I don't think so. Linux was forged in the 'white-hot fires of online self-interest'; altruism had nothing to do with it. The payoff was different things to different people, and since an easy concept like money wasn't involved a good many folks have a difficult time understanding and instead use the catch-all 'altruism' to explain it. Here are a few of the payoffs:
(1) Reciprocal contribution. Contribute code to a work and you encourage others to do the same. Whether you understand it on a conscious level or not the end result is a product that works better for EVERYONE involved. Everyone wins.
(2) 'Scratching the itch'. This certainly seems to be Linus's motivation for working on Linux. He does it because he enjoys it. He's stated, publicly, that he'd work on Linux even if no one else did. Linus's motivations, and the motivations of others like him, are no different than any other hobbyist: personal satisfaction. That's their 'coin'.
(3) Public recognition. Some coders code for kudos and respect.
(4) Practice and portfolio. Some folks work on open source projects to improve their skills AND their resume for jobs that pay money.
These are just some of the reasons I can list off the top of my head. But 'altruism' isn't a driving force for Linux development, and I seriously doubt that pure altruism (if there even is such a thing) accounts for the motivations of more than a tiny fraction of all coders.
That's just silly. A person who has a 1000 downloaded albums clearly loves music and would have VERY PROBABLY bought at least a few of them if that was the only way to get them. And when the users of P2P are calculated in millions, that amounts to a HUGE amount of albums, even if there are some who indeed wouldn't have bought any.
Two things:
(1) There is no Constitutional guarantee for profit; and (2) There is no Constitutional clause protecting failing business models under assault from technological changes.
Clearly the practices of the RIAA are outdated and outmoded. We didn't give any special protections to buggy whip manufacturers when Ford's first cars started rolling off the assembling line and we shouldn't be giving any to the RIAA either. Their method of collecting money for themselves and their clients *no longer works*; attempting to enforce artificial scarcity is just goddamned silly all-around, and so far the most obvious abuse is that the patent and copyright clause of the Constitution has been perverted far beyond it's original intent - as have the remedies available to those whose patents/copyrights are being infringed on.
Sometimes technology changes and shit happens. A business which worked well before crashes and burns. Either it dies out completely (e.g., the guys who sold buggy whips) or is replaced by something which works in the new, changed market. We call this CAPITALISM.
If actually stood buy and let the free market do it's thing the RIAA and MPAA would be out of business within a few years. They'd probably be replaced by something else, but then again, they might not. And so the fuck what if they aren't? That's the way the ball bounces.
As things stand though, 99% of the audience consists of musical sheep
The reason popular music is popular is because people happen to LIKE it. I know, a novel concept for someone so self-involved, but try to wrap your brain around it. Take your time.
And can the arrogance. You aren't superior to the "sheep", and you never will be.
Why should I care if the app is pre-loaded or not? If it's pre-loaded on everyone's system, why should we time it as if it weren't?
It isn't, and therefore your point is irrelevent. Just because it happens to work for you that way doesn't mean it does, or needs to, work for everyone that way.
I'd prefer not to have apps load on boot unless I tell them to load on boot, thank you very much. I don't need either my RAM or swap being soaked by an app I haven't given explicit permission to load.
But then, that may be why I don't live in a Windows world.
It takes about 2 seconds for MS Word to come up on my laptop when running on batteries
And the fact that Office apps are mostly loaded into memory at boot, thus providing the illusion of speed when they're 'opened', hasn't been pointed out to you?
The underlying premise of patents will no doubt survive, as it makes a lot of sense in some areas (like engineering). But software and business process patents will probably disappear.
And exactly what evidence do you base this assumption on? Corporations are patenting everything under the sun right now, *and getting away with it*. In fact, Congress is entertaining legislation that would further benefit such action.
Seems to me they're doing a damned fine job of blowing potential competition out of the water, while fucking over the consumer, via the patent system. I don't see this changing any time in the foreseeable future, except for things to get worse than they already are.
...how this is even legal? Under what law can the IOC ban free speech? I realize they're an international organization, but do they really hav the right, under international law, to ban free speech?
...is becoming the new Duke Nukem 3D, recycled content is just about all the gamers can count on.
