There are a few programs I like that are only on cable/sat: some of Comedy Central, Sy-Fy, History, and Discovery. I see those episodes on torrent sites the day after showing up on sat, but I pay for what I watch, so I keep my Dish. The problem is the 80% crap most people don't care about that is bundled with even the basic packages.
Ala carte channels would fix this, but that won't happen. Maybe individual program downloads if appropriately priced (say 25 cents for a Daily Show, or 50 cents for an episode of Caprica) would work. But I suspect the pricing will be more like $1 for an episode of the Daily Show *with* commercials and $4.99 for an episode of Caprica, so no dice there.
In the end, I guess the industry will price me out of watching even those few show and I will drop Dish and just stop watching. It does not have to be that way, but that is what the industry is choosing.
Free BP brand sunscreen for everyone. Just reach down and smear a tar like glob on your face. The article made it pretty clear the bacteria is not a solution. Neither is burning. This will be an environmental disaster. Too late to stop it now. Thanks BP.
A hard filter is correct. Now that enough decent hotels have free wifi, I simply don't consider anything else. That has not inconvenienced me at all, but has cost plenty of business to hotels. If a hotel has wireless broadband internet, I almost never see them charge for it. The problem is the hold outs that offer no internet or "dial up" internet. Oh, gee thanks. I get to use your phone lines to connect with a modem. Wooooo....
Yes, I am the victim of a Basketball Jones
Ever since I was a little baby, I always be dribblin'
In fac', I was de baddest dribbler in the whole neighborhood
Then one day, my mama bought me a basketball
And I loved that basketball
I took that basketball with me everywhere I went
That basketball was like a basketball to me
The change is coming. Transparency can lead to "degradation and humiliation", but so can secretiveness. If you want to remain relevant, then learn to deal with it instead of trying to suppress it.
I doubt we'll be conquered by a race of vacuous, immobile, milkshake-slurping space balloons
I'm betting on intelligent fungus that can survive dormant in space until it falls to earth. Then it attaches to our heads and grows into our brains so it can control us. In the future, we will all look like Don King with green hair.
Yes, this guy is pretty sick. From the summary I thought this was about assisted suicide of the terminally ill. The article makes it clear it was encouragement of depressed, but physically healthy, people to commit suicide.
Just be happy the fatties don't have personal levitation devices like Baron Harkonnen. At least for now they can't reach the top shelves unless they have a trained monkey.
A joint comment by me and my dog Boog has just been filed on Slashdot.
Be honest. Your dog wrote the whole thing, didn't he?
RIAA v Boog : Illegal download of "How much is that doggy in the window?" RIAA: Your honor, since defendant can't pay the 100 billion dollar value of this single download, we request Boog be put down.
There is no 2.8 on the horizon, the next number over to the right has become the de facto minor version number, and the module ABI is stable within each of those releases.
I don't know where you get that. I've seen and continue to see plenty of changes to kernel functions called by drivers between 2.6.x and 2.6.x+1. Maybe you mean the next number to the right of that, the so called stable branches maintained by Greg Kroah-Hartman?
Those are a step in the right direction, but the x changes every few months and includes fixes usually unrelated to any driver interface changes. Some of those fixes get back ported to stable, some do not. That makes the useful window of a stable branch not much longer than the interval between 2.6.x and 2.6.x+1. There is still an unnecessarily coupling of fixes to unrelated driver interface changes that keeps you on the 2.6.x upgrade path.
Despite the intent to keep 2.6.x.y compatible with 2.6.x.y+1, I've still occasionally seen changes to kernel functions called by drivers that break the driver.
All of this said, the current system obviously works. I just think there is room for improvement using some common sense and long proven development techniques.
The last thing Linux needs is a set-in-stone kernel interface...
I can agree with this, but then again I don't see anyone asking for that.
How about something in between, say a well defined interface that is stable for a reasonable period of time with clear points of deprecation and then replacement with improved interfaces? Windows's driver interface is not set in stone with never ending backwards compatibility, you can't use Win 9X drivers on XP. Yet a binary driver that works on Windows 2K has a reasonable chance of running on Vista.
There needs to be a balance between improvements/changes and stability/maintainability.
That said, if you're keeping your driver closed it's a problem you're bringing upon yourself.
I should have been more clear. I'm talking about drivers in the main kernel source. I know the linux kernel mantra: binary only drivers are evil (I agree), out of tree open source drivers are slightly less evil. I think out of tree open source drivers can be useful when inclusion to the main kernel is denied because some critical functionality is deemed unnecessary by the gatekeepers who require it to be removed before consideration. But I'm not even talking about that.
Last I checked, changes to the interfaces by someone puts the onus on them to fix all the calls to it in the kernel...
