Can anyone explain Fuji's rational behind this? Seriously. A lot of people have been commenting on why this is bad, but no one has explained what motivates a company to do something that seems completely idiotic. Is it as simple as pure ignorance?
I've been following discussions about Microsoft, Linux, OSS (insert other OS advocacy subject here) over the last couple of months, and the intelligent comments seem to have almost disappeared to be replaced by an almost religious banter.
The latest moronic discussion about Microsoft and Linux is about this particular interview with Bill Gates. Some unknown reader writes an analysis about Bill Gates from a fairly short interview, and the discussions flow in. There is no basis at all for this interview, and without even talking to the person, the reader decides that Bill Gates is dangerous, a threat to modern society, and is trying to rule the world A La Evil Genius.
I then read comment, and many (not all) readers decide that the article makes sense.
Earlier, a well known, respected consulting group who's been around the computer industry for many, many years talks to a slew of other major players in the industry (including Microsoft, IBM, Sun, and HP), and they decide to present an analysis of the Linux market. They decide that Linux isn't bad, but it isn't perfect for all situations.
As expected, they are completely discredited by many/. readers. It doesn't matter that they've collected huge amounts of data, talked with various people from both sides of the issue, and come up with an unbiased report. If it's MS it's bad, if it's Linux it's good.
Most/. readers claim to be intelligent and open minded. Try proving it by presenting valid arguments instead of continually bashing anyone who says something good about MS, or something bad about Linux.
bh
"Know the facts before distorting them" - Ernest Hemmingway
I bought this book about a week ago when I decided to take the Linux plunge. I chose that book because it seemed to cover a lot of subjects, it had a lot of references for each subject, and it's published by O'Reilly (they just have good books).
Considering I'm a complete Unix/Linux newbie (I just found out yesterday I have to be logged in as root user to invoke shutdown. Stop laughing, you were a newbie once too), it's been pretty usefull so far.
I've managed to install Linux in about an hour, and most of that time was spent trying to configure my Linux partitions properly with Disk Druid. I have Lilo running well for dual boot with Win98, and I've been able to do some file management, DOS style.
I obviously still have much to read, but considering all of the complaints I've read about installing Linux (including last week's CNN article), it's been very helpful so far, and I don't have any problems recommending it.
Your absolutely right, but that's not the point I was trying to make. I agree that Linux will survive even if the distribution companies don't. I should of made it more clear that I was refering to the fact that for Linux to topple Micro$oft (or more specifically, NT), it's going to have to succeed in the corporate world.
Linux has just entered that arena via Red Hat, and only Time will tell what's going to happen.
The point isn't that Bob Y. or Red Hat is making money off the Linux contibutor, it's that they now answer to share holders.
Share holders don't give a crap about how much you love coding under Linux, or how great OSS is, or how much Windows suck. They only care about making money. And to do that, Red Hat is going to have to grow, because if they don't, share prices won't go up, and share holders don't get richer and sell.
Red Hat now has to deal with yearly growth, quartely earnings, earning to stock ratios, etc, etc, and that, unfortunately, is something that's out of Joe Hacker's hands.
I spent three years with a game studio, and I haven't seen most of the complaints he gripes about. I think he's right about the industry, that very few development studios make it big, and that it's a constant struggle to survive until you've published one big title.
But i don't share his views on the development environment. Although we did work very hard (a small week was 60 hours), and that pay was crap compared to the corp I work for now, it was a blast working there. The coding team was in it for the code, not for the cash, so we were always pushing ourselves hard to impress everyone else. We'd discuss ideas, and argue them out, and of course play pretty hard on friday nights.
The best thing about the game community is that different departements weren't in competition with each other. You didn't have this air of supremacy that engineers seem to have over other departments, like QA or documentation.
I thought it was awesome. Some of the guys I worked with are now with EA or Activision, and they seem to have as much fun their as they did with our old outfit.
Why would you even care that the feds can crack into your machine? It's not like they're going to go into every machine on the planet. They've got so many things to do, they'll only go where they suspect illegal activity.
