. These people deserve no sympathy.
Try thinking a little before you post next time. Your post is just offensive jibberish.
Yes, our economy runs on competition but when was the last time you saw ANYONE compete with MS on the desktop? I'm truly not too worried about the server market (yet) because NT simply can't cut it and Linux is able to do 99% of what NT can far cheaper. NT simply can't replace the high end Unix's so they are rather locked into their market segment while Linux slow eats away at it. The spoiler to this thinking is MS's dominance on the desktop. As people think only MS for desktop, they invariably also think only MS for servers. Right now, there are enough people in the right places to prevent the mindless MS masses from converting everything to the less efficient NT, but that may not always be the case. There is no competition in the desktop, which could lead to no competition in the server market too (but that is admittedly a LONG shot). If there was a company that competed with MS on the desktop I would agree with you but there isn't. Therefore, the market does go where they direct it.
To think that Bush is responsible for every decision that comes out of his administration is ascinine. There is simply WAY too much going on in the gov't for the president to make every decision. That is why he appoints people. Granted, he is going to appoint people that he thinks will make decisions that he will like, but HE is not going to make all the decisions. It's simply impossible. There are far more important things to deal with on a daily basis that the lawsuit against MS. As I said, you can get upset with Bush for appointing Ashcroft, but not for Ashcroft making a decision. It is probably the best decision anyway, since the breakup would take YEARS to go through (if at all) and therefore not really make a difference in the long run. Now, the argument you make where the US drops a bomb on China is completely different. That is a matter of national security so yes, the president is going to make the decision. If MS stays a monopoly, the world isn't going to go hungry, go to war, or cause the collapse of the US. There's a difference in scope between the two situations.
PS. Sorry for posting this twice, but it appears that slashdot put my response in as an AC. I've been having many a problems staying logged in lately.
Slashdot Mirror
The only reason I use Gnome is for corner panels. I started out use KDE 1, and some friends were running Gnome with corner panels I I figured I'd give that a try. Despite the fact that gmc was a graphical front-end to sigsegv at the time, I never went back. Corner panels with auto-hide is like tabbed browsing in my opinion. Once you try, you don't go back.
I tried creating corner panels in KDE 2.2, but it just wasn't the same. It wasn't easy to setup and I never got farther than creating a single corner-type panel out of the main panel. KDE allows you to create more panels, but I couldn't figure out to make them act like the main panel (with auto-hide and what not).
I submitted a bug report to the KDE team about adding corner panels, but they terminated it and said to resize the panel. Maybe I'm missing something about panel creation. I'll try messing with 3.x once Debian gets it into unstable. Even so, I doubt I'd switch from Gnome. The apps I like all look nicer in Gnome (Gaim, Gnucash, etc) since they use the same toolkit at Gnome, but their integration isn't as tight.
Both desktops are great products but I just can't leave corner panels. I use apps from KDE every once in a while though.
KhyronActually, AMD's "offical" line about their "model number" (performance rating) is that it is a comparison of their current processor to their previous offerings, not a comparison to equivalent P4's. Granted, we all know they're really comparing to a P4. I'm just stating their "offical" line.
KhyronThis just in:
Market Analysts predicting new business models will be $1 billion (or larger) industry by some date in the near future will be a $1 billion (or larger) industry sometime in the near future.
You have a great argument except for one thing. The US is NOT a democracy. It is a Republic, and there is a difference. It's not a difference that is relevant to your arugment, but the fact that you misrepresent what you are arguing against discredits you a little.
I hate to nitpick, but it really irritates me that most people on slashdot we quite willing to berate the US' type of government and complain that their government is failing/corrupt/whatever yet fail to spend the time to learn the type of government they are beratting. Yes, it doesn't really have a direct impact on the arguments, but it sure does make people look stupid. Is it too much to ask to take a history course and retain just a LITTLE bit of knowledge?
