please. I hate gates as much as anyone. He and his company are the very thorns in the side of technological progress, as far as I'm concerned. But the one thing that I hate nearly as much as a megalomaniacal CEO and his oppressive corporation is BIASED NEWS. It's not news if it's got prejudice built into it...it's propaganda.
right, and Gates also claims to be singularly responsible for the invention of DOS. But you and i both know that that's bullshit.
IE can certainly be removed from windows. I've done it several times. It's a huge pain in the ass, and it's not something that the average user-at-large would want to consider doing, but it can be done. So to put it bluntly, IE != Windows.
now that we're all aware of the still-pending copyright issues between Sony and Fox concerning certain Tick characters and trademarks ("Spoon!"), is there any hope in sight for a resolution that would allow the use of these copyrights? Or is this a totally dead issue?
First, we are a technical standards organization, not lobbyists or, for the most part, lawyers
If this guy's not a lawyer, then somebody should give him an honorary membership in the bar association!! With the way he escapes the questions asked, he could get Charles Manson paroled!!!
You're right, and maybe i was a bit amgiguous in that area. The way i envision it, Linux isn't going to win the server market by "taking over" MS boxes. Rather, it's going to win when companies start replacing those boxes with Linux boxes. As technology improves, the companies that have been running NT servers for the past 5 or 6 years will want something new. And when they upgrade, there's a good chance that the "word of mouth" advertising of Linux will sell them on a nice Linux server farm instead of a Win2000 (or whatever) setup. That's exactly what is happening with Sun and BSD right now. New linux boxes are replacing old *nix boxes and Sun boxes because it's cheaper to introduce, and cheaper to maintain. Eventually, once Linux reaches a certain point of maturity, the same thin will happen to MS boxes. They'll be replaced.
As MS still holds a great deal of market share in server installs, this IS a blow to MS, as they failed to sell Amazon on their own product!
Besides that fact, it's still a VERY good thing for Linux, as Amazon is a HUGE online retail operation that serves as a model for many other businesses. That's how Linux is becoming successful - word of mouth and trial by fire. Linux proves itself in a very fast and competitive market, and more people jump on. Of course *NIX and BSD systems will be the first to be replaced, because the people who maintain them aren't as afraid to make the jump to Linux (they're already somewhat familiar with it). Give it time, though, and you'll see quite a few former MS boxen turning over to linux.
I mean, honestly, two years ago, did you ever think linux would have about 24% of the server market? No! So of course it seems impossible that it might steal an even bigger share - and thus there will always be those who doubt that it will ever happen. But slowly, it WILL happen. It's already happening.
right, and as such, it would seem appropriate for HP to release a slightly more competetive product than Compaq did...for instance, if they would have simply upped the hard drive space by 5 gigs or maybe sold an equivalent model for 50 bucks less. But all in all, this product absolutely kicks the Compaq Music Center's ass.
I see what you're saying and everything, and i totally agree with you, but it still seems odd to me that HP would want to upstage Compaq in such a huge way.
it's odd that HP would release a product like this, when its newly-assimilated partner Compaq just released an eerily similar product at the exact same price point. And from what i can tell, the Compaq product is less attractive, as it lacks the CD-burner feature. Spooky.
no, i think that it's a feather in XP's cap that a typical user with little technical knowledge can set it up with their cable modem without having to call tech support.
since there is no software in existence that goes by the name "Word XP" or "Excel XP" (I would assume that you're uninformedly referring to Word 2002 and Excel 2002), then the only remaining possibilities are Windows XP and Office XP. And since there is not a single ISP in the world that offers support for any version of Office, then it is VERY safe to assume that the headline is not referring to that software package. Thus, we are left with Windows XP.
Alternately, you could use that (undeserved) gift of REASON to figure the whole thing out for yourself. Whatever.
I'm a longtime roadrunner subscriber, and i can tell you from experience that RR is not very quick to support anything that isn't windows9x or MacOS 8+. They've been nothing but a pain in the ass every time i've contacted them for support, especially with Linux questions.
However, somewhat to roadrunner's advantage, XP seems to integrate pretty flawlessly with the service. I did an install a few days ago that went about as smoothly as anyone could possibly hope for. Definitely a feather in XP's cap, but maybe a stroke of good luck for the RR support people.