That's the theory. Here is how it works in practice: A pet project or cosmetic change that touches a lot of code is implemented and then dependencies are grepped. The dependencies are fixed up in a cut and paste way. Sometimes more important drivers get some review to make sure nothing breaks. Everything else just gets shipped if it compiles. Then when that kernel is used in a distribution, sometimes years later, many drivers are suddenly broken and you have to back track to see which change took it out. If someone has a lot of time and desire to support a "lesser" driver then they can spend all of their time playing catch up, but that wears out volunteers quickly and annoys commercial vendors.
Google must now balance any desire to respect the wishes of the Linux community for compatibility with the more diverse, competing - and not always logical - interests of those now adopting Android and its own plans.
I did a double take on this statement.
What I've seen on the kernel mailing list is more a conflict of commercial developer's desire for compatibility (across kernel versions) with the core kernel developer's more diverse (and not always logical) desire to push pet projects and make frequent cosmetic changes that creates a hellish torrent of code churn. The lack of well defined kernel driver interfaces means a lot of time spent chasing the latest changes instead of adding features or fixing bugs.
...don't let that dampen your sense of entitlement.
The only sense of entitlement is on the clerk's side. I'm willing to treat others the way they treat me. Clearly you feel the clerk deserved a song and dance from the customer, I don't.
The suit is complete nonsense, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for company that hired the worthless cunt of a clerk who thinks it is reasonable to demand a customer smile. Fuck them, fuck the clerk. If I'm polite and pay the bill, that is *all* you can expect from a customer.
I had a similar encounter at a gas station and it still pisses me off to this very day. They turned off the pump and kept telling me to smile over the announcement system. I went in and let them know how unacceptable that was, and then spent time to phone as many people in as high of position as possible at that company to let them know the same. Who knows if it did any good, but hopefully that waste of flesh learned the folly of demanding happy obedience from the person paying their wages.
Slashdot Mirror
You're right, that was a brain fart. IIRC he wore boots and had electric sex pants.
There are a few programs I like that are only on cable/sat: some of Comedy Central, Sy-Fy, History, and Discovery. I see those episodes on torrent sites the day after showing up on sat, but I pay for what I watch, so I keep my Dish. The problem is the 80% crap most people don't care about that is bundled with even the basic packages.
Ala carte channels would fix this, but that won't happen. Maybe individual program downloads if appropriately priced (say 25 cents for a Daily Show, or 50 cents for an episode of Caprica) would work. But I suspect the pricing will be more like $1 for an episode of the Daily Show *with* commercials and $4.99 for an episode of Caprica, so no dice there.
In the end, I guess the industry will price me out of watching even those few show and I will drop Dish and just stop watching. It does not have to be that way, but that is what the industry is choosing.
"Damn these electric sex boots!"
Free BP brand sunscreen for everyone. Just reach down and smear a tar like glob on your face. The article made it pretty clear the bacteria is not a solution. Neither is burning. This will be an environmental disaster. Too late to stop it now. Thanks BP.
A hard filter is correct. Now that enough decent hotels have free wifi, I simply don't consider anything else. That has not inconvenienced me at all, but has cost plenty of business to hotels. If a hotel has wireless broadband internet, I almost never see them charge for it. The problem is the hold outs that offer no internet or "dial up" internet. Oh, gee thanks. I get to use your phone lines to connect with a modem. Wooooo....
Yes, I am the victim of a Basketball Jones
Ever since I was a little baby, I always be dribblin'
In fac', I was de baddest dribbler in the whole neighborhood
Then one day, my mama bought me a basketball
And I loved that basketball
I took that basketball with me everywhere I went
That basketball was like a basketball to me
The change is coming. Transparency can lead to "degradation and humiliation", but so can secretiveness. If you want to remain relevant, then learn to deal with it instead of trying to suppress it.
IAASIE (I am a space instrumentation engineer)...
Quiet peon, and bow to the administrator! [flexes pencil like arms]
She's got a purty mouth... worthy of a Hasselblad!
I doubt we'll be conquered by a race of vacuous, immobile, milkshake-slurping space balloons
I'm betting on intelligent fungus that can survive dormant in space until it falls to earth. Then it attaches to our heads and grows into our brains so it can control us. In the future, we will all look like Don King with green hair.
Yes, this guy is pretty sick. From the summary I thought this was about assisted suicide of the terminally ill. The article makes it clear it was encouragement of depressed, but physically healthy, people to commit suicide.
It takes a lot of beer for that to happen.
Laws, EULAs, financial statements, personal ads... all very effectively written in English to deceive.
Just be happy the fatties don't have personal levitation devices like Baron Harkonnen. At least for now they can't reach the top shelves unless they have a trained monkey.
