Why are they using RedHat 7.1? 7.2 is much better. It supports ext3(which irradicates the one problem I had with linux -- file systems could get hurt far too easily by a power failure) and the second-newest KDE(which is a fairly significant step in the right direction regarding eye-candy from the KDE in 7.1)
Sometimes I wonder about these companies............
If you own an x86 box(pentium or higher), I'd suggest you take a look at BeOS. It's as dead as OS/2 for all intents and purposes, but it's really an incredible OS for the PC. Just a little bit longer and it would have become everything Windows is and much, much more. All it needed was Hardware OpenGL, which was slated for the next release.
It sits with my OS/2 Warp disks. Yes. I support innovation with my wallet and my mindshare. That's why it sucks so much to see them fall.
Actually, if a person was willing to disassemble an old game, then add some commands wherever there was a write to 0xa000 to implement vsync(which can also be implemented 1x,2x,3x,4x etc, for 60 fps, 30 fps, 15 fps, etc...), games could be made to run on any modern system, regardless of speed. I've done this with a lot of old Open Source games I've wanted to play where they'd use a crappy algorithm to keep the speed at a decent clip on a 286 or 486, but those algorithms would be overwhelmed on a newer system, while implementing vsync makes the program run at 60 fps(or 30 fps etc...) regardless of the speed of the processor.
Perhaps I should start a website dedicated to such things?
...
...
That would be cool, and much smoother than moslo(which seems to slow things down in bursts, which is detrimental to performance)
It didn't stop a bunch of fools from seeing that and saying "oops, my heatsync fell off! AMD 5UX0RZ!!! 1N73L is 1337!". Understand this: When we're talking about people too retarded to put on a heatsync correctly, the facts are just an unfortunate mishap.
Okay...I did *not* deserve a +1 informative on that. I hope somebody can mod that as overrated. It's just some text and a damn link! check it out; not that hard! This is the message in the link
don't mod me up for mere links in the future. I was just showing the poster of the parent message something because he mentioned that the original number of letters to the government is ambiguous when you read the top. If you must, mod me up for informative, insightful, funny, underrated (:-) ) social and technical commentary.
Preston Manning would have had a chance if those idiots in the canadian alliance hadn't voted in Stockwell Day. They singlehandedly lost the election by voting that idiot as leader(I see Day as the canadian version of GWB -- he's a charasmatic idiot, but he's still an idiot!).
The Liberals are pretty well entrenched, but can you blame the canadian people? Jean Cretien and the liberal government have made significant gains since Brian Mulroney left office, and I have a feeling a lot of people enjoy the stability which having a relatively predictable government brings.
As for your claims that they are cheating, I'm sure they are -- that's what politics is all about, but when we're talking about millions of people voting liberal in Canada, more people voting liberal than any other party, it becomes fairly obvious that even if they did cheat, they still won by a landslide, and likely would have otherwise.
Besides. What would I do with all my Jean Cretien jokes if somebody else got elected?:)
I'm not fear mongering, just think about it. There are a large number of entities which have all the rights of an individual, none of the responsibilities, incredible wealth, and incredible longevity, not to mention incredible political power -- why shouldn't we be afraid that an entity based almost entirely on the bending of morality to fit a profit margin which has all these powers combined?! How have they proven that they should be allowed this power, and why should they be allowed to exist, when their mere existance is enough to stop a small business from forming, and it's wraith is something every small business owner has nightmares about. Many have proven that the government has no power over these dreadnaughts, the legal system is a mere twig, to be tossed aside by these behemoths, and the might of the US DoJ and half the US states mere footsoldiers, to be brushed aside when the next election comes along.
I'd say there is something to be afraid of. Something very scary. Amoral entities with the powers of virtual gods have been created, and with no real limits on what they can do, with their armies of lawyers and leigons of pen-pushing, weak willed politicians baking them up, it takes some balls o' steel, or an incredible amount of mental skill, to simply dismiss them like that.