Max
Re:Many projects don't fail, they rust in place
on
IT Myths
·
· Score: 1
The part that sucks is when you inherit someone else's mess
Which, from my experience, is the end result of the efforts of many so-called 'programmers'. I thank the various and sundry gods that I'm out of the business now, hopefully forever, but as a contractor the vast majority of my time was spent cleaning up after the half-assed efforts of a bunch of douchebags who had the gall to call themselves 'experts'. And who often had a degree from prestigious University X to back them up on those grandiose claims.
People wonder why I have so little respect for so many folks in the field I spent more than twenty years in. The reason is simple: EXPERIENCE. As in, most of the fuckers whose jobs are even remotely connected to computing couldn't find their ass with both hands if their lives depended on it. This was too often true prior to the proliferation of the PC, but now I can be reasonably sure that better than 90% of the time the 'network administrator' or 'programmer' or 'technician' that I've just met is a fucking idiot of the first order.
Max
Re:Other IT Myths
on
IT Myths
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Most women (not girls) are atracted to guys who can hold a conversation.
A geek is no more likely to be able to hold an intelligent conversation than any other person. They just *sound* smarter because their chosen topics of conversation revolve around technical items rather than football, or cars.
Apparently states have forgotten that the Interstate Commerce Clause doesn't allow them to levy tariffs, er, 'sales taxes', on purchases made in other states.
But then, the government pays so very little attention to the Constitution these days, so that doesn't really surprise me.
On the other hand, if the person selling the product deliberately misrepresents the product (despite any contrary information written into a piece of paper) this invalidates the contractual agreement. In fact, that person can be sued for fraud since BY LAW they're supposed to act in good faith. And that's true in all 50 states.
Your sales reps can't lie, then point to the warranty and say "but it is written there, so it doesn't matter what I actually said". Any first-year law student can provide you a clue if you need one. There is no point during a sale in which lying about a product (in this case, a warranty) is okay. EVER. You do not get any free "get out of jail cards" just because you give the customer a warranty pamphlet when you hand him the product.
The idea that a salesperson can say anything and that the "fine print" can indemnify them and their store from harm is a crock of urban myth horseshit. A common urban myth, it seems, but horseshit nevertheless.
I had the same thing happen to me with a Seagate hard drive, purchased from a franchise shop in my home town. The shop's own in-house warranty guarranteed replacement or your money back within 90 days.
The drive lasted for about an hour, after which it made some horrible grinding noises, made my entire computer case shake and jump, and then came to a sudden halt with a loud "bang!". Needless to say it was damaged beyond repair.
I took it back to the store the next day, whereupon they refused to replace it, saying that I had to send it back to the manufacturer. I pointed out their own guarrantee said *they* would replace it (boldly printed out on the wall above the cash register), not to mention the little matter of state law and 'defective sales', but they refused.
Noting that there were about a dozen other customers in the store, I started shouting about the problem loud enough for everyone to hear. The customers started perking up - I would have, too - and the manager started to become frantic. At this point she shouted "hey, buddy, I'm not trying to Jew you!"
Dead silence in the store. All eyes turned to the manager. You could hear the lost sales walking out the door.
After that the manager refunded me my money and told me never, ever to set foot in her store again. Not that I needed the warning; her attitude and their attempt to bend me over and fuck me up the ass was reason enough to avoid that place forever. And because I'm a vindictive son of a bitch who never forgives and never forgets, I not only will never set foot in that particular store again, but I'll never go to any of the other stores in the chain again either. That company lost me as a customer, permanently.
If only more people would make a fuss instead of being so goddamned concerned with potentially embarrassing themselves in public, companies might take customer service a bit more seriously.
Counting is not one the many experiencies which the human species is hard-wired to recognize and associate with representative tokens.
Simple counting is itself hard-wired into the human brain, a fact we've known for quite some time. And not just with humans, but with other animals as well. For example, it's been shown that crows can count to four (but no farther) and use this ability in the wild for certain tasks; yet crows have no words for these numbers.
One doesn't need a word for a concept. Your dog will prove this to you on a daily basis, unless it's one of those stupid little yapping kick-dogs with a brain the size of a pea. Most mammals are able to deal with a variety of concepts without needing a corresponding word for that concept, and humans are no different.
