Actually, if I really wanted to get into ad hominem, I'd go much more into it. This person has shown quite a bit of anger and shown us quite a bit about himself (or herself) that he is quite unaware he has shown....Kind of like walking downtown without any pants on and not realizing it -- and then, if you do realize it, are shocked by how much everyone has seen that you thought they couldn't see.
You're right. They're not paying back every cent they owed, so they're theives. It would be much better if they just went out of business and paid NONE of what they owed.
How could I have been so wrong and not seen the light when it was explained by someone with such anger and frustration as you put in your messages.
(No wonder you don't want to take responsibility for what you say.)
I won't bother with most of what you say, since it's (as Shakespeare said), "..full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." (And yes, I'm implying that the first part of that line, which I didn't quote, applies to you.)
If you've been keeping up with the story and if you knew as much as you want everyone to think you know, then you would have read the article that was on/. a while back where a Mandrake employee talked about the repayment plans and how it would take them years to repay everyone they owe.
Stopping payments is what they do going into bankruptcy. Then they get protection, so they can reorganize, then, if they can come back, they do better, their creditors get paid after all, and everyone is better off.
Otherwise they can not file, get no protection, get sued by everyone, go out of business, and they lose, their creditors get screwed, and their customers are left without a product.
But that's not the point here. You're more interested in bitching and trolling than in participating in an intelligent discussion.
And it's clear you know not, or know nothing of bankruptcy.
Mandrake was under re-organization bankruptcy. They will be paying all their debts. They had to submit plans for payments at least once (I don't know the system in France), either when declaring, or when exiting -- They could not get out of bankruptcy status without having a plan approved by the court and all their creditors for paying off their creditors.
A large percentage of my clients are bankruptcy and consumer advocacy lawyers. There's a lot more to it than you, in your need to be a smart ass, make it out to be.
There is a huge difference. Look at your DVD of The Matrix and all the cool menu formats and extra features, like the ability to listen to the commentary. These are things that are needed for a good DVD authoring program.
K3B is a good program (I use it a lot), but to say that it helps for DVD authoring is like someone with a pencil saying he can print and publish a book.
I know version 5 (Main Actor) is available for Windows. Last I checked, they said the Linux version would be out soon. If it isn't out yet, that would concern me.
CCA (and, by implication CSS), have NOTHING to do with being able to author DVDs at home -- or even doing professional authoring...
--UNLESS you want to scramble content so it can't be copied without using DeCSS.
I really don't see how the question even applies to home DVD authoring. I (and my friends) who do video production have been producing professionally authored DVDs for several years with no thought to DVD CCA at all.
And, while I'm here, in regards to software -- you're either going to have to pay >$400 for DVD authoring software on Windows, AND >$600 for true video editing software on Windows, as well, or go for a Mac.
It just doesn't exist yet in the FOSS world, or in the Linux world. While there are some capture and simple editing programs, there is nothing professional for either video editing or DVD authoring. The closest is Main Actor, put out by Main Concept, which is a pretty good editing program available for Linux or Windows. It's about $250.
Yeah--the one that excluded user-run executables, as it should have.
Of course it should, because as long as it does, it supports their view (and yours).
Witness the Slashbot--if I dare criticize Linux, I am somehow a Microsoft fanboy.
This makes me wish there were irony tags in HTML, since I was basically using sarcism to show how the original "fanboy" comment sounded. Glad you agree that kind of comment does sound juvenile. (Funny how some things sound worse from another mouth -- or keyboard!)
I'm sure you can cite some, even though you didn't include any, can't you?
Oh, you did cite innovation -- in marketing. That's a good point. Microsoft has NEVER innovated in software. DOS was bought from another company, Windows was a reaction to competition, IE was an afterthought when Netscape came out.
Bill Gates is saying all they want is a level playing field against open source and Linux. In reality, Microsoft has NEVER played on an open playing field and has either leveraged their monopoly to force their software in to market dominance, or driven companies out of business.
I'd hesitate to say they even innovated in marketing. All they ever use is a blunt force sledge hammer to drive everything else out of the way. They have never innovated, and never competed on a playing field where they didnt' have the advantage of being able to crush their opponents with overwhelming force.