That would take a long, long time to figure out; how do you give a person the ability to represent his countrymen, and how do we limit the power to whats needed, while ensuring that the responsibility is being taken care of, and at the same time, remove those doing such a job from the spotlight? I think it'd take a reworking of our entire society, starting with some way of getting news into living rooms which couldn't be influenced by either government or media cartels(kind of like the weather channel:) ). Then, instead of focusing on the man, those agencies should be forced to focus on the decisions instead. A definite cure for the celebrity of politics. There should be a stop to smear campaigns and such, since the people shouldn't chare about the person, only his decision making abilities and beliefs.
In the end, the question becomes "should the people really have any power?", and the answer becomes unclear. Perhaps a benevolent totalinarian or dictatorship government would be the best, but the consequences of allowing such a government control of a nation are staggering. Perhaps a more "corporate government" could work? Where people would hire the best people for the positions, thereby removing the people from the picture and choosing based on merit. That could be dangerous as well unless there was a direct and profound way the wishes of the people could be heard(just so the government can alter their plans accordingly)...
The possiblities and illogic of the matter are making my head spin as it is, so I guess I'll just have to wait until I can afford to buy my own nation "sj0ia", where the government is non-totalinarian non-industralist democratic communism(ie. everyone shares everything, has a job, but every important decision which falls outside the bounds of regular decisions (which could be made by a person elected by the people to handle day-to-day operations, but nothing more) is made by the population of the small island of sj0ia).
That's right, I ran out of ideas. Once again the system ends up being the best of a lot of bottom-of-the-barrel ideas. Damn.
Unfortunately, you're probably right. true democracy is likely not a pheasable way to run a nation. I just tend to keep my mind on how we could improve such things so the world becomes a little more representitive of how we should do things. The thing is, I'm not willing to just give up and say "the system doesn't work...oh well, I tried.", because I think the system in place right now has allowed quite a few "very bad" things to happen, such as the DMCA.
Also, I tend to agree that technology could help in other ways, but in the end, the newly educated end up feeling as trapped as I do; bad things happen in the world, and I'm powerless to stop them. When we're talking about a country based on allowing the people of that nation to make decisions, but it's all turning horribly wrong -- especially at a federal level.
You won't find an arguement from me about the cool things these machines can do, it's why I got into computers. It's just that I also feel that I should try to use what I know to help the world, whether it be in a dramatic way, or something more subtle. I feel that those in power who betray their serfs(I know theres a word for this in the sense of a republic...) to corporations, who already have great power(more than they deserve by far) should not only be punished, but the power left in that vacuum should be distributed among many, to ensure it doesn't happen again.
I should get one thing straight right now. The goal of a business isn't to become a monopoly -- that's a myth perpetuated by monopoly apologists and sympathizers. The goal of a business is to make the owners a living. Corporate agandas perverted this goal into the current "you can't compete unless you're willing to monopolize the industry for the entire nation" garbage. I know the owners of a few small businesses (small businesses are the ones I believe should be protected by the government against corporations, lest we are willing to become nothing more than another civilization kept adrift by feudalism when a few emperors of the dollar decide they their workers don't deserve "rights" anymore, and sign them away on the next contract renewal), and they often do it for two reasons:To make a living (not a killing, just a living), and to be their own bosses.
Continuting on, I'm not sure what networking problems exist on Be. You've piqued my interest, have you had any major problems with it? I know it ran well enough for me, but I just use the network to run BeZilla...
Be had a suprising user and developer base, and if they had lasted long enough to release BeOS 6(I'm aware of the paradigm shift to BeIA, in retrospect, it seems that the change was part of the death throes of Be), they would have achieved professional OpenGL on the first platform other than Windows. I believe that had that final release, it would have become a hugely used OS.(note: Please don't argue this point -- it's all a red herring, and I'd rather remember Be as a really cool OS which was ahead of it's time, rather than remembering with a guy telling me why it sucked)
For my P.P.S, Have you ever coded in DOS? Any given program essentially becomes an OS itself, allowing it to directly access hardware, and usually, the only thing that DOS provides is File I/O access. Doom was as much an OS as Windows 95, but it didn't come with it's own bootloader! Dos was always just a bootloader for whatever program you chose to run with a minimalist shell slapped on top. That's part of what made(and makes) it a joy to code for. Hardware access is generally much nicer(not to mention faster) when done directly.
