There's a reason he gave back his award for Best Documentary...it wasn't a documentary.
That's why he's called a nutcase. He will distort facts, then justify it as "comedy." If some right-wing nut twisted facts to make Kerry look bad, then justified it by saying "there aren't falsehoods in comedy," lefties would be all over it in a heartbeat.
There's a reason Michael Moore's fanbase has dwindled so.
I think this "class" is another example of our colleges going to hell.
I would refuse to attend a physics class that used freaking X-Men to teach me physics. How about using that class time to instead let me listen to a lecture by a famous physicist? What is Wolverine going to teach me that he wouldn't?
Microsoft's idea of innovation is a talking paper clip. Sheesh....says the Linux user running KDE with a taskbar, start menu, integrated file/net browser, the same print dialogs, and more.
Seriously, this is a ridiculously spun article. As pointed out, the spokesperson said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about suing Linux users and making money. He said SCO should focus on IP licensing and enforcement, which is what companies who own valuable IP do. As you pointed out, VA Linux says the EXACT SAME THING!
Let's not get ridiculous here. Then again, what am I saying? This is Slashdot, where's become the norm to have ridiculous mindsets and baseless opinions, rather than the simple tech news site it used to be before VA Linux got a hold of it...
I should have clarified. By less choice, I meant that the user will have fewer MP3s and therefore less ability to use that extra space for whatever.
Several people have commented that ~1000 MP3s seems so little, but most people just want to stick the best on there and are willing to get a device that lets them.
There are other things I was going for with my statement, but that's why I brought up choice to begin with.
And this is the community that wants you to think it has a handle on what the user wants in their desktops! Good luck with that.
This is not a troll. Seriously, this whole thing exposes Slashdot opinion for what it is. It's time to actually listen to users for a change and not what the +5 upmods say.
Because the rest of the populace doesn't think that way. Obviously we're the tech-minded bunch who thinks, "Hmm, I could just reencode at a higher bitrate." Everyone else just thinks about how they don't listen to much more than about a 1000 standard mp3s.
They think about function, we think about technical justifications. I think it just about sums up this community, actually.:)
Don't you think it illustrates the point that "they" think differently from "you?" They being the general public who is eating these things up.
Your post had a lot of "I would do this" statements. Well, that's what you would do, so just go buy a device with bigger storage and let other people do what they want. Obviously, Apple has tapped into something that you're missing here. And it's a trend Apple seems to be having with a lot of their products lately...I hope for a full-on Apple revival (yes, I'm one of those "my next purchase will be Apple" guys).
As someone else pointed out, the concept of "too much hard drive space" is something most of us just don't understand at all. But it illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the general user that seperates "us" from "them"--people don't want too many choices. They just want the best and just enough to give them that.
I thought it might be an interesting viewpoint to consider since we want Linux to be the adopted desktop for new computing, but don't want to give up the endless myriad of choices in browsers, desktops, cd players, etc. To the average user, the idealistic OSS philosophy is something they don't care about. They'll just wonder why they have to install two different desktops to run all the apps, three sound mixers to hear everything, and so forth. We criticize Windows for seemingly providing less choice. I think in the case of the iPod Mini, the public has clearly spoken with regards to their needs. They just want enough to get them by. Unlike you and I who would definitely find ways to fill up that extra space, most users are not like that.
You think it's a coincidence OSDN owns this website, and it happens to post endless, baseless anti-"M$" articles?
You act like this place is full of Microsoft "apologists," when the majority of the readers are rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth radicals who think everything should be free.
I don't give a damn about a "hacker tradition of sharing." You don't have the right to violate someone else's copyright just because of some vague hacker tradition. This isn't some 1988 hacker BBS...we're living in the real world now.
To pretend the GPL holds up legally and that people who violate it are violating copyright is a double-standard when placed against articles like this in which people actually COMPLAIN that the government is cracking down on the free ride of copyright violation and piracy.