(Well, actually, they have, and when they do, they lose.)
I thought this paragraph was most telling, the 1st one on the last page:
Taylor also said the company is countering Linux's unbeatable price tag by commissioning studies that show the total cost of ownership over the life of the software is higher with Linux than Windows.
Taylor is Martin Taylor, Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy.
Basically, they are admitting to paying for studies that show the results they want.
I'd love a direct quotation of his answer -- it'd be a great rebuttal when MS publishes another "Windows costs less" study.
They had different ideas of what a novel was supposed to be like back then, though, so I suppose it's excusable.
Don't blame the past. We have this tendancy to always think those in the past weren't as smart as we are. If what you say were true, then it would be hard to explain the quality of novels by Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, or any other writers during or before the time of ERB.
ERB's writing is flawed, there is no doubt. Some people can't stand him, but there is something in his writing that fired up the imagination of generations and inspired people like Robert Heinlein to want to write (read his "Number of the Beast", which includes multiple references to ERB's Martian Tales and Pellucidar). Carl Sagan has said that ERB's stories are what captured his imagination and inspired him to learn science. His Tarzan stories have so fascinated people that we are continually seeing new versions of Tarzan movies and TV shows.
His novels are not great literature, but there is something in them that has kept them inspiring those who read them for almost 100 years now (his first story was published 92 years ago this year).
BTW, another factor to remember is that his stories were originally published as serialized stories in pulp magazines. He was writing for a specific market and specific mags.
I forgot (but had intended) to point out that ERB is best known for Tarzan (and if you look at the current version of Tarzan -- the cartoon series by Disney, he is credited at the start of each episode! -- there was even one episode that featured him meeting Tarzan and writing the Tarzan story).
While he had a limited scope of characters and plots, he was just plain fun to read. I discovered him during college and found relief after many tough tests and papers by escaping into his books.
Pity he is hardly ever heard of now.
That is really cool that you built a jetan set. I wonder if it's possible to find something like that for sale anywhere?...
Carl Sagan, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and a number of other scientists and writers were inspired by "The Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs". The first one, "A Princess of Mars" was published in 1912. (And it's on Project Gutenberg!).
In these books, John Carter was mysteriously transported to Mars, which was called Barsoom by the inhabitants. He became the Prince of Helium (a city/city-state -- not the element). The Barsoomian navies had huge airships that were held in the air by use of the 9th (or 8th?) light ray, so they needed no power to stay aloft. (According to Burroughs, we only know of 7 rays of sunlight, as seen in a rainbow, from red to violet, but Barsoomian scientists had isolated 2 other colors, never seen on Earth, and one of these colors is what gave light a repulsive power so it was repulsed from objects and reflected to our eyes, and it was used to keep the Barsoom airships in the air.)
The Martian Tales are far-fetched, but a ripping good time to read (at least the 1st 10 are -- skip the last one).
When I first read the story, all I could think about were E.R.B.'s descriptions of the huge naval vessels floating through the air of a dead planet (there were no sea going navies, since there were no seas, except one at the south pole).
That's an "ad hominem" attack, which is a known fallacy. In other words, attacking the man does not make the argument any less valid. You may disagree with him, you may think neo-paganism is wrong (and, while your at it, could you please prove it?), and dislike, disagree, or consider any of his other beliefs false, mislead, or just plain crazy, but thta does not effect, one way or another, the validity of his argument.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day and even the most outrageous politician speaks the truth once in a while. Even if ESR is proven insane, that does not mean his comment is invalid or valid. The statement has to stand or fall on its own, not on your views of the person making the statement.
(And a moderator was lacking in intelligence enough to not realize this and mark the post informative?)
That rant, to me, sounds like another programmer who can't cope with the idea that most people do not think like programmers when it comes to understanding software, and would rather blame the user than have the strength to take an honset look at the situation and what he/she could do differently to improve it.
I know writing GUIs is a pain (I'm not a professional programmer, but I've had to do nothing but coding for 2 years), but programmers have to stop blaming the users and other people who point out things like this. It's just a denial that 95% of all people using a computer need something simple because, to them, IT IS JUST A TOOL, and they need to use it to produce a product, not to hack on and explore.