And even if they did go to every machine, if you haven't done anything illegal, who cares? I mean unless you're running Windows, all your software should be free. If you have plans about blowing up a federal building, then I hope you do get caught.
Unless they start deleting or stealing some of my work, I don't see the issue. Besides, it's not much of an issue up here in Canada.
Webster's has a couple of interesting definitions:
1 - Skill in performance, acquired by exp, study, or observation
2 - A branch of learning, a science, as a grammar or logic
3 - The general principles of of any craft
4 - Human ingenuity.
Now if this doesn't define coding I don't know what does. Don't think of art as a bunch of people going sucking down Martinis and going on and on about of the symbolism of the weiner dog in a painting. Art is about creativity and skill.
Code is the medium. The application is the art.
BH
Re:How could I have missed this?
on
OLS Wrap-up
·
· Score: 1
I have no idea. I knew about LinuxWorld and I read all the articles on/. etc, etc. I've been going through all the archives to see what I missed!
Man oh man I need coffee.
BH
How could I have missed this?
on
OLS Wrap-up
·
· Score: 1
I can't believe I didn't know this was going on. And I live in Ottawa! I think I need to get my head out of my butt...
When you say dethroning Microsoft, I hope you mean from the OS/Server market, because that's as far as its going to go.
Microsoft is the second largest company in the world, which means they own shares of a ton of other companies, and they're involved in a dozen of other industries. They're in hardware, entertainement, TV, cable, telecommunications and even art!
This Red Hat IPO is a good thing, and it's good news for the Linux community, but Bill Gates can get rid of about.1 % of his shares and buy Red Hat outright.
Also, keep in mind that because things are going well now, it doesn't mean they'll always be like that. Remember when Java was supposed to replace C++? Could anyone have predicted competition for Windows before Linux? Don't think so.
"Know the facts before distorting them" - Ernest Hemmingway
I'm getting pretty sick of hearing that if your code isn't Open Source, then it's full of bugs. I can point you to a pile of applications that have been developed by individuals and companies that are efficient, reliable, and robust. For a group that keeps screaming that people should have an open mind, some have pretty narrow views about commercial software development.
On top of the FDA certifications costs, there's this little thing called domain understanding that need to be taken into consideration. You just can't put source code on the net, and ask everyone to take a look. Applications such as anesthesiology monitors require years of medical training and experience to write, and you can't expect an expert in OSes to be able to take a look at it and make it significantly better. He may catch semantic errors, but not logic errors, which is the most likely place an error will occur.
Like everything else, Open Source is a great concept, and it's great for application that are used by a large number of people, since it's large user base have an understanding of the application, and they can contribute to making it better. But it's better to let experts deal with specialized applications.
As far as I know, movie theatres will not let kids in to see restricted movies unless they're accompanied by an adult. Parents do have the choice about what movie they're going to let their children see, by paying for admission, and seeing the movie with them. Since most people agree that parents should be more active in their children's lives, this shouldn't be an issue.
If worse comes to worse, and they don't let you in, wait a few months, and rent the movie.
As for your comment about the 17 year old doing minimum wage not letting your kid get in the movie cinemas, well, it's not his choice. He's just doing his job, trying to get money for whatever.
Finally, there is this little system called democracy we have to deal with, which basically says that whatever the majority of the population wants, that's what they get. Since people don't really seem to mind this age restriction on movies, it's going to stay. It may be stupid, but that's the way it is.
"Know the facts before distorting them" -Ernest Hemingway
To me it doesn't sound like censorship, rather a big ass-covering.
Like they mentionned in their statement, they're not clear on the laws, so instead of taking a chance that the user himself will be sued, and not them, they're covering their butts.
And since they're not taking risks, they're going to kill replies, and references to the original post. A little extreme, but still logical.
Hey, if writing a game was easy, everyone would be doing it.
The fact of the matter is, you can't learn something as general as coding a complete game from start to finish from a book. There's just too much information to be read.