...peer-to-peer file sharing in a purely academic sense is not discouraged or directly banned. However, internet file sharing programs (beginning with Napster) were banned due to the hit that they put on my school's available bandwidth. With over 12,000 100Mbps dorm room connections, it proved a little bit too easy for the student body to overrun the entire network by queueing up 100+ songs on Napster.
I would imagine that it is the same for most universities...they don't discourage file sharing in a more academic capacity, but they know that it's going to be used for Napster-esque file sharing, and thus they are forced to implement an overall ban.
why is this on slashdot?
on
Globalization
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
This article has NO BUSINESS being posted here!! The ONLY line that actually makes it seem worthy of being posted is this:
In a globalizing world -- one of its cornerstones being the Net --
You know what really pisses me off? The fact that Katz has this odd tendency to "slip" a little internet reference into every one of his rants, hoping to qualify it for slashdot's front page by faking some type of geek-quotient. Who does this guy think he is? So what if he got his ass kicked in high school enough to write a book about it? Who cares if he was a "media critic" for one of the world's silliest rags? How does any of this help him qualify as some sort of god-damned pinnacle of geekiness? Does he have some type of controlling interest in slashdot's funding? WHY DOES HIS CRAP CONTINUE TO APPEAR ON THIS SUPPOSED "NEWS" SITE, WHEN IT IS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT NOBODY RESPECTS HIS OPINIONS? He's the world's biggest karma-whore - it's as simple as that - only he's doing a really bad job of whoring these days.
...you most certainly can! a miniCD can be played using a full-size adapter in ANY (read: ANY) CD player, be it tray-loading, slot-loading, or magazine-loading.
4. RipGo requires special fruity colored and $10 ea. media
...not so. Memorex sells miniCD's in 5 packs for $10, and in 50-packs for $35. That's to say nothing of the prices to be found on Pricewatch.
with the recent passing of the Anti-Terrorism bill, it's almost suspicious that congress would even think of dropping a bill like this one. Even more suspicious is the fact that it's the CORPORATIONS that are pushing them to drop it!!
nothing out of the ordinary at all...i'm using the standard IE 5.5 distro on Win98SE. Everything's very standard, since i'm on a government-owned PC (at work).
i'm really not sure why you would call for a boycott under your circumstances. If you've got what you need, and don't have any desire to upgrade, then don't. Microsoft isn't holding a gun to anyone's head. There are no laws requiring you to upgrade.
Sounds like you're trying a little to hard to whore some karma from the linux-zealots. Please, from now on...think before speaking.
well, there are actually very few specific things, most of them the obvious ones:
1 - MS Office XP beats the hell out of staroffice - i don't care who you ask, or what they say about office, the open source alternative just doesn't stack up.
2 - Windows is better for games. Quite simply, if i want to run a Windows game at maximum performance, I'm going to run it under windows. Emulating windows or creating compatibility layers just doesn't perform the way real Windows does. This particular feature is probably the only reason that i HAVE to use windows.
3 - Windows for Cakewalk/ProTools/other music editing/recording stuff. Linux just doesn't have it, simple as that. And even the apps that it does have tend to quibble with my sound cards. This is also evident in video editing apps...video capture and edit just doesn't make sense on a Linux box at present.
4 - Linux for just about everything else. E-Mail, news, web surfing, web design, graphic design, PERL, and a few other tasks work remarkably well under Linux. I really like the streamlining that you find in a lot of Linux design apps...for instance, GIMP vs Photoshop is no contest when it comes to usability.
So Linux definitely has the really basic tasks down, but when it comes to more involved software such as big, graphically-intense games and productivity software, Windows takes it.
you bring up a good point, one that definitely does not deserve to be flamed.
Linux users (myself included) like Linux because it's stable, it's secure, and it runs Linux apps really well. I've NEVER crashed a linux workstation...never.
Windows users (again, myself included) like Windows because it is so much easier to use than Linux (an easy-to-use GUI is just that, and people recognize it for what it is). Its apps are bloated, buggy, and riddled with security flaws, but when they work, they work REALLY REALLY WELL. That's simply a result of having 10 years worth of REAL development support, and a huge bank of developers.