ESR has a good point -- if FOSS is going to replace closed source, or hold its own, or even continue to grow, FOSS programmers will have to get realistic in understanding how users think instead of blaming users because the programmers don't want to make the effort to understand the other side of the issue.
For the good of the FOSS community, ESR needs to speak out more, and people like the above poster need to "please shut up" and listen to other points of view, instead of hiding their head in the sand in denial.
How about other languages? I can't get a handle on Python (Maybe it's me, but I have a hard time seeing whitespace as something that effects how a program runs...)
OOo has a macro recorder in 1.1.1 and later, so you can record a macro. If it includes opening files, you can edit the macro later and find a new way to specify files.
Star BASIC (or OOo BASIC, if you prefer) is a powerful scripting language for OOo that lets you work with recorded macros, or writing your own macros. (At one point I was considering writing a full application in OOo BASIC and basing everything on OOO.) It is also possible to specify a macro on the command line, so you could make a script that would run OOo, start a macro, run the macro, then exit OOo.
You can also automate OOo with Java (or Python, or C++).
Scripting OOo to do conversions is VERY simple. there is someone on the OOo Users mailing list who has a website with samples for doing conversions (although I think most of his conversions are for Writer files, the idea would work on Impress files).
If you really want ideas for scripting OOo, get on the mailing lists. There's a User mailing list, an API-DEV one that is good for anyone doing any programming of OOo, and a Scripting Framework one.
Hope this helps you find a way to automate what you're doing.
...we're all in trouble. Once AOL realizes they can charge even so much as a penny for spam, it won't be long before some executive, eager to show a profit for his department at a shareholder's meeting will realize he can start charging for incoming or outgoing e-mail.
Then Earthlink, MSN, and everyone else will realize they can do the same thing and within a year or two e-mail won't be free anymore -- at least if you're sending to the big guys.
Then again, once that gets to be common practice, someone will probably realize they can gain customers by advertising as the one major ISP that doesn't charge for e-mail, so maybe there'll be a balance.
But I don't trust the big guys to charge for spam only and realize they could charge for other e-mail and NOT charge everyone else. Remember, in America, profit is the bottom line and just about all most businesses care about.
From the company's point of view: 1) If they remind you, it cost postage, plus all the costs associated with a massive mailing like that every month or so. 2) If they remind you, and you're not using it, you'll remember to cancel, and they lose income. 3) Many services default to this for convenience (like the paper -- or other monthly bills, like an ISP -- and often this benefits the customer as well). 4) Why would the company want to work harder to keep your business? I know you'd like them to, but they've got you, they've got your business, why should they remind you to stop paying them or give you a reason to consider terminating?
I don't care much for it either, but on the other hand, I'm glad my beer-of-the-month club, my isp, my gym, and some other services auto-renew, otherwise I'd have a bunch of extra bills to remember each month. It's the way almost every service works. You can deal with it or you can whine.
Yes, there are people who forget. And many of them, after getting nailed once, will remember in the future. If you sign ANY kind of legal agreement, it is your (generic your, I'm not attacking you personally) responsibility to a) remember the terms of the agreement, b) abide by them, c) remember your responsibilities. Maybe you don't deserve a fee for forgetting, but considering that this will be enough of a frustration he will likely remember it and not do it again, $50 is a cheap price to pay for a recent college grad to learn a lesson in life, as opposed to hundereds for a single 3 hour class.
Maybe he doesn't deserve it, but it could have been a lot more and this may remind him to cancel a higher cost subscription in the future. I have little sypmathy for anyone who subscribes for a service, doesn't read the ToS (especially when the company has a rep like MS does), and later complains that he got screwed because the company did what they said they'd do in the first place.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, if I really wanted to get into ad hominem, I'd go much more into it. This person has shown quite a bit of anger and shown us quite a bit about himself (or herself) that he is quite unaware he has shown. ...Kind of like walking downtown without any pants on and not realizing it -- and then, if you do realize it, are shocked by how much everyone has seen that you thought they couldn't see.
Actually, a few of my clients, who are lawyers, have told me a lot (way more than I wanted to know) about this.
Gee, I guess I'm wrong.
You're right. They're not paying back every cent they owed, so they're theives. It would be much better if they just went out of business and paid NONE of what they owed.