Anyway, I guess this entire discussion is just a red herring, since BeOS has been sold, OS/2 users are now considered wierd (y'know...I still have it installed, and I even use it sometimes! I'm trying to get a copy of Warp 4.0 cheap though. Then I can use it as a cheap Bochs station(the VDM in OS/2 warp is immensely powerful. You can run Windows 9x under it, or even Linux, and the best part is that you can multitask those OS's, which makes OS/2 one of my favourites. It's way faster than Bochs by the way -- full virtualization isn't needed, and it's still stable too!)
Just forget this whole arguement. I'm just so jaded because I keep seeing cool products get knocked down. If Linux ever dies, a lot of people here will finally understand how I feel, seeing a promising product get cut down.
I think the current system has proven that it doesn't work for meeting the wishes of the people. Every day we see another really stupid law which shouldn't have been passed, or a law which only affects a small portion of people who should have been a part of the decision making process(think DMCA -- did those old lawyers really have the credentials to be passing laws like that in the first place? They didn't understand them!). The important part of my idea, the part which so far has been shrouded in the technical faults of my plan, is to allow the people to make the choices, rather than a representative who is merely a "close enough" impression of our opinions. I think every person should have their individual opinions heard. It's been said that politics is about being "in between" left and right, but that center doesn't have a hive mind -- it's a flaw of a republic that assumes they do. Inside that moderate individual may lurk some incredibly left or right opinions, which aren't being represented. By taking the average, if you will, and letting the person who has the opinions most matching the average persons opinions to the point that the most people will vote for him, you lose the beauty of democracy, as the country becomes fascinated by a perpetual popularity contest and pissing match between the candidates, as is often seen in American politics, where the mere partesian nature of politics makes certain very important issues degrade into such contests as well.
Unfortunately, I can't think of any way to improve such a scheme to the point where the common man can vote several times a day on issues which matter greatly to them. It must be as simple and convenient as pressing a button before the people who matter -- the people who live their lives for their own reasons, rather than for political power, embrace it. Otherwise, only people with a dangerously intense passion will embrace it, which would be dangerous indeed.
While I can see where you are coming from, I see that as just another problem to overcome.
The reason I proposed this solution wasn't for convenience, it was because true democracy would be impractical in a public secret ballot.
For security, I'm thinking that votes could be sent and tallied on the local network, with each port of the hub/lan being switched into send-only mode, so a single UDP packet could be sent to the destination with the results of any given vote(with information on what you're voting on sent before the input blackout). Somebody could tap the line, but then, somebody could also break into the ballot box.
As for the problem of people being coherced into voting in a way they don't want to, I'm sure there's a solution to that as well. Perhaps it's a socialogical one, rather than a technological one ("Don't drink and drive -- and vote alone!"), or perhaps the solution is something as simple as a pair of sunglasses which are needed to read the LCD(do you recall that they did that with laptops?), and scramble the "yay" and "nay" buttons so only you can know what you're choosing. Others could wear their sunglasses, but that'd be as obvious as a person peering into a voting booth to see what you'll vote.
This solution is quickly becoming complex and overengineered, so it may bnot be the best way to do what I want, but there must be a way to use technology to lead to a more democratic world. That's really my goal, and I think you'll agree it's a noble one.
Don't bother trying to tell me why all these failed, it's kind of arrogant. Microsoft makes more mistakes than any of these companies did, and they're still around. Thinking that somehow making any mistake is grounds for destruction is foolish. Even in the cutthroat business world, a company with a good product which people are willing to back should be enough to allow a product to survive. In the current climate, if you aren't set to become the next monopoly, your product will die and people will spend their time telling the believers why their OS failed.