You are an idiot. The only reason the GPL exists is the fact that copyright exists. If it didn't exist, then *nobody* would be wringing their hands over your fictitious scenario.
First off, lay off the astericks. Second, you just proved my point without realizing it. The only reason the GPL exists is the fact that copyright exists.
And so my point was that it's a double-standard to cry out whenever someone violates the copyright of the GPL, as most Slashdotters always do, yet try to justify the violations over someone else's copyright, as most Slashdotters always do.
Clearly this point was over your head. But feel free to call me an "idiot" because of it, Anonymous Coward.
The only reason that people get upset over GPL violations is that we *are* under an oppresive copyright regime and that punishment for copyright violations is way out of proportion to the crime.
"Oppressive copyright regime?" Oh, god, give me a break. What do you care? You shouldn't be breaking copyright anyway. You're just mad that you're used to the convenience of downloading whatever the hell you want, and now the government is trying to take away your free ride. Next.
Even so, I'll bet that you can't find a single *shred* of evidence to support your underlying assumption (that being that people who get upset at GPL violations are also copyright violators).
Just look at the stories posted to Slashdot, the comments that get modded up in GPL violation stories and copyright violation stories. The mindset of the Slashdot community speaks for itself.
Your argument and underlying assumption is a non-sequitur, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since you're the King of Non Sequiturs. Think a little next time, before you go bandying about your stupid arguments. But then again, maybe you can't. Maybe you're *completely* incapable of logical, rational thought.
Next time, you may want to actually grasp someone's point before you go off on a "oppressive copyright regime" that has nothing to do with anything and make yourself look like a complete fool. Next...oh, I mean, *Next*.
Whatever the reasons may be, there is no need for warez with GPL/Open/Free software.
You completely missed my point.
I didn't say people using OSS software needed warez. My point was that Slashdot loves to bitch whenever anybody even remotely violates the copyright of the GPL.
But post an article about "warez" or MP3s, and suddenly the entire discussion is rife with baseless justifications, left-field worldviews, and even people criticizing the government for cracking down on copyright violators. Suddenly, copyright violation is okay when it's against someone else.
I just pointed out the double-standard at play in the majority here. I didn't suggest all people who support OSS are copyright violators. What I suggested is that the majority here who cry out over GPL violations seem to quiet down when someone else's copyright gets violated. If that doesn't apply to you, then disregard!
Since you mention it, though it wasn't my point to say that OSS supporters are warez/MP3 supporters, I will say that a lot of the mindsets here that support piracy stem from being used to the convenience of downloading whatever you want, then getting mad when the government tries to take away the free ride.
Funny, people are still making money now on things that can be trivially copied...
Tape and video recorders have been around for decades, but somehow music and videos still sell...
Funny, I don't recall being able to trade my tapes and video recorders with 1,000,000 other people...
So don't you believe in radio play ? Or do you just want to record a couple of songs, then sit back on your arse and rake the cash in without doing anything more ?
How is radio play the same as downloading someone's entire album? You don't choose the music, you don't get the whole album, and you don't get CD quality.
Not to mention, radio play is something the copyright holders choose to participate in. It's legal, moron! I hate to break it to you, but copyright holders choose how their works are distributed. Pirates don't choose for them. Radio is the legal venue for the "free advertising" pirates love to talk about.
[...]the only thing really keeping them alive is the fact that you can't have a home viewing system as good as big theater's.
Exactly. Now, keep thinking, you might be on to something here!
What, that the only thing keeping people seeing movies right now is the fact that the screens in a theater are really big? Give me a break. That'll change in 10 years with extremely high-quality TV screens and superb sound systems.
What about music and software? You didn't reply to those...not surprising.
I find the low comment count (for an anti-Microsoft article) amusing. Clearly people are just bored with this whole agenda that OSDN has against its competitors, using a "tech news" site it just so happens to own in order to post negative articles. The damn JPEG patent article has more comments than this, and I see more and more people rising up and posting about how tired they are of the mindless drone "M$"-bashing and RIAA-bashing and whatever else.
