Woo! RMS wrote an "article" that basically is what everyone here and abroad thought of within two days of the attack.
What's next, will he regale us with how orbital mechanics will ensure that the sun rises tommorrow?
Like others have said (so mod me down if you like, you're just being as fascist as the police state you fear will come into being) we don't need Stallman's diatribes right now. How about some efforts contributed to finding out who caused this nightmare to happen in the first place.
Another thing to remember is that 20k geeks aren't about to change US policy in any regard. Think you can? Good luck - there's millions in the US that don't give two shits about computers, much less what OS they run. What percentage do you think would be necessary to change policy?
Download your fav encryption now...it's gonna be a long haul..
Gotta get back to work, I can't sit here and post all day.....welcome to the new police state.
It almost makes me want to get some of the auto leveler scripts out there and combine them into a marketing tool, for the express purpose of collecting items for later sale on E-Bay.
If people want to pay, great -- they just open up the incentive for anyone else with a bit of greed to squeeze the game for every cent its worth, screw actual gameplay.
This is almost like paying people to spam you. I bet that they'll regret allowing this "market" to flourish in the long run.
I guess that filtering the javascript involved would do the trick, or selectively writing a filter with Proximitron to catch the cookies, etc..
This shouldn't be too hard to defeat, regardless.
What gall for trying though. It reminds me of a Gibson story, (fuzzy on the details) but essentially "sensing" the patterns in someone's data enabled the corporations of the future to do precise targeting of consumers. Scary how we inch towards that every passing year.
I'm sorry to say, but most of the lofty goals set by corporations that merge are rarely met. In the case of HP and Compaq, there will be a myriad of problems that won't simply go away because the names have changed on the letterhead.
Similarly, there is a limit to how large a corporation can grow. (No, it isn't "the world".) The larger they get, the harder it is to maintain all the information flow and vital activities that keep a business from falling apart due to misdirection (essentially bad communication) and other redundant practices that inevitably evolve in a large corporate 'organism'.
Does this mean the death of cable providers? Possibly, to the competition - but at this point I would be looking at the efforts being made to establish a 'undernet' out of the reach of commercial entities. Even if it begins as a barely-linked WiFi cloud, it is still something.
Hell, if we could harness half the idealism here I think that it would be easy enough to establish city "clouds" of connectivity and then grow outward from there...
You opened your mouth without thinking and bleated:
You sure are one angry helpdesk Jew!
Last I checked, "Desiato" had italian origins - but I chose it for entirely different reasons which would be apparent to people who read books, a group of which you obviously aren't a member of.
shut up you [expletive, expletive], and get back on the phone. there are people running win95 who need your help to get online.
Nice try, but when I meant support, I meant much more than "helldesk". Of course, you are too busy posting one-liner hate messages than paying attention to details.
Perhaps next time when you are posting from your storebought system and dialing up with your 14.4 modem, you might stop to think that your nickname and homepage (which, by the way just shows how dumb you are if you claim to hate black people) is not the best way to prove to the world you are a buffoon. Wait, correct that -- a hate-mongering buffoon.
Thanks for playing, and yes - I would like fries with that you minimum-wage joe compaq.
Anything with "illennium" in it should be taken out in the over-hype word pasture and be shot.
We (as in most IT people in some support role or other) have put up with this useless combination of letters since the whole Y2K overblown mess, we don't need to hear about it again for quite some time, thank you very much.
Am I cranky? Sure, but I thought there would be a better choice of words than some puff-pastry attempt at commemorating the billion-second turnover. Too late now, you've already ruined it.
Maybe damning if you believe that guy, but it doesn't have much to do with the dot-bomb crash. People are going to pick one operating system or another, or they'll mix 'em, but stock and housing prices don't have much effect on either. Maybe you could tighten up what you're trying to say. There's probably a good point in there but you're leaving a bit to the imagination.
The "hook" was that the author had been laid off due to the dot-com crash, the "meat" was the fact that although he uses inflammatory commentary to state it, he is essentially correct that Linux supporters have not done the right thing, namely concentrate on the server side versus the desktop, which is still in fragmented disarray.