A joint comment by me and my dog Boog has just been filed on Slashdot.
Be honest. Your dog wrote the whole thing, didn't he?
RIAA v Boog : Illegal download of "How much is that doggy in the window?"
RIAA: Your honor, since defendant can't pay the 100 billion dollar value of this single download, we request Boog be put down.
There you have it: RIAA wants to kill your pets.
There is no 2.8 on the horizon, the next number over to the right has become the de facto minor version number, and the module ABI is stable within each of those releases.
I don't know where you get that. I've seen and continue to see plenty of changes to kernel functions called by drivers between 2.6.x and 2.6.x+1. Maybe you mean the next number to the right of that, the so called stable branches maintained by Greg Kroah-Hartman?
Those are a step in the right direction, but the x changes every few months and includes fixes usually unrelated to any driver interface changes. Some of those fixes get back ported to stable, some do not. That makes the useful window of a stable branch not much longer than the interval between 2.6.x and 2.6.x+1. There is still an unnecessarily coupling of fixes to unrelated driver interface changes that keeps you on the 2.6.x upgrade path.
Despite the intent to keep 2.6.x.y compatible with 2.6.x.y+1, I've still occasionally seen changes to kernel functions called by drivers that break the driver.
All of this said, the current system obviously works. I just think there is room for improvement using some common sense and long proven development techniques.
The last thing Linux needs is a set-in-stone kernel interface...
I can agree with this, but then again I don't see anyone asking for that.
How about something in between, say a well defined interface that is stable for a reasonable period of time with clear points of deprecation and then replacement with improved interfaces? Windows's driver interface is not set in stone with never ending backwards compatibility, you can't use Win 9X drivers on XP. Yet a binary driver that works on Windows 2K has a reasonable chance of running on Vista.
There needs to be a balance between improvements/changes and stability/maintainability.
That said, if you're keeping your driver closed it's a problem you're bringing upon yourself.
I should have been more clear. I'm talking about drivers in the main kernel source. I know the linux kernel mantra: binary only drivers are evil (I agree), out of tree open source drivers are slightly less evil. I think out of tree open source drivers can be useful when inclusion to the main kernel is denied because some critical functionality is deemed unnecessary by the gatekeepers who require it to be removed before consideration. But I'm not even talking about that.
Last I checked, changes to the interfaces by someone puts the onus on them to fix all the calls to it in the kernel...
That's the theory. Here is how it works in practice: A pet project or cosmetic change that touches a lot of code is implemented and then dependencies are grepped. The dependencies are fixed up in a cut and paste way. Sometimes more important drivers get some review to make sure nothing breaks. Everything else just gets shipped if it compiles. Then when that kernel is used in a distribution, sometimes years later, many drivers are suddenly broken and you have to back track to see which change took it out. If someone has a lot of time and desire to support a "lesser" driver then they can spend all of their time playing catch up, but that wears out volunteers quickly and annoys commercial vendors.
Google must now balance any desire to respect the wishes of the Linux community for compatibility with the more diverse, competing - and not always logical - interests of those now adopting Android and its own plans.
I did a double take on this statement.
What I've seen on the kernel mailing list is more a conflict of commercial developer's desire for compatibility (across kernel versions) with the core kernel developer's more diverse (and not always logical) desire to push pet projects and make frequent cosmetic changes that creates a hellish torrent of code churn. The lack of well defined kernel driver interfaces means a lot of time spent chasing the latest changes instead of adding features or fixing bugs.
...and playing Pacman on your Atari 2600? (Oh gawd, the pain!)
Actually, severely thinning the herd to make room for innovation is not such a bad thing. So go ahead Darwin candidates, charge for your demos.
He is a she...
...as you are me and we are all together.
Goo goo ga joob.
The only sense of entitlement is on the clerk's side. I'm willing to treat others the way they treat me. Clearly you feel the clerk deserved a song and dance from the customer, I don't.
That is what I did.
The suit is complete nonsense, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for company that hired the worthless cunt of a clerk who thinks it is reasonable to demand a customer smile. Fuck them, fuck the clerk. If I'm polite and pay the bill, that is *all* you can expect from a customer.
I had a similar encounter at a gas station and it still pisses me off to this very day. They turned off the pump and kept telling me to smile over the announcement system. I went in and let them know how unacceptable that was, and then spent time to phone as many people in as high of position as possible at that company to let them know the same. Who knows if it did any good, but hopefully that waste of flesh learned the folly of demanding happy obedience from the person paying their wages.
They can have my MSVC 6 when they pry it from my cold dead GLURK, gaaasssspp...
One problem I've had is the new redistributable requirements of each release. Not insurmountable, but a real concern when considering an upgrade.