In addition, games have historically pushed the technical envelope, code wise. It's not realistic to expect a book to give you inspiration for your next title. Quake was a huge hit, because the technology was so far ahead of everything else on the market at the time. There's no way the implementation could of come from a book.
Books are a good way to get started. But don't expect to be the next ID if you can't come up with the radical designs on your own.
Smartest comment I've read all day. Having an obsession is one thing, but forsaking everyone else around you is another.
If your SO leaves you because you really like Star Wars (or whatever your obession may be), then there was a problem with the relationship. If your SO leaves you because you cashed in your kids' college fund to buy that Special Star Wars Edition Yugo, then you're the one with the problem.
It's all a matter of perspective.
How about simply: let's let this planet go to hell
on
More Star Wars Hype
·
· Score: 1
I think you've answered your own question. Bombs are falling, politicians have no morals, kids are killing each other in schools, and people care more about a movie than any of these things. That's what's wrong.
People have completely lost perspective on what's really important. Instead of wasting a week for tickets just to be first to see the stupid movie, that time could have been spent helping people that don't even have enough money for food.
There's nothing wrong with seeing the movie. I'm going to go for sure. But why let it rule our lives?
The Serbs aren't clamping down on Guerillas, they're killing, raping, torturing everyone they find.
Every country on this planet has conflicts between people with different opinion. But not every country sends in the military to expel 850,000 people from their homes.
I think NATO was wrong to act without consent from the UN. NATO was conceived to protect North America and Western Europe from Eastern Bloc countries. But something had to be done to stop the atrocities, and I'm glad someone had the guts to do so.
I'm not sure why shutting down websites would be scarier that dropping 2000 pound bombs in downtown Belgrade. The idea is to paralyse the government, and communication is always one of the first targets. Civilians using these systems are just innocent bystanders.
Slashdot Mirror
bh
I've been following discussions about Microsoft, Linux, OSS (insert other OS advocacy subject here) over the last couple of months, and the intelligent comments seem to have almost disappeared to be replaced by an almost religious banter.
/. readers. It doesn't matter that they've collected huge amounts of data, talked with various people from both sides of the issue, and come up with an unbiased report. If it's MS it's bad, if it's Linux it's good.
/. readers claim to be intelligent and open minded. Try proving it by presenting valid arguments instead of continually bashing anyone who says something good about MS, or something bad about Linux.
The latest moronic discussion about Microsoft and Linux is about this particular interview with Bill Gates. Some unknown reader writes an analysis about Bill Gates from a fairly short interview, and the discussions flow in. There is no basis at all for this interview, and without even talking to the person, the reader decides that Bill Gates is dangerous, a threat to modern society, and is trying to rule the world A La Evil Genius.
I then read comment, and many (not all) readers decide that the article makes sense.
Earlier, a well known, respected consulting group who's been around the computer industry for many, many years talks to a slew of other major players in the industry (including Microsoft, IBM, Sun, and HP), and they decide to present an analysis of the Linux market. They decide that Linux isn't bad, but it isn't perfect for all situations.
As expected, they are completely discredited by many
Most
bh
"Know the facts before distorting them"
- Ernest Hemmingway
I bought this book about a week ago when I decided to take the Linux plunge. I chose that book because it seemed to cover a lot of subjects, it had a lot of references for each subject, and it's published by O'Reilly (they just have good books).
Considering I'm a complete Unix/Linux newbie (I just found out yesterday I have to be logged in as root user to invoke shutdown. Stop laughing, you were a newbie once too), it's been pretty usefull so far.
I've managed to install Linux in about an hour, and most of that time was spent trying to configure my Linux partitions properly with Disk Druid. I have Lilo running well for dual boot with Win98, and I've been able to do some file management, DOS style.
I obviously still have much to read, but considering all of the complaints I've read about installing Linux (including last week's CNN article), it's been very helpful so far, and I don't have any problems recommending it.
bh
Your absolutely right, but that's not the point I was trying to make. I agree that Linux will survive even if the distribution companies don't.