On a more interesting note, if you truely want to see where we could be headed, look at the Roman Republic. We are not the exact system, but the effects to starting to be a little similar.
KhyronWhile I agree this is probably an issue to many people, I would like to point out that some people CAN'T get satellite TV. I live an in apartment complex and my apartment faces north. Being on the second floor of a three floor building effectively means that I can't get satellite TV. Believe me, I tried. Apartment complexes tend to not be too keen on letting their tenants put things on the roof. :)
You also probably have to deal with the fact that people don't like to be roped in for a year on things and probably have a natural aversion to new technology and having someone put something on their roof. As for clarity, I've heard that satellite TV can have issues in bad storms where most cable TV doesn't. That isn't the case for my cable of course. Anything stronger than a small gust of wind causes it to go out of whack. ;)
KhyronI constantly see people making all sorts of incorrect statements about WineX, and to those people I say try it before you speak. You don't have to install the games in Windows, and in fact, WineX tells you NOT to. You install it to a Linux partition and windows isn't needed for ANYTHING.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Transgaming to doing a very good service to Linux, and here's why. Many keep windows around to play games. If Transgaming can fully implement DirectX (still quite a while off), then that gives people one less reason to keep windows around. True, the games won't be native linuc games, but if you really want linux to succeed on the desktop, you people need to realize it'll take baby steps. First, you take away the reason for people to have windows. If they want windows to play games, then create complete compatibility with windows games. As people play windows games in linux, they stop having a MS OS to play games on. When this number of people hit critical mass, game developers can then start to write native Linux games and be assurred it has a large audience. It won't happen overnight, but it won't happen at ALL without full windows compatiblity first. Be patient.
Khyron
I'm sorry, but I have to take issue with everyone in the Linux gaming community continually saying that wine/winex is the wrong way to implement games. All wine/winex is doing is re-implementing windows' API on Linux. Linux has implemented SMB services for better compatibility with Windows, so why is this any different? It's not sacrificing anything, providing better compatiblity for Linux, and allowing Linux gamers to play many games sooner than would otherwise be possible (if at all). These people need to get off their high horses and realize that wine/winex is nothing but another API. If it makes gaming easier on Linux, great. If it gets gaming companies to realize that there is a Linux market, great; even if they are just using windows api calls. In the end, wine could become obsolete if companies code straight for Linux, but wine/winex isn't hurting ANYTHING now and only helping the future. If eventually companies want to code for only linux, they can do that and will be welcomed with open arms. Until that time, these companies wouldn't even recognize a Linux gaming market without wine/winex (granted it could be argued they don't now). In the mean time, wine/winex is providing a valuable service to Linux. Stop berating Transgaming's approach. Without them, I'd still have to boot to windows if I wanted to play Civ III or D2. Whether people like it or not, this is a good way to play games in Linux. Atleast for now.
Yes I'm a subscriber to Transgaming, but I truly don't play many games. The ones I'd want are available on Linux thanks to them. I haven't booted to windows to play a game in a long time. It's that the eventual goal? To play games on Linux and show there's a market for games on Linux? Who cares how?
KhyronWhat problems are you experiencing? I have a SCSI DVD drive and a SCSI CDRW drive and can run games. WineX 2.01 recognizes my DVD drive but the copy protection validation messes it up somehow. I can play games with my CDRW just fine, including copy protection validation. Admittedly I've only played Diablo II as that's about the only game I really play, but if it works for one game it would probably work for others. Are you sure it's not a config issue on your end?
Granted, I have to run the game as root for some odd reason, but that's relatively minor in the scheme of things. Although, I must be logged in as root and not su-ed to root for it to work. Go figure. I haven't messed with it enough to get a normal user account working. I have a working solution and too busy to fix it more.
KhyronThey haven't cut out the Ents. I saw the teaser that was shown at the end of LotR:FotR and it shows an Ent, albeit for about 10 seconds. They are in the movie and from what I saw, they look incredible.
