Our secretary had called one of our realtors and told them some people were here to see houses. After 20 minutes and he hadn't come in the office, she called him thinking he had caught on, but it turned out he had washed his car. He came in all spruced up, and there she was with a grin and an "April Fool's!"
So, later that morning I used Administrative Tools in Windows XP to connect to her computer and send a console message that said the following:
Critical error (0xCE50): The temperature of your motherboard has reached critical levels. Disconnect your computer from any universal power supplies (UPS) or RAID arrays. It is possible permanent damage has occured. Contact your system administrator or consult your documentation for more information. Visit www.microsoft.com for information on Windows XP temperature management conditions.
I changed my computer name to "SYSADMIN" and sent the message. I hear an "uh-oh" come from the other room.
She calls me over, I look real confused, utter "I've never seen that before," etc. "Should I shut it down?" she asks. I tell her, "let me look" and walk off toward my computer.
She starts shutting down her applications...until a new message box pops up saying "April Fool's!"
I hear "you BUTTHEAD!" It was great.:D Office still hasn't stopped laughing over it.
I consider April Fool's jokes to be jokes you actually fall for, not this lame crap michael is posting where we're supposed to be laughing at it because it's so stupid. Remember in the past when the point of Slashdot April Fool's Day was to figure out which stories were real and which were fake? Some of those most absurd stories posted turned out to be true. I miss it.
Re:I hate April First... the jokes are lame.
on
Usenet Audio
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
The sad part is a lot of people submit incredibly clever stories, but they get rejected in favor of stupid things like "Usenet Audio." Look, it's not funny to slap two things together and call it a joke. Just like someone else posted here, it'd be like "HP Sells Toilet Paper," like it's automatically funny because it's HP, and they're selling toilet paper.
At least when Taco is at the helm on April Fool's, better stories get posted. I remember some of the really clever April Fool's days of Slashdot's past, where the fun part was guessing which was real and which was fake. It was always hard to tell.
1) In this instance it's the legal system of Canada, not Slashdot, that says it is legal.
Give me a break. Slashdot's argument is that piracy is "free advertising." Basically, the hypocrisy of Slashdot is that they post scathing articles about people who violate the copyright of the GPL, then post articles praising the ability to violate the copyright of the RIAA.
2) Slashdot isn't a gestalt entity.
Yes, it is. The editors of Slashdot have very clear opinions when it comes to piracy. Pro-piracy and anti-RIAA articles are posted constantly with headlines like, "Piracy Helps Sales in Australia," when the article barely even mentioned piracy at all but merely described an upswing in Australian music sales.
3) In the USA at least, the RIAA aren't suing individual copyright infringers, they're suing people who download music -- copyright restricts distribution rights, nothing more, and downloading isn't distribution.
Uh, the RIAA has been going after the major distributers of music on the P2P networks. They often do this by examing the shared files.
I'm not even going to bother with your insane argument that transferring an mp3 from one computer to another via downloading isn't distributing.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: you're a troll.
Every one of them well deserved with the possible exception of one which was probably considered a little too pro-Microsoft for this crowd.
That comment was +5 in the first hour it was posted. In the span of about 20 minutes, it was down to -1.
So, if you consider your karma valuable enough to complain in your sig about being modbombed, simply state your opinion in a (1) non-inflammatory fashion and (2) on topic. If you follow those two principles, you'll be OK.
You're right, pointing out "M$" or taskbars or other things is somehow "inflammatory." I guess you didn't notice that they were being modded using the "Overrated" mod, which means they don't get meta-moderated. I was being targetted purposely. All my comments in that one story were 0 or -1. Even a stupid "you must be new around here" reference joke was marked as "Flamebait." Give me a break.
I think it had something to do with the fact that I pointed out some anti-slash.org database troll posts. They store +5 comments and repost them to later articles for karma. Been hounded since.
Why would you be discussing the Navy's internal computer projects on your personal blog without permission? You honestly think that was a smart idea? I'm not surprised they tried to charge you with something, as a matter of policy.
Slashdot circa 2000: "They shouldn't be suing Napster or Kazaa, they should sue the individual copyright infringers! That is the legal and moral thing to do."
Slashdot circa today: "Nobody should be suing anybody! I have no good reasons."
KDE is much more lagged than GNOME. Personally I don't like the fact that it takes seconds to open a Home folder. Remind me again why they integrated the Internet and file browsers into one program? Is it because Windows 98 did it?
How are they still around? I seriously thought they'd have been gone six months ago. SCO isn't that big of a company, how are they able to afford all those lawyers and lawsuits?
Also, what happened to Darl McBride? He used to be all over the place giving lectures and interviews. Seems to have disappeared.
Just a question-- why do you think that Slashdot is some sort of hivemind with a single thought process?
I'm referring to the majority mindset--the one reflected by the number of +4/+5 mods and the headlines that the editors post. You seriously disagree that it isn't the majority mindset?
Slashdot is a large number of people (several hundred thousand if user ID numbers are to be believed). These people cross the spectrum. Some are against any copyright at all. Some think copyright is a perfect and should be expanded in power. Some hold more moderate positions. Some even hold more nuianced positions that appear contradictory on the surface. This diverse population posts the comments you read and submit the articles that the editor's post. End result: a huge pile of amazingly inconsistent content with little to no pattern to the belief system. All nice and clear?
