What would be better is that the bank notified you and gave you 5 working days to clear it or a chance to avoid the charge. They used to many, many years ago but not now.
But instead you prefer to get financially-raped instead.
That's like saying "OK - you can F*** me up the arse but could you use a little more lube instead?"
Sir, I believe it is you who should "Seek professional advice".
(1) "I'm tempted to say your post is troll-like but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and put it down to retarded-like ignorance."
OK - I did not say the post was a troll and reading the above line what I posted was maybe a bit harsh.
(2) Please do not attack my friends and call them "idiots".
(3) "incapable of doing simple arithmetic and understand that more going out than is coming in" - This is fine if your financial situation is straightforward. If you have a family of 2 kids, both parents are working, husband decides to walk away from everything and cease his financial contribution then things get messy very quickly. Believe me the bank is not understanding at all.
(4) What about the businesses that have suffered from banks withdrawing financial support (there are a few legitimate reasons why this is needed) and then hitting them with "unauthorised" fees afterwards?
(5) I can add and subtract - my finances are fine as I am sure my friends can add and subtract too.
If someone is overdrawn by £2 and then the bank charges a £35 unauthorised-overdraft is "fair"
If someone is in financial difficulty and the bank keeps charging £35 unauthorised-overdraft fees every month thus compounding the problem. That person could have lost thier job.
These are not hyperthetical scenarios - this has happened to people I know and to a certain degree myself too.
I'm all for personal responsibility and "free" banking is nice.
"..they can charge the customer agreed to.. " - Yeah we all know how banks responsible banks have been recently.
I'm tempted to say your post is troll-like but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and put it down to retarded-like ignorance.
Let me get this straight. In previous rulings copyright holders were denied the blocking of sites on the grounds of free speech and censorship.
The Supreme court gets involved and blocking P2P sites suddenly becomes a good idea?
We have a Supreme court in the UK and something similar happened recently with "Unfair" bank charges.
Two (maybe one was an appeal?) court cases were held to decide whether bank charges fell under UK consumer law and thus can be challenged that bank charges were excessive. Both times the courts agreed this was the case.
The Supreme court got involved and funnily enough ruled that this was not the case which now means banks can charge what they like.
Since Lord Mandy went on holiday and "bumped into" into Mr Geffen - the recommendations of the digital communications report and the concerns of ISPs were completely ignored. It appears the "3-stikes" legislation is to go ahead after all. The EU took a dim view of this policy and warned the UK it was illegal and against the EU principles of free speech and human rights.
I'm pretty sure the EU slapped-down France the first time France tried to implement this policy too.
However, recently: 1)France recently tried a second time and no comment from the EU has been heard. 2)Lord Mandy's propsed legislation appears to be going ahead. 3)Italy are ready to censor the internet.
What happened to suddenly make all these points "agreeable" and not challenged by the EU ?
There must have been intense lobbying and money used by copyright holders to silence the many critics of these proposals.
It appears our "democracy" is firmly under the control of commercial entities.
I am amazed that so many people are willing to vote for X-Factor and who should be no1 in the Christmas charts but will not vote for who runs the UK!
That's like totally horrifying.
At least protest for a something worthwhile - e.g. against clause 11 of the "Digital Economy Bill"http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/001/10001.13-19.html Essentially gives Lord Mandelson complete control of what is published on Internet and unrivalled power and "interpretation" of copyright law.
Governments *hate* the idea of people having too much freedom.
Why? It means you'll start asking too many questions and governments don't like that!
It also means you become difficult to control.
How? By keeping you fearful - global warming, recession, terrorism, nuclear arms and now the freedom of the Internet (terrorists and paedophiles use it) These subjects in themselves are genuine concerns but governments have a knack of focusing on them and using them to conrol the general population. Usually by using extreme measures via law and policy legislation.
Web censorship is no different. Governments need us to be passive and compliant. Fortunately free speech is *impossible* to control it's part of who you are. You can censor or prohibit the *mechanisms* that express free speech but never "control" it.
Suppose Italy do censor the Internet and other countries follow. Do you really think that will be the end of it?
I don't think so.
If they start blocking web sites (probably at ISP level) then people will turn to encryption and deliver content that way. If encrypting the web becomes illegal then some other mechanism will manifest itself (e.g. bypassing the ISP entirely).