KhyronSeriously, what's so great about MMORPGs? Do people just like throwing money away? You have to pay to get the game on your system (whether it be PC or console) and then you have to pay a monthly fee to play the game. Let's take a normal rate of $10/month. That's $120/year just to PLAY a game you probably paid atleast $35 to get, plus the cost of an ISP. Does anyone realize that's just stupid? Do you REALLY need a game that never ends, sucks all your money out of the bank, and withdraws you from a real social life? Why are people happy this is coming to the console games?
I realize everyone's tastes are different, but online games seem extremely expensive to me. Diablo II was a game that never really ended and I just paid a one time flat fee to buy the game. Why would I want to spend even more money to play such a game online?
I've played almost every FF game since FF 1 on NES, and with the exception of FF8, I've largely enjoyed all of them. I am bummed that FFXI is a MMORPG game simply because I begin to wonder if they'll target all their future RPGs for onling play. I will not play online games with the current cost structure (I have a hard time justifying paying $50 for a game and usually wait until they become $20). Square has largely been a reliable source for great RPGs (with a few exceptions), and if they start making online games only, what's left to fill the void? I've always enjoyed RPG games and would be rather upset if they all went online and as such disappeared from my gaming life.
I for one am bummed. Anyone know if FFXII will be online also?
KhyronThat helps explain my confusion. Since DMCA stands for Digital Millenium Copyright Act, I figured it was also included copyright rules and regulations. The rest of the actions in the bill (prevention of circumvention stuff) I knew about. I agree that I don't see how this law can be amended, and that it can only really be repealled.
KhyronThis may have been brought up before, but why (besides the obvious part of legislation preventing circumvention) was the DMCA proposed in its current form?
Let me explain my question. A copyright holder is a copyright holder as far as I know (which admittingly isn't far), so why would there need to be a bill that deals with copyright material in a digital form? Why does the medium matter? Sure it's easier to transfer digital material than any other, but SO? It's still illegal.
The reason I bring this up is that IF the DMCA is ammended to allow fair use (which unfortunately I highly doubt will happen), we end up with ANOTHER set of copyright laws that will just add confusion. Why wasn't the DMCA a bill simply to deal with illegal distribution/reproduction of copyrighted material instead of an additional copyright bill? It would've achieved the same purpose and included wording that would conflict with fair-use just as easily.
I don't know much about why certain bills are written they way they are, nor am I especially strong in copyright knowledge. I've tried to read the DMCA, but get lost in the legalesse speech. I'm just kinda curious why our Congress felt the need to create another set of copyright laws (albeit inspired by industry) when all that appears to truely be wanted was more strict laws against reproduction and illegal use.
KhyronMy point is that this is a negative to the IT dept. If I'm trying to get Linux as a desktop instead of Windows, the fact that it's much lower cost in licensing is mooted by the site licenses. IT depts like uniformity, and if you're trying to go against the grain you have to show them they get something positive out of it. The biggest positive would be the cost savings, but because of site licensing using Linux is an ADDED cost instead of lowering costs. Since you add an non-uniform OS, it increases their support costs too. Therefore, such a plugin isn't going to help get Linux on desktops. The only thing that will truly help is 100% compatible applications that don't require MS licenses.
I think this is a great product none the less, but it's not going to help in the push for Linux on the desktop. You're adding additional cost to get compatibility you'd have if you just stayed with windows. $40 (assuming volume discount) * 500 machines = $20000 in addition to MS licensing fees.
Khyron
There's a major problem I see with things like this. Most large companies have site wide licenses for MS products. This allows them to install Office or Windows on as many machines as they like with no licensing problems. Seeing as how this product (and the Crossover Plugin) require the MS products, all this does is add cost to the IT department. I say this because I'm trying to get our soon to be windows boxes converted to Linux boxes (or atleast with a Linux partition), and all options to ensure 100% compatibility increase costs. OpenOffice is a great product, but it's word filter doesn't work 100% and that's what is needed. 100% compatibility. My companies reliance on windows is a whole other issue.