PS. BeOS still had a real focus. a "vision" if you will. Everybody who used it, and everybody who loved it knew it. It was, bar none, the best OS created in the last 5 years, and in a free market, would have become immensely popular.
P.P.S. Ever wondered why Windows 9x doesn't run with DR-DOS? I don't think integration has ever been for the users benefit at MS.
What would you suggest? If I can't trust the government to take my vote, then the only way I can make a difference in the world is to start shooting people who disagree with me.
"It isn't who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes."
- Various versions of which have been attributed to Lenin, Stalin, and historical references going back to American political cartoonist "Boss" Tweed in 1871.
Perhaps I should elabourate: there would be some hefty perks to the government owning that network, such as the ones I mentioned. I sure as hell wouldn't allow some corporate bastards to be trusted to deliver my votes!
I've read some of the letters, and it's sort of sad to be reminded of all the companies which Microsoft has unfairly crushed OS/2, BeOS, DR-Dos and others, have all fallen, regardless of user support or quality, and the festering, rotting corpses of these products and in many cases, the companies which created them, are a macabre reminder of why Microsoft must be stopped.
If you only put cable modems in houses then matter, then you are really really missing the point of a democracy.
Give the people willing to talk a voice? I see no problem there.
The best part is that the mere installation of media could allow this to happen. Install the cable for free, sell a device at a loss(we're talking a dollar or two here) which would allow for voting without a PC (just a yay/nay button and a screen for displaying the issues). In this case, the only people who aren't going to vote are the same ones who didn't want to pay for gas to get to a voting booth the social equivilant, and these same people wouldn't have a voice at all in a democratic republic.
Thats the 2nd most retarded idea I have heard all day (the first was from my neighbour who said that if i put a penis in an ear, I will dance all night). Do you honestly think that such a system would work? Every household will not have a cable modem in the house, no matter what you or the Canadian government has said. Matter of fact, the Canadian government is doing nothing about the Rogers and Bell monopolies that are threatening to strangle the high speed market by imposing download limits. Wake up and get a life, hoser.
Who is to say that it'll be a private company doing it? Crown corporations aren't a myth, you know, and could see the government starting one up to get it into every household.
Maybe "every household" is a misnomer...How about every household that matters? Sure -- there are households without radios or telephones, but people that reclusive probably won't miss not being able to vote.
Ideas are how innovation comes about -- I know in your little world others do the thinking for you, but the rest of us need to concieve and implememnt these things.
Actually, I was thinking; with an initiative like Canada is doing, where every household will have a Cable modem by 2004, true democratic process could be implemented -- shut off the internetwork access when a vote is to take place, let every cable connection vote once, including information such as the Social Security No# to verify it over encryption, with the vote(and authentication information) heading to a server at town hall, and after the process is complete, reactivate access.
There would be some hefty perks to owning the network citezens would be using to vote, such that hackers and false voters could be elimiated.
I don't think I can trust them not to cancel a mag I like after the last few years; First it was PC Games, then it was PCXL, I'm staying away from Imagine, Who knows if maximum PC will be cancelled next? Or Maximum Linux?(I haven't seen it around lately, so maybe...)
I notice too many previews and reviews which have what I consider "back of the box syndrome". Think about it. It's very rare to get any impressions in a preview from the writer, usually it's just what the advertising line is. Reviews can be worse sometimes. It's actually the reason why I used to read PCXL(boycott Imagine publishing!:) ). They might go off on a tangent sometimes in their reviews and previews, and it makes it a little more trustworthy (ie. it's whats on the writers mind, not what's on the desk on the writers desk)
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Why are they using RedHat 7.1? 7.2 is much better. It supports ext3(which irradicates the one problem I had with linux -- file systems could get hurt far too easily by a power failure) and the second-newest KDE(which is a fairly significant step in the right direction regarding eye-candy from the KDE in 7.1)
Sometimes I wonder about these companies............