Counting, at least in low numbers, seems to be intrinsic to most higher mammals, and in at least two species of birds. Are you now going to claim that humans are some sort of special exemption?
Although in the last year it's been shown that most men are unable to distinguish certain color variations from one another, while most women have no problem in doing so (primarily shades of red and pink).
This has nothing to do with language but with the fact that a man's biological ability to distinguish subtle shades of certain colors from one another is more rudimentary than a woman's. It's possible that the supposed linguistic limitations in discerning color are not, in fact, linguistic in nature, but based on elementary biological differences.
Counting it seems is not a fundamental experience.
You find *one* example and therefore conclude counting is not a fundamental experience? This one exception is somehow supposed to outweigh every other instance to the contrary?
Very empirical of you.
Has it occurred to you that the Piraha might have a genetic defect crippling their ability to count?
But evenso, I find it hard to grasp the concept of a language that goes to anything less than five-- because that's how many fingers you have and it seems to me that someone would want to count them sometime.
What sort of industrial accident left you with one hand???
I immediately understood the basic truth of that statement and have never wavered in my belief of it.
A crock of shit if I've ever heard one. There are times when I can't define a word explicitly (old age, you know) yet I know exactly what it means. At that point I have to go to a dictionary to refresh my failing memory in order to explain what the word means to others.
And there are words in other languages which have no direct translation into English. I can talk around the meaning all day to you, but I can never properly define the word to you; either you'll 'get it' someday, or you won't. Whether or not you do 'get it' has no bearing on whether or not *I* do, regardless of my lack of ability to translate it properly.
Slashdot Mirror
the white-hot fires of online altruism
I don't think so. Linux was forged in the 'white-hot fires of online self-interest'; altruism had nothing to do with it. The payoff was different things to different people, and since an easy concept like money wasn't involved a good many folks have a difficult time understanding and instead use the catch-all 'altruism' to explain it. Here are a few of the payoffs:
(1) Reciprocal contribution. Contribute code to a work and you encourage others to do the same. Whether you understand it on a conscious level or not the end result is a product that works better for EVERYONE involved. Everyone wins.
(2) 'Scratching the itch'. This certainly seems to be Linus's motivation for working on Linux. He does it because he enjoys it. He's stated, publicly, that he'd work on Linux even if no one else did. Linus's motivations, and the motivations of others like him, are no different than any other hobbyist: personal satisfaction. That's their 'coin'.
(3) Public recognition. Some coders code for kudos and respect.
(4) Practice and portfolio. Some folks work on open source projects to improve their skills AND their resume for jobs that pay money.
These are just some of the reasons I can list off the top of my head. But 'altruism' isn't a driving force for Linux development, and I seriously doubt that pure altruism (if there even is such a thing) accounts for the motivations of more than a tiny fraction of all coders.
Max
That's just silly. A person who has a 1000 downloaded albums clearly loves music and would have VERY PROBABLY bought at least a few of them if that was the only way to get them. And when the users of P2P are calculated in millions, that amounts to a HUGE amount of albums, even if there are some who indeed wouldn't have bought any.
Two things:
(1) There is no Constitutional guarantee for profit; and
(2) There is no Constitutional clause protecting failing business models under assault from technological changes.
Clearly the practices of the RIAA are outdated and outmoded. We didn't give any special protections to buggy whip manufacturers when Ford's first cars started rolling off the assembling line and we shouldn't be giving any to the RIAA either. Their method of collecting money for themselves and their clients *no longer works*; attempting to enforce artificial scarcity is just goddamned silly all-around, and so far the most obvious abuse is that the patent and copyright clause of the Constitution has been perverted far beyond it's original intent - as have the remedies available to those whose patents/copyrights are being infringed on.
Sometimes technology changes and shit happens. A business which worked well before crashes and burns. Either it dies out completely (e.g., the guys who sold buggy whips) or is replaced by something which works in the new, changed market. We call this CAPITALISM.
If actually stood buy and let the free market do it's thing the RIAA and MPAA would be out of business within a few years. They'd probably be replaced by something else, but then again, they might not. And so the fuck what if they aren't? That's the way the ball bounces.