Khyron
Ya know, I got sick of telemarketers in college one semester and had a rather odd friend who was quite good at talking about odd topics for long periods of time, so I decided to let him talk to the next telemarker I got when he was in my room. He talked to the telemarketer for half an hour about jello and fish. The telemarketer (a credit card company) kept trying to change the subject to the offer, and he'd change it back to fish or jello. My roommate and I were rolling on the floor trying not to laugh out loud. The telemarketer actually had to stop the conversation and hang up. I didn't receive another call from a telemarketer all year.
:)
Probably wouldn't work on spammers though. The very technology that allows us to get rid of spam easily (IE filters) would be able to be used by the spammers. Assuming they knew how.
Khyron
I have actually gotten Debian onto a similiar system only it was a 386 with 16 meg of ram. Man was the installation SLOW. However, I was originally able to get it onto a 60 meg disk with some room to spare. The original configuration I tried was of Debian 2.0 and it fit onto the 40 meg of HD space left after I configured swap with some removing of standard install packages. I don't know how small Slack can get, but Debian's install can be trimmed quite a bit.
Khyron
Actually, I've been in the work force for a year or so and I know exactly what you mean. However, I'm more fortunate in that I work with people who all work hrad, even if some aren't as technically gifted as others. However, the team atmospheres that I delt with in college are COMPLETELY different from the ones I have experienced in the real world. For one, there's far more beauracracy in real world decisions and very rarely do you start from scratch. Usually you're bandaiding some crappy piece of software that management won't let you re-write. That is not the situation you run into in college groups. Therefore, college groups teach you very little about the "real world" group.
Khyron
But if you have someone in your group who isn't as talented (but tries hard) as others, how do you handle that? You have to let them do something or it's not fair to that student. On the other hand, letting him do something may not be fair to the group because he A) May not be able to do it or B) Might not do it well. If he does do something and the other group members re-implement it better, that's not his fault either but it covers up his work. There are all sorts of situations like this that can't be solved fairly to all people. Not to mention most people don't have the guts to tell someone else they stink at X. Afterall, everyone in the group is a student and to say person X is better than person Y is rather arrogant. Or seems that way anyway.
Khyron
Why would this get struck down? If the technology existed but only network studios used it and someone comes up with a way to use that same technology in the common realm (live TV), why is that patent not valid? It may be an old technology, but it is a new usage of that technology. It has never been in the common realm before, and therefore new. Patents are indeed supposed to be about an implementation so if time delayed techniques are used in broadcasting it doesn't mean that someone can't come up with an alternative method of doing the same thing and patent it. They just can't use the same method in their patent. I've seen no evidence that this company copied network studios technology, so it should be valid.
The big question is whether TiVo used this specific rendition of the technology.
Khyron
I agree completely. In fact, there is a guy (can't remember his name) who became VERY wealthy by "patent squatting". He would think of ideas and patent them and then sue companies that would implement the ideas many years later. There are supposedly laws against this sort of behavior now, but they don't seem to be in effect for companies. I should have mentioned that the timing of the whole afair seemed shakey, but the patent itself seems valid.
Khyron
Having relatively recently graduated from college, I don't really see a way that this can be done. Most of my group experiences involved maybe half of the group caring about their grade, and the other half being ok with a C. You then end up with an extremely unbalanced work load as the ones who care the most do the most and produce the better product. Then they usually have to go around and fix up the people's work who really didn't care as much. All in all, it rarely leads to a produtive group and doesn't teach you much about the work force.
:)
That being said, I have been involved in good groups, and those have been fun. When the work is divided evenly and everyone wants to do well, you end up with a higher quality product for less work per person. They have lately attempted a rating system of teammates, but I really haven't seen much come out of that. That could work, but unless you see everyone's grades (and since I was a student I didn't) you can't know for sure.