I hate to say this, but some form of government control is coming to the Internet whether you like it or not.
Until we hear the quote *in context* then I think what Mr Schmidt said was bloody obvious!
Most people realise that if a web-type service is offered to you free then it is obvious the company involved is using your data for profit. How else can they fund the service you are using?
I use google mail and of course use thier search services as well - I am fully aware that my data is being harvested so I am hardly going to something suspect.
Then again you have a *choice* to use Google services or not. But depending how much infrastructure Google want to get involved in will that *choice* become more difficult to take (e.g. DNS)?
If yoy feel strongly about this - use an alternative.
Or visit other freely available news-based sites across the internet!
As far as I understand a newspaper will allow you to read x number of articles before you are redirected to a login/payment page then it is up to you to pay for it or go elsewhere.
At the end of the day it all depends on how much you are charged and how.
It's worth a try - charge too much and people just won't pay and will you still get adverts even though you have paid for the article or subscription?
That is *exactly* what I am saying - if they actually did it.
I don't think Nintendo would be stupid enough to start some sort of legal proceedings but I think Nokia took at unnecessary risk but *offically* and *actively* promoting a video that basically said "Look Nintendo - our hardware can run your computer games" - the video even has a "Nokia.com" watermark over it.
I think to risk the time, effort and money in marketing and developing the N900 over something as "legally charged" like this is insane.
Realisticly, Nintendo will probably do nothing maybe issue a stern warning or something.
But then again it comes down to "common-sense" which everyone knows are "amply abundant" in corporate law and motivations behind many lawsuits.
Actually, the "launch" of the N900 has been shambolic to say the least!
For Nokia (a global company!) to actually sanction a video showing the N900 running software in a "legally-gray" area is typical of the brain-dead decisions made by Nokia "management".
What if Nintendo decided to pursue this legally?
I know that emulation in itself is legal but I imagine Nintendo have much deeper pockets that Nokia and could use a court case to make an example of Nokia.
*IF* Nintendo *had* an actual case they could halt the sale of the phone or demand changes to the software?
At the very least financial compensation?
Using emulation of software as an "official" selling point of the phone is just typical of the wierd decisions made by Nokia and seems a bit desperate.
Nokia a *European* company decide to ship the N900 in the USA first (nothing wrong in itself) but considering thier market share is less than 9% and no carrier willing to subsidise the phone is pretty stupid - will you have to pay for the phone upfront?.
Here in the UK Nokia have a 40% share (and losing it to iPhone) of the market and launching in the UK last! Also the release of the N900 was supposed to be at the end of October then delayed over three times (now 4th December) - people pre-ordered it in October (expecting it at the end of the October) and just maybe will get the phone this week - it's the first week of December - *if* you pre-ordered early!
*Many* people were pissed-off about this and some of cancelled thier orders.
I think this was an under-handed tactic to delay the consumer's purchasing decision - it's now December, wait a couple more months and some sexy mobile phones will be hitting the market (e.g. Motorola Droid and se X10 Android phones)
Oh and originally the phone would not work with the "3" network in the UK without a "pending" update - a major oversight and.... Portrait mode only worked on the "phone call" application - other apps *only* worked in landscape!
If you go to the ACS web site thier definition of infringement seems to only apply to P2P traffic and even then seems to be limited to uploads.
Anyone with half a brain-cell would not use P2P networks for piracy anyway!
If you are really worried, the article has a link to http://www.beingthreatened.com/ - they seem to have some genuine advice.
By the way if you decide to pay the fine, it means you have admitted to guilt and will not be able to contest it or get your money back! If you recieve a letter asking for payment under NO circumstances pay it!
Also, reply to the letter as soon as you can - you have a limited time to respond to it (cannot remember how long).
My laptop is an AMD Sempron with ATI "R300M xpress".
The last ATI driver to support the chipset was 9.3 - the current version is 9.10ish(?).
For a good few years I have enjoyed 3d acceleration with 9.3 drivers and xorg 1.4.2 (Slackware 12.2).
However, Slackware 13 contains the latest xorg drivers (1.6) and guess what? the latest xorg is not suppported by 9.3.