How could I have been so wrong and not seen the light when it was explained by someone with such anger and frustration as you put in your messages.
(No wonder you don't want to take responsibility for what you say.)
I won't bother with most of what you say, since it's (as Shakespeare said), "..full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." (And yes, I'm implying that the first part of that line, which I didn't quote, applies to you.)
/. a while back where a Mandrake employee talked about the repayment plans and how it would take them years to repay everyone they owe.
If you've been keeping up with the story and if you knew as much as you want everyone to think you know, then you would have read the article that was on
Stopping payments is what they do going into bankruptcy. Then they get protection, so they can reorganize, then, if they can come back, they do better, their creditors get paid after all, and everyone is better off.
Otherwise they can not file, get no protection, get sued by everyone, go out of business, and they lose, their creditors get screwed, and their customers are left without a product.
But that's not the point here. You're more interested in bitching and trolling than in participating in an intelligent discussion.
As one of my relatives used to always say:
Speak not of what you know not
And it's clear you know not, or know nothing of bankruptcy.
Mandrake was under re-organization bankruptcy. They will be paying all their debts. They had to submit plans for payments at least once (I don't know the system in France), either when declaring, or when exiting -- They could not get out of bankruptcy status without having a plan approved by the court and all their creditors for paying off their creditors.
A large percentage of my clients are bankruptcy and consumer advocacy lawyers. There's a lot more to it than you, in your need to be a smart ass, make it out to be.
DVD Authoring != DVD Burning
There is a huge difference. Look at your DVD of The Matrix and all the cool menu formats and extra features, like the ability to listen to the commentary. These are things that are needed for a good DVD authoring program.
K3B is a good program (I use it a lot), but to say that it helps for DVD authoring is like someone with a pencil saying he can print and publish a book.
I know version 5 (Main Actor) is available for Windows. Last I checked, they said the Linux version would be out soon. If it isn't out yet, that would concern me.
CCA (and, by implication CSS), have NOTHING to do with being able to author DVDs at home -- or even doing professional authoring...
--UNLESS you want to scramble content so it can't be copied without using DeCSS.
I really don't see how the question even applies to home DVD authoring. I (and my friends) who do video production have been producing professionally authored DVDs for several years with no thought to DVD CCA at all.
And, while I'm here, in regards to software -- you're either going to have to pay >$400 for DVD authoring software on Windows, AND >$600 for true video editing software on Windows, as well, or go for a Mac.
It just doesn't exist yet in the FOSS world, or in the Linux world. While there are some capture and simple editing programs, there is nothing professional for either video editing or DVD authoring. The closest is Main Actor, put out by Main Concept, which is a pretty good editing program available for Linux or Windows. It's about $250.
Yeah--the one that excluded user-run executables, as it should have.
Of course it should, because as long as it does, it supports their view (and yours).
Witness the Slashbot--if I dare criticize Linux, I am somehow a Microsoft fanboy.
This makes me wish there were irony tags in HTML, since I was basically using sarcism to show how the original "fanboy" comment sounded. Glad you agree that kind of comment does sound juvenile. (Funny how some things sound worse from another mouth -- or keyboard!)
And your examples of Microsoft innovating are....
I'm sure you can cite some, even though you didn't include any, can't you?
Oh, you did cite innovation -- in marketing. That's a good point. Microsoft has NEVER innovated in software. DOS was bought from another company, Windows was a reaction to competition, IE was an afterthought when Netscape came out.
Bill Gates is saying all they want is a level playing field against open source and Linux. In reality, Microsoft has NEVER played on an open playing field and has either leveraged their monopoly to force their software in to market dominance, or driven companies out of business.
I'd hesitate to say they even innovated in marketing. All they ever use is a blunt force sledge hammer to drive everything else out of the way. They have never innovated, and never competed on a playing field where they didnt' have the advantage of being able to crush their opponents with overwhelming force.
(Well, actually, they have, and when they do, they lose.)
Oh, you're referring to the article that basically excluded data that referred to Windows breaches?
There was a great comment posted in reference to that story, that it basically said, "After discarding all evidence to the contrary,....."