I guess I just remember when Slashdot was a good source for interesting technology news. Now it's a proactive, agenda-driven website that bills itself as a news site. OSDN owns Slashdot--is it any coincidence so many articles negative toward OSDN's competitors get posted? If Microsoft owned a website that posted anti-Linux articles all the time and called itself a "news" site, all of Slashdot would be up in arms. But too many fanboys have joined this site, bought into the groupthink, and formed their worldviews entirely from Slashdot headlines. That's how you get the whole Linux-is-100%-perfect mindset, the everything-M$-does-is-bad, the piracy-is-just-free-advertising, and whatever other drivel Slashdot pushes down our throats.
If it's not a headline entitled "Microsoft Violates Human Rights In China" (a real article) that blames Microsoft for the Chinese government's actions (and--surprise, surprise--ignoring the fact that China has its own custom Linux distribution, and Red Hat changed KDE flags to sell there...yet no "OSS Violates Human Rights In China"), or a new user-ran executable that somehow gets labelled "New Microsoft Hole" (a real article), or a study showing Linux as the most breached OS on the net with a headline that magically gets changed to "Linux Most-Attacked OS" instead of "Most-Breached", or theaters arresting some guy for bringing a camera into a theater, and Michael posts it as "Theaters Using Night-Vision Goggles" and magically turning it into some bizarre privacy issue...hell, I could go on and on.
Not to mention that for a site which has such a pro-Open Source agenda, the way editors run things is decidedly closed. CmdrTaco never listens to anything you say, and e-mails you send him are either never answered or receive very nasty, sarcastic replies. I can't begin to imagine how many people will never get mod points again because they dared reply to "The Post." And of course, there are Michael's modbombs and user insults.
Anyway, I imagine this will get modded Off-topic at least once, but I accept that because I just had to say my piece. Slashdot has become really rotten. A lot of new OSS guys come here and have their whole worldviews shaped by the agenda-driven, fact-twisting articles posted here. That's where all the asshole zealots come from that hold Linux back. Everything here is accepted as truth, and nobody seems to realize that outside the little niche here, nobody knows or cares about "Linux," "RIAA," or even "M$."
The whole "DirectX" thing is a sham -- only Microsoft gets to use it.
Nobody is forcing you to program for DirectX. Use SDL if you want. Or OpenGL. Or the myriad of other libraries out there that just wrap to DirectX or Win32. Cocoa is only for OS X, as well...where's the bitching?
Oh, that's right, everyone just hates "M$" and so mindlessly bashes. I find the low comment count (for an anti-Microsoft article) to this article hilarious--clearly people are just bored with this whole thing. The damn JPEG patent article has more comments.
You could play what-ifs all day. What if the police escorting Michael Jackson could have been served chasing down some moron who robbed a bank? Not to mention your example is insane anyway because a police officer wouldn't have been pulled off an Amber Alert for a computer raid.
I know you're trying your absolutely HARDEST to make it somehow bad that the FBI cracked down on your warez, but it's never going to fly, sorry.
As someone else beautifully pointed out with regards to Slashdot:
Obviously, the only thing that would make warez sites and online piracy organizations morally objectionable and properly subject to sanction would be if they distributed, sold or bartered binaries for derivative works of GPLed software in violation of the GPL.
Slashdot Mirror
You say attack him for his facts, well:
Here you go. Here's more.
There's a reason he gave back his award for Best Documentary...it wasn't a documentary.
That's why he's called a nutcase. He will distort facts, then justify it as "comedy." If some right-wing nut twisted facts to make Kerry look bad, then justified it by saying "there aren't falsehoods in comedy," lefties would be all over it in a heartbeat.
There's a reason Michael Moore's fanbase has dwindled so.
I think this "class" is another example of our colleges going to hell.