So it stands to reason that any Linux user with any sense would want to do one of two things: either (a) run some windows apps in Linux, or (b) develop similar or better apps for Linux. The problem with developing apps for linux lies in the severe lack of support for it. So if you don't have enough people or enough collective experience to really work on development, what's the next best thing? That's right...use the apps that have already been developed under windows, but use them in Linux. That way, only one emulator needs to be developed that will (hopefully) cover all of the windows apps.
Any linux zealot who tells you that windows is useless is just that...a zealot. Linux is good for what it does, and Windows is also good for what it does. After all, this IS a capitalistic structure we're dealing with, so as always - YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. As much as we don't like it, every time someone spends money on a Windows distro, some of that money is channelled back into developing a better windows. Linux quite simply does not have that advantage; and as much as we would like it to, the Open Source/Free software development system just isn't as effective as the closed source/marketed software approach.
again, the legalities of virii and hacking are not at question here...the nature of the crime is the center of the debate.
If you want to compare hacking or virii to a specific type of crime, the best you could do is burglary - and that only applies to a few cases. The rest are no more than vandalism. NONE can be considered legitimate terrorism. There's a huge difference between taking a web site down for 20 minutes and taking 4 planes full of people down into a few buildings. I don't think i need to explain that to you.
It's not any different...but the end result is immensely different.
Microsoft lives for this kind of public image. If they can capture the crisis of the moment...the media-induced hysteria...long enough to sway some public opinion to their side, then they'll say ANYTHING to do it. Viruses are NOT terrorist attacks. They do not instill _TERROR_ in anyone's hearts (except for the coders at MS who get fired every time this comes up).
Slashdot Mirror
please. I hate gates as much as anyone. He and his company are the very thorns in the side of technological progress, as far as I'm concerned. But the one thing that I hate nearly as much as a megalomaniacal CEO and his oppressive corporation is BIASED NEWS. It's not news if it's got prejudice built into it...it's propaganda.
right, and Gates also claims to be singularly responsible for the invention of DOS. But you and i both know that that's bullshit.
IE can certainly be removed from windows. I've done it several times. It's a huge pain in the ass, and it's not something that the average user-at-large would want to consider doing, but it can be done. So to put it bluntly, IE != Windows.
And finally, MS wishes their new disclosure rules were used for yet another huge hole in Windows.
If you read the security bulletin, it's not referring to windows at all. It's a problem with Internet Explorer version 5.5 or later.
Seems that that little slip exposes a great deal of anti-M$ bias. Not good for a supposed "news source".
now that we're all aware of the still-pending copyright issues between Sony and Fox concerning certain Tick characters and trademarks ("Spoon!"), is there any hope in sight for a resolution that would allow the use of these copyrights? Or is this a totally dead issue?
First, we are a technical standards organization, not lobbyists or, for the most part, lawyers
If this guy's not a lawyer, then somebody should give him an honorary membership in the bar association!! With the way he escapes the questions asked, he could get Charles Manson paroled!!!
You're right, and maybe i was a bit amgiguous in that area. The way i envision it, Linux isn't going to win the server market by "taking over" MS boxes. Rather, it's going to win when companies start replacing those boxes with Linux boxes. As technology improves, the companies that have been running NT servers for the past 5 or 6 years will want something new. And when they upgrade, there's a good chance that the "word of mouth" advertising of Linux will sell them on a nice Linux server farm instead of a Win2000 (or whatever) setup. That's exactly what is happening with Sun and BSD right now. New linux boxes are replacing old *nix boxes and Sun boxes because it's cheaper to introduce, and cheaper to maintain. Eventually, once Linux reaches a certain point of maturity, the same thin will happen to MS boxes. They'll be replaced.
As MS still holds a great deal of market share in server installs, this IS a blow to MS, as they failed to sell Amazon on their own product!
Besides that fact, it's still a VERY good thing for Linux, as Amazon is a HUGE online retail operation that serves as a model for many other businesses. That's how Linux is becoming successful - word of mouth and trial by fire. Linux proves itself in a very fast and competitive market, and more people jump on. Of course *NIX and BSD systems will be the first to be replaced, because the people who maintain them aren't as afraid to make the jump to Linux (they're already somewhat familiar with it). Give it time, though, and you'll see quite a few former MS boxen turning over to linux.
