"Linux and MacOS X are not really the same sort of thing."
Well maybe not but consider this.
How many have you read on slashdot gripes about linux being too obtuse or too hard for the ordinary user. I can hear them howling now.
"X is an abomination it's ugly and slow get rid of it", "/etc is horribble with all those config files why can't you get a unified xml based config system or a registry", "there are too many competing desktops why can't they sttle on one", "It's too hard to program where is VB?", "what the hell does/usr/local/bin mean why don't they rename the directories something sane" and it goes on and on.
Guess what every single one of those complaints has been adressed by MacOSX. It's linux with a unified config system, a unified desktop, an understandable-to-the-average-joe directory structure, all backed by a fortune 500 company with an advertising budget.
Yes it's a threat.
OTOH I can definately see linux market share growing if (a big if) macOSX actually gets people used to using non windows stuff. Maybe it will be easier to switch to linux from macOSX then from windows.
Absolutely right. This is an attempt by corporations to get paid to rig the election. Now they have to pay to get their puppet installed. With the new system one well planted back door and the bill gates candidate always wins.
Wow insisting that corporate heads actually take personal responsibility for their actions. It will undermine the american way of life. Doesn't this scumbag lawyer realize that corporations were invented to shirk personal responsibility. Next thing you know he will insist that somebody be tried criminally for the 200 deaths that firestone caused.
What I found interesting was that bit about the resonance. If in a computer simulation 25 percent of planetary systems have resonce and our primary way detecting planets is to measure wobble then this would mean that there are many more planetary systems that we will not be able to detect. of course any system with small planets won't be discovered either.
If Ballmer told me that my pants were on fire AND I smelled smoke AND I felt my ass getting warm I still would not believe him. I think that ballmer may somewhere in the depths of his brain have an incling that there is such a thing as truth but I don't think he has ever uttered it.
Take a look at a history of his press releases this man is the biggest liar on the planet.
Mine was stable for a couple of months. Now it crashes pretty regularly. I think the sql server service pack three did it but I can never be sure. Now I have to wipe it and reinstall for the third time.
So far it has been dismal stability on my dell dimension xps700.
Put three systems in front of a typical user. One running windows, one running linux, one running a Mac. Which do you think they would be least frustrated with in an hour? My dad had a mac and he never used to call me now that he got a PC I do tech support once week with him (he is 72 BTW).
Windows is extremely confusing. Because the default configuration hides the extensions a person can see two or three things in a folder with the same name. This is an abomination in UI design.
"No dad not the white one the yellow one!" Actual quote from me to my dad when trying to explain to him what to double click.
Man you know by now he is unable to grasp concepts like this. This guy is an idiot and he just rolled slashdot, he has a huge notch in his belt you think he actually cares about the truth?
" It's easy to fall out of compliance... this should stop that."
The open source community ought to full heartedly embrace and celebrate the birth of any technology that prevents people from copying software. If people actually had to pay for their copies of software they would be encouraged to investigate lower cost alternatives and free software.
Right now too many people (billions outside the united states) are using MS operating systems and office software because they don't have to pay for it. As a result of this widespread pirating of MS software, lower cost and free alternatives don't get a chance to gain market share and MS software becomes the "default".
Imagine a world where every person who uses a computer is faces with the following dillema.
Do I pay $400.00 for MS-Office, $99.00 for Wordperfect office or $0.00 for star office?
Imagine a person in Africa, China, or El-Salvador making this choice.
A significant percentage (if not most) would choose to pay less and this would once and for all break the MS hegemony in software and more importantly file formats.
The open source community ought to be helping MS achieve better copy protection methods and encouraging them by any means possible. Feel free to call every person who pirates software a thief, liar, coward or bum or whatever. Maybe they'll switch out of shame.
Write a program to automatically click the button. Run the program all the time. This way the button gets clicked but not by you. You do not agree and therefore are not obligated. How do they know who clicked the button and under what circumstances?