So disregard my opinion if it doesn't apply to you--nice and clear?
Of course, I suspect you're just looking for an opportunity to troll.
I don't doubt you'd "suspect" that. The fact that my post went from +5 to +1 in 10 minutes doesn't surprise me--clearly I ticked off the majority mindset who disagreed with me, and instead of replying as you did, modded me down. Which is, of course, fascism.
The situation isn't new, and it's been explained. Repeatedly. Furthermore, the post you replied to doesn't make any claims about the GPL or copyright!
It was an example of the double-standard that Slashdot holds due to its views on the RIAA. Slashdot editors will post pro-piracy articles and claim they increase sales, thereby supporting copyright infringement. In the next breath, they will post an article criticizing some inane violation of the GPL. How can one expect people to follow one copyright scheme if they profess not following another? It was merely a thought-provoking opinion. Believe it or not, conversations sometimes go on tangents.
Actually, 1998 wants its Blue Screen of Death back.
Funny you mention that, since I haven't seen a Blue Screen of Death since around 1998.
"M$" is a perennial favorite, esp. given MSFT's penchant for a) charging exorbitant prices for its stuff and b) making unheard-of fortunes (to the tune of $4 billion per quarter).
My god! They make money! You're right, that warrants using a juvenile term that makes you think you're being clever and funny when you're not.
Taskbars existed before Microsoft.
Who popularized them? Why do you think KDE/GNOME have them? Because of Windows 95.
They were in the form of icon collection boxes under various WMs (Window Managers).
Haha...icon collection boxes, eh? Is that what we're seeing in Linux desktops--icon collection boxes?
Minimize, maximize, and close button locations have varied widely, and are extremely configurable under Linux and are very arbitrary. The only "intuitiveness" about the location is where people have been programmed to look for 'em.
And I merely pointed out that it's amusing they--surprise, surprise--tend to appear in the upper-right corner of windows, even sporting an "X" for the close box.
Print dialogs are standardized to various things. Again, "intuitiveness" is (almost) entirely pre-programming.
Print dialogs in Linux desktops, however, look a lot like Windows print dialogs, which is what I was saying.
Browser file integration has existed before MSFT got involved (via the file:/// URL).
Yeah, we sure saw it everywhere, didn't we? Give me a break.
MSFT upped the ante, though. Whether this is due to trying to crush the competition and dominate an important software sector or enhancing the end user desktop experience depends on whose kool-aid you drink.
I love how you tried to sneak in an irrelevant anti-Microsoft comment just to avoid addressing the fact that the most popular desktop environment, KDE, forces Konquerer everywhere on the user. It takes seconds to open my Home folder on a Gentoo-compiled system.
"Start" menus again are of dubious intuitiveness.
Then why are they used in Gnome and KDE?
Personally, I found the click-on-root-window-to-bring-up-menus method of various WMs to be much more useful.
Why would I care if you found root-window menus to be useful? What does that have to do with this?.Net is Java (and indeed the concept of "virtual machine") rehashed and refined and (in the case of most of what people consider ".Net") Microsoft-only. Not a terrible lot of actual innovation there.
Nope. That is pure uninformed FUD. Have you even looked at C#?.NET is more than that. Hell, with the Common Language Specification, any compiler can produce the intermediate.NET code.
Nonetheless--it is STILL irrelevant. Have you herad of Mono? That's what I was referring to. What does.NET being similar to Java have to do with anything?
I'm not saying MSFT doesn't come up with interesting stuff, just that you need to come up with better examples.;)
Better examples? All you did was point out why many were bad ideas. You didn't disprove that the OSS community still rips them off. What's the big deal? Admit it. Tell everyone you steal from everywhere to use what is the best from all operating systems.
Of course, that wouldn't be true since taskbars and such are completely horrible interface ideas, but that sure hasn't stopped KDE and GNOME from falling over themselves trying to rip them off fast enough.
You know that it's a stupid idea when Microsoft comes up with it.
Just like:
* Taskbars * Maximize, minimize, and close buttons in the upper-right corner. * The standard print dialog. * Internet browser/file browser integration. * "Start" menus *.NET technology *...and much, much more
Which as we all know are ideas never seen in the OSS community. Oh...wait.
From hilariously predicting the "failure" of the iPod-mini to breathlessly declaring that the iPod is susceptible to muggers and is a "must-have," do Slashdotters hate the iPod or something? Is Taco still pissed off about batteries?
While I agree that most of the people downloading music from the p2p services are simply looking for freebies, the legitimate gripe that the rest of have is that the labels making up the RIAA have done nothing to address the root of the problem for people who would otherwise buy music. Namely, CD's are too expensive for the majority of the crap that is out there, and most of the legitimate online music services are pathetic.
See? That has absolutely nothing to do with anything. If you don't like CDs, use iTunes! Shop online! There are alternatives to ripping artists off because you don't want to go the store and pay for it.
Then consider the case of DVD's, as you mentioned.
DVDs? Did you know the full DVD-R rip of Return of the King is already online? And Matrix Revolutions? DVDs are freely pirated too.