What part of "as dead as OS/2" don't you understand? The reasons are rather irrelevant in the light that they are, in fact, dead.
Tell me, were you a BeOS Developer?
If you own an x86 box(pentium or higher), I'd suggest you take a look at BeOS. It's as dead as OS/2 for all intents and purposes, but it's really an incredible OS for the PC. Just a little bit longer and it would have become everything Windows is and much, much more. All it needed was Hardware OpenGL, which was slated for the next release.
It sits with my OS/2 Warp disks. Yes. I support innovation with my wallet and my mindshare. That's why it sucks so much to see them fall.
Actually, if a person was willing to disassemble an old game, then add some commands wherever there was a write to 0xa000 to implement vsync(which can also be implemented 1x,2x,3x,4x etc, for 60 fps, 30 fps, 15 fps, etc...), games could be made to run on any modern system, regardless of speed. I've done this with a lot of old Open Source games I've wanted to play where they'd use a crappy algorithm to keep the speed at a decent clip on a 286 or 486, but those algorithms would be overwhelmed on a newer system, while implementing vsync makes the program run at 60 fps(or 30 fps etc...) regardless of the speed of the processor.
Perhaps I should start a website dedicated to such things?
...
...
That would be cool, and much smoother than moslo(which seems to slow things down in bursts, which is detrimental to performance)
It didn't stop a bunch of fools from seeing that and saying "oops, my heatsync fell off! AMD 5UX0RZ!!! 1N73L is 1337!". Understand this: When we're talking about people too retarded to put on a heatsync correctly, the facts are just an unfortunate mishap.
Okay...I did *not* deserve a +1 informative on that. I hope somebody can mod that as overrated. It's just some text and a damn link! check it out; not that hard! This is the message in the link
:-) ) social and technical commentary.
don't mod me up for mere links in the future. I was just showing the poster of the parent message something because he mentioned that the original number of letters to the government is ambiguous when you read the top. If you must, mod me up for informative, insightful, funny, underrated (
Preston Manning would have had a chance if those idiots in the canadian alliance hadn't voted in Stockwell Day. They singlehandedly lost the election by voting that idiot as leader(I see Day as the canadian version of GWB -- he's a charasmatic idiot, but he's still an idiot!).
:)
The Liberals are pretty well entrenched, but can you blame the canadian people? Jean Cretien and the liberal government have made significant gains since Brian Mulroney left office, and I have a feeling a lot of people enjoy the stability which having a relatively predictable government brings.
As for your claims that they are cheating, I'm sure they are -- that's what politics is all about, but when we're talking about millions of people voting liberal in Canada, more people voting liberal than any other party, it becomes fairly obvious that even if they did cheat, they still won by a landslide, and likely would have otherwise.
Besides. What would I do with all my Jean Cretien jokes if somebody else got elected?
I'm not fear mongering, just think about it. There are a large number of entities which have all the rights of an individual, none of the responsibilities, incredible wealth, and incredible longevity, not to mention incredible political power -- why shouldn't we be afraid that an entity based almost entirely on the bending of morality to fit a profit margin which has all these powers combined?! How have they proven that they should be allowed this power, and why should they be allowed to exist, when their mere existance is enough to stop a small business from forming, and it's wraith is something every small business owner has nightmares about. Many have proven that the government has no power over these dreadnaughts, the legal system is a mere twig, to be tossed aside by these behemoths, and the might of the US DoJ and half the US states mere footsoldiers, to be brushed aside when the next election comes along.
I'd say there is something to be afraid of. Something very scary. Amoral entities with the powers of virtual gods have been created, and with no real limits on what they can do, with their armies of lawyers and leigons of pen-pushing, weak willed politicians baking them up, it takes some balls o' steel, or an incredible amount of mental skill, to simply dismiss them like that.
