It's still your arse on the line if you break the law by not retaining it, or find you can't prove you didn't do the wrong thing because you work for a bunch of morons that have deleted evidence that you've done nothing improper..
As someone who accumulates 90% of his work stress from dealing with employee email usage atrocities (please don't email an mp3 mix cd image to 150 of your closest friends from your workstation, kthx), let me tell you what's wrong with your plan
Yeah way to go with the straw man. I don't think this guy's looking to save email of a mix cd image to 150 friends. Some idiot user with no social skills making your job hard doesn't mean you get to duck questions regarding legitimate use. Your entire "us vs them" attitude is unprofessional to say the least.
Apple and Apple store computer salesmen did me and my parents what I consider a great dis-service when I was about 8 years old (around 1982) - They sold my parents an Apple IIe when the Mac had been released for some time, and at an extortionate price (more than the Macs were selling). My parents should have known better than to spend something like an eighth of the family's income that year on the machine. Unfortunately they didn't know a thing about computers and were wanting to give me the best education they could afford. I would say I should have known better, but hey I was 8 years old.
At the time you could buy Apple software from department stores. Soon after I bought the thing, Apple decided to deal exclusively through their stores. There were a few rogue mail order places that you could buy things from but if you wanted to look at the box and work out what you wanted to buy I'd have to get my parents to drive an hour and a half each way to the nearest Apple store.
Slashdotters (and Mac zealots) think I'm unreasonable to hold a grudge over these things, now over 20 years ago, but I've never forgotten it and the company has never done anything from my point of view that might redeem them. From what I've seen Apple have always been hostile to their end users and developers when their interests are challenged. Something in the geek fanboy psyche likes the elitism and considers any collateral abuse a small price to pay. They perputuate the false notion that somehow MacOs and Apple products are more stylish when all evidence I've seen is that many of their products are deeply flawed, priced more highly than the competition, and missing features others would call industry standard. Stylish? When before or since did seethrough plastic make a product suddenly stylish?
Me? I say fuck Apple. For almost 20 years I bought nothing from them and have always shunned the Mac. I did begrudgingly buy 2 iPods (one for me, one for my wife) a couple of years back, but that was a mistake - neither work quite right and the original return process drew the ire of the local consumer body. Then they closed off features on iTunes that allowed sharing (oh no all sharing must be piracy!). Typical Apple. Dictate how your products are used. Dictate what you consider stylish. Fark off.
Nope. I want something practical 360 days of the year. I'm in an office job, so that does mean a shirt, black shoes and black trousers. A tie? They look great but forget it - they're not mandatory where I am and they're a pain. If I were a trady it'd be different again. The closest I get is flying remote control aircraft, which can leave you covered in castor oil (which stains). If you want practical but unstylish come see me at the flying field with a fly net, baseball cap, old tshirt and old jeans with mud on the knees.
If I'm going to a job interview or a wedding or meeting someone new where an impression is important I'll try and look stylish. Otherwise what a waste of time, effort and money. Wanting to look "classy" 365 days a year is also referred to as "being a fashion victim".
Same goes for the computer. Fuck the Mac. First of all my style does not match Steve Job's or Apple's. Love science and computing. Hated the trend of see-through clear plastic cases, keyboards and mice. To me it looked cheap and untidy. Bottom line is I don't care much about style in a piece of equipment. It's a tool. I don't need a fancy case and glowing lights when I buy a machine. I want something that does the job - doesn't overheat, is easy to fix if it breaks, uses commonly available affordable standard parts. Mac hardware doesn't qualify.
I really ought to do what you say and try out Slackware again. It was my first distro and I had a fondness for it. At one point it was well behind everything else though and I needed Redhat and RPM to get things done, so I switched. I'll have to look up my old friend again.
That being said, adding debug statements to the kernel is not something human beings usually do.
Strongly disagree with that. Linux Hackers aren't gods, and they're not trolls. They're another kind of very human user. A very important kind, even if they're in the minority. Without them there would be no open source *nix clones. Putting people off learning about the kernel is not a good idea.
I may need to re-check the name I was using to download the kernel source. I may have been trying from work, in which case download would have been an issue. In any case I knew nothing about fakeroot, nor the list of packages I needed. A pseudo-package called kernel-builder would have been nice instead of having to know exact dependencies.
10-12 years or so ago I was a Linux user. My first distro was Slackware, then I moved to Redhat because certain software I was using only ran on that distro. At the time compiling your own kernel was quite a normal thing to do. I've had a long long break since where I've touched on distros from time to time but not run anything seriously.
Well my work's meant I've been doing some heavier C coding of late, and in looking up something or other I came across the LinuxChix kernel hacking tutorial and realized how short a step it was from compiling a kernel to modifying some code (at least to add printk debug statements). Heck I'd installed many distros and compiled custom kernels many times in the past. How hard could it be? Right?
So I've been trying lots of distros on VMWare with an aim to compiling a kernel and adding some debugging. First of all what the fuck happened? The process use to be bog standard and simple. Now you don't even get the option to install the build tools when you install the system. You have to go and install a bunch of packages manually on all the distros.
Second of all, what's with Ubuntu not providing kernel sources, then doing so for a short while, then breaking them? Currently the correct way to install kernel source is to clone the whole Ubuntu git repository. We don't all have unlimited bandwidth.
I thought this was Linux for human beings. Apparently in catering for end users, they've decided to leave developers out in the cold. That's not smart! One extra step to download the source I could understand, but I didn't want to spend lots of time trawling through a tutorial working out which packages I need to apt-get. I wanted to spend that time looking at a kernel.