Bottom line is you can't ever differientiate any one person's work in a group effort. In the terms of code, if a module is crap and buggy, I'd rather rewrite it correctly than fix crappy code. That "hides", so to speak, the original authors work. Group work really isn't the way to evaluate individual people.
Personally, I think the beginning years should be individual work as you learn the basics, and the later years group work. You'll have to find a way to account for each person's abliity though, which isn't easy.
Basically, it isn't an easy thing to do.
Khyron
People on slashdot have a tendency to speak badly of technology patents, and for the most part I agree, but this one seems valid. Look at when it was filed. 1992. Very very few people were even thinking about the idea of pausing live TV back then. Just because it is a simple idea (especially now) does not mean the patent isn't valid when it was filed for. That's the nature of technology. You could make a case of "patent squatting" since the company doesn't appear to have done anything with the patent, but that's a whole other can of worms.
The company could be an "idea" company like Rambus, which I can't really say I like the idea of, but they've been around for a long time. I guess they add value somewhere.
Khyron
Wouldn't building your own computer be legal since all the hardware you'll be able to buy will have the copy controls embedded in them? If you used parts that didn't have these controls in place after the bill is passed I'd agree, but I doubt that would be possible. All places making/sell non-compliant hardware would be sued into submission. Or am I missing something?
Khyron
Um....What crack pipe were you smoking when you wrote this? It seems to have completely disconnected you from reality.
I'm not saying the US is perfect in it's dealings with other nations, but NOTHING can justify this. This violence is very real to all Americans, and that fact that you would suggest otherwise tells me you have no idea what the hell you are talking about. You've obviously never been affiliated with a country that has this massive an attack against it. Pearl Harbor was bad, and this is worse.
The people who have committed these violent acts of terror are cowards who refuse to fight for themselves. Anyone can die, it takes real people to live and fight for their cause. America is criticised by people and nations all the time (many people on slashdot do so daily), so to say these people had to resort to this sort of violence is stupid. In fact, since no one has taken credit for it, they can't be making much of a statement now can they? And when did killing tens of thousands of people help anyone's cause in ANY way? The answer is it doesn't. These people deserve no sympathy.
Try thinking a little before you post next time. Your post is just offensive jibberish.
Khyron
Yes, our economy runs on competition but when was the last time you saw ANYONE compete with MS on the desktop? I'm truly not too worried about the server market (yet) because NT simply can't cut it and Linux is able to do 99% of what NT can far cheaper. NT simply can't replace the high end Unix's so they are rather locked into their market segment while Linux slow eats away at it. The spoiler to this thinking is MS's dominance on the desktop. As people think only MS for desktop, they invariably also think only MS for servers. Right now, there are enough people in the right places to prevent the mindless MS masses from converting everything to the less efficient NT, but that may not always be the case. There is no competition in the desktop, which could lead to no competition in the server market too (but that is admittedly a LONG shot). If there was a company that competed with MS on the desktop I would agree with you but there isn't. Therefore, the market does go where they direct it.
To think that Bush is responsible for every decision that comes out of his administration is ascinine. There is simply WAY too much going on in the gov't for the president to make every decision. That is why he appoints people. Granted, he is going to appoint people that he thinks will make decisions that he will like, but HE is not going to make all the decisions. It's simply impossible. There are far more important things to deal with on a daily basis that the lawsuit against MS. As I said, you can get upset with Bush for appointing Ashcroft, but not for Ashcroft making a decision. It is probably the best decision anyway, since the breakup would take YEARS to go through (if at all) and therefore not really make a difference in the long run. Now, the argument you make where the US drops a bomb on China is completely different. That is a matter of national security so yes, the president is going to make the decision. If MS stays a monopoly, the world isn't going to go hungry, go to war, or cause the collapse of the US. There's a difference in scope between the two situations.
PS. Sorry for posting this twice, but it appears that slashdot put my response in as an AC. I've been having many a problems staying logged in lately.
Khyron