I can use the open-source version of the driver but 3d acceleration is pretty poor in comparison.
Even if they fully open-sourced the legacy drivers then this would not be an issue - otherwise I am screwed.
Most current linux distribution use the latest xorg drivers - this means I will have to "downgrade" to older xorg drivers to enjoy "proper" 3d performance.
Judging by this year's AMD/ATI driver support, support for this card will probably be considered "legacy" and cease to be maintaned in a couple of years.
That means no more xorg/kernel updates for you!
If the drivers were *truly* open sourced this would never be an issue.
Of course you can buy a "supported" card every 2 years and upgrade. If you have a laptop with a "legacy" card, well your pretty much f*****!
Thanks for the advice - You're right, Plasma is indeed crashing on start.
However, I have tried removing stuff from my.kde4 folder but it does not seem to help. I have tried Alt+F2 but nothing seems to happen - it is as if any windows that do open they are obscured by the "white screen".
When I get some spare time I'll investigate further.
The annoying thing is yes Plasma is crashing but why show a useless white screen - that is lame fallback behaviour! Would it make sense to alert the user that something "bad" has happened and show a "basic" desktop or launch a default application instead - or even some kind of "safe mode"?
Most of the other kde components run fine under a different desktop environment (e.g.fluxbox) so why show a white screen - it is completely unhelpful!
Has the "white/black" screen of death been fixed yet?
I currently run Slackware 12.2 & 13 on my laptop (ati r300 graphics card). Although all the KDE (4.3.2) apps work, when I start the KDE environment I get the splash screen then....a blank white screen appears instead!
As far as I understand if Phonon (or plasmoids?) has *any* issues (e.g. compositing, missing libraries) it freaks out on shows a white screen. It just seems a bit "brittle"!
Got me completely stumped and stops me from using KDE. I've used Gnome for many years and just wanted to try something different - not to mention that Gnome switched over to pulseaudio and depreciated the "Volume" applet - wtf?.
I've tried every fix I can Google but still the same thing.
I think KDE 4 has come a long way and generally really impressed with it. Gnome 3 is due next year and I get the impression that the "re-design" seems a bit muddled.
From a practical perpsective this is good news and a step forward.
However, if part of this "open source" announcement means a binary-blob needs to be included on an open-source OS (e.g. Linux) should we still be worried?
Off the top of my head I can think of graphics cards, wireless network adapters, software and scanner-type devices that need binary "blobs" to be usable.
I am worried because this could be a growing trend of reliance on companies policy of releasing binary only software onto a open-source OS.
E.g. I have a laptop with an ATI-based graphics card (r200M). I have been using the closed source driver to enable me to enjoy meaningful 3d-accelerated performace on my laptop. Unfortunately the new version of the driver(9.10?) now considers my card "legacy" which means the previous version (9.2) will not compile with the latest Xorg release.
If the driver was *fully* open source then at least something can be done about it.
I had to deal with this with MS Windows - it's one of the many reasons I use Linux.
worst thing that could happen for the Android platform
Errrr, no. This is the best thing to happen to Android. It's about choice. Different manufacturers competing against each other to produce the "best" Android phone is a "good thing".
Imagine what would a PC user who wants to try Linux reacts if he sees 50+ different distributions...He would be confused and do not know how to choose.
Errrr,no. Generally people buy phones on call/usage charges, contract term, phone features and network coverage. There is already a diverse choice of phone os - e.g. symbian, blackberry's os, iphone os, microsoft... - as well as many manufacturers.
sorting out the features of different phones and the compatibility/usability of different apps among them... It would be worst than try to figure out if a given PC game can run properly on your home PC.
This is called "choice" and encourages manufacturers to observe market requirements(e.g. listen to customer) and hopefully drive down prices(unlikely). Whoever get closest to this wins. The main point of Android are these types of "compatibilty" problems (in theory) should go away. When you decide to buy or upgrade to another Android phone you can take all your donwloaded software with you. You do not have to start again and buy your apps all over again.
