Yeah, and I can go to war and kill people when the government wants me too, but GAWD DAMNIT they won't let me shoot my bloody neighboor when he pisses me off. Whats up with that???
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
While simplicity is a good thing, I also want a computer to be able to perform the tasks which I want to use it for. Functionality vs bloat is a fine line, and where it lies varies between different users (choice is a damn good thing), but it does not mandate not having any new features at all.
I don't want to have to walk around with a Cell-phone, a pda, an mp3 player, a gameboy, and whatever other digital device I need (GPS would be bloat for me, but very important for some). Having all of this in one is not "more is better", but "less is better."
NCs are a good idea for the (large) fraction of customers for whoom much of the power in a modern PC is bloat. I do not belong to that fraction, the power and freedom of the desktop PC is exactly what I want, and their isn't a feature on it I don't use (after all, I built it myself). But that doesn't mean it isn't time for the computer industry to wake up to the fact that different users require different things.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
In many ways I think the reviewer has a point: Bill Gates is not an evil megalomaniac, but a man who has the "best" of intentions to be an enlightened leader to the world over which he has considerable power. In many ways, I think that one can really see in him why a despot is always bad, no matter how enlightened the intentions.
One hundred years from now, our complaints of Bill Gates actions will beyond doubt seem petty: the man who left an 80 billion dollar charity foundation behind him (granted, things could go bad for Microsoft, but they are too big to go away: at worst/best they will go the way of IBM) will be remembered as one of the worlds greatest philantropists. It will be hard to explain to our grandchildren why we spoke of that man as more evil than satan: But giving away large sums of money is easy, being a despot is hard.
One of the things that has always scared (and sometimes comforted) me the most about the power that BG has is that he is a man of absolutely no vision. Whenever he speaks of a the future, its always about some technology, predicted for years, that Microsoft thinks is around the corner (for the last two years: voice recognition). BG seems. and he is far from alone about it, to see the information age as a large, shiny playing field of technical gadgets and webpages full of dancing baloney. If I had half his fortune for every insightful comment he has had about he social changes implied by the transition to the information society, I would be just as broke as I am today. Which is not exactly what we need in a leader.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Which provides for a very interesting mathematical problem: exactly what axioms of our mathematical system would have to be changed in order to create a universe in which piracy was impossible. And what would be the other effects of such a change on the way the universe function.
I'll be back in six years...
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
I also heard it can't work with burned CPUs and crashed harddisks. And it won't display things on monitors with broken glass! What sort of shit is this?
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Basically, what he writes about the freedom of the StarOffice source code, is just an analogy of the arguments used against freedom everywhere for as long as it has been debated. People attacking freedom always bring up the lack of security, assurance, and control.
So, of course he has a point. Or, at least he has a point that strikes a chord with people. And in the short run of course Sun has a lot to gain by keeping its code under the artificial reins offered by our screwed up legal system.
But in the long run, well, compare the progress of the (psuedo-) free world with the non-free nations.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Actually, while overlooked by many, Animals is probably the best of the PF albums from this period (ok, The Wall is special). Its darker, more instrumental, and reminds more of the sound from the earlier albums (Meddle, Atom Heart Mother).
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Its hard to have an insightful comment about this topic, as music taste usually comes down to, well taste, and everybody has one. I also think its a bit of situation and mood thing.
Call me a moron, but for those 5 in the morning sessions, when one has had so much sugar, caffiene, etc that the body is about the crystalize and the brain is working on sheer impulse rather than thought: nothing beats some really shallow happy girl pop like Britney Spears or Spice Girls.
I wouldn't be caught dead listening to that in the day (unless its on MTV of course), but when my brain is soft and mushy, pop seems closer to its resonant frequency. No one gives motivation as the sun climbs over the horizon after a sleepless night like my lovely Britney..
Otherwise I like music with a more character and maturity, even when I'm concentrating. Preferably some of the 70s Pink Floyd or David Bowie albums, whose effect is the opposite: allowing me to calm down and concentrate on solving a problem.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
I like to say "the enemy of my enemy is my entertainment".
Regardless of whether they have our best in mind or not (and if they do their stock owners should sue management) the whole Sun and friends vs MS thing has great entertainment value.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
The centralized, legalized, buerocratized, and generally screwed DNS system is the biggest problem with the Web at the moment. It is unbelievable that we have to put up with this stupidity, in what should be the most flexible and changeable of mediums.
DNS is great for email, at least when the address has to exchanged in meatspace, but other then for billboards, its doing nothing but strangling the web.
If you read Tim BL's original report for CERN on the Web, he notes that the real reason for creating it was to get away from inefficient centralized keyword systems. Well, here we are, ten years later, and the web has become a keyword based system, albeit with a rather odd syntax (www.keyword.com).
