A lot of the higher ranked posts here is about comparing The GIMP with Photoshop in one way or another. Why not just rejoice that one of the major Free GNU-tools out there has been released in a hopefully enhanced version? What if all those people shouting about bad usability could channel all that pessimism towards writing feature requests and suggestions to make usability higher?
> Yo slashdot, just save us the trouble, stop accepting blogs as news. > All you do is drive up ad revenue for these sites that often are filled > with jibberish and anything that resembles news worthy material...
That's no problem, real Slashdotters won't follow the links to the article anyway...:)
1. Consumers can afford a wider variety of goods at a lower levels of cost. This means that a person in NY in winter can get Florida orange juice for a modest price.
2. Consumers can afford to drive a little farther to find the best goods at the best prices. Rather than be forced to buy from an expensive, small store nearby (as much as I like Mon'n'Pop stores, they are more expensive and offer worse selection), consumers can shop around and buy the best items at the lowest cost.
I really hope you are trolling. Do you seriously mean that we should sacrifice our environment just so that you can get cheaper orange juice and not support local shops because they are more expensive? If you do, you are very very lost...
We should of course do the opposite, support local shops and minimize unnecessary travel.
Sorry for this obvious observation: why would any small country not want to use open source?
Funny that you'd ask this; a couple of weeks ago I discussed this with a collegue in SL (I live and work in Sweden) and he said that SL has always been quite MS-friendly, mostly because it has been "free" to obtain as they until previously had very week, if any, copyright-laws.
In that case, I am a woman in a man's body...:) I do the exact same thing: record the shows I want to see so that I can see them when *I* want, not when the networks decide to show them. Skipping the commercials is of course a bonus.
Speaking of "surfing the tv", my girl friend tend to do that more than me. Just sitting down, see what is on and just stick to some program. I guess she is a man in a woman's body then...
While I agree with to some extent (I try to convince all my friends to use GNU/Linux, but no one has installed it yet), not all people have the knowledge or time to learn it.
Well, here in Sweden we are from today really fscked... Why? Because today, our newly changed copyright law is "enabled". Previously it was, like in many countries, illegal to upload copyrighted content. Today it is also illegal to *download* it, something I haven't heard any other country has. Yet... This morning, hundreds of thousands of Swedes (we are only 9 million) woke up being criminals, while our file sharing apps was downloading the latest piece of music or movies.
It's the exact opposite for me: no one I know uses AIM or Yahoo IM. No one! My old IM buddies tend to use ICQ while ppl that has discovered IM lately mostly use MSN. Only I use Jabber...:(
No they aren't, that whole "humans only use 80% of their capacities" urban legend is bullshit...
I do not agree. What people most often mean when saying that is that most people is not using their full potential. There are probably a *lot* of things you could learn, if you don't know how to do them already (juggling, a new language, playing that new computer game etc etc). If you would try to do the same with a computer, it would sooner or later run out of memory.
A friend of mine thought he came up with a brilliant compression algorithm. Instead of storing the content in a file, just store the position where it can be found in PI, and the length.
I decided to test this out, very unscientifically, by doing a hack. I was not very surprised, but somewhat disappointed, to find that the length of the position number was normally longer than the data to be stored...:)
Well, I calculated whether it might be sarcasm or not and decided that I thought it was not. So, if it was, my detector was apparently not working that day...:)
Sorry, I did not mean that I liked software patents, it is the other way around. I just though that it was interesting how the Commision should have the interest of the people in mind, but when it comes to the current debate abut software patentsm it seems like the do the big corporations a favour instead.
The UK is known for many things, great food, a wonderful climate and beautiful women.
I'm not trying to be trolling here, promise, but from where I come (Sweden), UK is NOT famous for its cuisine nor for its women. Not that they are ugly, but I would actually say sub-standard (*if* you must compare looks and not look at the inside, blah blah) when it comes to looks, although very nice and with great humor.
From http://europa.eu.int/institutions/comm/index_en.ht m: 1. Proposing new legislation
Under the Treaty, the Commission has the "right of initiative". In other words, it is responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, which it presents to Parliament and the Council. These proposals must aim to defend the interests of the Union and its citizens, not those of specific countries or industries.
Anyone else than me that found the part about "not those of... or industries" interesting?