I would refuse to attend a physics class that used freaking X-Men to teach me physics. How about using that class time to instead let me listen to a lecture by a famous physicist? What is Wolverine going to teach me that he wouldn't?
Microsoft's idea of innovation is a talking paper clip. Sheesh. ...says the Linux user running KDE with a taskbar, start menu, integrated file/net browser, the same print dialogs, and more.
Get him! He's threatening our hegemony!
Seriously, this is a ridiculously spun article. As pointed out, the spokesperson said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about suing Linux users and making money. He said SCO should focus on IP licensing and enforcement, which is what companies who own valuable IP do. As you pointed out, VA Linux says the EXACT SAME THING!
Let's not get ridiculous here. Then again, what am I saying? This is Slashdot, where's become the norm to have ridiculous mindsets and baseless opinions, rather than the simple tech news site it used to be before VA Linux got a hold of it...
No. I don't.
Next.
I should have clarified. By less choice, I meant that the user will have fewer MP3s and therefore less ability to use that extra space for whatever.
Several people have commented that ~1000 MP3s seems so little, but most people just want to stick the best on there and are willing to get a device that lets them.
There are other things I was going for with my statement, but that's why I brought up choice to begin with.
And this is the community that wants you to think it has a handle on what the user wants in their desktops! Good luck with that.
This is not a troll. Seriously, this whole thing exposes Slashdot opinion for what it is. It's time to actually listen to users for a change and not what the +5 upmods say.
Because the rest of the populace doesn't think that way. Obviously we're the tech-minded bunch who thinks, "Hmm, I could just reencode at a higher bitrate." Everyone else just thinks about how they don't listen to much more than about a 1000 standard mp3s.
:)
They think about function, we think about technical justifications. I think it just about sums up this community, actually.
Don't you think it illustrates the point that "they" think differently from "you?" They being the general public who is eating these things up.
Your post had a lot of "I would do this" statements. Well, that's what you would do, so just go buy a device with bigger storage and let other people do what they want. Obviously, Apple has tapped into something that you're missing here. And it's a trend Apple seems to be having with a lot of their products lately...I hope for a full-on Apple revival (yes, I'm one of those "my next purchase will be Apple" guys).
The only reason I can think of for your post being marked as Flamebait is the fact you praised Microsoft for something. Horror of horrors.
Mods, if you disagree with something, reply and discuss. Don't downmod. That's not what it's for.
As someone else pointed out, the concept of "too much hard drive space" is something most of us just don't understand at all. But it illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the general user that seperates "us" from "them"--people don't want too many choices. They just want the best and just enough to give them that.
I thought it might be an interesting viewpoint to consider since we want Linux to be the adopted desktop for new computing, but don't want to give up the endless myriad of choices in browsers, desktops, cd players, etc. To the average user, the idealistic OSS philosophy is something they don't care about. They'll just wonder why they have to install two different desktops to run all the apps, three sound mixers to hear everything, and so forth. We criticize Windows for seemingly providing less choice. I think in the case of the iPod Mini, the public has clearly spoken with regards to their needs. They just want enough to get them by. Unlike you and I who would definitely find ways to fill up that extra space, most users are not like that.
Every single one of those issues listed on that website refer to options that can be turned off on the privacy page that appears ON FIRST STARTUP.
Christ.
How come the editors don't go back and fix their typos? Taco, Michael, and company must genuinely not a care.
(yes that was on purpose)
OSDN is a Linux company. Linus works for them.
You think it's a coincidence OSDN owns this website, and it happens to post endless, baseless anti-"M$" articles?
You act like this place is full of Microsoft "apologists," when the majority of the readers are rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth radicals who think everything should be free.
Yes. I can.
I can even play the DRM WMA song from "Snow Patrol" that comes with the Winamp download. Can't you?
I don't give a damn about a "hacker tradition of sharing." You don't have the right to violate someone else's copyright just because of some vague hacker tradition. This isn't some 1988 hacker BBS...we're living in the real world now.