Domain napping is obviously not a good thing, and I don't think there is anyone here who isn't pissed off a the companies that buy up hundreds of domains to try to auction them off later: but having vague intention (goodwill or badwill) based laws enacted to govern over the web is so much worse.
As I see it there are two good options:
a) The unlimited, non-exclusive TLD (Top Level Doamain) system. This has been proposed on Slashdot before, and would mean allowing anybody to register a new TLD, but for nobody to own one. So microsoft could create.ms, but I could go ahead and register whatsuxabout.ms. Microsoft could register microsoft.sucks, but (probably not) all the TLDs saying that (.stinks,.sux,.iseval,.stinx etc).
This would work for solving the immediate problem, but is still a centralized system, with all the problems of that (Micro~ suing anyone registering a microsoft.* domain for example). Which is why I advocate:
b) Toss DNS out altogether. OK, this won't happen, but as the transfer of addresses in meatspace becomes more rare, I think it makes sense. If you want to find a large webpage, services like Google work fine, and for everything else there is the good old link. The ultimate decentralized namespace has already been invented: its name is Hypertext.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
I'll reply to my own post since I got six replies saying more or less the same thing.
My answer boils down to: Your wrong.
Governments pass laws that tell us what we can and cannot do. That is their nature. However, they should be making laws based on pragmatic and democratic reasons: not morals.
As a citizen of a country I have to accept that the government tells me what is legal. But I will never accept that the government tells me what is good and bad. When a government does that, then it is telling me what to think, and my brain is off limits to it.
You don't have to be religious to hold your own morals (I am not religious, and btw, I was deeply sarcastic about the public hanging part). But you do have to be religious to believe that morals should be mandated and preached to us from above. And you have to believe in government and church as one if you believe such preaching should come from the state.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
How correct is his statement about the USB though? I don't remember exactly when the iMac came, but USB ports have been on the PII motherboards since the very beginning, haven't they?
If anything, it was Microsoft who were slow (not that we should talk).
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Re:Cracking is a crime. Period.
on
One for the Kids
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· Score: 1
The activities described on the cited page are illegal. The people most commonly engaged in them are young. The DOJ is using the bully pulpit in a means that is just as effective and admirable as the "Just say No" campaign of the 80's. I don't agree with anti-drug laws, and I don't agree with some anti-cracking laws, but I have complete respect for the men and women who must enforce those laws, regardless of their wisdom.
Ah, you mean the same "Just say No" campaign that managed to teach youth how bad (thank god we havea governments to tell us what is good and bad huh) drugs really were, managed to curb drug usage among youth completely, ended the drug war, and made the 90's the shiny happy completely drugless decade its been.
How could I forget...
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Good or bad is a value judgement. Value judgements are morals, morals are religion, and church and state are supposed to be seperate (I was going to write "religion is a load of crap" but I'm feeling nice today.)
The government has no place saying whether anything is "good" or "bad". Period. Otherwise, they are practicing organized religion.
Is breaking into my computer illegal or not?
Indeed it is illegal. I don't think their can be much doubt there. Even if the cracker doesn't do anything seriously harmful, he is likely to be tracked down by federal agents, and be tried for comitting a federal crime. He is likely to be accused of terrorism, or worse.
He is likely to have his property stolen by the state (with little or no chance of getting it back). He even has a good chance of spending a long time in jail, possibly without a trial.
Its a damn good thing the American government makes it so clear how illegal it is. I think they should just hang crackers in the public square, and have us bring out our kids to watch. Then they would truly understand.
Should children be encouraged to respect my privacy, my property and the law, or not?
Kids should be encouraged to think freely, make their own sound desitions on what they consider right and wrong, and to stand by and for those desitions. And, if anybody should be doing anything to form a childs mind, it should be its parents, not its government.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
The story I heard was that Nobel's wife was involved in an affair with a young mathematician who would have stood a good chance of winning the prize for mathematics, had there been one...
Thats a myth. Entirely untrue, but for some reason it comes up EVERY time this subject is discussed.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
I am well aware of the EITFs role, and that they have no actual authorative power. That is my point, don't dare to compromise on this issues: if we can't get standards that are not designed from the ground up for the purpose of infringing on our basic rights, then let the EITF make whatever standards they want and screw using them.
If it reaches the point that there is no other option but to develop some sort of "standards" for this crap, then those standards should be disregarded.
- /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, and I can go to war and kill people when the government wants me too, but GAWD DAMNIT they won't let me shoot my bloody neighboor when he pisses me off. Whats up with that???
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
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While simplicity is a good thing, I also want a computer to be able to perform the tasks which I want to use it for. Functionality vs bloat is a fine line, and where it lies varies between different users (choice is a damn good thing), but it does not mandate not having any new features at all.
