You clearly don't know anyone living with a disability. It's an extremely contentious issue and is at the heart of how our legislators and society handle people with disabilities. We perceive, as a society -- and as you did above --, that all people with disabilities have disabilities that greatly impair their self-sufficiency. This is not true. People with significantly impairing disabilities are in the minority, however, we all get lumped together in this big "they-are-not-self-sufficient-therefore-they-are-i ncapable-of-making-decisions-to-govern-their-own-l ives" pot..
It's this kind of bullsh*t that gets us needlessly put in to workshops making less than $3.00/hour in the name of "mercy". The system is set up to keep us from getting real jobs -- a prejudice expectation is there that no one will hire us because we may need a special piece of equipment to do our jobs. Most people fall in to the state's Vocational Rehabilitation system and never get out.
The blaring political incorrectness of the headline is so compelling, I have to comment. One never refers to a person by their disability. People aren't defined as "the disabled" as though their disability is the most significant part of their identity. The correct and respectful approach is to say "people with disabilities".
"I don't call this copying piracy, because that is a propaganda word. I don't think it is wrong to copy and share information. Governments can pass laws against it, but that does not make it wrong, just illegal." -RMS from
here
You fail to realize that without copyright law, individuals and organizations wouldn't be able to restrict distribution, either, therefore abolishing the very problems that RMS created the GPL to address.
I've always thought of the GPL as "Copyleft". If "Copyright" sits at one extreme, "Copyleft" sits on the other essentially using Copyright law against itself. Public domain (the complete non-existance of "expressive monopolies") sits comfortably in the center.
Read Stallman's works: it's very clear that he believes that copyright is "immoral". Indeed, IIRC, he even once used Jefferson's natural law argument to justify his position. RMS is a smart guy.
Today's ruling affirms that the distribution of knowledge of law is not restrictable.
I think you're partially misinformed. XHTML will work in pretty much everything in existance. CSS, OTOH, is another story.
Are we talking about content or design here?
Because a number of sites (like this very popular one, Wired.com) use XHTML quite effectively with all known browsers. Sure, some browsers like Netscape Navigator will not render the design but all of the content is still accessible. Hell, I can even browse the thing in Lynx!
So, I think the better question is: can the browsers display the content? And the answer is yes. Can they display all the new wiz-bang CSS layout stuff? The answer is probably. (Given that about 98% of the market is browsers that can.) Remember, it's far more important that your content is logically structured and accessible (which is what XHTML does) than it is that it looks classy (CSS).
I've been using XHTML for all of my web developement for quite some time now. And in XHTML 1.0 Strict, mind you. Just stay away from using tables for layout and use CSS to accomplish your formatting and you'll be fine.
The only quirk I ran in to was the new IE 6 "standards compliance mode" which should be rename "less-messed-up mode". While it fixes some bugs, it created new ones. To avoid developing for IE6's new quirks and to keep my documents compliant by having the !DOCTYPE declaration in there, I add the ?xml... declaration to the top of my files to kick IE back in to its 5.5ish quirky existance.
Of course, IE still doesn't support the object tag correctly but will they ever?
As a follow up to the message getting modded to +5, it occurs to me that having access to people who use Ruby also has helped. If you're just starting, check out the #language channels on irc.freenode.net:
#ruby-lang #python #perl
There are lots of knowlegable folks there willing to give a newbie a helping hand. I generally sit with four windows open while I'm learning: the Programming Ruby book, a console to run my.rb files, a text editor (jEdit), and a chat window to irc.freenode.org (iRssi).
At age nine is started messing around with QBASIC. Windows 3.1 had just come out and wasn't yet ubiquitous. I became quite proficient with BASIC, eventually, but by the time I had, the GUI extravaganza had begun. I was downloading and playing games for which I hadn't the slightest clue how a programmer might begin to implement such things. At some point, faced with the prospect of not being able to accomplish anything 'useful' with QBASIC, I stopped programming altogether.
I'm twenty one now and the itch to get back in to programming has been bugging me quite a bit. Now that I'm using Linux for pretty much everything -- and because Linux encourages tinkering -- I've found that scripting (Perl, Python, Ruby) languages (not THAT unlike BASIC) are the perfect place to start to refamiliarize myself with data structures and general programming concepts. The clentcher is of course that the CLI is once again useful and the programs I write can actually do something.
Namely, I've found Ruby to a great place to get started since I'm just beginning. Because Ruby is completely object orriented, it hasn't required a whole lot of reforming of the way I think about data -- everything is either a noun or a verb; an object or method. Just like the real world. After just two weeks of studying the freely available Ruby books online, I've been able to begin accomplishing basic system administration tasks. My passion for manipulating logic system is returning and I have some great ideas about what I can accomplish with it.