I should of made it more clear that I was refering to the fact that for Linux to topple Micro$oft (or more specifically, NT), it's going to have to succeed in the corporate world.
Linux has just entered that arena via Red Hat, and only Time will tell what's going to happen.
BH
The point isn't that Bob Y. or Red Hat is making money off the Linux contibutor, it's that they now answer to share holders.
Share holders don't give a crap about how much you love coding under Linux, or how great OSS is, or how much Windows suck. They only care about making money. And to do that, Red Hat is going to have to grow, because if they don't, share prices won't go up, and share holders don't get richer and sell.
Red Hat now has to deal with yearly growth, quartely earnings, earning to stock ratios, etc, etc, and that, unfortunately, is something that's out of Joe Hacker's hands.
It sucks, but that's the way it is.
BH
I spent three years with a game studio, and I haven't seen most of the complaints he gripes about. I think he's right about the industry, that very few development studios make it big, and that it's a constant struggle to survive until you've published one big title.
But i don't share his views on the development environment. Although we did work very hard (a small week was 60 hours), and that pay was crap compared to the corp I work for now, it was a blast working there. The coding team was in it for the code, not for the cash, so we were always pushing ourselves hard to impress everyone else. We'd discuss ideas, and argue them out, and of course play pretty hard on friday nights.
The best thing about the game community is that different departements weren't in competition with each other. You didn't have this air of supremacy that engineers seem to have over other departments, like QA or documentation.
I thought it was awesome. Some of the guys I worked with are now with EA or Activision, and they seem to have as much fun their as they did with our old outfit.
BH
Why would you even care that the feds can crack into your machine? It's not like they're going to go into every machine on the planet. They've got so many things to do, they'll only go where they suspect illegal activity.
And even if they did go to every machine, if you haven't done anything illegal, who cares? I mean unless you're running Windows, all your software should be free. If you have plans about blowing up a federal building, then I hope you do get caught.
Unless they start deleting or stealing some of my work, I don't see the issue. Besides, it's not much of an issue up here in Canada.
BH
Webster's has a couple of interesting definitions:
1 - Skill in performance, acquired by exp, study, or observation
2 - A branch of learning, a science, as a grammar or logic
3 - The general principles of of any craft
4 - Human ingenuity.
Now if this doesn't define coding I don't know what does. Don't think of art as a bunch of people going sucking down Martinis and going on and on about of the symbolism of the weiner dog in a painting. Art is about creativity and skill.
Code is the medium. The application is the art.
BH
I have no idea. I knew about LinuxWorld and I read all the articles on /. etc, etc. I've been going through all the archives to see what I missed!
Man oh man I need coffee.
BH
I can't believe I didn't know this was going on. And I live in Ottawa! I think I need to get my head out of my butt...
BH
You're absolutely right. I based my calcs on the initial 84M offering, and not on the current total value of Red Hat, which is currently ~5B.
With this in mind, the current market cap of Red Hat is still worth only 5% of Gates' personal fortune. Kind of puts things in perspective.
"Know the facts before you distort them."
- Ernest Hemmingway
BH
When you say dethroning Microsoft, I hope you mean from the OS/Server market, because that's as far as its going to go.
.1 % of his shares and buy Red Hat outright.
Microsoft is the second largest company in the world, which means they own shares of a ton of other companies, and they're involved in a dozen of other industries. They're in hardware, entertainement, TV, cable, telecommunications and even art!
This Red Hat IPO is a good thing, and it's good news for the Linux community, but Bill Gates can get rid of about
Also, keep in mind that because things are going well now, it doesn't mean they'll always be like that. Remember when Java was supposed to replace C++? Could anyone have predicted competition for Windows before Linux? Don't think so.
"Know the facts before distorting them"
- Ernest Hemmingway
BH
I'm getting pretty sick of hearing that if your code isn't Open Source, then it's full of bugs. I can point you to a pile of applications that have been developed by individuals and companies that are efficient, reliable, and robust. For a group that keeps screaming that people should have an open mind, some have pretty narrow views about commercial software development.