I finally did get a kernel compiling and building correctly, and put my couple of printk statements in - on Debian, not Ubuntu. Only took about 3 days to get my head around things. The distros are more diverse in their way of doing things than ever. (For example no link at/etc/grub.conf to/boot/grub/menu.lst on some). Sure, my lack of familiarity with 10 years or so of development didn't help but this is why I quit Linux in the first place - I don't have the time or inclination to deal with incomplete, out of date tutorials. (For example my kernel compiles weren't working without initrd. Had to find out that was my problem by trial and error, then had to work out the debian specific way of building initrd.)
So Linux for human beings and year of the Linux desktop my backside. It's nice that the software now installs less problematically on more hardware and that things aren't completely broken out of the box. However to me that seems like 2 steps forward, one step back.
Find something not too difficult but that will actually require some effort and learning to accomplish. Then offer him a modest one off increase to his pocket money or some new toy or gadget he wants, on the condition that he complete a task. The key is to pick a task that a beginner can handle but that will take him time and have him learning. It may sound frivolous, or like bad parenting, but a lot of good programmers only do it because they're paid. The beauty is he'll learn on his own if motivated. Once he's seen how complex it is, he'll either take it up as an interest himself, or decide it ain't worth the money. This is also a good way to teach him not to rely on being spoon fed by teachers etc.
Btw can I have some help with kernel hacking. Looking at kernels for the first time in about 12 years, and it took me a lot longer to get a kernel compiled than I remember it taking me when I was last looking a Linux seriously. When did it become so damn hard to install the tool chain?
You make it sound like having an iPhone is equivalent to living in a fascist dictatorship. I think you need to get out more.
Hey I just paraphrased what the GP said. Another Apple apologist who wants to start the conversation with a put down.
Yes. And yet this is on your short list of reasons why not to get an iPhone....
No it's on my short list of unnecessary hassles that no other phone throws in your way.
That's not really the point you first made. You complained about formats, and that was addressed.
Actually I complained about media. The transfer of MMS falls under that umbrella.
Now you complain about features. I say this: There's ten million features it doesn't have. Merely pointing something that it doesn't do out isn't an argument.
We're not talking about an obscure feature that is missing from some multimedia phones here. We're talking about a standard feature included on even most low end phones. Get a grip.
So, maybe most people aren't.
Most people don't make car trips longer than a couple of hours most of the time. I'd still call a car with a 20L tank a piece of shit.
Perhaps that's because a lot of people don't care, because - surprised - they've never in their life taken out the battery of a phone except to insert the SIM card
Gimme a break. A phone will last years if looked after. When my last phone broke I was able to use my 4 year old phone just fine. I'm not a heavy user so I'm guessing a heavy user that talks for a few hours a week on their phone will see their battery needing to be changed within a few months. Even moreso when the phone is touted as an mp3 player etc.
n which case they transfer some of the mp3s back to their computer. I suppose there exists the odd ultrageek who keeps his entire 200 GB collection of mp3s (silly me, I mean Ogg Vorbis of course) on a collection of SD-cards so as always to be able to listen to any song, no matter where he is...
Reductio ad absurdum is a very poor technique to use. You know better than I that removable storage is about more than swapping in 200GB of Mp3s. But hey don't let reason get in your way of being a fanboi zealot.
Apparently they don't or the iPhone wouldn't have the highest customer satisfaction of any phone.
Please don't make me laugh so damn hard at your sheepish consumerist comments that my sides are about to split. The iPhone hasn't been out very long and a survey of self satisified smug prats who own one doesn't make the iPhone the best phone ever. Since you're so gullible and susceptible to marketing, I think you should take one of these bridges I own off my hands.
Yes, that's surely below any level you would sink to. Well except of course to call anyone who argues against you an apologist.
Love it. You start with the personal attacks and name calling, then when I retaliate you accuse me of doing it to. Given the tone of your post, what did you expect you prat? Hugs and kisses?
You do take yourself a little to seriously in you signature, suggesting as you do that someone would wish to censor you because they disagree with you.
It's an observation that this is exactly what moderation is being used for on slashdot. If users don't agree with the argument it gets moderated overrrated or troll, when it's neither.
As for me taking myself too seriously, I'm so happy you can psychoanalyse me based on a signature and a couple of posts. Buddy you don't know me from a bar of soap. In fact the irony of you saying I take myself so seriously while I sit here and chuckle at your irrational and yes APOLOGIST rant, is too precious.
Au contraire
You didn't seriously just use that piece of French for emphasis did you? Who the fuck says "Au contraire" these days? What have you been watching too many old Doris Day flicks or something?
People like you are easy to argue against because you make such idiotic, easily refutable claims.
And again, you describe plenty of reasons why you don't want to buy it, and that's fine. But you haven't described any reason why nobody should want to buy it. If it's no good for you, fine, don't buy it. But don't act like your reasons necessarily apply to the entirety of humanity.
Is my typing coming out in Swahili on your side? I gave a very good reason people shouldn't buy it. There are better phones out there that don't have these problems. In fact most phones out there don't have those problems.
Yes I consider it a PROBLEM when you can't change the battery on your mobile phone given that this is a standard feature of most other phones.
Posting on Slashdot must automatically remove all of your ability to sympathize with other human beings too.
Oh yes, lets start with an all out personal attack shall we. Sets the tone.
Most people don't do anything that's restricted anyway.
Pesky freedom. Not worth having anyway.
People really do not feel that it's a big deal to connect their phone to their computer one time in the 2+ years that they will own it.