It's the strong-arm tactics of the RIAA, without the promotion of reasonable alternatives that earns them the label of "goon".
Apparently, strong-arm tactics mean suing people breaking the law by distributing your product without your permission. Remind me next time Slashdot tries to rally the troops against the next GPL violation.
Promotion of reasonable alternatives? Yet again, Slashdotters ignore online music stores.
How can one reasonably expect people to follow the GPL while simultaneously arguing that the RIAA is wrong for stopping illegal piracy? Face it--piracy is wrong. It's ripping off artists because you think you have a beef with the "goons" of the RIAA. Once again, you completely ignore the artists who aren't getting paid because you're not buying their albums. How long do you think their record label is going to keep them signed if they don't make any sales?
I know this article was posted just to placate the RIAA-hating psychos who think everything should be online for "sampling" purposes.
Just a question--why do you think it's okay to violate everybody's copyrights and dictate to others how they should distribute their own intellectual property, and then post an article berating some company for "violating the GPL?"
Why do you latch onto copyright in one instance and reject in the other when it means getting free stuff? Let's be honest here--those millions of Kazaa and eMule users are NOT there to "sample" albums in order to run down to the store and buy them. Hell, people are starting to package entire band discographies into big multi-GB RAR files for easy download. Are you telling me all those downloaders are going to run to the store when they like what they hear? Most of these are being put out in high-quality MP3 and MPC.
As usual, the issue of the artists in this mess will be completely ignored, and instead they will be replaced with the "evil" RIAA who has dared use legal means to pursue people illegally distributing their copyrighted works. That's baaaaad...even though it's exactly what Slashdot was saying they should do when Napster was under attack.
It just reveals that it all boils down to people wanting free stuff, getting used to the convenience, and then getting mad when it's threatened to be taken away. You've built entire mindsets around it, that you're "sampling," that it's "free advertising"...none of which has any basis, none of which matters legally or morally. Just because your niche opinion equates illegal piracy to sampling doesn't mean the rest of those terabytes going across p2p every month is all for sampling purposes. Get real!
What's interesting is that nobody mentions movies or games. Look how the PC games industry is dying. They're either going to console or putting out the same top-seller sequels every year that they know will make them money. Why do you think that is? Are you going to call it "sampling" when Doom 3 gets put out online a week before it hits retail, as they all are now? Is it "free advertising" when full DVD-R rips of the retail DVD of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King are on eMule at the very moment I type this?
Oh, yeah, I forgot, the MPAA and the RIAA are "goons" because they don't like when people illegally distribute their copyrighted works. I forgot that Slashdot has the right to tell people how to advertise, sample, and distribute......meanwhile, let's post another article about a GPL violation!
I believe that the biggest issue is that it is a tool that they *don't control*.
I could have sworn the biggest issue is that artists are getting ripped off. Why does, in EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE on this issue, Slashdot completely ignores the artist? It's always the RIAA. You think the artists want you to be taking their music without paying for it? You think those millions of p2p users are "sampling" those RAR files of albums and promos and cover art?
Looks what's happening to the PC games industry--it's dying. Sales are dying. People are going to consoles because it's safer, it's harder to pirate, and easier to control. Everyone is going to pirate the shit out of Doom 3, and it's going to have an effect--nobody's "sampling" Doom 3. It's the same with music albums, which people grab in archives now and not individual mp3s.
They're losing their power over distribution, very rapidly.
Yes, it's call violating copyright. Slashdotters and pirates don't have the right to dictated to companies how they distribute their works. This is such a given I can't believe it escapes everybody.
Even if people are still buying CDs, what does the future hold when traditional music companies are replaced by alternative means of music distribution?
The future holds online music labels. Not p2p networks where nobody gets paid for anything. Please explain how Kazaa and eMule are going to get artists and labels paid. The only one you can offer is "free advertising," which, barring the fact that distributing their copyrighted material is illegal anyway, is also a dubious argument with no basis other than "well this one time I found a couple of mp3s and went out and bought the CD because I was on dialup and didn't want to finish the rest."
Next.
They traditional record label and its goons aren't needed anymore. They're becoming extinct.
Why are they "goons?" Because they go after people illegally distributing their copyrighted materials?
Let's say you spent three years writing, directing, and editing a movie. You finally get it to theaters, only to come online and see that it's all over the p2p networks. Are you going to smile and kick back, thinking, "man, what free advertising!" or are you going to freak out when you realize that you just spent three years creating a popular e2dk link?
Now I expect a full apology and retraction for the demonization P2P has gotten from the RIAA, et. al.
After all, this automatically proves everything.
They should be trying to increase downloads like radio stations try to increase listeners.
Yes, because after all, all those millions of Kazaa downloaders are merely "sampling" all those albums. They should be INCREASING piracy, which will magically increase sales!
Record labels should distribute approved MP3 tracks, then offer them as singles on CD, just like the radio stations.
You mean like THEY DO ON ITUNES AND OTHER ONLINE MUSIC STORES?
They should closely scrutinize the downloading habits, then create an album based on the popularity of certain tracks.
How stupid. The users can just download what they want from iTunes and burn their own mix CDs.