Bash who ever you want whenever you want. This is the essence of freedom. Ms bashes it's competition in advertisements, interviews with management, in court, and whenever and however they feel is required.
Why be nice to evil people, why be kind to MS. Bash them every chance you get, lie about them just like they lie about you and linux.
Coerce people not to use their products if you can. Convince people not to use them if can. Tell everybody you know how they are an unethical company, how Bill Gates ought to be tried for perjury for lying under oath. There is never any reason to cut MS any slack. Point out every evil thing they have ever done.
All you have to do is to tell the truth. The truth about MS is enough to make people not like them and not trust them. They have a horrible track record for screwing people and companies just point this out to anybody who is thinking about partnering with them.
It's not enough to just not use them spread the word about every unethical thing they have ever done, about every company that partnered with them and got the shaft, every time you spent time and money investing in something MS and got the rug pulled out from under you.
Just tell the truth. The truth is that MS is the most unethical company on the planet and dealing with them will in most likelyhood get you screwed over royally.
The real question is why would anybody port.net over to linux in the first place. As soon as you do the port MS will change the spec and there you are playing the catch up game forever.
It's better to concentrate on competing technologies that are cross platform and not under the control of MS.
Do you know if DCOM is actually usable under those platforms? It's one thing to port it it's another to fully support it. As with most things Microsoft DCOM and.NET are fast moving loosely defined standards that change at the whim of MS. DO you know if DCOM for *nix has kep up with DCOM for windows?
I absolutely agree that CEO or someone should be jailed. Just as I would be tried if my dog killed someone so should the CEO, the board of directors, and the top level management. They are the primary people who are supposed to control their dog.
OTOH a corporation can be considered a living being (it certainly has first amendmendment rights like a living being does). In fact the supreme court has raised the corporation to the level of a human being which is demeaning to a human. A corporation is immortal, soul-less being. It's alive just as a demon would be alive but it has no soul.
It is the responsibility of the shareholders to make sure their corporation behaves in a legal and ethical manner. In this regard shareholders are like dog owners. If my dog gets out of the yard and mauls a human two things happen.
One the dog is put to sleep. Even if I paid big bucks for a pure bred german shepard my property is taken away and killed for the good of the society at large. I suffer emotional and financial damages because I did not exercize my responsibility as a dog owner. I am obligated to train my dog and contain it so that it does not harm others.
Two I could be tried criminally (negligent homocide, manslaugher, depraved indefference or whatever) AND most likely I will be tried civilly. In both cases If I should be found guilty I will suffer by being jailed or paying big bucks.
A corporation is the dog of the shareholders. It has rights (you couln't just kill my dog, or even beat it and neither could I) but in the end the responsibility belongs to the shareholders. If a corporation kills it ought tobe treated just like a dog. Kill the corporation so that it can not harm others, and punish the shareholders severely so that they will never invest in an unethical corporation and they keep a careful eye on what their corporation is doing. It's up to them to properly train and socialize their corporation.
Absolutely there ought to be a corporate jail. I propose that corporation be jailed by simply stopping of the trade of stock. You freeze the stock and disallow anybody to buy it or sell it. This does not harm the stock holders because the stock value is frozen. If the corporation is found not guilty then start selling the stock again, no real harm and no real foul. This is just like somebody being held in jail during the trial.
If the corporation is found guilty it can either appeal the verdict (and stay in jail) or be punished by either a jail sentence or the death penalty as appropriate. If the corporation is put to death then all assets of the corporation are seized by the govt. The shareholders get screwed but then it was their responsibility to make sure their corporation behaved in a legal manner in the first place.
I dont' think "many" corporations are socially responsible. I think a "few" of them are. "most" will readily kill people to make money at worst or let people die at best. Any manufacturing corporation for example would readily pollute any given river, land or air if they could. They don't care that the poisons they dump kill people or cause them to be sick. They lobby fiercely to reduce pollution laws or safetly laws bacause letting people live costs too much money. Go to the american chamber of commerce and see what they lobby for. It's not for a caring and ethical world.