It's the only phone I've heard of that has this ridiculous requirement. Primarily it's a phone. It shouldn't need a computer or a laptop to get it kick started. Granted, it's an easy thing to get over and done with, but that doesn't make it any less pathetic to require.
People don't have "many different types of media", they have MP3s. The iPhone plays MP3s.
They don't have photos they may wish to send as an MMS? They don't want to be able to shoot video? Gimme a break. The word apologist comes to mind.
$200 US does not seem overpriced to me. As for overhyped, most people don't have this weird reaction where they feel that they are obligated to dislike anything that's popular.
Another pathetic personal attack. I happen to like plenty of things that are popular - just not a crippled phone de jour.
Most people simply don't care about replacing their battery.
They sure do in 6 or 12 months when they're quoted a couple of hundred bucks to do it the official way. They sure do if they're heavy phone users.
A lot of people will buy the phone and not even realize that it doesn't allow you to change batteries.
Another apologist remark.
Most people simply don't care about storage expansion....until they run out of room for their mp3s.
Your complains are all legitimate and it's fine that you don't like the thing (I don't own one either), but it's silly to act as though the device has no merit whatsoever.
Put up against other phones it does have no merit. If this phone were made by any company other than Apple it would flop. People who are into brand loyalty get what they deserve.
Honestly, I don't understand why so many intelligent people love the iPhone. From what I understand (and I'm happy to be corrected) here are some of the big drawbacks:
1) Heavily restricted and requires "jailbreak" 2) I read that in Australia at least must be hooked up to iTunes before it can make anything other than emergency calls! WTF???? 3) Doesn't play as many different types of media as other devices? 4) Overhyped and overpriced 5) Built in expensive to replace battery. 6) No storage expansion.
It's suppose to be stylish. For some anything that Steve Jobs does is considered stylish. Such is the myth, that the man could start a style trend by being caught scratching his balls in public - within minutes fanboys would be espousing the health benefits of doing it, and deriding anyone who questioned the wisdom or decorum of doing it. Use your brains and quit with the mindless consumerism and hero worship. Function over form. Use your brains or suffer the consequences. Jailbreaking this thing is like buying a stylish little city runabout, then trying to haul a 2 tonne boat with it.
Watch me get modded into oblivion for daring to criticise the thing. C'est la slashdot.
Thanks for the story. Don't know how many read it all but I found it interesting.
The only thing that scares a pilot more than ditching is an in-flight fire. So they opened the cargo door and started herding the cattle out at 3,000 feet. Thank God the SPCA never heard about it. I mean, they had no choice; it was either the livestock, or aircraft, crew, and the livestock. But they were laughing so hard when they described the cows ambling placidly out the door, mooing in terror all the way down as they realized they were falling, then hitting the water and skipping for a hundred meters or so...I could only shake my head and think to myself that there are people who find amusement in the most fucked-up things. Could be that it was just a reaction to their brush with disaster, but still...
I'm laughing just thinking about it. Don't get me wrong - I feel bad for the cattle, but the way you described that it sounds almost cartoon like. I believe it's possible ton find humour in or be curious about perverse things without being a horrible human being. Now if they'd gone back out with another herd of cattle just for the hell of it or to get photos, or more cattle than they needed to, that'd make them scum.
Of course it also amazes me how popular these social networking sites are with adults.
It doesn't amaze me at all. When your work means you're out of the house 9-12 hrs/day 5-6 days a week (and that's considered good hours in IT), then you come home to chores etc. when do you find the time to catch up with old high school friends? My experience has been that I've become more and more isolated as I've gone from my mid teens to my mid 30s and my spare time has decreased. I have more acquaintances than close friends that i hang with. My social time's spent mostly with family. Still, if I do get spare time and it's not at the same time as my friends, I can write them an email. Sure I could keep track of everyone using simple email, but it's nice to see pictures of what people I haven't had time to catch up with in person for a long time are up to.
What I don't understand is all the crappy games on facebook. You've been bitten by a vampire? What swearword are you? Someone's given you a freaking virtual fish? Who cares? The novelty of that wore off in 5 minutes. THAT is the side I see as childish.
You should read the definition of projection in psychology.
You should stop being so incredibly condescending and/or assuming everyone you debate with is less educated than you are. It doesn't come across as witty - just arrogant.
You might want to look up projection in the dictionary yourself. If you're genuinely displaying a behaviour I'm not projecting it onto you, even if I display that same behaviour.
Just like this statement, throughout the discussion you have demonstrated in spades what you have routinely falsely accused me of.
What a complete bunch of bollox. You ran out of actual arguments long ago and resorted to straw men, quoting out of context, dismissing perfectly valid arguments on weak the weakest premiss you could find. You know you've lost this so called debate.
I am not the one claiming your point of view is invalid. If you had said I respectfully disagree and think black text on a white background is more readable, and there are others that think the same" we'd have no issue. You however are claiming my point of view is invalid and that it can only be held by basement dwelling geeks.
Unless your inevitable next post contains an actual argument, feel free to have "the last word" in the discussion because I won't be replying to it if it follows this pattern.
The pattern of calling a pompous bullying troll exactly what he is?
That way we'll both be happy. Your psychological need to have "the last word" which you're projecting on me will be satisfied
Yep. I'm smiling from ear to ear. Love being called a basement dweller and being told I owe someone I don't know from a bar of soap documented proof that my point of view is valid for the purposes of an internet discussion. Love having valid arguments dismissed on flimsy grounds. Love debating with someone who can't wait to tell me how good they are at debating and how much better they are than my basement dwelling arse.