To pretend the GPL holds up legally and that people who violate it are violating copyright is a double-standard when placed against articles like this in which people actually COMPLAIN that the government is cracking down on the free ride of copyright violation and piracy.
You are an idiot. The only reason the GPL exists is the fact that copyright exists. If it didn't exist, then *nobody* would be wringing their hands over your fictitious scenario.
First off, lay off the astericks. Second, you just proved my point without realizing it. The only reason the GPL exists is the fact that copyright exists.
And so my point was that it's a double-standard to cry out whenever someone violates the copyright of the GPL, as most Slashdotters always do, yet try to justify the violations over someone else's copyright, as most Slashdotters always do.
Clearly this point was over your head. But feel free to call me an "idiot" because of it, Anonymous Coward.
The only reason that people get upset over GPL violations is that we *are* under an oppresive copyright regime and that punishment for copyright violations is way out of proportion to the crime.
"Oppressive copyright regime?" Oh, god, give me a break. What do you care? You shouldn't be breaking copyright anyway. You're just mad that you're used to the convenience of downloading whatever the hell you want, and now the government is trying to take away your free ride. Next.
Even so, I'll bet that you can't find a single *shred* of evidence to support your underlying assumption (that being that people who get upset at GPL violations are also copyright violators).
Just look at the stories posted to Slashdot, the comments that get modded up in GPL violation stories and copyright violation stories. The mindset of the Slashdot community speaks for itself.
Your argument and underlying assumption is a non-sequitur, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since you're the King of Non Sequiturs. Think a little next time, before you go bandying about your stupid arguments. But then again, maybe you can't. Maybe you're *completely* incapable of logical, rational thought.
Next time, you may want to actually grasp someone's point before you go off on a "oppressive copyright regime" that has nothing to do with anything and make yourself look like a complete fool. Next...oh, I mean, *Next*.
Whatever the reasons may be, there is no need for warez with GPL/Open/Free software.
You completely missed my point.
I didn't say people using OSS software needed warez. My point was that Slashdot loves to bitch whenever anybody even remotely violates the copyright of the GPL.
But post an article about "warez" or MP3s, and suddenly the entire discussion is rife with baseless justifications, left-field worldviews, and even people criticizing the government for cracking down on copyright violators. Suddenly, copyright violation is okay when it's against someone else.
I just pointed out the double-standard at play in the majority here. I didn't suggest all people who support OSS are copyright violators. What I suggested is that the majority here who cry out over GPL violations seem to quiet down when someone else's copyright gets violated. If that doesn't apply to you, then disregard!
Since you mention it, though it wasn't my point to say that OSS supporters are warez/MP3 supporters, I will say that a lot of the mindsets here that support piracy stem from being used to the convenience of downloading whatever you want, then getting mad when the government tries to take away the free ride.
Funny, people are still making money now on things that can be trivially copied...
Tape and video recorders have been around for decades, but somehow music and videos still sell...
Funny, I don't recall being able to trade my tapes and video recorders with 1,000,000 other people...
So don't you believe in radio play ? Or do you just want to record a couple of songs, then sit back on your arse and rake the cash in without doing anything more ?
How is radio play the same as downloading someone's entire album? You don't choose the music, you don't get the whole album, and you don't get CD quality.
Not to mention, radio play is something the copyright holders choose to participate in. It's legal, moron! I hate to break it to you, but copyright holders choose how their works are distributed. Pirates don't choose for them. Radio is the legal venue for the "free advertising" pirates love to talk about.
[...]the only thing really keeping them alive is the fact that you can't have a home viewing system as good as big theater's.
Exactly. Now, keep thinking, you might be on to something here!
What, that the only thing keeping people seeing movies right now is the fact that the screens in a theater are really big? Give me a break. That'll change in 10 years with extremely high-quality TV screens and superb sound systems.
What about music and software? You didn't reply to those...not surprising.
Next.
