Giving third world children crappy laptops is not going to do anything to help them. First of all, there WILL NOT BE ANY OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE for these laptops... the specs are too different from a normal PC to use normal open source software off the bat, and since the laptop is restricted for purchase to governments, you are not going to have any open source community of hobbiests or developers working on it.
Bollocks, there's already plenty of software for it. As far as availability is concerned, well the Sharp Zaurus is hard to get by outside of Japan, yet there's hundreds of people developing and adapting existing Linux software for it worldwide, mostly for fun. Besides, those 3rd world countries who are going to buy it (Brasil?) already have plenty of competent programmers to do just this. They could also spend a few hundred bucks here and there to send development machines to select Free Software hackers.
Last but not least, there's already emulators for Palm / Pocket PC / Symbian OS devices, I fail to see how one could not be easily implemented for this gadget.
What is a problem about a kid hearing / using swear words? I see you americans making a big deal out of it; but, seriously, why is it supposed to matter? So a kid swears... SO FUCKING WHAT! It's not like it's going to make him sick or something.
Oh and btw nowhere in the world but in the US do people care so much about swearing... and swear as much as you do!
Can't they afford to pay for the fucking bandwidth? A few gigs of data download should'nt cost more than a cent or two. Compared to what they plan to charge for the movie, it's nothing.
Yeah it's like those black folks who keep badmouthing the Klan when they've NEVER been at one of their gathering or even just tried one of their comfortable hooded robes.
2. Waste storage. Where do we put the waste products after burning it?
The waste material isn't actually that much of a problem. It's dangerous stuff, and you can't really "dispose" of it, I.E. leave it somewhere and forget about it. You've gotta live with it. Hundred of thousands of tonnes. But actually, it's not that much. Almost all of France's waste for the past 40 years sits in a place the size of a large warehouse.
The real concern, IMO (I studied electrical engineering), is more with the irradiated powerstation components. Older plants are virtually impossible to dismantle; your only option is to basically bury them on site.
In Europe this is virtually impossible; the guys operating those websites would get prison time for doing this.
In France this government commission is responsible for overseeing such rules. Everybody listed in any (government or otherwise) name database has a right to read his entry and modify or delete it.
Why the fuck waste space for a parallel port on a "portable" computer? The three people who would use it could just buy a parallel to USB converter. And the same could be said of the serial port, seriously...
What it does not account for is macro-evolution, that is, the changing of one species into another at the chromosomal level by purely natural selection. Here's a factoid I recently learned about. Humans and chimps are two different species. Chimps have one more set of chromosomes. However when you look closely you realize than one of the human chromosomes looks very much (98.5% identical IIRC) like the merger of two separate chimp chromosomes. Basically what happened is that, at some very specific point in the past, our common ancestors could not interbreed anymore. There you are, different species. Please note that, for thousands, if not hundred of thousands of years, both species probably looked VERY similar, in fact much more similar than a poodle and a german shepherd, which are both canis familiaris.
*at least 24 ft of piping that may be impacted by even minor collisions I assume they won't be using copper pipes but rather flexible composite materials ones. Say silicone coating a woven tube matrix; good luck breaking that.
In any case, even if it breaks, it surely can be made to do so nicely, and merely fall back to the normal engine core.
No, the above comment is not informative. A sample of 300 for that kind of testing is huge. Many pharmaceutical studies for instance are done on less than 100 patients. And 20 IQ points is a huge differential, too. Again, drugs have been deemed efficacious with much less of a margin.
On the other hand, I can see a higher chance of positve change by providing laptops for farmers and small businesses -- especially if the laptops provide access to market data, aid management, or foster B2B commerce. And where are those business people going to learn to use it... if not in school?
I would say that if consumers really could save $120B per year by using Open Source software, they would be doing it without a government program kicking them in the butt. They certainly would'nt do it if the software they needed hadn't been written.
You don't have to agree to a license to use a GPL-licensed program. Those who possibly had to agree to it are those who gave it to you in the first place.
You only need to agree to it if you want to *redistribute* it.
1) Of that $2 billion for this agency, over half would likely go to government bloat and other non-development work. Which means you're splitting less then $1bil to 20k developers. That sticks your mean pay at $50k/year. How many senior developers are you going to hold onto for $50k/year? Business has bloat, too. Marketing, accounting, advertising, management, legal department,...
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Giving third world children crappy laptops is not going to do anything to help them. First of all, there WILL NOT BE ANY OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE for these laptops... the specs are too different from a normal PC to use normal open source software off the bat, and since the laptop is restricted for purchase to governments, you are not going to have any open source community of hobbiests or developers working on it.
Bollocks, there's already plenty of software for it. As far as availability is concerned, well the Sharp Zaurus is hard to get by outside of Japan, yet there's hundreds of people developing and adapting existing Linux software for it worldwide, mostly for fun. Besides, those 3rd world countries who are going to buy it (Brasil?) already have plenty of competent programmers to do just this. They could also spend a few hundred bucks here and there to send development machines to select Free Software hackers.