I can stop wasting my time repeating the same refutations over and over.
Oh yes, because you've never caused me to repeat any of mine over and over.
Have a nice life. You might want to look at some of your own contradictions and social shortcomings before trying to play psychologist to me you presumptive twat.
Digital broadcast gives them a way to close the "analog hole" they so dread. If the makers colude with broadcasters, only "authorized" players will have keys to decode "HD" signals.
Please tell me how this will prevent someone from re-recording a transmission in a quite (or better yet sound proof) room? They can't close the hole. They can just make it less convenient. Sure you could make sound proof rooms illegal, and allege intent etc., but try legislating away quite rooms? What are they going to do? Make it illegal to listen to a broadcast without an annoying hum in the background?
That statement contradicts the following statement you made earlier in the discussion: "Your very own link proves that I'm not in the minority at all.
Followed by lengthy discussion of the technical meaning of minority and your usage of it to dismiss my thoughts as fringe rather than minority. But hey quote out of context. Apparently THAT is what you consider makes a masterful logical debater.
You're a troll and an asshole.
Either that never happened, or I've forgotten. I tend toward the former.
Yes I'm sure you do. Denial does not equate to truth.
You're a troll and an asshole.
Yes, apparently the majority opinion is a "problematic convention" and "not the best solution." But don't ask for a good reason why. It's not like the burden of proof falls on he who asserts or anything. That'd be too logical.
Once again for the dummies. There is no burden of proof. This is not a trial. This is an internet discussion board. I'm free to hold and express whatever opinion I choose. I don't need to provide someone who counter argues deceitfully with justification. I don't answer to you.
You're a troll and an asshole.
I can see that....and yet you persist because you have some deep psychological need to have the last word.
Lazy? Having raised teenagers as a single dad I can say with certainty that single parents are anything but lazy, particularly those with small children who also study (as a friend of my daughter is doing here in Australia).
Good parenting is difficult. Becoming a biological parent is not.
As for government support for single parents, if they enforced the payment of reasonable child-support from deadbeat non-custodial parents it would be enough in most cases, but exactly how does one extract money from an unemployed alcoholic ex-spouse?
You're kidding right? If a woman chooses to have sex with a loser, and get pregnant by them, then she's got to take some responsibility. Anyone other than a loser will pay and pay and pay and have no say in how the money is spent on their child. As for custody, all a woman has to do is suggest some sort of impropriety and the courts will happily take away custody too.
The 'problems for white men' (of wich I am the middle aged variety) stem from the (needlessly) high cost of a collage education in the US, it has nothing to do with a bunch of single mums trying to make the best out of a bad situation.
To be blunt if you let some loser stick your dick in you, you've made your bed. Getting the father to take part of the responsibility should also mean he gets some of the reward - time with the child, say in how the money's spent.
. I wouldn't wish it on you to find yourself in dire need of welfare because of someone else's irresposibility, but I would love it if people with your prudish, penny-pinching attitude would STFU until you to have walked a mile down that road.
Male or female, close your legs, or find reliable birth control, and you never have to have kids you don't want.
This is slashdot. I can't believe no one has suggested frisbee? Imagine the dog trying to catch that motherfucker of a dish! Please don't bother me with any pesky details like excessive weight. Giant drunk fucking frisbee for all!!! Yay!
Good. Then I'll assume that the fact that the white on black crowd is in the minority is not in dispute.
It never was. That was YOUR straw man.
And in order to substantiate that claim, you're going to have to demonstrate why white on black is a better solution than what most people are currently using.
Nope. I owe you nothing, as already repeatedly stated. I've demonstrated that plenty of what you said is wrong, and that you've been trolling, mis-directing, being dismissive, using straw men etc. I hold an opinion. I stated that opinion on a public forum. Had you argued more honestly I might be inclined to provide more substantiation. As it stands I have no motivation to do so.
By extension, others would be free to treat you like property, which would impinge on that absoluteness of freedom you're talking about.
Exactly. Absolute freedom is not a self consistent proposition. That was my point.
By the way, how is it trolling to note a fundamental difference between voluntary contracts and murder?
It's not. The trolling part was not bothering to explain in the first place and stating it should be obvious.
So I'm not sure what your point here is, beyond "killing people is bad, and enslaving them is equally bad".
That absolute freedom is not a self consistent proposition and as such should not be supported. The question is how much of your freedom do you have to give up to co-exist with others in a society, not whether or not you should be free to do whatever you like. The answer by the way is: The bare minimum required to be benevolent. Where you draw that line of benevolence in a society that has finite resources, and competing needs is where it gets tricky. However that doesn't change the fact that people who argue that you should be allowed to do whatever you like and define that as being free have already lost the argument, since they're asking for something that is demonstrably impossible in the first place.
A standards compliant web browser? It's called Firefox. Next.
You mean the same firefox that I just had to kill on the computer my wife's using, because it ate so many resources that explorer wasn't showing its right click context menu?? (GDI I think, need to investigate some time, I just know to kill firefox and I'm good to go). Running V3 by the way....and yes I'm using extensions, but if the extension framework lets that happen it too is flawed.
What's the bet this is modded down, because I dare to be critical of firefox on slashdot.
Slashdot Mirror
That email belongs to the company, not you.
It's still your arse on the line if you break the law by not retaining it, or find you can't prove you didn't do the wrong thing because you work for a bunch of morons that have deleted evidence that you've done nothing improper..