They don't see this as a tool, only as a threat. They're idiots.
No, it is a threat. This is the bizarre logic of the Slashdotter. Somehow, there is no connection when millions of people grab something for free and don't pay for it in the stores. Somehow, they think there's not going to be a drop in sales as a result. Somehow, they think sales are magically going to occur when people are sticking everything online to download.
But, yeah, CmdrTaco and the rest of Slashdot tells me they're idiots, and the RIAA is evil! The true distraction of the issue. After all, the RIAA is wrong for legally pursuing people illegally distributing their copyrighted product! Even though this is EXACTLY what Slashdot was saying they should do when they were suing Napster!
TV Production should do this too. If Viacom released official BitTorrents of Enterprise, complete with banner ads at the bottom of the screen, I'd download them. The banner ads would make me more likely to delete it when I'm done watching it, which is what they'd want, right.
Yes, because posters on Slashdot should be dictating to everyone how they distribute their property.
Then they can still sell me the DVD.
People will just rip the DVD and put it online and download that. Seriously, you think millions of eMule/Kazaa users are going to "sample" the DVD and then go out and buy it when they've just downloaded the DivX?
That'll probably never happen, though.
That's because it's ridiculous. Thanks for playing.
Slashdotters have yet to legally or morally justify pirating an artist's music. An artist who willingly signed their contract, who willingly went into the studio, who spent months recording and mixing and performing and having cover art done in order to have a CD in the stores--only for college kids to pirate the fuck out of it.
Minority Slashdotters, i.e., those who think their niche opinions magically represent the majority, are honestly going to go around and justify it as "sampling" and better yet, "free advertising," even though you don't have the right to decide for anybody how they distribute their works. You don't have the right to just obtain their product without paying for it simply because it's there. And your opinion that it's "sampling" is completely hilarious, and everybody but Slashdot laughs at it because those millions of p2p users are not "sampling" everything. I could list about 20 websites that collect e2dk links. The biggest, Sharereactor.com, was recently shut down by Swiss authorities. People like you, as usual, are bitching about it because it got rid of your convenient piracy portal.
All this stems from an attempt to remove the aura of criminality that permeates what you do. Sorry, you can't remove the guilt, because you are...guilty. The RIAA is not the bad guy here for--*GASP*--protecting their intellectual property by suing individual downloaders, just like Slashdotters said they should two years ago.
I think the links have been different, but we've had like three articles in the past month declaring that people are watching less television. We even had one showing how more people were using the Internet. We get it already!
you are dreaming if you believe that computers will ever have zero learning curve.
Never said such.
that your realtors don't get it only means that they need to invest some time grasping the file system metaphor (which is not difficult but does take some effort).
It takes effort to grasp a "file system metaphor" because it's silly and unnatural. The natural reaction to opening a folder is to expect that window itself to BE the folder. Nobody ever uses "Up" or "Back" or the address bar except more technically inclined users and developers. Have you ever actually watched the general public use Windows? Integrating the Internet browser and the file browser was the worst and most pointless thing they could have ever done. Not only does it take 3-4 seconds to open anything like a Home folder in KDE, it's a complete waste of resources.
There is always a tradeoff between simplicity and power where usually power drops off at some point of simplicity. You cannot target users with zero clue because then you are taking the worst case scenario for power.
Spatial navigation isn't targetting users with zero clue at the expense of power. You clearly have not read up on spatial navigation and how natural it is.
If you add just a little conceptual overhead you can pick up a lot of power.
"Conceptual overhead." I like that. Cute. You need to deal with the fact that the majority of people will NEVER feel comfortable with the idea that when they double-click the manilla folder, for some mysterious reason what pops up isn't the folder at all, but a "browser" merely "browsing" the contents of the folder, complete with history buttons and an address bar.
If you have a browser opening folders, you need to stop using folder icons because users expect to be opening their folder if they're double-clicking something that LOOKS like a folder.
No, people don't get it at first but will a little guidance they will get it.
And yet spatial navigation doesn't require any guidance. Because it's the natural assumption the human brain takes.
If you target the absolute lowest user then you will lose the largest group of users which is people who do get at least the simple metaphors and find the really brain dead stuff like OO spatial browsing to be really annoying.
Spatial navigation isn't targeting the lowest user, it's adopting a natural reaction the brain has, at least to those who haven't let the silly "browser metaphor" be hammered into their skulls thanks to Windows 98 (meanwhile as they bitch about Microsoft...).
Your arguments are weak and you know it.
Actually, I'm 100% right. It's okay to be wrong. Next.
...where absolutely everything Microsoft does is either evil, a slip-up, a conspiracy, an anti-competitive tactic, or just plain bad (and yet gets ripped off in the next versions of KDE/GNOME).
Meanwhile, several major OSS projects have been compromised in the span of the past six months, yet everyone has already forgotten. They'll just keep spewing the same BSOD "jokes" and security FUD.
Slashdot Mirror
Our secretary had called one of our realtors and told them some people were here to see houses. After 20 minutes and he hadn't come in the office, she called him thinking he had caught on, but it turned out he had washed his car. He came in all spruced up, and there she was with a grin and an "April Fool's!"