In that context, I think I've related it to the dot com bomb fairly well, as I admitted the main "meat" of what I was talking about would merit its own thread, but would take forever to appear (if it even did) due to the lopsided article submission/posting policy of this board.
It's okay though, the responses I've gotten pretty much have satisfied me on this subject -- as meager in number as they were.
I would have to agree with this, it seems that in the pursuit of technical dominance, what has been forgotten is that you will have to eventually reach out to the end-user that has little expertise in operating a computer system.
The author in the article does give good references to this, where Open Source advocates do admit that you have to go where the money is, and at this point, the dollars are in the hands of "Aunt Tilly" as it were.
Although not a true Linux derivative, QNX impressed me with its ease of setup and the package management. It was truly like using something streamlined for the end-user. If only it had more applications to appeal to the masses.
Just got my WIRED magazine subscription a short time ago, and what do I see on the cover "Why Linux will lose the desktop war: page 134".
Now before you tell me this has nothing to do with the dotcom boom and subsequent bust, I think you would do well to note these quotes from the article.
After 20 years as a business and technology journalist, [Russ Mitchell] joined Red Hat for nearly a year at the height of the tech stock craze. I was editor in chief of Wide Open News. Tough economics led to layoffs and I got whacked; I left with three months' severance and enough stock options to make a down payment on a house in San Francisco."
If that doesn't relate to the dot-com bust, I don't know what does. He goes on to state the following on the same page:
"Like the Japanese soldiers on Guadalcanal who refused to surrender years after the bomb ended World War II, Linux zealots remain obsessed with beating Microsoft in desktop computing. Desktop computing? Don't they know? The war is over. Microsoft has won."
Pretty damming commentary from someone who supports Linux, don't you think? Or at least he still does, but on the server platform where it has gained the most ground.
Comments?
I'm sure that this will take forever to become a proper thread unto itself, that is why I've bothered to post it here today.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay, I'm game - name one gov't committee that Stallman is on that influences policies applicable to what we're talking about...
Go ahead....I can wait all day.
Hotblack_Desiato
Woo! RMS wrote an "article" that basically is what everyone here and abroad thought of within two days of the attack.
What's next, will he regale us with how orbital mechanics will ensure that the sun rises tommorrow?
Like others have said (so mod me down if you like, you're just being as fascist as the police state you fear will come into being) we don't need Stallman's diatribes right now. How about some efforts contributed to finding out who caused this nightmare to happen in the first place.
Another thing to remember is that 20k geeks aren't about to change US policy in any regard. Think you can? Good luck - there's millions in the US that don't give two shits about computers, much less what OS they run. What percentage do you think would be necessary to change policy?
Download your fav encryption now...it's gonna be a long haul..
Gotta get back to work, I can't sit here and post all day.....welcome to the new police state.
Hotblack_Desiato
It almost makes me want to get some of the auto leveler scripts out there and combine them into a marketing tool, for the express purpose of collecting items for later sale on E-Bay.
If people want to pay, great -- they just open up the incentive for anyone else with a bit of greed to squeeze the game for every cent its worth, screw actual gameplay.
This is almost like paying people to spam you. I bet that they'll regret allowing this "market" to flourish in the long run.
Hotblack_Desiato
You cowered anonymously and bleated:
[sarcasm] OT? On Topic? Thanks, must be why it was scored a +2 while you're lingering here in anonymous hell...[/sarcasm]
And my holes are none of your business.
Hotblack_Desiato
I guess that filtering the javascript involved would do the trick, or selectively writing a filter with Proximitron to catch the cookies, etc..
This shouldn't be too hard to defeat, regardless.
What gall for trying though. It reminds me of a Gibson story, (fuzzy on the details) but essentially "sensing" the patterns in someone's data enabled the corporations of the future to do precise targeting of consumers. Scary how we inch towards that every passing year.
