Re:Economic imbalance is the issue here
on
The Drone War
·
· Score: 2
Afghanistan was a convenient target. it was backwards, it could be bombed easily, it was full of brown people that americans didn't care about. The press was shut up and we bombed the shit out of them. Unfortunately you will never know how many people were killed but I guarantee you this. None of the people that were killed had anything to do with what happened in Newy York. Zero, none null. Those people died because bush didn't want to look like a wimp.
The people who were actually responsible (directly) are dead they died in the planes. The people who financed, planned, and recruited were living in Milan, Berlin, Canada, United States, and maybe malasia. None of those countries were bombed and they will never be bombed. Instead we will continue to bomb lay to waste the poor countries who can not afford to buy levis and brittney spears albums anyway. Philipines, somalia, iraq (where we have already killed almost two million civilians), iran, yemen etc.
All this bombing has nothing to with sep 11. We are simply lashing out at convinient targets where we won't suffer any casualties and where nobody in the US is going to raise a stink about killing a few hundred thousand people. Bomb Germany? of course not! bomb somalia? what the fuck it's full of starving niggers anyway let's waste the mother fuckers!
Re:You're kidding about that Terrorism thing...
on
The Drone War
·
· Score: 2, Flamebait
Israel is a bit different.
1) Israel is the occupying force. Palestenians are trying to gain a country they lost and are living under israeli rule.
2) The ratio of palestenians killed to israelis killed is HUGE (close to 10 to 1). Of course you'd never know this listening to US media.
Both the israelis and the palestenians know the following.
Palestenians would rather die then to live under israeli occupoation. Israelis would rather kill palestenians then to move out.
As long as the ratio of dead arabs to dead jews stays high the US is just fine with it as is israel and the rest of europe.
Apparently you seem to be under the impression that adobe own the trademark to the word "illustrator". They don't. They own the trademark "adobe illustrator".
KDE is allowed to use the word illustrator (well they would be allowed if they had enough money). The law is clearly on their side on this but they can't afford to fight adobe. In america the amount of money you have determines how much of your rights you actually get to exersize.
Ask an American "Should we go and kill some dark people on the other side of the world?". Might as well ask him "Would you like a shiny hundred dollar bill?". What the hell do you think they are going say.
ACLU, dershowitz etc have not been able to prevent the detention of over a thousand dark people without arrest. We don't even know how many are detained.
Right now, all the AG has to say is that you are "suspected in terrorist activities" and you can be held indefinately without ever being charged. Indefinately means till you die of old age or torture.
Right now the definition of terrorist seems broad enough to mean "any person of seemingly arabic descent" in the future it might mean "any person associated with an enviromental organization" or "any and all person who did not vote for George W. Bush". And guess what nothing you can do about it. Congress does not have to approve, the pres simply declares it.
Well maybe for morons killustrator which runs on linux, does not come in a box, is not in any store, is not sold by anybody, has a different logo, looks different, and acts different can be confused for illustrator.
I don't know I could tell in 5 seconds that they were not the same thing perhaps you got confused.
Re:here are some prices from CompUSA.
on
New iMac Announced
·
· Score: 2
Well I didn't look at all of them but I looked at your first link (compusa). The price you quoted does not include a monitor or a DVD writer. It also has a couple of lame software packages but nothing special. It's also big and ugly and takes up a massive amount of space, it's also noisy, no firewire ports, oh yea one more thing. It's piece of shit compaq. I don't know of anybody who is happy with their compaq. I think you do yourself a disservice when you include links to second rate machines and try and compare them to a well made one. Sure I can piece something together with a bunch of crappy hardware but it does not mean I am going to be happy with it in the long run.
Re:Same goes for NT server VS windows 2000 server
on
Dave Barry Does Windows
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Not true. I know this may not fit into your thinking patterns but get this. Linux does not need to reboot if I upgrade mozilla or opera or konqeror. Linux does not need to reboot if I upgrade libraries for mysql, postgres, interbase, oracle, db2 or what have you.
The linux kernel almost never needs to be ugraded for security reasons and that's the only reason you need to reboot. The only time people upgrade their kernels under normal circumstances is when they upgrade their distro.
The windows service packs usually fix things in the user space but require a reboot anyway in linux this does not happen.