"How do I get photos from the Sony Mavica to iPhoto?" my wife asked me. Answer: Plug in the USB cable, and when iPhoto automatcially opens, click the blue pill clearly labelled "Import." Tell me that Dell will be able to do that OUT OF THE BOX!
Come on, give us a break! Have you ever tried doing that in Windows XP? If you do the same on Windows XP, a dialog will pop up asking you what you want to do (like browse the camera as a disk, opening bla bla program etc). I'm the closest to a anti-MS-fanatic there is, but it is silly to come with silly examples like that. Silly man!:)
Hence, whatever those of you who rip music illegally may choose to believe in order to justify breaking the law, it's a good bet that the RIAA execs really do believe that the illegal song-swapping is hurting their business.
Well, that is probably true. But it does not mean that what they believe is true: It sounds as if you say that just because a company's purpose is to make money, that they actually make the right decisions to make much money all the time. Compare to when Microsoft a couple of years ago did not first jump on the Internet wagon, they probably thought it was some brief hype. Were they wrong or were they wrong?
The real reason why Firefox is not a threat is because People Are Dumb.
I think that is a bit too harsh. Some are stupid, yes, but most of them, I guess, are just not interested or informed enough to care, as you say yourself. Just because they do not care about computers does not mean that they are stupid.
If a few good uses of XUL can become widespread over the next six months or so, it has a good chance to take a hold before XAML can squash it.
Come on! If if if if if... I'm so tired of hearing this over-optimistic statements that actually do not say anything at all. Believe me, no one would be happier than me if (again) XUL would give Mozilla/Firefox a bigger market, but seriously, who are we kidding?
I am still positive about the not-so-near future though. I have to be, MS cannot be allowed to "win". Also, I am still fighting the urge to by an X-Box...:)
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of the higher ranked posts here is about comparing The GIMP with Photoshop in one way or another. Why not just rejoice that one of the major Free GNU-tools out there has been released in a hopefully enhanced version? What if all those people shouting about bad usability could channel all that pessimism towards writing feature requests and suggestions to make usability higher?
> Yo slashdot, just save us the trouble, stop accepting blogs as news.
:)
> All you do is drive up ad revenue for these sites that often are filled
> with jibberish and anything that resembles news worthy material...
That's no problem, real Slashdotters won't follow the links to the article anyway...
1. Consumers can afford a wider variety of goods at a lower levels of cost. This means that a person in NY in winter can get Florida orange juice for a modest price.
2. Consumers can afford to drive a little farther to find the best goods at the best prices. Rather than be forced to buy from an expensive, small store nearby (as much as I like Mon'n'Pop stores, they are more expensive and offer worse selection), consumers can shop around and buy the best items at the lowest cost.
I really hope you are trolling. Do you seriously mean that we should sacrifice our environment just so that you can get cheaper orange juice and not support local shops because they are more expensive? If you do, you are very very lost...
We should of course do the opposite, support local shops and minimize unnecessary travel.
It is now time again for reminding you all of what might happen if this goes too far:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Sorry for this obvious observation: why would any small country not want to use open source?
:)
Funny that you'd ask this; a couple of weeks ago I discussed this with a collegue in SL (I live and work in Sweden) and he said that SL has always been quite MS-friendly, mostly because it has been "free" to obtain as they until previously had very week, if any, copyright-laws.
That's why...
In that case, I am a woman in a man's body... :) I do the exact same thing: record the shows I want to see so that I can see them when *I* want, not when the networks decide to show them. Skipping the commercials is of course a bonus.
Speaking of "surfing the tv", my girl friend tend to do that more than me. Just sitting down, see what is on and just stick to some program. I guess she is a man in a woman's body then...
If you liked that, maybe you should try the system I use to organize my Start Menu:
t s
http://klibb.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/MakeSmartShortcu
After using a computer for many years, I seem to have started developing some kind of RSI.
It seems like a bad move to me to switch to using computers instead of text books.
I am all for using computers in education, being a computer geek myself, but it should be moderate.
While I agree with to some extent (I try to convince all my friends to use GNU/Linux, but no one has installed it yet), not all people have the knowledge or time to learn it.