As someone who accumulates 90% of his work stress from dealing with employee email usage atrocities (please don't email an mp3 mix cd image to 150 of your closest friends from your workstation, kthx), let me tell you what's wrong with your plan
Yeah way to go with the straw man. I don't think this guy's looking to save email of a mix cd image to 150 friends. Some idiot user with no social skills making your job hard doesn't mean you get to duck questions regarding legitimate use. Your entire "us vs them" attitude is unprofessional to say the least.
Apple and Apple store computer salesmen did me and my parents what I consider a great dis-service when I was about 8 years old (around 1982) - They sold my parents an Apple IIe when the Mac had been released for some time, and at an extortionate price (more than the Macs were selling). My parents should have known better than to spend something like an eighth of the family's income that year on the machine. Unfortunately they didn't know a thing about computers and were wanting to give me the best education they could afford. I would say I should have known better, but hey I was 8 years old.
At the time you could buy Apple software from department stores. Soon after I bought the thing, Apple decided to deal exclusively through their stores. There were a few rogue mail order places that you could buy things from but if you wanted to look at the box and work out what you wanted to buy I'd have to get my parents to drive an hour and a half each way to the nearest Apple store.
Slashdotters (and Mac zealots) think I'm unreasonable to hold a grudge over these things, now over 20 years ago, but I've never forgotten it and the company has never done anything from my point of view that might redeem them. From what I've seen Apple have always been hostile to their end users and developers when their interests are challenged. Something in the geek fanboy psyche likes the elitism and considers any collateral abuse a small price to pay. They perputuate the false notion that somehow MacOs and Apple products are more stylish when all evidence I've seen is that many of their products are deeply flawed, priced more highly than the competition, and missing features others would call industry standard. Stylish? When before or since did seethrough plastic make a product suddenly stylish?
Me? I say fuck Apple. For almost 20 years I bought nothing from them and have always shunned the Mac. I did begrudgingly buy 2 iPods (one for me, one for my wife) a couple of years back, but that was a mistake - neither work quite right and the original return process drew the ire of the local consumer body. Then they closed off features on iTunes that allowed sharing (oh no all sharing must be piracy!). Typical Apple. Dictate how your products are used. Dictate what you consider stylish. Fark off.
Oh dear...A feminist with an online name "BunnyClaws"...
Want to look classy 365 days a year?
Nope. I want something practical 360 days of the year. I'm in an office job, so that does mean a shirt, black shoes and black trousers. A tie? They look great but forget it - they're not mandatory where I am and they're a pain. If I were a trady it'd be different again. The closest I get is flying remote control aircraft, which can leave you covered in castor oil (which stains). If you want practical but unstylish come see me at the flying field with a fly net, baseball cap, old tshirt and old jeans with mud on the knees.
If I'm going to a job interview or a wedding or meeting someone new where an impression is important I'll try and look stylish. Otherwise what a waste of time, effort and money. Wanting to look "classy" 365 days a year is also referred to as "being a fashion victim".
Same goes for the computer. Fuck the Mac. First of all my style does not match Steve Job's or Apple's. Love science and computing. Hated the trend of see-through clear plastic cases, keyboards and mice. To me it looked cheap and untidy. Bottom line is I don't care much about style in a piece of equipment. It's a tool. I don't need a fancy case and glowing lights when I buy a machine. I want something that does the job - doesn't overheat, is easy to fix if it breaks, uses commonly available affordable standard parts. Mac hardware doesn't qualify.
Thanks,
I really ought to do what you say and try out Slackware again. It was my first distro and I had a fondness for it. At one point it was well behind everything else though and I needed Redhat and RPM to get things done, so I switched. I'll have to look up my old friend again.
Hit reply too quickly.
That being said, adding debug statements to the kernel is not something human beings usually do.
Strongly disagree with that. Linux Hackers aren't gods, and they're not trolls. They're another kind of very human user. A very important kind, even if they're in the minority. Without them there would be no open source *nix clones. Putting people off learning about the kernel is not a good idea.
What version of Ubuntu are you using?
I may need to re-check the name I was using to download the kernel source. I may have been trying from work, in which case download would have been an issue. In any case I knew nothing about fakeroot, nor the list of packages I needed. A pseudo-package called kernel-builder would have been nice instead of having to know exact dependencies.
10-12 years or so ago I was a Linux user. My first distro was Slackware, then I moved to Redhat because certain software I was using only ran on that distro. At the time compiling your own kernel was quite a normal thing to do. I've had a long long break since where I've touched on distros from time to time but not run anything seriously.
Well my work's meant I've been doing some heavier C coding of late, and in looking up something or other I came across the LinuxChix kernel hacking tutorial and realized how short a step it was from compiling a kernel to modifying some code (at least to add printk debug statements). Heck I'd installed many distros and compiled custom kernels many times in the past. How hard could it be? Right?
So I've been trying lots of distros on VMWare with an aim to compiling a kernel and adding some debugging. First of all what the fuck happened? The process use to be bog standard and simple. Now you don't even get the option to install the build tools when you install the system. You have to go and install a bunch of packages manually on all the distros.
Second of all, what's with Ubuntu not providing kernel sources, then doing so for a short while, then breaking them? Currently the correct way to install kernel source is to clone the whole Ubuntu git repository. We don't all have unlimited bandwidth.
See:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel/Compile
"NOTE: This method has been broken since at least June 14th, 2007. Details are here. Use method #1 above ("git") instead."
I thought this was Linux for human beings. Apparently in catering for end users, they've decided to leave developers out in the cold. That's not smart! One extra step to download the source I could understand, but I didn't want to spend lots of time trawling through a tutorial working out which packages I need to apt-get. I wanted to spend that time looking at a kernel.