This is very widespread problem. The list of hardware compatible with windows 2000 is pretty small. Unless you have just the right hardware you are better off with an OS that supports more hardware like linux or better off buying a highly controlled hardware/software combination like MAC.
As I am writing this I am into my 5th hour of installing windows 2000. Let me explain.
Install windows 2K.
Did not detect anything in the machine including the 3com. WTF??
I got it to recognize the 3com card by doing an add/remove hardware
Reboot.
COnfigure internet go to the Nvidia web site to get drivers, install drivers.
reboot.
Stick in the CDrom from the motherboard manufacturer (VIA) so I can install sound drivers.
Reboot.
Who hoo a working system with no apps and tons of security holes.
Now do a windows update.
Install sp2 (sorry nothing else can be downladed at the same time). Download and install maybe 100 megs or something (took forever).
Reboot.
Do a windows update. Download critical updates (sorry nothing else can be downladed at the same time).
Reboot.
Download the IE 5.5 patch (sorry nothing else can be downladed at the same time).
Reboot.
Windows update again to download the rest of the security patches.
Reboot.
Whoo hoo a machine with no apps and lots of services running, no security policies no nothing.
Scour about a dozen web sites to try and figure out which services are safe to shutdown. Dig around the registry to make more then a dozen changes.
Reboot just for good measure.
Whoo hoo a modern secure OS. It only took the entire freaking day and required intimate knowledge of the registry and the inner workings of windows. Not for the faint of heart nor for your average joe.
Now I get the pleasure of re-installing all my apps I figure it will take the rest of month because I can't simply copy them from my old machine.
Compare this to what I did at work friday.
Install debian potato (the only cd I have around). Took maybe 20 minutes.
vi/etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get upgrade (missed a few).
apt-get install a couple of packages.
Whoo hoo a secure and up to date operating system with applications!. All that and it took only a couple of hours. Most of that was downloading, my actualy effort was more like 15 minutes of answering questions then going to fill my coffee cup while waiting for the download the finish.
BTW NO REBOOTS DURING THE ENTIRE PROCESS!
So. To put in perpective. for a knowledgable user It's a shitload easier to install and secure debian then it is windows 2000 AND you'll have a better uptime because every single service pack, mdac upgrade, ie upgrade etc will not require a reboot.
No it runs it's own loadable modules. Things like php, perl, and probably hundreds of loadable modules exists to make apache sing, dance, and do backflips.
If you have delphi you can even roll your own otherise you have to do it in C.
Support is available from large corporations. I really don't think HP, Compaq, Dell, IBM etc are going to be going out of business any time soon. Yes they all offer linux support all of them. Just fork over the money and they will gladly help you out. And you know what else. Red Hat looks like it's going to weather this dot com bust and come out of it actually making money. If that happens they will have done better then amazon.com!. It's clear they are not run a bunch of volunteers or amateurs (although they are probably enthusiasts). I don't think they will go out of business any time soon either.
"But there is accountability when money is exchanging hands"
No there is not. Not once has MS ever been held accountable for any defective software. Hasn't happened yet and never will. In your example some third party consulting firm is likely to be target of that exchange. MS sells licenses there is no "come in there and get your stupid software working right" in their world.
If you know of one example please let me in on it.
Nobody has ever sued MS because one of their products was faulty. No software from MS comes with any guarantee of usability whatsoever. If there is a CIO someplace in this world who thinks that they can hold MS accountable then by all means let us know who this collosal idiot is so that we can sell our stocks.
The idea of a CEO or a CIO commiting shareholders money to sue MS because of a defect in one of their software is just too funny. It has never been done and it will never happen.
Please people this kind of fud is old hat and stupid. Think of new ones.
"So all those arguments I heard back in '98 that Linux was good enough for the server market... what were they? lies?"
It was the truth just no the whole truth. It was good enough to be a DNS server, it was good enough to be a web server serving moderate loads, it was good enough to be a ftp server, it was good enough to be a file server. It was not however 80% as good as solaris or NT. After 2.4 it breached the 80% mark started gaining market share as a general purpose server for real life loads of most businesses. Up to that point it was a great server for smaller businesses.
"Actually it is me."