I don't want to have to walk around with a Cell-phone, a pda, an mp3 player, a gameboy, and whatever other digital device I need (GPS would be bloat for me, but very important for some). Having all of this in one is not "more is better", but "less is better."
NCs are a good idea for the (large) fraction of customers for whoom much of the power in a modern PC is bloat. I do not belong to that fraction, the power and freedom of the desktop PC is exactly what I want, and their isn't a feature on it I don't use (after all, I built it myself). But that doesn't mean it isn't time for the computer industry to wake up to the fact that different users require different things.
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Who are you and what are you doing here? What you just described is our idea of a fun weekend.
Get rid of your life or something.
:-)
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In many ways I think the reviewer has a point: Bill Gates is not an evil megalomaniac, but a man who has the "best" of intentions to be an enlightened leader to the world over which he has considerable power. In many ways, I think that one can really see in him why a despot is always bad, no matter how enlightened the intentions.
One hundred years from now, our complaints of Bill Gates actions will beyond doubt seem petty: the man who left an 80 billion dollar charity foundation behind him (granted, things could go bad for Microsoft, but they are too big to go away: at worst/best they will go the way of IBM) will be remembered as one of the worlds greatest philantropists. It will be hard to explain to our grandchildren why we spoke of that man as more evil than satan: But giving away large sums of money is easy, being a despot is hard.
One of the things that has always scared (and sometimes comforted) me the most about the power that BG has is that he is a man of absolutely no vision. Whenever he speaks of a the future, its always about some technology, predicted for years, that Microsoft thinks is around the corner (for the last two years: voice recognition). BG seems. and he is far from alone about it, to see the information age as a large, shiny playing field of technical gadgets and webpages full of dancing baloney. If I had half his fortune for every insightful comment he has had about he social changes implied by the transition to the information society, I would be just as broke as I am today. Which is not exactly what we need in a leader.
-
Which provides for a very interesting mathematical problem: exactly what axioms of our mathematical system would have to be changed in order to create a universe in which piracy was impossible. And what would be the other effects of such a change on the way the universe function.
I'll be back in six years...
-
Aw chucks, so much for that Linux then.
I also heard it can't work with burned CPUs and crashed harddisks. And it won't display things on monitors with broken glass! What sort of shit is this?
-
Basically, what he writes about the freedom of the StarOffice source code, is just an analogy of the arguments used against freedom everywhere for as long as it has been debated. People attacking freedom always bring up the lack of security, assurance, and control.
So, of course he has a point. Or, at least he has a point that strikes a chord with people. And in the short run of course Sun has a lot to gain by keeping its code under the artificial reins offered by our screwed up legal system.
But in the long run, well, compare the progress of the (psuedo-) free world with the non-free nations.
-
Dark Side, The Wall, and Wish you were Here
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Actually, while overlooked by many, Animals is probably the best of the PF albums from this period (ok, The Wall is special). Its darker, more instrumental, and reminds more of the sound from the earlier albums (Meddle, Atom Heart Mother).
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You know, you made that sound like I had just come out of the closet with a lot more than just an early morning lust for cheap pop music...
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Its hard to have an insightful comment about this topic, as music taste usually comes down to, well taste, and everybody has one. I also think its a bit of situation and mood thing.
Call me a moron, but for those 5 in the morning sessions, when one has had so much sugar, caffiene, etc that the body is about the crystalize and the brain is working on sheer impulse rather than thought: nothing beats some really shallow happy girl pop like Britney Spears or Spice Girls.
I wouldn't be caught dead listening to that in the day (unless its on MTV of course), but when my brain is soft and mushy, pop seems closer to its resonant frequency. No one gives motivation as the sun climbs over the horizon after a sleepless night like my lovely Britney..
Otherwise I like music with a more character and maturity, even when I'm concentrating. Preferably some of the 70s Pink Floyd or David Bowie albums, whose effect is the opposite: allowing me to calm down and concentrate on solving a problem.
-
I like to say "the enemy of my enemy is my entertainment".
Regardless of whether they have our best in mind or not (and if they do their stock owners should sue management) the whole Sun and friends vs MS thing has great entertainment value.
-
for the internet to be of any use at all to anyone other than complete geeks, it must be "meatspace" friendly.
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
And since when is this the goal? What good has the soliciting of stupidity on the Internet done us anyways?
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The centralized, legalized, buerocratized, and generally screwed DNS system is the biggest problem with the Web at the moment. It is unbelievable that we have to put up with this stupidity, in what should be the most flexible and changeable of mediums.
DNS is great for email, at least when the address has to exchanged in meatspace, but other then for billboards, its doing nothing but strangling the web.
If you read Tim BL's original report for CERN on the Web, he notes that the real reason for creating it was to get away from inefficient centralized keyword systems. Well, here we are, ten years later, and the web has become a keyword based system, albeit with a rather odd syntax (www.keyword.com).