Having 100+ models works for ordinary mobile phones, as you mostly do not expect to install any extra software other than which comes with the phone. With a "smartphone" (I hate the term) that is practically a mini-PC, there is value in keeping a small set of uniform performance/feature profile. It is the same trade-off between PC gaming vs console gaming
This is usually called "progress" and "innovation". As devices become more sophisticated people want to do more with them - it's only natural. For example, "Non-smartphones" have smaller screens, no touchscreen and limited cpus - installing extra software is impractical. The iphone was the first mainstream mobile phone to make this easier - by your definition the iphone app store is an epic fail.
Oh and Android is Open-source, shouldn't we support it rather than put it down. Not just because it's open-source but as a product is well implemented and deserves some support.
I think the current available phones have a 520mhz processor. The Android software seems to run at an accetptable speed (since the os was updated to 1.5?) but I imagine any apps would be limited by the speed of the processor. I know this will change with newer phones - Acer are develping an android phone with 1ghz processor.
A camera flash!
I do not understand why many of the phones contain a 3 or 5 megapixel camera but no flash! Maybe it is related to cost/component size but come on! - this was acceptable with older phones but today I would like to think it is essential.
A physical keyboard!
I know this will add bulk to the phone but considering what android's potential can be (with the right hardware) this will make the phone much more versatile. What about a detachable keyboard?
More memory? The os runs in a java-like virtual machine. If it has any relation to Java does this mean it will exhibit memory consumption similar to Java? I also understand there is an API to bypass the vm and use native code.
As it stands I will be ordering the Nokia N900 at the end of October and cannot wait for the hardware to improve. Despite the hype I think the N900 will eventualy become a "niche" product.
On the other hand, the development of Android phones is great and appears it will dominate the mobile phone market. Hopefully it will drive competition and lead to the reduction of iphone obsession.
Speaking of iphones does the Android phones have a "Big Red Kill" switch too?
As far as I understand, it was never envisioned that users would actually type "http://www.whatever.com" in an "address bar", users were not supposed to see this at all - it was purely to be used by software and mark-up pages to specifiy the protocol.
I bought Neverwinter Nights years ago and still play it to this day.
One of the reasons I still play it is because they released additonal content (way after the game was released). I didn't mind paying for additional modules because a lot of work went into it and extended the life of the game.
On the other hand - The DLC for Dragon Age seems to "enhance"/"influence" the gameplay of the main game. Which to be fair is a bit naughty - to get the "full experience" of the game you have to buy an additional module!
If they released the DLC in say a few months later - maybe the reaction would not be so negative.
As far as I am aware there is no Linux version of Dragon Age - so I will not be buying it. The other reason I still play Neverwinter Nights is because it was well ported to Linux and is also the reason I did not buy the sequel.
I think this is part of a larger strategy to point people to thier Azure "Cloud" platform.
Microsoft will probably "open source" more of thier software if it serves the purpose of exposing Microsoft to more people.
If you expect them to one day open source any of thier major technologies (e.g. DirectX, Windows or SQL Server) you will be waiting a loooonnnng time before this will happen.
They will probably open source enough of the "connectivity" type of software to provide a "path of least resistance" to interoperate *into* the Azure platform.
Of course the Azure platform is *not* open source which means you will be *locked-into* thier technology. So sure, you may have open source client code at your disposal but it eventually will lead into a locked platform.
As a company they want to grow beyond "PC on every desk, Windows on every PC, on every phone, console, toaster, gerbil" - that's too limiting now, they want to be the central hub of the Internet and fully exploit "the cloud".
As a bonus everyone moves to a rental model (like the mainframes of years ago) - you don't own anything, you are bound by *thier* "terms and conditions" and you perpetually keep paying for stuff.
This is a corporation's wet dream.
In this case "It's a Trap" may be justified.
Or I am just paranoid and drink waaaayyy too much coffee.
Slashdot Mirror
Errr yeah, £20 is "so much better" than £35!
What would be better is that the bank notified you and gave you 5 working days to clear it or a chance to avoid the charge. They used to many, many years ago but not now.
But instead you prefer to get financially-raped instead.
That's like saying "OK - you can F*** me up the arse but could you use a little more lube instead?"
Sir, I believe it is you who should "Seek professional advice".
Was that the first time?
According to this article it has now been passed
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2249617/french-pass-revised-three/
(article dated 16 sep)
Right!
(1) "I'm tempted to say your post is troll-like but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and put it down to retarded-like ignorance."