What are you saying exactly? You seem to be saying that nobody should pay any taxes right? Paying taxes is forced sharing isn't it. People in NY pay taxes so that people in Montana get police protection, fire protection, road maintenance etc. People in populated states lose out in taxes while people in rural areas make out like bandits. All of this is forced sharing.
So if forced sharing is bad how do you propose to form a society in which there are no taxes? Should the people in Montana be forced to fend for themselves and maintain the millions of miles of roads, should the farmers, ranchers, miners, loggers all give up their subsidies? what about the army? What should I be forced to pay for weapons systems I don't want? If no taxes then what?
Maybe you can point at an actual situation where a gun was used to protect somebody from CIA, DOD or whatever. Even David Koresh with his stockpile of weapons was taken down.
If you want to own a gun that's fine but don't fool yourself into thinking that you are going to hold off the government of the united states at bay when they come for you with your rifle or pistol.
Just because a law isn't being enforced now that does not mean it's never going to be enforced. A prime example are the marijuana laws. In the seventies nobody cared if you smoked a joint in central park or the street corner. Then Ronald Reagan got into office and decided that drugs were the number one problem of the nation and declared zero tolerance next thing you know people ended up jail for 20 years for having seeds in the ash tray.
Our president elect is a born again christian whose god tells him that homosexuality is evil and should be punished by death (leviticus). He has stated publicly that he considers Jesus the most profound influence in his life and the gretes philosopher. What if he decided that there should be zero tolerance for homosexuality? You bet those laws would be enforced.
As for the rest trust me if you are anything but a christian in the bible belt or the deep south you learn to live with death threats. It only takes one christian whacko to carry out god's will and you are lying in a pool of blood, being dragged behind a pickup truck, crucified on a fence post, or beaten to a pulp by a mob. I left oklahoma as soon as I started getting death threats because I know what happens when all gods soldiers have guns.
Most americans really have no choice though. They have whatever their workplace is offering as an HMO or insurance. If you are rich enough to afford your own health care or insurance then you get great health care otherwise you get whatever your insurance company says from whoever they say. Most workplaces don't even offer anything other then catastrophic insurance anyways. Dental plans seem to be luxury these days.
I heard somebody say once "We americans don't mind throwing people overboard as long as we don't have to hear them scream". This describes perfectly the health care in America.
I used to work for a hospital (IT dept) and the people who ended up in the emergency room because it was the only place that could not turn you down were routinely urged to declare bankrupcy because the hospital had no hope of making them pay 50 thousand dollars. Get sick declare bankrupcy, is this a great system or what?
If those people are immoral then the corporation will be immoral and vice-versa. Many of our fellow residents of Earth are immoral and evil, but I don't believe the majority of shareholders of big companies is evil. "
Here is the difference.
If a person is evil (say jeffrey dahmer) and kills a few people AND he is caught, he gets tried criminally and is either jailed or killed by the state. If on the other hand if a corporation is evil (say firestone) and kills a hundred people nobody gets jailed or sentenced to death. The reason for this is twofold.
One is that the corporation is more then just people it's an soul-less immortal being with rights just like you and me. Unlike you and me though it can not be killed, jailed or tried criminally.
Two the people who summon such beings and serve them do so because the being also serves to insulate these humans from personal responsibily. The humans use this being as a shield. This way these humans who ordered the corporation to kill hundreds of human beings (with souls) can escape the death penalty or jail time.
The corporation being is the greatest tool ever invented for avoiding personal responsibility.
Not all corporations are evil but all of them are soul-less and immortal. As such they are immune from judgement by god (or whoever you see as the creator) and have no moral compultion. They are outside of any moral judgement by either a higher being or even the society at large. They can not be threatened by eternal damnation and if they ever get critisized too badly by the citizenry they just move to another country.
Slashdot Mirror
"Linux and MacOS X are not really the same sort of thing."
/usr/local/bin mean why don't they rename the directories something sane" and it goes on and on.