That would take a long, long time to figure out; how do you give a person the ability to represent his countrymen, and how do we limit the power to whats needed, while ensuring that the responsibility is being taken care of, and at the same time, remove those doing such a job from the spotlight? I think it'd take a reworking of our entire society, starting with some way of getting news into living rooms which couldn't be influenced by either government or media cartels(kind of like the weather channel :) ). Then, instead of focusing on the man, those agencies should be forced to focus on the decisions instead. A definite cure for the celebrity of politics. There should be a stop to smear campaigns and such, since the people shouldn't chare about the person, only his decision making abilities and beliefs.
In the end, the question becomes "should the people really have any power?", and the answer becomes unclear. Perhaps a benevolent totalinarian or dictatorship government would be the best, but the consequences of allowing such a government control of a nation are staggering. Perhaps a more "corporate government" could work? Where people would hire the best people for the positions, thereby removing the people from the picture and choosing based on merit. That could be dangerous as well unless there was a direct and profound way the wishes of the people could be heard(just so the government can alter their plans accordingly)...
The possiblities and illogic of the matter are making my head spin as it is, so I guess I'll just have to wait until I can afford to buy my own nation "sj0ia", where the government is non-totalinarian non-industralist democratic communism(ie. everyone shares everything, has a job, but every important decision which falls outside the bounds of regular decisions (which could be made by a person elected by the people to handle day-to-day operations, but nothing more) is made by the population of the small island of sj0ia).
That's right, I ran out of ideas. Once again the system ends up being the best of a lot of bottom-of-the-barrel ideas. Damn.
Unfortunately, you're probably right. true democracy is likely not a pheasable way to run a nation. I just tend to keep my mind on how we could improve such things so the world becomes a little more representitive of how we should do things. The thing is, I'm not willing to just give up and say "the system doesn't work...oh well, I tried.", because I think the system in place right now has allowed quite a few "very bad" things to happen, such as the DMCA.
Also, I tend to agree that technology could help in other ways, but in the end, the newly educated end up feeling as trapped as I do; bad things happen in the world, and I'm powerless to stop them. When we're talking about a country based on allowing the people of that nation to make decisions, but it's all turning horribly wrong -- especially at a federal level.
You won't find an arguement from me about the cool things these machines can do, it's why I got into computers. It's just that I also feel that I should try to use what I know to help the world, whether it be in a dramatic way, or something more subtle. I feel that those in power who betray their serfs(I know theres a word for this in the sense of a republic...) to corporations, who already have great power(more than they deserve by far) should not only be punished, but the power left in that vacuum should be distributed among many, to ensure it doesn't happen again.
I should get one thing straight right now. The goal of a business isn't to become a monopoly -- that's a myth perpetuated by monopoly apologists and sympathizers. The goal of a business is to make the owners a living. Corporate agandas perverted this goal into the current "you can't compete unless you're willing to monopolize the industry for the entire nation" garbage. I know the owners of a few small businesses (small businesses are the ones I believe should be protected by the government against corporations, lest we are willing to become nothing more than another civilization kept adrift by feudalism when a few emperors of the dollar decide they their workers don't deserve "rights" anymore, and sign them away on the next contract renewal), and they often do it for two reasons:To make a living (not a killing, just a living), and to be their own bosses.
Continuting on, I'm not sure what networking problems exist on Be. You've piqued my interest, have you had any major problems with it? I know it ran well enough for me, but I just use the network to run BeZilla...
Be had a suprising user and developer base, and if they had lasted long enough to release BeOS 6(I'm aware of the paradigm shift to BeIA, in retrospect, it seems that the change was part of the death throes of Be), they would have achieved professional OpenGL on the first platform other than Windows. I believe that had that final release, it would have become a hugely used OS.(note: Please don't argue this point -- it's all a red herring, and I'd rather remember Be as a really cool OS which was ahead of it's time, rather than remembering with a guy telling me why it sucked)
For my P.P.S, Have you ever coded in DOS? Any given program essentially becomes an OS itself, allowing it to directly access hardware, and usually, the only thing that DOS provides is File I/O access. Doom was as much an OS as Windows 95, but it didn't come with it's own bootloader! Dos was always just a bootloader for whatever program you chose to run with a minimalist shell slapped on top. That's part of what made(and makes) it a joy to code for. Hardware access is generally much nicer(not to mention faster) when done directly.