Or did you actually read the article instead of popping up with blind fanboyism about your favorite overpriced OS?
I thought this paragraph was most telling, the 1st one on the last page:
Taylor also said the company is countering Linux's unbeatable price tag by commissioning studies that show the total cost of ownership over the life of the software is higher with Linux than Windows.
Taylor is Martin Taylor, Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy.
Basically, they are admitting to paying for studies that show the results they want.
I'd love a direct quotation of his answer -- it'd be a great rebuttal when MS publishes another "Windows costs less" study.
Are you talking about the old WWIV boards? I remember 2400 baud -- much faster than my Applecat ][ (even in the 1200 half duplex mode).
Those were the days!
They had different ideas of what a novel was supposed to be like back then, though, so I suppose it's excusable.
Don't blame the past. We have this tendancy to always think those in the past weren't as smart as we are. If what you say were true, then it would be hard to explain the quality of novels by Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, or any other writers during or before the time of ERB.
ERB's writing is flawed, there is no doubt. Some people can't stand him, but there is something in his writing that fired up the imagination of generations and inspired people like Robert Heinlein to want to write (read his "Number of the Beast", which includes multiple references to ERB's Martian Tales and Pellucidar). Carl Sagan has said that ERB's stories are what captured his imagination and inspired him to learn science. His Tarzan stories have so fascinated people that we are continually seeing new versions of Tarzan movies and TV shows.
His novels are not great literature, but there is something in them that has kept them inspiring those who read them for almost 100 years now (his first story was published 92 years ago this year).
BTW, another factor to remember is that his stories were originally published as serialized stories in pulp magazines. He was writing for a specific market and specific mags.
(I got my nick from "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"
Funny once, Mike.
I forgot (but had intended) to point out that ERB is best known for Tarzan (and if you look at the current version of Tarzan -- the cartoon series by Disney, he is credited at the start of each episode! -- there was even one episode that featured him meeting Tarzan and writing the Tarzan story).
While he had a limited scope of characters and plots, he was just plain fun to read. I discovered him during college and found relief after many tough tests and papers by escaping into his books.
Pity he is hardly ever heard of now.
That is really cool that you built a jetan set. I wonder if it's possible to find something like that for sale anywhere?...
Nope.
Much older.
Carl Sagan, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and a number of other scientists and writers were inspired by "The Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs". The first one, "A Princess of Mars" was published in 1912. (And it's on Project Gutenberg!).
In these books, John Carter was mysteriously transported to Mars, which was called Barsoom by the inhabitants. He became the Prince of Helium (a city/city-state -- not the element). The Barsoomian navies had huge airships that were held in the air by use of the 9th (or 8th?) light ray, so they needed no power to stay aloft. (According to Burroughs, we only know of 7 rays of sunlight, as seen in a rainbow, from red to violet, but Barsoomian scientists had isolated 2 other colors, never seen on Earth, and one of these colors is what gave light a repulsive power so it was repulsed from objects and reflected to our eyes, and it was used to keep the Barsoom airships in the air.)
The Martian Tales are far-fetched, but a ripping good time to read (at least the 1st 10 are -- skip the last one).
When I first read the story, all I could think about were E.R.B.'s descriptions of the huge naval vessels floating through the air of a dead planet (there were no sea going navies, since there were no seas, except one at the south pole).
Too bad these stories seem all but forgotten now.
That's an "ad hominem" attack, which is a known fallacy. In other words, attacking the man does not make the argument any less valid. You may disagree with him, you may think neo-paganism is wrong (and, while your at it, could you please prove it?), and dislike, disagree, or consider any of his other beliefs false, mislead, or just plain crazy, but thta does not effect, one way or another, the validity of his argument.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day and even the most outrageous politician speaks the truth once in a while. Even if ESR is proven insane, that does not mean his comment is invalid or valid. The statement has to stand or fall on its own, not on your views of the person making the statement.
(And a moderator was lacking in intelligence enough to not realize this and mark the post informative?)
That rant, to me, sounds like another programmer who can't cope with the idea that most people do not think like programmers when it comes to understanding software, and would rather blame the user than have the strength to take an honset look at the situation and what he/she could do differently to improve it.