Well maybe not but consider this.
How many have you read on slashdot gripes about linux being too obtuse or too hard for the ordinary user. I can hear them howling now.
"X is an abomination it's ugly and slow get rid of it", "/etc is horribble with all those config files why can't you get a unified xml based config system or a registry", "there are too many competing desktops why can't they sttle on one", "It's too hard to program where is VB?", "what the hell does
Guess what every single one of those complaints has been adressed by MacOSX. It's linux with a unified config system, a unified desktop, an understandable-to-the-average-joe directory structure, all backed by a fortune 500 company with an advertising budget.
Yes it's a threat.
OTOH I can definately see linux market share growing if (a big if) macOSX actually gets people used to using non windows stuff. Maybe it will be easier to switch to linux from macOSX then from windows.
Absolutely right. This is an attempt by corporations to get paid to rig the election. Now they have to pay to get their puppet installed. With the new system one well planted back door and the bill gates candidate always wins.
Wow insisting that corporate heads actually take personal responsibility for their actions. It will undermine the american way of life. Doesn't this scumbag lawyer realize that corporations were invented to shirk personal responsibility. Next thing you know he will insist that somebody be tried criminally for the 200 deaths that firestone caused.
What I found interesting was that bit about the resonance. If in a computer simulation 25 percent of planetary systems have resonce and our primary way detecting planets is to measure wobble then this would mean that there are many more planetary systems that we will not be able to detect. of course any system with small planets won't be discovered either.
If Ballmer told me that my pants were on fire AND I smelled smoke AND I felt my ass getting warm I still would not believe him. I think that ballmer may somewhere in the depths of his brain have an incling that there is such a thing as truth but I don't think he has ever uttered it.
Take a look at a history of his press releases this man is the biggest liar on the planet.
Mine was stable for a couple of months. Now it crashes pretty regularly. I think the sql server service pack three did it but I can never be sure. Now I have to wipe it and reinstall for the third time.
So far it has been dismal stability on my dell dimension xps700.
Put three systems in front of a typical user. One running windows, one running linux, one running a Mac. Which do you think they would be least frustrated with in an hour? My dad had a mac and he never used to call me now that he got a PC I do tech support once week with him (he is 72 BTW).
Windows is extremely confusing. Because the default configuration hides the extensions a person can see two or three things in a folder with the same name. This is an abomination in UI design.
"No dad not the white one the yellow one!" Actual quote from me to my dad when trying to explain to him what to double click.
look into it.
It does everything you describe and more.
JUST clip press releases by Dick Chaney and Geroge Bush and show them to your boss. In the comind recession every dollar will count.
Man you know by now he is unable to grasp concepts like this. This guy is an idiot and he just rolled slashdot, he has a huge notch in his belt you think he actually cares about the truth?
" It's easy to fall out of compliance ... this should stop that."
The open source community ought to full heartedly embrace and celebrate the birth of any technology that prevents people from copying software. If people actually had to pay for their copies of software they would be encouraged to investigate lower cost alternatives and free software.
Right now too many people (billions outside the united states) are using MS operating systems and office software because they don't have to pay for it. As a result of this widespread pirating of MS software, lower cost and free alternatives don't get a chance to gain market share and MS software becomes the "default".
Imagine a world where every person who uses a computer is faces with the following dillema.
Do I pay $400.00 for MS-Office, $99.00 for Wordperfect office or $0.00 for star office?
Imagine a person in Africa, China, or El-Salvador making this choice.
A significant percentage (if not most) would choose to pay less and this would once and for all break the MS hegemony in software and more importantly file formats.
The open source community ought to be helping MS achieve better copy protection methods and encouraging them by any means possible. Feel free to call every person who pirates software a thief, liar, coward or bum or whatever. Maybe they'll switch out of shame.
Write a program to automatically click the button. Run the program all the time. This way the button gets clicked but not by you. You do not agree and therefore are not obligated. How do they know who clicked the button and under what circumstances?
lots of people use cracks don't they? If it was a simple patch a ton of people would use it.