Actually it's not you. You have already made up your mind and are trolling slashdot expounding it (I am giving you the benefit of the doubt here and presuming that you are actually in a position to make that choice in the first place). Right now in most businesses there is already a ripple of enthusiasts for linux. In small to medium businesses enthisiasm is even higher. It's just a matter of time.
I for one believe we can move this process along greatly by turning in every small business who steals MS software to the local AG, MS, the SPA or whoever else is willing to make them stop stealing software. When businesses are forced to buy windows software they will give linux a harder look. As long as businesses are stealing MS software of course they have no insentive to actually try anything else. It's not enough to appeal to their sense of morality or ethics are most business people are slimy and would sell their grandmothers if it meant a little extra profit.
So let me get this straight. You know discrimination occurs. You think this is because "Humans are human. As long as we judge each other, discrimination will occur. ". Despite saying the previous you say discrimination is rare. Somehow that does not add up. If all humans discriminate then it should be commonplace right?
Anyhow. Your advice is to do nothing when it happens. In other words "shut up and sit down (bitch|nigger|kike|spic|fag)".
Nice.
I say discrimination is commonplace. It's pervades the workplace in all kinds of subtle and not so subtle ways. People are wise these days so they hide their discrimination very carefully. They still won't promote the not-one-of-us down the hall but they are clever about it. This is why whenever they slip up and make it obvious that they are descriminating you should pounce on it make them pay.
I am a brown person, one day I was talking to a person who is much darker then me and he said "I have never been discriminated against" to which I replied "that you know of". I asked him how many times he was turned down for a job and if he took the time to figure out if less qualified applicants were hired instead (he never did). Like I said it can be hard to prove.
As for me I have been discriminated against many times, sometimes to my face, sometimes in a backhanded way. I have chosen to just leave which in resrospect was a bad idea. These people should have been held accountable for their words and actions. It's easier to run away then to fight and I chose the cowards way but if I had to do it over I would have fought.
"People by organic tomatoes because they are tomatoes, not because they aren't radishes."
What the fuck? Are you saying that linux is not an operating system? Both windows and linux are operating systems. Both open office and MS office are productivity software. How is one a tomato and the other a radish?
Your anologies are simply irrelevant. People want an OS they want apps. Some people use the more ethical OS and the more ethical apps despite the fact that they are not as shiny and heavily vaxed as the commercial apps. Like I said I wish more people thought about the ethical consequences of their purchasing decisions.
"Yet all I hear from the Linux community is that their favorite kosher OS needs to be more like that forbidden pork butt."
Microsoft has relentless stolen every good idea that anybody came up with and incorporated into their apps and OS. There is nothing wrong with letting them do your research and developement. Let them spend the money researching and we will implement their ideas if we like them. This is just business as usual. Like I said they have done it a million times and so has every other company on the planet.
BTW. Turkey is not ham no matter how you shape it or flavor it. The rules of kosherness have nothing to do whether something "looks like ham". If it does not come from a pig and it's slaughtered in a kosher manner then it's OK.
How many people need to read them? Just one or two and it's good enough for me. I am sure that by now people who are kernel hacker have at least looked at it since nobody was screaming about it I presume every thing is hunky dory.
If you re-read my post you will see that I am predicting the adoption of the linux desktop in corporate environments first. In thos environments the user does not mess with configuration files. The will log into a pre-configured system running KDE and openoffice and whatever else the corporation chose for them. Eventually when joe blow decides to get a new computer he will want the same thing at home.
"Linux has been "good enough" for years, at least by your standards. How come they haven't won yet? "
Linux has been good enough for the server market since kernel 2.4. At that point it became 80% as good as solaris and NT at server tasks and started capturing market share. In the year or so since that time it has achieved over 20% market share in servers.
"Perhaps if you compare it to Win3.1, but compared to modern environments it's more like 20%. "
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Fortunately it's not you who will be making this decision. It will be somebody who is forking over serious money for MS licenses. Pretty soon now openoffice + KDE will be able to deliver 80% of the functionality of windows + ms office.
"I actually rather suspect Linux desktop use will decline from it's position today. Perhaps you meant.10% in two years and.04% in four? "
I suppose you can "suspect" anything you want. We'll see who is right in time.