Sure, some day I'll probably have to pick up Java or (shudder) C++, but for now, scripting languages are the perfect entry method.
It does everything you're looking for via plug-ins that can be installed in the user interface. It's a bit slow to load due to the Java related bootstraping performance, but it works like a pro. I use it's FTP integration and built in support for Tidy to administer my web sites.
I know there's a way to do the multiple source code highlighting schemes in a single file but I haven't gotten around to setting that up, yet.
Is Microsoft working on supporting PNG in Internet Explorer? This is the single most significant feature that other browsers have over IE, from a web developer's viewpoint.
...and business continues to act like business. I can't say I didn't expect this. After all, it was Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the great tycoons, that said, "The public be damned! I'm working for my stockholders!"
Did anyone really expect Google to take the moral high ground?
Read my post again. I clearly state: "which makes this project rather useless to the general population at present"
Not only that, but then I clearly state "Maybe some day..."
I agree this is a good thing but it needs to come down in price before most of us can afford it. If you had read the other posts, you might have seen that someone suggested this could be built for under $500.
Queers. Not Aliens. Queers. Opportunistic bashing of gay people is not humor. Further, I'm extremly disappointed in the other moderators that modded me down for simply crying foul. Have we gotten so jadded that critizing someone in a public forum is no longer acceptable? It's our responsibility as human beings to stand up for what we believe in.
Humor is something an intelligent remark in the context of an ironic situation. Opportunistic bashing of minorities is not humor. Atleast, not for most people.
At $1,299.00 for the PCI card that their driver is written for, I do not see this in my future. For that matter, I don't see that in the future of many hobbiests which makes this project rather useless to the general population at present.
See here for information on the product the GNU Radio project wrote the driver for: Measurement Computing
Not to feed the trolls or go WAY off topic, but it's mostly because Wil is a pretty attractive guy.
I'm gay and 21 and most of the guys my age had a teen-age crushes on the character. Most of them hated Star Trek but watched it just for the episodes in which Wesley was featured.
I'm not saying Wil is gay. He's married IIRC, but he sure is cute.
Actually, the Dead Alewives did a parody of just this. It was featured in CaptainImmy's Pointless Audio internet radio show some five or six years ago. The first time I heard it I laughed so hard I sprayed soda all over my computer and had to replace the keyboard. Anyways, it's still available on their web site as an MP3 if anyone is interested: Enjoy! [The_Dead_Alewives]-[Dungeons_and_Dragons].mp3
One casualty of this is battle is the Sony NetMD line of MiniDisc recorders. In fact, the entire MiniDisc media has been crippled by Sony just to satisfy their DRM needs.
The NetMD line of players/recorders allows you to record at 44kHz quality on the road. This is great for radio jounalists because you can buy a nice battery powered mic and record interviews wherever you go. The packing for the recorders fails to mention that while you can transfer 'songs' to and from your computer over the digital link, it explictly denies you the ability to import audio that you recorded from a microphone -- presumably to prevent digital bootlegging. So, to protect against the %1 of people that might use the NetMD illegally, the other 99% of us lose out.
There are allot of people pissed about this and there's a petition to Sony to get this featured turned on via a software update here. Over 2,600 people have already signed it. Go sign it too!
As for the MiniDisc media, if Sony would stop charging ludicrous licensing fees for players, we'd finally have a nice, caddy protected, alternative to CD-Rs.
I would like to thank everyone that responded to my question. Many of your responses were knowlegable and very helpful. Allow me to clarify a few things:
After reading your opinions, I have solidified something I was considering: I should definetly make rolling Mozilla out a choise that each of my individual users makes. This would be best accomplished by a customized installer that takes some of the configuring head-aches out of getting used to Mozilla. Most of my desire to roll out Mozilla came from good ol' evangelism. Of course, we would benefit from the increased security, but, I would much rather have my users be happy.
Customizing the installer seems more feasible now that I've read all your suggestions.
There is a bug at bugzilla for this very subject that one studious reader pointed out. Thank you.
Mozillazine.org has posted a follow-up thread to this Slashdot discussion.
Again, thank you to each of you for your help. Perhaps after a bit more spit and polish is put on Mozilla, I'll reconsider a network-wide roll-out.