OK - I did not say the post was a troll and reading the above line what I posted was maybe a bit harsh.
(2) Please do not attack my friends and call them "idiots".
(3) "incapable of doing simple arithmetic and understand that more going out than is coming in" - This is fine if your financial situation is straightforward. If you have a family of 2 kids, both parents are working, husband decides to walk away from everything and cease his financial contribution then things get messy very quickly. Believe me the bank is not understanding at all.
(4) What about the businesses that have suffered from banks withdrawing financial support (there are a few legitimate reasons why this is needed) and then hitting them with "unauthorised" fees afterwards?
(5) I can add and subtract - my finances are fine as I am sure my friends can add and subtract too.
I just think you arguments are very simplistic.
If someone is overdrawn by £2 and then the bank charges a £35 unauthorised-overdraft is "fair"
If someone is in financial difficulty and the bank keeps charging £35 unauthorised-overdraft fees every month thus compounding the problem. That person could have lost thier job.
These are not hyperthetical scenarios - this has happened to people I know and to a certain degree myself too.
I'm all for personal responsibility and "free" banking is nice.
"..they can charge the customer agreed to.. " - Yeah we all know how banks responsible banks have been recently.
I'm tempted to say your post is troll-like but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and put it down to retarded-like ignorance.
This is extremely worrying.
Let me get this straight. In previous rulings copyright holders were denied the blocking of sites on the grounds of free speech and censorship.
The Supreme court gets involved and blocking P2P sites suddenly becomes a good idea?
We have a Supreme court in the UK and something similar happened recently with "Unfair" bank charges.
Two (maybe one was an appeal?) court cases were held to decide whether bank charges fell under UK consumer law and thus can be challenged that bank charges were excessive. Both times the courts agreed this was the case.
The Supreme court got involved and funnily enough ruled that this was not the case which now means banks can charge what they like.
Since Lord Mandy went on holiday and "bumped into" into Mr Geffen - the recommendations of the digital communications report and the concerns of ISPs were completely ignored. It appears the "3-stikes" legislation is to go ahead after all.
The EU took a dim view of this policy and warned the UK it was illegal and against the EU principles of free speech and human rights.
I'm pretty sure the EU slapped-down France the first time France tried to implement this policy too.
However, recently:
1)France recently tried a second time and no comment from the EU has been heard.
2)Lord Mandy's propsed legislation appears to be going ahead.
3)Italy are ready to censor the internet.
What happened to suddenly make all these points "agreeable" and not challenged by the EU ?
There must have been intense lobbying and money used by copyright holders to silence the many critics of these proposals.
It appears our "democracy" is firmly under the control of commercial entities.
I loved "Yes, Minister". You don't get documentries like that anymore.
I am amazed that so many people are willing to vote for X-Factor and who should be no1 in the Christmas charts but will not vote for who runs the UK!
That's like totally horrifying.
At least protest for a something worthwhile - e.g. against clause 11 of the "Digital Economy Bill"http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/001/10001.13-19.html Essentially gives Lord Mandelson complete control of what is published on Internet and unrivalled power and "interpretation" of copyright law.
You can join petitions here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/list/open?cat=758
Then again Simon Cowell wants to "X-Factor" politics http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1236002/The-Politics-Factor-Simon-Cowell-unveils-plan-launch-election-debate-show.html This mentality scares the crap out of me!
Governments *hate* the idea of people having too much freedom.
Why?
It means you'll start asking too many questions and governments don't like that!
It also means you become difficult to control.
How?
By keeping you fearful - global warming, recession, terrorism, nuclear arms and now the freedom of the Internet (terrorists and paedophiles use it)
These subjects in themselves are genuine concerns but governments have a knack of focusing on them and using them to conrol the general population. Usually by using extreme measures via law and policy legislation.
Web censorship is no different. Governments need us to be passive and compliant. Fortunately free speech is *impossible* to control it's part of who you are. You can censor or prohibit the *mechanisms* that express free speech but never "control" it.
Suppose Italy do censor the Internet and other countries follow. Do you really think that will be the end of it?
I don't think so.