:D Office still hasn't stopped laughing over it.
So, later that morning I used Administrative Tools in Windows XP to connect to her computer and send a console message that said the following:
Critical error (0xCE50): The temperature of your motherboard has reached critical levels. Disconnect your computer from any universal power supplies (UPS) or RAID arrays. It is possible permanent damage has occured. Contact your system administrator or consult your documentation for more information. Visit www.microsoft.com for information on Windows XP temperature management conditions.
I changed my computer name to "SYSADMIN" and sent the message. I hear an "uh-oh" come from the other room.
She calls me over, I look real confused, utter "I've never seen that before," etc. "Should I shut it down?" she asks. I tell her, "let me look" and walk off toward my computer.
She starts shutting down her applications...until a new message box pops up saying "April Fool's!"
I hear "you BUTTHEAD!" It was great.
I consider April Fool's jokes to be jokes you actually fall for, not this lame crap michael is posting where we're supposed to be laughing at it because it's so stupid. Remember in the past when the point of Slashdot April Fool's Day was to figure out which stories were real and which were fake? Some of those most absurd stories posted turned out to be true. I miss it.
The sad part is a lot of people submit incredibly clever stories, but they get rejected in favor of stupid things like "Usenet Audio." Look, it's not funny to slap two things together and call it a joke. Just like someone else posted here, it'd be like "HP Sells Toilet Paper," like it's automatically funny because it's HP, and they're selling toilet paper.
At least when Taco is at the helm on April Fool's, better stories get posted. I remember some of the really clever April Fool's days of Slashdot's past, where the fun part was guessing which was real and which was fake. It was always hard to tell.
1) In this instance it's the legal system of Canada, not Slashdot, that says it is legal.
Give me a break. Slashdot's argument is that piracy is "free advertising." Basically, the hypocrisy of Slashdot is that they post scathing articles about people who violate the copyright of the GPL, then post articles praising the ability to violate the copyright of the RIAA.
2) Slashdot isn't a gestalt entity.
Yes, it is. The editors of Slashdot have very clear opinions when it comes to piracy. Pro-piracy and anti-RIAA articles are posted constantly with headlines like, "Piracy Helps Sales in Australia," when the article barely even mentioned piracy at all but merely described an upswing in Australian music sales.
3) In the USA at least, the RIAA aren't suing individual copyright infringers, they're suing people who download music -- copyright restricts distribution rights, nothing more, and downloading isn't distribution.
Uh, the RIAA has been going after the major distributers of music on the P2P networks. They often do this by examing the shared files.
I'm not even going to bother with your insane argument that transferring an mp3 from one computer to another via downloading isn't distributing.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: you're a troll.
*shrug*
Every one of them well deserved with the possible exception of one which was probably considered a little too pro-Microsoft for this crowd.
That comment was +5 in the first hour it was posted. In the span of about 20 minutes, it was down to -1.
So, if you consider your karma valuable enough to complain in your sig about being modbombed, simply state your opinion in a (1) non-inflammatory fashion and (2) on topic. If you follow those two principles, you'll be OK.
You're right, pointing out "M$" or taskbars or other things is somehow "inflammatory." I guess you didn't notice that they were being modded using the "Overrated" mod, which means they don't get meta-moderated. I was being targetted purposely. All my comments in that one story were 0 or -1. Even a stupid "you must be new around here" reference joke was marked as "Flamebait." Give me a break.
I think it had something to do with the fact that I pointed out some anti-slash.org database troll posts. They store +5 comments and repost them to later articles for karma. Been hounded since.
Why would you be discussing the Navy's internal computer projects on your personal blog without permission? You honestly think that was a smart idea? I'm not surprised they tried to charge you with something, as a matter of policy.
Slashdot circa 2000:
"They shouldn't be suing Napster or Kazaa, they should sue the individual copyright infringers! That is the legal and moral thing to do."
Slashdot circa today:
"Nobody should be suing anybody! I have no good reasons."
KDevelop runs on either.
KDE is much more lagged than GNOME. Personally I don't like the fact that it takes seconds to open a Home folder. Remind me again why they integrated the Internet and file browsers into one program? Is it because Windows 98 did it?
...Linux ripping them off?
All you've proved is that Linux is ripping off features Windows made popular, though ripped off from previous efforts.
What does this have to do with Linux copying Windows?
How are they still around? I seriously thought they'd have been gone six months ago. SCO isn't that big of a company, how are they able to afford all those lawyers and lawsuits?
Also, what happened to Darl McBride? He used to be all over the place giving lectures and interviews. Seems to have disappeared.
So that gives you the right to pirate?
By the way, there are TONS of online alternatives. Look!
Just a question-- why do you think that Slashdot is some sort of hivemind with a single thought process?
I'm referring to the majority mindset--the one reflected by the number of +4/+5 mods and the headlines that the editors post. You seriously disagree that it isn't the majority mindset?
Slashdot is a large number of people (several hundred thousand if user ID numbers are to be believed). These people cross the spectrum. Some are against any copyright at all. Some think copyright is a perfect and should be expanded in power. Some hold more moderate positions. Some even hold more nuianced positions that appear contradictory on the surface. This diverse population posts the comments you read and submit the articles that the editor's post. End result: a huge pile of amazingly inconsistent content with little to no pattern to the belief system. All nice and clear?