I know writing GUIs is a pain (I'm not a professional programmer, but I've had to do nothing but coding for 2 years), but programmers have to stop blaming the users and other people who point out things like this. It's just a denial that 95% of all people using a computer need something simple because, to them, IT IS JUST A TOOL, and they need to use it to produce a product, not to hack on and explore.
ESR has a good point -- if FOSS is going to replace closed source, or hold its own, or even continue to grow, FOSS programmers will have to get realistic in understanding how users think instead of blaming users because the programmers don't want to make the effort to understand the other side of the issue.
For the good of the FOSS community, ESR needs to speak out more, and people like the above poster need to "please shut up" and listen to other points of view, instead of hiding their head in the sand in denial.
How about other languages? I can't get a handle on Python (Maybe it's me, but I have a hard time seeing whitespace as something that effects how a program runs...)
OOo has a macro recorder in 1.1.1 and later, so you can record a macro. If it includes opening files, you can edit the macro later and find a new way to specify files.
Star BASIC (or OOo BASIC, if you prefer) is a powerful scripting language for OOo that lets you work with recorded macros, or writing your own macros. (At one point I was considering writing a full application in OOo BASIC and basing everything on OOO.) It is also possible to specify a macro on the command line, so you could make a script that would run OOo, start a macro, run the macro, then exit OOo.
You can also automate OOo with Java (or Python, or C++).
Scripting OOo to do conversions is VERY simple. there is someone on the OOo Users mailing list who has a website with samples for doing conversions (although I think most of his conversions are for Writer files, the idea would work on Impress files).
If you really want ideas for scripting OOo, get on the mailing lists. There's a User mailing list, an API-DEV one that is good for anyone doing any programming of OOo, and a Scripting Framework one.
Hope this helps you find a way to automate what you're doing.
Now that I've seen this, over and over in my head I keep hearing the same line:
"You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike."
...we're all in trouble. Once AOL realizes they can charge even so much as a penny for spam, it won't be long before some executive, eager to show a profit for his department at a shareholder's meeting will realize he can start charging for incoming or outgoing e-mail.
Then Earthlink, MSN, and everyone else will realize they can do the same thing and within a year or two e-mail won't be free anymore -- at least if you're sending to the big guys.
Then again, once that gets to be common practice, someone will probably realize they can gain customers by advertising as the one major ISP that doesn't charge for e-mail, so maybe there'll be a balance.
But I don't trust the big guys to charge for spam only and realize they could charge for other e-mail and NOT charge everyone else. Remember, in America, profit is the bottom line and just about all most businesses care about.
Actually, Sam Clemens/Mark Twain said, "I never let my schoolin' interfere with my eduction."
It was a statement of his own life, not advice to his son.
From the company's point of view:
1) If they remind you, it cost postage, plus all the costs associated with a massive mailing like that every month or so.
2) If they remind you, and you're not using it, you'll remember to cancel, and they lose income.
3) Many services default to this for convenience (like the paper -- or other monthly bills, like an ISP -- and often this benefits the customer as well).
4) Why would the company want to work harder to keep your business? I know you'd like them to, but they've got you, they've got your business, why should they remind you to stop paying them or give you a reason to consider terminating?
I don't care much for it either, but on the other hand, I'm glad my beer-of-the-month club, my isp, my gym, and some other services auto-renew, otherwise I'd have a bunch of extra bills to remember each month. It's the way almost every service works. You can deal with it or you can whine.
Yes, there are people who forget. And many of them, after getting nailed once, will remember in the future. If you sign ANY kind of legal agreement, it is your (generic your, I'm not attacking you personally) responsibility to a) remember the terms of the agreement, b) abide by them, c) remember your responsibilities. Maybe you don't deserve a fee for forgetting, but considering that this will be enough of a frustration he will likely remember it and not do it again, $50 is a cheap price to pay for a recent college grad to learn a lesson in life, as opposed to hundereds for a single 3 hour class.
Maybe he doesn't deserve it, but it could have been a lot more and this may remind him to cancel a higher cost subscription in the future. I have little sypmathy for anyone who subscribes for a service, doesn't read the ToS (especially when the company has a rep like MS does), and later complains that he got screwed because the company did what they said they'd do in the first place.