I finally did get a kernel compiling and building correctly, and put my couple of printk statements in - on Debian, not Ubuntu. Only took about 3 days to get my head around things. The distros are more diverse in their way of doing things than ever. (For example no link at /etc/grub.conf to /boot/grub/menu.lst on some). Sure, my lack of familiarity with 10 years or so of development didn't help but this is why I quit Linux in the first place - I don't have the time or inclination to deal with incomplete, out of date tutorials. (For example my kernel compiles weren't working without initrd. Had to find out that was my problem by trial and error, then had to work out the debian specific way of building initrd.)
So Linux for human beings and year of the Linux desktop my backside. It's nice that the software now installs less problematically on more hardware and that things aren't completely broken out of the box. However to me that seems like 2 steps forward, one step back.
Mod as you will.
Key word there is PROBLEM. As in device doesn't meet defacto industry standard and is therefore barely fit for purpose.
Offer to pay him for programming work he does.
Find something not too difficult but that will actually require some effort and learning to accomplish. Then offer him a modest one off increase to his pocket money or some new toy or gadget he wants, on the condition that he complete a task. The key is to pick a task that a beginner can handle but that will take him time and have him learning. It may sound frivolous, or like bad parenting, but a lot of good programmers only do it because they're paid. The beauty is he'll learn on his own if motivated. Once he's seen how complex it is, he'll either take it up as an interest himself, or decide it ain't worth the money. This is also a good way to teach him not to rely on being spoon fed by teachers etc.
Btw can I have some help with kernel hacking. Looking at kernels for the first time in about 12 years, and it took me a lot longer to get a kernel compiled than I remember it taking me when I was last looking a Linux seriously. When did it become so damn hard to install the tool chain?
You make it sound like having an iPhone is equivalent to living in a fascist dictatorship. I think you need to get out more.
Hey I just paraphrased what the GP said. Another Apple apologist who wants to start the conversation with a put down.
Yes. And yet this is on your short list of reasons why not to get an iPhone....
No it's on my short list of unnecessary hassles that no other phone throws in your way.
That's not really the point you first made. You complained about formats, and that was addressed.
Actually I complained about media. The transfer of MMS falls under that umbrella.
Now you complain about features. I say this: There's ten million features it doesn't have. Merely pointing something that it doesn't do out isn't an argument.
We're not talking about an obscure feature that is missing from some multimedia phones here. We're talking about a standard feature included on even most low end phones. Get a grip.
So, maybe most people aren't.
Most people don't make car trips longer than a couple of hours most of the time. I'd still call a car with a 20L tank a piece of shit.
Perhaps that's because a lot of people don't care, because - surprised - they've never in their life taken out the battery of a phone except to insert the SIM card
Gimme a break. A phone will last years if looked after. When my last phone broke I was able to use my 4 year old phone just fine. I'm not a heavy user so I'm guessing a heavy user that talks for a few hours a week on their phone will see their battery needing to be changed within a few months. Even moreso when the phone is touted as an mp3 player etc.
n which case they transfer some of the mp3s back to their computer. I suppose there exists the odd ultrageek who keeps his entire 200 GB collection of mp3s (silly me, I mean Ogg Vorbis of course) on a collection of SD-cards so as always to be able to listen to any song, no matter where he is...
Reductio ad absurdum is a very poor technique to use. You know better than I that removable storage is about more than swapping in 200GB of Mp3s. But hey don't let reason get in your way of being a fanboi zealot.
Apparently they don't or the iPhone wouldn't have the highest customer satisfaction of any phone.
Please don't make me laugh so damn hard at your sheepish consumerist comments that my sides are about to split. The iPhone hasn't been out very long and a survey of self satisified smug prats who own one doesn't make the iPhone the best phone ever. Since you're so gullible and susceptible to marketing, I think you should take one of these bridges I own off my hands.
Yes, that's surely below any level you would sink to. Well except of course to call anyone who argues against you an apologist.
Love it. You start with the personal attacks and name calling, then when I retaliate you accuse me of doing it to. Given the tone of your post, what did you expect you prat? Hugs and kisses?
You do take yourself a little to seriously in you signature, suggesting as you do that someone would wish to censor you because they disagree with you.
It's an observation that this is exactly what moderation is being used for on slashdot. If users don't agree with the argument it gets moderated overrrated or troll, when it's neither.
As for me taking myself too seriously, I'm so happy you can psychoanalyse me based on a signature and a couple of posts. Buddy you don't know me from a bar of soap. In fact the irony of you saying I take myself so seriously while I sit here and chuckle at your irrational and yes APOLOGIST rant, is too precious.
Au contraire
You didn't seriously just use that piece of French for emphasis did you? Who the fuck says "Au contraire" these days? What have you been watching too many old Doris Day flicks or something?
People like you are easy to argue against because you make such idiotic, easily refutable claims.
Ye
And again, you describe plenty of reasons why you don't want to buy it, and that's fine. But you haven't described any reason why nobody should want to buy it. If it's no good for you, fine, don't buy it. But don't act like your reasons necessarily apply to the entirety of humanity.
Is my typing coming out in Swahili on your side? I gave a very good reason people shouldn't buy it. There are better phones out there that don't have these problems. In fact most phones out there don't have those problems.
Yes I consider it a PROBLEM when you can't change the battery on your mobile phone given that this is a standard feature of most other phones.
Posting on Slashdot must automatically remove all of your ability to sympathize with other human beings too.
Oh yes, lets start with an all out personal attack shall we. Sets the tone.