So disregard my opinion if it doesn't apply to you--nice and clear?
Of course, I suspect you're just looking for an opportunity to troll.
I don't doubt you'd "suspect" that. The fact that my post went from +5 to +1 in 10 minutes doesn't surprise me--clearly I ticked off the majority mindset who disagreed with me, and instead of replying as you did, modded me down. Which is, of course, fascism.
The situation isn't new, and it's been explained. Repeatedly. Furthermore, the post you replied to doesn't make any claims about the GPL or copyright!
It was an example of the double-standard that Slashdot holds due to its views on the RIAA. Slashdot editors will post pro-piracy articles and claim they increase sales, thereby supporting copyright infringement. In the next breath, they will post an article criticizing some inane violation of the GPL. How can one expect people to follow one copyright scheme if they profess not following another? It was merely a thought-provoking opinion. Believe it or not, conversations sometimes go on tangents.
Actually, 1998 wants its Blue Screen of Death back.
.Net is Java (and indeed the concept of "virtual machine") rehashed and refined and (in the case of most of what people consider ".Net") Microsoft-only. Not a terrible lot of actual innovation there.
.NET is more than that. Hell, with the Common Language Specification, any compiler can produce the intermediate .NET code.
.NET being similar to Java have to do with anything?
;)
Funny you mention that, since I haven't seen a Blue Screen of Death since around 1998.
"M$" is a perennial favorite, esp. given MSFT's penchant for a) charging exorbitant prices for its stuff and b) making unheard-of fortunes (to the tune of $4 billion per quarter).
My god! They make money! You're right, that warrants using a juvenile term that makes you think you're being clever and funny when you're not.
Taskbars existed before Microsoft.
Who popularized them? Why do you think KDE/GNOME have them? Because of Windows 95.
They were in the form of icon collection boxes under various WMs (Window Managers).
Haha...icon collection boxes, eh? Is that what we're seeing in Linux desktops--icon collection boxes?
Minimize, maximize, and close button locations have varied widely, and are extremely configurable under Linux and are very arbitrary. The only "intuitiveness" about the location is where people have been programmed to look for 'em.
And I merely pointed out that it's amusing they--surprise, surprise--tend to appear in the upper-right corner of windows, even sporting an "X" for the close box.
Print dialogs are standardized to various things. Again, "intuitiveness" is (almost) entirely pre-programming.
Print dialogs in Linux desktops, however, look a lot like Windows print dialogs, which is what I was saying.
Browser file integration has existed before MSFT got involved (via the file:/// URL).
Yeah, we sure saw it everywhere, didn't we? Give me a break.
MSFT upped the ante, though. Whether this is due to trying to crush the competition and dominate an important software sector or enhancing the end user desktop experience depends on whose kool-aid you drink.
I love how you tried to sneak in an irrelevant anti-Microsoft comment just to avoid addressing the fact that the most popular desktop environment, KDE, forces Konquerer everywhere on the user. It takes seconds to open my Home folder on a Gentoo-compiled system.
"Start" menus again are of dubious intuitiveness.
Then why are they used in Gnome and KDE?
Personally, I found the click-on-root-window-to-bring-up-menus method of various WMs to be much more useful.
Why would I care if you found root-window menus to be useful? What does that have to do with this?
Nope. That is pure uninformed FUD. Have you even looked at C#?
Nonetheless--it is STILL irrelevant. Have you herad of Mono? That's what I was referring to. What does
I'm not saying MSFT doesn't come up with interesting stuff, just that you need to come up with better examples.
Better examples? All you did was point out why many were bad ideas. You didn't disprove that the OSS community still rips them off. What's the big deal? Admit it. Tell everyone you steal from everywhere to use what is the best from all operating systems.
Of course, that wouldn't be true since taskbars and such are completely horrible interface ideas, but that sure hasn't stopped KDE and GNOME from falling over themselves trying to rip them off fast enough.
Think of how many blowjobs you could afford with $645. I think it's clear which is the better deal here.
...
........
You must be new around here.
...1998 is calling--it wants its "M$" back.
.NET technology ...and much, much more
You know that it's a stupid idea when Microsoft comes up with it.
Just like:
* Taskbars
* Maximize, minimize, and close buttons in the upper-right corner.
* The standard print dialog.
* Internet browser/file browser integration.
* "Start" menus
*
*
Which as we all know are ideas never seen in the OSS community. Oh...wait.
If it "should probably read" that, why don't you just change it?
From hilariously predicting the "failure" of the iPod-mini to breathlessly declaring that the iPod is susceptible to muggers and is a "must-have," do Slashdotters hate the iPod or something? Is Taco still pissed off about batteries?
Just curious.
While I agree that most of the people downloading music from the p2p services are simply looking for freebies, the legitimate gripe that the rest of have is that the labels making up the RIAA have done nothing to address the root of the problem for people who would otherwise buy music. Namely, CD's are too expensive for the majority of the crap that is out there, and most of the legitimate online music services are pathetic.
See? That has absolutely nothing to do with anything. If you don't like CDs, use iTunes! Shop online! There are alternatives to ripping artists off because you don't want to go the store and pay for it.