If they start blocking web sites (probably at ISP level) then people will turn to encryption and deliver content that way. If encrypting the web becomes illegal then some other mechanism will manifest itself (e.g. bypassing the ISP entirely).
I hate to say this, but some form of government control is coming to the Internet whether you like it or not.
So, be prepared.
As far as I am aware privacy is a *fundemantal* right of any citizen.
My house is in a "public" place with everyone else but within the confines of my home is totally my business no one elses.
Same thing with the internet - you can use "public" services or an alternative that would respect your privacy - there is always encryption too.
Schmidt's comments I imagine is in context of using Google services.
Until we hear the quote *in context* then I think what Mr Schmidt said was bloody obvious!
Most people realise that if a web-type service is offered to you free then it is obvious the company involved is using your data for profit.
How else can they fund the service you are using?
I use google mail and of course use thier search services as well - I am fully aware that my data is being harvested so I am hardly going to something suspect.
Then again you have a *choice* to use Google services or not. But depending how much infrastructure Google want to get involved in will that *choice* become more difficult to take (e.g. DNS)?
If yoy feel strongly about this - use an alternative.
Or visit other freely available news-based sites across the internet!
As far as I understand a newspaper will allow you to read x number of articles before you are redirected to a login/payment page then it is up to you to pay for it or go elsewhere.
At the end of the day it all depends on how much you are charged and how.
It's worth a try - charge too much and people just won't pay and will you still get adverts even though you have paid for the article or subscription?
what you imply to be a frivolous lawsuit?
That is *exactly* what I am saying - if they actually did it.
I don't think Nintendo would be stupid enough to start some sort of legal proceedings but I think Nokia took at unnecessary risk but *offically* and *actively* promoting a video that basically said "Look Nintendo - our hardware can run your computer games" - the video even has a "Nokia.com" watermark over it.
I think to risk the time, effort and money in marketing and developing the N900 over something as "legally charged" like this is insane.
Realisticly, Nintendo will probably do nothing maybe issue a stern warning or something.
But then again it comes down to "common-sense" which everyone knows are "amply abundant" in corporate law and motivations behind many lawsuits.
Actually, the "launch" of the N900 has been shambolic to say the least!
For Nokia (a global company!) to actually sanction a video showing the N900 running software in a "legally-gray" area is typical of the brain-dead decisions made by Nokia "management".
What if Nintendo decided to pursue this legally?
I know that emulation in itself is legal but I imagine Nintendo have much deeper pockets that Nokia and could use a court case to make an example of Nokia.
*IF* Nintendo *had* an actual case they could halt the sale of the phone or demand changes to the software?
At the very least financial compensation?
Using emulation of software as an "official" selling point of the phone is just typical of the wierd decisions made by Nokia and seems a bit desperate.
Nokia a *European* company decide to ship the N900 in the USA first (nothing wrong in itself) but considering thier market share is less than 9% and no carrier willing to subsidise the phone is pretty stupid - will you have to pay for the phone upfront?.
Here in the UK Nokia have a 40% share (and losing it to iPhone) of the market and launching in the UK last!
Also the release of the N900 was supposed to be at the end of October then delayed over three times (now 4th December) - people pre-ordered it in October (expecting it at the end of the October) and just maybe will get the phone this week - it's the first week of December - *if* you pre-ordered early!
*Many* people were pissed-off about this and some of cancelled thier orders.
I think this was an under-handed tactic to delay the consumer's purchasing decision - it's now December, wait a couple more months and some sexy mobile phones will be hitting the market (e.g. Motorola Droid and se X10 Android phones)
Oh and originally the phone would not work with the "3" network in the UK without a "pending" update - a major oversight and....
Portrait mode only worked on the "phone call" application - other apps *only* worked in landscape!
If you go to the ACS web site thier definition of infringement seems to only apply to P2P traffic and even then seems to be limited to uploads.
Anyone with half a brain-cell would not use P2P networks for piracy anyway!
If you are really worried, the article has a link to http://www.beingthreatened.com/ - they seem to have some genuine advice.
By the way if you decide to pay the fine, it means you have admitted to guilt and will not be able to contest it or get your money back!
If you recieve a letter asking for payment under NO circumstances pay it!
Also, reply to the letter as soon as you can - you have a limited time to respond to it (cannot remember how long).