Most people don't do anything that's restricted anyway.
Pesky freedom. Not worth having anyway.
People really do not feel that it's a big deal to connect their phone to their computer one time in the 2+ years that they will own it.
It's the only phone I've heard of that has this ridiculous requirement. Primarily it's a phone. It shouldn't need a computer or a laptop to get it kick started. Granted, it's an easy thing to get over and done with, but that doesn't make it any less pathetic to require.
People don't have "many different types of media", they have MP3s. The iPhone plays MP3s.
They don't have photos they may wish to send as an MMS? They don't want to be able to shoot video? Gimme a break. The word apologist comes to mind.
$200 US does not seem overpriced to me. As for overhyped, most people don't have this weird reaction where they feel that they are obligated to dislike anything that's popular.
Another pathetic personal attack. I happen to like plenty of things that are popular - just not a crippled phone de jour.
Most people simply don't care about replacing their battery.
They sure do in 6 or 12 months when they're quoted a couple of hundred bucks to do it the official way. They sure do if they're heavy phone users.
A lot of people will buy the phone and not even realize that it doesn't allow you to change batteries.
Another apologist remark.
Most people simply don't care about storage expansion. ...until they run out of room for their mp3s.
Your complains are all legitimate and it's fine that you don't like the thing (I don't own one either), but it's silly to act as though the device has no merit whatsoever.
Put up against other phones it does have no merit. If this phone were made by any company other than Apple it would flop. People who are into brand loyalty get what they deserve.
Honestly, I don't understand why so many intelligent people love the iPhone. From what I understand (and I'm happy to be corrected) here are some of the big drawbacks:
1) Heavily restricted and requires "jailbreak"
2) I read that in Australia at least must be hooked up to iTunes before it can make anything other than emergency calls! WTF????
3) Doesn't play as many different types of media as other devices?
4) Overhyped and overpriced
5) Built in expensive to replace battery.
6) No storage expansion.
It's suppose to be stylish. For some anything that Steve Jobs does is considered stylish. Such is the myth, that the man could start a style trend by being caught scratching his balls in public - within minutes fanboys would be espousing the health benefits of doing it, and deriding anyone who questioned the wisdom or decorum of doing it. Use your brains and quit with the mindless consumerism and hero worship. Function over form. Use your brains or suffer the consequences. Jailbreaking this thing is like buying a stylish little city runabout, then trying to haul a 2 tonne boat with it.
Watch me get modded into oblivion for daring to criticise the thing. C'est la slashdot.
Thanks for the story. Don't know how many read it all but I found it interesting.
The only thing that scares a pilot more than ditching is an in-flight fire. So they opened the cargo door and started herding the cattle out at 3,000 feet. Thank God the SPCA never heard about it. I mean, they had no choice; it was either the livestock, or aircraft, crew, and the livestock. But they were laughing so hard when they described the cows ambling placidly out the door, mooing in terror all the way down as they realized they were falling, then hitting the water and skipping for a hundred meters or so...I could only shake my head and think to myself that there are people who find amusement in the most fucked-up things. Could be that it was just a reaction to their brush with disaster, but still...
I'm laughing just thinking about it. Don't get me wrong - I feel bad for the cattle, but the way you described that it sounds almost cartoon like. I believe it's possible ton find humour in or be curious about perverse things without being a horrible human being. Now if they'd gone back out with another herd of cattle just for the hell of it or to get photos, or more cattle than they needed to, that'd make them scum.
Of course it also amazes me how popular these social networking sites are with adults.
It doesn't amaze me at all. When your work means you're out of the house 9-12 hrs/day 5-6 days a week (and that's considered good hours in IT), then you come home to chores etc. when do you find the time to catch up with old high school friends? My experience has been that I've become more and more isolated as I've gone from my mid teens to my mid 30s and my spare time has decreased. I have more acquaintances than close friends that i hang with. My social time's spent mostly with family. Still, if I do get spare time and it's not at the same time as my friends, I can write them an email. Sure I could keep track of everyone using simple email, but it's nice to see pictures of what people I haven't had time to catch up with in person for a long time are up to.
What I don't understand is all the crappy games on facebook. You've been bitten by a vampire? What swearword are you? Someone's given you a freaking virtual fish? Who cares? The novelty of that wore off in 5 minutes. THAT is the side I see as childish.
You should read the definition of projection in psychology.
You should stop being so incredibly condescending and/or assuming everyone you debate with is less educated than you are. It doesn't come across as witty - just arrogant.
You might want to look up projection in the dictionary yourself. If you're genuinely displaying a behaviour I'm not projecting it onto you, even if I display that same behaviour.
Just like this statement, throughout the discussion you have demonstrated in spades what you have routinely falsely accused me of.
What a complete bunch of bollox. You ran out of actual arguments long ago and resorted to straw men, quoting out of context, dismissing perfectly valid arguments on weak the weakest premiss you could find. You know you've lost this so called debate.
I am not the one claiming your point of view is invalid. If you had said I respectfully disagree and think black text on a white background is more readable, and there are others that think the same" we'd have no issue. You however are claiming my point of view is invalid and that it can only be held by basement dwelling geeks.
Unless your inevitable next post contains an actual argument, feel free to have "the last word" in the discussion because I won't be replying to it if it follows this pattern.
The pattern of calling a pompous bullying troll exactly what he is?