Then consider the case of DVD's, as you mentioned.
DVDs? Did you know the full DVD-R rip of Return of the King is already online? And Matrix Revolutions? DVDs are freely pirated too.
It's the strong-arm tactics of the RIAA, without the promotion of reasonable alternatives that earns them the label of "goon".
Apparently, strong-arm tactics mean suing people breaking the law by distributing your product without your permission. Remind me next time Slashdot tries to rally the troops against the next GPL violation.
Promotion of reasonable alternatives? Yet again, Slashdotters ignore online music stores.
How can one reasonably expect people to follow the GPL while simultaneously arguing that the RIAA is wrong for stopping illegal piracy? Face it--piracy is wrong. It's ripping off artists because you think you have a beef with the "goons" of the RIAA. Once again, you completely ignore the artists who aren't getting paid because you're not buying their albums. How long do you think their record label is going to keep them signed if they don't make any sales?
"Submit a patch if you want."
Doesn't seem like much of a priority.
I know this article was posted just to placate the RIAA-hating psychos who think everything should be online for "sampling" purposes.
...meanwhile, let's post another article about a GPL violation!
Just a question--why do you think it's okay to violate everybody's copyrights and dictate to others how they should distribute their own intellectual property, and then post an article berating some company for "violating the GPL?"
Why do you latch onto copyright in one instance and reject in the other when it means getting free stuff? Let's be honest here--those millions of Kazaa and eMule users are NOT there to "sample" albums in order to run down to the store and buy them. Hell, people are starting to package entire band discographies into big multi-GB RAR files for easy download. Are you telling me all those downloaders are going to run to the store when they like what they hear? Most of these are being put out in high-quality MP3 and MPC.
As usual, the issue of the artists in this mess will be completely ignored, and instead they will be replaced with the "evil" RIAA who has dared use legal means to pursue people illegally distributing their copyrighted works. That's baaaaad...even though it's exactly what Slashdot was saying they should do when Napster was under attack.
It just reveals that it all boils down to people wanting free stuff, getting used to the convenience, and then getting mad when it's threatened to be taken away. You've built entire mindsets around it, that you're "sampling," that it's "free advertising"...none of which has any basis, none of which matters legally or morally. Just because your niche opinion equates illegal piracy to sampling doesn't mean the rest of those terabytes going across p2p every month is all for sampling purposes. Get real!
What's interesting is that nobody mentions movies or games. Look how the PC games industry is dying. They're either going to console or putting out the same top-seller sequels every year that they know will make them money. Why do you think that is? Are you going to call it "sampling" when Doom 3 gets put out online a week before it hits retail, as they all are now? Is it "free advertising" when full DVD-R rips of the retail DVD of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King are on eMule at the very moment I type this?
Oh, yeah, I forgot, the MPAA and the RIAA are "goons" because they don't like when people illegally distribute their copyrighted works. I forgot that Slashdot has the right to tell people how to advertise, sample, and distribute...
I believe that the biggest issue is that it is a tool that they *don't control*.
I could have sworn the biggest issue is that artists are getting ripped off. Why does, in EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE on this issue, Slashdot completely ignores the artist? It's always the RIAA. You think the artists want you to be taking their music without paying for it? You think those millions of p2p users are "sampling" those RAR files of albums and promos and cover art?
Looks what's happening to the PC games industry--it's dying. Sales are dying. People are going to consoles because it's safer, it's harder to pirate, and easier to control. Everyone is going to pirate the shit out of Doom 3, and it's going to have an effect--nobody's "sampling" Doom 3. It's the same with music albums, which people grab in archives now and not individual mp3s.
They're losing their power over distribution, very rapidly.
Yes, it's call violating copyright. Slashdotters and pirates don't have the right to dictated to companies how they distribute their works. This is such a given I can't believe it escapes everybody.
Even if people are still buying CDs, what does the future hold when traditional music companies are replaced by alternative means of music distribution?
The future holds online music labels. Not p2p networks where nobody gets paid for anything. Please explain how Kazaa and eMule are going to get artists and labels paid. The only one you can offer is "free advertising," which, barring the fact that distributing their copyrighted material is illegal anyway, is also a dubious argument with no basis other than "well this one time I found a couple of mp3s and went out and bought the CD because I was on dialup and didn't want to finish the rest."
Next.
They traditional record label and its goons aren't needed anymore. They're becoming extinct.
Why are they "goons?" Because they go after people illegally distributing their copyrighted materials?
Let's say you spent three years writing, directing, and editing a movie. You finally get it to theaters, only to come online and see that it's all over the p2p networks. Are you going to smile and kick back, thinking, "man, what free advertising!" or are you going to freak out when you realize that you just spent three years creating a popular e2dk link?
Now I expect a full apology and retraction for the demonization P2P has gotten from the RIAA, et. al.
After all, this automatically proves everything.
They should be trying to increase downloads like radio stations try to increase listeners.
Yes, because after all, all those millions of Kazaa downloaders are merely "sampling" all those albums. They should be INCREASING piracy, which will magically increase sales!
Record labels should distribute approved MP3 tracks, then offer them as singles on CD, just like the radio stations.