I could have sworn that RedHat was distributing Mozilla with anti-aliasing support via a GTK+ 1 patch to support Freetype. Certain fonts do not anti-alias and I have found that you may need to set these options manually in Mozilla > Edit > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts > Fonts for: Western and Unicode:
Proportional: Serif
Serif: Georgia
Sans-serif: Arial
Cursive: Lucida
Fantasy: PostAntiqua
Monospace: Courier New
You installed the Microsoft Fonts Add-On.rpm, right? I'm a Gentoo user, myself... use the source, Luke!
Slashdot Mirror
You clearly don't know anyone living with a disability. It's an extremely contentious issue and is at the heart of how our legislators and society handle people with disabilities. We perceive, as a society -- and as you did above --, that all people with disabilities have disabilities that greatly impair their self-sufficiency. This is not true. People with significantly impairing disabilities are in the minority, however, we all get lumped together in this big "they-are-not-self-sufficient-therefore-they-are-i ncapable-of-making-decisions-to-govern-their-own-l ives" pot..
It's this kind of bullsh*t that gets us needlessly put in to workshops making less than $3.00/hour in the name of "mercy". The system is set up to keep us from getting real jobs -- a prejudice expectation is there that no one will hire us because we may need a special piece of equipment to do our jobs. Most people fall in to the state's Vocational Rehabilitation system and never get out.
The blaring political incorrectness of the headline is so compelling, I have to comment. One never refers to a person by their disability. People aren't defined as "the disabled" as though their disability is the most significant part of their identity. The correct and respectful approach is to say "people with disabilities".
See Guidelines for Reporting and Writing about People with Disabilities for more info.
Woops, meant here
Did find this:
I'm having trouble finding the Jefferson reference.
GNU Philosophy
You fail to realize that without copyright law, individuals and organizations wouldn't be able to restrict distribution, either, therefore abolishing the very problems that RMS created the GPL to address.
I've always thought of the GPL as "Copyleft". If "Copyright" sits at one extreme, "Copyleft" sits on the other essentially using Copyright law against itself. Public domain (the complete non-existance of "expressive monopolies") sits comfortably in the center.
Read Stallman's works: it's very clear that he believes that copyright is "immoral". Indeed, IIRC, he even once used Jefferson's natural law argument to justify his position. RMS is a smart guy.
Today's ruling affirms that the distribution of knowledge of law is not restrictable.
I think you're partially misinformed. XHTML will work in pretty much everything in existance. CSS, OTOH, is another story.
Are we talking about content or design here?
Because a number of sites (like this very popular one, Wired.com) use XHTML quite effectively with all known browsers. Sure, some browsers like Netscape Navigator will not render the design but all of the content is still accessible. Hell, I can even browse the thing in Lynx!
So, I think the better question is: can the browsers display the content? And the answer is yes. Can they display all the new wiz-bang CSS layout stuff? The answer is probably. (Given that about 98% of the market is browsers that can.) Remember, it's far more important that your content is logically structured and accessible (which is what XHTML does) than it is that it looks classy (CSS).
I've been using XHTML for all of my web developement for quite some time now. And in XHTML 1.0 Strict, mind you. Just stay away from using tables for layout and use CSS to accomplish your formatting and you'll be fine.
The only quirk I ran in to was the new IE 6 "standards compliance mode" which should be rename "less-messed-up mode". While it fixes some bugs, it created new ones. To avoid developing for IE6's new quirks and to keep my documents compliant by having the !DOCTYPE declaration in there, I add the ?xml... declaration to the top of my files to kick IE back in to its 5.5ish quirky existance.
Of course, IE still doesn't support the object tag correctly but will they ever?
As a follow up to the message getting modded to +5, it occurs to me that having access to people who use Ruby also has helped. If you're just starting, check out the #language channels on irc.freenode.net:
.rb files, a text editor (jEdit), and a chat window to irc.freenode.org (iRssi).
#ruby-lang
#python
#perl
There are lots of knowlegable folks there willing to give a newbie a helping hand. I generally sit with four windows open while I'm learning: the Programming Ruby book, a console to run my
At age nine is started messing around with QBASIC. Windows 3.1 had just come out and wasn't yet ubiquitous. I became quite proficient with BASIC, eventually, but by the time I had, the GUI extravaganza had begun. I was downloading and playing games for which I hadn't the slightest clue how a programmer might begin to implement such things. At some point, faced with the prospect of not being able to accomplish anything 'useful' with QBASIC, I stopped programming altogether.
I'm twenty one now and the itch to get back in to programming has been bugging me quite a bit. Now that I'm using Linux for pretty much everything -- and because Linux encourages tinkering -- I've found that scripting (Perl, Python, Ruby) languages (not THAT unlike BASIC) are the perfect place to start to refamiliarize myself with data structures and general programming concepts. The clentcher is of course that the CLI is once again useful and the programs I write can actually do something.