Slashdot Mirror
Afghanistan was a convenient target. it was backwards, it could be bombed easily, it was full of brown people that americans didn't care about. The press was shut up and we bombed the shit out of them. Unfortunately you will never know how many people were killed but I guarantee you this. None of the people that were killed had anything to do with what happened in Newy York. Zero, none null. Those people died because bush didn't want to look like a wimp.
The people who were actually responsible (directly) are dead they died in the planes. The people who financed, planned, and recruited were living in Milan, Berlin, Canada, United States, and maybe malasia. None of those countries were bombed and they will never be bombed. Instead we will continue to bomb lay to waste the poor countries who can not afford to buy levis and brittney spears albums anyway. Philipines, somalia, iraq (where we have already killed almost two million civilians), iran, yemen etc.
All this bombing has nothing to with sep 11. We are simply lashing out at convinient targets where we won't suffer any casualties and where nobody in the US is going to raise a stink about killing a few hundred thousand people. Bomb Germany? of course not! bomb somalia? what the fuck it's full of starving niggers anyway let's waste the mother fuckers!
Israel is a bit different.
1) Israel is the occupying force. Palestenians are trying to gain a country they lost and are living under israeli rule.
2) The ratio of palestenians killed to israelis killed is HUGE (close to 10 to 1). Of course you'd never know this listening to US media.
Both the israelis and the palestenians know the following.
Palestenians would rather die then to live under israeli occupoation. Israelis would rather kill palestenians then to move out.
As long as the ratio of dead arabs to dead jews stays high the US is just fine with it as is israel and the rest of europe.
Apparently you seem to be under the impression that adobe own the trademark to the word "illustrator". They don't. They own the trademark "adobe illustrator".
KDE is allowed to use the word illustrator (well they would be allowed if they had enough money). The law is clearly on their side on this but they can't afford to fight adobe. In america the amount of money you have determines how much of your rights you actually get to exersize.
Ask an American "Should we go and kill some dark people on the other side of the world?". Might as well ask him "Would you like a shiny hundred dollar bill?". What the hell do you think they are going say.
Why bother. ZDNET is nothing but a bootlicker to MS anyways.
ACLU, dershowitz etc have not been able to prevent the detention of over a thousand dark people without arrest. We don't even know how many are detained.
Right now, all the AG has to say is that you are "suspected in terrorist activities" and you can be held indefinately without ever being charged. Indefinately means till you die of old age or torture.
Right now the definition of terrorist seems broad enough to mean "any person of seemingly arabic descent" in the future it might mean "any person associated with an enviromental organization" or "any and all person who did not vote for George W. Bush". And guess what nothing you can do about it. Congress does not have to approve, the pres simply declares it.
Unfortunately those are the facts.
Actually since vi does not rely on control or ALT keys it would probably be pretty productive on a palm.
Well maybe for morons killustrator which runs on linux, does not come in a box, is not in any store, is not sold by anybody, has a different logo, looks different, and acts different can be confused for illustrator.
I don't know I could tell in 5 seconds that they were not the same thing perhaps you got confused.
Well I didn't look at all of them but I looked at your first link (compusa). The price you quoted does not include a monitor or a DVD writer. It also has a couple of lame software packages but nothing special. It's also big and ugly and takes up a massive amount of space, it's also noisy, no firewire ports, oh yea one more thing. It's piece of shit compaq. I don't know of anybody who is happy with their compaq. I think you do yourself a disservice when you include links to second rate machines and try and compare them to a well made one. Sure I can piece something together with a bunch of crappy hardware but it does not mean I am going to be happy with it in the long run.
Not true. I know this may not fit into your thinking patterns but get this. Linux does not need to reboot if I upgrade mozilla or opera or konqeror. Linux does not need to reboot if I upgrade libraries for mysql, postgres, interbase, oracle, db2 or what have you.
The linux kernel almost never needs to be ugraded for security reasons and that's the only reason you need to reboot. The only time people upgrade their kernels under normal circumstances is when they upgrade their distro.
The windows service packs usually fix things in the user space but require a reboot anyway in linux this does not happen.
And every service pack, ie upgrade, mdac upgrade, driver upgrade etc. In other words about twice a month.
"I also think that it's better to have 100 small companies than 10 large companies."
Yes but in the real world small companies come and go and big companies stay around. Why do you think that is?