Anyway, I guess this entire discussion is just a red herring, since BeOS has been sold, OS/2 users are now considered wierd (y'know...I still have it installed, and I even use it sometimes! I'm trying to get a copy of Warp 4.0 cheap though. Then I can use it as a cheap Bochs station(the VDM in OS/2 warp is immensely powerful. You can run Windows 9x under it, or even Linux, and the best part is that you can multitask those OS's, which makes OS/2 one of my favourites. It's way faster than Bochs by the way -- full virtualization isn't needed, and it's still stable too!)
Just forget this whole arguement. I'm just so jaded because I keep seeing cool products get knocked down. If Linux ever dies, a lot of people here will finally understand how I feel, seeing a promising product get cut down.
I think the current system has proven that it doesn't work for meeting the wishes of the people. Every day we see another really stupid law which shouldn't have been passed, or a law which only affects a small portion of people who should have been a part of the decision making process(think DMCA -- did those old lawyers really have the credentials to be passing laws like that in the first place? They didn't understand them!). The important part of my idea, the part which so far has been shrouded in the technical faults of my plan, is to allow the people to make the choices, rather than a representative who is merely a "close enough" impression of our opinions. I think every person should have their individual opinions heard. It's been said that politics is about being "in between" left and right, but that center doesn't have a hive mind -- it's a flaw of a republic that assumes they do. Inside that moderate individual may lurk some incredibly left or right opinions, which aren't being represented. By taking the average, if you will, and letting the person who has the opinions most matching the average persons opinions to the point that the most people will vote for him, you lose the beauty of democracy, as the country becomes fascinated by a perpetual popularity contest and pissing match between the candidates, as is often seen in American politics, where the mere partesian nature of politics makes certain very important issues degrade into such contests as well.
Unfortunately, I can't think of any way to improve such a scheme to the point where the common man can vote several times a day on issues which matter greatly to them. It must be as simple and convenient as pressing a button before the people who matter -- the people who live their lives for their own reasons, rather than for political power, embrace it. Otherwise, only people with a dangerously intense passion will embrace it, which would be dangerous indeed.
While I can see where you are coming from, I see that as just another problem to overcome.
The reason I proposed this solution wasn't for convenience, it was because true democracy would be impractical in a public secret ballot.
For security, I'm thinking that votes could be sent and tallied on the local network, with each port of the hub/lan being switched into send-only mode, so a single UDP packet could be sent to the destination with the results of any given vote(with information on what you're voting on sent before the input blackout). Somebody could tap the line, but then, somebody could also break into the ballot box.
As for the problem of people being coherced into voting in a way they don't want to, I'm sure there's a solution to that as well. Perhaps it's a socialogical one, rather than a technological one ("Don't drink and drive -- and vote alone!"), or perhaps the solution is something as simple as a pair of sunglasses which are needed to read the LCD(do you recall that they did that with laptops?), and scramble the "yay" and "nay" buttons so only you can know what you're choosing. Others could wear their sunglasses, but that'd be as obvious as a person peering into a voting booth to see what you'll vote.
This solution is quickly becoming complex and overengineered, so it may bnot be the best way to do what I want, but there must be a way to use technology to lead to a more democratic world. That's really my goal, and I think you'll agree it's a noble one.
Don't bother trying to tell me why all these failed, it's kind of arrogant. Microsoft makes more mistakes than any of these companies did, and they're still around. Thinking that somehow making any mistake is grounds for destruction is foolish. Even in the cutthroat business world, a company with a good product which people are willing to back should be enough to allow a product to survive. In the current climate, if you aren't set to become the next monopoly, your product will die and people will spend their time telling the believers why their OS failed.