Namely, I've found Ruby to a great place to get started since I'm just beginning. Because Ruby is completely object orriented, it hasn't required a whole lot of reforming of the way I think about data -- everything is either a noun or a verb; an object or method. Just like the real world. After just two weeks of studying the freely available Ruby books online, I've been able to begin accomplishing basic system administration tasks. My passion for manipulating logic system is returning and I have some great ideas about what I can accomplish with it.
Sure, some day I'll probably have to pick up Java or (shudder) C++, but for now, scripting languages are the perfect entry method.
http://www.jedit.org/
It does everything you're looking for via plug-ins that can be installed in the user interface. It's a bit slow to load due to the Java related bootstraping performance, but it works like a pro. I use it's FTP integration and built in support for Tidy to administer my web sites.
I know there's a way to do the multiple source code highlighting schemes in a single file but I haven't gotten around to setting that up, yet.
Is Microsoft working on supporting PNG in Internet Explorer? This is the single most significant feature that other browsers have over IE, from a web developer's viewpoint.
...and business continues to act like business. I can't say I didn't expect this. After all, it was Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the great tycoons, that said, "The public be damned! I'm working for my stockholders!"
Did anyone really expect Google to take the moral high ground?
Mirror of the AD in PDF is here (patriot2_ad.pdf).
Read my post again. I clearly state: "which makes this project rather useless to the general population at present "
Not only that, but then I clearly state "Maybe some day..."
I agree this is a good thing but it needs to come down in price before most of us can afford it. If you had read the other posts, you might have seen that someone suggested this could be built for under $500.
Calm down...
Queers. Not Aliens. Queers. Opportunistic bashing of gay people is not humor. Further, I'm extremly disappointed in the other moderators that modded me down for simply crying foul. Have we gotten so jadded that critizing someone in a public forum is no longer acceptable? It's our responsibility as human beings to stand up for what we believe in.
Humor is something an intelligent remark in the context of an ironic situation. Opportunistic bashing of minorities is not humor. Atleast, not for most people.
I might have modded you up if your sig wasn't so politically damn incorrect.
At $1,299.00 for the PCI card that their driver is written for, I do not see this in my future. For that matter, I don't see that in the future of many hobbiests which makes this project rather useless to the general population at present.
See here for information on the product the GNU Radio project wrote the driver for: Measurement Computing
Maybe some day...
Not to feed the trolls or go WAY off topic, but it's mostly because Wil is a pretty attractive guy.
I'm gay and 21 and most of the guys my age had a teen-age crushes on the character. Most of them hated Star Trek but watched it just for the episodes in which Wesley was featured.
I'm not saying Wil is gay. He's married IIRC, but he sure is cute.
Actually, the Dead Alewives did a parody of just this. It was featured in CaptainImmy's Pointless Audio internet radio show some five or six years ago. The first time I heard it I laughed so hard I sprayed soda all over my computer and had to replace the keyboard. Anyways, it's still available on their web site as an MP3 if anyone is interested: Enjoy! [The_Dead_Alewives]-[Dungeons_and_Dragons].mp3
One casualty of this is battle is the Sony NetMD line of MiniDisc recorders. In fact, the entire MiniDisc media has been crippled by Sony just to satisfy their DRM needs.
The NetMD line of players/recorders allows you to record at 44kHz quality on the road. This is great for radio jounalists because you can buy a nice battery powered mic and record interviews wherever you go. The packing for the recorders fails to mention that while you can transfer 'songs' to and from your computer over the digital link, it explictly denies you the ability to import audio that you recorded from a microphone -- presumably to prevent digital bootlegging. So, to protect against the %1 of people that might use the NetMD illegally, the other 99% of us lose out.
There are allot of people pissed about this and there's a petition to Sony to get this featured turned on via a software update here. Over 2,600 people have already signed it. Go sign it too!
As for the MiniDisc media, if Sony would stop charging ludicrous licensing fees for players, we'd finally have a nice, caddy protected, alternative to CD-Rs.
I would like to thank everyone that responded to my question. Many of your responses were knowlegable and very helpful. Allow me to clarify a few things:
Again, thank you to each of you for your help. Perhaps after a bit more spit and polish is put on Mozilla, I'll reconsider a network-wide roll-out.
- Proportional: Serif
- Serif: Georgia
- Sans-serif: Arial
- Cursive: Lucida
- Fantasy: PostAntiqua
- Monospace: Courier New
You installed the Microsoft Fonts Add-On