This is very widespread problem. The list of hardware compatible with windows 2000 is pretty small. Unless you have just the right hardware you are better off with an OS that supports more hardware like linux or better off buying a highly controlled hardware/software combination like MAC.
True Story.
/etc/apt/sources.list
As I am writing this I am into my 5th hour of installing windows 2000. Let me explain.
Install windows 2K.
Did not detect anything in the machine including the 3com. WTF??
I got it to recognize the 3com card by doing an add/remove hardware
Reboot.
COnfigure internet go to the Nvidia web site to get drivers, install drivers.
reboot.
Stick in the CDrom from the motherboard manufacturer (VIA) so I can install sound drivers.
Reboot.
Who hoo a working system with no apps and tons of security holes.
Now do a windows update.
Install sp2 (sorry nothing else can be downladed at the same time). Download and install maybe 100 megs or something (took forever).
Reboot.
Do a windows update. Download critical updates (sorry nothing else can be downladed at the same time).
Reboot.
Download the IE 5.5 patch (sorry nothing else can be downladed at the same time).
Reboot.
Windows update again to download the rest of the security patches.
Reboot.
Whoo hoo a machine with no apps and lots of services running, no security policies no nothing.
Scour about a dozen web sites to try and figure out which services are safe to shutdown. Dig around the registry to make more then a dozen changes.
Reboot just for good measure.
Whoo hoo a modern secure OS. It only took the entire freaking day and required intimate knowledge of the registry and the inner workings of windows. Not for the faint of heart nor for your average joe.
Now I get the pleasure of re-installing all my apps I figure it will take the rest of month because I can't simply copy them from my old machine.
Compare this to what I did at work friday.
Install debian potato (the only cd I have around). Took maybe 20 minutes.
vi
apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get upgrade (missed a few).
apt-get install a couple of packages.
Whoo hoo a secure and up to date operating system with applications!. All that and it took only a couple of hours. Most of that was downloading, my actualy effort was more like 15 minutes of answering questions then going to fill my coffee cup while waiting for the download the finish.
BTW NO REBOOTS DURING THE ENTIRE PROCESS!
So. To put in perpective. for a knowledgable user It's a shitload easier to install and secure debian then it is windows 2000 AND you'll have a better uptime because every single service pack, mdac upgrade, ie upgrade etc will not require a reboot.
No it runs it's own loadable modules. Things like php, perl, and probably hundreds of loadable modules exists to make apache sing, dance, and do backflips.
If you have delphi you can even roll your own otherise you have to do it in C.
Support is available from large corporations. I really don't think HP, Compaq, Dell, IBM etc are going to be going out of business any time soon. Yes they all offer linux support all of them. Just fork over the money and they will gladly help you out. And you know what else. Red Hat looks like it's going to weather this dot com bust and come out of it actually making money. If that happens they will have done better then amazon.com!. It's clear they are not run a bunch of volunteers or amateurs (although they are probably enthusiasts). I don't think they will go out of business any time soon either.
"But there is accountability when money is exchanging hands"
No there is not. Not once has MS ever been held accountable for any defective software. Hasn't happened yet and never will. In your example some third party consulting firm is likely to be target of that exchange. MS sells licenses there is no "come in there and get your stupid software working right" in their world.
If you know of one example please let me in on it.
Nobody has ever sued MS because one of their products was faulty. No software from MS comes with any guarantee of usability whatsoever. If there is a CIO someplace in this world who thinks that they can hold MS accountable then by all means let us know who this collosal idiot is so that we can sell our stocks.
The idea of a CEO or a CIO commiting shareholders money to sue MS because of a defect in one of their software is just too funny. It has never been done and it will never happen.
Please people this kind of fud is old hat and stupid. Think of new ones.
"So all those arguments I heard back in '98 that Linux was good enough for the server market... what were they? lies?"
It was the truth just no the whole truth. It was good enough to be a DNS server, it was good enough to be a web server serving moderate loads, it was good enough to be a ftp server, it was good enough to be a file server. It was not however 80% as good as solaris or NT. After 2.4 it breached the 80% mark started gaining market share as a general purpose server for real life loads of most businesses. Up to that point it was a great server for smaller businesses.
"Actually it is me."