Well, here in Sweden we are from today really fscked... Why? Because today, our newly changed copyright law is "enabled". Previously it was, like in many countries, illegal to upload copyrighted content. Today it is also illegal to *download* it, something I haven't heard any other country has. Yet... This morning, hundreds of thousands of Swedes (we are only 9 million) woke up being criminals, while our file sharing apps was downloading the latest piece of music or movies.
:(
These are dark times, very dark...
It's the exact opposite for me: no one I know uses AIM or Yahoo IM. No one! My old IM buddies tend to use ICQ while ppl that has discovered IM lately mostly use MSN. Only I use Jabber... :(
I do not agree. What people most often mean when saying that is that most people is not using their full potential. There are probably a *lot* of things you could learn, if you don't know how to do them already (juggling, a new language, playing that new computer game etc etc). If you would try to do the same with a computer, it would sooner or later run out of memory.
People won't...
A friend of mine thought he came up with a brilliant compression algorithm. Instead of storing the content in a file, just store the position where it can be found in PI, and the length.
:)
I decided to test this out, very unscientifically, by doing a hack. I was not very surprised, but somewhat disappointed, to find that the length of the position number was normally longer than the data to be stored...
Why is that bad? Explain. No, I am not trolling, I simply do not understand the problem.
That description of us is right on the spot!
Well, I calculated whether it might be sarcasm or not and decided that I thought it was not. So, if it was, my detector was apparently not working that day... :)
Sorry, I did not mean that I liked software patents, it is the other way around. I just though that it was interesting how the Commision should have the interest of the people in mind, but when it comes to the current debate abut software patentsm it seems like the do the big corporations a favour instead.
I'm not trying to be trolling here, promise, but from where I come (Sweden), UK is NOT famous for its cuisine nor for its women. Not that they are ugly, but I would actually say sub-standard (*if* you must compare looks and not look at the inside, blah blah) when it comes to looks, although very nice and with great humor.
1. Proposing new legislation
Under the Treaty, the Commission has the "right of initiative". In other words, it is responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, which it presents to Parliament and the Council. These proposals must aim to defend the interests of the Union and its citizens, not those of specific countries or industries.
Anyone else than me that found the part about "not those of
Right, right. And that software is included on the Dell, right?
Yes it is. And if you would need image manipulating software more powerful than the software included in XP you can always download The Gimp.
Anyway, my point was that Windows is not that hard to use in certain areas. Not very hard at all. I use it at work and at home I run Linux only.
"How do I get photos from the Sony Mavica to iPhoto?" my wife asked me. Answer: Plug in the USB cable, and when iPhoto automatcially opens, click the blue pill clearly labelled "Import." Tell me that Dell will be able to do that OUT OF THE BOX!
:)
Come on, give us a break! Have you ever tried doing that in Windows XP? If you do the same on Windows XP, a dialog will pop up asking you what you want to do (like browse the camera as a disk, opening bla bla program etc). I'm the closest to a anti-MS-fanatic there is, but it is silly to come with silly examples like that. Silly man!
Hence, whatever those of you who rip music illegally may choose to believe in order to justify breaking the law, it's a good bet that the RIAA execs really do believe that the illegal song-swapping is hurting their business.
Well, that is probably true. But it does not mean that what they believe is true: It sounds as if you say that just because a company's purpose is to make money, that they actually make the right decisions to make much money all the time. Compare to when Microsoft a couple of years ago did not first jump on the Internet wagon, they probably thought it was some brief hype. Were they wrong or were they wrong?
You have a point. The US still innovates, but not as much as they used to.
US != "The West". We are a couple of contries here in little teenie weenie Europe also...
The real reason why Firefox is not a threat is because People Are Dumb.
I think that is a bit too harsh. Some are stupid, yes, but most of them, I guess, are just not interested or informed enough to care, as you say yourself. Just because they do not care about computers does not mean that they are stupid.
If a few good uses of XUL can become widespread over the next six months or so, it has a good chance to take a hold before XAML can squash it.
:)
Come on! If if if if if... I'm so tired of hearing this over-optimistic statements that actually do not say anything at all. Believe me, no one would be happier than me if (again) XUL would give Mozilla/Firefox a bigger market, but seriously, who are we kidding?
I am still positive about the not-so-near future though. I have to be, MS cannot be allowed to "win". Also, I am still fighting the urge to by an X-Box...
Sorry to sound like an old grumpy man...