I mean, honestly, two years ago, did you ever think linux would have about 24% of the server market? No! So of course it seems impossible that it might steal an even bigger share - and thus there will always be those who doubt that it will ever happen. But slowly, it WILL happen. It's already happening.
right, and as such, it would seem appropriate for HP to release a slightly more competetive product than Compaq did...for instance, if they would have simply upped the hard drive space by 5 gigs or maybe sold an equivalent model for 50 bucks less. But all in all, this product absolutely kicks the Compaq Music Center's ass.
I see what you're saying and everything, and i totally agree with you, but it still seems odd to me that HP would want to upstage Compaq in such a huge way.
it's odd that HP would release a product like this, when its newly-assimilated partner Compaq just released an eerily similar product at the exact same price point. And from what i can tell, the Compaq product is less attractive, as it lacks the CD-burner feature. Spooky.
no, i think that it's a feather in XP's cap that a typical user with little technical knowledge can set it up with their cable modem without having to call tech support.
since there is no software in existence that goes by the name "Word XP" or "Excel XP" (I would assume that you're uninformedly referring to Word 2002 and Excel 2002), then the only remaining possibilities are Windows XP and Office XP. And since there is not a single ISP in the world that offers support for any version of Office, then it is VERY safe to assume that the headline is not referring to that software package. Thus, we are left with Windows XP.
Alternately, you could use that (undeserved) gift of REASON to figure the whole thing out for yourself. Whatever.
I'm a longtime roadrunner subscriber, and i can tell you from experience that RR is not very quick to support anything that isn't windows9x or MacOS 8+. They've been nothing but a pain in the ass every time i've contacted them for support, especially with Linux questions.
However, somewhat to roadrunner's advantage, XP seems to integrate pretty flawlessly with the service. I did an install a few days ago that went about as smoothly as anyone could possibly hope for. Definitely a feather in XP's cap, but maybe a stroke of good luck for the RR support people.
...peer-to-peer file sharing in a purely academic sense is not discouraged or directly banned. However, internet file sharing programs (beginning with Napster) were banned due to the hit that they put on my school's available bandwidth. With over 12,000 100Mbps dorm room connections, it proved a little bit too easy for the student body to overrun the entire network by queueing up 100+ songs on Napster.
I would imagine that it is the same for most universities...they don't discourage file sharing in a more academic capacity, but they know that it's going to be used for Napster-esque file sharing, and thus they are forced to implement an overall ban.
This article has NO BUSINESS being posted here!! The ONLY line that actually makes it seem worthy of being posted is this:
In a globalizing world -- one of its cornerstones being the Net --
You know what really pisses me off? The fact that Katz has this odd tendency to "slip" a little internet reference into every one of his rants, hoping to qualify it for slashdot's front page by faking some type of geek-quotient. Who does this guy think he is? So what if he got his ass kicked in high school enough to write a book about it? Who cares if he was a "media critic" for one of the world's silliest rags? How does any of this help him qualify as some sort of god-damned pinnacle of geekiness? Does he have some type of controlling interest in slashdot's funding? WHY DOES HIS CRAP CONTINUE TO APPEAR ON THIS SUPPOSED "NEWS" SITE, WHEN IT IS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT NOBODY RESPECTS HIS OPINIONS? He's the world's biggest karma-whore - it's as simple as that - only he's doing a really bad job of whoring these days.
damn...do some research!!
1. Can't play miniCD format in your car changer
...you most certainly can! a miniCD can be played using a full-size adapter in ANY (read: ANY) CD player, be it tray-loading, slot-loading, or magazine-loading.
4. RipGo requires special fruity colored and $10 ea. media
...not so. Memorex sells miniCD's in 5 packs for $10, and in 50-packs for $35. That's to say nothing of the prices to be found on Pricewatch.
with the recent passing of the Anti-Terrorism bill, it's almost suspicious that congress would even think of dropping a bill like this one. Even more suspicious is the fact that it's the CORPORATIONS that are pushing them to drop it!!