I find the low comment count (for an anti-Microsoft article) amusing. Clearly people are just bored with this whole agenda that OSDN has against its competitors, using a "tech news" site it just so happens to own in order to post negative articles. The damn JPEG patent article has more comments than this, and I see more and more people rising up and posting about how tired they are of the mindless drone "M$"-bashing and RIAA-bashing and whatever else.
I guess I just remember when Slashdot was a good source for interesting technology news. Now it's a proactive, agenda-driven website that bills itself as a news site. OSDN owns Slashdot--is it any coincidence so many articles negative toward OSDN's competitors get posted? If Microsoft owned a website that posted anti-Linux articles all the time and called itself a "news" site, all of Slashdot would be up in arms. But too many fanboys have joined this site, bought into the groupthink, and formed their worldviews entirely from Slashdot headlines. That's how you get the whole Linux-is-100%-perfect mindset, the everything-M$-does-is-bad, the piracy-is-just-free-advertising, and whatever other drivel Slashdot pushes down our throats.
If it's not a headline entitled "Microsoft Violates Human Rights In China" (a real article) that blames Microsoft for the Chinese government's actions (and--surprise, surprise--ignoring the fact that China has its own custom Linux distribution, and Red Hat changed KDE flags to sell there...yet no "OSS Violates Human Rights In China"), or a new user-ran executable that somehow gets labelled "New Microsoft Hole" (a real article), or a study showing Linux as the most breached OS on the net with a headline that magically gets changed to "Linux Most-Attacked OS" instead of "Most-Breached", or theaters arresting some guy for bringing a camera into a theater, and Michael posts it as "Theaters Using Night-Vision Goggles" and magically turning it into some bizarre privacy issue...hell, I could go on and on.
Not to mention that for a site which has such a pro-Open Source agenda, the way editors run things is decidedly closed. CmdrTaco never listens to anything you say, and e-mails you send him are either never answered or receive very nasty, sarcastic replies. I can't begin to imagine how many people will never get mod points again because they dared reply to "The Post." And of course, there are Michael's modbombs and user insults.
Anyway, I imagine this will get modded Off-topic at least once, but I accept that because I just had to say my piece. Slashdot has become really rotten. A lot of new OSS guys come here and have their whole worldviews shaped by the agenda-driven, fact-twisting articles posted here. That's where all the asshole zealots come from that hold Linux back. Everything here is accepted as truth, and nobody seems to realize that outside the little niche here, nobody knows or cares about "Linux," "RIAA," or even "M$."
Windows fought back and installed spyware
What spyware? Care to cite a single example?
The whole "DirectX" thing is a sham -- only Microsoft gets to use it.
Nobody is forcing you to program for DirectX. Use SDL if you want. Or OpenGL. Or the myriad of other libraries out there that just wrap to DirectX or Win32. Cocoa is only for OS X, as well...where's the bitching?
Oh, that's right, everyone just hates "M$" and so mindlessly bashes. I find the low comment count (for an anti-Microsoft article) to this article hilarious--clearly people are just bored with this whole thing. The damn JPEG patent article has more comments.
Oh, wait. WMV is a locked MS format and they won't let anyone tap into it.
Wow, I guess Winamp uses magic powers to play WMV/WMA files.
You could play what-ifs all day. What if the police escorting Michael Jackson could have been served chasing down some moron who robbed a bank? Not to mention your example is insane anyway because a police officer wouldn't have been pulled off an Amber Alert for a computer raid.
I know you're trying your absolutely HARDEST to make it somehow bad that the FBI cracked down on your warez, but it's never going to fly, sorry.
Man, you're going to get modded down faster than Courtney Love can take her top off.
As someone else beautifully pointed out with regards to Slashdot:
Obviously, the only thing that would make warez sites and online piracy organizations morally objectionable and properly subject to sanction would be if they distributed, sold or bartered binaries for derivative works of GPLed software in violation of the GPL.