Bash who ever you want whenever you want. This is the essence of freedom. Ms bashes it's competition in advertisements, interviews with management, in court, and whenever and however they feel is required.
Why be nice to evil people, why be kind to MS. Bash them every chance you get, lie about them just like they lie about you and linux.
Coerce people not to use their products if you can. Convince people not to use them if can. Tell everybody you know how they are an unethical company, how Bill Gates ought to be tried for perjury for lying under oath. There is never any reason to cut MS any slack. Point out every evil thing they have ever done.
All you have to do is to tell the truth. The truth about MS is enough to make people not like them and not trust them. They have a horrible track record for screwing people and companies just point this out to anybody who is thinking about partnering with them.
It's not enough to just not use them spread the word about every unethical thing they have ever done, about every company that partnered with them and got the shaft, every time you spent time and money investing in something MS and got the rug pulled out from under you.
Just tell the truth. The truth is that MS is the most unethical company on the planet and dealing with them will in most likelyhood get you screwed over royally.
The real question is why would anybody port .net over to linux in the first place. As soon as you do the port MS will change the spec and there you are playing the catch up game forever.
It's better to concentrate on competing technologies that are cross platform and not under the control of MS.
Do you know if DCOM is actually usable under those platforms? It's one thing to port it it's another to fully support it. As with most things Microsoft DCOM and .NET are fast moving loosely defined standards that change at the whim of MS. DO you know if DCOM for *nix has kep up with DCOM for windows?
I absolutely agree that CEO or someone should be jailed. Just as I would be tried if my dog killed someone so should the CEO, the board of directors, and the top level management. They are the primary people who are supposed to control their dog.
OTOH a corporation can be considered a living being (it certainly has first amendmendment rights like a living being does). In fact the supreme court has raised the corporation to the level of a human being which is demeaning to a human. A corporation is immortal, soul-less being. It's alive just as a demon would be alive but it has no soul.
It is the responsibility of the shareholders to make sure their corporation behaves in a legal and ethical manner. In this regard shareholders are like dog owners. If my dog gets out of the yard and mauls a human two things happen.
One the dog is put to sleep. Even if I paid big bucks for a pure bred german shepard my property is taken away and killed for the good of the society at large. I suffer emotional and financial damages because I did not exercize my responsibility as a dog owner. I am obligated to train my dog and contain it so that it does not harm others.
Two I could be tried criminally (negligent homocide, manslaugher, depraved indefference or whatever) AND most likely I will be tried civilly. In both cases If I should be found guilty I will suffer by being jailed or paying big bucks.
A corporation is the dog of the shareholders. It has rights (you couln't just kill my dog, or even beat it and neither could I) but in the end the responsibility belongs to the shareholders. If a corporation kills it ought tobe treated just like a dog. Kill the corporation so that it can not harm others, and punish the shareholders severely so that they will never invest in an unethical corporation and they keep a careful eye on what their corporation is doing. It's up to them to properly train and socialize their corporation.
Absolutely there ought to be a corporate jail. I propose that corporation be jailed by simply stopping of the trade of stock. You freeze the stock and disallow anybody to buy it or sell it. This does not harm the stock holders because the stock value is frozen. If the corporation is found not guilty then start selling the stock again, no real harm and no real foul. This is just like somebody being held in jail during the trial.
If the corporation is found guilty it can either appeal the verdict (and stay in jail) or be punished by either a jail sentence or the death penalty as appropriate. If the corporation is put to death then all assets of the corporation are seized by the govt. The shareholders get screwed but then it was their responsibility to make sure their corporation behaved in a legal manner in the first place.
I dont' think "many" corporations are socially responsible. I think a "few" of them are. "most" will readily kill people to make money at worst or let people die at best. Any manufacturing corporation for example would readily pollute any given river, land or air if they could. They don't care that the poisons they dump kill people or cause them to be sick. They lobby fiercely to reduce pollution laws or safetly laws bacause letting people live costs too much money. Go to the american chamber of commerce and see what they lobby for. It's not for a caring and ethical world.