You mean like THEY DO ON ITUNES AND OTHER ONLINE MUSIC STORES?
They should closely scrutinize the downloading habits, then create an album based on the popularity of certain tracks.
How stupid. The users can just download what they want from iTunes and burn their own mix CDs.
They don't see this as a tool, only as a threat. They're idiots.
No, it is a threat. This is the bizarre logic of the Slashdotter. Somehow, there is no connection when millions of people grab something for free and don't pay for it in the stores. Somehow, they think there's not going to be a drop in sales as a result. Somehow, they think sales are magically going to occur when people are sticking everything online to download.
But, yeah, CmdrTaco and the rest of Slashdot tells me they're idiots, and the RIAA is evil! The true distraction of the issue. After all, the RIAA is wrong for legally pursuing people illegally distributing their copyrighted product! Even though this is EXACTLY what Slashdot was saying they should do when they were suing Napster!
TV Production should do this too. If Viacom released official BitTorrents of Enterprise, complete with banner ads at the bottom of the screen, I'd download them. The banner ads would make me more likely to delete it when I'm done watching it, which is what they'd want, right.
Yes, because posters on Slashdot should be dictating to everyone how they distribute their property.
Then they can still sell me the DVD.
People will just rip the DVD and put it online and download that. Seriously, you think millions of eMule/Kazaa users are going to "sample" the DVD and then go out and buy it when they've just downloaded the DivX?
That'll probably never happen, though.
That's because it's ridiculous. Thanks for playing.
Slashdotters have yet to legally or morally justify pirating an artist's music. An artist who willingly signed their contract, who willingly went into the studio, who spent months recording and mixing and performing and having cover art done in order to have a CD in the stores--only for college kids to pirate the fuck out of it.
Minority Slashdotters, i.e., those who think their niche opinions magically represent the majority, are honestly going to go around and justify it as "sampling" and better yet, "free advertising," even though you don't have the right to decide for anybody how they distribute their works. You don't have the right to just obtain their product without paying for it simply because it's there. And your opinion that it's "sampling" is completely hilarious, and everybody but Slashdot laughs at it because those millions of p2p users are not "sampling" everything. I could list about 20 websites that collect e2dk links. The biggest, Sharereactor.com, was recently shut down by Swiss authorities. People like you, as usual, are bitching about it because it got rid of your convenient piracy portal.
All this stems from an attempt to remove the aura of criminality that permeates what you do. Sorry, you can't remove the guilt, because you are...guilty. The RIAA is not the bad guy here for--*GASP*--protecting their intellectual property by suing individual downloaders, just like Slashdotters said they should two years ago.
I think the links have been different, but we've had like three articles in the past month declaring that people are watching less television. We even had one showing how more people were using the Internet. We get it already!
you are dreaming if you believe that computers will ever have zero learning curve.
Never said such.
that your realtors don't get it only means that they need to invest some time grasping the file system metaphor (which is not difficult but does take some effort).
It takes effort to grasp a "file system metaphor" because it's silly and unnatural. The natural reaction to opening a folder is to expect that window itself to BE the folder. Nobody ever uses "Up" or "Back" or the address bar except more technically inclined users and developers. Have you ever actually watched the general public use Windows? Integrating the Internet browser and the file browser was the worst and most pointless thing they could have ever done. Not only does it take 3-4 seconds to open anything like a Home folder in KDE, it's a complete waste of resources.
There is always a tradeoff between simplicity and power where usually power drops off at some point of simplicity. You cannot target users with zero clue because then you are taking the worst case scenario for power.
Spatial navigation isn't targetting users with zero clue at the expense of power. You clearly have not read up on spatial navigation and how natural it is.
If you add just a little conceptual overhead you can pick up a lot of power.
"Conceptual overhead." I like that. Cute. You need to deal with the fact that the majority of people will NEVER feel comfortable with the idea that when they double-click the manilla folder, for some mysterious reason what pops up isn't the folder at all, but a "browser" merely "browsing" the contents of the folder, complete with history buttons and an address bar.
If you have a browser opening folders, you need to stop using folder icons because users expect to be opening their folder if they're double-clicking something that LOOKS like a folder.
No, people don't get it at first but will a little guidance they will get it.
And yet spatial navigation doesn't require any guidance. Because it's the natural assumption the human brain takes.
If you target the absolute lowest user then you will lose the largest group of users which is people who do get at least the simple metaphors and find the really brain dead stuff like OO spatial browsing to be really annoying.
Spatial navigation isn't targeting the lowest user, it's adopting a natural reaction the brain has, at least to those who haven't let the silly "browser metaphor" be hammered into their skulls thanks to Windows 98 (meanwhile as they bitch about Microsoft...).
Your arguments are weak and you know it.
Actually, I'm 100% right. It's okay to be wrong. Next.
...where absolutely everything Microsoft does is either evil, a slip-up, a conspiracy, an anti-competitive tactic, or just plain bad (and yet gets ripped off in the next versions of KDE/GNOME).
Meanwhile, several major OSS projects have been compromised in the span of the past six months, yet everyone has already forgotten. They'll just keep spewing the same BSOD "jokes" and security FUD.