Actually it's not you. You have already made up your mind and are trolling slashdot expounding it (I am giving you the benefit of the doubt here and presuming that you are actually in a position to make that choice in the first place). Right now in most businesses there is already a ripple of enthusiasts for linux. In small to medium businesses enthisiasm is even higher. It's just a matter of time.
I for one believe we can move this process along greatly by turning in every small business who steals MS software to the local AG, MS, the SPA or whoever else is willing to make them stop stealing software. When businesses are forced to buy windows software they will give linux a harder look. As long as businesses are stealing MS software of course they have no insentive to actually try anything else. It's not enough to appeal to their sense of morality or ethics are most business people are slimy and would sell their grandmothers if it meant a little extra profit.
So let me get this straight. You know discrimination occurs. You think this is because "Humans are human. As long as we judge each other, discrimination will occur. ". Despite saying the previous you say discrimination is rare. Somehow that does not add up. If all humans discriminate then it should be commonplace right?
Anyhow. Your advice is to do nothing when it happens. In other words "shut up and sit down (bitch|nigger|kike|spic|fag)".
Nice.
I say discrimination is commonplace. It's pervades the workplace in all kinds of subtle and not so subtle ways. People are wise these days so they hide their discrimination very carefully. They still won't promote the not-one-of-us down the hall but they are clever about it. This is why whenever they slip up and make it obvious that they are descriminating you should pounce on it make them pay.
I am a brown person, one day I was talking to a person who is much darker then me and he said "I have never been discriminated against" to which I replied "that you know of". I asked him how many times he was turned down for a job and if he took the time to figure out if less qualified applicants were hired instead (he never did). Like I said it can be hard to prove.
As for me I have been discriminated against many times, sometimes to my face, sometimes in a backhanded way. I have chosen to just leave which in resrospect was a bad idea. These people should have been held accountable for their words and actions. It's easier to run away then to fight and I chose the cowards way but if I had to do it over I would have fought.
"People by organic tomatoes because they are tomatoes, not because they aren't radishes."
What the fuck? Are you saying that linux is not an operating system? Both windows and linux are operating systems. Both open office and MS office are productivity software. How is one a tomato and the other a radish?
Your anologies are simply irrelevant. People want an OS they want apps. Some people use the more ethical OS and the more ethical apps despite the fact that they are not as shiny and heavily vaxed as the commercial apps. Like I said I wish more people thought about the ethical consequences of their purchasing decisions.
"Yet all I hear from the Linux community is that their favorite kosher OS needs to be more like that forbidden pork butt."
Microsoft has relentless stolen every good idea that anybody came up with and incorporated into their apps and OS. There is nothing wrong with letting them do your research and developement. Let them spend the money researching and we will implement their ideas if we like them. This is just business as usual. Like I said they have done it a million times and so has every other company on the planet.
BTW. Turkey is not ham no matter how you shape it or flavor it. The rules of kosherness have nothing to do whether something "looks like ham". If it does not come from a pig and it's slaughtered in a kosher manner then it's OK.
In the unix world it's Tex and postscript mostly.
How many people need to read them? Just one or two and it's good enough for me. I am sure that by now people who are kernel hacker have at least looked at it since nobody was screaming about it I presume every thing is hunky dory.
If you re-read my post you will see that I am predicting the adoption of the linux desktop in corporate environments first. In thos environments the user does not mess with configuration files. The will log into a pre-configured system running KDE and openoffice and whatever else the corporation chose for them. Eventually when joe blow decides to get a new computer he will want the same thing at home.
"Linux has been "good enough" for years, at least by your standards. How come they haven't won yet? "
.10% in two years and .04% in four? "
Linux has been good enough for the server market since kernel 2.4. At that point it became 80% as good as solaris and NT at server tasks and started capturing market share. In the year or so since that time it has achieved over 20% market share in servers.
"Perhaps if you compare it to Win3.1, but compared to modern environments it's more like 20%. "
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Fortunately it's not you who will be making this decision. It will be somebody who is forking over serious money for MS licenses. Pretty soon now openoffice + KDE will be able to deliver 80% of the functionality of windows + ms office.
"I actually rather suspect Linux desktop use will decline from it's position today. Perhaps you meant
I suppose you can "suspect" anything you want. We'll see who is right in time.