Does this seem a little backwards to anyone else?
nothing out of the ordinary at all...i'm using the standard IE 5.5 distro on Win98SE. Everything's very standard, since i'm on a government-owned PC (at work).
either the page is poorly designed, or IE 5.5 is, because it doesn't even render correctly when i use the borg standard!!
here's a screenshot of the page that i'm getting in IE 5.5.
anybody else seeing the same thing?
i was born, raised, and still travel twice a year to milwaukee. believe me, i know what goes on there.
as far as i know, the only requirement for getting a teaching position in this program is being able to translate gang-banger-ese into geek-ese.
For example:
beeitch = troll
sheeeit = w00t!
gonna smoke that mofo = i'm gonna frag him!
i'm really not sure why you would call for a boycott under your circumstances. If you've got what you need, and don't have any desire to upgrade, then don't. Microsoft isn't holding a gun to anyone's head. There are no laws requiring you to upgrade.
Sounds like you're trying a little to hard to whore some karma from the linux-zealots. Please, from now on...think before speaking.
well, there are actually very few specific things, most of them the obvious ones:
1 - MS Office XP beats the hell out of staroffice - i don't care who you ask, or what they say about office, the open source alternative just doesn't stack up.
2 - Windows is better for games. Quite simply, if i want to run a Windows game at maximum performance, I'm going to run it under windows. Emulating windows or creating compatibility layers just doesn't perform the way real Windows does. This particular feature is probably the only reason that i HAVE to use windows.
3 - Windows for Cakewalk/ProTools/other music editing/recording stuff. Linux just doesn't have it, simple as that. And even the apps that it does have tend to quibble with my sound cards. This is also evident in video editing apps...video capture and edit just doesn't make sense on a Linux box at present.
4 - Linux for just about everything else. E-Mail, news, web surfing, web design, graphic design, PERL, and a few other tasks work remarkably well under Linux. I really like the streamlining that you find in a lot of Linux design apps...for instance, GIMP vs Photoshop is no contest when it comes to usability.
So Linux definitely has the really basic tasks down, but when it comes to more involved software such as big, graphically-intense games and productivity software, Windows takes it.
you bring up a good point, one that definitely does not deserve to be flamed.
Linux users (myself included) like Linux because it's stable, it's secure, and it runs Linux apps really well. I've NEVER crashed a linux workstation...never.
Windows users (again, myself included) like Windows because it is so much easier to use than Linux (an easy-to-use GUI is just that, and people recognize it for what it is). Its apps are bloated, buggy, and riddled with security flaws, but when they work, they work REALLY REALLY WELL. That's simply a result of having 10 years worth of REAL development support, and a huge bank of developers.
So it stands to reason that any Linux user with any sense would want to do one of two things: either (a) run some windows apps in Linux, or (b) develop similar or better apps for Linux. The problem with developing apps for linux lies in the severe lack of support for it. So if you don't have enough people or enough collective experience to really work on development, what's the next best thing? That's right...use the apps that have already been developed under windows, but use them in Linux. That way, only one emulator needs to be developed that will (hopefully) cover all of the windows apps.
Any linux zealot who tells you that windows is useless is just that...a zealot. Linux is good for what it does, and Windows is also good for what it does. After all, this IS a capitalistic structure we're dealing with, so as always - YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. As much as we don't like it, every time someone spends money on a Windows distro, some of that money is channelled back into developing a better windows. Linux quite simply does not have that advantage; and as much as we would like it to, the Open Source/Free software development system just isn't as effective as the closed source/marketed software approach.
Just my 2 cents...take it for what it's worth.
again, the legalities of virii and hacking are not at question here...the nature of the crime is the center of the debate.
If you want to compare hacking or virii to a specific type of crime, the best you could do is burglary - and that only applies to a few cases. The rest are no more than vandalism. NONE can be considered legitimate terrorism. There's a huge difference between taking a web site down for 20 minutes and taking 4 planes full of people down into a few buildings. I don't think i need to explain that to you.
It's not any different...but the end result is immensely different.
Microsoft lives for this kind of public image. If they can capture the crisis of the moment...the media-induced hysteria...long enough to sway some public opinion to their side, then they'll say ANYTHING to do it. Viruses are NOT terrorist attacks. They do not instill _TERROR_ in anyone's hearts (except for the coders at MS who get fired every time this comes up).