Time to start using TOR: http://www.torproject.org/.
Here kitty, kitty!
My laptop is an AMD Sempron with ATI "R300M xpress".
The last ATI driver to support the chipset was 9.3 - the current version is 9.10ish(?).
For a good few years I have enjoyed 3d acceleration with 9.3 drivers and xorg 1.4.2 (Slackware 12.2).
However, Slackware 13 contains the latest xorg drivers (1.6) and guess what? the latest xorg is not suppported by 9.3.
I can use the open-source version of the driver but 3d acceleration is pretty poor in comparison.
Even if they fully open-sourced the legacy drivers then this would not be an issue - otherwise I am screwed.
Most current linux distribution use the latest xorg drivers - this means I will have to "downgrade" to older xorg drivers to enjoy "proper" 3d performance.
A workable but painful option for me.
Judging by this year's AMD/ATI driver support, support for this card will probably be considered "legacy" and cease to be maintaned in a couple of years.
That means no more xorg/kernel updates for you!
If the drivers were *truly* open sourced this would never be an issue.
Of course you can buy a "supported" card every 2 years and upgrade.
If you have a laptop with a "legacy" card, well your pretty much f*****!
Thanks but no thanks
Thanks for the advice - You're right, Plasma is indeed crashing on start.
However, I have tried removing stuff from my .kde4 folder but it does not seem to help.
I have tried Alt+F2 but nothing seems to happen - it is as if any windows that do open they are obscured by the "white screen".
When I get some spare time I'll investigate further.
The annoying thing is yes Plasma is crashing but why show a useless white screen - that is lame fallback behaviour! Would it make sense to alert the user that something "bad" has happened and show a "basic" desktop or launch a default application instead - or even some kind of "safe mode"?
Most of the other kde components run fine under a different desktop environment (e.g.fluxbox) so why show a white screen - it is completely unhelpful!
Has the "white/black" screen of death been fixed yet?
I currently run Slackware 12.2 & 13 on my laptop (ati r300 graphics card).
Although all the KDE (4.3.2) apps work, when I start the KDE environment I get the splash screen then....a blank white screen appears instead!
As far as I understand if Phonon (or plasmoids?) has *any* issues (e.g. compositing, missing libraries) it freaks out on shows a white screen. It just seems a bit "brittle"!
Got me completely stumped and stops me from using KDE. I've used Gnome for many years and just wanted to try something different - not to mention that Gnome switched over to pulseaudio and depreciated the "Volume" applet - wtf?.
I've tried every fix I can Google but still the same thing.
I think KDE 4 has come a long way and generally really impressed with it.
Gnome 3 is due next year and I get the impression that the "re-design" seems a bit muddled.
From a practical perpsective this is good news and a step forward.
However, if part of this "open source" announcement means a binary-blob needs to be included on an open-source OS (e.g. Linux) should we still be worried?
Off the top of my head I can think of graphics cards, wireless network adapters, software and scanner-type devices that need binary "blobs" to be usable.
I am worried because this could be a growing trend of reliance on companies policy of releasing binary only software onto a open-source OS.
E.g. I have a laptop with an ATI-based graphics card (r200M). I have been using the closed source driver to enable me to enjoy meaningful 3d-accelerated performace on my laptop. Unfortunately the new version of the driver(9.10?) now considers my card "legacy" which means the previous version (9.2) will not compile with the latest Xorg release.
If the driver was *fully* open source then at least something can be done about it.
I had to deal with this with MS Windows - it's one of the many reasons I use Linux.
worst thing that could happen for the Android platform
Errrr, no. This is the best thing to happen to Android. It's about choice. Different manufacturers competing against each other to produce the "best" Android phone is a "good thing".
Imagine what would a PC user who wants to try Linux reacts if he sees 50+ different distributions...He would be confused and do not know how to choose.
Errrr,no. Generally people buy phones on call/usage charges, contract term, phone features and network coverage. There is already a diverse choice of phone os - e.g. symbian, blackberry's os, iphone os, microsoft... - as well as many manufacturers.
sorting out the features of different phones and the compatibility/usability of different apps among them... It would be worst than try to figure out if a given PC game can run properly on your home PC.