On top of the FDA certifications costs, there's this little thing called domain understanding that need to be taken into consideration. You just can't put source code on the net, and ask everyone to take a look. Applications such as anesthesiology monitors require years of medical training and experience to write, and you can't expect an expert in OSes to be able to take a look at it and make it significantly better. He may catch semantic errors, but not logic errors, which is the most likely place an error will occur.
Like everything else, Open Source is a great concept, and it's great for application that are used by a large number of people, since it's large user base have an understanding of the application, and they can contribute to making it better. But it's better to let experts deal with specialized applications.
As far as I know, movie theatres will not let kids in to see restricted movies unless they're accompanied by an adult. Parents do have the choice about what movie they're going to let their children see, by paying for admission, and seeing the movie with them. Since most people agree that parents should be more active in their children's lives, this shouldn't be an issue.
If worse comes to worse, and they don't let you in, wait a few months, and rent the movie.
As for your comment about the 17 year old doing minimum wage not letting your kid get in the movie cinemas, well, it's not his choice. He's just doing his job, trying to get money for whatever.
Finally, there is this little system called democracy we have to deal with, which basically says that whatever the majority of the population wants, that's what they get. Since people don't really seem to mind this age restriction on movies, it's going to stay. It may be stupid, but that's the way it is.
"Know the facts before distorting them"
-Ernest Hemingway
Bughammer
To me it doesn't sound like censorship, rather a big ass-covering.
Like they mentionned in their statement, they're not clear on the laws, so instead of taking a chance that the user himself will be sued, and not them, they're covering their butts.
And since they're not taking risks, they're going to kill replies, and references to the original post. A little extreme, but still logical.
Censorship? No. Excessive butt covering? Definitely.
Bughammer
"Know the fact before you distort them"
- Ernest Hemmingway
Hey, if writing a game was easy, everyone would be doing it.
The fact of the matter is, you can't learn something as general as coding a complete game from start to finish from a book. There's just too much information to be read.
In addition, games have historically pushed the technical envelope, code wise. It's not realistic to expect a book to give you inspiration for your next title. Quake was a huge hit, because the technology was so far ahead of everything else on the market at the time. There's no way the implementation could of come from a book.
Books are a good way to get started. But don't expect to be the next ID if you can't come up with the radical designs on your own.
Bughammer
Smartest comment I've read all day. Having an obsession is one thing, but forsaking everyone else around you is another.
If your SO leaves you because you really like Star Wars (or whatever your obession may be), then there was a problem with the relationship. If your SO leaves you because you cashed in your kids' college fund to buy that Special Star Wars Edition Yugo, then you're the one with the problem.
It's all a matter of perspective.
I think you've answered your own question. Bombs are falling, politicians have no morals, kids are killing each other in schools, and people care more about a movie than any of these things. That's what's wrong.
People have completely lost perspective on what's really important. Instead of wasting a week for tickets just to be first to see the stupid movie, that time could have been spent helping people that don't even have enough money for food.
There's nothing wrong with seeing the movie. I'm going to go for sure. But why let it rule our lives?
It's just a movie. Nothing more.
The difference is, Jerry doesn't have illusions about what he's doing. He knows his show is a joke, so he has fun with it. Bill on the other hand...
The Serbs aren't clamping down on Guerillas, they're killing, raping, torturing everyone they find.
Every country on this planet has conflicts between people with different opinion. But not every country sends in the military to expel 850,000 people from their homes.
I think NATO was wrong to act without consent from the UN. NATO was conceived to protect North America and Western Europe from Eastern Bloc countries. But something had to be done to stop the atrocities, and I'm glad someone had the guts to do so.
I'm not sure why shutting down websites would be scarier that dropping 2000 pound bombs in downtown Belgrade. The idea is to paralyse the government, and communication is always one of the first targets. Civilians using these systems are just innocent bystanders.