What are you saying exactly? You seem to be saying that nobody should pay any taxes right? Paying taxes is forced sharing isn't it. People in NY pay taxes so that people in Montana get police protection, fire protection, road maintenance etc. People in populated states lose out in taxes while people in rural areas make out like bandits. All of this is forced sharing.
So if forced sharing is bad how do you propose to form a society in which there are no taxes? Should the people in Montana be forced to fend for themselves and maintain the millions of miles of roads, should the farmers, ranchers, miners, loggers all give up their subsidies? what about the army? What should I be forced to pay for weapons systems I don't want? If no taxes then what?
Maybe you can point at an actual situation where a gun was used to protect somebody from CIA, DOD or whatever. Even David Koresh with his stockpile of weapons was taken down.
If you want to own a gun that's fine but don't fool yourself into thinking that you are going to hold off the government of the united states at bay when they come for you with your rifle or pistol.
Just because a law isn't being enforced now that does not mean it's never going to be enforced. A prime example are the marijuana laws. In the seventies nobody cared if you smoked a joint in central park or the street corner. Then Ronald Reagan got into office and decided that drugs were the number one problem of the nation and declared zero tolerance next thing you know people ended up jail for 20 years for having seeds in the ash tray.
Our president elect is a born again christian whose god tells him that homosexuality is evil and should be punished by death (leviticus). He has stated publicly that he considers Jesus the most profound influence in his life and the gretes philosopher. What if he decided that there should be zero tolerance for homosexuality? You bet those laws would be enforced.
As for the rest trust me if you are anything but a christian in the bible belt or the deep south you learn to live with death threats. It only takes one christian whacko to carry out god's will and you are lying in a pool of blood, being dragged behind a pickup truck, crucified on a fence post, or beaten to a pulp by a mob. I left oklahoma as soon as I started getting death threats because I know what happens when all gods soldiers have guns.
Most americans really have no choice though. They have whatever their workplace is offering as an HMO or insurance. If you are rich enough to afford your own health care or insurance then you get great health care otherwise you get whatever your insurance company says from whoever they say. Most workplaces don't even offer anything other then catastrophic insurance anyways. Dental plans seem to be luxury these days.
I heard somebody say once "We americans don't mind throwing people overboard as long as we don't have to hear them scream". This describes perfectly the health care in America.
I used to work for a hospital (IT dept) and the people who ended up in the emergency room because it was the only place that could not turn you down were routinely urged to declare bankrupcy because the hospital had no hope of making them pay 50 thousand dollars. Get sick declare bankrupcy, is this a great system or what?
If those people are immoral then the corporation will be immoral and vice-versa. Many of our fellow residents of Earth are immoral and evil, but I don't believe the majority of shareholders of big companies is evil. "
Here is the difference.
If a person is evil (say jeffrey dahmer) and kills a few people AND he is caught, he gets tried criminally and is either jailed or killed by the state. If on the other hand if a corporation is evil (say firestone) and kills a hundred people nobody gets jailed or sentenced to death. The reason for this is twofold.
One is that the corporation is more then just people it's an soul-less immortal being with rights just like you and me. Unlike you and me though it can not be killed, jailed or tried criminally.
Two the people who summon such beings and serve them do so because the being also serves to insulate these humans from personal responsibily. The humans use this being as a shield. This way these humans who ordered the corporation to kill hundreds of human beings (with souls) can escape the death penalty or jail time.
The corporation being is the greatest tool ever invented for avoiding personal responsibility.
Not all corporations are evil but all of them are soul-less and immortal. As such they are immune from judgement by god (or whoever you see as the creator) and have no moral compultion. They are outside of any moral judgement by either a higher being or even the society at large. They can not be threatened by eternal damnation and if they ever get critisized too badly by the citizenry they just move to another country.