This is called "choice" and encourages manufacturers to observe market requirements(e.g. listen to customer) and hopefully drive down prices(unlikely). Whoever get closest to this wins. The main point of Android are these types of "compatibilty" problems (in theory) should go away. When you decide to buy or upgrade to another Android phone you can take all your donwloaded software with you. You do not have to start again and buy your apps all over again.
Having 100+ models works for ordinary mobile phones, as you mostly do not expect to install any extra software other than which comes with the phone. With a "smartphone" (I hate the term) that is practically a mini-PC, there is value in keeping a small set of uniform performance/feature profile. It is the same trade-off between PC gaming vs console gaming
This is usually called "progress" and "innovation". As devices become more sophisticated people want to do more with them - it's only natural. For example, "Non-smartphones" have smaller screens, no touchscreen and limited cpus - installing extra software is impractical. The iphone was the first mainstream mobile phone to make this easier - by your definition the iphone app store is an epic fail.
Oh and Android is Open-source, shouldn't we support it rather than put it down. Not just because it's open-source but as a product is well implemented and deserves some support.
A decent processor!
I think the current available phones have a 520mhz processor. The Android software seems to run at an accetptable speed (since the os was updated to 1.5?) but I imagine any apps would be limited by the speed of the processor.
I know this will change with newer phones - Acer are develping an android phone with 1ghz processor.
A camera flash!
I do not understand why many of the phones contain a 3 or 5 megapixel camera but no flash! Maybe it is related to cost/component size but come on! - this was acceptable with older phones but today I would like to think it is essential.
A physical keyboard!
I know this will add bulk to the phone but considering what android's potential can be (with the right hardware) this will make the phone much more versatile. What about a detachable keyboard?
More memory?
The os runs in a java-like virtual machine. If it has any relation to Java does this mean it will exhibit memory consumption similar to Java? I also understand there is an API to bypass the vm and use native code.
As it stands I will be ordering the Nokia N900 at the end of October and cannot wait for the hardware to improve. Despite the hype I think the N900 will eventualy become a "niche" product.
On the other hand, the development of Android phones is great and appears it will dominate the mobile phone market. Hopefully it will drive competition and lead to the reduction of iphone obsession.
Speaking of iphones does the Android phones have a "Big Red Kill" switch too?
As far as I understand, it was never envisioned that users would actually type "http://www.whatever.com" in an "address bar", users were not supposed to see this at all - it was purely to be used by software and mark-up pages to specifiy the protocol.
I bought Neverwinter Nights years ago and still play it to this day.
One of the reasons I still play it is because they released additonal content (way after the game was released). I didn't mind paying for additional modules because a lot of work went into it and extended the life of the game.
On the other hand - The DLC for Dragon Age seems to "enhance"/"influence" the gameplay of the main game.
Which to be fair is a bit naughty - to get the "full experience" of the game you have to buy an additional module!
If they released the DLC in say a few months later - maybe the reaction would not be so negative.
As far as I am aware there is no Linux version of Dragon Age - so I will not be buying it. The other reason I still play Neverwinter Nights is because it was well ported to Linux and is also the reason I did not buy the sequel.
I think this is part of a larger strategy to point people to thier Azure "Cloud" platform.
Microsoft will probably "open source" more of thier software if it serves the purpose of exposing Microsoft to more people.
If you expect them to one day open source any of thier major technologies (e.g. DirectX, Windows or SQL Server) you will be waiting a loooonnnng time before this will happen.
They will probably open source enough of the "connectivity" type of software to provide a "path of least resistance" to interoperate *into* the Azure platform.
Of course the Azure platform is *not* open source which means you will be *locked-into* thier technology. So sure, you may have open source client code at your disposal but it eventually will lead into a locked platform.
As a company they want to grow beyond "PC on every desk, Windows on every PC, on every phone, console, toaster, gerbil" - that's too limiting now, they want to be the central hub of the Internet and fully exploit "the cloud".
As a bonus everyone moves to a rental model (like the mainframes of years ago) - you don't own anything, you are bound by *thier* "terms and conditions" and you perpetually keep paying for stuff.
This is a corporation's wet dream.
In this case "It's a Trap" may be justified.
Or I am just paranoid and drink waaaayyy too much coffee.