PS. BeOS still had a real focus. a "vision" if you will. Everybody who used it, and everybody who loved it knew it. It was, bar none, the best OS created in the last 5 years, and in a free market, would have become immensely popular.
P.P.S. Ever wondered why Windows 9x doesn't run with DR-DOS? I don't think integration has ever been for the users benefit at MS.
What would you suggest? If I can't trust the government to take my vote, then the only way I can make a difference in the world is to start shooting people who disagree with me.
I think I'd rather vote, don't you?
"It isn't who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes."
- Various versions of which have been attributed to Lenin, Stalin, and historical references going back to American political cartoonist "Boss" Tweed in 1871.
Perhaps I should elabourate: there would be some hefty perks to the government owning that network, such as the ones I mentioned. I sure as hell wouldn't allow some corporate bastards to be trusted to deliver my votes!
I've read some of the letters, and it's sort of sad to be reminded of all the companies which Microsoft has unfairly crushed OS/2, BeOS, DR-Dos and others, have all fallen, regardless of user support or quality, and the festering, rotting corpses of these products and in many cases, the companies which created them, are a macabre reminder of why Microsoft must be stopped.
...
...Like I said. Sad.
If you only put cable modems in houses then matter, then you are really really missing the point of a democracy.
Give the people willing to talk a voice? I see no problem there.
The best part is that the mere installation of media could allow this to happen. Install the cable for free, sell a device at a loss(we're talking a dollar or two here) which would allow for voting without a PC (just a yay/nay button and a screen for displaying the issues). In this case, the only people who aren't going to vote are the same ones who didn't want to pay for gas to get to a voting booth the social equivilant, and these same people wouldn't have a voice at all in a democratic republic.
Thats the 2nd most retarded idea I have heard all day (the first was from my neighbour who said that if i put a penis in an ear, I will dance all night). Do you honestly think that such a system would work? Every household will not have a cable modem in the house, no matter what you or the Canadian government has said. Matter of fact, the Canadian government is doing nothing about the Rogers and Bell monopolies that are threatening to strangle the high speed market by imposing download limits. Wake up and get a life, hoser.
Who is to say that it'll be a private company doing it? Crown corporations aren't a myth, you know, and could see the government starting one up to get it into every household.
Maybe "every household" is a misnomer...How about every household that matters? Sure -- there are households without radios or telephones, but people that reclusive probably won't miss not being able to vote.
Ideas are how innovation comes about -- I know in your little world others do the thinking for you, but the rest of us need to concieve and implememnt these things.
uh...the orignal results were posted to slashdot as well. something like 15000 to 7000.
Here's the post on Slashdot.
Actually, I was thinking; with an initiative like Canada is doing, where every household will have a Cable modem by 2004, true democratic process could be implemented -- shut off the internetwork access when a vote is to take place, let every cable connection vote once, including information such as the Social Security No# to verify it over encryption, with the vote(and authentication information) heading to a server at town hall, and after the process is complete, reactivate access.
There would be some hefty perks to owning the network citezens would be using to vote, such that hackers and false voters could be elimiated.
It seemed legit until I actually read it. :)
I liked the part about the "colors of evil".
I don't think I can trust them not to cancel a mag I like after the last few years; First it was PC Games, then it was PCXL, I'm staying away from Imagine, Who knows if maximum PC will be cancelled next? Or Maximum Linux?(I haven't seen it around lately, so maybe...)
Congratulations, you just pointed out that he pointed out that you pointed out that Microsoft is a business. *GASP*
Repetition is fun!
I notice too many previews and reviews which have what I consider "back of the box syndrome". Think about it. It's very rare to get any impressions in a preview from the writer, usually it's just what the advertising line is. Reviews can be worse sometimes. It's actually the reason why I used to read PCXL(boycott Imagine publishing! :) ). They might go off on a tangent sometimes in their reviews and previews, and it makes it a little more trustworthy (ie. it's whats on the writers mind, not what's on the desk on the writers desk)