Max
As things stand though, 99% of the audience consists of musical sheep
The reason popular music is popular is because people happen to LIKE it. I know, a novel concept for someone so self-involved, but try to wrap your brain around it. Take your time.
And can the arrogance. You aren't superior to the "sheep", and you never will be.
Max
Stop listening to crap
You know, it doesn't make you cool or cutting edge to call popular music "crap". Just annoying, and a bit pathetic.
Max
Why should I care if the app is pre-loaded or not? If it's pre-loaded on everyone's system, why should we time it as if it weren't?
It isn't, and therefore your point is irrelevent. Just because it happens to work for you that way doesn't mean it does, or needs to, work for everyone that way.
I'd prefer not to have apps load on boot unless I tell them to load on boot, thank you very much. I don't need either my RAM or swap being soaked by an app I haven't given explicit permission to load.
But then, that may be why I don't live in a Windows world.
Max
It takes about 2 seconds for MS Word to come up on my laptop when running on batteries
And the fact that Office apps are mostly loaded into memory at boot, thus providing the illusion of speed when they're 'opened', hasn't been pointed out to you?
Max
The underlying premise of patents will no doubt survive, as it makes a lot of sense in some areas (like engineering). But software and business process patents will probably disappear.
And exactly what evidence do you base this assumption on? Corporations are patenting everything under the sun right now, *and getting away with it*. In fact, Congress is entertaining legislation that would further benefit such action.
Seems to me they're doing a damned fine job of blowing potential competition out of the water, while fucking over the consumer, via the patent system. I don't see this changing any time in the foreseeable future, except for things to get worse than they already are.
Max
...how this is even legal? Under what law can the IOC ban free speech? I realize they're an international organization, but do they really hav the right, under international law, to ban free speech?
Max
...is becoming the new Duke Nukem 3D, recycled content is just about all the gamers can count on.
Max
The part that sucks is when you inherit someone else's mess
Which, from my experience, is the end result of the efforts of many so-called 'programmers'. I thank the various and sundry gods that I'm out of the business now, hopefully forever, but as a contractor the vast majority of my time was spent cleaning up after the half-assed efforts of a bunch of douchebags who had the gall to call themselves 'experts'. And who often had a degree from prestigious University X to back them up on those grandiose claims.
People wonder why I have so little respect for so many folks in the field I spent more than twenty years in. The reason is simple: EXPERIENCE. As in, most of the fuckers whose jobs are even remotely connected to computing couldn't find their ass with both hands if their lives depended on it. This was too often true prior to the proliferation of the PC, but now I can be reasonably sure that better than 90% of the time the 'network administrator' or 'programmer' or 'technician' that I've just met is a fucking idiot of the first order.
Max
Most women (not girls) are atracted to guys who can hold a conversation.
A geek is no more likely to be able to hold an intelligent conversation than any other person. They just *sound* smarter because their chosen topics of conversation revolve around technical items rather than football, or cars.
Max
Chicks may dig geeks, but they are also chicks, and thus not to be trusted
Spoken like a true virgin.
Max
Every geek that I've known who gets a girlfriend seems to stop being a geek after that
That's because they're getting laid. And one day, when *you* get laid, you'll see why it is we prefer chicks to computers.
Max
Apparently states have forgotten that the Interstate Commerce Clause doesn't allow them to levy tariffs, er, 'sales taxes', on purchases made in other states.
But then, the government pays so very little attention to the Constitution these days, so that doesn't really surprise me.
Max
My state doesn't have a sales tax, yet we aren't any worse off than any other state.
Max
On the other hand, if the person selling the product deliberately misrepresents the product (despite any contrary information written into a piece of paper) this invalidates the contractual agreement. In fact, that person can be sued for fraud since BY LAW they're supposed to act in good faith. And that's true in all 50 states.
Your sales reps can't lie, then point to the warranty and say "but it is written there, so it doesn't matter what I actually said". Any first-year law student can provide you a clue if you need one. There is no point during a sale in which lying about a product (in this case, a warranty) is okay. EVER. You do not get any free "get out of jail cards" just because you give the customer a warranty pamphlet when you hand him the product.
The idea that a salesperson can say anything and that the "fine print" can indemnify them and their store from harm is a crock of urban myth horseshit. A common urban myth, it seems, but horseshit nevertheless.