Last but not least, there's already emulators for Palm / Pocket PC / Symbian OS devices, I fail to see how one could not be easily implemented for this gadget.
I believe you'd call Vyatta.
Duh.
What is a problem about a kid hearing / using swear words? I see you americans making a big deal out of it; but, seriously, why is it supposed to matter? So a kid swears ... SO FUCKING WHAT! It's not like it's going to make him sick or something.
... and swear as much as you do!
Oh and btw nowhere in the world but in the US do people care so much about swearing
If you don't cut the digestive tube open it should'nt smell much different.
Can you survive overnight in a blizzard by gutting a dead animal and getting into its carcass?
"It would have to be a pretty big animal, but have you ever smelled the insides of a dead animal?" Belleci asks. "I think I'd rather freeze to death."
Hmmm, yes I have. It smelled like chicken or fish, depending on whether i was smelling a dead chicken or a dead fish.
Boy, that was a tough one but I think we have that myth busted!
Can't they afford to pay for the fucking bandwidth? A few gigs of data download should'nt cost more than a cent or two. Compared to what they plan to charge for the movie, it's nothing.
Yeah it's like those black folks who keep badmouthing the Klan when they've NEVER been at one of their gathering or even just tried one of their comfortable hooded robes.
If you spend 8h a day staring at two monitors, I think you should consider investing a few hundred bucks into flat panels.
...
Just saying
2. Waste storage. Where do we put the waste products after burning it?
The waste material isn't actually that much of a problem. It's dangerous stuff, and you can't really "dispose" of it, I.E. leave it somewhere and forget about it. You've gotta live with it. Hundred of thousands of tonnes. But actually, it's not that much. Almost all of France's waste for the past 40 years sits in a place the size of a large warehouse.
The real concern, IMO (I studied electrical engineering), is more with the irradiated powerstation components. Older plants are virtually impossible to dismantle; your only option is to basically bury them on site.
In Europe this is virtually impossible; the guys operating those websites would get prison time for doing this.
In France this government commission is responsible for overseeing such rules. Everybody listed in any (government or otherwise) name database has a right to read his entry and modify or delete it.
Of course, it's idiotic to spend that money when you can just, I dunno, pray or something.
I believe otherwise; wasting money on it is probably a part of its efficiency. It's called "commitment" in social psychology.
Why the fuck waste space for a parallel port on a "portable" computer? The three people who would use it could just buy a parallel to USB converter. And the same could be said of the serial port, seriously ...
Are you kidding me? It's called "least cost call routing" and is pretty much a no-brainer.
It's existed on ISDN PABX for *at least* 10 years.
What next, are they going to patent rotary dials for use in VoIP?
Some US tourists do, though.
...
I wonder why that is
(I'm actually not wondering that much.)
Quite the opposite, in France, authors can't surrender (some of) their right, even for a lot of money.
What it does not account for is macro-evolution, that is, the changing of one species into another at the chromosomal level by purely natural selection.
Here's a factoid I recently learned about.
Humans and chimps are two different species. Chimps have one more set of chromosomes. However when you look closely you realize than one of the human chromosomes looks very much (98.5% identical IIRC) like the merger of two separate chimp chromosomes.
Basically what happened is that, at some very specific point in the past, our common ancestors could not interbreed anymore. There you are, different species.
Please note that, for thousands, if not hundred of thousands of years, both species probably looked VERY similar, in fact much more similar than a poodle and a german shepherd, which are both canis familiaris.
*at least 24 ft of piping that may be impacted by even minor collisions
I assume they won't be using copper pipes but rather flexible composite materials ones. Say silicone coating a woven tube matrix; good luck breaking that.
In any case, even if it breaks, it surely can be made to do so nicely, and merely fall back to the normal engine core.
Took me about 10 min. of looking around to understand. A summary would've been nice, indeed.
No, the above comment is not informative. A sample of 300 for that kind of testing is huge. Many pharmaceutical studies for instance are done on less than 100 patients. And 20 IQ points is a huge differential, too. Again, drugs have been deemed efficacious with much less of a margin.
Whales don't eat plancton, they eat small crustaceans (krill).
Some of them (toothed whales) eat fishes and other sea mammals as well IIRC.
On the other hand, I can see a higher chance of positve change by providing laptops for farmers and small businesses -- especially if the laptops provide access to market data, aid management, or foster B2B commerce. ... if not in school?
And where are those business people going to learn to use it
It was scheduled for demolition; but then it was found pretty useful as a radio relay.
I would say that if consumers really could save $120B per year by using Open Source software, they would be doing it without a government program kicking them in the butt.
They certainly would'nt do it if the software they needed hadn't been written.
You don't have to agree to a license to use a GPL-licensed program. Those who possibly had to agree to it are those who gave it to you in the first place.
You only need to agree to it if you want to *redistribute* it.
1) Of that $2 billion for this agency, over half would likely go to government bloat and other non-development work. Which means you're splitting less then $1bil to 20k developers. That sticks your mean pay at $50k/year. How many senior developers are you going to hold onto for $50k/year? ...
Business has bloat, too. Marketing, accounting, advertising, management, legal department,