Hotblack_Desiato
I'm sorry to say, but most of the lofty goals set by corporations that merge are rarely met. In the case of HP and Compaq, there will be a myriad of problems that won't simply go away because the names have changed on the letterhead.
Similarly, there is a limit to how large a corporation can grow. (No, it isn't "the world".) The larger they get, the harder it is to maintain all the information flow and vital activities that keep a business from falling apart due to misdirection (essentially bad communication) and other redundant practices that inevitably evolve in a large corporate 'organism'.
Does this mean the death of cable providers? Possibly, to the competition - but at this point I would be looking at the efforts being made to establish a 'undernet' out of the reach of commercial entities. Even if it begins as a barely-linked WiFi cloud, it is still something.
Hell, if we could harness half the idealism here I think that it would be easy enough to establish city "clouds" of connectivity and then grow outward from there...
Hotblack_Desiato
You opened your mouth without thinking and bleated:
Last I checked, "Desiato" had italian origins - but I chose it for entirely different reasons which would be apparent to people who read books, a group of which you obviously aren't a member of.
Thanks for playing, but BZZZT! you lose, again..
Hotblack_Desiato
You said (edited):
Nice try, but when I meant support, I meant much more than "helldesk". Of course, you are too busy posting one-liner hate messages than paying attention to details.
Perhaps next time when you are posting from your storebought system and dialing up with your 14.4 modem, you might stop to think that your nickname and homepage (which, by the way just shows how dumb you are if you claim to hate black people) is not the best way to prove to the world you are a buffoon. Wait, correct that -- a hate-mongering buffoon.
Thanks for playing, and yes - I would like fries with that you minimum-wage joe compaq.
Desiato_Hotblack
Anything with "illennium" in it should be taken out in the over-hype word pasture and be shot.
We (as in most IT people in some support role or other) have put up with this useless combination of letters since the whole Y2K overblown mess, we don't need to hear about it again for quite some time, thank you very much.
Am I cranky? Sure, but I thought there would be a better choice of words than some puff-pastry attempt at commemorating the billion-second turnover. Too late now, you've already ruined it.
Hotblack_Desiato
You said:
The "hook" was that the author had been laid off due to the dot-com crash, the "meat" was the fact that although he uses inflammatory commentary to state it, he is essentially correct that Linux supporters have not done the right thing, namely concentrate on the server side versus the desktop, which is still in fragmented disarray.
In that context, I think I've related it to the dot com bomb fairly well, as I admitted the main "meat" of what I was talking about would merit its own thread, but would take forever to appear (if it even did) due to the lopsided article submission/posting policy of this board.
It's okay though, the responses I've gotten pretty much have satisfied me on this subject -- as meager in number as they were.
Thanks for playing.
Hotblack_Desiato
I would have to agree with this, it seems that in the pursuit of technical dominance, what has been forgotten is that you will have to eventually reach out to the end-user that has little expertise in operating a computer system.
The author in the article does give good references to this, where Open Source advocates do admit that you have to go where the money is, and at this point, the dollars are in the hands of "Aunt Tilly" as it were.
Although not a true Linux derivative, QNX impressed me with its ease of setup and the package management. It was truly like using something streamlined for the end-user. If only it had more applications to appeal to the masses.
Desiato_Hotblack
I would suggest reading it and submitting an opinion on it, instead of your fantasy of what you *thought* it would contain.
Desiato_Hotblack
Long time reader, first time poster.
Just got my WIRED magazine subscription a short time ago, and what do I see on the cover "Why Linux will lose the desktop war: page 134".
Now before you tell me this has nothing to do with the dotcom boom and subsequent bust, I think you would do well to note these quotes from the article.
If that doesn't relate to the dot-com bust, I don't know what does. He goes on to state the following on the same page:
Pretty damming commentary from someone who supports Linux, don't you think? Or at least he still does, but on the server platform where it has gained the most ground.
Comments?
I'm sure that this will take forever to become a proper thread unto itself, that is why I've bothered to post it here today.
Desiato_Hotblack