That way we'll both be happy. Your psychological need to have "the last word" which you're projecting on me will be satisfied
Yep. I'm smiling from ear to ear. Love being called a basement dweller and being told I owe someone I don't know from a bar of soap documented proof that my point of view is valid for the purposes of an internet discussion. Love having valid arguments dismissed on flimsy grounds. Love debating with someone who can't wait to tell me how good they are at debating and how much better they are than my basement dwelling arse.
I can stop wasting my time repeating the same refutations over and over.
Oh yes, because you've never caused me to repeat any of mine over and over.
Have a nice life. You might want to look at some of your own contradictions and social shortcomings before trying to play psychologist to me you presumptive twat.
Digital broadcast gives them a way to close the "analog hole" they so dread. If the makers colude with broadcasters, only "authorized" players will have keys to decode "HD" signals.
Please tell me how this will prevent someone from re-recording a transmission in a quite (or better yet sound proof) room? They can't close the hole. They can just make it less convenient. Sure you could make sound proof rooms illegal, and allege intent etc., but try legislating away quite rooms? What are they going to do? Make it illegal to listen to a broadcast without an annoying hum in the background?
That statement contradicts the following statement you made earlier in the discussion: "Your very own link proves that I'm not in the minority at all.
Followed by lengthy discussion of the technical meaning of minority and your usage of it to dismiss my thoughts as fringe rather than minority. But hey quote out of context. Apparently THAT is what you consider makes a masterful logical debater.
You're a troll and an asshole.
Either that never happened, or I've forgotten. I tend toward the former.
Yes I'm sure you do. Denial does not equate to truth.
You're a troll and an asshole.
Yes, apparently the majority opinion is a "problematic convention" and "not the best solution." But don't ask for a good reason why. It's not like the burden of proof falls on he who asserts or anything. That'd be too logical.
Once again for the dummies. There is no burden of proof. This is not a trial. This is an internet discussion board. I'm free to hold and express whatever opinion I choose. I don't need to provide someone who counter argues deceitfully with justification. I don't answer to you.
You're a troll and an asshole.
I can see that. ...and yet you persist because you have some deep psychological need to have the last word.
You're a troll and an asshole.
Lazy? Having raised teenagers as a single dad I can say with certainty that single parents are anything but lazy, particularly those with small children who also study (as a friend of my daughter is doing here in Australia).
Good parenting is difficult. Becoming a biological parent is not.
As for government support for single parents, if they enforced the payment of reasonable child-support from deadbeat non-custodial parents it would be enough in most cases, but exactly how does one extract money from an unemployed alcoholic ex-spouse?
You're kidding right? If a woman chooses to have sex with a loser, and get pregnant by them, then she's got to take some responsibility. Anyone other than a loser will pay and pay and pay and have no say in how the money is spent on their child. As for custody, all a woman has to do is suggest some sort of impropriety and the courts will happily take away custody too.
The 'problems for white men' (of wich I am the middle aged variety) stem from the (needlessly) high cost of a collage education in the US, it has nothing to do with a bunch of single mums trying to make the best out of a bad situation.
To be blunt if you let some loser stick your dick in you, you've made your bed. Getting the father to take part of the responsibility should also mean he gets some of the reward - time with the child, say in how the money's spent.
. I wouldn't wish it on you to find yourself in dire need of welfare because of someone else's irresposibility, but I would love it if people with your prudish, penny-pinching attitude would STFU until you to have walked a mile down that road.
Male or female, close your legs, or find reliable birth control, and you never have to have kids you don't want.
This is slashdot. I can't believe no one has suggested frisbee? Imagine the dog trying to catch that motherfucker of a dish! Please don't bother me with any pesky details like excessive weight. Giant drunk fucking frisbee for all!!! Yay!
You can double the cost of your $700 PC.
Downloads on the pirate bay cost $700? *smirk*
Good. Then I'll assume that the fact that the white on black crowd is in the minority is not in dispute.
It never was. That was YOUR straw man.
And in order to substantiate that claim, you're going to have to demonstrate why white on black is a better solution than what most people are currently using.
Nope. I owe you nothing, as already repeatedly stated. I've demonstrated that plenty of what you said is wrong, and that you've been trolling, mis-directing, being dismissive, using straw men etc. I hold an opinion. I stated that opinion on a public forum. Had you argued more honestly I might be inclined to provide more substantiation. As it stands I have no motivation to do so.
By extension, others would be free to treat you like property, which would impinge on that absoluteness of freedom you're talking about.
Exactly. Absolute freedom is not a self consistent proposition. That was my point.
By the way, how is it trolling to note a fundamental difference between voluntary contracts and murder?
It's not. The trolling part was not bothering to explain in the first place and stating it should be obvious.
So I'm not sure what your point here is, beyond "killing people is bad, and enslaving them is equally bad".
That absolute freedom is not a self consistent proposition and as such should not be supported. The question is how much of your freedom do you have to give up to co-exist with others in a society, not whether or not you should be free to do whatever you like. The answer by the way is: The bare minimum required to be benevolent. Where you draw that line of benevolence in a society that has finite resources, and competing needs is where it gets tricky. However that doesn't change the fact that people who argue that you should be allowed to do whatever you like and define that as being free have already lost the argument, since they're asking for something that is demonstrably impossible in the first place.
A standards compliant web browser? It's called Firefox. Next.
You mean the same firefox that I just had to kill on the computer my wife's using, because it ate so many resources that explorer wasn't showing its right click context menu?? (GDI I think, need to investigate some time, I just know to kill firefox and I'm good to go). Running V3 by the way....and yes I'm using extensions, but if the extension framework lets that happen it too is flawed.
What's the bet this is modded down, because I dare to be critical of firefox on slashdot.