Domain napping is obviously not a good thing, and I don't think there is anyone here who isn't pissed off a the companies that buy up hundreds of domains to try to auction them off later: but having vague intention (goodwill or badwill) based laws enacted to govern over the web is so much worse.
As I see it there are two good options:
a) The unlimited, non-exclusive TLD (Top Level Doamain) system. This has been proposed on Slashdot before, and would mean allowing anybody to register a new TLD, but for nobody to own one. So microsoft could create
This would work for solving the immediate problem, but is still a centralized system, with all the problems of that (Micro~ suing anyone registering a microsoft.* domain for example). Which is why I advocate:
b) Toss DNS out altogether. OK, this won't happen, but as the transfer of addresses in meatspace becomes more rare, I think it makes sense. If you want to find a large webpage, services like Google work fine, and for everything else there is the good old link. The ultimate decentralized namespace has already been invented: its name is Hypertext.
-
Windows may be blue out of the box, but there are ways to make it much more happy. At least the part of it you see most...
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
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nuff said. That net stuff just aint up to it yet.
And yes, we do have it in widescreen...
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If you think that a "Shiny happy" world is a good place, then you probably do want a world free from drugs.
Its funny how a statement can be dripping with sarcasm and still be taken seriously on the net...
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I'll reply to my own post since I got six replies saying more or less the same thing.
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
My answer boils down to: Your wrong.
Governments pass laws that tell us what we can and cannot do. That is their nature. However, they should be making laws based on pragmatic and democratic reasons: not morals.
As a citizen of a country I have to accept that the government tells me what is legal. But I will never accept that the government tells me what is good and bad. When a government does that, then it is telling me what to think, and my brain is off limits to it.
You don't have to be religious to hold your own morals (I am not religious, and btw, I was deeply sarcastic about the public hanging part). But you do have to be religious to believe that morals should be mandated and preached to us from above. And you have to believe in government and church as one if you believe such preaching should come from the state.
-
How correct is his statement about the USB though? I don't remember exactly when the iMac came, but USB ports have been on the PII motherboards since the very beginning, haven't they?
If anything, it was Microsoft who were slow (not that we should talk).
-
The activities described on the cited page are illegal. The people most commonly engaged in them are young. The DOJ is using the bully pulpit in a means that is just as effective and admirable as the "Just say No" campaign of the 80's. I don't agree with anti-drug laws, and I don't agree with some anti-cracking laws, but I have complete respect for the men and women who must enforce those laws, regardless of their wisdom.
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Ah, you mean the same "Just say No" campaign that managed to teach youth how bad (thank god we havea governments to tell us what is good and bad huh) drugs really were, managed to curb drug usage among youth completely, ended the drug war, and made the 90's the shiny happy completely drugless decade its been.
How could I forget...
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Is breaking into my computer bad or not?
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Good or bad is a value judgement. Value judgements are morals, morals are religion, and church and state are supposed to be seperate (I was going to write "religion is a load of crap" but I'm feeling nice today.)
The government has no place saying whether anything is "good" or "bad". Period. Otherwise, they are practicing organized religion.
Is breaking into my computer illegal or not?
Indeed it is illegal. I don't think their can be much doubt there. Even if the cracker doesn't do anything seriously harmful, he is likely to be tracked down by federal agents, and be tried for comitting a federal crime. He is likely to be accused of terrorism, or worse.
He is likely to have his property stolen by the state (with little or no chance of getting it back). He even has a good chance of spending a long time in jail, possibly without a trial.
Its a damn good thing the American government makes it so clear how illegal it is. I think they should just hang crackers in the public square, and have us bring out our kids to watch. Then they would truly understand.
Should children be encouraged to respect my privacy, my property and the law, or not?
Kids should be encouraged to think freely, make their own sound desitions on what they consider right and wrong, and to stand by and for those desitions. And, if anybody should be doing anything to form a childs mind, it should be its parents, not its government.
-
has, to my knowledge, only one tense. And no articles. And plural noted by saying the noun twice ("orang" is person, "orang-orang" is people).
Needless to say, there isn't much poetry in Indonesian...
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funny, simple, and untrue.
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
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The story I heard was that Nobel's wife was involved in an affair with a young mathematician who would have stood a good chance of winning the prize for mathematics, had there been one...
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
Thats a myth. Entirely untrue, but for some reason it comes up EVERY time this subject is discussed.
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I am well aware of the EITFs role, and that they have no actual authorative power. That is my point, don't dare to compromise on this issues: if we can't get standards that are not designed from the ground up for the purpose of infringing on our basic rights, then let the EITF make whatever standards they want and screw using them.
If it reaches the point that there is no other option but to develop some sort of "standards" for this crap, then those standards should be disregarded.
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Not to be corny, but on top of all that, I also thought it was an amazing love story.
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