Max
I had the same thing happen to me with a Seagate hard drive, purchased from a franchise shop in my home town. The shop's own in-house warranty guarranteed replacement or your money back within 90 days.
The drive lasted for about an hour, after which it made some horrible grinding noises, made my entire computer case shake and jump, and then came to a sudden halt with a loud "bang!". Needless to say it was damaged beyond repair.
I took it back to the store the next day, whereupon they refused to replace it, saying that I had to send it back to the manufacturer. I pointed out their own guarrantee said *they* would replace it (boldly printed out on the wall above the cash register), not to mention the little matter of state law and 'defective sales', but they refused.
Noting that there were about a dozen other customers in the store, I started shouting about the problem loud enough for everyone to hear. The customers started perking up - I would have, too - and the manager started to become frantic. At this point she shouted "hey, buddy, I'm not trying to Jew you!"
Dead silence in the store. All eyes turned to the manager. You could hear the lost sales walking out the door.
After that the manager refunded me my money and told me never, ever to set foot in her store again. Not that I needed the warning; her attitude and their attempt to bend me over and fuck me up the ass was reason enough to avoid that place forever. And because I'm a vindictive son of a bitch who never forgives and never forgets, I not only will never set foot in that particular store again, but I'll never go to any of the other stores in the chain again either. That company lost me as a customer, permanently.
If only more people would make a fuss instead of being so goddamned concerned with potentially embarrassing themselves in public, companies might take customer service a bit more seriously.
Max
Counting is not one the many experiencies which the human species is hard-wired to recognize and associate with representative tokens.
Simple counting is itself hard-wired into the human brain, a fact we've known for quite some time. And not just with humans, but with other animals as well. For example, it's been shown that crows can count to four (but no farther) and use this ability in the wild for certain tasks; yet crows have no words for these numbers.
One doesn't need a word for a concept. Your dog will prove this to you on a daily basis, unless it's one of those stupid little yapping kick-dogs with a brain the size of a pea. Most mammals are able to deal with a variety of concepts without needing a corresponding word for that concept, and humans are no different.
Counting, at least in low numbers, seems to be intrinsic to most higher mammals, and in at least two species of birds. Are you now going to claim that humans are some sort of special exemption?
Max
and an even more draconian system would take its place.
Not in a free society. In a free society draconian measures of any sort aren't tolerated, ever. The moment they are, the society is no longer free.
Max
Their entire political and social system is built on hate for the Israelis the and goal of destruction of the State of Israel.
And the Israelis would like nothing better than to wipe the Palestinians from the face of the Earth. The hatred flows both ways here.
Max
"While Piraha adults had difficulty learning larger numbers, Piraha children did not."
Which tends to point to the fact that language is not the limiting barrier here.
Max
Although in the last year it's been shown that most men are unable to distinguish certain color variations from one another, while most women have no problem in doing so (primarily shades of red and pink).
This has nothing to do with language but with the fact that a man's biological ability to distinguish subtle shades of certain colors from one another is more rudimentary than a woman's. It's possible that the supposed linguistic limitations in discerning color are not, in fact, linguistic in nature, but based on elementary biological differences.
Max
Counting it seems is not a fundamental experience.
You find *one* example and therefore conclude counting is not a fundamental experience? This one exception is somehow supposed to outweigh every other instance to the contrary?
Very empirical of you.
Has it occurred to you that the Piraha might have a genetic defect crippling their ability to count?
Max
But evenso, I find it hard to grasp the concept of a language that goes to anything less than five-- because that's how many fingers you have and it seems to me that someone would want to count them sometime.
What sort of industrial accident left you with one hand???
Max
I immediately understood the basic truth of that statement and have never wavered in my belief of it.
A crock of shit if I've ever heard one. There are times when I can't define a word explicitly (old age, you know) yet I know exactly what it means. At that point I have to go to a dictionary to refresh my failing memory in order to explain what the word means to others.
And there are words in other languages which have no direct translation into English. I can talk around the meaning all day to you, but I can never properly define the word to you; either you'll 'get it' someday, or you won't. Whether or not you do 'get it' has no bearing on whether or not *I* do, regardless of my lack of ability to translate it properly.
Max